overheard on halloween

son: i have a cold.
mom: a cold is when you are sick. but too much candy is a different kind of sick.

food for thought

love her or hate her, camille paglia gives interesting insights and unique points of view on politics, entertainment, and various cults of personality. something about camille makes me wary: she seems rigid and self-deputized, yet weaves in and out of being on any side. i admire someone who can appreciate people she vehemently disagrees with — and in today's polarized politicism (which gives me heart burn) we need more thinkers like that.

» read the article

instalove

wow. listening to "hard drive" by evan dando and i have to say: i have immediately fallen in love with this song. wow. you can listen to it on the salon music sampler or on his site. so sweet. i want to wear it like perfume.

and speaking of instalove... i have an overheard but don't want to share this person's name... just cuz it was so sweet and personal and perfect...

overheard

man at party: i want a girlfriend so bad i'm already in love.

this was the sweetest statement ever overheard at a party. i hope the inflection can somehow be conveyed in type.

fires and devestation

kb of sweetdogk is from scripps ranch (san diego) and houses burned right on the street where her family lives. their house was spared, but yesterday was still scary and sad. so, while the santa anas are bringing glorious warmth and awesome weather here, it is wreaking havoc on southern california.

i'm supposed to go to o.c. today. there aren't any fires there, but the sky is dark and full of ash. i'm worried about the freeways — don't want to be part of clogging them up while people need to use them to get the hell outta dodge.

what is with the fireman mustache? is this a dress code? a requirement? a result of alien activity?

besides that, is was a really fun weekend

my life is a lucky life. i went to montano de oro saturday and sunday. this is such a little gem of a state park in the town i grew up in. standing on a cliff, on the edge of this entire continent, watching the waves crest and the birds skimming the tops of them. there's no way you could be there and not be blown away with a sense of deep gratitude and perhaps a little blown away by chance of being so fortunate. i am fortunate.

baywood fest

yesterday was a surprisingly great day as i had a doozy of a headache from a late, late, late (early morning?) night at the estab halloween party. but i made it out to los osos really early (condsidering), went to mdo with my mom and then went down for the baywood fest.

baywood fest (or octoberfest, as it is also known) is one of my favorite things, yet i don't think i'd been in about 10 years or longer. the weather was awesome and the little fair on second street was sweet. i wish i'd had a camera.

the best part was running into erin who lives in gilroy now. erin and i were inseparable for years, best friends like sisters. she was there with her family (including her stunningly beautiful daughter gabby) and i sat and chatted with them for most of the time. i love that family.

i've got a nice little sunburn happening across the bridge of my nose. i'm proud of this. my own little badge of reclaiming my life and getting more balanced and creating something new.

october is great



i don't know why kids get summer off when everyone knows that autumn is the best season of all. and nothing beats october on the coast of california. it was an unbelievable day, so kb and i hit the beach. a beach that i grew up calling "A. Beach" (short for Atascadero State Beach) but that officially became "Morro Strand" years and years ago.



it was H.O.T. (eighty? eighty plus?) in a town that normally doesn't have the drive to reach beyond a cool 68. the santa anas (that are growing fires in southern california) are the surfers' jackpot and all three surfspots along this stretch were appropriately dotted with their black sillouhettes, awaiting their turn at the windswept swells.

i had called kb earlier in the morning: let's go for a walk on the beach, but felt a little guilty half-way into it because it is a solid four miles. i don't think it was the length of the walk, or even trudging through the sand that made us tired, but the sun and the wind. the waves came in and lapped our feet cool.



it was a real day for birds. mostly the tallish brown-dotted waders with the long beaks (what are they?). but all birds were taking advantage of the wind and doing perfect impressions of kites, cupping their wings and allowing the wind to sweep them up and to the side.



the labs were there to play, but these two little chihuahuas didn't want anything to do with the big looming ocean. click the pictures to see more of the scenery — i cropped 'em close so you could see the dogs, but the bigger versions show you a little of the surroundings.

she likes (pause pause) birds

mizz staysh, the crazy cornfield queen in the middle of america, is wunnathe hippest you'd ever hope to meet. she's been at blogger for damn near a year now, but has had it with its eating of the templates. i hear ya sister. i send you a hearty me-too.

but stacia is stronger than me and has actually changed neighborhoods. you can now find her OASIS at iblog.

PLUS: she'll greet you with a little special welcome blog tune. and you gotta love that.

Good Grief, Charlie Brown
Five stages & four little steps

This little article that I snipped this from states that while usually applied to bereavement, we all go through the "five stages of grief" many, many times in our life. Moreover, the actual name is "The Five Stages of Receiving Catastrophic News."

Snippage:

As an example, apply the 5 stages to a traumatic event most all of us have experienced: The Dead Battery! You're going to be late to work so you rush out to your car, place the key in the ignition and turn it on. You hear nothing but a grind; the battery is dead.

1. Denial — What's the first thing you do? You try to start it again! And again. You may check to make sure the radio, heater, lights, etc. are off and then..., try again.

2. Anger — "%$@^##& car!", "I should have junked you years ago." Did you slam your hand on the steering wheel? I have. "I should just leave you out in the rain and let you rust."

3. Bargaining — (realizing that you're going to be late for work)..., "Oh please car, if you will just start one more time I promise I'll buy you a brand new battery, get a tune up, new tires, belts and hoses, and keep you in perfect working condition.

4. Depression — "Oh God, what am I going to do. I'm going to be late for work. I give up. My job is at risk and I don't really care any more. What's the use".

5. Acceptance — "Ok. It's dead. Guess I had better call the Auto Club or find another way to work. Time to get on with my day; I'll deal with this later."

This is not a trivial example. In fact, we all go through this process numerous times a day. A dead battery, the loss of a parking space, a wrong number, the loss of a pet, a job, a move to another city, an overdrawn bank account, etc. Things to remember are:

• Any Change Of Circumstance can cause us to go through this process.
  
• We don't have to go through the stages in sequence. We can skip a stage or go through two or three simultaneously.
  
• We can go through them in different time phases. The dead battery could take maybe 5 to 10 minutes, the loss of a parking space 5 to 10 seconds. A traumatic event which involves the Criminal Justice System can take years.
  
• The intensity and duration of the reaction depends on how significant the change-produced loss is perceived.

It was mentioned above that Grieving only begins where the 5 Stages of "Grief" leave off. Grief professionals often use the concept of "Grief Work" to help the bereaved through grief resolution. One common definition of Grief Work is summarized by the acronym TEAR:

T = To accept the reality of the loss
E = Experience the pain of the loss
A = Adjust to the new environment without the lost object
R = Reinvest in the new reality

This is Grief Work. It begins when the honeymoon period is over, the friends have stopped calling, everyone thinks you should be over it, the court case is resolved, "closure" has been effected, and everything is supposed to be back to normal. It's at this point that real grieving begins.

Notice that the first step of Grief Work is ACCEPTANCE, the last stage of the 5 Stages of Grief. Let's throw out the 5 stages of grief and replace it with a greater understanding of Grief Recognition and Resolution.

pictures from around baywood

since i was talking about it...


the back bay


baywood pier


oaks at mom and bill's

worth it: the salon premium

about a year and a half ago (i think) i became a salon premium member. for some reason i had really held off. now i can't believe that i waited so long. i read it almost every day and i love the little member treats, like downloading the salon premium music sampler. try it. you'll like it.

the party
other things: damn. i think i am coming down with a cold. or maybe i'm just exhausted. dunno. but the estab halloween party is coming up and i want to be ready for it. i think it will be another c-razy one. those invites are coveted. this year's theme is gods and monsters in the temple of doom. i tell ya, i don't think anyone thought they could top last year's gothrotica. but this year has an elaborate maze, larger than lifesize carniverous plants, stages and polls for dancing, not to mention multiple dj's and some of the grooviest dancers in town. should be a blast.

spinning, dr. jammies, fog, home towns

kristin and i have been spinning a lot. three times in four days. my legs are exhausto and so are my eyes as these classes tend to be early-ish in the morning. we also walk to the gym together — let's be honest, if we didn't have to meet each other then maybe neither of us would force ourselves out so early in the day.

because the time hasn't changed yet, the mornings are dark. because we're in the thick of an indian summer, there is a heavy layer of fog balancing on top of the streets and sidewalks, which we walk through. all five or six blocks. car lights and street signals crystalize through the fog like a little early glimpse of christimas.

this morning we passed the eye doctor place and there he was, the eye doctor, 6:30 AM, in his pajamas, picking out a pair of frames for i'm not sure what reason. but it's funny, cuz you never see a doctor in his jammies. in a corner window. that gave me a chuckle for several hours.

meanwhile, i've been spending a lot of time by the bay. los osos/baywood park is my hometown. usually, when someone asks me where i'm from it goes like this:

me: san luis obispo.
them: oh i know slo.
me: well, then, i'm actually from morro bay.
them: oh, i know morro bay.
me: well, then, i'm actually from los osos.
them: oh, i know los osos.
me: well, then, i'm actually from baywood park.
them: ohhhhh.

that's how you go about things when you are from a small place few people have heard of.

people don't really know where "baywood park" is anymore. most of the time they call Lohhhss Osos, Lahhhss Osos (my personal pet peeve). baywood is a super super cute little unicorporated part of los osos, that sits right on the bay. it still has a few cypress tree stands (back in my day every street was 100% lined with these trees, but about 10 years ago a beetle blew in and devoured all of the beautiful trees). there are still no sidewalks, stop lights, or street lights worth mentioning. dirt roads aren't unheard of. iceplant acts as the town's answer to grass. sand acts as the town's answer to pavement. there is a laundromat. a bar. a really good cafe. a half-handful of tasty restaurants. a kick ass farmer's market and really amazing thai food.

fall in los osos and baywood is awesome, alternating between hibernation-inducing blankets of fog and amazingly clear, gorgeous blue-skied days. the estero bay sneaks back and rests on top of mud flats that hold it up like swimming pool or soak it up like an old wet sponge.

make no mistake: the mudflats will not hold you up, but pull you in. i know a lot of people who have sunk up to their hips in this mud. and there are worms in there. i know you don't want the creepy crawly worms slithering around your legs as you are enveloped by low-tide muckymuck.

for your eyes there are 180% oceanic vistas, sand dunes, blue skies. egrets, scrub jays, rabbits and quail. it's a california that doesn't really exist anymore.

the golden rule as an antidote

yesterday was a sad, tough day. but i found a temporary action to take to relieve some of the hurt and i'm going to share it here bc maybe it will help you someday too.

do something kind for someone else and make it meaningful and sincere.

this is an amazing thing. maybe it is that you can give the kindness that you wished was shown to you to someone else. maybe it is just the act of kindness itself. but it softened my day and it made me happy to have made someone else's day.

and maybe you think that is corny, but it works.

today is an amazingly beautiful day on the central coast of california. october is the best month of all. dan and i hit a couple of jackpot yardsales, not to mention a little coffee at linnaea's, and kb and are getting ready to drive up the coast to cambria. meanwhile, the cayucos music festival; we may hit that as well. pictures to come.

i think perfectionism is based on the obsessive belief that if you run carefully enough, hitting each stepping stone just right, you won't have to die. the truth is that you will die anyway and that a lot of people who aren't even looking at their feet are going to do a whole lot better than you, and have a lot more fun while they're doing it. — anne lamott

overheard

mark: what is this place?! "yea i just figured out my outfit??!!" this is such the Pink Ghetto!

sidenote: i was talking about my halloween costume. he's a knucklehead. but we love him.

e.e.

today is the birthday of my favorite poet, e.e. cummings who said, "to be nobody-but-yourself - in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else - means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting." check out the poem below (featured today on The Writer's Almanac) and if you want more you can visit poemdot.

o by the by
has anybody seen
little you-I
who stood on a green
hill and threw
his wish at blue

with a swoop and a dart
out flew his wish
(it dived like a fish
but it climbed like a dream)
throbbing like a heart
singing like a flame

blue took it my
far beyond far
and high beyond high
bluer took it your
but bluest took it our
away beyond where

what a wonderful thing
is the end of a string
(murmurs little you-I
as the hill becomes nil)
and will somebody tell
me why people let go

— e.e. cummings
Poem "87" from 100 Selected Poems


ipod geeking it

i am in full blown ipod geek mode. i wear it like an accessory. my earbuds and i are now one. hearing music i have long forgotten that i had burned. i've already got 1100 songs on it and have only used on 25% of the diskspace. purr purr purr.

and okay i will admit this: i have listened to my own songs several times now and i am totally inspired to do some work on them. i think it is a combination of listening to my songs and listening to some tunes i really admire and wanting to add a little o' this and a little o' that to my songs too.

i think my hearing is a little shot from too many nights of dancing near the speakers in the clubs of my youth. but these headphones seem to deliver all the little nuances. so now i have nuance envy. what i need: an eight-track and or a friend who loves to play engineer/produce. a patient friend who wants to layer and suggest. first stop: doubling the vocals. second step: adding more instruments.

lately on the empod: latest lyle lovett [my baby don't tolerate]; m. ward [transfigurations of vincent]; wilco [a.m.]; a man called adam [punta del este sunset]; the graves [love love love]; inga sweringen (not sure of the name of this, but it is really good).

local girl makes good

and speaking of inga swearingen... she is a local girl who is studying voice and choral direction in florida and recently her name has come up again and again in conversation because she just won montreaux! and i ask you, what is cooler than that? i don't know her personally (though have met her; we have mutual friends) and yet somehow i feel proud of her! proud of our little county for producing such a talented person who had the guts to follow her heart and her song. nicely done. meanwhile, her songs are really really good and her voice is beautiful. but what else would win montreaux? she ain't shabby.

Shrill Political Pie

1 cup attachment
1 cup taking things personal
3/4 cup not listening (sifted) (if using fresh, substitue 4 fresh ears)
1 tablespoon fear
1 tsp arrogance
assorted neuroticism (to taste)

preparation
in a small bowl, chill the fear in the refrigerator for one hour. if you are preparing the dish for the next day, it is fine to let this sit for 24 hours.

in a large bowl, mix the attachment with the personal. fold in the not listening. beat for four minutes.

take the fear out of the refrigerator and immediately add the arrogance. pour the mixture into the larger bowl and mix on high for two minutes.

when the ingredients become frothy add the assorted neurotism to taste.

serves the whole world.

next up... whirled peas...

bill o'reilly loves public radio

» listen to the entire terry gross interview of bill o'reilly

so this morning i finally had a chance to hear the bill o'reilly interview on fresh air weekend (thie interview originally aired earlier in the week, but my public radio station only broadcasts the weekend version).

wow. what a weird interview. first of all, i have to say, i thought overall bill o'reilly did a good job with the interview. i learned things about him that i didn't know before and he actually did come off as fair and balanced for most of the interview. especially in the beginning and he was fielding some tough questions from gross who was focusing on his credibility, background, beliefs, and style.

but i was also surprised when things got out of hand. from an outsider's point of view i was actually surprised when he started getting huffy. the interview deteriorated when gross wanted to read a people magazine's reviewer's response to o'reilly's response to the interviewer's review of his book (make sense?). he began to get angry, bemoaning that terry was being harder with him than with al franken and that there was a liberal agenda to bring o'reilly down. after his rational, interesting responses to gross's questions before this, it was disappointing to see o'reilly get so wound up, angry, and beligerent. he ended the interview early, walking out of the studio leaving terry to say "and i guess that is the end of the interview...."

so here is what i think. o'reilly missed his opportunity. this was a great chance to show an audience that doesn't normally watch his show and might base their opinions of him on sound bytes and second-hand opinions, to really show what he is about. it was an opportunity for him to show that he is fair and balanced. it was an opportunity to display his intelligence, explain his thoughts on the death penalty, the environment and drug laws, and to show people that he might be more than their preconceived ideas.

i don't get cable, so i don't have a chance to watch him. plus, i find it hard to watch shows where everything is an argument with great urgency and fervor -- and i am probably a fairly typical public radio listener. this was his opportunity to show people like me what he was all about.

regarding the way gross handled herself in the interview.... it is obvious that she isn't a fan of o'reilly. and she was probably trying harder to play hard ball with him because he plays hard ball with others. but overall, it was a typical gross interview. what i like about gross is that she does make her interviews personal. she asks questions that other people don't ask or finds the tidbits that no one even thought of looking for. she did bring this to the o'reilly interview and i did enjoy learning more about him.

the unfortunate thing is style. terry is a public radio nerd (as we all are). so her style isn't quick, savvy, teeth-brightened gloss. there is stumbling and bumbling... things her listeners like but that might be easy to mock or ridicule in the main stream media.

FINALLY a few things about o'reilly. he said he doesn't like it when reviewers or interviewers claim to review his book but make it personal about him. i wonder if that is a natural response to his style, which is to go for the jugular when talking about other people? he ridicules people, dismissing them and diminishing them without allowing the other person rebuttal time. AND he says that he bases everything on fact, yet he claimed that public radio receives $1Billion in government money when it receives less than $90million (in other words, less than 10% of his claim).

it's too bad that at a time when he could have proven that he was fair and balanced that he proved the exact opposite

52 christmasses in a row

saturday mornings for single adults are like christmas mornings for little kids. the trump card is that we get 52 of these a year and the poor little tykes get their glory only once a year. sleeping in. not sleeping in. making coffee just like you want it or skipping on down to the local cafe. a newspaper? npr? saturday mornings are hard-earned we deserve it. and there is nothing better than really and truly understanding how beautiful and luxurious the sixth morning of the week is. feeling the gratitude. knowing the morning is yours and yours alone. to share it or hoarde it. to sleep through it or to charge through each hour, depending on your style.

tom is good for the christmas morning

tom is one of my favorite saturday morning companions. number one, he is mellow and easy going. number two, he is usually up for something off the beaten path or the tried and true. this morning he was my farmer's market / linnaea's cafe partner in crime. we'd been trying to get together all week to chat and catch up. saturday morning would be ours to do just that, plus pick up the best of the last of the harvest and to sip the ever perfect cafe latte.

great tom things: he brings salsa cds for the ride. he points out the tastiest fruit to try. he can hang at the cafe for an hour and a half without blinking an eye.

the good doctor

tom was familiar with the doctor i'd gone to in the past week. this doctor was doctor feelgood in a way i couldn't quite put my finger on (i mean despite the handsomeness.).

"oh, i know that guy," said tom. "he is really cool. calm and just the nicest guy." and we talked about what made this doctor stand out from the others.

number one: not a lot of people in the waiting room. number two, not a lot of waiting. and he actually spends a lot of time with you. he takes the time. he treats you nicely and with respect and actually looks at you when he talks to you. he answers questions. he kind of chuckles under his breath at the funny little things you might say in your health's defense.

we've concluded he is the perfect doctor. (and did i mention handsome?)

seeing what's right infront of your eyes

yesterday i couldn't wait: my ipod was coming. i'd won it on ebay and it was, in fact, my first ebay purchase. which resulted in me opening up a paypal account and learning how to transfer money from my bank account into an ethereal, nonphysical, mysterious, invisible online space. i pictured it like a safe depost box in the sky. it was several little lessons in faith and courage.

so my ipod was finally coming and the seller sent me the tracking information and i eagerly checked the ups.com site many times throughout the day.

it was being delivered to my house, which i was wary about as my neighbor is a recent victim of mailbox theft. someone stole her banking information from right out of the mail box, the same mailbox that sits next to mine. so the fear that there were wild, roving packs of mailbox theives did not make the awaiting of my ipod any easier. because while banking statements hold much financial information, it still takes some work to decipher and decode in order to use it for your advantage. but what common criminal could resist an ipod? surely the immediate gratification of gettin-down-to-boogie would be too much temptation to bare.

i should have had it delivered to work. but instead i put a note on my door greeting the ups person and asking them to leave it on the doorstep of my other neighbor, who's porch is tucked away and not easily seen from the street or even the driveway.

i envisioned coming home at lunch and seeing the little package. i thought it might be in a medium-sized envelope, the type that is lined with bubble wrap. i pictured hand lettered address information. when it wasn't there at lunch i envisioned it coming while i was eating my lunch.

so i sliced a tomato and some cheese and stepped outside to check the porch several times. checked kb's porch several times. looked again and again. maybe i wasn't seeing it?

i could picture myself mid-bite of my homemade sandwich and the ups guy would run up in his brown shirt, brown shorts and black shoes and hand me my mid-sized yellow envelope with the bubblewrap lining and the hand-written address. i would say thanks and give a big smile and tear the box apart.

that didn't happen either. so throughout the afternoon i kept checking the ups site. my co-worker tried to tell me how he had gotten a package long before the information was updated online, but i was sure my drop off would be different. i'd seen the driver's carrying their electronic notepads. surely it would be updated soon after it was delivered.

at the end of the day i left right at 5:30 (that never happens) and zoomed down the street, riddled with excitement, trying to determine what playlist i would use for my first ipod workout. parking the car, i jumped out and immediately looked at my porch. i looked at kb's. my mouth scrunched to the side in a disappointed pucker. maybe the drivers worked late on friday night?

but by 7:30 as i was getting ready to leave to see sarah vowell read there was still no package.



the package was there when i got home from the reading. and it turns out it had been there all along. sitting on kb's porch in a spot i hadn't envisioned in my head. sitting not in an envelope, but in a large box that was squarish and nondescript. sitting with my address pointedly printed electronically on a professional label. nothing like i had pictured. and even as kb handed me the box my mind still could not register that this was indeed what i had been hoping for all day long.

and then i thought, isn't that just like life? exactly what you need, when you needed it, right there before your eyes but for whatever reason you just couldn't see it.

friday, the tenth

up early and hit the gym with kristin. quick, nice chat with my sister who has a bundle of happy love for all she runs into. work was 100% doable; always a plus. saw the very cute doctor for a follow up. i hate it when i have little crushes on unattainable-in-every-way men. but it's not a crush: simply an appreciation of good looks and nice demeanor. and nice eyes.

but all the big news came after prime time.

squeaky literate goodness



first of all, i got to see sarah vowell at the cal poly performaing arts center. sarah is a hero of mine: she gets paid to say what she thinks and somehow, growing up, she had the wear-with-all to believe in herself. her stories are anecdotal and factual and disdainful and touching. my kinda girl. my kinda writer.

great crowd and it was the crowd i so often find myself in: an audience of liberal, public radio listeners. in other words, my people.

sarah signed my book and her signature is big and there for all to see.

i pod, you pod, we all pod

earlier in the day/night (read, right up until i left for the s.v. reading) i was a tinge disappointed. you know the type i'm talking about: you get your hopes up and it doesn't happen and you know it's going to happen sooner or later so you just have to be a couple-days-more patient and you know this, but are still disappointed it hasn't happened yet. which is my wordy way of saying the ipod hadn't come yet. i had been on the ups tracking web site about 25 times throughout the day: was it there yet? how about now? what about now? and now?

it still hadn't arrived by 7:30PM. so i figured i was relegated to a best-case scenario tomorrow/worst case monday delivery. i was bummed. but i'd live. i'd already waited this long, right?



but when i got home from the pac there was a note on my door with a cellaphane ribbon. kb (my friend and next door neighbor) had the ipod and was holding it for me. so she excitedly joined me in the opening of the box and the unveiling of the ipod. we oohed and cooed.

so tonight i am drinking a glass of red wine and learning to use my ipod. and acting out the commercial. mama.

yeah, what he says

scott (r) sent this in straight from scalzi:
If you voted for the recall, you might have thought you were voting to boot Gray Davis out of office. But that's because you're a moron, easily distracted by sparkly lights and shiny objects."

read the whole thing (it's brilliant. not sparkly or shiny) here: WHATEVER: California Schemin'.

the this. the that.

a coupla firsts
i made my first ebay purchase: i got an ipod
i created a paypal account
i made an ofoto calendar

people — use ofoto. this is one of the coolest services online. load up yer digital photos. share them with friends. have them printed. or converted into greeting cards or calendars.

some snippets of goodness worth snipping again
the kings of leon
m. ward
the graves
sex & the city reruns
this american life
sarah vowell is coming to slo town. don't miss it.

movies i can't wait to see
lost in translation
my life without me
love actually
elephant
me without you
in america
in this world
sylvia
angels in america

after being in the laramie project, i've been dying to see angels in america, which is referenced all over TLP. it can't miss with its cast. i can't wait to see it.

reading mscaprilkell, i came across a couple of fun personality tests.

what kind of herb am i?


YOU ARE BASIL

What herb are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

the next one was a toss up. the difference was in how i answered one question: Do you enjoy traveling? i love to travel, but was split between two answers. answer one (Yes, I love to explore and to discover new things all the time.) deemed me a crow. answer two (Traveling is fun. A whole new world of surprises ahead of me.) deemed me a horse. after reading both, i think the crow is closer... but who can resist the horse identity? please. it's too tempting.


What Is Your Animal Personality?
brought to you by Quizilla

What Is Your Animal Personality?
brought to you by Quizilla

What country am I?


You're Spain! You like rain on the plain, as well as interesting architecture and a diverse number of races and religions.  You like to explore a lot, but sailing, especially in large groups, never really seems to work out for you.  Beware of pirates and dictators bearing bombs.  And for heavens' sake, stop running around bulls! It's just not safe!

Take the Country Quiz at the Blue Pyramid

overheard
snippets with timothy

emdot: how's your new house?
timo: it's old.
emdot: how old?
timo: 100. 110. it's old. built in 1910.
emdot: that's not 110. that's 93.
timo: [silent phone shrug]. i use the new math.

timothy who lives both at zendude.com and in richmond, virginia has bought a house. a new old house. an old new house. whichever way you wanna spin it: it's new him and old to virginia.

long and rambly

my friends, i have been pretty slacky with keeping the blog up. so many changes. so much work. not so much internet connection, as i haven't set that up at home. but truly, i'm glad about this — it keeps me off the box. it keeps me doing other things.

i have some pictures to upload.

shouts out to serena in seattle (but migrating to colorado) and heather in santa cruz (but migrating ?? ??). i love you both (and you would like each other too! some day we'll have an introduction). i would love to hear how each of you are doing.

shout out to raebean who got re-hitched or continuously hitched this weekend. it makes me sad in my heart i couldn't have been there. i love you too.

shout out to rebbie con cause. rebs, everyone who comes to my site seems to find it via google by typing in "rebel." though the most common search word i get is "teeny" which just plain stumps me.

love to everyone.

lessee what's been going on....

i was slightly obsessed with the whole CIA leaking scandal this week. but then i realized, i didn't need to get so wrapped up in it.... so, something bad happened. hopefully someone will figure this out. hopefully someone will act with integrity. can you imagine if that would happen. you would hear the collective silence of the world as it held its breathe in a moment of awe as it contemplated the thought of an honest politician.

i pledged to kcbx. everyone. please. give to yer local public radio stations.

i restarted my work out program. thank you. thank you.

i got a belated birthday present from my wonderful, fabulous, and incredibly sweet sister. i wish we spent more time together.

i read the news about the hurrican in halifax. i've got loved ones there.

i cut my bangs.

i unpacked more boxes. i've got so much crap. where does it all come from and even more pertinently ... where am i going to put it all?

oh oh oh — how could i leave this so late on the list — fabulously wonderful baby shower for miss carrie jean last night at mission grill. great time! the little round tummy will eventually be named rainier, but we are all still pushing her to change the middle name to "Johnny-Cash-Barber."

working working working.

this email is just rambly and boring enough that i will probably delete it in the morning.

who needs my new address? write me! i'll share it.

hugs love kisses best thoughts,

mar. i mean, emdot.

overheard

marya: you remind me of my dog buddy.
mark: you have a dog?
marya: had a dog. he's dead.
mark: i remind you of your dead dog? that's harrassment!

Saying Goodbye to Very Young Children

They will not be the same next time. The sayings
so cute, just slightly off, will be corrected.
Their eyes will be more skeptical, plugged in
the more securely to the worldly buzz
of television, alphabet, and street talk,
culture polluting their gazes' dawn blue.
It makes you see at last the value of
those boring aunts and neighbors (their smells
of summer sweat and cigarettes, their faces
like shapes of sky between shade-giving leaves)
who knew you from the start, when you were zero,
cooing their nothings before you could be bored
or knew a name, not even you own, or how
this world brave with hellos turns all goodbye.

— John Updike