Monthly Archives: November 2007

Thursday evening – yearbook

Frriends.. I apologize.. but this is the 4th time I’ve had to type in my blog for the evening due to computer problems. This posting will be brief.

Today was refreshingly ‘normal’… Normal meaning a fair sprinkiling of highs and lows, victories and bittersweet heartbreak. I’ll take that mix for now. the highs were mostly about my new temp job. I’m more energized and excited abotu my work than I’ve been in several years. I’m meeting some cool new people and I feel my creativity starting to come back some.. I think this will really be part of the recharge that I so desperately need

The bittersweet came in the shape of Sam’s 2007 class yearbook. Diane picked it up at MMU today when she was up teaching yoga. There’s a great tribute to sam on the inside front cover.. How many times have I seen those tributes in other peoples yearbooks. It’s always someone else.. it’s never supposed to be your.. or our.. kid.. He’s not going to graduate in 2010.. Oh Sam…

One nice touch we found is that Sam’s friend and Band mate Jeff had Sam’s Myspace name ‘bree_bree_roarororf’ as the caption under his own picture.Thanks for that Jeff.

The rest of the day had it’s interesting moments. I was on the phone all day as usual. I managed to slip into Moe’s for a quick burrito around 3:30 and ran intoour friend Meg working there.. Her dad Ken happened to be right behind me in line.. I felt like a taco

I had been scheduled to do a ‘Jolts and Volts’ show at Camels Hump tonight. Ken Wootan,  a  virtual neighbor and expert on  prevention of child sexual abuse was giving a talk. I was supposed to do my show while he spoke with parents privately. In the end, tehre wern’t that meany kids, so I got to hear most of Ken’s talk. he has soem really good ideas about educating kids on how to avoid dangerous situations. I was impressed with how pragmatic his advice was.

I did manage to do a mini-show for some of the kids and parents who stuck around aftetr the talk. I always love doing that.

Ken’s grandaughter on the van de graaf

Ke’s daughter (note the similar hairstyles )

I made a big mess as usual but was forgiven by Rogene, Toby and John..It was good seeing them.. they’re always so nice to me.  I sat around and talked to them and Rand for a whiile after the cleanup

When I got home it was time to help Diane with the backing for tomorrow’s Friends of Sam Art Auction.. I’m including this picture of a whole bowl of unwrapped reeses penut butter cups to entice you to come tomorrow.. it’s at 7PM at JDK , 47 Maples Street Burlington.. Details here.
You won’t beleive the cool stuff the kids have collected. Come down and bring your friends. Thanks !

That;s all for now.. See you at the Art Auccion  . Nite Sam
-me

Wednesday night – art for Sam’s sake

Not much to report today. I was busy, but didn’t seem to accomplish much. One productive part was a Reiki session with Marci. My back has been a wreck for a few weeks.. I thought I’d pulled it lifting something (the big tesla coil ? ) ,, but Marci pointed out thatI was probably holding a bunch of physical stress in my body leading up too and through last week. The expectations around the anniversary of Sam’s death have done a number on my body and my mind.. I do feel myself getting stronger again.. I feel pretty optimistic and energized… and of course sad, too. That’s life..

Tonight was fun.. Diane lead a snowboarders yoga class tonight with 14 eager boraders..includign Gabe.  As soon as that was over, we zoomed down to the Flynn Theatre in Burlington to see the Shaolin Warriors . They’re a traveling troup of buddhist martial artists that put on an amazing show of strength, grae and acrobatics. It was beautiful to watch.  ” Everyone was  kung-fu fighting. Those cats were fast as lightning.. “

They did all sorts of wierd danger stunts like breaking iron bars over their head, chopping cabbage on their stomachs, suspending themselves on spears, knives, nails and other sharp stuff and… here below… getting binked in the gut with a battering ram..   What ever turns you on, I guess !

We got home around 10 and immediately got to work on the Friends of Sam Art Auction stuff (remember, Friday, Nov 30 at JDK, 47 Maple St, Burlington see here for details)
As I write, Diane is busily matting and framing stuff. Here are soem examples we have.. and this is a tiny, tiny portion of the stuff we’ll be seeing on Friday.. I think it’s goign to be amazing..

Here’s a photo of Trevor that Gabe took.

Here are some cool works in progress that Matt T worked on. I helped him solder them together today.. They are now very cool picture holders. Theyre beautifull

Here’s a pen and ink from Max’s friend Liam at Pratt..


Here’s one from Max’s friend Chris at Pratt


Here’s a photo from Max’s freind Kate

Here’s one like the two snowboarder whirligigs that Homer helpued us make to sell. You have got to see these run !

Here’s the beutiful picture of Sam-as-Wonderboy that Coco did


Tim S, Pricsilla and Ivy dropped by some stuff including some of Ivy’s pictures in homemade frames and this beutiful table Tim Made (icture does not do it justice.. it’s a real work of art)


Here’s an amazing oil that Max’s freind Ryan did just for the show.


Max’s freind JJ from Pratt did this subtle piece 🙂 I love this one.. it was always on JJ’s wall. I can’t beleive he’d ever part with it.. it means so much to me that he donated it to the Friends of Sam

Max just called and told us that there’s even more Pratt art in the mail to us for the sale.

Stuff keeps coming in. If you have art you sould consider donating.. there’s ‘s still time to get it in.. please drop me a note or call us at 802-434-3576. Also.. we could use everyone’s help in gettign the word out about the event on Frday night. It’s mostly for adults.. there will be hors de vours, hordevours ? hor-desvores ?
(stuff to eat) .. a bar, music and great art. It’s worth coming down jsut to see the inside of JDK.. it’s a work of art in itself. We’d really like to fill the place.. so please consider coming.. and please pass on the invite to anyone who’d like to come.

OK.. All for now.. More tomorrow. Gn’te all, Gnite Sam
-me

Tuesday night – rainbow

I woke this morning with no idea where I was.  I was looking at a crib when it came back to me that I was still at my freinds Ruchir and Rashi’s house in NY. I find that it takes me much longer to come to my senses every morning when I wake up.. It always takes me a couple of minutes to sort through what;s real and what’s not in this new reality. I often have vivid dreams with Sam in them .. and every mornign have to let go a little again…

I got up, showered, dressed and said a quick good bye to Ruchir. He’s such a great host and such a good freind… He even fixed me a little aloo gobi pratha sadnwich for the road..   I had to get on the road by 8 in order to make a meeting in Burlington…
   The drive back was peaceful and uneventful.. I spent most of it on the phone in work calls.  Just before White River I was talkign on the phoen when I saw one of the most beutiful rainbow’s I’ve ever seen in the sky. it was incredibly bright and incredibly close. I almost ran off the road.. It looked close enough to touch.. I had the sense that I was driving through it. I did my best to get a picture from the car.. Pictures of rainbows never do them justice.. but this one was really amazing…


Here’s my attempt to get the whole thing in a picture from a moving car.. note it had faded by this point

Just as I was takign these pictures my phone rang.. but I was on a call so I couldn’t answer.. when I checked my messages 15 minutes later I found out that it was my buddy Homer calling to tell me that he was lookign at an incredibly bright rainbow in the field across from his house.. and it looked so close that he could touch it.   That may not seem so odd.. but he was in Monkton and I was in Windsor..  Hours of driving apart…

I called Homer back and told him of the time that Sam and I were driving on route 2 near Richmond.. We saw a really beutiful rainbow.. Sam said.. “Dad.. can we find the gold pot ? “.. he’d heard the legend of the pot of gold at the edge of the rainbow.. I started doing my scientist dad thing and began explaining the water droplets and refraction and how you could never…..     then I stopped myself and said… ‘why not ?’   We sped up and zoomed down route 2 and followed the rainbow most of the way up Bolton mountain road before it dissapeared..

I felt the whole incident was trying to tell me something.. but what ?!

Oy….
On the topic of Rainbows. our dear good friend , and guru Tim K wrote a poem about/for Sam and gave it to us last week. It really captures Sam’s spirit.. the shock of his passing, and the path we’ve walked since.   I think it’s amazing.. 

By the way.. the background is a picture of the double rainbow that appeared over our house a few days after Sam’s passing. Tim is one of the many folks who got pictures of it.

That’s all for now.. Love you guys.. love you Sam
-me

Sunday night – one year of blogging

I’m writing from Max’s dorm room down at Pratt. It’s about 11:45  and we just got here after a very peaceful drive down. It was good to have that time together in the car.. We didn’t talk much.. it was just nice being together listening to music.   I’m not going to write much this evening. Max and I need to make the rounds of his friends. Several of them have made donations to the Friends of Sam art auction that’s happening at JDK this Friday..   I’ll put the details on that at the end of this post….

One important thing to note is that it’s been exactly one year tonight that I began keeping this blog. I have written in it at least once a day through every one of the 365 difficult days in the years since Sam’s death. I honestly think this writing has been the single most healing and helpful thing I’ve done in trying to integrate Sam’s passing . The feedback I’ve received about this journal.. and the connections I’ve made and strengthened with the folks who read it have helped me so much in the past year.   

I’ve started to re-read entries from last year.. in no particular order. .  As I look back on it sometimes it’s been very sad.. others times news.   It is a record of how busy I’ve kept myself.. maybe too busy.. and  It shows me how self absorbed I’ve been ..  I’ve often wondered what it would be like to be someone else reading this blog …  I’m not sure I’d want to know this much about someone else’s life. 

Diane and I tell people now that we no longer believe that there are any real coincidences.. everything means something. I think it’s really … weird/cool/amazing that not only did today mark the year anniversary of this blog. .. but it also marked the 100,000th viewing of the blog. It happened at exactly 11:40 this morning while I was talking with my friend Homer on the phone.. and I just happened to catch it hit 100,000. . It’s like seeing your odometer got to 100,000 . It doesn’t mean much.. but it only happens once..

 

So.. several  folks have asked me if I intend to keep writing now that a years up. As I said last Tuesday.. the year mark feels  pretty arbitrary when it comes to marking Sam’s passing..  Just because it’s been a year doesn’t mean that I don’t need to stop doing the things I do to bring Sam into my life..     I can’t imagine stopping my writing now.. at the same time.. I can’t predict the future.  .For now I’ll keep at it.

 

Looks like Max and I need to go collect some artwork..   which reminds me.. We want to get the word out for the silent auction that the Friends of Sam are holding at JDK this Friday night. The kids have been making and collecting art for several months .. There will be paintings, hand made glass, pottery, musical instruments, welding.. every possible medium. Even some of Max’s art school buddies are contributing their works.  All the proceeds of the artwork goes directly to helping local kids.  I think this is going to be a very cool adult-oriented event. Please help us get the word out ! Here’s the info on the event:

Friends of Sam Art Auction

Event: Friends of Sam Silent Art Auction

 

                                       

Friday November 30, 2007 from 6 to 9pm

 

Hosted by: Jager, Di Paolo, Kemp (JDK), 47 Maple St

Burlington VT

 

Please Come and enjoy an adult’s night out.

There will be hors D’ oeuvres served, music played and a cash bar.

Donations at the door

Proceeds: To benefit the Vermont Chittenden Emergency Food Shelf     

For more information call 434-6421

-me