A pretty good day!

All Souls, see Michele
Fill fridge with fresh, healthy food
Swim 40 minutes
Do laundry
Put it away
Book ticket to Paris!!!
Do first cut of taxes
Look for new job

;-)

haiku (just for fun)

Winter sun rises.
Bright white sparkling snow dazzles.
Blinded by the light.

Prayer for Haiti (and for us all) from Rev. Rob Hardies, All Souls Church

I was so moved a few weeks ago, I asked Rob to send me this prayer he said at the January 17 service at All Souls Church.  Here it is...

Dear God, in times likes these many of us are tempted to ask: Where are you?

Filled with despair, some understandably believe that you have abandoned your people. Others, cruelly, suggest that the earthquake is a manifestation of your wrath. A punishment for your people.

But God, here’s what I believe. I believe that you accompany us in our sorrow and in our suffering. I believe that you are the spirit that sings compassion in our hearts. You are the fount of our resilience, the hand on our shoulder. You are shovel against rock. You are the light that finds us in the rubble. And, when we breathe our last, I believe that you are our final home.

I don’t know any of this for sure. But it is what my spiritual ancestors have taught me, and it is what I’ve experienced in those precious moments when I’ve felt closest to you. So it is my faith.

Dear God, help us in our belief and our unbelief. Help us in our faith and our doubt. Help us in times of struggle and devastation. Times like now. We ask that you help especially the people of Haiti in this, their time of trial, and people all over the world who are touched by this tragedy, including the people in this very sanctuary. God, be with us always. Amen.

Some good pro-choice news

It's a wasteland out there in "good news" for bodily integrity.  So let me just say that while 37 minutes of deliberation was 36 minutes too long to find Scott Roeder guilty of  the first degree murder of Dr. George R Tiller, it is an unequivocal message that it's *not* ok to shoot doctors who provide a legal, safe abortion options.

I have 'a thing' for David Pogue ;-)

Pogue's posts

And for what it's worth, I've been too crazy-busy to really blog.  Everything is either too far "past" to give it serious due and reflection (like the State of the Union, the state of non-profits, Haiti); or too fluid to make an actual acute observation (work, life, love).  And the current wacky work intensity is not likely to let up for the next few months, which will make it hard to make good on my commitment to "fix job."  Damn it!

This is why I LOVE the Capital Weather Gang...

A snowy surprise, 10 years ago today

and this...

Late-week snow potential emerging

and this

FAQ - Snow Lover's Crystal Ball

Books 2010: Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri

I'm definitely a Jhumpa Lahiri fan.  I loved her debut collection of short stories, Interpreter of Maladies, which won a Pulitzer.  I liked, but didn't love, her first novel, The Namesake; and liked the movie even less.  Unaccustomed Earth is another collection of short stories, and a novella.  Here, she shines!


The stories focus on Indian-American-British life in the US, in the UK, and in India, woven seamlessly across these disparate worlds.  Old world, new world.  Immigration.  Culture shock and adaptation, or not.  Intergenerational dynamics.  Cross-cultural relationships.  These themes are fraught with the nuance,  complexity, and tension that I so appreciate, and Lahiri captures it acutely.


The stores are beautiful, but also dark...Toddlers being left in the bathtub while the uncle is passed out. A woman pinning her sari so when she ignites herself it will be harder to save her. A college student screaming insults at his prepubescent step sisters and storming away (when he's supposed to be babysitting them) knowing they'll be terrified.  Lahiri acutely observes marriage in its most alienating and lonely form.  She captures the heights, depths, and confusion of a new love affair.  

At times, I would put down the book with an incredible empty emotional thud, but also richer for the complexity of our human experience.  It is a lesson in empathy, and a keen character study.  Desperate people do desperate things.  At times, I was swept away in her prose - her beautiful word choice, her evocative descriptions. And I give her credit for writing about sex without being contrived in any way.

4 stars (of 4) - I love Jhumpa Lahiri's writing, her themes, her insights.  The book was dark, desperate and depressing - but to be honest, it's that frilly shit that makes my stomach churn.

Blogging while intoxicated

The clucks have all left.  Dinner was delish.  I enjoyed cooking and hosting it, a moment when I'm happiest.   The carrot soup with orange essence and tarragon was quite scrumptious; the rest I would happily twiddle with.

Someone said I set the bar high when I brought out the Veuve Cliquot at dessert.  Not really, it felt good...and this bottle brought to me by Nan and Megan on my 39th b-day was especially good.  "I'll drink this, " I said, "for something to celebrate  in the next year."  [If you remember, dear reader (see year in review 2009), I was still crying a river of tears at that time, including at my b-day party surrounded by good friends, good people, good things, good food, when I briefly broke down for all that I faced and lived on that day.]  And while I have celebrated several good times and events since then, I chose to open the VC now, to celebrate with my good and lasting 12 cluck friends, for no and every reason, in particular:

- To good friends, laughter, cooking,
- To dedicating time to happiness,
- To the end of 2009 and the beginning of 2010 - where I wonder and marvel at what awaits, at what I do not yet know
-To finding a spiritual home, I didn't even know I was lacking,  at All Souls Church
- To the benefits and after effects of swimming - its peace, sanity and health
- To embracing my lusciousness, at long wonderful last
- To turning 40 in 2010, and while my life is not as glossy as at 30, it has, right now, a remarkable embrace that comes from being happy here and now, and to realizing that even my bittersweet happiness is somehow more fulfilling and meaningful having overcome so many trials, as when it was wide open and limitless
-To sex in all its marvelousness
- To having,  holding, giving, and getting love for however long it lasts

Cycle Chic

Cycle Chic is a blog I found about cycling and style in Copenhagen. I've mentioned my love of industrial design, I also love great urban planning and infrastructure that builds community. Here is a great film clip from that blog on cycling infrastructure in Copenhagen.  I really must visit Helle.

Menu: January Book Club chez moi

Clucks - a book group of wonderful and irreverent moms where more than half the people read more than half the book more than half the time

Carrot soup

- with sherry and orange essence

Spinach quiche

Lentil Salad

- Lentilles de Puy with citrus vinaigrette

Baby greens with walnuts and chevre

Cheese plate

- with fig preserves

Baguette

- with sweet farm-fresh butter

Apple tarte

- with homemade ginger ice cream

Red wine and assorted microbrews
Celebratory champagne

 

Haiti - no words

I have no words to describe this disaster or my own emotional response to it.  I'm also working on this at work a bit, so I have almost nothing left in terms of verbal, physical, writing energy to devote more.  Once again, I'll just punt to All Souls Church because they say it well, and somehow get the
spiritual/emotional/action balance just right.

So much information your head will explode, too!

I like data, metrics, and analysis even though they can make my brain short circuit when I'm in way over my head (which can happen pretty quickly).  This is *so* cool - a *fully* interactive mapping of Netflix rentals by city, by zip, by film, by most to least popular!  This is not labeling something interactive when it's not.  Scroll over a specific zip code, sort the movies, check out a particular movie's popularity (Milk, Star Trek, Julie and Julia) .  Check out the distinct patterns highlighted for Mad Men, Obsessed and Last Chance Harvey - what's going on there?  I could play with this all damn day, but I have to work my real job.  Seriously though the data set and presentation is just mind-blowing!

From my sub-conscious

Last night I had a dream that disturbed me more as the day went on - though I did not actually recall it until the late afternoon. 

I was at a camp, very wooded and cool.  I was excited to do the various activities - sit on the dock, take a canoe out on the lake, etc. - but there were snakes, adder snakes. They were huge and green, and would coil under the dock planks or around a low-hanging tree limb.  Each time I saw one, I would get up and walk away, being delayed and deterred from my intended activity.  "I have to watch out for the black adders, " I thought, and cautioned unseen others. "Be careful of the black adders."

Even within the dream, I was analyzing it and sensing some significance.  The snakes, I knew, were phallic;  Blackadder was JS.  Yikes.  What's up with that?

Glorious food!

Too crazy-busy to blog, but ever a NY Times junkie, foodie, and connoisseur of the good life, I'll crib this article on the 11 Best Foods You Aren't Eating, and just say that I have particular affection for beets, though not for sardines, and I'd probably get a B+ on the rest.

Destinations

The NY Times published one of its annual features, "The 31 Places to Go in 2010."  This year, of most interest (to me at least) - Patagonia Wine Country, Copenhagen (a possibility, as long as my friend, Helle, lives there), Damascus, and Norway (fjords!).  Of note on their list, and where I've already been...and loved...Mumbai and Cape Town (World Cup 2010!).

However I have my own list of - hoped for or planned - destinations this year.  Beirut (on last year's NYTimes list- oooops, now security risks would keep it off) and Paris (40th!), and Pittsburgh (work) are sure things. Canada (visit Carla?) and Vermont (still hoping one day to take the train to Burlington) are good potential getaway possibilities.  And if I'm a good mom, Orlando, FL for DisneyWorld  - but it's up for debate whether I'm good-enough mom to get that together.

These days, my preference is definitely for destinations that don't involve air travel or change of time zones.

Pithy. Tart.

Cool! Must see....

My favorite aunt and uncle were recently in town.  I hosted them for breakfast, and scammed an invitation for dinner with them at G-town's La Chaumiere.  It was a lovely evening - delicious food and good conversation.  As NYC public school teachers and former Peace Corps Volunteers (like me), our conversations often turn to some my favorite topics - art, reading, travel, the NY Times, the state of public education, cooking, etc.

On this trip to DC, they spent the day at the museums, and this exhibit at the Smithsonian Museum of Africa Art sounds just wonderful.  I have always been vexed that the museum did not feature more contemporary African (and diaspora) artists.  Instead, it has defined African art as sort of a natural history/sociocultural/anthropological collection of ornately carved drums, walking sticks and pipes.  So I'm pleased the new curator gives these artists more attention.  I am also a fan of textiles, and the Dutch wax print fabrics, so prevalent in West Africa, are familiar and evocative to me.  Here, Yinka Shonibere uses these amazing vibrant printed fabrics to recreate Victorian scenes.    Here's another.  Anyway, just another way to look at things and bend the mind a bit.  I will have to check it out soon.

Books 2010: Manhood for Amateurs by Michael Chabon

This book – a collection of short essays - was amazing! I laughed out loud. At times, I read it aloud to others and to myself. I re-read passages and sentences just because I enjoyed and appreciated the thought and the prose so much, and wanted to savor each delicious word. Admittedly, I slowed down in this book towards the end – lost focus with my many distractions and less uninterrupted reading time to immerse myself. I got this book from the library, but it is definitely one I want to own, and re-read time and again, discovering its riches again and anew.

Chabon writes about manhood – a topic of which I am endlessly fascinated, as well as bewildered. However, as a thinking, thoughtful, smart man, he has endless insights on the topic that go beyond the typical observations of hormones, power, sex, machismo and masculinity. While retaining absolute masculinity - his love of baseball, his appreciation and drive for sex, his geekiness in his love for Dr. Who, his ability to compartmentalize ;-) - he is also insightful and sensitive observer.

[And I fear, I’m getting into stereotypes – but know, dear reader, that I am fully aware of our human and gendered complexities. I have wrestled with my own as a strong, intelligent, independent woman with not much interest in, in fact resistance to, girliness, maternal nirvana, and things frilly and frivolous. But somewhere along the way, I also embraced and accepted my femininity as good, and not diminishing, and my love of lipstick totally within the realm of acceptable].

Chabon explores his identity an experience as a man- as father, husband, and son. He chronicles his relationships with the people in his life, and the unique dynamic with a man they each provide – his wife (both current and ex), his eldest daughter, his younger sons, first father-in-law, his best friend, his brother. I have a greater appreciation for what each of these distinct relationship dynamics mean for a man.

He does all this with a light hand and a sense of humor (seriously, I rolled laughing), and writes from an accessible place of common experience and recognition. But he does not miss the mark on depth, wisdom, complexity, and nuance (among my favorite qualities in a book and in a person (MC is, unfortunately for me, happily married)). He employs rich prose, a wonderful vocabulary (mine is failing me right now), gorgeous metaphor, while also freely referring to “ass-sliding” when no other word could do any better justice.

New Year's audit

Lists
It's always nice to start the year with my home affairs in order (even if it doesn't last too long).  Thus, the list for the first day of 2010 (yesterday) was something like this:

Undo Christmas  - (usually I wait until the weekend after New Year's or to get through Orthodox Xmas, if possible, but with the help available and the time on my hands, Christmas was undone by noon on New Year's Day :-) / :-(
Write thank you notes
...find addresses and mail them
Pay bills, settle year-end accounts

Assist with air ticket fiasco, so I could sweep ex out of house (bittersweet)

Stock fridge with fresh, healthy food
Do laundry
... and put it away (have since generated more)
Set up laptop computer wi-fi!  - (Hurray!)
Buy flowers to cheer up quiet, emptier house (and cheer up G who has had sad eyes since her dad left this morning)

Design Within Reach (TM)

I have long been a fan of design - specifically industrial design.  I love when form meets function.  I love when the design reflects an a-ha! moment.  I like when a product is stripped of bells and whistles to its most core competency, and is the better for it.  I like when a new design or idea changes the game, and sets the standard, not because it is pretentious, but because it is smart.  I have a running list of such things.  Here are some.