new people and places

i just had the honor of meeting three new wonderful people. vi definitely takes on good tenants. just looked at two places and met the people currently living there... all lovely. i'm choosing to live in 509. it's a wonderful place, and the young guy, matt?, i think his name was, was very kind and is leaving me this cool piece of furniture in the kitchen and some beautiful curtains in very sunny bedroom. the living room is perfect and so is the dining room with a sort of wood-coffered ceiling. then there's a sunny closet/dressing room and a nice bathroom with a big clawfoot tub. it's a carpeted bathroom, but i can live. the kitchen is cute. it has a fire escape in the back and a view of the capital. i can keep my bike in the back. and the dining room has some built-in cabinets and closets. so i'm very happy to take that place.

but, alan came in to tell us that i might like the bathroom better in the next building. it doesn't have carpet and has blue and white tile. so vi and i went over and met the beautiful fung-li. her husband dave wasn't home yet, and she graciously showed us around their home. i loved the feel in there and quickly learned that they are buddhists by their decor. fung-li was very excited when i shared my interest in buddhism. she just got back from china and is selling some beautiful decorations. she said i should go to the temple/church place with her husband on sunday. by the time i left, she made dave and i happy by saying she will come, too. i guess she doesn't usually go... he's more into it than she is. their story was very interesting. dave came home after awhile, and vi took off, and i stayed and talked to them until they needed to take their cat to the vet. they are moving to madison on the 1st.

dave has been married three times. the first wife's name is heather. they are still friends. they have a daughter brianna together, who is 21, and i will meet her on sunday. his second wife's name is violet. his last name is fields. heather didn't take fields but violet did, so she remains violet fields, though he says she is more like poison ivy :) dave met fung-li online. he went to a chinalove site not to meet a wife but was just interested in correspondence. he has a great sense of humor and kept remarking with his dry sense of humor how lucky he was that fung-li fell in love with a fat hairy american :) they told me stories about where she's from in china. she still has a 17-year-old son there. she showed me pictures of him.

dave said his teacher will be very happy to meet me. he showed me some of his rituals and his certificate about having received the special precepts... not sure what all of that is... but i liked how he talked about being grateful to the buddha for being a wonderful teacher. it's a good way to think of things. we also talked about christianity and buddhism coming from hinduism but being a reform on it because of the caste system.

i can't believe i've had such a day. fung-li and i really liked each other, and we were both sad not to able to teach each other english/chinese in person. but the offer is there to visit her in madison or even to go to china someday. :) they have my email address, and hopefully i will see them on sunday.

i will move into the new place tomorrow or sunday... maybe finish up the move on monday. very excited about the new space and the promise of meeting more interesting people. thank you for today. :) brought so many pleasant and meaningful surprises. if ever i would say god's hand has been at work, giving god a name even more specific than the universe, it would be today.