Prep time

Things happen when one is ready to leave a city, if only for a short time. J & I are heading East to visit with family, an annual tradition that rocks and always satisfies. So, we had two folks to visit with today and it was a blast to hang out with both.

I'm feeling a might better, as they say (in the parlance of our times), and so picking rasberries this afternoon to load up a friend who likes berries was a treat. Likewise, it was a blast to share stories with a former/current co-worker over shorty dogs at Shortie's Coney Island tonight.

We're getting ready for the trip, menus ready and all that. Packing will begin tomorrow. I have a full week of seeing folks for astrology readings and sheer pleasure, as well as increased momentum at work. The only downside to this trip is that I'm likely to be camera shy as my fancy-super-duper camera is out of commission and too pricey (and schedule conflicting) to get fixed before we leave. Not that that's all downside, because I do tend to hide out behind the camera and am weary of that bad habit.

Seattle is rainy - a funny comment, but the first it's been for weeks. As a new gardener, I appreciate nature taking up where I can't seem to provide - the garden will have enough water & the nascent grapes and dwindling berries do appreciate it, along with me.

I'm starting Clint Eastwood's Unforgiven on the dvd player, for entertainment while I do the days dishes. J has asked for a head's up so he can join me. I tell you, it's been a nice evening.

Thanks for checking in.

Blooming

Good couple of days - the Blind Shoemaker's Union debut(husband's band)was great fun, J & I worked in the yard together today, my Mom's gift of a trip to the garden center yielded lots of container plants along with seeds for our first go at growing our own herbs & spices.

Tonight, we're heading up the street to the $3 theater to see Syriana. I'm eager to see Capote, but even though it's out on DVD, it hasn't hit the cheap seats. The race between Netflix & the $3 theater is on.

Still to do: more on the studio, prep cd packages of photos, prep containers & plant.

I'm so glad that Spring is hear. Whew...

coming along...

I can hardly make my way through all of the cd's I've got loaded with images. I owe heaps of these images loaded onto cd's to folks who I care deeply for, and so am merrily (if a bit overwhelmedly) going through the lot. The first couple of cd's are burned, now I can go through the rest. Flickr album to follow.

Also, Virgo full moon + eclipse, if you've had a rocky day, that is one of the indicators. Not to mention that six months from now, you may see the manifestation of what you felt today.

Watching eat, drink, man, woman, must go.

Fall-ish

I saw a rattlesnake, last week, in Ashland, Oregon. I took a road trip, spent a lot of time being quiet and painted. Fun stuff.

Usually through this time of year, I'm enjoying the increasing warmth that is the norm in Seattle. A high school football team hollers out practice across the way from us - which appears to be a herald of this seasons unusually cool temperatures.

J and I are heading out to see the Brothers Grimm tonight. I'm looking forward to seeing what Terry Gilliam has done with this tale. Also, it's a story about story tellers, who wants to miss out on that?

Bashville, USA

Tonight's adventure: I went to the Henry Art Gallery's Bashville bash. I missed the auction preview, but got to catch up with old friends, Art teachers & took a very few pics of the cowboy themed party. DJ Riz spun the sweet tunes & I got a few good pics of him, but haven't purchased the recommended flash & so the rest of the pics are fairly random. I am very grateful that Jen gave me the ticket, what a swell gal!

I've loaded the rest of the Emerald Downs race track photos here.



I went to an herbalist this week, next week is the physical therapist & the nutritionist. I'm still working on my physical health & got a lot of good information from the herbalist. A few more walks around greenlake per week, maybe some yoga & weight training should do the trick.

The painting I'm working on has moved forward significantly. I'm ready to wrap it up, but not in a hurry. I plan on painting tomorrow & hope to move on to a new piece in this next week. It was great to reconnect with folks who can speak to what they see in my work. Tonight's event was really good.

J is in Bend this weekend, camping with friends. I've rented movies to watch while I work. I enjoyed Hayao Miyazaki's Porco Rosso & Castle in the Sky. I'm watching Arsenic & Old Lace just now. I am fond of classics, remembering going with Mom to the AFI theater to watch her favorites when I was young.

Good Day

Good week, too. I'm in the middle of cleaning with J & am stranded, momentarily, by the printer as the Library of Congress Class list prints out. Well, I'm so not stranded, but am rather enjoying a break. We're cleaning the house today & we've knocked out the first part of our project, but are just starting this next bit.

It's going through my office/our library. We've just cleared out all of the furniture & are going through the bookshelves & while I believe we'll maybe never need to organize our books on the "Leeward Islands--description & travel", I'm unconvinced that we're coming up with a suitable replacement.

This has been so much fun, this week. It's also been a lot like sitting next to a board that I keep smacking my head on... I feel more prepared to get into the newness of my life in the world of the marginally employed, but am really struggling with structure.

The good: met with Lolly & also with Jess, finding out that there is more openness to my desire to relax there than I had expected. Did an astrological reading, which reminded me that I'm good at that & was with a lovely person to boot. Put my office together, I mean my laptop, really, as we're still working on my office. Sorted out my art studio storage space, early on.

The bad: feel a bit helpless & so sad about the continuing violence in the world. I'm thinking about London, Iraq, etc. Also, have been feeling very dumb about how to fit together the elements of livelihood that appeal to me. It's not easy to describe what I'm envisioning right now, so it's a bit like "stump your supporters". A bit, I say, more than I like, really.

Three pages left on the LCC before I turn the pages over...

More... I've been too interested in the internet & suspect that I'll have to drop that along with my other crutches (caffiene & cigarettes, for example). There's no longer a reason for me to keep up with the latest software, media, news, etc. & so dropping it may come easier.

I've watched Kinsey & Midnight in the Garden of Good & Evil, recently & can recommend the former. The film is attempting to be as shocking as the man, Kinsey, in the first part of the film & succeeds throughout. It's amazing the effect of his studies, which I've never really thought of much, until getting the distinct feeling that they've shaped a lot of popular culture, at least, in the last fifty or so years.

k, I think I've scammed enough time away from chores... I'll be heading out now...

Gathering my thoughts

I've had a hella good post simmering for Hard to Get over the last few months. Since I'm still digging my way out of an elegant transition, masking only slightly the over-a-year-old burnout, I've not been posting at all. I'll keep that post on the backburner, tho. No need to rush things now.

Some thoughts from current news items:

Mississippi Burning: After 40+ years, Edgar Ray Killen has been convicted of the slayings of three civil rights workers outside of Philadelphia, MS. I wrote earlier in this blog about Rwanda through the eyes of Romeo Dallaire and I've also written about the Armenian Genocide, and I'm struck by the repeated ability to collude by many folks.

The re-opening of this case reminds me of the two references above because it takes economic pressures, collusion of folks in positions of authority and tacit agreement all around to single folks out for their differences -- yet we've mastered this ability. I've not even mentioned the situation in the Sudan, something that is happening right now. It's puzzling, the willingness we have to kill others.

I've been toying with a notion to highlight the ancestral relationships between men & women - men linked to protection of community, women linked to earthly abundance & nurturing. It's always seemed a contentious tragedy that the maligning & subjugation of women hasn't been connected to the issues of squalor & lack in the world. I know that men suffer at the hands of women & that there isn't a clear indication that bringing women, finally & forever, out of the snare of male rulership isn't a clarion call to resolving the issues the world faces, but it does seem that the world is in a bind & that the bind is simply contracting and expanding, rather than truly being resolved. Feel free to take potshots at this theory. I'm nothing -- if not one with a tendency to generalize.

Bolton GOP support is back: "President Bush has the power to install Mr. Bolton as United Nations envoy by appointing him while Congress is not in session, during its summer break, for example. Such a recess appointment would be effective until the end of the next session of Congress, about 18 months from now."

The Economy: Currently, healthcare cost increases are outpacing inflation. Also, more companies are firing people. Finally, chickens come home to roost for Rigas, latest in a line of messed up management. Generalist warning: at this point, how can industry not fight over the last dollar? Am I missing something here?

More stories, this time no links: Schiavo (still dead), Saddam (new story from, evidently, the guy guarding him), Bush polls (no longer worried about how low they go - and why not, it's his second term)

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So, funny story. J & I visited Laurie this week & she mentioned that she's writing a book (substitute appropriate job title here). No big surprise there, she's a genius with stuff to say. Would J be her book agent? This is the funny bit, I say "I'd make an awesome book agent", and "Choose me!". She's game, then a dull silence falls around the three of us. J's looking at me, Laurie's looking at us both & I say, "Oh yeah, I'm not taking on any new tasks before I get my work situation cleared up."

Laurie is one of my closest friends and indulgent, so she didn't mind my quick turnaround. But I know it's trying when I'm apparantly available to do good work, then I pull back. What I'm trying to avoid is spending my time in a way similar to how I used to spend my money: I would try to spend it four or five times. First on say, a nifty gadget - then on, maybe, food - and my favorite - after trying to spend money twice, I'd save it! Get where I'm going here? You can't spend money more than once! Ha! Took me forever to get that & now that tendency has creeped into how I spend time: I'll help here, there & everywhere - then I'll go have fun -- and then... I'll take care of myself & rest...

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No laptop yet -- so I'm luxuriating at J's desktop. He's on a conference call right now & has graciously let me interrupt his workday with occassional e-mail checkings & news readings... Infrequent computer access is doing wonders, I'm thinking.

J's watching Bad Education on the dvd player. Feels like fall outside. The hoots & hollers for the ball team in the field in front of our yard feel more beginning of school than beginning of summer with the wind blowing chill air.

I've been a degenerate napper today. Slept & slept. Would sleep more, but I'd also like to get some things done.

Yawn...

Couldn't wait

Went through May photos & ended up posting them here:


We saw a documentary on the Minutemen tonight, We Jam Econo. I have a distinct memory of seeing them in DC, but if D.Boone died in 1985, I'd just be one year out of high school. Google has been no help at all in backing up my memory. Anyway, it was good to see them - just like that crazy Flaming Lips movie was good to see.

Told folks at work today that I was leaving. Tough to do. Lots of good stuff going on & so I better make this attempt at a career shift worth it. Good people at work. That's not often the case.

Time to hit the hay.

Heart Speaking

Many years ago, I followed an itinerant British folk singer from San Francisco to Massachusetts. She was funny, irreverent and I thought, a genius. I found who she truly was in a creek outside of North Hampton, where she took her regular swim. This concept of regular anything was alien to me & so made quite the impression. She let me sing backup on a tape recording of her music & so I was quite taken with her, her productivity, her sharing.

Now it's almost 20 years later. My husband took me out to see the Flaming Lips film at the local independent arts theater. A story about hillbilly punkrockers who finally divine their sound, their text. Very inspiring!

We came home to chores. I'm very wine-anated & a Virgo mars, and so that is the ultimate in appealing to me. Odd, that. So, I'm done with dishes & the house is clean on Friday at 1:28AM. We have a busy, friendly weekend ahead of us & an arduous, but full of love week behind us, so I can't think of anything better. What I mean by that is, I'm still of the mind that doing service in my home is the best way to open my heart for my friends, the best way to clarify my intention.

Wine glasses later, J's in bed. I'm typing along. My head is spinning, I can't deny it. This week was the most tough at work, the most loved of the folks I worked with were the most difficult to decipher, to me the most inaccessible this week. I'm used to a pretty clean slate at work, especially, so this broke my heart quite a bit.

There are fights that occur between people because things aren't what they seem & boundaries need to be redrawn, but that's honestly no fun for anyone. My hope is that the work that I've done & that the folks I've worked with have done, will end up being in harmony. But in the end, I cannot claim attachment to what happens in my life, I can steer it, but can't predict it. I have proof of that, given that my life has already topped anything I've been able to perceive on my own, but still feel sad that my emotions remain so raw & reactive.

The Flaming Lips film was all about the consistency of work ethic. I did not start out in life with work ethic in the forefront of my efforts, but it's been readily apparent that work ethic is the bulk of what will eventually carry me through this phantasm of physical experience. I do more than surrender to it, I contribute all of the subtlety that I can muster. I honor it, I salute work ethic.

Here's why: Wayne Coyne has pulled a beloved friend out of addiction and back into maximum creativity, along with offering his nephew & family the magic of creative pursuits without 'putting on airs' and is, according to the documentary, about the work he can provide. Granted this is from a documentary that could be slanted, but I've seen too much of this attitude's success to question it indefinitely. I'm game, I'm ready to do this work.

Beyond that, my fluffy - short-haired white cat just click-clacked by me on her way to her food. I love this 16 yr old, blue-eyed marvel. I do. But love, you see, is easy for me.

the...end...

Jung's Memories, Dreams, Reflections biography has been a great read over the holidays. I've dog-eared pages where Jung refers to other books for future research. Previous discussions of Jung with friends have centered around his willingness to explore parapsychology, astrology and the like - in order to determine the nature of the psyche. When a friend mentioned that he was involved in the creation of Alcoholics Anonymous, I was honestly surprised. I found a letter he sent to Bill W. on the web - interesting stuff. click here to view the letter. click here for an editorial on reading Jung.

In one of the passages, Jung describes the house he built for himself in Bollingen, a stone tower without electricity, running water or heat. I wonder what it would take for me to live with less? Jung states that he came into his own in Bollingen, that the simplicity of life was part of that. As I review the commitments I'd like to make to myself this year, I'm looking at the material things I've carried with me, things once full of potential that I can now let go.

Our home is quiet now, our guests left last night. Jason's parents and brother enjoyed their stay and we enjoyed having them. We took them to the Experience Music Project, the Seattle Art Museum, went to see The Rabbit Proof Fence, played pool and relaxed together. At home, piles of books and music kept everyone occupied when conversation lulled. I don't think they missed the tv. Well, I did hear comments about missed football games, but the pool hall had Sunday's games running, so that should've taken care of that.

One of the perks of having my Mother-in-law in town is that she provided moral support as I tried for the sixth or seventh time to remove stains from my Sema gown (tennure). My good friend Lee made Sema costumes for both Jason and myself. She did an amazing job in a very short amount of time. She volunteered at the ceremony and afterward recommended that I come over for an evening of alterations that would improve the look of the costumes for next year. So I washed our black capes (Hirkas) and the rest of the costumes together and discovered that the black belts (the elif-lam-end) had stained both my tennure and our short jackets (deste-guls). After several failed attempts, I let Lee know that the tennures were stained and I was out of ideas. She ended up testing the remaining scraps of fabric she had with bleach and discovered that they didn't yellow as she had feared. I loaded the costumes into the washer one last time and was pleased to see that only the faintest staining remained at the hem of the skirt.
click here to read about Sema ceremony, especially the music.
click here to see the Sema costumes in action.

New Years' Eve approaches and this looks like a quiet one. Dan called tonight with an invite to a party and I've heard of several others, including one in Virginia that looks promising - but I figure this is my only chance to chill, so I'm taking it.

click here for a bit of holiday interactive cheer.