Bad Blogger

I've been a bad blogger. You know when you feel like you're always a step behind? You can't get to work on time, can't get enough sleep, can't get you apartment clean, can't go to the grocery store. Yeah, that's been me in August. But, I think I have time to take a deep breath now and start to catch up.

I have a big dinner planned for me and Pete tonight, followed by a nice walk around Green Lake. Then, a three-day weekend in town. What a concept! I'll be getting together with some friends and maybe taking a bike ride in the San Juans, if it doesn't rain too much.

I hope everyone else has a nice, relaxing weekend as well!

My Sense of Direction

Some confessions:

I drive my mom crazy by asking her for directions to places in Spokane that I've been 100 times.

I sometimes get lost coming out of the bathroom at restaurants and malls.

I have trouble giving people directions to places because I tend to just drive around until I find a destination.

Yes, I have a terrible sense of direction. Or perhaps just a lack of one. Anyway, I kind of cracked myself up this week with another classic example of my directional confusion. See, I had the simple task of walking from my office at Seattle University to Safeco Field. For most people, their mind would direct them to a route that looks something like this:

It's about a 1.8 mile route, and pretty direct.

Here's how my brain works (these are direct thought quotes): "Hmmm, I know how to get from my office to downtown, and I know how to get from downtown to Safeco. So, I guess that's the best way to go!"

So, my actual route looked like this:

I walked about 3. 5 miles. When I told the group that I had passed Pike Place Market on my way to the game, they all said: "What were you doing there? That doesn't make any sense!"

At the time, it made perfect sense to my directional-deprived brain! The Dixie Chicks have a song with the lyrics: "I've always found my way somehow, taking the long way around." That's me - both literally and figuratively!

Things I Like, August 2009

Mojitos - Pete and I had so many during the Record-setting Seattle Heat Wave (!!!) that we completely OD'd and have to take a break for a while. But, here's the easiest way to make them:

Muddle 2-4 t sugar, 10 mint leaves and 3-4 limes in the bottom of a glass. Add ice. Pour 2 oz. rum in the glass. Top it off with club soda.

Converse All Stars - I found a pair at Ross in Palm Springs, and started wearing them around town. And, THEY ARE AMAZING. So comfortable, and oh so retro-stylish. I kind of want to wear them all the time right now. I've started using them as my commuting shoes, since I have to walk a bit to and from bus stops.

Farro - Bluebird Grain Farms set up at farmers markets in Seattle, and they have all sorts of interesting and appealing products from flour and hot cereal, to stuff I'd never heard of like farro and wheat berries. I decided to give the farro a try. So far I have made a recipe for Farro Caprese Salad and another one with chickpeas, which I cannot find at the moment, but which was pretty close to this one. I just substituted farro for bulgur. I think I'm going to make one of these recipes again this week! (Bluebird also has a CSA that I'm tempted to join, but I just don't think I can go through that much grain each month!)

Julia Child & M.F.K. Fisher - Right now I'm reading "How to Cook a Wolf" by M.F.K. Fisher. She's pretty darn fabulous - writing about eating well during WW2 and maintaining quality in the American diet. I already tried one of her recipes, and it was very tasty. And I, like every other foodie on America, saw Julie and Julia this weekend. I also happened to catch a couple old Julia Child cooking show episodes on PBS. I have officially fallen in love with Julia Child. I may just have to get her book and try some French cooking. Eating and cooking French food has always intimidated me, but Julia was out to convert people just like me, so for her sake I think I'll give it a try. Maybe start with Beef Bourguignon?

Ryan Berkley artwork - He's kind of like a modern Beatrix Potter artist. I bought this set of squirrel prints, and I smile every time I look at them.

Week of Words - Sunday

This is my last post for Week of Words. And, since it's Sunday, I thought I would post a poem that my pastor included in one of our church newsletters - about the call to create a better world, and act out compassion and justice.

I'm off to church and the farmer's market. Hope everyone is enjoying the sunshine!

Christ Has No Body

Teresa of Avila (1515-1582)

Christ has no body but yours,

No hands, no feet on earth but yours,

Yours are the eyes with which he looks

Compassion on this world,

Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good,

Yours are the hands, with which he blesses all the world.

Yours are the hands, yours are the feet,

Yours are the eyes, you are his body.

Christ has no body now but yours,

No hands, no feet on earth but yours,

Yours are the eyes with which he looks

compassion on the world.

Christ has no body on earth but yours.

Week of Words - Saturday

This is the first poem that ever sparked for me the imaginative energy and emotion that so many poems can create. I read it in my 10th grade English class with Mrs. Lake.

By e.e. cumings

i thank You God for most this amazing

day: for the leaping greenly spirits of trees

and a blue true dream of sky;and for everything

which is natural which is infinite which is yes

(i who have died am alive again today,

and this is the sun's birthday;this is the birth

day of life and of love and wings: and of the gay

great happening illimitably earth)

how should tasting touching hearing seeing

breathing any--lifted from t he no

of all nothing--human merely being

doubt unimaginable You?

(now the ears of my ears awake and

now the eyes of my eyes are opened)

Have a great day on this lovely Saturday!

Week of Words - Friday

I came across this poem in Traveling Mercies by Anne Lamott. It's provided me with a good grounding after a week of sad news, and during a current week of high temperatures that keep making me grumpy.

By W.S. Merwin

Listen

with the night falling we are saying thank you

we are stopping on the bridge to bow from the railings

we are running out of the glass rooms

with our mouths full of food to look at the sky

and say thank you

we are standing by the water looking out

in different directions

back from a series of hospitals back from a mugging

after funerals we say thank you

after the news of the dead

whether or not we knew them we are saying thank you

in a culture up to its chin in shame

living in the stench it has chosen we are saying thank you

over telephones we are saying thank you

in doorways and in the backs of cars and in elevators

remembering wars and the police at the back door

and the beatings on the stairs we are saying thank you

in the banks that use us we are saying thank you

with the crooks in office with the rich and fashionable

unchanged we go on saying thank you thank you

with the animals dying around us

our lost feelings we are saying thank you

with the forests falling faster than the minutes

of our lives we are saying thank you

with the words going out like cells of a brain

with the cities growing over us like the earth

we are saying thank you faster and faster

with nobody listening we are saying thank you

we are saying thank you and waving

dark though it is

Week of Words - Thursday

Well, I'm not doing a very good job on my Week of Words - I forgot to put somethin up yesterday! Oh well, here's one for Thursday.

My Name Is Not "Those People"

By Julia Dinsmore

My name is not "Those People."
I am a loving woman, a mother in pain, giving birth to the future, where my babies have the same chance to thrive as anyone.

My name is not "Inadequate."
I did not make my husband leave - he chose to,
and chooses not to pay child support.
Truth is thought, there isn't a job base for all
fathers to support their families.
While society turns its head, my children pay the price.

My name is not "Problem and Case to Be Managed."
I am a capable human being and citizen, not a client.
The social service system can never replace the compassion
and concern of loving Grandparents, Aunts, Uncles, Fathers,
Cousins, Community - all the bonded people who need to be
but are not present to bring children forward to their potential.

My name is not "Lazy, Dependent Welfare Mother."
If the unwaged work of parenting, homemaking and community building was factored into the Gross National Product, my work would have untold value. And I wonder why my middle-class sisters whose husbands support them to raise their children are glorified - and they don't get called lazy and dependent.

My name is not "Ignorant, Dumb or Uneducated."
I live with an income of $621 with $169 in food stamps.
Rent is $585. that leaves $36 a month to live on. I am such a genius at surviving that I could balance the state budget in an hour.

Never mind that there is a lack of living-wage jobs.
Never mind that it is impossible to be the sole emotional, social and economic support to a family.
Never mind that parents are losing their children to the gangs, drugs, stealing, prostitution, social workers, kidnapping, the streets, the predator.
Forget about putting money into schools - just build more prisons.

My name is not "Lay Down and Die Quietly."
My love is powerful and my urge to keep my children alive will never stop. All children need homes and people who love them. They need safety and the chance to be the people they were born to be.

The wind will stop before I let my children become a statistic.
Before you give in to the urge to blame me,
the blames that lets us go blind and unknowing into
the isolation that disconnects us, take another look.
Don't go away.
For I am not the problem, but the solution.
And...My name is not "Those People."