Tisha B'Av

I didn't fast but probably should have.

http://www.religiondispatches.org/dispatches/sarahposner/6227/romney,_tisha_b%27av,_and_lds_temples/

Ramadan

I saw and heard a lot of great music this weekend.  Seeing Amanda Palmer eating with Jason Webley before her show is an example of how small the world felt at times.   This song sticks out.



But the ukelele song was great too.  These sisters opened for her at a a benefit show to send audio information gadgets to Saabaalong.  I was happy to have Rosie visit!



I had social activities with friends and coworkers.  Brunch and a picnic in a park with beer, cake and curry, garbanzo bean, and cucumber salad.  I also saw a Woody Guthrie tribute at a benefit for CRAG who will be hosting my favs the Black Lillies.   And caught some rays and couple of acts at PDX PopNow including White Fang:

No dependents

Today my second baby turns 18.  It seems both harder and easier to take care of someone else than to take care of myself.  After years of being a mom who took care of my seemingly helpless kids, I haven't seen myself as an old lady who would need help from her children. But now I'm starting to see it as more of a possibility, especially as my old father worries about my future.

The Fourth of July is a good day to eat cherries.  I take it as a sign of my transition from midwesterner to northwesterner that I now prefer Rainier cherries to Bing.  The strawberry season didn't do much for me this year, but I'm looking forward to blueberry time.  I think that gritty little bit of skin that blueberries leave behind in my teeth is what makes them healthy.  I don't feel the same way about raspberry seeds, which come to think of it, seem to be being bred out of raspberries.  The ones I've eaten lately don't seem as seedy as I remember from the old days. 

I'm old now.  When I was young I liked to read and think about the olden days when people rode on covered wagons to their new homesteads.  Now when I talk about the old days I refer to a time I experienced, when people had groovy clothes and I didn't realize how fast time passes on.

For Solstice I was with friends from LA.  I don't know about long days, but the nights have been feeling pretty short. 

Penelope Trunk says you should live where you have family and friends.  I have friends in LA.  Family in San Francisco and New Jersey.

One thing new this past year for me is Stephen Elliot..  I barely go to theRumpus,net, but I read many of his emails.  Today's What is Art was especially good.  I finished one of his books and have started a second.  He knows Cheryl Strayed whose book I haven't read but her advice column was the one thing on the Rumpus I did read and how I found him.  In my world he and Bob would collaborate, each helping the other.

There is a job at the city that would be good for me, but they have tapped someone else.  I should still submit my application, but I might not.  Is there another seed  I can ripen?  Some old to dust off?  Something new to discover?

I stayed in on Flag Day and watched Mad Men even though I would have liked to see the Nutmeggers do bluegrass versions of rap songs. 

Right now I'm hearing Song of the Soul, one of my all time favorites.

B day

There is an internet meme that has one look up the number one pop song the week you were born and then post it.  I've been kind of embarrassed that mine is "It's My Party and I'll Cry if I Want To."  It is not uncommon for me to cry on by birthday though.  There is something about the celebrations that makes me sad.



I have plenty to be grateful for of course.  My kids keep veering back and forth between disaster and awesomeness--either way they are both pretty grown up and responsible for their own success or failure.  My parents are old now but managing fine.  Being someone's mother, wife, or daughter isn't really enough anymore.  I have to be my own someone.  I'm giving myself one more trip around the sun before I evaluate.  I don't have a strategic plan for how to use the next 12 months.  Maybe I'll do a tarot card for each.  Today was  Four of Stones   My interpretation book talks about thunder, about knowing and conquering fear and finding my source of strength.