Psssst, don't say anything to Roger, but I wanted to let you know he is in serious talks with a start-up tech firm just south of San Francisco. They're moving to the financial district in the next few months, and they need an accountant/business manager to help them plan for expansion.
Do not, I repeat, do not get excited. This could fall flat on its face, in which case he will simply continue his search, which is actually going quite well these days. (He's found quite a few jobs in the past few weeks that he's been excited about and has applied for. This is just the first one he's heard back from concretely.)
I will now resume eating my oatmeal, drinking my coffee, and doing my syntax homework, because it's 5:30 in the morning and I need to get it done for class today. I will keep you updated. About Roger, not the stupid homework. :)
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Sunday, November 23, 2008
AAAAARRRRRGGGGHHHH
Today is really weird, and I'm not sure how I feel about it. On the one hand, I had a fabulous run with my doggies this morning. Here's where we went:
http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=2409169
We ran up into the hills for a bit, then looped all the way down and ran along the Bay, where I discovered where all the other runners go on the weekends! It was a gorgeous morning, the dogs had a blast and are completed exhausted now, and I'm extremely pleased that I can still crank out a solid 10-miler. I still have secret hopes of running the Napa Valley Marathon in March, but I don't actually think that will happen. I think it's more realistic to shoot for San Francisco at the end of July...
Anyway, besides just feeling happy to be alive, running around town really makes me connect with this place. Every time I go out for a run, I put some more pieces into my mental layout of how the town fits together, and it feels a little bit more mine. That's one great thing about running that I think all other runners would agree about: you form a rather intimate connection with the landscape, and you really get a feel for the different parts of town.
So that part of the morning was great, and then I got home and made pumpkin pancakes with gingerbread syrup. Oh man. I'll be doing that again very soon, and I'd be perfectly happy to share the recipe with anyone who wants it. Everyone deserves to experience such deliciousness.
Now I'm wasting time before I jump in to some homework, but I also needed a second to readjust my brain. I guess part of the reason today was so weird is there was a big contrast between feeling great after running and then talking to my stepmom about my little brother. He's been in and out of the hospital constantly the past few weeks, and I am so frustrated, as are they. The doctors can't figure out what's wrong with him, she's losing her mind, and it really sucks that I can't even just stop by to say hello, or offer to babysit Amber, or something. Michael's going to see some specialists in Springfield tomorrow, though, so hopefully they'll figure something out and he'll get on the right track to recovery. That's what the "ARGH" is all about!
Ok. Now I'm going to do some homework. Oh, I didn't even tell you about going to the football game yesterday! It was really fun, but really bizarre because I've never been to a football game where it was a little uncomfortably warm and I had to worry about getting a sunburn. Football games are supposed to be cold! These Californians really don't get it. But we won, and it was a good (albeit very long) game.
Ok. Now it's time for homework. I hope this finds you well, and I'll do my best to update again soon; we have a long weekend for Thanksgiving, so I should have some time to say hello sometime in there!
http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=2409169
We ran up into the hills for a bit, then looped all the way down and ran along the Bay, where I discovered where all the other runners go on the weekends! It was a gorgeous morning, the dogs had a blast and are completed exhausted now, and I'm extremely pleased that I can still crank out a solid 10-miler. I still have secret hopes of running the Napa Valley Marathon in March, but I don't actually think that will happen. I think it's more realistic to shoot for San Francisco at the end of July...
Anyway, besides just feeling happy to be alive, running around town really makes me connect with this place. Every time I go out for a run, I put some more pieces into my mental layout of how the town fits together, and it feels a little bit more mine. That's one great thing about running that I think all other runners would agree about: you form a rather intimate connection with the landscape, and you really get a feel for the different parts of town.
So that part of the morning was great, and then I got home and made pumpkin pancakes with gingerbread syrup. Oh man. I'll be doing that again very soon, and I'd be perfectly happy to share the recipe with anyone who wants it. Everyone deserves to experience such deliciousness.
Now I'm wasting time before I jump in to some homework, but I also needed a second to readjust my brain. I guess part of the reason today was so weird is there was a big contrast between feeling great after running and then talking to my stepmom about my little brother. He's been in and out of the hospital constantly the past few weeks, and I am so frustrated, as are they. The doctors can't figure out what's wrong with him, she's losing her mind, and it really sucks that I can't even just stop by to say hello, or offer to babysit Amber, or something. Michael's going to see some specialists in Springfield tomorrow, though, so hopefully they'll figure something out and he'll get on the right track to recovery. That's what the "ARGH" is all about!
Ok. Now I'm going to do some homework. Oh, I didn't even tell you about going to the football game yesterday! It was really fun, but really bizarre because I've never been to a football game where it was a little uncomfortably warm and I had to worry about getting a sunburn. Football games are supposed to be cold! These Californians really don't get it. But we won, and it was a good (albeit very long) game.
Ok. Now it's time for homework. I hope this finds you well, and I'll do my best to update again soon; we have a long weekend for Thanksgiving, so I should have some time to say hello sometime in there!
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Just thinking about this time last year...
... when I wrote this poem/thing. It's somewhere between short short story and prose poem, but in any case, I always liked how it turned out, and running with the dogs just now made me think of it. I hope you like it too.
We run north, towards the woods, and the colors are breathtaking. The change of the seasons has created a landscape collage of competing eras—the sky is saturated with the pastel blue of a Technicolor film, but the leaves and the earth are a rusty, sepia brown reminiscent of old family photographs. It is too late in the season for burning leaves, and the subtle smells of withering autumn register in my brain. I smell dirt. Soggy wood. The lurking cold that will surely have pounced on us before we get the chance to run again.
We chit-chat, but we both know that our words carry little importance. We are out for the sheer joy of being out, of being alive, of feeling the blood pulsing beneath our skin. We are strong and healthy, and we are looking at the world.
The human heart is divided into halves. The left side of the heart pumps oxygen-rich blood from the lungs to feed the rest of the body. The right side collects the body’s oxygen-depleted blood and channels it to the lungs so that it may be replenished.
These compartments are of course finite, and as one expands, the other must necessarily contract in order to make space. Like the joys and the sorrows it undergoes, the heart is at once consistent and fluctuating. As surely as blood rushes from one chamber to another, fullness and contentment inevitably cede to emptiness and melancholy.
Our whole lives are regulated by this constant circulation; our sentiments ebb and flow only because our ventricles propel and replenish as they should. We are machines with swirling emotions. We can choose to let our hearts beat quickly or slowly, and we can choose how much life we transmit through our bodies.
Breathe in—fill your chest with cold autumn air and beauty and joy. Breathe out— revel in the empty space, the hollowness. We are alone, and we cannot inhale forever, but we are strong, and we will inhale again.
We press on through the woods, the leaves crunching dully under our feet, my breath coming in regular puffs of dissipating fog. This is the last warm day of autumn, and already I anticipate the first warm day of spring. We will lace up our shoes and take to the road, relishing the stinging in our legs that comes from frosty air and rusty muscles. As surely as winter makes the earth inhospitable, spring brings us back amongst the trees, on our path. Autumn and spring, fulfillment and discontent, blood and oxygen, vacillating like a beating heart.
Heart
We run north, towards the woods, and the colors are breathtaking. The change of the seasons has created a landscape collage of competing eras—the sky is saturated with the pastel blue of a Technicolor film, but the leaves and the earth are a rusty, sepia brown reminiscent of old family photographs. It is too late in the season for burning leaves, and the subtle smells of withering autumn register in my brain. I smell dirt. Soggy wood. The lurking cold that will surely have pounced on us before we get the chance to run again.
We chit-chat, but we both know that our words carry little importance. We are out for the sheer joy of being out, of being alive, of feeling the blood pulsing beneath our skin. We are strong and healthy, and we are looking at the world.
* * * * *
The human heart is divided into halves. The left side of the heart pumps oxygen-rich blood from the lungs to feed the rest of the body. The right side collects the body’s oxygen-depleted blood and channels it to the lungs so that it may be replenished.
These compartments are of course finite, and as one expands, the other must necessarily contract in order to make space. Like the joys and the sorrows it undergoes, the heart is at once consistent and fluctuating. As surely as blood rushes from one chamber to another, fullness and contentment inevitably cede to emptiness and melancholy.
Our whole lives are regulated by this constant circulation; our sentiments ebb and flow only because our ventricles propel and replenish as they should. We are machines with swirling emotions. We can choose to let our hearts beat quickly or slowly, and we can choose how much life we transmit through our bodies.
Breathe in—fill your chest with cold autumn air and beauty and joy. Breathe out— revel in the empty space, the hollowness. We are alone, and we cannot inhale forever, but we are strong, and we will inhale again.
* * * * *
We press on through the woods, the leaves crunching dully under our feet, my breath coming in regular puffs of dissipating fog. This is the last warm day of autumn, and already I anticipate the first warm day of spring. We will lace up our shoes and take to the road, relishing the stinging in our legs that comes from frosty air and rusty muscles. As surely as winter makes the earth inhospitable, spring brings us back amongst the trees, on our path. Autumn and spring, fulfillment and discontent, blood and oxygen, vacillating like a beating heart.
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
The bright side of writing my syntax paper all day today...
... is that it may result in me taking a trip to Illinois in May! Let me explain.
So we have a syntax paper to write this semester. Anyone who has ever talked to me about linguistics will know that I am not a big fan of syntax, to put it mildly. But I tried to pick a topic that I find somewhat interesting, and I wasn't too terribly bummed about it anyway. I'd rather write a paper than our normal homework assignments. The main thing is that we have a rough draft due Thursday, we have the day off school today for Veterans' Day, and I'm basically going to spend the whole day reading and writing (after I finish this blog entry, run with the dogs, eat, and shower).
The cool part is that the department here sent out a call for papers for a conference taking place at the U of I in late May, and my paper idea can very easily be adapted for presentation at this conference. So now I'm feeling more inspired; I can write the bulk of it today, fix it up for the end of the semester, submit an abstract to see if I can present at the conference in May (I think I have a very good shot of getting in for a variety of reasons - I can tell you more about that if you like), and then I'll just do a little supplementary work on the thing (which I have a really fun idea for) before hopefully going home to present it in May. Isn't that all very fun?
I will try to keep all of these cools ideas in mind today when I'm getting increasingly bummed out about spending the day writing a paper about syntax.
Here is where I'm going running in a minute: http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=2388662
Cool, eh? We're the very last house on Curtis street. If you zoom in, you can see the big redwood tree on the front/side of our house!
So we have a syntax paper to write this semester. Anyone who has ever talked to me about linguistics will know that I am not a big fan of syntax, to put it mildly. But I tried to pick a topic that I find somewhat interesting, and I wasn't too terribly bummed about it anyway. I'd rather write a paper than our normal homework assignments. The main thing is that we have a rough draft due Thursday, we have the day off school today for Veterans' Day, and I'm basically going to spend the whole day reading and writing (after I finish this blog entry, run with the dogs, eat, and shower).
The cool part is that the department here sent out a call for papers for a conference taking place at the U of I in late May, and my paper idea can very easily be adapted for presentation at this conference. So now I'm feeling more inspired; I can write the bulk of it today, fix it up for the end of the semester, submit an abstract to see if I can present at the conference in May (I think I have a very good shot of getting in for a variety of reasons - I can tell you more about that if you like), and then I'll just do a little supplementary work on the thing (which I have a really fun idea for) before hopefully going home to present it in May. Isn't that all very fun?
I will try to keep all of these cools ideas in mind today when I'm getting increasingly bummed out about spending the day writing a paper about syntax.
Here is where I'm going running in a minute: http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=2388662
Cool, eh? We're the very last house on Curtis street. If you zoom in, you can see the big redwood tree on the front/side of our house!
Saturday, November 8, 2008
I love my husband.
It is true. I do. I say this now especially because he is on the back deck, sanding down and installing a window pane. Why, you ask? The short answer is that today has been far more eventful than I had hoped. Eventful days are not necessarily bad... it's just that they usually end up being expensive.
The long answer is this: I took the dogs on a lovely run this morning. Somewhere between 6 and 7 miles all over Berkeley - we went through campus and some of the really nice neighborhoods in North Berkeley, where the streets are winding and hilly, the houses are big, and there are big, beautiful trees and parks for all the rich people who can afford to live there. The weather was fantastic - about 60 degrees with a very slight breeze, and I felt great.
We got back and the dogs totally crashed. I made pancakes for me and Roger, Rye curled up in his chair, and Huck sprawled out asleep on the bed. This has become somewhat of a Saturday morning ritual, and it's very nice. I was getting ready to head over to check out the 4th street shopping district, a nice trendy up-and-coming sort of area just northwest of here, because a girl I know works in a gourmet cheese shop, and I thought I'd take the opportunity to go taste some gourmet cheese, say hi, and see what other shops are over there. As I'm looking up the best route to get there on the computer, I hear this weird, loud crashing sound and Roger yelling, "Huck, no!!!" I go running into the bedroom as Huck comes running out. There is broken glass everywhere and the window is shattered. A lady was apparently walking by with her dog, and Huck attacked the window, like he does sometimes. He wasn't hurt at all (thank goodness), but I immediately became extremely depressed. Bordering on slight despair, really. It's Saturday, it's supposed to rain today, and we have a hopelessly shattered window that we can't afford to repair. Great.
Not only that, but there is nowhere open to repair the window even if we had the money. I find a guy who apparently does great work, but he's not open until Monday morning, and charges a minimum $105 labor. And all the reviews I find for his store say he's by far the cheapest they've found. Excellent. This just keeps getting better. I'm wondering if we can tape up some cardboard until Monday and just trust that one of the four or five jobs Roger applied to this week will get back to him soon...
Roger says he thinks he can repair it himself if he can get the window out of the wall, and if we can get the glass cut and find some window glaze. I search some more for glass cutting places, and it turns out the Ace Hardware in downtown Berkeley cuts glass, and they're open seven days a week. I call over, and they have a big enough piece of the right thickness, and they can cut it for me. I take the bus over, get the glass, plus the glaze and some glazing points (I learned some new words today), and it comes out to $30! Truly excellent, no sarcasm this time.
The only down side is they refuse to put it in cardboard for me, so I have to carry this big sheet of glass to the bus stop and back home on the bus, but at least it stopped raining, and I made it home without breaking the thing.
That is the story of why Roger is on the back deck sanding down and installing a window pane, and why I love my husband.
The long answer is this: I took the dogs on a lovely run this morning. Somewhere between 6 and 7 miles all over Berkeley - we went through campus and some of the really nice neighborhoods in North Berkeley, where the streets are winding and hilly, the houses are big, and there are big, beautiful trees and parks for all the rich people who can afford to live there. The weather was fantastic - about 60 degrees with a very slight breeze, and I felt great.
We got back and the dogs totally crashed. I made pancakes for me and Roger, Rye curled up in his chair, and Huck sprawled out asleep on the bed. This has become somewhat of a Saturday morning ritual, and it's very nice. I was getting ready to head over to check out the 4th street shopping district, a nice trendy up-and-coming sort of area just northwest of here, because a girl I know works in a gourmet cheese shop, and I thought I'd take the opportunity to go taste some gourmet cheese, say hi, and see what other shops are over there. As I'm looking up the best route to get there on the computer, I hear this weird, loud crashing sound and Roger yelling, "Huck, no!!!" I go running into the bedroom as Huck comes running out. There is broken glass everywhere and the window is shattered. A lady was apparently walking by with her dog, and Huck attacked the window, like he does sometimes. He wasn't hurt at all (thank goodness), but I immediately became extremely depressed. Bordering on slight despair, really. It's Saturday, it's supposed to rain today, and we have a hopelessly shattered window that we can't afford to repair. Great.
Not only that, but there is nowhere open to repair the window even if we had the money. I find a guy who apparently does great work, but he's not open until Monday morning, and charges a minimum $105 labor. And all the reviews I find for his store say he's by far the cheapest they've found. Excellent. This just keeps getting better. I'm wondering if we can tape up some cardboard until Monday and just trust that one of the four or five jobs Roger applied to this week will get back to him soon...
Roger says he thinks he can repair it himself if he can get the window out of the wall, and if we can get the glass cut and find some window glaze. I search some more for glass cutting places, and it turns out the Ace Hardware in downtown Berkeley cuts glass, and they're open seven days a week. I call over, and they have a big enough piece of the right thickness, and they can cut it for me. I take the bus over, get the glass, plus the glaze and some glazing points (I learned some new words today), and it comes out to $30! Truly excellent, no sarcasm this time.
The only down side is they refuse to put it in cardboard for me, so I have to carry this big sheet of glass to the bus stop and back home on the bus, but at least it stopped raining, and I made it home without breaking the thing.
That is the story of why Roger is on the back deck sanding down and installing a window pane, and why I love my husband.
Thursday, November 6, 2008
Berkeley celebrates (i.e. FREAKS OUT) about Obama
http://www.dailycal.org/mediabox.php?id=227&type=slideshow
This kind of makes me wish I were on campus Tuesday night, but it mostly makes me glad I wasn't! And it definitely makes me glad I'm not a Republican in this town. Holy moly.
I'm glad Obama was elected, but I'm realistic, too. I think he'll be a good president in a lot of ways, but I'm not going to join in some crazy mob mentality, creepy slogan chanting, flock of propagandists. He's still a politician, people. A great one, yes, and that doesn't mean he's a bad person. I really and truly think he'll do great things. But he's still a politician.
One thing I'm sure about, though, is I am beyond bummed that Proposition 8 passed. What a bunch of ignorant bigots. And I can say that because this is my blog. Bigots, bigots, bigots. I wish they would've worded the thing as a two part question:
1) Do you believe adults should have the legal right to enter into a marriage agreement in the State of California?
2) Do you believe that some people should have more rights than others?
Done deal.
This kind of makes me wish I were on campus Tuesday night, but it mostly makes me glad I wasn't! And it definitely makes me glad I'm not a Republican in this town. Holy moly.
I'm glad Obama was elected, but I'm realistic, too. I think he'll be a good president in a lot of ways, but I'm not going to join in some crazy mob mentality, creepy slogan chanting, flock of propagandists. He's still a politician, people. A great one, yes, and that doesn't mean he's a bad person. I really and truly think he'll do great things. But he's still a politician.
One thing I'm sure about, though, is I am beyond bummed that Proposition 8 passed. What a bunch of ignorant bigots. And I can say that because this is my blog. Bigots, bigots, bigots. I wish they would've worded the thing as a two part question:
1) Do you believe adults should have the legal right to enter into a marriage agreement in the State of California?
2) Do you believe that some people should have more rights than others?
Done deal.
Sunday, November 2, 2008
Just for fun...
... here's a quick stab at translating the raining poem from my last post for y'all. I'm not going to take the time to make it rhyme or anything, but it's still quite nice.
Il pleure dans mon coeur
There is crying in my heart
Comme il pleut sur la ville ;
Like there's rainfall on the town;
Quelle est cette langueur
What is this languor
Qui pénètre mon coeur ?
That penetrates my heart?
Ô bruit doux de la pluie
Oh, soft sound of the rain
Par terre et sur les toits !
On the ground, and on the rooves!
Pour un coeur qui s'ennuie,
For a listless heart,
Ô le chant de la pluie !
Oh, the song of the rain!
Il pleure sans raison
There is crying for no reason
Dans ce coeur qui s'écoeure.
In this heartbroken heart.
Quoi ! nulle trahison ?...
What! No betrayal?...
Ce deuil est sans raison.
This mourning has no reason.
C'est bien la pire peine
It's truly the worst pain
De ne savoir pourquoi
To not know why
Sans amour et sans haine
With no love and no hate
Mon coeur a tant de peine !
My heart knows such pain!
Hmm... little melodramatic, maybe. But trust me, the words are very lovely in French.
Il pleure dans mon coeur
There is crying in my heart
Comme il pleut sur la ville ;
Like there's rainfall on the town;
Quelle est cette langueur
What is this languor
Qui pénètre mon coeur ?
That penetrates my heart?
Ô bruit doux de la pluie
Oh, soft sound of the rain
Par terre et sur les toits !
On the ground, and on the rooves!
Pour un coeur qui s'ennuie,
For a listless heart,
Ô le chant de la pluie !
Oh, the song of the rain!
Il pleure sans raison
There is crying for no reason
Dans ce coeur qui s'écoeure.
In this heartbroken heart.
Quoi ! nulle trahison ?...
What! No betrayal?...
Ce deuil est sans raison.
This mourning has no reason.
C'est bien la pire peine
It's truly the worst pain
De ne savoir pourquoi
To not know why
Sans amour et sans haine
With no love and no hate
Mon coeur a tant de peine !
My heart knows such pain!
Hmm... little melodramatic, maybe. But trust me, the words are very lovely in French.
Saturday, November 1, 2008
Il pleure dans mon coeur, comme il pleut sur la ville...
Ok, that's not really true, but I always loved that poem. It's just so beautiful. Ô bruit doux de la pluie / Par terre et sur les toits ! / Pour un coeur qui s'ennuie, / Ô le chant de la pluie !
Anyway, it is raining! For the first time since we've been here, it is truly and actually raining. Big, soft, gentle drops that just kind of melt into your skin as they fall on you. I know this because I took the dogs for a run in it this morning, and it was glorious. When we left, it was just barely misting out, but then it opened up a bit and we got hit with some fat, wet raindrops. I almost headed home, but it let up again, and when you're already to the point where you can't get any wetter, you might as well keep going. I suppose I should add that it's about 60 degrees out here, so it just feels like a lovely spring rain.
It sounds like it's slowing up now. I wanted to share these pictures with you; my friend Stephanie and I went up in Sather Tower (aka the Campanile) last weekend on a beautiful sunny day. The Campanile is a really big tower on campus that overlooks the whole Bay Area, and on a clear day, it's gorgeous. Unfortunately, it was a bit smoggy last Saturday, but you can still get the gist.
A bunch of UCLA students headed up to the football game, with the Campanile in the background.
The Campanile up close. It's pretty tall - you have to take an elevator to the top.
Looking down through campus from the foot of the tower. If you click on the picture, you can just make out the Golden Gate Bridge in the background. You can see it really well on a clear day, which is extremely cool.
Memorial Stadium, Cal-style. We could barely make out the scoreboard for the football game from inside the tower. Cal was winning. Oh yeah, "Cal" is insider code for UC Berkeley.
Looking down Telegraph Avenue, one of the main drags of Berkeley/Oakland, into downtown Oakland.
And just in case you forgot what I look like, here I am at the top of the tower, with San Francisco in the background.
Anyway, it is raining! For the first time since we've been here, it is truly and actually raining. Big, soft, gentle drops that just kind of melt into your skin as they fall on you. I know this because I took the dogs for a run in it this morning, and it was glorious. When we left, it was just barely misting out, but then it opened up a bit and we got hit with some fat, wet raindrops. I almost headed home, but it let up again, and when you're already to the point where you can't get any wetter, you might as well keep going. I suppose I should add that it's about 60 degrees out here, so it just feels like a lovely spring rain.
It sounds like it's slowing up now. I wanted to share these pictures with you; my friend Stephanie and I went up in Sather Tower (aka the Campanile) last weekend on a beautiful sunny day. The Campanile is a really big tower on campus that overlooks the whole Bay Area, and on a clear day, it's gorgeous. Unfortunately, it was a bit smoggy last Saturday, but you can still get the gist.
A bunch of UCLA students headed up to the football game, with the Campanile in the background.
The Campanile up close. It's pretty tall - you have to take an elevator to the top.
Looking down through campus from the foot of the tower. If you click on the picture, you can just make out the Golden Gate Bridge in the background. You can see it really well on a clear day, which is extremely cool.
Memorial Stadium, Cal-style. We could barely make out the scoreboard for the football game from inside the tower. Cal was winning. Oh yeah, "Cal" is insider code for UC Berkeley.
Looking down Telegraph Avenue, one of the main drags of Berkeley/Oakland, into downtown Oakland.
And just in case you forgot what I look like, here I am at the top of the tower, with San Francisco in the background.
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