the great lake state

Michigan! There's only one thing better than visiting a friend who knows you like the back of their mitten. It's if that friend could just be right there so you wouldn't have to go so far to see them.

Despite the blizzard of the year, I was able to get to Michigan a couple weekends ago to visit. Kristen, DJ, Cora and Margot welcomed me into their warm house. Seriously, their house was 10 degrees warmer than mine ever gets, and it was freezing outside. Storm windows! They live up at the top of the mitten, near the ring finger in Traverse City. There is snow and there are bakeries and cross country skiing trails minutes from anyone's home. I was charmed.

I've been tense lately. Wedding planning and I don't get along very well. Either do design clients with unreasonably high expectations and I. I needed to go and be free, for a short time and commune with loved ones away from all my stuff. Kristen and I spent all the time we could, talking and drinking coffee (withdrawal when I got home wasn't as bad the second time). I met her newest baby, who was all smiles and faces and tiny kicking feet. Being there felt like taking a hot bath for 4 days.

We went out cross country skiing one night with Kristen's skiing group. 5 ladies that get some time away from their kids one evening a week to drink Hot Damn cinnamon schnapps, right from the bottle, and scoot around on ski trails. Luckily, one of the women loaned me her headlamp, since I've only skied a few times, and it was really dark. It was a blast! These women laugh and laugh! It was great medicine, and the schnapps were delicious also. Later in the week, we skied again in a different part of town, and we went across a frozen lake!

We drank and ate. Drove up to a lighthouse. I saw a cardinal out the front window! Made a snowman when it was warm one afternoon and spent a lot of energy knocking down icicles off the eaves. DJ resorted to hacking at the biggest icicle with a snowshovel on top of a ladder. Then the icicle almost fell on his head, and did knock him off the third rung from the top. Landed on his feet though! Cat-like, that DJ.

It was such a great time, and I was so pleased to see my friend so happy and doing well. I didn't want to leave again, but had to get back to the timesheet. Can't wait to go back though! To Michigan.
 

end of a decade

Top 10 of 2009 - The year in review, for me

10. Surviving swine flu

9. Passing my professional exams

8. Dresses with pockets

7. Sayulita, la parte dos

6. Obama

5. Week at Indianola house with family

4. Living with most fabulous roommates

3. Sailing classes and Eider

2. Both my nephews learning my name

1. Dating Michael McMasters for the last 10 months

BEV

It was a real pleasure to watch my old friend Brynn get married October 4th. It was maybe slightly more of a pleasure to watch her dance to 'Rockin in the USA' with her Dad. The ceremony, the reception, the places, the people were all fully Brynn. It's nice to know that even though we live in different cities now, and keep in touch more on a yearly basis, than a daily basis, she is still who she always was.

Who was she? Brynn has been my friend since freshman year of college. We were placed in the same bible study at church, and never looked back. After she let me sleep on her dorm room floor for a week, just to see what I was missing out by having to live at home, I knew she liked me.

We used to play catch out on the street after classes. We used to bike, run, swim and play all hours of the day and night. She told us stories of her youth back in Lynden and would have us holding our bellies. If there was an opportunity to do anything at all, she was in. Coffees, exercise, roaming campus, telling jokes - Brynn was in the middle of it. Or on top of it, like when she cut out a photo of her face and pasted it on the angel on top of our Christmas tree.

We traveled down to Costa Rica together in 2005. Slightly afraid, but mostly ecstatic, we surfed and made rice and beans. We met some British guys, surely through Brynn's magnetic personality, and hung out with them for the last few days of our trip. We rented bikes and went swimming under a little waterfall with some local kids outside of town. We just plain had fun. We enjoyed ourselves. Brynn was, and always will be, an expert enjoyer of life. I miss having her around everyday. She is irreplaceable. I love her dearly and wish her all the best with her new sidekick. I am glad to know that she is only a car trip away and that although she has many people to give her love to, she seems to always have a little piece for me.

reunion

9 years ago I was 19 years old over Memorial Day weekend. My roommates and I decided to hit the road for a weekend trip to Victoria B.C. We felt a lot like grown-ups, so why not take a mini-break getaway like grown-ups do? We pooled our money and crammed into a smoky room at the Days Inn above the bar. We took the ferry, wandered the streets, got into minor trouble and had a great time. Every year since, we have celebrated our friendships with a day or a weekend event. Camping, concerts and cabins. Nowadays, it's the only time I see some of these friends during a year. Small babies are allowed to come along and there is more talk about groceries and child development than about chasing boys. No one has danced on a sofa or flashed the neighbors for years. Oh wait, someone did actually flash the neighbors this year too.

Every year, I am overwhelmed with thankfulness for these women who are still a part of my life. Yakima, Bellingham, Tacoma, Portland, Wenatchee, San Diego and New York have taken most of my girls away from my everyday life. This makes me sad, and I mourn the loss of the best community of friends that I have ever had. Luckily though, we still hold together even if our visits comes in fits and spurts instead of consistently over a hot pan of brownies on Sunday evenings as college sophomores.

I don't have much to offer in the way of marriage advice, childbirth stories or home ownership tips and I feel a little like I've been lapped. This doesn't seem to matter though. I could just show up and sit quietly the entire weekend, and feel like I have been understood completely. We sit and drink coffee and talk for 36 hours straight, yet it barely matters what we are talking about. It matters more that we are sitting next to each other. I know that most people don't have friends like this. A tribe like this. An urban family. How do I deserve this blessing?

As we all seem to be getting older and growing in different ways we are still very much connected. Not just through the fun memories and the silly stories, although those would be enough to sustain us if they had to. Somehow, we are still making new memories and working to know each other's souls in the present. Unless we could all live on the same street again, there is nothing else I could ask for in my friends.

me, of little faith, again

Today, I feel tired and alive. Last week was one for the records. I hardly slept well, had stress, excitement, joy, anticipation, friends, foes, overtime, tardiness, butterflies, nerves and peace. I am reminded that in my life I would rather have stress, action, disaster and triumph all at the same time instead of nothing at all. This is why I travel. Not because it's all good, or good at all, but because it is always changing, requiring thought and response. My friend Mike and I were talking recently about how humankind needs danger and challenge to keep their brains alive and growing. All of the repetition of working at the desk may be slowly killing me, and weeks like this last one are just the thing to keep me on my toes.

After working last Sunday and then all the stomach wrenching stress of Monday's hearing, I tried to focus on my test. It went okay. I felt like I knew most of what they were testing me on. I had studied well. The problem is that the tests are so poorly written, by amateurs, that 20% of the questions leave you scratching your head not for an answer, but how to understand the question. It's ridiculous. Luckily I had time to keep a list of all the worst questions and I wrote out each one's problem in the comment section of the test at the end. If I can get some bad questions, probably ones that I missed, thrown out, I will try to do just that. You never know how many questions you need to answer correctly to pass because they do throw some out and draw their line based on how people did.

On my way back from the test I had a message from Regence on my phone. I called them back, expecting to provide some lame detail that they didn't listen to and missed the first time. Instead, the lady picked up and told me that the panel agreed with me. That's right, I won! I could hardly believe my ears. She could hardly believe it either. She said my case was a real stretch, but that they agreed with me anyway. Praise the Lord, yes? I don't know yet what this means in terms of dollars coming back my way. It may be $100, it may be $1,000. She also said she would work out the outstanding $1,000 of benefit for my busted teeth that hadn't been processed correctly. If I have any questions, I am to call her direct line. Unbelievable, I know. I'll really believe it when I see the check in my hands. I just can't believe that what I was doing mostly for due diligence, actually worked. Maybe instead of covering 4% of my bills, they'll cover 30%.

I went to my public meeting that night singing. The rest of the week, work was crazy, but nothing could bring me down from the relief of having that test done and beating the system in a big way. I also made peace with my haircut. To top it off, the guy I have a crush on that rides one of my buses, whom I have started chatting with, invited me to sit with him all the way to our mutual stop! Glorious. The weekend has been spent decadently, with friends, celebrating the marriage of my good friend AnnaMarie to her man David. Friends, babies, white dresses and white wine. Mmmm.

blessed weekend

I thought that I had to fly to Mexico, Havana or Honduras to be warm and have a good time. Surprise, surprise! Turns out, all I had to do was roll down to Portland and visit my friends, the Gregorys. Well, to start I spent Saturday boating, which of course, you already know about. On Sunday Claire, Melissa and I got up early and hit the road with Judy the wagon (not before a cursory stop at Vivace for white velvets and scones). By the time we made it to Olympia we had sorted out our man problems, work issues and caught up on joking around. The drive was fun.






















We slipped into a glorious, free, parking spot and Whitney and Nathan came around the corner to greet us. They showed us their most amazing loft in the Pearl District of Portland. Tall ceilings, massive beams, a wrapping of windows, expansive floors and walkable to everything. The kitchen to the bathrooms reminded me of a hotel.

We walked down to a cafe for brunch and then wandered to Powells books and some shops. The trip then blends into an entirely pleasurable flow of eating, walking, looking, shopping and laying in the sun. There was so much laughter and relaxation. When we went to the park to lay in the sun, the smell of my blanket and the grass took me right to the most happy place, summer. I was warm and happy and could have been in Hawaii. Except for the down jacket. My freckles even began to come out after the hour in the sun.

I ended up dropping some coin on a new dress, coat and plenty of food and coffee. It's really a vacation if I am impulse buying! By the time we were returning home and stopped over in Tumwater, I was back to analyzing how many ounces of sour patch kids I would be getting relative to the price between brands at the gas station. You can only step outside of yourself for so long. It was a wonderful mini break and I was so happy to see my good friends.

one for the little bitty baby

One of my best friends, Kristen and her husband DJ just had a perfect child on Wednesday at home in their living room. Cora is amazing. Melissa and I took Judy up over the pass to see them in Yakima on their 4th day. She slept on my stomach, legs sprawled out, head to the side and one arm around my arm. I almost ran out the door with her and drove away. We reluctantly left the little family with Grandpa and Grandma who had also just arrived and drove back over the snowy pass. I miss her.

houseguests

Visiting has been the order of the day for nearly a month. Many friends, old and foreign have passed through 311 bringing with them a little of everything. I was a little sad as my old time close girlfriends came and went, their presence a reminder of the glory days of my social life. Why does everyone have to move away? I quite like it right here.














Then David came. My old French friend from the trip. He stayed for a week looking around the city and then went with Melissa, Jeff and I on our backpacking trip.













Melissa and I took two days off and we drove all the way to the Northeastern Cascade mountains. We drove up the highest road in the state to Hart's Pass, elev. 6,000 something. Then we hiked down along the West Fork Pasayten river in this valley, the roundest valley.













Then we looped back over Holman Pass along the Pacific Crest Trail, the very trail of milk and honey to all Northwest hikers. I had been waiting my whole life to finally get to the trail and run into some very hairy, smelly people who are somehow inspired to hike from Mexico to Canada.













The hike was delicious. We hiked far but not too far, had plenty of food and time to relax and enjoy our 3 campsites. I felt utterly refreshed. David however, must have been homesick for France. Everything we did was too far, too short, too cloudy, too large, too wasteful, too boring, too often, too little, too late. I think he found America to be quite grotesque. Cars, food portions, excess - all upsettingly wasteful. I agree with him. America has serious trouble with our consumer based culture and economy. We have no trains, no good cheese, people are overweight, overworked and generally uninspired. But America has only been around a short time and we haven't the chance to develop slowly and maturely into a society with real values, like France. It is quite perfect there. I will spend the rest of my life advocating for a slower, more delicious and caring society. Until then however, don't hate, appreciate the good things we do have. Like mountains and reading books in the woods.

i miss those light tan colored m&ms...

Saturday was an incredible day, much anticipated over the course of the Face Smashing Experience. I finally went **SURFING** again! Just me, my own board, my own wetsuit and my own home waves. And my new surfing partner Mark (who happens to be quite charming and catches the same size waves as me). We were lucky with a nice cloud layer, no wind, and a nice 5 foot swell. Oh the joy of the salty spray and burning, jello-like paddling arms! And I didn't even re-break my jaw.

Here's a photo from my best high school friend, Sarah's wedding BBQ, Sunday. Our friend Hilary was there, who I haven't seen for 8 years. It was surprisingly easy to pick up with her, even though we are different people in different places. Sarah is married now to her high school beau. Hilary has a condo with her boyfriend and Jessica there has a townhouse in Greenwood. I have...two halves of my front teeth, a $475 car and a lot of good stories? At least my stories don't need a new roof.

Speaking of halves of teeth, I have an appointment with my dentist to get some new ones Sept 19th. That's quite a long time from now, but I don't even care. Every time I eat I savor the goodness and remember the pain as I sat with friends and drank soup while they enjoyed all that is lovely to put into one's mouth. I may look kinda funny and feel a little self-conscious, but at least I can breathe. Two months can't be that long.

A note on weight loss: I lost somewhere in the neighborhood of ten pounds. I think I weigh the same as I did in high school, but without all the muscle. The day I fell, the dental assistant told me as I walked out the door to go to the surgeon's office, "Honey, having your jaw wired shut is a great way to lose some weight.' Most people ask me right away if I lost weight. It's almost more interesting to them than the rest of the story (with the exception of the tooth half stuck in my lip, which gets them every time). I am a little disturbed by the consensus that my silver lining is losing some weight. SO NOT WORTH IT. Not even close. Not even in the ballpark. I would have gained 10 pounds to have avoided all this. My friend Liz appropriately responded when I told her what people were saying by remarking, "That just shows you how eph-ed up our society is that people even think about that when you have a broken jaw and tons of medical bills. That's messed up." Word.

mr. hart

This past weekend was a rockstar-style series of events at La Casa de La Trifecta. My good friend George came to visit from Ipswich, England. You may remember my own visit over there last June. I first met George in Ethiopia on my Deputation trip in 2003. He had been working at the Mekele youth center for several months and was on his way home. My team was just getting started. We hit it off right away over Scrabble and table tennis and have kept in touch ever since.

I wanted to show George my home and let my pride overflow and evolve into his own appreciation for the Emerald city and the Evergreen State. We began at a lovely party in Tacoma with some of my friends Friday night after George arrived at the airport.

Saturday morning Melissa, George and I pulled ourselves together and packed up the car for a little campout at Deception Pass State Park. My family joined us in the morning for a little Mother’s Day scramble around the beaches and a couple rounds of the family throwing-rocks-at-driftwood game. It was sunny and beautiful and we all had a great time.

Monday I made use of some of my overtime hours and took the day off to spend with George. We hit up mini-golf, the Ballard Locks, Golden Gardens and finally the Hopvine for Scrabble with Claire, Melissa and fellow deputee, Alexander. I laughed pretty much all day, which is what it is like to spend time with George. Seattle was on its best behavior and we both got a little sunburned. Tuesday I sent George into the city on his own before taking him back to the airport in the evening.

While I enjoy his visits, emails and occasional parcels very much, it’s a sad time when we must part ways. How can I enjoy a friend so much that I really haven’t spent all that much time with (14 days)? It doesn’t make sense. I believe Anne Shirley from Green Gables called them kindred spirits. There are people in your life that you can learn to like and love, and those that you can’t help but to do so. We can all be thankful for those people in our lives and the easy way our relationships exist with them.

Cheers, George!

presidents day = my day

The lure of a three day weekend and winter's first thaw took Judy and I away to Yakima for another really nice weekend visiting my friends Kristen and DJ. I greeted Flora and Clementine and admired the plans for spring's garden and home projects. We watched movies, played Settlers of Catan, swatted around at the tennis courts, ate yummy food and shopped for used furniture. I felt the usual pangs of marriage and house envy as a guest in their happy home.

We discussed the merits of lentils, which cilantro seeds are best and options for implementing Martha Stewart Living's latest crafty delight, ribbon embroidery. Being in their presence is so familiar and good. I wish that my best friends and I could all live on the same block someday.

Yakima was in its usual fine form. Cars on blocks and bingo halls packed on a Saturday night. What a strange town. Its location is great; close to wineries, mountains and orchards. The houses are cheap and the salaries decent. There are a few cute bakeries. Okay, one. It has all the makings of a great small town, but is a little off. The divide between the have and have-nots is very clear. It runs along an avenue, a language barrier and a race. That divide seems to sever any hope of character or common place. Yakima just can't rest. This is just speculation from a tourist. All I know for sure is that furniture is cheaper over there and I found myself a cute dresser.

i heart the mountains

Happy Birthday DJ! My good friend has turned 30. To celebrate, Kristen (his wife and my friend) threw him a cross country ski event up at Snoqualmie pass. A little herd of us drove up and enjoyed cake and lunch at the lodge before strapping on the ol’ Nordics and hitting the trails. I say that sounding like it was easy for me, which is was not. I felt like a fool with skis on my feet. I couldn’t go, I couldn’t stop and I tripped Melissa with my pole as we got off the ski lift. I was filled with fear as Kristen and DJ tried to convince us that the hill off to the right, which was a blue rated downhill run, was also good for cross country skiers. I couldn’t begin to move either direction and by the time I began to feel confident in my ability to direct myself, we realized that the Nordic trails were the other direction and headed away from certain death.

The rest of the afternoon we made loop trails, had races, videoed each other coming down black diamonds and threw snow chunks at each other. It was beautiful and clean and the air echoed with the crack of distant avalanches. We had a great time, especially when DJ stood under a snowy tree and dared us throw snowballs and dislodge the pack onto his head. It was hilarious. On the way back down, the hills became too steep to manage for most of us, so we popped our skis off and sledded down sitting on them. We laughed and screamed with delight as we slammed into snow banks and bounced around corners. As we were traversing a pleasant flat place, Whitney said in her delightfully sarcastic yet serious way, “I would say that we’re really making some great memories here.”

In addition to the fun, friend-filled snow day this weekend, I ventured up for my second snowboarding lesson last Thursday. I was pleased to have a different teacher this time, 23 year old Mike who teaches ESL in foreign lands during the summer months and speaks Spanish, Portuguese and Mandarin. He was a vast improvement to T from the week before who was clearly a few runs short of a resort, if you know what I mean. Example: when I asked T about a problem I was having turning, he said to relax and just learn how to feel it. When I asked Mike the same question he responded by correcting my imbalance issues and reminding me how to flex my board with my feet to turn, not to lean. Much more helpful. I improved greatly and spent the rest of the afternoon with Noah, my classmate, riding the lift and trying to not fall for the length of the bunny slope. Mike even took us on a blue square run, which did wonders for my self confidence. A success! One more fun lesson this Wednesday before succumbing to my laborious fate on Friday. All vacations must come to an end, even those that last 13 months.

elizabeth nona

I feel that an ode to my dear friend Liz is in order. I'm not much of a poet, so perhaps just a shout out will do.

Liz is an old and good friend, the kind that you never doubt and that you can pick right up with over a phone conversation as you multi-task. She knows me well and makes me laugh. We go back all the way to 2000 when things were more simple and boys less mature. We have lived together, studied together and met for weekly downtown lunches together.

Now Liz has decided to get involved with bigger things back east and enrolled herself at Columbia, studying international affairs. She lives in Harlem now and knows why war is a viable foreign policy option. I am glad for her to be pursuing good goals and learning how the political world works. I miss her terribly though. I am reminded of this after her visit back home over Christmas. It felt so normal and social and fun with her around. Now she has gone back and I realize that her absence is a part of my new life in Seattle. Every Wednesday at lunchtime, working downtown again, I will miss her living close to me.

For her farewell activity last Friday, a group of friends and I enjoyed burgers at a pub and then bowled our hearts out in Ballard. I tried to show my appreciation for her by bowling a personal best of 123. It was such a nice, casual time.

I hope to be able to visit her again, like I did this November when my sister ran the marathon. Until then, I wish her all the best in her second term and those to follow.














That's Liz on the right.

singles

My holiday festivities continued last week with the annual Ornament Exchange and a fun new years party at my place. The ornament exchange happens with a dozen or so of the girls that I went to church with in high school. It’s been a great gathering for the 12 years that we have met. I am always impressed at how we are turning out. A lawyer, doctor, teacher, NSA agent, finance guru, and more. Only one of us is married and no one is thinking children just yet. Everyone is just doing their thing and living the life of a 20-something. It’s refreshing since a lot of my other friends are in baby-mode. I like baby-mode, but not being in it, or close to it, is a little disheartening. I feel normal with my O.E ladies. We always meet, go around the circle to catch up with each other’s years, then eat treats and have an ornament swap. It’s like no time has passed when I see all of them. Old friends are good for that.

New Years Eve was a low key affair, as they have all become in recent years. A bunch of people came over, we ate out at Piecora’s Pizza and then went back to my house for wine and Risk. I won, conquering the world in a dice rolling frenzy. I like starting in Africa. I can usually win from Africa.

I now have 21 days left until work. They are going fast because I have a few friends back in town and I am spending time at coffee shops and around the kitchen table just chillin. I don’t have too many goals for these last three weeks though, so a run of lazy Saturday-type days is fine, really.

urban family thanksgiving

Last weekend was a smashing success. Many members of my urban family came over and we shared a most delicious meal. A few girls came over Friday night and we celebrated nothing at all with wine and a fire. Saturday, we visited the Urban Craft Uprising fair and celebrated Amanda's baby to be. Saturday evening, we all steamed, whisked, blended and baked one of my best thanksgiving meals yet. My turkey was nothing short of delicious, I am proud to report. Everything was so good and we had much to be thankful for. I'm so glad there are still enough of us around to make this event happen.