the brooklyn bedouin just left - i love a full grown man who really understands 
a true slumber party! ibrahim abdul-matin arrived in SHORTS so he could feel 
the cold, then made an argument that his ancestors come from upstate ny 
and the cold is in his blood. crazy, deranged! 

my newest plant sprouted today!! little green shoots up through wet dark soil, 
such a joy to see. i am going to buy a plant light to help these babies make 
it through the winter! 

i heard from my farmerboy, a darling i met in california - he and his dad run 
farms in the u.s. and canada and document family farm culture, now he is 
traveling the world playing music and making art.  his current question - go 
to kenya for the world social forum or just skip it and go to india? my answer - 
take me with you, either place!

i also heard from darling seiji, who is taking off for thailand and wanted book 
recommendations. i recommend everyone, especially every traveler, read 'the 
famished road' by ben okri. its about a spiritchild who comes to earth and 
decides to stay, and all the adventures he has as a human boy who is aware 
of all the spirits in the world. the famished road was once a river, and always 
urges the traveler to keep moving. its a beautiful magical book. 

i went grocery shopping with chelsea peretti yesterday, and while she found 
all the healthy things in pathmark, i found the krispy creme doughnuts and 
the new O magazine! the whole issue is about pleasure - how could i RESIST? 
i am the pleasure activist! so now i am laying about the house working, thinking 
about the donuts, drinking tea, and flipping thru O. 

now while i lay about the house, janine is in the field gathering hilarious stories. 
the thing about my friends is - we have a point of view. this point of view sees 
the true merde-fest that is human existence, and opts to accentuate the 
positive, even when the only way to do that is to laugh uproariously at life. 
case in point:

"My Boss was asked to tactfully tell a colleague of ours (Francine) about 
her assistant's problem with the cookies. This is the e-mail my boss wrote:

-----Original Message-----
From: My Boss
Sent: Thursday, November 17, 2005 3:55 PM
Subject: Cookie monster

Dear Francine,
Pardon my bluntness, but we've got a favor to ask you.  
Would you please speak to Your Assistant about her cookie habit?  
As you know, all work places have unwritten codes of etiquette.  Cookie jar 
etiquette would  read something like - please help yourself to cookies, but 
don't forget to leave some for everyone else.  Your Assistant eats cookies 
all day. She eats cookies until there are no more cookies in the jar.  More 
than one person has noticed, so it has to be addressed. Sorry to pass along 
this uncomfortable task!"

-

I say, thank god for small blessings and big cookies!