Occupy friendships... and Houston

For Daline's 40th birthday, she came up with idea to light a candle and eat something sweet to celebrate in our mind something sweet we have in our lives "right now" - not something we hope for, not something in our past. The thing I had at that time isn't in my life anymore though. Just when I think I am so strong and confident and happy, my emotions fail me. But just like winter is a rebirth, may this time be so for me.

God, winter is so beautiful and the wintry portions of my life are those which often give birth to a deeper understanding of who you created me to be, O God. Give me time to explore, to reach out, to find that ripple of hope within my soul. Amen.
- Penny Tressler

Today is turning out to be a very crappy day! I woke up so excited to spend the afternoon and evening with my daughter. We had scheduled to do two massages at the same time at this place downtown (I used a Groupon type deal) - it was for her birthday present. Then we were going to return to Ruggles since we had that restaurant fail last time we went, and they gave us our food free, and so I still had the voucher for there too. But so I called to confirm the appointments, and thank God I did because not only did they have the time wrong, they only had one not two scheduled. And the other masseuse was on vacation. Nice. Also, all this other stupid crap is happening. I have this one story I'm trying to get published and I got all these questions from an editor but no real idea what I'm really supposed to be doing with it and none of my sources can be reached because of the holidays. My cell phone isn't charging properly and it's annoying (Fortunately they're mailing me a new one tomorrow). And me and my daughter decided we're just going to do our outing another day. Sometimes I just hate being a single mom... I love being a mom, I love it more than anything. But I hate being broke, I hate struggling and I hate being alone. I never used to, but I do now. It sucks. Sorry if that's a little too real. But that's the way it goes. I have known Daline since about 1990 when we were in college - at Texas A&M - Whoop! We met when we drove together to a beach cleanup on Matagorda Island, and have been friends since. She knew me before I had met my now exhusband (and father of my 2 children), and she held my baby girl Savannah when she was little before I had moved away from College Station. After our respective divorces, we went to the Bahamas together near Christmas (2004 or 05) to "skip" it altogether and later traveled to the Peruvian Amazon together (memories of Peru and photo gallery). I visited her when she was anointed a lay Buddhist monk (boddhisattva) at Green Gulch Zen Center, and we have gotten together many other times. Over the years, near or far, we have shared so many conversations, and I love so much about her. She has introduced me to so very many concepts that have stimulated my personal development and spiritual and emotional growth such as codependency and the Work of Byron Katie - and I have such deep admiration with the bravery with which Daline approaches life, the loyalty she has to friends and family, and her beautiful soulful singing voice and her desire to follow her dreams, wherever they may lead. I spent her 40th with her, and here are some shots from the day.
She had some friends come to the park near the Menil, and we munched and some played drums and we just hung out for a while. Artist Sharon Engelstein and her daughter, Daline, and me.
Next we went to Occupy Houston to give FREE HUGS and do "random acts of dance" (I have to admit I didn't really do the dance thing, except for one song...). This is Capital Tatts wearing his Guy Fawkes face mask. This is Jamin - he showed me around. I was surprised at how few people there were there (a lot of people come and go, and it was a Sunday), but also surprised at how organized they were. They had a permanent camp set up, they were serving food to protestors and they had beds (no tents, because that would be "illegal"), and they had signs with upcoming protests. Every night at 7pm they have a meeting to discuss things - participatory democracy. Everyone was super nice and I thought it was great. Perhaps I will come up with a story idea about it - not totally in my domain, but you never know. They even publish a newspaper! This is where they sleep. A lot of homeless people come here to sleep also, and they feed them too.Declaration of Occupation: Exercise your right to peaceably assemble, occupy public space, create a process to address the problems we face, and generate solutions accessible to everyone. Signs with upcoming events, information, etc. Bill of Rights: We are not camping. We are assembling peaceably to petition our Government for a redress of grievances. This is our permit.
Afterwards we headed to Bohemeo's cafe where they had an open mic night and Daline got up and sang a couple songs. It was the first time I have seen her perform! I have heard her play for me, and love her music. It was so cool to see her play, especially knowing that when I started this blog, she went out and did an open mic night for the first time ever, and she was so scared she almost threw up she says!Oh my GOD they stole my idea!!!! This was painted in the bathroom. Where else would they have gotten this idea from - really? I asked when they opened and they said 2006 I think, which was after I started my blog but maybe before I changed the layout. Anyway, who knows when they put this up... but I seriously think they stole the idea from me after searching bohemian on the internet... I know my blog comes up high in search rankings... It's slightly different of course but has a LOT of the same definitions, which I found randomly all over the internets (It is right under my header on my blog...go look and compare!)Ivan, Daline, Mary, I can't remember the other dude's name but he came with Mary, and me in the back. And after hearing her play, I went home because I didn't want to be out late. Lame right! But hey I'm not a party animal anymore! Rawr!

Celebrating my amazing daughter!

My amazing daughter turns 17 today (it's after midnight, so it is technically her birthday!) Words can't even begin to describe how proud I am of this girl... Everyone is proud of their daughter, but she is truly a gem. At her age I was quite the wild child, and she is so opposite of what I was back then! She is such a good student, a good friend, an outstanding leader in her school and on her soccer team and she just has such a compassionate heart for orphans around the world, for those (especially children) with medical conditions, and for those less fortunate. She's fiercely intelligent, wise, funny, brave and responsible. I could not have asked for a better daughter. I'm not even kidding - she makes parenting easy!! Oh yes, we have our moments, and she can be a "teenager" but I am frequently in shock that she is such a good, well-rounded child, err, young lady. I give all the credit to God - no kidding - she is my gift from God, and she is His! Solo Gloria Deo!
On Saturday, me and Savi had a mommee-daughter day, and we first went to pick up a dozen cupcakes we ordered from this place in The Heights district called What's Up Cupcake. We got gingerbread, salted caramel, wedding cake, red velvet, brownie, and Bavarian cream. I LOVED the salted caramel - yummo! Of course I love anything salted caramel.... Before we even left the shop with the dozen, we had a cupcake each (well technically, we split the brownie cupcake and the salted caramel so we each had half of those two, a very good combination by the way). While waiting for them to get our cupcakes together, we took some self-portraits. I love this one even though it's out of focus a bit.This one's cute too even though half my face is cut off - ha ha.

Next we went to Naked Body & Bath in Rice Village, because I had gotten Savi a Groupon for some make-your-own natural body products (after reading and learning more about how phthalates are in so many fragrances, and are so bad for you, I was especially thankful I got this for her!) I've loved this place since Daline got ME a Groupon for Christmas a couple years back (we went there in March 2010 & did FREE HUGS in Rice Village)! I also took my mom there when she and my stepdad Skip came to visit us and we went to the Menil and elsewhere this summer (though I didn't take any pics of Naked B&B then). Anyway Savi got a thing of perfume made of her very own combination of fragrance oils and we each got a thing of body lotion. A cool thing about this store is you get a free foot soak in these giant copper tubs. They put a "bath bomb" in it, you soak for a while, then the lady gives you a sugar scrub that you rub into each foot, then rinse, then the Happy Feet minty lotion, and then Happy Foot spray. It's pretty cool!While in Rice Village, we went to Urban Outfitters where Savi tried on these lovely glasses.... It's a good look for her no?Savi noticed this sign, and thought it was perfect for me... Yes! I love it! It says, No Whining, No Complaining, Absolutely No Frowning. Only Hugs, Smiles, and Warm Fuzzy Feelings. Thank you. Then we poked around in Rice Village a bit (Half Price Books and some other places) and then went to dinner at Ruggles Grill, a restaurant I had been to several times and loved but had not been to in years (it's a bit pricey but I got a Groupon type thing - I love those!!) We had the weirdest experience! So we got there around 545pm, sat down, ordered, got our soup and focacia bread. Then this 18-year old kid Andrew, one of the wait staff but not our waiter, came by to tell us that the entire restaurant's wait staff had quit, so there was no one to serve our food and the restaurant would be closing. I think the entire restaurant was looking at each other like is this a joke?! So I called him back over to ask what was the dealio and he told us that the owner (chef Bruce Molzan) hadn't paid anyone at the restaurant in months. He said he was just 18 and couldn't pay his bills and he shouldn't have to be dealing with this... Poor kid! I verified the story by asking one of the managers who did remain there (he hadn't been in on the deal - the wait staff obviously planned the walk-out in advance, since it was the busiest night) & the manager also had not been paid, and a new hostess lady who had worked for 5 weeks only but also had not been paid. What the heck! We ended up staying and getting our food even after the entire restaurant was closed down because I went into the kitchen to ask some questions and our food was there so they gave it to us. Yay! Savannah's chicken was not fully cooked though... so she just ate the vegetables (Ruggles is famous for the totally delicious vegetable sides that come with every meal). I just got the veggie platter! They're SO good! No one in the whole restaurant paid for anything, including us, due to the crazy turn of events (we tried to give them the Groupon since we did actually get our full meal, but they said no). Only a handful of staff remained. So there ya go - strange but true. I want to know why this yo-yo isn't paying his wait staff. I asked around and apparently he's known for his antics and is always hated by his staff... I guess perhaps I should find another restaurant to patronize. I reported the issue to some journalists so I hope someone does an investigation!We had tacos tonight - one of everyone's favorite meals! Notice the ginormous bottle of Lizano salsa (from Costa Rica, which I recently visited) - mmmm good! And of course there's Cholula - the best hot sauce on the planet!
Savi was tired after spending like all day with her friends in the rain at Sonic! Well not all day, but you know. Some of the day.
It's very hard to get Sam to smile for photos!
Aha! Proof that he does actually smile!! I think Sam went a little overboard on the whipping cream... want some berries with that whipping cream?!
I have a tradition of sorts that on each of the kids' birthdays they wake up and I have a bunch of balloons and flowers out along with their gifts. Though Savi's birthday is technically tomorrow, since she was with me today but is with her dad tomorrow after school, we had her little gift opening and such this evening. I got her the cutest dinosaur balloon - she named him Pete.
This is the card Sam made for Savi - the Ninja Potato... it's from some silly Youtube video he made me watch in exchange for me making him watch the LMFAO video for Sexy and I Know It... though he ran out of the room in horror the second they started shaking their weiners in speedos... ha ha ha! It is such a freaking hilarious video!
I think Savi wants to stab me with a pencil. Petey looks frightened.
She found an old Polaroid camera at her Mema's (her dad's mom) and so my mom got her some film for it. While out and about on Saturday, we stopped at a camera shop too and found another old Polaroid and bought it for $5 in case the other one didn't work. The one from Mema's is at her dad's so we tried out the other one and it worked! The photo didn't process super good but we weren't sure if it wasn't light enough in the room or the camera is out of whack. But it works, so that's a good thing!

Anyway... it's been raining on and off all day, which Houston desperately needs, but it's kind of a downer... I need the sunshine! I am just finishing up a feature story, which is due Tuesday, and then will be starting up another due in early January. I was hoping to get my Christmas tree today but didn't because of the rain. So I hope to get it Tuesday and then me and the kiddos can decorate for Christmas! I need to write my holiday letter too... so many things to do! As soon as I can, I'll post some photos from the day I spent last weekend with Daline on her birthday! We went to check out Occupy Houston - interesting stuff. I don't have any travel planned at the moment, though I am feeling the itch... I really desperately want to go somewhere in the Caribbean... my soul is craving that gorgeous aquamarine water... I love the ocean.

Reflections on the jungle, love & life

The Costa Rican rainforest near Braulio Carillo National Park
Copyright (c) 2011 Wendee Holtcamp

On this day, God wants you to know ... that your love is a gift to the world. Let your love radiate out to all you meet. Let your love touch the hearts of people you don't even know. Let your love reach to the far corners of the earth. Love is what is saving the world.
- From a silly Facebook app but so beautiful!

Upon returning to Houston from the jungles of Costa Rica, I found myself going to the grocery store, walking through the parking lot, and I just had this overwhelming feeling of "living in Houston is so mundane!" I have never been shy about my feelings about living here. I'm here only because I share custody with my ex-husband, and because I vowed to not do what my parents did; that is, move halfway across the country from one another and force the kid to commute back and forth on jet-planes. I wanted my kids to have the stability of having both parents nearby, and of growing up in one place, something I never had moving from place to place every couple years (hence, the bohemian was born! But I digress).

To be sure, Houston burbs are a good, safe place to raise kids. It has low cost of living and I have a beautiful home and some amazing friends. I have a healthy balanced life. But that's not enough for me. I want a bigger life - not just the occasional adventure that I take, but a life that is, itself, an adventure. I'm not sure what that may be yet, but I have a short two and one half years here before both of my kids will have fledged the nest. Oh, my it makes me tear up when I really think about it! But it will give me the freedom to leave this place and find a new home, and a new life, and a new mission for the next chapter of my life.

What will I do? Travel around the world for a year? Go on a mission trip? Move to another country - Australia maybe, or Costa Rica? Go back to graduate school? The world is my oyster. I only know that I don't want it to be a vain search for adventure for adventure's sake. I want to do something that makes a difference. I love to write, and I love my career but sometimes I wonder, does any of this make any difference to anyone? And why is supporting myself such a struggle? (I know, I should go Occupy downtown Houston right!)

But I am in a very good place. I feel happy and content and life is good, really good! I am blessed. I look forward to the chapters of my life yet to unfold.
And last, I want to share with you the two podcasts and slideshows that I did for Adventures in Climate Change/The Wendee Holtcamp Report! Please visit, listen, view and comment!

• In the first, A Sustainable Adventure in Costa Rica I discuss the Planet, People, Peace (P3) conference on sustainable tourism, as well as some of the cool sustainable ag education happening at Earth University, where the conference was held.
• The second, Living Large Without a Carbon Footprint talks about the Selva Bananito Ecolodge & Preserve and why they deserve 5-leafs for sustainability from the Costa Rican government - the maximum level.