Saying Goodbye - Muppet Style January 21, 2008

While I know intellectually I am leaving I don’t really feel I’ve fully wrapped my brain around the idea of it. I keep talking about it. I’m planning for it. But I’m in total task mode just trying to get everything done. There are a gamillion details. When do I have time to emote? No idea.

So, it was recommended to me that I start to remind myself that this is the last time I will go to the beach, see this person, do this whatever here in CA. It feels a little artificial that way, but I have been doing it sort of. I’ve gone on a tour of my favorite places and restaurants with some of my favorite people. Last week it was Versailles with Lisa, El Gaucho Grill on Friday with Debbie, Huntington Gardens on Saturday with Erika and Bucca de Beppo on Sunday with Janine, Lisa, Tina and Colleen. But it just feels like a normal week. I’m always that busy.

Maybe the leaving part doesn’t hit until I’m actually gone. Maybe it will hit me as I drive away. Maybe it won’t hit until I’m in Ohio, alone, bored, friendless and broke wondering if I made the right decision. Or maybe it will be when I return and realize I don’t live here anymore. No idea. So instead I turn to the muppets to help.

I came across this song they sang in Muppets Take Manhattan when the gang has to separate. It is cheesy, corny and perfect.

“Saying Goodbye”
written by Ralph Burns and Jeff Moss

(At a train station)
Piggy: Saying goodbye, going away
Seems like goodbye’s such a hard thing to say
Kermit: Touching our hands, wondering why
Both: It’s time for saying goodbye.

(On a country road with Scooter on bicycle)
Scooter: Saying goodbye, why is it sad?
Makes us remember the good times we’ve had
Much more to say, foolish to try
It’s time for saying goodbye.

(In the back of a truck with Camilla)
Gonzo:
Don’t want to leave, but we both know
Sometimes its better to go

(On a Greyhound bus)
Rowlf:
Somehow I know, we’ll meet again
Not sure quite where and I don’t know just when

(On the roadside, hitchhiking)
Floyd: You’re in my heart, so until then
Electric Mayhem: It’s time for saying goodbye.

(In a freight train car)
Fozzie:
Somehow I know, we’ll meet again
Not sure quite where and I don’t know just when
You’re in my heart so until then
Wanna smile
Wanna cry
Saying goodbye

All except Kermit & Fozzie:
La la la la, la la la la
It’s time for saying goodbye
La la la la, la la la la
La la la la-la la la.

Photo Friday: Blessing April 7, 2007

Today as we remember Good Friday we think about the cross and the biggest blessing that God offered us, his son, who came to die for our redemption. Through his pain we get to live.

The great thing about this particular Jesus, at the LA cathedral, is that the architect purposefully made the cross low to the ground and accessible to the people. After service there is usually a line of people want to touch Jesus. It is moving to watch them lean against it, kneel by it, sob into it and embrace him in their pain in the most famous symbol of ultimate suffering.

Photo Friday: Stillness December 1, 2006

Stillness… how often in life today do we stop and be still? Not often enough that’s for sure. I know I am so distracted by so many things. Yet it is only in the quiet that we can hear the still, small voice.

"Be still and know that I am God…" Ps. 46:10.

Photo Friday: Immature November 23, 2006

When Erika and I were in San Francisco for Jer’s wedding my Uncle Kev graciously loaned us his black Expedition to drive to Sonoma. Uncle Kev got this car with a lovely Jesus decal on the back.

Being the good Catholic that he is he thought it would be sacreligious to take it off. So now every time the Western sun filters through the back of his car Jesus reflects and dances on the dashboard. It’s kind of disconcerting to be driving down the freeway in the middle of a road rage fit and have Jesus all of the sudden show up.

When we arrived at the reception we stopped to take a picture with Jesus, when else would you get the chance?

Photo Friday: Light November 3, 2006

The sunsets lately have been amazing. Look at that orange, isn’t it fantastic. I wanted to get to the ocean to see it but with daylight savings I think the sun set that day at 4:59. Gorgeous. 

Photo Friday: Innocence October 20, 2006

Do you remember hot, humid, lazy summer days when the only remedy was the break out the hose and the slip-n-slide? Mikey and Jordy played out there for hours. Their biggest worry was who would get to go next - that is the joy and innocence of childhood.

Look at that face! Oh how I love and miss those boys.

Photo Friday: Destruction October 13, 2006

534 S. Broadway, home to the original Pantages Theatre.

In fact Broadway in downtown Los Angeles was mecca of vaudeville stages and then the talkies in the 1920s and 30s. Sadly most of the grandeur is gone and the former homes of the stars are now home to indoor swap meets, porn theatres and discount electronics.

I went on a walking tour of Broadway Theatres with the LA Conservancy last year and it’s so sad to see the state most of the remaining theatres are in. On the tour you get a chance to walk behind the cheap luggage, loud music and marked down perfume into the warehouse to see the old prosceniums, art deco walls, and balconies. You can see how amazing they were.

I get emotional about buildings like this in disrepair. Think about the time when people got dressed up to go to the movies, it was a major night out. Think about all the dates, night out without the kids and trips made to the big city for those theatres. See I am a building sentimentalist. I can’t help it.

Now there are also those that have been restored like the Los Angeles Theatre and Orpheum and they are spectacular. I have to say we don’t make theatres like that anymore.

Photo Friday: Thin October 6, 2006

I took this picture at the Flower Fields in Carlsbad, CA.

Photo Friday: Bright September 16, 2006

I love visiting the missions in CA. Here is a great photo of the interior of the chapel through the bright candlelight.

Photo Friday: Boys September 8, 2006

This week’s topic for Photo Friday is boys. So of course my photo had to be of my nephews, my favorite boys on the planet. We took this picture a couple of years ago on one of my visits to Ohio. We make brownies together every time I’m there. Now that I think about it, the only part they really help with is the licking of the bowls. By the time we’re done the bowls are clean but their faces are covered in chocolate. I miss them terribly.