Hiatus

This is my #444 post--a very inauspicious number in Chinese culture ("four" sounds like "death") but if you add them up and add them up again, you end up with 3 (4 +4+4=12, 1+2=3), so let's go with the auspicious number three.

After my little respite in the woods, I've decided to retire the blog indefinitely. I'll put up occasional posts about events and readings, but otherwise, I'm going to try to take a break from interfacing with people via the web.

So perhaps I'll see you via email--or better yet--at the local bar?

Little House in the Big Woods

A little over a week ago, I was in New York, racing through the Met with my friend Jeffrey to check out the Francis Bacon exhibit before the museum closed, and then we headed downtown to meet his friends for drinks and then dinner at Schiller's, where, when we got the bill, I pointed out they had charged us for two carafes of wine and then was told, no, we drank two carafes of wine. I was just too wined up to notice.

And then, in about 36 hours, I went from that to a quiet cabin outside Nevada City, so far away from anything that it is "off the grid," that magical land of solar energy and well water (and an "outhouse," albeit a nice one) where on my first night I heard a little bear shushing itself against the side of the house. Well, it might have been a wild boar or any manner of large, furry, shushing-type snorting animal, as I was too scared to peek out to see, and I was bewildered by my dogs' lack of notice. They just kept snoring. I am about a quarter mile from the nearest house, there is no internet, tv, or radio. Just food, dogs, books, and my mind, which is an okay place to inhabit, though I notice that the urban world affords a lot of defenses that help one avoid thinking too deeply about things one might feel more comfortable ignoring. Without those defenses, I am supposed to write, but I also find myself running over relationships, pondering regrets, dreaming of long lost friends and I get a bit achey. (But hey--at least there's no immediate internet so I am prevented from sending out emails I might regret!)

The cabin is owned by a former professor of mine, and he is within yelling distance (sound travels well in the woods!). He has been wonderfully hospitable, checking up on me, offering me use of his library, providing better conversation than the dogs (though they are quite good listeners, even if my stories put the little one to sleep).

So that is where I'll be for at least another week: watching my dogs spin around delightedly in piles of dead leaves and hearing my footsteps on gravel against the backdrop of birdsong.

"Slow-food Organic Radio"

Hi Friends, I'll be on West Coast Live this Saturday, June 6. The show runs on KALW 91.7 in SF from 10-12, but it also streams online. Additionally, the show is recorded in front of a live studio audience! And if you are looking for something fun to do Saturday morning, and would like to spend a nice morning in Napa, you can be part of that studio audience because tickets are for sale. I'm linking their site with all streaming/ticket/show info here.

ok, pitch over. :)

Ron Takaki, 1939-2009

He passed away last night.

Vacation!

Only one more set of bluebooks, then enter the grades into my magic grade calculating program and I am on summer vacation. I'll be taking a break from the blog for a bit...See you in June!

In the meantime, check out one of my favorite blogs: http://evyan-r-osborne.blogspot.com/
She lives in Texas, and in addition to blogging about life and books, she tells great, sometimes funny and sometimes sad and always entertaining, stories about the women in her family.

Here's a taste from a recent post:

We live in a rural part of Fort Worth. This past weekend, we were preoccupied with our niece and nephew. In the quiet of the evening, we suddenly hear a male voice and loud cries from a horse, not neighing, but cries...I go out to the porch. I see a fat, sturdy drunk male on top of a horse, kicking deep into its sides yelling, "You do as I say...when I say...like I say...[kick, stab, kick, whip] you heh? Get yo ass over heh! [whip, kick, whip, kick, kick, kick] As I say...I'mo teach you...As I say!" It went on more than one can imagine...I was in disbelief...angry...I wanted to call someone...the police...is there such a thing as animal abuse police? Later, I told Gera, "That's the kind of motherfucker who beats the hell out of a woman." He looks at me and says, "You don't know that." I said, "My grandmother taught me how to recognize that kind."