Typio

Sometimes I suck at typing. At times I do legitimately wonder if I might be slightly dyslexic, but more often than not I'm just trying to type too fast. Also, my hands are small, but when in front of a keyboard I suddenly develop sausage fingers and hit extra keys all. the. time. I frequently sign my name wrong when signing an email. Here are the most common typos:

• Ubez
• Inex
• Ienz

Happens all the damn time.

Christmas bonus

One of the perks of working where I work is that we get a Christmas bonus. I completely forgot we get Christmas bonuses and so I was really excited to get the check last week.

That is, until HR realized that they had fucked up and failed to deduct my transportation benefits contribution from my paycheck for the past 6 months. Goodbye, Christmas bonus. It was nice knowing you. I would have loved to be able to send to El Salvador to help pay for the medical costs of the Directora of Comadres.

stuff to look at later

I have a folder on my bookmark tab called "stuff to look at later." If someone sends me an article that looks interesting but longer than I have time for at that moment, or if I find a site I want to remember to go back to, or whatever, I dump it in there. I try to go through it every so often and clear out the articles I read or websites I'm no longer interested in, but it's been a while and the folder is getting pretty full. Here is a look at some of the stuff I've found on the internet that I wanted to look at later:

• Learn to Love Your Cast Iron Skillet - a post by Joy the Baker. I leave this one in my "look at later" folder so that I remember to give my cast iron some TLC.
• Retro brake levers for small hands - I was thinking about making the brake levers on my Motobecane fit my hands better before I switched out the handlebars (and put on a new type of brake).
• La Vida Loca - a super fucked up look into the lives of Salvadoran gang members. Put on hold until I'm mentally prepared/not at work to watch it.
• How to make a tiny terrarium in a light bulb - tell me this isn't cool. Tell me. You're lying, I can tell you're lying. It's awesome.
• Tabletop letter press - this made it into the folder when I was going through a period of wanting to take up bookbinding again in my spare time.
• Wikipedia entry on gantt charts - I'm pretty sure this was a result of an XKCD
• 3hive.com - I don't remember. I guess I should look at it later.

A kitchen that is not quite so tiny

Yesterday was a major home improvement day. Colin, Mike, and I took a field trip to Ikea. Mike, because he just moved into a studio and Needs Stuff. Colin and I to enable a vision of a more spacious kitchen with a ton more storage space. Also because Mike and I like to look at all the gloriousness that is Ikea. Colin was a good sport. All those arrows on the floor really help keep people moving in the right direction. They need to put some of those in the cafeteria.

Anywho, this field trip began at noon and ended when Colin and I brushed off our hands and examined our work: a new countertop and shelves in the kitchen, the cabinet/shelf combo moved into the dining room and spruced up with some wine glass holders and a table cloth lining the shelves. I think it looks smashing, and having a smaller structure in the kitchen does so much to help open up the small space. The extra counterspace came just in time to host Thanksgiving, too!

Pictures will be forthcoming when I can offer better than an iPod picture taken at 10pm.

Exchange between housemates

In an email to my housemates:
Hey housemates,

I'm going to Ikea with Mike this Sunday. Is there anything we need for the house? I'm thinking I will get a wine glass hanger thingy on the assumption that we'll eventually carry through with Colin's counter space/shelf space idea. Anything else we need for the house?

Inez

Katy (who is leaving for Costa Rica for a year next month) responded:
Probably a life-size frame so you can put a cut out of me in the living room when I'm gone.


Me:
Obviously.

Roundup from my iPod

I've got this fancy thing called an iPod Touch, and it takes pictures. I believe I warned you about it when I got it, but I have not lived up to my promise/threat. Here are some pictures I took there that didn't (I don't think) make it onto here yet.

I took the handlebars off my bike and put on new ones:

It's better now.

I went home to visit over the summer. Twice!

I got some fish:

Super high quality photography, here.

I dressed up as Swedish Chef for Halloween, but I also bugged the dogs with the mustache-on-a-stick part of the costume. Raleigh took it pretty well (tried to eat it, in fact):

Hazel (Colin's dog) felt it was far to undignified for him:

They forgave me, though:

Glasses

After hearing me complain routinely about getting headaches at work from staring at a computer all day, Colin pointed out that maybe I need glasses and I should probably get my eyes checked. DUH. Ruby has an astigmatism (what is the plural of astigmatism??) and had reading glasses since forever, before her eyes got worse and she got bifocals in her 40s. Both of her sisters also use reading glasses.

So anyway, I went and got the full work-up with the machines and the diagrams and the pupil dilation... and low and behold, I have an astigmatism in both eyes (worse in the right) and I'm also slightly farsighted. Look who will be getting reading glasses!

I'm actually really happy about this because even though it means I have to shell out a chunk of change (I sure don't have eye insurance... I thought I had 20/20 vision), it also means that there is a SOLUTION to the chronic brain pain I experience at my job.

So.... yep. That's what's going on over here.


p.s. My friends, Ugly Purple Sweater, had an album release party last Saturday, which was awesome. Their new album is helping me with the Monday blues. Check it out.

Conch shell closeup

Comadres

Alicia's passing last year followed this year by Pati's unrelenting cancer has given me a much greater sense of urgency about this project of collecting/sorting/compiling information about the Comadres and finally actually! writing! the book! I'm really pleased with myself right now because I just completed digitizing all the cassettes of interviews we have and stuck them on the internet for my mom to access.

As a side note: cancer. What the fuck.



Edit: Just noticed my last post was also about cancer. Yeah, it's on my mind.

Too much cancer.

That's all.

Grumpy morning

• Woke up from a nightmare that I think involved mutilated bodies only to realize it was 6:23; 7 minutes before my alarm was supposed to go off so I could bike to work. Switched my alarm to 7:10.
• Woke up abruptly to a screeching alarm and momentarily though maybe Colin had left his phone at my house and now his worst alarm sound ever, the one that makes me want to gouge my eyes out and fill my ears with rocks, was now going off under my bed or maybe on my dresser? Realized it was Katy's alarm and she was in the shower. Went into her room and turned off her alarm. Flopped back into bed. Time: 6:58.
• THE GODDAMN ALARM AGAIN. WTF I just turned it off. Time: 7:03.
• Thought I heard one of my other housemates trying to poach my shower timeslot, so I got up, turned off my alarm before it had a chance to go off, and waited for Katy to get out of the shower.
• Made it out the door early, thanks to being up at 7:03, and stopped at CVS to pick up a prescription. Spent 7 minutes looking for Q-tips, then realized that the nitwit who processed my new insurance information incorrectly listed me as only being allowed to pick up one month instead of three, and they couldn't tell me how long it would take to fix the problem, so I continued to work without picking up my prescription or buying anything. Got to work late due to my unhelpful stop at CVS.
• Got an email at work from someone I had thanked very kindly yesterday for their help in gathering information we needed, informing me that neither he nor his colleague could provide me with any further information, and that "This email concludes your business with [redacted]."

So, time for some Nicki Minaj.

For Serious

Yesterday Elise and I went to see 50/50, which is about a young guy who is diagnosed with cancer and how he and his family & friends come to grips with that and the 50/50 chance that he will die from it.

Of course everyone dies at some point (generally at the end of their life - har), but with Elise's dad having passed a couple months ago it kind of brought it home that, right: my parents are going to die, probably while I'm still alive, and it's going to suck a lot. So yeah, combine that with the autumn change of light that puts me in kind of a delicate spot (and having a couple people I care a lot about who are trying to get rid of their cancer, and my grandma having been in the hospital for a couple weeks) and let's say I've been thinking about death more than usual. I can't really figure out an eloquent way to say that. I guess that's why there are poets; people who can take something that probably everyone realizes in a visceral way at some point in their lives, and make it sound both beautiful and extraordinary.



In other, pretty much unrelated news, one of my fish died. And the damn thing didn't float, so I didn't discover it right away. I found it probably a few days dead, with its fins rotting off. Rest in peace, my poor motor-challenged Gimpy. (Actually what I called that particular fish.)

Conch shell abstract

Cape Cod

Two weeks ago I got in a plane with my sweetie and flew to Boston to pick up my Roomie For Life and drive to Cape Cod, where said sweetie's fam has a really lovely house sitting 20 feet from the ocean. My other former roomie/sister-who-isn't-actually-related-to-me tried her damndest to meet us there but her car decided to fail two hours away. Luckily Colin's got a cousin right over there who Elise was able to stay with, and then C and his mom went to pick her up the next day. Anyway, what I'm trying to get to is: I took some pictures, and because it's so beautiful there, some of the pictures happen to be quite pretty as well. Here are some of my faves from the weekend. First, the cast of characters:

Ella a.k.a Roomie For Life (though we haven't lived together for 2 years)

Elise! with the car that keeps breaking

Ollie (Elise's dog), me, and Colin

Colin's dad (Charlie)

I didn't get a picture of Colin's mom, for no good reason other than I'm a huge bum.


Summary of weekend activities:

Sailing. No pictures of that, obviously. The boat is tiny and everyone gets wet. Cameras do not do so well when they get wet.

Sitting on the porch. Duh.

Playing croquet. I'm pretty sure this is mandatory if you vacation on Cape Cod.

Making pie. And eating it. With ice cream.

Eating potato chips. When on Cape Cod, one must personally consume at least half a bag of Cape Cod potato chips. This is definitely written into the local statutes.

Going to the BEACH.

Aaaaand pretty sunsets.

The one who had 5-lb cheeks

My sister came to visit a couple months ago. I never got around to putting pictures up anywhere, but I just finally got around to sending them to her like I promised, so I thought I'd put some up on here.

She flew into Baltimore in the evening, so I got a car to pick her up. I went ahead and got it overnight because it only cost a little bit more, and that way I was able to take her to see the monuments at night. I only got us lost like twice (attempted Arlington National Cemetery drive-by visit).

We took my dog, just because. He likes cars.

I pretended to be serious and my dog pretended to be nonplussed.

She got ready for soccer tryouts by practicing her ball-handling skills with my dog.

And then we went to watch the US women's national soccer team suffer a painful defeat by the Japanese during penalty kicks. But the first 120 minutes of the game were fun!

Thanks for visiting, little sis.

Polite at all times

I had something I wanted to put on here today, but I don't want to get dooced.

Wired needs to lay off the spam

Dear Wired,

Here's the deal: my subscription to Wired started last November or December. I have been getting notices that my subscription will expire soon and that I need to resubscribe since MARCH. Now, I like Wired. I think it's a great magazine and it covers a lot of things I probably wouldn't read about elsewhere. But the spamming has been really excessive. This is the 3rd or 4th request that I renew my subscription I've gotten in the past month, and my subscription doesn't end for at least 3 months. It's been like this since March. As I said, I like Wired. But I am not going to renew my subscription if you all keep begging me to renew every couple weeks starting 3 months into my yearlong subscription. If I can get some sort of guarantee that I will not be contacted about renewing my subscription until 2 months from my subscription ending TOPS, then I'm sorry, but it's not worth it and you will lose this subscriber.

Thanks,

Inez

Congrats, Stefan Moluf

One of my high school classmates just got married. This is the first I know of (excluding one or two of my Hmong classmates who got married at like 16 or 18). Feeling old.

So, August

Yesterday was one year from the day my friend and Haverford classmate, Dylan Ravenfox, died from committing suicide. He was 24, which is far to young by anyone's count.

In two days it will be one year from the day Alicia Emelina de Garcia, co-founder of Comadres, died of complications from uterine cancer, which seems to have been connected with the atrocious, brutal, evil types of sexual torture she endured as part of her struggle for human rights in El Salvador (and around the world). She is one of the bravest, kindest, most loving and good people I have ever had the honor to know.

On the 28th of this month will be the memorial service for Elise's dad, Kent Christensen, who died on July 29th from lung cancer. He passed with his family all around him.



Now seems like an appropriate time to recognize gratitude. I'm so thankful for my life, for my housemates and my dog, for my friends (local and far-away), for my beautiful family, for the job that keeps me clothed and housed, and for all the opportunities I know I have ahead of me. I am thankful for the time I had with each of these people who are being recognized this August.

Sometimes I feel a little bit snarky.

From: customercare@bestbuy.com
To: [me]
Date: Mon, Aug 8, 2011 
Subject: Product Activation Alert


Hello ,

This is Sophia with the Best Buy Research Team. I am e-mailing you in regards to order BBY01-406357054149 . I have received an alert in my ordering system that stated that your product SKU (1068992) may not have been properly activated. If you are experiencing any issues activating
your product (T-Mobile Prepaid-Samsung T369 No-Contract Mobile Phone-Black-T369)
please call 866-857-7970 and have the product box handy. If you are not experiencing any
difficulties activating your product please disregard this message.

Thank you for shopping at Best Buy and Have A Great Day!

Sincerely,
Sophia
Best Buy Research Team







From: [me]
To: customercare@bestbuy.com
Date: Mon, Aug 8, 2011  

Subject: Re: Product Activation Alert

Sophia,

Thanks for your concern. I'm not sure why this alert would have gone out when I haven't even received the package yet. It's definitely very difficult to activate a phone that is not yet in my possession. I'll get in touch for help if I have trouble activating it once it has been delivered.

Thanks,

Inez

Wildwood

Wildwood is a huge beach Ultimate tournament that happens every year in Wildwood, NJ. There are 2500ish people there, playing on 113 fields, which means probably something like 900 games that happen on Saturday and slightly fewer on Sunday. It's ridiculous and amazing and tiring and SO MUCH FUN. Haverford alums have a team for this tournament called Show Your Junk, or SYJ if for some reason you're talking about it with your Grandma. Here are some of my favorites of the pictures I took.

I love these people.

T-Mobile Customer Service: a little slow (in the head)

You: I'm wondering if it's possible to use a prepaid phone on a contract plan

You: I broke my phone but my contract isn't up for a year and a half, so I'm looking for a replacement phone.

Tamara: Do you already have a phone?

You: yes I'm using my old phone but it's pretty old and doesn't work that well, which is why I'd like to replace it

Tamara: Do you want to replace your phone?

You: Yes, and I'm wondering if I could use a prepaid phone on my contract plan

Tamara: Do you already have a plan?

You: Yes

You: Can I use a prepaid phone on my plan?

Tamara: Is that phone is a t-mobile phone?

You: Yes

Tamara: Then you can use it.

Email to Senator Al Franken

Dear Senator Franken,

I met you at the Reagan National Aiport over Memorial Day Weekend when our flight to Minneapolis was delayed for several hours. I would like to take this opportunity to again express to you how impressed I have been with you and how proud I am to have helped vote you into office and to be able to call you my Senator. Every time I have seen you in a Congressional hearing or committee meeting I have been struck by how thoroughly you research the topic, and how resolutely you stick to your opinions and your morals.

It is with great reluctance that I have decided to switch my residency from Minnesota to DC. I have now lived in DC for two years, and have decided to stay for at least one more year. I confess that a large part of my reluctance to switch is because I will be very disappointed to lose you as my Senator. You are a great voice for level-headed resolution to stick to what one believes in, and you do Minnesota incredibly proud.

As you know, DC residents effectively have no representation -- though I have great respect for Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton, she does not have the level of power to represent her constituents that is afforded to every other member of Congress has. I hope that you will raise your voice as an ally to the residents of DC who have no representation.

Again, I thank you for your service to the residents of Minnesota. Keep up the good work, and keep sticking to your morals!

All the best,
Inez Steigerwald

Giving

Here's something I think about a lot: I think it would be good to give away as much money as I spend on myself. I don't mean as much as I spend on rent and groceries and paying off loans, but on things I don't really need: going out to dinner, beer, a new pair of flipflops when I already have two pairs. I think that if I can afford to spend the money on myself, I should be willing to spend it on people who don't have extras, too.

That would require a whole lot of tracking, though. Is that a cop-out reason not to do it?

Clearness

Hello, world. Hello, early 20s.

I've spent the last year or so feeling a bit like a sailboat on a still day --not sure where I'm going or how to get there, just rocking back and forth and watching the occasional seagull fly by. If I know anything about myself, I'll probably be back to low-level anxiety within a week or a month or by the end of the summer, but for now, I'm pleased to say that I feel a bit more sure about the right now, and a little bit more sure about which general direction I'm heading (north northwest, if you must know), if not how to get there or what it will look like along the way.

Here's what I've been thinking about as I walk my dog in the mornings: When I got Raleigh, he pulled constantly on the leash. The world was just! so! exciting! that he preferred to pretend I wasn't there, on the other of the leash, with my own agenda and pace. In fact, when I insisted he pay attention to me he would literally lean to the side so he could look around my legs rather than look up at me and receive a treat.

Okay, I'm not going to pretend I didn't lose patience with him -- a LOT -- just like I won't pretend that I haven't spent large portions of the past year in low-level anxiety, but here's what I said to myself a month or so in to living with Raleigh: we have our whole lives to get it right. He doesn't have to be great on the leash right now. It would be nice if he was, it would make walking him much more enjoyable and relaxing, but it's probably not going to happen right now, and that's okay. We have a good 10-15 years ahead of us in which to get it right.

At the time I watched him choking himself in his excitement to get to the squirrel! squirrel! right there! and thought, "I would love to be able to walk my dog with just a leash and collar" (rather than choke chain, martingale, Gentle Leader, etc). And in the mean time I tried every strategy I could to get him to mellow out and recognize my presence on a walk. Hi! You know that person who feeds you and rubs your belly and throws the ball for you in the back yard? I'm here, on the other end of the leash! HELLO I'M RIGHT HERE.

And now, we walk twice a day with just a leash and collar. Sometimes we can even walk with other people! or another dog! with just a leash and collar. How wild is that? So cool.

So I guess what I'm trying to say is: it's good to have goals, and it's good to work hard to get to them. But it's also okay to say, "I have my whole life to get it right."

Harpers Ferry

Colin and I packed up some food and extra clothes and rode to Harpers Ferry to stay at a B&B for the weekend before riding back. On the way up we stopped for lunch at this sweet aqueduct right before we picked up the C&O Canal Trail. Coincidentally, there was a folk singing group gearing up for a 45 minute concert right as we got there. It was awesome.

I am either enjoying the kiss on the cheek or looking at the turtle out in the river. Hard to say which.

I'm not sure how this picture happened, but I think it's cool:

THERE ARE PEOPLE on this cliff. Awesome:

On the way back, we saw a peacock. A PEACOCK. It was amazing. We stopped so I could gawk and take pictures and a woman came out of the house right there and I said, "I'm just taking pictures of your peacock." She said it's not hers, it just comes around. She said there's some farm on the other side of the hill with exotic birds and this guy must have escaped, but they've called the exotic bird people and they haven't come to get him yet. She said sometimes he goes across the street and fights with the rooster over there, and he really likes to hang out in the middle of the road, causing traffic jams. (Quite the feat way out there.)

There was one small hiccup: we came back on Monday and we didn't make it back in time to take the bikes on the metro from Vienna (no bikes allowed during rush hour) so we ended up going an extra 15 miles. The worst 15 miles of my life. By which I mean I was straight up GRUMPY. But, other than that, awesome trip.

Please take note of my sweet Nike kicks my dear, dear sister gave me. I love you, C!

Riding tunes

Last weekend Colin and I biked to Harpers Ferry, WV for the weekend. I've always been more of a sprinter than a long distance runner, so to help me get through what ended up being 110 miles of riding, all told, I brought some MP3 speakers in my front bag and rocked out while I rode. Here is an excerpt of that playlist.

D-word

I just finished reading High Fidelity and there is a scene where Laura (Rob's Main Love Interest) reveals that her first thought when she learned her dad had died was that it (her dad dying) was the most grown-up thing she'd experienced.

Do you think that's true, at all? That things like that cross through people's minds in that sort of situation? Or is it just one big nebulous "FUCK"?



I started a conversation this evening with a whole speech planned out and in the end it seemed so small that I didn't even mention that it had been planned. (Hello, yes, this is me mentioning it. But this is me also saying it doesn't matter a fucking bit.)

Dinosaurs

This will be coming to Beautiful/Delicious in an expanded form soon, but for now I would like to tell the internet that I got more dinosaur sprinkles.

And it was good.

Molasses chocolate chip cookies

I just made these cookies for the second time the other night, and you should all make them too, O faithful readers. Molassessy. Chocolatey. Salty. DELICIOUS. On a scale of Sitting At A Computer All Day to 10, making and eating these cookies rates at about a Pretty Fantastic.

Also, this weekend is Harper's Ferry weekend, so that might have something to do with my general distraction. That and I slept flipping terribly last night. Took me forever to fall asleep and then I woke up about every five minutes, it seemed. I should I have just read my book. I'm reading this fantastic book right now called "The Bride Raffle" (omg don't you want to read it?) and it takes place in the old west but everyone calls each other by their first names, for some reason (is that true?) and this chick has been on a speaking tour because she sort of helped write a cookbook (although she never takes credit for it, so I'm not sure what the deal is there) and her manager/escort is this total d-bag who puts her down all the time but for some reason she slept with him not once but several times? and OMG SHE'S PREGGO but she doesn't know it until the Hero totally catches her holding her belly.

Yeah okay I know, work.

Things that are dangerous.

These are some things that are dangerous to my productivity, wallet, and healthy eating:

• The Lovely Bicycle blog:

(Photo from Lovely Bicycle)

• Xtra Cheddar Goldfish crackers. So cheddary! So delicious! So hard to stop eating them!

• The weather in DC right now. It's freaking beautiful out. It's going to be 58 degrees tonight! That is so many degrees below 80!

Sunflowers

The sunflowers in the yard started blooming!