25 years....

That's when AIDS was first "discovered". It's amazing to think of the impact of it since then. I grew up with it - not understanding it; being completely terrified of it; sympathetic because of it. AIDS had impacted me profoundly. 25 years ago...

I remember it clearly in middle school. I remember learning about Ryan White. I remember reading the covers of Time magazines. I remember its huge impact in the arts community and the biased views that came with it - all these arts, musicians, actors, incredible people that I admired were dying suddenly. I remember my mother saying that if I went into the arts, I would spend all of my time at funerals (and she was right, then, I would have). I remember people saying it was the "wrath of God" on the gay and drug addict community - of course until straight people started to die. I remember my older friends telling me about casual sex in the 1970's and how that was never really an option for me and my generation - you always had to be protected - sex could kill you.

And it still can.

AIDS, oddly, is something I'm very passionate about. From my brief but pivotal stint at the Free Clinic of Greater Cleveland to Peace Corps to my continued work with Planned Parenthood, it's something I still think about - all of the time.

In Cote d'Ivoire I worked with a nun and we worked with AIDS patients. Of course there was no test in my town, but we often knew who had AIDS. Tati's husband was a trucker. Her son died at two. She has all the symptoms of TB but no TB. She had AIDS and she was dying. She couldn't understand why we wouldn't give her drugs for TB. So we hospitalized her for the weekend and sent her home to her family. She died by the next market day. Heidi's best friend in the Ivory Coast died from AIDS while we lived there. I went to visit her with my French boyfriend at the best hospital in Abidjan. It was the rainy season and this "incredible hospital" had leaks in every room - 10 people where packed in the six rooms that weren't pouring in water. We finally found her and I wanted to scream, cry, laugh. She had light pink medication all over her boil filled body - she looked like a Muppet. She said Hi and asked "how were my people". I said fine. Then I did cry. She died leaving three wonderful children behind.

I have friends here in the States living with AIDS on of whom is generally always "under the weather". I have friends who have told me to never tell anyone about it because they're still so afraid of the stigma.

And so I go on the AIDS Walks - in any town. I've done the one in Cleveland 5 or 6 times and now I'm going to be a part of the one in Seattle. If you, my dear blog readers, would like to sponsor me - click on this link.

As opposed to feeling powerless like I have recently, this is something we can do. We can walk. We can raise awareness. We can hope it makes peoples' lives better.

Grass Soup...

When in Rome... do as the Romans - or Seattleites - to some degree. So my friend Brandi and I have decided to split an organic box of produce from New Roots Organics on a bi-weekly basis. We're assured a variety of in-season fruits and veggies, a majority of them coming from the State of Washington. Our first veggie box came yesterday and I was so excited! I was going to have a fridge full of food and foods that I might not pick out on my own. There were cherries, apricots, nectarine, cauliflower, squashes, beets (neither of us wanted them), lettuce, carrots, potatoes, an onion (that we had to split) and cilantro. It was funny to see which foods we were more excited about and those we were more than easily willing to pass on. Brandi handed me the huge bunch of cilantro because her husband didn't eat it and it would just go bad. I love cilantro but really didn't know what to do with that much of it. She gave me a recipe and I hurried home to go skate 10 miles (yes, that is a lot) with one of my new skater friends.

We got back close to 10 p.m. and I hoped over to my favorite Ballard Market to get the few things I needed for my recipe. It was a "raw" recipe as Brandi described it. There are so many different types of food eaters I'm learning about - far beyond vegans and vegetarians, but also those into raw. (Some one at lunch asked me if I was into "raw" because I always eat salads...) Anyway, I got the stuff and started to make the Cold Cilantro Soup. I juiced (as in squeezed) the lemon and the orange. I chopped up the carrots and tomato so that my Braun Hand Blender could do it's job on such tough foods. Cut up the garlic, poured in the coconut milk. I then went to add the cilantro which I had chopped up a little. Bzzzzzz. One quick buzz and I looked in the bowl and started laughing out loud. It looked like grass soup. You know, when you're a kid and you take an empty pie tin and fill it with rain water, grass clippings, dandelion flowers and stir it up. I could just hear my dad saying "Whose grass soup is this?" that would inevitability be found in the garage. Mud pies too - with sand sprinkles.

I finished blending it and it looked less like grass soup than it did like a curry sauce. It's very tasty. I thought I'd share the recipe with you. Try it.

Grass Soup (aka Light Cilantro Soup)
1 bunch of cliantro
1 lemon or lime juiced
1 orange - juiced
1 carrot
1 tomato
1/4 cup Olive or Flax Oil (I used to Table spoons - too much oil)
Nama Shoyu - unpasteurized Soy Sauce - I just used regular
3-4 garlic cloves
1/4-1/2 jalapeno
1 t Tumeric
1 t Curry power
Young Coconut Water or Distilled Water (I used coconut milk very watered down)

Place all of the above ingredients into a blender, adding enough young coconut water to blend with. Add addition water to make it a lighter soup. This is a "hot" soup in that garlic, jalapeno and spices are use. It's very tasty.

Enjoy Grass Soup!

Powerless (squared), yoga and potato chips

At a volunteer meeting at work this week an older woman in her late sixties asked me "what can we do? I mean really. We march in all the marches. We go out and canvas for our favorite politicians. But it's still the same battle. We've been fighting this one for years. What can we do? Tell me what to do to change things." And honestly, in all of my optimism that I'm known for, I had no answer. I didn't know what to say to her because it my short life I've been to a bunch of marches, written letters to the editors, worked on campaigns and, she was right, none of it had worked. It always discourages me when people older than my parents say this - because they've seen more - they've lived thru more and if they think it's bad... So I felt powerless the rest of the week - as wars escalated and retaliations became childish, stupid and worse. The country I've always wanted to visit (and had plans to this spring) lost all of it's infrastructure. And I felt powerless. Squared.

And as much as this gloomy cloud followed me until the end of the week - I picked up the film script of a friend and started to get involved with his movie project. I went skating with another friend and her daughter (who I took down to the beach on Alki. We threw rocks in the water and she threw in my face leaving me with a nice bruise on my nose.) I also tried yoga for the first time in my life on Sunday. I had never done it before. (-well unless you count Acting 101 which I dropped because our professor had us do all these image based exercises and yoga. I, more of then not, felt like I was jacking off a giant falis and as a raging, directionless feminist in college, I knew I couldn't do this for 3 hours, twice a week so I dropped the class and hate anything 'new agey' after that.) I figured yoga would be too slow and I don't do slow but so many friends had done it. I had just finished reading the book dharma Punks and was feeling inspired so I went to a class at my gym - and of course - it turned out to be an excellent class and I'm completely sold on going again. I felt great afterwards - all my core muscles were stretched, my lower back felt the best it had in a long time. It was funny though, at one point when we were cooling down (some people were sleeping) I started thinking of potato chips. I really wanted potato chips - and I don't even like them that much. I'm pretty sure that's not what you're supposed to be thinking about. It made me laugh.

The Devil wouldn't wear Parada in Seattle...

This is a funny op-ed about the fashion statements made in Seattle - which is a stretch to have Seattle and fashion in the same sentence. When I first move here Pygmy would sometimes say, "Oh Michelle, you have to change your outfit - that's too nice. You're too dressed up." Sometimes I would change and sometimes I would just laugh and say "forget it! I'm not going give up this beautiful read shirt."

Livin' like a refugee...

Neumo's was packed with 400+ people, sweating, dancing, cheering for this incredible band called the Refugee All Stars at a benefit for the Northwest Immigration Rights Project. I saw the documentary of The Refugee All Stars at the Seattle International Film Festival. It was a pretty incredible story about these guys from Sierra Leone who fled the civil war to Guinee. The civil was brutal where people were forced to kill their own family members. Children killed other children and out of a horrible sense of guilt were easily manipulated into becoming child soldiers. These refugees were musicians and came together at a camp in Guinee and started making music. These filmmakers stumbled upon them and out came this incredible film and story of this band of refugees creating music about their experiences. Incredible music. An incredible story. And it only gets better - they've returned to Sierra Leone and when they were in the State for the South by Southwest Music Festival - they were playing on the streets with the crowd after their performance with the VP of new Music for Time Warner stumbled across them and signed them on a major label the next day.

So we went to their concert. It was also Annika's good-bye, going away party - her last hurrah! Which of course made sense that it would be at a benefit for refugees and her last hurrah. She's one of those wonderful people who does everything with purpose. She was also my fast friend here in Seattle. We're so similar in so many ways - except that she's 10 years younger and has done more with her early twenties than I. We met in the hall at work (even though she was in my department we hadn't talked much) - when we started swapping malaria stories, public-transportation-in-other-countries stories, our mutual love for all things African - complete xenophies and artists who are in conflict with their art. She's my soul sister - truly. And she left for Jordan this morning for a year.

Cancer and babies

Those are two words you never want to see together. Ever. But I put them up there as the title of this blog because I have to be honest when I curl up in bed at the end of the day and reflect on my work, derby, friends, family - I eventually sigh to myself, Wow - there are a lot of babies. I mean A LOT of babies. Many, many of my friends are having babies. Some of them are surprises, most of them are expected and all but one are healthy. There are something like 15 being born to my gal pals all over the States - both in Cleveland and Seattle. Babies everywhere. It's like there's something in the water. I love it! I makes me laugh and I relish the role of "auntie". Because at the exact same time I have many, many friends with cancer. Two colleagues, a friend, a friend's mother (also my friend) and someone I just found out about. It is a lot of cancer -to me. Thankfully they're all doing very well. Sometimes sad, fightened, lonely or laughing but most are recovering rather well. I miss them.

There must be something in the water.

Flying Fish, Free raccoons

My friend Annika who is leaving for Jordan (the country) at the end of the week asked me to go for a walk with her last Sunday to watch the sunset and to "not be alone". So we walked out to Golden Gardens, made comments about the high school students, hippies and various other folks who were sitting by the fires, playing with their children or dogs when I heard a splash to my side. It was a fish, jumping out of the water to enlighten me of his existence. I motion to Annika who saw another fish jump. It was hilarious - all of these little fish were jumping out of the water, at sunset, at the Golden Gardens park.

My childhood best friend came out to Seattle this past weekend - she had lived out here for three years right out of college in Montana. Her other dear friend Steve, picked her up late Thursday night but not late enough to skip out on drinks at Murphy's Pub in Wallingford and a late night Dick's Delight (yes, it's hilarious to say, I want some Dicks!). Friday, I snuck out of work a little early to meet Kathy, Steve, Marni and Danielle at the Dubliner (do you see an Irish theme going on here). Kathy and Steve were late so I caught up with Marni and Danielle - curious as to why Kathy never hooked us up before (I had met them all at her wedding.) We drank a couple of happy hour beers and then headed down the hill to Jai Thai to eat some very good Thai good and walk it off on the boardwalk that winds down along the bay in Fremont.

Saturday was Annika's going away party which was a blast - it's always wonderful to meet new people and make new friends who already have common interests as you. Truly she's going to be missed in her little community of xenophiles and ultimate frisbee lovers. I snuck out to join Kathy and Marni for a drink at the Rainbow Room where a band was playing space invaders music.

Sunday we were back at my favorite, Discovery Park, with Pygmy in toe. After a long, leisurely hike, we grabbed a bite before heading downtown to buy gift for her family back at home. Another walk to watch the sunset and dinner at the lovely Madame K's.

Monday took us up to Deception Pass which is just a gorgeous state park where Kathy has seen seals barking in the water. This time it was just the sound of the pebbles at they were each tossed and turned over by the waves was very relaxing. We ate our lunch, talked about the geology of the area and wound down Whidbey Island buying fresh raspberries along the way noting the sign that offered "free raccoons".

My first summer visitors...

My friends Robin and Marc are my first official summer visitors to my new place in Seattle. (Actually, my younger brother was my first visitor but I had moved into my apartment the week before and he, unfortunately, arrived in towards the end of our 28 day raining streak - so he counts.) So Robin and Marc are my dear friends from the samba group with which I was involved for 4 years. They were part of the bateria (band) but are probably the example of the couple I most want to be like. All of us admired them and so I was thrilled when they told me that they were coming for a visit. They had been traveling throughout the western United States for the last 3 weeks or so, enjoying mountains, hikes, wildlife, and occasionally getting lost.

They showed up at 4:30 p.m. - a wee bit earlier than I anticipated. I got out of my gym clothes and we walked down to the Hiram Chittenden Locks and Fish Ladder in my Ballard neighborhood. Pygmy had taken me here once before and I had accidentally stumbled upon them. The locks are so boats can easily navigate the waters as it changes from fresh to salt water. The fish ladder is so the salmon can get through the locks without being damaged by the boats. Marc asked me if I picked this neighborhood because of the locks (and beautiful surrounding park) - I told him I had just rediscovered them. We then walked over Madame K's for pizza, wine and tasty salads. The place is played like a brothel and has a very lively atmosphere - my friend Annika joining us for dinner.

Saturday woke up early and took a walk through my favorite weekend piece of paradise - discovery park before we tromped around the city visiting Pike Place Market, the piers, Pioneer Square . We talked about how clean the city was, how active and filled with tourists, how Cleveland could have a water front like this. We talked about old power and new power and how difficult it was to get thing done. It reminded me how great it was to live in a more hopeful community. We headed back to Ballard...

I had a previous engagement with a Peace Corps friend who I was seeing for the first time in 5 years. We had been great friends during Peace Corps but hadn't hung out much since. We found we didn't get a long as well "state-side". But dinner was delicious and the conversation was lively. Robin, Marc and I then headed to the Sunset - one of the great music venues in Ballard (which has a very strong music history) - to hear a band that played to loudly and had horrible feedback with their amps but was otherwise a good band.

Sunday brought us all to a walk around Green Lake before Marc and Robin headed north to Vancouver where his sister was getting married to her lifelong partner - legally. I headed off to a BBQ. It was perfect weather all weekend. It was wonderful to have friends out - to show them around - to reappreciate your new community.