ghosts are good company

the truth is, the purpose of our trip wasn’t so much a happy one.  we were headed to the funeral of a friend of nat’s.  after a few hours on the road we made it to pasco, to a lovely service.  we headed home still sad, and were excited about the opportunity to distract ourselves by visiting the teapot dome.  …but we couldn’t find it.  we did, however, see this.

so, we turned around and headed a few miles back toward granger – yes, granger: where the dinosaurs roam.  nat and i had a great time taking the dinosaur drive, and taking pictures with all of the dinosaurs – you can see the full set here.

oh! i can’t believe it, i almost forgot. after we went to the darigold dairy fair (soooo underwhelming), a few hours down the road we stopped by snoqualmie falls, which was so. so. beautiful.

and we headed home. sunday was lacking in adventures, since i had orientation at work. but info on monday’s adventures is pending.

(part three here!)

last weekend, nat and i had a fairly extensive field trip.  he had worked sixteen days straight, and finally had four days off.  the initial plan was to go to spokane, but we didn’t make it that far.

our first adventure was to the puyallup fair, nat and i went with our friend will.   immediately upon arrival i ate a scone, in order to not be disowned by my family.  we went on the skyride in order to get our bearings, after which we rollercoastered! and then headed to the hobby hall where we saw amazing things including legobama and the vegetable displays. after that we saw the wonder of the steilacoom dance company (led by the silver stars) and headed up to the home goods exhibits, which were fascinating and crazy.  i was most interested in the table settings, i think, because really – what kind of competition is that?

we wandered around and saw the animals and were magnetically drawn (back) to the 4H dog show, after which we saw the jest in time circus which was pretty cute (i don’t usually like clowning, even though i have some clown friends, so “cute” is saying a lot).  i bought a red nose.  after that, nat and will went on the giant slide!!  “welcome to the puyallup giant slide, one of the largest slides ever built.”

then, we all went on the ferris wheel, which was an appropriately long ride for our money.  will took a shmoopy picture of nat and i.  we then abandoned him to wait forever for his fiancee to pick him up and take him home, while we headed to ruth’s chris steakhouse for my grandparents’ overwhelmingly fancy 50th anniversary party.  we brought a change of clothes to the fair, but still felt underdressed.  it was lovely, and so nice that my grands were able to celebrate such an important occasion.

upon leaving dinner in bellevue, we headed over the pass.  i had high hopes of making it to pasco that night, but we made it as far as ellensburg, tired and grumpy.  we ended up staying at the i-90 inn motel (classy, eh?) which i was surprised was pretty darn clean.  we sunk into bed exhausted, and i woke up at some point in the middle of the night to the bed settling, because it had just… broken.  from us rolling over.  awesome.

(part two here!)

it’s strange, to have so many blogs in so many places. i’m also trying to get more involved with some online community that i love (i imagine that you all know who you are, but i would love to know who’s reading so i can make sure that i’m reciprocating!), because… they’re really nice kids.

that community loves to play picture your day, so i took my shot at it yesterday. you can see the album (with captions) heeeere. ♥

…now i have to start rushing for the bus again.

i have a challenge between making this blog [my] “family friendly” and making it… about much of my life. but i guess since folks wouldn’t know me very well at all without knowing this, i spend the vast majority of my social time engaged it trans community activism and/or at the “local queerlady-owned sexuality boutique” – “a sex store even your mother would love.”

partially i bring this up because they (the rubber rose, the store mentioned above), just hosted the annual traveling roadshow that is the sex worker’s art show. i’ve been four out of the last five years now, and this year i had the most fun (even though nomy lamm wasn’t on the tour), largely because carly and lea (see above queerladies) made it such an awesome environment.

i attribute the environment mostly to lea and carly, even though the show was at a different venue, because it had the same spirit of delight, enthusiasm, and wonder that makes all of the rubber rose’s events awesome. still, it was missing as much of a feeling of power (youtube, sound) as some of their past events. the show was at a different venue becauuuuse the rubber rose has permit Issues. due to their being an “adult business” apparently there is a whole laundry list of things that are not allowed in their performance space. which drives me crazy.

ah, well. if you haven’t missed it yet, go see the art show. and if you’re in the area, go give the rubber rose some money. because i can’t. because i still don’t have a job. awesome!! oh: and official no-go on amsterdam today. double-awesome.

on tuesday my mother and i went to disneyland. we had a surprisingly delightful time. i know that politically, maybe not so much with disneyland, but… it’s fun. they’re nearing the end of their wildfire heroes salute so we decided to go – and i’m always a fan of wintertime at disney.

for christmas, my mother surprised me with a sister for aviva alexander. i decided (predictably?) to name her beatrice bartholomew, after the “darling, dearest, dead” love of lemony snicket. i decided that this trip would be nice for her first pictures.

perhaps the best thing during the trip happened while we were on tom sawyer island. there were two adorable kids charging around with their dad – maybe three and five? the five-year-old was wearing an awesome punk shirt.

another kid, maybe four, was there with his dad, and i just happened to be there at the right time to overhear, as the other family headed off, “do you know who that is? on his shirt? come on, you know, daddy has that shirt! it’s sid vicious!!”

there was also a group of pirates on the island, singing sea shanties. of all the ways to be an ambiance musician, it might not be the worst. they got to heckle the audience, and make… family friendly references to rum?

anyhow, twentysome more pictures and a bit more narration can be found in the flash gallery i put together here. extra credit if you can find the ghost of puck in one of the pictures! ♥

[[i just came back to add tags to this, because i forgot earlier... i was quite glad to realize that i already had a "pirates" tag.]]