After being in a bit of a funk for the past couple weeks, I had the amazing good fortune of meeting my Tibetan Language teacher yesterday.  His name is Lhoppon Rechungpa and he truly embodies peace, wisdom, compassion and light.  I have no other words to describe him.  He and I traded stories and laughed for about 2.75 hours.  I thought I had a 1-hour appointment?  How did that happen?  I told him everything that has been going on in me and he is warm and supportive.  He even gave me a reading list!   His life story is pretty typical for a monk and then it’s not.  More later.  I have to actually work today.  Going to learn about .css and adding pictures to the website today!  YAY!

Nope, I haven’t posted in a while.  I’m struggling with situations that I have no words for.  I’m sure it’ll all work out.  I’ve also been busy gathering up friends for the summer.  Gotta have friends to have a good summer!  I also notice that I haven’t shown gratitude to the universe as of late.  Gotta get on that.  Vaccinations make me tired and weird.   Also had to just walk away from this website for a while to come back at it with new, broader brain.  Gotta get those pictures up!

I had a trying weekend so I turned to my women’s group for some love.  And got it.  What an incredibly powerful group of women I have fallen into and have the privilege of calling friends.  I also wonder if I’m thanking everyone enough for their help.  I want them to know I care and appreciate everything.  That this trip means soooo much and their help and support is such a relief!  I did a little inventory of where I am in things and got a little wiggie that the month is passing too fast.  I need more time!  I need more money!  I need to alter some plans that I thought would work but now realizing aren’t.   Shoot!  But I know it’ll all work out in the end and I’ll be fine, the trip planning is on track.  No worries.  Saturday is “sit down and figure out pictures” day.  My friend Shanita sent me some great reading about Karma.  Also got, what I believe to be, a great group of people together for some serious weekend hiking.  It’s gonna be a great summer!

that’s all I got.

shots bad, not friendly.

And the day just got that much better.   It costs $182.12 to DHL a 25lb. box to Dharamsala (which by the way, they don’t really deliver to….).  I was hoping that was the pesos quote.

Okay, so shots basically suck. They didn’t bother me until about 30 minutes ago when, while trying to purchase a camera on ebay, the room spun a little without alcohol involved. Darnitall. Even saw the LONG needle and didn’t flinch, I was such a big girl! No pain, no nothing…..5 needles total and now the stingy one is starting to sting a little…..and the one with the REALLY long needle is a little sore. The one thing I did manage to do was pass out the weblog address to the lovely Kari…my Infectious Disease Nurse at Longmont Community Hospital. I never thought I’d hear myself utter THAT phrase.

Good Buddha. Had a good talk, she assured me that I have my bases covered and that I’m not getting taken for a ride with the price of my travel health insurance (thank you apartment deposit for making THAT happen). Thank you Kari. Your patient relations department needs to give you a medal. I have only met 3 other health care providers as pleasant and personable as you, in my life, and two of them are non-traditional so the odds were soooo not in your favor for keeping my “spaz level” to a minimum.

Oh yeah, and I have to return for MORE shots 2 more times this month and ya know what?  Not that bothered by the idea.  Okay, so I might be cryin’ a different story tomorrow….we shall see, we shall see.

J

At 12 weeks out from launch, I thought I’d have a look at the ole bank situation. Waddaya know, I’m pretty sure I’m going to have enough money for all of the stupid junk I would like to get on my “stuff for the trip” page AND be able to get to Nepal and Tibet while I’m there. My lack of appetite is leading to a surplus in the current grocery budget. Yeeehaw. My obsession with making this weblog a little less laughable is keeping me from driving around like a fool and wasting gas after work. Woohoo. My focus on buying things like “Sturdy shoes” and “laptop junk” is keeping me from making frivolous clothing purchases.

Well, that and the fact that because I have NO clue what I should pack and might just be able to get away with sending what I own via DHL. I say, DHL a box of stuff then get over there and buy the little stuff as needed. Shirts are 50 cents for crying out loud. If I need more than 5 shirts while I”m there, I’ll eat the 6th one for breakfast, a girl can always use more fiber in her diet. I WILL NOT be checking luggage at the airport. What are the chances of it making it safe and sound to India anyway? I have a better chance of getting dysentery than my luggage making it to Delhi in a timely manner. It’s not a slam against anyone, I’m just factoring in my good friend Murphy. And I’m NOT going to travel the 14-hour bus ride back to Indira Gandhi Airport from Dharamsala to retrieve my stupid underwear when it finally does arrive in November. Please. Let’s not even get into what “timely” means in India compared to the US.

Done. Jen.

ooooohhhhh, I love my 1/2 hour in bed with Keiko and Sam in the morning because it gives me time to understand what I dreamed about that night. BUT. I woke up this morning feeling certain conflict about going to a land where the traditions and culture have been in place for longer that I could possibly guess. And here I go. Off to teach them about technology and modern-day “stuff”. I grew up around Amish and COMPLETELY respect that world, and it is just that….a world. But if one of the dairy farmers asked me to teach him MS Access so that he could figure out how to raise milk productivity, I’d have a little trouble with it. But it would be out of RESPECT for the cultural norms that are already in place that have been serving them for hundreds of years perfectly well.

WHOA……. who am I to decide what is best for them? I respect everything about them and will only provide what they ask. Nothing more.

Wow, glad i figured that one out. It’s only 7:30 a.m. Oh my stars and garters.

8:43 p.m.  Played with Adobe Elements all evening cropping and preparing pictures for the website.  The trial version is free for a month.  Hope that I only need it for a month?

Thought I’d start small with one picture in a post.  I walked away from the website this past weekend hoping to take a creative break and regain some sanity and perspective.  I almost had a picture posted but it ended up being toooooo big.  Gotta learn some photo-manipulation software now.  Ugh.  On a bigger, better, different note, I went to a class yesterday on how to tap into and be more aware of my own intuition.  It turns out that I’m doing just fine.  Shoshanna did a GREAT job with the HUGE room of people and we all had a great time!  Looking forward to the next level of classes.

My friend Janene went to Arizona just in time for Quail hatching season…..in a Begonia pot?

http://home.comcast.net/~jonszejda/quail/quail.html

Watch how Dad Quail is careful to make sure the coast is clear! and that all the chicks made it from behind the flower pot….too cute!
Namaste