Friday, February 29
11:47 p.m.
Another productive day at work. I am in the process of updating portions of our website, including the staff section. There were 4 new staff who needed their photos taken, mine needed to be updated, along with our winemaker and assistant winemaker and president/co-owner. So, I hired my friend Carolyn, the assistant winemaker’s wife, to take the headshots in our barrel room. When I went down for my photo shoot, well, she made me straddle a barrel. Seriously. I couldn’t stop laughing. Once I was balanced, and stopped goofing around, she took a number of photos. It was really cool to see Carolyn in her element, being creative, taking serious photos – although, with me as her subject, I’m not sure how serious that could be. It was fun. Her shots turned out to be quite lovely. Here’s a sample:
Carolyn will specialize in children’s photography, but all of her shots are impressive. As far as I’m concerned, with a camera, you either have “it” or you don’t – an eye for the shot, for the right lighting, a sense for the perfect shot. Here’s more info on her work: http://carolynwells-kramer.vox.com/
After work I looked up times to see the newly released film The Other Boleyn Girl. I went over to Pacific Breeze for my Catholic Lenten non-meat dinner of seafood rice noodle soup. Yum. I brought along the book Unpredictable by Eileen Cook. It’s a charming story, so far. After dinner for one, I drove back home and got in touch with my friend Susan, who was at the Bridgeport Village cinema holding our tickets for the movie, which was about to sell out! I met her and I have to say, we end up seeing the best movies together. The last film we saw together was Atonement, and we sat still as statues during the ending credits while people stumbled over us to get out. We were just mesmerized. This movie didn’t pack quite the same punch as Atonement, but we remained in our seats well after the theater cleared. It was really good. Perhaps I’m just a sucker for period pieces, but both of these films were about tender and fragile relationships between sisters that go so woefully wrong. Both Susan and I have a sister, and our sisters are so different from us. Our relationships with our sisters are quite different, but the impact of both stories was pretty indelible.
After the movie we went over to Tutto Bene for gelato. I had a small scoop of pistachio and a small scoop of ciocolatto. Yum. We chatted about the movie and complicated relationships. I drove home feeling a little congested. By the time I got in my pajamas I was getting a runny nose with some congestion. Here we go again. I didn’t feel stressed. But there’s another strain of the cold going around, along with this crazy flu. I haven’t heard about anyone around here with this particular flu – it was huge on the east coast. In any case, I was feeling like a cold was coming on. So, I took a Claritan before going to bed and administered my ever so helpful Breathe Right Nose Strip. I could do a serious ad campaign for both products!
I read a portion of Eckhart Tolle’s latest book A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose. This book, selected by Oprah for her book club, is actually the best selling book in her popular series. It really compliments the Tibetan Buddhist books I have been reading, actually. I read through the first chapter. I am currently reading 5 books at the same time, so this one was on hold for awhile. In any case, I took away an understanding, more or less, that it is no coincidence that I have been relating to Tibetan Buddhism to help me in my spiritual exploration. According to Tolle, we are onto a new era, a new chapter in consciousness of the human experience. He basically suggests humans have been operating in an insane, mad entrapment of Ego for the past millennia or so, which explains the cause for wars, mass murders (more people have been killed on this earth by the hands of humans than natural causes or disasters). We are on to a new consciousness. I hope he is right. I am eager to read on.
So, as I am writing this, I’m listening to a special recording of Prayer of Saint Francis by Sarah McLachlan. It’s so beautiful. I am a huge fan of the writings of Saint Francis. He’s the Catholic’s poet, in my opinion. St. Cecelia is my patron saint, the saint of music and poetry, but, I think Saint Francis is another sacred being in my life. I reference him so much in my novel. He is a very important symbol in the story. I think about how I might use this recording in the promotion of my book…
It is time to go to sleep.
