Girl Meets World

My friend Nicole has been working her butt off and saving her heart out to travel around Europe for three months this summer. Actually, she's my X's friend, who I've kinda gotten to know over the last few years. Post-breakup, things have felt a little weird...but she's awesome anyway.

Nicole finally made it to Dublin this week, after a false start which involved a missed connecting flight due to bad weather @ JFK, as well as her companion bailing on her. She sacrificed the money for both plane tickets (she loaned her friend the cash for her unused ticket as well) but determinedly embarked on her adventure anyway. I love her for that. She's only, I don't know, something ridiculous like 22? I never had the gumption to do what she's doing. She's gonna have an amazing time. You can follow her here. And take a second to send prayers of adventure and safety her way. Bon voyage, Nicole!

Ridicrious

That's one of Jonas' favorite words these days. He says it in such a condescending, serious way-- "That's just ridicrious," it's really hard not to laugh.

foodroutes.org

Where does your food come from?

One Day of Many

It has been a while since I've presented any kind of personal update. Part of that is the season-- it draws me out of the house and away from my computer, which is a good thing-- and part is lingering fallout from a recent cathartic post. Not only were the comments problematic, but my ex also found out, and there were uncomfortable emails back and forth for weeks. As stupid as this makes me sound, I honestly thought he would be the last person in the world to read that blog, since he has always been profoundly uninterested in my ramblings even, when we were together.

This is not the first time I learned (usually the hard way) that my readership expands further than I thought it did into my "real life." And, this is not the first time I've contemplated revamping my approach to blogging.

Around 2004-2005 I started my first blog, which was written like a private diary, using fake names for everyone I discussed but hiding nothing else. Over time, I became more and more uncomfortable with this level of candor, since anyone who knows me that stumbled on my stories would immediately recognize them. While I don't tend to have major skeletons in my closet, I don't necessarily want to open everything for public viewing. So, I deleted that blog and started this one, which (believe it or not) is much less personal.

That's what inspired the handle "Appalachienne," which is a play on my former high school classmate's Washingtonienne blog blunder. Although she turned lemons to lemonade by squeezing a career out of her bad reputation, that career (and reputation) couldn't be farther from what I want. To that end, I'm careful not to type my full name here, lest the blog turn up in Google searches, and I am a bit more careful with my words. But I still want to share who I am, and invite you into my process. It's a tricky balance, one which I don't always succeed at.

I often contemplate deleting the blog. That would be an easy fix to the whole dilemma. But it would also be such a shame. This silly little blog has become a part of me, and I've gone through a lot here-- the beginning and ending of major relationships, the birth and growth of my children, the budding of my goals in journalism, the beginning of a sober life, and much more...including the slow evolution of my writing.

So we'll see what transpires. For now I'm still here.

Oh, and in-line with the reasons I've given for slow posting, I'm being dragged through family court right now. It's hard to not talk about that, but I really can't talk about it, so sometimes it's easier to say nothing. Do cross your fingers for me, Friday morning, and more importantly for my boys.

For David

This is what I was talking about, that I was going to post when you were moving. So it doesn't really apply now, but here you go.

Just for scale, this is where they are, Victoria Falls on the Zambezi River in southern Africa:

"Devil's Armchair"
I love how they're joyfully frolicking on the edge of total destruction, protected by the same Mother Nature that would tear them to bits if they were five feet in the other direction.

The Story of Stuff

So if you read this blog or know me at all, you know I've been thinking a lot about sustainability, lately. And as I've been thinking and talking about it, the concept has grown from personal to planetary sustainability. An obvious progression, no doubt.

During our most recent "second Saturday," my dear friend Melissa and I got on the subject again, and she showed me Annie Leonard's "Story of Stuff." It's a short video that puts it all together, in a remarkably accessible way. I highly suggest, that if you're interested at all in your children and grandchildren living on a hospitable planet, and having enough food to eat, take 20 minutes out of your day to watch it.

The most important thing this video did for me, was to break it all down into bite-size pieces, and organize the many, many details of the whole system, and point out where the problems are, and who is contributing to them.

So when you watch it, you will hear Leonard talk a lot about "contributing to the arrow." (And if you don't watch it, you won't know what I'm talking about from here on out.) Not only can we, as individuals, try and reduce our waste (as my friend Liz most impressively has,) but we can also try not to contribute to the arrow-- the heart of the whole system: consumption.

So, to that end, my pledge, for the rest of 2009, is not to buy anything new that can be bought used, except for socks, underwear, and maybe shoes.

The Now

This is my newest musical/spiritual endeavor: Kirtan. It's basically Indian devotional music. It's less performance, more collaboration, as the "audience" participates in call and response chanting with the band. I'm loving it-- the Indian scales, the deliberate joining of music and spirituality, the way I feel like skipping up mountainsides after each session...

PS- I'm not dead, or quitting my blog. This tends to happen to me every summer-- much less posting. I'm having too much fun outside!

Albany

Me & David

Homemade Ice Cream

For Tyra, and everyone else:

"Ice Cream in a bag" recipe:

1. Add 2 T sugar into a little ziploc bag
2. Add 1 cup of half-and-half into the little bag
3. Add 1/2 t of vanilla extract into the little bag. Seal tightly (duct-tape spill-insurance recommended)
4. Put 1/2 cup of kosher salt into BIG ziploc bag
5. Fill the bag half full with ice cubes
6. Put the little bag into the big bag and seal tightly (again with the duct tape)
7. Shake (about 5 minutes)
8. Eat!!!

Brilliant Idea!

polka dot crayon holder for marta
Originally uploaded by polkadotandplaid

Big Country

DREAM

Lately I've had several dreams where there was a fire in my home (or I think, in one of them, maybe my parents' home) and I kept calling 911 but help never came. I was yelling at firemen on the phone as the fire tore through the house(s) and the firemen were unimpressed. Then I remember crying at the realization that all my photos and memories-- everything-- had been destroyed. This is interesting because I have heard my mother say many times that one of her worst fears is a house fire, and that once everyone is safe, if she could grab one thing it would be the photo albums.


(I just thought I'd jot this down quickly, since my therapist is brilliant with dreams, and says they are our subconscious selves trying to help us. But I always forget my dreams before I have the chance to record them. So yeah, here's one.)