december opportunities

i finished finals this week. the quarter felt very, very long. i have been unhappy with the opportunities that uw has offered to date. transferring is still one of the best decisions i have ever made in my life. however, i have become increasingly anxious about whether i will truly get the experience i need to have a career in policy right out of the graduation gate.

that MIGHT all be changing...another student left her legislative position with House Representative Eric Pettigrew. Rep. Pettigrew is a very well-respected community organizer in seattle and south king county. he was just appointed to house caucus chair. i jumped on checking into whether i could move into that vacancy. well, i shouldn't say jumped as i agonized over whether i should even ask. thanks to prodding from classmates, i asked. and then had a long sleepless night while trying to figure out the best way to tell my united way supervisor. i told her and she has been very supportive. i learned the position is open. however, there are some special conditions. i interview next week and will learn about those special conditions then. currently, i am all over the board about whether i should commit. see, the capitol is nearly 2 hours outside of seattle. this means i will need to find housing in olympia. that means we have to pay rent on two properties for 3 months. that also means anthony and i will be living apart again. and i will have to commute for class. and i will have to drop 2 of the policy classes that i have really been looking forward to. and i will have to buy a new wardrobe that is appropriate for legislation making- suits, suits and more suits. there is usually as very small stipend ($250 a month) for students, but with the severe budget deficit i am assuming one of the special conditions will be that i cannot get this stipend. that is scary. very, very scary. so, i'm going to have to get a private loan to afford all this. AND the session starts in just a few weeks. so, first i have to interview, then i have to accept. and then comes everything else- finding housing, dropping classes, figuring out how anthony and i will share 1 car while living 100 miles apart, etc. ugh. this is all very overwhelming. and then i remember that THIS is why i transferred. THIS is the opportunity of a lifetime. THIS could set my career in motion. THIS could be the ONE opportunity that puts me on the road to legislation greatness. that's right folks- legislation greatness. :)

anyway, no decision yet. i'll keep you posted.

i've been cooking a lot lately, and am loving it as usual. our csa box is getting more and more boring with the change in seasons, and i cannot imagine eating the same damn root veggies for the next 4 months. but, for now i'm using food blogs to get creative. at this moment i'm eating roasted beets with horseradish dressing and fried capers. if you've never fried capers, try it. even if you don't like capers. they are very tasty! and they puff up and open like flowers. they are really quite beautiful! i've been doing some cleaning, but am really itching to do more. i want to take everything out of every cabinet and drawer and shelf and clean out those cabinets and drawers and shelves and then throw away and re-organize. that kind of cleaning.

as for now, i'm craving brussel sprouts. let the roasting begin!

p.s. we had a great time in oregon for thanksgiving and will be in denver for xmas in less than a week. happy birthday dad and lilli and umeko!

seattle snow

as many of you have heard by now, seattle was hit with an icy winter storm on monday. forecasters called for light snow showers, and the people of seattle were in full panic mode come sunday afternoon. i was actually pretty surprised on monday morning to find the snow already sticking to the streets in my neighborhood at 7:30am. i still thought people were being a bit dramatic, but not wanting to get stuck downtown i left work an hour early. well, it took me nearly 4 hours to get the 7 miles home. it was disastrous! although we only got a mere few inches of snow, the roads were treacherous. very windy + very cold = very slippery commute. even our bus with chains got stuck on ice for a few terrifying moments. thankfully we made it home just fine and fared far better than others that got stuck on buses for upwards of 12 hours!

on tuesday both of our offices were closed, so anthony and i walked around the neighborhood a bit to take pictures. it was sunny and clear, but very cold. highs in the 20s is very unusual for seattle, and we've already broken some records.

and now it's wednesday. schools are still closed and buses are still running on snow routes. i had physical therapy this morning and decided to take the bus just in case my big hill climb was icy. however, the roads were in much better shape than i expected. i had a pretty uneventful trip out.

this afternoon i'm headed over to the u-district for a volunteer orientation. anthony and i are going to start cooking breakfast for homeless teens 1 sunday morning each month at ROOTS. i never thought i'd be working with youth, but somehow i've become entrenched. through my work with united way i've had the opportunity to do some qualitative interviewing with homeless youth ranging from 15-20. these are unaccompanied youth, meaning they have no parents are guardians. it's hit me really hard. much harder than i expected. and with this severe weather, it's all i can think about. there is only one shelter in seattle that serves this population (that's ROOTS). many youth sleep in the woods. these are KIDS. please, do what you can to support your local shelter. we've started picking up extra pairs of gloves and socks when out shopping. oftentimes, it's just an extra $5. blankets and food are in huge demand. but if you've got time, that's needed too. cook a meal, even just once. it might change you.

side note: we've been trying a lot of new recipes. pictured are goat cheese zucchini pizza and cranberry apple pie. (for some reason these pictures won't rotate or change size.) the pizza was phenomenal. i still hate pie, but anthony ate the whole thing in 2 sittings.

seattle's dark days

it's mid-november and seems to be dark 'round the clock here now. it actually is light in the morning by 7am, so i catch some sun on my way to work and school. however, the sun sets at 4:30 in the afternoon so it's dark by the time i get out of work or class every day. i didn't seem to notice last fall, but this year the change has really surprised me. i think part of it was that daylight savings happened while we were in MEXICO! i swear, the season seemed to have completely changed while we were away.

so, mexico...we were in cabo san lucas for just a few short days for christy and ben's beautiful wedding. it was such a wonderful break (hello sun and beach!) and such a treat to be a part of their special weekend. we didn't have too much time for lots of activities, but we did get to swim with dolphins and enjoy massages on the beach. anthony also went atv-ing. it has made me look forward to the other weddings we'll be flying out of seattle for in april, may and july. better get a new swimsuit for the bahamas in may!

i've got exactly on month left in this quarter, and i am so looking forward to a new set of classes. for next quarter i am registered for ALL policy classes and will get to take one at the school of public administration. it should be interesting to analyze policy from a different theoretical perspective. i actually will be taking one (and possibly two) more classes than i'm in right now. i'm just trying to remind myself that i will have a very light load in my last quarter and will hopefully be spending my free time enjoying the gorgeous spring weather we WILL have!

things aren't easy right now, but i'm just trying to hold on through the next few months. i sense a lot of change on the horizon (what's new for us, right?), but i'm counting my privileges and doing my best to enjoy what i can. stay tuned for the holiday excitement!

updates all around

can you believe november is just around the corner? the autumn has been beautiful thus far, but today the real rain finally moved in. we had a big storm last weekend (i was out of town) and we're in the midst of one right now. it's actually supposed to turn worse with possible flooding on monday and/or tuesday.

i'm a little disillusioned with school right now, which is hard to say since i left du in hopes of better things. i'm not sure that i'm getting the experience i need to find a job i will actually like. we'll see how it goes next quarter, but right now i'm still feeling a huge gap.

as for the foot, i'm still in physical therapy but have scheduled a termination date. it's just not helping anymore. they told me i have a deformity that means i'm not built to run. alas, my running days are over. they told me to take up swimming or biking. honestly, i'm a little scared to bike. cars are scary. also, it's not exactly the right season to start biking. i'm going to wait until after the near year (when i will hopefully have more time) and then re-evaluate.

we've had some visitors over the last 6 weeks! first, maureen and jana came. we got to do some tasting at novelty hill/januik winery in woodinville. we also had pizza there! we did the theo chocolate tour too, which was amazing! it's definitely a great way to spend time with visitors. then, joan came and stayed with us for a short weekend. we went to the seattle art museum's picasso exhibit. it was wonderful, and i'm so glad we made it. i am always excited about new exhibits, but we so rarely make the time to actually go. i was really pleased we were able to go to this one. for the past few days my friend sophie and her boyfriend james have been visiting. they are the ones with the wine property on sonoma mountain. they've got 4 barrels of wine in the works! last night we went to the pink door and japonessa. the pink door is a seattle institution in pike's market. the food is amazing. japonessa is a new sushi place. i prefer more authentic sushi. the food was pretty good, but i don't like all those extra ingredients and aiolis's on my sushi. anyways, they stayed at the sorrento hotel and raved about it. so, if you need a place to stay, there's one recommendation!

i was in denver last weekend for a friend's bachelorette party and to celebrate sarah's 30th birthday. i missed her surprise party, but still got to surprise her with a very quick visit. we got pedicures and went to lunch. it was absolutely wonderful. i really miss girl time. it's getting hard not having friends here.

next weekend we'll be mexico for christy's wedding and then we'll be in portland for thanksgiving. we're heading to denver for xmas. we also have some trips in the works for next year!

hopefully i'll be able to explain my school situation a bit better later in the school year, but for now hang with me while i post less often. i will definitely try to get some mexico pictures up!

bus adventures #2 and #3

i'm on a new bus to my internship and riding the bus to school more frequently as well. this means a different crowd. since my internship falls into normal business hours, that bus is mostly filled with professionals. the school bus is mostly students but a bit more mixed, since the u-district has a very high homeless population.

#2
the other morning i sat near a woman who was sewing lace. as in, she had white thread, a regular needle, and was MAKING lace! MAKING LACE! it was amazing! i had no idea that was possible! i always figured it was made on some kind of fancy loom. but no, it's made by middle-aged ladies on the bus!

#3
on a bus ride home from school i sat across from a very... dynamic? man. he is 85 years old. he has been shot 23 times. i know because he showed us all of the scars. meaning, he pulled up his shirt AND pulled his shorts all the way up to his crotch to make sure we got a good view of every single one. he also drinks 25 $0.99 beers every day. he showed us his backpack full of beer. he also showed us his 50 hits of acid. he smokes cubans every day. he also carries around a steel water bottle full of cuban rum, which he proceeded to share with those that wanted a swig (only one guy took him up on it). oh, and he has 16 kids, ranging from their 20s to their 60s. he's a grandfather and a great-grandfather. his grandkids drink all his booze and smoke all his pot but they're good kids. i'm sure there was more he shared with us, but those were the highlights.