"Let's get together soon"

I find myself saying that to people I see online an awful lot.  It never happens.  Not because we don't mean to, that we don't miss each other and need to catch up.  It's just that time gets away from us.  I have a friend on whose page I comment frequently, who lives locally and who has YET to meet my husband of almost four years.   THIS has got to change.  I am thinking about getting everyone together for a huge "let's  get together soon" celebration in the park.  Here's how it would work;  we pick a place- say Griffith Park, pick a date and invite everyone on your FB page you have said "let's get together soon" or "I miss you" to in the last six months.  Everyone brings something to share.  Friends of friends of friends.... you see how it might play out.  What do you think.  It might start a trend.

Comments?

Catching up

Random stuff I haven't talked about.

I have been so busy lately it's hard to sit down and gather my thoughts.  Really that's what this blog is about for me, boring or amusing my friends with whatever might be going on in my brain today, while exercising my writing muscles.  Thanks for reading and , hopefully only laughing when I am TRYING to be funny.

I spent Friday morning in Council with my colleagues from the Board of the McGroarty Arts Center.  It was our newly-minted Councilman's very first presentation and it was neat to be there with people from the Sunland Tujunga Arts Community.  I think he was a bit nervous, but he made a nice presentation.  Our former Councilman said some nice things about us too, and made a point to shake all our hands as we were escorted out to the Press Room.  You know that room that the Mayor is always making presentations from that has a" vista"of the City behind him?  It's a mural.  Yep.  Lol.

Saturday, I went up to McGroarty to meet with a few people about the facility and the grounds.  The former ED kept a lot to herself and if I am staying on ( and I plan to) as Facilities chair, I needed to know the state of the place and where we might be heading.  It was a nice meeting and I think we got a lot of misconceptions cleared up so we can move forward.  It's going to be an interesting time there, the next few years if all goes as planned.

We went to the Bolton Hall Centennial celebration.  I asked my husband if he liked living in a small town.  The celebration reminded me the S-T thinks of itself as a small town in a larger town.   Everyone knows everyone and I greeted a number of folks I knew there.  I have lived here about nine years now.  Time flies!

Chris' band, Ayin Aleph had their first show last night at the Whisky.  It was quite well attended and by all accounts a success.  People seemed to want more when the show ended.  What's the old show-biz adage "Always leave them wanting more"?   The band did about five songs.  Nice set.  The music is interesting a mix of baroque and metal, heavy and quite "dark"  They are playing somewhere in Pomona on Wednesday, but it's a "school night" for me so I am not going.  It's going to be hard enough to get through today on five hours sleep - Coffee, you magic elixir, do your stuff!

Where the heck is Tujunga?

I live in Tujunga, about 20 miles North of downtown Los Angels at the foot of the Angeles National Forrest.  To some people it's the back end of nowhere but I like it up here.    Rumor has it, Tujunga is a Tongva word, meaning "we will return"  If that's true, it must be because this is the place where they spent the hot summers and upon leaving it, needed to reassure each other they would come back here.  It can be a beautiful , peaceful place; especially up in the mountains where the Angeles National Forrest begins.  I moved up here after my first marriage broke up.  It was healing to be here.

Tujunga is far enough away from the City to be considered Rural.  We see wildlife, like deer and racoons and squirrels- LOTS OF SQUIRRELS ( more on that in a bit)  We are only about 20 minutes from Hollywood or Downtown LA, so nightlife is close.  That's a good thing, because they practically roll up the sidewalks here after 9 pm.  and good eateries?  Forget about it. I did join a Facebook page called "Food in the Foothills' hoping that someone would mention a place I had not tried, maybe rave about it.  I have high hopes for the Backdoor Bakery, which is in a new location, that they can expand their menu and be a real cafe.  I like the baked good I have had ,but the menu is still fairly limited.

There are two local "throw-away" papers up here.  One tries it's best to be the local paper, reporting only on local goings on and local politics.   The other seems to exist to slam people the editor doesn't like.  It's a train wreck of a paper, but I read it anyway, to get a feel of what those who are discontented with everything have to say.  This particular paper, I find interesting.  When I moved up here I grabbed a copy and  saw that they had, IN ALL SERIOUSNESS, provided a recipe for Squirrel Stew.   Now I KNOW there are lots of squirrels up here in the Foothills, but I am having real trouble coming up with a scenario where I would actually prepare and EAT one of them.  There is a squirrel who lives in the tree at the end of my building.  His stalks along the wall and glares at you as you go by.  Squirrels can be bold and I always hope the little sucker will STAY on his wall and not decide to leap on me.  I don't think I have ever seen a video of "when Squirrels Attack" but I don't want to be the first to have that happen either.

Meetings, talking and more meetings

Been a busy week.  I have slipped back into an odd sleeping pattern where I wake upmore tired than if I hadn't slept at all.  I am going to try to do more in the way of gentle exercise and reading.  Those two things may quiet my brain and readjust my rhythms so I get a good nights rest.

It doesn't help to have been running like a headless chicken all week.  On Monday, I met with a friend with whom I had had a MAJOR falling out, to clear the air.  It went well and although I will probably feel a bit more careful around her for a while, it is good to be back on some sort of track.  Tuesday was class at Kaiser.  I love Kaiser ( NOT) I  got a letter recently that I needed fasting blood work.  I had done blood work recently but I had NOT fasted before it was done.  I looked in my on-line messages and didn't see a lab ordered.  As this has happened before, I fast, take the morning off and go in only to discover that no lab has been ordered, I emailed my doctor.  Did I mention my doctor is on maternity leave and a BUNCH of other people are covering her?  Yeah.  Special.  So I get an email back addressed to MR Myers, telling me my last blood work was in April and I wasn't due until November.  uh... I KNOW they drew blood in July ( I thought it was the 6th, turns out it was the 23rd- whatever)  I emailed them back,telling them no I am MRS. Myers ( I could also technically be MISS Myers, but that's another story),.  They emailed me back telling me my last labs were done July 23.  No mention of anything else and since I just LOVE having blood drawn I will wait until closer to the November date to go back.  By then my doctor SHOULD be back to work!

Tonight Mayor Garcetti will be addressing my Union.  I am looking forward to meeting him.  I have hope that he will be better for the City than AnVil was.  A stuffed monkey that plays cymbals might have done a better job than AnVil!  I have been thinking about Los Angeles politics.  My memory goes back to Sam Yorty ( my dad called him "Traveling Sam" he was out of town so often.)  I met Mayor Bradley when as a new Mayor he came out tho talk to a bunch of us AP kids at San Fernando.  AP was a pilot project at SFHS- despite what anyone else says, SFHS had it first.  I remember being impressed with this thoughtful gentle man who took time out to talk to a bunch of highschool kids and answer all our questions.

This is going to be a week of meetings.  McGroarty Arts Center Board and staff will be on hand on Friday when the Council announces Arts Day for the City of LA.  I have no idea WHAT that is, really and I probably should get some background on it BEFORE we go into Council on Friday. ;)

Monday came back too quickly

So, it's Monday and I am going to try not to whine.  My broken toe is still bugging me but I really need to put things in perspective here.  It's just a toe.  Sure the pain shoots up my leg when I step wrong and I can't really exercise, but it will heal ( if I LET it heal) I think I keep re-injuring it, frankly.   So many of my friends are facing so much worse and with MUCH better grace than I am taking this stupid toe.  I need to remember that.

Had a dream last night about my mom.  She kept stroking my forehead and telling me to stay home from work today.  My Mother, who would go to work no matter HOW she felt.  It is from her that I got my work ethic, the drive that keeps me plugging away.  Sometimes I really feel like I am tilting at windmills, but I keep on.  Tempting though it is, I am headed in to work today.  LOTS on my plate already- and I'm not even there yet!

I am loving the feeling of Tai Chi.  I think it will work for me, just in terms of the calming effects it has.  I can't do much ( stupid toe)  but what I can do feels right.  Who knew?

Had an odd message from a friend and I won't go into detail, but since this person avoids talking to me when they see me and now this weird message, I can only assume our friendship has moved on.  It does make me sad and I wonder what happened to make this person change so drastically so quickly.  It may be true that people come into our lives for a reason, some for a short time, some for a long time.  I need to consider that sometimes friends cannot stay close forever; that people change and their needs or their desires change and you just have to let them go.  This friendship was a nice one.  If it is truly gone, I will miss it.

Thought for today.

I am probably going to get slammed for this, but here goes.

I was reading a discussion which touched on the fact that Trayvon Martin's parents were holding a press conference with the Association of Black Journalists and the writer posed the question about the need for such an Association.  Someone countered with an argument that since Racism needs two things to exist- one of those is power- the need for such groups will always exist.  It got me to thinking about it.  By creating a group that excludes others in your profession, aren't you saying that since you can't get a seat at the BIG  table, you are going to build your own table?  Ultimately, wouldn't it be better to KICK DOWN THE DOOR and DEMAND a seat at the table, than to go over in a corner and create a "separate but equal" space?  I am not talking about organizations based on cultural education or religion, as we need to teach our history to others so that we may, in knowing where we come from see where we are going. A friend of mine who had been in the military, who is gay, said that by creating and identifying groups by a classification, you eliminate the unity you hope to achieve.  I have to agree with that logic.  As long as we continue to identify and marginalize, we can never hope to have cohesion.

Books and other things I am thinking about while waiting for coffee

Do you think they will throw me out of the English Majors club if I admit I DO NOT ENJOY JANE AUSTEN NOVELS?  I don't.  I have tried, seriously, but Jane just makes me want to scream.  I had to read her in High School ( Pride and Prejudice)  UGH.  Again in College ( Sense and Sensibility- I think I needed Cliff notes for that one) Recently took a "which Jane Austen character are you" quiz and got Catherine Moreland from Northanger Abbey.  Tried reading that.    It's like pulling teeth.So fellow readers of good literature, what am I doing wrong here.  Any "Austenites" care to share the key to loving Jane?  I know there are whole groups of devotees and I want to know why I just can't get into Jane Austen.

I am also reading the Mortal Instrument series, in advance of the release of the film later this summer.  The book reminds me of an old Saturday Night Live skit "It's a floor wax, it's a dessert topping"  The book is all over the place, genre-wise.  It's a teen angst love story, a dystopian world although, it's set in the current world as well.  It's vampire, faerie  and werewolf lore mixed in with a new group of fantasy characters.  It's escapist fare at best, but the books take a lot of willing suspension of disbelief to make them work.

For the Record, I never read the "Twilight" series.  I tried about two pages gave up.

I am always looking for books recommendations.   When I worked in Branch Services, I was able to read the Library Journal and got a lot of great recommendations there.  In my new office, I don't see it anymore and I am constantly asking people "What are you reading"  I suppose I really need to get more into "Goodreads" to see what friends are reading.  That might help.

I checked out a cd- Tai Chi for  Beginners.  It looks like something even I , the world's least coordinated human being, might be able to do.  I need to do some form of exercise to help with a health issue .Nothing BAD, I just am resisting the need for additional meds right now.  My mom used to look at her morning "cocktail" of pills and say "If they give me any more pills, I won't need to eat"   People suggested Yoga, but I think my balance is so bad that I would fall over a lot.  Tai Chi has a lot of gentle movement to it.  I Am going to try it and see if it's a good fit.