I love words fabricated of two or more other words that perfectly describe a situation, feeling, or state of affairs. And my absolute favorites are the ones that are cleverly constructed by marketing teams, and make me double over with laughter. Some of these words have passed into common usage, and some are simply fabulicious.

Examples abound in my profile, but here are some of my favorites, both old and new.
infotainment (disinfotainment)
edutainment
webisode
nutriceutical
tween
skort
spork
jazzercize

okay, and this one, not a compound word, but I can't help but trip a little each time I hear it
"television event"... what?!

tell me your favorites.

I have been traveling extensively for many months.  I am home in the desert.  I am humbled in the way that travel always makes me.  Even if it's just travel on well worn paths I travel often, even in cities that used to be my home.  But it's always bizarre to return to a place and feel suddenly a stranger.  Even stranger to return to a place you've never been and feel at home.  The latter is easier on the psyche.  After Portland and yoga teacher training, I went back to Chicago for a trip that extended from 10 days to 6 weeks. Included a jaunt on the East Coast on Cape Cod, a momentary, very drunken night in Brooklyn with beautiful people, many weird nights staying in hotels downtown Chicago working, lots of connections, serendipitous encounters, plans for the future, and millions of friends left unsqueezed.  If you are one of those friends, I want to squeeze you.  But you may have to chase me down to do it.

I am a homebody with itchy feet.  An itinerant wanderer with strong sense of vertigo when too far from my roots.  I'm learning how travel is different with a child.  I'm learning how to stay strong in the face of familial criticism and the challenges of surrendering to my child's needs on the road.  I'm learning that travel is too costly, financially, emotionally, environmentally, physically to be taken lightly or done haphazardly while I am two.  No longer is it easy to find a new place to sleep and get my work done when I'm on the road.  No longer is it a simple matter to fulfill obligations and leave time for social interaction.  I am not the person I once was, in this regard, and I have felt my friendships change for it. 

But it's all good.  I'm learning to let go, in every which way, and finding that the structure I build because of it is that much sweeter.  But I fantasize a little bit about the freedom of solo flight.  Someday, again.  Maybe no time soon. 

Luckily, our lives are long.  Or not...

What do you really think about 2012?

And elections...I shudder to think. 

In one day both my bike wheel got stolen, off my bike locked in the front yard, and my car tire went flat (as was the spare, upon inspection)

The universe is trying to tell me something? About motion?  Or about responsibility with possessions? 

I'll leave you with this

"Gita, Gita, Gita", you begin, but then find yourself saying "ta-Gi, ta-Gi, ta-Gi". Tagi means one who has renounced everything for God.
-Ramakrishna about obtaining the truth of the Bhagavad-Gita

thinking of you,
Surgeon