Horoscope and gratuitous dog pictures

Rob Brezsny prognosticates for Sagittari this week:

Poet Kay Ryan told the Christian Science Monitor that her poems often begin "the way an oyster does, with an aggravation." Her ultimate intention, however, is to liberate her readers. "I like to think of all good poetry as providing more oxygen into the atmosphere; it just makes it easier to breathe." I believe this progression from aggravation to liberation is a strategy you could profitably pursue in the coming days, Sagittarius. If you agree to absorb what's bugging you, you'll ultimately create an expansive new swath of breathing room for yourself and everyone around you.

Hmm, well, which thing that is bugging me should I be absorbing and liberating the world from? Lord knows there's plenty. Some things very superficial. Others run much deeper, and make me feel like a petty asshole for being annoyed at small things. I mean, come on. Spring is a season of birth and also death, oddly. I have been, am, overwhelmed.

In completely unrelated news - another Sagittarius I hang out with is an established poster dog for Independent Animal Rescue. Every six months or so, I'll run into a picture of her somewhere out in public and think, "what a cute dog! Oh wait....that's my dog." So here are some glamour shots of the model herself. I particularly like the picture of the back of her head. It's rather funny looking.

Indiana Glamour Shots

More pictures of the garden coming soon, so stay tuned.

Cold snap

We've had a cold snap over the past few days. I've been to the Boys' Club morning and evening to cover the beds over with sheets in the hopes that we could keep the frost from hurting anything, but to no avail. The tomato plants bit the big one last night. My own stupid fault for planting them too early. Last frost in NC is April 15th, now they tell me! It's so sad to see them, wilty puddles of grey-green sadness where healthy wee plants once stood. Luckily, the cold did not seem to bother the sunflowers that had already started poking up, or any of the greens or herbs or the strawberries. So, we're still very much in business. I'm afraid our germination rate for the warm-weather crops - peppers, watermelons, cucumbers, and such that were already in the ground - isn't going to be too great, though. Bummer.

Kings gets bulldozed tomorrow morning. I don't even want to get into it, but it's depressing as hell.

I seem to have had a bug up my butt the past few weeks, and I'm not sure what it's about. I've been testier than usual, more easily irritated, and more negative. I find myself bitching more than usual that "I hate when people do X..." or "I can't believe he didn't X..." or "I would do this so much better...." Totally obnoxious. The world can't possibly have gotten more annoying all the sudden, so it's probably me, sigh, and now I'm annoying myself.

My mind goes to a hundred explanations of why. Not enough veggies in my diet, not enough exercise, not enough sleep, too much sleep, hormone fluxes, seasonal allergies, not enough "me" time, too much "me" time.... It could be any combination of things. I worry, though, that it runs a little deeper than that stuff. I think this particular cold snap in my mood is about anxiety. The temperature is rising (or was, anyway), inspiration is flowing, new projects and ideas are springing, and I feel anxious. Lots of balls in the air. Lots to do. Lots to go well, lots to fail. Changes on the horizon. These are anxiety-inducing times.

Spring is also bringing out the birds and bees, and I find myself giving out big, goofy smiles to cute boys like it's going out of style. I've been on a man break, you see, and it's been great, but now I find myself back at square one, back to flirting with strangers in the sweet, sweet springtime. While this should make me feel all goofy and carefree, it doesn't. It makes me feel lonely. It makes me miss people I have no business missing. I feel a little bit like a recovering alcoholic who fell off the wagon. You can break a habit like that, but you're always vulnerable, there's always some part of yourself that's still addicted, and given the chance, slips comfortably back into old habits. I should write a country song 'bout drinkin', gamblin', and missin' people who ain't no good for you. Anyway, that all makes me feel kind of frustrated and weird, and kind of anxious, too....the impending doom of springtime hormone surges. (fill in eerie horror movie music here.)

Come on back sunshine, get me all warm and fuzzy and make me forget this nasty little cold snap. Sometimes it's better to just ride it and not think to far back or ahead, you know?

Big Dig

Garden time at the Boys' Club is shaping up to be my favorite part of each week. There have been lots of complications: the garden was hijacked for an hour by a rogue digger once and it took us two hours to get it back the way we had it....the faucet for the hose is broken and we have to use a screwdriver to turn the water on and off....pollen season is upon us and one kid can't come outside until it's over because of severe allergies....the kids are unruly and easily distracted..... but they are so genuine and sweet and smart, and they are LOVING the garden. Ah, it's so good, it is making me so happy.

Here are photos from the Big Dig a couple weeks ago -

Big Dig, 3/13/07

And here are more from garden club activities over the past couple weeks:

Boys' Club Garden - 3/07

Yesterday, we planted most of our seeds in the ground. Planting was always my favorite part of gardening when I was a kid, but then I think I was the type to map everything out on graph paper and measure and plot and all that nerdy stuff. Planting seeds actually seemed to stress the boys out yesterday.....the seeds are too small, the spacing is hard to get right, they'd cover seeds up and then forget where they'd planted.... When all was said and done, though, it doesn't matter a whole lot where your seeds end up, so long as they're in there somewhere - we can transplant the strays later.
So, one of the boys was planting onion sets with me yesterday. He was squatting on one side of the bed, and I was on the other. He said to me, "you know, I'm thinking about planting a garden at home."
"Oh yeah?" I said, "what kind of garden?"
"A vegetable garden. I was telling my family about this garden and my aunt asked me to help her plant a garden."
"That's great!" I said.
"Yeah, I think gardening is pretty fun. Maybe I'll plant tomatoes. Or squash."

My heart swelled. All this kid has done so far in our garden is dig and dig and dig, and then plant seeds and water. It's been three weeks. Nothing has been eaten or picked or even looks like something you could pick or eat yet, and already, he's having fun. Yesssssss!

Prophet margin on the rise

So, you know how I was yacking about America's need for prophets a couple months ago? I met one: Tyrone Hayes is, in my opinion, right up there with Tony Kushner and Vandana Shiva. These people are prophets for our time, who are holding our society accountable to its own moral standards by speaking the truth, and thank goodness, loudly.

Tyrone Hayes is a scientist brave enough to call out the various corporate and government agencies that are behaving unethically when it comes to health and the environment in this country, and brave enough to call out the jerks who are making money off these little arrangements while the majority of the harm accrues to the poor and people of color. The rich get richer and the poor get poorer, and poorer not just in financial terms: poorer environment, poorer health, poorer education, poorer communities, poorer opportunities. It is shockingly consistent.

He is also brave enough to break the scientific community's taboo on "sullying" science with advocacy - he shares his thoughts on all this with the general public at every opportunity, explains the science behind these problems in language that illuminates the complexities rather than glossing them over or dumbing them down, and stresses that we need not only to understand it, but to act on it, to get involved in changing this unethical system.

And, as if all that weren't awesome enough, his playfulness and passion make him a pleasure to watch in action, and to be around.

I highly, HIGHLY recommend that if you ever have the chance to hear him speak, you take it. Check out his website for more information on Dr. Hayes and his research, a web version of his presentation, and his speaking schedule.

Garden time!

It's almost garden time!

We haven't even dug anything up yet at the Boys' Club garden site, but it's already off to a great start - I have a fantastic crew of 7th and 8th graders working with me who are enthusiastic ("ooh, can we grow spinach?!" I almost cried!) and bring a wealth of previous gardening experience to the table (several have gardened with their mothers, grandmothers, and aunties in the past!). Meeting them was a huge highlight of my week....nutty as they are, I really love teenagers, and I've missed working with them. I've also got a great grown-up crew for this garden project of Boys' Club staff and volunteers that I'm really looking forward to working with.

As if that weren't enough good news, we're now up to $600 in donated gift cards and certificates for this garden project from three local Home Depot stores. As much as I hate using my blog to give props to the second largest retailer in the USA behind Sprawl-Mart, promulgator of big box capitalism, crusher of downtowns and small businesses, and purveyor of voluminous pesticides, among many other environmentally unfriendly products....damn, is it cool to have $600 to use for this garden. Home Depot will also be sending a crew of their "associates" out for a big work-day photo op. Iiiiiinteresting. I've only got 10 kids, and a few local volunteers - a crew of 30 Home Depot folks could quickly overwhelm us. I'm thinking of having them work on other landscaping and fix-it projects at the Boys' Club that day in addition to the garden...we'll see what the Boys' Club is needing.

Anyway, after the crazy week I'm about to have at work, I plan to get right out to the garden and start working! Check back here in the coming weeks and months for pictures, stories, recipes and other learnings from the Boys' Club garden.

And, if you have any tips for me on gardening in NC (last time I had my own garden it was in NY state!) and/or gardening with 12 year olds - favorite books, plants, ideas, sources for great organic fertilizers, etc etc - I'd be thrilled to have them, so please feel free to leave them here.
Thank you!