raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens. Whoops, sorry, wrong celebration.
A loving husband whom I love in return.
A good strong roof over my head and a comfy and fun house to live in.
A decent job (what we do is hard work but we don't work hard -- kah).
Coworkers and bosses with good intentions.
A company that is generous to employees and to the surrounding community.
A short commute in a nice car.
Two amazing loving, sweet, funny, playful cats.
Friends. Dance. Good food.
The luxury of not having to eat meat.
So far, no hard choices among the basics - heat, food, medicine.
Enough of a cushion that those hard choices are not on our radar. Not right now.
A reasonable amount of intelligence and inquisitiveness.
A love for the seasons that swirl around us.
A beautiful view out my bedroom window.
Warm clothes. Clean underwear.
Funny and loving friends. More dance.
Sunlight.
Good coffee.
Good health.
The ability to walk.
Swimming.
The kindness of friends and neighbors.
Deep hearty laughs.
Hope for this country.
And not just one, but two Thanksgiving dinners at which to celebrate my very rich bounty of a life.
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Monday, November 24, 2008
why i love my dentist
On Friday, I went to get my teeth cleaned. The hygienist is new and very sweet; I think she replaced someone I didn't like very much. She did perhaps the most thorough inspection and cleaning I've gotten in a while, and was so gentle that I wasn't the least bit sore afterwards.
As I was lying in her chair, my dentist's assistant, DJ, saw me and said "Is that my buddy?" She came over and gave me a huge smoochy kiss and a hug. She ran out of the room and returned with the picture taken of her and my dentist, Dr. K, on Halloween. I didn't understand the reference, but it was a guy in overalls, a tee-shirt, and a big poofy wig (Dr. K) with his arm around his slutty girlfriend (DJ). Very amusing, even more so when you know that Dr. K is happily married and DJ is a very tough ex-army dental assistant who's worked on people in tents with a sand floor in the middle of war zones. They saw patients all day in costume.
Apparently, someone in the office told Dr. K that he looked like Rainbow Bright. We all agreed that he didn't. That settled that, until a few minutes later when Dr. K rushed in and said "I did not look like Rainbow Bright and I want that to be clear," then rushed out again, just after I said "I would Never. Never. Accuse you of looking like Rainbow Bright."
A bit later, he came in and did his usual inspection and detection and then I was sent home with a clean mouth and a clean bill of health.
And who knows? Maybe I'll stay out of trouble, at least of the dental variety, until my next cleaning appointment.
As I was lying in her chair, my dentist's assistant, DJ, saw me and said "Is that my buddy?" She came over and gave me a huge smoochy kiss and a hug. She ran out of the room and returned with the picture taken of her and my dentist, Dr. K, on Halloween. I didn't understand the reference, but it was a guy in overalls, a tee-shirt, and a big poofy wig (Dr. K) with his arm around his slutty girlfriend (DJ). Very amusing, even more so when you know that Dr. K is happily married and DJ is a very tough ex-army dental assistant who's worked on people in tents with a sand floor in the middle of war zones. They saw patients all day in costume.
Apparently, someone in the office told Dr. K that he looked like Rainbow Bright. We all agreed that he didn't. That settled that, until a few minutes later when Dr. K rushed in and said "I did not look like Rainbow Bright and I want that to be clear," then rushed out again, just after I said "I would Never. Never. Accuse you of looking like Rainbow Bright."
A bit later, he came in and did his usual inspection and detection and then I was sent home with a clean mouth and a clean bill of health.
And who knows? Maybe I'll stay out of trouble, at least of the dental variety, until my next cleaning appointment.
Sunday, November 23, 2008
two events, slightly intertwined
On Friday night we attended a play that made me squirm - one of those family depictions that left me feeling like I had tacks pointing upward on my seat. The play was Independence by Lee Blessing and concerned a mother and her three daughters.
The mom has a history of mental illness and the daughters feel that she cannot be left to live alone. The mom has fond memories of a close-knit family that never was. She lives in the past and can never accept that her daughters have grown past the stage where they were cute and loving. When the whole family gathers in one place, she is overjoyed, despite the emotional destructiveness that results.
The oldest daughter is a lesbian who has moved to the big city and become a successful college professor. The middle daughter is the "good girl," the one who feels most strongly that she can never leave her mother so that she can pursue her own life. The mother seems particularly bent on consuming her emotionally. Oh, this middle daughter has become pregnant by a seeming thoughtless cad. And the youngest daughter is in her late teens, has already given up a baby for adoption (at her oldest sister's insistence), works in a bar, is angry at the world, and is planning to get the hell out of dodge as soon as she graduates from high school.
Lots of revelations, breakdowns, attacks, more breakdowns, all swirling around this highly manipulative mother who seems to sink deeper into her illness as the play progresses. Robert felt that the ending was redemptive. I was initially depressed by it, but in looking at it from his point of view, can see his point. Still, I would rather sit on tacks than see the play again.
Last night's event was way more cheerful. We went to see David Wilcox perform. He's a singer/songwriter/storyteller, very comfortable on stage, very good at putting his audience at ease. He says that he writes songs to discover the ending, that if he already knows the ending when he starts, it's hardly worth it.
He had very tough beginnings - his father was chronically depressed and frequently hospitalized. One snippet we heard "Where's Dad? Oh, he's in the hospital. Can we visit him? Uh, that's not a great idea." and so on. But from all this came a brutal honesty, an opened-up approach to life.
One of his songs was about a soothsayer who had worked for a medium but found crystal balls too slow. So he started divining peoples' lives by working at a Minimart and analyzing the five items that each customer would place on the counter. He sang about the love he has for his son, a love that has taken him deeper than he ever thought it possible to go. He sang of breakups and get-togethers, of his own emotional landscape, of his guitar. In fact, he told a great story of coming to a better place in his life by diving into his guitar playing.
And running through the evening was a lot of good humor and some really twisted rhymes.
I came away with two words: redemption and resilience.
We make connections in odd ways. The music of last night somehow helped me see more of the redemption in the story from the night before. There is hope. There is light.
The mom has a history of mental illness and the daughters feel that she cannot be left to live alone. The mom has fond memories of a close-knit family that never was. She lives in the past and can never accept that her daughters have grown past the stage where they were cute and loving. When the whole family gathers in one place, she is overjoyed, despite the emotional destructiveness that results.
The oldest daughter is a lesbian who has moved to the big city and become a successful college professor. The middle daughter is the "good girl," the one who feels most strongly that she can never leave her mother so that she can pursue her own life. The mother seems particularly bent on consuming her emotionally. Oh, this middle daughter has become pregnant by a seeming thoughtless cad. And the youngest daughter is in her late teens, has already given up a baby for adoption (at her oldest sister's insistence), works in a bar, is angry at the world, and is planning to get the hell out of dodge as soon as she graduates from high school.
Lots of revelations, breakdowns, attacks, more breakdowns, all swirling around this highly manipulative mother who seems to sink deeper into her illness as the play progresses. Robert felt that the ending was redemptive. I was initially depressed by it, but in looking at it from his point of view, can see his point. Still, I would rather sit on tacks than see the play again.
Last night's event was way more cheerful. We went to see David Wilcox perform. He's a singer/songwriter/storyteller, very comfortable on stage, very good at putting his audience at ease. He says that he writes songs to discover the ending, that if he already knows the ending when he starts, it's hardly worth it.
He had very tough beginnings - his father was chronically depressed and frequently hospitalized. One snippet we heard "Where's Dad? Oh, he's in the hospital. Can we visit him? Uh, that's not a great idea." and so on. But from all this came a brutal honesty, an opened-up approach to life.
One of his songs was about a soothsayer who had worked for a medium but found crystal balls too slow. So he started divining peoples' lives by working at a Minimart and analyzing the five items that each customer would place on the counter. He sang about the love he has for his son, a love that has taken him deeper than he ever thought it possible to go. He sang of breakups and get-togethers, of his own emotional landscape, of his guitar. In fact, he told a great story of coming to a better place in his life by diving into his guitar playing.
And running through the evening was a lot of good humor and some really twisted rhymes.
I came away with two words: redemption and resilience.
We make connections in odd ways. The music of last night somehow helped me see more of the redemption in the story from the night before. There is hope. There is light.
Friday, November 21, 2008
saving face
I've gone and done something slightly silly. I've joined facebook. At first, I used a nom de face (pronounced noamh duh fahss), Koa A Feline, but then decided to use my real name.
First impressions: it's fairly chaotic and while the UI is pretty enough, the use model isn't intuitively obvious. Some of my confusions:
-- Friends are at the top of the screen (with a text label), groups are at the bottom of the screen (graphic label), and Find Friends is at the bottom of the screen in faint text.
-- Click Profile at the top left to see some of your settings. Hover in the right column to edit them. Or, on the far left, under your picture, click Edit My Profile.
-- But if it's settings you're after, click in the upper right corner. Unless you're looking for another set of settings, in which case, click the other Settings button under the text field for Posts.
-- To control what you see on your "Wall," you move a bunch of sliders around, but it's not really clear what you're controlling, just that the sliders are "sensitive" (emo-sliders, anyone?)
Second impression: if the good people at Google had designed it, facebook would be a lot easier to use. But then, any old riff-raff would be using it, I suppose.
So if you're on facebook and want to friend me, feel free.
You write on my wall, I write on yours.
First impressions: it's fairly chaotic and while the UI is pretty enough, the use model isn't intuitively obvious. Some of my confusions:
-- Friends are at the top of the screen (with a text label), groups are at the bottom of the screen (graphic label), and Find Friends is at the bottom of the screen in faint text.
-- Click Profile at the top left to see some of your settings. Hover in the right column to edit them. Or, on the far left, under your picture, click Edit My Profile.
-- But if it's settings you're after, click in the upper right corner. Unless you're looking for another set of settings, in which case, click the other Settings button under the text field for Posts.
-- To control what you see on your "Wall," you move a bunch of sliders around, but it's not really clear what you're controlling, just that the sliders are "sensitive" (emo-sliders, anyone?)
Second impression: if the good people at Google had designed it, facebook would be a lot easier to use. But then, any old riff-raff would be using it, I suppose.
So if you're on facebook and want to friend me, feel free.
You write on my wall, I write on yours.
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
yet another emergency - not
In our fair little 'burb, we have a phone system called "Reverse 911," paid for, of course, with tax payer dollars. This system allows town managers to deliver a recorded message to every telephone in town. As its name implies, it's designed for use in emergencies. I believe it has a secondary use for delivering school-related calls to school families only.
For example, it's been used to announce water break mains downtown and to request that we avoid driving in that area until a resolution has been arrived at. When we were suffering through the Extreme Overload house-building exercise, the chief of police dialed us up one or more times a day to breathlessly announce where the TV cameras would be and how to get into that area. It's been used to announce rabies clinics for pets.
This morning, it must have been activated because both our land lines rang once at 6 am in rapid succession. I'm usually up then, but with all the sickness in the house and typical kitty activity, this was the one morning when I was sleeping in (and really needed the extra shut-eye).
I can't imagine what the so-called emergency was this time. That I was asleep? That a bunny ran across the road? That little Suzy Potter wore a dress to school for the first time?
I'm beginning to think that with Reverse-911 in a towns-person's hands, every event looks like an emergency. I'm waiting for the day when the powers that be learn to use the system responsibly and correctly.
For example, it's been used to announce water break mains downtown and to request that we avoid driving in that area until a resolution has been arrived at. When we were suffering through the Extreme Overload house-building exercise, the chief of police dialed us up one or more times a day to breathlessly announce where the TV cameras would be and how to get into that area. It's been used to announce rabies clinics for pets.
This morning, it must have been activated because both our land lines rang once at 6 am in rapid succession. I'm usually up then, but with all the sickness in the house and typical kitty activity, this was the one morning when I was sleeping in (and really needed the extra shut-eye).
I can't imagine what the so-called emergency was this time. That I was asleep? That a bunny ran across the road? That little Suzy Potter wore a dress to school for the first time?
I'm beginning to think that with Reverse-911 in a towns-person's hands, every event looks like an emergency. I'm waiting for the day when the powers that be learn to use the system responsibly and correctly.
Sunday, November 16, 2008
Update: Our dear patient
Robert continues to improve. He's still on pain meds, though he's tapering off them. He says that in a few days, he'll be able to sleep on his right side. And today he tried driving. He reported that he was not at his best, but by driving on back roads on a Sunday afternoon, he did fine. He'll work from home for at least part of the day tomorrow and decide whether to go into the office in the afternoon or just stay home all day.
This is all good news. I realize that none of what he had (the book-end colds or the shingles) was life-threatening, but it is awfully good to watch him come back into himself. And I'm sure it's a relief for him too.
This is all good news. I realize that none of what he had (the book-end colds or the shingles) was life-threatening, but it is awfully good to watch him come back into himself. And I'm sure it's a relief for him too.
WMIG
Robert and I couldn't attend last night's gala ball because we had concert tickets that we were loathe to give up. We left the wedding reception around 4 and had extra time in Boston. So we walked indoors for a while before dinner and then outdoors after dinner. For the meal itself, we treated ourselves to dinner at Legal Seafoods, which was delicious as always.
The concert is one of a series called What Makes it Great. The presenter examines one piece of music, first decomposing it into its smallest parts and asking the orchestra to play little samples, then building up the pieces to show how the whole thing fits together. He demonstrates the "not great" way that someone could have composed it, then shows what the composer did to achieve true greatness. Then, after about an hour of lecture and demonstration, the orchestra plays the entire piece straight through. All this is followed by a question and answer period.
The piece last night was Bach's double concerto, which is an old chestnut with some marvelous twists and turns. The presenter compared the composition to what Vivaldi would have done, especially appropriate because Bach tried to recreate some of Vivaldi's work, adding his own genius, creating something completely new.
The whole thing was wonderful. Somewhere in there, the presenter talked about how Bach's children, and even the general public, felt that Bach was kind of old-fashioned and just not that interesting. And yet, his is the music that we now go back to over and over again. The lesson is that to soar, to achieve greatness, you must be true to yourself. How appropriate this message was after the incredible emotional wedding we'd attended just hours earlier.
As much as I missed going to the ball, it really was best for Robert not to go. And I am so happy that we ended up at the concert, too. Such a perfect day.
The concert is one of a series called What Makes it Great. The presenter examines one piece of music, first decomposing it into its smallest parts and asking the orchestra to play little samples, then building up the pieces to show how the whole thing fits together. He demonstrates the "not great" way that someone could have composed it, then shows what the composer did to achieve true greatness. Then, after about an hour of lecture and demonstration, the orchestra plays the entire piece straight through. All this is followed by a question and answer period.
The piece last night was Bach's double concerto, which is an old chestnut with some marvelous twists and turns. The presenter compared the composition to what Vivaldi would have done, especially appropriate because Bach tried to recreate some of Vivaldi's work, adding his own genius, creating something completely new.
The whole thing was wonderful. Somewhere in there, the presenter talked about how Bach's children, and even the general public, felt that Bach was kind of old-fashioned and just not that interesting. And yet, his is the music that we now go back to over and over again. The lesson is that to soar, to achieve greatness, you must be true to yourself. How appropriate this message was after the incredible emotional wedding we'd attended just hours earlier.
As much as I missed going to the ball, it really was best for Robert not to go. And I am so happy that we ended up at the concert, too. Such a perfect day.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)