Home doesn’t have to be a place

 

There is something cozy about sitting inside during a rain shower. And refreshing to walk through the shower, letting the dampness seep into your socks, hair, and jeans. It eventually become uncomfortable and you beg for a break or seek shelter, but for a while it’s fun.It was raining when I landed at BWI on Friday morning. Raining when I emerged from Union station around noon. But, we walked. and walked. and walked. It was fun until our shoes became like sponges. We strolled through the National Zoo and peeked into the Small Mammals exhibit where I actually go to see a Meerkat (usually there off the display at the zoos I’ve visited), an armadillo, and some beautiful Tamarins. There was one enclosure with these majestic looking Tamarins where the walls were painted like a sunset and a red light shined down. I also saw the sloths, which always remind me of It’s A Big Big World, the PBS show with the hippy sloth and the fun animal friends. The zoo was going to be celebrating Halloween, so we left before as it closed at 4, admiring the very creative scenes set up along the path including a ski mishap, and a poor person stuck in a carnivorous plant.We then took the metro to Galleria and saw Dan in Real Life. I know that it’s not doing well numbers-wise, but it was perfectly sweet and funny. We laughed our way through, visited Kramer’s Books where I realized that I’ve been doing fairly well at staying on top of new fiction, and then grabbed a snack before heading home.

Saturday was beautiful. We took a lovely walk to a coffee shop and then further before taking the metro back to get groceries for our cooking session. We spent most of the day cozily cooking up a feast of butternut squash soup, apple crisp, and a chocolate cake. Afterwards we settled in with DVDs and whiled away the night chatting.L is one of my best friends. We met at Smith and no matter how many months it’s been since our last visit (we try to see each other once a year) it feels like home. I did not want our visit to end. And, funnily enough, even though we parted ways on the steps of my friend’s house in Baltimore (where another L lives!) we saw each that afternoon at the American Visionary Art Museum.

Sunday, after brunch and a walk in Fells Point, Baltimore, I was handed over to my Chicago friend L. We quickly got ourselves together and over to AVAM where not only was there an amazing exhibit entitled All Faiths Beautiful, but a really cool performance festival going on called Open House/Open Heart. There was free food, slam poetry, youth theater and belly dancing. We saw half a slam poetry show, which was excellent. All Faiths Beautiful was stunning. I saw so many interesting pieces. I wanted to buy postcards of them for my Sunday School class, but they did not have any.After a coffee stop in Hampden and at her house, we proceeded to Pikesville for some Jewish food. We shared a Shwarma plate and pretended that we were in Israel (we went on Birthright together). And L said, “We’re even in a mall, this is definitely like Israel”.Today, we went to Papermoon Diner, which was quite fun atmosphere-wise, although a little pricey for breakfast. It reminded me of Ella’s Deli, although not as over-the-top. There were lots of whimsical toys and memorabilia.After breakfast, we passed Charm City Cakes (windows are covered and everything) on our way to the resevoir. I was surprised how pretty Baltimore is. I know, of course, that it’s not all pretty. But, the amount of trees surprised me. We passed over Jones Falls, and then walked around the reservoir, trying out the exercise stations along the way. (These weren’t the wooden ones. There was even a set of self-powered elliptical machines).

This afternoon, while L worked, I doodled around on the internet, wrote lesson plans for Sunday School, and watched Garden State. I was lucky enough to have coffee reunion with a fellow Saltie and gain a little more insight into Baltimore’s history. L’s working on a paper now, and I’m putzing around again.This trip to the Mid-Atlantic has been fun, and a perfect respite from my life in Madison. If only my friends could come home with me as well.I’ll put a couple of cameraphone pics in and maybe a couple of sound files if I can figure out how when I get home tomorrow.

Friday Five on Thursday

Due to my long weekend away, Friday 5 is temporarily on Thursday. Here goes:

1. I am leaving for DC/Baltimore tomorrow morning! I’m incredibly excited to see my really good friends and be somewhere other than Madison. It will help break up the fall and reduce the claustrophobic feeling living in the middle of Wisconsin gives me (as much as I love Madison). Going someplace different is always such an adventure.

2. Have I mentioned how much I love wilted swiss chard with balsamic vinegar. Allow me to reiterate that love.

3. I just returned from a mini-CAJE style conference at Temple–for the whole Madison Jewish community. I took a workshop on text study, which was fun and intellectually exciting. I left ready to try new things with my 4th and 7th graders. I really like text study.

4. I’m busy filling out applications for grad school. This is so much more time consuming than I initially realized. I can’t wait to be done with this beast (although, the waiting game will also be excruciating).

5. I now have 3 different kinds of soup in my freezer–butternut squash/apple, veggie, and chicken. Yum!

At home with NPR

Today, I was supposed to have coffee with someone that is considering the freelance writing way of life. She came up to me at band one week, enthusiastically introducing herself and telling me that our conductor told her that I was a freelance writer. She wanted to go get coffee and learn more about the “life”. I said ok, of course, although I don’t believe that I’m the best connection, since I am at the beginning myself and not sure how long I’ll continue. We had to put it off quite a few weeks, and then, her mother took a turn for the worse (her words) and she canceled.

I had also agreed to open for someone this morning, getting off at 8 to meet this woman at 9.  It was a great shift, so quick and painless. I also had the pleasure of working with a co-worker that I rarely see (she’s a night person, I’m a day). I rushed out to my car only to discover that I didn’t need to rush after all.

What to do with my day? It was wide open. I had planned on napping after the coffee (always do so that I can stay up until a “normal” hour) and then starting my personal statement at Borders. Instead, I came home, called the maintenance man about our furnace, putzed on the internet and fell asleep…until noon!  And, then, the furnace situation affected my day.

First Bruce, the maintenance man came. I discovered the reason behind my atrocious heating bill. The furnaces were originals–from the late 1940s! And, then, he called a contractor. I had to wait for a heating guy to show up. He showed up and I found out that we had a valve issue. So, he left to go get the valve at around 2ish, stopping to make a service call on the way back. It’s 5 PM now, and he just showed up again.

It’s not like I didn’t get anything done today. I filled out more online applications. I sent prospective Smithies e-postcards. I took out the trash, ran a load of dishes, vacuumed the floor and washed it. I listened to NPR, discovering a new favorite singer (Jesca Hoop). But, I couldn’t leave this apartment (he wasn’t going to call, just show up) and the beautiful fall sunshine and those gorgeous leaves tempted me all day!

This is such a typical American story. Waiting for the cable guy, the plumber, the heating people, the telephone company, UPS. We all get stuck waiting.

But, I am happy because during the fall I can enjoy wearing jeans, sweatshirts, and chacos (sandals). And, in just a few days, I will be flying out to D.C./Baltimore to visit some good friends. Tonight, I will participate in a Bonspiel at Curling. I’ll let you know how it goes.

A word nerd’s paradise

The poverty site, Poverty.com, has created a new site entiled FreeRice. FreeRice is a free vocabulary game where you learn as you play. And, each for each word you can define from the multiple choice questions, you earn 10 grains of rice to be distributed by the United Nations World Food Program.

So play away and feed the hungry!

Edit: I should mention that I first learned about the game on Jewschool

Friday 5

1. Conversation with my favorite old lady (she’s 84 and just retired from her last job working at a nursing home) yesterday.

Lady: We have to stop meeting like this.

Me: Well, I do have to be here…

Lady: I know, it’s my choice. But, the coffee is just soo good.

Me: It is. How is retirement going by the way?

Lady: Oh it’s wonderful. Just wonderful

Me: What are doing with your time?

Lady: Oh, making things and making trouble

Me: What are you making?

Lady: I needlepoint placemats. You’ve got to do something while watching the idiot box!

Me: That’s true (laughing). And how are you making trouble?

Lady: Oh, it depends on who I’m with….

Me: Ok, well have a good day, see you later!

2. Today:

Me: It’s cold outside, you better stay inside and make things!

Lady: Oh, I have to go to work.

Me: I thought you were retired.

Lady: I’m volunteering. I help the elderly. Because I’m such a kid (pointing at her chest).

3. I’m so glad that this week was over. It’s been busy. And work has been exhausting.

4. Tomorrow I get to dogsit for a coworker. I’m really looking forward to it. I have really missed dogs.

5. pumpkin carving and cider doughnuts (or at least pumpkin carving, don’t get me started on the cider doughnuts) may be in my near future.

Nostalgia for Salt, or 2 new blogs

Many times this fall, my mind drifts back to last year at this time, when I was deep into my Salt Institute for Documentary Studies experience. I remember waking up happy, interested in what lay ahead or at least wondering what the ocean looked like. It was such a novelty to live so close to the ocean. I loved walking downtown to the harbor and on the Promenade (Eastern). I enjoyed my weekly farmer’s market date with a photographer friend. And, the program itself was intense, involving, confusing, and intellectually exciting. My roommates were also equally awesome, which made living in our large, apartment with an enclosed porch (unheated, but that was ok) and pink walls (in my bedroom) a pleasure. And, the weather in Maine was quintessentially fall-like. Unlike this year in Wisconsin, where it took far into October for us to enjoy consistently below 70-degree days. I got to dress in layers, wear one of my 2 winter hats and fleece gloves situations and fleeces. Mmmm, fleeces.

This year, I’m just trudging through my busy (thankfully) days. I don’t wake up with dread, most of the time, just not with excitement. It’s just another day, and if I’m working early at the ‘bux, it’s just another day when I drag myself from my cozy flannel sheets before 6. I hope that grad school happens for me next year, because I really enjoy learning and having new experiences.

Two new blogs have recently been started to aid me in my nostalgia for Salt and Portland and Maine. My roommate in Portland, a Salt alum (fall 2005), recently left Portland to hit the road. After a year + of planning and nudging and convincing, she has just begun the Notre Dame Oral History Project. She’s one lucky girl! She’s headed west, now in Montana (from South Bend, IN) talking to ND alums about their lives and college experiences. Her new blog, squirrel moments chronicles her experiences. I wonder if Smith would ever do something like that…

And, Salt has a new blog, where students can post text, images, and audio from their life at Salt. This blog feeds my nostalgic yearnings.

Curling is like bowling

Last night, I took myself on a new adventure. The University of Wisconsin Union (student union) offers mini-courses to students, staff, faculty, and the general public. These wonderful courses range from art to language to business to yoga, dance, and aerobics to sailing and skiing and hiking and everything in between. I signed up for a 2-session course in Curling.

Curling is like bowling and bocce ball (which I used to play with my room neighbor in Lamont with quarters during exams), except it’s on ice. You use big stones that glide on the ice and brooms to sweep the ice to create friction and “push” the rock along into the bullseye.

To begin playing, you must deliver the rock. To deliver, you crouch down with your foot on this standy thing and one foot behind with a smooth surface under (a gliding sole). You stand partway up, push rock forward (holding broom in opposite hand out to the side), and push off, bring back foot forward into a lunge position. You slide and then let go for the rock, spinning it in one direction or the other (depending on the directions of your skip, down at the other end, who points with their broom). The sweeps then sweep it along (never touching the rock) until it stops.

Being short and young was definitely to my advantage. The taller, older women in my group had lots of trouble with balance and their knees. It was fun and easy to catch on. One of the men tore his jeans from waist to calf. Luckily he had on boxers. For them, it seemed to be this strangely macho thing… But, I enjoyed the game and the cold. I will enjoy next week. And maybe, sometime, when I can afford it and have the time, I’ll try to join a league.

Friday 5

1. I love the fall weather! However, currently our heat doesn’t work. We don’t know why. It’s a mystery. I may have to call the maitenance man on Monday, since I work ALLLLLL day tomorrow.

2. It was exciting to put flannel sheets on my bed. In fact, I think that now, it’s more tempting than ever to hang out in my bed. The sheets are so soft and…homey.

3. I spent last Sunday with middle schoolers, I spent Monday and Wednesday with 7th graders (like always). I used to be afraid of middle school girls. Now, I think that they are a hoot (in small doses). A little chatty, judgemental, etc., but a hoot.

4. My cold that plagued me for over a week (very bad cold) is now just a stuffed up nose that will not leave. This, at least, I can handle.

5. I have begun applying to grad school. Online applications take forever! I’m constantly staring my mediocre GRE scores and GPA in the face. Nothing like confronting your mediocrity over and over again.

On National Coming Out Day

I’ve been trying to decide whether or not to mark the occasion of National Coming Out Day. I keep thinking about how this day was celebrated at Smith. I remember vagina’s chalked on the sidewalk near Neilson Library and other places. I remember the year that the angry senior wrote messages telling everyone that if they are queer they should come out, Now! so that there are no more Mathew Shepards.  I still fail to see the correlation. NCOD always occurred around the same weekend as Parent’s Weekend, which made for some interesting grand/parental moments.

Since watching Transgeneration, I’ve also been thinking about trans-activism and how my grandparents truly understood what being transgender means.  They ate brunch with a housemate known on livejournal as Transersely. He appeared to them as male and they, although they knew he was a Smith student, accepted him as male. Afterwards, my grandfather was astonished to know that transversely had an official “female” name. My grandfather said “he just looks like a boy.”

I  was also thinking about another friend of mine, who actually had a “coming out” project in 8th grade/summer of. She impressed me beyond belief that she was coming out with a project, of all things. Since I wasn’t in the same place as her in the coming out process (as in, nearly completely naive about my own sexual orientation), I didn’t catch on that in the process she was also coming out as queer! (hello 14 year JJ!).  I wish that my “coming out” was as plotted instead of messy and traumatic (not that things weren’t traumatic for her, but….).

And so, happy Coming out day!!! To those that are in the process for the first time (since we all have to come out over and over again), I wish you strength and grace and love for yourself.

When books remind me of life

This weekend I finished Landing by Emma Donoghue.

I’m a huge Emma Donoghue fan. Stirfry is one of my all time favorite reads. I brought it to Geneva with me (one of the few new books) and read it repeatedly over the 11 months I was there. She writes tender, funny, well-developed stories.

Landing surprised me. Not because of it’s content, but because I felt like I was reading something that could have happened to me. Of course, the premise was a little different. In Landing, Sile (pronounced like Sheila) and Jude meet each other on a flight to England. Jude was a passenger, Sile a flight attendant. They meet under unfortunate circumstances (Jude was seated next to a man that ultimately dies during the flight). They exchange addresses, drink coffee and go their separate ways. 6 weeks later, both decide to contact the other, thus begins a romance that struggles across continents and ultimately ends happily ever after (fiction, right?).

Sile is an energetic, warm, independent, outgoing individual. Jude is quieter, stubborn, and thoughtful.

Recently, I met someone that both intrigued/attracted and repelled me. And, I think she liked/was attracted to me.

She was so different than me that I couldn’t imagine why–sophisticated, outgoing, brash, tall and striking. But, also funny, creative, independent, and strong. Her brilliance amazed me. When I met her, I was in a state of transition panic manifested as emotional distance and anxiety. I pushed her away in fear and because I didn’t want to become close to someone just to have to say goodbye (she lives thousands of miles away). In fact, I was mean in a way that isn’t typical of me. Even though I pushed her away, every time I turned around, she was there. And, crazily enough, it seemed like she understood me. As the end of our trip approached, I began to realize what a jerk I had been. I felt guilty and began to acknowledge (in my head) that I liked her. I promised that we’d keep in touch. She had a “gizmo” like Sile (blackberry/treo) that she used EVERYWHERE.

I wrote her after a while. And we wrote back and forth for several months until it petered out this summer, I have yet to resurrect it. When I wrote to her, I knew she was busy, so I’d try to keep it short. And, I would relish the responses I received. They made my week, and always made me smile. As we corresponded, I realized how much I valued those qualities that made her personality so unique and that those were the qualities (the positives) that I wanted in a future sig. other. I spaced the emails out. She had a life. I have a transitional life. I didn’t want them to intersect. I guess I wasn’t ready to take that risk.

Sile and Jude began emailing, and eventually were emailing several times a day. They did not have the same restraint. I know that Landing is a love story of modern times, when it’s easy to imagine jetting across the continents to see a loved one. I’m glad that Sile and Jude’s story ended in happiness after the risks taken and investments made. Someday, I hope that I will be rooted enough to take emotional risks and make investments in relationships, and that one, too, will have a fairy tail ending.