I have found the world's greatest time suck. Readers, I present to you: pinterest.com.
It's like an online bulletin board: as a member, you can "pin" the pretty things you find online to your board in whatever category or order you like, and the site displays your finds altogether. I'm not doing it justice, but trust me, it's wonderful. I'm so anxiously awaiting my invite (because they don't have enough bandwidth to support as many memberships as, like, Facebook - I am literally on a waiting list for a membership).
Anyhow, I sat in the back of History of Christianity II on Tuesday with my dear friend CK, both of us listening to our professor and blissfully clicking through the "best of" board. It was parallel play at its finest. I saved my favorites to repost here.
(File this post under "sometimes you just want to write about things that aren't very important.")
I will argue it until I'm blue in the face: our president is absolutely remarkable. I love this.
So fun! I would make popsicles every day with these molds!
I don't know whether I like this photo because of the instructions or because of her striking coloring - what great red hair!
Everyone needs a teddy.
Cute.
I think I might make some of these wings out of felt and sew them onto my running shoes.
I LOVE this because the little one looks just like a kiddo I babysit - so sweet!
Pretty.
It doesn't hurt to admit it.
Such a great new take on the family photo
I hope this catches on
I'm going to print this and frame it and hang it in our apartment. It's my motto and it's SO true.
Ah! I want! What a fantastic piece of furniture!
I'm glad.
This is too cute to be true
I think we should do this - it's a nice use of space, and goodness knows we have enough books
I actually made this for lunch today after my run and it was AMAZING: apple slices with peanut butter, granola and chocolate chips. It covers four of my food groups (fruit, nuts, carbs and chocolate chips) and it's delicious!
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I'll close today with the video for my current favorite song, "Airplanes" by Local Natives. When I showed AJS, he said, "Yep, that's a Kelsey song." As you listen, keep in mind that it's a tribute to the keyboardist's late grandfather. (His name is Kelcey!)
Somebody's going hungry and someone else is eating out
Funny the way it is, not right or wrong
Somebody's heart is broken and it becomes your favorite song
The way your mouth feels in your lovers kiss
Like a pretty bird on a breeze or water to a fish
A bomb blast brings a building crashing to the floor
You hear the laughter while the children play war"
- Dave Matthews Band, "Funny the Way it Is"
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It is funny, actually. Or interesting. I began this post a week ago and I filled it with cute, funny, upbeat little remarks, but a few things have happened since then that give me pause. My heart isn't as light as it was last Friday. I've many things on my mind. In that light, I'll go ahead and post last week's lightness . . . and follow it with more serious matters.
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I found this in my Facebook news feed last week and it just made me smile. I don't know what it is or from whom it came, but it makes my heart warm.
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My drive to school is about 11 minutes long. I always listen to NPR. It's amazing what I've learned driving up the hill on just ONE morning:
- Scott Simon reported on the new men's must-have from Fashion Week: some sort of pashmina cashmere hood thing, retailing at $645. He chuckled. I chuckled.
- the economic crisis in Egypt resulting from protesters' not working
- the fact that Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid comprise a whopping 40% of our national budget
- a dinosaur fossil was discovered in an empty Utah quarry last week; its hips were huge, leading scientists to reason that its quadriceps were much larger than most dinosaurs, so - naturally - it must have used those legs to kick its mating competition. (I'm not making this up.) The best part is that they gave it a Latin name that literally translates "Thunder Thighs."
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AJS and DW and I were watching trash TV on Hulu last weekend (so I guess it's not TV anymore - ?), and this commercial popped up:
It's so funny, and then all of a sudden, BAM! Impact. That matters. I followed the link to another commercial from the same campaign:
And I went to one.org and signed the petition, not because George Clooney asked me to but because I believe that budget cuts could cost ACTUAL HUMAN LIVES. The fact that people are doing something about it - making their voices heard, gathering together to change things - gives me just the tiniest shred of hope.
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My beloved mountains claimed a good person this week. My friend AT's roommate was caught in a sidecountry avalanche and died. He perished on a slope I've skied many times.
Another friend, TB, a ski patroller in Snowmass, was gravely injured in an accident at work 12 days ago; he was airlifted to Denver and was in surgery to repair his spinal cord mere hours after his coworkers found him in a tree well. Although his condition has vastly improved in this teeny time frame, he has such a long road ahead of him, and my heart aches that he's trapped in a hospital bed when he should be working and playing and skiing.
It's such a scary thing - that mountain town I love so much is also so, so dangerous. Five people have died in-bounds this year. My boss' son was killed two years ago, and a first-year lifty died in an accident before the season even started this year. It's REAL. I think if I sat at home and prayed for the safety of the people I love in Aspen, it would be a full-time job.
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Kelsey Grammer divorced his third wife two weeks ago and married his fourth tonight. I'm embarrassed to share a name with him. He doesn't deserve it. The worst part, I think, is that his behavior is totally legal, whereas it remains illegal for a committed gay couple to marry in the United States. This kind of bullshit just makes me want to put my head in my hands and cry.
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One last plug for a fantastic humanitarian cause: DW and I signed up for the National Bone Marrow Donor Program a few months ago. You can find the link here. You should do it, too, but read about the program on the website before you decide. Informed consumers - even informed volunteers - will change this world for the better, and although I'm sure you already know this, you shouldn't do something just because I ask you to.
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I guess if I had to come up with an Unexpected Spark this week, it would be this: I'm so incredibly grateful for the gamut of experiences this life serves up. We are so damn blessed.
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One more thing. The title of this post comes from the fact that over the course of the week, when I find things that I want to blog about later, I leave the tabs up in my internet browser (Google Chrome, if you care about such things). By mid- to late-week, I have so many open tabs on the page that I can scarcely navigate between my email and Facebook. I hope it goes to show that I really care that you take the time to read this - I'm so flattered, watching my little page counter go up and up - and I hope that you like the things I choose to write about.
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Okay, one more thing. I made this for my friend RE's birthday tomorrow. She reads my blog, so she may see it before she gets it. That's okay with me. I'm really glad she's my friend.
Never in my (wildly insufficient, cursory) knowledge of human history has there been a forum for someone to have a thought and then instantly share it with the whole world, and for someone like me - with no filter - Twitter can be a lot of fun. And it can be a lot of trouble.
"I think there is something wrong with my brain where I don't have an on-deck circle for ideas, you know, just 'Batter up!' A lot of the ideas are bad and are at the plate going, 'I don't know about this one, Mike.' I turn into a drunk Little League dad: 'You go take some cuts, Son.' That pretty much sums up my social inadequacies." - Mike Birbiglia
Generally I'm not too embarrassed by Tweets that escape my fingers before my brain has a chance to step in, but there are times when I'm glad I've stopped and thought. Take, for example, my genius disclosure at the grocery store yesterday. I (finally!) found some tea that I was convinced was no longer available, so my micro-update was going to be:
"Behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be for all people! For unto you today is available regular-caffeinated Celestial Seasonings Chai tea - not that decaf crap! Hallelujah!"
Before I could send it, something made me think of my classmate TR. She must be one of the most pious people on the planet. I remember one chapel service when another classmate put her tea bag on the communion plate (this was AFTER the service was over when we were cleaning up the altar, so the plate was going to the kitchen anyhow) and TR almost had a stroke. She held so much reverence for the plate. In her eyes, if the body of Christ was on that plate - even for a second, and even if it were gone now - it was unfit to carry garbage.
Then I thought of my friend and classmate AN. She alone makes me so excited about the future of the ELCA because she's going to be a fantastic pastor. She's funny, smart, interesting and kind. She wouldn't Tweet something that used a verse in a cavalier way, and I ought not, either.
It's funny: I used to relish finding Biblical allusions in everyday life. I remember watching an episode of Dawson's Creek in junior high; Joey's older sister scolded her for betraying her, saying, "Your name isn't Josephine - it's JUDAS!" I wanted to jump up and down in front of my friends, like, I get the reference! I get the reference!
I think it's different now. I meant no malice in the Jesus' birth/finding my favorite tea remark, and in the same breath, I'm finding it important to treat all things religious with more reverence. I guess these little revelations are why we came to seminary.
This is a screen shot of the most-read articles on CNN.com at 9am Pacific Time this morning. At the end of the day (or, more accurately, at the beginning), people care about what matters.
Last night AJS brought home two pounds of Concord grapes - the same kind that Welch's uses for their juice. We threw them through the juicer and drank the most amazing, so-purple-it-was-almost-black grape juice, then puzzled over what to do with all the mashed-up grape pulp. Not wanting to toss it in the compost, DW suggested we make it into a coffee cake, which we baked this morning:
Ta-da! They tasted just like blueberries! We're on to something.
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Our apartment building was constructed in 1913. Our walls are the funkiest drywall. They crumble like goat cheese whenever I hang stuff on them, which is annoying. DW pointed out today that we should be more careful about the things we have on the walls and our bookshelves because of the earthquake risk (something I had completely forgotten to consider), but also mentioned - aha! - that our apartment has been through TONS of earthquakes and is still in great shape, so we don't have to worry.
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My creative Theological Teaching seminar has 24 students. Among them are citizens of Romania, Poland, Cuba, Cameroon, Belgium, Germany, Spain, and India.
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COREPOWER YOGA IS OPEN!
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Last night's First Friday event at school was card-game themed. I brought seven decks of cards (none of which I purchased - they found their way into my possession. How did I end up with so many decks?!) and taught six of my friends how to play Nertz. It was SO MUCH FUN! It reminded me of being a kid at my grandparents' house, when all of my relatives would play Nertz together on the dining room table. What a happy childhood I had.
It's been a long time since I've posted a REAL entry in here.
My friend and I had a CIP (a conversation-in-passing: just a quick talk that meant nothing at the time, but which I ultimately thought about for hours) about our blogs and our friends who blog and how sometimes people write a lot of crap about things that don't matter. Friend seemed annoyed at the unspoken obligation to read her friends' every thought. The part of the conversation that caught me like a run in my tights, though, was when she said, "Most of my friends are writing about being a newlywed or their job, but you're in seminary - THAT'S cool." I don't think that's any cooler or less-cool (what an amorphous concept anyhow) than newlywed-hood or a job. AND, what's more, my being a seminarian is not the point of this blog!
EUREKA!
I had such a lightbulb moment. I started this blog to reflect on the unexpected sparks in my life and in the lives of the people I love. I realized that I have completely lost touch with that point. It's time to get back to it!
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I sit before my laptop this morning in pink flannel giraffe pajamas. My empty coffee cup begs to be refilled, and so many unexpected sparks flood my mind.
1) I'm going to Disneyland tonight! My classmate TR has access to free tickets, so back in October we made plans to drive down for a quick break before spring semester started. We recruited a great group of people to join us, so tomorrow morning, eight 25 and 26-year-olds will descend on the Magic Kingdom. I think we'll just do laps on Splash Mountain.
2) I sorted through some pictures from the fall last night (I'm still learning iPhoto) and remembered again what a great life this is. Somehow, even though I studied my ever-living butt off last semester, I managed to fit in a LOT of active fun - hiking at Point Reyes, skiing at Tahoe, a football game in San Diego, trips home and to South Dakota, a million dinner parties. Cheers!
3) I just spent a whole month at home. Talk about the Happiest Place on Earth.
4) The Buried Life. If you haven't seen this, you're seriously missing out. Watch an episode or two here.
Tourist season is upon us again here in the Valley. We (my roommates, friends, the people with whom I ride the bus) are back to the busy schedule - working 7 days a week (and many of those are double shifts); fielding questions from people who stop us in the street (something about us must scream "SHE LIVES HERE"); hoarding Emergen-C (in the hopes of warding off inevitable colds); hardly sleeping at all. Restaurants have waits. City Market is out of things. The people-watching is out of control. A friend of mine in college, JKM, spent his summers in Pagosa Springs as a raft guide and waiter at the local steakhouse. He used to joke about having to paddle fat tourists down the river, and then turn around and serve them huge steaks at night...thus shooting himself in the foot. I think my winter is sort of similar, except in reverse: I get to ski with kids all day and then turn around and babysit them at night. If I've done my first job well enough - and the kids are sufficiently wiped out from skiing - then my second one is a breeze. This week we had a BILLION kids at the Treehouse. My friend IY is just like Mitch Hedberg, except still alive and with Cuban heritage. Together we taught 24 never-evers on Sunday, and it was awesome - we had that magic carpet running like an assembly line. I had to be at the Ute on Monday, but I had many of the same kids again Tuesday-Thursday, and they were a) well-behaved, b) really good skiers (I had them at Level 4+ by the time I was done on Thursday), and c) pretty funny. One of them fed me the line that is the title of this post. I'd forgotten how much FUN it is to teach skiing to these kids. * My bracket doesn't totally suck this year. Of course I'd picked Nova and Notre Dame to both go into the 3rd round, and NO one saw Murray State coming, but otherwise I'm faring much better than I have in recent years. I have Syracuse taking it all in one bracket - which is probably not going to happen - and Kentucky in the other. (I hate everything about Kansas.) *
So long story short: I had to chip all the ice off the sidewalks in front of the Ute today, and I was thrilled about it. It occurred to me - whilst I was chipping away - that there exists at the Ute an air of non-machismo amongst my coworkers. I work with all dudes (there's one other girl, KH, but we work exactly opposite schedules, so she doesn't count), and there is no question that they see me as an equal. They put me through the ringer. Outpost was an amazing place to work, but it was deeply sexist: in 6 years there, I never had the chance to sell a pair of skis, and I never took out the trash, and none of the male employees there had to input the information from a rental form in the computer database. The Ute is special. I can't play the girl card. I think that's how it should be everywhere.
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My roommate AB's Argentine boyfriend left today. I'm heartbroken, both for her and for me. He's a good egg, and they were a good match, and I liked hanging out with him and I liked who she was when he was around. I know she's going to be hurting in the next few weeks, and I don't like to see her sad. I also don't like to think about the fact that I'll probably never see him again. It's a big world - one in which we all move around a lot - and although I plan on living well into my 10th decade, I suppose it's fair to assume our paths won't cross again. My path also won't cross with my dear friend GC, the South African lifty from last season with whom I spent a ton of time, and with whom I still talk. I guess this speech is a way of saying: I'm thankful that God put these people in my life, and I'm wicked thankful for Facebook.
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My coworker and friend CM is funny. We work at the Ute on the same days, and he has a job in Snowmass the same days that I'm there, so we end up with a lot of face time, which means: we're so comfortable with each other that we act like siblings. Another guy at the Ute calls us the Twins. We get along well...most of the time. CM thinks I'm "crazy" (his word - he means "eccentric," not "unstable"), and he's crafting a list of reasons why: I'm a germaphobe; I love statistics; I say things he finds ridiculous. Anyway, he wears his shoes a full TWO AND A HALF SIZES too small, so really, he can't throw stones. But as we were having a conversation about this the other day, he said this, and I found it funny enough to write down: "It feels so much more...aggressive. Agile. You think ninjas wear their shoes a size bigger?!"
* I always pray when I wake up in the morning. Lately it's been mostly: "Thank you for loving me even though I'm such a screwup. Please help me to not suck so much today, and to love other people as much as you love me." * Katie gets home today! She's been in Scotland for 11 days for a school spring break trip, and I am absolutely losing my mind without her. It's almost embarrassing how often I've texted/FBed her even though I know she can't respond and won't get any of my messages until she's back on American soil. On a typical day, we talk about every two and a half hours, MAX. I can't cope right now. *
A woman was in the Ute the other day, and she caught me texting (my mom of all people) from behind the counter. She told me this story: she's an administrator at a high school in Texas. There are 2300 students at her school. They have a no-texting policy in place, and they charge $15/infraction when kids are caught breaking the rule. So far this year - just since September, mind you - the school has collected $7,000 in fines!!! I asked her what they used the money for, and she said, "Oh, it goes toward the greater good." She told me that they host a big luncheon for all the teachers at the end of the year. I think that's awesome. * Chaco makes dog leashes now! I mean, why wouldn't they? That's two of my favorite things in one - yellow labs and quality webbing. * So my friend ES works at the Nastar race course at Snowmass. There are big shacks at the top and bottom of the course, and they're heated, so he keeps his ski boots there overnight. He told me this story: The other day, at the start of his shift, he put his ski boots on. One boot felt weird, so he tried to ignore it, but after a moment he somehow came to the conclusion that there was a MOUSE in his boot! He called a couple of kids over to him - they were in ski school and about to race - and said, "Watch this!" and took his boot off and dumped it over. All three of them watched a terrified little mouse go sprinting across the snow toward the trees. :)
I am such a crabass tonight...but there are a bunch of things I forgot to say last night, so I'm gonna check the bad attitude for a bit and just write.
* This is by far this week's best PostSecret: * I love the results that show up when you Google my name. (Can I say that without sounding like a total narcissist? It's my blog...I guess I can say whatever I want.) It's an accurate, relatively concise portrayal of my online life. Twitter, Facebook, and this blog are there; so are my race results (everything from running to uphill races to erg sprints at CU), the CSU Biochemistry Department, and the activity of my friends. I'm not embarrassed by any of it. * Last night Courto and I had one of those only-because-we're-sisters moments, just posting and reposting the lines from one of our favorite movies on her Facebook wall. I miss her. I really hope she gets to come visit me next week. * Wednesday afternoon, it was so nice outside that I let my Capilene dry in the sunshine on my porch: It looked cooler in person. * My propensity to buy an artist's music correlates directly with what kind of person I perceive him or her to be. Like, I want John Mayer's new album SO badly, but he has turned into such an awful individual that I won't spend money on it. Instead, KD is burning it for me. Barefoot Truth, on the other hand - and/or the Avett Brothers - are totally worth the money. Why support someone's lack of character? * Quentin Tarantino is a freakin' weirdo. * This bottle of wine was amazing: I think all pinot noirs are good, but this one was ridiculous. * I'm beginning to love Anne Lamott the way I loved Orlando Bloom back when I was in high school, except in a non-crush sort of way, which is to say: I loooove her. I love the things she says and the things she's involved in and the way she writes and talks. I don't love her dreadlocks, but I think it's sort of rad that she has them. Oh, her writing... I would give anything to write the way she does, and to have the insights she shares. Par example, from Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith:
"But I prayed: Help me. And then I drove to the market in silence, to buy my birthday dinner. I flirted with everyone in sight, especially the old people, and I lightened up. When the checker finished ringing up my items, she looked at my receipt and cried, "Hey! You've won a ham!" I felt blindsighted by the news. I had asked for help, not a ham. This was very disturbing. What on earth was I going to do with ten pounds of salty pink eraser? I rarely eat it. It makes you bloat. "Wow," I said. The checker was so excited about giving it to me that I pretended I was, too. How great! A bagger was dispatched to the back of the store to fetch my ham. I stood waiting anxiously. I wanted to go home, so I could start caring for suffering people, or turn on CNN. I almost suggested that the checker award the ham to the next family who paid with food stamps. But for some reason, I waited. If God was giving me a ham, I'd be crazy not to receive it. Maybe it was the ham of God, who takes away the sins of the world." She keeps going with the story from there, but the 'ham of God' made me laugh so hard that I had to call Mom and tell her about it, except I was so giggly that she couldn't understand the message I left on her voicemail. Also: "Grace means you're in a different universe from where you had been stuck, when you had absolutely no way to get there on your own." Also: "At times like these, I believe, Jesus rolls up his sleeves, smiles roguishly, and thinks, 'This is good.' He lets me get nice and crazy, until I can't take my own thinking and solutions for one more moment. The next morning, I got on my knees and prayed, 'Please, please help me. Please let me feel You while I adjust to not getting what I was hoping for.' And then I remembered Rule 1: When all else fails, follow instructions. And Rule 2: Don't be an asshole."
This is why I love her: she is at once so full of grace, and so screwed up and relatable. She loves the same God I do, and for most of the same reasons, and we can both be pretty pissed off that God seems to stand by while bad things happen but also understand that there is SO MUCH we don't understand. When I started reading her stories, I felt like: 'YES, I'm not the only one.' Part of why I'm so excited to start seminary is to meet other people like Annie.
In high school, whenever I had a bad day, I made a list in my planner of all the things for which I was thankful. Usually it was "Diet Coke Mood Adjustment" or "Escaped third period for coffee with MJ" - overly simple stuff (and, oddly, mostly beverages) intended to remind me that the world was lookin' up. I still like doing that; it's why I created this blog. So without further adieu:
Today, I'm thankful for:
*Running, even though it sucked. I did 10 miles outside of Basalt on a beautiful back road with views of snowy Sopris. It was so warm that I ran in shorts and got a watch tan. The fact that the whole thing was a survival shuffle doesn't even really matter.
*The chai in my cup
*Church yesterday. I'm still high from it. The service was great because the director of Rainbow Trail was there to lead (so we sang camp songs, like Light of the World & Holy Time - Mom, I thought of you), but even that paled in comparison with communion. Honestly, it was one of the most cathartic experiences of my life. Because it was Dìa de los Muertos, and because Spanish custom has families picnicking at the graves of their loved ones on that day, communion went like this: first, Pastor JC pointed out the 3 bottles of hand sanitizer in the sanctuary; then he told the whole congregation to come gather at the altar - and everyone balked at first, but then obliged; and then he brought out 4 large loaves of braided Mexican egg bread and 2 pitchers of red wine; and we said the Lord's Prayer together, and then "picknicked" communion until ALL the bread and wine were gone. Cups were passed around, and then loaves, and everyone pulled off pieces of bread and talked and poured (a LOT) of wine in their cups and talked some more, and a couple of people played guitar, and we ate and drank and sang and smiled until the sacrament was over. It probably took 15 minutes. I'm telling you, it was the most amazing experience. It was exactly what communion is supposed to be - fellowship with each other and the Lord and thanksgiving for what God has given us, including each other. *Talking with (and/or playing therapist to?) both MM and AB tonight, then Facebook chatting BS. I miss my friends.
*The amazing Anne Lammot book I'm reading, Traveling Mercies. She is so flawed AND so good.
* Where did I last leave off? The rest of our San Francisco trip was amazing. Of course, the girls and I could go to Detroit or Fargo or somewhere equally loathsome and have the time of our lives, but still...the trip was amazing. We laughed so hard we cried; we rode the trolleys until we actually knew our way around the city; we ate out A LOT. (Dim Sum, by the by, was disgusting.) When we take these trips, I get the feeling from the people around us that they're not only jealous of our tradition but also jealous of our relationship with each other, and I think that's valid. I'm so blessed to have these cousin-sisters. * My other August Adventures: -I hiked Mount of the Holy Cross with my buddy MM (my best friend in Aspen this summer) - his first 14er, my third. As the peak is outside Vail, we camped at the trailhead the night before and got an early start. It was a long day - 14ish miles and an elevation gain of almost 8,000' - and we polished off the hike at DELICIOUS Larkburger in Edwards. (I think that should be its real name - "DELICIOUS Larkburger".)
Our peak
On top of the world
The best organic cheeseburger and truffle fries in the universe
-The week after that, MM and me and two other friends from the Ute hiked the Lincoln Group, a collection of four 14ers (Democrat, Cameron, Lincoln & Bross) that can easily be bagged in a day. We had fun (I have fun pretty much everywhere I go), and it wasn't really worth writing about. -A couple of weeks later, AJS joined MM and I to hike Mount Elbert, the tallest 14er in Colorado. We intended to hike Mount Massive, Elbert's neighbor, specifically because a Black Hawk crashed on its summit just a few days prior to our hike, but we found the trailhead taped off and decided not to mess with the military. That hike, too, wasn't notable, but we had burgers afterwards and had a great day. * KH & SD's wedding - Salt Lake City, Labor Day weekend To be blunt, I've been looking forward to this weekend since approximately September 2004. KH is my best friend from college - someone I refer to as my brother, all hyperbole aside - and his dear wife has been by his side since their junior year of high school, so there was never much question of if they'd marry, only when. The really grand part of the weekend was being back in the company of my people, my truly best friends - KH of course, plus AJS, BB and KK. The latter 3, Courto and myself shared a hotel room that was next door to one shared by some other pals of ours, so we spent the long weekend as a 10-some. The Residence Inn, it should be said, is a fabulous establishment. For $89 a night - a mere 20 bucks a pop after taxes - all of us broke postgrads had a spacious suite (with enough bathroom space to prepare for a wedding, natch), a pool and hot tub, a grill, a full breakfast each morning, a stocked kitchen bigger than the one in my apartment, internet access and a gym (which we actually used). Using the hotel as home base, we came and went all weekend - KK and I ran down the bike path; AJS and the other boys did their groomsmen thing; all of us went to Snowbird for the afternoon, then checked out the Temple the next day. It was especially clutch to have a big place on Sunday night, when we watched YOUR Colorado State University Rams destroy the CU Fluffs with standard creature comforts (Papa Murphy's and Fat Tire) not usually afforded in college-student-unfriendly Sandy, UT. Anyhoo, here's the weekend in pictures:
As soon as BB landed, AJS appropriated his attire. SO funny.
BB and myself at the reception (note the merlot): BB with, from left, JN, best man MG's girlfriend KD and JT (KH's fraternity brothers) We went Aunt Karen a drink text of this picture:
* That brings us to the present. Currently I'm training my buns off (literally) for the Golden Leaf Half Marathon from Snowmass to Aspen this Saturday. I'm psyched - I haven't been in shape in a long time, and it feels really good to have my running legs back. I figured out that I have free yoga videos on Comcast OnDemand, so I've been doing yoga every night before bed, too, and drinking water like a fiend. I have a happy body. *
A couple of Unexpected Sparks: -The title of this blog comes from the nickname MM christened me with: Firecracker Girl. He was amazed at how much crap I could pack into a day, and how uncomfortable it made me to sit around. I found the moniker more than endearing. I hope it sticks. -It snowed at my apartment yesterday. -My fantasy football team is OWNING the league right now. My team name: The New Sheriff in Town. Peyton Manning is so money. -Part of why I love summer is the reading time it affords. In the last week, I've cranked through Under the Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakauer, Sports Nutrition for Endurance Athletes by Monique Ryan, Living Buddha, Living Christ by Thich Nhat Hanh and Cold Tangerines by Shauna Niequist, in addition to about a dozen magazines (two months' worth of Outside, National Geographic Adventure, Real Simple, Glamour and Marie Claire).
* As it is the autumnal equinox, I leave you with a parting shot that sums up my summer:
"You have the opposite of poker face. You have, like, miniature golf face." - Elizabeth Gilbert, Eat Pray Love
Cousin Trip 2009 started just two days ago, and it's been non-stop AWESOME since Katie and Amy drove into town. Because we don't want to sit at a computer and tell stories, you'll get the group's highlights (or "Happies and Crappies" as Katie calls them) from the past 48 hours... *Getting into San Fran sucked. That's not worth a story. *Yesterday morning we had breakfast at the hotel, bought $18 three-day MUNI passes for all of the buses and rail cars, then headed towards Fisherman's Wharf, by way of... *The Farmer's Market in the Ferry building - AMAZING! Delicious peaches, apples, honey sticks, and the. best. cappucino. I've. ever. had. EVER! Too many people puttering around, but the produce and Blue Bottle Coffee Co made it worthwhile. *Fisherman's Wharf was way too touristy, so we walked through it to get to... *Ghirardelli Square for sundaes the size of our faces. No exaggeration. Loaded with Ghirardelli fudge. We ate them sitting next to the water and called it lunch. * We walked down a nearby boardwalk (right past a guy trapping Dungeness crab...next to a sign that said "Illegal to catch Dungeness crab"...), took some pictures, then decided to hop on a trolley towards Union Square for some shopping, when... *We spied a Patagonia store! Hallelujah! We ducked in, found they were having a 50% off sale, and each of us found one fun little cheap thing to remember our trip. (Can you tell yet that this was the best day of my life??) *Getting back on the trolley (good thing we bought that all-access MUNI pass), we rode up and down San Fran's famously steep hills for a while before stopping in Union Square. *We popped into Tiffany's (just because...) and H&M before deciding to find.... *Some pizza in a restaurant near a movie theater, where we wanted to see "500 Days of Summer" later in the evening. (San Fran is too sketchy for the four of us after dark.) Long story short, we had some AMAZING pizza and Sierra Nevada Pale Ale in the same building as the movie theater. We talked to two delightful older gay men about what to do the next two days and really, really, really enjoyed ourselves. (That was the meal that Grandma and Grandma bought for us. Thanks guys. :) ) We've been quoting those two guys all day - they were hilarious. *We saw the movie - which was rad - and then found a Starbucks nearby for some decaf lattes for the bus ride home. Then we went to sleep. *This morning we had breakfast, got ready, and grabbed a bus bound for Golden Gate Park. *It was much more chilly today than yesterday, so we kept our fleeces on and scrambled around Sutro state park for about half an hour - really cool trees, sand, clifs, seals and the like. We could see the bridge, too, but it was foggy and really pretty. Then we went to... *The Beach Chalet, a brewpub recommended to us by the concierge in our hotel. We had enormous cheeseburgers (Courto and myself), fish & chips (Katie) and a delicious French dip (Amy) - so many calories it put us in a COMA for several hours. It had a great view of the ocean across the street, so of course we... *Ran over to put our feet in after lunch. The water was freezing but I was happy as a clam. *We jumped on a bus to the deYoung museum (I fell asleep on Amy's shoulder - no lie), which was kind of a bust save for the rad view from the rough of the tower, and we walked through a botanical garden/arboretum in the direction of a Starbucks (no, seriously, we needed some iced coffee to get out of that trance). *Once caffeinated, we headed for the Haight/Ashbury neighborhood - a hippie mecca where all the employees in all of the shops were way too baked to be of any good. There was a guy on a street corner with a typewriter, and he didn't even really stand out. *We giggled SO MUCH on the bus ride back to the hotel that Courto had tears coming down her face and I almost fell down. Everywhere we've gone, people stare at us because we're just having WAY too much fun. *Right now we're in the hotel putting on warm clothes before dinner. Rando said he'd buy it for us under these circumstances: we have to go to Chinatown - "deep into Chinatown, in a restaurant where no one speaks English, and just say, 'Dim Sum.'" So that's what we're doing. We have no idea what we're eating, but it'll be an adventure.
You know the band Blues Traveler? I babysat their kids a few weeks back when they played a show at the Belly Up. The band is friends with JG, my boss from the winter whose kids I watch a lot, so I had a house full that night.
* I went cliff jumping (I'd call it 'cliff diving' because it sounds so much cooler, but that would be lying) at the Devil's Punchbowl outside Aspen a couple of weeks ago. It looks like this: and of course that's not me jumping, but you get an idea of what it was like. I was a little scared, but it seemed safe enough. (I let about 10 guys go before me, and when none of them got hurt I decided to take a stab at it.) * I'm playing softball for two teams - my own, a rec team that plays in Snowmass on Tuesday nights, and my buddy JM's team, which is significantly more competitive. I love that sport! My "coaches" have put me at 3rd, where I used to play, and I can bat better than I ever could when I was a kid. Now if only I could stop making so many errors on the field... * I hiked La Plata Peak with RS and FL, a friend from work. It was a gorgeous hike and it kicked all three of our relatively-in-shape asses. The trail is just over 10 miles long round-trip, but there's more than 4,000' of elevation gain between the trailhead and the summit, so it's like walking up more than five miles of stairs...with 30 pounds on your back. (How and why do I always end up with such a heavy pack?) We took some pretty pictures: * Cape Cod was amazing! I was only there for five days (as opposed to Courto & Dad's six, Jefe's eight and Mom's 10) but I had plenty of time to relax and enjoy the right coast. Some highlights: -Courto and Jeff and I landed at Logan late Thursday night, and the next morning I had a coffee date with NG, a friend-of-a-friend from high school. We're Facebook buddies, and last week we deduced - by way of status updates - that we'd be passing through at about the same time, and hey, why not get together? We talked for about an hour and it was one of the most fun random encounters I've ever had. -I witnessed Grampy eat a whole lobster and then pieces of about six more in ONE MEAL -Mom, Dad, Jefe, Courto, Brenda, Chris and Kerry and I spent an afternoon on Nausett Beach, which will forever be one of my ultimate happy places -Dad and I went for a bunch of runs along the streets in New Seabury (where Brenda lives), all of which were AWESOME - running at sea level is amazing! -Mom, Dad, Courto and I took a ferry to Martha's Vineyard and rode bikes all along the island, then split a bottle of wine (one of BS's wines) on a beach near Vineyard Haven -For Grampy's birthday, the whole family was together for a whole afternoon - Rolfe, Carol, Grammy and Grampy, Bob, Brenda and Chris and Kerry, and us - and we ate and swam in the pool and drank Sam Adams
Courto, Dad, Mom and I on Martha's Vineyard
* One More Unexpected Spark: -On the bus home the other day, a mother and her little girl were sitting a few seats away from me. The little girl said something like, "I would love to be handicapped, because then I could just sit in my wheelchair all day!" Of course my ears pricked, and no sooner could I think Use people-first language, kiddo! than her mother scolded her for thinking that, saying something like "Oh hunny, you're so wrong - if you were handicapped, you couldn't run, you couldn't play soccer, you couldn't swim, you couldn't go to the playground..." and it went on like this for what felt like five minutes. I was shocked at how many "you coudln't"s this mother came up with! Of course you know what I was thinking - Jeez, lady, you don't have a clue - but then I thought, cheers for growing up in a family where we figured that out.
I don't know whether I like this photo because of the instructions or because of her striking coloring - what great red hair!
Everyone needs a teddy.
I think I might make some of these wings out of felt and sew them onto my running shoes.
It doesn't hurt to admit it.
This is too cute to be true
