Homesick

I haven't written for 4 months. Maybe because I've gotten bored with all the sun and blue sky. Today though is wet, windy and cool. Yes, smack dab in the middle of summer in Boise, Idaho... when it's supposed to be scorching hot. The Idahoans in my neighborhood are hunkered down I am sure, peering out at the charcoal skies, windblown trees and sodden ground and wondering when this 'rotten' weather will turn. I'm a little sad myself but only because I know this won't last. Soon, the river rafters will be whooping it up, kids will be running through sprinklers and everyone will turn their AC on again. For now I am happy to be wet and breathing in the cool air. For now I'll wistfully think of home. For now I'll look forward to someday going back home... maybe Bellingham, Whidbey, or the Peninsula... Most likely Granite, Sultan, Darrington or Index. I love the North Cascades. Wherever it is, I will happily enjoy the rain just as the moss and ferns do, and I'll be home.

Connie and I are celebrating 5 years this Sunday!

We were going to stay at the Red Lion but found a helluva deal at this place... and what a deal we got. Living in Idaho has its rewards.

My wife

My kids now

My kids then...

My puppies singing Happy Birthday to me

My art

I think that an old carpenter's hands are one of the most honest things in the world.

I think that not being able to make a car payment isn't quite the same as not having money do buy food or clothes.
Maybe what other countries hate about America isn't that we are rich and powerful, it's that we are spoiled and arrogant... maybe we need another depression to remind us what real poverty is.

Thought for the day

I was thinking of how much time I spend on the computer and how it is nearly as much of an extension of me as my arms or legs. Then there's my cell phone, iPod, stereo and TV. I am sure that the way my life is right now that I couldn't live without them...but often I wish I could.

Chihuly

Closeup shot inside the Seaform Pavilion, part of Dale Chihuly's Bridge of Glass, in Tacoma, Washington... just one more thing I miss about Washington State.

Found Art

Sometimes the best art is accidental.

-the wall below the bicycle rack at Pike Place Market, Seattle, WA

Hipness

Cannonball Adderley said in his introduction on the Cannonball Adderley Sextet in New York album that you cannot decide to be hip... you are either hip or you aren't. "Hipness" the tenor man said "isn't a state of mind: it's a fact of life".

Dad

The best thing anyone's given me, was from my dad. He married my mother and made her happy but more than that, he helped make me a better man, a better father and a better husband. Thanks dad. You are awesome.

Acceptance

A few quotes from M. Scott Peck in his book "The Road Less Traveled"

"Life is difficult.
This is a great truth, one of the greatest truths. It is a great truth because once we truly see this truth, we transcend it. Once we truly know that life is difficult--once we truly understand and accept it--then life is no longer difficult. Because once it is accepted, the fact that life is difficult no longer matters."

"Life is a series of problems.
Do we want to moan about them or solve them?
Without discipline we can solve nothing."

“The truth is that our finest moments are most likely to occur when we are feeling deeply uncomfortable, unhappy, or unfulfilled. For it is only in such moments, propelled by our discomfort, that we are likely to step out of our ruts and start searching for different ways or truer answers.”

~ M. Scott Peck

Near Mt. Baker

It was tough getting to this spot near Mt. Baker. The harder some things are to attain, the more rewarding I think.

Coffee Fiend

I like this painting. Looks like me!
Also, this artist does other great stuff. Check it out... pretty cool.
Kim Robertson

In the liner notes of Junior Parker's album "You don't have to be black to love the blues", producer Sonny Lester pays tribute for the concept here to Levy’s rye bread. “Just like the cover of this album says, Chinese kids like watermelon, Irish like bagels, black people like Jewish rye bread and today everybody loves the blues”

Random pic of the day

Babygirl and me

Sto lavorando

I used to get tried of trying to explain how I was working when it seemed I was doing nothing. As a designer I can tell you that if you are not an artist - painter, designer, architect, musician - it's nearly impossible to explain. But this story explains it as well as anything.

"...a visiting Prince came into Michelangelo's studio and found the master staring at a single 18-foot block of marble. Then he knew the rumors were true that Michelangelo had come in every day for the past four months, stared at the marble, and gone home for his supper. So the Prince asked the obvious, "What are you doing?" And Michelangelo turned around and looked at him and whispered, "Sto lavorando". "I'm working." Three years later, that block of marble was the Statue of David."

Labels

I am not a liberal in the political sense and certainly not in the moral sense. Nor am I liberal spiritually speaking as it pertains to faith. (I hope it never becomes a crime for standing up for what you believe). I am however liberal in other ways that might not be popular with some. I have always felt more comfortable being myself than belonging to any one group... and I admire those who are true to themselves though they are outcast (There was this man... about 2000 or so years ago...) Anyway...that's what I hate about labels.

I could not be labeled very easily for a particular market... nor could a growing number of people in the world. So many ad people simply don't get it. The world is changing as are the people in it. Many are saying these words silently but who is listening?

I am not a market - I am a brand.
I am not a demogragraphic - I am an individual.
I am not a consumer - I am a producer.
I am not a statistic - I am a person.

Living

A whisper is better than a Twitter.
Face to face is better than Facebook.
Beachcombing is better than Googling.
Galleries are better than Flickr.
Flea markets are better than eBay.
Surfing the waves is better than surfing the internet.
Talking is better than texting.
Pens are better than keyboards.
Laughing out loud is better than LOL'ing.
Emotions are better than emoticons.
Dinner with friends is better than social networking.
Living in the real world is better than living on a computer.
Being alive is better than being wired.

The 7 'L's

Live
Laugh
Love
Learn
Labor
Listen
Light the way for someone.

Gray, rainy and beautiful

Somewhere in Colorado.

Yummy

Maybe not good for the body, but good for the soul.

The Real Life

I wonder if he knew how prophetic this book really was.

Time passages

If I could, I'd stop time so Josh and Em and I could spend more time together. They will grow up, as they should, and marry and have kids and migrate and prosper and get older and I will get older and we will only have memories. I just want to make some more memories before all that happens.

The Zen of Single Malts

I like sitting on the back porch, listening to jazz and drinking really old scotch with friends. I have three out of four.

Home

I miss home. I miss...

Mom and Dad
The kids
Old friends
A Dick's Deluxe, fry and shake at midnight.
Drizzle that lasts for weeks.
Moss, ferns, mushrooms and other things that require rain.
A ridiculous amount of amazing coffee shops.
Chukanut Drive
Bow, Fairhaven, Glacier, Concrete, Index, Sultan, La Conner, Friday Harbor, Coupeville, Port Townsend.... just name a few
Mount Baker, Mount Pilchuck, Mt. Rainier, Mount Index.... just to name a few
A ridiculous amount of amazing Asian food.
Picking Chentrelles and Bolites a few miles from town
The sun setting over the Olympics
Dozens of places to buy vintage records
The San Juans
Water.... lots and lots and lots of water.
Walking around Greenlake really late with friends
Trader Joes, Metropolitan Market, PCC, Central Market, Larry's, Whole Foods, etc., etc.
Uwajimaya
Art walks in Occidental Park
Tacoma (yeah! Finally hip... can you believe it?)
The Seahawks (They'll be back)
The Mariners (I hope they'll be back)
The Sonics (They're gone)
The Storm (ha ha... just kidding)
Gardening with lots of rain and sun and good dirt
A few hundred deli's, coffee shops, bistros, restaurants, cafe's, etc. that are amazing
Culture... lots of it
Sailing
Rain... lots of it
walking on beaches
crabbing
the Skagit Valley
Wallingford, Alki, Ravenna, Ballard, Fremont, Queen Anne, Pioneer Square, Capitol Hill, Georgetown, Lake Union, Green Lake, Fisherman's Terminal, Sodo, etc. etc.
Fresh fish and shellfish
Pike Place Market
Sea Kayaking
Hiking
and a lot of other things I can't find in Idaho.

Things I'll miss when I'm gone:
Nice people
Warm summer nights
Open spaces
polite (albeit clueless) drivers
Flying M coffeeshop
The breakfast sandwiches at Kuna Public Market
The VPS guys and gals
the Mojitos at the Reef
Broncos (football team AND fans)

Sorry Idaho... There's a lot to love here but I just never fit in. I'm going back home as soon as I can.

Honesty

I trust the person who is honest about who they are, not so much the person who is honest about all they do... but that's just me.

The truth is, I'm not sure that not being honest is the same as being dishonest. Being fully honest is something we do with people we completely trust. Since very few people ever find someone they completely trust, it's a good bet that few of us ever feel safe being completely honest. Therefore, we create acceptable and believable facades that are constructed from our youth to become something real enough to believe ourselves and believed by others - even those we are closest to. I submit then that complete honesty isn't a reasonable expectation. It's something we hope we can share with someone one day and something we hope we can get.

You know who you are when I say that I am sorry our lives were so full of lies. I'm sorry to say that I never trusted you and no matter how hard I tried, I could never get even close to trusting you with who I was. I really am sorry and yet now it seems that where we ended was inevitable.

Doing my part

I've never been a man of few words, but in these tough times, I've decided to be economical today.

Faith

For the record, I believe in God.

Or to put it more clearly...

Credo in Deum Patrem omnipotentem, Creatorem caeli et terrae,

et in Iesum Christum, Filium Eius unicum, Dominum nostrum,

qui conceptus est de Spiritu Sancto, natus ex Maria Virgine,

passus sub Pontio Pilato, crucifixus, mortuus, et sepultus,

descendit ad ínferos, tertia die resurrexit a mortuis,

ascendit ad caelos, sedet ad dexteram Patris omnipotentis,

inde venturus est iudicare vivos et mortuos.

Credo in Spiritum Sanctum,

sanctam Ecclesiam catholicam, sanctorum communionem,

remissionem peccatorum,

carnis resurrectionem,

vitam aeternam.

Amen.

P.S. I don't have all the answers in defending what I believe... neither do you.

A random postscript

Jazz, nature, kids and traveling without an itinerary. All things I love... and no wonder. They are all beautifully and shamelessly random.

My first entry

Random Cori. It's what a friend called me when we were young twenty something guys. It sounded close enough to 'Randall Cori' and was fairly accurate. Thirty years later the only thing that's changed is that being called random doesn't bother me. I never liked being random or being called random... but eventually I shrugged and accepted it the way you accept a stray dog. It's not pedigreed, it's not the pick of the litter and it's not even the kind of dog that would be your second or one hundred and second choice... but it hangs around, keeps you company and at some point you realize you're stuck with it it with you.
I learned that randomness without order is chaos and lostness. I also learned that randomness with order (but not too much order mind you) can bring peace and happiness as well as more money and success.
My one regret is that I believe that my tendency towards shying from order was and still sometimes is, the cause of some chaos in my life (and the life of those I've loved and cared for).
To those who might read this (as well as my other entries) either while I live or after I'm gone, please know that my intent was and is to allow enough order (by the grace of God) to glorify Him as well as make life a little easier and better for those in my life now or later.