All Around You

Thank you to everyone who expressed their condolences about my friend Ellen, who is, by now, in the ground. She had to be buried quickly because she eschewed embalming, saying that she wanted to become worm food. She did worry very briefly about about allowing herself to decompose naturally because the chemotherapy had left her stuffed to the gills with toxic chemicals that she was afraid would harm other living creatures, but I think she got over that. There will be a memorial service for her next month.



In lieu of flowers, here is a photo of an orchid in bloom, taken when I was house-sitting for Judi and Paul.

Judi has a good system for always having orchids in bloom. She buys them while they're blooming and when they stop blooming, she throws out the whole plant and buys another one.

Pure Narcissism

I'm about to place an order with Amazon that includes among other things a book by Harlan Ellison, a wooden comb, a book about a Chinese performance artist who lives in New York, a Smith's CD, and a small jar of Vegemite. I love Amazon. I mean, where else can you assemble such a collection of things like these, absolute necessities to a one, while still in your pajamas? Amazon is one-stop shopping for all your nutso needs.

LU-DAWG!

Dave and I had a very early dinner with Lu and Chris yesterday. During dinner Lu's phone rang and she looked at the caller ID and saw it was her mother and so she didn't pick up. (Now, me? I would never do something like that.) Anyway, a few hours after we parted ways, Lu called me and said, "I just got off the phone with my mom." Lu explained that her mom, who lives on the other side of the country, had heard about a recent spate of murder victims (that link will take you to an ABC News story)--most of them believed to be prostitutes or perhaps women involved in the drug trade--that have turned up at a construction site near the little city we call home. Mom was calling to make sure that Lu was not in any danger. I was, like, "Your mom just called to make sure that you weren't buried in a shallow grave out on the mesa? That's beautiful."

That's a caring mom right there.