nika rebekah

please please pardon this lull in words & pictures.

the greatest challenge in these autobiographical sabbaticals is summing an expanse of months with some desirable concision-- i'll do my darnedest.


portland was like this:


silver tins full with a hundred different teas, steeping & serving leaves, chai oolong mate genmai cha gunpowder matcha. and a family of folks who were far transcendent of coworkers.

the rain would not let up. huddled under an awning, neon lights of a garish tiki bar sign flashing pink across my beautiful ladies faces, slurred words, chalky cigarette smoke hanging in the damp night.

a renegade dance explosion, gammy girls in gold glittered playsuits, performing spontaneous choreography in crowded dancehalls, beyonce's 'get me bodied' penetrating the wet sweat, cheers and jeers arising among an unsuspecting audience.

& visits to hot springs, we three misses in a hollowed log, one shaggy mud crusted pup shaking a splatter of great pleasure. & as the weather warmed, one last visit to sauvie island, straw hats in place of clothes, gewurztraminer in tiny jars.



& the biggest Decision: graduate school dream program sucking me dry of dollars for the rest of my days, or a compromise of tiny proportions, not really a compromise in the least. in short, my next stop will be my MFA in photography from university of oregon, full ride, teaching fellowship to commence this spring 2011. i am a ball of nervousness, thrilled, stunned beyond belief, and itch-itch-itching to get started on a million projects.


in the meantime, all of my belongings are sleeping in a musty dark underground space, awaiting my return to the great pacific northwest. my lia, patsy, patsy's right hand gent bruno the senegal parrot & i embarked on an epic roadtrip to our sonoran stomping grounds for a summer of dark desert magic, family and friend love, monsoon thrills, the sound of cactus wrens cackling and doves cooing 'i'll cook for you'. i'm reveling in baked flesh from a sun i never remembered so bright. there has been an excess of treasure hunting through grimy thrift shops, coming home with armfuls of vintage navajo blouses, brazillian vinyl, etched flasks, 50s party dresses made of upholstery fabric.

some joyous things have happened here so far, but i am still quite excited to return to my new home in the the soggy woodlands of eugene oregon.


there were some losses that occurred in these past months, great & small. it's hard to talk of these things without paying my respects accordingly. some sorrows are much greater to bear than others.

a minor loss, but one of great sentimental value was a 1940s amelia earhart valise, in which i had safely organized all of my prized vintage garments & shoes. during our caravan to tucson, parked in an undesirable park of oakland, our car window was shattered. i cant shake a picture of my dear dresses lying about in a ditch under a scummy oakland overpass, the bewildered thief in regret of his brash & idiotic decision.

my dearest correspondent & pen friend geoff johnson passed away this same week. words will never describe my shock and sorrow over this news. i can only say that geoff was a great friend regardless of our distance of multiple states & his commitment to helping me with graduate school applications as well as advice in regard to just about any topic was unsurpassed. i will miss our words beyond those that can ever be expressed.

last but not least, perhaps my oldest friend, my beloved old lady pup tara met an untimely end sometime in the dark night with an unfriendly & unwelcomed coyote. just days before my arrival home, i wept among musty clothes in a dank thrift shop in the mission in san francisco, as my mother phoned me to delivered the news. my dear love, i hope that she is running about chasing squirrels & digging up potted cactus in the afterlife.

& so ends a rather lengthy yet very much abbreviated summary of my last months. in a coming chapter i will have some treasures to share-- especially road trip pictures.