Farewell Party

Thanks for the going away party my friends!







Thanks to my cousin Danny and the Catch-22 Lounge for hosting the party.
www.catch22lounge.com

10 days of Vipassana Meditation

It was an experience of challenges.

The evening of the first night following an orientation I took a vow of noble silence, that is, no speaking, no eye contact and no gestures. The next morning I woke to the reverberation of a gong at 4 am. The first morning we took a vow to follow the five basic precepts: not killing, not stealing, not making sexual misconduct, not telling lies, and abstaining from intoxicants.

Imagine spending 10 days:
...not talking at all...
...living with roommates with which you were not allowed to speak, make gestures or eye contact...
...sitting on a cushion with your legs crossed for 10+ hours a day...
...eating strictly vegetarian only twice a day...
...without a cell phone, Internet connection or TV...

None of the challenges when taken individually are that difficult but when taken as a whole it presents quite a challenge to the body and the mind. All in all, I would say it was an amazing experience.

10 Words to describe the 10 days:
Torture. Bliss. Daydreaming. Sore back. Eating slowly. Sitting. Respiration. Attention.

MAY ALL BEINGS BE HAPPY.

meditation retreat

Leaving for a 10-day meditation retreat this afternoon.

Vipassana meditation.

Why?
I want to improve my ability to concentrate on a single thing.
I want to understand the life the novice monks of Laos lived everyday.
I want to experience first hand the methods of improving ones awareness.

Here's the website for the Vipassana course that I took:
www.rockies.us.dhamma.org

curious coincidence

Eleven years since Dad died. I can't believe it's been so long. I'm surprisingly peaceful today. Don't misunderstand, I miss him terribly. But there is a difference between fighting the reality of the world and accepting the reality of the world. I've made a lot of progress.

I moved a pillow down to the floor so I could practice sitting Indian-style while writing email and a funny thing happened...

My right eye lined up perfectly with the peephole in the door and the sun. I was blinded with blue light. It felt like I was getting zapped with brilliant laser. If I moved my head slightly to left or right I could see brilliant reds and purples. It felt like looking into a rainbow end-wise.

I felt an immediate need to write my sister and tell her about it but wasn't sure what to write when... She called on the phone.

It was one of those strange moments when everything felt related: anniversary of Dad's death, brilliant light in a beautiful, strange way, and my sister's voice just at the moment I wanted to talk with her.

Mom's Iris

Beautiful orchid-looking iris that only blooms for 24 hours. I was lucky to be at mom's house this morning to see it bloom.

Danny & Laikens Wedding

My cousin Danny got married to his girlfriend Laiken at the First Baptist Church in Golden. It was strange to be back in the old stomping grounds of my college years.

And weddings are funny things anyways. I'm situated in a room full of people and I don't recognize many of them. I'm not sure if I should Is that my second cousin, what's their name? The guilt at not recognizing your own family...

After seeing weddings from some Asian cultures, I try and see the festival through a foreigner's eyes. What would a Laos person think about all of this?

I get seated with the rest of the rowdy family members - in the corner. It was good to Corky and Carol and plan family camping trips for this summer. To see Betty, Susie, Norm and Brittany. How is it that I don't have a picture of her yellow pumps?!? Good to see Danette, Larry and Scooter. Ed and Karen and Joleen were all preoccupied with wedding stuff.



Somehow I don't have a single decent picture of Danny & Laiken. I'll post one when they send one to me.

Friday the 13th Tofu Burritos

Talked Yoxa and Brad into coming over to Sandie and Geir's place to celebrate Friday the 13th. I felt like I owed Y&B a dinner after they have taken such good care of me on so many occasions. I felt like S&G owed me a tofu burrito dinner since I've been craving one since I got back in the states and have yet to have them. Why not combine paying off your debts while someone else is cooking? Sounds brilliant to me.

Tasty tofu burritos followed by Mexican amaretto tequila and speed scrabble. Sounds like a wicked combination... Fortunately Brad feigned a cat allergy before I completely dominated in downing tequila and putting down scrabble pieces.

Good times everyone! We'll do it again.

Thanksgiving '08

Images of Thanksgiving 2008. That's what Thanksgiving is to me: family, raspberry pie and playing cards.




Before & after.

mallory cave

Jason and I took a quick hike up to Mallory Cave today in the beautiful weather. Photo of Jason doing his curious squirrel impersonation:

Carving Pumpkins

Mom and I spent the afternoon gutting pumpkins, cooking pumpkin seeds and carving our pumpkins. I tried to carve a pumpkin of my sinister sister since that was the scariest thing I could think of...

Hahaha

Back in CO!

My first homemade meal in Colorado! Mom rolled out some Italian pizza rolls to remind me that I should stay in Colorado longer...

Look delicious don't they?
Artistic presentation of an Italian pizza roll about to be devoured.

Merry Christmas from Colorado

Lots of snow back home...


My family...


and my Christmas present...

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving from Bangkok everyone!

Send me photos of your feast and family and I will post them here if you like.

American Navy Guys

So today was one of those rainy days, I learned its easier not to fight it, I went to the Internet cafe to let it pass. Problem though, there was a storm in the Internet cafe as well...

I didn't realize it until later but 350 seamen from the American Navy had landed in the small town of Hakodate. Some American dudes were cussing up a storm and being real asses. Effing this and f-bomb that... Loud enough for the entire cafe to hear. Repeatedly. I have been to this cafe several times, I know the people that work there. They know I am American and that I don't speak Japanese well. Today, I got the wide-eyed, wrinkled-nose, head nod that translates internationally to: I don't like those guys, I wish they would leave. I assumed they were disgruntled NOVA employees and apologized to the staff and went on my way.

Then walking home I saw three gaijin asking a native for directions. She was trying to be polite but I was clear she didn't know and was done trying. Turned out they were some creeps from the same ship... They were looking for lingerie and dildos for their wives. I have only known you guys for 10 seconds and I already feel uncomfortable.

This is the first since arriving in Japan that I have felt unsafe.

Story isn't over though. I met the captain and the commanding officer that night in the local bar... Told you it was a small town. So I got to chatting with them and my opinion is that they are both class acts. Speaking zero Japanese but very polite. Gentlemen. Then a dozen of their seamen walk in. Complete jackasses. Bragging about the size of their wankers and muscles and tattoos. More f-bombing the effing f-bombs. Several, with wives and children, talking about getting a piece of ass before leaving town... Taking their shirts off challenging Japanese people to arm wrestling.

One dude bragging to me about understanding 80% of whats being said. Not likely. He didn't seem to catch the parts about his friends being drunks, being fat, I don't like them, or lets leave if they are staying. In fact, none of the Navy guys seemed to realize they had scared every local person out. Don't need to speak Japanese to see that.

I was so embarrassed. These are Americans. Brothers from my country... Such arrogance. Drunks. Ambassadors. No wonder the whole world hates Americans. Stupid. Disrespectful. This is the image we are portraying abroad... Loud. Ostentatious. Rude.

So then I started thinking about the captain and xo. Here they are doing joint operations with the Japanese military for the next three years and the two highest ranking big cheeses on the boat don't even know the words for please or thank you in the bar? They are observing all this obnoxious behavior without an eye roll. No doubt they have seen worse. This is what its like in every port town when the American Navy comes through?? This needs to change.

So we went to a different bar. Much quieter. I started talking to a couple Russian guys who spoke English very well. They confided they wanted to meet some women but were having trouble cause they didn't speak Japanese. Found out later they were married too. At this point I was fed up with drunken sailors, so I told them to go to the bar we had just left. Lots of beautiful women there. I even gave directions. My only hope is that they found it.

oops got on the wrong train

Saw this sign on the train and figured I must have fallen asleep... No, in fact, there really is a town called Usa in Japan.

my sisters photos

From my sis:

We made our first assignment to photograph an object that represents you. I shot a Bonsai tree and a paper airplane. Figured you would appreciate the thoughts behind them both. Bonsai is trying to be sculpted and molded into something strong and beautiful. The paper airplane is flying into the wind, but still holding it's own. Fragile, it can either glide or crash.

Friends on Mt Sherman

Some friends of mine in Colorado on the summit of Mt Sherman at 14,036 feet. Wish I was there to do some 14ers with you guys... Miss you all!

Cottonwood camping trip and Mt Yale climb

Waking up at 4:30 after drinking beer and whiskey around the campfire was easier than I was expecting. Actually, I was already awake (from the singing wood nymphs, but thats another story) when Chessie blasted me with her headlamp, "Morning Sunshine".

Mt Yale was a 30 min drive away and it was a good thing to let my stomach have a little time to digest the breakfast burrito. I didn't know it yet, but I was going to need it. The trail is absolutely beautiful. It's all uphill but it weaves around in the pine forest following a stream up. There are the most bizarre holes drilled in the rocks in the trail, I have no idea why someone went to so much trouble to put them there. There were so many flowers along the trail! Oi. The camera was getting its macro workout this morning. The ridge at treeline is the most beautiful spot I have ever been on a 14er. Weathered dead trees just below the ridge. Grass and flowers everywhere. And the view of nearby peaks. Oi.

But that's were things started to get ugly. My stomach was not happy about last nights whiskey and I was starting to get that altitude fuzziness in my head. The switchbacks to the summit were brutal with loose rock and my poor form was really starting to show. I wanted to power up the hill but it wasn't going to happen today. If I'd gone any faster than crawling my power up would have been a power purge. Oi. The summit was a brief flurry of photos before we started back down. This seemed like heaven to me, my stomach issues went away, my headache went away. But Chessie and Sandie didn't fare so well, blister breaks were happening more and more often. The discovery of the day was back at the trailhead 12 hours later. We had hike 11.5 miles round trip instead of the 8 miles we were predicting... No wonder we were pooped.

Hike to Ouzel Falls

The first time hiking at Wild Basin with Sandie was a mosquito infested nightmare for me. She seemed pleased that I was along to keep the mosquitoes at bay however. We agreed to come back and hike up to Ouzel Falls sometime. I hope she's not mad, but I decided to hike up here on my own since my time in Colorado is growing short.

The wild flowers were amazing! The trail was bordered with flowers of every shade and size. And where there are flowers there are butterflies. I must have been out at the right time on the right day because there were butterflies everywhere. So naturally I went tromping about after them trying to get some photos.

So we'll get up there next time Sandie.

Hot air balloon ride

Finally, the hot air balloon ride! After a year and a half of rescheduling due to weather we got on it and rode! You missed out Doy... Our pilot was a crazy Swede, who thought skimming the houses over the golf course would be heaps of entertainment. I've never seen so many folks scampering about in their bathrobes to take a photo. But then, how many times have I hovered 10 feet above their house... Every time that crazy Swede fired the burners I thought the top of my head was going to melt. The landing was interesting, we put down in a marsh between some power lines... I told you he was crazy. Apparently we were running low on fuel and he wasn't confident that we had enough to clear the lines.

And then mixed berry crepes at the Huckleberry, does a morning get any better?