May 2006 Archives

Ok, two weeks ago, I was offered a job. :) A second job. A well-paying job. For it, I'll be doing a part of the intake interview at the local Juvenile Detention Center, and follow-up as appropriate. We are making the assumption here that I've a way to get to the JDC (ie. that I have a car).

So, we go to AZ. Pictures in the "continue reading." We went to the Grand Canyon with Momma. We had the best food at El Tovar. Mendon reports that Tovars are packs of moose and that an El Tovar is only one of the mooses from the pack. Oh, and supposedly, the pack can only be an El Tovar if they travel a certain distance per day. Sound like bull to you, too? With Momma and Mark, we also played pickle ball, which is supposed to be a sport for retired people, but I like it quite a bit. It's like really lazy tennis influenced by table tennis. Great great great.

In the pictures, I included a floozy from the Red Garter Bed and Bakery. She cracks me up. :)

Dad and Jerry have a wheezy cat. With short front legs. That are bowed. Its name is Lily and it was fun to toss her around for a week, trying to see who could give her more attention. Mendon's allergic to her. Most unfortunate. I started getting red bumps right around this time. We think they're from Mom and Mark's hot tub. They're OK now, but they were quite painful at first because they didn't chose the best of locations to develop. We went to the Phoenix Museum of Art (which was stupidly cold), and to Sedona with Dad and Jerry (who could only make it to the museum). The Phoenix Museum of Art was stupidly cold. I know I wrote it before, but it was just ridiculous.

Mostly, we didn't do much of anything for a week, and it was wonderful. My parents took such good care of Mendon and me. Fed us, drove us around for good hiking and sightseeing and general entertainment and fun. Geez, my mom paid for us to go out there for a week. It has been important for me.

Change of pace: I started knitting a scarf. Actually, before I could knit the scarf, I had to interpret the pattern without a list of abbreviations. Then, I had to make up stitches to go with the interpretations for the abbreviations. The fact that this doesn't fall apart is ... proof of God's love for knitters? Hrrm......
Yeah Clapotis!

Then we flew home. You didn't guess that this was chronological, eh? And I took my knitting needles on the plane AGAIn with me. I love this.

The Rav-4 pick-up thing didn't go quite as well as hoped. The car is extremely un-registered and there's no title currently, and there's no registering with no title. There's no driving with no registering. And, here's the recap: there's no job with no car. No amazing resume booster job with no car. No invaluable work experience with no car.

Here's the beautiful news: Everyone that has heard a word of this has been loving and wonderful and amazing. Katie has offered her car for a few weeks until this is resolved. Harvey, my violin teacher, has offered me a car to use. In general. I can't wrap my head around that generosity. Harvey isn't exactly rolling in the dough (see: underpaid artist), and that makes this a bit of a risk and sacrifice for him. It makes it very compassionate and loving. Can I point out again that he only has to be my violin teacher? I will really, really miss him when I graduate.

I started class. Botany = hiking and pressing flowers. :) That's it.

Also, tomorrow starts the planning meetings for the honors class for which I'm a teaching assistant = Good (free) food. Good good good.

Anyways, reader, I need to go to bed. I'm sleep deprived because my botany class starts at 7:30 A ! M ! I do not function well on this schedule, but, I'm trying. I'm working on a few more... no, a few less 5-year-old posts. Working on a thought or two.. here and there.. when I'm not being sucked into the mud at 8 am.

I have. I used to be thinking about stress; it was all intellectual fluff over the GA with a plagiarism thorn. But now my mind has been on my volunteer hours. I've been thinking about the Rape Crisis Program. It's been as rewarding and educational as ever, but I've been dwelling on a call that has been a wee bit personal, more so than any of the others. Instead of having my mind run in silly circles over school and academia, I feel wounded. This call leaves something deeper churning, and hurting in me for my client. It's not unhealthy or distracting, but very present. It's a good sorrow because the light at the end of her tunnel is shining so brightly... but, that doesn't not make it sorrow. I'm working on creating beauty in the ache.

I reread Mara's email for me:

O thou handmaid aflame with the fire of God's love! Grieve thou not over the troubles and hardships of this nether world, nor be thou glad in times of ease and comfort, for both shall pass away. This present life is even as a swelling wave, or a mirage, or drifting shadows. Could ever a distorted image on the desert serve as refreshing waters? No, by the Lord of Lords! Never can reality and the mere semblance of reality be one, and wide is the difference between fancy and fact, between truth and the phantom thereof.

Know thou that the Kingdom is the real world, and this nether place is only its shadow stretching out. A shadow hath no life of its own; its existence is only a fantasy, and nothing more; it is but images reflected in water, and seeming as pictures to the eye.

Rely upon God. Trust in Him. Praise Him, and call Him continually to mind. He verily turneth trouble into ease, and sorrow into solace, and toil into utter peace. He verily hath dominion over all things.

If thou wouldst hearken to my words, release thyself from the fetters of whatsoever cometh to pass. Nay rather, under all conditions thank thou thy loving Lord, and yield up thine affairs unto His Will that worketh as He pleaseth. This verily is better for thee than all else, in either world.

(Selections from the Writings of Abdu’l-Bahá, p. 177)

The final - o' - doom is finished. Now, all I have to do is sleep, eat some off-brand Cap'n Crunch, and walk my paper up to her mailbox before 9:45 am. E-a-s-y. I feel so good.