REVOLUTIONARY. also, general updates.

I have succeeded as a teacher today! We watched a video on fractals in geometry class today. (Fractals are specific patterns that repeat infinitely, like this shape.) We ordered pizza, students came in from lunch early and brought brownies/ chips/ pop, and we watched this PBS video. It's definitely a math topic, but I watched it (all the way through) and thought it was interesting.)

Heard outside my hallway: 

"Well, fractals are these shapes that look the same, no matter how zoomed in you are. It was pretty much revolutionary."

... I thought she was being sarcastic... now I don't think so. Another student commented that it was really cool and they used fractals to draw pictures and do special effects in movies. They were genuinely interested, and genuinely thought that it was revolutionary. (One thing about fractals is that they have infinite length, so it can look like something is a complete shape, like the picture, but the perimeter can't be measured.)

Other news:

- I'm training to run the Bayshore marathon over Memorial Day weekend in Traverse City. I've heard that it's beautiful up there and am excited to see the country, eat some cherries, buy some jam, and run the course. 

- I've been going to a church that I really like and it reminds me of Veritas. Yay!

- I've been baking some things (from Joy the Baker's cookbook, among others) and also making lots of soft pretzels. I made some cheese-filled soft pretzels the other day and they turned out well. Very excited.

- Track started! I'm coaching middle school track, which so far means that the high school coach works with the sprinters and I run with the distance runners. Our first meet is tomorrow, down in Kalamazoo.

- Spring break is coming up- I'm over 3/4 of the way through the school year. I'll have to sit down and think through some reflections to post for you and to help me. Over spring break, I'm a) visiting Kristi, b) heading to Columbus for three days, c) housesitting for another teacher, d) taking a bath, e) doing a speed workout, and f) baking something delicious. Not necessarily in that order.

Other other news:

A student told me that I had marker on my chin - which would be a totally normal occurrence, except that it was only first period. I realized that I have a burn mark on my chin.

Remember those deep dish chocolate chip cookie bowls that I made? I made them again, and apparently couldn't wait long enough to shovel the cookie into my mouth. I hit my chin on the ramekin and burned it. That, I think, was more embarrassing to explain than saying I had marker on my chin. Long story short: still delicious. But maybe wait more than 30 seconds to shove your face into the ramekin?

"I love you too, baby girl!"

No, I'm not on a writing frenzy this week. Sorry to get your hopes up, but I wanted to add some pictures of food (as always) and the Rachel Carson trail challenge (as requested).

I don't have a bus story for you, but I do have a walk-story with similar characters. As always, there is a young (yet emanating maturity) blonde and a more-than-interesting man. When we come upon the man, he is pulling a messenger bag out of a bush (?) and calling out "baby girl! baby girl!" Seeing as there is no one else on the street outside of a car, I respond with a hello.
"Guess what, baby girl?" He says. "I forgot my bag!"
"I'm glad you remembered it then."
"Can I tell you something?" (He is walking furiously about 5 paces behind me to catch up.) "How old are you?"
"You're not supposed to ask a lady her age!" says I, ever the lady. (Did he hear me humming VeggieTales? See me skip over the curb?) But at this point, I have to turn, and he, it seems, caught on too late, so he still has to walk straight.
I give a slight nod of the head. "Well, have a good day!"
"Thanks, baby girl. I love you too."
At this, our blonde cocks her head to the side and her eyebrows (look at her face!) show that she is confused.

I used my cast-iron skillet (still love it!) to make a vegetable tarte tatin. It's a good summer vegetarian main dish (read: not super filling) but could also be a good appetizer. (Recipe easily adaptable from "The Cast-iron skillet cookbook.") It takes a little work (some refrigerating and rolling of the crust, but the cast-iron skillet makes it worth it.)

For the crust:
1 1/4 c all-purpose flour
1/4 t salt
6 T chilled, unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
2 T chilled vegetable shortening
5 T ice-cold water

Mix the flour and salt in a food processor. Add the butter and shortening. Pulse in the processor until the mixture has the consistency of small peas. Add the water, 1 T at a time and pulse quickly just until the dough sticks together and can be formed into a ball. Do not knead the dough. Form it into a disk, wrap it in plastic wrap, and chill in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes.

To prepare the filling... take lots of root vegetables. Carrots, turnips, parsnips, rutabaga, new potatoes, yellow onions, for example.  And chop them all. (Bigger pieces are better, especially for the onions. You might even trim the root end but leave it intact.

If the veggies take different cook times (onions are quicker to soften than a lot of the other named vegetables), cook the other vegetables beforehand, and then add with the onions to a large bowl.
Add:
2 T olive oil
1 t chopped, fresh rosemary/ 1 t fresh thyme (or 2 t fresh herbs, any kind you like)
1/4 t nutmeg
Salt and pepper, to taste
Stir until everything is thoroughly coated.

Scatter tiny pieces of 1/4 c butter in the cast-iron skillet. Place over low heat until the butter melts. Stir in 1 t Pernod, if you know what that is (ignore it or add 1 T white wine if you don't) and 2 t sugar. Add the vegetables to the pan, but do not stir them! Move them to fill in any empty gaps and occasionally press down while they brown and caramelize (about 5 minutes), but letting them sit brings the caramelized goodness. Remove from heat.

Roll out the pastry dough into a 10-12 inch circle (approximately a little larger than the size of your skillet. Lay the dough on top of the vegetables and tuck in excess dough around the edges... or eat it. Let's be honest. Melt a little more butter (or use a whisked egg white and 1 T water) and lightly brush the top of the crust. Make four 1 inch cuts in the top to vent steam.

Place the skillet in the over and bake for 20-25 minutes at 400. (No preheat warning - remember who is giving you the insructions!)

Place a large plate upside down on top of the skillet. Protecting both hands with oven mitts (important step), grasp the skillet and the plate firmly, flip over and invert the tart onto the plate. Slice into wedges and serve.
And some pictures from the Rachel Carson trail challenge that I did with some friends a couple weekends ago. You can't really see the mountains, but they were most certainly there.

Briefly

I have no news on next year yet, but I do have some other things I can share with you.

1. Where I'm traveling!
a. Carmel, Indiana - for a fun half-marathon.
b. Boston - to visit with some friends. I've never been to the East Coast, so I'm excited to see friends and to see the town. Any recommendations for places to go?
c. Baltimore - visiting my former advisor, meeting some professors at JHU and exploring some intelligent topics. They haven't learned too much about me yet, apparently.

2. What I'm cooking!
a. Caramelized onion meatloaf from my Almost Meatless cookbook - it had tofu, veggies, and a little bit of turkey. I liked it.
b. Roasted veggie pizza with hummus as the sauce and the crust cooked in a cast-iron skillet. I think it worked like a pizza stone.
c. Mango and black bean salad - I am starting to really like juicy fruits and mango is something I haven't tried much of. I liked it in this cold salad, which I ate as a lunch entree.

3. What I'm hearing!
"Miss Julie, when I grow up, I want to be a grown-up so I can make pancakes."
 - one of my preschoolers, a girl after my own heart.

I'm sorry (although you may not be) that I haven't infused this entry with my wit and inability to stop sharing. Another day I can share with you in a humorous, lengthy, rather tedious process. In the meantime, I hope you are having a lovely spring so far!

A photo album!

Click here to view this photo book larger

Or if that doesn't work, go to this link:

I'll be ordering a hard copy so that I can still talk with you all about my trip, but here are my photos and there are small descriptions with each photo, so I think you will be to
a) grasp the beauty of the Andes mountains
b) see the love in the kids' faces
c) understand what's going on in each photo. Except the photo of the alpaca. He (she?) just wanted to hang out on the soccer field with some friends, so we took some photos. And then he/she spit at a team member who got too close, kind of like our old Aladdin game for Sega.

A Teaser!

Click here to view these pictures larger

Hey, so that's kind of cool, Shutterfly! That's not what I was picturing the 4 pictures doing... endlessly rotating through a 4 second slideshow... but I sorted a few out for you.

Yes, Bakes, I am lifting very heavy rocks. Truth be told... they didn't trust me with any heavy construction work. Most of the time, they had me lifting pebbles or cleaning up broken bricks or something demeaning. (Just kidding, it wasn't demeaning.) I am a bit awful at shoveling, it turns out. We had a system of 5 of us rotating through positions to hoist buckets of sand to the top of/ other side of a wall, and when it was supposed to be my turn to shovel... the rotation changed so that I did another position twice. And then later, they let me shovel because "It's good to have different tempos because then we get some rest." (Although, if I am being honest, not only was I slow but I kept injuring those around me. So the slow tempo- shoveler (myself) was only used when the person holding the buckets was very patient, forgiving, and had strong finger bones.)


Picture 2: The roads on a normal day. There were much worse days than this. 


Picture 3: Playing juegos (games, not the Spanish word for Legos) with the children. You can see the top of my head in the bottom left. I'm intensely focused on the UNO game.


Picture 4: What trip would be complete without the required OHIO photos? 

This is going to turn into a long post because I have a post waiting from a few months ago when I baked some chocolate chip cookies using a new recipe. Verdict? No better or worse than other recipes.

I promised a friend a surprise package - and I don't know what to put in surprise packages other than cookies. So I thought I'd make chocolate chip, because, let's be honest - what other options are there? I decided to test a new recipe from my grandmother. The handwriting down the side of the recipe is the recipe - doubled. That's a great sign. And, to give these cookies a fair test, I wanted to do it without substitutions. Guess how long that lasted?

If you guessed not long, you... are right.

Adapted from: Kitchen to Kitchen, Bev's Chocolate Chip Cookies

1. Sift dry ingredients in a bowl.

3/4 c rolled oats (Recipe says to grind in a food processor, but that was a dish I didn't want to wash.)

1 c whole-wheat flour

1/2 t baking soda

1/2 t salt

In an electric mixer, beat 1/4 cup softened butter until fluffy. (I used 5 t instead of 4 because that was the amount left on the stick. But feel that this substitution equals out the over-measured whole wheat flour.)

Add to the butter:

1/4 canola oil

1/3 c sugar

1/3 c brown sugar (Not quite there. I'll just add a little more vanilla. And vanilla syrup. And they will be sweet.)

1 large egg

1 "heaping" teaspoon vanilla (plus 1 T vanilla syrup)

While the mixer is running, add dry ingredients until mixed well.

Stir in 1 c chocolate chips. (Not even sure how to measure what I did.)

My chocolate chips spent too long in the car. And I don't want to run to the store. I tried peeling them apart - messy. But I washed my hands!

Or was that after?

And then I gave up and wanted to melt the chocolate chips and just stir them in to get what I think was about a cup. But I ran into a problem. See, unlike my unnatural fear of dried beans, I have a completely natural fear of melting chocolate. I have almost never done it correctly, regardless of melting method and how closely I actually follow instructions. Julie is trying to melt chocolate? Then it's almost guaranteed it will go from solid to burned. In 15 seconds.

Yep, curse: still on. Bye-bye, chocolate chips. The batter looks okay enough, I guess.

Bake the cookies at 350 for 8-10 minutes, until cookies are firm and golden on top. If you can make 2 1/2 dozen out of this, apparently it hovers around 100 calories. Good luck with that - it's like cooking dessert from Cooking Light: one serving size = approximately one bite. I made about 16 cookies out of this; could've made 20, maybe.

They had a little heartier flavor than the typical chocolate chips. Nothing I'd rave about more than I rave about my other chocolate chip cookie recipes. Got any good ones you would share?

kutima naykama, andahuaylas!

That means "see you in a long time, Andahuaylas!"

I am back from the mission trip to Peru - and I loved it there. I want to go back! The culture, the kids, the languages (Spanish and Quechua) were all easy for me to slip into for the 9 days we were there. Please be patient as our internet is not working, so it is hard to update this to tell you all about it.

While you're waiting on the edge of your seat for my typewritten report, you can look at peruandes.shutterfly.com. It's a site where all team members were invited to share their pictures. There are/ will be many, but I hope to pull some favorites out of there for blog posts. Soon. I hope.

I can give you a quote to keep you entertained?

My loathings are simple: stupidity, oppression, crime, cruelty, soft music.
- Vladimir Nabokov


Or we can just wait in silent expectation.

If people never did anything silly, nothing intelligent would ever get done. - ludwig wittgenstein

I really like Joy the Baker (www.joythebaker.com) for two main reasons:
1. Pretty much everything she makes gets starred in my google reader. (Starred means "I want to try this.")
2. She wears a headlamp to read in bed. And she admitted it on her blog. One of my pastors also admitted to wearing a headlamp, and I think it is one of the best ideas and misused products out there.

That said, these chocolate chip cookie dough balls have been starred since June 29. I made them yesterday - kind of.

I tried to make them yesterday.

Please, oh college athlete in me, recall the annoying adages about "do or do not, there is no try."

I restate: I tried to make them yesterday.

This was some of the most delicious cookie dough that I've ever tasted. Greek yogurt instead of eggs equals pure deliciousness. But I think I used too much yogurt, or too little flour, because these balls sprawled on the pan like they were ready to get a nice little tan and cookie-skin-cancer in the oven. I had assumed that the balls would be firm like the peanut butter part of Buckeyes, but these were not. I then assumed that cookie dough freezes into a peanut-butter-part-of-the-Buckeye-consistency, but, alas, it does not. Note to self: the single serving size of Greek yogurt should be measured to see if it is more the 2/3 cup. Next note to self: Flour should actually be measured with the knife evening out the top rather than assuming the little mound on the top adds a quarter cup.

Delicious.

I let them freeze overnight, as per directions, and then the next morning began my task of melting chocolate and dipping it in. I believe I've mentioned my ineptitude at melting chocolate. To be honest, my ability is not simply inept, it is more antagonistic: melted chocolate is my cooking enemy. The last time I made Buckeyes, I went through three bags of chocolate chips, began crying, and told my housemates that we would no longer have Buckeyes at the wedding shower and instead would have peanut butter balls. Yes, that was my senior year of college. Why do you ask? A housemate bought a bag of chocolate chips and melted them for me. It worked.

So instead of melting chocolate, I used Nestle's pre-melted baking chocolate packets! Super good idea! Oh, except that they were unsweetened. Okay, let's add some powdered sugar! Super good idea - er, good idea? Oops, too thick. Add another packet of chocolate. Good idea - er, this is (no exaggeration) beginning to look like burned chocolate. How is it possible that I can burn pre-melted chocolate simply by stirring in powdered sugar? (The college athlete in me says, "If you can dream it, you can achieve it!")

Then I tried to dip some cookie dough balls in the chocolate-powdered sugar mix. Didn't work. Idea! I spread some of it on top of the ball. That lasted for about three balls. And then they went back to the freezer.



In other news... I have a freezer full of cookie dough that can't be baked. But they are frozen enough to be stab-able now, so I've been using lollipop sticks to pick them up off the cookie sheet.



Creativity. It's just not as appreciated in the kitchen.

p.s. We have some decorations in our house! And a couch! Come visit!
p.p.s. I leave for Peru on Saturday!

The Spy Bar

I went to a spy bar (called The Safe House) in Milwaukee this weekend - it was quite amazing. The escape route/ secret exit was closed, and I've heard that's one of the best things about it, but I would say it was still worth it. There are no advertisements or signs for the bar, and to enter, you either have to know the password or do some silly task (usually involving a hula hoop or the can-can) for the bookshelf to open up and let you in. Once inside, there are televisions monitoring the entrance room so that you can see what people have to do. There are a lot of spy-things (decor, jails, ejection seats, one-way windows) inside. It was great.

As was Milwaukee- I was there visiting Cara and Nate. First thing on the docket? Eclipse. (For me and Cara, anyway. Not Nate.) It was great - the wolves actually looked scary, not like the little arctic pups they appeared to be in the second movie... only complaint was that one character (who has been in all three films) suddenly generated a Southern accent after reminiscing about his past. Oops. Maybe the directors should have thought of that before filming the first two movies? Or at least before starting to film this one?

From all of this, I managed to take one picture - of funfetti brownies: a birthday cake for Cara and I! (Our birthdays are a week apart.) And then I didn't want Nate to feel left out, and immediately forgot how old he really is (24) so I added an "& 5". Luckily, going one year older means that I just pretended it was a birthday cake for his birthday... coming up in March?

Oh well. I'll let you know if I attempt to create any other fancy treats, but I might be all sweeted out from those brownies right now. And the free cookie on the plane. Here are my next recipes I want to try:

Summer squash pizza

Portobello, Broccoli, and red pepper melts

Spinach Mascarpone Pasta

And... just so you know that I am still the Julie you all know and love (yes, I am wearing mismatched pajamas right now... but I was actually talking about sweets): Chocolate chip cookie dough balls

I'll let you know what is going on - I think I'm going to have a lot of life updates in the next few weeks. And my Peru fundraising is going really well! Thanks everybody!!! Please remember to pray for me and my team, especially once we're down there. Our plane tickets were supposedly purchased on Friday.

Congratulations, America! Another year of independence: achieved!

Because I don't have any pictures from the weekend (a direct result of leaving the camera in the car) I will attempt to recap the weekend in a humorous and witty way. I found this weekend a set of hilarious mishaps, so I will share here. And if you want to know more details, feel free to ask me. I just am not planning to subject all three of you who read this blog to all the details.




The weekend begins with grandparents and
smores (as if you didn't know that was coming),
wearing red-white-and-blue tie-dye to celebrate our land.
She stares into the smoke of the campfire, watching the embers,
watching the sparks, the flames be fanned,
watching Grandpa's marshmallow go from uncooked to charred
in ten seconds flat.

A long car drive later...


A sunny day with friends at a beach named the Bowl?
What in the name of Lake Michigan could be greater?
Well,
it turns out that the Bowl is named because it is a giant sand dune crater,
and with no clouds in the sky and no foot-shaped ice packs -
She quickly became a hater.
A slight pause for dramatic effect as I check the soles of my feet for blisters. There are none- but I am legitimately surprised. 
It was too sunny to have too much fun,
but they played in the surf and the waves and the towels until later,
they winced their way back up and down the formidable crater,
leaving a cell phone behind with a friend - she wouldn't have climbed back over
if you'd have paid her.

Part of the problems with cell phone usage nowadays is that I rarely look up directions to anywhere. Cell phones have google maps for directions, and other people's phone numbers for directions. Unfortunately, we were in the middle of a small lake town without any knowledge of anything except the direction west. The lake narrowed down our possible directions to head from four to three. Time until the wedding? One hour.


The kind words of a biker led the girls close to their desired spot - but first!
a Captain Sundae!
And in the bathroom of the Captain, the girls wiped off the worst
of the sand, sun, and stream; trading their suits and their shades for black dress -- and ice cream.
And with ten minutes to spare, the girls pulled in - to an open driveway with a little girl playing within.
"Please tell us, dear one, how to get to this church!"
"Mommy?" she called, as if they were cursed... (Maybe we should have offered her more candy?)
But Mommy and Daddy came out to save the day - turns out, the wedding's only five minutes away!
Now with five minutes to spare, we pulled in the church
and sat with dear friends, watching the wedding couple burst
with joy.

And then we went bowling, and I only threw the ball behind me one time.
The songs were plentiful, the pins were not (or were, depending on how you look at it),
My phone returned, to Ohio I went back,
leaving you, dear reader, to know that I wish you a happy weekend
and that you'd cut my writing some slack.

Guess what? I'm back.


I think most everyone knows that I am going on a mission trip to Peru at the end of June, but I'm putting this brief little information up here!

In the spirit of loving God and loving others, I have prayed about and decided to join a mission team to Andahuaylas, Peru, for nine days this summer. 

You may be wondering what could have possibly inspired me to sign on to a mission trip in the Andes Mountains. Was it because the dates fit perfectly in between quarters and summer weddings? Because the word Peruvian rolls off the tongue so nicely? Maybe it was because the trip had an asterisk next to its name that signified a possibility of “intense physical demands”? (Let’s be honest, that was influential.) Or that the organization we’ll be working with has a care program for children and a program for mothers to create micro-businesses? (If you have heard me talk about Half The Sky by Nicholas Kristof or other women’s issues, you already know that I strongly support micro-businesses for women.)

Those are great reasons, but the catalyst was the constant reminder that God has placed before me (and all of us) to take care of the widow, the orphan, and the exile. That call guides and inspires my research at OSU, and I believe that this trip will teach me more about loving God and loving others, particularly in this village.

This trip will work with ministries already in place (see www.friendsofperu.com) and our work will include evangelism, work in a family-owned children’s center that also fosters micro-businesses for the mothers, and transporting Bibles to nearby homes. The trip is through Heritage Christian Church in Westerville, Ohio, and it is the church’s first trip to this location. It’s scheduled for August 28 through September 6 of this summer.

My other summer plans include some trips to Michigan, some weddings, some running, some studying neuroscience (yeah, that's going really well) and developing an online course based on the child development course that I taught spring quarter. That will end up being my Masters project, so it will be great to get that out of the way and to get some credit for the work.

This quarter, I'm taking a course on Structural Equation Modeling (again, but the professor doesn't know that!) and adolescent literature (for teachers). 

I recommend: 

Witness  - Karen Hesse. A story of the KKK entering a small, Vermont town told from many characters. 

Jacob Have I Loved - katherine paterson - Interesting to read just after reading the (adult-ish) novel Prep. Both have these incredibly self-focused narrators in which the reader can easily tell the narrator has a skewed perception. It makes me think about how I am viewing the world. 

I'm sure I'll have more, but there are still 3 more weeks of that class!

After this week (I actually have a lot of work this week) I hope to have time to cook some yummy things with fresh fruit and veggies, as well as to read Sense and Sensibility. I've never read it before, so I thought I should. 

such 'citing things!

Gah, a couple updates.
1. Guess where I was?

Denver!
2. Guess what I won in Denver?

An honorable mention for my lovely poster! (See it? It;s the little paper tacked to the corner.) That's me, next to my poster. We had fun in Denver that's not photographed here, including mostly restaurants and some really fun runs in the sunrise because 5:30 in Denver felt so late! I was at a conference for Society for Prevention Research (actually, my honorable mention won me a year membership) and we talked a lot about preventing things.

3. Guess what I've been cooking?

Some yummy chocolate chip cookies for Stephen for suggesting a good label name for my creeper stories (although they're temporarily on hiatus since it's warm enough to bike again.)

And I had a nice attempt at making cereal. It kind of worked, except the liquid didn't spread all the way out, so there are some cereal-pieces and then some burnt-oat pieces... But I liked it. And I'm going to try again. Now, can someone tell me why More with Less doesn't explain how to add in extremely condensed marshmallow charms?

4. Guess where I'm going this summer? Everywhere. I will update more later!

Unanswerable letters

thank you, Columbus. (marathon training group + a sister)

Dear Makers of Snuggie,

I believe I have found something that is better to do in a regular blanket than in a Snuggie. I was sitting at my computer, wearing my roommate's OSU Snuggie, pretty much looking as attractive as I get - as I'm sure my Michigan fan-friends agree - when the timer rang for the cookies. Unfortunately, cookie tray removal is something that is harder in a Snuggie than in a regular blanket. While I often appreciate the sleeves, they do not act as effective potholders. While I often get annoyed that I slouch enough for the Snuggie to slip forward off my shoulders, it is ever-so-much-more annoying when it slips forward into the oven's vicinity. Luckily for me and my lack of renter's insurance, I was able to handle the difficulty. But, Snuggie Makers, if I were to make a commercial for a regular blanket, I might use an anti-Snuggie moment of pulling cookies out of the oven. I might not be able to change the channel or answer the phone, but I would be able to lean into heated kitchen appliances.

Your fan,

Me.

Dear Unknown Song,

You were amazing last night at Veritas' service. I knew I would want to copy down the lyrics and listen to you on repeat, but I only remember one line ("you are strong, when I am weak") which is, apparently, in quite a large number of Christian songs. If I figure it out, or we sing it again - I will be sure to give you credit for slowing me down on such a glorious Sunday.

Your fan,

Me.

To My Personal Library,

Thank you for sharing your wealth of knowledge on factors influencing parenting teens and educational attainment and program evaluations of community groups desiring to help. If only there was a nationally representative sample of data, or more input on the directionality of the influence... But alas, poor Yorick, it seems like this will be a good topic to write a 10-12 page paper on these methodological issues.

I was intrigued, MPL, by Julia McSweeney (assuming she's related to McSweeney's literary site) and her article in This American Life on learning more about the Bible. She reads the controversy, which most people do skip right over, and makes some great points that are worth discussing. For example, Jesus speaks in parables all the time - not even His disciples understand - why didn't he just switch to speaking so that others would know what He meant?

Lastly, I am hoping you will continue to grow. I appreciate the time-filling you give me, the time you take away, the non-fiction and the fiction, but I'd love to learn of some good (amateur or not-as-amateur) creative writing blogs. I recently introduced you to Three Stories High, a poetry/ creative venture sight by an educator in Baltimore. Unfortunately, she is so much aligned with my interests that I am afraid to keep looking and find some duds. So, if you want to get to your other library friends (dear readers, this is a metaphor for you) and share any creative writing authors or sites that they enjoy, I would gladly thank them.

Thanks again,

Me.

Dear Grand Rapids,

I am coming to visit in a few weekends. Get excited.

Sincerely,

A Former Resident.

Get ready for the longest post ever - a.k.a. Blame it on the cin-ci-ci-ci-cin-cinnamon....

I am going to try to keep this short, but I kind of had the best. weekend. ever. and want to share it this way in case you don't really care and only want to glance at pictures.

Friday: Family wedding in Cleveland - lots of fun. Also, rented Billy Collins' Sailing Around the Room and The Best American Non-required Reading of 2006 which has some good short stories, Onion headlines, a military blog, and more. I may have officially dropped any desire I previously had to be a barista. On the plus side - nothing like a good laugh, right? We also developed a game where you say a mood (the more obscure, the better) and immediately take a picture. None were on my camera - perhaps Adventures in Waco or facebook will eventually pop up with pantomimed hunger, indignance, and bad-Christmas-present.

Sunday: If you want to see pictures of me running 26.2 miles (don't worry, it's not a 4:33.12-long video), go to marathonfoto.com. My bib number was 4525, and yes, we are doing the Single Ladies dance at the beginning pictures. By the end, Kristi and I are dancing to Miley (we knew two lines) or Taylor Swift (who is quite hard to sing when you're out of breath, turns out.)

Summary of the Columbus marathon - I loved it! I am sore, but not as much as I thought I'd be, and running with the gang was so much fun. I didn't walk at all - but I did not have the stomach to eat Buckeyes at mile 26. Sorry, Mr. Thomas. Great idea, sort of. And if you want a good laugh, ask my friends what it was like to watch me on the subway stairs. And if you too just ran a marathon, and you've heard that walking backwards feels better- it does, but I caution you: walking backwards UP the stairs is not as helpful. You might fall down, back to square zero. (It's worse than square one.)

I had this cake waiting for me, courtesy of my roommate, who cheered me on in a couple of places.

Then, I darted off to a last-minute trip to NYC. Do you all know how much I miss the city? Long story short - I got randomly invited (as an interested observer) to a "convening" / critical conversations meeting on pregnant and mothering teens. People whose research I have been reading for the past few years were in attendance, in addition to educators, NYC lawyers, and community organizers. It was really interesting, and I'm really glad I went. Hopefully, I'll be able to stay in touch with them and possibly have a vested inference in helping the orhan-widow-exile-case of the pregnant and mothering teens. If this interests you, I can tell you more later. Or in future blog posts, you may not have a choice.

The meeting was at Fordham's Lincoln Center campus, so afterward, I walked through Central Park. (I didn't even walk backward for any of this walk!) I stayed with some friends and had a lot of fun. We also briefly played the moods-camera game, but I am not attaching any of those photos. Most with me in them end up looking like the suggested mood was "laughing really hard!" and who wants to put up pictures that they're not in?

We went out to eat Monday night at Dok Suni, a Korean restaurant, and then to Max Brenner's, a chocolate bar. While we may not have had the best experience - entertaining, at least - I had a s'mores sundae that was so rich and tasty I didn't know what to do with myself. Below, you can see the marshmallows - and that's not a spoon-out-of-the-jar-marshmallow creme. It's the real stuff.

Today, I flew back to Columbus. One thinig that I learned on my trip is that my approachable-ness breaches even New Yorkers' codes of conduct. I like hearing random stories, and when randoms say hello to me as I'm searching for cocoa sprinkles in Starbucks.

Long story short - er, long story long - running = awesome. friends = awesome. new york = awesome. convening = awesome. cake + s'mores ice cream + naps = delectable.

it takes two. it always takes two.

I planned on waiting until I had something that you would be interested in reading, but alas, I do not have the patience. Instead, I'm going to throw some lessons I've learned post-graduation.

Lesson #1. Things happen in twos.
Two weddings (see Lesson #2), two different people cracking headlights on my car... Once in a hotel parking lot graduation weekend (rear tail-light cracked) and once this morning parked on my own street (front tail-light MIA.) Luckily, both parties left notes with numbers and apologies. I'm hoping the Kia dealership has some sort of frequent-buyer deal. I bowled my two worst games (found out in the 6th frame of the second game that I was using the wrong fingers; never did find out which hand I should be using.)

Lesson #2. Bridesmaids surprisingly have a lot of free time on their hands.
Weddings of friends are lots of fun. Two of my housemates got married the past two weekends, one in Cincinnati and one in Grand Rapids. I don't have any pictures from the Cincinnati ceremony - but I figure that's all right, since this blog is about me. (I did include one of the bride and groom from the second wedding. Her family is a little more on top of facebook.)

Ex. 1
Sneaking pudding at Tessa's wedding. I've spared my conspirator by not putting in any pictures of her.

Ex. 2. We were waiting in the nursery for Cara

"I knew things were going to turn around some time!"

I went to St. Louis for the end of my spring break and it was a lot of fun. We saw the arch, the art museum, Missouri Botanical Garden, the St. Louis Walk of Fame (although it was rainy) and a myriad of restaurants and basketball games.

Kate Chopin is one of my favorite authors. I'm sure there was something saddening and artistic I could do with her description halfway underwater, but since it was currently raining, I felt no real need for inspiration. Alas, to quote Kate herself, "so the storm passed and everyone was happy."












Yogi Berra, born in The Hill (close to where I stayed.)







































Our gelato server inspired me. I found a penny under the counter, and told him as I dropped the penny in, "Look, a penny for you!" He responded with (not despondently or sarcastically), "I knew things were going to turn around sometime!"
What a joyful outlook! I've also been reminded the past few days that it's not always about God answering with a yes or no to our decisions, but it's about us honoring God with our choices. That's helped me as I thought about racing at Nationals, as I think about The Future, as I contemplate the trappings of life... And who knew, the deliverer of good gelato was also a deliverer of good news!

Besides that, Mrs. Lincoln, how did you like the play?

The training trip in Florida is something every swimmer dreams about, whether it's preseason, mid-season, or at naptime during the trip.
Some dream to remember, some dream to forget...
In that way, it is a little like the Hotel California. All in all, it's such a lovely place (any time of year) but really - it feels like you can never leave. Many of us spend practices, days, the whole week, attempting to check out, but we are stuck. And often checking out is just as painful as putting your head down, taking the steely knives, and trying to kill the beast. I'm proud to say, this is the first year that I haven't "checked out" or just written off any practices, unless you count the stretch cord set - which, you probably do. But all the same, I held my own. After all - I was a prisoner there, of my own device.

Enough with the intense connection between The Eagles and the Training Trip. I spent the mornings before our first practice down at the pool restaurant overlooking Deerfield Beach. This picture is the beginning of the sunrise on the last day we were there.
Coral Springs Aquatic Center - this is the pool we trained at! We've trained here for the past 3 years actually, so it's almost a little sad to say goodbye. (If you're looking for me in this picture, I am in the second lane over, heading away from the photographer, probably trying not to drown or to get Hotel California out of my head. Whichever was easiest to concentrate on.
Every year, the swim team has a party. This year's theme was the "Dark Knight" - because of the movie and Calvin is the Knights - so this is Cara in her batman costume and me in my black (dark night?) pajamas.
The senior girls - I asked our assistant coach to think of a pose that says, "We are done and never have to do this again!" - This is what we came up with. 22+ hours of training within 6 days, getting over 10,000 yards every day - it's a rite of passage that all swim teams go through. And we never have to do one again.

"we may lose and we may win -
but we will never be here again.
so open up, I'm climbing in -
so take it easy."

It's Christmastime in Chicago

Downtown Chicago over the weekend.
At the bean - SURPRISE!
The ice skating rink is in the reflection of the bean - it was at Millennium Park, and you can skate for free. Skate rental costs money, but I have a lovely roommate who owns ice skates so we just carried them in on the train and skated around.
In case there is any confusion, here is a lovely sign instructing us at the ice rink.
Are you ready for the grand finale? I got to meet SANTA!! Who knows how to ice skate, although... not very well. This put us both in such a festive mood that Josh sang Christmas carol after Christmas carol. I had to say, "Josh. There is only so much that one can listen to Christmas carols. Especially the versions by Jessica Simpson and Taylor Swift. Come on, sir."
To which he responded "ONLY FIVE LINES OF CHRISTMAS SONGS! NOT FIVE WHOLE SONGS!"
To which I really have no response to, because it's 'true'.

Marathons and polygons

With swimming going on, it's been quite busy for me the past few weeks. Taking naps so that I can practice from 8-10pm and then still wake up at 5:30 to be prepared for school every day... Lifting, remembering to eat dinner... But, I'm still having fun and I'm about halfway through the semester, which is weird.

I went to Chicago this weekend. Ran in the Chicago marathon! (Keep reading, please.) To get to the brown line, we had to cross the runners' path, which meant running at a diagonal so that we didn't intrude on anyone's running space. Diana, I didn't see any hot dog costumes or barefoot people. (Morgan, I didn't even see any creative anniversary shirts. Toronto must have been better.)
Josh and I were heading to see his family friends (the mom swam for Michigan, actually!). The two girls were very cute - and Ayla, who would duck her head under the table if Josh so much as made eye contact with her, wanted me to hold her and sat on my lap eating french fries at lunch. Also, she wanted to show me her elephant costume. (See below.)



She's in the middle of putting her arm up to be an elephant trunk, which is apparently the noise an elephant makes.

Lastly, this Wednesday I'm playing with Geogebra.org with the classes. If you're ever bored, you should go play around with it... Especially the people reading this who like math. You can make all sorts of polygons and slide points around and stuff. Lots of technology-laden geometry.

And, I'm still wasting my time splendidly looking at graphjam.com and failblog.org. Here's one from each as a little teaser:
English class, anyone?

And, yes, there are some people who know that I'm making fun of them with this one.