Atlanta is gorgeous and green, large and lush.  Get yourself a couple of tour guides like Damien and Natalya, and you’ll see the best of the best!

We drove up in style to Damien’s ultra cool office to begin our tour.

My son is an executive!  The name of his company is top secret – we’ll call it The Matrix to protect the innocent.

We were all famished, so we went directly to what is probably the very best pizza place in the States, Antico Pizza Napoletana (www.anticopizza.it/).  Everything there is imported from Italy, including the brick ovens!  Wow!

We took a tour of the Atlanta Temple, which will be dedicated this weekend.  Tricia had lots of questions as we walked through the beautiful rooms (ldschurchtemples.com/atlanta/).

A gorgeous display of unusual flowers and plants are found at The Atlanta Botanical Garden (atlantabotanicalgarden.org).

We enjoyed goofing off when we weren’t marveling at everything!

We even found a great addition to Eden’s Airstream:

All that walking made us hungry!  Next on the itinerary was a humane burger joint called Farm Burger in Decatur (www.farmburger.net).  I had a delicious veggie quinoa burger.

To refuel the next morning, we treated ourselves to The Flying Biscuit Cafe (flyingbiscuit.com).  They do have the best biscuits!

We realized that Tricia and Damien wore the exact same outfit that day.  Twinsies!

We went car shopping at Lenox Square Mall.

Natalya showed some of her fancy bellydance moves!

To cap off the night, they took us to Stone Mountain to see the spectacular laser show!  It was fantastic!

On Easter Sunday, we met cousin Emily for coffee and heard about her travels to Korea and Taiwan.

Natalya made a delicious dinner for us in their beautiful apartment.  It’s always a treat when someone cooks for us!  She’s such a great cook, too!

To earn our dinner, we took a great stroll in Chastain Park.

Before we knew it, it was time to leave.  Before we left, we got to see the terrific quilt shop where Natalya helps quilters with their projects.  It sounds like a really cool place to hang out, too.  Just bring your sewing machine!

So our first excursion to Atlanta was over.  I look forward to more adventures there!

It’s been a few weeks since I got the news that Robin killed herself.  The news was a billy club hit square to my gut.  I couldn’t breathe.  Although I’ve tried to leapfrog right into anger, I’ve mostly felt numb and shock.  The un-reality of it keeps me from falling into a black hole.

The details of her final act were delivered before I could defend myself from the evil of hearing it.  Now I can’t get those images out of my head.  Alcohol is the only explanation for why she did what she did, and the way she did it.  The Robin I knew loved too much, had too much compassion, to inflict that kind of damage – on herself or the person who discovered her body.  I know another discoverer of a similar fate, and her pain is a dark gift that keeps on giving.

Is it really THAT Robin who’s gone?  The Robin who held my hands during my first exercise at Journey School?  The Robin who talked to me all night when I couldn’t sleep because the metal beds at Journey School reminded me of being a 4 year old at Juvenile Hall?  The Robin whose stories about water skiing stunts and Gulf of Mexico excursions had us all laughing so loudly that we emptied the restaurant?  I can see her brown eyes sparkling with tears from laughing so hard herself.  The Robin who, with her sister Wendy, pretty much ran the small Cajun town they grew up in – drinking the men under the table and kicking their asses while doing it.  The Robin who represented the Fire element at our wedding.  When she asked if our love would survive the harsh fires of change, I didn’t realize that she wouldn’t be able to.

THAT Robin is gone.  Her suffering was so great that she took her own life.  I couldn’t scale her walls since Katrina, and now it’s too late.  Is that really it?  Come on!

At a birthday party before Katrina, someone was moaning about getting older.  Robin’s response was, “I reject that!  That’s bullshit!”  (Actually, she said in her Cajun drawl – “That’s boo-sheet!”)  She meant that you are as young, or old, as you let yourself be.   She was fire – full of life and passionate about everything.  When we meet again, I’m going to tell her “I reject that, Robin!  I reject this exit you’ve made.  I selfishly want you to come back so we can hash this out.  This is bullshit.”

This tragedy – this billy club – reminds me that life is precious and fragile, and so are our loved ones.  For those moments with Robin that suspended time and space, I am humbled and grateful.

I don’t believe it’s all for nothin’.

It’s not just written in the sand.

Sometimes I thought you felt too much.

You crossed into the shadowland.

In my dreams

the pipes were playing.

In my dreams

I lost a friend.

Come down Gabriel and blow your horn

’cause someday we will meet again.

Robbie Robertson – “Fallen Angel”

Eden is four months into her mission – on the other side of a bitter Wyoming winter, with people to teach and a baptism in the works!  She is part of The Three Musketeers – a trio of gals with unstoppable pioneer spirit and disarming sense of humor.  They have a message to share, and if you don’t want that, that’s fine – they are glad to meet you just the same.  It can get rough for missionaries out there.  They’re on their own dime to share a message of hope (no doom and gloom or hellfire included!).  So if you meet one, please be kind and have an open heart.

I’m anxious to see the new play from the South Park creators – The Book of Mormon.  Of course it’s irreverent, but that’s not my only interest.  I like that it touches on the humanity of two Mormon elders who are put in an environment so completely foreign to them.  (They are also a bit of an Odd Couple themselves.)  Often this is the case – the young man or woman leaves their family for 18 to 24 months to travel to places they have never been before, working with people they’ve never met before, to teach about … religion!  Contact with family and friends is limited so that the missionary can focus on their work.  This focus is so important to them that they also give up education, dating, all forms of media (no movies, TV, or surfing the net), and many other activities while on their mission.  I can only imagine how great it feels to find someone who actually wants to listen!  Reviews of the play have inspired a good friend of mine to read The Book of Mormon.  Eden will be happy to hear that!  Who knew that the South Park guys could unwittingly be part of the Mormon cause?  I’ll have to tell Damien the good news …

Making my way up the stairs at the club last night, reality punched me in the stomach.  Tears sprang to my eyes and utter fear gripped my heart.  How am I going to get through 18 months of not being able to just pick up the phone and talk to her?

I’d been going about my daily routine, putting off the reality that come November, Eden will be a sister missionary for her church.  No phones, no texts, no Skype – except for Christmas  and Mother’s Day.  I can’t breathe.

The ability to talk with her, and the miraculous boon of seeing her gorgeous face and brilliant smile on my computer screen as we laugh about the latest – well, I’m not willing to give that up!  Who’s in charge here anyway?  Oh that’s right.  She is.

This weekend, she’ll be Rainbow Brite for Halloween.  The alter-ego of her childhood is still there in her laugh, her outlook, her worldview.  She takes the gloom out of the world and replaces it with rainbows.

In the Joy Luck Club, a woman is asking her mother why she is so negative about her fiance.  The fiance lavishes the daughter with love and gifts, but the mother has nothing positive to say about him.  Finally, the mother says that she likes the fiance well enough, “but, to allow him to marry such a daughter!”  Eden is a ways off from marriage, but my protective instinct is on high alert.  I have visions of my Marine sister and I taking off to where Eden is located to track down any offenders – real or imagined!  In a matter of days, she’ll become Sister Olenslager.  I tuck a prayer under my pillow that the world will greet her with open hearts and minds, that she will be treated with kindness.

She has a gift to give which cannot be confined to the four walls of my computer screen, nor the boundless paradise she occupies in my heart.  There are grey and barren valleys in this world waiting for her message of hope.

Godspeed, Sister O!

 

New Orleans and New York have a strong connection.  This link is reinforced by a similar accent - lower Ninth Ward and Brooklyn tongue must have nursed at the same breast - and a melting pot of food and cultures.  Both cities have the best of the best of food.  But can you really find a better bagel than a Murray’s bagel outside of New York?  Mix up all the packaged Cafe du Monde beignets you want, but you can’t recreate the Cafe’s ambience outside of the French Quarter.  This is one reason why there are so many people flying between New Orleans and New York.  Another reason for the Jet Blue streak between MSY and JFK, is that you can be exactly who you are in both cities.  No questions asked.  The only people who will stare are the tourists.   And this is exactly what we did while we were in New York recently!

For their graduation, Damien and Natalya treated themselves to a New York trip.  They invited Tricia and I along as tour guides!  It sounds crazy, doesn’t it?  College graduate couple invites parents along for New York vacation.  Oh yeah – that had to be a hallucination.   This will go on my Did I Ever Tell You How Lucky You Are list.

To overcome our bagel deprivation, we hit Murray’s Bagels on Avenue of the Americas several times.  Be ready to order when they ask!  I would call the staff charmingly and efficiently impatient.  This popular spot is well worth the wait – for a bagel and a table.

Shopping for the latest in fashion?  Slip on you Minolo Blahniks and watch the Barbie Catwalk at FAO Schwartz.  (Did I say that my son is a very patient man?)

How about bargain hunting in St. Mark’s Place:

After a long day of shopping, relax in a bubble gum bath at Dylan’s Candy Bar:

The Apple store in Lakeside Mall is nice, but the mothership in New York is a fantasy land for techies:

The Statue of Liberty has no equal.  She is an impressive sight – this symbol of freedom for America’s melting pot:

All that sightseeing made us hungry!  Damien took us to a fantastic restaurant in Chinatown called Joe’s Shanghai – home of the soup dumpling.  Be sure to check out the online instructions on how to eat these before going – otherwise it could be very humiliating:

http://www.joeshanghairestaurants.com/

For dessert, Natalya and I were on the hunt for the perfect cupcake.  Crumbs Bake Shop torches the competition:

http://www.crumbs.com/

We did so many fun and touristy things on our trip.  The best of all was seeing New York through Damien and Natalya’s eyes.  Life IS good and miracles DO happen y’all!

Damien, Natalya and Eden proudly display their status as graduates!  Eden graduated last year from BYU Idaho.  Even though she’s almost two years Damien’s junior, she was the first to graduate from college!  Natalya was second, and although she graduated last December, she chose to walk with her husband this year at the BYU Provo ceremony.  Damien’s takes his status as “No. 3″ with good humor.  Two years on a mission in the middle of his college years, getting married, graduating from college – he’s been a busy young man!  I was moved as they became the first in their families to graduate from college.   Their progession and evolution is my greatest joy.

Tricia and I attended our second Go Puja Mela, the Festival of the Cows, at the New Talavan Farm in Mississippi this weekend.  This time, I had the opportunity to dance with my friends Aamani and Surathini.  Miss Shanti choreographed a lovely dance about Krishna.  The song was really sweet, and I thoroughly enjoyed dancing to it!  The New Talavan Farm was beautiful, and it was wonderful to dance outside in the cool fresh air.  This was the first time I saw Miss Shanti dance beyond showing us steps in class, and it was truly inspiring!

Here’s a link to our dance:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1SQHNbAMzU

What a surprise it was spending Halloween in the Quarter for the first time!  I had no idea it was such a great celebration there!  It was as packed as Mardi Gras, but with a more laid back atmosphere.  A couple was getting married as we walked by on our way to the Halloween Parade.   Tricia looked great as Batman, and everyone seemed to love Lucy!  Lucy should ditch that philandering Ricky every year and spend Halloween with Batman!

Last weekend, Tricia and I celebrated dance in two different styles – Michael Jackson and Bharatanatyam.  On Saturday, Tricia spent the day at Zephyr stadium with about 70 other dancers.  People of all ages and walks of life practiced MJ’s Thriller dance over and over again for 7 hours, before they participated in the worldwide event.  Dancers from the Jefferson Performing Arts Center taught the diverse group – which ranged from small children to those of us who grew up listening to and watching MJ.  With wistful smiles, the adults shared memories of how he touched their lives.  They were there to pay tribute in a way that would have made him proud – by dancing as a community.  It struck me how freely and enthusiastically everyone participated.  Adults who hadn’t danced for years practiced for hours alongside teens in a high school dance group, and with little boys eager to emulate MJ’s swift and otherworldly moves.  I have a feeling that next year there will be a much larger group dancing at Zephyr Stadium!

 Here’s the video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-UeTApcWsGE

Dancing to Vande Mataram at The IANO Diwali Celebration was my most joyful dance performance yet!  I overcame my fears and just lived in that moment.  When I stepped onstage with my classmates, I focused on what an amazing event this was – Diwali, Dr. Abdul Kalam’s presence in the audience, the inspirational song, and the opportunity to dance with my friends.  My performance wasn’t perfect, but I got over that.  (Thanks to Tricia’s assistance in getting ready, nothing flew off during the performance – a real success!  She took time away from her Saints game to help me get ready.  We agree that the real reason Hindu Goddesses have 10 hands is so that they can fix their hair and adornments!)  Being truly present in that music – Wow!  It was marvelous.   Afterwards was a total out-of-body experience.  People came up to me and said so many kind things.  Being a patriotic song for India, they appreciated that we danced so passionately to it.  Miss  Shanti was proud of us, and so I felt very encouraged and uplifted!  Our next performance is at a Go-Puja Mela – Festival of the Cows, which is in Mississippi.  We’re learning a dance about Krshna, and it’s really adorable!  I was too keyed up to remember to take pictures at the Diwali event.  Tricia, however, took a superb video.  Here’s the link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQW1XDL8_jw

The only photo – after the show!

Diwali, the Festival of Lights, the Hindu celebration of victory over evil, has become a tradition in our home.  Last year, we celebrated Diwali on All Saint’s Day with a party.  We asked our guests to dress as their favorite saint, from Drew Brees (for those of you who don’t live in NOLA, he’s the city’s favorite Saints quarterback) to Mother Theresa.  We decorated the house with white lights, and made Kajal Burfi, a cashew fudge, with silver foil.

Tricia chose to dress like one of her most beloved saints - Gandhi.  She donned a spray tan, a dhoti, and a plastic “bald” cap.  As Lakshmi, the Goddess of Fortune, the best part of being that character (besides having long black hair for the evening) was giving gold chocolate coins to the kids.

This year, we’re celebrating Diwali with dance.  Tricia, representing NOLA – and Eden and her friends, representing the Evergreen State – are learning the steps to Michael Jackson’s Thriller.    My classmates and I are practicing our dance to the majestic Hindi song Vande Mataram.  This weekend are the two big events!  Not letting the holiday go by without making it extra special, however, Tricia surprised me with some lovely Diwali gifts: