Jurors’ Lounge Part 2

Being called for jury duty is never convenient, but there are two benefits. One is that whenever I have been empaneled and have served, I am each time impressed by the conscientiousness of my fellow jurors, the seriousness with which we all perform our job, and the fact that we live within a democratic system that calls upon ordinary citizens for this task. The other is that I get to pack a bag with work, lesson plans, and a sketchbook, and spend hours with them in a quiet room. And on my lunch hour I go to the National Gallery of Art around the corner.

This turned out to be a slow day, though, and a lot of us were dismissed mid-afternoon.

JurorsLounge

Jurors’ Lounge Part 1

JurorsLoungeHotFlash

One January a couple of years ago I was called for jury duty. (Hmmm… I ought to be hearing from them again soon.) As usual there was some sort of movie playing on the monitors overhead, but the woman assembling the juries was more entertaining.

Something to Tell the Grandchildren

InaugurationTop

A year ago today over a million people converged upon Washington, DC to watch, or at least get as close as possible, even if it was only a nearby tunnel, as Barack Obama was sworn in as President of the United States. It was a day of extremes—vast numbers of people, below-freezing temperatures, ecstatic good humor. A splendid milestone in the country’s history: an optimistic, energetic, wise and good-hearted young man arrived willing to take on an unimaginably horrible mess. And it’s been like trying to clean up and repair the squalid and deteriorating family home of your recently departed mentally unstable grandfather while some of your cousins look on impatiently and others complain bitterly about the tile you chose for the bathroom.

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CakeChocCurlsNorman

Visiting the Hair Salon

HairSalon

I recently went to get my hair cut and I was fascinated by what was being done to the hair of those around me. All I ever get is a cut and blow dry so I am clueless about the other rich possibilities. I began to wonder how our fellow beings on other planets shape, color, and decorate the substances that grow out of their bodies. Is this a “universal” phenomenon?

Perhaps she was not actually using roasted red pepper hummus (it sure looked like it) but I bet that would make a great conditioner.

BirthdayJean-Claude

CakeBerriesClaude

Wild

Woodpecker

When the news is truly terrible and you have sent off your donation and listened with awe and respect to those hastening selflessly to the rescue, and you are wondering what, what to do next, there can be a kind of hope in observing, after the overwhelming catastrophes of nature, its small surprises. Like the downy woodpecker that just showed up on our urban patio, and the juvenile Cooper’s hawk (!) on the telephone pole in the alley behind the house. Although the innocent grub and the songbird would undoubtedly regard these as catastrophes.

CoopersHawk

BirthdayMom’s and Aunt Bett’s “other” birthday



Green Lunch Part 2

(Continued from yesterday) We watched the children don cloth caps, masks, and aprons, help prepare and serve the food, and then clean up: scraping scraps into the compost bucket; rinsing plates, milk bottles, and chopsticks before they went off to be washed; crumpling aluminum foil and depositing it into the recycling bin. NO TRASH. Surely the schools of our nation’s capital city could do as well.

After lunch the children and teachers put on headscarves, took up mops and brooms, and went to do the daily post-lunch school cleaning. There’s your next proposal, Councilwoman Cheh!

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Green Lunch Part 1

In a recent issue of our local DC paper, I read of an ambitious proposal by Councilwoman Mary Cheh to improve the DC school lunch program, with an emphasis on healthy local foods, recycling and composting. This reminded me of a visit to our son in Japan when he was teaching English in the local public school of a small mountain village. Our family spent a day at his school, which included sharing lunch in the cafeteria. (To be continued tomorrow.)

JapaneseLunch1

Baby Panda

PandaPizza

Another January zoo sketch. January is a great time to visit the zoo; it’s usually very quiet (unless there’s a new baby), yet the animals are lively. Here’s baby panda Tai-Shan (“Peaceful Mountain,” named by popular vote), who had been given a soccer ball but preferred to chew on an old pizza box. The Christmas morning cliche! By previous agreement between the U.S. and China, Tai-Shan, now four years old, is to be returned to China this year. There is a farewell party for him on January 30th. The zoo and zoo visitors will miss him.

Gorillas

Gorillas

Last January my daughter and I took our nature sketchbooks to the zoo, where we saw and sketched the new baby gorilla, Kibibi (“little lady” in Swahili). Mandara, the mother, was quite patient, but it must be extremely tiring to have a constant stream of giggling, pointing visitors so soon after giving birth. We didn’t even take her a casserole. Kibibi is a year old today, and the zoo is planning a celebration. I wonder what happens at a gorilla birthday party.

Inflatable Hoodie

InflatableHoodie2

In January 2008 we took the train to NY to see friends and art. It was a pre-dawn departure, and my husband, trying to cat-nap, wished aloud that his hoodie had more cushioning. So I sketched this idea for him, which he said was NOT exactly what he had in mind, but I think it’s an awesome invention. I can’t understand why I don’t already see them everywhere. I would like one just for sitting on the sofa.