Word

Amia!

Here is a photo of Amia Carmen Allmart (whom I've mentioned before in a few postings). She is being held by her mother, Suzanne, at our house after the Allmarts came over for dinner last week.

memory lapse

This weekend, I stepped out of the shower, turned around, and flipped my head over the side of the tub to put my hair up in a towel (if this alarms you, ask someone with long hair - the hair flip becomes habit).

In doing so, I solidly banged my head on the rin of our cast-iron bathtub.

Needless to say, I got a lovely bump.

I didn't pass out and my pupils were normal (no concussion, I trust). So that night, after seeing Nate's Play (King Lear) with his family, I went to bed in my bed.

I woke up on the couch at around 4 in the morning and instinctively walked back to the bed. As I did so, I woke up a little more and I realised that I had NO RECOLLECTION WHATSOEVER of going to the couch! What was I doing there? How did I get there?

Ack!

I'm not a sleepwalker, either.

The next day, as I was talking on the phone with my mom, I was simultaneously searching through my pockets for our cell phone. I couldn't find it anywhere.

I asked Nate, "Do you know where the phone is?"

"What phone?" he replied.

"Our cell phone," I said (note to the reader: our only phone is our cell phone).

He looked at me incredulously and pointed to my ear. "You're on it," he said.

Oh good lord - my brain is going.

Things are better now. I haven't lost the phone since, and I haven't ended up mysteriously on the couch! :)

Have any of you ever had weird losses of time? Do tell!

love,

~liz

FRITZ!!

Here it Fritz. He is a gourd. I made him at Georgia Baker's 5th Birthday Party.

I like him.

He says to have a good weekend.

love,

~liz

More fun on farms

So I've been thinking more about havikng a farm and it is sounding better and better. I don't know if it is the romanticism of just sitting and thinking (I like planning sometimes more than doing), but I really feel good about this decision.

Today I look like a nurse - I've got white tennis shoes & crisp white(ish) pants.

I think what is most appealing to me about farming is the work involved. I really like to be doing things. I've developed a regular schedule for myself where I get up early, do a few personal bits, and then set myself to cleaning the house. It is good early morning reflection time, and it is very special and private. In the morning, I feel alone with my thoughts, and am not busied with worrying about other people's concerns.

I spend more time worrying about what others think than I should.

The morning is untainted with such things. A new canvas. A new and completely unique day, made to order. I feel productive and good, and I sleep better that night after I've had a good productive day.

The idea of a system of chores appeals to the organizer in me. I am happy to say that the gifts that I have been given and developed feel right at home with this idea of a farm.

One of my most cherished childhood memories occured during a summer when I was enrolled at the Aullwood Audubon Center Summer program in Dayton (Ohio). The Center has acres and acres of woods and a farm. One summer, when I was maybe 10 or 11, we were working at the farm and made lunch together. We had egg salad, cornbread, and butter. I remember collecting the eggs, getting the vegetables from the garden, grinding the corn and churning the butter (not in a big old buttern churn - which is what I know you're thinking - but with a hand blender!). It was really satisfying.

Even today, Aullwood is one of my favorite spaces.

Another thing I am looking forward to is being close to nature - my mother and grandmother made certain that we had a connection to and appreciation for the natural world. My grandmother and grandfather transformed the two acres on which they built their house into an oasis of forest. Gramma's house is always a magical place because she makes it so - she loves her land and the proof of her love is the upkeep of her space. This is a really formative lesson that I've gleaned.

Oh good heavens, I could write for hours about this.

But I won't!

Yet another thing I am looking forward to is building our house! But that is another entry for another day! =)

love to you all,

~liz

down on the farm

Anyone who has lived in the eastern midwest (a bit of a paradox) has heard of Bob Evan's restaurant and may remember the "down on the farm" jingle that it used to tout.

Well, now Nathan and i have decided that that's where we want to live! We want a farm with a llama, a goose, and a dog or two. And a barn and an herb garden. And sustainable housing. LOVELY!

I've not time to write much, but have you ever lived on or spent a significant amount of time at a farm? What was your favourite thing? We are taking suggestions!

love to you all on this cold, wet, and grey day!

~liz

our house is cold

we shall try an e e cummings style today, although i will use punctuation...

it is a blustery day outside - wet and chilly. not a good day for bike riding... so maybe i'll take the bus to class!

nathan and i have been winterizing our apartment. it is a lovely old house that has been converted into apartments, and so we have over half of the second floor. the floors are an splintery hardwood and the walls vary from a deep mottled maroon in our bedroom to a rusty orange in our living room to a cheery yellow in our kitchen and a nice light blue in our bathroom.

our bathtub has feet.

one of our friends remarked to me that this is the sort of apartment that one will miss. ever since then, i've been missing it.

we are planning to move to chicago next year. nathan is graduating this spring and i have summer school and then only one semester of german to complete before i can graduate. i will be taking my final german course via correspondencce course from chicago, and then i will be D-U-N, done!

anyhow - back to the house - i've put plastic over all of the windows except two - our bathroom window and our kitchen window. the windows are old and poorly sealed (save one brand new window in the front room - it is lovely and doesn't stick - lor knows how it got there among the others). however, i have a bit of a dilemma -maybe you, gentle reader, can offer some suggestions.

our stove is an older modeled gas unit. three of the four burners are constantly lit, with a relatively high pilot light. the fourth isn't and won't. the oven does not heat evenly (it's a wee model - only 25 inches wide) and i think that is mostly from poor insulation (and the age of it).

we've asked our landlord for a new stove, since we use quite a bit of fuel just keeping the pilot lights lit (although our landlord's husband remarked that this was normal i know it isn't - the new stoves today have electric starters and don't stay lit all the time). heating is expensive, since we have gas heat, too and because we are trying to save money by cooking, we use quite a bit of gas overall.

anyhow, our landlord said yes at first and then no, after her husband's report (which I might say was based on the word of a plumber who was in the building working on some leaky seals - i don't know how a plumber would have a better idea of how a gas stove is supposed to behave than i would...). ultimately, no cigar.

sorry - that was quite a bit of exposition for a silly little question: do you think that there is a danger of carbon monoxide? is this a reasonable basis for re-requesting a new stove? since our house is sealed up to keep the heat in, not much can get out, and airing the place out isn't really an option.

i look forward to your comments!

hope that your toes are warm!

love,

~liz

you're the 100th customer!

(Just FYI, the next person to post is the 100th commenter on this site.)

Message in a bottle

Today I got a message in a bottle. Literally - it was really cool - I opened up my mailbox and there was a plastic bottle with my name on it and a message inside.

The message itself was wonderful. It is nice to know that people care about you - and it is also nice to hear that!

I was just thinking about why it feels so good to know that someone has noticed something that you've done. Of course, you shouldn't be running around performing deeds just so someone will recognise that and praise you, but there is a sense of joy that is gleaned from someone remarking that they appreciate your work.

I think that this feeling comes from the human desire for love and acceptance. It seems to me that everyone is looking for love, in all of its forms. And to know that someone cares about you - well, that warms me heart's cockles.

Thanks so much!

love,

~liz

curtis orchard

HALLO!

I am feeling fine, having (almost) finished the school week and getting 2 big projects out of the way.

However, before I continue, let me apologize in advance for any typos in this entry - I am at the UIUC library and the keyboard is sticking wonderfully!

I am theoretically preparing for class - I have an Asian Mythology discussion session at noon and I am supposed to be reading. However, I guess you could consider typing on my weblog as class preparation - I am emptying my mind of superfluous thoughts so that I can fit some more knowledge in there...

I addressed the issue that I posted about a few days ago regarding unwanted information (see One Human Family) and I feel pretty good about it. I wasn't mean or rude, but I was frank and honest, and (I hope) a little tactful as well.

This weekend (or wochende, auf Deutsch), Nathan and I have a date to go to Curtis Orchard (a local orchard that has yummy apples and now pumpkins) to pick pumpkins and then go home and carve them. We think perhaps another couple might come with us (one of Nathan's classmates and her boyfriend) and it shall be a jolly time. We may also check out a rugby game!

Sunday is Baha'i Study Circle, but I think I may not go, since the Interfaith Action Group on campus is helping to restore prairie during the same time slot. Its a one-time thing, and I can't resist combining the fun of nature with interfaith fun!

Nathan has founded a club, called the Children's Enrichment Program, which is founded on the Virtues Project, an educational model that focuses on instilling spiritual values (regardless of religious background) in children & families. We will be working in November with a teen mother's group, so if you're around and want to help out, give us a ring!

There is another really cool club on campus that I heard about only this year, called the Hands on Herb Society, which meets monthly and features a monthly herb, about which one can learn and with which one can do cool things (sorry that's so specific)... This month's herb is mint, and we will be meeting on Monday to make lip balm! :) mmm... lip balm...

I especially like this class since I am interested in ethnobotany (anthropology + plants = ethnobotany) and UIUC doesn't have much of a program.

Okay - enough of this dilly-dallying. Off to studying.

Schoenes Wochenende!

love,

~liz

Sowing Rice & Planting Trees

This came addended to an email, and it struck just the right chord in my heart:

If you plan for a year, sow rice,

If you plan for ten years, plant a tree,

If you plan for a hundred years, educate the people.

love,

~liz

One Human Family

I have found that the best time for me to write anything logically coherent is when someone has, to some degree, pissed me off. It never fails - say some inane comment and I’m off - gears grinding and arguments flying.

In my head, at least. I rarely let it pass beyond my lips, merely because of one too many experiences where my foot had inadvertently ended up in my mouth.

Such was the case this evening, as I pondered the perplexity of writing a paper for my women's study class. I had dropped my husband off to Theatre rehearsal and was embarking for the bus ride to the library when who should appear but a few of Nathan’s classmates and the director of the Theatre department himself.

After the usual polite and banty excange, I was asked where I was headed. Remarking that I had a paper to write, that it was on the topic of women studies, and that I was thinking writing about [images of] black women [in literature], the director said, and quite assuredly, I might add, “Well, they are different from white women.”

Of course, this was not what I had in mind when I began! My mind was off at once, thinking of a retort such as, "in what way do you mean?" Or, "in what context?"

Of course there is difference between white women and black women! But, even more strikingly, there is more diversity between black women than there is between white women and black women! A lecture on Anthropology I attended last week presented information that showed that the genetic diversity in the continent of Africa was greater than the diversity between a "white" European and a "black" African!

AND RACE IS ONLY SKIN DEEP! Human diversity exists, but to classify it as we do by skin colour is just plain silly!

Seeing that all of this information just wouldn’t do, and scrambling to make some sense of a speedily derailing conversation, I added, “Of course, we both have breasts!”

(At this point, as I'm sure you can ascertain, dear reader, my hackles were slightly roused, since it is imperative that I get across to all who cross my path that there is only one human family, for heavens’ sake.)

And at this point, which was the vilest turn of all, the male student pointed his finger at me and said,

“Actually, [you] don’t both have breasts – white women’s are called 'durgs(?),'” to which he added,

“Look it up.”

Shocked, I finished the conversation as quickly as possible and stumbled a retreat.

First of all, who areyou to tell me (a woman) that not all women have breasts, and furthermore, as you perceive that I could be a white woman, who are you to tell me what I have?

Of course, I can't be TOO upset at this individual (yes, actuially I can, but I won't be) since he didn't invent the information but rather was simply repeating what he had "learned."

The issue is that someone (and I bet it wasn't a woman, white, black, or any other color) decided that it was important in the name of science to give a label to the breasts of white women, thus differentiating their breasts (which are anatomically basically the same as everyone else's breasts, except men's - but even then!) from the breasts of anyone who isn't white.

This is an all too-typical scenario – an overstuffed white male, in the interest of “science” and “knowledge” informing me about my body. And informing me of a STUPID and BANAL term coined by someone who didn’t own any in the first place!

This inane term was pulled out of th air by someone at a point in our history where everything had to be dissected and neatly classified.

Named and then conquered.

Oh lord – the remnants glare us in the face even today.

I must say, that over a half an hour of looking up the term, or what I heard to be the term, I feel almost defeated.

I am sorry if any of this ranting has offended you - I admit I am reacting out of pain. I look for the day when everyone's breasts are recognised as unique and beautiful, and the women behind the breasts are valued for their contribution to society rather than the colour of their skin!

Love,

~liz

pookly

My brain is D-U-N, done from a long & busy weekend, which has led to another long and busy week.

SO I don't have much to say, except that there is a rather annoying automatic posting epidemic happening here where so-called readers spam the site with "buy ci@lis" (I tremble to write the real name, for fear of attracting others...) all over the place.

I wonder how to stop it - any suggestions?

lovin' the sunshine still, as well as wireless internet,

~liz