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Vafa, Lexi, Dan, Shannon, Andrea, and I, at the somewhat clean and recently vacuumed "Agaric HQ North" as Dan calls it.

When Vafa and Lexi arrived, around 8:40, naturally I had no food prepared at all. Well, I had started the masala dosa Thursday night and the batter food processed into a thick paste was waiting for us, and had cut up the eggplant for the, uh, Indian eggplant chili

.

Follow the links to those recipes! That's where the fun is!

Finally missed the train when I couldn't afford to and biked in to Cambridge today. [a week and a half ago]

That's on roads with slicker ice than any I've experienced. Just shift my weight and the back wheel would slalom like crazy.

theme song for biking into Cambridge (Jan 6 or so): Gonna Rock This Town

(Carrying the bike up the stairs of the Natick train station after riding out, the back wheel fell off! And it isn't a quick release one either, but a real bolt.)

Song playing at Manda's dentist right now (Sat Jan 10): Joy to the World

Walked into a subway car with the very surreal experience of there being NO SEATS.

Figured it's being fixed up or something, I joked that it was very nice, very minimalist, must have been designed by an artist.

Then I see the advertising boards.

We made room.
Introducing Big Red our new high-capacity car with fewer seats and room for more customers. So hop on te get going fast and let us know what you think.

Mail back the comment card or visit mbta.com and click on the Big Red button.

Ran 30 minutes in the not-nearly-so-cold-as-feared weather, out onto Lieutenant Island. Going out was against the wind and amazing the effect it had. Just turning sideways made me feel like I was moving again.

In parts of the island that were somewhat windsheltered and in the sun, it was downright warm.

And everywhere the white chunks of frozen seawater and clear air were beautiful.

Running back the wind must have been about the same speed I was running, with it pushing me, so it felt like I was running that fast and easily even though I knew I wasn't.

2009 is starting out almost as surreal as 2008 was... I'm sitting in Rich and Manda's friend Christina's hospital room, while Manda does reiki on Christina – and the baby in the womb – while Christina's husband Peter describes in detail to Rich a Facebook assassination game.

Another Drupaller found my name in the comments to the DoOcracy wiki page, probably following Angie Byron's listing of Drupal Community Philosophies.

Since our interests seemed to tend to run along the same lines, I outlined some of what I want to be working on that just happen to be key goals for 2009 also (that I should come up with an actual plan for doing...)

Started 2009 with a good 30-odd hour fast. Not eating is a lot easier for me than eating in moderation. But I will eat in moderation in 2009.

What's healthy and nutrient packed to start off with my first breakfast / lunch? No wonder I over-eat so much, I substitute quality (in the sense of figuring out what I need to eat) for quantity, and then just let the poor body process it all...

So: Soymilk and cereal (a small amount) and a banana.

An apple and a peach at some point.

Vegetables, and possibly corn tortilla chips, with the leftover salsa and hummus.

2008:

I lost my virginity.
And I found love, and am keeping it.
Despite mediocre job performance on my part, Agaric is successful and expanding.
I traveled (in part on a Foundation-funded conference tour) and saw lots and lots of friends, including a few new, in Chicago (a couple times), Minneapolis, St. Louis, Oakland, San Francisco, Riverside (CA) – this all being my first time in California, completing the lower 48 – New York and New Hampshire repeatedly, Providence, Washington D.C. and Sissonville (WV).

At Vafa's party, i got compliments on how i was dressed, which never happens, so I was confused – some combination of wearing suit pants, I guess, people assumed I was trying and they should say something, and a dress shirt, decently fitting blue sweater, and G's corduroy jacket.

My hair looked as good as it has long but it still could use, uh, styling or something.

Ariah and Doug and Kathryn and Alex are sacked out in Dan and Shannon's living room after I drove them all here in the van, from Vafa's rocking party, where beiruit and rock band and some cards and a great deal of wandering around and drinking (none for me after the first hour or so of arriving) and a great time was had by all.

Happy New Year!

Baby You Can Drive My Car (The Beatles) was the soundtrack in my head passing an entire route 9 full of stopped cars on my way to meet the Forber-Pratt's at the mall to see Slumdog Millionaire.

And blasting it on Mom's stereo upstairs while working with Veronica in the dining room was my launch to productivity this afternoon.

But ending the same CD (the Rubber Soul album) ...

"catch you with another man, that's the end little girl"

"I'd rather see you dead little girl than to be with another man"

Very good movie (and very good company! I was the guest of Larry and Rosalind and Ian and Anjali and Henry, and I took Wendy's ticket– I saw her where we met up at California Pizza Kitchen.)

I was surprised to recognize words spoken by the main characters in the beginning, before realizing that though in India, as Muslims, they were speaking Arabic (which shares a lot of words with Hebrew... not that I know much Hebrew).

Latika (pronounced LAH-tih-kah)

Mom was not comfortable with Grandpa's driving so she was urging him to stop for a motel for the night.

The first exit, Grandpa didn't take, because Mom was looking for hotel signs, even though there had been a bevy of restaurant and gas signs and I told them the lodging was always listed first.

So we coasted by an exit that had four or five hotels and motels practically on the highway. (Two exits on, it turns out, also had lodging just off the highway.)

Eva to Cassidy: "Don't tattle."

Cassidy to Eva: "I didn't tattle. Xavier was the one who tattled."

The good news: this was a dream.

I was driving Mom's Kia on a road like Route 9(Julianne in D.C. and I noted that we New Englanders more often pronounce that root, not rout), but the highway was a bit newer and bigger. I got out of the car in moderate traffic to let it keep going on its own, thinking this was a good idea. Save energy or something getting out of the car? No idea what the dream-me was thinking.

At the Dan and Eva Melançon palace in West Virginia.

The huge beautiful (and new) place needs some drafts sealed. But with a fire or the southwestern exposure of the glass wall, it's plenty warm.

Grandpa is reading a trash romance novel in German.

Cassidy is trying to get his foot stuck under me.

Zelda has been very ill at ease with the other dogs.

Yesterday I helped Dan tie down the large (but just $200 he said) tent covering his proto-workshop and sawmill.

There's a song in that title...

Rather than driving Ms. Zelda and I over a scenic overlook, I parked at one to rest for a while. Woke up about a.m. Then I figured, I'm parked here, I should see this in daylight – at daybreak.

Now it's almost 6 a.m. and no sun in sight.

But immediately on waking up again (shortly before five) I was thinking about our group hike up Mt. Major, and missing sunrise with Manda.

Eight months later I finally have the words to say what I mean about having sex without a condom being not about trust.

Matters of life and death of other people are beyond trust.

I can trust you completely, I can trust you with my own life, but I cannot take a gun from you that you say is unloaded and squeeze the trigger with it pointed against someone else's head.

Life and death don't make the best analogies, but similarly, I cannot take infertility or birth control as clearing my need to not help bring life into the world without knowing what I'm doing.

Well, maybe the world is going to meet me half-way. Now I just have to get my act together and meet it.

Main thing: I caught the 9:21 a.m. train... at 9:25 a.m.!

I left the Northwest Lab Building (realizes I should have told someone looking for the "Northwest Building" where it was, but I really didn't remember when he asked) with just the time to spare, planning to see Kaveri on Thursday instead, and swiped to let someone into the T. I had to then add more money to my card, but I didn't miss the train at all. And sitting on the bench at the platform was a perfectly good apple.