What my Sketch Book Says about Me....

I have a problem that has plagued me since I was a little girl....

(My old dog Dobi)

A problem that is glaringly obvious when you flip through my sketch book...

(a nameless lion)

I think that this problem.... or maybe I should call it characteristic (?) has kept me held me back in life....

(Besi, the kitty I lost last year)

I think I need some help in this area...

(Dobi and I)

Or maybe even medication....

(From a Tim Cox painting I love)

Can anyone guess what it is?

The Many Shades of Grey

I love all the crazy combinations of colors that horses come in, though my favorite changes with the weather. For a long time it was a silver grulla (black with a dun gene)...

and then my preference faded to a different kind of dun- a dunskin (dun with a creme gene or buttermilk dun)...

But then I went on this dunalino, (red horse with dun and the creme gene) kick for a while....

Right now I just appreciate a pretty horse in any color. Though lately I've been on a bit of a gray kick. The problem is that gray seems to come in every shade imaginable and to top it off, a gray horse never seems to stay the same color season by season or year by year. They can start off looking like your average bay foal.....


But turn in to a dark steel gray yearling....


And at two you may see the gray starting to take over...



But by four or five your thinking maybe he'll stay dark after all....

But then maybe at 6 his head starts to turn white... giving you a neat looking horse with a dark body light gray face...



And that gray creeps down his neck ...


and lightens his body...


Until finally you end up with a stunning "white" horse....


Or not...

Thats just it, with grays you never really know. Most get increasingly gray as they get older but some start the graying process later in life....just like people. I know a mare that at 10 still looked like this...

But by 15 she was nearly solid white...

When I was about 13 I knew this gray Arabian mare named Jazz. She looked just like this mare...


Only minus the sash. I LOVED her. Her mane fell past her shoulder and her forelock nearly touched her nostrils. I used to dream about that mare... about the silver dapples on her legs and belly and the white rippling lines over her body that reminded me of the way a pool of water throws patterns of light against the underside of a boat....


When I was a little girl I used to dream I owned a horse that was white with black socks and a black mane and tail. I thought that it was a magically color because it didn't exists in real life....

But clearly I was wrong.


Gray is a truly magical color (or shade I should say). Gray is the most dominant of all color genes. It trumps all others.... meaning you can have any color of horse under the sun but if there is a gray gene in there they will inevitably turn gray. Though with some grays you can see what color they are underneath ...

My old mare Ellie was a sorrel, with a champagne gene, with a gray gene.... which turned her the color of oatmeal. In some light this mare looked pink. Really. I guess because her skin was all pink with gray freckles (the effect of the champagne gene)....

This dark rose gray probably would have been a deep chestnut or liver color....

While this gelding might have been a light sorrel...



And he might have been a buckskin or light bay.....

I really like this gelding (he is for sale). And I love his color too...he is actually a dun (still showing his dun factor in other pictures) that is turning gray.... I knew another mare like this and she was the same pretty misty color...her name was Cloudy.


I believe that black horses make the kind of gray that turn a steely blue ...


Even a flea bitten gray still shows his true color with either dark flecks.....

Or red....


The easiest way to know what color a horse would have been is to catch them when they are young and the gray hasnt had time to cast its silver hue.... 15 years from now these horses will all most likely be white...

My personal favorite shade of gray right now is a blue steel dapple reminiscent of my first gray horse love, Jazz....

Though a hint of rose adds a nice touch....

But then as a horse gets grayer the dapples can loose their charm....

Really, grays come in every shade...

Steel.....

Tarnished steel....

Appy Steel :)

Silver...

Nearly black....

Nearly white....

Or somewhere right in between....

Some are light with black mane and tail....

While others are dark with white mane and tail...

No matter the shade...

No matter the age...

I do love a gray.

Which is your favorite?

My Pregnancy Mask and Book Reviews

Whoa!! Wait a second! I am not pregnant!! No Sir-ee Bob! But I do have a pregnancy mask...or so my Mom tells me. About a month ago I started noticing some brownish freckle colored spots on my forehead. I didnt think much of it until one morning DB said, "You've got something smudged on your forehead..." And then my friend said, "What is that on your forehead?" And like the good motherly type she is, licked her thumb and moved in to rub it off. So when I went to pick my Mom up from her cruise I didn't waste much time asking her what she thought of it... I kind of freaked out a little when she blurted, "Oh! That's a pregnancy mask!" I think my heart skipped a few beats before I nearly shouted, "Nu-uh! Is not! No way!"

Check it out....

Any of you had experience with this?

Also, there are a few books I've been meaning to tell you all about.... so....

How about a few book reviews?

I recently read a really good book you probably have heard of- 'The Lovely Bones' by Alice Sebold. The first line of the novel was intriguing enough to catch me, it goes- "My name was Salmon, like the fish; first name Suzie. I was fourteen when I was murdered on December 6th 1973." Some might find this book bizarre, macabre, or unbelievable...as I did at times but overall I really enjoyed this book for being as unique as it was beautifully written.

Also, I just found out that it is being made in to a movie staring more than a few amazing actors- Mark Wahlberg, Rachel Weisz, Susan Sarandon, Stanley Tucci, and some lesser known actors that have also done great work, like Saoirse Ronan (Atonement). Oh and Peter Jackson directing! Release date is set for December 2009...which is right after the New Moon release so I guess I have a few things to look forward to this winter.

Another I also really enjoyed was 'The Book of Negros' (title in Canada) or 'Someone Knows My Name' (US and UK) by Canadian writer Lawrence Hill. This story follows the life of Aminata, a girl who at 11 year old was stolen from her home and family in West Africa and sold in to slavery. This is a very moving, well researched and powerfully written book accounting the lives of slaves during the end of the 17th century and their quest and fight for freedom. It is not an easy read but I found it worth while.


Now a book I wouldn't recommend is 'Girls in Trucks' by Katie Crouch. I can see how some might have loved this book but personally it did very little for me. The title is what first caught my eye and the jacket description sounded promising but I found this book depressing and the main character unlikeable. I would even have trouble describing it... a girl turned woman who struggles to find a hold in life and so fills her holes with sex and men, and more men, and more sex. I guess you could call it a human nature study- her friends, family and relationships are deep, thought provoking and complex- something that I usually apprecaite but still, I didn't like it... lol Oh but it does have a beautiful cover!

'The Glass Castle' by Jeannette Walls is a truly unbelievable book! A shocking biography about the authors childhood as she was raised by two lunatic parents in extreme poverty and neglect...or you could say, raised by a two free thinking radical parents keen on teaching their kids self sufficiency, survival and the power of positive thinking... but I'm going with the first description. This is a very odd book that is, IMHO, a worth while and easy read.

And finally, in other news. I have a Pop Tart problem. I simply CAN NOT have them in my house or else I WILL eat them. All of them. And leave none for DB. It is a sick addiction. DB bought two boxes on Saturday. I wont tell you how many are left. Because that would be embarrassing.

Cry Baby

Yes, you guessed it! Johnny Depp. *sigh*

After the marathon yesterday we went to a hotel in the city to clean up and rest a bit before heading home and while sitting in the valet parking area out walked Johnny Depp and his gorgeous (skinny mini) wife. The hotel lobby was buzzing with whispered, "Thats Johnny Depp" as strangers passed on the word to one and other. I was outside waiting in the car to get to the front door and just killing time people watching when he came out. I didnt recognize him right off (as anything but a very good looking and chic couple) until DB came out to tell me. I just HAD to snap a picture, even though I felt guilty for doing it. Here it is... Oh! And by the way, he is not balding like it looks in this picture! Johnnys hair was died blond and the sun glinting off of it in the pictures made it look like a receding hair line.

I was trying to explain to DB that Johnny Depp has been a constant heart throb in my life since I was a little girl. I distinctly remember sitting in my Dad's living room watching 21 Jump Street with my sister as we mooned and drooled over "Tom Hanson" even though I couldnt have been more than 6 to 8 yrs old at the time. We watched Edward Sissorhands at least a dozen times (or more) because it was one of my sisters favorites. Some of his movies we had to wait to watch when we got older to appreciate... like Don Juan DeMarko, Donnie Brasco, and Chocolat...

But sadly enough it was Cry Baby that stole my heart. I was probably ten when we watched it for the first time and I remember wanting to be a "scrape"...but also feeling torn because I just loved the poodle skirts too. I loved when Cry Baby would say, "You got it Allison, you got it raw!" I just loved Cry Baby in that crazy, heat stick way only a prepubescent teen can....

Of course I appreciated his work as Captain Jack Sparrow, as a drug lord in Blow, and the crazy Raoul in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas but in my heart he will always be Cry Baby....




Wanna know something kinda funny?

DB has sat in the steam room (in the hotel spa) with Johnny Depp many times in the late 80s while he was filming 21 Jump Street in Vancouver and living at the same hotel we saw him at yesterday. It actually was through getting chummy with the director of 21 Jump Street that DB landed an extra job on McGyver (which just happened to be an episode with guest Cuba Gooding Jr.)

******
Deppobsessed and anonymous posted a few comments that J.D. is filming in Puerto Rico and so that could not have been him.... to which I would like to say... first... that if it was not him, DB and I were certainly not the only ones that were fooled in to thinking it was, a dozen people were standing around looking and buzzing about it. And second, rather than just say it was not him, I'd rather delude myself in to thinking that it is possible that he either A) dyed his hair in the past two weeks (very possible) or B) was wearing a wig or C) could have flow in from Puerto Rico for the weekend for fun or for work as he has filmed in Vancouver many times before...actually just recently... and could have up coming or follow up work here...

or I could just be wrong! Either way, in my dreams or in reality, I like to think it was him!

Chelsi- The Papparazzo

I am officially a Paparazzo (Paparazzi(o)- a sleuth like celebrity photographer!)


I saw a MAJOR celebrity today! As in like in REAL LIFE!!! But more on that later...

Some MUCH more important news...

DB finished his marathon today!! It was arduous to say the least. My poor man had horrible digestive upset throughout and was unable to eat or drink much of any of the (MUCH needed) carbs/Gatorade/water he required to last the grueling 26.2 miles. His goal was to get in under 3 hours and 20 minutes....he was set to do that in terms of his scheduled minutes per mile up until mile 24... and then the wheels fell off. Marathoners call it "hitting the wall" or "bonking" but this was worse. DB has bonked every marathon but never like this. He simply and quite literally ran out of gas. No more fuel in the tank to take another step but also his stomach was doing somersaults from mile 1 and he was dangerously dehydrated. Fitness wise his heart rate (he wears a very technical watch) tells him that he was not working too hard physically... meaning he was running well within his fitness level... it was just a fueling/hydro issue. But my boy's got grit! He finished! And not only did he finish, he bested is personal best time by 5 minutes. He came in just shy of 3 minutes over his goal... but still an amazing run! I couldn't be any prouder....though I do wish he had pulled the plug and not finished because he gave me quite the panic when I saw him cross the finish line with skin the color of ash, a deathly looking bluish gray. He had goosebumps all over and the medic was very worried about him. Men will be men, he wanted to finish so he did, dammit!...now a sensible woman would have quit! LOL Actually I take that back... a woman would have been too damn stubborn to quit. lol Oh well..

Did you just scroll though all that marathon talk to see which celebrity I was talking about?

My freakin' amazing, atheletic, sexy, crazy, lovely and adorabley stubborn man just ran the toughest 26.2 miles of his life and all you care about is some stupid celebrity? Okay, I'll admit that if I were in your shoes, I'd probably do likewise.....

But this day is about DB and what an incredible athlete he is! And I really do mean that.... with everything I have... cross my heart and hope to die!


But, with that being said....


Wanna know who I saw?


No I didnt talk to him. I was WAY to shy to do that. But I did snap a picture. Okay, I might have been too shy to take a picture while he was looking in my direction... but I SWEAR, no bullshit, no teasing, no "looked like" or "might-have-beens" I spent a good five minute ogling this man with my own eyes! And you know what, for about three of those minutes I didnt even know who he was! I only knew that he radiated this raw sexual energy... that he was drop dead gorgeous.... even in sunglasses... oh my, this guy he is like a grade A, supreme-o hunk and has been a personal favorite (okay so I have a few!) for the better half of my life (actually a little longer).


Are you dying to know who I am talking about yet??!!!


Good! Cause I'm not going to tell you!!!

LOL

I am going to make you guess!!!

Bwahahaha!

(And yes, I know one could consider this "soliciting comments" but honestly I'm not!!!... I'm just that evil and want to leave you all hanging! lol)

Okay, a hint! Which may be a broad one...

He said these quotes while playing one of his most memorable characters:

"Fortunately, I know how to counter it; the man who did the waking buys the man who was sleeping a drink; the man who was sleeping drinks it while listening to a proposition from the man who did the waking. "

"Me? I'm dishonest, and a dishonest man you can always trust to be dishonest. Honestly. It's the honest ones you want to watch out for, because you can never predict when they're going to do something incredibly... stupid."

Hope you all had a great weekend!