Self Portrait at Macy's Parking Lot

What can I say? I'm a square. Who knew? (Don't answer that.)

I spent way too much time in my young life trying to keep up with trends, be cool and say and do what I thought other people wanted me to say and do. I worked so hard at it I fooled myself into thinking it was important.

I'm glad that's over! But I'm not going to waste more precious time regretting it. Youth is like that and I was young.

Middle age has given me permission to be myself. I have embraced my inner nerd.

How cool are you?
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This just in:

Hahamongna Watershed Park Advisory Committee meets tonight at 6pm, La Casita Del Arroyo
177 S. Arroyo Blvd. 
Pasadena

There will be an update on the Sediment Removal Project.

Show up! Let's be educated and prepared so what happened in Arcadia doesn't happen in Hahamongna.

Just Breathe

Today I have to make one more run to the grocery store. Tomorrow I'll be hiding out. If I leave the house Friday, you can bet I won't be going anywhere near where commerce takes place.

I can't remember the last time I went shopping on a "black Friday," but it was before they called it that. Something traumatic must have happened because I haven't ventured out again. Whatever it was, I've blacked it out. It's easy enough to reconstruct: traffic, overloaded parking lots, crowds, artificial bargains, fatigue. It must have gotten to me.

I'm better now, more relaxed. I'm just practicing my own, age-old holiday tradition of not shopping on the Friday after Thanksgiving. I'll see you out there next week and don't worry, I can handle it. I'll be the one screaming "ohm" at the top of my lungs.

Denim Day

Annual Denim Day in LA celebrates it's 11th year today.

Denim Day was inspired when in Italy in 1992 the Italian Supreme Court overturned a guilty verdict in a rape case. One judge stated that the middle-aged man in the case couldn't have raped the young girl “because the victim wore very, very tight jeans, she had to help him remove them, and by removing the jeans it was no longer rape but consensual sex.”

Quoting further from the website:
"Enraged by the verdict, within a matter of hours the women in the Italian Parliament launched into immediate action and protested by wearing jeans to work. This call to action motivated and emboldened the California Senate and Assembly to do the same..."

On this day I make a point of wearing jeans to show solidarity with men and women around the world who agree that rape is a crime of violence. There's no excuse, and never an invitation to rape.

Writing a post like this sounds so serious--it is, after all, a serious subject. There are no funny rape jokes. Show me someone who thinks rape is funny and I'll show you someone who's never known or loved or been a rape victim, or learned anything to do with the crime. But if Denim Day can turn that last bit around by teaching, I'll be glad I posted about it.

Hometown Pasadena

John and I fell in love with Pasadena at first sight. For our first Christmas here I found the perfect gift for him at Vroman's: a book called Hometown Pasadena. Editor Colleen Dunn Bates had gathered some of the best talent in town to help put a lot of information into a small, friendly volume. It was a guide to entertainment, restaurants, sports, surrounding communities, architecture, schools--pretty much everything going on in the San Gabriel Valley. It even contained a section entitled "Cemeteries We Love."

John was thrilled when he opened his gift that Christmas morning--almost as thrilled as I was when I opened mine and found the copy of Hometown Pasadena he'd bought for me. We kept them both.

One of the advantages to living in Pasadena is it's possible to cross paths with locals you admire. So you can bet I was delighted when I met Colleen Dunn Bates this past January. She's interesting and fun, like her books. She's also got what John calls "about twenty brains." You'd need them, to do what she does. Besides Hometown Pasadena (now available in the new 2009-10 edition), she's also editor and publisher at Prospect Park Books, which has eight books in its stable so far. Colleen also heads up Hometown Pasadena's website, which debuted its new look yesterday. I have no idea how she packs so much information into a site that's classy, well-organized, and constantly updated.

I'm very excited that Hometown Pasadena is currently featuring an interview with me. I've just gotta toot that horn because it's such an honor. In a way I feel like I've come full circle. Life has many circles, I suppose, and I'm grateful for this one. So I'd like to thank Colleen and send you all over to Hometown Pasadena to click, comment, and enjoy.

(Photo: a view of Macy's on Lake Avenue.)

Zen Monday: #31

Zen Monday is the day you experience the photo and give us your thoughts rather than me telling you what the photo's about.
There's no right or wrong. If the photo evokes something in you, that's all it is.