3.29.2009: Catching Up

i'll try to get back into a daily posting cycle... no, who am i kidding? i probably won't. but i do want to be more regular about it. for instance, i found a couple of pictures i took this month with my cell phone and had such pleasant memories from them...

the first one is from the union terrace - every once in awhile, local artists put up a sculpture that makes it look like the statue of liberty froze in lake mendota. our city has a great sense of humor and great public art. the snow and ice have melted in the last few weeks, the lakes are now lapping at the shores again, and the statue of liberty is gone. though several inches of snow fell this weekend, it is almost all melted. i love spring! without sounding cheesy, it's amazing how our earth can regenerate itself every season.

  

the second pic is from the hotel washington coffee shop on the shore of lake monona. it is one of my favorite places in the city - a coffeeshop/yarn and homemade soap store. it has such a great vibe and is filled with grad students studying and middle-aged moms chatting about their teenage kids. so relaxing... and productive. 

  

today's best moments were with will. we ate a huge, disgusting egg and cheese scrambler (will's had gravy - this was seriously a gutbuster) at mickey's dairy bar while working on the ny times crossword puzzle - his first ever, and he was a natural. we had planned to break away on our own to get schoolwork done after brunch, but got addicted to the puzzle for the next several hours and almost finished it. what a wonderful sunday.

3.24.2009: go west, young woman!

My spring break trip was lovely and I finally have a few minutes to update my blog (and lots to talk about!). I traveled with friends Jess and Heather to Seattle last Monday where we crashed with several friends at the apartment of former colleagues from the steakhouse where I worked when I first moved to Madison. Their apartment is at the bottom of Queen Anne's gorgeous hilly neighborhood with a view of the bay and the Seattle Post-Intelligence building whose lit and rotating sign was hypnotic.

the paper's last day in print, the Pike Place Market fruit stand... gorgeous! driving through Queen Anne for a photo shoot

the view from their rooftop

We shopped till we dropped (I bought a sundress, yellow and purple pumps, and bluish green cowboy boots... no regrets, but strange purchases indeed). We also ate till we dropped... some of the BEST food I've had in ages. We feasted at both Brianna's and Catherine's places of work (Zoe and Lola), little bistros, and homemade dinners with fresh seafood purchased at Pike's Market.

chicken terrine with mustard, sea salted almonds and homemade yogurt, 4 lbs of fresh salmon, and squid kebabs with greek salad

On our last night in town, we visited a park converted from an old oil refinery called "The Gasworks". The hill is super steep and proved challenging to walk up in the pitch black after a wet day - but, oh, the view. I'm the only one of this group of friends who won't be living in Seattle by the summer, but that just means I have seven reasons to go back and visit!

climbing up the hill at the Gasworks... we made it!

the view was definitely worth it!

3.23.2009: family time

One of the best parts of spring break was hanging out with the Sanders West kids (as opposed to the Sanders East three, the Halpin Hunks, or the King Crowd). The state troopers in Olympia welcomed me on the way down as I was cruising at 75 mph in a 60 zone driving a rented, red Pathfinder. It was definitely worth $93 to meet them. I got an even warmer (and cheaper) welcome from Ava and Henry!

The weather was so gorgeous that I took the elder two on a walk to the park before Carl's cedar plank-grilled salmon dinner. On the way there, Ava braved a chat with a "cary dog" she could see through a hole in the fence (cary dog = scary dog - click here for video) and Henry took some really great creative photos.

We also danced to songs with questionable "booty-banging" lyrics (click here for video) and learned to skip (click here for video). I got to meet Elyse, too, which was a highlight.
What a sweetpea!!


Libby, as always, was a gracious hostess and took the gang to the riverside park before I left. We rode the carousel, walked to the big globe (check out Ava's little hands in her see-through pockets!), and headed back home as Henry very gently helped Elyse snuggle into her car seat. He is quite the hero to his two little sisters.


The kids were great and, of course, hilarious. Ava cracked me up by asking to sip my wine at dinner - I told her no, but that she could smell it. She took a deep whiff and, in response to my asking her "What do you think?" said in a low, husky voice, "I loovve it." Henry loved measuring himself compared to the chalk-drawn measured fish from his guidebook (and Ava joined in, too). Would you believe that it takes 6 Henrys to make one shark?

All in all, a great but quick visit.

3.6.2009: Gorgeous Weather

What a fantastic night of sleep - cozy under the covers after sweet dreams with a warm but brisk breeze blowing through the open windows. Come, spring, come! We've been waiting for you!

3.5.2009: DMV

I had to renew my license today which meant sitting for two hours at the DMV. I brought articles and got more reading done than I have all week (maybe I should renew it more often). I was grateful, however, for the fact that I live a quick five minutes from the DMV office. I couldn't imagine having to drive from another part of the county to wait in line for two hours and then drive home. Yuck. I've had lots of good times at the DMV (as weird as that may sound), but my favorite story is going to get my first license with my mom and sister. I fell asleep on my mom's lap waiting for my number to be called (providing yet more evidence that I can, in fact, fall asleep anywhere). Once it was my turn, I jumped up and got my picture taken - with the imprint of my mom's woven Sak purse all over my face. Classy. I also once sat in the DMV all day practicing taking field notes and somehow missed the one-armed, mulleted man shouting out people's names for their pictures. Yeah. I'm not cut out for research. Speaking of research... miracle email today from a potential participant. I was so relieved and excited. CANNOT WAIT for this dissertation to be over and it's just starting. Sigh. (Contented sigh this time instead of freaked-out-stressed-to-the-max sigh).

3.4.2009: Impromptu Dinner

As much as their pervasive presence drives me crazy sometimes, I am grateful for cell phones' ability to increase the potential for spontaneous get-togethers. Wednesday night, for instance, I was in the office and hungry and missing a couple of friends I hadn't seen in awhile. Ring, ring. Hello? Hello! Want to do dinner? Yes - we're at school and will pick you up on our way to Trader Joe's. Yes! Done. Not only did I get a ride home without having to wait for the bus, but I had a great time over pasta and homemade meatballs when I otherwise would have had frozen waffles and leftover rice. Thanks, cell phone.

3.3.2009: Girl Talk

There's just nothing like good girlfriends. I don't know if guys have an equivalent, or if they even need one, but I love having a network of girls to go to for advice or support or laughs. Tuesday morning started with an early coffee with a dear friend who just found out that a monumental struggle in her family's life was over - her husband got a fellowship in DC and they are moving. They have both been in grad school and had two babies and she has been working three jobs, so the idea of having a stable income and time for her dissertation brought us both to tears. We had such a great talk about love and marriage and our own hopes and dreams. How lucky I am to have a friend like that. And she's not the only one. Holy smokes, I am blessed.

3.2.2009: Compliments From A Stranger

I just got an email from a TA who I don't know saying that she overheard two students talking about my class and singing its praises. What a way to start the week! (And I wonder if she would have emailed me if they had been cursing my name :).

3.1.2009: New Friends

After a morning flight and afternoon nap, Will and I met up with friends of his for a couple of drinks at my favorite pub in Madison and had the best time. I knew them both from before in convoluted ways and had wanted to hang out more - we all laughed so hard and had so much fun that we decided to make it a regular Sunday night thing. When, oh when, am I ever going to work on my prelims? For better or worse, I don't really care - this is what life is all about and those darn questions will get done at some point.

2.28.2009: Presenting...

Our presentation went well, though it was the very last session at the very end of the very last day so you can imagine how fired up and attentive our audience was. We shared the billing with two other papers, one that was quite interesting and one that was totally odd. By the end of the weekend, I didn't really care... it doesn't take long for me to be conferenced out. I'm grateful that I'm only signed up for two of these suckers this year.

2.27.2009: Philly's Finest

After chivalrously getting dropped off at the airport at the crack of dawn, I napped all the way to Philly to gear up for a weekend at the Ethnography Forum. My paper partners were on board with skipping Friday's sessions to enjoy an afternoon at the Anthropology Museum (fascinating!) and a tour of Philly from a hometown friend (Liberty Bell! Independence Hall! sprawling oil refineries!). I decided at the last minute to go and was glad that I did.

photos of Philly and Min, one of my co-presenters

2.26.2009: Ladies' Night

A bunch of girls from school decided to meet up for happy hour at Genna's on Thursday for a couple of drinks. It was rainy and gray and I decided to head over there early to see if I couldn't get some studying done. Luckily, the bartender dug up some tea for me and got quite a bit of work done as I sat amidst a sea of bikers who descended on the capitol to lobby for cycle laws. At 4, my friends arrived and the tea turned to hot toddies. It was a great afternoon that finished up with Will stopping by to hang out for a bit. It was quite a cozy way to spend an oddly rainy winter afternoon.

2.25.2009: Phone Dates

I've been very lucky in my life to make wonderful friends from all over... such far-flungness makes it difficult, though, to stay in touch as much as I would like. One of my favorite people from working in St.Charles is my dear friend Naomi who moved away about the same time I did to her husband's family's farm in northern Minnesota. Their three kids are so adorable and I hate missing out on their childhoods, especially since I hung out with Isabel, their oldest, every day that she was in the womb and for her first year. Naomi was one of the greatest friends I could have had in Minnesota and I miss her a lot - our schedules are quite mismatched, however, so we have to schedule phone dates. Wednesday was our last one and we caught up on so much... even though we only see each other once a year, every phone date feels like no time has passed at all.


This is Isabel, taken four years ago during the last few months I lived in Minnesota. Could she be any cuter???