twin oaks tooth remedy

last night i had plans to go to twin oaks and felt super torn--stay home, nurse my toothache, enjoy home and family dinner and michele snuggles? or make the trek out to TO? in the end, i went with the landmark standby of doing what i said i would do--the pain seemed to subside slightly so i climbed into Alexis' VOP truck for the twin oaks trek.

and i so appreciated the social infusion and ease. dinner turned into girls table w/marta, kele, and caroline; goofy girlyness and easy bonding. then trekking up to tupe we lolled on the bed while i nursed my tooth, watching the clock waiting for the next round of painkillers. eventually we meandered out to the living room for the ClaireCloud birthday hangout. The living room is gorgeous these days--still decked out as narnia with giant pine boughs all around and a big tree in the middle. the furnace was cookin', claire baking chocolate pudding cake and cloud preparing pots of tea, labeled in beautiful calligraphy. it was an art-baking-lounge party, so art supplies were strewn all around. i parked myself in my little pain-cloud in front of the furnace and relaxed into the mellow yummy vibes. pretty soon we started playing picture-sentence, where you write a sentence, then fold and pass and the next person draws their version of your sentence. at some point caroline offered real-deal pain killers, and my foggy cloud slowly became a little foggier and a little less painful. some hilarity with in the manner of the adverb, and then eventually we played Big Booty, a rowdy, fast paced circle clapping and shouting game. it felt fine and comfy to flow in and out as the tooth sensation dictated. eventually, marta and i made our way up to the cuddle loft-cum-beaver lodge; transformed into the coziest of spots w/bed, lamp, couch. in my drugged haze we chatted til nearly 1am. drifting off to sleep was pure decadence and thank god i slept through the night and woke up pain free!

back at the oaks

when it came time to finally leave isabella freedman on saturday morning, i felt very ready. after a loong day of travel (car to train to subway to train to train), my bandmates met me at the philly train station with a carful of dumpstered Trader Joe's chocolate and big hugs. after a delicious dinner of home-made chili and cornbread, we played a rocking house party at my baker friend Michael Dolich's house of love and happiness. as the night wore on, the floor was literally bouncing from the exuberant dancing. and the vibe was very high--happy people, micro-brew beer, homemade (handmilled, organic sourdough) bread.......hard to go wrong.

Sunday morning we enjoyed a leisurely 8 course breakfast with our sweet friend ali (potatoes, eggs, grits, salad, fruit salad, biscuits, coffee and organic bacon), then headed down to silver spring, maryland (DC suburb) for another VB first--our first superbowl gig! weird but, oddly, quite fun. we did a rockin' set before the game started, and the moishe house-niks got funky. then, everyone watched the game til halftime, when we played another rockin set. likely some kind of first in the klezmer world. VBs--boldly going where no klez band has gone before!

now i'm back at twin oaks, throwing myself into work, projects and friendships. it feels good to get back into the groove of making hammocks, sewing pillows, cooking dinner, going on walks and lying in hammocks. and, a little piece of my heart is still in up in jewtopia.

graditude

after a rich and tumultuous 3 weeks at twin oaks, i'm back in snow-covered connecticut. my time at the commune is always a mixture of blessings and challenges, and this visit was no exception. it was sweet and wonderful to be back in the same zip code as sky, to reconnect, talk, snuggle, cook pancakes and plot our west-coast travels. and, being involved with him means dealing with some tough stuff. for instance, the sexy and talented artist/musician/dancer that he was involved with in september--they fell in love and she is pretty heart-broken about it. and the Family stuff is quite the emotional morass.

not to mention my usual round of insecurities, self-judgements, disconnectedness and excessive mental torture that assail me.

but i can only express deep gratitude for the past 2 days of sweet respite and transition. we spent the night in DC with johnny socko, a middle aged motor-biking movie producing architure restorationist and raging bachelor. sunday morning he attuned me for Reiki I and passed along a book of Reiki history and instruction. already i feel its resoncance with my healer yearnings and tendencies and glad for the directions it will take me. my trip up here was long but not unpleasant and i'm staying in a beautiful room with giant windows looking out onto the snowy-frosted trees. i feel nurtured by folks here and just so grateful (ok, so its a theme) to have this time and space to reflect, process and integrate before moving forward.

saying goodnight to adam, the local guru and dishwasher, he spoke about the necessity of going with the flow of the universe, even if that sometime means being assertive. even then, he said, you've got to be gentle.