Only Dogs Can Hear

Facebook Friday

Aaak!  Here we are again.  This was my last week at the 'office'.  Starting Monday I'll be in language school full-time.  What an opportunity.  I couldn't be more excited.  Seriously.  To keep my job I have to speak French with professional proficiency.  And I get the next 6 or so months to attain that proficiency.  No other work.  Nothing else to draw my attention.  Just French all day everyday.  Wheehoo!

I've also been teaching yoga to 3 colleagues on Monday nights.  I'm hoping it's soon to be 4 colleagues.  It's been hugely enjoyable for me.  They keep telling me they like it too.  Isn't that great?  I finally understand exactly what my yoga teacher in CA was telling me all that time.  That some students are so out of touch with their bodies that they barely know what their thigh is, where it is, or how to move it.  I'm learning so much from this experience.

Today I'm going to a meditation workshop.  This isn't yet the follow on workshop to the Svadhyaya workshop I took a couple of weeks ago.  Which was actually fairly interesting.  The teacher said something there that really hit home with me.  In the Judeo-Christian religions and in Western society "we're taught to talk, ask and plead.  We're not taught to listen."  I've been working on the listening part for a couple of years now.  Of course, I need a lot more work.  These small workshops can hopefully be part of that process for me.

Enjoy Facebook Friday!

1. Abby has lost 15 lbs but an unfortunate amount of that is from her boobs.
2. Tammy has accidentally taken a page from George Costanza's playbook twice this month. This is a bad bad sign.
3. Jake made his first visit to the Crime & Punishment Museum today because a vacation isn't really a vacation unless you see guillotines, gas chambers and Medieval torture devices. Actually, another really good new DC museum _ the police shooting and driving simulators and the interactive "How to solve a murder" exhibit were especially cool.
4. Shelley wants you to know Rep. Grayson is sorry he called you a whore: "I did not intend to use a term that is often, and correctly, seen as disrespectful of women." He followed up his apology with...'you menacing cunt stain.'
5. Dan lost my pants...yea, that's the kind of day I'm having....
6. Elise is getting ready for the Phillies game with a workout. I am sure that my totally sculpted guns will make a huge difference.
7. Mike already wants to hate James Cameron's Avatar...
8. Suzy thinks Ohio should deputize Shaq...nobody really gives a shit about Ohio anyway. Ohio ruins everything.

Have a great weekend!

Facebook Friday

Hello from sunny Northern California!  I flew in last night.  So that K and I would get to spend our sixth anniversary together.  Today.  The day six years ago that we eloped together in a garden outside of Nairobi.  Here's a walk down our little anniversary lane:

• Number 1.  We were evacuated from Afghanistan that year.  He was in India, I was in Pakistan.  Does it say something about our marriage that we spent our first anniversary in countries that can't stand eachother?
• Number 2.  K was working in one of our Ghor (Afghanistan) offices.  I was in Herat (Afghanistan).  Our whole work experience there seemed determined to keep us apart...kidding. 
• Number 3.  We were both in Ghor.  However, he was in Chaghcharan (capital of the province) and I was in Pai Tonda (little village in the middle of nowhere...where our base was).  He and a bunch of our colleagues came back from Chaghcharan the next day with all sorts of presents for me.  I remember that as the best anniversary celebration we've ever had.  Our Afghan colleagues made it incredibly special.
• Number 4.  K was in California fully embroiled in coursework and other fun stuff.  I was in Southern Sudan.  Enough said right?  K went out that night with friends.  They took a big photo of me which took up a full seat at the table.  People had their photo taken with my photo.  Very funny.
• Number 5.  I really wanted to visit my friends in Washington, DC after I moved back to the US.  So K bought a ticket for me to go there.  Neither of us even noticed that I would be gone over our FIFTH ANNIVERSARY.  What's wrong with us?  On the other hand, I had a great time.
• Number 6.  Here we are together in California.  It's been wonderful.  Getting married: best decision I ever made.  Thanks for another great year honey!

Enjoy Facebook Friday!

1. John ran into Charlize Theron in the winner's circle today at Keeneland. She wasn't riding a horse, training a horse, owning a horse or reporting on a horse, so I'm not sure she was even authorized to be there. But I didn't complain. 
2. Ellen thinks the economy is depressing.
3. Mike used a smiley face on a business email. I don't like it, I'm against it, I'm sure my dad never did it on an interoffice memo, but who am I to buck a trend. :( 
4. Chad has made it a month today without a sip of soda _ a significant accomplishment considering I used to measure my daily intake by the liter. Off to do a Mountain Dew keg stand to celebrate.
5. Abby says seriously Kermit, I get that it's not easy beeing green but do you think it's any easier being purple like Gonzo or orange like Fozzie? it's not all about you Kermit. I'm not sayin, I'm just sayin...

Have a great weekend!

Facebook Friday

Aaak!  It's Saturday!  My friend, Charlotte arrived yesterday evening (she took the train!) and in all the excitement of catching up and playing with her very very very cute baby, I forgot to post Facebook Friday.  Understandable right?  I thought so. 

Many exciting things happened this week.  I signed up for a Svadhyaya workshop at a local yoga studio.  It's six sessions total starting tomorrow.  I'm pretty excited!  If it's great, I'll post about it.  If it's not great...I might post about it or I might not.  We'll see.  K and I also booked my travel to California for Thanksgiving.  Fantastic.  I'm discovering that knowing when we see each other next takes away some of the anxiety of being away for so long. 

I also had the opportunity to see a really interesting exhibit on slums at the National Building Museum.  Featured Kibera (Nairobi), Caracas, Jakarta and Mumbai.  I have to say that the Jakarta slums were the most shocking.  Really shocking.  Charlotte and I went to see the exhibit today. 

Earlier in the week I went to a panel discussion on urbanization, slums and US foreign assistance.  It totally changed my perspective on urban housing issues, as well as low income housing issues.  My thoughts have been evolving for years now, but more than ever I'm beginning to see the failure of societies to work pro-actively toward safe, reasonable housing for all as one more aspect of class warfare.  Perhaps more on that later.

For now, Charlotte and I are sitting in my palatial urban apartment considering housing issues and relaxing after an incredibly active day.  In our little corner of the world, life is good.

Enjoy Facebook Friday!

1. Andrea's mom's favorite hospital quote: "Do you know what a creepy feeling it is knowing that everyone in this place is sitting around with no underwear on?"
2. Jack has read one too many references to Dan Brown and/or Stephanie Meyer 'saving' publishing, and he wonders why no one ever says that McDonald's is saving the restaurant industry. (though he does love their fries.)
3. Sam is still trying to regain his composure after learning that the Kanye West/Lady Gaga tour has been cancelled. Where's the humanity?
4. Ellen would like the Twins and the Cards to nut up. Its starting to look like this was the wrong year to move back to the States so I could watch more baseball. 
5. Helen's dog just ate a mosquito. He snatched it from the air. Maybe I need to up his protein intake.
6. Dan likes Obama as much as the next guy but peace prize...really..I guess for the war he is overseeing or the lack of anything peaceful accomplished? Silly Norwegians pining for their fjords and with their hero worshipping ways.
7. Susan knows she's scrolled too far up on the guide menu when she starts seeing titles like 'Amateur Muff Pump'...time to turn around.

Have a great weekend!

Down to work

For the most part it's all about fun and friendship and loving and affection and understanding and companionship and inspiration and all of that.  Every once in a while I'm reminded that lifelong partnership is work too.  This month has been a rare reminder of how important the work is.  Rare, but so completely worthwhile.  Unexpected, but so soothing.  I read this recently.

"We who go mountain scrambling have constantly set before us the superiority of fixed purpose or perseverance to brute force.  We know that each height, each step, must be gained by patient, laborious toil, and that wishing cannot take the place of working."~Holly Morris in Adventure Divas quoting Edward Whymper, first man to summit the Matterhorn

Thanks to K for scrambling with me now and for years to come.

Facebook Friday

Up until last weekend I was happily using an unsecured (read free) wireless network for all things internet related in my lovely and palatial 300 square foot apartment.  Last Saturday that network up and disappeared on me.  A sure sign that the world is trying to destroy me.  Am I right? 

Limited network access makes regular updating somewhat complicated, but I'm working on it.  One method of 'working on it' is walking up and down the halls of my apartment building knocking on random doors and asking if someone would like to share their wireless password with me.  So far no luck.  But then again, not may people have been home to answer their doors.  I'll keep trying.

In other news, I leave today for a quick trip to California to visit K.  How great is that?  I'm really happy to have even such a short time to spend with him.  We already have a very nice quiet Saturday planned together.  Plenty of opportunity to reconnect and 'do little all day'.  I'm also planning to visit the Food Co-Op to stock up on a few essentials that are apparently not available on the East Coast.  How uncivilized of DC to lack my favorite lotion?

Enjoy Facebook Friday!

1. Maggie told my students today that I'm pregnant. All were happy and wanted me to name the kid after them. Then a kid raises his hand and asks "Who's the father?". You gotta love 6th grade!
2. Tracy wrote to California today: Dear State of California, You have the 8th largest economy in the world but your welfare system is like a third world country. I wanted you to know.
3. Jane agrees that yes, drugs and incest limited Mackenzie Phillips career...the 'no talent' thing had nothing to do with it.
4. Mike wants you to know you have bad hair. *What did you say?* I said, your hair looks stupid.

Have a great weekend!  I know I will.

Facebook Friday

Back from a HUGE absence.  Since we last spoke, K came back from India energized and refocused from the great new adventure he had.  Exactly one week later he had knee surgery and spent the remainder of his visit somewhat doped up on pain killers.  What a time it was! 

The new work is going along swimmingly.  I'm enjoying this freedom I have to attend interesting seminars, trainings and volunteer to participate in projects that sound interesting to me.  I know when I get to Malawi, I will no longer have such blessed flexibility.  I'll enjoy it while it lasts.

In other news, I transition into language training as of November 2.  Where I will be immersed in French eight hours/day until I pass a proficiency test.  I'm expecting about a six month tenure.  Again, this new job is full of awesome opportunities.  Basically, come hell or high water, in six months, I'll speak French!

You'll find that this week's updates from my friends includes a "best of" from the past few weeks.  I've been keeping them stored for this grand re-entrance into blogging (heehee).  Enjoy Facebook Friday!

1. Jackie doesn't know which incident in the past week did greater harm to Kanye West's reputation- his hijacking of the MTV awards or the revelation that he watches The View.
2. Joan saw a sign on Rt 1 North: We Sell Fences for your Kids, Dogs and Ugly Neighbors.
3. Dan will never get any sleep if this kid keeps farting himself awake.
4. Julie's dog ate diaper cream and is making a disgusting path for me to clean up all throughout the house.
5. Sam is now unable to raise his son as anything other than a commie pinko godless heathen. Mission Accomplished, Comrade Obama. Long live the Glorious Revolution of hard work and staying in school!
6. Molly believes firmly that nothing says, "I'm a tool," like the vanity plate: 2RICH4U.
7. Tina is just completing her application for a job with the Ministry of Strong Opinions.
8. Alicia would like Dunkin Donuts to rename their 'coffee' something more fitting like 'Sewage Milk'...or 'Gutter Grounds'. Desperate times call for shitty coffee.

Have a great weekend!

Improving upon silence

The most important step in developing skillful speech is to think before speaking (or writing). This is called mindfulness of speech. Few things can improve the nature of our relationships as much as the development of skillful speech. Silence offers us, and those around us, the spaciousness we need to speak more skillfully. When we speak with greater skill, our true self—our compassionate, loving self—emerges with gentle ease. So before you speak, stop, breathe, and consider if what you are about to say will improve upon the silence.
- Allan Lokos, from “Skillful Speech,” Tricycle, Winter 2008

I've been doing a lot of thinking lately.  Thinking rather than talking or writing much.  Contemplating improving upon silence.  I'll be working more on that here again starting now. 

Facebook Friday

Here we are again.  Amazing isn't it?  How time just keeps marching forward?  I feel like I only just moved out here, but I know it's been 6 weeks.  Crazy.  Today was 'flag day', the day all of us newbies graduate from orientation and they tell us our first posting.  When they called my name I had no idea what to expect.  Then they handed me a flag I actually recognized, the flag from Malawi!  We get to go to Malawi for two years!  How great is that?  Of course I'll still be here doing a bunch of other training until next May probably.  But something so great to look forward to...yey!

Here's Facebook Friday.  And thanks to Ellerby for sending in a status update from one of her Facebook friends!

1. Pietra thinks I'll call Social Services in the morning to see if it is legal to shake a teenager. I can't see how it could cause any brain damage - she already knows EVERYTHING!!

2. Sue refuses to believe I sound like most people when I play with a baby. I treat them like individuals, and not the kind that grew up licking lead paint in a house under power lines.
3. Jamie has decided not to play quarterback for the Minnesota Vikings this year, but I'm reserving the right to change my mind.
4. Liz is thinking oh poor NPR caller-inner. FDR served four terms, not two. and the industrial revolution did not happen AFTER his presidency.
5. Hellen is in a Veruca Salt kind of mood. Except I want college football, bring it to me now.
6. Tanya shouldn't have laughed really but her baby looked so surprised that he had peed on his own face.
7. Matt is looking everywhere for a phone booth to change in. 
8. Jay knows that I'm speaking for the entire platoon when I say this run should be postponed until this platoon is better rested.
9. Jessie is passing along this message: Obama would like you to 'talk to neighbors; spread the facts' about health care. And while you're at it remind them that he is not a Nazi Muslim terrorist with the number 666 written in Sharpie on the waistband of his I ♥ Al-Quaeda Boxer Shorts.

Have a great weekend!

It's Friday already!  Orientation has gone by so quickly, it barely feels like one week, let alone four.  It's suddenly only one week until I find out where I'm going for my first posting with this new job of mine.  Pretty exciting.  Also, it's less than two weeks until K gets here.  I cannot wait for that. 

1. Andrea wants you to know you know you've picked a good man when he leaves you 3 dozen freshly baked cookies in the kitchen and a copy of Salinger in the bathroom.
2. Matt is thankful to Mike Duncan for my new favorite word...insouciant. He has caused a complete defenestration of ancillaries in my lexicon.
3. Susan thought I was only getting a latte this morning when I pulled into the drive through at Sexy Coffee...little did I know it was a girl in a sexy little lacey something with stripper shoes selling me my sexy latte...full window...I got called sweetie m...ore times in those 3 min. than I ever have. Oh Seattle!
4. Hank is starting to wonder if Woodstock really happened or if it was just staged in that same Hollywood studio as the moon landing bit. I mean, please, it's out on DVD now and they didn't even have DVDs 40 years ago.
5. Allie wants everyone to remember, "Freedom smells like pot and tastes like a hotdog." 
6. Jeff instinctively believes in augury, but the signs he tries to read almost always could mean one thing or its exact opposite.

Have a great weekend!

Overheard on the train

Still having a rough time finding time and internet access to post.  I finish with orientation on the 21st and I move into my own place in September.  I expect things to get a little less insane at that point.  What with an actual work station and some self direction as far as scheduling as well as a regularly available evening internet connection that will be mine once I move, I should have all the time and access I need. 

In the meantime, I wanted to share with you a little story.  A true story.  Something that I tried hard not to overhear on the metro the other day.  I was on the metro on my way back to the place I'm currently inhabiting after watching Julie and Julia.  I really did enjoy it, such fun! 

These two guys boarded the train just a stop after me and sat right behind me.  One of them proceeded to inform the other over and over again, "I'm so fucked.  So very fucked.  You can't believe how fucked I am," and so forth and so on and on and on.  I tried to block him out.  But with all the profanity it wasn't easy.  And the volume with which he was sharing the extent to which his girlfriend was not happy with him.  I can't say that I blame her for any annoyance she may have felt that day or on any other day with him.  Then for a while their volume fell enough for me to refocus on my book. 

At some point though, their conversation picked up a few decibels and I was unhappily aware of it again.  The offending boyfriend was telling the other that he'd be in a better position with his (unlucky) girlfriend if they just had a kid and she could see what a great dad he'd be.  There was some chatter on this point.  I think it's because the other guy seemed to have kids and they were really positive for his relationship.  Then the bad boyfriend said, "I should switch her birth control pills out.  Then once she's pregnant she'll have to stay with me.  Yes, that's what I'll do, switch out her pills.  That's a brilliant idea!"  Much laughter ensued from both men.  I felt myself get up, as though it were an instinct, to move to the other end of the car.

I was horrified by the exchange.  They didn't even seem like they were joking.  And the volume and disrespect of the whole thing was terrible.  I don't often react so strongly.  I knew though, that I didn't want to be anywhere near those two.  Not for another second.  Now why would you get on the train, sit directly behind a woman on her own and have that kind of a conversation?