penn

A Night Wanderer

I have a story sitting in my head right now. I was washing dishes and listening to Death Cab for Cutie's "I will Follow you into the Dark." Excellent, melancholy song. I'm working on learning it for the uke, but it has some difficult chords. In any case, the song is only peripherally relevant. One line brings me back a few years: "illuminate the 'no's on their vacancy signs."

In the summer of 2005, I moonlighted at a motel. I have so many entertaining memories from that job. It was actually a lot of fun, and the only truly disappointing part was my meager wages.

One night, a woman stumbled into the office. She'd just driven up, but it was clear that she wasn't in any shape to be driving. She loudly exclaimed "I need my room!"

Uh, room? What room? Do you want to reserve a room?

"No, I have a room. I paid already. Where is my room? I'm in 6."

I scoured the computer for her reservation, looked through receipts, and tried asking her all sorts of questions. I couldn't find her anywhere. Maybe she was staying at Motel 6, on the other end of town? A quick call into them determined that she hadn't been there either.

"No, I paid thirty-five dollars, and I want my room. See, I have my key!"

Wait a sec, key? She pulled out an honest-to-goodness key with the number 6 on the key fob. We certainly didn't use a key, and I haven't been to a motel with a key in years. Only one place in town would a) sell a room that cheap and b) be cheap enough to still use actual keys.

A phone call there confirmed it; she was staying at the dive motel in the middle of town. I explained directions, but I'm not sure how much she really understood. All I know is that she hopped into her car and drove off.

Ever since, I've wondered about that lady (and many other kooky characters I met at this tiny motel in a tiny town). Should I have called the cops? The town itself was only two miles long; not much to hit, but if she did hit something, it wouldn't be good. Should I have put her up at our place for the night, even though she didn't pay? Was she sent to teach me a lesson, or is this just another one of those unfortunate occurrences that happen from time to time? I often think we live in a divided country that houses many lost souls that most of us rarely experience more than in passing.

Fun with math

Today, I was working with a volunteer to collect sap on one of our motorized vehicles at work (yes, it's maple syrup time here in Minnesota!). We were chatting as we drove back to the building, and the topic of golf came up.

The volunteer was talking about the old golf course at the Minneapolis Airport. It's not there anymore; it was a victim of airport expansion. For some reason, he mentioned the par, and I asked what that term even meant. The course is par 3 for 18 holes, and he said "hmm, 3x18, that'd be 9x6 so 54 strokes for the entire course."

Uh, say what?

For some reason, I've never thought of simplifying math problems by factoring. But it's quite basic and a really nifty trick. See, 18 is really just 3x3x2. If you want to multiply 18 by 3, you're just doing 3x3x3x2. You can split that out as 3x3 by 3x2, or 9x6.

Fun times in math land!

Really?

I'm watching the health care "debates," and it's just ridiculous. I'm glad that I am not in politics. First of all, some of the crap (from both sides) is vomit worthy in terms of lies being spewed out. Several people are directly saying things that have already been debunked or dealt with. Abortion, it seems, is the biggest issue that keeps being talked about.

Mostly, it's just frustrating for me to hear. Matt's watching it, but I think it is time for me to leave the room. It seems like everyone sees this vote (and all other "big" votes) will be the apocalypse.

For me, I think I'll go now and just read about it tomorrow in the NYTimes.

Update: I picked up a book while Matt kept watching. Interesting to see the votes come in. I'm still frustrated that abortion seems to be a central part of this issue, even though abortion is only the very smallest portion of health care. So far, the Senate version of the bill has been passed, and they are moving forward to the rest of the votes.

I definitely think I am too full of passion and bias to be entirely level-headed on this topic. As one who buys my own health care, I already spend plenty of time thinking about health care costs as it is.

Hafla

Some pictures from my belly dancing adventures. I finished my 8 week class last Thursday, and I danced in a show on Sunday evening! The costume was borrowed from my teacher. Our choreography was short (~1 minute), and only two of us danced, but it was still excellent. I'll be continuing the class for the next 6 weeks, and I might go even longer depending on my teacher's schedule. Turns out that belly dancing is quite a bit of fun.

Waiting to dance; we're wrapped up in caftans in order to keep our costumes from the audience. We got to sit there until a few dances before we went so that we could enjoy the rest of the show.

Dancing! I'm on the right. This is the very beginning of the dance, and I promise that my smile got much bigger after the photo.

At intermission with my dance partner, Lori.

With our dance teacher, Kate

Just for fun, a beautiful picture of another dance. I took a lot of pictures in the second half, but I struggled with low light.

What a great time! I truly love trying new things to try. I am genuinely thrilled that my 101 things list has led me to some amazing experiences.

Job

I'm pleased to say that after several months of searching (and subbing), I have gotten a seasonal position. For the next six months or so, I will be working as a naturalist at a nature center on the south end of the Twin Cities.

My job duties will mostly involve teaching homeschool and fieldtrips for the school year, and then I'll switch to teaching summer camp. I'm sure there will be many more job duties I'll discover as I work my way in.

My field -- environmental education -- is an interesting one. The jobs are a lot of fun, so there is high demand and a large pool of workers. Therefore, it takes quite a bit of experience to advance. People typically start by doing internships for a year or two, and then they move into seasonal naturalist positions. I've got just one year of internship (here in Minnesota) and three months of seasonal naturalist (in Maine). I'll add another six months now, and some people credit me three more months for working at the canoe/river camp in Ann Arbor. I'm slowly building up the experience necessary to move my way up in the field.

We'll see what the future holds. Returning to school to work on a teaching license is another strong future possibility, as is looking for more permanent positions. For now, I'm excited to head back to work.

Brewing Beer: part 2, the bottling

Yesterday, we showed you how beer is brewed in the casa here. We actually have a batch in our closet as I write; Matt likes to keep it rolling. It takes two weeks from the first brewing and primary fermenter until you move the beer into the secondary fermenter. Then, the beer does a week or two in the secondary fermenter (usually more on the two side). After bottling, the beer does another two weeks of aging in the bottle before it's ready to go. It's a pretty long process, so, as I mentioned before, patience is key.

Today, pics of the bottling process!

The secondary fermenter, and our crowded closet. We don't have room in the bedroom for dresses or camping gear or shoes, so they go in here.

Brewing Beer: part 1

Matt loves to homebrew his beer, and I often get recruited to lend a hand. I took some photos last time and would love to share them with you all. These are pictures of brewing the brown ale.

First things first, we get the water hot. It has to be about 155F or so. This requires lots of patience. In fact, beer brewing in general requires a lot of patience.

As we waited, we got the grain sock ready. This is made up of barley and some other grains that make the beer yummy. There's a wide range of grains in there, and we're not quite sure exactly what it is (Matt, still being a novice, uses a kit that gives you all the ingredients you need).

Getting that grain sock in there! It's basically a tea bag of grainy goodness.

It's the little things

The velcro on my ski jacket keeps getting snagged on my sweaters or nice shirts. I realize I probably shouldn't wear a ski jacket to nice functions, but it is the warmest coat I own by far. I do have a nice coat, and perhaps that needs to come out of the closet from time to time. In any case, the ski jacket velcro is still an issue, and I found a great solution the other day: more velcro!

I got some opposite side velcro and cut it to size. It's now over the top of the offending, grabs-my-sweater velcro, and I'm pleased to report that my sweaters are now all safe. From velcro, at least.

Domestic Forays

Matt and I like to cook together, and we've done quite a bit over the last few months. I'm catching up on posting all my old pics, so these are from a wide variety of time. We got an Alton Brown book for Christmas, and we've been playing around with several of those recipes. I've got a few pics to share, both of one of his recipes and of some other stuff.

First, our little kitchen where we do all our cooking and beer brewing. In this pic, I was making apple pie for Matt.

The Shenandoah Apple Pie that I made for Matt (recipe by April)

Homemade mac-and-cheese from Alton Brown's book

And Matt enjoying the mac-and-cheese with some homebrew

I've also been making lots of banana bread. I love eating bananas, but they're not appealing when they get a bit mushy. I then throw them in the freezer. I had quite a stockpile when Matt insisted I do something with them. I've probably baked 4 or 5 batches of banana bread in the last two months. They frequently get shared with the boys in our dorm. I made muffins here in my new silicone baking cups that I got for Christmas.

And, finally, some homemade pizza. This is steak pizza from our leftover steak.

101 things: month 23

97. Go ice skating

We went ice skating, and it was so much fun. We skated for a whole hour, and neither of us fell down. It did take me about 10 minutes to get my bearings, so Matt and I held hands for the first bit of skating. After that, I launched off on my own and did pretty well. I'm definitely not amazing, but I'm proud that I was able to stay up on my own.

We went skating at this lovely place in downtown Minneapolis called The Depot skating rink. It used to be an old train station, and it's super lovely.

The zamboni machine there is even in-theme!

And, finally, photographic proof that I was really there. Thanks to the teenage skater who was maneuverable enough to take this photo for us. We would have stood closer together, but that was more talent than I could muster. I'm just glad I was able to stop in the middle of the rink without having to hit a wall.

the tally:
0 more in progress for 7 total in progress
1 more completed for 52 total completed