20th Anniversary

It was yesterday. I have come a long way in those 20 years. New career, new beloved, new life. Life, that I may not have had. I'll be attending the 7:00 pm AA meeting at St. Mary's Episcopal Church in Provincetown, MA where I am vacationing and where I will be picking up a 20 year coin-if I'm lucky and they have one. I feel blessed.

Phobia du Jour

I've never really been a bug person. Once when I was a kid, after playing outside a bug flew in my ear and after an hour or so of hearing it bang around in there and "you're imangining things" type conversation, my mother placed a flashlight against my ear and the bug found it's way out. Recently, while doing supervision with one of the counselors in my unit, she started talking about bedbugs. Apparently she has a family member who is an exterminator. Well...
This courtesy of MSNBS :
"Bed bugs had been shown the “no vacancy” sign in the U.S. for nearly 50 years— they've been virtually eradicated. But now that’s all changed. They’re back. And they’re in expensive hotels and biting the best of people.
It’s a national problem, agrees entomologist Dini Miller, Ph.D. The Orkin Pest Control company says that after 50 years more or less without them, it’s now treated bed bugs in all but three states. And according to the National Pest Management Association, bed bug complaints have increased 50-fold over the last five years. They’ve popped up in apartments, mansions or dormitories in nearly every corner of the country.
Just a few weeks ago, bed bugs nibbled on the traveling cast of a Broadway musical at a Ramada Plaza in San Francisco. Last summer, a young family vacationing at a five-star Westin resort in Hollywood, Florida had the same complaint."
My beloved and I arrived at the Providence, RI Marriot last night, a very reputable chain, on our way to Cape Cod. We were tired after traveling, and shopping, all day. The room was nice and big. The bed was huge.The sheets pristine. I circled warily, afraid to settle.I put my bag on a hard surface. Finaly I took a shower. The beloved was flopped on the bed happily. Well why not. Lovely night, no bites!

Friday Five-I Have Been on a Pilgimage- kind of

1. Have you ever been on a pilgrimage? -Well, I didn't call it that at the time, but I was "searching for meaning" (as Victor Frankel would say)-so it does fit some of the requirements. It was in the mid 80's and it was a meeting of Catholic Lesbians and was held in the Sierra Nevada Mountains in the late spring in a camp. Quite beautiful, all the poppies in bloom- and everything else. Lots of created liturgy and ceremonies. I found some of what I needed at the time.

2. Share a place you've always wanted to visit on pilgrimage. I would love to go to the the pilgrimage led by Sister Jeannine Grammick of New Ways Ministry, to Southern Italy, the country of my heritage, this coming spring 2008. http://mysite.verizon.net/~vze43yrc/pilgrimage.html

3. What would you make sure to pack in your suitcase or backpack to make the pilgrimage more meaningful? My camera as I tend to be a very visual person.

4. If you could make a pilgrimage with someone (living, dead or fictional) as your guide, who would it be? The narrator in Jane Rule's "This is Not For You"

5. Eventually the pilgrim must return home, but can you suggest any strategies for keeping that deep "mountaintop" perspective in the midst of everyday life? I've found that keeping in touch with the people that I shared the experience with and looking at photos (I didn't take photos that time.)

What Book are You

Thanks To "Suffer Well" for this...

You're Siddhartha!

by Hermann Hesse

You simply don't know what to believe, but you're willing to try
anything once. Western values, Eastern values, hedonism and minimalism, you've spent
some time in every camp. But you still don't have any idea what camp you belong in.
This makes you an individualist of the highest order, but also really lonely. It's
time to chill out under a tree. And realize that at least you believe in
ferries.


Take the Book Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.

This seems to describe my present state pretty well. Although Buddah sat under the Bodhi Tree so maybe I should do that. Fancy that!

Five Days to Provincetown!

We're going to Provincetown, MA for vacation. We were thinking of another place, but we went last year and I was sick, so I couldn't enjoy the beach, the walks, the natural beauty, the seafood, our friends. Mostly I enjoyed the inside of our-very nice-room. Sigh. So, we're going back and I'm staying far away from anyone with a hint of anything slightly contagious at the office, Although that's kind of difficult as I'm meeting new people every day.
I love Provincetown because for a few days the demographics are reversed and we are living in a world where it is normal to see woman walking hand in hand with other women and men walking hand in hand with other men. No one stares. On a little spit of sand in the Atlantic we have found a home.

Would I Survive a Zombie Invasion?

Is there no rest In NYC?
32%

Mingle² -

Prayers for Renee and Cynthia

Renee passed away yesterday after a short, little know illness, Amyloydosis. Prayers and support for her wonderful partner, Cynthia.

Is there life after death

And is this important to me? And what would this look like? I just met my beloved 16 years ago. It seems sad to see her no more at the end of life. And what about my parents? And friends? And family...that is the ones I want to see. These are questions I have yet to answer for myself because, of course no-one really knows. In Catholic School we were assured that if we followed all the rules-which seem to be changing rapidly and followed differently by different Catholics- that we would live forever in the sight of God after a nominal period time in Purgatory which seemed like a pretty bad place in itself. Well, in the eyes of the Holy Roman See, I've commited so many crimes... I mean sins, that I should be deep into the hot place. Yet once a month I get together with like minded Catholic women-of varying degrees of Catholicity-to discuss and pray. I do meaningful work. I try to treat people as I would want to be treated. I feel like a pretty good person, although deeply flawed.
So, what would heaven look like. Would they have their own internet. It would probable be done without a keyboard, just using your mind. Probably wouldn't have fingers either. Would there be chocolate or books? Would we be reunited with everyone even that boy that was mean to me in the high shool cafeteria? And those nuns in HS that I suspect suspected that I was flirting with another girl-I didn't even have a word for it at that time, but apparently she had a reputation. Had I but known!

Today is my Birthday

My beloved baked me a Happy Birthday Cherry Pie!

Some things that happened on July 25th courtesy of Wikepedia

Events-
0. 1946 - Operation Crossroads: An atomic bomb is detonated underwater in the lagoon of Bikini atoll.
0. 1946 - At Club 500 in Atlantic City, New Jersey, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis stage their first show as a comedy team.
0. 1952 - The U.S. non-incorporated colonial territory of Puerto Rico adopts a "constitution" of local-limited powers, approved by the United States Congress in contravention of then-current International Law.[citation needed]
0. 1953 - The Cartoon Duck Dodgers in the 24½th Century is released prehaps the most famous Merrie Melodies cartoon starring Duck Dodgers, Porky Pig, and Marvin The Martain.
0. 1956 - 45 miles south of Nantucket Island, the Italian ocean liner SS Andrea Doria collides with the MS Stockholm in heavy fog and sinks the next day, killing 51.

More Events and Birthdays-

0. 1961 - John F. Kennedy speech emphasizes that any attack on Berlin is an attack on NATO.
0. 1946 - Rita Marley, Jamaican-Cuban singer
0. 1951 - Verdine White, American bassist
0. 1954 - Walter Payton, American football player (d. 1999)
0. 1955 - Iman Abdulmajid, Somali model
0. 1955 - Kike Elomaa, Finnish bodybuilder
0. 1958 - Thurston Moore, American musician (Sonic Youth)
0. 1960 - Alain Robidoux, Canadian snooker player
0. 1963 - Julian Hodgson, English chess player
0. 1963 - Denis Coderre, French Canadian politician
0. 1965 - Illeana Douglas, American actress
0. 1966 - Christine C. Quinn, American politician

Festivals
0. Inca festival in honor of the thunder god Ilyap'a
Roman festivals - Furinalia
0. Virgin Islands - Hurricane Supplication Day
Ebernoe Horn Fair in Sussex, southern England

Saint's Days
0. Saint Chlodesindis, virgin [Metz, Liège]
0. Saint Thea
Saint Valentina

What is Your Brain Pattern

Your Brain's Pattern

You have a tempered, reasonable way of thinking. You tend to take every new idea in, and meld it with your world view. For you, everything is always changing. Each moment is different. Your thinking process tends to be very natural - with no beginnings or endings.

What Pattern Is Your Brain?