WWBFD - Part 7: I'M DONE!!!

Tuesday, December 2nd - I have to get WWFBD bound today, because tomorrow I have an appointment to get it trimmed. I really like collating things, to be honest, (from all those years doing proposals at work I guess). I set out the pages, sort them in piles of good, really good, and not good, match the darkness of the pages with the covers, and get them assembled and folded. I gave myself the gift of a long arm stapler a few years ago - and it's nice to put it to good use! It takes a while, but I really have to get it done - another 1 AM night on this project! Geez. 

Wednesday, December 3rd - I bike over to some letterpress printer friends' studio who have a fantastic old-school cutter - it's a huge and beautiful piece of early 20th century equipment. So, Keegan sets it up for me, and I trim them up - the books are looking really good!! Yea!! Thank you SO MUCH Katy and Keegan!!! 

Then I come home, finish the special stamp on the back page, do a quality control check to make sure all the pages are there in each, sign and number them (it's an edition of 50 with 3 artist proofs), and put them in bags... 

Is this it? Am I really, really, DONE? It's been 9 months I've been working on this project (off and on), and I really, really AM DONE!!! I can't quite believe it yet. It seemed almost impossible 2 weeks ago too! What a great experience - I have learned so much and really enjoyed it! 

I could NOT have done this without Carye Bye keeping me inspired, Dan Miller introducing me to Bigfoot, Dylan Williams encouraging me to do the project, and do it my way, and telling me that my drawing was good. Elizabeth Nelson being willing to camp at the base of Mount St. Helens and tell scary stories to "toughen me up"! Justin Hocking and the rest of the staff and volunteers at the IPRC, and Katy Meegan and Keegan Wenkman without whom it would have uneven edges! 

This book is dedicated to all who walk in the wild, known and unknown. And just for the record - I have a biologist coworker who encountered "something very unusual" in Idaho about 15 years ago near the Bitterroot Mountains while doing a strand inventory in the middle of the wilderness... so there you go, folks! 

I believe in the mystery, and hope we always have enough wilderness to harbor plenty of Bigfoots. 

P.S. There are 6 other entries about this project - scroll down to November entries to see them all. And go to my website - www.msstarryart.com - to see more and purchase your very own copy! 

WWBFD - Part 6: The Thing About Typos

Sunday, November 30th, afternoon. The book pages have been on the heat vent at home since I got home from the Thanksgiving Day printing feast at 1 AM Friday morning. I have been afraid to look at them, because, what if...

Yep, "what if" happened. I have a typo and a few other things I don't like on the text page - so after saying "SHIT" a few times -- which definitely helps solve any problem -- I head back to the IPRC. Luckily I left my form (the type set up to print) intact, so I don't have to spend hours resetting the type. That would not have happened! 

I fix the mistake (the word "account" which is not usually spelled "accuont" to my knowledge) and move the first sentence around - which I like a lot better in the last paragraph. I slap it back on the press and print about 100 more, as fast as I can. I have to also reprint the last page too, which is short and luckily was also intact. It goes pretty well (and I am not being to fussy about it being perfect anyway to be honest). Except for fixing the typo which would have really bugged me. I DID proofread it Thursday night, but it was about 10:45 pm I think, so what did I expect? 

As I am doing this, I swear to myself, NEXT TIME I WILL PRINT THE TEXT EARLIER AND NOT SET IT AND PRINT IT AT THE SAME TIME, LATE AT NIGHT. 

Still, all things considered - I learned from this, and I like the text better now, so hey. I redistribute the type back into the drawer where it's stored - which goes about 20 times faster than setting it originally. Maybe because now I have memorized where most of the letters go, which makes me feel good. Still more to do to finish the book, but now it really, really is all printed.

WWBFD - Part 5: My Thanksgiving Day Feast of Printing!

Yep, it was a long day, but I am done with the printing. Woo hooo!! At 9:30 am I start carving the 3 blocks I have left. I am blessed by the stars and they carve well and I like how they look. I have never carved 3 blocks at once, and somehow I do it in less than 2 hours. This is amazing. The hardest part is little girl in "Make New Friends." (Little Debbie? Could be.) So of course I do that block last . That's usually how I do it - easy first to build up my nerve or something.

I'm at the IPRC at noon, and print two of the 3 blocks before I leave for Thanksgiving dinner. I call my parents in NC while I am printing and talk on speaker phone. I know they won't mind, as they are gearing up for a 3 day craft show they do every Thanksgiving weekend. I helped them last year - it was CRAZY! It's nice knowing they are doing their craft thing too today - even though they are thousands of miles away, I feel connected by that. 

I am extra grateful to have someplace fun to go today. And it's a nice bike ride there on the Springwater corridor trail and through Oaks Bottom Wildlife Refuge. It's nice to see the trees and the river, and wouldn't it be great if I see a Bigfoot as I am biking down the trail? 

Dinner is great, good company and food, and I don't have to do the cooking or cleaning - the perfect holiday meal!  (I did make a pumpkin pie this morning while carving the blocks.) After a few hours I am back on the trail, biking back quickly through the Refuge in the dark. It's peaceful and foggy, perfect. (Note to worriers - I weighed the safety factor of biking quickly through the woods to the bike path, versus trying to cross Powell Blvd at 17th. The woods feel  WAY safer.) 

I'm back at the IPRC at 6, and print the last block image in a half hour. Then the fun begins - I finish setting the type, which is harder because I change my mind about a few things I set the other day. Darn revisions! But it's better now. And I am still figuring out what I am actually trying to say. What does Bigfoot mean to us as a species? What do the stories about bigfoot tell us? I stop and do yoga, meditate, eat a piece of leftover pumpkin pie, and think about it. What is the highest possibility of Bigfoot? Then I know - to help us evolve as a species. 

The text is shorter than what I originally wrote (THANK GOD) and fits on one page. Fine with me. It's the most text I have printed at once and it takes a while to get it to print right - switching out letters that are damaged (hell type), and packing in spacing so it fits in the press without letters falling out. The actual printing is easy once everything is set up and ready to go. I print 110 of the text pages, whew! 

Around 10:30 I set the type for the last page - about the project, and the special thanks. Thank goodness it's a lot shorter, as I am getting tired and hopefully am not misspelling anyone's name. It sets up to print pretty easily, and I print them, finishing at 12:15 am. Woo Hooo!!!! I clean up and go home - biking in the quiet, misty night. It was a long day, but I'm SOOO glad it's printed!! I get home at 1:11 am. 

I am still not done yet - I have to let it dry, then fold, staple and trim it. But I'm close - and VERY grateful for that!! I will finish it up in a few days - believe it or not, this is actually not the only creative project I want to do this weekend! I have craft shows the next 2 weeks, so it's a little crazy... just like my Mom taught me! 

So Happy Thanksgiving! And thanks for your supportive comments and emails! It helped today knowing people were rooting for me!!  

WWBFD - Part 4: As of Now

November 19th - I go to the IPRC after work and print the title page. I already set some of the type for it, and set and add the dedication today. I print 110. The Title is 24 point sized Univers 65 typeface (I love it!), the dedication is Spartan Heavy 14 point, and the copyright text is 12 point Spartan Heavy Italic. 2.25 hours. 

November 21st - After the DIY Braintrust group (a creative group I facilitate once a month at the IPRC) I stay and write the text. I wrote down every idea I had last week, and now I hone it into more of what I actually want to say. It takes 2 hours, but I am very close. I know it will change when I start setting the type. It's about 150 words, and the most handset type I have ever set before at once is about 5 lines of copyright/info text on the back of my cards.  Hah! 

Seriously, I don't know how it will go - will I run out of type and have to print it in pieces? Will it be a total pain to print? (With these worn out old letters, they don't print evenly and you have to adjust it and it can be annoying and very time consuming.) Then when it's done I have to redistribute all of it back into the type drawer... What the hell - learning edge! 

November 23rd - I go at 2 pm to the IPRC, work my volunteer shift in the printroom from 5 - 8, and keep working until 9. I print the next 2 blocks - yahoo! They print well and it's much quicker to do more than one because the press is already set up. I like the designs pretty well. One is drawn from a picture of a farm in Tillamook, Oregon (sort of, I was looking at it for inspiration anyway). The other is from a photo of my neighbor picking blueberries. (I don't think I will tell her she was a model for Bigfoot!) 2 hours. 

I start setting the type, and get about halfway through. As I expected, I am cutting out a lot of unnecessary words and thoughts - it's a lot different picking out every single letter versus blathering on the computer. (Yeah, like now!) 1.5 hours. 

November 26th - After work I draw up the final 3 blocks, and am happy with the images - finally. One in particular I wasn't sure how it would work out. But you know what, drawing the blocks for the inside images hasn't felt so intimidating - maybe redrawing all of the sketches was good for me. (I don't want to EVER lose a sketchbook again though - that sucked.) 

One has Mount St. Helens in it, one has Mount Hood (and the first guy I dated after I got divorced who was a JERK! Oh well - it was the perfect image to use.) And one has my tent and "camp Bigfoot" Elizabeth and I stayed in this summer. I have tried to put the Sasquatches in a variety of landscapes, and I like that they are in all different settings, based on actual places in the Northwest. Tomorrow I carve and print, and finish setting the type, and start printing that. And oh yeah, somehow make a pie and go to Thanksgiving at Paula's. Right. 

WWBFD - Part 3: Now or Never

Holy cow, it's November already and I haven't done a damn thing more with the book. I really almost give up in late October, thinking this can't be done in time for holiday sales. But I know I will feel bad if I don't do it. 

I print 200 each of 2 Christmas card designs (the Bike Santas) and am still wavering on WWBFD. Then I get a package in the mail for "Ms. Bigfoot" from my friend and art hero Carye Bye who has been on a month-long trip to the South and Midwest. It has an article on Bigfoot sightings in Minnesota, and a postcard from the Spam Museum of Sasquatch carrying a package of spam. (It's photoshopped onto the Patterson image, but still, it's hilarious!) I am completely re-inspired and I know I really want to do this. 

(Um, for non-BF geeks, the Patterson video is famous footage taken in the 1960s of what appears to be a female sasquatch in Northern California. It's never been proven to be a fake, and who back then would have thought to put boobs on a gorilla suit?) 

 

Back to the planning - yep, still 6 blocks to print, and 4 pages of text. It's going to take at least 30 - 40 hours. Can I do it before December 1? I decide I will not do 100 in this run, which will help it go faster - 50 will be plenty for now, and I'll print 60 of each page as some will get messed up. I will print 100 of the text pages, as I only want to set the type once. We are crazy busy at work, so I don't take my regular days off - less time for art for a few weeks, unfortunately. 

My birthday, November 15th - I get up and work on it first thing. I realize I want to use the Patterson image for the first image page - Take a Walk. It's perfect and I love the idea. (Thank you again, Carye, as I draw from the postcard she sent.) 

November 16th - I print up 60 of them at the IPRC. I haven't ever used laid paper like this before, and it's much thinner than cardstock which is what I usually print on. I have no idea how it will do, but it's excellent, and dries quickly, unlike the cardstock. I am printing all in black so that at least is faster than mixing inks, and I can print 60 very quickly, once I get the block the way I want it. I did some funky background that was supposed to be brush but looks crazy. After I print a few, I realize it's not working (I usually have to fix something in the image after I see it printed.) I carve it out more and it gets worse, and I have messed up one of the hands in the process - crap! I give up and carve the background out so it's blank - it's not the exact Patterson photo hillside, but it looks much better. And I work with the messed up hand and it actually looks better. Ok, whew. Printing is such an imprecise art - that's part of what I love about it. I don't really know how it's all going to look before it's printed. It's a surprise! (When it works.) 

Another letterpress printer friend Shannon Buck shows me a trick - placing prints in magazines instead of phone books so they don't stick to the pages. I use the Best Friends animal sanctuary magazines I have around - it seems fitting for Bigfoot. I am so glad the first block is done! 1.5 hours - I am used to doing 100 - 200 prints at once, so 60 seems like nothing!

What Would Bigfoot Do? Part 2: Starting to Print

Mid-August - I know I have to start printing, even though I don't have all the sketches and ideas worked out. My creative process, especially on larger pieces, is to start with what I know, and trust that I will discover the next piece, without knowing the whole. It usually works. 

I do some basic project planning, which is a new thing for me. (Yes, I have learned something from working for engineers and planners all these years!) It helps a lot to know the scope of the project before I start, so I can estimate my time  and expenses and really decide if I want to commit to a project or not. (I already have a drawer of unfinished projects and don't want to add more great ideas I can't actually complete if I can help it!) 

So, 8 prints, plus 4 pages of text = how much time? I know it will be a lot, but I have months before Christmas, right? It's only August... 

I buy a 50-pack of French Paper's Construction line, Factory Green 100% recycled cover stock. And I totally score some really cool paper for the inside at SCRAP. It's old letterhead from a doctor's office from the 1960's with a cool laid finish (ridges). It's perfect for what I want and they happen to have 2 boxes of it the day I am there. (Thanks, Universe!) I also trust the process of finding materials like that - and this is excellent. Maybe I am supposed to do this project after all...

Because I'm still intimidated, I start with the back cover, working up my courage with a simple drawing - a footprint. I use my foot as the model, which is fun. It carves and prints easily and I do 100 one day in the IPRC. 

So before I go to Korea, I also design and carve the front cover, of Bigfoot in the forest, the book  title carved into a tree. He has sort of a monkey face. I draw better with a picture to go by and I look at pictures of apes for ideas. The printing goes pretty well, though some are not as dark as I'd like. Oh well. 

Then I go to Korea, intending to finish the sketching while I am there or maybe on the plane on the way or the way home... (Yeah, right!) 

What Would Bigfoot Do? Part 1: The Inspiration

I have been a believer in Sasquatch for a while, since first camping in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest in July 2007.  There's so much forest there - anything could hide in there pretty easily. Then my friend Dan Miller gave me The Locals by Thom Powell last Christmas, which is all about investigations done of reported encounters with the Bigfeet as he calls them. It is fascinating and it gets me thinking... 

This past spring I get the idea to do a small book about Bigfoot. I play with the idea of doing a comic, and take a comics basics workshop at the IPRC with my friend Dylan Williams. Dylan encourages us to do our own thing in our own style, and I realize - drawing isn't really it for me, it's printing. But can I do a whole printed book? It seems daunting. 

My birth mother, Elizabeth, comes out to visit in July. We go camping near Mount St. Helens and have the good fortune to camp (for free) on the property of a cool kitchy gift shop near the mountain - there's a giant Bigfoot right by the shop. It is the best campground ever! We don't see any Sasquatches besides the statue, but have a great time anyway. I am inspired to really start the book. It is a larger letterpress project than I have ever done, but one of my intentions with my art is to stay on my learning edge, so I decide to go for it. 

I have done a few sketches in the months since the workshop, and I start sketching in earnest. It all goes fine until I lose my sketchbook. I don't know what happened. My parents come out to visit in early August, and we have a great time exploring Cannon Beach and Seaside. (They have never been out here before so are completely blown away. Now they finally understand why I live out here!) I last see my sketchbook in the hotel room in Seaside, but don't realize it was gone until over a week later. I turn the apartment upside down, call the hotel several times, but it has disappeared without a trace, just like Bigfoot himself.  

I am disheartened and unsure if I will be able to do the project or not now. Drawing is not my best skill, and the thought of starting it all over is a bummer. And I am really upset that I have been so unfocused on my art that my sketchbook is missing for a week and a half before I even realize it. I halfheartedly start redoing the sketches, which I don't completely remember since it has been a while since I first them. And I am still just working out the ideas anyway - what Would Bigfoot do? 

Halloween-y

I have not been that into Halloween this year. Usually I enjoy the fun of the season, and the reflection it offers me about the cycles of life and remembrance of the dead.  This year, there's so much else going on that is truly scary, I haven't known what to make of Halloween, or how to put it in context.  

I did do one new Halloween card, and really like it. I updated an old image from a card design I printed on computer a few years ago, to create this Bonehead card that I can hand print with Print Gocco. I printed up a few several weeks ago, crazy fast, half an hour before I had to go set up for a craft show! Yikes. I knew I was living the Bonehead Life, but it worked out ok, and I was glad I made them. I didn't sell many, but people laughed and thought they were cool. I appreciate their fun and the reminder that yes, I do get to be my own bonehead.  

Something unexpected snuck up behind me today during our Halloween party at work. Employees bring their kids, and there's a party for them with snacks and games, and trick-or-treating around the office. The kids were all so cute, and their costumes so clever! My favorites were the rotary phone and the red leggo. They were simple and brilliant, homemade (with good reuse of scrap materials). 

It made me wish that I had a kid myself. 

I told two of my coworker-friends that, and Ben gave me a "Lady, you CRAZY!" look. Then he said "You were really good with them." Becky agreed, "Yeah, you got up and talked to them all." 

Holy cow - someone told me I was good with kids. And they were right. It felt easy to talk to them. And they were all so beautiful, and their parents or grandparents so happy and proud of them.  

There's something so precious about children dressing up for Halloween and Trick-or-Treating. It's only a few short years that we put on a sparkly princess dress or a Darth Vader outfit and go around to strangers, asking for candy. 

The beauty and innocence, and knowing it will pass. Like a beloved ghost, made material for one fleeting moment. 

 

Barack Obama Postcards - Part 1 - Printing the Text

I just finished the most complex cards I've made, and it was a great learning experience! These are limited edition postards which I am selling as a fundraiser for Barack Obama. (Cards are $5 each, go to my website for more info - www.msstarryart.com.) Here are the details of the creative process:

8/28/08 - I am so inspired by Barack Obama's speech during the Democratic National Convention, I ask myself what I can do to contribute. I do not have the temperment for knocking on doors volunteering, and limited funds to donate. The thought comes to me "I can make a card and sell it as a fundraiser!" Yes! Contributing with art.  

I start sketching the card and look up photos of Barack Obama on his website to use - one is just perfect.  It takes about an hour. The design comes to me pretty quickly and essentially stays the same after these first inspired drawings. 

9/19 - After 2 weeks in Korea, I have time to work on the card again. I don't know how I will find time to get it done. Tonight I search for the right typefaces and sizes to say what I want, and start setting the first sections of type - "Vote Hope 2008." ~ 1 hour.

9/21 - I start printing the type, yea! I print the red back text "Vote Obama '08" in Red Pepper ink, Univers 65, 24 point type. There is no 2 in that typeface, so I go with '08. I appreciate being flexible with setting antique type! I set the type and print 200 cards. 2 hours and 15 minutes.  (I print at the IPRC in Portland, Oregon, by the way.)

9/24 - I run in late in the evening to the IPRC and print the black back text (the info block). I use almost the same text for my regular cards, but I rearrange and shorten it and adjust to left justified. The type is Spartan Medium, 10 point size. 1 hour and 45 minutes. 

9/26 - The night of the first debate, I am so angry at McCain's arrogance, dishonesty and disrespect, I start carving the first block. The block scares me and I have put it off. Portraits are intimidating, especially since I am carving away to reveal the features. What if it doesn't look like him? And my main knife is bent out of shape and I can't properly sharpen it. But I need to do something positive, so I put my anger and frustration to the block and carve away. ~1 hour. 

9/30 - I print the portrait block at home with waterbased ink to see how it looks. The eyes and nose are all wrong. I decide to look at it for a few days and think about what to do.  

10/1 - I go in after work and print the front text. I am determined to get it all done, and it feels stressful like I am on a deadline. I usually enjoy the repetition and mechanical quality of printing, but tonight I can't relax. 

I am printing the "Vote Hope 2008" text in red and the stars in black, and they have to fit together. I set both up, then replace the star lines with slugs, small flat pieces, of lead to hold the place while I print the text. After the text is printed, I put slugs of lead in its place and put the stars back in to print them. (Somehow I channelled Rebecca Gilbert of the IPRC to figure this out. Thank you!) 

The text is Franklin Gothic 36 point - I love it's simplicity and power. I had to steal the "Es" from other people's type trays; luckily I found them easily. The stars are sorts, non-letter decorative type pieces. (You know the phrase "out of sorts"? It's from typesetting...) 3 hours and 15 minutes.

Please see my 2nd post about this, Part 2: Printing the Blocks from Oct. 6th.

Barack Obama Postcards - Part 2 - Printing the Blocks

0/3 - This is it. I have to finish the printing tonight. I recarve the portrait block, willing my dull knife to work with me, praying for a steady hand to carve carefully around the eyes and nose. It works. 

I decide to carve out the face of the old block and use as the background. (I hate wasting blocks!) I was originally going to print one portrait block to save time. Really though, I always saw the image as 2 color, despite the challenges I knew I'd have lining them up. I know the extra time is worth it to be completely happy with the design.  And a big part of my focus in printing is staying on my learning edge - I know the practice of registering (aligning) the blocks will be good for me.

I take a big risk and cut off the block around the face, not even leaving a line. Now I have to line the blocks up well enough so that the red block forms the outline of the face. The heads of the two blocks are not the same shape, so I don't know exactly how this is going to work. I rush over to the IPRC to find out. 3.5 hours. 

Luckily no one else is printing this day, so I set up on 2 printers, knowing I am being a total hog! I need to see the alignment before I can print either block as I may need to carve more, and this seems the best way to do it. The background red block has to be square with the text, so I set that up first, run a few tests, then try to align the second block. This takes several hours, as I carve more, adjust more, print more. Thank goodness for lots of scrap paper at the IPRC! 

At one point I imagine Dr. Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks, and the unknown people involved in the civil rights movement. They fought and died for equality, and finally this amazing, inspiring African American leader has a good chance to be President of the United States. I have to honor this, and honor them, and him. I pray for patience, and a good eye to shift the pins holding the paper just that millimeter more that makes the image work. I keep calm and stay focused.

Finally, I am close. I print all the red blocks, yea! The friends I'm meeting for dinner both call that they are running late, so I print a few of the second block to show them. After a picnic dinner in the building lobby (long story, it's raining hard and we're all broke), and the art opening at Launchpad Gallery (the Dreams show is excellent), I come back at 11 PM to finish printing. 

11 PM is not my best time of night to solve registration issues, and it takes a while and a lot of scrap paper. I have to keep carving more off the portrait block - the shoulder needs to fit in the curve exactly. For some reason I am patient and trusting this whole day, and I accept my process as it is. It takes what it takes and I keep going. 

The BBC and I keep company. It's not as bad hearing about the American financial crisis from British announcers. Finally, just after midnight, I am done printing - 5.5 hours.  12:30 am, I head home, riding my bike in the dark after the rain. 

I love this print. It is so much better than I could have imagined - the heads not being the same size works perfectly and I wouldn't have planned it that way. I learned so much doing this, technically, and about trusting my creative process. I appreciate my commitment and focus. 

Senator Obama, thank you. I hope this honors you and helps your campaign. Godspeed, and of course, God bless America. 

Korea Part II - Seoul Sister! Sept. 14, 2008

Hi friends and family!

 

I hope you are all well and having/had a nice weekend!  Just dropping a line from Seoul before I leave - I fly back tomorrow, arriving home timewise before I leave Korea (I am not sure how that works out, but anyway...)

 

It's been a wonderful trip, and I have really enjoyed connecting with my sister and her husband, and experiencing Korea. More highlights:

• Biking in Guangju, the city where Maria and Ethan live. I have an even greater appreciation of Portland's bike friendly streets after riding the crazy sidwalks over here, dodging cars, motorcycles, pedestrians and street vendors! It was fun though and they have a great waterfront trail.
• Guangju's market - that was so fascinating! There is everything you can imagine in it and a lot of things I couldn't have imagined - manta rays for sale and fish on a rope.

• Super fun sister shopping! Especially for goofy socks and all the cool things in stationary stores!
• A Korean HAUNTED HOUSE!!! It was so fun - lots of glow in the dark painted mannequins jumping out at us. Korean zombies and skeletons are the best!
• A Korean folk village we visited yesterday - we got to see a tradit. wedding ceremony, lots of traditional houses, a beautiful Buddhist temple where a monk was praying (we didn't go in, just listened), and martial arts on horseback!!
• Eating at a tradtional Korean restaurant where they cook the meat right on your table and then you wrap it in lettuce leaves to eat it. Yum!! It was cool - we went with Maria's good friend Eva who is super nice.

Anyway, today we're going to the National museum of contemporary art, I can't wait!

 

Take care and see you back in Migu! (America - it means "beautiful country" in Chinese.)

 

Peace, Debbie

Annyong Hasseo from Korea! Sept. 9th 2008

Annyong haseo! (Hello!) from Korea!

 

I hope you are all doing really well back home!

 

Korea is SOOOOOO interesting! Maria and Ethan are great hosts and I am really impressed at all they have done living here. It's not easy to live and work in a different country, especially with such a different language and culture. They have really thrived and made a lot of friends, both westerners and Koreans. I am really proud of them!

 

The highlights so far, aside from hanging out with Maria and Ethan which of course if fun anywhere:

• Crazy rest stop on the bus ride to Gwangju - it was all brightly lit up and had Korean fast food  (and some western) and a convenience store.
• Maria's birthday party Saturday night, which was really fun and what a great group of people!
• Art street - and a cool gallery with paper box art.
• STATIONARY STORES!!!! With every kind of crazy notebook, pen or other school supply you can imagine. Most with crazy "Kanglish" sayings such as "You are my endorphin" and "Everyday happy."
• Getting accupuncture for $7.
• The folk museum about traditional life in this area. My favs. were the US $3 bill in the money examples - I hope they knew it was fake! And the dragon drum. Did you know Korea invented the printing press? That's so awesome!
• Learning and using a few Korean phrases - I forgot how much I like using other languages. I even got home today by myself in a taxi! Ne! (Yes!) and I said everything in Korean. Maria wrote me out a guidebook to help me - very cool!

Well, that's what's happened so far. I'm looking forward to more! I still am getting over the crappy virus I've had for several weeks so that's been the only bump in the road. Still, I got to go to accupuncture so learned something about that and it was pretty funny having Maria and her friend and myself all trying to point, gesture and translate via the phrasebook what was going on. The accupuncturist was a cool guy about my age with blue glasses. His one clear English phrase to me was "NO ice cream!" Dangit! I was enjoying the popsicles a lot, esp. Kiwi. Oh well.

 

Take care and I will see or talk to you soon! Peace to you all and esp. to my URS marketing peeps who had a major deadline yesterday. I hope it went well - I was sending you good thoughts.

ATTACK of the KILLER ZUCCHINI

When I left Portland on Wednesday, I had a few small zucchinis hanging out in my garden.  I got home Saturday night and found a foot-long zucchini blimp about 8 times larger than when I left!  It's freaky how fast it grew. 

Things show up in unexpectedly in summer.  I wait patiently for certain things to grow, which end up withering.  Did I plant it in the wrong place?  Did I use too much water, or not enough?  I don’t know. 

Then other things thrive that I wasn’t expecting - the accidental potatoes, for example.  Last fall I planted a potato that had started sprouting in the fridge, to see what would happen.  I completely forgot about it, and one day in June I noticed several huge plants in my front bed.  (Potato plants are pretty cool looking by the way.)  I pulled one up to see what it was, and it had tiny red potatoes on its roots!  I immediately put it back, and started watering that bed.  I dug up my first potatoes today, and they were really tasty! 

Who knows what else summer will bring, not to mention fall?  Every day is a complete surprise.  I think carrots, I get potatoes.   I want beans, I get zucchini.  Either way, I am still being fed.  All I can do is plant, water, let go, and learn.  And eventually, eat and enjoy!  (Tomorrow I’m making zucchini bread.) 

Happy summer, and I hope the garden of your life is full of bounty.  Don't forget to check under the leaves - something unexpected may be growing there!