Last week, I discovered a new favorite song by Ingrid Michaelson. It had me skipping, swaying and spinning around light poles on the streets of San Francisco.
My favorite line is: I want to change the world Instead I sleep...
But all that I know is I'm breathing All I can do is keep breathing All we can do is keep breathing now
All that I know is I'm breathing All I can do is keep breathing. All we can do is keep breathing
All we can do is keep breathing All we can do is keep breathing All we can do is keep breathing All we can do is keep breathing All we can do is keep breathing now
Are you spinning yet?
Here is the song that was my introduction to her music.
If you were falling, then I would catch you. You need a light, I'd find a match.
Cuz I love the way you say good morning. And you take me the way I am.
If you are chilly, here take my sweater. Your head is aching, I'll make it better.
Cuz I love the way you call me baby. And you take me the way I am.
I'd buy you Rogaine when you start losing all your hair. Sew on patches to all you tear.
Cuz I love you more than I could ever promise. And you take me the way I am. You take me the way I am. You take me the way I am.
It is a nice expression of my feelings of affection for and appreciation of Cam.
(I almost started out this post with the words, "Dear Friends" but don't want to sound like John McCain.)
Awhile ago, Cameron told me about Blog Action Day, an annual nonprofit event that aims to unite the world’s bloggers, podcasters and videocasters, to post about the same issue on the same day. They say their aim is to raise awareness and trigger a global discussion. (photo credit - read the story)
In 2008, the Blog Action Day theme is Poverty. Again, they say, Global issues like poverty are extremely complex. There is no simple, clear answer. By asking thousands of different people to give their viewpoints and opinions, Blog Action Day creates an extraordinary lens through which to view these issues.
Today, I am short on solutions. What I do have are stories. Last Friday, on my way to court to file a report about one of the kids I work to advocate for through CASA, I passed a woman who was making her bed for herself on the sidewalk. She was settling into her sleeping bag at around 3:45pm. On my way back, I walked past her curled up in the sleeping bag, apparently trying to sleep just steps from the entrance to the underground train. (photo credit - read the story)
At the bottom of the stairs, I passed a man holding a cup out, begging for change. As I walked away, I heard him frantically saying, "Please, God." "Please, God." "Please, God." "Please, God." (photo credit - read the story)
I stopped by my office to drop off a few things then headed out to where Cam was picking me up for the day. I passed a woman, on another street corner, begging with her two young children. They were somewhere between 5-10. The boy was covering his face with something. I imagine he may have been feeling shame. Maybe he just didn't want to see all of the people walking past them like they were invisible. The girl was doing her best to help her mom engage the crowd. I wanted to ask this woman why she was out there with her kids but I am sure that she wouldn't be if she felt that she had a better option. (photo credit)
Why didn't I stop? On my way from the ferry to my office, a walk of about 10 minutes, I walk past an average of eight homeless people. I just cannot stop and talk to each of them let alone begin to help. So, generally, I stop and talk to no one. (photo credit - read the story)
I do what I can, working, for very little pay, 30 hours a week to try to help the 30 kids who are on my case load at CASA. I volunteer with Project Homeless Connect.
On Monday, I had lunch with a friend who also wants to do something, has also worked in the non-profit sector and also volunteers but we don't have the solution. (photo credit - read the story)Note: These photos are not of the people I saw last Friday but they are photos of the people I see everyday. They are from an amazing set of photos taken of people on the streets of San Francisco.
What are you doing? What should we all do? Here's one idea.
If you haven't yet, please visit www.one.org and considering signing The One Campaign Declaration. As the video says, "We aren't asking for your money. We are asking for your voice."
Another way to have your voice heard is to vote. I am hopeful that if we elect a president who has a plan for addressing poverty, if we elect Barack Obama, that will be a step in the right direction but we all have to be willing to help. He says, I'm asking you to believe. Not just in my ability to bring about real change... I'm asking you to believe in yours.
This morning, Cam saw online that Angel Island had been engulfed by fire last night.
I have the day off today for Columbus Day. So, after dropping Sam off at school, I drove down to the end of our peninsula to get a look at Angel Island now.
Here is one photo of the blaze from last night. There are more amazing photos here.
This one was taken from the top of the Island on Saturday around noon. The Angel Island photos Cameron posted of our weekend adventures begin here. I'm thankful not to have been any closer to that fire, that everyone made it off the island safely and to have explored it so thoroughly before the blaze. I wonder how it will be changed. Another reason to look forward to the rain when things turn green and start growing again.
One night last month, after work but before dinner Cameron, Sam and I went for a walk around our circle. Fairly recently, we learned that three laps make a mile. We'd like to walk at least a mile a day. Sometimes it happens.
As we were walking, we were talking about our days. Cam told me a bit about an exercise he had given his students at the Academy of Art. It sounded fun. I thought that we should ask each other some of the interview questions he assigned to them. The first one was to ask someone about their most interesting day of the past year.
When I asked Cam to name his, he almost immediately said it was the day we took the Maple Loop Pass hike in the Cascade National Forrest. During that hike, I said it was maybe the craziest thing I had ever done. (Hiking for hours through snow on top of unfamiliar mountains in sandals was pretty crazy.) I love the memories of that hike and our time in the Cascades (which I took to calling a second honeymoon) but I haven't gotten around to writing about it yet.
There are many family reunion memories I still want to document on the blog. When I started thinking about the reunion, I decided my most interesting day of the past 12 months was probably the day that Sam and I went paragliding in North Vancouver.
But before deciding on my most interesting day, I went back and thought about the past year, a month at a time. I remembered that a year ago, in mid September of '07, I started my job at CASA. We laughed that because of the job, I was late getting home and we were late carving our pumpkins last October.
Then, things started to get fuzzy. I couldn't remember what we did for Valentine's Day. I figure we both worked and that I fell asleep early on the couch. I remember it getting dark early in February and feeling like I was solar powered since I would lose energy as soon as the sun went down. Turns out that was the night we participated in the SF Pillow Fight. We also went skiing in February.
In April, when Cam mentioned his birthday, I remembered the amazing time we had at Yosemite with Jim and Liz.
May was pretty fuzzy too. (We participated in Pangaea Day and experienced Beard Papa's cream puffs on Mother's Day, went to back to Maker Faire and took Sam on his first cable car ride on Memorial Day.)
In June, I knew we went to DC but had forgotten about our trip to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. There was the Powell family reunion, in northern Washington and Canada in July. August was full of birthday bonfire parties and Sam starting middle school. This month and last month, there has been a lot of focus on election stuff. I wonder what I will remember from September and October of 2008 when I try to recall them in 2009.
Hopefully, I will remember the hike I took with Sam and Leo the last Saturday in Sep- tember. We didn't have a camera with us. Cam was in the city for Lily Bunka. There was no food in the house so I took the boys out to breakfast then we climbed a different trail to a different part of Ring Mountain. When we arrived at the enormous rock configuration, that was our destination, I sat in the shade, reading a captivating book while they climbed and played. I didn't know what to expect when they started calling for me to come and see what they found.
In the trunk of a tree, they had discovered an opossum. All I could see was the side of its head. It didn't seem to be moving and I was surprised that it was still there after all of their yelling and coming to get me. I guessed that it might be dead but they said it was blinking and that its ears had moved. I praised them for not poking at it with the sticks that were between them and the tree and suggested that if it was alive, it was likely pretty afraid and that we should back away from the animal we had cornered before it felt the urge to defend itself. As I was backing away, after them, the opossum suddenly turned its head to face me. It was startling and made me make a silly, startled noise. That was interesting.
While writing this post, I've been looking through pictures from the past 12 months and am reminded of many little adventures, like that one, that I hadn't shared yet.
and Penny on the Track. I wait. I wait. For something good. For something great. Go. Just go. Find a place that you don't know. I see. I see all the things that I should be. Play. Just play... I try... I wait. I wait. For something good. For something great.
Thanks for letting me reminisce. What was your most interesting day of the past 12 months?
I have had fun writing about pumpkin patch and Halloween memories.
Cam posted some photos from our 2008 trip to the Petaluma Pumpkin Patch. Here are my favorites.
These aren't the best photos of the day. I just thought this series was fun.
For more photos from the pumpkin patch, check out the Flickr set.
