Testing, testing, one, two, three.

Okay, it's January 30th, 8.40am and I'm on the 101 South. Driving to work. Thursday, so what did I do? I didn't shower this morning because I had showered last night. Those are the kind of memorable things. What else happened this morning that was kind of different? I made a mango for the kids, mango slices. But yeah, that seems to be it. Yesterday I had a conversation with Gerald. That was very interesting. I should talk about that, I guess, first because technically this would be in chronological order. Well, what I really should talk about is even earlier than that. Wow, I need to catch up. Is that Heidi ran into Kira at school pickup and Kira had told her that I don't know her name, but her name is Regina, I think. Sophia's mom died. It's really sad. She was diagnosed with a breast cancer, not the exact same diagnosis as Heidi. She had a strain that was double negative. I don't know what that means, I guess, maybe double estrogen negative. And it had spread to her brain. And that is what killed her. And if I remember correctly, she was... Her plan of treatment was to have surgery first, so they removed the tumor out of her breast, but what they clearly didn't do was any other kind of exploratory biopsy. They simply... and they may not have even taken tissue out of her lymph nodes. So... yeah. So... when that happens, you really don't have a good view of the body. And... it's really sad because she was basically going through chemo and still having cancer. Like, the chemo was... they weren't even targeting the right thing with the chemo. I mean, you take it tumor out, you don't know what you're killing with the chemo anymore. It's like spray... spray and pray. And so... she still had cancer and it killed her. And it's really sad because she was diagnosed like a year ago. Like, as Heidi was basically on the recovery, she was diagnosed. And when Kira told Heidi this, of course, it shocked her to the core. And Kira could see right away that that was not the thing to tell Heidi. And... it was... and so she... but you know, Heidi realized very quickly that, you know, no two breast cancers are alike. I mean, there are a lot that are very similar, but no two breast cancers are alike. And that she just happens to be a survivor. And... but the worst thing about surviving is the survival, is having to watch others die. That's very scary. And so... yeah. I wanted to come home and help her. She said she was going to be okay. She went to the park and actually Kira clearly felt super guilty. And so... Spent some time with her at the park and so did Nicole. And so... and of course, she let the kids have whatever they want. So they actually had a blast at the park. And so it ended up being a nice afternoon and really helped cheer her up, because I can't even imagine what it would have been like if she were just sitting at home alone. And another thing was that after she spoke to Kira, she saw Ashley. And Ashley is another mom from the cheerleading team. And Ashley was picking up Gina's daughter. I guess to help Gina. And Ashley also told her... Well, Ashley, when she saw Heidi's face, she couldn't... You know, she was like, oh my God, what's wrong? And that's when Heidi told her and then Ashley was surprised, because she...

Alright, testing, testing 1, 2, 3.

Okay, I'm walking down and okay now. And I forgot to talk about the... Well, what I wanted to mention was basically Heidi told Ashley. She didn't know and Ashley's was like, well, Gina sent an email out so... Didn't she receive it? And Heidi's like, no. I didn't receive it. And it turns out that Heidi was not on the recipient list. That's all I'm going to say there. Heidi and I talked about it. I thought maybe Gina was being considerate of her... of Heidi's own personal struggle with breast cancer. And perhaps that was why she wasn't included. But I'm not... Heidi didn't necessarily agree with that. And that's pretty much the end of that story. Heidi then did receive an email but hasn't read it. And it's considering just deleting it all together. But either way she agrees that she doesn't need to think about this subject anymore. She needs to move on with her life. And you know, grieve for Regina but really take care of herself. So that's that. This happened yesterday afternoon. And you know, I had... So, you know, I had to work the rest of the afternoon knowing, just worrying about Heidi but I called her again right before I was heading home. And she was in a very good mood. It seems like the park really did help her out. As staying at the park with friends and all that. And so... I then called Gerald because we had to catch up. He's back from France. And yeah, it was an interesting time for him. Let's see here. And in that shell he, you know, obviously get to enjoy all the good food and cafes and speaking French. And all the bookstores. But he also, you know, he basically is allowed to go to this one bookseller. Pick out any book he wants and try and sell it. And he can pretty much sell these books for triple the price that's listed on the book. And he gets a cut. So he told me this one book he... He was trying to sell was listed for... Oh, I forgot. Something like $5,000. He told it for $18,000. So just to give you an idea. And then of the profit he splits the profit with the bookseller in France. So he's got a good gig. And while he was there, he, you know, well, before he left he found out he has started talking to Leila again, his ex-wife. And, you know, she works out of Abu Dhabi now in a university there. And he arranged to see her. And they got to meet again and kind of, you know, touch base in terms of where they are now, what's going on with them, all that kind of stuff. Gerald basically summed it up as she would be a wonderful neighbor. But that's as far as he was ever willing to enter into a relationship with her again. And, you know, that doesn't mean he may not have had feelings for her when he saw her again. But also he's going through his own weird situation too with another person. And this person met him in Paris on a whim. I guess they were having a phone conversations or text messaging back and forth. And he showed her a picture of his table with food on it and at this fancy restaurant. And it, of course, got her so excited that she told him she's coming to Paris. And they got to spend 48 hours in Paris. And then she had to go. But this person has told him that her own life situation is not going to change. And that life situation is literally in the way of them ever having the relationship. So he really doesn't know what the future holds for them. And every time he sees her or talks to her he has to decide, is this the last time or not. And so, you know, we had a very long conversation. You know, whenever I talk to jail, I always end up driving all the way back to the house. So, you know, remember to take time out to kind of do my dictation. And so that leads me to what I really wanted to talk about, which was the Omsetti book. A fascinating book. I got it in the mail yesterday from a bookseller online called Grey and Nash. And good quality first edition, hard cover of the book printed in 1987. And it's the story of Dorothy Edy, also known as Omsetti. She was almost a similar age to my grandmother, maybe five years older. And she suffered a terrible fall when she was a child, maybe two or three years old, and was declared dead by a doctor. And when the doctor left to get an assistant, they came back and found her a revived essentially and were shocked. But ever since then, that moment, she had always told her parents that she wanted to go home. This is not her home. Absolutely fascinating stuff. It goes on and on. But I want to talk more about Dorothy Edy when in terms of flight of Horace. Because she has a lot of parallels. I can draw a lot of parallels with her and my mom, just fascinating stuff in terms of, you know, the timeline that she has and my mother's own timeline. And yeah, so I'll get to that later because I'm a block away from my office. But I'll try and remember everything that I had read so far in the first 20 pages of the book. I read them last night when I was with Karim at his basketball practice. And I also read the first couple of pages of the epilogue. And I had no idea that there was a close relationship between Dorothy Edy's story and the Wizard of Oz. Oh my god, I could not believe that. Just crazy. So, yeah, I have to talk about that. What does the Wizard of Oz signify in terms of flight of Horace and Dorothy Edy? So again, I think what's even funnier is that Heidi may have a copy of the book that I owned that I purchased in Egypt. The Oomsetti story. She claims that the one she has is a hardcover. Maybe someone gave it to her as a gift. I don't know. Either way, I totally forgot. I could have obviously just gotten the book from her office. And what else? If it's a hardcover, that's a different story. I could obviously just keep one, sell the other. If it's the original softcover that I bought in Dendetta. Well, they both have kind of sentimental value. So, yeah. And of course, what led me to purchase that book? So anyway, I'm at my office now signing out.

Good Shadows

Testing testing 1 2 3

Okay, it's January 30th, 5.32pm. I'm driving down Marin and on my way home, this is at Masonic where the Albany Library is and what's memorable about this afternoon. Oh, I just came from just trongs going away get together. She all the office staff, you know, we all went out but I just stayed for about 10 minutes just say goodbye had a glass of water and left. So yeah that's about it for that. What else? Not much, I just worked all day today. Pretty tired. So yeah, gonna basically do a little dictation and just chill tonight. I went out to lunch with James, we went to urban turbine and I guess he's starting to make money off his Apple Watch so he's using it. It's clear that he wants to go out to lunch. But what else? So yeah, about OMSETI. OMSETI again is fascinating. Oh, one more thing before I talk about that I called or I sent an email to Dr. Stern asking for, you know, a time on her schedule for another visit. Hopefully you can do that next Friday but I'm not sure because maybe Laila's dermatologist is next Friday. So I'll have to be the Friday after that, I don't know. But anyway, that was another thing that I did today. And so where was I back to OMSETI? I throw it here. OMSETI was a British woman who was born about four or five years after my grandfather in London and lived in Blackheath or maybe she was born in Blackheath. I'm not really, I don't know where Blackheath is. I guess it's somewhere in London. That's right because she would visit the British Museum. So what would she do? She was, as I had said in my previous note, she had an accident when she was a child and fell down a flight of steps in her house and was found unconscious by a doctor. And after the doctor basically pronounced her dead, he took her vitals and she, her heart was head stopped and her breathing had stopped. And so he left to get a nurse so that they could come and prepare the body to send off to the morgue. And when the doctor returned, they found Dorothy sitting up with her parents eating chocolate or a little chocolate smeared face kit as the book describes it. And so of course the her mother and the doctor pretty much obviously were the mother yelled at the doctor, reprimanded him for being sick. So negligent essentially with his diagnosis. But he insisted that he took her vitals and she was clinically dead. So obviously they didn't want to make a big deal about this or any more. And so he left. But that was a moment that changed her life forever. And how did it change her life? Well, she started to tell her parents, this is not my home. And no one could understand what she was talking about. She kept saying, where is my home? This is not my home. And they used to tease her. You know, is this your home? No. Where is your home? And then I don't know. But one day I'm going to go there. And so what were they going to do? The parents were beside themselves. They they they didn't know what to do. And so they didn't really, you know, I think they didn't want to take her to a psychologist or psychiatrist because it really wasn't. I mean the girl was functioning. She just didn't do that. She didn't believe she was in her home. And so I guess for medical, for the medical, the medical expectation at the time there was nothing to do for it. And what happened after that? Well, no, she I think one when she was about four years old or five years old, I can't remember. She her mother took her to the British Museum. I mean, they didn't take Dorothy or say they her mother took her sister to the British Museum and they brought Dorothy along because they had no one to watch her at home. And they were too afraid that an accident would happen again. So she went along. And of course, she was grumpy and complaining like any child would do in every room. Until they arrived at the Egyptian gallery. And that was when she completely changed. She could not believe. She suddenly was happy and saying, you know, she she had just was was looking at everything in all the cases. I believe she was, you know, obviously touching all the cases. And then finally they came to the mummy of Sedi the first. And that is when she hugged the case and wouldn't let go. And so I didn't know what they didn't know what to do. They they thought, oh, else she's not going anywhere. So we could finish the rest of the museum. Well, perhaps they just finished the rest of the Egyptian hall. But when the museum she stayed there until the museum closed, they had to literally physically pull her off of the case and pull her out of the exhibit. But that was when finally the I don't I'm not from here, but I don't know where I am. Changed it was actually now I am from this has something to do with my home. That's what she said. She didn't know what it had to do, but this has something to do with my home. And as I'm a little side note here as I'm driving I'm looking at another gorgeous sunset at the Marina Bay Parkway exit. Mount Tammel Pice is off in the distance in front of me and the sky is just a gorgeous aqua marine blue periwinkle with streaks of orange and pink and burnt orange and purple all through it. It's just awesome. Very unusual for this area. So what happens then? Well the parents are like, that was weird, but I guess this has something to do with Egypt. So I think her father bought one of those illustrated subscription to those illustrated and psychopedias at the time and it took I don't know. Six weeks for the whole set to arrive, but you know she when they got the E the E volume Dorothy insisted on and they read the entry on Egypt. Dorothy was absolutely blue to her seat and wanted it read over and over and over again and whenever anyone would come to the house or knew how to read Dorothy insisted that they read it to her. Finally her mother decided to sit her down and teach her how to read so that she would stop asking people to read for her. This is all in the book. This is I guess Dorothy's account of everything so I don't know how many people corroborated what she said. So in addition to the encyclopedias her father would you know bring magazines home and one magazine had an article on the temple of Abidose and I believe that's when Dorothy said that's my home that's where I'm from. Yeah so parents thought she was super weird they didn't really know what to do. Other things happened to her in her youth. She was I guess a teenager or a preteen in World War One and they sent her off to dancing class or they sent her yeah they sent her they tried to send her to several schools and the schools just didn't work out they she had always you know had some sort of conduct problem at school. Finally now another side note I'm on the bridge the water is super calm I'm looking at Mount Tam and the island in the foreground it's just amazing wish I could take a picture and then show it along with the dictation but yeah so what next didn't they I guess they had sent her to dancing school to during the war and or that was her school I can't remember but you know she never really wanted to go so she was always lazy about going and one day a bomb hit the school I guess the German bombers unleashed a bunch of bombs it was one of the air raids on the city and that her school was taken out and her parents thought that was heavy-luster but of course she spent all day wandering around um she went to a candy shop she went to British Museum and then she went home and of course when her parents found out that she survived they of course gave her a beating and she told them I had to see if you know the objects were safe I just think that's hilarious she would go hang out at the museum and I don't recall what age she was but she was probably something like I don't think she was as young as Layla but maybe Karim says so I'm gonna say nine or ten but I'm not absolutely certain and you know she was always looking at the cases and and uh it was then that she met Sir Wallace Budge the controversial Egyptologist who uh you know did some early translations of many papyrite including the book of the dead and also I forgot what else but um he basically taught her how to read hyroglyphics how to read and write hyroglyphics and she loved it because she could read the Rosetta Stone and she could translate the book of the dead and uh yeah so she was very happy during those days and I don't remember what else um happened I think at one point her parents were so fed up with her behavior they threatened to send her off to a boarding school um but and the boarding school was well I can't remember exactly where it was but it was and she said fine you sent me off to a boarding school I'm gonna run away and I'm gonna figure out how to get to Egypt so you either keep me here or see what happens and so they decided nope not gonna go to a boarding school kind of interesting because her parents loved her but they didn't know how to take care of her they didn't know how to raise her and nurture her they didn't know how to teach her that you know um you kind of need us right now until you're on your own and so yeah that was interesting then I decided to skip to the epilogue and read what it had to say at least first couple of pages and that's when I discovered the link to the Wizard of Oz I could not believe it apparently the author of the Wizard of Oz loved Egypt and loved and knew about the door knew about her and I have to do some research on the Wizard of Oz because this is just mind blowing I mean you know I guess word got around about Dorothy Edy I'd like to know how word got around that there was this you know first of all we got to find out when Wizard of Oz was produced and um that means that the author of the Wizard of Oz already knew about her and she didn't actually go to Egypt until the 50s 1953 I'm gonna talk about that too so Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz is named after Dorothy Dorothy Edy and and there's no place like home there's no place like home that's kind of a callback to apparently the things she used to do as a kid he's saying this is not my home but my home is somewhere I want to go home and Oz stands for azamendius and I always I forget who um um coined that name for Egypt but yes that means Egypt and so yeah there's there's other links that the book mentions and I have to read more about them and find out what is going on here and so yeah there's that but uh absolutely fascinating stuff I mean what was the intent of the Wizard of Oz the the author of the Wizard of Oz here we talk about it being relating to the United States and and if so then you know it how is the United States supposed supposedly compared with Egypt in the Wizard of Oz that is also what's fascinating and so um is it considered the new Egypt and who was the author of the Wizard of Oz what was he to Egypt and the US so again that we've got a famous you know musical musical yeah I mean a movie musical play a famous production that kind of galvanizes the nation you know in terms of its admiration of it and its message because the message is so basic like you know there's industry there's agriculture there's uh you know the lion which represents just hard work or no it represents having no fear you know and uh uh and fighting good versus evil it was it was a story that that the average American could have a conversation around and identify with it was mythology it was yeah myths myths making in front of you know the eyes of and ears of every citizen and what I mean this and and to have this story of Dorothy Edy is like so who was she she was well who what who did she think she was she thought she was this uh I believe they called them daughter of ISIS which meant that they were basically the girls who were supposed to be virgins who were supposed to be pure who who uh either their parents gave them up where they had no parents and the temple took care of them I guess and I don't really know how what their purity meant in terms of you know their purpose but um maybe Heidi knows more about that and uh um but you know essentially city you know she kind of she and city kind of had a uh love it per sight kind of thing going on there and uh they've had sex and as they say in the book uh oh I already forgot what but I'm not going to try and uh say what they said but um and and either someone had spied on her I don't know if someone had spied on her but someone had known about it and ratted her out essentially and the priest forced her to tell what and she was able she told that she had fallen in love and slept with someone but she didn't say who it was and because she never said who it was she was put on trial but she never actually made it to trial they told her um you're better off uh you're going to be killed for it and so she because she you know absolutely thought her life was over at that point uh she uh killed herself to save the reputation also she thought city would eventually be um exposed in all this and uh I honestly think so what I mean what if he what if he is exposed what is that what's that got to do with anything but um she didn't want him exposed and therefore uh killed herself so yeah that it's a horrible story uh I mean I don't know if she was she was clearly underage I mean under you know from our perspective she was under legal age and and obviously that's a historical um uh uh I forget what uh you know uh our our own kind of historical centric chrono centric I don't really know what you call it but um uh take on it where you know times were different back then and so yeah but uh um but what I don't understand is you know how she can recall this I mean you don't you it is it is a memory that it cannot be created unless somehow she read about the sea peoples and how they lived during the time of city the first I mean her ability to recount all this stuff what did she have to gain from it all she had she didn't gain anything that was the thing she lived like a pauper I mean she lived in utter poverty in Egypt and was happy so how then and why which which she have wanted this yes that is that is I mean her only kind of saving grace is like you know it's fine that you think you're from Egypt but you're certainly not running off with some man who's wealthy you know you're not showing that you've made a better life for yourself she would have had a better life in London but now she she went to live in uh I forgot the name uh the name of the city arab al-Mentfuna or something like that that's the name of them I think the mountain or the hills you know beyond dendera yeah that's where she lived and how can I relate this back to flight of force I mean well first of all how does it even relate to my mother's story one Dorothy had a traumatic accident uh my mother had an accident where she fell off a watermill and broke her collarbone for three days and and was suffering for three days until they finally realized that that's what had happened and so that left um you know a really deep impression on her she never stopped uh well let's just put it this way when you're young you don't know what had happened you you knew you were in pain and and you think you're supposed to deal with the pain but you can't and then finally they fixed the pain but people just didn't pay attention like her her mother probably told her just nothing's wrong with you you're fine and then let's take a drink of water here I'm pausing for time

Testing testing 1 2 3

Okay, I've been at 6.17 pm still January 30th. I'm in Petaluma. I'm just passing Lakeville where the in and out is and to go under the overpass for... I'm drawing a blank on the name of that street but it's where Alice is. Anyway, this idea just came to me. What if Rosalithia finds a book that has a lock on it? I mean, it's locked. It's a special book. It's full unlocked. And she sees the key. And doesn't understand. So there's a situation where she loses the key. And what I'm trying to get at here is that's a good enough reason to either want to hold on to the book and wait for the owner to come back or give the book to the owner. Like, she finds this book just sitting there. She sits down at a table. Doesn't notice the person there and is going about her own business and then the person leaves. Before she even notices who this person is or what they look like or anything. And they leave the book behind. That means they left the key also. So they either leave the book or they leave the key. That's the thing. It's also possible that when the key is left behind on a little key chain with an address. And there's only a name on it. And that name is Horus and his last name. And it's possible that we could use that in she... Or maybe it's Florence's name and not Horus's name. I don't really know how to... I'm still trying to figure that out. Because when... If Florence was in Lubbock and finds Rosalithio. Why does Rosalithio find her? Florence leaves something behind. Rosalithia wants to return it to Florence. But what she doesn't know is that she's actually completing her own destiny. That Florence already knows she will complete. So it is like seeing the future and just waiting for it to happen. And then you're seeing what you know you need to do in order to allow that in order to kind of maintain the future that you expect to live and see. But if Florence leaves the book behind then it's really... you can't open it. And all that would be left is perhaps maybe an address on the back. And maybe there is no address. And another thing would be if what would be on the cover or the back cover of the book that would indicate to Rosalithio that this is something unusual and she has to find the right owner. Is it... does it... Is it something that she would return to the library's lost and found? And if she doesn't, why doesn't she... what's the... you know... It's clearly something special. So now how does the book serve as a storytelling device? Florence's attempt to read the book is essentially a metaphor for one's life and not Florence's. Rosalithio's attempt to read the book is a metaphor for life and an attempt to actually go and see people all over the place. So anyway, where I was... I saw someone crossing the street into the JC. I grow a lot of things before but I just can't remember where either. But anyway. Oh, that's gonna bug me now. Anyway, what was I gonna say? So Florence is... not Florence. Rosalithio's attempt to... her attempt to read the book or return the book to its rightful owner is a journey like life itself. So it's someone else's story and you have to take care of it. And that is what I'm trying to say. You can't just tell someone's story if it's not yours to tell. And so when Florence finally discovers that Ida is Florence, that's when they have this conversation about, well, it seems you're ready to read the story. And you can pass it on to someone else. And that's when she reads the story of what it took to, you know, the struggle that one makes in life to survive and find love and feel like you've done the right thing amidst all the hard decisions that one has to make. So anyway, I pulled up into my house now and I'm gonna stop for now.