August 23, 2009

6:31 p.m.

From Sunday Morning

Church bells just tolled all the faithful to service. Othewise it�s a quiet morning, serenaded only by crickets in the back yard and the light hum of the fridge in the mudroom. I slept and slept well, but was glad I got up by 8:00.

Yesterday Rose, Marc and I had the honor of attending a Hindu house blessing. Our friends, V and S (V works with Rose at her office), just bought a condo. It�s fairly generic, as Rose pointed out privately to me, but it�s big and clean and beautiful and they have a wonderful deck and the location seems quiet, tucked up against woods and on the end of the row. And it�s the first time they�ve owned their own home.

They needed to begin early since, according to the priest, the auspicious time ended around 9:00 in the morning. An 8:00 start ended up being more like 8:45, but as long as the ceremony begins sometime within the favorable period, it�s okay.

Some of the elements were familiar to me from my Celebrancy research � the coconut in the pot, the rice, the chanting. It was so interesting. Viji was dressed in her best sari, and the priest in his peach robes, and we were occasionally allowed to participate in small ways. There was a lot of chanting of names of gods, and repititious calling upon benevolent forces for various aspects of the home and their lives there. They blessed the front steps and the threshold; they blessed the stove and each room. They set up the altar and blessed all the effigies and pictures. Many flower petals were strewn, along with betel nuts, dates, and coins. Ghee was burned and the number nine was honored in various ways. They heated milk on the stove until it boiled over, hoping for the overflow to go to the east or north. Then V. put sugar in the milk to calm it. Back to the altar then, with more smudging and chanting. We didn�t understand a word, of course, as it was all in Sanskrit.

Finally, a couple of small dried coconuts were broken into pieces and piled into a stack of those disposable aluminum roasting pans. This was done in the middle of the living room. Ghee was poured on them and they were lit on fire, among much chanting and pouring. (Very auspicious, we were told, to burn a dried coconut.) S. had tied plastic grocery bags around all the smoke detectors. We glanced out the windows from time to time, to make sure no one was noticing this OPEN FIRE in the middle of the room. Normally, apparently, this part is done outside, but there wasn�t a place to do it there. So the room filled with the sweet smell of coconut, and then the slightly sharper smell of burning. There wasn�t much smoke and we opened the windows anyway, but it wasn�t unpleasant.

Toward the end, an Indian friend showed up (bringing a microwave � housewarming present!) and joined V and S in the final obesiences where they knelt and bowed down to the floor. We didn�t do that, but we got to strew flower petals and turn around a few times and do prayer hands. The priest was very nice and welcoming even though his English was very broken.

Rose and Marc presented their gift of a GAS STOVE, which made Viji shout out loud, and we all laughed. I gave her a book I�d made, and everything felt very auspicious indeed. She even gave US gifties.

S had to take the priest back to the temple, so we waited and chatted for an eternity until he returned with the catered food they�d ordered. I had a very difficult time staying awake. There was no place to lie down � no furniture there yet � and it was like the middle of the work week, when I�m so short on sleep I would just kill for a nap. Finally the food arrived, and it was delicious, and full of carbs, and eventually we got home and I fell into bed and had the longest nap I�ve ever had, and the strangest. I slept like the dead, or the undead.

I slept in my bed until I got sleep paralysis and couldn�t even open my eyes. Finally I came downstairs, but was still stumbling around so I leaned back in my recliner and went back to sleep, only to lapse into paralysis again. It went on and on, as I dreamt I was pinching myself to wake up and saying, �Help! Help!� but was really doing none of those things, at least not with my physical body. After an eternity of struggling with this, I managed to wake up enough to move, and I had been sleeping for more than four hours. I was groggy and uncomfortable � my arms had half gone to sleep and all my joints were sore. Jeez!

I had to do something physical then, to drive the memory of paralysis away, so I went outside and raked dirt and picked stones from where we covered the ditch. Got nice and sweaty and started a good rock pile. The �soil� here is so full of clay, it�s hard to believe anything at all will grow in it.

Managed to scrounge some supper, watched more of Paul Giamatti in �John Adams,� which is a brilliant series, and eventually headed next door to do email and so forth. Around the dining table, Rose and Marc had been discussing how on earth to get all the pre-winter jobs done on both houses. They came up with the idea of getting a gas stove for themselves on Craigs List, as a stopgap measure until they redo their kitchen for real, and sending their electric stove over here so when the inspector comes again there will be no freakout over the propane tank in my kitchen. I don�t want an electric stove (hello huge electric bill), but as a temporary solution it makes sense. Then, when they get the real range they want, they�ll give the used gas stove to me. I�m not sure when that will happen, but it will be fine.

Meanwhile Marc is saying I might have to live with this scruffy, disgusting kitchen all winter. Wait a MINUTE! Nooooooooooes! Might be time to look into hiring a crew to at least gut it for him. He hasn�t switched the electric panel yet, and that also should be done before the inspection. Plus switching out the back door. Some of this is hinging on the 0bama bux. I�m practically camped out in my mailbox waiting for it. Good God, let it come soon.

Oh, speaking of money, I put a deposit on the pellet stove I went to see last week. It�s gorgeous � did I write about this yet? New in the box, and about $1200 under retail price. He bought two for his office building but only ended up needing one.

Anyway I�m quite stressed about money and timing and my fingers are breaking out and I�m eating sweets galore and feeling quite bloated and unattractive. And every day goes by and there is literally no time to practice, which I should be doing every day right now.

So last night at 11:30 I was scraping my dining room ceiling. It�s turned into a huge project. Marc always underestimates the time and the cost involved in these projects. �Oh, just scrape for 15 minutes a night and you�ll have it done in a week.� NOT. It�s turned into the endless project and I�d hoped to have this ceiling done by inspection. At least there would be one new surface for her to see. May all the blue-skinned gods assist me in getting this house in shape to pass inspection so my insurance isn�t cancelled; to get it tight enough to endure the winter.

Now I must get on with the list.

(Later note: Got a large amount of the ceiling scraped, scrubbed and steamed some more kitchen wall, and now have the electric stove installed. I got more excited about it than I thought I would. It makes the kitchen look more real. I also took a wonderful lavender bath. I must admit life is pretty good.)