THREE YEARS AGO: I LONG FOR YOU, I RUN AWAY FROM YOU

North Dakota

PHOTO: CLOUD DAY // NOSTALGIA OF A PRAIRIE SKY

PHOTO: CLOUD DAY

i just want to look and listen forever

photo by Wendy Dunham via Cloud Appreciation Society Facebook page

The Carina Nebula via NASA

If you learn to play the dulcimer I'll marry you tomorrow.

let's not think about it, let's just look at clouds

prairie

shall I compare thee to a summer's day?

Tonight we––what I affectionately refer to as my Old Ladies Choir––had our last concert of the season. Which is kind of bum because these are hilarious and great ladies but I'll be happy to have a break from religious Latin songs. (I know what killed Latin.) Before I continue, I want to tell you, we did sing some really fun pieces, like a gospel arrangement of Will the Circle be Unbroken which had us all dancing around every time we sung it. And I loved singing in German. (O NICHT MICH LIEBER!!) (TANGENT: my stomach keeps ribbetting like a frog and it's starting to drive me nuts.) But we sang this kind of cheesy song, I'm sorry, maybe you like it. I won't judge you if you do.





I found Harry Belafonte singing it because he's great even if the song isn't.


Where are you going my little one, little one
Where are you going my baby my own
Turn around and you’re two, turn around and you’re four
Turn around and you’re a young girl going out of the door

These words comprise the bulk of the song. The bittersweet feeling of watching your dear little girl grow up just like that. Blah, blah, blah....but can I tell you, that it kind of did twinge my heart a bit singing that song knowing that my piano teacher of 11 years was in the audience––you know, the woman who started teaching me almost twenty years ago? (Not that I haven't sung it every time with my actual dear mother but she thinks it's cheesy, too, so.)

This is a strange thing about coming back home to my wee little town. So many of these people watched me grow up. Yesterday I had a funny encounter with an old high school teacher and one of my dad's colleagues. "Are you who I think you are?" says Mr. S, "Is it you I've been seeing at the gym?"

"Of course it is! She's a runner," says Mr. T, "You still run don't you?"

(Which is the same question an old cross country coach asked me a few months ago.)

Maybe these little things don't seem abnormal to you, maybe they've always been a part of your life. But I haven't been back much over the last seven years and I didn't think I'd ever come back much. I'm glad I have though, I'm glad I'm here for now.

the weekend

of the prairie and of the clouds • driving to Jamestown fall 2011

hello from north dakota's clouds and telephone poles. and treetops. and street lights.

north dakota cloud appreciation

because of my excessive fondness for strange juxtapositions and journals:

THIS IS THE SECOND DAY OF APRIL 2011
it is mostly cloudy and I will appreciate it-clocked in at 11:03

4 April 2011
FROM B&N TODAY
Stories and poems for extremely intelligent children of all ages (a book) (on shelf next to Best of Women's Erotica 2)

7 April 2011
"P A T I E N T   S P R A Y E D"

8A
butter
plumb sauce
produce

24 April 2011
There are so many things I hear in church and related activities that sound extremely apocryphal. 

xkcd + clouds

body in the clouds

"I marvel at the miracle of the human mind and body. Have you ever contemplated the wonders of yourself, the eyes with which you see, the ears with which you hear, the voice with which you speak?...What a remarkable thing you are. You can think by day and dream by night. You can speak and hear and smell. Look at your finger. The most skillful attempt to reproduce it mechanically has resulted in only a crude approximation. The next time you use your finger, watch it, look at it, and sense the wonder of it."*

*Gordon B. Hinckley, The Body is Sacred

cloud day

cloud day

cloud day

cloud appreciation is also part tree appreciation.

This picture was taken only a few seconds after that first one, go figure.

cloud day