the blow stops here

There are some guys who can return good for evil...Every brave man will think so. He will not want to live by passing on the wrath. A hit B? B hit C? -- we have not enough alphabet to cover the condition. A brave man will try to make the evil stop with him. He shall keep the blow. No man shall get it from him and that is a sublime ambition. 

- saul bellow 'henderson the rain king' 

sublime ambition indeed. keep the blow. return evil with good. don't pass on the wrath. is this humanly possible? even if it's not, it feels good to try. 

makeout not war

"A personality without a center throws up a wall and lives in a state of siege." - Tennessee Williams, "One Arm" 

you have a center. 

everybody has a center. 

it's easy to lose sight of it, but it's always there and you can close your eyes and be there in a second.

there the siege is over. 

there the voice is rational and full of love and the voice is your own. 

same as it ever was.

'the centering book' tells you to close your eyes and focus on a spot an inch or two below your belly button. send light there. send warmth there. it's yours.  

first sign

the more positive you are, the more positive you will be.

nacho vs. the guest pillows

could he possibly get more fur onto every single  pillow? 

no. 

at least he's comfy.

he had a traumatic experience with a dental cleaning recently, but things are looking up. i don't want to stir up trouble, but i'm interested in hearing from other people in asheville who have had awful experiences with getting their pets' teeth cleaned. maybe we were the only ones? 

if they say y

tell 'em that is human nature

Contains milk but milk is not an ingredient.

speaking of nekkid basketball

i've said before the local commercials around here are weird, but this is the latest weirdest.

it's a personal injury law firm. two older male lawyers dressed in business suits are on a high school basketball court. 

with a girl in a half shirt and tiny mini skirt. 

inexplicable. 

who is she? why is she there? is she a lawyer too? secretary? just a woman for hire? how is this related? or relevant? in any way?

sex sells. but does it sell lawyers? makes them seem lecherous and sleazy and distracted to me.

save the sluts for the beer ads, i want my lawyers in libraries.

Why do they play basketball nekkid at nc state?

february in chapel hill

red bud trees are already blooming. it was in the 60's and sunny

pasty legs were bared at the beautiful new baseball stadium.

we went to chapel hill for the unc vs. clemson basketball game. my brother gave us tickets for christmas. he said the seats were right behind the bench, and i knew they would be good, but i really had no idea how good.

turns out row b really does mean row b. as in row 2. as in there's the players' bench, a row of chairs for the  jv team, row a and then row b. we were SO CLOSE.

close enough to hear the ref bark at leslie mcdonald 'find your seat' when he was dancing at tip-off.

close enough to hear roy williams scream at the bench after a turnover  "THAT WAS CARELESS AND CASUAL!" i plan to use this phrase in anger for the rest of my life.

the black falcon made this shot, the heels won, played well, i didn't get any good pictures, other than the ones in my head, and those i will treasure always.

we followed the crowd out and somehow ended up in a room with balloons and punch bowls overflowing with brownies. score!

after the game we met up with old friends and new friends for too many drinks and dinner on franklin street.  not much has changed at all in 10 years. it was glorious.

this is a damn shame and some more alcoholic readers may want to avert their eyes - but in classic bob-fashion, he ordered another round of drinks when nobody had finished their first ones, and then promptly left to avoid babysitter-fury when they realized the time. the extra drinks spell "bob."

 

this was a once-in-a-lifetime experience and i am so grateful to have a brother who made it possible!

tree e

whitney houston

the first* real concert i ever attended was whitney houston at the providence civic center in 1986. she was unbelievable. that voice. that VOICE.

boston garden 1986

 i learned about whitney after spending much of that year in the back of a woody jeep wagoneer limited being driven back and forth between rhode island and long island. 

 we listened to her debut album "whitney houston" over and over.  and over.

it was a tape we all could agree on. (unlike lionel richie "dancing on the ceiling" which was thrown from the car window in a fit of scorn along route 95 in connecticut.) i memorized every word. the lyrics taught me all a 10 year old needed to know about love and relationships. "how will i know" "someone for me" "all at once" and of course "greatest love of all" - i feel like i LIVED these songs! in the 5th grade! 

her voice was like a damn bell. this is before auto-tune and computers, she was a huge natural talent. huge.

sorry she's gone too soon, sorry her path was a disaster, but her debut album will always have a giant place in my heart. 

*the first not-real concert i attended was rosenshontz. they were awesome and incredible in their own way.

unhatched chicken counter

the past week has been a rollercoaster of emotion. 

hopes have soared, hopes have soured, hopes have soared again, hopes have been put on hold. and on hold. and on hold. 

for reasons unknown. and unfathomed. and unfathomable. 

...

the bottom line is we hope to buy a house. on a river. really, really on a river. it's not perfect, it's not the one and only, if it falls through we are fine where we are and will be fine if we buy something else in the future. but nacho and eli have not uncrossed their paws since they heard about the river. 

we will see!