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Sheila
Today is Ted’s mom’s birthday. Her name is Susheela, but back home in Guyana, she was often called ‘Sheila’. Happy Birthday Ma! This song is called “Sea Lion Woman”, and they say ‘sea lion’ a lot, but when I listen to it, it sounds like they’re saying, “Sheila”, and it sounds like a party to me. So, let’s have some Veuve Cliquout (Ma’s favorite champagne), and let’s dance to “Sea Lion Woman”, OK? 🙂
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Yoga and Grief
I used to take yoga somewhat regularly, meaning a once-a-week practice. It kind of fell by the wayside a few years ago, and while I was too lazy to do anything about it, I missed it. When my mom went back into the hospital in May, I was so overwhelmed by the stress of her illness, it seemed like getting back into yoga would be a good way to help me deal with some of this stress. So I started up again, and it did help some. The class I take is through our city’s recreation program, so classes are 9 or 10 weeks in length, and then a new…
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The Great Divorce
The Great Divorce is the story of a man, a man dreaming of an exploratory trip to Heaven. He arrives on a bus with many other riders, all of whom are approached by angels, who are trying to help the people to overcome their issues and fears, so that they can enter the kingdom of Heaven. They are all pretty much given the options of Heaven or Hell, Hell being not so much the fiery pit described by Dante, but more a matter of Not Heaven. The title refers to William Blake’s The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, which C.S. Lewis refutes, saying “If we insist on keeping Hell (or…
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The Westing Game
I first heard of The Westing Game, I think, in a comment left by my old bloggy friend, Wendy. (She’s not old, just quit blogging, so she’s not a current bloggy friend, right? I miss her writing, actually.) Based on her loving the book as a kid, I bought it for Maya and put it on her bookshelf. It has thus far failed to capture her interest, so it’s just been sitting there, waiting. When I signed up for the Herding Cats reading challenge, I saw this book on the list, and thought it was a good chance to read it. The Westing Game is the story surrounding the…
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Wordless Wednesday- Hawaii Edition
Then, 2005 Now, 2008
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Banyan Tree
Have you ever seen something that made you realize that the world doesn’t always work the way that you think it does? Often it’s a matter of nature…an animal or a plant that is so different than what you might expect to see, that it makes you stop in your tracks and think. While in Hawaii, I was struck by this very strange looking tree…turns out it’s an Indian Banyan Tree, which originates in India. The branches of the Banyan tree fan out over a large canopy, much like an Oak tree. One problem with Oak trees is that when the branches grow long and cover a large space, they…
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Home Again
(photo found here) Monday morning, and the vacation was, as most vacations are, all too brief. Now there’s laundry to be done, groceries to shop for, library books to return, and prescriptions to pick up. Back to the old grind, as they say. But it was a great week. I would say that the high point of the week was Thursday. When we went kayaking on Tuesday, we mentioned to our guide that we really liked the snorkeling, and he suggested that we might enjoy the snorkeling at Shark’s Cove. So on Thursday, we rented a convertible and drove up to the North Shore of the Island, to Pupukea. Isn’t…
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Soundtrack to a Vacation
[youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=K8AH7yYQpro[/youtube] Great DJ, by the Ting Tings. I like to think of them as being from Guyana, since ‘ting’ is another way of saying ‘thing’ in Guyanese, but they’re not, they’re British. Anyway, this song is in heavy rotation on Ted’s iPhone, and it’s infectious…meaning, it gets in our heads and sticks there. Luckily, it’s a fun fun song, so we’re enjoying it. Hope you enjoy it too! If it comes up with a stupid message saying that the video is not longer available, go straight to YouTube, here.
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Hawaii Update
(photo found here) Hi Everyone, It’s Tuesday afternoon now…we had an AWESOME day today. We got up early and went on a kayaking tour, which meant kayaking out about a mile in the ocean to a little bird sanctuary in Kailua Bay, getting a short lecture on the formation of the Hawaiian Islands (interesting!), lunch and a swim, then kayaking down to a wonderful beach, where we did some snorkeling, and saw lots of beautiful fish. I have the say, the area that we were at today was SO MUCH nicer than the super-crowded Waikiki beach, which is closer to where we’re staying in Honolulu. It wasn’t crowded, the sand…
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Vacation
It’s 7:15 on Monday morning, and Ted and Maya are still asleep. But my body thinks it’s after 10:00, and can’t sleep anymore. Besides, there’s a woman outside in the common area of our condo with a really loud, weird laugh. 🙂 We arrived in Honolulu at about 11:30 yesterday morning, and within a few hours we: Rode in a limo (same price as a taxi, so why not?) Ate mahi-mahi for lunch (Maya had a cheese quesadilla, Ted had an Ahi wrap) Swam in the ocean (forgot to put on sunscreen, so it was a short visit to the beach. Don’t worry, I’ll be smarter today.) Relaxed in the…
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More Anniversary Stuff!
For anyone who’s interested, Ted and I put together a cute (albeit longish) picture show, with commentary, with some of the pictures from our wedding, lo these 15 years ago. Ted worked on it for HOURS, and it’s pretty groovy. You get a bit of a feel for the day, which was hot, and the wedding, which was Hindu, and the ceremony, which was FUN. Check it out!
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Happy Independence Day, Everyone
Does anyone else remember this little April Fools Joke that ran in the newspapers back in 1996? I remember it because my mom was visiting us, and Maya had just been born (March 29), and we were looking at the newspaper, and Mom got all outraged. I wonder if it was sleep deprivation, due to all of the excitement, or if perhaps the fact of being in such a historic city got the blood all of her patriot ancestors flowing freely, but she decided this was just too much. And to think, George Bush wasn’t even in office yet! Anyway, she was talking to my dad on the phone, and…
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We Are In Love
I know you so well I can tell by the sound of your voice If you’re really in love with me And you are And you are You know I can’t lie If I say to you ‘baby, I love you’ Then baby, I love you Oh, and I do Yes, I do I do… could it be that’s the Phrase you thought never would phase you Well baby, you better hold on tight ‘Cause I’m the one who’s supposed to Kneel down and propose, well alright Ooo, well I might, I might So, when I kiss you good-night Just sleep tight with the thought that you’ll Always be caught…
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(Nearly) Wordless Wednesday
For Ms. Mamma.
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Two Weeks
It’s been two weeks now since my mom died. Two weeks. It’s hard for me to believe sometimes. Everyone wants to know how I’m doing, everyone wants to help me get through this. Which I appreciate. I want to get through this, too. Two weeks ago, I felt hollow, I sobbed rather than cried, and I wasn’t sure that having Maya had been a good idea, since someday, when I die, she would have to go through this horrible pain. To quote a quote within The Year of Magical Thinking, that immediate grief feels like “sensations of somatic distress occurring in waves lasting from twenty minutes to an hour at…