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BiB said he wants either world peace or coffee for Christmas. I remembered seeing something in Coffee Journal about a cafe in California that serves a World Peace blend. I rummaged throught my stacks of magazines and sure enough Urth Caffe does indeed have a World Peace blend in their catalog. I faxed in an order for 2 pounds of the stuff. From the description, it actually does sound good. So, as soon as it gets here I'll package it up with the Starbucks Christmas Blend and ship it off to Bosnia.
Wish La Madre and the nieces were as easy to buy for. La Madre doesn't want anything except world peace and an end to world hunger. The nieces have too much stuff. Lizzy even admits it. So what do you give kids who have too much? Love and affection are all fine and good but in this consumer culture, Christmas is about stuff. I can't believe I just wrote that, so cynical.
Christmas about stuff? I sure wasn't brought up that way.
Christmas was about god. We used to have to kneel and say a prayer in front of the nativity scene before we could open our presents.
Christmas was about sharing. I remember going to a settlement house in the 1950's bringing gifts and singing Christmas carols around the piano with refugee children.
Christmas was about family.
Stuff? Stuff!!!
This is the '90's. Everything is about stuff and the money to buy stuff with.
The thing is the kids are too young to appreciate the time I spend with them and the attention I give them as a gift that'll last longer than stuff.
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How can The Algiers be out of Algiers Special Mint Tea? Mint is what defines The Algiers.
I spent the day searching for and finally finding the photograph I promised to Paul Marion. I had two new copies made at the one hour photo, wrote a note to go with each of them and put them in envelopes ready to mail tomorrow.
I realized that in the October 10 entry I shrunk the "Paul's Pocket" photo down so much the point is entirely lost. The book in the pocket is On the Road - in French, Sur la Route. I made a copy of that one for Paul too and included it in the envelope. While I was at it, I fooled with it in Adobe Photo Deluxe (someday I'll get Photoshop, really I will - if I ever sell a novel or get a real job or get paying clients for Acme Bookmidwifing. Someday I should write here about Acme Bookmidwifing... anyway, Photoshop is in my future at some point). So I wanted to convey the book in the pocket thing in some other way. So I turned it into a charcoal sketch - ah, modern technology overcomes the fact that I can't draw. I kinda like the way it came out. Much more evocative than the original photo.
After a long day of hunting for the photos, fooling with photos, and ordering World Peace, I went to my Thursday night meeting and met Joan-west and her friend Anne afterward at The Algiers, where I learned they were out of Algiers Special Mint Tea. Joan and I had Italian sodas and Anne had hot chocolate.
It was fun to hang out and eavesdrop on the "intellectual" conversations. Were we that earnest in college?
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