Food Shelf

I helped out at the emergency food shelf tonight with my parents. For some reason I never felt like going other times they asked me, but I decided to help out tonight. They had just gotten tons of food in from some food drives that local synagogues did, and it needed sorting and rearranging. I helped stock foods in the store area where families come to pick out food. I had participated in or planned a lot of food drives in high school (that were usually competitions and our class always won!) but I had never seen where it all goes afterward. It was interesting learning about how the food shelf operates. They have a staff of social workers who asses each family's need for food and they can also help them deal with other issues going on in their lives. They have a full time staff and volunteers that donate their time.

Seeing all the food that goes in and out of there really reminds you that there are a lot of families out there that can't afford to put food on the table. I feel very lucky to have never experienced that. It felt good to help out and I will definitely do it again. I will also try to donate items more often. Some much needed items at the food shelf that I was at tonight were:

• personal care items
• cereal
• granola bars
• canned fruit
• snacks for kids
• coffee/tea
• juice
• jelly/jams in different flavors
• diapers

Some places also accept clothing donations and other items like shoes, baby items, etc. Here is a website for locating food shelves and services in MN: http://www.hungersolutions.org/find Donate your time, donate some food, and help out some people who are in a tough place in life!

Mosaic Class

This weekend my friend Hannah and I took a class on how to make mosaics. I was inspired by a piece that I saw in the Fine Arts Building at the State Fair and went home and looked up to see if there were any classes in Minneapolis for learning the techniques. We signed up for a class taught by a local artist who is very talented and really nice and fun too. Her name is Sharra Frank, here is her website. I recommend her for classes, but she only does them once in a while. She also does commissioned pieces and public art. In our class it was just 5 of us ladies and we learned all about the tools, materials, and techniques for mosaic art. The first day of the class we worked on cutting glass and tile and gluing our materials to either a mirror frame or window. I chose to do the mirror so I was gluing my pieces to wood. Hannah did the window so she was gluing right onto the glass. Here is mine at the end of the first day:

Today at the second part of the class we learned how to mix and add grout to the cracks to fill in the spaces. I'm really glad I took this class because I wouldn't have wanted to mess with that stuff figuring it out on my own and Sharra gave a lot of good tips on how to make the process cleaner and easier. Here is me with my baggie of grout!

I wasn't a big fan of the messy part even with gloves on. I don't like touching gooey things and my glass pieces were sharp so I was afraid I was going to cut my fingers. If you know me, I don't do well with blood on my hands for obvious reasons. So after you get all the grout in you have to clean off the glass and tiles and then polish them to make them shine. Here are our finished products:

I am pretty happy with the way mine turned out. I think it looks a little childish because of the colors I chose and because I didn't know what to do with the sun since I couldn't quite cut the pieces the way I wanted to. I will learn how to do that better in time. I am excited to do more and experiment on my own. I always have the impulse to buy or grab old windows and things when I find them, and a light bulb went off in my head and I realized I could do mosaics on them and turn them into art! I have a large mirror that I found in the trash and I plan on using that after I get a little more practice on smaller projects. After class I went to Michaels and wandered around and found some beads and things to use. Next weekend I will take a trip to the mosaic store in St. Paul (Mosaic On a Stick, I love the name!) and get some tools and other materials. This is going to be a fun new thing to do and a way to use my creativity and it will keep me busy!

I also went for a long walk today. It was a perfect fall day in MN, 65 and sunny with the leaves starting to change colors. I found some new trails and wandered, not knowing really where I was going (which is what I love to do). Walking in the woods by myself and not really knowing or caring where I am going is me in my happy place. Unfortunately, I didn't wear the best shoes so I got a blister. I also almost stepped on a little bitty snake while slowing down to assess said blister. I think I walked at least 4 miles. So today I had art, nature, exercise, and I got an email from my husband. Today was a good day.

Worries

This week has been much quieter at work, mostly because everyone else has been in a million meetings (including one lasting 6 hours). It feels good to be back at work and feeling productive and useful. However, this week I've been feeling kind of down and really tired. I get 8 hours of sleep, but getting out of bed in the morning is hard. I'm NOT a morning person, and always have a hard time waking up, but some days it's like my brain is completely separate from my body and has no control over it. I can tell myself with every push of the snooze button that I need to get out of bed, but my body won't move. Eventually I get up, but still feel like I could have slept for several more hours. I probably just need more exercise. I have been eating a little better lately at least.

Another thing that has been bothering me this week is that there was a shooting at Fort Bliss on Monday at a convenience store that so many people go to on a daily basis. A man just walked in with a gun and shot two innocent cashiers. They did nothing wrong, they just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. I'm so glad that none of my friends were there, and that my husband and I weren't there. It could have been anyone. And bad things can happen anywhere, even on an Army post (ie Ft. Hood last year). I am a worrier and my heart gets really heavy with things that worry or upset me. I sobbed earlier this year when I watched the first news coverage of the earthquake in Haiti. I really feel for other peoples' pain and loss, even in fictional stories or shows. Empathy can sure be a blessing and a curse. So this week I've been missing my husband and have been worrying more just because things can happen unexpectedly, especially in a war zone. I'm trying to be strong and trust that God will keep him safe and bring him home to me. It's hard to totally surrender sometimes, especially when it's something that you care about so much and want so badly.

I got connected with some other army wives on http://armyspouselife.com/ which is like a facebook site for military significant others. I am looking forward to getting to know them better and being able to talk to people who have been or are going through the same thing I am now. I only know one of the wives in my husband's unit since he got switched to it right before they deployed because they needed extra people. Plus, I'm not living there so I can't attend FRG meetings to get to know anyone.

I did talk to my husband this morning online. I still wish I we could use Skype so I could see his face, but we have to make do with what we have. He finally got my letters and the postcards from California. He loved Esther's that said, "Dear Will, I bet you are in the army" haha. He said it was really good to read my letters. I've been trying not to email too much because he has limited access and time on computers, but I can write all kinds of things in letters that I wouldn't otherwise have time to tell him and then he can read them when he has time. He says it's been pretty intense because they have been working his platoon so hard. I hope they are able to get some rest so that they can do their jobs safely. He may be unable to communicate with me for another couple weeks coming up, not looking forward to that. Please keep us in your prayers!

Book Blog: Still Alice - Lisa Genova

This was a well written and heart wrenching story of a Harvard psychology professor who is diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's disease. I have not had any experience with this disease and was not even aware of the fact that that it can affect younger people and that it can be highly genetic. Although this is a fictional story, it is written by a woman who has a Ph.D. in Neuroscience so I feel like I learned a lot and that it was pretty true to real life. I'd be curious to hear from someone who has been close to the experience, but it seemed like this could have been a true story.

At first, Alice would forget little things here and there, but it was the day she got lost blocks from her house that she knew something was wrong. Sometimes we all feel like we are losing our minds, but I can't imagine how scary it would be to really start losing your memories and rational thought patterns. To forget where you are and who you are, and to have your family members talking about you like you're not even in the room because they know you can't keep up with their conversation. Early onset Alzheimer's tends to progress much faster than it does in elderly people, so Alice's life took a very sharp turn away from everything she had worked her whole life for. She has to deal with the shame of not being able to perform in her highly intellectual profession, the anger and frustration that her family has to endure, and the fearful realization that her life would not turn out the way she had hoped. Keep a Kleenex box around toward the end, you will need it.

Book Blog: Atonement - Ian McEwan

So, I'm trying to remember why I wanted to read this book. I remember not liking the movie, and maybe I wanted to read it to see if the book was better? It wasn't bad, but it was really hard for me to get through. I actually gave up reading it when I only had about 100 pages left, but then read another book and came back to it because I didn't want to feel like a quitter. The last 100 pages were much better than the previous 100, so I felt ok about finishing it. I just felt like it had way too much drawn out "fluff" that didn't really feel necessary. Those were the boring parts. The longest parts should not be the boring parts in my opinion. The story is not all that bad though, and maybe I should watch the movie again sometime because it would not have all the long boring parts that were hard to read. Trying to appreciate the movie by reading the book may just have made me appreciate the movie for what it was. Next time I don't particularly like a movie, remind me not to read the book.

6 weeks down...too many to go

Well, it's been 6 weeks now. This is the normal amount of time that passes between my (now) husband and I seeing each other. Not thinking about the fact that we should be living together now, these 6 weeks have actually gone faster than others have. Being busy definitely helps. I haven't been hearing from him a whole lot, but about twice a week which is enough to keep me from going insane. The worst part is when he shows up in my dreams. I'm so happy to see him and then I wake up and realize it wasn't real. Or like last night in my dream he rescued me from someone trying to hurt me and I was so happy he was there for me, but then I knew that he was on leave and couldn't stay so as he kissed me sweetly on my cheek I started crying and then woke up crying. I don't typically remember my dreams that often, but these last weeks I have been having crazy weird dreams almost every night. Thankfully I have not been having bad dreams about the war or anything happening to him (knock on wood).

I got to chat with him on facebook this morning and it's always good to talk to him, but also hard to hear that he is exhausted working 20 hour days, not eating well, not sleeping enough, and generally frustrated. I was glad to find out though that he has internet access at the new place he is at, but who knows if he will actually stay there. For now though when he has time he will be able to email me and hopefully that will make him feel a little better to be able to vent or talk to me. I feel better just knowing where he is and what he has been doing. I have learned to not have any kind of expectations as far as communication goes. Once you get over expecting an email or phone call everyday it does get easier. I can say though that listening to sappy country love songs right now is not helping.

This has been a good weekend so far. I hung out with one brother Friday night. We tried out a new pizza restaurant, watched a movie and drank some wine, and sat in the hot tub for a while. Yesterday my other brother and I drove down to the town where both sets of our grandparents live. It was our parents' anniversary (they were down there already) and they had met there as highschoolers, fell in love and got married a few years later before moving to the cities. It was also King Turkey Day, which is a celebration for the city being one of the largest turkey producing areas in the world. It rivals Cuero, TX for the "title" and they have a turkey race down mainstreet every year with a MN and a TX bird competing. There are all kinds of festivities on this day, including the 2 hour parade that we watched in the cold and sprinkles yesterday. It was a fun time, and I got to see a bunch of my cousins including the two new babies born in August. We decided that we should make Turkey Day our new family gathering instead of holidays when it's harder to travel and get everyone together.

Today I was going to go to tai chi because I missed my Tuesday class last week, but I was so tired this morning so I decided to sleep in instead. I did some cleaning, some putting away, and now some blogging. Dinner with friends later :)

San Francisco Part II

Ahh...there it is. The photo that would not upload previously. Did I mention that I love this bridge? Yes, yes I did. I hope to go back to San Francisco someday and maybe bike across it and explore more of the city. I really liked what I saw of it. I also really enjoyed Pleasanton. It kind of just feels normal now for me to pick my life up and live somewhere else for days or weeks at a time so I felt totally normal being there, driving someone else's car on streets I don't know, and taking care of a 7 year old. I had fun exploring the area and playing "mom" for a couple days making lunches and driving her to and from school. The whole CA doesn't bus children to school thing just baffles me. Sure, it's expensive, but every single family driving a car into a tiny school parking lot every morning? Chaos. And school starts after 8 which is when most people would already be at work. And they have a late start day once a week. It just seems very challenging for families to work it all out. I'm thankful that I grew up in MN with a wonderful school system, that my best friend now teaches in!

I was traveling most of the day, got home to the rainy thunderstorming Twin Cities and went to the grocery store at 10:30pm because I have no food to take to work. I think I went to bed before 10 for the past 3 or 4 nights, so you'd think I'd be more tired again tonight but as soon as I get home I feel like I have a million things to do. However, it's 2 hours later here and I have to get up for work in the morning so I better get myself to bed.

San Francisco

I arrived at SFO on Saturday night and got picked up by my friends and they brought me to their town of Pleasanton, CA. Their downtown is adorable, and even at night I could tell while people like living in California. Yesterday I had a wonderful day in San Francisco. I had a 7 year old and someone I barely know as my tour guides, and we got a lot done in one day. We took the BART train into the city and bought an all day transportation pass so that we could take any trolley, cable car, or bus around town. The city itself reminded me a lot of Paris or other French cities that I have been to. We also saw a lot of French tourists while we were out and about. Anyways, we started off by taking the cable car up and down one of the giant hills. There were so many tourists crammed into them, my guess is people that live there don't actually use them for reliable transportation.

Our first stop was China town, which Esther was very excited about because she is from China. We had lunch at a Chinese restaurant on the second story of a building with huge windows. Great view and good for people watching. Esther was delighted that she got to eat so much rice. And Marissa got 3 fortunes in her cookie!

We wandered through some of the stores and looked at the weird foods in the grocery stores. Then we hopped back on a cable car that took us down to Fisherman's Warf on the waterfront. It was pretty windy down there but there were a lot of people wandering around and there was a festival going on at the Ghiradelli factory. We got some ice cream from their little store and then headed on to the Golden Gate Bridge. It was amazing to see the bridge up close, I just think it is so beautiful. I've always thought San Francisco was gorgeous from all my days of watching Full House (which I actually watched today haha). I didn't get to see the Full House house or Lombard St. but oh well. We were all pooped by the end of the day and still had a long train ride home.

Ok, Blogger is taking forever to upload any of my other pictures...maybe I will try to put more in a separate post.

I was supposed to be a bride tomorrow :(

Well, it's been 5 weeks today and it's going fast and I'm feeling ok. However, tomorrow was supposed to be our wedding day. I would have felt more sad if we hadn't purposefully gotten legally married earlier before we knew about the deployment. We were able to enjoy that and happily say our vows to each other without thinking of the year apart looming in front of us. We didn't have to rush to get married before he left, and luckily we got almost all of the money back that we had down on the wedding. I am so happy that we are married and that it was just about us when we got married and we didn't have to stress about anything (other than me putting a wrong number in my ssn on my marriage application, oops!). But I am sad that we don't get to have our wedding tomorrow. Everything was going to be perfect and beautiful. It was going to be outdoors by a lake and tons of trees, and by the looks of the weather forecast, tomorrow's weather was going to be absolutely perfect too. Mid 70's and mostly sunny. Instead, my dress has to sit in the closet for another year, and I'll have to plan yet another wedding when he comes home. It's disappointing, but hopefully we'll be able to do something just as great next fall. We can renew our vows and finally be together. Please keep us in your prayers for his safety and my sanity and patience.

I won't just be moping around this weekend though because I am off to San Francisco tonight to go take care of my 7 year old buddy Esther for a few days. She and her mom are friends of our that are living there for a temporary work assignment. I'm excited to go somewhere new and to see Esther there (she has been back here to visit a few times). The weather is supposed to be great and hopefully I will be able to take in some of the sites.

Inhale, Exhale

One of the things I decided to do this year is take a Tai Chi class. I had been wanting to check it out for the past couple years, and while Will was home in July the two of us went to a free introductory class one Sunday morning. We both really enjoyed it and wanted to keep learning. Unfortunately we can't do it together any time soon, so he (if he has time) will be trying to learn it from books, and I will be taking weekly classes. Tonight was the first class of my 8 week course that I signed up for. I like that the instructor is British so his voice is very soothing with his accent. I also really like that Tai Chi is about relaxing and connecting all parts of your body and mind in order to free up your "chi" or energy throughout your physical and mental body. My instructor says you need to move below the speed of habit, and it's amazing how relaxing it actually is. Your breathing automatically adjusts to your body movements so you don't even have to really think about it. If you close your eyes it feels like your body is just effortlessly moving on its own in fluid motions. I think this is going to be really good for my energy and mental health since I often struggle with anxiety and can feel physically affected by my emotions. Tai Chi is also supposed to be really good for your joints, muscles, and can improve the functioning of your internal organs. I am excited to learn more of the forms. Maybe in a few years Will and I will be one of those weird couples doing Tai Chi by the lake :)

Book Review: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

This book was very enjoyable to read. It is an interestingly written story about a writer from London who gets connected to the people of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society from the channel island of Guernsey. I never really even realized that the channel islands between England and France existed, but after reading this book they sound beautiful and maybe I will get a chance to visit there someday. The characters both in London and in Guernsey are so lovable and quirky. Their literary society (and it's strange name) came about during the German occupation during World War II. The story is actually a series of fictional letters written to and from the characters in the book and it's fun to get to know them each through their own eyes, and through the observations of others'. I love writing and receiving letters, and that's actually how I got to know and fall in love with my husband. Each page turned in this book was like receiving a letter from a friend in the mail. It's a quick read and the story made me smile and warmed my heart.

One last hurrah at the State Fair

Yesterday I went to the State Fair for the third and final time this season. It was a long and interesting day going with a group of 12 total family members including 3 in wheelchairs and one child. It was hard to stay together and get around, but we managed pretty well and everyone had a good time. I like going with my family because we can all get different food items and share. A bite here, a bite there is much better than say, eating a whole order or cheese curds by yourself. We had our favorites including cheese curds, onion rings, and Sweet Martha's and milk. I also ate some other things, like this:

That, my friends, is a deep-fried cheeseburger. Bun and all. The batter kind of tasted like onion ring batter. They should have put some fried onions in there too. While it tasted like a heart attack, it was good! I think after 3 days of the fair this year I got my fill of fatty food, people-watching, and looking at buildings full of crafts.

Side note: I finally heard from my husband! I got an email and a phone call on Saturday morning. I had not heard his voice in 4 weeks, it made me feel so happy but also made me miss him more.

Gaga Craziness

Megan and I went to the Lady Gaga concert on Tuesday night. The fact that tickets were ridiculously expensive, and the fact that Megan was starting her school year and me starting back at work at 8 am the following morning did not stop us from going and it was well worth it. We could have done without the opening act, Semi Precious Weapons, because they were insane and the singer was just a hot mess. He even changed his whole outfit (including his skin tight leggings) on stage, not kidding. But Gaga was amazing. That girl puts on a good show. It was kind of a storyline with elaborate sets and costumes, and it didn't even matter that most of the songs had absolutely nothing to do with the "plot" because it was all just so flashy and exciting. I think she changed her outfit during or in between almost every song, sometimes in about 30 seconds while still singing backstage. Impressive.

Even the set changes were entertaining. Of course it was weird and if you've seen any of her performances you know she does weird things with blood and strange costumes and such. That's all just part of her character.

Ok, so here's the thing about the show that we didn't like. We were sitting next to a family with children the approximate ages of 6 and 10. This show was NOT appropriate for children. Swearing (mostly from the opening act), sex, blood and gore are not things that you should pay for your child to see, especially on a school night. What are these parents thinking? The only thing that was in any way remotely appropriate for kids was her message about being yourself and loving who you are and not caring about what other people think. But even that was tied in to her advocacy for GLBT rights and support. She has a large gay following and her support for the community is part of the reason she has such dedicated fans. I don't even want to think about how many things parents had to explain to their kids after seeing this. For grown ups, it was a very good (in a weird way) show. As crazy as Gaga seems, she really is a talented artist. She writes all of her music and lyrics, always sings live, is an amazing dancer, and is so creative and unique that she has basically made herself an icon. And I think she is younger than me. Megan and I were trying to figure out who to compare her to. Elvis? MJ? Madonna? Prince? Maybe a combination of all of them, but she is in a class of her own.

I didn't get a whole lot of sleep after the concert because I was all hyped up and then all anxious about going back to work. By the time I finally got to bed I couldn't fall asleep. My first day back at the office was super busy. After a two month "vacation" a lot of things had changed and I had a lot of stuff to sort through and organize. I have a very long to do list and have hardly made a dent in it. Plus I have to change my name on everything, which is practically a job in itself. It feels good to be back and be more productive. These two days have gone so fast and I have worked 9-10 hours a day and had to cut myself off. I have a lot to do tomorrow before the holiday weekend so I better get to bed. Still haven't heard from the hubby :( Hopefully he will be able to contact me soon. I miss talking to him and haven't heard his voice in almost a month.