Yesterday, we woke up to snow falling. Then it moved to heavy, large (for here) hail. By late afternoon it was bright and sunny, and Chris and I were on the back deck--which was bone dry--in tee shirts, barefoot, soaking up warmth from the sun and joking about whether he should try to mow the lawn before it started snowing again. By bedtime it had snowed again, and hail hard enough to cover the ground in white before midnight.
When I woke up this morning, there was a lot of sunshine coming in the window. Now I am checking mail and bopping about the house, and it is hailing again. Oh wait. It stopped again.

CRAZY WEATHER!!

Yet another "long lost friend" is returning to my life. A BIG SHOUT OUT to the fabulous Jessica, who not only is coming to my dance classes and having a blast (WAHOO!), but came to my hair rescue today and gave me a super cute cut to carry me into the weekend at Breitenbush!

This year is clearly a huge year of change for everyone. It is so amazing to see!

I suppose it is unfair to ask Renee to post about her life when I am not posting much about mine. I am just really mentally preoccupied these days, and feeling a little introverted.

Last weekend was lovely. Friday night was the Raqs al-Hamra gathering at MT's. We drank wine, laughed, danced a little, and had a lovely steak n' salad dinner made by MT herself. While I was out, Chris finally migrated the My Cat Hates You forums over to the external servers. It was amazing to look at the bandwidth report and see the spikes all go away...completely. Flatline. That is how much traffic was going in and out of our home! Woah, dude. People love to be hated by their cats.

Saturday was our day with the Dalai Lama. We had two spare tickets, and so went with Sarah and Graeme. The day was...perfect. I mean...PERFECT. It was 85 degrees in the middle of the day. WHAT'S THAT YOU SAY?! Yes. We met at Cafe Umbria and drank coffee and ate some yummy gelato. The place was crawling with older lesbians and young hipsters going to Qwest field that day. Of course that was not the entire demographic, but it seemed a high percentage in the coffee shop that morning.

We strolled over and had the requisite useless pat down, were given our "seed" bracelet and program, and climbed up to the 300's to take our seats. We were very far away, but had a great view of everything. I was disappointed to see so many empty seats, in all parts of the stadium. people who got 100 level seats, right up there, who never showed. I guess when people get free tickets, it's easy to blow them off--I get that. But I had friends who didn't get tickets who would have loved to have been there. Everyone was told there would be NO TICKETS AT THE GATES, and yet there were volunteers with stacks of tickets yelling out that they had them to give away. So people who really wanted to attend were led to believe they couldn't come, and I was bummed for them. :(

The sunny day was just amazing. Sitting there in a tank top and palazzo pants, even wishing I had shorts or capris on like Sarah and Graeme had worn. But the shadiness of the stadium, and being with friends in the presence of one of the greatest spiritual leaders of our time (I would argue THE greatest)...blissful, really. It was hard to understand him, definitely. But not because his accent was so bad--it was strong, but not bad--but because of the echo up in the bleachers there. I went home and watched part of the feed online and could hear him perfectly. When I went to watch the rest of it online yesterday,it was all taken down?! WAH! I want to watch it all the way through! Where is it?!

I didn't expect anything completely groundbreaking. I mean, when you are only talking for less than an hour or something, and are addressing a stadium of people, there is not a lot of deep discourse. But his humor shone through, and I did enjoy his assertion that having more women involved in government would make a difference in the world (because "men are the troublemakers!" he said with a wicked little laugh)--something that surprised me coming from him, actually. But the idea that going to a more matriarchal society is an intriguing idea to me...or at least a more balanced society with the sexes. I also liked his humility (of course he was humble!), and his willingness to say "I don't have an answer for that. It is very complex." People want these pearls of wisdom to just spew forth from a man of his reknown, but I much prefer the gentle honesty of a fellow human, however enlightened he may be.

It did kinda rock my foundations to think about him living with the belief that we should each of us feel responsible for all 6billion humans around us. Of course, he has a more global view, having traveled far more than most of us, and been inserted into so many cultures as a powerful leader of the world. But the idea of taking your heart and expanding it to include compassion, forgiveness, and love for 6 billion people...I am personally not ready, but the thought it worth meditating on for a good long time.

Afterward, we went to Blu Water with Sarah and Graeme, and had the WORST SERVICE. Like, rivaled The Ram Experience. Seriously. Graeme talked to the manager and we got our entire meal comp'd, it was that bad. We were on the deck in the blazing sun, which was at times uncomfortable and yet continually welcome. I got a teeny red, but nothing that wasn't gone by the next day. It felt great to be soaking it up!!

We continued the party at their loft, which we had not had the pleasure to visit yet. It is beautiful! The sun was still beaming loud and proud, and we were on a shady side of the building, so we got lots of light, and a breeze blowing through. We lounged around, drank and talked and laughed. Later we went on the roof and watched a beautiful sunset over the city. I was so glad to get to spend some more time with Sarah and Graeme, who I feel we never see any more socially since we lost Capitol Club. It was a perfect end to a glorious day.

Sunday was the Souk at Bitter Lake. I only spent $10 and moved a lot of crap out of my stash of crap. We raised a good chunk of money for the troupe to subsidize Tribal Fest, and then I spent the rest of the day grocery shopping and then playing WOW with Chris.

Now I am back at the grind, still waiting on home refi's and space deets...*sigh*