Home (2009 Challenge)

What's the best change you made to the place you live?

I want to say something noble about improving the globe, feeding the hungry, clothing the (unintentionally) naked, yadda, yadda, but don't you think this blog deserves an honest response? Taking back my turf, which involved a fair amount of late but necessary personal growth, was truly the best change.

Those who know me well know that I'm a people-pleaser. Generally speaking, if it makes you happy, I'll throw myself in front of a train. Over the decades, this has resulted in a goodly number of railroad track shaped scars. Who can say why some of us learn to be whole when we're 2, 5 or 10, and others take half a century or more? If we're lucky, though, or smart, or diligent, we learn. And if we're really good, we learn how to stand our ground without being complete bitches. That is my quest.

New food (2009 Challenge)

You're now in love with Lebanese food and you didn't even know what it was in January of this year.

While in Van Nuys visiting my Armenian cousin, she and her husband took us to an Armenian-owned market. Wow - I was in heaven! We just don't have enough of an Armenian population in Sacramento to have a really good selection of Armenian restaurants or markets. We bought a bottle of Raki, a tray of paklava, and some sujukh (the sweet kind).

The sujukh we bought consisted of walnuts threaded on a string, then dipped in thick grape syrup. The consistency is like a thick fruit roll-up. You can see sujukh on the right in his photo. Looks rather majestic hanging like that, doesn't it? Well the package we bought looked kind of like logs of poo. Steve, my 55 year old 9 year old, had no end of poo-related comments to make. I just ignored him and reveled in its not-too-sweet taste, chewy consistency, and, of course, the cellular memory thrill I always feel when reveling in my culture.

Zaheea

Zaheea Anan is no longer dancing at Marrakech Morrocan Restaurant in Sacramento.

Although she was the featured dancer there for FIFTEEN YEARS, she's now moved on to bigger and better things.

Marrakech used to be a favorite spot for us to take friends and family, whether just for dinner or for special occasions. We held my dad's 75th birthday party there in 2003. That was the night I discovered Zaheea. She was so fun, so beautiful, and, omg, so talented. She made us feel like she was one of the sisters.

Although the food is okay (frankly, I prefer my own home-cooked ethnic cuisine) and the ambience fun, honestly, it was Zaheea that made that place so special. We've seen other dancers perform there and came away feeling rather, "Eh." Without Zaheea, there's no real reason for us to make Marrakech our go-to place anymore

I've spent my entire life around belly dancers. Zaheea is the BEST I'VE EVER SEEN! I am anxious to find out what her new schedule will hold. When I do find out, I'll post it here and hope that my readers make it out to see a most incredible performer.

Stay tuned!

The best place (2009 Challenge)

A coffee shop? A pub? A retreat center? A cubicle? A nook?

I have a chair. I call it my time-out chair. It's in the corner of the room recently vacated by my youngest son, my last child to leave the nest.

Complemented by a table to hold my tea cup, a floor lamp that came all the way from Michigan, and a spare pair of reading glasses, this chair is always ready to receive my weary ass.

Sometimes I don't read there.

Sometimes I just sit.

My chair is large enough to allow me to curl up with my feet under me, and small enough so that I feel wrapped in a cocoon. I can chat with friends or simply enjoy my solitude. The wing back style allows me to fall asleep without falling out.

My time-out chair represents My Zone. When I'm in that chair, in that room, I feel at peace.

Album of the year (2009 Challenge)

What's rocking your world?

Good question. I'm not a big album/CD purchaser. I generally find that, when I do buy something, I listen to it a time or two and then it gets dusty. Mostly I listen to XM in the car or online, or use Pandora.

That being said, the one CD I bought this year was Everything You Love Will Be Taken Away by Slaid Cleeves. I bought this directly from Slaid's beautiful hands and it bears his beautiful signature. Do I sound like I'm doting a bit? Maaayyybe.

Slaid is, in my opinion, amazing. He snagged me years ago when he sang this on his 2000 CD, Broke Down:

Sherry had a pawnshop band of gold
A sink full of dishes and a love grown cold

He says Rod Picott actually wrote the song and he just polished it up, but I don't know this Rod guy, so my loyalty goes to Slaid for that one.

The Broke Down CD also included the song Lydia, which was actually written by Karen Poston, but Slaid just did it so darn well. And, ahem, so did my sons. I swear, that song makes my eyes leak every time I hear it.

On this new CD, which includes some cool liner notes by Stephen King, Slaid manages to pull and bend my heart while not being too "twangy." (Yeah, tell Tom.) He's a self-proclaimed blues singer...because nothing he sings is upbeat in any way. He sings about battered wives, love gone wrong and dead children. But he does it so well.

Best Movie of The Year!

Joel made this video and played it at Landon's first birthday party last month. Enjoy.

Challenge (2009 Challenge)

Something that really made you grow this year. That made you go to your edge and then some. What made it the best challenge of the year for you?

This year held a few different challenges for me. I was stretched like Turkish taffy professionally, personally, medically and financially.

Probably the most significant challenge has been, and continues to be, learning to live more in the Tao.

My greatest stress is rooted in my inability to control the universe. I can't control what others are thinking or saying about me. I couldn't stop Jessica or the koi from dying. I can't make people live their lives the way I think they should. I can't make people shut up, stop hurting, get out of my way, love me, stop doing drugs, be respectful, live up to their potential, or make their dogs stop barking. Heck, I can't even seem to stop my hair from graying or my butt from growing!

I wouldn't dare to suggest I've conquered this challenge, but I've recognized that it has presented itself to me, and for that I pat myself on the back. Besides, a Taoist would probably advise that challenges cannot be "conquered." But what's the point if we don't evolve, right? So I intend to evolve and to learn how to be peaceful.

Moment of Peace (2009 Challenge)

An hour or a day or a week of solitude. What was the quality of your breath? The state of your mind? How did you get there?

I stopped
And listened
And everything stopped and listened with me
And the forest was very lone and still and peaceful in the sun
Until, suddenly,
Very high above me
A bird began to sing.

Blog Find of The Year (2009 Challenge)

That gem of a blog you can't believe you didn't know about until this year.

This one. Okay, I didn't find it this year, but I did find it to be, this year, more of a blog for me than just the "all about the family" blog it started out to be.

Can I just interject here that I'm finding it hard to keep writing every day? Not only because I'm sometimes too busy to even pee, let alone sit down and write something witty, but also because I have a hard time pulling anything up from the depths of my soul to write about these topics we've been given. Not complaining; just noting.

So anyway... Guess what. It snowed here last night! I'm only at about 80 feet above sea level and it freakin' SNOWED!

 

Workshop

Was there a conference or workshop you attended that was especially beneficial? Where was it? What did you learn?

Early in the year I attended a project management workshop in Spokane. The speaker turned out to be much more entertaining and fun that I'd anticipated, and I did learn a lot, but the biggest lesson of that trip was that my instincts deserve respect.

I arrived on Super Bowl Sunday. Spokane was cold, drizzly and windy. Yuck. After getting a car to my hotel, I set about the business of checking in. All I wanted to do was put my stuff in my room and then relax with a room service salad and watch what was left of the game.

I boarded the elevator and slipped the card key in the slot to gain access to the 4th floor. Just before the doors closed, a somewhat disheveled man got on the elevator and pushed the button for the 7th floor. I did what we all do when enclosed in that vertically-mobile little room: gave him a brief hello nod and then stared at the doors. When the elevator reached my floor, he exited right after me. I turned and said, "I don't think this is your floor. Didn't you want the 7th?"

He looked a little nervous and, after hesitating, replied, "Oh." Then he backed into the elevator as I proceeded to the T in the hallway. As soon as I reached the T I stopped, realizing he had gotten off the elevator again. The entire floor suddenly felt as quiet and deserted as a tomb. I put down my suitcase and began pulling my cell phone from my purse. I also scanned the area and located the nearest fire alarm.

The man also stopped at the T. We were standing next to each other and he was just standing there, looking at me. As I fumbled with my stupid BlackBerry. Damn! Why does this thing have to make me enter a password?! I turned and faced him, looking directly into his eyes. "Can I help you with something?"

"Oh, no," he said, "I just needed to get off the elevator to call 911."

"Excuse me? Why do you need to call 911?"

He fumbled. I spun around and got back on the elevator, shaking. Close you stupid slow doors! Close!

I lucked out that night. The doors closed before he made it back to the elevator. Once on the ground floor, I raced to the front desk and told them what had happened. They summoned a security guard, I chose a bar stool hidden behind a large, muscular man watching the game at the bar, and from that perch I watched as Security escorted Mr. Scary from the premises. Three times! Yes, he kept on trying to come back in!

The gentleman at the bar, along with his wife, took me under their wing. They sat with me, drank with me and watched the game with me until my knees no longer shook. They stayed until I was ready to return to my room. The were friends - adopted family - and yet I don't know their names. Thank you, friends!

So, kids, the moral of the story is to trust your instincts. When the man first boarded the elevator, I felt nervous. Why, you may be asking, didn't I get off the elevator right then and there? Because he was black. And I didn't want to be racially offensive.

Okay, now wipe the coffee spray off your monitor.