Now That's Love!

It only took 32 years, but someone who isn't my brother has finally told me to shut my mouth! (Lucky for y'all, I don't have to open my mouth to post stuff on this blague...hah hah!)

Seriously, though, what would I do without Swamiji?

The Coffee Made Me Do It

Imagine we're hanging out at Starbucks (TM) and chatting about nothing in particular. That's what this posting is about. It's for those people who are seriously bored at work, people for whom I have great compassion. After all, it was my own devastating boredom at work that led to the birth of this blague four years ago.

Random Observations, Irrelevant Updates and Ridiculously Superfluous Titles

With no significant vices or addictions left to speak of, I've reunited with my old friend, coffee.

I have George to thank for this one. As a teenager I woke up every morning to the strong smell of thick, black coffee...so strong it tasted like roast beef. I guess he had to make it that strong since he usually spilled about half of it on me in the car.

But here in India milk is holy and it's unheard of to drink coffee or tea without a whole lot of milk. So now I make mine "holy style" with plenty of honey. I justify three or four cups a day by drastically upping my water intake.

Unfortunately, coffee is just not part of the "spiritual method," something I had time to consider as I lay awake in my bed in the wee hours of the morning, my 5:30 alarm fast approaching. Now that I'm back on the meditation wagon, it feels like summer vacation is over and I'm "back to school."

Seems the older I get, the younger I feel. My mama has decided to head out to the Kesh for a visit, to investigate what exactly is going on out here. She'll meet with Swamiji for a parent-teacher conference. Yup, I'm feeling about ten years old right now.

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Out of the Woods?

Four months of sickness is officially over, folks. You name it and I probably had it this summer; from the flu to giardia (for the third time) to all kinds of interesting infections (skin, intestinal, vaginal) and something called eosinophilia. Dr. Vishnu wasn't kidding when he said the summertime sees an increase in viral diseases.

But the most devastating infection I had this year was in my chest. I succumbed to severe bronchitis at the end of April but only just finished my last round of antibiotics yesterday. It seems a miracle, but I haven't coughed once in the last five days.

Last week I decided to visit an ayurvedic doctor just to mix things up a bit. He prescribed singing, dancing and massage - it's actually written on the prescription pad - for my "weak pulse." I haven't gotten to the singing and dancing yet, but the massage was first-class.

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Regarding that Astrologer...

After I made my appointment with Dr. Amodini, the astrologer across the river, I immediately fell ill with the flu and was forced to cancel. I took this as a sign that it wasn't meant to be and promptly forgot about it.

Ten days later I ran into an old acquaintance who has been practicing astrology for years. He drew up my chart on his computer and together we stared at it for a few hours while he tried to explain some of the finer points. One thing I noticed from looking at my chart is that we could easily spend weeks interpreting it; seems this astrology thing is a lot more complicated than I had previously imagined.

Most of his explanations - about planets and houses and signs and degrees and retrograde movements - went in one ear and out the other. But I was captivated by the cycles he showed me in my chart; it turns out that in 2002, Mars entered my sixth house (or something like that) and will stay there until October 2009. Apparently this is a contradictory position for Mars, indicating a difficult period of negation, frustration, impulsivity and the attraction of aggressive influences around me. In other words, I've essentially been PMS-ing for the last seven years.

Now for the good news: this 7-year cycle ends (approximately) in October, after which Mars will chelo from its troublesome position and I will move into a new, 18-year cycle emphasizing "higher education, spiritual growth and a more practical nature."

Thank God, because I don't think I can take much more of me...

I've now given up on my idea to visit astrologers and instead I've acquired an 800-page book called Know About Astrology. Which should keep me busy enough that you don't hear any more about astrology for a while.

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Must-See Movies (in order of superbness):

1) The Painted Veil (Naomi Watts, Edward Norton) - Most superb! Based on a novel by W. Somerset Maugham, this one is an absolute must-see.

2) Revolutionary Road (Kate Winslet, Leonardo DiCaprio) - equally superb, but the ending left me wanting more..

3) The Illusionist (Edward Norton) - decidedly superb.

4) Into the Wild - superb, but perhaps not for everyone.

I confess, the first three are love stories, perhaps more suited to the ladies (I bet mama's glad they gave me this computer, now! Ha haa haaah!)

I've been goofing off long enough now...it's time to get back to my bucket (today is washing day).

Hugs and love and Hari Om!

LMA