Someday I want to spend a winter in a place with real weather. Someplace like De Smet, South Dakota, where our sweet, Aryanesque tourguide at the Laura Ingalls Wilder museum told us that in winter the snow falls horizontally. Due to the extreme wind, see.
I want to winter there, in a cabin. I want to spend the whole winter writing. Make my way to the outhouse by way of the clothesline, just like Laura did.
Get lost on the prairie.
Love's Baptism
I'm ceded, I've stopped being theirs;
The name they dropped upon my face
With water, in the country church,
Is finished using now,
And they can put it with my dolls,
My childhood, and the string of spools
I've finished threading too.
Baptized before without the choice,
But this time consciously, of grace
Unto supremest name,
Called to my full, the crescent dropped,
Existence's whole arc filled up
With one small diadem.
My second rank, too small the first,
Crowned, crowing on my father's breast,
A half unconscious queen;
But this time, adequate, erect,
With will to choose or to reject.
And I choose – just a throne.--Emily Dickinson
Jim has a post about his belated New Year's Resolutions and so I think I'll do one too. This year I want to:
1. Floss. Every day. I'm going to buy a bunch of floss packets and have them everywhere in my life (car, house, work) so that I will just do it all the time.
2. Continue to improve my diet as I have been doing the past few weeks. Focus on whole foods, green leafies. Listen to body; body will tell me what to eat. Don't eat on the fly.
3. Get in the habit of taking vitamins! Every day.
4. Work on neatness factor. Kindly, gently encourage self to tidy up, put things away so taht I can find what I need when I need it.
5. Smile at cute men. It's harmless.
6. Strive for balance: time spent at Mission Trails, in Tecolote, with friends, online, writing, crafting/knitting, yoga-ing, socializing.
I just bought a Crock Pot! For $9.99!
And a t-shirt with a picture of Milhouse on it that says "I heart Geeks".
The LA Times reports that the Mexican government is giving out 1 million of these guides to crossing the border safely. The booklets warn of 110 degree heat, tell migrants to bring enough water, stuff like that."Anything that's trying to save the lives of migrants coming into the US is a good thing," says a Border Patrol spokesperson.
Did a Border Patrol Agent just say something that I agree with?
We are all changing our last name to McGoogle.
Last night I dreamt that a huge bird landed on a car mom and I were in. It was wounded and it could talk. It was able to tell us what was wrong with it. Someone had cut down its tree and ruined its nest. Its mate watched us from a nearby tree.I was really embarrassed to tell anyone that we could hear the bird talking. I told mom not to tell because they would think we were crazy. The bird was a Peregrine Falcon.
I think he was trying to tell me something.
Forehead for rent! Wait til they see my huge cranium.
Tsunami is the word of the moment, right? It's a really beautiful word for such a terrible thing. So I was thinking about what other words we have aquired in English from Japanese.
geisha
sushi
kimono
kabuki
I had some help with this list at Sushi Deli last night but I had some beer and forgot the words we came up with.
Kompaii? (not sure if that's really made it into the lexicon)
kamakaze
I know there are more....
Peet's is matching donations for tsunami relief. Money goes to Doctors without Borders. I hope we make lots of money--places like Sri Lanka and Indonesia are huge producers of coffee and tea. Double your donation--give through Peet's.
In 2004 I:
may have been in sniffing range of a mountain lion
saw a felled palm tree squashed on a mercedes
drove a hybrid car. Wee!
went to london (twice!) italy and france
was acupunctured and homeopathied
got 2 skin cancers removed. yike.
knitted!
bacame a bona fide tea jenny (Assam Xtra Fancy, every day.)
submitted only one story for publication. This must change in 05!
watched a friend lose her mother.
had a clutch go out and a flat tire in the same month.
got an ipod and an ibook. yum.
Even better: Got a new nephew! Paddy O'BaileyMcGheenihan!
In 2005 I hope to:
shake things up some more.
Move?
Start over?
(I dreamt last night that I went to Vietnam to teach English literature...)
Stay healthy.
drink more tea
write like a muthu
I think this will be an exciting year. Full of change and possiblity.