Yesterday...

The economy stressed me out. My longtime friend Denise and her husband both work at WaMu and though they're going to be fine - eventually - it's stressful when they have a new baby, a new condo and live in a city where she hasn't had many nibbles for a different job in the past few months (Chicago). Yesterday my friend Kelly-Rae got laid off from her retail job - she's an artist - a painter who maybe is realizing it might be time to take the plunge and "be a starving artist - for real." They become 6,7,8 of my friends or family who have become unemployed in the last few months (4 in September alone.) It's depressing and like nothing I've experienced before. (I was a kid in the 80's during the Saving and Loan scandal and other crisis. I had just come back from Peace Corps at the Dot Bomb.) Phew. And I'm trying to raise money in the climate.

Today...

I am watching a show on sharks. They're 450 million years old. Amazing. They survived 5 massive extinctions on Earth. And now there's so few of them. They're at the top of the food chain in the ocean which holds 80% of the world's living things. Boy, I hope they survive.

Shattered glass across the sky...

... what the late night sky looks like at Heart of the Hills campground in the Olympic National Forest this weekend - so many stars that you can't discern the constellations that usually litter the night sky. We stood there just looking at the stars - Weedy, Lara and I - while John tended the fires. It was a beautiful weekend to get away from the stress of work and all the other things line life (the economy, election, etc.) and just be. As Weedy stated "you don't feel like the Apocalypse is near..." which is true (though I don't often feel like the Apocalypse is near - or at least very near.)

It was a perfect weekend - sunny and warm - no rain though the forecast had predicted a chance of it. We went to Hurricane Ridge and camped in Heart of the Hills on Friday night after work. The kindle wood didn't start (because of the starter chemicals) and we finally had a last S'more snack. We got up a little later on Saturday - awoken by the Boy Scout troupe - particularly Jordan and Andy who had to make their voices clearly heard. We had a late breakfast and hiked around the top of Hurricane Ridge in the bright sunshine and watched some thick clouds roll in - had a late lunch in Port Angeles at an "Asian Bistro" and then headed to Salt Creek for low tide... there were no sea stars though there were anemone, crabs (of all sizes), sea weeds, barnacles, mussels and clams. We didn't see many fish though a bunch of different birds.

Sunday morning we packed up, ate breakfast and were the reluctant creatures heading back to our "normal lives." There was plenty of coffee and relaxing before it was time to leave as the gray jays were waiting for us so they could dive in an clean up our camp site (though they were disappointed as we were very clean campers.) It was a great weekend to get away.

What a day...

First WaMu, a Seattle giant, who had already gone under much transformation, selling off debt, cutting staff sank this morning as the FDIC took over the JP Morgan Chase bought what little was left on the skeleton of this giant. Then Heller Erhman, a San Francisco law firm with an office in Seattle had survived the 1906 earthquake, the Depression and was as recently as 2004 rated the one of the top law firms in the nation, dissolved. This effects my organization as we had many cooperating and pro-bono attorneys from Heller. It also effects a friend who had spent almost 10 years at Heller on the admin side. It's finally coming to home to Seattle - the struggles that the rest of the country has been facing have descended upon the Pacific Northwest like an eagle coming to rest.

And here I am writing fall fundraising appeals on a sunny fall day. With such a smack in this city, you feel like you should see something going on... but it's business as usual - or so it appears. I had lunch in the mall 4 blocks from my office and the talk all around me was about the economy and WaMu.

*sigh*

I'm going over to the mountains this weekend to do a little fall camping. I was wanting to write about the last day of being the captain of CarnEvil and how I felt about that (woot! and very proud and somewhat sad) but it seems like those feeling have been replaced by more important things.

Fezzi came home!

Phew. Bad kitty.

Fezzi is lost...




It looks like he must have fallen off the balcony (or jumped off going after a bug) and is nowhere to be found on a rainy night. Lara didn't get home until 9:30 and didn't notice him gone for a little while. I got home at 10:30 and we went out looking for him - even with Friday (his pal) but didn't find him anywhere. Monkey of course is beside herself wanting attention. She probably doesn't quite know he's gone.

Bew.

Heroes, equinox, and two of my favorite things...


Tonight was the season premiere of Heroes - of which I've only seen a about half of the first season - but I had to miss it because I had to go swimming. I love swimming with Pygmy on Mondays. We went for a beer afterwards (whoops, kind of defeats the point of the swimming) at Molly McGuires and chatted about a million things under the sun, including our new found love of swimming. I came back home and luckily Lara had taken some notes from the season opener to get me caught up to speed. It's a very good show - great stories and even better characters. About Heroes: when I was out camping a month ago, Lara asked Megan and I if we could have a super power - like in Heroes - what would it be? I couldn't think of anything specifically that I wanted.... maybe to have incredible jumping power like a cricket or something very physical. Megan had the best response - she said her super power would be able to speak any language fluently. That is the best super hero power ever - I wish it!


Today is the first day of fall - and I'm pretty sure Washington state got the memo. It was cool, bright and rather chilly. The air had a bite. I am so glad I had a weekend of vitamin D in Denver (ha - that would be a great marketing strategy for a city that has 350 days of sunshine a year!) I had a great time in Denver - one of the first times really looking at it as an adult (the last time I was there was in 2000 - and I was at a wedding). The neighborhood where I spent most of my summers as a kid had little farmers market - and fun artsy boutiques and restaurants. It's a city struggling with growth (sprawl)as the Rockies hover in the distance and the clouds billow upward - providing a great backdrop. It also changed my perspective on this city that I had spent a lot of time in as kid. This was always the wild west. And it was. But it's not the "west" - Seattle is the west. California is the west. It's the last outpost of the "mid west" - before climbing into the Rockies. I'm still chewing on this one and will probably have more to say about it another time.


The girls, my whole reason for going to Denver, were just as fabulous as I expected them to be. They have to be some of the most well behavior, vivacious, gregarious 3-year-olds I know. Of course, I am completely biased and I just love them to death. They still say the cutest things: Alexandre "Aunt Michelle are you going to the Bronco's game with us?" I don't know. Maybe. "But I love you and if you come I'll give you a piece of candy." She would also quip about cleaning up after a crafty activity "oh, Aunt Michelle, I am just so tired. Cleaning up is just so much work." Lucia said similar witty things and things that made me laugh so hard. When exchanging toy paper money with Alexandre "Alexandre, I love you more than money." They got use to Marie's giant dog Holly. They danced like crazy girls. They yelled a lot of "Go Broncos" and gave their little sister a kiss (at least Alexandre did. Lucia would get close to her face and say "McKenny" very sweetly.) They were the best even when they coughed on you (both had colds) and made you go to the bathroom with them many times.


There are many other things to say about my Denver weekend - like watching someone grow old and looking at 4 generation of a family. I got to visit my Peace Corps friend Nikki and had a great conversation on the plane. I devoured a book over the weekend reminding me how much I love to read.


It was a great weekend, and like turning a page in a book to reveal the next chapter: autumn.

After a week like this...

I am so ready to get out of town for a little visit to Denver. I haven't been there in 8 years - last going for a two week visit after the Peace Corps for my "cousin" Jen's wedding. I'll see my fairy godmother, my friend Nikki, hang out with Marie and most importantly spend time with those damn fun (and cute) Johnson girls! I can't wait to see them! I got some fun crafty things we can do while we're there - besides hang out in the park next to the house. It's going to be in the high 70's, low 80's. Perfect weather and 3 year old twins - who could ask for anything more!

One of those days...

It was one of those days and it appears there are going to be a lot of them - super busy, no real lunch break, sneezes from fatigue (yes, that is a odd sign that I am tired - I sneeze), and just busy, busy, busy. And then I have to deal with my car. The alternator died over the last week, though I feel like it's been on it's way out for a couple of months. I had to jump almost every time I tried to start the start it.

My NEW auto repair shop, where I've almost spent $1k in the last month, wanted another $780 to replace the alternator and battery (though there was no proof that the battery actually needed to be replaced - it just had a low charge - because the alternator wasn't charging it.) I told them I would replace the battery myself (if it actually proved it needed it) by going to Sears and got the bill to just under $580. Ugh. It was another one of those situations where I wish I had a small house with a garage and I would just fix it myself... or with the help of some friends. I know people who have changed their own alternators so I know it's no that difficult. Bleh. Frustrating only because I'm spending all the money I was saving for a bike - as in bicycle - on my car. Though it's still cheaper than having a car payment every month.

Swimming!

I went swimming with Pygmy tonight at "Adult Senior Open Swim". She had been going to a couple of the open swims and wanted a swim buddy. When we got there, the Masters Class was ending and I hopped in with my sleek Speedo swimsuit (that I bought 8 years ago after getting back from Peace Corps), put on my swim cap (the first one that I've ever owned) and my goggles. It took about 5 minutes to get use to the lanes and the lane etiquette - I mean it's been since like 5th grade that I took a swim class on any sort of organized level but it was GREAT. After like 10 laps I totally hit a wall and of course swam thru it and just had a great time for the next 25 minutes. Then I realized that there is probably a more effective way to do this - swimming that is. Because it's been since like the 5th grade that I took any kind of swimming class. I hopped out of the pool and was thrilled. I loved it!

And I'm signing up for "Intermediate Adult Swim" for the month of November and December. I'm pretty psyched! It's so good for you - it's great core strength (awesome for derby!) and the community pool is, I kid you not, only one blck away from my apartment. (I live on 64th and 14th - Ballard High School is on 65th and 15th.) I can't wait. I love the idea of swimming and swimming at my community pool. Woot!

Pale moon rising over the cake of an incredible weekend...

There is an absolutely almost full moon (tomorrow) hanging out in a clear cloudless sky with the Cascades acting as a back drop. I finished an hour in my garden (amen!) pulling out mint that had taken over everything, and freshened up the soil with some compost before planting some more lettuce that I know will be happy with the turn of the season this week.

I saw three trees with orange leaves and I have been told repeatedly that Wednesday is the last day of summer - I'm just happy it last three weeks longer than I expected. There was a cold snap a bit ago and I thought our summer was going be only 6 weeks long (&!?#^#%@) - luckily it has lasted a couple of weeks longer - all bright, beautiful, clear (sometimes cool) sunny days... just gorgeous and one of the many things that Seattle is reputed for - and all coming to an end on Wednesday when rains comes rolling in and the low sixties.

Today was a long day - I was at a work event from 9 a.m. to almost 1 p.m. and then actually went to work for a couple of hours. (I had a work event on Friday that was super successful and fun!) I scooted home and headed to Discovery Park for a two hour hike before heading to my P-Patch. It was great to tear up the plot and plant new things. I was rather happy and relieved.

However, the icing on the cake this weekend was the Dockyard Derby Dames (DDYD) and Jet City Roller Girl Bout on Saturday. It was a match-off a year in the making and it was great! Each JCRG team played one of the DDYD teams for a 30 minute mini-bout (two-15 minute mini halves with a 5 minute break that served as half time). We were ranked pretty closely by our rank within our leagues. We were squared off with Mollys - I had been on the Mollys for about a month when I first got involved with derby (and was driving 103 miles round trip to skate. As my carpool buddies dropped off, it became impossible for me to keep it up.) I was thrilled to play the Mollys - as it was like coming back home or at least to your sister's house. We both had purple and black uniforms. Both our teams had a hard time winning though we always put up a great fight. Yeah, we were perfect matches!

We were at a serious disadvantage as our injured list is longer than our healthy list! A few people were out of town but we had a group of gimps who called themselves the "CC"s - Carnie Cripples. So a standard game day roster has 16 - 14 of which are playing and 2 others are on the roster "just incase"... we had 9 healthy skaters and no "just incases". And just as life would have it, we lost Vibe Raider, one of our up and coming blockers, 30 minutes before we were going to go on (dislocated knee cap) and had to rewrite line-ups. Everyone played 2 or 3 times in a row (read: exhausting). There were only three jammers and when you weren't jamming you were out there with the blockers smacking people around. It was great, exhausting and incredible!

We were up by 10 points as the half, even with only 8 skaters but the points slipped out of our hands and we found ourselves TIED (see on of January postings for an idea of what that was like) and as history would repeat itself - I was jamming (but in the box!) It was a total nail-biter! I skated out of the box, like hell on wheels, and tried desperately to grab more points than the other jammer (taking her out along the way!) but she had the advantage of catching my point (while I was in the box) - I scored 8 points - she scored 9. We lost by one. It was devastating and though thrilling at the same time to have played so low in numbers, have some questionable calls, and only lose by 1 point. It was also thrilled to play the Mollys. And if I hadn't been so exhausted and PROUD at the same time, there might have even been some tears.

There will be a rematch! There will be more long weekends. There will be a weekend trip to Denver to see the most beautiful girls in the world. There will be financial intuitions that will fail. There will be cases won (yeah, two last week!) and lost. There will be more friends that will lose their jobs and others that find better ones. There will be more injuries and more tie breakers. There are so many more things to anticipate. But tonight there is a huge pale white moon in the sky over the Cascades and the thrilled of such a weekend.

What a week...

I knew yesterday was going to be one of those days when my bus, already running late and a short bus rather than a long one, had to make an emergency stop on Elliot Bay Ave because a passenger right in front of me passed out. Coincidentally, we stopped at a stop where a doctor was waiting - to get on to a different bus. I hopped off and jumped on anther bus behind us (I was of no use) and headed to work... and the day just didn't stop until 5 p.m. when I ran out the door to catch another bus home and meet Lara at a bar before our league meeting/practice. I needed a beer. I needed fried food. I needed the intensity of the day to go down 15 notches. One my bus ride home, I found the gal who had fainted on my bus - obviously she made it thru the rest of her day.

Today, my work is hosting a great event "Get Schooled in Title IX" which includes a CLE (continuing legal education), a salon (panel discussion with a variety of female athletes including a national phenom named Jaime Nared - google her) and after that we're heading off to a Seattle Storm's game. Saturday, Jet City plays Dockyard Derby Dames in Monroe and Sunday I have a 30th Anniversary Reunion - again for work. Then it's Monday... again.

My P-Patch needs my attention - the tomatoes and corn are fighting for sun. Cucumbers have sprouted and lettuce is struggling to stay alive in late summer warm days. It's been unseasonally BEAUTIFUL in Seattle lately.

Hopefully I'll get to it - before the end of the month.

Tea....

I popped a "happy pill" in my bath tub tonight along with some absence salt to take out some of the poison from the day. It had been an antagonistic long day at work (um, who ever said that women's rights work was easy) followed by a long board meeting and a happy pill was just what I needed. The happy pill you buy from Lush - its orange and lemon scents melded together (thanks Audrey!) with a bunch of sodium bicarbonate (baking soda). It's warm, fuzzy fun that smells great and turns your bathwater into ice tea. Friday, the cat, licked my shoulder and for a moment the ice tea I was sitting in became a 1970's poisoned river from which the book Yellow Springs was derived - or maybe not - that's the kind of day I was having.

Tonight I talked to the Political Organizer of the Washington Obama campaign and she did little to reassure the panic I felt at noon today - when I called my mother and best friend - begging them both to get involved with the campaign. Pleating. My mother said she would call next week. (I figured she owed me from all the envelopes I licked closed for the various Republican campaigns as a kid.) My best friend felt like she couldn't do much about it (not true!) The thing is I think I'm still recovering from 2004 when I worked as an organizer for Planned Parenthood, Move On and other groups. I put in a gazillion hours from August to November and somehow I didn't win. (After crumpling in tears, my work sent me home.) The thing is, after that election, I don't have the emotional energy to do that kind of work. It's too much with work - derby -relationships - but I have less energy for four more years like we have now. So I'll find it - in the bottom of my gut - somewhere hidden and I will throw myself into it. Because I have to. Because no one told me that my work would be easy. Any of it.

One thing not related to politics or anything is just about bills. I became a beer drinker for three reasons 1. beer is cheaper than wine 2. it causes less headaches and 3. beer is cheaper than wine. I truly enjoy wine - love it - in fact. But I will take an IPA over a glass of wine any day. And that comes from my years of working in the ".org" as opposed to the ".com". I didn't make enough money to buy wine. I would go out with my friends and for $10 I could get to pints and throw in a buck for the tips/taxes/appetizer. The glasses of wine cost $12 each. I couldn't afford that. So I drank what I could afford and my taste is for "beer" over wine - but I do like wine. Tonight, I paid $50 for two beer and a snack. My total bill was $24 but when you get the check and everyone is like "split is X of ways" - you end up paying for peoples $16 glass of wine (um, that would be 4 beers!) I guess I'm just more sensitive - because I was that person that couldn't afford beer. And I had those friends that didn't drink. If you order caviar and I order fries -sometimes there's more to it than preference... like maybe environment or a million other reasons.

Thank goodness for that bath. The poison has all but vanished. I have another long day tomorrow - actually the whole rest of the week. But I'll find the energy. No one told me my work would be easy.

Can-Can Ladies...

Today I hopped on the bus, zig-zagging through the city to meet a board member in Pioneer Square for a meeting. I hop on the 49 and two little old ladies sitting across from me took notice of my fishnets. Nothing stellar - medium holes (worn with a short back skirt, fitted pink shirt with light honeycomb print) and black shoes. Look at her fishnets! Those are just like what the Can-Can Ladies use to wear! (well anyone can wear them now). Yes, true, but they had black seams up the back of their legs. Those Can-Can Ladies wore those kind of fishnets! Just like those. Those are so nice.

And yes, I am sure the Can-Can Ladies wore these... but now any of us can wear them. Even to work. Even to my kind of work.

Karma...

On Friday, at work, I had an instant of very good karma. And though a blog is not necessarily the place to get into details, some people from outside my agency I had tried to work with kicked me out of their sandbox (passively aggressively of course) and I just went about playing under the tree and doing my own damn thing. And it turns out it was a good thing - as it always it - the karma that I sent out in the world (by not getting into a pissing war with the others in the sandbox) came back around to me and I succeeded. Of course I had to run down the hall at work and yell "That's your bad karma coming back to bite you in the ass!" to, of course, no one who understood what the hell I was talking about.

Today I went to get gas before heading to the Fred for a couple of pre-bout errands and there was a guy who came over to me pitching a story of needing some gas for his truck - just enough to get to a local neighborhood... I told him I needed to get my own gas and really did he need to harass me so early in the morning - spending too much time in my personal space. He went on about how the pumps were cheating me (no they aren't, they're regulated), and if I could just help him out. As I was about to put the pump away he kept on going on and on about needing gas so I filled his little red can about a dollars-worth and hopped back in the car. And of course my car won't start - the radio worked, the lights went on but the alternator must have given out at some point - there wasn't enough juice to turn the engine over. Well the crazy guy comes back with his friend and asks a million times "is it automatic? Is it automatic? Is it automatic?" No! And it's not the battery and it doesn't have loose cables. Well, he's thrilled about the idea that the car is a manual and he and his friend push the car while it's in first and I pop the clutch - and it starts - driving it off the Fred. It was reluctant karma - I gave the guy gas - not because I wanted to and he helps me out - not because he had to.

Not about karma -today I played in a very fun bout - with skaters from a variety of leagues from all around the Pacific Northwest - I had a great time playing in a couple of jams with them and look forward to more. That is one of my favorite reasons to play derby - planning with other gals from other places. It's the best.

Surprise!

Tonight, as I was heading out the door to practice, I decided to try my trunk clicker to my car. It had stopped working months ago - maybe even February (I would like to say it was winter but that's months long and too hard to use as a gage). And to my complete suprise - it worked! I tossed my bags in the trunk and saved myself a few minutes of unlocking it with a key, etc. I popped the trunk leave practing and was just so happy. It's going to be nice when it's raining and I don't have to fumble with the key. It's not that big of a deal but it was a rather pleasant surprise. And who couldn't use a couple of those a week.

Or at least one.

Reluctant Creatures Abound!

I can't say I was 100% looking forward to this weekend's camping trip. The weather wasn't supposed to be that great - it was a long drive just to get to the coast - 5 hours - and I wasn't sure I wanted to be away camping in the rain...

I was so delighted I went! I was "off the grid" all weekend at Kalaloch (ka-lae-lock) in the Olympic National Park. Lara, Megan and I grilled fish, corn-on-the-cob, summer squashes, shrimps, potatoes; drank lots of wine; made super tasty s'mores; went on short hikes, took naps on a beach littered with glacier-flattened, smooth pebbles; skipped stones on creeks emptying into the ocean; found the roundest stones imaginable; watched the tides come in and saw the most tide pool reluctant creatures ever! (We saw sea stars, anemone, mussels, tube worms and small fish which out scored last summer when we only saw a dead headless seal.) The stars at night, when not fight puffy clouds, number in the billions. I got a touch of both wind and sun burn on my face while wearing long sleeve shirts and jeans. It was cool and sunny - a wonderful weekend of doing lots of nothing - eating, thinking, telling stories and being humbled by the ocean.