Category: appreciation

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Fried-Day

What a week! Blessed relief that it’s almost over. But it’s rather exciting when news happens. A nice twist from biz-as-uze. (http://www.lunafest.org/the-films.cfm

It’s a very cool event — bring your over-12s, and menfolk — this is for anyone but they are films by and about women. Plus there will be FREE Luna bars to eat. And lots of people. Friends and relations. You know — the usual suspects.

Also this weekend — the Boys & Girls Club Auction/Dinner — I’ve gone to this many a time and it is great fun — alas, I am unable to go this year. And. Also. Many more events. I need to clone myself to see it all.

Cool thing here in the office:
We rearranged the office in anticipation of a new salesperson who we expect to join us next week, and in doing so, created a workspace where we can make someof our products: our new stuff to be made from recycled paper. It’s all still in the works but we needed a place to make stuff. And now we have one.

I spent yesterday afternoon crawling around the office on hands and knees, cleaning, wiping, organizing, yuck. But it looks fabu now. I’m looking forward to new employee and to working inthe space.

Chicago is opening at Altarena this weekend and I am trying to make it work that I can see the show for review. But this weekend might not work. But I’d love to see how they do it in such a small space and in the round. Watch out for flying machine-gun bullets…saw Candide last weekend and it was breathtaking. Virago Theatre at Rhythmix Cultural Works did an outstanding job with very challenging music and no backstage to speak of. Not quite in the round but talk about limited space! It was fun to finally see this production live, after hearing the music for many years. Very satisfying. Like a tick-mark off the Bucket List.

If I had one. Which I don’t.

Or maybe I do, sort of. Like, I wanted to see Paris and London and Scotland and New York, and even Boston, and I have. Wanted to dip my feet in both oceans — Atlantic and Pacific. I did. Wanted to have daughters, and I did; and then a son, which I do now. Wanted to marry my Dream Guy — and I finally did (third time’s a charm). Want my kids to be successful, smart, kind and compassionate — and all of them are.

Still want to do? I want to see every Shakespeare play (done well) onstage before I die (I’ve seen about a dozen so far, and some several times). I want to visit every California mission (I’m about halfway finished). And see whales close up. And take care of my grandchildren. Write a poetry collection. Make stuff. Take a vacation someplace warm, with palm trees and fruity cocktails and soft winds. And of course, get the bestselling book published. (It’s written, but as yet, still undiscovered.)

There’s more — so what’s on your Bucket List?

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Happy T Day

Isn’t that pretty? Looks delicious. I can hardly wait to eat mine. We’re headed out to eat because we’re a bit on the overwhelmed side of the scale with the recuperation of The Man and early deadlines and such.

We’re going out to eat pretty soon, and everyone gets to choose something different, whatever he or she wants to eat. A nice compromise for everyone.

I am grateful that I don’t have to do the dishes.

I also am grateful that I have the luxury of writing like this, these blogs, this computer, this house, this life. If you don’t want a total downer (harshing your high, in other words), DO NOT read A Year with the Saints. You’ll end up feeling guilty and miserable about your turkey fetish. No, don’t read it. You’ll be sorry.

I warned you.

But no matter what, take the five minutes you can spare out of your busy lives and take note of FIVE things. Just five. What are you grateful for? Give thanks for those things. Send them to me, or comment with them. I want to know. What are you grateful for?

My list, the short one:

1. My life: husband, family, a home, a roof, clothes and food, all the good things we have and take for granted every day. (That is either all five plus some, or one big thank you).

2. Health: I am still in good health though I want to get back to walking, working out and exercising 3-5 times a week again. New Year’s resolution for 2008 = exercise more. But I have good heart, good lungs, no cancer yet, and healthy hair, teeth, nails, legs, digestion, blood, etc. All the good things. Need glasses. Get skin rashes once in a while. But otherwise, I have the clean bill I would like to keep. And Husband is recuperating nicely and not too grumpily. Kids are all well. We can’t complain.

3. My job: I love writing (and editing). I will never stop writing, while I have my wits about me. I love what I’m doing right now: the Saints book, the novel-in-progress at NaNo (though I won’t meet the word count/deadline), the memoir that the agent likes (and will be polished and sent out in 2008 and find a home); the poetry I’m writing and getting published; the career moves I’m making; the possibilities of all the stories I want to write, the tales I want to tell. The places I want to go in words. The possibility that the Word is my God. How many people hate their jobs? Not I.

4. The earth: nature: my garden. The green things around me, the creatures that share this neighborhood, and our house; growing things, watering and weeding, and watching them bear fruit. Helping to heal the planet one inch at a time.

5. Faith. Such as it is. It’s a long path till I’m at the place where I know what I know. But I’m on it. I’m going somewhere. I’m seeing with new eyes. I’m reading and growing and figuring things out. I am at that point in my life where I want to better the world. Don’t hate me because I’m trying. I’m glad to have the opportunity and the wherewithal.

Every day is a new chance. Let us rejoice and be glad, as the Psalmist says.

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happy birthday, Mom

It’s my mom’s birthday today. Happy birthday, Liz!

We’re on hyper-early deadline because of the holiday so I ran about a lot over the weekend and today, including ice runs and pill charting and snapping pix and writing stories that ROCK. I found out at about 5 or 6 p.m. that Youngest Girl has a project due tomorrow — making crêpes for the whole class. Surprise! Another trip to the store to get more eggs, milk, and the stuff with which to fill crêpes: Nutella (mmmmmmmmmmmmm), bananas, chocolate sauce and whipped cream. I am guessing she gets an A. We mixed the batter (she did it with guidance) and then had two pans going at once on the stove. There are 30+ kids in the class so we doubled the batch. Ack. By the end, she had the wrist motion down to making the crêpes. I’m proud of her.

Middle Daughter (the eldest in the house) managed to make dinner for the family while I was working a bit late. She cooked up some quesadillas with salsa and sour cream, refried beans and mixed squash (frozen from our garden — zukes and yellow crooknecks). All the kids plus one friend (the partner in crime for the crêpe project) ate. I had eaten a nasty burger earlier in the afternoon, thinking I was a-work until 10. But we finished almost everything, except for the three stories I have to write tomorrow before noon, ha fricking ha, and we closed the office up. I was home by 7, and that’s no lie.

I’m reading The Long Winter (part of the Little House series) to the Boy, and my but it makes one feel grateful. No e-mail, no heat, no way to get around, trapped in the depressing cold and dark for months — starving. They had faith, and they persevered. It’s a book to read when you want to feel empowered by the American spirit. What fortitude — they were buoyed along by the hope that spring would come, by old Scots songs and hymns, knitting in the dark, twisting hay to burn, grinding the wheat, waiting for the sun to come and the wind and snow to stop. Are there such blizzards today? How can we survive them? Why does nobody freeze to death or get lost in the snow these days? (Snow-birds, please explain this to me.)

Somehow, some day, I will visit all those sites, and somewhere in my brain there’s a book percolating. Little House at the Point, maybe. Little House on the Island.

Maybe.

Other than that, I am reading Rumi and he is blowing my mind, what little I have left. And trying to keep up on the writing of several books, har de freaking har. This is a short week, though, and we finish the paper and then stop for a few days’ rest. Can’t wait. Zzzzz.