Wake up!

Sooo, it's been a while. I'm pretty sure winter ate my soul. It's only been two months into the year, and I've given up on it at least a half-dozen times already. Hopefully 2015 will be a better year, but it's time for me to crawl out of hibernation and try to salvage what's left of this year (I'm aware that a great big chunk of it's left, but I'm still bitter about winter, so don't push me.)

In an effort to snap myself out of this funk, I've (stupidly) decided to participate in two challenges this month. The first is at my yoga studio. We're doing 30 classes in 30 days. I know how likely I am to crap out at any time, so I'm front-loading my month... today was Day 1, and I took two classes. Go me! Providing I can move my arms and legs in the morning, I'll go to the 9:30 AM class. Did I mention I also have two concerts to sing in this weekend? I'm clearly insane. At least this time I don't have house guests. My parents usually come up for all performances (they're maddeningly supportive), but my mother has a bad cold, and we're apparently all going to be snowed in with 15 feet of snow, or some nonsense like that. So I suppose it really is working out for the best. Oooh, and I have a sinus infection, but I'm on some lovely meds for that. Yeah, I've lost my damn mind.

Challenge two: To post to my blog every day this month. Yup. It's NaBloPoMo, and the theme is Self, so you can expect full lists of every part of my body that hurt from my yoga challenge. I'm also going to get a new phone (I really am this time), and I want to be able to take professional looking photos on the go, so you'll probably get a lot of me screwing around with whatever piece of technology I decide to go to battle with (really, technology hates me. I'm pretty sure it all knows I'd rather have paper and write with a fancy quill and develop photos in a darkroom...). But this is my month. New Year's resolutions always fail miserably (when you bother to make them at all), so this is my Get Your Shit Together month. Turn inward, look outward, and wake up. Some day it will be warm enough for flip-flops.

December Things

So the Holidays came and went, the New Year did the same, and I suppose it's time I catch up on blog posts. I'm not really sure I ever got fully in the spirit this year, and I'm still not celebrating with my parents till the end of January, so I guess I'm allowed to be really off kilter about the whole thing. I did manage to fit in some fun things, and of course I took pictures!

I went to the Carnegie Museum a couple of times, and since I used to work there, it's always a little like going home. I have to stop myself from going down staff hallways and snooping where I'm not supposed to be anymore. 

Chomp!

Aww, your wittle hands!

Rock illumination.

Should have been a geologist, I love rocks...

I had been trying to get there to see the International exhibit at the Art Museum, so when I found out they were also having a ceremony for the raising of the Tlingit Totem Pole that they had commissioned from artist Tommy Joseph, I had to go. The teensy tiny part of me that's Cherokee responds very strongly to all things Native American. Some day I'll learn more about that part of myself, but till then I'll just look at this awesome carving.

Curtain down.

He's holding a seal with his teeth. 

I always enjoy the International... since it's only held roughly every four years I like to think of it as the Olympics of modern art, just held permanently in Pittsburgh. I'm not much of a modern art girl, I like my things old and pretty, but it's always good for conversation. My thoughts are pretty much exactly in line with this article I read in Vanity Fair about the London Frieze art festival. "Contemporary art isn’t easy. It’s not obvious. You need to be told. This stuff has to be—simply has to be!—better than it looks."  I don't get it most of the time, but it's fun to look. 

I would use this giant cage, but not for my hosiery. 

Characters.

It's like a sideways sci-fi city.

These guns make music. 

These blocks of pressed paper will fall apart through the course of the exhibit. 

Pancreas pain is a real thing.

Since I went during the Holidays, they had Sculpture Hall decorated with trees and lights. It's one of my favorite rooms on a regular day, and this made it magical.

Orange cat in the tree.

Hanging angels.

I really love these. Remind me of 'What Dreams May Come'. 

Childhood tree.

It's just a short walk up the hill to Phipps Conservatory, and how could I pass up their Winter Garden? Especially since they have evening hours to show off all the lights. I love it so much, I even renewed my membership, so expect a whole year of flower photos.

Magically creepy tree.

Cathedral in the background.

Garden room. My favorite.

Christmas cottage.

Dino chase. :)

Winter garden orbs.

Pretty lights.

Hanging presents. 

This tree is fabulous. 

It was raining out the night I went to Phipps, so we happened to have a giant umbrella. And you know I couldn't contain my giddy excitement at all the lights, so naturally it led to me playing Mary Poppins. My dad took this photo. I love it.

Winds in the east, mist coming in. / Like somethin' is brewin' and bout to begin.

Take Me Out To The Ballgame (Kinda)

Last Saturday I went to my very first baseball game in Pittsburgh. I've lived here for over ten years now, so don't think it's been a lack of time. I simply dislike sports. (I know, I'm in a bad city for that) I went because the choir I sing with got to perform the National Anthem. The last time I was at a baseball game was when my children's choir sang before a Reds game, so I guess I'm on a twenty-year cycle or something. The grass was very cushy, and I really wanted to take my shoes off and just shove my toes in and have a good wiggle, but I'm an adult, and for some awful reason we feel the need to behave in public when there are cameras on. When they announced us they got our name wrong, but we rocked it anyway. As soon as I got in to the park proper I grabbed a giant pretzel and began my evening of being totally confused and at the same time paranoid that a ball was going to hit me in the head. If you know me, or if you ever were in gym class with me, you'll know this is not an irrational fear. I swear to god, my head is like a magnet. 

Run from the purse snatchers!

Luckily, nothing hit me, except an overwhelming wave of cute... Pierogi Race!! This was hysterical. I'd heard people talk about it, but seeing it in person brought on a super size giggle fit. Seriously, grinning from ear to ear.  Guys hit balls, blah blah, we won, blah blah, ....and then there were FIREWORKS!!!  I'm putting it down in writing here: When I die, please cremate me and find a way to get my ashes made into fireworks. Then set them off over the river. I'd prefer to be either a purple or blue one (or the ones that come down all curly), but I have no idea if human remains alter the color of fireworks, so I'll leave the final decision to the professionals. This was, without a doubt, the best fireworks show I have ever seen. The city looked beautiful (when you squint it almost looked like you were at Disney with the castle in the background, except you still had your soul). I'm just going to let the pictures talk now. 

Soooo pretty! I'd go back just for the fireworks. Or set up camp on the top of the parking garage in the cultural district and see what the view looks like from another perspective. So I saw beautiful things, didn't get hit in the head, and spent a beautiful night out in a beautiful city. I'll call that a good night.

Ren Fest 2013

As promised, pics from the PA Ren Fest!! Yaaay! I know you're excited, so let's dive right in. 

In silks

I love aerialists, so right off the bat the hanging silks from this stage called to me. I didn't even have a drink yet (that was quickly remedied) or anything to snack on (that took a while... I kept getting distracted) but I didn't care. I was going to sit there and watch the whole thing. Confession: I'm a bit of a Groupon addict, and I once bought a fitness class pass that included aerial yoga and and aerial silks class. It was magical, and the silks tried to cut my legs off from the rest of my body, but I loved it and kind of want to be a bad-ass aerialist diva when I grow up. 

Gaaa, I want to do that!

In between all the amazing things, this show was a bit silly. And I like silly, and corny, and terrible TERRIBLE puns. Love them. I'm a huge dork. But potentially not as big a dork as the girl who brought her violin with her to Ren Fest. I don't know if she did some impromptu busking while she was there, but I saw here everywhere, and she rocks. 

Dueling violins?

Every year there's something new to see, and there isn't enough time in the day to see everything. So this year was my very first time watching the glass blowing demonstration. It was quite toasty. I'm really impressed with everyone who can do this king of thing, since I can barely turn around in my kitchen without breaking something. And because everything there was beautiful. I bought an ornament to hang in my kitchen window, if I can rig up a hook that isn't going to send my new sparkly to an untimely death. 

Really hot things.

I don't really want to put this one up, but it's a whole 'circle of life' kind of thing, and honestly it's pretty amazing. Just sitting there in the bushes between a very busy path, I saw a butterfly. So I decided to take a picture, since it seemed to be pretty attached to that flower. But no! It was attached to the mouth of a giant preying mantis. Who was eating its brains. Nature is messed up. 

Zombie mantis.

So of course I needed therapy after that. In the absence of actual licensed professionals (the tarot readers don't count) I had to turn to retail therapy, and it worked pretty well. Last year I got a ring from the same booth, and I must say, I love them. It took me a good long while to decide, and at one point I'm pretty sure I had a ring on every finger, but I managed to find a favorite. 

My (new) precious. 

I also got lost for a bit in a series of shops that go back into a little hill. They make me positively giddy, I feel like I'm in a Hobbit hole, or the home of a very clean fairy. Everywhere you look there are piles and drawers full of the cutest miniatures and soaps and candles and things that sparkle (sigh, I want to live there). 

Curiosities. 

 There were too many performances, and we tried to see the big ones, but you know if people are playing with fire that I need to be there. If there are three people playing with fire, and one of them is standing on top of the other... well, that's friggin' awesome.

Look what I can do!

You can't just stand on your friend and juggle flaming sticks though, everyone does that. If you really want to make an impression, you need to do learn how to make yourself into a dragon. Or at least breathe fire like one. 

Don't hiccup... 

 So yeah, Ren Fest 2013 was definitely a success. I drank too much, ate too much, and took over 300 pictures (and some of them aren't terrible!). Now I have a year to recover before we do it again...

Don't forget to stop in the gift shop!