Home, good people of the world. This is home.
And he asked me if I believe in God.
Saturday, February 28, 2009
20 sec at black diamond
Okay, I'm bored
and I'm going to make the world suffer in spite of it.
(Though I will tell you now, I'd rather be comfortably bored at home than under any social or necessary constraint to go out in the filth storm raging outside right now.)
So, the 25 Random Things About Me. Enjoy.
1. I did run with the bulls in Pamplona, Spain in 1996. Those things are the size of a Fiat and twice as fast.
2. I like people a lot, but everyone gets an honest slice of me with every interaction. So it drains me very quickly, and I spend a lot of time alone recharging. If it goes too far, it affects my physical health.
3. I want want want to see the final resting place of Bucephalus, the horse of Alexander the Great. 'Parently it is somewhere in India, complete with a temple. I will find it, oh yes.
4. Alexander the Great is one of my heroes. How one man can move that much Whup-A** on foot across a continent, 300 years BCE, is a source of ceaseless amazement and inspiration to me.( It couldn’t have been done without Bucephalus.)
5. I look almost exactly like my mother, who assured me until I was 27 that I looked exactly like my father.
6. I'm far more personally conservative than most people realize. However, do as you like- I might or might not, but I'm sincerely glad to see you living your life to your own lights.
7. On the flip side, if I decide to lark off looking for the grave of Bucephalus...
8. I have five brothers. One is dead, c. 1992.
9. I am a Special Needs (Special Education) teacher, Moderate/Severe Special Education, Autism Specific. This means, I talk to the people who can’t “Talk”.
10. I grew up on an island, 10 KM away from San Francisco.
11. I was in the army, briefly, to pay for college. I know how to shoot (which I love to do) as well as place a Claymore Mine strategically in an ambush. I know how to stage an ambush. In a pinch, I could probably recall how to call in air support when the ambush doesn’t work, but don’t push it.
12. If I'm walking outside, quickly, hands in pockets with sunglasses on and I don't turn or answer, full of attitude, chances are that I'm running a poem or number patterns through my head and you haven't registered yet. You can be in front of me for several seconds and not register. It's really not personal.
13. That weird eye-rolling back thing I have is my only legacy from Attila the Hun.
14. It is profoundly against every value I hold precious to tell you, by word or by withheld word or by look or by giggle or implication or breath of thought, how to live your life. If you are puking in bucket, I will help wipe your face because that is most useful, not two people puking in bucket. However, if you ask my advice, I will give it to you.
15. I love wearing pretty clothes.
16. I find something to like in everyone and almost everything except green peas.
17. I was raised Mormon. Orthodox Mormon. Look it up. I said RAISED.
18. The worst sick in the world for me is stomach upset.
19. I started reading when I was 2.
20. I do not own a microwave or television. I have not owned either one for over 5 years.
21. Children, my own or teaching/watching other peoples, is critical to my everyday happiness.
22. My ancestors were indeed “Fined, whipped and burned out of Salem” by Nathaniel Hawthorne’s grandfather, for being Quakers.
23. I am not fearless. I'm terribly shy.
24. I bake really good bread from scratch.
25. I would rather be outside with a backpack. Period.
(Though I will tell you now, I'd rather be comfortably bored at home than under any social or necessary constraint to go out in the filth storm raging outside right now.)
So, the 25 Random Things About Me. Enjoy.
1. I did run with the bulls in Pamplona, Spain in 1996. Those things are the size of a Fiat and twice as fast.
2. I like people a lot, but everyone gets an honest slice of me with every interaction. So it drains me very quickly, and I spend a lot of time alone recharging. If it goes too far, it affects my physical health.
3. I want want want to see the final resting place of Bucephalus, the horse of Alexander the Great. 'Parently it is somewhere in India, complete with a temple. I will find it, oh yes.
4. Alexander the Great is one of my heroes. How one man can move that much Whup-A** on foot across a continent, 300 years BCE, is a source of ceaseless amazement and inspiration to me.( It couldn’t have been done without Bucephalus.)
5. I look almost exactly like my mother, who assured me until I was 27 that I looked exactly like my father.
6. I'm far more personally conservative than most people realize. However, do as you like- I might or might not, but I'm sincerely glad to see you living your life to your own lights.
7. On the flip side, if I decide to lark off looking for the grave of Bucephalus...
8. I have five brothers. One is dead, c. 1992.
9. I am a Special Needs (Special Education) teacher, Moderate/Severe Special Education, Autism Specific. This means, I talk to the people who can’t “Talk”.
10. I grew up on an island, 10 KM away from San Francisco.
11. I was in the army, briefly, to pay for college. I know how to shoot (which I love to do) as well as place a Claymore Mine strategically in an ambush. I know how to stage an ambush. In a pinch, I could probably recall how to call in air support when the ambush doesn’t work, but don’t push it.
12. If I'm walking outside, quickly, hands in pockets with sunglasses on and I don't turn or answer, full of attitude, chances are that I'm running a poem or number patterns through my head and you haven't registered yet. You can be in front of me for several seconds and not register. It's really not personal.
13. That weird eye-rolling back thing I have is my only legacy from Attila the Hun.
14. It is profoundly against every value I hold precious to tell you, by word or by withheld word or by look or by giggle or implication or breath of thought, how to live your life. If you are puking in bucket, I will help wipe your face because that is most useful, not two people puking in bucket. However, if you ask my advice, I will give it to you.
15. I love wearing pretty clothes.
16. I find something to like in everyone and almost everything except green peas.
17. I was raised Mormon. Orthodox Mormon. Look it up. I said RAISED.
18. The worst sick in the world for me is stomach upset.
19. I started reading when I was 2.
20. I do not own a microwave or television. I have not owned either one for over 5 years.
21. Children, my own or teaching/watching other peoples, is critical to my everyday happiness.
22. My ancestors were indeed “Fined, whipped and burned out of Salem” by Nathaniel Hawthorne’s grandfather, for being Quakers.
23. I am not fearless. I'm terribly shy.
24. I bake really good bread from scratch.
25. I would rather be outside with a backpack. Period.
Friday, February 27, 2009
I had these fabulous dreams of sleeping in, this morning. Till a whopping 8 AM, when I would turn over and contemplate going back to sleep or a hot cup of coffee. Alas.
6AM I woke up from a vivid dream where I was stationed outside my childhood church, watching a "High School Musical" sort of production set. Instead of "High School Musical", it was something like "The Trouble With Geeks Hooking Up For Love Or Marriage". One of my college friends drifted inside the church with Impatiens in her hair just as a guy in white coat with clipboard whirled around and informed me that "the numbers aren't looking good this year".
That's when I woke up. 6:21 AM. Five hours of sleep, two nights in a row, and I've been on holiday for the last 4 days. Essh.
"Oh the weather outsiiiiiiide is frightful..." yes Bing, it sure is. Sitting in bed with the curtains open, I can't tell if it's dust or impending rain. I keep getting up to look for a film of dust on the cars outside, because I'm not sanguine enough to think it could be free floating moisture obscuring my window. Anteus might be naive to the umpteenth degree, but dumb she is not.
So, I solved all of this by making a fresh pot of coffee.
My stomach actually hurts a lot, which is probably why I woke up so early with such vivid dreams. It could be the burgers I ate last night. OR it could be the raw beef with pureed garlic chaser I dug into at the Lebanese restaurant yesterday afternoon. Naw, it was the burgers for sure.
In bed with the 'puter and a cup of coffee, and Joseph Heller's "Catch 22".
This book has been on my "Must Read" list for years as a sort of duty to lists of "Must Read" books (the most recent being batted around Facebook with a BBC warning that an average person has read 6). I was put off it years ago by my 10th grade english teacher, who sort of dismissed it out of hand with a passing reference to a Catch 22. What I did not anticipate was that this book would be side splittingly funny. If you have ever watched the MOVIE, not the series I mean the movie M.A.S.H, this is the WWII version in codex format. Highly recommended.
Decadent, is what this is. After the last two days of lunch and shopping and people and late evenings and getting together, to sit in my pyjamas and glasses and no bra and no makeup by myself in the morning without a single plan for my day is a, how you say, indulgence that my married and Impendingly Married friends do not enjoy- a couple of them are in the first few days of figuring this out. Ooops, I just belched! Is someone going to control this woman? ;-) I think I will get more coffee.
It's raining marriages/engagments right now, which explains part of the vivid dream. Man-Thing being the next to latest to punch the numbers: hajj, 30, "suitable" wife. Mas'allah, I have not met her and will not. Mas'allah, I will never have to deal with what she does for a Mother In Law! For a western feminist raised in California to read that, it might sound archaic and quaint: be clear in understanding, THIS IS NOT YOUR COUNTRY! THIS IS NOT YOUR CULTURE! For the record, it's not mine either, but it doesn't make the statement any less true, Mother In Law included. Kuwait, this place, doesn't exist anywhere else, sometimes we living here doubt our own existence.
6AM I woke up from a vivid dream where I was stationed outside my childhood church, watching a "High School Musical" sort of production set. Instead of "High School Musical", it was something like "The Trouble With Geeks Hooking Up For Love Or Marriage". One of my college friends drifted inside the church with Impatiens in her hair just as a guy in white coat with clipboard whirled around and informed me that "the numbers aren't looking good this year".
That's when I woke up. 6:21 AM. Five hours of sleep, two nights in a row, and I've been on holiday for the last 4 days. Essh.
"Oh the weather outsiiiiiiide is frightful..." yes Bing, it sure is. Sitting in bed with the curtains open, I can't tell if it's dust or impending rain. I keep getting up to look for a film of dust on the cars outside, because I'm not sanguine enough to think it could be free floating moisture obscuring my window. Anteus might be naive to the umpteenth degree, but dumb she is not.
So, I solved all of this by making a fresh pot of coffee.
My stomach actually hurts a lot, which is probably why I woke up so early with such vivid dreams. It could be the burgers I ate last night. OR it could be the raw beef with pureed garlic chaser I dug into at the Lebanese restaurant yesterday afternoon. Naw, it was the burgers for sure.
In bed with the 'puter and a cup of coffee, and Joseph Heller's "Catch 22".
This book has been on my "Must Read" list for years as a sort of duty to lists of "Must Read" books (the most recent being batted around Facebook with a BBC warning that an average person has read 6). I was put off it years ago by my 10th grade english teacher, who sort of dismissed it out of hand with a passing reference to a Catch 22. What I did not anticipate was that this book would be side splittingly funny. If you have ever watched the MOVIE, not the series I mean the movie M.A.S.H, this is the WWII version in codex format. Highly recommended.
Decadent, is what this is. After the last two days of lunch and shopping and people and late evenings and getting together, to sit in my pyjamas and glasses and no bra and no makeup by myself in the morning without a single plan for my day is a, how you say, indulgence that my married and Impendingly Married friends do not enjoy- a couple of them are in the first few days of figuring this out. Ooops, I just belched! Is someone going to control this woman? ;-) I think I will get more coffee.
It's raining marriages/engagments right now, which explains part of the vivid dream. Man-Thing being the next to latest to punch the numbers: hajj, 30, "suitable" wife. Mas'allah, I have not met her and will not. Mas'allah, I will never have to deal with what she does for a Mother In Law! For a western feminist raised in California to read that, it might sound archaic and quaint: be clear in understanding, THIS IS NOT YOUR COUNTRY! THIS IS NOT YOUR CULTURE! For the record, it's not mine either, but it doesn't make the statement any less true, Mother In Law included. Kuwait, this place, doesn't exist anywhere else, sometimes we living here doubt our own existence.
My Hair Smells Like Charcoal Smoke
And I'm up far, far past my bedtime for the second night in a row.
I'm hoping that somehow the smoke-a-licious flavor to my hair will be absorbed by the pillow in about an hour, as I don't feel like shoving off to Salon tomorrow. In fact, the entire agenda for my Tomorrow can be encapsulated by a pair of pyjamas.
It's Liberation Day weekend in Kuwait. For the children, young adults and like minded grownups, a four day weekend, three of which are spent dancing on top of cars on Arabian Gulf Road and spraying copious amounts of foam over everyone and everything. For those holding down day jobs, four days of scheduling everything possible in Farwaniya.
It was a very productive weekend for me, I have to admit. I have socks, jeans, bras and shoes. Not just any shoes- I managed to score a pair of "I've been looking for these in Kuwait for 18 months" plain old black and white LOW TOP Converse. Now, I've had a great deal of trouble
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finding these without "extras": red graffiti, zippers, unfinished edges, etc. One friend of mine went so far as to simply chop down the black and white hightops with a paring knife, he so despaired of finding this shoe- and he grew UP in Kuwait. Never fear I would fail a friend- I got him a pair at the same time cos they were selling out so fast.And I finally scored the shoe of my dreams- I mean, the shoe of my dreams besides those Kate Spade "Eden"'s at the top of my wardrobe. I'm a pencil skirt, sweater set and pearls type. I've been trying to scare up a pair of Mary Janes on the...wrong... side of "Lolita" (err on adulthood for that metaphor) since I came to Kuwait. Victory! A perfect pair of Steve Madden "Luvvy" this afternoon, when a disappointed friend tossed the box to me in a shop because they were too big for her...and now I find out they have a secret identity feature in the strap. Oooh.
Oh I have to sleep...I have a wee rant about men in Kuwait, but I'm wanting to make it coherent...
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