Good-Bye, 2010. Hello, 2011

Well, it was a rough end to the year and many of us are looking forward to the next 365 days of 2011. This concludes Karma Crandall.

I welcome you to join the CACOPHONY of my CRANDALL WORLD in the next year if you want. If so, see you there.

Karmic Lasagna

I treated myself to an evening of domesticity and, inspired by a sister who rearranges her furniture every three days (and it still looks good), I decided it was time to pick up my house. I put a tray of Bonnie's mammoth lasagna in the oven and then hit the living room to be Marvin Stewart, kin to Martha. It took me an hour of trying to be like Cynde when I realized I could only have my living room one way and then the buzzer went off. My Chef-Boy-R-Dee was done.

Thankful for a prepared meal, I took a break and grabbed a mitt to go after my grub.

Not that easy. It was hot and the tray burned my hand through the mitt. I dropped the entire pan into the stove: cheese and sauce oozed everywhere, sizzling against the hot iron. I wanted to scream, but I got a giant spoon and began scooping and salvaged 90% of the meal. I looked to my living room and realized I had simply moved all my crap to the kitchen. Now, I had a clean living area but my kitchen was a disaster.

So, I sat in my clean living room and ate a plate of Bonnie's lasagna. It put a smile in my stomach and I realized karma comes from any food prepared by another person. Every holiday, from now on, I will recall 2010 and the world's largest vat of lasagna ever created.

Serendipity

Ode to the NOPL - the library where I frequent my days for peace and quiet and where I can get my writing done.

Yesterday, I noticed a woman who also attends the NOPl and, because I'm there so much, she's become rather familiar. She works at the table next to me and I've become fascinated by her activities. I assume she is working on a project like mine but I have begun to learn otherwise. She grabs giant volumes of the yellow pages that are stashed in the reference sections of the library and reads them with her finger with extreme intent. Every hour or so, she jumps up excitedly and pulls out a camera to photograph particular pages she fancies. She stands on a chair and snaps a shot with her digital camera, and then returns to reading the ads. Sometimes she even pulls out a device that appears to be able scan entire pages. As she does this, she gloats with enormous glee.

I'm unsure what she's doing, but she's ambitious and devoted. She spends just as much time as me at the NOPL , but she has a man who checks on her from time to time to see if she's ready to go. She is always resistant and finds enormous pleasure in the documents she peruses. I don't have anyone checking up on me.

In I HEART HUCKABEES, I was introduced to the concept of coincidences. I can't help but think that this woman is quite the coincidence for me. As I scan my documents to make sense of the data I collected over the last year, I wonder if she thinks I'm as strange as she appears to me. I don't know where her labor is taking her but I feel as though I've found a sister amongst the stacks of books. She takes photographs of bathtubs and phone numbers, while I sort through perspectives taught to me by the young African male English language learners in my study. Each of us are odd birds, I suppose, and I am thankful of the karma she brings. I hope she accomplishes her project faster than I do. Something tells me that her work is tremendously more important to her world than the one I'm envisioning for my own.

for Rocky, from Nikki

This is Nikki's karma. She sent me this video on her iPhone and begged me, pleaded with me, coerced me to post it on my blog. I told her I would, but that her mother would probably will have a problem with it. I don't know why. Cynde does Rocky Balboa pretty well and I think she scored well on her Wii system.

The magic is in the joy of the performance, but you have to tilt your head.

for Mike and Cynde, The Isgars

I found this video when all of us were younger. I post it today so that we have a song in our heart and we can keep karma at the forefront. I post it with respect for my older sister's birthday, too. You are on my mind, Cynderballs.

With love, Bryan

Ode to the Code

It's late December and the fire is aglow,
I'm coding my research data, and going insane, ya know?

I go to bed dreaming of the information I've collected,
and wake up in the morning still analyzing, but resurrected.

I head back to work to make sense of my writing.
My synapses are numb, but my neurons keep fighting

for sanity in this world and for something to make sense...
I keep persevering, but man, I'm rather dense.

What's the point of this Monday hooplah?
Not much, really, just looking for karma!

Tives - SyraDaVille

My mother sent my Aunt and Uncle some new t-shirts, but it is obvious they were more intrigued by the toy truck they received. Although they say everything is beg in Texas, it is obvious that Bobbie and Dick have not fed their toy truck any of Bobbie's ultra-vitamins. Instead, they are playing with their new toy on the floor of their new home and channeling their youth Syracuse-karma style.

I hope they are wearing knee pads and the they have learned to share with one another and are taking turns.

Vrooooom.