Super Saints!

Happy New Year!

Okay... I'm a little late with that, but it's taken me the better part of the month back to get my brain around the rest and relaxation I experienced from yet another one of KLL's suggestions that we get the hell outta Dodge for a while.

Zebras - or more specifically, a burro (or burra) made to look like a zebra - figured prominently in the first day of a trip we took to Baja as a way to put the year behind and hopefully set the year off right, by planting our feet on the beach. We stopped in Tijuana for lunch on the next to the last day of the year and felt compelled to take the obligatory Tijuana tourist shot. My favorite part of this experience occurred just after we had our picture taken and we were waiting to get the print. A guy came up to the zebra proprietor and asked "¿Burro o burra?" The proprieter snapped back instantly, "¡Zebra!" It was like one of those old sayings from my childhood... "Go away kid... ya bother me!"

I found my way... more or less... through the chaos of downtown Tijuana and out onto a beautiful beachfront highway that runs the half hour ride from Tijuana to Rosarito Beach and beyond, and our time over the last day and a half of 2009 was taken up with walks on the beach, newly discovered friendships, good beer and great tequila, the BEST fish tacos on earth and a family style New Year's celebration that was the perfect way to roll into 2010. This was followed, on the first morning of the new year, by a horseback ride on the beach. Though "riding" would be stretching the point as we had no idea what we were doing and the horses themselves were more aptly described as plodding... but it was still 20 degrees warmer than the Bay Area, the sun was shining and we were surveying the beautiful Pacific from the backs of horses. Do I really need to say more?

Saturday brought a series of great finds in the form of a road trip to Baja wine country. Tres Valles (where we met our new friends on the left) was a delightful place with rustic art fabrications of giant insects, a beautifully designed winery and tasting room, and the winemaker/owner and his son pouring some fabulous wines (Grenache, Petite Sirah, and Merlot/Cab specifically), and we almost missed it. Situated at the end of a rocky dead end that makes the roads of New Orleans and Petaluma seem positively smooth by comparison, the winery was only open for tasting beginning that very day. We spent a good hour there talking about wine making in Mexico, and wine importing to the U.S. and trading a few jokes here and there with the owner's amusing and engaging kid.

Admittedly, this is not the kind of trip to Baja most people make, but it suited us just fine. When we ended the day at the tiny Tres Mujeres winery (so named because it is owned and operated by three women winemakers... something I haven't even seen in California), tasting in a tiny little rock covered tasting room/storage area filled with ceramics and wine, it simply added to the feeling of comfort and hominess that had characterized the entire trip.

Concluding the day with venison and lobster in a cozy restaurant surrounded by cactus and mesquite and beautiful fireplaces, entertained by a roving collection of musicians and partying with some of our newfound Rosarito friends at their wine shop and art gallery afterward was the perfect ending of a perfect time. Of course, coming home was the typical day of confusion. From an abysmal attempt to locate a "fast track" across the border in Tijuana, to nearly losing half our rare and wonderful wine purchases due to our complete lack of attention to TSA regulative details (we were RELAXED... what else can I say?), Sunday was an experiment in maintaining South of the Border equilibrium upon reentry into the land of hustle and bustle. But we pulled it off with only a small stumble here and there; a tribute to how restful our year end holiday had really been.

Until we get back there, which I truly hope will be soon, I plan on exploring the possibilities that the trip opened up to me. This area of Baja is definitely a place where I want to spend more time: learning the area, meeting the people, and expanding my extremely limited ability to communicate en espanol... and next time... actually getting into the surf!

Now... it's on to finding my way through this new year, or at least the first months. I'm still not quit up to major forward planning, resolutions, goal setting, etc. but I'm workin' on it.

Thanks to everyone one who has supported, helped, chastised, and laughed with me this last year. Old friends - and no small number of new friends - are what I most appreciate about what was otherwise a rather difficult year (to say the least) in 2009. Despite all the difficulties we have all experienced, it's been a good time and I'm grateful for your presence. Here's to better days ahead.

WHODAT!?

It is not healthy to sustain the kind of animosity for another person (no matter how horrible that person's words and actions might be) that I expressed in a previous post. Sooner or later, one must get on with life, get on with love and get on with the party!

I was assisted in this over the weekend by the NFC Championship game (and I am by no means your standard - or even your rainy day - football fan) on Sunday when the only team I have ever seriously rooted for came Marching out of the SuperDome, victors in a difficult game and headed to the Super Bowl for the first time in history.

This link came in from my favorite NOLA website Humid Beings this morning... It's a terrific little video look at the way New Orleans takes on a Championship, even before the game.

My favorite parts are the adoption of the Mardi Gras Indian chant, "Let's Go Get Em!" and the Saints Superfan shaking hands with the Vikings fan in the Quarter. The spirit that I have always known New Orleans to have, that spirit that existed before "The Thing," but which seemed to get lost in a morass of chaos and depression, is being revived by this year's incredible Saints season. It's hard for someone who doesn't know and love New Orleans to even comprehend this struggle and this shift but another video that came down the interwebs the other day expresses a small part of why this is.

Right now... and for the next 10 days... all I've really got to say is WHO DAT!?!?

The Mountain and The Mole Hill

I had a rough day yesterday. Several things that I had been counting on simply slipped through my fingers and I was left about mid-afternoon with a feeling of failure and frustration that I have not felt in quite some time.

All the regular questions came to the front of mind, clamoring for attention, begging to be given favor, looking to be nursed and coddled and fed in that way we all feed the sad, frustrating, stupid things that make feeling sad and depressed at least somewhat tolerable and relatively comforting.

Fortunately, I found the wherewithal to lift myself out of this perilous funk (something that I didn't used to be particularly good at) and move into the evening (with a rehearsal for our final performance of A Christmas Memory). I got to bed relatively early and I got the first really good night's sleep I'd had in weeks.

I woke up with a head that was full of new ideas (and old ideas with new clothes on them) and Billy Idol on the iTunes to set me dancing around the room.

For some reason I got this Bible story in my head and couldn't let it go (that's the trouble with Bible stories doncha know?)

It comes from Matthew 17 and takes place right after the disciples had received a vision of Jesus standing on the mountain and chatting with Moses and Elijah. Peter had wanted to build some buildings and stay up[ on that mountain forever, but God had others ideas, basically telling Peter to chill out, shut up and open his ears. "This is my beloved Son... Listen to him!"

So... a bit later, as they were coing back down to earth, they were confronted by a man who had a problem with his son. The disciples tried to help, but couldn't so the man - like any father would do - said, "Okay hold it... let me talk to the boss."

Matthew 17:

14 When they came to the crowd, a man came up to Jesus, falling on his knees before Him and saying,

15"Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is a (N)lunatic and is very ill; for he often falls into the fire and often into the water.

16"I brought him to Your disciples, and they could not cure him."

17And Jesus answered and said, "You unbelieving and perverted generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring him here to Me."

18And Jesus rebuked him, and the demon came out of him, and the boy was cured at once.

19Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, "Why could we not drive it out?"

20And He said to them, "Because of the littleness of your faith; for truly I say to you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you.

I think that the reason this story came to mind this morning is because it holds for me a bit of information about how to look on days when things don't go right, and periods when nothing seems to work out.

For the longest time I struggled with what these miracles (things like moving a mountain) might mean for an ordinary person like myself. Then it hit me that it's possible to accept what Jesus says here, absolutely at face value. The simple fact of life is that you really can do anything if you believe. Jesus doesn't say if you believe A LOT... he says if you believe like a mustard seed. Can you envision what it is you want? Can you see who you are at the end of the road? Can you hold your task, whether it's taking care of a sick child or moving a mountain (as they are presently doing right now down the road from me in order to build a subdivision), with such clarity of vision that it can't help but come true?

That's what I believe Jesus was talking about (at least that's what I believe this morning).

Believe what you want is possible... is in fact already here... then get to work bringing it to fruition.

Actually seems pretty simple when you think about it, doesn't it?

What A Night!

This morning at 4:30 am I was awakened by a terrifying visitation by an old familiar friend. A new manifestation of Kali crawled into my head and took me to task. This is not a new experience for me, but it has been a while since it last occurred.

This morning I find myself thrust, as if by rocket ship, into a slightly terrified pursuit of what the visit means. What I know for sure is that when Kali shouts, I'm supposed to pay attention.