seasons? it's not just hot all the time?

i realized this morning that  i love cold weather. i love wearing coats and gloves and scarves and drinking tea without sweating. and even though chicago is so cold i love it so much. but why? in california it's warm all the time, i guess that's part of its appeal. but there are no seasons and there's nothing to look forward to. you know that in december and january you may have to wear your sweatshirt jacket but it's really just 50 degrees. but in chicago its colder than you can ever imagine and in late april you start to die a little but the hope of spring brings you through it. then in spring you look forward to summer and everyone is so happy. then it gets too hot and you long for fall then the leaves change and it gets colder. then you want snow for christmas and you get it. in california you have an 85 degree christmas and you can always wear shorts. 

i just love the seasons and am very happy that i wore a coat to my haircut appointment today and that i have to wear tights with skirts. the change of scene is so refreshing. 

keighty

new things a brewin'

look at this tumblr sometimes. i put important things there. 

http://k8eward.tumblr.com/

keighty

fall food.

we've been eating very well lately. we had a celebration for autumn and we had a fancy fancy dinner just because we're that fancy. 

for our fall party we had seven people for dinner! we ate butternut squash soup out of bread bowls and our couchsurfer, chad, made this veg and cheese medley. i didn't eat it, but he was getting tispy from the wine and didn't seem offended when i told him i was too picky for veg medleys. afterwards raul made apple cider that was good on its own. the boys felt it needed rum as well. 

tonight i made braised lamb sirloins cooked in a red wine vinegar, shallot and mushroom reduction ... and i came up with it by myself... maybe i did learn something in chicago. i also made asparagus, and garlic mashed potatoes. we also made a baked brie and dipped apples, carrots, pears and bread in the melted goodness. and laurel ate the meat! i feel most honoured because she doesn't eat meat. maybe she choked it down for my sake, but either way it was almost gone in the end. raul made sugar cookies and made us homemade ice cream sandwiches with blackberry cabernet gelato. it's insane how awesome the three of us are. 

the debate

clearly i have an attention span of a ten year old and i forgot about this blog. 

the debate last night was great. i ate pizza and cheered on obama. but seriously, i think it was good. i was frustrated for obama and annoyed that mccain's arguments always had something to do with people he's known for at least 30 years. i thought obama got his stride after the first 15-20 minutes and really made some great points about the war and the bailout. 

and the debate on saturday night live was great too. it captured the essence of the real debate and i laughed out loud.... which i haven't done when watching snl since the reruns i saw on comedy central. 

also kenan's getting some new roles, he's not just playing cosby anymore. i'm proud. 

keighty

my first postcard!

i got my first postcrossing post card today. it's from finland. it was a very nice surprise.

raul came home today! and i sprinted home from work to meet him. i am very sweaty. we're celebrating his safe return at fulton. it's too hot to cook and it's much better to pay someone to do it for you while you drink their beer. (which you also pay for...) 

jerry's hooked on 'heros'. i just finished the third season of 'weeds'. i'm getting excited about going home for christmas. i know it's so far away but i love christmas and i miss my family. i hope it snows here. i love love snow. not for 6 months at a time but for a little while it's very beautiful. today was a really great day. 

keighty

'wristcutters: a love story' is a very nice movie. second chances and love are always so nice. and patrick fugit is super cute... he's old but he's still the cutest. i give it five sunflowers out of five. the ending's the best part. but the funniest thing is that the soundtrack is by this band called gogolo bordello who i've never heard of but jerry wears their shirt like every day. so great. 

i feel kind of weird about all those people killing themselves. i've done some dumb things and i've hated a lot of situations but overall i think life is nice. i'd hate to kill myself today because tomorrow could be so much better and so on. 

keighty 

sea at tull

(the pictures are kind of out of ordre but its really hard to change them)

so. seattle. we took the I-5...not the 5. we stopped for gas somewhere back in time because kate and i found a phone  booth! it was weird and old timey. remember 1-800-call-att? that's how i got my parents to pick me up. now we have cell phones. word. we went to pike's market and took the obligatory pictures of the sign. it was really fun but way too crowded. i would die if i worked there. kate bought me rhubarb and peaches and i bought a french book. we got some sunflowers too! and they're still alive and huge on our kitchen table. then we saw this bike parade going down the street. it was crazy so many bikes. and there's a naked guy, can you find him. i accidently took a picture of him and found it later. we met tyler and melanie but they're too married to stay out late. we saw the space needle. space? try not that high needle. we saw it and when to the carnival next too it. then we took the monorail. seattle is nice but it's only for tourists. i feel like living there would be annoying and plus there are a lot of really steep hills. it was a really fun weekend and the couch surfer lady, robyn, was super nice. 

by the way, nano gave me this digital camera so i can take pictures all the time! 

keighty

a tour of the pad.

this is our bathroom, but its mostly just a picture of kate (laurel).

oh man, starbucks, you got owned.

oh and the two starbucks' that used to be diedrichs in brea are closing... because they suck and diedrich is better. 

i drew a picture of a swallow and a bicycle today. and kate and i painted a mural for the hallway. 

serious

corn is food. told you.

i need some real mail.

please please please stop sending me bills. i am out of money and can't pay any of you. and northwestern hospital, kiss my ass, you're not getting a cent from me. 

i am pissed and it is very hot today. but on the upside i did not get lost riding home today. and we're having ladies night this week. 

it feels really nice next to this fan. 

keighty

it's hotter than a mac battery in here!

julie is here visiting, which is nice. she's kind of too cool for me though. it's hard when someone comes to visit and has never been here. you have to show them around and do things you wouldn't normally do. for instance, laurel and i prefer going to a pub and going home and watching a movie. but now i have the think of a million things to do to keep my company occupied. it's not bad, it's just funny. 

apparently i talk about chicago too much so i'm done. 

last night at around 1145 our upstairs neighbour came down with gin and orange juice. it sounded nice but it was really late. now my sister feels weird because i won't let her drink and she doesn't know this guy.... mind you, neither do any of us. but we feel like we have to be hospitable. long story short, he's a 20 year old gamer, econ major who thinks the humanities are useless and ate all of our chips and stayed until after 2 am despite numerous attempts to get him to leave. i went to bed at 2, laurel shortly afterwards but jerry stayed up, who knows when he left. 

i tried to finish that book for the imago dei book club but i didn't have time to finish it and plus julie's here so i'm not going to go to a meeting and leave her on my day off. it's okay. i'll finish the book later and on the bright side i read a book i've never heard of. 

guy upstairs, justin, also said that cds, books and movies will be obsolete soon. i disagreed and he laughed at me. rude. 

i woke up super sweaty again. i don't know if i can't sleep or if it's just too hot but i'm always uncomfortable in the morning. 

and the most important news of all! raul found out that of montreal is playing in november and a second later i bought three tickets. i will take the day off work and sit outside all day until the show starts to make sure i'm in front. no joke. their new album comes out in october so i can listen to it non stop and get ready for the show. o la vache.

oh and in that vein, yesterday was bastille day. jerry celebrated at some festivals but my sister didn't want to go so we went shopping etc downtown. i watched madeline in honour of the holiday though. 

today should be a good day. 

keighty

montage independence day?!

the bistro montage was closed for 'montage independence day'. it's called 'hangover from a long weekend'. so we went to 'moon and sixpence'. it's a public house and we had to sit outside because jessica's friend, ari is underage...who knew? anyway the beer was super good and the food was not, but its a british pub what would you expect? 

i signed up with goodreads today. it's a community of people who read books and talk about it. you can look at my books and get excited about other books if you want...you have to sign up too, though. but i love reviewing books. it's so exhilarating and makes you feel so powerful. 

i'm going to practice my banjo today. lukas restrung it and gave me a chord book and a movie to practice with. super nice kid. 

keighty

'there i was the confessor'

holy moley. of montreal. october 7th. holy crap:

http://ofmontreal.net/blog/

tonight we're going to 'bistro montage' because we're that classy.

got my security deposit back from chicag-ho. i'm living the big life now. 

keighty

july 4th...then the day after.

woah. 

yesterday was so super patriotic and fun. i love my roommates. 

first we woke up late and laid around until around 130. then we got our acts together and went to the store to get things for my annual fourth of july pavlova and for our bar-b-que. we decided that we would roast up some corn, hot dogs and baked beans to celebrate. we ate them and talked about why we loved america so much. oh and also we drank pap's blue ribbon... out of a can! trashy, yes, but oh so american. 

then pavlova was served by the bucket load and was loved by all. (side note. the recipe was supposed to make a giant meringue bowl that you make by spreading meringue over an inverted bowl, baking it and taking it off. but! it all got stuck on the bowl and i had to scrape it off and make a new plan... sideways pavlova. i made my vanilla creme chantille though and with raspberries you can never go wrong.)

then we watched 'semi pro' and as i felt the need to say yesterday it was very boring. i was so disappointed i almost died. laurel and jerry fell asleep and i laughed a few times. most memorable moment: "everybody panic! it's just the like the titanic but it's full of bears!!" - jackie moon. everything else was less than par. too bad, will ferrell you were on fire before this. 

then we went downtown to watch fireworks. nano let us break in to his hotel and go to the roof to watch. we went through all the back rooms and then we were in the hotel. it was so super posh. way too posh for me, but i demanded that nano let laurel and i stay there so we could just walk around and speak french and look fabulous for a day. there's also an aveda spa attached... we'll do that too, we're that great. anyway we got to the roof and realized that we couldn't see hawthorne bridge because of a building so we had to climb this really scary ladder to the other roof. i was really nervous but i just looked straight ahead and made it. once on the roof we opened bottles of beer and crappy red wine and drank them out of plastic cups from carl's jr. ... classy. we made some new friends too. christina and cory were the most favoured by us. christina is really nice and i saw her at a timbers game once. cory is really funny and 28, weird. he spent the night, cute. the fire works were so great and from where we were... on top of portland... we could see so many shows at once. ones in washington and in the west hills. the one on the bridge was the best. and then we played with sparklers. we managed to get down after that and nano and cory took off on his motor bike and the rest of us went to ground control. (an 80s arcade and bar) i got the high score in 'bust a move' the best game every created. raul played tetris as usual. 

the next morning (today!) we all woke up (all four of us ...nano was at work plus scott and cory- sleep over!) and made pancakes. so many pancakes. we ate like a family and talked about the amerio and the us, mexico and canada unionizing. i'm kind of down with it, churros will be easier to get and canada has some great health care. jerry said canada would never go for it because us and mexico would bring them down. but cory said that even if canada said no we'd just punch them and tell them to do it anyway and then canada would just be like, aw man, alright. that's probably true. 

scott and cory left after a great banjo shesh and laurel, raul and i went downtown for shopping! i bought two dresses, a shirt and some underwear. i also got some new mousse and a foot scrubber thing....gross, i know, but i have to grow up and realize i have nasty feet and deal with it. then raul went out with scott etc to see 'dragon force' a ridiculous video game band that i'm still surprised raul paid money to see. laurel and i came home and had a fashion show for jerry who was less than trilled. then we had a makeover party and laurel made me all makeupified. tonight we're planning ice cream eating and the viewing of the classic 'spice world'. 

life is good today and portland is fabulous. i'm still excited about it. 

keighty

update hip date

so on wednesday raul and i went on a date. living together with three other people is different than being by yourself together...go figure. anyway it was really nice to go out just the two of us and it was nice to come home to our friends and talk about it afterwards. 

hip date. 

raul met me at my work and i was late of course because the parents came late to pick up their babies. then we went to catch the bus to hawthorne but it never came and we were super hungry so we went to walk around downtown to find something. we found a great chinese place and like all the times we go to chinese restaurants we were the only ones there. i had some great chicken chow mein (yes, chicken, freak out about it. viktoriya says that if i crave meat its because my body wants it, that i need the protein. she lived in ukraine when it was the soviet union so i feel like she is very wise.) then we decided that instead of the movies across the river we'd just stay on our side and go to the living room theatre on 10th. it was so super great. its an arte house theatre with a restaurant and a bar. you can eat there or have them bring it to you in the theatre and you can watch the movie while eating and drinking! too much fun. we drank stellas and watched the movie 'go-getter'. very good. i loved it. it has that zooey girl from 'elf' in it. man, i'll buy it when it comes out...that good. then since it was such a nice night we decided to walk home. it was an hour and 20 minute walk but we got to walk next to the river and see them lift the bridge for a ship. 

that night there was a crazy storm with super loud thunder. it was so loud it shook the windows. then it rained so hard and so loud that we had to close the windows then it was too hot and so on and so forth and then i was tired at work. 

but! work was easy on thursday because a lot of parents had half days and got ready for their vacays with the fam. by 1230 we only had 10 kids so it was an easy-peasy day. 

viktoriya invited me to her church - its a russian church! they have english translation head phones. i'm way too excited. 

right now i'm watching 'weeds' with jerry and laurel and it's a very good show. 

keighty

jour un

work was outrageous today. i worked 9.5 hours. 9.5 hours of screaming babies. they were all working together today to kill us. i had a splitting headache by the end and i promised amanda i'd be her best friend if she stopped crying. needless to say we are not best friends. but highlights include only having 1 hours of diapers instead of 2 and edwin constantly taking off his onesie and laughing about it. emma's a beast and i don't like her but her mom is british and so cute so it evens out. and even though i see it everyday i'm not down with moms breast feeding in public. even though it's not really public and they're just feeding their babies, i have to see their boobs and i feel like it's awkward. 

viktoryia taught me some russian today. she says my accent is good. there's one word that sounds exactly like "two-pizzas" and it means "stupid" but worse than that, it's a big insult. by the way 'viktoryia' ... good spelling, yes? yes. 

interview # 2 for "kindergarten extravaganza 2008". it went well i think.

raul and i are going on a date tomorrow. dinner and movie in the hawthorne district. very hip.

we might be going camping this weekend. in honour of our heroic victory over those british bastards...or something. mostly i do it for the fireworks. 

keighty

pictures pictures

pictures from hiking! (thanks to laurel's fab camera)

multnomah falls, horsetails falls, raul and i at the top of the mountain, the bridge to horsetails falls, pretty pretty oregon. 

today i felt anxious all day. for no reason. i need medication or something. 

i took a nice long nap and woke up sweating because it's so hot but it was raining. it smelled really good. i'm sure i'll get sick of the rain in the winter but random summer thunderstorms are so nice. 

nano told me not to worry about my money problems and that if it came down to it the other roommates could pick up my rent for me. its a kind thought but i know my roommates are worse off than me. jerry already owes everyone money from last month. in any case i know everything'll be fine. 

we sang 'amazing grace' in church this morning. i was really happy. 

if i met a genie and i got three wishes i'd first wish for permanent emotional stability. that every day i would wake up know that i would feel normal all day every day. then with the other wishes i'd probably wish for the end of the mass production of meat and a lifetime supply of french fries and ranch. simple enough. i hate with all my heart that i can't control my emotions. i'm so helpless and its pathetic. 

either way, now i'm watching 'once' with raul and listening to the rain. it really is beautiful here. 

keighty

tasty falls.

on day two of our extravagant vacation weekend we went to multnomah falls. we thought it would be all hiky but it was disneyland. it was a beautiful waterfall though. we got a lot of pictures. but we ended up going past the main fall and hiking for 2.5 hours along the colombia river toward horsetails falls. so magical and good. on the way though we stopped at 'tasty falls' appropriately named by me as that is where we stopped to drink. i followed the girl scout rules of drinking only running water and to catch it running off a rock. it was sooo good. so cold and clear and delicious! especially since it was 97 today. it was real mountain spring water...not from a water bottle. at horsetails we drank the water too. it was the best ever. it was a rushing river that would send you flying off the cliff if you fell in, so were careful to not...fall in that is. 

after that we headed back and realized we'd have to walk another 2.5 hours to get home and we were quite tuckered. so we decided to hike down to the road and walk back to where our car was. at first it was fine because it was shaded but then it got sooo hot and there was no where for us to walk so we walked on the side of this bridge and prayed that cars wouldn't hit us. it was scary and so very hot. but we finally made it. i was so dirty and sunburned but it was a beautiful day. 

after coming home i was quite fatigued and laid down in the hallway because i was too dirty to lay on my bed. then i took a shower and went to my room where i found a wonderful* surprise. i got a bill for $473 from northwestern hospital saying that i have to pay them for my emergency room visit..... from march...when i lived in chicago and was under the insurance of the school....and after i already got a statement saying the school paid for everything. when it rains it pours. i understand today that i'll never be on top again. there's no possible way for me to ever save money and i'll live paycheck to paycheck until i die. but there are things to be grateful for. i do have a job, i do have income (however small it is), i have wonderful** roommates, i live in beautiful portland, i'm having a great time, i've never gone hungry. things could be worse, i know. i just get mad at insurance companies. i think they're just looking for me because they know i'll just cry and pay them. money is so messy. i wish i could barter for food. 

*not wonderful at all. 

** actually very wonderful.

speaking of bartering ....

www.peoples.coop.org

i'm into this. i'm also into the chinese food that the boys are bringing home. life is not so bad if you have chinese food. 

keighty

beach slapped

we went to the beach today. we realized that without school life is vacation everyday with a little bit of work sometimes. we went to cannon beach. it's far away, like an hour and a half. not like the 30 minute drive in so-cal, but there's no 55 traffic on the way home here. and it's a beautiful drive. so so many trees. it's just a little two lane road with millions of giant trees on either side then suddenly you're in the west coast equivalent of cape cod. adorable beach town with a lot of blonde rich people. while we were at the beach we saw the kennedy family and played 'walcott' by vampire weekend because it talks about cape cod. also it wasn't the kennedys, clearly. just a blonde fam with a collie dog. it was super windy at the beach...yes, more windy than chicago. but it was warm and nice and besides eating sand we ate so so much food. laurel's picnic basket was perfect.

the laurel got tired and we packed up and left to walk around the town. we saw all the cute beachy-kitschy stores. then we found a pub-ish place with really great ales. and good french fries. it seems like that's all we eat lately. beer and french fries. well, we did that twice, but a lot more than never. 

i got a call from the billing/collections department at chic. damn, they are ruthless and horrible. i've paid them $200 and they keep calling. i left a mean message though and hopefully they'll call me back, or there'll be a lot more of those. i can be tough.

i'm hella sunburned and tired. 

today was a good day. day one of 'three day weekend extravaganza'

keighty

portlandia...

thus far...

i've moved to portland and got a job working with babies... i'm waiting on a kindergarten teaching job. if it get it then i can decorate my own classroom. that is too much. 

recently i've been looking at pictures of people i used to know. i had a lot of hot friends....have? either way they're hot. there was a picture of laurel and i at saphora trying on makeup. i had shiny green lips and looked like a robot. i've changed too much. 

i have the best roommates. which one's my fav? it switches, depending on who's buying the ice cream. 

keighty