A Moment at Heinhold's

we are sitting in the sun
enjoying heffewiessen or wine.
they wander up: 4 poets in colorful poet attire.
hand me a flyer
"a poetry reading - around the corner in a half hour".
dispersing thru the tables, sharing their words and flyer "come to the reading".

a tall dude, clean dude, prosperous dude, eyes the flyer, eyes the poets.

eyes moving and clinging to a poet girl.
slow recognition, slowly rising to his feet, mouthing words.
he moves towards her, eyes never leaving her face.
dude's recognition gets closer and louder.

poet girl sees him, begins her own recognition.
the hug, the greeting, the mutual disbelief that they are both standing there, far away and several years from home: dude and poet girl.
they quickly fill the gaps of the last few years. since when? highschool?

poet girl: graduating from berkeley, moving to dublin, studying poetry.

dude: living in holland, have a warehouse in alameda, imports from china, "business stuff".

but here poet boy sits, trying to hide his all-consuming interest in the event unfolding before him.
his eyes dart, meet mine, panic in them.
back to tall dude, confident dude's face.

poet girl, quickly collecting wits, "this is my husband".
eyes move to poet boy, the husband. the greeting is brief, fleeting, unsatisfactory for poet boy.
dude continues. "how are your parents?" implies such intamacy.
the circle is not opened to poet boy.

glancing up frequently, occasionally interjecting, finially turns back to the other poets.
poet boy, a little too loudly.... "kafka", "metamorphosis", "you must....here, listen to this" as he recites, still a little too loud and with emotion that betrays him.

then it's over. relief. 4 poets again.

below...pictures from a recent visit

first and last chance

heinhold's

out and about......

...that's where i'm about to be. i spent the morning culling pics i took yesterday. oh my gosh, is it really 2:30? i had a lovely picnic at the ferry building yesterday. met susan and doug there. the beautifully renovated ferry building has all sorts of fresh food shops. one can go to the bread store for fresh bread, the deli for fresh sausage, the cheese shop fresh cheese (you get the idea). wander. marvel at all the fresh stuff. a simple, tasty picnic of french bread, cheese, dry sausage, pears and wine can be yours for around $60. hahaha. the old plowman's lunch now comes with a pretty steep price. as do many simple pleasures these days. we had a great time.

it's great to be back home. i'll enjoy the sun, the views (more pics from the ferry below). i almost feel like hermiting but it's just too nice out. so then, here i go! oh! i know. i'll go to the palmetum and then pic up some stuff to bring over to amy and brian's for the bbq. life is good.

no parking

youth

wonder

crossing

pink-n-blue

containers

Back to the Bay

my meeting is over. the end of dull meetings and room service for awhile :). it's always nice to get home after traveling. i used to have a furry friend waiting for me. chester (more commonly called simply "gato") my loyal cat companion for 16 years, passed away a few months ago. i miss him so much.

i had a conversation about children with some colleagues recently. they were sharing their child-raising experiences (some of them down-right terrifying!). after making my way through my inevitable response (something resembling an equation) to the inevitable "having children" question one of the ladies said "well, you know, pets can be very rewarding". hehe.

so on that note, i am sharing chester with you. he had just enjoyed munching on a plant.

chester!

Need a Break

do you ever go to multi-day meetings at big conference center/hotels? if so, do several days ever pass before you realize you haven't left the complex? haven't even taken a breath of fresh air? it's not natural! it's tuesday afternoon and i haven't stepped outside since i arrived on sunday evening. my mind and body are starting to rebel.

so while in one of these "sessions" i decided to take a peek at some vacation pics from Belize. to keep myself sane, you know? i posted one below for you.

my last day in Placencia, Belize i took this pic sitting on the front porch of the cabana. those are my toes :) and the shell was my door stop during the stay. and when the tradewinds blew (which was always) the beer bottles hummed, sounding almost like little buddhist monks. oh how i wish i were there and not in Denver!!

Hang in there, Peg. Costa Rica is less than a month away.

vacation vignette

practicing what you preach?

Off to Denver..........a quarterly, mind-numbing industry meeting. woohoo! i'm not a huge fan of denver, other than the 1/4 of the horizon that includes the mighty rockies. but 1/4 of a good view does not a good city make. the rest is mostly flat and brown. and the super low humidity that sucks every ounce of moisture from one's body is not appealing.

sorry denver. i'll give you this, nothing could be as awful as your neighbor, that bastion of christian evangelicalism, colorado springs. i find many harper's magazine features a bit long winded these days. generally, i'm in for about 1/2 an article. but a recent piece on the rise of mega-churches, their doctrine and drones, kept me rapt all the way through.

i suppose it's easy to be smug about this stuff from my sunny spot in hedonistic CA :). my sunday morning spent at the farmers market, bookstore and coffee shop. well, i'm willing to say "to each his own", if only they would, too. let's just agree to disagree. but i suppose that is the essense of evangelicalism. literally defined it "emphasizes the importance of preaching, as contrasted with the ritual". or in my words: not so concerned about actually acting like a good christian as talking about it.

off my soapbox now. hehe. anyway - here are a few pics taken on a recent walk-about in Oakland. Cheers!

reflection

red umbrella