Lessons

when outside input threatens to throw a pall over the proceedings ~

why, how appalling

smile

it must be time to reassume Potanga, the Improvaho nirvana

in which one is detached from attachment and attached to detachment

balance is being able to swing from side to side / like walking a tightrope or across a log over the creek

or not falling down from tripping over your skate blades

being able to sway ~

swivel pivot swing around ~~ !!

Circle Twist Revolve Rotate

~~~~~~~Pirouette~~~~~~~~

I have my skates on ~

oh i am sitting on the love seat by the fire and i have my skates on ~

this is one way of breaking in your skate boots which are stiff and hard when new / they need to be molded to your foot for your ultimate skating pleasure / the boot is the connecting link between you & your foot & the skate blade

the goal is the skate blade as an extension of your body via your foot

i didnt know about breaking in skate boots when i signed up for lessons / i bought my skates the day before the lessons started / this was in 1997 when i was back east / i was waiting there to be a witness in a trial and had six weeks to spend there / the day i got the subpoena was the same day i saw the ad for skating lessons in the local weekly rag

ever since my first Sonja Henie movie i have wanted to BE a figure skater or at least take real lessons

the young salesman told me about breaking in the boots / use thin socks (this is the rule for figure skates) / wet the socks and put them on and put on the boots / using the blade guards walk around on padded or carpeted floors / wear them when you eat or watch tv

i laid out a path of my woven cotton rag rugs and tramped around for hours that night

when i remembered this i got out my skates and put them by the heater / when i was working at the rink i warmed my boots up with the hand dryer in the bathroom

i am figuring out how to keep my boots warm on the way out to the lake / hmmm / warm them by the heater then wrap them in blankets with hot water bottles ! then keep them near the car heater on the way out / it's not all that far / i tell you putting on warm boots is way more better

i also like to have my feet bare in the boots / the first time i slipped them on sans socks i felt like i had entered the bliss zone / it is very like the first time you put them on after they are well broken in / there's this moment when you suddenly realize they really are broken in / they go on like slippers and are completely comfortable / this is when the blade begins to feel attached to your foot instead of your boot / it is a whole different relationship to the ice

ah, the ice !

more anon

what i mean by psychedelic in relation to cataract surgery

psychedelic means to me Consciousness Expanding

Balance through Contrast

this time i was awake

i slept through the first cataract surgery / it was like dying and not going anywhere interesting / and then wanting to sleep for three days or else i was snarky and snarly / that was the right eye / the one connected to the right side of the brain

for the left eye less pizzazz was put in the IV and ...um...

this time i was awake / it was psychedelic / i cd SEE the splash of fluid that swirled around my eye / colours / wowee zowee

oh the Xmas Light parade ~

Glazey Dazely

morning is cataract surgery now that i know what to expect i want to do it less

smile

but the left eye which once was the good eye and now is the bad eye since the bad eye got fixed and turned into the good eye

wants to get "fixed"

so there you have it

December

Dance with your demons !

it's now or never, kid

get in shape to skate or (gasp) hang up your skates

r u kidney me ?

with all these cute skating clothes ?

if i hang up my skates will i feel as bad about it as i still do about giving away my dolls 49 years ago ?

at least i wont have 49 more years to feel bad / i'll just feel stupid and wimpy today and tomorrow and the day after that . . . . . .

i got out my cold weather duds from Vermont / the lovely chenille scarf and hat made by Maggie the Weaver / my warm gloves from the skating rink / and then my old University of Virginia jacket that i found in a thrift shop about 15 years ago

this jacket is not an athletic jacket / when i went to the University of Virginia the "uniform" for men students was coat and tie / the official jacket is a kind of herringbone tweed with the colours of the school (navy and orange) gently woven in to the weave / The University was founded by Thomas Jefferson / it was an all male school and the men were expected to behave like Virginia gentlemen

(smile)

the liberal arts college for women was in another part of the state / a few women were at the University in nursing and education / there was one woman in the law school / it was the 50's

i took the dogs and went up to the Slick Rock / snowy high desert / a wandering stroll took me over the rocks and down to the sandy track / i went to visit "the button" : the baby cactus button i discovered several years ago in an area with several mature barrels / i had placed a rock next to her the last time / oh, she is covered with snow and ice / i carefully uncover her with a thin stick, wondering if maybe she needs the protection and i should leave her be

it is bright and sunny and cold / the temperature is 25' / when it the sun is out in the drop dead blue cloudless sky its doesnt feel all that cold

i wondered if i were having "symptoms" of "the silent killer" and would i drop dead on the ice this year

i remember hiking all over the Santa Monica Mountains in Topanga canyon when my grandson was a baby with him in my back pack and it would be one hundred degrees at high noon in July and the track would be sandy and hot and i would be barefoot and high on 'shrooms

i used to imagine falling over in a heap and dying on the track with the kid on my back

and now later this month i will rack up my 71st year / sure is a bummer that it takes 70 years to get to where you want to be

oh yeah ? where's that ?

oh Ice Skating on a beautiful lake in SE Utah wearing my snazzy black cashmere skating skirts

boom / splat

Eat Your Spinach

eat your spinach, said great aunt maudie, and you will grow up to be big and strong

i do love spinach / fresh, organic, baby spinach / so tender it steams in mere minutes

today for lunch i had cream of spinach soup and then, shoving La Cugina Romagna out of the way, made a ravioli filling of spinach and ricotta and eggs lightly flavored with salt and pepper and nutmeg

using egg roll wrappers i made a small selection of ravioli / i had two sizes of egg roll wrappers / one is big enough that you put dollops of filling in four places and then place a wrapper on top / cut them apart with a pizza wheel

the smaller square egg roll wrapper makes one square or fold it over for a triangle like a wonton

hmmm / well, not exactly what i wd call Cuscinetti di spinaci (spinach pillows) / they cdnt hold a candle to the ones i made last year with home made, hand rolled see through pasta

but i wanted to try it anyway / Giada di Laurentiis uses egg roll wrappers / of course, she lives in LA

i eat a lot of spinach / am i big and strong ?

smile

i fluffed up my feather comforter and gave my winter weight quilt a flick and a flip and a fling onto my bed

a year ago i cdnt do this due to the hysterectomy / i am pleased to note that i can do it now

so maybe i wil feel up to skating this winter after all

Indecision Permits Flexibility and Notes on Boredom

BOREDOM : uses of boredom

Boredom is a necessary element of an essential lull / it makes you think about what is important and what is not

Boredom is useful and valuable or else you would get real tired out from over enthusiasm

Bordeom keeps you from doing some stuff and gets you to do some other stuff instead

(the path you choose is the path that chooses you)

~~~~~~~~~~

Honor your reluctant moments / they comprise the phase knows as :

Indecision Permits Flexibility

Clarity comes at the end of a long walk

Honor your urges as well as your hesitations

~~~~~~~~~~

Some Times are : drop ~ spill ~ turn over ~ kick over ~ step in bucket

This is part of Indecision Permits Flexibility

There is plenty of time for introspection and contemplation while you pick up ~ wipe up ~ sweep up ~ mop up ~ and change your shoes

Also consider this :

Stuck Stumped Stupified Stymied ?

How do you get unstuck
without coming unglued ?

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sometimes what is happening is that you have lost your touch for customary affinities and havent discovered or made the acquaintance of the future as yer / of course / because you are always being in the NOW

Indecision also permits / promotes / encourages

QUICK WILD FANTASIES AND OTHER FEATS OF DERRING-DO

YAY

Today's Culinary Adventure and Other Activitease To Keep OneSelf Entertained

cheese crackers are success

easy to make / butter cheese flour / a little salt and cayenne

endless variations possible with different kinds of cheeses

the recipe makes a workable dough / chilling it in quarters gives potential for artistic expression

the picture in gourmet shows perfectly round crackers

i made little hearts / spontaneous squares / cheeZit size squares

i ate the left over squiggles dough / hmmmm / cheese butter

they are tasty

Leggings

the leggings came and they are perfect / i put them on right away with a skating skirt (mature lady length)

when the lake freezes i will be ready

i ordered them from Motherhood Maternity / no i am not preggers / i am almost 71 / smile

looking for leggings on line these seemed a likely possibilitea

they have a wide firm elastic waist (the better to hold in that pregger belly) and nice cuffs at the ankle

thank you thank you, shopping goddess

Instinct Results

Habitual disuse of Instinct causes loss as in What you dont Use, you Lose.

Habitual misuse of instinct causes abuse of spirit

By misuse of instinct i mean twisting your natural instinct in order to fit it in with or merge with outside INFLUENCE

In other words you recognize your natural instinct but realize that to follow such and BE TRUE TO YOURSELF puts you beyond the pale of ordinary human condition hence the Instinct is blurred and distorted and twisted into more acceptable shape

This is definitely misuse of your instincts and is almost as "BAD" as ignoring them altogether for a fake persona is created that is misleading to those around you

It is not easy to be true to yourself when you dont know who you are and it is not easy to follow your natural instincts when you NO who you are

(word play)(smile)

And it is not easy to be true to yourself when you are a multi-faceted kaleidoscopic prismatic visioned Earth Probe disguised as an ordinary human being

On the other hand, recognizing this "true-ism" is helpful in delineating choices that present themselves

Such as this :

It is not possible to involve oneself in "meaningless" endeavors

It is, however, necessary to involve oneself in activitease that challenge ones perception, stimulate ones imagination and stirs up ones creative juices

thusly : a quest for knowledge and information* . . . learn to differentiate between Information and Knowledge

but to continue :

Meaningless indicates behavior that is vapid, habitual, imitative, lacking in spirit, charm, or humor

Mostly it is repetitive in patterns that are predictably self-absorbing and soul destroying

Often it is necessary to practice meaningless behavior in order to discover what it is and what it is not

stayed tuned in for further abstract thought

Our Turkey Dinner

we took a tip from our Italian cousin, la cugina Romagna, and put into the main cavity of the turkey lemon, orange, apple, onion, and fresh herbs for a truly flavorful and juicy feast

in the neck cavity went some "stuffing" of cornbread, celery, apple, onion, tomatillos (we had a bumper crop this year) and walnuts

we are purists about turkey dinners

turkey dinners are all about mash taters whipped with cream cheese, half n half, and butter

taters so dense you can make a well in the center from which the gravy will not run !

turkey dinners are all about rich dark gravy the colour of chocolate filling up that well in the taters and oh put some more on the turkey breast and the stuffing

it is not possible to have too much gravy

to round out the food groups we will have some whole berry cranberrry sauce and something green / one of us wanted peas and another wanted edamame so we had both

that's it

no side dishes involving marshmallows or canned onion rings or molded salads / not even a nut or an olive on the table to nibble to interrupt the flow of turkey, taters, gravy to the gullet

today we will have a turkey sandwich or maybe a follow up lunch that duplicates in smaller portions the feast of yesterday

later this winter we will have turkey pot pies that have been assembled and put in the freezer

just no end to the fun

Tryptophan

tryptophan is an amino acid that acts as a sedative and is present in turkey

hence the query : Does Turkey Make You Drowsy ?

um / well i went to bed immediately after the turkey dinner and i am on my second cup of coffee this morning to rouse myself awake / smile

read about it here :

http://www.snopes.com/food/ingredient/turkey.htm

Undecided

whether to sign up at blogexplosion

do i care if anyone reads this ?

i think of cactus flowers blooming on the rim / just blooming for themselves and because that is what they are sposeta do / whether anyone sees them or not or admires them when they do come upon them unexpectedly is irrelevant to the barrel cactus

i think of how i was on an e-mail list for a long time and we knew we had "lurkers" / people who read our exchanges but did not announce their presence / this was bothersome to several of our listees but i remember thinking that when i was doing theatre in Rome i didnt have to know who was in the audience every night !

i expected someone to be in the audience / i wonder now / would we have performed had no one showed up ? yup / darn tooting ! we had so much fun then it didnt matter about the audience although it sure was terrific when we had a full house and heard the "bravi" at the end

so, yes, we were doing the theatre primarily for ourselves / for our amusement / for our personal growth / to "stretch our instruments" as a New York acting coach used to say / smile

okay i decided

Thanksgiving

Excerpted from the Iroquois, here's something of a prayer for the day:
Now the time has come!
Hear us, Lord of the Sky!
We are here to speak the truth,
for you do not hear lies,
We are your children, Lord of the Sky.

Now in the beginning of all things
You provided that we inherit your creation
You said: I shall make the earth
on which people shall live
And they shall look to the earth as their mother
And they shall say, "It is she who supports us."
You said that we should always be thankful
For our earth and for each other
So it is that we are gathered here
We are your children, Lord of the Sky.

Now again the smoke rises
And again we offer prayers
You said that food should be placed beside us
And it should be ours in exchange for our labor.
You thought that ours should be a world
where green grass of many kinds should grow
You said that some should be medicines
And that one should be Ona'o
the sacred food, our sister corn
You gave to her two clinging sisters
beautiful Oa'geta, our sister beans
and bountiful Nyo'sowane, our sister squash
The three sacred sisters; they who sustain us.

This is what you thought, Lord of the Sky.
Thus did you think to provide for us
And you ordered that when the warm season comes,
That we should see the return of life
And remember you, and be thankful,
and gather here by the sacred fire.
So now again the smoke arises
We the people offer our prayers
We speak to you through the rising smoke
We are thankful, Lord of the Sky.

Take this and, as you should with all prayers, place it in a bunch of contexts - in yours, in the nation's, in Iraq's, on and on, praying that we know how to be thankful, praying that we know how to be thankful anymore.



thanks to the Rude Pundit

blog explosion

so you can sign up here if you want more readers to your poor unread blog

http://www.blogexplosion.com/index.php

Flashback

now i remember why i gave up wine, mmmmph, and punditry

The Best Coconut Ice Cream

until i made this ice cream the best coconut ice cream i ever had was in Puerto Rico in the seaside town of Naguabo

here is the recipe :

6 egg yolks
1 cup of sugar
2 cups of heavy or whipping cream
16 oz can of coconut milk/cream
pinch of salt
tsp of vanilla
tsp of coconut flavoring

beat the egg yolks with the sugar until pale and thick

meanwhile scald the cream with the sugar until the sugar is dissolved

add a little of the hot cream to temper the egg yolks, then add all back in the cream pan

cook on moderate heat, stirring constantly, until the custard coats the back of a metal spoon

take off the heat / add the coconut milk / the pinch of salt / and the vanilla and coconut flavorings

cool to room temperature, then chill until cold enough to put in the freezer

during the time it is freezing stir it up once in a while

this is really good ice cream and we had it with a sour cream pound cake with a dash of almond flavor

happy birthday cake and ice cream

Breaking in the new Stove

it's a fancy one

if i understand all the instructions that come with it i will be able to fly a 747

it has touch screen buttons / i hope i dont inadvertently vote for Bush

first i made a cup of espresso / the pot spit on the gleaming glass surface / this must be wiped up immediately / this babe is very demanding

i made a sour cream pound cake too / some of it dribbled onto the oven bottom

never mind / it is self-cleaning

now it is roasting a duck in convection mode

hmmmm / a hummming fan and a little fan icon lights up on the control panel

the cake is for the son-out-laws birthday / it will be drowned in cherry/blueberry compote and demolished with whipped cream

welcome to your new kitchen home, darling new stove

oooops the smoke alarm in my bedroom also welcomes you with its piercing shriek

i see Jack Palance is still alive and is . . .

in a new movie

he was in a movie with my actor/husband when we lived abroad

they were shooting in Spain / somewhere outside Madrid

we had an apartment with a kitchen so actor/husband invited Jack Palance to dinner

i made spaghetti with meat sauce

he liked it

i told him how when we first lived in Rome the flour i bought had little bugs and worms in it / so i sifted them out

he thought that was cool and that his wife wdnt do that

smile

(memories are such treasures)