Maybe this will be of interest only to those that knew and loved him, but Papa was in one of my dreams last night. He was dressed in very hip fashion, including a wide pink and grommeted belt. And the dude had a skateboard.
We were at the mall, walking around, when he walked off around the corner. I followed him, and panicked when I saw where he was going - down a ramp that hugged the building. On his skateboard. I was sure he was going to crash, and started yelling to the young guys (also with skateboards) at a turn below to help my grandfather. But Papa just sailed past them, turned the corner, and continued down the ramp. Toward the bottom, he did a u-turn and even skated over some kids practicing on a little ramp.
Even in my dream state, I was amused by this.
I know I gushed about Garden State after I first saw it a few months ago. What I didn't tell you is that when it came out on DVD this month, I rushed to the store and bought it, and proceeded to watch it twice in one day. And then, the next weekend, when a friend came over, asked if he'd seen it - "No? Well you should." Three times in a week.
Garden State was also the topic of conversation several times, with different people, this weekend. Meisa finally watched it and, of course, loved it. What's interesting to me is that she brought up the scene that resonated with me as being absolutely perfect - when Sam tapdances for Large in front of the huge fireplace, with "Fair" by Remy Zero playing on the soundtrack.
Another topic I've brought up before, but don't get tired of pondering - how similar My Cousin and I are, even though we grew up many miles, and six years in age, apart. Like the sister I never had.
I had the misfortune of hitting upon option four:
walk the couple of blocks to the YWCA ( home to my gym and pottery studio), decide I'm too tired to actually change my clothes and exercise, sit on the bench and read a magazine, go down to the pottery studio and get a few things, be picked up by Sam.
It was the absolutely laziest option, bereft of the exercise of walking home or jumping on a machine. But, I was tired. So tired that I almost wasn't able to get up and go to In Good Company. But I mustered the energy and for that I am thankful. Both Sam and I really liked it.
End of the work week, what to do? Go to the gym? The pottery studio? Home for a nap?
Ten Thirteen (where does the time go) years ago, Friday nights meant the weightroom, crunches, and vigorously cleaning the bathroom (I was down with the Comet in the bathtub). A couple of years later, it meant a relaxing run through the deserted business district. (I know, what was I thinking?)
I seem to have lost that discipline, because I could swear my couch is calling my name. I hope the gym pipes up. It wouldn't even need to speak that loudly to overpower the couch, since it's a few blocks away and the couch is a mile further. We shall see.
On my way home from LSA tonight (Thursday), I stopped at the 'Bucks at Barnes & Noble. I sold it to Sam as getting some caffeine for the late night I'm going to have preparing stuff for work. But really, I wanted to try the Matcha Latte, which is not sold at the stand alone 'Bucks (3 of them) near my office.
Walking in to B&N, I spotted a familar person in the magazine section. This time, it was Daniel Dae Kim. Hanging out incognito - white tshirt, loose jeans, slippers (flip-flops) - but there's no hiding a hottie. I guess it makes sense that when a show with such a large cast is taping on the island, you're bound to run into some of the actors. It's just funny to me that I've seen two of them in the past two weeks.
Oh, and the Matcha Latte is tasty. Though I'm embarassed to say I was high maintenance girl and had a second one made for me after I realized that I'd received a regular one rather than the non-fat I'd requested. It's not a weight thing - my ears get clogged when I drink regular cow's milk. I felt compelled to share that last tidbit with the counterperson (and the customer who was in line - she thought it was funny).
As an aside, Stef rules Google when it comes to Matcha Lattes.
Okay, time to get cracking.
I used to be Amazon's biggest cheerleader. A few months ago, if you'd brought up the mighty giant, I would have gushed about their great prices and speedy delivery. Free delivery! To Hawaii! And faster that other companies ship stuff, even though you're paying them an extra $20, even though you're serviced by the same USPS. You order, and poof!, it's here within a few days....
But that's the old Shokufeh. And the old Amazon.
Was there a change in guard and I'm just unaware? On November 20, I ordered some gifts for our nieces. Plenty of time to get here before our flight out on the night of December 2. But, they let me down. I had to go buy the same books on December 1, since my order hadn't yet arrived. I could be mistaken, but I think that even when we got back from Orlando on December 6, the package still wasn't here. We had to wait until the next day. The frustrating thing was checking the tracking and seeing it sit in LA for a week. What's between here and LA? Just a five hour flight! You can't tell me they drove it here instead. Even a ship takes only 4 days.
Okay, so last week, I ordered something for Sam's birthday. Seeing that I was screwed over by free shipping last time, I paid for shipping, hoping that it would get here by yesterday. Nope. It departed a shipping facility in "US" on January 14. Since it started in Nevada on the 12th, it didn't have that far to go. What's going on?!
Two of my favorite systems - Amazon and the USPS - letting me down. If you throw in the airlines, who may be part of the issue, that's three of my favorite systems. Knocked off their pedestals.
I've decided to start referring to this family of blogs, to which I'm so lucky to belong, the famlay(-c). Famlay for short, especially when speaking.
Unrelated: there's something funny about seeing a guy sitting on a bench, feet comfortably pulled up, kind of dozing off, with a open can of something called "Full Throttle" next to him.
Maybe it takes a while to kick in?
Lying in bed this morning, I couldn't help but wish that I'd studied something else, so that my contribution to the world could be a quiet garbage truck.
I’m feeling uncomfortable. Physically and psychologically. And what else should one do in such a situation but share it with any and all? I’ve already written about the color of my pee, so why not this?
As alluded to last week, I’ve started weekly electrolysis. Today, I’m having my left thigh done. So I went and slathered my leg with numbing cream, wrapped it in cling wrap, and donned exercise shorts. When I walk around the office, I’m paranoid that people can hear me rustling under my clothes. (Reminds me of once when I wore a sanitary pad and spent the evening dragging my feet on the floor in hopes that if my male roommate heard the rustling that I heard, he would think it was my feet.) And then be bold enough to ask about it. At which point I’ll be forced to explain that I’m the hairiest person in the office. So that’s the psychological discomfort.
The physical discomfort stems from having wrapped my leg a tad too tightly. I tried to loosen it, but have you ever tried to loosen plastic wrap? So you know how that went.
Dear Shokufeh,
I just thought a reminder might be in order: input usually has a direct correlation with output. Even Especially when beets are involved. So don't panic on your next visit to the facilities.
love,
shokufeh
I just sat down at the computer and noticed that I never finished putting in my earrings this morning. My cousin, whom we met for lunch, must have thought it odd that I had one kind of earring in my right ear and two of another kind in my left ear with the first hole on that side empty. Oh well, maybe my hair covered it.
Today, while we were at the mall, I spotted a familiar face. My first thought was that this was a friend, and I should go greet him. My brain continued processing and realized that the "friend" was not actually someone I know, just someone I see. On TV. It was the guy who plays the rock star on Lost, and played Merry or Pippin (we can never remember which one) in LOTR. He was just walking along, trying to avoid eye contact. He did not succeed in avoiding mine, but maybe his eyes were drawn by my, "Hey!" blurted to Sam, to make sure he took note even though he was on the phone. Dominic Monaghan. I now see he played Merry. And owns a forest in India.
After the mall, we stopped at Borders. As we entered the magazine section, my eyes fell on the cover of Fortune magazine. Mena! You go girl!
"Sam, it's Mena Trott."
"Who?" asks my husband, wondering if I actually know this person on the cover of a magazine.
Again, must remind myself, knowledge of does not mean friends with.
Related to this line of thought, I came home and spoke with Meisa. In the course of our conversation, I asked if she'd noticed we had a new blog brother, George. Both of us then thought of Heather's cousin, GEORGE!. I've never met George or GEORGE!, but I think the latter would be pleased that he's made such an deep impression.
A short list of funny things floating through my mind:
I've got some major ranting to do, but time is short because my hair follicles have an appointment with some electrical current.
Today was the day of sucky customer service. Actually, I guess the suckiness goes back to last week. Last Thursday, I called my doctor for a prescription that I needed for above-mentioned appointment. Now I like my doctor, but her choice of clerical help sucks. Sucks! Thursday! I called! She took the info and implied that things would move along smoothly. Didn't hear back from her that day. Called Friday. Closed. Understandable, since it was New Year's. Called Monday. She told me the doctor had approved the prescription and she would have a nurse call it in. Go to the pharmacy yesterday morning. Nothing there. Call doctor's office....
Running out of time. Okay, quicker.
I called the doctor's office like 6 times over 4 workdays to get them to finally call in a prescription. Turns out the pharmacy can't fill it until tomorrow.
Sucks! If you add up all the time I was on hold, I could've baked a casserole. Throw in all the time I've spent seething about their incompetence, I could've made a gourmet meal. Something longer than Rachel Ray's creations.
Time to get fried.
-----------------
1.5 hours later
The sizzle fest is over and I'm feeling calmer. I'm still annoyed about the botched prescription, but I made do. I'm also annoyed with Delta for issuing others the seats on the flight I wanted, resulting in my having to pay for a ticket instead of using miles. I know, I know, I should have taken the plunge last night. But don't tell me you can't issue me a ticket in the time frame I need and then ask me you can help me with hotel and car arrangements.
Oh, right, calmer. There's something about lying down with soothing music and water sounds that makes a girl feel better. Even with the bursts of pain once in a while.
Lying there, I thought about the fact that over the last 10 days, the world's been feeling down and distracted. We've had lots of physical-feeling-under-the-weather in the office, including me. I can't help but think it's related to the overwhelming sadness about the tsunami and the lives it took and altered. So I guess poor customer service is just an outward manifestation of the human body being affected by part of the body being devastated.
It is obvious that all created things are connected one to another by a linkage complete and perfect, even, for example, as are the members of the human body. Note how all the members and component parts of the human body are connected one to another. In the same way, all the members of this endless universe are linked one to another. The foot and the step, for example, are connected to the ear and the eye; the eye must look ahead before the step is taken. The ear must hear before the eye will carefully observe. And whatever member of the human body is deficient, produceth a deficiency in the other members.
(Selections from the Writings of 'Abdu'l-Bahá, #21, p47)
In less than seven weeks, I'm leaving for what I anticipate to be an amazing and life-altering experience: Baha'i Pilgrimage. I'm trying to strike a balance between focusing on it too much and not preparing for it enough. Those of you who've been recently, are there things you wish you'd done or books you'd read beforehand (or things done/books read that you're glad you did)?
It's cheaper to buy two sets of tickets, coming all the way from here. (We're almost -exactly- on the opposite side of the world from Israel.) So we're spending a couple of days in New York, flying with Anis to Zurich where we'll spend 24 hours, meeting up with my parents in the Zurich airport and then flying into Tel Aviv together. After Pilgrimage, we'll all spend my mom's birthday sightseeing in Tel Aviv and then do the trip in reverse, without the extra time in Zurich and just a night's stay in New York. Gracious. All the ticket wrangling has thrown me into a bit of a tizzy.
I don't remember the exact reason for this trip, but a roommate (Ben? Sami? Can't remember what combination of people I was living with at the time...) and I spent a couple of nights in Beijing. Through some Americans who knew some Americans ('cause all us foreigners know each other, right?), we found cheap rooms in a university dorm. My roommate for the night was a student from Korea. She knew some English, spoken with a very strong accent. It took me a bit of conversation to realize that when I heard "A dink-a," I should substitute "I think."
For some reason, that keeps popping into my mind today.
I'm now thinking it was Ben who traveled with me to the dorm. I had won a night's stay at a luxury hotel in Beijing, so the roomies decided to spend the weekend there and prolonged our stay in town by staying in the dorm for the night. I think Sami was living in Beijing and Paisley was meeting up with us after traveling elsewhere. I remember Ben and I showing up at the luxury hotel and the desk clerk assuming we were husband and wife. We didn't want to correct him because we didn't want the impropriety of staying in a room alone together and not being married. But we also felt uncomfortable about the assumption. The awkwardness was relieved when Paisley finally showed up.
Or maybe that was a different trip all together.
I wish someone would call me and say I'd come into some extra money. Just a modest amount, allowing me to pay off some debt that's been weighing on me, to go on Pilgrimage next month (Wow! It really is next month!) without going further into debt, and to visit Anis on my way to San Jose (for work) next month. I'm going to see Anis at the end of February when we all go on Pilgrimage, but I wanted to visit him in his element in Portland. It seems almost shameful not to pay the extra money to change my ticket. But it's hard to justify the extra money when I'm going to see him a few weeks later. Sure, it will be a different dynamic....
Typing this makes me want to go grab back the itinerary I just signed and call the travel agent to say I'll pay the difference to spend a couple of days with my brother. The last time I got to see Anis on his home turf was 2.5 years ago when he was still in Savannah. But I guess part of the trade-off of the Mojgani diaspora is not always getting to see each other in our respective elements. I'm sorry, Little Bro' - to you, but even more to me.