2008-11-11

While the skies gently wept and the thermometer barely exceeded forty degrees, Dianne and I went to Images Salon for facials and haircuts. It is lovely to have a non-itchy face for a while, and sport a cropped pixie instead of the shaggy one with which I came in! We topped off the occasion by dining at The Cheesecake Factory, where Dianne adores the turkey burgers.

She was concerned that she should give me money for gas, as I always drive when we go out, and so I said, “Treat me for lunch today and we’re good through 2009!” She did so, and I ordered Steak Diane in her honor. We laughed and talked and I came home wrapped in the glow of togetherness and belonging that a girlfriend gives you, feeling loved and cherished. We’ve been friends since 1975! Dianne is a deep, very penetrating thinker and I value her greatly.

On December 23rd, at our next visit to Images,I will become purple-haired – a nice deep purple that only shimmers a bit off black except where I have gray hairs. The gray will function as my natural highlights, since the purple color will come out vividly where there is gray. It has worked well for my last two Christmas forays into hair color – green and then ruby red – and I so look forward to being a Purple Lady! I would have colored my hair this time around, except I wanted to spare Jim’s Mom. She has a hard time with my antic taste in do’s! She’ll have to put up with me in early spring, but for the upcoming visit to Nebraska after Thanksgiving, I’ll still be brown-haired and normal looking for her 91st birthday.

I wrote Mel a thank-you note for all the hard work she has done lately, for the Channeling Intensive cooking and on behalf of my seasonal clothes-changing. In my present state of breathlessness and lack of mobility, such perfectly ordinary tasks are a bit beyond my reach, and Mel has become my arms and legs and loving hands in so many ways! Thank you, Melissa of Avalon!

I also filled her in on our Thanksgiving plans and asked for her help in cooking the appetizer, the dessert and the morning-after breakfast. Fortunately I have just finished reworking the Breakfast Foods folder in my recipes database – as of today, Ta Da! - so we have any number of fun casseroles from which to choose for making Friday morning’s breakfast a good one for our guests, Eric and Phellis. I have also reworked the Appetizers folder, and we’ve got lots of good choices there. I’ll start on the Desserts folder tomorrow and maybe by the time Melissa and I reach that festive day, we’ll have some good choices there too.

Gary always sees to the vegetables and starches for such occasions, and Mick always cooks the turkey. However Gary is visiting his Dad for the big day, so he’ll help cook our feast, but he won’t get to enjoy eating it until it’s leftovers.

After I rolled back in from that delicious lunch, shook the rain out of my jacket and headed upstairs to my office, I found myself in a state of almost instant sleep, and though I roused several times and wrote some e-mails, I never could focus well enough to write my UPI article. I’ll tackle that again tomorrow morning, the Lord willing!

I am thrilled to say that Robert Schwartz and Stephen Tyman, whose books in the field are well respected, have both written me blurbs for the back cover of 101 as of today! Mick sent in a summary of the text and Gary sent in the bar code. So I am all set for the back cover material except for Phyllis Schlemmer’s blurb and Jean-Claude Koven’s. They also are noted authors in my fringe area of research, especially Phyllis, whom I first met in 1974 at Andrija Puharich’s house in Ossining. She is a seasoned veteran, serving as a channel for ET sources and traveling the world meditating for peace. Phyllis wrote to say she’d send me the blurb by tomorrow. Thank you, Phyllis!

Jean-Claude has gone silent. He is probably traveling and speaking as he so often does, but if I do not hear from him by tomorrow, I’ll move on without his blurb. I think I’ll have enough copy for the back cover without it.

I felt increasingly unwell as the evening wore on, my right eye starting to swell up and my tummy troubling me, so Mick and I kept the evening very quiet and focused on how wonderful it was to be together! We had a late supper, joined by Gary, and it was Gary who offered the last prayer at tonight’s Gaia Meditation.