tues july 10

pete johnson playlist!!!!

exhausted from busy day, i found this just last night while lounging on the couch with penny. i had been about to drift off to sleep, but this SHOCKED ME AWAKE!!!!
probably the channel owner has some kind of program that allows midi to play automatically the transcriptions.. this is a GOLD MINE!!!!
not only can you listen to the music, you can follow along with the transcription as each measure is highlighted in real-time... then there are the magic dots at top of screen showing the keys, sort of player piano style...
so now i'm in a teacher conference in central california with my two dear teacher friends & the session in this section is about blogger. she just asked us to write something on blogger. this is so we can have kids create websites, individually, in groups, as a class, at end of unit, as cyber portfolio, to monitor writing progress, etc etc etc.... so many possibilities!
however, right now, corey says, we can't access blogger at school; she's already contacted our IT, of course, since she's so on-the-spot about everything. so is christy. i am a comparative dunce, but oh well.
having this current assignment in this class is perfect timing! i wanted to post this anyways!! pete johnson playlist

now i will send the link to corey and to christy. hello, you two!!!!

papa

angie and i really did win the parent lottery.
my earliest memories are of dad's giant face smiling lovingly at me like the sun. guiding my little left hand and drawing, over and over and over, a smiley face. his hand covering my entire back as he held my wobbling baby body up for a photo (i was 3 months old; mom & dad identified the source of this  memory when i told them of it). toddling around our old oregon street house in my diaper, his oily garage cap and his giant work boots  (dad always was a public school teacher, but his avocation remains self-taught renaissance man of the practical: handyman of all things house-related, loving gardener, mechanic, historical writer.) listening to stories he and mama read us every night. laughing our butts off at the adventures of dad's cartoon creation, star rat, a whiskered rodent chomping a cigar.

beyond all that, dad always has demonstrated great dignity, fairness, love of humanity, kindness, well-placed irreverence, humor, and CLASS -- not classism.
gilbert gia always has been a handsome, humble, faithful, principled, gentle gentleman of patience and loyalty, a firm believer in social justice and humans (though with deserved outrage toward those who want more than their share of the pie, or deny others theirs). i could write forever and ever about him and our mother; they have long been my heroes... and james loves them now, so much, too. they have accepted him as their son. they always demonstrate this crucial idea: there is enough love to go around.

happy father's day, dad...

hate

hate is a strong emotion, "an evil and corrosive thread," it says in the big book. my mind at times reverts to hate-thoughts;  i used to wallow quite a lot in them, nearly all the time, in fact. james says, "hating someone requires too much energy." if anyone has reason to hate people, he would. he's been wronged, wronged, wronged (as well as done his wronging; hey! maybe that's all of us who have survived?)...

desert ruin

i should have no complaints because my life has been blessed, blessed, blessed (though w/the expected periods of "into each life some rain must fall")... however, the infernal coconut sometimes is unrealistic & uncooperative. so i write.
part of this current wade in the cesspool of negativity is this is the first time i've sat down w/nothing on my plate in a year!!!! "our very lives, as ex problem drinkers, depend on our constant thought of others and how we may help meet their needs." so i'm not helping students now for a full week, school is out, & i slide into dwelling on Them: the Unworthy. The Mean. The Petty. The Arrogant. The Imposters. The Fakes. The Liars. The Hypocrites. The Untalented. The Undeserving. The Phonies. The Deluded. etc etc; i judge them by 1000 names.
stupid brain!!!!

he says he wasn't asleep...

...however this same mind that burns w/thoughts of others being smote from the earth also delivers  joy, comfort, love, connection, warmth, etc etc. so the infernal coconut maybe is... just a coconut, even if one of addictive bent. thoughts need discipline, & therein they can be turned to helping others & connecting to the Bliss that can be existence.
i know this is a struggle, but i also know it's worthy.
and so it goes... and so it goes... and so it goes... etc.

james & the biggest cream puff we've ever seen

on the heels of the busiest last week of school in memory, i headed out to the desert w/james & penny dog for three days of lounging, soaking in mineral springs, eating, watching tv, reading... three days of vegging. it was really cool, & really weird. i rest well for a while, but only for a while! then i gotta do something. so in between, i walked penny, but it was too infernally hot to run (except one morning, a great 3-miler, w/desert breeze air conditioning my sail downhill for nearly a mile after a long, hot climb)... now we're in bako in the comfort of mom & dad's beautiful, comfortable oasis (they have headed for central coast); last night was movies w/wonderful bro-in-law & sis; last eve was dinner w/high school buddy & her friendly englishman husband; summer stretches ahead,d; i've got so many fun plans ahead; yes, a great life ahead...
time to get back to life.

5th place

i just wrote a whole entry about this race, then accidentally deleted it.
oh well!
it was at griffith park, which is the gigantic beautiful park in los angeles, of course. the event was truly fun. very difficult  & steep for the 1st two miles, a blast & a thrill after that.
i am not fast at all, but i came in 5th in my age group out of hundreds. the runners were all kinds, from amazing physical specimens, seeming spartans & olympians, to largish,  soft-ish folks in lycra. i did note that i was noticeably older than the majority of people around me...
i am pleased, both with having participated & with my results!
hope to do something like it again soon.
that is all.
except this is the last wk of school.
wheeee!

here is james from the night before, & he said he felt rotten & depressed
that night, but just look at that movie star smile. his pose here is a little like the
frankenstein cartoon pic i drew of him years ago.he is the most complicated man
i've ever met as well as the most multi-talented.  (photo by krystal kozak)