Seen posted on the website "Eavesdropping"

Boss man to staff: "Growing up, there was a kid on my block who was a lot like John McCain. His team was losing touch football 10-75 so he said, "um my mom needs me" and ran home, and, of course, took the ball with him. That's John McCain."

-- Downtown

Quotes that I've clung to lately

When I dare to be powerful-
To use my strength in the service of my vision,
Then it becomes less and less important
Whether I am afraid - AUDRE LORDE

If you are neutral in situations of injustice,
you have chosen the side of the oppressor.
If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse
and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will
not appreciate your neutrality. - BISHOP DESMOND TUTU

The National

Friday evening I went with Randy, Emily, and Aaron (old friends from high school, actually my brothers friends from high school) to a benefit concert to help the co-op farms of the Midwest that were flooded. It seemed fitting since I had just come back from Iowa that week and Aup had taught me all about co-op farms. Now about the music.

The National is an amazing band that when heard on the album sound rather laid back and calm. Not true when heard live. I saw them live for a bit at the Sasquatch festival but seeing them in an intimate setting was completely different. They rocked it and hard! I couldn't even tap my hands or legs fast enough to the beat. I still could yell somehow despite having no speaking voice. What makes them great is the cleverness of the lyrics when paired with the music. It makes you stop and think and wonder if you just heard that. They are lyricist and the drummer pushes them further. The lead singer barely turns to the crowd and only then some, he likes to keep his back to the crowd, it is as if the crowd deters him emotionally from his poetry.

A little history about them. They were previously all law students and then decided to drop that gig and become musicians. I love to hear stories like that! I will try to put music on this blog though I have no idea how to..or how to make a link...If someone would tell me that would be great! Meanwhile go here to enjoy a glimpse of this amazing band. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBujZr20O6M

Thank you brother for finding them! THEY ROCK! GO SEE THEM LIVE PEOPLE. I BEG OF YOU!

Nostalgia Returns

Last evening Jim and I went to the Puyallup fair. It had been a long time since either one of us had been on a ride and had delicious fair food. Jim took me straight to the ride that he wanted us both to do. This bungee thing that launched you up into the air...and I mean WAY into the air. I passed. He passed because I passed. He worked the entire evening on convincing me to do it using cheesy funny lines like "I'll make you popcorn if you do it." and "It's about trust." Which he knew himself was just blowing smoke out of his ears and making me laugh at him more than anything. Of course he wasn't serious saying those things. Little did he know that when I say "Oh my gosh, oh my gosh" it really means I will most likely do it as the butterflies fill my stomach. Luckily though, we had to use all the ride tickets we used on the regular rides and that took forever and we ran out of time. Darn. Well we saved fifty dollars too! Next year honey. Next year.

We ate a lot of fair food...I had been craving curly fries and the ever elusive elephant ears. Yummy. We also tried our hand at Jalapeno popcorn, shaved ice, and a cheeseburger for the Jim. It was great. Jim kept steering my hands towards more food but by 9:30 we headed to the place where they sell you stuff from infomercials. Probably my favorite place to be really. Then we went and looked at the HUGE pumpkins (see picture).



All in all a fall fun adventure. I don't have a voice this morning what with all the screaming (Jim's favorite part was when I accidentally swore before going down a huge hill on the roller coaster). it was another perfect start to Autumn. Just like all the years from my childhood going to the fair it was as good as I remembered.

"Is this Heaven?"--"No, it's Iowa."

IF YOU BUILD IT HE WILL COME! Um yes, that's right folks, my wonderful cousin took me to the "field of dreams" field. IT WAS AWESOME! Another thing to cross off my life list! We had sooo much fun running the bases, cheering, having a catch, and disappearing into the corn!

Aupreille

So I went and visited my lovely cousin Aupreille for six glorious days. She is almost five months pregnant with her first child. I was sooo excited to see her little baby bump and even see her waddle a bit! I was able to feel the baby kick and then see it kick. It was inspiring to see her and Mark work on a little family talking about how they will be as parents. I love my Aupreille!

She also spoiled me silly and made the most delicious food! Mark is a VERY LUCKY MAN! And Aupreille is also a VERY LUCK WOMAN! I so missed my lovely cousin. THANK YOU AUP!

UW vs. BYU 27-28

Yes it was a fun fun fun game! I loved that Jim's Mom dyed her hair purple for the event while sitting right in the middle of the cougar club fans. I came complete with Husky gear including but not limited to a purple poncho (in my purse, just waiting for the rain 80 degree day, no clouds), Husky shirt and official UDUB hat, huge yellow gold earrings and bracelet and if there was face paint it would have been on my face!

We had 6 tickets 3 of us were Husky fans, 2 were BYU (in fact they flew all the way from DC to be here) and 1, my little sister was divided wearing a BYU shirt (thanks to Carren, my BF) and purple and gold beads (thanks to Karen, Jim's mom). As Tayler and I were walking to the stadium someone shouted at us "a house divided." We laughed. It gets even better, Tayler is a senior this year and she will be entering undergrad as pre-med so she has been struggling at which school to attend as BYU and UW have very good programs. Now UW goes way back in my family tree. Carren told her frankly that the winner of this game would decide which school she would attend. So BYU it is?! Who knows. It was such a great fun game to watch. Carren and Scott even ended up on BYU's football homepage snapshots from the game. Awesome! While Jim and Karen's picture end up on my blog. Awesome Possum!

Oh and even Whitney had a part to play as she works at the UVillage she kept erasing the white chalk marks on my tires so I wouldn't get towed. Here's to Whitney and free parking at Safeway! And to Scott for securing the tickets.

Peggy's Cove, Nova Scotia

We didn't know what to expect. We decided the night before to visit Peggy's Cove. We got there and we were as giddy as children. Luckily I had worn my tennis shoes because I did some jumping, climbing, and just all over trekking. There were these huge round rocks that went forever and jetted out of the sea in front of a beautiful light house. Only on my way out did I here the legend of Peggy. A romantic one at that. She was on her way to Halifax to meet her fiance by ship from New Foundland (if i recall correctly) and the ship took on a lot of water off of the cove and she was rescued by the locals. She ended up staying and when the locals went to visit they said "Are you on your way to Peggy's Cove?" And that is how it got its name. The lighthouse is beautiful and even has a post office in the bottom of it. I reverted back to childhood when I was at Peggy's Cove.

Prince Edward Island

I belong to a traveling group. We call ourselves the Little Truckers. For our third "annual trip to somewhere" we chose Nova Scotia, home to Prince Edward Island, Cape Breton, and Halifax (which includes the burial grounds of the Titanic). This picture shows all of the Little Truckers in front of Lucy Maud Montgomery's very own Green Gables home. It was everything I imagined and though Anne Shirley is a character from a novel even Lucy felt she was betraying Anne if she concluded that she was "just a character."

Cape Breton, Nova Scotia

It reminded me of my time in Ireland. It was beautiful. God makes some very beautiful places, this tops the list.