noajones

[noajones]

Milarepa Dharma Center, Tallassee, Tennessee (June-July, 2022)— once there was an ice storm in Upstate New York and I was stranded without heat or electricity or any form of communication and the first people I turned to were are my friends Karma and Karina. Once again in the heat of summer I turned to them after a different kind of storm and once again they were there for me in their unique familial way. The retreat center is rising up on these Appalachian mountains with a jewel of a stupa in the center, which he and Arek and others are building with their own hands. While Gomadevi dances in her mini pool and Karina studies. Their dear friend Jeffrey very kindly offered me a room in his home just down the road. I brought my own pillow case from Julia’s. Jeffrey is retiring professor of linguistics at the University of Tennessee. His focus was the sign language used by Native Americans. The original ASL. So naturally there were many interesting conversations to be had. But Jeffrey and bonded mostly about going to Dollywood, which has been a long held dream of mine. Karma and I went on the Tennessee Tornado rollercoaster. I screamed and screamed and his mala almost fell off and we both tried to practice. This was a very good place for me to shake off the past.

[noajones]

The Study Hotel, Philadelphia, PA, Room 914. (June 2022) — It’s been a while. Summer of 2022 has me sleeping around again. The Study Hotel has been a sanctuary over the course of this academic year and this is my last planned stay. 8 nights. The University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education put us up here. Us being the 57 educators and entrepreneurs who made up Cohort 8 of the masters program in Education Entrepreneurship. We have been coming to Philadelphia every month for classes unless the pandemic sent us online. Semesters crammed into weeks. I met so many smart, talented people from around the world. I think the final tally was 21 countries. So many laughs and so many important conversations about practices and challenges of education. I look forward to a future of collaborations and friendship. The rooms are very comfortable although I never can get used to the air in these types of spaces. I set up a small shrine and asked housekeeping to skip this room for the whole week. Unfortunately there was a covid outbreak and one by one my classmates ended up stuck in their rooms. Grateful I managed to avoid it. It’s a 3-5 hour drive from Woodstock depending on traffic. In all these months I haven’t had time to explore Philadelphia at all. This time my car was packed especially full because I’ve got people staying at the Woodstock house and a summer of unknowns ahead. One bag is filled entirely of gifts for my boyfriend. We have been separated by the pandemic for 2 years 7 months. We are finally meeting the day I move out of the Study. Picking him up for a ten day adventure.

[noajones]

My Bed in My Home (December 31, 2017) — Bed #62. So this is it. This is the end of the journey, pretty much. I have a few places I have to go this year but for the most part I am moving to Woodstock to start a Buddhist primary school on behalf of Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche, with plan to open in August 2018. Let's see how I go.

[noajones]

Alex's House, New Paltz (December 29)—Bed # 61. An emergency at my house had me racing upstate, dropping all kinds of imagined plans, saying goodbye to Harold and Tiger, and desperately trying to keep the pipes from freezing. My efforts edged the interior temp up to 43 but it was too cold to stay. Luckily I have friends like Alex. We go back 30+ years. We were overdue for a slumber party. We talked all night and were woken by her bear cubs. Tara thinks all these obstacles are the protectors. Protecting me from bad relationships and fishmongers. I should start another blog for all the gifts I try to give that are not received for one reason or another. I have so many stories.

[noajones]

Upper West Side Apartment, Sofa (December 26-28, 2017) — Bed #60. I thought it would be a good idea to be a cat sitter for the week I was displaced instead of living in my own insanely noisy apartment. The apartment belonged to a loving family and was filled with nice books and knick knacks and two very large wild cats who went on hunger strike in protest of me being there. I felt like an imposter so I slept on the sofa, which was also a good distance away from any cat odor. I only lasted a few days because of an emergency. Tumult to finish up the year. READING: Borges

[noajones]

My brother's bed (December 25, 2017) — Bed #59. My brother and family are still out of town and I'm still couch surfing. I thought I'd try the bed out as a Christmas gift to myself. This sense of displacement and of going through the paces was broken up by doing something I have never done with someone I thought was fun – massage at a random Chinatown parlor and dinner at a random Chinatown restaurant followed by drinks at the bar of Lucian. It was festive. It was a good day. I forgot to take a photo.

[noajones]

My Brother’s Couch, 5th Avenue, NYC (December 24, 2017)— Bed #58. It’s beyond noisy at 175th street so I asked my brother if I could stay at his house while he’s away. Slept in the sofa. Missed Cecile’s dinner party because I got the dates wrong

[noajones]

Williamsburg, Brooklyn (December 23, 2017) — Bed #57. A beautiful space. Enat threw a party. We ate homemade challah and salami and olives and feta and salmon and drank and talked all night about crooked media and film and schools and arm pits. In the morning we went to a Hindu temple.

This post is directly related to this post. http://noajones.tumblr.com/post/108926751663/tel-aviv-january-9-21-i-also-stayed-here-a

[noajones]

Washington Heights (December 14-17, 2017)— Sometimes I like my apartment. Sometimes it's impossible to get to because of trains. Sometimes the bar across the street plays very loud music until 4 a.m. Actually every night the bar across the street plays very loud music until 4 a.m. So I don't go there much but when I do there are moments of really loving it.

[noajones]

Library Sofa, Bearsville, NY December 4-7, 2017) —— Bed #55 I've taken to sleeping on the sofa. It's warmer here in the library because it's directly above the wood stove. Not uncomfortable either. READING MATERIAL: Gerry Hadden's Never the Hope Itself.

[noajones]

My Sister's Bed, Woodstock, NY (November 21-22) — Bed #54. The house is rented so I'm bunking with my sister. She's got a king sized bed in my mother's downstairs apartment. It was fun to have a slumber party. We watched a little bit of the Golden Girls and I think I was out like a light.

[noajones]

Bearsville, NY (November 20, 2017) — Bed #53. We are looking at properties to open a school in Woodstock and in one of them we entered a room that was filled with big black houseflies. The realtor opened the windows to release them and told us that the flies were brought in to deal with the gyspy moths. I think I prefer moths. My house also has this problem, so unusual in early winter. Also we still have these cricket-like stink bugs that came in with the wood. They were making it impossible for me to sleep so I switched to a guest room where there were none. This is the room I keep my favorite books and all my short story collections. It was my brother's room growing up. It's such a luxury and an oddity that I can choose which room I want to sleep in.

[noajones]

Casey's Apartment, Boulder, CO (November 14, 2017) — Bed #51. Casey wasn't home when Kristin dropped me off after a full day of meetings but her friend Tasha was and she was making an amazing pie. Then Casey came and we talked until too tired to formulate sentences. It was too short. Casey is A#1 fun and her dog is cute too. I woke up the next morning and made my way to the Denver Airport with Sarah Mist. Back to NYC.

[noajones]

Noah's House, Longmont, Colorado (November 13, 2017) -- Bed #50. I guess I gave this Melanie album to Noah when I was 17 living alone in an apartment on the Diagonal. Noah lived in an apartment in the next building over and her mother had helped me get a lease. Who rents to a 16 year old? Her mom was so kind and fed us well and let us take drugs under her supervision. She died way too young. And a few weeks before I came to visit this time, Noah's beloved husband also died. So we listened to Melanie and got drunk and laughed our faces off. There were two guys around, an old friend and a new one. It all made me sentimental. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlp3wmE4bbI

[noajones]

Peter's Place, Pearl Street, Boulder, CO (November 8-13, 2017) — Bed #49. It was good to be home. Boulder. The big skies. The smells of childhood. There wasn't much time to frolic. We were here for a leadership training that turned out to be super intense. Tears, excavations, truths revealed. Good snacks. Sarah stayed out in the plains and I bunked at Peter's with his cat who hogged the blankets and suffocated me with his paws. I barely slept. I'm rushing to finish these entries. There is a lot more to say. Peter came back early from his Danish holiday and I packed up my bags and moved on.

[noajones]

Oaxaca State, Mexico (October 25-November 7, 2017) —

Bed #47. And then I went to Mexico and from dawn until moonrise it was a mad hatter's ball.

[noajones]

Bearsville (Sept 6-Oct 25, 2017) — Bed #46. “Home” for six weeks give or take. Trips to the city, evacuations for tenants. Not able to settle. Packing and repacking. Preparing for the big move to Bali. Scoffing at winter clothes starting to appear in the shops. Won’t need those in the tropics. Finally Finished Knausgaard’s “My Struggle” Part One. Am flipping through my to read pile trying to find something that will grab me like that did.