A new day

I woke up this morning excited that just a few hours later, our country would be blessed with a new President. That finally the last 8 years can begin to fade and we can head in a new direction. I found President Obama's inaugural address to be moving, beautiful, and hopeful. But I was also reminded this morning of how big our problems are.

Leaving work this morning, I saw a family of five - father, mother, and three very young children - walking down our street. The father was going through all of the recycling bins, looking for bottles and cans to redeem. His face was strained and lined. His family was very young - the children looked less than 5 years old, two were being pushed in their stroller and the third holding her mother's hand. Seeing individual people looking through the garbage cans for redeemables is not uncommon. But seeing a man doing so with his children out at 7 AM made me wonder if this family has the luxury of shelter? If they would be able to collect enough bottles for dinner tonight?

Thinking about this family and President Obama's speech, I know that the President's call for each of us to contribute something to the community is one that I'm going to do my best to answer. Hopefully we'll all be able to come up with some ideas of how to better our community - I'm still trying to figure out what I'll do. But perhaps you can help me with some good ideas!

Reminder: Why LA is good

Every now and then, I get a little reminder why LA is a city where so many people flock to. These reminders are good, because they help me to appreciate the great things about living here rather than focusing on negative things like: traffic, silicon, traffic, smog, traffic, people in film industry, you know what I mean.



Last year, one of the moments was walking with dog along the coast in Big Sur in November, watching the tides roll in, listening to the gulls. Or thinking about all the great daytrips I've made to Santa Ynez/Santa Barbara wine country. And some of those moments happen in LA. Like earlier this week, snowshoeing in Angeles National Forest in beautiful morning sun. Then returning home to relax in the 70degree sunny afternoon. And then getting on my mountainbike the next day, and being able to bike all through winter. Yeah, people think I'm crazy to live here, but I think it's a good kind of crazy.

Whew!

Time really goes by quickly. First it's Thanksgiving and next thing you know it's the middle of December and you've purchased ZERO gifts for your loved ones. The end of last week the boyfriend and I stopped by our favorite neighborhood bike shop. Where one of our buddies asked if we were Christmas shopping - because, you know it's 2 weeks before Christmas. It took some time for that to sink in - which is why I'm still not completely finished with my shopping. But I'm proud to say that I have only two more things on my list to purchase and then I'm DONE!

This year I actually broke my rule of internet shopping only. I made quite a dent by going to UniqueLA over the weekend. It was a crafts fair featuring all handmade goods, many by local people. Unlike other more rustic crafts/street fairs I've been to, this one was very LA in location. The top floor of the California Marketplace which is a very tall building in downtown. There were over 200 vendors selling everything from funky T shirts to tiny insects portraits to hip melamine dinnerware. Lots of fun and unique items in a wide price range. I was especially excited to see a backpacking buddy doing so well in her new business of creating portraits, drawings, as well as felt animal hats and wristbands. Go Kat! Aside from Kat's creations, I was most excited by the Sweet Meats booth. Here, there was an entire butcher's shop of cuts of meat. Except all the meat is realistically rendered stuffed fabric. So instead of getting a stuffed teddy bear give me what I really want, a stuffed T Bone steak. Along the same lines is I Heart Guts. Basically all the major organs as well as glands (pineal gland anyone?) from the human body, rendered in a cute stuffed animal form. My favorite is the testicle, with the epididymus resembling a little Elvis hairdo. Unfortunately it isn't pictured on the site, but trust me, it's cute! The mammary glands, unfortunately, are not so charming in appearance.

Now, just two more items, ship the presents, and I'm done!

Book Repository Cooties

Most my friends know me to be a bibliophile. Lacking the funds and erudition to build a library of leather bound first editions, I'm a bibliophile in the way of a happy hog at a trough. I love consuming books, and more is good. Forget those ancient hand bound tomes with exquisitely illustrated plates - give me my mass produced, pulpy fiction for a quick escape, please. Unfortunately, with ever diminishing bookspace, a desire to be "green," as well as diminishing funds, I've recently decided to attempt to use the public library.

As a child, the public library was where I loved to spend my summers - peacefully quiet, cool AC, racks upon racks of undiscovered stories and people. I'd stumble home with a pile 8 or 10 books every few days. Over the years, I've slowly grown disused to utilizing the library for pleasure. I think college and grad school stained the library with stressful memories of long nights, lots of hard work, very little pleasure. (I probably needed a better, hotter, study partner). Additionally, the thought of reading a publically owned item in my bed (and I admit, worse places) gave me the creeps. How many other people have read this book in who knows where? What if the previous patrons had children in the house who sneezed or slobbered on the books?

I am proud to say, that after going to the library this Monday - I've come to peace with the cooties aspect. The cooties I get from just going to the library, and the cooties from actually bringing home and reading the books. And so far, it's made my habits of reading a book a day much much more affordable.

Now, Your Moment of Zen

It's interesting, for the last almost 2 years, I've felt like there have been lots of little events leading me towards a Buddhist way of life and philosophy. I've always been curious about it, but most unexpectedly found someone who gave me a wonderful introduction to it in all places, Lumberton, NC. For those who don't know, Lumberton is a small town in NC that seems to survive because of it's proximity to I95. There is also a population of Lumbee Indians living there. It was a bit of a culture shock for the residents and myself, a fast talking Asian American from the Northeast. Here, I had the good fortune to work with a physician there named Mack - a white man in his 70's, raised in Oklahoma, who had practiced for most of his career in West Virginia. Some could draw all kinds of stereotypical ideas about his character from that description, and I admit that initially, I did. Just goes to show you right? Mack's been a great teacher to me in the short time we worked together. He's gifted me with with his insight, experiences, as well as some great introductory books to Buddhism.

Since working with him, almost 2 years ago, I've found that just the attempt to approach my life and to view my life in this vein of philosophy has helped me immeasurably through some pretty tough times. Recently I've been through probably the toughest time of my life thus far. So though we haven't kep in touch, I just feel moved to say, Thanks Mack.


If you light a lamp for somebody, it will also brighten your own path.

The HORROR

Having my mother visit in times of need can be a double edged sword. "Mommy" (as she likes to refer to herself) is wonderful at feeding, cleaning, and general errands. Invaluable. Especially when I needed her most this summer when my significant other was seriously ill. However, Mommy is also a crazy Asian lady. Whilst filling my freezer and myself full of delicious foods, she required the back door and kitchen pantry doors and drawers open at all times. Despite the 80-90 degree weather.

So the other side of the coin would be the seriously disgusting moth infestation that resulted from cavalierly flinging open all doors. An infestation that we finally (please GOD) rid ourselves of last night. Cleaning a bug infested pantry was something I had put off for a month - especially after cleaning out the similarly infested beloved chocolate drawer. I probably threw out $100 worth of chocolate. And worse, it was chocolate covered with webs, baby moth worms and the like. Finally, the boyfriend made me face the issue of the pantry. Thankfully, he took care of most of it. After the worst of it, I offered to take over and finish up the job. Unfortunately, after one too many squeals and screams, he banished me from the kitchen. The last scream resulted from my imagining the feeling of a worm crawling on my leg. I still have the creeps thinking about it.

ZOMG!!!

I admit it. I am drunk blogging. Coming back from an evening of libations with the Democratic Party of Pasadena and my girl City Elf, I am celebrating our new President!!! Over a year ago, I remember having a conversation with a dear friend where I made the case that in this day and age, Americans were STILL NOT ready for an African American prez. How elated and overwhelmingly happy to find myself proven false!! After spending a day poll checking for the Obama campaign, I was thrilled to see how many people motivated to vote, knowing that their voices were important. Latinos, African Americans, Asians - I saw so many minorities going out to the polls, making sure their voices are heard! This is truly a new era for our country - I know that Obama will inherit many difficult issues, but I have faith in his ability to lead our nation on a new, better path. For the first time in 8 years, I truly believe in the American Dream. WHOOOOHOOOOOOOO!

P.S. For all y'all who voted "yes" for Prop 8 - You suck big time!