You know, I've never thought about it.

Today we talked about the anatomy of insects in Life Science. Insects have an open circulatory system which means that their blood jsut sloshes around inside their body. After introducing this topic one of my students raised his hand and asked if he held a grasshopper vertiacally by its head, would all the organs in the front of the body dry up because all the blood had run to the back?

A Printing Press?

I went into downtown Phoenix this morning to go to the farmer's market and the library. While at the library I found a Rare Book Room, which I hadn't noticed before, and which, unfortunately, was open by appointment only. But through the glass I saw the big machine above and I thought, Sam must know what it is. Sam?

Arizona State Fair on a Stick

When Victor was here in mid-October we went to the Arizona State Fair, held in downtown Phoenix. We had hopes of seeing Bob Dylan, who was playing a free concert, but by the time we got to the gates the concert arena was full.

Plan B: Photograph all of the food on stick we could find, and (in Victor's case) sample some of the delicacies as well.

Our brave quest is recorded below in chronological order. You can watch Victor look sicker and sicker as the night goes on. I tried to get him to stop before the chicken fried steak on a stick, but he was insistent on going the distance. He narrowly - but respectably - avoided hurling.

WIFI INSANITY!

It was not wifi from the bus terminal....it is WIFI FROM THE BUS!

What a miracle of modern technology. I wish I could video chat with someone right now.

When else in my life...

Could I blog post from inside a Peter Pan bus that has just pulled into a bus station with wifi. I think I could be a professional wifi-stealer if there were such a position. This is my last leg of travel for awhile. I have been from Boston (all around)->Durham and Somersworth, NH->Burlington, Essex Junction, and South Burlington, VT->Hanover, NH->Sharon, VT->Meriden, NH->Claremont, NH->Portland and Scarborough, ME->Brandeis in Waltham, MA->Boston airport->Bus station->Worcester, MA (where I am now)->ultimately to Danbury CT.

Feeling semi-nomadic and pretty guilty about my ever-rising carbon footprint. At least I am doing all this travel in the NAME of sustainability.

Talk soon!

Le Grand Canyon

I have talked to dozens of lifetime Phoenix residents who say they have never been to the Grand Canyon. It is one of those things where you think you always could go if you wanted - the canyon ain't going nowhere. But if you live in Phoenix...as far as I'm concerned the best thing about living in Phoenix is having places like Sedona and the Petrified Forest and the Grand Canyon a mere few hours drive away.

Victor and I made it a two day trip. We spotted in Flagstaff on the way up and walked around Northern Arizona University where the deciduous trees and exposed stone of the school buildings gave me nostalgia for the east coast. We stayed the night in Williams, a one stop light town whose main drag is made up of Route 66 (yes that Route 66). The drag is mostly bars and southwest souvenier shops. I stopped in one that advertised '100s of hot sauces 'round back'. The picture below is of JUST ONE WALL. Out of three. OMG.



We spent the next day at the Grand Canyon National Park. For the most part we stuck to the rim trail, but near the end of the day we ventured maybe a third of mile down a trail that eventually leads to the bottom of the canyon. The shortest trail to the bottom of the canyon is 7.5 miles, and the park highly discourages people from attempting the round trip in one day. There was a sign at the trailhead that said "Getting to the bottom is optional. Getting back to the top is required."







While we were watching the sunset (hence the golden edges below) some lady came up behind us and asked if we would like her to take a picture of us...small and nebbish.

Leaving home (again) tomorrow

My life looks a little like this these days...I just looked over my shoulder at my room in this house and thought: how did my stuff get back here? It looks a lot like it did when I was getting ready to leave in July. Clothes on the bed and floor, open suitcase, hesitation about what will fit.

There has been a strange non-passing of time in the house since I left this summer. More on that later. Tomorrow I will sleep in my 6th bed in two weeks.

Things I hate...

"Chick Flicks" that reward misogynists with smart, caring, capable women in the end because the men have "changed." These portrayals help to perpetuate dysfunctional relationships and abusive treatment of women.  They make every man seem redeemable and keep women from taking action in their situations because they come to believe that, if they suffer long enough, he will see the light, and they will live happily ever after. 

Also highlighted in this movie: sex-crazed women willing to ignore a man's reputation for mistreating partners in pursuit of a good lay. Priceless.

I also hate being the only one in the room who is outraged.

Something else

Macci, another woman I have stayed with on this trip was telling me about why she thinks her mother never worried about her when she was traveling the world in her younger (and current) years. She said her mother subscribes to a worldview which Macci called: 

Mothers Without Borders.

The idea is that basically, in life, whenever something truly terrible happens there are "mothers" (Macci pointed out that sometimes these mothers are not even female...) all over the world who are able to swoop in and offer comfort to you when you are in need, no matter where you are, no matter what you need. Just thinking about such a thing makes me feel safer in the world. I think there was too much emphasis on wariness and being self-reliant when I was growing up. I mean it's certainly important to be aware and independent, but in my life experience so far, I must say that a surprising number of people have helped rather than harmed me. I'm working toward trusting in the world a little more these days.

Eva Mondon

I stayed two nights in Putney, VT (Sunday/Monday) of this week. I was haphazardly on the phone with you on my way to Eva Mondon's house. Eva is someone who is listed in the Quaker Traveling Friends Directory (read: couch-surfing Quaker style), so I had emailed her beforehand to find out if it was alright for me to stay with her. She said yes, and that she would have a meditation group meeting at her house just before I got there, but that we could have dinner together afterwards. She signs her emails, and evidently her mailbox, "evaeva" and answers her phone, "you've got eva!"

Dinner reminded me a lot of you! Kale, beans with cheese, tortillas, sweet potatoes, all with a bit of rice wine vinegar.

Anyway, Eva and I talked a lot while I was there. She is someone who seems to know (and take care of) everyone in town, and she made two or three phone calls on my behalf to help me build my contacts in Putney. She is sort of elderly, and has Rheumatoid Arthritis, so she is a little less active than she used to be. But, she's been all over the world and has done wonderful peace work and community building her whole life. 

There is a sign above her garage door that says "A room in the house of the village." That pretty much tells of her life in Putney. She says she never locks her door, because about once a year someone might come through and stay at her house in the middle of the night, because they know she's here and need a play to stay. She told me that she often sees people biking through Vermont at the food co-op and she'll just invite them to stay with her and have a shower or camp outside or whatever. She's not a woman who has very much, but she shares everything she has, and in turn, people share with her. She told me that she received hospitality all over the world when she was younger. Everywhere she went people welcomed her in. She said that the hospitality in this country is pretty pitiful and that everyone is always so scared to welcome strangers, but she's not been swayed. 

I am always thankful to find people who advocate taking a chance on people, and trusting in the inner-goodness of things. It makes me feel like it can work. I mean, I certainly benefitted from her kindness. She had a man named Fletcher over for breakfast Monday morning (a weekly tradition) and a decent group of people from her tai chi class for dinner. She said she just wanted to me to meet EVERYONE. Meals were simple, but with great company. All wonderful people, all really engaged with their world. Not distracted, not disinterested. 

Anyway, Eva gave me her "card" when I left. Evidently someone else had it made for her.  It reads:

EVA MONDON

storytelling * matchmaking

advice sought and unsought

advisor to the lifelorn

word of mouth

Let's be sure to visit her together some day.

Six Shooter Bloody Mary

My favorite hot sauce so far has been the Arizona Gunslinger Chipotle Habernaro, so when I was at Frys yesterday I decided to give their Jalapeno Pepper Sauce a try. (Highly recommended, btw). On the back of the bottle there is a recipe for the six shooter bloody mary, which in addition to vodka, tomato juice, lemon juice and the hot sauce includes club soda and beef bullion. Moo.

Despite our bad experience with bloody mary, I want to like the drink. Its alcohol. With vegetable juice. How could I, of all people, not like it? I can't tell if substituting whiskey would make it better or worse (though if you have to ask that question about mixed drinks, the answer is usually the latter). While doing research on this very important question I came across a cocktail called the Crying Game: Absolut Vodka, Bailey's Irish Cream, Grenadine, Jack Daniel's Whiskey, Kahlua, Rum, Tequila, Tomato Juice.

P.S. The picture is of the "cowboy hat caddy". Welcome to Arizona.

Up Late, Need a Break

I am in the office, working out the kinks still left in my big Northeast trip, which I am leaving for on Friday! All of next week is nailed down--it's the following week that has a couple lingering possibilities. It's looking really good, and I am feeling very proud of it. 

A couple really cool things I am looking forward to:

-Tabling at the Brattleboro VT & Greenfield MA Food Co-ops

(NB: it is remarkably easy to schedule tabling outside a food co-op. Power to the community-food-owning people!)

-Giving a nighttime presentation at the Traprock Center for Peace and Justice in Greenfield, MA. I'll be screening a peace documentary on the California prison system made by students in the Spring '09 semester in addition to giving the normal informational presentation about Woolman and what we do here. There's even going to be announcements in the local MA papers about the night! Mostly I am really thrilled to be making a connection with Liz, the director of Traprock. I found out about Traprock on the internet and cold-contacted Liz who has now become a great support for our program. She is sending out information about Woolman and the presentation that night to her 250 person listserv!! Ouff, and you know how much I love listservs. 

I had more to write, but I'll just post that for now. PS the above was written around 2am.

Weird Things I've Seen in Phx Part 1

Its unclear whether it would be more productive to list the weird things I've seen down here, or complie a list of the normal ones...

I was driving to the light rail station in Mesa yesterday when I saw a group of three women standing on the corner, holding a sign that said "Donations car wash for funeral". It was sad and ridiculous at the same time. Mesa is probably the seediest of all the Phoenix area towns; it is always in the paper because it has an inordinate number of "massage parlors" with live in massusses and late late hours. There is a sign at the light rail parking lot which says, "Warning! May be one or more police bait cars!" Lovely.

On the other end of the spectrum is 1950s uber conservative Chandler. They are infected by a weird fad of car window decals that depict the memebers of their family. The stickers are all over the back windows of gigantic SUVs, showing a conga line of cartoon characters that represent mom, dad, kids and pets. I have not yet sustained any damage for my liberal bumper stickers (End this war and A living wage is a moral wage), I wonder if I should push my luck by getting a sticker that has two women on it? You know, just for fun?

Things I don't have in my bathroom cabinet

I recently did a lab with my seventh graders where they smeared bacteria from their mouths on a grow plate, and then applied different common cleaning solutions to see how well bleach, Listerine, germ-x, etc really kill germs. I just graded their lab write-ups. One of the questions they had to answer was, what other solution would you like to test? One kid wrote "an atomic bomb, a hydrogen bomb and hairspray". I think the only response to that is, all at the same time, or would you test one after the other?

I've slept outside twice so far...

Saturday night was the second time I slept outside since coming to Woolman. I don't have a sleeping bag here, so instead I bring my semi-ridiculous bright blue fleece blanket and also my double-sided red/rainbow quilt onto the soccer field and fold them both over so as to make a blanket pita pocket to sleep in. I must say it works pretty well, but in the morning my blanket-pita was pretty wet with dew. Not to worry though, the sunshine dried me out before I fully woke up. It was funny to later find out that several people had seen that I had slept on the soccer field before I woke up! I don't know why I thought that no one would notice a blanket pita with a person in it, but I did. 

Did I tell you that one of the students here asked me if I had slept outside before? At the time I thought he meant here at Woolman, but really he meant EVER IN MY LIFE. And he wasn't talking about without a tent either. Anyway, there haven't been so many times that I've slept in the great outdoors, but I'm certainly not afraid of it. In fact, I think it's been a great plus of living in this dependably dry climate. 

Thinking about climate, and place, and sense of place (this last one is a big theme in Jasmine's class) made me realize that the places I feel most connected to are the ones that I have chosen for myself. Maybe this is just a simple reflection on not feeling connected to the only place I haven't really chosen: the town where I grew up. I'd be interested to know if you feel connected to particular places and if you consider yourself a "placed" person or not. (This was a topic of much debate in one of the classes I observed.) I don't consider myself "placed" I value the freedom to explore and move and roam. Also, I think I've always identified more with the people in history who transferred ideas and objects, the traders and travelers.

Anyway, the same day as the "placed" person discussion there was a question we all discussed in small groups during community meeting: What does home mean to you and how are you experiencing home at Woolman? One of the students in my group said that to her home was pretty much a place where, no matter what mood your in or what is on your plate for the day, you're glad that you woke up there. I think that's a nice way to check in with yourself about where you are. What does it mean if you don't like where you are when you just wake up? Get out! Get movin'

OK one last school/class related thought. The other day I participated in one of the kids' class activities which was to write a letter to yourself that you'll get back on graduation. I told myself to keep working and to appreciate where I am and be at peace with this time in my life, and other things, but something stood out. As I read over what I had already, I noticed I included the imperative "STAY BRAVE." Upon re-reading this I finished the note by saying, "just noticed I wrote 'STAY BRAVE' instead of 'BE BRAVE,' and I think that has to count for something I've already gained in this place." It was quite the "suddenly self-aware" moment.

Finally...something we should do together, before we die. 

Its Raining in Phoenix!

I turned off my AC and am sitting at the kitchen table with my porch door wide open. (Yes, it is still hot here - 97 the last time I checked). The "rainstorms" here are nothing like back east in terms of volume of water - a heavy sprinkle perhaps - but the storm part is incredible. I was driving home from the library when it started in earnest and several times I had to slow down because clouds of sand and leaves were browning-out my view of the road. Its the desert equivalent of a snow storm. The sky is a deep purple, and the air is hazy with ozone, and when the lightning strikes it is not just one long beam, but a network of jagged white lines covering the whole sky.

Red Rock Country - Visit One

This is going to sound very new-agey, but since living in Phoenix I feel disconnected to nature and to the earth. My relationship with the envirnoment is usually through a car window, and my experience of being outside is usually not a good one - the highs are still above 110 on a regular basis and the traffic is terrible. I can see that if one grew up in a suburban environment like this one, and didn't visit other places, one would be pretty apathetic about causes like recycling, reducing pollution and saving endangered species. Its hard to see the value in nature if you've never gotten anything from it.

But enough soap boxing. To renew my environmentalist soul I went up to Sedona for the day on Saturday. Sedona is about 2 hours north of Phoenix, in the heart of red rock country. It is so incredibly beautiful up there; having that experience a few hours away totally makes up for living in a concrete city.

I started my day by hiking the Brins Mesa Trail, which is a 6 mi round trip hike up the east side of a mesa, and then down through the wooded area on the west side. Below is mitten rock, which I high-fived on my hike. (I was alone on my adventure, which was probably a good thing because I was doing weired Ithaca stunts like hugging big outcroppings of rock and talking to trees). (I still don't have a camera, so these are stolen pictures.)



The colors are even more amazing in real life - red and white striated rock, green trees, purple prickly pears.

After my hike I visted the chapel of the holy cross, which is built into the side of a mesa and is open to the public. The chapel is small - two rows of maybe 10 pews each, but looks out over the Sedona valley (Sam, you would love it! Next time you visit...)



Sedona was quite touristy (or at least the part I was in), so I spent just enough time there to look into a few art galleries. And I stopped in the Three Dog Bakery, a bakery that only sells products for dogs, including flavored dog treats in bulk (1/2 lb minimum).

Instead I sat at the Blue Moon Cafe in Oak Creek, a tiny town between Sedona and Rt. 17 (the major north-south rt, between Flagstaff and Phoenix. It was there that I ran into my first real, live tumbleweeds crossing the road. The Blue Moon was great because they let me sit on their patio for almost two hours, nursing my $2.75 iced tea, using their wireless internet and reading my arizona travel books. Their bathroom was wall papered with kitchy redneck signs, one of which read "Yer family tree is a bush", which I found inordinately funny.

I have a long weekend next weekend (labor day), and I fully expect to go back for a longer hike, and to hunt down bookstores in the area. I hear there is one called the Well Red Coyote.

Music

Hey, remember this band? I remember turning this on at that awkward party of the straw fame.

I thought I'd post some of the good music I've been listening to because (a) I thought you might enjoy it! And (b) I hope that the god of music karma will repay me by introducing me to some great new bands because I am sick of everything I've been listening to. For example, I am listening to Country 102.5 as I type. There needs to be an intervention.

Take Me to the Riot - Stars
I've Got Friends - Manchester Orchestra
Wolves at Night - Manchester Orchestra
Hang Me Up to Dry - Cold War Kids
N.B. The cold war kids song was popular during winter break/early spring semester of our sophomore year...when we first started hanging out like whoa.

Also have you heard this song by babybash?! Its my new terrible fav.

Tolerable Amounts of Eggplant

Here is the eggplant dish I was telling you about. I think it is called tourlu if you want to look up variations.

Ingredients
2 eggplant
1 large onion, chopped
4 cups chopped tomatoes (fresh or canned)
5 lg cloves garlic, chopped
2 cups cooked garbanzo beans
any other veggies you want, chopped
olive oil
salt and pepper

1. Cut each eggplant in half length-wise and lay on a cookie sheet skin facing up. Brush the skin with olive oil and stick under the broiler for 5-10 minutes, until the skin blisters. Take the eggplants out of the oven and put them all together in a plastic bag for 10 minutes.
2. Meanwhile put all the chopped veggies in a casserole dish, add maybe 4 tbsps olive oil and salt and pepper.
3. After curing in the plastic bag, chop the eggplant and mix into the casserole dish.
4. Cook at 350, covered, for 1-1.5 hours, or until you think it is done.

I made a dressing to go on top that had:
1 part tahini
1 part water
chopped garlic
splash lemon juice
salt and pepper

A Mediterranean feast!

Deep down I'm a nice person. I swear.

Ok Miami, you inspired me to post again.

When I used to TA at Wes we had a book called The Book of Shame, where we would put hilarious or noteworthy student answers. Sometimes it would be really bad grammar, or something like calling a "volitile" gas "hostile", or drawing a carbon atom with five bonds (you're going to have to trust me on the last one). We never put the student's name in the book, but searching for these gems passed the time when we were grading sixty problem sets.

As a middle school/high school teacher I naturally have to be more sensitive to the failings of my students, which means I can only relate their failings to people who don't know them. Like you. Plus, this will give you an idea of my hilarious life as a teacher.

To start off I have a very smart seventh grader who likes to ask questions that are jsut far enough off topic to be annoying. For example we were talking about specialized cells on Friday (blood, muscle, etc.) and she raises her hand to ask "Do you think human cells are flamable?" (This is the same student who tries to bring up some sort of famous murder daily in class, and then gets indignant when I don;t know what she is talking about.)

One of my chem students wrote on his exam that density is an introspective property. He meant intensive, meaning the property does not change with a change in the amount of matter. Or possibly he meant that density is exceptionally self reflective for a ratio of two quantities.

And I had another seventh grader ask, "Don't only women have hormones?" In repsonse I treated the students to an unsolicited lesson on how testosterone actuallu comes from estrogen and NO WOMEN ARE NOT CONTROLLED BY HOROMONES. I spend a lot of time laughing with myself, which, really, is not any different from any earlier period in my life.

Also...

I am in one of those great coffeeshops we like, and I just had a perfect opportunity to make a TP steal. I refrained though, only because I didn't have my purse with me. DRAT!

There has been a dearth of posts...

This is mostly because Batman & Robin were up to their old tricks including fun times and hard work. By this I mean, I was staying with bananz in Chandler, AZ and then both of us started our NEW JOBS!

Anna's Batcave is pretty sweet. There is plenty of space and at least one instance of eclectic wall decor. I arrived there Friday night on July 31 and left Saturday morning on August 8th. 

(Eclectic wall decor, not to be confused with the walls of eclectic)

We visited several used bookstore and public libraries (as is our way!) I also saw Anna's classroom, where she will mold young minds in a chemical nature. There are itty bitty beakers and plenty of stir rods, but also important safety posters.

One of the strangest things Anna and I have ever done together is eat pizza with my old mailroom compatriot Shannon (from colgate?!?) while being serenaded by a giant pipe organ and several animatronic instruments. In doing this strange thing, we also began to reminisce about some of the more strange, daring, silly, unexpected, etc. things that we have done together. Despite my initial disbelief, by reminiscing about our many capers, we both acknowledged our true responsible-daredevil nature. We are the proteins after all. Below are a couple photos illustrating this latest strange escapade.

(Organ Stop Pizza and Organ close up stolen from website)

We also made time for an educational field trip to The Heard Museum, an American Indian museum. The AMST major in me was internally debating the politics of making museums that focus on people and cultures that are still alive and thriving/struggling today. There's something about museums that tends to locate all subjects in the past. The displays themselves did much work to counter this tendency, however I didn't think our tour guide did the same. Either way, there was beautiful artwork, particularly ceramics, all around. 

I did some experiential learning: 

I found out that sitting on a metal statue in 115 degree heat is very uncomfortable and not recommended. 

Then we struck our traditional poses and touched a cactus together. 

(Anna's pointer finger followed by my squishy hand.)

In addition to these things, there were some good times to be had by a big bunch of us when we went to a dueling piano bar. Of course, this was only after I remembered to bring my passport out with me because I only have my expired drivers' license right now. Yes, I play the part of international woman of mystery quite well.

From L to R: Shannon (from Colgate!), Batman, Robin, & Kara 

(mentor science teacher and master fun-time haver)

Samantha & Anna circa August 2009

I miss you!

Love, S

My First Post About Dental Floss

Currently I have another new teacher staying with me. Randomly enough, we were neighbors when I first moved to Ithaca, we went to high school together and worked on the school newspaper together. Hes teaching math at a sister charter school.

Anyways, he the second man to bring those little plastic flossers into my house. What is it with men and their inability to use dental floss? It is one of the simplest technologies I know, not to mention the cheapest. Then someone came along and said, "Hey, how can we make this more expensive, less environmentally friendly and more goofy looking?"

This is along the lines of those combination jelly/peanut butter jars. I guess it is far to much work to be opening TWO jars and dirtying TWO knives.

Ok, off my soap box for the time being...

I thought of you when...music edition

Pretty much every other song on the radio makes me think of you or Wesleyan. Strangely enough there is a radio station here that really likes playing MGMT. Also there is great station ("music you can move to") that plays California Love all the time.

Yesterday at the gym, for the first time since I've been in AZ, I heard the award winner "Put your lips on my mouth". This cross-country transfer of music makes no sense to me. Isn't most the music recorded in the LA area? Why does it always show up on the East Coast, and way before it gets to the West Coast? Kiss Me Through the Phone was blowing up here in just a few weeks ago, and I remember being sick of that song in March.

One of life's many mysteries...

Oregon Coast Part 1

I feel like I'm cheating on Ithaca, but I think the OR coast really is the most beautiful place I've ever seen. (Don't worry Ithaca! You still have swimming holes and snow and the best library ever!)

I was only in OR for two full days but we did a lot!





The first park we visited was called Shore Acres. We took a guided hike that led us around the coast and then through the woods, and, for the first time in my life, I was up close and personal with northwest sized trees. I wanted Victor to take a picture of me hugging the tree to show the proportion but I resisted because (a) of the cliche and (b) there is really no need to give people more ammunition about my tree hugging hippy tendencies.

Above are views of the ocean from the park. The mystery men are Victor and Victor's friend Ryan, who is training to be a Buddhist monk.








At the second beach there was a long rocky jetty that we clamored out on. Ryan and Victor totally out-clamored me, but then, they had been doing this for years. The first picture is looking out from the beach, the second is looking back at the beach from the jetty and the third is me looking over the ocean from an overlook above the beach.

Montezuma's Castle

The problem with being busy with travels and other exciting activities is that one is too busy to write about those activities - though I'd rather have it this way. The alternative is, of course, writing about how bored one is, which is enjoyed by no one.

Two weekends ago Victor and I decided to forgo the forecasted 115 degree highs and head up to Flagstaff, where the temperature promised to top out in the low 80s. On the way up we stopped at Montezuma's Castle National Monument, which contains the ruins of a prehistoric community. The ruins were erroneously attributed to Montezuma and the Aztecs by the Spanish who (re)discovered the ruins in the 17th century. The actual inhabitants were several hundred Sinagua Indians, a tribe that mysteriously disappeared from the site approximately 800 years ago. Archeologists speculate that the Sinagua may have joined nearby Hopi tribes.






These are some of the cliffside dwellings built by the Sinagau. At the peak of the community there were 60-70 rooms built into area cliffs, though many of the structures have since fallen apart.






This is by far the coolest part of the site. In the middle of the desert, surrounded by prickly pears, sagauro cacti and sand there is a beautiful natural lake. Called Montezuma's Well, it is fed by underground streams and thus is kept at a constant 76 degrees (we were still about an hour south of Flagstaff, and so not yet out of the 100 plus degree heat). Down at the shore we were able to dip our feet in.



Victor: Only YOU can prevent forest fires. (Possibly he was actually pointing to a lizard).

Working Toward the 50

I counted up the number of states I've been in and (after I see you in Arizona) it will be 31.

In a recent email that I was cc'd on, my new boss explained to her colleagues that I will be shadowing her on visits to both Washington state, and Oregon early in the fall. This is so great! These are TWO MORE states left on the list. Strangely, one of the states I am most concerned about is Maine. It's awful far north in the Northeast, and I feel like without making a conscious effort to drive 7 hours some time when I am visiting home in the next couple years, I may never get there. NB must make more friends with vacation houses and/or yearly campsites in Maine.

As a side note, my grandmother asked me if I thought I would at least be having dinner at the top of the space needle when I was visiting Seattle for work. I said I probably wouldn't have the time--fearing she would be unable to bear my explanation that this new job in no way carries an expense account or salary figure appropriate for a space needle meal. This could be the opposite of being accused of yuppiedom? No wait, it is instead a strange, misplaced assumption of yuppiedom! Yes, that must be it.

OK I'll let me post the states left to go:

arizona

washinton

oregon

north dakota

south dakota

nevada

idaho

maine

south carolina

hawaii

alaska

alabama

louisiana

mississippi

wisconsin

michigan

minnesota

oklahoma

kansas

Oh My Cod! (a retrospective) Part 1

This post is a long time coming, but hopefully worth waiting for. The first thing I must say about the trip is that it would have been made infinitely better if Anna and I were brilliant pop-lockers. Even now, almost a month later, I can think of nothing that would have more disturbing to our blue-blood vacay companions than the two of us pop-locking down the main street of Chatham, MA.

As Anna explained in her account of our vacay, there was a great deal of time spent enjoying the atmosphere of the Cape's public libraries and used and new book stores. I took the opportunity to "tweet" about some of the more exciting incidences of print culture I encountered during our trip. The irony of sending text messages to a microblog page while sitting in a public library surrounded my books (perhaps the antithesis of microblogs) was not lost on me, instead it felt at times seductively subversive. Among the print culture great finds (courtesy of Anna) was a Biblophile Shelf located in the corner of the "Where the sidewalk ends" bookstore.

Beautiful books from this shelf include: Men of Letters and People of Substance as well as Off the Page. Below is a picture of Anna, ecstatic over our stimulating visit to WTSE. I should add that like well-trained ex-college students, we drank our fair share of the free coffee offered at this bookstore.

The coffee comment makes me think about our food adventures during this visit, but I think they deserve their own post. I'll leave you instead with two incidences of peculiar signage from the New England landscape, the second one will be a good segue for my upcoming post on our food adventures.

I'll be back soon. Off to catch some sun rays.

The Bird Strikes Back

The first day of our road trip my mom and I hit a bird while driving. Bird murder was bad enough, but to make matters worse, when we stopped we realized the brid was still stuck in between the hood and the bumper, with a wing sticking out. We hit the bird somewhere in Ohio, and I think my mother finally got the guts to remove it around Oklaholma or Texas. Or remove the wing anyways; you could still see a dessicated talon reaching out from the engine.

Fast forward to tonight when I (finally) decided to check my oil, seeing as the car had endured a 3,000 cross country road trip. I stuck my hand in between the hood and bumper and touched...bird. Such jumping around and screaming has not been witnessed maybe since the time last fall when a bird got into our house one Saturday morning. Yes, the poor bird, minus one wing, had been riding around with me for almost a month. Lucky for me Victor was around to perform bird removal and burial services, and we had a nice funeral procession to the dumpster.

I just feel bad for the bird, because his body is strewn across state lines and his spirit will have a time getting back together.

P.S. Victor helped me write this post. He says hi.

I thought of you so many times

when I read this article.

First of all, the word TIMBO! And then of course I laughed out loud when the writer speaks about young men who "think they are ghetto but really are quite white." I believe the young gentleman who used to wear his timbos in the gym fits that description, more or less. Also, a quick shout out to Wu-Tang. And a final passing reference to none other than, Say Anything.

I also really liked the article itself, and that's NOT just because the term neologism is used in it.

In other news, I'm trying to get rid of some of my books. I know this must be unbelievable to you. But the time has come to separate myself from such titles as: The Renaissance of Lesbianism in Early Modern England and The Dictionary of Poetic Terms. Ahh for the life of a liberal arts student...so many titles, so little use.

So T-Pain and a Fox News Anchor walk into a bar...

Auto tune the news. You will die laughing.

Yum - Indian Curry

So one of the best things about college was I could guiltlessly purchase package foods because (a) I was supposed to be spending all my time on my studies, not on cooking and (b) I had points that I had to spend. But in the real world all those tasty vacuum sealed pouches of Indian curry are really expensive. So I christened my range this evening and tried my hand at homemade curry. Here is the recipe:

1/2 bunch chopped mustard greens (can use any cookable greens, including bok choy!)
8 oz tomato sauce
1/3 c plain yogurt
1 small onion
1 tsp chopped giner
1/4 tsp cumin
1 tsp curry powder
1/2 can kidney beans

Steam the greens for 3 minutes. Saute the onions in vegetable oil until soft. Add the ginger and other spices and cook for 2 minutes. Add the greens, beans, yogurt and tomato sauce to the pan with the onions and cook until it looks like curry from a bag. Next time I might add some more spice - coriander? pepper? - but it was pretty good.

Warning: This is vegetarian food.

How I was confronted with yuppiedom, but escaped (almost) unscathed

Given the heat I've given up running until mid-September, when the locals claim it cools down. I've been working out at the Tumbleweed Rec Center, the city run community center, but someone there suggested that I try out Lifetime Fitness, a private club in nearby Gilbert. Both are equidistant from my place so I gave it a shot on Friday.

Let me tell you, I thought these places only existed in movies (and NYC, where nothing is too ridiculous). This place has a spa, a cafe, televisions and leather sofas in the locker rooms and three water slides. Tile and mirrors and spritey employees are everywhere. The main gym is an endless floor of machines, and people looking absolutely miserable on them. People never look that happy at the gym, but the sheer mass of sweaty, unhappy faces says something about misplaced American ideals, not to mention energy. It makes our society look so...mechanical, and removed from nature.

But, off my soapbox. I may be too classless (and too poor) to join Lifetime Fitness, but luckily my classlessness allows me to guiltlessly take advantage of the free seven day trial membership. And so today, after working out on the floor of the sweating dead, I lounged by the outdoor pool, reading and listening to the satellite radio piped in pool side.

This is why I'm hot

I just passed the bank, which reported the temperature at 112F. Note that it is 5 o'clock. I try to keep my heat-related moans to myself, but when they do escape, the general response is, "You ain't seen nothin' yet, Kid".

Today's T-pain fix

For a good laugh watch this episode of infomania starting at about 10 minutes, until 12 minutes (or longer - its all hilarious). Shout out also to people who specialize in packaging and those who like weird print media.

Great One Liners

My mom left the following message on my phone: I just wanted to congratulate the new owner of a creepy mattress.

Backstory: I was on the hunt for a mattress for the cheap, but, as we had discussed, new. I spent all of Thursday morning driving around trying to find places that sell mattresses, but I kept getting lost because everything looks the same here, and stores are all those semi-circular strip malls, so you can't see anything from the road. After driving in and out of strip malls for three hours I had only one quote from a very smooth businessman who (a) asked me if I was single and (b) tried to sell me a vera wang mattress. Vera Wang makes mattresses? How do you show that off? Who wears mattresses to cocktail parties?

As a last ditch effort I went out to Mesa, and managed to locate a mattress liquidator because there was nothing else around - easy to see from the street. The windows of the business where all blacked out and I considered calling my mom before I went in, so the police would know where to find me when I went missing. Inside was just a big cavernous warehouse with mattresses stacked along a narrow walkway that lead to a backdoor. When I told him what I wanted the salesman lead me out the backdoor, where there were rows and rows of those metal self storage units. While he opened one and threw a few mattress on the ground for me to try out, he informed me that his competitors always talked shit about him, but he had been in business for 14 year and had a 5 star rating with the better business bureau.

To which I replied,whatever, if you can install me a queen bed for under 500, I'm yours. And, I slept like a baby on my brand new queen bed last night.

I thought of you when

The foil label on my fat free plain Stonyfield organic yogurt told me to check out this movie: Food Inc.

Today on the Travel Channel

Anthony Bourdain, famed chef, traveler, eater, and frequent guest judge on Top Chef traveled to Columbia and sampled some intense food! Unfortunately I didn't see anything vegetarian among the things he was eating, but there were vegetables in and among the meat products. The most interesting thing I saw on the show was young people (about our age or a bit older) speaking about how 10-15 years ago the drug cartels ran their neighborhoods and no one could go anywhere without danger. Now Columbia, in less than 15 years, is a country transformed. The young people said it was a change in the hearts of its people that helped Columbia heal and prosper so soon.

The Travel Channel also had a great parody of a prescription drug advertisement. The commerical directed people who had symptoms of "the travel bug" to ihavethebug.com where they could find a community of support. I think I have something like "the travel cough" lingering but not serious.

Target Women

I'm lying on my new living room floor, surfing the web until stores open so I can go buy a mattress. I just viewed the newest release of Target Women, a short show that pokes fun at advertisements directed towards women. It is very funny and at times anger inducing, at those chauvinistic advertisement companies that try to convince us, for example, that a perfect load a laundry is all we need to have a great day. Check out the rest of the series by searching for Target Women on you tube.

I also thought of you when

First, let me say that there are still forthcoming entries from my side of our trip to Oh My Cod!

Second, I watched that video yesterday, for the first time. All I have to say is T-pain better give you back your T-pain glasses.

In other news: Today I have been going through my huge pile of stuff that I moved home from our house (23 Vine aka The Batloft). In the depths of that pile, among hundreds of scraps of paper from college and high school, I found a holiday card I wrote to you in junior year. It even had a stamp on the envelope. Highlights from that card: crossing out hannukkah and respelling it hanukkah; referencing our epic Grinch-watching; acknowleding that "I've finally met someone I'll always refer to as 'my close friend I met in college'"; and writing the epic post-script "I'll meet you in baggage claim!"

I'll save the card for you if you want it. It has a cute picture of sock monkeys in christmas hats on the front.

Another card I found was from my friend Tim. The first line of it reads, "To be honest, I have no idea when your birthday is."

I thought of you when...

Why have we not seen this video? Possibly the only thing that could have made senoir week better.

NY to AZ Day Five

After arriving in Santa Fe Wednesday afternoon, we spent the day here not driving. First thing I did in the morning was go for a run, although I didn’t heed the altitude as I should have and thus spent the rest of the day slightly ill (Santa Fe is almost 7,000 feet above sea level.) That didn’t stop me from visiting two bookstores and the public library, however. Between the two bookstores I made a good start on my collection of southwest themed books: Roadside Geology of Arizona, Shrubs and Trees of the Southwest Desert and Tony Hillerman’s autobiography. I also picked up a book by J Maarten Troost, who is one of my favorite travel writers.

As per Sam’s instructions ("if you do one thing in Santa Fe, have coffee at the Aztec Café"), my mother and I walked to the Aztec Café for a late lunch. I knew I was in the right place because I could hear Atmosphere playing before we stepped through the café door. I had a yummy Ithaca style salad – baby greens, carrots, tomatoes, onions, and sunflower seeds – and great headache erasing coffee. Right next door to the café was the bookstore where I picked up Hillerman’s autobiography, as well as some artsy greeting cards.

After an afternoon of true lounging I walked downtown – 10 minutes from the TravelLodge on Cerrillios – I highly recommend the TravelLodge for price, location and comfort if you are ever in Santa Fe. Downtown was a little high end and touristy for my tastes, though I did lust after all the silver and turquoise jewelry. (I didn’t start my collection of said jewelry, but I know its just a matter of days before the bangles and earrings start seriously calling my wallet’s name).

At night we sat on the Plaza and listened to live music coming from balcony of a nearby resturant. The PLaza was also the location where, earlier that day, an old native american had sat down on the bench next to me and told me horror stories of baking in Phoenix in the summer. Lovely.

NY to AZ Day Four

We just stopped at a town outside of Clinton, OK for gas and I had my first run in with misunderstanding accents. It took a few tries for me to purchase my bag of ice. We’re nearing the Oklahoma/Texas border. The grass is thinner and browner, and much of the soil is a deep, rusty red. I got very excited because I saw my first cacti on the red banks of the exit ramp – little round guys with long thorns. There are slight hills here but in places you can see for miles and miles into the distance. The most common sights are cows, hay bales and oil wells. The cows must be beef cows because they are often far from the nearest visible farmhouse, that is, too far to be milked twice daily.

Nine out of ten of the radio stations are country music or right wing talk shows, but we always able to find at least one good classic rock radio station. These radio stations naturally have a country bent, and, interestingly enough, I have heard a large percentage of songs that are sampled on Night Ripper or Feed the Animals, both Girl Talk albums. I suspect that I will end up listening to a lot of country music living down in Arizona.

Shortly outside of Oklahoma City we passed a town that had at least fifty large wind turbines. Mom went crazy with excitement, and we rolled down the windows to see if we could hear them, although, naturally, at 70 mph the wind going by the car would have drowned out any wind going through the turbines. We were a bit depressed having just spent the night in a run down box store heaven outside of Okla City, where there were no sidewalks and freeways everywhere one looked, so it was nice to see that there are progressive people outside of the normal enclaves of liberals that dot the east and west coasts.