Did I say "Urban?"

Starbucks closed...so I've moved to the martini bar around the corner. Did I mention that I like this town?

The transformation is complete.

I am sitting in Starbucks downtown, sipping a tall pumpkin spice latte, wearing a fair-trade wool sweater, Calvin Klein jeans, second-hand Birks, hennaed hair, and typing on my laptop. I probably no longer look like a rural North Dakotan, rather an urban Inland-Northwesterner. And essentially, that is what I now am.

And although I love my home, this is what I've wanted since the first time I visited Spokane at the age of seven. I've longed for the Northwest for a long time. I grew up loving the plains, but adoring Ponderosa pine trees (because of what they represented to me: Washington and my cousins), I've always loved all things Northwestern, liberal, independent, and coffee-house related. I dreamed of writing songs and playing them on my guitar in some little coffee house filled with guys with long hair and short-haired women, multi-colored chairs, art on the wall and an espresso machine whirring in the background. I wanted to get Mehndi tattoos on my hands and feet (I have the leftover henna paste from my hair in the fridge waiting until I have the time.) I've always loved hiking and held a special place in my heart for the Rocky Mountains. (Yes, I realize I'm a bit west of them now.) "Grassroots," "left-wing" "organic" "green" "hippie" and "granola" have always been, and still are, good words in my mind. My trips to Washington throughout my life have always left me feeling refreshed and renewed with an inner sense of "Oh yeah. I'm NOT the only one in the world who thinks the way I do. Being liberal isn't a sin after all!!!" I've wanted to move out here for as long as I can remember and now that I'm in Spokane, I hope to stay awhile...and maybe eventually go even further west! (Spokane is a great city to live in...but Seattle is even bigger and more "left"....quite literally left if you're looking at a map. ) I am in the Northwest and it is good. I have been assimilated.

A Good Day

Yesterday was a good day. Here's why:

• It was Jon's and my "monthiversary" or one-month anniversary. I still adore him....
• Jon and I rode the carousel in Riverfront Park with Bill and Lynn (Jon's friend from high school and his wife) and Ali (another of Jon's friends from high school.) It was fun.
  
• Then we ate at Cyrus O'Leary's and wandered downtown for a bit. I found two good used books at Auntie's bookstore (Berlin: City of Stones by Jason Lutes, and Dakota by Kathleen Norris).
• We went to Merlyn's and looked around for a bit, then went to the Fair Trade show at the Community Building for some Christmas shopping. I walked into Global Folk Art and Lisa was working alone on a busy Sunday so she asked me to cover for her for five minutes while she took a quick break. I also took the opportunity to pay for my Christmas present from my mother. It's a blue hooded zip-front wool sweater imported from Nepal that I've had my eye on at Global Folk Art for awhile. It's warm, practical, pretty....perfect. I'll wear it for a long time.
  
• Jon and I hung out at his apartment and read the books we'd purchased, then walked back downtown to the AMC in Riverpark Square and went to Walk the Line. It's about the life of Johnny Cash and is VERY good. It is among the best love stories of this century. (Jon thought so as well.)
  

Google Earth

Jon showed me Google Earth and it was so cool I had to download it to my computer. It's satellite imagery of the entire earth, including a feature where you can zoom in and see buildings and streets. So far I've found my parent's farm, the street where I stayed in Berlin (I couldn't quite find the apartment building), the Goethe Institute in Berlin, the street where the hostel was that I stayed at in Amsterdam, and the city of Oulu, Finland. What a cool toy!!!

A Fair Trade Christmas

It's that time of year again. Advent began on Sunday and it's time to start thinking of Christmas presents for all your loved ones. I was able to do a lot my Christmas shopping (and my mother's) at the Jubilee Craft Sale on Friday and I'm doing a little more at Global Folk Art today. My goal this year is to buy only fair trade Christmas gifts. What I can't buy I'll try to make myself!! If you're starting to think about Christmas shopping, please allow me to make a few suggestions.

• Friday, November 25 is the day after Thanksgiving and a major Christmas shopping day. It is also the annual Buy Nothing Day. If you can, try to refrain from buying anything on this day. You have 30 other days between then and Christmas on which to buy things and besides the stores will all be crowded that day anyway!
• Buy Fair Trade as much as you can. If you live in the Spokane area, I suggest Global Folk Art (35. W Main Ave.) as an excellent place for Christmas shopping. There is also a fair trade show in the Community Building (35. W Main Ave.) this Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Ganesh Himal, a Spokane based fair trade company that imports things from Nepal will be there, as well as several other local fair trade merchants. Spokane is also home to Moonflower Enterprises, fair trade importers who import beautiful Mayan handicrafts from Guatemala. (Their names are Felipe and Maria and they're really nice.)
• Try to find Fair Trade shops where you live. If you're not sure if a product is fair trade or not, ask if the store or importer is a member of the Fair Trade Federation. Some people may use fair trade practices, which means they pay the artisan who made the product a fair wage, but may not be part of the Fair Trade Federation. Confused? Just ask who made the product you're about to buy and who imported it.
• For those of you who can't find a fair trade store near you, there are plenty of online places to shop fair trade. Some good places: Ten Thousand Villages, Serrv International, and Jesus Wears Fair Trade as well as many others.

Hot Damn!!

Thanks to the Spokane Hot Zone I can take my laptop with me downtown and connect to the interenet almost anywhere. I'm at Global Folk Art volunteering right now.

The Frankhauser Phenomenon

The Frankhauser Phenomenon is a phenomenon by which anyone in Spokane who I am introduced to who is a member of First Presbyterian Church or who is involved in peace and justice and discovers that I am related to "the Frankhausers" immediately treats me with familiarity. This is slightly surreal. The immediate comment is usually, "Oh, you LOOK like a Frankhauser." (You may judge for yourself if this is true or not by looking at the picture on Katie's blog or the photos on Frankhauser.com and comparing them to my photos here on my blog.) While there may be some family resemblence, I know that the Frankhauser phenomenon is largely something in people's heads when they tell me I look like Aunt Mary! (Uncle John is my mom's brother, there is no blood shared between Mary and I.) Katie and I were also told yesterday that we have the same eyes! Her eyes are brown, mine are blue and I'm also positive that I get my eyes from my dad!

hmmm...

www.ptsem.edu

Logos puppets

These are two of our puppets performing in one of our Logos puppet shows. Note the very professional puppet stage created from a table turned on end and covered with a sheet. The puppet on the right that appears to be looking at the ceiling is mine. I hadn't yet learned the fine points of puppeteering...like making your puppet look at the audience instead of the ceiling.

Thoughts on a Rainy Sunday

It's 7:30 am and outside my window rain is dripping from a gray sky. Ellie, our house cat is purring upside down on the comforter beside me and music is wafting in from Jessica's room down the hall.
The odors of the curry Brandon cooked last night still linger in the hallway outside my door. We've finished Logos and Homework Helpers for the fall season. I have chosen to simply let teaching piano serve as my part-time job, eliminating the urgent need to find a job. This leaves me with some unscheduled time on my hands. Fall is here. I have no where to go and no where urgent to be. No plane tickets home, and no classes to attend. I've got plans that will get me comfortably through the next two years I think. I've settled and landed here and it seems my main "job" at the moment is to simply live and breathe and learn and love. It's time now to just "be."

Piano recital

Alycia took this photo at my senior piano recital in April 2004.

Photos

This photo was taken on a hike with my uncle, about an hour from Spokane.

Oh Yeah!!!!!

My laptop arrived today...via UPS...shipped from the Farmer's Union Cenex station in Velva, North Dakota.
I have a laptop...and a wireless connection. I have MSN messenger again.
I feel connected to you all again..finally.
And I have tools now to do really cool stuff, like edit photos, create websites and powerpoint presentations, burn DVDs. ohhh the possibilities are endless. Look out World!!

MXTEATRO

This is the website for a theater ensemble in Mexico. My friend Maria, who I met at the Goethe Institute in Berlin, last winter, is the artistic director.

piano links

This could be a reason to eventually get an MP3 player.

Aha...there's a Frederic Chopin Society in Warsaw.
...but I still don't know exactly how I'm supposed to play that measure on the last page of his "funeral march" (Sonata No. 2 in B flat minor)...and that's the reason I logged onto the internet in the first place.

Edun

You too, (U2) can be concientious, green and sexy to boot!!

Here are some of the expensive sexy clothes with Bono's label, Edun.

IESG #1 - Chapped Lips

Winter is coming and in dry climates like Northeastern Washington and North Dakota have, ones lips tend to chap. Here's what to do about it:

1. Take a terrycloth washcloth and hold it under warm water until it is warm and moist.
2. Hold the warm, moist washcloth against your lips for several seconds. This softens the dry, chapped skin clinging to your lips.
3. Use the washcloth to buff the chapped outer layer of skin off of your lips.
4. Pat dry and apply a moisturizing lip balm liberally. I recommend Chapstick, or Burt's Bees Beeswax Lip Balm.
5. Remember to carry the lip balm with you so you can reapply as needed throughout the day.

This information may be especially useful if you know someone you might want to kiss!!!

Warning: Lip balm can be HIGHLY ADDICTIVE!!!! Learn more here..

The Introvert's Everything Survival Guide

Based loosely on the Worst Case Scenario Survival Handbook, this will be a sporadic, but semi-regular installment on my blog. It will include my thoughts and ideas on surviving life and things I've learned in my 23 short years on this planet. Hopefully this will include ideas on everything from healing chapped lips to getting places on the German Rail system, to butchering a chicken, to creating a compost pile, to dealing with crowds of people. It will NOT include information on how to wrestle free from an alligator or escape from a sinking car. (Although if I ever should have those experiences, I'll certainly share the details with you.) Some may find this information useful, some may not. Hopefully at the very least you'll find it somewhat entertaining.

Adult missioner

Not only am I an adult, but as of Sunday I am now officially a Missioner here at Westminster House. "Missioner" is simply Presbyterian-ese for "missionary."

At the age of 23, I am a missionary. How the hell did that happen?

Editor's Note, November 23, 2005: I was reading through my journal today and found this brief entry from August 5 2004. "....God, I think I want to be a missionary for You."
Right. So that's how the hell it happened. In the future I'll be more careful when I tell God what I think.

Adulthood

Somewhere between there and here it seems, I've grown up. I'm an adult.

When did this happen? How did this happen?

Here is a bulleted list of evidence to support my hypothesis that I am now an official grown-up adult person. (But never a "grown-up!" Grown-ups are those boring people who've forgotten the joy of life's simple things and who cannot tell a hat from the inside of a boa constrictor.)

• I can communicate comfortably on a deeper-than-surface level with other people my own age.
• I am responsible for my own finances. I earn my own money and I keep a careful budget and pay attention to where that money goes.
• I live about 1000 miles from my parents and the place of my birth and although I still love my parents I am perfectly alright with living far away.
• People around me seem to view me as responsible and trust me with things...like their children.
• I feel fairly comfortable and relatively confident driving in Spokane a city that has traffic and even a freeway.
• I see other people value my thoughts and ideas and therefore I value them myself, enough so that I share them with you and the people around me.
• I am no longer mortified at the thought of going shopping. (Although I am still concientious about reflecting my ideals and values in the way I spend my money.) I may even begin developing a very latent fashion sense.
• I've been utterly alone and relied on myself and I know that I can do that again if I need to.
• I had my hair cut and styled today (for the second time) by Carrie at Bella Designs Hair Salon, downtown. It didn't terrify me to let her try something a little different and make my hair "flicky." And it didn't bother me to pay what I paid for that haircut because I know she is a trained professional and because I know that strangers reactions to me are subtly influenced by my appearance. In other words, I now have a hairstylist!!!
• I just purchased my very first laptop!
• I am beginning to see my mother as a friend and I hope that is mutual.
• I am dating a man who is well-educated and intelligent and works in an office downtown. I met up with him for lunch one day. (But I'm pretty sure Jon would recognize an elephant inside of a boa costrictor.)

So, there lies the evidence. I keep myself fed and clothed, and clean and dry. I do my laundry and clean my room on occasion. And I try to keep an eye out to help those around me as well. Somehow, on this perilous journey called life, I've reached the next level. I made it. I am an adult.

Cyber Hymnal

An Online Cyber Hymnal with words to any hymn you can possibly imagine.

The Moderator has a blog

This is a link to the Rick Ufford Chase's blog.
Jon and Katie both think he's pretty amazing, and I'm looking forward to meeting him at breakfast tomorrow morning.

Smash!!!

This is an excerpt from an e-mail I sent my mom.....

I'm finding a few things that I still own that I received from M. One of them is my computer. Since I'm getting this laptop I won't need that computer anymore...and it's kind of a crappy computer. It died once and M. accidently revived it, because he was angry with it for dying and since it was no longer useful and because he was angry with it, he struck the computer with a hatchet and then made a blowtorch by holding a lighter in front of an aerosol can and torched it....and the computer came back to life. Bizarre. So, what I'm doing is cleaning all the files I want to keep off of the computer and then, I want to take it to a bridge that my housemate knows of and drop if off of the bridge and watch it smash on the highway below. (This will all be done carefully with people posted down the highway to ensure that it doesn't accidentally get dropped on a passing car...and the pieces will be cleaned up when I'm done. )
We're sharing lifestories with each other during our house family time, so I told my housemates my entire life story, including the part about burying my engagement ring in Montana. As I told my story, the absurdity of some of the things I've done struck me and it was really funny...and they laughed too. It was a good experience. So my housemates understand why it would really fun to drop M's computer off of a bridge...and they think it's a fun idea too. (I may have someone salvage useful parts off the computer before I drop it.)

Rick Ufford Chase

I should probably mention that this Sunday I and the other three people who live here in Westminster House are being commissioned as part of the Sunday morning service. This is cool. What's even cooler is that we've worked the commissioning into what we call "Missioner Sunday" which means that the missioners of Westminster House are responsible for leading the entire worship service at Westminster Presbyterian Church on Sunday. Jason is preaching the sermon, Jessica is doing announcements and call to worship and Brandon and I are in charge of all the music, including a really fun special number. And Don, Sandy and the moderator of the general assembly of the Presbyterian church, Rick Ufford Chase will be in charge of the commissioning. That is amazing!!

Storytelling

I am amazed day by day by the stories I discover here in West Central Spokane. My internal writer says "You must write these stories down. Perhaps you could have a book someday." I was just paging through an old Westminster House scrapbook and I discovered I am not the first person to realize these stories must be told. Many missioners before me have journalled and shared the stories they have discovered here and those stories are saved in the scrapbooks. It is amazing to live in a house so full of love. Looking through old scrapbooks and meeting the amazing people who have lived in Westminster House through the years I am so inspired. There are truly wonderful amazing people in this world and many of them have lived in this house. I can almost feel the love they've left behind in the carpets...in the walls...in the kitchen...on the dining room table that has been signed by every single person who has lived in Westminster House. God is in this place.

pondering

It was a really intense weekend. The reality of what it means to live in Wesminster House and minister in this neighborhood hit me last night full force. I have many things I want to write about ...thoughts on poverty, community building, the true meaning of loving and serving those around you and the vast enormous-ness of God. I want to share my thoughts on all these things because I want the greater community of people I know and care about (and people who read this blog) to understand this place I'm living in and to understand and learn, as I am learning, about poverty..and community...and love.
For now I will simply say that my dear friend Lisa came to Spokane to visit me this weekend. We had a wonderful time together talking, exploring downtown Spokane, going to Greenbluff and walking through a cornmaze with Jon and Brandon and Vergy and some of Jon's friends, and seeing firsthand some of the ministries in the West Central neighborhood. I am thankful that she took time off from school to make the trip out here and I feel blessed to have such a wonderful friend.
At the same time, I was able to take Jon and Lisa out to my Aunt and Uncle's house for supper. Lisa liked them and they liked her, but what was also wonderful was the opportunity to introduce Jon to them as my boyfriend. (John's response was "And? Tell me something I don't already know"...that's the problem with having an uncle who is perceptive.)
Being the odd people that we are, and seeing as how family gatherings could get confusing with THREE John's in the family now, Jon has the new nickname "TOJ"...or "The Other Jon"
Welcome to the family...TOJ.