Full and happy

Los Angeleno by birth, Northwesterner by choice, Second-hander by nature. Librarian, housebound chef, father, and lowly subject ruled over by the needs and whims of a very old house.
Partial to Mexican, Italian and Vietnamese cookery but will eat damn near anything. Collector of many strange things..the result is chaos and anarchy and a very pleasant place to live.
There is pleasure in accumulation, not just "collecting": music, books and film, in all their multi-formated glory. Outsider artists and those kinds of prints you would recognize if you took liberal studies classes in college. Cooking implements and gadgets for recipes still untried or those ventured. Glasses for most types of libations. Flowers in the garden, herbs in the pot.
It's a life of the senses and a good home life reflects that. Walking helps take in all the rest. Requires no special equipment, opens up the pores, brightens the taste buds, clears the decks for further adventures, puts on the miles, widens the eyes and helps fuel the imagination.

Live boldly, play graciously and love with all your heart knowing that true love comes only once or twice in this lifetime. Speaking of which..donde estas, Empress of my Heart?

Salud!

"Lack imagination and miss the better story" Yann Martel

"Life is a great adventure and I want to say to you, accept it in such spirit. I want to see you face it ready to do the best that lies in you to win out. To go down without complaining and abiding by the result....the worst of all fears is the fear of living." Theodore Roosevelt, Jr.

"Not I - not anyone else, can travel that road for you
You must travel it for yourself" Walt Whitman


And above all, friends should possess the rare gift of sitting. They should be able, no, eager, to sit for hours-three, four, six-over a meal of soup and wine and cheese, as well as one of twenty fabulous courses.

Then, with good friends of such attributes, and good food on the board, and good wine in the pitcher, we may well ask,

When shall we live if not now?

-From Serve it Forth,
M.F.K. Fisher


Wednesday, December 30, 2009

52 things





































Happy New Year!

New Year's resolutions? No, instead I make lists. What's written dowm on my old lists doesn't matter a wit and my new list only has power over me while I'm writing it down. The variables of life change so fast, heck, they can change the moment you set down your pen. These lists I post here annually are alot like those little pieces of paper that the Japanese hang on trees on New Year's Day or like the messages to the ancestors that the ancients would toss into the bonfires on the Solstice. For me they've been an annual laundry list of dreams and wishes and desires to send off to the gods, to the ancestors, to the universe. As a "pie in the sky" exercise goes it's not a bad thing. These lists are clarification tools, grand things-to-do lists, action plans, packages of hopes to lay my head down on at night before I go to sleep. So, find below the latest list, circa 2009. Let's see where it goes.

Happy New Year to those of you who follow this heartfelt blog and may all your hopes, wishes, dreams and desires come to pass!

My 2009 list of 52:

1. Strive to be happy regardless of what life brings to my doorstep.
2. In the midst of that happiness, remind myself to appreciate and find joy in what I have.
3. Walk more.
4. Buy less.
5. Concentrate on finding work in the library sector no matter where it lands me.
6. Sell the house, and if it doesn't sell, rent it out.
7. Find my way back to selling online and unload all the old toy soldier stock.
8. Buy a couple turntable needles and play my old records.
9. Get back to three new recipes a week.
10. Renew my WA sellers license.
11. Look into that lithographed box thing so Nathan and I can have something to work on together.
12. Continue to polish up my resume.
13. Get that darn new Kitchen Aid mixer out of the box and make something with it!
14. Make a file of all the movies that I own and then strke that list of films against those that I have watched.
15. Take good car of my children, my car, my friends, my body, my heart and my health.
16. Make good on all those FB connections I've made and renew friendships with those folks who have reached out to me.
17.Get back to writing my book.
18. Say goodbye to the Professora and mean it.
19. Make the drive to Boise at least once a month to see the kids until my ship comes in.
20. Continue to work with the foodbank even after I find paid employment.
21. Finish the painting and tiling projects before spring.
22. Drive to San Francisco to see my oldest. Be prepared for the wrath and renew that relationship if at all possible.
23. Take Spanish lessons and put them to use daily.
24. Ride the new lightrail in Seattle all the way to the airport.
25. Pay off all my old debts to friends and creditors alike.
26. Go to Seattle at least once a month just for the hell of it (and for Dick's burgers, too).
27. Watch more sunrises.
28. Breathe.
29. Put those weights and barbells in the backyard to use.
30. Embrace gardening once again.
31. If I find a job that turns out to be local, figure out how to love this house all over again.
32. Find a companion for my cat.
33. Find one relatively unknown band, director and writer to champion and learn all there is to know about them.
34. Make more Vietnamese, regional Mexican and North African foods.
35. Buy and learn to operate (safely!) a chain saw.
36. Continue to don costumes and play.
37. Find a way to get down Ren Faire in Northern California this coming fall.
38. Go see the swifts in Portland with Punkin.
39. Get down on the floor more often with Thomas.
40. Look into my old LA movie contacts for Will.
41. Find a cat for my Estranged One to replace Louis (can that ever be possible?)
42. Embrace the fine art of letting go.
43. Get a passport and then try it out.
44. Make up my mind on this last name thing and then stick with it.
45. Get a tattoo.
46. Learn to love again.
47. Laugh more often.
48. Make love more often.
49. Fight less.
50. Worry less.
51. Get more sleep.

and

52. Live today like there's no tomorrow.

Love, Accumulate Man

2 comments:

Thaydra said...

That is a fabulous list! Here's to getting through them all in the next year, and to the additions you will most certainly make!

Happy New Year!

kd said...

What an inspiring list! Mucho gracias, amigo. Hope to share some of the North African food, and other itmes on this list....glad I know you.