Weekend Update

Well, I forgot to mention that Micah stopped by my office on Friday. First time since the beginning of the semester... and he wonders why his family started requiring him to send them a weekly letter to let them know he's alive... Nice kid, kinda clueless in some ways. He's looking much healthier than the last time I saw him. This summer he thought he had some hormonal problems...however, it seems likely now that he was just in a late growth spurt. Also, having less contact with his family has probably been good for him.

I was supposed to bring Knife of Dreams over to Kim and Spencer on Friday...and forgot about it until it was too late to do anything about. So they got it on Saturday. Unfortunately, they have both come down with a bad cold, and Kim's been so dehydrated that she's been to the hospital several times. David was staying with Spencer's mom until at least one of them got feeling better. Spencer says he's trying to get into a habit of writing; I suggested he start keeping a blog.

Not much happened at taiji on Saturday. Melissa made it (for the first time this month), as did Joe and Mark. No James. We spent most of the time working on form (Joe's our newest member, so that's how most sessions go when he comes). I had a realization in push-hands, but not one that I can duplicate predictably. The thing about push-hands, that I know in my head, is that it has nothing to do with the hands. Not really. The power all comes from the body, from the waist. And for a little bit on Saturday, I got that feeling, of just rotating around my center. I didn't maintain it for long, but it's a start.

Then there was Sunday... As usual, I went out to lunch with my parents. While we were eating, Mom suggested that we could have Thanksgiving dinner at Grandma's house, since she has trouble moving very far. Dad said that was fine, but if we did that he wouldn't come. I wish I could say that I was surprised...but I've suspected since summer that this was not going to be a pleasant holiday season. Later my mom asked me what I thought we should do for Thanksgiving. I suggested beating Dad over the head. "No, I mean, besides that." Here's the deal: Dad is perfectly capable of driving the two blocks to Grandma's house, climbing the steps and going inside. Grandma is not capably of getting to our house under her own power, plus she wouldn't have all of the stuff she needs right at hand. It is much more efficient to have Thanksgiving at her house. So I told Mom that we should have it at Grandma's house, and if Dad wouldn't come, we could bring him some leftovers. My mom commented that she thought Dad was being very selfish...but she ought to know better. He's not selfish. He's paranoid. He's convinced that everyone (except possibly me and Ji'e'toh, and I'm not even sure of that) is out to get him. He needs medication, but suggesting this to him would bring, at best, an angry tirade. So we're stuck.

Sunday evening was better. I experimented (successfully) with a different GF flour mix. It's Bette Hagman's Four-Flour-Bean-Mix, but with white bean flour instead of garfava flour. I can't stand garfava flour. I use it about once a year, and that's enough to remind me of why I don't use it the rest of the time. It is nasty stuff. Bette Hagman seems to like it, but, yech. For a while I was substituting soy flour for it, but soy doesn't agree with me in large quantities any more. The white bean flour worked out great. The taste isn't quite as good as soy flour, but it's much, much better than garfava. Oh, for those who don't know, garfava flour is made from a mixture of garbanzo and fava beans. At any rate, I just used Bette Hagman's most basic GF bread recipe. I used lemon juice instead of vinegar (the yeast works better in an acidic environment), and added some honey to the mix, but otherwise I stuck with the recipe. I accidentally added too much water to it...and thus had to add extra flour to balance it out...but the plus side of that was that it gave me enough extra dough to make a mini-pizza-crust. So I had pizza for dinner last night.

As for today, I had a very, very nice meditation session. In my head, I felt these waves lapping towards me, and finally I "waded" out towards them and submerged myself entirely. It was very peaceful there. It's a visualization that I will have to try again sometime.

Then my mom called and said I should go with her to take Grandma for dialysis (since I will likely be the one driving her on Wednesday). She told me they'd leave at 11:00. Fine. A little after 11, she called me again, wanting to know where I was. "At my house...why?" Somehow she'd gotten the idea that I was going to meet them at Grandma's house, which made no sense to me since my house is on the way to the dialysis place. Eventually we all made it there, and dropped Grandma off. Then mom and I went hunting for zip-up shirts for Grandma. She needs something that can zip down, so the dialysis people can get to her veins, and that she doesn't have to work hard to refasten. Buttons don't work well for her anymore. Unfortunately, zippers don't seem to be "in" right now. Maybe I'll do a web-search...