I think I’m going to hurl…

Boy, what a Thanksgiving weekend we are having.  Here is a recap thus far.  Thanksgiving Day started out by going to Mike & Judy’s to hang while the bird was cooking.  We ate around 3:00 PM, and boy, did we eat.  There was the seven of us seated including Mike’s son Gary, his beautiful wife Gokcen, who by the way is celebrating her first Thanksgiving here in the U.S.  Jen, Mike’s daughter with her husband Pat, Rox and I.  Mike cooked up a 24 lb turkey that was the bomb, there was the usual mashed potatoes and gravy, wonderful cranberry relish, yams, Rox’s superb string beans and also a pumpkin cream cheese dip.  There was also a lot of beer and wine.

We sat down and proceeded to stuff ourselves to the point that all Mike could say is that he was going to hurl, bt he never did. After we finished, we had to wait at least an hour before we could sample Jen’s extraordinary desserts that she baked the night before.  There was a cranberry cheesecake with a chocolate cookie crust that was to die for, a pumpkin cheesecake, OMG, and finally some homemade brownies.  I had all three and I was singing in chorus with Mike ” I think I’m going to hurl”.  A good time was had by all, so much to eat.

After our dessert, we got into a brainstorming session about forming a money-making business.  Gary came up with an idea called Breakthenewsforme.com where for $5 we will call anyone that you like and break the news, whatever that is, quitting a job, telling a person that you want to break up, etc.  Mike has already started the process with a logo, and the beginnings of a website.  There was another idea that really made us laugh but I will have to tell you later.

Yesterday, after sleeping all night on my side because of the mass quantity of food that I consumed, we got up and got ready for the trip to Estacada to pick out and cut down our Christmas tree.  We took two vehicles and we began our trip to Beck’s Farm.  We started out by each of us consuming a wonderfully prepared sack breakfast by Jen.  Thank you Jen, it was so yummy.  We arrived at the tree farm and began roaming through the acres of Doug firs, Grand Nobles and more.  This is our second trip and it was a beautiful day out in Estacada.  Gary was the first one to spot their perfect tree, he cut it down, photos were taken of he and Gokcen, another first for her.  Rox and I found a beautiful Doug Fir, 6 ft tall and very reasonable. I cut it down and took it to the front of the property.  Next was Jen & Pat’s tree, another 6 footer.  lastly Mike & Judy were taking their time to find the perfect tree. At one point Mike found this one tree, it must have been 10 foot, he wanted that tree but Judy, rolling her eyes, said that it was TOO BIG!  He responded that they had tall ceilings and that it would fit.  After about 15 minutes discussing it, they proceeded to look for another one.  I spotted one similar to the big one only a bit shorter, but none the less, a beautiful tree.  I called them over and they decided, yes, that was the one.

We all had our trees and we went ahead and loaded them up on our two cars, tied them down and we were on our way.  We drove back to Portland, back to Mike & Judy’s home where we sat down for a wonderful lunch of leftovers.  It was such a wonderful day, great friends and a good time had by all of us.  We are thankful for having such wonderful people in our lives, not just here in Stumptown but all the places that we have lived.

Well, another Thanksgiving is history and now we look forward to the Christmas holidays.  Today we will decorate our tree, I will watch the University of Florida take on Florida State Seminoles in college football, should be a great game.  We also want to wish our dear friend AJ for a speedy recovery.  She had a bicycle accident on Wednesday where she broke her leg and wrist.  Patrik had to take her to emergency and really dampened their holiday.  We hope she gets well quickly and wish you a successful surgery on Monday.

Take care everyone, enjoy the weekend and watch out for those leftovers.  Love you, peace out!

Through the eyes of a child…

I went out for my daily walk today, chilly, damp but exhilarating.  Up and down the hills I went, about two miles and I stopped at my local Starbucks to grab my dose of a Dopio Machiato, two shots of espresso, a little nonfat milk, foam and a shot of sugar-free vanilla, yum.  As I was sitting there sucking up my drink, I noticed a sign hanging in the window, kind of Christmasy that said ” I wish grownups could remember being kids”.  You know, I have talked about this before and it was a reminder of sorts.  Once in a while, we need reminders.  To be like a kid again, oh yes, the good old, I mean, young days.  There was never any fears, we could run, climb, do all sorts of things with no trepidations. Remember how all the holidays had special feelings associated with them.  Here we have Thanksgiving in a few days and I could remember as a kid how much of a big deal it was.  The smell of the turkey cooking in the oven, the excitement of being around all the relatives and friends, football game on tv in the afternoon.

Sometimes I find holidays missing something these days.  These are times that I miss my family, all are gone now except my brother, Kevin, who lives in NYC.  If you have family now, be grateful, enjoy those moments with them on these holidays coming upon us.  Those moments will be gone forever so make the best of them. Look at everything around you and recall how magical those gatherings were.  Thanksgiving and Christmas for kids are wonderful, I loved and anticipated those holidays the most.

Rox and I will join Mike and Judy with a few of his family members and friends.  I look forward to being with them and am grateful that they are in our lives here in Portland.  I truly miss our friends in San Diego and wish I could gather them all for a big Thanksgiving dinner and tell them how much I love and care for them. I also want to send my love and gratitude to my friends in Florida, a few of them I have shared many holidays with when I was a young whipper snapper.  Oh shit, did I just say whipper snapper?  I sound like an old fart, oh boy.

Going back to that sign in Starbucks, we as grownups have to get off our high horse and relate a bit differently with kids.  We need to get down to their level, maybe that is not the correct term.  Sometimes I feel that they are on a higher level then we are.  This ego that we develop as we grow older has caused so many problems in our lives. We have learned to live in fear, we have lost our imagination and need to get it back.  I remember as a young pup, I would be playing with friends out in the yard, we would take popsicle sticks and make roads in the dirt, we would take our little cars and pretend we were driving all around these roads, what a fun time.  In the winter we would build snow forts and lob snowballs from it at unsuspecting kids, life was good.  We need to get that imagination back, learn to have fun again.

So, remember, if you have children, allow them their imagination, let them be kids, not some puppet that you control.  You all know what I mean, I hope.  When we are running around town and I spot children, it is a wonderful thing to look at their eyes and see how they sparkle, how they look at everything fresh without any expectations of what should be happening in that moment.  We, as grownups, need to remember what it was like to be kids.

I hope that this has been food for thought.  Enjoy your holidays, get that magical feeling back instead of the looking at them as tedious and something that we can’t wait for to end so that we can get back to our mundane lives.  Get that magical feeling again, look at your children, look at their expressions as you go through these holidays.  A good time to start would be Thanksgiving and then Christmas.  Be thankful for all that you have in your life, the love of your children, your family and friends.  You do not know how fortunate that you are coming from someone who does not have much family left.  Kevin, I love you and am grateful that you are in my life although we have not seen each other for quite a few years, Have a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Bye everybody, see you again soon.

Friday night…

Hello everyone, here I am sitting in my comfy chair, Saturday evening, fire roaring in the fireplace, Rox sitting on the sofa watching Shrek the Third, laptop on my lap and wondering what to tell you.  I’ll start by sharing with you the photo that is on your left there, it was a picture that I took with my iPhone when I was out for my walk one morning.  I had noticed all the leaves on the sidewalk and thought it would make for an interesting photo. What do you think?  Well, I thought it was pretty cool.

Remember I had mentioned that I broke a tooth biting into a piece of Trader Joe’s dark chocolate?  I had bitten into a piece of chocolate and I felt a crunch, it was part of a tooth, the one behind the canine on the left side.  It happened to be a Friday night and I immediately called my dentist’s emergency number.  it was two weeks ago and he responded back on Saturday afternoon.  He told me that he was going to be in town on Sunday and because he had another emergency, he would see me and gie me a temporary.  I did get the temporary and made an appointment which was actually yesterday.  I got up yesterday morning, put on my clothes, brushed my teeth and drove to my appointment.  I got into the chair and donned my ear buds, tuned my iPhone to Pandora and away we went.  Dr. Sherrard proceeded to numb my gum and take out the temporary, did a little drilling, took a picture, entered the pic into his computer and within about twenty minutes the cap was made.  I was in and out in about two hours with a new cap, good to go.  He is the only dentist that I know who had this equipment so that all caps and crowns could be made in his office to his liking.  I asked him how much that equipment cost and he told me that the computer, which displayed 3D images along with the milling machine ran about $100,000.  It was amazing and I left a happy patient.

Today was a funky day here in Portland, rainy, cool, temps in the 40′s.  Rox and I ran started our day by dropping off the Honda Element to have an airbag sensor replaced, went to the Art Media store and purchased a few tubes of paint and I went back home to start a new art project while Rox did some shopping.  Yep, today was a good day to paint.  Mike had told us to paint, paint, paint now that  we are artists and we do have the time.  Rox finished a new one today and it looks great, I will post it along with a couple others real soon.  We will be looking to placing all our artwork on Geerhead.com in the near future, so please watch for it, I will announce it.

We are also getting our portfolio together so that we can show our works to places like Wild Abandon.  We are scheduled to pick up our pieces from there this weekend, the show is over.  We have a place called Opposable Thumb who may be interested in showing our art January or February.  It is a coffee shop/art gallery in the SE section of Portland.  In the meantime. we need to get out there and locate a few more places to show.  An artist’s work is never done.  I am truly enjoying working together with Rox, watching her develop into quite an artist.  We both have our own techniques and maybe one day we will collaborate on a piece, that would be quite a unique venture.  We will see.  I just mentioned that possibility to Rox and she looked at me and said “Really? that could make or break us”.  She is so funny, one of the many reasons why I love her so much.

Tomorrow is another day, Tai Chi, Gator game and some more painting.  Enjoy your weekend and we’ll see you soon. Peace out!

So here is what’s going on…

Last night I played host with Jawna at the Happy Hour Professionals Meetup group at Bo Restobar, a Thai restaurant and bar located in downtown Portland.  It was a wonderful group of 40 people who enjoyed some wonderful appetizers, drinks and great conversation.  We arrived early to set up then the people started arriving.  It was a chilly night and parking was not the best downtown but it didn’t prevent people from attending.  I struck a conversation with Andrea, a newbie to all of this, and it was great.  She and I discussed her job and also the dating scene here in Stumptown.  She is 42, never been married, no children and wondered why it was so difficult to meet people here.  I told her of my experience back in San Diego before I met Rox and understood her plight.  I told her not to despair but when the time was right, the right person will come along.

After the Happy Hour was over, Jawna, Tom, Alan, Jeanette and I went to a place that I heard about, Portland City Grill.  It was in a high rise office building on the 30th floor with a panoramic view of the city, it was breathtaking.  I had a shot of Pendleton whiskey which is made at Hood River made for sipping.  I would never thought in my life that I would ever drink whiskey but this was very smooth.  We had a nice time talking about Maui, nude beaches and the economy.  Alan turns out is an electrician so we discussed jobs here in town and the weak economy.  Then Jawna and I decided it was time to go.  We had carpool to the event and she drove me home.  Rox had attended another Meetup group last night, it was the Law of attraction for life group.  She really gelled with this bunch and had a good time.  She arrived home just around the same time as I did and we got into our jammies to watch the episode of V that we recorded.  It turned out to be a lovely day.

I forgot to tell you that I had gotten results of my blood work yesterday.  Everything seems to be doing well.  My cholesterol was down including the HDL.  My good cholesterol is still a bit low so the doctor prescribed Niacin.  He also prescribed another blood pressure medication for me to bring it down even more.  My blood pressure was 146 over 84 which is just a little high, could be the white coat syndrome.  So, I am looking and feeling a bit better, I continue to do my walks everyday when I can, I have also lost a little weight.  Tomorrow, I get to visit the dentist to repair a tooth that I broke on a piece of chocolate about two weeks ago.  He had given me a temporary on a Sunday which was a lifesaver.  He was recommended to me by Judy and turns out to be a fantastic dentist.

Today I am going to do my walk and Rox and I will be going to Art Media to purchase a couple of canvasses, need to start another project.  I just finished one called “Three Orbs”, a 12 x 48 piece. By the way, Rox sold 2 of a 4×4 paintings the other evening so we are now formally artists, I sold my first one a 9×12 entitled “The Great Barrier” about two weeks ago.  We will continue to post our new work on my blog as they are completed.  I also heard that Debbie in SD took my advice to paint and she did that last weekend, I am dying to see the finished project.  Way to go Deb!

Ok, got to get rolling here, things to do and it is already 10:00 AM.  Have a great Hump Day and see you back here tomorrow.

Stumptown News…

I know, I’m lagging.  There are just some days and my mind is blank with nothing to talk about.  I will try to eke out something today for you.  Well, I woke up early to get some blood work down at the OHSU clinic.  They will see if my cholesterol has come down as well as my homocysteine levels.  The latter is my doing, they normally do not check on that though if the levels are too high, I am at risk for heart disease.  Some say that it should not be above 7 and mine started out months ago at 10.5 and then another test showed 10.  To lower it, I need to increase my intake of folate acid, B6 and B12. I will give you an update tomorrow when I get results of today’s blood work.

Today started out raining and it looks like we are in for rain all week,  I wake up and it is still dark out, welcome to the Northwest.  Rox and I started taking Usana’s new product, Vitamin D, 2000 mg per day, because of our lack of sunshine during this rainy season.  Usana will be selling it now in the months of November through March.  But you know, we love the rain, cleans up the air, keeps the air  from being so dry.

Tonight we re having our friends meet at the Wild Abandon to have a happy hour and to check out our art hanging there.  We are scheduled to take it down this coming weekend and we are now looking for the next showing somewhere here in Portland.  Rox and I continue to add to our collection and can’t wait for the next show with our new pieces.  Rox is working on one now that I just love and I am working on one that I feel will be my best one yet.  We will share them with you on one of my future blogs, so stay tuned.  We are praying that one day we will be a success as artists.  To be able to earn a living painting would be a dream come true. By the way, sold my first painting, “Great Barrier” (Left) for $50, yahoo!!

Ok, movie review time.  We went and saw the movie 2012 the other day and wow, what a roller coaster ride that ws.  I cannot imagine the cost to make that film but it was definitely entertaining.  I am sure you are aware what the movie is about, basically the end of the world to come on December 21, 2012.  The planets are supposed to be aligned a way that only occurs every 64,000 years or so, solar flares pop up, largest ever recorded, sea levels are rising, volcanoes are exploding everywhere, especially the super volcano at Yellowstone National Park.  Mike’s wife Judy did not come to ee the movie with us and I think it was because on a trip that they took up to Port Townsend, Washington, a friend of theirs spent some time discussing 2012, truly believing that the end is coming, really freaked her out.  How do you feel about that?  Do you think that the end is near?  I don’t, but I do feel that we are screwing up our environment and we do need to wake up and take care of it but for the world to end as we know it, I do not think that it will happen.  Maybe the Mayan calendar ending in 2012 will mark a beginning for us as a race, maybe an enlightened humanity in the making, sure hope so.  All this shit going on around the planet needs to change, war is a waste of lives, the killing off of species, world hunger, etc.,we need a change in a big way.

All right, back to Monday, November 16th, 2010.  Today, I hope to finish my latest painting, we are going to JC Penney to buy a crock pot that is on sale, it has been a while since I have used a crock pot and I don’t think that Rox has ever used one but it will come in handy to cook some delicious meals.  Then our Happy hour tonight followed by some drinks at Kathy’s new home with friends.  I hope that today is an exciting day for all of you out there, appreciate all that you have and good things will happen.  See you next time.

Too much Dexter and more…

Today is going to be an art day.  Rox and I will be working on some new pieces today since it is a funky day, you know, rainy, cold and a great day to be working on our stuff. This coming Monday, we will be having a private gathering of friends at the Wild Abandon where our art pieces are currently being displayed.  We are now looking for nother place to hang our art for the month of December.  There is a chance that we will be hanging art at the Opposable Thumb, a coffee-house and art gallery in the Southeast perhaps in January or February.

So, in the meantime, we continue to paint and put out new pieces though Rox is much more prolific than me.  She is at her easel daily where for me, I have to wait for the inspiration to kick in.  Mike and Judy came by yesterday to see what we have done.  Mike loved Rox’s work and thought that I was doing well with my stuff.  He did mention to me that less is more in my case.  I like simplicity and boldness but not to get too crazy about having to fill in spaces, for example, the piece on the left here that I call “Eclipse”.

If you will check out the painting on the right here, this is a new piece by Rox called “Too much Dexter” which she titled after the show Dexter on Showtime about a Splatter Analyst for the Miami Police Department who is secretly a serial killer of people who have killed and is still on the loose. If you watch the show, you would understand.  I am so proud of Rox, she is doing better and better with each piece.

We are now artists, I had sold my first piece this week at the Meetup/Art Show for $50, a small 9 x 12 titled “The Great Barrier”.  A friend of ours loved it and had to have it, wow, we are legitimate artists now.  We are going to make an effort to get our stuff out there and hopefully make a name for ourselves here in Portland.  There are so many creative people in this town, you wouldn’t believe.  We are getting rave reviews from our friends and wish to pursue this.

Here we have another painting that Rox just completed recently, as of this moment it is untitled but it is just a beautiful piece. We are working on posting all our art on Geerhead.com for all to see, we will also have all our pieces up for sale.  We may also eventually start posting other local artists on the website as well, we will see how that pans out.

I always think of the art by our friend Peri who we knew in San Diego but currently lives in Boca Raton, Florida.  Her medium is boxes, pieces of furniture, screens and other objects where she paints a pattern and goes back and applies dots to it, she has a gift and would love to see her here in Stumptown pursuing her creativity. To see her work, just click on the following link and enjoy http://periallen.com Here in Portland during the spring and summer months, there are many places that show art, for example, art walks, street fairs, galleries, a plethora of places.

I chuckle to myself to think that I am painting because for years I have not felt any creativity but now I am an artist and a writer.  I am sure that many of you who know me are chuckling right now as well.  When I become successful at either painting or writing, it will be happy time for me.  I had grown tired of my career in the electrical business, it was stifling but again, had met many wonderful friends through it.  I have no regrets but it was time for change, I needed to feel my heart again and this is the path that I had chosen.  Rox, I know, feels the same way.  A couple of days ago, she was online trying to do her resume to send to out and she was running into a lot of frustrating problems on the computer.  I told her that it is because she really, in her heart, doesn’t want a J O B, work for someone else or do something just to make some money.  She felt like I did, let us pursue using our creativity and if we do something we truly love, the money will come.

So, I highly recommend that if you ever had a desire to paint, get out some brushes and a canvas, and see what unfolds.  If you ever had a desire to write, try a blog.  Mike told me that I should write a blog and I laughed.  I decided to try it and here I am after writing almost 200 entries.  It has really been an experience for me and I am willing to help anyone out there start their own blog.  There are a few of you I know that would be incredible writing blogs and I would love to read them.

Ok, gotta go and paint, thanks for coming by, see you next time, Peace out!

 

Law of Attraction

Hello everyone, hope that everyone is having a wonderful day. Me? Well, I am doing pretty good although as I look out my window, it is foggy, damp and 46 degrees out there. I truly love this time of year, leaves are changing, that cool crisp in the air.  To start, I would personally like to thank the veterans of our country, thank you for all that you are doing to keep our country free.  I do not really agree with some of the things that our country is doing in other countries and feel for those serving who leave their families and lives behind to fight and risk their lives daily.  However, that seems to be out of my hands but am grateful for what they are doing in protecting us.

Last evening, Rox and I went to a Meetup group called Law of Attraction.  Nikki Cortez, the host of the group, told us about the power of affirmations.  If you are familiar about the Law of Attraction, check out the film The Secret and it will guide you to be able to attract good things into your life.  If it is money, success, or whatever you desire in life, you must first have the thought than the feeling or emotion that you already have received it.  That produces a vibration or frequency that goes out to the universe and in time, it will be manifested.  I could say that I have manifested some things in my life.  For example, there was a time that I was watching a show called American Thunder, basically about Harleys and custom bikes.  I than had the thought that one day I would like to own a Harley and ride.  Well, I went down to the dealership, sat on one, got a brochure on the model that I wanted and began having the thought and feeling of having one.  I would look at the brochure on a daily basis until one day, I decided to get an equity line of credit on my condo.  The first thing that I did was bought that Harley, a softail, black with a lot of chrome.  I had manifested my desire.  The same thing happened with a car that I wanted, an Infiniti G35 coupe.  I did the brochure thing, went to the dealership, sat in the car and imagine owning one.  One day, I was driving it home.

The one thing that I wanted so bad in my life was a loving relationship.  I was single for the longest time, living alone in my condo in San Diego and was wishing for someone to come into my life to share adventures, love, etc.  I had belonged to Great Expectations, Matchmaker.com, Love @AOL, ads in the newspapers trying so hard to meet that special someone.  After a few years of meeting women, but not the right one, I was exhausted and decided to try just one more person on Matchmaker.com, if it didn’t work out, I was going on a sabbatical.  I went through the profiles and one picture hit me, I continued looking but was always reverting back to that one person.  I decided to contact her and waited for her response.  She did respond back and we spoke to each other on the phone.  We then made plans to meet and that day came.  I got on my bike and drove to the Starbucks where we agreed to meet.  If you already don’t know, that was Rox and we have been together ever since, now going on 7 years.

Well, the point is, we send out thoughts and desires constantly of things that we want and also what we don’t want.  You know that old expression, “You better watch what you wish for, because you never know, you may get it”.  It is so true.  I am now waiting for that big day when a van will be pulling up to our house, a group of people getting out with balloons and a big check for $10 million.  I can see the whole event unfolding, I finally won the Publishers Clearing House sweepstakes.  Someone with the initials JG will be visited by the Prize Van, hey, my initials are JG, that’s me.  I will tell you all about it when it happens, you will all be the first to know.  Hey, it could happen, it will happen.  There is so much that we could do with that money, so many people we wish to help, the thought and feelings are out there, Universe, do your thing.

I urge everyone out there who has a dream, to put some effort in manifesting it. Whatever it is, just send out that thought and feel as though you already have received what you wanted. Let me know of some things that you have wished for and received, would like to hear from you.  Well, I do wish that everyone here gets what they wish for.  I do believe we have the power to do that and another good way to start is through gratitude, be grateful for all that you have now, be happy now, all good things happen to good people. Experience joy right now, you are where you need to be and where you re today is a result of your thoughts and feelings from an earlier time.  Be happy, you deserve to be.  See you next time.

Art for Art sake…

Good morning World, here we are again, another Monday, another great day upon us, right?  Today Rox and I will be hosting a Meetup group of the Happy Hour Professionals and Art by the Geers at the Wild Abandon restaurant in SE Portland.  This is our first art showing and we are very excited.  As our friend Mike says, we are artists.  Still trying to wrap my brain around that one.  I know that many of you out there who know me, John an artist? Yea right.  Tis true, I have been painting but Rox is really the prolific one.  She seems to be inspired almost on a daily basis, me?  Well, every once in a while, I will get a hit of creativity.  The picture that you see on the left here is one of Rox’s and one of my favorites.  The owner of the restaurant, Michael, loves this painting and we are hoping that he will make an offer and keep it in his establishment, it certainly fits well in that spot.

According to the count on the Meetup group website, we are maxed out of people attending our event.  We will be expecting about 32 people and it should be a fun time had by all.  The restaurant has wonderful appetizers and drink specials and hey, the artwork there is incredible, tsk tsk.  How it all came about was we attended 2 happy hours at the Wild Abandon and noticed the art hanging there, it seemed that the owner loved the idea of hanging art of local artists so Rox and I approached him to see if there was a chance that he would hang ours.  He wondered what we had so Rox pulled out her iPhone and showed him a number of our pieces.  He liked what he saw and said that he would get back to us.  One day a few weeks back, he called and told us that the present artists was removing her pieces and would we like to bring in ours to hang.  We were ecstatic and told Michael we would love to.

One Sunday, Mike, Judy, Mike’s daughter Jen, Rox and I met at the restaurant and began hanging our stuff leaving very bare walls at our home.  We named all the pieces and placed them on tags along with the prices that we were asking.  When we were finished, we were so proud, it looked so cool to see what we had painted being out for public display.  Thank you all for your help and input.  So, today is the first party centered around our art.  We will have another private showing a week from today just for our friends, we are looking forward to that as well.

Rox and I continue to paint to add to our collection and I will display some of the other art in my future posts, so stay tuned.  We also now have to find another establishment to display our art.  In Portland, there are no shortages of places to do that.  We did see a place with a lot of white walls that happens to be a coffee shop called Opposable Thumb that could be a possibility.  Someone had told us of a small gallery that would possibly would hang our stuff.  We will keep an eye out for the next place.

I would have never thought that we would be doing this.  I hope that I am not sounding redundant but I am so excited that I have dip into my creative spirit, a creativity that laid dormant within me for quite a number of years.  For Rox, well, she is very creative, delving into staging, graphic design, interior design and more.  She is improving on her technique on a daily basis.  I really love her latest piece, the colors and blending are quite beautiful.

I would highly recommend that if you have a little time, go to an art store, pick up a small canvas, a few acrylic paints perhaps the primary colors and go at it.  You may surprise yourself.  When Mike and Judy invited us that one day last October to their Art Day, I thought to myself “Great, what am I going to do, draw stick figures?” Well, I had no idea until I sat down, placed a small canvas in front of me, picked up some brushes and began painting.  My first painting was a bit right brain, circles, squares, triangles and bright colors.  It was ok but I thought back to how Kandinsky, my favorite all time artist, must have started out.  He also got into shapes and bright colors much later in his life, where I started out that way.  Again, try it sometime, it is quite meditative as well.  All your cares and woes will be placed on the back burner, your creativity will come out and it will amaze you.  It did me that one day last year on Mike and Judy’s back deck.  Thank you guys for the kick start, we’re artists now.  Hey, anyone want to buy an original Geer?  We have some lovely pieces for under $5000, just contact us and we will send you pics along with the dimensions.

Have a great Monday, love life, meditate, smell the flowers, and we will be back soon.  Peace out!

You have nothing to fear but fear itself…

Let’s talk about fear.  The acronym for fear is false evidence appearing as real.  One of my fears that I am working through at this time is speaking in front of a group of people.  I think it goes back when I was back in school and being called upon to go to the front of the class, especially a math class like geometry or trigonometry.  I hate mathematics at that time, could not grasp the concepts.  So, when I was called to go to the blackboard and solve a problem, I had this overwhelming sense of doom and gloom. I was afraid to appear as an idiot who did not comprehend the problem.  I guess it wasn’t just math classes, it was any class that I was having  bit of difficulty with.  I wasn’t sure which part of the classroom I should sit in to avoid the risk of being called upon.  The front of the class, I appeared the most vulnerable so I would sit in the back of the class, behind someone to block the view of the teacher.

Forward to the present.  Last night, we were holding a Health & Freedom Presentation for Usana and I was one of two presenters.  The days before the event, my mind would be racing about the thought of standing in front of strangers and giving this presentation.  I would wake up in the middle of the night going over what I was going to say, what a drag.  So, here we were last evening, the people were arriving and we were setting up.  Dwight had brought with him a projector which would make everything so much easier.  I could turn towards the screen and know what I was going to say, however, we were having a difficult time with the projector and not only that, the flip chart that we were utilizing was one from a year ago and was not up to date.  Oh well, I will wing it and it turned out pretty good.  I hardly stuttered my words and feel that I got the information out without any trouble.  This fear thing was just a figment of my itty bitty shitty committee.  I know as I continue to do these presentations, they will get easier and easier. When I am speaking to an individual about Usana, I have no problem, but this group thing I need to overcome the nagging fear, I am on my way.

Speaking of fears, death is probably the biggest fear we have as a human being.  We really do not have any idea what happens to us when our spirit leaves this body.  There are so many theories on the subject from the concept of heaven and hell that I learned when I was going to Catholic school to dying and reincarnating into another body.  I remember when I went to a summer camp when I was about 8 years old.  We were going swimming.  I jumped into the pool and starting sinking in the deep end.  I did not panic at all but I had the weirdest experience of watching my body floating a few feet from me.  At one point, one of the camp counselors grabbed me by my hair and I shot right back into my body.  I did not have any fear, in fact, it County to boogie board.  The waves that day were very large and at the time, I was not in good shape, I was a smoker and really struggled to get out to catch a wave.  At one point, I took on this rather large wave and got pummeled, lost the board and panic set in.  I kept getting it by wave after wave, pulling me under.  I literally thought that this would be the last day of my life.  I was able to surface and yell for Brad.  He had thought that I was playing him, you know, pretending to be drowning when, in fact, I was.  He came by me and I grabbed his board to catch my breath.  He had saved my life and it’s funny, I was in total panic, fear of dying.  So, what was the difference from the experience as an 8-year-old and when I was 30 years old?  It was probably my ego.  Again as a child, I did not have all the fears that I did as I got older.

I look back and feel that I have learned so much from those fearful times.  I have overcome many of them but there are a few that linger.  When I was at the ER last May for my minor stroke, I did not really feel afraid, went through all the tests but must admit that when I got the MRI, I was feeling a little uncomfortable, claustrophobic.  I knew that there was nothing there to fear but I wanted to bust out of that contraption.  Well, maybe there are a few residual fears lurking about in my psyche that I need to look at.

What are your fears? Are they real and valid or just something that you picked up along the way?  Maybe what Roosevelt said a while back is true “There is nothing to fear but fear itself”.  Oh well, have a great day and a wonderful weekend.  I will.  Peace out!

 

Welcome Home!

Ok, I know, I have been lagging on doing my blog but I am back and here we go.  Yesterday was a busy day from the beginning.  Rox and I awoke and got ready to go on a road trip.  Mike and Judy were driving up to Olympia, Washington to his son and new daughter-in-law’s new home to prepare for their homecoming.  Gary, his son, is in the military and was arriving home from Turkey with Gokcen, his new bride.  We took separate cars from Portland, the guys drove in one car and the girls in the other and we drove up I-5 to our destination.  We hung up some pictures in their new home along with an American flag on the front of the house.

After we were done with that, we proceeded up I-5 to the Sea-Tac Airport to meet them, however, there was a minor glitch, we did not know what airlines or what gate they were arriving at.  They had left Turkey the day before and the flight was about 28 hours with a few stops in between to change planes.  When we arrived at the airport, we parked and went to the International arrivals and wondered how this would all play out.  We looked to see if there were any arrivals at the international arrival gate coming from Washington Dulles Airport, no luck.  We decided to go to the USO office at the airport, no luck.  We were getting a bit hungry, so we decided to get a bite to eat and wait. We thought that it was unusual that we did not hear from Gary, their flight was to arrive at 12:05 and it was going on 1:30.  What were we going to do?

As we were eating, we wondered if Gary and Gokcen could have been delayed somewhere on the planet when we received a call, it was Gary.  Mike’s face lit up when he was told that they were at the baggage claim near where we were, yea!  We got up from our table and rushed over to the baggage claim, waving out homemade American and Turkish flags.  We spotted them and all was well. It turned out that their flight was direct from Germany, he had Skyped Mike about all the flight info but Mike did not even think to check Skype, he was expecting a call but Gary’s cell phone was not functioning.  In the end, it all worked out, how funny that is, isn’t it?

We got their luggage in the two cars and they drove them to see their new home and we drove back to Portland.  We stopped at Mike and Judy’s to drop off their bags and proceeded home. We ate some dinner and settled in to watch the newest X-Men Wolverine movie when half way through it, we received a call from Mike.  They had gotten home and Judy was off to pick up Jen, Mike’s daughter along with her husband Pat.  They were coming over to see Gary and Gokcen.  Mike asked us if we would like to come over for some wine and birthday baklava, so we got dressed and drove over.  It was a fun time had by all.  It was so cool to see Mike beaming, he hadn’t seen his son Gary since the debate party a year ago last October.  That was when we met Mike & Judy.

This weekend, there will be a big bash for the newlyweds at the Lucky Lab at Multnomah Village, it will be a combination of a hero’s welcome home, a birthday party and a wedding reception all rolled into one.  It looks like it should be a great time. I could only think what must be going through Gokcen’s mind right about now.  She is almost 21 years old, had never left her home town in Turkey and here she is now in the US, new language, new lifestyle, new everything and 7500 miles from home and family.  All of us here are making a concerted effort to make her feel welcome and to let her know that we are her new family and that we will do everything we can to help them feel comfortable.

As the little get together was coming to an end last night, we were all feeling the effects of the travel, the Pendleton whiskey and some Old Vine Red.  Gary was still kicking from the effects of a Frappacino and a Red Bull but Gokcen’s eyes were closing as she sat next to him.  We said our goodbyes and went home, a long day indeed.  So I do wish to say to Gary Welcome Home and to Gokcen Welcome to America and to our family.

I just got a Skype from Mike, they are all up right now ready to start the new day.  Gary wants to look for a new car as well as appliances for their new home.  Mike also wished to thank us for all we have done yesterday and we are just happy to have done it, after all, what are friends for?  No, really, we do care for you guys and have no problem.  Got to go, need to get ready for our Health & Freedom Presentation this evening.  I hope that you all enjoyed sharing yesterday’s adventure with me, it was a fun time.  See you tomorrow.