Diffused Illumination

This is just wrong, RIP...

How did Anita Roddick's death in September by what should have killed my friend in August slip past my radar until I was confronted with a huge backdrop of this fact when I stopped by The Body Shop tonight?

I didn't have the courage to actually walk across the room and meet her when I was 23, but she was at a Sonoma State banquet for the 25th anniversary of Project Censored. Anita's presence, laughter and hair filled the room, and I was & am in awe of her work even though I generally prefer Lush products. She & The Body Shop were major sponsors back then, although I've not been pleased with the overall direction things have gone at Project Censored since Carl Jensen retired & I'm thankful I was in the last class to work with him.

I do highly recommend the combination of Body Shop's Vanilla Spice & Cranberry simmering on an oil burner over a beeswax tealight though. This is my Capstone clearance present to myself; the burners are $10 (normally $16) with oils 3 for $16 when those are normally $7.50 a pop. My husband just came upstairs and exclaimed 'Ooh!! It smells good up here!' so it definitely isn't one of my girly blends or I'd hear about it.

Madeleine L'Engle died :(

I was supposed to join her with others for a tea in San Francisco years ago that she had to cancel due to being overbooked. She graciously sent us all who RSVPed apologies with a signed bookplate, I have never forgotten that kindness.

I still have my very battered and chocolate-stained hardcover of A Wrinkle In Time that my aunt gave me as a birthday present when I could barely print my name legibly. I think I'll read it tonight instead of doing my homework.

My sister's dad, from time time I first met him in 1990 until the birth of his granddaughter in 2004, ALWAYS had the Blue Angels as his desktop picture as a point of personal identity pride. Heaven forbid we discuss anything else except them during Fleet Week each year. He is a retired Navy commander and must be heartbroken by this news.

One of my good friends gave birth to a beautiful baby boy today, nicknamed Cajun due to her insatiable cravings involving 'Slap Ya Mama' and other Cajun seasoning on just about everything throughout her pregnancy. Last night I sewed for the first time in I'm not sure how many months so I could send him his auntie blanket on his birthday. Yay baby! I cherish everyone else's newborns while simultaneously rejoicing that I don't have to go through those rough times again.

Also, my office is all in a tizzy over Anna Nicole Smith's death.

Strange combo.

To: 2 massive firs about 25' from our house

From: Me

Subject: Remaining upright

You can doooo eeeit!!!!

I'm not sure why we have power when we're squarely in the map of the estimated 53,000 85,000 City Light customers who don't, but mine is not to question why. I am very saddened by this and thankful for our well-finished basement :(


Seattle Times - UPDATED 9:19 PM Thursday
Seattle woman dies after being trapped in flooded basement

A Seattle woman died after spending eight minutes in rising water after she became trapped in her basement while the room flooded, according the Seattle Fire Department.

The woman was stuck in the windowless utility room of her home in the 500 block of 30th Avenue East after floodwaters blocked the only door out and the water inched toward the ceiling, spokeswoman Helen Fitzpatrick said.

Firefighters pulled the woman out at about 5:30 p.m. by cutting a hole in the floor of the room above and pulling her through the ceiling of the basement.

Medics began CPR after the woman was rescued. She was transported to Harborview Medical Center, Fitzpatrick said. She died later Thursday evening.

I have hated the Yankees for as long as I can remember and of course was absolutely thrilled that Detroit knocked them out of the playoffs, but they have my sympathies tonight. My loyal and loony self is subdued by perspective & thankfulness that some of his best career time was with our team.

In the Victorian era, "People took photographs of their loved ones with a reverence that is rarely understood today... at the moment that people were most vulnerable, photography offered a memento that seemed real-- a tangible visual object that allowed continued closeness to their loved one." from over here.

In a horrifying, immensely tragic, hauntingly beautiful & heart-gripping fashion, I understand this now.

The much-anticipated birth of a baby boy this weekend was met with anguish... stillborn, as a result of a knot in his umbilical cord.

Mom is a children's photographer who hired a colleague to document what was supposed to be a joyous occasion.

Out of respect for the family and the voyeuristic nature of the internet, I'm not posting the link to a very tasteful, moving and heartbreaking photodocumentary that has completely changed life perspective for me and many of my close online friends today. If you'd like to see it, comments are screened & I'll email back.

I am standing on the sea shore,
A ship sails in the morning breeze and starts for the ocean.
She is an object of beauty and I stand watching her
Till at last she fades on the horizon and someone at my side says:
"She is gone."

Gone where?
Gone from my sight, that is all.
She is just as large in mast, hull and spars as she was when I saw her
And just as able to bear her load of living freight to its destination.
The diminished size and total loss of sight is in me,
Not in her.

And just at the moment when someone at my side says,
"She is gone",
There are others who are watching her coming, and other voices take up a glad shout:
"There she comes!"
And that is dying.