I speak to you in heated summers

and touch you with springs

 

A life can’t escape the seasons

I don’t want to show you

My December

 

Fear comes in packages of small sugar

a teaspoon can change any story

my cup is full

 

The prelude to nights of lament

is the perfect sunset

with its curves of romance

hidden colors that charm

 

Regret is a spark that lures

with the memory of warmth

scorched memories

to let you burn

over and over again

 

Light is so deceiving

 

Black is the place of reality

 

And you,

my rainbow against the night

see me in panoramas of impressionist colors

recreate how I am noticed

reinvent how I am understood

 

a conversion that flows deeper than summer’s skin

and spring’s crisp breathe

 

into unveiled tears and unclothed emotions

revealing

the pure Lisa

© 11/25/07

 

In college, my friend Lindsey introduced me to Rainer Maria Rilke.  I have a quote of his from Letters to a Young Poet up in my cube at work:

“You are so young, so before all beginning, and I want to beg you, as much as I can, dear sir, to be patient toward all that is unsolved in your hear and try to love the questions themselves like locked rooms and like books that are written in a very foreign tongue.  Do not seek the answers, which cannot be gien you because you would not be able to live them.  And the point is, to live everything.  Live the questions now.  Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer.”

Wow!  I get inspired everytime I read that!  And, it is not even his poetry:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainer_Maria_Rilke

I have to admit I thought customer service was dead. I was wrong. There are still little hints and glimpses of it out there.

Anyone who knows me knows, the way to my heart is through my dog. Be kind to my dog and I will love you forever. Today, we took the new guy out for lunch to Houston’s in Irvine (http://www.hillstone.com). My co-worker had some leftover rib bones and I asked the waiter if he had a bag and could box them up. The waiter asked if I had a dog and when I replied with a yes, he stated that he had a really nice prime rib bone in the back that the dog would like a lot better and would be less likely to splinter. To my surprise, he came out with a HUGE meaty prime rib with three separate bones. I knew Indy would be stoked! My faith in customer service has been restored – a little.

one happy puppy!

Christmas shopping = Lisa shopping

Black Friday is typically one of my favorite days of the year. I see it as the Olympics of shopping. The better the deals you can get, the more you can buy and at what pace all denote just how serious and how good of a shopper you truly are. I am a Gold Medalist.

Black Friday is a term for the day after Thanksgiving and what is typically seen as the beginning of the Christmas shopping season. It was originally so named because of the heavy traffic on that day (see below), although most contemporary uses of the term refer instead to it as the beginning of the period in which retailers are in the black (i.e., turning a profit). [Thank you Wikipedia]. Most people consider this as the busiest shopping day of the year, but (believe it or not) it is not.

My Aunt, cousin and I take this day very serious. We lay out our plan of attack on Thursday night and are up at hours that any other time of the year I would consider insane. After we get our must-get deals (the door busters, etc.) we go to the North County Fair in Northern San Diego County and enjoy just being at the mall and walking around. Red Robin is the customary stop for lunch, although one year we did go to Oggi’s. Christmas is one of the few holidays that I have traditions around and Black Friday is typically the start of those traditions.

This year, I awoke early. However, not as early as usual (I didn’t feel well) and stopped by a couple of stores for some good deals, but my heart just really wasn’t in it. For some reason, the zest and zeal I have for this day just wasn’t there. I called my cousin at 9 and expected that she would be almost finished and up for at least 5 hours, she was just waking. There really wasn’t anything worth getting motivated for in her mind.

I met my Aunt and my cousin at the mall, we ate at Red Robin and walked the mall. We all agreed the Christmas deals this year, just weren’t as good as we expected. We also all agreed that there is just something not exciting about Christmas this year.

Overall, I only bought for four people and I have a lot more shopping to do. Normally, this is my one of my favorite (if not favorite) thing about Christmas and I just can’t get excited about it. I feel so disillusioned and out of touch with my favorite seasonal feelings. The mere thought of Christmas music makes me want to puke. I hope that some how, that holiday spirit finds me!

 

 

I love snowmen and couldn’t resist this picture!