The Gomez Perspective

1:25am: Rain on me
Mom ate well again today, even came out to the living room to sit in her chair for a little while. Trink and I went grocery shopping, and a storm blew up - lightning and thunder and monsoon rains. The power went out in the store, so we got so shop in the dark. Then a transformer went down, closing off the road we needed to take back. So we drove around looking for an alternate route, while the roads turned to rivers. We took the long way home, but got back safe. Mom faded during dinner as her meds kicked in, and she was having a hard time breathing. She told Trink that we wished she could just pass during the night - that she's ready, has no fear and no regrets. My brother Dave, who has joined us out here, with my niece, Nikki, thinks the end is imminent. But I don't feel like it is just yet. Either way, I feel like I'm OK to come home, as long as I'm ready to return to help Dad get resettled. Dave is driving me to the airport at 6:30 a.m., so he can get back to meet with the nurse in the morning. Trink also feels like she has to leave, confident that everything is in place and Mom is in no pain. Dave is staying on, and we'll all keep in touch.

11:29pm: Today's mom quote
Struggling to adjust herself in bed and scoot over, "I wish I had a big, shiny, slippery rump!"

Indeed.

She started dilaudid today for pain management. Fun Fact: Dilaudid is seven times more potent than straight morphine or oxycodone. It was developed as an alternative to heroin when that became criminalized.

William Burroughs likes it. Take a look: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UZJWtXLowY

And on a more serious note, I found an excellent resource about end of life care:

http://books.google.com/books?id=5UigsyFcm2QC&pg=PA224&lpg=PA224&dq=dilaudid+end+of+life&source=bl&ots=nimZRFiXLj&sig=V41Zxnor50zygZCS0-rNevM9AcA&hl=en&ei=YiJUSrnpE5PYtAPfi-WNCQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=5

9:44am: Mom, morphine and making merry at bedside
As I posted previously, my mom has always had a good sense of humor that runs to the morbid, self-deprecating side. Combine that with her lifelong anxiety about being in control of everything, the stress of dying, lots of new people and "commotion," plus morphine, and you have all the makings for a dark cabaret.

Yesterday morning, she was lucid enough to want to talk to Trink and me, but still high enough from the morphine that it just added a bizzare quality to what she was saying and doing.

She was playing with us a little, making us guess a kind of charades she was doing with her hands. She was holding one hand above the other, fingers gathered and pointed, like she was holding a pendulum. The other hand was a closed fist. We struggled,and Mom was seeming a little irritated that we couldn't guess. "Come on Wizard," can't you figure it out?" Then Trink had a psychic burst and realized she was trying to represent an exclamation point, a reference to her and my dad's lifelong game of writing I-L-Y-! on each other with their fingers.

Next, Mom started spelling words by forming her fingers into letter shapes. It was backwards and pretty shaky, but Trink figured out P-E-T, and we guessed that she was spelling my name, Peter. Next, she started T-R-I-and then got frustrated because she couldn't get the rest. I suggested N, and Trink guessed "Trink," but Mom said that wasn't it, and acted annoyed that we were being so dense.

"I always called you my angel babies," she said, "but you must be a bastard baby if you can't guess!"

"Bastard baby." That was a shocker.

She was telling us about her experience in the hospital, insisting, "Sit down, I'm telling a funny story" And she proceeded to do the voice and mannerisms of an apparently handsome, long-haired, earring-wearing Jamaican male nurse who fitted her with a catheter. "No, no," she assured her, "I am de best! No pain, no infection! See? This is clean finger, this is dirty finger, I de best!"

She told me that even when she was groggy, and I was backlit by the window, she knew it was me because of the way my hair stuck up.

She also told us that she should hurry up and die faster in order to save money.

She called out of the blue, "I can sue the hospital!" and recounted some grievances about being pinched, left alone for too long, etc.

She didn't like a particular night caregiver (they are all really sweet and gentle, but she's confused). When Trink asked if she'd like to change position in bed, Mom made a very faint gesture to becon Trink close and whispered, "I don't dare move. She (the caregiver)might realize that I'm not dead yet!"

And last night, she joked(?)that if that girl came back, we should get her (my mom) a baseball bat.

At another time she held up her now ringless finger and announced, I've decided to get divorced!

When Trink and I were both hugging her and she was calling us her angel-babies agian, she said "You used to be so adorable." And Trink teased her "We're still adorable." To which my mom smiled weakly and shook her head,no, teasing us back.

She's joked that she feels like she's in a luxury hotel, ringing her bell and getting served meals in bed.

Trink had asked if she'd like any of her stuffed animals in bed with her. "No, They'd squish me." (And at <85 pounds she could be right.) She really is about the size of my Halloween paper-mache body.

But she's still eating like a trooper - yogurt and fruit and toast, macaroni, even desserts. She always thanks the caregivers profusely and tells them how good everything is, then whispers to us when they leave the room, "...But it's not as good as I make!)

She asked a caregiver if my dad was eating, and she assured my mom that he was, and that he'd done a good job at the store, getting everything on the list. That baffled my mom, because she's so certain that my dad is incapable of doing anything without her explicit directions. She even said that my dad wouldn't know what he wanted to eat unless she told him.

The night before, when she was really high on morphine, he said at one point, something like, "You need a doctor to say the time." She was very insistent with those words in various combinations. We asked if she wanted a doctor, or to know the time, and she did not. I got the impression that she was thinking of TV hospital shows - that you need a doctor to call the time of death. That is so perfectly her. Telling us exactly how it's supposed to be, and feeling like she can't die because she's the only one who knows the right way to do anything.

Trink has also explained to the caregivers about mom, so that they know not to try to correct her, or assume she is raving. "Yes, she really doesn't want an urn or a box or orbituary or anything like that. Yes, she wants her ashes set aside until after my Dad is also gone, so that both of their ashes can be mixed together -- with their CAT'S ashes, that she has held onto for several years now, for that very purpose.

Trink is a little uncomfortable with this plan, "Like, am I supposed to use a mixing bowl or what?"

Trink has been fantastic. At one point last night after a calm, quiet day, Mom started getting upset again, worrying about how much everything was costing. Trink gently reassured her that she'd saved her whole life to make sure they had enough, and there was plenty left for Dad, and that everything was taken care of because she'd made such good plans, and that we had all the papers she'd prepared and we were following her instructions.

That calmed her down. Then Trink led her through a guided visualization. She reminded my mom of a favorite path in the woods that she used to hike when we camped at Spring Bay Farm. She had a particular memory of walking alone through the dappled sunlight among the birch trees and ferns, and how a little bird was hopping ahead of her, as if leading her along the path. "Think of that path. Dad and the rest of us are back at the campsite, laughing and having fun, and we're all fine and we love you. And you are free to just follow the path, follow the happy little bird." Mom smiled and relaxed, she really liked that.

5:42pm: Of yardwork and dying
I feel like I should post something, but feel intimidated because it should be profound, but I don't feel it in me. I'm torn between writing about the mundane yard work that has filled my weekend, and the fact that my mom is dying, and I'm flying out to Arizona tomorrow to be with her, my dad and sister.

The mundane yard work:
I am pleased with myself for digging up another huge mound of weeds, trees and ivy. We have so much yard waste, that a tree service is coming out to chip it and cart it off. I have scattered piles around the yard that I need to consolidate, but I feel tired and don't want to do it. I've also almost completed the sandwich board I made for a performer friend, but it needs a little touch up paint around the hinges. But I'm tired and don't feel like doing it.

Yesterday, a friend came and picked up all the the extra garage sale stuff we had left over, and took it for the church rummage sale. I went to Kohl's and got a bunch of new clothes at 50% off.

This morning, my BiL and I drove four mattresses over to a homeless shelter. Then moved the rest of Doug's furniture out of his apartment and took it to his dad's for storage. Then we went to the Rail Station for lunch.

The dying:
That's when my sister called with the news that my mom had taken a turn for the worse and the hospice people said that she should come back now if she could.

Then I drove Rachel to Target so she could buy bras and I could buy cat litter. Then I drove her work in downtown St. Paul.

And it's Mathew's 21st birthday, and I'm thinking about how fast the time has gone, and despite all the changes, it seems so close that his mom and I were watching the fireworks from the tenth floor window of Fairview Hospital just before he was born. And how scary it was that she lost so much blood and needed a transfusion.

I'm happy that he's found his own fun. I'm so proud of how all the kids are doing, and the fine people they have become.

And I'm thinking about some great stories my sister has shared about when from when she was with my mom last week. MY dad usually gets the credit for being the funny one - but my mom has always had a pretty great sense of humor, too.

Telling her nurse, "I'm not a lesbian or anything, but I just have to tell you -- you are beautiful!"

After my sister pointed out that she had repeated a story about how her hospital stay was going to cost millions - even after my sister had pointed out that it was mostly covered by their insurance and Medicare - she put her hand to her mouth and mischievously said, "I'm a LIAR!"

Saying that the food the hospice people were making was so good and that she was eating so much that "I'm going to get so fat, they'll have to roll me out of here!" (She weighs less than 85 lbs.)

Saying that when she was initially taken to the hospital that the room she was in was so cold, that she thought they had wheeled her straight to the morgue.

Unable to hang the remote control for the bed in a convenient spot on the bed rail, she hung it around her tiny wrist - to keep it out of the way.

And she's said stuff that's not so funny - like explaining to my sister that she had taken off her wedding ring - for the first and only time in 66 years - because she didn't want it to accidentally get burned up when she's cremated.

So, I need to pack and get my plan in order and see if I can borrow someone's cell phone and paint the sign and move the brush and call in to work and straighten out my projects for next week ...

And I'm tired and I don't want to.

But I will.

8:42am: The TRUTH about Dungeons and Dragons!
... it will take you to hell faster than a greased demon on roller skates!

Excerpts from some great links I found this morning:

Dungeons and Dragons is a tragic and tangled subject. It is essentially a feeding program for occultism and witchcraft.

The materials themselves, in many cases, contain authentic magical rituals. I can tell you this from my own experience. I was a witch high priest (Alexandrian tradition) during the period 1973-84. During some of that period (1976-80) I was also involved in hardcore Satanism. We studied and practiced and trained more than 175 people in the Craft. Our "covendom" was in Milwaukee, Wisconsin; just a short drive away from the world headquarters of TSR, the company which makes Dungeons and Dragons in Lake Geneva, WI. In the late 1970's, a couple of the game writers actually came to my wife and I as prominent "sorcerers" in the community. They wanted to make certain the rituals were authentic. For the most part, they are.

Literally millions of young people are unknowingly participating in genuine occult practices and opening the doors for demons to enter their bodies through this seemingly innocent game.

By the time they find out they were hood-winked, it's too late. They have taken that last step down the stairway to hell and are greeted by the engulfing flames.

http://www.chick.com/articles/dnd.asp

And check out this illustrated tract about one young girl's seduction into Satanism through D&D, and her salvation that ends with a D&D book burning.

http://www.chick.com/reading/tracts/0046/0046_01.asp

And take your Cthulhu, too!
... there is now a whole line of materials based on the hellish H.P. Lovecraft Cthulhu mythos, a form of magic that we practiced in the darkest days of our satanic career - a system of magic prominently featured in THE SATANIC RITUALS by Anton LaVey. Contrary to the ramblings of D&D defenders, the Necronomicon and the Cthulhu mythos are quite real.

2:57pm: I Double-Dog Dare You!
Does the idea of donating bone marrow freak you out? Does it give you the heebie-jeebies? Have you seen too many horrible scenes on "House" to even consider it?

Don't be a chicken. 12 million people around the world have already joined, and I know that you're just as brave as any of them. Just by joining, you give hope to patients and their families. You might be the only person who's the perfect match for a patient.

People who have donated say that it's one of the most profound and rewarding experiences of their life. Almost everyone says they would do it again.

I can't help but think of the discomfort people happily endure (even crave) getting pierced and tattooed, and what do they get in return? A tiny piece of jewelry, a mark. How about committing a fraction of the effort to saving another person's life? Now THAT's something that would really set you apart!

I double-dog dare you to learn the myths and facts about donating.
http://www.marrow.org/JOIN/Myths_%26_Facts_about_Marrow_Don/index.html

2:10pm: Nathan! Mathew! Dave! Rachel! And anyone else who's interested.
You've expressed interest in joining the marrow registry, and now you can, for free. Fill out the online form and get a cheek swab kit in the mail. Forward this link to your friends. Who knows - you could be the one to save a life.

http://www.marrow.org/JOIN/Join_Now_Special/Marrowthon09/join_now_mt09.html

10:18am: Be The Match Marrowthon
Sign up to save a life.

You can join the marrow donor registry for free, online - get a cheek swab kit in the mail - it's that easy.

10:14pm: Good weekend
Our new roommate seems to be working out well. He helped me pick out a cool, used bike this weekend, set up a new router for us, and mopped the kitchen floor. And he's personable.

Leslie napped and lounged almost all day Saturday - which is incredibly rare - and I love to see. It was cold and rainy, so neither of us did much. I brewed a new batch of beer and read. We did some grocery shopping in the evening.

This morning was Doug's going away brunch. He's moving to Paris to cook at the end of the month. Leslie made a bunch of great quiches. After the family left, Leslie gardened and cleaned the upstairs - including a window - while I bottled my Java Stout. I also cooked up two gallons of soup, a hearty tomato that's just like Progresso's, and a black bean, onion and diced tomato concoction. Made a roast for dinner. I took Rachel grocery shopping in the evening. Moved some more stuff out of the house. (We're at around 540 items on our 1,000 items list.) Now, I'm watching Family Guy, and planning to get some butter pecan ice cream as soon as I finish this post.

Lovin' life.

6:08pm: Meet the neighbors
I had some interesting encounters with neighbors during the garage sale.

1. An elderly, homeless-looking Asian woman with broken English haggled over a handful of odds and ends and paid in change. She returned later to buy a snow rake for the roof. This time, she pulled out a fat roll of twenties. Then she said, "I like you garden. I like you fountain. I think you good people. I show you something." And she extended her hand for a handshake. I took her hand, and she started squeezing and pumping real hard. "See?" she laughed. "I 73 year old! Pretty good, huh?" And then she let go and said, "I know karate, too!" and started chopping away at the air all around me. She lit up with a wide grin and laughed as she left with her snow rake.

2. Two American Indians stopped by early in the day, saying they had just gotten off working the night shift at the casino. A man and a woman, but not a couple - as she was teasing hm about his wife. Looking at the model rockets, she teased him, "You should get that. You're too old to rock anything else." He suggested she get a book about relationships. She saaid no, that she'd been divorced four times - that she has ADHD where men are concerned." Then he picked up a tape on self-hypnosis. Said he should get that because he has some bad habits - that he's "a level-seven sex offender." He buys a gas can, and she asked if he was going to start huffing gas again. He got a book about magic and asked if she believed in that stuff. She said, "What do you think our religion is?" He borrowed a dollar from her to get the book. She told him that he'd turn himself into a frog. He told her that after he reads it, he'll put a spell on her and make her forget that he owes her the dollar.

I love it when the show comes to you.

EDIT: A guy just came by to pick up speakers that we had out at the sale. He handed me $50 cash. I said that was too much - that I only had them marked for $15. But he insisted - said he'd looked them up and I'd under-priced them. How about that?

11:28pm: Nah, not at all
Some more images of the Moebius Models:

http://www.tylisaari.com/models/gallery/ms/gallery/ms-rgvic1.JPG
http://www.tylisaari.com/models/gallery/ms/gallery/ms-rgvamp2.JPG
http://www.tylisaari.com/models/gallery/ms/gallery/ms-rgvamp1.JPG

11:16pm: Moebius Monster Scenes re release!
I wrote about these model kits once before - today I saw them in person I nearly had a nostalgia meltdown. Rereleases of my all-time-favorite model kits from when I was 11 years old. - I had all of them but the Giant Insect, (which is obviously stupid.) Until my mom caught on to my morbid obsession and threw them away. Now I could have them again - but at $30 each, instead of the $3.50 I paid for them out of my allowance. Take a look:( Read more... )

My mom was afraid they would warp me. What do you think?

9:46am: Eight-year-old niece
Enjoyed a scientific debate with my 8-year-old niece. Her position is that stars ARE TOO the same thing as planets, and that the lights we see in the night sky ARE NOT stars, but asteroids, that only look like they aren't moving, because they are coming straight at us.

I also got a kick out of the way she thinks. She poked a twig into an anthill on the patio, then said excitedly, "Look - they all like the new tunnel I made for them!"

The caterpillar in the jar is eating too much and getting fat, obviously doesn't like water, is lonely and needs a friend, and spends a lot of time playing dead. Maybe he just wants a bigger stick to climb on.

9:21am: Welcome Jonah
Since I started posting tiny updates on Facebook, I have been neglecting LJ. I like having a journal, so I'm going to try to do a better job of keeping up.

The biggest new thing since we got back from vacation is our new cat, Jonah. (At least that's the name I've given him, and no one else has suggested a better alternative.

While we were gone, Frankie, who had always been a strictly indoor cat and never shown any interest in going out, escaped. We posted signs, looked, had lots of neighbors call with suspected sightings, but he hasn't returned. It's been over a month.

The neighbr across the street thought she had Frankie in her garage. (There are a lot of orange tabbies in the world). This cat had been stray for a while, as she said she'd seen him around in bad weather, and had asked around if he had a home. He looked sickly, so I took him into our garage and called 4 Feline Rescue sites to try to get him in. They have a LONG waiting list. Over the past week, he has improved for the steady food and shelter, and he got friendlier as he got to know me. So I took him to the vet, he checked out healthy, and now he's living in the house with us. He's on probation to see if he has a nice personality and no behavior issues, but so far, so good.

5:59pm: Understanding introverts (like me)
A friend of mine posted this today, and it was to good to not lift and repost. It's an article on The Care and Feeding of Introverts. Anyone interested in understanding me better should read it. http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200303/rauch

Caring for Your Introvert

The habits and needs of a little-understood group

by Jonathan Rauch( Read more... )

8:50pm: Failblog.org
I just discovered this. Funny stuff.

http://failblog.org/

5:58pm: Back in the groove - only better
Last week, after our return from vacation, I was feeling a bit down. Tired and dull. Work seemed especially dull since all of the urgency of the brand launch is now behind us. But this past weekend helped turn things around.

The kids came over for some Dungeons and Dragons, and though we didn't play long, it got pretty intense. (I intend for them to learn the long-term consequences of flagrant gnome abuse.)

We also tossed around a cheapo boomerang in the yard, got it stuck high in the tree, used the legs from our crappy plastic patio table to try to knock it down, got three of the four legs caught in the tree before Dave recovered most of the lot by throwing a PVC pipe like a spear -- leaving the pipe stuck in the tree. All of the table legs ended up shattered (except for the one still in the tree.) As predicted, Leslie was deeply confused about what might have transpired while she was at the movies.

Later that evening, we went to a fundraising party for a friend who has a tango band and is recording a new CD. It was hot and crowded and I don't know how to tango, but it was fun to watch the many, talented dancers - damn sexy.

Sunday, we went to a cool restaurant with live Latin music for brunch with one of Leslie's co-workers who's invited us to meet her wife and sister and other family members. They were very cool people and my plantain pancake was great.

Then it was off to the May Day Parade. Always a good time - followed by a delightful and novel experience - helping our friend Amy at her "Advice People" stand at the park following the parade. It's like Lucy from Peanuts - advice for a nickle. After the park, we went to a private party to perform the same service. We had a fun mix of silly and surprisingly serious requests. I had a ball.

When we got home, we interviewed a new potential roommate, who seems promising.

And we still have plenty of episodes of The West Wing on disk that we're watching every night.

My energy is feeling much better now.

10:31am: The urge to purge
Traveling light and reading about optimizing your life, I am itching to further reduce our accumulated stuff. We have already stripped away a few layers over the years, but now I am ready to get radical. We want to shed the excess and revel in the freedom of "enough."

Besides renting the first floor bedrooms, we're thinking about renting the entire basement. I would need to give up my tiny, overstuffed and underused office. I'd like to makeover the garage into an artspace/studio. We need to Craigslist, Freecycle and yard sale all the unused, underappreciated stuff that is clinging to us like barnacles. (And proceeds could go toward the studio.)

This is not just spring cleaning. It's more like striking off shackles.

Maybe I'll blog the process so you can help me keep on track. Anyone care to join me?

10:25am: A nice thing about being home
Being able to adjust the water temperature with the taps. Why is it that there's so much variation? At one of the hostels, they had the single knob control. There was an extremely narrow and hard to find range where it was comfortably warm. It was freezing or scalding just either side. In SF, it took ages for the water to get hot. In the San Diego hostel the taps were reversed.

11:11am: San Fran walking tour, then off to wine country.
On our last day in San Francisco, we went on a walking tour in the morning. I learned about the temperature extremes, taking my jacket on and off every 10 minutes or so. And the walking - what a workout! It was a 2+ hour hike from the hostel in Fort Mason to Telegraph Hill, The Coit Tower, Lombard Street, China Town, etc. It was beautiful, but I can't imagine living there. I felt like a mountain goat. We left the tour a little before the street car museum because we had to get back to the hostel for our luggage and all the way back across town to the Ferry Building to catch the ferry to Larkspur for the last leg of our trip.

Our friend Kim picked us up at the ferry and drove us to Camp Meeker. What an amazing place! It looks like Lothlorien from LOTR - a little, unincorporated township in Sonoma County, tacked onto a heavily wooded mountainside - houses growing out from between rugged cliffs and massive redwoods. Twisting, turning roller coaster roads add to the excitement.

Kim rents from a terrific woman and talented painter, Marina - both were charming hostesses, and the house was amazing. We enjoyed some excellent wine and conversation in addition to more outstanding sight-seeing. We saw Sebastopol, the rugged coastline, had a marvelous meal in Occidental, delightful junk art / yard sculpture, an exhibit of Marina's paintings, and Kim's surprise and highlight -- a wine tasting tour of Castella di Amorosa. It's an authentic reproduction of a 12 century Italian castle. I loved it so much it made me feel high - even before the wine tasting. I totally want to return to wine country.

Yesterday was all about getting home. Packing up, riding the airporter bus back into SF, flying to Phoenix, then on to Minneapolis. It was long but uneventful flight. We took the light rail from the airport then Rachel picked us up. We didn't get home until after midnight.

I'll post some of our pics later, but I can't wait to share this link to the castle. Check out the slide show and short video.

http://www.castellodiamorosa.com/

9:32pm: This is what we were doing (attempting to do) at LaJolla Beach. Next time, I will know not to wear the concrete boots. Aside from a bunch of short runs, I really only got one really good one that felt like this video. Super fun.

8:46pm: Leaving my heart in SF
Woke up early to get on the shuttle to Muir Woods. Great drive over the Golden Gate Bridge. The woods were awesome. Giant redwoods with clouds drifting through the branches. Then we went into Sausalito, where we browsed some art galleries and took the ferry across the Bay, passing close by Alcatraz. It's beautiful every direction you turn. Fell asleep for two hours when we got back to the hostel. Had a yummy lasagna dinner at the hostel's cafe.

Apostrophe abuse in San Francisco is driving me a little nuts. I've seen "Fishermans Wharf," "Fisherman's Wharf" and "Fishermens Grotto." It seems completely arbitrary. In San Diego, I saw "cowboy hat's."

I'm going to pack a red pen next time we travel. (I will also pack chargers for our ipods and cell phone. We only brought a car charger, and we haven't had a car of our own for a week. Amazing how we are making do and getting by. (And we don't have any clocks or watches other than the laptop!)

8:01pm: Thanks Mike and Malida!
Leslie and I just returned from an amazing afternoon sightseeing with Live Journal friend zyzyly and his wife, Malida, who drove in from Sacramento to show us around! It was the first time we'd met in real life. All those years admiring his gorgeous photos, it was a delight to actually accompany him as he took us on a tour through San Francisco - showing us the Botanical garden, tea at the Japanese Garden, the Dutch Windmill, Seal Rocks, and the Golden Gate Bridge from various vantage points. It was just wonderful to meet them both and see the city through the eyes of someone who really loves it. A magical, spur-of-the-moment meeting.

11:22am: In San Francisco.
Night before last was another scorcher in the San Diego hostel. I was up early for a cool shower. Met Trink and Ali at the Cheese Shop for breakfast before getting a ride and saying our goodbyes at the airport. The flight from San Diego to San Francisco was comfortable, with a pretty view of the coast the whole way.

We got on a shuttle to the Fort Mason Hostel in Fisherman's Warf. We overlook the bay - saw Alcatraz in the disatnce. Heard seals (sea lions?) barking. The hostel is really big and cool - less hippy-dippy than the one in San Diego. Very nice. And there's an utterl delightful young woman at the desk who was answering our questions about how to get around and what to see. We napped briefly after checking in to our cool rooms, and then walked around a bit. Had a luscious dinner of crab, shrimp, sausage, and calamari at Joe's Crab Shack. At one point, all of the employees stop what they are doing to dance along wth the soundtrack. It was fun. The Wi-Fi is out, though, so I'm writing this to post later. More sightseeing advenbtures tomorrow.

The wi-fi is back, and I'm just wrapping up before going to breakfast.

11:35am: Transforming fear to personal power and positive change
I recommend the book, "You Have the Power: Choosing Courage in a Culture of Fear. It's about how to recognize and use your fears as power for positive change. Lots of examples and affirmations. It speaks to me and reminds me of so many people. Check it out.
http://www.amazon.com/You-Have-Power-Choosing-Courage/dp/1585423122r