another new toy

Oh boy... I am so EXCITED!!!!!!!!!! I can't wait until next wednesday, the day my new 'toy' arrives in the mail. Last year around Thanksgiving I met Chris Turner, a local kite 'head', when I blew out a part of one of my stunt kites. After we became fast friends he infected me with the 'power kiting' bug. Although we have yet to ever really fly together, aside from that one time in front of the hospital for his grandmother, I am hooked. Therefor, I went ahead and bought my first power/traction kite along with a mountain board.


Now, yes, I do feel bad that he has told me that he wants to teach me how to snowkite etc... but... after waiting for several months I just can't help it any more and thus, I am taking matters into my own hands and teaching myself! YEAH!!!


Alright.... I will post photos and videos of my first flight as soon as I get them, but till then, here are some photos of what the kite looks like.



Nic

More photos for my family that keeps asking!!! MOM!

Recent Photos

Wow... these past few days have been so much fun... and epic... and it's only the beginning!!! here are some photos.

Feb 16th random mutterings

I think back to my days on the island, (Orcas) truly magical times. I am reminded of the day that Alex Danskin and I walked out ot the field by Camp Orkila and laid down in the tall grass and watched the few clouds there were that day drift by on the inbelieably bright blus summer day. It was the summer my cousin Kevin was making a movie, a typical two bit western with his best frien Erica. They borrowed our grandfathers black powder rifles, and filmed it in the farmhouse to make it feel authentic. It was also the summer that I started to understand love in it's various forms. It was also the turning point in my life when I subconciously decided that no matter what boyfriend or husband I found myself with in the future, that my true love, the one that would make me happy the rest of my life, was my love for life and travel. It's different then loving a person. It doesn't expect you to change, it knows you will. It doesn't ask anything of you, because it knows you will give everything. It never tires of your company or pines for your return, because it knows you have never actually left. For that it is forgiving of your faults, accepting of your blemishes, and forever there to show you new paths and opportunities. I think back on the field often. Alex and I never really developed a strong friendship, we only ever knew each other during the summer. Although I did go to a dance with him... and tore my dress, a blue dress that always reminded me of a plump cinderella. But that field, and the moments lying there while life passed by have become a sacred refuge for me. I wonder now and then what paths my friends have followed after I concluded the chapters I occupied in their lives. I wonder more out of a sense of flexing my brain and trying to solidify the memories in my head, for fear that they will be lost.
It tickles my fancy everytime I think of these 'profound' moments in my life, and wonder if they had the same effect on the other participants, or if I have been the unknown actor in someone elses life changing moment. Are there friends that look back on a moment that I have deemed normal and possibly forgotten for their simplicity? It is odd for me to retreat into my mind and memories and analyze why the field with Alex, or the dock with Sam, or the night in the alley with Chris have had profound affects on me. While at the same time life chaning decisions or moves are relegated to "Oh yeah, I guess I remember that".

I miss the middle east. I miss the people. I am still working my way into the Republic of Boulders 'scene'.... and at the same time fighting an urge to run, go on the road and get away. I want the lighthouse. I want the solitude and the open friendship of the people that came to visit the lighthouse and found a friendly face sitting on the porch. I guess that's part of the real reason I miss working, that and feeling useful to someone other then myself.

Life in Colorado

I've been trying to keep myself busy the past few weeks, with working on my creative writing, attending the Boulder International Film Festival, and trying to get as much time outside doing what I love. As a result I have adopted my personal motto for the half year or what have you, "No excuses, just priorities". With that I am going to go out and do all the things I love, stay busy,. and stop making excuses for not trying new things, or for delaying what I have already planned.

Anyways, here are some photos of the past 2 weeks.


My new 'Mountain Board'




Love, me

Paris Photos

Ok so I actually have about 300 more photos that I haven't put up on here, this is just a random collection of some of the photos I did take. Please enjoy. More to come from my recent escapades shortly.

you guessed it!

even more photos!!

More Photos from Paris

Paris Episode 2

Jan 21st cont...

There is something pleasing about a map. TI's lines and etchings ay 'here i am, all of the knowledge you need, and I can be trusted, I am the culmination of all of the great thinkers of life that may have wondered across my pages and folds. What better way to finish a meal then to have that wonderful coated feeling of formage, and a cafe with it's somkey darkness. Thankfully our waiter at the bistro is helpful and understanding of our troubles and helps us with our poor pronunciation and lives through our bastardization of the language of love. If only everyone in the world was as polite and understanding of peoples faults. I think of the novel that I'm reading now, 'Le Flaneur' about the consumate wonderer, the one who travels Paris to purposely lose themselves in its streets. Ah this is me, I would walk the whole of Paris if the opportunity presented itself at the right time. Ah the possibility that is the American Western Front, home of the pioneers and outposts. It suits me all to well. I keep thinking of jobs back in Boulder.

Paris Ep. 1 part 2. Jardin Luxembourg and The Pantheon

Jan 21st -
-- AH! out on a walk to the department store today to purchase some clothes for the next week (luggage is still lost) we passed by a true traditional book binder that was hand tooling the leather binding. OH!!! I have a new dream job!


*Le Jardin d' Luxembourg*
It's beautiful here, serene. The terns and pigeons disturbed from the fountains lift off and dance lazily around the palace. It's cold here, the french scurry about to and from work tightly wrapped in wool scarves and coats. What else can be said about them, then a people in perpetual motion living i a city stuck in time. I would love to see this Jardin in spring or summer, but for now it remains a place of possibility and probably beauty.


There is a carousel in the Jardin, with each revolution a kid yells out how many times he has gone around. "Trois, Trois, Trois!!" he is quite enthusiastic about it. It makes me think of all of the flocks of scooters rushing around town. I swear I have seen them, certain ones, a few times. Zip, zip, between the cars and buses. I am amazed that I have yet to see one sprawled out across the pavement. A fat little black pigeon sits down beside me, hoping I might shed a scrap or two of something unfrozen in his direction.

*Pantheon*

As we walk past the paintings of the story of Joan of Arc, the crowning of Charlamagne, and many more, it feels surreal to be standing at the site of the original Foccault Pendulum, or to be standing in the crypt of Marie Curie, Voltaire, and other magnificent people of the past. These have always been only names in my books, references, merely only existing as figments of my imagination. They didn't seem real until this moment, the one which I am sitting here, writing at the feet of Voltaire and hoping that one day I will achieve such literary greatness. It is cold inside the Pantheon, not nearly as much as it was outside, but the small heater we sit next to under a mural of Joan d' Arc warms us as we choose our next location. I would love to go to Notre Dame, but that might have to wait till another day when the battery in the camera has a greater charge. Definitely one of the joys of Paris in winter is the lack of tourists. I could only imagine how crowded the historical attractions are when they are full of 8 million camera toting Chinese, fashionable Russians, and rotund and obscure Americans on a holiday. It might be biting at Tom's nerves that I continually want to stop and write, but being in a part of the world that was once the bohemian capital of the world and was home to some of the greatest authors in history inspires me to express myself. Even if every now and then I imagine myself on this trip in other conditions.

I love our little hotel with it's sloping stairs, broken spring arm chairs, toille wallpaper, and the sweet old lady behind the counter who appreciates my frustration at losing my luggage and all of my clean clothes. Oh well, making the best of it.

Paris episode 1

I step off the plane , and it's cold and grey, as only Paris in winter can be. They lost my luggage, the hope is that it will be at the hotel sometime tomorrow. It seems every architect ever called on to design an airport has conspired to use the same color scheme. Grey and drab. Maybe it's an effort to camouflage the soot and grime, but instead of hiding the filth it makes one feel as if they will never be free of it. Can't believe they lost my luggage, and i'm not in my 'admirable attire' Our driver darts and whizzes among the flock of cars leaving the airport. hurtling us out of the gray confines onto a stretch of 10 lane tarmac. Past power lines and idyllic statues of cows. I wonder if the namesake of this place, Charles De Gaulle knew that a side effect of greatness is to have a place like this named after them. It takes awhile but we finally leave behind the sad derelict 1970's apartment buildings topped with the blazing signs of Sony, Telecom and Autos, and enter the old Paris. The old town where the buildings all try to occupy the same space, great stone buildings with wrought iron, gables and gargoyles towering high above, yet all under the french flag. At their feet lay a thousand cafe's, jewelers and boutiques.

The hotel and the room are delectably small by US standards, but perfectly comfortably by French! Even walking in I feel as if I want to pull the desk up in front of the window, pour myself a glass of wine, and work on the next great literature masterpiece.

mistakes...

ok.... after reviewing, editing, making, and reviewing yet again. I made and sent out 20 books without noticing some mistakes that were there. So I do apologize for those of you with the first editions of my book that have some of these errors. Just appreciate that I make mistakes and I am sorry!!!

Other then that, enjoy.

Nic

Random muttering

I have a world to conquer, and I wonder if I am ready for it. A world of adventure and opportunity, a world I have only barely come to understand as of yet. There is definitely an inherent truth I believe I have come to understand. An unspoken truth about life, people, love, beauty. It is something I have always tried to put into words and fail at miserably. I think of that ethereal feeling now, a clear cloud in my mind, translucent and ever changing. It doesn't cloud my thoughts, instead it adds density to my internal analysis of human emotions and actions. It's where worlds collide and emotions jump out at you like your name in print. Chaotic, explosive, and full of a tragic yet joyful beauty. The singular act of destruction and creation at the same moment in time. Like the implosion of a star. Shafts of light radiating out in arcs throughout the vacuum of space. Beautiful and terrifying. I see the same on the backs of the koi in the pond at the teahouse. They move, undulating through the water, the light refracting in a thousand directions off of the golden scales along their backs. Beautiful as a thousand sparkling diamonds, tragic in their captivity. It's wishful to believe that they could dream of anything bigger, that they could know their world beyond the visible confines. Does that show that it is therefore in their nature to accept? Even birds, the quintessential mascot of freedom are territorial. Whether Birds of Prey, or flocking types, they still adhere to a pattern, a prescribed flight path, an instinctual/habitual journey.

Does life dictate where are footsteps fall? Are chance encounters really chance? We are utterly insignificant in a univers of an infinite number of solar systesm, yet there must be some cosmic link, and unseen bit of connective tissue that binds ut so sould similar to our own. Thus begging the question, is there a cosmic manetism? a drive, a pull, an attraction? Or are we just a bundle of bumbling atoms colliding into one another. I return to watching the koi with the eyebrows.

Times like these, I wonder for my sanity. Focus, clairty, understanding; all words I attempt to classify. To write with the meaning I intend to capture without belittling it in ducile tones. The difference between the siren adn the choir boy. In my head, the siren screams for attention.

Books are in the mail!

Well I have sent off the first 20, some of you still need to send me your addresses so that I can get the books off to you. For those of you that already know yours are in the mail, you will love the amount of postage I used. All old stamps from the days when they kept bumping up the postage every few months for 3 years. Hope everyone enjoys them!!! I must remind you... it's not Shakespeare, Tolstoy, Hemingway, or any of the other greats, it simply is my journal, and it is also my first time ever doing a hard bound book myself.

Enjoy!!


ah yes, and here is a photo from a month or two ago taken of me just hanging with the Persian boys of CU.

First Day Skiing

Went to Breckenridge with Lauren and Chris for our first day up this season. It was perfect, couldn't of asked for a better day. The weather was amazing, the company was great, and the snow was perfect. I loved it.

PARIS!

Ok, I know I already have my big summer trip planned and ready to go, (Back to the lighthouse) but now I have another one and it is just around the corner. On Jan 19th going to Paris for 7 days. Fabulous... I need to get out of here... I need to go.... I need to be.

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." -- Mark Twain

Still waiting

well, bought a new kite a week or so ago. As soon as I bought it the wind died... now... it's gusting up to 50 mph in places.... WTH!!! I JUST WANT TO FLY!!! it doesn't help I found a new buddy to go flying with that just so happened to sell me the kite. I am blaming the lack of wind and now the gusting retarded wind on him. I just want to fly her, I haven't even taken her out of the package... how sad is that.