the woman behind the man

and we all thought it was LANG who was the computer genius. little did we know he gets all his chops from his lovely wife charity...

jk

the story really goes like this: i had a lovely week last week, first seeing friends in chattanooga and then visiting with ben weaver's family in kentucky on thanksgiving day. it was a typical thanksgiving. lots of food, family, dogs and mayhem running around. ben's family was incredibly welcoming and very easy to get to know. it was a fast week, and ended with me back in the northeast on friday, sad but true.

the martin's, who were in nyc for thanksgiving themselves, then graced me with their presence on sunday. we had dinner at vine street that night, lots of good food and conversation, and then woke up the next day to patter around in our pj's until i dropped them off at the hampton jitney stop where they caught a bus back up to the city to fly back to chattanooga.

i was giggling when i took this picture: two martin's in my house, each with a white mac in their laps, sitting in my giant overstuffed chairs. how perfect.

it was so great, though, that they came down to see me. i just love them both so much. i miss everyone in chattanooga a lot, actually. thanks so much to everyone who came to dinner at char and lang's last tuesday. i really meant a lot to see you all, even if just for a brief moment.

dusk

i went back out to montauk this afternoon (this time, sadly, without ben weaver) in time to watch the fishing boats come in. to my surprise it was just about dark already.

just to give you an idea of how very east i am, this picture was shot at 4:30 this afternoon. by 5:00 it was close to pitch dark. it really gave a piercing sense of finality to the day.

i think it was lang who quoted chris mccartney to me once as saying, "darkness, in contrast to lightness, is in a sense a more true reflection of who God is because there are many variations of light. but darkness in itself is complete." there is a whole conversation in there somewhere. regardless, i do find myself in some ways overcome with reflection when i am in the dark. nothing else to see, nothing to be distracted by, just me and the Lord.

birthday's are never overrated

i had a fantastic birthday weekend. ben weaver came to see me and we got to do all kinds of fun things. walks on the beach (yes, there are beaches here, lots of them in fact), a delicious 8-course dinner, lots of quality conversation. it all added up to a lovely time. i got to talk to all my best friends as well. (kari wanted to make sure everyone knew SHE was the first one to call me on friday.)

i took the beach picture on our beach "hike," and the other is from our dinner at della famina friday night. i'll be in chattanooga next week for a couple of days before thanksgiving. anyone up for group dinner tuesday night? some good ol' bethany cooking?

music interest of the day

jimmy lavalle, the main man behind the music of the album leaf just released a new cd, into the blue again. after starting his solo project in 1998, he has continued to release lp's and ep's every year, all taking on unique yet simple layered techno music. (think postal service.) and then every once in a while he throws in a surprising track of strings. he has impressed such groups as sigur ros to be invited to join them onstage during live performance. they have also assisted him in the making of some of his own music. there is an interesting mention of him on funtimeok.com but get the dirt from the actual website.

i'm unfortunately missing both of his new york shows (tonight and monday), but those of you in california should try to catch him in san francisco on the 21st of november at the independent. here is a track from his new album. it's called writings on the wall.

catch up

my weekend was a good one. it started off with a last minute visit from ben weaver and ended with some good ol' subway hopping', crowd surfing fun with my mother. do you see my face? yes, that's happiness.

my mother got to see where i live and dine at my restaurant. we also went to a very special place i like to call the "lavender house" for hot soup and hot chocolate. it is a restaurant in a house the color of lavender that also grows and sells lavender plants and products.

we went into new york city tuesday and randomnly ran into anna thomas walking down the street. apparently even in the biggest city in the united states you can run into people. on our way to meet up with ben thomas we got stuck in the annual 6th avenue halloween parade. i felt kind of bad, mom getting suffocated by 2 million new yorkers plus not being in costume and all. but mom survived the crowds. what a good sport she is. and yesterday was her birthday, so happy birthday, momma!