The last time I was here was in July of 2019. Why has it taken me over 6-months to revisit DanaJae to write a coherent, exploratory post? Is it possible because I have FOUR blogs and dozens of other ways to keep my creative mind in action? I realize that I have over 20 different writing books (the blank page type) that are all at different levels of pages filled. I am a notebook and a pen freakazoid. I have plenty, but I always buy another when I’m anywhere in the vicinity of a stationary or gifty kind of store. I find a new beautifully colored cover, or unique internal pages…and boy do I fill them! I have a busy mind!
I often write little bits of dialog or scene description, sometimes it’s a song lyric or a scribble of some other author’s amazing words (always, always giving them credit). Rebecca Solnit pops from several pages of my journals and on my blog site. I’m a delirious fan. I know of no other who can turn so much of our lives into pure poetry.
What else have I been doing that has kept me away from the world of DanaJae? I became the Co-Chair of our college Curriculum Committee in May 2019 and have been buried in course outlines and program outlines. No wonder July was my last post! It’s a fascinating experience, but so much more work than one is paid. I worked 70-to-80-hour weeks through much of the fall semester. So, even though I am learning so many things vicariously through these outlines: Automotive, Avionics, Biology, Chinese, Culinary Arts, Early Child Development Education, Earth Sciences, Environmental Horticulture, French, Forensics, Geography, Geology, German…the list goes on, but there is little time left for me. Alas, I’m working to change this now. (I’m writing a song about it titled: “Curriculum, Curriculum, Endoplasmic Reticulum.”)
Lastly, I’ve been doing something for the past couple of years that is MOST gratifying of all: finding my inner juju swimming in the San Francisco Bay! I took a break from November through January because I just couldn’t attempt the colder water that many of my club members shrug off to swim year-round. My swim buddy and I finally made it back yesterday and it was SO COLD I couldn’t breathe as I tried to sprint out into the opening past our pier into Aquatic Park. I struggled a bit to tread water, gasping, and kept telling myself to remain calm and slowly breathe in and out. It was at that point that swim buddy said, “I find that it’s best to keep my head out of the water in the beginning when it’s this cold.” We swam a bit further and decided on a goal: let’s swim around the little yellow dingy moored out a couple hundred yards. Just as we were doing this and taking in the beautiful moon over the Golden Gate Bridge on this gorgeous Tuesday early morning, we saw a Night Heron perched atop the front of another boat called “Grace Quan.” There she sat happily sunning herself looking ever the rock star at the front of the boat moored beyond the dingy. AMAZING. THIS is one of the amazing things I love about a Bay swim. It’s invigorating and filled with earthly delights.