2007 Reflections, 2008 Dreams
Dr. Ding never was too good at New Year’s resolutions; I make them all backwards and counterintuitive-like.
Dr. Ding once made a resolution to eat a LOT more chocolate, and well looky looky…it’s good for you now! Cause and effect, to be sure.
Superheroine JeAnne posted this very clever set of questions from which I’m cribbing here. Rock on, girl.
1. What did you do in 2007 that you had never done before? – Took two cruises with a very dear friend. Swam with dolphins, a lifelong dream. Went to a conference in Laguna Beach. Started blogging in earnest. Joined Twitter and learned everyone goes out a LOT more than I do.
2. What countries did you visit? – Mexico, Jamaica, Grand Cayman Island, California.
3. What would you like to have in 2008 that you lacked in 2007? – More free time. More naps. Getting back into sitting meditation. Regular workouts. More dates with The Beyonce. A truly stellar blog logo. Dingish t-shirts on sale in CafePress.
4. What was your biggest achievement of the year? – Tie: 1) Started investing money. 2) Completed 20 miles of the Avon Walk in Chicago, June 2007.
5. Did you suffer any illness or injury? – Couple bouts of flu. Epicondylitis. Racked my left Achilles. Two vein surgeries. Ew.
6. What was the best thing you bought? — Anything on Etsy, especially Surlyramics’ stuff. A Dremel set for The Beyonce. Memory-foam mattress topper.
7. Compared to this time last year, are you happier or sadder? – Happier, but tireder.
8. Did you fall in love in 2007? -- It seems like every other week I find out something entirely new and absolutely wonderful about The Beyonce. Despite his peculiar insistence on keeping the kitchen counters neat and clean, I remain In Love with him. I can’t help it. He heals me. Well, that and he’s a stone fox.
9. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2007? — Vintage 1987 drag queen-meets-former-GothPunk shitkicker, quietly supported by nerd glasses and Ex Officio underpants, and a team of Etsy.com artisans. Plus several pair of sweats from Target, black Uggs, and a penchant for t-shirts from The Mill and The Salt Dogs.
10. What do you wish you’d done more of? What didn’t you get in 2007 that you want for 2008? – I wish I’d gone back to the gym after my 2 surgeries, because now I’m very out of the habit. In 2008, I have the following goals and objectives:
1) Get married. To The Beyonce. In a FIERCE wedding dress. Not sure yet what rhymes with husband.
2) Figure out what rhymes with husband.
3) Plan a trip to Tibet, to take place within the next few years. I’ll be going with Dr. Kat and anyone else who dares accompany us.
4) Get up every day at 6 a.m. to meditate, pray to The Inner Silver Go-Go Boots of GirlJesus, do a lil’ yoga, walk.
5) Remain injury-free when I get back to weight lifting this Spring, and further, if I do get injured, find a neon-pink sparkly cold pack so that the whole experience is more festive.
6) Finish writing Drag Queens From Outer Space! Or: How I Learned To Love Managed Care™
7) Have a costume party for Halloween like I did back in the 1990s where everyone has to (more…)
| Etsy: QueenBodacious |
Blog On, Bloggette*
Y’all.
Your estimable Dr. Ding has also been blogging here. They won’t let me cuss, but I’ve got a plan.
A sexy plan.
I’m going to use faux-swearwords from the movie Johnny Dangerously in place of my more usual soul-cleansing profanity.
It’s going to blow the balls off a brass monkey, but what’s a girl to do? The Word of Ding must needs go forth across the land. I am compelled by forces greater than myself to herald tidings of honest and generally cheese-free self-discovery without anyone having to stick a mirror upskirt ala the granola-scented exhortations of the original leafy-haired authors of Our Bodies, Our Selves.
Dr. Ding shall therefore blog on, Bloggette. Blog on indeed.
*By this I mean: no diggity.
| Etsy: QueenBodacious |
My New Favorite Quote
“The greater the ignorance the greater the dogmatism.”
Sir William Osler
British (Canadian-born) physician (1849 – 1919)
| Etsy: QueenBodacious |
Dear Dr. Ding
Why don’t you blog under your real name?
Because I used to work in prison and I don’t want some disgruntled former inmate shanking me in the parking lot of Shade-E-Pines Rest Home because of some parole recommendation vendetta. I was such a hardass with my whole “Get a job, keep some sort of address, don’t steal cars, attend AA” schtick, back in the day. What a diva! One can hardly blame them.
Because my real last name is highly ethnic and almost unpronounceable and people get mightily confused. Seeing it in print seems to exert a sedative effect on the human eye, forcing it to close prematurely, which is contraindicated when I’m trying to convince folks to read this blog x7 per day, click on advertisements, and make me rich, RICH I tell you.
Because APA tends to frown on licensed shrinks exhibiting Major Pottymouth Disorder, Recurrent, Severe, Without Psychotic Features to the extent found here, and I’m rather fond of my license, what with the working and earning a living and all.
Because it’s a fucking free country. For now.
Because I’m just that goddamned whimsical, that’s why.
Why haven’t you sought treatment for your CSI: Miami addiction?
Uh, yeah, about that. See…I haven’t hit rock bottom yet. When I find my index finger twitching over the “Proceed To Checkout” button on Amazon, poised to snap up the CSI: Miami: The Wooden Years: Complete Boxed Set, I promise I’ll stop. Really.
After all, I mostly just watch the show so I can tell my friend who lives in an A&E blackout zone about it. It’s research for an upcoming movie role where I play a botoxed sunglasses vendor with a fetish for latex gloves and constant needless exposition. I have so much pressure on me, I deserve a little sun-drenched rerun every now and then go keep me going. I can quit any time I want. It’s not that bad; I’m not like those really sick folks who actually paid money to see “Jade”…right? Right?
When are you going to launch the t-shirts on Cafe Press?
Whenever The Beyonce finishes the logo. Ordinarily I would have the Evil Manservant Jeebes do it, but I gave him the month off after he got a little jazzy with me about his rather alarmingly narrow views on the proper manner of starching the table linens. But soon, my pretties, soon.
I enjoy reading the recipes, even if they will probably kill me if I actually eat them. Can you post some more?
Can. Don’t want. Maybe later.
| Etsy: QueenBodacious |
Amitabha: Buddha Of Boundless Light
Dr. Ding had been feeling uncharacteristically unsettled for the last several hours, ever since departing the soul-shrivelling deep-freeze that was this morning’s YogaFit experience. Seeking consolation, I recalled a Tibetan Buddhism Deck of oracle cards I’d once given The Beyonce, so I got them out, shuffled and picked a random card. Turned out to be Amitabha, Buddha of Boundless Light. It said:
Amitabha rules over the western paradise of Sukhavati, the Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss in which all beings enjoy unbounded happiness.
Amitabha’s color is red, his element is fire, and he is associated with life beyond the setting sun. In his hands he holds a lotus, the flower that is born in the mud and finds its way to the surface of the water to flower — like our true nature. He represents the ability to transform malice into compassion and opens a door to salvation that does not depend upon a tireless dedication to transformation.
Feel your substance,
bones, flesh, and blood,
saturated with cosmic essence.
Here’s a lovely image of Amitabha hisself.
Confession: a major part of why Dr. Ding is attracted to Tibetan Buddhism, as opposed say, to Zen or Nirichen, is the bling. Yeah, you heard right. The spiritual bling. The thangkas, those gorgeously ornate and intricate scroll paintings, just fascinate me. I could stare at some of them for hours. I adore the shrines, the figurines, the nifty robes. What’s not to love about a spiritual tradition whose head dude gets to wear a hat like this?
Or where you get to play with bowls that sing?
Where you get the option of spinning your prayers instead of speaking them.
Dr. Ding appreciates the sheer variety of beautiful, shiny, and generally cool stuff to look at in Tibetan-style Buddhism. But I also find it to be exceptionally compassionate and embracing of our humanity; the part of Amitabha’s “message” that resonated most deeply with me is his burning desire to ease humanity’s suffering. When we awaken to the boundless, illuminating wisdom within, that inner light that warms and also guides us to salvation, we discover that it was there all along, that like the lotus, it simply needed the right conditions to emerge and come more fully into being.
Deep!
Short version: No more cold, pinchy-assed, boring YogaFit classes for Dr. Ding. In the future, I will not wait 3 hours and 25 minutes to end my suffering; there is nothing to prove and no contests to win, and so suffering is needless in this kind of frozen-fannyed context. I can and will continue to enjoy yoga for myself only; there is no need to share it by becoming a techer, as I already do quite a bit for the world. And that’s enough.
Woot!
I know, I know…Dr. Ding can’t stay in Yoda Mode for more than a few lines. Luckily.
| Etsy: QueenBodacious |
