I biked to the market on Saturday with a friend who is a very self-actualizing kind of gal. A direct quote: "I bought this great dress, and now I'm manifesting a pair of red heels to go with it." She also manifests important things, like... i don't know... Grace. Understanding. Work (she's a freelance muralist). Not just shoes. She's not at all flaky about it. She's very concrete.

[She was running late on Saturday morning, and while waiting, i started texting back and forth with BT, who helpfully suggested by text, "You're still waiting? Did you manifest her?" BT does not get this woman at. all.]

After the market, I went by her place to cool off. She has a beautiful apartment with pale yellow walls. It always makes me think staying at my friend h's place in northern california, when i was a wide-eyed and adoring 20-year-old. By which I mean, it's lovely and that's where i want to live when i grow up. The space is full of sunlight, and it comes through kind of cool and dappled because of the jungle of greenery and palms pressed up against the windows. My friend's vibrant art is everywhere. It's a beautiful space that always inspires me to try a bit harder.

I came home determined to start one of the art projects I've been carrying around in my head. But first i had to excavate my desk. Which meant i had to unpack from mtl. Which meant i had to clear a space under my bed for my backpack and suitcase... and vacuum out all the dust from under the bed... and clean the filter in the vacuum... and spend 2 hours trying to put it back together.

*sigh*

and that was saturday. no art projects. The mundane gets me every time. This house is pretty small, for three. Have to stay organized to keep on top of it, and i am not that person.

*

I was so excited to be at the market on saturday that I got a little carried away. Now the fridge is overflowing with red and yellow cherry tomatoes, heirloom tomatoes, summer squash, georgia peaches, golden watermelon, and two huge globular zucchini that i thought would be hollow (like pumpkins), but are instead dense like... well, like zucchini. I made a quinoa salad with feta, cherry tomatoes, crunchy stir-fried zucchini and summer squash, and basil from the garden. And a massive curry with zucchini, summer squash and chickpeas, that i'll be eating for the rest of the week my life. And i still haven't made a dent in the zucchini. GAH! I thought about steaming and freezing it, but i know we just don't have the space in the freezer with the three of us living here. Again, with the space.

Zucchini bread. curried zucchini soup? cold?

I just looked up 'zucchini' to find out what type of vegetable it is (squash. i already knew that. need to stop with the gratuitous use of wikipedia.) and learned that the part we eat is the swollen ovary of the immature zucchini flower. I don't understand botany at all.

*

i keep daydreaming about one evening last month in Washington state. My friend's brother built a sauna in their backyard behind their barn. It's fully insulated with something silver and spaceship-like, and it has cedar benches and floorboards. He made a woodstove out of an oil drum with a space to burn wood, and a chimney to let out the smoke. He tied big rocks to the makeshift stove with wire, and put a big pot on top to heat water, so you can just pour water on yourself with a ladle, or onto the hot rocks to steam up the sauna. It's an incredibly brilliant set-up. They lit candles for BT and me, and left us a jar of salt scrub and sage to burn. It was so beautiful and if i close my eyes i remember it perfectly.

12:50 a.m. - 2011-07-19