It's hotter than Hades in the house. My couch smells like piss because TLG took a nap on it and I forgot to put pull-ups on him. He is watching the 3rd hour of Nick Jr. and eating Pirate's Booty -- despite the fact that normal folks would be thinking about dinner -- because it's too damn hot to do anything else.
I worked at the family resource center this morning for "Messy Play Mondays" while TLG played at at a friends'. We had the water table out, big bubble wands, sidewalk chalk, and made eye dropper watercolors on coffee filters which make lovely butterflies when you wrap a day-glo pipe cleaner around their middle. Only about 6 parent/kid pairs showed up but they stayed for a long time so I guess the program is working.
I am expecting TBG to walk in the door any second because I am supposed to head out to my first committee meeting for Proximity. It will be the first official meeting of the membership committee and I am both looking forward to it and anxious. I think the anxiety is creeping in because we have a general member mtg yesterday [which always turns into an all-day affair for us at Proximity] and here I am 24 hours later, going to another meeting. Until now, my future and present were not colliding too seriously. I felt like I had two lives. The present one and the one we were building at Proximity. And we only visited that life 2 days a month when we were out there for the meetings. Now here it is a Monday night and I am off to immerse myself in important and thorny community issues. Real, authentic community building is hard work as TBG and I are rapidly finding out. But I feel this is a challenge that will force us to develop new skills, new ways of thinking, and new ways of relating and communicating. Which is a good thing.
The community is being run by a process called Formal Consensus and it is both inspiring and frustrating as hell. Much fairer than straight majority rule voting. Much less likely to have the majority tromp the minority. Much less likely to create grudges and lingering resentments. Which is important if you are deciding things with people that you are stuck in a long term relationship with. [Like neighbors and fellow Home Owner Association members]. But it does take work, patience, maturity and the ability to identify one's own issues, feelings and concerns.
[Ahh the familiar sounds of Steve Irwin's antics are filtering in from the living room. I really like him. And Jeff Corwin. Both are so ridiculously, transparently, goofily, passionate about animals. They remind me of 10 year olds. If you ever saw Steve's first encounter with a large Eastern Diamondback Rattler or Jeff's encounter with a Black Mamba, you would know what I mean. They are giddy with excitement.]
Anyway ... I am coated with a sheen of sweat and I have to meet with decent people in less that an hour so it's time to shower and make myself presentable.
later 'gators.
6:37:45 PM 
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