The fabric of our lives.

Last night I was on the phone with my friend Cristin. We were talking about curtains for the dining room, and so I posted these in the hopes that she would have great ideas. She did, but I got too distracted by the fact that our dining room is a COMPLETE MESS. Adam said I could blame it on him. I always do anyway. So, here are some crappy pix of our dining room. If you have great curtain ideas, let me know!

Interpersonal on the Interweb

Every few years, it seems like someone brings out the Humans Have Too Much Technology And We're All Going to Lose Every Interpersonal Skill That We Spent 50,000 Years Evolving* trumpet and gives it a big ol' toot. I refuse to worry about that until the day that I can use Google to search on the topic: Books my mom would like for her birthday.




*Unless, of course, you're a Creationist, in which case you're more likely to blow the Humans Have Too Much Technology and We're All Going to Hell trumpet.

Saving the world, one basket at a time...

A friend from college, Melinda Van S., sent me the link to her fair trade website, Heart of the Sky. Melinda was a human rights observer in Guatemala several years ago, and she sent me an email that I have never forgotten. I hope she'll forgive me if I post an edited version:

"Late March, 2001
Dear Friends and Family,
Heidy-ho, friends and family. Tis I, Melinda.
Big news here on the South Coast of Guatemala. Using the parclance of our times, esta cayendo mucha pero mucha lluvia. That is to say, it has been raining. A lot. This is a good thing, of course, as now the people can get their crops planted.
On the day that the rains came I saved a baby pigs life. The saving the baby pigs life is directly related to the rains so if you will indulge me I will just continue. (I was also attacked by a duck that day, but that is neither here nor there.)

The day that the rains came started out ordinary (ly?) enough.... Around five the rain let up a little bit, so I rushed home, grabbed my Emergency Poncho, (that´s what it says on the bag it came in) and headed for supper. The Emergency Poncho quickly proves to be ill named as it is stylishly designed with holes cut in the side for your arms but what is the point of having a rain poncho with holes in it? Really. By the time I get to Maria´s house I am soaked to the skin, but remarkably I am not crabby because 1. Everyone else is as wet as I am. and 2. The mood in the house is EXUBERANT! It´s raining! Now we can get a head start on the corn planting!

When I finished eating I was stuck with a dilemma because it was still pouring. I waited around until 6:00, then I decided to go home while it was still relatively light. My Emergency Poncho proved yet again to be useless and I had to walk calf-deep in water and mud. As I came to the little stream, my heart sank. Three hours ago I had walked across it and didn’t even get my ankles wet. Now it looked like it would be waist deep. As I was standing there working up my nerve, I heard “SQUEAL! SQUEAL! SQUEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAL!!!!!” or whatever it is that pigs say in Spanish. (Or Kekchi, as the Mayan language may be.) I looked up and saw my fifteen year old neighbor with her three year old brother under one arm and a piglet under the other. She started to cross the river, but it was almost chest deep on her, and as she got in the middle she started to lose her balance. “Melinda!” She half shouted/half laughed to me. “Help!” Bravely, without any concern for my own personal safety, (note the hearty sarcasm) I plunged into the river, positioned myself downstream, and yelled back to her, “Drop the pig! Drop the pig!” She dropped the pig in the river and repositioned her brother under her arm as I grabbed the pig as he was swept downstream. I stuck the little piggy under my arm and we walked to the safety of my neighbor´s house. We all had a good laugh and then I went home.

In non-swine related news, I had an extremely humbling experience the other week. I had had a horribly difficult morning. (In retrospect, it was my reaction that made it difficult, not so much the situation.) I had spent two hours at the women´s cooperative store trying to make a phone call, and the only reason the call wouldn´t go through was because the store lady didn´t know how to use the phone. (After dialing my number, she would press ´cancel´ instead of ´send.´) So I found my patience and my cultural sensitivity to be at an all time record low, and I found myself thinking the dreaded “I” word. Ignorant. “She is so IGNORANT!!!” I fumed to myself. Finally I just could not take it one second more and I grabbed the phone and did it myself using my infinite wisdom, no problem at all.

That afternoon a delegation from Witness For Peace came. For those not familiar with Witness For Peace, they are a top notch non governmental organization that works to change U.S. policy regarding Latin America. The have some stellar publications out. My favorite would be A Crude Awakening, which is an investigative report on the oil industry in Guatemala, the World Bank, U.S. policy, and how it all relates to each other. Top notch, I tell you. Anyway, they came with about fourteen college students, and two of them happened to stay at my neighbor´s house. They came over for a visit, and it was nice to get the news from home, ranging from the Navy sinking the Japanese fishing boat to Eminem winning the Grammy. As is par for the course, an entourage of neighbor kids came over to watch us and listen to us talk in our “dialecto.” One of the delegation people had a super sonic space age watch that told you what time it was in any number of countries. And I mean literally told the time. All you had to do was press a button and it would say, "It is 1:30 pm in Guatemala. It is 2:30 pm in New York." Etc. The neighbor kids were fascinated by this. One of the delegation guys said something to the effect that it was too bad that these kids did not know about something as simple as a watch.

After awhile the two delegation people got ready to leave and asked if they could wash their hands. I pointed to my water bucket, my little scooping bowl, and my soap. Now, my fatal flaw was that I assumed that they knew that you scoop out some water with the bowl, then wash your hands in the bowl. But no. They plunged their filthy hands into my water bucket, dirtying my water supply for the entire day. The neighbor kids gasped—they had never seen people who didn´t even know about something as simple as washing their own hands. “What? What are we doing wrong?” the delegation people asked. I explained, and they turned fifteen shades of red. “We just didn´t know. I guess we´re just ignorant.”

Ouch.

When they left I just sat there and thought about a phrase one of my professors was fond of using, “prestige knowledge,” which just means that we tend to judge other people by how closely their knowledge resembles ours, and how I need to be more conscious of that.

So this story is probably longer than it needs to be, (brevity is not one of my strong points) but it was a very important reminder for me. Reminding me that just because someone is computer literate in the first world does not mean that they know how to wash their hands in the third world. Reminding me not to confuse technology for progress. Reminding me that some of the most sophisticated, intellectual, analytical people I know cook over an open fire, eat with their hands, have never heard of Jennifer Lopez, don´t know how to use a phone, and tell time by the sun. Reminding me to always remind myself of that....

Sadly, there will be no full time accompanier is Nuevo Mexico after I leave, simply due to a lack of funds. I get nervous when people say, "But Guatemala is a country at peace. The Accords were signed five years ago. I´m putting my money towards where it's really needed." The statement about Guatemala being a country at peace is dangerously inaccurate. Threats and attacks on human rights workers and their families are escalating. Just ask any number of my friends. True, there hasn´t been a state sponsored massacre in six years, but it that really a comforting thought? And the soldiers implicated with that massacre weren´t punished. So much for justice. So much for peace.

Moreover, the fact of the matter is that the people of Nuevo Mexico want accompaniment. Having internationals in their community was a condition for their return. They fought for that right. They stood up and said, "We are not leaving the safety of Mexico unless we are ensured that we can have an international presence in our community." It pains and angers me to see Guatemala losing focus. After all they´ve seen, how dare we be so presumptous as to say to them, “Well, the Peace Accords have been signed, so see you around.”

“But now it´s a different struggle.” That´s what Nicolas, the president of Nuevo Mexico says. When I ask him to explain further, he talks about the obvious, such as despite the promises, there is running water for only two hours a day, the dirt road that links Nuevo Mexico to the nearest city is in deplorable condition and will only get worse as the rains continue, (It takes over an hour to go only eight miles. That may not seem to be overly important unless you are my friend Maria Gloria and you wake up one morning to find your baby grey and barely breathing, which leads me to my next point...) the nearest doctor is over an hour away, and that´s only if you´re lucky and there´s a truck right there handy. Otherwise you have to run up the road and hope to God that you find someone with a truck. Etc. etc. etc. Point being, the Peace Accords, while signed, are not being implemented, and the only way they will be implemented is through international pressure. And the only way for there to be international pressure is if the international community is aware of what is happening. And the best way for the international community to become aware of what is happening is for there to be international people on the ground. That´s why it is imperative that we are here. That´s why it is essential that this work be supported.

I'd like to share a quote with you that has been very powerful for me.

"The only dream worth having is to dream that you will live while you are alive and die only when you are dead. To love. To be loved. To never forget your own insignificance. To never get used to the unspeakable violence and the vulgar disparity of the life around you. To seek joy in the saddest places. To pursue beauty to its lair. To never simplify what is complicated or complicate what is simple. To respect strength, never power. Above all, to watch. To try to understand. To never look away. And never, never to forget.” Arundhati Roy

That quote, in particular To never look away. And never, never to forget. reminds me of an experience I had not too long ago. I was over at Carlota´s house, just hanging out, shelling corn, and as I was heading out the door for home Carlota stopped me. “Melinda. If you are ever hungry, come here.” I thanked her and kept walking. She called me back. “Melinda. I don´t think you understand what I am saying. If ever, ever you are hungry, come here. If there is a war in your country and there is no food, come back here, to community Nuevo Mexico. And tell your family and tell your friends. If there is ever a war in your country and the soldiers come to your house and take your land you can come back here, and we will help you, because we remember. Tell your family. Tell your friends.”

Consider yourselves told. If there is ever a war, and if we have no place to go, and if we are hungry, there is a community of returned refugees on the south coast of Guatemala who will help us because they remember. They will never, never forget. And we must never look away.


Melinda"

Who are the people in your neighborhood?

A certain friend of ours--we'll call him Mr Smith (name accurate to reflect the guilty)--is looking for roommates to move into his house. We can vouch that he's a good guy, and the house is a nice house, and the neighborhood is a decent neighborhood. Let us know if you want more info.

Here's his dealio:

So... I'm renting out my house. Anyone need a place to live? I've got 2 bedrooms upstairs that are big and have walk-in closets. Nice bathroom upstairs as well. Main floor has living, dining, sun room and kitchen. I'll be in the basement, trying to fix it up and make it a bit more segregated from the laundry room.

Also, there's a 2 car garage out back. I have my boat in the 3rd outdoor spot, so your choices are to park in the garage or on the street out front. Rent will be $400/mo and if you want my spot in the garage it's $25/mo additional. We split gas, electric and water between the 3 (hopefully) of us.

Gas = $30(summer)-$160(winter)
Elec = $45-50 year round
Water = $40-50

June or July move in times, but if you want to move stuff in before then, that can be arranged.

Insert tired cliche song lyrics here

It is officially lawn care season. I know this because when I was trying to rake the boulevard and mulch it into my raspberry patch, it started to rain on me. It stopped raining sometime last night. Which was awesome for the grass seed that Adam has been putting down in the backyard, but not so great for my plans. It's a conspiracy.

Right now our yard looks like something out of a horror movie. Dead grass here, trampled flowers there, fence around flowers falling over, patches of bare dirt. It's really rather uninspiring. I don't need (or even want) my yard to look like it just stepped out of Home & Garden Magazine. Those yards are like Michael Jackson's face: unnatural. I just want my yard to not be the ugliest one on the block. I don't think it's too much to ask.

We've been talking about a lot of projects lately, like expanding our patio, or putting in a deck, or planting new trees, or putting in a different clothesline. But we've decided that we need to develop an overall picture of how we'd like our lawn to be. I don't want to lose the space to play yard games, but Adam's really interested in having more shade on the lawn and the house. I want the dog to be able to run around in the yard, but I also want some untrampled flowers. So we'll have to figure out what we really want, and then maybe we can do a couple of things toward that this year.

You know, once it stops raining on me.

Pacifying Adia

Adia says we should post to our blog more often. So, now you know what it takes to get us to update this: whining and nagging.

We're sick of winter. We have the new bicycle jogger to try out with Arrow, so we can all get more exercise. I have coffee grounds and tea bags to mulch into the raspberry patch. We are going to try to rehabilitate the lawn, and maybe plant some trees. We have our new outdoor fireplace to try out. It's time to stop having forecasts like this.

I'm in rehearsals for In the Basement's Burning Bright, which will perform through May. Adam is still enjoying the new job, and has been working on lots of electronics projects. So, now you can all bother him about an update.

Even my Dad thinks I'm old

Mel Turns 30

Come celebrate on Saturday March 31st

Nye's Polonaise

10:00 pm

Time's Person of the Year

Was you, if you'll recall. Especially if you post things on the internet. Like this:

Mikey made me do it

Right. The dealio is, I blog about 6 things that are odd about me. Then I tag six people, who blog about 6 things that are odd about them. Lather, rinse, repeat.

• TAG: smochs
• TAG: Angie
• TAG: Brian
• TAG: Stephanie
• TAG: Tabetha
• TAG: Brent [aaah! Brent's link no workie! aaah!]

Right. Six things that are odd about me.

1. In the year of my birth, my name was the 667th most popular girl's name.
2. I have never met another Asian stage manager. The closest I've gotten is Meredith, who dates an Asian guy.
3. I like to eat cherries, but not things that are cherry flavored. I like to eat things that are banana flavored, but not bananas.
4. I have the bunions of a 60 year old Chinese peasant.
5. I read at least 6 books a month.
6. I like you.

My boss the TV star

One of the news stations in town does an "I Wonder" feature, where they take viewer questions and answer them. This is the newscast of the I Wonder What Happened To The Weatherball.

The Weatherball used to be on top of the Northwestern Bank building in Minneapolis. It was destroyed in a fire, and the new building was a huge skyscraper designed by Cesar Pelli. That was about the time Northwestern became Norwest, and eventually Norwest bought Wells Fargo and took that name. When the Norwest Center became the Wells Fargo Center, they opened the Museum on the second floor, and that's where we have our replica Weatherball.

Watch the segment! My boss Megan does a great job!

Hibernation

Jeweler's Shop closed. I am back from three days of work meetings in CA. The Super Bowl is over. What can there possibly be to blog about?

• Adam's new job!
• Jane Austen movie marathons!
• Cleaning!
• Projects to get done before April!
• I turn 30!
• We see theatre!
• Tabetha meets yet another famous person!
• Brian posts more than Tab, Smochs and Thornes combined!
• What plant has Arrow destroyed today!
• New tires!
• Other expensive car maintenance!

Never fear, dear readers. Our intrepid heroes will come out of blog hibernation. You might even get pictures.

Why I haven't been posting

Commedia Beauregard is proud to announce its production of

The Jeweler’s Shop

by Pope John Paul II

directed by Christopher O. Kidder

The play will be performed at the Loading Dock Theatre in Saint Paul on the following dates:

January 12 … 7:30 p.m.

January 13 … 7:30 p.m.

January 14 … 2 p.m.

January 18 … 7:30 p.m.

January 19 … 7:30 p.m.

January 20 … 7:30 p.m.

January 21 … 2 p.m.

January 22 … 7:30 p.m.*

January 25 … 7:30 p.m.

January 26 … 7:30 p.m.

January 27 … 7:30 p.m.

January 28 … 2 p.m.

*Monday, January 22, is Pay-What-You-Can Night

The show features the many talents of Suzin Hoagland, Christopher Kehoe, Katherine Kupiecki, Brian Hesser, Alan Stage, Jamie Dix, Clarence Wethern, Abby DeSanto, Phyllis (Mel) Thorne, Forest Godfrey, Sasha Walloch, David Lind and Erin Schroeder.

The most widely produced of the plays by Pope John Paul II, The Jeweler's Shop made its Off-Broadway debut in 1994. This poetic drama explores the aspects of human existence expressed through love and marriage. Three couples learn along the journey of life that we are all looking for the same thing – Love. Will they find it? One couple is torn apart by death of the husband, but their love lives on in their child. Another couple is tempted by infidelities. A third couple, about to unite, is made up of the children of the first two marriages. Will their union stand a chance? What does it mean to love? Newsday called this drama about love and family, "Marvelous. A message for our times." Gannett Newspapers described it as "surprisingly secular" and a "compelling evening of entertainment that touches the audience in unexpected ways."

Tickets are $18 ($12 for Seniors/Students, or w/ a Fringe Button) and are available through http://www.ticketworks.com or by calling 651-209-6689.

Commedia Beauregard’s Website: http://www.cbtheatre.org

Month the Twelfth: December 2006

In which our hero and our heroine agree: we need more sleep

Adath's Suessical went up. The parents loved it.

I started rehearsals for The Jeweler's Shop, because Kidder fired his SM and begged me to take over.

Adam started working on the amp for his new speakers.

I'm still working at the bookstore, too.

We went to Madison for Christmas.

Adam's parents came up to stay at our house this week.

We get to see Smochs tomorrow night while she's visiting from Korea.

We get to see Annie on Saturday night while she's visiting from NYC.

WHERE'S THE SNOW??

And a partridge in a pear tree. Thank you, thank you. I'll be here all week. Please tip your wait staff.

Month the Eleventh: November 2006

In which our hero buys the sports car of his dreams

Okay, well, it's not quite Adam's dream car, but it's pretty sweet all on it's own. We ended up one weekend with three cars that didn't run and I had a fit and demanded that we go and buy a new car. So we did. We bought a 2003 Nissan Sentra SER Spec V, a Sunburst Yellow 6-speed, and Adam's been thoroughly enjoying it. He's enjoying it so much that he's blocked all memory of having the 1993 Sentra, which is still in the driveway. Anyone want it? Put a new clutch in, it's all yours!

I was still in rehearsals for the youth group musical, which was slowly looking like it might fool the parents into thinking it was actually theatre, and working at the bookstore, which was slowly contributing to a list of possible Christmas presents for our families.

With the dining room project done, Adam launched into a project for himself--he built himself a pair of stereo speakers. They sound quite good, too, which has made several of his guy friends suggest a similar project for themselves, which would be fun for Adam but unfortunate for the list of projects that I wrote for Adam to do. Go figure.

Erin and Scott stopped by right before Thanksgiving on their drive from WA to IN, going back for one of Erin's job placements and hoping to find a job for Scott and stay in the Indy area. We never get to spend enough time with them, so it was really nice to be able to host them for a few days.

My parents came up for Thanksgiving, which was nice since we were so busy up here. Mom did some Christmas shopping at the bookstore, and Dad made super yummy Cornish Rock Hens for Thanksgiving dinner. It was lovely, as usual. I'm sure one of these days, they'll get tired of always coming up for Thanksgiving, but until then I'm going to enjoy the fact that they do!

Month the Tenth: October 2007

In which our hero and his dog have their birthdays and our heroine gets busy

Adam turned 32, Arrow turned 1, and Erin turned 30. For her birthday, we bought Erin a book called 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. Which lived in Adam's car for several weeks until I finally sent her another copy from the bookstore.

Ah, yes. The bookstore. I started working a part time job at the downtown Barnes & Noble, mostly to afford a new car, but also because life is just better with a discount on books. I had also started rehearsals with the Adath Youth Group on their production of Suessical, so any night that I wasn't at rehearsal, I was at the bookstore, and so weekends became the precious house project time.

We had promised ourselves that the dining room would be done by Adam's birthday party, so we were working hard toward that goal. Adam completed the refinishing process on the wood trim, which looks beautiful. We spent an afternoon scrubbing the hardwood floor until that looked nice again. Then we put the rug down, and revelled in what an awesome job we did choosing paint colors. Most of the furniture went back in, and a few of the art pieces went back on the walls, and we were party-ready. In all, that project is 90% done. We still need to replace the outlet hardware and put up curtains, and then it will be complete!

I also went to the eye doctor for the first time in 5 years and ordered myself new glasses. It's amazing how much nicer life is when you can see it clearly. There's all kinds of cliches there that I'm not going to say.

Month the Ninth: September 2006

In which our heroine paints picture rails and then goes on vacation with our hero

With the dining room finally painted, it was time to put up the picture rails. Since our house is over 90 years old, the walls are built out of plaster and lathe, which makes it difficult to hang anything on the wall. Since I refuse to live without artwork, we decided that picture rails were a good idea. I also refused to spend the time making them match the existing trim, so I simply painted them the same color as the walls they are on. We also put picture rails in the upstairs hallway, but those aren't quite finished yet.

We spend the third week of September up at the Cottage with my parents, Alex and Amanda. My cousin Tim took us four-wheeling on some of the trails that they've been building by the hunting camps. We had a lot of fun with that. We also drove up to do some sight seeing by Lake Superior, which I haven't seen in many years. We took Arrow with us on this trip, and he had a blast running around in the marshes that have appeared in the last several years. The water level in Green Bay has been dropping consistantly for years, so instead of 10 feet of beach, we have 100 yards of swamp. We were glad to be there after mosquito season!

Not too much else went on in September, but Google Calendar says I had lunch with lots of downtown friends. Yay, me!

Month the Eighth: August 2006

In which our hero fixes the car and then goes on vacation with our heroine

August was a rollercoaster month. Adam and Chris put a new alternator in the Malibu, after several days of worrying about how to pay for more car repairs. Then Adam drove Arrow up north to stay with Jason the Musher for a week. We then drove over to MI with my parents for my cousin's wedding, and then my folks dropped us off in Chicago. We stayed a night with Karen (thanks, sweetie!) and she drove us to the airport to catch a flight to Grand Cayman. Adam's parents picked us up at that airport and we spent a week with them and with Erin and Scott at the Tortuga Resort. It was a lot of fun to spend time with Adam's side of the family. We see them so seldomly that it's really special when we do.

After vacation, Adam and Jason arranged the second Arrow trade-off, and he came home. Adam found it interesting to see how Arrow's understanding of pack dynamics had changed while visiting his birth pack. At the dog park, Arrow seemed to get along easier with more dogs, which meant everyone had more fun.

August was hot, too, with a week long heat wave that included at least four days over 100 degrees. This was the first year that we had put the A/C units in the windows, and even just running the most efficient on a low setting made a big difference in the temperature inside the house. We had to do a lot of watering outside, and most of the flowers survived, but the lawn was dead by the end of the month. We've started thinking seriously about how we can achieve more shade on the South side of the house, so that we can save our grass. It's no fun playing croquet on dirt.

Month the Seventh: July 2006

In which our hero and heroine hate oil and love latex

July started off really well. We had our usual party on the 4th, which was a great success. Lots of folks came over and had fun playing lawn games and table games. We went up to Powderhorn Park for the fireworks, which were a bit traumatic for the dog, but were fun for the rest of us.

The weekend before the party, we declined an invitation to the UP and decided to paint the dining room walls. We took our color choices to the paint store, and brought home all kinds of paint. Because there had been wallpaper up on the walls, we had to use oil based primers. Man, what a pain the neck! That stuff is so totally annoying. Once the primers were up, we were able to see some of the cracks and divets that we had missed before, so those got plastered up. Then it was on to the real paint, which was latex, thank God.

We started with the South wall, which is the red wall. We had chosen a color that matched our area rug, and we knew that it was going to take a few coats, which it did, but it ended up looking really lovely. The other walls became a nice neutral creamish, and the whole room started to look like a real room again.

Except, you know, for the massively ugly stripped wood. Hmpf.

The rest of July was spent dealing with a huge flat of verbenas that I brought home from the garden store. Note to self: no more flats of flowers! They are pretty plants, but they've taken over the yard. Oops!

Month the Sixth: June 2006

In which our hero and heroine experiment with not-so-hermetic seals

Once MND closed, we were able to go back to spending copious amounts of time sweating together in the dining room--and not in the fun sense. With the wallpaper down, many flaws were revealed in the dining room walls. First, we washed the walls. Then, we plastered up lots and lots of cracks, and some outright holes. We tried to keep the plastered parts from being too rough, but then we decided to just sand the walls entirely to get the last of the paste residue off.

So, we broke out the plastic drop cloth and taped off the door to the kitchen and the archway into the living room. We managed to create an inward air flow from the living room, and supplemented that with fans blowing out the dining room windows. Which was good because we were in there in the middle of June, two already sweaty people with masks on, wielding power sanders. Whew. But, that part went quickly, and then it was just a matter of washing dust off of everything, and then we were ready to paint. Yay!

Five Golden Months: May 2006

In which our heroine takes time off from theatre, and our hero says, "Thank God."

Mu's Midsummer Night's Dream performed in May to very favorable reviews. After closing my fifth show in a calendar year, I intended to take the next calendar year off from theatre. Ha ha ha. Ahem, more on that later.

The dining room redecoration dragged on, with not too much getting done during May. Adam was burned out on working by himself, and we were starting to need to get yardwork done, so that project was pretty much on hold.

Sadly, May was also the month that we began to spend money on car repairs again, which was a disappointing repeat of 2004 and 2005. We started talking seriously about needing more income and a new car for Adam.

May saw Arrow turn 7 months old. He was done with vaccines, he'd been neutered and microchipped, and he was licensed to play. Adam had bought a city dog park license, but we ended up starting to enjoy one of the parks that isn't run by the city. As the days became longer, it was really nice to be able to spend an hour or so letting Arrow run off energy with other dogs.