Julia's Mexico City

Help A Mother Out - A Mother's Day Call To Action

As a new mom I am AMAZED at how many diapers Harper goes through in a day. Then I think about families who can't afford diapers and I wonder (and can't even imagine) what they must do to keep their babies clean and dry. The few diapers they have must be kept on those little bottoms for hours (days?) longer than is healthy. The babies suffer from diaper rash and potential illnesses from the unsanitary situation. Why do the babies have to bear the brunt? 

Diaper NEED Facts:
--1 in 3 families in the U.S. struggle to buy diapers for their children
--Most free/subsidized childcare programs require parents to provide disposable diapers
--You cannot use Food stamps or WIC for diapers
--For many families in crisis this can mean being forced to choose between buying diapers or other basic needs like shelter, food, and medicine.

So let's help those mothers out!

Help A Mother Out (HAMO), a non-profit dedicated to providing diapers for homeless and low income families, has launched a national Mother’s Day Call To Action with a goal to raise $30,000 to support the work to get diapers to families in need.

We need your help during April and May. Take action and support the campaign for diapers. Go to the HAMO donation page here at RAZOO and donate what you can. If nothing else, please help us spread the word about this important topic!

Tomorrow, Wednesday April 18, there will be a Twitter party at 10am (Pacific time) to discuss this month long fundraising and diaper drive. Join us for give-aways and fun stories and to help spread the word about this important cause. CLICK HERE for more info about the Twitter party.

Thanks for your support and for spreading the word. I'll be posting more info during this month long fund-raiser! Let's hit that $30,000 goal early and keep going well beyond it!

 

In Which I Learn Another Lesson About Judging Books By Their Covers

On Sunday we had a mattress delivered. Two Latino guys made the delivery. As I was following them into the bedroom, I noticed one guy had a tattoo on the back of his neck. It read, simply, "Fuck The World."

I started to make some assumptions about him. (Use your own imagination.) Unfair, yes, but I'll admit I'm human, plus I was about to get schooled.

As they were walking out, the tattooed one kept glancing over to our dining room which seemed odd. I made another assumption-maybe he was casing the joint? (No, I'm not proud of myself.) Then at the door he said, "Does your husband play cricket?"

I said, "What?"

He repeated the question and I said, "What? Cricket?"

He said yes.

I said, now totally confused, "No, why do you ask?"

Then he said, "You have a cricket ball."

Kurt walked in just then and heard the conversation. We laughed as he picked up a squeezey ball made to look like a cricket ball that our British cousins had given us. It was in the dining room.

I said, "Why did you ask?"

He said all excited, "Because I play cricket!"

We chatted briefly about that then he was on his way.

This is one of the many reasons why I love LA.

And I'm grateful to be taught a lesson about making assumptions about people.

Books - What I've Been Reading

In May I posted about the most current bookstack. Four of those five books have been read.

I became a huge fan of The Wire last summer when I finally watched all five seasons on DVD. I got Kurt hooked too and we couldn't get enough. "The Farmer In The Dell" will never be the same. (And I don't think we'll be able to sing it to Sweet Potato without someone saying "Omar comin'!!" at some point.) (Just watch the show if you have no idea what I'm talking about.) I was going to rent "Homicide" as well, but decided to go to the source and read David Simon's book from which both shows were inspired.

Reading about one group of homicide detectives in Baltimore in the late 80's is incredibly fascinating thanks to Simon's writing style. You become so invested in every interview, every crime scene visit, every phone call. There are cases that take days to solve and cases that take months and some that never will be solved. The access and detail that Mr. Simon was privy to is amazing and I couldn't recommend a book more highly. And just go watch The Wire.

Ice T spent plenty of time on the streets in LA before his rap career really took off. I knew he was one of the original big time rappers but only really knew him through his work on Law and Order: Special Victims Unit. (I never listened to rap, but loved me some hip-hop with Run-DMC.) I was curious and I was not disappointed.

You probably have a lot of assumptions about an Original Gangsta like Ice, but you'll be wrong. He was not an innocent but did you know he spent four years in the army? That he never drank or did drugs? He worked his ass off to create a name for himself in the rap world and was the first west coast rapper to really make it on the east coast. That is a big deal.

Ice will surprise and entertain you and might just open your eyes a bit.

 

The Lonely Polygamist by Brady Udall is a quirky novel about a man with four wives and something like 28 (can't recall exactly) children. It's odd and sweet and sad and wild. It took me a while to get rolling with it, but once I did, I enjoyed it.

The funny thing is that it is a period piece, taking place in the 70's in Nevada with flashes back to the atomic testing period of the late 50's and 60's. Little did I realize I would be diving right into that with my next book.

 

 

 

 

I saw Annie Jacobson on The Daily Show talking about her new book of non-fiction, Area 51. Being a fan of pop-culture and someone who "wants to believe" I thought I would check it out. I just finished it last night and was amazed at her final reveal about the Roswell Incident. No spoilers here, but if you are at all curious about that kind of thing, this is a fascinating read. It might get your conspiracy juices flowing because man, the secrets this country keeps!

The book focuses mainly on nuclear testing (mind blowing stories and information about the size of the bombs tested and how close people were to observe, some flying right through the mushroom clouds as part of the testing!) and spy planes.

Area 51 was the place were the development and testing of the U-2 and the A-12 Oxcart (sister aircraft to the SR-71 Blackbird) were handled. And later it was used to test drones and to study MiG fighters that had been captured.

So much about the place is still classified but through interviews and recently declassified documents, Ms. Jacobson tells an amazing story about a place in the Nevada desert that still doesn't officially exist.

 

Reading is fundemental!

 

Big Island Adventure With My Other Great Aunt

Wednesday night I flew to Kona to spend the night at my Auntie Martha's and to ask her the same questions I asked of Auntie Sally. (They are sister's-in-law so the stories I knew would be a bit different.) Auntie Martha is my grandmother's sister and the youngest of the four in her family. She's 90 but you would never guess it. And I realize I didn't take a photo of her! Mostly because we were talking so much and suddenly it was time to go and meet my stepmom for brunch on Thursday morning! I had to bolt.

Auntie Martha's stories were really good fun and I got great details. We also went down to her workroom where there are all the old photo albums from her childhood (she was born in 1920) and also her parent's (my great grandparents) albums. Amazing old photos from old Oahu and Kauai.

I love seeing Auntie Martha and I especially love being at her house above Kona. It's in the middle of their ranch land and is very quiet and dark at night. Excellent get-away and so beautiful. I take photos of it every time I go there! Let's take a tour, shall we? (As ever, click all photos for bigger if you like.)

Main house (Garage to left connected by the breezeway).

Guest house (Across the driveway from the house). It's two bedroom, one bath with a little kitchenette and a lanai on the back.

My room for the night. The other room is similar but blue. Cozy.

The bedside table had 5 gardenias in a vase. MMmmmmm that gorgeous smell just drifts you off to happy dreamland.

The main house is wrapped on three sides by huge lanais and every time I've visited, we only ever sit outside. This is where we talked on Wednesday evening and Thursday morning. We did go into the kitchen to eat dinner Wednesday night. This lanai looks out to the front pasture and down onto Kona.

This is to the left of the above photo and faces the driveway.

This is the entry to the kitchen. We had lunch out here last October when Kurt and I came with my mom to A. Martha's 90th birthday.

There is an actual inside living room but I've never sat in it. I'm sure it gets used when the weather is really really bad. The green bed looking thing is either a punee or a hikie'e. Apparently a punee is moveable but a hikie'e is not.

The kitchen has a fabulous view.

The kitchen also holds a treasure - have you ever heard of a Brisker?? My grandmother had one too. It plugs in and keeps things crisp. It's where you store your crackers so they don't go stale in the humidity. No need for one in LA, but perfect for Hawai'i. I've never seen one except at my grandmother's and A. Martha's. Here is their website.

It was a great fun visit with Auntie Martha and hearing about her life in Honolulu as a teenager. She and Auntie Sally are true treasures and I'm so glad I spoke to them both and recorded our conversations!

 

Honolulu Adventure Into History

Part of why I'm home in Hawai'i is to do some family history research and look at some historic buildings. I went to Honolulu last Friday and spent about an hour with my Auntie Sally. She is my grandmother's sister in law and she is 97! She is also hilarious and sharp as a tack. I tape recorded our conversation with specific questions I had for her about growing up in Honolulu in the 20's, 30's and 40's. She had some great stories, but nothing toooo dishy. (dang!)

After our nice visit, mom's friend Jackie (I've known her my whole life) picked me up and we went up to Nu'uanu to have a tour of the historic home called "Lihiwai". This was built in 1927-1929 for Territorial Governor George R. Carter. It is HUGE. There are 40 rooms and it's got three levels. It has been on the historic landmark register for a while (both Hawai'i and US) and was recently bought and is now being renovated. Another friend of mom's knows the owner and the architect so we got to come over and tromp through the place. It's been under renovation for quite a while now (about a year) so the visit was more about the scope and a few fun old details.

"Lihiwai" is two words: Lihi meaning 'near to' or 'at the edge of' and Wai meaing 'water'. Nu'uanu stream is right next to the house so "Lihiwai" is "near the water". Or in LA real estate parlance "Water Adjacent." You can read a bit more about the house here.

The estate used to be all alone among ten acres, but the land was sold off over the years, as were parts of the buildings on the estate. There is the main house, the guest house and the garage. The guest house and garage were sold away seperately years ago. The new owner was able to buy back the guest house but not the garage, which is too bad.

Here is the front of the house with the curving wall that used to be the porte-cachere. It attached to the garage building in a lovely curve way back when.

Here is the garage building to the left of the main house (now it's a private residence.)

Here is a sketch by Huc Luquiens from the 1930's on how it onced looked:

To see more fabulous Luquiens sketches and artwork of Hawai'i, click here.

We walked in the house via the lanai (not the grand entry way). The giant living room opens right out onto this spot (doors on the left) so think of the amazing inside/outside parties.

In the dining room, the original details and colors are still there. The details will hopefully remain, but the colors, probably not!

I would kill to have this as a breakfast room! (I would kill to *have* a breakfast room!) That's Jackie posing with the hot wheels being stored inside!

When you come into the foyer, you are met with the grand staircase. (Sorry I didn't get Jackie in for scale, but trust me it's grand.)

There being three levels (basement, first and second) of course you would need an elevator! And of course it would have to have the theme colors...

We went down to the basement next and the very nice construction foreman gave us a HUGE flashlight as all the lights were not on down there. The place was HUGE and stored tons of stuff.

There were old giant electrical panels that looked right out of a Frankenstein movie. (Hard to get a good pic as there was a mesh fence surrounding it and it was dark.)

Some of the storage had the original bath fixtures...oh those colors!

We went back upstairs and to the second floor. Lots of space for servants to live as well as big family living spaces. There were TONS of closets -- linend and otherwise and all were lined with cedar. And that cedar was still going strong.

There was, of course, the upstairs lanai. Doors opened from bedrooms out to it. Except for some trees, there is a pretty nice view down to the ocean. (To the right of this picture.)


We also noticed a really really cool feature of the old iron windows: sliding pocket screens! Windows closed - no unsightly screen to mar the view. Windows open - the screens slide out to protect from mosquitos and what have you. The ones we tried were pretty much frozen. I hope they fix them!

Other details around the place were prett cool. Most of the rain spouts had this decoration on them:

But this was my favorite -- a light fixture out by the guest quarters. There are lighbulbs behind it. It was the only one we saw like it.

I hope when the house is done (in a couple of years) we get to go back and tour it again!

Later Jackie and I had lunch at the Outrigger Canoe Club -- it's right on the beach at the Diamond Head end of Waikiki. Very old school Honolulu. I didn't take a photo because I was famished and we were yakking and yakking.

Then we popped up to Jackie's house for a minute and I got to see her spectacular view. I mean holy cow and wow! If you don't recognize Diamond Head from this angle, that's the back of it. Waikiki is to the right. (She's having work done on the deck, hence the guy...)

To the left of the above view:

Just amazing. (You can click all images to make them bigger.)

Friday was a fun day and I look forward to going back to Honolulu to look at more big old houses and get more history. I love my home state!

 

 

 

 

 

EXT. COMFORT ZONE - DAY

I can see my comfort zone. It wouldn't take much to step back over there and fully immerse myself into it, pulling down lots of income and spending hours and hours every day focused on something incredibly non-creative and mundane. The money always looks good, but I have to remind myself that there is no such thing as easy money. No Such Thing.

Luckily I had two great quotes come at me through email this week. The first from Seth Godin:

"You don't need more time...you just need to decide."

And from Thomas Edison:

"When you have exhausted all possibilities, remember this: you haven't."

Both of these things kept me away from the CZ and toward my goals.

 

UPDATE: After posting this I found out that today is Thomas Edison's Birthday! Nice timing. (See Google for their cool artwork celebrating this fact!)

A Far Away Loss

Back in the olden days, before the Series of Tubes, before the Internet, before the Information Superhighway and the World Wide Web, there were newspapers. And you could learn all kinds of things and even connect to people through the paper. When I was in 8th grade (13 or so) I wrote to other kids my age and got pen-pals. Somehow they were mostly in Germany (West Germany at the time) and we wrote tons of letters to each other. At one point I had about 18 pen pals! Stopping at the Post Office in Paia to check Box F was very exciting every day.

By the time I went off to college, the number had whittled down to four. They are my friends Antonia (Toni), Elfriede (Evi), Andrea and Ute. I have visited them all twice in Germany. First in 1989 and then in 1992. I got to meet all their mom's except for Andrea's and they all were so kind and took great care of me. Toni's mom washed clothes for me and I swear my clothes had never been that clean in my life! There was much drinking of coffee and eating of cake every afternoon and I felt loved and cared for, even though I was this odd backpacking creature from California.

After a few years the letters wore down to christmas cards and I have not heard from Toni in about ten or so years. I would really like to find her again as we had such good letters and we spent time riding horses in the black forest in a driving rainstorm. That was exciting! Ute and I found each other recently on Facebook and have been more in touch. 

So it was awful and sad yesterday when Ute wrote to tell me her mother had died quite unexpectedly yesterday of a heart attack at age 86. Luckily all her kids were nearby and they were at the hospital before she died. But still. Heartbreaking and devastating. Ute said her mom died in her arms. (And that just makes me sob to type it.)

(In the photo: Ute on the left, sister Manu in the middle and Mutter. Look at that face!)

In her message Ute said: "I´m sure you haven´t forgotten her when you were here for the first time. She never forgot you." How could I forget her? Both times I went to visit she was so kind and sweet. Here is what I wrote about her:

August 21, 1989

I left Ute and her family this morning. Her mom drove me to the station. She of course speaks no english so it was a quiet drive. I of course couldn't speak because I was all choked up. I don't know why I get like that. I guess because it's been a long time (2 months) since I've had some real family type love. Big hug from Ute's mom here. She was so cute - little and feisty spunky. I wish I spoke german.

Then in 1992 I wrote:

June 5, 1992

We went to visit Ute's mom and sister Manu. Her mom had ovarian cancer a few years ago and had major surgery. Now she goes back to the doctor's a lot for check ups. She's the sweetest, most wonderful character. Wonderful face and old scratchy voice. She's 67. She seems more like a grandmother. But she's so sweet! She came in and gave me BIG hugs and was so happy to have me. I had tears in my eyes that I tried to hide. She could die soon and she's so wonderful that it would make me very sad.

And I am very sad. (Though I'm glad it was almost 20 years later that she died.) That little woman in the photo had such a big heart and opened her arms wide with big warm hugs for this perfect stranger that she only knew through letters from far away. What a wonderful person to know and emulate. I don't even know her first name, I just knew her as Frau Schafar. 

I'll have to go and pay my respects in person one of these days soon. 

Mein tiefstes Beileid.

Back On Track

Okay, let's try this again. Happy New Year! 

This week feels more like the official start of it than the previous three Mondays, that is for sure. Now that the mom-in-law is healing really well and totally on track (and ahead of schedule) for a full recovery, the stress levels are almost normal. Along with the lowering of the stress level is the lowering of the amount of comfort eating. I've lost three of the eight pounds I gained since Christmas and am on track to get back to where I was in December. That feels good.

The mornings have returned to my favorite routine as well -- up early, coffee, journal, writing or researching on whatever my current personal writing project it, checking email and going for walkies or spending time on the Wii Fit. I like these mornings. By 10:00am I've gotten a lot done.

The gears are turning in our writing world and my aim is to keep them going and going. My "Be Bold" strategy is working - every time I feel myself wimping out by not doing something bold, I remind myself to step up and just do it. Yesterday my goal was to make a long list of people to email about my goals, people who can potentially help me, and then, you know, EMAIL THEM. My list was 17 people long and I emailed all of them with bold and straight forward and nice messages and I'm very pleased with myself. 

My fantasy life was stoked this week as well. I got my latest issue of Budget Travel Magazine and it has an article about six hotels in Paris that are between $100 and $200 a night. I went to all the websites and dreamt about staying in each one and eating the fresh pastry and hot strong coffee at breakfast every morning. Haven't been to Paris in four and a half years and that is too long. More distressing is that we haven't been to Italy for eight years. EIGHT YEARS! (I know, I know: "First World Problems.") Travel has always been a big priority for me and while I'm lucky to be able to travel for work, much of that time is spent, you know, working. So a trip to Italy just for fun would be dreamy. 

But the bigger dreams are up front - writing, getting an agent, selling the writing, writing more. From the realization of these dreams come other dreams. 

Look out 2011, here I come!

 

Today's Inspiration

Seth Godin's recent email struck a nerve:

"We are surrounded by people busy getting their ducks in a row, waiting for just the right moment...

Getting your ducks in a row is a fine thing to do. But deciding what you are going to do with that duck is a far more important issue."

Watcha Gonna Do With That Duck?

Climbing A Mountain in 1991

Here I am, climbing a mountain in Italy (Via Ferrata Col Rosa)(Seriously, check out that website! I climbed up and down 7000 feet!). It took eight hours, it was exhausting, I was terrified, I wanted to quit and I kept going. I bagged that peak and was exhilarated! I love this photo from that day (Thanks for taking it, Donna) because I was not one to show my emotions easily and I am not hiding a thing here. 

This photo is my lesson for today, where I am this year and all the new peaks I'm climbing.