moments before...

soon i will have some very exciting news. soon.

last sunday main

before we embarked on our month long sabbatical from the wednesday night dinners with the homeless, joe and i had talked about an idea of mine to start a book club with homeless friends. see, i have this idea that challenging and stimulating the minds of the homeless can be a conduit toward personal growth and making strides to change parts of their life that keep them with wings pinned down.

it amazes me the depth attributed to words. words take on a power and fuel of their own.

joe, jack and i sat together at dinner tonight chewing the fat and catching up on life during the hiatus. as we were talking, joe piped up saying, "oh, i started the book club."

me: "what book club?"
him: "our book club. yeah, and we have four members already."

i was equal parts stunned and excited. and our book club consists of the following: jack, a jack of all trades who's current fascination is with all things bicycle; joe, a reader of political satire; mike, i learned is a reader of all kinds of "good books" and attributed ayn rand's "atlas shrugged" as his all-time favorite read.

after a bout of deliberation, we settled on starting off the book club reading a little play called "no exit" by sartre. i came up with the name "last sunday main" as a reminder of date and location: the last sunday of the month at the main library, time tba. i'll let you know how it goes. in the meantime, if you would like to participate in our book club venture by suggesting book ideas or helping augment cost of used books, i know they would be appreciated.

wailua waterfall

wailua waterfall
Originally uploaded by indieaz.

in kauai. 09/06

red dirt field in kauai

red dirt field in kauai
Originally uploaded by indieaz.

in kauai. 09/06

mountain in fog

mountain in fog
Originally uploaded by indieaz.

in kauai. 09/06

wild rooster

wild rooster
Originally uploaded by indieaz.

in kauai. 09/06

Beach at Polihale

Beach at Polihale
Originally uploaded by indieaz.

in kauai. 09/06

destination: kauai

i'm back in the airport again. it seems like it was only yesterday that katy and i were eating bagels before exchanging dollars into euros and leaving the country. i walk down the gangway where the mounted photos of fish skeletons like x-rays peer down and am struck by the beauty of their frames, particularly that of the piranha. remaining euros are now exchanged for dollars and in five minutes i will board a plane, headed for hawaii to spend some time with my mom.

the call of the sea beckons... it seems to be a motif in my chosen excursions and i never tire of its tranquility and power. that and a re-discovery of a love for a life lived under the sun, my skin drnking in the bits of vitamin D accessible through 50 SPF.

here's to the lilikoi and the land of volcanos and sand. i hope we get to hike a volcano and will keep you posted upon my return.

back in the land of the fog

we came back on september 11th from europe. we watched cnn footage of the commemorations occuring live in new york, while we awaited our airplane in the munich airport. i stifled gigantic sized sobs, tears engulfing the globe of my eyes, dripping. the events of 9/11 feel closer than the five years that have passed. in germany, i felt keenly american, grieving the loss of innocence, an onslaught of torrid emotion in such a public place. raw.

but this blog entry is supposed to be about greece and so it will be. i will post a photo of each place visited in the next few days, each considered to be my favorite perspective of that place. (if you long to see more, say 500ish, leave a comment and i will make sure to include you on the virtual cruise i am planning...)

we go back to that munich airport where we board a lufthansa plane intended for the land of fog. a 12 hour journey sobers me to the reality of staying awake and fighting the bodily impulse to sleep by reading the entirety of "the phantom of the opera," playing cards, interacting with my ipod for a time, and forming a hatred that's palpable for a fellow passenger named "metta."

metta was a black cat housed in one of those travel bags, belonging to the woman who sat in front of us. she apparently didn't believe in any form of sedation or tranquilizers and so katy and i ENDURED 12 hours of meowing and caterwauling while flight attendants walked by and smiled approvingly, asking if she needed extra water, and other passengers looking on dotingly. my raw red eyes and consuming hunger to sleep would not be satisfied. she took the cat out of its bag and set it in her lap to console it during various points of the journey. i kept wanting to be that "stupid american" europeans sometimes seem to associate with americans in general. i started drafting a letter in my head to lufthansa on their pet policy guidelines, but i took the path of peace and brooding instead. followed by a cocktail of benadryl.

sunset sailing past corfu

sunset sailing past corfu
Originally uploaded by indieaz.

in greece.

indian family in san marco piazza

indian family in san marco piazza
Originally uploaded by indieaz.

in venice

windmills in Mykonos

windmills in Mykonos
Originally uploaded by indieaz.

bench in dubrovnik

bench in dubrovnik
Originally uploaded by indieaz.

door to dubrovnik

door to dubrovnik
Originally uploaded by indieaz.

the time draws nigh

i should be in bed asleep, the whir of my fan lulling me into the state of unconsicousness and surreal dreams, but lo, i am painting my nails and in the throes of some last minute note taking on greece... greece. this is my rite of passage both figuratively and literally. i desired a different signmarker to usher in my 30th birthday and chose exploring one of the most ancient civilizations with my best friend.

i feel as prepared as i can be for this trip, as if upon stepping onto the boat i will be stepping further into my imminently 30-something self. it has begun already in small and big ways and choices over the year, especially in the last few weeks. i am making decisions for my immediately future self that will have long-term impact. "myself" is yearning for more than what the 20s held, though they were excellent years.

katy and i have traveled together before, several times. we know each other's m.o. and i look forward to enjoying all the great anecdotal moments that will come of this trip, akin to the e.r. experience at 3 a.m. because of the cats in our host home in boston, but that's another story for another blog.

and so i sign out, until i return. oupa.

since when did a car become a bullet

this past week, something absurd and beyond disturbing happened in one of the "safest" neighborhoods in the city (mine).

a man named omeet drove his car into another man walking in the bicycle lane and catapulting his body many yards away into a grassy spot where he died. (he was walking home because he'd just dropped off his car at the auto shop). he was 54.

omeet then decided to drive to san francisco and within 12 minutes hit 14 more victims of varying hue and age. a 70 year old man was walking in the crosswalk with his cane when the honda pilot driven by omeet careened into him. the victim was on his way to church. when omeet saw he had just injured the man, he turned the car around and proceeded to head back that way to hit the victim again. (but thankfully an off-duty nurse saw the vic. and pulled him to safety just in time).

he drove onto the sidewalk in front of the jewish community center and hit two people standing there.

eventually the cops were able to stop him and his one car battalion. it has been said that omeet's face and demeanor appeared calm, as if "he had just eaten a sandwich." he told the cops in the cruiser that he wanted to kill everyone. that he had driven to san francisco to kill a cop and the evil people here.

on the news, brief interviews with his family began to reveal a sensibility of mental illness behind it all. i could see the defense building its case. and yet driving home tonight, it occurred to me that if he is "clinically insane" and all that that entails, and if his goal was to kill as many people as he could, why did he only hit pedestrians and not any cars with drivers in them? to me, this shows logic and rationality being employed beyond a crazed madman. there should be accountability here.

last question: how is a sociopath perceived differently in the court's eyes than someone who pleads insanity? where does mental disease begin and end, and how does one discern when it is truly existent and when it is just a ruse?

your thoughts? check out the newsclips at www.sfgate.com by searching under "omeet"