face it

gabriel and i are putting in a shower at home. we've had a bathtub for about a decade. it sits in the upstairs hallway and came from the original main street musuem on south main street. the tub ended up there because the bathroom i designed turned into a bedroom and the hall was simply the only place left it could go. after a few friends expressed shyness about bathing in the hallway (it's not really very public, actually, because it's upstairs, above most of the apartment, but, yes, you can be seen if you go upstairs) we started a tradition of taking pictures of people in the bathtub and posting them on the wall as a way of saying, look, all these people did it!

despite the new shower, the tub will remain, and hopefully more folks will grace the wall. we haven't come up with any shower traditions. but, already it has expressed some personality. the shower walls are backed with a cement fiberboard and while cutting it to face the shower walls we created the one pictured. a mistake forms a nose, the mouth is the cutout for a sprinkler pipe and the eye is the shower head hole. it's still visible but will soon be covered with tile.

biceps and boobs

i'm way behind in my blogging. i'm down to about a post every ten days. i enjoy writing and lament that drafting seems to be edging out writing for the time being. but, i keep snapping pictures, which doesn't take any time at all really, other than remembering to bring a camera. here's a shot from the recent revolution fashion show. this is not actually the fashion show but kim and brandon hamming it up in the hallway. brandon has the biggest biceps in white river junction. i enjoyed photographing them as much as he seems to like showing them off. i'm not really sure if they were comparing things here, but kim is also certainly big in all kinds of ways, though she's petite (a plus as you'll find out later). she not only brings us this glamorous fashion show twice a year, but champions her clothing store, revolution, which has just risen from the ashes (well, the ashes are actually across the street where the strip club used to be) and now features not only cool used clothing but prominently presents a half-dozen independent (and some local) designers who make beautiful collaged clothing from recycled garments, cloth and other found things like old billboards and computer parts. kim gets to wear all the cool clothes that someone like me at 6'4" never gives two serious thoughts about, though i must admit i do give them one thought most of the time until i remind myself that one, i'm male (which isn't that big an obstacle these days) and two, i'm a giant (which is the show stopper). i've fantasized for quite a while having some custom clothes made that really fit me. but, most of the time, for what i do, i wouldn't want nice clothes. i never know when i'm going to have to climb up on the roof and fix an air conditioning unit. truth be known, i am pretty vain. so, when i become rich and famous and no longer have to pull the hatches off rooftop air handlers and unclog toilets and change dusty old lightbulbs, i promise i'll hire a tailor.

pema serendipidy

yesterday, i drove down to the radical faerie camp in grafton, vermont. on the way there and back i listened to a talk by pema chodron, the buddhist teacher from gampo abbey, nova scotia. i hadn't listened to her for quite a while and it was refreshing to listen again.

today, on my way into white river junction, i stopped at the local coop. there was a car in the lot with a woman standing next to it, door ajar. the rear door was also ajar and a person in maroon robes was leaning into the car. i see buddhist monks and nuns around where i live frequently, so i wasn't surprised, but then i caught a glimpse of the person's face, and it sure looked like pema chodron. i went inside feeling giddy and somewhat silly because of my childish excitement at the possibility that someone famous (at least in buddhist circles) was in my town.

i bought a burrito--though i'd lost my appetite--and then circled into the pasta lane. there she was and i couldn't think of anything to say. what do you say to someone whom you know from books and talks and who knows nothing of you? so, i said, "are you pema chodron?" and she looked up, a bit puzzled perhaps, and paused. for a second, i thought, oh, i made a mistake. but then she said, "yes, i am." and i told her i'd just listened to a talk of hers the day before and thanked her. she asked me where the vitamins were, specifically echinacea. i showed her to the other end of the store and she found what she was looking for, said she was coming down with a cold.

and that was that. i've always wanted to thank her for her books and teachings. and without much fanfare, i got to do it in person, in a grocery store.