Mid-week mid-March mid-madness

I haven't posted in several days.

So much has happened.

S's grandma had a heart attack last Thursday. She is now living with her daughter, Sally (S's mother) only two or three minutes from the garage where the EMTs are dispatched, so she was in the ER within minutes of calling 911. Thankfully, the heart attack was not too severe and she is now home, recuperating and recovering.

Friday, I remembered my mother's death twelve years ago, on another Good Friday morning.

Later that day, our dog, Cisco, was acting oddly, like she was in pain. S took her to the vet's and I met them there. The vet checked her out and prescribed some anti-inflammatory pills for possible joint pain.

It was also the second weekend of March Madness, where the sixty-four teams have been whittled down to the Sweet Sixteen. I love March Madness. Our beloved Spartans handled Old Dominion with no real difficulty and even put the Cinderella team, Vermont, permanently out of the Dance.

Friday night was the big MSU-Duke basketball game. And I mean BIG! After our scare with the dog, S and I were both ready to settle in for the night, geeked to watch what was sure to be a heart-thumper of a game. Instead, ... we went over to J & J's house after they called, as we hadn't seen them (or been invited over) in a too-long period of time. It was a fun evening and thankfully, we DID get to watch the game, thrills and all. I even broke down and drank three dirty martinis!

Saturday was more long-distance monitoring of Grandma. S spent quite a bit of time on the phone with two of her three sisters. Thankfully, S's mother finally called about Grandma's heart attack(!), despite her damnable game-playing and manipulations. We debated on possibly driving up north. Instead, we cleaned out one display cabinet, shuttled all sorts of delicate seashells, coral and sea effluvia to another display case, and then S arranged it all with great care and her good right eye.

I started on some early spring cleaning by laundering and ironing our lacy white cotton bedroom curtains (which have always reminded me of the lacy tips of a white slip showing from underneath a skirt -- does that sound Southern belle-ish or what?). Since it was the day before Easter, I decided it might be time to pick up all the last remaining remnants of Christmas decorations and yes, even put small Christmas trees away. I went through several stacks of fresh mail, as well as old, stale mail. We watched more basketball late Saturday afternoon and into the evening. Have I said how much I LOVE March Madness??

Sunday, I spent time on the computer, posting about my Easter/church guilt. I'm still thinking about that.

I love March Madness! Last night, S and I went over to the Oxford for a light dinner and an opportunity to watch the MSU Spartan women play against Stanford in the NCAA's Elite Eight! The Spartans smoked 'em, 77-69.

Yup, a lot has happened over this past week!

Those Germanic Heathens -- or the Wends?

Dragon Mood? -- ???

...a continuation from the previous posting...

The English and German names, "Easter" and "Ostern," seem clearly unrelated to Pesach etymologically and likely derive either from Eostremonat, an old Germanic month name, or Eostre, a Germanic goddess associated with the springtime, who as the 8th century English historian Bede records was honored with a festival during Eostremonat. It has been suggested that many of modern Easter's symbols, such as colored eggs and the Easter Bunny, are cultural remnants of Eostre's springtime festival and that Eostre merged with the Christian Pesach celebrations after the Germanic heathens were Christianized, even though giving of eggs at spring festivals was not restricted to Germanic peoples and could be found among the Persians, Romans, Jews and the Armenians.

This is from Wikipedia.

Am I thinking about, reflecting upon or celebrating Easter?

Dragon Mood? -- angry confusion; "shoulds" make this dragon want to swish her tail angrily and blow out fireballs!

I don't know why, but I'm definitely feeling some "shoulds" this morning. Like I should be going to church this morning. Like I should be "feeding myself spiritually," as my father is unhesitant to remind me. Like I should be celebrating Easter today.

[As an aside to no one in particular, I think of "shoulds" like rules or even the Law, as given in the Old Testament. They are prescriptive, telling someone how to live. Rules or laws, by their very nature, have consequences if they are not followed; do this or else. Otherwise, they wouldn't be rules or laws, yes?

I think of the "good news" of the New Testament as descriptive, describing to someone how they might live. There is an implied choice; you may do this or you may not. The choice is yours.

I rarely use the word "should" in my vocabulary for that very reason.]

But I am doing none of these things. I don't know how I'm feeling exactly about celebrating the resurrection of Jesus from death on a cross. Ambiguity, for sure. Guilt, for sure. Mule-ishness, for sure. (Who wants to be pushed and manipulated into something as private and personal as worship?) And ... as I think about it, how much of this is really about my faith in Jesus? Or is this ambiguity (and anger?) really directed at organized religion and its general failure to embrace lesbians and gays as children of God and full members in the body of Christ?

Well, those are questions I will leave for now and just post interesting facts, cool stuff about Easter. Most of this is from the site, How Stuff Works:

Easter is the Christian observance of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ and his resurrection days later. It is the central festival of the Christian church and, after the Sabbath, it is the oldest Christian observance.

Easter's Date
Unlike festivals such as Christmas, Easter has been celebrated without interruption since New Testament times. The dates of all movable feasts are also calculated around the date of Easter. According to the Encyclopedia Britannica:

...western Christians celebrate Easter on the first Sunday after the full moon (the paschal moon) that occurs on or next after the vernal equinox on March 21. If the paschal moon, which is calculated from a system of golden numbers and epacts and does not necessarily coincide with the astronomical full moon, occurs on a Sunday, Easter is the following Sunday.

The U.S. Naval Observatory's Astronomical Applications Department says that Easter is determined by the "ecclesiastical moon" as defined by church-constructed tables to be used permanently for calculating the phase of the moon. This full moon doesn't necessarily coincide with the astronomical full moon, which means, Navy researchers say, that Easter is not necessarily the very next Sunday after a full moon. It could be the next Sunday after the ecclesiastical moon. This happened in 1876.

How do you say...?
The origins of the names for the Easter holiday vary slightly. "Easter" and "Ostern" derive from Eostre. Other names are derivative from the Jewish word for Passover, Pesach.

* English: Easter
* German: Ostern
* Greek: Pascha
* Spanish: Pascua
* Italian: Pasqua
* French: P?ques
* Portugese: P?scoa
* Dutch: Pasen
* Danish: Paaske

These calculations say that Easter can fall between March 22 and April 25. This was decreed by Pope Gregory XIII in 1582 as part of the Gregorian calendar.

During New Testament times, the Christian church celebrated Easter at the same time as the Jews observed Passover. (The first of Passover's eight days is Nissan 15 on the Jewish calendar. Passover observes the flight and freedom of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt.) By the middle of the second century, Easter was celebrated on the Sunday after Passover. The Council of Nicaea decided in 325 A.D. that all churches should celebrate it together on a Sunday.

The Eastern Orthodox church may celebrate Easter up to a month later, as its calculation of the date is based on the Julian calendar, which is currently 13 days behind the Gregorian calendar. In 1865 and 1963, Easter observance in both Eastern and Western churches coincided.

In some countries, Good Friday and the Monday after Easter are national holidays. In the United States, these two days are not federal holidays and observance varies from state to state.

One of the things that I have come to appreciate in my mid-life is that Easter is based upon the moon. Ahh, the old moon, wise and silent as she is, forever cycling around, as we live our lives.

Did you see the moon last night? or the night before that? Incredibly big and bright and brilliant! She, too, is celebrating the turning of the seasons and the return of spring!

I don't sound like much of a Christian, do I? More like a pagan who used to dabble in Christianity? I can't get away from or discount nature and our relationship to it. I appreiate the moon and I can imbue the moon with all kinds of symbolism and meaning in my life, just as the early Christians imbued Jesus with all kinds of messianic symbolism and importance.

Salim's Dreds ... or is that Dreads?

I don't know anything about Arizona's basketball team or anything about Salim Stoudamire of said aforementioned team, but I do know that I LOVE that dude's dreds ... or is that spelled, "dreads?"

Not just any Friday morning

Dragon Mood? -- breathing and remembering

This is Good Friday morning. And twelve years ago -- can it really be twelve years already? -- my mother died, in her car, coming home from walking in the mall, on a Good Friday morning.

I was home that day, as I am today, hanging wallpaper in my kitchen in the Lexington house.

I don't want to recall all the details, all the ambiguity and confusion and then, shock. But I do want to remember.

And that is part of the reason for my posting this post -- remembering my mom.

It is tricky remembering the dead, recalling someone you loved. It is so easy, so very easy to gloss over the wholeness of her being, remembering only the parts that I want to remember or need to remember.

My mom and I did not have an easy relationship. With the help of S, I had put energy into re-approaching my mother -- the wonderful French word, rapprochement, comes to mind -- because I wanted to like her more. I can recall a handful of things that I did in the last year or two of her life that I now hold like pebbles in my hand, smooth and soothing, to draw myself nearer to her. They are sweet, small, relatively insignificant actions or events that happened between my mom and me -- and they do provide some comfort when I miss her deep down.

I'm remembering you today, Mom. I'm remembering your eyes and your hair, the way your mouth moved when you laughed. I'm remembering the funny way you had of buttoning your winter coat. I'm remembering the delight I saw or heard whenever you anticipated being with your grandkids. I'm remembering the tiredness and sadness in your eyes that was usually explained away -- and usually without recriminations. I'm remembering your hugs and how their brief intensity never expressed fully all the big feelings I imagined stood behind them. I'm remembering all the "shoulds" that you seemed to embody -- and finally, how that physical body said, "Enough!"

What I have a hard time remembering, specifically and concretely, is your incredible nurturing, tenderness and compassion for others. I don't know why I have such trouble with those memories. Those qualities, those values, feel as much a part of you as your every breath. I can't tease those apart from how I saw you or now see you.

I don't know if that's a good thing, a real thing or just an illusion of my memory of you.

I do miss you, Mom . . . even now, after twelve years . . . a blink in the timeless stream of being. Are you a leaf on that stream? Floating, drifting here and there? Are you mindful and intentional in that stream?

I don't know. I don't have any clue. But, I do know that I miss you and I'm remembering you.

First Day of Spring!!

Dragon Mood? -- Annn-ti-ci-PAY-shun!

Tomorrow is the FIRST DAY of SPRING! Hooray!!

In the United States and the rest of the northern hemisphere, the first day of the spring season is the day of the year when the Sun crosses the celestial equator moving northward (on March 20th or 21st). This day is known as the vernal equinox.

Exactly when is this happening?? I must google and find out.

Oh shit! TODAY is the VERNAL EQUINOX!!!

Officially: Vernal Equinox Mar 20 2005 7:34 AM EST

Compliments of this site.

Sunday morning in Madison

Dragon Mood? -- happy, silly, frivolous

Once upon a time . . . I've been so busy frivoliating with my two chillens that I just haven't made time to BLOG!

I wish I had a dollar for every minute of basketball I've watched in the past three-and-a-half days! Or a thin silver dime for every basket that I've witnessed being made.

I'd be RICH! Drinks for EVERYONE!

I'm sitting in Caroline's office/computer station/massage room, listening to my children banter back and forth as they fix our breakfast. Josh just tried to stage a coup and take control of the computer to look up, of all things, quotes from the stupid movie, "Napoleon Dynamite." But I prevailed. Bwah-hah-hah-hah!

Hah! Or as I first typed it, "Jaj!"

They're making fun of me, but do I care? NO!

The sun is streaming into the room, warming it and making this Dragon feel oh-so-hopeful.

The Spartans are meeting up with the Vermont Catamounts this afternoon at 2:40 p.m. in Worcester (rhymes with ROOSTER), Massachusetts. Aaron, my nephew and their cousin, will be sitting in the stands, rooting on our guys. Yeah, Aaron! Yeah, Spartans! I usually would be worrying about the Spartans meeting up with such an unlikely Cinderella team as Vermont, but in the happy, hopeful place, I can't even muster the energy to worry. The Spartans will do okay OR they will be getting on the bus to head home early from The Dance.

In this happy mood, I'm also thinking about S, who is home in Michigan, sadly by herself, getting used to the idea of being a grandma. Preston Skylar Wilhelm Patrick was born on St. Paddy's night, just as all the revelers were streaming into every would-be Irish pub across the country. S was standing outside the birthing room, just wanting to be a witness and a support to her son becoming a daddy. Why does such a usually happy event have to be shadowed by such meanness of spirit and sadness?

Fie on you, you people of such meager care and feeling for others! I spit on your actions and feel sorry that you have such a limited vision of this life.

I love you, S! I can't wait to get home, take you in my arms and kiss you in the most un-grandmotherly way that I can imagine!

Exercise, exercise, exercise!!!

Dragon Mood? -- hugging and puffing

From CNN's Health Center:

... The panel of doctors and scientists that developed the recommendations put an emphasis on getting 30 minutes of exercise. The guidelines are being used to update the government's food pyramid, which is due out this spring.

People trying to fit the new exercise advice into their day don't have to start all at once. It's fine to break your activity into bouts of 10 or 15 minutes. But the idea is still to do at least 30 minutes of moderate physical activity -- the equivalent of walking briskly, at about 3.5 miles an hour.

Try walking your dog in the park for 15 minutes in the morning and walking on a treadmill for 15 minutes in the evening, or take a walk at lunchtime, Pi-Sunyer said. "You don't have to change, put on a sweat suit, take a shower. You're not going to work up a big sweat, and you can go back to work," he said.

And it doesn't have to be walking. The panel gave several examples of moderate exercise: Hiking, light gardening or yard work, dancing, golf, bicycling, a light workout of weight lifting. Stretching also counts.

More vigorous activity is even better, the committee said. That could include running or jogging at 5 miles an hour, walking at 4.5 miles an hour, bicycling at 10 miles an hour, swimming, aerobics, heavy yard work such as chopping wood, more vigorous weight lifting or playing basketball.

"The idea here is small steps," said Eric Hentges, director of the Agriculture Department's Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion, which helped write the guidelines. "Get the 30 minutes first, because independent of any of the other aspects, the 30 minutes alone will have benefits."

[It's now Thursday and I finally have time to get back to this posting.

I wanted to say how encouraged I am regarding these guidelines. I think encouraging all people, overweight or not, to take baby steps towards healthier choices and a healthier life promotes mental health and a sense of well-being because of its very do-able-ness. (Sorry for the clumsy wording.)

I struggle almost every day with getting my thirty minutes of exercise in. Some days are easier than others. And some days, I do get my exercise in smaller chunks of time, walking the dog, doing housework, whatever, just as the article says. Even that is far better than sitting on the couch eating potato chips!]

Another step in the (morally) right direction

From CNN, comes this heartening news:

A judge ruled Monday that California's ban on gay marriage is unconstitutional, saying the state could no longer justify limiting marriage to a man and a woman.
...
"It appears that no rational purpose exists for limiting marriage in this state to opposite-sex partners," Kramer wrote.

The judge wrote that the state's historical definition of marriage, by itself, cannot justify the denial of equal protection for gays and lesbians.

"The state's protracted denial of equal protection cannot be justified simply because such constitutional violation has become traditional," Kramer wrote.
...
Kramer is the fourth trial court judge in recent months to decide that the right to marry and its attendant benefits must be extended to same-sex couples.

Signs of early spring

...you know, that quality of light, the almost-forgotten intensity of the sun, the sparkling icicles, the drip, drip, drip of melting snow and ice? They all point to one thing: SPRING!!

Mozilla 1.7.5

Dragon Mood? -- pleased and relieved -- whew!

I downloaded Mozilla 1.7.5 late this morning onto our home computer. What a breeze! I am simply amazed at what a seamless process that turned out to be. We had been working on Mozilla 1.6, but because of some changes in Yahoo's interface, I kept getting this little message on my personalized Yahoo page encouraging me to download the most current release.

Which I did.

I guess I'm glad that I did.

Why can't Microsoft, Bill Gates, et al, have such high-quality products?

Kudos to Mozilla and all the folks taking "the road less traveled" out there!

early Saturday morning

Dragon Mood? -- tired and grumpy

What the hell am I doing up on a Saturday morning, this early? Geez, I woke up at 4, went to the bathroom, got back in bed and laid there, unable to sleep. Toss, turn, toss, turn.

Thinking about:

• the Spartans' loss to Iowa last night, 71-69. They played so well EXCEPT for their free throw shooting. Here's what Coach Izzo had to say:

  `We did not deserve to win the game,'' Michigan State coach Tom Izzo said. ``When you miss 15 free throws -- we went a month and we didn't miss 15 free throws. The game never should have come down to that. We missed free throws all night, we missed layups all night.''

• that S asked last night at 10 o'clock, "Do we have more coffee 'cuz this is the last of this bag?" Grrrr -- I just went to the store earlier today. I am bugged.
• back to basketball. Thinking about the Illini coach, Bruce Weber, finding out right after their quarterfinal game that his mother had been taken to the hospital in Chicago with reported chest pains. It actually turned out to be far more serious, a torn left aorta, and she died during surgery. She died. March Madness and the death of your mom just doesn't go together.
• the $169 I spent at Rite-Aid yesterday, what with two prescriptions, a three-month supply of multi-vitamins for S and me, a three-month supply of co-enzyme Q-10 for me, two 12-packs of beer (light and regular), two Pay Day candy bars, a Mary Engelbreit magazine (I'm a sucker for those), a box of Kellogg's Raisin Bran (it was on sale) and a bag of Lay's Salt & Vinegar chips (for the Chip Queen, S). One-hundred-and-sixty-fucking-nine dollars! That's 80% of my checking account money for the week. Grrrr. So, don't forget the fucking coffee!
• why I can't sleep? Are you beginning to understand why I couldn't sleep?
• that I should clean out the display shelves in the wall unit in our bedroom. S has promised her son, Matthew, an old china cabinet (that his now-dead grandpa had made), which currently sits in our fireplace room, holding all the seashells and beach memorabilia that S insists on keeping and displaying. I would practically bet my life on the fact that she will not take the initiative and clean that thing out. I will have to do that. Which, of course, is why I'm thinking about this at four fucking o'clock in the morning.
• and asking myself, "Self, why are you getting pissed off at four o'clock in the morning -- on a Saturday morning, precious Saturday morning when you COULD be sleeping?"
• that maybe I need to open one of those expensive prescriptions that I just spent $169 on and replace my Femring because obviously my hormones are out of whack at four o'clock in the morning on a precious Saturday morning when I could be sleeping!

I finally just got up and got online. Fuck it!

quote

Dragon Mood? -- happy and contented


"Wealth consists not in having great possessions but in having few wants."

--Esther de Waal, author

Ooh-ooh, the Big Ten Tournament has started!

Dragon Mood? -- excited!

Michigan is playing Northwestern. Purdue will take on Iowa, here in about two hours. I've got CBS Sportsline up, "watching" the games. CBS Sportsline does a darn good job to keep us b-ball junkies updated, when we don't have access to radio or TV.

Talk about upsets?!?!

Did I ever get a surprise when I accessed ESPN online this morning!

Hokey smokes, Bullwinkle!! Sunday was Upset Sunday!

I was hoping UNC would beat Duke and bless their little southern hearts, they did, 75-73! Duke has embarrassed MSU a few times and to my way of thinking, they've had more than their fair share of glory over the past ten years. Let somebody else in the ACC have a turn, for crying out loud! Now the University of North Carolina has won the ACC title out right! Good for you, guys!

Even more shocking, however, was the Ohio State Buckeyes' upset of undefeated, perfect-record Illinois! They stole the game from them with a 3-pointer with 5 seconds left in the game. All I can say is "Wow!"

A certain unnamed Mr. Sushi was happy (I am sure) to see that his Florida Gators upset #3 Kentucky.

And . . . unranked Missouri upset #7 Kansas, 72-68.

Can you believe I didn't see even a minute of any of those games? I was out, doing errands, buying yarn and drinking wine while visiting with friends. Living life outside the tube and the basketball court.

Can't wait for the Big Ten tourney and then, the grand-wench of
'em all, NCAA March Madness! Yeahhhh!

Instant Replay?

This relaxed, cyber-surfing dragon just spotted a full-grown deer trot across the road, clamber up a slight incline in our neighbor's yard, and then disappear into a stand of pines.

Wow! Got my adrenaline going and I'm not even of the canine persuasion.

I wish I could have an instant replay!

Another color-loving try

This is an abstract that I created in Photoshop, experimenting with the polygonal lasso tool, gradients, and a variety of different filters. This one I created using the "median" operator, but you know, honestly, I'd have to go hunt to find the operator now. Yikes!

Abstract 3

Good enough to . . .

Dragon Mood? -- dragons love orchids and sparkly things! Yum!

I don't mean to sound like a broken record (whoa!--there's a middle-age tip-off!), but I am longing for color.

Check this beauty out......

















And then this one:














Don't overlook this one --> --> -->

Don't these look good enough to bite? or eat? or at least gush over???

In fairness to the owners of this fine image (which I have just wantonly cropped hither and thither), go to Paramount Orchids and see the beautiful orchids that they apparently hybridize, grow and market. They are stunning!

Just what a Michiganian trying to survive another dreary winter needs right now!