Friday, January 30, 2004

Thinking about change

Jon Carroll's column about change this morning made me laugh out loud, especially the line:

"If the Rockies will tumble and Gibraltar will crumble, how come I can't lose 20 pounds?"

We want change, yet we don't want to upset the apple cart. We expect things to keep evolving, but at the same time we want to keep things the way they are... at least the things we like.

I tend to be the person in the group who wants, in my heart, to shake things up, to take a chance on something new. But on the other hand, my affect is soothing, I'm the one who mediates, who smooths things over, who goes along with the majority rule. How can these two personality traits co-exist? They seem to get along without causing any visible signs of schizophrenia.

One of Dad's favorite quotes is running around my head: "There is nothing certain in life, except change". Might as well enjoy it!!

Leah Brooks at 9:45 AM

Wednesday, January 28, 2004

Coming of Age

Ariana is ten years old now and I have been giving some thought to what we might do as something special to celebrate her coming of age (in a few years). I am sure there are interesting rituals that women in this era have invented that we might use as a model. I am looking for something that will be a challenge physically and mentally, that invokes a feeling of mystery or spirituality, that involves nature and the many women who have been nurturing her since she was an infant.

At that juncture of my life, I went to the Virgin Islands with my family. Getting on a plane for the first time, snorkeling over a reef, seeing the people of another culture - all of those events were seeds that later blossomed into adventures throughout my life.
Leah Brooks at 2:08 PM

Monday, January 26, 2004

Something's Comin'

Who knows?
There's something due any day, I will know right away
Soon as it shows....

How can I write about something that I can't yet talk about? How can I express the excitement of a new venture when that new venture hasn't yet been announced? Well, let's just say it's like sitting on a nest of eggs that are already chirping. It won't be long before everyone knows.

All right, if you are the curious sort who just can't stand to wait, go ahead and email me, and maybe I'll tell you..
Leah Brooks at 1:50 PM

Thursday, January 22, 2004

Thank you, Sheriff

Last night I was driving home very late after an exhausting day. Wednesdays get very very long for me.. there is the usual mid-week stress at work, and then I start what I sometimes think of as my second job, chorus rehearsal. Yesterday we had a quartet rehearsal in between work and chorus. At chorus, I was giving three personal vocal lessons, setting up the room for a party, and teaching a new song. All that, on top of just plain working on the risers, trying to learn choreography and sing well, too.

Anyway, on my way home I was just about as tired as I get. As I pulled off the freeway, I just knew I wasn't slowing down as much as I should be (our road is posted at 25mph). I even remember thinking, I wonder if I really will get more speeding tickets, now that I have a red car? And sure enough, the sheriff pulled me over not 2 minutes from our house. He asked me how long I had lived here and what the speed limit is. I just sighed and said, I know I was going too fast - I'm just so exhausted, and want to get home. There was no point arguing or playing cute. He checked out my license and came back to say, go on home.. I'm just giving you a warning.

I will have to be more careful with my little red car (named Zora).
Leah Brooks at 4:50 PM

Puzzling dreams

Last night I dreamed that I was involved in some kind of team puzzle-solving game. Each member of the team had to unscramble a letter or solve a riddle to a word that unlocked one of the letters of the main word, which also had a riddle connected to it. When it came to my turn, I decided to solve the main word's riddle, rather than messing around with the individual letters' puzzles. As is common in dreams, it was so EASY for me to solve it - I don't remember the riddle, but the answer was BURGANDY. I was the hero of the moment.

This part of the dream is so much more satisfying to remember than the earlier part of the dream where I was underwater and able to breathe just fine, or the later part, when I almost lost the dog when walking across the Golden Gate Bridge amidst huge crowds of people.

This morning the paper reports a study that says that eight hours of sleep allows the mind the best solve problems, and that lack of sleep as one ages is probably the reason for age-related memory loss.
Leah Brooks at 10:45 AM

Wednesday, January 21, 2004

Winter sunshine

We had a week or so of fog, and so when the sun came out this week, it was a welcome sight. The lemons on the backyard tree are bright as beacons, and the hillsides are starting to radiate dayglo green.

Yesterday, from a meeting at the conference table in my office, I looked across at the hill outside the windows to see a big coyote. She was peering intently at the ground, and then suddenly hopped straight up into the air. Landing a few feet away, she repeated the hopping a few times before landing on her lunch. The others at my meeting and I watched her as she crunched happily. Her bushy tail was held straight up during her hunt, and she reminded me of Lola, so satisfied and well-fed.
Leah Brooks at 8:19 AM

Thursday, January 15, 2004

More silliness

We just can't stop thinking about E-Bo.

If we never find out her last name, she will have to be known as E-Bo Doe.
If she married Bo Diddley, she'd be E-Bo Diddley.
If she married J.Lo, she'd be E-Bo Lo.
If she married Hedy Lamarr, she'd be E-bo La Marr.

And while we're on the subject,
If 50-Cent married Barney Fife, he'd be 50-Fife.
If P. Diddy married Gordon Liddy, he'd be P. Diddy Liddy.

Leah Brooks at 2:40 PM

Wednesday, January 14, 2004

Had to laugh at your take on E-bo, the mystery contestant.

Immediately thought of her marrying Evil and becoming E-bo Knievel but that doesn't quite work, does it?

Our poet of the month Ogden Nash would have had no qualms about using it as E-bo Knie-bo, though.

Also got to wonder if she speaks E-bo-nics.

R.G. Brooks at 3:02 PM

Tuesday, January 13, 2004

Fun with names

Last night we watched part of Hollywood Squares while eating our spaghetti. Not as much fun as Jeopardy (where I won, by knowing the answer to Final J: Steinbeck!), because I never know who the darn celebrities are. But the fun part last night was that the contestant was identified as "E-Bo". Usually they only say the first names of the contestants, so I have to assume that is her first name.

With a name like that in front of us, we let go of Hollywood Squares and started playing the marriage game about her.
"If she married Beau Bridges, they'd be E-Bo & Beau."
"If she was a martial arts specialist, she'd be Taibo E-Bo."
"If she likes to buy things at auction, she'd be known as Ebay E-Bo."
The winner: "If she married David Bowie, she'd be E-Bo Bowie."

Leah Brooks at 8:52 AM

Monday, January 12, 2004

We are fragile

Our dear friend Stella was hit by a car this weekend, while crossing a street (in the cross walk). Seeing her in the hospital (she'll be okay, but has some head trauma) brought clearly into focus how fragile our bodies are. We are just OUT THERE in the world and anything can happen. We could step off a curb and shatter a leg, we put ourselves in the paths of maniacs on cell phones who are in a hurry; we teeter on the edge of mortality every single day and we don't even realize it.

The guy who hit her drove away in fear. Luckily, the kind witnesses who tended to her in the street also got his license plate. I hope he has some money that can be used for her bills and future trips to New Zealand.

Keep her in your thoughts.
Leah Brooks at 11:48 AM

Saturday, January 10, 2004

Back at last

I have been offline for quite a while, for a couple reasons: one, I had stuffed my blog area with too much stuff, and had trouble publishing. This coincided with Scott (my brother and host) changing servers, which made us guess that a path had been switched, or something, but Bob the detective figured it out, and now I'm back. The second reason is that I was just too darn busy / stunned after the holiday to spend much time figuring it out. Coming back to a pile of work that made nearly no sense to me at all - taking two weeks off was great, and in fact my conscious mind completely let go of every pending project. It took me until Wednesday to pull up the memories from the deep sub-mind level, and get back to work.

What's also interesting is that I was not inspired to blog when I couldn't publish. I guess it's like singing - not as much fun without an audience. However, the blogger's audience is so invisible that it might as well not be there. An imaginary audience that exists only in the page's hit statistics.
Leah Brooks at 12:02 PM

Sunday, January 04, 2004

Critical Thinking, Part I

This is a test post to Leah's blog, an interesting course on Critical thinking that can be browsed for some key ideas and lingo. Core Concepts in Critical Thinking, Part I
R.G. Brooks at 10:59 AM

Friday, January 02, 2004

Happy New Year

Rang in the new year in San Francisco at a artsy party in a 16-room south-of-Market mansion. We did our best to make as much noise as possible (this must be related to reveille - see my post of 12.26) as the host counted down the last seconds of the year on a huge bus station clock that was on the wall in the stairwell.

We met someone named Freddy, who is a charming man who was wearing a coin around his neck. Dan asked him about it, and he told his story of finding this 2,300 year old relic in a store 30 years or so ago, and buying it for $500, a fortune to him at the time. He always has loved Alexander the Great, and his face adorns the coin. Now the coin is worth thousands, and of course he would never ever part with it. It reminded me of a coin that I once (see June 16th blog) found under the forsythia bush. A coin dealer told me that my coin was a cereal box replica - and now, I've seen the original! Upon coming home from the party, I found the coin and indeed it is identical. What a coincidence! a wonderful way to make a new connection with someone.
Leah Brooks at 5:06 PM