Thanksgiving 2009 & New Years to end the Aughts.
My New Year's Eve to wrap up the noughties was possibly my favorite of all time, which is saying a lot. Starting with a spontaneous coffee catch-up with New York & the West Coast, then a homemade pizza party with wonderful new and long-lost people, and eventually a bonfire in the middle of the woods. A sylvan wonderland - a string of lights squaring off a dance area; a bonfire piled high with Christmas trees; gauzy half-open sitting areas; wild, wide fields and a waffle chef in the middle of it all. I'm still reeling from the whimsy and warmth of the night.
Although I've been less-than-remarkable at capturing my life while it's in motion or reflecting in any serious way, I keep incredibly detailed records of less important things. Stray notes of what I've done each day, with whom I attended an event or passed an evening, workout routines, movies seen, books read, letters written, and meals prepared. There has to be some value in volume. Even when I can't remember some of my minor epiphanies because they happened while I was wafting in the ocean or stewing before an argument was born out of frustration, there are at least traces to build from. Whenever I might be so inclined.
Like last year, I made a list of things resolved instead of creating a list of resolutions to remind myself of all the positive and real achievements I've turned out. My accomplishments - tangible or intrinsic, are real indication of what's within my capacity.
Rodolfo & Melissa.
Doggie paddle. I wonder if Amaru is a water baby, too.
Gorgeous.
My tiny foot & chemical rainbows. You know, it's kinda gross when you think about it: swimming pools are just big vats of chemical slurry.
Swimming with the Disney dolls
Long cruiser ride in De Soto Park - tiny hermit crabs peep in and out.
Sundog.
De Soto Pier
The Ringling Museum! This mansion's theme was: "So much money, so little style," except this ceiling was so, so, so gorgeous. Southeastern Seaboard Biltmore's.
A farm of imported Banyan trees.
Where old circus costumes & props from the Greatest Show on Earth were - plus an old Pullman car and caliopes and wood carvings.
Oh I love a cal-i-ope.
The Ringling legacy of 'stache. They did Movember decades ago.
OH. MY. GOD.
TINIEST MINIATURE CIRCUS!
Howard Tibbals turned his obsession with the circus into this lifelong project creating a miniature version at 3/4 inch-to-foot scale of the 1,500 people who would be involved, all the big tents, 500 animals, even a mess hall!
Even a parking lot with old-timey cars! And food stands and railroad cars (with tiny people hanging hard inside, plus tiny wall calendars and beds with sheets tucked in - totally unnecessary details).
And little posters - here are the (real) circus freak wonders of the world. Mount Airy Siamese Tweens represent. Oh, and as if there needed to be more attention to detail, there was daylight & it faded into night.
Tiny animal cages & even tiny pools for the seals!
Tightrope walkers & acrobats & animal trainers &&&.
Even a treeswing for the locals!
From the second story - this was probably only 1/3 of the total miniature.
Cousins along St. Pete Beach - Gulf of Mexico inlet / Tampa Bay.
Tampa Bay
Wrecking a built environ.
This super incredible raw food restaurant called Leafy Greens. Zucchini spaghetti with a gazpacho-like marinara; pizza with a seed crust & tapenade & toms/olives; most delicious sandwich with a caramelized onion wrap, salad, hummus, etc; then these chocolate macaroons & frozen banana soft serve: YUM. And this is in St. Petersburg?!
This is after the Dali museum, also phenomenal. In addition to huge, huge pieces & tons of surrealist pieces he had gem & metal work, holograms (Alice Cooper?!), watercolor illustrations for Alice in Wonderland and Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tales, advertisements for Vogue, short films and photo-quality paintings of precision.
Mom 'n Dad.