Rabbit

Dad has given me many great gifts, a kind of natural instinct for how political stories will play, being unafraid in the face of power, my first bike that I named after the football player Jim Brown because it was both fast and tough, but one of my all time favorites is my friendship with Rabbit Angstrom. 

Rabbit missed making it into the triumvirate of great characters in American fiction (Queeg-Queeg, Holden Caulfield, Huck Finn), but his less than superstar status is part of his charm.  We never lived in a dying small town, but I feel like I know what it would be like to live in a dying small town because I know Rabbit.

I've often thought about what it means to be the son of mom from the leafy, railroad suburbs of Philadelphia and dad from the long muddy hills of rural, Western Pennsylvania.  Somewhere between those points in Pennsylvania is where Rabbit lived.  It is tempting to think about Rabbit's travails as a cautionary tale.

Rabbit scared me, but ultimately made me feel a little bit better about not exactly being the most successful guy in high school.  He also made it easier to be in places where I felt uncomfortable.  I knew I didn't want to end up in one of those places, but I also didn't want to feel so alienated from them that I couldn't relate.  

One of the best ways to conquer our fears is to know them better.  Therapy helps, take my word for it.  Rabbit died some years ago of heart attack he never had.  I kind of wish that he had been able to slip his collar at some point and been able to see beyond his limited stake, but none of us really get to do that. 

All this is roundabout way of saying thanks Dad!  Thanks for introducing me to one of our country's best and most consistent voices of reason.  The world is really a little shabbier now that Updike isn't around to help us understand its shabby beauty.  

hey, where is everybody?

I'm not the only one posting here, am I?

Had a wonderful tho brief visit to Marsh, Mel& Ramona last night on a work fly-by to Portland.  Ramona continues to be extremely adorable & talkative, and has mastered an excellent Pirate Look. Mel has been having some insomnia, but makes a mean chicken soup. Marsh is busy w bizness.

Drama here is that the union my organization is affiliated with, United Healthcare Workers-West, has been taken over by its parent union, SEIU International, for alleged financial improprieties. Our LA, Sacramento, and San Jose staff are now having to work from their homes because we shared offices with the union, and there are all kinds of picketing and other shenanigans going on in the offices.  My office in Oakland is so far unaffected, but it will be very interesting to see what happens in the next couple of weeks & months.  There's a chance that SEIU will try to merge us with a similar org they control in NYC...who knows. wish us luck!

Art and I are babysitting tonight for Ms. Agatha Hannah Sterkel, aged 2.  Luckily she seems to be sleeping soundly.

much love to all..

Post-party update

We raised $4748 for the SF Food Bank!  The place was packed basically from 6:30 (we opened at 6) until 9; we had to kick everyone out at 10:30.  Ran out of beer at 7:30 and had to send Art to get more - twice!  Lots of amazing outfits. See pics on facebook.  Wish you could've been there! We had a great time.  Happy to get back on the wagon today, tho.

It's finally here

I'm sitting here in our kitchen listening to the NPR coverage of the inauguration and wondering how I'm going to get through the day without crying too much...it is SO exciting that this day has finally come.  Spent most of yesterday shopping for the party in my Obama t-shirt, and was stopped again and again by people giving me a thumbs-up, or asking me where I got it...even at CostCo people smiled.

Bizarrely it seems that very few other people in town thought of having a big inaugural party, so we got listed in the Chronicle 3 times as *the* party to go to - which would be great except that we can only handle about 200-300 comfortably.  Am busy setting up contingency plans in case we are truly overrun and have to close the doors.

Art & I are both feeling mostly better, still with plentiful phlegm, but less fever & other symptoms.

much love to all of you!

school and ro and life in general

Dear Family,
Yesterday Ramona informed me of the following:

"An imaginary panda bear tickled me and I tackled him and we played basketball." Though I queried after the hows and wheres, I couldn't shake her from her story.

School began last week and is going well. I took everything Sara said about online/electronic teaching to heart and have endeavored to bring more "me" to the online format. It's working. The students are really engaged--to be fair, I lucked into a great crop. One student's "getting to know you" forum post detailed his youthful immersion in a fundamentalist culture that taught him that children's television (PBS) had a homosexual agenda, but he's feeling much better now. Both my face to face class and my online class have far fewer advanced placement high schoolers and more returnees looking for better jobs. It's deeply awesome to be with them. Again, they're reading Fast Food Nation and Michael Pollan, focusing on food topics, and will be viewing King Corn soon. I find that it helps the students to engage if we deal with one general topic throughout.

I scored a last-minute free ticket to see Michael Pollan speak last night. He was wonderful. It gave me great pleasure that his whole talk centered on the themes he introduced in the New York Times Sunday Magazine article that I have my students read--"Unhappy Meals", which you MUST read if you haven't (it became a chapter in In Defense of Food). Find it here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/28/magazine/28nutritionism.t.html

Basic focus: nutrition science has led to our separating food from Nutrients, prioritizing the latter, much to our detriment, advising us to concentrate on parts that may or may not function without the wholes they come from. We've also framed food as fuel, ignoring the other functions it serves--forging community, anchoring social experience, etc. I love that guy.

Marsh and I are both working hard and liking the work. There's a new Ramona article out about documenting our experience of her growing up (and failing to). It's here--just click on current issue, then scroll down to "Going Places With Ramona."

http://www.metro-parent.com/issues/jan09/index.html

There's a sweet pic of her at her 2nd birthday at my mom's place.

We love and miss you!
Mel

On being a sports fan...

Being a sports fan makes me a bit of social pariah in some circles, but there are some redeeming qualities to the habit.  It feels a little funny defending an avocation that is omnipresent and full of obvious flaws, but here goes...

First, being a sports fan is a bit of a rite of passage.  The first time I went to a professional, excuse me college, football game, I went with John Swanson, Steve Male and Dad.  I don't remember much about the game, but I do remember them sneaking me into the Rathskeller after the game. I carved a message not fit for a family blog into the table with my pocket knife.  I rode home with John Swanson who drove very fast!  I was one of the boys. 

Lifelong sports team allegiances are formed some time between 6th and 9th grade.  Unfortunately for me, we lived in Philadelphia during those years.  Cheering for Philadelphia's professional sports teams has been a life long chore.  With the sole exception of a somewhat unsatisfying NBA championship and this year's Phillies squad, being a Philly fan has been an exercise in futility. Until this year, more on that later.

Now, I know I need to address some of the obvious pratfalls of professional sports.  The most glaring and depressing is the way that professional sports teams hold local and state governments hostage to leverage public resources for private sports stadiums.  There really is no defense available for this practice.  The most egregious and recent example of this kind of bullshit is the way that the New York Yankees are working over New York to support the building of a new billion dollar plus stadium.  

The team just went looking for another couple hundred million in tax exempt bonds and they will likely succeed.  Right thinking politicians dive for cover, quaver or surrender when sports franchises come calling because it goes against every fiber in a politician's body to tell an organization that has a whole section of the newspaper as well as multiple television and radio channels dedicated to it to get lost.  Regularly turning out tens of thousands of paying customers is also a little intimidating to politicians that regularly have to work hard to turn out a couple of hundred people for free event in a church basement. 

Count that as a mea culpa.  

For the record, I also detest the name of the football team from Washington DC, or more correctly now, Landover, MD.  Using a racist moniker as a team name is simply unconscionable.  I'm not sure how they continue to get away with it.  It's one of those things that people will look back on and cringe, like we do now about people performing in blackface.  The basketball franchise in DC wised up a decade or two ago about how dumb it was to call their team the Washington Bullets.

The most specious argument that people often use to attack professional sports involves profession athletes' salaries.  I hate it when I hear people complaining about professional athletes' salaries.  It doesn't feel like a coincidence to me that most of the professional athletes whose salaries people complain about are black or brown.  CEO compensation is getting an increasing amount of attention, but it is rarely discussed in the same derisive way that people talk about athletes' salaries.  

In blatant attempt to hang on to whatever audience I have left, I'll skip the ten paragraph explanation of median athlete salaries, average career span, percentage of athletes who fall into poverty after their playing days are over, etc...  Suffice it to say that if it makes sense to pay Angelina Jolie 20 million for each film she is in, I've got no problem with Brian Westbrook making 4 million dollars a year. 

That brings me to the reason I'm writing.  No Philadelphia team has held me in its thrall more than the Philadelphia Eagles.  I've suffered through roughly 30 years of cheering for this team. I was a fan when Ron Jaworski, the Polish Rifle, was the quarterback.  I've watched improbable victories happen as if the gods themselves reached down from the sky to alter the course of human events.  But, more often, I've seen the team snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. 

The Eagles and Eagles fans in particular have bad reputations.  One of my favorite players as a kid was the Eagles hard hitting safety Andre Waters.  His nickname: Dirty Waters.  Eagles fans are famous for booing and throwing battery encrusted snow balls at Santa Claus.  Old, now blown up, Veterans Stadium (how do you get away with blowing up Veterans Stadium in favor of Lincoln "Subprime" Financial Field?) had the distinction of being the only sports stadium in the country with its own police precinct, complete with cells. 

This year was the year that the window for winning a championship for this iteration of the Eagles was to have closed.  They have had an amazing run over the last decade, but they have never one the last, big game.  As recently as December, there was open talk in Philly about trading our fantastically talented and charismatic quarterback, Donovan McNabb (Philly fans booed when the team selected him in the draft and the relationship has never really been repaired, which seems oddly appropriate). 

Improbably, the Eagles have mounted a late season run of luck and skill that has them poised to go to the Super Bowl if they win this Sunday.  I feel a little guilty about how happy and excited I am about this.  It'll cost me a couple of hours and suffering through a hundred or so ads for cars I'll never buy, to watch the game, but that's about it.  And if you want a taste of a perfect pop song and some early 80s video work that perfectly captures exactly what I'm thinking about right now, go find the Jam's song That's Entertainment on YouTube, because I can't figure out how to embed the link. 

Sports have launched millions of conversations between strangers.  I had a mini debate about the Eagles collapse in the 1980 Super Bowl in a coffee shop this week.  Believe it or not the guy thought the Eagles had won.  At the end of the day, that's why sports feels important to me.  It creates bonds between strangers that make us less like strangers to each other.

Thanks for hanging with me until the end of this screed.  I've gotta go to bed.  I love ya.

Marsh

Party-planning Galore

Today marks our  first full week on the wagon and we are feeling quite good about it - well, I'm feeling good, but Art is sick with a cough & fever.  We've been treating him with regular doses of Wal-Tussin, Tylenol, tea, Tom Kha Ghai, chocolate chip cookies, and The Shield (our new addiction - we're on season 2 already).

I am deep in party prep for the Inaugural Ball - check out our site at www.sfelectricworks.com/ball.  So far 50-some people have RSVPed on facebook.  Trying to decide how much food to buy - any suggestions?

I've been trying to get Art to post, but he says he's not a blogger. He'll be ready to play banjo carols by next Christmas...love to you all!

Joy to the World

There is one thing I feel bad about concerning our time in Mexico, and that's that we never got to hear Art play the banjo. We got to hear him practice, and that was quite impressive. But I am very mad at myself for never suggesting that our caroling be accompanied by our own resident strummer. It is VERY exciting to finally have someone in the family who has an instrument and can play it and we missed our chance.
I'm thinking that maybe Lucy will have him play at the Inaugural Ball....with new words that are coming to me even as I type.
It's a sunny day here, which means Cappy and I are headed up the hill. After that, a gluten free pineapple upside down cake for Kathe and Mike, who are coming to help de-decorate tonight (they think it's just for dinner).
Hope all are having a satisfying Friday and that you, Art, will forgive me for not having insisted that we hear you.
Much love to all.
mama

Joy to the World

Construction notes -- yesterday we ran into the church's sewer line. It was directly in the path of the new line for our new building and not flowing the way it should. Enough said. So, we've improved the line for the Four Squares and made space for our line. Today, it was an unexpected water line -- for the irrigation system for the back yard. What next? Today's question is do we spend three times the estimate for better insulation. It's a couple thousand dollars more, but will pay for itself in three to five years. I guess it's a go. Last night, Marshall's new enterprise got a surprise endorsement, not by name but by business type, from the local state senator who chairs a legislative energy committee. He said he had been working with the city of Ashland for 18 months on trying to install solar panels on his office building, but finally gave up. He told a community meeting that doing energy efficiency improvements on your own was too difficult and that people should hire energy brokers, who do all the work for you including applying for all energy savings and rebate programs. It sounded as if he was reading from Marshall's business plan. We had sad news yesterday from RD 3 -- Chip has cancer and the vet told Art that nothing can be done. Chip's had a sore spot on his right front leg that Art thought was from a bump, but it turns out to be a cancerous growth. He's on pain pills. They are, of course, upset. Dad

This getting back to school thing has been a bear. I haven't liked the last two days. The ultra- autistic student (I know not the correct term) had a difficult day yesterday. Spent 99% of the time off task on the floor, in the cubbies, etc. Told me he had a gun and wanted to kill someone. Then told me he was kidding. I sent out an epistle to all the powers-that-be about the day. Consequently, "his grandmother didn't treat him like a grandson last night" was the first comment he made during his before school check-in this morning. Then I ran into the corner of the coat rack. It's raining and cold here. Jeff Maclay, an obnoxious 5th grade student asked me what's better Proactive or Neutrogena to treat zits! The school day ended with Tiwan Moore, Monica Hernandez, and Taylor Watson voluntarily singing "Stop in the Name of Love" in preparation for Saturday's PTA-sponsored MoTown dance. When we opened the front door after a great dinner at Silver's chic Jackie's, Eddie sheepishly climbed out of the wing chair.  What will tomorrow bring? 

Twelfth Night in Ashland --- Dia de Reyes

Hello there, all you dearests....
This has been a busy day for your parents. Our long winter's nap segued into a trip to the Y. My 2009 routine of aerobics plus the pool and hot tub got changed yesterday by the orthopedic surgeon, who gave me a cortisone shot. I'm still waiting for it to work, which he says will happen tomorrow. Then I'm not to do anything at all with my shoulder for two weeks. After that, back to the physical therapy and hope for the best. Tiresome.
We were busy all day cleaning and babysitting. We have guests arriving for the house --- student from Hawaii looking at SOU. Then we baby-sat for Cicily while Zoe had a massage and that gig segued into all three Beaureguard girls here for 2 hours while Oona taught a class. We had a riot of an afternoon. First some snacks (this is what always calms Nellie down), then a scavenger hunt and then we all made carrot baby cakes. EVERYONE participated fully. Then it was time for a story and then it was time for lighting the candles that make Mary (the lady, according to Zoe) and Joseph twirl.
All in all a happy time. We are happy to be babysitters and wish we had Ramonita closer by.
This evening we have the Guanajuato group coming for Dia de Reyes at the condo. Dad's been working on some Cuban pork for more than 24 hours. Last time he made it --- with Sara's pork --- it was so popular it never made it out of the kitchen. People came out to see it and ate it on the spot. Angelica's bringing a Rosta de Reyes and is threatening to invite people in off the street to help eat it because apparently it's very bad luck if the entire Rosta's not eaten.
LOVED seeing pictures of the Obama girls starting at SFS. Am trying to imagine their father at his first Meeting for Worship.
Dad is defintely part of the Runkels-on-the-wagon crew, while I am not. There has been a definite curtailment, however.
Contrary to my last report, we have launched the project. Just as we thought we were going to pull the plug, we awoke to the city digging up the street for the utilities and the bank issuing the $$. John contends he'll be able to get it done in plenty of time by using some pre-fab stuff. We're beginning to make choices for doors, etc.
I am certainly glad not to be a wise woman trying to find Bethlehem tonight, dodging rockets and tanks. This comes with my fervent hope that peace and common sense may come to this part of the world before very long.
Our best love to all,
mama

Chilly in CA

So happy to see folks chiming in - Sara? Andy?  (I talked to Sara yesterday and she said she'd check it out but was busy with Shed Construction)

Not much to report from San Pancho Norte. I made Runkel-sized pots of ratatouille & watercress soup on Fri. and we've been eating on them ever since, with help from some friends of Art's , and my old college friend Mark McArdle and his wife and son yesterday.  Went to see Milk again (Art didn't come the first time) and liked it just as much. 

We've been to 2 yoga classes so far in 2009; a 'Restorative' (aka 'Napping in comfy positions') class on New Year's day, and a Yoga 101 class on Saturday.  Yoga 101 was a bit too much karma-chakra-dogma for me, but I think I finally get the difference & transition between plank, chattaranga, and upward dog, so I guess that's worth it.  Going to try out a couple more this week.

Yesterday I met with Molly & Ty and some friends who have an art gallery to plan our Inaugural Ball.  Hope I haven't bit off more than I can chew with that project - but it's worth giving it a try.

We're only on day 2 of our wagon-trip, so not much to report there. Heading out now to pick Jimena up at the airport after her trip east to her sister's wedding.

Still cherishing the joy of our time in MX - particularly the games of catch in the waves, reading Julius 17 times to Ramona, listening to Lessons & Carols while wrapping presents and looking at the ocean, eating lots of yummy guac, and spending time with all of you!

love, lucy

We Heart the Wagon/PDX snow

Hi Lovelies!
I'm sipping chamomile tea in my pajamas while Marsh reads Ramona to sleep after a bath with girlie: these days, Ramona chooses who should "do bath" and who should "do bed." I got to to do bath.

We've had a pretty sweet week of sober, which hasn't been too tough--the not smoking, however, has been more challenging, but we're just barreling ahead with it. I have eaten about 1,000 pounds of baby carrots and drunk roughly a cistern full of herbal tea, but I'm pretty determined. It's good news.

I actually credit Mexico with giving me an entirely new perspective. When we went bird watching with the guide so early in the morning, a young, healthy person who talked at length about his wife and their kids, conjuring this image of a healthy foursome up at 5 am drinking juice and playing, seeing the world wake up together, it really touched me. It's a great time to experiment with being healthier, being up and clear in the morning.

One of my friends who is a yoga fiend referenced a strand of yogic thought that suggests that the human body/spirit corresponds to the globe: you have to actually move about the world to sort of turn on the lights in various neighborhoods of your spirit. Mexico feels important to me. Thanks so much for bringing us there, and for being there, all.

Give our love to Nana, Sara. I hope that we can plan to be in the same place again soon!
XOXO,
Mel

It's Saturday...Let's go to polo tonight!

Good morning, all....
We LOVE the idea of a blog and will be willing contributors, we promise. The longer we're away from Casa Linda, the more luster the whole vacation accrues. It exceeded our greatest expectations in every sense. Little snatches of life there keep coming to me. Finding the fish man adjacent to the church. The smell of cologne in the church on Christmas eve and sitting behind the woman with perfect pitch who began every response. Her husband would always look at her in wonder as she did it, and then begin to sing himself. The water washing my feet just as they were getting too sandy. Reading in bed in the morning. Reading as I air-dried in the afternoon. The sight of those huge bowls of food. Ramona's eternal promise about the cannonball and how she became bilingual by the end, telling us, "Manana!"
Happy news is that Bert was delighted with our feedback and is sending a $500 refund. Here's what he said:

Now we have to clean out the cistern, and the septic which are scheduled for next week.
The big one is bringing more water trucks until the new water system
is in high gear. We all saw this comming and formed a water coop 4
years ago. I hosted 4 graduate students from University of
Guadalajara, who did a graduate project on the towns water. blah blah
blah. We are almost there with a new well and line but not quite.
Sorry !!

We are trying to sort out 2008 and commence serious planning for next year. 'On the verge of pulling the plug on The Project for lack of progress and fear it will interfere too greatly with the early season.
Important highlights this week were Nana's return home and Sara's assumption of important caretaking duties until she regains her strength. The Visiting nurse will be helping with regular visits and daily telephone contact, but Sara has become Nurse Jane, and I'm sure is ably backed up by Nurse Andy. We are incredibly grateful that she's there; Nana would definitely have had to go into a facility had she not been there (and been on vacation!). We had talked to Art the night before Nana got home and he assured us she'd be in the hospital at least another few days, which would give him time to check into other alternatives. To everyone's shock and amazement, the doctor discharged her early the next morning. A HUGE surprise for all, not least of which Nana. She didn't think she was ready to be discharged. But we talked to her New Year's Day and she was heavy into the parade and the game --- said she thought PSU would lose by 10. Hat's off to Sara and Andy.
As you know, Nan was here when we got home and we had a terrific time with her. It was bittersweet for her on two accounts -- one, that Gordon is sinking into dementia which makes her daily life an ongoing challenge, with little respite and two, she was overcome with jealousy for our vacation, as she's never been able to get her family to commit to such a thing, even with her paying!
We are feeling blessed, and want you all to know that.
d and D

Hello & welcome!

Having a group blog was Mel's idea originally and I liked it enough to take the 5 min to set this up. Wouldn't it be fun if we each posted something 2-3 times a week with little updates about our lives?  Give it a try...