.Sherowski Daily.

It’s New Year’s time again. Things I thought would happen didn’t. Things I never anticipated unfolded. The year’s vacations and long lazy days seem like ages ago. The crazy work seems like it happened yesterday. Time was, is, and will continue to be a mystery.

However, it’s a new year and there are things to do. Here’s Woody Guthrie’s resolutions from 1942. I got a lengthy list of my own. Number 13, 17 and 26 are the same on both our lists, though.

admin Uncategorized

My stocking this year consisted of this: wool socks (I used to be “whatever” about socks until I started wearing the fine wicking Merino ones and now I’m a hardliner about them), goat’s milk soap and a wee tin of lip balm, deodorant (you laugh—but this was actually on my list!), broad-spectrum sunscreen, and (obviously) chocolate. This is a very grown-ass woman set of gifts, and I’m not even ashamed about that. And I love my mom for knowing this about me.

Despite the natural seismic tremors of tensions that every family feels (I think?) when compressed together into one house and timeframe, I get to know my parents better every time I go home on holiday. My very favorite thing is when they tell some previously un-recounted anecdote from their pre-“me” life. Like, who ARE these people who gave birth to me?

I got up before sunrise one morning and caught a ride into town with mom and dad on their way to work. I was alone, sitting on a swiftly moving chairlift by 8:30 a.m. The sun was still behind the mountain and all was blue, ’cept for a little pink puff of cold-fog effervescing in the minus-3 degree air. It was a deeply cold, deeply pure moment that I immediately stuck in my cap of fine, pure moments from this year.

I don’t know what’s up with this guy’s jacket but I’d gladly take these chubby Bernese pups off his hands, immediately.

Nephew Patrick—whom I played with extensively—making his bed like a good boy. Now can he come do mine?

Red skies in the morning, sailors take warning.
 

My parents’ dog Fergus. He wears diapers to bed at night—I shit you not!

admin Uncategorized colorado, family, home for the holidays, snowboarding

Winter solstice! There’s no snow here, but I wish there were.

So….

Mt. Tabor with Lefty and then a bath for him.

Rice cakes, sharp cheddar, and mushroom-fennel soup by myself at the kitchen table.

Skatebirding at Commonwealth for Nemo nooner session.

Holiday cocktails at Cathy’s house (I’m bringin the champagne!).

Catching a plane home to my mommy’s house at 6 a.m. tomorrow morning. Byeeee!

admin Uncategorized

Reason.

Winter light.

Frost.

Love.

admin Uncategorized

No excuses. I should be writing every day and I’m not. But the New Year is in two weeks, so maybe that’ll be a resolution.

Aaannyway, I just put up this sad, pretty Christmas tree.

The reason this li’l guy is so spindly and “Charlie Brown Christmas” is because it’s a live dwarf tree. Yep, it’s alive!! And it’s gonna summer on my deck so that each year, year after year, I can decorate it when the time is right. It’s a good plan, don’t you think?

We’re pretty deep into the dark shopping days of Christmas, and I can’t help but daydream about going ascetic monk and gifting my friends/family nothing but small homemade items crafted from old wine-bottle corks, you know? However, I secretly like Christmas shopping. It’s a love-hate thing.

But ’tis the season, we had a big Christmas rager at Commonwealth last week. I hope you were there. I like Christmas parties because, compared to other parties, they’re really exceptionally festive. Everyone’s stoked to get a break from work/school/responsibiltiy, and as someone who (as a freelancer) is both constantly on break and constantly working, I get to live vicariously through regular folk and feel like it really IS a special occasion. So that’s all. A keg, a bunch of wine, plates full of cookies, and stacks of falafel. Merry Christmas everyone!

Lance, his brother Blake, and Blake’s lady Erica. Faamily!

The women of Portland. Don’t fuck with us.

Do you have a red fringy sweater dress? I didn’t think so. Then you have nothing of importance to add here.

Usual suspects.

Hairy men! Portalnd’s full of ’em. These are two of my faves.

admin Uncategorized christmas party, commonwealth skateboarding

’Tis December, did you notice? Portland’s had days of fierce cold draped by curtains of fog in the morning and eve. At night, the stars shine, but I think my favorite time is around 4 in the afternoon, just before dusk, when beams of burnt sunlight shoot sideways through bare-limbed trees.

Anyway, betwixt episodes of The Wonder Years on Netflix, frigid sidewalk journeys with little Lefty, and putting up Christmas lights at the park, I’ve been bloggin’. And not just here. Burton invited me to blog on their new site BurtonGirls.com. It’s both an honor and totally fun. See ya over there?

admin Uncategorized blogging, burton girls, december in portland