Journey of the Magi

This is one of my favorite poems. It produces a longing in me. To experience in my own life something so real that I "should be glad of another death." Hope you enjoy it as much as I do. Or at least a little.

Journey of the Magi by T.S. Eliot

A cold coming we had of it,
Just the worst time of the year
For a journey, and such a long journey:
The ways deep and the weather sharp,
The very dead of winter.
And the camels galled, sore-footed, refractory,
Lying down in the melting snow.
There were times when we regretted
The summer palaces on slopes, the terraces,
And the silken girls bringing sherbet.
Then the camel men cursing and grumbling
And running away, and wanting their liquor and women,
And the night-fires going out, and the lack of shelters,
And the cities dirty and the towns unfriendly
And the villages dirty and charging high prices:
A hard time we had of it.
At the end we preferred to travel all night,
Sleeping in snatches,
With the voices singing in our ears, saying
That this was all folly.

Then at dawn we came down to a temperate valley,
Wet, below the snow line, smelling of vegetation;
With a running stream and a water mill beating the darkness,
And three trees on the low sky,
And an old white horse galloped away in the meadow.
Then we came to a tavern with vine-leaves over the lintel,
Six hands at an open door dicing for pieces of silver,
And feet kicking the empty wineskins.
But there was no information, and so we continued
And arrived at evening, not a moment too soon
Finding the place; it was (you may say) satisfactory.

All this was a long time ago, I remember,
And I would do it again, but set down
This set down
This: were we led all that way for
Birth or Death? There was a Birth, certainly,
We had evidence and no doubt. I had seen birth and death,
But had thought they were different; this Birth was
Hard and bitter agony for us, like Death, our death.
We returned to our places, these Kingdoms,
But no longer at ease here, in the old dispensation,
With an alien people clutching their gods.
I should be glad of another death.

An 18 Year Old Love Affair

Yesterday I went to the NKOTB "The Block" Concert. It was actually a decent show. They either are good business men themselves and/or have an excellent marketing team. The show was well put together and not too cheesy. It had just the right balance of old school and new school. (And I wasn't even a fan back in the day.)


Their opening act, Lady Gaga . . . well, I don't even know what to say about her. She definitely has some heavy european influences, is very dramatic, and likes bats. Click here http://www.ladygaga.com/ if you want to catch more of her.


Natasha Bedingfield more than made up for the first act by being her awesome and sweet self. She was so nice. And she said it best as she dedicated one of her songs to the whole arena full of women. She said she thought the NKOTB Reunion tour was sweet because it is the culmination of an 18 year old love affair. What a thoughtful and poignant point of view, and so true. I saw a whole stadium full of grown women turn into giggly, giddy 13 year olds the instant NKOTB came out on stage.

It is an interesting situation to be in a room full of people so like yourself. The whole room was full of women, ages ranging from 28ish to 33ish, with a sprinkling of begruding husbands or boyfriends mixed in. We were all different shapes, sizes, and colors, but there for one purpose--to see New Kids On The Block. There is a solidarity felt when one is in such a homogeneous environment. And it was kind of awesome to watch . . . thousands of women singing the lines to songs they probably didn't even realize they still knew.

Overall, I give it a thumbs up. Good job, NKOTB, on the comeback. And kuddos for being so forward thinking to become the original "boy band" so long ago . . . I'm not sure anyone's given you all the credit you deserve for that.

Boo part Two

Evidently, I'm not the only one who thinks it smells like fries. I'm not sure what the "no one dies!" part means, but this is a sweatshirt that you can buy at Cafepress.

Boo for BioDiesel

Before you get too riled up, hear me out.

I understand the benefits of Biodiesel. I understand that it's a viable alternative to traditional fossel fuels.

But it is not my friend.

Today, as many days, I left work around 6 pm. At 5 pm I ate a small snack because I started to get hungry. By 6 o'clock I was getting hungry again and decided it was time to go home. I thought about going through a drive through, but decided I didn't need to spend the money nor did I have room in my "caloric budget" for the calories--instead I made a plan to stop by Fred Meyer on my way home. So, I got straight on the freeway and headed north.

But as I drove, I found my stomach grumbling more and more. At first I couldn't identify the problem, but soon I realized the yummy smell of french fries was wafting through the interior of my car. I'm thinking, do I have left over french fries in the floor board of my car? (not unheard of) Are they getting heated up? No, my car was actually pretty clean--no left over fast food here. And there are no restaurants near I-5 in this part of town. Where is that smell coming from? My hunger is beginning to conjure up images of a giant scary Burger King figure chasing my car down the interstate! And then I spot it. The dreaded bumper-sticker. It's on the car in front of me. I've seen it before . . . "This car powered by Biodiesel."

I'm trying to treat my body and my pocketbook better these days: trying to lose a little weight and not to eat out so much, but at that moment I was having trouble focusing . How's a girl supposed to be successful when she can't even drive down the road without her senses being bombarded by grease? It's like driving through the midway at the county fair--visions of funnel cake and elephant ears danced through my head.

Thank goodness I've encountered this phenomenon before and I've a learned a couple of things about how to resist the King's attacks. I forced myself to imagine the yummy sun-dried tomato, feta, and spinach pizza I was going to make when I got home. And somehow, by grace, I made it to the grocery store, and then home to my house without taking any detours through a drive-thru.

Not every day is so successful.

So, hats off to you environmentally friendly types who drive a biodiesel powered vehicle--I'm glad you're doing your part to reduce our need for fossel fuels. But my plea goes out to you biodiesel technology creating scientists--if you can make a car run on leftover grease, can't we do something about the smell?

Go Cougs!

This is how one should dress on a beautiful, crisp, fall day in the Pacific NW!