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Friends and Family
"It's a poor sort of memory that only works backwards"
Baggens - Thu, 2010-03-11 15:00
For the past year or so I have been continually intrigued by the concepts of incidence, co-incidence, presentments, intentions, and of course synchronicity. This interest remains and I am constantly on the alert once I grab my coat and keys and move outside into the jumble of worldly things and people where one never really knows what will happen next.
I've lived for some time now with suspicions that everything is connected by some vast mysterious medium although it would appear on the local level that very little is connected. At least that's what we get from sight, sound, touch, smell, taste and of course the most important experiencing/reacting part of us all.. our feelings.
When not in the same locality where we may see and touch or talk in a direct or alternating current sort of way, we must necessarily use our email and telephone and Skype and Facebook to connect with others, insufficient as those electronic inventions of medium so often are.
The question has come upon me: Can intentions (conscious or not) lead to (or create) coincidental presentments that in turn connect us up and move us toward fulfilling or manifesting the intent?
It doesn't matter whether the intentions are, for what we may describe as "good" or as "evil". It is the intent from the intender (not sure that's a word) that I am compelled to wonder if there is another, more meaningful, immediate, localized as well as ubiquitous, incredibly vast energy field that we are all part and parcel of, observable and unobservable.
Science almost says it is so. Waves and particles and packets and strings (blah blah) existing everywhere, connecting all things, all events, all Time in one Great interlacing multiple-dimensional interacting Soup of Life.
Back to being little and a simple question: If you look for trouble does trouble begin to look for you?
I say it does. But why? and how?
Somehow the force that one puts out eventually kicks back the same in essence. (different events, different time.. same essence.. so maybe there is some kind of objective justice here)
The "kickback" is seldom right away in our linear time paths but does it, regardless of time (and multiple lives if there really is such a thing) come back to the source, the "essence point" from whence it emanated?
One may substitute anything one likes for the word "trouble" and the question remains.
If one intentionally, consciously looks for, or "puts out" (fill in the blank) does that then put into motion certain esoteric waves of energy that at some point begin to flow back to the source from which it came?
If I do good works towards others, do good works eventually return to me?
If I exhale am I then compelled to inhale? (ok, that may be an unfair analogy)
This idea of acausal connecting principles is something that I have become fascinated by.
Are there these acausal connecting principles at work constantly? Or....
am I, as we humans are given to do, making something out to be more than what is? Sometimes "a cigar is just a cigar" and nothing more and we all should stop making something out to be more than what it is, often imagining and making something out of nothing.
Still... sometimes... random coincidence, events and people presenting something new that leads us along new pathways in our time goes beyond all the odds.
It just does." title="Atom feed">Site Feed
Categories: Friends and Family
Pasta, fully loaded
Kate, Girl Reporter - Tue, 2010-03-09 10:53
Last month, while on our annual visit to dear friends down in Sarasota, we enjoyed a massive and fabulous meal at a Tapas restaurant in town. (I also got to be the designated driver for the first time, thanks to the restaurant’s slight delay in seating us and the decision of the non-pregnant members of [...]
Categories: Friends and Family
The basics: Split pea soup
Kate, Girl Reporter - Thu, 2010-03-04 15:13
I was going to post a pasta recipe today, but the view from my window (grey skies, something between snow and rain) is one that requires soup. This is one of those recipes that I just have to post in case you don’t have a favorite already. Split pea soup is the easiest thing in [...]
Categories: Friends and Family
Stupidly simple fresh pastries, no work required
Kate, Girl Reporter - Mon, 2010-03-01 13:34
This is a lazy thing to post about, but I consider it a public service announcement. You guys. I don’t know how many of you share my emotions on the subject of pastry, but I bet it’s a high percentage. I can’t get enough of good buttery pastries, mainly of the flaky croissant family, and pain [...]
Categories: Friends and Family
A Note on Policy
Treslervania - Sat, 2010-02-27 12:26
There is a definite part of me that is a bit of a policy wonk. This part is diametrically opposed to the part of me that despises needless bureaucracy. However, I just want to point out a little observation regarding recent events.
Haiti had no policies in place to guard against earthquakes. If they did, they went largely unobserved.
Chile has been drilling earthquake preparedness into the public sphere for 40+ years. This morning they were hit with an earthquake roughly 1000 times the strength of the one that hit Haiti.
Estimated dead in Haiti: in excess of 230,000.
Estimated dead in Chile: currently around 120.
I don't really think that the two situations are directly comparable. Economics, culture, government, etc all play parts in how things unfold, however, I do think it is worth noting these results are due almost solely to government public policy.
Obviously, I don't think that the government is the solution to everything or even most thing. And please, don't think I am in any way suggesting or placing blame for either of these disasters at anyone's feet. However, anyone who tells me that public policy isn't effective can go suck an egg.
Categories: Friends and Family
This is a dream I had last night, you
Rose - Wed, 2010-02-24 07:44
This is a dream I had last night, you don't have to read it, I just wanted to write it down.
----
I had a dream there was a scare that the US was under nuclear attack. At the time I was in DC. THere were warnings all over the radio and television, in the air. The warnings said to go home, go home as fast as you could. So I tried to get to NYC, but the only flight available ended up diverted to Denver because of a blizzard.
The dream then picks up in Denver, where I've been living for a couple of weeks. I'm living in a back room at a japanese/italian restaurant. There's a password protecting the door of my room, the password is green. I'm concerned about getting word to my family that I am ok. Old mail starts coming through, my family sent me a package of candy. Its all seasonal, but most of it is past season, like they went to the store and bought the sale candy from Halloween and Valentines day. There are just a few Easter pieces in there, a gesture for the upcoming holiday.
All my friends who are pregnant had their babies during this tumultuous time, and they look great and the babies are great. But the babies are too old to be only a few weeks old. They are a year old, a year and a half. And they are smart and fat and I love holding them.
Categories: Friends and Family
Mega-stir fry vegetable explosion
Kate, Girl Reporter - Tue, 2010-02-23 17:47
Thanks to everyone for your well-wishes and sweet comments on the last post! I have definitely noticed a shift in…not tastes, so much as food desires since I got pregnant. Well, in the last few weeks since I started eating again, anyway. I have never been a girl to turn up her nose at things like [...]
Categories: Friends and Family
Big news: Why I wasn’t cooking
Kate, Girl Reporter - Tue, 2010-02-16 12:54
Ok, I finally feel like I can put this out there: I actually had a legitimate reason for completely flaking out, food- and blog-wise, for a couple months there. The Girl Reporter household is adding a new member this summer; we’re expecting a Flaimlet! I’m due in August, and I cannot express how repulsive food [...]
Categories: Friends and Family
KITTEH!
Rose - Wed, 2010-02-10 16:13
I found a kitty yesterday!
I was walking out of a tutoring session, and there were all these dudes milling around outside the construction site next door - some construction guys, and a random pedestrian. They were all surrounding this black kitten, who was meowing his head off. The guys were all somewhat concerned about the cat, who had apparently been wandering there and meowing for an hour. But none of them had the slightest idea what to do about it.
I had no idea either, but I scooped up the kitten anyway. He was freaked out, but he didn't try to bite or scratch. The dudes were all very relieved that someone had taken action, which I thought was kind of hilarious. I totally saved the day.
I wandered around the village holding the cat for like, 20 minutes, wondering what the fuck to do. I called Jen and she suggested I take the cat to our vet, get him checked out. Good idea. I got a box to put him in from a pet store, and we rode the subway to the upper east side.
A zillion dollars later, the cat was fine all along. They gave him some vaccinations, tested him for FIV (he tested negative). I thought about boarding him there, but that would be another zillion dollars a day, so I just ended up taking him home. He's living in our bathroom now, and on Saturday, he's going to live with Jen's mom in Connecticut. He's wary of his new surroundings, but in his calmer moments, he's very affectionate. I've never had a cat, so its been fun getting to know him.
Categories: Friends and Family
Jen and I have been engaged for a while
Rose - Sun, 2010-02-07 14:33
Jen and I have been engaged for a while now, and we told everyone and we've been walking around talking about making wedding plans and everything has been about as non-secret as you can get. But I have to day, getting an engagement ring really took everything to a whole new level of serious.
If you're going to get an engagement ring, get it at Tiffany. They ply you with booze! I only had one glass of champagne, but the friendly salesman assured me that they had scotch, and all other likely spirits at our disposal, should we call for them. And you get a cute little strawberry shortcake petit four! And of course, shiny shiny diamonds.
I told Jen I didn't demand jewels of any sort, much less from Tiffany, but she really wanted to do this, and she wanted to do it classy style. In the end, really, it was a very lovely and special experience. I felt lady-like. I felt treasured.
We went last week, just a drop in, to check out ring styles. Then on Friday we went back to make the final purchase. Jen went ahead, to collaborate with friendly salesman on the price and size situations. She picked out three options, which were waiting for me (along with champagne and cute petit four) when I arrived a half hour later. I made the final selection, and since this is a lesbian fairy tale of course it was the one Jen had liked best for me all along. They sized it overnight and Saturday afternoon I was walking around, bedazzled.
I'm quite familiar with the concept of significant symbols, cultural shorthand that conveys meaning etc.. Seeing social interactions as performative is something that has always been my tendancy and is now just even more deeply ingrained, given the fact that I have a freakin' master's degree in that bullshit. But as much as I understand these things, or maybe because I do, I perform my life in an anti-performative way sometimes. Major events are not a big deal. I don't want to have to make announcements or be watched. Turns out...an engagement ring is a big ol' show.
Everyone's understanding of our relationship, our intentions, was immediately clarified. And this is for people who knew we were planning a wedding. People who've known our 6 and a half year relationship from the get go. It's great, I feel really wonderfully supported by all my family and friends. But its just funny/strange, you can explain and explain but flash a ring and everyone's like, ok, done.
Which is the point of the whole wedding. We know what we mean. And other people do to, as relates to their individual relationships to us. But going public is a whole different level of visibility and activation for our relationship. I KNOW all this. I KNOW this is why marriage equality is crucial and why is tragic that we're in the ridiculous state we're in this issue. But its very educational to actually feel what I knew to be true.
Is it gauche to post a picture? Is it activist? Either way, you're getting one.
Categories: Friends and Family
Serious Pie
Kate, Girl Reporter - Wed, 2010-02-03 10:38
I just haven’t been cooking, guys. Ben has been super busy and we haven’t had a lot of dinners at home, and when we have I’m afraid I’ve been doing a lot of pizzas (built on crusts from WF, agh) and salads. I keep going to iPhoto looking for something to upload and blog but [...]
Categories: Friends and Family
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