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.

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

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 100,000^th 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

It’s a slow friday night. Not much happened today. and that’s just fine with me. It’s nice having a day with no special significance.. and nothing planned.   Gabe had spent the night up with friends on the mountain.. Max slept in.. I decided to take the time to weld up the frames for the fused glass projects the kids are doing. The glass is for  the Friends of Sam Art Auction next Friday at JDK.. (I’ll post details as soon as I have them) .  The projects will start with a 10 by 10 inch plate of clear glass. The kids will then create designs using bits of colored glass which we’ll then fuse together using Jen’s kiln. It’s a really beautiful effect. Jen and I designed a really simple holder made out of an ‘H’ made out of 1/2 inch mild steel welded to a section of 2 inch angle iron . It’s amazingly relaxing and healing for me to work with my hands like this. Welding is such a zen sport.. it’s so cool to transform a bunch of chunks of steel into a designs.  We started from whatever we could find in steel stock at our local home depot.. which isn’t much

It’s satisfying to mass produce things too .. it must be the same appeal as quilting.. or needlepoint.. or accounting.. or things like that.   Here’s the finished product..

By the time I was done I’d welded and ground off severalponds of metal.. the floor was covered with steel dust.. the perfect place to write Sam’s name. I still find a place to write it every day.. (sand, mud, snow, rocks, vegatbales) /

Around 2, Diane rescued me from the fumes of welding and dragged me outside for a snowshoe. We had to take Trevor up to teh mountain to meet up with Gabe..  so we started from there with Chai takign the lead. There was a ton of new snow. it was beautiful .. We got part way up the mountain and ran into our friends Tom, Silas, Brad,  Parker and Jake.   Tom took a bad fall the other day and got cut on the ice as we were  coming down from the top of the mountain on Tuesday. He says it looks worse than it is.. I hope so

Here’s silas

Multipierced Brad

Parker.. who is up visiting for the holidays.. It’s really good to see him. Sam was visiting Parker with their frind Eric when he was killed. We feel such a strong connection with both those boys now..

… and our buddy Jake.

We took a nice hour loop n the backwoods trails.. It seemed like midwinter up tehre.. (it was 17 degrees and windy.. so it felt like winter too !)

We came across this guy pointing to a gnarly jump made out of stone way out in the woods..

Here’s a beutiful snow spirit I saw

On our way back we found this bus parked way high on a trail with this crazy jump on top of it.. I can’t imagine how it works.

By the time we got back to the car we were pretty frozen. .. I had major icycle action in my beard.

Around 5 we headed up to Jen and Tim’s to make soem more SamStones.. there was a big Halo match goign on. Nate tried to give me a lesson in the game.. I’m completely hopless at it.   Not good news becasue I’m supposed to be figurign out how to promote video game technology in education.

Tim and Jen have a beuatiful picture of Sam above their computer.

Around 7:30 Our friends Lee-Ann , Linda and her daughter Andrea showed up from Endicott. Linda is Diane’s best friend from when she was a kid.. and Lee-Ann was her frist baby sitting job !. They’ve all come up for the Sam Concert tomorrow. it’s great seeing them !

We’re really excited about the benefit concert tomorrow night.. It looks like it’s goign to be a great show.. we’ve got the music, food and parking all set.. now all we need is the people !. You can find details here. Please come down and help us make some noise for Sam !  we love you Sam…

See you all tomorrow !
-me