Daily is difficult for me...

I don't know why it's so hard for me to blog ONCE a day, every day. I think it was my problem with 100 words. FInding - and making - the time every day for something I want to do.

Anywho... in keeping with the stroll down memory lane, here's another pic of us from the way-back machine.

Land's End, SF, 2003 (?)

City Hall, AUgust 21, 2001

I posted this pic from our marriage day (hard to call it a wedding, really) on FB, and within about 15 hours, I've gotten 26 "likes" and 21 comments.

People are suckers for love. ;) As am I.

And I sure love this man!

My one in 6 billion...

And another...

Rome 2008

10 years has really flown by... in the most amazing and fulfilling way possible. We've done a LOT in 10 years, and I oh so look forward to the next 40 years!

More from memory lane

Amsterdam 2005

From Amsterdam, the summer we were there for me to do research on pot clubs...

Memory lane

Tokyo 2002

Lots of strolling down it, while leading up to our TEN YEAR anniversary!

Just went through old pics, from when we first met through now...

WOW!

This is a sweet one, from us in Tokyo, upon our return the second time for K&K's wedding... 2002.

august

-adj

1. inspiring reverence or admiration; of supreme dignity or grandeur; majestic: an august performance of a religious drama.

2. venerable; eminent: an august personage.

And a nice graffiti art mural to go along with it...

"wish you were here"

July flew by...

As has the entire first half of 2011. Alas, life is good, so I'm not complaining, per se. But I would like to try to slow down time.

Had a nice walk today with V and her three doggies. We spun by the SF Marathon, then walked up to Noe Valley. Met S for coffee and caught up, then walked back via the Castro. Such a lovely way to spend a Sunday morning - walking and talking with girlfriends!

Yesterday we had lunch with a great group of folks up in Geyserville at Catelli's, then went to Fritz for a wine tour and tasting. Wonderful, warm afternoon, aside from being slightly hungover from Friday's wine and dinner with SG. After Fritz we went to Truett-Hurst winery. Nice wines, beautiful grounds, and two bottles - one red, one white - shared creekside while Pickle the Dog entertained a couple of kids that had wandered up.

Evening back in the city spent playing Scrabble and eating pizza with wine.

Perfecto!

Warm July Morning

It's very rare to wake up with the window open, and for it to already be hot. After a tasty breakfast of friend egg & ham, and homemade apple crumble with a little scoop of Salted Caramel ice cream, I put on my sneakers, backpack, and bit floppy sun hat, and walked up to the Civic Center Farmers Market to pick up fresh veggies. I'm preparing a big batch up Gazpacho for tomorrow's BBQ at the Wheeler-McNultys.

I got home and was totally sweaty from my nearly 3 miles walk, with my backpack loaded with veggies and flowers. I took a walk last night, too, to Safeway at 10pm to pick up a random array of groceries: whole peppercorns; soy sauce (low salt); milk; white wine vinegar; aluminum foil; Draino; pickled okra. I had to walk back and forth across the store four times to find all the random items I was looking for. And had to ask four different people to point me in the right direction. Safeway late at night is fun, though. I saw an older strung-out hippie guy carrying his enormous bong over by the milk, desperately saying over and over to anyone that would answer, "do you have just a pint of milk?!" I happen to know Safeway doesn't sell milk in that small quantity. I had spent 5 minutes looking for something smaller than a half gallon earlier.

I'm watching a little bit of the America's cup, while I rest and cool down. It's Brasil v Venezuela, at La Plata in Argentina.

It's nice to be home. Even if I'm a little mitten-brained today.

Back in the saddle... one month later!

Catching ONE post for June, just before the month ends. It's been an amazing whirlwind, with a trip to LA, DC, NY and Chicago between June 2 and 25. We've been back since midnight Sat night, and it's been a nice time of readjustment. It is always more effort than anticipated, the enthusiasm for the return clouding the memory of previous re-entires. But we're home, and we have time, and plans, so it's all good.

I walked almost 5 miles today, to Flax for new journals, then to The Creamery, and back home, with a little stop in to the new Empanada place, Venga! And I got home to find P had gotten empanadas for me, too (I had picked up and extra one for him). So funny!

Here's one of my favorite self-photos from our trip. Me in NY, in Chelsea, on our way to an evening of 10-minutes plays.

Gobekli Tepe in Turkey, the oldest temple site on earth

Intricate details of vultures & scorpions from 11,000 years ago

20 temples built on a 22-acre site from 9600-8200 BC suggest that it may be gathering for religion that spawned "civilization" as we imagine it today, not the Ice Age passing and the domestication of plants and animals. Researcher Klaus Schmidt has been excavating the temple site for 17 years, and believes what he is uncovering is a whole new paradigm shift for understanding our human tendency to gather into groups. It may due to the religious spectacle that was created at Gobekli Tepe that brought hunters & gathers together in large groups. Some are saying that the temple site may be the Neolithic version of Disneyland. "Discovering that hunter-gathers had constructed Gobekli Tepe was like finding that someone had built a 747 in a basement with an X-acto knife." It was not the settling into groups due to domestication that spawned the need for religion to dictate civil harmony as previously conjectured. "Twenty years ago everyone believed civilization was driven by ecological forces," Schmidt says. "I think what we are learning is that civilization is a product of the human mind."

(Info Source: National Geographic June 2011 issue, pp 34-59, photo source red ice creations.com)

From a NYT article about conjoined twins

The average person tends to fall back on the Enlightenment notion of the self — one mind, with privacy of thought and sensory experience — as a key characteristic of identity. That very impermeability is part of what makes the concept of the mind so challenging to researchers studying how it works, the neuroscientist and philosopher Antonio Damasio says in his book, “Self Comes to Mind.” “The fact that no one sees the minds of others, conscious or not, is especially mysterious,” he writes. We may be capable of guessing what others think, “but we cannot observe their minds, and only we ourselves can observe ours, from the inside, and through a rather narrow window.”

This is the article. Makes one think about individuality. And the mind.

Charming Chico, CA

P and I had an overnight getaway to Chico. He had a radio appearance on their local public station, and a book store event at Lyon Books in the evening. We had an easy drive up, via Sacto and highway 99, and stayed at the beautifully restored Hotel Diamond - the first hotel in Chico from around 1904, that had closed due to fire in 1912, and not reopened again until 2005.

I talked a meter maid out of a parking ticket, everywhere we went people were kind and helpful. And it was a gorgeous day! We had a delicious Mexican dinner at Tres Hombres with two 100% blue agave tequila drinks each, to celebrate the wonderful day - and P's great talk - 40 people showed up, and listened enraptured. Amazing.

Today we had coffee in our room while listening to a little music, and paging through a History of Chico picture book. We saw a picture of "the big fish" and it became part of our day's pursuit. I took a 4.5 mile walk from the hotel and up into Lower Bidwell Park - it was a stunningly bright day, and met P back at the room to shower and pack. We picked up sandwiches to have a picnic by the creek back in Bidwell Park, after driving out highway 32 east looking for the fish.

We filled our gas tank with $3.99 gas! And on our way westward out highway 32 to connect to I-5, we found THE BIG FISH! A perfect day...

We're back home now, resting a bit. And I'm packing for my girl's getaway to Laguna Beach tomorrow bright and early!

Entertaining

The enormous cache of computer files taken fromOsama bin Laden’s compound contained a considerable quantity of pornographic videos, American officials said on Friday, adding a discordant note to the public image of the Islamist militant who long denounced the West for its lax sexual mores. -- New York Times

Life is so good, I don't have time to blog about it...

My life feels like the opposite of that cheesy Footprints poem, about god carrying you at the most difficult times of your life. For me, it's more that life has been so busy and exciting lately, I haven't the time to blog about it. Which in the big picture, is a good thing. (Or perhaps a justification, but I'll take a good life, either way).

Paul's event on April 29th was AMAZING! Wonderful, adoring fans, loads of friends we haven't seen in awhile, lots of book and art sales, and not a wrinkle or hiccup in any aspect of the plan or execution. The folks we hired to sell books & art, and pour the wine were professional and delightful, P's mom was a HUGE help, and overall the night was an even larger success than we could have possibly even imagined! And yet, no blog post about it. Until days later. Ahwell...

Last night P put up the most challenging performance of his career at the Monthly Rumpus, and killed it! Afterwards, we enjoyed roasted cauliflower, potato & gorgonzola hash, and prosciutto pizza, with a glass of Pinot at Baretta, followed by chocolate & amaretto gelato with a glass of 10-year Tawny port. We walked home around midnight... relaxed and happy after a job well done. Not to mention his radio appearance on KPFA's Cover to Cover yesterday afternoon.

AND... my having a wonderful walk & talk with the lovely and insightful Chez D yesterday morning, all along the top of the city, from Ft. Mason to the Warming Hut and back. Almost 4.5 miles on a beautifully warm and cloudless morning - an excellent way to start a day, and a week!

And then another 4 days...

I hate getting out of a good rhythm. I had been posting almost everyday, and now multiple days pass between posts. Ah well, gotta just get back up on that horse.

Whoops, a week has passed...

I had a good rhythm going for a few months, then we hit the critical juncture of THE BIG BOOK PARTY - and mom's arrival - and there went my daily blog...

The party was an AWESOME success, though... and worth, perhaps, a week off from the daily chronicle.

And Bin Laden was found and shot by the US military on Sunday, MayDay, May 1. I found out while talking go Gail about M's potential assignment in Afghanistan.

I've taken a few pics this week. Here's one of the view from Cavallo Point.

Tuesday

Had a great Easter celebration of wine, ribs, egg-coloring and good times with good friends. Here's Scott's pics of the day.

5:08am, Easter Sunday morning

I awoke around 3:20 in a slight sweat. After laying in the dark for half an hour, I realized that my insomnia might be due to needing to pee. I got up, padded to the toilet slightly chilly with the clammy sweat, then returned to bed. Another 20 minutes pass, and still not sleepy at all...

I got up to read, and as usual, first pulled my computer into my lap. I am quite comfortable all snuggly under the blanket, on the couch, in my robe, laptop in hand...

And decided to check M's blog, written in her native French, from China. And for the first time, I figured out Google Translate! I often test my French abilities, and can usually get about 40-50% of the gist of what she's writing. And now, it's about 99%. So, in honor of her honest self-reportage blog style, I decided to do the same, here, now.

I can hear a lovely happy bird song, and a few drips of rain falling from the window casing to the exterior window sill. And occasionally the sound of a car passing through the soggy intersection outside below.

I'm not sure why I now constantly have bouts of insomnia. I think it may be related to my monthly hormonal shifts. I'm a few days out from the end of this three week ring cycle... an

d am quite bummed that my period will be aligned with P's big book launch party. I intend to not let it get in the way, nor bog me down. I just don't want to feel bloated and chubby this week, and most certainly, not on Friday.

My dear mother-in-law arrives Wednesday morning. She's coming out to help, and to be here for his party. She'll be staying with us, a real treat, since she usually comes out with P's dad, and they stay in a hotel. I look forward to waking up and her being here every morning for 5 days!

And oh yes, it's Easter. Our only tradition has become, going to J&N's to color eggs. Its fun to be creative collectively. And this is the first Easter for lil Addie. Unfortunately, their parenting style has become a bit of a bummer, their daughter is so spoiled for anyone's arms but theirs. I oh so hope she becomes more well-adjusted as she gets older. N justifies her spoiling by saying that she knows her daughter, and is doing what is best (she still sleeps with them every night, my friend M would be simply aghast!). I had to hold my tongue when N confessed that their pediatrician told her that it was simply wrong that Addie wasn't sleeping through the night, that she needs to be put in her crib and left there to self-soothe, then sleep through the night. N is drunk on mother-love and doesn't know it. What, as a friend, am I to do? Not a thing. Let them figure it out. And for while, keep a safe distance. I'm sure (I hope) in years, it'll be a distant memory and Addie will assert herself, and make her own space. We can only hope...

In honor of Easter, I've included an egg P colored in '09. The other side reads, "Jesus Fucking Christ"

Wake up world. The time is now. Earth Day 2011

Pale Blue Dot - Animation from Ehdubya on Vimeo.

"It underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot."

Life highlight #1: Holding a human brain

I've been laid up for three days with a cold, trying to take it e-a-s-y to make sure it passes well before the busy week next week for P's big book launch.

Laying here at 2:23am on the couch, not sleepy after having napped all evening...

Reading something online got me to thinking about a few life highlights...

And one of them is holding a human brain, at Dartmouth, in the middle of the night, on JB's offer. It was so fun to walk across campus, sneak in the back of the building and into a lab on the third floor (four floors about the sub-basement where JB spent most of his waking hours). He pulled it out of a huge glass jar of formaldehyde and handed it to me.

It's smaller than I thought it would be, considering how much credit I give it for controlling my life.

It was pretty amazing though.

I got bangs today, or if I were British, "fringe"

"The term bangs, always used in the plural, is, as you know the fringe of hair usually cut squarely across the forehead. According to etymology scholar Robert Barnhart, the term is strictly American in origin (the Brits call it fringe) first surfacing in 1878. It was believed influenced by the adverbial use of bang in the meaning of abruptly, as in hair cut bang off; some sources offer a relation to earlier bangtailed (1861) of a horse's tail that has been cut horizontally across."

Source: http://en.allexperts.com/q/Etymology-Meaning-Words-1474/bangs-fringe.htm

I've decided to add another source, that basically confirms the above information, But mainly because this site "Word Detective" is awesome! How could I have never seen this before, especially with my insatiable curiosity...

Word Detective

As an afterthought, I just want to point out that today is also 4/20. Heh heh.

Less crazy about my toothpaste

I'm on the couch, where I've been most of the day, fighting off a dreaded cold. UGH! With the TV in the background as I've napped off and on, I awoke to a most disturbing program: Extreme Couponing! I can't believe it's even a subject for a show! This woman is nuts. She has 40 years of toilet paper in her "stockroom", along with $35,000 worth of other soaps, shampoos and all kinds of cleaning and household supplies. Her poor husband has been sucked into the insanity, too. Which in a pathetic way is kind-of sweet that he goes along on her shopping trips... filling 9 entire grocery carts with her 1000 coupons worth of products. SICK! And the poor guy has given up his mancave to her 269 boxes of pasta.

It really makes me look much less crazy with my obsession to buy our favorite brand of toothpaste when it's on sale. Arm & Hammer baking soda toothpaste is expensive, sometimes a tube is almost $6, so I always buy it on sale. And when I find it on sale, I typically buy 6 or more tubes at once, for about $2-3 each. P and I joke that it's like my grandmother buying and stocking up on her soaps and shampoos when they were on sale.

9.3

I walked 9.3 miles today between 7:25am and 10:40am.

And I'm tired now.

Taking responsibility for my own freedom

Last night we saw the A.C.T. presentation of No Exit written by Jean-Paul Sartre. The take away line of the evening: "People are hell!". It was a wonderful play with live-video feed from inside the Hotel room: hell for three people thrust together in the afterlife to torture each other with their thoughts, insecurities and conversations.

My favorite line from the Sartre bio I read in the program:

"You are free, therefore choose, that is to say, invent."

The theater encouraged the audience to pass by the room after the performance. I had even more respect for the actors after seeing the complicated array of cameras they had to choreograph and cue.

In honor of my own freedom... and life I've invented, I offer this image:

In Bahir Dar, Ethiopia, with my parasol I picked up in Beijing

Seven lucky pennies...

I am totally superstitious about picking up heads up pennines for good luck. If you see a penny laying on the ground and it is tails up, give it a swift kick to see if you can change the luck for the next person that comes along (but don't pick it up yourself!).

I had an especially lucky June in 2009... (and these aren't all the pennies that year, just the ones from June through August).

7 lucky pennies

I figure, if you see good luck laying there on the ground, how could you possibly pass it by? And if you find a dime? TEN TIMES the good luck, isn't that amazing?

Advice to a future self

I love going back and finding gems in old journals. This one was especially fun, the maker of the book had taken apart various other books and reassembled them with some plain paper into a fun journal!

No need to put pajamas on the cat!

Day 4001

Yesterday's celebration was soooooooooooo nice, just what the doctor ordered!

A leisurely lunch at Cavallo Point, a walk along the water and up to the battery, in the cold blustery wind. We stopped by the Warming Hut for an espresso (and P's book is out and on display there already, too) then came home, dropped the car and our extra layers... then went to go show him my few dress options for my party outfit. We got a glass of wine and muscles at Starbelly. Then settled in for a movie (An Education, a just okay coming-of-age story) and ordered-in Indian food! An absolute delight of a day!

And today was a good start to the next thousand days...

4-11-11

That was the date yesterday. My favorite number is 11. I know it's a little silly to have a favorite number, but I really can't help it. It's so equal, so parallel. Two strong pillars holding up the sky.

And I blew it on making a post. Dang.

Today, April 12, 2011 is mine and P's 4000 day anniversary! 4000 amazing days!

I love you, sweet cheeks! And to celebrate a day of sweetness, how about a teddy bear up in a tree, watching the world go by!

Cool mod leather chairs in T2 SFO

Twin Peaks walk

I walked 7.8 miles today, a huge part of which was up to and around Twin Peaks. Then back down, and home.

It feels *so good* to take long walks like that. My heart, spirit and soul are all lighter and happier because of it...

New Terminal 2 SFO

I know it's a little geeky to be airport-proud of the San Francisco new terminal, but it is quite lovely... here's a snapshot:

Cool bathroom with 3 airblades!

P's image

Beautiful floral tapestries

Water bottle refill station

Public art

Painfully cute images #1

Things that exist, though I've never seen happen

The shoes dangling from telephone lines - I've never seen kids or anyone else tossing them up and over the wires. But they are everywhere. Really, how do they get them up there?

Tagging - It is everywhere, and I've never seen the gangs of roving dumb kids doing it.

Car theft - I've never seen anyone break into a car, though window glass is all over the city.

Two self portraits, two beaches

I went looking through an old file of photos for a media image for P, and came across these two photos...

Feria Beach, Santa Barbara 2010

Ocean Beach, San Francisco 2010

Frustrating assumptions

I've seen it all. Today, in the local taqueria, an older woman came in with her daughter, who was wearing a headscarf. They came through the cramped doorway, and into the back of the restaurant where they found a table. They then proceeded back to the counter to put their order in. They couldn't believe how long the line had gotten, so asked if they could just cut to the front of the line! The cashier said they'd have to ask those who were next in line, and these two pushovers let them order! I was SO annoyed! Just because they asked to cut in line, they were allowed to? Yep, I've seen it all now.

9 Miles

I walked from the Marina Green to the Ballpark and back this morning. 9 miles total. It is such a wonderful way to spend a sunny Sunday morning, walking and talking with girlfriends.

Love it!

Dang, dang it!

I can't believe I blew it on posting yesterday. Maybe we'll call it my April Fool's post... But I hate starting the month with one day already missed. It makes it very difficult to want to post every day, when I've already blown it. Ah well...

Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin'

There's a bright golden haze on the meadow,

There's a bright golden haze on the meadow,

The corn is as high as an elephant's eye,

An' it looks like its climbin' clear up to the sky.

Oh what a beautiful morning,

Oh what a beautiful day,

I've got a wonderful feeling,

Everything's going my way.

All the cattle are standing like statues,

All the cattel are standing like statues,

They don't turn their heads as they see me ride by.

But a little brown mav'rick is winking her eye.

Repeat chorus

All the sounds of the earth are like music,

All the sounds of the earth are like music,

The breeze is so busy it don't miss a tree,

And an ol' Weepin' Willer is laughin' at me.

Repeat chorus

Lemon-poppy mini-loaf + cappuccino + morning journal @ Missing Half, NOPA

Ight Ass

The J brothers are narrowing in on their opening day of Sight Glass. It's inspiring to have watched them get their bearings in SF at Four Barrel, then take the leap to opening their own roasting operation + cafe. They are dear guys, work super hard, and deserve their just rewards. Their kiosk is lovely enough to sit and read for a bit, while sipping an espresso (served with a glass of water, nice touch!). Here's my view today, while reading To Timbuktu after running afew advance copies of P's book to the post office and KQED. Life is so good...!

Though there can be a little confusion when the stamper doesn't fully connect to the cup...

Blue-y

We popped down to LA for the weekend, a fast and easy ride talking and listening to Leyhrer's "How We Decide". We had an Okie friend-family reunion with E&J, as K&K passed through on their way back to Tokyo. Then we spent Sat night with R. We had great discussions about life and manifesting prosperity, and taking the fork in the road when you hit a negativity patch. R has a new companion that waits for her to come home. Even in her little Zen pad, the simplistic spaciousness is well balanced. Look at how Blue-y and the vertical blinds are so well aligned.

Nichole Sheree Wyatt, R.I.P.

My best friend, Nikki, died 14 years ago today. She was beautiful, inside and out, and loved me patiently and unconditionally. Somedays I'm sad, thinking I wasn't able to offer the love she deserved.

She was smart, and funny, and didn't take shit from anyone. We spent months together during summers, after her family moved a state over. We'd alternate between my house and hers, summer after summer. Our families accepted our close friendship, and welcomed each of us into their homes for weeks on end.

One summer while we were at my house, boys came by for us to sneak out in the middle of the night. Nikki was tired, uninterested, and couldn't be bothered. So when I got brought home by the cops a few hours later, I got in a lot less trouble since she had stayed home. Good old Nikki!

She was beautiful, a cross between Michelle Pfeiffer and Angelina Jolie, but her heart radiated the most bountiful love and acceptance.

Oh, I miss her so... I love you, Nik, you're always in my heart, and our memories I'll cherish til the day I die.

Ankh

When I was a teenager, I had a silver ankh that I wore around my neck. A symbol for eternal life, I find the shape pleasing and comforting.

Fridge shot

Rain rain...

It's nice to be inside, when outside looks like this....

Beer vessel snobbery

Mama's Little Yella Pils in a can

Well, my beer vessel snobbery has been put in it's place. On Tuesday night, I asked the bartender for a light lager-type beer (I confess, I generally go for a Stella), and he tells me they've got a nice Yella Pilsner, and I say, "Great!"

I then proceed to cringe as he sets down the glass and CAN in front of me... and I think, Really? A can? Shouldn't he have warned me?

But I must say... it was truly delicious. I guess it's the same feeling as getting over screw-top wine. It's not about the vessel. It's about the liquid inside. Lesson: You cannot judge a beverage by its container.

(And here's a shout out to the little Oskar I happen to know... such a great name!)

Cloud, Ko Samui

Floppy sun hats, #1

At Queen Hatshepsut temple, Luxor, Egypt

What you need when your fingers get a little dull...

Ouch!

Nothing like bumping into your old self

Looking into a friend's photography site (following a post about her cheetah safaris!), I found this old photo of myself and P from almost 11 years ago...

Who's Fault is Culture?

Amazing use of drawing #1

Drawing soldiers scars, upon their return from Iraq:

Still in the Fight: A New Reality

A light moment interlude

How P and I might entertain ourselves while traveling...

Containers that look like kid's toys

By Itsuo Inouye, AP

Container cargoes are in shambles in Sendai, northern Japan, on Saturday.

Sad for Japan

Me and P, Tokyo, April 16, 2010

I can't stop thinking about all the chaos and dis-order happening in Japan. For being the most orderly place on Earth, I'm sure the people are doing better than any where else would do. But the long lines for water, and so many people homeless, and the rolling blackouts, and the potential nuclear disaster.

It makes me sad.

Paul and I have spent a combined 6 weeks in Japan over three visits between 2001-2010. Here's a pic of us there, just to keep the love flowing. I'm thinking about you, Japan!

Water hydrant cover, obviously. Don't you just love it?

Japan EQ Videos

These videos are stunning - to see the power and force of the tsunami as it hits civilization.

Before and After Satellite Images, Japan EQ 2011

Such humanity lost.

Move the slider back and forth on these images.

Iguazu Big Water

Devil's Throat

Oh Japan, 8.9 EQ

Scientists said the quake ranked as the fifth-largest earthquake in the world since 1900 and was nearly 8,000 times stronger than one that devastated Christchurch, New Zealand, last month.

"The energy radiated by this quake is nearly equal to one month's worth of energy consumption" in the United States, U.S. Geological Survey Scientist Brian Atwater told The Associated Press.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2011/03/10/international/i222815S00.DTL#ixzz1GKqYr2cd

Amazing clothing swap find

The great wall skirt, on the great wall

A word that sounds like something I'd make up: Facticity

- noun 1. the condition or quality of being a fact; factuality

Intrigued by Theodor Adorno's philosophy that history and culture are inextricably linked, I picked up a copy of Adorno: An Introduction by Willem van Reijen yesterday. It's so easy to languish in the aisles at Adobe Books, browsing their extensive range of titles and subjects. It's considerably more difficult to find a specific something, especially something obscure like the Cultural Philosophy of T.W. Adorno. But I found what I was looking for, even though I didn't know specifically what I was after.

In the first 14 pages, I've looked up the following words, either because I didn't know the definition at all, or because I wanted to explore the specific usage.

messianic

fin de siecle

phenomenological

leitmotif

torpidity

scientism

dialectical

teleological

immanent

untenable

ontologizing

a priori

relativism

facticity

And I used Google Translate for the following German terms:

Die Idee der Naturgeschichte = the idea of natural history

Weltbild = world view (translated as "world-picture")

Weltfremdheit = Unworldliness (translated as "ivory tower")

(The above was all made possible using technology: I downloaded a dictionary app to my phone that P recommended - it keeps a list of all the words you've looked up; and I used Safari on my phone to access Google Translate).

I think just for fun, and to help increase the likelihood of my actually learning the above words, I'll look them up in my dad's old dictionary as well...

Criticism inescapable

‎"Life is short, art long, opportunity fleeting, experience misleading, judgment difficult." - Hippocrates

Bounced Check

The little girl stirs in her dark room.

She listens, the house is quiet.

She rolls her face into her pillow and

smells the grassy sweat

of the afternoon spent bike riding in the cement drainage ditch across the street,

and walking barefoot to 7-11 to buy her mom cigarettes.

Merit Ultra Lights, the yellow package, not the blue ones, don’t forget.

Sometimes she comes with a check, signed by her mom.

And she buys herself a mixed cherry + Coke Icy to suck as she walks home.

It’s her payment

for the errand she dreads.

But she can’t carry the cold cup and ride her bike at the same time, so she has to walk.

The blacktop sidewalk-less streets burn her feet,

she occasionally runs into the lawns along the way to cool her feet.

And sometimes she stops and mashes her toes

into the gooey tar, warm and oozing out of the cracks in the pavement.

Then her mom’s name ended up on an index card in the little plastic box by the register, and the cashier says he can’t accept the check because they’ve “bounced too many already” and the little girl doesn’t know what that means, but she knows it’s bad and that She’ll add this to the bundle of shame she already carries with her, layers of camisoles she can never take off.

She walked all the way home, empty-handed in the hot Oklahoma summer day.

Back in bed, in the dark, she thinks of her dirty feet, cool under the sheet

and smells her oily hair imprinted on the pillow.

She feels dumb about the store,

she feels bad and she

wants her mommy.

She slips out of her sheets,

Out of her little yellow bed, with the ugly black & red & white KISS stickers

her sister stuck to the headboard, just because she wanted to.

and as she tiptoes downstairs to crawl in bed

with her mom,

she hears sounds coming from her mothers’s room.

Sounds she doesn’t understand, but has heard before,

sounds that mean Marlin is there,

back from the gulf oil rig.

Which means for the next two weeks she is going to get even less of her mother’s strained attention,

and for the next two weeks she’ll tiptoe not just down the stairs in the middle of the night,

but all the time,

wearing more t-shirts of shame

as she navigates Marlin’s drunkenness and her

mother’s self-pity.

So she sits her little body down on the bottom stair,

next to her mother’s door,

and cries.

Unpacking Portmanteau

According to Wikipedia (a portmanteau itself):

"A portmanteau (plural: portmanteaus or portmanteaux) or portmanteau word is a blend of two (or more) words or morphemes into one new word. A portmanteau word typically combines both sounds and meanings, as in smog, coined by blending smoke and fog.

Although portmanteau is a borrowing from French (modern spelling: portemanteau), it is not used in French in this sense. It literally means "coat carrier" and in Modern French refers to a coat stand or coat hook, but in the past it could also mean "suitcase". It was in this sense that it first came into English, and the metaphorical use for a linguistic phenomenon (putting one word inside another, as into a case) is an English coinage."

Examples of "portmanteau" in this sense appeared in Lewis Carroll's book Through the Looking-Glass (1871), in which Humpty Dumpty explains to Alice the coinage of the unusual words in Jabberwocky, where "slithy" means "lithe and slimy" and "mimsy" is "flimsy and miserable". Humpty Dumpty explains the practice of combining words in various ways by telling Alice,

'You see it's like a portmanteau -- there are two meanings packed up into one word.'

P and I coined a few portmanteaus ourself while traveling the end of last year:

acrazing (crazy + amazing)

travelchism (travel + masochism)

And here's a few of my favorite better-known portmanteaux:

brunch (one of my favorite meal times)

turducken (ridiculous meat nesting)

Billery (political power-blend)

Brangelina (hate the drama of it and all the press it gets, but think it's funny to just lump them into one concept)

100 year old eggs

From my lunch with Ken in Hong Kong.

Amazing color!

A morning walk on the beach last year

I had no idea such sarcastic bastards lurked on Amazon

I almost peed my panties, reading these review. Where have I been? Why haven't I wasted hours trolling around on this hilarity before?

Three Wolf Moon Short Sleeve T

Oh ho, and the Kim Jong Il version, it's just too much!

If I were a spy

This is what I'd look like...

No parents are perfect

I haven't read a Cracked Magazine in probably 25 years. And today, I came across this article:

7 Things Parents Do That Screw Up Their Kids Life

Too funny!

"We have previously mentioned how the whole self-esteem movement turned a whole lot of people into dicks, because they emotionally can't handle anyone who doesn't boost their ego. We further theorized that this gave birth to the modern douchebag movement."

Comfort food? #2: breast milk ice cream

And this London ice cream shop SOLD OUT of it:

Breast Milk Ice Cream

Woah. I'd probably try it, but something about it does just seem a little off-putting.

Comfort food #1: grits!

I grew up eating grits. My favorite preparation is with loads of butter and fresh ground black pepper. I didn't know it was southern comfort food until I moved to California, and rarely saw them on a menu. And now, they're all the rage:

Grits

Bingo!

I won the final game, the grand prize, the BLACKOUT! (Thanks, Val, for treating me to a wonderful sendoff before my two month travels with MONEY in my pocket!)

Support freedom, visit Egypt

Man, I want to go back NOW and feel Egypt again...

Tahrir Square, Egypt's Newest Tourist Draw