The Furious Spinner

In times of old, The Furies protected Mother Right. If a mother (or any woman) was harmed, The Furies swooped down and took their vengeance. They were one of the last vestiges of a world that existed before the patriarchy. When we feel righteous anger, it is The Furies who are calling out to us to make what is wrong right again.

Sunday, December 31, 2006

Happy New Year's Eve!

Mario and I are in San Francisco. We'll probably go to sleep before midnight. It's never been a holiday we celebrate. There isn't a real difference between today and tomorrow. But we're here, out and about on New Year's Eve, something we've never done before. The closest we've come to being out on New Year's Eve is when we've been in Tucson over the holidays. But even then we've stayed in or around casita—although I think we went out to a movie last year.

Anyway, we're in a sweet little hotel near Golden Gate Park. We came here to see the Gee's Bend Quilts. Today was the last day of the exhibit, and the De Young Museum was packed. The quilts were extraordinary. Something so moving about these pieces of fabric stitched together by the women in a community of descendants of former slaves.

Tonight we went down to Chinatown and City Lights Books. Although I haven't been impressed with what I've read of the Beat Poets, I am glad for their existence, and I appreciate what they did and what they tried to do: art shouldn't be packaged, shouldn't be slick, shouldn't be the same. (And I think I told you we went to see William S. Burroughs once a few years ago, and it—or he—was pretty disgusting.) We bought a few books, and then we walked through Chinatown. The city was lovely. The skyscrapers in the near dark distance were outlined in white lights, like giant Christmas trees. The moon lit up the clouds. Up and down Grant Street people walked. Hucksters stood outside restaurants and shops, trying to get people to come inside. "Dim sum inside. You want dim sum?" After a while we walked back to our car and returned to the hotel. We had tried earlier to take the MUNI railway from our hotel to Chinatown, but it was so packed we didn't get on; we walked back to the car and drove instead.

When we came back to the room we made sandwiches and soup. It was a wonderful evening. Unfortunately, we're in a room with two tiny twin beds, so we're waving to each other across the room. Not very romantic, but at least we're together. Any year that I begin and end with Mario is a great year.

It was quite a year. I can't remember another like it. We all know what's happened in the world. In my own life I had two surgeries. Two of my dearest friends died. I wrote Church of the Old Mermaids and Ruby's Imagine. Mercy, Unbound came out. I learned how to be a Faery Doctor and I went to Santa Fe for Medicine for the Earth. We started the Old Mermaid School of Telling Tales and Finding Art. I can breathe through my nose. I smelled banana for a whole hour last week. I've smelled ginger. I've smelled lavender. I have smelled. Having a sense of smell is a great and wonderful thing....Well, I can hardly keep my eyes open, so I better go to sleep.

Here's wishing you all a great good healthy prosperous sustainable New Year!

P.S. I'm sorry, but I haven't been taking many pics here. However, the rose is from the Rose Garden in Golden State Park. That's my bed in this hotel, and the last photo is the wallpaper in the hotel.

Labels: photos, travel