Thanksgiving in Boston

It has been FOUR years since I have visited my family for Thanksgiving: Last year, due to bad planning, my roommates and I ended up cooking hotdogs in our backyard, over a campfire, telling stories, drinking apple cider, huddled under thick blankets. Year before that, I had Thanksgiving in Cleveland with my roommate Geoff's family... ! Year before that, I attended Patrick's Thanksgiving. Small, cozy, formal, good food.. Someone dropped a glass bowl of stuffing - They served it anyways, some obscure cousin, found a chunk of glass in his food.....
My mom's side of the family is HUGE! - Double Venti 'Brady Bunch'. Her brother's and sisters are 'well-to-do' - CEOs, Dell Corporation, Doctors, Engineers, Entrepreneurs. They worked hard to get where they are today. They went to school for many years. They make a lot of money. They own big houses. They have broods of perfectly, well-behaved, intelligent children - Basically (white fence not withstanding) they live the American Dream (without all the debt)...

I love them all dearly - I grew up skipping rocks in Maine, family vacations on the Cape. Deep sea fishing, swimming at Martha's Vineyard, catching sea frogs with my little brother next to the most picturesque lighthouse you have ever seen.... Lobster dinners, watching the sunset with my grandfather, sail boating with my uncles....

But as I get older, visiting gets difficult- Most of them have no idea that I model nude (nor can they know) - All the things you read on this blog, the majority of my life, I cannot talk about: Who I meet, where I travel, my roadtrips, my photographers, my photos, model friends, all these amazing stories...  I find myself terrified to interact with my own family - Afraid I might let something slip, afraid that I will accidentally say something wildly inappropriate (which I do.... enough and often)....

Guess, what I am saying is..... I wish that I was more like them sometimes... I wish I could relate to my family more often. I wish I had a job that I could discuss over dinner... I wish they could look at me and be proud of what they see (because, they don't)

I wish you the very best of Stuff-your-face-day, friends! May you spend your Thursday evening in a food-coma, happy, surrounded by the warmth and love of your family (and if you do not have family, perhaps the warmth of your turkey oven) - Enjoy the bird, enjoy the tofurky, enjoy the mashed potatoes and the green beans. Enjoy football and the small children pretending they are Ninja Turtles - Enjoy the pies, the weird uncles and the grandparents who tell the same stories over and over again.... those small things .... really do matter.

Showertimes

When the weather gets chilly..... I do not turn up the heat in my apartment, no - Instead, I emerse myself in a blistering hot shower! My bathroom becomes an incredible searing hot vortex, in which normal people would either scald to death or melt into a giant puddle of broiled mush bubbling in the drainpipes.... In my sweltering sweat room, I create an ongoing fantasy: I am in a wooden steam bath deep in the Amazon, sharing my company with intellectual guru-types. It is exotic, there are birds in the rainforest, and mist in the trees. Back home in Austin.... my Amazon gurus hang out on my porcelian crapper, making bowel movements, while picking kitten hair off their toes.... I suppose..... every steam bath, in every house, is different.

Best ideas for blogs come to me while showering. Then, of course, by the time I sit down in front of my computer, I have forgotten all the things that were worthwhile - except for this morning! This morning, while I was showering, I recalled a conversation from years ago.... It was this crazy sex story about my friend in LA, and how her and her man had been getting down and dirty in the shower - Somehow, amidst the friction, she slipped and nose-skidded into her bathtub faucet - breaking her both nose, a few teeth, and busting open her lip. Not the best shower story, I know. Perhaps it was the horror of the story, but today I remembered once I sat in front of my computer, and actually decided to Google how many sex related accidents happen in the bathroom (I often spend a lot of time Googling things like this) - And holy hell, I know this has nothing to do with sex in the bathtub, but did you know that you can get electrocuted while taking a shower in a thunderstorm? It is serious! Who knew? Somewhere between 10-30 people get electrocuted every year in their bathtub: Through their metal pipes, through impurities in the water, through bathtub attachments.... They say that the majority of people who survive these freak-accidents are the people who were wearing rubber shoes.....

Who wears rubber shoes in the shower? I don't know - I might just put it on my Christmas List.... You can never be too safe, you know.

Disintegration Collaboration

"Hi, London! It's been a long time since I've written. I congratulate you on your kitty-loving ways and your decision to go veggie. I've been a vegetarian for a couple of years now and, slowly, I'm aiming at a vegan path. I know you're super busy so I wanted to let you know that some of my latest artwork is part of the Disintegration Collaboration Project, which allows time and nature to help you create recycled art. One of my latest DisCo bundles features a xerox low res picture of you. After several weeks of rain, wind, heat, etc., here are the results. 

Take care, London. I wish you the best - Duff"

Photos from Chicago!