Because it’s Friday AGAIN. And because traditions are important. In which I cover the good stuff and the hard stuff in my week, trying for the non-preachy, non-annoying side of self-reflection.
And you get to join in if you feel like it.
I’m kind of running around like a headless chicken, which is oddly appropriate, given that this is the Friday Chicken.
Because I’m on my way to Austin for SXSW, dragging my gentleman friend with me. And Selma too, of course.
And some Selma decoys, bodyguards and such, to thwart any attempts at a celebrity ducknapping. Take that!
And in case you’re not one of those people who has an overly obsessive relationship with my duck, but you are my twitter stalker burglar, my brother is going to be home all weekend. Take that!
On to this week.
The hard stuff
Still the arms.
Still in pain. Still trying to find solutions to the “I can’t do my work” thing — preferably ones that don’t drive me crazy.
The good part of that is that Ez and my gentleman friend are slaves to my will donating a lot of time and energy to helping me in my business.
But that’s hard too, because I hate receiving help almost as much as I dread asking for it.
Working on that. Yuck.
Snow!
Seriously, Portland. It’s practically the middle of March. I can handle frost and stuff, but full-on snow? Don’t make me move back to the Middle East.
It was freezing this week. And since I regularly have to stick my arms in either hot or cold baths, I can’t even bundle up properly.
Grumble, grumble, grumble. Grumble.
Not being able to write.
Dictating posts, or talking them out with Stu (my arch-nemesis in software form), is just not the same as sitting down to write.
The whole meditative process has become something else for me. It feels sluggish and awkward. My words don’t come as fast. The writing process is less playful and more labored.
It’s a lot of hard for right now.
If I didn’t have Stu’s Bolsheviks for comic relief, I don’t know what I’d do. He’s an acetyl, but he’s a funny acetyl.
The good stuff
Getting help.
Aside from all the time, love and energy that members of Hoppy House are donating to the “Keeping Havi From Falling Apart” fund, lots of other help is showing up, too.
Of course, there is the fabulous Marissa, my kooky and marvelous personal assistant and can-do-ologist. And Peggy, who does all the behind-the-scenes magic. And Denise, my new project manager.
And then, as if that weren’t enough, so many of my friends, clients and students have been asking if they can help, or volunteering an hour or two to type while I dictate (so much faster than Stu!).
I’m in awe. It’s really amazing. And I am so grateful.
Purim!
I already wrote about baking cookies, screaming madly and all that. But it was definitely a highlight of the week, and worth mentioning twice.
This actually belongs in the “hard” section, too, because we had a completely miserable time at this insane synagogue that we wound up at accidentally.
It was super noisy. Selma hated it. They skipped most of the parts we had actually come for. And they — I’m not even making this up — had a song called “I Love My Big Jew Frog.”
I love my big jew frog. What?!?
This exceptional phrase, despite making no sense in any context whatsoever, has ended up providing hours of entertainment for me, my brother and my gentleman friend.
We’ve been coming up with absurd rhyming couplets featuring this line, which still is completely incomprehensible to me. Or to anybody, really.
Buenos Dias, Guten Tag! Oh how I love my Big Jew Frog!
I avoid LA because of all the smog! Tell me, are you my Big Jew Frog?
And so on.
Yes, we have fun at Hoppy House.
I was curious enough about this hysterical, yet completely inappropriate song title, and so I did a little creative googling. But the only search result for “big jew frog” is my post from Tuesday.
You know the XKCD list of phrases that return no Google results? And the resulting paradox that as soon as you post a phrase that is not Google-able, it suddenly is, because your result has made it so?
Right. I can’t believe no one else got “big jew frog” first. That’s totally going on a t-shirt. Except it’s not.
Birthday!
I don’t have much to say about it, but yay! Birthday!
Lots of contemplation, reflection, thinking about stuff. And, as threatened, yoga and meditation, and some time in the sauna.
I also got an astonishing assortment of cards, and odd/ wonderful little gifts from various friends and readers around the world.
Thanks especially to Lori, Janet, Fabeku and our very dear Wormy.
My gentleman friend surprised me with an enormous box of Fansocks from the best sock store in the entire world. I’m sure there are many women who would rather not get socks for their birthday, but clearly I am not one of them because I am overjoyed. Socks!
Wooly ones and stripey ones and stripey wooly ones . . . best birthday ever.
Ooh! And the best birthday greeting ever:
Happy Birthday Oh Shiva One, Selma’s Pimp-In-Chief, Supreme Yogawhore and Creator Of The Best Wacky Hippy Crap Ever!
I love my students and clients so much.
Just saying.
Helper mice.
Chris is my massage therapist, and I’d link to him except that he has issues with biggification to the point that there isn’t even a website to link to.
But aside from that, he’s just the loveliest person, and I’m so lucky to have him on my team of people who are doing stuff to make me get better.
I also got an astonishingly great session from Hiro, that gave me considerable insight into some of the deeper stuff happening around my pain, and a new hope for improvement.
Between the two of them, I’m feeling a lot more optimistic, just in general. It’s about time.
Ez lives here! And I’m still happy about it!
So if you’re sick of hearing about it, too bad. Take that!
Actually, we have a little “take that!” dance that we made up. If you’re nice to me, maybe I’ll show you sometime.
He also made the most amazing cauliflower-paneer-lentil spicy something-or-other (homemade paneer!) and I could not be happier.
That’s it for me …
And yes yes yes, of course you can join in my Friday ritual right here in the comments bit if you feel like it.
Yeah? Anything hard and/or good happen in your week?
And, as always, have a glorrrrrrrrrrrrious weekend. And a happy week to come.
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Havi I’m so sorry that your arms still hurt. Frida the cat sends comforting purrs
Good stuff
friends, knitting, cute bloke at work last night, real coffee
hard stuff
not having money – really not having money – and unable to talk to people about it
wanting to curl up and erase the last 20 years. Realizing that what I thought of my greatest creative achivement was probably my worst life decision ever
creativevoyages last blog post..Manly Haiku
Ouch.
*offers creativevoyage no-strings-attached internet hugs*
I’d glomp you for comfort, but I don’t know if you’d like that, so the offer.
Carinas last blog post..City of Heroes – Chalcara
I’ve wondered how it was going with Stu. I have admired your persistence with dictating your blog entries; I don’t think I could do it (because it wouldn’t be fun for me either, I type really fast but still slow enough to ruminate on my thoughts a bit).
By the way, have you thought about podcasts? I thought you were both fun and really insightful in the Havi and Naomi thing.
Terry Heaths last blog post..Are You a Mozart or a Franklin?
Oh, sweetie–tender hugs to your paining arms. Thank you so much for the blog-love. Hope this weekend at sxsw brings inspiration, delight and heart connections with more folks who love you.
xoxo Hiro
Hiro Bogas last blog post..Creative Connection: Where’s Your Muse When the Baby’s Spitting Up at 3 am?
Happy birthday, Havi! I found your blog recently and it’s very thought-provoking. I hope your arms feel better soon. Pain sucks.
I don’t really understand the big Jew frog thing. I figured if frogs had any religion as such, it would be Frogism.
Riins last blog post..Railroad spike
You’re giving me even more motivation to not let my incipient carpal tunnel get any worse … love and light to you and your healing!
Bad: Husband is still struggling with either getting enough business or finding a job (I keep sending him links to your posts, btw), still trying to work with the mortgage company in the teeth of foreclosure, relationship strained due to extreme lack-of-money issues, possibility of having to leave a community that I really love.
Good: One of my designs is 99.5% sure to be included in a prestigious craft magazine, I am getting *so much* healing work information that I can do *right now* in spite of abovementioned lack-of-money issues (including reading your archives), getting a lot of enjoyment from my friends and community, and the first crocuses showing up. Yay, Spring!
Anna-Lizas last blog post..Pollyanna Purges the Past
The good and the hard are the same thing this week.
I’m figuring some stuff out. Big Stuff. Stuff for which I don’t even have words yet (which, for me, is REALLY saying something).
And I do not believe I would be in this position if I had not become a regular reader of Selma’s blog. Okay, I guess Havi that you contribute too. 🙂 Seriously though, thank you for kicking my butt on a regular basis.
One request though … actually, it’s a sort of second request. Remember when I asked Selma to get you to remove the surveillance camera from my kitchen? Well, thanks for doing that, but in asking I didn’t mean that it was okay to just move it to the living room.
Seriously.
Please spy on other readers and get your material from them. I’m so overwhelmed by this Big Stuff that I could use a break from you spying on me and using what you see/hear to create blog posts.
It also doesn’t help that you seem to side with my SBH all of the time. Just because you’re both right and all…
Anyway, thank you.
christys last blog post..English as a Limitation Language
Good: following your advice with a sprinkling of Robt. Middleton, I created a couple of my own leads.
On Monday, I had beer with Dan (who I sort of know) and Greg (who I didn’t know) to talk about a new website idea that won’t be a real “project” for some time. But I made them take my “Projects That Suck” handout. Greg’s projects do not suck, but he accepted it anyway.
On Tuesday, Greg’s cow orker Bryan called with two projects that suck.
On Thursday, I met Bryan for a couple of hours. Probably by Monday I’ll have a nice shiny new Project That Sucks.
Recession, schmesession.
Hard: um, nothing. Oh yeah, we had no audio on a downloaded episode of The Office from NetFlix last night. That was horrible. NetFlix tech support was not willing to read the script over the phone to us while we watched. Slackers.
@creativevoyage: Oh no! That sounds awful and hard. I second @carina’s generous offer of no-strings-attached-internet-hug + optional glomping.
Sounds like you’re going through a lot.
@crispy mark: Wow. Nice going on the biggification front. You’re getting crispy-er by the day. Or something.
@christy: How bizarre. I took down the surveillance cameras last week. Now you’re just being paranoid! 🙂
It’s not easy reading the minds and lives of everyone who reads this thing. I don’t know how Selma does it. Or where she finds the time. It’s a mystery.
@anna-liza: Yay, crocuses!
Everyone else: I adore you all. Thanks for doing Friday Chicken with me. Can’t wait until arms are happier and I can write more! But waving at you metaphorically.
Happy birthday! It’s my Izzy’s birthday week and he had a great day on Monday (the good) then he got a cold (the bad for both of us 🙁 )
Bad: having to work right up to the veryend finishing the piece for the Parkersburg Art Center show
Good: finishing the piece and delivering all of them on time
Good/Bad: Marty got an offer from the census, it is more than he gets on unemployment (and we keep burning through the extensions) but about 1/3 less than he was getting at his old job. Keeping up morale because in the past he gets several offers at once, hoping the next one is better.
Good: Daffodils!
Good: kosher marshmallows at Kroger today, along with manager special portobello mushrooms and manager special milk, etc; filled a shopping cart for $30
Good: extra baking for Donkey because it is finals week
Good: serendipitously meeting someone who works with the Ohio University press; I sat down next to her at Donkey this morning and she was talking on the phone about my friend Susan Shie. We had a nice conversation and exchanged information.
Have a great weekend everybody!
Andis last blog post..Portrait Commissions
Happy birthday Havi! Big hugs!
The good:
* I found out I got accepted into an art show I REALLY wanted to get into, but wasn’t sure I’d make it. But I’m definitely in! Yay!! (Anyone in the Los Angeles area the first weekend of May, come see me in Calabasas!)
* Lots of positive energy this week. Compliments on my art, compliments on my math tutoring, and some good communication with my sweetie. Just generally good stuff.
* Bought my first box of Girl Scouts cookies in, like, 10 years. They just never seem to be in my neighborhood, but I finally found some. Thin Mints… mmm. Know what else? I’m eating them really slowly! I’m just nibbling a few each day, instead of downing the whole box. Very proud of myself for that.
The not-so-good:
* I didn’t exercise this week, so I’m feeling guilty. I’m going to make up for it by vigorously pulling weeds in this beautiful weather we’re having. Right now.
Best wishes for a great week to everyone!
Barbara J Carters last blog post..Another Art Bag
Okay, the big jew frog thing lit up a couple of ancient neurons in my brain. Not that I’ve ever heard a song with that title, but way back in my childhood I had a record (a record!) containing a song entitled “I’m in love with a big blue frog,” by Peter, Paul and Mary.
I’m really curious to know if the synagogue was perhaps parodying this song by replacing “blue” with “jew”? Which is funny on multiple levels, because it was already a silly “novelty song.”
Not sure if a link will show up right in this comment, but here’s a link to a YouTube clip:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcVg6XTeQAk
And if that doesn’t show up right, you can always google the complete title phrase and the YouTube clip should be the first result. Other top results seemed to contain lyrics.
And if you read the lyrics it will be clear that the forthcoming Big Jew Frog T-shirt has to spell “frog” P-H-R-O-G.
Those pholksingers can sure be phunny phriends.
Wendy Cholbis last blog post..Don’t be a cactus like the U.S. Mint
Especially funny, since the song was a protest against racial discrimination, with these lyrics, “property values will go right down if the neighbor next door is blue.” The song was on the PP&M album ‘1700’ of which I own (yay, me) a DJ copy. That’s how old I am. But, if you want to hear some seriously *good* artists on a real good album, that’s certainly one to listen to. Here’s a web-page with the full lyric sheet: http://www.peterpaulandmary.com/music/f-08-09.htm
I haven’t commented yet, but I have spent the past couple of weeks reading the archives, and getting a lot out of them, thankyouverymuch. I decided early on that once I finished the archives, I’d join in on the Friday Chicken, so Friday-the-Thirteenth it is!
The hard:
A terribly sleepless night on Sunday night that led to accomplishing very little on my other days off.
Very little writing accomplished this week, although I love doing it and actually have assignments to be started for which I will be paid.
A paycheck missing a few hours.
Family drama.
Partner health concerns.
The good:
Finishing a sweater and having it come out exactly as I had hoped it would.
Sample knitting for the shop I work at leading directly to two sales so far.
Fun knitters at both drop-in groups; they make the time fly and are endlessly entertaining.
Reading entertaining books which are inspiring me to sit down at my desk again, probably even tonight.
The End:
Thanks for letting me share, and for putting yourself out there the way you do, Havi. I’m looking forward to reading through the sampler next.
Faiths last blog post..What Am I Waiting For?
Oh, and Happy Birthday! Sorry for the omission before.
I’m feeling your pain, Havi. No, literally I am. My little manual coffee grinder is quite a workout and apparently I ground too much coffee yesterday. Can’t use my left arm today. Okay, so maybe mine will recover a bit sooner than yours but it still hurts, okay?
Hilarys last blog post..Don’t swim if there’s no water
Lots of stuff this week.
The Tough With Miraculous Learnings:
-Swimmer’s ear which I thought at first was a toxic reaction to bleaching my teeth
-Cranial sacral work today. It opened up some sadness for me. My sis once said to me that if she ever allowed herself to feel her heartbreak, she feared she would never ever stop crying. I told her I get that and that I can promise her that she will stop crying at some point.
-Well, I discovered after cranial sacral that I had the same fears and also had developed some rigid thinking of how life should be as a defense to feeling these feelings.
After my doctor was done with the Cranial Sacral, I sat in his office for a half hour journalling and sobbing.
-Discovered aversion to going to sleep has to do with rigid thinking and sadness relationship
-Close family friend who is 61 has unexpectedly diagnosed with pancreatic cancer following hernia exam. It’s actually my sis’s best friend – so I am one step removed -and am there for my sis. The family has contacted me, I’ve shared resources and will work with them if they want
-Discovering my strength of being objective in times of health challenges for close family friends
-Blue Cross Blue Shield is a pain in the ass and I have to jump through hoops with them once again which is HARD
-Have a mad crush on my financial planner – have had for a while – and a huge conflict of interest. I told him to switch my account to someone else but there is no one else who can do what he does for me financially speaking. Oh hell, yet another version of an unavailable man – I’m so good at picking them. And that is really HARD.
The Miracles:
-Discovered unexpected income that is hugely helpful right now
-Wonderful meetings of like minded people in health care spontaneously occurring at perfect moments.
Havi – I hope your hands feel better and that your hot/cold baths are healing for you.
Thanks for listenig.