Digging and planting

New Orleans, LA

We're up to five carloads of plants and the garden is starting to look like a garden and not piles of sculpted soil.

Today I planted Louisiana irises, begonias, African lilies, camelias, pansies, garlic, Indian hawthornes, loropetalums, and snapdragons. Tomorrow the azaleas are going in, along with a blood orange and satsuma tree.

Avoidance

New Orleans. LA

I did not do what I was supposed to do today. I did a lot of other things that needed to be done that I'd been avoiding. Turns out I'm avoiding those other things less than the big project I have to do. Maybe tomorrow I need to go sit in a coffeehouse for a few hours with my computer and get moving.

It's the same feeling I have when there's a big paper, or a thesis to be done. Getting started is the hard part.

Today my dad and I picked up three more carloads of plants for the landscaping. Tomorrow I will find out which task I am avoiding more: starting the project or digging lots of big holes.

Progress

New Orleans, LA

I did not stay up all night reading Twilight last night. That was a success. And it's kind of been in the back of my mind today, but it hasn't been an incapacitating need to know what's going to happen next.

Today I picked up a license plate at the car dealer and then went and got a toll tag so it will be possible to cross the bridge without always worry about whether or not I have a dollar. This is a small but significant quality of life improvement.

Tomorrow I will work at least seven hours on a garden related project. At least, that is the goal. I might have to have my mom drive away with Twilight to ensure that happens.

Slippery Slope

New Orleans, LA

I'm about to start reading Twilight. I've been holding off until I had a little free time, having heard from so many people how they stayed up all night reading.

My laundry is done and some of the plants are in the ground. It's too dark to do any more planting. Let the reading begin.

Gardening

New Orleans, LA

Tonight I got to have dinner with some of my favorite people and that was so nice. One of the things I need to get better at is making sure to make time to spend with friends. So often work and projects and other obligations start to take over everything and that's not ok.

This afternoon my dad and I went plant shopping. We're working on landscaping the entire house, front and back yards. We brought home one carload of plants today and will probably go out and get another carload tomorrow. We're planting a lot of edibles in the backyard. I've got the start of an extensive herb garden that is going to go in the ground tomorrow morning. There's also a navel orange tree that needs planting. At some point we might put in a papaya tree and maybe some more citrus (blood oranges or limes...).

I can't wait till all the plants are in. I'm going to set up my hammock in the backyard and hang out there when I'm not in the woods.

Back in Society

New Orleans, LA

I'm home and so exhausted. It's not even 9:00 and I'm dying for bed. Not sure if I remember how to sleep when not confined by a sleeping bag.

Dispatches from the Woods 6

The sleeping bag gets a B+.

Dispatches from the Woods 5

Tonight it's supposed to get down to about freezing and I'm sleeping in a kind of a shack. This night is going to test the efficacy of my sleeping bag and wool socks.

Dispatches from the Woods 4

Tonight we had a night off and went into town to reconnect with civilization. I learned that if Target and World Market are placed side by side, much as I loooove Target, I'd would spend my time instead at World Market. That's the big insight for the day.

Dispatches from the Woods 3

I know this is gross but sometimes I find myself staring at massive earwax buildup in kid's ears and wishing it was socially acceptable to ravage their ears with a Q-tip.

Dispatches from the Woods 2

Found out that the Saints are 9-0. The owls out here are calling WHOO DAT tonight.

Dispatches from the Woods

It's day 2 of what is going to be an 8 day stretch in the woods. I'm hoping I don't forget what day it is and neglect to post. It's still Saturday, right?

Men with Tools

New Orleans, LA

The men with tools are here. This is a momentous day. The landscaping is happening! The landscaping is happening!

Right now, there are three men outside who have accomplished more with a sod cutter in two hours than my assistant and I were able to do in two weeks over the summer. The bare, glorious dirt is looking beautiful. And I can't wait to go plant shopping with my dad when I get back from the woods.

He caught me in our micro-butterfly garden yesterday, fiddling with the plants, meticulously picking up fallen leaves and said, "You want to be a gardener when you grow up, don't you."

My answer, "Yep, when I retire from teaching."

Perky Puppy

New Orleans, LA

Today the dog has been feeling pretty perky. One day down, the next day up. Today she's been practically trotting around the house. There's no pattern to her sequences of bad days and good days.

I had a big list of things I wanted to get done today. I accomplished several things on the list, but about half of the list has yet to get done. Tomorrow I'm headed back into the woods so there's about 12 hours left to do what I've got to do. I'd like a good 8 of those 12 hours to be filled with sleep though.

Old Age

New Orleans, LA

Our dog isn't doing well. She's old, at least 16. Today she's been listless. She's awake, but just lying on the floor, not licking my hand when I pet her, not moving her tail, staring into the distance.

It's hard to watch the decline of someone you love.

Weather Event Post Tramatic Stress

New Orleans, LA

There are some things that are good about being cut off from most communication out in the woods, and some things that become more complicated.

One thing I never really thought about is that if you have a bunch of 10 year olds who were probably traumatized by a massive hurricane when they were in kindergarten, telling them that a hurricane is on the way when they are separated from their families is probably the last thing you want to do.

We called it a storm. A storm is coming, it might be strong, with wind and rain. Your parents would feel better if you were home with them.

Some of the children were extremely upset that they were going home. They weren't ready to go, halfway through their experience, and wind and rain seemed like a ridiculous reason to leave. "It's not like it's a hurricane or something. We can handle rain. We packed ponchos!"

But you know you can't mention the hurricane. They need to find that out when they are back home, safe with their families.

...

New Orleans, LA

Still tired. Maybe tomorrow.

Ida

New Orleans, LA

I'm home again. Two days early.

Too tired to explain why.

Time Changes

One of the things I loved about living in Japan was that there was no daylight savings time. The time didn't change twice a year and people stayed pretty even-keeled. There's been a lot of grumpy crazy this week and I blame the screwiness on messing with people's internal clocks.

Testing

Can I post from my phone? If you see this, the answer is yes.

Queen Bee

New Orleans, LA

I'm taking a new tea with me, into the woods.

"Cycles are, by nature, predictable. Most have familiar beginnings, behaviors, and endings which allow us to prepare for, adjust to–and (in the best case scenario) even embrace them...

Queen Bee Balance is deliciously harmonious. It has an uplifting-yet-soothing flavor that helps make adjusting to difficult cycles easier, and the inclination to embrace them a little more likely."

I Heart Visiting

New Orleans, LA

Going to New York for a week was just what the doctor ordered. Last night I was having dinner with my old co-workers from the park. One of them asked, have you been enjoying being back in New York?

"It's been fantastic!"

Does it make you think about possibly moving back?

"Absolutely not."

I love visiting New York. (I should get that made into a t-shirt.)

Visiting means not having to worry about laundry. There's no apartment to clean. There are no work deadlines to meet. No school work to submit to professors. Friends try hard to get together to catch up face to face, even if it's only for 20 minutes over a cup of tea. There's time to wander the museums. It's ok to gorge on sugar because of all the walking and endless stairs. Two dinners, back-to-back in one night, are perfectly acceptable. The one week unlimited ride Metrocard is worth its weight in gold.

There's enough time to visit old haunts and see a new place or two. There are several favorite places not visited, beckoning for a return inspection. Favorite people not seen, needing to be returned to before too much more time passes.

When I lived in the city, somehow there was never time for all these things.

Packing It ALL In

Brooklyn, NY

I'm ready to fly home tomorrow and sleep.

The Feet Are A-Hurtin'

New York, NY

I've walked my way around three boroughs in the past 5 days. In relatively new shoes. New shoes that I bought specially for the woods because they are waterproof. I need shoes I can use to stand in puddles for 10 hours at a time. (The last shoes failed that test).

The blisters started yesterday. Today I noticed the gaping hole that had formed where two seams meet in the shoe. Nice. My brand new specially ordered expensive shoe.

It's been wonderful to get to spend this week in New York as a visitor. I much prefer it to living here. There are no projects to do around an apartment. Laundry is something to do when I get home. I'm not cleaning a bathroom or trying to finish something on deadline.

There's been a lot of eating. And friend visiting. One night I ate two dinners because it made it possible to see two groups of people. There are a lot of friends I'm not getting to see at all so that means another trip will have to be in the works for either the spring or early summer.

NaBloPoMo

Brooklyn, NY

Good lord, has another whole year passed already?

It's become a masochistic ritual to try to post ot the blog everyday in November. I succeeded for the first two years and failed the third. Giving it another go this year.

The November's full of posts become a snapshot of what life is like this time each year. The theme that last couple of years was BUSY BUSY BUSY. I'm not sure what the theme will be this time around.

Curb Alert Alert

New Orleans

I haven't been feeling like much of a communicator these past 1...2...3, um three months. Settling in and figuring out what I'm realistically doing with my life has taken a while. Everything's still in flux although I do finally have a job (or two) and it looks like next week I will have a car (red).

There are several things I was supposed to be doing today instead of watching episodes of The Office on Netflix or perusing Craigslist ads. But sometimes there is treasure on Craigslist and this one was too beautiful not to share:


Old person junk - Curb Alert (LGD)

Old people junk being thrown out in front of a house that was just sold...everything was hiding in boxes that the buyers/spawn of the sellers threw to the curb along with their packing garbage. I surfed all the rad stuff out for all interested parties to scavenge:

crutches
walker
7 or so christmas-y tins
a few random greeting cards that say "god" on them
an empty vodka bottle shaped like a trumpet
a little basket
a plastic outdoor collapsible table/plant stand?
two straw brooms
spices (slightly used)
crackers!
bag of white mardi gras beads
most of a bag of blue aquarium pebbles
an ancient air purifier
an iron/steamer...I think
a cordless plate warmer and two miss-matched plates
'world's best grandpa' cap (give it to your grandpa)
two collapsible Lillian Vernon cheapy storage containers that probably once contained hair rollers or something
a nice metal 12" ruler

Stuff I already rewarded myself with for doing all the picking:

the chimney to an old oil lamp
a pie pan
some red wooden beads
a few glass pushpins
burlap
a crafty little bird made from wood and stuff
two tiny mason jars
two packages of Top Ramen oriental flavor
box of peppermint candy
teeny jars of jams/pumpkin butter
chocolate confectioner's sugar
a broken rattan waste basket
a green reusable shopping bag
a big silvery bubblewrappy bag thing to be made into an as-of-yet unknown Halloween costume

1300 or 1400 block of Magazine Street (btw Melpomene and Terpsichore) river side

Twit

New Orleans, LA

I've had a few short things to say... but, due to technical problems have not been able to tweet for about 3 days now.

Tonight's fortune cookie: "We are continually faced by great opportunities brilliantly disguised as insoluble problems."

Which makes me think either a job or a massive road trip are in my near future.

Settling In

New Orleans, LA

I hadn't realized it had been a month and a half since I posted anything. Output of any kind longer than the 140 characters of a Twitter post has been almost non-existent these past few weeks.

It feels like reverse culture shock. When coming back from living in other countries it's taken me six months to settle in to New Orleans again and become a productive, social being. I think this time around it is going to be a six to eight week process.

I've been spending a lot of time outside working on the landscaping at my parents' house and helping get the garage finished so the storage pod on the front lawn can finally disappear.

Things are good. Mellow. Taking a break from everything after two and a half years of non-stop go.

I'm job hunting, waiting to hear about a couple of applications submitted last week. Watching Mississippi kites fly from tree to tree. Helping our elderly dog get outside as often as she wants. Trying to get excess belongings packed up and put away until I get a place of my own.

How can it be 2 AM right now?

Brooklyn, NY

Two weeks left of living in New York. I've got a list of things I've been wanting to do for years and I'm trying to squeeze everything into the next 13 days.

Today I visited the Morgan Library, saw the "Felt" exhibit at the Cooper Hewitt, rode the tram across the East River to Roosevelt Island and back, got some things I needed (and some pretty things I didn't) from the wholesale bead shops in 6th Ave., picked up some Japanese pottery I'd had my eye on in Chinatown, and went to see the movie Moon.

Tomorrow's plan includes two museums, a synagogue, hot chocolate, and a newborn baby.

I know I'm supposed to report on the playground that was built on Saturday. That's in the list of things to do once my furniture get taken away sometime at the beginning of next week. The build was amazing and I've got a lot of before and after pictures. Thank you to everyone who helped in person and to everyone who was there in spirit.

Floating

Brooklyn, NY

I feel like I've birthed a curriculum baby.

It was delivered on April 29th at 7:05 pm. Height, 1 1/2 inches. Length, 233 pages.


I didn't know I had it in me to write something that long. There was no requirement for it to be so extensive. Some people turn in papers 25 pages long, and that's perfectly fine. For my project, I wanted to present the entire curriculum for a year-long program and that dictated the length.

Plus, I'm long-winded.

Yesterday was the first day of the rest of my life and I found out what it is I would do if I could do absolutely anything I wanted:

1. Catch up on missed 30 Rock episodes
2. Walk around the garden for a few hours, visiting favorite trees and flowers
3. Eat an everything bagel at Bergen Bagels
4. Wander around Target
5. Go to Trader Joe's to stock up on cheese and purchase various items I've never tried before
6. Make plans with friends in the city I've not seen or talked to for months
7. Get a full-night's sleep

Today, I'm going to water my plants.

It's all good.