Auditions
I have an anniversary coming up September 6th – 4 years of blogging. Two moves, and there are days I can’t believe I am still blogging. There are days, also, when I can’t understand why you keep reading so faithfully.
I am trying not to spend so much time on the ‘net. It’s conscious. I want to focus on living my life, not living vicariously through others. I check messages in the morning and evening, and I do my bible readings. Blogging is over and above. Research – for purchases, for trips, etc – that’s allowed. YOU still have a high priority. π
Here are the three cakes I am considering for the 4 year blogaversary:
It is amazing how much time you can waste . . . just looking for the right cake for an imaginary celebration.
Which do you prefer? Why?
Christ-Church-in-the-Gym
Today, with ample notification, the congregation met over in the Episcopal Day School Gym, while the air conditioning in the main cathedral and office buildings is being replaced. We sat on folding chairs, shoulder to shoulder, and we didn’t have kneelers.
Except for the congregation not being 1/3 Indian and 1/3 African and 1/3 all-the-rest-of-us, I would have thought I was back in Doha. π We sing the same music, follow the same liturgy – it is such a comfort, just about anywhere in the world we go, most of what we do follows the same pattern. Fellowship was held in the back of the gym, just like Doha. I’m beginning to know a few faces, and we nod a little (after all, we are Episcopalians) and I am happy our son and his wife also know a few people so worship feels more like family. Our little grandson loves the baby-care; they take such good care of him.
We have learned to live with – even adapt to – the differences wherever we might go. Some places, it’s all “smells and bells” i.e. incense, bells, high church formality. Some places it’s more evangelical, “new” music and hands in the air. Christ Church in Pensacola is old school, liturgical, but without the smells and bells. The sermons are down to earth and applicable.
The sermon today was on just that – keeping our mind on the substance of what we believe, and letting the stylistic differences go. Amen to that.
The Not-to-Do List
I love this meditation from Rick Warren, who sends these out daily from his Purpose Driven Life connection. I was at dinner last night with three well-connected (2 i-Phones, one something else) family members, and I remember thinking (with a grin) that we spent the entire dinner in conversation, and no one was occupied with their phone.
Choosing a simpler life
by Rick Warren
. . . a time to embrace and a time to refrain. Ecclesiastes 3:5 (NIV)
You’d think that living in Southern California means I’m surrounded by people who live a laid-back lifestyle. The truth is just the opposite: Most of the people I know are trying to cram more and more into each day.
For instance, a couple of years ago, I was with a group of friends driving down the interstate. At one point, I looked around and realized most of us were engaged in some activity other than talking to each other. Two people were on their cell phones; another was working on his BlackBerry; and a fourth was focused on his laptop computer.
As a joke, I declared I felt left out. I called the driver, who was sitting right next to me, and we chatted together on our cell phones for a few minutes! The point of our traveling together in the van was so we could grab time to talk face-to-face! Yet we felt pressed to get it all done.
That’s when I realized the truth – we couldn’t get it all done, and God never intended for us to make completing a to-do list the purpose of our lives.
The fact is, there are many things we think we must do that really are not worth doing. My point is this: You won’t simplify your life by getting an electronic organizer. You won’t even find it by convincing your neighbor, who makes Martha Stewart look like a sloth, to give you tips about coordinating your activities while still wearing a perfect dress and pearls like Beaver Cleaver’s mom.
Simplifying is really about choices – prioritizing what is important – and then sticking to those choices no matter how tempting it is to add more to your to-do list. In fact, take those tempting activities and put them on a list of things not to do.
You are the only one who can assume responsibility for your time and clarify what’s really important to you.
Now maybe you’re thinking, “But I have to take care of the kids,” or “I have to get this report done by Friday.” I’m not naΓ―ve about the pressures many people feel today, but it may be that those things – your children, your work – are the priorities you keep on your to-do list, and you move other things to the not-to-do list.
Tropical Storm Bonnie On the Horizon
Yesterday Little Diamond and I headed out to Fort Pickens, a long spit of land out on Pensacola Beach where there are old forts and batteries, campgrounds and hiking trails. The campgrounds looked heavily occupied, and there was a heavy surf – not to far from the road. In fact, although I am usually courageous, I felt uncomfortable about how close the surf was to the road. Out on this long, isolated spit, the land isn’t that much above sea level. It wouldn’t take much to wash right over the spit, and were that to happen, there is no place to run.
Personal security sort of becomes a way of life. It becomes second nature; you don’t even know you are constantly surveying your surroundings, looking for escape routes, keeping your back to the wall, facing the door, watching cars around you, etc. You don’t even know you are doing it, until you get that sort of choking sensation, knowing there is one way out and if that way is compromised, you might be sunk – in this case, literally.
On our way out and back, we saw mysterious activity, involving tents, lots of workers, surveyors and GPS systems. We speculated it might be movement of turtle eggs to avoid contamination from the oil spill, but we didn’t stop and ask – they seemed very intent and focused on their task.
We quickly toured and left for a nice lunch at Crabs – We Got ‘Em. DELICIOUS! We had the crab and spinach dip – oh Yummm. I had the crab cake sliders, which were so big I could only eat the crab cakes. Little Diamond had the Crab Ceasar. All in all, we were greatly pleased. Although yesterday was another hot hot hot and humid day, we ate outside in the shaded area, fanned by fans and Gulf breezes. Another day in Paradise. π
(For those of you in the area, here is our review of our first visit to Crabs – We Got ‘Em several months ago.)
This morning, looking at the front page, we had confirmation of our fears – under the headline Bonnie Flies Over the Sea is a sub-headline “Ft. Pickens evacuates campers as storm enters Gulf, regains steam.”
A second article, above the line, is Sea Turtles Changing Shores and you can see a photo of a sea turtle nest full of eggs being moved to avoid damage from the oil spill.
Pensacola is actually just outside the projected path of Bonnie, but those storms are often known to veer from the projections. I have water and candles and matches and blankets, peanut butter and crackers stored in the closet of what Little Diamond calls the Fantasy Guest Suite. She is, as has become tradition, our first visitor. π
The Devil’s Queen by Jeanne Kalogridis
“I need an ESCAPE!” I shouted to AdventureMan, at the end of my rope. So many things going on in my life that are out of my control, I just don’t want to deal with it any more, and I just want to run away and hide. “I’m going out to buy a BOOK!”
I found just the book, The Devil’s Queen by Jeanne Kalogridis.
I don’t know much about the late 1500’s in Europe, do you? At first, reading about this rich, spoiled little girl growing up in Florence, I felt a little impatient with her. All around her people are starving, and she hasn’t a clue. The plague strikes, and people are dying, but she survives. She starves, she suffers cold and fleas and is tossed by fate like a little cork on the water – all before she is 12 years old. Catherine de Medici learns early in life that she has no control over the forces of history and society swirling around her, over who she will love and who she will marry, even over whether she lives or dies. Surviving an attack on her family compound, held prisoner – alone – in nunneries until she is 12 years old – this girl’s life makes mine look peaceable!
I’m feeling better already.
Kalogridis is no Phillipa Gregory, but she has done her research, and draws us in. By the time Pope Clement betrothes Catherine to Henri of France, we are totally hooked. Thirteen years old, and off to live in a strange country as the bride of a man she has never met. She studies French as quickly as possible, but then again – this is a very bright young woman, who has been trained – by life and by education – to survive.
One of the paragraphs made me laugh out loud – as Catherine enters France, she is aware that her very fashionable Italian clothing is very unfashionable in France. She also notes that all the French women are painfully thin, thin to the point of gauntness, and are whispering behind their hands at her more normal size.
Lack of thinness is the least of her problems. She marries Henri, who is also 14, scared, and not in love with her, and they are expected to consummate their marriage under the eye of the King. Oh aargh! Catherine is on a steep learning curve, mastering French culture, diplomacy, the art of war, court politics and fighting the threat of repudiation the only way she can – with utter humility.
What I like the most about this book is that I feel like I was there with her. She is very human, and also very royal. People who are royal have different ideas than the rest of us, and are entitled in ways we can never imagine. They have obligations we can’t imagine. She makes choices I would never make, and yet the author convinced me that given her circumstances, she does the best she can with the resources at hand.
I also like it that Catherine of Medici was a brilliant and educated woman who held her own in a world where the balance was definitely in favor of being a man, and women were greatly at a disadvantage. While she made some horrifying choices, she had her reasons. This is not a book for the faint hearted; it is very earthy and it feels like an accurate portrayal of the times.
As I read these books, I think, too, how little we appreciate how free women are these days, and how recent that freedom is. Being able to choose our own mates – this is very recent. Being able to inherit and to manage our own money – this is very recent. As I talk with my friends who live in the Arabian Gulf, where marriages can still be based on family alliances, maintaining wealth and power, and where divorce can still equal personal disaster, it no longer seems so alien to me – we have this in our own history. We used to marry by contract, and our husbands had full use of our wealth. We used to be judged by whether we could bear children, how many, how many were sons, and how well we managed our households. We used to die in childbirth, and many of our children didn’t survive their infancy.
If you are looking for a good escape, this is a book that will take you there. It will make your own troubles look small in comparison. This book will keep you engrossed, horrified, and entertained, and, in the end, you might learn something, as I did.
You can find The Devil’s Queen at Amazon.com for a mere $10.40 plus shipping, and yes, I own stock in Amazon.com. LOL, we invest in that which we believe to lasting and important, and books play a large role in our lives. π
Mediterranean Plus in Pensacola, ReVisit
“It’s hard to believe there are so many people in Pensacola who like Middle Eastern food,” my friend whispered, as we waited for our meals to arrive at Mediterranean Plus.
The restaurant was not packed, but it is a large restaurant, and most of the tables were taken.
The Mediterranean appetizer platter arrived and we all dug in, conversation flowing fast and furious. We slowed down when the main course arrived – holy smokes, all that food . . .
At the end of the meal, she said “Wow. I’ll be back here for sure!”
Pensacola has been a surprise – all the ethnic restaurants, and the food is not dumbed down.
Did You Get the Dashboard Gas Emissions E-mail?
I did.
Here is what I read this morning in the Qatar Gulf Times:
Steamy car interiors do not produce gas: expert
By Sarmad Qazi
The National Campaign for Road Accident Prevention (NCFRAP) yesterday dismissed as βfalseβ a purported e-mail from βSaudi Geophysical and Environmental Consultingβ making the rounds, saying that a poisonous gas forms in cars parked under direct sunlight.
There is no such company in Saudi Arabia, it has been learnt. However, a national organisation, βSaudi Geophysicalβ has been in operation since 1998.
βThis is absolutely false. It is true that vehicles parked under direct sunlight get hot, but the formation of any poisonous gas is absolutely ridiculous,β Ademola Ilori, adviser to the Traffic Department said yesterday.
The e-mail cautions motorists to leave the vehicleβs doors well and windows open for a while, to let the βgasβ escape.
βBased on scientific research, it is found that there is a gas called gasoline, emitted from the seats, air fresheners and seat covers, when parking your car in the sun particularly when the temperature is higher than 15 degrees Fahrenheit or 6 degress Celsius,β one of the six paragraphs from the e-mail reads.
According to Ilori, on a typical sunny day in Qatar, the temperature inside a parked vehicle can easily exceed 50 degrees C in just ten to twenty minutes.
βHot weather brings unique challenges to vehicles. It can present dangerous conditions for both the vehicle and its occupants but fortunately most incidents can easily be avoided,β Ilori said.
βStudies show that 75% of the temperature rise occurs within five minutes of closing the doors and goes up to 51-67C within 15 minutes. Leaving the windows (cracking) slightly open does not keep the temperature at a safe level,β he added.
Sharing summer driving tips, the official said that motorists should check oil, transmission fluid, windshield washer, battery level and strength, tyre pressure, etc before taking their vehicles out.
βDrivers need to stay cool as well, by drinking a lot of water (not ice cold) especially those who travel in vehicles without air-conditioning. Of particular importance for motorists is to keep an eye on the lights and gauges when driving in hot weather.
βIf your temperature gauge moves up, turn on the heater to its highest and hottest setting. It will be uncomfortable, but it will help draw some of the heat away from the engine. If you are stopped in traffic put the vehicle in βPβ (or neutral for manual gears) and lightly step on the gas to help circulate the coolant,β he said.
In case the temperature gauge enters the βred zoneβ, a vehicle should immediately be pulled off the road and the engine be shut.
However, at this point, motorists should not attempt to remove the radiator cap as the hot pressurised coolant will spray out with great force.
βDo not pour water over the radiator or engine, since a dramatic change in temperature could cause damage. After the engine cools, add a 50-50 mix of coolant and water to the reservoir to bring it up to its proper level,β Ilori said.
The Bride: To Dance or Not to Dance?
From National Public Radio, where you can listen to the entire story
July 22, 2010
One Sudan Marriage Ritual: An Alluring Nude Dance
by GWEN THOMPKINS
A mating ritual in Northern Sudan is hotter than the Sahara but not for everyone to see.
It has no official name, only a few simple rules apply, and, like all matters of the heart and the loins, the custom is open to interpretation.
In English, people here call it the Bride Dance.
Young brides have been performing the dance on, or near, their wedding nights for thousands of years. Like Sudan, it is both Arab and African. And, like Sudan, it is neither Arab nor African.
It is deeply erotic. The women wear revealing clothes. Not so long ago, in some fleeting instances, they wore no clothes at all. Sometimes, a gathering of sisters, aunts, mothers and friends teaches the steps. Or wealthier brides engage professional instructors. Because rich or poor, urban or rural, every bride knows that doing the dance well takes practice.
(skirt traditionally worn)
The Bride Whisperer
Iman Ali, aka Shengota, is a kind of bride whisperer. She teaches young women how to be one part Salome, one part Beyonce and one part the girl next-door.
But that ain’t easy.
Creating the right effect takes several songs, smart choreography, a custom-built stage and a whole wardrobe of costume changes.
Young brides-to-be practice their steps every day, sometimes for months in advance. The upside, Shengota says, is that the women usually lose several pounds before the wedding. And that makes just about everybody happy.
When the music starts, the bride and groom mount a circular stage. And while the groom stands there snapping his fingers, the bride does her best to make him look like the luckiest man in the room. Never mind that he’s usually the only man in the room. The dance is, more often than not, performed in front of an entirely female audience of cheering family members and friends.
But not everyone here is a fan.
Contradicting The Rules?
The dance predates Islam in Sudan. And it may be one of the few customs on which feminists and Islamic fundamentalists agree.
Nowadays, plenty of Sudanese women say they don’t want to dance, “like monkeys,” half-naked for the crowd. And Sudan’s Islamic fundamentalist government has strict rules on how women should comport themselves in public: conservative attire, head and legs covered, no shimmying.
Fatima Sir El Khatim Hallulah danced when she was a bride at age 14. Now, at age 60, she says she doesn’t want her daughters to dance.
Hallulah says she was an uneducated country girl at 14, marrying a man she had never seen before at the bidding of her parents. But her daughters are university graduates who chose their own husbands. Hallulah says her girls should not be made to debase themselves. Others say they’d hate to see videos of their performances end up on YouTube.
‘Nice To Show Off A Little’
But after a recent dip in general interest in dancing, choreographer Shengota says her phone is now ringing more often. Educated women of Sudan’s economic elite are seeking her services.
Zaeneb El Khamis, a dentist in her late 20s, says the dance gives brides a chance to shake things up a little before settling down to marriage. The lights and the music and the costume changes β including different perfumes and nail polishes for different dances β can be great fun.
She, like many brides, enjoys watching the video of her performance with her family and friends. “It’s nice to show off a little,” El Khamis says. “I was good.”
HIV Increases Significantly in People over 50
Today, on BBC Health News experts say you are likely at risk if you have had sex without condoms, multiple sex partners, or sex in countries with high HIV rates:
HIV rate rises among over-50s
There has been a big increase in the number of people aged 50 and over catching HIV, latest figures show.
The over-50s infection rate in England, Wales and Northern Ireland more than doubled in under a decade – from 299 new cases in 2000 to 710 in 2007.
In 2008 there were 7,382 new diagnoses – 8% of these were in the over-50s, says the Health Protection Agency.
Experts say the figures are a stark reminder of the importance of practising safe sex, whatever your age.
This highlights the importance of HIV testing – whatever your ageβ
Other sexually transmitted infections have shown a similar doubling in under a decade among the same age group, and have been rising at a faster rate than in the young.
Promiscuity
Ruth Smith, who led the HPA research, said: “We estimate that nearly half of older adults diagnosed between 2000 and 2007 were infected at age 50 or over. This highlights the importance of HIV testing – whatever your age.
“We must continually reinforce the safe sex message – using a condom with all new or casual partners is the surest way to ensure people do not become infected with a serious sexually transmitted infection such as HIV.”
When Royalty Comes to Dine
I know I dream, but most of the time I can’t remember. Most of the dreams I can remember are the equivalent to university exam dreams, you know, the dreams you have for years after you graduate about missing the class and having to take the exam? Most of the dreams I remember are packing dreams – it’s time to go, and I haven’t finished packing. Oh aarrgh!
Recently I had a different dream. This is so hilarious I can’t begin to figure out what it is about. Royalty is visiting in our town. Like English royalty, and I vaguely recognize Princess “Fergie” and Elizabeth I, they are all dressed in period costume and are sort of posed around looking royal.
I realize that no one has taken care of making sure they have events scheduled that honor them, so I invite them to dinner, and then for the rest of the dream, I am so busy trying to make sure that they are sufficiently ‘honored’ that I keep worrying about what I am going to do about dinner. No one seems to be at all concerned except me. The royals are all just looking royal, very good sports, but how am I going to be a good hostess – taking care of them now – and still get dinner on the table? I could order out, but I think they are expecting a home cooked meal? I am not living overseas anymore, where I might have hired help; this one is on me.
Fortunately, I wake up.
I don’t know why I can even remember this dream, most of all I remember the feeling that I have offered up something and I don’t really have the resources to keep my promises. Oh aaarrgh!
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