Who brought their parents? Oh, wait…

Recently I had occasion to see some photos of people I knew over forty years ago.  They were all together at a reunion, laughing and having a great time.  I was sorry to have missed it. Unfortunately,  I only recognized three people out of about fifteen.  The others looked, well, like someone’s parents.  And it made me stop and stare.  These are the people I was young with.  The ones I lived with in the huge mayor’s mansion, the rock and roll band I cooked for and laughed with and danced to.  That was the house where I had a spring green bedroom with dark green trim and straw on the floor that eventually the cats discovered, necessitating my throwing it out the window into the garden, two stories below.  The place where I was sick with Hepatitus, where I was married in the backyard at dawn on Easter.  The people I laughed and cried with, who I left to hitch hike to Colorado, and to whom I came home after the trip.  They were my friends.

So, how have I stayed twenty when they are all at least sixty?  Wait.  I’m not twenty, am I?  From inside it doesn’t feel any different, really.  I mean it does – like twenty but knowing a few more things.  Or a lot more things. Or maybe nothing at all, come to think of it.  I hope I get to see them again sometime, maybe at the next reunion.

Suddenly so much to do

I chose this shot of all the crystals because it seems like I have a lot of things hanging all of a sudden, each with lots of little pieces to do before I reach completion.  I have several time-sensitive projects to do for school as well as for the Writing Project.  For some reason it all has come together now.  I look forward to each project, but realize I will need to be very orderly in my planning and execution of them all.  Especially if I’m to maintain my life beyond all that.  I should have known something like this was coming when the unread books began to mount up in my bookshelf.  I keep adding one or two or four more books until now I have over a dozen that are clamoring to be read.  I do that sometimes. It always seems to contribute to the general feeling of overwhelm, even though there is nothing urgent about reading a novel or two or ten.  Something is going on, even if I can’t put my finger on it.  It is also reflected in an overabundance of clutter in the house and car.  I’ve never really thought about it like this, but there it is.  Something is definitely building up.  It seems to me that I need to drink some water and get some exercise.  Shift the energy so it flows more easily.  We’ll see how it goes…

25 Random Things About Me

There is a meme circulating through Facebook this week called 25 Random Things About Me.  The first time I was tagged, by Bonnie, I hesitated to do it.  So many revelations?  So public?  Tag 25 more people?  Yikes!  Then I was tagged again by Lani Lila.  I like and respect both taggers, so decided why not?  I of course wrote a bunch on each line and once I got to 25 could’ve kept going.  The hard part was tagging others.  First of all, that meant they would read what I wrote and then would they participate?  Would they then have way TMI about me? Would they think it was stupid or what?  Whatever – I got over it.  So here are my 25 Random things, cause I don’t want to lose track.  And cause I had fun writing it.  And ’cause it seems like it oughta be a blog post:

1. I was born in Des Moines, Iowa. My dad was a sheep dealer and my mom (then) was a bacteriologist for the city of Des Moines. She left that career after a short time, despite having the college degrees needed for it.

2. I’ve lived in Chico since 1980. I have no desire to ever live anywhere else.

3. I love to travel. I have visited Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala, Laos and Bangkok. And most of the states of the U.S. But I’ve never been to Hawaii!

4. I am a teacher. I taught high school for 15 years, and now teach middle school. Middle school has brought with it a steep learning curve, which has surprised me. I have worked for the Marysville school district since 1992. I student taught there the year before.

5. In 1992, when I was student teaching there was a shooting in my school. I was trapped in a classroom with 23 students for 7 hours. This event changed my life in some significant ways.

6. I spent a couple of years studying with the Avalon Institute, when they were in Chico. I learned spiritual tools there that still serve me today. I am thankful for having had that opportunity.

7. I have three grown children who were all born at home. At the time of the first two there were no midwives in our area, so I read books and trained a friend to deliver my babies. I had a midwife and a doctor present for the third birth. The doctor made tea.

8. I have three granddaughters, ages 9,7 and 6 months. The oldest spends a good amount of time with me, which blesses my life immensely.

9. I love to take photos. I used to take a lot of photos when I traveled, but last year I joined a Flick’r group called Photo Fridays, in which we post a photo or two every Friday. Since joining this group I have begun taking photos of Chico. Our town is amazingly photogenic!

10. I am bilingual (English/Spanish). Learning Spanish has enriched my life immensely.

11. I love to write. I have three blogs which I post to regularly, as well as 35 years worth of journals. I dream of writing a novel, and have started a couple of them. So far my continuative powers are a little weak, and they sit waiting for my return. I have published several articles in professional journals, however.

12. In the late sixties, after dropping out of college, I lived on a commune outside of Petaluma, CA. This was a spiritual place, and at times quite uncomfortable! After leaving there, I went to live in a much bigger communal situation in the East Bay with a rock and roll band.

13. I hitchhiked from the Bay Area of CA to Boulder, Colorado in the summer of 1970 for a “Holy man Jam” held at the University of Colorado. I think I traveled with about $25! I guess I counted on the Universe to take care of me. And she did.

14. In 1971 I immigrated to Canada with my husband at the time. We lived there until I got pregnant with my first child, whereupon we hitchhiked from Montreal to Northern California to get ready for the baby’s birth.

15. I attended Chico State for years. Enough to earn two Bachelors degrees, a Master’s Degree and two credentials. I think I’m done now. Although if I could afford it I would go to the University of Iowa’s Writing Workshop and get another Master’s Degree. Maybe after I retire…

16. I’m allergic to cats. I like them, but can’t touch them or be in a house in which they live. A long time ago I learned that I seem to react most to Siamese cats. I wish this weren’t the case. I’d like to have a cat, I think.

17. I have been involved with the Northern California and National Writing Project since 1996. I love this involvement. I have had amazing opportunities and have met some great friends because of the Writing Project.

18. I am politically liberal. I think very liberal, but maybe I just really didn’t like George Bush (Or Arnold Schwartzeneggar). I think in many ways not political, I’m pretty conservative. Feels funny to say that.

19. I am a Mac user. I think this is like belonging to a political party. I felt betrayed when a friend gave up her Mac for a PC. I know this seems silly to a non Mac user, but think that most Mac users will understand what I mean.

20. I used to make quilts. I hand quilted them, rueing the day each was finally finished. I became a teacher partly because I wanted more time to quilt, but then teaching was so creatively satisfying that I never quilted again. I still have tons of fabric.

21. I live in the Barber neighborhood in Chico. I’m constantly thinking I am going to sell my house. I still think that, even though I like it quite a bit. I would love to design and build or remodel a house to fit an idea that is lodged firmly in my head. I think someday I will.

22. This summer I will be 60. I want to do something memorable, like walk the Camino in Spain, but I have to work all June and July. So maybe I’ll just go to the beach for a few days. Or have a party. Maybe both.

23. My mom lives in Northern Mexico and I visit her once a year. I hope to go over Spring break this year, having missed it in January. Because she lives there, I never go anywhere else in Mexico.

24. I want to make time to make more prayer beads. I have made a strand that I like quite a lot, and continue to collect beads for more. I like to make little altars around my house, and then I forget I made them.

25. I expected this random list of personal revelations to be quite uncomfortable for me to do and am surprised that it hasn’t been. It’s actually been pretty fun to think of what to write. (The hardest part is figuring out who to tag. For some reason I feel shy about that part.)

Tag, you’re it!

Sick again ~ What’s going on?

I am sick again, another cold has struck with a vengeance a couple of days ago.  This is about the fourth time since the school year began.  Over the winter break I was the sickest, with asthmatic bronchitis.  I am not usually a sickly person at all.  I usually fight things off easily, so this is a little disturbing.  I’m actually thinking about doing some sort of cleanse.  I’ve felt sluggish and kind of foggy for a while, and this just tops it off.  I wonder if anyone who reads this has any information about this sort of thing.

Some of the women in my book club are doing a 28 day cellular cleanse, a la Scott Ohlsgard (I think that is his name).  I’m not sure where to begin, so may order his book to check it out.  I’ve already looked for it at B&N and S&S, and will still check Lyon’s before I order it.  Another possibility is a book called Healing with Whole Foods by Paul Pitchford.  I guess since I have his huge book, I could start by reading that. (D’oh!)  Maybe I should do a cleanse and then follow his dietary advice.  I have to do some reading, it seems.

This cleansing idea seems like a commitment to discomfort (read giving up the food I love that is not so good for me), but what could be less comfortable than what I’m feeling now?  I think I really need a detox of my whole system.  I’m going to check it out and I’ll keep track of the process here.  I promise to leave out any really gory details!