a league of their own

When's the last time you watched that movie? ten years? more? I watched it tonight. Lucky for me, I was in a movie mood, and flipped through the channels to see what's usually NOT on, and lo and behold, a movie I actually like!

But I'd forgotten: that movie makes me weep like a little girl! Maybe it didn't use to. So now you just know I'm a crier. I hear that happens when we get older. Maybe the expression should be, "makes me weep like an old lady."

an email i sent to a listserve of colleagues today (in response to someone else's message)

When I was growing up we lived near a couple who had an old plantation. The husband was always out working on his old tractor and even older truck, they grew food, built some of the things they needed out of parts of other things, and used what they had until it literally couldn't be fixed anymore. They weren't crazy about it, and certainly had new things, but they had what they needed and used what they had. One day, my mom and I were in their kitchen, and someone spilled sugar on the table. My mom swept it onto her palm and walked to the garbage can where the man held the sugar bowl under her cupped hand as she let the sugar go. He said, "After you live through the depression, you save sugar even after it's hit the table."
How the baby boomers missed the conservation lessons of their grandparents and parents, I'm not quite sure, but the trick is to teach our children (and possibly our parents!) to live with less in an America that thinks there's just more and more and more. These recent years have proven that there isn't more and more, but there is enough, and it's nice to see Victoria living that philosophy in a truly neighborly way. Reminds me of Jane Jacobs' idea of more eyes on the street making a community safer and better for living.

On a related note - I've just started reading a book called Change or Die. The author recounts uses of psychology helping people make life-saving changes on their own that are impossible when presented in the more traditional form of a mandate. I may be the last one on this band-wagon, but it'll change the way you think about how your prison dollars and health care dollars are spent (though it's not a fiscal book). If anyone else is interested in starting a simple, quiet revolution using the ideas in Alan Deutschman's book, lemme know. We will eventually evolve to his theory, but it would take a while.

Anyway, apparently I'm feeling rather philosophical tonight.
All the best, and keep up all the good work, friends.

PS if you're looking for public health and planning resources (as one concept), I heard a great man today named Dr. Robert Ogilvie. Visit him at: http://healthyplanning.org/

offices, LA-style

here's where I work... it's a yurt...

My desk is on the left as soon as you walk in the door.
when I get back to DC, I'm not sure how I'll react to not going outside 1) every time there's a meeting involving 2 or more people, 2) to get to the kitchen to microwave something in one of TWO industrial microwaves, 3) because I feel like it, or 4) to sit in the dappled light of the orchard.
There's even a hammock in the back of the village for cat naps (people-style, not thelma-style)

http://www.treepeople.org/vfp.dll?OakTree~getPage~&PNPK=181

my desk







thelma







conference rooms

IIIIIIIIT'S

JAAAAY LENOOOOOO!

2nd sighting: driving along Sunset, it's Jay Leno backing up an ancient car in a fancy hotel parking lot- I didn't even really recognize the car, it was so old. Big 'ole smile on his face, just looking like Jay Leno. I called Mama first thing, cuz she's always had a crush on him. She said "did you tell him to come back on the air because I can watch him on the new TV that doesn't show orange faces anymore?"

nope, sorry Mama, didn't have a chance to.

sightings

I'll keep updating you on celebrity sightings as they inevitably occur.

First: Fabio. In line at the smoothie joint in the gym where I took a yoga class as my current roommate's guest.

What?...
Yes, I'm serious; why would I joke about taking a yoga class?

silver linings.

I may get back to the missoula adventures at some point (sorry for dropping off for 7 weeks).

I arrived in LA yesterday. Without my luggage because the woman I checked in with left them "unattended" and they had to be x-rayed. which means: I didn't have to carry them to the shuttle stop, the rental place, into my hotel, or lift them at any point after 7 am Sunday! (they were very heavy, and have since arrived, in case you're wondering)

The rental car place didn't have my reservation right in the system. I had to call the reservation line while standing in front of someone who could have made my reservation right, had he a brain. But I still got my 4x Delta miles on my reservation. (that's 200 per day, if you're counting)

I went and looked at an apt tonight, and on the way, a man motioned for me to roll down my window and said my front wheel was sparking(!) I figured I'd take it in tomorrow, until I stalled out twice while trying to leave said apt. keep in mind, this is an automatic, not a stick. So I called, waited, rode in the tow truck back to LAX rental place, stood in line, slept in the waiting room chair, and finally got... a Hyundai Accent! You're wondering what the silver lining is, I'm sure. But ever since I got in that Chevy Aveo they gave me yesterday I was sure I would die. the steering wheel shook so bad when I went over 45 I could barely hang on! Yea for foreign cars! the little Hyundai does great on the freeway (and it was night time, so I got to take it over 60 on the freeway... not the daytime average of 15)

I went to burger king tonight, starving at 9 pm after I got my new rental, ordered a veggie burger, and what the hey, make it a combo. large? no, medium.
"Oh, I ordered a medium... not a large..."
"Yes ma'am, that's a medium."
"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
"*big smile*"
"You're joking right?"
"No ma'am, this is a small" (holds up a medium-sized cup)
"Whoa. I need to come to burger king more often to keep up with this stuff."
"Yes, ma'am."

This cup, I swear is a 32 oz cup. In fact, I'm going to measure it.
Okay, my best estimate, using a 12 oz cup to fill it, is that this is, in fact, 32 oz.

Nowhere should 32 oz of high fructose corn syrup be considered "medium."

If you're drinking those on a regular basis, stop it, before you die. In fact, if you think that's normal, I dare you to cut your general portions in half and call me when you can see - nay, TOUCH! - your toes at the end of the year.

The silver lining of the cup story is... um... that I can tell people a great story about how BK thinks 32 oz of soda is medium, and people believe them.

6/16/09

unedited eighth entry from the pocket-sized Moleskin I carried 53+ miles into and out of the wilderness:

"Hiked from Moose Creek RS to Cupboard Creek today. Est: 19 miles(!) We're expecting less than a 4-hr day tom. + will start around 7 am so should be home by mid-afternoon to do laundry before Hamilton Thurs.
Crazy new hip problem. Must decide how best to sleep on it for max recovery. Took 800 mg motrin to try to ease the aching... yikes!"

Editor's Notes:
We made Cedar Flats by 9 am on this day... that's good, in case you've never hiked Selway Trail #4. It means we got the "worst" over before it was warm, a good deal of it before the sun had even risen, as you can see from the photo above, taken of a far off hillside that was juuuuust beginning to see sun rays.

The Hip. started as a foot/ankle problem, from having one leg always be on the uphill side... so I started compensating, and then overcompensating, and now I can still only walk a couple blocks before that aching returns to my right hip... swimming has been a good ticket for it though, and I'm pleased to have found 3 reasonably priced pools to swim and run in here in Missoula.
By the time we took our first break that day, maybe 2 hours in, I was carrying my right leg in a make-shift sling I'd fashioned out of my belt. What started initially just as a way to put extra pressure on my leg and relieve the ache, turned into a way to lift my leg up over rocks and down the other side... needless to say, this was slow going for these approximately 17 miles after I developed this ailment and invented its treatment. My bicep was killing the next few days because of it, but has suffered no long-term ill effects (if anything, it has enjoyed a slight resurgence, after a relatively arm-lazy few weeks).

Cupboard Creek. Is a good deal farther out of the wilderness than we thought we'd get on our first day out, and carrying my leg the extra miles was tough but worth it come the following morning. see next entry.

6/15/09

unedited seventh entry from the pocket-sized Moleskin I carried 34+ miles into the wilderness:

"It's my FS anniversary today. Tonight I watched the mules be let out onto the runway. What a sight! :) Sheer joy at such vast freedom. Hiking out tomorrow @ 6:30 am."

Editor's Note: What a way to spend an anniversary evening! Hearing nothing but wind and mules kicking up their heels, quite literally, as they gallop full-speed onto the runway at Moose Creek, having waited expectantly that evening for their night out of the corral.