Trip Journal

One of the fun things about a trip is that I get to create a new journal, and I am currently working on one for my upcoming trip to Las Vegas. Selected various papers, and decided to have them spiral bound. I find this type of binding makes a journal easier to use while traveling, and also allows me to easily add pages, collages, etc. Here is a spread I created to capture the trip details - will be filled in while traveling. If you notice that there are 3 kids in the spread, and you connect that to my 3 nieces, you win extra points. Click on image to enlarge.

Dusk til Dawn

This month's theme was Dusk Til Dawn. Full moon nights in Salem harbor.

Visual Journal

Recent Movies

1. Changeling
Had heard about this story a couple of years ago and loved the movie. It is hard to watch and I found myself talking to the screen, but it was well done. The corruption of the LAPD boggles the mind, but even more upsetting is the way that women are treated by the cops. Jolie is wonderful in this role. Realize that I tend to like Eastwood movies.

2. W
Okay this was kinda like picking a scab and bleeding all over again, but Josh Brolin is magnificent in this role.

3. Nothing But the Truth
Here is another movie made for adults. A good story without explosions and car chases, and yet you are kept on the edge of your seat as you wait for things to get worse than they already are.

4. The Secret Lives of Bees
Loved the book and really liked the movie. Great acting by every single person in the movie.

Random Musings

• Love, love. love spending time with my nephews. They are amazing little people. We had hours of fun hanging out yesterday - and ah yes, doing homework. Love the questions they ask. Love how they connect dots. Love everything about them. And I have a trip planned to go see my nieces in less than a month. How lucky can this Aunt be?
• Picked up a bagful of books from the library yesterday. If you don't use your local library try it. It is like Christmas once a week. Delightful.
• The Autumnal Equinox is behind us. The days are getting shorter, but what fab weather we are having. The colors are simply stunning - it's like looking at a painters palette when I go for walks.
• Just back from one such walk, which culminated in a serving of Bear Claw (my fave ice-cream) - bliss!
• Oct is hovering in the midst of next week. How the heck did that happen?
  

Health Insurance

Now, you gotta think that any rational person is completely in favor of ensuring that everyone has good health insurance. Not insurance tied to having a job - your attaboy for being a good hamster on the wheel - but insurance because you are a valued member of society and what hurts one hurts us all. Cannot even begin to imagine the heartbreak of families that have to file for bankruptcy because someone got sick. Or the millions of uninsured, who don't get regular checkups, and so instead of preventative medicine we practice emergency health care.

How long before we get to the promised land of insurance for all? Obama is working to make it happen. GOBAMA!

Check out this interesting video.

Recent Reads

1. The Other Side of Paradise
This is a memoir of a girl brought up in the non-tourist parts of Jamaica. Abandoned by her mother and not claimed by her father, she is raised primarily by her maternal grandmother. It is a hard life, of poverty, abuse, fear, loneliness, wanting to belong, waiting to be claimed. While the writing is not great, the author certainly captures the bleakness of her situation, and her struggle to be somebody that people would want to claim.

Have not been to the Caribbean islands in quite a while, though have visited many of them. They are so beautiful, yet I'm always left with this uneasy feeling - as tourists we have so much more than the locals, and real life for many of the natives is dismal and without hope for a better tomorrow. I find it hard to really relax in such environments. This book reminded me of those feelings of ambivalence I have about visiting the Caribbean.

2. A Circle of Quiet
Recently "discovered" this author - kinda feel like Columbus when I say "discovered" :-). Heard about her in a podcast and decided to read her journals before I read her fiction. Have loved reading this. It has felt like reading letters from a wise and dear friend - she covers so many topics, and with the exception of her religious leanings, we see eye to eye on many things. I have found my own journal pages taking on more depth as I think about how to capture ideas, thoughts, glimpses into insight. Loved it and will certainly be reading her other works.

3. Wide Open
Been feeling blocked creatively lately, and this is one in my library that I've been dipping into again.

4. Blue Latitudes
Our current read aloud book. Am loving it.

Walk in the Park

The weather continues to be beautiful out in these parts. Feels like fall. Leaves are starting to turn. Yesterday I went for a walk in the park. Below is a photo essay of my walk.

Swayze

Patrick Swayze died earlier this week, and I have found myself thinking about his movies. Yes Dirty Dancing put him on the map, but my fave Swayze movie is Point Break. He was brilliant. And who can forget the scene in Ghost with Demi Moore - hands in clay? So very sexy. They guy was not sexy in a leading man way, and I think that freed him up to do some interesting work.

Salem

Salem is the home of the infamous witch trials. I tend to explore a very different part of the town when I get there by boat - the area around the waterfront. Very quaint. Click on pics to enlarge.

Art on Board

Love traveling with some of my art supplies - never know when I'll want to play. Here are the basic supplies that I take everywhere. The photo was taken in the cockpit while hanging out in Salem harbor.

Liberty

These are the amazing kinda sights I see while hanging out in the cockpit at the Marina. Liberty is a pretty boat no?

Boston Waterfront

Here are pics of Boston from the cockpit. Do believe that I've got the best seat in the house. These pics are looking towards the North End from Charlestown.