Beautiful Belize

So, I haven't had much time for writing since I've been here in Belize....the weather has been so beautiful that I've spent all my time in the water, getting drunk with my parents...(just once..but jeez...they're crazy!) travelling around by car (it takes forever to get anywhere out here as most all the roads are dirt ones) playing my guitar (I brought Walter), wearing the same clothes over and over again borrowed from my Mother and Father (they lost our luggage and we didn't get it for 3 days together) which in my tall buxom stature and the new short haircut made onlookers question my sexuality, and protecting my overly white complection against the evil rays of the hot hot sun. :-) It's a constant battle I tell you....but worth it. (the sun protection...not the sexuality issue)

Anyway, it's a bit rainy today so I'm inside waiting for Mr. Sun so I can join the marine life and frolic happily in the sky blue water. I've never felt so relxed as when I'm out there letting the waves lift and toss me...I love feeling so small...a tiny speck in the great blue ocean. Falling asleep with the sound of the waves crashing and the birds and frogs..there's nothing like it. I can totally understand the reason why my parents took the huge risk to come here. It's not easy to leave everything you know, with what little money you have and risk it all on a dream. They're so amazing. They make a great addition to Belize and the people here love them.



The view from the porch of my parent's house

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The neighbor's Palapa

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Driftood

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Downtown Dangriga

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The Dangriga Market....(Marvin)

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Katee the Hunter with Mr. Crab

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My Mum and Me drunk on Carribean rum!

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So my lovelies, I miss you all very much but will return very soon and hopefully in a much better mood than I have been of late. :-) It looks like Mr. Sun has reappeared and I'm off to frolic in the great sea. Wish I could share it with everyone...it'd be much more fun with all those I love here, smiling and happy...relaxing with me. Till soon!

xoxoxoLo.

France, Nantes and Underpants.

Hi there! I've been back from Europe for quite a while now and trying to get this post going...but I just haven't felt that inpired. It may have had something to do with the 600 emails waiting for me when I got back...or about a billion other little excuses I could make to mask the fact that I'm feeling lazy and uninspired.

Sooooooooooooo. My first trip to Paris was pretty amazing. Besides the temperature being akin to the fires of hell, it was an overwhelmingly big city filled with an amazing amount of culture. Yep. Culture out the wazoo, yin-yang, and other synonymic orifices. Being a skeptic myself...I figured all this hype about French food was, well.....hype. I couldn't have been more wrong! The food was superb! The desserts even better! The one thing I'd have to complain about was the lack of vegetarian choices to be found....especially in Nantes. You ask for a vegetable plate and they bring you asparagus wrapped in bacon. (I'm already hearing the choruses of "mmmmmmmmm bacon!") But I guess that's something you've gotta expect when you travel to France. That's when you break out the granola that no self respecting, tree huggin' vegetarian freak leaves home without. I personally had 14 of those suckers in my backpack. Almond or Peanut Butter?

We left Paris after only a few days. During our time there we did some touristy things....climbed the 236 steps to the top of the Arc de Triomphe in 42 degree temps, the Louvre (my favorite), The Notre Dame Basilica where I lit another candle for Corey, le Chateau de Versailles and spent the last day hanging out at the Luxembourg Gardens at my request for a break from touristy shite. Eyes burning and red from all the smog......we were happy to be going somewhere with slightly fresher air. On the train back from Versailles....a Hispanic man with mic and amp in hand stepped onto our train and began to serenade us with his rendition of Feelings.

Off to Nantes we were. We waited for around an hour for a cab at the train station. I made a joke about it there only being 3 cabs in the whole town. Turns out I was right. It was Sunday explained the driver and 3 cabs for 400,00 people was ample, no?

Nantes is a great city. Mostly because all the touristy shit was under construction! Yippeee! Liberated from that...I was free to wander around at my leisure. I found this really cool covered passage called the Passage Pommeraye with a bunch of cool shops. Seems though...there was a man standing slightly underneath the steps looking at panties as all the girls in skirts...(myself included) climbed the passage stairs. When I caught him looking...he ran away. Too bad....I was going to run back down the stairs just to give him an extra thrill. ;-) (audible gasp from conservative blog readers) Oh hush! Like y'all don't like to show your panties to complete strangers! Actually, didn't Brittney Spears utter that exact same phrase during her last interview?

All in all it was a really great trip. World Cup madness made it even more interesting. There was glass breaking and Allez les Bleus! everywhere. Fireworks ablaze and some question if the abandoned building next to our hotel had caught fire. The fire trucks came and went with no hose to be seen....so I guess it was finally safe to sleep. I'll shut up now and post some pics. Hope you enjoy!


Arc de Triomphe (random useless factoid: On July 2, 1998, the flame at the tomb of the unknown soldier was extinguished when a drunk mexican national soccer fan urinated on it.)


Artsy photo of dizzying steps on the way down.


Basilica de Notre Dame


From the inside.


Ouch. I'll leave this one to Tim.




Aww. Who knew. Nice Parisian signage. Much kinder than Stay off the fucking grass you North American imbecile.


The Eiffel Tower

The Louvre


Man soon to be aflame and the blurry crowd who loved him.


Chateau Versailles mystery photo.

Passage de Pommeraye. Underpants central.


Nantes Botanical Gardens


Within minutes, thousands had arrived in front of Theatre Gaumont to celebrate France's victory over Portugal. A few minutes later the fire trucks came. Wheeeeeeeeeeee!

Swiss Pics and Nonsensical Ramblings for Thursday

Swiss Pics and Nonsensical Ramblings for Thursday
Current mood: anxious

Hi there. This particular blog post may be cursed...as this is now the 3rd time I've attempted to post it. For such an insignificant piece of drivel...I can't imagine that the universe is conspiring against me so I must chalk it up to microsuck. I even saved the last version in a gmail draft only to find it too had mysteriously disappeared after my mozilla crashola. Wheeeeeeeeee! Anyhoo, I'm trying again. Apparently, I am determined to share my mindless meandering today.

The pics from Switzerland and France this year are merely lovely. Not interesting like last year's silhouettes of cows and castles. It seems as if I am bored of beautiful spaces. This isn't true of course but I didn't feel the need for constant snapping this time 'round....but really enjoyed the scenery like an old friend.



Giselle and Pierre Vorpe....Cris's Swiss cousins. We were on a hike to see the Saut Du Doubs. You start in Switzerland and hike about an hour in....(very easy hike...not very steep at all) and at some point cross over into France. The water was very high..as we had seen a lot of flooding this time in Switzerland. They had so much snow this year that when it melted it caused lots of high water.


Ha! I've taken this path many times. However, the sign wasn't so obvious.


Beautiful Locarno in the Italian part of Switzerland. Very laid back...great food, great merlot. The least expensive area in Switzerland...the hotels and food are reasonable although the service is substandard in comparison. I had a risotto in Bellinzona the first night that was so good it almost made me cry. Considering my propensity to cry at restuarants....I can see you're not surprised, shocked, stunned, or even slightly amazed. FINE! I'm moving on. (and ending a sentence with a preposition...SO THERE! That'll teach you!)


Madonna Del Sasso. This was my favorite place we visited on this trip. Read more about it here. It was quite a steep hike to get to it...but so worth it. I'm not usually that impressed by churches but there is something really special about this place. I felt really calm for the first time in months here. After the last 6 months of tragedy and worry...this was a welcome respite from my troubles. I lit a candle for Corey here. I'm not Catholic or even especially religious...but it made me feel happy to think of a candle burning for him in one of the most beautiful spaces on earth.


The Madonna Del Sasso overlooking gorgeous Locarno and Lake Maggiore.


We took the 12sf garish Nestle's Ice Cream boat to Evian for some free water. Go figure. Next to us on the boat was a really over the top French guy with the largest digital camera I'd ever seen and an equally large ash on the end of his cigarette. This is the guy the host is chasing around at the part with an ashtray under his chin. Additionally, he kept phoning up all his friends and saying..."Guess where I am?" His 2nd favorite phrase was "C'est pas vrai!" We saw him later in Evian getting beat up by 12 elderly ladies in purple overcoats. Not really. Just seeing if you were still paying attention.


This is the famous Evian fountain where everyone comes to get free water. I was being scowled at the entire time by an old lady with hot pink hair. Did you ever notice that people with pink hair tend to scowl a lot? I would think having such a festive color on your head would carry over into mood and disposition. Instead it seems to have the opposite effect. I feel an inane research project on the horizon!


Ouchy...near Lausanne. My favorite town in Switzerland. I've affectionately renamed it Oucheee. It's as if they named these towns just to make me laugh. On the train from Bern to Lausanne there are some really great names. My favorite being....Palezeuix. (Pas les yeux).


Ouchy.


After I fell in from the evil Eurovirus....Cris did a lot of exploring on his own. As he was out taking pics one day...he nearly stumbled over this guy. I love the look on Mr. Swan's face. He maintains a look of curiosity while also seeming to imply that he's about 2 seconds away from take a large bite out of Cris's dangly bits. Ahhhhhhhhh....swans. White......Majestic........Evil.


This is Geneva at sunset. You can see the famous Mont Blanc lighted in pink behind the nearer mountains. Oh, BTW. You can walk now.

I had better try to post this now. Hope you enjoyed it!

XOXO

Lo.

Prayers and Warm Wishes for Corey

I know I'm always asking you guys for your prayers and warm wishes...it seems that a lot of tragedy and illness have darkened our days these past 6 months or so. So I'm asking you again...to pray for Corey. He was in a really terrible car accident and is in a coma. He's very very dear to me and so many others. Even if you don't know him personally, please take the time to add him to your list, to think warm thoughts about a tall, animated, intellegent, caring, crazy guy. We want him back.




OXOXOX

Lo.

Concert for the Gulf Coast DVD

Concert for the Gulf Coast DVD.....$20
(Lobelia's toes not included)

Noelle has only 9 of these left! A live performance of 'Make Me Feel' from our new album is the first song on the DVD and the money goes to aid the vitims of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita so I know that you wanna help right? I can feel you shaking your heads yes in unison! The following is from her myspace page...

The dvd features performances from all 9 bands that took part in this great benefit in Montreal in November. If you or anyone you know would like to purchase the commemorative dvd, they are available for only $20 CAD. You can conveniently order via email or fax. Simply send me a message with your email address and I will forward you the order form. You will receive an email confirming your order. The shipping options are included on the order form. If you have any questions, feel free to contact me. And thank you so very much for your continued support.
Click to Order