Spiritual Seeds Superbly Sprouting

OK, this is gonna be one of those down-and dirty postings. I got less than 90 minutes to record all of the amazing things that happened in the past week or so, so let's get right down to it, shall we? [Btw, i am trying to get away from using the captial I in referring to myself; talk about an unnecessary key-stroke.] In no particular order, or because i'm afraid i'm gonna forget ..

* Ms. Tracey E., my dear, by now you should've received my cute little home-made postcard, but if you haven't i don't want to spoil the surprise by describing it. Do a comment at the bottom of this post, and let me know whether or not it showed up will you? Cheers sweetheart!

Great lines of Simon Branson
i came across this as i was re-reading parts of my journal this morning:
"The following conversation took place at Doug's dining room table [of my Zacharias Jansestraat apartment, Amsterdam] at 2:45 a.m. Tuesday, August 7, 2001. [Doug is eyeing a plate of beans which Simon seems to have lost interest in.]
Doug: You gonna finish those?
Simon: Go ahead, they're has-beans."

* While looking at apartment-listings in a local gay paper called The Empty Closet, I came across an ad for the services of an electrician, which read: We do it without shorts.

* Within two or three days of each other, two people -- my new housemate Jackie and fellow high school and grade school pal Rich Riedman -- recommended the same book to me to read, Power vs Force. Have you ever read it, or heard of it? Post comments at the end.

* I'm going out in a snowstorm last Saturday to spend the weekend with Sandy at my brother Scott and his wife Kathy's place in Webster. Kathy's called a cab for me, and has told me they won't pull into the driveway unless it has been cleared, information i have passed on to Jackie. As i'm pulling things together in my bedroom upstairs, i see a snow-plow pull into the driveway and begin clearing away some of the 14 inches that have accumulated, and a few seconds later i hear Jackie yelling up the stairs: I'm getting plowed! I thought about that for a second, then went to the landing and said, "Hey, I thought you said you only had a highball and maybe a marguerita once a month!"

* Inigo my bubbly Basque bro' have you left for Hong Kong yet? How Amsterdam will miss you, how * i * miss you! Please do a comment thing whenever you get around to reading this and let me know how the transition is treating you.

Speaking of transition, mine is proceeding amazingly well. I'd come to Rochester needing to find a place to live and a job, and I now have both, I nabbed my own room in a "gracious" 4-BR house (geez it's almost a mansion it's so huge) that I'll be sharing with Jackie, who is among other things quite the accomplished watercolor painter. You can check out her work here.

I've pursued a number of different avenues to find work, and the first one that's paid off is the email i sent to 31 (out of about 160) fellow alumni of McQuaid Jesuit High. On Wednesday at 10 a.m. i will begin organizing a bunch of files at the law office of Jim Napier, a guy i went to both grade school and high school with. When i heard what the job was i just had to smile, and said, "Jim, bringing order from chaos is what i do best." Hopefully they've got lots of chaos down there, and if they don't, they will hopefully either find more work for me with them, or perchance with their legal-eagle brethren.

Well, tomorrow is MIKE MORONE'S BIRTHDAY .. for those of you just joining in, Mike is my best buddy from high school, the guy who on Sunday the 16th took me and Sandy in during a blowing snowstorm and allowed us to crash on the sofa-bed in his basement for SIX nights with his wife, the sweet-as-a-pineapple Kris; his 3 great kids Nicole (15), Charlie (13) and Alyssa (11); and their two Maltese poodles Sassy (cute and friendly) and Lacey (cute and a major pain in the ass). I just realized that last sentence kind of makes it sound like me and Sandy crashed in the sofa bed with Mike's wife, his kids and the dogs, but such is not the case.

It would be a TERRIFIC surprise if any of you would like to wish Mike a Happy Birthday. His email address is mmorone@rochester.rr.com and if you wanted to ring him up, you could call him at .. aw, i can't do THAT to him! Seriously, he's another of the wonderful human beings who have come into my life, and i just want to share him with everyone i know! So drop the old boy a line [he's turning 46], wish him all the best and many happy more, and tell him how grateful you are for bringing my and Sandy's butts in out of the cold.

Well i got just 9 minutes left before the library closes, and got to then head home to get Sandy out one more time before climbing into bed, my first night in the big house.

This week's excerpt from The Power of Now is located at http://home.wanadoo.nl/prembuddha/shiat2.html