Lotus Love

May Madness.

Officially in the last month of school.  One of my best years ever, student wise.  Just hate to send this bunch off to high school.  In fact, we joke that we'd love to keep this group for another year and let the seventh grade make the jump early.  (Really cheering for mega-maturing over the summer for that bunch.)

Anyway, things are nuts.  Today I bound 175 student projects that now must be graded by next Thursday.  Going to be "stuck" at home Saturday (still no car) and look forward to being a prisoner to the garden.  Had my follow-up with the neurologist to get the results of my tests to  determine if I really did just faint in September, or if I had a seizure.  Never did hear from the DMV, but if they do get in touch, I can assure them I just fainted.

I've been trying to remember to check the pond every day.  Last summer I invested in a lotus, Mrs. Perry D. Slocum.  She's doing extremely well.

I think by summer she will have filled her little pond with leaves and I'm optimistic that I'll see flowers this year.  Which is why I try to remember to check every day.  I don't want to miss the show.

While I was checking today I noticed several new leaves appearing.  When I looked closely, I learned something delightful about how lotus leaves unfurl.

The lotus has two special meanings for me.  First, my grandchild in Japan's name is related to the lotus flower.

And the lotus flower is the flower of rebirth.  Rebirth is what I've been all about for the last three years, and to live in love and gratitude is the theme that has been developing for my new life. 

I was tickled to see Lotus Leaf Love.

The usual stuff...

...isn't working.

Don't know where this mood came from.  Waning moon, maybe.

Normally, if I get into a place like this, just reminding myself of how much about my life I love helps.  Spending time in the garden helps.  Anticipating fun stuff to come helps.

Today it's not.  Helping.

I did take a walk in the garden.

I had chopped off about half of my favorite plant, geum 'Totally Tangerine', a few weeks ago and planted some of the pieces into 1-gallon pots.  I am delighted that they are all thriving, shooting up new leaves and buds.  Not sure where I'll plant them - eventually - but I am gratified that the experiment worked.

It's been a couple of years since I've had sweet peas, my favorite flower.  This year I bought them in 4" pots at Roger's Gardens in Corona del Mar rather than try to grow them from seed.  They're just starting to bloom and should be wonderful well into the summer.  Trick with sweet peas is to cut cut cut the flowers so they don't go to seed.

Oh gee darn.

Brugmansia 'Creamsicle' is blooming like crazy.   The hydrangea wall is in bud.  (Need to go blue a couple up.)  I have a half dozen plants to put in the ground, too.  I should get that done today.

But I'm still chomping at the bit.  Astrologically, I'm a Cancer (or rather, I guess we're Cancerians, now) on the cusp with Gemini.  Gemini is making herself known and Cancer doesn't know what to do with her.  Gemini wants to get in a car and start driving for a few days, just to see something new.  Or on a plane.  Or a ship.

For some reason, cruises keep presenting themselves to my imagination.  One of my colleagues took his family on a Disney cruise to Alaska last year and they had a blast.  This year another colleague had a happy financial circumstance and so he and his wife decided to take their kids on a Disney cruise this summer.  They both like to talk about it.  In front of me.  Then, out of the blue, my sister starts talking about wanting to take a Disney cruise.  Well, yeah, sure it's something I'd love to do someday,  Disney Geek that I am.  And normally I would be saying "Wow, three mentions in a row!  Can't be a coincidence, let's go!"

Ka-ching.

Not going to happen.  Not yet, anyway.

And so, here I am, trying to make lemonade.

Or, maybe roseade?

Yeah yeah yeah.  It's a gorgeous day.  My roses are gorgeous.  My Fairy Garden is gorgeous and on its way to more gorgeous.  There are baby mourning doves in one of the orange trees.  The goldfinches are back to gossiping at the nyger feeder. I have a fine dog snoring at my feet.  I spent a peaceful yesterday stitching on a quilt at my Mom's, then going for a fabulous salad at a favorite restaurant.

No complaints.

Except that something is missing. 

Something is off.

It will pass.  It always does.  But in the meantime...

Confounding.

Honestly, I don't know...

... whether I want an adventure or just an escape.

Or if I'm just feeling the effects of the planets.

But I sure am restless.

And bored.

Actually...

... it's all I really want. 

Well, it's all right.

I'm just glad to be here, happy to be alive.

Loved these guys.  This song always raises my spirits.

My Car.

Sigh.

She looks good, doesn't she?

The SUV was mine for several years.  I loved driving her.  She took me to Utah a couple of times a year.  I loved setting the cruise control and listening to an audiobook for 800 miles through some stunning country.

Countless trips to Disneyland, sometimes by myself and sometimes with loved ones.

She took me to the midwest (via the quilt shop circuit) with my Mom three different times, and one of those times I drove her solo to from Kansas to Indiana (or was it Illinois? long story) to spend a few days with a friend and see Henry V. 

And into Los Angeles for adventures in creativity.

And then she got sick.  And the mechanic's diagnosis was serious.  To the tune of $5,000.  As a start.  And I had to give her up.  He told me he wanted her for a shop car.  The Blue Book was $2500, and he was looking at having to put at least $3000 into her just to get her going.  My gut said to give her to him, and so we made a deal.  He took my car (a relief) and I didn't have to pay for the diagnostics.  Plus, if I decided to buy a used car, he would do two free inspections for me.

There are three adults living in this house, and two cars.  I'm the only one with a full-time job, and I can walk to work.  It has been a gift.  I have loved walking to work.  When I need a car, I use one of the other two.  It works.

I had not missed her.

Until I saw this picture on facebook.  Apparently he finished the work, and Bess the Shop Car is now hauling his little bug to car shows.

It gave me a pang.  Kind of like seeing an old boyfriend with his new love.  Not that I would want him back, but still...

Just a touch of melancholy mixed in with the nostalgia.

Sniff.

On a happier note...

Mrs. Perry D. Slocum is busting out with leaves.  I think I counted seven.  She really liked being fed.  And now I am hopeful for flowers.

The lotus is associated with rebirth and spiritual awakening.  Since that's pretty much where I've been living for the last three years or so, I guess it's appropriate.

Happy Birthday, George Takei

 

George Takei says, "My life's mission--my legacy--is to tell the story of the Japanese American internment. I've worked for 4 years on this show and, by gosh, now we're headed to Broadway! "

He would like to see his musical, Allegiance, which tells that story, get more likes than The Book of Mormon.  Head over and give him a click for his birthday! 

Sara Bareilles

I. LOVE. THIS.

Most Fridays I start my classes with what I call Video Friday.  I told my students at the beginning of the year that I would be sharing stuff - usually music - that I love and think they might not get a chance to see otherwise.  I've shared everything from the Gay Men's Chorus of Los Angeles singing "Channukah in Santa Monica" (I'm saving their powerful performance of "We Belong" for the end of the year) to John Green's beginning of the school year piece (hilarious).

Yesterday I shared this new video by Sara Bareilles.  My son introduced me to Sara a few months ago, then gave me her Kaleidoscope Heart album for Christmas.  My very favorite Sara song is "Let The Rain," which I posted here a while back.  But this new song may just nudge it out, or at least join it at the top of my list.

To be honest, I didn't make the connection about what happened in the classes that day until after I'd been home a while.  I was doing a lesson in which I asked students to come up with some ideas for a list we were going to work with.  I gave them a few minutes to talk in groups about their ideas, then asked them to share the ideas so I could write them on the board.  Students who, in an entire school year, have never - NEVER - N.E.V.E.R. - raised their hands, had their hands up and volunteered to participate.  Yeah, sometimes I'm slow to make the connections, but I eventually get there.

I believe they were encouraged by this video to "say what they want to say."  To "let the words fall out."

Honestly.

As the last class left, I heard one girl say to her friend, "I wanna see you be brave."  Was she joking?  Maybe.  But I'm thinking this song struck home with them.

I know it did with me.  This is something I'm still working on.

I wanna see me be brave.

My favorite? 

"Show me how big your BRAVE is."

P.S.  So while I was tracking down the BRAVE video for this post, I found Sara's Webisode about "Let The Rain."  Fabulous.  What a great way to start my morning.

And now, off into the roses.

Hey?

"Show me how big your BRAVE is."  Honestly.

Boston

You inspire.

Wonders Never Cease

Stitching.

This is in the hands of the person for whom it was stitched, so I can share it.  Margaret Sherry for one of the British cross-stitch magazines.  A very dear friend who recently made a really brave move from the West Coast to the East.  Starting a whole new life.  She celebrated her 33rd birthday - a Masteryear - on Saturday.  I haven't heard the report, yet, but she had told me she would walk the perimeter of Central Park and did post pictures of Central Park so I assume she went at least partway (although knowing her, she did indeed do the whole thing.)

BTW, the magazine had an ad for a new publication:  CUTE cross stitch.  Since the cute ones are the ones that tug at me, I'm looking forward to that one fer shur.

 



And this is a project I started several years ago.  I bought the Bareroots ("What Color is Spring")  in, I dunno, 2005? 2006?  2007?  By 2008 I had assembled the patchwork and worked the embroidered sampler (Crabapple Hill) in the center, and by sometime the next year had finished the pink embroidery band.  Then I folded it up and stashed it until last year.  I was sorting through stuff in a purge last summer and ran across it just in time to take it to my Mom's for her quilt club meeting.  Some time later she commented that she hoped she lived to see it completed.  I realized that I hoped I lived to see it completed, too.

Every Friday I drive to her town and "let" her take me to dinner.  Two weekends a month I spend Friday night with her, and on Saturday my sister joins us just to hang out for a while.  I've been taking this to work on, and this past Saturday finished the sunflowers in the first of the yellow bands.  Prior to that I finished the orange flowered vine in the orange section.

I like this kind of embroidery.  Unlike cross-stitch, this is pretty brainless so I can listen and work at the same time.  Very relaxing.  Sadly, though, for some reason the other two don't talk as much when I'm stitching as when we're just sitting around looking through Mom's latest deliveries of mail order catalogs.

Of course, this isn't stitchery, but I'm so darn delighted with my lilac that I have to include her.  Gorgeous color, lovely scent.  And in Southern California, too.