It’s crazy to think back on the weird chance that I met my wife at a restaurant/club known for Salsa dancing. We met and the rest is history. Literally, we haven’t been dancing since.

I just met a local business owner who runs a couple of ballroom dance studios here in Atlanta and she sparked my interest for trying the ballroom style. It looks like we might take a few lessons and see if we can’t start being social again.

Yoga is great but I’m ready to do something with a little bit more cardio. If I ever get more than just a little interested, I’ll be sure to post more.

So I spent this past Saturday afternoon at a baby shower. The parents-to-be both happen to be female. And the dad? Well, the donor was present too. He is a gay man who lives in NYC. But I don’t believe he will be involved in the actual parenting.

Georgia is no “New England” state so the legitimacy of the union of these two women is not legally recognized. So until the progression of society evolves a bit more, they are going to experience plenty of road blocks and obstacles to health care and property rights, among other things. Yet they are going to raise a child together and I believe they are going to do a fantastic job.

From the outside, an uninvolved observer might find it easy to think, “gee, that’s a little weird.” And I’m sure the righteous among us would quickly condemn and think the whole thing beyond the scope of their acceptance. Thus the current laws. But having known these parents-to-be for many years (we happened to meet through yoga), I have much more confidence in their ability to raise a child in a loving atmosphere than most other couples I know. It would only be weird if there were a lack of love in the union. But love is love is love.

So I hope the new baby enjoys the baby blanket that I gave them. If I ever have a boy, he is going to get the same blanket. And it’s very appropriate for them because they live across the street from the zoo.

I can’t wait to meet the new baby and look forward to watching him grow up. He will have great parents.

Was it really people’s interest or was it spam? I think it was a little bit of both. But when Obama asked citizens for questions and gave them the ability to rank those questions, it appears there is a lot of interest in the decriminalization of drugs.

But no one really wants that, right? I know for a fact that drug lords, growers, pushers and gangs are certainly against the idea. So are the alcohol and pharmaceutical companies.

We incarcerate more citizens per capita than any other country. Most of those incarcerations are because of drugs. And, ironically, our prisons have tons of drugs in them. So we imprison people for using drugs and, while in prison, they have even greater access to them. And each person in jail can no longer contribute to society and each incarceration drains tens of thousands of dollars from taxpayers each year.

When I worked in the mental health field, I met lots of 12 and 13 year old drug vendors. That’s right. And these kids had ZERO motivation to stay in school because they were making more money than their parents. Under age children are used by bigger pushers simply because they are too young to go to real jail. And when they turn 18 their records are given a clean slate.

Just because these kids were into the selling didn’t mean that they were users. Most of them weren’t users, yet. They just got into the trade because it was easy money.

Easy money. That’s the problem. As long as drugs are illegal, the underground sale of them will be easy money for a group of people who typically arm themselves and are willing to kill to keep their power and money. This easy money will attract a lot of people the worse the economy gets.

Because of our laws, we spend billions of dollars trying to do the impossible – keep people from getting high. If it’s not pot, then it’s glue or gas or some other extremely harmful improvisation. If drugs were legal, would there be more drug users? Possibly. But I don’t think people will jump up and start using just because they can.

Legal or not, I won’t be using cocaine, smoking crack, shooting heroin or taking ecstasy. Even tequila is a bit much for me…and it’s still legal. And as far as my involvement in other people’s lives via the rules of society, I would much rather spend the tax money on prevention and treatment rather than incarceration and enforcement. And maybe these meth labs and drug gangs will disappear once and for all.

I never realized it until I was away from home for several years, but the area near my parents’ house in rural West Tennessee is full of skunks. I rarely see them alive but their smelly corpses frequently accompany the dashed lines on the windy roads.

And although they are somewhat shy and elusive, skunks are known to venture into yards where they startle, and subsequently spray, neighborhood dogs. My brother even got sprayed by a skunk once when he was camping out. Of course he brought himself inside and the whole house smelled like a skunk.

It turns out that some people can’t smell skunks at all. My wife is one of them. After several instances of running through some skunk stank while driving down the road, she kept saying she couldn’t smell that horrible funk that was pushing me to nausea. So she did some research and found out that one in one thousand people cannot smell a skunk. Go figure. I guess that explains a lot.

After a few friendly gatherings, several trips to the proposed space, some donated time by professional landscapers and some good advice from a Dekalb County advocate, we finally turned in the proposal (thanks Susan!) for the Henderson Park Community Garden.

We should know something about the official granting of the park space in the next few weeks but in the meantime we will be planting some seeds and starting to accumulate supplies.

There are some 150+ gardens in the Atlanta area but none are currently in Tucker. So we will be the first. With any luck, we will be able to break ground for a spring planting and start building this community project.

Here is a picture of the proposed site:

Here is a picture of the lake and waterfall that are a part of Henderson Park:

Since I was in Vegas for the Pubcon conference, I thought it would be a crime to leave without seeing at least on Cirque du Soleil show. The only problem was in the choosing. I have heard a lot about the “O” show and “LOVE” has gotten some rave reviews. But Mystere was showing in my hotel (Treasure Island) and when I decided to look into buying tickets, I was lucky to find that lovely single seat on the second row, center stage, right on the aisle. I couldn’t pass that up and it was a fantastic decision.

For starters, the comedy relief act was really clever and funny. Comedy shows and Circus acts are famous for picking on the people up front. Luckily a woman a few seats down from me got the brunt of the jokes so I didn’t get splashed, pulled on stage, put in a cage or taped up by a clown.

The costumes were very creative, the music was powerful and the artists were incredible. There was a constant texture of percussion throughout the show. At one point the stage was filled with drummers and the center point was occupied by an enormous drum with a head at least 5 feet across.

The most stunning act was of the “strong men” who leveraged their strength and weight in ways that defied physics and seemed humanly impossible. At one point, one of the performers was doing a one-handed hand stand on top of the other performer’s head. At another point in the show, artists climbed up poles…except that they held their bodies out horizontal from the vertical pole, arms extended, and moved up and down the poles with amazing synchronicity.

The see-saw act was also amazing. In rapid-fire fashion, one artist after another jumped on their see-saw end to send the other side flying in the air and ultimately stacking up to 4 people in a vertical pile. The trapeze artists were perfectly synchronized and flipped and flew threw the air and landed with the ease and softness of human cats.

I can’t imagine the stage show would travel well. That would be a huge undertaking. Platforms disappeared and gave way to different stages with different props every few minutes. It was a constant barrage of amazement.

If you’re ever in Vegas, see one of these shows. You won’t forget it.

My office is minutes away from Atlanta Hot Yoga. My Ashtanga practice has been a bit scattered lately as my home studio is too close to the baby’s room (and I don’t EVEN want to risk waking up a sleeping baby) and Atlanta Yoga is too much of a trek. So I have kept my eyes open for other options. I attended couple of Bikram classes in Alpharetta recently but I was a little hesitant about re-engaging that style of yoga. It’s not that I don’t think the practice is beneficial, it’s the generally strict style that has always been a bit of a turn-off.

For instance, in my most recent visits to a Bikram class the teacher barked at me in front of the whole class, “That’s a towel? I could use that to blow my nose. That towel is more like toilet paper!” The next class was followed by a strong critique of one of my postures: “What’s wrong, aren’t you supposed to be a teacher or something?”

Granted, I have certainly encountered Ashtanga teachers (and Iyengar, and Kripalu teachers as well…) that wanted to assert their authority over the class which kinda made the whole experience suck. But I try to keep an open mind so I decided to give the local studio a try. It was convenient, after all.

I stopped in on a Monday evening and Wes was teaching. I was surprised when he recognized me as a teacher (Atlanta is a big city) and fully expected to be ostracized as per my previous experience. But that wasn’t the case at all. The class was very pleasant (and very hot and difficult) but there was nothing but kindness from the teacher. That made a big difference and made me much more inclined to support the studio.

Molly started walking about a week ago and I have found it more terrifying than anything else. I am certainly proud to see her summon up the courage to take those un-supported steps. And the unrestrained glee she has can’t be denied.

But the part that scares me is that she is so fast and not very responsive to commands such as, “No, don’t (fill in the dangerous thing)!” She loves to throw her arms in the air and scream as she goose-steps out the door. She climbed the stairs so fast yesterday that it was all I could do to keep up. And she doesn’t really understand gravity.

The next few months are sure to keep me busy.

When I was in Honduras in 1995-96, getting a parasite, amoeba, or other ‘bug’ was just a matter of time. It happened. And usually the remedy was a $1 trip to the doctor followed by a $3.00 trip to the pharmacy. Sometimes just a trip to the pharmacy was all that was needed.

However, when the pharmacy was closed or far away, we learned to “hold off” bugs by taking a shot or two of tequila. I believe it was a Peace Corps volunteer who gave out this recipe. Amazingly, it worked.

One of my friends just told me of the success of this insta-cure when he suddenly realized that he ate some spoiled turkey for lunch. With belly gurgling and nausea building, he made a mid-day, mid-week trip to the liquor store and got a pint of the golden wild potion. After one quick shot, he felt the gurgling subside. Then he was able to go back to work.

In theory, it makes sense. Alcohol kills the bacteria that causes the big problems. I certainly wouldn’t recommend this as a replacement for a doctor’s visit or doing just about anything other than taking mid-day shots of tequila. And I really don’t even remember telling him this story – I was probably drinking tequila at the time.

It’s been awhile since I have posted here, mainly because I have been focusing on my other blog for the last month or so. But after my posting about the crows, I had to include this. As a side note, a pair of red shoulder hawks have moved in across the street, high in a pine tree. They’re cleaning up. But on to the present ridiculous story…

I started a new job and have a fancy new office in the Vinings area of Atlanta. I took a couple of weeks to settle in before my wife came to meet me for lunch. We met, went and picked up some food and came back to eat in the conference area of the office. But on our way back into the parking lot, I noticed 2 men standing behind a pickup truck. One was making some tugging and gyrating movements. He looked to be sawing……something….

I had to pass by them to get to my parking area. One man was dressed in business attire, the other, an Elmer Fudd costume. Between them lay a dead turkey, with missing legs. The man in the country attire waved to us with his free hand. His other hand held two turkey legs.

“So, are there always people in your parking lot sawing the legs off turkeys?”, asked my wife. No, just today. But it just goes to show – even in the hip, trendy and upscale parts of Atlanta, you’re still in Georgia.

Gobble gobble.