Alewife,

We received our I-600A approval from the Department of Immigration one week ago today. One more year to go.

Oh Ale,

Did we know in high school it would come to this?This name,

this ALE -WIFE, LIFE,

this AAAAOOOWWWIIGHHE?

This was my first week at my new job as the Permissions Coordinator at Shambhala Publications , Inc. I take the train from here to Park, change to the green line and take the E train to Symphonie Hall.

The last time I saw you was here, at the end of the red line, with Ella in your arms, small in almost every way except the bright light in her eyes. To my great surprise she mirrored even the most subtle expressions on your face, (as young children often do with the adults to whom they are lovingly tied). And what she mirrored was love.

We waved good bye here, at ALEWIFE, at end of the red line.

Or the beginning, as it seems to me.

ALE.

On thursday September 21, husband and I went to River Sing! on the Charles presented by the Charles River Conservancy and Revels, a non-profit performing group responsible for many seasonal celebrations but most known for Christmas Revels at the Sanders theatre in Cambridge. My favorite and most goosebumb inducing songs were Siyahamba, (We are marching in the light of God), and Fan-ga, (We welcome you with open arms and no weapons. We welcome you from the north, the south, the east, the west. And so be it.) There was less call and response this year, (I was told by Piper's mum, Lisa) but as this was my first River Sing! I was glad to be there and proud of my town, Cambridge.

Hello Bombay? I mean Mumbai? Can you hear me? I have been thinking things over since I returned from your excellent 13 million plus population city and I know I wrote that poem, “Bombay, I love..” but I have got a few things to say now that my Mehta paranoia has subsided and the first is, well, What Kind of Show Do You Think You Are Running Over There?? I mean what does a person have to do to get a good cup of coffee? You call yourself civilized? And nobody likes to be stared at as if they were growing huge eyeholes, not even Caucasian women, despite the rumors you have heard on your local broadcasting network regarding their status in the honor department. We are people too you know, even if we do like to rent elephants and while smiling and exclaiming, ride them down your streets videotaping.

Here I am married to one of your locals and I had the good manners to come to your fine metropolis and meet his family- your own people for Ganesh’s sake and you can’t even sell us a decent sandalwood statue without making us feel somehow un-local. You don’t treat people this way! And the peeing by the side of the road! It has to stop!

Didn’t you notice me eating with my hands? Wearing the Salwar Kamees? Giving Prasad at temple and showing respect to your myriad of Gods? Is that not worth something? And where do you suppose the white girl is going to go for her daily walk with all that staring and lip sucking? I mean really!

Do you expect to be admired on the basis of your cheap labor and ensuing influx of wealth without offering anything to the foreigner except non-resident rates, arrogance and a stomach infection? You will have to do better than that let me tell you. Yes you will. Good gracious even our mafia here has the good sense to dress well and keep their doings private, while your “wealth redistributors” continue to dress Bollywood actors like Patrick Swayze and then overwork them like Judy Garland. It is the year 2006! Wake up! The dance moves in Never say Forever showed your complete lack of understanding of American contemporary dance. Yes we are annoying! Yes we discourage littering, (which you treat as a joke because to you everything outside your house is a garbage dump anyway). Yes we are responsible for Global Warming! But do we treat you the way you have treated us? No! We haven’t! Not us Americans! Uh-Uh!

If it is inconvenient IT IS GOOD
When change is easy we think to ourselves Why didn't I do this before? But doing the right thing isn't always easy, like climbing the stairs at the Porter Square T station. Ever since middle age became apparent and a membership to the health club seemed like a rip-off and an obstacle to spending time outside I have decided to use stairs when possible.

Other changes:
strict recycling (not just glass)
electricity/water/gasoline conservation
making food instead of buying packaged

I better shut this computer down now.

The ghost of Charlie rides again.
Riding the mbta can be tricky. Yesterday I bought a charlie ticket at Alewife station. There was no attendant or tokens available. After visiting Shambhala Publications across from Symphony Hall I came back via the T and disembarked at Davis Square to see An Inconvenient Truth, (the Al Gore movie I think should be seen by all). When I was ready to return home I was unable to use my Charlie ticket and missed the train trying. There were several people in the same situation as me and we enjoyed kvetching about it. Ah, the joys of complaining with strangers.

Like most mentally hyperactive people, whenever I go out I keep a running commentary of things I see. Or is this middle age? Well, anyway on Saturday we rode our bikes on the minuteman bikeway and when we passed the tow lot we stopped. Got a good caption for this one?

On Friday September 15, I crashed Chloe's birthday party.

So far in 2006 I have made moccasins, an indian style shirt, a skirt and beer (with the help of my husband and Subbu). I hope to continue to learn new things in this coming mysterious year.

The crib I set up has remained untouched by the cats until today. And I got an email from our agency extending the wait time to one year.

Miss says, "who's your baby now?"

This message goes out to you, child

It gets harder and harder to wait for news from "the powers that be" regarding how we are moving along in this adoption process. Every day I reach into the mailbox hoping for that letter from the immigration department finalizing our approval to adopt and therefore signalling to us that YES! You are coming! I just want to send a message out to you, whoever you are, wherever you are,

We are waiting for you. It is hard not knowing when you will come.
We are here.

The crib is set up in a room we had painted greeen. We have clothing and soft natural toys, a stroller and a baby carrier.

People keep asking about you and some are even giving us advice we don't want. I guess that happens to all waiting families, even the ones who are waiting for babies in their own bellies.

The students I have had for the last three years have a new teacher now, Mr. Brandeis. We were expecting for you to come before the end of the school year and this is why I am not teaching this class.

Do you know what I am supposed to be doing this year?
Last night I attended the first Diversity group meeting and next week I will attend the Social Inclusion meeting at The Waldorf School.

See you as soon as you can come.

Here is the view from the island and an intimate spot from which to sit and gaze out over the surrounding sea.

These are the folks who ate at the picnic and were filmed by the crew, so interested in knowing ALL about lobsters.

This is the family that went to the picnic on Friendship long island at the cabin that Laurie and Bill built.

This is the cabin that Laurie and Bill built.

Here is a wonderful article, kindly given to wikipedia. What is amazing is that this knowledge was off limits to us lay people in the past. Art of living has study groups that discuss this gita. http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Ashtavakra_Gita

On the friday before labor day we drove up to Canada with Chuck and Penny to see Sri Sri and do Part 2 of the Art of Living course work.
We came.
We camped.
We got wet, bitten, uncomfortable, couldn't meditate, stood in line, stumbled in the rain at 2am to find the bathroom, ate overcooked food, crammed 300 people into a space meant for 100 and in the end got what we came for.
Sri Sri never disappoints.

The garden and fish belong to Annie Bone. Her house is in the Russian hill district, a swank neighborhood and a great place to stay. Annie's cottage was quiet and had everything I needed especially after 3 weeks in India. Husband had to stay in Boston to work:(

Shaklee’s big yearly conference was held in San Francisco this year and I took the opportunity to go there while my mom, who is a rep, attended with my sister Marcy. Marcy spent a nice amount of time with me shopping and walking up and down the hills of the city. This city is filled with varied architecture and great views of the ocean and the golden gate bridge.

My adopted brother, Subbu, is also my brother in law because he is married to husband's sister Jayshree. He was not able to join us until our last day in India, Sujaya's birthday celebration. I love these pictures of him with Sujaya because despite her alarm, (Jayshree mom is climbing on top of elephant) he remains calm. Kushant, in the background, as always, is in motion.

While we were in India husband and I looked all over for a ganesh to call our own. We went to the cottage industries in Bombay and around Goa but the wooden sculptures we liked seemed a little steep in price. We didn't want a corpulent, lecherous looking Ganesh. We think of Ganesh as dignified, powerful and beautiful, not really human despite his body. We found this Ganesh on the street in South Bombay and it is very similar to the Ganesh we almost bought in P-town but for much less.

"On my fifth birthday I want to ride on an elephant." Thus spoke Sujaya. So, on August 13, the day we celebrated her birthday, Taj Mala, (elephant around town) came for the party.

My favorite place on our visit to India was Goa. Before 1960 something, it was a Portuguese state or province. You can visit temples as well as churches and cathedrals. There are many resorts in Goa, as it has beautiful beaches, great seafood and friendly people open to everyone, not just indian nationals. We didn't get to hang with the "hippies", but were told that this is where india's hipsters reside.

We sampled the local liquor, fenny, an aquired taste. Fenny is made from cashews or coconut and is meant to have medicinal qualities. Husband bought six bottles without tasting it first and insisted on bringing home this local flavor. Fenny anyone?


The tiger prawns at Mum's Kitchen in Panjim, Goa were excellent as was the service by Abdul.
Mum's is located

"down the road from the Goa Marriott Resort (which, incidentally, has a marvelous seafood restaurant, Simply Fish, an outdoor venue overlooking the bay) in Martin's Building, D. B. Marg, Miramar; tel. 98221-75559 or 3100873; daily noon-midnight. It has a laid-back Mediterranean atmosphere and does wonderful crab xec-xec (cooked in thick, spicy coconut gravy) and pomfret recheado (fish stuffed with hot spices and pan-fried). The owner, Rony Martins, not only invites you to examine his kitchen for standards of hygiene and his fish for freshness, he is on a mission to revive authentic Goan cuisine. He sources and adopts old "grandma" recipes and has started "A Cry of Goa": an exercise to save Goan cuisine, in which locals are invited to eat at his restaurant free or at nominal cost and provide constructive criticism/suggestions for improvement." frommers guide to Goa .

We stayed at the Taj Exotica in southern Goa and even though it was monsoon, one day it rained only briefly in the morning and I got sunburned. :)

I met village girls who lived next to the Taj named Mira and Rosie. They sat us down with the rest of their womenfolk and proceded to bargain with us for their wares, some of which was worn and stained and looked as though it had been stored for years.

We had regular visits from "ghost kitten", a small white starving kitten that appeared by moonlight and ravenously devoured our bar snacks on the veranda overlooking the Taj grounds and beach. Ghost Kitty's meow was feral and a little unnatural.