Elephant traffic, the Puppet Master, and a run-in with Ganesh
For a Saturday, I’m feelin’ drained. Basically, today consisted of a jog that was really more of a three-mile hurdle, and a lunch party. Let me explain.
Something I’m wondering about Indian women: how do they exercise? Societal wardrobe constraints here make it awkward to do something like jog in anything but full body fabric coverage since “eve-teasing” (a delightfully Shakespearean term they say here for cat-calling) is at its peak really any time there are people on the street. Additionally, it gets really fucking hot here. So, I take it that if you’re into that sort of thing, you’ve gotta do it at the crack of dawn. I sort of came into this experience expecting these conditions. But having gotten next to no physical activity in the last 10 days, something had to be done. So, a friend from SIT who lives on my street and I decided to throw caution to the wind and run like nobody was watching.
Things that make it hard to jog in India: • Constant beration from street vendors to “try my juice!”
So I came home feeling good about my statement for female physicality (and my shirt didn’t even cover my tookus! Take that, oppressive cultural norms) and proceeded to try to clean myself up for lunch. Here’s where things get sticky. My shower is really a bucket of water that you heat up by dangling an electric metal rod in there for about 20 minutes or until its warm enough to pour on your body with a little cup. The trouble is, I forgot the city of Jaipur cuts all electricity between the hours of 10 and 11 am, thus eliminating the possibility of anything but frigid water. So, sticky I remained.
Then it was off to a temple in the surrounding hills of Jaipur with my host family for an Indian-style lunch party. But first, a word about my family. There’s a portrait in the dining room that contains my host father’s “immediate” family. There are 30 people in it. I asked him about it last night, which was a mistake because what followed was an exhaustive explanation of everyone, their spouse, their children, and their children’s children. A quiz came after that. I asked him how often they all see each other, to which he replied, “once or twice a month. Not very often.” Given that I haven’t seen my entire assembled extended family since I was 13, I’m beginning to feel like family connections are a little bit bigger of a deal here. Also, I just met a host sister I never knew I had, since she goes to a boarding school within Jaipur and only visit her grandparents (my mama and papa) every two weekends. She’s sassy and fantastic. We both like Bruno Mars.
Shoes Present Tense - News
The qualification rounds present performers with a tough crowd: only judges and their fellow contestants, most of whom are too tense about their own looming performance to laugh. Don Clark's hands shake on his walking stick as he waits for his turn.
To say nothing of her inappropriate laughter at/“with” herself and idiotic “Fuck You” shoes and boatneck sequined mini and Love's Baby Soft bronzer face and the same princess necklace I used to play “dress-up” with, only mine was made out of plastic.
We spend about 3 hours a day being bombarded with present tense, past tense, and a totally foreign grammar structure using words and characters that not only look nothing like English, they look remarkably like each other. On top of that,
Courtesy of Ed Templeton Ed Templeton in the present tense, 22 years after turning pro. What were some of the names you considered besides Toy Machine before naming it Toy Machine? The frontrunner was "Oggie's Dead." My friend Justin Regan's dog Oggie
I'm not sure that raves are a thing of the present tense anymore, but regardless, as a result they reap powers of a superhuman nature: telekinesis and the ability to fly. Sure it can also be argued that the ability to fly is derived from telekinesis.
White Shag, Shoes and Pink Flamingos: The Power of Present Tense
My quasi brown duck friend and financial advisor recently had this observation: when you get negative energy, it drags you down. Do the things that create positive good feelings. This makes sense on all levels. This made me think, and caused me to reassess my own "now", or "current state" as we call it the world of planning. I love to create environments that people like to be in . If you have followed my blog at whiteshag.blogspot.com, you know about my redecorating journey in my home, as well as a local theatre and conference space, and my daughter's home in Vancouver. I am about to begin my other daughter's new house. I would love to have my own furniture / paint store. I love to exercise and push myself to a higher level of physical health and fitness. I have followed every fitness trend from the 80's to now. Yes, I had the pumpkin orange full body leotard and purple thong body suit. We all did in the 80's. Don't judge me. Somewhere along the way, exercise went from fashion to feeling good. In 2005 I joined Gold's Gym and got hooked on the exercise classes, the instructors and the culture. One of my goals was to someday be an instructor, so July 2010 I made it happen, with the help of Gold's Gym. I teach fitness classes at Gold's Gym. I am certified in Group Centergy - a yoga / pilates inspired experience, and Group Core - an integrated full body workout that builds core strength. When I exercise and feel good, I can do anything. I love to write. Writing is like breathing to me. I committed my first book "Died of a" to a publisher for review in December 2011, and so far so good. "Died of a" is a journey of strategy told through an accident of poetry. I am working on establishing an e-book presence, and working on a new book with a working title, "How to be a Pink Flamingo in a Brown Duck Pond".
"Music" as a genre was first perfected in 1979 by the Zion, Illinois power pop band Shoes with their LP release Present Tense. 
RT @: Shoes “Present Tense” ..Today’s “Cool Album of the Day” 
Shoes “Present Tense” ..Today’s “Cool Album of the Day” 
Present Tense / Tongue Twister: 1988 reissue of the first two Elektra albums on one disc by this legendary U.S. ...