Laurie Johns Weblog

Its not really what I ate for breakfast, but kinda.

shorter hair, longer story

On November 23 Jena and I got together for our usual weekend date. I really look forward to these dates. Normally we take turns buying each other dinner and running errands. On Sunday we decided to go to Sally for hair dye. We dyed Jena’s black (with some green highlights) and mine we totally stripped of color and added toner to tone it down, only I think the toner took a wrong turn I ended up a platinum blonde. Jena offered a photo of herself as a blonde with a cute spunky haircut–she looked adorable, I sadly, did not. Jena felt bad, it wasn’t her fault really that some of us, as she says,  “want to look natural, not super-natural.” I don’t know why it is that some people can dye their hair the color of a rainbow and still look fabulous (Andrea Shanti, for example who I met recently at Bioneers). I am not one of those people.

Anyway, I couldn’t sleep all night because I was certain that my hair was continuing to get blonder through the night. The next day I spent 4 hours at the salon having highlights/lowlights/toner applied. And still I was not happy. So I cut some bangs.

So today I had 4 inches cut and more layers and and voila! The only trouble with having a snazzy new hairstyle is that now I think I need to wear make-up or dress up more and it’s not that I don’t like fashion, I just don’t like the price. Not just for me personally, but the global price we pay for fashion.

superimposed hair and the real thing

Before I left home, I superimposed my face on the hairstyle I wanted. I’d never done that before.

Will my new hair make me happier than my long ponytail ? Maybe if it gets me a date. Then I can have a fairy wedding like Andrea Shanti. Maybe Jena will give me rainbow highlights for the day. Jena?

Stairs to street

This is what the world looks like every other Thursday morning as I make my way through the gate of Morton Lane, but today (Thanksgiving Day) felt gloriously different and I noticed it first at this very spot. Because I was not beginning my usual walk to school but to the yoga studio instead, I felt a lightness that I have not experienced in quite some time. It had been raining all night so the air was soaked in an aroma of earth and vegetation. It is a smell both familiar and indescribable.

Yoga was interesting. It was led by Sienna the owner of the studio and I remarked to myself again and again on the lightness of her being; how much joy she projected into the space. In Savasana (interesting things are continually happening to me in Savasana –conjuring Jason for example) she asked us to consider and offer gratitude to the people important in our lives, and then to people whom we may not know so well, and then to someone with whom we may have difficulties. You all know this meditation I’ve used before in my own classes, well this is the point my mind customarily goes to Harry and the difficulty I have with him…BUT TODAY, the person that came to my field of awareness was m y s e l f. And this might seem like a far-fetched notion (or not), but I am Harry–Harry is me–all the points around which Harry grates, are really the places in myself that I struggle with. So, because its Thanksgiving and because I’ve had this Harry/hairy moment, I’d like to acknowledge that I hate you Harry only as much as I hate myself…and because I don’t really hate myself, I guess I don’t hate you either.

The rest of the day was wonderfully uneventful. I even cancelled with Jena and Ryan whom I love dearly to be alone and I cut some bangs.

Jena and Ellen, West End Block Party

You might be able to find Ellen by clicking here

Barbara Kruger
Untitled (I shop therefore I am), 1987

The November astrological forecast warns of a very angry full moon on December 12 that could take us all off course. Susan Miller advises shopping early for Christmas this year…what? Huh? Is this suggestion born of nostalgia or forced patriotism, because frankly I thought we were on our way to getting over it.

Here is a partial list of chains closing stores beginning January, 2009: Circuit City, Ann Taylor, Lane Bryant, Fashion Bug, Catherine’s, Eddie Bauer, Cache, Talbots, J. Jill, GAP, Footlocker, Wickes Furniture, Levitz, Bombay, Zales, Whitehall, Piercing Pagoda, Disney, Home Depot, Macys, Linens and Things, Movie Galley, Pacific Sunware, Pep Boys, Sprint/ Nextel,  JC Penney, Ethan Allen, Wilson Leather, Sharper Image, K B Toys, Loews, Dillard’s.

I have been predicting that Americans would lose their interest in compulsive buying and not just as a result of a failing economy, but because none of these stores have anything we need or want. But how will we replace the role that buying has in our culture? What will we do instead of shopping and acquiring things? 

I have an idea. How about we learn how to do and make things. We could begin to educate our selves on alternative sources of energy like geothermal. People who know how to farm in sustainable ways, know how to build and craft things and have green knowledge will be highly sought after in the not so distant future. I see the future as a sort of Renaissance of small communities with strikingly unique variations. All the things our grandmothers did (well, mine drank and smoked, but you know what I mean) will, once again, become more than quaint hobbies or pastimes. The house behind us has bawking chickens. I think I’ll start by finding out if they have any eggs for sale

Maybe it was the angle of that last photo, but no, Mikail, I have not become a California waif! I have stopped smoothing the edges of unsatisfying work with organic coconut ice cream from Three Twins, but for me feeling healthy is less about what I eat and more about a state of mind.

Things could be worse, but they could also be better. The weather is glorious. The temps on my AM walk pretty much mimic the temps on the PM walk, so I don’t have to carry extra clothing. I have also found a yoga studio I very much like and a new teacher Meilie who focuses on the alignment details I find so helpful. However, working 40 hours a week is really a challenge because my mind is so constricted with the details of a child’s schedule that it isn’t free to roam. This lack of roaming is stifling me, but I’m working on it.

The other day, I found inspiration in this woodpile.

The variety of sizes and the organization are phenomenal, but it made me think of, and miss home and occasionally I see myself in my mind’s eye packing everything but the mattress (that damn mattress!) and driving back to snow and cold, my kids, my friends and my wood burning stove.

For you readers looking for Ellen, gardening teaching, San Anselmo…well, she continues to be JUST AWESOME.

Stripes this season

I’m starting to have fun working with 3, 4, and 5 year olds. They want to talk, they want to run around, they want to be silly and they want to DANCE. We’ve been dancing the past weeks. Fist we invite Natarajasana; I ask them to summon their inner dancer and then we dance. Sometimes when its over they want to know where that person was we invited and I say “she was here, I felt her, didn’t you?”

On Friday, I mistakenly thought it was Roni’s good-bye part and Next Generation’s six year celebration. I wore lipstick and a bit of eyeliner to school. Alex (4 yr old) asked, “Laurie do you have lipstick on?” When I explained the party etc., he threw his arms around my waist and pleaded “I wish I could go to a party with you!” Another 5 year old told me my eyes looked pretty. I have their attention and now I’m going to get them to let go and really dance. I’ve been choreographing dance numbers in my head. Some of them involve only moving chairs in simple formations and putting them back again. I finally understand what I can expect from children this age and much of my time is spent in transitions–going from one place to another in an efficient and often quiet manner. This has become the inspiration for my dance numbers and then of course, I want to do something wild. Something for the Montessori minded and something for me!

So, it’s winter here and that means rain and blossoms! Many plants are flowering now…it’s like a weird winter-spring. I needed to buy a few things–gloves, scarf and a couple sweaters (I bike and walk almost everywhere) and I must be thinking of the kids because Ive been finding stripes. I got a really nice wool stripped scarf for $3 at Goodstuff Thrift store…all proceeds go to the Marin County foodbank.

Ellen took me to San Fran to see the Old Crow Medicine Show, only we didn’t have tickets and couldn’t get tickets, so we walked a big loop around the Fillmore, stopped into a wine bar for an $11 glass of wine and then went home again.

Did I mention how much I like Ellen? She’s awesome!

cinderellen and a wood nymph

Samantha, Laurie, Ellen, Lily, Mandy (Morton Ladies plus one)

Christopher, Jena, Laurie

Sonya, Devi

Keesha, Tanya, Grace

Laurie, Christian

Brad and Onno (The Expulsion from the Garden ?)

Keesha, Roni, Jena, L

Grace

Michael (that’s really his hair), Christian

Cats

Roni, Elan

Keesha, Ellis

Ghouls

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