14 October 2003: Dragonfruit

Happy Birthday, Ace!

Actually, Ace's birthday was Sunday, but I didn't end up having time to write a journal entry on Sunday. Or yesterday, either.

Friday I went to my former day job which is now my Friday afternoon job. I've only got two students left now. One is a bright 12-year-old with whom I've only been working for a few weeks. My intent is to work with him for a few more weeks and then hand him off to another teacher. My other remaining student is Padawan, who was my first student at the Center and whom I have now been teaching for two-and-a-half years. He was 15 when I met him, lost in the Dickensian nightmare of the foster care system, and reading at a First Grade level. He's 18 now, and an active member of a nonprofit group that lobbys to give kids more voice in the foster care system. We recently finished reading Catch-22 together.

Friday evening, after our lesson, Padawan accompanied me on my customary after-work walk around Lake Merritt, and then to dinner. With my other students, it is a matter of closure, of wrapping up the lessons. With Padawan, there is a friendship now that will outlive the professional relationship. I will keep in touch with him, include him in future projects.

When I got home I had a phone message from Moly, asking if I knew anything about Krishnamurti. I called him back and we talked for a couple of hours (not about Krishnamurti). I thought about Padawan and how he's always so amazed at how much I know about how many subjects. I listened to Moly and imagined introducing the two of them, imagined Padawan's reaction to Moly's conversational style. Realized that I wanted to make that meeting happen someday.

Saturday I did my customary Saturday morning yoga megadose. In the evening, I went to Game Night at Stagewalker's. A pleasant time. Always good to see more of Stagewalker. I actually played poker for money, something that as a rule I just won't do. My intuition said that it was okay this time - that it was the right group of people at the table, the right environment, the right evening, that somehow it wasn't bad karma for me in this particular circumstance. It was Dealer's Choice. I played the hands that were real poker - Hold 'Em and Stud and such - and sat out the mickeymouse wild-card variants that are poker's equivalent of blender drinks with little paper umbrellas. Chips were worth ten cents each. I started with five dollars, played conservatively as is my wont, cashed out with seven dollars when my intuition said it was time to stop. Talked with Wonderboy, made plans to get together with him and others for Kaballah discussions. Spent the rest of the night playing Settlers of Cataan.

Sunday I taught my usual three hours of aikido, then went to the 90-minute Sunday afternoon yoga class that I've been going to for the past six weeks or so. The Sunday afternoon yoga class is the toughest one I go to. Between that and the aikido, every Sunday is Somatic Boot Camp for me now. I love it. Of course, come the end of November, I’ll also have a three-hour paratheatrical lab session every Sunday night. The aikido and yoga classes will be the perfect warmup for the lab sessions.

After Sunday’s yoga class, I went home and cooked a huge pot of eggplant-tofu-sausage stew (it had both tofu and sausage so that both vegetarians and non-vegetarians could eat it). The Khan and Speaks Like Silence and the Admiral came over for dinner. I actually had a bit of stage fright cooking for the Admiral, who has been in the restaurant business for about 15 years. But the stew was very well received, and enthusiastically eaten. And the Khan brought yummy bread and the Admiral brought yummy wine and Dragon Lady made yummy brownies topped with fresh raspberries. We had a lovely evening. The Admiral and Dragon Lady hit it off fabulously, as I was sure they would, bonding instantly over their shared politics and their shared excellence.

And I have learned two Very Important Things in the past week:

1.) Dragonfruit is the coolest-looking fruit ever, and also the most yummiest.

2.) My underwear is more comfortable when I wear it inside-out.