Exploring

You are currently browsing the archive for the Exploring category.

Hi there! I hope you are ready for a slew of Denver photos, peeps. Because they are a-comin’! Starting with a Friday afternoon adventure downtown and over the bridge, with my handsome brothers, walking, talking, lauging, and smiling.

I used to work in the tall building, the Republic Plaza, up above that second black line, on the 36th floor, with stellar views of the city and Front Range. It was a mortgage company, and I was in college, a full-time student, worker bee, and romantic, dating a certain cutie-pie who I am now beyond proud to call the hubster.

On the Sixteenth Street Mall with that fine contrast of old and new.

The piano player had a sweet voice and a light touch on the keys. I tipped her and got a dazzling smile.

A glass elevator with no Chocolate Factory in sight. Too bad.

We are headed just to the left of the church, to a place I spotted on my way to Grandma’s house, roaming the streets in my thumping-bass rental car.

I love architecture and bridges!

Everyone is reaching for the sky

And happy for sunshine.

The Platte River

The sculpture looks like a giant pile of intestines, but is cool, nonetheless.

Live wire, eek!

We’re all fine now.

Horsing around.

Finally made it.

The Colorado flag whips and snaps,

over a small French Bistrot,

Z. Cuisine.

Aaron tries the absinthe.

Chris is not so sure.

I am, however. Gimme! Gimme!

Sneaky sister.

I love my brothers!

Happy, happy 19th wedding anniversary to me and the hubster! I still get giddy when I think about us, truth be told. Our bright-as-a-penny love, better than just about anything good (kittens!) and sparkly (stars!) and fine (whiskey!). Yup, yup.

Tags: ,

Hello Tuesday –

A fine beginning to a day. The most welcome spring light shining through the window and a still life of one little boy’s investigation of the smallest of shells and my jewelry. He picked up each and every one, absolutely delighting in the tininess made BIG, the sum and the parts manifesting through a lens to his brown-ish eye. “Your eye is brown-ish, too, Colleen. Greg’s eye is blue.”

I like that he said brown-ish at the ripe age of four, that he can see the nuance, that there is green and some yellow in there, too. I like that he can speak his mind with me, sharing what makes him nervous (big kids watching him go down the slide) and happy (sitting next to me during dinner, sweet sigh) and sad (his friend when he is mean). I like that I can be my goofiest, cavorting around the yard and house, in my usual way, with him in on it, making up stories during long piggy-back rides while I sing to Radiohead. The gorgeous alchemy of two happy souls moving in tandem before he rests his head on my lap and drifts off to sleep. Another play-date and sleepover for the record books.

The radio

and my lover’s voice

His eyes on the road,

hidden behind dreamy glasses.

We talk away the miles,

and so often find

his words are my own.

That one soul we’ve been weaving

twenty-one years strong.

Delicate

and

Sublime

Blowing in the wind

Passionate

and

Wise

Containing one sunlit field

and

The universe.

Whole.

 

Tags:

Remember me telling you that we bought tickets to Radiohead?

Well, goll-ee, if it didn’t seem like ages ago and impossibly far in the future. But the date arrived, and we drove to Seattle for an overnight adventure to see one of the greatest bands of all time. You can disagree with me if you like, but I shall cover my ears while uttering, “La la la la…”

We’re just north of Boeing Field here, in Georgetown, a cool little enclave that is home to the tasty Calamity Jane’s restaurant, top photo, and across the street from the old stock house building. At said restaurant, you can get a side of Cheetos! Toss my every intention of eating somewhat healthy out the window during lunch because, damn it, I’m gonna have a delicious grilled ham and cheese with a side of these. I’m gonna smile and laugh and enjoy it, too.

Then I’m gonna walk it off, while taking scores of pictures, of course, because that is what I do.

The hat and boot, which is actually part of a pair, though not a matched one, are ginormous!

We’re in Fremont now, enjoying sunny skies before the show. The huge vent was blowing ever so powerfully, and I took it all in, becoming a light pole swallower in the process. I’m sure stranger things have happened.

Man, do I love bridges. This is the Fremont.

My favorite work of art. Wearing aviator glasses. Gulp.

The George Washington/Aurora Bridge that is infamous for other reasons, as well. Call it what you like.

“The TV baby shot me.”

Hello tall buildings!

A very fine view.

At the show, we sat next to another couple our age, the woman and I bonding over the weight of it without uttering the words. We saw it in each other’s eyes.

Afterward, and before my giddiness wore off, we sat on the hotel patio, enjoying the light and the cool evening air. Of course, we discussed everything Radiohead.

Like how the lights and general atmosphere were the best we’d ever seen, but the bass sometimes drowned everything out and made our bones rattle. How Thom and I are the same kind of dancers, and how his voice is just as good live. How tall Ed is. How we loved watching Jonny playing the lemon shaker and the piano with his guitar lying in his lap. He can play anything, even in pain. And how I cried when they played “How to Disappear Completely.” I was just so damn happy to be there, with my best friend in the world, watching and listening.

The next morning we went to the market.

Being a Tuesday, there was hardly anyone about, which was kind of nice.

Maren, we saw your hum-bao guy after we bought our piroshky. A smoked salmon, a beef, and the cardamom-cinnamon twist. Bread-y, dough-y heaven.

On our way home again. This could be an album cover.

“Glasses and Seatbelts.”

Sunshine AND bridges!

A link to more Radiohead goodness. You never know when you’re gonna need a fix, unless you’re me, of course. That would be daily.

Everything in its right place, indeed.

 

 

Tags:

I spent Saturday with two of my favorite people: gazing, driving, eating, and enjoying every single second. We went to the Portland Art Museum to see the Mark Rothko show, which, as a pretty big fan, I thought was amazing. It was cool to see work from his career arc, not just his iconic pieces. Though I need to be better about remembering the names. Save for Nude, which I hope is obvious, I cannot recall any. A little help? Anyhoo, I got all giddy looking at brush strokes and drips (the last one is a detail of a larger piece for this very reason), those bits that make this observer really appreciate the fact that there was a live-person on the other end, with thoughts and ideas about execution and final products. Is this what he pictured in his mind’s eye? Did he look at it with the same sense of awe and excitement? I sure hope so.

After the Rothko, we went upstairs to the John Frame exhibit, one I could not initially give a whit about since I didn’t know any better. Then I saw the first photo of a bespectacled monkey, and knew something magical was in store. Indeed, it was one of the finest artistic endeavors I’ve witnessed. EVER. They asked that no photos be taken, and it nearly broke my heart. His work is so detailed and beautiful and evocative that I remained in a state of wonder and probably would have cried were I alone or with the hubster. Strangers leave me alone when I blubber in public, afraid it is contagious, I suppose. But friends not yet accustomed to my weeping ways I spared, saving my tears for home and the viewing of this fil-um with the hubster. He liked it, too.

John Frame makes everything. Sewing, carving, growing, composing, filming. Beautiful music. Sweet figures. Ever-so-tiny articulated hands. Everything. It is magic and madness and reverence done with an unfathomable love for the craft.

One of my companions, enjoying the Milton Avery on display. They are among my favorites at the museum.

Tags: ,

« Older entries § Newer entries »