squinting at the sun

switzerland: where everything's just a little bit better

2012-01-12T23:11:00.000-08:00

hello, dear readers! after spending christmas with the folks, i rang in the new year in switzerland with garret. we got off to a rough start by missing our flight to geneva, but after arguing with the airline staff and paying a small fortune, we caught a flight out the following day. once there, we spent most of our time in little alpine villages: first near the matterhorn (zermatt) and then closer to the eiger, moench and jungfrau (lauterbrunnen). we also squeezed in some time in geneva, lausanne and (very briefly) interlaken. as you'd expect, the swiss landscape is beautiful and amazing. and the trains are extremely punctual, the hotel breakfasts are delicious, the snow is powdery, and everywhere is clean, and everything is of high quality. of course it was freezing cold. still, i survived. in fact, i'd say i survived rather comfortably.

here are my photos if you'd like to see for yourself why switzerland is a good idea:

getting my chill on

2011-12-04T22:23:00.001-08:00

it's freezing cold in my apartment. as i sit here typing, i am wrapped in a fuzzy robe and a blanket (oh! that reminds me, why am i not wearing my snuggie???) and i'm wearing sweats, wool socks and a beanie AND i have actually tucked the power cord adapter to my macbook DOWN MY SHIRT because it gets so nice and warm from charging my computer. it's probably going to give me cancer but for now i'm warm and that's what i care about. except my fingers. fingerless gloves! be right back...ahhh, better.

so...i should probably confess that the reason for the chill is that all the windows in my apartment are open. i know, it doesn't make sense. why don't i just close them? because i can't, dear readers, i can't. they don't close all the way. none of them. and i have a lot of windows. then why don't i just turn on my wall heaters? i have two of them. one of which is right behind me. the answer: because i'm afraid of them. yes, that's right. afraid. the cords for both are so...old and sort of ratty-looking. i'm convinced i'll burn down my building if i plug them in. i guess i'm choosing cancer over the irrational fear of burning to death in my sleep...no, i'm afraid of cancer, too. okay, i pulled out the adapter. anyway, i did try plugging one of the wall heaters in recently and the heat that radiated from it was so pathetic that it's worthless.

there is an obvious solution to my freezing situation: ask my building manager to have the handyman fix my windows and take a look at my wall heaters to make sure they're safe and working properly. have i done this? no. why? i don't know. laziness, i guess? it's such a to-do to call the building manager and make the request and then coordinate the handyman's visit and...well, that's it, really. actually, the handyman can come while i'm at work so i don't have to coordinate anything. i only have to make one simple phone call. and yet, here i am, bundled up like an eskimo, just as i'll continue to be for the rest of winter even though it requires way more effort than making a phone call. but making the phone call makes me feel like a needy, troublesome tenant and i hate needing help and i hate making phone calls so i'm stuck here in my own twisted, chilly predicament.

the upside to this, of course, is that i can pretend i'm keeping my home cold to prepare for my upcoming trip to switzerland. what does one do in the swiss alps in winter when one does not ski or snowboard? and gets cold in temperatures below 75 degrees? so far i've come up with thermal baths, dog-sledding, snowbiking, hiking to mountain huts, ice diving, tobogganing and airboarding. since only one of these is above my temperature threshold, my cold preparation is totally justified and i can forget about making that phone call.

say yes! to michigan!

2011-11-27T19:48:00.001-08:00

last weekend i went to michigan to visit my brother and his family. he's lived in michigan for a long time. this was my first visit. we had fun. it was pretty.

k.i.t.

2011-11-11T21:37:00.000-08:00

what it's like to videochat with someone who lives in africa:

11:12 AM me: hi

Garret: hi.

6 minutes

11:19 AM Garret: pick up

my icon is a video now

54 minutes

12:13 PM Garret: what is going on?

12:14 PM me: whyyyyyy???

Garret: you there?

me: yes

Garret: no voice/video

me: $^&*(&^%$#%^&$#$%@#@%$!!!

Garret: I'll hang up and dial again.

me: ok.

26 minutes

12:40 PM Garret: I'm here.

5 minutes

12:46 PM Garret: you there?

me: yes

13 minutes

12:59 PM Garret: how about I just call?

hella occupied

2011-10-17T23:50:00.000-07:00

the occupy oakland encampment is in full swing. this is the view from my work's building:

some coworkers think it's annoying, some think it's amusing. i think it's awesome. i just need to bring my tent.

it's summer: let's play outside part 5

2011-09-05T21:55:00.000-07:00

i think this is my final post for this series. i'll try to make it a good one.

i just returned from a gorgeous labor day weekend in the eastern sierras. after celebrating my birthday with ashley and ebarb on friday, i headed over to little lakes valley (between bishop and mammoth) to meet up with dee and bobby. we did a little hiking and a lot of chatting around the campfire. i have documentation of the hiking part. but first let me say that summer 2011 has been filled with some really beautiful places. whether desert, mountains or coast, every place has been more or less breathtaking. and what you're about to see next, dear readers, i believe you could call heaven.

we hiked a little ways into the john muir wilderness. there are lots of creeks and lakes.

like this.

this is gem lakes.

look at that water.

i did.

me with dee.

dramatic.

*******

on my way home i made some stops.

first to devils postpile.

see? i was there.

then to rainbow falls.

then to mono lake. it was crowded and i needed to hit the road so i just caught a glimpse.

as you can see, i left heaven for hell. this was the drive home.

but, worth it.

it's summer: let's play outside part 4

2011-08-28T18:16:00.000-07:00

the week before starting my new job (and what feels like a lifetime ago), ashley and i went backpacking. we went to the trinity alps. it was fantastic and beautiful. we hiked stuart fork canyon and in the end, did around 40 miles. i'm feeling too lazy to provide descriptions and anecdotes from our trip. but i'll share some pictures. most of these are already on facebook. so i hope you enjoy seeing them again.

it's summer: let's play outside part 3

2011-08-03T21:51:00.000-07:00

back to "stbo 2011". what feels like ages ago now (it was a month ago), i went hiking in yosemite with g-force, james and ashley. we took a day trip and hiked to the top of el cap. it was a gorgeous day. we changed our route on the way back down so that we wouldn't have to deal with the switchbacks and crowds and as a result, ended up quite a ways from the car. this provided the opportunity for ashley and i to hitchhike back to get the car and pick up the boys. it was my first hitchhiking experience and it was awesome. i am a pro.

in the end we hiked somewhere around 20 miles. the drive home was the longest of my life. and i wasn't even doing the driving. but i was (we all were) so tired and it was one of those times where i kept thinking, "this will never end. we'll be driving home for the rest of my life."

here's some more photo documentation:

yosemite falls

why is there a big gap between james and the rest of us? also notice half dome in the background.

see? who wouldn't want to pick us up from the side of the road? nope, that doesn't sound right.

garret waiting. i like waiting pictures. but do you know what i like more than waiting pictures?

driving pictures! i love them. i think they've replaced jumping pictures. in this series ashley is telling me a secret. and then disappears. and then reappears in the shadow. mysterious...

*********

the next day, ashley and i drove to chico for some swimming and biking and hiking. unfortunately, the swimming hole we went searching for was harder to find than expected and we spent a day treacherously hiking to a mirage. we did find the swimming hole off a different trail but due to the wet year we've had, the creek was a rushing raging torrent and therefore unswimmable. determined to get in water before the day ended, we went to one mile and swam in the creek-turned-community pool and that was lovely.

where we would have died

where we could float. i love the man standing in the background.

until next time, dear readers. there's still more to share.

first day

2011-07-27T20:27:00.000-07:00

i'm partway through my first week at my new job. to fill you in, dear readers, i got a job as a senior wetland scientist at an engineering firm in oakland. i got the job 7 weeks ago. it was a huge relief. i got to enjoy 6 weeks of summer vacation (hence, "summer to be outdoorsy") and now i'm back to being a responsible working adult (though stbo will continue when i run the sf marathon on sunday). i've been sort of looking forward to re-entering the working world. the year off was really great. now i'm ready to work again. and so far so good.

on my first day i was greeted with this:

a goodie basket of company swag and offices supplies is a nice treat, i have to say. i'm a sucker for this kind of stuff. i've met tons of people and been taken on several tours of departments in the building. i've gotten crash courses in a number of office procedures and by tomorrow i will have been taken out to lunch 3 times. i've also gotten lost in the maze of offices between the elevator and my desk and forgotten which floor i'm on and almost broke my key card in two. mostly i'm in a daze and i come home completely exhausted. it also happens to be a week of office fun: upstairs bake sale, tickets to the a's game, lunch massages and yoga and friday is the first ever "poshnic" (posh potluck picnic in the park across the street). whew. there's also some work happening.

interlude

2011-07-24T22:44:00.000-07:00

while my summer to be outdoorsy continues and blog posts await, a lot of other stuff is going on, too. namely, i got a job, moved to a new apartment, ...and other stuff.

my first day of work is tomorrow. i'm nervous and excited. i should get to bed NOW so more about new job later. and new apartment. i'll just say that unpacking is slow. but i've got my bedroom more or less sorted. after inheriting yet another free bed (well, mattress + box spring), i've graduated from a kid's twin daybed (thank you, kara, it served me well for 9 years) to a queen size bed! i'm a full-fledged grown-up. it feels good.

to celebrate i got a new bed frame and the anthropologie bedding i've been pining after for like 2 years. here's a before and after:

ahhh, bed is calling my name. GOODNIGHT!

it's summer: let's play outside part 2

2011-07-05T23:19:00.000-07:00

the bay area is awesome for so many reasons. two of those reasons are 1) east bay regional parks and 2) local state parks.

i have recently fallen in love with east bay regional parks. why has it taken me four years of living in oakland and berkeley to finally appreciate them? shame on me. i registered for the trails challenge this year, which basically means i explore as much or as little of my ebrps as i want and get a free t-shirt. i'm trying to get to as many as i can just by running from my house. so far i've made it to tilden, wildcat canyon, sibley and kennedy memorial grove. there are probably only a few more i can get to on foot. and a number of others i can reasonably get to by bike.

speaking of biking, a few weeks ago leslie and i rode the iron horse trail (also part of the east bay parks system) from concord to pleasanton. leslie talks about it here. the route is just over 24 miles on a paved multi-use trail. at one point it goes past a farmers market that we both gazed at longingly as we rode on. it's an easy ride...but, ahem, still left us with sore bums.

i've also gone hiking in tilden, wildcat, briones and redwood with hannah (and sometimes mike). i had a picture of hannah and mike documenting one of our hikes. but it turned out to be unintentionally inappropriate...

and now speaking of hiking, let's talk state parks. not too long ago megan and i went down to big basin redwoods state park to hike the waterfall loop. so pretty.

i also recently tackled mt diablo with hannah, ashley, sheila and brittany. mt diablo might be my favorite of the state parks. how had i never been there before?? it's gorgeous. i can't wait to go back. we did a loop around the summit with an out-and-back to eagle peak.

still to come: yosemite and chico...

it's summer: let's play outside part 1

2011-06-20T18:51:00.000-07:00

my brother got married earlier this month in st. george, utah. i flew down to socal on a friday to drive the rest of the way with my other brother. we met mom and dad in utah. my plan was to drive back to socal with my folks on sunday and then fly home from there.

but i went hiking instead.

g-force happened to be nearby on a hiking road trip so in a moment of spontaneity, i joined him after the wedding for a few days of tromping around grand staircase-escalante and zion national park. i had no gear. just my running shoes. but he had some extra gear so after i made a quick stop at the grocery store for a few provisions, we met up and off we went.

i love, love, love the desert. and i have a particular fondness for southern utah desert thanks to 1) a couple memorable trips to zion when i was a kid and 2) edward abbey's desert solitaire--one of my favorite books of all time (though i've never been to arches).

lower calf creek falls, grand staircase-escalante

near the trailhead for the boulder-escalante mail route. yes, that says "airport and ufo landing". apparently all are welcome.

these are not my clothes.

buckskin gulch slot canyon

running to make it into the frame in time.

so the issue of speed was a concern (at least for me) because one of us is perhaps a tad faster than the other...so maybe there were occasions when one had to wait... this was near the end of the 26 mile out-and-back through buckskin gulch and i was slowing down. but mostly i held my own. (also i got lost once. briefly. on the mail route. which i thought might get me fired from the trip.)

baby rattler

zion np

hop valley, zion

langston canyon! there is also langston mountain and i skirted past it on the trail but i was in the valley and it was behind other tall rocky formations. i mentioned its existence to my dad later and that led to him expounding on the great langston name and the awesomeness of this guy, to whom my dad really wants us to be related.

also wildflowers, of course. a minty thing (Salvia sp?), larkspur (Delphinium sp) and sego lily (Calochortus nuttallii).

all in all i covered ~58 miles in 3 days (g did a little more). i feel that is respectable considering i had no idea that's what i'd be doing when i set out for my brother's wedding. we spent a day recuperating in las vegas (not on the strip) and then i flew home.

to the lighthouse

2011-05-14T12:27:00.000-07:00

my friend laura came to town last saturday. we went to point reyes. we visited the lighthouse. on the way we talked about being liberal environmentalist mormons. we talked about how we could put the world to rights.

we had a lovely time.

(also, someone took this delightful picture of me a couple weeks ago. caption suggestions?)

catching up (i think i've already used this title on an earlier post...)

2011-05-09T17:12:00.001-07:00

wow, it's been a long time. i thought i at least blogged in march. but nope. life has been crazy busy the last couple months or so. at least since the last blog post. but now things have settled down again and i am getting reacquainted with my life. and catching up on things i've neglected since, er, february. like my blog.

this post is about my nephews. because my nephews live far away, i don't see them very often, don't know them very well and admittedly, sort of suck as an aunt. but in april, brother danny, sis-in-law ana, and nephews anthony and andrew came out to california for a visit. the last time i saw anthony and andrew they were...2? now they're 7. as implied, they are twins. twins run in my family.

now, i'm not really one to gush over kids, even those related to me, and i've never really gotten the whole doting aunt "my nieces/nephews are so adorable/perfect/wonderful" thing. until now. for serious, folks. my nephews are so adorable, perfect and wonderful. and funny and smart and awesome.

it was so much fun getting to know them and just spending time with them. we went out for pizza, played games, went to the beach, took jumping pictures, read books, ate strawberries--we did a lot.

just pretend you are over at my house and i've sat you down on the sofa and now i'm pulling out photo album to show you, my captive audience, my darling nephews. indulge me.

going out for pizza (andrew's in yellow, anthony's in orange):

at the beach: (the boys kept saying how good the ocean tasted and kept sucking on their shirts to drink the salt water. ew. they are my brother's kids.)

what it looks like when my family goes to the beach: massive canopy and dad's patriotic chair.

david and i escaped for a walk on the rocks.

jumping pictures:

the boys ate that whole bowl of strawberries. but only half ate each strawberry. they were afraid of getting to close to the leafy top. so they ended up with a pile of similar size of strawberry tops.

family picture time:

lastly, i'll close with this video of andrew doing his dance:

thank you but this isn't helping

2011-02-21T00:05:00.000-08:00

my productivity potential for the week just plummeted: all 9 seasons of scrubs are now available on instant netflix.

also someone please hire me.

PLEASE.

additionally, this morning i found my missing camera in my coat pocket. and i have now seen all 10 best picture oscar nominees. and 3-hour sunday naps are more satisfying than most anything else in the world.

repetitious. but still following through.

2011-02-04T12:53:00.000-08:00

i'm going "justify full" format from now on.

wednesday night g-force and i got into the das racist show at the independent. it was sold out. but we got tickets on the street. unfortunately one of us paid too much for his ticket at possibly the other's encouragement while said other got her ticket at face value from a very nice guy who even insisted on giving her change when she offered to pay $5 above the asking price because she only had a $20. it worked out very well for other.

they were alright. their best moment was when they did a shout out to kate bush saying she was 4 of the 5 elements of hip hop. also a girl trio from oakland called HOTTUB opened and they were fun.

but what about repetitious? and following through? new year's eve, dear readers. photos are already on facebook (the blog killer--sorry hp. fb does good things. 3 cheers for egypt.) so i've already shared how magical it was and really, i've expressed love for all things afp many, many times on this here blog so there's not much more to say. (except i want to confirm that dresden dolls DID cover "careless whisper" at the end of "mandy goes to med school" so i am NOT crazy and did NOT imagine it.) anyway, the show was perfect. this person at spinning platters wrote about it and tells you everything you need to know. and the whole thing is on youtube. at least watch this. and this. also right next to us in the crowd was neil gaiman. in a top hat, as i recall.

ah well, i do love me some gifs so here's a photo recap of the night. from way back when it was still 2010. and we were young and wild and free.

in conclusion, go here and buy this.

sans segue, last weekend we did girls snowshoe trip 2011, thanks to the amazing leslie. we snowshoed. and chatted. and giggled. and slept. and ate. and dealt with a slight emergency lockout situation. i didn't take any photos. but others did. denise, i'm borrowing a photo. you'll probably never know. just one. this one. thank you.

but what really sums up snowshoe trip 2011 is this amazing, spectacular photo by leslie that never ever gets old. and by that i mean, i vote we put it on tshirts for team snowshoe 2012.

how not to be an idiot OR life lessons from the past 72 hours

2011-01-19T00:06:00.000-08:00

1. when you drive your car home and find that you can't turn off the ignition completely and can't get your key out and can't lock your doors, before panicking that any real damage done to your recently stolen-and-recovered vehicle is finally manifesting itself and calling a friend to please hurry and come to your rescue, CHECK TO MAKE SURE YOU PUT YOUR CAR IN "PARK". because it's shamefully embarrassing to have that friend come all the way over to point it out. especially when you've already started dismantling the steering column.

2. when selling something on ebay, DO NOT forget that you're selling something on ebay. do not have all correspondence directed to an email account you never use. otherwise you will find yourself with a justifiably angry winner waiting, waiting, waiting for her/his purchase to arrive. and you will have to convince the poor winner to repurchase the item after s/he has cancelled payment and apologize profusely for your negligence. and you will feel terrible.

3. when you agree to go for a "ramble" with this guy, do not mistake it for a "walk" and leave your house wearing jeans, 3 layers of tops, and your "cute" lace up shoes. especially when he shows up in shorts, hiking shoes and a backpack (and warns you that you'll be too hot). you already know he doesn't go for normal rambles or walks and that you'll likely be scrambling straight uphill. before you even leave pavement you will be peeling off layers and whining about how hot it is and saying PLEEEEAAASE carry my water, it's so HEAVY. on the upside, when you're slipping on the slope and getting your shoes muddy, you'll remember that you need to replace your hiking shoes that went missing 6 mos. earlier and you'll go home and use your rei dividend to get an awesome deal on a new pair.

resolving

2011-01-10T17:06:00.000-08:00

happy 2011.

i think this will be a year of good things happening.

i've made a few resolutions. but i'm not gonna share them. because they don't really need to be shared. if i keep them, great. if not, that's okay, too. mostly it's a just a good idea to continuously resolve to do new/better/different things. so that's what i'm doing. or rather, that's what i do. it's not one of my resolutions.

backtracking:
2010 ended well. holidays were fun. going back, back, back, i never blogged about thanksgiving. (i never blogged about a lot of things. so it goes.) leslie did, though. i spent it with her and her family and it was fantastic and fun and filling and everything the day should be. i was thankful to be there. she talks about it here. and she talks here about how further back, we went to see the newest harry potter.

christmas came. jamie joined me and my family. we drove down to riverside. we spent a lot of time in the kitchen and we ate a lot of pie. we ate a lot of a lot of things. for christmas, i got the thing my heart desired most:

i loveloveloveloveLOVE my snuggie.

oh yes, before christmas, my car was stolen. and then i got it back. this marks the second time my car has been stolen and recovered. both times with minimal damages. i like to think that each time someone really, really needed it for some emergency and just didn't have time to ask. i don't mind lending it. but i would prefer them to return it to where they found it. it's a little rude to leave me the chore of picking it up from the tow lot and forking over a small fortune to drive it away. also they could maybe fill up the gas tank. and perhaps give me a heads up that they need it. maybe i should start leaving a sign out sheet in the window...

after christmas, i flew up to seattle to hang out with mackenzie for a few days. i'd never been so she indulged me in some touristy things. the one thing i really wanted to do was see the chittenden locks. this was met with some...polite hesitation. but mackenzie was down with doing something that was sort of new and different for her, too (though i think she'd been there when she was young?) so she agreed and resourcefully found us a boat tour that took us from lake union up through the ship canal, through the locks (yay!!) and out into puget sound.

it was the best ever.

(also the boat took us past the sleepless in seattle house. :) )

locks are super cool! and exciting to go through! i've had a thing for them for years but it was more nostalgic than anything. i learned about them when i was living in england and used to walk by the iffley lock in oxford. but i'd never taken a boat through one.

i think we were more thrilled than anyone else on the boat.

we also walked around underground seattle and pike place market, went on a ghost tour, played cards and sporcle, and went snowshoeing up in mt. rainier national park. we had such fun.

i'll do a separate post about new years so that it'll seem like i'm blogging a lot.

such fun

2010-12-03T16:14:00.000-08:00

hello to you and thanks for joining, dear readers. previously in my life, i...

discovered i somehow have a subscription to rolling stone magazine. the issues are piling up. the last issue i got featured my boyfriend eminem so i don't totally mind. though i'm slightly worried i'll be expected to pay for it at some point. a simple phone call will straighten everything out but...lazy.
used my hair dryer as a space heater
timed myself running as fast as i could down the hallways of the house
spent 3 days doing a photoshoot with oakland in an attempt to show what a fantastic tourist destination it is. i was...eventually successful...with a little help from berkeley.
marked all 1000+ items in google reader as read so i could be free of the stress and move on with my life
watched like 200 clips of QI and suddenly found the month of november over

mostly i'm just overdue a blog post so this is what you get.

overheard

2010-10-28T09:43:00.000-07:00

riding home on bart last night, a bunch of rowdy and joyous giants fans crowded into my train car. three die-hard testosterone-y DUDES in giants garb stood across from me and resumed their conversation:

DUDE 1: ...PLANTAGINACEAE.

DUDE 2: wait, how many plant families are there?

DUDE 1: hundreds. like even orchids have their own family.

DUDE 3: how am i going to learn them all?

DUDE 2: i just want to be able to go hiking and identify the plant families of everything i see.

DUDE 3: oh man, totally.

turns out they were really just botany nerds in disguise.

september digest

2010-09-26T18:43:00.000-07:00

earlier this month i celebrated my birthday. actually, it was a pretty underwhelming affair this year--it really snuck up on me. i'd sort of forgotten about my birthday and this was one of those years where i was not particularly excited to acknowledge it. i don't think i really cared about the age part of it (though my current age does sound OLD to me. so much so that i feel, for the first time in my life, too sheepish to actually state what it is), i think it was more the pressure to do something special to celebrate for when everyone asks, "how was your birthday??!!! what did you do??!!" i feel like i need to have something exciting to say. i don't want to disappoint. so it's sort of stressful. especially if you realize late the night before that you've forgotten to make plans.

still, it was a fine and pleasant day. (uh--by which i mean, it was AWESOME and AMAZING, and filled with INCREDIBLY EXCITING ADVENTURES involving NINJAS and PIRATES and HOT MEN BURSTING FORTH FROM GIANT CAKES and a MUSICAL PERFORMANCE OF MY LIFE THUS FAR FEATURING THE ORIGINAL CAST OF BEVERLY HILLS 90210!) actually, months ago, i had intended to have a beverly hills 90210 party since my birthday fell on 9/02/10 and that seemed like the most awesome theme for a birthday party EVER. but like i said, i forgot. (which is a tragedy. i really do wish i could go back in time and remedy that-it was a once in a lifetime opportunity.) still, the weather was incredible and i spent a fun day in the city window shopping, taking a free historical tour of the ferry building, perusing an outdoor art fair at the united nations plaza, and having lunch outside along the embarcadero. as enjoyable as it was, i was admittedly relieved for the day to end so i could stop having to think of fun things to do to make it a worthwhile birthday. then a couple days later, leslie and i celebrated both our birthdays with an outing to delores park to enjoy a free performance by the sf mime troop. who, as it turns out, do not actually mime. if anyone can explain to me why it's okay for them to still refer to themselves as a mime troop, i'd love to be enlightened. (also describing my bday as an "underwhelming affair" does not apply to hanging out with leslie.)

anyway, two fabulous birthday gifts i want to acknowledge: first, this t-shirt from leslie, which i seriously wore for 3 days straight after receiving:

i love it. in fact, i'm wearing it right now. and will be wearing it when we go see the next hp movie on opening day.

second, i got a WICKED AWESOME old school hip hop mix from ashley featuring local bay area artists. all i can say is, fo' shizzle, my jiggas, there is money in the ghetto:

i've kept busy the rest of the month with:

a weekly dance class at my local ywca
strolling solano
attending a lecture by dora sorell (a local auschwitz survivor)
hosting my first couchsurfer (despite being a seasoned cs-er myself, i'd never hosted anyone until now)
nearly getting into a crazy-h brawl with rowdy youths at the ratatat show (seriously, it was like concert-based lord of the flies in there--we were nearly trampled to death)
eating delicious cheesy mushroom lasagna with jamie, maya and genae
seeing a free preview of the new charles ferguson doc
sticking around, despite the late hour, for the nearly final performance of owen ashworth as casiotone for the painfully alone at the snazzy new bar 355
having pizza and ice cream with megan and catrina
purchasing a handful of books at the annual big book sale
and babysitting lewis, stewart, nat, maude, sampson and berkeley.

whew.

this week will be filled with passion pit, matt and kim, arcade fire, and hardly strictly bluegrass (to see the avett brothers, in particular). the following week will be filled with sleep.

let's go to santa cruz!

2010-08-29T22:47:00.000-07:00

so for years, leslie and i have talked about taking a day trip to santa cruz. just for fun. just to play. work hectic? let's go to santa cruz! weather sunny and lovely? let's go to santa cruz! life in need of a quick escape? let's go to santa cruz!

but somehow, in all these years, we'd never done it.

until now. finally, FINALLY, we did it! and we. had. a. blast.

A BLAST!

we strolled the boardwalk, rode the giant dipper, played in the waves, sat on the beach, visited the arcade, ate cookies, took photo booth photos (not displayed here), perused shops--we did it all. sometimes you want to do something for so long and when you finally get to do it, it's disappointing. santa cruz? it was everything we ever dreamed.

finally, as promised...

2010-07-26T17:03:00.000-07:00

hello, dear readers! had you given up hope? here is the photo documentation for summer roadtrip 2010. hopefully if you click on the photo below, it will take you to my picasa album.

also i want to say thank you, dear readers, for your patience with my phone blogging and suffering through my poor grammar and misspellings and vague/possibly incorrect details about places and people that were all too much of a hassle to correct on a cell phone.

anyway, returning home reminded me that there is balance in the universe. the airline lost my luggage (and didn't enter the luggage number correctly so it couldn't be tracked) and my car was broken into while i was gone. (nothing stolen. just rummaged through. i keep nothing of value in there so i'm sure it was a disappointment. but the little buggers did put me out $200 for a replacement window so h them.) i just kept thinking that i wanted to go back on roadtrip where only good things happen. but the airline eventually found my luggage and i got the car window fixed so all is well.

when i called to report that my car had been broken into, the officer told me that my neighborhood has the highest rate of property vandalism and theft of anywhere in the bay area. i told him that i had moved to berkeley from oakland where i always felt my things were safe but would have expected the opposite. the officer replied with, "that's because oakland has the highest homicide rate of anywhere in the bay area." and we shared a chuckle over my having to choose my life or my property, depending on where i live.

final destination: west point, ny

2010-07-15T16:07:00.000-07:00

dear readers, we made it! yesterday we pulled into manhattan around 9pm or so in alisa's west village neighborhood. this morning we took the yellow mini to its new home in west point where it was reunited with heather and clay and where summer roadtrip 2010 officially concluded. and now here we are, back in nyc, carless, and with a few extra days to play before returning to berkeley (that applies to ashley and i anyway--alisa has to fly to utah tomorrow).

so before arriving in ny, we spent a day in dc with jen as our tour guide. we managed to visit the american history museum and the bureau of engraving & printing (where paper currency is printed). we ate fresh crabcakes from the fish market, got cupcakes in georgetown, saw the national cathedral, embassy row, and were thwarted by another thunderstorm from visiting the rest of the monuments and arlington cemetery. there are so many more things left to see and do-a return trip is necessary.

wed morning we left alexandria, va (where we'd been staying) for ny. we stopped in baltimore to take a self-guided the wire-themed tour. this was another instance where maybe we didn't exercise the best judgment...within a minute of pulling over at our first stop (the park where the gangs play basketball in the first season), a cop pulled up next to us and asked us if we were lost. we said no. he replied, "you shouldn't be here. this is a BAD area. it's really dangerous. you need to go." now mind, it was 11am. hardly anyone was on the street. we hadn't even gotten out of the car. the engine was still running. we were just driving through. and we didn't feel like we specifically were in any kind of danger. but the cop followed us for a while. i guess 3 white girls in a bright yellow mini cooper don't blend in too well in inner city baltimore. still, we snuck in a few more sites: the rim shop where marlo hangs out, marlo's spot where he holds court, and the pit. we also drove by hamsterdam, which is now built over, and saw some drug corners, which maybe weren't specifically in the show but could have been because here's the thing about inner city baltimore: it is seriously crazy intense and scary. west oakland is like disneyland compared to baltimore's east side. everything you imagine about baltimore from the wire is totally what we saw. but like 100 times more intense because it's real. it's a large area--miles of boarded up, dilapidated row houses. sure, we didn't feel like we were gonna die or anything but we're admittedly naive about the whole endeavor and definitely had no business being there. i'm glad we went. it's part of america and it was sort of amazing. and i hope we weren't exploiting the neighborhood by touring it. it was hard to keep in mind that what we were seeing was very real and not there for our gawking. we got to take our privileged selves right back to the freeway and move on. the folks that live there can't do that. i don't quite know how to process the experience.

anyway, we continued through maryland and then delaware and into pennsylvania. we stopped in philadelphia and saw the liberty bell and independence hall and grabbed dinner at a deli. from philly we drove on into new jersey, paid like $30 in tolls, and finally crossed into ny. what normally takes about 3.5 hours (dc to ny) took us 11. and that's just how roadtrip went by the end. gone were the days of 15 hours of straight driving like we did from slc to omaha. but that's what roadtrip was all about-seeing america, experiencing a bit of the places we passed through.

once i get home to my computer i'll post photos. looking forward to no more tedious phone blogging. if alisa and i can summon the energy, we're gonna head out in a few to see mates of state over in brooklyn. ashley went to a david letterman taping with her brother. ny heatwave returns tomorrow.

stops #friendly faces: durham, nc & washington dc

2010-07-12T21:41:00.000-07:00

dear readers, we are nearing the end of summer roadtrip 2010. from ga, we drove through so. carolina (stopped at the frampton plantation house) and into no. carolina to stay with becky and joel. originally we were gonna drive straight to dc (about 10 hrs) but then decided to break it up with a stop in durham. what a cute town! and how great to see becky and joel! they took us for a driving tour around town and we got popsicles at locopops. (i got grapefruit basil flavor, mmmm (no joke).)

today we continued north through virginia into dc. i'd never been before. it's really amazing!! we got to town in time to visit the american art museum at the smithsonian. and we parked right by the white house and stood outside the gate of 1600 pennsylvania ave gazing in and joking about the possibility of the obamas letting us surf their couch. i stuck my hand through the gate to touch the lawn. (hee hee, what a dork, i know, but it was the nearest i could get to actually being on the property.) then we met up with ashley's friend, jen, got dinner and set out to visit the monuments. it's so weird seeing these sites in person! they almost don't seem real. we got caught in a sudden thunderstorm and had to seek shelter in the lincoln memorial. tonight we're staying with reid and will spend a full day seeing more of dc before making the final leg of our journey to ny on wed.

stop #thunderstorms: savannah, ga

2010-07-10T21:41:00.000-07:00

savannah is fantastic. lots of you, dear readers, said savannah was a must-do for roadtrip and you did not fail us. what a great town. all that southern charm and dixie land goodness we all think of in reference to the south? right here. we arrived at matt's last night after grabbing enormous slices of pizza and fresh lemonade in downtown savannah. today we went over to tybee island and swam in the atlantic ocean. it felt so good to be at the beach and the water...oh, it was so great-like bath water. what a nice relief from the humid heat.

afterwards we went back downtown to take in the sites--town squares, spanish moss dangling from oak trees, old mansions, candy stores. but we got caught in a flash thunderstorm with the loudest thunder and heaviest rainfall I have ever witnessed. the sewer lids were actually popping off from the pressure of the rushing water draining into the system. we sought shelter in a shop and eventually made a dash to dinner. the rain let up before long and tonight we did a ghost tour of the city which was really fun. I love ghost tours.

tomorrow we start heading north up the coast.

stop #lost count: montgomery, al

2010-07-08T23:34:00.000-07:00

here we are in montgomery, alabama, home of the civil rights movement. we've seen martin luther king, jr's home, the church where he preached, and the bus stop where rosa parks boarded the bus and refused to give up her seat. we're in the town where the city bus boycott happened and where the selma to montgomery march ended. yesterday we visited the civil rights museum in memphis which was originally the lorraine hotel where mlk, jr was shot. we're staying with javez in his nice clean house and are about to go to bed after watching brooklyn's finest. and at home the mehserle verdict was read. it's weird being here among all this history, talking to people about racism and segregation and rights and progress while back home oakland is responding to a verdict that stirs up all those issues.

taking in tennessee

2010-07-06T21:41:00.000-07:00

before setting out on roadtrip, tennessee was pretty high on our list and let me tell you, dear readers, it does not disappoint. we spent the weekend in pigeon forge (south of knoxville) where we met up with mark and emily. being in the south for 4th of july weekend is...everything you imagine. pigeon forge is this crazy touristy/attraction town at the entrance to the smoky mountains and it's full of arcades, diners, carnival rides, dinner theaters, and large patriotic/religious americans. it's a lot to take in. but we tried to embrace the glory of it all as best we could by spending our independence day at dollywood. let me say this: dollywood is a gem of an amusement park and dolly parton a national treasure.

we drove to nashville on monday after a breakfast stop in gatlinburg. gatlinburg was sorta disappointing--largely due to horrible traffic but also because by that point we were about at our limits for kitschy themed resorts and amusements.

these are some observations about the south:

people are very friendly.

there are lots of anti-abortion and christian billboards dotting the highways. there are almost as many adult stores and stripper establishments dotting the highways.

memphis is cooler than nashville. nashville was fun and it seems like a nice town. (we spent last night there.) but none of us like country music all that much and were still sort of recovering from the weekend. but memphis is awesome (we arrived today). i totally choose beale st. over the district.

anyway.

when we got into town today, we met up with my dad who coincidentally had to deliver a load in memphis this morning. he had to get to kentucky to pick up his return load but we did get to hang out for a bit. he took us for a ride in his big truck-something i haven't done since i was little. and it was great that we were able to meet up in memphis of all places. then we grabbed lunch at uncle lou's, which is a fried chicken place that was just featured on diners, drive-ins and dives (something like that) on the food network. omh, it was amazing. i ate half my body weight in fried chicken and please spare me the vegetarian-cheating comments. i am experiencing the south. following the dive, we went to graceland and then over to beale st. i just got hit with a wave of sleepiness so i'm gonna abruptly stop right there.

more to come...

nightswimming

2010-07-03T00:07:00.000-07:00

tonight's our last night in kentucky. we're staying in berea w/ kristen and elizabeth. we arrived around midnight, after spending a very full day doing the following:

watching morning warm-ups and exercises at the keeneland track. it was a cool experience getting to overhear banter between jockeys and see them on horses in street clothes rather than silks. we stopped by churchill downs the other day when we passed through louisville. both tracks are soooo beautiful and classy and ENORMOUS. we also ate breakfast at the keeneland kitchen. loved the experience of eating with jockeys BUT I would rather starve to death than eat that food again. I chose apples as my side with my powdered eggs and grits, thinking some apple slices would be a redeeming natural food choice. what i got was a bowl of canned apples drowning in a thick brown syrup of sugar and cinnamon that tasted like it had been left burning on a stove all morning. and between the 3 of us we were given 15 containers of vegetable oil spread. oh berkeley food, I miss you. (to be fair, we have also had some delicious food on our journey.)

hiking to the natural bridge and exploring some of red river gorge out in the woods of southeast kentucky. the hardwood forests here are amazing. the magnolia trees have leaves almost as big as me.

napping and reading in a downtown lexington park where a sweet man sat alone at a nearby table reading out loud to himself in a thick southern drawl. randomly, the book i was reading (barbara kingsolver's prodigal summer) happened to introduce a character from lexington, who'd lived on euclid st, which bordered the park we were at. it's so crazy when that happens!

checking out some live music at al's, the locals' favorite bar and recommended to us by our new kentucky friends. sf and berkeley may take pride in its hipsters and hippies, but folks in the midwest and south are HARDCORE.

so once we got to berea, we were pretty beat. but, somehow we agreed to go swimming at 1am at a reservoir in the woods with elizabeth and a couple guys who'd stopped by the house. i'll be honest, we questioned our judgment in agreeing to participate in this adventure with these total strangers when we arrived at pitch black woods on the edge of town in southern kentucky and were told to form a human chain down to the water. no phones, no IDs, no real idea of where we were, our vulnerability sort of slapped us in our faces. but wisely or unwisely, we allowed ourselves to be led into the woods and swam peacefully and uneventfully in sun-warmed water under the stars. it was lovely.

we've been putting our trust in strangers this whole trip and it's been amazing and fun but tonight the reality of that trust was sort of put to the test. anyway, it worked out well and here we are with another memory, another story under our belts.

tomorrow we move on to knoxville, tenn...more adventure lies ahead...

stop 4: lexington, ky

2010-07-01T20:43:00.000-07:00

a few things:

today we went to the movies. it cost $1.50. there was a girl in the bathroom taking a pregnancy test.

tonight we played a round at a bible-themed miniature golf course.

ian and his roommates have a climbing wall in their dining room.

loving kentucky. tomorrow: horseracing.

i have lots of photos but having issues uploading them on blog from my phone. but ashley's posting pics on facebook as we go.

somewhere in middle america

2010-06-30T21:52:00.000-07:00

the midwest ROCKS. who knew? WHO KNEW?? we were so quick to dismiss it during our trip planning. our focus was always the south. but the midwest is setting the bar pretty high. omaha turned out to be a great town. super cool old brick buildings, fun shops, great ice cream. we did some exploring downtown and then came across a reference to winter quarters and ended up stumbling upon the winter quarters temple so we unexpectedly geeked out on some mormon pioneer history in the afternoon.

we drove from omaha to kansas city, mo. and grabbed dinner there. it also looked like a nice, cool town with more of the old brick buildings. then we drove across the missouri river to kansas city, ks to stay with tiffany and her 2 dogs brody & cause. brody is the biggest dog i've ever seen.

this picture doesn't really do him justice so let me offer you a little perspective with this fun fact: his favorite toy is a 16 lb bowling ball.

tiffany invited some friends over and in warm midwestern hospitality, they took us out to the local bars for a night on the town. oh it was so fun. the kansas cities rock. sometime after 3am went to bed in tiffany's tornado shelter basement complete with hatch door. this morning she made us veggie scramble with organic vegetables from her garden.

today we drove across missouri, illinois, a bit of indiana and part of kentucky. i have to say, i love the cornfields. and just like you see in kitschy themed wall calendars, tiny steepled churches dot the landscape. tonight we're staying in lexington, ky with ian and his roommates in this amazing victorian house that they've converting into a sort of monastic cooperative. we get to spend a couple days exploring kentucky before heading to tennessee to meet up with mark and emily.

time to sleep.

stop 2: omaha, ne

2010-06-28T23:15:00.000-07:00

ahhh, we made it. we're here in omaha after a looong day of driving from slc. we had a very close call with a deer in utah. then drove through wyoming. stopped at a huge virgin mary shrine at the wy/ne border but it was sort of disappointing. however, the gas station salvage yard down the street was awesome.

alisa's favorite part of wyoming: when the stripper gave the sitar player a restless tune up.

nebraska is pretty. we saw our first cornfields. we're officially in the midwest! tonight we're staying with lauren and her 2 cats. lauren had beds all made up for us when we arrived. it's so late and we're so tired. I could have kissed her. we will sleep well and explore omaha tomorrow.

stop 1: slc, ut

2010-06-28T00:34:00.001-07:00

We're here in salt lake city, utah and are crashing at alisa's folks' for the night. It's so nice to be here! Roadtrip is off to a great start. For those of you dear readers who questioned the comfortability of our transportation situation, you will be surprised to learn that we fit quite comfortably in the mini. We've got plenty of room! And we've got great car snacks and are building a fantastic roadtrip playlist. Driving down the highway in a mini is awesome! All the other mini drivers wave at us. I didn't know that was a thing but I love being a part of it! We stopped at our first roadside attraction today: the thunder mountain art monument thingy in nevada. I can't remember the name of the town it's in...I have some pictures but they're on my camera and I'm posting on my phone. Also ashley and I had to pee behind a carwash tonight. We were only like 10 minutes from alisa's but both had to go so bad! Couldn't hold it any longer. And the gas stations were all closed. so we did what we had to do. It may not be the last time that happens on our trip...

Also garret--your bike survived the journey and will be here waiting for you.

And kenzster--thanks for joining us for a stretch through nevada and being our first phone guest. We're wearing our seatbelts.

Tomorrow's goal: omaha, nebraska.

hitting the road

2010-06-27T00:02:00.000-07:00

in about 8 hours i'm heading out across the country in a yellow mini cooper with alisa and ashley for summer roadtrip 2010. final destination: nyc. between here and there, we're taking in the sites of middle america and hoping to revel in kitschy, kooky and creepy americana. world's largest office chair? oh yes. world's largest garden gnome? of course. carhenge? indubitably. dollywood? obviously. mammy's cupboard? definitely. waverly hills sanatorium? eeek! absolutely.

i'll post updates along the way so stay tuned...

so far i'm not blogging as much as i thought i would this summer

2010-06-22T22:08:00.000-07:00

this past weekend i went down to socal for father's day. my brothers and i were all in town, which is a rare occurrence. for that matter, my dad was in town, which is also sort of a rare occurrence since he has to spend most of his days on the road in a big rig. so for the first time in a long time, we were all in the same place. we took some pictures. dad was the photographer so he's not in most of them.

and then i convinced everyone to do jumping pictures. dad was 3 for 3 capturing us in the air. here's the best one.

also, my mom is sorting out all the report cards, school reports, birthday cards, letters, awards, certificates, etc. us kids collected over the years. she has set aside a bin for each of us. i went through the bin she started for me and found some real gems. one of which i'm sharing below. this is a comic i wrote for my journal entry one day in 3rd grade.

breaking up is hard to do

2010-06-07T09:08:00.000-07:00

for the last five years i've worked for the same company in the same job and two and a half weeks ago, i quit. we all talk about quitting our jobs and moving on to new things, making career changes, going back to school, etc. but when it comes down to it, it's hard to do. sure it's exciting and empowering to feel like you're taking control of your life again--i definitely felt that when i made the decision to leave and i still feel that. but shaking up your life when you've grown so accustomed to the familiarity and stability of your job is scary and risky, too. and it's sad to leave something behind that's been such a big part of your life, even when you know it's time to go and even when you've had those times in the past where you were ready to storm out of the office and never look back.

so i expected it to be a little sad when it came time to say the goodbyes but i didn't expect a week of choking up with teary sadness at any and every mention of my leaving. leslie and i could hardly look at each other those last few days without tears (but that was inevitable). i was a wreck by my last day. the best way i can describe the whole quitting experience was that it was sort of TOTALLY like breaking up with a boyfriend. honestly. sure, it was my idea to end it and yes, it was for the best but we had some good times and five years is a long time to stay together--much, much longer than any actual relationship i've ever had. and now what do i do with myself? who do i hang out with? where do i go? can i still stop by now and then? will we get to hang out anymore? can we still be friends?

it was very much like that. i slept horribly the night of my last day and woke up in the morning heavy-hearted. i got that awful tensing in my chest when i remembered that my job was over. i woke up early and even half thought about jumping in the shower and going through the motions of getting ready as if i still had to go to work.

it was weird.

fortunately, the mourning phase passed after a few days. by the weekend, my newfound freedom had sunk in and waking up was much more like this: (sorry for the horrible rating clip stuck onto the end. ignore that.)

the cycle complete.

anyway, during that break-up phase, i did agree to get back together with my job, you know, like you do. give it another go, rekindle the romance, relive the good times. but just temporarily. so last week i returned to my life as a biologist and spent 4 days doing field work outside of merced. there were lovely things about it--leslie was there and frankly, my break-up response was probably primarily due to no longer seeing her everyday in our shared office. the withdrawals smart something fierce! also it was fun working with nate and justin again. and we were working along a lakeshore so we got to ride in a boat everyday. however, it was hard work. physically-speaking, it was some of the hardest field work i've ever done. it was hot and we were trudging along 50-60 degree slopes of shale scree supporting dry slippery grasses, poison oak and toyon prisons. also rattlesnakes. we were warned there were lots. my coworkers collectively had 0 rattlesnake encounters. i had 4. in all cases, i nearly stepped on them. in one case, the snake poised to strike. i, in response and in the moment, struck a sort of fencing pose with my walking stick. the snake considered me for a moment and then lunged down the slope. oh it was a shaky moment.

anyway, last week was good closure. life can move on. keeping with my break-up analogy, i want to say that there are plenty of fish in the sea...plenty of jobs on the market? ha. not so much. not that that applies anyway. not right now. i do have a new job and i am settling into it. luckily new job includes lots of free time for now so for the first time in YEARS, i get to have a real summer vacation. this may never happen again.

it. is. awesome.

it's noon and i'm sitting on the couch blogging. who gets to do that??? in an hour i'm meeting liz, reid and ben at gypsy's for lunch. on a monday afternoon. so yes, i feel good about the future. and about right now.

elephant, elephant, irrelevant, benevolent...coagulant...megadeth

2010-05-31T00:31:00.000-07:00

lots of blog fodder. but tonight i'm just covering the evelyn evelyn show. omh, it was so so so fantastic. costumes: ashley and i surprisingly had no luck finding steampunk circus costume pieces during our party in the slc trip. so i finally got my costume together the day before the show. leslie graciously lent me the bustle that anna made and i paired that with a tutu and added striped tights, feathers and this awesome jacket that i found at crossroads. when i bought it, it looked like this:

after transforming it into a steampunk circus jacket, it now looks like this:

i am particularly proud of the grommets and ribbon on the back. i had never grommeted anything before and it's not something that can just be undone so i'm really glad that it turned out well. and the lace on the bottom matches the lace on the bustle.

anyway, the show: looking AWESOME, leslie, ashley, anna and i showed up at the gamh last saturday and were blown away by amazing performances. sxip shirey made incredible noise, the evelyn sisters were shy but not to be messed with, jason webley rocked it a la tom waits style and of course amanda palmer was everything that makes her amanda palmer. after the show they all came out to do signing and at one point i turned around and afp was standing right there--like 10 feet away! just standing there in street clothes, getting ready to start signing. i might have geeked out a little with starstruckness...and because i feel this false sense of familiarity as a fan, it was really hard not to just walk over and say hi as if we were friends who hang out. thank goodness i 1) caught myself and 2) am way too shy and nervous to approach anyone famous or else i might have made an idiot of myself.

photos from that night, courtesy of leslie:

your petrochemical arms1

2010-05-06T22:01:00.000-07:00

this is gonna be another sort of recap post…

1. a few weeks ago i was over at leslie’s for dinner. leslie can tell you a little about it here. (for the record, both dinner and dessert were exquisite.) after dinner, leslie, ashley and i sat around planning our costumes for the upcoming evelyn evelyn show. i believe our google search phrase was “steampunk circus bustles” if that gives you any idea of what we’re going for. i have yet to follow through on any of our costume ideas but…

this weekend i’ll be visiting liz, ebarb and kenzster and i’m wondering about the likelihood of randomly finding anything in the steampunk circus genre in slc. we do have a pretty jam-packed weekend planned, what with the all the ice cream, frozen yogurt, burgers (for some), middle eastern cuisine, baked goods, bookstores and movies we plan to consume, but maybe somewhere between king’s english bookshop and no name’s saloon we’ll come across something like this?

i hope so.

2. i’ve been busy the past couple weeks maximizing on my health insurance coverage before it goes away and i join the millions of uninsured americans. temporarily anyway. you see i’m quitting my job and with that i’ll have to quit my insurance, too. at least until i find an affordable individual plan. soooooo, i got in one last teeth cleaning, called in a prescription, got an eye exam, and ordered new glasses. today i picked up my glasses. i like them.

it's a little weird knowing i'll soon be without insurance even though i barely take advantage of what i've had for so many years. it makes me nervous to be without. five years ago i wouldn't have cared one way or the other. but now i feel more...mortal. less...invincible.

3. last week i became one of those people who waits in lines. like people do when they want to be FIRST. you know, the suckers who succumb to the hype and jump whole-heartedly onto the bandwagon to lead the parade of shiny must-haves. i don’t know how it happened. one minute i was content in my world of tedious 10-key texting and the next, i was convinced that my very happiness rested on having a new phone. A smartphone. THE phone.

htc droid incredible.

i stopped by the verizon store last monday to say i wanted that phone. i was informed that lots of people wanted it and that the waiting list was already full, so if i also wanted it, i’d have to take my chances and show up on thursday and fight for one of the few extras they were ordering. i asked if i’d still have a chance at one if i just stopped by after work that day. the guy sort of choked back a snicker and said it’d be best if i drove by the store on my way to work.

me: but i leave for work at 8. your store doesn’t open until 10.

verizon guy: so if you see a line, you’ll know that you probably won’t get a phone later that day.

me: you think people will LINE UP 2 HOURS BEFORE THE STORE OPENS FOR A PHONE????!!!

vg: it’s a very nice phone.

me: i know! that’s why i want it! but it’s still JUST A PHONE. it’s not like it won’t be available after thursday.

vg: well, a lot of people like being able to say they got something the day it came out.

me: SUCKERS!!

three days later, i found myself cashing in on some vacation time to stand in line.

i drove by verizon at 9am and saw one lone guy standing outside. i parked my car and joined him. somewhat sheepishly we acknowledged each other. i immediately explained that i never do this sort of thing. then he (i shall call him “eric”) admitted that he’d been there since 8, having traveled by bart from union city to berkeley on a tip from his verizon-employed cousin that he’d have the best shot at getting a phone here. by the time i arrived, he’d already had 2 cups of coffee and 3 cigarettes. he had taken the day off work so that after acquiring his phone, he could spend the day mastering it. all need for me to explain myself vanished. we continued our chitchat and let our gazes rest on the big poster showcasing our prize. by 8:45 we were best friends, accepting each other for the suckers that we are. eric dutifully reported the countdown to the doors opening. i glared at the few others who eventually joined our line of 2 and looked like they were going to try to cut in front of us.

just before 10am, verizon let us in one at a time. 15 minutes later, the phones were gone. but i got mine and eric got his. and you know what? no regrets. call me a sucker. i don't care. i waited in line and won!

4. saturday night i went with garret to the reopening of the oakland museum. it was a really great event and i loved all the exhibits. also it was just awesome to hang out in a museum at midnight. not as awesome sticking around until 3am, but i'm old and tire easily. i did the best i could. my favorite piece was this diorama of a scene from the california desert. i took a picture of it but it doesn't do it justice. it looked so REAL, so ALIVE. i could practically see little people walking among the rusty clutter. you must go see it!

5. tuesday night i made my way down to palo alto with michael to attend a free lecture with laurie anderson. neither of us were quite sure what to expect, not being all that familiar with her work. i knew she was at the forefront of the experimental rock scene in the 80s and is now married to lou reed. and that she was once an artist in residence at nasa. (i'd heard an interview with her on sound opinions a couple years ago, which was the first time i'd ever heard of her at all.) anyway, i thought she'd be interesting and kooky. i did not necessarily expect that she'd also be thoughtful and wise and funny and warm. i could have listened to her talk about life and art and music all night. i think we all went away feeling like she taught us something about ourselves. i don't know, that sounds sort of ridiculous. but whatever, that's just how it was.

6. have i mention how excited i am for "party in the slc" this weekend?? super. i think it may rival the tahoe weekend we had last month for vicky. and that was one of the best weekends EVER. good food, trashy magazines, episodes of glee and leave it to beaver, more good food, hot tubs, rummikub, more food...it was heaven. but back to slc--i haven't packed yet. and i may not have time tomorrow after work. hmmmmmm...

it's now after 1am.

how does this happen?

i must get up early.

good night.

¹from laurie anderson's "o superman"

the post that turned into "this week in music"...

2010-04-18T20:14:00.000-07:00

first of all, let's get this out of the way since it's all any of us in attendance can talk about: i was at the thom yorke/atoms for peace show at the fox theater on thursday and it was...well, one of the greatest shows of my life. everyone who was there has already talked about it so there's nothing i can really add. i'll just say that days later, that night is still running through my brain and i wish i could relive the concert over and over. it was amazing, hypnotic, epic. the reworked eraser album came to life. flea rocked the h out of it. thom yorke's mini solo set transformed the theater into an intimate gathering. and when the whole band played, i felt the music coursing through my veins in a way i can't recall ever before experiencing. if only the show had been on a giant dance floor. this music isn't meant for a seated audience.

after the first encore, we all stood there, cheering, screaming, clapping, chanting. the house lights came up. some lightweights left. but most of us stayed, waiting, hoping, almost demanding just a little more. and finally, after forever, atoms for peace returned and rewarded us with joy division's love will tear us apart. so, so great.

we were part of something historic.

garret posted some clips from the show we were at and from other shows on the tour. you can check them out here.

i talked about that way more than i meant to.

hmm, now i feel obligated to talk about the other shows i went to this week. seems only fair.

so earlier in the week i saw sia at the regency ballroom--she was a hoot. and so were the fans. they kept passing gifts up to the stage: drawings, candy, crayons, stuffed animals, shirt, scarf, etc. and then some guy passed up his pants. and then some girl passed up her PROSTHETIC LEG. no joke. also, at one point, a guy shouted out a codeword, got on stage and proposed to his girlfriend. sia filmed it. and another guy brought his knitting and sat on a designated stool on stage working away. a lot went on that night. here's a glimpse of the antics. there was also some singing. oh girl can sing. in the end, michael and i gave it two thumbs up. (warning: once the music starts, the sounds gets really bad.)

and finally, saturday, i made a last-minute run into the city with dan and denise to catch jonsi from sigur ros do a free gig at amoeba. it was sooo beautiful. his solo album sounds really great. it still sounds like sigur ros but more poppy (pop-y?). he played a real show the night before that was like this whole multimedia experience (i wasn't there. but youtube confirms it's true.) and while sad to miss that, i love that we got to see him for free.

anyway.

this really isn't the post i set out to write. i haven't even gotten to my second and third of alls. i've just talked about shows. and now it's late and i'm sleepy. so this is what you get, dear readers. whatever else i was gonna write will have to wait. but oh, what a great week!

also,

i could really go for a bowl of cereal.

mark your calendars: party at the peach pit

2010-04-05T22:53:00.000-07:00

my brother sent me this text message on saturday:

"the other day i realized that the date of your birthday this year will be 90210."

that's pretty much the greatest thing ever.

driven by ambition

2010-03-18T00:04:00.001-07:00

what i'm currently NOT doing:

my taxes

identifying and eliminating the weird, mysterious burnt rubber smell in my apartment

building my chandelier

reading the book i started a couple weeks ago but have apparently lost interest in

training for the oakland running festival

cleaning my apartment for soon-to-be-arriving kenzster

calling my sister-in-law to thank her for the scarf and bag she made me (i will, i will! it just gets so late in michigan so quickly!)

saving my dying ficus plant

finding my apple store receipt (leslie, i will do this before i leave in the morning)

going to bed early

i've always wanted to pass for a hipster

2010-03-10T11:27:00.000-08:00

a couple weeks ago, garret and i went to a noisepop show at the palace of fine arts. we saw the dodos playing with magik magik orchestra. out in the lobby, a photographer roamed. he asked to take our picture.

and now we're super cool and famous san francisco hipsters. i can't answer for garret, who will be leaving the country shortly (temporarily), but i will be available to sign autographs.

thank you.

returning to "year of creativity"

2010-03-07T17:22:00.000-08:00

despite it now being march 2010, i am still in the middle of my year of creativity. i return to that theme sharing my most recent project...

i saw something online awhile back that inspired me with a curtain project idea. i had previously purchased plain white curtains from ikea (and was rather proud of myself for installing curtain rods and hanging them) and wanted to doll them up a bit. the idea was to decorate the curtains with a silhouette image that was split down the middle and then put one half on one curtain and the other half on the other curtain so that when the curtains were closed, the image would be whole.

i just needed to figure out what image to use. i wanted to do something sort of quirky and not too obvious. no trees, flowers, birds, bridges, bicycles, grandfather clocks, etc. i wanted something that had meaning to me and was fun and unexpected. so after letting the concept stew a bit, inspiration struck and i knew exactly what i wanted to do.

i found an image online, copied it making slight modifications, printed it onto a transparency, borrowed an overhead projector from the institute, projected the image, and traced it onto some heavy black fabric. i cut out the image, then cut it down the middle, and glued it onto my curtains. at some point i intend to sew it on for more permanence. but the glue is working very well and as i am not a sewer, i am happy leaving it at that for now.

take a look:

horse & jockey!!! i have to say, the curtains turned out PERFECTLY. and i love them with all my heart. as much as i love the fireplace mantel. and my swirly pink chair. as many of you dear readers know, i have a special place in my heart for horse-racing, thanks to years of reading dick francis mysteries. call me a 60-year old british man--i don't care if i don't fit among the author's intended audience--but an image of a horse & jockey as inspired by mr. francis really is just right.

here's a close-up of what the curtains look like open and closed:

ta-dah!

i don't have any other big projects in mind at the moment. i actually finished the horse & jockey curtains back in december. so i'm definitely due for another project. actually, there is a chandelier that i want to make...and a picture frame with...well, nevermind. i guess i do have a couple ideas. you'll just have to wait and see.

oh one last thing. my hair is no longer red.

flashback friday: bundled up

2010-02-19T14:06:00.001-08:00

winter 1981/82, logan, utah. i was 3.

(for those of you frustrated with my lack of posting lately, hang in there. i promisepromisepromise a real post soon. consider this flashback friday a warm up to get me back in the groove.)

intimidation

2010-01-05T18:49:00.000-08:00

a conversation with my brother:

me: michael, on a scale of 1 to 10, how intimidating am i?
michael: amy, you are not at all intimidating.
me: no, no, don't just judge by my size. consider the whole package: my sharp wit, my life experience, how snotty i can be...
michael: look, i see someone like you and think, "she seems really nice and really sweet, probably gives good hugs."
me: that answer is unacceptable.

happy thanksgiving

2009-11-26T18:07:00.000-08:00

this year i'm (again) spending thanksgiving in nyc with alisa. and now that i'm becoming an expert at thanksgiving in nyc, i'm going to offer you, dear readers, a guide to celebrating thankfulness in the big apple.

1. on wednesday, go to the doughnut plant and order one of every kind of doughnut. this will save you the arduous and stressful task of having to select only one doughnut out of all the delicious kinds available. if you're worried that you won't be able to eat all of those doughnuts, i'll put your mind as ease right now. you will. and sooner than you think. (this picture was taken after we consumed about half the doughnuts, which took us about 10 minutes.)

2. on thanksgiving day sleep in as late as you can. if you sleep past noon, then congratulate yourself! with another doughnut or a light snooze.

3. once you're up, don't get up. just grab ye ol' laptop (which must already be within arm's reach so this one will take a little planning the night before) and begin a) a tv series marathon (might i recommend freaks and geeks, gilmore girls, or if you're alisa, veronica mars), b) anything on instant netflix, or c) mamma mia. continue with this activity until it starts to get dark again outside.

4. when darkness returns, get dressed and go out for your thanksgiving dinner at the nearest chinese/japanese combo restaurant you find open and order at least twice as much food as you'll actually be able to eat. the more of it that is fried, the better. since your party will be the only ones in the restaurant, enjoy some friendly banter with the staff and make them take pictures of you eating.

5. after dinner you will be tempted to go to times square and hop on a tour bus. ignore this temptation. times square will only annoy you with the throng of confused tourists, confetti and garbage mess from the earlier macy's day parade (which you slept through) and a waaay overpriced bus tour package mr. musa dude will offer you. instead, head back to (insert friend's name here) apartment, immediately put your pjs back on, and resume your tv/movie marathons until the sun starts to come up.

if you follow this thanksgiving guide, dear readers, you will find you have a lot to be thankful for.

riding on the coattails of an internet celebrity...

2009-10-30T19:01:00.000-07:00

remember the story that circulated on the interwebs a few months ago about the belgian girl who claimed she fell asleep at a tattoo parlor and woke up with 56 stars tattooed on her face, disfiguring her for life? i love that girl. for she was my inspiration for this year's costume...

i'm her mirror image!!

there is one crucial difference: my stars are painted on with liquid eyeliner and will wash off tonight. hers...well, bless her heart, hers have a little more permanence...but now having lived with them for a day, maybe that's not such a bad thing. i'm sort of sorry to see mine go.

happy halloween all. be safe out there.

(yes, i know halloween isn't until tomorrow but since it's on a saturday this year, i dressed up for work today. so today is when i'm celebrating.)

note to flu: style cramped

2009-10-22T12:40:00.000-07:00

so there's a flu bug going around-you may have heard something about it...some of you, like me, may have caught it. i don't know what it is-if it's h1n1/swine flu or just a regular flu/cold going around these here parts but it has knocked the h out of me. i don't really care what it is. i'd just like it to go its way and leave me in peace already. (not resting in peace, mind, but well in peace.) anyway, it's seriously cramping my style.

pre-sick, i made it to the ani show in berkeley. that was friday night and she was as brilliant and amazing and wise and lovely as ever. wicked funny, too. unfortunately, she was playing at zellerbach hall which, frankly, sucks as a rock concert venue. i'd forgotten that. i saw sufjan there a few years ago and it didn't really work then, either. it's a long room full of seats that totally loses any sense of intimacy a performer would otherwise capture with her/his audience. ani rocks, zellerbach does not.

(this is one of her newer "happy" songs that she played friday, though this clip isn't from friday's show. i know it's hard to sit and watch a youtube clip embedded in someone's blog that's longer than 15 seconds so i don't really expect you to watch it here. but it's available for you here anyway.)

saturday night found me at a free lecture with sarah vowell sharing excerpts and insights from assassination vacation. she was also charming and funny and lovely. she was invited as part of the contra costa county library program that i think should be copycatted everywhere.

unfortunately, due to miserable illness, last night did not find me at the brandi carlile show at the fillmore as originally planned. almost made it. but flu tightened its grip as the day progressed and i remained captive at home. i did hear that the show was great and i indeed missed out. brandi's still new to me but settling in well as someone i want to listen to.

(and to see if you might like her, too, here's a clip. it's just one of those posts. clips and links, clips and links.)

tonight, due to continued illness and efforts to just get better already, i'm missing a night out with tainted love. at some point, dear readers, let's go, okay? they seem fun. and i already have a wig and purple lace leggings that must be worn.

you'd think in all this cozy, getting-to-skip-work-and-stay-home-in-my-pjs-time, i'd be reveling in my hiding out. it's nothing but sleep, lay around, watch netlfix online, sleep, read, lay around, sleep, lay around, check email, sleep. sounds wonderful, right? it would certainly sound wonderful to me. a glorious luxury. but, the sad, bubble-bursting truth is that it is not. it's a total drag. everything smells like sick and i haven't stepped a toe outside since monday. i'm turning into one of those underground cave-dweller folks, all pasty and blind. ricolas have lost all their flavor and i'm down to only toilet paper as tissue. netflix online no longer amuses me and all the books i'm reading are about death. and apparently i've gotten really whiny.

on the upside, i am keeping to my weekly blogging goal. recounting my calendar and whining make for easy blog fodder.

flashback friday: halloween

2009-10-16T07:47:00.000-07:00

it's been a while, eh? i think all of you, dear readers, are overdue for a dose of flashback friday.

halloween 1986. i was a sweet, girly, fairy-princessy something. i don't think i ever really decided exactly what i was. apparently, whatever i was, i thought it would best be emphasized with lots of blue eye shadow and rouge. i might have overdone it. i don't know. does one consider make-up overdone when blue eye shadow goes completely around the eye and rouge is really lipstick?

well just call me sadie, sadie painted lady, then.

button, button, who's got the button?

2009-10-07T20:38:00.001-07:00

month of blogging is off and running!

so let's return to year of creativity. last time i wrote about something large. this time i'll write about something small.

i got a button-making kit from one alisa joy for my birthday. a very useful item--for what occasion can't be celebrated with a button? buttons celebrate LIFE. they're bumper stickers FOR YOUR CLOTHES. (or backpack or purse or hat, etc. anything, really. they're so versatile.) not only can i make buttons, but i can make custom-made, one-of-a-kind, limited-edition buttons that show ANYTHING I WANT. the possibilities are endless. i could potentially start my own button-making business. which potentially makes alisa my investor. so obviously she should be the first recipient of an amy "button-acular" button (don't judge, the name is still being refined...) to experience my high quality product first-hand. this was my thought when i busted out the button-making kit for the first time. and so i made her a button:

ta-dah!

one time we went to see a live show of this american life and we wanted to go wearing something to celebrate the event, something to show our love for ira, something to illustrate that we were fans of the show...something like...A BUTTON. but we didn't have any buttons. so alisa made us tiny "i heart ira" tags with a label-maker from her work. and though they were lovely and served our needs, we commiserated that they weren't buttons. this was not the first time nor that last that we shook our fists in frustration shouting, "if only we could make buttons!"

now i can make buttons.

it's extremely satisfying. you make your bit of art to preserve forever between metal and plastic, stack all the pieces together and smoosh it with this lever thingy. the satisfying thing is that the lever doesn't make any noise or suddenly stop or snap or give or anything. you squeeze it together and think, "i must be doing something wrong. nothing seems to be happening." but then you release it and voila! out falls a perfect-made bona fide button.

i've made one other wonderfully kitschy button that just says "awesome".

because it is. right???

a place for hanging stockings

2009-09-28T19:21:00.000-07:00

i'm making a goal to blog weekly during the month of october. it is not october yet but i'm still considering this my kick-off post.

i've decided to make this year the year of creativity. it's a little ambiguous as to when year of creativity began-sometime in august. creativity cannot be rushed. so since august i've undertaken a few different projects. i'd like to feature one now. my FAVORITE one. here is the story: since moving into my new place, i've been in the market for a fireplace mantel to use as a decorative piece. i had a lovely vision of sitting in my swirly pink and purple chair, reading a book, drinking tea and looking up now and then to gaze upon a beautiful, shabby chic, french-country, "anthropologie-esque" fireplace mantel adorned with candles, framed art, a clock, etc, etc. and it would mean home. i had about given up on the dream when i found exactly what i was looking for. here's what it was like when i got it home:

it came from an old house that was demolished. one of the guys doing the demo tried to salvage it but it was accidentally thrown into the rubbish heap and split into pieces. because of its condition and because he was eager to clear out space in his garage, the guy selling it gave it to me for $15. $15 is a STEAL. most of the mantels i found on craigslist were more in the $300-$600 range. and they were mostly hideous. because it was split into pieces, i could easily fit it into my car. so we had a deal. clearly, the stars were aligned.

i got it home, cleaned it up, and whilst precariously positioning and holding the pieces together, i hammered and sawed and anchored the mantel into the beautiful, shabby chic, french-country, "anthropologie-esque" whole fireplace mantel i'd envisioned. behold:

i adorned it with candles, framed art, a clock, etc, etc. and yes, when i sit in my swirly pink and purple chair, reading and drinking tea, i look up now and then to gaze upon the decorative furniture piece of my dreams and it means home. i. love. it. i love it completely.

i'm still working on what to put under the mantel. i have ideas but the framed photos are sort of a holding place in the meantime. they look messy in the photo but in real life they actually work okay, though it does remind me a little of a store display.

my next big project in this year of creativity has to do with my curtains. i can't reveal any more about it at this time. but it's conference weekend coming up and i'm hoping that means i will get that project done while i'm streaming 8 hours of church.

so tonight i was reading a new blog post by amanda palmer. like all blogs i follow, i read hers in google reader, so i rarely visit her actual site. but tonight i clicked over there to check out tour dates and such when i then clicked on something that led to the "sign up for amanda's mailing list..." link. i don't usually sign up for fan mailing lists or business mailing lists, etc, etc. who does? but i signed up for amanda's because she's amanda palmer and i love her. i even used my regular email address and not one of my junk email addresses. that's how much i love her. and what happens when you sign up for something online? you get an automated welcome email. i knew that was coming and i know it's automated but can i admit to you, dear readers, that it was such a thrill to open my inbox and see an email from "amanda palmer". like she knows me. like i know her. like we're friends. like it's real. omh, awesome.

what's also awesome? that the message addressed to me says this:

"i love you. amanda" !!!!!!!!!! again, it's not real and i'm a dork. but BUT, it is still a thrill to have an email sitting in my inbox that says i love you from amanda palmer. heehee!! made my day. mailing list? worth it.

well, dear readers, it's about my bedtime. getting out of bed was excruciating this morning and i've got to get out of this rut of arriving late to work. i must get to sleep earlier. also, i made a goal to go running every morning this week. i have yet to start. but maybe tomorrow...so goodnight, goodnight, don't let the bedbugs bite.

you don't mean that, say you're sorry1

2009-08-16T18:46:00.000-07:00

so my small attempt to travelogue my trip dissolved pretty quickly, largely due to limited internet access. but rest assured, the undocumented portion of my trip was great. i might slip in anecdotes and photos now and then, just to round it out. but seeing as the majority of mbatE2008 still remains unblogged...well, i make no promises.

i've been back a few weeks now and life has settled back into its normal routine, with just a couple minor tweaks. namely, i moved across town and am currently acquiring about 5 dozen housemates. otherwise, things are exactly the same.

i might dye my hair bright red in a couple weeks. it's been on my mind and it just feels like the thing to do. i'm not a tattoo kind of girl and creative piercings, though very tempting, are all sort of out of the question. so that leaves my hair--my outlet of choice for pent-up rebellion. which, let's be honest, makes me a pretty mild-mannered rebel. i'm not much of a threat to any institution or tradition or formality...

speaking of hair, i had a very good hair day today. what a treat those days are. why are there good and bad hair days? it's the same head of hair. and yet...just wait, i'll try to recreate good hair day tomorrow and it will almost guaranteed, fail.

what else can i write about to continue along this vein of self-absorbed shallowness?

my birthday is coming up. i've got no ideas for what i want to do. maybe just go out to dinner? my birthday is on a weekday so it's gonna be pretty chill. i'm fine with that. i like chill.

um, what else? i'm hungry. ooh, i can probably scrounge up some chips and salsa. which reminds me, i probably don't have food for lunch tomorrow. typical.

i've got absolutely nothing of any intellectual merit to write in this post right now. and i want to go read some more of my book. so that's what i'm off to do. a good bit of sunday evening reading. lovely.

¹i have this song in my head right now. 10 points to gryffindor if you can name it without cheating.² ³
²i've been ready harry potter.
³haha, blogger recognizes gryffindor as a proper noun. (but not the other houses...interesting...)

leslie is tired of seeing "10 downing st" on my blog

2009-08-06T13:12:00.000-07:00

more from across the pond

2009-07-03T09:39:00.000-07:00

what's with all the 80s fashion?

currently watching wimbledon: murray vs. roddick. not that i entirely understand what's going on but i think it's a very close game (match? set?). the crowd is going wild. it will probably be over by the time i finish this post...

so, let's see. i don't know why i always want to review the weather but britain has experienced an unprecedented heatwave this past week and it's been, well, HOT. today it's finally cooling off and i have to say, it's rather pleasant. i think showers are expected tomorrow. go figure.

wednesday was a london day. cyn-d and i took the train in around lunchtime. our first stop was to 10 downing street which isn't super exciting in and of itself (the street is gated off and guarded; you can't actually see 10 downing street and i'm not all that interested in gordon brown) BUT it's just one of those little britain tributes. i love the sebastian sketches with the prime minister. so i took a couple photos:

and since we were right there in westminster, i did glance over at a couple other sights:

and of course, i had to "make a phone call":

then we headed over to harrods, enjoyed some overpriced gelato, did a little shopping (okay, i didn't actually buy anything) and then did a little more shopping at the V&A giftshop.

finally we wrapped up the evening at picadilly circus for dinner and a show with sarah!! we had a lovely, lovely time.

well, the match is over and it's about time to grab some dinner. (i won't tell you who won so as not to spoil it.)

i've got tons of oxford photos so i'll save those for another post...

we've got one more day in england (tomorrow we're leaving oxford to spend our last day in windsor) and then sunday we head to venice.

life is hard.

i learned a new word today: swotty

2009-06-27T13:56:00.000-07:00

we've left charming, quaint woodstock and are now in oxford proper. downtown, right off cowley road. it's quite a change of pace--we both got totally used to the quiet village life. cowley road is about as urban as oxford gets. we've exchanged a quiet cottage for a tiny flat above a cafe. lots of traffic, lots of sirens, lots of pubs, lots of eateries featuring cuisines from jamaica to poland to lebanon to...wherever. feels like home.

the owner at the woodstock flat claimed we brought the good weather with us. and yes, we had amazingly beautiful, warm, sunny weather during most of the past week. unfortunately, good weather must have had other commitments today because now we've got thunderstorms tagging along. it is POURING outside. but in a nice way. it's REAL rain. heavy, fat drops bouncing off the ground kind of rain. none of this half-hearted drizzly, foggy "rain".

that's enough chitchat about the weather. weather is what you talk about when you don't have anything nice to say. but i've got lots of nice things to say. so let's move on, shall we?

as hoped, i spent a fair amount of time exploring the blenheim palace grounds this last week during my daily runs. i am going to miss those terribly.

it's so much easier to run when you've got such breathtaking scenery surrounding you. also sheep!! i love running amongst the baa-baaing sheep.

but i found the nearest public access path to christchurch meadow today so i do have a new running site for this week. all is well.

not that i'm a big runner. i'm not. i like running. except when i hate it. it's something i like to do when i have time. and here i have time. and it also gives me an excuse to get off the high street and explore more natural settings.

wimbledon. that's happening right now. we're watching lots of wimbledon. all british eyes are on andy murray.

also glastonbury is happening right now. bbc covers wimbledon in the day and glastonbury at night. which means we've always got something to watch. we just watched spinal tap perform and they were pretty great. for fake rockers who haven't faked it in a long time, they're...really good.

yesterday we went to bath. did a little jane austening and a lot of shopping. ooh! and we ate lunch at jamie oliver's italian restaurant! that was fun. and quite tasty. we've got it on the list to try one of gordon ramsay's restaurants as well. (we've been watching a lot of ramsay's kitchen nightmares-it's on a lot late at night.)

so okay, that's really all i've got for now. i guess blog is gonna be travelogue for the next month. so apologies/you're welcome--please accept whichever applies to you.

ps: here's your hint: "swotty" was used in describing hermione granger.

where i belong

2009-06-21T21:12:00.000-07:00

i love england. i do. i could live here forever.

cyn-d and i arrived saturday afternoon, greeted by a drizzly rain. ("ahh, we're really in england!") got to woodstock around 5:30 pm, settled in a bit at the flat and then walked around the village and got dinner at the local pub. sweet potato soup...mmmmm.

we took an overnight flight over and only half dozed in spurts on the plane. we were in a more spacious row but i ended up with a large old indian woman on the other side of me who spilled over into half of my seat space and mistook me for her personal flight attendant. she spent most of the flight staring at me and asking me question after question. at no time did she recognize the futility of her inquiries as i do not speak nor do i understand hindi. apparently these facts were irrelevant. she'd stare intently and ask her questions and i'd reply with, "i'm sorry but i still don't understand you and i feel like you should have figured this out by now. fork? (slightly exasperated, holding up fork) toilet? (pointing to sign) light? (turning on light) water?" (handing her my water bottle), etc, etc. she also developed habits of setting food on my tray, handing me her trash to throw away or packets of condiments to open, and motioning me to get her son who was a couple rows back and cleverly feigning sleep most of the ride. i also tried feigning sleep but she'd just poke me or belch in my ear or stare until i opened my eyes and acknowledged her.

i was ready to get off the plane when we finally landed.

cyn-d and i managed to stay up until about 10pm saturday night (which was really something since neither of us slept much on the plane and i had slept maybe 5 hours total the previous 2 nights). so we both got a good night's sleep saturday night and i slept in sunday until about 10:30. it was wonderful.

but now...

jetlag.

for one thing, it doesn't get dark here until about 10:30pm. is this normal? i've never been in england in june. but it's like land of the midnight sun here. and by 4am it's light again outside. so sunday night (last night) we went to bed about 11:30 and by 12:30, were both wide-awake and back downstairs flipping through channels on the tv. we watched stephen fry in america, stephen fry on QI, and stephen fry on kingdom. at 2am we got totally invested in episode 1 of personal affairs. and then course by 4am it started getting light out again, which meant it was time for toast (obviously) and some imdbing of favorite british tv stars. ("ooh, what's alan davies up to these days?") it is now about 6am and cyn-d has gone to bed. i'm still downstairs, now blogging, hoping the effort of trying to amuse you dear readers will make me sleepy. of course i had set the alarm for 7:20 to get me up in time to go for a run through the grounds of blenheim before heading into oxford for breakfast. but at this rate, my morning run will more likely become my evening run.

no matter. because it is wonderful to be here. woodstock is quaint, charming, lovely and so very british, as you can see here:

this is where we're staying this week. i lovelovelove it. why don't i live here?

flashback friday: brownies

2009-06-05T08:23:00.000-07:00

just the other day someone asked me if i was ever in girl scouts. and i was-sort of. i was in brownies in 3rd grade. remember brownies? that precursor to "real" girl scouts? with the ugly brown jumper, brown cap (akin to a mickey mouse hat but without the ears), orange necktie and orange sock tassles? no? well, here, let me remind you:

sorry for the graininess of the photo. but you get the idea.

pour moi??

2009-05-20T19:42:00.000-07:00

this morning the receptionist buzzed my office and said, "um, amy, a package just arrived for you. it's too big for your box so if you want to come get it..."

"really? a package for me? but leslie and i only bought those shoes online yesterday. they couldn't possibly have arrived by today. why would a client send me something too big for my box?"

down the stairs i went to pick up my package. to my delight, i saw a new york, new york return address on it. "aha! alisa!...what has she sent me...???"

i opened the package and found fresh lotus eye gel (which i've been wanting and wanting) and fresh glowy face cream surrounded by:

2 samples of shampoo
2 samples of conditioner
3 samples of shower gel
plus 1 sample of shower gel for men (advertising, "the AXE Effect may result in, but is not limited to, unrelenting female attention and/or late nights...unleash the power of extra sexual perception")
1 t-shirt packaged like a huge hockey puck
1 package of skittles
2 samples of body butter/lotion
3 samples of lip moisturizer
2 samples of face cleanser
1 double set of earrings
1 sample of lotion
1 box of iced tea mix
1 pkg of parma rosa sauce mix

this is why it pays to be friends with alisa. who else uses samples as packing peanuts?^{1 2}

¹i realize that this may put alisa on the spot to now have to send all her california friends packages.
²but i think alisa will be so glad to have a post dedicated to her that she won't care.

apparently i have a thing for effeminate british men who dress up as women

2009-05-17T20:08:00.001-07:00

i'm taking a trip to europe next month and will be spending part of the time in england. i'm really looking forward to it-i haven't been to england in years even though it's maybe my favorite place in the world. it was the first place i ever visited outside the us and it was the first place away from home that felt like home. whenever i think about relocating abroad, the uk is always at the top of my list.

anyway, that's really neither here nor there except while i was thinking about what to blog about (feelings of guilt have been eating away at my conscience with time passing and no blogging happening...), i was thinking about what i've been up to lately. to be honest, what i've been up to lately is watching hours and hours of little britain. have you seen this show, dear readers? it's the funniest thing i have ever seen in my life. (this might be aided by the fact that i've developed a slight crush on david walliams) thanks to the wonderful world of netflix online, i have whittled away hours of time that could be spent in a number of productive ways, (re-)watching episode after episode of this show.

see for yourselves:

i can't explain it. i just love it.

*******

last week i spent 4 days up in shasta county doing rare plant surveys along the pit river. dear readers, days spent doing such work reminds me why i became a biologist, which is something i find myself needing more and more reminding of.

who can complain when days are spent hiking along this:

one day my coworker and i came across a rattlesnake. it wasn't my first encounter with a rattler, but it was my first time actually hearing one rattle. we were just about to head to our next survey location when it crossed in front of the car. aaron tried to agitate it while i jumped out of the car to get a closer look and hear it rattle.

it rattled like a motor then slithered into the grass and disappeared right where i had just been walking around minutes before. and even though we went on to another location, i stepped a bit more cautiously the rest of the afternoon.

*******

today i spent some time enjoying another fabulous view while friends walked down the isle:

johanan and joe picked a lovely day to tie the knot. the wedding was a swanky affair. i expected no less from them.

so that's a bit of what i've been up to lately. it hasn't all been about lounging around watching crass british comedy.

pehdtsckjmba

2009-04-20T22:51:00.000-07:00

i want to share with you, dear readers, why i love tom waits:

pure genius.

i just found out i'm giving a talk on sunday ("amy sandwich sunday") and on the way home tonight was trying to figure out a way to work a tom waits reference into my talk. but now that i'm posting a tw video on my blog, a reference on sunday won't be so novel and brilliant. it'll just be like, "oh yeah, yawn. saw that coming..." at least to the 3 members of the congregation who also follow this blog. (bless you.)

my topic is general conference. the tom waits reference thought led to a follow-up brilliant thought of speaking on my topic quoting only non-conference speaking, non-mormon folks. i am going to pursue this thought for now and see where it takes me.

in my next life i want to be a ballerina

2009-04-09T23:45:00.000-07:00

for now, i shall see this in my dreams.

somebody call the whambulance...

2009-03-30T19:11:00.000-07:00

i still need to do my taxes. i thought about doing them tonight. and then i forgot. now it's late and all i really want to do is go read i, claudius.

now for the matter at hand:

if i were to contribute a whine to white whine, it would be this:

ugh, why does my ipod have to be synced to itunes to keep track of play counts??

recently, i started paying attention to play counts in itunes and then became sort of obsessed with them and then decided i wanted to run some simple stats on which songs i've listened to the most, which artists i listen to most, what i used to listen to more vs. what i now listen to more, which songs and artists remain constantly in play over time, etc, etc. i just thought it'd be kind of an interesting way to describe my history of the past few years. and i thought since apple products are supposed to be so savvy, i could easily find these answers when i hooked up my ipod to my computer. but not so. the problem is that i never used to sync my ipod to itunes. instead i used to add music manually. apparently, if you add music manually, itunes doesn't update your library with play counts and dates from your ipod. is this really true? if so, it is ridiculous and inexcusable.

it seems like the simplest thing in the world for an ipod to keep track of what is listened to when and for itunes to display that information when that ipod is connected. but it doesn't and i feel sort of robbed by snooty, snotty, pretentious apple. i feel like i'm asking for some very basic information. and it probably does exist on my ipod-i just can't access it. it's so irritating.

now i'm syncing my ipod in itunes. but my play count data is all skewed because it doesn't show any history. i don't listen to much music in itunes itself. also, i haven't been listening to many of my old standards on my ipod lately so it looks like i never listen to albums i've actually listened to hundreds of times. conversely, there are a few songs that i clung to during a sappy stretch last year that have pretty high counts since i was also at that time more frequently listening to music on the computer.

i know this is the whitest of white whines but right now i just can't let it go. these days we can review our histories in so many ways beyond keeping handwritten journals--emails, texts, blogs, twitter (as much as i hate to acknowledge its existence), facebook, photos, art, clothes, financial statements, calendars, planners, even netflix keeps your rental history--a music tracker would be a cool digital age tool to add to that list. just think how much could be revealed about someone if you could see what s/he was listening to during a given month.

i want to say more on this subject but due to the late hour, i'm running out of steam. instead i'll just close with this picture from disneyland taken a couple weekends ago (courtesy of cmack):

people of earth

2009-03-07T18:29:00.000-08:00

i just found out tomorrow is daylight savings. i kind of wish i still didn't know. being an hour late to everything is forgivable on daylight savings day. i can still be an hour late everywhere tomorrow but now i'll feel guilty because i'll know i'm late. where's the fun in that?

every so often i try to give up my car on weekends-at least as much as i can-and walk/bike/take mass transit to get wherever i need to go. today i chose mass transit because 1) i like taking the bus when i don't have to be somewhere by a certain time, 2) it's the laziest of my non-car options since the stop is right across the street and today was a lazy kind of day, and 3) i was in the mood for that communal atmosphere that you find on mass transit. i wasn't necessarily in the mood for having random conversations with strangers but i did enjoy taking in random conversations between others. particularly between this woman and man who were talking about cooking live lobsters. you know, like in annie hall:

the woman talked about how she couldn't take the screaming sounds coming from the lobster and in the end, couldn't eat it. the man told her screaming is just the sound of air coming out. as in from its stomach through its mouthparts-not from vibrating vocal chords. obviously. because lobsters don't have vocal chords.

anyway. that is neither here nor there. and that conversation wasn't nearly as amusing as it seemed at the time. not worth sharing in a blog post, really. oh, but it does provide context for sharing an annie hall clip. so,

worth it.

i took the bus to downtown berkeley and walked around. did a little shopping, chatted with a greenpeace guy who desperately tried to get me to become a member for various $$/month for the rest of my life. i tried to explain to him my commitment-phobia of payment plans and gyms and relationships and how in spite of that, i am still an environmentalist.

in the end, he just asked me to help him meet his quota for the day. i apologized with a sympathetic smile. he gave me a sticker. i went into amoeba.

i spent money on music and not the environment.

not that purchasing music isn't a worthy cause in its own right. it's important to support the local independent music stores. it's nice to buy actual cds now and then. it's good to take the cover art out of the jewel case, flip through the booklet, pop out the cd and recognize that someone(s) put their heart into creating that package of music. even if a new cd costs you $14. (ouch.) andrew bird, you better be worth it...

the weather was lovely today so i walked home from the store. on my way, i stopped by berkeley bowl because going to berkeley bowl on a saturday without a car is heaven. let everyone else fight for parking spots, i say.

sometimes i just want to go to berkeley bowl for the free cheese sample.

argh. curse daylight savings! i can't let it go. ooh-rice krispies treats. (that was me thinking of something pleasant to counter the argh of daylight savings.) mmm...that will ease the pain of losing an hour of sleep.

indeed.

but i haven't seen barbados, so i must get out of this

2009-03-03T21:26:00.000-08:00

i just got home from class and feel really positive and encouraged so i want to acknowledge that. i'm almost halfway through my training to become a rape crisis counselor. mostly i love it. but last week was hard. we started doing role plays to get a feel for what it's like to help someone who's calling a rape crisis hotline. for weeks we'd talked about what sorts of things to say and how to respond to callers but when you're suddenly having to put those things to practice, it's really hard.

really hard.

i was not looking forward to doing more of the same tonight. sort of dreading it, in fact. but it turned out to be a good night. maybe i can do this after all.

this training is challenging-it brings out my insecurities and puts me outside my comfort zone.

and it's incredibly empowering.

it's also wonderfully inspiring and humbling to be in a roomful of people who are there to do good, who want to help others in crisis. i love that such positive energy surrounds us week after week even in the face of dealing with something so ugly.

does the soul good.

priorities

2009-02-05T21:41:00.001-08:00

i came home tonight with a short to do list: fold my laundry and balance my checkbook. my laundry was fluffy and warm on sunday. today it is crumpled and stiff after a week of repeatedly dumping onto bed, rummaging through for sock/shirt/jeans and shoving back into basket to move out of the way. the balancing checkbook thing is an old habit that i'm starting to lose and trying to reclaim.

except.

it's after 10 and laundry is still crumpled and shoved into basket and checkbook is still wobbly.

here i sit, doing neither. eating frozen cookie dough.

golden leg

2009-02-03T22:15:00.000-08:00

oh h, i've been writing so many blog posts and abandoning them as drafts. much to say, little to blog.

oh! today is my brother's birthday. he's my youngest brother and he just turned 23, which makes him seem suddenly so much closer to me in age. weird. in his honor, i will share a typical interaction we have when we're together. mind you, this is something that happens now, as adults:

me: yo, ML. so...remember how you think you're like, so cool when you're like, totally not?
ML: what's that runt? can't hear you down there. you wanna piece of this, dawg? i'll take you OUT.
me: oh i don't think so, er, dawg. i can take you--i'll just--you're such a--i'm so...strong--(tries to punch him in the arm)
ML: that's it, sista. you're going DOWN.
me: (shrieks and takes off running the down the hall) don't hurt me, i'm fragile!!
ML: (runs after, catches and pins me down)
me: dad, michael's hurting me!
dad: MICHAEL! leave your sister alone!
ML: but dad! she started it!
dad: amy doesn't do that. you be nice to your sister.
me: (quietly with finger pointing at ML as he lets me go) ha ha ha ha ha.

happy birthday, ML.

flashback friday: tickling the ivories

2009-01-16T00:10:00.000-08:00

this is me at 9 yrs old in logan, utah. my family was on vacation visiting relatives and we all went out to this restaurant that i loved. i don’t remember what it was called and it’s long gone now. but i remember that going there felt like we were going out for a night on the town in the big city.

As i remember, we were the only or nearly only ones in this room of the restaurant and as would happen any time there was an available piano and an audience of relatives, my dad said, “hey, amy! go on up there and play us something on the piano.” and I replied with an, “aawwwhggh, dad…” to which he responded, “go on. play fur elise for your grandma.” and eventually off I went to perform my standard repertoire at the time:

fur elise (my classical piece, meant to impress but also learned by every other kid who ever took piano lessons)
happy birthday (my “fun” piece)
the theme song from dr. zhivago (my “contemporary” piece, for lovers)
and a song titled, “running deer” (my “postmodern” piece, if you will)

i was no tori, but my audience was kind. my family was sufficiently impressed, dad sufficiently proud, and I sufficiently emboldened.

really?

2009-01-11T19:16:00.000-08:00

a conversation i had today:

someone: wow, amy! your hair is getting so long!
me: oh yeah, i know.
someone: you know, i just look at you and think, "man, i couldn't do it. i would really just wear a bag over my head."

????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

a superficial assessment of last year

2009-01-07T20:08:00.000-08:00

best things of 2008:

goes without saying, finishing old mr. thesis
traveling to the middle east
not having to live the rest of my days on the streets on amman
riding my bike
partying at dorsey's locker
attending the ani show
roadtripping to the desert
pillow-fighting
going to nyc
reading books again
who killed amanda palmer
having houseguests
volunteering for obama
buying new art supplies
phone conversations with my brothers
discovering that netflix has as time goes by online
sound of music sing-along
cheerleading
seeing jake
keeping my blog
brunching with the ladies

not so good things of 2008:

failing to spend less and save more, despite early efforts
cancelled painting class
unused art supplies
missing both eddie izzard and amanda palmer shows
deciding to postpone more grad school
car repairs
almost having to live out the rest of my days on the streets of amman
armfuls of neglected and forgotten goals

flashback friday: the nativity

2008-12-19T07:07:00.001-08:00

december 1985. back in our days as a young family, we used to act out the nativity every christmas-dress up in mom's robes and scarves, unravel a roll of wrapping paper to get to the "staff", and grab a doll to play baby jesus. this particular year in 1985, it appears that david (on the left) was playing a shepherd, danny a wise man, kristina a single joseph-less mary, and me, the angel. the division of nativity roles is a bit humorous but what i really want to focus on here is our "baby jesus". who decided that this was the doll fit for the role of baby jesus?? first of all, it's almost as big as kristina-totally beyond cradling size, and second of all, check out that unusually large head and even more unusually robust head of hair. kristina is hoisting up toddler jesus, not swaddling clothed, lying in a manger baby jesus. what we have here is the baby nubbins of baby jesus dolls.

clearly we were all unphased and really just pleased as peas with our performance. but thank goodness michael was born the following year and could fit in the "manger".

barlaam, you silly byzantine humanist...

2008-12-15T22:12:00.000-08:00

"The Hesychasts' meditative practices included gazing at their navels as a way of focusing their contemplative powers. Barlaam singled out this practice for his derision, calling the monks omphalopsychoi, which might be loosely translated as 'navelheads'."¹

navelheads. heeheehee.

¹Wells, Colin. 2006. Sailing from Byzantium: How a Lost Empire Shaped the World

i feel it in my fingers, i feel it in my toes...

2008-12-14T16:16:00.000-08:00

(disclaimer #1: this is a really long post.)
(disclaimer #2: there are a lot of pictures of me in this post. maybe i'm as vain as alisa.)

1. christmas, christmas, christmas. the holiday season is here. much to do. last week i went caroling at a local nursing home. during both our rehearsal and performance, i kept getting the giggles whenever we sang "good king wenceslas" because it made me think of this scene from love actually:

i don't think the folks in the nursing home really enjoyed our performance. one sweet man appeared to be clawing at the window curtain, as if to escape while we sang. another dear patient sat hunched over with her head in her hands the whole time and the only vocally responsive resident shouted at us to leave. i think they felt tortured. it wasn't exactly the message of holiday cheer we intended to bestow...

friday night was the work christmas party. this year a male subset of the office decided to up the festivities by sporting mustaches. they were all very proud of themselves, as attested to in the facebook album and group created in honor of their facial hair immediately post-party. boys will be boys will be boys...

last night was the 3rd annual m. hofheins donaldson most wonderful time, etc., etc. party. for the third year, i reprised my role as an elf. these are my favorite things about most wonderful time: 1) invitations and email rsvp, 2) wassail, 3) the joyous "most wonderful time" welcome to each arrival, and 4) the broad range of unexpected holiday characters that grace the party. this year: pirates, ninjas, retired florida golden girl and a snowboarder among others (not to mention poncho "santa"). they are pictured below. i also love that i'm the only one to have a permanent role as an elf. thank you, short genes.

we elves did an amazing dance routine this year, thanks to emron's genius choreography and stage presence. i can confidently say that we filled each and every heart there with christmas cheer. next year we're taking it on the road. first stop: nursing home. i don't have the video of our performance but i have some pictures. we were dancing outside in front of the windows so the first pic is a bit glarry/blurry.

and some more photos of aforementioned characters:

and finally, i just really like this picture with karina and gar. this was before the elf costume-change.

moving on: today was the combined christmas program with the berkeley family ward. (for all non-lds readers, "ward" is mormon jargon for congregation.) i really love the combined christmas program. i know not everyone does, but i do. i love getting to see my married friends in that ward (that means you, walla-pianas, parkinsons, meldrums, and marosticas), i love that there's always a violin ensemble piece, and i like being reminded that there are children at church. that last one might sound strange, but after a decade plus (ugh, really?) of singles/student wards one tends to forget...

2. working backwards. last weekend we celebrated ashley's birthday at the roller derby. and just to clarify, dear readers, the roller derby is nothing like synchronized dancing on skates. i can't be the only one who thought that...for proof, please see here. also, i made a cake for the occasion. i have many talents and generally believe that i can do anything. but i must concede that i will never be a baker.

3. thanksgiving in new york. blogging so infrequently these days means there's too much ground to cover when i do post. and now that the claws of facebook have taken hold, i've been posting photos there and neglecting my sweet little blog. so i feel like i've already adequately addressed thanksgiving in cyberspace. curses, facebook! i vowed to not get involved with you and now i can't stay away! i blame marcus. and sweet cousin matt.

ahem. visiting alisa in nyc was one of the best thanksgivings ever. it's already my favorite holiday (total food indulgence without the holiday pressure that comes with christmas) and spending it with alisa just made it that much better (ahhh). i brought her a present. it was the best present i've ever given anyone.

i already have plans to use this photo on the next personalized pillowcase:

ashley was also in nyc and we had a grand time traipsing about the city, eating street food, seeing sights, sleeping in, riding the subway, and having a non-turkey meal with ashley's brother and sis-in-law.

and we stood in the freezing cold and fought like hell for our places along the sidewalk at the macy's day parade. in the end it was a good experience to check off the list but not something to necessarily repeat. parade spectators are not friendly folks.

and lastly, i got to see my dear pen pal meghan! meghan and i have been pen pals since 6th grade and before thankgsiving, had never met. she lives just across the river in new jersey and came into the city to hang out for an afternoon. many of you, dear readers, knew i was meeting meghan and i think were just as excited about it as i was. someone even mentioned that it was the heart-warming holiday story of the season. others commented on the worthiness of it being an "oprah-style reunion special". so sweet, so funny. it hadn't really occurred to me that letter writing is a dying tradition and pen pals a dying breed. who knows, meghan and i just might be the last living pair of pen pals in the world...anyway, after all these years of forming a friendship based on letters, it was really fun and really great to meet. we had a lovely time. and she was gracious enough to humor me with a touristy trip to the top of the empire state building.

oh shoot, this reminds me--meghan, i still need to mail your christmas card.

4. i had a goal to finishing blogging about mbatE2008 by the end of the year. that's not looking so realistic. BUT, i want to share more from syria, jordan, israel and palestine and i will. just not in this post. it's already too long. if any of you, dear readers, actually read this whole post, please go reward yourself now with a christmas cookie and hot cocoa.

sub for santa

2008-11-23T23:09:00.000-08:00

hooray! last night's auction was a success and now it's over! thank the heavens above. i took one of the best naps of my life today.

i apologize for providing no context. but most of you, dear readers, know about the sub for santa auction and most of you were there. thank you for coming, for donating, for bidding, for helping. it's all for the children.

i am now tired of talking about it and tired of thinking about it so i'm just going to post these pictures and consider the event sufficiently documented.

celebrate good times

2008-11-12T20:45:00.000-08:00

this is a bit late but first things first: HOOOOORAAAYYYY!!!!

president-elect barack obama!! what an exciting, historic day last tuesday was. and i feel really proud that i participated in the campaign. i've never before actively participated in any political campaign (high school ASB doesn't count...) but with this presidential race, i felt like i had to--and just as importantly, i wanted to. i cared about this election. i cared about promoting change in our country and wanted to do something about it. and the wonderful thing is, i wasn't alone. people everywhere were inspired to take part in this election-whether by volunteering their time or donating money, registering voters, or simply registering to vote themselves. people-citizens-united together for a greater cause and it worked! our voices were heard and the result has restored my faith in my country.

also i'm relieved that the world is not about to end.

and i'm particularly thrilled that obama did so well in nevada. since i spent a weekend canvassing in washoe county (a county that hasn't gone democratic since 1964, and where obama won by 12.6 percentage points), i like to think i'm partly responsible for that win.

but of course, lots of people turned up to help. this was the line of volunteers that wrapped around the campaign HQ in reno on an early saturday morning in october. so many people showed up, they had to hold multiple introductory training sessions.

and no doubt making phone calls to florida and new hampshire baracked the vote in those states. on election day (why isn't it a federal holiday??) i skipped work to do some more phonebanking-one last hurrah-and joined with hundreds of volunteers in oakland to call and remind folks to vote (and re-call and re-call again...oops...if anyone from new hampshire is reading this who got 5 phone calls reminding them to vote, i apologize.)

election night i watched the returns at some friends' house. they had set up multiple screens to catch all the coverage: cnn (holograms...really?), internet, local, whatever, so we sat intently watching obama rack up those electorate votes, small cheers escaping now and then.

i will say that i thought mccain's concession speech was very good.

and then of course, it was time to celebrate. and celebrate good times we did. the streets were filled with people. we cheered and sang and DANCED in the street of berkeley. below is a bit of video thanks to ashley. happy americans laughing and dancing and embracing and high-fiving over our new president--it was maybe the most patriotic moment of my life.

vote for change

2008-11-03T22:27:00.000-08:00

so, you may have heard that there's an election happening tomorrow...it's kind of a big deal. so i encourage you to vote and then to encourage every registered voter you know to vote.

let's make history.

ready, OK!

2008-10-27T23:51:00.000-07:00

sometimes occasion calls for one to dust off her old cheerleading skills and put them to good use. saturday night was such an occasion.

thanks to courtney's performance-themed bonfire birthday and kenzie's connections, we pulled on those high school uniforms, picked up those pom-pons and played cheerleaders. it was just like old times.

sadly, it was too dark to capture our actual performance saturday night but here's a video from one of our cheer practices for your viewing pleasure:

flashback friday: we made cookies!

2008-10-24T08:17:00.000-07:00

mandy and me. utah, circa 1981.

mbatE2008: a series: part 3: name that cityscape

2008-10-22T07:41:00.000-07:00

match the mbatE2008 town with its cityscape. (see comment for answers)

A) amman, jordan
B) palmyra, syria
C) damascus, syria
D) jerusalem, israel
E) wadi rum, jordan
F) nazareth, israel
G) bethlehem, palestine

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

flashback friday: trick or treat

2008-10-03T07:26:00.000-07:00

halloween 1988:
michael: mini superman
david: jailbird
kristina: witch with the world's largest witch hat
danny: pee-wee herman
me: popstar (you might think i was going for the madonna look, but not so. the honest truth is that i got my inspiration from stacey q and the jets.)

living roof

2008-09-24T22:13:00.000-07:00

when your coworkers offer you the opportunity to cut out of work early to visit the newly reconstructed but not yet officially opened california academy of sciences for free, you have no choice but to take it. i mean, why would you turn that down? you wouldn't. because that would be silly.

i've been looking forward to the completion of the new CAS since it closed about 5 years ago. mostly, i've been really excited about the new building design. it's thought to be the greenest museum in the world. the star of the show is the "living roof", which is an amazing, environmentally innovative piece of architecture. the actual museum is great-new and improved, as promised. definitely worth a visit. but the roof is truly incredible.

right now the roof is in bloom with 2.5 acres of self heal, penstemon, sea pink, and tidy tips and a "ground" cover of beach strawberry. just imagine what it'll be like in springtime. AND, just imagine going up to the roof to pick strawberries!

what a good gig. i wouldn't mind being a roof gardener. but little annual grasses are already sneaking into the pristine plant mix. these 2.5 acres require constant vigilance. darn that Poa annua!! so perhaps check your shoes for grass seeds before you venture up.

drive for change

2008-09-23T17:51:00.000-07:00

only 6 weeks to go before election day.

is anyone else stressed out over how freaking close obama and mccain are in the polls?? if you're a fellow californian and would like to help out obama in nevada, our swing state neighbor, join the drive for change movement. i'm doing it, and you can, too! there are still 5 weekends open for volunteers before election day.

or wherever you are, head to a swing state near you (or just head straight to ohio or missouri) and encourage people to VOTE FOR OBAMA. please. pleeeeaaaaaase.

also if you haven't seen the palin/clinton snl sketch yet, please click here. i tried embedding the video clip but was having issues. anyway, i know the sketch is old news now but i only just saw it yesterday so it still feels new and fresh to me and like it still needs to be shared.

and in honor of the upcoming election and halloween, i'd also like to direct your attention to this even older snl clip that i also only just saw yesterday for the first time and also enjoyed immensely.

and lastly, don't forget to tune in to the first presidential debate this friday.

mbatE2008: a series: part 2: the water wheels of hama

2008-09-15T18:29:00.000-07:00

an inquiring reader asked about the giant wooden wheel thing in the lower right corner of the mosaic in the previous post. thank you, dear inquiring reader, for that segue.

may i introduce the water wheels of hama:

hannah and i stopped in hama, syria, on our way from palmyra to aleppo. we had read in lonely planet about the water wheels along the orontes river in this town and were mildly interested in seeing them. if nothing else, it'd break up a long day of traveling nicely. so we spent a very pleasant afternoon in hama, eating the most delicious fattoush at a restaurant with the sweetest manager and strolling along the banks of the river spotting water wheels. we also met some boys proudly showing off their diving and jumping skills as only strapping teenage boys can, but more on them another time.

anyway, about the water wheels: aka norias, they were built back in the day (14th century-ish) to deliver water from the river to the aqueducts that fed the surrounding ag land.

the water wheels are still functional but not actually functioning anymore in water transport. today they're just for show. but it's still some show. turns out, they're spectacular! they're massive (10-20 meters in diameter) and they're beautiful.

and you can go right up to them. in fact, you can ride them (can you see the guy in the above photo? he's the same guy in the one below). we watched boys ride around and around and jump off into the water.

we didn't ride them. we dared as much to climb up next to them and got nice showerings in the process. and i touched one. and that was a thrill. really, they're so big! and so...rotating. there's definitely a feeling of vulnerability standing next to them on those slick, slippery steps.

not only are they so big and rotating, they're loud. they make this lovely groaning, creaking motor-like sound. like even though their weary joints are tired already from 700 years of turning, turning, turning, they're determined to keeping turning, turning, turning for another 700 years. i think that's what i loved most.

mbatE2008: a series: part 1: i miss syria

2008-09-14T21:04:00.000-07:00

time is passing. promises of blogging about middle east trip, i'm sure, were seeming more and more empty. thank you, dear readers, for your patience.

tonight your patience is being rewarded (sort of). tonight welcomes part one in a non-continuous, whimsical blogging series of mbatE2008.

i'm kicking off the series with a photo mosaic introducing syria. of course. because syria won over our hearts immediately. "i miss syria" was a near daily phrase whilst in jordan and israel. not that we didn't enjoy those other countries (well, there was some fist shaking in jordan...but that's a post for another time), but i think we both left our hearts in syria.

(click on the mosaic to see a larger version...)

flashback friday: turning 9

2008-09-12T07:53:00.000-07:00

growing up we had a swimming pool, which meant we got to have swim party birthday parties, which are the best kind of birthday parties. so here we are, hair wet from swimming and smelling of chlorine, with me opening presents while we dutifully waited the half hour after birthday cake before returning to the pool.

i remember getting that art studio set shown above-in fact, i just threw out the old pastels from that set last year. art supplies were my favorite presents to get because when i was younger, say, around the age of 5, i developed a life plan to grow up and become an artist and move to new york city. i was serious about this plan. and thus, for many christmases and birthdays, continuing at least through my pre-teen years, i got art supplies. my life plan has changed a bit since then, but even still, a new pack of fancy colored pencils makes me as happy as any 5 year old.

...and i'm back!

2008-09-06T19:13:00.000-07:00

i have a lot of blog catching up to do.

mbatE2008 was indeed the most bitchingly awesome trip EVER 2008. much to tell. hannah and i spent two weeks cramming in as much as we could of syria, jordan and israel (and palestine). loved syria best. but loved things about everywhere we went. photo highlights and themed anecdotes coming soon, i promise. here's a photo to whet your appetite (chosen completely at random so i make no promises about the representational quality of the photo):

eastern orthodox church in jerusalem from the amazing vantage point offered at the byu jerusalem center. that's all i'll say about that for now. i have like 600 photos and tons of stories and still need to swap photos with hannah so once i get things in order, i'll share more.

other photos...

here are some photos from my thesis defense that i didn't have a chance to post before leaving town:

one of the flyers posted around the biology building announcing my defense.

chatting with my committee after my presentation. ed, john and kathy had just signed off on my defense. i was feeling very relieved at this point.

my sweet friends who were in attendance (and had to hear me say "Cameraria sempervirensella" about 300 times) and were patiently waiting for me to finish chatting with my committee so that we could go get food.

post-defense at park chow where we celebrated both thesis completion and mackenzie's birthday. we ate lots of dessert and it was wonderful.

and then...
tuesday i celebrated my 30th birthday. the big 3-0! i took the day off work. went for a run around my favorite running loop. stopped by my favorite bakery. packed a picnic with my favorite lunch (veggie deli sandwich with salt and vinegar chips (to stick inside the sandwich)) and a favorite book and spent the afternoon lounging in the grass at tilden park. as inspired by amanda palmer, i just tried to enjoy everything good about the day.

and THEN that night, i celebrated my birthday the best way i knew how: with a trip to dorsey's locker. dorsey's locker: an establishment of legendary status in my mind. an enigma. a place of community and soul food, intrigue and intimidation, music and festivity. i've been working up the courage to go in there and order myself a soda since i first moved to oakland. my 30th birthday was as legitimate a reason as any to finally venture in. so i ventured. we all ventured. we braved the threshold of the dorsey's locker and found it to be everything i hoped it would be and more. it was magical.

the white, mostly soda-drinking, mostly mormon crowd that came to celebrate with me. we were a sight. a sight highly amusing to the regulars.

marquee proof of being at dorsey's locker. tuesday night was poetry slam night which was awesome.

me and leslie. (leslie and me? i can never remember.)

liz, tall chris and cameron.

vicky and mark.

with ashley, hannah and bigntall.

i think this was while everyone was singing happy birthday-just before someone shouted "remix" and the crowd broke it down. AWESOME!!!

laughing during the remix.

with ashley and the super nice bartender who got us our drinks just as if they were real drinks and invited us back for karaoke. sigh. i heart dorsey's locker. and so far, 30 rocks!

leaf mine this!

2008-08-13T22:08:00.001-07:00

it's done!! thesis defense-check. thesis paper-check. signatures-check. i am a master of science!!! WOOHOO!!!

it has been a LONG road. and the past 6 months have been tough. the past few weeks have been exhaustingly stressful. sleep a distant memory. free time a mocking joke. but today it is done. yesterday i defended my thesis and today i turned in my paper, finalized and signed. YAAAAAYYYYYY!!!!!

oh the anxiety and stress of the past few weeks. let's just say that by last weekend, i was in a fragile state. typical conversations went something like this:

friend: hi amy.
me: hi.
friend: how's it going?
me: sniffle. sorry, i don't...i can't...please...it's just...sniffle sniffle. tears.

or like this:

friend: hi amy.
me: hi.
friend: is that a new shirt?
me: sniffle. sorry, i don't...i can't...please...it's just...sniffle sniffle. tears.

and again:

friend: hi amy.
me: hi.
friend: do you have any gum?
me: sniffle. sorry, i don't...i can't...please...it's just...sniffle sniffle. tears.

apparently, i do have a breaking point. but it was all worth it. so thank you to everyone who helped me survive the past few days when things were especially rough. thank you thank you thank you. thank you.

thank you everyone for bearing with me on this journey with old mr. thesis. we've had a time. and now, old mr. thesis and i are parting amicably. he's on his way to the forgotten dusty corners of the library, i'm on my way to...i don't know. the rest of my life??? the rest of my life that has been on hold for 6 years. whatever shall i do with it?

well for starters...

i think i'll get on a plane. maybe go somewhere far away. ooh yes, a trip. what a good idea...

well then, i better start packing because in 7 hours, i'm boarding a plane to jordan and meeting petra for mbatE2008. HOORAY!!!

a bra's tale

2008-08-05T17:06:00.000-07:00

oh this story just made me laugh. a lot. a lot a lot. it's even better if you listen to sweet betty jenkins tell it instead of just reading it.

i don't have much time to blog these days. thus, i have resorted to sharing other people's stories. august is going to be a wash. let me just tell you dear readers that right now. but come september, i'll be back in the game. so hang in there...

flashback friday: wee thing

2008-07-25T01:19:00.000-07:00

logan, utah, circa 1981.

but what will i use as my excuse for everything if i finish my thesis?

2008-07-21T22:41:00.000-07:00

so...thesis. it's coming along. the countdown has begun and the stage is set to finish before the summer deadline. i think i'm mostly feeling good about it-albeit, a little to a lot anxious. i'm registered for graduation and have a date, time and room reserved for my defense and a committee in general agreement that there is time for them to all review and approve my thesis before august 15. my near final draft is currently being reviewed by my advisor and his latest response upon receipt was positive and encouraging. hopefully he won't change his tune after going through it. i still feel like it could all fall apart at any moment, pushing graduation back yet another semester. but PMA, PMA. i'm trying to keep a PMA. (positive mental attitude. is this a well-known acronym? someone used to say it to me all the time. i'd roll my eyes and think he just made it up to get some eye-rolling out of me. but maybe it's common...) anyway, thank you all for your patience with my endless chatter of old mr. thesis. i'm sorry it's become such a dominating topic of conversation. but the countdown has begun and soon life will move on.

meanwhile, my new favorite game is, "when i finish my thesis..." the list is growing at an alarming and overwhelming rate. it's like my life will begin again. i can't wait.

but more on that another time.

anyway, blog has been suffering lately and i apologize. blame it on thesis.

rewind a revolution

2008-07-13T22:47:00.000-07:00

remember last summer when:

i had a slumber party to celebrate my new apartment and we watched teen witch which was so wonderful and so horrible and we were so tired and felt so old that we couldn't stay up past 11?

or when
we went hiking in pt reyes and hiked farther and longer than we intended and had to race back for courtney's graduation dinner?

or when
we played ultimate frisbee on 4th of july and had no cell reception to tell each other where to meet up and instead tried strategically placing people to be on the lookout to direct our party to the party and even though that didn't work so well, we all still managed to find each other in the vast maze of tilden park?

or when
angela got married and the treasure island girls were reunited for a night?

or when
we went to the kite festival and octopi took over the sky?

or when
gnu had his man-shower and we drank fruity drinks at the tiki lounge?

or when
we went to the hoedown where pie-eating contests were won, hog-callings were called sans hog, and dancing on hay bales was taken to a new level?

or when
we hiked half dome the morning after the most amazing dutch oven meal and after our human alarm clock overslept and after some of us were charged by a bear in the parking lot we made it to the top? including lewis?

i do. awh, last summer. that was fun.

up on the rooftop

2008-07-07T00:10:00.000-07:00

friday night, 4th of july, i discovered the roof of my building.

i've lived in my apartment for over a year now and only ventured out onto the fire escape for the first time friday night. i was sitting on my sofa, taking a break from thesising to watch fireworks (i hate old mr. thesis right now, btw), and got the idea that it would be nice to sit out on the fire escape. i've wanted to go out on the fire escape many times but have refrained due to 1) ridiculous thoughts of, "oh, but am i allowed on the fire escape? does the window to the fire escape even open? what if i have to remove the screen to get through the window? am i allowed to remove the window screen?", etc.) and 2) laziness that has prevented me from seeking answers to such questions.

but friday night i realized, i live here! the fire escape is for me! i can go out on it if i want!

why does it take me so long to figure these things out?

thank goodness, in a moment of apparently uncharacteristic inquisitiveness, i went to check out access to the old fire escape. after all, it was 4th of july and there were fireworks to be seen. turned out, there was no troublesome window screen to worry about removing. not only that, but the window was OPEN. and there was a handwritten note taped to the window saying to please not shut the window as people were on the roof watching fireworks.

well! i thought i was being bold investigating the fire escape but whoa, the roof! that's a conquest i hadn't even considered!

i stepped out onto the fire escape.

ooh...nice. (and uh, scary. huge, booming fireworks were going off across the street. (yep, illegal. but i live in oakland. law enforcement has other things to worry about.)) i looked around. i spotted fireworks to the west, near the bay. i looked down. i looked up. i climbed the up to the next story. climbed back down. sat down. leaned against the stairs. stood up. sat in the window sill. stood up again.

the roof was calling.

the roof folks came down. one of them turned out to be my next-door neighbor.

[begin awkward exchange]

"how is it up there?"
"great."
"um, what's the roof like? is it flat?"
"oh yeah, it's totally flat."
"cool."

[conclude awkward exchange]

i stood there on the fire escape. the roof folks went inside. "should i go up there? what if someone shuts the window and i get locked out?" (roof folks had removed their note.) "what if i fall?" (seriously, what was wrong with me? where did this timidity come from? i'm riding a bike around town, for crying out loud. i'm FACING FEARS. why am i contemplating a short climb to the roof as if i'm deciding whether or not to scale the transamerica pyramid?)

i went up to the roof.

roof, GLORIOUS roof! i love the roof! oakland is beautiful at night from my roof! the thin film of fog cast a romantic glow on buildings and billboards. a bart train went by, looking like the monorail at disneyland. even the dodgy freeway overpass nearby looked friendly and lovely. i could see three different (professional) fireworks shows. everything looked warm and inviting. the cool breeze felt refreshing. it reminded me of watching the kite festival on chirag's family's roof in india. like i was somewhere far away. i want to go on the roof all the time!

maybe all this staring at the computer for hours and hours on end, clumsily and desperately trying to finish my thesis is making me loopy.

at least the fire escape and i are no longer strangers and the roof is my friend. about time. no more arbitrary personal restrictions. i'm taking charge!

and that's the story of how i spent my 4th of july.