November 2016 – Page 2 – Life in the Cheese Drawer

a tour back

November 19, 2016 kate Comments 0 Comment

today i went to spicer to help out liz’s in-laws clean out their house (personal details not to follow – just know that the time has come to clear out a house).
i drove down a county road from avon to richmond that i’d never been on before that was lovely, except for the snowy roads bumps that made me slow down from time to time. in richmond, i hooked up on good ol’ highway 23.
oh, 23. for 15 years i traveled you back and forth from the st. cloud area to new london. good times. it’s changed, especially the section that no longer goes through paynesville, but that’s really another story for another time.
what surprised me this time was rounding that dratted corner right before new london and seeing the water tower come into view. my gut wrenched up. what on earth – it’s been 23 years since i first got puke-worthy nervous over seeing that water tower show up around the bend.
after my mom took her job in willmar, we lived in st. cloud with my grandparents for a bit, and every morning we drove from st cloud to new london to drop me off at high school and then my mom to willmar for work. those first couple months just wreaked havoc on my nerves as i had to navigate a new high school after 9 years of being with the same people in school. so, with good reason that the water tower brought on a bout of nervous butterflies.
but it waned, as it had to, since i drove into new london quite a bit from the east. this time, however, it was a surprised nervous flutter that quelled almost as soon as it started. but it was there.
i’m not sure how many more times i’ll be heading that way, but i hope the nervous nellies take a hike.

thanksgiving foods

November 18, 2016 kate Comments 0 Comment

thanksgiving is coming up so quickly! of course there’s going to be a nice, organic, free-range turkey in the oven, and i’m going to make pies, pumpkin and raspberry rhubarb i believe.
so this weekend i have to go shopping for such foods, and it’ll be interesting if i get out of the driveway. my drive home took me almost twice as long as it normally does due to the snow today. OMG. i can’t believe they didn’t close the campus. the roads were icy and snow was blowing over them from the 50-mph winds howling out of the north.
the worst part of the drive, and i was expecting it, was my road – parkwood circle. i hadn’t expected them to plow it already, but there was so much snow on the ground that it was right at the bottom of my car body as i was driving through the ruts in the road. then there was the hill. i was worried i was going to have to have nate come attach a rope to my car and pull me up the hill, but after 5mph and crossing my fingers, i made it up. my driveway was the easy part! i just glided right down and into the garage.
i’m supposed to go to spicer tomorrow, but we’ll see if we’ll get the driveway cleared out in time. i’m also supposed to hang my xmas lights this weekend, but not sure if that’ll happen (should’ve done it last month).
that totally diverged from thanksgiving foods. here’s what i think i’m making:

turkey
stuffing
cranberry stuff (hot or cold – not sure yet
squash galette
sweet potato stuff
potatoes/gravy
beans or mushrooms or something. glazed carrots??
pie, pie, and pie
eggnog!

i feel like i’m missing something…

SNOW

November 17, 2016 kate Comments 0 Comment

SNOW’S A’COMIN’!
BATTEN DOWN THE HATCHES
BUY YOUR MILK, BREAD, AND EGGS
GET READY IT’S GONNA BE A DOOZY

a chance to go beyond the safety pin!

November 16, 2016 kate Comments 0 Comment

here’s something i just wrote on my facebook wall for tomorrow’s give to the max day here in MN:
hi friends! tomorrow’s give to the max day, and i’m at a conference tomorrow so i’m going to post about this now in case i can’t get to it. now is a great time to throw some weight behind that safety pin! donate to organizations that support and help the vulnerable and disadvantaged populations, since 1) they always need it and 2) funding cuts are most likely on the way. for instance, you can donate to my mom’s org, PossAbilities, that helps people with disabilities. or your area food shelf, women’s shelter, or united way are always great places to give. i give to the land stewardship project every year to promote land conservation because the environment is my #1 priority (really, without a habitable earth to live on, nothing else much matters). and at the risk of of inciting a large debate that i will try to ignore, giving to planned parenthood is a great idea; they help low-income women and men with their reproductive health and STD tests, do cancer screenings, and provide low-cost birth control. what are you waiting for? if you’ve been low income at some point in your life, and i definitely have, then you know the importance of these programs. let’s make a difference!
i donated to my mom’s org, to the landstewardship project, and i set up monthly donations to planned parenthood.
i’ve been poor! not just as a kid when my parents were down and out, but as a new college grad making $7 and hour and scraping by. for about five years before i got health insurance like a grownup at a real employer that offered health insurance, i went to planned parenthood for my yearly checkups and for birth control (for my monogamous, responsible relationship! and even if it wasn’t, NBD!). i paid on a sliding scale, which was much cheaper than if i’d had to pay at a clinic and pharmacy with no insurance. this is a real service to women who can’t afford to go to a family practitioner once a year or get birth control at the obscene amounts the companies charged. before obamacare made BC covered, i paid $400 out of pocket AFTER INSURANCE for my mirena. i was paying about $30/month for a pack of BC pills in the early 2000s, and that was a CHEAP pack. i had my mirena replaced a few months ago, and there was absolutely no cost to me. and if that part of obamacare is repealed (god forbid), we’re going to have to pony up the dollars again.
let me tell you my planned parenthood story. i was going in for my yearly exam, and i encountered a single older gentleman in front of the door praying the rosary. this is not uncommon in st cloud, where they don’t even perform abortions (only one in the state is in st. paul). it was raining, so i hurried in, had my exam, and was ready to go out and chat with this guy. i planned on thanking him for praying for a good result from my yearly exam, making sure i flashed my wedding ring in the process. unfortunately, he was gone by the time i left, but i was ready to talk to this guy, to maybe plant a seed of thought that perhaps women who used planned parenthood aren’t all there to have their daily abortions, that maybe it does provide some services beyond that.
so, that’s my story, and here’s my plug for donating during give to the max day. it’s a feel good day when you can go on one site to find an organization worth giving to, something you feel really passionate about. there’s even a place you can donate where all the money goes to help CATS!! and it’s one GREAT way to show your support for the people who are going to need your help during the next four years. beyond the safety pin!!

https://www.givemn.org/

title

November 15, 2016 kate Comments 0 Comment

where is november going?? it’s thanksgiving next week already! i’ve got a conference thursday and friday, then this weekend i have to put up my christmas lights 😮
i’m enamored with finding dory at the moment, so my shorty mcshorty blog post will have to do for now 🙂 maybe i’ll have something interesting to blog about tomorrow.

kablpomo continued…

November 13, 2016 kate Comments 0 Comment

after this week-long break, now i’m feeling i’ve got to keep up my blog game. but today i was so tired all day long. i slept 10 hours last night and took an hour nap today. i’ll probably pass out here in the next half hour and get another 8.5 hours tonight. traveling wears a person out!
and back to real life and what to do, what to do. after the election, i feel fired up to do something, somewhere, somehow. sure, i can wear a safety pin, but i feel like that’s a very small thing a person can do. i might start volunteering at planned parenthood. i thought about doing something at a women’s shelter, but i feel like i’m more passionate about PP. so i’ve looked into and we’ll see what happens (another option is the local pet shelter, but i doubt DT will go after our pets).
i’ve uploaded all my trip photos to FB, which you can see here:
https://www.facebook.com/katewallace1979/media_set?set=a.10102074575546331.1073741844.56002659&type=3&pnref=story
https://www.facebook.com/katewallace1979/media_set?set=a.10102074558560371.1073741843.56002659&type=3
https://www.facebook.com/katewallace1979/media_set?set=a.10102074628495221.1073741845.56002659&type=3&uploaded=233

back home, where i roost

November 12, 2016 kate Comments 1 comment

today was a travel day. our pickup shuttle actually turned out to be a car, which was nice because a) we only had to pick up one other person and b) between the other person and the driver, it was kind of a riot hearing what they had to say. it was like a guided comedy tour.
got to the airport 🙁
got through TSA 🙁
got to our gate 🙁
had a couple EXCELLENT drinks 🙂
boarded the plane 🙁
flew back to land of ice and snow 🙁 (except not yet. it’s only 50º here, so it isn’t TOO bad…but when you prefer 80º, i guess it’s not great)
the HHH terminal was pretty low-key when we flew in, definitely low-key compared to LAX. by the time we got to our baggage claim, our luggage was already on the conveyer and was one of 5 left to pick up. hitched a ride on the shuttle to our parked car and felt like i had miles and miles of space in our traffic lanes. unbelievable.
and the closer i got to home, the more relaxed and happy i felt. i had FUN in CA. i would love to go there again, and i probably will. i love to go places and to travel, but i think i love coming home even more.
i leave you with this michael perry quote, quite possibly my favorite from him:

I am happy here, but my gravitation to place has always been balanced by my need to move. I crave a contrapuntal mix of shiftlessness and stability. In bed at night, I can hear the trucks out on the highway. Sometimes a driver drifts across the white line, and when the tires hit the rumble strip, the rubbery howl makes me want to drive away in the night, fills me with the urge to go west, makes me think the finest sort of freedom is found at sunrise in a South Dakota rest stop. Contentment, it turns out, can be a matter of global positioning.

…to this day my two favorite things in the world are solitude and motion. I’ve found them in the next county, in a semi crossing the Nevada state line, on a Hungarian train, and on a bus approaching the Guatemalan border. In times of trouble, motion is my morphine. But as much as I love to run, I love even more to come home. At every latitude, my compass swivels to point back here, to little old New Auburn. This place is my true north. A stray dog running, as it turns out, is just circling the rug.

day 5: …

November 11, 2016 kate Comments 0 Comment

today was our last full day in california. 🙁
we had no plans to do anything today, and i know jane at least made good on that. didn’t do much for the first hour i was awake, and then sat by the pool for a little bit before coming in and convincing jane to take a walk with me down ventura blvd. not a lot going on there except for some bright sun. i think if we were down a little farther on the strip, we would’ve seen a lot more stuff happening, like chandelier stores and adult bookshops.
came back and had lunch at the hotel restaurant and i went back to sitting by the pool while jane wrote in the room (she was trying to avoid the heat). i came back to the room and on my way across the pool deck, i slipped on the tile and biffed in in front of all the pool patrons. thanks, kim*.
after checking out my bruised hip, i decided to go for a short run on the treadmill (finally! all week i didn’t run, so it was time). i hate seeing my distance on the treadmill counter because i’m so annoyed at how slowly i’m going, but i got two miles in and quit because there was NO FAN to cool me off.
made it across the pool deck unscathed this time and took a shower before heading out to try the tortas mexico restaurant on ventura. mm mmm!! delish! i had two tacos with homemade tortillas and jane had a giant burrito the size of her head! i was also able to get some horchata and pineapple juice – yummy yummy! jane said she’d have to eat here if she lived here, and i said “she died like she lived; eating a burrito.” now it’s a thing.

got back to the room and packed up all our junk – OMG. what an ordeal. i was worried i wouldn’t get all my junk in my trunk, but i made it, after moving things around 20 times. then i forgot to pull out socks for tomorrow. hauled the suitcase back up and open. then i forgot to pull out a sleeping shirt. hauled the suitcase back up and open. then jane said “she died like she lived; packing her suitcase.” ugh, ain’t that the truth. was looking for my flipflops and realized they’re packed! good grief.
now we’re hanging out in our hotel room waiting for the pool area to clear out so we can spend some time in the hot tub before we have to leave. tomorrow we fly out at 1pm back to 40-degree weather**.
*kim was the travel agent for the travel voucher jane won who was supposed to help us figure everything out. turns out she was NOT helpful and NOT a good travel agent. seriously – leave for a conference for two weeks and don’t check your email AT ALL, especially the week before you leave? and then tell us the hotel is booked because she didn’t check her email? (also, the car rental prices she got us were about $100 more than what i found, and that was limited to 150 miles a day – HA. #thankskim).
**not sure how i’ll cope. i was sitting by the pool today and it got chilly so i decided to come back to the room. checked the temperature and it was 81º. -_-

day 4 – sightseeing

November 10, 2016 kate Comments 0 Comment

this morning, jane and i had no idea what we were going to do, so we decided to go to universal city to see what was there and visit the harry potter section of the gift shop again (because, why not, right?).
after taking a quick tour and then eating a crepe, we decided to check out the starline hop on hop off busses that did tours of hollywood, santa monica, and venice beach. and right then jane made the decision that we’d go! so on to the bus we went without our sunscreen, water bottles, or dramamine (no worries; i picked some up at a CVS down the street from the chinese theatre.
the first drop was at the hollywood walk of fame, chinese theatre, and the madam toussand’s wax museum. we walked up the sidewalk to see if we could find the stars of people we cared about. took some pics of the dolby theatre where the academy awards are held, and saw the chinese theatre.
AND GOT FOOD AT A TACO TRUCK!!! woohoo!!! it wasn’t a GREAT taco truck, but at least it was a taco truck. ate around the corner in a slightly sketchy sidewalk bumpout, but at least it was shady.
lots of people wanting us to take their CDs, handouts, tour bus info, and people dressed up as movie characters (and the village people – one of whom was wearing very short shorts and furry boots).
some items of note: puritan roots are not very deep here. lots of adult shops, lots of head shops, lots of debauchery (i like it; just a departure from average minnesotan fare).
then we hopped on the bus again and took a bus tour of hollywood – melrose ave, beverly hills, saw the hollywood sign, etc. it was fun once i got the dramamine in me because we sat on the roof of the bus and took in the sun. (the sun doens’t seem very strong here this time of year, but it sure is bright and hot). tried to stop at tower records so i could get something for nate, but it was closed (for good).
got back to universal city where we checked out the comic book store that’d been closed earlier and had supper at hard rock cafe, along with a drink. then took the shuttle back to the hotel, where we now sit! drinking a fuzzy navel and considering sticking my feet in the pool.