Pisces' Weekly Update

Before hanging up the phone on our 30-minute phone conversation that had encompassed the meaning of life, the definition of love, and the absurdity of a bottled water industry, a very important person advised me to read this week's Pisces horoscope. "I think it'll be interesting to you." I haven't done that in awhile. Since I left Italy, in fact. I had even taken "stars" off of my Firefox toolbar to discourage the hindrance of my daily human experience into preconceived developments. So I Googled "horoscope" and found the following:

This week's scenario is highlighted by your ability to get yourself back to normal. Your life seems to have gone completely off kilter, lately.

Well, yes. Perhaps the psychic/novelist responsible actually meant to say inability to get myself back to normal. One month ago I returned to the Bay Area after fourteen months in Europe, five years since I'd been more than simply "home from college," and my head continues to spin. What might "back to normal" actually mean? A steady work schedule, the fall NBC line-up, nothing in a suitcase, and enough hours in my car to make up for the year I spent walking the streets of an Italian città?

You seem to have been pushed off track of your interests and goals. Other situations have taken over & become a real priority to you.

gently correcting a 10-year-old dancer's body alignment > espresso & newspaper at museum cafe

sewing a sturdy street-crossing apparatus for toddlers > sketching beside the River Po

surfing craigslist > listening to NPR

catching up via cell phone > drinking wine

learning Italian nursery rhymes > catching the eyes of other handsome travelers

balancing my accounts > reading

You will be exposed to information and data and will be able to transform it into a valuable opportunity. Try to streamline procedures, improve techniques & you'll be able to reap rewards beyond your expectations.

"Information and data" might refer to the recent experience of opening the doors of a new Italian immersion preschool in Berkeley, which is quickly becoming a valuable opportunity to maintain my Italian, interact with adorable kids, and assume my first semi-administrative role. I'm trying to "streamline" my pre-primary ballet classes and my preschool classes, using activities and songs from one setting, in the other. "Rewards" have yet to be reaped. Hopefully they come in the form of cash and/or profound fulfillment. I find both momentarily acceptable.

Gather together with others who share your passion to succeed.

Which is hard to do when all you want to do at the end of the day is complain, then go to bed. Or get irresponsibly drunk.

Your ability to encourage others will pay off. Pay attention to your inner feelings. If you listen to your intuition, you may be able to feel your way through a really stressful week. Take the time you need now, to be able to look at things from a different perspective.

Easier said than done! I wonder if I am able to encourage anyone, since these days all of my sentences seem to begin with "I." My inner feelings and intuition and different perspectives all remind me of the best parts of living abroad and the worst parts of being back in this home-like place; the painful longing for a smaller life than the one I see here in the Bay Area. I feel like my heart is a cotton ball being stretched out into a faux spiderweb, with bits and corners every which where and transparent wispy bits in between.

Family members & co-workers will try to help you through your emotional difficulties. Allow them to show you new ways to lift your spirits. Time together will help you to deal with emotional hurts.

I cried like a baby to my mom about unprofessional coworkers and being encouraged to enter a job field I don't like, and then I didn't let her touch me when she was being exactly the comforting mom I know, on some level, I want her to be. Sat on the edge of her bed, puffy-eyed and gulpy, wishing myself forward or backward or anywhere far from how uncomfortable I am. Maybe this is reverse culture shock.

Try to plan a week-end getaway with family & friends. You'll be glad you did.

Cal Bears football game Saturday night, with pre-game cocktails with Mom at my brother's fraternity house. Oh, Lord. And there's a Labor Day Slow Food picnic/community meal in Martin Luther King, Jr., park on Monday that I plan to attend, with scads of other like-vibed hippie types. There are still plenty of things that make me smile.