while we're in a crisis

I've been doing some pretty mediocre research for work today, that is after I got home from work. At actual work today I called someone in Argentina and we conversed on the regulations of importing wine into the US. (Did you know you can't ship alcohol to a home in Maryland?!?) I was supposed to "work from home" on Friday and instead of putting a dedicated four hours into it, I spent a good hour and a half working on one article about Argentine wine imports and spent the rest of the day doing the homewife things I really wanted to check off my list. One more reason I wouldn't do well working from home. That and the long list of instant watch movies I've queued on Netflix. I'm moving farther from the point. So, tonight I was researching bands coming to Portland with the motivation of "please, please just get this over with and don't worry about leaving evidence of solid research." After finishing a handful and then finishing off The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, I did some personal research on David Bazan, who just happens to be playing in Portland in a few days. I've been milling over the idea that in these times of economic crisis when a well meaning girl can't find a part time job and has an overflowing handful of laid off friends, David Bazan should be played on the bus and at the bars and softly during the nightly news to give us some perspective or proper footing. You would listen for quite a while and start to despair over our collective condition as you sang along, but then you would get to a quiet song toward the end of a Pedro the Lion album when Bazan sounds more like your mother calmly shhh-ing into your ear as she brushed back your hair. It will be okay. We will doubt and rail and be an American version poor for a little bit, but we will be okay. But you don't believe, when I say that it will be alright. Alright.

I know I'm voicing my opinion a bit late (we've known about this recession things for a while now), but instead of headlines with exclamation marks for words and more reports on stocks and unemployment, I think we should quietly sit and listen as David Bazan sings.

historic

Jon is working away preparing his lesson for tomorrow. Yesterday, he was doing much of the same, putting together videos and information to teach the kids about Martin Luther King Jr. My thought was: If they get a day off to remember someone, they better know why we remember them. Jon asked his kids, "Who is Martin Luther King Jr. and why is he important to American history?" One reply, according to Jon, was that MLK freed the slaves. Not quite, Jimmy. Tomorrow, Jon is showing video from today's historic inauguration. I don't know if the kids will really grasp the depth and significance of the event, and admit that being only 25 I can't imagine all that it means to some Americans, but I don't think Jon can deny at least presenting it to them.

I got into the Portland Monthly office just before 9am today and saw people hovering around computer screens watching a live stream of the inauguration. I wanted so badly to watch, but was too timid to join the editors, intern as I am. Instead I listened as a nearby abandoned computer showed Joe Biden taking the oath of office. During Obama's speech another intern asked where everyone was at and we (bravely) joined most everyone else. Strange that we were huddled around a computer, and there were no tv's in the office. I felt a tension those first few minutes at work, knowing a monumental event was taking place and yet feeling I couldn't enter into it. I was moved as I heard the choppy stream of video playing President Obama's swearing in. An excitement jumped in my stomach, the same feeling I had the night we watched the election results in November.

It is interesting to sense my furthering entrance into adulthood as historic events take place and I feel grounded in their importance. I must watch and listen. I must sit and be still, taking it in. When the planes and panic struck on Sept. 11, 2001, I remember exactly where I was and how I felt the days following. I prayed that it would go away, but knew that the world had changed with that day. Still, I was only 18 and wasn't sure what to do with the information and emotions that came with those events. Now Jon and I are seeking to participate in and share the historic nature of the election of President Obama. I am becoming more adult in my mind, because I am becoming more aware. And I can hear, like an echo, my words to my children recalling these events years from now, though I do not think they will know enough to really listen.

routine

When I lived in London (and I wish it had been longer than four months and not four years ago) I took the same trains at about the same time three days a week to work at a magazine office in North London. Three days. Same lines. Same time. And it was a couple months in that I realized I never ran into the same people. I was amazed I never saw at least one familiar face in all that travel. And then the same week I realized this, I was boarding the train when someone from my office (was his name Graham? it is English enough) tapped me on the shoulder and offered the "Hiya, Lynette" I'd been waiting for. And the next day I ran into my friend Antony rounding the corner a block away from where I lived. It felt magical to run into someone. In my mind, that is the definition of a big city.

When I was driving back into Des Moines, heading west on I-80 the summer after I lived in London, I was almost to Ankeny when I saw the one skyscraper Des Moines can truly offer the skyline. I almost cried I was so excited to be back to my church, my ministry, my home. That one tall building among the fields is how I define a small city.

The past few weeks I've been taking the no. 20 bus west into downtown, Monday through Friday, usually boarding at 8.28am. I get back on the bus heading east at approximately 1:03pm. Though the routine is new, there are already a handful of faces I recognize. We ride the bus together, cross the same street after getting off at the same stop. She is blind. He is always wearing jeans and adidas soccer shoes. There are handfuls of others who still register as strangers, but peering out the bus window on two separate occasions I saw people I actually knew, first from work then from school, and Portland began to feel much smaller than I anticipated.

In college I kept being tricked into thinking I saw people from high school or church back home on campus. I thought it came from a desire to bring the disparate parts of my life into one social circle. But now, surprised by the familiarity my routine is offering three weeks in, I seem to want more anonymity, especially when traveling about. I want to find the little pockets of the city where I am known rather than feeling recognized along the way.

the three year mark

pictures from our trip to california are to come, but i wanted to take a chance to tell myself, happy anniversary and show off some cute photos. Jon and I have been married three years today. hooray! i just watched our wedding video a couple days ago and it was so fun to see the family and friends who made the trek to portland to celebrate with us. thanks. now we're looking forward to celebrating becca and dan's, andy and anne's and tim and rebecca's weddings this spring and summer.

Christmas Duck

Jon and I are sitting around the house, waiting to leave for the airport. It has been snowing since last night, so we're hoping our flight is not canceled. After a week of snow and more forecasted for next week, we're ready to get out of here, even if it is raining in Santa Cruz. While I'm waiting around the house, I thought I'd take a second to show off the gift I got in a white elephant exchange on Thursday. We had a party for our home community, a small group from church, and I scored this awesome duck pitcher. Someone's embarrassing birthday gift was my treasure. I tried using it to water the plants today without much success, but I'll keep it around as a conversation piece and as a new part of my kitschy kitchen.

If we make it to California, I'll post some photos of the goings on. We're looking forward to seeing family and having some time off.

fact. checked!

hello. the weather in portland has left things in a tentative mood. each day something is canceled. tonight there was meant to be a party for the teachers i work with in early childhood at church. they have become dear friends and i am really bummed that the threat of freezing rain, or rain freezing, has kept me home. the next two nights we have christmas parties planned, but i'm still waiting to see what the weather will do. jon has had three straight days of no school, a welcome break from all the work this first year of teaching is proving to be. i have been working downtown at Portland Monthly, waiting in the snow and cold wind, riding the bus. it's ironic that when jon gets a suprise break, I take a hiatus from housewifing. next week is our planned vacation and if we make it out of portland, we'll be in california Saturday evening with Jon's family.

so, today I fact-checked my first piece. i'm not sure what i can say, because i signed a confidentiality agreement. to be vague, it was for the pour department. i learned about a certain type of beer that i didn't know existed. i showed jon my notes and he seemed impressed. and so far, i'm excited for this internship. a little apprehensive for its newness, but glad for its potential, though potential always feels so tentative.

has it been seven months? sheesh!

Oh the weather outside is frightful.

But the fire is so delightful...

First, I offer my sincerest apologies. After graduation I started thinking, I'll post again when the next big thing happens. So, when I got a great job or found out I was pregnant, I would blab it all over this little blog of mine and let the world know. Neither of which have happened so this blog has been left fallow, for a long time. Again, sorry. Though, I'm not convinced you've been hurt by this. I more so got bored seeing the same pictures of the coast each time I tried to visit your blogs using my links. So, here's what has been happening:

This summer Jon and I both worked chump jobs. When I graduated from seminary, working at Starbucks got a whole lot more frustrating and annoying. I would spend the first hour or two when I opened muttering to myself about how much I hated that place. It's really easy to hate everything at 4:15am. In July we went down to California to see family and to meet our new nephew Elias and niece Leelah. And I celebrated my birthday and turned 25. In August we went out to the MidWest to see family and friends. It was lovely. While we were there Jon had a phone interview with the North Clackamas School District and got hired to teach 8th grade Social Studies while we were parked in a Goodwill parking lot in Kenosha, Wisconsin. I don't think we bought anything there, but we left with a real job. As soon as we got back to Portland, Jon started working and has been working pretty constantly ever since. I, on the other hand, quit my job at Starbucks and became a housewife. I've been cooking dinner and doing dishes ever since.

Except for today. Today Jon has been sitting pretty because it was a snow day and school has been called off for tomorrow, too. Last winter we didn't get much inclement weather. This year, we've got nearly a week of promised snow. For those not in Portland, Portland can't handle the snow or ice. The city shuts down. At least most of it. The odd thing is, now that Jon has a couple of surprise days off, I'm off working. I've been interning at our church, Imago Dei, in the children's ministry department since this summer. It's been a good yet hard learning process for me to balance being faithful in the ministry opportunity I have now without much certainty about what will come out of it. A couple weeks ago I scored a second unpaid internship at Portland Monthly magazine. It's a grunt work, fact checking internship and I'm giddy with excitement. Most of my college magazine friends paid their internship dues to Meredith publishing and are off being editors. I retreated to seminary after graduation and will be paying my dues now for three months. We were shown a tracking sheet for articles today and I got excited, remembering my Drake Mag days. Hooray for being back in the magazine world. So, today I had an orientation at Portland Monthly while Jon was at home snow daying it up.

Next, I'm planning to apply for an internship with the Zissou Society. I'll let you know how it goes. And hopefully I'll start posting again. In the past few months as I've been looking to get back into writing and editing, when I had a chance to write, even cover letters for jobs, it was (to sound New Age) a renewing and energizing process. When I don't write, I forget that at least part of me is a writer and at least part of the time I should be doing it.

Thanks for being forgiving and for reading. Hopefully there will be more to come.