JordanCornblog

Here’s a somewhat-too-dark photo of what the windows look like this morning … but oops – sorry – can’t seem to get the photo to post.  (Back to the drawing board … :~(

Just back (as of late Friday night) from a trip to Philly that was relatively brief and included such a range of experiences that I know I’ll be mulling it all for a long time.

The visit began with a trek to Citizen’s Bank Park for a Phillies game.  Sadly the wins are fewer and farther between than we’ve grown used to.  But, as everyone repeats like a mantra these days, “It’s early yet.”  And this particular game was a nice win … GO Phillies!

I spent Thursday visiting old haunts I haven’t seen for many years … starting with the Llanerch Diner and then walking the streets of familiar neighborhoods.  A very emotional experience, because the places are so familiar … and so changed … and they are not my places anymore.

Above is the gate we used to go to elementary school – must have gone in and out there a thousand times, full of whatever feelings the day portended, or elicited.  Sunny days, rainy days … days of magnolia blossoms and of snowflakes falling.  Something about the every-day-ness of the moments, as well as their gone-ness, was very moving to me.

I visited the two houses I lived in in Havertown – one in Llanerch and an earlier one, up in Oakmont.  Then I went over to Ardmore and Rosemont to see a couple of places I had lived after college.  The Ardmore House was still there – the Rosemont one (lovely, tree-shaded old place) had been razed.

From there I went back to Havertown … was hoping to get a hoagie at Terry’s Delicatessen but it had been replaced by a Pizza place (not at all the same).  Still, it was time for a hoagie, so I got one and then headed off to Glenwood Memorial Gardens to find my parents’ graves (again, juxtaposing the every-day-ness of a hoagie with the momentous gone-ness of a gravesite).

After quite a lot of searching I found them and spent some quiet time there, then, as it started sprinkling a soft rain, headed back to Swarthmore, where I joined up with some newly arrived traveling companions and we went over to the campus to wander and reminisce.

This was followed by a wonderful dinner out in Radnor with more old friends … and a toast to our friend/mentor/coach Eleanor Kay “Pete” Hess – whose memorial service was the actual impetus for all of this traveling on yours truly’s part.

And so, dinner was followed by the drive back to Springfield, a quick chat/mini-reunion with a later-arriving friend, then sleep.  The next day was a rush of breakfast, check-out, and then back over to the campus for some sunlit wandering and then the service … a melange of remembered faces and wonderful stories about Pete.  It felt good to honor her and the days we all shared.  (And I was especially pleased that I didn’t need to encounter my high school lacrosse coach, whom I’d fully expected to see there, and had spent some time preparing for … unresolved issues, ya know?!)

Goodbyes came next – preceded, of course, by a rush of picture-taking and e-mail-address-exchanging.  And then the long drive home, through Friday-afternoon mid-Atlantic traffic and construction.  The miles flew by, though, carried on wings of conversation and the rich imagery of remembered moments.

Where have I been?

The short answer … dunno.

The longer answer … working to carve out a sustainable daily schedule for myself that includes an increased range of activities, stretching beyond the staples … which include:

Sitting in front of a computer at work and sitting in front of a computer at home.

Moving various body parts is one such activity.  An imperative, IMHO, as I take in some of the new and inevitable realities of aging … one of them being the atrophy (and loss of function) which is a predictable outcome of …

Sitting in front of a computer at work and then sitting in front of a computer at home.  (Oh, and throw in sitting in front of a TV watching other people run around … or listening to the sounds of other people running around while working at the computer.)

So, one of the places I have been is on the treadmill or in the woods or running/walking the roads.  Not to give the wrong impression, this is not “Rocky” type stuff … but progress.

And then there’s “being in touch with myself.”  This has been an area of increasing focus as I make time to connect with parts of me that, for one reason or another, have been hidden, silenced, you name it.  Enriching, enlivening, eye-opening, and sometimes difficult – the work feels like piecing together a tapestry.  It’s all me – and all inside of me – but exists in disconnected fragments.  The work of knitting it all back together is an amazing journey, and one which feels precious to me.

What else?

• I’ve been dismayed, discouraged, frightened and pretty much disgusted by the shrill and shallow discourse coming from the GOP Primary fight.  I actually feel worried for the GOP, and sad for those reasonable folks whose party it had been.  It must be a huge and confusing loss for them.
• I’ve been entertained by Linsanity.
• I briefly dipped into Pinterest, then got scared off by the potential Copyright issues.
• I didn’t see all that many of the Oscar-nominated films … and am not enough of a film buff to really ‘get it’ about “The Artist.”
• I was chagrined at the (temporary) demise of WPS … hopefully the Oly’s will rekindle interest and the league will re-start on the other side.
• I’ve been getting psyched for the upcoming Phillies season … and thought that Josh Beckett’s apology for last season’s BoSox meltdown was utter crap.
• Have been reading more … a great treat!
• I actually followed a recipe from start to finish last Sunday … ask my housemates … that’s an accomplishment!
• Purchased a Mac and have not yet really figured out how to use it well (somehow, I think that using a Mac the way I use a PC just isn’t the point)!

I dunno – that’s not a lot to show for several months of silence.

Did I mention aging?  Moving slower … that’s for sure.

Oh yeah, and tonight there’s the start of Daylight Saving Time – that could set me back for WEEKS!

Just because I happened to have some time on my hands … and here’s the link to the actual photo in Politico – my attempt to credit the source and avoid becoming ensnared in a long and costly lawsuit.

Here are some photos from the Men Who Look Like Old Lesbians site – can you guess who they are?  Oh, and please note the size of Newt’s hands … they really, really ARE small, aren’t they?

And this, from Jon Stewart … priceless stuff.  (Apparently Lindsay’s photo has been removed from the site.

Big game for the USWNT tomorrow night (that’s Friday 1/27) with an Olympic berth on the line at CONCACAF in Vancouver.

Apparently Hope isn’t 100% (thank you DWTS) … so it may be Nicole Barnhart in goal … which ain’t too shabby, given her record vs. Costa Rica (the opponent on Friday).

Universal Sports Network is providing live coverage of the matches … and here’s their website.

Kick-off is at 7:30 PM, with the Canada-Mexico match to follow.  The winners of these two matches head to London.

Oh, and well done, Carli, on your hat-trick vs. Mexico!

It’s my understanding, based on reliable sources, that the world is going to end on 12/21/12.

So that means I actually have less than a year left, and I haven’t even started getting into shape! Of course, one might also take the stance that there is little point to getting into shape if it’s all going to blow up in our faces on December 21.

The sad thing is, the way things are going, it really doesn’t seem entirely beyond the realm of possibility that 12/21/12 could be a watershed date. I mean, things have gotten really, really crazy.

Consider the New Hampshire legislature which has been busily dismantling state government and the safety net for months now. This was a process that got started under Craig Benson – the governor who put his paramour, Angela, in charge of homeland security for New Hampshire – but refused to pay for essentials like education, as I recall.

Fast-forward to today. I imagine the Craig Benson is enjoying a posh life somewhere, quietly (or not so quietly) spending money and playing golf, and screwing around with Angela or some other such person. What he started is being pursued with a fervor even more unhinged and even less informed than what he brought to the project of destroying New Hampshire.

It’s been a couple of years now that the entire 400-something member NH State Legislature has been composed of a large percentage of proudly-know-nothing-Bible-thumping-tea-drinking yahoos who happily pass laws allowing them to tote their guns into the Legislative Office Building, while simultaneously working to outlaw dangerous practices like gay marriage.

In their view, when the world ends in 2012 it will be because they somehow failed to eradicate the evil that keeps them awake and sweating (and one has to assume, fantasizing) at night. In reality, if the world ends in 2012 it will more likely be because there are too many guns and we’ve all shot another.

So my question is, should I exercise or not?