ellieherrity

on the road

2010-04-03T19:45:00.000-07:00

Outside a storm was raging. Something frantic and wrathful, but profoundly unhappy, seemed to be flinging itself about the tavern with the ferocity of a wild beast and trying to break in. Banging at the doors, knocking at the windows and on the roof, scratching at the walls, it alternately threatened and besought, then subsided for a brief interval, and then with a gleeful, treacherous howl burst into the chimney, but the wood flared up, and the fire, like a chained dog, flew wrathfully to meet its foe, a battle began, and after it - sobs, shrieks, howls of wrath. In all of this there was the sound of angry misery and unsatisfied hate, and the mortified impatience of something accustomed to triumph.

Anton Chekhov

garden

2010-03-28T16:16:00.001-07:00

i moved into my house almost 9 months ago.
slowly but surely i have been painting and cleaning and putting my unique style into every room.
but this weekend i planted an herb garden in the front yard.
this place is finally starting to feel like my home. i like that.

a million miles

2010-01-17T11:18:00.000-08:00

The most often repeated commandment in the Bible is "Do not fear." It's in there over two hundred times. That means a couple of things, if you think about it. It means we are going to be afraid, and it means we shouldn't let fear boss us around. Before I realized we were supposed to fight fear, I though of fear as a subtle suggestion in our subconscious designed to keep us safe, or more important, keep us from getting humiliated. And I guess it serves that purpose. But fear isn't only a guide to keep us safe; it's also a manipulative emotion that can trick us into living a boring life.

Donald Miller

Currer Bell

2009-12-24T15:40:00.000-08:00

It is in vain to say human beings ought to be satisfied with tranquility: they must have action; and they will make it if they cannot find it. Millions are condemned to a stiller doom than mine, and millions are in silent revolt against their lot. Nobody knows how many rebellions besides political rebellions ferment in the masses of life which people the earth. Women are supposed to be very calm generally: but women feel just as men feel; they need exercise for their faculties and a field for their efforts as much as their brothers do; they suffer from too rigid a restraint, too absolute a stagnation, precisely as men would suffer; and it is narrow-minded in their more privileged fellow-creatures to say that they ought to confine themselves to making puddings and knitting stockings, to playing on the piano and embroidering bags. It is thoughtless to condemn them, or laugh at them, if they seek to do more or learn more than custom has pronounced necessary for their sex.

Jane Eyre

i left my heart in Ukraine

2009-06-30T21:06:00.001-07:00

six months

2009-06-07T14:49:00.000-07:00

the past six months have been, well, stressful.

i've said that rule #1 is to never talk about work, but i will say this one thing. in january we got a new boss. she is great and i am learning a lot and i trust her decisions. but a lot of times when a new boss comes in who does things very differently from the last boss, the changeover process leaves a number of casualties in its wake. and there have been a number of casualties. which has made the work environment unpredictable and stressful.
enough about that.

last december i saw the way the housing market was going, and i saw what mortgage rates were, and i decided that it was now or never for me to buy my first house. i fell in love with a 100 year old adobe brick craftsman style house on the Wood streets in riverside. and it was in my price range! and that was the beginning of my six month housing saga in which i learned about the criteria for an FHA loan (the house can't be in need of any renovations or structural improvements, which left my dream house in my dreams) and that dealing with banks for a forclosed home is the biggest pain in the ass in the entire world. i made an offer on a 6 year old home in downtown riverside on january 19th of this year, and sparing all the boring details, i finally closed escrow almost six months later. as of this last friday, i am officially a homeowner! and since my 33rd birthday was this last thursday, i'm calling it my birthday present to me.

i would be more excited, except this all finished up 3 days before my departure for Ukraine. i won't be able to move until i get back. so it doesn't even feel like a reality yet.

so right now all the excitement is that after six months of training and waiting, my team is leaving for Ukraine tomorrow morning! we are all SO excited. we're spending the next three weeks at an orphanage, and we'll be spending that time playing games and singing songs and doing crafts and possibly doing skits. your basic summer camp stuff. but in Ukraine. all my bags are packed and sitting by the door, and i'm just waiting. waiting. waiting. i'm not the world's most patient person, so all this waiting is not easy. i'm ready to go NOW.

i'm not sure how much internet access i will get while we're there, but if there are any updates you can read them here.

see you all in july!

silence is...

2009-05-06T22:34:00.000-07:00

i knew that i hadn't blogged in a while, but i was a little shocked to realize that it has been almost two months.

its not like there hasn't been anything happening.
actually, a LOT has been happening. but i either didn't feel like talking about it or i couldn't.

a lot has been happening at work. things have been busy and stressful. but rule #1 around my blog is never write about work. EVER. so moving on...
preparing for my upcoming trip to Ukraine has taken a great deal of my time and energy. but its not really anything to talk about here.
i moved a couple weeks ago. but its nothing i really want to talk about. i'm currently camping out in my parents' guest room with everything i own in a pile in their garage. the most descriptive word i can think of to use is demoralizing.
i haven't even been baking. i know, weird, right?

the only thing i even really wanted to talk about was something that i was keeping under my hat until i knew it was actually going to happen. i was beginning to think that this day would never come, but i bought a house. and if everything stays on schedule it should officially be mine in a little over a week. i am so excited. and completely terrified. its a lot of money. and i own zero furniture. no couch. no bed. no table and chairs. no fridge. no washer and dryer. i don't even own silverware or pots and pans. and that all takes money. i know it will all work out and i will thoroughly enjoy finally having my own place. but i'm feeling a little overwhelmed by it all.

well, i guess that's all for now.

convicted

2009-03-12T20:29:00.000-07:00

an excerpt from an article called America's Shame by Peter Singer in the March 13th issue of The Chronicle Review:

The World Bank defines extreme poverty as not having enough income to meet the most basic human needs for adequate food, water, shelter, clothing, sanitation, health care, or education. One widely quoted statistic is tht a billion people are living on less than one U.S. dollar per day. That was the World Bank's poverty line until 2008, when better data led to a new poverty line of $1.25 per day. As a result, the number of people whose income puts them under the new poverty line is 1.4 billion.
On hearing the "$1.25 a day" figure, the thought may cross your mind that in many developing countries it is possible to live much more cheaply than in industrialized nations. But the World Bank has already made that adjustment in purchasing power, so those it classifies as living in extreme poverty are existing on a daily total consumption of goods and services - whether earned or homegrown - comparable to the amount of goods and services that can be bought in the United States for $1.25.
The 1.4 billion people living in extreme poverty are likely to be hungry for at least a part of every year. Even if they can get enough food to fill their stomachs, they will probably be malnourished because their diet lacks essential nutrients. In children, malnutrition stunts growth and can cause permanent brain damage. The poor may not be able to afford to send their children to school. Even the most basic health-care services are usually beyond their means.
That kind of poverty kills. while life expectancy in rich nations averages 78 years, in the poorest nations - those classified by the United Nations as "least developed" - it is below 50. In rich countries, fewer than one child in 100 dies before the age of 5; in the poorest countries, one in five does. Unicef, the United Nations Children's Fund, estimates that nearly 10 million children under 5 die each year from causes related to poverty. That's 27,000 a day - a football stadium full of young children, dying every day (along with thousands of older children and adults who die from poverty every day as well). Some children die because they don't have enough to eat or clean water to drink. More die from measles, malaria, diarrhea, and pneumonia - diseases that don't exist in developed nations, or if they do, are easily cured and rarely fatal.

the article made many assertions about foreign aid and the obligation of those living in the U.S. to contribute to do something about extreme poverty.
i found it to be extremely convicting.
how can i justify spending over $3 on a cup of coffee when 1.4 billion people around the world don't have enough to eat? how can i say that i need to spend money on another new pair of shoes when 1.4 billion people can hardly clothe themselves?

$1.25 a day.

i think i will look at how i spend my money a little differently now.
i have a feeling it can be used more effectively.

video

2009-03-08T17:49:00.000-07:00

so remember how back in august i said that micah and i had taken a ton of video on our road trip to portland and that i would be shortly posting a final edit of that video?
well, the wait is over!
it only took six months for me to put it all together.
that was mostly because windows based editing programs leave me swearing like a sailor.
i want a mac...

my journey to goodbye from elizabeth herrity on Vimeo.

i hope you like it.
or at least think it doesn't suck.

reservations

2009-03-01T08:14:00.000-08:00

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i enjoyed our group camping trip last october so much that i decided to put together another trip for this year. the plan had been to reserve a spot at Carpinteria State Beach sometime in july. but this last week i learned that you can't just decide in february that you want to go camping someplace that cool as soon as july. yes, it is completely booked 5 months in adavance. but wait, it gets better.
apparently the california state park system releases months to be open for reservation seven months in advance, on the first of that month. so if i wanted to reserve a spot in july, i would have to be on the website at 8 am on january 1st. (well actually the 2nd. they don't make reservations on new year's day.)
so since the next month to be made available was september, i decided to make a reservation at carpinteria for labor day weekend. i was up at 7:45 this morning, on my computer, on the reserveamerica.com website, hoping that my web connection was fast enough to secure me a campsite. i opened up the page for the beach, chose my site and my dates, and hovered over "reserve now" until my clock ticked 8am.
and i was victorious.
i will be camping on labor day weekend.

oh, and every single site at the beach was completely booked for that weekend by 8:09am.

calling any and all art nerds

2009-01-17T12:17:00.000-08:00

what's better than spending a day off work at an art museum?
hmmm?
getting into said museum for free.

this monday LACMA is free for all. so of course i'm going.

even though i hate driving out to LA and finding parking. and the likelihood is quite high for the museum to be ridiculously busy on a free admission day.
i'm still going.
anyone who wants to go with, i'm leaving at 11am-ish.
i promise not to be too art nerdy for you.

my team

2009-01-14T23:15:00.001-08:00

tonight was my first training meeting with the students i'm taking to Ukraine this june.

this is going to be a very good six months.

r.e.s.p.e.c.t.

2009-01-09T12:31:00.000-08:00

i am 32 years old.
i have never felt the need to be embarrassed about my age or refuse to tell someone my age.
i have never wished to be older or younger than i am.

i am what i am.

i love the fact that with age comes wisdom.
i make much better decisions now than i did when i was 22. and i will make even better decisions when i am 42.
but i don't look my age. most people guess 26.
now, most 32 year old women would LOVE to be mistaken for being 6 years younger than they are.

i HATE it.

i've recently been thinking a lot about why i hate it so much when people tell me i look so young or that i am so young.
i've come to the conclusion that it is because i have been through a lot in the past 32 years. and i mean a LOT. most people have no idea the amount of shit that i've been through. i have gathered much experience and wisdom and am proud of the person i have become. and i don't want to be mistaken for being some young, green girl who is still figuring out who they are.

i know who i am.

i am also coming to the conclusion that our society is structured in a way that women who are unmarried without children are subliminally seen as somehow inexperienced or incapable.

i am neither.
and there seems to be nothing i can do about that.

but i see things brewing on the horizon which will take my professional life to a place where people may finally take me seriously and respect me.
i'm looking forward to that.

good advice

2009-01-07T12:37:00.000-08:00

this skit is a few years old, but i saw it posted on another website a few days ago and it made me laugh out loud. so i thought i'd share.

backyard beautification project, phase 2 - complete

2009-01-02T16:23:00.001-08:00

well, it has taken me a while, but i finally completed phase 2 of the ongoing backyard project.
during phase one, i took a bunch of bricks out of the planter i used for my vegetables. so in phase two, i used those bricks to pave over a section of dirt next to the fence. and it sat that way for over a month. until yesterday. i finally bit the bullet and toted my cactus collection from my parents' house to mine and set them up in their new home. all 65 of them. whew.

and as you can tell in this picture, the vegetable garden is doing quite well. we've started eating the lettuce and spinach, and the peas are about to organize a coup and take over the entire backyard. things are coming along quite nicely, i must say.
but we'll see how long it takes for me to finish phase three...

walking

2008-12-27T18:42:00.001-08:00

this afternoon micah and i spent some time just walking around riverside. first was fairmount park, which neither of us have ever really spent any time walking around in.

and then we ended up downtown. we ate some dinner and then when it got dark we discovered that we really needed jackets, so it was just a quick walk past the mission inn and a stop for some kettle corn. (the kettle corn guy was very chatty, by the way. we learned about the science of popcorn. he was awesome.)

and that is the end of my polaroid film. i have none left. and it is getting really expensive. we'll have to see about my future with polaroid.

it isn't really christmas...

2008-12-24T21:54:00.000-08:00

...until i've been reduced to a complete blubbering mess.

check.

the most wonderful time of the year

2008-12-18T20:11:00.000-08:00

well its been about a month since i last blogged. or really did much of anything creative-like, for that matter.

i have an art piece that has been sitting in the garage for over a month in a half-done state.
i haven't really felt like knitting anything.
on my trip to victoria over thanksgiving, i came home with only two digital photos and half a roll of film photos from my AE-1. (those will probably get developed three months from now. just wait.)

i think i have what is commonly known as the wintertime blues. or i'm in a funk. take your pick.
i used to really like the holidays. christmas was my favorite time of year. and then over the past 5 years or so, things slowly changed. now i find the holidays to be completely depressing.
let's just say that christmastime is not really made for single folk. and at every turn it seems to be re-established that this is the time of year for loved ones and togetherness, while i once again have to slog through it all alone. completely alone. (not to diminish my parents and sister, but at 32 years old, the desire is for my own family.)
this is why i usually take road trips during the christmas season. maybe my reasoning is that if i leave my normal surroundings and visit with friends, i will be able to avoid the soul-crushing depression that normally descends along with the christmas tree and presents.
but this year i am staying home for christmas. i have looming in front of me two weeks of free time. i'm looking forward to the time off work, but am hoping that i come out the other end relatively emotionally unscathed. we'll see.

so i'll leave you with pretty much the only creative thing i've done in quite a while. here's a video i made at the beach in victoria. it was so peaceful and beautiful, and i loved the sound the waves made on the pebbles.

waves from elizabeth herrity on Vimeo.

thanks, but no thanks betty crocker. i've got this one covered.

2008-11-23T12:34:00.000-08:00

this morning i felt like making blueberry muffins.
and no offense to betty crocker, but i think that taking a few extra minutes to make them from scratch makes a HUGE difference.

first, i start with buttering and flouring the muffin pan. i think that this is well worth the extra effort, because it gives the bottoms of the muffins a finer texture than just using a spray does.

next i mix up the batter with some organic butter, organic sugar, organic eggs, and organic milk.

then fold in the organic wild blueberries from Trader Joe's. yup, these puppies are 100% organic! (ok, the flour isn't organic. so maybe 90%)

drop the batter into the pan and sprinkle a little sugar on top to make them a little sweet and crunchy.

then bake and let them cool in the pan like this.
mmmmmmmmmmm.
as evan says, they taste like they were baked by Jesus.
yes. they are THAT good.

anatomy of an apple pie

2008-11-19T18:10:00.001-08:00

monday night i made pies. apple and pumpkin.
there really is nothing to a pumpkin pie. a can of this, a can of that, some sugar and spices, and voila! an orange snot-pie. (yes, i hate pumpkin pie.)
but there is something elegant and beautiful about an apple pie. it is a lot of work, but the result is totally worth it.

step one: peel and slice apples.

step two: sugar and spice.

step three: make the crust.

step four: put it all together with some butter on top.

step five: make it pretty.

step six: bake to perfection. then enjoy. vanilla ice cream is optional.

persimmon cookies

2008-11-10T21:47:00.001-08:00

the persimmon is an interesting fruit. if not familiar with it's qualities, it can be rather confusing. is it more like an apple, a tomato, an orange? what? do you eat it right off the tree or wait for it to soften? do you peel it? eat it whole? then when it is ripe, what the heck do i do with it? i think most people avoid the persimmon out of sheer confusion.
i had never really had any contact with this fruit until i was in college. i actually remember where i was at the time. i remember that alissa had arrived late to Dr. Baloian's 'Life and Teachings of Jesus' class, which was a HUGE no-no. the man usually locked the door at precisely 8am to keep out stragglers. but i guess this morning he made an exception, maybe because she was carrying a plate of persimmon cookies. the plate got passed around, and i remember thoroughly enjoying that strange little cookie.
a few weeks ago, alissa finally priveledged me to the recipe for those cookies. and then one of my bosses brought me a bag of persimmons from his tree. it was fate.
i had to wait a little while for them to ripen and soften, but yesterday i finally made my first batch of cookies.
they are SO good.
i have finally found respect for the persimmon.

service...again!

2008-11-08T19:14:00.001-08:00

this time last year i wrote a post to tell you that i was going to lead a team of students on a trip to build houses in mexico over spring break.
i am excited to tell everyone that i have been chosen to lead a team again this year! only this year i will be gone for three weeks in june, and we will be spending our time at an orphanage.
and this time instead of just telling you where we are going, i'm leaving you to figure it out. below is pictured the country's coat of arms, and their currency is called the hryvnia. have fun!

what's the difference?

2008-11-04T12:13:00.000-08:00

i am one of the first people to admit that the english language is completely retarded. i feel great compassion for anybody who is trying to learn it.
but for those of us who grew up speaking this language, there is something that i feel the need to point out...

as stated above, the english language is often confusing and frustrating. take the homonym. when two words are spelled the exact same way, but pronounced differently and with different meanings. example: sewer. did you see a person who sews or the conduit for waste?
or the infamous homophone: there, their, they're. don't get me started on this one...
and then throw in all the words that we get from other languages, and it becomes a complete nightmare.

but the one that i've been hearing used incorrectly a lot recently is the difference between cache and cachet. that little 't' makes a big difference.

cache is pronounced kash, like money cash.
definitions:

1.A hiding place used especially for storing provisions.
2.A place for concealment and safekeeping, as of valuables.
3.A store of goods or valuables concealed in a hiding place: maintained a cache of food in case of emergencies.
4.Computer Science A fast storage buffer in the central processing unit of a computer. Also called cache memory.

cachet is pronounced kashay, like sashay with a c.
definitions:

1.an official seal, as on a letter or document.
2.a distinguishing mark or feature; stamp: Courtesy is the cachet of good breeding.
3.a sign or expression of approval, esp. from a person who has a great deal of prestige.
4.superior status; prestige: The job has a certain cachet.

ok, i just had to get that one out there.
i hope you all learned something.

backyard beautification project, phase 1 - complete

2008-11-02T13:11:00.001-08:00

it seems i haven't really done much blogging recently. i guess i haven't felt very 'bloggy'. it also doesn't help that i was sick all last week. bleh.

but i thought i would share one of the things i've been up to recently.
one of the many things i love to do is work out in the yard. i especially like to grow things i can eat. so since the roommates gave me free rein in the back yard, i decided to turn a weird little planter in the middle of the patio into a vegetable garden. i took out a bunch of annoying bricks, mixed in a bunch of amend (also known as manure, or cow poo, for the non-gardeners), and planted a bunch of winter vegetables. today i finished building a makeshift trellis for the peas and covering the bed in mulch.

i'm proud of my little garden, and can't wait until i can eat what grows.

apple butter

2008-10-26T20:34:00.000-07:00

this morning the roommates and i got up bright and early, piled in the car, and headed out to Oak Glen. it was a beautiful morning, and we had fun at parrish ranch and riley's farms, buying apples and cider and other various apple products. it was hard to get up early on a sunday, but when we got in the car to come home and it became unbelievably crowded, we were certain that early morning was definitely the way to go.

we got home around noon, and i set out to make a batch of apple butter. i figured it would be an easy task to head over to the grocery store and pick up a dozen canning jars and begin the job. apparently i was deluded into thinking it would be easy. canning jars are not that easy to find anymore. i went to the two closest grocery stores and target, and ended up having to drive out to WinCo to get them. once again, WinCo saved the day.

so i've spent the past four hours making eight half-pint jars of apple butter. it really isn't hard. just time consuming.

so who wants some?

snack

2008-10-23T17:26:00.001-07:00

a large slice of hommemade soda bread, slathered in a dense layer of nutella may very well be the best afternoon snack ever.

and by that i mean EVER.

camping

2008-10-13T18:54:00.001-07:00

i have recently had a longing to go camping.
my parents started taking us camping when i was only a year or two old, and we went pretty much every summer of my childhood. even from trips as an adult, i have very fond memories of camping.
it dawned on me this summer that i have not been in a tent out in nature for almost six years. so i decided to do something about it.
i reserved a site at silverwood lake for the weekend, and seven of my people friends and three canine friends joined me.
it was cold and sometimes windy, and we didn't really do much, but i had a great time.

today i started thinking about where we should go camping next summer.

serenity now!

2008-10-08T15:13:00.000-07:00

i now know what it feels like to be caught up in this...

wow.
i am exhausted.

again...maybe

2008-10-04T12:03:00.000-07:00

i have traveled to places where on the plane ride home i was already planning my next trip. like ireland. but with ireland its more like trying to figure out how to move there.
when coming come from paris, the feeling was more like 'i enjoyed myself but i don't ever really have to go back'.
that has changed in the last five months.
i just can't stop thinking about paris. its one of those places that just gets under your skin.
i can't even really put my finger on why, but i just really want to go there again.
it won't be for a while, because there are other places i need to go first, but paris is now back on my list of places to go.

my friend carmen took these photos and gave them to me all taped together. its hanging on my wall. but today i started messing around with free photo stitching software. (since i have a really old version of photoshop that doesn't have that ability.) not the greatest result, but its still pretty neat.

bailout?

2008-09-30T09:51:00.000-07:00

so it looks like our economy is teetering on the edge of the crapper. but if we've learned much of anything at all from history, we should know by now that there are things that we can do now to prevent a recurrence of the great depression.
it may not be a popular thing to say, but i support this $700 billion bailout-thingy that they're kicking around in washington. not as a 'here's a crapload of money, just let us know how you use it' blank check, but definitely with regulations and oversight and an attempt to fix the systems that got us into this mess.
and even though he can say some pretty kooky things sometimes, i believe that moby's rant on this subject pretty much sums up what i've been thinking.

ok, financial markets and bailout.
this might not make me very popular, but although i don't like it, i support the $700,000,000,000.00 bailout.
why?
because it will prop up our banks and investment houses long enough for real reform to implemented and it will keep the u.s and global economy from sliding into depression.
if more banks and investment houses fail you'll see a severe recession and possibly a depression.
and this effects everyone.
the reason that people start businesses and create jobs is because they have access to capital.
the reason that people buy houses or renovate houses is because they have access to capital.
if people close businesses or stop buying or renovating houses they will stop creating jobs.
people will be fired.
unemployment will skyrocket.
retirement accounts will dry up.
more mortgages will be foreclosed on.
and the world will head towards severe recession or depression.
this bailout isn't bailing out fat-cats on wall street, it's protecting local businesses in iowa and kansas and sacramento.
it's protecting shakey mortgages in idaho and florida.
it's protecting retirement accounts in alaska and maine.
it's protecting your job.
it's protecting your neighbors job.
wall st screwed up. seriously. the collusion between the different financial service providers has been disgraceful and dangerous.
and securitizing high-risk mortgages was, in hindsight, a disastrous idea.
wall street screwed up.
but to let the banks and investment houses fail and to let the dow and the nasdaq (and the ftseand the dax and nikkei, etc) plummet is to create a crisis that will effect every person onthe planet (the global depression of the 20's and 30's, resulting from protectionist trade practices, caused world war 2, for example).
the republicans (and some democrats) in the house of representatives (most of whom know nothing about global markets and finances) have made a huge mistake in not supporting the bailout.
to be clear, no one likes the bailout, and no one is happy at the thought of having to use taxpayers money to buy up crummy securities.
but it's a necessary evil, and to let the banks and investment houses continue to fail would have deleterious consequences that people can't even begin to imagine.
again, not just for bankers and brokers, but for you and your friends and your grandparents and your children.
the markets do not exist in a bubble, and to pretend that they do is to exhibit a dangerous lack of understanding of how the global economy actually works.
if the gop in the house don't pass the bailout they won't be punishing wall street, they'll be punishing you and your friends and your family.
moby

photos

2008-09-26T09:37:00.000-07:00

i went to intellicolor yesterday and picked up my prints from my last two 120 rolls. i took this one last march. the rest are hanging out on flickr.

my life

2008-09-23T22:50:00.000-07:00

i'll learn someday...

2008-09-21T15:29:00.000-07:00

Dennys opened his eyes as the wind dropped, was silent. He raised his face to the stars, and their light fell against his cheeks like dew. They chimed at him softly. Do not seek to comprehend. All shall be well. Wait. Patience. Wait. You do not always have to do something. Wait.

Madeleine L'Engle - Many Waters

superpowers

2008-09-15T19:13:00.001-07:00

3-D mail

2008-09-12T22:06:00.001-07:00

not many people utilize the united states postal service anymore. but who doesn't love getting something fun in the mail?
my friend alissa and i try to send each other as much for-reals mail as we can. and i always get excited when something comes from her.
i received an extra-fun package from her on wednesday.
it contained...

two of my favorite candy bars in the whole world, purchased in canada. a poster from one of my favorite bands, of montreal. a sticker from this year's portland zine symposium. a polaroid from a coconut records album. a drawing alissa did of my cat newton. the latest clutch/invincible summer split zine. (i'm super-excited about this) one of alissa's gocco prints of a pregnant octopus riding a bicyle. the outside of the package has her grandmother's persimmon cookie recipe. (can't wait to try that one out.) and a circa 2000 photo of me with orange hair in front of the chicago museum of contemporary art.

equal parts random, delightful and delicious.
it pretty much made my day.

pastry tour

2008-09-07T19:49:00.000-07:00

i spent some time this evening putting together some of the cities that will potentially be on my european pastry tour. as you can tell by the map, there are a few too many.
the next step is to research the regional cuisine of each of these cities and bring it down to a manageable number.

any thoughts or recommendations?

(yes, i am super type-A and color-coordinated the markers by country. red for germany, purple for austria, yellow for switzerland, blue for belgium and the netherlands, and green for france. i admit it. i'm a nerd.)

View Larger Map

(edit: i've whittled it down to the 22 cities pictured above, but at the rate of 1 city a day, not counting travel days, this would take 3 weeks. hmmmm. i may have to just limit this to france...)

reasons

2008-09-06T16:30:00.000-07:00

i think i may have finally pinpointed why i despise summer so much.
yes, it is hot, but heat in itself isn't really enough to despise an entire season.

it is because the heat keeps me from the activities i enjoy most.

my garage art studio is like a sauna, therefore no art.
turning the oven on makes the kitchen waaaay too hot, therefore no baking.
working in the garden in 100 degree weather makes me feel like i'm going to die, therefore no gardening.
it just feels wrong to be knitting when it is hot outside, so very little knitting.

i am left with very little to satisfy my need to create. and summer drags on for months.
so by september i am extremely restless and anxious to really dig in and make something, even though i know the heat will last for at least another month.

in the meantime all i seem to have the energy for is watching movies and drinking beer.
on tonight's agenda...watching idiocracy and drinking a newcastle.
ahhhhhhhh

roommate

2008-09-04T20:01:00.001-07:00

we have a new roommate...

who necessitates me keeping a baby gate on my bedroom door.
our kids don't play together very well.
everyone come by and say hi to newton. she'll be waiting for you.

pharmaceuticals

2008-09-03T12:35:00.000-07:00

i usually get looks of pity when i tell people that i get my medical coverage from Kaiser. i can completely understand where these looks come from, but i've been going there my entire life, thus i know nothing different. sure, they sometimes leave you feeling like banging your head against the wall would be more productive, but you learn how to work their quirky system.

one of the benefits of being covered by Kaiser (under my current employer's coverage, at least) is that all immunizations are free and the copay on prescriptions is about $15 for a 3 month supply of whatever cures your ills.

this morning i went over to the medical offices to get the last in the series of Hepatitis A and B shots which i started before my Mexico adventure. in and out in 10 minutes, and not a penny spent. while i was there i decided to look at the pharmacy and see if i could get my new favorite drug at a better price than at the local Walgreens. i usually drop almost $30 a month to keep my allergies at bay. i figured, hey, i can get prescription drugs cheap here, maybe i can get an OTC medication for cheap too. turns out i was wrong.

this is how i discovered a pharmaceutical conspiracy. you think i would have learned this while working at a pharmaceutical company...

it had been at the back of my mind that zyrtec had gone from prescription to OTC much quicker than normal. now i know why. insurance providers (like mine) can lose a lot of money by giving out a 3 month supply of pills for a flat $15 copay. so they petition the pharmaceutical companies and FDA to move them to OTC quickly so they can up the price, since most insurance companies don't cover OTC products. so a product that would have cost me $5 a month now costs 6 times as much only because i now no longer have to go through my doctor to get it. is the convenience really worth it? i'm thinking no.

so i think i'm kind of screwed until zyrtec-d goes off patent....in 2016.

polaroid

2008-08-31T23:01:00.001-07:00

business

2008-08-28T15:04:00.000-07:00

anybody who has spent any length of time around me, or who has read this blog at all will know that i love to bake. cooking is alright, but if it involves flour and eggs and butter, i am in love.
what i love even more is to see my friends and family enjoy what i have created.

my friends have recently been harassing me about opening up a shop to start selling my tasty treats. i have a few rebuttals for them.
1. bakeries start working at about 3 am to make the day's edibles. that's about when i like to go to bed.
2. owning your own business is a 24/7 endeavor. i like to travel.
3. i would have no idea where to start, and riverside is notorious for demolishing small, creative, independent businesses.
4. the idea of owning my own business frankly scares the crap out of me.

that being said, i must admit that i've been toying with the idea for the past few days.
i've been thinking of where i would look for retail space, what the design would be like, what to call my little shop, what equipment i would need, how to advertise, and menu items.
jon can take care of the graphic design, and marissa will design me a sweet interior.

this isn't something i'm going to go out and try to do any time soon, but it is definitely somthing to think about when its time to come up with my next 2 year plan.
i think i'll spend the time until then experimenting with recipes.
i'm also thinking that doing research at european pastry shops would probably be a good idea, too.

(oh, steve and mike. you can keep trying, but i won't ever answer to cookie. you'll need to come up with something better than that.)

uh...maybe

2008-08-25T23:04:00.000-07:00

me: so Cody Hudson seems like he would be fun to hang out with.

alissa: i think when you said 'hang out with', you really meant 'make out with'.

exactly

2008-08-24T22:18:00.000-07:00

The Wart did not know what Merlyn was talking about, but he liked him to talk. He did not like the grown-ups who talked down to him like a baby, but the ones who just went on talking in their usual way, leaving him to leap along in their wake, jumping at meanings, guessing, clutching at known words, and chuckling at complicated jokes as they suddenly dawned. He had the glee of the porpoise then, pouring and leaping through strange seas.

The Sword in the Stone
T.H. White

PDX

2008-08-21T20:16:00.001-07:00

some people think i'm crazy, but i love to fly. i love airplanes. i love being at airports.
maybe its because my parents took me on my first flight when i was a week old.
maybe its in my genes. my grandfather loved planes and when they lived in Seattle he used to take my mom and uncle to SEATAC every sunday afternoon to watch the planes.
my grandfather was a pilot.
he died when his plane crashed.
i was only 6.

anyways...

out of the innumerable airports i have been through in my lifetime, the portland international airport would have to be one of my favorites. it is fairly small, but doesn't feel small. it has a wonderfully friendly, unhurried feeling about it. even the TSA employees are friendly.

i would spend all day sitting watching planes at PDX if they would let me.

i guess this isn't really a road trip anymore

2008-08-20T10:41:00.000-07:00

today i'm wrapping up my time here in portland.

yesterday alissa was done with work early, so we headed downtown to the fifty24PDX gallery to see the show by cody hudson. after a stop for boba tea, we headed out to sauvie island to pick blueberries and marionberries. and of course, it started to rain...again.

the rest of the evening was filled with a sewing party, a trip to fred meyer for ice cream and other assorted junk food, and watching a movie. i ate pretty much the entire pint of ice cream by myself. my body is not very happy with me right now.

tonight i say goodbye to portland and fly home to riverside.

it feels weird to be going home without micah.

portland adventures

2008-08-19T12:12:00.000-07:00

yesterday began with a bang. or rather a series of booms as a substantial thunderstorm rolled through p-town. it was fantastical. i love weather.

so since alissa still has to work while i'm here, i was lazy all morning and occupied myself with the internet and reading while she was working in the other room. (as i am doing today.) when she was done we put on our hiking shoes and headed a few blocks south down to the river. she lives in north portland, which is very industrial down by the river. many docks and factories.
we walked down the hill to the railroad tracks and followed them around the bend, picking and eating wild blackberries as we went. (the university of portland is just up the hill at this point.) after a little bit of walking there is an abandoned factory that skate kids have turned into a skate park and it is filled with amazing graffiti. a little creepy, but very cool.
a bit farther on is a little beach where you can see the ships heading up towards the columbia river and where the railroad crosses the river. i felt like i was 12 years old off on an urban adventure.

but it eventually started getting dark and then the light portland spittle-rain began, so we started the walk back up the hill. we grabbed dinner at king burrito and then went back to alissa's house and watched a documentary on the flaming lips.
not a super-eventful day, but i had fun.

i have a bunch more photos from the trip so far on my flickr page.

my eyes are a little sweaty today

2008-08-18T12:14:00.000-07:00

it's been raining in portland today, which is appropriate.
i've been having a hard time this morning. you see, i had to say goodbye to micah last night. it kind of sucked.

our road trip has been awesome, which is to be expected. after spending the night in ashland on friday night, we had breakfast at this little cafe, which i thoroughly enjoyed. then we hit the road and headed towards mcminneville to see the spruce goose. i love air museums, and i had seen the spruce goose as a kid, so of course i enjoyed myself. it would have been nice if i hadn't been sweating profusely, but what can you do about the weather?
we finally made it into portland and micah and i went up to alissa's house and hung out in the basement for a little while. (yes, the basement. it was about 10 degrees cooler in there.) then we headed out and got some food at monsoon thai and ate dinner with micah's folks at their hotel.
sunday morning we headed out for breakfast at cup & saucer. i was really excited about this, because the last time i was in portland i ate the best breakfast in my life at cup & saucer. it wasn't nearly as good this time. oh well. then we made a stop at the saturday market (yes, they're also open on sunday) to buy some organic soap from 'the soap guy'. then around the corner to stumptown to buy my coffee beans. then micah, alissa and i headed out to the coast for some cooler weather. we stopped for lunch in seaside, then headed out to oswald west state beach for some hiking. it was beautiful and amazing. then dinner in cannon beach and a drive back to p-town.

but then we dropped micah off at her hotel and it dawned on me that we were saying goodbye.
how is it really enough to give someone a hug and say goodbye in a parking lot when you're all dead-tired? i feel completely deflated.

i was so blessed when micah and i became friends. in the process of getting to know one another we realized that we would be perfect for one another - if either of us were into chicks. micah is the female version of my future spouse. for reals. i think that's why i'm having such a hard time with her moving away. i know i'll see her every couple months, and i'll talk on the phone and email her all the time, but the fact that she's now so far away kind of feels like i've broken up with yet another boyfriend. which sucks. i'm tired of feeling so much loss. the older i get, the harder it becomes and the more it hurts.

i know i sound like a real debbie-downer right now, but i felt like i just had to get it out.
so i'll leave you with one of my favorite flight of the conchords songs, which has been going through my head all morning. this one's for you, micah.

dying. that's right, dying.

roadtrip...again

2008-08-15T20:50:00.000-07:00

this morning began my, uhm, i think 9th road trip to oregon. i think i like to drive to oregon.

micah is moving to victoria BC to attend a photo school, and i decided to go along for the ride and jump ship in portland and spend some time with alissa.

i am super-excited for micah to have this experience, but also sad that she will be so far away.

so i am trying to not think about how this trip is going to end and am concentrating on enjoying the journey.

we set out early this morning and made sure we stopped in redding to visit the lances and met new baby moses. we've also been taking a lot of video with the intent of making a collaborative road trip 'movie'. i'm excited to put it all together and show off our creation. it will be epic. or at least awesome.

stay tuned for more road trip updates.

a quick and dirty cliffs notes history/current events lesson, or what the hell is going on in russia?

2008-08-13T22:00:00.000-07:00

some of you may have heard of a little skirmish going on currently between russia and georgia in a place called north ossetia. for the news-junkies out there, this is probably going to be nothing new. for those of you who are just learning that there is a place called georgia that is not in the american southeast, this may be educational.

a little background...
there is a little spit of land between the black sea and the caspian sea which is somewhere around 300 miles wide and contains a mountain range called the caucasus. (yes, this is where we get the term caucasian.) as far as researchers can tell, this region has been continuously inhabited since the stone age. this region is also quite rugged and at times impassable, so of course a number of distinct people-groups emerged over the centuries. as far as i can tell, this relatively small piece of real estate contains somewhere between 30 and a zillion distinct ethnolinguistic groups, as pictured in the map below. (ethnolinguistic = people who share a distinct culture and language.)

i traveled to this area (Kabardino-Balkaria to be specific) in the summer of 2002 and saw firsthand how each of these groups sees themselves as distinctly different from the others. and there is not a lot of love lost between them. each group has their own history, culture, traditions and language. and then you throw in a few different religions....and i think you all know what happens.

now for some history...
we all learned about the russian empire in school, and how czar after czar slowly conquered most of the eurasian continent, absorbing numerous countries and people groups. and like the roman empire before them, they kept order between these groups mostly by force. then the russian empire fell and was taken over by the USSR, which continued the expansion of borders and kept order with even more of an iron fist.
fast-forward to the early 1990's and the dissolution of the soviet union.
in the aftermath of the end of the USSR, there were a number of countries who were able to regain their sovereignty. (think latvia, estonia, lithuania, etc.) but what about the innumerable ethnolinguistic groups which were absorbed by the russian empire before the invention of the nation-state, so had never had the opportunity for sovereign rule the way we know it today? well, some of them were allowed to create their own countries. (think uzbekistan, khazakstan, azerbaijan, georgia, etc.) but wait, according to that map up there, there are still a lot of ethnolinguistic groups who never got their own country and are living in the country created for another ethnolinguistic group.

there's your problem.

the russian government had to put their foot down somewhere, because the area inhabited by ethnic russians is not very large, and if they let every people group form their own country, there really wouldn't be much of a russia left.
but that doesn't keep them from trying...
the ossetian people group claim an area which is partly in russia (north ossetia) and partly in georgia (south ossetia). and the ossetians don't much like georgians. the people of south ossetia - backed by the russian gonvernment - consider themselves to be an independent republic. yet the international community consider it to be a part of georgia.
so last week when the georgian army went into south ossetia to show them who was in charge, the russian government stepped in and backed the ossetians. now why the russian army is storming toward the georgian capital of tbilisi is another story...

i could say a lot more about this, but most of you probably stopped reading a long time ago.

but for those of you who got this far, i hope that it was at least somewhat educational.

now back to the michael phelps juggernaut and lip-syncing 9-year-olds...

nature

2008-08-11T16:28:00.000-07:00

this afternoon i was looking through the california state parks website, trying to decide where i would like to reserve a campsite.
as i was looking at the details for the campground at silverwood lake, i noticed that they were very proud to say that they now offer wi-fi at their campground. upon further reading, somewhere around 49 state parks now offer this service.
i don't want to sound like a luddite here, but is this really necessary? what kind of vacation is it if you can whip out your laptop or other nifty portable gadget and check your email in the middle of the woods?
next thing you know, they will be offering flatscreen televisions in every site. or maybe even various product placements on the trees and wildlife.

i'll get off my soapbox now.

stuff

2008-08-04T12:39:00.001-07:00

today my friend alissa sent me an email telling me i needed to check out http://storyofstuff.com/.
i just finished watching the video and now i'm telling you all to watch it. it is 20 minutes long, but the time goes fast and it has a lot of things that Americans need to hear.
the first half didn't really tell me anything i don't already know, but parts of the second half left my jaw on the floor.
i've always been interested in the sociology of consumption, so i found this to be enormously educational.
and the website has lots of great resources.

set some time aside and check it out.

plastic

2008-08-03T13:41:00.001-07:00

i came across this article on the BBC news website. this journalist is on a one-month attempt to introduce no new plastic into her life. the current collection of storage containers and various other plastic products are ok, but any new purchases need to be free of plastic.
seems pretty straightforward, right?
far from it.
three days in, and there have been several stumbles.
that disposable paper coffee cup? wait, not just paper, but has a plastic insulating coating.
going shopping for fruit and veg? wait, everything is wrapped in plastic and it is impossible to buy berries packaged in anything but a plastic container.
i'm excited to follow the blog and see how this experiment plays out.

employment

2008-07-31T21:28:00.000-07:00

it has been nearly a month in the making, but tomorrow i finally start my new job!

no, i'm not leaving my current job.
for the past two years i have only been working 30 hours a week, and i've made it work. but now with paying rent and such, it just wasn't enough any more.
my new job is another 10 hours a week. in a different position that is in the department i already work in.
convenient, eh?
i now get to spend 10 hours a week learning how to prepare and submit proposals and applications for federal grants.
it sounds rather dull, but i'm actually really excited to learn about this. i think it has a lot of potential to be useful to me in other areas in the future. can anyone say NEA?

well anyways, no more getting off work at 2 in the afternoon for me...

pain

2008-07-28T11:57:00.001-07:00

there is nothing quite like back pain to make you instantly feel geriatric.

friday morning i rolled over to turn off the alarm, and everything fell into just the wrong place. you know that sharp pain that literally takes your breath away? yeah. like that. i spent most of this weekend flat on my back. yay. oh, and a surefire cure for insomnia would have to be muscle relaxers. i think i spent all of friday in a coma.

this happens to me every so often. as a result of the untreated 'marching band drum incident of 1992'.

i made it to work this morning, but still have a case of what i call 'batman neck'. (i have to turn my whole body to look around.)

i should start seeing a chiropractor.

beach

2008-07-21T16:01:00.000-07:00

i spent the day yesterday at corona del mar.
i love the beach.
i'm not a big fan of sand.
especially when there is a 2-year-old who likes nothing better than to kick it all over you at every possible opportunity.
oh, and then dump shovel-fulls of it into your bag. which contains your cameras, ipod and phone....
he's lucky he's cute.

coldplay

2008-07-16T16:38:00.001-07:00

last night micah took me out for my birthday present. not to brag or anything, but we went to see the coldplay show. oh, ok. i am bragging.
there really are no bad seats in the forum. and chris martin and his band of merry musicians put on quite a show. i was already of the opinion that it was a great show, and then near the end the four of them put down their instruments and (surrounded by a garrison of security guys) started running through the auditorium, up the stairs, and...

to a little media-booth stage area about 10 feet away from our seats.
wow.
us little people in the nosebleed section were treated to two songs up-close and personal. it was amazing.

i would have to rate last night as one of my top 3 concert experiences.
thank you micah!

restful?

2008-07-13T20:28:00.000-07:00

ever have those eventful weekends, that when they end you feel more tired than when you started?
this was a long, fun, and tiring weekend.

started friday after work when i took micah out to the pantages for her birthday present. that's right, we saw wicked. and it lived up to all the hype. i would love to go see it again.

saturday morning jon, kathy and i gathered up heather and jonathan and his kids and trekked down to the santa ana river for some communing with nature. hot, sweaty nature.

saturday evening we convened at the riverside art museum for the sea no evil art show that was put on by jon's work.

and this morning micah and i drove up to big bear to attend the community church and then spent the rest of the day with aaron and emily foor and their kids. i haven't seen them in almost 2 years, and it was so wonderful to see them. and as we were driving down the hill we realized that neither of us had remembered to take any photos. genius.

it was a great weekend.
i need a nap.

small

2008-07-09T23:01:00.000-07:00

i just finished watching you've got mail for the zillionth time while working on knitting micah's blanket. (slowly but surely, micah.)
ok, the movie.
i'm a sucker for a well-crafted chick flick, and you've got mail certainly fits the bill. i cry at the end every time.

and yet i digress...again.

there is a point where kathleen kelly is writing an email to joe fox where she says that she lives a small life. and she doesn't know if her life is small because she enjoys it or because she hasn't been brave enough.
i have heard this dialogue more times than i can count, but tonight was the first time that i felt like i really heard it. this is something i've really been struggling with recently.
i feel like i live a very small life.
i feel like i should have accomplished much more by this point in my life, and that i am more than capable of it, but that i just haven't been brave enough.
i feel like i really have nothing to show for how i have spent the past 32 years.

there really is no profound conclusion to this post. i just wanted to share what has been weighing on my mind recently.
shalom.

adventures

2008-07-06T22:28:00.001-07:00

interesting fact about me...i love to spend time with people and i love to go exploring, but i am also retarded and almost never call people up to go do things. and my disdain for the telephone has seemed to keep the exploration at a minimum.
so i am excited to be living with friends who are always out finding new things to do and places to go and aren't phone-retarded like myself.

this afternoon i went with jon and kathy to the santa ana river and we went exploring. i had a lot of fun trekking through the brush and wading through the river. it was a lot more fun when i didn't think about all the bacteria that live in there. ick.
even though, it was good times.
and i look forward to many more adventures.

a moving experience

2008-07-05T10:44:00.000-07:00

i thought this day would never come, but i did it.

i moved.

and not in a rhythmic kind of way.

in an 'i'm 32 and finally moved out of my parents' house' kind of way.
the planets have aligned and i am making enough money, along with good friends deciding that they needed another roommate.
i'm just glad that the actual moving part is mostly over, because the process makes me slightly anxious and very restless.

it feels like i have closed a chapter of my life and am starting a new and much more promising one. i'm excited to see what happens next.

dreams

2008-06-27T11:54:00.000-07:00

i keep having dreams that i'm in the gardens and woods at versailles. they are very good dreams.
but then i have to wake up.

time for a random movie post

2008-06-23T12:39:00.000-07:00

i know, i'm really on top of things when it comes to music and movies. here's my year-and-a-half late recommendation.

hot fuzz. what to say?

a brilliant and completely absurd British cop flick.

any movie that ends in an A-Team-esque shootout with octoganerian villagers is good stuff in my book. i laughed to the point of tears.

rent it.

or better yet, you can borrow mine.

i just got home...

2008-06-22T00:26:00.000-07:00

...from my first MLS game.

i have three words.

fan. freaking. tastic.

the LA Galaxy vs. the Columbus Crew.
ending with a 3-3 tie. but only because the ref seemed to have selective vision. how you can miss seeing a player getting body-checked while running full speed, and then missing a goal because of it, i really don't know. sheesh.
seats in the front row, just off of the center line. i would have come home with some great photos if my camera battery hadn't died 2 minutes into the game.
i guess there's always next time.
oh yes, there will be a next time.

anyone else missing the office?

2008-06-19T11:50:00.000-07:00

not too long ago i was listening to an interview with Steve Carell on NPR. for much of the interview they were discussing his character on The Office, Michael Scott.
at one point he quoted Ricky Gervais, the co-creator of the original BBC version of The Office as saying 'everyone knows a Michael Scott. and if you don't know one, you probably ARE him.'

ohboyohboyohboy

2008-06-13T16:43:00.000-07:00

yet another one of my various quirks is that i can sit and read through cookbooks like they're the new john grisham novel. i will periodically make 'oohs' and 'ahhhs' and exclaim that i had never thought to put rosemary in a shortbread cookie. but it sounds fabulous! let's try it!!

today i bought the new cookie book by martha stewart. she may be crazy, but the woman knows how to put together a kick-ass cookbook. it is a page-turner of 175 cookie recipes, organized by texture. i may start at page one and work my way back. everyone prepare yourselves for the cookie onslaught.

it is on.

really?

2008-06-11T13:53:00.000-07:00

just when i thought christians could not top themselves, they come up with yet another website that makes me shake my head and sigh incredulously.

6 hours later...

2008-06-09T11:44:00.000-07:00

...and the amazing Pat Fish finished tattoo #4.

its really a good thing i don't plan on ever having kids, because that needs to be the last time in my life that i experience pain that intense. and neverending.

pictures don't do justice to how beautiful it turned out. so next time you see me, have me show you.
oh, and no bearhugs or backslaps for the next week or so. i will have to hurt you.

a very good day

2008-06-05T11:02:00.000-07:00

well, so far 32 is shaping up to be much better than 31. that won't be hard to do, since 31 blew.

on the anniversary of my birth i was bombarded by several text messages, a number of phone calls, a plate of hommemade brownies, an e-card, an impromptu birthday lunch and flowers, and an evening of guinness and apple boxty.

i feel loved.

word

2008-06-01T12:55:00.000-07:00

The second feature of many communities both in the postindustrial West and in many of the poorer parts of the world is ugliness. True, some communities manage to sustain levels of art and music, often rooted in folk culture, which bring a richness even to the most poverty-stricken areas. But the shoulder-shrugging functionalism of postwar architecture, coupled with the passivity born of decades of television, has meant that for many people the world appears to offer little but bleak urban landscapes, on the one hand, and tawdry entertainment, on the other. And when people cease to be surrounded by beauty, they cease to hope. They internalize the message of their eyes and ears, the message that whispers that they are not worth very much, that they are in effect less than fully human.
To communities in danger of going that route, the message of new creation, of the beauty of the present world taken up and transcended in the beauty of the world that is yet to be – with part of that beauty being precisely the healing of the present anguish – comes as a surprising hope. Part of the role of the church in the past was – and could and should be again – to foster and sustain lives of beauty and aesthetic meaning at every level, from music making in the village pub to drama in the local primary school, from artists’ and photographers’ workshops to still-life painting classes, from symphony concerts (well, they managed them in the concentration camps; how inventive might we be?) to driftwood sculptures. The church, because it is the family that believes in hope for new creation, should be the place in every town and village where new creativity bursts forth for the whole community, pointing to the hope that, like all beauty, always comes as a surprise.

N.T. Wright – Surprised by Hope

fun fact

2008-05-30T22:26:00.001-07:00

the french term for window shopping literally translates as 'window licking'.

i think i enjoy window shopping a lot more now that i know this.

who would win?

2008-05-29T20:45:00.000-07:00

this evening we went out for dinner to celebrate my bro-in-law's 38th birthday. i like to tease him that he's getting old. happy birthday timmy.

tim is a wonderfully random person, so you never know where the conversation is going to take you. this evening we went on a 'what i heard on kevin and bean' adventure. apparently sometime in the recent past, they were discussing whether indiana jones or han solo would win in a fight. now, i already love to play 'who would win in a fight'. alissa and i once spent nearly 4 hours playing it while driving up the PCH. but never once did i think to pit indiana jones against han solo. it is wonderfully impossible and ironic, and i can't seem to decide who would come out on top.

before i leave you to decide, i must set the ground rules. it is just the two of them. no chewbacca, no obi wan, and no other random sidekicks. weapons are also not a deciding factor. no blasters, no whips, no guns or machetes. one-on-one. mano-a-mano. who would be the ass kicker and who the kickee?

discuss.

how do i look?

2008-05-28T20:24:00.000-07:00

i mentioned briefly a few posts ago that my work had a big gala dinner fundraiser the night before i left on my trip. so of course i haven't had the chance yet to say anything about it.
last year i really wasn't looking forward to it, since i had no idea what to expect and then really wasn't prepared with the right dress to wear for the evening. but this year was different. i found the right dress last november and then spent the next few months making sure i had everything i needed to look just right. and i think i did a pretty good job. i may have even heard one or two references to audrey hepburn throughout the evening. i'll take that. she was amazing.
i had a lot of fun getting the right shoes and jewelry to go with my vintage style dress, and i'm glad i had my hair done to give it the final touch. which is an interesting development for me, because not too long ago i would have hated having to dress up like this. then again, losing 20 pounds and actually looking good in a dress will change your perspective somewhat.
it was nice to look nice, but there was still the inescapable fact that i was working. it makes me wish i had a fun reason to get dressed up like this.
or even someone to get dressed up for...

photo time again

2008-05-27T16:19:00.000-07:00

i just finished uploading a bunch of my digital and polariod photos from paris to my flickr account. i still have to develop the 35mm and 120 film, so you'll just have to wait for those.

all about paris

2008-05-26T10:54:00.000-07:00

now that i'm awake, i thought i would share some of the things i learned while in Paris.

all food tastes better in France. especially if you can look out your window at the Eiffel Tower while eating it.
Parisian women won't let anything stop them from looking fabulous. and by that i mean i saw women who were VERY pregnant walking around in high heels.
you can never have too much nutella. never.
people in Paris don't know how to drive. and coming 2 inches from getting hit by a bus is not fun.
when people say that the Louvre is huge, it doesn't even begin to describe the size. you can probably fit Luxembourg inside of it.
it is possible to eat bread for breakfast, lunch and dinner. not with...for.
the moulin rouge is the biggest let-down in the world. ever.
having a microwave in France is kind of like bringing a television to the beach. it's big, annoying, and completely useless.
everything spoken in French sounds like a question.
the stereotype of the French being overly rude is completely wrong. i found them to be very friendly and helpful.
the chateau at Versailles = meh.
the gardens at Versailles = epic.
i think the French only know how to build on a gargantuan scale. everything is huge.
being in a tunnel with the skeletons of hundreds of thousands of people isn't as creepy as you would think.
you can see pretty much all of Paris in a week. which leaves the second week open for being creative with your time.
i had a great time, but being in one of the most romantic cities in the world without someone to make out with kind of blows.

home, sweet home

2008-05-25T22:05:00.000-07:00

i am sure that it has been quite difficult to go these past two weeks without any blog updates from me, but the wait is now over! i am home!

today's journey was an interesting mix of pain and enjoyment. it started out rather benignly; getting up at 6am, getting ready, checking the apartment one last time, heaving on my backpack and setting out for the corner metro stop. but then things went quickly and horribly wrong. the street cleaners were hosing off the detritus from the previous night's debauchery, and two steps down into the metro my feet decided to slide out from under me. which meant that my backside hit the steps - hard - and the rest of me followed down the staircase. both humiliating and painful. ibuprofen has been a close and abundant friend all day, but from that moment on it has been one long carousel of pain.

which is too bad, because everything else about the journey was actually enjoyable and somewhat amazing. at the paris airport i was checked in, through security and at my gate within 10 minutes. i had the entire row to myself on that flight. there was heavy cloud cover for the entire flight, except for over ireland. i got to peer at it wistfully from above. i was scheduled to have a 7 hour layover in new york, but went on standby and got on the next flight leaving for LA, with only a 2 hour layover. even on standby, i got my preferred window seat and was even in the emergency exit row that has tons of legroom. and most importantly, my single-serving-friend on that flight was a pilot being transported home. i've always wanted to sit next to a pilot. i had so much fun talking with him and asking him questions. and last but not least, my bag made it back with me. i couldn't have requested a more perfect trip. except maybe for that pain in my ass.

but since i'm now going on hour 26 of being awake, the rest of my stories can wait.
time for sleep...

bon voyage

2008-05-10T10:38:00.000-07:00

in 24 hours i will be on a plane heading out to begin a vacation that i started planning for almost 2 years ago. it is surreal, to say the least.
to say that i am excited would be an under-statement.
i am leaving in about 20 minutes to spend the rest of today working, so i am all packed and ready to go.
and i wish i could fit all of you in my backpack and take you with me.

adieu.

stimulus

2008-05-09T14:08:00.000-07:00

i just checked my bank account, and i have been officially 'economically stimulated' by our federal government.

i find it funny that this money comes just as i am about to go on vacation. in another country.

i wonder if i will be using this money as intended by stimulating France's economy.
then again, since we supposedly live in a 'global economy'...

just an FYI

2008-05-08T21:13:00.000-07:00

plastic popsicle molds from IKEA + limeade = frozen deliciousness.

i'm thinking next time around i'm going to try sangria-pops.

mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

film

2008-05-05T19:24:00.000-07:00

i finished my pre-trip shopping today. you know, odds and ends.

but by far and away the item of which i have more than enough is film. i didn't really think i had all that much until i tried to cram it all into a gallon size ziploc bag. i am bringing one 35 mm camera, one medium format camera, and one polariod camera. (not to mention my digital camera. but that's beside the point.) and to accompany those three cameras i have:

9 rolls of color 35 mm film
8 rolls of b&w 35 mm film
1 roll of color slide 35 mm film
1 roll of b&w 120 film
5 rolls of color 120 film
3 packs of polaroid film

now the goal is to come home having used each and every one.

i think i may have just triple-dog-dared myself.

beautiful

2008-05-02T11:44:00.000-07:00

is it not completely beautiful outside right now?
these are the rare types of days that make me love Riverside. all i want to do is find a big patch of grass, preferably containing one or more trees, and lay on a blanket reading a book.

but instead i'm in an overly air conditioned room with no windows, staring at a computer screen.

sigh

commence to start

2008-04-25T16:54:00.000-07:00

i had a fun package come in the mail today.
these are the keys to my apartment in paris.

departure is in 16 days. it's now starting to feel like reality.

the unexpected benefit of allergy medicine, or how zyrtec saved me from getting yelled at by my hygenist

2008-04-24T21:37:00.000-07:00

this afternoon i went for my twice-annual gum bleeding. or what i thought was going to be my twice-annual gum bleeding.
i don't ever have a problem brushing my teeth twice a day, but seem to have the darndest time remembering to floss. even with that new handy reach 'floss on a stick', i just can't seem to remember.
so when it comes time to go to the dentist, i know i can look forward to a half hour of throbbing, bleeding gums and a severe tongue-lashing from my cute-as-a-button hygenist, Jamie.
so today i went in, expecting more of the same, and was surprised to hear Jamie tell me that everything looks great and that my gums barely bled at all. this was not at all what i was expecting, since i only flossed four times in the past six months. and those were the four days leading up to my appointment, in a last-ditch effort to quell my guilty conscience.
and then out of nowhere, Jamie asked me if i had started taking allergy medication.

um, what? come again?

as a matter of fact, zyrtec became my new best friend about two months ago. what does that have to do with my gums?
well apparently, if you're congested when you sleep, you breathe more through your mouth. which creates some sort of extra-oxygenated, saliva-y, bacteria friendly environment that makes your gums pink and tender.

huh.
interesting.

so zyrtec not only got rid of my neverending sinus headache, it also helped my gums.

awesome.

my time in mexico - part 4

2008-04-20T20:24:00.000-07:00

it just occured to me that i will be leaving on my next adventure in 3 weeks, and i haven't even finished telling about my last one.
so this time i want to talk about people. and not just any people, but the ones that i have found myself thinking about and missing the most since i've been home.

first and foremost, there were my students. at times they drove me crazy, but overall they were an amazing group. i knew they would do well by how they dealt just with the trip down there. we left the school at about 8pm, drove down to LAX and checked in and waited for our flight, which left at 1:30 in the morning. our first flight, to Leon, took only 3 hours. not enough to really get any sleep. in Leon we had to get off the plane, go through immigration, and go back through security in only an hour. it was a special treat that we ended up getting back on the exact same plane we had just gotten off of. the next flight was an hour from Leon to Mexico City. so we arrived at our destination at 8 in the morning, made our way to the hotel, and were told we couldn't check into our rooms until 3 pm. after having been up ALL NIGHT. but i don't remember any of them really complaining at all. they even let me take them out to see the cathedral and also to show them a bunch of Diego Rivera murals. it was a loooooong day, but they took it all in stride and even seemed to enjoy themselves. this is a picture i took at about 1pm that first day, and i think they look great!
i really miss seeing them every week. but when i do get to see them we all sit around and laugh and joke and it feels like we were all together on our trip just yesterday.

next there is Pablo. we met pablo when we first set foot in Mexico City. he was the volunteer responsible for getting us into the right taxis from the airport to our hotel. we didn't think we would see him again, but he decided to come out to Actopan and spend the last two days working on the houses with us. he was really funny and easy to talk to and eager to learn from us, so i had fun getting to know him. but i think it was great for my students to have a mexican university student around their own age to be around and learn from. we all enjoyed his company so much that we eneded up spending the last saturday evening and sunday afternoon with him in Mexico City. we talked about everything from soccer to language to history, but what he seemed to be most interested in was talking to us about faith and God. which we were more than happy to discuss with him. i was pleased to hear that several of my students are still emailing back and forth with him and hope to go back and visit him soon.
(just an example of Pablo's humor...check out what his t-shirt says. too funny.)

then there is Felica. she works for the Mexican Habitat for Humanity office, and is in charge of the entire Mezquital valley. (word is that hers is the affiliate in Mexico that builds the most houses and is the most organized.) she may be a small lady, but she is large in every other way. she doesn't speak any english, but i never really seemed to have much difficulty communicating with her. Felica always had a huge smile on her face and had the biggest, most infectious laugh. in fact, everyone calls her 'the laughing lady'. just looking at her picture makes me happy.
and last, but certainly not least, is Marilyn. our time in Mexico would not have been nearly as good without her. Marilyn is from the Boston area, and had previously spent time at a language school in Mexico City. while there she met people who took her to visit the town of Santiago de Anaya, which she immediately fell in love with. so when she heard that Habitat was going to be building there, she jumped at the chance to spend six weeks helping out. she made sure that everything was taken care of, from transportation to food to calling a doctor when we needed one. it was like we had a mother there to take care of us. she was the calm, steady rock in the middle of our maelstrom who made sure everything was organized. (or as organized as they can be in a culture like Mexico's.)

of course there were many other people that we came into contact with during our week, most especially the people whose houses we were working on, but these are the few folks i find that seem to come to my mind most frequently. and of course i miss them all.

goodreads

2008-04-17T10:35:00.000-07:00

my friend sara shares my love of books. so it is no surprise that she invited me to join the website goodreads.

so now i have a fun little widget over on the side to let the world know what books i'm currently working on. (by the way, isn't widget a fun word? it makes me smile just saying it. widget.) the one by arthur c. danto will probably be there for awhile. i started reading it about 3 years ago and can't quite seem to finish it. it makes my brain hurt.

photo time

2008-04-13T14:55:00.001-07:00

i went to target and got some film developed this morning. and i finally broke down and upgraded to a flickr pro account so i could have room to upload all my new photos. waaaaay too many to post here. go to flickr and check them out.

etsy

2008-04-11T14:24:00.000-07:00

like i need another way to waste time...

...rocks my world.

to say i'm great

2008-04-08T15:47:00.000-07:00

so i guess this is the new thing to do.
like i have time for yet another fake band...(thanks, micah)

1. click here
The first article title is the name of your band.

2. click here
The last four words of the very last quote is the title of your album.

3. click here
The third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.

i don't know about you, but i was kind of disturbed by the 'random' results.
so what kind of sound do you think 'the washington monthly' has?

my time in mexico - part 3

2008-04-05T16:50:00.000-07:00

i know that you all have been waiting on the edge of your collective seats to see what artsy-type photos i took while in mexico. well, the wait is over.
here you go.

abigail

2008-04-01T21:21:00.001-07:00

my niece is six years old, and never ceases to crack me up.

my niece and nephew and sister were over on saturday night, and we were all sitting around the table eating dinner. at some point in the evening, abigail decides to give her own names to all her family members (but for some reason not to her little brother. maybe she didn't want to admit that her name for him was 'annoying small one'.)
these names were:

daddy: cheese man
mommy: smart girl
grandma: curly hair
grandpa: old chief
aunt elizabeth: fast eater

just in themselves these names are hilarious. but what i find truly funny is that she thinks i eat fast. which is only because she is so ADD it takes her an hour to finish a meal. anything less than that is apparently 'fast'.

and don't get me started on 'old chief'. so funny...

my time in mexico - part two

2008-03-30T18:44:00.000-07:00

so now i will spend some time exploring the idea that if you travel with a football, (and not one of those sissy american footballs), you will make friends with everyone.

one of the students on my team is on the soccer team at CBU. and he is a genius. he brought a football along on the trip. on the first day, within ten minutes of arriving at the airport, he had brought out his ball and begun kicking it around. sure everyone looked at us, but not in a 'what's wrong with them' kind of way. more in a 'man i wish i could play right now' kind of way.

even just walking around the streets of mexico city, the football was a way to start talking to people. they would see the ball and stop us and have a conversation. we met a number of people this way.

and the football made frequent appearances even after we had reached the worksite. if there was enough time to stand still, there was enough time to break out the ball and kick it around.

and when the guys we were helping to build saw that there was a football, they made sure that we had finished for the day with enough time to set up a makeshift goal in the middle of the street and play a quick game.

each day included at least some time with the football. but as the week progressed and the work on the houses lessened, more and more time was spent either just kicking back and forth or even putting together a game.

one day they even took us down to the local stadium and challenged us to a game. luckily we were split evenly with us and the locals on teams so they didn't beat us too badly. i think this was one of the hilights of the trip for most of us. sadly, by this time my cold had progressed so much that i couldn't join in. i was really bummed about this, but it did give me an opportunity to take a lot of photos.

near the end of the week when we were all exhausted, we had fun playing football with the children who lived at one of the houses we were working at. this was ilette almost making a goal. her little brother lalo was also playing, but didn't make it into this photo.

most of us who went on this trip do not speak much spanish. but as the week progressed i learned that football is the international language. when a football appears, strangers become friends and interactions happen without words. i think some of our most significant friendships happened and progressed because of that little sphere.

my time in mexico - part one

2008-03-27T18:34:00.000-07:00

so instead of doing one boring mega-post about my week in mexico, i thought i would break it down into a series of posts with different themes. i thought i would begin with what we were there for...building.

our week began on monday morning with a bang. we were taken to the first house and told that we were going to help with the pouring of a concrete floor. now that wouldn't normally be a daunting task in a 600 square foot house, but we only had a small mixer and all the materials had to be moved by hand. we set up a system of sorts and got to work. some of us shovelled gravel into buckets, some of us shovelled sand into buckets, some of us helped heave the materials into the mixer, and some of us helped move the concrete into the house in wheelbarrows. it was hot, tiring, repetitive work. but in only 2 1/2 hours we had produced a floor. it was an incredible feeling of accomplishment.

after lunch we were taken to the next house and somehow mustered the strength to do that all over again. by the end of monday we had finished two floors.

tuesday morning we got up and felt how hard we had worked the previous day. but we were ready to do it all over again. we were taken to the third house and were ready to go. but the dirt subfloor wasn't ready and we had to make several trips out to a field to bring in dirt and then bring it into the house and tamp it down. and then we didn't have enough water. and then the mixer ran out of gas. things went a lot slower on tuesday, but we did manage to finish our third floor.

now that the construction was pretty much finished on all of the houses we were working on, the rest of the week was spent doing things like putting in windows and the door and painting and finishing the electric and plumbing and then cleaning up outside and putting in landscaping. we didn't have time to do this work on all three houses, so we concentrated most of our time on the house where the dedication ceremony was held on saturday.

here's the finished product. we were all proud of our work.

but mostly we were proud to have been a small part of building a house for someone who appreciated it probably more than we could ever understand. this house was for anna. we made sure we all took a picture with her.

it was an exhausting week, but we all enjoyed every minute of it. and we would all do it again in a heartbeat.

i'm home...again

2008-03-24T19:53:00.000-07:00

this past week was so much more than i ever expected it to be. but i have so much to say about it that it will come in a series of future posts. besides, i haven't had a chance yet to sift through the 400-some photos that i took.

it's almost unbelievable that i had such a great time, considering i was sick the entire time. after one day in mexico city i had a cough, which quickly progressed into a major cold. i toughed it out until friday, but then relinquished to the fact that i needed to see a doctor. this was a huge step for me, because i usually don't go see the doctor even when i'm at home, let alone in another country.

the doctor came and checked out my ears and throat and such and declared that i had an infection. he prescribed three medications, and i was excited about the prospect of getting better soon. well, it's four days later, and i think i may feel worse than i did on friday.

my ears are plugged and hurt. (which created an almost indescribable pain on the plane this afternoon.) i have a three pack-a-day cough. and a substance resembling rubber cement in both color and consistency is coming out of my nose in prodigious amounts. oh, and i think i've come down with a case of eczema. when it rains it pours, right?

tomorrow i am going to the doctor. and for the first time i'm looking forward to it.

travel update

2008-03-20T20:38:00.000-07:00

hello from mexico. i don't have much time, so this will be short.
this has been an amazing week so far. we've all had a great time building houses and practicing spanish and getting to know new people and playing spontaneous games of soccer.
but i have been sick since day one. it started with a cough and has progressed into the mother of all colds. i actually had to stay at the hotel and sleep all day today. bleh.
actually, several members of my team are sick. i think we are responsible for keeping all of the local pharmacies in business. please pray for us that we will feel better and that we will finish this week strong.

pre-departure

2008-03-13T20:30:00.000-07:00

this has been an eventful day.

managing students calling me with last-minute crises.
filling out paperwork.
printing out itineraries.
meeting with students to talk about packing and such.
and all the while trying to do my REAL job.

i also had a student drop out of the trip today. i'm still trying to sort out how i feel about that. i'm really sad for her that because of things that probably weren't dire enough to keep her from going, she is not going to be able to have this amazing experience. part of me feels like i failed her as a leader. i really didn't see it coming.

but i'm ready to go.

i'd like to introduce you to some people...

2008-03-11T14:48:00.000-07:00

this is my ISP team.
they pretty much rock my socks.
we're leaving this friday for our week in mexico. i'm scared and excited all at once. probably more excited than anything, though.
i think that i'm mostly just sad that after next week my time with these amazing young people will come to an end. they have blessed and taught me so much these past few months. i'm really going to miss them.

please pray that God does amazing things with us this next week. and that nobody drinks the water...

today

2008-03-08T19:05:00.000-08:00

this morning micah and i got up with the sun to go out and take photos in the morning light. i really like the way the light looks in the evening, but there is just something fresh and magical about the light first thing in the morning. too bad seeing it involves getting up at an hour that i'm not normally very fond of.
micah had very specific places she wanted to go and things she wanted to photograph. one place involved walking back up the freeway offramp and onto the service road that runs into the hills next to the freeway. good times. but there were some spectacular fields of wildflowers, and it was totally worth the hike. i toted ALL of my cameras with me, but since they are all film, i can only show you the digital version for now.

i was really excited, because yesterday i got a new battery and a pack of film for my newest member of the camera collection and i was ready to try it out. it's my new polaroid 104 land camera. (thanks again jonathan!) mind you, it didn't come with a manual, so i had to use various online resources and one that micah has for a different land camera to figure it out. so i took it out and snapped a photo of the hillside. i waited the obligatory 60 seconds to peel away and see my photo, and was faced with this.

uh. ok.
as far as i can figure it out, i just didn't have the bellows pulled out all the way. live and learn. it's technically a mistake, but i really like how it looks.

so we got back to the house and i figured out what i did wrong and snapped this one.

i think my land camera and i are going to have a long and interesting relationship.

oh, and then we spent the rest of the day at the irish festival. we had a great time. i think it might have even been better than last year's.

tagged - ugh

2008-03-06T13:40:00.000-08:00

ok, so i was also tagged to do one of these list thingys by elissa awhile ago. i would say that i've waited so long in order to be the last one, but it's really because i think entirely too much about everything. so here's my not-so-interesting list of random things about me...

1. i have twice in my life held a hummingbird. once when i was about 8, and then again around high school. i just happened upon them sitting on the ground, not looking too great. i walked up, put out my hands, and they climbed in and chilled out for a few minutes before flying away. i guess i have a way with birds.

2. when i was a kid i was really good at math and science. and i mean skipping several grade levels good. and i loved it. then in junior high something happened and i hated it. i'm still pretty good at math and am fascinated by science and am realizing that i probably should have been a physicist. oh well.

3. in college i worked in the computer lab with all the computer science nerds. they were only one step away from pocket-protector geekdom. they were - of course - all huge star wars fans and were super-excited when the special editions of episodes IV-VI were re-released. i went with them to see V and VI at the Chinese Theater in Hollywood, which also included spending several days sitting in line. yes. i was one of THOSE people who slept out on the sidewalk. and i have a copy of the LA Times to prove it.

4. i have never owned a car with an automatic transmission. i have no idea why. it just happened that way. and i always name my cars. my current car's name is cyril.

5. when i was in the 2nd grade we studied electricity in school and did cool experiments with circuits and stuff. they explicitly told us never to experiment with anything bigger than a 9 volt battery. so what did elizabeth do? of course she went home and found a light bulb and some wire and some sort of night light and did some experiments in the wall socket. i came away from that one slightly dazed, with blackened fingernails and a new respect for electricity.

6. i have really odd color rules for myself. i will never wear black and brown together, but black and tan is ok. except for denim, i never wear blue. which was difficult when i started working at CBU, since one of their colors is navy blue and i have to wear it at certain events.

7. when i was a freshman in high school - i think it was during spring break - i was home alone and in the shower when someone broke into our house. i still have a hard time taking showers when i'm home alone.

8. because of a combination of several severe childhood ear infections and a lifetime of insanely loud music, i have significant hearing loss. especially in my left ear. the ringing is actually so loud that some nights it keeps me awake. i have a really hard time picking out conversations when there is a lot of background noise. i've gotten pretty good at reading lips, but i get a little embarrassed when i have to ask people to repeat themselves a lot.

9. i think it was my sophomore year in college, i came home for the weekend to find my street filled with fire engines and various other civil-service vehicles. turns out our next door neighbor had several propane tanks in the garage that blew up. and they swore up and down that it wasn't a meth lab. yeah, right. luckily the inferno did not spread to any other houses and nobody died except their dog. (but it was actually a good thing for the dog. they didn't treat him very well. my dad actually once found it stuffed in our mailbox.)

10. i failed art class in high school. go figure.

my drive

2008-03-05T12:53:00.000-08:00

my journey to and from work every day takes me up and down washington street. the fact that it is one lane in each direction and full of potholes should probably give me reason to avoid it, but i love the view of the mountain and the city spread before me on clear days. on mornings after it rains it literally takes my breath away. and i like how it makes me briefly feel like i'm out in the country. oh, and i love the orange groves.
i digress.
the brand of driver that seem to join me on my morning commute give me the impression that they are all communally on the way to a fire or some other sort of life-threatening situation. it is the only explanation i can come up with for going in excess of 60 mph in a 40 mph zone. i am tailgated almost every day by some sort of urban assault vehicle or luxury sedan. (i will also admit here that i usually exceed the speed limit, but never by much. maybe 5 mph. i can drive like a grandma.) there are a few points along the drive where the lane becomes inexplicably extra-wide, but is not technically another lane. many mornings these apparently stressed-out drivers take this opportunity to gun their vehicles into light speed and pass me by. (which always makes me roll my eyes and laugh, because i make a left turn within the next 200 yards.)
this scenario played itself out this morning as usual, but this time i mumbled to myself "why is there never a cop around to see this?" (this is not something that i would normally say, but i was pulled over in almost the same place for doing almost the same thing on valentine's day, but at 10:30 at night, to pass the only other car on the road, who was going literally 10 mph. my sense of justice was bruised.) but no sooner had the words left my mouth than a motorcycle cop whizzed past me with his lights on.
i admit that i spent the rest of my drive feeling enormously smug.

coffee

2008-03-02T13:03:00.000-08:00

just one of the great number of fantastic things about portland is stumptown coffee roasters. they are a small group of people who take their coffee very seriously. but their coffee snobbery results in an amazing cup of joe.

on this last trip up to portland, i was delighted to learn that i could purchase my own bag of hand-roasted stumptown coffe beans and take them home. fantastic!

so we went to the nearest New Seasons Market and i dropped somewhere around $7 on a half-pound bag of holler mountain blend fair-trade, organic coffee beans.

i treated that half-pound of coffee beans as if they were more valuable than gold. i carefully doled out the beans and wasted not a drop of the coffee. i savored it. and it lasted me about a month.

i've spent the past couple weeks having an unbelievable craving for a cup of stumptown coffee. i've even contemplated taking a quick trip up there to visit alissa and bring home a few pounds of beans. (and then i realize how ridiculous it would be to fly to a different state just for coffee beans. even if it were disguised as a trip to visit my friend.)

but this morning i discovered that you can purchase their coffee beans online! for only $14 a pound, plus shipping, i can have a neverending supply of coffee greatness shipped right to my door! i am so excited.

why do i feel like such a yuppie right now?

journey

2008-02-28T17:09:00.000-08:00

i can't remember for the life of me why, but sometime in high school i decided that i wanted to learn how to quilt. which is kind of odd, because up until then i had never really had any desire to learn how to make anything. (i thought about learning how to knit once when i was 16, but it's really hard to figure it out using just the encyclopedia.) so my mom broke out her box of scraps and we put together the red, white and blue dealie in the picture. and then that was it for several years.

fast-forward to college.

since my sister was always the 'artist' and i wanted to be as different from her as possible, music had been my thing since early childhood. at one point i taught myself how to play nearly a dozen different instruments. i went into college as a music major. and within the first semester realized that i may have had the technical ability to play instruments, but did not have the inner passion to create music. but as i looked around i realized that all the friends i had surrounded myself with were art majors. i had found my soul mates.

one of these artists in particular encouraged me to go back to quilting, since it was the only creative process i knew. so i created the multicolored dealie pictured below. it was the beginning of a long and sometimes difficult creative journey.

i ended up taking more and more art classes, since they seemed to be the only ones i really enjoyed. i took ceramics for the first time my junior year and made 4 times the number of projects as anyone else. i was hooked. but i still did not consider myself an artist. artists were pompous, intellectual creatures who made completely incomprehensible works. artists were people i admired, like jackson pollock and alexander calder. i made blankets and bowls.

i ended up taking so many art classes that i realized it would only take 2 more and i would have a degree. but those included making a portfolio and having a show. i didn't really see the point, since i was not an artist, but i went ahead and signed up for the classes. september and october rolled by, the date for my show was looming only a month ahead, and i had not made a single piece for my show.

and then my life fell apart. a 4 year long relationship ended, and i was completely devastated. and for the first time in my life, i turned to the creative process to help work through my heartache. i hung my pieces up for everyone to see, stood back and looked at what i had done, and finally realized that yes, i am an artist.

in the 8 years since that first show, i have struggled with learning what it means for me to be an artist. but i have also struggled with the place of 'crafts' or 'domestic arts' in my life. besides quilting i have learned how to knit and cook and bake and sew, and i love those processes. (which my friends still think is funny, because i am so not a domestic person. being a housewife would be my own personal version of hell.) somewhere in the back of my mind, those processes are not art. and i feel bad about the time i spend on them, because i could be using that time to make 'real' art.

i guess the next phase of the journey is finding the place in my life for all these processes that i love and making things because i enjoy it and not because it has to be 'art'.

having said all that, let me introduce you to my first new quilting project in nearly 6 years. my mom's paternal grandmother was an avid quilter. when she died she left one of her last projects at the phase of cutting out the pieces. so i have a pile of pieces that when put together will make an entire blanket of these figures.

at the pace i quilt at, it should be done in the next 7 or 8 years.
don't hold your breath.