Family

A bowl of fruits...

Wake Up!

• Seeing the strips of fabric sewn the wrong way.
• Cutting 9" instead of 3"
• The volume of the sewing machine at 11:15 PM.

Quilt or Sleep? Quilt or Sleep?

26NNW

Last night my father and I sat at the bottom of our driveway in Northern California looking south, waiting for the orbiting US space station and space shuttle to appear like comets in the 9:19 PM sky. My dad had gotten out his telescope that is as old as I am. We once tracked the orbit of the four visible moons of Jupiter with it one summer.

Last night we were staring at Jupiter again, in the summer sky, wondering if suddenly it would split into to two orbiting masses and not be Jupiter at all, but rather a station and a shuttle orbiting the earth. It showed no signs of movement. Our watches read 9:19 PM. We were beginning to wonder if we had gotten gipped.

Last night my mom came out of the house, said "Oh, you're both out here." She said, "The NASA website says it is 9:21 PM for our location. 26 something. NNW." North North West. 26 degress off the horizon line? We bolted off our concrete seats to our feet, made for the center of the deserted street (no longer staring into the street lamp in the South East) and Mom asked if that was the Big Dipper; it's so big, so close to the Earth.

Last night the space station and shuttle appeared above our front yard's aging plum tree as if birthed from the bright star it left behind in its orbital path around the Earth . The first was duller than the latter, but still we weren't sure we believed it was the shuttle, the station: so bright, so fast, so close. We waited to see if the latter, bright object orbiting the Earth followed the same trajectory we made note of as the first made its path across the stars.

Last night Dad said "Look, the second one is going over the same star." That must be them. Those must be them. Mom said "The website said we would only be able to see them for a minute. Other nights they will be visible for longer." Then the first one started to fade, as if going behind clouds said Dad, as if being beamed across the sky, Scotty, I thought.

Last night the latter object orbiting the Earth (The station? The shuttle?) faded just as the first had done, just at the same spot in the North North Western sky at 9:22 PM. All those employees of the US Government floating by, orbiting. Me, on the Earth, wondering how it is they don't get motion sick.

Monologue

What I am saying is I can feel the shifting in my head. Shifting. Like the driver who has been lying dormant in the passenger seat caught his cue and is pushing it into overdrive. No, overdrive is overused. No one thinks in car metaphors anymore. Oh, OK, I do, but that's because I miss my manual, stick, manual. Gah, too many languages all the same language.

Sometimes I don't know which would be easier, keeping my tongue or changing it out. It seems a rather painful process when I think about it that way--the tongue being the strongest muscle in the body after all--other times it just makes things so easy.

Don't get started on how many hours I spend on the computer. I don't have the patience. OK, you want to know the worst part? I like it. Not all the time, of course, sometimes I loathe it. But the speed at which you can work. It's invigorating. Like driving down a river road, the light through the leaves making it hard to see.

30 years

If there is an average of 100 kisses per day, that's 366,500 kisses per year. That means a million kisses would take 30 years. Cool.

What It's Like to be Home

As you can probably tell, One a Day has not been 'one a day' lately. There are a number of reasons. Not excuses mind you, but observations I've had.

First, way back in May when I started this assignment I changed the time zone setting on my account from PST to GMT. After all, I am now living in London full-time and not the West Coast of the States. However, since coming back to California I had forgotten all about switching time zones and was astonished to realize that as I was making my one a day deadline, it published as the next day, 8 hours ahead, as if I were in London. Lifeshock #1.

Second, I have no routine here. No empty house to myself, no set aside time to check my email, write, and blog. And can I just say, I miss my laptop. Ok, I not necessarily my laptop in particular as a midnight discussion with my love the other night proved I desperately need one that works, but the IDEA of a laptop. Freedom. Mobility. No back aches sitting at a not-computer-desk desk. (Which, I may also take the time to note, I don't have in either country.)

Thirds, it's busy here. People's works schedules. Family. Friends. All good, don't get me wrong, but not much time to walk in the park--or write on the computer. It'll be sporadic for a week or two, but I think I'll start by changing the time zone temporarily.