Random Stuff by Ruth

I'm in love

2012-01-29T01:09:00.000-08:00

I'm completely in love with Adele and her amazing voice. I made a Pandora station called Adele. But then I realized all I really want to do is listen to Adele. I don't want to listen to anyone else right now. So last weekend, after months and months of putting it off, I finally bought her albums 19 and 21. Now I have one in the car and one in the house. She is so passionate and full of emotion. Listening to her makes me feel connected to some place deep and meaningful.

Walk! Be Green!

2012-01-19T19:15:00.000-08:00

New Year's Day Adventure: Orcas Island with the Weiss Family

2012-01-17T04:31:00.000-08:00

This year I celebrated New Year's Eve at work. I woke up New Year's Day with a phone call from my friend Allison Weiss. Allison and I have known each other since junior high band. Over the years I've become friends with her family-- two great parents and ten other siblings. By the time I moved to Portland, OR, the Weiss' had moved to Vancouver and we continued our friendship.

The Weiss' were in Seattle for a family wedding and took time to have a reunion on Orcas Island. They invited me to come join them. Although Alllison and I have kept in touch by phone and facebook over the years, I hadn't seen her or her family since I moved to Prague -- nearly seven years ago.

I've been meaning to explore the San Juans since I moved to Bellingham. But one thing leads to another and I hadn't done it yet. So a quick trip to the Islands was a great way to start off 2012!

I hopped in my car and drove about an hour to the Anacortes Ferry. I parked my car and walked on. Round trip for a walk-on passenger is $12.05. I'm not sure what the extra five cents is for...but it's way cheaper than the $40 for a car. By the time I got to the ferry it was dark.

Here I am on the ferry, excited for some fresh air and a new adventure!

My camera doesn't really capture the subtleties of the various shades of dark. So this is pretty much the best I can do to show you what the San Juans look like at night.

The entire Weiss family wasn't there. But still, with Ma and Pa Weiss, eight of their children, a daughter-in-law and five grand kids, their friend Kim and myself -- there were 20 people in the house! Just a tad more crowded than my apartment where I live with me, myself, and I.

The following day we drove around the island and went to the top of Mt Constitution, the highest peak in the San Juans. We made it just before it started to rain. It was very cold and windy!

This is a view of Lummi Island, Bellingham and the Cascade Mountains.

If you look closely you can see I am pointing out my house.

Here I am with Jennifer, Christine and Kim.

The Weiss Family Choir in action!

Christine, Allison, Jennifer, Cyndy and Deborah.

William, Mark, Jonathon, and Joseph.

Thank you Weiss Family! It was great to see you again!

Christmas 2011

2012-01-17T03:44:00.000-08:00

For Christmas I went to my sister's house. I didn't take very many pictures but here are a few.

Billy and Stu went to a movie on Boxing Day. Paula and I stayed home with Ben. We played an inside ball game where we connected our legs and rolled the ball back and forth.

This is Ben's dog Giki -- it's pronounced Geeky. Giki is sitting on the clean floor. Christmas day you couldn't see the floor very well because every inch was covered in toys and wrapping. I arrived in the afternoon after what looked like had been a very fun morning!

Ben made this amazing Lego man for me. I forgot to take a picture of the headless bodies that littered the floor after he was done.

Paula is a very good Baker!

Thank you Correll's for a fun time!

And to Cousin Ginna for lunch on my way home!

For Book Lovers

2012-01-10T17:25:00.000-08:00

I come from a family of book lovers and readers. My mother's home is filled with books and magazines of all kinds stacked here and there and everywhere. Sometimes when I visit and I ask about a certain book, she says to me, 'That's probably in the garage. You're welcome to look if you'd like." I have yet to take her up on the offer, so I don't know what is in her garage...but years ago there were stacks of storage boxes, filled with...yep, books.

My step-mother loves paperback mystery novels and there is a really cool shelf in my parents house that is literally exploding with books. On one occasion, I was helping host a party at their house and I over heard a guest comment to another guest, "I can't believe all those books! They must spend so much money on books, it's ridiculous!" Her tone indicated she thought this was a waste of money. But I love that the thing my step-mom spends her money on is books and not trips to the mall or make-up or collecting trinkets.

I love reading bed time stories to my nephews. Many of the books on their shelves were on our shelves growing up. I am glad my mom saved those books and that the next generation of our family is enjoying them. At Christmas time, my nephew Levi allowed me to read him a book before his nap. This was the first time he'd let me read him a story and I took this to be a sign of trust and a huge step in the growth of our relationship.

Some of the books I read I check out from the library, borrow from friends, order from Amazon or pick up at one of the local used book stores. I also like to go to the Friends of the Library sales because on the last day you pay $4 for whatever fits in a bag. Then the leftover books get stacked on the 'free' shelf in the library basement. So most of the books I have in my possession I got at the library because they are such a good deal.

When some people travel, they like to try out the local bars and restaurants and museums. While I like doing that as well, I love visiting bookstores. When I went back to Prague, I went first to my favorite parks and my favorite book stores.

I love the comfort being around books brings to me. I used to keep all my books, but then when I moved to Prague I got rid of most of my stuff, including most of my books. Along with most of my other possessions at the time, I felt like I was putting things out into a great flowing, symbolic river of life. I figured the universe had brought the things into my life and I could trust that if I let go, the Great Cosmic River of the Universe would flow those items into the lives of people who needed them, and the things I needed most would flow back into my life when it was time.

And so now, I like to keep books and other things flowing in and out of my life as much as possible. In fact, I get really antsy when I feel like I have too much stuff around and frequently go through and 'purge' and do Goodwill runs. So for the majority of books I read, I don't keep. I started a book journal several years ago where I write down the name of the book, the author and the date I finished reading it. Then I give the book away. Usually I give it back to the Library so they can re-sell it in their book sale or I give it to a friend. I like book recycling. And if I ever want to read it again, I figure it'll be easy enough to find it again...either at the library or on the internet.

Don't get me wrong, I still have books on my shelf that I keep because I still want them or they have sentimental value. I have books written and signed by friends, books that were gifts from friends or about places I've traveled to, and even a book I found in a used book store in town and was almost going to put it back on the shelf because I knew my dad had it and I could borrow it from him. Then I flipped to a page with a note in the top margin in a very familiar handwriting that said, "Ruth, you need to read this!" Needless to say, I bought the book because I realized my dad didn't own it anymore, since I was holding 'his' book in my hand!

So one of my new year resolutions is to 1) read all the books in my possession I haven't read yet or pass them on to someone else. At my last count this totaled 53 books! (I enjoy the library book sales faster than I can read!)

Follow up, more long term goals are:

2) Read all the books written by Laurie R King. She is currently one of my favorite authors.

3)Read all the books written by Nelson DeMille about his character John Corey.

4)Read all the books written by Amy Tan.

5)Read all the books written by Milan Kundera.

In the spirit of books and the fun and joy they bring to life, here are a few fun videos about books!

This is called Organizing the Bookcase.

And this one is The Joy of Books.

What are your reading goals for the New Year?

I'm one of the 99% and very fortunate!

2012-01-09T22:27:00.000-08:00

Find the original here.

Kettlebell Update

2012-01-06T16:53:00.000-08:00

I take a weekly kettlebell class. My new favorite part of the workout is when we do ten jerks (a lift above the head) and then move up in weight. We keep doing ten jerks on each arm until we max out on our weight capacity. Here you can see the kettlebells laid out in order of weight. Starting with pink to red they are 8 kg, 12 kg, 16kg, 20kg, 24 kg and 32 kg.

A couple weeks ago I could only do 5 jerks with the 20kg. This week I did a full ten on each arm with the 20kg and then did 4 on the right arm and 3 on the left arm with the 24 kg. Here I am below struggling with the 24 kg. It is so exciting to see improvement!

If you are wondering about the Vagisil in the photo above...it is a funny class joke. I don't really remember how it got started. But the person who is the worst whiner during class gets the award. i.e. they get their picture taken with the Vagisil and Brad posts it on Facebook.

I stole the photos on this post from my coach, Brad Jones. He is a Rolfer. You should check out his site at RolfingBellingham.com and give him a ton of business in exchange for viewing these excellent photos! Thank you!

This is a photo Emily Resch took in September of our team at the Northwest Kettlebell Competition. As soon as I get a website to advertise the great and amazing Emily, I will post it here.

I Hate My Job

2012-01-02T23:53:00.000-08:00

Actually, I really do like my job. I just like watching these guys dance around in heels. Red heels.

Happy Holidays!

2011-12-25T01:41:00.001-08:00

Home Sick Surfing the Internet....

2011-12-23T22:51:00.000-08:00

and this is what I found.

Chloe's Nails

This woman has more nail polish than I can ever imagine! I thought five bottles of the stuff seemed like a lot for me. Click on the link above to see close up pics...they're stacked two deep on each shelf. Also, she has some interesting tutorials on how to do nail designs that make me think a non-professional like myself could actually do some of them.

Full of Awesome...Creating Beauty

2011-12-21T00:35:00.000-08:00

Earlier this year a friend posted on her blog her 20's Bucket List. Jennifer turned 29, so I think she is going to be really busy this year doing fun things! I thought this was a cool idea and I made my own 30's Bucket List. I like reading Jennifer's blog and seeing the things she's accomplished.

My list is in my journal...so in essence the full contents of it is Top Secret. However, it has a lot of travel destinations in it. It is shorter than Jennifer's list and I have 3 1/2 years left to complete it. I hope I do! Every once in awhile I look back on my list and remind myself of these goals.

This week, after I got home from visiting Jen in Las Vegas, I remembered that "Visit Jen in Vegas" was on my bucket list. Check! (The Jen I visited in Vegas is not the same Jennifer with the Bucket List. I guess I'm just blessed with friends named Jen/Jennifer.)

One of the awesome things about visiting Jen was being around her creative energy. She has an amazing work space for craft projects and she is really encouraging of her daughter to make her own creations, too. More than once I heard Olivia say, "This is too hard. I can't do this." And Jen's response was always, "Yes, you can. Just keep trying."

We spent a day doing craft projects and talking. I don't really consider myself all that crafty, but around Jen I could feel myself start to believe in myself and my inner creative energy. I sort of felt like I was a second kid in the house because I was saying stuff like, "Oh, I can't really do that. I'm not crafty." And Jen just said right back, "Yes, you can. Just try."

One of the things Jen told me about was her art journal. She paints, draws, doodles, writes, whatever she feels like on a page a day. I thought it was a cool idea but I really was overwhelmed at the thought of having to fill a whole full size page. But I noticed that I have a 2011 daily planner that is about finished. It's a cute little book and instead of throwing it away when the years over, I converted it into my art journal. Each page is the perfect size for gluing a 3x5 card.

In just a little over a week of stamping, coloring, gluing stuff, painting and writing on at least one 3x5 card a day I can feel myself more in touch with my creative self. I realize that I am creative, I just put that part of myself down too much and dismiss the ideas I come up with as 'not creative' or put it in the 'I'll remember that for when I become creative' corner.

So this week, here are some of the things I've created or made.

1. I tried a new recipe from an old Martha Stewart 'Everday Food' magazine. Cook fish with herbs wrapped in parchment paper and foil. I baked them at 400F for about 35 min or so. I love fish, but I never make it. This is pretty easy and tasty and I felt creative using the parchment paper I bought ages ago and didn't do anything with.

I found these cool little star noodles!

Dinner for the week! I can't wait to eat it!

2. I rearranged one cupboard (yes, Paula, just one!). I have a counter area with my hot water kettle and I set up a 'drink station.' So now I have all my mugs, teas, hot chocolate and such all in one spot.

3. I don't really have a picture for this, but I've been trying to create a better body image. I've been having some health problems lately and I've really noticed lately how often I see pictures of skinny women with perfect abs. Have you ever noticed how every month the fitness magazines have articles about the newest and best ab workouts? I guess I'm not the only one who wants flattering, well defined, sexy abs.

So it's really sucked for me that I've been struggling with abdominal distension lately. My waist is extended two inches beyond normal in the morning. By the end of the day it's expanded another inch or two. I don't know where my abs are any more because I look like I have a pot belly. I know it's not a pot belly and that something is wrong because it hurts when I push on it and it hurts when I don't push on it, too. I don't really have any energy for working out most days and quite frankly why bother because doing sit ups literally makes me throw up on some days.

Doing my art journal, working on my scrapbook from my Prague trip and the other ideas that I come up with have helped me to feel like there is beauty in my life. I can create beauty and it doesn't have to be what seems like the constantly elusive six-pack, super model body.

Today I had an abdominal ultrasound. As I lay on the table and watched images of my liver, gallbladder, pancreas and kidneys on the screen, I thought about how amazing and beautiful the human body is. I live, breathe, and move around every day in an amazing creation. I will probably be a life time devotee of eating healthy foods and always participate in some form of sport or exercise. I will do those things for the fun and the joy of them as well as an effort to care for this amazing, imperfect body. I will never be a super model. I will probably never have a six-pack of ab muscle. I will just be imperfectly, wonderfully me. I am good enough. I am beautiful. And I can be beautiful with a pot belly, a muffin top, a six-pack or just a regular, unremarkable, un-photographable stomach (even though I know which one I really want and I just can't let go of that desire completely no matter how unrealistic or unhealthy for me it may be).

Here are some links to body image and women's issues that I found on the web today that are thought provoking for me. Maybe they will be for you as well.

A. Waking up Full of Awesome

B. Real-Life Barbie

4.And lastly, here is a random picture of my street corner. Some days there are strange things on my street. Once there was a lost port-a-pottie in the middle of the road, one day a chair, this week a sink and the following day a fan. I don't know where this stuff comes from or where it goes because it doesn't stay long. But it's entertaining to see what surprise the day may bring. And because I work swing shift and sleep late, I feel quirky and random taking pictures of this crap in my pajamas and slippers in the middle of the day.

Really?

2011-12-20T21:50:00.000-08:00

I spent too much time surfing Pinterest today and this is what I found.

The description Amazon gives is unbelievable.

Click here to link to Amazon.com.

Sinning it up in Vegas!

2011-12-18T18:02:00.000-08:00

I went last weekend to Las Vegas to visit my friend, Jen Sanders. Jen and I were roommates during our Portland days. We hadn't seen each other for nine years, but it felt like it had just been yesterday. I love good friends like that! We spent a day hanging out at home making crafts and getting caught up. We did after school things with her and Dave's 8 year old daughter, Olivia. We went for a drive through Red Rock Canyon and went for a night out on the town. I also got to see a friend from high school while I was there.

Olivia called me 'Miss Ruthie' to my face. But she referred to me as 'Your Roommate' to her mom. I had a really great time staying with Go Team Sanders. They are good people. Here are some pics from my adventures. Be forewarned...these are pictures from Vegas so some of them are X-Rated and others are a tad scandalous.

Sorry, no pics of downtown Vegas. It's not that fabulous.

After seeing it, I believe Red Rock Canyon was named appropriately.

A hearty, survivor tree.

My new favorite beer! Who says you can't like a beer for it's label? Somewhere in Utah is a beer maker who has a sense of humor I appreciate! Too bad it's not sold in WA. I brought two empty bottles home though. It's nice to have funny things to look at around the house for days when you just need a laugh.

Together with Amy Cahoon Christensen. We've been friends since high school...and probably hadn't seen each other in at least 15 years!

We ate at a taco place near a strip mall with an interesting variety of shops.

Random man at Olivia's school wearing all black and amazingly bright pink shoes.

Jen picking Olivia and her friend up from school. They made Christmas trees that day.

A trip to Vegas is not complete without a visit to The Strip.

New York.

Jen and I at the Grand Canyon.

So right in the middle of a bunch of innocent T-shirts, magnets, mugs, shot glasses and whatnot was a shelf with Adult themed stuff. All I have to say about these 'suckers' is No, No, and Hell No. The only positive thing is the safety plastic wrap.

Kahlua Colada...yum!

One sip is all it takes...

We ate dinner at a cafe in Monte Carlo. This is all that's left.

This doesn't show the tacky Ross Dress For Less store that is right next door and has a giant, blue sign.

I'm listening.

Fancy.

The Eiffel Tower.

I think I'd feel sexy if I ate at Fat Burger and then went to see Thunder Down Under.

You can't see it, but the M&M store is over there as well as the store I bought a T-shirt at.

A cool wall fountain.

A Chihuly exhibit.

Sounds good to me.

The exterior of the Monte Carlo where we ate dinner.

Because throwing my money away is so fun! We spent a combined total of $3 and got vouchers for 70 cents.

It was over before I knew it. Thanks, Jen, Dave and Olivia for a fun time! I can't wait for my next stay with Go Team Sanders!

Hooray!

2011-12-07T03:05:00.001-08:00

Very Important Announcement For My Family

2011-12-06T21:59:00.001-08:00

I am done Christmas shopping. If I don't have it for you now, you're not getting it from me! Harrumph! (PS don't worry...what I got you is cool and *might* be from Prague or Village Books in Bellingham or maybe even Target...anyhow, I promise, you will like it!)

I am done shopping except for groceries and other necessities until AFTER the new year.

Have I ever mentioned how much I dislike shopping especially during the holidays? I went to Target not once, but twice, today (I forgot something and decided it was worth going back and getting it over with today). I went at 1 pm and then at 9:30 pm. At 1pm the parking lot was jammed pack and totally gave me an anxiety attack just looking at the lot. At 9:30 pm it was nearly empty.

I have decided that the positive thing about working nights and being up at weird hours on my days off is that shopping at 9:30 pm for me is like shopping at 4:30 pm for 'normal' daytime people. And it is so much better because there is practically no one in the store at that time. So I am really glad this year that I have a car and can do errands at stress free times.

Chuckanut Drive

2011-12-05T16:00:00.001-08:00

Last week on my way home from Kirkland I drove up the Chuckanuts. Here are some pictures. I can never get tired of the amazing views of the San Juan Islands from the Bellingham area.

The Best of Baker's Kitchen: How to Make Chocolate Poop

2011-11-28T23:03:00.001-08:00

I have a coworker who makes cookies or some sort of baked good every Friday for the entire police department. I am not sure how this woman finds the time to bake so much, not to even mention finding time to grocery shop for all those cookie ingredients, work more than one job, say hi to her husband and do her laundry and other chores/errands.

But despite my general amazement about how she accomplishes so much EVERY day, I am usually amazed at how good her cookies are. I think about this at least once a week. My favorite are the Oreo Balls.

The recipe is fairly simple. In my own words...

Take one package of Oreo cookies and smash them up until they are more or less pulverized.

Mix in a block/box of cream cheese. (Mix in the cheese and throw away the wrapping and the box, though. It'll taste better.) Mix in the cream cheese until you can't see the cheese any more and it is just a big chocolate-y blob.

Roll teaspoon size scoops of the mix into balls and place on parchment/ wax paper. Let them sit and rest for awhile (maybe an hour or two).

Dip in melted chocolate. Wait until the chocolate covering is hard. Then refrigerate until ready to eat.

I mean, really. How hard could it be?

I've had this recipe sitting around for a few years now and finally decided this was the week to try it out.

Renee's Oreo Balls look like perfectly shaped bon bons or truffles. My balls were lumpy and misshapen.

It's usually recommended to melt chocolate in a double pan. If you're not a baker, then let me tell you this is a pan with water and another pan/or bowl sitting above the first pan with the chocolate. The theory is that as you heat up the water, the steam will gently heat up the chocolate so it is melted to smooth chocolate deliciousness.

Well, I didn't remember about the double pan concept until AFTER I had thrown my chocolate chips into the pan and watched them melt and then over heat and start turning into a chunky, nasty looking mess. I was a little horrified at what I had done and did not have another bag of chocolate chips on hand or time to run to the store to get more. And more importantly, I didn't want to waste that much chocolate. So I shrugged my shoulders, said oops and oh well, and proceeded to dip my lumpy Oreo balls into the chunky melted chocolate.

When I was finished, I did not see a tray of Oreo balls that can even come close to resembling the perfection that Renee shares with us at work. I was laughing and thinking to myself, "This looks like crap."

About that time I found myself on the phone with my sister. In the background my six year old nephew was yelling, "Tell her what I did! Tell her what I did!" When I finally made it past my sister's I'm-trying-to-be-a-good-mother-and-not-encourage-this-sort-of-behavior-in-my-children shield, she said Billy had stuck his hand on his butt (over his underwear), farted, and made his hand smell! Cool!

(I'll pause here to say that I'm the one growing up who delighted in various forms of 'potty talk.' I cracked myself up and irritated my sister to death over walking into whatever room she was in, farting and then walking out again to leave the aroma for her to complain about. My mother was constantly lecturing me about my manners and telling me not to talk about such things (or doing them) at the dinner table. And if I did, I was supposed to say, "Excuse me for passing gas" because she didn't like the word fart. Even worse, the proper term to be used in our house for poop/shit/crap was 'bowel movement' or 'BM'. And here is where I confess I'm a word rebel because to this day I say fart and 'those other words' in front of my mother just to get a rise out of her and have a laugh.)

Billy is only six, but he's observant and smart enough to have already figured out that I will laugh at this kind of stuff if he says it to me. So the timing couldn't have been better for him to share this smelly hand moment with me. Because I was already laughing at what was on the cookie tray in front of me.

So I told my sister, now tell him what I did! I just made something that looks like Chocolate Poop and I'm bringing it for dessert when we celebrate Thanksgiving this weekend.

Now I'm happy that I screwed up and forgot about the double pan thing. Chocolate Poop is really good, little boys especially really like it and it feels so wonderfully fun and devious to sit in my mother's living room eating Chocolate Poop.

Photo from facebook.

2011-11-21T22:20:00.001-08:00

This is proof I just learned how to copy a photo from facebook using a URL! So stoked...I've been wondering how to do that for a long time!

Goodnight

2011-11-21T01:01:00.001-08:00

Domestic Violence Trivet

2011-11-20T15:05:00.001-08:00

My job is giving me a sick sense of humor. There are way too many people in my town who could use this trivet. I wish our society could progress to a place where domestic violence didn't exist.

Click here.

Numbers

2011-11-17T11:52:00.001-08:00

I can't really figure a way to post this video from The Guardian here. So click here to see an interesting description of the 99% vs. the 1%. As much as our country needs help in a big way, I still wonder if it sucks right now for so many Americans, how bad does it really suck for people in the rest of the world? I'd be interested to see a video comparing nations. So if you know of one, let me know.

Journey

2011-11-15T22:42:00.001-08:00

When I first moved to Bellingham six years ago I was completely broke. In a rare moment of feeling the need to do something creative, I looked around for what I had on hand: old magazines, glue, and scissors and paper. I started cutting out pictures and words. I made a collage and a poem. I did this several times and found it very therapeutic and thought provoking. I started with no intention in mind, but gradually the words came together in a meaningful way. It was in a way a form of meditation --a way of allowing my inner voice speak and be listened to. It is about as insightful (if not more) as reading and pondering tarot cards and as cathartic as having a good cry (but less dramatic to the soul and body).

Then I stopped. Until now. In the past I just used regular stock paper for the poems. But this time I did a Poster Poem. In the past I cut out individual letters or words, but this time I cut a lot of sentences and phrases out as well. Here is the end result:

JOURNEY

How do you live with risk?
Use your mind.
Yes!
Free yourself,
do your thing,
"Twenty-twenty hindsight is easy. That was then, this is now."
Eat well, walk, live to heal your body.
Dive into delicious.
Be Good to Yourself.
"Everybody fails, but the difference is that people who are successful know how to respond. They know how to get back up."
Hang tough, don't be afraid.
"Life is a journey, not a destination."
"Knowing which changes are best for you comes, always, from assessing what you feel. Ask yourself every day."
"The point of creativity is to challenge yourself, to make meaning, to enhance your life."
Intuitive.
Go with the flow.
Be yourself, be naturally beautiful.
At home in the world,
on your next vacation bring back someone new: you.
Turn over a new leaf,
Invent the future.

Hide 'n Seek

2011-11-15T22:10:00.001-08:00

Billy and Ben came to visit on Sunday! (With their mom, too!) We had fun playing hide 'n seek. The boys loved hiding behind my couch. It was the perfect space for two little people. They are full of energy!

Thrillingham 2011

2011-11-15T00:12:00.001-08:00

On Halloween I went with my friend Erin to Thrillingham at Maritime Heritage Park. This is a wacky Bellingham tradition that started several years ago. A group of people do the Michael Jackson Thriller dance dressed up as zombies. Then there is a community dance afterwards. There are tons of people and it is totally crazy! But also a complete blast and freaky fun!

I think I'm a dead zombie clown or something.

Erin, that is a huge scar on your forehead!

A girl on drugs who gave the audience more of a pre-show show than we bargained for -- that is up until the police took her away!

The audience.

Cold but happy and having fun!

Here is a video from You-Tube. It's not the most fantastic video but it'll give you an idea of what it's like. And it's way better than all the pictures I took that only looked like semi-dark blobs and an occasional white dot on a black background.

Have a Laugh

2011-11-11T13:44:00.001-08:00

Sometimes I wonder why I wasn't born British. I think the stereotypical British humor suits me.

And here is why I love my local paper...the awesome Bellingham Herald.

Reading Excerpt: Gershon on Travel

2011-11-05T13:18:00.000-07:00

"He had journeyed the farthest distance he could from his own world. Why? He did not know. He wanted to look, that was all."

-- pg 293 in "The Book of Lights" by Chaim Potok

More Memories

2011-11-01T18:14:00.000-07:00

Here is another photo from my trip to Prague in April. Here we're trekking in the Kokorin Valley. I think this picture is so cool because its sort of puts our size and place into perspective.

Boo(ze)! Happy Halloween!

2011-10-31T17:48:00.000-07:00

My step-mom and I found this site yesterday that is really cool. The artist takes alcohol and other beverages and photographs them under a microscope. Click here to check it out!

Have a Happy Halloween!

Wish List: The Coolest Vampire Hunting Kit Necklace Ever!

2011-10-30T21:27:00.000-07:00

I am totally geeking out over this necklace! Check it out! Click here to see it.

Going Local: Walking in Bellingham

2011-10-30T21:10:00.000-07:00

I started working swing shift at the beginning of the month which for me is four days of 3 pm - 1 am. With sleeping late and the darker hours earlier in the evening I can feel the looming threat and on some days the reality of SAD. I'm loading up on Vitamin D and using my 'fake sunlight' lamp at work. However, I realized this week I need to make a real effort to get outside as many days as I can for a jog or a walk -- not only for the physical benefits but especially for the mental health benefits. Today is a day off and it was pouring rain when I got up and I could quickly feel my resolve to go outside melting away. However, in the afternoon it cleared up enough for a walk along one of Bellingham's many interurban trails. I went from Barkley Village to the bridge on Alabama Hill. Most of the brilliant fall colors are fading but there are still enough golds and yellows to make the trail magical.

I love the way ferns glisten from the rain.

Bellingham Bay from Alabama Hill.

I live just around the corner from the very end of Alabama Street.

Zoom to downtown Bellingham.

Awesome rain clouds that eventually caught me on my way back!

The tree at my Dad and Ginny's house.

More lovely, colorful leaves.

Na zdravi! Cheers!

2011-10-28T13:07:00.000-07:00

I'm still working on finishing my photo album from my trip to Prague in April and was looking at this photo today. This is one of my favorite pics from the trip. Here I am relaxing in Romanov, the village where Martina's parents have their cottage. I think this is my favorite hammock in the whole world! Good memories!

The Human Slingshot

2011-10-23T22:29:00.000-07:00

Who are these people? Because I want to know them...

Miss Representation

2011-10-13T11:55:00.001-07:00

Mini Trip: Vancouver, Surrey and White Rock

2011-10-11T22:06:00.000-07:00

I took a trip today to Vancouver, BC to see my step-sister Krista, nephew Levi and new nephew Oliver. I live in Bellingham, WA which is only 20 miles from the Canadian border. Once across the border it's only about 45 minutes to Krista's place.

Levi is such a big boy now! He can put the clean silverware away all by himself!

Little Oliver is one month old.

He let Aunt Ruthie hold him for awhile. He sure looks tiny in my arms!

I decided to put one of the books I got for my birthday this summer to use.

I tried to rotate this but couldn't get it to work...so I guess you'll just have to turn your head!

So on the way home I stopped in Surrey to go to Redwood Park. Originally, there were twin brothers named David and Peter Brown who lived in South Surrey with their family in the 1870's. For their 21st birthday their dad gave them a gift of 40 acres (not a shabby gift if you ask me!). They ended up planting 32 different tree species from all over the world on their land. This area is now Redwood Park.

It was a bit rainy today. But it was perfect for a walk in the woods. I love the smell of rain in the forest!

I stumbled across several trees with these mini doors in them. I was a bit puzzled.

It didn't take long to realize that these are gnome doors! I looked high and low, but alas, I didn't find any gnomes!

Then I went to White Rock, a coastal tourist town. It is so close to home and I'd seen it from the train before, but I had never actually been. It was a bit windy, but still fun to walk along the boardwalk.

This guy looked like he was having a lot of fun.

Then it was time to go home. On the way there my wait was only ten minutes. On the way back it was 23 minutes...still not too long.

Petr and Martina's Wedding

2011-10-11T21:06:00.000-07:00

Here are a few pics from when I went to Prague in August for Martina and Petr's wedding. I was only there four days...but still that is enough time to have a lot of fun!

Day 1: Tired, exhausted actually. But still energy enough for dinner with Marie and her family.

Day 2: Record breaking heat -- in the 90's F. I spent the day walking around town and met Lea for dinner.

Lea was trying to get me to pose in a more feminine stance...not sure it is working, I mainly felt like a dork.

We had dinner on the Vltava River looking across at Prague Castle.

Prague at night.

Old Town Square.

With Michal, my Slovakian friend. He hosted me at his place for the night and then escorted me to the wedding the following day.

Day 3: It was a bit rainy on Saturday for the wedding. Here is Martina and her father Rudolf.

Martina and Petr taking their vows.

Enjoying the party.

Day 4: The Chateau the next day in better weather. The wedding guests were invited to spend the night here after the wedding. Then we went to Martina's parents cottage, hung out, ate wedding leftovers, and I took a nap in their hammock. It was wonderful!

This is kind of what it's like....

2011-10-04T22:39:00.000-07:00

I was surfing the internet tonight and came across this blog entry called A Life in Sepia Tones. Please read it. I think the author of this blog did an amazing job expressing what it feels to leave the Mormon Church.

It has been over six years now that I left. I'm glad everyday I made the decisions I made...to join and then later to leave. But there are still moments when I miss the safety and familiarity of former experiences, routines and friendships that seem to have faded away.

I've been feeling the loss and immensity of my decision to leave lately. Those feelings come and go with less frequency the more time goes by. But they are still challenging and lonely to grapple with on my own. Sometimes reading the blogs of complete strangers who have been through similar experiences is more comforting than trying to explain myself to people who know and love me but who haven't been through the same thing.

Oyster Dome

2011-07-05T10:33:00.000-07:00

In November I traded not having a car and 'saving the environment' in for having a car and being able to appreciate the environment. I've only been on a couple hikes with friends since I moved here and although there is a lot to see in Bellingham by foot, bike or bus there is so much I've missed out on that is best reached by car.

This winter I bought a little pocket book called "Hiking Whatcom County" by Ken Wilcox. And now that the weather is acting like summer weather I've started trying to pick a hike each week. The book designates the difficulty level with sets of footprints. One is the easiest and four is the most difficult.

Last week I did the Stimpson Nature Reserve hike which is two sets of footprints and 2.8 miles. It is a forested area just outside city limits in the hills above Lake Whatcom. After deciding that a two footprint hike was easily doable, I upped it yesterday to a three sets of footprints hike. For awhile, I'll stick with three or less and save four for a more distant future!

I went to the Oyster Dome which I have wanted to go to for a long time. It was the perfect day for hiking. It requires about a half hour drive down Chuckanut Drive to get to the trailhead from my house. This is a scenic, windy road that meanders above the Bellingham and Samish Bays.

My guide book said it was a 3.6 mile hike up to the Oyster Dome (7.2 round trips) which is mainly a huge rock from which you can see the San Juans and the Olympics spread out below and beyond. In my enthusiasm to see such a spectacular view I skimmed over some key words in the description of this hike. Mainly, that it was 'steep' and the view at the top is the 'reward.'

The initial half of the hike is steep. But I would also conclude this portion of the trail is pleasant, manageable, not too bad and fairly easy. Although I was sweating and breathing deeply on the way up. Just when I was wondering how much further I had to go I came to a fork in the road and a sign pointing left. I read this sign enough to see 'Oyster' and 0.5 m. Sweet! I thought, only half a mile to go. This hike was easy!

So I charged off excited to see how quickly I could go the last half mile. Soon enough the words I would use to describe the trail changed to WTF!, OMG!, No way!, you've got to be kidding me! It was now extremely steep and the trail changed to finding foot holds in twisty, gnarly tree roots mingled with rocks. I was huffing and puffing. And fairly certain I had gone many times over a half mile. Finally at the top of the steepest part I came to another fork in the trail with another arrow pointing left to Oyster Dome. A group of people also sweating buckets and gasping for breath came up behind me. I commented to one of the women that I was fairly certain I had passed a sign saying it was only half a mile away and that it had been much further than that distance to where we were. She explained that sign said it was a half mile to the trail head to Oyster Dome and that now it really was only a half mile to the Oyster Dome from where we stood.

Let me tell you, 'reward' is a fitting word for the view. Especially yesterday! Every drop of sweat and struggled step was worth it! I just felt so filled with wonder and joy and appreciation for the majesty and beauty we are surrounded by! I sat for about a half hour enjoying the view before I headed down.

It took me 2 1/2 hours to get to the top and two to go down. I will say that the rule of gravity definitely applies to hiking and it was equally steep and treacherous on the way down and ripe with opportunities to fall or twist an ankle. I slipped a few times, but luckily regained my balance and recovered before disaster struck. I think I will consider getting a hiking/walking stick because I definitely wished for a pair on the way down!

There is something I really love about being outside hiking/walking. It slows my mind down to the pace of my feet and I feel very grounded to the earth, to the current moment, and can just be without thinking or worrying or planning what to do next or what needs to get done. It also gives me a sense of connectedness to humanity and the rest of the world. I often think of my Czech friends and the walks I've been on with them and the other places in the world I've been or wish to go. There is so much power in what our own feet can do and where they can get us. And the world over we as people all have that same power within us.

Here a some of the highlights from yesterday!

The easy part of the trail.

During the day I saw deer (on my drive there), a snake, lots of slugs and this one lonely snail.

The gnarly part of the trail

What an awesome view!

The San Juan Islands and the Olympic Mountains in the distance.

The Canadian Cascades in the distance.

The damn sign I misread on the way up.
Another sign suggesting the earth is very old.
On the way down.

Look! There is the Libster on the road below. I'm tired and ready for a shower!

Auntie Heaven

2011-07-04T19:18:00.000-07:00

I have been waiting to make a blog post that has photos from recent visits of all my nieces and nephews and I can finally do that! I can almost say that I've seen all my siblings as well, but alas Eric has moved out of state and I don't know when I'll see him again. Eric, we miss you!

One of the main reasons why I bought a car was so that I could do road trips and visit people I love at my convenience and not based on the train or bus schedule. I've finally started doing some of those fun things (ok, grocery shopping with a car is still a bigger thrill than I can admit. Walking a mile with groceries or taking the bus to the store grew old a long time ago). In May after going to the Pankey's party I went to visit the Correll's for Paula's 34th birthday. I also got some needed playtime with Billy and Ben. The following weekend I went to Portland and visited the Okkens. I hadn't seen them in two years. Gabriella is 13 now and I met for the first time Sophia who will be two in August. And then yesterday I went to Dad and Ginny's where Chris, Krista and Levi were visiting. It was Chris's 31st birthday! I will visit C, K, and L in Vancouver, BC in a few weeks!

So here a some pics that are proof of why I am such a proud Auntie (and Sister and Daughter)!

Papa Gil.
GG aka Grandma Ginny.
Chris.
Levi and Krista. Baby #2 arrives in September!
Levi playing traffic controller with Chris.
Johnny Depp from Pirates of the Caribbean in Lego form. (He doesn't look as hot with his hair and hat off).

Gabriella and I. We had a girls night out and saw Pirates of the Caribbean in 3D. It is awesome that Gabster is old enough to do fun stuff like that together now!
Sophia.
The Okkens house. I think my car looks good in their driveway. I hope I can park it there more often! The inside is beautiful! They live there with Michelle's mom, Lavina and her brother, Chris.
Gabriella, Michelle, Sophia and Brian Okken. They took me out to P.F. Chang's for dinner. It was delicious and a lot of fun. I still think it is totally awesome I have an older brother! We met when I was 16. So that means we have known each other for nearly 20 years now. Yikes and Wowzers!Billy.

Ben. He is into making funny faces.Brothers.

While Billy was at kindergarten Ben, Paula and I went for a walk at a neat park near Chambers Bay.
Ben and I.
Paula and I.
Snuggling.

Happy Anniversary, Pankeys!

2011-05-24T18:30:00.000-07:00

This weekend I went down to Seattle for my aunt and uncle's 40th wedding anniversary. I didn't manage to get a picture with Betsy or Roger. However, here are some other fun shots. And if you can't guess---it was a Hawaiian themed party.

Cousin Ginna's daughter Kaitlyn.Here I am with Kyle, Ginna's son. This is definitely proof that I am a good influence on the children in my life.
Here I am with my mother, Emily.
And my aunt June.

This is the year!

2011-05-17T20:21:00.000-07:00

2011.

This is the year for reaching for and achieving challenging goals.

Seven months ago I was trying to decide whether or not to buy a car. I knew I wanted a car. I also knew I wanted to go back to Prague for a visit. I was trying to decide which goal I wanted most because I was thinking I had to pick and just do one or the other. I couldn't imagine a way to afford both.

Then something shifted in my thinking and I decided both were good goals and I wanted to do both. I put a note on my refrigerator that says, "How can I say YES to both?" and another that says, "Find a way to say Yes, I can, instead of No, I can't."

Fast forward seven months and I am amazed at what "trying to say Yes" has done to my life. I became comfortable with the idea of having debt in my life, got a car loan approved for an amount I thought I could handle, and bought a car.

I've always been intrigued with rolfing and took a few sessions with Brad Jones, a rolfer and my kettlebell coach.

I went to Prague for two and a half weeks at the end of March and beginning of April, accomplishing a goal I'd had for 4 1/2 years. At pretty much the last minute before procrastinating the purchase of my plane tickets had gone beyond reason, my dad called and said I could fly on a buddy pass he had with Delta. This, combined with the fact I was able to stay with friends, cut the costs of my trip dramatically.

When I got home, I decided I was on a roll and couldn't stop. I left the signs up on my fridge, went to Best Buy and bought a new laptop. I've been blessed to be given hand-me-downs from relatives the last two laptops I've had. But I've always wanted one of my own choosing. I want to get back into writing and I decided getting an up-to-date laptop was my way of saying to my inner writer to come out of the closet.

I went back to work at the end of my vacation and decided I was done spending money. But....

then Brad Jones said he was going to order some kettlebells and who in our class wanted to order some, too? Competition kettlebells aren't cheap. But there was enough of us ordering them that we got a good deal. So I went ahead and ordered two.

You see, back in February I was drooling over some fancy Kettlebell wrist guards and even posted something about them on my blog. They were something like $30 with shipping and I just felt like I wasn't ready to part with the money with my trip to Prague coming up. Some of you might say I was being practical and reasonable and smart, etc. Maybe so. But I think I had fallen back into the trap I was trying to get out of. I was saying no, I can't instead of finding a way to say yes, I can.

And then Sara came to the rescue! One day I came home and found a card from my friend Sara McCausland from Portland, OR. She wrote "Here's a little something to help with you fulfilling some of your dreams and goals for 2011." And she included a check for the wrist guards. Wow! How cool is that? Thank you, Sara! Thank you for helping me remember to say YES!

When I wear my Kettle Guards I often think of Sara. And I think how blessed I am to have friends near and far who cheer me on. The day I got Sara's card I'd been driving home from visiting my sister and cousin. I'd had a great day and yet I'd cried my way home. I have no idea what unleashed those tears or where they came from but they needed to be shed.

I feel like I have a pretty great life. But still, sometimes I get sad about some things. Doesn't everyone? Having a friend to call and say thank you to; having a friend who could say, yeah, I know what it's like to be single in your 30's, too; having a friend who could say I care about you and cheer you on no matter how long it's been since we've seen each other, meant a great deal to me that day. And also on subsequent days when I simultaneously rejoice in letting the dishes pile up with no one around to care and mourn the lack of someone there to care, I think of Sara and know I'm not alone.

My goal is to compete in a kettlebell competition. It's on September 17th in Seattle. Today I made one more step towards my goal. Hooray for two new kettlebells! The blue is 12 kg (24 lbs) and the yellow is 16 kg (35 kg).

Hooray for finding a way to say Yes, I can!

Words

2011-05-16T16:06:00.000-07:00

"Why not get excited."

Petr had to translate this poster for me. I was excited by so many vowels strung together. Normally Czech is very consonant laden and so the last two words struck me as unusual.
I saw this on a post in Krakow.
I don't know what a fleshy torpedo is, do you? I was with Misho, Petr, and Martina when I took this picture. They said I looked like James Bond sneaking a top secret photo. My meal was delicious despite the strange translation. It was meat and veggies on a skewer.

On the way to Prague Castle

2011-04-26T09:55:00.000-07:00

Looking up the hill...

Going up...
Looking down...
Halfway there...

At the castle!

Part of the castle with the cathedral directly behind it.
Zoom to Narodni Divadlo/ the National Theatre.
Views of Prague from the Castle.
Half-zoom to Charles Bridge.
Zoom to Charles Bridge.
Zoom to the 'Dancing Building'.

St Vitus Cathedral

2011-04-26T09:43:00.000-07:00

Views of Prague Castle/ Prazsky Hrad

2011-04-26T09:33:00.000-07:00

How Czech beggars beg...hard work, especially on cobblestone!
The infamous Charles Bridge/ Karluv Most in the foreground

Stare Mesto Namesti/ Old Town Square

2011-04-26T09:22:00.000-07:00

Dobre Rano/ Good Morning, Pasecnice!

2011-04-25T11:50:00.000-07:00

This is the scenery on the way from Pasecnice to Domazlice. I took this the morning I went to work with Marie.

Marie and Milan planted some trees in their backyard. This baby tree is starting to grow!

Jak se rekne cesky "I miss Czech bread!"

2011-04-21T15:12:00.000-07:00

How do you say in Czech "I miss Czech bread!"

Czech beer is well known and popular. That is because it is good beer and because it can be exported!

If fresh Czech bread could be exported it would be popular, too. I miss the Czech grocery stores that sell fresh bread all day long. You can nearly always enjoy the smell of freshly baked bread in the stores there. Either rolls or loaves, it is good, hearty, solid, fantastic tasting bread. It is also cheap and affordable. It isn't labeled 'artisan bread', just 'bread', which is as it should be! And sadly, nothing, I mean NOTHING, in the entire United States can compare to Czech bread.

Please don't tell me to try and learn to make it myself. That would be nearly impossible as we don't have the same kind of flour they do.

Next time you're out, stop by the Czech Republic and have some! You won't be sorry! At least not until you get home and realize what you've been living without!

Konec/The End

2011-04-14T13:34:00.000-07:00

This is the end of my second 'Prague Blog.' Tonight is my last night in Prague. (insert frowny face) My time in Pasecnice felt brief, but was a lot of fun. On Saturday we hung out in Prague at Marie's sister's place. Hanna and Petr have a two yr old son named Simoncek. We took a little trip to a village and walked by a river, went to a park that had some little amusement park rides for the kids, then took a train to another village, feed the ducks on the river, and then came back on the train. We only went one stop on the train so it was only about 5 min each way and we were only at the village for 15 min in between. It was a little silly but an adventure suitable for the attention span of 2 yr olds. On Sunday we took a drive to the Sumava National Park and went for a little walk near a river. (It was really a little walk since Marie and Milan's girls are 4 and 2). Pasecnice is very close to the German border. We sort of made a loop so the scenary was different on the whole drive. We started the day out going to an American restaurant for lunch called "Country Saloon." This place was unbelievable and not what I would expect to find in the Czech Republic. There was a 'petting zoo' with goats outside and also a totem pole. Inside was decorated with cowboy boots, US license plates, and whatever you call the heads of large dead animals hanging from the walls. Then drove to the Sumava area. Then went across the border into Germany and looped back into the Czech Republic after about 30 or 45 minutes. The border crossing is practically non existent. There is the station but it is no longer used and is unmanned so it is fairly anti climactic when you go across. No passport checking, no one to ask about what fruit you have in your trunk, etc. Crossing borders in Europe is easy--nothing like trying to go to Canada. Terezka and Marketka loved the RoboGirls!! They took them with us in the car on Sunday and then took them to bed with them. Terezka is the oldest at 4 and was a bit shy but by the time we were out walking in the Sumava she let me hold her hand even though she still wouldn't talk to me, by the time we got home though she was asking me to play with her and talking to me. They were calling me Teta Ruthie --Aunt Ruthie. Marketka is 2 and I introduced the English term 'terrible twos' to Marie as Marketka cries about anything. She loves to eat!! And she definitely has healthy lungs! On Monday I went to work with Marie. She teaches English at a high school in Domazlice and I was here native speaker for the day. Mostly I introduced myself, showed them on a map of the US where I live and pointed out all the other places I've lived, and then I answered their questions. The questions ranged from the challenging: what do you think about the current political situation in the US, tell us about the different dialects or regional accents in your country to the very specific: how old are you, what is the name of your governor to the average, typical get to know you question: what is your favorite animal, singer, sport, movie, actor, food, etc. Monday evening I went with Marie to her Zumba and Yoga classes. I borrowed some workout clothes from Marie and just did the Zumba in my socks. I've always wanted to try Zumba because I though it sounded like fun. But the truth is, I'm not very coordinated when it comes to dancing or aerobics type classes. Mostly I flap my arms and legs around like an uncoordinated chicken. I had a good time but I'm happy with and prefer my current sport activities of Crossfit , Kettlebell, and JiuJitsu. I thought the Yoga class would be fine but I found it very frustrating. I only did about 20 min of the class before my neck started hurting from trying to look up and see what the instructor was doing. Yoga is meant to do while following along with verbal not visual instructions and this was impossible for me in Czech. So I stopped and just layed (sp) down on a bench and listened to the music and the teacher. In one hour I understood three words "so", "good" and "great." And I learned three new words because she repeated them so many times "breathe in", "breathe out" and "slow." So although my irritation and frustration level peaked and reminded me how I frequently felt that way when I lived here, the experience wasn't a total loss as I walked away with some new words and appreciation for the hobbies I enjoy doing in English. On Tuesday I was sick with a sore throat and nasty head cold. I spent the morning in bed while Marie was at work. Milan was at home with the girls. When I told Terezka I was sick she set about trying to help me feel better. She brought in her Barbie sized tea set and served me some pretend tea. Then she and Marketka started to bring in things for me and soon I had some of their clothes, a ball, dominos, a puzzle and other assorted toys. It was really cute and sweet how concerned they were. I had planned to take the train back Weds evening, but since I wasn't feeling well I decided to come back early with Milan. He is a Forestry professor at one of the universities in Prague and specializes in Forest Genetics. He had some meetings and a class on Weds. So we left at 6 am and got to Prague at 8 am. Incidentally, we stopped at McDonalds for breakfast on the way and that was my first ever McDonalds breakfast. The last time I bought anything at McDonalds was five years ago when I bought a milkshake in Prague. I rode the metro across town and was back to Martina and Petr's by 9. The medicine Marie got for me wasn't really helping, so Petr had me take some product they had on hand. I am always interested in trying alternative medicine and this was Liquid Bovine Colostrum from a German company. I have decided that if bovine colostrum tastes anything like human colostrum then there is a reason why babies cry when they're born -- their first taste of food is a taste of something not that great. I spent the rest of Weds inside reading and sleeping. The last few days have been cloudy and rainy (as opposed to the awesome spring weather we've enjoyed the last few weeks) so I didn't feel too guilty about staying inside. I suppose every vacation needs some lazy days in it, so although unplanned, I got my lazy days in on Tues and Weds. Today I'm feeling better and went into the city. I met Lea for lunch, met Misho in the afternoon who was nice enough to accompany me on some last minute shopping purchases, and a walk around Old Town and the City Library (there is a cool sculpture I like in the library and wanted to see), then in the evening we met Martina and Petr for dinner. Thus, the end of my vacation in Prague. Next is the adventure of getting home on standby from Amstedam which may result in an unplanned for travel route. I feel very satisfied with my time here in Prague. I've seen as many people, been to as many places, and done as many things as is humanly possible. I feel very grateful for the wonderful friends I have here. There is a place in CR called Cesky Raj or Czech Paradise. I think that for me all of Prague and the CR is my Czech Paradise. My heart is full of Czech goodness.

Trying new things

2011-04-08T06:24:00.000-07:00

Hi, When I got back from Krakow a couple days ago I was super tired. I'd been going full speed ahead all day long for a week. I've managed to pack a lot in so far, but the last couple days I've slowed down a bit. i.e. I haven't rushed out of the house at 9 am and come back at midnight like I did for a few days in a row. The last few days I've been a slow poke and haven't left until 10 or later. I'm not too worried about this since once I leave I'm not coming back until I'm done for the day. Martina and Petr live in Prague 9 in a neighborhood called Ujezd nad Lesy (Village by the Forest). At one time it was it's own separate village I think but Prague is so big now it has incorporated Ujezd into the city. However, it is a ways from the city center. To get into the city, I walk five minutes from their flat to the Blatov bus stop. From Blatov it's a ten or 15 min bus ride to Cerny Most (Black Bridge) which is the last metro stop on the yellow line. From Cerny Most it's another 20 - 30 min into the city center. So it's at least a 45 min trip or more depending on how long I have to wait for the bus or metro. I did two new things this week. In Wenceslas Square there is a new place called Thai Paradise. They offer different massage treatments and such including a fish massage. I heard about this for the first time a month or so ago from my step mom who saw it Singapore. Pretty much you stick your feet into an aquarium filled with little fish. The fish come up and eat all the dead skin and gunk off your feet. It's a little ticklish and when I was done my feet were so baby-skin smooth soft! Then yesterday I went and got my first manicure ever in my life! My hands were really dry and I had a least five hang nails and they were really bugging me. It was an adventure in communication! I firmly turned down the acrylic nails. I got a burgundy color with flowers painted on each of my ring finger nails. I really like them! By the way, I don't think there is a country on this planet where you can get a manicure from someone who isn't Asian. Try speaking crappy Czech to a Vietnamese lady who also speaks Czech as a second or third language. Not exactly easy! Yesterday I woke up with a killer headache that was making me nauseous. Martina and Petr were already gone for the day and not available for help. So I used my Czech phrasebook and headed to the pharmacy. The CR is like Chile in the sense that all medications (over the counter or behind the counter) are kept on the other side of a counter and must be gotten off the shelf by a pharmacy clerk. I was very proud of myself for saying in Czech -- hello, I am nauseous because I have a headache. Do you have something? She immediately brought out a box that said Ibuprofen on it! I bought it and then the most awesome customer service I've ever had in a pharmacy -- she handed me a little glass of water so I could take the tablet right there! Hooray, no more headache! After my manicure I walked around Letna Park, a place near my old flat I used to enjoy roller blading. And then I met Brian and Dana Callaghan and their kids for a late lunch at a nearby restaurant. Brian is Irish/American and Dana is Czech. Brian was the teacher for the Language House -- the school I got my teaching certifcate at and was the first person I met here since he picked me up at the airport the first time I came. It was fun to see them. Last night Martina, Petr, Misho and I walked from Ujezed nad Lesy through the forest to another 'village'/neighborhood and had dinner. I correctly asked for my leftovers in a to-go box. However, I learned some other useful phrases over dinner. I've been trying to learn how to say "can I make an appt?" because I knew a day or so ago I wanted to get a manicure. I was repeating to Petr what I thought I remembered him tell me -- which was 'Mohu se udelat.' His eyes popped out of his head and he laughed and said, I did NOT tell you that and you should NOT say that to anyone. Apparently the correct way is 'Mohu si obedat.' The latter meaning, 'Can I made an appt?' and the former meaning 'I can do myself.' (i.e. masturbate myself). So me being me said to Petr, so you're telling me I shouldn't say 'Mohu se udelat v restaurace?' (I can do myself in the restaurant). The answer is that would definately be bad form in any language or country. He he he. Today I went to Petrin Hill, another park with a mini Eiffel tower on it. In the basement is a museum about Jan Cimerman, a Czech genius who never became famous. So it is an exhibit of all of the ficitional Jan and all his failed inventions. It is one of the funniest museums I've ever been to and I had to see it again. I also walked across Charles Bridge but I almost ran across it -- there are a disturbing amount of tourists there and no offense it is just a bridge with old statues on it! The other bridges are just as good and less crowded! Later I'm meeting some other friends Lea, Emma, and Klara for dinner. Emma is from Australia and Lea and Klara are both Czech and former students. Lea was also my self-appointed Czech teacher. I am so excited to see them! Tomorrow I meet Marie and go to Pasecnice until next Wednesday. I am looking forward to seeing them too. When I saw Brian he said to me, Welcome Home, Ruthie. And that is how I feel here. I am so lucky to live in a beautiful place I love, with a job I like, and close to family and good friends. But I also feel so lucky to have two countries I love very much feel at home in and have Czech and Chilean people I feel like are extended family to me.

Auschwitz

2011-04-06T01:44:00.001-07:00

Hello, I am back in Prague at Martinas and Petrs. There will be no apostrophes in this entry as I can not figure out that part of the keyboard. Depending what happens when I hit enter there may be no paragraphs either. Last night on the train I was in a cabin with all three beds full. There was a Polish gal who spoke Polish, English and a little French, a Russian gal from Siberia who spoke Russian, English, and German, and myself. The space was very crowded with three people but we managed. I was in the middle bunk. I felt a bit like a sardine. Once in the bunk it was difficult to move around and get out or in without bonking my head on something. While I was waiting at the train station in Krakow I ended up talking (in Spanish!) to a couple from Mexico and a guy from Brazil. That was really fun. We were all starting out on the same train but going to completely different places -- Prague, Budapest and Vienna. I suspect that somewhere in the night they stopped and split the cars, but I still wonder where that change took place. Yesterday in the morning I walked around Kazimierz the Jewish neighoborhood in Krakow. I visited the inside of a Jewish Synagoge that was gutted during WWII and rebuilt, however it seems there are still visible renovations they are raising money to complete. Also, I walked through the Jewish Cemetary there which started in the 1500s. At 1130 I was done with that and ready to find a tour to Auschwitz. I went into a bookshop advertising tours and the man was very clear in telling me I had missed the tour and that there was no way possible for me to go there that day. He did offer to hire a private car for me but I thought that was a scam to make too much money. So I didnt take him up on that. However, I did decide that since I had pretty much just flown halfway across the world and taken a ten hour train ride to get to Krakow that 1130 was too early to take no for an answer. Saying oh well, Ill come back another day was not an option. After stopping at the hostel to get my jacket, I went to Old Town to find another tour agency Id seen. Their tour left at 10 so I had missed that as well. So I went to plan C which was to buy my own bus ticket. I went to the bus station. In Krakow the train and bus station are close to each other and can be reached from one to another by an underground tunnel. I stood in a line for tickets for 15 min in the tuneel before finding out I was in the line for train tickets only, then I went to the bus station and stood in line upstairs, I was then told to go downstairs, then told to go back upstairs where I finally bought a ONE WAY ticket to Auschwitz. They would not sell me a round trip ticket. My first thought at this point was, there is really going to be a lot of irony here if I try so hard to get there and get stuck in Auschwitz and cant get back. Then I stood in another line for information that would not be given to me in the ticket line which was a timetable for return buses. At that point I had enough time to get some lunch before getting on the bus. By the time the bus left it was 130 pm. The bus ride from Krakow to Aushwitz takes 90 min. It was nice to see the scenery and what a bit of Polish country side looks like. It is very similar to the Czech Republic. I got to the ticket line in Auschwitz just before 3pm. I was told if I waited ten minutes until 3 to enter it would be free. So I bought a self tour guide and waited the ten minutes. I anticipated I would feel emotional being there and this was the case. It is very quiet there even with a lot of tourists people stay pretty quiet. Something I did not understand before was that Aushwitz had previously been a military camp so the barracks were nicer looking in the exterior than I expected. Some of the barracks are converted into museum exhibits. I only made it through four of them before I maxed out of what I could handle reading museum wise and emotionally. I saw presentations about their living conditions, bathrooms, piles of hair, suitcases, dishes, brushes, shoes and such that were taken from the people. I saw places where they were tortured, executed and the gas chambers. One tidbit of info that struck me was that the people got some illnesses and diseases because they were only allowed to change their underwear every couple weeks at best, sometimes only every couple months. I think that stood out to me after Id had my frenzy the day before over making sure I had enough clean underwear and clothes. I missed the documentary film and several other barracks that had exhbits in them. I decided I did not have the capacity to see and process everything. The paid tours include entry to Birkenau but I did not go there. I think one concentration camp in a day is enough for me. Most of those tours are 100 zloty or more which may be worth not trying to hassle with buying bus tickets. However, my bus tickets and exhibit guide only came to 36 zloty. So I had my experience for a third of the tour price. Today I am resting, doing laundry and hanging out at Martinas and Petrs. Ive been invited to Petra and Vladimirs house for dinner tonight. I am very satisfied with my Polish experience. There is something very rewarding about deciding to go somewhere, figuring out how to get there, getting there and having an experience, and getting back again. I am very glad I went.

Food and such in Krakow

2011-04-05T00:02:00.000-07:00

I found some place to eat last night for dinner. The English translation of the menu was a little off -- but at least I could guess on most stuff. Leafy dish was salad, but cocks is still unknown (a friend on facebook suggested chicken which seems plausible.)

I ordered something that was apparently not a traditional Polish meal. But impressive nonetheless. It was a skewer of pork, bacon, onion, mushroom and carrot hanging from a special rack above a plate. Directly under the skewer on the plate was a flaming sugar cube. Around that were potatoes, pickles, and green peppers. My meal was 36 zloty and I think that is around $12.

The breakfast in the hostel is a typical European breakfast -- bread with cold cuts. So this morning I had a cup of tea, three pieces of rye bread with cheese and meat and cucumber slices. For my breakfast dessert I had one with butter and honey and one with just honey (they had ran out of butter by the time I went for seconds).

I thought when I left Prague I could wear the same clothes two days in a row and just change underwear but I was wrong. I was so sweaty and dirty yesterday and tired of an outfit already worn too many times. I intend to do laundry when I get back tomorrow at Martina's but drying takes awhile since it is air dry in most of Europe and I'm out of underwear almost. So I did something totally crazy and went to the mall and bought a whole new outfit: underwear, socks, pants, tank top w/ bra in it, t shirt, sweater and jacket. (If nothing else, the jacket was a complete splurg. I totally don't NEED it. But it was too cute to leave forlorn on the rack. I had to give it a good home! See, I do have some level of maternal instincts in me ;)It will be an expensive shopping spree but at least I will have some cool European clothes to bring home.

In addition I was able to take a shower and feel much better. And here at the hostel they have free laundry -- with a dryer too -- so I washed my clothes and PJ's. So now I have my new outfit for today and my 'old' outfit for tomorrow while things dry at Martina's. I have to checkout of the hostel today by noon. But my train doesn't leave until 10 pm. They said I can store my things here in a storage room and use one of the showers before I leave and I am really very happy about that.

The hostel I'm staying at is in the neighborhood Kazimierz which according to the two paragraphs in my city guide is the neighborhood where most of the Jews lived before WWII. Then apparently they were moved across the river to the ghetto there. I'm going to walk around this neighborhood today.

My opinion might change today, but I don't really like Krakow that much. It is too dirty and depressing for me. There is a lot that happened during the war here. I feel like I am walking around history and the buildings and atmosphere still hold the memories and seem to emit some of the sadness that may have existed here at one time. I'm still glad I came because otherwise I would always wonder what it's like here. But I'm going to try and see as much as possible today as I really doubt I'll ever come back.

There are some words in Polish that are similar to Czech. Before I came I bought a Polish language book with short phrases in it but now that I'm only here for two days I don't feel like bothering to try to learn any. The funny thing is I just ask for what I want in Czech. Either they respond in Polish and sometimes with the numbers I can understand enough to pay or they respond thankfully in English.

It's 4 pm in Krakow, Poland!

2011-04-04T06:38:00.000-07:00

Hey there,

The last few days have been fantastic! On Sat I went with Martina and Petr to Mseno where Martina's parents live. Martina's mom Ivana made knedliky for me for lunch. Knedliky are the famous Czech dumplings. They are made of flour or potatoes and are served with meat or some sauce. In this case we had grilled onions with pork and goose meat with the knedliky. This typical Czech meal is best when it's homemade. It's not so great when it's in a restaurant or cafeteria.

Then we went to Romanov, the next village over, where they have their weekend cottage and garden. Our friend Misho arrived and we took a short walk. Then we hung out in the yard and had a barbeque. It was a lot of fun.

I would like to say that something amazing happened that day for me. I have only studied Czech sporadically over the last few years since getting home. It's hard to motivate with no one to ask questions to and it's easy to get frustrated. At times I have wondered if I had learned more than I gave myself credit for and Saturday was proof to me that this was true. After on four days in the Czech Republic and reading signs and exchanging short sentences with people (and having no stress to learn it since my survival no longer depends on my success) something happened and my mind opened up and whoa! I spent most of Saturday speaking Czech! Granted I sound like a four year old with a limited vocabulary -- but still I was communicating! I told Ivana and Rudolf (Martina's parents) about where I live, my job, my family and where they live, and what I'm doing on my trip and I heard a little bit about their trip last year to Yosemite and San Francisco and what they like/don't like about the food in America compared to Czech food. It was awesome!!

Saturday evening we went to a concert/village dance. I liked the music and had fun dancing. However, it was super smokey and by the end I'd inhaled so much second hand smoke that my chest was burning.

On Sunday we did one of Martina's famous 'walks.' Her friends Petra and Vladimir also joined us. We left the house and 10 am and got back at 4 pm. Round trip was 15 km. We were in the Krokonose valley (I am pretty sure I'm spelling that incorrectly--but I doubt anyone reading this will care too much.) Most of it was through some forest and sand stone rock formations. We stopped halfway for lunch at a restaurant in a village. It was sunny and warm and t-shirt weather and a lot of fun.

Then last night I took the night train to Krakow. This was a really good idea because it is a 10+ hour train ride and would have been boring and a waste of a day to spend so long on the train. It left at 9:15 pm and got in at 7 am. The night train cabins have three bunks and I was in a cabin by myself. It had a little sink and was a couple feet from the toilet. I slept decently.

I only brought a purse/bag for day things like a water bottle, sun glasses, wallet and camera. I aslo brought a backpack with my toiletries and PJ's and change of underwear. I left my pack in a storage locker at the train station, bought a city guide in English, and started wandering around. I found Old Town Square and the St Mary's Basilica Church. Most of the shops and restaurants don't open here until 10 am so I had several hours without much I could do.

St Mary's Basilica has a sign saying it's not open for visits and only open for prayer. I interpreted that to mean I could go in if I didn't act like a tourist. So I went in and knelt down at a bench and folded my hands to look like I was being reverant while I took a look around. This seems to be a church in active use since people were coming in and out to pray, have confession and do their cross thing in front of the alter before going to work. While I was in there an organ started to play and I got to listen to some singing and liturgy chant in Polish.

Then I bought a tram ticket and hopped on a tram and went to the end of the line just to see what there was to see along the way. On the way back I got off near the Wawel Castle area. It is Monday so some of the places are closed at the castle today but others were open and free. I did the free things which including looking at old armor, swords, helmets, guns and such and some ruins of the original castle from the 10th and 17th century. It was interesting but I was glad I got to see it on a free day. Then I bought the ticket and headphone tour of the church. Included in that tour is a climb up some very steep stair of a tower with a great view of the city.

Right now I'm at the Goodbye Lenin hostel where I found a bed to rent for the night. I'm in a room with ten beds and most of them are full. It is 35 zloty which I think is less than 10 euros. This includes a towel, blanket, pillow, breakfast and free internet. After I'm done writing this and resting my feet I'm going back to the train station to get my stuff and look around town some more. I find Krakow to be similar to Prague in architecture but much dirtier, grittier and more rundown. Tomorrow I think I will go Auschwitz and I don't know what else. Then I'll take the night train back to Prague.

The next few days

2011-04-01T10:42:00.001-07:00

Hi, Today I went to Divoka Sarka with Martina. The meeting she had this morning was cancelled so she had the whole day free. Divoka Sarka is a park in Prague that I really like. We walked 2.5 km through the park to a village, had lunch, and then walked back. It was really enjoyable. This evening Martina and Petr had a meeting. So I came to the center and bought my train tickets to Krakow! The plan is I will go with Martina and Petr tomorrow to Martina's parent's village, Mseno. Our friend Misho will join us. We'll do some walking, have something to eat, and attend a concert in the evening. We'll spend the night and then return to Prague on Sunday for some more walking/hiking near Prague with some other friends of Martina's. When the Czechs say walking it is more our version of hiking. Taking a walk in English means to me something short between 15 min to an hour. Walking here means hiking to me because it could be several hours or all day. Sunday evening I will take the night train to Krakow, spend Monday and Tuesday there, and then return on the night train to Prague. Just to be clear, I am having a really great time! I had a bit of a rough one getting here but after my arrival everything has been really great. The worst thing that has happened was just a few minutes ago when a bird shit on me, which is really not that big of a deal. I am very proud of my younger self for listening to whatever inside me compelled me to pick up and move around the world to an unknown place. I'm proud of my younger self for working so hard to learn as much Czech as I did then. Because of all that, I can come here now and have a really great vacation. I know my way around and don't have to spend too much time figuring out where things are or how to how to get there. And I know enough Czech to get my very basic needs met --- mainly ordering food and asking how much things cost. With the words Martina wrote down for me I was able to communicate and buy the train tickets without a problem. Yesterday I came into the internet cafe and asked the clerk in Czech if I could use the computer. She replied back in English that she didn't speak much Czech and didn't understand. That was funny. Then at dinner last night I impressed everyone by reading the menu and ordering in Czech. I told them that was because I ate a lot when I was here before! Which is an understatement. Then I made everyone laugh because I tried to ask the waiter if he could wrap my leftovers up to go. The way to say it is to ask them to wrap up/package your food. But I totally botched it and said a word that made them all laugh. Turns out I asked the guy to go out and bury it! Oops! Hope all is well at home, Love, Ruthie

Also

2011-03-31T09:10:00.000-07:00

In addition to what I wrote below, I'm now in an internet cafe/English language bookstore called the Globe. It has the keyboard set to English so I'm in a better mood to type now that the y and z aren't reversed and the numbers and punctuation all belong where I think they ought to belong. I've now been to Vysehrad, one of my most favorite places in Prague. It's a park on a hill overlooking the Vltava River. It is an old fortress. There is also a church and cemetary that is interesting to walk through. Some interesting/funny things to share: As in any city there are a lot of people and always something to see that is new or interesting or different. As in any city that is not predominantly English speaking, there are moments to find English used in unique ways. Yesterday I passed a clothing boutique called 'The Egoist.' The slogan on the window said something like "Give yourself a gift, be an egoist today!" I went in to see what an egoist might wear and two things caught my eye: a tank top for over 2100 kc which is well over $100. And a t-shirt that had the picture of a woman and the words "I am a free bitch." Now where exactly would one wear a shirt like that? I can't really think of a place except maybe Siberia or Antarctica-- some place far away from everyone I might know. Today I ran across an Absinth cafe advertising 'Cannibis ice cream.' Hmm.... Well, that's all for now.

Better

2011-03-31T04:23:00.000-07:00

Hi, Things got quickly better after a solid night sleep. I bought 30 min on a computer in an internet cafe and the Czech keyboard is so fucked up that it took me 15 min to figure out how to use it enough to enter my password. I had a great day yesterday. I walked around Vaclavske namesti, starometske namesti and went to a Jan Saudek exhibit. He is a very interesting Czech photographer. I also went to another exhibit that was weird at best. I got tired of walking and so rode a tram around. It doesn¨t really matter where you go here, there is always something interesting to look at. Then I went to my old neighorborhood in Holesovice and looked at my old street and hung out in a cafe for awhile that I liked going to before. I met Klara for dinner and had a nice time. I left the house at 10 am and got back at midnight. Today so far I¨ve been to Hradcanska and Malostranska. Next is lunch somewhere and then going to Vysehrad. Today Martina gets back from her business trip and I will meet her, Petr, and some of their friends for dinner near Narodni Trida. Tomorrow Martina has the afternoon off work and we will hang out and then I¨ll go with her and Peter to her parents village for the weekend. I am happy that I can still by metro tickets, order food and ask basic questions in Czech. Well, that about sums it up. I¨m just walking around looking at all the places I used to like to go to. I¨m looking forward to going to Krakow next week and seeing someplace completely new to me. Love you, Ruthie

I know, I know

2011-03-29T14:27:00.000-07:00

The whole entry below is more than one paragraph. I wrote multiple paragraphs, but it§s not printing them. I´m too tired to figure out why, sorry.

Jsem v Praze! I´m in Prague!

2011-03-29T13:01:00.001-07:00

All I can do is laugh or cry. I´ve done both plenty in the last however many hours since I left home. Itś 10 pm here and I haven´t a clue what time it is at home or where most of Monday and Tuesday went. The punctuation in this entry and probably the next few as well is going to suck. My Czech keyboard skills are rusty and I´m tired. Very tired. This trip means a lot to me. Itś been my goal to make a visit back to Prague since I moved away four and a half years ago. Silly me to leave my house Monday morning thinking something along the lines of "I´ve got my life together now. This trip is going to run totally smoothly, be a blast and there is nothing I can´t handle.ˇ Silly me. I jinxed myself. At least today, on day one in Prague, this is about me remembering that nearly everyday when I lived here I was irritated or frustrated with something. Battling my lack of understanding of Czech or Czech culture and my inability to communicate and function at the level I wanted to i.e. at the level I can function in English and even Spanish. And yet out of all that frustration came some amazingly rewarding experiences that made this place so awesome to me and brought really great friends into my life that made it all worth it. Just last week I was saying to my coworker Morgan that no matter what happened on my trip, no matter what went wrong, no matter what kind of nuclear explosion, earthquake, flood, or political upheavel I came upon, I was going to be happy about it because it would be my vacation and an adventure and I would be in Prague! Well... for starters here is what my §no matter what§ is. =Jill picked me up and gave me a ride to the Airporter pickup. My phone was in my pocket when I got in the car but after she drove away it wasn´t. I´m just hoping itś still in her car. Oh well, right? Because itś not like I can use it where I am now. =There was a blocking accident on I5 both N and S resulting in stand still traffic and causing us to arrive 45 minutes late at the airport. Somewhat stress inducing but not a big deal because I had the times wrong in my head and we got there 3 minutes before I actually thought I was supposed to arrive. =I was travelling on a standby pass my dad helped me get on Delta. One of those perks of having a retired pilot for a dad. Despite having done the online tutorial on how to check in using the kiosk, the computer didn´t want to scan my passport so I had to ask for help and the gal told me to stand in line at the Special Needs desk. This was after I told her I was traveling stand by and I am serious, she rolled her eyes at me while she told me what line to stand in. =I made it through security and did the whole body X ray thing. Despite my really believing my organs don´t need their privacy violated in that manner, I wanted to go on my trip more than I wanted to make a statement about how unnecessary that stuff is. I made it to the gate within minutes of boarding time. I saw a lady in a burka getting on the flight and wish for her she is happy in her lifestyle because wearing that kind of outfit on such a long flight would not be that fun in my opinion. =I not only made it on the flight standby but I made it into business class. This was absolutely the best thing! I think my jaw dropped when they handed me a menu. A menu. To choose my airplane food from. Like in a restaurant menu. There were appetizers, then salad, then a main course, then dessert, then later breakfast. It was a real treat. In addition there were fancy seats with leg room and fold out parts that made it sort of feel like you were lying down and then a comfy pillow, quilt like blanket. And there were lotś of movies and music to choose from. I had a great time on that flight. =Then about an hour before we landed I started to feel queasy and nauseous. We got off the plane and I felt sure I was going to be vomiting at some point. I´d had tons of water on the plane but not much sleep. So I think I was tired and getting emotional about getting so close to my final destination. I got off the plane. I walked a ways through the airport. And realized I didnt know where my passport was. Yikes! I went through everything several times. I spent nearly an hour trying to figure out who to ask to see if someone could check for me if it was still on the plane. And I was so worried that the plane would leave before I found it. I was hysterical and crying and sweating like you wouldn´t believe and wondering what does someone do when theyŕe halfway around the world without their passport? They came back and said that it wasn´t on the plane. I started going through my stuff for the 6th or 7th time. And found it in a pocket in my wallet I usually don´t use. What a relief! And how stupid and embarrassed, too! Sometimes when I am tired and emotional I can be my own worse enemy. Really an hour spent in extreme anxiety and near hysteria and it was my own doing and completely unnecessary. =At that point I had an hour or so before my next flight. I went to the Yotel. A hotel that is in the airport. You can rent the rooms for a short time or a long time. All the rooms in the Yotel were booked. But all I wanted was a shower and clean underwear. For 15 Euros I got my own bathroom with a shower, soap, and two towels for 45 min. It is probably the most expensive shower I´ve ever taken in my life. But it was what I needed to do to get a grip on myself. When I was done I was at least smiling at myself in the mirror. I wasn´t ready to laugh at myself, but I at least was smiling. =Then I got on the next flight to Prague. It was only an hour but I was feeling very sick. I sat hunched over in my chair the entire time trying to keep myself from vomiting. I eventually went to the bathroom and emptied my bowels of everything possible. Stood up, flushed, turned around and emptied my stomach. Puking in an airplane toilet sucks. But the good thing is if I hadn´t done that I wouldn´t have made it through all the turbulence when we got close to landing. =I looked out the window long enough to see a sign on the airport that says Welcome to the Czech Republic. And then I started crying. I made it! Once I got off the plane I went into a bathroom and puked a second time and brushed my teeth. I have never been so sick from flying in my life! But I was there and I was ready to go out and find Martina! =And then Martina wasn´t there. I walked around to the other terminal and back and she still wasn´t there. So I went to the ATM and got some money. Then I pulled out my old Czech cell phone, went to the Vodofone kiosk and bought a new SIM card and minutes. Then I sat there waiting for my phone to charge long enough so I could use it. It took awhile. =Martina answered her phone and I said, Hi Martina! This is Ruth. How are you? And Martina said, Ruth! I´m happy to hear your voice. I´m just getting ready to go to Paris today. And of course I said, Um really? Youŕe going to Paris today? And she said, Yes. Iĺl be back on Thursday. I´m looking forward to seeing you soon! And by that time it was obvious we had a huge miscommunication and I thinking wow, this is not what I expected to happen when I got here. ˇWhich is pretty much the theme of my life when I lived here beforeˇ. So I said, Martina, that is very interesting because I´m actually here now. What? Yeah. I´m here. I´m at the airport right now. I just got here. I can only imagine what Martina was thinking. She is a very successful business woman and is always giving 110 percent to everything she does. And she likes to have things planned in advance. And somehow she had it in her head that I was coming on April 29th not March! Nothing like having a house guest show up early! Martina sounded horrified but I was laughing because it was too crazy of a situation not to laugh. Within ten minutes Martina called me back with a plan. She sent her boyfriend Peter to pick me up and bring me home. Fortunately Peter had cancelled his out of town meeting for today and was here to make the hour drive to the airport to get me at the last minute. Peter brought me back to their flat where I took a nap while he went out to do some errands. He came back and we went to the grocery store (where I was so excited to be reading all the labels in Czech again!) and then out to dinner at a restaurant nearby. He is very nice and has shown an amazing flexibility in working me into his plans for the day and is being very hospitable. He set me up with this laptop to use while I´m here, too. =I´m still feeling a little queasy and motion sickness. I couldn´t eat very much at dinner. I think this is connected to the vertigo I had in January. The doctor said it would take at least six months for my brain to rebalance things in my ears and to stay off treadmills because my brain wouldnt be able to process the stationary movement very well. I think long distance flying belongs on that list for me. The nap made me feel a bit better and I´m hoping after a night sleep my brain will catch up to the fact that my body is halfway around the world from where it started from. =But in the end, I´m here and thatś what matters. I´m having an experience and an adventure and I´m in Prague! !!!!!!!!! Can´t wait to see what tomorrow brings!

Robogirls Go To Prague

2011-03-27T18:41:00.001-07:00

My friend Jen is awesome! She makes lot's of cool stuff and has her own Etsy shop.

I custom ordered some of her stuffies to take to my friend's children in Prague. Since the word robot was invented by a Czech, I asked for robots.

The end result are these totally cute Robogirls. (click on robogirls in the previous sentence and you can see them. if that doesn't work, then visit Jen's blog at artfulshe.wordpress.com.)

The Robogirls are leaving tomorrow! And I am soooooooo excited to being going with them! Hooray!

Teddy Bear Cove

2011-03-07T19:13:00.000-08:00

Last week I went for a short hike with my friend Ruby. There are a lot of really great places to hike around Bellingham. Now that I have a car I'm hoping to get out and enjoy hiking more. It only takes about ten or fifteen minutes to get to the trailhead to Teddy Bear Cove from where I live.

Valentine's Weekend

2011-03-07T18:36:00.000-08:00

I went to visit the Correll's for Valentine's Day.

Here are some pictures of a book the boys like reading right now. It was given to me in 1980 when I was five.

It's a story about some characters who get ready for a party. Their dress-up clothes smell like moth balls. So someone invents a machine to make good smells so they don't smell like mothballs anymore. Something goes wrong and the machine only makes gross smells. In the end, it gets fixed and makes cotton candy smells.

The book is interactive for the standards of the time when it was made. It has cool scratch and sniff stickers throughout that help the reader smell the nasty smells the machine makes. I remember really liking this book when I was growing up because of the neat stickers in it. This book was made over 30 years ago and the stickers still smell!

When I arrived Billy had just finished putting all the Valentine's together he was giving to his classmates. Everyone got a little card with a bug tattoo. There were some leftovers. Billy put one on his forehead, Ben had one on his arm and I put one on my neck. We had HOURS of fun going up to each other and saying, "Hey, I think there's a bug on you!" and responding "Oh, no! Get it off me!" Here is my tattoo below. It sort of looked like a mosquito.

Bath time can be a fun time at the Correll's house. Here is Ben having fun with his swim goggles.

Ben being a bit more thoughtful.

Billy is very communicative with his facial expressions. Here he is cute and adorable.

A little goofy.

And very serious and cross. This look makes me feel like I'm in trouble!

On the way home I stopped at the Oosterwyck's and met cousin Erica's new baby Ewan. Here I am with Ewan and Avery. Avery was having a rough day and this picture seems to have captured one of her unhappy moments. Ewan didn't really care much about what was going on.

Satan or Stan

2011-03-01T01:06:00.000-08:00

"If they do not live up to every covenant they make at these alters in this temple this day, they shall be in MY POWER!" -- SATAN/LUCIFER

Sometimes I read a website called PostMormon.org. It's an online discussion board for people who have left the LDS/Mormon church. There are other sites out there. But this site seems the most genuine to me in terms of the discussions people have. Some of the other sites just seem like bitter ranting and raving. And while there's a time and place for that, it's not something I need or am interested in.

I ran across the quote above on PostMormon.org tonight and started to laugh. I sometimes forget how fearful the thought of leaving the church was for me and how brave I had to be to face those fears alone, head on and not back down from them. They were worse than any monster in the closet or spider under your bed.

I recently reconnected on facebook with a friend of mine I knew when I lived in Provo, UT. He is a wonderful, beautifully proud gay man who is also post-Mormon and still lives in Provo and leads a fascinating life. When we spoke on the phone and caught up with what has happened in our lives in the last ten years, I told him I originally decided to leave the church for mainly emotional reasons. I had realized that over time I had begun living my chosen religion based on fear and guilt and those were no longer good enough motivators for me.

The quote above comes from the Mormon temple ceremony. It makes me laugh now at how blatantly manipulative it is. When I left the church, I walked away from my temple covenants. They were promises I had not made lightly and walking away from them was not something I took lightly either. People I considered to be like family wrote and told me I was under the influence of the devil. And although I knew that not to be true and I still found it very painful to hear from them. But at the same time I understood where they were coming from.

It is like I lived in a world that was believed to be flat. I set off on a journey and went over the edge of the horizon -- off the edge of the world I had belonged to. For some, that meant I went straight into the arms of the Devil. It is like spiritually the church is insisting the world is flat and yet when you leave you embrace the fact it is round(ish).

When I read the quote above, which I actually have thought of quite frequently over the last five years, I thought to myself -- Wow! If this life that I've created for myself in the last few years -- if this life is what being in the power of Satan is supposed to feel like -- this is great! I actually like it!

Some of the people posting on PostMormon.org refer to Satan as Stan. I like that. There really is wickedness and nastiness in this world. Nearly three years working at a police department can teach anyone that. People are capable of doing really horrible things to other people. That kind of evil and darkness exists in a category all it's own. And I'm okay with calling that evil force Satan or the Devil. I'm willing to fight that kind of evil, no matter what religion I claim, because that kind of evil hurts and damages fellow humans in ways that are unfathomable and so hard to heal.

But for a lot of the other stuff we're afraid of that isn't really evil or wicked per se, then I think there is Stan. Stan is what we fear --the unknown or misunderstood. So much of what I do or think or read or listen to or experience or see in my life now I would not have allowed myself to experience when I was Mormon. A lot of church teachings seem to me to promote fear and it is labelled Satan when it is really just Stan.

I'm not under the influence of Stan. But I frequently see Stan. I look him in the eye and tell him, Stan, get out of my way. I'm going to read that book that people might call anti-Mormon literature, I'm going to watch that R-rated movie, I'm going to look at that art exhibit that some people might be uncomfortable with because there is nudity in it, I'm going to go and spend the night in a hostel in the red-light district in Amsterdam on my vacation, I'm going to do those things and more and decide for myself what I think and feel about them. I'm living my personal truth being Ruth. I am not living my life being Stan. You can think what you want and thanks for the warning, but I'm going to make up my own mind about things. I'll probably do it in a way completely different than you would, and in the end we might agree or disagree, but I'll be where I want to be and I'll be being me. And I am more than happy with that.

Six Pack

2011-02-25T14:08:00.001-08:00

I didn't make it to Jogo Crossfit today. I decided to cook my lunch, talk to a friend on the phone and clean my apartment instead. When things get messy I feel out of control and I needed to not feel that way today. It is so sunny out and I was tempted to go for a jog because of the sun. But it is also super cold and windy.

So I did my at-home, made-up crossfit workout. I'm working on the number of situps and pushups I can do. Since every workout at Jogo has a name, I'll call this one Six Pack-- since someday (if I keep this up) my abs are going to be so rock solid I'll have a six pack.

I'll share it with you, in case you want to try it at home yourself. No special equipment needed.

Six Pack

50 situps
25 pushups
40 situps
20 pushups
30 situps
15 pushups
20 situps
10 pushups
10 situps
5 pushups

15 min cut off

Today I did it in 13 min 40 sec.

Jiu Jitsu

2011-02-21T00:33:00.000-08:00

JiuJitsu teaches me failure is not a final destination; it is just what we have to pass through on our way to success while we learn and try and get stronger and better.

JiuJitsu teaches me how easily someone could kick my butt and really hurt me if they wanted to bad enough. It makes me grateful no one has ever maliciously attacked me. I have been safe at home and abroad; in places full of light and darkness. And this makes me glad.

JiuJitsu teaches me that if someone ever were to maliciously attack me, I would not go down without a fight. I could hit them in places that would make them double over in pain so I could have time to run away. I could choke them until they passed out. And I could move their arm in such a way to make their shoulder ligaments rip apart and turn their arm into a useless, floppy noodle.

JiuJitsu teaches me that I have power. It makes me grateful for the light and goodness within me that makes me not want to use my power to hurt others. And it makes me grateful for my dark side that knows if called upon I can use my power to protect my self even if it means hurting someone else in the process.

JiuJitsu teaches me to appreciate and honor both the light and the dark, the ying and the yang. It teaches me there is give and there is take. It teaches me there is balance in life and to dance with the pushing and pulling life offers us each day, to relax and move with the flow instead of resisting it.

Public Service Announcement

2011-02-09T12:51:00.000-08:00

It's always a bad idea to slice onions, put your food in the oven to cook, start reading a book while you wait for it to get done, and forget where your hands have been and rub your eyes.

Just sayin'...

Out and about

2011-02-08T21:40:00.000-08:00

Last week I went for a walk around Lake Padden. I went on some of the trails in the woods above the lake that I hadn't been on before. It was a beautiful, sunny day and I enjoyed being out even though it was a bit cold!

And this is what the sunset looked like tonight. This is looking down F St towards Bellingham Bay. It is so great to live in such a beautiful place!

Just so you know...

2011-02-08T21:16:00.000-08:00

I wanted to get some of my own wrist bands for my kettlebell class. There are some fancy kettlebell wristbands that I want to get someday called KettleGuard.

My goal is to compete in a kettlebell competition this year and I think by the time I work up to a competition fitness level I will "need"/ really want the fancy-wancy wristguards. However, they cost a fancy-wancy price of $25 plus $5 for the inserts plus shipping and handling.

When I looked at my checking account balance this weekend, I realized I had some other bills I needed to pay more urgently than buying KettleGuards. So I postponed that desire for a little while and bought the cheap wristbands at Big 5.

I bought two of the cheapest pair I could find. They were $3 a pair. Two racks over there was another pair that looked exactly the same except they sported a namebrand logo and the packaging said 'For Women.' And they cost $8! What a rip off!

I'm posting this so that all you wristband fanatics out there do not get tricked by sly advertising techniques. Unisex wristbands work just as well as the ones 'for women.'

Good Reads

2011-02-07T22:37:00.000-08:00

I just joined Good Reads. It's an online program for keeping track of the books you've read, you want to read, etc. You can write your own review. And you can have 'friends' like on Facebook and see what you're friends have read.

And there is this really cool widget that is posted on the right where blog readers can look at what I've read.

If you want to join me on Good Reads, my name there is, hopefully not too shockingly, Ruthie. Or just keep reading my blog where occasionally and maybe even randomly (go figure) I'll post something about what I'm reading.

Have fun!

Life

2011-01-25T11:53:00.001-08:00

Last week I noticed my houseplant was looking nearly dead. The leaves were weak and droopy. I transplanted it into a bigger, purple pot and moved it to a different location. After a week it is looking much better! Maybe it likes purple better than red? Here it is again on the left next to my jade plant that is also starting to grow better.

A couple weeks ago I bought this CD. I think someday I would like to learn French. But right now I have too many other things going on and am not interested in taking the time to study a language. So I'm trying to listen to music in French and I'm also listening to a French Canadian radio channel sometimes to get my ear used to the sound of the language. This CD called 'Cafe de Flore' is a compilation of different musicians and is supposed to evoke the feeling of sitting in a Parisian cafe of I presume the same name. This CD is so fantastic. I haven't listened to anything else since I got it I love it so much!

And here is the book I am reading right now. Well, ok, one of them. But I love Sherlock Holmes and my life feels so much more complete knowing that soon I will have read most of the Sherlock Holmes stories! I highly recommend Sir Arthur Conan Doyle for your reading list.

For my book club we are reading 'The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes' and 'A Study in Scarlet.'

Winter Hike

2011-01-16T22:38:00.001-08:00

I went on a hike last week with my friend Jill in the Mt. Baker area. It was a rainy yet beautiful day and we had a lot of fun!

Happy New Year

2011-01-04T13:35:00.000-08:00

Dear Friends and Family:

It is hard to believe it is already 2011. I'm still trying to figure out where December went as well as most of 2010!

Life at 35 for me looks very different than the life I once imagined for myself at 21. At 21 I figured by 35 I'd be happily married to some handsome, great guy and have cute, perfectly behaved children and a house with a huge porch with lots of flower pots and a garden. That was a mix of what I think I wanted and what I thought I was supposed to want. At 35 I'm still single, I don't have any kids, I don't have a boyfriend (or a girlfriend for that matter), I don't own my own home, I don't do crafts and I don't like to sew or knit.

To add to my list of what I'm not and what I don't do, I still haven't figured out how to write a holiday/season's greetings letter, get it printed out, include a cute photo and get it all in the mail in a timely manner before Christmas. How my sister and other friends who have kids (translate: more people than just themselves to take care of) can accomplish that task and bake cookies and plates of treats, too is way beyond my imagination!

However, despite not having become the person I thought at 21 I was supposed to become, and despite spending a lot of time walking around thinking to myself 'how did I get here? Is this how I want 'being me' to be like? I've ended 2010 feeling really great about who I am and where my life is. There are a lot of experiences and people that have come into my life in the past year that make my life feel abundant.

Here's a list of some of the things that bring a sense of abundance to my life:

*Almost a year ago now, I realized that the times in my life I've been the happiest have been when I've gone to the gym regularly and lifted weights. So I joined Jogo Crossfit, a local crossfit gym. In doing so, I feel like I've joined a community of really great people who enjoy challenging themselves in healthy ways. And I've made some really great friends through the gym.

*A couple months ago I started attending the Kettlebell class at Jogo and all I can say about that is I love it! If you don't know what a kettlebell is, it's sort of a circular weight with a handle on it. Sometimes, not always, but sometimes I get focused on counting and breathing and by the end of the workout I feel like I'm in a meditative state.

This is really cool for me because I like feeling like I've been meditating, but I have a really hard time sitting still enough to meditate. It also cracks me up that swinging a 12kg weight around has that effect on me. You can see a video about my teacher Brad Jones at the Bellingham Business Journal if you want to learn more : http://bbjtoday.com/blog/video-rolfer-brad-jones-explains-kettlebell-lifting/9588.

*A couple months ago I also asked a coworker if he could teach me some self-defense. After working in the Records Bureau at the Police Department for 2 1/2 years, I started to think it's pretty awesome I've made it to this point in my life without ever getting into a physical confrontation with someone. I hope that blessing continues, but I thought it would be a good idea to learn some skills so if it does happen I don't just freak out, pee my pants and get my butt kicked or worse.

As a result, Don invited me to join his training group, Code Four Training. This is sort of a private gym he built in his barn. I try to make it out once a week for his Jiu Jitsu class. Learning Jiu Jitsu has totally taken me out of my comfort zone and helped increase my self-confidence. I know now that if I get attacked on the street I have things I can do to defend myself. It is also fun and I totally understand now why guys roll around and wrestle each other all the time. I think girls should do more of that!

* To balance out all the physical activity, I joined a book group, too. So far we've met two times. This month we are reading The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and A Study in Scarlet. Then we're going to tackle the banned book list and see what sort of fun we can come up with there.

*I enjoy being an Auntie. So far, I've got five nieces and nephews. Levi, Billy, Ben, Sophia and Gabriella. They are each beautiful, incredibly smart, creative and energetic in their own unique ways. I am very lucky to be a part of their lives.

I've finished 2010 with a deep sense of gratitude for my friends and family, a sense of community and rootedness and appreciation for being able to call Bellingham, WA my home, and a continued sense of joy, wonder and thirst for adventure to see the many other beautiful places in the world.

The attached photo is from a trip I took in September to Victoria, B.C. I enjoyed the Butchart Gardens and the Bug Zoo. But the most fun was Adrenaline, the zip line tour I took.

Thank you all for being part of my community.

Wishing you the best in 2011,

Ruthie

La Belleza de Plastico/ The Beauty of Plastic

2010-11-29T18:53:00.000-08:00

Meet the Libster

2010-11-10T18:47:00.000-08:00

Please meet the Libster, my new car.

She's a 2009 Nissan Versa Hatchback and I like her a lot!

Here's the funny thing. I named her the Libster short for the Liberator. I was thinking that the car is an external symbol of all the changes I've made in my life in the last five years.

Having a car will give me more freedom and flexibility to do some of the things I want to do without worrying about bus and train schedules or what time to return the car rental. Already this past week I've been down to Kirkland to visit a friend, enjoyed grocery shopping without worrying about how dark it was, how rainy it was, or how much I could carry, I've made it out to Blaine to learn some Muay Thai from my Jiu Jitsu teacher, and enjoyed not having to walk home from work in the dark at 1 a.m.

All of that feels liberating. But that's not what the Libster means to me. The Libster is an external symbol that I've focused on making the internal changes I've needed to make in my life. And over time those internal changes have spread outward and now can be seen externally.

Gone are the days when I let someone else tell me where to go or what to do or influence me with fear or guilt or manipulation. I'm calling the shots and I'm in the drivers seat. I've set a ton of goals and accomplished a lot of them in the last five years and I'm working towards others that I hope to achieve in the future.

The Libster is an external expression to myself that I am worth it. I'm worth every penny I'll end up paying on my car loan, I'm worth all the miles I've walked or bused to save the money I've got in the bank, I'm worth all the fun I've had and tears I've cried and sweat I've sweated to get where I am and I'm worth where all that inner determination will take me in the future.

There is no price tag that can be put on life. (For everything else, there's Mastercard ;) ) But just like we choose what stuff ends up on our credit card bill, we choose and create our life. I know I've always followed my heart and followed the road less travelled in many ways, but in the past five years I feel I've become more centered and grounded in myself than ever before.

I've created my life. And I've liberated myself from some sticky webs I've gotten stuck in in the past. Everyday I wake up and create my life. I have no control over a lot of what gets thrown at me, but I do control how I respond to it and and I definitely have control over how I engage in my life and experience it.

Somehow the Libster aka the Liberator sums all that up for me.

So here's the extra funny part. Don, my friend, coworker and Jiu Jitsu teacher was kind enough to point out to me (while laughing hysterically at the same time) that the Liberator is also the name of some type of sex furniture. I'll let you google that on your own but if you're really interested you'll probably have success if you go straight to liberator.com. They are, after all, "the best choice for bedroom adventure gear." Some of it looks kind of cool. Maybe I'll even buy some after I pay off my car loan. Hell, I could even drive to their headquarters wherever it is and load the Libster up to the roof with all kinds of fun stuff. I could even strap stuff on top if I wanted. ha ha ha ;)

I'm sort of attached to the Libster's name now and don't want to change it. So I'm just going to embrace the fact that I will probably be teased at every jiu jitsu class from here on out by Don and whoever else decides that it's funny.

But it's all okay. Afterall, a girl's gotta have a way to get around and have some fun, you know what I mean?

Food For Thought

2010-10-10T23:42:00.000-07:00

So I'm working on a project that 1) I've actually started and am no longer procrastinating and 2) may take me all fall and winter to get around to finishing. And 3) I'm okay with that.

The project is I'm going through some old files and folders and boxes of photos and putting everything in sheet protectors and three ring binders. I'm not really into scrapbooking, so that is not what I'm doing. What I'm doing might count as 'Memory Keeping for Dummies'. But this way my stuff will at least fit on a shelf and I can look at it every 10 years when I get the urge to look at it and I won't have boxes stacked around that are an eye sore and an irritation.

So far I've taken a stroll down the memory lane called "Preschool" and "Elementary School." I'm gearing up for "Junior High" and "High School" next. Those memory lanes excite me less because I don't really like remembering how awkward and dorky I felt during those acne-afflicted teenage years.

However, I can tell you that when I was in 4th grade I apparently thought a good future goal/expectation for myself was to "become president." I assume I was dreaming big and was meaning President of the United States. Don't be too shocked, but at this point in the game, I don't really feel like doing that anymore. I don't want that job. But I will keep voting for someone else who wants to do it.

I found some poetry I wrote in junior high and high school. Despite the fact that most of it is bad poetry, it does reflect where I was at in my life at the time.

Here are some lines from a poem that I find, shall we say, particularly prophetic or insightful.

"Is the purpose of life
to do things so right,
that we forget whom we love
and what we really like?"

The interesting thing about these lines is that I wrote them a couple years before I started going to the Mormon church. However, even then I spent a lot of time talking about the Bible and religion with Christian neighbors and wondering what I believed in. I don't know what I was thinking when I wrote them then, but they mean a lot to me right now.

These lines kind of sum up what I learned from my years in the Mormon Church. The lesson for me is this: don't get so caught up in following rules and doing what you think you're 'supposed' to do or what you 'have' to do or what you think is Right and not doing what you think is Wrong. If you spend all your time worrying about that stuff you might loose track of some of the other stuff that might actually be more important. Like who are the people you love and who are you? What do you like and what makes you happy?

I also found a rough draft of a report I wrote in junior high about China's one-child policy and infanticide. My arguments are very junior high-ish and not very well defended. But my conclusion was that I didn't think China's policy was a good one because of all the female infanticide I thought came about as a result of it.

I ended the report by saying, "Life is a precious thing and everyone deserves the experience." Although that totally made me laugh when I read it tonight and I think it is sort of funny, I do kind of want to respond a bit seriously to myself (my 14 year old self.)

To connect the two things I wrote into one big intertwined thought, some of the things I've learned since then lead me to ask myself today some questions. Life is a precious thing, and so what am I doing to really live the experience? Am I spending my time following rules or cultural expectations on auto-pilot? Or am I actually following my heart? Am I doing the things I really like or really want to be doing? Do I tell or show the people I love that I love them? Am I living in a way that gives me a good life experience and also helps enhance the experience other people are having in their lives as well?

Something to think about. Definitely food for thought.

Fight Gone Bad

2010-09-15T15:36:00.000-07:00

Dear Friends,

I'm not sure what I'm worse at -- fundraising or advertising?

Either way, this is a belated post to ask for your help.

If you have money to burn and don't have time to read this post just skip to https://rapidgiving.com/fundraising/page/5622/ruthies-fundraising-page

For more of an explanation about what I need help with please read on:

I will be participating in Fight Gone Bad on Sunday, Sept 19th in Bellingham, WA. Only four days away! This event is locally sponsored by Jogo Crossfit Bellingham, the gym I go to.

But this is more than a local event. There are over 1,000 crossfit gyms nationwide participating in Fight Gone Bad.

This is a day when we come together for a challenge. Our challenge is to raise money for some excellent causes and we also come together for a challenging workout.

This year the causes are the Lance Armstrong Foundation, Wounded Warrior Project, and Cross Fit Foundation. Most of us all know someone who has been affected by cancer and the Lance Armstrong Foundation is a great way to support cancer survivors.

Many of you may know police officers, fire fighters, or members of the military. Many of you may have been lucky enough never to have had the need to call 911. But you probably sleep better knowing that if you need help in an emergency there is someone you can call for help.

After working for two years in the Records Bureau at the Bellingham Police Dept, I've gained a greater appreciation for what our officers and first responders are called upon to do on a daily basis. The Wounded Warrior Project and the Cross Fit Foundation are there to help our injured soldiers and our law enforcement folks and their families in their time of need. I can't think of a better cause to support than a cause that helps the people who help us every day.

My goal is to raise $300. So far I've got 13% of that. So I need 13 people to donate $20 or 26 people to donate $10 or 52 people to donate $5 or 104 people to donate $2.50.

Please take a moment to make a contribution. And please, if you only have $2.50 to give that is awesome because everything helps, but please then also consider emailing this request to 10 of your friends, because maybe you know someone else who is willing to give $2.50, too. And I don't know 104 people I can ask.

You can donate online at: https://rapidgiving.com/fundraising/page/5622/ruthies-fundraising-page

If you are in Bellingham or want to be on Sunday the 19th, stop by Maritime Heritage Park anytime between 11 am to 4 pm.

If you want to see me, I'll be competing at 1:32. Each heat lasts 17 min so if you have to pick between being early or late, pick early. If you're late you might miss it.

Thank you!!!
Ruthie

Wonder

2010-09-06T17:06:00.000-07:00

Four years ago on Labor Day 2006 I stepped off the plane in Seatac after a long flight and a 15-month adventure in Prague, Czech Republic.

I remember holding my tired and emotional self together until I saw my sister Paula in baggage claim and then I started sobbing. I was crying for what I'd left behind and didn't know when I'd be back to visit Prague again. I was crying for seeing my sister and meeting my nephew Billy again for the second time in his life. I was crying out of sheer nervousness and fear over the unknown of what lay ahead and the daunting task of starting my life over once again.

From baggage claim we went to Paula's car and then drove to a park somewhere. There was a potluck with a ton of really great food and aunts, uncles, cousins, nephews, and parents all there for a Labor Day-Welcome Home Picnic. I wish I had been able to eat more of that good food but I was so exhausted and emotional that I only remember being able to nibble on a little bit and sip soda and even then I managed to make two trips to the bathroom to throw up.

Eventually the luggage was transferred from Paula's car to Dad and Ginny's car. And I was on my way to Bellingham and my new home. I had some boxes of stuff in Ginny's closet, a bed and rug in storage in a friend's garage in Portland, a suitcase I'd shipped ahead of time, two other heavy suitcases and a duffel bag that I'd paid a pretty penny to get on the plane with me in Prague, and $100. I had the generosity of Dad and Ginny to provide me room and board and a rather vague plan to 'get a job' doing 'something' so I could afford to move into my own apartment as soon as possible.

Let me repeat, I had $100. That was it. And I was already in the red since I owed Dad and Ginny the money for my ticket home and still had a previous unpaid debt as well. That was 2006.

Today is Labor Day 2010. I spent the day doing laundry, listening to NPR, hemming some cut-off shorts, reading, watching it rain, sorting through old photos and stuff from a box and reminiscing.

I am doing those things in my own apartment. It is the fourth apartment I've rented in Bellingham and it is my favorite of them all. It is furnished with things I've acquired since I came home from Prague. I gave up an astronomical amount of stuff when I moved from Portland to Prague. I had very little when I lived there and I started out with very little in Bellingham. Now I have more stuff again. Sometimes I think it is too much stuff. But I like my stuff and am grateful for it and I am proud of the work it took me to bring it into my life. However, I know if calamity struck and I lost everything that I would be okay. I'd probably be sad and pissed off, too, but mostly I would be okay. I know I would have the emotional strength to get on with life and rebuild. Afterall, it's just stuff.

On Wednesday I will go to work. It is the second job I've had in Bellingham and it is my favorite out of all the jobs I've ever had. The tasks I do won't be particularly remarkable, but I will be surrounded by coworkers I like and have fun working with. I probably won't do anything amazing to write about on my blog, but I will leave after working hard and someone will most likely have said something funny during the day to make me laugh.

On Friday I will get paid again. I will know that money is mine because I am debt free now. I will have enough to pay my bills and left over to add to my savings account. I will continue to be grateful to have a job that I like and that allows me to provide for myself. That is a satisfying feeling.

In between the stuff-getting and the money-making, there have been many moments in the last four years that have been full of the magic that makes life the great, amazing adventure that it can be. It's hard to list them all. But all of them include spending time with people I love and care about.

Incomplete and random here are some of what has created my life and heart into what is today.

Family: Many, many, many phone calls and conversations with my sister and best friend Paula. Visits with my nephews Billy and Ben. Watching my sister Krista and her husband and long time life partner Chris get married...and then of course their son the amazing Levi who is too cute for words. Family dinners and moments with Dad and Ginny and brother Eric. Visits with cousins, their children or their dogs ;). Visits with Aunt June and Mom. Trips to Colorado Springs to see my brother Brian and his family. Niece Gabby. Niece Sophie, who I still can't wait to meet.

Friends: New friends from work, from when I took yoga, from the gym, from the writing class I took, from just really cool people I've been lucky enough to meet in Bellingham. Old friends from Portland I've been able to keep in touch with on the phone and internet and see on the occasional visit. Chilean friends and family who I love to visit and who I wish lived next door to me so I could say hi to them every day if I wanted to, but I still think it's cool I can say 'hi' to them on facebook frequently. Prague friends who I keep in touch with by email and can't wait to see again whenever I get back to visit. Facebook friends who run the spectrum of people I knew growing up and going to Seabeck (church-family camp) to roommates and friends from my college days.

When I feel like a dork, when I feel ugly and awkward and wonder how I manage to make it through the day with two left feet and all thumbs and my mouth open when I should've kept it shut, things can really seem like life sucks. When I'm out of toilet paper and the store is closed, when I've locked myself out of my apartment and I'm in my slippers and it's raining, when I'm sick and I wish there was someone else around to take care of me and feel sorry for me and hug me until I feel better, then I can really work myself into a miserable funk.

Life is not always perfect and it has a lot of ups and downs. Life is work. It's not always a walk in the park and anyone anywhere can tell you their own sad story of some problem that they have. But then they could probably also tell you a list of things they like and that make life good for them.

I am grateful for where I'm at and where I'm going. I won't tell you where that is just yet, because it's still a surprise even for me. But when there's a bad day and I come up with enough sense to pull my head out of the sand, then I can list all the reasons I mentioned above and I am glad for what I've got. I am standing on my own two feet, when I fall I get back up and keep going, and I am here. I am home.

Here is a quote from Saint Augustine who lived from 354-430. My source is my Dad who wrote this down and gave it to me once and I just found it again today.

"People travel to wonder at the height of mountains, at the waves of the sea, at the long courses of rivers, at the vast compass of the ocean, at the circular motion of the stars; and they pass by themselves without wondering."

Take time to wonder.

You are wonderful!

I go to the gym...

2010-08-22T11:18:00.000-07:00

so I can be a cool Aunt and give shoulder rides!

WTF? Pyrex be gone!

2010-07-06T21:14:00.000-07:00

I have really great luck it seems renting apartments that have something wrong with the oven! This time something is seriously awry with the temperature gizmo. I think I'm going to hold off on baking any more until it gets fixed.

Look what happened to my pie dish!

Up close.

After the pie cooled and was carefully removed this is all that was left.

The bottom looks okay. So I think I can still eat lunch tomorrow as planned. I am really looking forward to it, too! Swiss Chard & Spinach Pie with mushrooms and chicken.

If I'm suddenly hospitalized in the next few days for internal bleeding and I'm not coherent, please suggest the doctors look for glass shards in my throat and stomach. I seriously hope if I do swallow some it doesn't make it's way all the way through my system since I can only imagine how gross and painful passing glass might be. Ha ha ha!

Happy Summer Solstice!

2010-06-28T23:31:00.000-07:00

Dear Friends,

Happy Summer Solstice! I hope your first half of 2010 has been full of good times and happy memories!

Here are some photos from things I've done so far this year that have brought me joy!

In January I went to Portland for my friend and former roommate Amber Stahr's wedding reception. Now she is Amber Bristow. Yay for Amber and Ritchie! Here I am with the bride!

Here are some other great friends Sara, Aimee and Megan from my Portland years. We had some good times and I hadn't seen most of them and a lot of other people I saw at the reception since I had said goodbye about four years earlier and moved to Prague.

I also visited some former co-workers and friends.

Here is Diana and her son Gabriel. Diana and I met about ten years ago when we were Residential Counselors at the Out Front House. It was a group home for adjudicated youth.

Below is Matt- my friend from when I was a drive test examiner and Transportation Services Representative at the DMV.

With Michelle and Sam, some other friends from working at the DMV.

And here I am with Reed. We were neighbors when I lived with Tamara Duricka.

I have good friends in Bellingham, too! Here I am with Bronwyn and Ruby at Ruby's birthday party.

This month I celebrated my two year anniversary working in the Records Bureau at the Bellingham Police Department as a Records Specialist. I've had a lot of different jobs over the years and have had some great, diverse experiences. However, I feel really lucky to have the job I have right now. I really like it a lot, I have great coworkers and I learn something new every day.

Here I am on the right with Deputy Chief Flo Simon. We were at the Whatcom County Law Enforcement Award and Recognition Dinner in May. I got an award for providing Spanish language assistance to some officers on a domestic violence case. My award was called a 'Commendation Citation.' So far, that is the only citation I've ever received from the police in my life and I'm glad it's a good one!

Sometimes you don't have control over everything that happens in your life and you just have to make the best of what comes your way. After living in the apartment I moved into last August for only nine months, I found out that I was going to have to move again! My landlord sold the apartment building to a government agency that rents to low-income people. The down side of that was I had pack things up again and go through the chore of moving.

The good things are I'm in a good enough position financially to not be considered low-income, I found a one bedroom apartment I really like and is super cute and is only three blocks from where I lived before and I got paid to move! So now I'm in a really cool Victorian house that is divided into four apartments. We even have a yard with a garden for us to use.

Here is a picture of my new house!

Another cool thing I've done this year is to join a gym. It's called Jogo Crossfit Bellingham. I don't have any pictures. But if you want to find out more about my gym go to: http://jogogym.com/. There are a lot of sites online about Crossfit Training. It is intense, but totally great. It is fun to be a part of a community of people who like to eat well and challenge themselves physically. I am making some new friends through the gym and everyone who goes there is very supportive and encouraging. Check it out!

Mostly, by the number of pictures on my camera and as you will see below I've been able to spend a lot of time with my sister Paula and my nephews Billy and Ben. They are five and almost two and super, super cute. I love them so much. Here are a ton of photos of them because I can't pick just one or two!

A couple months ago Paula and the boys came up to Bellingham and we went on a mini-road trip to Canada. We visited our sister Krista, her husband Chris, and nephew Levi.

Here is Levi. He was very nice to share his toys with his cousins!

We went to the park. Here are the cousins all together!
Billy doesn't look too happy to be posing for me!

Billy and Uncle Chris feeding the ducks.

Sisters: myself, Krista, and Paula.

Billy is very good at transforming Transformers. On the left is Mud Flap with Bumblebee. They are the good guys. Dark Wind is on the right and he is a bad guy.

Here is Ben our future fire fighter! He is a good guy, too!

Paula and Stu on Father's Day. Stu made some home-smoked pulled pork. It was delicious!

Papa Gil is reading Dr Seuss' 'Hop on Pop'.

You might think that the guy on the right with lots of protective eye gear (sunglasses and goggles) and a sword is Billy. But you would be wrong. He introduced himself as Mexican Joe.

Be careful around Mexican Joe! He might poke you in a place where you don't want to be poked!

Aunt Ruthie loves Billy and Ben. Ruthie loves you, too! I might not have a picture with you and we might not have seen each other in awhile. But I think of you and I am glad for having you in my life and for your friendship!

Wishing you a great summer!

Love,

Ruthie

Happy New Year!

2009-12-30T19:36:00.000-08:00

Dear Friends,

Happy New Year!

At this time of year, I'm always reminded how blessed I am to have so many good friends. This year especially, I have reconnected with a lot of people through Facebook which has been a lot of fun. My life has had a lot of moves and changes and twists and turns, but through it all I have been very fortunate to know and associate with great people.

I hope you all had a good holiday and that the coming year is full of good things for you!

Here are some other reasons why 2009 was a good year for me!

*Traveling--two weeks in Chile in October! Surfing (yep, that's me above--first time in a wet suit) and salsa dancing in Valparaiso with my friend Shannon Owen, her husband, and a friend. And visiting the Carcamos in Chillan--my host family from study abroad when I was 19. This was my second visit back to see them.

*Having tea and celebrating my sister-in-law Michelle's birthday in Colorado Springs. Hanging out with my beautiful niece Gabby and her parents for a week in June. And also spending a day playing tourist with my friend Tiffany Metcalf. She and I became friends in Prague and hadn't seen each other in several years and fortunately were in Colorado Springs at the same time this year.

*Working. No really. I'm really lucky to have a job I like. I work in the Records Bureau at the Bellingham Police Department. I'm responsible for Important Police Paperwork. We use at least 7 or 8 local, state, and federal information data bases to do our job. So even though that might sound sassy and sarcastic, it is also true--it really is important. We do things like tracking stolen property on a state and national data base, entering missing people into the missing people data base, creating photo lineups, tracking and storing warrants and protection orders, issuing and denying gun transfers and concealed pistol licenses, doing background checks, preparing police reports for disclosure, and more. I have gained an appreciation for the hard work and service law enforcement officers and personnel provide our communities. They deserve more credit than they usually get for doing a challenging job to the best of their ability.

*Moving. I moved out of a tiny one bedroom apartment. It was fine except for the fact that it was dark, had no direct sunlight, and was not exactly sound proof. From the bedroom I could hear my neighbor on the left opening, closing, and cooking stuff in his microwave. And from the bathroom I could hear the neighbor on the right snoring (no one wants to know what he could hear when he was awake). Now I'm in a two bedroom, second floor apartment with lot's of windows and natural sunlight and I have a balcony, too. I also have a view. Granted it's a view of trees, hills, and the neighborhood houses, but still it's a view and way better than a brick wall and city street.

*Being close to family. I talk to my sister Paula on the phone frequently and visited the Corrells a couple times at their home. I love my nephews! Billy and Ben are the cutest. I've spent more time with my Aunt June who moved to Bellingham a year ago and consequently I've seen my mother more frequently. I still have fun living in the same town as my dad and step-mom. They are cool people. Joining the family this year is nephew Levi Crowther and niece Sophia Okken.

*Doing a little of this and that. I worked the graveyard shift this year at work and for half the year had Sunday, Monday and Tuesday off and for the other half had Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday off. So I couldn't do everything I like to do all the time, but I did get to do a little bit of a lot some of the time. I took a yoga class for a couple months and made some new friends. And I participated for another season with the North Sound Community Orchestra which is always fun for me.

I enjoyed riding my bike in the summer, jogging and using the track near my apartment to run sprints on, and started to learn to hula hoop and box. I played on a softball team through work in the spring as part of a coed, city league. I was very nervous playing on a team of people I didn't know very well and who were police officers and therefore highly competitive and athletic. My nervousness nearly disabled me most of the season and hands-down I could have won the prize for 'weakest link.' I swear, I knew softball wasn't my best sport but I really showed them how much I suck at it! But I finally got over my nervousness, took a trip or two to the batting cages, and improved by the end of the season. (At least I was hitting the ball and making it to first or second base and scored a few times too).

On December 28th I accomplished my 2009 goal (in the nick of time but with a day or two to spare). So I can now do 30 pushups in a row. And yes, they are real pushups not the 'girl' kind. It was just something I wanted to see if I could do and now I know I can.

*Reading and watching movies. I am really into the shows NCIS, Bones, and True Blood right now so that is mostly what I watch on DVD. Here are some books or authors I've read in the last year that I highly recommend:

--any mystery by Kathy Reichs. Here books inspired the show Bones and are fun to read.

--the Sookie Stackhouse series by Charlaine Harris. These books inspired the show True Blood. They are for fun. They are not extremely well written and certainly not high-brow or even low-brow literature. But they are easily engaging and for FUN!

--The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera. Kundera's writing is very thought-provoking. He's on my radar because he's a Czech author and it's one of my goals to eventually read all of his books (in the English translation of course as I don't read Czech or French.)

--The Lost Goddesses of Early Greece/A Collection of Pre-Hellenic Myths by Charlene Spretnak. This was a short book of pre-hellenic greek myths. The most interesting portion for me was the introduction and analysis of the myths.

OMG! There are so many good books out there! Here are a few more because I just can't stop!

--Outwitting History-The Amazing Adventures of a Man Who Rescued a Million Yiddish Books by Aaron Lansky. A true story, very well written and interesting to read.

--Modoc/The True Story of the Greatest Elephant that Ever Lived by Ralph Helfer. I would never have imagined crying about an elephant--but I did.

--La Prisonniere/Twenty Years in a Desert Goal by Malike Oufkir and Michele Fitoussi. A true, heart-breaking story. This book gave me a whole new perspective on appreciation for the comforts of my life and the strength of spirit of this woman and her family.

Ok. I'll stop now. If anyone cares and wants to know more that I recommend. Just let me know.

Reasons to look forward to 2010:

*I'm done with graveyard for now and will rotate between day and swing shift at work for the next year. So I am looking forward to seeing the sun more often!

*With a sleep schedule that is more compatible with the rest of the world, I'll be able to take the train more often and make weekend trips. So far I've got trips to Portland, OR and Vancouver, BC planned to visit friends and family. I'm looking forward to even more short trips in the coming year.

*I've got three weeks of vacation bid for September. And I am going to go back to Prague to visit friends. My dream trip would also include visits to Germany, Poland, Slovenia, and Croatia. It will be interesting to see how much I can actually manage to do. Planning a trip is half the fun of it. So if I can't do it all this year, then I will just have to go back again later!

Once again, I wish you a wonderful 2010!

Love,
Ruthie

Happy Winter Solstice

2009-12-21T14:54:00.000-08:00

This is my favorite day of the year.

One and a half weeks or in other words six working days until I'm off graveyard. Then I will have accomplished what I thought was the impossible--over a year of working graveyard.

This year winter solstice means not only a celebration of returning to the light but a celebration of returning to day light awake hours. My days living or rather sleeping like a vampire are coming to an end.

Hooray!

May the coming year take you to new places and adventures. Take a few risks. Consider doing something wild and crazy like this guy: http://www.gamaniak.com/video/3625 .

We only live once, so do something fun!

Talent, Talent, Sexy Talent!

2009-10-23T02:05:00.000-07:00

I am very blessed to have many talented friends. And their talents are as diverse and unique as they are.

One of those talented friends is in Portland and his name is Lane Hunter. He is a dancer and much, much more.

Check out his new website for his new dance company at www.lanehunter.com.

It's worth the time it'll take you to click on the link. And the much longer time you'll take looking at his website. And the time you'll take to go to Portland and see him dance. And the time you'll take telling all your friends about him, too!

Street Art and Hanging out with Antonio on my last day

2009-10-17T16:40:00.001-07:00

The view from my room at the bed and breakfast.
Valparaiso at night. It truely does look like a paradise valley when it is all shimmering and lit up like this.

Un Lobo/ a sleeping seal.

Pelicans.

Taking a tour of the harbor.

Antonio, my excellent guide. (Who knew about as much as I did about Valpo ;) Looking up a very steep funicular.

Looking down.

What will the facade look like when the construction is done?

Will they move when the door is opened?

Surfing, etc.

2009-10-17T16:19:00.000-07:00

We drove up the coast and saw some amazing views.

Here in the distance is a crazy, huge house. Five stories if you count the garage.

My first time in a wet suit! Harder to put on than nylons. Here I am with Antonio.

The beach we went surfing at in Maitencillo.

Proof for cousin Ginna that Starbucks exists in Vina del Mar. I didn't go in or buy anything. A mocha costs $8.oo USD and is too much to pay in any country.

The Sushi/Mexican restaurant we went to.

Shannon and Marcelo.

Looking up to the top of one of the funiculars.

Looking down.

Views around Valparaiso

2009-10-17T16:14:00.000-07:00

And yes, he's playing the flute which is why I stopped to listen. He was extremely good. They were playing Cuban music.

Viva Chile!

2009-10-12T09:16:00.000-07:00

The entire country has erupted in celebration! Chile beat Colombia 4/2 the other day in a very exciting soccer game that has qualified them for the World Cup next year. This is THE thing happening this week. Everyone is totally stoked. I hear people taking about it on the street, the night of the game there where people honking their horns, cheering, sleeping out at the airport to greet the team homecoming in the morning, people getting hurt in the crowds by flying bottles, utter chaos in some places. The news is all about reliving the best moments of the game and interviewing any one and everyone that has any role to play in soccer, or coaching or commentary on the game. The extra cool thing for me is that these people TALK FAST when they're giving commentary and if I concentrate a bit extra I can follow most of it. So that means to me that my Spanish keeps improving.

The last couple days have been a total blast. Shannon and Marcelo came over on Saturday from Santiago. They picked me up and we drove from Valparaiso to next door to Vina del Mar and then up to a place called Con Con. We ate lunch at a Sushi/Mexican restaurant. No kidding. The Chileans really don't eat Mexican food so just a MExican restaurant is a novelty here. But to have it combined with Sushi was extra funny. So there was a sushi menu and a mexican menu combined together. I had the sushi and it was pretty good.

Then we dropped Marcelo off at his brothers to watch the game and Shannon and I went down to the waterfront in Vina and walked around. Shannon was worried Chile would loose and didn't want to be near Marcelo and his resulting bad mood if that happened. But then people in the bars were erupting in cheers and dancing around at the goals and we decided to head back and watch the rest of the game with Marcelo.

Then Marcelo's brother Antonio got home from work and we went to La Piedra Feliz/the Happy Stone/Rock and went salsa dancing. Antonio is a aerobic/dance instructor. He puts in 30 hrs of classes a week. And on the side DJ's weddings and other events. He is fun, cute, very fit, and nice. So he was my date for the night.

If you didn't know I could salsa dance, that's ok because I didn't either. Antonio taught me and we had a few good laughs because he couldn't get over how easily I have a hard time keeping track of three numbers. 1 2 3. But I did what I could and he didn't seem to mind and we had a great time. The place also had a room with good 80's music that we dance in for awhile and then a room where we watched a Chilean Elvis impersonator sing Elvis songs in Spanish. It was so freaking hilarious.

I didn't get to bed until 5.30 am. Then yesterday I met them in Vina and we went to a beach town called Maitencello. Or something like that. It was a fabulously sunny day and we went surfing. It was my first time, I didn't get up on my knees barely but once, but I had a blast lying on my belly on the board. Shannon said if I had another day of surfing she'd be able to teach me to get up on my feet. So too bad I don't live here and can go with them more often, right?

Then we drove up the coast a bit more and too in some awesome views of the surf crashing on the cliffs and rocks. Then back to Antnonio's place, showered and changed, watching some soccer commentary for awhile and then went to the casino in Vina to the discoteca. We stepped into a pub called Hollywood Pub so a minute first, Antonio chatted up a friend of his who works there, and we left with free passes to the discoteca called Ovo.

It looked like the entry fee was over 30 USD so it was a good thing it was free. It's supposed to be this high end chic club but in my opnion it sucked. They played totally lame 80's music that I had thought didn't exist anymore. And the mixer/ DJ did a crappy job at that. And it wasn't music we could really dance to.

Wow, only two nights out and suddenly I'm turning into a club snob.

Today Shannon and Marcelo head back to Santiago and Antonio eagerly agreed to spend the day with me in Valpo. We are going to go on a little cruise of the harbor and ride all the functioning funiculars. That was my idea. But it'll be a fun way to see the town.

More later, bye. Leaving now.

I'm in Valpo

2009-10-09T18:45:00.000-07:00

One of Rosy's friends told a story of how a Chilean gal went on a study abroad to the US. When she arrived her host mother took one look at her and exclaimed, "But you have shoes!" And then proceeded to show her around the house pointing out the microwave, dishwasher, and laundry machine like she was visiting from another planet.

So just for those who don't know, Chileans are very modern people. They have cell phones, laptops, tvs, internet, digital cameras, microwaves, laundry machines, cars ,etc. The Carcamos have a mortgage, a car, three tv's, 2 computers, 2 laptops, and everyone of them owns a cell phone. And they all have shoes.

The only huge difference is their plumbing system. It doesn't handle toilet paper so it's good manners to use it and drop it in the waste basket that can always be found next to the toilet. As this sign from the train says "No littering in toilet."

Some views of the city.

There is some awesome street art in Valparaiso.

Look what I found! Yep, a Sookie Stackhouse/True Blood book in Spanish! I didn't buy it because it was too expensive and I can probably get a better deal on Amazon. But it made my day just to see it. And it probably cracked the guy up in the store when I asked if I could take a picture of the books.

The shower in my room. It's a good thing I'm thin otherwise I wouldn't fit through the sliding door.

I'm staying at a B and B owned by an Australian/ Chilean couple. They are very nice. When I checked in Martin gave me some safety tips and strongly encouraged me to carry my money and camera in my pockets and go without a bag or packpack to avoid bag snatchers. I took this into consideration and put my money and keys in my pockets. But in my opinion bulging pockets are kind of an invitation too. So I stuck the camera and my cap and hoodie in my bag. I figured the worse of the worse would be the camera would be stolen and I'd have to by Ruby a new camera. It would suck. But I think Ruby is the kind of person who would eventually recover from being forced into someone buying her a new camera. Before I left Chillan Victor Antonio put all my photos on a disc so I could have more room on the memory card. So really I was taking a risk, but a calculated one.

However, Martin saw me leaving today with the bag and gave me a very stern lecture. And I know he is trying to save his guests angst and heartache and help them have a good experience. So I chose not to argue with my host. Instead, I was stubborn and passive agressive. I told him I would leave my bag in my room, marched into my room, closed the door awhile, went outside to cool off from feeling so pissy and concluded once again that danger lurks everywhere. In downtown Bellingham at 4 am while walking home, in Prague while taking the metro at rush hour, or walking through Valparaiso looking like a white, single, foreign woman. So I can live in fear of what might happen to me or I can be smart and not fling bling around and walk briskly and look like a woman going somewhere who happens to have a purse and take my chance that something might happen. Or it might not.

So I went back, grabbed my bag and left. And guess what? Nothing happened to me. I saw a free exhibit on the history of Chilean comics, I listened to some live music in a plaza, I ate lunch in a restaurant where I was the only customer and had the attention of all four men who work there and hung out and talked to them for awhile, I went to La Sebastiana one of Pablo Neruda's other houses, and looked in a couple book stores. I had fun. And I didn't get robbed. I didn't get raped. I didn't even stub my toe or get a hang nail.

The last couple days in Chillan I did a lot of visiting. I saw Morelia, the Carcamos grandma. We went out to the campo/ which is like people in Bellingham saying they went out into the county, and visited some of their friends I know as Los Tios de La Leche/ the Milkmen. I had spent an afternoon with them on my last visit six years ago and sent them some photos, the mail was returned and the photos stuck in a box when I went to Prague, found and finally delivered in person. Tito is one of the milkmen. He is probably my age or a bit older. We couldn't have more different lives. He is missing a lot of his teeth and those that remain are chipped and cracked and as a result his smile is pretty amazing. And he is one of the nicest people and I'm always glad to see him.

I saw my friend Johnny who I've known since the first time I visited. Last time he called me after I got home and proposed to me and I turned him down. He's still my friend and he still thinks I'm a great person and beautiful but he said he finds me less attractive this time because I'm not Mormon anymore. Menos mal. I can deal with that. I joked and told him I'd left the church to keep him away from me and was glad to see it had worked.

We went out to a village called El Carmen to visit one of Rosy's coworkers and friends who wanted to meet me. And I saw their cousin Ricardo, his wife and kids, and my friend Soraya and her daughter.

IT was a lot of visiting. But it was fun. I've been very much reminded that I still look the same, told that I need to stop being single and find someone and get married, this advice was most strongly dispensed by Johnny himself who is the fount of wisdom of all things pertaining to relationships especially since he is 42 and still single himself, and complimented on my Spanish. I left the Carcamos like I always do/ crying. They are such great people and I really like spending time with them. I feel very lucky to have good friends in so many places. The day before I left Rosy took me to the artesania market/ the market with souveneir type things and bought me a gift and a gift for each of my neices and nephews. It was her idea and I thought it was very generous of her. The little toys are made of wood so I hope I can get them home without breaking.

Tomorrow I'm meeting up with Shannon and her husband Marcelo and we're going surfing. I've never been and they know some good beaches and then we'll watch a soccer game. It's the final game that could get Chile into the World Cup so it's a big deal.

It occurred to me that I will be in shock when I get home and it's fall weather. I've been glad to have some spring/summer weather for a bit longer.

Photos in random order and it doesn´t look great because I´m not so good at uploading photos.

2009-10-06T17:06:00.001-07:00

Tomas in a car in the mall, me with cousin Ricardo, and Gabriela´s husband Carlos.

An impromptu concert with Victor and Rosy,

singing with Gabriela,
Victor Antonio,
the hairdresser´s shoes,
and Vivi´s new haircut.

The Virgen Mary at the top of the hill San Cristobal, a view from the top near Mary looking out at Santiago with the Andes in the background, leather boots for sale at an outdoor market, my bowl of curanto, and Shannon and I at the Chascona (Pablo Neruda´s house).

A view from the top of the Cerro de Santa Lucia.

Looking down at the back of the building with the fountain.
The fountain.
From the street looking up at the park.
A used clothing store. You can´t read it very well but it says ´recycling emotions´ something I haven´t seen offered elsewhere.

La Plaza de Armas in Santiago, la Catedral de Santiago, a statue in the plaza

A view of the Andes from the plane and a sea of clouds from the plane. You might be surprised that I noticed on the wing of the plane near the engine that there was a stick figure of a man inside a circle with a slash through it. I guess they don´t want people climbing into the engine. It´s always a good idea to advertise those warnings isn´t it?

Chillan

2009-10-04T10:21:00.000-07:00

I´m in Chillan!

Yesterday we made a Chillean dish for dinner called curanto. It´s like a big stew that in the campo is made with the pot buried underground and cooked with a fire on top of it. But the Carcamos just did it with a big pot outside on a gas stove. They put chunks of all kinds of meat: pork, beef, chicken, sausage and mariscos/ seafood: mussels and clams they cook all of that with lots of onions, some carrot, bell pepper, garlic, salt and spices. They stew it in white wine and potatoes and cabbage on top. It is sooooo good.

It was supposed to just be the Carcamos, me and their friend Leo. But then Victor Antonio came home with his girlfriend, a lady from their church and her two kids dropped by to say hi, and then their cousin Pamela, her parents and brother, and their grandmother Morelia came by to say hi. So there were like twenty people crammed in their living room. We had a great time and stayed up until 1:30 am talking.

Morelia, the grandmother, whom I´ve known since the first time I was here was very emotional about seeing me. She is around 84 now and took one look at me and said, ´I didn´t think I´d ever see you again.´I think a visit to her house is in store later in the week.

The church lady didn´t know anything about me and so was just chatting with me and trying to figure out how I knew the Carcamos. When I told her I was first here 15 years ago her eyes nearly popped from her head and she asked me how old I was. She couldn´t believe that I was 34. She wanted to know what my secret was for looking so young! I didn´t really say anything because I didn´t know what to say, but I guess working graveyard is doing wonders for my complexion. ;)

The last two times I´ve been here the Carcamos lived in Morelia´s house. But shortly after my last visit they bought their own house. It was one floor with a livingroom, kitchen, bath, and two bedrooms. But gradually they´ve added on and now there is a 2nd floor where the girls sleep, and they also added a second room in the back where Gabriela and her husband Carlos live.

They all pretty much look the same except for Victor Antonio the youngest who is fifteen now. When I met him the first time he was 8 mths old, and the second time he was 9. So you can imagine the change that has taken place over the years. He spends a lot of time with his girfriend and when he´s not with her he´s on the internet chatting with her. He has learned a few phrases in English and is practicing them on me.

Claudia is living in Antofogasta with her husband and renting a room in Arica while she finishes her studies. Her son Tomas is 1 1-2 yrs and is living for awhile with the Carcomos. Apparently he was sick and having a hard time in the daycare so Rosy and Victor are helping her out with Tomas while Claudia finishes school. He is very cute.

Today we went to visit a neighbor of theirs that I know from my last visit. Later there will be abirthday party for Carlos, Gabriela´s husband. And in the next couple days I think there will be a few more visits to friends of theirs and people I know.

We´ve had a good time looking at photos and reliving some memories from the past. They hosted me and my roommate the year I was here on the Study Abroad and then some more students the following year. Then they spent a couple years hosting German students. But Rosy says I´m the only one who has stayed in touch with them.

It is hard to believe I was first here when I was 19. Rosy was 32 with five kids under 10. Now she is 47 with her family nearly grown and raised. Their focus is getting their kids through University. And I am 34, still single, and no kids. It is interesting how life happens so differently for people.

Well, I think that is enough for know. Miss you all. And the Carcamos say hi to Dad, they still remember when you came to visit. Even Viviana remembers and she was only 2.

Oh, I´ve given them some of my clothes on my visits and they still have them and use them. Vivi just showed a jean skirt I gave them 15 years ago. It was from Value Village and it has been handed down through all the sisters and know Vivi has it. Can you believe it? Rosy says they still refer to it as ´Ruthy´s skirt.´

Oh, something else funny is that they have this stuff called manjar that I just can´t eat enough of when I´m here. I´ve thought for 15 years that it was purely Chilean and could only be found here. Well, they just told me that manjar is the Chilean word for it. Other people call it ´dulce de leche.´;)

Miss you.

Santiago

2009-10-01T19:19:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I made up for the fact that I'd spent a day and a half sitting on my butt traveling and walked around Santiago for seven hours. I didn't intend to do that when I started out, but that's what happened.

I went with Shannon to see her clinic. She and her husband have a chiropractic clinic here. Then I went to the money changer, the pharmacy to buy sun block because I always get burned in Chile, and then I took the metro to the Universidad de Chile stop. I walked to the Plaza de Armas, went into the Cathedral of Santiago, the Mercado Central/central market where they sell fish and I got sucked into a tourist trap and paid too much for lunch in my opinion but I got sweet talked by the waiter and made to feel like a million bucks so I guess it was ok, then I walked to the Palacio de la Moneda a 'cultural center' that was closed to the public for some political visit, then I went to el Cerro Santa Lucia/Saint Lucia's Hill which is a park with a cool view on a hill. Then I went to a handcrafts market and then went back to Shannon and Marcelo's place.

Today I took the metro to the Bus Station which is a half hour ride from Shannon's. I bought my bus ticket for Chillan for tomorrow. Then Shannon, Veronica their nanny, and two-yr old Lucas and I went to the neighborhood Bellavista. Veronica and Lucas went to the zoo while Shannon and I went to La Chascona/one of Pablo Neruda's houses. He's a famous Chilean poet and diplomat.

Then we all went up to a huge hill that we took a funicular up to get to the top. It is like a mountain compared to the hill I climbed yesterday, but still small compared to the Andes. At the top of this hill is a huge statue of the Virgen Mary and some really great views.

Santiago has 6 million people and rush hour in the metro is pretty crazy. It is wall to wall people.

It's good to see Shannon and I really like her husband Marcelo. He is super nice.

Tomorrow I take the bus to Chillan. It's a five hour bus ride. And I'm really excited to see my Chilean family.

I made it

2009-09-29T18:36:00.000-07:00

I arrived in desperate need of a shower, clean clothes, and food that doesn't come from an airport or an airplane. But beyond that, I arrived no worse for the wear. From my door to Shannon's door total trip time was 32 hours. But I am here! I nearly bounced out of the airport I was so excited. It's good to see Shannon. Will write more later.

Ready To Go

2009-09-28T09:55:00.000-07:00

I'm all packed and ready to go! I've got my smallest suitcase (very excited about that packing triumph), my backpack with in-flight entertainment, a change of clothes, and toiletries packed in the appropriate see-through ziploc bag, and a carry-on box full of gifts.

What does a person take to Chile for gifts you ask? Well, I asked what people wanted which is the easiest and most direct route to making good selections. I have a backpack with a special laptop compartment for Victor Sr, plastic aquarium plants for Claudia, tea and books for Shannon, two CTR rings (stands for Choose the Right) and a puzzle ordered for Gabriela from Deseret Book. I also have a box of truffles for the entire family and some special shopping bags for Rosy that can insulate cold items. One never knows when something like that will come in handy.

I am starting my trip out very well rested. Yesterday I got off work at 6:30 am. I went to the grocery store to get something for my lunch since I didn't want to bother with cooking right before a trip (which turns out to have been a good idea), I read for a bit and then went to bed between 9:30 and 10:00 am.

I woke up at quarter after midnight. Oops. This means I slept nearly 15 hours straight and was 4 1/2 hours late to work. Big oops. There is definitely a first time for everything. And I can for sure say this is the latest I have been to work in my life. But I figure there is no use loosing sleep over it---hardee har har har.