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    30

    Riding in the Burbs, Baseball, Books and Fear

    Filed Under being creative, books, events, friends, local, plans, poetry, small happinesses | Leave a Comment

    In about twenty minutes I’ll be headed out for a bike ride through my suburban neighborhood. One of the many nice things about living here: lots of bike lanes and very wide streets.

    Maybe I’m not so much the city girl I Card I just purchased from Mama - Picture Thisbelieved myself to be. I thought I’d always be a city-dweller; now I’m not so sure. A house in the country or a small college town sounds nice. Maybe my motto should be rephrased to “never say always.”

    It’s easy to turn one’s nose up at the suburbs, despite the fact that so many people live in them. I live in a cookie cutter house! Chain stores and mega churches full of white people abound in this area. And yet, we are all still people. You have to make the extra effort to find folks and be with them. In the city, you can live on the perimeter, observing and never really getting to know anyone - but feeling as though you’re a part of something bigger. In the suburbs, if you live anonymously, you can’t delude yourself.

    When I get back from the bike ride, Michael and I will head up to Seattle with his family for a Mariners game. His parents are big fans. We’ll cheer for Ichiro! And who knows who else. I have no idea who plays for the Mariners. Until very recently I thought Dan Marino played for them once, until a friend corrected. It was the Dolphins, and I think it wasn’t even baseball.

    Later this week I’m attending a meeting to coordinate reading clubs for Riane Eisler’s latest book, The Real Wealth of Nations. I’m reading Eisler’s most famous book, The Chalice and the Blade, right now - along with the others from my women’s group (which is motivated by concepts of David Korten’s The Great Turning). Eisler will be in Portland speaking at First Unitarian Church in late October, and this meeting is a precursor to that.

    I have a new client I’ll be meeting on Saturday. She’s a teenager and not only am I excited to work with her, but apparently she and her mom are into riding. The stables they take lessons at aren’t far from my house, so I want to find out more. Maybe horseback riding is something I can do before the weather turns blech.

    There’s a poetry workshop happening at the library, and then dinner at a friend’s, and then a birthday breakfast for another friend, and an orientation to do field production at the local community access channel (I’m certified in Portland, but now live ten minutes away in another county). Next week I’m going to an open mic poetry event. I’m terrified. Never mind having to read in front of other people; I have to write a poem first.

    (Photo is of gift card I just bought from one of the UU ladies in my women’s group; she converts her beautiful original photos into cards and sells them online. Visit her site at mamapicturethis.blogspot.com - also in my sidebar.)

    Popularity: 27% [?]

    Jul

    30

    Think You Know Your Parents?

    Filed Under anecdotes, being creative, humor, life changes, people, small happinesses | 3 Comments

    Don’t be so sure. My mom and dad just clued me in to my dad’s big secret: He’s an ACTOR.

    Scene from yesterday afternoon:HS's Dad Auditions

    So I’m just chilling with the DH, having lunch at the house of the parental units, when my dad says, “Hey, watch this video, and let me know what you think of it.” He hands me a burned DVD that I promptly pop into my laptop. It appears to be a movie. I ask, “What’s this?” My dad says only, “Watch it!” As the credits roll, I recognize streets from Portland, so I start thinking, “Hmm. Is some old friend of mine in this or what?”

    And then - several minutes later - there’s my dad’s face on the screen! He plays the suspicious bus driver. I couldn’t believe it!

    Of course I want to know, “Dad, how did you get in a movie?”

    His reply? “I have an agent.”

    WHAT?! Yes, my dad has an agent. Turns out that in addition to being in this 30-minute indie flick, he’s been in about ten medical videos for Wired MD, playing patients who have heart and stroke problems. He’s also been in Into the Wild, a movie directed by Sean Penn that hasn’t come out yet. (All he could say about the experience is that Sean Penn is “real little!”) And he’s doing voice acting. He’s got some kind of shoot today. I’m still so surprised, but very proud.

    I also found out that his recent foray into coaching boxers has blossomed. The gym he was working at is moving into a 25,000 square foot facility, and he’ll be getting his own office! He’s also going down with one of the fighters for a professional match in California - as the corner man!

    As you can imagine, I was beaming the rest of the day. Not only is Dad is having a great time, but Mom is happy, too. I get to create a page for my dad on IMDb now! You can view a 30 second clip of my dad right here.) He doesn’t look quite like that anymore; he lost a lot of weight this Spring - because he’s also my client - and a certified Senior Health Advisor. Busy man!

    Popularity: 24% [?]

    Jul

    27

    Colorado

    Filed Under away from home, being creative, health, photos, small happinesses | 1 Comment

    As it turns out, I’m having a GREAT time at the Take Shape for Life health coach convention. Tons of great, friendly people and wonderful information sessions. Not to mention, the beautiful scenery. Tomorrow morning, Robert Fritz will be speaking to us - he wrote a book I loved, “The Path of Least Resistance.”

    Today I’ve been in workshops, but yesterday I managed to take a three hour walk from one end of the resort to another.

    3 Trees at Keystone

    River View at Keystone

    Condos at Keystone

    Popularity: 22% [?]

    Jul

    26

    Pain, and Foul Language in Colorado

    Filed Under away from home, being creative, events, health, photos | 2 Comments

    HS & the DH at Keystone Resort, workingI arrived at Keystone Resort yesterday with mixed feelings. On the one hand, it was an opportunity to be in a beautiful place with my sweetie and other nice people; on the other, it was forcing me out of my comfort cave of introversion, a place I’d somberly retreated to after General Assembly and the US Social Forum. This convention will be much smaller - 400 f

    olks instead of thousand - so perhaps it won’t be such a drain on me.

    Yesterday we didn’t do much. Just settled in, picked up some groceries (we’re renting a comfortable condo), and somehow ended up watching The Kill Point and a really good episode of CSI in which Grissom went head to head with his former forensics mentor.

    While flipping channels I thought I heard the “s” word - okay, shit - in a movie that was playing on AMC. I dismissed it, thinking, “It must be one of those garbled attempts at replacing a cuss word with something corny.” Then, while watching The Kill Point I was shocked to hear the “s” word twice. It took a moment to register and then I exclaimed to the DH, “What the hell is going on!?” I thought for sure that the censors had fallen asleep, and someone was going to lose their job! But no, the DH informed me that one can now say shit on cable channels after a certain night time hour.

    He said, “Don’t you remember that South Park episode called “Night of a Thousand Shits” where they tried to say shit as many times as possible?”

    I’d heard vague things about that, but somehow interpreted it as some kind of special deal the Comedy Channel had finagled, kind of like how Spielberg persuaded a broadcast network to air Schindler’s List without commercial breaks.

    Man, I felt old. I remember when you couldn’t say bitch on tv. Or ass. I felt strangely nostalgic for the days before one could say shit on cable tv.

    But I felt older still when my legs started hurting. The throbbing pain went from my lower back to my hips, and down my thighs to my knees. The DH massaged my legs but the relief this gave me was woefully temporary. Eventually, I went to sleep, but woke up at 4 in the morning in so much discomfort that I cried. I’m not sure what’s going on. I looked up the symptoms and it looks like I might be having sciatica. We’ll figure this out when I get home, I guess. Not looking forward to that process. My faith in doctors being able to tell me what is actually happening with my body is somewhere between zero and forget-it-about.

    Still, after this I’m off for a walk/jog around the resort and take more photos. Lying around won’t make me feel any better!

    Update: It looks like the leg pain might have been due to altitude. Keeping fingers crossed it doesn’t come back.

    Popularity: 23% [?]

    Jul

    23

    Thoughts on Orange Blossoms

    Filed Under books, islam, lil things, poetry, quotes, small happinesses, spiritual practice | Leave a Comment

    The White Blossoms of the Orange TreeI was looking at the García Lorca poem, “Weathervanes,” again this morning. That word for orange blossoms, azahares, kept sticking in my mind. It was so familiar. I looked the word up in my HarperCollins Spanish-English dictionary, and there it was in singular form: azahar. And then it dawned on me … that word didn’t look Spanish - it looked Arabic!

    I googled [azahar arabic] and confirmed that yes, the Arabic word for “white flower” is al zahr, from which the Spanish word came.

    I don’t know what happened to my Arabic/English dictionary; all I have in that regard is a concordance of the Qur’an. I had turned first to that. Zahrah was defined as “a flower,” and the word appears only once in the Qur’an.

    From the 20th chapter, Ta Ha, verses 130-131:

    … be patient with what they say, and sing the praises of your Lord before the rising and setting of the sun, and honor Him in the watches of the night and then at the two ends of day, that you may find spiritual joy. And strain not your eyes in longing for the things We have given for enjoyment to various groups of them, the splendor of the life in this world, through which We test them. But the provision of your Lord is better and more lasting.

    And again I find myself here, lying on the floor … three different translations of the Qur’an sprawled out in front of me, the HarperCollins, the concordance, the laptop. As I turn the pages of the concordance, I’m struck with the memories of hearing these words. So many words … words that I loved … that I never hear anymore.

    But back to the present - the verses from Ta Ha are a good reminder. In a few days I’ll be at a business conference where the general mood is going to be that of a pep rally. It will be an environment in which seeking the splendor of the life in this world will be a focal point.

    Here, belly satisfied, loved ones close by, spending a cloudy summer weekday in the reading room, all I can do is wonder.

    Popularity: 65% [?]

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