random vignettes
Jun. 13th, 2006 10:08 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chelidonI am grateful for my partner and son who together put together a beautiful early father's day present of windowboxes and hanging planters full of beautiful flowers and delicious herbs to hang outside the windows of my new office and on the back deck.
I am grateful for the perfect late Spring day outside -- blue sky and 70 degrees, a light breeze carrying in the most delicious smells from outside.
I am anticipating the arrival of my friend Kiflu, an Ethiopian with whom I'm going to start up a big batch of T'ej, Ethiopian mead (honey wine), using local honey, and imported Ethiopian hops that my friend has somehow procured (for my brewing friends, you boil the woody stems of a Ethiopian tree called Gesho, native to the highlands of Ethiopia, which seems to be related to hazel -- not at all related to the hops vine, except for the similarity in function of being used as a bittering agent). We made a batch last November and it was fantastic, so we're going to repeat the experiment.
I am grateful for the last month of relative normalcy, which is about to come to an abrupt end for at least another month. I am stressed about the fact that my son goes into the hospital on Friday for surgery -- not a highly dangerous procedure, and necessary, but not simple, and painful, and I'll be spending my days in the hospital with him for about a week until he comes home, and my partner will be with him at nights. A few days after my son comes home, my partner goes into the hospital for her radiation treatment (radio-iodine) for thyroid cancer. She'll be in radiation isolation for 2 days, during which I may be allowed to see her for 15 minutes once a day, then she comes home and is in decreasing degrees of isolation here for about two weeks. The hardest part for her, no doubt, will be not being able to hug or be physically near our son for a week, especially during a time when he'll especially want her there. And she'll be (deliberately) intensely hypothyroid up to and during this whole time, so she's likely to be increasingly exhausted and feeling like hell.
I am grateful for my Lovely Housemate Paul, who has researched the low-iodine diet my partner has to be on for the next two weeks leading up to the radio-iodine treatment, and who has come up with a wonderful assortment of recipes which avoid the egg yolks, dairy products, iodine-containing dyes, iodized salt (in almost all processed/purchased foods), seafood, and other typical foodstuffs which are verboten for the next little while. Yes, the rest of us could still eat this stuff, but, solidarity, sister! And I am intensely grateful for the support of my friends and loved ones during this time. You know who you are, and I hope you know how much you mean to me.
I am grateful for having the privilege to teach another of the RTITs (teachers-in-training) classes this past weekend. We're using Rites of Passage as the framework this second year and a day, and it was the best class yet. I am so blessed by the fact that my partner in life is also my very favorite and most trusted magickal collaborator and partner. After 21 years together, we riff off each other almost effortlessly, like good improv jazz. I may write up some of the weekend work if I get a chance -- the core of it was pairs trance work around a modern myth (Robert Holdstock's "Bone Forest" story). And underneath all of the skill-sharing and ritual design and magickal tech we were teaching, I got to more implicitly communicate some of my underlying philosophy about the deep, core work of priest/esssing in a non-hierarchical tradition -- not to indoctrinate dogma, rules and liturgy, or to interpret the divine for others, but in both small and large ways, to step back and take in the big picture, fully engaged in life and in the moment, but also noting the patterns and flows, using magickal tools and techniques not just to take on roles of power in the stories and myths that flow all around us, but to know that we have the power, and the obligation, to examine, and if necessary, re-write those stories, myths and patterns. We can change the stories, re-write them in better, healthier, more constructive ways. And sometimes, we simply must.
I am grateful for the visit of Tracy, a dear coven-sister now living in West Virginia, and for the outing yesterday with Tracy and my Lovely Housemate![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
lylythe_strega for Indian food and a trip to the Hanover Chocolatier...oh my gods. Obscene amounts of excellent Indian food, followed by immersion in chocolate paradise. I could live on the air alone in that chocolate shop. I found I still have my childhood addiction to gummi cola bottles (and the habit of biting the ends off first, like taking the cap off a bottle), and while visiting there we discovered a Massachusetts-made espresso extract, which we used later in the evening for making exquisite espresso "martinis" (sorry, I'm a purist, if it uses Vodka and flavorings, it's a cocktail, not a martini!), consumed along with a wicked assortment of sinful hand-made melt-in-your-mouth truffles from the chocolaterie while watching "Snatch". I fear that the fact that I enjoy bars of 100% cacao marks me as a true addict ;>
I am grateful for the editor who gave me a few more days on a freelance piece I'm doing on trends in K-12 education in the DC Metro area. I was stressed out about the looming deadline, and she told me she'd figured with all that's going on, I might need some extra time, and had padded the deadline a bit. All blessings on experienced compassionate editors with whom I have long-term working relationships :>
I am grateful for all of you.
I am grateful for the perfect late Spring day outside -- blue sky and 70 degrees, a light breeze carrying in the most delicious smells from outside.
I am anticipating the arrival of my friend Kiflu, an Ethiopian with whom I'm going to start up a big batch of T'ej, Ethiopian mead (honey wine), using local honey, and imported Ethiopian hops that my friend has somehow procured (for my brewing friends, you boil the woody stems of a Ethiopian tree called Gesho, native to the highlands of Ethiopia, which seems to be related to hazel -- not at all related to the hops vine, except for the similarity in function of being used as a bittering agent). We made a batch last November and it was fantastic, so we're going to repeat the experiment.
I am grateful for the last month of relative normalcy, which is about to come to an abrupt end for at least another month. I am stressed about the fact that my son goes into the hospital on Friday for surgery -- not a highly dangerous procedure, and necessary, but not simple, and painful, and I'll be spending my days in the hospital with him for about a week until he comes home, and my partner will be with him at nights. A few days after my son comes home, my partner goes into the hospital for her radiation treatment (radio-iodine) for thyroid cancer. She'll be in radiation isolation for 2 days, during which I may be allowed to see her for 15 minutes once a day, then she comes home and is in decreasing degrees of isolation here for about two weeks. The hardest part for her, no doubt, will be not being able to hug or be physically near our son for a week, especially during a time when he'll especially want her there. And she'll be (deliberately) intensely hypothyroid up to and during this whole time, so she's likely to be increasingly exhausted and feeling like hell.
I am grateful for my Lovely Housemate Paul, who has researched the low-iodine diet my partner has to be on for the next two weeks leading up to the radio-iodine treatment, and who has come up with a wonderful assortment of recipes which avoid the egg yolks, dairy products, iodine-containing dyes, iodized salt (in almost all processed/purchased foods), seafood, and other typical foodstuffs which are verboten for the next little while. Yes, the rest of us could still eat this stuff, but, solidarity, sister! And I am intensely grateful for the support of my friends and loved ones during this time. You know who you are, and I hope you know how much you mean to me.
I am grateful for having the privilege to teach another of the RTITs (teachers-in-training) classes this past weekend. We're using Rites of Passage as the framework this second year and a day, and it was the best class yet. I am so blessed by the fact that my partner in life is also my very favorite and most trusted magickal collaborator and partner. After 21 years together, we riff off each other almost effortlessly, like good improv jazz. I may write up some of the weekend work if I get a chance -- the core of it was pairs trance work around a modern myth (Robert Holdstock's "Bone Forest" story). And underneath all of the skill-sharing and ritual design and magickal tech we were teaching, I got to more implicitly communicate some of my underlying philosophy about the deep, core work of priest/esssing in a non-hierarchical tradition -- not to indoctrinate dogma, rules and liturgy, or to interpret the divine for others, but in both small and large ways, to step back and take in the big picture, fully engaged in life and in the moment, but also noting the patterns and flows, using magickal tools and techniques not just to take on roles of power in the stories and myths that flow all around us, but to know that we have the power, and the obligation, to examine, and if necessary, re-write those stories, myths and patterns. We can change the stories, re-write them in better, healthier, more constructive ways. And sometimes, we simply must.
I am grateful for the visit of Tracy, a dear coven-sister now living in West Virginia, and for the outing yesterday with Tracy and my Lovely Housemate
lylythe_strega for Indian food and a trip to the Hanover Chocolatier...oh my gods. Obscene amounts of excellent Indian food, followed by immersion in chocolate paradise. I could live on the air alone in that chocolate shop. I found I still have my childhood addiction to gummi cola bottles (and the habit of biting the ends off first, like taking the cap off a bottle), and while visiting there we discovered a Massachusetts-made espresso extract, which we used later in the evening for making exquisite espresso "martinis" (sorry, I'm a purist, if it uses Vodka and flavorings, it's a cocktail, not a martini!), consumed along with a wicked assortment of sinful hand-made melt-in-your-mouth truffles from the chocolaterie while watching "Snatch". I fear that the fact that I enjoy bars of 100% cacao marks me as a true addict ;>I am grateful for the editor who gave me a few more days on a freelance piece I'm doing on trends in K-12 education in the DC Metro area. I was stressed out about the looming deadline, and she told me she'd figured with all that's going on, I might need some extra time, and had padded the deadline a bit. All blessings on experienced compassionate editors with whom I have long-term working relationships :>
I am grateful for all of you.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2006-06-13 03:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-06-14 12:07 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-06-13 03:40 pm (UTC)Mmmm, T'ej... That's somewhere on my brewing projects list. Probably next year; looks like our carboys are full up for this year's scheduled wines. (Or maybe I just need more carboys...) Do you know where one can procure Gesho? I've not looked into it yet.
Love and hugs to you and yours; you are all in my thoughts.
no subject
Date: 2006-06-14 03:02 pm (UTC)Like books, I figure you can't have too many carboys ;> We lost some of last year's batch of T'ej, the first bottlings I've had explode since my very first try at brewing, something like 18 years ago. Because actual Ethiopian T'ej uses wild yeast, and I pitched a comparatively alcohol-tolerant culture, it came out too dry. so we added honey and let it perk a while longer. It seemed complete, and I had to go off on a teaching trip, so we bottled, and...boom. I usually check that after bottling and do some pressure release in the rare event it's necessary, but I wasn't around, so...oh well. What survived tasted great, though -- a woody, nutty flavor from the Gesho that's quite unlike anything else I've made.
I know that my friend got his Gesho from someplace in Boston, through the Ethiopian community there, and he said he can get more. The next time I see him (probably when we bottle), I'll try to remember to ask.
no subject
Date: 2006-06-14 05:54 pm (UTC)I can't tell you how many times I've had people say to me, "You're the Fotamecus guy?!"
You know, when I was very young I made myself a promise to live as interesting a life as possible, and, well, I find with each passing year a deeper and deeper appreciation for the words of Charles Fort: "Truth is stranger than fiction because fiction has to make sense."
I swear this is all just a surreal dream.
>>> Like books, I figure you can't have too many carboys <<<
Amen, brutha!
I also lost some of my mead this year; I brewed a "sack of a sack", 5lb honey to the gallon, and used one of these happy wine industry cultured yeasts tolerant to ~17-18%. Came out tasting as sweet as could be (too sweet, actually) and more potent than you expected. I bottled too early though (didn't want to move with open brewing containers) and thought it had finished off enough... But so long as there's sugar, there's almost always a few yeasty beasties left who'll hang on for up to a year. I've become a big fan of sterile filters, though everything I've seen is a pain on less than an industrial scale (heck, who am I kidding, they're a pain on an industrial scale too.)
If the Gesho is from a place I could order from, that would be fabulous. Otherwise I'll ask the local brewshop first, then resort to (gasp!) the internet. I had my first authentic T'ej (friend brought it back from Ethiopia) and absolutely loved it. It was everything I loved about beer and everything I loved about honeywine, with some synergistic happydance going on in my pallete to boot.
no subject
Date: 2006-06-13 04:22 pm (UTC)See you tonight!
no subject
Date: 2006-06-14 03:05 pm (UTC)Re: Faux-tinis
Date: 2006-06-13 06:36 pm (UTC)I might call last night's incredibly yummy concoction a "Russian Juan (Valdez)", but certainly not an espresso martini. ;>
Re: Faux-tinis
Date: 2006-06-14 03:08 pm (UTC)Yes, I know, PKB...
And it seems to me that we didn't actually get to [insert whatever name here] last night. Maybe tonight...after tomorrow, my hours at home are likely to be irregular and rather limited for a week or so.
no subject
Date: 2006-06-13 06:46 pm (UTC)K
no subject
Date: 2006-06-13 07:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-06-14 03:10 pm (UTC)Ah-yup ;>
Thanks, my dear comrade. I feel your relentless support, and I am so grateful. One day at a time, I figure, focusing on each moment as it comes, and soon enough, all of this will be behind us.
no subject
Date: 2006-06-13 07:14 pm (UTC)Love to the denizens of casa chaos.
no subject
Date: 2006-06-13 07:26 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-06-14 03:12 pm (UTC)Blessings and comfort
Date: 2006-06-13 07:34 pm (UTC)I see you all moving gracefully and ease-full-ly through these challenges and learning whatever can be learned from the experience, recovering with style and joy. In after years I see the parents telling the child the story, like a well-loved fairytale, of the time the child had surgery and then the parent had radiation and then we all came back together from our adventures for a celebration of health, secure in the bosom of the conscious-made family that held us while we were needing.
Your post touches me in many tender and warm places in the fourth chakra; many blessings and comforts to you all.
Re: Blessings and comfort
Date: 2006-06-13 08:02 pm (UTC)Re: Blessings and comfort
Date: 2006-06-14 03:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-06-13 08:18 pm (UTC)xo
no subject
Date: 2006-06-14 03:16 pm (UTC)