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September 28 19th C book findDear Quddus,
This weekend i scored either a 4th or 5th edition of the Rubiyat of Omar Khayyam from the second hand book store.
Yeah, okay, i know you are thinking what, why did we not go to this magical bookstore when i was there??!! Yeah yeah, so the book is small, with a purply/brown (almost mohagany cover), with the name imprinted only on the spine and was either published in 1876 or 1889. I have no way of knowing which it is at this moment---but the inscription when it was gifted reads 1899. Personally i think the flowy script inscription would be your favorite part. You would no doubt make up some story about its journeys. I would have passed over it had it not looked so different from the rest of the tattered paperbacks it was nestled amidst. Nevertheless, i obviously couldn't leave it there and not give it a home on my shelves. One day, i promise you, i will have a library and a big leather chair and books stacked roof high.
As you know darling, i am a huge fan of both south american and middle eastern poets and Omar Khayyam was a persian poet, mathematician and astronomer. The word Rubiyat refers to quatrains (being derived from the Arabic for 4). let me know if you have a tea you suggest for reading such things.
love.
me. September 25 i get to do cool stuff at workLike go to fundraising luncheons and hear people like Geoffery Canada speak. Its a pic of the big screen because i shake too badly to take photos without flash.
 Ok, so here's the question, i know. Who is this dude? Well, No.1 he's a really powerful speaker. No.2 his senior year of high school he lost every football game, but he had the most positive coach ever (see no.1). No 3 He's the founder of the Harlem Children's Zone. Starting as a truancy prevention program, it has expanded to provide social services to children over a 90 block radius in Harlem and serves over 10,000 kids. They follow the kiddos from birth to college and try to strengthen families as they go. In 2004 they even opened their own charter school. Obama is said to be modelling some programming from them. It was an inspiring talk---the main point of which is that there is no "superman" coming to save us, no magic secret plan someone in a pay grade higher than us knows about that we dont. We each have to rise, individually and collectively to create a plan, save our kids and make our cities function for all who reside in it. September 24 Who are you people?So sometimes i think i'm blogging to no one--but i can see people who aren't me read this thing...and lately someone's been reading the REALLY OLD stuff. Plus, I'm not smart enough to figure out how to put google analytics on my microsoft blog and no one ever leaves comments...Anyways. point is. i would like to know who's reading my little corner of the universe to fulfill my need to stroke my ego a little. That, and to let me think i am maybe just as entertaining in real life as i think i am in my head.
Either way...i'm leaving you this picture, of me and monz trying to figure out directions while you figure out how to leave a comment or email me to tell me its you.
 September 21 dork-dom here i comeWhen i was between the ages of 8 and 12 i have a few very distinct memories of my grandmother's apartment. The first is that it always smelled like smoke---it had saturated into the furniture--even years later after it had been cleaned those sofas still smelled faintly sweet/smoky. i swore then and there--and held to it over the 14 years i smoked--that i would never be an indoor smoker. Now that its been 9 months since i quit, i'm endlessly grateful that nothing reeks. But the second thing i remember is that the second bedroom of the apartment housed a table upon which was ALWAYS a 3000 piece jigsaw puzzle. I started playing the lame ones online a month ago...and finally went to target to buy a couple last week. Of course, this led to the neurotic need to do nothing--no eating no homework no sleep--other than finish the damn puzzles. So, here's the first two:
1. Cows in Germany. No i don't know why the cows were in Germany. Its just what the box said. No i didn't make that up.
 2. Croatia. i think. if not that then italy.
 This weekend was also Ryan's birthday party---well attended and full of fried food. We laughed, we cried, we heard crazed fan stories, and we ate too much death by chocolate and this bomb cake:
But, the real joy was that Ryan's sister-in-law got him this gem---which some of you will recognize from the infomercials and some from my girl Layli's blog a few months back :) Yeah, in case you are confused, its a blankie with arms.
  September 20 A new chapter for my best friendFor all my globe trotting, sometimes i can't make it the places i most want to be.
My best friend got hitched this weekend. Here's the photo she sent.
So ladies and gents, presenting the happy couple, straight from NZ, Nadi and Saia. May you always grow together, love one another and keep your focus on service and faith. September 14 Happy 31st birthday....hey you,
happy 31st birthday. no, i didn't forget...i've known the date for 6 years now, so while i'm not telling you directly--I really do wish you all the best today. There's a lot of things i want to say...i've been mulling over this post for weeks. I hope this coming year brings you happiness and success. I was in Alaska this past week. There were a couple of times when i thought about how much you would like it there....to visit, not live....so i'm sticking some pictures here for you and the rest in an album for everyone else (not that you will see them). Once, i was in a totem pole park in Sitka. There was a bench that looked out over the water as a storm was coming in. It was a totally cold and wet kinda day. But it was quiet, with just the sound of the water....like that time before i moved to israel on the Outer Banks. The silence was deafening. The other was at the Glacier near Juneau....just because it was so lovely and wild.
Happy Birthday, wherever you are. September 07 Moclips and the Kelpers Day "parade"
According to wiki, Moclips WA had a population of 615 in 2000 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moclips,_WA). I don't think so. I think its probably 250 with the other 400 owning stuff and only coming here on weekends. It has two streets and i think my mother would retire here if she could....its a rainy dark sand beach.
we came down with a bunch of Adam's friends for "Kelpers Day" weekend. i have no clue what a kelper is--if you know or have a funny guess feel free to leave a comment--but there isn't much kelp on this beach either. Anyways, there are two main points about all this...first, we went for a walk on the beach---there were these broken white shells. As i got closer, i realized it wasn't a shell beach, it was thousands of broken sand dollars. When we were kids on family vacations to the NC Outer Banks or southern beaches--Topsail Island, et al, we used to go for early morning walks with our Mom. It was her thing...get up hella early and go for walks to find the best shells before everyone else did. Invariably there was a huge bucket of shells that came home at the end of the weekend. A sand dollar was a totally rare rare find. Here, in the graveyard of sand dollars, i just kept walking and picking up whole ones. After the sixth one, while wandering in circles, adam finally looked at me and was like, you can't help yourself---this collecting is totally compulsive isn't it? i gave him a sheepish look---yes, collecting shells is totally compulsive, but i come by it honestly!! (i only got 7 in the end ;) )
second, we participated in the Moclips Kelpers day parade....first came the kiddie parade the day before ours...
oh yeah, everyone with the pickup trucks and floats driving the two miles down the road to Pacific Beach. Okay...i know i know, it sounds a little lame when i say it like that...but i think all 615 people turn out for it (Adam swears there were more)....everyone lines the road for two miles---even through a couple torrential squalls today, collecting candy and cheering on the floats. It was pretty fun!! We were the "Moclips Nightclub" and spent most of our time blasting MJ--kids danced and adults grinned. it was sweet!
 The Guy under the Kayak owned our inn.
 Clips Night Club before the deluge....love being the driver :)
 Ahead of us
 and behind...
 And right at the end, during another deluge---i got passed by pirates!!!
Wednesday---off to SE Alaska! September 02 Southeast....yeah, WashingtonQuddus came up last weekend as a vacation from his vacation. I heard a rumor John Legend was going to be down south (wow are things relative) and so we scooped up some camping supplies and headed southeast to Goldendale, WA. This is Goldendale:
I'm pretty sure they call it Goldendale because everything around it is plains color golden right now.
yeah, seriously, that's about it....oh except for this tractor and windmill with a sign naming it Sod Busters:
But, the windmill had bigger cousins nearby...the man at the everything you could ever want store said they were helping supplement the income of the farmers who had lost a lot of their crops along with the folks who had worked at various factories or for the timber industry and are now out of work:
We camped along the Columbia:
and saw John Legend at the Maryhill Winery---which beautiful does not even start to describe. The concert was really really good. India Aire opened for him--and she as always was a fount of radiant energy, spirituality and positivity. Right behind the stage area is a big gorge that the Columbia runs through.
This weekend is camping on the coast---where it is supposed to rain and be 50 degrees. Thank god for REI's Labor Day sale today. |
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