The Great Big Fat Magical Universe of Jan

We want our magic to be memorable, we insist on the big epiphany explosions of color-lights-action and clarity while all the time magic is in the mundane, floating in the soft soup of the universe. The blade of grass growing. Dory Previn sung about it: Down where the iguanas play.

I am magical, I have been magical since I was three. What makes me magical is the willingness to accept without understanding. To let the divine, the eternal wash over me in all of it's mundaness. I haven't fit in since I was three, letting the world wash over you is different, odd. I couldn't conform enough to be a girl scout, a hippy or a PTA mom. Roger gave me a card once that said, " Masquerading as a normal person day after day is exhausting." "The truth is that I don't profess any belief in any orthodox sense. It seems to me that the mystery of life is too great and too wide and too deep for us to do any thing more than wonder at it. Anything further would be, as far as I'm concerned, an impertinence." Thank you John Huston.

We live, we exist in a magical world.

I am magical in listening, receiving and appreciating. I am magical in the passionate belief that the world is unfolding as it should. What's not to love. We may not recognize this new world because it's not our world, it is changing, influx, in constant transition, in constant motion, but it is right and it is magical. Everything dies and something will renew, will fill it's place whether it's a blade of grass, a human being, a star or a universe. Now that's magic.

Sir Issac Newton wrote: I do not know what I may appear to the world, but to myself, I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the sea-shore and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier sea-shell than ordinary whilst the great ocean of truth lay all un-discovered before me.

Thank you Roger, John Huston, Dory Previn and Sir Issac Newton for teaching and sharing the world with me, now on to the magic of paper, feathers and angel's wings.

May Jean have a magical recovery and may you have some magic in your day.

You Live In Washington If:

From my little chef friend, Amanda:

A little long I know, but it is funny and true!!


THIS IS WHAT JEFF FOXWORTHY HAS TO SAY ABOUT 'LIVING IN WASHINGTON'!
If someone in a Home Depot store offers you assistance and they don't work there, you live in Washington. If you've worn shorts, sandals and a parka at the same time, you live in Washington. If you've had a lengthy telephone conversation with someone... who dialed the wrong number, you live in Washington. If you measure distance in hours, you live in Washington. If you know several people who have hit a deer more than once, you live in Washington. If you have switched from 'heat' to 'A/C' and back again in the same day, you live in Washington. If you can drive 75 mph through 2 feet of snow during a raging blizzard without flinching, you live in Central, Southern, or Eastern Washington. If you design your kid's Halloween costume to fit over 2 layers of clothes or under a raincoat, you live in Washington. If driving is better in the winter because the potholes are filled with snow and ice, you live in Washington. If you know all 4 seasons: almost winter, winter, still winter, and road construction, you live in Washington. If you feel guilty throwing aluminum cans or paper in the trash, you live in Washington. If you know more than 10 ways to order coffee, you live in Washington. If you know more people who own boats than air conditioners, you live in Washington. If you stand on a deserted corner in the rain waiting for the "Walk" signal, you live in Washington. If you consider that if it has no snow or has not recently erupted, it is not a real mountain, you live in Washington. If you can taste the difference between Starbucks, Seattle's Best, and Tullys, you live in Washington. If you know the difference between Chinook, Coho and Sockeye salmon, you live in Washington. If you know how to pronounce Sequim, Puyallup, Issaquah, Snoqualmie, Wenatchee, Spokane, Umpqua, Yakima, and Willamette, you live in Washington. If you consider swimming an indoor sport, you live in Washington. If you can tell the difference between Japanese, Chinese and Thai food, you live in Washington. If you never go camping without waterproof matches and a poncho, you live in Washington. If you have actually used your mountain bike on a mountain, you live in Washington. If you think people who use umbrellas are either wimps or tourists, you live in Washington. If you buy new sunglasses every year because you cannot find the old ones after such a long time, you live in Washington. If you actually understand these jokes and forward them to all your Washington friends, you live or have lived in Washington.

Also if you wear your hiking boots to weddings, funerals, job interviews or church you live in Washington.

If you know what a sunbreak is you live in Washington.
If you know the difference between mist, drizzle, and rain you live in Washington.
If you know what a convergent zone is you live in Washington.
If you know that scattered showers doesn't mean intermittent through out the day but instead means from block to block you live in Washington.

I have more but you have probably had enough.

Snow, Frogs, Boys, Games

It snowed the other day, wet slushy Seattle spring snow, both morning and afternoon.

The frogs woke up on April 2, just in time to be caught in the wet slushy Seattle spring snow.

Christian has a new girl, Jada-Moon. He said that is her first name. He didn't tell me the rest of it, but after a few more probing subtle questions he very exasperatedly said; she's thirty-five, has a seven year old daughter, and lives in Tacoma. I said isn't that a little far and he very exasperatedly said well it's not as far as Olympia. (Where a girl lived he used to date) I decided I'd better not query any more.

Stephanie has a new car. A long elegant Subaru Legacy Sedan. Connor is in love; as they were showing it to me Connor pulled every lever, knob, switch, button, or control with a big ole smile on his face and one eye on me to make sure I was watching.

So does he love cars or controls or granny watching?

Ian is still Ian; quiet, kind, busy, helpful, and social. Did I mention adorable?


I don't do games. God didn't shoot that gene into my butt. I just don't have the gene.

I don't do lawn games, just ask Jane how I run during Ring-Around-The-Rosy. I don't do crossword puzzles, Janice once told me I was no help at all when it came to crossword puzzles.

I don't do computer games or anything with a controller. Christian tried to show me once and as I crashed the car into the left wall and then into the right wall and NEVER got the car going straight he took the controller away from me and never let me touch it again. Lonnie despaired of teaching me pool; ANYONE can form a straight line with a ball, a hand and the tail end of a cue stick. Anybody it seems but me.

I don't do card games, board games, or games of chance. Although Brittany's Apples to Apples game piqued intrigue due to the names on the cards. Once I spent nine dollars in four days for all food and gambling in Las Vegas, nope don't do much games of chance.

I don't do sport games. I'm even a lousy spectator. I used to go to all of Roger's wrestling matches and watch with my eyes covered. I couldn't stand to see him hurt or to hurt his opponent. Christian's fencing wasn't too bad and I could watch Ian dance all night, but I don't think dance is considered a game/sport.

I for sure don't do word searches, too visually busy, too much stimuli. I bowl like Godzilla. Too dumb for Sudoku. I will play solitaire; no fault no skill.

Connor and I enjoy growling, crawling, throwing, crashing games in the privacy of his home with NO other eyes around, but that's not really game time, it's Connor time. I occasionally participate in games at work to prove I'm a "game" employee, a team player. That counts at review time. And I devised several "test" games. One for Mark one for Janice and one for Stephanie. Were those games?

I admire skill, competence, smarts. I admire greatly photographs of athletes in all their grace, glory and beauty. I love a good old fashioned win-the-big-game sport movie. I've seen On Any Given Sunday and Remember the Titans, but I also love documentaries about trash (I've seen three) so maybe loving sport movies proves nothing.

Life is game enough for me. I have no grace, skill, beauty, smarts, talent, or glory and I'll lose in the end, but I sure enjoy playing the game.

Besides Roger got my taxes done.

Jane wins the contest, but I haven't decided what she's won yet.