forks and knives (la fete)

so those who have been to my humble little cottage know that my sink sucks, well actually, it does not suck . . . which is the problem. it is constantly draining SO SLOW and creating unpleasant murky water that involves me and a plunger for several minutes every time i do dishes. i hate it. i've tried drain-o, voodoo, begging, pleading, you name it. then this weekend things took a turn for the worse when as i did dishes water started leaking out of the cupboards below the sink in a steady stream. upon investigation i found a most unfortunate hole in one of the main pipes, rusted right through. so i emailed the fabulous maintenance dudes here at the w-a and today when i came home to get changed for winter sports gary was just finishing installing a new pipe. i told him i hoped now my sink would drain better, and he said 'oh, i know why it wasn't draining right' and proceeded to pull out the old pipe which had two forks and a knives in it!! i examined them only to deduce that they certainly were not mine, so who knows how long they'd been down there! ridiculous. and hilarious. and now WONDERFUL that my sink drains like a dream. it's the little things that matter a lot.

a little tlc

yesterday i was tired and feeling a little tattered. it's been a long week. i needed some tlc. so where did i go? mom and dad's of course. where i was met with lots of love, listening ears, sound advice, delicious elk roast, mashed potatoes, carrots, apple cider, and to top it off . . . mom's lemon sour cream pie. only the best pie in the world. it was just what i needed. i felt calm and peaceful as i left, and when i got home i followed it up with a nice bath using my new FAVORITE bath milk, it's so lovely and leaves my skin so soft and smells so nice, and goat's milk lotion afterwards. then i made myself a cup of some new tea i got, and my goodness! i am in LOVE. last night i had the harmonise, which is rosebud, vanilla and chamomile, and then this morning i tried the three mint blend. DELICIOUS. very flavorful, subtle, and so aromatic. i topped the evening off by reading in bed for an hour, and then taking a dreamboost which give me really vivid dreams. last night i dreamt that my familiy went backpacking with our friends the larsens to coyote gulch, except at the bottom of the canyon was this huge complex of roman style baths and fountains filled with the most pure, beautiful water and we just swam and swam and it was so lovely. i woke up feeling much less tattered and much more peaceful.

acquiring

i've decided that this year i am going to allow myself to purchase one book and one film per month. i have many books, and love getting and reading new ones. but my film collection is quite scant and only includes films i REALLY love and someday want my children to watch (like 'room with a view', 'the danish poet', animation of yuri norstein, 'persuasion'). here's what i just bought for january:i've been meaning to read some rilke for quite some time, and that quote from my last post pushed me over the edge. i did a little research and like the looks of this book. if for nothing but the title alone!
'la strada' is one of my all-time favorite films. i love it's haunting beauty, the sad circus feel, the portrait of true unconditional love that breaks your heart, the hope and magic that can exist in all places . . . definitely one i want in my library.
others on the film list are:
'spirited away' or 'howl's moving castle' (or both), 'the sound of music', 'true stories', 'you can't take it with you', 'jean de florette' and 'manon de la source' . . . and lots of other i can't think of. classics. building a library. what suggestions do you have? essentials in your film library?

just what i needed

yesterday i only had one thing in my mail box. but it was the perfect thing. the thing i absolutely needed right in that moment. a letter from a friend. and in that letter were the exact words i needed to hear, along with this wonderful little collage she made of me as warrior woman (she's been reading 'don quixote' and there is this part she read me on the phone about the warrior women). and then there was this quote that spoke right to my heart, my heart that is trying so hard to listen, and be still, and also my brain that has been maybe working a little too hard to 'figure things out' and get answers. thank you laurel dear. thank you rilke.
"i beg you to have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language. don't search for the answers, which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to LIVE them. and the point is to LIVE EVERYTHING. live the questions now. perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will (gradually), without even noticing it, live your way into the answer" -rilke
p.s. i'm really loving this gray nail polish adah gave me for chirstmas. thank you adah.

holiday catch up

hi friends. sorry for the hiatus. this thing called christmas break happened. it was awesome. it was glorious to have three weeks off from work. i needed it. lots of good things happened. i'll show you:

1. first off seth (my neighbor and co-chicken owner) and i put to rest our rooster foghorn leghorn and one of my moms. we haven't cooked him up yet, but some coq-au-vin in on the docket.
2. i made owlie ornaments for my advisees and family!
3. i made lots of cookies.
4. the very very best part of the break was my sister friend adah and i pulled off the best and most super secret surprise ever by flying her home for christmas without telling our parents. they had NO idea. they thought she was in florida until two days before christmas when they dropped by to see me and found two girls instead of one snuggled in my bed. it was so great. they both cried like babies. then we just laid around in my bed for an hour or so laughing and talking, and proceeded to have a great time together for the next week. we only wish my big sis wese could have been a part of the surprise too! but she didn't have it too bad in latvia, which you can read about here.
5. christmas eve we always go to the candlelight service at the presbyterian church that includes readings from the bible, lighting the advent candles and the christ candle, lots of great music- including a gorgeous handbell choir, and ends with all the lights off and everyone holding a lit candle singing 'silent night' and taking their candles outside to place in the snow. i love it. it's one of my most favorite traditions.
6. christmas morning was so great! davey baby spent christmas with us (since he's part of the family and all) and it was so fun to have him here. i got up and made my (new) traditional christmas coffee cake out of this great christmas tree pan ash and dlass gave me a few years ago. we ate slowly, talked and eventually (around 1pm got around to presents). i knit a lot of presents this year, adah loved the mittens i made her!
7. a few days after christmas i was off for my annual trek to nyc to see sisters and friends. i took my friend mark along as he'd never been to the city before. we had a great trip and it was so so great to see my dear friends. some highlight were snow in the city one morning (which made for a great walk in central park), new years at courtney's in brooklyn, seeing fela! an awesome afrobeat show on broadway, watching some of laurel's rehearsals with the trisha brown dance company, seeing jesse, LOTS of good food, spending time with adah and her darling man luke, and an awesome church service at the cathedral of st. john the divine. i only took this photo of this neat fountain in the detroit airport, but mark took lots of awesome shots that you can see here.
8. now i'm back and just finished the first week of school. phew! it's still snowy and pretty here and i'm going to go cross country skiing in a few hours and can't wait. i bought myself some tulips the other day to remember that spring will come. plus i love flowers. i hope you all are starting your new year off right! xoxo