Monday, April 30, 2007
BOOOYAH!!!
so.the husband turned in his thesis this morning.
i can't even express how exciting that is.
he is currently sleeping . . . he stayed up all night to finish this thing.
please send well-wishes his way. if you need to know how to contact him, just ask me.
say it don't spray it 12:43 PM
5 i heard that
Saturday, April 28, 2007
i am in a conundrum
so . . .i needed to increase my cash flow. being self-employed makes it hard to really survive.
so i applied for a seasonal position at the oregon zoo.
i've been invited to come to a group interview in a few days . . . the thing is, i really really enjoy the freedom i have to make my own schedule and it would suck to give that up . . . but the extra cash would be really nice. and i might get to work as concert staff this summer - that would be cool! patty griffin is coming to the zoo in july!!! or they might make me wash dishes . . . i dunno.
i can't decide if i will actually go to the interview or not . . .
if i got the job i would have to drive all the way there . . . that's a crappy part of town to have to drive to on the freeway . . . i wouldn't be able to just live my life on the fly - and during the summer living on the fly would be awesome. but i would have the extra cash flow to afford to do things like go to concerts, drive to the beach, eat out with friends, pay for art supplies for TADA, etc.
grah! do i give up my freedom to gain a different kind of freedom that comes with being able to pay bills and eat regularly? or do i keep my ability to rarely if ever have to set an alarm in exchange for hardly being able to go out with friends and still have a good conscience about spending the money?
i am in a conundrum.
---------------------
a huge chunk of my close-nit support group has just graduated from college today and are moving away (most to alaska . . . one to LA to become a real rock star) this week. and i am feeling quite melancholy and nostalgic. :( it's been an emotional day - it is the end of an era! cheer me up?
say it don't spray it 11:10 PM
6 i heard that
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
happy wednesday
#1: i hurt my back this week (no, not doing THAT . . . i wish that was why). i'm not sure how. i think it was the combination of the extra uphill hiking we did on sunday (arwen, it was with the one guy with the hair) and the intense laundry session i had on monday (bending over and putting all those things in the washer) . . . and my lower back just said "no way tabitha jane. i am finished." i had to cancel a massage i was supposed to give this morning :(#2: waiting for guffman is such a hillarious movie
#3: my favorite sister comes home from her first year of college on saturday!!!
#4: i like making blogs with numbered lists.
#5: mostly i keep adding numbers because i can't remember what i was really going to blog about.
#6: i'm hungry and i need to clean my house
#7: i am planting a garden on my back balcony. did i tell you this already? i got a ton of books from the library and started some seeds on my kitchen counter by the window. i have tomatoes, lettuce, spinach, cilantro, lavender, carrots, peas, beans, basil, onions and mmmmmmmm . . . it's gonna be good. i also have some mint that is outside currently infested with aphids. anyone know what to do about aphids? i am nervous about putting any other plants out there lest they get attacked as well. but my kitchen is started to get a bit crowded so i know they need to go outside soon . . . help!
#8: my entire schedule for today (and next week) has changed like 4 times during the writing of this post. i am kind of tired of talking on the phone now :) and i suddenly don't have a lot to do (which might be good for my back) but if you want to come visit me and see my plants, come on over!
peace,
TJ
say it don't spray it 10:10 AM
14 i heard that
Thursday, April 19, 2007
so sorry
sorry for the loooong delay in the spring break update. i guess i could be writing about other things.what happened is this:
the computer that holds all of our pictures recently got a virus (ahembecausethehusbandwouldn'tupdateourvirusprotectionsoftwarelikethecomputerhasbeenpromptinghimtodoallyearahem) and we had to turn the internet switch off of it because the virus is the kind that sends confidential info from your computer to an outside source. so we don't go online with that computer anymore. until it gets fixed. and the computer i am using doesn't have the memory capacity to deal with images . . . so we are screwed for a bit.
and the husband is ALMOST finished with his master's thesis.
and we've been out of town.
but i haven't been working much lately, so call me and i will book you for a massage.
peace,
TJ
say it don't spray it 3:57 PM
8 i heard that
Friday, April 13, 2007
spring break - part 4
i forgot to mention one thing about the grand canyon . . . while we were sitting on the edge of our rock eating lunch, we got to talking about the size of this huge canyon. and deborah said, i bet if you shouted into this thing it would echo and echo for eternity. "like in the cartoons and movies and stuff?" i said. yeah, she replied. "i dare you to do it, d. shout!"so, she shouted.
and. nothing. happened.
her voice stopped just around her mouth, hung out for a bit and disappeared.
we did a double take and stared at each other. wha - ?
i tried it. nothing. my voice dropped into deadness without so much of a ring.
the grand canyon is so effing huge that even a shout gets lost in it.
nuts.
--------------------
so, moving on to tucson arizona.
we have a friend named bonnie who used to live in oregon and was pretty good friends with our family. she moved back to tucson a few years ago. so, we decided to hook up with her while jake was at work.
but first we slept in and took our time getting showered. a long day of driving really wears one out. :)
then we went to the epic cafe on 4th street - LOVELY area - and had some coffee (or non-coffee if you are deborah) drinks, while trying not to get sprayed by the street cleaners.
bonnie picked us up outside the epic. she had brought her mother along. this woman is the CUTEST. FUNNIEST. WOMAN ever. she says what she wants, when she wants, in this cute little old voice. and i want to be like that when i am her age. oh. seriously.
they drove us out through the saguaro national forest, passed Old Tucson (where they filmed john wayne movies and such) and to the forest museum/zoo. this place has all these animals, plants, snakes, bugs, etc that are native to the area around tucson. i don't really like zoos much because animals are kept in such close quarters, but this zoo wasn't that bad actually because they try to replicate their environment so that it seems authentic . . .
here are some ocotillo cacti by where we parked our car:
we didn't get to see everything at the zoo because it started raining on us and we all got soaked - especially me because i didn't want an umbrella. i wanted to expeirence the big fat raindrops in the middle of the desert. it was glorious.
here, you can see the rain rolling in:
that's the awesome thing about tucson. it is located in this valley surrounded by mountain ranges (the catalinas, the ringcons . . . not sure the others or if i even spelled these ones right) and you can see for miles. you can see weather coming and you can see it happening miles and miles away from you. way cool.
anyway, i was wearing pants and a sweater so i was fine. but poor deborah on the other hand was wearing flip flops, a skirt and a short skirt. she thought we'd be in the desert all day so she dressed prepared. :) and then it rained. so she was pretty cold for the rest of our time there. here are d and b pretending not to be miserable:
here is one of the unique and amazing plants that we don't see in oregon (i have no idea what it is called, it is just cool to look at and photograph):
we saw these crazy cats (i wanted to ride one like a furry tractor):
i guess otters are native to the desert . . . we got to see them swimming around. b loves ferrets which are related to otters so she watched these guys for a long time :)
some more (potted) cacti:
unpotted and blooming:
this one was wild! it isn't native to the area, but check out the things sticking off of it! i think they look like hairy spider legs . . . it's like "watch out guys! don't try to eat me cause i am a poisonous spider!" genious.
not a tree:
and the vew of the area after the rain has passed over:
after our trip to the zoo, we met jake for dinner. we almost went to this taqueria where bill clinton went when he had come through tucson, but the waiting list was over an hour so we went across the street and were sorely disappointed. the salsa there was like spagetti sauce or just plain tomato paste or something . . .
after dinner, debs, jake and i went to rent a video . . . we watched "nach libre," drank chocolate soy milk and ate nutter butters.
perfect acitivies for a school night.
and no, i didn't take any pictures. :)
say it don't spray it 9:25 AM
4 i heard that
Thursday, April 12, 2007
bip bip bip bip-bip-bip bip bip bip
we interrupt this regularly scheduled spring break report to give you this news flashTHIS JUST IN:
tell me everything you know about Rhode Island . . . cause i might be moving there.
and now back to your regularly scheduled programming.
say it don't spray it 12:38 PM
3 i heard that
Monday, April 09, 2007
SPRING BREAK - PART 3
where was i? ah, yes, leaving colorado for FOUR CORNERS.we loaded up the car with our bags, new thrift store finds and the SNACK AND ACTIVITY BAG (best part of the trip! it included MAD LIBS, nutella and organic juice boxes) and said goodbye to colorado. my grandma lives only about 40 miles from Four Corners, but all of the times we had visited her, we had never gone there. and now i know why.
i've never been so dissapointed . . . it was basically this parking lot where you have to pay 3 dollars A PERSON to go in and park. stand on this little seal between all the flags of the four states that come together at that spot . . . and then shop for souveniers in the 40 or so stalls that are set up around the perimeter.
my only consolation is that i hope the fees we paid went to upkeep of the land and preservation of wildlife or something . . .
anyway, here are deborah and i being so very excited about standing in 4 (well 2 each) states at once:
close-up:
we stayed for just a few minutes . . . maybe 5.
we got there pretty early in the morning, so there weren't many stalls open (maybe 5), and we didn't want to shop anyway. so we took off for the grand canyon. deborah sleeping, i listening to the ipod, us eating some snacks and doing some mab libs.
northern arizona:
one thing we noticed about this part of america is that there are lots of trailer parks and just trailer homes in general. there will be a huge stretch of desert, a trailer home, some tumbleweeds and then another huge stretch of desert. and some cows. a dry creek bed. some hardcore trees. another trailer.
if i lived basically on the edge of the grand canyon, i would want to build something more substantial (and with huge picture windows) than a trailer home. that's all i am saying.
the big hole in the ground that pictures just can't do justice to:
so, we entered the at East entrance by this watchtower you could climb and go out on the roof to see the view better. here we are sitting in these crazy chairs that looked to be made out of some kind of hide . . . ew:
after ooing and aahhing from the watchtower, we drove further west through the park along the rim of the canyon to the grand view trail (i think that's what it was called). we decided to hike down into the canyon and have a picnick lunch.
here we are hiking down the trail:
(yes, i wear that purple hoodie a lot).
at every switch back, the canyon offered us another breathtaking angle of the canyon.
at one point, we found a rock that jutted out over the canyon under a tree. we climbed out onto the rock to have our picnick.
bananas and nutella on tortillas. apples. organic juice boxes. we didn't eat the boxes, we drank the juice out of them, silly.
while we were eating this man and woman passed us and the woman said, "looks like y'all found the perfect place to eat lunch!"
yep. we did.
after hanging out on our rock for a bit, we decided to hike back up and start the drive to tucson.
but we forgot about the elevation. i am from the northwest. there is a LOT of oxygen there. in the grand canyon . . . there is not so much. so, we hiked the 1/4 to 1/8 of a mile back up out of the canyon huffing and wheezing for oxygen. the hike wasn't hard at all. but our lungs were screaming! i think my lungs hurt for about 1/2 hour after our trek.
deborah pausing for air:
we drove along the rim for awhile longer until we left the canyon park at the South Entrance and headed toward flagstaff, phoenix and then tucson.
We watched the scenery change from the gnarly trees around the canyon, to the tall firs and evergreens near flagstaff, to the cacti and palm trees around phoenix (below) and the crazy abundant saguaro cacti that surround tucson.
the drive from phoenix to tucson is a two lane highway and it is totally STRAIGHT. it is sort of reminiscient of the drive between salem and eugene here in oregon. when done at night surrounded by long haul trucks, it can be a challenge. but we were guided by a beautiufl sunset, so the trip wasn't so bad.
by the time we got to tucson it was dark. and it had started raining these fat heavy drops of rain (the first rain we had really seen the whole trip - up till then it had been nice and warm and sunny) with flashes of lightning on the horizon. what a fun way to enter tucson!
we called up our friend jake and gave us directions to his place. where we promptly dumped our stuff and headed downtown to this restaraunt called "the grill" for dinner. i had the portabella mushroom burger. it was perfect. after walking downtown a bit in the smattering rain . . . we headed back to jake's place and crashed on the floor.
alltogether it was quite a fulfilling day for the road trip.
say it don't spray it 2:41 PM
1 i heard that
Wednesday, April 04, 2007
Spring Break Trip Part 2
So, we woke up to the sounds of "full house" and headed off to another diner for breakfast.i had oatmeal.
deborah and i excited about diner food:
the candid shot i took of grandma cause she wouldn't let me take her picture (but i think she is gorgeous):
this diner was soooo cute. it was in the middle of nowhere new mexico and every one knew every one else. when we walked in, the lady who had checked us in to the hotel the night before was sitting at the counter and said "did you ladies enjoy your stay last night?" everyone who walked in the door said hello and "how is your son?" or whatever. it was cute.
so, then we hit the road again.
a few shots of the new mexico landscape:
sagebrush and tumbelweeds:
then we got to colorado . . . (and i played with the settings on my camera):
this is the "sleeping ute" mountain (pronounded "yute"). the natives say he was this "ute" or giant that lay down to sleep and will wake up sometime . . . there is a casino at his base.
remember playing the oregon trail game? well, her is chimney rock! i totally laid flowers on all the graves of all your family members who died of dyssentery near chimney rock.
we walked into the empty house together . . . i think it was an emotional time for my grandma . . . we planned to stay a few days with her and just hang out and help her with anything she wanted to get done around the house. i guess someone had broken in to her house while she was away, but she had some great neighbors keeping an eye on her place for her, so nothing important was missing.
the view of sleeping ute from my grandma's front porch at sunset:
my grandpa was in the service in korea . . . so here are some photos of photos i took of our family legacy:
wasn't he a looker?
some of my cousins and sisters make this same face (it's a good face):
grandpa's parents:
grandma and grandpa's wedding:
my mom when she was in high school:
so, after i took a trip down memory lane, looking at all the old family pictures in albums and hanging on the walls in my grandma's study, deborah and i went "in to town." we loved saying that! it just seemed so "middle-of-nowhere-american." we were raised in the suburbs so we never had to go "in to town," we just went down the street to the grocery store. but my grandma lives a few miles outside of this leeeeeetle town in colorado . . . so if we needed anything, we'd have to go "in to town."
we needed to go thrift store shopping. here is deborah modeling some of the goods she picked up:
here is my favorite tree near my grandma's house on the way "in to town":
here is d and i at this awesome coffee shop/book store owned by a woman who used to live in portland:
i bought "fried green tomatoes at the whistle stop cafe" from her. i read it all in one day . . . but that is a story for a different part of the trip.
we got to sleep under this *awesome* blanket covered in american flags that said things like "united we stand," "god bless america," and "proud to be an american." for some reason, it kept sliding off the bed in the middle of the night and we would wake up sort of chilly.
before we left grandma's house, she let us take a photo of us with her (she's the one in the middle).
and we were on the road again . . . headed for the GRAND CANYON . . . more to come . . .
say it don't spray it 9:33 AM
4 i heard that
Monday, April 02, 2007
the spring break trip . . . part one
the morning of Friday the 16th, i flew out to see my sister in oklahoma city. i had stayed up until 2 or so the night before trying to get everything taken care of before i left . . . and packing . . . i got up about 5am to catch my flight to chicago. yes chicago. and then i caught a connection to oklahoma city. i got there about 5pm OKC time.here is a photo from the plane of Mt St Helens (in washington state):
my sister picked me up at the airport and we went back to her dorm room. navigating the many crazy freeways in OKC . . . i've decided that people cannot merge no matter what state you are driving in. i thought it was just oregonians. but i was wrong.
that night i met some of her fabulous friends and they took me to chic-fill-a. they said it was a "must experience" for the south. the only problem was that all it served was chicken. so, i had a milkshake and fries. the milkshake came in styrofoam.
i knew i wasn't in kansas (or oregon for that matter) anymore.
here are d and i outside of chic-fill-a on the beginning of my vegetarian road trip across the SouthWestern US. an almost impossible feat. :)
that night in her dorm room, deborah gave herself a stick on tattoo of a lion's head that her roommate from japan had given her the week before. we christened him aslan and said he would protect us on the road. we watched pride and prejudice (with kira knightly . . . sigh) and fell alseep.
the next morning, we took an adventure to pick up the rental car. 1/2 hour to get to the place. 20 minutes to get the car. Larry the rental car guy upgraded me from an economy two door to a rav 4 . . . i don't really know what the significance of a rav 4 is, but it drove well and got good gas mileage . . . and i felt safe driving it, so that was good. and i had a good turning radius. i have respect and appreciation for cars with a good turning radius.
an hour to get home . . . we got lost in oklahoma city. an easy thing to do . . . there are freeways like a spiderweb just looping off wherever they feel the need to go.
my grandma arrived with my uncle a bit later and we got on the road. grandma and d and all grandma's stuff in her car, me, the snack bag, and all mine and d's stuff in my car. i followed grandma . . . so usually went about 5-15 miles under the speed limit. so if i had lead, i would have lost her. :) the only coffee shops near my sister's school were starbucks. but i knew i needed something to get me through the long drive. and the siren is better than gas station coffee! so i went in to get my americano.
grandma: "how much is a cup of coffee here?"
me (looking on the menu): $1.55 (plus poopie tax)
grandma: makes a nasty face. :)
me: but it is GOOD coffee.
here's d at the first rest stop showing off her tat:
the oklahoma countryside:
graffitti in oklahoma, surpriseingly close to the texan border:
it says "bush sucks"
Bushland Texas:
for real!
the dash of my car (nice):
the texas landscape:
yep, i took all these photos while driving my car.
since we were driving on st patrick's day. and d and i are both irish (thanks to our full-blooded irish grandma on the other side of the family - not the one we are driving with) we totally wore our green:
we celebrated st patrick's day by eating mexian food (mmmm sopapillas!) at a diner with our grandma in tucumcari new mexico and staying in a travelogde motel.
we woke up to the sound of my grandma watching "full house" on tv the next morning.
say it don't spray it 11:25 AM
1 i heard that
