1. This beautiful form. The thirty-ness of it. But mostly the right now…
2. Right now. Being here right now. Just like that…
3. Form, in general…
4. The other day I ran into this yoga teacher I kind of know, and I was trying to explain to her how I dislike yoga that is dogmatic and forceful and “this is the one right way and you will do it like this or else.” And she misunderstood this to mean that I don’t like form…
5. I love form. Form is everything. Shiva Nata! Form, structure, patterns. These are the living containers for discovery and play. Without form you have anarchy. And not the good kind of disruptive chaos either, but the dangerous kind. Of course, TOO MUCH form is fascism, but there’s that dogmatic thing again. I’m talking about organic form, combined with freedom, sovereignty and exploration. It’s important. Form is the thing that lets you get to flow…
6. Flow…
7. That moment between intentionally wrought chaos and blissful re-ordering where the world is filled with pure possibility, and all the perfect, simple solutions are waiting to be picked like flowers…
8. Roses, which I completely under-appreciated until I lived in Portland. Roses are fucking amazing…
9. “No pity in the Rose City!”
10. Italics…
11. Doo wop. Especially when you catch these hints of ska and swing and cajun and big band all at the same time. Patterns, again…
12. So I started this Pandora station and seeded it with Rama Lama Ding Dong by the Edsels. And I have been religiously caring for it and pruning it. Mostly by giving a resounding and emphatic THUMBS DOWN to anything too talk-ey, or filled with tales of woe, or tralala-ho-hum-things-are-perfectly-adequate. None of that. I want upbeat! I want danceable!
13. So yes, I love knowing what I want…
14. And then getting it. Getting it is even better…
15. But sometimes not getting it is even better…
16. Anticipation. Sweet, sweet anticipation…
17. Plus the tingly possibility of being wrong…
18. All that to say: I love Pandora for being magic…
19. I love boy bands from back when boy bands were harmonies and street corners and everything was full of rollicking, hopeful teenage love…
20. I also love barbershop quartets and wish they were around right now because then I would go out to shows every week…
21. But this week is all about experiencing the transcendence of being in a room with Sharon Van Etten…
22. At Bunk Bar…
23. Ohmylord the sandwiches there…
24. Can I just say there is nothing like a really good sandwich. Especially if someone else makes it for you…
25. Double especially if there are pickles…
26. Speaking of pickles, which I so often am, I was at Kornblatt’s this week because I absolutely had to eat a potato knish that very instant, and it was closer to get there than it was to get to Kenny & Zuke’s, and heaven. I mean, yes, the west coast is not somewhere I’d specifically head to in order to eat a knish, obviously. But sometimes a knish is the only thing that will do. Get thee to a deli and have a knish. You’ll feel better…
27. I love the number 23. It is my absolute favorite number ever, of all the beautiful numbers. And yes, I thought of that four numbers ago but everything was and always will be trumped by sandwiches. Sandwiches!
28. Knowing what trumps what…
29. Being in disguise in disguise in disguise…
30. Getting to do this. I think my favorite thing that anyone has every said about me was when TJ said: “Longitude/latitude-wise: where’s Havi? She exists in the ether. You can’t find her unless she wants you to.” That’s where I want to be. In the ether. Doing this.