I am listening to loud, smart blues rock and drinking coffee to try and reset my equilibrium after being woken up by the Jehovah’s witnesses.  Still feel a little off kilter, was having long, vaguely unpleasent dreams about books, work, the mafia, drving, moving, being unsettled, love and weather.  So, um, I guess dreams mostly about what I write about here?

Last night I was image searching for some art ideas I have and got totally waylaid looking at Moorish and Moroccan tile and design patterns.  Hours were lost to this venture.  And then I found the perfect Keds.  Someone put that “design your own shoes” thing to great effect.  If I had any money at all I would totally buy them.

I find life strange in it’s weird connections. When I moved to Tennessee, Libelle and I drove across country and stopped as we could at the classic Americana roadside attractions.  Including the Corn Palace in South Dakota, which is an example of  Moorish Revival Architecture.  I’m not sure I knew this when we were there, but it is insanely obvious when you look at it.  It also makes me think, as I often do, of all things I want to be doing.  Almost every single one of these things requires a fair amount of cash and a lot of free time–two things that feel almost mutually exclusive.  (Many of these things I dream of involve roadtrips, writing, international travel or a level of dedication to learning a new skill that requires one not to have another job).  How great would it be to drive around the US, seeking out examples of Moorish Revival architecture, taking pictures and writing short stories to go with each location?  Perhaps stories that tied Islamic culture to American culture throughout the past?

Unrelated, but related: Lately I am strangely obsessed with Huipils.  Not only the culture and history of the garment, but the beauty of it too. I would love to have seen this exhibit.  Really I would love to spend a year with women who make hupils in the old style, learning to perfect the weaving and the embroidery and decoration and learning the status associated with changes in style and how that displays the wearer’s marital status and where she comes from.  I would learn to embroider huipils that told the stories of each woman’s history and her family and the life she lives now  (see above, all my ideas requiring money and time).

I should make a careful list of all the fantastical trips I would like to take to learn more about art and life.  It would probably just depress me.  Or inspire me.  I have hardly any money right now, I guess it wouldn’t matter where I was in the world, if I just upped an went.