walk the dog

Khloee and I out for a stroll.

Texture and color behind the Water Lab.

Logan River

Finally brave enough to cross the grate... this took some time.

Ice Bubbles

Berries

More Ice Bubbles

Canine Profile

Afternoon Shadow

I took some advice from fellow bloggers and loaded up on some vitamin D in the sunny midwinter day that pleasantly presented itself. Khloee and I wandered through our neighborhood along a small snow trail that goes behind the Water Lab and to 1st dam. She is a socially challenged beast, and pulled me into the mud and down the hill several times while I was trying to manage the camera. I'm considering it mandatory to take her for a walk everyday, I know, I know she should be walked everyday but... she did grow up in Wellsville where she had free rein of the fields... in fact we just donated a tree in her honor at the Wellsville park. That's what the plaque says, in honor of Khloee the Dog. I wish I had a sound recording for each image. A lone plane moaning through the sky. Birds chirping, geese honking, ducks skidding, ice cracking, water melting, mud squishing, children playing, me sighing. 

truth is stranger than fiction

In the past 10 days I have been involved in court proceedings, twice. The first was a mediation set up by the juvenile court for some mischievous youngsters that vandalized and stole items from our home we were in the process of moving out of in July. I'm talking really young, like 8,9,10 and they were our neighbors. So, the mediation is going ok, but the dad of three of the boys, who is a real estate agent, who accessed our house improperly (showing his family - probably why the boys thought they could use it as a clubhouse) kept telling his son to "tell the truth", and then he starts getting hostile and verbally abusive toward me. I am still missing a bracelet that my mother had given to me after her brain surgery. I had taken it off to clean and set it on a hook in my closet. Gone. Well this, so-called, "good friend and neighbor" proceeded to tell me that it wasn't as valuable as I was claiming and that he saw a broken bracelet on the right side of my counter (whatever that means). I went home and located the broken bracelet (not the one I'm missing) and it is in a fabric pouch and that has been in a box. I was so creeped out that he had been through my stuff my skin crawled. He started describing more and more things in detail and trying to tell US whose house was robbed how invaluable those items were. Darren finally stood up and said, "we're done here, we don't have to take this." The dad was eventually kicked out of the proceedings for hostile behavior. We then promptly filed an ethics complaint with the real estate and licensing division and are contemplating filing a civil suit. I was so emotionally spent I called in sick the next day and spent all the hours in bed.

The second: I attended the sentencing hearing for my dear, dear friends who have been through a nightmare for the past four years... a raid of their home by Homeland Security, a 135 count indictment, ruined reputations, families destroyed, a prosecution that cost the US government over 2 million dollars and for what... misdemeanors and a 50.00 fine. They had to plead to something, because the US attorneys office will not lose face. I wish someone would trace this case and the political maneuverings that occurred; who became a judge, who got promoted. The overwhelming support in letters from governments, associations, adoptive parents about the humanitarian efforts, professional conduct and good character was in favor of my friends. Did any of this come out in the press? NO. I am so baffled and quite scared how twisted information became. The newspaper blogs have been psychotic and viral. Some concerned citizens were going to have a meeting to discuss things. I wrote in that I was sorry I couldn't make the meeting, but reminded them not to forget their white hoods. "Be afraid, be very afraid," keeps going through my head. After the hearing I didn't have a chance to see my friends, they left quickly to escape the mounds of press waiting outside, who wouldn't even talk to anyone remotely connected to the defense. I went to a restaurant to eat and had a cold one (I won't tell you of what) and then walked into a hair salon and asked if someone could cut and color my hair. It felt good to vent to a total stranger. All the while I thought about my friends, and how I have never in my life known people such as them. I feel I know their hearts and through all these court cases they have been nothing short of genuine, they have never changed their story... how can they it is the story of their life. I love them and their children and am so sorry this tornado of craziness has hit them and and uprooted everything. So if you happen to read about this, DO NOT believe everything you see in print. I miss you guys!

So I wake today and learn a professor who was instrumental in me going back to school and getting my master's degree has been cited for lewd behavior. I mean really lewd behavior. I feel awful for his family and children. Ahhh, I can't keep up... I'm getting nervous to ever walk out the door again.

Really, I couldn't make any of this up if I tried. I'm creative, but this is stretching it.

Angela Adams & a question...

Angela Adams and her furniture designing husband will be on campus tomorrow for a presentation and critique of a project that she introduced to the students last month. Don't you just love these rugs. Mouth-watering, texturally gorgeous. I would never need furniture, for I would sit always on the floor. If you are interested in attending, the event occurs Monday, February 23rd, at 3:00pm at the Performance Hall at Utah State in Logan.
Now for the question? If you were given the task to "map an ecosystem" as a concept for a design layout what would you include? How would it look? It is using "biomimicry" in a way, to arrange interior space. What would the connections be, what type of "neighborhoods" would you include? Just wondering, as I work on a research question that I haven't quite formulated all the way in my head yet.

Time since... nine months

Seven years since the 2k2 winter olympics in SLC. I was all caught up in the whirlwind. One evening, just her and I ventured through Park City. Listening to music, waiting in line at Roots to get our official berets. We were both into collecting pins. I displayed mine in a shadow box, hers laced the edges of her beret. I was given her beret after the accident. I've scarcely been able to look at it. Such a strong physical memory of her, upright and youthful, she looked enticing in hats. We had so much fun that night. We happened upon one gathering, the Jamaican Bobsled Team was posing for pictures and autographs... for a price. Mom left to use the ladies room and when she came back, one of the team had me firmly in his grip and was literally chewing on my neck. Her face expressed what she didn't say... "What in the hell are you doing?" ...with a spark in her eye of course. I said, trying to wriggle out of the situation, "he said for a kiss..." I offered a peck on the cheek and he must of thought I was approving the full make out. We got our pictures and autographs and laughed about it a long time afterwards. She was mischievous, my mother. I thought of her quite a bit while in Washington, DC. I told dad, that mom would have loved this last minute inaugural adventure, he agreed, saying she probably would have jumped on the plane with me. I thought of her and my 3rd grade teacher "rescuing" a lithograph of the signing of the Declaration of Independence from the basement our elementary school... is that where my interest in politics began? Or my love of quirky adventures. I've been swimming in memories of her, they flood my dreams and waking hours. I miss having a Mother, bottom line. I feel lonely and lost. That same third grade teacher wrote me a note I read every morning... a line goes like this, "I love you DeAnn - sending you warm hugs and wishing you someplace safe and cozy you can go to when you need that kind of space."

Really, it comforted me like a microfleece blanket... it felt like the first motherly action freely given me since I lost her. 

Whelmed!

So much to do, revisions on a thesis, tending to the flu, teaching 9 

semester credit hours, revising curriculum, trying to be a decent mom 

to teenaged young men and those are the issues on the outside, 

ahhhh, like the song says, "she fights for her life". Yeah, that's what 

it feels like when the stress is getting the best of me.