More obamanation

So I'm still getting used to seeing this beautiful brilliant black man as our President. Everytime I watch the news or surf it, I'm like, wow. Wow. I'm telling you, I'm not sure how long it will take or if this will wear off. It's messing with my brain in a good way. Really good way.

He already has done things I don't like. Heck that happened BEFORE the election. For example, he voted for the fruitless border wall. I don't expect candidates or elected officials to walk on water...I worked on the Hill too many years to think that was ever a possibility.

Anyway, I just read the coolest piece on his inaguration on the NYT site and have to share it with you.

Enjoy.

http://kalman.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/01/29/the-inauguration-at-last/

Movies and such

I just finished watching a classic Mexican movie "El Compadre Mendoza." I often find oldies to be a bit over the top in terms of acting, but this film portrayed the complexities of class in an intersesting way. The rich weren't all evil; the Zapatista hero and hacienda owner develop a deep and real friendship over the course of years. There is one scene in which the General Nieto declares his devotion to the wife of his friend in a way that doesn't imperil her honor, his loyalty to his friend, and broke my heart. He knew he was going to be killed and wanted her to promise never to forget him.

Another thing I enjoyed was that the set looked authentic - not some fake set, but it appeared like a lovely hacienda was used. Either that or a really good set designer.

Recipes and such

The creamy cauliflour soup was a hit, and it was easy to make. I love that combination. This morning I jumped into the 2nd recipe from the same cookbook -- a spicy split pea soup that was fab. I slimmed it down by taking out the butter and ham, yet it is so rich...creamy and satisfying. I love putting in the ground cloves and allspice - what a fabulous and unexpected addition to one of my favorite soups. According to the authors, this is a very old Dutch recipe from the 1600s. Cool.

I just got back from having a massage at Kelli's. Wow. It was fantastic. I fell asleep on the table, and my body appreciated the kneading. Today I went for my first walk. I only did a slow shuffle around the block in the fog with Federico, who kept going to the park as I returned home.

Each day my body feels stronger, more normal. My PT exercises are leaving me quite sore, as I work to rebuild strength in my right leg.

Too much information?

So I'm browsing the news on the local newspaper's web site and see a link to the Portland Police Dept. interactive crime mapping feature. Interesting 2.0 application. Would like to see what is going on in my neighborhood.

I stumble upon a map that shows me where all the sex offenders live - photos, addresses, specific crime and date. Wow. Creepy. Very detailed. Is this going to make me safer or more paranoid? How up to date is this info (this is the librarian in me)? Does every city offer this service? What do I do if I see one of these guys?

Into the swing of it

My walking skills have gotten a bit rusty, and I creep along like an old lady. My foot doesn't really hurt. It's tight and tender, but can't say it hurts. Is it the muscles in the leg that are just weaker and not used to the movement? An imbalance with the left leg that is way stronger and sure footed? Whatever the multiple reasons, I just am not quick on my feet. I don't like it, but compared to trying to get around on crutches, I'll take it! I also have to wear this black walking shoes with my work clothes, which I find old-ladyish too. I'm letting go of vanity everyday.

I'm also back in the kitchen trying out the Christmas gift Ana got me - "The Splendid Table's How to eat supper" cookbook. I'm making curried cauliflour soup with homemade chicken broth and curry that Yves brought me from Canada. Had to grind it, so it is fresher than the store-bought powders for sure. The soup happens to be an anti-inflammatory recipe. I shall report back tomorrow on how this tastes. We are big into soups in this house. It's just so fabulous to be cooking again.

I slept in last night, which I will chalk up to a serious snow flurry that coated the sidewalks. Maybe tomorrow I can venture out for a walk. An old lady paced walk.

Happy New Year!

This is the first day of the Chinese New Year - the year of the Ox. Fitting that on this day I starting walking again on a healing foot...May this year bring us all blessings of health, love, and prosperity.

Walking!

So I got to put away those crutches and surgical boot today!! Yeah!! I'm walking unassisted and without pain. My foot feels a bit sore, but after so many weeks of not using it, I'm not surprised. With the PT I also worked out on the exercise bike and started the work of rebuilding strength in my legs, especially the right one.

I'm excited, liberated, and very grateful. I can walk around freely, cook, drive (short distances only)...go for walks. Next week I can swim.

Doc is not keen on jacuzzis or pedicures in the near future. I can live without them. Walking, swimming, driving....I'm so appreciative of what I can do.

Lazy day

Today we took it easy....breakfast (gluten-free pancakes - yum!). Gladys and I went to the library for a fun crafty program using recycled materials. She made this lovely shadow-box full of Valentine-themed things and boy she has a great eye...it is really quite lovely the way she uses color and layers. I loaded up on new music CDs and a couple of DVDs. I had this nice random interaction with another patron while browsing the DVDs. I glanced at "Hidalgo," and this older white guy says, "gotta love that Viggo Mortenson." I was like - wow, he read my mind. Can other people tell when you are a Viggo freak? Is it the way I longingly looked at the DVD box? So we chatted about his movies, and how good he is, and how violent his movies are. I told him he has a new one out in the theaters about the Nazis. Very nice to connect with a fellow fan. No matter how many years I work in them or how many I visit, it always feels like Christmas in July when I go to a library.

Came home, and I dared to return to the kitchen to cook! Yeah!! I made garlicy mashed potatos with the skins on, cranberry sauce, and Fede made the sage roasted chicken I taught him ions ago. The house smells DIVINE. Too bad blogs aren't scratch n sniff.

They are off to walk and play with Debbie's dog.

Obama and MLK - a good question

So we are in the car talking about President Obama. Gladys asks why Martin Luther King didn't become President? That innocent question kinda opens this big chasm into which an adult has to try to explain the history of racism and the civil rights movement to a 9 year old. I did my best, and it is always cool and hard to not insult her intelligence and overwhelm.

Then when we were curled up on the bed, me blogging and her reading, I realized that I had the "I have a dream" speech on the Playlist. I asked her if she wanted to hear him give a speech, and Gladys said yes. We cuddled and listened together. His words move me everytime, but I'm not quite sure if she can put this all together or appreciated his preacher oratory.

Plus segregation is a very strange concept to wrap your head around at any age.

Friday's chi

I've only had a 4 day work week, and I'm feeling pretty tired. I think it has to do more with my woeful lack of exercise than my foot, which feels fine most of the time. I hardly ever have any pain. Sometimes I have to resist the urge to walk without crutches. It kinda reminds of those movies where the crippled person casts aside their crutches and proclaims they are healed. Or maybe that was the Bible.

Today I went for my physical therapy evaluation, and he promises to have me on the exercise bike on Monday, boot and all. The PT says that the activity will help me heal quicker. At the end of the day Fede and I went for acupuncture and then went to get Gladys. We all went out for dinner at Pho An, and she liked the food....nothing like a bowl of chicken pho to make the world right. It was a really diverse crowd for Portland. The staff barely speak English, there were Vietnamese folks eating, gringos, us, and a couple of African-American folks. Each table a different shade of human.

We got home and scrambled into our PJs and into bed. She grabbed her girly manga and said with a deep smile "I love to read." She also announced she wanted to go to the library to get more books this weekend....It made me smile; I'd like to think that is my influence...years of reading to her and taking her to the library. She never even asked to open the computer to play games, which she often does.

I still need to do my ROM, and I'm also going to moxa my foot. Moxa is a Chinese medicine practice of burning a stick of herbs (formed into a thick incense-like tube) over the meridians. It's a warm and relaxing sensation, and it smells good, in an herby way. It moves around the stagnant blood and gets the chi going. If this is all Greek to you, get thee to an acupuncturist! I've got a couple of books on Chinese medicine out from the library, because I want to better understand the concept of Chi or energy, which is the principle of Chinese medicine.

I personally think that my regular acupuncture sessions helped play a role in my rapid healing, as did the massages.

Back into the flow

It's been great getting back into the flow of a social life outside my bedroom...last Sunday was movie night, and some friends came over for a potluck and watching the comedy "Hot Fuzz." We all enjoyed a lot - very funny, goofy British cop action film.

I'm organizing a women sauna outing for February, maybe this will be a monthly thing....I've been wanting to try this cool Finnish-style sauna/spa in SE, so why not get some girlfriends to join me?

The whole anti-inflammatory diet thing is going pretty well. I crave coffee, diet coke and sugar. Wheat isn't as big a deal, especially if you don't eat out. Fede is cooking amazing meals and being supportive. I thought he would balk at brown rice bread or not drinking the wonderful fresh Oaxacan coffee his family sent us, but he's up to the challenge. The one thing we can't give up is corn.

Well, good night. I'm starting to fade. It's that lack of stimulants in my system, I guess.

The day after

Work was a busy blur, and then at the end of a long day Kelli came to get me for a massage, which was a great way for my poor back and arms to get a break from the crutches. I am so ready to walk in normal shoes w/o them. So ready!

My latest idea is to get a tattoo over the scar (after a year and my surgeon's green light). The thought of having to look at a scar is a drag, so why not cover it up? There are a lot of talented tattoo artists in PDX. I'm going to sit on this idea and mull it over. No rash decisions. I've always toyed with the idea of a tattoo, but ultimately don't want any permanent decoration on my body. However if I've got some permanent scar, I'd just as soon cover it up or camouflage it with something beautiful....

Catching up on the news. Happy to see the steps Obama's taking immediately. Freezing executive orders, moving on Iraq and secret prisons. The banking crisis looms as this big specter that he can't fix quite so easily. I was watching talking heads on PBS, and one of them said that this type of crisis requires prompt action before the situation advances, and that didn't happen. Mr. "I make the tough decisions" was too busy telling us how joyful the presidency is to deal with it.

Back to work

I had a good first day back at work. I felt fine, and it was hard to force myself to use the crutches. It's far easier when you are lying in bed all day and only use them to go to the bathroom. It was great catching up with folks, and there is a lot of catching up to do.

I feel really tired right now, and it's not even 8 p.m. I could zonk out right now.

I don't really know what more to say about this morning. It was surreal in a wonderful way. I kept thinking about the slaves that built the Capitol, and what they would have thought to see Barack Obama taking the oath of office right there. In their wildest dreams would they have imagined it? Would their owners?

I think our country is in for harder times, much harder, but at least I feel like we have a smart man, maybe even a wise one, leading us. A direct man who speaks the truth.

So I'm going to be happy knowing we are in good hands.

God Bless!

Yes!

Medical update

I went to the doctor today for my weekly visit, and I have great news! My bones are healing "very well" and I'm a week ahead of where the doctor anticipated I would be in terms of healing. He's "very pleased" and plans to have me wearing my very chic walking shoes next Monday, a week ahead of schedule. It is the only time in the 2 years I've known him that he's used the words "very", "pleased" or "well." He's more the "no news is good news" type of guy. Low usage of affirming adjectives.

I want to appreciate all those who helped during these 6 weeks. My partner Fede for being the best caregiver ever. He does it all, with love, smiles and gentleness. I got breakfast in bed for 6 weeks, bless you. Minerva for cleaning the house, giving Fede a well-deserved break. Staff at Working-Class Accupuncture and An Hao Clinic for their treatments since the week of surgery to now...helping me heal, relax, and manage the pain. Kelli for her gentle weekly massages filled with the healing Holy Spirit. All those who called or came to visit, brought treats, and kept me connected to the planet earth outside my bedroom. Those who let me go on about the surgery and pain with open ears and hearts (you know who you are!) Daily doses of comedy, hilarious books, guided imagery, cards, flowers, and LOTS of vitamins.

Most of all to God, who is healing my body.

Thank you one and all.

Music for a new era

Inspired by today's concert on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial I've created a playlist that captures the songs performed there, plus a selection of protest and civil rights songs. I was very happy to find Martin Luther King's "I have a dream" speech as well. Very fitting for his holiday tomorrow (that is #2 on the playlist).

Each song reflects on the journey our nation has taken to get to this place.

Enjoy.

update - concert is available free for viewing on HBO's web site:

http://www.hbo.com/weareone/

Change pt. 2

Being on forced bedrest (I cannot seem to find a word I like to describe my life a person who is healing from foot surgery), I have the luxury of time. I can read the news in full, and Sunday mornings I read the NYT online.

I just read Frank Rich's op/ed piece on race relations, which struck me with its honesty. That moment when someone writes something you yourself have thought or observed. He is so right that racism hasn't been magically erased with this President, in fact I think Obama's presidency is going to force this country to talk about and notice race in ways we have never had to do. It's not always going to be pretty, i.e. like that dreadful video circulated by the Republicans, clearly struggling with their resentments that surface as "humor."
While hard, I do think it is very healthy, normal and long over-due.
I've excerpted a portion of it, with the full-text link at the end:

Washington is its own special American case, but only up to a point. For all our huge progress, we are not “post-racial,” whatever that means. The world doesn’t change in a day, and the racial frictions that emerged in both the Democratic primary campaign and the general election didn’t end on Nov. 4. As Obama himself said in his great speech on race, liberals couldn’t “purchase racial reconciliation on the cheap” simply by voting for him. And conservatives? The so-called party of Lincoln has spent much of the past month in spirited debate about whether a white candidate for the party’s chairmanship did the right thing by sending out a “humorous” recording of “Barack the Magic Negro” as a holiday gift.

Next to much of our history, this is small stuff. And yet: Of all the coverage of Obama’s victory, the most accurate take may still be the piquant morning-after summation of the satirical newspaper The Onion. Under the headline “Black Man Given Nation’s Worst Job,” it reported that our new president will have “to spend four to eight years cleaning up the messes other people left behind.”

Those messes are enormous, bigger than Washington, bigger than race, bigger than anything most of us have ever seen. Nearly three months after Election Day, it remains astonishing that the American people have entrusted the job to a young black man who seemed to come out of nowhere looking for that kind of work just as we most needed him.

“In no other country on earth is my story even possible,” Obama is fond of saying. That is true, and that is what the country celebrates this week. But it is all the tragic American stories that came before him, some of them still playing out in chilly streets just blocks from the White House, that throw both his remarkable triumph and the huge challenge ahead of him into such heart-stopping relief.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/18/opinion/18rich.html?partner=permalink&exprod=permalink

Web 2.0

With so much time on my hands, I have finally mastered something I've been wanting to do...figure out Delicious and the whole tagging thing.

When the Internet was in its infancy, I was in Costa Rica busy teaching people how to use effectively. It was very exciting and challenging to be figuring out how to train people on something I myself was learning how to use.

All this to say I've been bookmarking websites for a long time and knew that Delicious was conceptually the answer to my prayers. I could easily save and keep all those bookmarked sites (and organize and share them too). A librarian's dream. But who has the time to figure it out, upload them, and tag them all?

I did. It is marvelous and fascinating to see what rises to the top in terms of tag topics: Libraries, Mexico, travel, gardening, cooking..I love being able to see what others are bookmarking. Discovering new sites.

Here is a fab Common Craft video that explains it way better than I shall ever attempt.

Watching history

If you want to get live coverage of President Obama's train tour and everything that comes after, check out C-SPAN's great web site.

Who needs TV or cable?

http://www.c-span.org

A trip to India

I just had a wonderful "trip" to India thanks to Bev's visit and looking at her beautiful pictures. She covered an amazing amount of ground - from the Pakistani border to the tip of the country. It is one of my dream trips to visit that remarkable country, and I kinda felt like I was there for a few hours. She visited such an array of temples and mosques, reminding me of what a rich spiritual tradition that country has...thank you for sharing that with me. Thank you for praying for us while visiting those sacred places.

Here is one of my favorite Bollywood songs, posted in Bev's honor. From the movie Lagaan. These villagers are fighting for their survival in a cricket match against the British colonizers. They have just learned cricket for the occasion, and if they lose the game the village will starve. Their prayer is for victory, for survival, for liberation.

Change

January always brings in all this talk of change and new beginnings. A zillion diet ads. Resolutions. Blah, blah, blah. A new President...that does too. But this one is quite special. Historic. An overused word in my opinion, but for once in my life it is not hyperbole. It is just right. After 8 dark years of bad decisions, greed, and fear (frosted on top with the rhetoric of patriotism) our country has chosen a different path, and I'm proud and excited by the collective national choice to elect Obama.

Growing up in Detroit in a primarily white neighborhood (primarily because we lived there!), I was raised around White people and Latinos (i.e. all my relations)* who were openly scared of Black people. As a child, I found it puzzling the power that this fear had over them. A black person driving down a street would result in worried and fearful conversations about why they were here and that they not return with more Black people. I got stoned by kids outside my elementary school yelling the N word at me. When I met my first black school-mate my internal reaction was "it sucks to be you." White people (the folks running the show) do not like your people. In the pitiless racial hierarchy that is America, I knew that she was at the bottom, and I felt bad for her. If I got stoned, what on earth had she endured? We never talked about such things.

In some leap of faith, these folks and many others elected Barack Obama. Maybe some of the boys who pelted me with stones until I ran home voted for him. Perhaps some of our former neighbors, who we still keep in touch with and visit when in town, did too. I know my nuclear family voted for him, and maybe even some of the Detroit clan did too.

I sometimes wish I was in DC to witness this all in person, but knowing what an average inauguration does to the city in terms of crowds and gridlock, I would not subject myself to that, not even for President Obama. Actually the deciding factor is the January weather I know so well. It's dreadful 99% of the time. There is generally an icy biting cold, sometimes with sleet or snow. It is not the kinda of weather you want to be standing in for hours on end. If God continues to smile down on us, maybe She'll send DC a clear, sunny and brisk day for all the hopeful and determined souls on the Mall.

So I shall watch my new President swear in on TV like the rest of the world. I'm hoping that our office brings out the TV set into the conference room so we can gather around and watch together.

I don't have illusions that he will walk on water or that all the national ills will melt away with so much unity and hope on that day. I do know that a big barrier has been breached forever. Something monumental has shifted in our national psyche to get us to this day. For people of color all over the world (and certainly for this particular one) there is a sense of possibility and hope I cannot put into words.

*that my family and most Latinos have African blood is just one of those complex topics I'll save for another post.

Your daily laugh

More Ahmed

The cost of criminalizing immigrants part 2

A few weeks back I posted a well-done NYT piece about the criminalization of undocumented immigrants and the money being made off their imprisonment by private prison firms.

Here is another angle on the story, telling the stories of U.S. attorneys and local state officials who are bearing the brunt of Bush's policy to criminalize undocumented immigrants.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/12/us/12prosecute.html?partner=permalink&exprod=permalink


Resources that were once directed to going after crime syndicates and drug traffickers are now directed to nailing immigrants crossing the border. Justice department crime fighters are demoralized, and the border states are overwhelmed taking on what the Feds used to do.

Incredible that President Bush in his last press conference talked about the unfairness of the Republican party being saddled with the anti-immigrant label. Here is his comment, taken straight from the White House transcript:

And the problem with the outcome of the initial round of the debate was that some people said, well, Republicans don't like immigrants. Now, that may be fair or unfair, but that's what -- that's the image that came out.

And, you know, if the image is we don't like immigrants, then there's probably somebody else out there saying, well, if they don't like the immigrants, they probably don't like me, as well. And so my point was, is that our party has got to be compassionate and broad-minded.

Sometimes I wonder if he just doesn't get that he heads Homeland Security and the Justice Dept. These policies of raids, separating families, and imprisonment were created under HIS watch. Remarkable that the President doesn't grasp this isn't about image or perceptions or feelings (of immigrants or their advocates), but rather about cold hard facts. Data. Number of people detained in raids. People who die while in ICE custody. Policy decisions and actions taken by the executive branch. His executive branch. Remarkable that we have a President lacking in understanding what his own administration is doing on the ground. Either that or just will not accept responsibilty for his own policy decisions. My hunch is the latter. Whether it is Katrina or the non-existent WMD, his approach is to blame his staff for bad intelligence or poor decisions. It's never his fault.

A sunny spring-like day

So life is good! I'm walking around and pain-free (I'm not counting the achy twinges I get when I'm on my feet too long!).

It was a gloriously sunny day that felt April-like. Federico and I went for our weekly accupuncture fix and then for fabulous pho. We got daring and shared a cool dessert drink with coconut milk, shaved ice, peanuts, and tapioca. I know it sounds weird, but it was so good. A pleasing mix of creamy, cold, salty, crunchy, sweet.

I'm excited to go back to work, so it shows you how long I've been away. I think when I get to go for a long walk (with normal shoes and no crutches) I will cry of happiness. Ditto for hide and seek with Gladys, my first lap swim, dip in the jacuzzi, zumba class, getting a pedicure, or mucking around in the garden with my worms. I'm not exaggerating. I get happy just imagining any one of those things.

A bit of song and dance

One of my favorite things is Bollywood movies...the handsome leading men, amazing costumes, dramatic romantic storylines that last for hours, wonderful song and dance numbers, the sweet sound of Hindi. I love it all.

Turn off the playlist. Here is one of my favorite Bollywood songs - a traditional Kashmiri folk song that has been Bollywoodized by two of the most beautiful actors on the planet. Hope you like it! If you want to know more about the movie, post a comment and I'll share more.

Your daily laugh

Comic Sarah Silverman on interfaith relationships and magic:

Made in Michigan

It's been scary watching the news these past few months, as our economy (and thereby the world's) sinks deeper and deeper. Banks failing. Stores closing left and right. Unemployment at records highs. All the while health care beyond the reach of the growing ranks of unemployed. The economic news (which I'm reading daily) is grim, and most economists say it will be getting worse. Imagine that.

For someone who grew up in 1970s in Detroit, this doesn't look totally unfamiliar. Plants closing. High unemployment. Sick family members and no health care? Been there. Done that. It's a bit horrifying to see the scope of economic desolation broaden to include the whole nation and beyond.

Detroiter Mitch Albom wrote a powerful piece about the resilence of Detroit (my birthplace), and the way that working people have been slammed harder than the makers of the mess (Wall Street, DC politicians and the Federal Reserve, and the CEOs of the Big Three IMHO). I'm cutting and pasting an excerpt below. Encourage you to read the whole piece here:

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/writers/the_bonus/01/07/detroit/index.html

But it's time to untie Detroit. Because we may be a few steps behind the rest of the country, but we're a few steps ahead of it, too. And what's happening to us may happen to you.

Do you think if your main industry sails away to foreign countries, if the tax base of your city dries up, you won't have crumbling houses and men sleeping on church floors, too? Do you think if we become a country that makes nothing, that builds nothing, that only services and outsources, that we will hold our place on the economic totem pole? Detroit may be suffering the worst from this semi-Depression, but we sure didn't invent it. And we can't stop it from spreading. We can only do what we do. Survive.

And yet, we're better at that than most places.


We will have a good year
Here is the end of the story. This was back on Christmas night. After the visit to the church, I drove to a suburb with an old friend and we saw a movie. "Gran Torino." It starred and was directed by Clint Eastwood, and it was filmed in metro Detroit, which was a big deal. Last year, the state passed tax incentives to lure the movie business, an effort to climb out of our one-industry stranglehold, and Eastwood was the first big name to take advantage of it.

He shot in our neighborhoods. He used a bar and a hardware store. He reportedly fit in well, he liked the people, and no one hassled him with scripts or résumés.

The film was good, I thought, and familiar. The story of a craggy old man who loves his old car and stubbornly clings to the way he feels the world should behave. He defends his home. He defends his neighbors' honor. He goes out on his own terms.

When the film finished, the audience stayed in its seats waiting, through the closing music, through the credits, until the very last scroll, where, above a camera shot of automobiles rolling down Jefferson Avenue along the banks of Lake St. Clair, three words appeared.

MADE IN MICHIGAN.

And the whole place clapped. Just stood up and clapped.

To hell with Depression. We're gonna have a good year.

Amen.

Your daily laugh

Writer David Sedaris...

Walking!

So after 6 long weeks I can start to walk! Ok, so I'm using crutches, but I'm thrilled to be able to move around and use both feet. I've been day-dreaming about walking this past week (the way you might dream about lying on a beach in the depths of winter). I tell you that this whole experience makes me appreciate something that I so took for granted.

The doctor is pleased with my ROM and wants me to take it up a notch to increase my ROM to 97 degrees (I'm at 90, with tears in my eyes). He also said that there was some arthritis in the joint, but nothing out of the ordinary for someone who has had a bunion for many years. That is good news too!

The shoe heard around the world

I posted a few weeks ago about the shoe-throwing incident in Iraq. Here is a clever Dominican bachata about President Bush and those size 10 shoes:

Daily laugh

David Chappelle being brutally funny:

Sparrow update

So I'm very curious about our resident sparrow and started to research it online. I know there are different varieties of every animal on the planet, but my gosh, there are a zillion kinds of sparrows. I'm almost certain that our friend is a song sparrow. Here is an amazing page that tells you EVERYTHING you would want to know about them, including a clip of their bird song. Wow. When you listen to it it's like spring's arrived.

http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/BirdGuide/Song_Sparrow_dtl.html#sound

My other project is to take its picture. Considering that it stays perched on the bush for a good 45 minutes right in front of the window, this should not be hard (once I get the camera and am sitting on the couch).

So stay tuned for more sparrow updates.

Your daily laugh

Hilarious comic Ahmed Ahmed doing stand-up.

Flowers heal

Here is another useful tidbit of info from Dr. Andrew Weil's update. One of the things I did before my surgery was to pick up a couple of lovely bouquets to adorn the bedroom and bathroom (the 2 rooms I could be confined to and still pretty much am).

All studies aside, I know that my own psyche is boosted enomously by beautiful flowers and would help give me a pleasing vocal point to look while laying in bed and in pain during those first days post-op. Nice to see that researchers validated what I knew already. Co-workers, my neighbor and family have continued to help keep our bedroom filled with flowers over these past 5 weeks. Thank you!

Flowers Speed Recovery from Surgery
By sending blooming plants to hospitalized friends and relatives you may be doing more good than you thought: a new study suggests that post-surgery patients recover more quickly if they have flowering plants in their rooms. A study published in the October 2008 issue of HortTechnology found that patients who had plants in their rooms needed less pain medication, had lower blood pressure and heart rate, less pain, anxiety and fatigue and were more satisfied with their recovery than similar patients who had no plants in their hospital rooms.

Photo of native trillium flower taken by yours truly.

Your daily laugh

Comic Mike Birbiglia performing in Salt Lake City, Utah.

The future of the U.S. Catholic church

This is a fascinating and hopeful article about Catholics fighting to keep their parish church by having a vigil/sit in to prevent its closure. In the process they discover deeper community and a more grass-roots way of practicing their faith.

Given the dire shortage of priests, their path is one that might be our church's future. In many parts of the world (rural areas in Mexico for one) it already is. The laity are the church, with a priest visiting for the periodic baptism or wedding.

My parish, while led by a single priest with the help of a deacon, is very much driven by the leadership of its laity, particularly its women. If Catholic women walked away (I did for 20 years!), our churches would shut down within hours.

The New York Times has been doing a stellar job covering U.S. Catholics lately. I especially enjoy the video slideshows.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/06/us/06vigil.html?partner=permalink&exprod=permalink

Mexico pix

What better way to brighten up a cloudy winter Portland day than look at pictures from my recent trip to Oaxaca, Mexico this past November?

If want to really get the flavor, scroll the playlist and hit the great song by Oaxacan singer Lila Down called "Los Pollos" or "Cumbia del Mole." There were a lot of chickens -- in the yard, in the pot, and waking us up each morning.

Enjoy!

Steve Almond

Well, there is another exciting development. I have been corresponding with an author.

This sounds so corny (or like I'm a stalker). I wrote Steve Almond an appreciative email after reading his latest book "Not that you asked." Hilarious, thought-provoking, sweet, angry, honest. Highly recommend it. I love how righteous he is about lying politicians, how much I could barely breath due to laughing so hard when reading about a former girlfriend waxed his chest, how sweetly he writes about being a father and teaching college students. He is a good guy.

So I thought, he's alive. He has email. I have time on my hands. I will likely never again have a chance to write him. Why not drop an email telling him you like his work? I did, and he wrote me back! Unfortunately I cannot do this with many of the authors I admire and enjoy. Either they are dead or don't have a web site (or both).

Want to learn more about said author? Email him?

http://www.stevealmond.com

One of the non-literary things I respect him for was quitting his pt teaching job at Boston College to protest that they gave Condi Rice an honorary degree, and then appeared on Fox to explain himself. With a mixture of rage and humor he writes all about it in "Not that you asked." Here it is the face off with the bully (oh, reporter, sorry):

Sparrow and other gifts

So our Monday routine is a romantic shower together, followed by eating breakfast and then heading to the doctor's office.

Yes, he made me cry. I was warned by his assistant, took my advil, and he pushed my toe to a 90 degree angle. I was grabbing the seat with tears in my eyes. The doctor explained that I need to be more aggressive in my ROM. Way, way more. So we came home and got very no-nonense with the toe. The doc explained I have a 2 week window to get ROM, and then things stiffen up. So I am more motivated to push myself or rather to push my toe harder.

I had my phone meeting, watched the birds happily eating at our feeders, then watched Oprah beat herself up about regaining the weight (painful), and took a nap.

I'm glad that I don't have a TV upstairs and can hardly wait until TV goes digital, and we are unable to get any TV signal. I've been toying with the idea of not having a TV for a long long time. I like watching DVDs, and that is its main function in the house. Since I can do the same on the laptop and digital TV is around the corner I am really thinking about ditching the box. Gladys will freak. No Saturday cartoons. I know she'll get over it, but I remember how TV-crazed I was at her age. I also loved McDonalds and Cap'n Crunch. It is good to notice that I've kicked some addictions.

Cool thing for today was that there is this adorable sparrow that is nesting in a bush in our front yard. I figured this out through my keen powers of observation that are honed by being essentially forced to spend hours in one place with my foot up. The same bird has been observed on various days perched on this bush, and I'm thinking, this is very unusual to see the same bird in the same place more than one day. Then after watching him for a LONG time he ducks inside the bush and vanishes. I think s/he has a nest inside. It is a prime location. Within a couple of feet of 2 feeders and a bird bath, right in the middle of a chemical free garden full of a zillion bugs and plants that are often left to go to seed. I can't think of a better place to raise a family. I'm all excited we might have baby birds in our front yard in the spring. Gladys will be thrilled, just like I am.

One of the unexpected gifts of having a child in your life is that you get to introduce them to the magical things that our planet offers. You get to see it from their eyes. I've introduced her to the magic of planting seeds and nuturing plants to harvest, watching birds from our front window, to libraries, to horseback riding, beachcombing, making pizza dough from scratch.

Quiet Sunday

So I don't have anything exciting to blog about today. No outings or fabulous meal to report. I'm in between books right now. Nary a DVD was viewed.

I'm going to start working from home starting next week, so more of my reading will be reviewing reports and such, plus a phone meeting. I hope to ease into work so that my re-entry won't be too overwhelming. I shudder to think about a month's worth of emails. What did people do before email?

Nanci and a friend stopped by to visit; so it was nice to have a chance to socialize. My divine sister brought me a gluten-free treat, which I'm going to save for tomorrow.

Busy finishing my ROM, as tomorrow is my dr appt. I have a new bottle of Advil just for the occasion.

Accupuncture and pho

Today Federico and I spent an hour at Working Class Accupuncture (gotta love that name!) getting needles stuck in us. It is our weekly routine now, a bit disrupted by the Big Snowstorm that shut down Portland. Nanci and Yves came too, since I gave them some coupons for a free treatment. Matt (our accupuncturist today) was very mellow and gentle. He kept asking me how my foot felt as he stuck needles in my hand. I love the concept of community accupuncture - affordable, sliding scale, done in community. Everyone is genuinely friendly, both the staff and patients, who are either happy they are about to get accupuncture or have that post-accu bliss.

Check out their web site...

http://www.workingclassaccupuncture.org


Then we went to get take-out chicken pho from our favorite pho restuarant on Sandy, Pho An. I just discovered they have a great web site! "Food to revive the dead and heal the wounded" is what he said as we were eating away. The wounded would be me. :)

http://www.phoansandy.com


p.s.
You may have figured out that unlike 99% of all other bloggers I have not yet figured out how to embed active links into my posts. I have tried using the help feature to no avail. Sorry that you'll just have to cut and paste in the primitive way that our ancestors used to....

p.p.s. a big thank you to Ana for teaching me some html, making my blog much less primitive.

Laughing and healing

I am a serious person by nature. I've always been that way. Not that I don't enjoy laughing, but I just tend to be serious, a worrier....To give you an idea, I was volunteering for an anti-nuke organization in high school. My favorite Shakespeare play is Romeo and Juliet, which I recited by heart around the dinner table when I was a teen.

So one of the things I've been trying to do in my recovery period is to laugh more. Daily. What a fun assignment you must be thinking...is she for real? You bet on both counts. Laughing is good for healing, and very good for a worrier who is healing.

"Laughter appears to do much more than provide a coping mechanism to face major illness. It can reduce stress hormones and boost the immune system. Laughter can reduce blood pressure by increasing vascular blood flow, and it can provide an aerobic workout. Laughing 100 times is equal in caloric expenditure to 10 minutes on a rowing machine or 15 minutes on an exercise bike. (Which would your patients rather do? And you?)" from the article "Towards Optimal Health: experts discuss therapeutic humor"

I've been getting every decent comedy DVD from the library, as well reading funny authors. McCarthy's Bar and Steve Almond's works are snorting and shaking laughing kinda of books. The more funny things I enjoy, the more I want. It is like chocolate for the soul, but zero calories!

Another gem from the same article:

One of the key ingredients for humor is the ability to be childlike. Having a childlike perspective is different from childish behavior. We can learn a great deal from our children if we are open to their teachings. The next time you find yourself in a pickle or a tight spot, ask yourself,“How would an 8-year old see this situation?” The event can often be reframed into a laughing matter or at least an amused one that is not so loaded and much easier to handle. No one else has to be in on this show because it all takes place in the privacy and safety of one’s mind. There is no risk of embarrassment or judgment. A childlike perspective can be a mature, adult coping mechanism that keeps us young in mind, body, and spirit.

Ok, enough data, so if you want to laugh, check out one of my favorite comics:

Happy 2009!

So we had a really good time last night. 4 of us curled up on the king-size bed, with the bedroom wall turned into a cinema by the technologically savvy Yves and the projector. We ate yummy food (none of it prepared by me, which is very atypical when people come to our home) and watched the goofy movie "Court Jester." We all love Danny Kaye, who was incredibly young in this movie.

There were the requisite calls to people more eastward that us....our family in AZ and NY. We got our sparkling cider out and toasted the New Year with kisses and hugs.

It was lovely not to be glued to the TV, watching the ball drop. I've always thought that was a very icky custom. What is the fun in watching other people party on TV?

Yesterday Federico brought a bag of delights from the library that I'm working my way through right now. Books, a comedy CD by George Lopez, a DVD of a Viggo Mortensen pic....

Life is good.