Yesterday was one of those days when you just have to stay loose. There is no other way to move through it. Because there was a total downpour here in San Diego (read: flooded roads, shops, homes) we left our bikes at home and journeyed out on foot. After bundling up and race-walking to the bus, we got to St. Paul's Cathedral with plenty of time to register for the Matthew Fox lecture that I was really looking forward to. Problem was, contrary to what the website said, Frances Moore Lappe was speaking at 1:00 FOLLOWED BY Matthew Fox at 3:00. I had a commitment to teach a mindfulness group at 4:00 and I didn't have any of my materials with me.
So, we hopped the bus back home. I got my mindfulness bell and a nice relaxing CD into a shoulder bag, added a pretty lotus sketch to a meditation by Thich Nhat Hanh, did the printing and cutting to have my handouts ready. I started out again at 3:30 (plenty of time for the trek) and within 3-4 blocks I was soaked through...water in my shoes, dripping from my pants...did I say "downpour"? Back home again for me... to make a call and cancel my group.
We had planned to have dinner in North Park and to attend a lecture on music marketing. We abandoned that plan. THEN...there was a break in the weather. We got our raingear back on, RAN for the bus...made it to Ranchos in time for a great dinner and then over to Old Time Music for a presentation by Bob Baker. On the way home, Jeff and I were chatting about new media, playing music, and marketing in general...
...when a woman with heavy bags and a cane who had boarded the bus after us, stood up and gathered her things, looked directly at us, and said "Thank you for your blessings."
We smiled all the way home.
19 January 2010
17 January 2010
A call for compassion
I just finished Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer. It's a thorough and thoughtful look at how we got to a point in human history where animals who are being raised for food, are being treated as if they're already dead. It's not a vegan manifesto, just a challenging and well written perspective on our relationship to what we eat.
As a pleasant surprise, I heard Martha Stewart recommend this book on NPR the other day, along with her other hopes for the New Year.
16 January 2010
14 January 2010
Three Lane Highway
My husband has been playing guitar and singing for as long as he can remember. He can easily switch from electric to acoustic, rock to standards...he just has the language of music imprinted on his soul. I've never known anyone with so many songs in his head! His rock band has a couple of performances coming up and I made a page on the Sweet Orange website where you can listen to their demo tracks. They're doing a custom set at a private party in February for a crazy-for-Springsteen fan. I'm extremely proud.
10 January 2010
Lemonade and Rootbeer
We just received an entire basket of Meyer Lemons! I squeezed most of them, and froze the juice into ice cubes. It's a great way to store organic lemony goodness when it arrives all at once. Just pop the cubes out of the tray and into a labeled freezer bag. Each cube is about 2 tablespoons. Good for recipes, or mixed with agave to make lemonade. Liquid gold!
The rootbeer is ready. I've tweaked the recipe a couple of times so it's not too sweet and fills six bottles. You'll need clean beer bottles (dark glass, no screw tops), bottle caps and a bottle capper, which you can find at your local home brewing store. That's also where you'll find the extract and champagne yeast.
Smith's Rootbeer
9 cups filtered water
1/2 ounce Zatarains Rootbeer extract
1/2 cup organic brown sugar
1/2 cup organic white sugar
1/2 teaspoon champagne yeast
Mix yeast into a little cup of warm water (I add some sugar too) to dissolve and get it started. In a large glass container (preferably one you can pour from) mix the extract and remaining sugars with lukewarm water. Sterilize six clean bottles with boiling water. I also put the bottle caps in a small dish of the boiled water to soften the seals.
There is a lot of information on the web about sterilization. Use your own intuition to determine how cautious you want to be. The boiling water method works for me...but I always do a squint-check to make sure the inside of each bottle looks pristine before I begin.
Mix all ingredients together including 9 cups of water in all. Using a good funnel, pour into bottles, cap them, and lay them in the sun for two hours. Bring the bottles in and let stand at room temperature for 24 hours. Refrigerate and enjoy!
09 January 2010
08 January 2010
Lucky Four
You know when people ask you to pick a number between one and whatever? I've always picked four. Honestly, as long as I can remember, I've always chosen four, or fourteen, or twenty-four. I'm one of four children in my family. The first and only move in my young life was at age four. The year I moved to San Diego I turned 44 (my husband was 55, and my mother-in-law 88...a bit of numerological synchronicity to consider another day) and it was one of the most blessed years of my life.
I was able to bring my job with me and work remotely for the first three years. I got married, enjoyed being a honeymooner, luxuriated in the sun and surf, and generally lived in gratitude for all the good food, and the love and support I have in this new place. But in many ways, I've been a tourist.
In April [the fourth month!], I'll begin my fourth year here and I'm noticing deepening roots and spreading branches. I'm launching house and garden projects to feather my nest, building spaces to nurture my creativity. I'm meditating and practicing yoga more often. We have a new website that wants to expand, and I started this blog...it's calling to the writer in me every day.
Year four is going to be excellent.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)