May 23 -Keep Going

Today was a great day for this little monster!  Not only did I get to go on an adventure, I also met lots of new people who were super friendly to me.  And because I met lots of nice people, I made some serious progress on my 100 People Project.

Mr. Guy and The Lady wanted to go to a bookstore and hear a guy who writes books talk about what he writes in his books.  I don’t know why, if they have read the books, they wanted to hear the writer tell them what he says in his books. Maybe he forgot to put some of the important words in his books.  I asked if the books were grown-up books or little monster books.  The Lady said that they were for grown-ups, but she thought I might learn something if I went and listened.

 

The book writer’s name is Austin Kleon.

 

He writes books about creativity.  The Lady said that creativity is what we need when we write our stories together.  I thought we just needed to go do fun stuff so we have adventures to write about and then we have to find the best words to tell you about our adventures, but The Lady said that it is not quite that easy.  I guess that is true.  Sometimes it is hard for me to make my words and my thoughts match.  It’s like my thoughts are striped and the words that come out are polka dotted.

The Lady and Mr. Guy have read almost all of Mr. Kleon’s books.  They like what he says and the way he says it.  His newest book is called Keep Going.  I like that title a lot.  The Lady and I need to keep going even though sometimes we are both tired and don’t think that we have much to say and don’t want to write any words.

Mr. Guy and The Lady were right!  Mr. Kleon was a cool guy!  I didn’t understand everything that he talked about, but I liked that he talked about his two little boys and how they inspire him.  That made me think that I can inspire The Lady and Mr. Guy when they need creativity.

After Mr. Kleon talked about his book, people stood in a line so that he would sign his name in their books.  It seemed a little funny to me that he put his name in our books.  We bought our books with our own money; this book place was not a no bills book barn like where we went earlier this week.  Now if our book gets lost, it will get returned to Mr. Kleon because he put his name in it.  I guess if people don’t take good care of his books and they get lost, those books will get back to Mr. Kleon.  He will take good care of them because they are full of his words.  If I had a book with my words in it, I know I would take good care of it!

I did get to help when Mr. Kleon signed a book for Mr. Guy.

Because Mr. Kleon is such a a nice guy, the people who read his books are also nice people.  I was surprised and happy because so many peoplethere listening talked to me and wanted to know my name and hear my story.  Not everyone we see is open to talking to a little furry blue and orange monster!

 

Ms. Christy and Mr. Garry sat near us.  They drove all the way from Oklahoma to hear Mr. Kleon talk.  That is a long drive!  Ms. Christy is a copy editor and her husband, Mr. Garry, is and artist.

Then I talked to Ms. Zee.  She writes a blog about artist’s and travel.

Look at her smile!  I bet she would be a fun travel companion!  I am looking forward to reading her blog posts and learning about different artists and places that I want to visit some day.

Mr. Eric also has a friendly smile.

I am a lucky little monster to get to meet so many interesting, talented, and most importantly, kind people.  I think that the world has more kind people than mean people, but it feels like most of the time we only hear about the mean people.  Tonight was an evening filled with all nice people.  That made my smile as big as Mr. Eric’s smile.  Really, I am smiling, but my fur covers it up sometimes.

Mr. Tom works at Interabang Books.  That is where we went to listen to Mr. Kleon talk and it’s where we met all of the friendly people.  The last person I talked to was Mr. Tom.  He is the Events Coordinator at Interabang Books.

He worked hard tonight making sure that all of the happy people stayed happy.  I think he might have been smiling because this event was almost over and he was going to get to go home and rest soon!

So, I added six people to my 100 People Project.  That is exciting for this little monster.  I am now up to fifty-one.  I have passed the halfway point.  I can do this!

Like Mr. Kleon says, “Keep Going!”

 

Seeing Seattle

It is trip time again!  I never even finished sharing all of my adventures from our trip to England and now I have another adventure to write about!  We just got home at 10 o’clock tonight, but The Lady said we should stay up and write about our trip to Seattle now.  She said something about it really doesn’t seem so late since we are still on Seattle time and that is different from Dallas time.  I don’t quite know how that works.  All I know is that I am a sleepy blue and orange monster. but I want to tell you all about our trip, so here goes…

We left on Thursday after The Lady taught her classes.  Mr. Guy helped me pack my things while she was at school.  He told me that we were going to Seattle so that The Lady could learn new stuff about picture taking.  I thought she knew about picture taking, but apparently there is lots more stuff that she needs to learn.  Mr. Guy and I picked The Lady up at school and we went to the airport.  After we got checked in, we had some lunch.


We don’t eat the “M” meals very often.  It is special airport food.  I sure do like those french fries!  While we were eating our lunch, Mr. Guy got a message saying that they had changed the gate for our airplane.  We had to go to a whole different terminal.  I was afraid that we would have to walk, but Mr. Guy said that there was a thing called SkyLink that would take us.  He said it was kind of like a train.  A train at an airport seemed a little strange to me, but as long as I didn’t have to walk, I was okay with strange.


We didn’t have to wait too long for the train.


I was happy to see Seattle on the sign when we got to our new gate.  I didn’t want to have to move again.  Really, I didn’t have to walk at all.  Mr. Guy is always a good sport and carries me.  Oh!  I got a new shirt for this trip!


It’s perfect, don’t you think?

When we finally got on the plane, I put my little monster head down and went to sleep.  I don’t remember any of the trip.  I didn’t even have a snack.  I guess all of that moving from terminal to terminal tired me out!  Next thing I knew we were picking up our luggage and getting in a fancy black car to go to our hotel in Seattle.  I went right back to sleep.  The Lady said that it wasn’t as late in Seattle as it was in Dallas because we gained two hours.  Here’s that time thing again!  I just wanted to go to bed.  So, I did!

I was nice and rested when I woke up on Friday.  Friday was the day that The Lady’s picture taking classes started.  The event was called Click Away.  I like that name.  It makes sense to me since I always hear The Lady’s camera go click, click, click when Mr. Guy and I are around.


Mr. Guy and I looked around while The Lady was in her morning class.  When she was done, I asked what her class was about.  She said, “Boudoir photography.”  I said, “Boo what?”  She explained that it was a special kind of picture taking where ladies wear the kind of clothes that people don’t see them in most of the time.  I asked her if she meant pajamas.  She told me that that wasn’t it.  I must have looked confused because she finally explained that the ladies wore fancy underwear.  I don’t know why anyone would want their picture taken in their underwear!  The Lady explained that this kind of picture taking helps ladies feel pretty and helps them to accept how they look even if they may not always feel pretty.  I thought about that and wondered if anyone wanted to take a picture of a blue and orange furry monster in his underwear.  Then I changed my mind.  I think I’ll stick to just letting The Lady take pictures of me in my t-shirts!

The Lady also took some classes in taking wedding pictures.  I guess I won’t be in any of those pictures either.  I am too young to get married.  But even when I’m older, I don’t want to get married.  I don’t think that there is a girl monster out there who would love me as much or take care of me as well as Mr. Guy and The Lady.  I think that I will live with them forever.  Besides, the closet with all of my t-shirts is at their house.  

This was The Lady’s favorite place at the conference.


The Lady got a new camera there.  I asked her if you had to have a special camera to take pictures of people in their underwear and wedding people.  She said, “No.”  She told me that she could use her new camera to take pictures of me and Mr. Guy too.  So far, she hasn’t taken any pictures with it yet.  She said that she wanted it to stay packed in its box so it could travel home safely.  I bet she will take some pictures of me this week…I will be wearing a t-shirt, not just my underwear!

On Saturday night, Mr. Guy, The Lady, and I went to The Seattle Space Needle.  We had to walk almost a mile from our hotel to get there.  That wasn’t so bad, but it was raining.  The Lady said that it rains a lot in Seattle and that she likes the rainy weather.  I don’t mind the rain, but I sure wish I had had a raincoat!  Mr. Guy did his best to keep my warm and dry.


When we got to the Space Needle to buy our tickets, they said it would be two hours before we could ride up the elevator.  That is how you get up high so you can see the city.  While we waited, Mr. Guy and The Lady took me to the Chihuly Gardens.  I asked them what  grew in the Chihuly garden.  The Lady said it was a glass garden.  They grow glass?, I thought.  That sounded a little strange to me.   The Lady told me that it is a glass sculpture garden.  Dale Chihuly, the glass artist, makes all kinds of beautiful shapes with colored glass.  I was a little nervous to go to a place where everything is glass.  I am a careful monster, but I was still worried that I might break something.  Mr. Guy said that it would be fine as long as I didn’t touch anything. He held me very close so that I wouldn’t trip and fall and break something accidentally.


Some of the glass looked like Christmas trees.  They were brightly colored and had lights shining through them  They were beautiful!

The light bouncing all around through the glass was really neat looking.  I liked the place where the glass was on the ceiling.  I knew that I could not break anything if the sculptures were up high!


While we were looking at the glass on the ceiling, I met a really nice girl named Lindsay.  She was from California and she wanted to be my friend.  Though I have done a terrible job with my Hundred People Project, Lindsay made me want to get back to it because she asked to have her picture taken with me.  That made me a happy little monster.  Her mister friend took a picture of us and The Lady took one too.  Now I have twenty-five people!  I will make it to a hundred.  I will.

After I had my picture taken with Lindsay, I saw something that looked like a big glass bowl.  Mr. Guy said that they should put Chex Mix in it.  I don’t think that is what it was for!


It was a very pretty blue bowl!  I liked Mr. Chihuly’s glass because he used a lot of blue and orange, the best colors for almost anything!  I was nervous being this close to Mr. Chihuly’s big blue bowl.  I didn’t want to stay in this spot for very long!

Next we saw more glass sculptures up on the ceiling. More orange glass!


This part was in a great big glass building, but it was just plain building glass not the cool kind of glass used for the sculptures. 

There were also lots more glass sculptures outside.  I don’t understand how they don’t get broken.


Mr. Guy got mad at The Lady because she let me sit on the wet rain covered bench.  I didn’t mind, but  my monster underwear did get a little wet.  That was OK because nobody was going to take pictures of my underwear!   I do definitely need a raincoat before we again visit any place with lots of rain.

After we finished touring the garden, we still had an hour before our elevator time.  We went and had a snack, fried cheese curds.


The words “curds” is kind of an ugly sounding word.  I was pretty sure that I didn’t want to eat anything called “curds.”  Mr. Guy said that they were good and that I should try them.  I did and they were, but the word curds still does not sound appetizing!

Finally it was time to get in the elevator line to ride to the top of the Space Needle.  The Space Needle is 605 feet tall.  That is like 600 hundred of me standing on top of each other!


I was a little scared, but not too much so.  We got in line with lots of other people.

The elevator ride to the top was super quick!  It took us longer to ride the hotel elevator to the twelfth floor where our room was than it did to ride all the way to the top of the Space Needle.  When we got off of the elevator, I felt like I was in a giant spaceship.
We then went outside to walk around the outside of the spaceship Space Needle.  It was rainy and cold and SO WINDY!  I was a frigid little monster.  Not only did I need that raincoat, I also needed my orange sweater that Ms. Joni made for me. 
I didn’t even think about bringing my sweater because when I was packing in Dallas, it was almost too hot for a t-shirt, forget a sweater!  If I had my own cellphone with all of those fancy app things, I could have checked the weather in Seattle while I was packing.  I mentioned this to Mr. Guy.  He said no phone for me.
Back inside, there was a great big map that showed all of the places where people have traveled from that have visited the Space Needle.
Mr. Guy added our names to the map.
One of those yellow dots is me!

After Mr. Guy signed our names, we walked back to our hotel.  It was still raining, but it was not nearly as cold and windy on the ground as it was 605 feet up in the air!  We needed to get back and pack.  The Lady got lots of new picture taking stuff and Mr. Guy was not sure where it was all going to go.  I got a new t-shirt and the Space Needle, but it did not take up much room in our suitcase.

When we got up on Sunday morning, it wasn’t raining anymore.  We took a short walk around our hotel.  There were lots of pretty orange flowers, and the leaves on the trees were also turning orange.  The trees in Texas do not have orange leaves.

We took a few pictures and then it was time to leave for the airport and our trip home.

When we got to the airport, I was hungry.  Mr. Guy bought me a sandwich on funny a bread.  It had a hole in the middle of it.  That seemed strange.  I was worried that Mr. Guy got defective bread.  He told me that it was supposed to be that way.  The bread was called a beagle, or a bugle, or something like that.  


It tasted good, but I still don’t know why all of the sandwich insides didn’t fall out of the hole in the middle of my bread.  I like un-holy bread better.  Is that right?  Well, you know what I mean.

When we finally got on the airplane, I fell asleep in Mr. Guy’s lap.  I didn’t wake up until we were almost back in Dallas and the flight attendant starting talking to me.  

She wanted to know my name and where I had been.  I got excited because I thought that maybe I could have my picture taken with her and I would be up to person #26, but nope.  She said that she was not allowed to have her picture taken while in her working clothes, something about 7-eleven, or costing nine dollars and eleven cents, or something.  I didn’t want to get her in trouble, so I will have to find another person #26.

Finally we were back in Dallas.  We waited for our suitcase to come around the racetrack.


Once we had our bag, we headed home and I started writing.  And that is my story about Seattle.

THE END!



Friends, Roomies, and Crafts(wo)men

So what have I learned lately?  Vacations are fun!  I have been new places, seen new things, and met new people.  All of this has been very exciting for a little blue and orange furry monster!

After our day of painting on Saturday, we had a “cabin day” on Sunday.  We stayed at home and slept a little later, had a relaxed breakfast on the deck, read, colored, played games, went for a walk, and just enjoyed the mountain air.  I thought that I might be a bored little monster, but nope; it was a very peaceful and refreshing day.

Yesterday, The Lady’s college roommate and her husband came to spend the night with us.  The Lady and Ms. Linda have been friends for 36 years.  That is more years than I have monster toes and fingers so it must be a very, very long time!  They had lots to talk about.  Mr. Guy and Ms. Linda’s Guy teach the same stuff to middle school monsters kids, so they had a lot to talk about too.  Ms. Linda had told The Lady that she was excited to meet me.  That made me smile.   The Lady has some really nice friends!

Last night,  Ms. Linda’s Guy went down to the pond to throw a string in the water.  He said that there were critters in the water and that they would bite his string and then he would use the stick that the string was attached to to pull them out of the water.

Ms. Linda’s Guy tried to teach me how to play with the stick and string, but I was not very good at it, so we all just sat and watched while he kept throwing the string in the pond.  I never saw any critters bite it.  That seemed to be okay with him.  We all enjoyed our evening down by the pond.

This morning there was lots of rain and thunder.  We were going to go for a long ride to see the mountains, but plans were changed because of the stormy weather.   We went to the Folk Art Center instead.  I saw lots of things that people made with their hands – furniture, quilts, musical instruments, jewelry, toys, clothing, pottery, all kinds of stuff.  The artists there were very talented.

I met two of the artists, Susan and Debbie.  Debbie makes serigraphs and linoprints.  Her works are very pretty.  Debbie let me hold one of the brushes that she uses for her work.  She also agreed to be part of my 100 People Project.

The Lady and Mr. Guy bought two if her prints.  This one is my favorite because it has lots of blue!

If you would like to see more of Debbie’s beautiful works of art, visit her website.

I also got to talk to Susan.  Susan is a basket weaver.  She had a very cool backpack basket that would have been perfect for Mr. Guy to carry this blue and orange furry monster around, but Mr. Guy and The Lady would not buy it for me.  That made me a little sad, but then I decided that I like it when people carry me in their arms.  Ms. Linda carried me a lot today.  Anyway, Mr. Guy and The Lady decided that they would buy a different basket, but when they went back to get it, it was gone.  Someone else bought it.  The Lady was disappointed, but Susan said that she would make one special for The Lady.  and maybe it could even have some blue in it.  It is very nice of Susan to make a special basket for us.  Once she is done, she will mail it to us in Texas.  A package in the mail!  I like to get packages in the mail.  I promise that I will show you our basket when it gets to Texas.

Susan also had her picture taken with me!

Ms. Linda’s Guy drove us today along the Blue Ridge Parkway.  That was nice of him.  It gave Mr. Guy and The Lady a chance to just look out the windows.  We stopped along the way.  I had to have a picture with Ms. Linda and her Guy.  They may be old friends of The Lady, but they are new friends of me.

I have been a little confused about how to number the people in my project when there are two people in one photo.  The Lady and I have talked about this.  She told me that when people get married, there is something said like “two shall become one.”  It sounds strange to me, but that is what The Lady said and I trust her.  So, I decided that Ms. Linda and her Guy are just one number.  All of this is so confusing for a little monster!  The Lady told me that I just have to trust the process.  I don’t really know what that means, but I said “OK” just to make her feel good.

It was a busy day for me in front of the camera.  Thank you to all of my new friends for helping me with my 100 People Project!

Oh, and Mr. Guy, Ms. Linda, and The Lady worked hard to find me an Asheville T-shirt today while we were out.  It is hard to find orange shirts here so I am getting some new colors.

I am looking forward to more adventures in the next couple of days!