tofallfromgrace.com : the blog

yes, i have fallen into the trap, stagger patrons of mine…

check it out at www.myspace.com/thestaggerinn.

come on, you have to be excited that there is a stagger inn on myspace!!! another place to drown your tears, quench your thirst…

something which has been on my mind recently is the power of scent. do not ask me why, but i think it has something to do with the onset of summer and the myriad of smells that waft down pearl street at any given moment.

from the overpowering smell of soap as you walk by lush to the smell of garlic floating through the open dining room windows at pasta jays; the mixture of patchouli (admittedly not one of my favorite smells) and the great unwashed which wander the street (especially now during this rainbow gathering season of ours)…these smells hit your senses like a thousand bricks onto a marshmallow.

pipes, incense, perfume, flowers, dogs, homeless, ice cream cones, babies, hot dogs, the damp smell which emanates from the fountains… the lotions at l’occtaine, the gyros at falafel king, the tapas at the med, the odd smell rising from the head shop and the old cigarette smell which rises from the doors of the sundowner. what a combination…

see, it is not just the smells themselves but the memories they trigger that gets to you. whenever i smell certain perfumes like poison, i am reminded of my grandmother - dressed to the nines, hair set and makeup done, presiding over a cocktail party or going out to the symphony. the smell of nag champa incense invites me to look back at my first apartment with my husband and the incredible people who used to be over all the time…for dinner, for games, for long talks about the meaning of life, the universe and music.

this was brought on by a talk krisa and i had not so long ago about the actual power of smell, how it holds us in its grasp and forces us to take one action or another, be it to fall into memories or run away screaming (…patchouli….ug….) or bask in the warm feeling it creates. we spoke of how closely scent is aligned with attraction, how there were certain guys we had dated who were perfectly nice, charming people but whose personal scent we could not stand.

but then, then there are those few people that make the cut. those guys we could smell all day and all night. the ones who may have worked all day and come home to hug us and yet we still breathe them in as if they smelled of roses. such attraction that even something that smells bad actually smells good to us…that is how much sway aroma has over us.

in my life there have been two people that i truly loved the smell of. first was my husband, mart. he could be outside working on the car all day and yet, when he walked in the door all i wanted was to wrap myself around him and breathe him in. i was drawn to him like a moth to a flame. maybe why i married him?

the second person was zanzibar. i met him after my husband and i separated. believe me, the first night i met him i could not bear to be away. which was not always good as it was a long distance type of affair. we would meet and spend several days together and i would always manage to snag something he had worn or that i had worn while sleeping next to him and would hold onto it for days just reveling in the memories a simple shirt could evoke.

yes, smell has such draw, such power. all those chemicals running amok through the air and causing such chaos. maybe in the end, since everything seems to vanish so quickly, just maybe it is all we have to remind us of what we had?

okay, more like a two month period of laziness on my part. but what can i say…i get lazy. we all do!

so, without further ado…

before…

and after…locks of love-style

heather’s 29+2 birthday party

heather’s party was hosted by the ya-ya sisterhood of the travelling pink hats…


it involved almost the whole girlio group…

mike left us so we sent him off with pasta and hugs at the med

occasionally we do stupid things…like get up on sunday mornings to go to baseball games….ug….


fourth of july at the cabin, timothy leary-style

hanging out inside the cabin, avoiding the sopping rain, dogs and all

there was lots of food and family, always a good combination

when it was not raining, the kids ran amok outside with the pup

and dad and betsy ratpacking it

ah, a first friday virgin no more…first friday (explodingdog.com!!!!!) and really bad late night mexican food…

the end

i just realized that my singlehood is due to one thing and one thing only….

i did not repost a bulletin on myspace.

and now i will be single for four years.

yep.

that is what it said.

so glad i figured that one out. only three and a half years to go, folks.

*grin*

seriously, updating the stagger with a ton of new photos by tuesday night.