bon soir.

jo and lindsey brought the crazy home today in the form of two white mice.

they're pretty cute.  

i'm now colluding with them as a result of my desire to take photos of the mice.

i'm so weak.

xo,

tt

hi from sunday night.

hola. que tal?
this was sunday:

unexpected girls in the morning for breakfast;  watermelon and english muffins and eventually everyone moved on and tim and russell and anna and i went all the way clear to the bronx (practically) to get a bike promised to her on april 2.

then in lieu of me folding the rest of the laundry i walked around the house and shot up a pack of peel-apart and yes, this is not earth-shattering stuff, not even well done for that matter, but it is just exactly how our sunday felt.

hola.
glad to be back here.

xo,
tt

hi.  just wanted to stop in to say that i'm still over here, with a photo and a few words every day, if you'd like to follow along.

more soon.  best wishes to you.
xo,
tt

girls.

we are a fan of girls.
we like the boys too.  they live across the street, up the hill, over in the next neighborhood.
but the girls live with us.

we met another family of girls last night.  we overlap, we do.  we two families.

we're lucky for all these girls (and boys) in our life.

xo,
tt

hi from sunday night.

xo,
tt

thursday night dinner table.

avoiding all the things i should be doing by doing this.

but.
today
was
a
good
day.

xo,
tt

wednesday.

pentax k1000.

xo,
tt

hi from tuesday night.

on my way down the stairs out of work tonight, i thought
today was a good day.
and what struck me most was
how long it's been
since i've felt that way about
a day.

xo,
tt

i want one good answer to the question why.

when it was my turn to come upstairs and say goodnight to her
he looked back at us in the room and said why
not get under the covers.
i stood up and offered to tuck her in
and she said no
she wanted to stay on top.
so i picked up the covers at the corner
and drew them up across her
came in close and whispered
"do you know what i used to call this when you were a baby?"
and she said without missing a beat
"taco."
and then she said
"i also like warm sprite.  i don't know why."
and i said
"when i was little and i was sick, uncle brian brought me ginger ale."
"i like that too."
"uncle brian was a good big brother."

::

that's what happened at bedtime tonight.

xo,
tt

hi from sunday night.

i grew up with four older brothers determining much of my earliest musical memories by default.
it ran the gamut in our house from southern rock (marshall tucker, charlie daniels, allman brothers, nrbq...) to early dylan and beatles,  to the more obscure (poco, traffic, nitty gritty dirt band, aztec two step, pousette dart...)
and then of course, van morrison, cat stevens, and james taylor loomed large.  this was the seventies after all, so tom petty, pink floyd, and jackson brown showed up too.  a lot.
i can tell you what's on aja vs. katy lied, and have a working knowledge of the buffalo springfield legacy.

::

i don't know what any of this is worth to me or anyone now, but i've been thinking a lot about how i grew up lately.  watching the kids out in the creek with their bows and arrows and makeshift quivers i can't help but suddenly shake loose in my head a long string of images of make-believe in the woods behind the lakes, of eating onion grass, and playing baseball in the orchard with apple trees as bases.

but the music shakes out some different memories.

::

best wishes for the week ahead.
xo,
tt

gallery hours.

one day a few years ago i put the chalkboard from the gallery window in our dining room,
and there it sits.
other than the sign now hanging in our garage, it's one of the only reminders of that other life of ours.

i like this life of ours.

xo,
tt

hi from wednesday night.

yashica mat 124g.

flowers from tim and anna, on their way back from skating at bryant park.

xo,
tt

polaroid.
fuji fp 100c.

xo,
tt

charlie.

yashica mat 124g.

the good boy.

xo,
tt

hi from sunday night.

yashica mat 124g.

bedtime.

xo,
tt

an embarrassment of company

i'm beginning to realize there's a new thing emerging from my camera.
i guess
it was inevitable
that i would turn towards the girls (and boys.)
every chance i get.

i guess i turn towards people
every chance i get.

xo,
tt

hi from sunday night.

a grainy roll of tri-x shot with a broken-metered pentax
one sunday walk
with whichever of us was around
and up for it.

we assemble and reassemble into different combinations of us all.
a varied group
with many
shared
stories.

but at home on sunday night
we sit back down,
separated into proper families
or approximating an extended one,
and share dinner together.

best part of the week.

best wishes for this coming one.
xo,
tt

clinton street, brooklyn,
this morning.

so much to say, and i know this is a cop-out
but i'll just have to say it some other time.

love.
xo,
tt

the problem is, i'm always somewhere else.

when i'm at work, it's quiet and orderly.  no one yells.  ever.  i pass people in the hall and get or give a polite hello or maybe nothing.  i walk back and forth for tea, water, to a meeting.  
but i get distracted by my own thoughts.  miss the girls.  need tim.  turn my head back towards the screen and get absorbed for a few more hours and then i check the time and realize school is out, start feeling guilty and anxious about where they all are.

at home, everyone yells.  happy shouting.  angry quarrels over whatever.  scolding the pets. calling for dinner.  i retrace their steps, putting the books back on the shelf, the mug in the sink, straightening the tablecloth.  trying to maintain small quarters of calm, order.  then my computer chimes and i check my email, start feeling guilty and anxious about what i should be doing at work.

i'm never completely where i'm supposed to be.  and i hate that.

but it's friday, and i'm home, and i'll do a little work and take the girls out for a while and walk charlie and be me for a couple of days.  then on monday, i'll go back to work, and put my head down and set things right there again.

(deep breath.)

ok.  enjoy the weekend.
xo,
tt