Showering with Spiders

I can’t do it. This is the third consecutive morning that I have jumped into the shower, only to find a spider has already beat me to it. I don’t want to kill him, but I am now naked and not in the mood to get out of the shower, get dressed, scoop him up on a piece of paper, walk through the house and let him outside. This is my sister Pam’s job. And she is not here. So, I have to kill him. Which is hard for me especially when I am really trying to embrace that “love all living things, all sentient beings” – but how can I love creepy spiders, who sometimes bite me, the same way I could love, oh lets say, a golden retriever puppy who only nibbles on my hand?

It is one of those things that might take me two or two hundred more lifetimes to master. I have always heard that we fear the things we don’t understand. That all we have to do is learn about this “thing”, whether it is a scary animal, insect, creature, or even another culture of lifestyle. I have tried learning about spiders, and I do admit, they are amazing. Hard little workers, always having their magical webs destroyed by us giant assassins. I’m trying hard to love you little guys.

But the beauty is that I had writer’s block until I saw that third spider this morning, he was my inspiration to write today. Up until his untimely death I really didn’t have much to say but I felt like it was time for a blog. Just the sound of the word “blog” makes me feel lethargic and empty headed. But in reality, my head is so full that it is starting to ache.

This morning the County Planning Department will present our coffee kiosk proposal at their weekly meeting. Keeping my fingers crossed. It seems as though now we at least have a few people willing to go to bat for us and with just that little bit of support the whole idea feels a bit more promising. They plan to present my written proposal to the Planning Commission along with other county agencies at the meeting today, like the Health Department, Public Works and the list goes on and on. So hopefully I will hear some good news by this afternoon and then it is on to my Friday morning meeting with the owner of the winery. We will see what the week will bring.

Another positive, I will be moving into a new apartment on the 15th. I actually had the choice of the charming apartment in St. Helena or the retro flat in Napa. I went with Napa. The location is much more central, easier to get to Marin or to I-80, and if you know me, you know that I am in my car, a lot. So it just made sense to stay in Napa. It will only have been a month and a half since I packed up all of my things and put them in storage and yet I feel so excited to unpack it all, an early Christmas!

The timing is great too – I can get all moved in and then put all of my energy and focus on Artistry Coffee. The original name was Artistry Café, but now since there is no café, I guess we will substitute the word Coffee or Espresso. My plan is still to grow out of that location and end up in some really cool spot downtown, where we can actually have a café, music, art, poetry readings, and all that goes along with a coffee house. But like a baby learning to walk, there are a lot of stumbles and falls and a lot of bumped chins on the coffee table. Patience. That’s the name of the game.

I am also working the San Francisco Art Fair in San Francisco the weekend of May 23rd. http://www.sffineartfair.com/ This will be an amazing event – there will be over $300 million in art,  500 artists represented from 70+ worldwide renowned galleries and the works will be available for viewing and purchase. Should be quite an experience. I’ll make sure to take lots of pictures and post them after the event. If they allow cameras.

So lots going on and and I feel a bit like the children’s nursery rhyme, “round and round she goes, where she stops, nobody knows.” But there is one thing I know for sure. Spiders like showers as much as the next guy.