Dorchester

I went to Dorchester to visit a drumming group created for dementia patients. Before and after the group my host drove me around Dorchester. I had never explored this neighborhood beyond the JFK museum!

It didn't surprise me when I saw a group of young men dressed in black walking together as if they were in a gang. After all, last month I read about at least three murders that had happened in Dorchester and one murder last year had even happened right next to the senior center I was visiting. However,overall, considering the things a girl from Brookline hears about Dorchester, it seemed much better than I expected. Granted, I also was only there for an hour in the middle of Monday morning.

The thing that surprised me about the group of young men was that they were dressed almost exactly the same. They also walked in pairs of two with their leader in the front and they all kept step with one another. It literally looked like they were urban soldiers.

The other thing that I expected, but which surprised me, was how little money Dorchester has. It is one of Boston's historic areas and yet EVERYTHING from the T-station at Fields Corner to the houses, restaurants and shops looked run down. The area was laid out well and the houses were fine but nothing was kept up. There were also very few people in the streets. I most often saw groups of young men ,similar to the group I described above, sauntering around the sidewalks or hanging by the corners.

Then there was my experience on the subway: on the way down, by the time I reached filets Corner, I was the only person left on the train, but on the way back, the train was packed.

I want to go back to find some of the good Jamaican restaurants and food shops I've read about but, sadly, even though my visit allayed some of my fears, II am still a little uneasy about this area and I think I would need a friend to help me out. It definitely was not a warm and friendly neighborhood!

Yet, it makes me sad that it took me so long to visit Dorchester. I was kept away primarily by the negative stereotypes about the area. However, today it made me even more sad that I do not seem to be the only one who has avoided Dorchester. It certainly does not seem to be a place to which people are flocking. However, how is a neighborhood supposed to get better unless people take an interest in it?

Hope

I attended Hope Church today with my roommates, a small relatively liberal church that is a block from my house.

Beyond the topic of the sermon, I appreciated being in a traditional religious atmosphere again, singing songs about God and Jesus, which I have not done since college and most importantly, praying with a large group of people for the good of the world and those we love.

I found myself responsive today as I tried to "break apart the hard parts of the heart" and find a deeper acceptance of myself and others. I am not sure I will return to this specific church immediately, but after my experience today I will most definitely prioritize attending some form of religious service during each week.

Hope your day today has at least one joyful moment!
-Laura

No Sleep!

Do squirrels who are nesting in one's walls ever sleep? NEVER!!! Argh! Stupid squirrels!

Does El Sleep? Not on Thursday nights, too much prep work for my internship! Perhaps I'll get in bed before 5am tonight. Argh! Something has to change or else I will not be a very productive art therapist for much longer!
-el

Good Times!

Had a good time seeing friends last night and it was a great opportunity to wear my Bali temple outfit again. I probably will not have too many other chances to wear it while I'm in the USA. Nevertheless, it currently is scheduled to make another appearance at the Halloween party I'm going to next weekend. Hmm . . maybe I can find an Indonesian group around here in Boston?

Fixed!

Wasn't happy with the "Short Hair" post so I fixed it.

If you can stand seeing a gazillion pictures of my face again, check it out. I also added a couple more from today. Each day I'm learning more and more how to style short hair. May not seem difficult, but for me it is because I've had long hair for so long.

A post of more substance will come soon. I am currently overwhelmed with work.
-el

The Woodcock Johnson III Achievement Test

A man with the last name Woodcock got together with a man with the last name Johnson on an unfortunate day to create an achievement test which is presently used often for testing students and some other populations.

While we discussed the Woodcock Johnson III achievement test in class tonight, no one even cracked a smirk! I think I was the only one with a dirty mind! Why didn't anyone laugh or giggle? It's funny isn't it?

Perhaps it's just me, but the Woodcock Johnson achievement Test seems like a bad name for any standardized test much less an ACHIEVEMENT test! Can you imagine the discussions following the test?: "So, Jim, how much did you score on your Woodcock Johnson?" It sounds like it belongs in a men's locker room not in a testing facility!!

Alas, it must just be me.

Bali Remembered

Where I Wish I Was Right Now:

Short Hair- Egocentric?

New Haircut:


Create Your Own!

Gay Animal Exhibit!

NPR covered a story about the world's first gay animal exhibit being held in a Norwegian museum. Check out :Funky Animals

I am very curious as to how one displays a gay animal exhibit. I'm pretty sure gay animals look the same as other animals and it is just their sexual behaviors that are different. So . . . is this a cute and furry animal porn exhibit? How do you display their gayness?

I also was interested in this news because a couple years ago I attended a lecture by Joan Roughgarden, a transexual biology professor at Stanford University. At that time she had just finished her book "Evolution's Rainbow," which among other things, argued that sex roles and practices in nature are not as well defined as we previously thought. She argued that most people fall somewhere between gay and straight and that very few people are totally one or the other. She called it a rainbow of sexuality. I still have it on my shelf and have not gotten to reading it yet, but this news about the Norwegian exhibit has reinitiated my curiosity.

Touching

This is one of my favorite moments. I have potential as a photographer no?

It's All Gone!

Well, no, I didn't shave my head as I did in college, but my hair is still short! I cut it to my chin and dyed it reddish brown today. It looks a lot like a haircut I had when I was a sophomore in high school. Now, when I look in the mirror I experience a time warp.

Pictures will come soon.

Lesson: Hair + fashion are external and although they represent a part of myself and my self expression, they do not define all of me. Hair is fun to play with and I am not too sad to see it cut.

I don't get it!

I just saw the movie, The Departed. What a great film! On the enjoyment scale, I give it a ten! I am still revved up from it!.

However, I don't get the ending. What was in the envelope that Costigan gave the psychiatrist, was it some of the proof from the lawyer? Did the psychiatrist give the envelope to the Marky Mark's character? Or did Costigan tell Marky Mark's character that Sullivan was the rat? Did the psychiatrist ever tell anyone what she knew? Was the baby Costigan's or Sullivan's? Sullivan, as we know, had impotency problems and also seemed very surprised when she told him.

The only thing that detracted for me was the love triangle, which was a bit superfluous to the plot. I think it is fine that they both had interactions with the shrink, but it got confusing having them both in love with her. Also, I just found out that this movie is based on a movie produced in Hong Kong called "Internal Affairs." I have not seen the Hong Kong version, but now I'm curious to compare them.

Leonardo D. blew me away with his acting. Sometimes I feel that he is over-the-top, but I felt that this time he depicted a believable and complex character.

Great movie! I should have waited for it to come out on video because I have so much work to do and I am supposed to go out tonight with friends so I really couldn't afford to give up 2.5 hrs of my day. However, it was worth it. I also LOVED seeing so much of Boston in the film. Often films are shot in Boston but don't show much of the city. This film had solid shots of Charles St., Boston Common/ State House and Government Center area/ Aquarium, not to mention a couple shots of Southy, our new Charles River Bridge and the sky line from Southy!

Also, interesting comment they slipped in the beginning about Boston being a hard place for a black person to succeed. I have heard one or two things referring to this characteristic of Boston society before, do you think this is changing at all or is it still totally true? Sad.

Delicious!

Bee Pollen is advertised as being one of the world's greatest dietary supplements:

Healing Power of Bee Pollen - Apitherapy

"Bee pollen is often referred to as nature's most complete food. Human consumption of bee pollen is praised in the Bible, other religious books, and ancient Chinese and Egyptian texts. It has long been prescribed by traditional health practitioners-including the fathers of Western medicine Hippocrates, Pliny the Elder, and Pythagoras-for its healing properties. Bee pollen rejuvenates your body, stimulates organs and glands, enhances vitality, and brings about a longer life span. Bee pollen's ability to consistently and noticeably increase energy levels makes it a favorite substance among many world class athletes and those interested in sustaining and enhancing quality performance." Steve Schecter N.D.

Specifically, the health food store near my house states that pollen can assist: arthritis, liver, gallbladder, stomach and intestinal disorders, allergies, benign prostatic hyperplasia and prostatis, not to mention it is known to increase energy.

The funniest part is that I discovered bee pollen by accident at the farmers' market in San Francisco two years ago. It seemed strange and different and so I bought it without knowing any of its health properties. I used to put it on EVERYTHING from my oatmeal to my crackers!

In New England it is in health-food stores and is refrigerated, but the pollen in SF was not. So, perhaps the bee pollen here is different and more potent than the version I had in SF? I guess I'm weird because I really like the taste and texture. I have not tried this new type of pollen yet, but I just bought a bottle and am excited to start integrating it into my recipes. Though, I also just found out that I should not heat it up in any way, so this may limit me.

Now if you see me walking around with a yellow glow you'll know why. ;)

Potential Die-Hard Football Fan?

Went to my first ever live football game!I My girlfriend's boyfriend is one of the coaches for a local high school team and so I went to keep her company.

I saw some cheerleaders do flips and other tricks over hard surfaces, which was pretty cool! I even heard a marching band but they didn't come out onto the field. Now what is the point in a marching band if they don't march? I was informed that the North East typically is not big on the whole marching band thing. I guess only a couple schools up here, if even that many, do marching. I think it is sad that we stuff our football bands under the bleachers instead of showcasing them. This seems to be a trend in the way in which we treat many art forms in our school systems!

Although my girlfriend's team lost, they were playing against my town's team, which won, so I won either way because I was for both teams ;) Afterward, we splurged on some home-cooked southern food at a local eatery in Davis Sq. Loved it!

The only thing I'm really bummed about is that Boston music stations are not supporting my eclectic musical interests. I like ALL music types, but there is only so much rock and pop music that a girl can take before she gets sick of it. Last summer when I moved home from the West Coast I discovered that Boston had just gotten a new R&B/Soul/Gospel radio station, which I loved! But it was only temporary I guess because it is gone now and has been replaced by a HARD rock station. I like hard rock, but I just don't think that Boston needs more variations on rock, we have that already!

The other programming I loved when I first arrived was "Rockers", a reggae block on the college student produced WERS. "Rockers" was on from 4pm-7pm, right when I drove home in the evening from work. 97.7, the R&B station, eased me into my day and "Rockers" made me feel all right on the way home in 2hrs of rush hour traffic. Now "Rockers" has been bumped up to a later block, which is not convenient for me at all, and 97.7 has become anything but relaxing, so I am feeling deprived of my soul/ R&B + reggae music. I suppose I could listen to my CDs, but I don't have a CD player in my car. Sad. There really are no other radio stations that play these types of music and that frustrates me.

This having been said, if radio programming is my largest problem right now, I think I'm doin O.K. So I really have very little to complain about and much to celebrate, like a super football game experience, yummy drinks and good food in my tummy.

Have a good night!

Keep To The Beat

I think I figured out part of my problem with salsa.

Salsa is a 7-count dance. New York style salsa is kind of an 8-count version because it starts on the 2nd beat and mixes things up a bit, so I like it better, but almost no one dances New York salsa unless your in New York. In fact there isn't even a regular place in Boston to take lessons in this style. There are only short workshops - which is what I was doing on Saturday when I lost my shoes.

Anyway, so swing is either on a 6-count or 8-count beat and I LOVE it. It is easier for me to pick it up without lessons. I even feel a little more comfortable improvising and having fun with the spaces between the beats. However, there are not as many places in Boston to do swing, and especially not West Coast swing, which is what I'm learning now.

I think the difference is that I am more accustomed to 3,4,6, and 8, beat rhythms. These rhythms are very American, or at least according to one of my drumming teachers, they are the premise of most American music. From my limited understanding, other areas of the world, such as the Middle East, South America etc have more complex rhythmic dance beats such as 7 and 9.

When I was a little girl, my dad always was playing big band, jazz or blues music. These styles are almost always on 4,6, or 8. It didn't hurt that he also loved swing dancing and used to teach me steps when I was tiny, swinging me around his shoulders and through his legs. It was a blast!

So perhaps this contributes to my frustration with salsa. I will just need to listen to it more to grow accustomed.

Existential Thoughts

Despite my evening of dance cherades, today was devoted to researching my thesis topic: resilience in elders. As I was reading about elders' coping mechanisms to constant loss and change, I questioned why I was interested in this topic.

For now, I have decided that it is part of my quest to make sense of life. Somehow I expected that by working with and studying elders in my community I would catch a glimpse of the wisdom that they had obtained after a long life of living. After all, someone who is 103 must know the answer to life, right?

However, so far the only thing I have learned is that to "age successfully" often requires that you learn to accept that you never will have the answers and, as a result, you figure out how to master living in the present, for the present.

"I Scream, You Scream, We All Scream For Ice Cream!!"

Did you know that New England is the #1 consumer of ice cream. in the nation? Ironic because it is so cold here huh? Some think that it is the students that drive the demand. (Courtesy of Goddard House & The Boston Metro Paper)

Who's Shoes?

Question: How far do you think a 98’ Subaru can go with a pair of dance shoes left on its roof before they to fly off into traffic?

Answer: Approx 2.5 miles before they fly into the middle of Central Sq and get crushed first by a sedan and then a huge truck.

When I heard the horrible thud, first I thought I had hit something. Then, when I realized what had made the sound, I pulled off to the side of the road in hopes of dashing into traffic to retrieve my beloved salsa shoes, which had just started to get broken in, but it was already too late.

A biker, who had watched the whole thing, pulled up next to my car to share a moment of silence. Actually, he was laughing at me, but at least there was someone there to witness my pain.

I can imagine someone crossing the street later today wondering, “Who’s shoes? How’d they get left in the middle of the road?” It will be almost as frustrating as wondering about the origins of all of those single shoes on the highway.

Ironically, I was invited out salsa dancing tonight. Sad. I’m going to bed.

This was written yesterday morning but my internet has been down all weekend.