Tomorrow night I’ll be doing pics for Women Who Rock at the Fez Ballroom at 8PM!

March 1, Saturday: A Tribute to Lucinda Williams
Featuring music by: PILAR FRENCH, LARA MICHELL, NICOLE CAMPBELL,
MICHAEL JODELL, REINA COLLINS, KATE MANN, PAULA SINCLAIR,
BREANNA PALETTA, BETH WILLIS, RENEE PLANT, SARAH GWEN,
TOO LOOSE CAJUN BAND, THE EX’S
8pm, $10 advance tix available at www.brownpapertickets.com

Come give our Portland Lady Rockers some love and smiles!!

See you there!

My nieces were bickering in the corner. An 8 year old pitted against her 11 year old sister.  I could hear them arguing but I couldn’t make out exactly what the issue was until Princess Cranky Pants stomped over to where I sat reading and blurted, “Auntie Nina, are dragons just made up or did they go extinct? Tree says they aren’t real and I think they just died.”

“Well, you’re both wrong. Dragons are very real, but they are not dead, they’re just smart enough not to be seen.  They’re probably just sleeping in a mountain somewhere.”

“Really?” she asked, with a relieved smile.

I shrugged matter of fact, “Of course. Dragons are real, we just don’t see them.” I returned to my reading and glanced out of the corner of my eye to D who sat at her computer and she rolled her eyes in the way that means, “Athena, you’re not helping.”

That was last year.  I’ve missed my sister and the girls and thankfully it seems they will be coming to visit for spring break.  The girls have never been to Portland and I can’t wait to show them some of my favorite places.  The cherry trees will be in full bloom along the waterfront and Forest Park will be alive with magic.  The Market will be abuzz with new and exciting things after a winter of being silent. A trip to the sleeping dragon of the north or a drive to visit the mermaids in the west, maybe even a 20 minute getaway to introduce them to the fairies that live near Multnomah falls or the Gargoyle named Armon that keeps peace in NoPo from his perch on the St. John’s bridge.

I sometimes wonder what I have to offer the next generation of my family.  I don’t have much in the realm of reality that would benefit them, I don’t think.  I have only the worlds that I create that live in tandem with the world that I am obliged to be a part of.  Fairies in my house plants and fabricated myths to explain the mundane everyday and make it palatable and exciting.  Such fantasy does not currently pay bills or win awards.  And I fear that someday I’ll be the crazy cat-lady Auntie that lives at the end of the road, talking to herself and doing macramé.

I want very badly for my nieces to be proud of me, to think that because I have accomplished something – so to can they.  I want to be able to show by example that they can blaze their own trail, remove their own mountains and align the stars the way that suits their desires.  I want to be able to make it easier for them to walk taller in a man’s world, strike out toward their dreams with fewer fears and obstacles than I did when I started.

The only way I know to do that is by living the eccentricity that is my make-believe. Because one day, it will be true.