May 2013
1 post
April 2013
5 posts
Mangle Irons
While backpacking through Norway one summer while I was in college, I worked for room and board at a hostel in Oslo. I washed a lot of windows, organized a small, full-to-the-brim closet, and discovered mangle irons.
In my memory, the iron is a massive, thundering machine that could take an entire bed sheet (single), no folds.
Sometimes I dream about it.
I’m not the only one who...
Planning Stages/Middle Stages
I feel like I’m in the middle of writing a story. When everything is jumbled up and so many things are yet unknown and all the known pieces are lying there in disarray.
We leave in less than three weeks, my sister and I. We have our bikes, most of our clothes, the promise of a euro phone from our brother. We have paychecks coming in, counted on. We have beeswax, two pounds of it, in hand,...
“Despite his reputation to the contrary, St. Paul can only be awkwardly yoked to...”
– Women in religion - Opinion - The Boston Globe - James Carroll
March 2013
1 post
How to Travel Alone as a Girl
Pack a bag.
Buy a ticket, or
Gas up your car, or
Air up your tires, or
Lace up your shoes, and
Walk out the door, and
Go.
February 2013
1 post
January 2013
1 post
It's Personal
From July, 2012.
Today my mom and I laid sheets beneath the chokecherry trees, set up ladders, climbed as high as we could, and shook the branches free of their berries. We ended up with about 6lbs of berries. They’re simmering on the stove now. We’ll make jelly later.
As we worked, we talked about “the right way to do things.” It seems like there’s always a...
November 2012
1 post
Reason to Love Home #43:
A host of voices rising in your defense.
August 2012
3 posts
My Method for Grading Papers
Because Carrie asked. And because 40 more to go.
1. Look at the numbers 2. Wish it could be done with pen and paper instead of a grading program. 3. Watch a lot of Maria Bamford videos on YouTube 4. Grade two papers, spending a half hour on each, giving Really Good feedback 5. Kind of, but not really figure out how much time it would take if I spent a half hour on each paper 6. Sleep 7. Fix the...
Weed Dating
On Saturday I went to the Western Illinois U organic farm field day to learn about precision agriculture and its application for organic farms. Actually I went because my sister, Sarah, works there, and because I heard there would be good food.
After a morning of lectures, we headed out to the farm, where we admired the fields my sister has spent the summer weeding. That's what I was doing anyway.
Sarah and I stood behind a sea of midwestern farmers (only one looked "organic"), listening to something about cultivating.
Sarah: Have you heard of weed dating?
Me, not quite on the same page: No...
Sarah: It's like speed dating while weeding.
Me: So...not related to at all to dating in the chronological sense.
July 2012
5 posts
“When people ask, “How are you not exploding with stress with everything on...”
– What My Son’s Disabilities Taught Me About ‘Having It All’ - Marie Myung-Ok Lee - The Atlantic
“Obama’s DHS has so far deported more people than during the first six and a half...”
– President Obama: Deporter-In-Chief - Forbes Alex Nowrashteh
“Every life has great meaning, but the meaning of our own can often be obscured...”
– Less: Accomplishing More by Doing Less by Marc Lesser (really)
June 2012
7 posts
“Nora Ephron: One of the reasons I cooked was that after writing all day, it was...”
– Feasts and Celebrations - In Praise of Home Cooking - NYTimes.com: Nora Ephron interviews Leslie Newman
“You can also create luck in any given spot: You turn your head to the opposing...”
– Butler Library at Columbia Is a Haven for Body and Mind - NYTimes.com
“Rumpus: And Alan’s got bad credit. Eggers: Yeah, there’s the tyrannical rule of...”
– The Rumpus Interview With Dave Eggers - The Rumpus.net
May 2012
1 post
1 tag
April 2012
7 posts
“As for me, in matters of the soul, I’m a devout agnostic. What astounds me, what...”
– Maud Newton: My Son Went to Heaven, and All I Got Was a No. 1 Best Seller - NYTimes.com (I didn’t read this book, but I’ve read plenty like it.)
“America has always been able to attract the most ambitious people who are...”
– Condoleezza Rice: ‘I Don’t Know When Immigrants Became The Enemy’ (via huffingtonpost)
“Most hearts say, I want, I want,
I want, I want. My heart
is more duplicitous,...”
– Margaret Atwood, “The Quiet is Me, Listening” (via poetbabble)
March 2012
8 posts
“Isn’t it just possible,” he pushed back, “that women are prone to poverty, and...”
– Frank Bruni: A Catholic Classmate Rethinks His Religion - NYTimes.com
“Passing tests doesn’t begin to compare with searching and inquiring and pursuing...”
– Noam Chomsky on the purpose of education. (via explore-blog)
“Like many small Southern towns, Water Valley was a railroad hub and a business...”
– How Four Women Revived a Derelict Mississippi Town - NYTimes.com
“I think it’s been the worst campaign I’ve ever seen in my life. I hate that...”
– Former First Lady Barbara Bush, on the Republican primaries (via theatlantic)
“If Mitt Romney takes the nomination and then loses to Obama, the extremists...”
– Joe Nocera: Rooting for Santorum - NYTimes.com
February 2012
21 posts
“style for me is a casual way of putting something on. it’s not thought out but...”
– charlotte gainsbourg (via sarazucker)
“People who cry moral indignation about government-mandated contraception...”
– Erika Christakis: What Got Lost in Birth-Control Debate | TIME Ideas | TIME.com
“‘There is much work women can do on a farm with perfect propriety,’...”
– The Way We Eat - Out of the Kitchen, Into the Field - Female Farmers of the Northeast - NYTimes.com
