update

So much has happened since my last post, and I don’t know where to begin. I even have little scraps of paper sitting here at the computer with me, but I won’t decode them now. Maybe it’s been too long and all become too much.

Friday evening, before meeting my friend Brian for a drink, I volunteered at KQED. The food was good. I liked talking with the people who called in to make pledges, and I’m generally glad I showed up. On the other hand, for example, they wanted us to write out every city name, bc they might have the data entry done in another state where they don’t know what “SF” stands for. The thing is, the Post Office DOES know what SF stands for, and aren’t they the only ones that count? There was a cute boy, who was probably like 12 (I’m trying really hard to be attracted to men in their late 30s) and vegan, but fun to talk to all the same. And, because of the New Yorker 8-DVD set (every magazine between 2/1925 and 2/2005), we took in like $100,000, which is a record. I’ll be back next week.

Yesterday, I did my first training ride for the Aids Lifecycle. I’m a “cat 2” meaning I ride a medium speed. Including accessing the ride, I did 30 miles, and I feel it in my back and abs. The goal for January is 50-75 miles a week, and I think I can do that. The bad news is that yesterday afternoon I was completely worthless: I couldn’t sleep; I couldn’t run errands; I could only lie on my couch, moan and read Harry Potter.

It’s a long, boring story, but the short version is that I’m on Harry Potter 5 (one back from the most recent release) and almost finished. It may be premature, but my main observations are:
1) Transportation: there was a private automobile in year 2, I think, but I just love how they travel around: the Knight bus, the Hogarts Express, flow powder, disparate… and that’s not when they’re traveling like muggles on the underground. How civilized is that? Clearly, this is because the story takes place in London (I keep wondering if she’s going to mention the Congestion Charging program), but I always prefer a multimodal story.
2) Harry Potter is this hero, but he’s not very smart. There’s no question that he’s an incredibly talented wizard, but intellect is not his strong point. That’s real.
3) The author is a woman, yet the lead characters are mainly men, and the female ones nag, cry all the time, or are annoying in some other way. The only female character who can’t be described this way is Professior McGonagall. I don’t know what to make of her, but I find the rest annoyingly misogynist.

Classes started this week, and it all went pretty well. I’m taking the same figure drawing class I took last spring, and Diane Olivier is still a great teacher. I’m incredibly excited about fine art printmaking. My first reaction to sitting in the class was “this is too hard. I’m never going to be able to do this.” Which was, of course, ridiculous. So, yeah, I think I’m on the brink of something really big there.

I’m not sure if I’ve ever mentioned that I’ve been co-teaching yoga to adults with disabilities at Creative Growth. I also find that incredibly rewarding. This week, I also worked with this guy who is a very bad quadriplegic. I helped him paint a silk scarf with hot pink, yellow and blue, and it came out so beautiful with the colors all mixing to create very pretty shades of purple, red and green as well. He painted from his wheelchair with a brush at the end of a long stick the he could only sort of control. Nearby, Dan Miller, who is one of their more famous artists, worked on one of his usual pen-and-ink pieces. He creates these abstract drawings where he writes words together until they all come out a scribbling blob with parts of words coming out at the edges. They remind me of the media. He flipped thru an art catalog, and we discussed light bulbs (there were images of light bulbs in the catalog). “Lightbulb. Round.” He said. Then I suggested some other things that a light bulb is and then explained how a lightbulb works. He then selected the words he liked and wrote them into his drawing.

So, it was a really good week on those fronts. I also maintained my usual level of social activity (friends=good). I did not, however, manage to show up at the first day of my French class. That’s significant, but I am looking into creative solutions.