Whoops...

I really did a number on myself.

I broke my foot.
I went charging out the front door, missed a step and went down smack on my foot.
Crunch.
Excruciating pain.
Watched the bump on my foot swell at a very fast speed and determined that this was no small little bruise.
Sure enough, X rays confirmed it later.
A Fifth Metatarsal Fracture, for those of you who speak bone language.
Good news is: NO SURGERY.
Just a really hip, fashionable black boot for 6 weeks.I was pretty devastated when this all happened, I was in alot of pain initially, but that has subsided (thank god!)
but also, more importantly what came up in my egocentric mind was:
THIS CAN'T BE HAPPENING!
Don't you know who I am???
I HAVE IMPORTANT THINGS
TO DO!
IMPOSSIBLE-I DON'T HAVE TIME FOR THIS!!!

I was quickly offered some insight from somewhere other than myself that whispered:
"This is a good thing, and will teach you a lot, mainly about slowing down,
false ideas about yourself and your life,
being mindful
and
SURRENDER!"
(the big one)

Wow!
OK, thank you! I get it!
So I am grateful for these lessons,
and besides, it is really nice getting waited on by my fabulous family.
I don't even get to clean the toilet or vacumn! OR...Walk the dog!!!

But it is a bitch giving up control and I am at the mercy of the 3 of them...YIKES!
I'll keep you posted as to how gracefully I am able to do this.
This will be great shuffling up and down the hills of Cortona
when I get there next week, won't it? Maybe those crutches will get
me moved up to First Class?

Backpedaling: Jesse's Graduation

i thought it might be good if I posted a blurb about my first son, Jesse's graduation from high school. Before he leaves for college in September.

It was your standard Portland Public Schools graduation at the Memorial Coliseum, large, long and a little sleepy if it wasn't your kid or a kid you know marching up on the stage. However, when they did announce that name it was sooooo fun, we had a cheering squad of 20 or so with us and we hooted and yelled. There were lots of lively families near us and some even had signs, they held up (so i turned around and painted some for my nephew Venus Evergreen college graduation 2 days later here.

Jesse and one of his best friends, Gabriel whom he has known since they shared childcare together at 9 months old, were up there together. What happened?
It was just a few minutes ago that they were drinking their ba bas wasn't it?

Proud Dad!

My pal SABRINA, Gabriel's mom, the moment they announced that
Gabriel was the recipient of a very prestigious scholarship award...

Kim , Lesley and Nicki, part of the Friedman family support crew.

When Jesse was little he said he never wanted to graduate because they threw their hats in the air and that scared him.

It was a very emotional week. I am so thrilled for Jesse, so proud of his high school success and subsequent choice to choose Evergreen College, a sleeper school that is so unconventional and REALLY cool. He has always been a kid that knows what he wants and makes wise choices for himself. I am proud of the kind, thoughtful, wise person that he is and always has been. I have been blessed to have this extraordinary person to sometimes guide, but mostly to learn from for nearly 18 years. And while I am thrilled he is about to embark on what I KNOW will be an amazing adventure, I am heartbroken to let him go. I happened to tune in to Rebecca Sowers blog the other nite, she was posting regarding her daughters high school graduation and the ache she felt on letting her daughter go. She asked her readers how they get through it and the feedback she received was tremendous and very helpful to me. Thank you Rebecca!
My beautiful boy, I want an amazing life for you. Thank you for all the joy you have given me. I am so lucky to have you as my son.
Love, mom

happy birthday corey!

Corey,
It is hard to believe you came around 14 years and 9 months ago. Happy Happy Birthday Corey, I am so glad you are here and that you are such an amazing person.
I have loved having you be my kid-I am very proud of you.
love mom
p.s. your present is the topic of the slideshow, you can probably figure it out.
love mom

7 Minutes Left Til the End of Father's Day

As I alluded to in the last post, I am always late or just barely skating in under a deadline, any deadline. So my guys are all in SF on a boys trip and I barely did a thing except say to Rob this morning, Happy Fathers Day...
I have been feeling remiss about that all day (well, no not really, I actually was doing my usual late nite blog surfing and I saw how all the other people out there who do it BETTER AND RIGHTER were doing all these lovely blog posts to husbands and dads, so my less than stuff kicked in at the midnite hour (really look at the time!)
So happy Fathers Day Rob and my 2 boys, you have the best dad ever, Rob thank you for being such a great loving dad to our boys!
oxoxxo

Michael and Judy in Bali (3 months ago? How is that Possible?

Ok, I know, I know Michael!

This post is WAY overdue and really late.
Like, really, really late.


My blogging and catching up is usually helter skelter. Chaotic. Just like my life.
Oh well. Somethings I get done on time. Like getting to my hairdresser every 3 1/2
weeks to cover the gray and get more red chemicals on my hair.
ALWAYS!
Priorities.
So any way, I thought that before I did much posting on the 2010 Cortona Workshops with Michael and Judy, it might be nice to review the cool workshop we did in Bali in March...
Lets get in the mood...

As always, I had a total blast with these guys.
Michael started the 5 day workshop taking the group to
"Home Depot" as we affectionately call the hardware, building supply store down the
road, it is rather primitive, rustic and completely charming.
Judy had a free day so we jumped in the car with our driver, Kohman, who patiently drove us EVERYWHERE, Judy had so generously agreed to accompany me on a shopping mission to decorate and furnish the house that Wayan had just built,
Villa Paradiso.Kohman Adi(or should we call him Saint Adi?
St. Adi hauling one of Judy's and my many, many finds of the day, a sate grill they make out of old biscuit tins, we saw it as great knick knak containers...
The photo above is courtesy of Judy, this truck full of chickens was in front of us and I shrieked for her to take a
picture out the window with her point and shoot camera, I couldn't stick the Nikon D60 out of a moving car and just point and well, shoot! But she did, and got a magnificent photo of the moment! THanks Judy!
We shopped and decorated and shopped some more. Not many can keep up with me when I shop but Judy is a woman of tremendous stamina and focus, no problem keeping up with me,
we had a great time! We had Kohman stop the car on Judy's request, she had photos of these guys here.Our guys.

THe rest of the week was Temple of Dreams, a collaborative project
with Michael and Judy.
Michael's Temple
Judy's Dream Book InsertThe gang, working away
Jane and her adopted "son", Wayan.

Daily Offerings
Our youngest class member, Jasmine
rice

field trip to the water palaceworking

not so poised or collected
ceremony at Temple of 1000 steps
the gang
demo
erin
I have been at this for 3 nights now until at least midnight or so, and I think i need to wind it up now. i could just keep posting bali pics all night.
This here is my one of my favorite times of the class:
Michael's critique, it is one of the highlights of his workshops.
I loved doing this workshop with Michael and Judy and our fantastic group:
Erin, Mike, Jasmine, Dee Dee and her boys, Joe, Nicole, and Jane Ann, it was a
wonderful adventure! Thank you to all of you for coming and joining us~

Evergreen Graduation

Yesterday was a great day, we saw my nephew, Venu graduate from Evergreen State College in Olympia, WA. He is the first graduate on my side of things in a while. (that's right, I never graduated college, still have bad dreams about it, like I missed something)

Evergreen is an wonderful alternative, interdisciplinary school, and the opening ceremony began with an African percussion band which created a very festive, upbeat atmosphere. The commencement speech was given by a poet, lecturer guy
David Whyte
he was so inspirational and moving, check out his website here, I am going to get his books.
Venu, is he the cutest or what?

I made signs with pictures of Venu as a kid and we all held them up and screamed and yelled when his name was called to receive his diploma. It was great.

Venu and Mirium, his mom
Venu's brother Kevin, Venu and Jesse, my kid (soon to be Evergreen student as well, hooray!
I have no idea who this girl was, but I loved the outfit, good style.
Celebrating with burgers and shakes
Congratulations Venu, I am so proud of you, not just for graduating but for the wonderful human that you are. I love you!

Who Is Your Real Friend?

This really works!
If you don't believe it, just try this experiment.
Put your dog and your husband/wife in the trunk of your car for an hour.
When you open the trunk, which one is really happy to see you?
courtesy of group email blast by Sabrina Ullmann Mathews on 6.9.09

My Birthday

First, I want to thank everyone who Happy Birthday'd me via Facebook (and otherwise!) that was so wonderful to get so many good wishes!
I want to share with you what I got for my birthday.
I have been known to want really bizarre things on my birthday.
One year I asked Rob if we could spend the day purging and cleaning the basement.
It was so totally fun for me (probably not for him!)
This year I asked him for a new toilet seat for the bathroom, we moved into this place 2 years ago and who knows how long the toilet has been here but the seat, well you know, its old and I'll spare you the details of what it looked like.
So this was my present:Then we had coffee cake that Rob picked up at my favorite bakery, Baker and Spice.
After getting completely whacked out on sugar and caffeine, my other birthday request was to change the toilet seat and to give a tutorial to my 3 boys on the art of toilet cleaning.
My boys are 13 and 17 and I still have never taught them how to clean a toilet. Hence, guess who does it? I have never found out if Rob knows how to do it, I just do it because it is easy for me. However, I am determined that my boys know this valuable skill before they leave home. So I bought special gloves for the occasion.Corey kind of got into it, probably more for the photographic opportunities for himself, Jesse nearly threw up and walked away and Rob well, I forgot what he did.
ANYWAY, that birthday activity lasted about 3 minutes. I didn't really get to finish the tutorial on toilet cleaning, they all took off before I instructed them on washing the outside of the toilet and surrounds but I guess they will just figure it out when the time comes.
My job is done at least.
And now I have a new toilet seat.
It even closes hydraulically! Wow!

For the next round of festive birthday activities, I wanted the family to go to the studio with me and do a family art project. Since wallpaper people is what I'm currently into, I thought we could do a collaborative canvas.Aren't they just the picture of family togetherness and enthusiasm?
That lasted about 4 minutes.Rob continued on, and made a gallant attempt to hang in there. I think he actually had fun laying paint on canvas. After it was clear that I was enforcing my wants on these guys who were going through the motions but not having the best of times, we gave up and went home.
I think next year we will go to a movie. Or something everyone wants to do. I can be
the artist. They don't have to be. Thanks boys, I Love you guys!