yum

well, i woke up early and honored my wake-up rituals - coffee, writing, dog walking - and then headed off to the gallery to drop off the new painting. between tourist traffic and the storm that is still slowly finding its way outta here, it took almost 3 times longer to get there than it usually does. gross. and then once i finally made it to the city, i spent a half hour looking for parking before i finally gave up and parked in a garage. good thing i know where a cheap one is and don't have to spend 20 big ones for each hour i'm parked there. eventually, i make it to the gallery and spent the next hour or so having a wonderful time telling stories and talking trash with piero, andrew, and erika (super sweet and totally suave people) before hopping back in the car and braving the weather and tourists once more.

unlike most people that live out my way, i actually kinda like the tourists. most of the people i bump in to who come here on a little get-away are from europe and, like most americans, i am a sucker for an attractive accent. yum. i can listen to europeans talk for hours. i never get tired of listening... even if i can't understand a thing they're saying. it doesn't matter. i haven't had the opportunity to do as much traveling as i'd like - not nearly - and, as a result, i find everyone with a foreign accent to be mysterious and exotic which equals attractive. so i like having tourists around. their excitement and desire to explore makes me feel happy and it reminds me to look at my surroundings with wonder... the way i did when i was new to this landscape too. besides, i've found quite a few out of the way spots that tourists don't know of if i end up getting tired of the congestion, but i don't think i'll be trading attractive accents for silence any time soon.

i made good time on my drive back home and spent the evening drinking chardonnay with my neighbor again. i finally realized that this much wine consumption could possibly have a negative effect on my waist-line so i came home and compounded the issue by making myself a huge bowl of chili with cheese and onion on top. :) calorie counting, shmalorie counting. who needs it. life's too great and too short to get wrapped up in things like that when you could be listening to attractive accents, drinking wine, and eating chili with your dog curled up at your feet. quite a day indeed.