What Paradise Looks Like

Photo taken by jaq when she was in Phoenix this March, and slightly doctored by me. (This post is tagged “Texas”  because Bluebell is a Texas thang.)

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Texas Roots

On the 22 Clark bus on my way home. Talking to my mom.
Me: Oh! Ohohoh! I just saw a coyote in the cemetery!
Mom: Your Uncle Tom caught one a couple days ago.
Me: I don’t think I want to hear about this.
Mom: He had a trap set up.
Me: I don’t think I want to hear about [...]

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Sign City

Austin is not what I’d call a particularly beautiful city; although relatively small, it sprawls, like most Texas cities, spreading from the State Capitol into suburban-esque neighborhoods punctuated by strip malls and monster grocery stores. The areas around the city center have the most character, with pockets of historic homes with purple front doors and [...]

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Frisbees

I got sort of obsessed with two stacks of frisbees on Laura & Mark’s back deck. The dirty, bright plastic disks contrasted so starkly with the half-green, half-dead grassy expanse behind their house. This was one of my favorite shots. There are more.

 
* * *
current book: Nearly halfway through [...]

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Flip Flops in January

Believe it.

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Thundersnow

The winter storm advisory in effect for Chicago right now states in part:
SNOW IS EXPECTED TO DEVELOP AROUND MIDNIGHT TONIGHT AND CONTINUE INTO FRIDAY MORNING AND LAST UNTIL ABOUT NOON ON FRIDAY. THE SNOW MAY BE HEAVY AT TIMES WITH SNOWFALL RATES OF 1 TO 2 INCHES PER HOUR AT THE HEIGHT OF THE STORM. [...]

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Favorite Holiday Memory

My second Christmas. I was 16 months old, so I don’t really remember it, but I could never forget those yard decorations! I was crushed when we moved and got rid of them.

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Rough, Tough, and Dangerous

The tattoo is a heart with a mustache in support of Mustaches for Kids, which I first read about last week in Chicagoist.
This past weekend I:

ate at least four plates full of Tex-Mex food
drank many a margarita
went to a gay cowboy bar
sang loudly to country radio (I’m still a 96.3 KSCS girl, it seems)
got a [...]

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Releasing My Inner Groupie

Kathleen Edwards/Gomez/etc. details to follow …

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Reaching My Limits

I am too stuffed full of Bluebell and queso to think, much less write, coherently. So for now, a list of how I spent my weekend at Austin City Limits:

Paolo Nutini (a Scotsman, strangely enough)
Ted Leo & The Pharmacists
Stars (best set of Friday)
Nickel Creek (they covered “Toxic”!!!!)
Cat Power & The Memphis Rhythm Band
Gomez
Ray Lamontagne (zzzzzz)
Ben [...]

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