Cherokee Faux Pas/NaNoWriMo???

Friday! Full day ahead. This blog, work, progress on the house (the 1,000 book project is almost done!), Anna and Mei coming over late afternoon with the costume emergency and tonight Schaller's with a good sized group. Christ has been practicing (guitar) to accompany me on a bunch of my songs.Very cool to sing with a piano (Bobby), trumpet/sax (Pete) and now guitar (Christ) combo. Listening to Carla Bruni again - she is amazing, former first lady of France, former model, songwriter, actress, incredible chanteuse. I ordered her songbook and plan to work up some of her songs - people like it when I sing in French. Lately I've been singing Autumn Leaves in French which is apropos to the season. Makes me sad though and I have to fight tears especially when I get to the line that translates, "Since you went away, the days grow long, and soon I'll hear old winter's song."

Oh, my - what to say about the date. I could take the high road and say nothing which would probably be the Landmark extraordinary thing to do. Or, I could go for the entertainment value and tell you everything I hated at the expense of my date, hoping I never forget and give him the URL for this blog. Friend who says, "Don't use my name!" says I should keep dating for no other reason that it's fun to write about. But that's not the point, right? My dates shouldn't be cannon fodder to feed my creative muses's big guns.

So, the good with the not so good. Knew it was him right away when I walked up to the restaurant. He was huge with gray hair past his waist. He looked like an overgrown school boy with cargo shorts a loud t-shirt, a beanie of a hat and a backpack slung over his back. I on the other hand was dressed to the nines from head to toe. Oh, and he wore a colorful choker necklace! Wasn't so bad when we sat down, cuz I didn't have to look at the shorts and much of the t-shirt was obscured, the hat and backpack were removed. And he wasn't a bad looking man, almost pleasant. "I can do this," I said to myself and resolved to just surrender to the moment and dig deeper.

What unfolded was the story of a complicated man who finds himself approaching sixty without a lot of accomplishment under his belt despite the fact that he has his PhD in psychology. He was vague when I asked him why he was underemployed (didn't put it that way), just working part time, teaching some administrative courses to people in labor unions. He was opinionated when I discussed my therapy with Kaveh, snorting at the Fruedians of which Kaveh is proudly one. He talked incessantly - I listened. And I apparently committed a faux pas when I asked him what % Cherokee he is. He gently corrected me, telling me that you must never ask that question of a Cherokee. Apparently there are few full blooded Indians left in the U.S. so, as long as you can trace yourself back to one, no matter how insignificant the connection, you can be admitted into the Indian nation. He wasn't raised as an Indian (his father eschewed any Indian roots) so Wade had to reach back to previous generations to find the connection and submit his application. Now he wears angry Indian t-shirts, wears his hair long in solidarity, won't celebrate Thanksgiving, and identifies fully with the Indian plight. When I described my job, he told me he thought telecommunications should be nationalized with almost everything else. When the bill came, I paid more than half because he is broke. We parted ways and he took the "L" back to Hyde Park because he doesn't own a car.

Feeling like a shallow schmuck for caring about stuff like car ownership, proper dress, manicured hair, a good job. The guy is smart. He is available. I'm alone. Maybe I think too much of myself and he is what I should settle for. Oh, and did I mention he drinks lots of whiskey? I remember, I wasn't all that impressed with Patrick when we met, even on date#2. But, I gave him a chance and quickly fell in love. He wasn't perfect either. My friend who has a list of observations about every ethnic group, said in a way that cracked me up, "This joker should be standing on the side of a highway with a tear running down his face!"

On another note, seems my silly writing about Miss Regina's Finishing School might have been better than I thought. Loved Carol's comment and I also got a text from writer, Phil who thinks I should run with it. Talked with Carol yesterday and she had some great angles for the story that included things like the climate crisis, hive collapse, queen bees who are traditional enemies having to work together in crisis. And Phil, who has a crush on me, sees it as a venue for my erotic writing. So, toying with the idea of NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) which starts in a few weeks. It's an electronic event where writers the world over commit to writing no less than 50,000 words in the month of November (equates to 1,666 words a day). I got halfway through the month last year and, when I fell behind, had to decide if I was going to scrap everything else I cared about to catch up or ditch the project  (I ditched). It would be a challenge to write the daily quota AND do this blog every day. The blog comes first so we'll see.

Rambly today - nothing profound to write about. I'm deliberately taking a break from the scientific writing cuz I'm afraid some of you are finding it difficult or offputting. I might write a bonus posting this weekend in an effort to wrap up the subject of reality. And I'm barely keeping up with New Scientist - since the reality series there are breakthroughs to talk about with memory that we should discuss!

Challenge today is checking out my new friend, Josefien (I spelled her name wrong before!). She sent me the link to her website where she sells her personalized art. Do you remember her? She's the gal I met on the street outside the liquor store who I brought back to my house cuz she needed stamps. Turns out she is not only an incredibly gifted professional singer but she is also an amazing artist. I adore her art and aspire to get one for my office wall which I've left deliberately blank until something speaks to me. Here is the URL to her site. www.commemorationpaintings.com.

Peace,
Sarah

Picture is one of Josefien's paintings.