Story Time with Cortney: Student/Worker/ Human Extraordinaire!

Snowshoeing and Sunrises

2012-01-22T17:45:00.000-08:00

Just a collection of cell phone pictures from my mornings on the way to school and our weekend snowshoeing trip. No editing or fancy filters, kind of grainy, but I like 'em.

School is going well, teaching is great, and I've been reading a lot lately. All in all, life is good.

Oh, Right...

2012-01-19T13:24:00.000-08:00

A perk of leaving my house at 7 a.m.- sunrise as captured on my cell phone, no filters/editing

I suppose I never did the follow-up post to my 2011goals in review post. I know we're almost an entire month into 2012, but I figure I'll get these goals nailed down for posterity, so I can either revel in victory or toil under shame, depending upon how they work out.

As I mentioned, I think a huge issue last year was my glaring oversight in not making pre-grad school and during-grad school goals. This led me to decide that I would make a set of goals that were specific to January 1st- May 31st. That encompasses my entire second semester of grad school, plus all of my student teaching, plus the end of our lease here in Colorado. What happens come June 1st is truly completely up in the air. A lot depends upon where Bobby is working by then, where I might be working, where family members are in the U.S. and where we might be visiting them, etc. There is a possibility we may go month to month and stay in Colorado through August, maybe not. Basically, the only logical thing is to plan from January to May because that is the only thing I'm sure of at the moment. I'm also taking into consideration how much of a brutal, stressful time suck grad school+ student teaching is (something I had no idea about last January) which led to a significant paring down of any goals. In fact, I only have 3, as follows, in no particular order:

1. Work/Life- specifically Work/Relationship- balance: A lot of the particulars of this goal are personal to my, well, personal relationships, but let's just say that last semester was a big stressful wad of no social life and little to no fun/going out. This isn't good for me, or the people who ~~put up with~~ love me. Therefore, I set up my weekly schedule so that I do absolutely no lesson planning/homework on Friday night after school, all day Saturday, and Saturday night. This gives me two nights a week of guilt free, I'm not worrying about homework freedom. It also averts the problem of letting fear of finishing a project interfere with needed downtime, which I wrote about at length. Plus, it gives Bobby and I a guaranteed date night, or time for hanging out with friends, or making random day trips to Boulder/Denver, etc. And I get to stay out late/sleep in, because homework/lesson planning are not even options.

2. Graduate School and Student teaching: My goals here are simple and straightforward: successfully complete my student teaching (with all the reviews and lesson planning and grading and after school work and professional development that entails) and end the semester with another 4.0 in all of my grad classes. Come May I will have 27 hours towards my graduate degree and have all of the necessary training for my certification. I've kicked ass for the first half of this journey, and I want to finish strong.

3. Health and Fitness: Return to my former level of fitness and lose the 18 pounds I gained while on crutches. I know a lot of people think it's terrible to focus on a scale, but facts are facts: before breaking my foot, I was incredibly active and ate whatever I wanted, in moderation. After breaking my foot, I wasn't active at all, and I turned to food for entertainment/stress relief. There were several times when I wasn't hungry at all, was physically full, but was so bored and stressed that I would knock back dessert and sweet coffee and sodas because it was the only fun to be had when one is chained to a chair with a broken foot doing 5 hours of homework. I am not saying that everyone who gains 18 pounds does so because of inactivity and eating poorly, but for me, that is clearly the case. Further, only 1 pair of jeans fit, none of my professional slacks fit, and half of my button front shirts do not fit. Further still, in only two weeks of going back to my previous activity levels/eating habits, I have dropped 6 pounds. I'm not counting calories or obsessing, I'm just returning to my previous lifestyle of frequent, fun activity and eating mindfully. I went snowshoeing- one of my favorite activities- last week and was so out of shape that I had to stop after every single hill, no matter how moderate. This is not a feeling I enjoy, at all. I want to be fit again. I will be fit again. My specific goals in this arena are to do the following, weekly: 2 hours of cardio, 2 hours of yoga, and two sessions of weightlifting (full body, free weights). This schedule is necessary for my sanity in order to counteract all the time I am forced to sit for hours on end as I commute and lesson plan and do homework and grade papers.

4. Read 52 books in 2012: This is the only yearlong goal I'm making, because I can do this wherever I am in the world. I love using Goodreads to keep up with this easily, and it definitely motivated me to turn off the internet and pick up a book instead.

Really, 1-3 Jan-May goals all come back to this: organizing my time wisely. I'm trying to avoid the trap of feeling pressure to get homework done, not wanting to do it, forcing myself to sit at the computer, and then wasting 3 hours on the internet as I try to avoid said homework. If I can structure my weekly schedule more realistically/efficiently, I can easily have time for a social life and working out, and still be successful in school and student teaching. So far, it's going well. I think just keeping a laser focus on these three areas will keep me sane over the next few months, not to mention give me a lot of happiness and stress relief, too.

Happy New Year's!

2012-01-01T21:40:00.000-08:00

This was Martinelli's Sparkling Apple-Cranberry. I highly recommend it for all the perennial DD's like me out there.

New Year's Eve was really the perfect kind of laid back but still fun and social night- exactly what I look for in a NYE experience. We picked up our friend, Matt, for a late dinner and then headed to a house party hosted by Bobby's co-workers. Lauren was one of those thoughtful hosts who made appetizers, put up pretty lights everywhere, and generally made sure we all had a good time. I only knew Bobby, Matt, and one of their co-workers, Christy, and it was fun to hang out with new people and talk to random strangers. We were up and out until 3 a.m. and unfortunately I woke up at 8:30 this morning, but if that's my only complaint I'm doing okay.

We spent New Year's Day eating a late breakfast at Whole Foods before getting a much needed pile of groceries to replenish the pantry that has been barely used all fall and early winter. Laundry and house chores and a 3 hour nap followed while Bobby picked up snowshoes- weird, this is a carbon copy of last year. It's 10:30 p.m. right now and I feel so terribly sleepy and fuzzy headed/dizzy that I can't even imagine how crappy I'd feel without said nap. I just finished making this soup on Jenna's recommendation, and I'm keeping myself awake by blogging while I wait for it to cool enough to food process- fascinating stuff, I know. Trust me, forming semi-coherent thoughts is about all I have right now, witty/interesting is a frill that requires more sleep. The first day of 2012 goals have gone well so far, but I'm much too tired to blog about that, so another time.

Tomorrow morning it's back to the grind with a 6 a.m. wake up before heading to school to plan and prep all day. I'm actually, in a weird way, kind of looking forward to getting back into a routine of school and teaching, if only because I'm looking forward to May when I will finally be certified. I have a feeling the next 5 months are going to be stressful, rewarding, overwhelming, and busy. They'll probably also fly by, if last semester is any indication.

Ok, off to food process and then drop from exhaustion. Merry fabulous 2012!

2011 Goals in Review

2011-12-30T16:11:00.000-08:00

Yeah, sometimes 2011 goal accomplishing felt this futile, I won't lie.

Back in January, I posted my goals for the year with a lengthy musing on goals in general. From January until May I did monthly reviews- all found under the "2011 goals" tag. Then June and July were packed with traveling and school prep and people visiting from out of town, so I didn't do the monthly reviews, although I kept up with the goals. Unfortunately, I broke my foot right around the time I started school. The crutches, naturally, killed any working out, and the school going and student teaching began to eat almost every ounce of free time I had. I was impressed with my progress from January to July, but so many things fell apart in August to December. I feel I should almost break the year into two parts- Before Broken Foot/Grad School/Student Teaching and After. Let's just say "Before" and "After" for brevity's sake, shall we? Without further ado, the review...

At one point, as evidenced by this crappy phone pic, things were going pretty well in this department.

Food and Fitness

Do at least two cardio workouts a week + three additional workouts (any type including yoga):

Before- I was rocking this goal. I was lifting weights again, doing yoga, bicycling up to 10 miles a day as a main form of transportation, and kicking ass at C25K.

After- Well, clearly I did a whole lot of nothing when I was on the crutches for 8 weeks between August and October. I got off the crutches October 9th, but just walking made my foot sore for a good month after that, so I officially started working out again November 9th. I made sporadic starts and stops, but was honestly terrified of hurting myself again so I shied away from working out. I've been doing much better in December, working out on average about twice a week for the month. So far the foot isn't hurting at all, and I've done spinning, yoga, and today I lifted heavy weights again with no pain. I have very high hopes for 2012 in this area.

Get down to one soda and one coffee per week or less:

Before- I was probably averaging more like two each per week, which was still a huge positive change. After- Please. I was bored because I wasn't working out, exhausted from my new schedule, and turning to any kind of fun that could be had in the form of a beverage. Fail, miserable, miserable fail.

Give C25K another try (applies to cardio workout goal above):

See above- great Before, unable to do it even if I wanted to After and possibly not until February or March of next year.

I did more than just contribute to other people's projects, I promise.

Misc Goals and Projects

West Coast Swing lessons- aim for once a week, go at least twice a month; belly dancing lessons on Sundays:

These stopped over summer when we were doing all of our traveling (you pay for them on a monthly basis and it would have been a waste) with full intentions of picking up again once school started. Again, broken foot/crutches made this impossible, and by the time November 9th rolled around we were into holiday travel season and had planned to be out of town for 1/4 of November and half of December.

Finish rainbow quilt, blue crocheted baby blanket, and Kate’s quilt- work on similar projects at least twice a month

I finished the blue baby blanket and Kate's quilt, but didn't touch the rainbow quilt. I also made a scarf and did some other crafting here and there, but all of that stopped once school started. It just wasn't a priority to me anymore, and I willfully stopped doing it.

Scan in journals/letters/cards; finish editing pictures & deleting unwanted pics; organizing files

I organized the journals/letters/cards in a major way. I threw away a good 75% of them when I went to Texas in April/May because many of them were just random birthday or Christmas cards with nothing more than a signature. I wanted to save and scan in cards with lengthy messages and personal notes in them, not just cute cards, you know? I did the same with letters, when I realize that many of the things I had saved were from when I was 18 years old, and the people and things that were important to me then just aren't anymore. In fact, when I cleaned out my hope chest I threw away all of my medals/trophies from high school, my scripts from One Act Play, etc. It felt good. I also threw away a lot of journals that were also more painful than anything, things I wouldn't want anyone else to read, things I barely wanted to read anymore. Again, I realized it wasn't worth the time to scan them in. I did well on scanning in the things I did care about from January-July, but I haven't touched this project since August. I kicked ass at the second part of this goal- my pictures are 80% sorted and edited (cropping, lighting, not Photoshop or anything crazy) and organized. I'm very happy with my progress on this entire goal, in both parts.

Update blog at least twice a week/creative writing once a week

Before- Yep.

After- Nope.

Dinner theater performance at my placement high school

Career and Finances

Continue to volunteer with SSI and VE & complete Community Based Development Certificate:

Done and done! I actually finished the 4th and final class towards the certificate this semester, which meant at one point I was taking 4 classes 0_o I'm excited to continue working with both of these organizations, I really believe in their work. Bobby and I were able to go to the fall gala for VE, and it was really moving and reminded me of why I work for free :)

Begin Teacher Certification program and internship in August:

Check! I currently have a 4.0 and things are going really well. As they should, considering how much work I've put into it.

Try to find a part time job that works around current internships:

I was offered one job at the beginning of September that I turned down- teaching English online- because while the pay was good for a part time job- $15 an hour- there was a lot of extra unpaid work. Basically, you didn't get paid unless you were teaching, so all prep work/grading/e-mails were unpaid. It worked out to less than $8 an hour, plus I would have had to get up at 5 a.m. four days a week (including Saturday) in order to do it. I then successfully applied to a local call center around the end of September. However, by that point I was knee deep into the reality of my student teaching/volunteering/full time grad school and my 50-60 hour weeks left not room for this. Bobby and I agreed that a part time job would be an unnecessary additional stress, and that I should focus on my internship. Thankfully I paid off all my debt two years ago except student loans, and those are deferred and interest free in school.

Personal Improvement

Read one book a week/52 books in a year:

Accomplished! Click the widget on my sidebar or go here to check out my books. I'm really glad I made reading a top priority this year.

Regular Spanish study- Rosetta Stone, books, Spanish Word of the Day- at least 3 times a week:

I should have taken this off of my list after the first two months of failure. With everything else I had going on, I just couldn't bring myself to make this a priority. I threw myself into reading and researching everything I could get my hands on about education/teaching from June until now, so any spare education time was spent on supporting my current endeavors in grad school/student teaching.

No more than one hour of internet during weekdays:

Nope. From January to August I probably averaged about two hours- for everything, from FB to blogs to news to whatever- but once I started school I would spend hours researching and looking for lesson plan ideas. I would also turn to internet for entertainment/winding down when my foot was broken. I think this needs to get better in 2012.

Mammoth Hot Springs, Yellowstone Nat'l Park

Travel To-Do

Montana and Yellowstone Nat’l Park: Check. We turned this into a 12 day long, 3,000 mile road trip that included Seattle, Vancouver, Portland, and Utah. I never blogged about it, but it was amazing.

Badlands: Check

Go to at least one hot springs location: Nope.

Travel to Denver and Boulder at least twice each for events or day trips: Check. We more than accomplished this and it was nice to do some local exploring.

See a concert at Red Rocks: Nope. We had tickets to see Death Cab for Cutie, and it was two weeks after I broke my foot. It's a hike to get out there, and my foot was newly broken and sore, so Bobby went with a co-worker.

Travel to Texas at end of HP contract for an extended amount of time: Check. We also threw in the Thanksgiving trip as a bonus.

Sweet old pic of the 3 of us- I'm rocking the hell out of that side pony and yellow dress.

Family

Call all grandparents and parents at least once a month/ Send more mail (specifically to Great Granny monthly): Accomplished. We also started a tradition of sending postcards to the kids in our family/grandparents/parents from all the places we travel. It began in Peru/Ecuador, and just kept going. My cousin's son and Bobby's niece and nephews really look forward to getting mail. I'm actually about to write a postcard to my Great Granny right now.

All in all, even with the derail that was "After" I feel pretty good about this year. The only place where I really feel like I failed miserably was regarding the Spanish study. I think I should have divided my year, preemptively, into Before School Starts and After School Starts. This would have been more reasonable. As a result, that's exactly what I'm doing for 2012 goals. I have goals for January- May, that take into account that beating that is full time graduate school and student teaching. Bobby and I hung out at a coffee shop and talked about our respective goals day before yesterday. I have 3 main areas of focus, with very specific goals, to keep it simple and sweet during next semester but still get the important things done. They'll probably go up on New Year's Day.

I have to say, all the self-reflection about goal setting and accomplishing things is making me feel even worse about the fact that I have severely procrastinated on a few important things for the start of next semester. Maybe my productive procrastination, in the form of writing this insanely long post, did serve a purpose after all other than contribute to my eventual carpal tunnel syndrome? We'll see.

Great Sand Dunes National Park

2011-12-29T17:47:00.000-08:00

On the drive back from our Thanksgiving trip to Texas, we decided to hit up Great Sand Dunes National Park. They're the tallest sand dunes in North America, and they're at 8,000 feet elevation. As a bonus, it had snowed the night before. It was gorgeous, and totally surreal to see huge sand dunes ringed by snow capped mountains. We didn't have as much time there as we would have wanted, but since we have to go back to the general area for Royal Gorge sometime, we decided that we'd also re-visit the park. The dunes, for your viewing pleasure...

If you're ever in the area, please check it out. It's definitely worth driving a bit out of your way (two hours round trip for us added on) to experience it.

And So This (Was) Christmas

2011-12-26T21:03:00.000-08:00

Last week of school before Christmas break- I actually had time to go out! A pre-Christmas miracle. Also, we look photo-shopped and insane.

Festive downtown

Tree, inside, before (we suspect) it tried to kill me.

Bobby came home from Texas bearing stocking gifts

We checked out the lights display at the park on the way home from the hive-free haven of our friends' house.

Blueberry Lemon Baked French Toast on Christmas morning- I managed to take the most unappetizing picture of it ever. Recipe here if you're interested.

White Christmas!

The hot tub in our new place wasn't up to par, so we drove over to our old apartment and used their facilities.

Antici....pation

Christmas hot tub needs to be a permanent tradition.

I came home and cooked for about two hours. Poppy seed crusted butternut squash and pomegranates in kale salad with homemade dressing; roasted brussels sprouts; pan seared wild caught salmon; roasted fennel with red onions, oranges, and mint; Stove Top Stuffing out of a box (just to mix things up)

After dinner Bobby made a fire, so we could sort of enjoy the tree by the fire. I took a shower and curled up in my robe in front of it with all the lights off and candles lit while Bobby cleaned up after dinner. Then we stayed up talking for a few hours.

Christmas 2011 was great, hives and all.

Christmas Plagues, Hurray!

2011-12-26T20:43:00.000-08:00

I've been eagerly awaiting Christmas break for a good while now. I have an entire month off of my graduate program, and I have 17 days off of student teaching. Here's how I planned it out- I would leave school on Friday, December 16th, attend two Christmas parties, and then do some things for my teaching certification (I have to submit scads of paperwork and evidence, it's obnoxious). I figured I'd be disgustingly lazy on Saturday, sleeping in, screwing around on the internet, eating crappy food, reading books, squandering time like a champ. Sunday I would clean the house from top to bottom, do all my laundry, finish up my evidence submitting for school to the CDE, and then Mon/Tues/Wed I would do the semester planning, syllabus writing, lesson planning (a huge project). This would, theoretically, leave me with 10 straight days during which I had no worries, cares, responsibilities, or deadlines/projects looming over my head.

So, everything went according to plan until Sunday night. I went to bed, happy and tired from a productive day, ready to wake up early and hit the library. Instead, I woke up at 4 a.m. itchy and fuzzy headed. There was a huge welt on my elbow, and on my knee. I thought I had been bitten by something. Bobby told me it looked liked hives (which I've never had). I went back to sleep, only to be awoken at 6 a.m. to lumpy, swollen hives all over both of my arms, my side, and my leg. Here's an idea, just picture this, you know, all over-

I took this picture and sent it to my mom so she could tell me if I was going to die. I'm only kind of kidding.

We decided to head to Urgent Care, which opened at 7 a.m. By the time we got there, most of them had faded. I chalked it up to the cleaner I had used the day before during Winter Clean-a-thon 2011, the doctor gave me some steroid cream, and I went along my way. Later that night, they came back with a vengeance, this time all over my upper body, with huge dinner plate sized welts covering my stomach. I chugged Benadryl and conked out, sleeping from 6 to midnight and then from midnight until ten a.m. Vacation was off to a GREAT start, lemmetellya. Tuesday I spent the day at the library in order to stay out of the house. I came home, and promptly broke out in the worst hives yet covering my entire body and making me feel like my skin was going to burst it was so swollen, prompting Bobby to say "I didn't know it was possible for hives to look like that". It was gross. At this point we decided that I needed to leave the house and go to a friends' place. In the time it took us to drive 10 minutes, half the hives were gone, and by the time I had been at their house for half an hour, I was hive free. Clearly, our apartment was trying to kill me.

Bobby spent about 7 hours re-cleaning the house from top to bottom to get rid of the cleaner, as well as buying new pillows/comforter/towels just in case it was some funky dust allergy. I came home to find our tree on the back porch, visible only through the safety of the sliding glass door.

Banished, for crimes against my skin and immune system

I was hive free, but I had wasted 4 nights and 3 days high on Benadryl, getting little to nothing done because my brain was on a puffy cloud of medicine, sleeping up to 15 hours out of 24, and being woken up two or three times a night by the return of the hives when the medicine wore off. To say it sucked would be a bit of an understatement. I was www.Grinch-fest.com.org.edu.screwchristmas after the first day, once the "this is ridiculous but what can you do other than laugh?" roll with it optimism wore off. Since Wednesday afternoon of last week I've been hive free, but, just to make up for it, I've had one day of a crushing sinus headache that lasted all day, and today I've been in bed after puking my guts up randomly this morning and then having chills and nausea all day. I am falling apart here, people! I read some David Sedaris to make me feel better about not having to work as a Christmas elf, and yeah, it helped a tiny little bit, but not much.

Good news is that the holiday weekend, including all day Friday, was great. Christmas Eve was spent with a good friend and Christmas Day proper was absolutely wonderful. So, I'm still grateful, if a bit bitter. It's like an 80/20 mix. I fully realize that having hives from a cleaning product and/or a totally unnecessary Christmas decoration in the form of a dead tree are pretty much standard first world problems, but hey, they're mine, and they tried to Grinch-snatch my Christmas vacation, so there it is.

Let's Talk About Thanksgiving, Since It's Almost Christmas

2011-12-23T12:01:00.000-08:00

Bobby and I spent Thanksgiving in Dallas with our families and friends. Every time I go back to Dallas I'm reminded of just how much history I have there. My father has lived there since my parents divorced when I was 8, so I spent lots of summers and weekends and holidays there. Then I went to undergrad and graduate school at UTD, picking up the big group of friends I've had for a decade now. Entire neighborhoods hold an emotional history several layers deep, I have more stories than I can even remember that revolve around UTD's campus, and the bars/clubs/concert venues around Deep Ellum all have their own cache of good/bad/ridiculous memories. I don't know if I'll ever live in Dallas again- something about it feels "done" to me, as though I've had my time there and it's finished- but I do enjoy visiting. The night before Thanksgiving almost all of "The Group" got together at Vickery Park. Everyone was sober, so there is really no excuse for these pictures other than the fact that we tend to act like idiots when we get together. In a good way.

We tried to go to this place called Urban Crust in downtown Plano, but they kind of laughed when we said we needed a table for about 20, which was apparently a two hour wait. Luckily enough, Vickery Park was across the street and has a) nicer staff b) a huge room in the back that does not have to be rented out and c) delicious food. Sometimes the manufactured snootiness of Plano makes me chuckle. Dear Urban Crust- You're not that special, or that fancy, or that cool. Love, All of Us

They truly didn't try to match.

Typical.

This is about right...

as is this. Again, we're all sober.

I told Brooke on FB that her shirt tastes like My Little Pony Lumberjacks

Love connection

Staged. We're available for hire at your next get together.

Security. This is what it looks like.

We're good customers. Someone broke a glass, so Kate cleaned it up. We're thoughtful.

Except for when we stand on the booths

We don't really think planking is cool. We are mocking it.

Triple stack mockery

Jennifer is *not* impressed.

Apparently owling was in for a while, too. Mocked.

If there is one thing I never tire of making fun of, it is the hipster obsession with mustaches and "cute" (no, ladies, it's really not) scrunchy faces in pictures.

Thanksgiving Day proper kind of sucked due to some family drama, so I'll just leave it with the Pre-Thanksgiving Friendsgiving. Oh, and here's a picture of Bobby, Chris, and Brooke the next morning, running their own lil' Turkey Trot around the neighborhood:

So committed!

Right after this picture was taken, Kate and I hopped in the car for our own run- to Starbucks.

The Way We Think Things Will Go vs. Reality

2011-11-29T15:10:00.000-08:00

Getting to hang out with all of these lovely people over Thanksgiving break in Texas was a welcome respite from everything I'm about to whinge about below...

I had the idea that I would chronicle this year of my teaching internship right here on my blog. I envisioned it being similar to my first year teaching in Japan. I would share funny stories, insights, frustrations, and put it all in post form so it would be there to review in the future when nostalgia hit.

Of course, in reality, I've barely blogged at all these past few months. A lot of this can be chalked up to taking 3 grad classes while student teaching 30 hours a week and still volunteering, while trying to find time to hang out with Bobby. At first, I attributed my lack of time to being on crutches- it seemed a logical enough scapegoat. Then, once I was off the crutches and still stressed and tired and with no downtime to do frivolous things like blog, I decided it was because of all the homework I was doing, working ahead so that I'd have Thanksgiving week free of assignments- and yes, that was part of it.

But mostly, I think I'm not managing my time very well. Not the majority of the time, but at least 25% of the time, I'll let my fear about not finishing a project/lesson plan/book in time get in the way of my being able to give myself some downtime. This happens, especially, when I'm procrastinating. 75% of the time, I can hit the library no problem, bang out 6 hours straight on Tues/Thurs, and then work all day Mon/Wed/Fri, and then do homework on Sat/Sun. And I'm productive, and it's good work, and I feel good about it. But then, say, 25% of the time- I just don't.wanna.do.it.dammit. And in those times, I don't just admit "you know what? I'm going to dick around on the internet for 4 hours instead of doing my homework because I'm just not feeling it today, so I should just put it away and go do something fun with Bobby, or blog, or work out, or go on a walk, and actually enjoy this time." No, what I do is live in denial about the fact that homework/lesson planning/reading that book on __________ just isn't going to happen, and instead I'll remain at the desk, frittering away my time. I'm not good about taking breaks, I guess is what it comes down to. Or I'm not good about building them in, maybe that's it. Either way, I have a tiny handful of assignments left in this semester, thanks to all my working ahead, and I'm currently sitting at a 4.0, so I know I'm doing something right. And my stress level has gone waaaaaaaaay down in the last few weeks. But now I'm feeling the crunch again, and I feel guilty about not "working all the time", which results in the stupid situation of not being able to let myself actively choose downtime, instead of just sneaking it in.

The problem is, I do have a lot, a LOT of work to do. And yeah, I'm getting the majority of it done. But I need to come up with a different approach for next semester, or else I'm going to go insane. This coming week I am sorting scholarship applications for the non-profit, planning a lesson and teaching it on Friday, writing a behavioral plan tonight and interviewing a student tomorrow, doing two other assignments for my courses, completing step 4 of an application for an international job which includes photocopies of my whole life and passport photos in professional clothes for visa applications, grading 17 incredibly long essays + character diagrams + background analysis work for AP Literature, reading a book called "Teaching with Love and Logic" and taking detailed notes as part of a SMART goal for my teaching internship, plus my usual commitments of my teaching internship. I'm also getting back in the gym and hitting up spinning classes today, Thursday, and Saturday, as well as yoga on Thursday and Sunday (skipping the gym "because I'm busy" has been an excuse for too long this semester; I've been this busy the whole time, that's never going to change, but what is changing is my ability to fit into any of my professional clothing).

All of the previous has to be done by Friday night, so I only have one day off from teaching (Thursday) and 4 evenings to work on all of it. This weekend the homework/lesson planning starts all over again with an equally packed schedule for next week. One good thing is that two classes will be FINISHED this Saturday, and my third grad class will be finished on Wed, December 7th when I reflect on the last lesson plan I have to submit for the semester. I really think this whole experience would be very different if I wasn't going to grad school full time *while* student teaching. Don't get me wrong- I love that I'm getting credit for my student teaching, and I love that I'm getting a master's degree out of the kind of education classes I have to take for certification either way. But it's intense, ya'll. F'real though.

I'm really hoping to be able to blog more consistently, if only as a way to focus my thoughts. I promise they won't all be navel gazing bitch-fests about being busy like this one is. Honestly, I'm really enjoying so many things about this year, I'm just not enjoying my schoolwork. The teaching? It's great. My school, awesome. The kids? So, so cool. I love 'em. And all 3 of my mentor teachers are kind and helpful and intelligent and I am lucky to have them supervising me. I just need a break from all of this damn homework. Then I can be a tiny bit less crazy.

Every little bit helps in that department, trust me.

Snow Day

2011-10-26T20:27:00.000-07:00

Don't worry, I still want to be an English teacher because things like this make my inner nerd happy. Unfortunately, I found this on a website with no source/link- if anyone knows where to credit this image, please tell me!

Last weekend, I did about 15 hours of homework and 5 hours of grading. I had a bit of a surprise when I logged into my classes on Monday, Oct 17th and saw that I had a third graduate class- a second 8 weeks reading and vocabulary instruction course that I assumed was for next semester. No, not at all. When I clicked on it, lo and behold there was a "Welcome to the class!!" announcement, along with a first unit dated Oct 17th- Oct 30th. Mind you, I logged in the evening of Oct 17th, so that day was gone. By Oct 23rd, I needed to complete two (detailed) assignments with a lot of required reading. By Oct 30th, I needed to plan, implement, document, and reflect on two lessons. Did I mention I student teach three days a week, school was off Friday, and thus I had 4 days to do the pre-reading/assignment, consult with my mentor teacher, and plan and implement and document said lessons? Thankfully I shoehorned the first lesson into a larger lesson over a news article, and the second one flowed naturally from that. Even more propitiously, my mentor teacher was able to be flexible and give me time. So it all worked out, but it was a busy last weekend, one that had me up until 2 a.m. morning before last. I woke up at 6. On 4 hours of sleep, I taught two classes, assisted in another, used up one of my prep periods to observe another teacher, and frantically used my other prep period (Mondays are 45 minute periods) to get everything done for school.

Tuesday (yesterday) I graded for about 5 hours and did homework for about 3. I went to bed exhausted and stressed out, but I was finally getting a bit ahead. It was set to snow all night- 6 inches- so I had to wake up early and leave early to prepare for an hour commute. I was feeling... insane. I mentioned to Bobby "maybe they'll cancel school??" he replied "not likely, Colorado is used to dealing with snow". I was hopeful, but realistic. He was right- in Texas, we freak out and go into lock down "OMG where are the cans of food and bottled water??" mode over an inch or two of ice. But Colorado has their snow shit together.

This morning, however, was amazing. Everything was piled with snow, and right as I headed out of my neighborhood I got a call- school was, indeed, cancelled. I spent most of the day catching up at the kitchen table, but I will also admit that I spent a few hours reading in bed with the blinds thrown open, watching the snow fall.

I need today off more than I realized. I have hours and hours of lesson planning and homework to do tomorrow, but I'm ready for it. I feel a million times better. I never had a snow day as a kid, and this one came at the perfect time. I don't mean to whinge or sound ungrateful- I know that taking 3 graduate classes and student teaching and volunteering and being busy with things I care about are all first world problems. But right now they're my problems and I'm getting nervous about them. I worked full time and went to school full time all through undergraduate AND my first master's degree. I was never, ever this stressed out. I don't know what it is. But I do feel like last weekend, getting a head a bit, and today, getting a break, are making things better.

Or this might just be the beginning of a sneaky hate spiral.

Regarding the Happenings of the Last Month- Month?!

2011-10-03T19:54:00.000-07:00

An illustration of my thirst for knowledge. What mysteries lurk beneath the bell??

I am totally immersed in school work, researching, and student teaching. I spend hours researching the most mundane things that are brought up in my graduate classes, simply out of curiosity. I'm reading at least a book a week- on top of school books- about education, lesson planning, child psychology, and anything else to do with kids and the teaching of said kids. Between my 3 full days a week at the school, plus commuting, the things I'm volunteering to do and the graduate classes and homework, plus the random obsessive researching, I'm pulling about 50-60 hours a week. That's before you add in the volunteering I'm still doing for the two non-profits I have worked with for over a year now.

My school is awesome, and I really adore the kids. My mentor teachers are great. What's weird is how I can be so passionately excited one day, and then so exhausted and almost ready to pack it in the next. I've never had this experience before. On the days I'm exhausted and overwhelmed, it's not that I truly want to quit. It's that I am humbled by how much I have to learn, and I am sometimes paralyzed with fear that I'm not doing it right, or that I'm failing the kids, and sometimes the gravity of my potential impact on them (even as a random student teacher) really hits me and it freaks me out. After only a month there, they are fiercely loyal, and kind, and protective of me in such sweet and peculiar ways. We have inside jokes. I suggest books to them, they suggest books to me, and we wave to each other in the halls. I'm bone tired, and I feel like I've been there for a year instead of a month, but it's really incredibly satisfying. The happiness that it brings them when I do something as simple as check out a book for them that I think they'd like seems like more than I deserve. I'm reminded that, although so many people claim to not want to teach high school students because they're already "set in stone", they are truly still so impressionable, and young, and innocent, and can swing wildly from one future to another.

Other than all that, I'm ready to get off of these damned crutches. One more week. And then I'll really be flying. In other school news, I start my final class towards my post graduate certificate in sustainable development. Me + school, together forever.

And So it Begins...

2011-08-30T16:55:00.000-07:00

For those of you who have been keeping up with my months long journey to alternative certification, I just wanted to give an update. Yesterday I started what will be a school-year long internship, 24 hours a week (minimum), which at this point looks like three full school days (Mon/Wed/Fri). I'm getting my certification in secondary English, while taking online classes towards a master's degree in education. It's a legit brick and mortar school here in Colorado, but they're kind and allow you to take the classes online so that you can do a post-bacc certification from anywhere in the world. Plus, a lot of post-bacc certification courses have you take random education classes, and it's nice that the education classes I am taking are going towards something instead of just a clap on the back and a check mark for completion.**

Although I don't plan on saying anything bad about the program or the students or the school or any of that, I will still, for obvious reasons, not share the name of the school in which I am interning. The most I will say is that I purposefully chose a Title I school because of my convictions regarding education inequality in America. I would feel like a chump if I cried all over the pages of "Savage Inequalities", kept up with all the lawsuits against school districts in Texas and Colorado, and then blithely signed up to student teach at some high end fancy school attended by angel babies filled with SAT words, a fierce love for all things learning, and showered in $$$. I have more than one mentor teacher in the English department, which is neat because I get exposure to every grade level in high school, plus every class from AP English to intervention classes. I'm also assisting in the drama department, and this week we have auditions. It's nice to get thrown right into the mix of things. Classes are going well- my first week's assignments all came back A's- and I'm really enjoying the literature they are giving us. I'm also doing my nerd thang and supplementing all of this with random books on education from the library. Any suggestions for me?

The only womp womp of all of this is my broken foot. Being in the classroom will be a lot better when I'm not clicking around on awkward crutches. Seriously, awkward like whoa. Thoughts on crutches, which I shared on FB, I shall now share here as well:

For a person with excellent balance, good coordination, and a strong upper body, I'm not really sure why I'm such a flailing baby giraffe on my crutches...also, since I've never broken anything/had a cast/had crutches I have to say that my childhood jealousy of those with crutches was totally stupid. Crutches are not like arm pit stilts, contrary to my fantasies of their fun potential as a 9 year old...they're just awkward and hurt my hands.

Unrelated- our tomato plants are going crazy and tonight it's caprese salads for dinner- heirloom tomatoes and basil from our garden, plus balsamic vinegar from the farmers' market. I'm watching Bobby pick tomatoes from the dining room window, and afterwards we're off to the grocery store to see if they have their local goat cheese mozzarella in stock. If not, I can handle that being the biggest problem of my day.

**I am not knocking those who took that route, I'm just saying, either way I have to pay for those classes and do the work, so ending up with a degree for taking them makes me a happy cat.

Daredevil

2011-08-25T15:57:00.000-07:00

Anytime I tell people I broke my foot, they naturally ask me what I did. The problem is, there really is no accident story, no specific fateful incident that cracked my poor foot bone. I mean, do you want to know what I was doing the night before I woke up with my foot so swollen I couldn't move it without pain?

I was learning to can peaches with our friends.

I know, I know, I need to be more risk averse. But seriously, stress fractures are kind of a straw that broke the camel's back kind of thing- apparently that part of the bone just weakens and weakens until one day it flops onto its chaise lounge, puts its hand to its head, and says "I give up". And then it cracks.

The good news is, canning peaches was fun and canning is not as scary as it seemed to be. I mean, botulism is pretty damned terrifying, don't get me wrong, but after doing some reading I've learned that fruits are acidic enough to make botulism risk virtually nil as long as they are processed correctly.

Speaking of processed, I thought it only right that the old timey-ness of this endeavor should be captured with a vintage filter.

The key to not dying of botulism- the water bath.

Off and on during the process, the boys played video games. Yes, they helped, but once all that was left to do was boil the jars they took to playing a terrifyingly weird Japanese video game.

Willow, eating up the attention, blissfully unaware of how she is hindering Bobby's progress in rolling a giant sticky ball through an imaginary world.

A little sugar water, some lemon juice, and local, organic peaches picked up at the farmers' market that morning. Purrrrrr-fect.

The finished product. I was super excited to can my own peaches after this, but then, you know, I woke up with broken foot extravaganza and I've only cooked one time since then.

Paige and Matt have a huge backdoor garden, so they sent us home with a baggie of cherry tomatoes and some beets. All in all, between the farmers' market that morning, the canning, and the good night gifts of fruits and veggies from their garden, it was a most excellent way to celebrate, unbeknownst to me, my last day of mobility for 8 weeks.

Lowered Expectations and Absences, Illustrated via Cupcakes

2011-08-23T21:20:00.000-07:00

I might need to adopt this kind of attitude to stay sane through this injury...

I've either been in bed with my foot propped up on a pillow, or sitting at the table with my foot propped up on a chair, for the last two weeks thanks to a stress fracture. I think stress fractures should be called "ninja injuries", or, to make it really roll off of the tongue, "ninjuries", because this thing came out of n.o.w.h.e.r.e. Seriously, I was strolling around the farmers' market on a beautiful Saturday, caressing heirloom tomatoes and shoving chard in my re-usable bags, after which we ate some lunch, came back to the apartment, and lazed around watching some shows on the computer. Nothing extraordinary, heck, I didn't even work out the week prior other than weight lifting- twice, instead of my usual three times.

Yet somehow I woke up on the very next day to a throbbing in my right foot that hurt so badly I was whimpering and crying. Upon inspection, it was swollen to twice the size of the left foot, so much so that even the sheet rubbing against it caused pain. Lots of ice and ibuprofen got me through Sunday, and a doctor's appointment on Monday confirmed a stress fracture. I was pretty heartbroken about missing out on all of the hiking, camping, and biking to be had in the last month of summer/first part of fall when I was told that October 1st was when I would be back in commission. Now, I know that a broken foot has nothing to do with my hands, and my hands are all I need to blog- especially given the inordinate amount of time I have spent sitting/sprawling around- but honestly it just really bummed me out and I kind of spent the last two weeks pouting about how my summer was ruined. I had planned on doing Warrior Dash but had to stay home last weekend instead, and right now, as I type these words, Bobby is at Red Rocks seeing Death Cab for Cutie with a girl from work because I just couldn't crutch my way up to row 42. So, yes, a bit of a bummer. But I'm shaking off the funk, looking on the bright side and all that jazz.

Please, on my behalf, get out and hike and bike and walk around the neighborhood and swim and play in the park as much as you can. Know that someone is very jealous of you. That someone is me. Just to clarify.

Show Me the Country

2011-08-09T15:42:00.000-07:00

I haven't been feeling very chatty lately, in terms of blog posting. Mostly because so much of what I'm feeling lately is anger, revolving around the debate about spending and the solutions to our problem. So many things are being said that appall me, that make me ashamed, that frustrate me, that make me want to scream I'm so angry. I'd rather not drag it all out here on my blog, but I think it's gotten to the point where I'm just going to throw it all out there, because it's making me nuts.

First of all, I'm incredibly saddened that many people want to go so far as to get rid of public schools in the interest of a small government so that we'll have "more liberty". I suppose I'm starting to realize that utopia for a lot of people for some reason strongly resembles an unstable country in Africa. No social safety nets, no welfare of any kind, no public schools, very low taxes, and a government with little power that stays out of the citizen's business. I wonder if they consider that all of those things usually come with civil unrest, hordes of poor, desperate people, and the "luxury" of living in a walled compound with security guards to protect you if you happen to somehow find a way to be rich? Probably not.

I'm sure that getting rid of public schools, eliminating all social safety nets, lowering taxes further, and eliminating Medicare and SS for the elderly are exactly what will "make our nation great" again. I'm wondering how awesome they think being rich will be if every time you leave your walled compound you're greeted with shanty towns, squalor, and a teeming mass of desperate poor people who might, at any moment, turn on your ass and storm the compound for some food and money. Or, how great of a business they'll be able to build without having access to an educated workforce. These people need to travel more. Or, I don't know, read a book. Hell, they could even read a history book of their own country and see how awesome it really was for people before America instituted safety nets. Just go back and study the Great Depression/Dust Bowl. Trust me, not ONE of those small government/get rid of public schools/abolish all government aid people would be saying "Oh, no, it's fine, Government, please don't help me! I shall starve to death in the streets, because I am so committed to my political ideology of small government". Yeah. Right.

More than anything, I'd LOVE it if anyone arguing that the way to make America great is to get rid of all social safety nets, public schools, and Medicare/SS could give me just ONE example- JUST ONE- of a modern country that has 0 social safety nets and no public school and also has a healthy, vibrant economy, that is a global player in international economics, that has a stable society with a respected currency, and that has created a political and economic culture that allows people like Bill Gates and Warren Buffet to be successful. Just one. There are almost 200 countries in this world of ours, I would think that if the Ayn Rand based fantasies of a perfect country with 0 safety nets and a simultaneously thriving economy and stable society were possible in reality, at least one of those almost 200 countries would bear testimony to it. 'Cause I gotta be honest, ya'll, when I look at the countries that have 0 social safety nets, and no public school, and no Plan B for those who fall on hard times or are unfortunate enough to be born into them... well, those aren't the kind of places that I see anyone lining up to move to, or invest in, or start a business in, either. Those are usually the places people want to leave behind, places full of civil unrest and starvation and huge divides between the wealthy in walled compounds and the poor living in the streets or in shanty towns, or herded into refugee camps because their government isn't strong enough to protect them from roving bands of killers and rapists who are trying to wipe them out on a whim. But ok, sure, if that's the plan for making America great- just give me one example of it working out. I'm a facts and figures kinda gal, so I'll be waiting. I've posed this question several times over the last few weeks, and no one has given me one example. Because in my studies, all the countries that meet these Ayn Rand fueled fantasies are in shambles.

So, here's what I'm thinking- I'm thinking it's because that country simply doesn't exist. I'm thinking it's because people realize that everyone benefits by investing back in our society, by educating children, by having social safety nets so that when things get tough we don't have masses of hungry, desperate people roaming the streets, willing to take a chance with jail time if it means a bit of cash and some food. Here's a mental exercise- tell me, how awesome do you think our crime rate would be if, during these last several years of epic unemployment, we had no unemployment benefits, no food stamps, no TANF, no housing subsidies, etc. Think about that. Where would those people have gone? What would they have done? Just curled up and politely starved, homeless, in an out of the way corner of society? I'm thinking not. Trust me, I'd rather pay my money in taxes and invest it in our society than take my chances on the streets with double digit unemployment creating a substantial number of stressed out, hopeless people with no light at the end of the tunnel. Desperation is not the predominant emotion I want a significant sector of our society to have.

While we're on the subject of paying now or paying later, and how I'd like to pay- I'd rather pay out some welfare, or pay more into schools, or give unemployment benefits, or give job training than pay for more police on the street to quell riots, or pay upwards of $30K a year to house and feed someone for several years in prison. So there's that, too. Pro-active is my mantra, not reactive. Especially because reactive usually costs way more than just helping out in the first damned place. And we usually all benefit from proactive, while reactive doesn't serve to accomplish anything more than a hasty tit for tat.

Oh, but wait, back to my question- show me that country. This idyllic bastion of liberty where the government stays the hell out, doesn't meddle with things like educating all children, or regulating our food and drugs, and lets people get sick and die if they commit the infraction of losing a job, or being born poor, or falling ill. And if that country is so damned great, why isn't it an international player? Why haven't I heard of this utopia of liberty? And if such a country exists, why aren't all the people who want to model America after it calling it out by name and location, and pointing excitedly to its success to bolster their argument?

All cards on the table- I'm a product of welfare. There you go. Despite two working parents, we qualified for every damn one of those "shameful" entitlement programs. And I worked, too, from 14 on, and then full time all through college while studying full time to keep my sholarship- and guess what? I still needed Pell Grants to get through. Yes, that's right, free money that I "didn't deserve". I shudder to think how my potential would have been utterly wasted if there were 0 social safety nets. I am of far greater benefit to my country as an educated person than I would have been if I was tossed by the wayside due to the circumstance of birth. And I have far more pride in my country when it chooses to be compassionate and considerate of the hard blows people receive in this life than when it tries to play detached, strategic economist with flesh and blood living beings. Especially when the predominant evidence for the validity of such a strategy hinges on a theoretical country that doesn't even exist in this world.

On the Road, Again

2011-08-01T16:07:00.000-07:00

Friends in Canada, Bobby behind the camera. I can't lie, the last road trip was way more fun.

Hello there! I'm typing this from a dorm room in Gunnison, CO. I'm here doing a 5 day/4 night orientation for graduate school. I arrived on Sunday, and I'm leaving late Thursday. It's a pretty intensive week, incredibly busy, so this will be the lone post until Friday when I'm back in my regular spot in Colorado. I don't have much time to explore the town, but I am keeping notes on local attractions, restaurants I've tried, and suggestions people have given me for when/if I come back for a visit. I can tell you this much for sure- HWY 285 is treacherous, and I'm only slightly joking. It's a two lane road that cuts through several mountain passes, oftentimes at at 6% or 7% grade. And the people driving it are insane. No, truly. I mean, that is the only logical reason I can give for passing someone on a blind curve on a 7% grade pass. Oh, but no worries- the crazy person saw the two school buses in time, I slammed on my brakes, he cut back in front of me, and he narrowly avoided killing tens of innocent school children, and possibly himself and hell, maybe even me while he was at it. Yes, that happened. No, not the best time on the road to say the least. But, the moral of the story is I did get here safe and sound, and I'm being stuffed full of learnin', which is, after all, the goal. I'll see you all when I head back North. Fingers crossed as I trek back along 285...

Weighty Matters

2011-07-28T13:37:00.000-07:00

I've extolled the virtues of my Vibrams five finger shoes, and have waxed poetically about how much they've helped me start running again. I started a new experiment back on June 12th, but I wanted to wait to make sure it stuck. Well, it has more than stuck, and even after taking a break from July 4th to July 26th due to traveling and having friends in town, upon starting up again yesterday things are going just as well.

I'm talking about lifting weights. Not just dumb bells, but being able to lift free weights again. On June 12th, Bobby and I started lifting weights together on Mon/Wed/Fri. We do three sets each of three exercises- squat, dead lift, bench press. Weight is added with each set, so that the reps are 10-8-6 (sometimes that last set is only two or three reps, just as many as you can squeak out). The first day I started off just lifting the bar- 45 lbs- for all exercises. This was too light for squats/dead lift, but a bit heavy for bench press (I was able to do a full 10 reps, but I was feeling it). Progressively over the weeks we added more weight each time, until, on the 4th of July, I had progressed to being able to easily bench press 65 pounds, I could push through a few reps at 75 pounds, and, more incredibly, I was able to squat and dead lift my body weight- 135 pounds!

In spite of my bum hip/crap back, this actually happened

In the grand scheme of weight lifting, this is not some crazy impressive stuff. But in the grand scheme of my old creaky hip, this is incredible. The first few weeks, my left hip would just ache and ache in between sets of squats. Not in a painful, stop doing this way, but in a painful, "you're strengthening me and pulling me back into place and I've been effed up for a decade and this will take some coaxing" kind of way. It felt disconcerting, but I felt in my gut that it was not a "STOP" kind of a pain, but a "be careful, but keep it up" kind of pain.

Yesterday was my first day of lifting since we left for vacation, and man I am feeling it today. But I was able to do even more reps at 135 pounds on dead lift, and I only lost 10 pounds on my squat. My bench press has slid back a bit too- I was at the point where I could press 75 pounds a few times, now 65 is feeling a bit tough- but I know it will all be coming back to me soon. And more than that, I'm excited to see where I'll be after a year of lifting. I have some lofty goals, but I think they're reasonable. And after only a few weeks of squats, I can't believe how much muscle I've gained. I'm not much bigger (girls can't bulk up like a dude, despite all the fear mongering around weight lifting) but my shape is already changing. I've also noticed that I'm stronger on my bike, and running is easier, too. All in all, I'm over the moon happy that I'm at a point where I can throw some weights around again.

Since this is a fitness update kinda post, I figure I'll throw in a C25K update here at the end. Since coming back from the Texas road trip beginning of May, I've found it hard to get back into running. I averaged about twice a week from mid May to the end of June, and I made myself swallow my pride and start over with Week 3 to be damned sure I didn't tweak my back/hip or hurt my feet. A short road trip since then, then a long road trip, plus the focus on weight lifting has put C25K on the back burner. It's not turned off getting cold and crusting to the pot, it's just kind of simmering away in the background. I'm more than happy to continue to take C25K very slowly, because I think this is crucial to why my hip/back have been able to adjust to running, and why I have not screwed up my knees. I'm going to be at grad school orientation from Sunday, July 31st through Thursday, August 4th, so for now I'm focusing on getting back into the swing of weight lifting this week, and I'll start C25K up again next week. However, I know that all the biking and weight lifting I'm doing are also helping me to become a better runner. After the Texas road trip I came back and really fell in love with biking, and for two weeks all I did was bike, no running, but I was averaging 60+ miles a week. After that stint, I went for a run, and it felt so easy. Cross training for the win!

I will definitely have to specifically focus on some running come next week though, because I'm registered to run Warrior Dash on August 20th. I'm excited and nervous, but who wouldn't be, if you're going to be jumping over fire, and crawling through mud under barbed wire? Seriously, check out that link and look at the course. It's equal parts funny and kind of ridiculous.

Son of a...

2011-07-26T19:51:00.000-07:00

A sunny picnic in Yellowstone National Park. This picture is not relevant until the second half of the post.**

I just realized, as I was organizing photos from our most recent road trip (the 3rd, and last, of the summer), that I have yet to blog about our 2nd road trip- mentioned here- when we traipsed back up to South Dakota for some Memorial Day weekend fun. Damn. The Texas road trip- spread out over 5 parts, I don't think any of you find Texas or me *that* interesting, haha- took up so much time that I was just road trip re-capped out. And then, of course, I realized that after the Galapagos re-caps wore me out, I was over it and didn't start the Peru re-caps until a few months after, but... damn, now that's been a month ago. I have so many posts in the can- my garden is all growin' and stuff, and it's a joke how big those tomato plants are since they avoided dying, I did some around the house craftiness, and there is a whole grip of news on the school/work/internship/life front. Per my last post filled with excuses, it's just been crazy town busy central around here. Today is the first day since the day before our trip, way back on July 7th, that I have gone grocery shopping, for example. I'm also just now caught up on laundry/cleaning and random rat killin' (errands/to-do/it's a down South slang kinda thing) that it wasn't until this evening that I finally felt like I was truly home after the trip.

I'm about to reassess every area of my life- kind of like an activity/time de-cluttering project- in preparation for going back to school come August. Technically, I go to school this Sunday, to live on campus for 5 days, take a super intensive first course, and go through all my necessary orientation to start my masters program. So, yeah there's also that- it seems like I'm finally feeling a bit settled, and then it's off to southern Colorado for 5 days. I suppose the only reason I'm feeling stressed is because of the totally optional responsibility I have placed on my self of keeping up with my blog, but still, I feel behind because I'm, well, behind. About twice a year I'll go back and read through old posts and think "I am so glad I wrote that down. I totally forgot that happened until I re-read it just now". So I'm grateful to have a random online record of my life, if only so I can look back on it and feel a little reflected shine of nostalgia via my computer screen. I'm also grateful that I froze half of the raw brownies I made, because, while typing this rambling bit of navel gazing nonsense, I polished off a little guy smeared in all natural peanut butter and I was incredibly happy for how delicious it was.**Relevance activated!

I have a really good book waiting for me, so I'm not going to keep it waiting any longer. The windows are open, the hot spell is broken, and the fan is purring some old fashioned white noise into our bedroom. G'nite, kittens. See you on the flip side, whenever/wherever that might be appearing in the midst of this busy time.

Absentee Excuses

2011-07-24T09:21:00.000-07:00

I been hangin' around (somewhere in Capitol Hill in Seattle)

I had the best of intentions to avert such a long silence on my blog, but things got hectic, and here's why. My last post was on Thursday, July 7th. I then spent all of that day and the next cooking, cleaning, laundering clothes, packing, and organizing because on Friday, July 8th, we hit the road for a 3,000 mile/12 day road trip. I thought I'd have more time than I did, but I didn't, so my plans to blog a lot on Friday afternoon before we left were tossed right out the window. But I'm back! Here's where we went:

Summer Road Trip 2011

A night and a morning in Thermopolis, WY to check out Hot Springs State Park

2 days in Yellowstone:
Madison Campground reservation first night

Mammoth Hot Springs Cabin Reservation second night

Yellowstone to Seattle, WA- with a long visit to Helena, Montana- to visit friends for 3 days and check out their new place

Amtrak to Vancouver to visit our Canadian friends for 2 days

Back to Seattle for one last night out on the town

Portland, OR for one day/night

Portland to Salt Lake City (with a long stop in Hood River Oregon for lunch, and a stop in Boise, Idaho for dinner)to stay the night and visit my cousin before she leaves Utah for Texas

Home to Colorado

While we were gone, our friends stayed in our place for a few days to apartment hunt for their upcoming move, which is one reason I wanted it to be clean. We got home on Wednesday at 1 a.m., Bobby went straight to work a few hours later, and I got to work cleaning/unpacking/doing laundry. Thursday afternoon, our friends Brooke and Chris stopped by on their way home from a family vacation in Wyoming, and they were here until yesterday morning- a second reason I wanted the place to be neat and tidy. Bobby and I napped like professionals yesterday, an unexpected gift since the aforementioned moving friends had originally asked for our help in moving them in Saturday afternoon. The plan was to say goodbye to Brooke and Chris and head straight over to Tyler and Amanda's. Turns out they got in a day early and unpacked everything. So we napped away the afternoon, met up with Jenny for some frozen yogurt, and crashed out relatively early. I wish I could say I continued catching up on sleep fest 2011 with a deliciously lazy sleeping in session, but nope, I woke up at 7:45 this morning without an alarm, just as I did yesterday.

But don't worry, it's 10:12 and I'm typing this in my underwear with an unwashed face and unbrushed teeth. Bobby just woke up and I'm going to convince him to go to Snooze for brunch. In random updates, my plants are still not dead, and they grew 6 inches while I was gone. Oh, and I barfed 30 minutes into a 3-D midnight showing of Harry Potter 7 in Canada (sorry, neighbors to the North!) so we're having a re-do this afternoon with our friends Matt and Paige. I think first I need to put on some pants though.

4th of July Weekend, or, I Discovered the Filters on My Smart Phone

2011-07-07T17:28:00.000-07:00

I cannot tell you how glad I am that Bobby and I did not spend 4th of July weekend in Santa Fe. We were crazy lazy, sleeping in and staying up late and I didn't cook one time. Thanks to all the local restaurants for feeding us. We played in the pool and local toy stores, read books, worked out a few times, rode our bikes a bit, and had an excellent 4th of July.

These puppets were grossly over priced, and had the most condescending faces. At least Bobby's was funny.

Mine was kind of terrifying. Like he's muttering "Don't MAKE me do something I'll regret". Got it, bunny.

Here's another reason I'll never have thousands of followers. I had never been to a frozen yogurt- sorry, fro-yo!- place, so we went last weekend. It was tasty, but I'm still not understanding the fro-yo obsession. Maybe it's the adorable over lapping hand hold that makes it crazy delicious? Or maybe it's pretending to kiss it while having your significant other take a picture of your fro-yo love? Who can say. Was it good? Sure. Is it deserving of more than one picture on any blog on the internet? I would say no, but that's just me.

On the 4th, we noticed that no one was at the pool. How did we get the place to ourselves on the 4th of July? Who can say, but we were happy.

Yeah America, let's go cowboy hats. The pool was deserted the entire time we were there, and after a few hours we decided to mosey into some dry clothes and grab some grub. We had already decided that parking 2 miles from City Park and schlepping ourselves + any creature comforts to a park filled with 4th of July celebrants was not on the agenda. Here's why (the following is slightly sarcastic and tongue in cheek, but mostly just brutal honesty). 4th of July revelers usually fall into two diametrically opposite camps- drunken assholes who are way too loud, too drunk, and wearing far too few items of clothing, or harried, stressed families dragging a bunch of kids out way past their respective bed times to watch fireworks that will either a) bore them to tears or b) scare them to tears. Now, of course, I'm being a bit hyperbolic and over simplistic. There are certainly many people, drinkers and families alike, who do not fall into one of those two groups. But those two groups tend to dominate the energy because they are mortal enemies. So the sloppy drunk college girls piss off the parents who really don't want to have to explain to their 4 year old those kind of age inappropriate things, and the parents piss of the sloppy drunk college girls for trying to ruin their good time. On top of all that, it's generally hot, crowded, and there is an unacceptable port a potty to person ratio. Then, when the fireworks are over, everyone willingly takes part in an ungodly traffic jam that rivals any Wednesday morning rush hour situation, and we all sit in our respective cars in bumper to bumper traffic, listening to terrible music from said sloppy drunk college girls, watching people get arrested, and trying in vain to just get home because we're hot and tired. Don't get me wrong, I love watching fireworks. I've also had excellent 4th of July experiences in parks, with strangers, despite all of the previous. But we weren't interested in looking on the sunny side of things while ignoring the bad, so we decided to just skip the potential bad altogether and have our own little celebration.

We did drive around City Park, just to check out the situation, but it was already madness a full two hours before sunset. People were parking miles away, and it looked like a fireworks march to Mecca. This confirmed our plan to do our own thing. We changed course and drove out towards the reservoir. There's a convenience store at the base of the foothills that services the boaters and campers that are heading towards the reservoir, and it had a huge fireworks tent set up.

These took me way back. They were my favorite as a kiddo

We snagged the hen and a box of colored sparklers and then continued on our way up into the foothills. A lot of other people had the same idea, but even with cars lining the shoulder the hectic, packed feel of the City Park celebration was absent.

After the sunset (which was beautiful in its own right) the horizon started lighting up with fireworks. From the hood of our car on the shoulder of the road we were able to see 3 or 4 shows at once.

I spent my time watching, not taking pictures, so this is the best one I got.

We also played with our sparklers, which was nostalgic fun. I discovered the filters on my smart phone, that night which created some neat images. I put them all into overexposed black and white, and I really like the way it turned out.

We left our shoulder side spot and headed back home right as a storm started up. The hen was shot off in the parking lot of our apartments, a fact I regretted a bit once I was reminded that it made a shriek (sorry neighbors!). The rest of the night was spent on the back porch, sitting by candle light and listening to the storm blow through the enormous aspens in the courtyard behind our apartment. We didn't plan one bit of it, and it couldn't have gone any better.

Movin' On

2011-07-06T20:52:00.000-07:00

ETA: The captions turned out to be absurdly small, but there are some hyper links within them if you care to mosey around in my internet past. I'm also far too lazy and tired (see closing statement) to change anything about this post other than tacking on this very long and italicized disclaimer. Good night!

Before stepping into the future with smart phones I cleaned out the random, super old pictures on my phone that dated back to 2009. Here are a few in no particular order, chosen for no particular reason.

2010- Pig rocking chair picture taken for my good friend, Jess. She loooooves pigs.

2011- Bathroom art at New Belgium Brewery

2010- A classy wall decoration- yours for a steal at the local thrift store!

Early 2010- It snowed A LOT in Texas that winter

2009- I get all my nutritional advice from gas pump placards at convenience stores. Solid.

2009- Kate works at a nursery, and I told her about how my father used to do this with his construction boots. Officially creeped me out just as much at the age of 26 as it did at the age of 6.

2009- Binkus, cat of wonders.

Christmas 2010- You know you're in a sketch store when they have anti-theft tags on the baskets.

2010- A random bar in Brownwood, right before we moved up to Colorado

2010- Also right before we moved up to Colorado- this child is now 14 months old. He was a few days old here.

2009- Front porch of Jess' apartment in Hollywood, where I lived while writing my thesis.

2009- Halloween shopping. This sums up why I love Jess so much. We ended up going with these costumes.

2009- Last night in Hollywood before returning home to Texas to walk for graduate school.

2010- Bobby and I pet sat the creepiest cat in the universe. This picture says it all.

2009- My contribution to a Christmas potluck.

2010- My favorite gauntlets and a sparkle doughnut.

I have a sore throat, so now it's bed time. Oh, sweet delicious bed time.

Isn't it Ironic?

2011-07-05T19:56:00.000-07:00

I shared this on FB as a joke, and I wanted to put it here too. Behold, the most hipster 4th of July photo ever. Sparkler mustache, scrunchy face, vintage filter, put a bird on it. Done.

You can't see it, but I'm wearing some cute vintage shoes with my toes together, and my lap is totally.filled.to.overflowing. with red velvet cupcakes and Polaroid cameras.

Happy 4th of July!

2011-07-04T07:00:00.000-07:00

My earliest memory of the 4th of July is making squiggles with sparklers at Brownwood Lake with my best friend Sarah, around age 3, while our young mothers played Tom Petty's "American Girl" into the hot Texas night. I was too young to understand anything other than the simple explanation I was given- "Today is America's Birthday"- but at that age I could already grasp that birthdays were good times, and always worth celebrating. In the years after, I learned more about the significance of the holiday, the history behind it, and like many elementary school students I memorized the preamble to the Constitution. On top of the historical significance, the 4th is forever linked in my mind to family get togethers, backyard BBQ's, and homemade fireworks displays shot off from the back patio of my Granny's house in Brownwood, TX.

Last 4th of July Bobby and I celebrated by taking a short road trip to Palmer Lake to take part in their well known festivities. Our friends were in town from Salt Lake City visiting their parents, and they invited us out to stay with their parents and watch the fireworks.

The town of Palmer Lake is nestled around the lake, and then creeps up the side of the surrounding mountains. It's incredibly quaint, and has the tight knit feel of a good small town community. We got there early, and people were already staking out spots along the water's edge, laying claim to a prime view of the fireworks that would be going off later that night.

We had some time to kill before meeting up with our friends, and we were starving, so we decided to grab some food at The Depot. The entire place was decked out in red, white, and blue banners, flags were everywhere, and there was a nice celebratory vibe to the whole place. It's a family restaurant with excellent service, and despite being two vegetarians in a meat heavy establishment, we still found plenty to eat.

Doin' my best All American Gal wink. I know, I know, it's not that great. Focus on the fried mushrooms.

We met up with our friends after, and spent the afternoon hiking up the gorgeous canyons (if you're ever in the area, I definitely suggest doing some hiking). After a few hours we returned home tired and hungry, ready for dinner and fireworks. Right as the sun started to set, the rain began- not just rain, but a pretty impressive thunderstorm that threatened to cancel the celebrations. It eventually blew off and turned into a persistent shower, and the fireworks were back on. We decided to nix our plans of walking down the dirt roads to the lake to watch the show. Instead we crawled up into the tower of their turn of the century home and watched the fireworks popping and sparking off in the distance. We could see the entire valley spread out below us, and the fireworks showering over the lake, reflected double in the water. Between the good conversation, excellent company, and the quirky experience of watching fireworks through a rain storm huddled together in the tower, it was altogether a great time.

This year our 4th of July will be much more low key, spent hanging around town and laying a bit low. We're leaving on a two week long, 3,000 mile road trip this coming Friday, so we canceled our previous plans of celebrating the 4th in Santa Fe, NM in favor of checking out the local celebrations. A morning hike is on the agenda, followed by watching fireworks wherever they happen to be. If you're interested in a neat factoid story about the roots of the American movement for independence, check out this link to read about Liberty Trees.

Whatever you may be doing this 4th of July, I hope it is a safe and happy one!

Hangin' Around

2011-07-01T07:00:00.000-07:00

Bobby and I both do yoga, and we wanted to find an easy way to store our mats. I know, you can just roll them up and put them in a corner, but inevitably the fall over, roll out, or worse, they never get a chance to really air out in between sweaty vinyasa sessions. I'm sure there are all kinds of expensive ways to store one's mat, but here's what we did after brainstorming and looking around for ideas. We went to Home Depot, and bought** two wooden toilet paper roll holders and a dowel rod. Bobby measured the dowel rod and cut it to fit, and before we knew it, we had a pretty ace system for storing our mats. Check it:

These guys are now hanging on the hallway wall, right in front of our guest room/study door. They're out of the way, and it was cheap and easy.

Plus, they fit into the theme of "we hang our physical fitness/recreational equipment on the walls". As our friend Matt said, a bike on the wall is the most common form of art in a Colorado home. True.

While we're on the subject of cheap things to do with yoga, I highly recommend Dave Farmar's podcasts and Shiva Rea's "Yoga Shakti" DVD's for at home practice. The former is totally free, and the latter is about $20 for 4.5 hours of customizable practice.

Happy yoga'ing!

**We did search three thrift stores before we bought them. Some things just need to be purchased new.

Peru Part I: Being Lazy in Urubamba, or, Toilet Telephones

2011-06-30T15:58:00.000-07:00

After I did the recaps from the Galapagos trip (you can find them all here), I was South America trip recap burned out. It's hard to really talk about a trip without sounding trite and cliche, but this trip was incredible. I loved the Galapagos, but Peru, and specifically Machu Picchu, really charmed me. From the history to the natural beauty it was simply stunning. After a quick night in the hotel in Lima, we were up bright and early to hop a short one hour flight to Cusco. The incredible thing about flying into Cusco is that it is at such a high elevation, with towering mountains on top of that. You can actually see snow covered mountain tops popping up out of the clouds while you're at cruising altitude.

What's up, mountain?

As usual, we were given a big ol' box of goodies to eat and a drink, even on a 57 minute flight. Get it together, every American airline. South America has nicer planes, friendlier staff, and food all over the place. Come on now.

Upon landing in Cusco, we hung out in the lounge while our guide, Joaquin, told us what we'd be doing over the next few days. In the interest of staving off altitude sickness (especially since we just came from sea level) I had the second of what would be four cups of coca tea that day. They made it with fresh leaves, compared to the tea bag I had at the hotel in Lima that morning.

Totally delicious, and scientifically proven to work. Also, illegal in America.

We left the airport and headed out on a two hour drive to our hotel for the night. The drive was beautiful, and after a week of sun and water activity, plus a day of airplane travel, it was nice to just sit back and look at some beautiful scenery.

Halfway to our hotel, we broke up the drive by stopping at an open air market. Bobby and I are not kitschy souvenir buyers, so we just wandered around checking things out, looking for a vendor selling food.

We found a woman selling huge cobs of white corn with fresh white cheese. Bingo!

This was crazy delicious. I'm not even the biggest fan of corn and I was singing its praises for a few days.

We hopped back in the car and continued on our merry way to our hotel for the night, the Tambo del Inka
in the little town of Urubamba. It was gorgeous, but strangely empty. We got there around 3 p.m., and the entire evening was devoted to chilling out and catching our breath a bit. I was thankful for the scheduled down time. We had an early dinner/late lunch that was incredible.

Yay food!

This mushroom risotto haunts my dreams, taunting me with the knowledge that I can never eat it again

I had my 3rd and 4th cups of coca tea at dinner- this is when I started to realize that it will make you speedy. After dinner we all kind of went our separate ways. Bobby's parents and his sister and brother-in-law went off for naps, and we headed out to explore the place. My pupils were dilated like saucers and my heart was racing from all the coca tea, so a nap was out of the question for me, anyway. But yay no altitude sickness!

Lobby action

More lobby (this was taken before dinner while we were filling out passport paperwork and such)

I loved these columns. And the fireplace was incredible

We knew we wanted to check out the pool and hot tub, but we also knew that after doing so we would crash into bed for the night. We made ourselves walk around the grounds first, and I'm glad we did. The hotel is right on the Urubamba river, and it was the rainy season, so everything was green and happy.

Bobby's parents in the window :)

We headed back inside as the sun started to set so we could visit the pool. The following pictures are a bit blurry because the flash washed everything out, so I turned it off. We spent about an hour in the pool/spa area, jumping from pool to pool like kids. I'm glad we didn't let our exhaustion get the better of us or else we would have missed out. Bonus- we wore our stinky, funky Galapagos swimsuits in the chlorinated, very hot water. Ta-da! Totally clean.

Half of this pool was inside, the other half was outside. You could swim under that window to the right and be out on the deck. It was a bit too cool for that, though, so we headed downstairs to check out the hot tubs.

Between all the different pools, the wooden platform, and the random cold bath I felt like I was back in one of my favorite places on earth- the Japanese onsen. Not quite as awesome, but almost.

The hot tubs, aka "our washing machines". What can I say, we have no shame.

We decided that the water had rejuvenated us enough for some night time socializing, so we headed back to the room to change clothes. The dining room, still empty, was all ready for dinner time.

This was one of the bars, and to the right there was a wall of windows overlooking a porch, that was hanging out over the river. This clinched our decision to change and come back. Plus, we were a bit hungry and who doesn't want another opportunity to eat on vacation?

All in all it was a nice afternoon and evening of down time, and we found ourselves back in our room exhausted by the very early hour of 10 p.m. Although I'm still wondering- why was there a phone in the bathroom?? Mysteries.

A Different Perspective

2011-06-30T15:00:00.000-07:00

As seen at a big box store, while buying an emergency windshield wiper

My "Clutter Catcher" is called Goodwill, or, alternatively, any thrift store in town.

I'll stick with my method.

As Seen From My Bike: Follow the Creek to Pizza

2011-06-29T07:00:00.000-07:00

Bobby and I like to bike to whatever restaurant laziness in cooking has led us to patronize for dinner. That way we feel a bit less lazy, and we feel like we've earned our dinner.

On this particular night, the destination was my favorite pizza place, since we had recently gone to his. Bobby and I are a divided household- it's sad, we're unequally yoked in this regard. I hope we can work through it.

With all the rain we've had, the "creek" has turned into a sizable river. These kiddos were cooling off after a long day of playing frisbee golf (we live right next to an enormous park with an 18 hole course that backs up to our apartment).

We live at the intersection of 3 bike trails. This is like living at the interchange of 3 highways. Perfect.

No, I'm never going to get tired of making fun of pretentious hipsters and their scrunched faces/ mustache obsession. LEARN TO SMILE AND GET A REAL MUSTACHE, HIPSTERS.

My favorite calzone- ricotta cheese, cream cheese, jalapenos, pineapples. Minus the sausage it usually comes with, add some garlic olive oil on top, enjoy the bliss.

I approve of this investment.

After we were full of grease, cheese, and soda, we headed back home. Here you can see our tax dollars at work. Hello you beautifully maintained biking trail.

Sunset as seen in the sky

Sunset as seen in the goose pond.

Said geese, pictured here

We made a bank run on the way back. The leftovers are strapped to Bobby's bike trunk with a bungee cord, and he's in the drive through lane. This scene makes me smile.

All of these pictures were taken with my late LG phone. R.I.P, old phone. Sorry technology has marched on without you.

Hygienic Hippies: Washing My Face With Oil- The Verdict

2011-06-28T12:56:00.000-07:00

This review is not going to be as straightforward as my review of the no 'poo method. However, I did love oil cleansing. It's just that, with my skin woes, things are always going to be a bit complicated...

The first three weeks of oil cleansing were incredible. I mean, off the charts, nothing has cleared my skin up that quickly without leaving it cracked and dry, outstanding results.

Castor oil is the active participant that really cleans your face, so if you're going to do oil cleansing you must have it. I picked this castor oil up at Whole Foods for a pretty decent price. You want cold pressed and cold processed because this creates a more pure end product. It won't be in the oil section, it will be in the medicine/health and beauty section since technically one is not supposed to ingest it (although pregnant women past their due date do so often as a way to try and jump start labor, and I have seen it used as a "cleanse").

I picked up grapeseed oil because it is a thinner/lighter oil than olive oil. A lot of the oil cleansing method info on the 'net recommends sunflower oil, but grapeseed worked for me from the start so I'm not messing around with a good thing.

The ratios of castor oil to your oil of choice are totally dependent upon your individual skin type. The castor oil will actually dry your skin out if you use too much of it. I found that a 50/50 ratio worked perfectly. I do think that if you have oily skin or are acne prone you probably shouldn't go less than 50% castor oil, and maybe even a bit more. I found that 1/3 grapeseed to 2/3 castor oil was too much- after two nights, I started getting flaky.

I followed the instructions outlined here. I massaged the oil mixture on to my dry face (makeup and all if you wear it, yes, really!) with clean hands. I thought it would feel gross to rub oil on my face, but it was actually pretty soothing. I massaged it in for a few minutes, and then I steamed my face. I did this by running a wash cloth under very hot water, wringing it out a bit, and then letting it sit on my face until it cooled (usually about 30 seconds). Once the cloth had cooled, I gently wiped off my entire face, rinsed the wash cloth, and repeated the process. Personally I do this 4 times. I find this is enough to get the oil off of the surface of my face, while still leaving enough to keep me moisturized. My first reaction on the first night of using the oil cleansing method: "Afterward my face didn’t feel dry, or oily, or tight, or anything. It just felt like normal, healthy skin. I did have a noticeable glow, and my pores were already much smaller. My skin was also much more even toned, and a few bumps I already had were noticeably decreased in size"

I continued on in this manner for a few more days. My skin kept getting better and better. It was glowing and soft, my pores were almost invisible, and my blackheads were disappearing. I also noticed a reduction in fine lines around my eyes- rubbing oil into your skin definitely helps in that regard. Bobby confirmed that the oil cleansing was the best thing I had ever done for my skin overall, because it worked immediately and didn't give me crappy side effects. He said that my skin looked 80% better from the 2nd day on. About 4 days in, I was googling around to get more information on castor oil, and I read that it is a natural anti-inflammatory, which explains why it helps with acne. I also found that the properties of castor oil allow it to penetrate the skin more deeply than other oils, which is why it can clean out your pores. And then, on a forum for oil cleansing, I stumbled upon a comment by a woman who said that oil cleansing was the only thing that cleared up her adult onset, cystic acne (oh, hello, that's me to a T). She mentioned that she rubbed in circles for at least 5 minutes, and usually 10, until she started to feel grit, like sand. I immediately remembered that I, too, had been feeling a grittiness after a few minutes- I assumed it was just my face oil reacting to the oil mixture, or dead skin being rubbed off. Turns out, it was neither of those things. She went on to say that if you look at your hands, you can see the blackheads/whiteheads that have been pulled out of your pores all over your palms. What the what? That is kind of gross but also a good way to tell if it works. That night, I massaged a bit longer, and worked the oil in deeper in places where I felt that gritty feeling. Sure enough, I looked at my palms (sorry if this is grossing any of you out) and there were flecks of black and white all over them- easily 20 or 30 flecks- aka 20 or 30 potential future blemishes that would have pissed me off. That was huge proof to me (on top of the way my skin was looking) that the oil cleansing method is legitimate. How many times had I scrubbed my skin with medicated exfoliating wash trying to get blackheads to go away? I can't even count. Yet I could gently rub oil into my face and those same stubborn jerks would just slide right out? Dammit, oil cleansing method, where have you been the last 13 years?!

Anyway, I was going right along having a grand old time with the oil cleansing method for right at 3 weeks. And then, out of nowhere, I started to break out, all along my jaw, the week before my period. Hormonal acne strikes again! However, even when broken out, my skin looked healthier than when I was on Retin-A, with clear skin that was cracked and dry, flaking constantly. So despite the breakout I kept at the oil cleansing, because the previous 3 weeks had proven to me that it wasn't the cause of it- my wonky body was. Thanks, ovaries.

The oil cleansing method takes a bit more time than just washing quickly with a face wash, but in my mind those extra 10 minutes a night are well worth it. I bike pretty much every day, at least 10 miles, and work out 6 out of 7 days a week. I had no problem getting sweat and grime and sunscreen and the occasional bit of powder/eye shadow off of my face with the oil. In the morning I would just gently wipe my face with a clean warm wash cloth, and then splash cold water on it and go. The hormonal breakout at the end of week 3 confirmed to me that I still need to get a handle on that side of things. For the last few days I've been experimenting with putting Retin-A on my face for two nights, taking a break for one night, and then repeating, and that has been working out really well. For anyone on Accutane or Retin-A or other drying medications for acne, the oil cleansing method will probably be a godsend. And I think that if you don't have acne prone skin the oil cleansing method will probably make your skin look even healthier than it already is. If you do have great skin, take a moment to realize just how incredibly lucky you are. Oh for the reckless joy of going to bed without washing one's face... or using a random drugstore mask and being able to relax without thinking, over and over again on a loop "isthisgoingtobreakmeoutisthisgoingtobreakmeoutOMGwhatifthisbreaksmeout". For 3 weeks out of 4, at least, the oil cleansing method lets me experience what it's like to be one of those people with good genes and good skin.

Cat Box

2011-06-25T13:09:00.000-07:00

Sometimes you're just tired of thinking. Maru videos on the internet to the rescue.

In other news, I'm re-upholstering my second love seat today. Once that project is done, new apartment pics can go up. Per the sensational news, this will give a crazy stalker the chance to memorize the layout of my home and then come and kill me.

Get ready for the good stuff, crazy stalker. Home tour is on the agenda soon!

But for now... more Maru.

No, wait! For now I need to upholster that couch. Off to be responsible.

I Have Heard What the Talkers Were Talking

2011-06-24T21:14:00.000-07:00

I'm all talked out, kittens. I just truly don't even care to try and engage in meaningful debate anymore. Way back when I first stumbled upon blogs, I found it fun to find interesting things to read and discuss on the internet, with intelligent and interesting people. No, I'm not talking about crappy forums where people just fight. I'm talking legitimate spaces for sharing thoughts, working through thorny issues, having one's mind changed, changing another person's mind, etc. I relished the back and forth of respectful debate, the logical mind exercise of thinking through something and trying to deconstruct it. The first blog that I found, and was active in, was Feminist Mormon Housewives. I managed to find it in the fall of 2004, right when it was recently founded. I was dating a Mormon at the time, and wondering what kind of space there was in his faith for liberals, feminists, free thinkers. Taking part in that blog over the course of the year we dated in Dallas, and the year we dated long distance while I lived in Japan, really helped me. A lot. I found other blogs, and started my own once Myspace finally sucked me in during the early part of 2006, when I was halfway through that year in Japan. I had always loved a good (honest, civil) debate, and I found a lot of it online. Once I joined FB, there were lots of linked articles and posts to hash over with my friends (liberal and not liberal) and on the whole, most were civil and engaging. I found such interactions to be a nice exercise in logic, and it was fun to talk with people who had varying view points.

Often times in the past I have touched on controversial subjects on my own blog, or have presented strongly held and sometimes contentious viewpoints. Those blog posts were often extensively researched, and I felt like I wanted/needed to share them. I am no wallflower when it comes to politics, and I am open about being an activist. I volunteered for two years as a Democratic Precinct Chair, and I served as a delegate to the National Convention in Austin. Throughout undergraduate and graduate school I have taken part in more student actions, and signed more petitions, than I can count. I am a proud and regular voter, I've registered others to vote, and I have marched in rallies with homemade signs. I have cried over laws passed, laws that left me just so broken hearted and defeated that I just wanted to give up. But I didn't, and I haven't, and I won't.

But what I do want to give up- at least for right now- is all the talking. All the writing. Because let's face it. 99% of it is pure wasted time. It might be fun for me to craft a zinger of a response, or a witty counterpoint, or a scathing post, meticulously researched, on how unfair X, Y, or Z law is. But in the end, I'm usually preaching to the choir. And it's usually, honestly, a waste of my time. I think it served a purpose for a long time, I do think it made me more open minded, more temperate, more logical, and it allowed me to really develop a firm understanding of why I believe the things I do. And I learned a lot, and changed a lot. Right now, however, the thought of engaging in debate just leaves me exhausted. I put a moratorium on myself that I recently rescinded and it just left me annoyed, and further reinforced that sometimes, it matters not how logically one presents an argument, it will inevitably not change anyone's mind. I'm not interested in writing blog posts that just bring out the cheering section, and I don't really believe that such posts would cause someone to change their position, because I have very little faith in the powers of my own writing, and I have enough sense to know that this blog doesn't have a very large sphere of influence. I'm growing tired of choosing the words, of sharing the facts, of offering the caveats, of addressing dissent before it is raised. All of those bob and weaves used to be fun, and now they just feel so laborious.

I'm still politically active. I'm still signing those petitions, and volunteering, and fighting for what I believe in. Tonight, I rejoiced when I received my text from HRC that same sex marriage had passed in New York. But as much as I'm giddy about the news, I truly have no desire to write a long and thoughtful and passionate blog post about it, and then field potential comments, good or bad. I feel the need to say that I do, still, get inspired and motivated by reading such material, or skimming over an interesting political debate. I'm just not at all interested, at the moment, in creating it myself. Maybe it will come back. Maybe it won't. I'm just tired of expending the energy, and I was never tired before. It used to be fun. I would think of a turn of phrase, or a good point to make, and I would enjoy it. Now that I'm tired of it, and bored with it, it's probably a good move to stop spending my time on it. I've gotten to where I don't even care to talk about it amongst friends. I'm just. talked. out. I think I'm also pissed off that we're STILL having to talk about some of these things in the first place. For God's sake, I want to stop debating "whether or not we should let gay people get married". Or "is health care a human right?". Or "should evolution be taught in schools?" Or "does feminism harm men?". Blurrrrrrgh. I just want to be in a place where certain things are just accepted. Debating such things just reminds me that so many of my morals and values must still be defended on a constant basis. I told Bobby I was annoyed with having to start from a baseline of fighting for legitimacy in the first place. I don't mind doing it at the ballot, or in an e-mail or letter to my senator, or on a phone call to a registered voter to tell them to get out and VOTE. I am, however, minding a lot having to talktalktalk about it. Especially when so much of it is a song and dance, a little formality, with neither party really having any intention of changing.

I'm feeling dangerously close to the apathy line, and I can't let myself burn out now. I believe far too strongly in way too many things to let myself get taken over with ambivalence. If writing it all out, if presenting and defending arguments, if engaging in debate, if all of that is wearing me out it's not worth the mental exercise I used to enjoy. The action is what is important, anyway. All the rest is just chatter.

Post title from Walt Whitman, my favorite poet.

Last Week in Dallas: Clutches and "Bridesmaids" and Cinco de Mayo, Among Other Things

2011-06-24T10:45:00.000-07:00

After a few days catching my breath and catching up with Mom and Granny in Brownwood, it was time to head back to Dallas for the last 5 days of my trip. I headed out early Wednesday. Halfway through the trip, my clutch started getting cranky. My car wouldn't accelerate that well. I hit traffic right as I got into Dallas, and during a stop and go moment under a bridge, I clicked on my lights. 20 minutes later, I was at Dad's house. I forgot about the lights being on. I was worried about the clutch. But mostly, I was hot. So I took a shower, called up Kate and Anna, and made dinner plans. Of course, as soon as I got in my car, it was dead thanks to the lights being left on. Bobby was flying in on Friday night, and we were driving back to Colorado together on Monday. I was pretty certain the clutch wouldn't make the trip, and after repeated tries the battery just wouldn't take a jump. A tow truck and a clutch replacement were in my future. I called Bobby, and he said he'd do some research to find a mechanic. In the meantime, Kate and Anna came and picked me up and we had dinner as planned. I have to say, it was absolutely perfect timing. I had done all of my Texas running around, I had met up with all of my friends during the first leg in Dallas, and all that remained for the trip was a birthday party and a wedding, both of which I could easily get rides for.

We celebrated my clutch going out by eating at Twisted Root Burger Company. They have the best black bean burger I have ever had, plus made from scratch sauces and lots of different fried things on the side- green beans! pickles! And the standard french fries/onion rings. But the best part is their made in house root beer. They always have plain, and then some crazy flavor. I've tried their Irish Cream, Strawberry, and this time I had their Chocolate Peanut Butter. Just trust me, it sounds nasty, but it's so good.

Fun fact- my camera broke that night as well! That's why the pictures are all blurry

You probably shouldn't take me to restaurants...

During my week jaunting between Austin/San Antonio/Austin/Brownwood, Kate had moved in with Brooke and Chris. I crashed at their house, and Kate let me drive her to work the next morning so that I could meet up with my friend Jess for lunch. Lunch with Jess was great. I wish we had more time to hang out, but she is a busy girl, always traveling, and she is spending the summer working at a breakneck pace so that she can pay for and take 21 hours of college classes to finish up her neuroscience degree. I told her she has to come to Colorado for some snow sports, so hopefully a winter meet up is in our future.

After lunch I headed back to my dead car to give it one more try of a jump before we succumbed to a tow truck.

The thing is, this car has more than 160,000 miles on it, and clutches (and batteries) are bound to go out. Plus, this was the original clutch, so I'm not holding it against her. I love this car down to its bones, bad clutches and worn out batteries and all.

Dad tried his best, but it just wasn't happening. I called Bobby in Colorado, and he called a tow truck to come get our lil' 'rolla. I took advantage of the "tow truck should be there in two hours" news by taking a nap on my Dad's back porch. It was beautiful Texas weather, there was a nice breeze, and the loveseat is super comfortable.

After the car was safely on its way I headed back North to Plano to pick up Kate from work. She works as a manager at a nursery, is a master certified horticulturist, and loves her job to bits. I always like seeing her in her natural environment.

Tomato plant aisle, AKA the snack machines for employees

I had made plans to go out to the Church that night with my friend Daniel, but I just wasn't feeling up for going out. Instead we watched the Biggest Loser, I took some medicine, and crashed out. The next morning he dropped me off at the train station so I could ride the DART home to my Dad's house. On a whim, I decided to get off at the Mockingbird Station exit. I've spent a lot of time there, and one of my first few dates with Bobby was at the Angelika. Since I had time to kill and nowhere to be, I got off for nostalgia's sake. I walked around a bit, got some coffee, and then headed back to the train station. As I walked up the steps, I saw a man in a white tux, a TV camera crew, and about 15 to 20 girls in bridesmaid dresses. I recognized the man- we had gone out on a few dates back in the day, his name was Robert- and he called out "Hey, it's Cortney!" I waved and smiled, and then continued on my way, assuming he was busy and working. As I started to get on the escalator, he ran around the corner, and told me to come join him for an pre-screening of the movie "Bridesmaids". He was the former host of Good Morning Texas, and he was doing a bit of publicity for it. It was pretty random chance that we would run into each other! I took him up on the offer, and joined him in the Angelika.

They had to film some segments for the show before the movie, so I watched them give fake toasts...

and hand out goodie bags. After the camera work was done, we headed into the movie. If you haven't seen it yet, I would highly suggest it. Afterwards I said my goodbyes to Robert, grabbed some lunch, hopped back on the train, and then walked from the station to Dad's house. J-Ben and I had dinner plans, so she came and picked me up and we headed out to Pappasito's. It wasn't until we got there that we realized it was Cinco de Mayo. Perfect.

J-Ben, reflecting on the day.

Me, worshiping guacamole. Also, my bangs are totally telling the story of how I walked several miles from the train station to my Dad's house in some serious Texas heat. Don't worry, I had the option of showering before we went to dinner. I just picked napping on the back porch again over a shower. Priorities are important.

Bobby's plane landed that night, but he went straight out to his parents house. I spent all day Saturday celebrating Mel's son's first birthday party, and then I spent the evening with Bobby, his parents, and our friend Lindsay. Sunday was Mother's Day, but more importantly, it was Karin and Hermes wedding day! It was beautiful, the food was great, and we had a lot of fun. Lindsay photographed it, and when the pictures are done I'll be posting lots of them here.

Monday morning Bobby and I picked up our car, and then we set off for Colorado. We broke the trip up into two days so that, per usual, we could stop and visit with Great Granny in Kansas- she is perfectly halfway between Texas and Colorado. We came home to a house full of boxes, but I was instantly in love with the new apartment and was so glad to be home that the boxes didn't even matter. After being gone a year I'm so grateful I got to spend such a long time in Texas, and it couldn't have been better timing, with the two birthdays and a wedding. Even with the clutch going out, it was an excellent trip.

On the Contrary, My Garden Tends to Not Grow At All

2011-06-23T07:00:00.000-07:00

I am not the best gardener. True, I have never had a proper plot to garden, and people have told me patio gardening in pots is particularly picky. However, I have managed to kill herbs the last 3 times I tried to grow them. I think that goes beyond the difficulties of patio gardens and is firmly in the realm of "maybe the problem in this relationship is ME".

Despite my past failures, I was determined to make one last go of it. We live in a garden level apartment, which means we're half underground. Our living room window has a wooden box around it where the ground has been dug out so that we can have a regular sized window despite the whole being halfway underground thing. It gets 6 hours a day of full sun, making it the perfect spot for plants in pots. As a bonus, our dining room table is right next to it, so any little garden would be a nice view. Weekend before last we headed to the farmers' market and picked up locally grown, organic tomato and herb starts in coconut fiber planters for $3 each. I was hoping that the universe would smile benevolently on my eco-friendly hippie virtue- no plastic, Universe!- and bless my garden with good luck. I peppered the farmer with all sorts of questions, telling her that if these plants only knew how terrible I was at gardening they would be crossing their little plant fingers that they would NOT be coming home with me.

We left with two starts each of rosemary and basil, and one each of apple mint and pineapple sage. We also chose two heirloom tomato plants- Purple Prudens and Boxcar Willy. I planted them just as she suggested- a bit of pebbles in the bottom for drainage, organic soil, plant it coconut fiber pot and all- and then I gave them all a hearty shake of organic plant food. Since then I've been watering them and anxiously waiting for them to die... but they haven't! And more than that, they're actually thriving. I buried a trailing vine of the apple mint, because the farmer said that it would sprout up a new plant- and it totally did. The pineapple sage has increased its leaves by 50%, and the basil is starting to fill out with new shoots as well. I don't have any blooms on the tomato plants yet, but the important thing is they're not dead, which bodes well for future bloom possibilities.

This is the day I planted them. They're probably whispering get away plans to themselves at this point.

Two weeks later, they look a bit more at ease.

This basil needs to quadruple in size. I need to make fresh pesto every night of the week. And basil on fresh strawberries need to happen often as well.

The apple mint is bumpin'. I've stripped a few leaves off already to put in ice water.

Pineapple sage- it truly does have a pineapple smell to it. See all those little shoots along the stem? Surprisingly, that all happened on my watch. Maybe my thumbs aren't coal black after all!

The true test will be if these tomato plants produce anything. Even if it's just one tomato, I'll be pleased.

Here's the new baby apple mint shoot I mentioned. I still can't believe it worked. I'm like a 4 year old in awe of bean sprouts in a plastic baggie.

This is the view from our dining room table. Grow little ones, grow!

All of this success is making me look forward to the day when we can have a full on garden. Oh, and I didn't just have success with herbs and vegetables! I almost forgot...

The day that we picked up these guys, we got the pots from a local nursery. There had been some terrible hail, so they were selling four packs of raggedy, hail damaged petunias for $1 each. We got two 4 packs of pitiful petunias. I took them home and stripped away the bruised flowers and dead leaves, pruned back the snapped stems, and planted them in fresh soil with plant food. Two weeks later, they're blooming like crazy and they look great.

That guy on the right looks rough, but trust me, he looked way worse 2 weeks ago. I'm hoping that things keep going well. By this point most of my plants were long dead, so I think we've gotten through the touch and go first few days. I'm looking forward to picking tomatoes in about a month or two!

Catching Up with Technology Verdict: Meh

2011-06-22T07:00:00.000-07:00

Since late 2009, I have happily owned an LG phone. It slides out to a full keyboard, and it has a pretty terrible touch screen, but that's about as bells and whistle-y as it gets. Bobby has owned a pink Motorola Razr ever since I've known him which was given to him by a kind friend when his (even older) phone died. Now's a good time to share this gem from The Oatmeal:

No, seriously, that is Bobby's exact phone. SOURCE

We have both balked at upgrading to smart phones, for a variety of reasons, number one being the exorbitant cost of both the phone and the plans. However, Bobby recently accepted a position with his current employer. He's now programming...smart phones. And he was using a very outdated Motorola Razr. And neither of us had ever even made a phone call on a smart phone, much less used one in the day to day. That situation needed to be remedied.

So, about two weeks ago, we took the plunge, ditching AT&T in favor of Sprint. For our infidelity we were rewarded with enough discounts to actually get paid to switch, on top of getting free phones- really, free, not just fake free like so many cell phone companies try to pull. For $20 more a month we had three times as many minutes, unlimited data, and unlimited text, plus the free phones. We aren't Apple-philes, so we had no interest in the iPhone, when the Android based phones were everything we needed (and much cheaper for the monthly plans), so we went with the HTC Evo, and HTC Evo Shift. The Shift was for me, because I do so despise touch screens. So far, things are going well. I hated it when I first got it because it felt so annoyingly fragile, but once it was firmly entombed within an Otter Box that went away.

I have to say, I haven't been overtaken with the "I can't live without it!" feeling. Honestly, I find internet browsing on it kind of annoying, and I'd much prefer to do a quick and efficient morning check of FB and the news on my laptop. It takes about twice as long on the phone, not because it's slow, but because it's so small. That isn't me knocking the awesomeness of the technology, it's just that I like to be efficient and for day to day use, the laptop wins every time. I'm sure the GPS capabilities will be awesome in a pinch though, and the ability to Google anything one may want or need will absolutely be convenient when we find ourselves in a random town in Nebraska and we're tying to decide whether or not to eat at Burger King or if we can hold out for thirty minutes for real food. Oh, and yes, the camera is much better, for sure. However I'm not tempted to check it constantly, or be on the internet when I'm waiting in line, things like that. If Bobby and I are going out together, I'll usually leave my phone behind since we have his. I was never attached to my old cell phone, though, so that's probably why the black magic of the 'droid has yet to ensnare me.

I have to say though- an e-reader and a smart phone? Who am I?

Deep in the Heart of Texas We're Keeping Austin Weird

2011-06-21T07:00:00.000-07:00

Upon our return from San Antonio, I bid Arielle a temporary goodbye, and settled in for a few days checking out Austin. Now, I've been to Austin on family trips, and on school trips, and I went there when I interviewed for the English teacher job in Japan. I also went there as a delegate to the Democratic State Convention, which was great fun. But I had yet to experience the heart of Austin night life- bar hopping 6th Street. My cousin, Mel, and her family had recently moved to the area, and the trip to Texas was the perfect time to see their new house and let them show me a good time out on the town. But first, Mel and I had a good old fashioned girls' day, catching up, eating Taco Cab, and shopping for unnecessary clothes.

Sweet, delicious, cheap Tex-Mex. Oh Colorado. You are surely a wasteland when it comes to anything to do with Mexican food. Dear salsa bar at Taco Cab- relocate. I'm tired of making my own.

We hit up Ross, which is always unintentionally entertaining. Case in point- eww. These jeans should never, ever have been made.

On the other hand, Mel was able to experience the glory of HD glasses. She took them off and said "I wish I could wear them, always". Damn you, Ross. We DO love it.

She took me by their favorite local ice cream shop. I was generously allowed to sample whatever I wanted- I hate it when an ice cream shop offers samples but then shames you for taking them up on the offer. My motto is- do not offer unless you are going to come through with a smile. This place delivered.

It is hot in Texas. Ice cream is a necessary food group to protect one's health.

We stayed up late that night eating chips and salsa, catching up, laughing and talking and making plans for the weekend. The next day Melanie was a blessed angel and allowed me to sleep in until NOON. Oh, glorious noon. We lazed about the rest of the day, and then we headed out to Polvos to meet up with Arielle and her friends. Let me just say, if you have never been to Polvos, go. You won't regret it.

Mel and Josh

On the walk to Polvos we cut through an alley. I noticed the light was great, so we snapped some shots.

Allow me to get sappy here- I'm super lucky to have such a great cousin. I'm grateful that our dads were so close so that we were always around one another growing up. In our family "cousin" isn't too far from "sibling". I wouldn't have it any other way.

Walking up to Polvos after the alley way photo shoot, we were unaware of the epic food that was about to enter our lives.

Our feet are too hipster-licious fo' ya, babe. We were eating cupcakes, too, you just can't see our hands overlapping and holding them in adorable ways like hand models.

We waited patiently outside in an enormous crowd of would-be-patrons. I think I've figured out why I don't have 15 sponsors and 3,000+ followers- I clearly don't have enough pictures of my feet in cute shoes. Internet, I give you not one, not two, but FIVE pairs of waiting shoes! Blog success, here I come!

Everyone but me ordered margaritas while we waited, and our table freed up right as the pitcher came out. The perfection of Polvos was already in motion.

Arielle approves!

All sorts of salsa, all sorts of wonderful. My deep and abiding love for salsa variety continues.

Looking at this picture, I am tearing up a little bit as I realize that I can't go down the street and eat this. Poblano cream sauce should be a regular occurrence in my dinner time experiences. Life is sometimes so unfair.

Once we were all thoroughly stuffed, we parted ways with Arielle for the final time (tears!) and headed downtown. As luck would have it, a high school friend happened to be playing a show, and it ended up being a bit of a Brownwood High School reunion. Kind of random, and neither good nor bad. The show wrapped up, and we struck out to bar and club hop along 6th street.

The following pictures were all taken on my cheap-o LG decidedly NON smart phone. Apologies.

We started off at the Blue Moon blues bar. An awesome band was playing, there wasn't a cover charge, and people were friendly and happy. +5 points for 6th street already, plus +10 points for the no cover charge. Dallas charges cover for everything, even just to dance. Here, I'm getting great blues in a chill atmosphere with nice friendly locals... for free? With no pressure to buy a drink? Yes, please.

We went in a few random fun bars I can't remember the names of, and then we hit up this "swanky" club, that was totally empty at 11 p.m. Personally, I love random empty clubs because I don't need to be drunk or in a big group to dance. And you get to play around, as Melanie is illustrating above.

Random little nooks that made me think that an 80's coke addict would be at home in them lined the walls.

Upstairs we found a nice dusky dance floor, and the D.J. was excellent. Empty dance floor all to ourselves, with windows overlooking the pedestrian traffic below? You keep racking up the points, 6th street. We left that club and continued on our bar crawl way, and each new stop was enjoyable. They all had no cover, good music, dancing everywhere you went, and there was a refreshing lack of snobby clique-ish ness. For anyone familiar with the snottiness that permeates so much of the nightlife in Dallas, you know what I mean by that.

We wrapped up the night dancing on the rooftop at the Blind Pig, and around 2 a.m. we headed home. This picture is a great example of the huge difference between Dallas and Austin nightlife. Austin shuts down 6th street and only allows foot traffic. This makes going out a lot safer, and also fosters a block party feel where random strangers are pretty friendly. There was also a surprising lack of drunken fights and cops arresting people. I felt safe, I wasn't heckled, harassed, or pawed at (all things that happen on the regular in clubs in Dallas). I danced with random French dudes who were hilarious, struck up conversations with friendly girls, and danced my ass off everywhere we went. In Dallas, when you go out in Deep Ellum, the traffic and parking are horrible and there are random pockets of deserted warehouses that are the perfect environment in which to get assaulted (that's not an exaggeration, things have gotten hairy for me a few times in downtown Dallas, much as I love it). Even with my many years long history of late night fun in Deep Ellum, I was already converted to Austin after only one night. Good thing cities can't read blogs, or else Dallas might get her feelings hurt...

This random guy jumped in the picture with me.

We found our way back to the car, I DD'd us home, and I crashed out at about 3 a.m. The next morning Mel was sick, so I accompanied Josh to a family picnic in Zilker Park and then headed out to Brownwood. I have to say, Austin won me over. It didn't even feel like I was in Texas, in a good way.

Of course, the oppressive heat reminded me I was, in fact, in Texas. Driving a few hours to Brownwood at around 2 p.m. in a car without air conditioning was the opposite of enjoyable. I was double fisting water and Gatorade the whole way, because I truly didn't want a heat stroke on the back roads of Texas to be part of my trip re-caps. I arrived at Mom's house covered in sweat, tired, and windblown. But I arrived without a heat stroke! It was really nice to be back in my hometown, hanging with Mom and Granny. After the breakneck pace of the previous week's socializing and late night partying I was more than ready to settle into easy nights on the back porch, eating Mom's delicious food, and watching the horses play in the back yard.

Oh, and if you ever happen to find yourself in Brownwood, TX, I highly recommend Prima Pasta. I definitely enjoyed some of their Italian take out on the back porch, too.

Violating the Terms of Our Lease

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

Technically, we're not supposed to do car repairs in the parking lot of our apartment complex.

Hillbilly Bobby

But realistically, we needed to replace the muffler and this curb was the perfect lift and it was a quick job. Sorry, apartment complex. We love living here, and we don't mean any offense.We apologize for our down South ways.

Party on the Farm

2011-06-20T07:00:00.000-07:00

I did, eventually, make those muffins. I do so love a potluck, because it's such a good return on investment. I make one thing and in return for that contribution I get to sample a buffet of food? Sounds good to me.

We headed out on our bikes, since the main entrance is from the bike trail. I really can't get over how damned charming it is to cycle along a bike trail flanked by fields with horses and weeping willow trees, and old school wooden fences. The trail follows a little creek, and periodically you go over quaint little bridges that always make me think of Anne of Green Gables.

It's a short ride to the CSA, and when we got there the party was already going full swing. The farmer, Luke, had the grill fired up and was providing complementary hot dogs, burgers, and veggie burgers. Local beer was on tap, also flowing freely. Dogs were roaming about with their families, and babies and kids were running all over the grass and lounging on blankets under the trees. There was, of course, a small army of bicycles clustered along the fence. We added ours to the group.

Aww, lil' trailers to haul your nuggets on the bike!

We picked up our share for the week- lots of yummy greens. Kale, lettuce, and spinach came home with us.

Field of organic veggies + dad and baby + bike. Basically a perfect picture overview of the hippie/green culture of our town.

We added our muffins to the buffet table and loaded up our camp plates with communal food. Thanks to a lot of people we didn't know, we ate very well that night. Our fellow CSA'ers were super friendly on top of being good cooks. We spent an hour or two there, re-filling our plates, chatting with different groups of people, and petting whatever dog happened to stroll by. Right about the time we finished our food, thunder started rolling and rain started falling. We cycled back in the rain- just enough to be more than a sprinkle, but not enough to be miserable. Once home we threw open all the windows, turned off all the lights, and lit some candles. We sprawled out on the floor, enjoying the breeze, being lazy listening to the storm and watching the sun set through our back patio door. There is something so soothing about listening to a storm, hearing the trees sway in the wind while the rain beats down on their leaves. I don't know if it's just because I grew up in Texas with a good 3 months of heavy thunder storms rocking me to sleep every year, but it's like an auditory sleeping pill. Altogether it was a pretty excellent night. I already geek out over the happiness that fresh picked, dirt covered veggies give me, and when you add in a nice get together, good food, a bike home in warm rain, and an evening thunderstorm? It's almost more simple joy than I can handle.

Father's Day

2011-06-19T13:17:00.000-07:00

"There's something like a line of gold thread running through a man's words when he talks to his daughter, and gradually over the years it gets to be long enough for you to pick up in your hands and weave into a cloth that feels like love itself." ~John Gregory Brown

I Should Be Making Muffins

2011-06-16T13:55:00.000-07:00

Our CSA kick off party has been rescheduled twice due to unusual amounts of spring thunderstorms. Tonight is the night, and as it's a pot luck I should be making blueberry banana muffins to bring along. But I grated my pointer finger last night while zesting some lemons and shredding garlic cloves, and anything to do with dishes/baking/mixing is pretty much annoying.

You know what else is annoying? When a garbage truck nearly runs me over while I'm biking to the gym.

Another thing that is annoying? When I start a new blog with high hopes of working on a new project, and then the wind in my sails just sputters out to a pitiful stream of box fan in the window breeze. And when there is a box fan in the window, well, I'd rather be napping on my down comforter than typing up thoughtful posts.

On the life front, school is all wrapped up and ready to go and our summer travel plans are nailed down - one trip down, two to go. Oh, right! I still need to post about that one trip down... oops. I did 70 miles on my bike last week, and I'm excited about C25K again. The library continues to bless me with heaps of new and interesting books, most recently a crazy one called "The Information" that's blowing my mind (non-fiction).

Honestly the scanning in my diaries project is going a bit slow because I'm reading through them to figure out what I care to keep and what is just toe curling embarrassing. Inevitably there are chapters of stomach wrenching sadness, or sheets of anger, or a forgotten story somewhere between 15 and 18 that gives me a jolt. I mean, I suppose that's why we keep diaries- to remember. I haven't come across it yet, but I distinctly recall writing an entry sometime around the 6th grade, right after I had read "Anne Frank". I was a bit paranoid that I was going to die and my family, desperate to connect with me, would begin to peruse my diaries. Alternatively, I imagined that they would somehow be found decades after my death, and be published as some sort of "normal life of a pre-teen in the early 90's" compilation. Really. It's ok, you can laugh at my self centered pre-teen fears. I am. What's incredibly strange to me, as the author of these random little books, is that I feel as though *I* am snooping into that other Cortney's life. Sometimes when I'm thumbing through what was my beloved Lisa Frank diary (4th-5th grade), I get a tingling of guilt on the back of my neck. I feel so very different from the child who wrote those words that it's as though I'm intruding on her- my- privacy. Isn't that strange? Even as I sit here at the dining room table, I can glance over the scanner and see a variety of different books, all heavy laden with my own thoughts, from as recently as 2008 to as far away as 1991. They have... a presence. They're literally holding my life in them. Some of the pages were ripped out and shredded. Others were edited out. Oh, before you go protesting my revision of history, please understand- these are not things I want others to ever read about me. These are personal, often painful, and brutally honest things that were tormenting my mind, that I had to get. out. of. my. head. They needed to be hunted down, and trapped, and then drawn out and pinned to the paper. But they don't really, not at all, need to be read again. Not by me, and certainly not by anyone else. I remember one of my Dad's friends saying she had two diaries. One was her record keeping diary. Something her children could have when she died, to look back on, and read about her life and the things she did and the memories she saved. The other? That one was to be burned upon her death. No one was to read it. I knew, as soon as she said it, that I had a lot of "burn upon my death" entries. I was only 12, but I knew intrinsically that there are some thoughts that must get out, but they also must be kept to oneself. And so my diaries and I worked our way through my life. I know writing in them has kept me sane, has calmed me down, and has helped me work through struggles and fears, anger and depression. In the end, some of the sharper edges, and finer points, and murky darkness around that process can be torn out, shredded, edited. I can keep enough to still tell the story, without feeling so vulnerable. In the end, I don't need a piece of paper with my crooked writing on it to remind me of those thoughts- if they were sacred and scary enough to be torn from a diary, trust me, the words are etched pretty deeply inside of me.

I hope to have the diary project wrapped up and put to rest by the end of June. I think I'll make it, since I've been spending all of May reading into my past, scanning these pages like retroactive tea leaves. We're halfway through June, so I should be able to finish the processing stage and head on to the drudgery of the whizz hum grumble of the old scanner.

But for now I need to make those muffins.

Hygienic Hippies: Giving up Shampoo and Conditioner - The Verdict

2011-06-14T10:45:00.000-07:00

The day I wrote this post I gave up shampoo and conditioner and tried out the no 'poo method that very morning. I'm just going to cut to the chase and say that I love washing my hair with a mixture of baking soda and water, and then rinsing it with a mixture of apple cider vinegar and water. There. If you want, you don't even have to read the rest of this post. You can pop over to this site to see what directions I followed (ish).

If you want more info + pictures, follow along...

So, Thursday June 2nd I washed my hair with BS/ACV for the first time. Like a true nerd, I took notes**. I used about a tbsp and a half of BS and poured water into it until it was a silty mixture. Not a sludge, per the instructions, but definitely not a runny liquid. I then mixed up about 1/3 a cup of ACV to 1/3 a cup of water. These are the containers I used:


Ketchup/mustard squirt bottles, .97 cents each (I took this last night, that's how much of the original ACV mix I still have left after using it for 12 days

I chose this type of bottle because it has a long pointy top which would allow me to squirt the BS mixture directly onto my scalp, which is exactly where it needs to go. It also allows me to control the amount of ACV rinse I put on the ends. Basically I started as my left temple and squirted all the way back, following my scalp with the point of the bottle, until I hit the nape of my neck. I worked my way across my head in this manner, and then massaged my scalp for probably about 2 minutes. I rinsed it out well, and it immediately felt squeaky clean. I then squirted a bit of the ACV mix just on the bottom half of my hair. I didn't use too much, as apparently that can make things greasy. I worked my fingers through any tangles, and surprisingly, ACV is an incredible detangler. I rinsed it out well. If you're familiar with vinegar, you'll know it smells strongly for a bit and then fades away to smelling like nothing. I put a tiny bit of coconut oil on the very ends of my hair, and then I let it air dry per my usual routine. It smelled neutral, just clean, with a hint of the coconut oil. Here's a picture of the first afternoon:

I wanted to really test this method out, and see just how long I could go without washing. I woke up on Friday, and noted that "Hair still feels and looks great. Not greasy at all, feels just washed and fresh". On Saturday night, I had gone 3 full days since washing Thursday morning, and per my notes (and Bobby's observation) "still not greasy, soft and shiny, no frizz. Love it." Here are some pictures:

I like how 3 days later I had washed the shirt I wore on Day 1, but I still hadn't washed my hair. Niiiiiiiice.

Day 4, Sunday, I biked 10 miles round trip to an hour of sweaty vinyasa yoga and home. Then, we biked to Whole Foods, about 6 miles round trip. Once I took my helmet off and aired my head out a bit, miraculously it looked great. Pictures for proof I'm not delusional:

I took this inside right after yoga + bike ride, before we headed to Whole Foods on our bikes

After a little under 20 miles of bike riding in a helmet

Bobby got this in mid flip, which is awkward, but it's a good indicator of how thick my hair is- if BS can clean this pile of hair, it can clean anything.

I would have washed it on the night of Day 4 just on principle since I usually never go more than 3 days without a wash, but I was going running on Monday morning and doing yoga Monday night, so I decided to wait. Day 5, Monday I woke up and noted "it still looked fine this morning, not greasy at all" I washed it Monday night and experimented with a bit more ACV. Day 6, Tuesday morning, I woke up, it looked fine, but the bottom half felt kind of grimy/greasy and a bit weighed down. This was proof to me that somehow ACV will truly make your hair greasy if you use too much. Crazy. Tuesday during the day I did yoga and biked 20 miles doing errands, and Tuesday night it still looked great, even though it felt kind of weird to the touch. I was having one of my super curly days and it was soft, not frizzy, as you can see here:

Wednesday night, Day 7, I noted this - "I went the whole day on the wash from Monday night and my hair looked fine, it just felt weird. I washed it tonight and it already feels much cleaner and lighter. This method is so simple and honestly takes maybe 5 minutes total longer to do, including mixing the baking soda. I haven't had to refill the ACV bottle yet at all, and I mix the BS every time I wash it and use the whole mixture. My hair feels squeaky clean and I never have to buy shampoo/conditioner again- awesome". I didn't wash day 8 or 9, and then I washed it on Saturday, Day 10. I didn't use the coconut oil, and still had no frizz or tangles. I went Day 11 and all day Monday without washing, and then washed it Monday night, the end of day 12.

After 12 days of not using shampoo and conditioner and no 'pooing 5 times, this is what my hair looks like-

From the back (a bit of a crappy pic, it was on my phone)

From the front

I'm totally sold. It's incredibly cheap and it doesn't have any crazy ingredients to worry about. I thought it would be a hassle, but it isn't at all. My hair looks great and feels awesome, and I can go longer between washings because I'm not stripping the natural oils out of my scalp and forcing it to freak out and produce more. I have thick wavy/curly hair almost down to my waist, so if it works for me I imagine it will work for most anyone. If you try it and hate it, I apologize in advance, but I don't think you'll hate it.

**No, really, I realize it was nerdy to take notes, but I wanted to get a real picture of how this all went down. When I read a blog post and people just say "it's awesome, I loved it, you should do it, too!" I have no idea what that even means, how long they did it, or what snafus came up. So, I'll gladly be that nerd :)

Texas Girls Part V- The Last Stand at the Alamo

2011-06-11T21:33:00.000-07:00

Our first weekend was pretty wall to wall gogo with late nights and early mornings, from Brooke's birthday party to clubbin' it up at the Church and random lunch meetups and afternoon coffee get togethers with friends. Monday we all recovered, and then we headed out for sushi with a big group. I think this picture sums up the day after pretty well...


Love Arielle's face here. I felt that way on this inside, but I'm really good at turning on suck it up smile

Tuesday was more laid back visiting, spending an afternoon on my Dad's back porch drinking coffee and continuing to catch up. We hit the hay early-ish (midnight for me, about 2 a.m. for Arielle) because Wednesday morning we were heading out early to go to Austin for lunch, and then continue on to San Antonio. I have an embarrassing confession to make. I'm a Texas girl, born and raised with the exception of a year in California in the 2nd grade... and I had never seen the Alamo. Or the Riverwalk. I went to San Antonio with a boyfriend when I was 18, but we didn't do any sightseeing, just went straight to his sister's dorms at Our Lady of the Lake. So, yeah, I knew that San Antonio had to be on my "to-do" list during the trip.

Wednesday morning we headed out early, and I made a mercy stop at Denny's. Y'see, Arielle runs a great blog called Foodie Asshole, and she was on a mission to take part in their "Baconalia" promotion. Basically, it was Denny's regular craptastically opposite of delicious food, but they added bacon to it so it was supposed to be special. Do yourself a favor, and pop over to Arielle's review of the experience. It was so bad, she cried a tear.

I just judged, harshly. I think I was also annoyed because we were eating Denny's next to a dumpster at a convenience store off of I-35 in rush hour traffic. We started at the convenience store across the street, but had to leave after we attracted a pack of men who stood at our bumper and stared while we attempted to eat our "food".

Eventually, we both just gave up and trashed the whole lot. Good riddance.

We hit the road towards Austin right as the traffic was clearing up. A short three and a half hours or so later, we were in Pflugerville, having lunch with Mel and her husband Josh. We couldn't stay long, though, because Austin traffic is notorious and we still had an hour and a half to get to San Antonio before rush hour. We were staying with my childhood friend, Sarah, who was also going to show us around town.

After hanging out at Sarah's house and showering off the result of having no air conditioner in Texas, we headed downtown to a tapas style restaurant Sarah recommended, the Liberty Bar, a restaurant in a restored convent. First of all, I just need to say that I had such terribly negative assumptions about San Antonio. I didn't realize it was a real city, more so even than Dallas. It has a bustling downtown, people were walking and biking, dogs were out with their owners, children toddled on sidewalks in front of their parents during an evening trip around the neighborhood- it was quite charming, really. And this place was incredible. If you're ever in San Antonio, please try it out. You won't be disappointed.

The object of Arielle's affection? Geranium cream. Yes, that's right. It was phenomenal, as was the rest of the food.

We conned the waiter into taking a group pic. Also, note Arielle's lack of chair in the reflection. That is a skillful photo squat. After picture time we meandered back through downtown checking out where we'd be going the next morning. We all agreed that an early bed time was preferable to going out, so it was back to Sarah's and promptly to sleep on the trusty air mattress.

The next morning Sarah took us to a local bakery called Broadway Daily Bread Bakery- Arielle's review can be found here. They had a huge cutting board filled with samples, and we unabashedly helped ourselves to a little bit of everything before carb loading our final choices.

This is my food review of the place. A picture is worth a thousand words, right?

Golly, thank goodness for these instructions, or else I'd NEVER know how to shove money in a slot.

After breakfast, we sadly parted ways with Sarah. She had a lot to get done before heading back to work, and Arielle and I needed to cram a lot of sightseeing into our afternoon so that we could head back to Austin that night. We headed downtown, found super cheap parking, and set off to revel in our home state's rich and glorious history. Remarkably, the weather was cool and sunny. Perfect for wandering around an unfamiliar downtown.

Putting a female face on history

So, the Alamo was kind of...ok, I don't want to say "not impressive". It's not that. I'll say... unassuming. I guess I just had this idea in my mind of it being a bit bigger. It was a lot smaller than I thought it would be, and it was also crazy how it's just chillin' in the middle of downtown. It's interesting how the town just crept up around it. Funny story- when I told my Granny I was a bit underwhelmed with the Alamo in person, she said that she had the same experience. After years of living in Texas, apparently she told my late Pop Pop that she was going to finally see the Alamo. They booked an expensive hotel room with an Alamo view. She excitedly planned the trip, they drove down, checked in, and she pulled open the curtains. Silence. Then- "Well, I guess I can finally say I've seen the f***ing Alamo!". Don't worry, they did a real tour and all, despite her initial reaction, haha.

It's also interesting that this is called the "Museum". It's a gift shop, ya'll. Straight effin' up. Gift shop. However, this was the perfect opportunity to pick up some post cards to send to the lil' nuggets in my life. I snagged a wooden postcard and sent it to three of my favorite kiddos. How rad is a wooden postcard? I would have loved to get something like that as a kid.

After the Alamo and various downtown wanderings, we moseyed to the Riverwalk. Again, where did my negative expectations come from?! Can I be frank? I assumed the Alamo would be in the middle of a crappy "downtown" consisting of one strip of chain restaurants and tourist shops, with a piddly little dirty river running on the other side. Instead I experienced something that had a distinctly Californian feel to it. The Riverwalk is gorgeous. It was tree lined and breezy, perfectly landscaped, and covered in flowers and cute local restaurants and bars.

We ended up eating at a place called Boudro's, because my friends had recommended the guac. Apparently, this guac is in one of those "1,000 blah blah blah to blah blah blah before you die" books.

Good, but don't sweat if if you do die before getting a chance to eat it

After lunch, we rambled back down the Riverwalk, loaded up on Gatorade- aka our internal air conditioners- and once more we were in the car.

Once more, we were a little punch drunk..

and we played around with the scorpion sucker souvenir I picked up at the Alamo in the museum that was not a museum at all. I was so overtaken with the sheer ridiculousness of the ingredients list- "Watermelon flavor, red number something, Scorpion, something or another, etc."- that I bought it without thinking about the fact thata I'm a vegetarian and thus bugs are off the menu. Anyway. We made it back to Austin safe and sound, which is where Arielle and I took leave of one another. She was off to spend the night at her friend's house, and I was staying with Mel for a girl's night. We would meet up one last time the next night, which would also be my first time going out on 6th Street. Again, this is a shame! How did I not go out on 6th street until I was 28 years old?! But that's a blog post for another time.

I Want to Ride My Bicycle

2011-06-08T09:54:00.000-07:00

The entire year I lived in Japan, I biked all over the place without a second thought. I had a free bike courtesy of the outgoing teacher, which I painted bright green and purple thanks to some 100 yen store spray paint. I would bike double digit miles most days, without a helmet, and with the knowledge that 3 of my acquaintances had been hit by cars while on bikes (none seriously injured). I biked on snow, on ice, and in rain. So, one would think that upon moving to Fort Collins and possessing a bike again, I would take to it like a fish to water.

Not so much.

Don't get me wrong, I still loved cycling, but I had a hard time adjusting to the bike culture here in America. Bobby and I did quite a lot of weekend biking last summer. We volunteered with a no-kill shelter, and every time we walked the dogs on the weekend we would bike there. We went on excursions for Mexican food in nearby towns with friends. Bobby rode his bike to work every day during spring and summer. And we would ride bikes to our Monday night yoga classes. I would bike to the gym on my own, as well, and I'd take friends out on the trails when they came to visit. But in general? I was very intimidated with cycling in America. In Japan, there were bikes everywhere. Mothers would be on a bike with a baby in front and a baby in back, no helmets in sight. It was a very common thing in the culture of the city in which I lived, and thus bicycles were something that drivers were used to accommodating. On top of that, in Japan, bicyclists used sidewalks. America, on the other hand, favors the bicycle lane approach. Let me tell you, there is a big difference between cycling on a wide sidewalk and cycling in a thin bicycle lane with cars whizzing past you going 50 miles an hour.

Another difference was that I had to get used to my new bike. It's a commuter bike, not a cruiser bike. When I first rode it, the wheels felt so incredibly thin and flimsy, as though every rock in my path would send me flying to the pavement. Eventually, with all the riding we did last summer and fall, I got used to it, but I was still timid when I went out on my own, and I would often avoid cycling and take my car when I could have taken my bike. Last winter, as we put away our bikes, I told myself that this summer I would be more confident on my bike, and bike more often. I just had to get over my feelings of awkwardness and my lack of confidence, and do it.

So that's what I did. A week or two after we got back from Texas, Bobby and I were set to meet up for lunch. It's 4 miles from our house, half of it on the bike trail, half of it on the street, and I have to cross traffic to go left twice. It was no big deal, and I felt incredibly lame for ever letting it bother me.

Bobby with delicious food and my sweet pink tire'd bike

Happy face

Bobby was surprised I rode my bike instead of taking thee car. He knew that I was pretty much only comfortable with riding to and from the gym, or sometimes the grocery store. I seriously cannot believe that I let myself get such a mental block about it. How ridiculous.

This is part of the trail on the ride home that day. Since then I've been cycling all. over. the. place. I'm merging in traffic, I'm making left turns at lights, and you can get over it, car, because I have the right of way. I can't even remember what it felt like to feel nervous at all. Yesterday, as an example of how much time I'm spending on my bike, I did 20 miles. I biked to the gym, to lunch with Bobby, to the grocery store, and back home. Then we biked to dinner, hit up two stores to run errands, and visited Sonic on the way home for free root beer floats. We left as it was getting dark, with our headlights and tail lights flashing. We were going at a meandering pace along the bike trail that feeds into our apartment complex. As we were traveling, we would ride through pockets of cool air, that felt like walking into a freezer. Sometimes the air would be warm on top, then cold on bottom, like swimming into a deep part of the lake on a hot day. the crickets were chirping, the sky was clear, and the moon was out. It was beautiful.

I think that's my favorite thing about riding my bicycle. I'm connected to the experience of getting somewhere. I feel the sun on my arms, I'm sweating a bit, I'm grateful for breezes. The smallest hills, unnoticeable in a car, are very noticeable on a bike. I notice the landscape more, since I'm in it and going slower. I'm manually adjusting to the slightest changes in the terrain as I work through my gears. Stop lights are not annoying, they're a break after that hill kicked my ass. If I need to make a left (bike lanes are to the far right, so one has to cross traffic to make lefts) and there is a lot of traffic, I can simply slow down in my bike lane, wait for it to break up and pass to the left easily. Shortcuts are easy to take, and wrong turns are just occasion for a bit more exercise. As soon as I hit "publish" on this post, I'm going to the library and the grocery store, a 10 mile round trip that Bobby and I made a few weekends ago together, and one that I've made several times on my own since then. I am currently having a love affair with my bike and spring.

But don't worry, I won't turn into this guy...

Creepsauce Casserole, or, Kidnapping is For Your Own Good, Sinner

2011-06-07T07:56:00.000-07:00

So, apparently this guy** thought it would be a cool idea to make a pro-life movie that alludes to the "Saw" movies. I know, stay with me. Basically three women are kidnapped from an abortion clinic and held hostage until they give birth. Wanna see the trailer? Ok!

I wonder how it ends? Maybe they go for a gritty, realistic ending. Like, totally real life stuff. One where as soon as the baby is born the mother is ditched by our society, and is then vilified as a worthless leech on our tax system by getting on Medicaid and taking welfare to support her child? Or do these kidnappers pay for diapers and food and medical bills and a safe place to live for the children they saved? Ah, so many questions with this one.

As my friend said, I guess "kidnapping women and forcing them to give birth against their wills is a "pro-life" value worth making a movie about!". Indeed. Very strange way of going about advocating one's position. It's so over the top that it would never sway anyone. This seems to be one of those "preaching to the choir" kind of "YEAH! That's RIGHT! We're RIGHT!" kind of movies to fire up an already devoted base. For the record, such movies annoy me whatever the political slant may be.

Also, for the record, this isn't meant to open up a huge can o' worms over the thorny issue of abortion. I would hope anyone, on either side, would think that this movie is a stinker.

**Of course, per the article I linked above, this guy also made a movie "called O.B.A.M. Nude, in which a college student addicted to cocaine sells his soul to the devil to become a socialist leader. "Satan tutors him on political points," Del Vecchio said. "So he can trick the masses by a mantra of hope and change." Wink."

5 Years Ago

2011-06-06T20:21:00.000-07:00

I was sorting pictures (I cull those, too, periodically) and came upon these pics of a road trip my cousin Mel and I took back in late September '06. I got home from Japan on Sept 10th, and 3 weeks later I found myself visiting my mom in Brownwood. I was up late, on the phone with Mel, and she mentioned she was going to be road tripping from Ventura, CA, to SLC, UT, and then back down to Dallas. She was moving home, as was her brother, who lived in Utah and needed to be picked up along the way. I asked her when she was leaving. She said "day after tomorrow". I was severely depressed due to culture shock upon returning home, missing Japan and regretting not staying longer, wanting an adventure, unemployed, and I had five grand in the bank thanks to my end of contract bonus. So of course I said "I'm coming with you". The next day I drove 3 hours back up to Dallas, packed a bag, and got a ride to the airport. I bought my ticket at the counter, to use a mere 2 hours later to fly out to California. It cost a not so mere $300 one way. Whatever. I needed out of there, fast.

A few blocks from Mel's house

Mel picked me up from the airport, we hung out with her friends and got dinner, and then we set out very late that night.


This is probably about what our vision was actually like upon hitting Sin City

I may have thought I was obliterated on the Colorado-Texas road trip, but we were insane tired between Ventura and Las Vegas. We rolled in at around 2 a.m., and just for the sake of doing it we hit up a casino. We played a slot machine, drank some free orange juice, used their bathroom, and hit the road again.

We were in a bad way a few hours later at the gas station...

I really didn't want to get back in that car.

We drove through the night until we hit the top corner of Arizona, when the sun started to come up.

This was an entire sky, stereotypical "Arizona has the best sunrise, ever" kind of experience. We watched it until it faded away, and somehow dragged ourselves into Utah. Directly after crossing the state line, we pulled Mel's tiny Ford Focus off to the side of the road, snapped back the seats, and promptly slept for 6 hours, with the car periodically rocking back and forth as 18 wheelers zoomed past. Still, it was safer than driving.

I'd never been to Utah before, and since I was seriously dating a Mormon at the time I spent a lot of time on temple grounds. It was a few blocks from Jen's house (Mel's sister, remember Thanksgiving?). We were in SLC for about a week, and I went there almost every single day. I prayed a lot. I didn't hear anything that sounded anything like "Be a Mormon". We all know how that ended.

We spent a lot of time hanging with Jen, just being stupid, all the girls together again. This was taken across the street from a bar we frequented. I'm supposed to be lamenting the impending birth of the child that will launch me into mommy van status (pure jokes, I love mommies and babies and mommies who drive their babies in mommy vans). The fact that it said "Kid Hauler" had to be ribbed on.

And then it was time to leave. We packed up and headed south through the fall leaves.

Southern Utah, somewhere near Moab. I would go back there 3 years later with Bobby :)

Colorado- I'd come back here with Bobby, too :)

Driving up to Four Corners Monument

We're nerds.

Big time.

A bit of New Mexico, another state I'd return to and explore more with Bobby.

Finally we were back home in Texas. I think I ate my weight in those trashy chicken sandwiches at Burger King (no, not the "fancy" ones, I'm talking the craptastical creepsauce long oval shaped "chicken" sandwiches they have which are way cheaper than the other chicken sandwiches and have nothing but lettuce and mayo on top of a fried patty. Gross). I know both Mel and I were at insane transition periods in our life, and it was really awesome to be with someone who truly understood what it was like to pick up and leave everything, go out on your own, change in ways you never thought possible... and then come home and try and fit back into your old life. I can't believe it's been 5 years ago.

Unencumbered- Thoughts from a Reformed Packrat

2011-06-05T08:00:00.000-07:00

"Frugality is one of the most beautiful and joyful words in the English language, and yet one that we are culturally cut off from understanding and enjoying. The consumption society has made us feel that happiness lies in having things, and has failed to teach us the happiness of not having things." ~Elise Boulding

So often in conversations of simplifying, or living with less, or downsizing, the focus tends to be on everything one must give up. To me, living with less and having (relatively) few possessions is not about deprivation- I think an apartment or home that is more empty than full feels amazing. I get so many palpable benefits of doing so that I don't see it as a chore, I see it as something that gives me freedom. When Bobby and I moved this last time, we were able to pack our entire house in about 6 hours, including breaks, singing stupid songs, eating, and dawdling a bit as we sorted things and really took a ruthless eye to a pre-move culling session. Plus, since Bobby was having to physically move, I told him he only had to pack the study and the outside shed, so one person did the brunt of packing and it still went by pretty quickly. We took the following two pictures after we were done. You're looking at everything we own, minus our bed, Bobby's computer desk, and the dining room table- all of which we were still using up until the day of move out.

View from the dining room plus my creepy face

View from the kitchen plus my creepsauce face again

This includes all of the gear and supplies for all of our hobbies- both of our bikes, exercise equipment and yoga paraphernalia, books, yarn/materials/sewing supplies, Bobby's tools and saw, and a crap load of camping stuff. I know, compared to some super simple living gurus, that this is still a lot of stuff for two adults. But I think, on average, it is far, far less. Because of this we don't have to spend more on housing than we need, we don't have to rent storage sheds, and most importantly it is a lot easier to maintain our relatively nomadic lifestyle. Moving is usually not very fun or easy, regardless of how little one owns, but I can tell you, as a reformed pack rat, that it is much more fun and easy without having to break one's back over boxes of crap that are, in the grand scheme of things, useless.

Speaking of useless crap, I'm a big fan of quarterly culling. Four times a year, I sift through my possessions and glean out that which is no longer serving me. Sure, it usually ends up just being a few items, but I'd rather have a few items that I can easily drop off at Goodwill on the way to the grocery store instead of having to dig through mountains of stuff every few years. I've also found that this makes me a lot more ruthless with getting rid of things- if it's not seasonal and it hasn't served me in the last 3 months, why am I paying rent on it? I know that so many people (myself included, for many years) are afraid of getting rid of something and then needing it. I'm here to assure you that I have been ruthlessly bootin' my stuff to the curb (ok, not really the curb, Goodwill or friends who need/ want it) since 2005 and I have never, not once, given away something that I later needed/wanted back. Never. And you know what? If you give something away and you really, really need it then at least you know you really, really need it and you can get another one. Craigslist, thrift stores, and people like me are good places to find free or cheap goods if you really need to replace something you tossed aside a little too hastily.

I know many people have very sentimental attachments to things, for various emotional reasons, but I personally don't, with very few exceptions, which I can count on one hand. To me, the only things I cannot replace in this life are pictures and various very personal mementos like diaries or letters from loved ones. That's precisely why I undertook the photo project that ended up taking far longer than I ever could have imagined. But now it's done, the pictures are safe in digital form, and a huge chunk (maybe half, at last count) have been given away now that I'm not the only person holding the keys to my family's cumulative picture memory box. I'm about to start scanning in my old diaries, so that I can get rid of them as well (most are written in spiral notebooks in pencil which is starting to fade, anyway). Don't get me wrong, I still have a beautiful, small cedar chest that my Great Granny gave me, which holds things like said diaries and mementos. But you know what? I cull from that, too. Because trust me, the things I thought I would treasure forever at 18? Yeah, some of them went straight in the recycling bin last month when I sorted through it.

If you had told me at 18 how very different I would be in terms of material possessions by 22, I probably wouldn't have believed you. And if you had told me at even 22 how different I would be by 28, I wouldn't have believed that, either. The point is that sometimes you have to force yourself to just do it, to start choosing to live with less, get rid of some things, and stop accumulating more things. And very soon after, you might find that you don't miss it at all. I want to reiterate that I am FAR from a simple living guru. There are tons of great blogs out there on that topic, and I certainly can't claim to have whittled my possessions down to 100 things- and I don't desire to (at least not now, we'll see where another 5 years gets me). In the end, I just know that I am so glad that I am not drowning in stuff anymore.

Springtime in Fort Collins

2011-06-03T19:23:00.000-07:00

Our new "backyard" view from our patio. xoxo

When we got back to Colorado, we were greeted with about a week and a half of uncharacteristically cold, grey, rain filled days. I spent a lot of time cooped up in the apartment, unpacking and organizing the house, and Bobby spent a lot of time cooped up at work. Weekend before last, the rain finally broke. The view above is what greeted me when I stepped out onto the back patio after a Sunday morning full of work. There is an enormous aspen off to the right, taller than our 3 story building, so I suggested to Bobby that we grab our books and a blanket and read in the grass under the shade.

Oh, and I took all of the pictures in this post with my 2 year old LG phone. Who knew it could do such a good job?

There is a little walkway that runs between our apartment building and the apartment building across the grassy park. I'm standing on said walkway, with our apartment to my right. That aspen is gorgeous when the wind blows through it and all the leaves start fluttering.

Under the tree, view to the left. I really like how our new apartment complex is older and more established, because they built it on 24 acres of land and left tons of trees to their own devices. We're also right next door to a very large park, and we're right off of one of the many bike trails in our town. Our CSA's main entrance is actually right off of that bike trail as well, so a mile and a half bike ride along the creek gets us to our fresh picked, local, organic veggies. Hello spring, indeed.

Bobby+toe socks

I actually just finished reading that book today. I highly recommend Savage Inequalities if you want to be filled with a righteous anger to kick some ass and start reforming school finance on behalf of poor children.

Ah, sunshine. Come to me (through my sunscreen) my friend.

After about two hours of reading, we decided to go on a little exploratory bike ride. We like to frequent Sprouts grocery store, so we headed out in that direction. Those sweet pink tires were courtesy of this Facebook thread.

Bobby, with his trusty steed. Side note- I've never lived in a garden level apartment until now, and I love it. We have our front porch all to ourselves, and our heating/cooling costs (especially in Colorado) are far lower, too.

I love our town so, so, so very much when it comes to how bicycle friendly it is. The grocery store is 4 miles from us. For the first mile, we are on the bike trail, surrounded on both sides by trees. For the last 3, we are on this back road that curves around the southern part of town, avoiding all traffic. Nice wide bike lanes, empty fields, mountains in the background, and little to no traffic are all features of biking to the grocery store. Not a bad deal.

After grocery shopping, I got some coffee and we hung out in a park area of the south side of town's downtown. People were out biking, walking dogs, pushing kids in strollers, and enjoying the dog park across the street. It just felt like spring. You could tell everyone was grateful that the rain was over and the sun was out. We hung out there until the sun started to set, and then we hopped back on our bikes and rode home. I came back from the Texas trip around the same date as I moved up here last year, so it was nice to have a bit of nostalgia even in a place where I haven't lived for that long. I'm looking forward to many more sunny days on my bike this spring and summer. Walking and biking afford me an experience of day to day life that I just don't get when I'm locked up in my car, shuttling from place to place. I'm so glad I live in a town that values that.

Texas Girls Part IV- Let's Dance

2011-06-03T16:04:00.000-07:00

After the all night and all afternoon birthday celebration of Spring Bash, we went straight out the next night (on about 5 hours of sleep) to meet up with friends and dance all night at The Church.

About to get our dance on.

I'm about as far as one can get from a goth, a club kid, a raver, a scenester, etc. That being said, the Church is my all time favorite place to dance (with the Catacombs in Boulder coming in a very close second, for many of the same reasons). Yes, lots of people go there in full on gorgeous goth costumes, or steampunk outfits, or over the top creative and insane clothes that would make Party Monster proud.

Bunnies are particularly adept at speed chess (at least the ones found at The Church)

On the other hand, if, like me, you often show up in jeans, a tank top, and some Converse, it doesn't.matter.at.all. It is a come as you are kind of place. Some people might call it a freak show. I call it a lot of people who wear what they want and dance however they want until 4 a.m. every Sunday and Thursday night. I dance for hours straight at this place, until I am drenched in sweat, laughing and goofing off with my friends, usually in a little room that plays random 80's hits and pop goth-y music like the Cure. The age range is anywhere from 17 years old to 60+, although most people are around 18 to 30.

Arielle, taking good care of said Bunny's carrot.

Sure, I might sometimes see couples on leashes, or a girl with duct tape and nothing else over her breasts, or a man on stilts, but I can guarantee those people will give me a smile, and we'll all dance happily together on the dance floor. That is far more than I can say about typical top 40 college clubs, where I've often had to resort to physically shoving men off of me who want to "dance", aka grope me along to the beat of some crappy Lil' Wayne song. The Church is happily free of that particular version of frat boy, and for that I love it even more.

Hygienic Hippies: Giving up Shampoo and Conditioner, and Washing My Face with Oil

2011-06-02T10:01:00.000-07:00

Back in my last post about washing our clothes with nuts, using salt for deodorant, and coconut oil for lotion, I talked about going no 'poo when my free shampoo and conditioner from CVS ran out. Well, I'm going no 'poo earlier than planned because said shampoo and conditioner are pretty crappy. Prior to these two I was using an organic, all natural duo and the difference is night and day. My hair feels super heavy, and has a residue no matter how many times I try and rinse it. At this point you might be thinking "why don't you just keep using the all natural stuff, then?". Good question. The answer is that it still has loads of crap in it that I don't think are necessary to get clean hair, and I still having plastic waste associated with using it. I can buy baking soda and apple cider vinegar in the bulk section of my food co-op, using my own glass containers, and get an incredibly low price on both. So, onto the no 'poo!

I've decided to follow this method because I like that she includes a section for troubleshooting potential problems. My hair is very, very thick, wavy/curly, and almost down to my waist. With the exception of dying the tips hot pink/purple/red a few times, I have not dyed my hair since I was 21, I have not owned a hairbrush since I was 16, and I don't blow dry it. Usually I wash it about 3 times a week, run my fingers through it, rub some coconut oil into the ends, and then let it air dry. My bangs air dry correctly about 95% of the time, and when they don't, I use a curling iron to shape them. So that's my routine now, we'll see how it goes once I give up shampoo.

Now, about washing my face with oil. I've been researching the oil cleansing method (I read about it on tons of sites but that link has the best overview, minus the cheesy meditation part) and I decided to give it a try in conjunction with giving up shampoo and conditioner. You should know that I have battled some pretty terrible acne from about 16 until now. I know some people say they have terrible acne and they don't, but here's my proof- I can count, on two hands, the number of STRANGERS who have come up to me in random public places and, with a wrinkle of concern and pity between their brows, offered various advice on how to take care of my skin. I have had people tell me "you're sooooo gorgeous, it's so sad you have acne!". Now, the past year and a half have been great, because I was on birth control, and using Retin-A, AND using a super expensive face wash and following a crazy strict morning and night routine. I went back to a restaurant I used to frequent in college, a sushi place, and the women behind the counter (who never, by the way, spoke to me in all 6 years I had been going there) exclaimed "Your skin! Oh, your SKIN! It looks soooo good!" Then they called over the other waitresses. One said "oh, we always used to say "such a beautiful girl, but that SKIN! So sad. Now it's not sad!". Yeah.

So, anyway, I've found that, like so many other things that have worked in the past and then faded out, my triple punch approach is starting to fail me. The Retin-A just makes my skin incredibly dry now that I live in Colorado (in Texas it made my face incredibly clear), the face wash is leaving me feeling greasy, and I have such a love hate relationship with birth control that I went off of it last September. Ok, with that long preface in place, to the point- I've heard incredible things about the oil cleansing method, so I'm giving it a shot. I'm doing a mix of castor oil and grapeseed oil, and I have some tea tree oil as well if I need to add it into the mix.

At the very least, you'll have me as your guinea pig so that you won't have to wash your head with baking soda, or slather oil on your face. I imagine I'll give a quick update about every week. I might end up hating both of these methods, but it's worth a try, and if they *do* work they'll both be considerably less expensive than their alternatives.

2011 Goals Review: April & May

2011-06-01T19:39:00.000-07:00

Me, around age 3, trying to reach for something a bit out of my grasp. It seemed appropriate, right?

I'm consolidating April and May since it's now June 1st. Altogether both months went really well. I started off April with thinking I failed my PLACE exam, and finished it with finding out I passed with flying colors. Then end of April and the beginning of May were filled with a visit from Arielle, a road trip to Texas for a two and a half week visit, and then returning home May 10th to unpack our new apartment. Recently we just got back from a long Memorial Day weekend camping road trip. All in all, things didn't go quite as planned, what with all the traveling and moving. How not quite as planned? Let's see how I did compared to March.
(You can find the full list of 2011 Goals HERE.)

Food and Fitness

From April 18th, when Arielle came to Colorado, until today, as I sit typing this June 1st, I did not run one.single.solitary.time. I packed my Vibrams and assured myself I'd take advantage of my 24 Hour Fitness nationwide access. I did not. I did yoga sporadically, but that was pretty much a bust, too. I've been doing yoga again since I got home from Texas, but the last week has really been my first full week of ramping back up. The running starts again on Friday! Regarding the soda/coffee goal- um, I was in vacation mode for almost 3 weeks, and then we were moving and then we were road tripping. I didn't even try to follow this, and I drank my weight in soda and frou frou flavored coffees. Now I'm back in a more normal place, and I'm not beating myself up about it.

Misc Goals and Projects

Due to all the traveling belly dancing lessons were put off again. This June is the first month since January or February that we don't have half the month's weekends planned out of town. From here on out, I think I'm just going to pay by the class, even if it's marginally more expensive. Even if I had only gone to half of the month's classes, by now I would have 10 classes under my (jangly, coin) belt. Bobby and I are researching what kinds of partner dances we want to do for June. I'm working on my photo project, and while I was in Texas I brought back a huge pile of diaries, from about 2nd grade all the way through post-Japan in Dallas. My next project, once the photos are done, will be to sort through them and scan them into digital files.

Career and Finances

Still interning with both non-profits, I finished my 3rd out of 4 classes towards my Sustainable Development Certificate, and as I said I passed the PLACE exam! I'm ramping up my job search because I hope to work part time while I student teach part time and go to grad school full time. There are a few options that I'll be working on the month of June.

Personal Improvement

Book goal is on track after slipping a bit. I caught up upon the return from Texas by reading 3 books, and I'm about to finish 2 more. I'm a bit peeved, however, because my Goodreads app is not accurately updating my books- I'm missing two books on the blog widget that are showing up on my profile on their site. I suppose I might need to go back to keeping my own list. Regarding the Spanish study- I really thought I'd jump into it once the PLACE studying was over, but a mere week and a half after the test Arielle came up and then it was a traveling whirlwind, and we're just now getting settled into our new place.

Travel To-Do

The Texas trip and the Memorial Day weekend trip were both awesome! Bobby planned out our big summer trip, which is a road trip from Colorado to Yellowstone Nat'l park in Montana, then Seattle to visit friends, then Canada to visit more friends, then back to Seattle, on to Portland, and then back home to Colorado with a stop in SLC on the way to visit my cousin and break the driving into two days. We're also planning a 4th of July weekend road trip to Santa Fe, New Mexico. I'm sure we'll be back in Denver and Boulder a few times this summer, too.

Family

Met this goal! I'm also trying to send more mail, so on our most recent trip we picked up lots of postcards to mail.

June Specific Goal- I'm working on using my bike more for transportation. I also need to get back on the C25K running and start Spinning classes. Riding my bike more goes right back into increasing my cardio endurance, which will help with the running and Spinning.

I have high hopes to get a lot of projects done in June and get back into a groove of a daily schedule again. I keep reminding myself that come August I'll be back to full time work and full time school, plus I'll still be volunteering with the two non-profits I work with, so I need to take full advantage of June. I'm not sure why I'm having such a hard time committing to regular Spanish study, so I might need to re-work that goal. We'll see how June goes and then I'll make a decision from there. The end of June is halfway through 2011!

Texas Girls Part III- Back to Our Old Stompin' Grounds

2011-05-31T22:21:00.000-07:00

After driving ~~for a million years across interminable stretches of American highway~~ for 20 hours and crashing at Brooke and Chris's house as the sun was coming up Friday morning, Arielle and I rightly slept in until the extravagantly slothful hour of noon. Arielle poked her head out of the bed, took a quick survey of her mental and emotional health, and decided to go back to bed. I should have done the same, but I was already too overcome with the voice in my head that had started the "Days Left in Texas" countdown, so I dragged myself out of bed and attached myself to Brooke for the afternoon for errands. Our first weekend in town was the 10th Annual Spring Bash (Brooke's 28th birthday party). We've been celebrating this together since Brooke's 19th birthday, back when we were all just little nuggets in college. Our core group is about 20+ people, plus all of *their* people, plus those people's people, so Spring Bash is always a good time. Arielle and I crashed at my Dad's house Friday night after said errands, and woke up bright and early on Saturday to head back over to Brooke and Chris's house. The Bash was starting at 2 p.m., and would continue on until 2 a.m. the next morning- people trickled in and out the whole time, but altogether about 30 of us showed up to honor the last ever Spring Bash and wish Brooke a happy birthday. A good time was had by all, and there are pictures to prove it for those who may have a fuzzy memory of the night's events.

We started off with backyard games and beautiful Texas weather, which is always a good way to start a beginning of summertime party.

I can't tell you how long I had been wanting this avocado shake with bubbles. It is incredible.

Our friend Mike, who serves in the Air Force, showed up to surprise Brooke. No one but Chris knew he was coming, so we all had a good Hallmark moment over that one. I'm being a creeper and taking pictures here. Someone has to document every aspect of our lives, right?

Chris had grill duty. He later produced some amazing vegetable fajitas, a homemade tomatillo ranch sauce, and some incredible queso. The first half of Spring Bash was going swimmingly.

Arielle and I, soaking in the happiness of being surrounded once more by our gang of pals.

The sun starts to set...

The game of corn hole in the backyard heats up...

and it's getting serious out there, folks.

Beck-ay and Beck-ay, both newly banged.

Here I was explaining to Chris the crucial information that my bangs still had cracks in them because they weren't trained yet. Seriously. I know, I'm totally scintillating.

Far more interesting is the fact that Chris brewed this strawberry beer at home. He added pounds of fresh strawberries, and it smelled great. If I drank beer, I'm sure I would add "and it tastes great, too!" here. But I don't drink beer, so I'll just say that those who did said "it tastes great, too!".

The cast of characters around this table changed all night, but the good conversations were a constant. I'm not humble enough to keep from saying that I have some particularly witty friends. I really missed our silly banter, inside jokes, and stupid nicknames.

In honor of the inaugural Spring Bash 10 years ago, an old skool game of flip cup was started.

Caleb (as Brooke says, "the prettiest girl I know), Arielle, and Travis, back together again. I spent a lot of time with these wonderful people when I came back to Dallas from Japan.

This is what winning flip cup looks like. Pure, unadulterated childlike joy, haha.

Once we headed into nightfall, a storm started brewing, as is often bound to happen in Texas in April.

Shortly after this picture was taken, the tarp over the porch began to blow away. Since we were all wet from saving the electronics from the porch, and since the tarp was down for the count and it was 11 at night, there was really nothing left to be done.

Clearly, the most logical course of action was to make an enormous slip and slide in the back yard. So, we did. Happy birthday Beck-ay, indeed.

J-Ben and Kate look on, slightly amused, slightly judgmental, but eventually they took their turn. I begged off due to photographer duties.

Right about the time the slip and slide got old, the power went out. Here, Arielle sings a ballad from "Wicked" to express her deeply felt emotions regarding this situation.

We ended the night by candlelight, at around 3 a.m. Sunday morning. The power came on at 4 a.m., at which point I summoned a monumental amount of motivation and made myself get up from the couch so that Arielle and I could drive home and get some sort of sleep at my Dad's house, in his den, on our trusty air mattress. We had to be ready to go not too much later that day, since we both had afternoon plans with respective friends and then a planned outing to my favorite club in Dallas, The Church. All in all, going to bed at 5 a.m., again, knowing I'd get about 5 hours of sleep, again, was a price worth paying in exchange for seeing almost every single one of my friends in Dallas in one place.

This Texas trip was off to a very good start :)

For the Fallen

2011-05-30T08:00:00.000-07:00

"They went with songs to the battle, they were young,
Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow.
They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted;
They fell with their faces to the foe.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them." - Laurence Binyon

Memorial Day Weekend Camping Fest

2011-05-27T15:00:00.000-07:00

Bobby only has to work a half day today, and he gets Monday off for Memorial Day, so we decided this was the perfect time to head back to South Dakota to see the Badlands. When we went to South Dakota last summer we were expecting to have a good weekend filled with Mt. Rushmore, Crazy Horse, and the Badlands. Much to our surprise, South Dakota ended up being way cooler than we ever expected, and we barely had enough time to fit in said historical monuments, Custer state park for seeing wild buffalo, Wind Cave Nat'l Park for awesome camping and a creepy cave tour, and the Mammoth Site on the way back (a totally rad working archeological site that is the world's largest center for researching mammoths). We realized we would have to return the following summer and devote an entire weekend to South Dakota once more, just to soak it all up.

As a result, this afternoon we're heading out to make camp in Jewel Cave Nat'l Monument, so that tomorrow morning we can tour Jewel Cave (apparently it's the second longest cave in the world, that's crazy). Then we head out to Badlands Nat'l Park to spend the day hiking around and then camping in the grassland. Sunday morning is more Badlands hiking, then a drive through the park to get to Nebraska, where Sunday night will be spent in Chadron State Park. Monday morning we'll see what Chadron has in the way of trails, and then we'll hit up Nebraska's cheesy Carhenge tourist trap on the way home. Although I don't think anything could top the epic cheesiness of our experience with Moqui Cave on the way to the Grand Canyon.

I hope you all enjoy your Memorial Day weekend! I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we don't get rained out. Although camping in the rain is when you really test just how much you like camping, right?

Texas Girls Part II- In Which We Roadtrip from Colorado to Texas.

2011-05-27T10:10:00.000-07:00

After hanging out together in Colorado for a few days and showing Arielle around, it was time to head to Texas. I had not been back to Texas since I moved up here almost exactly a year prior, and Arielle had been gone a little over a year. Our respective families lived in Texas, and we have a huge group of shared friends there as well (see my About page for some pics of said friends). All in all, we were super excited to head back South. We just had to do 15 hours of driving plus any breaks/food stops/gas station fill ups to get there.

We left at 8 a.m. on Thursday. I'm just going to cut right to the chase and tell you we didn't pull into Brooke and Chris's house until 5:15 a.m. on Friday morning. With the time change it took us right at 20 hours, so we only added 5 extra hours for two meals, a detour to Cadillac Ranch, bathroom/gas station stops, and some road construction. However, 20 hours traveling in a car with no sleep will make you crazy. In a good way, like being 14 and staying up until 3 a.m. at a sleepover and having way too many sodas and Little Debbies, but crazy nonetheless. I love the term "punch drunk" for capturing this facet of human experience perfectly. You know what else captures human experiences perfectly? Pictures. So here are a lot of them.

Oh look, we're so happy and excited at 8 a.m.! Time to hit the road with youthful exuberance and an iced coffee covered in half a cup of whipped cream. Let's go, Texas!

About two hours into our trip we were in the dredges of southern Colorado, with nary a Denver, Boulder, or Fort Collins-like town to be seen. For that matter, the mountains were gone, too. Southern Colorado looks like generic mid-west America, in case you were wondering.

Still, the weather was beautiful and the skies were blue, so when we were stopped due to road construction for almost half an hour we decided to get out and enjoy the breeze.

Do yourself a favor, and find these sodas. They're by Dry Soda, Co., and they're incredible. I know you might be thinking lemon grass soda sounds disgusting, but trust me, it wasn't. We found an entire assortment of them at this frou frou grocery store in downtown Denver and picked up a 4 pack to share on the road as a tasty diversion from the hours of driving.

A not so tasty diversion was lunch. By this time we had been driving for 5 hours, and any Colorado coolness contained in such towns as Boulder, Denver, or Fort Collins was far behind us. Arielle decided to go full on road trip martyr and subject herself to the trashiest local diner she could find. She ordered some hunk of meat that came with two sides and a salad bar which consisted of salads based in pasta, potatoes, and mayo, rounded out with pudding and jello salad and an array of thick, chunky dressings.

We puzzled over this arrangement. It may be hard to tell from the picture, but someone had snapped random digital photos of a few of the meals served at the restaurant. These were printed off (date stamped), framed, and hung haphazardly next to the salad bar. The top left picture has what looks like a glass of wine next to it.

My favorite thing about trashy diners? A dizzying variety of cellophane wrapped pies. Mmmmm. (I'm not being sarcastic, that lemon pie thing was calling.my.name.)

We headed down the street to Sonic to get some drinks, and entertained ourselves with imagining what our "Road Trip Workouts- Sonic Edition" DVD series would look like.

Sonic yoga would naturally be in there as well.

Clearly, only 5 hours in, we were already pretty punchy. We were also just happy to be out of the car.

Sonic in hand, it was time for me to swallow my pride and realize I was going to have to eat at Pizza Hut. We played hide and seek in the parking lot while we waited for my food.

The best part about this lunch stop was a park we stumbled upon while driving out of town, "food" in hand.

Lactaid was a constant traveling companion

Arielle, with her spread.

Me, making sure nothing had been tampered with. Seriously, that Pizza Hut was sketch as hell.

Swinging off lunch.

Back to the grind. We drove another few hours through wide open spaces, talking and laughing and making up ridiculous jokes and stories and planning out our lives.

American Gas Station Gothic- Squeegee Rendition

This gas station was the essence of southern Colorado. That sign on the pump says "Local Checks Only". There was no pay at the pump option, and when I went inside to give her my debit card she had to hold it for about 10 minutes while she dialed up the transaction on an old school system. She was counting out change on the counter and putting it in a piggy bank. The sign on the bathroom said "PAYING CUSTOMERS ONLY, NO EXCEPTIONS". It was cute, in a quaint way.

We finally hit Oklahoma, but with that came some confusion. Here, Arielle stands in between the signs for Colorado and Oklahoma, pondering this nameless stretch of American land. Where are we?! What does it mean?!

I think it means "Cortney's car doesn't have air conditioning and now that we're heading further south it's getting hotter so I'm going to take off my track pants now."

This picture reminds me of Snoopy in his aviator gear, every.single.time.

Oh, it's time to get back in the car, huh? Are you suuuure?

We finally hit Texas, and I had a moment of jubilation, followed by the realization that the state of my birth is enormous and we still had at least 8 hours of driving left to do.

People are pretty friendly in Texas, because as I was checking my oil at the state line...

a nice trucker pulled over to make sure we were okay. I assured him that I just have an older car, and as such I have to be nice to it on long road trips and check the oil periodically, no worries. He tipped his hat and was on his way. Thanks, random trucker!

Since it's pretty much the only attraction between the state line and Dallas, and since Arielle had never seen it, we detoured for Cadillac Ranch. We made it juuuuuust as the sun was setting.

So tired.

I think I was asleep standing up here.

Those bleary eyes say it all.

We hit up Red Robin, and decided to indulge in a sit down eating experience instead of Jimmy John's in the car on the road. We are obliterated here, and we are trying to avoid thinking about the fact that we still have 6 hours left to drive. I wanted to cry, but I ate my emotions instead.

This is at 3 a.m. We pushed hard after Red Robin, but then things got sketchy. I was miserably tired, and to keep awake we kept acting crazier and crazier. This is the first gas station where we were pretty sure the cashier called the cops on us, thinking we were drunk as we stumbled down the aisles, laughing and then kind of fake but kind of not crying from exhaustion as we mocked ourselves and purchased yet another caffeinated beverage.

An hour or so later, this is the second gas station where we're pretty sure the cops were called on us to check us out. The same thing happened- we go inside, the cashier looks at us like we're crazy, and then a cop car nonchalantly pulls into the parking lot and straight up pretends to get gas as he checks us out.

We had an hour left to go in this picture. I'm trying to steel myself for it, haha.

Tapatio Doritos got us home, of that I am sure. We crunched nonstop on them with the windows down. I'm way too paranoid and anal about safety to drive if I'm actually dozing off, I was just miserable and so tired of driving and being in the car. When we pulled into Brooke and Chris's house Friday morning I could have kissed the ground I was so happy. We'd made it to Texas, finally. And you made it to the end of this enormous, picture filled post.

Ah, That's Better

2011-05-22T10:51:00.000-07:00

I'm in such a great mood, even this hipster car can't annoy me!

After a week and a half of uncharacteristically rainy, gray days the sun is out in full force today. The skies are blue, the mountains are snow capped and majestic, and the birds are chirping. It's like the spring switch was flipped over night. I am, once again, sitting in Panera Bread as I type this. It might be the sunshine, or the great sleep I've been getting, but I'm in an infinitely better mood this time around. We get internet on Monday and the backlog of pictures that are clamoring to be posted and captioned will get their wish soon enough!

I'm *so* glad the world didn't end on the 21st. I have way too much to do.