| Frauke, who is from Germany, told me that the HEADS available here are not the same quality as the actual HEADS in Austria. (Said they are from Germany before, and I was WRONG.) My only thought was, "Oh man, you mean there is something even more heavenly?" I must go to Europe again. |
Chatting with my family every week has taken on a dimension. Somehow a few of us managed to get MS Netmeeting - gads, more MS stuff - and now we’re talking over the internet, across the Pacific Ocean. My uncle has a video camera that allowed me to see him while he talked into the computer. It’s weird enough to hear the voice of someone I know emanating from the speakers flanking the monitor, but it’s absolutely incredible to watch my uncle squirming in his office chair. THAT is so weird…and amazing. Word is that g-ma is gonna be the next one to get a microphone.
Lessee…last night I went to a dinner party at Catherine’s house. She had arranged for a young man to come speak after dinner on hanyak (oriental medicine). The purpose of the get-together was the presentation, not the dinner - dinner was a side issue. But, I have to admit that the dinner was my favorite part. It was potluck, so everyone brought homemade dishes that were just so GOOD. I haven’t eaten food like that in a long time. I’ve gotten so used to the crappy attempts (my own included) at Western cuisine that I’ve just totally forgotten how good it can be. Frauke made chocolate mousse for dessert and I couldn’t wait to backhoe my way into that. John and Catherine’s house is really cozy too. They had set the lights low and lit candles throughout. It was nice to be in a house full of nice things, good food, and chatty people. Maybe it was like a kind of Thanksgiving?
The guy talking about hanyak, David, brought along his girlfriend, Eddi. We talked some and as she began to tell me details about her life, I felt like maybe I’d heard of her. When she gave me her business card I was totally shocked to discover that she is someone I’ve wanted to meet for awhile. Through various people here, I’d heard her name mentioned and a couple of people had said we should meet. I kept meaning to email her, but always flaked because I don’t want to just email a stranger (heh, stranger) out of the blue and say, "Hi, you don’t know me but people tell me I should know you." What a weird coincidence.
So life at the party was grand except that dinner took too long to eat and poor David didn’t get started talking until 9:30. Then he felt rushed because it was late, but also because someone else from the group had invited a second person to speak about hand acupuncture and, well, the clock was ticking. David’s mind seemed to wander a bit. I knew exactly what was happening because my brain does the same thing. He’d say, "This causes A and this causes B, but then there is this exception which sometimes creates A+B, but it’s really rare and (voice trailing off) I guess that’s beyond the scope of this talk - where was I going with this? Oh yeah, so this causes C…. Classic.
The night sky is absolutely clear these days. Somehow I can see stars even though the southern half of the Korean peninsula looks like one giant light bulb in satellite photos. There are two planets reflecting sunlight brilliantly beside the crescent moon. Spectacular. I swear when I’m on the trail I just stare upward at the stars the whole time. Last night, walking home after Frauke dropped me off at midnight, I looked up to spy Orion overhead. It must have been the combination of the cold and seeing that constellation that triggered a memory of the night of my first kiss. It was around February 14 at a Valentine’s Day party my boyfriend’s mom was having for her friends. They had hired a band and invaded a vacant mini-mansion on the outskirts of Gig Harbor. I believe it was a Spanish-style place plastered white with doorways that were round instead of square and outlined with red brick. Wrought iron fit in there somewhere too. Since it was empty there were countless nooks to occupy. Adults claimed the main floor while the kids fled to the upper story, where it remained dark the whole night except for the moon and starlight filtering through round windows.
The kiss? Well, it was definitely more exhilarating than other activities I enjoyed around that age. It’s been a hobby ever since. :)
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