{ poke me full of holes .. and see what comes out ; ) }

   This is a bit off-theme for the Winnie Diaries (but what the hay) - I wanted a write a little entry about a new, and somewhat mind-blowing, experience I had a few months ago involving many tiny needles.  

(not sure what this guy's deal was, but there normally aren't this many needles ; ) 

   Last time we were in California, I went to see an acupuncturist friend of juwels'. I'm not especially fond of needles - in fact, when I was a kid, I used to get all my cavities filled without Novocain (I think this really freaked the dentists out as they drilled large holes in my teeth and sweat beaded up on my brow and the drill threw enamel all over the place). I really didn't like needles, but the first session was free at Lisa's clinic, (if you live in the LA area, you'd have the privilege of seeing her) and after wrapping up a lot of business stuff, I thought it might relax me a little .. I'd heard things like that.

   In the waiting room I filled out all the papers and checked the boxes, but I didn't have a major reason for being there. They looked at my tongue, listened to the blood move through my veins, and decided on my points. Running my own businesses since the year after high school graduation, along with a full and vivid life had spiked my stress levels from time to time .. my childhood was full of school yard fist fights, the typical squabbles amongst 5 siblings (who ate the last slice of pizza, what's fair, etc) and a general distaste, and rebellion against, the breaking of the strong will of the youth which we all must go through .. but aaaaany way .. I didn't have high expectations from just one visit, and being a bit frugal myself, I didn't know if I'd come back again and again to give it time.

   She swabbed all the spots on my arms and legs and forehead and feet with alcohol and then stated needling. It didn't hurt - at all, and when she was done, she craned a heat lamp over my stomach, turned off the lights and left the room. She said she'd be back in about 25 minutes, and I remember thinking that was a long time to just lie in the dark, but I focused on my breathing and waited for something to happen.

   The first thing that happened, ironically, was that I got an itch on the tip of my nose .. this -never- happens unless I'm in a position not be able to scratch it ?? My stomach gurgled a little, and at one point, I had the sensation that my arms were floating .. but I thought they'd just gone numb from not moving.

   It was over before I knew it.

   On the way out to the car, juwels asked me what I thought. I told her I couldn't tell if anything had really "happened" and it was nice, but I didn't know if I'd do it again ..

    Fast forward to about 1 am. We'd gotten to bed early, no strange food or drink, and I was awoken by what felt like snakes slithering around in my gut. There was gurgling and strange physical movement, but no pain. Normally, my first thought would be - 'Oh, I'm going to throw up .. what's wrong ?? What's happening ? !! ?' But, counter to all that, my first thought was .. 'something's moving .. leaving'.

   This could have been due to the conversation that I'd been half-listening in on the other day at the beach when Lisa was telling Juwels about how you can't stop or kill energy. How it just goes on and on. She's on a first name basis with her bad energy .. she does battle with it, needles it, chants it out, and negotiates with it. "Okay, I know you're there, and you know you can't stay, so let's work together. Where do you want to go? Do you want to rush off into the surf tomorrow morning? Should we go into the forest and plant you in a tree?"

    I know this sounds pretty far out to some of you - and it did (kinda) to me too. I stay pretty open minded, and who am I to knock a treatment that's been working for thousands of years .. but I was mostly just going for a treatment because it was free and because I was a little curious. This non-expactation and almost skepticism is what made this whole thing (the slithering of my organs and intestines) so powerful and unexpected.

    I lied there, calmly (not my normal way of doing things in this setting btw) and just felt this thing stirring in me. I didn't wake juwels, and after a few minutes, I slowly got up and walked through the dark to the bathroom. Without turning on the lights, I sat down and (bare with me here) and released .. and released .. and re-leased. It was like a waterfall. More long-lasting and intense than food poisoning, hang over, Mexican tap water - anything. And still, counter to my normal thought process - which has been with me since as long as I can remember - I just sat there with this huge smile on my face and the thought that something, some great weight and burden, which had been with me from the beginning of time, was running into the Los Angeles sewer and that as soon as I was done, I'd feel better.

    I finished up, and without looking back (it could have been a bowl of blood for all I knew) I washed up and quietly got back into bed. My entire body was buzzing, and the most positive thoughts and affirmations zipped around in my head like humming birds in love.

    The next morning I woke up and told juwels about what had happened. She was surprised that I didn't wake her. She's my crutch, but as I said, I had this odd calm .. and then euphoria and didn't need anything. That night was dramatic and unexpected and unclear, but the days that followed - months in fact - where the most exciting. I felt better and more at peace than I'd ever-ever felt. Nothing phased me .. not like I was on some Western dopamine, reduced to a dial tone of comfortable numb .. but every bit as alive as I've been in my best moments but without the stress of the past or future. I always roll my eyes when people say this about a book or film or overseas getaway .. but it changed my life, in a night.

    I could hardly believe it .. and wondered when I'd wake up to reality. Months passed, and I tried not to think about it for fear of jinxing my good fortune. But I was a changed man. I figured I'd get to this level after ten years of conscious work, and incrementally, maybe, find this place .. But overnight? Months later, not because I felt I needed it, I decided to look up the local healers in Flagstaff and go in for another session. I've gone three more times, just as a treat after bigger jobs, and it's still every bit as amazing. The guy I'm going to now studied a while in China, uses very few needles, and seems to shoot lightning through my hands and feet every time he punctures a point. I had to laugh the other day when he came in to check my pulse as I was lying there and my wrist shocked him.

   Luckily - I haven't been woken up to purge anything since that first night, but it's so interesting to feel the energy surging around my body after they move a blockage. There was a part of me that felt like I should go back just to maintenance and keep things buzzing .. and it didn't occur to me that I might heighten and feel even better than I already did, and I know this sounds a bit grandiose, but I half-jokingly told juwels the other day that I felt like acupuncture was giving me super powers ; )

   Maybe a bit more subtle than that, but writing and the artistic thought process has been such a breeze since then. Being out in public lacks that awkward element I've known so long and instead seems like a movie or odd modern stage play with me as comfortable as if I were on the couch. When I close my eyes at night - after a long day of work - I hardly feel tired but rather watch the picture-perfect images of complex plant life and detailed imagery in my mind's eye (before I just saw abstract shapes or swirling colors, and couldn't call any specific image to mind), sex has become almost unbearably amazing (... the "unbearably" part is new). And just the other day, which is when I finally I decided to start this post, I looked down at my toes (I was wearing sandals) and noticed I'd gouged a hole just above my big toe nail while I was lugging our Christmas tree around and hadn't even noticed the pain in the past half hour as the blood dried and sealed everything up. I've seen little glowing rings floating in the sky or a tiny patch of my vision, momentarily, looking like rippling water (the thought did cross my mind that maybe I was going blind, but only in a comical way .. and even then, not even a slight increase in my pulse or stress level ?? My first thought was actually - 'If I went blind, imagine how sharp my other senses would become.') And I think that statement might sum up a lot of this - maybe I'm not getting any special powers that I never had before .. but rather shedding this energy-sucking weight and stress has given me more fuel to fire everything else .. ??

   I'm not writing a commercial for acupuncture, and I can't say that anyone will have the same immediate response that I did (Lisa said it doesn't normally happen so quickly, and when it does, most people don't have the same presence of mind to understand or be comfortable with it). But it was a curious and exciting experience for me, and one that continues, so I wanted to share it ; )

 to bee continued ..

 loVe,

 -p&j

 

{ Robin Hood - part - 1 }

   Juwels had been pecking at me a lot - about moving back out into the forest. We've been busy. With business. And busy trying to live our lives in the other moments: hiking in Sedona, picking fresh wild mushrooms after the rain, swimming, sunning, and chasing each other around the Winnie.

   So we hadn't had any time to ready the Vessel - you can't just drive the Winnie off after a long winter season of hibernation. For one, she was up on cinder blocks, her feet hovering off the ground on some sides. We had the wooden "skirting" around the bottom of the frame to keep the cold wind from whipping around under there and freezing our tanks - the tank the shower drains into, and the other one that holds the .. well ... you know .. but they both still froze solid before we got the skirting up last year - good times ; )

   But finally I gave in - checked the fluids, fixed the gas leaks, tuned & adjusted, banged and bumped around under there - cursing and gritting and popping up into the cab to have juwels flush things out of my eyes (see why I was putting it off), but with the ol' girl purring and growling and puttering along, I did feel proud and struck with the thought that we needed to drive by moonlight and climb the hills on the outskirts of town, so we did.

   Juwels thumped around inside the Winnie all day as I monkey-wrenched under the grill. She said she was just straightening up, but when she called me inside to help take the toilet apart for a detailing .. I knew she was in full-on Cinderella mode ; ) 

   Our neighbor called us over to see this little porky. He was stacking firewood for the season when this lethargic pin cushion wobbled out. I've almost stepped on a couple of these coming home late night .. fingers crossed that I continue to spot them first ; ) 

   And since we were going to be out in the yard for a while, I walked over and snuck Lily out of her pen to enjoy the end of the season's green grass. She worked this area, like a good girl, for hours without wandering off like she likes to do at times ; ) She goes through a lot of grass, quickly, and just standing near her, the air smells like a juice bar w/ wheat grass and chlorophyl thick in the air. Look at that beautiful sleek summer coat. She's much shaggier these cold days .. much softer too ': ) 

We got some rain. 

... still putting everything back together. 

   It was dark by the time we finally hit the road, and luckily all the lights on the instrument panel fired up. I felt like the pilot of a large and nosy plane. After filling the tank (not cheap) we buzzed along the dark, pine-lined roads with the skylights open and the cold wind breathing through the cabin.

   Juwels giggled and danced around the winnie, occasionally sliding from the back room across the bamboo floors in thick wool socks as I'd point the nose down a hill or hit the breaks. "Weee hee-heee-hee !!" We had pulled the chewed-up passenger seat out during our renovation, so during trips juwels just kind of floats around while I play captain. She reads on the back couch, showers, naps, but mostly hangs around on the bench seat behind me, with her chin propped up on my shoulder, keeping an eye on the road and squealing in my ear about passing skunks and squirrels up ahead. Not the safest setup, but before we take our next long trip .. we'll get her a helmet .. or .. a chair ; )

   When we'd gone far enough, and the engine was burning hot, we turned back towards town. We hit the forest pull-off, exiting the smooth asphalt for the rocky road and national forest. I had half-heartedly protested going out into the forest earlier that day when the preps had ran past dinner time, because finding a parking spot, the parking spot, in the forest at night wouldn't be easy, but juwels said that it was a full moon and that we -had- to go out, tonight, so that was that.

   It felt good in the woods that night, and the moon was so resplendent that it seemed like I could click off head lights and still see the winding dirt road. Juwels had requested Patrick Watson's "Adventures in your own Backyard" once we'd hit the dirt, and with the perfect soundtrack, through the indie film we drove, deeper and deeper. The first couple miles of forest are 'no camping' zones, so all was dark in the shadows of the trees, but past that point, fires and large camps cropped up left and right.

   "This is like Robin Hood," juwels squealed, stamping her feet on the ground so loud that I though we were dragging something.
 

   We were going to pull off at our old spot, but luckily we missed it and were forced to venture farther into the forest, past the hunter's camps. "A little father .. a little farther .." juwels lulled, now sitting  directly beside me on the wide engine cover and old chest.

   Finally, I just pulled down a turn to the right.

   "Where are you going?"

   "Just checking it out .. exploring."

   She liked the sound of that, but I knew there probably wouldn't be a good place to turn around once we headed down the road, so we'd be sleeping somewhere down there. It's an interesting thing, driving your house down these roads. What starts out as flat-packed roads can quickly turn to sand or potholes, but I just accepted that we might be sleeping in the middle of the dirt road that night and enjoyed the snaking blind turns and humps and the red dust cloud in my tail lights. It kind of felt like one of those Knotts Berry Farm tram rides with fog machines and creatures ducking out of sight.

    We had gone so far that juwels was actually prompting a pull-off here or there, but I had a picture in my mind: a nice open field with plenty of moonlight and the morning sun on our solar panel, but then, almost involuntarily, I jerked the wheel to the left and threaded the needle between tightly cropped trees, over a small berm, and settled just ahead of a large stump and tiny wild rose bushes.

    "Oh!" juwels said.

    "Yep," I grinned.

    "We're kind of at an angle.." she said, "to the left."

    "That's fine," I said, with the engine already turned off.

    "But the bed's sloped back .. so all the blood will be rushing to our heads."

    I fired the engine, and juwels ran back to the bathroom window to watch my tail-end for trees .. we used to do this each night in Venice Beach when we'd parallel park between BMW's for the night's sleep. She's a good little spotter .. I did have to break her of her habit of yelling, "ST-O-P!!!!" like I was about to roll off a cliff ; ) She can be little dramatic, so we came up with a cute noise that she'd make, progressively, as a backed into a potential insurance nightmare ; )

     I pulled Back ... "Close," juwels said.

     Right ... "Hmmm .. other way."

     Left .. "Oh, you're too far now, just a bit to the right."

     Slight Right and Forward ... "Perfect!!"

______________________________________________________


    I stepped out of the captain's seat and met juwels mid-winnie and we hugged and danced across the bamboos ; ) We tangled up on the couch and split the curtains open to see the night sky. There were long moon shadows laying across the grassy fields from the tall ponderosa pines, and sliding the window open we were met with the vanilla pine-sap smell that makes this town smell good enough to eat. And after watching the man on the moon for a few minutes, I fell under the urge head outside and and dig - find the perfect place for a fire pit, collect the rocks, pine cones and kindling, and let there be light ; )

    I quickly realized that we didn't have a shovel and gouged at the earth with a large stick. It was easy going at first, and this sparked something in me, buried ancestral grunting, the grit of fine composted silt on my lips and brow, and the thought that I should light this glorious fire by banging rocks or drill-spinning sticks and blowing my own breath into it .. but soon, once I hit the place where the piny compost and soft dirt ended and the tight packed stuff began, it also produced a softening of my palm and the beginnings of a bruise. I thought better of it, and walked back to the open winnie door to find juwels lighting candles, steeping tea and cutting up butter nut squash.

    "You want the gloves?" she guessed.

    "Yep."

    She could only find the left one - which wasn't my driving hand, so she gave me a dirty pair of black socks to put on my other hand .. such was the shrinking of whatever was left of the caveman in me. She insisted that I wear the headlamp this time, so back I went in this strange LED light, gouging away again, and then it was done: perfect rocks circling, stuffed with pine needles and cones and topped with sticks and branches.

    The rest of the night was just perfect in our toasty little winnie - we lapped up spoonfuls of baked squash with maple syrup, coconut oil, and sea salt, and juwles even baked a savory pan of potatoes with onions and garlic that brought the caveman back and growling.

    Around the campfire, we sipped from a thermos of hot green tea and listened to the cracking pine and oak, and just before we were going to head in for bed, we heard a single coyote sing in the distance, she sounded small and scrappy, but she just may have been the leader because next, the whole pack lit up the night with sound. It was invigorating, and we couldn't help but howl along with them for a time.

   We didn't move from that spot for a long while, and it became home. On the long walk back to town the next morning (where the truck was parked) we realized that we had happened upon one of the very best spots to plant our roots ; )

This is the little ledge and porthole window next to our floating bed  - juwels keeps a lot of her night-time treasures up here ; ) 

   We'll tell you the rest of the story later ..
But I will say that fire became the theme of our exit.

  Your friendly woodland gypsies,
loVe,

 -p&j

Candle GiveAway - One Dozen Pine Cones !!

I'd say it's about time for a GiveAway ; )

We've got One Dozen Pine Cone candles up for grabs !!

So - to enter, and to get ready for the inevitable question 'round the dinner table tomorrow, comment below with something (or things) you're thankful for ; ) 

We'll pull the winner when we come out of our food coma .. sometime Friday ; )

CutOff tomorrow @ Midnight . ...

Good luck, and, good night, gobble-gobble, buzz-buzz,

-p&j

    ... this GiveAway is also @ our Face Book page (pollen arts) so you can comment there too for two chances to win !! 

      ... and if you want to give 4 or 8 or 12 of these away, we can wrap them up for you, too ; ) 

  we'll prolly pick a couple more winners for smaller sets ; - }

Country Living "50 gifts under $50!" Candle Feature December January 2013

*** If you've found this page through the Country Living magazine, and just want to find our candles, and not peruse our Winnebago Diaries, here's the link to the featured set:  Two Keys - Two Poisons "Locked-In Lovers"

   But as for the rest of you ...

alOha ; )

   Well .. this is kind of an emergency blog (just to throw a few tag words into the etherNet), so the short of it is - we were just featured in Country Living "50 gifts under $50!" and they even put us on the table of contents page ; ) Awesome !! But the "emergency" aspect here is that they didn't put our name Pollen Arts ... anywhere ???

   We've had a little press in the past, and stuff like this -always- happens, always, I barely blink at it ; ) "There's no such thing as bad press." (We were just in the Huffington post, and they wrote us up as pro Snowboarders ((we're skateboarders .. I can't snowboard to save my life.)) who make candles out of a Winnebago ((which we haven't done for a long time .. )) who travel the country at will ((we wish : ) Maybe after the holidays..). And in our Foam Magazine interview, we were "living deep in the forest in a salvage yard" .. huh .. That sounds fun, but not us ;)

   So on the way home from work yesterday, at 8 or 9 at night, after a very long day and only sleeping 3 hours the night before, I asked juwels, "Are you sure you want to go to Barnes and Nobles and get this magazine now, or do you just want to get back to the Winnie and get some rest?"

   She wanted to go, so fast forward 5 minutes, with us both sitting at the cafe table near the window, each with our own copy, and juwels, psychic gypsy that she is, opens to the exact page. "Found it! Page 37, good numbers!!" I wasn't anticipating any fuss .. we'd been contacted by the etsy press team, I connected with the assistant editor - sent them all our bio and links and specs on the candles. They made sure we'd be selling the specific collection online during the dates of the issue, and as juwels read the description aloud, I just started laughing.  .. In fact, as we left the truck to go into the store I jokingly said, "Now - will you promise me that you'll find something about the feature that will totally work you up, so I can laugh my ass off?" But I was just joking, and thought this was pretty straight fwd (btw, we were in the Anthropologie holiday catalogue last year, and they forgot to put our name in as well .. guess we should have learned, but I'd feel kind of odd and patronizing to say .. now, please, remember to put our name in there .. so people will know who makes them. ha ha ha. Next time ; )

   Juwles had the most intense energy for the rest of the night ... which was fun ; ) And I did my share of laughing and watching the show - she's so cute when she gets worked up (about little nothings .. and details ) but anyway, I figured I'd post a quick little blog, so people who wanted to find our stuff could Google "Key Candle" or "Country Living Candles" or whatever, would have a place to find us. And also, we wanted to share the good the news that we were featured in the magazine, on two pages, which is a very big deal/ doesn't happen much for grassroots artists ; )

   Here's the pages ; )

Caption: "Stick-straight tapers don't hold a candle to these Bottle-Shaped beauties !"

 Caption Reads: "Candles Scented with honey and wildflower nectar, these bottle-shaped beauties hold the key to illuminating style. Her House 518-592-1422"

   .. the name and number is from one of our accounts. It's a long story, and I'm not even sure I understand it right, but I got a message from the Her House owner saying that an editor from a big chain of magazines walked through her door, saw our candles and was inquiring about doing a piece. I sent along all the info, and never heard anything back

   Cut to: Months later, a girl from the Etsy press team messaged us saying that the Country Living people had been cruising the site and picked our candles to potentially be in the Gift Guild. She said  to send samples, we did, and later they told us that we were in ; ) Then .. a week or so before they were supposed to go to print, I get another message from the CL contact asking what store we have in Millerton NY. I told them Her House, and didn't think about it again .. The bummer is: we don't sell this collection to stores .. some of the small candles are pretty finicky to burn, so we'll only sell them direct, where we can list the burn tips and msg the buyers directly .. plus it's hard to wholesale the tiny poison and mini key without having the end price too high or wasting our time. ..

Happy Holidays, Buzz-Buzz,

 -p&j


















Country Living, Bottle-Shaped Candles, Bottle Shaped Candles, Key Candles, Skeleton Key Candle, Scented with Honey and Wildflower, Beeswax, Pollen Arts, Her House, 50 Gifts Under $50, 50 Gifts Under Fifty Dollars, 156 Creative Holiday Ideas, December, January, 2013, Handmade in the USA, Walla Walla Bing Bang ; ) 

{ when sparks fly - part one of many }

   Sitting at the desk - juwels: at yoga. I've got the big, noise-canceling headphones on which seem to have disconnected me from the neck down. This is nice. To get out of this body for a while .. this bruised and battered body with its achy muscles and faulty joints. They say "it's not the age, its the mileage .." and I've been road tripping for close to two decades now ; )

   I've been meaning to write this post for a while .. it should've been one of the first, but here it is, about a year later. You can probably guess that we have a LOT to do for the biz with Black Friday on the wings and all, but one must sit still every now and then.

   Nobody pays us to write these blogs - luckily - because then it'd be a job .. and for now it's an escape, an indulgence, and a guilty pleasure.

   What I wanted to do, here, is break down - Cliff's Notes Style - the last ... 7 years ; ) Just so everyone has an idea where we're coming from, and what shared wrinkles juwels and I have locked away in our minds and hearts and around our eyes.

Here goes nothing ; )

    Juwels and I met through the skateboarding industry. I used to own a skateboard shop, which I opened the year after graduating high school ... barely graduating high school. But by the time juwels and I met, I was in my 3rd year and moving to my 2nd location. Our meeting wasn't kismet. Juwels likes to say, "it wasn't love at first sight." And she's right - I was more interested in sliding down handrails and cannon-balling off rooftops on my skateboard, and she was in fashion school, skating in contests, flying around the world on photo shoots, and doing her Ani Difranco thing.

   We met in Long Beach (while I was visiting from AZ). I remember the setting, trite and thoughtless - such is life. A whole pile of us gritty Arizona skateboarders were staying in the living room of a female photographer's 1920's cottage near downtown. She was sitting on the wood floor and looking through a digital slideshow of the day's stunts, and I think, just to break the silence, I said, "Hey. Nika. You should invite some of your cute friends over." What girl doesn't like to get that request??

   Don't get me wrong, she's a nice looking Russian girl, a bit dangerous, spoken like a sailor .. and .. just 'one of the guys' .. but conversely, she was also in a long-term relationship.

   "I don't know any girls," she said. "Oh, wait, actually, I just met a girl .." She was already dialing her phone as she said this. Juwels answered. "Hey," Nika said, "Come over and meet your boy friend." (Silence) "He's got curly hair. He's Italian. Just get over here." Juwels admitted, later, that normally she wouldn't entertain such a request, but for some reason, curiosity got the best of her that day.

   I was awkward, still am to an extent, and once she finally showed up, we pretty much just ignored each other. We all went out and skated - came back later that night and climbed the fire escape, as a group, and hung out on the roof on an old rained-on green couch and rickety lawn chairs. People drank. People smoked. The night wore on, and I don't remember any dialogue at all between us. It wasn't until much later when I figuratively pulled her hair or placed a toad on her shoulder, that we kicked each other's tires a little, but that's about all .. no kiss, no exchanging of phone numbers. Poof.

    Fast forward almost a year exactly: I was back in California and had just written a novel, based on a nightmare, but mostly fueled by boredom, curiosity, and loneliness. 

   The guy I was staying with in LA invited me to tag along on a trip up to San Francisco for a visit, and I love that city, so I went. And on the way back, after the trip had been cut short, and a bit of a disappointment, I got a call from another friend in Hollywood asking if I wanted to go out to an art show at a little bar in Tinsel town. I don't drink, and I don't go out in conventional, youthful settings, and I was tired already and only 1/2 way back from SF, but I said okay. The universe must have forced my lips .. Juwels, in a little beach town down south, may have been feeling the same odd gravitation towards the grimy walk-of-fame bar-turned-art-gallery-for-the-night.

   The part about me not drinking is true as a practice, but as we passed the neon lights of a liquor store, and one of my broke-ass friends from AZ asked if I wanted to split a tall can of Steal Reserve, I said, sure .. once again .. the Universe, I think, trying to ready me for my next big chance with juwels .. which I'd try my hardest to screw up .. but she just wouldn't let me ; )

   We drank, hurriedly, which is the only way one can drink such a beer in an alleyway, and by the time we walked the next couple blocks, my stomach was feeling  queasy .. and confident. Inside the dark bar with red lights and loud music, we walked the perimeter, avoiding the bar for lack of money, and as we rounded the third corner, without looking at any of the paintings or mixed-media pieces, I saw juwels standing in a group of people .. kind of a semi circle .. facing us.

   Oh, shit, I thought .. (I'll admit, I may have been a little intimidated by her ..) so I looked away, hoping she hadn't seen me, and started walking away .. maybe to plan out something to say or just wait for that confidence, which had vaporized, to come back.

   It wasn't until I though I was fully past them and out of view, that I felt somebody punch me in the shoulder .. and not too light. "What?" juwels said, "You're not even going to say 'hiiii'?"

   I'm pretty sure that everyone I was with stopped just then, like, 'oh - we know somebody.' I think I said I didn't see her there, and then went into the typical small talk .. the whole thing was kind of a blur for me. After about 2 minutes, I came up with an amazing escape plan, "Which way's the bathroom?" I asked casually. "It's over this way," juwels said, "I need to go, too. I'll show you were it is." And off we walked.

   When I came out - she wasn't there. I pondered whether I should wait outside for her or if she'd already gone back to the group .. or if waiting for her to exit the bathroom was too 'weird' .. or if I should run like hell ; ) And out she came - as we walked down the aisle, stopping to say hi to her friends tucked away in little VIP-kind-of booths - and introducing me - I said some things that she liked.  I don't have 'game' and my unedited stream-of-consciousness way of talking doesn't always translate, so I just kind of threw it all out there. All in. I won't mention the exact dialogue here - maybe down the line in this book that's kicking around in my stomach, but as juwels likes to say, "I don't know what happened, but that night, sparks were flying."

   The next two weeks, juwels shamelessly "kidnapped" me (her words), and I was okay with that. We laid in bed and she read my manuscript aloud. Hearing it floating around the air in her voice gave me many new ideas, and we began our first edit together - she's really the reason I finished it. Loneliness, my strongest burning fuel as of then, was gone from me now, but she believed in me, and she stroked my ego .. and at times, pierced it, but it was all for the better. I wrote the dedication page out to her (and my wonderful mom) without hesitation, but sadly, as reality had to set back in, I packed up my duffle bag of dirty clothes, scattered notes and skateboard parts, and moved back to Arizona ... but not for long.


     **** I decided, many paragraphs ago, that summing up 7 years in a breakfast blog just isn't my style, and that a reoccurring, linear series might be more fun in small chunks and cookie crumbles, so here, we say, goodnight ; )

 lOve, loVe,

 -p&j 

    .... Part Two is out !! 

   Here's the { Link } 

      

Pollen Arts -meets- The Winnebago Diaries ; )

alOha ; )

   We decided to *finally* post a page on the blog that shows all the candles in our line, so here it is ; ) 

   ... it's also on the page-tab right up there to the right, but if you're reading this on the email blast, just click the link ; ) 

   BzzZzzzzt' 

 -p&j 

 
  ... more to come, from the forest in Flagstaff, soon ; )