house 1a layer style

house 5a layer style

courts, culture and time passages

As my Japanese-American friend Cyndi observed over a dozen years ago, in Imperial Japan people in the courts took exquisite precautions to stay out of the sun and never ever venture into daylight so their complexion would remain ultra-white, but centuries later and halfway around the world, "Now the people in the courts are tanned as dark as possible, and being pasty white (even when that's your native natural hue) is considered not OK." More years later, into the 21st century and yet another era, this one health- and wellness-obsessed, these days people playing on the courts use lots of high-test sunscreen and sunblock and avoid direct sunlight whenever possible. How some ever, now that fake suntan products have developed way beyond looking as artifical as they used to back in those days, whether on the courts, off the courts or on the way to the courts image-conscious people often wear unreal tans. Something else has changed, too: when she married a guy with a very anglo surname, Cyndi dropped her Japanese one that got mispronounced all too often. Slow forward to now, she answers to either name but formally identifies herself with a hyphenated last name.

October's Musical Musings

here's October's RevGals Musical Musings, which I got to compile--it was so fun!

santa ana winds again

back unsettling the land again
making their presence felt
dry heat
fast winds
driving along the beach, free style
wind in the sands, free style
nothing but play, free style
high dry winds
transforming the spaces of paradise

at least F5

at least Friday 5 with a thankfulness list from Mary Beth...

Welcome to the Friday Five!

This one is going to be veeeery simple: List at least five things (people, places, graces, miracles...) for which you are thankful. You may elaborate as you wish, or keep it simple.

Hat tip to Princess Mindy for the idea. Oh...and if you know The Veggie Tales' hit "Thankfulness Song," please hum it as you post.

1. I have this gratitude for cities...


2. and for cats;


3. gratefulness for the cat and the city and also for cats in cities.


4. for houses of almost every imaginable kind I'm thankful

and, of course,

5. thank-filled for the days (and nights) of summer.



Way to go for this easy and fun one, Mary Beth...

horrifying dream

despite too much caffeine, I fell asleep and took a nap, waking up a few minutes ago on Thursday, 04 October, 2007 | 4:20 PM

dream chronology:

I was at home at the PC i got in May 2002 online and working on some theology or related
i went downstairs to the on-site laundry room and started a load of laundry
when i got back upstairs there was a big round black-rimmed analog clock on the DR wall where one of my fave paintings used to be
lots of replacements on the walls (all of them okay, so far) but my favorite paintings, hangings, etc. gone!
OLD PC = GONE!
a little while later, a brand-new, black PC with a smaller screen is there in its place
back in DR, a person (woman, i believe) covered up with a huge appliance box is making more changes
all over my dwelling-place, that finally was decorated basically in my style and taste, everything is different, though for the most part not necessarily things I don't care for
at some point i see a woman who's around may age or a little younger from Old Condo Shadows Church
I tell her the missing computer is a major disaster, more loss of my life--i had/have 3000 Word documents from the past 5+ years on it!
she is very nice, not at all condescending and tells me it's been a joint project and some of the perps will be over for dinner (i haven't even cooked anything for myself) in a few minutes
two of them then arrive at the door; i recognize one as someone i really like and always have gotten along with
i inform them they are evil and they immediately leave
i'd been doing a load of laundry in the complex's 1st floor laundry room, but for some reason need to go to an offsite retail store to do a 2nd load (or maybe the 1st load already is there)
cat sitter Jane drives me there; i try to get to the laundry room in the basement, turns out it's up one floor, and I get stuck alone in terror at the narrow staircase and turn back; jane has gone ahead of me
ages later (maybe an hour or so, meaning jane is long-gone) finally i venture outside the store and go into the laundry room through the same level
i need to phone jane for a ride home, reach in my pocket for my cell and pull out someone else's
Jane's # was stored on my cell and i have no way to phone or otherwise reach her
i enter a very large waiting van through the rear door, along with a middle- or HS girl, and go home without my laundry
home is some distance away
i call the driver "larry" - High Desert City apt. building owner and former sort of now-former boss?
at home, i go into the condo complex building, knock on a door on the opposite end and side of what has become a squarely, self-enclosed building rather than the 6-part one we now have
these days i start all my writing in GoogleDocs and finally export them to Word, but i need to get my old puter back, with almost everything I've done in the past 5+ years--that's been my life!
carolyn o'barr suddenly is there and tells me about all the new stuff in the new windows software--crazy, because she knows I want and need a new Mac
i manage to find Jane's real door; she hands me a fat looseleaf notebook of computer files printed out in light-colored ink on both sides of the paper
it turns out she's been playing RevGals Friday 5 a whole lot (and she's never ever on her puter, which by now i know must have ossified)
i need to get my 3,000+ files back
a new group of perps is there in my condo and tells me everything on my old puter was worthless, anyway
i need my own phone back, too!
Left Right in the City SP is there and tells me there's no point in being upset about my missing phone--i don't dare complain about the (truly) missing theology
everyone except Jane, the van driver, LRC SP and the anonymous girl were from Old Condo Shadows Church, but could have been from any of my churches
This is amazingly analogous to everything

four things

PS tagged me for a super-fun 4 things--seems like I'm way slow in getting essentials done lately, but somehow I can find time for memes and schemes.

Four jobs I've held
line chef
recreation therapist
layout and pasteup flunky
[substitute] public school teacher

Four films I could watch over and over
Joy Luck Club
Snow Dogs
Milo & Otis
White Nights

Four TV shows I watch
local channel 10 news
national ABC network news
Brothers & Sisters
Extreme Makeover, Home Edition

Four places I've lived
Gulf Coast
Intermountain West
New England
Southern California

Four favorite foods
fajita burrito - Christmas Eve Special
prime rib and baked potato plus tossed salad
confirmation chicken
french toast

Four websites I visit every day (making this besides the obvious gmail)
Blogger
Best Friends Message Forums (from Best Friends Sanctuary in Kanab, UT)
eBay
RevGalBlogPals

Four favorite [current] Crayola colors

yellow-orange

denim

bittersweet

plum

Four places I would love to be right now
on the beach, any beach
spring or summer lunch time in the Central Business District--I know, a little strange, considering...
in the desert
gazing out on As the Powder Falls

Four names I love but would/could not use for my children
Like PS, I'm changing this to four cool names for pets:
Indigo
Ebony
Wild Child
Wild Thing

sunday simmerings

...all of six years ago at exactly this time of fall I walked into Beachside Community Center and immediately knew why none of the other jobs and situations had worked out: God had saved the very best for last, something such a perfect fit no human ever could have imagined it. After all those years of jobs, living situations, etc. signed, sealed and delivered, etc. that then fell through, etc., that entire disappointing past suddenly was completely over. My passion for the city, its people and its infrastructure, my background in the social sciences, my activist heart, my theological perspective...the Community Economic Development program itself uniquely brought together those interests and experiences, and when I walked into Beachside, I realized the social work degree hadn't been beside the point, after all, although actually, it never really had been, since in my last two calls I had economic parity with what they'd have given someone ordained to ministry of word and sacrament, because I had equivalent education.

Late last evening as again I was asking God "why," I began wondering if there could be some way for me somehow to do something related to all that? The immediately post-CED year I attended all the networking events, all the meet 'n' greets and did several small business workshops plus the CCDC's Entrepreneur Academy. The year after that I did a few, but then it seemed as if nothing would evolve from my CED year, after all. "They" told us 85% of jobs are found through networking, and I didn't know where to turn. Prior to High Desert City I'd never had a crummy job, and a few of those did me no harm, but then the scummy jobs began, and my several attempts to get vocational and plain old job services never bore fruit.

In terms of something CED-related, I'm not necessarily thinking of storefront transformation or brownfield reclamation, but something related has to be out there?! Neighborhood revitalization, maybe? Here's preservation project, not exactly one of my most active blogs, but it does say something about The City and the cities. In general I haven't been very public about details of my life and world (though that's my condo courtyard incorporated into my graphic collage), since I don't blog anonymously, but this Sunday evening I'm wondering out loud; may peace be with all of you.

Mountains bow down and the seas...

Mountains bow down and the seas will roar at the sound of Your Name...
Today I'm blogging only thumbnails without linking to the larger images, mainly because the 2nd and 3rd still need some refining and don't look good enough yet at mega-view.

Swan Song F5

ReverendMother's Swan Song that's also today's Friday 5, introduced with:

Well friends, as I prepare for the birth of Bonus Baby, it's time to simplify life, step back from the Friday Five, and let one of the other capable and creative RevGals take the helm. It's been a great almost 17 months of co-hosting the F5, but it's time to say goodbye... so here's my swan song.

On Endings and Goodbyes

1. Best ending of a movie/book/TV show

Again I'm late in F5 time, so I'll default into the book of Revelation's New Creation at the end of the book of books, The Bible.

2. Worst ending of a movie/book/TV show

The last episode of Will & Grace, one of the only sitcoms I've ever watched on a reasonably regular basis.

3. Tell about a memorable goodbye you've experienced.

Not just one, but every time I left my grandmother after visiting her for however long, since I knew she was getting older (just as we're all doing) and despite everything, she'd been the only family member who wasn't too too crazy and consistently had supported me and my dreams.

4. Is it true that "all good things must come to an end"?

Sometimes trite phrases are true, but I'd interpret that not so much as they must end, but that change, modification, transformation and reformation are inevitable when the Spirit of Life prevails, which, of course, S/He always does.

5. "Everything I ever let go of has claw marks on it." —Anne Lamott Discuss.

I've learned it's impossible fully to let go of the past or acknowledge it's over until you have something reasonable to take its place, but I so tend to keep grasping tightly whatever it was, longing for the new but terrified it won't arrive or won't be as good as the old.

Bonus: ...propose an alternative: "It isn't over until...dawn breaks on the next installment."

PS Please note I've included CD inserts for RM's Swan Song.

PPS Many thanks and many blessings, RM!

genesis 9:13 - this one

as much as I love the other one with the golden yellow (wheat color) text, most likely I'll enter this one, since I'm printing it on 8.5 x 11 paper and the light text displays better, even on the screen.