• 17:59 Today I did a total of 100 situps thanks to the 200 Situps iPhone app. (Week 2, Day 1, Level 3) #200Situps #
• 18:14 Today I did a total of 23 pushups thanks to the Hundred Pushups iPhone app. (Week 1, Day 3, Level 1) #100Pushups #

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Out of the mulch: a seedling, or two, or three. Crocuses, purple, nine weeks early.

She follows the life-line down through the cedar chips and rotten banana peels and remembers what the earth feels like to her fingers. Cold, muddy soft, gritty. She plants herself, or starts to. But then looks up and thinks. Maybe this. Maybe that. Thinking overcomes feeling, and anxieties about what else is there in the earth -- what worms its way around down here, what might touch her if she stays here -- anxieties build and surface and now she has to look up further, beyond the crocuses to the chain-link fence, tied with the morning glory that never quite dies away. Up past the chain link fence to the cement stairs, surrounded by blackberry bushes and discarded 7-11 cups. Up the stairs to the street above her head, up the hill to the college across the street, past and over the college to sky, the east where the sun will rise soon and bring daylight back to the mornings. She will go inside and wash her hands and get ready to work hard in a busy, windowless hospital. Or she will quit her job today, walk out of the hospital and into the dark back rows of a church, sit on the hard pews, stroke the golden or red velvet cushions, take the hymnal out of the back of the pew ahead of her, flip through the delicate pages to find something that she remembers: if not a song, then a familiar phrase: Praise.

And she does.

I'm happy to report that planetary gravity is still holding firm at 47.6550000 (latitude) and -122.3151000 (longitude). Tested it thoroughly today with a live human body. Elevation is slightly less than reported, however, due to half the hill ending up on my pants.

• 19:38 Just completed Week 1 - Day 1 of #C25K with @c25kapp #c25kapp #

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...then consider coming to a meeting of the Giant Robot Appreciation Society, Evergreen's Japanese animation club! The first meeting of Winter quarter (including the start of two new shows, Planetes and Welcome to the NHK) is tomorrow. As always, free popcorn. ^_^ More details available at our website.

Pandora finished dusting the window sills with salt. She'd spent the day smudging with sage and making sure the house was energetically clean for the New Year. She'd gone through the house with smoke (for air), flame (for fire), water (uh...for water) and salt, for earth. She'd said blessings in the oddest corners, and straightened books on bookshelves, and made sure she had black-eyed peas on hand for the next day. Now it was after dark, new year's eve. Pandora put on her favorite new year's album, Down to the Moon by Andreas Wollenweider. She lit candles and made a cup of tea, and sat at the table in the kitchen with a notebook pad full of graph paper, crayons, markers, and fine point pens. She was equipped now to look backward, month by month, at the last year, and to write whatever reflection might come out of that. To refocus herself. To cleanse her spirit and forgive all her misdeeds and--

"Yo! Pandy!" Her downstairs neighbor Mark yelled from the hall. A knock followed.

She sighed and got up, knowing from experience that Mark didn't go away if he knew she was home.

"Yes?" She said as she opened the door.

"We're going to Capitol Hill to watch the fireworks from the Space Needle and get totally messed up!"

"Have fun," she said, starting to close the door. Mark caught it before it closed.

"My cousin's in town," he said, "and Michelle's going, and here's the thing...we kind of need another person along? So it's not like me & Michelle with my cousin feeling like a third wheel?"

"Ah," she said.

"And I'm bringing champagne," he said. "Plus, I know this guy who has a karaoke machine, and his place is right on Melrose so you can totally see EVERYthing from his living room!"

Pandora wavered.

"Please?" Mark made his eyes wide, knowing that had worked on her before.

"Ok." She grabbed her coat and hat and snuffed the candles. She could always do this reflection stuff tomorrow.

"Cheers!" Mark said, and they walked out into the not-too-cold night.

"I used to think that tangles were green diamonds...little teensy green diamonds in your hair that did something bad over time."
--Penny, age 9

I don't know how to cover the last couple of days since leaving work on Christmas Eve. I had no expectations for what it would be like, except that I had the kids this weekend. Had no specific plans, though, other than to get through it. Christmas Eve was great -- spent it with A & R and then A drove me home the next morning. Got to Kevin's around 9 -- the kids had opened their stockings and they'd each gotten a present from a neighbor, and they were delighted with this simple stuff, most probably because we set them up to expect very little. And because there was candy. Kevin made nectarine pancakes (vegan -- & very good despite being all hippie-fied). And then the kids and I went to Dragon House, where it was just another Friday with every one pitching in on chores. We all threw in together and got the house completely cleaned in a couple of hours and then Karen took the kids on an outing to downtown, where nothing was open, and they came back and watched a movie while I napped. Sam had been having a cough that had been getting worse, with wheezing, and then started throwing up. At about 10 I woke up and found that Karen & James were getting ready to take Sam to the emergency room. I kept Tera & was up with her until she put herself to bed around midnight after a couple of Wiggles videos. Then stayed up until James got home around 1:30. Sam stayed in the hospital last night and will be there again tonight, and Karen's been with him the whole time, so there is this surreal kind of "getting through it" energy around here. I've had Tera for a few hours at a stretch -- early this morning and again in the afternoon when James went to take lunch to Sam at the hospital. He's got all the kids out right now, giving me a couple of sorely needed hours to exercise and use my computer. We're taking up the carpet upstairs tonight, and I'll take Tera again while he goes to visit at the hospital. So that's us this weekend. Completely unexpected, but I'm also getting this valuable chance to be useful to my housemates and give a little tiny bit back to them for all they give me almost every single day.
Sam will be back tomorrow (I hope) when the folks at the hospital are sure that he can breathe on his own without all the extra support he's getting there. And I'm so glad he's ok and going to be ok. It really is just asthma -- they don't think it's the flu or pneumonia and they've x-rayed his lungs, which are more clear than not. So that's us. Just finished my workout and on my way to the shower before the kids get back.

Hope your weekends are each going well...

Hey All!

I am in search of a ride from California (I'm in Ventura right now, but I could meet you other places) to Oregon (Eugene, Portland, or even better, Yachats.) I am pretty broke, but I will have music, and I can pay you in awesome citrus and avocados from our CA Family Ranch. I can give you some dollars too, if you wish, but damn is this fruit something else.

If you are headed up North (or know anyone who is) by January 3rd (I have to be home on the morning of January 4th at the latest), please let me know.

jessicabjackson at hotmail dot com.

Thanks and peace!

Jess