Week 21

   This week was an "Oh shit" kind of week. Have you ever had one of those? It was crazy at my work because it was our biggest sale of the year and I was running around like a rooster with an amputated cock-a-doodle-doo. Ohh, ouch! Maybe that is not a very good analogy, I was just trying to be original by not using the phrase "running around like a chicken with my head chopped off." I think my analogy enhances the intensity of the situation. Anyway, Sunday rolls around and while I'm in the break room at work I have an unpleasant epiphany.  I say out loud, "Oh shit! I haven't worn a dress all week and the week's practically over!" Luckily, I have some great friends. My buddy Nic responds with, "Want to go slack-lining at my house and drink some PBRs?" Umm, yes please! My problem was solved, and not only that, but it involved beer. Also, 'slack-lining in a dress' was totally on my list of things to do! 

   The great thing about being a girl and having guy friends is they really get you in the right mind set of having just good, simple fun. Guys friends are terrific. Don't get me wrong, I love my lady friends, but it is so important to get a proper dosage of  both estrogen and testosterone. Some of the few things that are awesome to do with my girl friends include(but are by no means limited to): drinking wine, having heart-to-hearts, dancing, watching cheesy reality TV and talking about boys...which are all very necessary and fulfilling activities. But with guys, it's about making fun the old fashion way, that basically means drinking beer and doing really silly, uncomplicated things. For example, it means slack-lining. It means slack-lining while you hold your beer. It means finishing your entire beer while slack-lining( or at least attempting to complete that task). It means slack-lining while somebody shakes the slack-line really hard trying to get you to loose your balance and fall off.  That is good ole' fun and it makes my stomach hurt from laughing so hard. I love my guy friends. Thanks dudes! 

Trying not to spill my PBR on the slack-line

Week 20

   Grass isn't always greener on the other side, my neighbors have a rock garden. Windbreakers don't really break the wind, but they do keep me warm when it's windy. If I'm ever between a rock and a hard place it probably just means I'm on an awesome crack climb. If someone's down to earth it's usually because they try to keep their head in the clouds. Remember Dust Busters? Yep, they never really did work that well, nor did they 'bust' any dirt. It's hard to knock my socks off because I'm usually wearing sandals, or I'm just barefoot. And, Easy-Ups are really not that easy to set up. Luckily, I don't own an Easy Up, I have an ARS instead, and this weekend I was pleasantly surprised to find it uncomplicated to set up.
 
   On Sunday, I was one of several artists selling my work at a local community event. I quickly decided that this would be another fantastic opportunity to wear a summer dress. All of the other artists rented Easy Ups from the community center and I noticed how it was somewhat of a struggle to get all the parts and pieces assembled. I erected my ARS effortlessly, thanks to REI.  I love my ARS , which stands for Aluminum Rapid Shelter, it was probably one of my best  purchases from that store. I'm tempted to go on and on about my shelter, but I think that would have the likely potential to put any readers to sleep. This is starting to remind me of a two page email I once wrote to my friends while I was traveling through New Zealand. I rambled on and on about the 'amazing-ness' of trail mix and all of it's multiple edible uses. That was not my best work. Because of my current inclination to talk incessantly about my ARS and given my past novel on 'trail mix', I'll think I'll skip the antics. This last week I may have exhausted all of my creative brain cells from the oodles of paintings and jewelry pieces I made. So, to keep it short and painless... I wore a dress this week. That was cool.

 

Dressed in yellow, barefoot and selling my art under my shelter. 

Week 19

     A wise man once said, "Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around every once in a while you could miss it."

    That wise man was Ferris, from the movie Ferris Bueller's Day Off and I'm beginning to realize how much movies influence my life. Last week I acted out a scene from Pretty Woman. Well, actually it was not a scene, it was more like an outfit.When I was in Fiji, I was determined to find the actual Blue Lagoon where the movie The Blue Lagoon was filmed...and I was somewhat disappointed that I didn't end up stranded there with a handsome and tanned young man.  I'm pretty sure the movies PS, I love You and Leap Year played a big role in getting me on the plane to Ireland. And in Kauai, I broke the law and trespassed on private property to slide down the waterfall chute which was filmed in the movie South Pacific.

  

    When I recently watched  Office Space for the 6th time, it reconfirmed my decision to move to Hawaii. There was a  scene where Peter proposed a question to his coworkers that his career counselor once demanded of him. He asked them what they would do if they had a million dollars. And he explained that "invariably what you would say was supposed to be your career." Peter didn't have an answer to his own question, but I immediately knew what I would do. If I had a million dollars I would move to Hawaii and paint on the beach. Surprisingly, it wasn't Blue Crush or 50 first dates that got me thinking about the tropics, it was that moment in Office Space that tipped the scale in favor of Hawaii. But, I do have to admit that I have developed a new Maui fantasy. In my daydream, I'm living in Hawaii as a successful artist, now a 'local' island girl, and I woo a handsome tourist architect with my awesome surfing skills, who then decides to rip up his own plane ticket and stay with me in paradise. There may of been a few scenes 'borrowed' from  Blue Crush that may of had wee bit of an influence on set fantasy. 

    Is it foolish that I let movies play such a deciding influence on my next move or adventure? No, I'll answer my own question. It's my belief that most movies inspire us to regain some of that childlike enthusiasm for life and motivate us to step outside of that silly little box we've created for ourselves. And when we daydream and fantasize it's just us exercising our creativity and imagination. And inspiration and creativity can lead us to wondrous things in our lives.  I gather that there were thousands of women who quit their jobs, dumped their 'loser' boyfriends, and moved to Italy or Bali after watching Under the Tuscan Sun or Eat Pray, Love. I wouldn't be surprised if airline ticket sales to the Himalayas significantly increased for middle aged men when Bucket List hit the theaters. And what's so wrong with that? If movies can get people out and exploring the world, well shoot, keep them coming Hollywood.

   The film industry began to impact my life at a very young age. When I was about six my favorite movie was Splash. I fell in love with that movie and not only decided that my first born would be named Madison, but I took numerous baths, dumping table salt into the tub; I was determined to turn my legs into a mermaid tail just like Daryl Hannah's. My desire to travel to Scotland surely had something to do with watching the musical Brigadoon, although I didn't find Gene Kelly dancing around in a kilt. However, it was in Scotland where I picked up the term "wee" which I surely overuse a wee bit. And 'surely', that's another word I overuse, I know... but I blame that one on Leslie Nelson, in the movie Airplane! 

  "Surely you can't be serious! I am serious, and don't call me Shirley" 

   

    When I was ten and watched the Adventures of Pippi Longstocking, I wove wires in my braids so they would stay up like Pippi's and I 'cleaned' the kitchen floor by slipping and sliding across the tiles with soapy scrub brushes taped to my feet. The Indiana Jones movies had a major affect on my life too. For a big chunk of my pre-teenage years I planned on becoming an archaeologist so I could hunt for buried treasures. And if I didn't grow up watching Singing in the Rain, I probably would own an umbrella. Instead, when it rains, I prance and skip about unprotected in the street and sing out of key. 

     Now a days, I suppose I'm a grown-up and I realize not everything in Hollywood is realistic. I  have come to terms with the fact that I may not find the Holy Grail in the Valley of the Crescent Moon like Indiana. Although, thanks to that movie, I've added 'visiting Petra' to my own Bucket List. I also know that no matter how much salt I pour in the bathtub I won't turn into a mermaid. Although, in hindsight, I was using iodized table salt...hmm.... maybe sea salt would have made all the difference?! Mermaids do live in the sea; I'll have to give that a whirl!

     I suppose this blog post would make more sense if I related it back to the original topic of my blog: dresses. Yet, this is the very reason I'm writing this post. This last Saturday night, I got dolled up in a J.Crew dress and my cowboy boots and of all places I could of gone out...I went out to the movies! Yes! It all comes together now. The reason I started thinking about all these movies in my life was because I went out to one in a dress. And I might add that it was quite a funny flick, it was The Other Woman and it got me stoked on the fact that I'm not married to a cheating husband. So if you are married to an adulterous man or woman, I say get a divorce and watch this movie. I would also recommend watching Eat, Pray, Love or Under the Tuscan Sun. You'll be on a plane to Singaraja or Siena in no time, trust me. 

And here I am in the theater, striking a pose before the movie commences. I'd like to add that the theater was empty except for four feisty young ladies! It was pretty sweet, we didn't have to whisper...

Week 18

   In the beginning of the movie Pretty Woman, a man dressed in tie-dye walks down Hollywood Boulevard and enthusiastically starts asking everybody around him about their dreams. I think he's asking a damn good question, a question we don't really ask ourselves enough on a daily basis.  

   

   "Welcome to Hollywood! Everybody comes to Hollywood got's a dream. What's your dream? What's your dream? Eh mister, eh... what's your dream?" 

   

   As I've mentioned before in previous blog entries, I have all sorts of dreams. However, I have everything from pivotal aspirations of paramount importance to just fun and amusing little fantasies. I want to bust out some crazy dance moves in a flash mob. I want to wear a long, flowing dress to a quaint little farmer's market, carry an old fashion wicker basket and fill it up with the biggest bouquet of flowers I can possibly find, all while prancing along and singing 'Little Town' from Beauty and the Beast. I aspire to someday climb Half Dome, yet not via the typical route, rather straight up it's face. I dream about buying a one way ticket to Hawaii. I already made it quite clear that I fantasize about a bearded man in flannel, but I also daydream about making out with a handsome cowboy in a pile of hay! And speaking of Pretty Woman, I've always had the desire to dress up like Julia Roberts in that movie. And when I say I want to dress up like her, I'm not referring to her in her prostitute get-up (although I was close to it in that blue dress in Hood River). Remember when she wears that brown polka dot dress to the polo match? Yep, I want to do that! I want to wear that dress with little white gloves and go to the horse races. And I'd like to have my first Mint Juliep as well, it seems most appropriate at a horse race! Well, I can tick that fantasy off my list, because I just did that shit yesterday! 

     It's funny how checking those little wishes off your bucket list really gets you thinking about the bigger items on the list. When I stopped procrastinating and started acting on these little fantasies, it got my noggin in the right state of mind. And perhaps that state of mind was to stop thinking, and rather to start feeling.  Although I plan on counting backwards once I hit 35, I'm not actually getting any younger. The biggest item on my list, and perhaps most pivotal, is: I want to move to Hawaii and paint on the beach. Yep, it's time to make that a reality. It's really a no-brainer...literally, that decision comes straight from the heart. It would probably be more practical (and affordable) to move to Bend, but when have I ever been practical? I've decided that if I can find rap music in Bend, then I can find a bearded mountain man in Hawaii...or maybe even a cowboy and a pile of palm fronds. 

   I'm shooting for a mid-August departure...I just need to stop spending money on more dresses and start saving.  I'll get a one way ticket, stuff the remainder of my unworn dresses in a suitcase and see what happens. Who knows? I may be there for a month..three months, or maybe even a few years. All I know is that I'll always regret it if I don't go and try. And until that day comes, I'm going to start looking for flash mob postings on Craigslist and wicker baskets at garage sales. 

Unfortunately I didn't attract any Richard Gere look-a-likes in my dress, but I still had a super awesome time drinking Mint Julieps and eating $1 hot dogs with my ladies, Sally and Andrea