Dakotah
She writes in lieu of sleep and walks in dreams
Aching hearts and bleeding bones
the prophets of Dakota soil
When will you bleed?
When will you dream?
Sorrow dies a lonely death on barbed wire fences
Meadowlark prophets sing lonely sagebrush songs
you thought only coyotes sang those songs.
I too am a poet
like my mother
like my father
like my aunts and uncles
We are all the children of Dakota soil
We are all the grain, the product of sweat and tears
We are all poets
We all grow sorrow
12.30.2005
12.29.2005
Epiphany
Time keeps on slipping.......
It's been awhile since I've posted, what with the Christmas season and all, however it is still the twelve days of Christmas. I also have not finished the story of anhydrous ammonia and the railroads that run through my home state. There is more....much more.
I will say that I had an absolutely wonderful Christmas with my wonderful boyfriend and his really nice family. His little cousins are adorable little people who have captured my heart and sorta challenged my notions that small children are all terrors. Kendra and Everett are sweet and well-behaved and love their parents and even come and give ME a hug when they say "goodbye." Observing Jon's entire family actually has challenged my ideas of how families behave. And this is a very very good thing.
My family was sorta shaken the year my Grandma Frankhauser died. I was only seventeen at the time and I've never really talked about how hard it was on my end. But those are stories for another time and another place.
I wish you all a wonderful Epiphany Season.
It's been awhile since I've posted, what with the Christmas season and all, however it is still the twelve days of Christmas. I also have not finished the story of anhydrous ammonia and the railroads that run through my home state. There is more....much more.
I will say that I had an absolutely wonderful Christmas with my wonderful boyfriend and his really nice family. His little cousins are adorable little people who have captured my heart and sorta challenged my notions that small children are all terrors. Kendra and Everett are sweet and well-behaved and love their parents and even come and give ME a hug when they say "goodbye." Observing Jon's entire family actually has challenged my ideas of how families behave. And this is a very very good thing.
My family was sorta shaken the year my Grandma Frankhauser died. I was only seventeen at the time and I've never really talked about how hard it was on my end. But those are stories for another time and another place.
I wish you all a wonderful Epiphany Season.
12.19.2005
A little righteous anger Part 2
As the story ended last time Stephanie and her friends were trapped in a college dorm. Poisonous gases filled the air outside the windows. Many questions remained. Would they be rescued? Would they live to tell the tale? Who would play their characters if this were made into a movie? And of course the question that everyone wants the answer to.. .WHat DO hot college chicks do when threatened by poisonous gas? Many have speculated. Some have suggested pillow fights or asphyxiation fetishes. Good guesses all, but no, the answer is much different and it involves..yes. THE SHOWERS!!! (ooohhh aren't you all tingly inside?)
Doors opened up and down the hall. People were waking up. The RA finally came to our room and said that she'd been told to send everyone to the bathrooms. We were to turn on the showers to put moisture and humidity in the air, breathe through wet washcloths and stay in the bathroom with the door closed until further notice. Al and I lived across from the bathroom. We crowded in along with all the other girls on our side of the 4th floor. Someone brought in a radio in hopes that eventually someone would announce something and we would all know what was going on. But it just played country music. All four showers were running and the air in the bathroom slowly began to feel a little better. I kept the washcloth over my face. At some point my roommate must have inhaled some of the anhydrous air because I remember her coughing uncontrollably. I wanted to help but I didn't know what to do. We all sat on the cold tile floor. Most of us had brought our blankets or pillows and most of us were in our pajamas. I don't remember if there was praying on our side, although Kirstie later said that they were praying in the bathroom on the other side of the 4th floor. I may have said a couple silent prayers. Mostly there was annoyance and confusion. "Why aren't they announcing anything on the radio?" "Damn these stalls are uncomfortable" "I can't take it anymore. I'm going to pee. No one listen, okay?"
The RA came in, then left again. She didn't have any useful news. Then she came back and announced that we were going to the first floor. We should not try to go back to our rooms, just come as we were, (like sheep) and follow her downstairs to the first floor and stay together. I believe there was some confusion as to whether anhydrous gas rises or sinks. Because of some misinformation, the RA's had concluded that anhydrous ammonia being a gas, must rise and therefore we would be safer in the first floor bathrooms. (WRONG!!!!!)
I felt a slight dry burny feeling in the air as we stepped out of the bathroom. We filed down the hall. I was terrified because I didn't know if the RA knew what she was talking about or what was going on. Would we have to go outside? We went through the door into the stairwell. The air was MUCH worse here. I felt a little panicky at the pit of my stomach. What was the RA DOING? Why were we following her orders? The air was definitely worse here and now we would exert ourselves going downstairs. What if we passed out? I could literally feel it getting more painful to breathe as we descended the steps. This was not good. I prayed that the RA's knew things we didn't know and that there would be some sort of help on the first floor...or that the bathrooms there wouldn't be too crowded.
We all stood in the hallway near the main doors on the first floor. We were waiting for further instructions from the RA's. They looked scared. Finally they said that they'd been told that anhydrous gas actually sinks. And so we would all be safer on the 4th floor. Right. So we turned around and filed slowly BACK UP THE FRICKIN' STAIRS. Back to the bathrooms...except I think there were more of us this time. It was crowded in the bathroom and I was sorta fed up with everything. I think by this time we'd all figured out we weren't really going to die. We just had to sit on a stupid cold bathroom floor and wait all night when we'd rather be sleeping in our beds. But the air in our rooms was probably tainted with poisous anhydrous ammonia gas. So we sat on the tile floor wedged in between the bathroom stalls and talked, or complained. Some of us tried to curl up on the floor and go to sleep. It was a LOOOONG night. Around 5:00 a.m. we were given the all clear sign and told we could go back to our rooms and sleep if we wanted. I believe it was about this time that there were finally some sort of announcements on the radio. Now that it was beginning to get a bit lighter and visiblity was a bit better, lots of people were going to the emergency room and it was crowded. I believe they said you should only come if it truly was a life or death emergency.
Al and I went back to our room. I wanted to sleep, but was a bit wound up. Al lay on her bottom bunk and coughed uncontrollably. I stared at her awhile. "Are you going to be okay?" More coughing. Al had mild asthma. "Should I take her to the emergency room?" I thought. "I don't know if it's safe for me to be driving out there yet. I don't know if we can bother the RA's and I don't know if she's bad enough to go to the emergency room if they're already full." She kept coughing. I rewet her washcloth for her and decided she probably wasn't going to die quite yet. She breathed through the washcloth until she fell asleep. I lay in bed and tried to breathe through my washcloth, but eventually it felt smothering and annoying and I tossed it away and tried to sleep. I felt angry and upset and scared and frustrated. I finally fell asleep and when I awoke mid-morning I called my parents and let them know it was all okay. Classes were cancelled for the day and the town was basically shut down because everyone was at home cleaning the residual white powder that the gas had left off of carpets and out of drapes. If they weren't at home cleaning they were in the hospital with major burns to their lung or eye tissue. A few of us remained seemingly unscathed. Cat and Al and Kirstie and I chose to carry on with our plan of a road trip to Moosejaw. We packed our things and left early afternoon with high spirits. I remember stopping for gas on the way out of town and noticing that the women's bathroom in the gas station still held that ammonia smell. We talked and laughed as Al drove. We were escaping the poisonous gas. We even wrote a movie about our experience on the way and Cat may share the details of that movie with you, but probably for a fee.
That is my story. It is anticlimactic, but scary nevertheless. There were others who had experiences MUCH worse than spending the night in a dorm bathroom. Many people fled to the shelter of friends' homes outside of the city. Other people simply drove their cars through the blinding white fog up to the north hill or the south hill where the air was clearer. Deer died. Small birds nesting in trees near the train wreck were asphyxiated immediately. Household pets were affected. Most painful of all was the simple fact that a young healthy man suffocated to death on his front lawn in a trailer court near the deraillment. He'd heard the noise the deraillment made, went outside to see how he could help, and became disoriented by the blinding fog of gas. He wandered around until he collapsed and suffocated laying in the snow. Emergency crews found him in the morning.
Doors opened up and down the hall. People were waking up. The RA finally came to our room and said that she'd been told to send everyone to the bathrooms. We were to turn on the showers to put moisture and humidity in the air, breathe through wet washcloths and stay in the bathroom with the door closed until further notice. Al and I lived across from the bathroom. We crowded in along with all the other girls on our side of the 4th floor. Someone brought in a radio in hopes that eventually someone would announce something and we would all know what was going on. But it just played country music. All four showers were running and the air in the bathroom slowly began to feel a little better. I kept the washcloth over my face. At some point my roommate must have inhaled some of the anhydrous air because I remember her coughing uncontrollably. I wanted to help but I didn't know what to do. We all sat on the cold tile floor. Most of us had brought our blankets or pillows and most of us were in our pajamas. I don't remember if there was praying on our side, although Kirstie later said that they were praying in the bathroom on the other side of the 4th floor. I may have said a couple silent prayers. Mostly there was annoyance and confusion. "Why aren't they announcing anything on the radio?" "Damn these stalls are uncomfortable" "I can't take it anymore. I'm going to pee. No one listen, okay?"
The RA came in, then left again. She didn't have any useful news. Then she came back and announced that we were going to the first floor. We should not try to go back to our rooms, just come as we were, (like sheep) and follow her downstairs to the first floor and stay together. I believe there was some confusion as to whether anhydrous gas rises or sinks. Because of some misinformation, the RA's had concluded that anhydrous ammonia being a gas, must rise and therefore we would be safer in the first floor bathrooms. (WRONG!!!!!)
I felt a slight dry burny feeling in the air as we stepped out of the bathroom. We filed down the hall. I was terrified because I didn't know if the RA knew what she was talking about or what was going on. Would we have to go outside? We went through the door into the stairwell. The air was MUCH worse here. I felt a little panicky at the pit of my stomach. What was the RA DOING? Why were we following her orders? The air was definitely worse here and now we would exert ourselves going downstairs. What if we passed out? I could literally feel it getting more painful to breathe as we descended the steps. This was not good. I prayed that the RA's knew things we didn't know and that there would be some sort of help on the first floor...or that the bathrooms there wouldn't be too crowded.
We all stood in the hallway near the main doors on the first floor. We were waiting for further instructions from the RA's. They looked scared. Finally they said that they'd been told that anhydrous gas actually sinks. And so we would all be safer on the 4th floor. Right. So we turned around and filed slowly BACK UP THE FRICKIN' STAIRS. Back to the bathrooms...except I think there were more of us this time. It was crowded in the bathroom and I was sorta fed up with everything. I think by this time we'd all figured out we weren't really going to die. We just had to sit on a stupid cold bathroom floor and wait all night when we'd rather be sleeping in our beds. But the air in our rooms was probably tainted with poisous anhydrous ammonia gas. So we sat on the tile floor wedged in between the bathroom stalls and talked, or complained. Some of us tried to curl up on the floor and go to sleep. It was a LOOOONG night. Around 5:00 a.m. we were given the all clear sign and told we could go back to our rooms and sleep if we wanted. I believe it was about this time that there were finally some sort of announcements on the radio. Now that it was beginning to get a bit lighter and visiblity was a bit better, lots of people were going to the emergency room and it was crowded. I believe they said you should only come if it truly was a life or death emergency.
Al and I went back to our room. I wanted to sleep, but was a bit wound up. Al lay on her bottom bunk and coughed uncontrollably. I stared at her awhile. "Are you going to be okay?" More coughing. Al had mild asthma. "Should I take her to the emergency room?" I thought. "I don't know if it's safe for me to be driving out there yet. I don't know if we can bother the RA's and I don't know if she's bad enough to go to the emergency room if they're already full." She kept coughing. I rewet her washcloth for her and decided she probably wasn't going to die quite yet. She breathed through the washcloth until she fell asleep. I lay in bed and tried to breathe through my washcloth, but eventually it felt smothering and annoying and I tossed it away and tried to sleep. I felt angry and upset and scared and frustrated. I finally fell asleep and when I awoke mid-morning I called my parents and let them know it was all okay. Classes were cancelled for the day and the town was basically shut down because everyone was at home cleaning the residual white powder that the gas had left off of carpets and out of drapes. If they weren't at home cleaning they were in the hospital with major burns to their lung or eye tissue. A few of us remained seemingly unscathed. Cat and Al and Kirstie and I chose to carry on with our plan of a road trip to Moosejaw. We packed our things and left early afternoon with high spirits. I remember stopping for gas on the way out of town and noticing that the women's bathroom in the gas station still held that ammonia smell. We talked and laughed as Al drove. We were escaping the poisonous gas. We even wrote a movie about our experience on the way and Cat may share the details of that movie with you, but probably for a fee.
That is my story. It is anticlimactic, but scary nevertheless. There were others who had experiences MUCH worse than spending the night in a dorm bathroom. Many people fled to the shelter of friends' homes outside of the city. Other people simply drove their cars through the blinding white fog up to the north hill or the south hill where the air was clearer. Deer died. Small birds nesting in trees near the train wreck were asphyxiated immediately. Household pets were affected. Most painful of all was the simple fact that a young healthy man suffocated to death on his front lawn in a trailer court near the deraillment. He'd heard the noise the deraillment made, went outside to see how he could help, and became disoriented by the blinding fog of gas. He wandered around until he collapsed and suffocated laying in the snow. Emergency crews found him in the morning.
12.16.2005
Dried earthworms
We now interrupt your regularly (un)scheduled blogging for a post about dried earthworms!
When my mother was a high-school science teacher in a small town in central North Dakota, she got the idea that her advanced biology class should bake earthworm cake as a class project. She had her students collect earthworms after it rained one day. They brought them to class, dried them and ground them. Then, they baked applesauce earthworm cake........and took it around to share with the other teachers in the building!!!! AFTER the teachers had eaten the "applesauce surprise cake," mom shared with them....over the intercom mind you, that the "secret ingredient" had indeed been dried earthworms. They are a good source of protein.
(Love ya mom. Sorry 'bout sharing your little secrets via blog. I think it makes a good story. You keep writing.)
When my mother was a high-school science teacher in a small town in central North Dakota, she got the idea that her advanced biology class should bake earthworm cake as a class project. She had her students collect earthworms after it rained one day. They brought them to class, dried them and ground them. Then, they baked applesauce earthworm cake........and took it around to share with the other teachers in the building!!!! AFTER the teachers had eaten the "applesauce surprise cake," mom shared with them....over the intercom mind you, that the "secret ingredient" had indeed been dried earthworms. They are a good source of protein.
(Love ya mom. Sorry 'bout sharing your little secrets via blog. I think it makes a good story. You keep writing.)
12.15.2005
A little righteous anger
I concluded today that the Canadaian Pacific Railway company is, or at least was, run by self-absorbed bastards concerned only for their own profit. You may or may not be familiar with the anhydrous ammonia spill that occured in Minot, ND on Jan 18, 2002. Here are a few articles to bring you up to speed. My version of the story is this:
Anhydrous ammonia is a noxious gas that is used by farmers to fertilize fields. It is transported in large white cylindrical tanks and farmers apply it to their fields in the spring. It fixes nitrogen into the soil and "makes plants grow better." (Apologies to those North Dakotan farmers reading this...I'm trying to write for a diverse audience.) Anhydrous ammonia or "anhydrous" as farmers call it, is deadly if inhaled and will suck ALL the moisture out of anything it comes in contact with. Soil that has been treated with andyrous does not have earthworms in it because....why? Yes. They have been dehydrated. *mmm...yummy...dried earthworms. Find them in your local healthfood store....or my mother's Advanced Biology class...but that's another story*
In January of 2002 CP Rail was transporting thousands of gallons of anhydrous ammonia from Alberta to Minnesota on train tracks that ran directly through the Mouse River Valley. The city of Minot, where I went to college, is located in the Mouse River Valley, situated right along the Souris River. (The college campus is just blocks from the river.) Bear in mind also that the soil in North Dakota freezes and heaves in the winter. This causes highways and railroad tracks to buckle and heave as well. Apparently some irresponsible moron hired by CP Rail was not maintaining the railroad tracks just west of Minot because the frost caused them to heave and when the train carrying thousands of gallons of "death gas" came along, it derailled, causing the tanks of anhydrous ammonia to rupture, spewing thousands and thousands of gallons of gas into the air. Apparently this gas sinks and because Minot is in a valley and because the air was too cold for the gas to vaporize quickly the gas sank into the river valley and sat there.
So, this all happened at around 1:00 in the morning. It was the day before my 20th birthday and I was sleeping peacefully in my dorm room. It was Friday and I had class and then my roommate Al and I and Cat and K. from the dorm were going to drive to Moosejaw Saskatchewan to spend the weekend with Cat's parents.
Around 2:00 am I was awoken by a loud knock on the dorm room door. I was bleary with sleep and couldn't figure out who the hell was knocking...but it was 2:00 in the morning so it must be important. It was Jill from down the hall and she said something about her mom calling her and a trucker or someone having an accident and that there was poisonous gas in the air outside. I was supposed to wake Alycia up and we should call the people we knew and make sure they were safe.
I was completely confused. "poisonous gas?" WTF? It was 2:00 in the morning, I wanted to be asleep and I wanted this to go away so I could go sleep. But the air felt drier than normal and my skin felt tight. Breathing sorta hurt. This was frickin' wierd.
Jill said that her mom had told her to wet a washcloth and put it over her mouth. I got a washcloth out of my drawer, wet it and put it over my mouth. I may have gotten one for my roommate too, I don't remember. Breathing really WAS easier with the wet washcloth.
I took an experimental breath without the washcloth and it hurt. I could feel my skin getting "tighter." I sat on my top bunk for a moment, breathing through the wet washcloth, trying to figure out what was going on. And it slowly sank in. There truly was poisonous gas outside. It would take hours for them rescue us. I couldn't go outside because there was more gas out there than in my dorm room. And how was anyone supposed to rescue us if rescuing us meant going out of their safe homes into the poisonous gas? I was going to die. That's all there was to it. 20 years old and it was over. The gas might slowly seep in through the windows and suffocate us all. Fine...we were all going to die, no one would rescue us.....there wasn't shit I could do about it, so I might as well go into "survival mode" and just see how this all played out. People in the dorm were going to panic...Al was going to panic...Jill was already calling people she cared about in Minot to see if they were okay. Al called people. I think I called my parents and let them know what was going on. We turned on the radio to see if we could hear some announcement or emergency broadcast system warning. There was nothing...only country music. I now understand that the radio station was owned by Clear Channel broadcasting, a major corporation that owns most of the U.S. airwaves. There were no Emergency Broadcasting warnings because A. the DJ was not in the studio, rather he had been replaced by a computer for the night. (And I KNOW they do this because my frind Jarrett worked for that same radio station and I've seen him recording the "computerized DJ voice") B. Clear Channel did not test their emergency broadcasting system like they should have and even though they tried to broadcast a warning the system was broken. Minot has tornado sirens and I'd heard them testing them. THOSE didn't even go off. There was NOTHING. We were all confused.
WERE we going to die? WOULD we be rescued? DID WE NEED RESCUING? Why weren't they telling us ANYTHING?........
And now back to your regularly schedulled programming. Next time on "A little righteous anger" Stephanie shares with you the REST OF THE STORY. Were she and her friends rescued? Is the Canadian Pacific Railway company truly run by bastards? What DO hot college chicks do when threatened by poisonous gas? All this and more...next time on..."A Little Righteous Anger."
Anhydrous ammonia is a noxious gas that is used by farmers to fertilize fields. It is transported in large white cylindrical tanks and farmers apply it to their fields in the spring. It fixes nitrogen into the soil and "makes plants grow better." (Apologies to those North Dakotan farmers reading this...I'm trying to write for a diverse audience.) Anhydrous ammonia or "anhydrous" as farmers call it, is deadly if inhaled and will suck ALL the moisture out of anything it comes in contact with. Soil that has been treated with andyrous does not have earthworms in it because....why? Yes. They have been dehydrated. *mmm...yummy...dried earthworms. Find them in your local healthfood store....or my mother's Advanced Biology class...but that's another story*
In January of 2002 CP Rail was transporting thousands of gallons of anhydrous ammonia from Alberta to Minnesota on train tracks that ran directly through the Mouse River Valley. The city of Minot, where I went to college, is located in the Mouse River Valley, situated right along the Souris River. (The college campus is just blocks from the river.) Bear in mind also that the soil in North Dakota freezes and heaves in the winter. This causes highways and railroad tracks to buckle and heave as well. Apparently some irresponsible moron hired by CP Rail was not maintaining the railroad tracks just west of Minot because the frost caused them to heave and when the train carrying thousands of gallons of "death gas" came along, it derailled, causing the tanks of anhydrous ammonia to rupture, spewing thousands and thousands of gallons of gas into the air. Apparently this gas sinks and because Minot is in a valley and because the air was too cold for the gas to vaporize quickly the gas sank into the river valley and sat there.
So, this all happened at around 1:00 in the morning. It was the day before my 20th birthday and I was sleeping peacefully in my dorm room. It was Friday and I had class and then my roommate Al and I and Cat and K. from the dorm were going to drive to Moosejaw Saskatchewan to spend the weekend with Cat's parents.
Around 2:00 am I was awoken by a loud knock on the dorm room door. I was bleary with sleep and couldn't figure out who the hell was knocking...but it was 2:00 in the morning so it must be important. It was Jill from down the hall and she said something about her mom calling her and a trucker or someone having an accident and that there was poisonous gas in the air outside. I was supposed to wake Alycia up and we should call the people we knew and make sure they were safe.
I was completely confused. "poisonous gas?" WTF? It was 2:00 in the morning, I wanted to be asleep and I wanted this to go away so I could go sleep. But the air felt drier than normal and my skin felt tight. Breathing sorta hurt. This was frickin' wierd.
Jill said that her mom had told her to wet a washcloth and put it over her mouth. I got a washcloth out of my drawer, wet it and put it over my mouth. I may have gotten one for my roommate too, I don't remember. Breathing really WAS easier with the wet washcloth.
I took an experimental breath without the washcloth and it hurt. I could feel my skin getting "tighter." I sat on my top bunk for a moment, breathing through the wet washcloth, trying to figure out what was going on. And it slowly sank in. There truly was poisonous gas outside. It would take hours for them rescue us. I couldn't go outside because there was more gas out there than in my dorm room. And how was anyone supposed to rescue us if rescuing us meant going out of their safe homes into the poisonous gas? I was going to die. That's all there was to it. 20 years old and it was over. The gas might slowly seep in through the windows and suffocate us all. Fine...we were all going to die, no one would rescue us.....there wasn't shit I could do about it, so I might as well go into "survival mode" and just see how this all played out. People in the dorm were going to panic...Al was going to panic...Jill was already calling people she cared about in Minot to see if they were okay. Al called people. I think I called my parents and let them know what was going on. We turned on the radio to see if we could hear some announcement or emergency broadcast system warning. There was nothing...only country music. I now understand that the radio station was owned by Clear Channel broadcasting, a major corporation that owns most of the U.S. airwaves. There were no Emergency Broadcasting warnings because A. the DJ was not in the studio, rather he had been replaced by a computer for the night. (And I KNOW they do this because my frind Jarrett worked for that same radio station and I've seen him recording the "computerized DJ voice") B. Clear Channel did not test their emergency broadcasting system like they should have and even though they tried to broadcast a warning the system was broken. Minot has tornado sirens and I'd heard them testing them. THOSE didn't even go off. There was NOTHING. We were all confused.
WERE we going to die? WOULD we be rescued? DID WE NEED RESCUING? Why weren't they telling us ANYTHING?........
And now back to your regularly schedulled programming. Next time on "A little righteous anger" Stephanie shares with you the REST OF THE STORY. Were she and her friends rescued? Is the Canadian Pacific Railway company truly run by bastards? What DO hot college chicks do when threatened by poisonous gas? All this and more...next time on..."A Little Righteous Anger."
12.14.2005
M.I.A.
The Christmas season is insanely busy. I noticed a definite hurriedness in the people I saw at the Riverpark Square Mall today. I went there to get the account number and routing number for the new checking account I opened. Why did I open a new checking account? Because I got a part-time seasonal job at a really cool outdoor clothing and equipment company based here in Spokane. All this means really is that I've learned a lot about a variety of people in the last week and a half and I've had less time for things like blogging. Hopefully this hasn't left those of you who actually check this thing regularly feeling abandonedl. I know that feeling and it's unpleasant. I started my junior year of college feeling abandoned because my boyfriend, my Lutheran Campus pastor and my private piano instructor had all left at the exact same time. Those were three important men in my life at the time.
In short, blogging takes very little time and I won't abandon you all entirely. But my posts may be a bit less frequent from now on. Hang in there and I'll catch ya'll on the flip side!!!
In short, blogging takes very little time and I won't abandon you all entirely. But my posts may be a bit less frequent from now on. Hang in there and I'll catch ya'll on the flip side!!!
12.04.2005
geography lesson
I love North and South Dakota because they are "home"....but I don't necessarily want to live there right now. I've always secretly loved the entire portion of the United States that is west of the Mississippi River: Montana, Idaho, Washington, Oregon, Nevada, California, New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, and Utah. I like the Rocky Mountains and I know that most of the good hiking can be found in these states. Western North and South Dakota have some beautiful country too. And I like central North Dakota because that is home. But the entire rest of the midwest and the south really don't interest me much. There is nothing that draws me there. I would like to visit Maine and a few New England states someday. Florida was alright and I liked the Atlantic ocean and swampy forest. And I wouldn't mind visiting Boston again and visiting New York. New York is culturally diverse and interesting enough that I could probably even live there because I would be distracted from the fact that I would be surrounded by concrete and steel and people and would eventually feel sorta "trapped." But the entire East Coast as a whole doesn't attract me because it's too crowded with people and I've been told Easterners are sorta unfriendly. And then there's a person from the East Coast who I dated for four and a half years and who was sometimes (in my mid-western opinion) rather blunt and rude. That strengthens my suspicions that Easterners are culturally different from Mid-westerners and Westerners.
I still feel most comfortable in "the west."
I still feel most comfortable in "the west."
12.03.2005
The Importance of Reading
I found this article online. It points out that small children's brains develop intellectually, mentally and emotionally and are healthier if small children are read to. In fact this article says that some pediatricians actually prescribe reading to children along with regular check-up's and vaccinations. Apparently my mother already knew this. (She's pretty darn smart.) She started reading to me before I was born I think. She and dad continued reading to me after I was born. At the age of four I decided I was tired of being read to and wanted to understand for myself what the heck those funny symbols on the page meant. Mom, being a teacher, made flash cards for me that said things like "The cat sat on the mat." or "The cat sat on the hat." or "The hat is flat." She also gave me old "Dick and Jane" books. I picked up reading really quickly and by the time I started kindergarten I was reading the Laura Ingalls Wilder "Little House on the Prairie" series. And I still like to read.
12.02.2005
Recipes
There are some rather good cooks living here at Westminster House. And we have a nice collection of recipe books. But apparently someone decided it would be fun to create their own recipe because I found this on the table this morning:
Recipe for Disaster
1. 1 qt. Bourbon
2. 1 qt. rum
3. 12 pack Guinness Extra Cold
4. big thing of Bailey's
5. 6 pack of Mackinjack
6. 6 pack of Moose Drool
7. red, red wine
8. Weapon's to fend off those damn zombies
9. Haagen Daaz (Strawberrry Cheesecake, etc.)
10. Ben and Jerry's (Phish Food, et. al.)
11. Other food
The recipe doesn't really have any directions, so I don't know how one would mix and stir or how long it should be baked. However there are two notes added to the bottom.
In response to #8:
"B. suggests a quality shotgun and an axe (see: every zombie movie ever made.) Halbeards make for excellent zombie population reduction tools as well."
also:
"C., on a visit, adds LP's of questionable tase as per Shaun of the Dead"
Right. My sentiments EXACTLY.
Recipe for Disaster
1. 1 qt. Bourbon
2. 1 qt. rum
3. 12 pack Guinness Extra Cold
4. big thing of Bailey's
5. 6 pack of Mackinjack
6. 6 pack of Moose Drool
7. red, red wine
8. Weapon's to fend off those damn zombies
9. Haagen Daaz (Strawberrry Cheesecake, etc.)
10. Ben and Jerry's (Phish Food, et. al.)
11. Other food
The recipe doesn't really have any directions, so I don't know how one would mix and stir or how long it should be baked. However there are two notes added to the bottom.
In response to #8:
"B. suggests a quality shotgun and an axe (see: every zombie movie ever made.) Halbeards make for excellent zombie population reduction tools as well."
also:
"C., on a visit, adds LP's of questionable tase as per Shaun of the Dead"
Right. My sentiments EXACTLY.
12.01.2005
Musta Maus
My mother is a very caring person and dotes on all the cats that adopt her. The latest additions to her family have been four inky black kittens that were born last April. One of them is named Musta Maus. Musta is the Finnish word for "black" and the kitty is inky black. "Maus" is the German word for mouse and the kitty has a face that looks like a mouse. Musta Maus!! If I find a scanner I'll share photos of the four "Inkspots."
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