the weekend, and a book excerpt

Woke up late Sunday morning after having drunk far too much wine at a friend's birthday party the night before. B made a nice breakfast with eggs, toast and fruit, and we spent most of the afternoon puttering around the house, each doing our housecleaning chores. After a late afternoon lunch of falafel and a walk with the dogs, we decided to wile away some hours at the bookstore before returning home for supper. We picked up a great video on the way home called Smiling Fish and Goat On Fire and watched it before going to bed. There was a gorgeous Italian woman in the movie named Rosemarie Addeo. She mesmerized me each time she appeared on the screen.

When we left the bookstore earlier last evening, the fog was so thick we couldn't see to the other side of the parking lot. Apparently a baseball game in town had to be stopped in the 8th inning due to fog. My study window is wide open right now, and the fog is still heavy enough in the air that I can smell it inside here. It's a bit like dry ice or something - if I hold my hand to the window, I can feel it, like a moist air blanket draped over my arm.

On Saturday, I got up earlier and drove 180 km to a small farming community in the valley to meet up with awesboss, Andrew, and Cee. Cee had flown up a day or so earlier from Oakland, CA, to be with us. We met at an ashram for Ramana Maharshi, a place which I hadn't known existed before this weekend. We spent a relaxed day of retreat together, split in the middle with a meditation in the temple across the road which smelled heavily of dhoop, the Indian ceremonial incense. Cee and I cooked a big lunch for everyone with vegetables, pilaf, and garlic bread, and after a lovely conversation about all things spiritual, I made the return drive home through torrents of rain so hard that I could barely see the cars in front of me. I had filled my 24-CD wallet to full capacity that morning, and I played DJ by myself during the drive home, listening to most of the music as loud as possible. I made note of a few songs that would make a good transition to a jazz interpretation. If I have time, I'll arrange one or two of them for our next gig in November.

Also finished reading an old Ayn Rand book called The Fountainhead over the weekend, and began reading While I Was Gone by Sue Miller before going to sleep last night. I've never read her before, but she's wonderful - her dialogue is so perfectly natural, and she captures certain ineffable feelings just so.
( here's an example... )

lean

I wonder sometimes, if I was ever really meant to have a job at all. I'm really quite perfectly content to sit quietly and not really do anything but look out the window, walk around the house, walk around outside, or whatever. In the past, I would feel guilt or anxiety about this -- as though I was really supposed to be doing something -- but I sure don't feel that way anymore. I could spend the rest of my life here, sitting quietly and not doing anything else of substance. I'd be perfectly happy doing that - it's clearly in my nature to do so.

Soon I have to leave to go to my Psych tutorial. I went to my first class last week - a first-year, Intro to Psychology course, one of three electives I need to take in order to finish my old degree. It was a real mind trip. First of all, the class is huge - there's like 200 people in it. And second, everyone is super young! I arrived late, so I had to sit at the front in one of the few empty seats, but when I left the room with the throng, I couldn't help but notice all those young faces and bodies there. The last time I attended university was only five years ago, but these kids look a lot different than I remember them from that time. Now, the girls are all wearing tight, revealing clothes, and about 1 in 4 people seem to have cell phones with them. How times change.

Christ, I sound like an old fogey. Okay - off to class I go, then.