I'm floating to the moon

Last week I really needed a break and needed to push my reset button (I'm imagining the gray and red button on the original Nintendo here) so I spent the day at Common Ground spa having a "float" steam and sauna. The floatation tanks or sensory deprivation tanks eliminate light, sound, gravity, and temperature. Everything our body uses to perceive the world is for the most part eliminated and the mind is free to relax. With 800 lbs of epsom salts in 200 gallons of water you don't have to worry about sinking, maybe just salt to the eye. After that, plus the steam and sauna (wet heat then dry heat is really supposed to detox you or something), I kind of felt like the blobfish I blogged about. Afterwards I wandered the streets of Portland with crazy salt hair, got some vegan gelato, bought my first Sci-Fi novel, and told a vintage shop owner about the world of floating. She said I looked really relaxed.

a flippin speakeasy

A little while back me and my boyfriend got a call from a friend "Come meet me, I'm at a freakin' speakeasy". Of course we went. Our friend met us at a street corner and lead us into the back door of a nearby house into a basement. At a handcrafted bar by the people sitting at it there was an amazing crew of people, everyone wanted to know how you found out about the place and where you were from. The beer on tap was brewed there in the basement, and then people just brought in exotic beers from all over the world to pass around. It was one of the patrons birthday, the wife of the owner brought down a cake she just made upstairs. Dean had been running the place for 6 years he said. You put a donation in a box for your drinks, maybe that's how they keep out of too much trouble. Everyone wanted to be your friend especially the wild irishman - amazing time.

weirder than you

Hey you, can you handle this? I don't know if you can handle this. I get inspired by weird animals. Makes evolution obvious when I'm oblivious in my computer life. I didn't write the text, just compiled from the interweb.

Blobfish This thing lives on the bottom-most muck of the darkest sea-bottom. This full-figured cutie may be harmless, but he's tough. The pressure at the depths where blobfish are found is dozens of times higher than at sea-level. The density of its flesh is slightly less than water, allowing it to float just above the sea floor without exerting any effort. Their relative lack of muscles is not a disadvantage though, as they spend most of the day just swallowing edible matter that floats by in front of them. You've got to respect that!

Sloths Modern sloths live upside-down in the forests of South America. Despite their long, sharply curved claws, they are herbivores and mainly eat tree leaves as their teeth are too primitive and weak, due to a lack of enamel, to chew anything else. The claws are part of their adaptation to life in the trees and help them remain sleeping and suspended underneath branches for hours.

Angora Rabbit You've probably heard of the Angora Rabbit. Well, this is what they look like in the wild. You can see why these mop-like little beasts are treasured for their long wool, which may be removed by shearing or plucking. You could probably make a sweater and a good pair of socks before she would notice anything was missing.

I'll never look at a angora sweater the same way again...

Tapirs are large browsing mammals, roughly pig-like in shape, with short, prehensile snouts. They inhabit jungle and forest regions of South America, Central America, and Southeast Asia. All four species of tapir are classified as endangered or vulnerable. Their closest relatives are the other odd-toed ungulates, horses and rhinoceroses.

The Philippine tarsier, (Tarsius syrichta) is very peculiar small animal. In fact it is one of the smallest known primates, no larger than a adult men’s hand. Mostly active at night, it lives on a diet of insects. Philippine tarsier can soon be added to the list of extinct species.

bellbirds debute album

My boy Joseph is in a band called the Bellbirds and they wrote and recorded an album in February as part of the RPM challenge. You've probably heard of the write a novel in the month of February so this is similar. It's pretty great what they came up with in such little time. Very raw and thoughtful and it's making pretty voices fun again. You can hear their stuff on their myspace account: Bellbirds They describe their sound as "If a herd of horses were actually banana slugs..."

I had to go home

I went home to Illinois this week for a dad with a broken heart. It was kind of ironic that I found that heart rock the day he started having symptoms for a heart attack. It's always strange when I go home, nothing ever changes. Well my mom got new drapes.

The house photo is the beginning of a new series of mine in which bubbles will be floating through different landscapes or man-madescapes. This first one is in front of my childhood home.