Employed

Well folks, I'm finally employed. I was hired last week and had my first day on Friday but had too many things going on to write about it. I'm working for the Child Center which is a non-profit children and family therapy center in Springfield. I'm working as an instructional assistant in a classroom with children who are currently unable to be successful in a regular classroom due to behavioral issues (mostly the result of abuse). It's rough stuff but I can totally handle it. The pay sucks, the hours are awesome, and it is a permanent position--ie, I have the job until I feel like quitting and having myself a baby. Woohoo! I am super relieved to be able to stop looking for jobs and filling out applications.

On an unrelated note, Monday was my honey's 24th birthday. We went to a cabin in the woods with some really fun friends for the weekend to celebrate. We hiked, beached, and sat in a glorious in-ground hot tub. On Monday I slaved away in the kitchen making food that was as close to that at La Isla, in Seattle, as I could. I made pulled pork with mojito sauce, cilantro-lime rice, and a pinto bean concoction. It turned out surprisingly well--whew. We are still, as ever, poor so Ricky only got three presents. They are awesome presents though; I got him Settlers of Catan (his favorite board game), this Ork Poster of Seattle, and best of all, I found a used Mario Kart 64 game on Amazon for him. I played it too. I am very anti videogame so this was a big move for me. I decided that the game is so old that it can be cool to play it once in a while. Anyone want to come over and play with us??

Thanks to everyone who supported us during my job hunt. You are great.

DIY: Grandma's Doily

My great-grandma used to make doilies all of the time and hand them out to various family members. I'm sure my sister and I have at least a dozen each. I'm not really the type of person that would put doilies around the house as a decoration but I wanted to do something special with at least one of them.

I decided to make this dream-catcher to hang on my wall. This was a super easy project because I didn't  have to buy anything and I was able to finish it in one afternoon. I used white thread to tie the doily around the inner hoop of the embroidery hoop. All of the feathers I used on the bottom are ones that I found on my hikes and walks while we lived in Seattle. I superglued the feathers together at their tips, tied them with some basic twine, and then tied the three sections of twine to the outer embroidery hoop.

I chose to hang this sentimental craft in the center of a main wall, surrounded by other art pieces that are special to me. Can't wait to enjoy this for years to come!

Special thanks to my great-grandmother, Elizabeth Stout, for giving me this lovely doily.

Please Sir, May I Have a Job?

What the heck? Why aren't there any jobs in Eugene (rhetorical question)? Really though, I've applied at lots of places and have heard nothing. NOTHING. I went to college, I earned my degree, I have some work experience, I'm awesome, why don't they want me?

I'm feeling downcast. I am simultaneously feeling lame that nobody wants to give me a job, which makes me feel slightly worthless and feeling panicked about paying off loans and paying for our trip to Europe. That trip is the only thing I am looking forward to right now; if I don't have that I feel I will melt into a sad puddle on the floor.

So please, please, if you know anyone who might hire me to do anything other than food service, please let me know asap.



It's one of those days.

Confessions of a Finicky Eater

I have always been choosy about my food. My parents called my "picky," I prefer "finicky," or "selective" when it comes to describing my eating. The point is, the list of things I would not eat used to be significantly longer than the list of things I would. At age five I ate melted cheese sandwiches, chicken strips, applesauce, and cereal; present my with a vegetable and I suddenly my knee would hurt too much for me to eat dinner, or I'd come up with some other ailment.

Twenty years later, I am still a finicky eater but I've figured out the real problem behind some of those gag-inducing foods. TEXTURE. As it turns out, nearly every food I dislike is on the dislike list because of its texture. I don't like foods that are unreasonably mushy, slimy, or squeaky. In my opinion, vegetables should never be boiled or steamed. Mushrooms, cauliflower, brusssel sprouts, eggplant, and artichokes are never okay. I can't do tomatos unless they are in marinara or finely chopped salsa. I can't eat onions that are any larger than my pinky fingernail. I don't eat seafood.

I have added countless things to my food repertoire in the past few years. My expanded pallette combined with the fact that I choose what we eat for dinner nearly every night makes it pretty easy not to have run-ins with food that I don't like. Fortunately/unfortunately we sometimes get invited to other people's houses for dinner. I love having friends and I love food. The combination of eating and being with friends is pretty much the best ever. But sometimes, just sometimes, I still have anxiety about what the food is going to be if I'm not cooking it. Maybe they will serve me cauliflower soup! Maybe there will be a mushy-veggie filled souflet! Oh the worry! A couple of weeks ago we were invited to a brand new friend's house and, feeling guilty, I warned her that under no cicumstances could I eat seafood. She made us a delicious soup with salad and bread, but I still had to go through the anxiety of wondering what was on the menu, and the lame feeling of letting her know that there were things I couldn't eat.

My point is, it sucks being choosy about food. I wish I was one of those people that could eat anything and be happy about it but I'm not. I know that there are millions of children starving all over the world, and I advocate for them but I don't need to feel even more guilty about my eating problem! So friends, be aware of those finicky eaters in your life, know that they are not being difficult on purpose, and that they mean no offense to your food.

Oregon Coast

We stayed home on Valentine's Day this year. We've come to the conclusion over the years that it is so not worth it to go out when every other person and their dog is also out. We decided to take a trip over to Florence today to celebrate instead. We loved having beach access in Seattle but there was nothing like the wide expanse of beach that lines much of the Oregon coast.

We lucked out with a beautiful day, rainless, partly cloudy, moderately warm, and nearly wind free!
Hooray!

Ode to Seattle

I miss Seattle.

How could this be? I hated it. HATED IT. For 6 months straight all I wanted to do was leave and go home to Eugene. In June I started to like Seattle, I still would have preferred to live in Oregon but I was on good terms with the city. In September, when our return to Eugene was a certainty, I had finally reached the point where I could have continued to live in Seattle.

Don't get me wrong, I am so happy to be back here. I love Eugene. I love being so close to family and having a full social calendar. I love being in the fertile valley/Land of Zion.

So what's the problem?

I miss the food. Seattle has inumerable eating venues that we adored and the grocery stores were well stocked with organic/local produce. For us foodies, that's a big deal

I miss the salt, in the water that is. We lived minutes from Puget Sound where there was always a chance of seeing a harbor seal, sea lion, porpoise, or even a whale. I could go tidepooling whenever I wanted. I collected sea shells all of the time. I miss seeing boats everywhere and reading the names on the sides of them. Eugene has lots of fresh water but there is never that excitement that comes with the possibility of seeing a whale. A whale!

I miss the huge parks. Seattle is way more urban than Eugene, but surprisingly it has bigger and better parks. The parks are more diverse and more wild, with more wildlife in them.

I miss the local shopping. I'm not just talking about the availability of Nordy's, West Elm, and Anthro (which was great), I miss all the cute little local boutiques where I could get the best cards and gifts. There are never any good cards at Target.

I miss the opportunities. More jobs, more volunteer possibilities, more things to do. There were more reasons to leave the house.

I miss our landlords. I know that sounds funny, but we lived in our landlords' house. We saw them and interacted with them everyday. What started as an awkward "hey, we live in your basement," situation ended with tears and "we love you"s when we moved away.


We know that Eugene is the right place for us to be right now. We can afford to live here comfortably while Ricky is just starting out his career, we can be near to family and friends when we have our first baby, and we can be here to support our younger siblings.

We are Oregonians and we always will be, but some day in the future, when we have more money and more years under our belt, we may be Oregonians that live in Seattle.

Thanks Seattle, for becoming my friend.

2013, It's All About Me

I have never really been into New Year's resolutions. This year is a little bit different from the 23 others I have weathered so far. Since we are planning to start trying to have a baby in October, this will (hopefully) be my last year in which my body belongs solely to me and my life isn't dictated by children. This is my last chance to really nourish myself--to selfishly focus on my hobbies, interestes, and impulses. I know I will have opportunities to nourish my own interests at other times in my life but nothing will ever be the same as it is now again.

I am so excited about having a baby that I sometimes forget to enjoy the time I have right now.

So this year I plan to do everything that I want. I plan on taking more ceramics classes and working on art projects. I want to learn at least the basics of french. I am going to brush up on my piano skills, improve my guitar playing, and sing, sing, sing! I want to volunteer in my community. I am going to take the GRE so that I can apply for graduate school when I am ready. I want to find a part-time job where I can learn, be fulfilled, and do good for the earth.
The most important item on my list is our trip to Europe in the fall. Ricky and I have both agreed that we want travel to be an important part of our lives. While we will have many vacations in our future, I want to visit Europe with my husband before we have kids and our lives change forever. I want to eat all of the delicious, unpasturized cheese that Europe has to offer. I want it to be a romantic vacation that we can look back on for many years, a celebration of the journey that the two of us have been on so far.

I am really looking forward to this year of celebrating myself and my strong, happy marriage. So 2013, let's get going, we've a lot to do!