stay on the good side of karma

i fear that i am not the person i want to be. i want to be a much better person, and am going to commit to this.

So a few weeks ago I had some AWFUL luck/karma.
I went to a blues and bbq fest and one the bbq pits had wood in it that had poison ivy on it and burnt it. I was one of several hundred people who ended up with poison ivy EVERYWHERE! – seriously one of the worst experiences of my life.
But this weekend I was finally starting to get better so I went out with some friends and while at the bar it was pouring rain and I was already a bit drunk. I ran out of cigarettes and wasn’t going to drive, and walking 6 blocks to and from the gas station in the rain sounded not fun. So another friends i ran into at the bar said he’d buy me a pack from the machine.
The machine is OLD and wont take anything but $1’s (because all the other bills have been redesigned in the last few decades) and packs are $6. – my friend had exactly 6 ones – and i got the very last pack of my brand.
it was cosmic! – so maybe thats the universe paying me back a bit for the poison ivy.

It has been a nightmare of weather here in the Bay Area and the rtest of Northern Cali. Luckily. I had nothing to do last night and today and so I just watched the last few episodes of the Fourth Season of the Wire. Fu$/ing Brilliant as always. That show never dissapoints.

KInd of nice to watch the gale force winds outside my window tossing the trees and the rain battering the land, while I sit snuggle up with one of the best Television series ever. Gonna go get the last few episodes of Lost Season Three now for the remainder of this storm tonight. Let us just hope the blackouts don’t Oaktown like they have in Sac and elsewhere.

Oh and as far as San Fran losing Tatiana, call me a misanthrope if you wish but those kids were asking for the claws. If you play with wild animals yer bound to get smacked. We shall se if this Country and world can ever ge over the bad karma of screwing up the enviornment so bad that Mother Nature is becoming the wild tiger unleashed from her cage.

(p.s. – people are not supposed to be able to surf under the Golden Gate bridge in the real world; who knows what world we are living in now.)

so – i’ve been informed that karma has no good or bad side – it just is. and for me to even think it has ‘sides’ that i clearly didn’t understand the concept.

but thats all besides the point. the point is that i’ve been failing miserably. i need to get my shit together and start doing good things.

so the other day i got a fortune cookie that said that my luck had been completely changed.

i’ve not decided how to take this yet.

also – as far as this goes, i’ve been doing “research” on this by watching a lot of episodes of “My Name is Earl” in my free time.
so far so good?

Had just returned from belated Christmas shopping today when I noticed that there was a cute little bird flying in my apartment stiarwell. Somebody new was moving in on the ground floor and somehow a little bird had flown in. I tried to get the window screens open but to no avail and so the little guy kept flying into the windows. At last he seemed tired and afeard and so when I put out my finger he eventually let me carry him a little ways down the stairs. Then he would fly into a window again.

At last he started to trust me and I was able to walk him down all 3 flights and open the downstairs door.

He flew off past the afternoon traffic and out to the lake and freedom. He must be a sign of something good to come.

It was my Mom’s 60th Birthday Celebration last evening. Me and my Bro spent all day preparing for roughly 50 guests for a BBQ/Lawn Party. Everybody brought amazing dishes. Unfortunately the songstress who performed spanish arias last year was out of the country this year, but it was still plenty festive. My Mom’s friends still know how to party.

She loved the stone-sculpted Buddha that I got her and I managed to bring the cake out flanked by all the little kids singing Happy Birthday as if the cast of Annie had just flew in. Thing was, I told the cute gal at the Bakery to put “Happy Birthday Mom” but somehow she misheard me and I did not notice it said “Happy Birthday Mon” until I was bringing it to the table. So, everybody noticed it was a Jamaican birthday cake and thought I had meant to do it as a joke. Hey, everyone was rolling with laughter so I’ll take the accidental credit.

Twas a nice time. And as I have known for many years, and many people said over and over yesterday, I have a great Mom. Having a Mom that everybody in town loves and respects sure gives ones karma much positive energy.

“To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children…to leave the world a better place…to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.”
– Ralph Waldo Emerson

I was driving home from a trip to San Francisco, daydreaming about this and that, about creative endeavors, of skimpilly clad sprites prancing through fields with flowers in their hair, or somesuch, when I saw a small turtle on the side of the road. He was right at the white line with his head raised to sniff what in the world he had come upon.

“No way,” I thought toi myself, ” I did not just see a little turtle standing on the side of the road just waiting for me to drive by. I must have imagined it”

I was going a good 65mph plus and I was late, surely there had been no turtle, and if there was he surely would no to go back to where he had come.

At last, I turned around and went back and sure enogh there he was in the same spot trying to figure out if he should continue forward or what in the world were these strange, large beasts whizzing by. I scooped him up, saw no area far enough from the road to vouchsafe his safety. There were three new houses going up in this once beautiful strip of road. So, I drove him home. I always had wanted a turtle but judging by the frantic attempts he made to escape on my drive, he was a wild and never-to-be tamed turtle.

I got home and took him to the pond in the back where the frogs conduct their nightly symphony. He looked quite happy as he waded around in the shallows, realizing I was no longer going to hold him captive.