Wild is the story of Cheryl Strayed, a woman destroyed by the death of her mother. Cheryl has fallen into a seriously self-destructive spiral, shooting up heroin, having sex with strangers, sabotaging her marriage. One day she hits her own version of bottom, and while in a drug store, spies a travel book, for hiking the Pacific Crest Trail, and she sees some sort of peace there. Her mother was that rare, truly good, happy-in-spite-of-it-all person, and told her many times to find the beauty in life, to let that beauty find her and wash over her. So she decides that the way to come to terms with the person…

In years past, I have often, if not always, participated in NaBloPoMo, posting on my blog every day for the month of November. This year, it didn’t even occur to me. What did occur to me was to not post even one blog post for the month of November. “What if I take the entire month off?” I thought, “would the world end?” Of course not. If I don’t care, then why should anyone else? Those heady days of busy busy blogging are long gone, at least around here, and no one worries if I don’t have anything to say for a week or two. Or maybe a month. But…

We generally have a couple of very hot days in late September or early October. I remember moving to San Francisco back in ’87, and it hitting 100 that October. Indian Summer, they call it. So this weekend was Indian Summer, hitting the 90s after a few weeks of cooler weather. Hot weather requires a bit more water for the plants, water I’m hesitant to give in a drought year. Saturday morning I was watering the plants around our little patio garden, in preparation for a hot summer day, watching a fat black bumblebee buzz around the purple flowers of our potato plant, when I am sure I saw said…

It’s a sunny Saturday morning, and I’m in a random sort of mood. Let’s see if I can get some truly random stuff up here, instead of narrowing down to one topic, shall we? I finished my book last night, “Horse Heaven”, by Jane Smiley. I’ve tried to read one or two other of her novels, and haven’t really enjoyed them. But I loved “Horse Heaven” so much, this is a second reading for me. It’s a story of horse racing, told over a two or three year period. There are a large cast of characters, including 6 horses, and the people who surround them. It was a slow read…

Well I was pretty down on Tuesday, having a bit of a pity party, have to go on a crappy drug for 3 weeks. I don’t know why I’m such a baby. It’s 3 weeks. I remember when I had to stay at the hospital the night before Maya was born, I felt so sorry for myself that I cried. Of course, there were hormones involved, but I’m not sure my reaction now would be any different without them. I just hate taking drugs and staying in hospitals and all of that. Antibiotics don’t bother me, I’m used to them. Birth control pills are fine. Allergy pills, OK. But when…

Last week I had an appointment with a rheumatologist, who said something akin to, “wow, that’s weird, I don’t know.” So she took a ton of blood tests. Great, because my insurance is High Deductible Insurance, which means I pay the first $5k out of pocket, before insurance kicks in. Probably I’ll hit the $5K mark just in time for the end of the year, and then it resets. Grumble grumble single payer grumble grumble. Anyway, tests needed to be taken, and taken they were. Since I last discussed the issue, the pain and swelling has gotten much worse in my feet, with one of them intermittently puffing up like…

Walmart.   I know, Walmart sucks.  They drive out local competition, all of the little mom and pop stores.  They pay their employees crap wages, so low that many full time workers qualify for government benefits, such as food stamps.  They are a crappy company, and I avoid them like the plague.  I do not shop there, and I will not shop there.   I keep seeing little memes on Facebook, about how wealthy the family is, and how they refuse to pay decent wages, and how horrible that is.  I agree.  However, they are acting within the law.  There are many, many other companies out there paying minimum wage, whose employees…

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGdyMgvRNEg[/youtube] We were unceremoniously shaken awake at 3:20 by a 6.0 or 6.1 magnitude earthquake. If you’ve not experienced a major or semi-major earthquake, let me tell you that it’s mostly the noise that assaults you, at least if you’re indoors, and assuming there’s nothing falling on your head. We have sliding mirrored closet doors, which make a lot of noise rattling around. The walls rattle. The roof rattles. Yes, you feel the bed shaking, and if the lights are on, you might notice the lights swaying. There was a time when I enjoyed earthquakes. They’re generally small enough that there’s no real damage, and it can be kind of…

I’ve been loving most of this whole sabbatical thing. It’s really nice, and some days I have plans with friends or family, while other days I don’t, and both are really nice. Maya has started school at our local community college and is in the process of settling in. I feel like I dodged a bullet with her not moving out, because if she were in college in VT or NY right now, I’d be pretty darned sad. Amongst the relaxation and enjoyment of having time off, however, I’m having some weird kind of health issue with my foot. Feet. Legs. What could be wrong? I don’t know. The pain…

Today is the first day of my sabbatical. My company has a newish policy, that every employee has to take a month of paid time off every four years.  This is my month, so I can’t look at my email or do any work of any kind. It’s kind of weird. My regular routine is to wake up, come downstairs, get the paper, and check my work email. I’m in California and most of my coworkers are on the East Coast, so often things have started up by the time I wake up. So this morning I woke up, came downstairs, got the paper, and….looked at Facebook. It’s not so…

I’m not sure how I came across this poem, but when I did, it broke my heart and moved me so much. Meena Alexander is so talented and evokes a pain of which so many of us are unaware. In this poem, she tells of the pain of three young women, unwilling to put her family into a desperate financial situation so that she may be married…also unwilling to deal with the shame of not being married. It is a glimpse into a very different world that still manages to bring our own sexist culture into focus. A School Teacher from South India By Meena Alexander Portions of a mango…

We’re kind of late to the quinoa bandwagon, but now that we’re here, I enjoy finding recipes that use the protein packed grain. I saw this one online, and loved the idea of peaches, arugula, and tomatoes mixed in with the quinoa. I wasn’t exactly sure about the pickled onions, but the reviews all said it’s key, and kind of makes the recipe, so I went for it. I’m glad I did. The pickled onions were delicious. Smelly when you’re heating up the vinegar, and also smelly when you’re pickling the onions, but delicious anyway. I subbed nectarines from the farmers’ market for the peaches, because we had them and…

Last night we went to a graduation party for one of Maya’s friends, and of course there were several families there with kids who had also graduated. I was talking to one of the moms about the cost of college, and talking to her brought a couple of things to mind. 1st, the issue of deserving things that you cannot afford. The daughter is going to an expensive private school, even though the family cannot afford that in any way. The cost is about $60,000 a year. The daughter has worked hard and is receiving scholarships through the school that will cover half of that, bringing the cost down to…