the mall

i went to the huge nearby mall this saturday.  while usually this is a recipe for disaster i was shielded this week from the crowds by a steady clean snowfall that lasted all day, keeping mall patrons in their various suburbs.  i was pleased.  i cleaned up, getting winter clothes at very good discounts.  i got 3 nice stretchy shiny dressy cowl-neck-lite tops at banana for less than $10 each.  and this awesome cable knit sweater for under $20.  boo yah.

it’s always funny to go shopping at the mall during the real winter.  everyone’s putting out their spring lines!  bikinis, white t-shirts, rolled khakis.  meanwhile, i’ve got to scrape my windshield and wear waterproof boots to get to the mall.  is everyone taking a tropical vacation and not letting me know?

the new colors for spring were a little disappointing.  now, keep in mind, i’m a summer so i like bright clear colors.  i fear the new line features brown-gray neutrals, pale dusty roses and pale minty greens.  sounds like the mutant bastard yucky colors of the apocalypse if you ask me.  no thanks.  oh well.  i wasn’t in the market for spring clothes anyway.  i’ll fight those battles in a few months when i need clothes for legitimately warm weather.  it was a nice day at the mall

whole chicken redemption

i grew up on a farm.  did you know this about me?  i’ve become much more proud of it in the past few years and have come to appreciate my organic farm healthy heritage, but before that, man, i felt like a farm loser.  i always wanted to just live in the suburbs with a nice manicured green lawn and be able to walk on sidewalks to the library and be able to eat normal food.  all our food came frozen from our pastures (whole chickens!  a quarter of beef!) out of a chest freezer or from cans or covered with dirt from the garden.  gross.  or so my 13-yr-old self though.  now i’ve grown up. I participate in a vegetable CSA and enjoy getting fresh greens from a local farm through all of the warm summer months.  It caused a little existential crisis about being a former farm girl who picks up her lettuce in heels, but the food was worth it.

so  i’m living in DC, trying to grapple with this identity and on monday night i find myself in a cooking class.  it was a living social deal and i got enough friends to sign up to go free!  the goal was to learn knife skills.  we chopped onions, we julienned carrots, then, the culmination: cutting up a whole raw chicken.  i was seated in the back and didn’t have a partner, so i took on the challenge to do a whole chicken by myself.  wings, legs, thighs, breast.  skin off, de-bone, whack off the shoes, trim the leg meat.  bam.  i used my boning and chef’s knives to cut up a whole chicken in the amount of time it took the other pairs in the class.  i was stoked.  and i was proud.  proud to be a farm girl who always had to cut up a whole chicken.  proud to be a foodie with knife skills.  proud to be able to order whole pastured chickens for cheap and cut them up myself.  i’m looking forward to the challenge.  want to come over for a whole chicken sometime?

love, true love

“You will know when it’s the right man. You usually imagine yourself old and saggy making jokes to one another. That’s when you know it’s LOVE!”

- Jen

Avatar Review

I loved Avatar.  I gave it a glowing recommendation and several people came back to me disappointed.  I think you can view it in one of two ways.

The first option is to look at the surface and see only the glaring political and social commentary.  The message can be interpreted as anti-military, anti-western, anti-progress, and embracing primitivism and environmentalism.  okay.  yes, that is all there.  it’s a not-so-subtle commentary on the OEF/OIF conflicts raging now, a symbol of American imperialism bulldozing over other cultures we don’t understand for oil.  If you’d like to stop there and see the political message and throw the baby out with the bathwater, feel free!  I’d like to pose an alternative.

The second interpretation is to scratch a bit deeper and see the conflict as fallen vs edenic or redeemed.  this conflict is between men, cultures, views of nature.  I think that the Na’vi embody shalom which is coherence, wholeness, and an interwoven sense of responsibility.  They understand people in time and have a high regard for legacy and tradition as well as people in space in and environment.  I loved the connection of people with the ancestors and with a network of information and wisdom regarding other humans and animals.

I loved the fierce femininity of Neytiri evidenced by her screams of delight and horror and her laughter.  I loved how nimbly she moved and how she was both vulnerable and powerful.

The graphics and music were, of course, stunning.  It is absolutely worth it to see this film in 3-D.  When you do, let yourself feel like a kid again and wonder what it would be like to have a pterodactyl-like friend to fly on through floating mountains.  I felt like life on Pandora hinted at life in Eden or life in the new heavens and new earth.  I really do believe that heaven is real and that we will get new bodies.  I cried when Jake was in his avatar body running around.

I loved seeing the community of the Na’vi act a lot like the church.  The way they did laying on of hands to transfer authority and welcome Jake into the community was powerful.  Also, the “prayer” scene where they all sat in a circle, arm over arm,  pleading for Grace to be saved–that’s how it should be when we have problems in our communities.  Prayer in one voice to our God who is personal and powerful.

I loved the film.  I hope you go see it.  Let me know what you loved!

day fourteen

on thursday i went with my dear friend Kristen to co|co. sala in d.c. to participate in restaurant week.  we had a delicious time eating very tiny pieces of food.  kristen is featured here with the most robust course, dessert.  i’d definitely endorse the restaurant, especially if you are a) female b) a foodie and c) there for restaurant week or just dessert.  yum.

day twelve

avatar rocked my face off. the visuals were stunning, the story and characters really resonated with me. i was delighted. i’d love to talk to you about it. my lovely roomate went to see it with me.  here we are, full of awe after having seen it in 3D.

day eleven

this monday back at the office really killed me for some reason.  here is a picture of my desk with my to-do list and magazines for inspiration.

day ten

A selection of books.  Ann Boroch’s Healing Multiple Sclerosis, Henri Nouwen’s the Wounded Healer, Stephen Hawkin’s Brief History of Time.  And Instant Pain Relief and the bible are there too, along with a sketchbook.

hello 2010!

the last few months have been tumultuous–hence, no posts.  all that is gonna change in 2010.  or, at least the blogging part.  i have resolved to blog more and take more photos to document my year.  get pumped!

snow day!

last night was lovely.  it felt like 8 years ago in Michigan.  I was a freshman at college in Michigan and we had lots of snow followed by a fantastic ice storm that knocked out the power–lights and all.  we couldn’t do anything but sit in the lobby in our new flannel pj’s and fleece blankets and talk til late in the night.   we had a wonderful time bonding by forbidden candlelight. the whole experience was magical. we got the real scoop on the recent college scandal, talked about boys, shared our hearts.  the next day the power came back on and we surveyed the fallen trees and were a little grateful for the time spent together.

fast forward to the present.  we’ve had an internet outage in our apartment since Friday morning.  I thought it was a glich until Saturday afternoon when I did some preliminary troubleshooting, but I was seriously inconvenienced on Sunday and decided last night to just embrace it.  the design edits, banking, emailing and everything just had to wait.  instead, i lingered after dinner with my roomates, hearing about their weekends, love lives, dreams and hopes.  then we kept lingering, talking til almost midnight.  we had light this time, but the lack of internet forced us together.  i’m glad to know more of my new roomate’s story.  it is rich and high contrast.  i’m glad for an evening to spend at home, being present with friends.