oldie old

i feel really old these days. i think i realized this because i'm working with a 16 year old girl, and it suddenly occurred to me that i'm 6 years older than a 16 year old. 6 years older! as you might be able to assume (or not), she's really annoying. when i told her i go to school in oregon, she said "omigod. are you kidding??!" to which i replied...i don't remember, probably a grunt, or something. yesterday she showed me that she broke a fingernail and started whining, so i punched her in the face. not really, though, but it was a nice thought.

also, my knees have been achy lately, so i know i'm gettin up there

Going to the backcountry

So tomorrow morning I leave for this 36 day hike, 500 miles from Denver to Durango. I'm excited and scared shitless at the same time. The past week I've been making granola and cooking and dehydrating food non-stop. Preparing 36 days worth of food ahead of time is no joke. It's so intimidating and impossible to think about how much we'll be able to eat. 15 miles a day will probably up the appetite, but looking at these boxes of food set aside for resupplies its hard to think that we might go hungry, although that's all anyone talks about who has done a through-hike like this. I hope I don't starve. So I'm hiking with this guy Ford, who I know through dancing, like almost everyone I know, and I think it'll be fun. We don't know each other all that well, but did a 3 day 36 mile loop as a prep trip a week ago and all went well, so ya. Also have 4-5 people joining for segments along the way and resupplying us with these lovely boxes full of peanut butter, dried fruit and nuts, pasta, quinoa, dried hummus etc. So I should be back in Denver August 5th or 6th, rejoining civilization after a month of mountains. I hope my body holds out. And I'm super frenzied right now, but love you all and look forward to reading about your summers later.

hobo jungle

this is what I wrote in my notebook during bio class on june 17th at Zena. It's mainly a list of words I like, and all the weird Alaska place names I could think of.

(in the margins:)

jjohns: "what is sustainability?"

"long-term longevity"-Kali

holy shit

"I'm a little scattered here, sorry" -Jennifer Johns

fucking sustainability

----------------------------------

ptarmigan tarmac sage

mokum(sp?) viticulture succession

fig oak visceral fallow

silty clay loam heirloom

french press jasmine bergamot

hops unwieldy India Pale Ale

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alder tendril shale

kale wigwam salmon

slough

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Bethel

Norton Sound

Nome

Talkeetna

Dillingham

Ouzinkie

Tok

Eek

Minto

Barrow

Egegik

Naknek

Ugashik

Nushagak

Kvichak

Uyak

Uganik

Ugat

Alitak

Ahkiok

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It is finally hot in Salem. I'm listening to Joanna Newsom, a strange and lovely musician.

Brett and Madz: I am awaiting your arrivals eagerly! What should we do for the 4th of July?

Jacamo Fi Na Nay

I woke up early this morning hoping to find sunshine. Alas, the one time I successfully start my day early it's dark and ominous here in the Big Easy. I've got a little less than 2 weeks here at home. My decision to go back to Salem early was a hard one for my parents to hear and thus a hard one to make. I suppose going to school so far from home has its consequences. However, having such a limited time in one place with certain people always succeeds to create a urgent sense of optimism and opportunism. Thus I am awake early ready to get the most out of my day and my city.

Yesterday was the first day of summer, summer solstice. I don't buy it. How can that be the first day of summer if I have been sweating bullets since I got here in 95 F, 87% humid weather? I've lost about 10 lbs since I've been here and I swear I must have sweated it all out. Ya'll shoulda seen me camping in Florida, sleeping in my underwear on top of a sleeping bag in the tent. For the first time I sang Nelly's "Hot in Heere" in the most literally appropriate scenario.

Being home has been really good. Making the transitions between Salem/Home and Home/Salem are always difficult for me. There's always something going on and this city never sleeps. But again I find myself conscious of an underlying state of fear necessary for survival in this city. I feel myself suspicious of people in a way that can't compare to the suspiciousness I feign against Salem hobos. It's racist and it makes me feel like a bad person.

But New Orleans is such a beautiful mix of cultures and people love it so fiercely. It's simultaneously stale and fresh, dangerous and safe, ugly and beautiful. But from the Oyster, Zydeco, and Seafood festivals to birdwatching in the Bayou Savage swamp to meandering down the ancient streets of the French Quarter and hearing people everywhere call me "baby," I really do love this place and it will always be home.

Coming back to Salem I have no plans. Nor do I have a job. I am hoping that in my idle state I will become fiercely creative writing novels, composing ballets and knitting sweaters for my future grandkids. But while there's people I love down here in the South, there's people I love up in the Pacific Northwest whom I am so excited to see. Natty, I'm truly bummed you won't be there (and that goes for all you roamers).

But I'm ready to explore Salem, it's still a mystery to me. I'm wondering if I can find a love that can compare to the fierceness with which I love New Orleans, and I don't doubt it's possible. Especially in that summer sun (there is sun there by now right?) Anywhere there's people there's love and culture, sometimes it's just not so obvious.

Love yall.

ps. anyone who has any sort of (il)legal access to HBO should watch the show Treme. Talk about a beautiful, realistic portrait of the life I experience in New Orleans.

pps. I picked up a great magazine called Bitch. It's a collection of feminist responses to pop culture and the media out of Portland. There was a great article about representations (or, until recently, lack thereof) of the female orgasm in hip hop/rap songs in the last decade. So great.

ah, the bounty of Oregon!

I am on the 6th and final week of the Zena farm summer program. I live at the farmhouse with 5 other campers, plus katie rigs, our RA. Despite some fairly large organizational shortcomings of the program, I have really liked living out on the farm. The stars are surprisingly clear and plentiful on fair nights, despite our close proximity to Salem. We do a couple hours of manual labor a day; shoveling compost, etc, which feels healthy and invigorating and directly useful.

We have also visited several small-scale organic farms in the valley, which has been one of the most impressive aspects of the program for me. To see people making a living by just growing vegetables and selling them at markets is...hmm, inspiring I think is the word. These farmers have such extensive and intimate knowledge about the land they live and work with, and the food that they grow. A farmer named Elanor said to us, as we commented on the gorgeous, green, lush landscape her farm sits in, "We are more interested in what this place is doing to us than what we do to it."

She and her husband were clearly very knowledgeable farmers, and probably could have expanded their production and/or income at the expense of soil health, water health, and wildlife, but that just wasn't their philosophy. I love meeting people who choose lifestyles immersed in nature over shittier but higher paying jobs. It is such a physical and visceral life, one that seems incredibly healthy and nourishing, and is very closely connected to the earth. cliche as that sounds, it's really true. It's not hard to see why some people choose it.

I've also been picking up tidbits of knowledge about wine lately, secondhand from Brian, who now works at Willamette Valley vineyards.

Did you know that manioc, cassava, and yucca are the same plant?

Aside from Twilight, what has everyone been reading so far this summer? I've been liking Walt Whitman's "Leaves of Grass" lately.

wyo-ming

why, o ming?

this post isn't actually about ming, but evan came up with it and i thought it was clever. so im using it.

wyoming is impossible to get used to. not just the bi-polar weather but just the majesty of the scenery keeps your head swiveling on car rides or hikes because you just don't want to miss a view. you're so busy trying to capture the carpet of green grass, austere lime and dark trees, rivers, and whatever snow-capped mountain range that is running alongside you that you almost forget to look for wildlife. almost. when meghan and i drove to her house in cora my first week here she pointed to a moose on the side of the road that was just gaping at oncoming traffic very stoically. only when we were whizzing past it did i realize it was a statue. nice, ari. she said that was the longest anyone had gone believing it was real. really nice, ari. apparently evan fell for the same hoax further along the highway where there is a herd of fake buffalo on a ridge. one of them is an albino. crazy cowboys and their practical jokes on us city simpletons.

ok, the weather. one day we watched a great two-hour thunder and lightning storm on meghan's deck. it was going four different directions at once. one minute it was 60 and purple outside, and the next there was 30 mph wind and white hail that blanketed everything in sight. her horses would freak out every time there was a big clap of thunder so they would take off running. it was a beautiful sight, although i did feel bad they were getting pelted with hail. yesterday was sunny and we went hiking in grand teton national park and we saw so many animals. brett looked them up online when we got back. we saw three or four grouse birds and about thirty gazillion stonechucks (relative of the woodchuck). they're like big furry gophers the color of red barkdust. and they're really friendly. i think brett has fifty pictures of one that was an arm's length away eating pine needles and staring at us. the coolest sighting though was a young moose that was ambling by. i cant wait to go on more excursions and camping at yellowstone, but coordinating schedules of everyone in the house might be a little tough.

right now ming is in california visiting dodo. meghan is in china. evan is staying at meghan's house and looking after her menagerie (except they're not wild, but still. three dogs, four horses, two cats. full time job). evan's two friends, tim and sean, are visiting, as is brett. haha, the house is in a constant flux.

im working fulltime at shades cafe off the center square in town.... all the food is homemade fresh, the ipod has artists like beirut, architecture in helsinki, sufjan stevens, fleetwood mac, the shins, etc. the people are all really friendly and down to earth. lots of regulars come in. i get tons of free food, and hella tips. needless to say, this is the first job i've ever liked. haha, i guess telefund and canvassing last summer isn't really a hard thing to beat in a comparison, but still. life is really good right now. im hanging out with a co-worker later until the wee hours (drinking and art galleries and dancing), but before that i'm off to go hike snow king, whose trailhead begins on the edge of town. up and down, man.

ahhhhhh, summertime. i finished the twilight saga. the last book was legitmately good i thought. it's embarrassing how many times i think about it. last night i actually had a twilight-esque dream, where i was bella-esque... yikes

a case against encores

Tonight I saw the band Miike Snow (ps they were awesome check em out here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=niKT-kJfUz4&feature=fvst ) at a venue called the Republic with my dad. It was definitely an amazing show. I wasn't sure if I was witnessing an indie/rock outfit or participating in a techno trance dance. Regardless of how awesome they were, I felt the same fake sense of obligation to clap a few times and 'woo' half-heartedly when they walked off the stage, instruments still at the ready, and the lights didn't give any sign of coming on. This my friends, is the modern day encore. When a band does the cliche routine of walking off stage and we pretend we don't want them to leave and we beg them to stay even though we know they're going to come on a do a few more songs and they know they're not about to leave because they haven't performed their radio hit yet...

All I'm sayin is, it's fake. I would respect a band so much for just performing a beautiful awesome whole complete well rounded set and leave it at that. Nameley this has been done by Peter Bjorn and John and Architecture in Helsinki, kudos. But so, only then if we threaten to tear the place down unless you play one more song, go for the encore.

Travel Plans, Inter Alia

I'm home now. 5469 Chico Way NW, Bremerton WA 98312-1245, USA, Earth, System Sol, Orion Arm, Milky Way Galaxy, Universe in Which I Think I Live. I think my parents would be upset to discover I've posted our address on the internet. We shred every piece of paper that has our address on it. This makes no sense to me because we're listed in the phone book under E E Dahlberg. Oh well. Being home is comfortable, but remembering some of the rules is difficult sometimes. Like shredding the mail; opening letters with a letter opener; flushing the toilet after every use, even if I only peed in it; and letting the day's dirty dishes (except some wood-handled knives that get washed immediately after use) accumulate until, once each day, they're washed after my dad finishes his shower, at about 1825.

I plan to leave here in a few days, though. It'll begin with waking up at about 3:10AM on Monday 07 June to take a 4:25 ferry from Bainbridge Island to Seattle, where I'll meet up with Evan at about 4:50AM to drive to Wyoming. I think I'll stay in Wyoming until the middle-ish of July. Then I'll head back (not sure how yet--bussing, flying, and hitchhiking are all on the table) home before going on a two-week cruise to Alaska with my extended family. I think the cruise will be a really interesting experience for three equally salient reasons:

1. I feel a bit uncomfortable with people doing things for me.
2. It's a small cruise ship, and my family will make up about a third of the guests. Some of us haven't seen each other in years.
3. We're going to Alaska! I expect it'll be beautiful.

Oh, incidentally, here's a music recommendation: "Sun's Gonna Rise" by The Wailin' Jennys. Put your headphones on, turn the volume up high, and wait for some gut-wrenching high-pitched vocal harmonies. Follow that up with "Heaven and Earth" by Blitzen Trapper.

Our flight from Alaska to SeaTac arrives at SeaTac on 14 August. My flight from SeaTac to Seoul leaves the morning of 16 August. I anticipate a hectic 48 hours in which my mother will become frenetic, my father will keep to himself, and I'll pack and respond to my mothers inquests with short, terse answers.

Then, if everything goes according to plan (but then whatever does?) I'll be in Seoul on the 17th and begin teaching on the 21st. I think it'll be a fun ride.

I've been updating my journal/scrapbook, and I came across this gem:

07 July 2009 1124
By the airBaltic Ticket Counter
Līdosta Rīga
Rīga Latvia

I wonder why beautiful women seem to congregate in airports.
OR: What is it about traveling that makes women seem beautiful?

(Līdosta is the Latvian word for airport)

That was updated a few months later in the following entry:

26 December 2009 between 2120 and 0925
Seat 36G. Boeing 767 ER(G)
Somewhere between New York City and Dublin
Atlantic Ocean (Over it)

Addendum to a previous entry about women in the airport: what seems to make the proportion of women wearing brightly colored fleece sweatsuits skyrocket in airports?