an answer to the tag

Kim tagged me last week! Finally I have a response...

20 random things about me:

1) I drive a new beetle. It's platinum grey, and I always smile when I see it.
2) Lilies of the valley are my favorite flower; they remind me of my grandmother and the smell of her Pond's Cold Cream.
3) Fall is my favorite season. Until Spring rolls around, then I say Spring is my favorite.
4) I am afraid of going under water.
5) Because I didn't like getting water on my face, I didn't take showers until I was 9.
6) Now, showering is like a meditation for me. I love feeling the hot water on my body and the alone time I have to brainstorm and relax.
7) I am a Gemini and so it my husband. It sometimes makes for interesting disagreements.
8) I went to theatre camp the summers before 7th and 8th grade (I recently found out that Jeremy Piven went there too).
9) I still have dreams about my cat Daniel. He was my cat from 5th grade until he passed away my senior year in college. He was named after the character Daniel in Karate Kid, and when he was a kitten he looked a lot like this kitty.
10) I enjoy sushi so much that I would eat it for every meal if I could.
11) I love visiting Disney World. I somehow block out the crowds and craziness there and just embrace feeling like a kid again.
12) I love watching Celebrity Poker Showdown on Bravo (no one believes me because this isn't a typical "liz" thing - but I find it quite enjoyable).
13) Chocolate ice cream is my favorite dessert.
14) When I am in a restaurant, I am sometimes an eavesdropper - some people use the loudest voices and I can't help but wonder what they are talking about.
15) I might be the person you are laughing at as you drive in your car because I am that person who thinks she is having a private concert while driving.
16) I like to start listening to Christmas music the week of Thanksgiving. It drives my husband a little crazy but he tolerates it (I think he knows that if I really had my way we would listen to it at other times of the year).
17) Because I am an editor, I can't read things without finding errors. You would be surprised where I find them - popular magazines, popular fiction.
18) The only place I have been "overseas" is Israel. Almost every one I know has been to London or Paris or Greece or Italy. Not me. Just the middle east.
19) I never laugh at bodily function stuff. I am that person who keeps a straight face at all costs. Until a few months ago when the vet was explaining our dog Millie's anal gland problems. I could not handle it. I was basically biting my lip to stop from cracking up out loud. It was very funny and embarrassing. My husband was looking at me like "have we met?"
20) When I am feeling blue I love to watch the movies You've Got Mail and Emma.

7 things to do before I die
1) Get a tatoo
2) Go to Paris
3) Take ballroom dancing
4) Open my own yoga studio/bookstore/store that sells pajamas
5) Continue to let go of more of my stuff - literally and figuratively
6) Have tea with Sark
7) Write a book (and have someone read it)

7 things I cannot do
1) whistle
2) stay quiet for an entire movie (but I am not one of those "talkers" and I do whisper!)
3) go to bed without reading first
4) start my day without breakfast
5) stand on my head
6) go to Barnes and Noble without buying something
7) go without checking my email for an entire day if I am at home

7 things that attract me to the opposite sex
1) warm eyes
2) kind smile
3) gentle hands
4) sense of humor
5) ability to laugh at themselves
6) look me in the eye
7) challenge me to be more

7 things I say most often
1) The reality is...
2) I'm doing the best I can.
3) No worries...
4) God Bless America (instead of swearing - though I do that too)
5) Millie, chill
6) Jonny, can you...? Jonny, will you...?
7) It's okay. (When someone is crying. When I don't really want to do something. The possibilities are endless.)

7 Celebrity Crushes
1) Patrick Dempsey
2) Colin Firth
3) Robert Redford
4) Marlon Brando (circa 1951)
5) Rob Lowe (as Sam Seaborn on The West Wing)
6) Rock Hudson
7) Johnny Depp

I tag Erica and acumamakiki

turning the page

Michelle asked me about the books I am reading right now...

I tend to have several books of non-fiction on a shelf in my family room where I put the books I am reading/will be reading soon. I sometimes read a couple at the same time. Trying to let the ideas, words, images settle in my mind. I read quickly and as a result, I don't always synthesize everything - a habit that is great if you are reading a mystery but not so good if you are trying to learn. I find if I read a few non-fiction books at one time I take in more information. Let the words speak to me. Take a break. Move on to another topic for a few days. Come back.

But before I go to bed I like to read fiction or a magazine so that I don't get my brain too energized (though I have been known to read until the wee hours of the morning with my little book light as my husband and Millie the dog sleep).

Last week my husband surprised me with a new book (as a thank you for handling a plumbing crisis in the midst of a super busy week! - such the sweetheart), so I am currently devouring The Big Over Easy, by Jasper Fforde. I love the worlds he creates in his literary mysteries.

After I finish this one, I will be heading back to:
Thunder and Lightning by Natalie Goldberg
When Things Fall Apart by Pema Chodron
Spilling Open by Sabrine Ward Harrison
and a book of poems called Origami Bridges by Diane Ackerman (I like to read one when I first take a bath and then close my eyes and think about it while I relax)

And in honor of the film that comes out next month, I have started to dive back into The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis. I re-read this series about every two years. I never read it as a child; a friend introduced me to it when I was in college. I adore this world where you find yourself in the midst of the most glorious adventures as you fight for what is right with the support of a true, honest, loyal lion. I start with The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe because Lewis wrote this one first (my understanding at least), even though The Magician's Nephew is the first chronologically. This is the book I will have with me in my bag to read when I am out and about, waiting, at a coffee shop...

After this post by acumamakiki, there are a few more books on my list to check out from the library/look for at the used bookstore.

Love to turn those pages, enter those other worlds.

a visit to come

Tomorrow my dear, dear friend Super H arrives. She lives in LA and this will be her first time up here to the Pacific Northwest. I can't wait for long conversations where we solve the problems of the world and the problems in our own worlds, lives...or at least try. In the midst of these serious moments there will be laughter and maybe tears and naps and reading aloud from Brian Andreas' storypeople books (we ALWAYS do this) and probably a few adventures.

It has been a long day. I am feeling so good about teaching yoga. Inviting others to find balance, strength, calm, peace. Now I need to find this for myself tonight. So I am going to bed to read a little of my current book and then sleep.

pumpkin spice and a secret

One great thing about the chill in the air this week is that I am enjoying these: pumpkin spice lattes.

This is one from the Mandolin Cafe; this wonderful coffee shop near our house in Tacoma. It often bustles with people having great conversations, studying, writing, reading.

Shhhh...my secret is that I have decided to tackle this: NaNoWrMo. I plan on spending a few hours a week writing at the Mandolin Cafe, drinking a few cups of coffee or tea.

(though I think I am CRAZY. how can I write 50,000 words in one month. my day was so crazy i didn't even write one. wrote a few in my head though. oh well. even if i only write 5,000, it will be more than i have now. am i trying to do too much here? tackling too many things i have always wanted to do? i am searching for purpose i think. ok...take breath.)

flying

Finding my voice, creating, letting go of my own judgement, having fun...

(if you move the paper with swirls, you see the phrase "do not be afraid")

let it out

To be brave, speak my truth.
To breathe, think deeply, then speak.
To trust. Me.
To be open to new ideas, friends, possibilities.
To be grateful for what I already know and the lessons I continue to learn. (over and over and over again)
To own what I want to do: write more, create more.
To let go of the fear of failure.
To let it out. The joy, the laughter, the sadness, the silliness, the beauty, the colors, the words.
Let it out.

inside out

if i keep stuffing what needs to escape,
it'll just circle my mind until gaining enough
momentum to blurt its case in public,
shoving my insides out, while my
outsides are aching to climb in.

- susan mrosek
(check out her website www.ponderingpool.com)

a wish

Look at those big eyes, a little unsure of the camera and that large orange face next to him.

I love this kid.

His energy, his laughter, his sense of self. His kind heart.

Does he know that I wished for him? At Gino's, an Italian restaurant back home in Indiana, I held that penny tightly in my hand as I walked up to the fountain. Squeezed my eyes shut and took a deep breath. "I wish for a baby brother." A four-year-old wanting to change the course of her family.

The patience he has with others. The way he tries to help everyone in a room feel comfortable. How he goes out of his way to talk with people, even though talking with people is not always something he wants to do.

A few weeks ago, my baby brother joined me out here in the Northwest. We are now two hours away from each other instead of two plane rides.

How much he has learned about himself in the last two years. How this journey has made him stronger, braver, and more open.

Yesterday, I was lucky enough to spend the day with him. Learning, laughing, working, eating. He invites me to look at my life in a different way. He has become one of my teachers. How blessed I am that his soul heard my wish, and he came to this family.

why wait

"it is only when we silent the blaring sounds of our daily existence that we can finally hear the whispers of truth that life reveals to us, as it stands knocking on the doorsteps of our hearts."
K.T. Jong