A Week!
4/16/01
It's been a week since I updated! How are the mighty fallen. And I didn't even have a good reason for it. My dreams of being a daily updater are now dust. Sigh.
I had felt that I was more likely to update after I retired. I think this week, when I had next to nothing to do at work, puts the lie to that theory. So, while I can still remember, here's how the week went.
On Monday, I got together with Sam and we discussed writing a book. I had written off a proposal to an editor whose name had been given to me by a friend, and got an email reply from the president of the publishing company within six hours! They are at least intrigued, if not downright interested.
So Sam and I set out a plan to get a real proposal to them. By Wed. night, I had written a Table of Contents, Introduction, and two sample chapters. After some fine tuning by Sam, I sent them off on Thurs. I've also been winding down my job. I got an agreement on severance that is OK and I'm planning to sign it. I did a bunch of tax stuff. And I cleaned some more clutter.
On Fri., I went to Portland OR for two days to have some more sessions with my weight lady. One was very interesting--it encouraged me to eat slowly (put down my fork between bites, for example), and really really taste the food I am eating. She is very good! After this session, we went to a restaurant and I found each bite was amazingly wonderful. When the food is so full of taste, you get satisfied with less of it. I'm getting used to leaving food on my plate, even when I order two appetizers.
We also saw a friend of hers whose husband has a rare blood disease that will likely kill him in the next decade or so. She had been very depressed about that this week, and we did some Hawaiian Huna processes that allowed her to forgive him and herself. She left in a much better state than she came in, so that was very satisfying.
We also got to have some fun--we went to a couple of excellent restaurants and saw a play. It was a very nice couple of days.
On Easter, I went with Diana to her church, where she was playing her viola for the Easter service. Having discovered in myself a few years below a belief in, or rather conviction about, reincarnation, it's been pretty hard to sign up to call myself a Christian. And for a while, it bothered me--I was editing everything everyone said in a church service. But yesterday, I just let it flow over me. Good people, doing the best they can with what they have.
I've become the kind of person I hated in my twenties and thirties--the person who only comes to church on Christmas and Easter. I used to feel such folks were terrible hypocrites (they were thick in the church I attended as a kid). I assumed that they belived all the dogma, but were lazy and only came out for the good bits. It never crossed my mind that they may be, like me, someone whose beliefs are far enough away from dogma that they can't really feel comfortable as a regular churchgoer, but at the same time the festivals are in their blood. Wrenching sound as some of my belief systems realign themselves...
After church, we went to Diana's parents house for dinner. It was a wonderful journey back to my childhood--ham, green beans with mushroom soup and onion strings on top, baked potato, applesauce (hot, with red hots dissolved in it to make it redder and tangy), and apple pie. They have lived in their house for 51 years, and there are some really charming lamps and other things that date from the late 40's and early 50's. Very pleasant.
There was a bit more excitement than we had planned on when Diana's son Eson picked up the hot applesauce by the bottom of the bowl, burned himself, dropped the bowl on the table, and splashed what must have been several cups of applesauce on the table, chair, rug, and all over himself. Diana's parents had some aloe in the refrigerator that made short work of the burn, and I spent some time on my hands and kneeds wiping applesauce dots off the rug before they could sink in. It really took me back to when my kids were little. After dinner, I got some rug cleaner and a rag, and couldn't see where the spots had been, so I guess I got them all.
Today I went into work for a very dull meeting, but mostly spent the day writing another chapter of the book and doing a long list of not very interesting jobs. And clearing some more clutter. In fact, another chapter calls. I fear my updating will be sporadic until I get a bunch more of these chapters written. I think it's a good cause, though...
Thank you for reading.
Copyright © 2001 Pete Stevens. All rights reserved.
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