Toast for brekkie

To the islands

Posted on December 22nd, 2006 by george.
Categories: travel.

Normally when I don’t write for a while, I salve my guilt by posting photos on flickr so you at least have something to look at. To ensure that I don’t overwhelm with my thousands-deep backlog, I try to keep the uploads to less than 30 photos per day. But because I leave in the morning on my first cruise, a seven-day junket through the western Caribbean, I’ve taken the liberty of posting 91 photos from Acapulco to tide you over until 2007 rolls around. This puts my published flickr total over 5000. Undoubtedly I’ll come back from the pristine shores of Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, the Virgin Islands and the Turks and Caicos with hundreds more photos. We’re going to have to figure something out in the New Year to get through this five-month logjam that just keeps piling up.

I’m off to pack; grab a bite to eat at Thai Thai with Toufan, his siblings and Fere; then hit the lobby at the SED conference. I got a surprise phonecall from Haifa today, and I can’t wait to see my people in O-town. In the words of everyone’s favorite Lacey, my heart is oatmeal.

Joy to everyone out there on this wonderful blue speck. Embrace your loved ones and cherish the time you have together. May peace be upon you all.

0 comments.

SED 2006

Posted on December 22nd, 2006 by george.
Categories: Uncategorized.

Stop the presses, hold the phone: I just met Carmen.

That’s right, ladies and gentlemen, the Carmen. I’ve known this girl for nearly two years and tonight, with no advance planning or knowledge, I finally met her in person.

See, I just got back from taking my friends Farah and Fere to hang out in Orlando at the Rosen Centre with all the peeps attending the SED Conference. I have a long history with this conference, longer than the seemingly short two years that have passed since first meeting up with Lacey there in December 2004. I met three of the five Kourosh sisters on that fateful night. One of those three, my dear friend Atoosa, was there tonight. Together we introduced Fere and Farah to our Tu Tu Tango tradition.

But where was I? Oh yes, Carmiento! I’m standing around in the lobby, where all the action happens, and I see my friend Bushra in the distance. I walk up to give her a big hug and who’s standing there but Carmen, in the flesh. We embraced like old friends. Heck, as much as I’ve heard about her from her best friend Sholeh, we might as well be.

And AND! Get this: when we arrived for dinner, I called Atoosa to tell her we’d be there soon. Rather than pick her up at the front, she invited us inside, claiming she had a surprise for me. I walk in only to find Atoosa sitting with Gloria and Solomon, whom I haven’t seen in nearly a year! Gloria was instrumental in my spiritual journey over the past year. She is like a guardian angel to me. I am still beaming.

Speaking of people I haven’t seen in a year, I also got to see my friends Phoebe and Heidi, whom I met at SED 2005, and got a great big hug from Briana. While I’m at it, I gotta give shouts out to Sami, Aaron, Nikita, and all the other wonderful people I met tonight.

We spent hours tonight regaling each other with stories, laughing, catching up on one another’s lives, and basking in the glow of companionship. Like Heidi said, “A year has passed, but it feels as though it was yesterday.”

I can’t wait to go back!

4 comments.

A tidbit to tide you over

Posted on December 13th, 2006 by george.
Categories: Uncategorized.

Toufan and I just finished five hours of moving furniture and it’s after 1am. I’ve been trying to finish an entry on spacetime for the past two days to no avail. There simply are not enough hours in the day. So because I hate to go so long without posting, I offer you a few tasty morsels.

Discovery was delayed 48 hours and finally launched at 8:47:35pm EST Saturday. It was, as KSC Director Jim Kennedy would say, a beautiful thing.

Sholeh has arrived safely in Haifa.

My friend Seth is a race car driver. This is his newly restored Porsche. That is all.

7 comments.

A day of pearls

Posted on December 7th, 2006 by george.
Categories: Uncategorized.

Happy Birthday to my sister Elizabeth.

We launch Space Shuttle Discovery tonight.

Our dear Sholeh embarks on her journey to Haifa today.

Myriad are the strings that tie these pearls together.

Please pray for them all.

2 comments.

Burial at sea

Posted on December 5th, 2006 by george.
Categories: poetry.

So ends another golden age
With this, the final golden hour
Our heaven sheds its evening dress
The same shade as your flaming flower

The sailors lain down with their swords
The masts in splinters, sails in tatters
Her holy hull slips neath the waves
Her final course a foregone matter

Into the depths she’s straight and true
A dagger plunged in to the hilt
The flecks of gold like falling stars
This bowsprit free at last from gilt

The luster fades as fathoms mount
The siren’s song no longer heard
This canvas floats as testament
Below this spot lies love interred.

7 comments.

It’s Sunday night

Posted on December 3rd, 2006 by george.
Categories: Uncategorized.

And you know what that means.  Time for a little Jack Black.  Here’s my favorite scene from Nacho Libre, where he mixes in a little Tenacious D.

6 comments.