Under a Red Roof

Sleepy

August 4, 2010 in Being, Gardening + Nature by Colleen | 1 comment

It is Wednesday, and I cannot seem to wake up. Not that it being Wednesday has anything to do with it. I was tired yesterday, too. I actually fell asleep while listening to the radio, fully upright, in a chair. The minutes between 3:30 and 4:00 lost to a vortex of slumber. That is usually a hubster move. Bless his gigantic heart, that handsome fella can sleep anywhere, anytime. I tend to be more of the Goldilocks variety, so it came as quite a surprise to me.

It’s dahlia time in the garden, beautiful dahlias – such marvelously constructed flowers. And August. How is it August already? Maybe I’ve slept for longer than I recall. Maybe I haven’t been awake for a long time. Do you ever feel that way? Or maybe the opposite? Sometimes I wonder if, on those days when I am thoroughly spent by 8:00, and Charlie Rose, no matter how fascinating the guest, seems an impossibility, I’ve been so very awake, so hyper aware that my senses cannot take one more bit of noticing, feeling, smelling and collapse blissfully onto my pillow. Is that it? I wish I knew. I am my own mystery, gentle readers, truly.

Sure, there are things I know about myself, but so much more that I can’t quite put my finger on, so much that keeps me wondering. In some ways I like it, but in others, I just want some answers or a bit of clarity. Maybe an impressionistic painting. Who is going to paint a Van Gogh of my life? A good question to ponder on a sleepy Wednesday.

What question would you like answered?

The Weekend Recollected

July 19, 2010 in Being, Eating, Reading by Colleen | 1 comment

Hello Monday.

It was a terrific weekend here. One of those lovelies filled with everything and nothing: looking at electric pianos (we’re both going to learn), riding bikes to a pizza place we hadn’t tried before (Dove Vivi – very good), washing clothes, doing chores, lolling about the house reading Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse. Good golly miss molly! Normally I am a one book at a time kind of reader, zipping straight through, but I just can’t do it with her. The text is so dense. After about ten pages, I have to switch to something else (it was Astrid and Veronika, but now I’ve finished that and need something else, something breezy and light) out of fear of literary overload. It is a good book though, the characters and story so rich and full of everything: life, sorrow, joy, art, nature, food...

The hubster’s birthday is Wednesday, another year more handsome and wonderful, I say! The photo represents his birthday dinner a few days early, a slow sunny Sunday spent in the kitchen. I felt of another era: barefoot, singing, with a messy apron tied tightly about my middle. I made lemonade, barbecue sauce, marinated and slow roasted ribs (boneless – no mess!), boiled and dressed potatoes, too. Talk about the epitome of summer! We followed all of this with chocolate cupcakes, of course, because it certainly wouldn’t be a Gregory Cooper birthday celebration without something chocolate, no way, no how. For some reason I didn’t take a picture of them, but I assure you of their goodness. Anything for my sweetie. He works so hard and is essential to what makes my life the glorious one that it is. I love you, Buddy.

I also played with my watercolors a little, making waves and trees that I’ll scan for your viewing pleasure one of these days. I am definitely growing more confident with a brush. I’m also thinking about another quilt, one for the guest room. I’ve got a stack of pink and green fabrics that I think would be rather nice together.

Oh, and Lori – don’t fret about the quilt making! Just do it, seriously, start wherever you like. I am a wonky sewer, too. My seams never seem to be very straight, and I always mess something up. Oops is a favorite word of mine! As a matter of fact, after thinking I did a pretty good job of sewing on my binding, I learned that I did it wrong. Next time I’ll go straight to the You Tube before reading a description over and over again and thinking, “Yah, I know what I’m doing.” It looks good, at least, certainly not professional, but good.

There you have it, another weekend in Portland Paradise. Be well, everyone.

Visioneers

July 9, 2010 in Being, Spotlighting, Watching by Colleen | Permalink

I read somewhere recently that the purpose of school is to make people learn to conform. I have to admit that a tight knot formed in my belly upon reading it. Fighting words. School is so much more. Then I thought a bit more about it and found myself conforming to whomever’s idea it was. Sit here, be nice, 2+2=4, oh, and you better agree with me. I’ve spent a lot of my life agreeing with people. Sometimes even when I really don’t. It is easier and kinder and usually feels right. What about those times when it doesn’t? When I quit the charade and speak my mind? It surprises people and I don’t get invited back to that cool clique on the playground. Someone I used to know called it my hard nugget. “See, you’re petite, and have such a sweet smile, and then POW! out comes the hard nugget.”

I would rather be alone than not be me. It’s that simple. Which is a rather roundabout way of getting to Visioneers, the topic of today’s spotlight. It is a weird and wacky black comedy about the power of corporate America to infiltrate our lives (and the government), and one man’s struggle to discover his authentic self, no matter the cost.

When the number of people exploding from some mystery ailment drastically increases, Visioneer George Washington Winsterhammerman (played by Zach Galifianakis of The Hangover fame) begins to worry. He’s got the classic symptoms – insomnia, loss of interest in sex, binge eating and, most frightening of all – he still dreams.

I really liked this movie. First off, in the aforementioned wacky way, it totally made me laugh. People at the company where George works flip each other off and say, “Jeffers Morning” to greet each other. The insignia for the company is this same gesture (see it there in the poster?). They are terrified by chaos, but they call it “chay-os.” They are an uber efficient and detached group of conformists, with an extreme terror of exploding. Especially George.

Yet there is a certain pleasure in his work, a connection with his level four boss, Charisma. She calls and is friendly, human even. She attaches sticky notes with smiley faces to his work. But, when she gets fired and disappears, George starts to unravel and descend into chay-os. His already troubled marriage takes a turn; his weird, drop-out brother starts to make sense, and his dreams intensify. Is he going to explode? It was terribly worthwhile to find out.

Tags: Movies

This is It…

June 8, 2010 in Being, Inspiring, Learning, Thinking, Writing by Colleen | 5 comments

Well friends, I have what is surely the last of the peony photos this year and a broken record alert! Aren’t they pretty? Aren’t they pretty? Well they are, and these two smell quite lovely, too. Yes, yes they do. We also managed to get two dry days in a row to enjoy them, but the clouds are rolling in, and I’m pretty sure that means Mr. Rain will be up to his old tricks in no time, which is okay. The little break of sun was enough to tide me over until next time.

I have no clever segue way to what comes next. I’ve been thinking a lot about what it is that I want and how to get it. I came to a conclusion that probably should have been obvious, but wasn’t, but now that I’ve made it, I feel as though I’ve been hit over the head with a hammer in a Bugs Bunny cartoon. Yet, instead of stars, I am seeing what I do with greater clarity than ever before.

I have never called myself a writer. I have always said, “I’ve written a book,” or “I’ write a blog.” In some ways, I didn’t want to pigeon-hole myself in the “I am not what I do” way because I feel I am so much more than a single word. I also didn’t think I deserved the title of Writer without being published. Yet, in this way, I believe I have been selling myself short, for who will believe I am a writer, especially one who is worthy of publication, if I don’t? It also diminished my work, made it less important. Well, dang it, it IS important, even if only to me.

So, a change. A “this is it” moment: I, Colleen Sohn, am a writer. Gosh, I got weepy typing that last sentence. I am a writer. I wrote a novel that I hope to get published one day. I write a blog. I write poems. I dream up worlds. Words dance in my mind and through my finger tips. They are alive, just like me and you.

That felt good. Thanks for reading. I love sharing my writing with you!

A New Path

June 2, 2010 in Being, Exploring, Gardening + Nature, Learning by Colleen | 2 comments

Einstein famously said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again while expecting different results. This path and the surrounding area are a perfect example of his definition. For the first eight years in our house, the hubster and I weeded and weeded it (I even spent a few weeks digging up ALL of the weeds, only to have the majority return the next year – heartbreaker), planted grass seed, watered, fertilized, and mowed, but got the same result. More weeds, more ugly, more mowing, and a whole lotta cursing.

Then, only after being ostensibly whacked over the head by a giant imaginary hoe, we got sane and tried something new. We planted a tree and two yellow flowering currants (friends of the birds and bees!), followed by a whopping sixty kinnikinnick plants. Slowly but surely, the area and our feelings for it began to transform. There was an increasing amount of green and shade. We no longer had to fertilize, water, or mow, leaving more time for more fruitful projects.

This included moving some pieces of stone from another spot in the garden and watching a path emerge (though it is still a little wobbly). Then there were more new ideas. The placement of stumps, the moving of hostas, and the purchase and planting of more than a dozen native plants: strawberries, huckleberries, and bitter cherry trees. No longer an eye sore, it is a pleasure to gaze upon it, as I often do now, from a perch in the bedroom. I look at it and feel grateful for the shade, the clean, cool air wafting through the window, the sweet berries I’ll eat one day, and the blessed sanity of changing one’s path.

Tags: Gardening + Nature