Equirox

It crossed my mind this morning as I drove to work that the year is 3/4 over. 75% done. The autumnal equinox pretty much came and went. And we marked the weekend with a visit to Aaron and Michelle up in Maine there. We didn't do anything special. We didn't even go to church, but my little marking of the event is a thankfulness to God that we're living day to day, whether or not the year is 1/4 or 7/15 over. It's been an interesting year.
So aside from my sudden sadness that 2001 is more waning than waxing, here's a recap of the events and some of my thoughts on the state of the world.

As mentioned, this was the Autumnal Equinox, or Equirox as we called it. We try to name our gettings-together with Aaron and Michelle because they are special events. And because naming shit is fun!
When we went to visit them in May, it was Lobstercaust weekend. Many (6) lobsters died. And a feast of remembrance was held for them. Plus a lot of wine and barbecued stuff consumed. It was a blast. Equirox was established before the events of September 11, and those events have kind of mellowed or bummed the collective four of us out, so we needed a fun get together. Doug and I also referred to this weekend as "Operation Northern Justice" to kind of make fun of that whole naming military actions thing... It was not as cool as Equirox though.
We got there on Friday night, about 9pm. Settled into watching the celebrity "event" for the world to see that they cared about America and they wanted us to care too and give money. I thought it was cheesy, poseurish, and annoying, so we sat and mocked it. I did feel sorry for Muhammed Ali, having to defend his faith, and I thought Julia Roberts was going to cry her ass off at one point. The little celebrity storytelling vignettes between the songs did nothing for me except seethe, thinking to myself that Hollywood just always has to jump on the bandwagon. ugh.
The majority of the music was great though. Seeing Neil Young perform with Eddie Vedder from Pearl Jam (love the haircut Eddie!), Sting's soft and tender rendering of "Fragile" (although I would have preferred his Christmas song of "Gabriel's Message" for that moment in time), and Wyclef Jean's presentation of Mr. Bob Marley's "Redemption Songs" were the highlights for me. I hate Celine Dion. I didn't care at all for stupid Sheryl Crow or the majority of the folks they chose... so it was fun mocking them. Horray! Hollywood people care! Woo hooo! I feel SO MUCH BETTER KNOWING THAT!!!!!!!!!! man alive.

I also wonder how many people called up during the 2 hour happy fest thinking they were gonna get to talk to Goldie Hawn or Cuba Gooding, Jr., or any other celebrity manning the phone bank... only to get some girl in Houston Texas at the 'real' phone bank. All those celebrities were talking to their agents. Check out Tom Cruise here... I can almost hear him now...

"Hey, Morty, It's Tom. Yeah. I know. Hey, I gotta question, are you watching? Yeah. Okay. So, do I look like I'm really into this... Oh, you think I should pretend to write something down.... No shit, really? yeah, what a great idea! Okay, I'm nodding and looking sincere... Pretend to write something... yeah. Got it. Okay..."

(notice, Tom brought his new girlfriend Penelope, she's sitting there not knowing how to take down a credit card number, or knowing what a credit card number is for that matter. Man is she ugly. Nicole was MUCH cuter).

Poseurs.

So after a hearty mocking, we went to bed. 

The next morning we got up and went to a country fair. Not just any old run of the mill country fair, but the Maine Organic Farmers and Growers annual "Common Ground" fair. The fair really cool, even though I personally don't agree with a lot of "political action" content that comes with this scene... I mean, hey, farm and be free to be organic but don't make it married to Friends of Castro and Falun Gong content all the time.

Organic farming is cool. I'm all for free range cattle raising (there was a lot of organic meat there, even though I at first feared it'd be kelp burgers under the communal tarp), and I'm all for food that has no radiation content. I'm all for "heirloom" vegetables, which my husband had to explain to me, I'm all for chicken without hormones injected in them.

But I really don't feel connected through that to the far liberal end of other things, like lobbying congress to get our policies regarding Cuba changed, or the Green Party in its full rolling glory, or anti-science stuff. I'm okay with testing on animals for the most part as long as they aren't being overtly tortured. Aaron's mom is alive today because her breast cancer treatments were animal tested. I am okay with that. It's kind of too bad, and perhaps stuff doesn't need to always be tested on animals, but I understand why it needs to take place.

I like farming when it's just farming and there isn't stuff tied to it that is all political and has strings attached. It makes me uncomfortable to be around people of that ilk. And if they knew I was a conservative Christian republican chick, they'd run me out on a rail.

I used to be kind of into the whole co-op granola scene in college. The older I get the more convinced I am that it's just too goofy, and for all it tries to liberate, it just constrains life further. When what I put into my mouth is tied to someone else's opinion, it makes me want to go to Burger King or something. So I tried to look past the overtly over the top liberal tree hugging anti-war stuff to see the cool stuff that was there.

There were really cool artisans there who had awesome furniture and clothing and arts and crafts. I was impressed by the handiwork. And blown away by the prices.

There were a lot of booths of tractors and farming equipment on display, which I thought was cool, and they were situated right beside a guy selling scythes. Yup. True organic farming I guess. 12th century style farming. Farming as it's done in some places under the Taliban regime farming. May as well go all the way if you're going to do it! Doug and I joked around that we should buy one and he can dress up as the grim reaper for Halloween, and trim the grass along people's walkways!

Aaron wants to build a geodesic dome house, it's his life long dream. So he was in his glory looking at solar panels, dome constructing booths, alternative furnaces and the like. He hung out with the organic toileting folks, and had a groovy time of it all. I'll look forward to hanging out in his geodesic dome house someday... he'll get it done once they have the money and the land they need. And it'll rock.

Anyway.

So the fair was overall really fun. For dinner after we were sufficiently beat to exhaustion, the boys went shopping for foodstuffs (hunter-gatherer types that they are) and I made a chicken parmesean that couldn't be beat. At least not this side of Italy. It was a great meal to cap off a day.

Sunday morning at about 7:30 Aaron & Michelle's dog, Gonzo, and Kinger were playing with the kids. I was trying to sleep and the chaos was happening right next to my head. Playing usually deteriorates to Geoff irritating Gonzo or Gonzo just getting over stimulated and the chewing on the child begins... so I rolled over to take ahold of Gonzo's collar at the first sound of trouble, and when I did...

I took a flying high-speed paw right to the left eyeball. Mother of GOD! That hurt. Oh man. More pain than I remember in a long time, localized right in my one tiny little rolling eyeball nestled in its little orbit.

Gonzo was jumping up onto the futon where I was sleeping, right where my face was. And his front right paw, claws and all, went right into my eye. I've got a bruise under my eye, and the white of my eye is about 50% red all along the left side of the eyeball... and it is really starting to hurt, so I just called the Doctor to go in and have it checked out. It's getting redder and more inflamed. Stupid Dog! Ouch! Damnit! 

That kind of put a damper on the day for me on Sunday, so we sat around drinking Irish coffee, chatting, eating, chatting... until it was time to go. We got home at about 9:30, got the kids to bed, and collapsed.

I need a weekend from my weekend, again!

Aaron and Michelle are coming down to see us next in about 2 weeks. We'll probably go to Boston to see Jon Svetkey play out. He's a musician I used to be really close to back in the day, and he's doing his first solo gig in over 4 years at Club Passim. If I can find a sitter.

I'm off to the doctor to get the eye looked at. I've got more stuff to chat about... but it'll have to wait.