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Just a bunch of crazy people? A few people don't think so and even though their case was thrown out, it still makes you wonder. (Government Seeks Dismissal of End-of-World Suit Against Collider)
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Yesterday, after spending the week with my sister and her boyfriend, we were on the long drive back to my mother's house. We started talking about the impressions we form of other people. Literally, what we take away from them during the time we have been in their company. Not the surface level impression of general likability, but the deeper layers that give us the general sensation of compatibility with our own patterns of behavior.
My sister's boyfriend gave me his interpretation of who I was when we were first introduced. Notably, he commented that I seemed to be the type of person who was very firm, very solid in knowing what I believe and what I know to be true for me. Paraphrasing briefly, he told me that I was someone who seemed most at peace and content when left to my own space...and that I seemed to grow uneasy or unsettled after too long a period with clusters or large groups of people.
His assessment was correct.
Today's daily newsletter in my mailbox from the DailyOm included my horoscope. Here's just a brief snippet of the message today:
...Your house, apartment, or even your bedroom can become a sanctuary that nurtures your soul and allows you to reconnect with your inner self. Freed from outer-world distractions, you can take care of personal chores, spend time pursuing enlightenment, or simply putter around the house. Home may offer feelings of comfort and contentment that you can’t find anywhere else... - DailyOm, Cancer Horoscope, July 5th
I chuckled. After I got home last night I was full and pleased to have spent time with my baby sister, my little jewel. But I was also eager to go home and re-orient my space to what I needed it to be. I burned sage through each of the rooms while in prayer, I followed it with sweetgrass to replace whatever had been removed with lightness and comfort. I burned sandalwood oil, I sat quietly and soaked it all in. As much fun as I had with her...I was off kilter, having immersed myself in so much energy that was not my own. I couldn't hear myself. And I get cagey and anxious when I cannot feel my own spirit in the company of other souls.
I believe a soul's spirit leaves a resin wherever it's been. You can feel it when you walk into a room and you experience an immediate shift in your disposition. From happy to anxious or indifferent to angry. Sometimes it's good. Like when you walk into your grandmother's home and you immediately feel a sense of peace and groundedness that washes over you like sunshine. Sometimes it can be jarring, like walking into a room where an argument occured and you suddenly feel filled with tension and conflict. We all leave an imprint on the space we've been in. And It can be difficult at times to distinguish your own feelings and moods from another. Some are more sensitive to it than others.
The more souls you have entering your space, the more you take in and process. Whether you consciously want to or not. Sometimes, it is simply too much for me to take in. Many times, I simply don't want the energy that's being offered to me. After having lots of traffic in my home or disruption to the order in which I do things, I grow eager to go through this little "orienting" process to settle my space. Once I cleanse away the lingering effects of the energy others have brought into my home, I can then get back to clearly feeling my own. I can get back to my center.
Today, I have no desire to leave the familiar, nurturing confines of my own home. I wish only to replenish myself so that I can resume going out into the world clearly hearing my own voice in a crowd of millions. My prayer for you, is that no matter where you are or who you are with...you can always find, hear and embrace your own incredible energy.
There's a really annoying, extremely cheesy greeting card-esque saying about cousins being childhood playmates who grow up to be "forever friends."
Yeah. Don't say I didn't warn you about the inherent cheesiness.
Anyway. I have a gazillion cousins, about a half-dozen who are right around the same ages as my brother and sister and I, and so growing up we always had built-in choices for slumber parties and birthday parties and zoo trips and museum trips and beach trips and camping trips...it was great. I remember one weekend that stands out from many where my brother and our cousin and I barely left my brother's room because we had built this elaborate, all-encompassing compound for our GI Joes. I mean, there was a landing strip and airfield for the F-14, and the headquarters complete with jail, and a barracks, and a mess hall...seriously. We were...obsessed dedicated.
(I think that was also around the time we would go on long reconnaissance missions through our neighborhood decked out in either dark clothes if it was dark or camo if it was day, our faces smeared with the army greasepaint our uncle had given us.)
But I've always been really thankful that we all got to grow up in such close proximity, and, for the most part, we're all still really close today.
That closeness and tradition has passed on to the next generation. With K&E, and Sarah and Elizabeth's little sister and their niece, and Andrea's niece and nephews, there are seven kids between the ages of three and eight. They are always together for birthday parties and swimming and they've all got zoo and Sea World family passes, so they're frequently there as well.
I'm really glad Kailin and Emily get to experience what we did growing up, and I hope it continues as they get older.
Here's two of my favorite pictures from their zoo trip on Wednesday (I just wish that EJ was somehow in the shots, too. But I guess his stroller wouldn't fit):
- 21:57 Get Smart was kinda funny but 30-45 mins too long. #
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How are you celebrating the 4th of July?
Usually by sitting in traffic for three hours until I can't feel my clutch thigh anymore. Not tonight, though...from last firework to home in 30 min. That must be some kind of record. I felt like my car and I were one symbiotic being and I didn't hit not one. single. person! No matter what kind of a jerk they were being. There were a lot of people, too..go look at the pictures on DeWitte's blog. It was insane.
Huzzah! Now I can go open my wine.
Sorry, I have no videos of aliens taking over the world, or exploding White Houses or anything. What I do have is the best video EVER. EVER.
Happy 4th of July! Try not to burn anything down with your crazy fireworks, ok?
Rowyn and I marched with the Revels this year in the Takoma Park 4th of
July Parade (Debbie and Naomi cheering us on from the sidelines). The
Coles and Betsy Delaney brought their kids along with a Revels (fan?
participant?) Innis so we had eight (!) kids. Considering we only had
about 20 adults, this was pretty good.
After the parade, we threw a nearly spontaneous BBQ at our house which started slowly and ended up pretty nicely. Revelers Betsy D., Scott M., Gus & Jim V., the Blues and later on Greg, Will & Roxanne all enjoyed the pre-rainy weather. Our neighbors Heather & Mike (not to be confused with Heather P. & Mike L.) and our new neighbors Emily and Dickson also came by. Much relaxed banter and beer (2 six packs of my porter!), hamburgers and sausages. Annie M. and Rhianna N. made an appearance, then wisely scooted off as there were no other teens (Gus arrived later and he couldn't escape as dad Jim was his ride home).
Thanks to Gus and Jim for braving the crowds at Safeway to get some ice for our cooler!
I have come to the realization that I am not a cookout chic, girl, person, woman.. whatever. I just loath cookouts. Though I do enjoy nature and sitting outside to catch a breeze or two in the name of relaxation, I don't enjoy the usual cookout food, getting bit by tiny creatures and perhaps herds of people that may come. I'm shocked that my mother even took the initiative to have people over in the midst of the discombobulation from the continuing renovations. True, we have been having what we call "construction parties," where we invite family, and one or two close friends for an informal cookout/picnic dinner. Those have been fine and dandy, but seriously, today I'm just not feeling it for some reason.
It's the fourth of July and I'm not into all of the fanfare. I never really was. Maybe I was as a kid cause of all the fireworks hype, but as an adult I feel like telling folks to see me another day. Maybe I just don't like holidays much at all, or maybe I'd rather be doing something else today, but what? I just came back from picking up my grandmother and her hubby. Now I'm hiding in the back part of the house until other family members arrive. Then I'll be forced to put a smile on my face and act as if I'm fine and dandy. Don't get me wrong, I love being in the company of my family, but today seems off. I'd rather be off in my own little world somewhere - yanno, tapping into my inner introvert.
For a couple of years I would always head to my friend KC's house for her (somewhat) annual informal get together. The couple of years I've done this have been swell and I actually miss those times. Unfortunately she halted this to pay more attention to her ailing mom coupled with the fact that everyone's schedules seem to be a bit janky lately. Before those years of get togethers, normally I would find myself out of town or even if I was in town I was with a friend or two going to the movies, a bar, etc. Years before that, it was participating in a ritual with my family to camp out in a park on Bolling AFB along the Anacostia River. We, along with hundreds of other families would claim our spot early in the day, cookout and once nightfall hit, enjoy the fireworks from all three jurisdictions going on at the same time; The Washington Monument show and the US Capitol, The Masonic Temple Show in Alexandria, Virginia and from afar a flicker of something from the Maryland side. After a while, those camp outs at Bolling became dull to me...predictable.
Today I do wish to be somewhere other than here. Some place different enjoying something different. Maybe that's what my irritation is about today. I want to indulge in something different and not just the typical local yokal, family cookout stuff. As with anyone who loves their home to the bone, there comes a time when you feel like you wanna holla and throw up both your hands, because of simple daily irritations that pick at you. This when it is time to get out.
Leave.
I need to leave.
Fly Away
By Lenny Kravitz
Album: 5
I wish that I could fly
Into the sky
So very high
Just like a dragonfly
Id fly above the trees
Over the seas in all degrees
To anywhere I please
Oh I want to get away
I want to fly away
Yeah yeah yeah
Oh I want to get away
I want to fly away
Yeah yeah yeah
Lets go and see the stars
The milky way or even mars
Where it could just be ours
Lets fade into the sun
Let your spirit fly
Where we are one
Just for a little fun
Oh oh oh yeah !
I want to get away
I want to fly away
Yeah yeah yeah
I want to get away
I want to fly away
Yeah yeah yeah
I got to get away
Feel I got to get away
Oh oh oh yeah
I want to get away
I want to fly away
Yeah with you yeah yeah
Oh yeah !
I want to get away
I want to fly away
Yeah with you yeah yeah
I got to get away
I want to get away x4
Yeah
I want to get away
I want to fly away
Yeah with you yeah yeah
I got to get away
I want to get away x4
Yeah
I want to get away
I want to fly away
Yeah with you
Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah
So I’m pushing my cart through Albertson’s this morning, minding my own business, when a round, jolly-looking woman comes from out of nowhere (I blame a ridiculously overstocked endcap) and runs her cart straight into the side of mine. There was a moment of startled silence before I spoke up.
“Well,” I deadpanned, “I guess we better exchange insurance information.”
At that, the rotund lady began laughing. Hysterically. And then she started to turn red. Then commenced coughing. And sort of shaking a little. I pretty much watched her pleasure turn into predicament in the span of maybe eight seconds. She was coughing so violently that I thought an internal organ might peek out her mouth momentarily. I started to move to her aid – rather instinctively, I now recollect – but she threw her hand up in that gesture that says, “It’s alright. Don’t freak out. I’ll be fine. This happens all the time.”
And sure enough, a few moments later, she was fully upright and breathing normally again. I think the redness probably lasted a while, though. Wiping her eyes, she said, “Lordy, that struck me funny. He he. Made me swallow hard.”
My relief that she was recovering completely overshadowed any pride I might have had in my flawlessly delivered bit of improv.
The moral of this story is if you’re an amateur and you go around trying to be funny all the time, your lack of professional experience is bound to end up causing casualties eventually. The right joke in the wrong hands delivered the right way to the wrong person might just have the power to kill.
Then the meaning of “funny” starts to slowly mutate until you no longer understand the difference between funny-haha and funny-ohgodthepain. Next thing you know, you’re so maniacally obsessed with making everyone understand your new brand of comedy, you’ll do anything to get their attention, including wear ghastly amounts of makeup and blow stuff up.
By the way, have I mentioned yet how excited I am about the impending premiere of The Dark Night, two weeks* from today? Oh, it’s going to be something. Yes, indeedy.
I’m so excited, in fact, that I made you guys this lovely VOX banner. Feel free to use it as you see fit, at least until WB sends a cease and desist. :-P
Now, in the spirit of early preparation, I must go look up where my nearest IMAX theater is...
*three weeks for my friends in the UK.
