Thanksgiving

This year, I'm thankful for:

-David's family, who hosted Thanksgiving here today and invited my family
-My family, including my mom and P&T,who were here; my talented and beautiful siblings, who were here only in spirit; and my dad, who's in Indiana with his parents
-My SIX living grandparents
-Living within easy driving distance of both of our families
-My wonky, charming house and mushroom-filled yard
-My sweet kittens, even Pobbes, who destroyed another (silk, a gift transported from India) scarf this week
-Scarves, Capilene longies, and SmartWool socks
-My two online classes and the technology that lets me teach remotely
-My phone, on which I'm tapping this
-My few, but tenacious, readers here

Happy Thanksgiving!

Movin'

I'm on the road, tapping this out on my smartphone, which I've now had for about a month, and which has been invaluable for NaBloPoMo. It's the fancy phone of the moment (for those not in the Android camp, anyway) and is shiny, lovely, and almost certainly habit-forming. It's quite the upgrade from my 3.5-year old dumbphone--though I'm pretty sure it wouldn't survive a fall off a bridge into a semi-frozen puddle, like the latter.

David and I are heading to Hermiston from Walla Walla, where we were celebrating my grandma's 80th birthday (with more than a few Alert Readers!). It seems that we may be hosting the next gathering at the Blueplex; we shall see.

In any case, it was wonderful to see tons of family, and I was sad to have to head out a bit early so that we can get David prepped, packed, and ready to head to Mpls tomorrow for a week of work out there. At least we were able to fit in a rousing round of sibling and cousin Scrabble; it was the first game of my life in which I (with teammate David) had not one, but TWO bonus words. We'll ride that momentum the whole way back to Oregon.

 

Bonus words: reechoed and gaiters

Quoting

Joel: "I smelled like an Everything bagel, so I sprayed some of that coconut spray in my general direction. Now I smell like an Everything coconut."

Fun times this weekend with the fam for Grandma's 80th birthday!

Conciliatory

Undergrads love to begin their essays with dictionary definitions--if I'm lucky (read: never) they'll be from the OED or Merriam-Webster. Usually they're from dictionary.com. Sigh.

In any case, the word "conciliatory"--a word I used in last night's post, actually--has been in my head all day. I just looked it up, and in the spirit of the papers I've been grading already today (and still should be), here is Merriam-Webster's definition:

Definition of CONCILIATE*

transitive verb

1 : to gain (as goodwill) by pleasing acts

2 : to make compatible : reconcile

3 : appease

intransitive verb

: to become friendly or agreeable

The thing is, most of my friends are pretty liberal. The ones I've hung out with most over the past decade or so, the ones I met after college and in graduate school, tend to be really liberal. I get most of my news from NPR and Time Magazine, and consider it balanced not least because I do hear conservative opinions with which I disagree; my most liberal friends find those media outlets far too right-leaning.

In any case, because of the circles in which I move, I don't meet a lot of Romney supporters. Academics are a liberal bunch, and Minneapolis is a liberal city.*** Hood River is, too. Plus, I think I'm also still in a demographic young enough to favor Obama for his own relatively youthful persona and ideas. The few Romney supporters I do know tend to be friends from high school or even earlier.

There are a handful of them on Facebook, though: nine professed "like"rs of Romney/Ryan, and a few more who run Republican. I've been thinking a lot about them today, partly because, although FB has been surprisingly rather silent on topics political (after a brief outpouring of joy last night), I have seen a few posts of sadness, disappointment, and, yes, some bitterness. There were premature cries that Obama had lost the popular vote--and an identification with how Gore supporters must have felt in 2000.

In embarrassing truth, I didn't vote in that election; I was out of state and hadn't filed for an absentee ballot. I also bought into the sentiment around me that there wasn't even a substantive difference between the two candidates, though the subsequent debacle of the election, with the failure of our voting system on global display as a Floridian court handed W. the victory, appalled and horrified me.

I may have had this sticker on my car

But I do remember how it felt in 2004 to have Bush actually, legitimately, elected, by popular and electoral vote. I couldn't believe that after seeing the mess he'd made at home and abroad over the past four years (and listening to this This American Life episode!), Americans would vote to retain him. I believed then, as I do now, that there were nefarious things at play, not least the manipulation into a constant state of fear.

When he won, I was crushed. I was enraged. I was in a state of disbelief. No one had loved Kerry or anything, but we were ABBA voters--Anyone But Bush Again. Anyone. That election was to have been a referendum on Bush's failed policies, a chance to regain some face in the world--to begin to erase the embarrassment so eloquently summarized by "freedom fries."

I thought Bush was ruining our country. I still believe he did it a dire disservice, mostly by entering unnecessary and unaffordable wars--not just one (largely supported by the international community), but an ill-advised, if not illicit, unrelated attack premised on false evidence.

So I think I can identify a little bit with the friends who thought this election was their chance to oust a President they believed was leading the country down a path to ruin. By the end of his two terms, I think most people agreed that Bush had been an epic failure. It remains to be seen how people judge Obama at the end of his second. Obviously I think he's by far the better option to continue digging us out of the mess Bush left behind. But the truth takes its time to emerge, and whatever happens, right now a lot of the country is feeling sad and angry.

How, then, to conciliate? I began, and erased, many FB statuses last night. I wanted to celebrate, but I didn't want to gloat or provoke. I went on a "liking" spree of friends' euphoric posts, but couldn't bring myself to post my own, although I'd posted several politically-themed links over the past several weeks and wasn't exactly in the closet about supporting Obama. I settled on a quote from Jon Stewart's live coverage: "Perhaps the fever has broken." 

This morning I changed my profile picture from the "I Voted" sticker I'd had up since submitting my ballot by mail, replacing it with a picture of me grinning hugely as I hold my tiny new niece, whose eyes are wild and mouth agape as she seems to throw a miniature gang sign. I figured it was just absurd enough to pass my personal only-me-in-my-profile-pic rule, and might--as I think of it in light of the earlier definition--be a pleasing act to gain me some goodwill.

Because I've been feeling kind of like a bad guy! I haven't been nearly as strident as some of my friends, in fora virtual or otherwise. But I did (and, okay, do; I'm still working on that) think Romney supporters were making the wrong, wrong, wrong choice. I was terribly relieved that Obama was re-elected. I'm proud to be an American, and want to celebrate! But it hurts to be on the losing side, especially when you believe passionately, as it seems so many of us did.

So, friend who posted about the impending destruction of all small business (though he appears to have subsequently removed it), I'm sorry. Friend who requested time and space to "lick our wounds," I'm sorry. I know how it feels to believe the apocalypse is upon you.

I can only hope that the fever has broken. I hope that Washington will be able to actually get necessary work done. I hope that we can all still be friends. Really.

*Apparently "in the top 10% of lookups"** at their website
**Firefox's spellchecker doesn't accept "lookups" as a valid word
***The day after the Vice-Presidential debate, a little old lady struck up a conversation with me in line at the post office, in a thick accent criticizing the arrogant young Ryan and his rude behavior. When I asked where she was originally from, she told me she was from Poland--and as a young teenager had smuggled explosives across enemy lines during the Soviet occupation!

California

Well hello there, abandoned blog. I've lost track of all the things I've intended to post about here, but among them are:

• Trip to California last weekend
• My sister's visit the week before that
• Trip to Hawaii before that
• The garden! (/squirrel salad bar)
  
• M's wedding (on a BOAT)
• And even my new pillow shams

So. Here are a few of the California pictures!

Throwing pottery on the back porch

The brothers relaxing

Siblings in the back seat

El Burrito!

David & me at graduation

Becca at graduation

The siblings after graduation

Martin in his dashing ascot

The graduates

Becca and Hoosteen graduated from dental school, and it was very inspiring. Very inspiring to finish my own doctorate, that is, and to have my family come for a big party! It's time to get this dissertation done.

Phone Dump

So today was the brunch for our carni-/omnivorous friends, who just returned from Ecuador and whose kitties we had been watching in their absence. They showed us photos from Ecuador, and we showed them photos of their kitties!

We had my mom's baked eggs, rosemary roasted potatoes à la David, blueberry muffins, pineapple mimosas, coffee, and fresh fruit. Smashing!

As I was pulling kitty photos off my phone to show here, I found some others.

This is a Fruit Loops-infused panna cotta David and I had at Bryant Lake Bowl last May, complete with a Fruit Loops cookie and raspberry sauce. It was actually kind of amazing.
Downtown on a glorious May day:
Biking on the Greenway in June:"Trogdor Sez..." at the Bryant Lake Dunn Bros:
Giant PEAS! (Wow!)
Stop sign at my old corner, December:
Corner of 26th and Stevens, December:
Welcome sign to our new neighborhood, February:
View from the plane back from Indianapolis,* March:
Epic amounts of accumulated snow in our new backyard, 2/22. It stayed (most of it, anyway) until about three weeks ago. Now it's all gone!
The Greenway, early January.
I include this photo just by way of mentioning that four weeks ago, while there was still snow (though not this much), I was walking across the Greenway on a bridge like those shown when I pulled my phone out to check the time. I was on my way to yoga, and dropped the phone back into the pocket of my fleece as I hurried onward to the studio. Only, when I patted my pocket, the phone wasn't there. When I looked behind me on the bridge, the phone wasn't there. When I looked over the bridge, down onto the Greenway, I finally saw my phone--submerged in a semi-frozen puddle far below.

I contemplated leaving it for dead, or at least for later. Realizing, however, that such would certainly seal its fate--and that it would be far more difficult to locate an hour and a half later, when the sun would have set [should the cell miraculously not have permanently expired during class]--I decided to slide down the icy bank to retrieve it. I waded into the large and icy puddle and laughed as I slipped back up the bank and continued on to class. (I had slipped and fallen down the bank and was rather wet, but figured that as it was a class I always leave soaked in sweat and condensation anyway, it wouldn't much matter.)

The phone was flickering ominously when I pulled it out, and I tried vainly to turn it off using the button before I finally wised up and pulled out the battery. I stashed phone and battery in (securely zipped) separate pockets, and let them dry until morning. In the morning, the phone worked, though it did give me a brief scare when the display suddenly stopped working. However, full function returned after further drying and a hard reset, and it continues--almost unbelievably after its 2.5 year tenure--to work as well as ever (by which I mean it still tends to reset its own ringer volume, make calls and try to access the Internet from my pocket, and generally drive me crazy). The screen was slightly fogged for several days, but even that has disappeared, leaving no trace of its misadventures.

I'm glad it survived.

*Did I ever mention that trip here? I don't think I did. My grandparents celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary last month, and I was able to use a miles flight to join them, my aunt and uncle, my cousin and her husband, and my dad, who had flown from the Northwest for the occasion.

Bob's Your Uncle

Actually, Bob's my uncle, and he took this photo of my grandparents and me this afternoon in his and my aunt Lyn's living room. It's been great getting to spend time with them this weekend.

Family

I found this photo, of all the cousins on my dad's side, circa 1987, in my grandma's photo album this afternoon.

Spending an inordinate amount of time downloading and installing drivers that would allow Little Lappy to communicate with my grandpa's scanner was absolutely worth being able to keep this little gem and others.

Thanksgiving

This is my pie! The crust is rather ugly, but my grandma said her mother used to say that the sheen (which the lappy webcam actually did manage to capture) was the sign of a good pumpkin pie. It certainly was tasty! Our old family recipe (off the Libby's can) didn't fail me (and neither did David's mom's crust recipe--rolled out with the rolling pin* that belonged to my great-grandfather the baker).

The pie was just one facet of a lovely Thanksgiving dinner with my grandparents and aunt and uncle: totally worth Bus Adventurin'!

*The Google tells me it's a style known as a French rolling pin--just a bar, without handles. I loved it!

Holidays

In less than 24 hours, I'll be on a bus headed for Indianapolis. As I mentioned earlier, I'm excited to get out of town and see that part of the family, if somewhat less thrilled about the very long bus ride.

I've also been informed that I'm in charge of the pie for Thanksgiving dinner. I've only made one full pie in my entire life, and that was only a few weeks ago, so it should be exciting! I'm going to try traditional pumpkin. I was assigned pie duty because apparently I have a reputation for being a good cook; I told David that was kind of like saying, "You run marathons; you should join our wrestling team!" Still, successful pie-making seems like a grown-up Badge of Honor (so many of which I still seem to be lacking; one gets so few points for graduate degrees, for instance), so I'm hoping it works out.

Anyway, our weatherman is saying that tomorrow's supposed to be the best day for travel, as Wednesday will bring more precipitation of some sort (we had more freezing rain, topped by snow, today). David will be flying that day, so I'm hoping he gets out without incident. Wednesday has been designated a day of protest against the TSA's new invasive "security" measures, so that may also add to the drama.

Apparently one way to protest is to not fly, and, as you know, I'm all over that.

Mumsie & Dad's Visit

Guys, I am ridiculously behind. My parents were out here nearly a month ago and I still haven't posted about our adventures.

Here are a few highlights of the long weekend:

• The superfantastic salads Mom and I ate at the French Meadow after I picked her up from the airport on Friday and our subsequent drive around the Chain of Lakes
  
• The unbelievable storm Friday night that sent torrents of thigh-deep water rushing through the street along the south side of my block--which, naturally, David and I decided to go run through. There was totally an impromptu neighborhood block party, with people taking pictures, helping push out stalled cars, and dodging trashcans swept up by the current.
• Dad joining my running buddy and me on the first four miles of our nine-mile run (he did two more and met us back at home)
• Visiting Minnehaha Falls and exploring new hiking trails (some of them unfortunately a bit soggy from the previous day's storm)
  
• Watching the USA-Ghana game at Pancho Villa (where Dad insisted on cheering for Ghana! I was disappointed with the outcome, but admit that it was quite the entertaining match)
  
• Dinner at Loring Pasta Bar to celebrate Mom's birthday--with a balcony table that afforded fantastic views of the restaurant and kitchen
• Five-course Sunday brunch at the historic Nicollet Island Inn to celebrate Mom and Dad's birthdays
• Explorations of old Saint Anthony Main, the Stone Arch Bridge, Mill Ruins Park, and the Guthrie Theater
• Downtown St. Paul, their side of the river, and milkshakes and fries at Mickey's Diner
  
• Riding brand new Nice Ride bikes around the lakes and to the Walker Sculpture Garden
  
• Walking around Loring Park and downtown in absolutely stunning weather (and the urchin who befriended Mom as she walked around the gardens)
  
• Touring the Minneapolis Institute of Arts
  

Thankfully David snapped quite a few shots with his camera phone, as I only remembered to take the proper camera a few times. You can view the entire gallery, with captions, here.

Memories

My mom forwarded me this picture today, from a friend who had sent it to her.

I thought it was taken in the summer of 2005, when I lived with my parents in southern California and worked at the same hospital as my mom, until I realized that this particular friend's birthday, which we had been celebrating that day, is in January. Revised date estimate: January 8, 2006.
Ohhh, winter in southern California. How I miss you.

2009 in Review

This little questionnaire has become sort of a year-end tradition here in the Kitchen, so I present now 2009:

1) Where did you begin 2009?
In Seattle with good friends and family! Highlights were Abraham's CD release party, Casuelita's Caribbean Cafe, fireworks at the Space Needle, and a kiss.

2) What was your status by Valentine's Day?
Officially dating my sweetie, who flew to Mpls that weekend.

3) Did you travel?
Ohmygoodness, yes. I drove from Palm Springs to Phoenix with my parents for the marathon in January and then flew back to Mpls. I drove to a conference in Milwauke, flew to one in New Orleans, and then flew to a third in Portland in May. The latter launched the first of two epic roadtrips across the country. In November, David and I flew to Portland and drove to Hermiston for Thanksgiving. In December, I flew to Vegas to run a half marathon, and then to Seattle for the holidays. Phew!

4) Did you lose someone or something you love?
Not that I can recall. I feel very fortunate in that.

5) Did you have to go to the hospital?
Nope!

6) Did you have any encounters with the police?
Nope!

7) Did you start dating someone new?
Yes, I did, and he has been one of the most excellent parts of 2009!

8) What did you purchase that was over $1000?
Not a single object--but the usual school fees, rent, and travel.

9) Did you know anybody who got married?
My neighbor got married; that was the only wedding I attended this year, and the only one I can think of.

10) Did you get in any car accidents?
Not a one. Here's to a year and a half of car-less living!

11) Did you attend any sporting events?
Two marathons and three half marathons, if those count. Oh, also, the rodeo!

12) Did you move anywhere?
I moved to Walla Walla for the summer, and then back to Mpls.

13) Did you keep your new year's resolution?
It was another year in which I didn't make any.

14) What concerts/shows did you go to?
The Nutracker, Rodrigo y Gabriela, The Santaland Diaries, The Importance of Being Earnest, The Importance of Being Earnest (Bros Before Hos Remix), Abraham, Andrew Bird (x2), the Decemberists, U2(!!)...

15) What movies did you go see in the theater?
Including ones at my beloved second-run theater: Up in the Air, Up, King Corn and Big River, Revolutionary Road, The Soloist, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Angels and Demons, Ice Age 3: Dawn of the Dinosaurs (it was with my little cousin! Also, somehow, despite its extreme loudness, I managed to fall asleep...), Public Enemies, The Twilight Saga: New Moon, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, (500) Days of Summer, The Informant!, The Men Who Stare at Goats, Valkyrie, Frost/Nixon, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Doubt, Milk (this time with help from this site)

16) Did your hair color change?
Only from the disappointing Feria permanent back to my natural colors.

17) Did you get any taller?
At the doctor's office, they told me I was a little over 5'7", which would mean I had grown--but I think it was just the thick socks.

18) Describe your birthday?
I spent it in the desert with David and my parents. We ate a lot of delicious food, and enjoyed the sunshine and some antiquing. Later, David and I celebrated again when we saw U2 in Chicago--his big birthday gift to me!

19) Did you get any new pets?
None.

20) What has been your favorite moment?
Favorite moment, in a year this epic? I seriously couldn't begin to choose.

21) What's something you learned about yourself?
I can much more easily survive a Mpls winter with good company.

22) What has been your biggest worry?
That I might not finish this accursed dissertation, and my degree, and thus disappoint myself, my advisor, and everyone around me.

23) What was your best month?
Oh boy. May was pretty fantastic... but so were June, July, August... and January... and September, October, November, December...

24) What music will you remember 2009 by?
Abraham, Andrew Bird, the Decemberists, U2 and weirdly, maybe even Lady Gaga.

25) Who has been your best drinking buddy?
E&A, L, and D.

26) Have you had to call the police on anyone?
Nope!

27) Have you gone skiing?
Sadly, it was another slopeless year.

28) Did you miss work due to illness?
Not work, as far as I can recall.

29) Any like/love interests?
I know this comes as a huge surprise to Alert Readers, but I'm pretty taken with my current beau.

30) Get anything new?
Shiny red electronics! A phone, lappy, and Nano. Oh, and that beau!

W2

Internets, this is the third separate blog post I've started over the past week to try to explain both my recent absence (in person Christmas-ing!) and where I am for the holidays.

Before leaving Mpls, I was busy being all sorts of festive: I sent out all my Christmas cards, had a cookie-baking and -decorating extravaganza, finished my Christmas shopping, and attended the Nutracker at the State Theater downtown (David's first ballet, in addition to his first Nutcracker!).

Then last Tuesday I flew into Seattle, where I met my aunt for lunch downtown and got to see Brother Rockstar for a bit before heading across the mountains with my dad. We arrived in Walla Walla at about 9 that night, and I've been here since.

Mandy pointed out to me in a recent e-mail that I've neglected to actually mention here that a few weeks ago, my parents moved. Here. To Walla Walla. From sunny southern California, they moved to Walla Walla, two weeks before Christmas.

The good news is that they are now within a mile of my aunt and uncle, my grandma and grandpa, and my dear friends the Swinjarnyars and their Peanut (as well as other bloggers of note). They're also now just a few hours' drive from my mom's other two siblings and their families and both of my siblings. (It's also a nice place to be in the summer, as my blog archives attest--and it's a veritably paradisaical fruit basket during much of the year, too.)

The bad news--though apparently only for me--is that it looks nothing like this Christmas past, or this one. Instead there has been a pervasive, low-hanging grayness every day I've been here, and although it hasn't been Mpls-cold, it has been in the 20s and distinctly chilly. Also: no palm trees.

And I'm trying to just get over it and enjoy being around family and friends--which I do, very much--but I admit that I miss, terribly, holidaying in a holiday destination. I know I should appreciate the fact that I got to spend any time there at all... except that spending time there was part of the deal I made with myself when I decided I could survive Minnesota for my doctoral work. A month of warm sunshine makes a world of difference in the middle of an Ohio or Minnesota winter. I'm not precisely sure what I'll do without it.*

Anyway, here I am. We'll head back across the mountains for Christmas with my nuclear family next weekend for more food, presents, and general festivities!

*Starting to run again is probably a good start; as I wrote here in 2007, on surviving a Mpls January: "I'm afraid I'm going to have to start running again, though, to make it through this winter, which is a daunting prospect indeed." I didn't bring my shoes with me to Walla Walla, having successfully managed to carry-on only, but am confident they'll be happily waiting for me back at home.

Leaving Las Vegas

I am in the Las Vegas airport, where I managed, thanks to a miraculous absence of lines at the taxi queue, the ticketing counter, and security--as well, less happily, as a 40-minute flight delay--to arrive approximately two hours in advance of my departure. I would like more than anything to be in my own bed in Mpls (though I'm informed they're experiencing their first real Winter Storm of the year), but instead I have a red-eye to Atlanta. Yay!

The good news is that I'm ready to fall asleep right here at my computer (though the time in front of it would be more productively spent on my submission for writing workshop, due tomorrow...) and will hopefully get at least a few hours of snoozing in on the flight. I'm thoroughly exhausted from yesterday's race, the subsequent hoofing up and down the Strip, and last night's late show.

Everything is so big here, and so consistently-bafflingly far apart! The hotel/casinos themselves are emphatically labyrinthine, and although the distance between the Luxor (where we stayed) and the Venetian (to which we walked to claim our Blue Man Group tickets) is ostensibly only two miles, the peripatetics required to actually navigate the space (including dodging myriad meandering tourists and card-flipping solicitors, and unavoidable bazaar-esque roundabouts) makes it feel at least twice that. The blistered feet, tight calves, and sore quads did little to help!

The race itself was a pretty good time. It had been a long time since I'd run an entire race with a friend, and running with my sister (and much of the time with my brother-in-law) was definitely a highlight. We finished in 2:01:48, a bit faster than my Monster Dash time and quite a bit faster than my Lacamas Lake. It was very cold at the pre-dawn start, and had actually only warmed up to around 40° by the time we finished, but the sun did come out and the course was nice and flat, with good bands and entertaining scenery.

We forwent the after-race concert (has anyone even heard of Donavon Frankenreiter--?), but did get tickets to the 10pm Blue Man Group. Thankfully, it was more than entertaining enough to stave off our race-induced sleepy stupor--a really amazing show! I could throw some words at you to try to explain it, but I highly suggest seeing them whenever you can. Maybe I'll try to write more later. I definitely have more pictures to post.

At the moment, I'm thinking I'll remove my contacts for my upcoming flight, in hopes of getting as much rest as absolutely possible after quite the full and fantastic, but rather exhausting, weekend.

More Vegas!

Thankfully, Vegas--or at least my experience of it!--has improved vastly in the past 24 hours. Last night a friend from high school who lives in town picked me up and we went to dinner at a nice little Indian place. The food was pretty decent, and the atmosphere was lovely, but I can't decide whether the highlight was our great conversation (he let me pick his brain about this very strange city, and it was fascinating)--or SEEING ANDRE AGASSI!

So I'm sitting there, and I keep staring over M's shoulder at the next table. "I'm sorry," I apologize for my distractedness, "but that guy just looks just like Andre Agassi!" He's there with an attractive blonde woman, another big dude, and like five kids. Another half hour or so passes (filled with enough engaging conversation, thankfully, to keep me from doing too much staring) and I notice that they're getting up to leave--and that Andre is posing for pictures with the hugely smiling Indian waiters. M finally turns around, and confirms that it's him, all right, and that the blonde woman is Steffi Graf. Andre is the last to leave, after the picture taking, and walks quietly out, exuding cool. Completely awesome.

This morning I met up with Seester and Chris at the Luxor, where we checked into our room and grabbed some food before heading to the expo madness next door at Mandalay Bay. We fought crowds there for a while, picked up our stuff, and strolled a bit on the strip before calling it an early night. Now I'm going to sleep as much as I can; the race starts at 6:15!

Travelin'

Happy December, all!

It's extra happy here today, because David was offered a position at what amounts to sort of his dream job. It's a controller position, so he won't have the pesky tax season he's dealt with for the past several years in public accounting. His office is also in the Warehouse District of downtown, which, in addition to being generally awesome, is only a few miles north of my house and forms a neat little triangle with my East Bank office. (Yes, I've already become a total pansy this winter as far as biking is concerned--but it's so hard to turn down free rides, and when I don't have to bike I get to wear nice clothes!) Needless to say, after three months of rather daunting unemployment (curse this economy--as I told him this evening, he's a frikkin' accountant, after all, not a beat poet!), this is a huge relief. To terminate his unemployment with such an exciting prospect and great people feels extra fantastic.

We just got back from the west coast last night, after driving back through the gorge and flying out of PDX. David and I didn't get to sit together on the plane, but we did both have window seats, and it was one of my most memorable flights in recent memory. It was a gloriously clear day, and the view of Hood was spectacular. I was wishing I could identify all the peaks (Adams? Jefferson? Three Sisters?) when it occurred to me that as I could see clear across Oregon to the south, I might be able to see Rainier to the north. I actually gasped when I turned and saw it, larger than life and perfectly framed in the windows across the aisle. Amazing! It was especially interesting to follow our path east along the gorge, having just come the opposite way that morning. I recognized the dams and phalanxes of wind turbines (visible in the full-sized version of the photo), and even thought I could see Multnomah Falls, where we'd stopped briefly on our way in.

Tomorrow I board another plane, this one bound for Las Vegas. I get in late and then have Friday by myself before meeting up with April and Chris Saturday morning. We run early (6:15 a.m.! the pain!) Sunday, and if you feel like tracking us, you can find details about that here. I had thought at one point about running the full marathon, and I am very glad that I talked myself out of that rash plan and registered, along with the other two, for the half. I'm already feeling so much less stressed! My usual race voodoo--what I can and can't eat, what I wear, how I sleep, etc.--is significantly calmed when I know I'm running 13.1 miles, instead of 26.2. I'm not too inspired at the moment, having been on the ground in my home timezone for only slightly more than 24 hours and not particularly anxious to leave again, but I'm sure I'll be excited soon enough.

One inspiration: AirTran (for all their other, significant flaws [i.e. I fly through Atlanta on my way from MSP to LAS]) now has wifi on all their flights! It's not free (yet), but still--we're living in the future.

Thanksgiving

David and I are at MSP, awaiting boarding for our flight to PDX. David is much better at arriving early than I am; there was absolutely no running-to-the-gate drama (for which I am thankful).

Other things for which I am thankful:

• David's presence and patience
• A loving family and lots of food waiting for us in Portland
• My fellowship. Holy cow, my fellowship (including the fact that I'm thus not accompanied today by a pile of grading to do)
• The resources and ability to travel
• A fantastic year for running (two marathons, two halves, and counting!)
• A ridiculously warm November in Mpls
• My Lappy
• As always, my wonderful friends and family!

...And we're boarding, so I have to cut it short.