anthropometaphors

Juniper "Joon" Pearl

Nearly 4 years ago my cat Joon disappeared.  He was an innie-outie and didn’t show up for dinner one night.  Or brekkie the next morning.  Or any other meal, ever again.

Time passed; I moved into SF, around SF, and back into the house Joon and I once shared.  All the while, I frequented animal shelters looking for Joon among the dozens of cats waiting for a new chance.

Joon would be a hard cat to mistake.  When he was a sturdy young cat at the age of 2y, he weighed in around 16 pounds.  He stood at least 6-8″ taller than the other cat he grew up with.  Joon was also incredibly long, and was covered with long buff-colored fluff.  In colder months he had a thick mane surrounding his head and running down his chest.

His personality was just as unique as his build.  He was born of a partially feral cat mama, so he was on the shy side.  One of his favorite places to hang out was under a circular table that suffered from a skirt.  While the table may have languished beneath the skirt, Joon thrived; the skirt served as a one-way veil between him and the world.  He could be detected at night, slinking around the house and chirping his curious song.

The hubs and I were at the animal shelter this afternoon, meeting pups, of all things.  As we were on our way out, we stopped into the cat adoption room.  Cute kittens stuck wee paws out through crate doors.  Adult cats snoozed.  I did a quick scan of the room, without knowing what I was looking for until I saw this mass of fluffy buff-colored cat crammed into the far corner of a crate.  The stats on his door matched those of a would-be Joon.  A volunteer removed the guy from his crate and put us into an introduction room together.  I sat in awe, struggling to reconcile this new cat with my memories of Joon.  We left the shelter with the intention of digging up old photographs of Joon and getting copies of his vet records for more information.

At the end of the day, I ask myself if it matters whether that cat is the same Joon I raised from kitten-hood.  He is a 6yo cat at an animal shelter that will euthanize him if he stays there long enough, isn’t that reason enough to rescue him?  But how can I communicate that gem to the critters I live with?

Among my dreams is to have a backyard shed.  The best way to describe my ideal shed is as an adult playhouse.  My shed would have concrete floors, an expansive desk, power tools, art supplies, a high-end sound system and windows with coverings that allow the space to be drenched in light or choked with blackness, even on the sunniest day.  I might throw in some central heat and A/C for comfort.

Considering my fondness for sheds, I was pleased to find Shedsploitation, the blog of SF Bay Arean Seth Boor.

Shedsploitation

Modern Cabana (10 x 12)

While precious, at 10′ x 12′ their smallest shed is just large enough to require a city permit to build.  I’m a good citizen and will stay within code.  I’m also averse to city intervention, so I’ll stay small.   So the shed search continues.

Ruby

That’s Ruby, or what Barbie would look like if she were a size 12/14.  There’s an interesting story behind Ruby, who is now banned from appearing in advertisements.

I wonder what it would have been like to play with Ruby dolls as a child.  Instead I had hand-me-down Barbies.  One day I discovered I could use the cement curb as a form of sand paper; I ground Barbie’s chest down to nubs.  After making significant progress toward “correcting” the small collection of Barbies we had, the post-op dolls were discovered, and  I was reprimanded for mistreating my toys.

Interacting with Barbie was a perfect introduction to the concept of “supermodel”.  While I no longer have dolls, I see Barbie everywhere.  Mostly she is a walking, size zero androgynous waif who, like Barbie, has the sole purpose of modeling how clothing should look.

A size 12 model leads the final walk-out at the Mark Fast catwalk show at London Fashion Week. The designer used size 12 and 14 girls alongside more conventional-sized models to showcase his knitted dresses

I was intrigued when I saw a post in femail about knitwear designer Mark Fast and his decision to use curvy women to model his new line of dresses.  A deliberate move, Fast intended to challenge the obsession with size zero models by showing how “fuller” women may actually look better in his slinky creations.

It’s impossible to ever be a perfect women, it seems.  I certainly can’t walk around airbrushed and flawless from every angle.  I’m glad there are voices challenging the way women are represented in society, voices like AnyBody who are anchors to help ease into accepting the body we have:

Remind yourself that the images in magazines are all digitally touched up, stretched and lit in extraordinary ways and that they are there to make us buy products rather than being pictures of real women.

(Thanks for the links, Sadie and Kat!)

I arrived home from work yesterday to find a box from Amazon on the porch.  Inside was a layer of newfangled bubble wrap (the kind made of a several large areas inflated with air, not the kind with an expanse of little pustules full of air, ripe for the popping).  Beneath the bubble wrap was a gift wrapped in cheerful yellow paper with a wide white ribbon around the middle.

I was intrigued.

Having no idea what the package was, I picked it up and thoroughly inspected its shape, heft and thing-ness.  I concluded it was likely a book, but I had no idea which one.  Returning to the wrapping, I found a small card; a small blank card.  It was clearly a present, so I decided to open it.

It was indeed a book, The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work, by Alain de Botton.  I considered the book.  As I had just arrived home from work, I was tuckered out and wanted nothing else than a glass of water and a nap.  Instead, I picked up the book-present and brought it with me as I climbed beneath the down comforter.  Hiding amid white pillows and fluff, I read the first chapter.  What I encountered was a homage to those invisible warriors who transport goods around the world to feed our whims and hungers.  Every other page held a photograph — brutal, real and entwined with the chapter’s theme of cargo shipping.  The experience was akin to reading exceptional pieces in Harper’s or Granta, or perhaps an eloquently crafted graphic novel.

Cargo ships (Richard Baker, 2008)

I read most of the second chapter, before sleep won me over and I was lost in another world entirely.

Dear Vacation Fairy,

For my next holiday from work I would love to volunteer with an animal rehabilitation program.  I have been working very hard at my office job and miss feeling the breeze in my hair and seeing the sun rise and set.  My love for animals continues to grow and I feel a yearning to help large wildlife.

Gratefully yours,

Morethangray

Morethangray!  So good to hear from you.  Have you seen this website?  It may guide you toward your next holiday.

Happy tails,

VF

I’ve made the jump from eating simple veggie-matarian fare into the land of the big vee; I am only eating vegan food.  I still eat honey, which I’ve heard can be a controversial issue.

For some time now I’ve chosen non-leather products.  What was once known as vinyl is now green, and considered a vegan-friendly alternative to leather.  While I’ll purchase canvas and the occasional vinyl item, I’m not sold on the environmental aspect of using vinyl as an alternative to leather.  There are so many variables to consider when deeming something “green”, I wouldn’t be surprised to learn a graduate student was writing their PhD dissertation on the results of their analysis of the leather vs vinyl debate.

Francoa ramosa (bridal wreath)

Category: Perennial

Family: Saxifragaceae (Saxifrages)

Origin: Chile (South America)

Evergreen: Yes

Flower Color: White or pink

Bloom time: Summer

Height: 2-3 feet

Width: 1-2 feet

Exposure: Cool Sun/Light Shade

Irrigation: Medium Water Needs

Winter Hardiness: 20-25° F

Notes: This is an evergreen, herbaceous, clumping (1-2 feet across), spreading perennial which produces large basal leaves and multi-branched flowering stalks (3-5 feet tall) of white or pink flowers in summer. The one foot long leaves are fiddle-shaped with deep lobes and slightly sticky to the touch. Plant in part day sun (takes full coastal) to light shade in warm location in well-draining soil and give average watering.

Blushing bloom of unknown species

I’ll ping Julie Gordon and see if she can name the second plant.  There are a few of them in the yard and I’d love to know more about the massive blooms it creates.

The hubs pulled out the new power drill yesterday, and installed a new mailbox and numbers for the house.  All went well;  the decaying wooden box that was serving as a mail box is now off duty, and our house is numbered for the first time since the front gate went down in July.  Luckily, our postal carrier is not easily fooled.  We can take down our home numbers, move our mailbox across the yard, and then buy a different mailbox and mount it on the side of the house…and we’ll still get our mail.

my resume, a la wordle

I wanted to know what really stands out about my resume, and here it is, in all it’s wordled glory.  To be as accurate as possible (who knows what the wordle algorithm looks like), I generated the visual multiple times.  The weight given to the words was fairly consistent, at least for the larger words that pop right out.

The front yard renovation and landscaping is complete!  To jog the memory, here is a picture of the front yard before:

Before

And here are two images of the yard, after:

After (1 of 2)

After (2 of 2)

The front yard renovation and landscaping was done between June and July 2009; designed and performed by Julie Gordon and her crew.  In short, the following was done to the yard:

• Removal of existing front gate, concrete pathway and brush on sidewalk strip
• Design and installation of redwood fence and porch (with porch expansion)
• Landscaping using colorful plants with low water requirements (i.e. drought-tolerant)
• Installation of drip irrigation with automatic control system and timer

It’s taken some time for me to find the correct circumstances for decent pictures.  The weather has been overcast and gray, which translates into dreary pictures.  When the sun happens to be out, I’ve been at work during the day and can only catch long shadows in the yard when I return home.  So at last, a few pictures of the yard, with decent lighting and “feel”.

The space is still rather open, as the plantlets are babies and need about 1 year to fill out.  In the few weeks since the work has been completed, all of the plants have noticeably grown, with many producing stalks with flowers and all of them sprouting new foliage.  Of the entire garden, there have only been two casualties.  One (of many) great things about working with Julie is that she has followed up with us and checks in about the plants.  She guarantees the plants for 1 year after installation, and is getting replacement plants for the two that didn’t make it.

Our pup Winslow loves the yard…a little too much!  When left unsupervised, she will dig little holes in the gravel path.  Instead, I let her into the yard in the evening when I check the mailbox.  She zips around the yard, zigging and zagging between the bushes.  It’s a sight to behold.

“The fingers of your thoughts are molding your face ceaselessly.” – Charles Reznikoff

“Beauty, unaccompanied by virtue, is as a flower without perfume.” – French proverb

“A diamond with a flaw is better than a common stone that is perfect.” – Chinese proverb

“Desire is a horse that wants to take you on a journey to spirit.”  - Malidoma Some

“The most important and enjoyable thing in life is doing something that’s a complicated, tricky problem for you that you don’t know how to solve.” – William Vollman

“Few are altogether deaf to the preaching of pine trees.” – John Muir

“Do you ever allow yourself to question, to have a burning question–and not put out the flame quickly with the first answer that you hear?” – A.H. Almaas

“If you come upon a lamp with a genie in it, don’t wish you had a magic wand.” – Rob Brezsney

“Brainwash yourself before somebody nasty beats you to it.” – Rob Brezsney

“A compliment is something like a kiss through a veil.” – Victor Hugo

“Minotaur (MIN-uh-tawr) noun.  Someone or something monstrous, especially one that devours.”

“The days come and go like muffled and veiled figures sent from a distant friendly party, but they say nothing, and if we do not use the gifts they bring, they carry them as silently away.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

“You have a gentleness that can sift inside and ignite, you’re a well set up campfire, basically.” – Michelle Medina

“That which God said to the rose, and caused it to laugh in full-blown beauty, he said to my heart, and made it a hundred times more beautiful.” – Rumi.

“For one human being to love another is the most difficult task of all. It’s the work for which all other work is mere preparation.” – Rainer Maria Rilke

“Someday after we have mastered the winds, the waves, and gravity, we will harness for God the energies of love; and then for a second time in the history of the world, human beings will have discovered fire.” – Teilhard de Chardin

“Love is life. All, everything that I understand, I understand only because I love. Everything is, everything exists, only because I love.” – Leo Tolstoy

“If you do not love too much, you do not love enough.” – Blaise Pascal

“Until you have loved, you cannot become yourself.” – Emily Dickinson

(The file was aptly named “Quotes”)