October Ghosts

I think I figured out why I'm so "discombobulated" today. October is approaching - tomorrow. While this year tangibly offers great and wonderful new experiences, the ghosts are picking at me today. Pick, pick, pick. Here's my response:

Dear Shadows:

Robert - Your birthday would be tomorrow. Yes, I still miss you sometimes. The ache (multi faceted as it was) in the pit of my stomach is gone - for which I'm thankful. Your smile resides in my heart.

Curtis - We all miss you and talk about you. A very rough day a year ago with your passing. A rough year recalling your virtues. You are not forgotten. I try to emulate your kindnesses.

SweetStuff - October was the beginning. I haven't forgotten. But it was, in all reality, a long time ago. I still love your laugh.

So to the Ghosts of Teri Past I ask that you pack your gauzy satchels and move on about your business (other than playing haunt the Teri-girl). I won't forget you. I promise to revere all that brought me to this point in my life. But there's a soft sweet world beckoning to me and I really want my heart to be open and light and the chains to be lifted. I'm sure you understand.

With love, Teri

Whew!

Thanks Jules!

For every little thing - uncanny timing, poking fun (right), Democratically (right) moving my political views, 20 years (right on) and you-know-who (me - trying to get it right).

Good Day Gone Bad

Yesterday, Monday, for being a Monday and the first day of going back to work after vacation was a good one. I got my mortgage payment issues straightened out (nice thing to come home to). I waded through my inbox and made progress on work I forcefully left behind. My reframing (boo boo) was done and I was able to get it picked up and hung in my office. I mailed presents at the post office and finished the day on time.

Downhill slide. Finishing work on time, left me with downtime before yoga - boring. I could not mentally connect with my mat. I came home achy and starving, slept fitfully, woke up hurting with a sinus headache. And while I was in a good mood yesterday, my correspondence with a few people, I think came off as glib and my missives did not connect with the original intent.

And the furnace guy showed up this morning ready to service my air conditioning. While I got that straightend out...I'm sitting here with the heat blowing up my skirt. I went to work in the dark yesterday and came home from yoga in the dark. I'm not ready for winter - I missed summer this year with all my travels.

So today....I'm tired, I'm sore, I'm hurting, I'm sad and being seasonally challenged... and it is only 9:30 AM. Arrrgghh.

Better and Better

It is absolutely facinating to me how this can get any more beautiful...but yet it does.

Well, It Tastes OK

Today was the official flop day for cooking.

My bread dough was sticky. I floured it until it felt like my friend and then it stubbornly refused to rise to the occasion. However, it baked OK-ish and tastes OK.

Then I did cookies and didn't pay attention. Not enough flour.

Again sticky, running, cookie dough...sigh. They taste great. My daughter likes chewy.

Oh well, there's worse things that can happen.

Changing Seasons

I have gotten so much done this week. A full-on 100% relaxing vacation, fall house cleaning, fix-its that have been nagging me for a couple of years and I'm ready to go back to work too.

The mountains are blazing with orange leaves but it is still hot outside. I'm contented working on the inside right now. I missed the spring clean thing with working the project in Coeur d'Alene. Won't complain one iota on that though because the benefits of the whole opportunity far outweigh a dust bunny or two.

My focus now is getting ready for My Artist's visit and the reception. Still have a few vacation plans coming up here and there....this is turning out to be a magnificent fall. I'm really enjoying the we-thing too.

OK fine, this is a wonderful YEAR!

Vacation was Delightful

Oh the stories I have to tell.











I miss the Pacific Northwest, sunny, wet, city and beach....it is so beautiful and smells so clean. Hills and trees and nature and beauty. Wine and coffee whenever you want it. Utah has its uniqueness...but the NW rules.

I got to hold an Oscar! Walking and reading and quilting and shopping and seafood and more seafood!

Cooking Together

My grandson and I made banana bread today. We had a lot of bananas so we made two batches. His and mine. Together we measured and opened eggs (he did all of these - he's good at it). We mixed and we poured. And when we were done - we ate.

What fun we had together!

Affirmations

Everyday the light shines brighter, hope soars higher.

The Delicate Beauty Of New

There's a beauty in new. It is tender and fresh and mythical and fragile. New can go so many ways...it can flourish, it can wane, it can wither or barrel ahead. It can be the perfect dream, more than one imagined or a decided disaster.

But if you think of it as a tiny plant, in need of nourishment and love and you really let your light shine through, then you have nutured all the elements for sustaining hope, having peace in today, and trust for tomorrow.

It isn't lost on me - not a single moment. I get it. As do you.

Camino Chatter

Since I've been on the road so much this month, the Camino hasn't haunted me so much. Besides, Joop and I had a long talk about it. He had some good insight into my thoughts and emotions and had some good ideas and feedback.

Heard from Zammy, my Israeli "mat" mate in Granon. He had some wonderful pictures to share from this year's Camino. He's invited me to Israel several times. He's done all the three of the major Christian pilgrimages.

I think nearly everyone (not all) has gone back this year. Yes, it called us once and it is calling us again.

I can live with waiting until the reunion in 2012. :) There are so many more places to visit until then.

Beauty In Motion

I knew, the moment I saw my first painting of his that I had to have one. I never imagined that it would be this BIG nor this beautiful nor have so much meaning.

Two weeks ago:

This past weekend:

Today:






I have since seen dozens of his paintings and I now have a couple "smaller" pieces. His talent is diverse and each genre moves me in a different way

To define the emotion that flows through me for and about this painting, would be impossible.

Fine

Someone asked me today how things were going.
I said they were going fine. (The good fine.)
Was fine enough?
Yes, fine was enough.
Fine got better later, just as it always seems to do.
So tomorrow when you ask me it will still be fine, because it will be even finer than today.

Southern Cemetery

Another love I have for the South is moseying (one must mosey here) around the cemeteries. Where else can you find headstones with markers printed with "Confederate States of America"? "Or War of 1812"? "We must not forget [The War For Southern Independence]". And fresh, crisp Confederate flags through out the cemetery.

The stones aren't as paper thin as the Massachusetts' (a couple of hundred years YOUNGER) headstones, but they are starting to show wear and tear from the humidity and time. A few crypts falling into decay.

The most interesting thing I noticed.....Ivy grows in thick clumps on the "humps" of the oldest plots. You could almost tell the size of the casket "below".

I'll try to post photos this weekend.

Spoiled Girl

I'm staying at the "normal" hotel for visiting this site. But it is interesting to see the differences from the chains we normally frequent.

Peeling wallpaper - well it is Virginia - I'm sure that is difficult to avoid.
Window lodged heating/cooling unit - No thermostat on the wall
Breakfast - Buy it
Internew - Usually down. "The technician's here now ma'am". I'm sure he has a room with his name on it.
Business Office - No Printer On Service, no bank of desktops. One printer and one unit - running Windows '98. Really.
866 Nada- Yes, the phone disconnects you when you do 9-1-866. 9-1-800 works.

I'm not complaining because I just don't do that when I travel. The people here are nice and it has one of those "fancy" number beds. I'm on a top floor and the view is beautiful.

In fact, I'm off to see if that cemetary is as old as it looks from here. Civil War perhaps? I found one of those in Georgia.

Hmmm

I started, several times, to post a progress picture of My Painting. I don't want to. I love it. I adore it. I simply don't want to share it yet.

Funny how things change. I've always leaned to noticing the contrasts of things in my life. I'm not compelled to do that right now. It's light - it's all light.

Lack of shadows is very nice. And I'll just leave it at that.

Extraordinary Dinner

I'm on the Virginia coast now with instructions to a mutal frined here in Virginia from a Utah friend, originally from here, (are you following this) to give me THE TREATMENT!

OK -well he did!

We just had the most incredible seafood for dinner: Lobster, crab cake (2nd today), salmon and shrimp.

One of the guys, for desert, decided to have a chipotle/chocolate icecream sandwich - HUGE. But he didn't like it. I had to laugh because I have developed a taste for it - The Artist and I have bene noshing on chili chocolate for a couple of weeks now. But I have to admit an hour later, I can still taste it.

Tomorrow morning - before work - THE SHOOTING RANGE!

Friday - my friend's favorite store.

Talk about being spoiled - I love it!

Thinking About It

It's all just perfect right now. Just perfect.

Fall.....Soup

I'm ready to pull out my soup recipes. Today was a damp and kind of fallish day in Virginia. I found myself cruising for new soup recipes on the Internet and thinking about my favorites from last year.

Time for ginger carrot, chili, peanut (a new one I tried today and loved), chicken. Mmmmm, mmmm, mmmm. And to complement those juicy offerings, I also feel some breadmaking coming my way.

Don't Make It Your Last

More on the South.

If I ever decide to have a "mid-life crisis" I'm sure I will flee to the South.

Working nights is dangerous for me - it leaves me to wander the city in the morning and SHOP! Every store I visited today asked me where I was from (lack of drawl perhaps?). Many asked if it was my first visit and the sweet southern response of "don't make it your last now y'hear?".

I found the local "coffee shop" and learned about the local "icon".

One shopkeeper of an outdoor's store, responding to my queries as to how close I was to the AT (Appalachian Trail) ,gave me a map to an"on spot" nearby AND a brochure about a local woman who has organized a group for women who do parts of the AT every year. The leader has through-hiked (all 2000 miles in a shot) it. At that store I finally found a Life is Good shirt that fits and fits..... A pair of hiking boots, a back pack: "Action Items". YES!

I had BBQ today, southern style. Thinking about Carolina style tomorrow and, and, and.....found a restaurant featuring fried green tomatoes. A must.

A cooking store found me too. I got some additional wooden utensil pieces to match those I purchased in Sonoma last year. I love cooking with them.

I spent nearly an hour in a REAL bookstore. the kind where all the shelves are NOT filled with 10 copies of each book. They are displayed so they can be browsed and pondered - inviting one to read something other than what they came looking for.

A farmers market with sweet cured ham and vegetables (some of which I'm not familiar with) lines a nearby street each day.

I noted some stores and galleries I will plan to visit in the morning.

The heat and humidity are rising and I feel I must take my sweet tea and visit that sweet little 'ole chair on the porch before I embrace my real job for the day.

Ya'll come back now y'hear!

Sweet Tea

I don't generally drink iced tea.
If I drink iced tea, I don't add sugar.
When I'm in the South I always have sweet tea.
Today, within minutes of arriving at my hotel, I was on the front porch, in a rocking chair, sipping sweet tea.
My oh my was it fine.

And today in Atlanta I ate a Pascals - cabbage, greenbeans, sweet potatoes and a biscuit.

Oh do I love being in the South!

Oh Oh

I've been thinking about buying a Kitchen Aid mixer. One friend is gungho all for it, another is all woo hoo.

Instead of running out and just buying one, I decided today I'd take the food processer a step further, trying out the batter tool, to help me mix the goop for the bread pudding. Egss, milk, butter, vanilla, swirl. Fine. Add sugar. Leak out the bottom.

I don't think I'm ready for a more sophsticated appliance.

Saturday!

Talk about a wonderful start to my day!

I slept late.
My grandson fixed me breakfast.
Joop sent me Google Talk so Sara, Harald, Joop and I can talk Internationally without cost.
My Artist called.
It is a beautiful fall day.
I have things to cook.

I love my life!

Joop

This is all about Joop. I suppose it would be better placed under Mi Vieje, but that was last year and this is now.

Joop has been my friend for 369 days. I met him in an outdoor cafe in St. Jean Pied de Port, France, on September 2nd, 2007. The day before we started the Camino. My poles had been misplaced by the airline and I was a couple days late starting my Camino.

We never walked together as he was a slow uphiller and a lightening fast downhiller and I was the opposite. But we managed, for several nights to end up at the same albergue or in the same city.

The only remaining seat in the only restaurant in Roncevalles was next to him. In Pamplona we dined with Harald and Anika. I could not find him in Los Arcos and found him in a tiny bar in Viana. I have not yet seen him again. I will. I'm sure of it.

But since we have exchanged emails, and phone calls and letters. His pronounciation of my full name is lyrical. His involvement in my life is inexplicable, undeniable and very unique. I have not yet come to understand I came to be on the Camino, nor is it clear to me how we all came be intertwined. Add to that how so many of us are still linked at the hip in an emotional bond of our journey that is incomprehensible to our friends and loved ones.

Folks - it is a mystery to all of us too!

El / La Computador

A SPANISH Teacher was explaining to her class that, in Spanish,
unlike English, nouns are designated as either masculine or feminine.

'House' for instance, is feminine: 'la casa.'
'Pencil,' however, is masculine: 'el lapiz.'

So, a student asked, 'What gender is 'computer'?'

Instead of giving the answer, the teacher split the class into
two groups, male and female, and asked them to decide for themselves
whether 'computer' should be a masculine or a feminine noun.

Each group was asked to give four reasons for its
recommendation. The men's group decided that 'computer' should
definitely be of the feminine gender ('la Computadora'), because:

1. No one but their creator understands their internal logic;

2. The native language they use to communicate with other
computers is incomprehensible to everyone else;

3. Even the smallest mistakes are stored in long term memory for
possible later retrieval; and

4. As soon as you make a commitment to one, you find yourself
spending half your paycheck on accessories for it.

(THIS GETS BETTER!)

The women's group, however, concluded that computers should be
Masculine ('el computador'), because:

1. In order to do anything with them, you have to turn them on;

2. They have a lot of data but still can't think for themselves;

3. They are supposed to help you solve problems, but half the
time they ARE the problem; and

4. As soon as you commit to one, you realize that if you had
waited a little longer, you could have gotten a better model.

The women won.

Extra Extra Read All About It!

I join the ranks of a newsroom next week...

On the east coast....

Flirting with Hanna and Ike

And now added to the agenda is DR in a bunker.

Translated....I will be in the hurricane in a newsroom in a bunker with disaster recovery (hewsroom style) in full tilt.

Oh crap!

Friday - Fall - All of It

The air has a snap - this is probably the last week I will get to drive to work with the top down on my car. Love the warmth of the afternoon.

I was on Pamplona a year ago today. Having walked most of the day with Aliche, (a roommate a few days before in St. Jean Pied de Port, France) speaking his non-stop rapid Spanish. I remember trying to ask him how to say "acorn" without having one to show him. There's one on my desk now. Dinner was with Anika, Harald and Joop. Joop called me the other day - a real treat.

Last Friday I spent the day with My Artist.

Oh those rear view mirrors.

Tuna Today

I had a much better day today. Back to my 'ole self. I had some of my special tuna. It was a fabulous memory maker - in more ways than one!

Atun!

Rough Night

Yesterday I was in Oregon, today at work, last year in France, a year ago tomorrow in Spain.

A year ago today my brother died.

I'm hurting.

Ray

Ray - it's been a year. Lots of people miss you. We still talk about you. About your art. Barbara misses you terribly. I have a bottle of wine from the Russian River Valley. I'll open it tonight and toast you.

Later this year there will be a tribute of your work. I'll be there to see it. Not so much sadness as before, but in strength and pride and memory. Your audience and community will honor you.

You helped us make a family and it means so very much to me. You have no idea what you inspired in my life.

Thank you. Be at peace.

On

I am a registered Republican.

This weekend ALONE - I have been surrounded by my Democrat friends. Let's see Friday - Man and son (just old enough to vote and extremely intelligent). Dinner Saturday - Man, friend, mother, nieces and child (the last two - not old enough to vote - but I know where they're headed). Sunday: Law and Order and Teletubbies with current and future Democrat. Monday: Man and son (Paladin announcement "heavily discussed"). Tonight: at least half a dozen KNOWN Dems at a party of a dozen or so.

One thing I'm sticking to my guns on - It doesn't matter how I'm registered - it doesn't control my vote.

September Again

What a wonderful way to usher September in...Spending time with My Artist and my practically-family-friends.

Walks in the forest, berry picking, art, dining, talking, coffee, LOTS of coffee, pie making, yoga yack, more art, TUNA, chocolate, cooking, and a breathtaking sunrise surrounding Mt. Hood, sharing and listening, and watching My Artist with my painting.

Wonder and contentment.