The View Up Here

A few things of note over the last few months: End of May/Beginning of June:  Got food poisoning. Badly.  Was hospitalized for four days and nights. Still paying back the loan I took from my boss to pay for that bad boy. I was told the offending bacteria was campylobacter, usually associated with chicken. Funny thing is, I hadn't had chicken at all for several days. I think the culprit came from a food cart at which I'd eaten some kimbap earlier that week. Never. Again.  No more street food.  End of July:  The Great Kitten Drama  Nearby my apartment building is a completely empty entire city block wrapped in green tarp fencing, into which people throw their trash. Inside, stray cats have made their home.  One night coming home from work I heard the plaintive and unmistakable mewings of a tiny kitten. Long story short, the mama cat deposited one of her two kittens outside my building's steps. I took the kitten in for a few hours and let her cool of...

The summer in Korea is no joke. I mean really. Temps above 100F/37C for the last three months.  A little relief at Jin Ha Beach It's been a bear of a summer, and even though we're now in September, after the end of "hot summer" according to the traditional Korean calendar, we are still sweltering.  But on the upside, there is a slight breeze with a tinge of cool air, and the sun isn't quite as high as it was. I can feel the difference, but still can't stand having anything against my skin. Unfortunately the reality has been that I have not been outside nearly as much as I would've liked. I'm feeling a little like I do at the end of winter in Western New York: antsy to get back outside and start enjoying nature. Funny how that works, from one extreme to another. Air Con is My Friend  The upside of being inside in the air conditioning so much is that I've been working on my short story project more diligently. The current story, temporarily named ...

Walkway in Fairport, NY I know I haven't been writing here as much.. mostly I'm working on my Korea Dreambus site and my new Patreon page .  I have to admit that the Patreon is new for me, so I'm still trying to figure out how to best utilize it. But the good news is that I have a lot more of my itinerary nailed down, I've made a good connection to help me on the ground in Korea, and I've raised $1,300 to help me with this pilgrimage and film project. Head over to the website to catch up with my updates and musings, and then to my Patreon for a membership to see videos and other content! If you have prayer intentions you'd like me to bring with me to Korea, please contact me with those or leave in the comments. Half way through summer... please, God, let the second half of summer feel as gloriously long as the first half has done!

Today is the summer solstice, the longest day of the year, and the Strawberry Moon! What a glorious time to be alive. I have a few sweet as strawberries updates for you, my dear reader. And so it begins: summer produce! First -- you should go to my new site that details my upcoming pilgrimage and personal documentary film in Korea! Yes, I'm going! It's happening! https://koreadreambusdocumentary.blogspot.com/ Second -- I ended up leaving the secretarial half of my job, continuing on with the staff writer post. I will also add teaching theology part time this fall - this time to high schoolers. I am very pleased with the combination of writing and teaching. And yes, both jobs have cleared me to be gone for three weeks to go to Korea.  Third -- My short film, renamed "Souled," is now very close to picture lock (final picture edit). I've hired a composer, a sound mixer, and a color correction guy. Post production is in full swing, and boy am I excited to get that pic...

Hopefully not the last, but pretty darn close, I'd imagine. This last weekend of summer has been very summery. Yesterday after T'ai Chi class (I got to teach, again!), I decided to go kayaking. But I wanted to take out a hard shell kayak rather than my inflatable because I figured water levels would be lower this time of year, and I didn't want to run afoul of my skeg (fin on the underside of the boat to help it track straight). I rented a big ole orange kayak from Bay Creek Paddling Center and headed first down Irondequoit Creek. The water was very calm, and yes, it was low, as the lady warned me when I registered my rental. I got to see schools of little fish, a turtle diving, and several common song birds. I did have to do some maneuvering to escape the people who chatter and talk while kayaking (as in, kay- YAK- ing); otherwise, a very peaceful little turn around the creek. I then headed out to the southern end of Irondequoit Bay that empties into the creek. It was her...

The answer, of course, is yes. Everyone around me seems so relieved that summer is over and can't wait for fall to look like fall. Not me. I barely noticed the summer months because I was immersed in discernment, decision making, and moving. I tried to move to Massachusetts, but interviews and trips out there notwithstanding, it didn't happen. In fact, I wasted a whole lotta time worrying about that. As if... as if Jesus weren't right here, as if God doesn't have a plan for me, as if he's not guiding me. I am sometimes haunted by the past, which as we know, doesn't exist. What God has forgiven, what right have we to keep dredging up? Renounce it and stay with God in the sacrament of the now. Ultimately, I made my peace with staying where I am with the parish in Elmira, but I did end up moving apartments (not without some drama involving mice, a parking ticket, and random weirdness in my new neighborhood - but that's for another post!). In June I mad...

Tomorrow is Passion (Palm) Sunday, the start of Holy Week. I'm very pleased to be singing in choir at my parish, and I hope that the experience will remain an inspiring one through the coming months. I believe it was St. Augustine who first commented that "A person who sings prays twice."   I haven't written here much since I've been busy with work (a full time job and an on-going string of free lance editing for which I am very grateful). A quick update: I'm still on track for paying off my last piece of personal debt by the end of June. Yay! I will be returning to NYS mid-June for my cousin's ordination (he is becoming a Catholic priest). At that time I will visit friends and family, and nose around some of my old stomping grounds in Elmira.  I will also be visiting the Transfiguration Monastery in Windsor, NY when I'm back for my summer visit. I'm very excited about finding them; interestingly, they were founded around the same time...

Vitamin D supplements only go so far in helping me keep my head above water in these weary, bleary, dreary days of late fall and winter. Here are some other suggestions for surviving in Ithaca or other places that are bereft of sunshine for days and weeks at a time. Of course if you like to freeze your ass off in winter, go skiing or skating or ice fishing or snow shoeing. But if you're like me (poor circulation in my fingers and toes, a crappy knee and an abhorrence of the bitter cold), those aren't really options, now are they? Pandora.com - The music genome project allows you to create "stations" that play the kind of music you want to hear. I rely on this as a free alternative to the music in my iTunes that I've heard a hundred times. Currently I have a number of stations that provide me with everything from ambient trance music to 70s R&B to trip hop to classical. Movies - Go to a theatre, not just Netflix. Yes, it's expensive, but it also gives ...

Amazing that all it took to get my mojo back was the end of the semester and a vacation to my beloved South Shore and Nantasket Beach . I finally punched a hole in the brick wall of my writer's block concerning the third act of Space: 1999 Black Doves . Luckily, I'll have a couple weeks before I begin teaching at Cornell this summer to bang out the rest of the first draft. Won't my editor be thrilled? Not to mention gobsmacked. I have to say, the spring semester really did a job on me, physically and mentally. To continue my healing and reclamation of sanity, I am maintaining my summer vacay vibe with morning swims in the pool (before the marauding hordes of seven-year-olds show up with their armory of pool noodles and water pistols) and breakfast on the patio. Once again, I am lulled into a (false) sense of serenity and ahhhhh during the glorious, warm months here in Ithaca. All of which will be forgotten in the middle of dirty, rotten January when I'm stomping my ...