I'm about ready

I think I am about ready to head out. I love this town and the people I have met, but I'm too comfortable with the way things are that I do not feel the need to deal with present and past issues. Fall, winter and spring are probably the hardest to handle in Laramie and it consumes the majority of our year. I've lost friends and then gained them right back. What a feeling!
Friends are my most valued people. They are my family away from my family. They keep me grounded and sane when we're all going insane from the cold and wind. (THE WIND!) These people are who make me laugh and smile. They understand and react to things better than I can at times. I couldn't ask for better people in my life.

The sun is shining more and my heart has picked up two beats. I'm ready for some change and more sun. I need sun and warm. Being cold through and through is exhausting. Putting on shorts because the clock across the street says "47 degrees" on it, is a delusion, because during the summer, I would be freezing at those temperatures. My legs, my arms, my body needs to be free from heavy coat and woolen socks!  I am itching like most for that summer air, summer sun and summer fun. Ready to run around without shoes and sing at the top of my lungs for I am free. Ready to travel by bike, by car, by plane, to see friends I haven't seen in years. Ready to feel that warm red glow through my eyelids and to lay in the sun for hours without anything to do. Ready to go to drive in movies with my boyfriend, my love, my friend.  He is the best.
This is another summer I cannot wait for. I will be starting my twenty fifth year this year, but being twenty-four years old is not quite so bad. I think this might be my year, but who knows! Summer Summer Summer!

I'm ready.

Love.
B.

milky-coffee.

 what would it take to wake up in a hazy afternoon, barefoot in some summer field, cutoff shorts and a dog trailing behind me? this is all i want right now. enough that i would bypass these next few months just to live this moment. hands outstretched barely dragging across the tops of fresh bluegrass, painted toes stretching deep into rain soaked soil, and the sun ah the sun warm and just bright enough to make you squint your eyes.

summer time. 

it is so far away, and yet my body yearns for the simplicity. the welcomed loneliness, bent corners on borrowed books, white wine and peach tea, thunderstorms and warm crashing light. i need it. bicycles and bluegrass, honeysuckle and orange blossoms, lilac sweet and mystical. why can't it be here? shooting stars, campfires, the wooden snap of hinged screen doors, fresh garden herbs, lemonade carafes, blueberry pancakes, rosy finches. oh why can't it be here...

yea... i know i live in laramie and i am just pouting. guess i will settle for milky-coffee and four more months wishing i were someplace else. bundle up there is a lot more to come.

grumble grumble grumble.

Carli.

We are all earth-shakers you just have to believe it.

this may sound strange, but it feels as if every once in awhile we are given a chance to try again. i am not truly sure that you can completely mask heartbreak with opportunity. the pain exists simultaneously with the potential a strange alchemy of dreams waking up, but i truly believe in embracing everything including the hurt as a way to learn, change, and grow.

i know that together is the way people are supposed to be, but it is no mistake that alone is the way we are meant to start out. it is time for me to be alone. i have made a list of all my expectations out of life. not a bucket list, more of a guideline. on the top of the list is to stop searching. i have everything i need in the person i am. i am starting to think maybe even believe that your one great love needs to be yourself. i need to love myself as i have loved others "without adjustment" as i seem to recall.

 

it is the year of the tiger, and i am finally ready to  be a tiger.

  

Carli.

another random rambling from b.

As much as I feel I should be in the studio creating all the time, like my fellow residents, I remind myself, don't push something if it's not ready. I have 6 things going on, I think they might be complete, with a few exceptions. But a constant reminder needs to be put in place, calm down and it'll come. I do not need to be constantly creating, as much as my brain tells me I'm slacking, being lazy. I am here and I am working.

While I've been away, I've been making line drawings, sewing canvas (this is quite satisfying yet frustrating), and using pastels. Things I normally never do. I miss my 3-D forms, but that part of me has broken off. When someone pushes you so far, and no longer sees you as being viable, you stop creating. I no longer want to be associated with that. Even when things are looking good for you, they look down at you like you're scum, when you used to be their prized possession. So nice.

The politics behind school really dictates who and how you are right outside school. How do you break that binding rope? You get into a residency and do what you want. 

I am very lucky to be here, and am enjoying the people and skies surrounding me.

Come on let it snow and snow.

I'll be back soon, cannot wait to be home again.

love,

b.

a death of sorts.

i am not sure why i am telling you this. perhaps it is because i am certain nobody actually reads this, or maybe it is because i desperately need someone to talk to beyond my journal. i don't know. what i do know is that things are not alright. my dreams are wrecked with images of my teeth crumbling in my mouth, packs of wild dogs, and strangers. i am losing all of the people i love, and can hardly make the effort to hold on even though ending up alone is my worst fear of all.

in december of last year my dad suffered a stroke, and i still don't think i have accepted it. death has taken my friends and family, but it has always seemed far away. seeing the fear of death in my fathers eyes shook me to my core, and has kept shaking me ever since. now every voicemail i receive causes me such primordial fear that i can hardly get myself to press send. when i first arrived at the hospital i met my mom in the hallway. she had tears in her eyes when she asked me what she would do without him, and i couldn't answer. what would i do without him? within a few hours of my arrival feeling had returned to his hands and the tips of his fingers. what a beautiful miracle that he would come out of the experience virtually unscathed, and to find out that he is perfectly healthy.

why did this become my nightmare. where my fear of spiders, bad guys, and semi trucks used to be is now an extraordinary fear of aging and death. this fear has come upon me with such a frightening force that i have been crippled by it. i rarely leave my apartment. i have rituals now, touching all the knobs on my oven to ensure they are off, unplugging everything, leaving my apartment, and going back in to check everything again. i am saving voicemails for fear that i will never hear the voices again. i am absolutely losing it.

but i have a plan.

i am trying to heal. i went home yesterday to spend the night with my parents. we drank wine, watched movies, laughed and shared stories. my dad is absolutely alive, and better than before. he is truly living, in fact, they are off to Andros island in the bahamas this thursday. think bikes, bonefishing, and beer. so why am i so afraid? i should see this as a good thing, and early on i did. 

my plan is simple. be happy. 

the journey is what will be difficult, but it starts tomorrow at 6 am. yoga. and then metalsmithing a place where i feel completely at home. i intend to spend more time there. working on my craft and loosening up my spirit. for the next two days i am going to be immersed in making a book. a place where i have fully explored my fear of death and age, and have conquered with a bit of british rebellion and a lot of metaphor. tonight i am going to repair a pair of broken butterfly wings i feel it is important for some reason. i am also close to having everything in my home organized, all the old is boxed up to go to charity. no more chaos. i found a mouse that needs a home. his name is stuart and he is living at the fort collins humane society. i think we need each other. as for me. everything will be okay. with a little bit of time and a little bit of effort everything will turn out okay. i have so much love to give.

as i said before, and i think i finally understand it. the universe shakes everything.

good night, and always with love.

Carli. 

night time

While sitting in my studio, listening to Harry Potter on tape, I heard this crying out.

Several coyotes are outside howling at the moon. 

It's intense.

Oh, the strange things that come out at night..other than me.

love,

b.

forgot some things at home.

Here's to blogging everywhere I blog now. (Check out: champagnesparklesandbmoney.tumblr.com) I post more there. But for right now I'd rather write here.

I'm out in the wilderness with 7 strangers, one giant studio to myself, and a tiny dorm room. I have no cellphone service for the next two weeks. Thank goodness I have the internet, or researching and getting photos of things would be difficult. 

Today, I drew my friend, Krina's eyes. It was a fast quick drawing, but I think it went well.

I forgot my camera plug in, so no updates on photos, unless I point my computer at something...which would just be weird.

Oh, I'm coming back with a baby deer. If Audrey can do it, so can I. So GET READY!

I left my toothpaste at home, but thankfully I'm residing at a resort that has EVERYTHING including a full size basketball court. So toothpaste is at hand.

They expect me to go on hikes here when it's freezing outside and there's snow everywhere. Yes, I know I'm from Wyoming...but yeah right. I like to be warm as much as possible. So we'll see if I actually take a walk anywhere other than to the common area or my studio which is all in a five foot radius of my living quarters.

I've been listening to Bon Iver's newest album on repeat for the last 4 hours. So you guys should check that out. It really adheres to the mood around here. Chill, quiet and quite gloomy.

So here's my first post in forever and maybe my first post on the many things to come in the next two weeks. But if I were you, I'd check out tumblr. I use that more often and post things for my friends. Love you all and miss you already.

love.

b.