Category: san diego

So many wonderful smalls (photographs)!

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Well, first this tiny pitcher was found at the yard sale that happens outside of Ellie’s house every Thursday. It’s ceramic and according to the guy who gave to to me (for free! thank you!), “very old.” After bringing it home I filled it with one sip of lemonade, made from 1/16 of a lemon plus some sugar. I’m kidding!

 

 

Ellie made me the ultimate tiny thing: she filled a tiny gold book box she found with the tiniest ojo de dios (god’s eye) known to man or god, and affixed a hummingbird feather on the other side. Are you dying right now? SHE MADE IT WITH HER HANDS! I open it to look at it at least twice a day. It is the best thing.

 

 

On Saturday I received a package from my dad, also known as Jonathan F. Katz, aka Poppa Dids, aka P.Diddy Poppa. In it were three small things: a tiny mug with my name on it that I bought during one summer at camp, a small silver spoon from my great grandmother’s collection of silver spoons (COOL), and a photo of me, aged three, with a big belly. Here’s me:

 

 

And here’s the spoon and the mug. Tiny mug! With a font that I associate with 90s computers.

 

 

My thumb is so stubby.

 

 

And here you can see the mug in the Cuteness Lineup I set up on Saturday morning:

 

 

I present to you the full lineup:

 

 

The Hershey’s kiss is from Marilyn’s birthday party on Friday night, where she slaughtered a pinata! And I found the little terra cotta pot at the thrift store. And inside that little bowl are seed packets the size of my pinky finger. They’re so small my human eyes can barely see them! They’re from a vintage dollhouse set! Maybe you can kind of see the tiny seed packets in the bowl in this photo below?

 

 

Let me tell you, ever since I’ve started blogging my small things, I’ve been receiving them left and right. It’s been a most thrilling time of life! Stay tuned for one tiny living creature and a present that was dropped from the sky for me at the farmers’ market on Sunday.

 

 

Treasure chest Friday (small treasures, small containers).

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Brown bottles found at an antique shop in OB: blue  bottle found by my treasured man at our local thrift shop. In the future, I imagine the brown bottles holding small amounts of homemade absinthe. Slurp slurp.

 

 

Tiny jam jar of wildflower seeds; small clamp jar of rose petals purchased at GALA FOODS; jar of Tiger Eye beans salvaged from Ellie’s car; tall skinny vial of stone beads from broken bracelets plus one marble.

 

 

Found bottles & bottles given to me as presents. Most exciting is the smallest one, which I found in the field at Suzie’s while planting on a Thursday. I had to nurse the dirt out of it.

 

Oatmeal & soda (small house things).

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Growing up I ate instant oatmeal, the Apples and Cinnamon flavor. Growing upper, I learned about stirring the oatmeal on the stove, and adding milk, and adding raisins, and cinnamon, and bananas, and coconut, and walnuts, then a dash of maple syrup. My dad eats oatmeal now, but he doesn’t like his sweet, and when I made my fancified oatmeal at home in New York, he was appalled at how many ingredients I added.

 

I believe the soda above is orange-flavored, and I do like that flavor, though I don’t usually want a soda.

 

I acquired these two items at a yard sale in my own sideyard; they were donated by my younger cousin, Jonah. She doesn’t play with them any more, but I do. I also wear her hand-me-ups. She’s fourteen. I’m twenty-six.

 

Honey & elderberries (small things photo).

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Here is a tiny jar of elderberries. Misha’s really into the elder tree right now (for proof click here), and I’m really into small things right now, so I took some elder berries he’d dried and put them in a tiny jar with a rubber lid that I bought at the herb store. And next to it is the honey that I get at the farmer’s market every week, which Sam loves and Kathryn also loves, in fact Kathryn made a honey pie out of that honey. Sam just eats it out of the jar with a spoon. I wish I had a tiny spoon as a part of my miniature collection. Soon, little spoon.

 

 

I like how the honey looks like it’s the proud older brother of the elder jar. Like it’s puffing out its chest a little.

 

Things that are small & grown in Imperial Beach (the series continues).

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Sometimes a day involves burying dead chickens and stripping lemon verbena for tea. Sometimes that day also brings the tiniest of tiny carrots into your life. For me, that day was Wednesday. I was harvesting carrots for lunch with Misha and pulled out a handful, including the tiniest of tinies!

 

 

Here’s a shot of the smallest four, which I brought home (the others were eaten in a salad).

 

 

Then, on Thursday, I planted melons and lettuce and stacked onions for drying. And found a small onion for this project.

 

 

Then, while looking through photos, I found this one that Misha took last summer, where my face is big and shiny and strange looking. But look what I’m holding!

 

 

Onions & tomatoes come from Suzie’s Farm; the carrots are from Wild Willow.

 

Stay tuned for more tiny tinies!!

 

 

Things that are small: farmers’ market edition (photo series) (mine).

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Hello and welcome to the 2nd installation of Things that are small, where I’ll show you a fruit lineup, featuring the smallest of doughnut peaches. Doughnut peaches are like regular peaches that got sat on by very small butts. Perhaps squirrel butts? That’s funny to think of.

All fruits pictured are from Sweet Tree Farms, one of my farm bffs. Annie is their farmer (remember when I wrote about her boobs in a poem?) and yesterday was her birthday. In honor of it we all sang terribly and ate carrot cake. But nevermind carrots! Today is about tiny peaches!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Poem about eras ending (mine).

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For Later

 

We drove through bikinis, walked the paved strip

by the water as kids flirted and cursed. Clouds were low,

unmelting; dolphins moved through metallic

 

ocean. Sean found a piece of unopened candy on the road

and pocketed it. I wasn’t cold or sad or verbose; I was happy

he’d found something to eat later.  I’m always thinking

 

of the delight eating provides  me and how to dispense that.

At the party, Dean’s family was casual and kind, circles

of Ritz crackers beaming on trays. We saw the solar

 

eclipse, made watchable  by the thick sea’s clouds. Night

light over sun. She was scooped, our bulb; we watched

her portioned. Whether you care about weather or not,

 

you could see it. And on cement, below, a group of us

talking, all seemingly young, hands at our sides, no

stones in our pockets to smooth down, to hold.

 

Sideyard success. Serious joy.

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The sideyard was so much fun. I was this happy:

Except I was wearing a blue crown with curled ribbons longer than my hair, a patterned poncho, and wings made out of leaves (made by Jen), and not a clown costume. As Frankie puts it,

best thing about the sideyard poetry readings:

the folks walking past on the other side of the hedge

on their way to friday-night-party

catching clips of outloud poetry

and the quick image of

a writer in the light

as they pass

What was also wonderful was how many people there were (estimates are in the high 90s), and the flower bouquets with artichokes in them (made by Ellie of course):

and how everyone got so drunk that no one bought books like these:

and perhaps the greatest miracle of the whole event is that not a single neighbor yelled at us. And people bought Misha’s photographs! And I didn’t even have a hangover the next morning! And the next morning was Saturday, and Ellie and I split a mushroom and bacon fritatta covered with blue cheese with whole wheat toast and raspberry jam. The end.

Things that are awesome (Sunday edition).

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garlic scapes are awesome

roses smell awesome

tampons are awesome

women that use diva cups are awesome

old ladies who dye their white hair purple are awesome

men with babies strapped to their fronts are awesome (so is anyone with a baby strapped to their body)

bare feet are awesome

mixed recycling is awesome

happy hour prices are awesome

bicycling feels awesome

tie dye is awesome

“Made in the USA” is awesome

having a sister is awesome

homemade hot sauce tastes awesome

grilling is awesome

finishing projects is awesome

making pancakes for yourself is awesome (so is making pancakes with anyone)

driving a tractor is awesome

getting high on coffee is awesome

artichokes are awesome

handshakes are awesome

wordplay is awesome

DJ names are awesome

blueberry season is awesome

reading is totally awesome

i think rollerblading looks awesome but i only did it once so i don’t know for sure

being taken out to lunch is awesome

feeding people is awesome

riding shotgun is awesome

James Brown will always be awesome

writing poems is for sure awesome

giving poems to people is awesome

whiskey is awesome

ginger beer is awesome

old friends are the most awesome of awesome

homemade muffins are awesome

thrift stores are awesome especially the sunglasses section

records are awesome

the word “platypus” is awesome and so is “spritz”

hip hop lyrics can be really awesome

bartering is awesome

letters in the mail are undeniably awesome

bacon is awesome why didn’t anyone make me eat it earlier it so so goddamn awesome

summer coming on is awesome

Misha is number 1 awesome

treasures are awesome (like bird bones or gemstones)

wind turbines are awesome

root beer floats are awesome

notebooks are awesome especially new notebooks

woodcuts are awesome

worms are awesome

herbs are awesome

friendship bracelets are awesome

monks are awesome and so are nuns

hats are of course awesome but we already knew that

getting an mfa is awesome and i’m almost done doing it!!!! awesome over & out.

 

 

 

Springtime in the sideyard (EVENT)!

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This Friday is the Spring Sideyard! All the info is on the gorgeous 70s poster below, designed by Misha. The only thing about this event is that you must now, right this minute, please I am asking you nicely, do a No Rain on Friday dance. Please just do a little shimmy for no rain on Friday. Normally I shimmy FOR rain, but this week my shoulders are aligned with the sunshine.

 

I hope to see you there! I will be thinking of all my friends and loved ones who live far away who I know would love to be there! I miss you all!