against the grain.

It's very rare, living here in the desert, that you get.. actually, any amount of time.. to listen to the rain fall. Today it has been going for almost an hour and my heart has been swooning. There is almost nothing better, to me, than the sounds of a storm. My sister crafted me a stormy weather necklace back in her days of jewelry class to signify just that.

It's beautiful. The rain... the melody of its splash.. the way it seems to wash away the heat... at least until the next day.

I'm sipping tea, crunching on sliced Persian cucumbers dipped in hot sauce and edemame hummus (trader joes: if you have one, do not wait another minute, it's SO good!), and listening to the water song. Such a wonderful setting for typing these words, I only wish I had my couch and a blanket. Why is it that the rain makes us want to cuddle up, watch movies, and munch? Most of the time, if I haven't resorted to such behavior, I love to sit outside with my little dogs, watching the rain clear the air, listening, sketching.. I wish our patio was screened in... the minute the bugs start seeking shelter the minute I run for a more sheltered shelter. I have to admit.. I'm not keen on them.. the only kind of bug I really like, is a dead one. Bothering me or not. A sighting results in instant heebie jeebies and a shaky, dirty, I-feel-yucky dance that I can't seem to control. Blah. Nature can keep em.

Can you imagine how good a desert plant must feel when it rains? Thirsty and drinking every last drop that it can.. The mountains bellow as all of their shrubs and thistle thrive and green with each beat of a drip, and the next day they glow showing off their miraculous new spectrum of color. I'm sure every cactus grows an inch. The fullness they must feel.

I'm working on a bunch of new things over here... bustling around, trying to get prepared for this show, which I'm not sure I will ever feel ready for... The more options I have, the more I roam the pages of my sketches, the more lost I feel... the more unmotivated... the more random things I get done instead. Though I cannot punish the random. Random has made some of my most wonderful creations. Random is all of your untamed. Random is true creativity pouring out from your fingers reading straight from the beautiful right side of your most sacred vessel. I always keep my random close and allow it to speak every time it so wishes. I cannot bottle, cannot contain that part of the process... it just doesn't seem right to.

As always, for you my sweets, my peach... phone photos! Oh boy! Low quality, minimal pixels, and childlike filters for your everyday viewing pleasure... because you don't get enough of them through your own facebook and instagram and flickr and twitter and blah blah blah app app app insert other social media apps and time filler/waster/sharing devices here.