Pictures Of Things + Le Love List

May 7th, 2016 - filed under: Furthermore » Feedback

Happy weekend, beautiful people! I have had a good week, which is just so dang refreshing. I finally finished up a biiiig project for school and it feels so great to have that off my plate, AND ALSO this week Jeremy and I celebrated our 3-year anniversary which is just crazy, wow, AND ALSO today was the Mother’s Day brunch at Waits’s school and it was seriously the sweetest thing, I can’t even tell you. It just burst my heart wide open.

And I hope you’ve had a great week as well! Or, if you haven’t, I hope it’s been an opportunity for authenticity and exploration and learning and growth. ♥

So I’m a little bit backed up on photos after The Great Computer Crash-tastrophe Of 2016, so here’s what life has looked like [semi] recently:

I finally used up the very last of the roasted cherry tomatoes I’d frozen at the end of summer . . . and then one week later, the very first tomato of the year showed up in my CSA box! Good timing, man.

Party party! Waits and I were invited to the book launch party for Ruby Roth’s newest release, The Help Yourself Cookbook, and it was soooo much fun!

Just one more. Party people!

A very magickal road trip! (I’ll be writing much more about this in the future)

One of my very best friends got married, and it was a seriously epic wedding that I was absolutely thrilled to be a part of. I think this pic pretty much sums up the level of shenanigans (photo by Jeffrey San Juan), but a few more from the weekend extravaganza:

You know it’s gonna be a great weekend when the bridesmaids are actual rocket scientists, the groom just recently helped discover the gravitational waves that Einstein had theorized, and the groomsmen all play together in a seriously killer Grateful Dead cover band. Yeah, I’d say that’s good company.

Psychedelic rehearsal dinner.

Psychedelic rehearsal dinner — which just so happened to be at the west coast’s “largest collection of Gasoline pumps and Petroliana”, which totally isn’t my scene but which I have to admit is pretty damn cool, nonetheless.

These two, like feline yin & yang they are, just always wrapped up in each other.

He made a kite.

This one afternoon, Jeremy and Waits and I just thought it would be fun if we painted our washer and dryer in psychedelic technicolor, so we did.

Project! Exciting wildcrafting projects, coming soon to the blog.

~~~

And now, it’s time for the one, the only, Le Love List!

“Wine and Whining” – a much needed evening with a girlfriend. // When the kitties chirp-purr like little velociraptor chicks. // Listening to podcasts! Lately I’ve learned all about Charles Manson, and also the wines of Montalcino, and also the history of Project MK-Ultra. I looooove podcasts!! // Thursday afternoons when Jeremy and Jerome and I are all working together prepping food in the kitchen, getting ready for the weekend ahead. LOVE that kitchen energy. // Snuggles. // Reading poetry for the first time in a long time. Thanks Robyn! ♥ // When Waits requests that we listen to Hamilton on the way to school. // “Witchy Wednesdays” // The sweetest little vegan family came into the wine bar tonight, visiting Santa Barbara all the way from Denver! And it’s always such a treasure to meet Bonzai readers, and especially fellow mamas. Thank you Jacqueline for stopping by, and thanks even more for reaching out and saying hi! // Tannins. // I’ve been feeling really nostalgic lately. Or maybe, “nostalgic” is the wrong word. I don’t *yearn* for another time. It’s just that I’m very *aware* . . . of time. Reflective, I guess, and aware of the way that things change. How time passes and things change so much. And how life can look so, so different than it once did.

Have you ever had a song written about you? I recently stumbled (re-stumbled) across this song, and, well, I am the “she” in this song. And I remember so completely the moment that this song was written about. I remember dancing on the porch, with Waits, on a sunny spring morning. Smiling. I remember the dress I was wearing and the way the world smelled on that day. And even though those feelings didn’t last, that moment will forever be immortalized. Just an instant – captured. How could I have known it, at the time?

And things have changed so much, again and again, like things always seem to do. But that moment will always live on, now, in music. And now I’ll always wonder, in every moment ever after, if some day I’ll stumble across a song . . .

~~~

Alright guys, now it’s your turn! I would really love to read your own Le Love Lists, so please share your love in the comments below. What’s been making you smile lately? ♥ ♥ ♥

And as always, I hope you have a relaxing and rejuvenating weekend!

♥

veronika

This was such an awesome post! I am happy to see that you are seeing the light, happy for your awesome anniversary (here’s to many, many more!!!), happy for the wedding and the sunshine. This was just what I needed to see to have a better morning too :) Thank you, and have a wonderful Mother’s day!
http://bonzaiaphrodite.com/ Sayward Rebhal

Aww thank you Veronika! I am definitely coming around and it feels really good. And yay for having a good/better morning — happy Saturday! ♥
Jaclyn

Hi Sayward. You are so sweet to mention us in your post. It was wonderful to meet you and Jeremy. Your wine bar and shop around the corner are lovely. Fabulous wine and even better vegan food! You are doing great things for Santa Barbara. :) Thank you for your honesty on your blog and for inspiring me to be a better vegan parent. We all have to stick together! Good luck with your ventures and happy anniversary to you two
http://exileinmomville.blogspot.com/ Joselle Palacios

That rehearsal dinner dress is amaze.
rebelgrrrlraechel

This whole post is so beautiful! I especially relate to your reflection on nostalgia. I just had a extremely nostalgic week myself (maybe it’s something with all this planetary retrograde?), and was doing some research about it on the internet. Apparently nostalgia used to be diagnosed as a mental illness for the way it got in the way of people getting through day to day tasks (http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2013/08/when-nostalgia-was-a-disease/278648/). I too feel, vividly, moments from my past and although don’t necessarily want to be back there, also sit with the weight of how dramatically different things look now. It’s overwhelming sometimes. I’ve had songs written about me (hashtag, all my boyfriends in high school were in bands), but really get almost equally taken back to a place and time listening to nearly any song that I associated with a particular person or moment. I actually legitimately can’t listen to certain songs because the sensation is so strong that it will, as the early diagnosis described, get in the way of my day to day tasks. le sigh.

Anyway, thanks as always for the energy you bring to the internet. <3
lysette

‘it’s been an opportunity for authenticity and exploration and learning and growth. ♥’ That is exactly what this new moon has brought to me, fiercely, frighteningly but all good when I stop resisting! ahaha

Your kitties bring all the softness when I see that picture <3
When ever I hear a Santigold song I have to stop everything and listen. I think cause she grew up on the same kind of punk as I did I hear it's influences in her music and it evokes a kind of nostalgic wave that always takes my breath away, a teleport to dreams and feeling my lungs fill with air. Real magic xox
Melina

Hi!! Sayward :) I love this happy post. I’ve been struggling a little bit too, and finally things are getting better!! You always inspire me to cook, bake and take care of my loved ones more.

The part about the song is so cool. The other day I was listening to a song that my exboyfriend wrote about me, and i felt nostalgic remembering those times, but it felt awesome to realize that I’m not that person anymore. The song describes (in a totally romantic way) a crazy, messed up girl that belongs nowhere and is always wanting to run away to start over. I’m so much better and stable and happy now. I’m present and living the moment.

Anyway.. just wanted to say that I’ve been reading your blog for a long time now and thank you for all the inspiration!!!! If you ever come to Mexico you have a friend here.
Robyn Groves

A LIST! A lavalavalove list.

Yoga. Always yoga. / My giant 20 lb kitty who just wants to snuggle and always knows when I need it most. He hears me pull the brake in the driveway and runs for the door to say hello. What cat does that? / Nerding out on anatomy. / Spending an entire day in the jungle of my patio reading and resting. / Fresh fruit. / Making popcorn and knowing it won’t hurt my belly anymore. / Finally finding a balance with the foods I want and the foods I need…and knowing which ones will not hurt. / Sunsets on the beach…the kind where “heaven” is so close and almost tangible. / Long walks to the pier with old friends. / Rediscovering music after a brief hiatus and moving with the sounds. / Being outside.

Speaking of outside, May 22. You and me. Sweat in the sun.
http://bonzaiaphrodite.com/ Sayward Rebhal

YASSSS! Let’s climb to the top of the mountain and then WHOOP as loud as we possibly can. Don’t you think that would be swell?

Love the love list, and can’t wait to meet that massive cat of yours. See you sooooon!
http://bonzaiaphrodite.com/ Sayward Rebhal

Oh man, I relate so much to what you said about the song. Wow, SO much. It’s that weird mix of nostalgia and like . . . relief! TO not be in that place any more, to have grown and changed. I’m so glad to have experienced the things I have experienced and lived the life I’ve lived, but I’m SO glad to be through that messy part! Haha.

Thank you for reading and thanks for the comment, I love connecting over these sorts of common experiences. ♥
http://bonzaiaphrodite.com/ Sayward Rebhal

Yep, I know soooo many people who are experiencing it right now, Lysette. I hope you can make your way through it relatively quickly, and that you learn lots to take with you. ♥
http://bonzaiaphrodite.com/ Sayward Rebhal

Thank you! It took me 20 years of looking in vintage shops to find a mod maxi that fit me, but I finally found this one and I adore it soooo much!
http://bonzaiaphrodite.com/ Sayward Rebhal

Aww thank you Raechel. And whoa, that is wild about nostalgia being a diagnosis for mental illness! That’s horrible! But also in a weird way, understandable? It’s a powerful force, that yearning.

And you’re right about music in general. It’s any song that is connected to a strong memory or feeling — it doesn’t have to be about you. I have a handful of those songs that just instantly slay me, that I cannot hear without tears. Many of them by Tom Waits, of course. ;-)

Thank you for sharing your thoughts and for connecting. ♥
http://bonzaiaphrodite.com/ Sayward Rebhal

It was so great to meet you Jaclyn! You have an adorable family and I wish I would have gotten more time to chat with you guys. I hope SB was good for you and you found some other awesome vegan eats. Did you get to hit Mesa Verde?

Thanks so much again for stopping in, and for saying hi!
Jaclyn

SB is so beautiful! I would love to live there. I agree that it lacks vegan options. We ended up eating at Mesa Verde twice and it was tasty but very overpriced. The desserts were to die for! We also ate at Green Table (the raw vegan wrap was great) and there was an amazing vegan scone at Handlebar Coffee.

Next time we are there maybe we can get lunch!? Good luck with everything.
http://angieeatspeace.com/ Angie

LOVE!
I appreciated your post on your favorite podcasts. Can you tell me which you got the Charles Manson info on?
http://bonzaiaphrodite.com/ Sayward Rebhal

Oh it was an AMZING 10-part series on a podcast called “You Must Remember This”. The podcast is all about old Hollywood, and talks about the history of all sorts of Hollywood events and rumors and stories, etc. So they did a series on Manson and it was incredible!

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