40 Bags in 40 Days: Day 2

This will be a fairly short post, but first of all, let me just say that I really want to stick with this.  It needs to happen really badly and I know that I will feel great when it's over.  I'm just putting that out there to the universe as a motivation.  I might have to come back and read this paragraph every now and then!

Yesterday's accomplishment was the weeding of my e-mail inbox.  I'm pretty good about archiving as I go, but there were some really old messages in there that I had been meaning to deal with and/or respond to, but for one reason or another never did.  I kept them in my inbox in the faint hope that SOMEDAY I would follow through, and someday finally came in the form of yesterday :-)  I can't in all honesty say that I took care of every piece of correspondence, but I did cut my inbox down from 50+ to about 20, which is a really good start, and going forward, I am hereby pledging to do a better job of staying on top of my e-mails.  By which I mean:

1) making e-mails from friends and family my highest priority, and responding to them more promptly.  Yes, I have a baby now, but I do check fairly regularly, and it's just courteous and the right thing to do
2) cutting down on the number of activism lists to which I am subscribed so that I'm not faced with a bazillion requests to sign petitions every day (let's face it, some causes are worth it, but come ON, you sign one and the next day you get thirty more)
3) unsubscribing from retail money suckers newsletters; not only do I really not need the temptation, this will simply whittle down the barrage of e-mails coming in to begin with

I have not yet done today's declutter; confession, I haven't yet decided what today's declutter will be.  But the Bug is down for the night (fingers crossed), so I'm going to eat some dinner and then get going on...a pile of stuff somewhere in the house!  Yay for non-specificity!

Er...um...hi

I like having a blog, I really do.  When I was living in Hawai'i on my own it was a great way to write down the things I wanted to be sure to remember from my time there and compile some of my photographs of the scenery, flora and fauna.  But as you can see, after I moved to the Washington and reunited with Eamon, the blog just kind of fell by the wayside.  It's kind of hard to believe that nearly two years have gone by since the last time I posted here.  I had a household to unpack, I was instantly caught up in rehearsals for "Fiddler" (which turned out to be just the thing, with Eamon gone on a really long deployment - a large cast is a terrific instant social circle!) and I was job-hunting to boot!  Also, I've managed to use Facebook for a lot of the everyday update type stuff that people tend to blog about, and I never felt the need to document my sewing projects step-by-step (the way lots of costumers keep online "dress diaries") on my blog.  I did post some "in-progress" pictures, but largely I just put the finished items on Facebook and/or my Pinterest page.  But I never just completely shut down the blog, mostly because it never occurred to me, and also because I figured maybe I would eventually want to use it for costuming stuff or whatever.

I won't worry about giving the rundown of the past two years here, because I generally direct people to this blog from Facebook, so anyone with whom I'm already friends there knows about all the big stuff like the birth of my daughter (referred to herein affectionately as "Bug").  Incidentally, she is yet another reason the blog has been silent - I know, I know, some people keep mommy blogs, but I am not one of those people!

HOWEVER!

I think I may have found something to blog, at least for a little while, and then maybe the blog will sink back into oblivion or I'll figure out another use for it.  There's this 40 Bags in 40 Days challenge that a friend posted about on Facebook, and goodness knows I need to declutter!  I guess it's designed to line up with Lent - which I don't observe, since I'm not religious in any way, but I do know Wednesday was the first day, so I'm already behind ;-)  It's okay though because there's a printable sheet for keeping track that doesn't have specific dates on it, so you can start whenever.

Here's a picture of the area I decluttered yesterday (Thursday).  I feel bad because my wonderful friend Diana came to visit in late November of last year so she could meet our little Bug, and one of the things she helped with while she was here was a declutter of this very table.  I had every intention of keeping it clear, and obviously that didn't happen.  But I must set aside guilt and simply dive in, and hope that this time I do a better job of maintaining a tidy surface.

So yeah, pretty messy.  Here's the "after"!

I did it!!  All right, so the things that were hanging off the chairs in the "before" shot are still hanging off the chairs.  Those are all the various baby-carrying contraptions we have collected and used, some more than others - there's a sling, an Ergo, a Moby wrap, and on a chair outside the frame there's even a Snugli (plus my purse and diaper bag, which is now also my purse).  I didn't even factor them into my declutter since it was really the surface of the table that needed clearing, but some of them could probably get stored away for now - most of the time these days when Bug isn't sleeping, we just carry her around or set her in one of her bouncy seats if we need both hands.

The bag on the table is my First Bag, and everything in it went to the recycling bin (yay!).  The other stuff mainly just needed to be given a home, and I think I did a pretty good job of finding places that all of it can live.  Not perfect, but at least we have a dining room table again!    

I haven't done today's declutter yet, and it's already getting on towards bedtime, but there's a suggestion on the challenge website that you can include non-physical spaces in this process, such as e-mail inboxes and computer files.  So, I will do a physical area on the odd days and a digital area on the even days, because I think that will help keep me motivated - changing it up is more appealing to me than looking forward to several days in a row of decluttering actual stuff.  Oh, and it's looking like I'll put up a blog post each day about the previous day's accomplishment ;-)

Stick with me and keep me honest!

What a difference two months make!

It's been a little over two months since I wrote my last post, and it's kind of amazing how much has changed. The move to Washington really went very smoothly, thanks in no small part to my tireless and devoted Mama who came to Hawai'i to help me take care of last-minute packing and shipping, and to help me wrangle Finnian and Niamh during our flight to the mainland. Alaska Airlines charges the same amount whether you stow animals in cargo or keep them under the seat, and I judged it best that we travel with them in the cabin so we could monitor them. Getting half a Benadryl down each of their gullets (to subdue them a bit) proved to be the Battle of the Century, but we managed in the end.

We left the apartment (good riddance to my awful landlord there) in the wee hours of a Monday morning in mid-February with our luggage and the two cat carriers, drove the rental car to the airport, and got through security and to our gate with relatively little fuss. The flight was uneventful, though the cats started up a chorus of dejected meowing about an hour before landing; the part that was awesome was when Eamon actually met us at the airport! The crazy thing about this whole operation was that the submarine had actually come back from deployment earlier than scheduled, which kind of threw all of my careful planning out the window, but hey, I wasn't complaining about getting bonus time with my hubby! What was even crazier was that when they did arrive, Eamon had no idea what to expect - he didn't know if I had a job, if I was moving here, or was just going to be visiting, or what! We had left things very much up in the air when the submarine deployed in November; my job situation was tenuous at best and I still hadn't decided whether to stay in Hawai'i through May or move in February. Wives were allowed to send 10 messages of no more than 50 words each throughout the deployment, and I kept track religiously and took a great deal of care to use my full quota to convey only the most crucial information. I told Eamon about the change in my job situation, my successful search for a house, and my arrival date. Oh, and PS, this was just a one-way system; the sailors weren't able to send anything back. Well, the person who was asked to make sure that these messages got sent to the boat completely dropped the ball, and Eamon knew something was up when he stopped getting messages from me - I had been so consistent that I couldn't possibly have just stopped sending them! So obviously, Eamon had a lot of information to process all at once. He had his wife back, not just for a week or two, but for good, and a house to live in with her and their kitties!

We started settling into our house, which we are renting from a very sweet couple who live next door (this town is really a village - everyone knows everyone and looks out for everyone). We had not one, but two moving trucks to wait at home for; the stuff from Hawai'i, AND the stuff that we had packed up when we both left Boston and which had been shipped across the country to a storage unit near my mom's house in L.A. (did I mention my mom has been awesome through all of this??) Both trucks arrived, with our many boxes as well as some hand-me-down furniture, and we began the arduous task of unpacking and deciding where everything should go. We also bought a bunch of furniture, since I sold everything that was mine in the Hawai'i apartment, and the house came completely bare. Some of this could only be done on evenings and weekends, when we could both be home, but poor Eamon - he'd work 12- or 14-hour days and then come home wanting to do nothing but relax, and there'd be furniture to build or boxes to unpack. But the most important thing is that we got to just hang out together again, and we didn't feel like we had to frantically fit in all the things we wanted to do because one of us would have to dash off to the airport again in a matter of days. There will be lots of deployments this year and next, but the time in between is our time again, and that means a lot to us.

Now it's just me again, and a 3-bedroom house is a lot more space to have to myself than a 1-bedroom apartment. I haven't managed to land a job yet (not for lack of trying), but there is more than enough to keep me busy here at home. I am really trying to do one big task a day (or several little tasks) so that the house is less cluttered and more comfortable and livable for when Eamon gets back. He won't be back for long, but I think it will be less overwhelming for the time he will have here if he feels like he can relax a bit.

Rehearsals are well underway for "Fiddler on the Roof" at the Kitsap Forest Theater down in Bremerton. In case you missed this news, I'm playing Tzeitel, the eldest daughter of Tevye and Golde. This is my first lead role in a community theater production, so I'm really excited! I auditioned about 10 days after moving here and was thrilled to be cast, let alone as a principal. It's humbling and yet validating at the same time. Is that even possible?? Most of the cast and production folks live in Seattle, and a few of us live on the peninsula. We actually rehearse in Seattle during the week and then at the theater on weekends, so everyone has to do some commuting across the Puget Sound in some capacity. We had the first Kitsap rehearsal this past Saturday, and the theater space is so beautiful; check it out here. It's a completely outdoor amphitheater and stage - no curtains, no lights! It looks like the forest keeps trying to reclaim the structures that have been built as wings and sets - everything's all mossy and green. They do all of their shows at 2:00 in the afternoon to take advantage of the natural daylight. It was pretty cold in the morning, but then the sun came out and it actually got quite nice. The forecast for this weekend is rainy, though, so I'll be praying to the weather gods to spare us. Cold and rainy is not a fun combination, and the theater has a tradition of never canceling a rehearsal (or show, for that matter) on account of rain. So I guess I'd better suck it up!

Well, that just about covers everything so far! In spite of having to give up that balmy Hawaiian weather, I really am happier to be here. I lucked into a great neighborhood, wonderful landlords, and gorgeous scenery. Boy, when it's clear and you can see the Olympic mountain range, it's quite breathtaking. And when the submarine's in port, being able to give Eamon a hug and a kiss and make him tea when he gets home from work, or knowing that he'll be here when I get back from rehearsal...those are the little things that I missed the most when we were living apart.

Lots of love,
Sarah

Reflections on an (almost) empty apartment

First off, I did not get the children's librarian job at the public library in Washington, and informing my supervisor at the middle school that I was even considering applying for it basically sealed my doom with *that* job. Whoops. So here I am, a few weeks into the new year, without work and without classes to attend. And now, I have practically no belongings or home comforts to speak of!

I had asked the middle school to let me know by January 15th if they needed me, but then around the 10th I got a good talking-to from my sensible Roomie (that would be Diana Carroll, for those playing the home game) who convinced me that it was better to just make my decision regardless of the school - it was a done deal, and if they were ever going to call me up, it probably already would have happened. Why are our friends always right?? I gave notice to my landlord, set to work packing, and decided on February 13th as my move-out date. When I moved here originally, I sent everything through the mail, which was a pain in the ass, and the stuff arrived really erratically over a period of about two weeks. I was prepared to do the same thing heading back, but then I thought about getting a quote from PODS - their model is that they drop off a shipping container, you fill it at your "leisure" (which is a laugh in itself), and then they pick it up and deliver it to your destination. All well and good, except they quoted me over $4,000 and their fixed shipping schedule was wretched. Then a gal who lives in my building recommended a Hawai'i based company that loads up the truck themselves and ships everything together on a much more flexible schedule. Their quote was $1700, which is reasonable and doesn't involve me having to load everything into my car or into a shipping container all by myself. Works for me!

The movers came yesterday and took away 30+ boxes, Finn and Niamh's kitty condo, and various other accoutrements. Since the apartment came furnished, I'm not sitting on the floor typing this, but it is a bit spartan - no art on the walls, for example. And I signed a lease to rent a beautiful house in a tiny little town called Indianola, which is in the northern part of the Kitsap Peninsula. Eamon and I will finally have a home together again!!

I'm going to try to make the most of these next few weeks that I have in Hawai'i. Certainly the weather is doing everything it can to make me regret leaving for the wintry Northwest, but if living away from Eamon for 2+ years has shown me anything, it's that home is truly where the heart is. I've made wonderful friends, I have some awesome memories and experiences to take away, not to mention a degree! But this is definitely the right thing to do, and I think I've known that in my gut for a while, even when I was considering staying a little longer for the middle school job. Not because I don't think Eamon and I can handle being apart, since we've obviously held up in the face of some pretty tough circumstances, but because I'd rather be with him :-)

The job search continues, but it will get easier to apply for jobs once I'm there and I can just show up in person to interview or ask about openings. All that's left to do now is enjoy the sunshine, say my goodbyes to everyone, sell my car, and send off some last-minute irreplaceable and fragile belongings that I didn't trust to the moving company, like my grandmother's Singer sewing machine.

This may be my last post to the blog in its current incarnation. Perhaps I'll change the name to "A Bear on a Peninsula" once I've moved ;-)

Aloha Hawai'i, and a hui hou!

The mind boggles at the passage of time

How did it get to be October November December??? In my defense, I had an insane summer, far busier than I had ever intended. Some of you may have heard me talk about books I wanted to write, and that this summer I would just stay put, get in the zone and work on them uninterrupted.

HA!

Why didn't anyone remind me that I'm me??? Thanks a lot, guys.

So...my last post was in February. Which means I have, oh, nine months to cover. Right-o, then, here we go.

In April I attended the Fay B. Kaigler Children's Book Festival at the University of Southern Mississippi. I was selected as a Graduate Student Ambassador, which meant that my conference registration fees and hotel stay were covered, and in exchange for 12 hours of volunteer work keeping everything running smoothly (the operative word being running), I could participate in breakout sessions, listen to keynote speakers, and rub elbows with some wonderful authors, illustrators and experts in the field of children's literature.

One really awesome extra activity that the GSAs got to do (warning: geek alert!) was visit the university's de Grummond collection, which comprises stacks and stacks and stacks of children's books (including many first editions). I thought I'd died and gone to heaven:


An entire other expansive room was devoted to author and illustrator memorabilia - letters, sketches, first drafts, paintings, and other such artifacts. Maurice Sendak, Kate Greenaway, Crockett Johnson (of the Harold and the Purple Crayon books) and many, many others were represented. I got to hold, in my very own hand, woodblocks used to print the book The Diverting History of John Gilpin illustrated by Randolph Caldecott:

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/11979/11979-h/11979-h.htm

If you scroll down to the 11th picture in the Project Gutenberg page, you'll see the inspiration for the Caldecott medal. The woodblocks I got to look at up close were for the pictures that are 7th and 12th on the page:


Seriously, I felt like I had reached the mountaintop.

After the conference, I took a side-trip to Seattle to spend the weekend with Eamon for his birthday; that little visit almost got shortened from three days to two because our plane coming in was delayed, but rather than changing flights or even airlines, I stuck with my original itinerary and after some nail-biting, made it to Seattle as planned.

The semester ended shortly thereafter, and with it my tenure as executive board member of two student organizations. I really enjoyed the leadership opportunities and even learned some event-planning, but I was very happy to pass the torch!

My first big trip this summer was to Australia, which most of you have heard all about so I won't gush for too long ;-) It was basically a summer study abroad program, but it was open to graduate students as well as undergraduates, and it didn't matter what your major field of study was - in fact, the original e-mail I got said you didn't have to be a student at all, you just had to apply for UH Hilo's summer session. It was an incredible trip. I learned so much and certainly got my money's worth - I mean, traveling with a student group means you're getting all kinds of discounts on accommodations and flights. I could never have put together such an informative, in-depth trip if I were just planning on my own, and it probably would have cost about twice as much. There are way too many pictures (which, if I'm being honest with myself and with you, I still need to finish editing down) so I will just say that some day I will share all of the hightlights in some form or another - whether a Picasa page or here on my blog - but I want to move on to the rest of the update! So I will just post this one, which is not the best picture I took, but it captures my most memorable moment. I was on my second scuba dive of the trip (also the second in my life...the first had been the day before!) and our guide pointed to two manta rays coming toward us from about 20 feet away. They got a bit spooked and headed off in another direction, but not before I snapped this:


Pretty awesome, huh?? I'll admit I had a brief "Holy crap!!" moment just reacting to the sheer size of these creatures, but they really are gentle giants.

About a week after returning from Australia, I flew to LA to stay with my mom for a little while, and Eamon had been able to swing a week's leave, so he joined me there. It was great getting to see him, and I checked off a bucket-list item when we went to a live taping of "The Price is Right." Like so many people my age, I used to watch the show whenever I was sick or had a day off from school, and I can't help it, it's a guilty pleasure and I love Drew Carey as host. So Eamon and I trooped over to CBS studio at the ungodly hour of 5:00 AM, stood and sat and waited in lines for about seven hours, and then were finally ushered into the studio for the show. And you know what?? That studio is TINY!!! The magic of television, man. It was wild and loud and crazy and neither of us got called to "Come on Down," but I had a blast. Drew was hilarious and the banter between him and the announcer, George Gray, was really funny too. And as we were filing out after the show, I called over to one of the models, Gwendolyn, and she came to say hi and shake my hand! I told her she was my favorite and I love her accent (she's from Bath, England) :-) Those models work their perfectly-toned patooties off, and in four-inch heels!!

In late July, I went to Northern California with my mom, her sweetie John and my brother David to spend a week at Packer Lake, our idyllic little retreat in the Sierra Nevadas. I hadn't been back in a few years and it was lovely to spend some time there again. We lazed, we played Scrabble, we hiked (and almost got totally lost trying to find a lake we've hiked to, I dunno, twenty times??) and I went fishing a few times and successfully caught our dinner. I found out recently that the man who owned the lodge and cabins died earlier this month, which is really sad because not only was he an institution and always part of the experience (despite his rough exterior and gruffness, he had to love doing what he did), but there's no knowing what will happen to the real estate now. I sure hope we'll be able to keep going back to Packer for a good long time, but it depends on who buys the property and whether or not they want to keep it available to its loyal visitors.

Another thing I did this past summer was work on costumes for a children's musical theater production of "The Wizard of Oz." It was put on by Ohana Arts, an organization started here in Hawai'i by my dear friend since high school, Laurie Rubin, and her partner Jenny Taira. The kids were adorable, I was very proud of the costumes I made, and the production was really impressive! They had a live orchestra and fully staged song and dance numbers, and even a real dog to play Toto (Laurie and Jenny's miniature poodle). It was a great experience all around!

When fall came around I began my final semester of the library science Master's program at UH. This was technically an "extra" semester because there was a certain class I really wanted to take that's offered very rarely. It's called Traditional Literature and Oral Narration, and I actually had decided not to take it my very first semester because I had recently finished the children's literature program at Simmons, and had taken a whole class on folk and fairy tales. Well, no one pointed out to me that the class at UH was really a workshop in the art of storytelling, and that it was being taught by a world-renowned professional storyteller and that I'd be an idiot not to take it! And yes, it was totally worth it to stay one more semester to take this class. I also had a core requirement left to take, so I signed up for those two classes and also audited a course in the Hawaiian Studies department to learn more about the place I've called home for the past two years.

Overall it was a pretty laid-back semester academically, but of course I like to complicate things, so I also worked part-time at the UH library reference desk, got a job as an assistant librarian at a middle school, and continued to sing in the church choir. Oh, and did I mention I also auditioned for a community theater production of "Cinderella"? Yeah, I got a part in the ensemble, so the past few weeks have been a juggling act! The show has been so much fun and I am loving performing again, but I will be relieved when we wrap up production!

In other big news, I applied for the children's services librarian position at a public library in Washington state, about half an hour from the base where Eamon is stationed. I'd been trolling the American Library Association jobs site as well as public and private school employment pages for months, and nothing was coming up that was the type of job I wanted to do AND geographically desirable, so of course I jumped on this one! My phone interview went really well, and I will find out early this coming week whether they want me to come in person for a second interview. This would really be the perfect position and perfect timing, so I'm really hoping everything falls into place!

Whew...I think I've finally brought myself up to date! Lots of love and a happy holiday season to all :-)

-Sarah

Lots and lots and LOTS of ground to cover

Okay, so the last time I posted to this blog was in April of 2010. That's a long time ago. Only a little bit under a year. Basically, I suck at this, but I'm determined to update this blog more regularly from now on. There are many things I want to share, so I will try to be as brief as possible on each one.

In between when spring classes ended and my summer class (Digital Librarianship) began, I took about a week to go visit Eamon on his base in Groton, Connecticut. He had class every day, but we still got a lot of quality time. We spent a particularly lovely day wandering around the arboretum at Connecticut College. I was hoping to see lilacs, but the season had already ended. However, we did find a scenic little pond to sit by. I used the timer on my camera to take a few pictures of us, but none of them really turned out well, so I'll show you an adorable frog that was sitting in the water. He (she?) was extremely well camouflaged, and sat completely still. I love the little bumpy eyes :-)


On my way back from Connecticut, I stopped in LA to...gasp...attend my 10th high school reunion. That may not seem like a lot to some readers of this blog (ahem) but it's one of those moments in life when you realize how quickly time passes.

My summer class was on a super-accelerated schedule, and we were done in about 3 weeks. Then it was time to gear up for Bulgaria! I had already decided to stay in Boston for the month of July to rehearse with Divi Zheni (the group I had sung with for a year, and would be traveling with). Plus, that would put me within 2 hours of Eamon by train, and that was a huge bonus! I had been checking craigslist for sublet requests, but most people needed the whole summer, and I wasn't going to be gone that long. I was vacillating about whether or not to post with my specific dates, especially because my situation involved trusting people with my cats, when I stumbled upon a request for a sublet from a lady in Northern California whose daughter was planning to move here. She wanted a home base for about a month while she helped her daughter look for a place to rent. They already had their plane tickets and needed an apartment from July 4th-August 6th, and she said they loved animals and would happily take care of pets. Hallelujah! It didn't really matter to me when I left, and I knew I could find someone in my building to help out with my cats between the 6th and my return on the 18th. We talked on the phone and signed a sublease agreement and I arranged my flights so that I could be here to meet them and get them settled in and then leave that day. Sometimes things just work out!!

Eamon and I got to spend every weekend together in July, which was such a nice change from being halfway around the world from each other! I would go down to Connecticut or he would come up to Boston, as our schedules permitted. I was staying at the home of our dear friends Sue and Jo (they were actually traveling or up at their summer home in Maine for most of the month, but we did get to see them a few times!). Sue is my mom's cousin's sister-in-law, and they reached out to us when we first moved to Boston and made us feel so welcome when we didn't know a soul. If you are Jewish or know Jews, you know that the definition of family is fluid and inclusive. Sue and Jo quickly became what we call mishpocha in Yiddish - framily, if you will :-)

Suffice it to say that Bulgaria was amazing. The Koprivshtitsa festival (the international folkloric extravaganza that we were lucky enough to experience as well as perform at) was worth the trip alone, but then we took off on a 10-day tour around the country with the most knowledgeable guide and interpreter I have ever met. This woman was a veritable encyclopedia, extremely well-versed in the history of Bulgaria's various conquests (its position on the Black Sea is particularly strategic, so every empire you can think of had control of it at one time or another). I learned so much and took hundreds of pictures, which I still have not categorized and edited down, but I have a few to share!

Here's a picture of me in the full traditional costume that my group performed in:


Sparkly, no? My mom's group, Nevenka, was also at the festival to perform, and then she joined my group for the Grand Tour! It was awesome getting to visit all of those amazing places with my mom!

Here's Mom and me at a distillery in the "Rose Valley," a swath of just-right weather and soil conditions for growing roses that runs straight down the middle of the country. Mom, the Rose Queen, was in her element :-)


I was particularly impressed by the architecture. Some parts of Sofia, the capital, reminded me of Italy and France, other areas were dominated by Communist-era edifices, and the Turkish influence was evident in the many beautiful mosques. Here's my favorite building from Plovdiv, a beautiful old town we visited toward the end of the trip.


The attention to detail on these buildings was what struck me most; almost no surface is left unadorned, but it's all so tasteful and elegant. Look up the Rila Monastery if you want to be absolutely gobsmacked; I could never do it justice here!

Moving right along..

Eamon finished A-School (his last submarine training program) on August 12th, while I was still in Bulgaria. His family joined him in Connecticut for graduation, helped him pack up and move out, and then took him back to DC for about a week. He still had plenty of time before he had to report to his new command, Naval Base Kitsap in Washington State, so he joined me in Hawai'i the day after my flight came in! We had 10 lovely days together, even though classes started in the midst of them :-) Then we flew to LA for the wedding of our very good friends Rose and Or (Rose and I became close at Kenyon, when we discovered that she lived just over the mountain from my wonderful childhood summer camp). These two know how to have fun and share a wacky sense of humor; the wedding was both laugh-out-loud awesome and a beautiful, personalized affair. One of Rose's brothers built a photobooth for the reception; here's my favorite picture from our set:


You can't tell since the picture is black and white, but my dress and Eamon's shirt were almost the exact same shade of purple. I've mentioned I love this man, haven't I?

I have been promising for a looooooong time to showcase some of the ceramics pieces I've made. Here are a few, in varying stages of completion :-)


I think I made this fruit bowl in my first semester; I took this picture with the camera function on my old cell phone, which was never very good at capturing the subtleties of color; the speckles are more purple than they appear here.

A "nesting" teapot and teacup that don't nest very well, but in my not-so-humble opinion are still quite cute :-) The color, which again is not very accurate on my camera phone, is a lovely kind of oxidized green.


This is a sake set ready for its first firing in the kiln (the "bisque firing"). I intended it as a housewarming gift for my mother-in-law, Kitt, her college roommate Polly, and Micah and Ellie, Eamon's brother and sister-in-law (they've dubbed the house they all share in DC "The Compound"). They moved into the house in the spring of 2010, and I didn't actually get it to them until Christmas, so it was a very late housewarming gift :-)


I tried to make a chip 'n dip bowl, but this ended up less chip, more dip :-) This is just after finishing the piece, before I'd even removed it from the wheel. I was very happy with the way it turned out when I did finally glaze it. This was my Christmas gift to Dad and Margaret.


Another pre-glazed piece (although this one has already been bisque fired). I made this last semester for the professor with whom I took British Children's Literature - we read Winnie the Pooh, among other classics, and I thought she would like the beehive/honey-pot theme. The glaze I used came out perfectly, a lovely honey color. I was very pleased with it (and so was she!). Unfortunately, one of the bees came off, but it still had the same effect.


I just made this pitcher about two weeks ago - in this picture it's just about to go into the kiln for the bisque firing. I'm really happy with the fancy-schmancy handle!


Here's another recent creation before I took it off the wheel. I've been tackling bigger and bigger pieces, and I think I'm making progress (I was never able to make anything very tall before).

You'll notice I tend to take pictures of my stuff before glazing - sometimes before it's been trimmed or even gone through the bisque firing - because if I'm really pleased with something, I want a record of it! Anything can happen in ceramics; being the klutz I am, I might drop a piece on the way to the drying rack. Or it could explode in the kiln, or the glaze could go on too thick and fuse the piece to the kiln shelf - so I think it's always good to take the pictures early :-) Ceramics is good for me for just this reason. I don't like things to be unpredictable, and I prefer having control over things (or hadn't you noticed?) so having to just wait and see how everything turns out is very healthy. I actually find it quite freeing! Not to mention there's something almost hypnotic and meditative about the process of throwing a pot on the wheel. Your mind clears and you're completely focused on making imperceptible adjustments to the shape, height or thickness of the piece.

Well, that's enough ceramics...for now :-)

I was able to go to Washington to see Eamon for my birthday weekend as well as Thanksgiving. I am loving this new proximity!! For my birthday we stayed at a sweet B+B in the Queen Anne neighborhood, a suburb of Seattle. We took the "Underground Tour" which takes you down to where the street level used to be - pretty cool! We also visited Pike Place market, one of the most colorful and vibrant outdoor markets I've ever seen (the fish-throwing guys are legendary).


Don't these chili garlands look like lei??

For my actual birthday, we went out for afternoon tea with all the trimmings (the sugar was even purple - perfection!) Here's my favorite picture:


Did you spot it? No? Look again. Eamon's wearing the tiara they gave me.

Thanksgiving was lovely too, and requires a bit of a back story. Rose and Or took a trip to Hawai'i last March, just at the tail-end of my mom's visit here. Rose and I wanted to get together, so Rose suggested we meet up with friends of hers whom she had met in LA and were living on O'ahu, Melissa and Paul Dylan and their *adorable* little girls. So Mom and I trooped up to the North Shore to meet them - it was a great example of "any friend of yours is a friend of mine" and we all got along swimmingly :-) Melissa and Paul were just about to move back to the mainland, but not to LA, which is part of why Rose was so keen to see them. Well, Eamon and I saw Melissa again at Rose and Or's wedding, and by that time we knew that Eamon would be stationed at Kitsap, and that turned out to be right near where Melissa and Paul had moved to! Melissa, being the sweetheart that she is, invited us to get in touch around Thanksgiving if we didn't have other plans. Well, we took her up on it, and her family welcomed us warmly and included us in their dinner as if we were old friends. There really are some gems in this world.

The rest of the Thanksgiving weekend was nice and laid-back. Eamon and I got some extra time together we hadn't been expecting, so that was just a nice bonus. The ferry trip back to Seattle for my flight home was quite scenic, despite the cold!

I simply have to share this bumper sticker we saw in the parking lot of the Navy Lodge:


:-) :-) :-)

Eamon had duty over Christmas this past year, so I was in LA for the holiday itself, but both of us came to Hawai'i on the 27th, and we had ourselves a merry "little Christmas," just the two of us. We didn't pack lots of activities in, but out of curiosity we did go on the Atlantis Submarine, which is a passenger vessel (much like the ride at Disneyland, actually, but without the track). It goes down to about 100 feet deep in Waikiki Bay to observe the reef ecosystems, including both natural reefs and *gulp* sunken ships and airplanes, as well as structures that were sunk on purpose to boost the fish populations. The shipwrecks and planes freaked me out - they were just so eerie! But there was an impressive array of fish and other reef animals. No turtles or dolphins or anything, but it was fun, and Eamon enjoyed talking shop with the pilot.

Here's what the Atlantis looks like on the surface:


Oh, and here's a picture of me baking scones. Eamon got me this apron at the tea place in Seattle - all the waitresses were wearing them and they came in a bunch of super-cute fabrics. I couldn't resist!


Eamon left on January 2nd and the very next day my very good friend from college, Mindy Stoker, came to pay me a visit! She lives in Ohio and their winter was particularly harsh, so I was really happy to have her come and enjoy the sunshine!

We spent a few days on O'ahu visiting the Byodo-In Temple and some North Shore beaches (Mindy also headed over to Pearl Harbor on a day I had some commitments at school). Then we took a hop over to Big Island because Mindy really wanted to see volcanoes. Well, what do you know, I found a place called Kilauea Military Camp inside Volcanoes National Park. When I first heard the name I thought we were expected to stay in a tent, but we got a lovely little two-bedroom cottage with fireplace and jacuzzi tub, for like $90 a night. There are times when having Navy Spouse status is really quite nice. The KMC is located "up country" (in the hills) so it actually got kind of chilly, but we didn't end up using the fireplace. The jacuzzi jets, however, were quite nice on our feet since we actually did quite a bit of walking and hiking. When we first arrived we made our way up the Kona coast to see a coffee mill and museum; We also stopped at a black sand beach and watched the sunset in Kealakekua Bay. After settling into our cottage, we drove up to the Jaggar Museum to watch the Kilauea Caldera's billowing plume glow bright red - that was a sight!

The next day was all about volcanoes. We drove around the park to check out the steam vents and the view of the caldera from another vantage point, went down the Thurston Lava Tube, and took a little side road to look at the "tree molds," which are deep pits where lava flow hardened around trees, and then the trunks rotted or burned away. It's amazing to think that where you're standing to look into these pits is actually close to where the tops of the trees were!

We asked at the Visitor Center about walking out on lava fields to see flowing red lava, but they recommended against just heading out on our own. We decided to go down to the end of the road (there's a whole chunk of highway that was covered over by lava flow about 10 years ago) to see what we could see. We got down to the parking lot and a bunch of people were gathered looking at some cracks in the lava that were glowing red, which was pretty cool, but there were barriers up and it was really far from the shoreline. There was a company that had set up a tent advertising Lava Walks to go all the way across the hardened lava fields and down to the ocean - normally those fields are off-limits because they're private property, but this company was operated by people who own the houses, and the guides are experts at determining whether the lava is safe to walk on. They were charging $60 per person, and we figured, not bad for the chance of a lifetime, so we signed up! The lava field is really uneven, so even though we were going a fairly short distance as the nene flies, we had to scramble around and climb and it was slow going. At one point we were even walking over cracked lava that was glowing just under our feet - the guide told us to hurry up so our shoes wouldn't melt! Yipes!

But wow...was it worth it! We got all the way down to the ocean and boy, did nature put on a spectacular show. The lava was flowing fast into the water, and the force of the waves meeting up with the lava set off sparks and pops and clouds of steam, and the lava continued to glow red and bubble even as it went under the water. SO COOL! Mindy has a really high-quality camera, so she got some amazing still shots. However, my camera does a good job with video even when it's totally incapable of capturing stills, and I got some real stunners. Here's the best:



Okay, I think that gets me all caught up. I will post again soon - I really mean it!
Love to all,
Sarah

I was very ambitious when I started this blog

Okay...wow. I can't believe I haven't posted since Christmas! I ran out of excuses a long time ago, but suffice it to say that this semester turned out to be really, really busy - but in a good way. I have a lot to cover, so let's get right to it!

First, some pictures I took in mid-January. There's this one flowering plant on campus that I pass all the time on my way to classes, but one day I realized some girls were standing there looking at something - it was full of caterpillars! These guys were everywhere, all in various stages of growth. They were hard at work destroying the host plant, bite by bite; a few adult butterflies flitted around guarding their young (okay, okay, I know that's not how it really works - it just makes me happy!).

Munching

Three on one leaf!

Tiny caterpillar! SQUEE!!!

Probably my best picture of the day. My camera's got a really good close-up function, but it took a few tries before I could snap this particular butterfly when it was sitting still!

Don't they just look like one big happy family? (Remember...I'm happier this way...)

I've looked up butterflies found in Hawai'i and it turns out these are, in fact, Monarchs (the Hawaiian name is Lepe o Hina). The plant I saw them on is called Crown Flower, and apparently it's their favorite :-)

The first time I noticed all the butterflies and caterpillars, I only had my cellphone with me. I tried (unsuccessfully) to get a few pictures - hence returning with my real camera several days later. But at one point on the day when I had my phone, I looked directly overhead and got a bonus - a praying mantis!! It's not the best quality, but I drew a circle so you can see it clearly. It really looks like a leaf!

Now, if you were a random web surfer and you just happened to stumble upon my blog, you might get the impression that all I do here in Hawaii is take pictures of animals, insects and rainbows. Not so! I go to class, write papers, sing in choirs, work in the library, and take care of household chores. It's not all fun and games, people! It's just that I happen to do all of those things in this incredible place where beauty surrounds me constantly and I try to capture it when I can.

Speaking of choirs, I'm now singing in two instead of three. My church job and school commitments were edging out the student-run choir, so the director, assistant director and section leader politely and graciously asked me to step down for the semester. My absences had become a burden on the group, and they all suggested that maybe I had just bitten off more than I could chew (that doesn't sound like me at all, right??) I believe at one point the conversation was jokingly referred to as an "intervention." Anyway, I'm still friends with these folks, and I'm hoping to be able to rejoin next semester.

Spring break was hardly a break this year, but it was my favorite kind of vacation. I had a visit from my mom, my aunt Bobbie and Bobbies's caretaker, Luz, and we explored all over this crazy island!! The very tightly packed agenda (planned by yours truly) included admiring gorgeous Kaneohe Bay from the Pali Lookout, learning about how pineapples came to Hawai'i at the Dole Plantation, sipping tea on the Veranda at the chic Kahala Hotel, visiting the historical sights and museums of Pearl Harbor, and taking in an excellent traditional hula show at Prince Kuhio Beach Park.

Here's Mom, Bobbie and Luz up on the Pali Lookout. It's not called the Windward Coast for nothing!

Bobbie and Luz left on Wednesday and my mom stayed a few extra days during which we hiked, beached and visited a few of the more out-of-the-way places of interest. I didn't have very much time to mope over their departures, however, because I had an extra-special visit from Eamon to look forward to!

I had headed out to Connecticut in February so we could be together for our anniversary, and the plan was that I would return in May after classes had ended. Three months wouldn't be so bad, and it would go quickly. Eamon was set to finish TCNO in mid-March, but not in time to start A-School right away (for those of you playing the home game, TCNO stands for something computer-related, and A-School trains the sailors for their specific job, which in Eamon's case is Navigation). So he was going to be in this kind of holding pattern for about two weeks. I suggested that he try to come visit me here during that time, and it turned out he had earned enough leave days, but he just needed to put in the request, and the request would take five days to go through the chain of command! But the first guy, who mattered the most, gave Eamon reason to think it would be fine, so on that reassurance...I bought him plane tickets! Want to know what's even crazier?? I planned his departure for the day after he would find out!! Man, do we live on the edge. So we both sweated bullets over the weekend, trying not to get our hopes up but who were we kidding, we both wanted it to work out so badly! Whaddaya know, the leave got approved!

Eamon arrived on March 30th, just in time for us to change clothes and head down to the Hale Koa hotel down in Waikiki (which is this huge Navy-run establishment for traveling sailors) for a Passover seder organized by the Reform congregation on the island. That was another thing - I reserved places for both of us even though we didn't know about his leave request yet ;-) It was a huge affair held in the ballroom, and a little disjointed as a result, but very earnest and enjoyable nonetheless.

Those of you who keep up on liturgical calendars will also note that this was during Holy Week, so we were in church almost every day of Eamon's visit! He came with me to the Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and the Saturday vigil services, and then he had to head to the airport that night to be back in Groton for classes on Monday. So it was a short visit, but since it was basically a bonus, we were both very happy with how things worked out.

And now I've gone on long enough. I know there was a lot to cover, but there's only so much you can subject people to - even if they're your friends and family!

Much love until the next post. Here's a teaser - I'm going to Bulgaria this summer!!