Friday Five

It's Leap Day!! Whether you're one of the special few who have a birthday only once every four years, or simply confused by the extra day on the calendar, everyone is welcome to join in and play our Leap Year Friday Five.

Tell us about a time you:

1. Leapt before looked: I rarely leap before I look, but I leaped to NY from OH, skipping graduation ceremonies altogether when I graduated from Youngstown State University. I moved to NY to be a lesbian and I was anxious to begin my life.

2. Leapt to a conclusion: There have been many, both correct and incorrect, but I'm pretty conservative in this area.

3. Took a Leap of Faith: When I took my current promotion and moved my job to Brooklyn over a year ago. Good so far!

4. Took a literal Leap: I bought a new sailboat a number of years ago and it was small than I was used to. Yes, I did end up in the marina's muddy water. Yuck. Never did like that boat.

I was published!

I was reading Active, The Magazine of United Spinal Association (I have a SCI.) It's a hidden disability. The only clue is that I carry a stick outside. Well the first letter was addressed to an article I submitted almost a year ago and was published in January 2008. I totally missed the January Issue, can't even find it, BL may have thrown it out ;-( Anyhow US is sending me a couple of copies.
It's online and the original is on the blog under Cauda Equina Syndrome if you want to read it. I published it under the nome de plume Your Friend Flicka as I didn't want my clients/consumers aware of my intimate details.
Here's the link to United Spinal's edited version:
http://www.unitedspinal.org/publications/action/2008/01/25/the-tale-of-the-horse’s-tail-or-what-is-cauda-equina-syndrome/

Kate Clinton on the Elections and other stuff

Lesbian video from AfterEllen.com

Heavenly Friday Five

What is your idea of a heavenly (i.e. wonderful and perfect):

1. Family get-together
My family get-togethers are pretty heavenly now. There are only a few of us, the girl cousins mafia and our 90y/o aunt/grandmother and we all like each other! And, most importantly, accept each other!

2. Song or musical piece
Something soothing or in lieu of that, something from a musical comedy!

3. Gift
Of course something given from the heart, but if that doesn't work, electronics, maybe an iphone...

4. You choose whatever you like-food, pair of shoes, vacation, house, or something else. Just tell us what it is and what a heavenly version of it would be.
Well, I imagine heaven would be a place where I would never, ever have to wear a bra again. That's my heavenly desire.

5. And for a serious moment, or what would you like your entrance into the next life to be like?
What, from your vantage point now, would make Heaven "heavenly?"
I'm afraid I'm still an agnostic, but if there IS a heaven, I'd like my transition to be peaceful.

John-he-is

Tagged by Rev. Donna Quixote

Illustration:Another kind of tag

The rules for the meme are:
1. Link to the person who tagged you.

2. Post the rules on your blog.
3. Share six non important things/habits/quirks about yourself.
4. Tag six random people at the end of your post by linking to their blogs.
5. Let each random person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their website.

1.OK-http://revdonaquixote.blogspot.com/
2.See above.
3.OK-The six things.

1. My beverage of choice after water is Arizona Stress Tea. They stopped making it, so I went to every Korean Grocery and Rite Aide type pharmacy and bought out their stock.
2. I take the 7th ave.(1,2,3) line subway to work, but the (C) 8th ave line home. (It's one block closer.)
3. I prefer blue ink gel pens.

4. I only wear Rockports except in the summer when I mostly wear Tevas.

5. I have a problem with buying books, I keep buying them.

6. I love puns.

4.
tagging
Lutheran Chicks "l Word" Diary
Seeking Authentic Voice
Blue Window
barefootandlaughing

A Book Meme from Mompriest

I've been tagged by Mompriest to play this meme. And, regardless of how tired and achy I am...despite how much valentines celebrating I have planned...I am going to spend a minute playing!

Pick up the nearest book of 123 pages or more.
Bear me Safely Over by Sheri Joseph ( which I don't think I've actually read, but was the nearest book!)

Find Page 123.
Talks about Dan Fosters stepson. Something to do with a rest stop. 

Find the first 5 sentences. Ok....

Post the next three sentences.
"You're in the mood," she said. He backed her into the corner of the stall, hands pushing under her shirt where she was slicked with sweat.

"I missed you last night is all," she said.

Innocence by Olga Broumas

...for BL

Innocence by Olga Broumas

... the sound of one hand clapping

I.

Manita's the Queen. Love and Love
lying by her, one
on each side. I
am the Jester, the
smallest one, I roll
round the bed at Manita's feet, the floor
tangled with cast-off garments. I flick my sharp
tongue at Love. I adore
Manita
the Queen
at the foot of the bed, each hand so deep
in Love's collapsible caves. Manita kneeling
in the midst of Love.
Manita talking
with God.

II.

Manita talking with God. God
appears

among us, elusive, the extra
hand none of us - Love, Love, Jester, Queen -
can quite locate, fix, or escape. Extra
hand, extra
pleasure. A hand
with the glide of a tongue, a hand
precise as an eyelid, a hand with a sense
of smell, a hand that will dance
to its liquid moan.
God's hand

Loose on the four of us like a wind
on the grassy hills of the South.

III.

I take my Love to Manita. Swift-boned, green-
eyed, dressed in her dark skin and hair, I take my Love
on fire. Manita moans.
Manita's hands

flow
delicate as insects, agile
as fish, cool as the shifting water, the night-
quiet lake. I take my Love to her hands on
fire. She takes my Love.

IV.

She takes my Love to her passions, sweet
bruises on her dark skin, her nipples
sucked up like pears, the small
hand of God
inventing
itself again, wind
on Manita's hair. Neither
Love moves. Queen and the Jester the
merging shadows on wall and ceiling, the candle thick
as a young tree, bright
with green fire.
Manita's Love

opens herself to me, my sharp
Jester's tongue, my
cartwheels of pleasure. The Queen's own pearl
at my fingertips, and Manita pealing

my Jester's bells on our four
small steeples, as Sunday downs
clear in February, and God claps and claps
her one hand.

No Cabs

Illustration: Yellow taxi parked in front of the shopping mecca, Bloomingdales.

I've been working in Brooklyn for a year now after an adult lifetime a living and working in Manhattan. 

In Manhattan, if you are tired or have a lot of packages to carry or are in a hurry-no forget that-you can flag a cab. This involves standing in the street with your hand out or if the taxi you see is off-duty, you can try to put your hand out with your fingers slightly apart, indicating a few inches, and try to convince them to stop.

I've noticed that there are no cabs in Brooklyn. There are car services and you have to call them. They're twice as expensive as taxis which amounts to about to 30 (including tip) to my home from work. I know this because I took one last week when I was just too tired to take the subway home.

Thank God for the yellow cab.

Friday Five, Lent

1. Did you celebrate Mardi Gras and/or Ash Wednesday this week? How?
Actually, I was so busy celebrating the return to work, after 2 months on sick leave, I neglected all other celebrations. Pretty tired... but really happy to be working and not watching TV!

2. What was your most memorable Mardi Gras/Ash Wednesday/Lent?
The advent of Lent was always memorable when I was in parochial school. Always discussion of who was giving up what. Then seeing how long that lasted.

3. Did you/your church/your family celebrate Lent as a child? If not, when and how did you discover it?
Yes, we did and this was before Vatican II, so I remember lots of rules re:meals for the adults. I vaguely remember that only one meal a day could be a meat meal-correct me if I'm wrong about this-and that the size of breakfast and lunch had to be smaller-together-than dinner.

OK, I looked this up-

Factoid: Pre-Vatican III During Lent Complete abstinence on Fridays, Ash Wednesday, and Holy Saturday morning. Complete abstinence means no meat or soup or gravy made from meat.

Fast on the weekdays of Lent. Fast means one full meal and two meatless meals, sufficient to maintain strength. The two additional meals may not equal another full meal. Meat may be taken at the principal meal on a day of fast (provided the day is not Ash Wednesday, a Friday, or Holy Saturday morning).

No eating between meals, but liquids, including milk and juice are allowed.

Beer and wine are allowed, but no hard alcohol. (snide comment, you'd have to know that those Catholics would allow alcoholic!)

Note that these were the rules back in the 1950s. This was particularly difficult for everyone, but I remember my mother who was a butcher in a her own store (a rare occupation for a woman in those days) and did hard physical labor and really abided by these rules (I had one can of tuna and a melba toast...), struggling to eat enough to have enough strength. These rules also took effect when you turned 14. Thank God I turned 14 after Vatican II and only had to struggle with whether to give up chocolate or spinach! (which I am allergic to and, of course can't eat anyway.)

4. Are you more in the give-up camp, or the take-on camp, or somewhere in between?
The only thing I do now is give up working on Good Friday.

5. How do you plan to keep Lent this year?
As shown in number 4.