What to make of it so far..........

Om Namah Shivaya,

We are now two weeks into our time here at the Ashram. A routine is definitely setting in and I am starting to understand the rhythms of the ashram a bit more. I've had the very good fortune to be taken on a more extensive tour of the ashram by one of the renunciates named Kamala.  The ashram has grown so much since we were here last in 2007.  They are adding several new residence buildings as more and more people want to live here at the ashram. It's an interesting process about "buying" a residence here......very different that what Westerners are used to. From what I understand, it's kind of a combination of time share model (unless you live here permanently) mixed with eminent domain. In that you have use of the flat when you are here at the ashram--notifying them well ahead of the time of your arrival,  but when not staying here, the flat is available for the ashram to assign to others to use as determined by the ashram. And if you are here and staying in your flat but the ashram needs to house a lot of visitors (sometimes they have 10's of thousands of people visiting for certain festivals or events), they have the right to place people in your flat with you. You may have noticed all the locking cabinets in the pictures I sent of the flat we are staying in.  This is the reason for such a need. So much opportunity to practice detachment and acceptance! Some people really fix up their flats quite comfortably and a few are right on the beach and really do have amazing views looking directly out to the Arabian Sea (these are rare and long time permanent devotees and residents have them). 

What used to be a big pond area is now completely filled in and is a very small pasture for about 5 cows (and a soon to be calf) that are direct descendants of the ancient cows during Krishna's life.  Supposedly there are only 60 cows left from that time (about 5000 years ago--Krishna was believed to have been born in approximately 3000BC). The smaller sized cows get a lot of attention and affection from the ashram residents and visitors. As you might imagine, the kids here just love them. I also was shown the five "regular" milking cows and cow barn. There are two adorable calfs there, a golden brown one and a black and white one.  The milk from these cows is used, when Amma is in the ashram, for the special Indian tea that is made here daily called Chai (it's delicious and has a good caffeine kick to it). When she is away from the ashram touring in India (or wherever in the world) there are significantly less people staying at the ashram. During those times, there is enough milk to be had for all the remaining residents and the few visitors here. They do pasteurize the milk rather than drinking it raw. Growing Tulsi basil is another growing (literally) cottage project here.  They are cultivating more and more of it for it's tea, medicinal, and bead making properties (the beads are for wrist and neck malas (sacred bracelets and necklaces)). Amma would also like for those affiliated with the ashram to grow enough rice and vegetables so that the ashram is self supporting for those food items. Kamala was telling me that is such a huge project because sometimes the ashram prepares food for 20,000 people for one day and Indian's really like their rice. On a smaller scale they have started to do some roof top gardening of vegetables and have a few small gardens scattered around the ashram grounds. They are also starting to cultivate garden area for some fruit trees. The two elephants that used to live on the ashram are now living over on the University side of the mainland because they have a lot more room to roam and are much happier there. I am hoping that we will be able to take a walk there soon and visit them. She also walked me through some of the village that directly adjoins the ashram property. Given the extreme rural location of the ashram, the villagers live in makeshift huts, have no indoor plumbing or electricity and situate their outhouses cantilevered over the backwaters. Because of the vast cultural differences in language, customs, and culture, visitors to the ashram are discouraged from wandering through the village and mixing with the villagers.  Often times, Westerners think they are being generous in "helping" the villagers but more times than not the villagers are being opportunists with who they believe to be "rich" Westerners which often leads to significant misunderstandings and difficulties.  

Two of the more interesting projects that are new is 1) the chocolate making "factory" which is up in a large room in the Ayurvedivc Wellness Clinic (a clinic dedicated to Eastern Medicine practices). We had some last week that was quite good--dark chocolate and coconut. Right now, it is mostly just sold here at the ashram and whenever Amma is on tour--it is sold in the tour program gift shop. and 2) Wig making......Amma heard about the Locks for Love program in the US which collects hair and makes wigs for cancer patients.  With so many female renunciates in the ashram she asked them to cut their hair and donate it to this project.  It's just getting started and they sent an older renunciate to a wig making program in the larger city of Madras, India to learn to do this. So once this project gets up and going, there will be an opportunity for very poor cancer patients in India to be given a wig if they want.  One of the challenges is that most Indian women have very long hair and so will want a wig of very long hair, which is hard to come by.

I was able to witness two very sacred ceremonies a couple of nights ago: A homa and a puja. Both are very involved in ritual for prayer and chants expressed, special items used (eg, flowers, ghee, incense, wood, water, special containers) performed by a bramachari (Indian "priest"), and done with very specific intentions.  The homa involves the use of fire built in a small specially decorated pit.  Having grown up a Catholic, I am used to a fair amount of ritual as with the mass, but this makes the mass pale in comparison.  Both are quite beautiful, especially the puja which has more chanting, flowers, and a small flame.  At the end of the ritual, blessed water is placed in your cupped hand to drink followed by a dollop of blessed rice pudding also placed in your palm. An interesting variation of the wine and host offered at the end of the Catholic mass. 

I've talked to a few Western people who are living here or other Amma-related ashrams for very long times (10 to 20 years and going strong). For those I've talked with, the decision to do this was so clear and resolute for them. I am no doubt talking to a select sample as they are still very engaged and happy with their decision and their lives in the ashram; there are likely others who tried it and left but alas I won't be talking with those folks--at least not on this trip. It is really hard for me to get my head around just how seemingly easy and straightforward the decision was/is for them. How they are clear that all they want is just to be around Amma and live within a community that works to exemplify her teachings of love, caring for all living beings and the earth, spiritual awakening and enlightenment.  I guess one way to think about it is that it is akin to being so loving of Christ that if Christ came to earth and said you could live with Him would you drop everything to move half way around the world to be guided directly by him, living in a cultural and community setting vastly different than what you are used to--all because you wanted so much to only experience your life near him. I think to some extent that is what nuns and monks do within a Christian religious tradition but scale it up by several thousand more people (including married celibate couples and children (before they were celibate!)) than what is traditionally found in monasteries and convents.   I am learning quickly that I am definitely falling into the camp of what is called " a householder" though I did have a romantic flirtation with being a nun in middle school until the hormones kicked into full gear.  A householder is a person who is devoted to the teachings of Amma but not committed to living within the more insular ashram community. I honestly don't believe it is a question of how deep a devotion you have as to whether you live in the ashram or not. I think it has much more to do with what you think you need to grow spiritually. Some people need the proximity to Her and get so much out of it--and no doubt being here supports far more spiritual practice. Others can carry Her internally and just need to enact a higher level of discipline to doing their daily sadhana (spiritual practices and living by her teachings). I am grateful for this life experience of being here to gain better clarity on what my path is.  I think in the past I have confused the idea of spiritual surrender with leaving everything behind.  Intellectually, I know that is the not the only path but it felt that true devotion required that.  Now I know intuitively that is not so.  Now it is really about the commitment of exacting the necessary discipline for spiritual practice in the face of so much Western distraction.  Before coming here, it was so hard for me to do my daily 75 minutes of morning meditation, chanting, prayers, and singing as I am so easily distracted by getting on the internet to read email or reading the paper or eating, getting the laundry done, etc), here the morning sadhana of 2 1/2  plus hours goes very quickly because none of those distractions are available in our flat and there are very set times to be in the temple for the morning chanting. How to translate that when I get back to NYC will be the challenge, and if I can do it, then no doubt I will have grown spiritually from having been here.  Detachment from those distractions first thing is the morning and prioritizing my sadhana will be my goal.  Bob is already amazingly good at doing that.  I really need to use him more as a role model than I do now.  

Pictures taken from viewpoints in and around the ashram

I think these following pics speak for themselves...........

Our flat:  cozy and functional



The last two photos show a the view of the Arabian Sea from our back window and a view of the laundry facilities here at the ashram.  Everything is hand washed and air dryed. There are no washing or drying machines here.

The next set of pictures is of the backwaters separating the ashram from the ashram affiliated Amrita university and the bridge that connects the two.

You can see that the University just rises out of the forest on one side as does the ashram with it's several high rise residence buildings on the other side.

The next pics give you an idea of just how expansive nature is that surrounds the ashram--namely the coconut tree forests and the Arabian Sea..  There are also lots of trees in the ashram where lots of exotic birds roost in the evening (comorants, egrets, bald eagles) as well as pigeons and crows.

The next set of pictures is very fun in that it follows the trail off the bridge that we take to get to the University and our office in the Biotechnology Department. It is such a wonderful contrast of very typical Indian village scenes that lead to this incredible state of the art university where scholars and experts from all over the world come here to teach and conduct research. Most of those who teach here are uncompensated and are here because they are devotees of Amma.  The architecture of the buildings is very Indian and what is most amazing is that EVERYTHING is pretty much done by manual labor with fairly primitive tools.  And if machinery is used, it is really dated and makeshift.  Yesterday we saw three young boys making the concrete molds from scratch for the decorative wall surrounding one of the buildings.  They are doing this in small batches with painstaking care and precision and HUNDREDS of these decorative molds are needed. It's going to take a long time for this wall project to be done.

Now you have a sense of our day to day walk to work!

Tolerances and Blessings

Om Namah Shivaya,

While I don't plan to post at every two day intervals, being here is such a fresh experience for me that the "settling in" phase goes deeper and deeper each day. Just wanted to enter a few thoughts about it while they are fresh in my mind.

I think it is very easy to have a romanticized vision of life in an ashram. At least for me here, I am still grounded (for better or worse) in my "Western" mind and expectations so am learning to tolerate many things here in this living situation that I would probably walk away from if staying somewhere in the states (though I have to say, I've stayed in some pretty funky places in the good ol' US of A). Yesterday, I made a list of all the blessings (or what I experience to be Amma's grace) I've received since traveling here and all the "downsides" of being here (what better example of a Western mind at work??). It came out to be a 3 to 1 ratio of really wonderful experiences of blessed grace to "lessor" experiences I am learning to live with--though really that ratio is simply an absolute mathematical statement, in reality, the weighting is much heavier for the value, depth, and breadth of the blessings. So with appropriate weighting, it is likely more like a 20 to 1 ratio of "good" to "lessor". It's very much like a marriage, your partner isn't perfect but there is so much good in them you are willing to put up with their more annoying aspects.

So here are things I am learning to tolerate, and hoping that over time, instead of these things "getting old fast," they just become routine and familiar and fade into the background of my experience while I soak up the amazing vibrations here (can you believe I talk like this now??--I've always been a such a skeptic and pragmatist).

1) Mold and rust are just so prevalent here---the year round hot/warm steamy/humid weather is just a breeding and cultivating ground for both. It takes constant effort to keep both at bay, and for lots of structures inside and out, it seems to be a losing battle. So when I say we have a nice flat, it really means that it only has a minimal amount (all relative to how bad it can get here) of rust and mold. The ashram is in a constant state of painting and repair because of the mold and rust. For the most part they are winning, especially when it comes to the most important and sacred buildings, but it is a lot of work.

2) Ants and mosquitos are plentiful here though the ashram works really hard at mosquito abatement which overall is pretty successful. though on any given day, despite wearing long sleeves and long pants, I can always count on getting at least a couple of bites. Those mosquitos are fast and furious when they do get to you. Luckily, if I don't scratch at them, the intense itching sensation goes away in about 15 minutes, so it's a good lesson in restraint and patience. The ants I've already discussed--but wow, they are just EVERYWHERE, food present or not. One is crawling on my computer screen as I write. It's not like there are hundreds in any given place, there maybe only a handful here and there but it is a constant few here and there. I am trying to get better at ignoring them if they aren't really doing any harm like trying to get into my food and adopting others' approach of "just make friends with them."

3) Steady streams of trash is just outside of the ashram on the way to the University. In the ashram, they keep it generally very clean but because thousands live or visit the ashram day in and day out, they can't keep it spotless. It's funny, I live with so much trash everyday in NYC that it has helped me some in tolerating it here better on this visit than my last visit four years ago when I visited India while still living in Seattle.

4) The heat is not nearly as bad as when I was here four and eight years ago but it still can be hot and humid when there is no air circulation. This is as good a time of year to be here as any since you do get some cool breaks in the evening and early morning and enough breezes during the day to make it quite tolerable.

5) The constant feeling of being sticky or sweating (combine that with a hot flash and just see what a good time that can be!). Showers help for about maybe 10 minutes. Speaking of showers, there is no such thing as hot and cold running water here, just one dial that opens the shower head or faucet. What you get is whatever temperature the water happens to be in the water storage unit which is usually cold (tepid at best) relative to one's usual experience of a shower. I am actually getting to really like the cold showers even in the cool morning temperatures as it sets a very good memory for the day---in the heat and stickiness of the day, I can think fondly of the chilliness of the morning shower. It's a good coping strategy.

6) Hair is just always a "bad hair" day here. At least for me anyway. My hair just goes crazy, gets all wavy and curly with wisps of hair that cannot be contained--no matter how many headbands, hairclips and rubberbands I use. No hairdryers are allowed because of the drain on the electrical system here,and besides, the effect would not last long and the idea of putting a hot dryer anywhere near me is just crazy. I also feel like I can never quite get it as clean as I do in the states. I think it may be the water here which is not filtered in the showers, just for the drinking water stations around the ashram where people fill up their water bottles. If I were living here permanently, I would probably just shave my head.

7) The limited fresh food that is safe to eat. While there is food aplenty here, and quite delicious, Westerners have to be very careful about eating anything fresh (same as if traveling in Mexico). I am so used to a very steady stream of fresh, raw fruit and vegetables in my diet, that is just not the case here. The safest thing is to eat very well cooked foods and only fresh fruit with heavy skins or rinds (think oranges, pomegranites, bananas).

8) The distance from famly and friends. While I have been dealing with the long distance from family and friends over the last year with the move to NYC, at least there it is easy to hop a plane and be there in one day. Here not so easy--try flights that only go out a few times a week and take a couple of days in flight time and lay overs. That is probably the most unnerving thing for me to stay calm about.

So as not to burst the bubble of the beauty of being here with such conditions, in reality, all of the above pale in comparison to what I have already received in the way of grace by being here. I could list them out same as above but most are really intangible and so particular and private to me, it would be hard to put into words for others to understand or to appreciate the magnitude of seemingly small events.

One thing I will share is that when I went to get my massage yesterday, I thought I was going to get a typical "spa" like massage, a "get blissed out" kind of experience. It turned out to be a very intense, emotionally deep experience which felt like it amounted to about 20 hours of intense therapy and it was physically painful. At times she was kneading places so deep, I thought she was going to push clear through skin, muscle, and bone. She gave good reasons for what she was doing and why I experienced it as so painful (apparently others do not find it painful at all), no doubt over time, it became bearable--but so much for the "spa" massage I had been expecting. The woman giving me my massage was amazingly intuitive, articulate, insightful, loving, caring, challanging, healing...... and I could go on and on........ I am planning to see her weekly while here as I've never had such a deep experience as I did in the care of her hands. I was just blown away at the end of the hour. It's those kinds of experiences that make every downside listed above shrink to mere "eh."

I have been exploring the Kali Temple a bit more and cannot believe what a labrynth it is. It has so many rooms and hidden nooks and crannys from top to bottom (it has about 4 floors plus an above ground basement like structure on which it stands). It's amazing how many people, businesses, and services are situated in it). So much more to discover. I am taking a tour soon to get a much better sense of all that the ashram offers. I visited a friend who has a flat on the 16th floor of one of the residence buildings. The views of the seemingly never ending coconut tree forest, the backwaters, and the Arabian sea are unbelievably spectacular and beautiful from their flat and floor balcony. You can see lots of exotic birds nesting in the tall trees. We will get pictures of those views and send them out next week though I doubt they will do justice to the live view.

Shanti (peace),

Rose

Settling into Ashram life at Amritapuri, India

Om Namah Shivaya (very traditional greeting salutation here at the ashram generally indicating a reverence for God the Supreme Being),

We are settling in nicely here at the ashram (for those getting this first installment -- Bob and I are here at Amma's ashram, Amritapuri, in Kerala, India for five weeks). Bob so loves it here that I think it totally biased his description of our flat (saying in an earlier email we had a flat that overlooked the Arabian Sea). While we do have a very nice flat relative to ashram standards where austerity is the rule, it would be wrong to give the impression that we are in a view room.  We do have a distant view of the Arabian Sea if you look beyond the coconut trees (Bob's description and the reality remind me of real estate agents' description of view apartments which often offer only a tiny sliver of a view of what they say you can see). Regardless, it is a nice flat and what it lacks in actual sea views it more than makes up for in having a very lovely view from the back window of the Kali Temple (there are only two windows in the flat--one that faces out to the corridor that provides the passage entry way to all the flats on that floor and a back window which in our case faces out to the temple) . The Kali temple is a magnificent structure that functions as a temple, housing for many of the very long term residents devoted to a spiritual life (equivalent of priests and nuns), and business offices for running the ashram and providing visitors and residents with various services (e.g., travel arrangements, internet stations, small shop that sells clothing and various spiritually oriented items, a second hand store, massage, check in for staying here, etc).  It's such an interesting mix of the most ancient with the modern.  Taking pictures is not allowed on the ashram grounds (as this is not a tourist destination or attraction but a sacred place of spiritual learning and living). If you go to the amritapuri website, you can get a good idea of what the temple looks like.  I will try to get some photos of nearby sights not on the ashram grounds and forward them to you all over the next week or so. 

During the day, the weather can be steamy due to the high humidity at times and it's not very hard to work up a sweat, but in general, when in the shade and with the occasional to common breeze, it is really quite lovely.  All the rooms have fans and that helps tremendously as it can be pretty stifling in a room with no air circulation. The night time weather is extremely pleasant and that is the reward for any earlier challenges with the daytime temps and conditions. We are here during the tapering of the monsoon season so it has rained some part of each day we've been here thus far and some have been real downpours. 

Even though our sleep cycle is still way off, we are trying to settle into a routine such that we arise at 4:15am to be ready for the 5am morning prayers, meditation, chanting, singing, and arati (a very lovely spiritual purifying ceremony) that go on for a bit over an hour in the Kali Temple for the women and the huge program temple for the men.  We then prepare our morning tea at the common hot water dispenser, come back to our flat and do our own private meditation and get our things together for the rest of the day.  We then head to the dining hall (a semi-open space where if you aren't careful if you step away for a moment, a hungry crow might swoop down and help itself to your breakfast) and have breakfast either of the Indian version (idly and sambar) or familiar Western version.  Hopefully there is fresh yogurt (called kurd here) available. They make it fresh each day and it is very popular and goes fast if you don't get to the dining hall in time.  Yesterday there wasn't any because it wound up turning into cheese instead of yogurt.  After breakfast, we head over to the biotech department at Amma's University which is across the backwater and about a 10 minute walk from the ashram. We take the bridge that was built after the tsunami hit here and made it very clear that people needed a more reliable evacuation route to the mainland than depending on small boat ferries to take people across. Bob works on his Morgan Stanley work as well as preparing for his two statistics courses he is teaching here.  I am his teaching assistant and am pulling together the course materials, organizing them, finding resources on the internet to assist with the instruction, etc. We share a small office together (with the fan on and the window open, it is really a nice temp to be working in). The office is nicely situated in that the one window that faces to the outdoors is next to a path that many students walk so we feel very steeped in the college atmosphere of the University here. We haven't quite figured out our meals for the rest of the day as the days differ here for what is going on in the ashram (for example, today Amma served lunch to everyone (close to a thousand people), other days there are many visitors (several thousand) as Amma has a public darshan) etc. There is a dining hall here on campus that we may wind up using, for lunch anyway, depending on how Bob's schedule shapes up as he starts teaching his classes. We eventually make our way back to the ashram, and again, what is happening there in the evenings is different on different days whether it be the ongoing public darshan that Amma started at 11am earlier that day or it may be devotional singing or an instructional spiritual talk. At this point, our sleep has been so out of whack, we are usually exhausted by 8pm or 8:30pm and in bed by 9:30pm only to sleep for maybe a couple of hours or so, before our internal biological clocks tell us it is our normal New York City daytime "so wake up and get going."  It will be nice when we finally get 6 or 7 straight hours of sleep again. 

We've seen several people we know here from our US connections and that is really nice and comforting. I have a massage scheduled for Wednesday that I am looking very forward to and there are a number of activities I hope to get to before leaving here, including meditating on the beach of the Arabian sea. The ashram offers a lot of opportunities for being around Amma now that she is in residence and not out touring. It's a really nice atmosphere so far. 

On the much more mundane side of things, I am doing small skirmishes with some ants in our flat, not very many but enough that if I don't stay on top of it, it could become a problem. I brought some food with me from NYC to help with the transition from my usual diet to ashram food diet.  I've got all that food wrapped and wrapped in plastic zip lock bags which so far has been successful but it doesn't stop the few persistent ants who still what to have a try at it. I've tried being relatively humane to them by giving them ample warning (in the way of spreading clove oil as a deterrent) that I mean business if they keep coming into our flat.  So for those that do still come in, they wind up being squished.  Bob is unwilling to do that and I am no doubt accruing a lot of karma by squishing them but it may be good karma in that I am setting their souls free to become higher beings than an ant or it could be really bad karma in killing these creatures.  I hope they are coming to our flat in order to attain liberation from their current life station and know I will not disappoint in getting them there.  On a side note, ants come in a lot of different sizes here........from really really tiny to more normal size with several variances between the two. 

So now being three days into our five week stay, I would say we are settling in really well and I, personally, am receiving tremendous grace from Amma in having a good experience at the start of this five week stay.  I know Bob would eventually love to live here for several months out of the year when he retires and I think Amma is gracing him by gracing me with the support that I could possibly be fine with that too.

waving goodbye to NYC from Wave Hill Gardens

Margaret and I had a really fabulous visit to Wave Hill Gardens in the Bronx. The gardens are situated on the cliff overlooking the Hudson River. Terrific views of the NJ Palisades. Such a calm and serene place. Weather was absolutely perfect...what heat wave? We lunched under the shade of a big tree taking in the view and the vibe there. They do a really great job of having many plants in bloom throughout the year. It's  only 22 acres but there are quite a few different gardens, view points, microcosisms, lovely buildings to wander through, and lots of wonderful small places to tuck into for a bit more privacy. several fantastic pergolas to walk under and sit a spell. most striking to me above everything was a MAGNIFICENT Copper Beech tree that clearly was an elephant in another life. so amazing the similarties of the color, texture, folds in bark, size, shape of the trunk and branches,  everything!! I was so taken by it I could hardly leave it. There was also the most amazing aquatic lily pad that looked like the most intricate mosaic design. Nothing like I've seen before. I just had to get a membership which was only $40 bucks and gives recipricol admission to several other wonderful gardens throughout the five boroughs. it was the perfect sendoff to my upcoming trip to India. NYC has a way of making sad to go and lovelorn each time I leave the city. Am excited to take others there upon my return. We are waiting for our flight now.... hope to be able to make some entries from India and will try to do better with adding pictures. Wish ihad some to share of the sights from Wave Hill. Google it for details.

A very CARNI weekend in California

Carni as in Carnival (The Firebaugh Canteloupe Roundup was in full swing while I was visiting my mom) and carnivorous as in total abandonment of my vegetarianism.  My mom made me her, actually quite famous, beef tacos and then we made 4 dozen beef enchiladas which is one of my favorite dishes when I was growing up (we froze most of them for future use). Also had barbequed pork ribs for my sister's 60th birthday celebration.

My hometown of Firebaugh, CA is the cantaloupe capital of the world,  We supply the world with cantaloupes! When I was a kid growing up, there was a cantaloupe parade (in which I performed in multiple years (either playing my clarinet or doing folk dancing), a cantaloupe queen and attendants (based on fundraising ticket sales, not necessarily beauty), dances every night of the 4 days, the roundup carnival, big truckloads of free cantaloupes, and lots and lots of food booths put on by the local churches and community organizations to raise funds for their various activities. It's a much smaller affair these days but still a significant community event. My mom's beef taco recipe was the featured item for the St. Joseph's Church Altar Society booth.  Those tacos gained a statewide reputation and people came from miles and miles for those tacos, ordering a dozen at a time. It was their biggest money making event for the year.  My mom headed that taco booth for decades then gave it up when my dad died four years ago.  It was just too painful for her to do it without him helping.  All of us in my family helped in some way with that taco booth over the years.  Once it changed hands, they changed the recipe and within two years it went completely downhill, people complained about the change and whoever was now in charge stubbornly refused to go back to the original recipe. After another dismal year the booth closed down. So while I was home and because the carnival was in town, I asked my mom to make me some original recipe St. Joseph's Church Altar Society beef tacos, which she most lovingly did!  I have to admit that I did make a change to make them less fattening which was to not fry the corn tortilla before stuffing it with the seasoned shredded beef, lettuce, tomato, and parmesan cheese.  It still tasted GREAT!  My mom and niece had the real  deal, fried tortilla and all.  Great memories with that meal.  Then because beef enchiladas take a lot of work to make the enchilada sauce and season the ground beef correctly, my mom just can't do it on her own anymore. I told her I would help her make several dozen so she could freeze them for future use.  They freeze really well and they make for a great dinner when she has company. It was a really good project for us to do together and then getting to eat the product of our efforts was fabulous. I also love bbq pork ribs and have about zero discipline when it comes to eating meat when it is all around me. Bob is so much better at being able to resist and stay with his vegetarianism. So even though I feel terribly guilty after eating meat, it doesn't impact me much when it comes to the next meal.  I try to think of it as an experience in cultural melding--when in Firebaugh, do as the Firebaughians do (to paraphrase a well known saying).  Had a really great visit with my family, got to see a lot of my sisters, nieces, nephew, grandnieces and grandnephews. It's good when my mom and I can share projects as there is not much to do in Firebaugh though we did make the rounds at the carnival.

Since getting back, I've been busy shopping for lots of various items to take to India, organizing all that I will need for the five weeks there, taking care of all that needs to be attended to here during our absence, and preparing the apartment for our absence and the arrival of six guests staying here over the time we are away. It's turning out to be more than I had anticipated. Thank goodness we don't leave for the airport til Friday evening. I need all the time I can get. Tomorrow I get a break and will go to Wave Hill Gardens with Margaret.  Our first car outing.  Should be an adventure!  It's looking more promising that I will have reasonably good internet access at the ashram. Perhaps I will blog from there.

Yankee Stadium versus the Mets Stadium (Citifield)

Now having been to both stadiums within the last couple of weeks, I can speak from first hand knowledge about the two.

Yankee Stadium sucks. What a waste of a couple of BILLION dollars and change. It's sterile, ugly as sin, has a ridiculous thin electronic ad strip that doesn't even fit the ads on it, it's so narrow. Has crappy graphics for introducing who is at bat ( I mean really, having a player's face arrive in a subway window or having their face show up after dusting off a base piled high with dirt).  And what a lame game race between the three subway lines, the 4, the B, and the D.  I mean really????? The food choices are nothing to write home about either. The only good thing was the very cushy, padded seats and that they played Louie, Louie (Seattle's anthem). Bob actually liked the electronic ad strip that goes around the inside of the stadium (he thought it was awesome), I just thought it was tacky, tacky, tacky. We are pretty much of the same mind that we will likely not be going back to see any more games there unless there comes a time when the Mariners are having a phenomenal year and it looks really good that they would beat the pants off the Yankees.  Luckily (and I do mean luckily) the game was rain interrupted in the 5th inning which gave us a good excuse to leave early. Bob was so torn about going to tonight's game because he's got a lot of work to do right now but we did have the tickets that we paid for (discounted but still not cheap), and I am leaving town for five days starting early tomorrow morning. So it was a nice way for us to spend some time together before my trip. So we got home by 9:15 and Bob was able to log some work time. So it worked out well for both of us.

Now the Mets Citifield stadium is a whole 'nother story.  They put their $850 Million to excellent use and produced a beautiful, fan friendly, inviting, and intimate stadium.  While I still feel Seattle has better hot links and kettle corn, overall, the food choices at Citifield are amazingly diversified and plentiful.  There are great views from all around the park and their electronic boards and graphics are fun and engaging while still being utilitarian and practical.  I would say that by way of appearance and structurally it is on par with Seattle's Safeco Field which has been noted to be one of the most beautiful ballparks in the country.  So KUDOS to you Citifield and the Mets.  We definitely will go to Citifield again when we want to have a really great baseball going experience while living in NYC. (Even if we don't get comp tickets again from Scott's brother--thank you, thank you, thank you!!)