A Presentation, Babysitting a Trip to the Museum, Stomach in Revolt -- My Latest Doings

Yours truly signing books after my presentation at the Finn Hall

Hello blog. I'm due a post here. Do you mind terribly if I write one "off the cuff"?

I thought not.

Since I last wrote....

Say I never wrote about the book talk that I gave on Sunday the 27th (which precedes when I last wrote). It took place at the Finnish Brotherhood Hall here in Berkeley and was sponsored by the Finnish Heritage Society. The book is Threat of Night (Yön Uhka) set in Berkeley in 1941. The book's hero is Matt Kurki who is of Finnish parentage. His Finnish girlfriend, Martta, his Finnish parents and other relatives and Finnish family friends are all characters in the book. There is also a scene in the Finnish Hall. So that made me a natural candidate to speak at a cultural event.  I had a great time. The turnout was better than expected and I sold more copies than I anticipated. I even autographed those copies. (I'm a celebrity!). We had nice discussions about the history of the Finnish community in Berkeley, Finnish immigration in general and about various themes from my book. The missus, oldest daughter, my nephews and a niece along with their wee ones were among the attendees. Nice to have family supporting me. I wish I could have bottled the feeling from the day. It was a good day for me but more importantly everyone seemed to have a good time and it was edifying for many.

On Thursday the missus and I ventured into San Francisco as we went to the DeYoung Museum nestled in Golden Gate Park. The main attraction was an exhibit of Alice Neel's work. She instantly became one of my favorite artists, in no small part because of the social consciousness that she displayed in her work. I love a visit to the museum, it's like I'm doing my intellect a favor.

It was also nice to walk through part of the park and the adjoining neighborhood. We found an excellent sea food restaurant (my favorite kind of eatery) where we lunched. I also found a nice book store called Green Apples Books. Not surprisingly I found a book there to purchase.

On Friday older nephew and wife dropped off their young uns and we got to babysit (we babysat younger niece's girls on Monday). Love having tykes over. On Saturday the aforementioned niece's eight-year-old boy came over for a playdate with yours truly. We went to a park and tossed the ball for over an hour. He's a good athlete and precocious for his age -- just as I was. It's a right of spring in this country to toss a baseball around. I enjoyed our strolls to the park and back almost as much as playing catch. The lad is full of questions just as my oldest daughter did. Sign of intelligence. Came back home and played Yahtzee!

Painting by Alice Need

Coincident to his departure my stomach started acting up. The distress in my lower regions continued through the evening and only dissipated by late Sunday by which time I was weak from fighting whatever had caused the trouble. Managed to do little yesterday beyond reading the Sunday Times and watching a movie. In fine shape now, thanks for asking.

In the evening I watched an episode of the HBO show, Euphoria which consisted almost entirely of the show’s main character, Rue, talking to her NA sponsor. I appreciated it probably as only a recovering addict can. But at one point the sponsor claims that addiction changes a person. I’m not convinced that that’s accurate. I think addiction forms a person and indeed is part of who that person is changing based on whether the individual is practicing or in recovery.

Addiction makes most people into liars and cheats. They become utterly selfish. The addicts one source of relief, happiness and satisfaction comes from getting high. All else is secondary, even relationships (I was fortunate to get sober before my first child was born). 

The scary thing is that addiction doesn’t go away when you stop using (which is why twelve-step programs are so important) many of the behaviors remain and take on different forms. It is said in AA that when you sober up a drunken horse thief you get a sober horse thief. Sober alcoholics who don’t follow the steps often turn to other ways of getting high such as gambling and adultery. The lies and deceit keep coming.

Of course it's all a process and one strives for progress rather than perfection, the latter being completely unattainable. Anyway it was a good episode for anyone to see, especially for people in recovery.

Today I've been working on novel number three as is my want to do these days. Talk about a process....My goodness writing something of the scope of this book is a job and a half. I've got so many characters, themes, settings, actions to keep track of and I'm fanatical about historical detail. but I'm loving every minute of it.

Before writing I meditated. I've gotten back into meditation recently. This is something else that is a process. The first few weeks after considerable time away I find it harder to "get in the zone." Thoughts not only keep coming but they tend to stick and try to get worked out. 

Nice checking in with you, blog. You're a real pal.