happy new year's eve!

hi lovely people,

i'm so glad to see so many postings lately! it's exciting to read about all the changes that are happening and WE BETTER BE UPDATED.

it's new year's eve and i'm chugging water so i can sneak some vodka in the bottle (life hasn't changed much since school, i'm afraid). i'm waiting for colombina to come pick me up. all i can smell is the new perfume i got for christmas which i still haven't learned to apply properly so i'm overbearing in a whole new way. i'm going out downtown with a lot of people and i have no idea where i'm going to be an hour from now or my level of intoxication -- i hope i'll be very confused on both levels.

as for an update, this break has been really wonderful, but it shouldn't really feel that way. i got really sick as soon as i got home and was on antibiotics and then on christmas eve, some guy ran a red light and i totaled my car hitting him. it was cold and snowy (dallas's first white christmas in over a hundred years!). i'm still dealing with that mess, but all i can remember is the good times i've had this break -- going out like nobody's business, reconnecting with so many people -- some that i haven't seen in over five years, watching tv and playin cards with my family, obsessing over a new tv show (battlestar gallactica), and dealing with boy drama (my favorite activity). oh and cait had a 7 hour layover here before her 8 month travel abroad stint in costa rica. we ate yummy tex mex and napped/reminisced in a coffee shop that is really some lady's house. life is so much fun and hopefully tonight will be no different!

i'm hoping you all are going to have a fantastic night and i'll drink a champagne toast and (have a sip of vodka from my water bottle) for you all!

all my love,

this....is ikea heights

hi loves. i'm heading out to taiwan tomorrow with my mom until the 8th, so i'll have lots to say when i get back.
for now, this is my new haircut -

and this is a soap opera spoof that will almost certainly brighten your day - www.ikeaheights.combye!!!

I just have a lot of feelings...

So, it is 5:24 in the morning and I cannot sleep at all. There is just too much going on in my head. Maybe if I get it all out I'll be able to sleep.

Dear Diary,

I am finally done with Amherst College! I expected to be ecstatic, and while I do have moments of extreme happiness, mostly I still feel sort of numb, like I don't believe it, like I could wake up from this dream at any moment. And, now that it's over, there's no fixing it. There's no getting it together in the end, finishing on an upnote. It's just done. It feels like a crash landing. I am so happy I made it, but I wish so bad that I could have done it better...or not done it at all.

The current plan is to move to Northampton, and get a job. I already have an apartment and now I need money. I really need MONEY!!! I am broke as shit and so is my family. Going to a liberal arts college and majoring in Religion was a brilliant idea on my part. And why didn't anyone try to talk me out of it? Not sure. Anyway, I came up with Northampton because it's familiar, but not too familiar, cheaper than New York, a good place for a non driver, it's a musical town, Steve is still at Amherst, this is not a real sentence.

Anyway, life is going to be different. I never lived without my family or my close friends under the same roof. I don't know what it is to be alone. I'm not really going to be alone. I am sharing an apartment with these four people in their late 20s- I think grad students and musicians- cool people, very messy though. But if I ate out of the Zu kitchen, I can eat anywhere I guess. But anway, it will be a step toward independence, something I have grown to lack.

Home, as always, has been rough and nice at the same time. My parent's constant bickering - I can't stand it, and then my mother wonders why I don't want to live at home. And then there's my brother. He's got diabetes, and a lame ass job that doesn't give him health insurance because he's not working full time. He can't get medicaid because he makes too much, and he can't pay for his medication because he makes too little. So he's fucking broke and depressed. And then there's my niece. I love this girl more than life itself. She's 10 now, in her last year of elementary school, and it's so obvious that she is just not ready for middle school. She's got serious issues that her ignorant parents refuse to recongnize. She doesn't eat. This is not a new problem. She never has, but now I realize that she isn't growing out of this starvation phase, and she is skinny as all hell and also extremely shy and insecure and just really emotionally immature. The girl needs therapy or at least parents who are able to see that she isn't quite normal and are willing to put some extra time and energy and research into dealing with her. They love her and all. They're just DUMB! I am so worried she's going to get her little ass beat in NY public middle school. Either that or she'll be ignored.

Anyway, the point of all of this is to say that since I have been home I have realized that there isn't much left of the happy family I once new. I mean, we're still funny people who love each other and laugh a lot, but underneath that layer there is this kind of constant tension in the air, like a dark cloud just hanging over us all day and night. I hate it. I feel like I am the only one around here who can see things as they are, and who wants to fix things. I want to save everyone, I want to medn this family but I can't. I am not in a position to fix anything. I need to fix myself, which is why I am ruinning away to Northampton.

I am so excitied about the prospect of receiving a pay check, buying and cooking my own food, simply things that grown ups do. 2010 is going to be a year of healing and growing for me. I need it. And then maybe I can be of service to others- my family, my friends, the community- let's go crazy- the WORLD! All I plan to do right now though is work, sleep, eat, exercise, meditate, play guitar, sing, and be drunk and dancing every chance I get. Maybe I'll go to the occasional yoga class or get a massage once in a while. I want to make new friends and hang out with the old friends, and just do fun shit all the time. I am so sick of being sad. I can't do it anymore. I refuse to. Expect to see me in Boston and New Haven next semester...Oh, I'm sorry, I mean in the next few months. Semesters are for students.

I love you! Let's see if I can sleep now.

whirlwind Christmas

Hello to all!! My blogging entity has been long lost but has been found! In the spirit of Christmas! Anyway, what a couple of days its been. I went home during 19,20,21ish of December because I came down with a nasty cold (somehow all semester I wound up in Rach's bed when I was sick...only this time Rachel was strictly forbidden to enter into it again without desanitization, orders of Naomi! I missed the 10e babies graduation dinner, but Jess got to go, so that was good. I'm glad someone got to enjoy it.
Since I went back to Amherst to pack up all my junk and come home yet again, life has changed drastically. It is still a little premature, but it appears as though my family is moving to Tennessee prontisimo. Yeah-- so not only do I leave TOMORROW for Costa Rica for 8 months...but tonight is my last night in my Connecticut home. It feels really bittersweet, as did many of the beautiful moments my family shared together this Christmas. Amongst the best memories were yesterday, sitting in the living room by the Christmas tree, watching You Can't Take it With You, an ollld Frank Capra movie (black and white) with my Poppy. It's been a great couple of days, its all going so so so fast though. I will be sure to post down in Costa....AND the best thing of all, Selena! and I will be hanging in Dallas tomorrow, killing some of my 7 hour layover! Love to all, and wishing everyone happy hearts.
Cait

So lovely to hear everyone's holiday updates. I'm writing from my mom's kitchen table, full Christmas tree in front of us. Yes, we or, really, my mom still goes all-out with Holiday decorations. We've got Christmas kitsch everywhere -- nativity scenes, reindeers, stockings, Santa candy jars, Mrs. Santa salt shakers. The list goes on. I've become immune to it but I'm sure any of you would be sufficiently overwhelmed if you stepped into my house right now.

Maybe my mom's brilliant. Maybe all the Christmas crap actually gets us into the holiday spirit. My family's had a great couple of days together. Even after the five-hour present-opening marathon and mandatory holiday shopping (ie the obligatory trip to the LL Bean flagship store), we're still enjoying each other's company through wholesome activities. My siblings and I have played Setters of Catan, completed a Beatles puzzle, and successfully cooked dinner. Now my sister's playing the soundtrack to Cats on the piano, my grandmother's doing my older brother's laundry, and Harper just emerged from bed fully wrapped in the Snuggie that Julie's parents got for my mom for Christmas. A regular Leave it to Beaver scene, if there ever were one.

I got a cello bow and three cooking books for Christmas. Apparently everyone is aware that I now live in the real world! When any of you visit, I will be sure to prep for you vichyssoise, fried chicken in 20 minutes, or classic Maine-style blueberry pie, depending on your cook book of choice.

I heart you ladies and gent!

new year's resolution

post more on postchap. sorry, selena!

life's been hectic, but also very chapman-filled on the day-to-day, at least with those still living around new england. end of my semester: i finished my thesis! wowow. i partied A LOT. i "graduated" and then i finished my finals (two days ago). thirty minutes later my family started showing up at my house, and it's been full-on family (and eating...) ever since. tomorrow my favorite peruvians are coming to visit us! (meli y violeta) then new year's (in boston? destry? or dc? julian?) then florida !!! then, boston!!!!!!! whaa, exciting stuff ahead in quick succession. busy unpacking and repacking all my shit in preparation.....

below, photo of the year, me making out with tony marx (as he gives me my graduation cane, labeled "2010e"! yes, e!). becky, my mom also took a photo of your magical moment with marx. let me know if you want it... love, rach.

just call me julia child (BONNNN APPETIIIT - and joyeux noel!)

hello friends, from billowy and beautiful Miami -
I can't get over the warmth and sunshine of this place. it's quite shocking and wonderful to get a couple extra hours of daylight every evening; I am pleased, to say the least.
besides sun, there is SO MUCH GREEN! i came home and my mom proudly showed me how great my papaya tree was doing in the middle of the garden plot i planted a year and a half ago - needless to say, i never planted a papaya tree but i'm super excited about the delicious fresh fruit every morning! (another fun surprise at home - 3 kittens bouncing roun the house! nina, ninja and canela - cutest cuties i ever did see!)
also, my three little cousin-terrors have moved into my great-aunt's house next door, so i've been taking full advantage of the extra pairs of helpful (?) hands in the kitchen. successful cooking projects thus far: choc chip cookies, rosemary shortbreak cookies, honey whole wheat break, and chocolate mousse! (from my late grandmother's recipe! it's cooling in the fridge at the moment, so dessert time tonight will be the real test of it's success). i also processed and jarred a whole beehive full of honey salvaged from my backyard, whic was ridiculously sticky and fun. next on the list: french baguettes and candles made from the beeswax!!
merry festivities to you and yours! lotsa tropical hugs and kisses, carmella

Hi Love Heads,

Jesus (trying to get into the XMas spirit) I have been neglecting the blog! So sorry. Just read thru what I'd missed and rekindled my love and missing of all of you. I've been sitting here at the table cracking up at all of your posts and photos and videos... :) Meh, I am so smitten with you lovelies (Julian is also a lovely). Enough mush.

I am in Oxford pretty much just relaxing and eating gluten-free cake and muffins, going out for coffee, running in the cold, and drinking pints of cider... and sleeping... and watching movies... essentially doing every necessary vacation activity. :) I forgot my damn stethoscope, which is disappointing, but I'll be back to it soon enough.

Miss you sugar lumps!
Megan

terrible weather in san diego too - partly cloudy

happy chrismukkah, people! every year my family gets lazier and lazier about hanukkah. when i was a kid, we had a legitimate menorah and candles every night. in the last few years, we lost our menorah and instead of shelling out a whopping $5 to buy a new one, we used a menorah-shaped window-cling sticker with little window-cling candles and flames. This year, we couldn't even find that, so my mom printed out a picture of a menorah whose flames we colored in with red pen each day.
and this is what happens when you let only mildly jewish athiests mate and raise children.we taped it to an oven-like object that hangs above our stove and the oven that we actually use. the converstation I *just* had with my parents concerning this oven:
ROSE: Hey dad, do we have two ovens?
Dad looks down at oven-that-we-use and up at hanukkah-oven, down, up, down.
DAD: I guess so.
ROSE: Mom, do we have two ovens?
MOM: Yeah.
ROSE: What is the top oven for?
MOM: I don't know, maybe its like a giant toaster.

Who let us run our own household?
Love, season's greetings, don't buy too much useless crap,
rosie

moving sucks.

in thanks for all the selena's in the world (or, the one and only)

(courtesy of the one and only bill taylor)

just in case you're still up

this goes out to all the carmellas in the world



and my always favorite:

happy holidays!!

pauline's 60th ♥

academia, get out of my life!

The eroticization of the natural is homologous with the engendering of power/knowledge.

write your own academic sentence!

days until the end of academia: 5 !
# of pages standing b/w me and the end of academia (as of yet unwritten): 30 (due in 3 days...)

wine and cheese was a wild success, as was a lovely saturday night Hanukkah gathering at kendahl's with julian and friends. rosie's been sleeping in my bed- always a good time. friday marks the end of my college career...! ! ! until then, i'm hunkering down in smudd for all eternity. bah!

snowily yours, carmzella

p.s. I'm famous!

CHANGESSSSS

so guys. texas is really getting to me. 1) i work at a religious lobbying organization. and 2) i joined the texas guard. they do a lot of really great disaster relief work (and no i can't get deployed). here is proof:

this is me at attention.


this is me at ease.


i hope you all can forgive me and still love me.

Climategate? Seriously?

Going to be in Amherst this weekend, not much else to update, but just in case 'climate gate' has you wondering, yes! global warming is happening, yes! it is caused by anthropogenic emissions (we can prove it with isotope analysis! 13C does not lie!) and no! science is not dead, it just so happens that some scientists are irresponsible and think that raw data needs a lot of dumbing down because the public is so fucking stupid.

FYI:
The 'decline' they are talking about is one of three proxies for temperature before we started recording temperatures in a standardized way in the 50s. This particular proxy, because it comes from tree rings, is notoriously hard to detangle from all the other trends that would effect width of a tree ring (temperature, yes, but also precipitation, nutrient availability, age of the stand, looooots of stuff). All this shit has to be crammed into models that generate a lot of error. However, if you look at the raw data with error bars (which these scientists *tsk tsk* did not report), this dip doesn't really take away from the overall warming trend. In fact, there is a LOT of variability in temperature interannually and deviations from a strict UP trend are to be expected, because the real world is messy. i am satisfied as long as the general regression line goes up at the end of the day, which it does.

I'm really pretty offended by the way FOX (et al.) are playing this off to be some kind of 'science-wide' conspiracy again good, hard-working americans, trying to make them give up driving their cars and using electricity.

I have only one question for you, right-wing pundit: what is our fucking motivation? I don't want to pay enormous energy bills or walk to school either. There is absolutely no good reason for the scientific community to 'make up' global warming'. We have fuck-all to gain. Well, I guess we DO have a trillion dollar oil industry backing us....oh, oh wait....that's you guys.
But sure, CO2 levels aren't rising, you're head is just oxygen-deprived from being up your ass all day.

I saw my first real snow of the season last night! Whoo! On top of a mountain in southern VT, as I was driving back to the Valley. It would have been much more exciting if I had not been driving, and if it had not been raining.

I also realized that now that the leaves are off of the trees, I can see the mountains near the Notch from my office window, at least until 4:30, when it gets dark.

Love!

ugh

I just watched food inc.
Gross.
Bleh.
Also, reallllly busy, but coming to amherst the late the 11th and staying til the 13th or maybe even earrrly the 14th. Can't a-wait!

love.
vegetables.

freedom hangs like heaven

hi friends! besides being super thankful for you and for everything good in my life, i've also been quite busy keeping up with classes and trying to make as much monies as possible before heading out in a few weeks. (gotta milk the system for all it's worth while i still can!) truthfully, my main focus lately has been on making money and devising awesome plans for spending it all. many lovely things on the horizon- notably, a sunny christmas homecoming in florida and springtime in france. (!!!) looks like some friends from cincinnati will be coming to Miami the first week in january and i think sam ellingson, chase, and possibly selena (AND OTHERS!?) might be visiting the weekend of the 8th (coughmybirthdaycoughcough). sooooo you are all invited, of course!
i'm so excited for pauline's birthday bash (megan's mommy!) in conn this weekend- it's going to be the party of the century! we'll be missing those of you who can't make it! muchos cariños !
with love and thanks,
carmella

rose withdrawal

Rosie left yesterday and I miss her already. So, I'm going to tell you about what we did (i.e. a weekend in the life of me)!

I picked Rosie up from the airport on Wednesday and promptly went to a few bars. We ended up at the hip Beauty Bar (I hear the original's in NYC) and Colombina met us there. I wanted Rose to try Lonestar which is the PBR of Texas so I ordered two and the bartender said, "All Lonestar is on the house tonight!" And then a guy, Jim (we think homeless), came up and talked to us and told us that there was going to be a fried turkey at the Beauty Bar later! So! We waited and got free fried turkey. It was super delicious and realllly fried.

On Thanksgiving, Rose and I went to Glenn's house. Glenn is the manager of Austin's Pizza, where Alese (Austin friend) and I go to get free pizza every Friday. It was interesting. It was Glenn, his friend Sam, and random Austin Pizza employees including two extremely drunk older maintenance guys. Glenn was totally stoned while cooking a huge feast for Thanksgiving. Basically, it was perfect.

On Friday, Rosie got to meet my friend Alese and we all went out and had a fun time! The rest of the weekend was less eventful with tv watching, flat tire having, traffic jams, but it was fantastic!

How was everyone's Thanksgiving?

PS: Woah

Just for kicks, I showed my mom the Bon Qui Qui video last night, and she LOOOOVED it. She keeps talking about how funny it is, but in a "Julie, we saw the funniest video on YouTube last night!" kind of way. Hilarious.

Still high on Tryptophan

Lots of moving around these days. A week in Philly for my (horrendous) AmeriCorps training, a night in Connecticut for Monty's dad's wedding celebration, a few days of work back in Northampton, two nights in New York for Thanksgiving with the men in my life (my dad, two brothers, Monty), and now two nights in Maine for Thanksgiving redux, mom style. Tomorrow's will be my third Thanksgiving feast of the week (after my office's and my dad's) and, frankly, I don't know if I can handle it. Pretty sure my mom is bribing me with chocolate cream pie, so I'll rally and pull through.

First: Why is the American federal government so cognitively impaired? (I'm trying to erase 'retarded' from my vocabulary.) But seriously, my AmeriCorps training was troubling. I tried at one point to make the case that "poor people" (who apparently represent a homogenous category) are most likely intelligent, resilient and resourceful if they're able to survive, and thus potentially helpful partners for those of us trying to do community development work; and the response I received from the trainer was that poor people (again, one homogenous group) internalize the messages of worthlessness, uselessness, stupidity and laziness associated with their poverty, and so cannot be relied on for our work. UGHHHHH. Does anyone else think there's something wrong with this message? Plus they showed us all these completely gratuitous images of brown people pushing grocery carts and living in tents as if that were going to teach us something about poverty other than the stereotypes we all already harbor. AND I tried to make a comment at my table about the ridiculousness of the generalizations used in the training and the response I got was: "The whole point of a generalization is that it doesn't apply to everyone." RIGHT, that's why we don't use them! I could go on and on. Needless to say, I laughed my way through the AmeriCorps oath at the end, when I swore to "protect America against its enemies, foreign and domestic" (um, what?). Luckily I found a few other people who found the training imperialistic, normative and absurd, and together we critical theoried the fuck out of the whole thing.

Clearly you can take the girl out of the Anthropology department, but you can't take the Anthropology out of the girl. Alas (or maybe, probably, not alas?), I'm to be an overly critical academic my whole life, at least inside my own head.

Oh! And my roommate was from Texas (I thought of you, Selena! Except she was nothing like you). Within the first five minutes of meeting she told me she wasn't a feminist because she doesn't "burn her bra". Uh-huh.

The greatest part about the training was when it ended, because it meant I could (and have) officially start my job full-time. So far I like it! I've had a very warm welcome all around. And I've already helped to submit two grant proposals, one for $5 million and one for $34,000. That feels pretty good. (For those of you who heard my heinous Friday story of driving to Boston at 90 mph to submit the application, the foundation decided to accept it for review, which means our application is in the running, which means I'm not a total screw-up. Yes! There have been multiple jokes at the office about the experience being some sort of hazing exercise, which, needless to say, are not funny.)

I love Thanksgiving! And I love you guys! Come visit our apartment and the bears in our backyard. (Still figuring out how I can get Monty a pet baby Black Bear for Christmas, but it's not looking good.) xoxoxoxoxooxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxooxxxxxcan'twaittoseeyousooooon.

giving thanks!

i am soosososo thankful to have all you beautiful souls in my life. seriously. wow.

with so much love and hugs and kisses, from the hilarious meketon household in lovely little ambler, pa--
carms

PS who's going to be in amherst on dec 18th?! it's a big big event and you are all invited -- the 10e dinner yo! let's have a round-up of love and friends that weekend, mkay? besos

binge eating - the american way

happy thanksgiving (soon) everybody!

I'm spending it in austin/dallas with Selena! super happy fun times all around. haven't felt particularly motivated lately, but definitely doing a lot more of this "life" thing.

some highlights: jenny visiting from nyc, her and Emily coming to see my dance show. lots of random parties, and meetings up with new friends. bar food pretzels with many sauces, sampler beers in my room blasting terrible music, carms sending me my new favorite band, studying to the tune of green tea and a giant clock on the wall, fancy sandwiches, sitting on the floor, close to the earth, drunk dancers. are. hilarious. wonderful. doors on tables next to windows chairs and ottomans, everyone is a singer, rapping comp lit or lit crit or flash fic with blue bics, master of the rubix cube, mending of the amish dress, and i can't get my mushroom costume off of my umbrella, a honey-soaked hot toddy.

big plans for the future: me and EM are going to take Intro Rock Climbing (something that sounds like that) at the BU gym, and maybe my school buddy will come too. we all have terrible reasons. terrible wonderful reasons. two tickets to the gun show.
rachel is coming to live with me (TWO people in a closet), and it will be glorious urban camping.
...come visit me! the bed holds three, the couch holds one, and my heart holds everybody (although its a little sticky in there) ...tmi?
love, rose

Good News:)

Soooooo I just found out that I got the job with the ACLU that I wanted and mentioned in my last post. YAY!!! I don't have any of the details yet other than that it's full-time and I can start in two weeks, and that my official title will be the Office Coordinator of the SD ACLU Office:). I should be getting a formal written offer from the national office in a few days which should have more info. The pieces of my life are starting to fall together...even if it is in SD. Although I've come to the conclusion that if I'm interested in working with low-income families, then SD is a good place to be for now. I wish I could celebrate with you folks...but I think I shall make myself some red velvet cupcakes as a temporary fix.

p.s. sarah palin is coming to sioux falls on her book tour. there are already welcome signs lining some roads. kind of makes me want to egg her upon arrival. not sure if that's legal or not...may need to be restrained that day.

ok back to being excited!!! hope everyone has a great thanksgiving! loveee, sam

an awesome video.

for serious!



In life, I am beginning to be up to my ears in grad school apps. I need to narrow down my list of people, which currently consists of about 20. Oops.

also

jenny sent this to me and how true is this (click for full comic)?

Hi friends, it's Monday morning and I'm in San Antonio for a work-related conference! Had to leave my house at 6 in the morning. I'm tired, but full of McDonald's coffee. So I rode a bike yesterday for the first time since I rode to Puffer's Pond with a lot of you. I rode 4 miles through the ghetto-est part of Austin, which is pretty ghetto. Also, by rode, I mean biked half the way, walked the other half. Then we went on an art tour around the East side and I’m getting good! My butt is still sore, but I’m well on way to growing up (one criteria being knowing how to ride a bike). But that also means I bought a bike and will force myself to learn how to use it like a normal human being. Rose is coming to visit on a week and a half! I'm pumped! What is everyone doing for Thanksgiving?!

Here's a photo of me and my helmet in front of some art!!!!

posting from the roof of the octagon

why's it so warm ? anyway, a pleasure to be posting from the octagon roof. had a wonderfully "unproductive" weekend with megan carmz becky cait .. lala, lotsa peeps. been feeling really uninspired (or maybe just really really stressed) about my thesis, to the point of .. i can't think . can't see the bigger picture... it was helpful to let myself just "hang out" (tho, to do it unstressed i had to be drunk or hung over most of the time) anyway now i've been tapping away at my intro for the past couple hours (plus lots of copy-pasting from emails i wrote you guys from bolivia....) which feels good. gewertz won't be satisfied, i won't be satisfied. but damn, it'll all be over in three weeks WTF - mind-blowing reality changes awaiting maybe. LOVE, rach.

courtesy of selena

if you've ever seen glenn beck, this is hilarious:

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
The 11/3 Project
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Health Care Crisis

love love love you're a whore

hi friends! all same here! a little sicky, but still smiling. trying not to let the man (homework) get me down. hrm, proving to be a bit hard at the moment... otherwise, i'm learning the harmonica. so far, my repertoire (ha) includes blowin' in the wind, my country 'tis of thee, twinkle twinkle little star, and beethoven's 9th symphony! next up - blue moon and jingle bells. hehe, i like having a hobby, somethin to occupy the hours i have left being a student -only 5 more weeks ladies and gent! crazy, eh? i miss those of you who are not with here with me, but you should all come to miami sometime during the month of january - possibly round my birthday?! (the 9th, yo!) beach, coconut trees, bonfires, sunshine, ocean, mangos, avocadoes, laziness... join me for some fun in the sun!
also, this song is a rockin' good time!



wit luv, carmella

conversations with a 3 year old.

Still no word on the job yet...although he told me he would call either way so i guess that's fine. But for anyone who needs some cheering up...let me tell you what my niece told me earlier.
Part one...we are making cookies.
Me: hannah are you done decorating your cookies?
Hannah: yep.
Me: ok we can put them in the oven then.
Hannah: well can you help me with that babycakes.

Part two...eating supper while cookies bake.
Me: How do you like your new pets? (they just got 2 new baby kitties)
Hannah: They don't taste good.
Me: what? the kitties?
Hannah: That's why we don't eat them.

I dont know if she just really understands and appreciates the circle of life or may one day be a sociopath who abuses animals. But i'm guessing it's number one since she doesn't dislike the cats...she just doesn't understand why they are a big deal or why they have them. But i find her hilarious. She's like a real person with opinions already...not like most little kids who are just excited and distracted by shiny things. But then again...i am just biased...but i never wanna be one of those parents who thinks their kid is a genius for no real reason. Maybe it's ok though if i'm just the overzealous aunt? loveeee

marriage is between a man and a virgin

sometimes i feel like i'm on the left and sometimes i feel like that awesome chick on the rope. in general, life is in color.



also, hilarious sign from a gay rights rally:

omg omg omg happy halloween soon!

Cross Your Fingers Ladies...and Man.

So I returned from a GREAT weekend in Amherst to have an almost equally great interview with the ACLU office in Sioux Falls...the newest and smallest ACLU office in the country. It's actually just one guy and hopefully me! (knock on wood) And now I have a second, in-person interview on Friday, and I'm trying (and failing) to not get too excited...but it sounds like such a perfect, awesome job! Almost like a cross between legal aid and community organizing work. Also the dude who runs it seems to not like SD very much (understandably) so it would totally fulfill my like-hate relationship with SD! Ahhh I need to stop before I psych myself out for this interview. But anyways...cross your fingers for me, I havent been unemployed for this long of period since I was literally 11 years old and it's starting to mess with my head.

In other news, since I have no photographic evidence of the fun that was had this weekend...here is a picture of me about to carve my first pumpkin. And the other picture is me starting my first ever almost fire in a microwave! This is what tuperware looks like after it stops smoking...notice the hole in the bottom. Life lessons from auntie sam lol. Love!

I'll be seeing you sooo sooon!

I'll be seeing you guys in 36 hours!!! !!!!

Since a lot of us will be going to hamp halloween and/or zu party, i had a costume idea...

Rose is going to be






Megan is going to be






Carmella might be





Jenny found this and I love it and am going to do my best to replicate. Anyone have access to a football helmet?









If you're still looking for a costume, there are plent of Mario props to be!

love and light

hi lovies! this past weekend was so great, a little preview of the loveliness that will begin again on friday, when selena arrives from the SW, megan from the NH, jenny from the NYC, and rosie from the BOS. this weekend, having a revolving door of beauties in my room and in my bed and around this house reminded me of my good fortune to have such fantastic friends. oh, aren't we just the luckiest? it was great to have sammyjo back in new england, and always a great time when megs and rose bless us with their light and laughter. speaking of light....

isn't that an incredible scene? the pic was taken on my walk to school from the zu yesterday morning, right in front of the football field.
also, this picture amazes me -

i think they must have been running with candles or something to get that effect... i dont know! anyway, it was taken in Sydney on October 24th as a symbol of climate change action. check out more pictures of the big day here. (amherst is featured on the front page, in a collage of all the western mass events)

biglove, carms

puto !

oh hannah ! q tristeza that you won't be around.. we can certainly skype chapman. email me your schedule for friday afternoon thru sunday morning ...

megan, here's the puto recipe i used:

2 C rice flour
1 T baking powder
¾ C sugar
a pinch of salt
2 C coconut milk
2 T water

mix dry ingredients first, then pour in wet ingredients. spoon into mini-cupcake baking pan, drop of rose water on top of each one. sit large pan of water in oven (425 degrees F). wait til steamy, pop in cupcake pan, pull out five minutes later... yum. [there are also slightly more complicated recipes, see http://putopinoy.blogspot.com/2007/05/puto-rice-cake-or-steamed-muffin.html]

i'll make them again for friday dinner in chapman! so excited !! we are definitely doing friday dinner in chaps ? carms, do we have permission from current chapmen ?

love love, r.

Darlings,

I've been off the radar as usual. You're all meeting for homecoming and I won't be there! I'm so sad.  I wish I could be there with you all. Maybe we could orchestrate a skype session? So I can see all your lovely faces? that might be a bit difficult to coordinate, I guess.

In the meantime, will you all do me a favor and watch this beautiful video that I've been hypnotized by for the past quarter of an hour:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOZ6KnVPvIU

It's Pilobolus, a dance company. Incredible. 

Other news: teaching is getting slightly easier. It's crazy what your students tell you...family drama, personal stuff that they just spout out in the middle of class or write in their homework assignments...I'm still figuring out how to deal with that. Then my teens who try to FLIRT with me--come on! I got pretty mad at one kid. Most importantly, I'm starting to find a dance community: I"m doing Angolan dance and this kind of strange "Brazilian Dance mix" class and I have two "company" rehearsals on Saturdays...still not really sure what that means...and, if all works out, I might get to do a sabar class, as well. I'm pulling all the strings I can.

Other than that, it's been so fun living with Nina and Lyncoln, my Brazilian roommates. I hadn't realized how much Portuguese I've been speaking until I had to take a placement test today. My grammar isn't great, but I realize that I can actually hold a conversation in Portuguese now and I understand almost everything. It's a really good feeling. I've started reading in Portuguese, too. ...

ugh, I don't actually want to write this to you guys, I want to TALK to you and SEE you...who's in California over Christmas? Megan, can't you fly your dad's plane? Come out for a while? Bring the Chapman crew along? I wish.

I do get homesick for our Chapman days, the dinners, the crowds in the bathroom, all the late-night hallway conversations and the bike trips to Northampton...oh man, I can't think about it I'll get too sad. Have fun for me at homecoming! I'll be thinking of you!

Love,

Hannah

man, am i stressed out. but i'm either going to get it all out of the way for this weekend, or totally ignore it this weekend. either way, i'm in in in on the halloween bonanza. wishing right now that i felt like i knew more about how to get all this proposal bs squared away. i may go to bed right now, and just wake up mad early tomorrow and attack the day like a rabid dog.

and for those of you stressed out about school, here's something to cheer you up...


what are you going to be for halloween?
i'm going to be the super mario mushroom!

PS

tomorrow i am drawing cait naked!!! aren't you all jealous!

big plans

hey ladies and Julian,

so as usual i am in the midst of academic crisis, so i need to know exactly when chapman events will be taking place next weekend, so i can plan to ready for them, and not in some hole hopped up on ADD meds, crying about a paper. everyone but Hannah should be in town right? (don't worry, Hannah. we won't have any fun without you. promise). i heard something about a dinner in chapman, possibly with professors? a brunch? what's really happening and when? who's orchestrating this shit? remember hampshire halloween is friday night, and there's a zu party on saturday night. can't wait to see you!

Love,
Becky

homecoming = in the middle of midterms :/

hi all! i'm super looking forward to all the funness that's gunna be going down around here in the coming days/weeks. meanwhile, i'm furiously studying for a stats exam in the morning and i have more spanish homework that i'd like to admit.
we're thinking of hosting a mini community of women dinner (in chapman!) friday oct 30th in commemoration of all the chapmanites who will be descending upon us (rosie selenaa jenny hopefully megs too?) before heading over to hampshire halloween, just so you know (let me know if you want me to hook you up with a hamp halloween ticket!).
here's an excerpt from a gchat rosie and i had about c.o.w., prof gewertz, and rachey's thesis... enjoy!

Rose: you kno i don't like that lady anywayz

what's her name

...curly hair

me: gewertz?

Rose: YEAH

she think she all that

whateva!

i also showed my officemates bonquiqui

points!

me: HAHHA yayyy

oh and rach could totally use some mooching points

they had a terse thesis mtg today

Rose:

she'll be okay

me: in which her closing remarks were - no more socializing, not even for a minute. and you better not fall in love.

tikes

hahahah

*yikes

SHE KNOWS

she must know~1

Rose: that is so funny

not even for a minute?

me: yeah, who is she kidding!

Rose: dude gw needs to understand some humanity

"humanities"

social science

rachel should have been like

me: riiiight

Rose: "I AM LIVING ANHTROPOLOGY"

me: anthro is all about the study of HUMANS

righto!

i will tell her

psh

gw...

Rose: or just be like

i am conducting a case study

on dan kamen

me: HAHAHHAHAHHAHA

Rose: wha wha whaaaaat

Sent at 9:15 PM on Monday

My dearests...

I am missing you!!!! I just is.

I am coming to homecoming! Well, not the football game part but i will be there at night, and want to see you (all I can think about is Selena and Rose plotting to make hot chocolate with peppermint schnapps), because I have my LAST day of saturday clinical this week... speaking of which, clinical makes me really really sad sometimes. I want to tell all of you about what's happened generally while i'm there, but want to in person. I am sleepy. all i can say is: don't do too many drugs. never shoot up anything (and if you must, GET CLEAN NEEDLES. if you need your drugs, i will get you clean needles AND DON'T SHARE NEEDLES). wash your fucking hands. but give love love and more love to people who are sick because they need some love. and wear condoms!!!! seriously. unless you are sure sure sure about your partners STD status. seriously, diseases can get ugly ugly ugly and it is so sad. really so sad. And Hannah I want to skype -- you emailed and I haven't replied yet! selena i got your message and left you one too but i want to talk... and I want to talk to ALL of you and see what is happening. destry do you want your table? i imagine now that you are starting real life you might like a piece of furniture? missiing missing missing missing missing my pretties... (julian, you are also a pretty.) im getting on the telly tomorrow...

kisses
megan

New Project!

I have a new project. So Bill asked if I was going to homecoming. I said no, that I was coming over Halloween. And then I told him to give the Chapman tribe something that they could give to me when I come visit over Halloween. So, Bill is going to bring an object from Sante Fe, and it is going to stay in Amherst until someone (like... me over Halloween) else visits and takes it. And then I'll keep it until someone comes and visits me (like... Rose over Thanksgiving). And we'll just pass it around, marking reunions and visits. Sound fun?!

as usual, procrastinating by posting chapman. got home an hour ago from utah, via boston. my only cousin got married. nuclear families are fucked up. indeed, destry, traumatized is the word. but, i love the feel of travel and always reflect well in planes. plus hotel beds are super comfy. and i hiked in the rockies, which are so colorful right now! will post pictures if my mom sends 'em to me. lots of love, and hoping to see you ALL asap. now to work. rach.

work balance play balance

i'm finally starting to be pummeled with work, but it'll be okay. destry and carmz came to visit, we walked around boston, passed by the 'head of the charles' regatta where we ran into some 'hersters. followed by cooking up some sweet potato fries, emily's birthday dinner, and dive bars.

going to try to go to homecoming next week, as long as i can bring my work and hole up for part of the time,

and now back to the carbon cycle,

cheers and all, rose

p.s. so was that boy-in-balloon thing a hoax, or what?

Wild things

I want to be one! I'm so excited for the movie. "A movie about childhood." What could be better?


Sorry for being a grump last post. Everything is okay now.

On Monday, by all accounts I officially become an adult. I move into a new apartment with my boyfriend and start my job. Woow. Until then, debauchery (and hopefully movie-going!) or just plain good old fun times in Boston with Carms and Rosie.

God, don't the wild things look amazing? I can't get over it. Maybe I miss my childhood imaginary friends, like Punky, who had pink hair and was in a wheelchair. (It's just what happens when you're a middle child.)

this is terrifying... (just in time for halloween)

The Arctic Ocean could be largely ice-free and open to shipping during the summer in as little as ten years' time, a top polar specialist has said.

"It's like man is taking the lid off the northern part of the planet," said Professor Peter Wadhams, from the University of Cambridge.

Professor Wadhams has been studying the Arctic ice since the 1960s.

He was speaking in central London at the launch of the findings of the Catlin Arctic Survey.

The expedition trekked across 435km of ice earlier this year.

Led by explorer Pen Hadow, the team's measurements found that the ice-floes were on average 1.8m thick - typical of so-called "first year" ice formed during the past winter and most vulnerable to melting.
The survey route - to the north of Canada - had been expected to cross areas of older "multi-year" ice which is thicker and more resilient.

When the ridges of ice between floes are included, the expedition found an average thickness of 4.8m.

Professor Wadhams said: "The Catlin Arctic Survey data supports the new consensus view - based on seasonal variation of ice extent and thickness, changes in temperatures, winds and especially ice composition - that the Arctic will be ice-free in summer within about 20 years, and that much of the decrease will be happening within 10 years.

"That means you'll be able to treat the Arctic as if it were essentially an open sea in the summer and have transport across the Arctic Ocean."

According to Professor Wadhams, faster shipping and easier access to oil and gas reserves were among short-term benefits of the melting.

But in the longer-term, losing a permanent feature of the planet risked accelerated warming, changing patterns of circulation in the oceans and atmosphere, and having unknown effects on ecosystems through the acidification of waters.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8307272.stm

PS i miss all my single ladies! all of the chapman girls round here have lovers. uncool. i mean, yay love, all the way. but, well, you know what i mean..

white pond lily?

I just got back from my first herbalism class. At the end of the 3 hour lecture, the teacher gave us a 1oz bottle of our choice of herbal tincture. I chose the white pond lily, mostly because he described the plant as having "really strong female energy" and that it is ruled by this magical mystical underwater spirit who is the goddess of mist and fog or something. Anyway, I was doing some background reading and apparently it is used to decrease sexual activity? whomp whomp. how it get any more nonexistent?
In other news, my mom was visiting for the long weekend (in case you haven't heard me complain at any point in the last 4 days). We went to Vermont. We peeped some leaves. yeahhhhhh. anyway.
I feel blah! I think my kidney yin is all out of wack.
ahhah, I really need to stop hanging out with all these noho weirdos.
peace OUT homies

i just took a nap

at my desk (no one saw! or at least as far as i know, no one saw!).

my parents visited this weekend. it was great!

i've been making interesting life choices!

i wish i wasn't at work and instead was pumping iron like arnold

courtesy of emily

changes in my life, call me for full disclosure.

otherwise, good weekend at the honk! music festival w/ rachel, sarah dz, and chris.
...i think rachie can do a decent recap of the nutso street wear and fun times.

always lots of love, rosie

Oatmeal

...it's what for breakfast at 2:45 on a Saturday afternoon. That is, it's accompanying me as I post.

My exuberance of last week has faded into something of a malaise. Ennui? The cause is a series of small disappointments and hindrances. Apartment hunting, after being fun for a while, has turned into a hassle, especially because we didn't get the one we loved. It also means that, rather than do fun things together, Monty and I have spent all our time running between apartments, weighing real estate pros and cons, and asking about utilities. My part-time job helping out the artist-woman is a real downer, and my other waitressing job didn't work out. The homeless lifestyle -- living out of a backpack and bumping people out of their beds or sleeping in a tent -- has started to get old. I'm ready to have my own space again. There's a strangeness associated with being back at the Zu as a graduate. I don't know how to articulate it, except to say that it feels oddly isolating.

Enough whining! Here are good things that have happened this week:
- I got my cello. Monty found one cheap and bought it for me, which means that after an eight-year hiatus, I'm going to pick it up again. I love the cello because it's an instrument you actually have to hug. And, when you play it right you, can feel its vibrations through your whole body. That said, it will be a while before I play it right again.
- After another long hiatus, I am rejoining the Quaker community in Northampton, starting tomorrow. So happy to have Quakerism become an active part of my life again.
- I found out that I get to start my full time job on a part time basis this month. I'm meeting with my boss next week and moving forward from there. A big relief.
- It's always glorious to see so many Chapman friends in Amherst. They (you) are the best of the best. Plus others, like Scott and Sara last night.
- Obama = Nobel Peace Prize winner. Happiest news of the week.
- If you are in New England, have you seen the trees? I mean, my god.

the (blog-)post-modern relationship

Dear Ladies and Lad,

As many of you know, I am now officially dating Dan Kamen. And it's wonderful. If awkward sometimes and anxiety-provoking. My impression is that we're really right for each other, really really right, he makes me feel like I can be the best me. And it's been kinda a long time coming. Yay! I think the anxiety is mostly about balancing my feelings for him and school work and also the fact that I haven't had a relationship that's lasted more than six weeks (usually just three weeks) in a while, and this one I'd really like to go on and on.... Seems like that's what he wants too. So hopefully between the two of us, we'll work it out.

Oh, damn, except I was in my Film Noir class at UMass today and the prof wouldn't stop talking about objects of desire and how they're just fantasies, and how we love living in fantasies, but the problem with fantasies is that they're not reality ! And that the deepest loves (in all Western fiction) must end in tragedy because they're based on fantasy and therefore can never be fully realized! OMG! Post-Modernity !!!!!!!! (Guess we'll have to write our book in traditions from the Global South..)

OK, Love, Rach.

Hilarious -- and for all of you, especially Rose :)

You will have to sit thru a 30 sec ad, but SO WORTH IT. It's Lonely Island/SNL, and very funny. :)

http://www.hulu.com/watch/99944/saturday-night-live-digital-short-on-the-ground

Kisses,
M

bare feet and sunshiiine

it's a good thing my blogging day is tuesday because that's when i have my sustainable agriculture class. today i spent much of the afternoon barefoot and knee deep in some of the most luscious soil i've ever seen, digging for beautiful white potatoes. what a thrilling and satisfying task! all these adorable little gold nuggets of deliciousness - hidden in the soil for you to find them - and eat them! ! after the potatoes, we attacked the carrots. also adorable, especially the ones that look like little aliens with feet and arms. we turned some of them in veritable works of art. good times. i love that class. and therefore, tuesday's are great. unfortunately i have an entire book to read for my 1 o'clock class tomorrow, but let's be serious. that is not getting done.
in other news, i'm getting used to the idea of my future without a check for $27,000, and i've actually been having a good time dreaming up some pretty great life plans. of course i won't even go there because you know they'll all change by tomorrow... hahah.
hope your weeks are going swimmingly so far. all my love!
carmella

Ever wonder what it's like to actually try to receive gov't benefits?

Today, I received my food stamp allocation - $16 dollars a month. Not even worth a trip to the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) half an hour away to get fingerprinted and actually get the card! From trying to find out about my benefits to actually getting them has been a sordid nightmare of bureaucracy and waiting.

Let me tell you about the DHHS in Texas. Right now, it has a class action lawsuit being filed against it because their food stamp program has had so many complaints and they've fallen so far behind on their casework. I got to experience this firsthand. A caseworker has a time limit of 30 days to get back to the client. My caseworker was supposed to get back to me last week and didn't. I called her today multiple times and she didn't pick up. I called 211 (health and human services hotline) and talked to someone who asked me to spell "stipend". I finally found out that I was approved for $16, but all the other Americorps had been approved for the full amount, $200. I went to the DHHS in person to sort it all out. First of all, the DHHS is ridiculously disorganized. It's unclear where you should go when you enter. It's impossible to ask anyone a question unless you wait in a half hour line. I waited in three lines totaling 2 and a half hours of waiting. I finally talked to my caseworker and she outright lied to me about food stamps and my eligibility. After being shuffled around and waiting in my third line, the person helping me said, "okay your caseworker's supervisor has sorted it out. You'll get your $200 by this afternoon." I guess we'll see!

In other news, Austin City Limits (Austin's famous three day music festival) was a great time :)! I saw Chapman favorites like Bon Iver, Girltalk, Andrew Bird, Broken Social Scene, and the B-52's performing Loveshack.

My friend Alese and myself gearing up for the day:

Pretty much what the festival looks like:

End of day 1:

Waiting for Bon Iver in the pouring rain (yes I'm wearing a poncho I fashioned out of two trash bags):

Bon Iver in the pouring rain:

Girltalk:

At Girltalk!:

places i'd rather be

....so on a pc desktop
or with you!