I've decided to put this blog on hiatus for the time being. Not that you could tell the difference by my posting frequency, but I thought I should at least say something to the couple of people who still stop by occasionally.
Obviously I haven't had much time for this endeavor. When I thought about why I started, I wanted a space to work out thoughts, have fun with words, and communicate with other people. My reality right now is that my life is grounded in a full schedule of things to do and people to spend time with, and unless I opt to give up sleep (which is really not a pretty sight) that's not going to change for a while. I've been feeling frustrated with myself that I haven't found more time for writing, but I realized this week that I'm just going to let go of that for a while, and enjoy what I'm doing. I am really enjoying the time I'm spending with my kids - I'm not chasing around to their soccer games and orchestra concerts out of a sense of obligation, but because they are having fun and I want to share in that with them.
So I'm changing gears. I've started a new, private blog that will just be family news and photos. If you're interested, drop me an email and if I know who you are, I'll send you an invitation. (I'll also be sending invitations to lots of people who never knew this quasi-anonymous blog ever existed, so if you are in both groups, don't give me away!) I'll be turning off comments here in a few days, just so I don't have to keep deleting spam in Chinese characters. I don't want to give up the blog name, though, so I won't delete it completely.
Thanks for joining in on my experiment -- see you later!
November 15, 2008
Changing gears
September 07, 2008
County fair time
The county fair has been a regular event in my life since I was a kid. I never raised livestock, though I was in 4-H for a few years, and occasionally exhibited vegetables, artwork, or some other craft project. Some of the fairs were pretty big and fairly commercial; others were much smaller and more homespun.
The fair where we live now has a definite rural flavor. There is an extensive rodeo, and lots of livestock, and a good number of the vendors are local in addition to the traveling ones that visit every year. There are definitely some constants over the years: cotton candy, corn dogs, sno-cones, corn on the cob and chocolate-dipped ice cream bars at the concession stands; the sights and sounds (and smells) of the livestock barns; political booths - Democrats, Republicans, and everyone running for non-partisan local office; someone selling some amazing household gadget that you can't possibly live without; midway games and carnival rides; a vendor making and selling little blown-glass animals.
This fair has some things that the fairs of my childhood didn't. Lots of local groups are invited to show what they do; the karate school that the kids have been involved in puts on demonstrations for the crowd a couple of times during the fair's run. New food favorites are huckleberry ice cream, elephant ears, and a local restaurant's chicken teriyaki - though I still crave the grilled linguica sausages on sourdough rolls that I used to get at the Santa Cruz County fair. Then there are those things that have just changed with time: kids beg for flashing light sabers instead of balloons, and the little blown-glass figures are several dollars instead of fifty cents, and every other concession stand sells espresso. Fall will always feel like fair time, though: I don't think that will change for me.
July 01, 2008
Today was a good day
I finished four projects at work and my new staff person was as good as I had hoped in her first presentation to the executive team.
I found out that I got a raise. A REAL raise, not the minuscule COLA the legislature granted but something I will actually notice. And I didn't have to ask for it. [As exempt, non-union employees, we do not get any sort of systematic pay increases other than COLAs, so this is unusual.]
My only other staff position was shared with another department. The person in that role was recently promoted and I got permission to have the vacancy split so I can hire someone with the qualifications I need instead of compromising on only the skills that are relevant to both departments. This will be a huge help given the workload I have coming at me over the next year.
I have the house to myself for the night. I can't remember the last time this happened. I cooked exactly what I wanted for dinner (ravioli with butternut squash and sage) and no one is angling for the TV remote or the computer.
I can look forward to sleeping in tomorrow, dropping the dog off at the kennel, and heading back up to the lake for three more nights.
April 01, 2008
All Right Now
Yes, I still am capable of doing crazy, spur-of-the-moment things. Like deciding on Sunday that all of us should go to the NCAA women's basketball tournament Monday night to watch Stanford play Maryland. There were tickets available. Spokane is only about 160 miles away. The kids have never seen anything like a Division I college basketball game. Besides, this matchup was even my grad school against Spouse's. When will we get another chance like this? Why should the little realities (work, snow/sleet, a highway closure that kept us off the Interstate and on the two-lane farm road, both kids getting over being sick, the fact that Spouse's night vision is not what it should be and I would have to do all the driving on the way back and still be at work by 8 AM Tuesday) keep me from indulging a whim?
We went. It was great. We were only four rows from the floor--though not in the Cardinal section as the seating chart on the website indicated, but oh, well. Candice Wiggins was AMAZING. 41 points earned in every possible way to make a basket. Son's observation: "Her body was shaped like a big "C" and she still got the ball in." Daughter was so enthralled by Candice bouncing up and down in excitement at the end of the game that she started to bounce, too.
It's corny, and totally unfounded, but I have always felt a bit of ownership in this team. Coach V. arrived during my time on campus, and we went to a bunch of games by just showing up at Maples 15 minutes before game time and taking courtside seats--those were the "rebuilding" years. I know there are lots of reasons to be cynical about college athletics, but I really admire this program.
Oh, and look closely at the picture--see the guy in the grey sweatshirt barely visible at the bottom left? I'm sure that's Spouse, and the rest of us are just out of the frame. We stayed and watched every minute of the post-game celebration. And even though nobody else in the family would jump with me during "All Right Now," I was doing the jump with everyone down on the court. On to the Final Four!
February 07, 2008
Travel and politics
We made it to Seattle, but I'm not sure yet we'll make it home. We heard the train wasn't running through the mountains today, and three feet of new snow is forecast between now and Saturday. The highways are closed frequently, and when they're open the driving is treacherous. There is a different urgency to getting home, since our state is holding caucuses on Saturday and given the choices the state Democratic Party has made, if you want your vote to count toward the outcome of the nominating convention, you have to participate in the caucus - they aren't using the results of the primary vote later this month.
I really don't want to miss this opportunity. I have been disappointed, frustrated, enraged, saddened, incredulous, and dismayed - sometimes all at once - by the actions of the U.S. presidency over the past 8 years. I don't want to miss the chance to be heard and have my point of view count. I want to be able to open the newspaper and read the President's words or watch the President speak on TV without cringing. I want to be able to believe in the country's leadership again, and have hope that the best things about this country will be intact when my children become adults. I'm ready for change.
UPDATE: I missed the caucus. The earliest flight I could take was Saturday night, and another co-worker was in the area with her car, so I ended up driving home with her. The long way around the Cascades - 7.5 hours of driving instead of the usual 2.5. We did get home 15 minutes ahead of the flight, though, and 7 hours before the pass opened, so it was the right choice. But I missed the caucus.
February 04, 2008
February
... is off to a decent start. First, we have had above-freezing temperatures for the first time in I can 't remember. Second, I have the best kind of committee duty this month -- planning a wine tasting. That meant I got to rush off from the middle school PTA meeting tonight to help select wines for an event later this month (cabernet and chocolate, of course). This (2004 cab) and this (the 2005 - looks like the web page is out of date) were my favorites. And third-- I was in danger of missing the actual wine tasting event later this month due to an out of town meeting for work, but it turns out my boss will already be in the area and can cover the obligation, so I can stay put here. Bonus: it was still light out at 5 PM today when I backed the car into the narrow driveway outside the performing arts center so Son could unload his bass for his orchestra rehearsal. Plus I actually saw a robin last weekend in the juniper bushes outside my friend's front door. I think things are looking up.
Click here to continue....January 30, 2008
Cold, snow, and more cold
It's bad enough to go more than two weeks without posting, but to return with a post about the weather is going to lose me what few readers I have. But it is January, and the weather is affecting just about anything I try to do. I am heartily sick of wearing boots, but it's really not safe to walk around in anything else - the sidewalks and parking lots are encrusted with several inches of hardened ice. The temperature hasn't been above freezing in at least two weeks. The sun has been out, which has created some odd effects. If I park my car facing south, by the time I leave for lunch I can get radiant warmth from the steering wheel, but I still need to wear my gloves because the air is so cold. The past two days we have had snow flurries during bright sunshine. The nearest cloud seems to be miles away, so I don't know how far those snowflakes have been blown before they reach the ground. It's very dry - everyone has rough skin, cracked knuckles, and constant risk of static shocks from touching anything that conducts. We had a light snowfall the other night, and I arrived on campus the next morning to see the maintenance staff using leaf blowers instead of shovels to clear off the sidewalks -- the snow was so dry and powdery that it really was the best way to move it. My parents are spending a month in California, so I'm keeping an eye on their house as well. My dad even had the nerve to complain about it being cold there when he called me from my favorite deli in Santa Cruz the other day. That's rubbing it in.
Click here to continue....January 16, 2008
Trying something new
I love books. I spend a lot of time reading (probably too much). I've been part of a monthly book group for more than 12 years now, and there are only a few times when I didn't get the book read. I can't imagine being without access to books.
Reading is one of the things that can truly take me out of where I am and get the wheels spinning in my mind to quiet down. Reading for distraction, however, isn't always conducive to really thinking about and remembering what I've read. That's fine for paperback mysteries and the like, but there are many books I'd like to remember better. So I've started to keep track of them in the sidebar. I'll try to do some reviews at the end of every month, and I'd love to hear what you thought if you've read any of the same books.
In other things new and blog-related, I heard from two whole people as a result of my delurking plea (thank you MLL and MA!). Then last night I got three comments on other posts, all showing up in the comment box as strings of question marks and in my email as kanji characters. I'm not showing any hits from non-English speaking countries, so I guess I'll put that down to a spambot and be thankful it wasn't worse...
PS: social studies project is ALMOST done. If he didn't have math homework, he could probably turn it in tomorrow - and I'm still tempted to keep him up to finish it, just because I am so ready to have it over with.
January 07, 2008
January
A new year means new perspective, right? A chance to make a fresh start, to keep new intentions in mind. Well, not so much for me this year. Things are looking pretty much the same from where I'm sitting, so I've been feeling like I have nothing much to say. In an effort to try to break out of this rut, I have identified some things I'm looking forward to:
- January 31. On that date, it will still be daylight at 5:01 PM. No more arriving home from work after dark.
- We are planning an extended trip to California this summer, and I CAN'T WAIT. Every time I think about it (which is often) I come up with another place or person or experience to add to the itinerary. I don't think we'll make it any farther south than Point Lobos, and I've already filled up more time than we'll have.
- Downhill skiing. After all those years of driving for hours to get to snow, now it's in my backyard and I don't make the time to go skiing. I finally tried it again last year, for the first time since before Son was born. I had fun, and I wasn't incapacitated the next day from muscle soreness, so I want to make a point of going at least a couple of times this year. Even if the cost makes me wince.
December 27, 2007
Skating
The kids loved the outdoor rink at the lake. It's small, but when you have it to yourselves most of the time, that makes up for the lack of size. Son (on the right) built on last year's hockey skills and was quickly doing crossovers and skating backward. Daughter, as you can see, still doesn't entirely feel comfortable on the ice. She's making progress, though, and it helped her a lot to not be in a crowded pack of people.
The figure leaning on the railing is my dad. At about 9 AM, when the rink first opened for the day, the kids were raring to go. Spouse and I had barely started on our coffee at this time (it was vacation, after all) and were nowhere near ready to head out into the cold. To my mom's and my amazement, Dad volunteered to go down to the rink with the kids, primarily to help Daughter with her skates. This is a man who hates cold. He lived with real winters as a child and well remembers times when he just couldn't get warm. The idea of voluntarily going outside in the cold to play was something he was perfectly happy to give up when he had the means to avoid it. Yet for his grandkids, here he was volunteering for outdoor duty.
My mom skied before my parents met, so when my brother and I came along she wanted to introduce us to the sport. Dad was fine with driving us up to the mountains, and helping us with our gear, but no way was he joining us on the slopes. I recall my brother and I waving our arms to get Dad's attention outside the lodge; he would be watching for us out a window. He'd pull on his coat, come downstairs, and rub a block of wax along the bottoms of our skis so they would stop sticking. Then he'd head back inside to the fire (and probably a hot toddy as well) and we'd go back up the lift. The whole process would get repeated every hour or so; those old skis really needed a lot of wax. I was probably only 8 or 9, and my brother younger, so we needed the help, and Dad devised a system that worked for him too.
November 30, 2007
NaBloPoMo: Reflections
I made it - an entire month of daily posts. Not sure this is really an achievement, though. Some reflections:
- I don't get the point of posting when you really have nothing to say. I don't have the time to do it, and why would I expect others to have time to waste reading it? Now I can say I've done NaBloPoMo, but I don't think I'm likely to repeat.
- I did learn some new technical things about photos, Flickr, and uploading music.
- My traffic count this month alone was equivalent to what was generated over the entire prior existence of this blog (32 months). I haven't examined my stats to see where people are coming from, but I've only had one comment from someone who appears to have found me through the NaBloPoMo randomizer.
- I didn't do as well as I had hoped at commenting on others' blogs, but I have created some new connections, and maybe even have the beginnings of a blogroll.
- Blogging is an investment of time; thoughtful blogging even more so. I'd rather read a thoughtful post once or twice a week than daily drivel, and I really admire the bloggers who can keep that up. I still aspire to be one of them someday.
- (Edited to add) I will probably continue to post inane random stuff, and that is part of the fun of blogging. I just wish it could be more, more often, but I'm not sure I can pull off the tradeoffs needed to make that happen at this point. It's kind of like the difference between conversation and writing for publication. I want to keep the conversation going, but every once in a while I'd like to be able to pull out something that makes someone stop and think for a minute. Maybe that's just my ego talking.
July 13, 2007
Traveling
August 11, 2006
My First Meme
Time for a meme. Since all of about seven people know this blog exists, and I'm sure they've all given up on it since there has been nothing posted in months, I'll just pick my own since the odds of being tagged are pretty much non-existent. So here's one I've seen around and found entertaining:
Four jobs I've had:
Ice cream scooper: my first non-babysitting job in high school, at a well-known California ice cream parlor. This one was on the main route from the beach to the highway. All the people in swimsuits and bare feet who couldn't come in and be served at a table would line up for cones. As the new kid, I had to scoop cones instead of waiting tables where the tips were better. Even when the line went out the door and around the building, none of the table servers would help out. I quit after three days.
Burgers and fries: Wendy's. My junior year of high school, after the ice cream debacle. I lasted almost a year (and met my first real boyfriend).
Switchboard operator: This was my work-study job as a freshman at Northwest Explorers' college. The entire college - departments, faculty, administration, residence halls - connected to the outside world through a 240-extension PBX. My shift was Saturday mornings (plus lunch relief for the women who staffed it 8-5 on weekdays). The worst (aside from accidentally disconnecting calls to the president's office) were the parents who would call repeatedly right after the switchboard opened at 8:00 AM on Saturday and demand to know why no one was answering the phone on their son/daughter's hall (well, there was this party last night, and ....)
Temping: I had two gigs through a temp agency that lasted more than a day or two. One was doing data entry at an aluminum smelter. I spent a month with the overhead crane operators computerizing the parts lists for the cranes. It was like learning another language. The other was taking notes at corporate negotiations led by some high-powered management consultants. I learned that the corporate world was not for me.
Four movies I've seen more than once:
Monty Python and the Holy Grail
Almost Famous
Sense and Sensibility
North by Northwest
Four places I've lived:
Three are in California: San Francisco Bay Area (Palo Alto/Mountain View vicinity, as a child and as an adult), Santa Cruz county, and Santa Barbara.
The northwest town I live in now (the longest of them all by far)
Four TV shows I've seen more than one episode of:
Star Trek (all incarnations)
NYPD Blue
House Hunters (HGTV)
The West Wing
Four places I've been on vacation:
Acadia National Park
Victoria, BC
Squam Lake, New Hampshire
Asheville, North Carolina
Four blogs I visit daily:
I don't think there are any I visit every day, but four of the places I look often for something new include Confessions of a Community College Dean, Vegan Lunchbox, Writing as jo(e), and Half Changed World.
Four favorite foods:
Sourdough bread from the Bay Area
My mom's pecan pie
Butternut squash lasagna
Ben & Jerry's Coffee Heath Bar Crunch
Four places I'd rather be:
Yosemite
The north coast redwoods
Point Lobos
Any beach on the west coast of the US
(see a trend here?)
The four CDs I listened to most recently:
Being MP3 and iPod-less, this is easy:
Dixie Chicks-Taking the Long Way
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers - Anthology: Through the Years
Dave Matthews Band - Under the Table and Dreaming
An Dochas - Dragonfly
The last four vehicles I've owned:
2002 Honda Odyssey (current)
1991 Ford Aerostar
1988 Mazda B2200 pickup
1975 Opel 1900
Things in my life that come in fours:
Four dogs I've owned as an adult: Maggie, Molly, Cooper, and now Buddy
My family of origin (mom, dad, me, and my younger brother)
My current family (me, spouse, and two children)
My current age (44)
May 21, 2006
Writing
I spent all day yesterday at a writers conference. Writing is something I do all the time, but mostly in a routine way. Lots of email messages, reports, process documents, interpretations of data, proposals, responses to queries - I feel like I'm always explaining something (over and above the gazillion explanations to my kids each day). But most of the time this isn't about what I'm thinking about - it's just stuff that needs to get done or helps me do my job.
This writing conference was the first one ever held in our community. I was asked to be on the steering committee about a year ago, mostly dealing with logistics since it was held at the college where I work. So I wasn't really there as a "writer" to start with - this was just another project to plan. But when the conference actually started yesterday and I could stop and let go of all the details and the general busyness of the month of Mayhem (that's another post), I started to think about what this conference was all about - encouraging and educating people who want to write, who have something to say.
The night before the conference there was a dinner with most of the presenters (this was the big perq for the steering committee after a year of volunteer work). I wasn't sure what to expect - I'd never attended a conference like this, so I didn't really know the drill, and the presenters were all from out of town and represented a wide variety of backgrounds - poetry, mysteries, young adult fiction, memoir, nature writing, short stories - plus an editor, an agent, and the keynote speaker who has written bestselling non-fiction and won a Pulizer for feature writing. I am not an extrovert, either, so it was a little intimidating to be asked by the conference director to be the greeter and try to spot our presenters as they entered - there was another event (a wedding) going on in the same facility and there were a lot of people milling around. It turned out to be a really fun evening. The presenters who attended were a great group of people and the conversation was terrific - engaging, wide-ranging, articulate, energetic. I also learned more about some of my fellow steering committee members - we got a chance to talk about other things besides logistics. Even though we all had an early morning, the dinner didn't wind down until about 9:00.
I hadn't seen the registration list before the start of the conference, so other than a few friends who told me they had signed up, I didn't know who was coming until I started handing out packets as people arrived. Okay, this is a small town, but I was surprised at the number of people that I knew, and I would recognize someone and think "oh, yeah! Of course they would be here!" or "wow! I had no idea he/she was into writing!" There was my former co-worker who now owns a marketing company; a wonderful woman who teaches drama and reads to classes at my kids' elementary school; a grandfather who tells stories at our church; an accountant (whom I first met as a fellow preschool parent) who is writing a business book; a retired music teacher that I've know for years through AAUW; and my dentist who is an award-winning short story writer. It was really fun to see their excitement and anticipation as the conference started.
During the course of the day I sat in on a couple of sessions, had further conversation with some of the presenters, and talked a little bit about my work (the FAQ was "what kind of writing do you do?"). At the reception at the end of the day, after I had finished my pouring duty at the wine table, I started to mingle and immediately got pulled into a group of acquaintances who invited me to join a critique group they were starting. I hesitated for a minute - when do I have time to write? I can't even keep this blog up to date! What in the world will I write about? - but suddenly I found myself saying "yes, I'd like that, that would be great!". So I guess I am taking the plunge. Good thing I had purchsed the editor's non-ficton how-to book at the bookstore table.
As I figure out exactly what it is I want to say, I expect I'll be trying it out here, so more regular posting will be a necessary part of this process. Here goes...
May 08, 2005
Happy Mother's Day
Here's the card that the kids made -
From my 9 year old son (original spelling preserved):
Your the best mom in the world Beaucuse
- your playful
- your a good tickler
- you take me to fun places
- you play mousic whith me
- you look prety
I love you so much
because
- you love me
- we do shopping
- you are a good snuggler
Click here to continue....
