Shana Goes to Washington

Captioning pictures takes a long time...

2008-04-09T22:40:00.004-05:00

... when the pictures you're captioning are 126 of the best pictures ever of the best weekend ever, and those are exactly the pictures I was just captioning.

But now I'm finished. And here they are:

Mom and Dad's visit to DC.
Even more fun/wonderful/perfect than could ever have been imagined, even by people as imaginative as we are.

Enjoy. I sure did.

Ah! Kites!

2008-03-29T22:01:00.005-05:00

Today was DC's annual Kite Festival. I went, of course. I love kites, and this has been on my calendar for a long, long time. Also of course, I took lots of pictures.

It was a perfect day for a kite festival - sunny, warm-but-not-to-warm, and very, very breezy. The Kite Festival happens during the ever-famous Cherry Blossom Festival, which began this weekend and will go for the next two weeks. The kites were at the Washington Monument, and the cherry trees were right nearby, around the tidal basin (and some other places too), so I decided to make a day of it and just go see everything. Many other people made a similar decision. The whole city, it seems, came out for these two lovely spring events, along with large parts of neighboring cities, states, and foreign countries as well.

It was a party. A really, really crowded party. With lots of kites.

So yes, I took pictures, but do let me say this, that it's hard to take pictures of a kite festival, 1) because the kites move a lot, and 2) because there's really no way to capture, in a still photo, what it's like to have hundreds of beautifully colored kites flying above your head all around you in the bright blue sky for as far as the eye can see. The eye can see much farther than the camera, even if the camera has 8 megapixels and a 4x optical, 16x digital zoom.

So when you're looking at the pictures, if you go look at the pictures, I'm hoping that instead of inspiring you to think "didn't I just see this one?" that they instead inspire you to think (something like), "WOW! Imagine how vast and overwhelmingly

fun this kite festival must have been, that even all of these pictures that look kind of pretty much alike cannot begin to capture it!"

Sound good? Yeah, ok then, it's a plan. :)

workin' out

2008-03-29T21:00:00.005-05:00

I recently joined a gym: the Washington DC Jewish Community Center. Yep, the Jewish Community Center - the JCC, as we like to call it, or even just "the J", if the two of you are tight - has a gym, and a very nice one, at that. Apparently Jews are concerned with keeping their people in good health, and hey, I'm 1/8 Jewish, so what the heck! I signed up. The nicest part of it all is that I get a free membership because I volunteer there every Tuesday evening for a couple hours. It's a good deal.

Here are some reasons why I love my gym:

1. They have a rowing machine

2. They have a nice view of the Carnegie Institute just down the street

3. It's almost never really crowded

4. You have a choice between "Cold" and "Ambient" water from the little water machine (I usually do a careful mix of the two)

5. There is a sign hanging in the main exercise room that reads "Absolutely No Freelance Personal Training." God, I hate freelance personal training. So glad to see they're on top of it.

6. There's always at least one TV with the Home and Garden channel on.

7. You can buy fresh challah in the lobby.

7. It's close to my house.

Here are some reasons why my gym reminds me of "The Nanny":

1. On the sign in the elevator advertising their spring and summer league sports teams for young adults, they mentioned that several people have met their future spouses on a JCC sports team.

2. That's really the only reason.

You guys, I've started reading blogs.

2008-03-29T19:24:00.005-05:00

(aka, I Have a New Favorite Extreme Sport)

(no, I do not consider reading blogs an extreme sport)

I never really did before. I know it's a huge thing, like, lots of people spend lots of time doing it, but I never really did, until just lately...

because...

I have become completely fascinated with extreme snow mountain biking... in Alaska (obviously). Long, endurance mountain biking races on big bikes with giant fat tires...

There are people who bike the Iditarod. Did you know that??? The Iditarod! The dog sled race! The one they make dog sled racing movies about! Incredible!!! I've been following the stories/pictures of some of the people who did it this last month - yes, they do it in February/March - and I'm totally hooked.

The race starts in Anchorage, and there's a finish line in McGrath, after 350 miles, and then a brave (crazy?) few push on to the ultimate finish line in Nome, Alaska, 1,100 miles from where they started. This year saw the first woman ever finish the bike race all the way to Nome - in just over 25 days. WOW!!

Anyway, the reason I even bother bringing this up (don't worry, Mom, I'm not going to try it) is because there's one blog that I particularly love, that's written by a journalist from Juneau who did the Anchorage-McGrath stretch (350 miles), and the other day she posted a little story entitled Covering Ground that I'm copying here for you all to read:

A co-worker who doesn't know me very well stopped me today and said, "Hey, I saw you out on your bicycle by the ferry terminal the other day. Wow! You're really covering ground."

"Which day was that?" I asked, because it seemed the natural response.

"That day you were out by the ferry terminal," he answered.

"Could be a lot of days," I said.

"You mean you've been out there more than once?"

I just smiled because the ferry terminal is only 12 miles from downtown Juneau. There seems to be this perception among non-cyclists that their world is a very, very big place - too big to traverse without the aid of big machines and fossil fuels. It takes a slow-moving cyclists' perspective to realize that our world is in fact a small place, because all it takes is patience - just patience - and you can go almost anywhere.

Doesn't that just make you smile? And want to travel around the world? On a bike?

My roommies had a little talk with me the other day about how, like, biking the Iditarod would be really cold and stuff, and I'm making them nervous with all my talking about it and making them look at pictures of seas of snow and little people on little bikes riding through it all in minus 30 temperatures wit minus 80 wind chills...

They're really cool pictures though. 8-)

I have posted the link to this and other fun sites - like the one from the guy who actually did travel around the world on a bike (and a sailboat) - in the column on the right, for your reading/viewing enjoyment. :)

Little Skippy, by the way, is doing really well, and I'm completely in love with her, and for her part, she is happy that she will never see more than a dusting of snow. With her tires, I'm happy with that too.

OMG Caits

2008-03-25T23:04:00.003-05:00

I FINALLY got pictures up from Caitie's wonderful visit now over a week ago. WHAT HAVE I BEEN DOING THAT IT TOOK ME SO LONG!?!?! Well, it's not about what I've been doing, it's about what our internet's been doing, or rather, NOT doing, and that would be working.

But now its working. So now they're up. Here. Woohoo!

As you may notice, the photo album has some big blank holes in it, like, lots of trips to Caribou that went seemingly undocumented, and lots of "just got up" pictures that should be part of any photo album but just aren't in this one... oh, and that Chinese place in... Chinatown...

That's because a lot of the pictures are on Caitie's camera. And the pictures on Caitie's camera... somehow... haven't made it to the internet yet...

However, if she puts them up, I will happily post the link on my blog. She's got all the Alexandria pictures, for example, including (my personal favorite) "Caitie passes out on a picnic table at mile 15." Yeah, you've got to see it.

But ok, we had such a great time together. I made her come do all my favorite things with me, things like "eating falafel" and "biking to Alexandria," things I usually do by myself, and it was so much fun to share them with my little sister.

And let me tell you, she totally loved biking in the crisp, early-spring-early-morning DC weather.

So that was that. And it was awesome.

FYI, the social events calendar here is getting full... I've got some extra special visitors coming next week, and then a friend from college a couple weeks after that, and then a friend from Paris about a month after that... (not from Paris, but I met her in Paris...) so if you too would like to pass out on a picnic table at mile 15 or participate in any of the other fun events you saw pictured here, act fast! ;)

The extra special guests, by the way, are my parents. My dad will be making is debut journey post-transplant, and their trip happens to fall on his birthday, his first birthday with new, functioning organs... I don't know about you, but I feel a double pie special coming on... blueberry, and chicken pot. Yum, yum.

March 19, 2008

2008-03-19T15:35:00.007-05:00

(Franklin Delano Roosevelt)

Some pictures from my morning downtown on this very significant day, as our country enters its sixth year at this war...

The BBC has very similar pictures of some of the same people. We must have been standing near the same spot.

Yes, I am that awesome, thank you.

2008-03-12T18:06:00.004-05:00

This week I took a gig at a school that's just up the road. I live at (around) the 13oo block of 14th street, and this school is a straight shot up, on the 5000 block of 14th street - all told, just over three miles, with a nicely marked bike lane almost the whole way. Lovely.

A quick lesson in DC city planning: east-west streets are named, A-Z (actually, A-W, but whatev), then 2 syllable words A-Z, and the three syllable words A-Z, then plant names A-Z, and that takes care of the whole city by "Juniper" or so. (This could be a much longer lesson, of course, but that's all we need for this particular story.)

So. I live at (near) 14th and N. The school is at 14th and Gallatin. Gal-la-tin. Just under two alphabets.

Anyway, back our show...

One of the things I love about biking is that it's almost always faster than public transportation, especially for short distances. Going up 14th street from P, by my house, to U, for example, I pretty much always beat. This is because the bus has to stop every block to let people on an off, and I don't. Also, I ride like the wind.

This morning, as I turned right onto 14th at P, there was a bus, headed north.

Ready, set, go.

It started badly for me. Apparently no one felt like getting off from P-T, and no one really felt like getting on either, so the bus didn't have to stop at all, it just bumbled along and I pedaled away behind it, watching it get two, then three blocks ahead.

But luck was on my side once we got to U St, where tons of people all of a sudden needed a bus. Thanks, U St. I not only caught up, but got a good enough lead goi

ng into the hill starting at Belmont that by the time we got to the top, in Columbia Heights, at Harvard, the bus and I were neck and neck. The better part of a whole alphabet and still no clear front-runner. This was set to be quite the race.

When the light changed at Irving, I took off, legs pedaling fast, eyes on the prize, down a little hill from Newton to Perry, then up again to Shepherd, then down another little one to Upshur, and then the final big hill, from Webster to Farragut, 5000 14th St.

By the time I pulled into the parking lot at Gallatin, the 5000 block 14th St, I had not only left the bus that had started with me at P St in the dust, but

I had also passed the bus in front of it as well.

All while saving myself the $1.25 bus fare.

God, I love my bike. 8-)

A room of one's own...

2008-03-08T18:06:00.002-06:00

actually, a room of my own. For real. I, Shana, at 24 years old, finally got a room to myself.

The big move was last weekend. It's hard to explain how happy I am. David was a wonderful, wonderful, completely lovely roommate. But wow. I feel like a real grown up now.

I took some pictures, obviously. You can check them out here. OR, alternatively, you can check out this website and come see the room for yourself. ;)

(I really can't even think of a title here)

2008-03-04T22:00:00.005-06:00

Last Friday I was going to write a post all about how, as of February 17, I'd had only two dollars left for the rest of the month, and about how I was determined to make it last, and about how I was actually quite successful in this endeavor, and when around rolled February 29, the last day of the month, I, having just passed go, next month's paycheck in hand, decided I'd better go spend those two dollars.

(Except one was sitting in my dresser... it had been in my pocket, and I took it out just before sending it to its death in the washing machine - wouldn't that have been a tragic way to spend half of the remainder of my money for the month!? and it never made it back to my wallet.)

So on my way home from work, I swung by Whole Foods, thinking I might take my one dollar and buy, like, a can of beans, or perhaps some bulk popcorn. I wandered around the store for a while, clutching my dollar, wondering what on earth I was interested in eating that could be worthy of my two weeks of careful saving, when I happened upon the olive bar. Aha, I'd thought, this is what I want, I want olives! I took one of the little tester cups and tested one, and indeed, it was a very good olive (feta cheese stuffed!), but testing the olive helped me to realize that I didn't want olives, I wanted one olive, and there, I had just had one. So I left Whole Foods, still clutching my dollar. Didn't even go back for bulk popcorn.

I never did get around to writing about it - busy weekend, you know. But today I spent that dollar, plus the one I'd left on my dresser, plus a couple more from the new paycheck, on some toothpaste.

That's pretty much the end of this story.

2008-02-26T21:44:00.003-06:00

Barack Obama thought you could use some chocolate.

and less funny, but still notable:

Hillary ate your potato chip that looked like Jesus.

I guess he finally got up.

2008-02-20T20:59:00.017-06:00

There's a statue in the ground in DC at Hains Point, a park on the very tip of a long long island in the Potomac (which might technically be a peninsula, but I don't feel like looking it up to check) called "the Awakening".

Rather,

there used to be a statue in the ground in DC at Hains point, blah blah blah, called "the Awakening".

It's not there anymore.

It is moving.

Today.

Wednesday, February 20.

It has been moved.

It's one of those things that I've seen in guidebooks about hiking and biking and picture-taking in and around DC, and it's always made me think, hey, that looks pretty cool, I should take a ride out there and see it for myself.

Well.

Of course, I have a story.

And this is how the story goes:

Monday morning I woke up to amazingly beautiful weather - temps near 70 (Wisconsin, eat your heart out) and a light breeze... that turned later into a strong wind and, even later than that rain, but for the morning, at least, it seemed like a day straight out of a fairy tale, especially for February. And I thought to myself, hey, today might be a good day to go ahead and take that ride out to that statue.

But first, of course, pancakes and coffee.

By the way, yes, this was Monday. In DC, when a day is a federal holiday, like, for example, President's Day, it's not just bank and postal employees who get the day off (rest of the country, eat your heart out).

So I fixed some coffee and whipped up some "just add water" pancakes (very tasty), dumped some applesauce on top and opened up the Sunday paper, and what do I see but the following headline:

One Last Climb Before Big Move: Sculpture Headed to PG County

It was moving.

Wednesday, February 20.

Today.

Moved.

But this was Monday, when I read about it in the paper. Coffee-pancakes-applesauce-paper-Monday, so I had time. You know, like, 48 hours. Or 36. You know.

And I actually didn't get out there on Monday, because that would've been too easy, and you know, I thought about the issue thoroughly and determined that since it was a holiday, the crowds would be intolerable, and, since it was a holiday, I would

be needing an afternoon nap. So I decided in favor of a Tuesday-after-work visit instead.

Tuesday after work it was. 'Round about 5 o'clock yesterday I made my first-and-last-ever pilgrimage

out to Hains point to bear witness (and lots of pictures) to the Awakening before it moved to Maryland.

I was fortunate to arrive at the exact same time as a bus or two full of unbelievably/remarkably homogenous 14 year-olds from somewhere-that-wasn't-DC. Once they (and their teachers... it was kind of cute) all had a shot and climbing up at sliding down the giant knee, I got my own chance, first and last:

definitely worth it. Worth, even, the freezing cold ride home in 30 degree twilight weather with gusts of wind up to 30 mph. In my face. You only regret what you don't do, right? Frozen misery lasts a half hour, but not sliding down the Awakening's knee, not biking to Mt. Vernon in January, not canoeing around that last corner, those things last a lifetime.

More of my pictures from last night are here.

I made two friends on my trip: one, a former pro basketball player for San Antonio and then for DC who these days keeps in shape by cycling laps around Hains Point after work. He was on his way home as I was on my way home - apparently the wind sent him packing early, as he usually does significantly more laps than he did last night. But he kept me company on the mile and a half back into the city, and thus helped keep my mind off the wind in my face. And that was nice.

Apparently there's quite a bike culture at Hains Point, a whole group of people who go biking laps around at various times of the day. Interesting.

I learned this from the second friend I met last night, one who had ridden down not to bike laps but to, like me, photograph this giant piece of aluminum one last time before it was to be carted away by cranes and trucks. Unlike me, however, he had been there every day for a week, making sure he got that last perfect shot...

As it turns out, this guy is an avid photo-taker, biker, and DC blogger. And he's got some really great (read: better than mine!) Awakening shots, like this one, and this one. Cool, hey? I like them. He even posted this one, which I am proud to have taken myself. :) Of course, he returned the favor by taking these shots of me. Shana climbs to the top of something cool - classic:

(He was there this morning too, and he's got some cool shots of the the Awakening being carted away to Maryland on his blog. The Washington Post had a little video too, which was also kind of fun. Other people have remarked, and I agree that I also would've kind of somewhere expected to find a whole body under those woodchips... )

At any rate, I'm kind of excited to be plugged in, at least somewhat, to the "DC-biker-blogger" scene. I mean, this guy, my new friend, has a link on his blog to the folks who sell the "you'd look hotter in a helmet" bumper stickers. That's big time!

I've been up to a couple other things since my sister Cassie left, like this bike trip down to Alexandria, a thinly veiled attempt to keep myself from getting totally depressed that Cass wasn't here anymore. It served its purpose for a while, but in the end I got totally depressed anyway. No bike trip can replace a fun/adorable little sister.

And Skippy, in case you're wondering, is still holding nice and strong. Heck of a bike, I tell ya. 30 mph gusts of wind, here I come. Eat your heart out.

(I don't even know what that means.)

Best weekend ever!

2008-02-18T10:51:00.005-06:00

Cass came to visit me in DC.

It was so so so fun/perfect.

We borrowed my friend Megan's bike (Pauly - now bffs with Skippy, of course) and rode all around the city visiting museums, monuments, memorials, markets, important buildings, cheetahs, and fun people. We saw everything, AND ate our weight in cheese fries to boot. If that's not fun/perfect, I don't know what is!

It was all of the things I love all at once: biking, DC, good food,

cookie decorating, picture taking, all my friends, and of course, my lovely sister Cass.

The pictures are here.

When she left, I was very sad.

BUT I think chances are good that she'll come back sometime...

how can you say no to a second chance at such a great time!

And now I'm getting ready for when Caitie comes to visit,

which will be soon, right, Caits? ;)

and THIS is what it looks like...

2008-02-10T11:55:00.001-06:00

... when your wonderful co-workers buy you a brand new lock, the most hard core bike lock money can buy:

and THIS is what it looks like...

when you get a new bike.

Ladies and gentlemen, meet Skippy.

2008-02-05T20:19:00.000-06:00

this is an example of what it looks like when your bike hasn't been stolen.

(I am so jealous.)

And just to top it all off...

2008-02-02T12:28:00.000-06:00

it's Groundhog's Day.

:-\

What's missing from this picture?

2008-01-31T21:12:00.000-06:00

(no, it's not "you")

(though you actually aren't in this picture)

Hint: it should've been locked securely onto the street post, in broad daylight in downtown DC on the same street as the White House, where I'd left it not three hours earlier, where I always leave it locked securely when I ride it to work... rode it to work...

If you guessed "Shana's bike!" then sadly, you were right.

It's missing.

My bike. Li'l Dais.

She has been stolen.

I am completely depressed. I slept for 12 hours last night and seriously considered calling in sick to work today. I also seriously considered "not resting until I found her thieves and brought them to justice," but I was too tired from being so depressed. And in DC, where even filing a police report for a non-registered stolen bike is pretty much impossible/pointless, at least being well-rested was probably the better option anyway.

I could say more but I don't really feel like it.

I'm still in mourning.

I probably will be for a while.

(Even my blog is wearing black.)

sigh.

she was a good little bike...

... such a good little bike...

Ah, success!

2008-01-17T19:53:00.000-06:00

Here's the deal:

I've been to France a number of times. In fact, I used to live there, in Paris.

My little sister Caitie had never been to France... had never been, in fact, out of the country. So it was determined that I would take her around France for a few weeks, which I did last summer.

We had a classic good time. As you can see:

The goal of the whole trip, from my end, at least, was to (have a classic good time, and) make Caitie catch the travel bug. As you probably know, I've got it. Bad. So I'm a good one to pass this along to her. It can be highly contageous.

Well. Fast-forward seven or so months, Caitie goes to college in Milwaukee, Shana moves to DC, dad gets a transplant, la de da de da, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and now it's January, and Caitie's on her way to Orlando with the dance team from her school. And when they arrived at the airport, she texted me and said:

"you've created a monster.

we flew into orlando international and i thought,

oh, international? where can i go from here?"

I couldn't be more proud. :)

(... maybe she'll decide to quit school and come with me on the Russia-Australia-and-lots-of-stuff-in-between trip I'm planning for the fall...)

I biked to Mount Vernon.

2008-01-13T22:08:00.001-06:00

It was fun.

But cold. Really cold.

The pictures are here. They are heavily captioned. Enjoy.

When I got home, I, naturally, baked some bread, some of the most beautiful, delicious loaves of bread I have ever baked in my life.

(and of course, I took a picture)

I also took a long, hot bath.

What an all-star day. 8-)

FDR Memorial

2008-01-12T18:09:00.000-06:00

Is it wrong...

2008-01-06T15:46:00.001-06:00

... for me to want to name my new bike "Daisy"?

Daisy, as some of you may recall, is the name of my beautiful, beautiful '95 Eagle Summit wagon, who not only got me to work faithfully every day, but also kept me company on many a journey up and down Iowa's Great River Road.

She's currently living in Wisconsin with my parents.

I miss her every day.

ahem.

Anyway, so I got this bike, and I've tried to name it several different things, some of which were cute and clever, etc., but nothing sticks, nothing, and I've finally realized that I have a hard time calling "that cute, dependable thing in my life on an undetermined number of wheels that gets me where I need to go and provides fun and good times along the way" anything but "Daisy."

So what do you think? Maybe "Daisy Junior"?

Anyway, the-as-yet-unnamed-new-bike and I went out for our

first big spin together today (the Great Falls trip was on a borrowed bike, back before I acquired this beauty). We did the "Zoo Review" trail, up Capital Crescent and then

down through Rock Creek Park. I discovered about halfway into the ride (though I could've found out beforehand, I just wasn't paying attention) that once you get past Bethesda, the CC trail isn't paved anymore. And it rained last night. Soooo we got a little muddy. I spent the trip back down through Rock Creek trying to figure out if I looked silly or bad-ass, all covered in mud speckles. I'm going to go with "bad-ass".

I haven't blogged in a long time. :-/

But you know, check all the other blogs you read (assuming you read other blogs). I'm guessing they haven't blogged much lately either.

That's because it's a busy time of year, and everyone is too busy to blog. But now that present buying/wrapping/opening is all over, I have time to write. And you have time to read! AND and, I bet you're looking for something to do besides pay attention at work. It's hard to go back after some lovely time off, isn't? So this is going to go really well.

It would be too much to try catch up on all the stuff I haven't blogged about for the past month and a half... so I'm not going to bother trying, and if you want to

know the story about me having to drive home from DC for Christmas, you're just going to have to give me a call and ask.

I know, right?

There are pictures available here, along with picture of lots of other things I haven't captioned yet. Because I've been busy. Ok.

I did have an absolutely wonderful Christmas... best ever, maybe, since all of us knew we'd already gotten what we'd all wanted most: a transplant.

... and also, maybe, a snowstorm.

"I never thought being young and poor could look so fabulous!"

2007-11-27T22:13:00.001-06:00

... just one of the comments made about our Emmaus House Community Covenant video...

which you can all see (finally) here:

(if it doesn't work, try this link)

The assignment was for each of the LVC houses to make a "Community Covenant" - basically, something that represents us and our house and the fun and good times we have together, etc. At our last retreat (where I may or may not have also spent a significant amount of time canoeing...) each house presented their covenant. And every house did something different, of course, because every house is very different... one house told stories to illustrate things that were important to them, another read a list of some funny, some serious things that made their house a home, etc.... really, our only instructions were to be creative.

Our house, the Emmaus House, spent a lot of time sitting around thinking about what we wanted to do for our covenant. Obviously, it had to be something pretty spectacular, but it also had to fit in a pretty specific budget... so, like, souvenirs from a week of family bonding in the Caribbean was unfortunately not in the cards... Some of the other (very real) possibilities were: a collage, a poem, a family crest, an interpretive dance, and a special Emmaus House rendition of the hit song "Glamorous."

In the end, none of these made the cut. What did make the cut was this, a video of us sitting around talking about... ourselves. And each other. And maybe a little bit about LVC.

So there you go, here you go, the Emmaus House Community Covenant.

... just another thing on the list of things I am thankful for this November... :)
Oh my God I am SO corny.

When you're good, you're good.

2007-11-15T21:43:00.000-06:00

... let's just say I'm practicing for next week...

Assorted Pictures with Limited Commentary

2007-11-12T10:18:00.000-06:00

To be completely fair, fall is happening to a decent extent in other parts of the city. Just not on the tree in front of my house.

Another thing that's happening is this:
Thank you, Union Station... I think it's... Christmas decorations?

This is a statue:

And this is a funny looking building:

This is what DC does for Veteran's Day:

(they also had a parade)

And this is my new office:

In ten days, I'm going home for Thanksgiving!
Ok, that's all.

Oh my goodness, here they are:

2007-11-11T13:04:00.000-06:00

Pictures from the retreat!

Ok. Now I'm going to go hang out outside, since it's sunny and nice and not a work day. Fall is finally starting to come to DC, holy cow, don't quite know what took it so long...

Yep, November 11 and that's all we've got. Fall better hurry along too, because I have been listening to Christmas music pretty much all day and I'll be ready for snow soon...

Shana Loves Canoeing

2007-11-05T19:37:00.001-06:00

or: Shana Is Totally Crazy

This weekend we had an LVC retreat, and LVC retreats always mean good food in large quantities, good people everywhere you turn, and lots and lots of the great outdoors.

This particular retreat was at a retreat center near Perryville, Maryland, right up at the top of the Chesapeake Bay, right, actually, on the Chesapeake Bay.

See the view from the kitchen windows? I'm not exaggerating.

Because I intend to use an obscene number of maps in this particular post (or actually just the one, but an obscenely unnecessary number of times...), I thought it would be nice to start by orienting you with a more general, more familiar map:

This is the US. Hopefully you could identify that on your own.
In the green box is Maryland. And a little bit of Virginia, maybe Delaware, but that's actually not important.
(Don't tell them I said that.)

So zooming in on Maryland now... (have I mentioned that I love google maps?)

Again, green box, that's where we were.
Right at the top of the Chesapeake Bay.

Here is our exact location, indicated by the (small) red "X".

Alright then, now that you're all oriented.

We had some free time during our retreat, and I took advantage of this free time to undertake one of my all-time-favorite-ever activities: canoeing

It falls under the more general all-time-favorite- ever activities category of "anything that has to do with water."

Now let me just back up and say (because, Midwestern as I am, if there's one thing I genuinely like more than looking at maps, it's talking about the weather) that we had a brisk and lovely fall weekend, finally chilly enough out that you really did need a jacket, or at least a scarf, warm enough in the sunshine but cool in the shade, with a light breeze... though it was sometimes very still... and sometimes... sometimes maybe even windy...

The morning of free time I spent canoeing just happened to be one of those "maybe even windy" times...

Anyway, weather disclaimer disclaimed, back to my story.

Setting out from our spot at the top of the Chesapeake Bay on the aforementioned red X, this is an example of what would have been a nice little canoeing route for me to take on a windy fall day:

Another example - and slightly more adventurous! - would be this:

So it's not like I didn't have options.

Of course, I went with neither of those options. Instead, giddy with the sheer joy of holding a canoe paddle in my hand, I set off happily and care-free...ly, singing little songs to myself as I rowed along smoothly, with the wind... at my back...
and this is (pretty much) the route I took:

And it was when I arrived at this point that I started to think, uhoooooooh.... :

To help illustrate why, in the following picture I've included a few blue arrows to illustrate the direction and strength of the wind and waves. I've also included an inset to illustrate me thinking "uhoooooooh...."

I spent a good couple of minutes trying to turn the boat around before I gave up and just rotated in my seat instead, which I probably just should've done in the first place. I also spent a couple minutes thinking maybe I might not make it back to the little LVC retreat house after all...

It took me about a half hour to row out to that point, and maybe about two hours to row back. I mean, it took me a half hour of tapping at the water while I sang songs to the geese to row out to that point, and maybe about two hours of hard-core, full body, am-I-actually-moving-forward-at-all tearing at the water with every fiber in every muscle of my body to row back.

My eventual and hard-fought success was due largely to the careful route I followed, which probably looked a little something like this:

I suppose one day they will write inspiring canoeing books about me.

At any rate, I think I learned an important lesson that day:
canoeing is awesome.
Yep, it's a lesson I already knew.
But it's always good to get to know it again.

Stay tuned for many many more pictures....

Yep, it's a T-Rex eating a multi-scoop ice cream cone.

2007-10-28T00:41:00.000-05:00

(go ahead, click on it and make it big - you've got to read what it says!) :)

... that it's time we're aware...

2007-10-25T16:48:00.000-05:00

Right now I'm at a conference in Baltimore, Maryland. It's actually not very far from DC - about an hour by (a very fun) commuter train.

(though what commuter train isn't fun?)

And at this conference, there are people from all all over the country, I mean, New York, Chicago, San Antonio, Laramie, Seattle, and even Alaska! ... and among them, one sweet lady from... Dubuque, Iowa.

So of course, I went over and introduced myself, and we got to chatting... she lives up by the John Deere plant but works only about a mile and a half from where I used to live... and we had a good little laugh about what a small world it is, how she didn't think anyone at this big Baltimore conference would've ever even heard of Dubuque, haha.

And then she asked where I was from originally, and I said "outside of Milwaukee"... and then she asked what suburb, and I said "Brookfield," and then she asked, "East or Central?"

She graduated from Central three years before I graduated from East. Her parents live about four miles from where my parents live and she got married at my home church.

So... yeah, that was pretty much the end of my story. Also though, she was wearing leopard-print shoes... apparently they're selling those in Iowa these days... seriously, you're gone for five months and it's like you never even knew the place...

but then also there was the time...

2007-10-23T16:33:00.000-05:00

(a couple nights ago)

... when I spotted a giant cockroach on our kitchen floor, I mean, giant. I mean, I have a bit of a reputation in my house for being the one who can handle bugs, but this was out of even my league. Seriously. Giant. Just sitting there on our kitchen floor.

And Luke, seeing the chance to step it up a bit (and maybe redeem himself from all the other times he's chickened out and cried like a little baby girl?), helped me out by plopping a cup on top of the giant cockroach, sliding a piece of thin cardboard under the cup, taking it out to the back deck, (doing a victory dance/talking some smack), and tossing it over the railing, far far away from our kitchen floor.

And when it was all over, and we were resting from our celebrating, Luke looked down at the cup and said with dismay - "Oh no, I think I broke off a little piece of his antler!"

So as you see, between Luke with his cockroach antlers and David with his singing in the shower, it's quite hard to pick a "most lovable" moment.

I'm currently also loving how last night, late at night, we all played an intense, high-speed game of cards while singing along with Elton John's Greatest Hits, each in our own special way, of course (not all of us were in the St. Olaf Chapel Choir).

God, my roommates are the best.
(This is me and Jill)
(She's lovable too)

(Jill says sometimes she kills bugs too, she just doesn't always feel the need to announce it to us... I don't know why not... )

Meanwhile, my job is SO INSANE, too insane to blog about it right now, because I'm just too swamped. Someday, when I've got my head above water a little more, out of the swamp, I guess, I'll let you know more about it.

... please do not interpret that to mean that I don't still love my job. Because I do. Still.

Also, here are the promised pictures of last week's bicycle adventure.

And just so you can be appropriately impressed, I'm including here a map of the trail. All tolled, I think I clocked about 43 miles that day...

We're still rockin' temps in the 80's here in DC... so maybe I'll get one more bike adventure in before the snow falls... (and don't you even tell me there might not be snowfall...)

We do have a lot of falling leaves though - dying leaves falling from trees that will come back in the spring even, not just dying leaves falling from dying trees, which is most of what we've had since I got here in August. So maybe there's hope for fall yet. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

I mean, I always love my roommates...

2007-10-20T19:14:00.000-05:00

... but this afternoon I was washing dishes, and I could hear David, of St. Olaf Choir fame, in the bathroom singing the Hallelujah Chorus from Handel's Messiah while he showered. And right then in that moment it was one of the most lovable things I could think of... except for, you know, like, puppies and kitties and stuff.

(PS, per David's correction, he was not in the St. Olaf Choir, but rather in the St. Olaf Chapel Choir. Please forgive the confusion.)

DC Wildlife, and other things

2007-10-16T19:30:00.000-05:00

(for those of you who are from the suburbs, this is a cockroach)

(a big one)

(though we've seen bigger...)

If you didn't totally love that photo, I've got this for you:

Pictures from the heavenly weekend we spent in West Virginia, October 5-7.

Well, it was almost heaven. You know. West Virginia... Blue Ridge Mountains... Shenandoah River...

Seriously, I'm just telling you where we were. For real.

And it looked like this:

See? It's pretty much what heaven looks like. And I would know. I majored in theology.

Also, if you like pictures of "the sun on the water," then you're going to LOVE this album.

That's all for now... coming soon, pictures from my most recent adventure out of the city... and by "soon" I mean, you know, some other time...

OH but we have internet at our house now! So "soon" might actually be sooner than it would have been! (notice how I still failed to commit to any time table... ) ;)

... and then there's the list of reasons why my job is TOTALLY RIDICULOUS

2007-10-03T23:06:00.001-05:00

#89,153: I got a voicemail from an "Officer Simpson" about scheduling a program for the youth group at her church, Greater Mt. Calvary Holy Baby Jesus Baptist Church of God in Christ, etc etc, but when I returned her call, she said she couldn't talk because she had someone on lockdown, but she'd be sure to call me back later.

#89,154: My supervisor and I were supposed to meet this morning at 9, but she was late because *someone really important* had some sort of meeting at the Washington Post, and there were (heavily heavily armed) guards on the sidewalks and rooftops, and also, the road was closed.
(Our building is back-to-back with the Washington Post.)
She said heard maybe it was the president of Iran?

Excuses, excuses. Like I haven't heard the old "president of Iran at the Washington Post" line before! Does she think I was born yesterday?!?

Seriously though. Between presidential caravans (with the White House just down the road), controversial foreign leaders visiting the Washington Post, and "suspicious packages" left outside the Planned Parenthood across the street, our block gets closed down a lot. Good thing I walk to work, right?

(Speaking of ridiculous)

P.S. It's been two days and I'm still waiting for Officer Simpson to call back. Must've been one hell of a lockdown!

A message from the other side

2007-10-03T06:53:00.000-05:00

And by "other side" I mean, "place where they don't have internet at their house."

I'm at Caribou. Obviously.
But it kind of feels more like the secret place where I secretly go to secretly reach out to the rest of the world. And drink mochas.

We haven't had internet at our house for a couple of weeks. This is why I haven't been posting. Sigh.

Hopefully the situation will be amended soon.
(by that I mean, we've ordered internet and the guy who was supposed to come install it never showed up, and now I'm planning a nasty letter-writing campaign against Verizon demanding they do something about it!)

In the meantime, I offer you this:

Reason #4,509 why I love my job:
Tuesday night staff yoga.

mmhmm.

Also, I did manage to upload and caption some photos (from my last trip to Caribou), and you can find/look at/enjoy them here.

Alright, some of us have to go to work. Myself included.

Use it three times, make it your own

2007-09-18T22:39:00.000-05:00

Once a month, the WEAVE "Teen Team" (I try pretend it has a different name, I think the rest of the "Team" does too) meets to talk about what's going on in our various departments in regards to DC youth. Heather can talk about counseling, Cristina has the in at the courthouse and follows developments in policy for under 18's, Emily knows what's up at the intake centers, and I'm all over the outreach/education side of things.

We start each meeting by talking about what new teen word we learned the last month.

The word for this month was:

bitin'
b-i-t-i-n-'

Use it in a sentence: I was kinda tired, but they was all really bitin' to get to the party, so we headed out.
Definition: (v.) to be really eager (usually, eager to do something. Like, you wouldn't say, "he was really bitin'," you'd say, "he was really bitin' to...")
Old person from the Midwest definition: chompin' at the bit
(but if you say "chompin' at the bit" to a 14 year old in DC, they look at you like... well, like I'd look at them if I heard them say "bitin'")

See, don't say you never learned anything reading my blog.

In other news, here's where I sit and eat lunch when I eat lunch outside:

It's Lafayette Park.
Yep, I took this picture. And yeah, that's the White House. And the Washington Monument. It just kind of happens to be the closest park to where I work, so if I want to sit on a bench while I eat, this is where I've got to go!
Not bad, hey?

It's Here!!!

2007-09-13T07:50:00.000-05:00

My camera cord
(Thank you, United States Postal Service)
(and Cass)
which means I have pictures to share
... lots and lots of pictures to share

We crossed the 200 mark during the birthday party... of course, they won't all be posted.... but probably lots of them will. Eventually.

Here's a starter for you:

Me in my party dress at the end of the night, after everyone else had gone to bed.
Also featured in this picture is the back of our tv, our bookshelf, and our game of Catchphrase.

But here's the whole party outfits montage:

me in my party dress *** David striking a pose (naturally) *** Jill... exiting the bathroom

So.
Here we go.
All my photo albums can be found here, but I'll break it down for you too:

This first one is a doosy, it's kind of huge and has lots of pictures from the day I spend roaming around the general National Mall metro area. It features a lot of things you'd probably take pictures of if you came to visit accompanied by witty commentary, and then also a lot of things it would probably never occur to you to take pictures of... like I said, it's kind of big, and it won't hurt my feelings if you don't look at them all with great care and attention, etc.

On Labor Day, a whole bunch of us went to a Washington National's game, and those pictures can be found here. Can I just say, all of the red caps with white W's on them that did not refer in any way to the state of Wisconsin or to Badgers of any kind were very hard for me.

The September 9 birthday party pictures can be found here, in an album appropriately titled "Birthday Party Woohoo."

And I made this little album, Transplant!!!!!, which has a couple pictures from the hospital, but mostly features the Milwaukee Airport, which I love. (Raise your hand if you're surprised that I took pictures at an airport... I love taking pictures at airports.) I love airports in general. I also love Midwest Airlines. I also also love chocolate chip cookies.

(Midwest serves freshly baked chocolate chip cookies on board their flights... good chocolate chip cookies, and you don't just get one, you get two, and you don't just eat them alone, you wash them down with a nice, freshly brewed cup of Alterra coffee. Why do they do all this? Because they're awesome, that's why.)

So. Pictures. There you go. :)

just so you know,

2007-09-09T22:03:00.000-05:00

pictures of me in my new party dress are forthcoming. As are pictures of the chocolate glitter cake.

It was a lovely birthday.

name that coffee shop:

2007-09-08T12:12:00.001-05:00

It's 25 thousand degrees out (roughly... maybe more like 95, but I don't do well with heat so it's hard to tell) but I'm inside, cozying up by a roaring ("roaring") fire, drinking my iced mocha across from a giant stuffed bear head...

Yeah, I'm at Caribou, a little slice of Alaska here in our nation's capital. I live two blocks from one. And three blocks from another. And five blocks from another. I'm in that kind of neighborhood where you don't have to worry, because you're never more than a couple blocks from a Caribou Coffee. (And then there's the Starbucks! They're really everywhere!)

Anyway.

I had a real reason for this post but I forgot it.

Oh! I know. I was going to say that I'm starting to remember how very much I love living in a city with lots of fun different international food options. Yesterday my office took me out to a nice Indian place for lunch, and it was wonderful, really, just wonderful. Also, there's an Indian food chain, I guess it's a chain, in DC (and maybe other places, who knows, not me) called "Naan and Beyond" and I totally want to eat there too, because what a name!

(naan)

In other news, my little sister Caitie, who is awesome, just wrote me a birthday post. Tomorrow is my birthday and this morning I bought myself a party dress, and then I went and bought myself party earings from H&M, which I am totally in love with. So I have a whole party outfit. I might even wear it!

(This is a picture of Caitie in her party outfit, which includes a beret, if you hadn't noticed. She got it in France when we went there this summer. Isn't she cute? She'd been on the beach all day... with topless old ladies... ah, the memories... she will maybe hate me for posting this picture on the internet, but I just can't help myself.)

So get out your party dress (and/or your H&M earings, your beret, etc.) and wear it around the house a little today - it's that time of year, after all, Shana's birthday. Party dresses all around. Feels good, doesn't it?

Ok. That's all.

this is HARDLY going to be worth it.

2007-09-06T10:23:00.000-05:00

I do have reasons for why I haven't been posting. I could list them, even. I guess I will:

1. I'm busy.
Full time work and even fuller time roommates! AND and I kind of have a bit of a social life these days! For those of you who are unfamiliar with this thought, since it never came up in my other blogs, it's when I spend a lot of time with people, often even people my age, and we "do stuff." I know. I kind of like it.

2. I don't have a reliable internet connection.
We're currently smurfing off an open wireless network named "allison," the only one of about twenty networks I pick up from our house that doesn't require a password. Allison's nice and all, but sometimes she's in the mood to connect with me, and sometimes she isn't. Often she isn't. And I just can't ever predict her mood, and I don't know what to say to make it better when she's not talking to me...

ok, enough of that.
We're going to be getting real internet of our own soon. You know. "Soon."

3. I left my camera cord at home!
(This is maybe the most important reason.)
It's so frustrating, to know that I have a million great pictures (or maybe more like 100, and that's actually not an exaggeration) that I'd like to share, but can't share... so I've been dragging my feet with posting, because what good is a post when the potential for great pictures is so close but so far away? Just kind of makes me sad...

;)

That said, I've been doing well. My foot is almost totally not broken anymore, and I've been trekking all over town, seeing all sorts of things, taking pictures of anything that looks even minorly important and several things that clearly aren't of any importance at all. And I found the river, that was good. I'm missing the Mississippi. Or the South China Sea. Or Lake Michigan (I know, so exotic).

My dad is doing well. He went home from the hospital two days ago, working on learning what life post-transplant looks like. It's all still pretty unbelievable.

And my job pretty much great. We're having a gala tonight to celebrate our 10th anniversary. Fancy fancy!

And actually, I have to go to work now.

2007-08-24T14:59:00.000-05:00

What you are looking at, folks, is a picture of

the most victorious man who ever lived

and

the most victorious woman

who ever lived.

2007-08-23T12:08:00.000-05:00

I cannot even tell you what it's like to have waited every second of every day for a year and a half for something to happen, and then it happens...

I cannot even tell you.

He is doing really well. Really really well. Everything is going as smoothly as can be expected. It's so incredible. I cannot even tell you.

Why I Didn't Go To Work Today:

2007-08-22T14:05:00.000-05:00

This morning we all took our “First Day of Work” picture.
Here it is:

You might notice (though probably actually you won’t) that I’m not exactly wearing a “first day of work” outfit. You might also notice (much more likely) that there’s an extra person in this picture than the earlier picture I posted of the five people living in my house. In this picture, there’s a nice tall red headed Minnesotan. If you’re extra-super observant, you might notice that the extra person is in fact Martha, my favorite person in the world, whom we met a few posts back.

After we took our picture this morning, Carl took off for work and shortly thereafter so did Jill. David and Luke, I’m guessing, showered and followed suit.

Martha and I caught a cab and went to the airport.

I didn’t go to work today because I’m going home
because
my dad’s getting his transplant
today
!

Got the call at 5:44am
Was showered and packed by 6:00am
Reserved a flight at 8:30am
Left home at 8:31am
Plane left DC at 11:00am

and now I'm at the hospital.
Dad's in surgery.

Every Heller and most of the Newlins in the country are flocking to Froedtert Memorial Hospital.
... to wait.

And now, for his next trick...

2007-08-21T22:57:00.001-05:00

So we're among the more fortunate of the LVC houses to have a TV in our living room. Granted, we only get three channels and the picture is fuzzy, but it makes us feel special anyway. Every now and then we'll turn it on and stare at it for a couple minutes before we realize that we don't really like TV, and then we turn it off.

But tonight we discovered something incredibly spiffy about our TV that inspired us to watch the whole opening sequence of "America's Got Talent".

Here it is.
Are you ready?

David can make the black and white picture go color by raising his arms up in the air. Up... color! Down... black/white. Up! Color! Down! Black/white! Up! Down! Color! Black/White! Color! WOW!!!

I tried it for a little while and couldn't get it to work. :-\

Then we sat around and played cards for a few hours, like a bunch of old ladies. Tomorrow is our first day of work. Let's see if I sleep tonight.

So oriented.

2007-08-20T09:29:00.000-05:00

This last week was orientation week.

Woohoo!

Another way of putting it is that this last week was meet-your-roommates-move-into-your-house-learn-a-million-things-about-how-you-might-think-about-living-your-life-next-year-during-long-sessions-all-the-live-long-day week.

Really, it was not so bad. Actually, it was pretty good. Definitely it was very intense, which is why I have been so bad about posting.

But ok, moving abruptly on to what you really want to hear about.

The house:

It's awesome.
High ceilings, huge windows, comfy couches, and a funky glass deco thing in the dining room.
One off-the-kitchen back deck, one third story balcony overlooking Vermont Ave.
Four bedrooms for five people. The shared bedroom has the balcony. I'm in the shared bedroom.

Lutheran Volunteer Corps has placements in ten cities around the country, but orientation happens in DC, so everyone from every city had to come here. All last week we were hosting, in our new house with our new roomies, another houseful of people who are going to be in Baltimore next year. It was fun and nice to get to know them, all very nice girls, etc., but we were really looking forward to them leaving and us being able to start getting settled, which finally happened yesterday.

Then last night we had a massive thunderstorm. I watched the sky turn yellow and closed the door to our balcony when the wind started driving rain across it into our room. When you're up on the third floor, you can really feel the thunder shaking the house.

It was kind of a fun way to inaugurate our new house.

Ok, and now, the roommates:
(Also awesome.)

David, Luke, Carl and Jill are the people I'll be living with for the next year.

Yeah, we're that good-looking. Say hello to the Christmas card, marketing photo, inspirational image, etc. etc. We're going to charge LVC for the use of this image in recruiting, etc. It'll definitely be a worthwhile investment for them, yep, definitely.

This is what makes our house special and unique in LVC (and in the world) (aside from how good looking we all are):
We have more guys than girls - we are the only LVC house, out of like 19 or so total, to have more guys than girls. In fact, several houses have zero guys at all! Yikes!
We are one of the only, if not the only, house with more people who graduated college a year or more ago than people who graduated in May.
We have more Mac users than PC users... or at least more people with a solid Mac background.

And here's the best part: I'm the oldest in the house.

Yeah.
How's that for wild?

I told my roomies that if they have any questions about life, etc., that they could just come to me.

... because I would totally have the answer.

So. I'm oriented, I'm settling, and I'm really liking my housemates. I'm also well-fed, well-rested, and totally excited to start my job. Wednesday, that'll be Wednesday. Let's go.

Oh, also, one night we went out for drinks at the Hotel Washington, which has a restaurant up on the roof and happens to be right next door to the White House, and this was the view. Not bad, hey? I think I saw Georgie putting his jammies on.

it's my home, it's where I live

2007-08-14T06:19:00.000-05:00

not bad, hey?

Here I am!

2007-08-12T10:11:00.000-05:00

Just a quicky to let you know I've got pictures of my action-packed train ride to DC posted online in my photo album.

And now I'm here, in my new city, just kind of hanging out.

When I signed up for Lutheran Volunteer Corps (LVC) way back when, there were nine possible cities I could've been placed in. I actually was shooting for a placement in the Midwest, but I've never done a very good job of staying close to home, so of course it didn't quite work out that way. I fell in love with this placement here in DC and I guess they liked me too, because they hired me and here I am...

All that to say, the coolest part about ending up in this particular city out of the potential nine, aside from all the cool free stuff to do and see and all the very important things that happen here, and the fact that the LVC offices are located here and LVC started here, is that one of my very favorite people in the whole wide world already lives here: Martha.

That's a picture of a picture of us from freshman year of college. She was my roomie.

Ah yes, I remember it well: move-in day, just about almost six years ago. I walked in the door at Lank 226, our room, and there she sat, a red-headed Minnesotan, on the floor, and she looked up at me, held out the pan of bars she was holding, and said, "Hi, I'm Martha. Want a Special K bar?" And it knew it would be a good year. And it was.

Anyway, so she picked me up at the train station yesterday - we hadn't seen each other in two years! - and now I'm sitting in her house on Capitol Hill. Yeah, she's actually kind of a grown up. But not really.

Ok, so go look at my pictures if you want. The train ride wasn't really action-packed, it was actually quite nice and peaceful and fun, if you like trains, which I do. You go do that, and I am going to go continue hanging out with Martha in her lovely grown-up house in my new city, Washington DC.

(who signed me up for this?)

2007-08-10T10:00:00.000-05:00

All this week, as I've been very calmly and collectedly getting ready to go, packing up my things, deciding what comes and what stays, saying my goodbyes to family and friends, doing all the fun things "one last time," etc., I've been thinking to myself, gee, I've had a lot of "last week at home before I move far away"s in my life, and this one just feels weird. But I couldn't put my finger on why...

Until I woke up this morning, this morning, the morning of the day I'm leaving, and thought to myself, oh my lord, what the hell am I doing!

That's when it finally started to feel normal.

The train leaves in five hours!
And yes, I am all packed.

Here we go! ... sort of

2007-08-07T11:03:00.000-05:00

Today is Tuesday. I leave on Friday at 3pm, Central Standard Time, from my lovely and comfortable (parent’s) home in Brookfield, complete with a pool and a very cute dog,

to a new adventure, new job, new house, new roomies, new everything
in our nation's capitol,
Washington, DC.

(cue the stately music)

Three days.

And I haven’t started packing, not even a little bit.
If you know me at all at all, this is not surprising.

What is perhaps surprising is that I have started making lists of things I need to do before Friday, things like “call Amtrak” (yep, I'm taking the train), and “hang out with Cathy” and “buy more toothpaste.” I made the list about two days ago, and I was pretty proud of myself for it. Unfortunately, thus far, the only things I’ve crossed off are “rent funny movie from blockbuster” and “return movie to blockbuster.” Neither one of those things was particularly essential to my packing process, but at least I got to cross things off the list.

(Though to be fair, my sister Caitie actually returned the movie for me...)

“Start a new blog” is somewhere on the list as well – less important than “open a new checking account at a bank with national locations,” but definitely way more fun, so that’s what I’m getting to first.

Some of you may fondly remember the long-but-rewarding (right?) accounts of my adventures in Hong Kong from the appropriately titled blog, “Shana’s Adventures in Hong Kong.” Of course, when I moved back to the States, this blog ceased to be necessary. Others of you may recall the fun times we had and laughs we shared with the dear departed blog, “Shana Goes to Seminary.” Sadly, when I subsequently quit seminary and went to work at a convent in rural southwestern Wisconsin, that blog did not last either.

For the record, I did very much
enjoy the convent, even if I didn’t get

around to blogging about it.

(me and a nun)

And now I’m starting something new (again) and totally different (again), which means I’ll be meeting (more, new) crazy people, and I’ll be taking (more, new) awesome pictures, and I’ll be full of (more, new) stories about it all.

So if you’d like to hear/see/read about any of that, then welcome to my new blog:

Or if not, you could just not check this page again
and I wouldn’t really know
so I won’t really be insulted.
It’s that simple.
Aren’t blogs great?

It all begins Friday at 3. And today is Tuesday. And I haven’t started packing…