Riding in the Burbs, Baseball, Books and Fear

Filed Under being creative, books, events, friends, local, plans, poetry, small happinesses

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 This believed 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.)