Thursday, September 6
Tuesday, September 4
New to the Neighborhood
I had coffee with two of my friends that live in my new neighborhood and it was awesome. Wonderful, in fact. I love these two guys - always have. They have a depth about them that I respect and admire and are great at developing intimacy. I am excited that I will see them more often and that I get to be a part of their ho hum, everyday life. One of them reads this thing, so I'd like to say: Spine, I think you're great.
Books
I don't think it will come as a surprise to anyone that I love books. I like reading them, I like touching them, I like looking at them, and I like buying them. I really like buying them. I love going into a bookstore and spending an hour or so perusing the titles, having narrowed down which ones I want to buy, sitting on the floor, walking around, and eventually walking out with a book that I am really, really excited about reading. Relatedly, I love sitting in front of my bookshelf and looking at the books I've read and remembering the story, the author, where I was when I read sections of it, and what was going on with me when I read it. It makes me happy.
When I left Alaska the first time to start grad school I sold most of my books because I didn't want to carry them all with me, I would move into a smaller place, and, hello, I would have plenty of new books. Then, when I moved back to Alaska after grad school, I sold a lot of my books, but took more than I probably should have. Right before I moved back to Portland I sold most of my books. Well, what I consider most of my books. In reality it was probably only a third of them, but it hurt me. I hate selling books just as much as I love buying them. It's like I am somehow selling a part of me. The $50 I got made me feel very, very cheap.
There are several things that must happen when one buys a new house and reassess one's finances. One of these things is finding ways to save money. For me, it is books. I have promised myself to stop buying books and it has been very hard already. I walked to the library three times, and it has been closed every time. The bookstore across the street was open and blinking expectantly at me. I quickly turned away with immense sadness and self-control. I am housesitting right now, and am reading the books there to keep me occupied. They're books that I would have never picked up on my own and I haven't been too disappointed but not overjoyed either. I did a finish the 500 page book in 4 days so it's not like it's painful, but...do you understand what I am getting at?
I don't really have a point (which is not all that uncommon for me), but I do think a lot about my current book freeze. I have purposfully taken something that gives me such pure joy and I think it makes me a little sad. At the same time, it is totally worth it. At least so far.
When I left Alaska the first time to start grad school I sold most of my books because I didn't want to carry them all with me, I would move into a smaller place, and, hello, I would have plenty of new books. Then, when I moved back to Alaska after grad school, I sold a lot of my books, but took more than I probably should have. Right before I moved back to Portland I sold most of my books. Well, what I consider most of my books. In reality it was probably only a third of them, but it hurt me. I hate selling books just as much as I love buying them. It's like I am somehow selling a part of me. The $50 I got made me feel very, very cheap.
There are several things that must happen when one buys a new house and reassess one's finances. One of these things is finding ways to save money. For me, it is books. I have promised myself to stop buying books and it has been very hard already. I walked to the library three times, and it has been closed every time. The bookstore across the street was open and blinking expectantly at me. I quickly turned away with immense sadness and self-control. I am housesitting right now, and am reading the books there to keep me occupied. They're books that I would have never picked up on my own and I haven't been too disappointed but not overjoyed either. I did a finish the 500 page book in 4 days so it's not like it's painful, but...do you understand what I am getting at?
I don't really have a point (which is not all that uncommon for me), but I do think a lot about my current book freeze. I have purposfully taken something that gives me such pure joy and I think it makes me a little sad. At the same time, it is totally worth it. At least so far.
Monday, August 27
blah, blah, blah
I've been gone so long I hardly know what to say, so I think I'll do another one of my (in)famous postings in which I ramble with no cohesion.
I'm tired, dude. Seriously. I've slept through the night once since I left Alaska and that just aint enough. I already tried for an hour tonight.
My mom is training for an international dragon boat competition in Sydney next month. She's in the Grand Master category, which makes me want to call her Grand Master Flash. In all seriousness, she's training really hard and doing a great job. Paddling, lifting weights, and stretching daily. I'm quite proud of her.
I get to be an aunt again as my sister-in-law, Megan, is preggo. I've been super excited and been waiting for her to officially announce it so that I can publicly say "hooray!" Go to meganstielstra.com/blog to hear all about it. Or go there to discover a brilliant writer who is funny, talented, and insightful.
While we're talking about Megan, I am assigning one of her stories to my students, which is wicked cool. I'll try to play it cool when I pass it out, but I want to say, "dude! This is my sister! Isn't she incredible?"
Scott and Taya's wedding (you know the one I kept talking about) was beautiful. I have some pictures that I'll upload to flickr later, but I'm not on my computer because I don't have wireless where I am staying. She was beautiful in blue, he was handsome in a big 'ol beard, and neither one wore shoes. They wrote the ceremony themselves and sprinkled it with lots of poems. The venue was a spectacular cove complete with visiting osprey.
My friend Daniel, who I met in Spain, was in town last week. We hung out a few times and went to a John Lennon tribute concert at the Doug Fir. While there I won an ipod shuffle. Could I be anymore excited? I never win anything. The only thing I can recall winning, and I have been thinking about this for several days, is a corned beef at a St. Patty's day party when I was in high school. I am still all tickled that I can take my shuffle running or a bike ride and not have to lug my big one around.
This is a lame posting, I know. And I'm sorry. Next time I'll be better. I just had to get something out there and quit waiting for inspiration.
I'm going to try to go to sleep (again).
I'm tired, dude. Seriously. I've slept through the night once since I left Alaska and that just aint enough. I already tried for an hour tonight.
My mom is training for an international dragon boat competition in Sydney next month. She's in the Grand Master category, which makes me want to call her Grand Master Flash. In all seriousness, she's training really hard and doing a great job. Paddling, lifting weights, and stretching daily. I'm quite proud of her.
I get to be an aunt again as my sister-in-law, Megan, is preggo. I've been super excited and been waiting for her to officially announce it so that I can publicly say "hooray!" Go to meganstielstra.com/blog to hear all about it. Or go there to discover a brilliant writer who is funny, talented, and insightful.
While we're talking about Megan, I am assigning one of her stories to my students, which is wicked cool. I'll try to play it cool when I pass it out, but I want to say, "dude! This is my sister! Isn't she incredible?"
Scott and Taya's wedding (you know the one I kept talking about) was beautiful. I have some pictures that I'll upload to flickr later, but I'm not on my computer because I don't have wireless where I am staying. She was beautiful in blue, he was handsome in a big 'ol beard, and neither one wore shoes. They wrote the ceremony themselves and sprinkled it with lots of poems. The venue was a spectacular cove complete with visiting osprey.
My friend Daniel, who I met in Spain, was in town last week. We hung out a few times and went to a John Lennon tribute concert at the Doug Fir. While there I won an ipod shuffle. Could I be anymore excited? I never win anything. The only thing I can recall winning, and I have been thinking about this for several days, is a corned beef at a St. Patty's day party when I was in high school. I am still all tickled that I can take my shuffle running or a bike ride and not have to lug my big one around.
This is a lame posting, I know. And I'm sorry. Next time I'll be better. I just had to get something out there and quit waiting for inspiration.
I'm going to try to go to sleep (again).
Sunday, August 19
Where have you been all my life?
I'm sorry it has been a while since my last posting, but I have good excuses - I swear. This is what I've done lately:
1. Packed and organized all of my earthly possessions
2. Moved to Portland, which included driving the alcan with my step-dad and two cats.
3. Went to to Coos Bay to help prepare/attend my friend's wedding
4. Looked and looked then bought a house and all of the intense chaos that that entails
5. Kissed my hubby goodbye as he got on a plane and went back to Alaska to continues to work for a bit
To Do: prepare for my classes that start much too soon for my own comfort. I have to get my life in order, but I will be back.
1. Packed and organized all of my earthly possessions
2. Moved to Portland, which included driving the alcan with my step-dad and two cats.
3. Went to to Coos Bay to help prepare/attend my friend's wedding
4. Looked and looked then bought a house and all of the intense chaos that that entails
5. Kissed my hubby goodbye as he got on a plane and went back to Alaska to continues to work for a bit
To Do: prepare for my classes that start much too soon for my own comfort. I have to get my life in order, but I will be back.
Monday, July 30
It's been years since I did this
Picture this: My cheek resting gently on the toilet bowl at 3am. Greg, in the bathroom down the hall, has his cheek on the other toilet bowl. Intermittently, our cheeks rise, heave a bit, then rest again. As the bathrooms are close to each other and all the doors were open, my heaves prompted his and vice versa. Greg, the far more experienced drunk puker, was sending encouraging comments my way. Our interaction went something like this:
G: How you doing?
M: aaaaaaaaaggg
G: You're doing a great job!
M: aaaaaaaaaggg
G: I love you
M: aaaaaaaaaggg
This was round II of throwing up for the evening. I was laying on the couch when Greg went into the master bath the first time and I could vaguely hear him. The next thing I recall, I was on my knees thinking - I'm not joking - how convenient it was that I was in front of the toilet because I think I need to puke. I spare you the details but I was totally horrified because I HATE throwing up. Hate it, hate it, hate it. I cry every time. I spent some time contemplating how anyone could be bulimic. Greg was brushing his teeth.
I changed clothes and went to go brush my teeth. Greg was asleep on the bathroom floor so I stepped over him and took a hard left to the toilet again. I woke him up and he crawled to the other bathroom, which is where the story begins.
It was Greg's birthday and we had spent the day on a mountain bike ride to Powerline Pass. Yes, we biked to the top of a mountain pass and back. It was hard and a bit above my biking ability. After we got back to town we took showers and rode downtown for dinner where we ran into the Latino festival, then onto a dive bar.
There we accidentally ran into some folks Greg works with and people were buying rounds, which means that there was always a beer in front of us and two random people bought shots for the house. Basically, we shut down the bar and had a great time.
The bike ride home, which would normally sober us up, did nothing of the sort. Greg did comment on how much better of a biker I am than my brother because he fell off his bike when they biked home after a night on the town, whereas I stayed upright. Because I like to find small moments in which I am better than my brother, I will leave the story there.
PS We are both hurting a lot today.
G: How you doing?
M: aaaaaaaaaggg
G: You're doing a great job!
M: aaaaaaaaaggg
G: I love you
M: aaaaaaaaaggg
This was round II of throwing up for the evening. I was laying on the couch when Greg went into the master bath the first time and I could vaguely hear him. The next thing I recall, I was on my knees thinking - I'm not joking - how convenient it was that I was in front of the toilet because I think I need to puke. I spare you the details but I was totally horrified because I HATE throwing up. Hate it, hate it, hate it. I cry every time. I spent some time contemplating how anyone could be bulimic. Greg was brushing his teeth.
I changed clothes and went to go brush my teeth. Greg was asleep on the bathroom floor so I stepped over him and took a hard left to the toilet again. I woke him up and he crawled to the other bathroom, which is where the story begins.
It was Greg's birthday and we had spent the day on a mountain bike ride to Powerline Pass. Yes, we biked to the top of a mountain pass and back. It was hard and a bit above my biking ability. After we got back to town we took showers and rode downtown for dinner where we ran into the Latino festival, then onto a dive bar.
There we accidentally ran into some folks Greg works with and people were buying rounds, which means that there was always a beer in front of us and two random people bought shots for the house. Basically, we shut down the bar and had a great time.
The bike ride home, which would normally sober us up, did nothing of the sort. Greg did comment on how much better of a biker I am than my brother because he fell off his bike when they biked home after a night on the town, whereas I stayed upright. Because I like to find small moments in which I am better than my brother, I will leave the story there.
PS We are both hurting a lot today.
Wednesday, July 25
I Save Babies
You may recall my one-friend-Jillian's boyfriend from an earlier posting. They were over for dinner last week and Steve said something about how his job is to save babies. Amid much confusion I reminded him that he is an environmental engineer. He responded that his job was to clean up waste and pollution in the environment which made the world safer and healthier for everyone, including babies. Because of what he does babies don't get horrible diseases and die. I said a very timid "yeah...I guess, although I never thought of it that way." To which he replied that everyone wants to feel like their job makes a positive impact on the world and no one can argue that saving babies is the one thing that pulls on everyone's heart strings and serves the higher good. His theory is that everyone can find a way in which their job saves babies.
We tried testing out his theory on Jillian, which turned out to be pretty easy because she is a social worker in charge of a preschool that helps teach emotionally disturbed children to control their emotions and integrate into the education system. She works with the children that cannot handle traditional preschools and in the course of doing so alters these children's futures. Plus, she helps the parents with parenting tactics. Jillian saves babies in multiple ways: 1) the children are young and could still be considered babies, kind of, and she is saving them by helping them succeed in their future schooling and control their emotions by finding positive outlets, 2) teaching parenting skills saves future babies because it helps the parents nurture the children they already have and ones they may have in the future, and 3) the children Jillian helps will be more stable and responsible people, which may give their future babies a higher quality of life.
We moved on to me and decided that by teaching university students how to write more effectively, I am assisting them in becoming better critical thinkers, which means that they are less likely to become parents accidentally. If they do accidentally have babies they are more likely to raise their babies in a supportive environment. I also help my students develop their writing skills which will assist them in attaining gainful employment which provides them with a secure income that allows them to have enough money to support their baby. Thus, I save babies.
Greg saves babies by running trains safely and not derailing the train (especially on playgrounds or a maternity ward). Furthermore, 80% percent of Alaska's fuel, and all of the fuel for Anchorage International Airport is supplied by the railroad, and planes leaving ANC sometimes transport sick babies or pregnant women to Seattle for more specialized health care. He saves lots of babies.
This is a fun game and I encourage you to figure out how you save babies in your jobs and tell me in the comments. Now lets go save some babies!
We tried testing out his theory on Jillian, which turned out to be pretty easy because she is a social worker in charge of a preschool that helps teach emotionally disturbed children to control their emotions and integrate into the education system. She works with the children that cannot handle traditional preschools and in the course of doing so alters these children's futures. Plus, she helps the parents with parenting tactics. Jillian saves babies in multiple ways: 1) the children are young and could still be considered babies, kind of, and she is saving them by helping them succeed in their future schooling and control their emotions by finding positive outlets, 2) teaching parenting skills saves future babies because it helps the parents nurture the children they already have and ones they may have in the future, and 3) the children Jillian helps will be more stable and responsible people, which may give their future babies a higher quality of life.
We moved on to me and decided that by teaching university students how to write more effectively, I am assisting them in becoming better critical thinkers, which means that they are less likely to become parents accidentally. If they do accidentally have babies they are more likely to raise their babies in a supportive environment. I also help my students develop their writing skills which will assist them in attaining gainful employment which provides them with a secure income that allows them to have enough money to support their baby. Thus, I save babies.
Greg saves babies by running trains safely and not derailing the train (especially on playgrounds or a maternity ward). Furthermore, 80% percent of Alaska's fuel, and all of the fuel for Anchorage International Airport is supplied by the railroad, and planes leaving ANC sometimes transport sick babies or pregnant women to Seattle for more specialized health care. He saves lots of babies.
This is a fun game and I encourage you to figure out how you save babies in your jobs and tell me in the comments. Now lets go save some babies!
Wednesday, July 18
Cuntree
There were several humorous things that occurred during my English language teaching course last month as a result of inexperienced teachers trying to explain words and concepts. Gestures usually were involved. If you're interested in hearing more, tell me in the comments and I will share some more stories and maybe fess up to my own. However, the best story came from our very, very cool teacher about a previous course she taught.
Pronunciation is important when learning a language. You can say the right word in the correct grammatical structure, but if its not pronounced correctly (or close to correctly) people will still not be able to understand. There are several ways to help students with pronunciation, one of which is drilling. The teacher says the word correctly, the students repeat, the teacher says it again, the students repeat, etc. until the students are pronouncing it right. It is quite loud and sometimes can be heard down the hall.
Well, one teacher, bless his little heart, noticed that the students were mispronouncing the word "country," so he started to drill them. He then noticed that they were having trouble with the first part of the word and so broke it up (incorrectly, by the way) and just focused on the first part of the word.
T: count
S: count
T: count
S: count
Say it out loud as the first part of the word country if you aren't laughing in horror.
Pronunciation is important when learning a language. You can say the right word in the correct grammatical structure, but if its not pronounced correctly (or close to correctly) people will still not be able to understand. There are several ways to help students with pronunciation, one of which is drilling. The teacher says the word correctly, the students repeat, the teacher says it again, the students repeat, etc. until the students are pronouncing it right. It is quite loud and sometimes can be heard down the hall.
Well, one teacher, bless his little heart, noticed that the students were mispronouncing the word "country," so he started to drill them. He then noticed that they were having trouble with the first part of the word and so broke it up (incorrectly, by the way) and just focused on the first part of the word.
T: count
S: count
T: count
S: count
Say it out loud as the first part of the word country if you aren't laughing in horror.
As you wish
I got a surprising amount of suggestions for a new batch of lists, so at the risk of over doing the list thing, here are some more.
Top five preferences of head-to-head products:
1. pepsi over coke
2. blizzard over mcflurry
3. netflix over blockbuster
4.title wave books over barnes and noble (translation: any local bookstore over a huge chain)
5. mac over pc
Top five halloween costumes for this year in no particular order (this is a toughy as I struggle with creativity - I have to admit I found some of them on the internet):
1. an ipod commercial (all black with an ipod and dancing)
2. railroad conductor
3. ceiling fan ("go ceiling" sign and cheer)
4. Marie Antoinette (period clothing and a cake, say "let them eat cake")
5. flamenco dancer
Top five shows:
1. Daily Show/The Colbert Report
2. Sex and the City
3. My So-Called Life (I still miss it)
4. Friends
5. Dancing with the Stars
Top five cities in Spain:
1. Barcelona
2. Ronda
3. Seville
4. Madrid
5. Granada
Top five preferences of head-to-head products:
1. pepsi over coke
2. blizzard over mcflurry
3. netflix over blockbuster
4.title wave books over barnes and noble (translation: any local bookstore over a huge chain)
5. mac over pc
Top five halloween costumes for this year in no particular order (this is a toughy as I struggle with creativity - I have to admit I found some of them on the internet):
1. an ipod commercial (all black with an ipod and dancing)
2. railroad conductor
3. ceiling fan ("go ceiling" sign and cheer)
4. Marie Antoinette (period clothing and a cake, say "let them eat cake")
5. flamenco dancer
Top five shows:
1. Daily Show/The Colbert Report
2. Sex and the City
3. My So-Called Life (I still miss it)
4. Friends
5. Dancing with the Stars
Top five cities in Spain:
1. Barcelona
2. Ronda
3. Seville
4. Madrid
5. Granada
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)