We’rve just come back from the Friends of Sam Art Auction at JDK.. and I’m so sleepy I can hardly type. It was a great event thanks to the kids with great help from Deb, Jen, Liz and the generous doantion for all our artistic friends. I got there around 5:30 and found Deb putting out a veritable feast of hors-devours with help from the kids who  were all dressed up to serve. The food was all delcicious… I stocked up before heding down

We haven’t completely tallied the bids… but most of the art sold.. and the Friends of Sam raised more than 2000 dollars for the Chittenden Emergency Food Shelf..  That’s a wonderful take for the evening.. Our big thanks to the Friends of Sam and Deb, Jen, and Liz for plannign the event and making it happen.. And our thanks to David K and JDK for allowing us to host the auction in their beutiful building.

We met a woman named Nancy who’d had a Heart/liver transplant a few years back.  She told us about  how the organ donations saved her life. We talked about  all the emotions around transplant. It was really good to see how healthy and vital she was..

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.

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

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..

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…

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..

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