Show off

Mitch took this picture. It’s pretty amazing:

Oh no, not another addiction…

That’s right, I found out about podcasts. Here are some of my favorites so far:

Democracy Now! To help myself in my conquest to feel semi-informed. The cast is about an hour long–about the time it takes me to (walk/stop for coffee/ride the bus/walk some more) get to work.

Oikos Fellowship. That’s right, our church has it’s very own podcast. I’m getting caught up on some of the back-sermons from before we started attending (about a month ago).

The Writer’s Almanac. We can thank Rogue for this one. Nerdy factoids about the literary world and a poem of the day, read by the magnificent Garrison Keillor.

Donald Miller. A few twenty-minute segments of him reading from his books. What more could I need?

IndieFeed. I’m hooked on the “Blues” and “Electronica” segments–each cast is one song that you’ve never heard of.

These are just the ones I’m still subcribed to after listening to a few episodes–I’ve downloaded several others (including a few Harry Potter casts–but how many hours can you really devote to Book 7 theories? Plenty, I guess), but most of them weren’t up to snuff. These are just the current favorites.

Ode to Casa Que Pasa

I can’t believe it.

They shut down Case Que Pasa.

Now, I’ve heard the rumors (unpaid taxes, drugs, gambling, reckless defiance of the smoking ban), and I’ve read the article in the Whatcom Independent, but still: like a table with one missing leg, this town feels terribly off-balance without Casa.

See, on those nights when we’d be at a loss for someplace to go, my friends (through high school, college and these odd post-college years) had a saying. It went like this: after several failed suggestions, we’d look at each other, smile and say, “Well, there’s always Casa.”

But there’s not. Not anymore.

O Casa! What memories I have of you! Napping in the booths after midnight, as I waited for Mitch to finish his closing shift as a disreputable Casa cashier; ordering potato burritos, my fifteenth summer, after a swim at the lake; afternoons spent in the sticky green booths of the cantina, sipping margueritas and studying those strange Brandi Fairbanks paintings…Alas! On my twenty-first birthday, I came to you, dear Casa, for my first marguerita. But those days are gone, now.

Yes, your food was notoriously inconsistent, and I did notice that the margueritas grew weaker and more watered down as the evenings wore on (and yes, Casa, I knew about the mice in the dining room), but still: perhaps a good carnitas burrito was that much better for all the mediocre ones that proceeded it.

In all your seediness, sweet Casa, you were a place of comfort for me.

I stood outside your darkened (broken and duct-taped) windows last night and shook my fist at your CLOSED sign. They cannot close you! I cried, not as long as you live on in my heart! Then I sought out an inferior marguerita at Chiribin’s and drank it, with head bowed.

I’ve been interviewed!

How it works:
1. Leave me a comment saying, “Interview me.”
2. I will respond by asking you five questions. I get to pick the questions.
3. You will update your LJ with the answers to the questions.
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.

Here it goes (my answers for Bugorama):

1. if you could force everyone you know to read one book, what would it be and why?
A People’s History of the United States. It’s huge, but everybody should know this stuff.

2. tell me about the book you’re writing (in your head or otherwise).
Actually, on the plane ride home from Missouri, yesterday, I hatched a scheme for a story about a big Missouran family that right now resembles Mitch’s family in a dangerous way–I will tweak it, little by little, into its own family. I’m hoping to have tons of notes and outlines and characters by November 1, so that I can write something coherent for this year’s NaNoWriMo.

3. what’s one thing you’ve always wanted to do but haven’t. what’s holding you back?
Hmmm. I suppose live someplace else, and as for what holds me back, it changes all the time. Used to be school, then it was my job. Now it’s just the fact that I love it here–there is so much happening, and I’m thoroughly enjoying playing music in such a musical place.

4. if you and mitch were to move away from b’ham, where would you want to go? why? what would you want to do there?
Idaho. I’ve sort of fallen in love with northern Idaho since we drove through it last summer–but I’d miss the ocean. Colorado is also nice, so long as you’re in the mountains. But I’ve liked almost every place I’ve ever been…almost. For a while I was quite enamoured with Snoqualmie. I think I still am.

5. what’s your favorite memory?
I have many. But for a most significant favorite memory I’ll choose: sitting in a side storage room at the church just before my wedding. It’s raining outside and there are windows on three sides of the small room, so I can see the water hit the glass. I’m in my wedding dress, and I’m holding the box with our wedding rings in it in my hands. I keep taking both rings off and fitting them onto my fingers. Mitch’s fits on my right thumb. The box is bright red. We still have it.

6. where do you picture yourself being in 10 years (career, personal life, geographic location, etc.)? this doesn’t need to be a prophecy or anything, just a sense of your current goals.
With kids, writing. Somehow it’ll work. Mitch would have a job that he loves, and that would allow me to work very little. Maybe one day a week, maybe two. I don’t know where we’ll live–where he can find a job, I suppose. Someplace with a good used bookstore, or at least a big library. Our house will be tiny, but with a guest bedroom, so that people can always stay over. Maybe with a small shed/studio in the backyard, and a garden. Probably we’ll live in town, since we tried the county and couldn’t bear all the driving.

Down home cookin’

The weather report for Rolla, Missouri? Hot. Stinkin’ hot. I know this because I just got back from spending five days there with my husband and his eNORmous extended family–163 people turned out for the family reunion, which was in his great-aunt’s backyard. And we had a great time, better than I think either of us dared hope. Here are some fun things we did:

Ate our body weight in fried chicken, baked beans, butter cake, brownies, casseroles, ham, sweet tea, chocolate cream pie and more that I have forgotten, but that my belly has not.

Went cruising down a river at 30 miles an hour on a river boat. It was gorgeous–we saw turtles, turkey vultures, bald eagles, dragonflies, butterflies and a spider the size of my hand.

Jumped on a trampoline with Mitch and his cousin–we are not so small anymore, and we nearly launched one another off onto the lawn several times. In 100-degree, high-humidity weather, this made me sweat like crazy.

Swam a lot, both in the river and in an aunt’s swimming pool.

Read up on Rosenburg family history. Got a chance to read Mitch’s great-grandmother’s Bible, which is roughly 100 years old.

Went horseback riding. I’ve riden maybe twice, and Mitch never, so it was colorful. Especially as I ended up on a momma horse who would not leave her colt behind–she was constantly trying to turn back and nip at him, while he attempted several times to kick at her, playfully, narrowly missing my shins.

Ate at McDonald’s for the first time in…four years? I had the fruit & yogurt cup.

Spent more time in SeaTac airport than I care to repeat (flight delayed, and then changed), eating frozen yogurt with rainbow sprinkles with Mitch, staring at people, and riding the underground trains unnecessarily.

We had more fun than there is time to tell.