ghosts are good company

baaaaaaby seahorses

Originally uploaded by capnpuck

i hadn’t actually spend much time with seahorses before i had them tattooed on my leg, so it was nice that i had a chance to see some at the birch aquarium. the aquarium itself i didn’t like as much as the california academy of sciences‘ setup of fishyness, but the academy only had dead seahorses, so i maybe cried a little bit. until i wandered into the penguin room where they were feeding the penguins.

but the birch aquarium. seahorses that are alive, yes. a big porcupine pufferfish, yes. mostly, though, the baaaaby seahorses pictured (and titular). so small, two inches or so from head to tail-tip, they made the bumbling adult seahorses look positively graceful. the babies had managed to get tangled up when we first found them, but eventually unlinked themselves (i think they designed monkeys in a barrel after seahorses) and started bobbing around, upside-down and sideways. i love them.

other than the seahorses and the faux otka (r.i.p. real otka), the aquarium was just so-so. but there were four separate tanks with seahorses in them, so it was a worthwhile trip all-in-all.

of course now that we’ve got the computers figured out at home and the internet all set up, i’m writing this from the deliciously free wireless at sacramento airport.

which makes sense – i got in early and my flight to san diego is late, so what else should i be doing than catching up on the last two months with you Strangers From The Internets?

since i have that penchant for reverse chronology (and the bad memory, i’m sure that has a lot to do with it), i’ll start with last night’s double-stuf’d amazingness. the evening started with a free choir practice/performance at what i’ve been calling the stretch pants summer jam. it’s always fun to get out of our rut (as we’re doing next week at the shelton library, as well), especially in stretch pants. mine were purple lame and quite glam.

the glam continued with tragic magic at northern, where i promptly fell in love with all of the performers. i had a theater mentor tell me once that he thought i’d make a great performance artist – after seeing these kids, it’s firmly in the compliment column (again).

golly, if there was stuff that happened in the past two months that wasn’t choir and/or awesome queers, i don’t remember it. also it doesn’t seem likely to have been my life.

i have a new job, starting on tuesday – thus the trip to san diego now. i went to san francisco for the national conference on volunteering and service (huge! overwhelming!) over pride weekend and was elated by trans march. while i was there i was able to catch Chagall and the Russian Jewish Theater, which was spectacular. so much of his work was done so quickly, i learned, that it could only be almost a stream-of-consciousness.

the first piece i saw of his, like most people i’m sure, is america’s windows. i actually have a tote bag of it, which was one of my favorite bags to carry around when i was high school. he’s done a lot of work, i’m not sure if that was his only stained glass (research finds that no, there are lots of amazing glass pieces of his around!), but the most stunning part of the russian jewish theater exhibit was a set that he had created for a show… i could have stood there for hours staring at the details, and apparently i should have. one of the museum guards yelled at me for trying to take a picture of my favorite bit, and of course i can’t find it online. i wish my memory was better; i’m tired of things i love being so ephemeral. anyhow, the beauty that i can’t find is part of “chagall’s box,” and you can read more about it here.