RACHEL GOES...

Keep me alive until Alaska

2012-02-12T16:53:00.000-08:00

This is my new mantra, much to the tune of the Beastie Boys' No Sleep Til Brooklyn. Two days ago, my bf and I booked an Alaskan cruise (or as I like to call it The Cheapest Way To Get To The Final Frontier). With this, I'll join the 50 State Club.

While I'm certainly not the first to accomplish this, I am the first one I have ever had the pleasure of meeting (if I say so myself...). I think it's a big frickin' deal! And so do 9 of my Facebook friends. Out of 180. I know, I know, not everyone uses Facebook who has an account and not everyone clicks the "like" button if they, in their head, really did like this fact. But then I saw a recent engagement announcement garner approximately 1,200% as many positive responses and I made a gigantic pouty face.

Dramatization -- I don't look so horse-like. I might look a bit like a raccoon, though. Or a manatee.

I believe in terms of Facebook likability, my declaration of widespread travel is a bit above status updates such as "My weekend starts now!" but still below "Go Packers!"

Here's the thing: I may never get married. In fact, I'm so far from getting married that if I ever do get married, my 30-year-old self will be spin her head, exorcist-style, from surprise. So saying I'm going to Alaska in May IS my engagement announcement. Stopping for a day in Ketchikan and another in Juneau is the wedding. I didn't register for gifts, but I'm open to cash donations. And the nice thing about getting "married" to visiting all the states is we can never get divorced. I will never un-visit a state. This is forever, baby!

There was a time in my youth when I got pretty annoyingly desperate to be accepted by the masses. Then I started listening to Hole and kinda turned into PHS' only riot grrrl and just stopped caring what others thought. Fifteen years later, I'm back to begging for a slow clap.

I'm shameless.

I can't believe I'm going down this path, but you know the sayings "Dance like nobody's watching. Sing like nobody's listening."? They're cheesy as hell. But I've really been trying to spin a few of my own: Tell jokes like nobody is going to laugh at them. Write blogs like nobody is actually reading them (especially if they came through the Google search "prostitutes in Busan," the most commonly searched phrase that leads to my blog--boy, are those jerks disappointed when they get here!). Travel like nobody's impressed. Seek adventure like nobody wants to hear about it. Fundraise like nobody's willing to donate!

When I stop trying to impress everyone, I will realize that 9 awesome friends are jazzed about my future accomplishment. Which is 9 more people than were in my high school's grungy girl band fan club (excluding me, of course!).

....and now they blew it!

2012-02-01T19:14:00.000-08:00

I really didn't want to do another consecutive fundraising post. I considered writing about topics like "things I Googled" and "funny pictures I post on my friends' Facebook walls for their birthdays." But I can't stop thinking about THE SUSAN G KOMEN/PLANNED PARENTHOOD CONTROVERSY

Ugggghhhhhhhh.

It makes me sick. This morning I woke up devising new ways that I can raise more money for the fight against breast cancer. Now I'm feeling like Gob in Arrested Development.

All over the news, blogs and Twitter, people are calling for the boycott of Susan G Komen. People are swearing to never support them again and instead donate their charitable giving to countless other pro-women's health organizations.... basically anywhere but Komen. And the fact that it seems the only people standing up for Komen right now are saying things such as "I will finally start supporting you now that you've cut your ties with Planned Parenthood! Thanks for ending your support of baby-killers!" makes me equally as uncomfortable.

Two weeks ago, I signed up for the Susan G Komen 3-Day thinking I could raise thousands of dollars to help eradicate a disease that is holding my boyfriend's mother hostage. The more I looked into the organization, the more excited I was to be supporting them. They seemed to legitimately be working to end breast cancer. I knew there was some controversy with SGK but as far as I knew, it was just their support of Planned Parenthood (the money specifically supporting breast & cervical cancer screenings -- not abortions! -- but any affiliation made some people upset). In that time I've raised almost $400! That's nowhere near the $2300 I need to raise, but it's @#$%-ton of money!

If this news had come out the day before I planned to register, I probably would not have. But it came out after and instead of quitting in protest (and walking away from hundreds of dollars I raised) or soldiering on and accepting donations from all these new "pro-life" supporters, I am demanding answers.

I'm inside the organization now. I'm registered, I'm a fundraiser and I'm upset! Despite several statements stating they are not politically motivated in this, it looks entirely political. You know, I have a very strong personal political stance but I will say that the 3-Day walk is the last place I would like to wave my own agenda.

In all likelihood, I will continue to fundraise for Susan G Komen. But not today. No, today, and tomorrow, and in the days and weeks ahead, I will write them and express my displeasure with them cutting funding to an organization that is widely accessed by low-income women (and men!) throughout the country. I will demand transparency to know where these funds that will no longer go to Planned Parenthood will now be funneled. And I will wait for an answer as to how they will reach out to the poor and the uninsured to ensure that they do not succumb to the disease that they declare to hate so much.

$2300 is not going to cure cancer (says me, Capt Obvious). And one person's letters are not going to undo this decision. But $2300 multiplied by thousands of people can seriously help the cause. And thousands of people each sending one letter will send a message. I'm actually very pleased with the backlash. Susan G Komen HAS to do damage control to not lose thousands, if not millions, for their cause. The cause is prevention, a cure, and the end of cancer.

If, like me, you're also feeling unsettled, take 20 minutes, write them, and tell them how you really feel! That's exactly what I will be doing... along with wishing/praying/hoping/vision-boarding that Susan G Komen will come out again as an organization fighting breast cancer to benefit all woman (and man-)kind with no political agenda.

Susan G. Komen for the Cure

5005 LBJ Freeway, Suite 250

Dallas, TX 75244

And you can email them on their website.

Do it!

I Blew It!

2012-01-30T15:11:00.000-08:00

Fundraising is hard to do.

I knew this ahead of time. In fact, as a bleeding heart with legs, I'm attracted to jobs and activities that help the disadvantaged -- but words like "fundraising" and "volunteer recruitment" trigger my gag reflex. Anything where you are asking others to give up their time and money, I feel as queasy and uncomfortable as I believe I am making them feel.

Scratch the first line of this post, what I really mean to say is
I @#$%ING HATE FUNDRAISING!!!!

So when I signed up to raise $2300 for the Susan G Komen 3-Day, I thought, oh God, I'm about to write a $2300 check so I can avoid asking for help at all costs.

But since I have started so far in advance.... And since I have a lot of expensive plans this year..... And since this is a freaking challenge and where's the challenge in coughing up the money yourself??.... I thought I would give it a try.

Well... I blew it!

Before my most recent "blowing it," I felt a little like I blew it before. I might have blindly walked into this event under the idea that I would be floated through this endeavor by an angel named MATCHING FUNDS. I got this idea from a patient at my work actually who told me her work has ponied up half the funds for this very same event that she walks every year. I thought -- my work is always talking about volunteerism and charitable giving. They'll be sure to donate! I even found a charitable contributions form on the website.

So I sign up... I type in my company's name under the MATCHING FUNDS link on the Komen site -- and what I find is a succinctly written paragraph that may as well be a big red STOP sign. In summary it said: We do not do matching funds.

An email to the giving/volunteerism coordinator later and I'm basically supposed to NOT expect anything from work. Ugggggghhhhh. Dreams of having half my funds magically appear are dashed.

Which brings me to today. I finally worked up the guts to email my department at work to get donations not only for Komen but for the Polar Plunge as well. I basically "replied all" to one of several fundraising emails I received from my coworkers last year. My department is pretty sizable: almost 300 people. I write what I think is a cute, heartfelt email and take a deep breath and press send. I feel nervous. Will people laugh at me? (for raising money for Special Olympics & breast cancer research -- yes, these are real thoughts I have) Will everyone ignore it? I purposefully don't check my work email for a couple hours and instead see if I get any pings from my donation sites.

After a few hours of nothing, I check the work account. My first response is from my director basically saying "While I applaud your efforts, you're violating our non-solicitation policy. I'm going to send out an email reminding people they can't be doing what you're doing." The second was from a person who I've never met telling me she's uncomfortable being solicited and to take her off my email list.

This is what I do:

This is a dramatization: I looked a lot less attractive

I run to the shower and bawl away, all while a voice in the back of my head says "You're 30! You're crying because you got a slap on the wrist! You're not even in real trouble!" Strangely, I was reading an article about shame/perfectionism right before I got these emails. Irony much?!

But still... I was embarrassed. If one coworker-I-don't-know among the masses felt offended, others did, too. And then this not-so-subtle email saying DO NOT SOLICIT will go out basically piggybacking my solicitation efforts. I feel dumb. I know there was no way to know this, especially due to others sending similar emails... But like the article said, people are perfectionists because they want to ward off blame, shame & rejection. And I got (what feels like) all three.

And again, like MATCHING FUNDS, my ability to lean on coworkers has been kicked out from under me. My only salvation is the email is out there. If I get one donation, well, then I guess it was worth it. That said, my embarrassed/shameful/perfectionist side of me sooooo does not want to go to work tomorrow.

Party Like It's 2-0-1-2

2012-01-24T13:27:00.000-08:00

It just occurred to me that 2012 might be the Best. Year. Ever. Yeah, the world might end, but we've been risking that every year since we started keeping track of years.

In general, I try to overload my life with big, sensational events while spending the rest of my time being as lazy as possible.

Here's what I did in 2011:
- Visited Chicago
- Visited my 47th state: Hawaii
- Flew in a helicopter over Maui & Moloka'i
- Went whale watching
- Snorkeled with sea turtles
- Visited my 48th state: Oklahoma
- Visited my 49th state: Texas
- Attended SXSW
- Ran my 2nd 10K
- Completed a half-marathon
- Joined a regularly performing improv team
- Visited NYC
- Turned 30
- Ran the TC 10 Mile
- Went on a cross-country train/bus tour to Chicago, Boston, Maine, DC
- Visited the Maritime provinces: New Brunswick, Nova Scotia & Prince Edward Island
- Donated $$$ to charity
- Asked for a raise & got even more than I hoped for
- Was pretty damn lazy the rest of the time

For leaving the country only once (to Canada! Does that even count?), I think 2011 turned out pretty great.

But 2012, you apocalyptic maven you, is starting to look more spectacular. Maybe it's that I'm 30, unmarried, childless, without debt, without a real home, with a job many view as transitional. Basically nothing is stopping me from doing whatever I want. And I want to do a lot!

If all my lucky stars align, here's what I'll be doing this year:

1. Participating in the Minneapolis Dash & Splash

I already blogged (and begged) about this, but on March 3rd, I'm signed up to run a 5k race around Lake Calhoun & then jump into it's frozen waters -- all to support the MN Special Olympics. So far the reactions have been "Really....???" and "I hope you don't get sick"... to which I say: "Yes, really!" and "Yeah, I hope I don't either."

2. Learn Spanish

I'm partway through Level 1 of Rosetta Stone Spanish: Latin America edition. Plus I signed up for a community ed Spanish class (just like the show!). My goal is to finish all three levels of Rosetta Stone by the end of the year. Rapido!

3. Visit my best friend in Chile

One of my best friends has been living in Chile for almost two years and I'm finally going to see her. What started out has a one-year stint teaching in China has turned into her meeting a Chilean man in China, marrying him and having almost two children (2nd one is due this summer!). I had the pleasure to visit her in China during that first year abroad so I can't wait to see her for three weeks in March. Also while I'm there, I'll....

4. Run the Santiago Half-Marathon

The running program I'm using suggested doing a half marathon right around the time I'd be in Chile. Coincidentally, the Santiago Marathon & Half-Marathon are being held while I'm there. After totally flubbing MY NAME on the registration form (my friend assures me they'll still let me race), I'm signed up to run 21km on April 1st through the streets of Santiago. How do they say? ¡Ay, caramba!

5. Take a solo trip through Argentina to Buenos Aires & Uruguay

Am I a seasoned traveler? Well, yes, kind of. I'm also pretty chickenshit. I traveled through southern China & Hong Kong by myself so that's my only hope that I'll manage to take 6-7 days to bus through the Andes and explore BA & either Montevideo or Colonia, Uruguay. It's a well-worn travelers' path so I shouldn't be worried. I feel for this not unlike I did to go skydiving: I'm gonna do it and I'm excited and it's going to be awesome but I'm scaaaaaarrrreeeed (that's me fall out of a plane/falling out of a bus in the Andes).

6. Run Grandma's Marathon

If this list hasn't already revealed that I'm totally a list-ticker, then it should be plainly obvious now when I say that it's been a goal of mine to run a marathon at some point in my life. Everyone who keeps lists of accomplishments has this on there. Running Grandma's will be special because my mom ran Grandma's Marathon just about every year of my childhood. I rebelled against running when I was young because my mom's passion for it bordered on obsession. It took until I was older to really get what an amazing accomplishment she has done all those years. So though I wanted to run a marathon before age 30, after two years of running leading up to it, I will hopefully complete it by age 30.

7. Visit my 50th state: Alaska

This is another thing I hoped to do before 30 and have edited to be "by 30": visit all 50 states. In celebration of completing (or at least attempting!) Grandma's Marathon & of my soon-to-be 31st birthday, I'm aiming to go to Alaska around the time of the Midnight Sun (late June/early July). The chances that I will go alone are very high... but as a solid 30-something... I just don't care! Why should I wait? Besides, if I can handle people who speak Spanish alone, I can surely face a state filled with bears.

8. Be a bridesmaid in my (other) best friend's wedding

Despite never being close to being married, the phrase "Always a bridesmaid, never a bride" absolutely does not apply to me: I've never even been a bridesmaid! That will change in July when I get to be maid of honor in my (non-South America-living) best friend's wedding. I am unbelievably excited. My friend has truly found a lid to her pot in her husband-to-be and I can't wait to see them make it official. Plus she is so cool, creative and fun so I've already decided it will be one of the best weddings I'll have ever been to -- and it's not for 6 months.

9. Compete in the Warrior Dash

I keep saying I want to get fit to be strong --- not to look good or be skinny. Well, if I give the Warrior Dash a try, that will prove that I'm trying to be the strongest I can. Otherwise, how will I complete the 3-mile obstacle course that includes crawling through the mud & jumping over fire? But I also might want the above picture of myself. Because I'm vain.

10. Weigh, uh, less

I can't remember the right way to do this: if you want to lose weight, are you supposed to keep it a secret so people don't butt in and pass judgment over every last barrel of ice cream you might be shoveling in your mouth? Or is it that you're supposed to tell everyone and then you can't even get your hands on the ice cream barrel because everyone sent it to Wisconsin out of your reach? I can never remember. But yeah. I guess I'm going with option B. The girl who has pounds to lose wants to lose some pounds. Surprise!

11. Write A Book

Blame my mom. She put it in my head that I could write a book. Really, anyone can. Paris Hilton has "written" more than one book. Well, this year I'm going to write one. Start to finish. My biggest obstacle is perfection. Sure I'd love to write a book and have it turn out with such success as David Sedaris or Elizabeth Gilbert...especially if I write about myself (because that's all I know!)... but I need to be accepting that I can write a book and maybe nobody will read it. AND THAT'S OKAY. ...But really, if I write it, you all should buy it.

12. Fundraise for & walk in the Susan G. Komen 3-Day

Hey-oh! As I mentioned in my last fundraising blog, I'm going to do a helluva fundraising challenge: raising $2300 and walking 60 miles for breast cancer research. I will speak to this more at a later date, but I will say I'm doing this to honor my boyfriend's mother Cindy so who is battling breast cancer. This blows my mind thinking about how much I'll have to raise and how far I'll have to walk -- but then again, I just visited Cindy in the hospital yesterday and I think -- this is nothing compared to what she is going through.

13. Travel the World

So my best friend is getting married (not the one that I'll be the bridesmaid for ... or the one in South America... this is a different best friend!) and to celebrate, she plans to travel the world with her new husband. Kind of a round-the-world honeymoon. The thing is -- she invited me along! I'm still working out logistics but I want to go for at least part of it (the whole thing might be impossible.... or is it???). Her wedding is this summer so sometime after the marathon, Alaska, being a bridesmaid, the Warrior Dash and the 3-Day, I'm hoping to barge in on someone else's honeymoon.

This isn't a wishlist, this is a serious-plans-list. I'm already picking up extra shifts at work, cutting out unnecessary expenses, practicing my Spanish and have joined Weight Watchers. While I'm not quite sure the Mayan calendar is right about the world's end, I do have a fire in me urging me to do these things now. Or maybe that's the barrel of ice cream talking. But I honestly feel like if ice cream could talk, it would advise me to drop all the above and stick to marathons of Project Runway.... which is precisely my Plan B. But for now... I'll just shut up and do what I planned.

I'd Jump In A Lake For You

2012-01-23T12:59:00.000-08:00

I love nothing more than someone asking me "Have you ever (fill in the blank)?" and being able to answer, "Why, yes, I have! Back in...."

Have you ever skydived? Yes!
Have you ever competed in a triathlon? Yes!
Have you ever slept in a car? YES!
Have you ever jumped into a frozen lake? .....no. :(

Last winter at work, we watched coverage of a local polar plunge on the news and a co-worker asked if I'd ever done something like that before. When I told her no, she said "Really? That seems like something you'd do. You've done everything."

Well, I haven't done everything (I'm trying!). But while I've never necessarily sought out frozen-lake-jumping in the past, it certainly did have ADVENTURE stamped on it.

So this year, I signed up. It turns out, they don't let you just jump in a frozen lake for fun (at least not officially). You've got a raise some money first! Thankfully, the cause is the MN Special Olympics. I have no personal relationship with the Special Olympics but I do have plenty of history working with people with disabilities. Any organization that highlights the super-abilities of those who were born with or came into a disability deserves ~~my money~~ ahem the money that other people donate on my behalf!

Signing up for the Polar Plunge was not impulsive. Tacking on a 5k road race was. So instead of being part of the Minneapolis Polar Bear Plunge, I'm actually registered to take part in the Dash & Splash. I'll just run around a frozen lake, then jump in. Afterward I'll celebrate with an 8.5-hour shift at work.

This blog isn't just to brag (well, sort of... isn't that point of blogging in general: either bragging or complaining? What, you mean sometimes people don't just blog about themselves? Inconceivable!)... it's to solicit donations. Ha! I entrapped you. Like a sly condo timeshare salesmen, I hooked you with some leisure time before asking for your money.

Honestly, if you have $5-10 to give, head over HERE and help me reach my fundraising goal of $75 (and thanks to people who are obligated to ♥ me, I'm 27% there). Of course all donations welcomed, big and small, but if you are feeling like a Mr. or Ms. Do-Goodery, I say hold your horses. The same day I decided to run/jump/support the Special Olympics, I also signed up for a charity fundraiser that makes $75 look like pocket change. If you want to give more than $5, I'd say donate a small amount now and maybe a larger amount to the cause that I'm raising $$$$ for. But that's later and this is now.

Gimme yr money. And I'll give you something like this:

Not my photo -- but I hope to emulate it as much as possible

THANKS!

Sobey Nights

2012-01-13T14:32:00.000-08:00

I recently went on a train & bus adventure around the right-ward side of the US & Canada. For two weeks I Amtrak'd and Megabus'd among friends on the eastern seaboard. I came home and was met with "What was the highlight??" questions bombing my face. And I bombed them right back. Because the highlight?

Sleeping in a car in the Canadian Maritime Provinces.

I've slept in a car a few times. One late August weekend, I drove with my friend Aaron to Wisconsin Dells to attend my friend Megan's graduation party. She rented a boat and we cruised down the Wisconsin River. Despite not knowing anyone, I met some interesting people. I made it back to the campsite, and realized all the tent sites were occupied. I slept in the front seat of my car, joined by one of Megan's friends. Just as I was falling asleep, one of the other party-mates climbed into the backseat to sleep. This may have been a peak hippie moment for me.

The other time was when Stephanie and I had taken a roadtrip to the Gulf Coast. Let me just preface this by saying my hair was red & pink and Stephanie's was blue. This was our frame of mind. So the fact that we car-slept in Wal-Mart parking lots in Iowa, the Ozarks, Arkansas, Missippi & St Louis shouldn't be that surprising.

And, of course, 8 nights of camping in a van in New Zealand (read back in my blog for this story... it's worth the internet time wasting, I swear!)

Clearly I'm an expert at car-camping. So when Michelle suggested we could sleep in the car, I emphatically responded "YES!!!" Well, that and I had offered to shoulder a larger portion of the cost as Michelle is technically of volunteer of the US government. So free accommodations were in my price range.

It was the first week of November that we drove across the Canadian border into New Brunswick. We went to the reversing falls in St John, which I was probably more thrilled about than visually necessitated. I had done a report about this very location at some point in my childhood and here I was. Let me tell you, visually, it does not look like water flowing up falls. No, it was a ton of whirlpools... which was still interesting.

The Reversing Falls in St John, New Brunswick. Just a big whirlpooling mess.

We decided to head to Parc Rockwood (sure, I'm guessing 99% of New Brunswickers call it Rockwood Park, but if they are going to write the French name on the sign, I will say the French name!) to look for possible campsites. We got there at dusk and got in a short sunsety hike. It was quite chilly and the ponds looked like mirrors. It was pretty sweet. We got back into the car, set up our winterized sleeping bags, brushed our teeth, peed in the woods and climbed into bed at nightfall -- approximately 7 pm.

If you're going to freeze in front of a mirror-still pond, at least do it with some color!

Nature, looking all show-offy

After I downed some Melatonin and attempted to settle in, we were still wide awake and jibber-jabbery an hour later. A car pulled into the trail head and then turned around and left. We hadn't really considered people would stop by and we hoped that on a chilly night, people would stay away. Shortly, another vehicle pulled in. First they parked across the small lot and then they turned around and backed into a spot right next to us. Well, not quite. It was a pickup truck and the cab was far enough ahead that we couldn't see the person inside. They shut off their lights and had their window totally rolled down. The temperature had to be 40F at the most. Michelle and I looked at each other like "WTF!" After about three minutes, the lights came on and the truck drove off.

Forget sleeping. I was wide awake now. Michelle and I kept scoring each others percentages of wanting to stay/leave. She even ended up making a very expensive cell phone call her to partner, an experienced camper and backpacker, for advice (the advice: If you feel freaked out, leave. You'll never sleep!) Actually I think the advice included getting a motel room. Pssssh. This woodsy-trail camping that I had done with Jon in NZ was not seeming so great right now. I did, however, have a back-up plan: Wal-Mart parking lot camping like with Stephanie.

I convinced Michelle, my wonderful nature-loving pal, to drive us over to St John's next-best-thing-to-a-Wal-Mart, Sobey's. It was nearly 9:00 when we got there but there were several car dotting the parking lot. We parked near the back corner, but not the exact back corner. That would look suspicious. Beneath a parking lot light that never dimmed, we slept as soundly as you can in the back of a Suburu. We woke to the windows glazed with ice... on the inside of the car. "That moisture came out of us!" Michelle exclaimed, excitedly.

This is a Where's Waldo puzzle for Michelle... can you see her?

The next day included a ridiculous cold, windy and ill-placed camp lunch in Nova Scotia and crossing the 9-mile Confederation Bridge to Prince Edward Island. After driving by all the deserted tourist traps, we enjoyed our evening at PEI National Park, an oceanfront red clay beach. We were one of the last ones back to our car and found ourselves alone in the NP parking lot. Michelle was excited to camp here, where we would be able to see stars and hear wilderness outside our windows (there was a warning sign for coyotes!). Not me. On one of the most idyllic places on probably earth, I envisioned harassing teenagers or surly Mounties waking us from our slumber. Or maybe just another creepy-creepo pick-up truck driver like in New Brunswick.

Sunset, moonrise at Prince Edward Island National Park -- see, this place is not fit for a night's sleep. No way!

Michelle relented and we located another Sobey's. This lot was much smaller and the "back" of the lot was right next to a busy highway. This would not do. In addition, we had spent most of the day in the car. Michelle, a yogi and all around lover of outdoors and movement, was going kind of crazy. We kind of bopped back and forth between Sobey's and the ~~gas~~ petrol station across the street. Finally, at about 10 pm, after setting up camp in Sobey's in a very dissatisfied way, we drove next door to the Canadian version of Home Depot. They only had about 2 parking lot lights on, meaning we weren't blinded... this was a car-camping paradise. I slept the entire night. Michelle, I fear, never did adjust to car-sleeping.

Sunrise near the home builder's parking lot in Prince Edward Island -- complete with condensation evaporated from our very own bodies. Beautiful, isn't it?

A sunrise over a parking lot can be just as lovely. Thanks for not hassling us, Sobey's.

My Own Trainspotting

2011-08-09T14:01:00.000-07:00

Basically - ME - right this moment

Remember that scene from Trainspotting where Ewan MacGregor was coming off heroin? He was sweating, writhing, and hallucinating about a baby crawling on the ceiling. Yeah, I'm going through that. But it's not heroin -- it's sugar & processed foods.

This all started a couple days ago. I watched the movie Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead about two men who were moderately to severely overweight and on a lot of health related medications totally turn their life around by going on a juice fast. I've been there/done that with juicing (SO 2005!)... but for someone who is mostly vegetarian, I sure am skimping on vegetables.

Co-inka-dinka-lly, in two months I am running the TC 10 Mile. The training is, well, it's "good enough." Let's just say I'll never overdo it. The food, THE FOOD... that is going to get me scooped up by the draggin' wagon. So I put two and two together and decided to do my own 2 Month Detox... one without sugar, processed food, alcohol or fun. I started yesterday.

Okay, since in my line of work I actually do come across people coming off heroin, I can say what I'm experiencing is not that bad. But it's not pleasant either. The grocery list of symptoms looks like this:

- I'M STARVING. Which is weird, because I am eating ALL. THE. TIME. Food does not enter me fast enough. Yesterday I spent $70 on groceries and I believe I've eaten most of it.

- I'm tired. I napped yesterday and I'm treating most of today like a nap with my eyes open.

- I have no energy. I have given up sugar twice before and that sticks out in my memory. I remember sleeping like 9 hours a night and still feeling tired all day. 9 hours is a great improvement for me, I am a 7-hours-and-hating-it kinda gal normally. But cleaning the bathtub seems like a 4.5 mile run to me. The actual 4.5 mile run I'm supposed to do today miiiight be walked. And I might call Jon halfway through to pick me up.

- I'm mentally unwell. I came across this blog entry about sugar/caffeine/refined carb withdrawal symptoms and so many commenters put into words what I was feeling. Abandoned. Disconnected. Disinterested. Restless. Scared. Right now I feel like I have the worst case of ADD without the H for energy. I can't stop thinking about food. I also constantly worry I can't make this damn slow, unprocessed food fast enough. Every sugared/processed food word I encounter, I lust after. I read the word "Sprite" and I keep thinking to myself, "Go buy a Sprite and this will all be over. A Sprite will change all this. It's normal to be addicted to sugar. Nobody eats just fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes, nuts, eggs and chicken. That's impossible. Get that Sprite. And a box of Wheat Thins, too." Just while writing that sentence, my body had a physical reaction that translates to "I'M STARVING! GO DRINK A SPRITE OR DIE!!!" And I don't even ever drink Sprite.

It occurred to me that while today is my day off... I'm kind of having a sick day. Work would be difficult feeling like this. It really makes me question this idea: On one hand, what am I doing to myself? But on the other... what is sugar & processed food doing to me that this happens after just 48 hours without it?!
I'm going to keep going as far as I can with it -- though 8 weeks is looking kind of lofty right now. If I make it through the week, it will be a miracle. But right now, I gotta go... I'm, yet again, starving.

My First Half Marathon ...or... That Time I Met "The Wall."

2011-06-07T12:44:00.000-07:00

I took me about 9 months from when I first started daydreaming about running a marathon to accomplish my first half marathon. Back in August when I was running about 2 minutes and then walking 10, I had hoped to be a slim, fit full-marathon runner by now. Instead I made it through 13.1 miles in the Minneapolis Half Marathon in 2 hrs 48 minutes.... and I barely escaped with my life!

Leading up to the race, I successfully completed an 11 mile long run in 2:20. I had all along told people "I just want to finish the race in under 3 hours" but I was aiming for under 2:45 or better yet... 2:30!

The taper was weird. I mean, I loved it. I was supposed to do very little. A read an article that said "You can't under-do, you can only over-do." That's kind of my life's motto. But while I was under-doing, little weird things started firing off in my body. My achy knee extra-ached and so did my ankles, which never had before. All over, I felt like I had been straining myself, despite only straining to reach the remote from the couch. I did throw some walks and short jogs in but I kept thinking... Am I doing this right?!

Race day came and I felt good. I woke up without an alarm at 4:15. I ate my Clif Bar & half a banana, made myself go to the bathroom three times, Vaselined my feet and armpits and was as ready as I could be.

It's not even quite 6 am at this point.

I had Jon drop me off at the Start line and I immediately went to the bathroom. When I came out I lined right up to go again. And then finally I went one last time -- for the 6th time before 7 am. Despite this, around Mile 7, I did feel like I kinda/sorta had to go again.

I stood in my "pace corral" which was right in front of the walkers. It was nice being back there -- people with jelly rolls and wrinkles and mismatched outfits stood among me. Those are my people.

At 7 am, we took off. I felt really good. Nothing ached, which so often happens at the beginning of a run for me. I just comfortably ran and tried to dodge elbows and the occasional person that tripped and fell (I felt really bad for that guy!). The thing is, being a overweight runner with no muscle definition or even a proper running shirt -- it feels good to pass people. So as I found myself getting a little too close to people, I just kicked it up a notch and passed them. I found myself running with the 2:30 pace group -- my secret dream finish. Why not? It wasn't hard. I actually eventually passed them. I am a walk/runner so I knew I'd start walking eventually and hopefully stay slightly ahead of them for my occasional walks.

I kept up with them for almost 4 miles and then I got hot. I needed to walk a little more often. I was still making good time for me. At Mile 5, I was at 54:00. At 10k, I was at about 1:08... faster than my 10k race in April. And then things started to go very badly.

After Mile 5, the course was on the West River Parkway. It was a rollercoaster of hills, starting with a huge downward hill ... meaning on a down & back course, this bad boy was uphill right until the finish. I aimed for shade as best I could and started walking.. a lot.

"On the way back, you HAVE TO run on the downhills and in the shade." I told myself.

The course doubled back around mile 9.5 miles and it wasn't until afterward that I realized I was at "the Wall." I thought the Wall was something that showed up in full marathons around Mile 20 or 22. Now, I understand I was in the thick of it.

I also understand many other things: I'm not a 2:30 racer. That pace was more than a minute faster than my training pace and it was part of my undoing to attempt that early in the race. It also hit my that I have not trained with a) hills b) direct sunlight and c) humidity. This course was not my tranquil flat lakeside path with little breezes and ample shade and even padded dirt trails. This was a hot gray hilly road and I wasn't pounding it, it was pounding me.

As I listened to some of my favorite get-in-gear songs, my brain couldn't figure out how these songs that normally got me fired up could only get me to run about 30 feet and quit. It got to the point where I could only run if I dumped water on my head. The water stations were every mile so I could get there, fill up my water bottles, dump two cups on my head and take off for about 2 minutes. Then it was another 10-12 minutes of walking to the next water station.

The last mile was of course the most cruel. No more water stations. A that BIG @#$%^&*() HILL!! My hips hurt. My butt hurt. My legs hurt. My toes hurt. Nearly everyone around me walked. Even walking was feeling 'too hard' at this point. "You're so close!" people yelled. We all didn't care. My headphones had stopped working at this point because there was so much water in my ears from dousing my head. Halfway up the hill, I saw it was 2:43. If I could finish in 2 minutes, I'd meet my goal. I might have mentally told my goal to go do something very inappropriate.

At the top of the hill we had .2 miles left to run. That's it. "200 yards and you're done" someone yelled. I shuffled about 10 feet and had to walk more. I was so angry & annoyed... at myself, at my body, at this course, at the sun. Now there was only .1 miles left. I STILL couldn't run. Then I saw the finish line and I dug deep. Jon was there to take a picture of me as proof I had done it.

What a difference 2:48 makes

...and I totally beat that lady next to me, too!

I pushed with part of me that seemed missing in the last 5 miles. I got across the finish line, got my medal and kind of walked in a daze. I always thought I would cry when I finished a half marathon but instead I thought "WATER!!!!!!" My level of functioning was totally primitive at this point.

Having Jon there was wonderful. In the past, I thought How cool would it be to do a marathon in Costa Rica? Now I can say for a fact, Costa Rica is probably the worst place on earth for a marathon. Maaaybe Siberia and only if I have a lot of friends and family to shepherd me when I'm done. Jon walked my hobbling butt back to the car, drove me home, cooked me delicious vegetarian biscuits and gravy and plugged his ears as I screamed getting into my ice bath. His support was (and is) invaluable.

All through the race, I muttered and swore to myself and declared "Worst idea ever!" and "I'll never run again!" But after finishing, the way I imagine mothers feel after giving birth, I found myself thinking -- I could do that again. I began Googling marathons with the terms "flat or downhill" "cold weather" "no humidity." I found about 4 promising ones in late November/early December out of state. So even though today, two days later I still need to reach on to something for support to get myself on the toilet, I'm all ready to go the full distance. I learned a lot from this half marathon. I learned there are things I am just naturally not good at (heat!) and there are things I can learn to get a lot better at (strength training!). I'm sure if I do make it through a marathon this year, I'll make mistakes there too. But at this point in my life, I am actually wanting to learn from them and proactively make changes.

In the meantime, I need another ice cube bath.

My Timeline Has Been Greatly Extended

2011-05-18T11:06:00.000-07:00

The latest news in my life is.... not much.

That's not entirely true. I recently performed onstage with my improv class for the first time. I also logged my first ever 10 mile run in anticipation of my first half-marathon on June 5th. But as far as Rachel Goes... I've mostly been staying put.

I'm going to be 30 soon (8 weeks from now) and I wanted to do something special. There's nothing more special to me than traveling so I looked into several different travel options: Going alone. Going with Jon. Visiting friends. Nothing was really floating to the surface as a great idea. That's the thing about being a 30-something I'm feeling. Your options ain't what they used to be.

I was feeling rather depressed about it. "30" is just a number. In fact, it's only important because we have 10 fingers and counting by 5's or 10's is something we have all taught ourselves to easily do. Maybe I didn't need something grand to mark that I will now check the 30-39 box on all forms.

Then I found this blog by an amazing woman named Meg Noble Peterson, who, after a full career in teaching music, having five children, getting divorced after 33 years of marriage, went on a solo round-the-world trip in the 1980's at the age of 58. Then she went on another one in the 90s. Today she is in her 80s and still traveling the world, often by herself. She climbed Mt Kilimanjaro for her 80th birthday. I probably sat and read her blog for 2 hours yesterday and literally had to force myself to step away from the computer.

She does go on many lengthy far-flung trips (a month here, a few months there--her most recent trip appears to be a trip to India for 3 months), but also a lot of small ones -- around the US or just hiking trips locally.

I took away from her life experiences that there will always be time to travel. That the wanderlustful fire in me doesn't just go out if I go to grad school or have a family or become a 30-something. It also hit me that travel is everywhere. It isn't always a 15 hour plane ride away. There are places to be explored right here.

With that, I realized I do have a lot of travel opportunities on the docket. I plan to go camping in the Badlands in South Dakota with my friends. I will take a long weekend trip with my mom & brother somewhere in Minnesota or Wisconsin. And I did finally convince my boyfriend to come on a "birthday trip" with me... it will actually be about 6 weeks after my birthday around the end of August, but he's agreed to go on a spontaneous surprise trip. The plan is to take advantage of last-minute cheap flights (under $200) and be open to going just about anywhere. I recently found roundtrip tickets to Denver for $149 on a last-minute search so I'm hoping we'll find something similar in August. If airline tickets fail to fall cheap enough, we'll head out on a roadtrip. The closest place I've never been is Saskatchewan. How's that for a 30th birthday destination?

Of course, I lust for foreign lands. But they'll be there. I just gotta work on keeping myself alive and kicking.

Are people still talking about SXSW?

2011-03-26T04:37:00.000-07:00

Last week, Jon and I went to SXSW in Austin, Texas. It's a musical mecca for many genres of new music and Jon and I managed to see it all for free (ignoring plane, car, bed and food).

My favorite show of the festival: Ty Segall

An old friend of mine from my interning days at Utne, who is running a much more sophisticated and regularly updated blog called key & bones, asked me to blog about my experience. Ideally, I would have sent regular updates live from Austin. Instead, I sent my diary a week late. That's why she's still getting published and I'm not!

So instead of rehashing my whole experience again here, I'll just direct you to my posts for Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.

Diagnosis: Lazy Butt

2011-03-08T12:17:00.000-08:00

I'm a real runner now! My proof:
- On Friday I ran (and walked) 7.5 miles!
- On Thursday I had my first ever physical therapy session

I have my own hypochondriac tendencies. It's not that I always think something is wrong with me -- more that I think something could function better within me. So when I started getting knee pain when I was in Hawaii, I was almost delighted.

Yes, I thought. I knew I wasn't doing something right! Now I can find out exactly what.

I made an appointment within my health system's program called RunSmart. After a referral from my doctor, I met up with a physical therapist who bent my leg in every direction, had me jump off a block and analyzed my gait as I walked down a hallway. Now, I'm a pretty smart person, but I was absolutely dumbfounded for what she was looking for or seeing when she was watching me do all these things. For a moment, I thought -- maybe I need to become a PT because this is fascinating!

After more than 30 minutes of analysis, she suggested I likely have patellofemoral syndrome, which is an incredibly common knee problem among runners. In fact, being a young-ish woman with wide hips who runs recreationally makes me the exact candidate for this problem.

The knee problem is a derivative of a concern elsewhere in the body: I have a weak butt. Specifically, my glutes (max and med) and my hips are not doing a whole lot and that's causing my knees to flop around and my kneecap to misalign. If I strengthen my butt, hips and core, I can add support to my leg. Googling this afterward, it does seem a notable amount of other runners have suffered these ails and were able to reduce their pain through strengthening. Another bonus: a strong butt will make me faster. That's helpful because at the rate I'm training, I will not make it under the 6 hour cutoff for the Twin Cities Marathon in October. :(

My therapist prescribed me three exercises to do once a day. At first I thought: that's it?! But then I did them. WHOA! I do three moves with each leg 25x each. For those slow at math, that's 150 reps, each held for 5 seconds. I have never felt my butt work so hard ever.

I've been working out hard everyday to make myself strong. That means not only do I have a sore butt, my my legs ache and my back & shoulders are constantly tight. Jon's declared he's going to start charging for shoulder rubs.

But the quasi-hypochondriac/optimist is excited. Maybe this will open a door for me. This could knock my fitness abilities up a level (or more!). I could get faster! I could get slimmer! I could finally tone that lazy butt of mine.

My knee pain has already subsided quite a bit. It's not cure but the all-day ache has been replaced with just occasional pain. My next appointment is in three days and I can't wait to hear what's in store for me next.

Let's Get Maui'd!

2011-03-07T11:56:00.000-08:00

The flight to Maui is scheduled for approximately 34 minutes but I believe we are actually in the air somewhere around 20 minutes. It's officially the shortest flight I've ever taken, though it may be slightly longer than the flight where I jumped out of the plane.

My friend and I kept referring to ourselves as being "abroad." Despite being a US state, it's very "foreign."

One of my new favorite words

Our first day in Maui was spent planning a jampacked schedule for our remaining days. We rented a car, which offered a lot of freedom to explore. Maui is very laidback and we dove headfirst into the local culture.

One of the best photos I've ever taken

Our hotel faced west so our first night we got ourselves Mexican takeout and watched the sunset. There, we saw the first indications of whales... tiny little black humps on the horizons and the occasion giant splash.

Alarm Clock Cat

The next morning, we got up early to drive the famed Road to Hana. We still didn't really need an alarm as we hadn't exactly adjusted to local time, but just in case we weren't awake, this little guy above was meowing at our doorstep. He came this close to being our new Hawaiian Roadtrip Cat.

The Road to Hana was very beautiful and I kept getting flashes of both Great Ocean Road in southern Australia and the east coast of New Zealand.

In case you can't tell, these are enormous!

We got to see some more huge waves but no brave surfers. Not far from this spot is a world-reknowned surfers' paradise called Jaws, but alas, it's located on private property.

Giant viney trees ... wowee~!

Feeling like a shorty is nothing new to me

We stopped off at an arboretum and I saw lots of trees from East Asia, SE Asia and Oceania that I used to ogle at in my previous life. I felt especially sentimental for the eucalyptus trees and even found myself looking for koalas. I got news for you: there are no koalas in Hawaii!

Maui ran out of pavement

We made it to Hana and ate an overpriced lunch on the east coast of Maui. We had a choice: turn back or circle the whole island. The travel agent at our hotel told us that there's at least 10 miles of unpaved, mostly one-lane road on the south of the island. We went for it.

To call the road "twisty" or "turny" is too limiting. There were one-lane jackknife turns near steep cliffs and giant rock walls. At certain points, they advised you to honk your horn as you rounded the corner to avoid a collision.

We passed by the highest peak of the island, which stuck out above the clouds. There were also several canyons. This picture does not do justice to how gorgeous this was.

After our trip to Hana, we enjoyed another sunset dinner at the beach. We went to bed early to get ready for our most exciting endeavor: a helicopter ride!

Okay, full confession: I have previously mentioned that I once saw a Travel Channel show about Things To Do Before You Die and one of the suggestions was to go skydiving in New Zealand. Several years later I kept that thought in the back of my mind and actually DID go to skydiving in New Zealand. I loved the feeling that I actually followed through on this and decided to fulfill another TV inspiration: To take a helicopter ride around Hawaii. The part I am somewhat embarrassed to confess is that this inspiration came from America's Next Top Model. The model had won the experience as part of a challenge and it looked stunning. Later, the model said "It was okay but I would have rather won a piece of jewelry."

Let me just say that this was worth more than any piece of jewelry I've ever owned.

I spent a lot of time looking into ride options: what's the best company? what's the best route? I decided I wanted to go through the West Maui mountains and over the Molokai sea cliffs. Two days before we wanted to go, we found an AMAZING DEAL less than $150 each online. The next cheapest quote we had seen anywhere was $210 a person. (Okay, done bragging!)

Our pilot was part-pilot, part-comedian. Indeed he told a lot of corny jokes but I was laughing the whole time. The ride was totally choreographed with music to match. After trekking over the Maui mountains and circling some whales in the channel, we made it to Molokai.

The sea cliffs are 4000 ft... the tallest in the world. They were some of the most beautiful scenery I saw on the trip and Hawaii is one attractive place.

On the way back we didn't stop for whales but I saw about 5, including one jumping out of the water and landing on its back. My friend was assigned the window seat but I was able to get a few pictures of these guys (who are the size of school buses).

Coming back into port -- those stripes are the reflection of the man in front of us. They told us to wear black to we could take better pictures by avoiding reflection -- Mr Stripey didn't take any pictures, so I'm sure he was not bothered.

Can you see our pilot making the HANG LOOSE sign?

After the helicopter, we had a few hours to kill before our evening luau. We decided we MUST see a sea turtle. So we drove up to west Maui and, again, saw many whales playing in the sea. We got to Black Rock Beach in a ritzy part of town and paid $10 to park for 2 hours.

I decided that it was time to test my underwater camera bag. Yes, I got a plastic bag to put my expensive and valuable piece of electronics in to go underwater and attempt some photos. I figured if it failed now, it was late enough in the trip to survive without it.

I waded into the water and instantly saw this guy:

He (or she?) was just as big as the turtle I saw in Oahu. I chased after and took a dozen pictures before it swam away. This is one of my favorite pictures EVER:

Perfection!

I ran and told my friend to go find the turtle. She never found him in the water and got exhausted swimming. She climbed out on the lava rocks to rest and there he showed up again, right in front of her. As she tried to jump back in, he disappeared.

I went in again, too, but no more turtle. I did see a lot of beautiful fish including a bright yellow flute fish. Why, oh why, do I live so far from the ocean?!

We ran home to get ready for the luau.

Our hotel was the host of the luau, which prides itself in being a Polynesian experience with dances and culture from several islands in the South Pacific.

I was a little skeptical about attending a luau: they are hella expensive!!! We booked ours in combination with a whale tour and got a small discount: it ended up being about $75 after taxes (original price: $80 plus taxes). Was it worth it? Ummmm... kind of?

They did provide a lot of good food and I was definitely stuffed at the end of the night. They tried to present authenticity to how they dressed and their practices.

Look! I'm leiing!

Finished product

The highlight really was the dancing. It was pretty awesome. However, they probably asked us "Are you having fun?" approximately 35 times -- about 3 times between every break. Either we weren't clapping hard enough or they were feeling a little low self-esteemy.

Dancing Tahiti-style

Fire twirler

We couldn't ride the luau buzz too long... we signed up for the sunrise whale tour (much cheaper than all the others!).

My telephoto lens again came in handy. We saw dozens of whales, and I got some great pictures -- the only problem being that when you are watching one whale through a zoom lens, you miss another jumping and splashing.

The only whale head I captured

I definitely got a little whale addiction from all this. They are just such magnificent creatures, I wish I could've watched them this close all day.

Fun fact: When you see a whale tail, it is making a deep dive and you'll likely not see it again for awhile.

After whale gawking, we took in one last breath of Maui.

Hotel grounds -- with a HUGE pool

View from across the street from our hotel

We took another quick flight to Honolulu and then a long red-eye home.

Maui to Oahu -- southside of Molokai (opposite side from sea cliffs)

Good-bye Hawaii!

Bummin' O'ahu

2011-02-23T08:47:00.000-08:00

Lei lady Lei

I was a little unsure I'd even get to Hawaii. You see, we headed south through Dallas first, three days after they hosted the SuperBowl. The forecast was right at 32 degrees with ice, rain, wind & snow all on the menu. As we landed, I saw the runway was dotted with snowy drifts and fat snowflakes.

But during our hour layover, the sky became blue and it really looked like it was paving the way for us to get to Hawaiian without a hitch -- except for mechanical hitches. We finally left two-and-a-half hours late and my friend and I tried to sleep (and failed) for the almost 9 hour flight.

We arrived at sunset so we checked into our hotel and checked into our beds.

Thanks to the 4 hour time difference, we were both up at 5 a.m. That gave us plenty of time to start exploring. First stop: Waikiki Beach.

The cheaper way to stay in Waikiki

We were staying right in the middle of shopping heaven in Waikiki. The area was densely populated with tourists, paying and otherwise. My friend had an idea that Hawaii was going to be all flash & cash... and at times it was. But most frequently, it was dirty beach bums.

Boards, boats & coconut trees -- paradise!

The forecast for Oahu was rain then rain and finally RAIN. However, I was thankful that it was island-esque rain, which meant spotty and variable. Our first day, allegedly non-stop rain, was actually mild and sunny at Waikiki. I went swimming & immediately got the ocean itchies. :P

Rooty tree at Waikiki

The scenery really reminded me of Cairns, Australia. I'm sure I annoyed my friend by constantly comparing the coastlines to Australia (or the hilly island interiors to New Zealand). Also, the throngs of Asians certainly cemented the comparisons.

Typical Waikiki/Honolulu hotels/condos. We went the cheaper route and got something a little more ground-level.

This guy lived next to our hotel. How cute are you?!

International Night Market

I may be way off on chronology but at one point we went to the International Night Market (let's just call it what it really is -- CHINESE Night Market). Both my acquaintance and I have been to China before and rather like haggling. My friend was able to pick up quite a few wares we'd seen at the ABC Store (tourist shop) around towns for cheap and I finally got Jon what he's been pining after for years: one of those gold Asian waving lucky cats! It's waving at me right now from the TV. I haggled them down to $10 (asked $25) and my seller acted quite angry and insulted by this. Honestly, I think these things look to be worth about $2. However, I've been trying to buy them all over the world and they are expensive. $20 in Korea. $30 in Japan. Maybe I really am paying for the luck of good fortune?

A real Hawaiian rainbow

I continued to be on mainland time and wake up pre-sunrise each day. As I referenced in my previous blog, this was all for the better -- the sunrises in Hawaii are awesome. Especially when they come with the signature Hawaiian rainbow.

Must always be on the watch for falling coconuts!

On the rainiest day (which never actually rained), we took a super-long bus to Pearl Harbor. Full disclosure: I'm not war buff. In fact, I'm such a peacenik that it's hard for me to appreciate battles that may been able to shape society as it is today. I really wasn't looking forward to visiting Pearl Harbor, but alas, it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.

Hiding in Oahu

There were a lot of sculptures, memorials and plaques to help remember what had happened and I realized I really didn't understand what had happened in Pearl Harbor (I'd never seen the movie, you see!). I was pretty struck by the scale of the invasion. The fact that it was carried out as a way of flexing muscles by Japan in a colonization race amongst superpowers seems entirely tragic. I recently finished reading a travelogue about a man who lived in the South Pacific island nation of Kiribiti and he recounts the history of nations coming to "claim" the land there and elsewhere in the Pacific. So glad we've (mostly) moved on from this mindset that arriving on a land with force means it's now "ours."

USS Arizona Memorial

Unfortunately for us, the USS Arizona Memorial was under construction so we couldn't take a look around and try to gawk at the sunken ship below it. Instead, we took a short cruise nearby it. Abroad our cruise boat was a plethora of Asians, many who were Japanese. It perplexed my friend that this site was so popular with Japanese, considering their historical ties to its destruction. I think it just proves that the actions of leaders do not always represent the desires of people. I, myself, am quite disappointed I didn't have time to add Hiroshima to my Japan itinerary two years ago. My friend went and her pictures from the experience were quite amazing. Many war memorials often seem to have the underlying message of peace, or at least -- let this never happen again.

Dole plantation - middle of nowhere

Where's all the rain in Hawaii? It's in the middle! Day two we again boarded a cheap but ultra-long bus to head to north Oahu. Our first stop was the Dole plantation. When I was in first grade, my teacher had told me when she had lived in Hawaii, there were drinking fountains that dispensed pineapple juice. A few decades later, this is no longer true. Instead, this huge building if stocked to the brim with pineapple-flavored EVERYTHING.

Huge koi -- powered by pineapple?

Brilliant colors, thanks to all that rain!

The Dole plantation, technically, is free. You are free to look at koi and buy pineapple chocolates or pineapple cookies. The rest costs money. Since we were just on a two-plus hour bus, we shelled out $5 for the garden tour. Worth it!

Colors!

Baby pineapples -- the smaller they are, the sweeter they are.

Bananas!

Enormous leaves. Probably could cover my whole upper body.

Hibiscus flower -- Hawaiian treasure

This was only one of two lizards I saw in all of Hawaii. What kind of island is this? I saw more in the Philippines, Thailand, Australia, even Korea!

Papaya tree

One of the best meals in Hawaii!

This was one of the few times I really steered off course and ordered food that I was really unsure about. I got fish tacos and pineapple ice cream. Last time I had fish tacos, I thought -- this is interesting. This might be the only time I ever have them. But after they were out of the vegetarian meal I wanted, I went for this and it was awesome! Unfortunately, hot, humid Oahu is a tough enemy of soft serve ice cream and I was only able to eat half before it became pineapple sugar soup.

Day 3 in Hawaii and I'm already looking like an island girl

After the Dole plantation, we kept going north to see the giant waves of the North Shore. And they were! About 10 ft high. We stopped at Sunset Beach and I finally got use of my (expensive) telephoto zoom lens. This photo is on full zoom (maybe I need to upgrade even more?).

Amazing surfers (and amazing photographer, right?)

The North Shore reminding me a lot of Australia, if only for its hippie backpacking culture. My friend couldn't get over how dirty everyone was and how dingy the houses were. I tried to convince her if you move to expensive Hawaii and live to surf, you're not left with much cash.

My first turtle sighting on the North Shore

The next day we headed a short bus ride to Diamond Head crater.

A long walk to the top

I've seen so many people have their pictures taken atop Diamond Head and it looks vast & serene. What is not obvious is that the viewing platform is teeny and there really is no regulation for how many people can be up there at a time. All photos taken of Diamond Head mean you are elbow-to-elbow with about 50 other people on a 20' x 20' platform.

I purposely left out pictures of me looking like a sweaty mess -- enjoy dry and beautiful Honolulu instead

After Diamond Head, we hopped the bus to the east coast of Oahu towards Hanauma Bay.

Hawaii is definitely the kind of place that has wild chickens running around.

Hanauma Bay is a protected beach with some pretty great snorkeling.

While the weather was still nice... once we got there, on the "least rainy" day -- it rained.

We took turns snorkeling and guarding our belongings. The coral was mostly dead and there were far fewer fish than I had seen in places around Asia. After each taking a turn, I heard passersby saying "I saw two turtles and they were huge." I decided to take one last chance to see the elusive green sea turtle. I saw out to the breakers where a group of people were amassed. I got stuck on some coral and had to (illegally!) climb over it to get to more open water. As I hopped in the water, I saw three snorkelers in a group, one who was flailing around trying to back up quickly. As he finally got rearward, I saw it -- a giant sea turtle! Seriously, it was the size of a mini fridge! I think I yelled something out into my snorkel. Just then, it started headed right towards me! I had two large pieces of coral on either side of me and freedom behind me so I grabbed onto some coral and pulled myself close to it so let this giant, gentle animal pass. In the process I sliced my thumb and skinned both knees. I didn't care. The turtle floated within inches of me and I could perfectly see all it's scales and details of its face, flippers and shells. It was magnificent. It swam towards deeper water and one of the snorkelers pursued. "There's a whole bunch of turtles out here!" he yelled. I tried to swim but the waves were heavy and my thumb throbbed. I turned in, but I felt euphoric the rest of the day.

After one more sleep, we headed to Maui.

Running to Hawaii & back

2011-02-20T19:07:00.000-08:00

I've FINALLY been traveling again but instead of talking about all the amazing things I did and saw in Hawaii, I'll add another installment about my marathon training... in Hawaii.

I got in four "runs" (that would be walking/running and one of those times I definitely walked about 1 hour & 10 minutes of my 1 hour & 20 minute workout) on my vacation, which was both invigorating and a little defeating.

On the upbeat side, in Waikiki on the island of Oahu, I ran past along this on two occasions:

Ala Wai Canal - the view from our hotel room

This canal ran parallel with Waikiki beach. In one direction was gorgeous Diamond Head crater... in the other, well, beautiful Hawaii. I went once at dusk and could've sworn I saw an inflated puffer fish in a trap, but figured --no way-- it must be a buoy. A couple days later, still not adjusted to Hawaii time, I headed out to run pre-sunrise, about 6:30 a.m., and was joined by dozens of other like-minded people. I saw:

* The sunrise on Diamond Head
* Pink clouds reflecting in the canal
* Traditional Hawaiian kayaks
* THREE giant puffer fish (that dead, inflated one WAS real!)

The morning was all the wonderful things I love about running -- the outdoors, beautiful scenery, the running community.

On to Maui, my travel mate and I had different ideas about a) what to do & b) when and where to eat. I had my friend drop me off in swanky Wailea Beach while she went off to get American food (I needed Thai!) and I would run approximately 4 miles and meet her on another beach for the sunset. Instead, I mostly walked and gabbed with Jon on the phone and took in the scenery including a bobbing giant sea turtle next to some lava rocks. Oh well, 4 miles is still 4 miles!

Our hotel, however, was not along some nicely paved path like the Four Seasons of Wailea and so our last morning in Hawaii, I ran on the side of the road. I kinda/sorta hate running on the side of the road, but running past palm trees, beach and Hawaiian flowers is really hard to scowl at. I even picked up a flower and stuck it in my hair, island-style. I'm sure it looked awesome with my hot pink sweat face!

So why was I defeated? Well, one: I haven't been doing solid running in the past couple months. I know that walk/running is in many ways better for you but it bothers me that I could run a 10k in November and would probably not be able to do that now. I've taken several steps backwards in training for a long distance race.

The other problem: knees. Yes, I'm getting older, but just today at work, a woman didn't believe I was of legal age. Mentally, sometimes I even think that. But I first noticed some knee pain in Korea and while it really hasn't been an issue in the last year, it really became noticeable everyday in Hawaii. I looked up some of my symptoms and it sounds a lot like runner's knee. This scares me because without two working knees, my marathon dreams are toast. I'm so determined to do this marathon that I'm going to call a sports medicine doctor tomorrow and schedule an appointment. Hallelujah health insurance!! (note to Americans voters & politicians -- please stop trying to take this away from everyone!)

Still... running in paradise injected me with a runner's high I haven't felt since the fall. I can't wait to get back on the trails (instead of the track or worse... the treadmill!)... but I guess I'll have to wait for this 12-18" of snow to clear that is currently falling from the sky. :(

Up next: braggin' about my vacay!

Gear Factor

2011-02-02T14:37:00.000-08:00

Since my blog is called RACHEL GOES and it's supposed to be about me going places and since I have adopted the traditional American lifestyle of rarely traveling places... I'm going to start focusing significantly on going places on foot: my marathon training. Running is going someplace. Also I may well go crazy from all this. Good thing I work at a hospital.

December and January were not great training months. December, well, that was terrible. January was a little better. If December earned a D in training, January earned a D+. C- might even be too generous. But while I sat on my butt more often than worked it, I did come into some good gear. Such as:

New shoes. You are supposed to replace your running shoes every 300-500 miles. I usually replace mine when my running shoe-loving mother buys me new ones. My mother, who has run dozens of marathons, is a great source for all questions related to running (even if she tries to say things like "Since you are a couch potato, maybe you shouldn't try to run a marathon in six months."). Unfortunately, I am of the high-arched variety which sounds dainty and regal if this were Elizabethan eras but in these modern times, it's a liability for runners. I need serious support. The more serious the support, the more BLAH the color choices. Kangaroos, why can't you make shoes that cradle my foot better (and whose traction doesn't rub off in 5 minutes)?

Nike+: Well, I actually have had the Nike+ for a couple years, it's just that the sensor done gone and died on me! It is a great incentive to run. It tracks your time, pace, distance and then makes a neat-o graph. I really think that sometimes people become long-distance athletes because they love charts, graphs and tracking numbers. I won't say it's the sole reason for me but... it's a big reason!

Ipod Shuffle: Awhile back I eschewed Apple products after realizing that Steve Jobs was maybe a megalomaniac. The concept of "bricking" (rendering electronics unusable during an update when it has been detected to be altered from its original state) was one WHACK attempt at increasing a profit. However, sadly, I have not found a worthy alternative. My crafty boyfriend has kept my 6 year old ipod alive (even if the latest fix-it tactic is "Whack it on something hard" [which really does work!]) but my Creative Zen bit the dust forever after 3 years. While I still use my 8 GB whacky ipod, for running I really needed something lightweight, clipable and "shuffly." So I today I bought a shuffle. But from EBAY. Take that Jobsy (if you're still alive.. I may regret that if you are in deathly throes currently, which you may well be...).

Waterbelt: I never thought a day would come where I would not only wear but desire a belt adorned with mini waterbottles. But here's the thing: when you are running a good clip and you are in the zone.... stopping for water is a major buzzkill! My previous long runs of 5-ish miles really probably should've had some aqua involved but now that I'm going to be running like distances like 12 miles in about three and a half months, I WILL NEED WATER. For sure.

A guide: A trainer. A friend. SOME HELP. Whatever you want to call it, I am finding it in this book. The author is very self-deprecating (I make fun of myself, too!) and really does her best to drive home that if a lazy lump like her can run a marathon, you can too. I feel like I've held back on this dream for some years because despite having an expert marathoner for a mother, I really felt in the dark. I like finding out that when I've fallen "off track" that I can reference from another slow lady just how far off track is still salvageable.

There's lots more running accoutrement that I need to experiment with over the next several months but more importantly, there's a lot of pavement, trail, track and treadmill to get to know intimately starting, uh, right this second. I'll keep you posted.

The Windchill City

2011-02-01T13:40:00.000-08:00

This weekend I finally left the state of Minnesota after arriving here from blustery New Zealand eight months ago. Minnesota has been pretty blustery itself lately, so I headed south to visit my friend in Chicago.

It was blustery.

I took the MegaBus down there for a mere $30 roundtrip. With gas at $3.19 in MN and $3.50 in Chicago, that's cheaper than driving! Yay for mass transit!

The bus gave me ample time to get caught up on my reading. I was able to finish reading 1 of our 2 book club selections this month The Sex Lives of Cannibals by J Maarten Troost. Spoiler alert: there's very seldom a mention of cannibals in the book, let alone their sex lives, or the sex lives of anyone for that matter. Even still, it was a fantastic read. Highly recommended.

I met up with Nadia downtown and we started our Adventures in Gluttony 2 (The first was when we ate our way through Minneapolis last summer). Among our many, many stops, we injested:
- Vegan Pho (my first pho! I didn't really care for it! But the grilled mushrooms were delish)
- Chocolate chip Pancakes (by chef Nads)
- A burrito bowl, guac & chips meant to be eaten by a family of four... finished by just me. In one sitting.
- Veggie pesto pizza
- Brownie cheesecake (be mine forever???)
- Polish fusion brunch
- The world's greatest breadstick at a place called Corner Bakery

((an aside: Today I was plagued with jaw pain so uncomfortable I went to the doctor. My doctor asked "Have you done anything that could've caused this?" I'm now thinking I might have chewed one time too many in the course of 3 days.))

When we weren't eating, we were freezing. Through a comedy of errors, we missed trains, fumbled phone reservations, and found ourselves one moment too late to get a free Chicago architecture tour on the el. Instead, we took the next best thing: the Downtown Deco tour put on the by the Chicago Architecture Foundation (of which Nadia is a member!).

We started a group of nine in our coats craning our necks to look at (in my opinion) squarishly bland buildings.


Chicago Board of Trade (not my picture)

I always find myself disappointed that I don't actually like Art Deco. It just sounds cool like Coco (Chanel) or Nico (of the Velvet Underground). But art deco in Chicago is mostly a snore. As we walked to look at another grey building with square windows, we were confronted by a bright blue modern glass building next to it. "Pay no attention to that ugly building," our guide said. But inside, I wanted to teleport myself to the modern architecture tour. Or at least art deco Miami. Can a girl get some color???

Fancy fancy fancy elevators ... picture from LIFE (I forgot my camera, what a sin!)

I will say, I did look a lot closer at garish light fixtures and elevators, which was a true highlight of the tour--and not just because it was indoors. (But maybe mostly that's why...)

But really -- WOW, what a @#$%in' freezing day. The thermometers said it was 34 or even 40 at times but either a) it wasn't, b) it was and I just never actually spend ANY time out of doors in MN and therefore do not understand what 30-something feels like or c) it was so windy that it made 40 above feel like 40 below. I'm guessing ALL. After 2 hours outside, and using every piece of fabric to hide from the elements, we snuck away early. I was all deco'd out.

After freezing my bone marrow, we made it back to her apartment and said in weak voices "So... when do you want to get ready to go out tonight?" Well, I can't remember who exactly cracked first but by about 6 pm we were in our pajamas ordering pizza and watching DogTown on Netflix.

Sunday was no better. We toured Evanston, an area Nadia knows well and did a little bit of shopping in some pretty hip stores. We briefly considered going up to watch the sunset from the Hancock Building but that, you know, interfered with our TV watching. Nadia asked me many times "Are you sure? I want to make sure you have fun!" And I did. TV, pjs, takeout, chatty friends... that's about as much fun as I can ask for when it's @#$%in' freezing out.

Up next: Hawaii!

On the 29th Day of Christmas...

2011-01-13T11:57:00.000-08:00

One of the perks of being a student at Brave New Workshop is that I get to see their scripted satire shows for free! Except sometimes it is not exactly timely.

This year, BNW revisited last year's Christmas show Brett Favre's Christmas Spectacular with the aptly named Brett Favre's Christmas Spectacular II.

Picture from bravenewworkshop.com

Unfortunately, everyone else wanted Brett Favre for Christmas (to win games or to ridicule, you decide) and those of us trying to weasel our way in for free had to wait until January. But it was worth it! There may have been a lot of jokes about Santa coming, but it was still wildly delightful. Old Favre only made one appearance, encouraging an old, injured Santa that retiring-not retiring-retiring-not retiring is only going to make you more popular than ever.

Probably some of my favorite sketches were the musical numbers that revamped Christmas standards like Do You Hear What I Hear and The Twelve Days of Christmas. I don't want to give away too many details, but I laughed so hard I cried.

There's still a chance to go and I say DO IT. All that laughing made me wish I could laugh that hard everyday.

I did take advantage of another offering from BNW: I was part of a test audience for their new half-trivia/half-improv show. Thanks to the presence of my friend's boyfriend, we probably were solidly middle-of-the-pack in the trivia mess. If not for him, we may have been in the running for the low-scorer's sympathy points that were tossed out halfway through. But I think the highlight was the improv. They were hilarious! My improv friend and I felt genuine awe & envy at their timing, wit and talents. Sometimes I've thought I "get it" more than some of my peers in my improv class... but compared to these people, I am a little fish in a big pond. No wonder I'm on level 2 out of 8.

Speaking of, I start classes again tonight. I can't wait. I hope I laugh til my stomach hurts. Right now my stomach hurts from two lbs of carrots & potato chips. New priorities!

NEWS FLASH: Being sick sucks!

2011-01-12T16:27:00.000-08:00

One of the perks of my job is that I get PTO (Paid Time Off). This encompasses sick time, vacation time, personal days... basically if you are not going to be at work, you use PTO. The more I work, the more PTO I get. What ends up happening is I get a lot more vacation time (provided I don't get sick) than most Americans.

Except I've been getting sick. In less than 3 months of working, I have now used 5 PTO days. Two for a nasty cold. One for getting snowed in (hey if all buses and cabs stop running, you should probably stay home). And after Christmas, two more for a stomach bug. It started with nausea. Nausea is annoying and all but this little reactive body of mine gets nauseous from lots of things, including multivitamins, so I didn't think too much of it. I headed to work and by the time I got there thought -- UH OH -- I shouldn't be here. I was sweating, yet feeling cold and my whole body ached. I took some ibuprofen and after an hour, started feeling better.

After about five hours, nausea came back. And then chills. And then aches. It's weird, I work in a caregiving setting. I deal with people who are (mentally) feeling like crap. I was sitting, talking to a patient about her problems when this came on. Suddenly, it was ME with the problems and my patient is quizzing me about how I feel. I called Jon to rescue me and went to bed.

For five days I was uncomfortably ill. Viral gastroenteritis HURTS! My whole body ached and I had zero appetite. Everything seems rosier from the other side of the fence. When people update their Facebook to say "Ugh, I'm sick, gonna watch 30 Rock all day" I feel envious! Or "So sick, can't eat, lost like 5 lbs in 3 days!" -- more jealousy. But there I was: Off work for 5 days, no appetite -- and it sucked! Being able to only eat a couple bites of food and then feeling nauseous and running to the bathroom = A BAD TIME. No more wishing away my appetite. No more pining for staying on the couch all day. I'm over it. Viva health!

Being sick didn't just make me feel terrible -- it made me hang up my plans to go to South America for a month this summer. If not for sick days, I would have almost two weeks vacation saved up already. But instead I now have 1.75 days.

But maybe that's a good thing. From the couch, in between episodes of My So-Called Life, I thought about my own so-called life and realized I was planning it out in far too much detail. My plans this year to visit 4 states and run a marathon eat up a lot of my time. Add in South America and my year is basically spoken for... maybe if I just let life happen, I'll be surprised with what shows up.

Even if what shows up in a stomach bug that forces its way out in both directions.

My Terrible Horrible No-Good Very Bad Day

2011-01-10T16:27:00.000-08:00

A couple weeks ago we had a massive snowfall. Everyone freaked out and I stayed inside and twiddled my thumbs. I watched with amusement as people tried to dig themselves out and relished in the fact that I really had nowhere better to go. My car sat under a giant mound of snow and I stayed inside watching Mythbusters.

Eventually I did have to go somewhere. My work called and asked if I wanted to come in a couple hours early. Heck yes I did! Overtime pay! Unfortunately the previous two days I had gone to 3 stores looking for shovels only to be met with empty shelves and the occasional $50 price tag. Suddenly that big mound of snow that was my car was not so benign.

Being the problem solver that I am, I employed the most shovel-like utensil I had in my possession: a colander. Yes, I shoveled off 20+ inches of snow plus whatever was shoved my way by my parking neighbors or the snowplow with a colander. The actual process went a little something like: a few tosses of snow salad followed by me gunning my car forwards and backwards. After 45 minutes, I got my car free. I also looked like a snowman, having gotten real close and personal with the snowbank while colander-shoveling. I hopped out of my car to go inside and change quickly and actually thought this thought:

The car is running. Better lock it or someone might steal it.

UGH!!! Brain! You failed me! Big time!

Seeing as this was technically a loaner from my dad, it never occurred to me to get a spare key. What was supposed to be something I borrowed for 4 weeks has turned into 4 months (and counting).

So my car is running. I'm supposed to be at work in 10 minutes. And I don't have a spare.

I got a lot of good advice AFTER THE FACT about the cheapest way to handle this situation. What I actually DID do was call a locksmith. I should've been suspicious when all 75 reviews online were 100% positive that maybe they weren't all actual real reviews. But I had no time to be skeptical. My car was outside running! So I called the locksmith and they quoted me at about 20 minutes. After two "where are you?" calls to the locksmith, he finally came after more than an hour (car running the whole time, let me remind you!). I spent my waiting time mentally prepared myself for an expensive ordeal (ballpark thought: $60) but hoping it was maybe $20-30. After less than 5 seconds of work, the locksmith gives me my bill: $150. (Just to annoy myself more, I calculated this as an hourly rate: $180,000/hr!)

I paid my bill and went to work, wise and a lot less wealthy. Then I sat in a chair for 12 hours. Second lesson of the day - it's not wise to shovel snow for almost an hour and then sit for 12.

It took awhile, but my back and my wallet have both finally recovered. And I got a spare key! And I think AAA is right around the corner for me, too.

HAWAII 4-7

2010-12-13T14:29:00.000-08:00

Those who know me well know I collect states... as in, basically since I started traveling on my own when I was 18, I've kept a tally of how many states I've been to. Way back in 2008, I got my 46th state (Arizona) when I went on a train trip to L.A.

Those state collectors have different ideas of what visiting a state means. Some say if you drive through, it doesn't count. Others say you must eat a meal there. Still others think a layover in the airport counts.

Here's my rules:
Driving through counts (this includes trains)
Airport layovers don't count (or I would have 47 thanks to a Dallas layover in '09).

I'm turning 30 soon and felt the need to do something BIG before my odometer rolls over. Sky dive? Done. Live aboard? Done x2. Travel extensively? Girlfriend, please!

Since I'm more or less stuck in Minnesota indefinitely (and literally -- seriously, it's been 24 hours, plow my parking lot, landlord!!), I decided to complete my state map before my big one.

I'm so close yet... so far away.

I'm just Alaska, Texas, Oklahoma and Hawaii away from 50!

Well, I've been home for six months and haven't made it further than my parent's house in that time. It's time to get going!

I put out an SOS for Hawaii and my old high school friend and often-travel buddy seems to be the only one rich enough to afford it (not even Jon can swing this trip). Anticipated travel dates: mid-February to hopefully (still planning!) Oahu & Maui.

In March, Jon has his spring break so I'm trying to convince him to ask off 5 days from work to fly down to Dallas. From there we can rent a car and try to see Austin & Oklahoma City in 100 hours or so.

And the grand finale -- Alaska -- will probably be in late May, when Jon finishes up his semester. He's new to his job (and very part-time aka no longer my wealthy man-friend) so hopefully he can squeeze another 5 days off for us to fly up to Anchorage and cruise around on the train (ie the poor man's cruise ship).

I've never met anyone who has visited all 50 states. My brother and his wife are right on my coattails as they've mapped out visiting them all in the next couple years. But I'll do it first. Oh yes, in six months, I'll be 50! [...and just a month after that, I'll be 30. ;) ]

There is such a thing as a hipster dentist office

2010-12-12T14:29:00.000-08:00

I went to the dentist for the first time in two and a half years. I got a cavity ... le sigh. But I'm not blogging to brag about that. More notable than a little rot-spot on my tooth is that the dentist office I went to was so freakin' hip.

Just look at it!

The dentist office had exposed brick walls and rock-n-roll grandma art. It was situated above the Lyndale Tap House. Granted they weren't playing Radio K but jazz certainly is a lot cooler than the top 40 or muzak that most dental offices play. My good-bye goodie bag of toothbrush and floss even came with a flyer for the Minnesota RollerGirls. Yes, seriously!

On top of all that, my dentist had actually worked my exact job back in the 80s. Same hospital, same unit. Whoa!

I don't think I've had this much to say ever about a trip to the dentist. I once read an article about an interior designer who was working on cheaply and stylishly remodeling homeless shelters. I think that's brilliant. Why do public spaces have to be cookie cutter and bland? A bit of modern art, some up-to-date colors and clean, simple lines can make these places more inviting and even desirable (did you know there are fear of the dentist hypnosis cds? Because there are!). I think it worked for me! I am not at all bothered I have to go back for a filling -- though, I think having dental insurance for the first time in 2.5 years helps.

10,000 meters!

2010-12-12T02:32:00.000-08:00

This is dated news but on Thanksgiving Day, in below-zero windchill, I ran my first ever 10k!

I've had this dream to run a 5k, then 10k, then half-marathon, then marathon for a very long time. I've only ever made it to the 5k. In fact, once in grad school (so probably 2004), I ran 5.5 miles. Once. Ever. Now, as of Turkey Day 2010, my new longest distance is 6.2 miles... without stopping!

All right, the bragging ends there and the facts begin. The day before Thanksgiving, we were blessed with snow and ice. I got an email that day saying "THE RACE IS HAPPENING. The roads will be fine." So early on, I convinced Jon to drive me over and drop me off. He'd go home and I'd give him a call when I was 3/4 done.

Well, a) the roads were not "fine." They were slippery. Not glare ice, but pretty dang slippery to run 6 miles on. b) The temp when I left the house was 6. SIX!! That's not including the wind chill which put it below zero.

I dressed in my layers and thought -- this is not the kind of a race a snail-paced, overweight, first-timer should be running. I should be at a race with the word "FUN" in it. And possibly "SUN." Granted, this was the "Drumstick Dash"... and I was kind of fantasizing about all the pie I could eat after this.

So yeah, I got there about half an hour early and immediately started freezing. By the start line, my toes were numb.

But we took off, me trying to weave to avoid the shiniest of ice, and everyone else gracefully passing me like a pack of gazelles. By 1 mile, hundreds had passed me. By mile 2, it was just me and the slow crew.

The course was two laps around Lake Harriet, aka the location of my 5k just 4 weeks earlier. The first 5k was... easy! I couldn't believe just a month ago how difficult those 3 miles were. However, after 3 miles my body said "that's enough." Despite the craziest muscle pains in my front hips (my hips have muscles?), my stubborn brain said: keep running!

So I did. Before 4 miles, my ipod had frozen to (temporary) death. My cell phone, aka the way I get home, had frozen to temporary death too. And yet, I kept running. A couple of run/walkers kept passing me and then I'd pass them. The final stretch the cashed in their reserve strength and pulled ahead of me. I checked behind my shoulder and there was someone behind me. I wasn't last!

I pushed hard to finish and cross the finish line at 1:18:26. Much to my surprise not only was I not last, but 19 people finished after me!

Also, thanks to frozo-phone, Jon never made it to watch me finish. I had to borrow someone else's and call him over. To my credit, I did finish faster than I told him I would. :)

I got my results later. I came in 733 out of 752. HA! 340 people had passed me and I had passed TWO.
But I did it. I ran the whole distance. And my pace, 12:40 min/mile, is actually faster than my training pace. Up next: Earth Day Half Marathon. Look for me in the back.

Jon forgot to bring a camera so I recreated my finish line pose.

The Only Blizzard I Want Has Oreos Pieces In It

2010-12-11T14:31:00.000-08:00

I'm snowed in. As of 3 pm Saturday, 15 inches of snow have fallen.

It started last night. Jon and I babysat for his nephew. As we left at 10:30, the snow was just beginning to fly. I dropped Jon off and went to work for an overnight shift at the hospital. When I left at 8 am, there was several inches on the ground. It was so loose and powdery, it felt like I was driving on flour. Thankfully, most people stayed home and I basically had a whole 3-lane road to myself.

I will say this: That little 1997 Neon that I "borrowed" (aka never returned) from my dad has been an amazing little snow car. It has made it through white stuff that newer and bigger cars have gotten stuck in. Go little strawberry!

So I popped some Benadryl + Melatonin, put on my koala sleep mask and slept until 2 pm. I had been kicking myself for trading shifts with this guy at work. Instead of working another night shift, I was working his evening shift at 3:30 pm (yes, a mere 7.5 hours after I had gotten off the last shift). As I groggily was trying to assemble a sandwich, I realized that our lot was not plowed. I logged onto the Star Tribune website that basically screamed: SNOW!! EVERYTHING CANCELED!!!

That includes buses.

Apparently of the approximately 200 buses that run, 70 had gotten stuck.

Jon and I went out front to see how our road looked. People were shoveling out their cars for the snow emergency. Two cars were stuck on the road and a large semi was blocking the major intersection.

So basically... I'm stuck.

I reluctantly called in. This is my 3rd call-in in less than 3 months of working. Two sick days and now this. I told them if my lot gets plowed or the buses resume, I could come in. They said I was the 10th person just in mental health to call in. They usually only have about 15 people working in mental health. The thing is, though, I don't want to use a vacation day! I want to go on vacation with my vacation days! Every time I call in, I envision one less day in Hawaii or South America or Alaska (yes, 2011 has the potential to be a very exciting year --- if I could just hang onto my paid time off!).

An hour and a half after calling in, I went outside. All those stuck cars are still stuck, including the semi plus now a tow-truck with a car on it's back. Those moving their cars for snow emergency have given up. I suppose if tow trucks are stuck, the risk of getting towed is quite low. The snow in our unplowed lot comes up to my knees. Each car has a diagonal stack of snow on it as the wind is bringing in even more snow sideways.

Stuck... forever?

My parking lot... impassable! Also, note the windshield wipers flipped out... it's windy!

There's my red car... I got here at 8 am. The car on the left was there all night. Egads!

My improv teacher told me while I certainly have some improv skills, I need to let go, stop trying to be the captain of every scene. I think this goes for this. I can't will the snow to stop. I can't make the buses run. I can't teleport myself to work. I have new and unexpected free time that I didn't ask for but here it is. I'm going to make myself enjoy this or get an ulcer from trying.

On the Road

2010-10-30T18:14:00.000-07:00

After I moved back to America, I experienced a depression. I don't know what it was, an existential crisis, boredom, too much corn syrup. For the first time in quite awhile, I had no big plan on my plate. I was "the traveler" for the past several years and now others were making plans and I was staying home. So I started a much more slow-cooking big plan... I started training for a marathon.

Um, yes blog isn't to tell you I DID IT, I ran a marathon! Nay, it's actually to say I DID IT... I trained for 8 weeks and ran a 5k.

... as a turtle.

It was my first 5k since 2005. Between then and now, I've really given my running shoes a rest. BUT... as the daughter of a woman who's run 10,000 marathons (approximately), I always felt compelled to complete just one myself. So in August, I started running. At first, I would walk a 4-mile path around a lake. Then I would run for 2-3 minutes a few times. At that point, even a 5k seemed nearly impossible. But eventually I hammered out 2 miles... then 3. Last week I ran 4 miles without stopping.

A Halloween 5k is a marriage between my hard work of running and my joy of crowds in costumes. As it turned out this was just a "fun run" which meant it was untimed. That part was good and bad. On the minus side, I ran faster than I trained at and probably improved my training pace by more than 5 minutes... probably around 35 minutes. On the plus side -- I think I was in the bathroom when the race actually started.

For a turtle, I sure passed a lot of people. I had (per my personality) left costume creation until the night before (actually I bought the parts the night before--I put it together an hour before). I meant to buy a nice fuzzy turtle dog costume to reconstitute to a human costume but alas-- that was sold out and instead I bought a size M children's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle suit, cut it up and fashioned it into something an adult could putter around in. There were a few other turtles and even though I had my indie rock music on volume level 11, I still yelled "TURTLE POWER" to at least 4 other turtles.

I probably finished in the middle of the pack. My faster pace meant my lungs cried the rest of the day. After a Chipotle reward lunch, I went to the gym, joined it, and swam a few laps in the pool. Cardiovascular health, take me away!

Oh yeah ... marathon. As someone who was always chubby + 15 new American lbs from this summer, it seems eons off. But the 5k was an awesome start. That's a good thing because in just 26 days I will run further than I've ever run in my life--I'm running a Thanksgiving 10k. Once, in thinner and fitter days in the year 2004, I ran 5.5 miles in one go. There's been a lot of couch-sitting between then & now but I'll be back out on the pavement on Monday trying to convince my legs to go for it. After the 10k will be a half-marathon. After that... marathon!

It's almost as exciting as moving to another continent.

Awesome.

09/10 - Bagley, Minnesota

2010-10-14T10:10:00.000-07:00

A couple weeks ago, my little brother got married. WHOA!

The wedding was in a tiny town in northeast Minnesota, which is his now-wife's hometown. The wedding was shrouded in a bit of mystery because a) my brother inherited the poor communicator gene that runs rampant in my family and b) there wasn't exactly an RSVP. I guess the rules of a small town wedding are that the whole town is invited. Becky's (aka new SIL) family cooked enough food for 500 and the American Legion was packed with Bagley locals and just about every person I'm currently related to.

It was fun in a lot of ways. Obviously, staying with in a hotel with a pool was tops (because I'm 10 years old!). It was also great seeing my brother dance. I think he may never dance again, but I'll his dancing an E for Effort. We also stayed in the same town as one of the world's Paul Bunyan statues, even if our slothery prevented us from visiting.

I like weddings. A lot. Mostly I like seeing people happy, dancing, free food and the chance to stay at a hotel with a pool. But I think I'll never have a white wedding like this. My brother, he's from the traditional side of the family (which would be 99% of my family). I'm rogue. If I ever get married, it will be muted, a blip on the radar. But I will probably still stay in a hotel with a pool.

Olympia, Washington - 01/07

2010-09-20T19:17:00.000-07:00

You know how many times I've taken the 2-day train ride between Minnesota & Washington/Oregon: THREE!

The first time was in early 2007. My former roommate Michelle had decided to opt out of air travel to come home for Christmas and was instead taking the 2-day Amtrak trek. The train passed through Montana & Idaho. I had never been to these states. Thusly, I invited myself back to Washington with her. We even added an overnight in Portland so I could cross Oregon off my list.

We got off the train in Olympia at like 7 pm and dragged all our suitcases to the nearest delicious-looking restaurant. An Indian place was the winner and while couples enjoyed what was supposed to be a nice date night, we looked like ragged backpackers toting around all our life's possessions. Scratch that, this is in Olympia, we totally fit in.

Belize - 01/08

2010-09-19T18:04:00.000-07:00

If you ever get a chance to go on a zip-line trek through the jungle, do it.

This was one of our biggest splurges on the Central American cruise but it was worth it. I think it cost about $90 and took about an hour. It was about an hour and a half drive each way, half of which was over some of the worst pot-holed roads I'd ever experienced. But it was fun!

There's a right way and a wrong way to zipline. The wrong way is to act like a wimp. Yes, you will be zipping along at a nice clip, but there is someone there to catch you. Some wimps were so wimpy, they attempted to slow themselves down and ultimately never reached their final destination. They would have to turn around and climb back on the zipline like some furless sloth.

As you can see from the above picture, I am one of those wimps.

Minneapolis - 10/06

2010-09-18T15:54:00.000-07:00

Want to know how to attract a man? Act like a weirdo.

Obviously this will repel 85% of the men you encounter. But 1.5/10 will have their interest piqued.

When I first met Jon, I was going through a gregarious period. I had been a Minneapolis wallflower all summer and even though I wished I was prettier/skinner/funnier/BETTER, I just went for it and amazed myself by getting a couple of dates. I think I won Jon over when I gregariously suggested we a) go to a Gwar show and b) go in matching homemade unicorn t-shirts. T-shirt making was our 2nd times being together and Gwar was the 3rd. So yeah, above is pre-monster barf. I made his t-shirt and he made mine. The shirts shrank and neither of us can fit into them anymore, though I think we both still have them (I know I do!). Jon did wear this t-shirt one more time, in support of his friend's gay softball team aptly named The Unicorns.

Newport, Rhode Island - 08/01

2010-09-17T21:00:00.000-07:00

It just occurred to me that very few trips I've taken have ever been somebody else's idea. There was that Puerto Rican wedding... a tag-along trip to visit my friend's relatives in Germany... another tag-along journey around the eastern seaboard for a friend to visit a grad school and some of her relatives. That might be it. Everything else: my idea.

My ideas are rarely conventional. I've never been to Las Vegas. Nor Cancun. Not Disneyworld (or -land). No, I suggest moving to South Korea. Or taking a road trip to Delaware. When I was 20, I convinced three friends to ride a Greyhound Bus for two days each way to... Newport, RHODE ISLAND. It felt like something to cross off a list, like... when am I ever going to be HERE again?

Weirdly enough, I almost moved there. I interviewed to be a reporter at a teeny tiny newspaper in Bristol, Rhode Island. I had three months of a magazine internship and a psychology degree. The interview went well but ultimately they went with someone with experience. I got the feeling I was the back-up choice--I got a form rejection plus a personalized email saying they liked me, but they went with an honest-to-goodness journalism grad. A week after that I moved back to Minneapolis and the rest of my life started.

Hong Kong - 02/05

2010-09-07T23:45:00.000-07:00

Aside from the random plane ride to/from people, I have only traveled alone once. I had visited my friend in China for over 3 weeks and spent the last few days on my own. I spent one night in Guangzhou and then a few days in Hong Kong. I hated it.

This was my room in Hong Kong. I think it was about 15 USD a night, about 3x as much as hostels on the mainland. The bed was covered in black hairs. There was a tiny TV on the wall and instead of spending my evenings in bustling HK, I spent them watching fuzzy "learn English" TV programs.

The room was sad and lonely and being alone in Hong Kong made me feel similarly. I've always wanted to go back, if only to repaint HK with a new reputation.

Paris - 03/99

2010-09-07T08:49:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the millenial scan job, but this is from my high school trip to France. It blows my mind that I looked so cute then. At the time, I felt about as cute as sidewalk barf and people treated me accordingly. I was not made for the Midwest. I was made for European chic. My classmates brought their Nikes and Starter jackets to France and I brought black, black, black. They walked with gawking expressions, I walked with a scowl, ya know, to fit in. I really thought France was where I would be "understood."

Minneapolis - 05/10

2010-09-06T20:20:00.000-07:00

In this picture, we had been back in the States about 28 hours after returning from New Zealand. We met up with Jon's old co-worker who lives in Hawaii and some of our local friends. It was a big get-together for the Hawaii-residing couple, so we didn't know many people.

My best friend came, just to see us. We talked about what we wanted to do this summer. She was excited to ride her bike (future tense: she severely sprained her ankle the first time she went riding) and wanted to start a book club (future tense: we had one meeting). I told her I wanted to be a joiner and join a gym, a writing group, a Spanish class, a comedy class and a running group (future tense: I joined nothing!). I said I couldn't wait to make new friends this summer (ft: I lost friends) and get in shape (ft: I gained 15 lbs).

Secretly, I was excited to reconnect with my old friends and meet new people. I couldn't wait for people to say "Oh wow, you lived in Australia AND South Korea, that's awesome! You're awesome!"

I felt pretty great that night. I'd just done something extraordinary and I was beginning my third summer in a row. I was "home." I was certain that this summer would be the best of the three.

Future tense: OMG, read this blog! Nothing worked out as planned!

Wesleyan University - 04/06

2010-09-06T08:01:00.000-07:00

I've interviewed many important people during my stint as a magazine intern -- like an environmental minister in Germany and someone from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees -- but I've only interviewed one "celebrity" - Craig Minowa, the lead singer of Cloud Cult.

I interviewed him by phone. He was on tour with his band at the time. When I called him, he was driving past Menomonie, Wisconsin, where I coincidentally went to school. He was easy to talk to and I highlighted his environmentally friendly CD packing for this piece.

A couple of weeks later, he toured Connecticut, where I was living at the time, so I drove to Wesleyan. If you aren't aware, Wesleyan has a reputation for being a pot mecca and a liberal haven. Cloud Cult, normally a large stage production, was just three people, crowded under a blue tarp and quite worried about the rain ruining their equipment.

I can't remember any songs they played. I do remember it did smell a lot like pot there and that a couple of guys in hippie attire has climbed about 30 feet up these enormous trees. I became pretty mesmerized by these tree climbers. It just looked so tenuous.

I never did introduce myself to Craig Minowa as the person who had interviewed him from his van outside of Menomonie, Wisconsin. I was never made for journalism.

Montreal - 08/07

2010-09-05T22:00:00.000-07:00

When I first met Jon, I thought he was hot stuff. He was 22 and liked music and was really cute. Things between us just sort of were serious one day. I told him I wanted to travel. I wanted to live abroad and travel a lot. Like A LOT. Being in school, he kind of hemmed and hawwed at this (also, it is his natural tendency).

I remember being outside my Loring Park apartment and saying to him "Maybe I picked the wrong person." As in... maybe I am getting serious with someone who doesn't want what I want. My last serious relationship ended because I wanted to travel/live afar and he didn't.

Several months later, we went on our first trip together: 10 days on the East Coast. We flew to Montreal, took an overnight bus to Boston where we spent a day and a night, hopped the Chinatown bus to New York and then another Chinatown bus to Philly and flew home. It was pretty epic. It's been three years since then and we've been epically tramping around the US, Europe, Asia, and Australia/NZ, not to mention living together on three different continents.

Sometimes I feel like Jon is my 1980s Microsoft stock: kind of an iffy investment at the time, but ultimately made me very, very rich. ♥

Otago Peninsula, New Zealand - 05/10

2010-09-02T15:24:00.000-07:00

THIS IS MY LIFE!

Okay, I know I perseverate about how lost and aimless I am but today I had an epiphany (it's what we procrastinating unemployed people do all day -- epiphany search). I was writing down my goals for living in Minneapolis, a place I adored until it felt like jail with no chance for parole. The usual always come up: reach my goal weight, run a marathon, write, make friends, learn Spanish, get a job I like. Then I wrote reasons why I don't just accomplish these things. Why don't I just go for a run? Why don't I just eat healthier? Why don't I just sit down and write?

Amazingly, they all came up with these answers: It's too time-consuming. I'd have to do them all alone. It will take a long time to accomplish. It might change my social life. I'll spend less time with Jon.

Then epiphany yelled to me: YOU HAVE NO FRIENDS! YOU HAVE NO JOB! You're here for at least a few years. You have lots of time. You have some money. And Jon is really busy.

It's the strangest feeling. Like I'm walking alone on a road in the middle of nowhere trying to find some sign and when I finally find it, it says I'm supposed to be alone on a road in the middle of nowhere.

Interestingly, we drove all around the Otago Peninsula in New Zealand after we failed to find a campsite in Dunedin. We drove these winding and steep roads looking for a place to sleep, worried we would not find something before sunset. Looking back, that sunset drive along golden cliffs was one of the highlights of the trip. Foreshadowing?

Roataan, Honduras - 01/08

2010-08-29T17:48:00.000-07:00

Here's how it happened: two years before, my friend said she wanted to do something BIG for her 29th birthday. I was in the middle of applying for the Peace Corps and kind of thinking this was not going to work out... two years out, in theory, seems like a good time to call dibs but actually, who can know what their lives will look like in two years?

Two years later, the Peace Corps had not worked out for me. I was in Minneapolis and had a pretty steady flow of cash coming in. My friend suggested a trip to the Caribbean, likely a cruise. I saw this as a great opportunity to add more stamps into my passport and found a cruise passing through Central America. We found that sharing a room with 4 people would make this pretty cheap. On her end, her close friends were all flaking, so I asked around. Before long, SHE flaked too, saying this would only exacerbate her already fat credit card debt. Seeing as I always already cruise-minded and had some interest, the trip went on. My friend's big 29th birthday celebration was now a cruise for four with my high school friend, my new Minneapolis friend, and her friend. It was a boat of strangers. We lived it up anyways.

By the way, I got only ONE passport stamp the whole trip and that was a "souvenir" stamp in Guatemala.

Puerto Rico - 06/07

2010-08-28T23:40:00.000-07:00

I basically invited myself to a wedding in Puerto Rico. Seeing that it was a destination wedding, the guest list was pretty exclusive. I was more of a regular acquaintance of the groom but when my best friend was invited, I nominated myself her date.

At the reception, most couples were taking advantage of the Caribbean sunset to take, as I like to call it, "lovers loving" pictures. With a real lover, my stomach would flip at doing something so traditional... but with my best friend, it seemed wildly delicious. Special note of how I stashed my purse.

Sydney - 03/10

2010-08-28T12:30:00.000-07:00

On the ferry from Manly Beach to Circular Quay. Sydney, to me, was extremely sterile. I never got a sense of who really lived there. A lot of my time there was spent downtown or at King's Cross. Tourists, backpackers, businessmen and women. But there was definitely a lot of magic radiating from the opera house. It's a fantastic building.

Kata Tjuta - 04/10

2010-08-27T21:00:00.000-07:00

The outback of Australia is marvelous. We could've seen these bizarre rock formations on our own, but everything is so spread out, we sunk out trust and 250AUD into a tour company. It was one of our favorite experiences of our six-week trip around Australia and New Zealand. This is from Day 2 in the outback. This had to have been between 9 and 10 am. Our guide, Felix, set us loose to explore the grounds of Kata Tjuta, Uluru's less famous cousin. Jon and I walked mostly alone and did some eavesdropping of others' conversations. A lot of our fellow travelers were in their early 20s or even late teens. They had just finished college or high school. I remember thinking their thoughts when I was graduating, too.

Minneapolis - 08/10

2010-08-27T16:00:00.000-07:00

Jon's a great muse. I love his long, skinny body and the stark difference between his skin tone and his hair coloring. Maybe it's because I am not long, skinny, and often my skin and hair color are the same (once someone actually told me: I don't like you because your hair and skin are the same color. I was in college at the time.).

Jon doesn't really like being a muse, however. I've been wanting to take black and white pictures of his face. This was my best achievement.

I'm the ball

2010-08-04T18:46:00.000-07:00

Life is pinball and I'm the ball. For a long time I thought it was skeet shoot. I thought you go in a straight line and aim for the 100 in the middle. After some practice, you'll get there. If you were getting 50 pts, or 10 pts, or none, you didn't know how to throw the ball.

No, it's definitely pinball. I know this now.

Yes you can get good at pinball, but I think a lot of your time is spent reacting instead of planning.

I've been a planner my whole life. I think I'm switching to being a reactor.

My Minneapolis "non-plan" was pretty planny, actually. It went something like this:
Find a short-term apartment
Get a well-paying gig at my old job
Take learning classes like improv and Spanish
Enjoy friends and family
Head on a big trip in the winter
Come back from the trip and find greener pastures elsewhere

Well, we got the short-term lease. Everything else? Not quite working out.

Tomorrow I have my 4th interview in 11 weeks of looking for jobs. Like the previous three, this is part-time. The first one (my old job!) offered benefits, but these recent three do not. I want to sit on my couch and shake my fist at Washington for setting up the most ridiculous healthcare system in the world. Life's thrown up a wall and I can just stare at it or bounce off and head in a different direction. Y'know, one not included in my "non-plan" plan.

Maybe I'm going to be working two jobs. Maybe I'm going to be shilling out for MN Care again. Maybe a 5th interview will appear. Maybe I'm just supposed to wait.

What I do know is I've given up on all of my "plans."

Okay, I give up! I'll stay in Minneapolis. I'll stop sniffing out exotic places to live until I'm actually summoned there. I give up trying to get a cool and/or well-paying job. I'll just take A job, thanks. Or, scrap that, I'll take a few jobs if I need to. I give up waiting for my friends to come out of the woodwork. I'm ready to go out and meet new people.

So much for this being an "easy" place to stay "a little while." I remember saying that exact thing to Jon in Australia when we pondered our next move. It's funny because when I was there, I sensed that my life would change pretty drastically in the near future. Kind of like how dogs or cats can predict earthquakes. I just thought it would change drastically on the outside -- like new city, awesome new job, big break in the creative world... Instead, I think the change is happening internally and I am growing by letting go of everything I thought I knew. I feel a little like I came back to this city I loved so much 4 years ago and this time it stole all my clothes and left me on the street naked.

But hey, naked is a pretty good place to start.

Speaking of beginnings, I submitted a short story to the local newspaper's writing contest. I got in the top 12 (out of 80 or 100 or 130... the number is not clear). They published their 4 favorites, mine not included. I looked up some of the top people and saw some of them had published books, completed writing fellowships, won many other contests and, of course, were English/Creative Writing majors. I was disappointed not to win ('cause I really, really, really need $1000!), but it was exciting to be recognized my first time out of the gates, especially amongst such a practiced group.

Besides -- this is pinball. With one swift motion, I could hit the jackpot. I just have to quit trying to stop the ball to plan its next move.

Everything I Own Is Broken

2010-07-21T08:54:00.000-07:00

If things have to break, maybe now is a good time. It's not a good time in the sense that I have loads of money to throw at repair people or an upgrade. Nay, it's a good time because I am super-unemployed and I have time to fix things myself (or make my boyfriend fix them...).

First up: Broken CD/ROM. Well, technically I did need to spend an hour on the phone with the service guy and eventually have a new part sent in BUT that hour was basically moot because I already knew I needed the part. I knew this because I spent about 3 hours trying every possible solution to fix a nonworking CD/ROM. I installed things. I uninstalled things. I did things in safe mode. Nothing fixed it and Google searches of the problem found the replacing the drive was all you could do. I felt pretty smart that I knew the solution when I called HP.

Next: My Creative Zen mp3 player. This little buddy has been a somewhat satisfactory alternative to the Apple monopoly. I think my iPod died after two years and this thing lasted 3. Unfortunately, there were a few too many things I didn't care for to warrant it being fixed. You're going to the recycling center, Zen. Instead, my iPod, who has technically died TWICE, whose screen is so scratched I can't always tell what song is playing if I'm not familiar with it, is going to be Frankenstein'd again. For about $5 including shipping, Jon got a new battery that will hopefully spring this thing back to life.

And then: My bike. Did you know you are supposed to tune up your bike? I've had vague ideas about this. My bike came with three years of free tune-ups, but I guess that was about 7 years ago. It lived upside down in Jon's parents' garage for the last two years and finally came down to earth a few weeks ago. It's sat like a wallflower in our living room, untouched because I was positive something was wrong. I finally pumped up the tires yesterday and was about to set out on my maiden voyage when about 6 feet into it I realize my tires were MESSED UP. I suspected they needed new tubes before I left for Korea two years ago and I'm positive of that now. Not only that but one of my brakes is essentially glued to the side of the tire. Living in Uptown, Minneapolis' bike mecca, there are about 3 bike shops within two blocks of me... and they all cost $50+ to tune up bikes. I need to do what bike aficionados and poor people do: do it myself (or with the help of my bf). I already bought the tubes in an embarrassingly novice exchange at the bike shop.

"What size?"
"28"
"28 and......?"
"Oh, haha, 28 and 1 5/8. Sorry I am doing this for the first time myself."
"Oh you have booblablah part?" (obviously he didn't say booblablah but he might as well have)
"Umm, yeah, my boyfriend has all that stuff."

I have no idea if Jon has this part or not. Ugh. Learning stuff. So hard!

Lastly: My Nike+. It's a little gadget that helps you keep track of your runs. I didn't use it in Korea since running wasn't very convenient and I just used it sometimes in Australia. But now... NOW I want to use it frequently and it says "There is a problem. We don't have a solution." This just happened today. I haven't had a chance to investigate it but I will, oh, I will! Because I'm unemployed, natch.

***

In other news, I spotted a quick way to make some money in the paper: psychological research! When I first moved to Minneapolis four years ago, I couldn't afford my rent and went a couple times to the plasma center, much to the disdain of many. Well, I probably won't resort to that again but I am going to try to get in on some psychological studies at the University of Minnesota. I hope they'll have me. They probably pay like $5... which will likely be my bus fare. But hey -- vive psychology!

Party like you're 92!

2010-07-15T10:06:00.000-07:00

Is the glass half-empty or half-full? Was my 29th birthday party a failure or a success? Perspective, man. Perspective.

Initially I was feeling a little bummed out. My invitation to celebrate ME + the promise of the world's greatest chili (seriously, THE BEST!) seemed to be an offer everyone would jump at. Yeah. Not so much. Just 4 people RSVP'd to come and of those people, 2 actually showed up. Cue loser sound effect: Wah wahhhhh!

It actually was a lot of fun. Those two friends brought their significant others and I had the very loving and thoughtful Jon by my side. Six of us in SuperBrown proved to just about be max capacity.

We all knew each other fairly well, everyone raved about Jon's chili (it's THE BEST!) and I had made cookies for dessert. ART COOKIES!
I particularly liked the morphed broccoli and banana cookie. My friend came up with the genius name Broc O'banana. Awesomito!

The original idea for my party was to have a Dr Mario or Tetris tournament. Though six made for kind of an odd tier structure, we made it work because there were prizes involved: A deck of New Zealand cards for the winner and a flaming heart temporary tattoo for the worst player. And I made GAME COOKIES!
That would be Tetris pieces and Dr Mario pills for all you not in the know. First place was tough to decide so we had to resort to this game I got in Korea where you stick swords in a barrel to make a pirate fly out. It's very complicated. (no it's not!) Anyways, Captain Hook crowned Jon best Dr Mario player and worthy owner of a deck of New Zealand cards. Quote from Jon: I've never owned a deck of cards before! That's why I like him. My friend's husband won the worst player tattoo. Technically, I'm not sure he's ever played the game before, so I think coming in 6th place was pretty good.

We intended to go bowling but we never made it two doors down to the bowling alley. I think we felt tired. Because we're old.

Anyways, my party was a good mental exercise for seeing things as they are. I tend to focus on the negative, like who DIDN'T show up or who DIDN'T wish my a happy day, when I should look at what's happening right in front of me... like people who like me! They really, really like me!

And people who send me birthday greetings with this video attached.

Today's my birthday: #29

2010-07-11T09:53:00.000-07:00

Here's the highlight reel of my year:

I visited Japan.
I finished being a teacher in South Korea.
I moved to Australia.
I went skydiving.
I saw a wild kangaroo, koala, wallaby, emu, camel, parrot, cockateau, dolphin, and a teeny bit of sea turtle.
I snorkeled the Great Barrier Reef.
I slept outside in the Outback.
I drove on the left side of the road.
I visited New Zealand.
I hiked on a glacier.
I slept in a van for more than a week.
I moved back to America, specifically Minneapolis.

That's some big stuff! The plan for 29 is much more low-key and closer to home.

My goals for this next year are not so concrete, but rather more related to keywords. SO my keywords of 29:

1. YES - Already I've been trying to say yes to invitations. Probably half the things I done, I initially wanted to pass and stay home but 100% of the time I am glad I said yes.

2. OPPORTUNITY - I have no idea what kind of work I want to do, where I want to live in the long run, I am pretty much directionless. Soooo I am going to say yes (see above) to as many opportunities as I can and just hope the more I put myself out there, the more doors will open for me.

3. CREATE - My creative side has been super-neglected while I was in survival mode trying to make an existence in foreign countries. Now that I'm in familiar surroundings, I want to egg my creative side on with a cattle prod.

4. FAIL - Many of the things I wanted to do most I've put off for fear of failing at them. Well, I'd like to think at least for a year (maybe a lifetime), I can be okay with failing at things, if only for the chance that I try and DON'T fail. But be ready to fail and be okay with it...

5. RUN - I've spent a lot of time on the run from ordinary life and now that I'm more or less in one spot for awhile, I want to run literally. Like... maybe a marathon? I've tried and stopped training for a marathon many times but this year, year of being failure-ready, I may try just a little harder.

I'm definitely "in transition" at this point in my life and haven't the slightest clue where I'll be a year from now, when I become a 30-something. As one Melinda would say: That's scary! To which the other Melinda would reply: No, it's AWESOME.

- Rachel/Rachel

For Your Pleasure: my misfortune!

2010-07-09T13:45:00.000-07:00

I'm kind of averse to complain-a-maniacs, being someone who is trying to recover from doing it so much myself, but just bear with me today. I've had everything go wrong, it's almost funny.

1. Gained another lb. Now +10 lbs since I got home six weeks ago. Uggghh.
2. Went to my first job interview in six weeks of applying. My first bus was 4 minutes late and the second one was one minute early. I missed the second one.
3. The new second bus had a drunk guy get on who refused to pay and refused to get off. He threw his wallet at the driver. After almost 5 minutes, he finally threw a crumpled dollar at the bus driver and we drove on, even though the fare was $1.75. THEN the guy is ready to get off TWO BLOCKS LATER. And he wants a transfer. Which the driver doesn't want to give him since he didn't pay full fare.
4. Magically, I was only 6 minutes late for my interview. EXCEPT! The entrance I needed to go into was closed due to construction. I had to walk about 5 minutes to the other side of the hospital and then another 5 minutes through the hospital to get to that blocked entrance, aka, Human Resources
5. Turns out, that's NOT where I am supposed to have the interview and I go back to the first entrance. Officially 20 minutes late for my interview. Win!
6. After a lot of consideration, I realized it would be impossible for me to work the evening shift (3-11:30 pm) because it's not safe to bike home and the buses run too infrequently for me to get home without waiting at a bus stop for 25 minutes or walking 5 blocks. I can only work day shifts. And wouldn't you know it, they are ONLY hiring for evening shifts.
7. I come home, Jon's made delicious burritos but somehow we get into a big fight... over avocado. We eat angrily and don't make up until we're done with lunch.
8. Seeing as it's 4 pm, it's mostly safe to call the business part of the day over -- which means I didn't win the writing contest I entered, as the results were supposed to be posted today. Not only did I not win, but I didn't even get in the Top TWENTY. This is a local Minneapolis-only writing contest. Did twenty people even enter??

This has been such a rotten day it's almost funny. After items 1-8 came to a head, I've just given up for the day and have been languishing in any sort of pleasurable pursuit I can get my hands on--like playing my new present from Jon, Wii Resort. Turns out, I am a super-fast watermelon slicer. What a great surprise!

Cliché

2010-07-08T07:27:00.000-07:00

Have I ever mentioned in all my time overseas, I shopped for clothes for about 40 seconds? Korea was basically out in terms of things that would fit me, plus the salespeople would follow you around and attempt sales advice in Korean. It was intimidating. Australia was just astronomically expensive. Yeah, the op shops were actually pretty cheap (especially since I am used to shopping at designer thrift stores like Everyday People and Buffalo Exchange), but I thought whatever I bought I'd either have to abandon or drag home in my suitcase for six weeks so I kept my shopping extra-lite.

Since I've been home, I've been a little CLOTHES CRAZY. I have an excuse for everything: New leggings (my chubby legs rubbed holes into the thighs of all my other ones!); red flats from Buffalo X (my other red flats wore out!); a party dress from Target (because I was unhappy with my new driver's license picture!). Last weekend, though, I went to Minneapolis' coolest boutique and bought five items ranging from a dress with cats & skulls on it to a hoodie that's half plaid, half pink heart polka dots (because there was a freakin' tent sale!!!!).

Cliche always seemed a little unattainable. I mean it sells clothing from local designers like one of my former classmates from when I was an apparel design major (who not only graduated in the program but actually went on to use her design skills in the real world!). That, and they stock really obscure brands from places like Japan.

I know. Sounds expensive!

So when I glanced an ad saying FOURTH OF JULY TENT SALE: $5-10-15, I made a point to head over there on Sunday morning with my fellow apparel design dropout, Nadia. We got there about 9:59 and I was surprised to find a huge blob of super-fashionable young women eagerly awaiting to go inside. I don't think I understood the term "tent sale" nor associated the fact that the cheapest thing at Cliche is usually a $30 t-shirt and found myself expecting people would sleep in and laze on a 4th of July Sunday. How little I understand fashionistas. This proves I am not one of them.

We all huddled around tiny clothing racks and started amassing huge stacks of clothing in our arms. Whenever something cute caught my eye, I would check the tag and seeing $5 felt like a winning scratch-off ticket.

"Only 5 items in the dressing room!" the attendant shouted. After we'd all scoured the racks, we all just kind of stood outside of the two dressing rooms, looking at our huge piles of stuff, wondering now what? I think I was one of the first to slip a dress over my outfit and ask Nadia's opinion. Within about 15 minutes, half the women were in their underwear, trying on each item and using friends' reactions for yeas and nays.

Later, Nadia and I rewatched Confessions of a Shopaholic and commiserated on the scenes of sample sales where women climbed over one another to get the best discount on the cutest dress (first viewing of the movie: in theaters in Korea with Jon! Thanks, Jon! This needed to be put on the internet....). Both of us had a lot of fun and I adopted $215 worth of merch for only $35. Now I just have to figure out where to wear my new top with the half guitar/half tree on it.

***

In other news, I have an interview at my old job (FINALLY! Only about six weeks after I put in the application...) and Jon applied for tech school so he can be a rich computer guy in two years. Looks like I'm here to stay in Mpls? Man, if I had a life compass, its arrows would be spinning.

Bozo Dog

2010-06-27T09:32:00.000-07:00

We've been home for a month now, and we've spent the majority of our time at Jon's parents house. They took us in when we arrived home from Australia and we volunteered to dog-sit this month when they went on a much-needed vacation. Through all this time, combined with our 5 weeks there when we visited last September, I've become pretty close to Jon's family--in particular to their dog, Phoenix.

Phoenix is kind of a bozo. He barks maniacally at bikes, motorcycles, joggers, children, balls, doorbells, guests, loud engines, semi-trucks, squirrels, birds, and the occasional other dog (as long as its big enough--he can't be bothered with the little ones.) On walks, he lunges and leaps at all of these passers-by and barks like he wants to DESTROY them, while we sheepishly say to the receiver "It's okay. We've got him. He won't hurt you." As a child, I was extremely afraid of dogs and Phoenix probably would have been my Public Enemy #1.

But instead, I made friends with this dog. Maybe it's that he gets so excited when you say "walk" or that he puts on the most pathetic face as he sits next to us at the dinner table hoping for some people food (Jon's parents hate this but I'm a real sucker for it--and Phoenix knows this). And Jon and I love to take him to the dog park--he runs at full-throttle, usually in a beeline for the water where we canNOT get him out, only resorting to bribing him with treats. He's also totally susceptible to the fake-out throw and will swim across half the lake looking for the phantom stick or ball that we didn't actually throw. It's wickedly hilarious.

He's also terrible at bringing his retrieved prize back to you. In the water, he often drops the ball a few feet out and looks at us expectantly to throw it again. Jon either has to wade in or use a stick to reel the ball in. Phoenix is a bozo. Once Phoenix was getting impatient as Jon kept trying to fake him out with a throw and stole Jon's retrieval stick and bit it into at least a dozen pieces. It was almost like he told Jon "Screw you!" Except the joke was really on Phoenix, as Jon had no way to get balls to throw out of the water anymore. Point: Jon. Phoenix: bozo.

Like I alluded before, I never was a dog person. They bark and jump and have dog breathe--three strikes against them. Usually they have to really warm me up with a combination of sweetness, playfulness, and pathetic nature (as in--please take me for a walk, please please, can we go for a walk, please please, can we? That's how I bonded with the little beagle when I lived in a house with a nun). But to outsiders (particularly "dog lovers" as I believe they are called), Phoenix is a dog supermodel. Several times on our walks through the neighborhoods, Phoenix would unleash his barking tirade on some passing jogger. As we tried to reign him in and apologize, we were met with an admiring smile.

"What kind of dog is he?" they'd shout over the intense barking.

"Uh, he's a lab mix."

"Wow, he's really beautiful," they'd smile and run off, leaving us with a foamy-mouthed bark machine.

It keeps stunning us... no matter how badly Phoenix acts, continually he is met with praise for his beauty, sometimes twice in a day.

Then we go home with the supermodel dog, let him lick our plates and give him a belly scratch as he dog breathes or farts at us and occasionally tries to lick us in the mouth. He scratches on the screen door. He drools on us in the car. He tries to eat (and then hack up) grass.

He's a good dog. Even if he is a bozo.

Okay, so I'm one of THOSE people...

2010-06-14T08:25:00.000-07:00

On an almost daily basis, I get my news from The Huffington Post. When I click to the page, there's always a huge banner headline that relates to the top story of the moment, and 50% of the time that story is about the dire state of (un)employment. It usually has a picture of people in business suits lined up in a never-ending queue and one can only assume they are registering for an employment agency or something of that nature.

My plan for reentering the American job market was simple: work at my old job. My backup plan was to work a different hospital in a similar position.

This morning I logged into the hospital website and saw the positions I applied for were no longer open. I never even got an interview. @#$%! Panic! Pandemonium! Can you have pandemonium with just one person? If so, it happened. I felt like I was one of those girls on the MTV show "You're Cut Off" standing at the register and finding out my parental-supported credit card was declined (yes, I'm watching the MTV again).... but in my case, it wasn't money I felt so entitled to (well, I guess sort of it is), it was this job. MY job. The job I was previously hired to do! Why am I unhireable now? I didn't lose any skills. Skills are all still there. Rusted, maybe, but also now peppered with international flavors!

I even forgot to eat breakfast, I was so flummoxed, and spent the morning on the phone calling the job (and the backup job) demanding feedback on my inability to work for them AGAIN. "Did I do something wrong? I can change, I swear! Just take me back!"

My feedback was "A lot of people applied. Keep applying for new positions." Granted, I was told that at least one of the positions was hired internally and some others may not have even begun the hiring process, they were just closed to new applications.

So what you're saying is.... there's still a chance?

Yes, I believe there's still a chance one of the hospital jobs will still come through but I have fallen off the horse and I am wary to get back on. What I am taking away from this is I need to be looking for jobs elsewhere. I have a tendency to put all my eggs in one basket and sometimes that basket gets thrown off a roof. A really, really HIGH roof! Lesson learned.

In a few days it will be a month since we've arrived home and I think today is the first day I've actually felt unemployed. This is really going to put a damper on my IKEA shopping spree this afternoon.

Fail-year

2010-06-09T11:18:00.000-07:00

I've been poutin' lately. First: SuperBrown. Now that we are moved in, I'm feeling a little hopeless that this place will ever be a cute, cozy, creative little Den of Zen. Instead I think it will be brown.

Second: I got my hair done at a beauty school. I used to live nearby and was always checking the students out ... as in THEIR HAIR! They had some really badass haircuts. I figured for beauty school price they would get it close to right. Instead, I think I was aiming too high out in the hair stratosphere and my edgy, asymmetrical short-back/long-front dream with the chunky blond highlights turned into a frosted mom bob.

I am mostly to blame. I said I wanted "blended" highlights. The example they showed looked a lot cooler on them than it ended up on me. And they styled my hair so it was pretty cute (though not nearly edgy enough and not at all asymmetrical)... the next day, after washing, it went to kind of a chunky mop where strands effortlessly went in all the wrong directions.

I guess since I've never had highlights I didn't really understand what they were. Now I know. On me they make me look old, unstylish and dowdy. I'm learnin'!

I called my mom and self-pitied. Thank God for her. She clued me into the fact that to be creative is to be met with failure. And probably a lot of it.

It made me think that if I am to ever become a Creative Jedi Master, I am going to have to get used to failure -- frosted mop top, brown formica, and whatever else the Universe wants to humble me with.

It's kind of a strange idea, making friends with failure. I didn't know what to expect: expect to fail, be surprised it I don't? Expect to succeed, be accepting if I don't? "Expect nothing," my mom told me. Bingo! My mom's the winner (of being featured as a wise person on my blog, no cash involved). Like Charles Bukowski said, "Just try."

I'm intrigued by this idea of spending this next year trying everything and ready for failure. My fail-year. What a great idea for being 29 years old, because what is 29 if not counting down the days to the next decade. Might as well end my 20s with a bang (or a mom cut!).

***

So strangely, I'm not totally adjusted to American life yet. One of the hardest things to re-acclimate myself to is walking on the right side of the sidewalk.... or especially if you are walking in the middle and so the person coming towards you, moving over to the right for them. It feels wrong. I actually miss the left.

The other thing that gets me if how CHEAP America is. Jon and I thought nothing of spending $3 on free range eggs--they are usually $5+ a dozen in Oz. Jon's parents thought $3 was pretty pricey for 12 eggs. Looking through advertisements, I can't believe you can get a whole huge breakfast at Perkins for $5.99. You would be lucky to get eggs + toast for that price down under.

We went to H&M, a store I found a little pricey before I left two years ago... and I was shocked at how cheap it all was. $17.99 for a dress! $12.99 for a dress shirt! $3 for earrings! I kind of wanted to buy everything.

Unfortunately I can't buy everything. Or even a few things. I've been unemployed for 2 months now (today!) and despite the fact that my old job has had an ad up for 3 weeks, they've yet to call me (yes, I've called them!).

SOON in the spirit of trying (and likely failing) I'm going to branch out into other areas of work and dip my resume in. Like maybe cake decorating. I've been watching a lot of cake decorating shows on JumboCable. It looks easy!

28 & Creative

2010-06-05T06:20:00.000-07:00

I love staying at Jon's parents' house. Not only do they have like 3 refrigerators, but they have JumboCable. I'm surprising myself by how captivated by MTV shows I am. My new favorite show has got to be 16 & Pregnant about teenage girls who become pregnant and let cameras follow them around as they act like spoiled brats, incompetent parents and drama queens. I love it.

Well, I'm NOT pregnant and won't be any time soon but I do feel like I'm expecting: I'm about to give birth to a creative lifestyle.... and like these MTV stars, I'm kind of nervous/freaked out.

First of all, I do NOT know what to do. I do not know what to do to make this creative lifestyle thrive and grow. I know it's going to be expensive ($300 for a 6 week writing class! $50 for a dozen Pantone markers!) and it's going to be time-consuming.

Way back when, I was an art major, which I dropped down to a minor. That was more than 7 years ago. If I'm going to keep this preggo analogy up, it's like I took the Lamaze classes nearly a decade before the baby was ready to come out. Looking at creative jobs, everyone is asking for a graphic design degree or some 4-year arts degree (plus experience!). It looks like to ever get some sort of creative job, I'm going to have to take a real backroads approach. I really think my ticket to success will be networking. Except after two years abroad, my network has basically shrunk to...Jon.

But, like a 40-week-old fetus, my creative side is kicking me from inside everyday saying "Let me out!" I've got to pursue this! Or might get... an infection? Probably/for sure I'll get fatter...

So my first creative endeavor will be our new apartment or as I like to call it: SuperBrown. While it's in a GREAT location (right near a bowling alley -- this is the summer I become a kingpin at last!), the inside leaves a little/A LOT to be desired. Brown carpet. Brown linoleum. Brown countertops. Brown walls. PINK bathroom. It's not pretty. But maybe a few issues of Dwell, several hours logged onto Casa Sugar and beaucoup $$$ dropped at IKEA and it will be my own little Inspiration Cave or Creative Den (and to Jon it will our apartment + all the crap Rachel stuck on the walls).

I am looking forward to being more creative. I'm going to get a creative haircut, take some creative classes, buy more creative clothes. If only a job would jump into my lap like those fish into the boat on Sesame Street (remember? Here fishie fishie fishie fishie!). Or if there was such a thing as Creative Welfare.

Hopefully since I won't be traveling much, I can blog more about my creative pursuits. Whenever those start. In the meantime, I've got a huge craving for breakfast. Paaancaaaakes!

The American Dream

2010-05-24T13:31:00.000-07:00

We made it home to America! It was a looong, slow journey home and ever since then it's been a whirlwind.

Our last night in New Zealand was great. We went to Avenue Q and it was even better than I remembered. I had a stupid smile stuck on my face the entire time. Jon, the musical-hater, loved it too.

The next day we went out for breakfast. We meant to get a "kiwi breakfast" which is the same as an Aussie or English breakfast - eggs, sausage, hashbrown, toast, tomato, mushrooms. The places near by were a little expensive so we took advantage of a French bakery having a deal on banana bread french toast (uh... it's not that good!). Then it was off to the airport.

Our plane had some technical problem and we were delayed for 1.5 hours. No worries, said the pilot, we can actually shave this 12-hour flight to LA down to 11 hours. Really? The ride was pretty bumpy, nothing crazy, just kind of steady bumps most of the way. This FREAKED ME OUT. I'm not sure when exactly but lately I felt my plane anxiety has gotten a little out of control. I'm not quite a business commuter, but I fly a lot, probably 5-20 plane rides a year on average. More than most people. And yet --- with each flight, I seem MORE anxious.

We sat on the plane, waiting to take off, happily reading the list of movies and TV shows available to us on the flight -- and I basically watched half of one movie and spent the remaining 10 hours panicking. It was terrible.

We made it to sunny, smoggy LA and took two more planes to Minneapolis, with a stop in Denver. These flights were a lot smoother than the first -- we even flew over the Grand Canyon! -- but I still acted like a trembling Chihuahua. Once I get health insurance, I think I'm going to see someone about getting some anti-anxiety medication for when I travel.

The rest of the weekend was spent catching up with friends and family, seeing Jon's new nephew (so cute!), Jon's sister's teeny tiny puppy (also so cute!) and eating a lot of cake. My God... you Americans love your cake! (.... I'm American too and also love cake tons) Amazingly I haven't yet gained weight, despite nonstop eating. Jon tacked on 2 lbs this weekend, which he desperately needed as he seems to have whittled himself down to skin and bones during our travels.

A lot of people are asking us -- now what? I want to say @#$% if I know! but I try to be a bit more eloquent than that.... but that's mostly what I'm thinking. Jon and I are really putting one foot in front of the other without much regard for what lays 5 paces ahead. I put in a job application at the psych ward again. We set up appointments to see a couple of apartments tomorrow (month-to-month or 6 month leases -- perfect for the indecisive couple!). Beyond that -- we're kind of waiting for the world to give us some signs!

And my Australian traveling blog (previously my Korean traveling blog).... well, I think it will morph into an American traveling blog. I'm only 4 states away from the full set! So... must change title. Soon.

Last Blog from Oceania

2010-05-18T13:16:00.000-07:00

I'm on my last full day in New Zealand. Tomorrow we leave mid-day for America, landing in Los Angeles about 5 hours before we departed. Another 2 flights over the Rockies and Midwest and we'll be in Minneapolis in approximately 61 hours. Not that I'm counting.....

Auckland has turned out better than we thought, if only because nearly everyone told us AUCKLAND SUCKS!!!! It doesn't suck. It's just a city. A big city, the biggest we've been in since Australia. It has crazy restaurants like Wendy's and Denny's.

We lucked out in our hostel. So far we have the room to ourselves. One more night to see if our luck holds out. Yesterday we spent the day SHOPPING (or I did). I collected some last minute souvenirs and some completely unnecessary but fabulous items from the RECYCLE store. Another great get: $25 front-row tickets to Avenue Q! OMG! I loooooove this musical and we've tried and failed to get tickets a few times in America (I saw it a few years ago in NYC). Thanks to my student ID that I last used in 2004, we got tickets for half price. We'll go tonight. I can't wait.

The other exciting Auckland-y thing (at least for Jon): White Lady Burger. Our friend Laura said we MUST go have one. It is apparently this truck that parks on a street corner each night and serves food all made/grown within 100 km of the city. Jon shelled out $16NZ for the monstrous White Lady, complete with burger, scotch filet, egg, pineapple, among many other dressing items. They were out of veggie burgers so I got a paper-thin piece of chicken. It was good. But Jon tells me his was AMAZING!

We're heading out the door today to a volcano-created island called Rangitoto. We plan to hike around it and maybe check out a lava cave. Then Avenue Q tonight. Then sleep. Then three plane rides. Then home!

Sulphur Fresh

2010-05-16T17:41:00.000-07:00

In about 72 hours, my plane will jump into the sky and head back to America. WHOA!

Vacation has pretty much puttered to a near-stop. In Kaikoura, we rented bikes and checked out a seal colony (but not too closely--they bite!) and rode a very hilly, twisty path along some very steep cliffs... all the better to NOT spot whales. Boo. Then we crossed the Cook Strait via ferry and putzed around Wellington for a day, taking in the botanical gardens and the most famous museum in all of New Zealand, Te Papa. Yesterday was a very long bus ride to stinky Rotorua, which has an air of rotten eggs at all times. We wandered through a public park with a few dozen bubbling sulphur pools, inhaling the smelly goodness. The "big" pools are quite expensive so we just took in the free ones, which was plenty for us--though we were sad none of them erupted like they did 7 years ago.

Jon and I are kind of bored of our vacation. We're not afraid to be working American stiffs any more--in fact, I think we're kind of embracing the coming future of work-work-work (at least I am... I've got a lot of play scheduled as well!).

We were comparing this trip to our trip to Southeast Asia, where we indulged in (cheap to us) dinners every night and lazed at very nice (yet still cheap to us) hotel pools. Here, we decided, we are kind of living below our normal standard of life--we are soooo sick of peanut butter & jelly sandwiches, hard-boiled eggs, pasta from a packet; equally we are tired of snoring roommates, squeaky bunk beds, waking up to a filthy kitchen/common area from the previous night's party that we skipped. We just can't wait to have our own bed! Own kitchen! Variety of food options! FRIENDS! (... I hope! We were only mildly-to-not-at-all successful at this in the last two years abroad).

The rest of our vacation looks like this: Bus ride tonight to Auckland. One day in Auckland visiting a neighboring volcanic island. One day doing pretty much the only shopping we'll have done on the whole trip. And the third day -- home we go!

Riding in Boats with Dolphins

2010-05-11T16:32:00.000-07:00

We survived the campervan!

Really, it's hard to imagine we would have been able to see and do as much as we did if we had taken buses, trains, planes or even a rental car around the country. We could just pick a direction and go, and we did!

Since last writing, Jon and I have hiked onto a glacier (complete with CRAMPONS! I'm so outdoorsy now...), soaked in a thermal pool of sulphur in a hot springs, cruised on a boat through a pod of nearly 500 dolphins and explored Mini France aka Akaroa, a town on a peninsula formed by two volcanoes.

Currently we are in Christchurch which... is not that interesting. The real beauty of New Zealand (and Australia) is definitely outside the big cities. And I definitely use the word "big" liberally when describing Christchurch. Still, it's quaint. And not freezing. And overflowing with Thai food restaurants.

Tomorrow we go back to Kaikoura, site of the dolphin excursion for another 24 hours of wild fun. Our hostel promised free bike rentals and we spotted a seal colony accessible only by walking/hiking/biking trail.

Then Wellington. Then Rotorua. Then Auckland. THEN HOME!

Honestly, it felt like when we dropped off the van that our trip was over. Our minds are already starting to make the move back to America. So.Much.To.DO!!! But we'll try to make the most of our New Zealand time that's left and enjoy what the North Island has to offer. And I hope it's more of this southeast Asian cuisine.....

Living in a Van Down By the River

2010-05-06T17:53:00.000-07:00

When I last road, I was spending time in high places and lately, the places I go have been rather low... like the back of a van.

We heard the best, nay, the ONLY way to see New Zealand is by camper so we paid our $500 (NZ) and got ourselves 9 days living in a lime green & purple Jucy van. Jon in particular had been looking forward to the freedom of a bed on wheels. I was excited to be away from the sometimes-annoying hostel/backpacker scene.

Turns out, van camping basically IS camping. Our first day we drove to the Fiordlands National Park to get an early start at Milford Sound. The campsite was totally deserted and we didn't really know the first thing about setting up a camp. Jon suggested we use the remaining 40 mins or so of daylight to enjoy ourselves and read. The was the last time we ever made that mistake. I got him to try to start cooking while there was still light, which was good because we did NOT know what we were doing. I mean, we bought pre-cut vegetables so all we had to do was cook those in sauce and cook some noodles. Well, a single burner in windy NZ makes for a very difficult cooking experience. Jon might have totally lost his cool. A lot.

Then setting up the bed was a real experience. Plus we were in the woods and little gnats and mosquitos thought our semi-warm (but not really) camper seemed an ideal resting spot. The sun was down by 6 pm. We ate our dinner (which we accidentally used a whole canister of fuel making) and then retired to bed about 7 pm for a really fitful night of sleep.

We took advantage of our 2-for-1 offer from the van company for a Milford Sound boat ride. It was a good deal considering it wasn't THAT exciting of a trip. We saw some dolphin fins! But the dolphins were not friendly enough to come by the boat that day.

Next stop in the van was the southeast coast - Otago Peninsula. The scenery went from huge snow-capped mountains to rolling golden farm hills. Otago Peninsula was this weird little stretch of land with huge hills and valleys -- our campsite took us the whole duration of High Cliff Rd, which is what it sounds like -- much of the road was just one lane on the edge of a huge cliff. Kind of freaky as dusk.

We forked over a bunch of money that night and slept in a caravan park. It had showers! And a kitchen! Rejoice!

I don't think I've mentioned of absolutely unbelievably impossibly COLD it is here! Actually, I think it's been between 30-60 degrees night & day but WOW, after two summers, this is a shock to us.

We hiked down to the beach in Otago and saw sea lions sunbathing. There was lots of signs saying "stay 20m away from sealions"... we were a little afraid they would chase us like dogs--did you know that sea lions are related to dogs? They are! Hence all the barking. Anyways, in total we saw 8 sea lions on the beach and in the surf. Win!

Day 3 we drove to the center of the south island to Mt Cook, also known as Aoraki in Maori. We went on two hikes, one to Kea point. Keas are a dull green parrot that's sort of a pest. We saw them in the car park at Milford Sound. They were not, however, anywhere to be seen on the two-hour Kea Point trek.

The next hike we went was to see the Tasman Glacier. Like we were told, the bottom of the glacier is ugly. And it was. It looked like a wall of dirt. But in the grey/silty lake at the bottom were ICE BERGS. They didn't look that big but when we boat went by, we realized they were the size of houses. We hiked down to see them and just as we were leaving a person-sized chunk fell off and splashed in the water. Just like on TV! Oh, global warming.

And that brings us up to today. We camped out on the west coast and woke up to rain. And it hasn't stopped raining since. We wanted to climb the glacier today but, ya know, the rain. We signed up to climb tomorrow morning so we have all day in Fox Glacier village to... uh, use the internet?

We have less than 2 weeks left on our trip. It's amazing how fast it's gone. We are looking forward to going home, especially because home means things like easy cooking, summer, indoor spaces, not living in a van by the river.... or maybe if we can't get jobs, we will be back in a van. But vans are expensive!

4 more days in a van, 9 more days in hostels!

Long Way Down

2010-05-01T18:36:00.000-07:00

Yesterday Jon and I arrived in Queenstown, New Zealand in probably the most stunning landing I've ever experienced. We flew right over the snow-capped mountaintops and then between the mountains over a bright blue mountains and finally took this sharp U-turn and snuck between two hills and landed.

New Zealand is COLD! Oh man. We have been spoiled with weather from Australia and now are getting our first taste of winter since we were in Korea 1+ years ago. We had to both get some souvenir hats to keep ourselves warm. Mine has whales on it! We also went a little crazy with the tasty looking restaurants -- $55 at an Indian restaurant. But since New Zealand dollars are not as strong as American, it was probably only like $40. But still... totally outside the backpacker budget.

But our real draw to Queenstown -- skydiving!

Jon and I were up early and anxiously waiting for our 9:30 am pick-up. A NZ hippie mountain man picked us up--he had a handle bar mustache, long hair and was barefoot, eventhough it was only in the 40s. The drive to Glenorchy was stunning--apparently some of Lord of the Rings was filled nearby (never was interested in those movies but I think I might have to watch now). The company we went with was small but super-friendly and awesome. They are called NZ Skydive and I HIGHLY RECOMMEND if you ever go to NZ to skydive with them.

We were the only ones booked for the session and we got all suited up. Then we all sat on the floor of this tiny plane. We flew in a valley through the snow-capped mountains and finally got up to 9,500 ft. I was the first one out. At first I wasn't sure if we even went, there was so much wind when we were hanging out the door. But when we finally did jump -- oh man, I knew!

Jon said they told us not to look at the ground but I did and it really did seem like it was getting closer pretty fast. Then WOOSH--he opened the parachute and everything was quiet and serene. The great thing was since we couldn't afford the $165+ photo package, we got to take our cameras! We took pictures from the plane and then after the freefall, we could take pictures as we floated down.

Jon jumped second but his instructor was heavier and making them do a lot of spins, which brings you down faster, so he landed first. I was worried about getting my legs up high enough to land on our butts but we slid to a stop just fine.

It was probably one of the coolest things I've ever done.

Unfortunately this computer doesn't have a card reader so the pictures will have to wait until next time.

We pick up our camper tomorrow and start living in a van for 9 days. So far NZ is AWESOME--wish we had more than 3 weeks here.

Welcome to the Jungle!

2010-04-29T00:25:00.001-07:00

Not a lot of time to update (man how an hour flies on the internet when you're paying for it), but I'll share what I've been doing these last couple of days:

- Platypus spotting! They are tiny. I thought they were like, duck-billed beavers but they are more like duck-billed rats or kitties. No close-ups either. Still, they were cute.
- Jungle-walking! I found out later that you can get leeches walking through the jungle and you should spray insect repellent on your lower extremities. Luckily, Jon and I were spared.
- Cockateau dodging! The jungle is home to one billion cockateaus and they want to scream this fact to you. WOW! Also in the jungle: wild turkeys that look not much like North American turkeys and that bird that goes "ooo ooo ooo ahh ahh ahh!" You know the one....
- Brisbane glancing! Seriously we were in Brisbane about 12 hours and most of that was meant to be sleeping. Unfortunately there wasn't really a great way to get from the Whitsundays to Sydney so we got a layover in downtown Brissy.
- Blue Mountain hiking! We went to find the famed Three Sisters rock formations. Like the mini platypus, Jon was like "...... that's it?!" But I think, like the platypus, he eventually came around to it.
- Bizarro Chipotle eating! Australia is famous for Awesomely Failing at Mexican food--but right near our hostel (which is in the neighborhood that's featured in the seedy drug-/prostitute-filled Oz drama "Underbelly") is a Mexican joint that is totally Chipotle-style. It wasn't perfect but Jon was quite pleased. I still thought it was no Taco Bill (<--- no typo, that's really what it's called here).

Tomorrow is our last full day in Australia! WHOA! We are going on a coastal hike between Bondi and Coogee beaches and maybe to the art museum. Saturday we fly off to New Zealand! WHOA!

Ran out of internet time. WHOA!

Sometimes it rains in Tropical Paradise

2010-04-25T17:50:00.000-07:00

Again, we're just waiting to leave our current city, Airlie Beach Queensland. It's gorgeous out, the sea is sparkling turquoise and there's a light breeze. It's the first nice day we've had here.

We took the 12 hour train from Cairns to Airlie and got to see lots of hazy, foggy rainforest. I think we prefer desert landscapes.

Our first hostel in Airlie was actually pretty cool--we stayed in this long narrow hallway of a loft. It was basically a triangle of a room and had beds along each side. It was very quiet and clean and we were pleased.

The next morning we checked in for our sailing trip and spent the morning at the pool, another public lagoon since the locals can't really swim in the sea (jellyfish!!).

We left in early afternoon and the weather looked for a moment that it would be nice. The next moment it got gray and windy. There were 26 people staying on the boat and 3 crew... and really NO place to stick everyone when it was rainy. The boat rocked very violently through the Whitsundays and rained on us occasionally. After about 3-4 hours, we docked near an island that was full of wind and waves.

The food was surprisingly good--no sandwiches! But lots of pasta, which is quickly becoming the 2nd go-to food for backpackers.

The brochure for the boat had said it was for "18-25 year olds who like to have fun." I think I'm neither of those and Jon, who is 25, certainly hates fun. At least of the backpacker persuasion. We met some nice people but mostly people were there to drink a lot. Due to the weather, we could only huddle in the back of the boat or go below deck, which we quickly found out was HORRIBLE.

Our bed was V shaped... regular sized at the top but angled down to a point so our feet were meant to nearly overlap each other. This was a little nook in the wall, enclosed by a curtain. We went to bed early, or tried to. Instantly, we were itchy, sweaty, and suffocated by hot air. Eventually the curtains came open and I was convinced I had captured a bedbug. I think I slept a total of 3 hours that night. One of the worst nights of sleep in a long time!

The next day the weather was to our favor and the seas and islands looked amazing. We went to Whitehaven beach, which has incredibly fine and white sand. We tried on our stinger suits and even though most of my body was covered, I was still deathly afraid of getting stung by a jellyfish. But I survived! Somehow. After our near-death swim (not really), we wandered the beach and saw a HUGE lizard, called a goana (or is that just Australian for iguana?). It was at least 3 feet long. Eventually it's friend came along too. So cool.

We snorkeled in two spots. The first one we saw a seaturtle from the boat. I really wanted to see one while swimming but that never happened. OTHER people saw it whilst swimming--the story of my snorkeling vacation! But there were these ENORMOUS fish--at least 3 feet long. The crew fed them and they'd come right up to you and you could pet them. Except me. I don't pet fish.

I found out later I DID see a shark. A leopard shark. It doesn't look like a fish, it looks like a leopard print fish. But it's still a "shark" so I guess I did see a shark... and a turtle. Kind of.

We parked the boat for the night and, again, we tried to avoid the most debaucherous of parties. It rained off and on but rain was better than the sauna that was our bed.

We went to bed early and, thanks to our extreme fatigue, didn't sleep that bad.

We woke up the next morning and it was raining so instead of one last snorkel we headed back. Jon and I were both sailboated out. I once had a dream to sail around the world and that dream died in the Whitsundays!

Our next hostel was AMAZING. Not a hostel at all so much as a shared hotel suite. They had three single beds in the living room and a separate bedroom with a double bed. These two German guys were staying in the bedroom, but that was fine because Jon and I got to watch TV! Oh TV, we have missed you these last 2.5 weeks. The room had TWO balconies, both with views on the Whitsunday islands and harbour. Jon and I showered the sailboat off us and slept like it was going out of style.

We're just waiting for the bus to take us to the airport where we will rent a car, drive down into the rainforest and, allegedly, see wild platypuses! Of course, we heard "you'll see seaturtles" so often on this trip and never actually did that we are getting a little skeptical. BUT... they say this is THE BEST place to see them in Australia so if the best doesn't have them, what will?

((also side note about the people traveling (and partying) up the East Coast of Australia -- none of them at all seemed the least bit interested in our platypus-hunting plans.... we are not the usual backpackers I'm finding))

16 days down, 24 to go.

The Jaws of Life

2010-04-20T21:20:00.000-07:00

Day 12, the first free day of our trip and we're spending it lazing around Cairns.

We got here two nights ago and immediately knew we were in the tropics --- hello, humidity! Haven't enjoyed your presence since we were in Korea.

We got up early yesterday and hopped aboard a giant boat out to the Great Barrier Reef. We actually got upgraded from our $90 day trip to a $165 day trip because the cheap/small/slow boat was broken.

The weather in Cairns is still on the cusp of rainy season and it was kinda rainy/windy/overcast the whole way out a.k.a. it was incredibly wavy. The girl sitting next to us got seasick instantly but our stomachs serviced.

The first site they offered everyone (except us, the cheap day trip bookers) a free SCUBA dive. Jon, I found has SCUBAphobia! Now I know! But it was okay because I think for us to go it was $50. Instead we snorkeled and saw these huge colorful parrotfish (about 2 feet long and a foot high), which were our favorites. Also those things poop sand. I'm serious!

The coral and the fish were definitely superior to what I've seen in the Philippines, Thailand and Mexico.

We didn't snorkel long because we erroneously thought we were leaving and missed about 45 minutes at that site thinking we were leaving any second.

The next site was nearby and a "sea turtle breeding ground"... uh, we spent the WHOLE time there looking for turtles and reef sharks. In fact, we were the last ones out. We didn't see any turtles or sharks (BOO! Even shark-phobic Jon got over it and demanded to see some Jaws) but we did see a stingray and a ton of giant clams, who have lips ranging from blue to purple to green. They were my favorites (well, turtles would have been my favorites but, well, you know how that went).

When we climbed out we caught stories of "did you see the reef shark?" and "We even hand fed the turtle!" UUUUUUGGGHHHH! So close and yet... so far away.

We enjoyed the rough ride back, collapsed in our beds and slowly let our bodies inform us of the following things: Jon's snorkel mask sunburn, my lower back sunburn, both of us missing skin on our toes from the fins, me with crazy arm pain from swimming in wavy water for a couple hours (but not Jon... he's a lot stronger than he looks!).

So here we are today... bruised, skinned, sore, burned... and enjoying tropical Cairns.

Tomorrow we get on a 12 hour train down to the Whitsundays, which I like to think of as the Bahamas of Australia. I'm not sure anyone has called it that before so you heard it here first.

We probably won't have internet again until Sydney so hopefully we can report on seeing dolphins and platypuses next time.. and not about hearing how others' saw them but not us!

Off to slather on the aloe....

Rusty Rock Adventures

2010-04-18T17:45:00.000-07:00

Not a lot of time to blog so I'll tell you the highlights of the last week:

- Overnight bus ride to Adelaide with at least two crazy people aboard
- 25 hour train ride through the Outback
- Hiked Kings Canyon. Did not get eaten by most poisonous snake in the world, the Mulga--but could have!
- Saw Uluru & Kata Tjuta which are way more amazing than pictures can ever express.
- Saw kangaroo, thorny devil lizard, goana lizard, wild emus and wild camels, and a pet dingo
- Slept outside under the stars
- Had our campsite swarmed by dingoes (Jon heard them, I slept through their barking and howling)... they didn't eat us, we had no babies!
- Travelling food sucks.... may never want a sandwich again after this trip
- Turned my shoes, clothing and skin reddish-orange from the rusty sand (yes, the Australian desert is red because it's rusty!)

Now we're just killing time in Alice Springs waiting for our flight to Cairns -- tomorrow we go snorkeling on the Great Barrier Reef! Why did the hostel have to show Jaws last night?

More updates to come!

Tasmanian dervish

2010-04-12T17:02:00.000-07:00

We're finishing up our whirlwind tour of Tassie at the Launceston (pronounced Lan-cess-ton, not Lunce-ton as I'd been saying for months) Library enjoying free internet while we can get it.

Tasmania was pretty much what I expected -- green, forest, sparsely populated, overcast & rainy. Our first day we rent a car and drove to the East Coast town of St Helens. Along the way we made approximately 10 U-turns (no exaggeration)... this is where having a small population helped us out when we randomly needed to turn around mid-road.

The drive there was basically through a fern-filled cloud. Jon loved it. It's equally odd being a passenger in a left-driving vehicle as it is actually driving because you feel like everything on the shoulder is basically RIGHT THERE. It's a little freaky, especially since Tasmanian roads are really narrow.

We got to St Helens, checked into our hostel which was basically a house and went looking for Binalong Bay. This was a mistake because a) the sun set before 6 pm and we couldn't really see anything and b) when we got back into town at 6:30 pm, EVERYTHING was closed. We ended up getting a pizza from a gas station only to realize the hostel had no oven. Yum yum gooey microwave frozen pizza!

The next day we went back to Binalong Bay and got lots of pictures of the strange orange rocks there and the turquoise sea. Then we headed south along the coast towards Freycinet National Park. There we hiked up this gorgeous mountain and spied one of the top beaches in the world, Wineglass Bay. The hike took over a hour and actually going to the beach would be another hour so we just gazed it from high upon a peak. Plus, I'm way out of shape!

We back to the centre of Tas and found our next small town, Deloraine. The hostel was... offputting, at least on the outside. We were scared to go in. But inside, it really wasn't that bad. Jon & I again got a private room. Win!

Our third day in Tasmania, we drove to Cradle Mountain National Park. By the time we got there, the wind was howling (I would go out on a limb and call it "gale-force") and raining sideways. And freezing. But we were there and what else were we supposed to do? We took the park shuttle to Dove Lake and started hiking. Jon mayyyybe was annoyed/angry but eventually the trail got sheltered and the wind/rain died down. It was truly a gorgeous place and I was disappointed we couldn't see it under better conditions. Eventually we completed the 2 hour hike (in 1:45!) and were feeling pretty glad we'd made it.

We drove back to Launceston and checked into our last hostel of Tassie, which was surprisingly nice considering Jon said it looked haunted ("Any house with a bell tower has a ghost in it!").

3 days down -- 37 to go. Up next we are flying back into Melbourne and trying to make our 50-60 lb suitcases weigh 45 lbs. Why didn't we read the fine print better of our transportation?? We'll board the overnight bus to Adelaide and hop on the Ghan tomorrow for the Red Centre. After cold Tasmania, we could use some hot desert right now.

Baby, It Ain't Over 'Til It's Over...

2010-04-09T02:49:00.000-07:00

Today I was listening to This American Life, which is one of the greatest aural pleasures my ears have had in a long time. I've been going backwards, starting on the most recent episodes and heading backwards (I've made it 3.5 years in 2 months -- thanks data entry job!) but today I skipped back... way back... to Episode 1.

It's production sucked and 3 of the 4 stories sucked. And it wasn't even called This American Life at that time. Suck.

But the main story was about a guy who decided to really act like he only had six months to live and totally committed to this idea that this date he'd chosen was the day he was going to die. Of course, he didn't die, but he said he truly felt like when we went to bed on that last day he wouldn't wake up. When he woke up, he felt like he had been given his life back, a second chance. Almost like a near-death experience. He cried, and so did I (at work!).

The part that was most striking to me was he said when you know you're going to die, it robs you of a future... and even though everyone says "live in the moment!" that a life without a future (or a past) is a life lacking.

Maybe this is my problem. Tomorrow I leave on what could be the most amazing trip ever. Glaciers! Deserts! Reefs! Sky(diving)! Really, I should be jumping out of my skin with excitement. But I'm scared. I'm scared of what happens after the trip. I feel like I'm on a boat, heading towards the New World, hoping for a miracle but half expecting to fall off this flat earth.

I do have some plans, but they kind of feel like adding an extend-o piece to a dining room table: backpack South America, visit the last 4 of the 50 US states I haven't visited.... yup, that's what I came up with. The older I get the shorter my 5- or 10-year-plan gets. Currently I'm running on six month-plans. After that, I.... die?

Probably not. I mean, true, we can go at any time. But the evidence points to me living. Is it a coincidence that the date I can't see past is Summer 2011, aka the time I turn 30? Equally suspicious is the fact that I'm filling my year jumping out of planes, hiking glaciers, camping the desert, snorkeling the Great Barrier Reef, visiting all 50 states, backpacking South America, spending 6 months near my family and friends.

Dude, it really sounds like a list of Things To Do Before I Die. I have lots of friends who are happily (and not at all neurotically) over 30... so what is it about my 30th that is this Event Horizon? Some kind of edge of a black hole that I'll be sucked in and.... what? What happens when you get sucked into a black hole? I'll let you know 7/11/11.

I'm quite happy with my 20's and the last year of it seems to be laying out to be just as full of adventure as the first 9 years. But I think part of me will die around the big 3-0. You see, I've played basically for a decade. Even when I was working, I was playing (hello psych ward -- it was like Fun City). I actually want to do real work, but not in an office or on some paved career path. I want to create. And I think it will be harder than anything I've done. Buying a plane ticket to Australia is easy. Moving to a country can be a hassle, but there's not a lot of skill involved -- just tenacity for filling out forms. Following a creative career path feels a little like trying to chase a gust of wind.

Tomorrow I'm leaving on a trip. I'll be home at the end of May. That'll be the beginning of the end of the life I know and hopefully the beginning of some matrixly fulfilling new life of creativity. Ooooooor I will fall off the edge of the Earth. But I guess at least then it means I would have discovered the edge of the Earth? Accomplishment!

P.S. Tasmania tomorrow. Woohoo!

Last Holiday

2010-04-07T04:54:00.000-07:00

Against our preferences, we had a four day weekend for Easter. Considering we're about to go travel in two crazy-expensive countries for weeks on end and then go find jobs in America (hello recession!), any and all extra money would be great.

BUT we made the best of it... we Melbourne'd it up.

Friday, I dragged Jon to two of the "fancier" parts of town. First up was Port Melbourne. I'd last been there sweating and sunburning for a free boxing class. I thought it would be a great place to swim but we never made it during the Aussie summer. This time around we ate chocolate-dipped ice cream cones and got our hairdo's un-did by a whole lotta wind.

Then we headed over to Docklands and traipsed amongst the high-rises with one goal in mind: to find the Kylie Minogue statue. Melbourne has it's only little Walk-of-Fame including Dame Edna and John Farnham (singer of my favorite 80s power ballad You're The Voice) as well as a tiled mosaic walls of Aussie celebs like Paul Hogan and Nicole Kidman. Kylie is an actually Melburnian and mayyyybe the most beloved celebrity of the country. I'm going out on a limb but I'm saying it: Australians love Kylie the mostest! .... So I was happy to find her in all her bronzial glory.

We spent the rest of the day taking very sporadically-run trams to find some eats for the weekend, which was very difficult--nearly EVERYTHING really was closed for four days straight. But alas--little IGA on Chapel St -- you saved our stomachs again.

Saturday we decided to walk around this lake in the city. I hadn't realized that it was actually circled by the Grand Prix track, which had polluted Melbourne with tourists and noise just a week prior. This time it was very calm. Unlike the Grand Prix track on Phillip Island, which you could lap with your own vehicle at a respectful speed for $80, this was an open-to-the-public course. Lots of cars, bikers... even a motorized wheelchair taking a lap. The speed limit, however, was 40 kph... or 25 mph. Watch out for whiplash!

There was a fantastic walking path alone the walk and Jon and I walked side-by-side listening to our respective iPods and soaked in an amazingly beautiful autumn day. The walk took about 3 hours and I loved every second. It was one of those experience that you sort of wanted to kick yourself for not discovering this great place sooner but you don't--kicking yourself is would only sully what was a really great day.

Sunday was our special date day. See, I had bought this dress when I was home in America. I spent $30 on it at Urban Outfitters, which was about $18 more than I had spent on a dress since... well, since I was in high school and thought that stylish clothes had to cost a lot of money (sidenote: that would be early high school -- by the end, I was a totally thrift rat and remain firmly so today). The thing about the dress was, it was a little tight. It still is. I "tried" (meaning didn't try at all, actually) to make it fit and by Easter, it actually mostly did fit. Celebrations abound.

It was also daylight savings so we woke up way too early and we ready to start out date at about 9:30 a.m. We headed, all gussied up, to Pancake Parlour.

Pancake Parlour might have been the only restaurant in the whole CBD open at 10 am on Easter Sunday. They offered standard breakfast faire (mmmmm, hash browns!) and some schnazzier pancake concoctions. I went schnazzy -- raspberry, rhubarb, mascapone cheese, powdered sugar, ice cream. Technically this was my "lunch" since we had already kinda/sorta eaten breakfast so early.

We walked to Southbank (another fancy part of town -- only the classiest for us discriminating tasters) and got in a massive queue for the Eureka Skydeck. I wondered how many other Eureka patrons had also planned on a visit to the Pancake Parlour. It blew my mind that someone else out there was having our date.

The skydeck....was.... GORGEOUS. The sky was brilliant. It was so much higher than I'd realized. And Melbourne looked amazing. I felt a lot of love for this place that has been my home for the past 6 months. I think it takes leaving it to realize I have actually been quite fond of it here. If we had made friends, I might really want to stay put. But instead, we had a goodbye party of three -- me, Jon and the city spread out below us.

The date was over by 1:30 and we retreated home and faced the task of packing up all our belongings in a suitcase and a backpack each. That part aside -- amazing weekend in Melbourne. A very fond farewell.

Hoppy Easter!

2010-04-01T02:43:00.000-07:00

Holidays are always different overseas. Nothing's ever exactly the same. I've generally found the holidays I know (i.e. Christmas) to be toned down (cf: Christmas in Korea! Christmas in Australia!).

Easter was basically non-existant in Korea. But in Australia, it's huge!

Cadbury Creme eggs entered the supermarkets in February with signs everywhere toying with our tastebuds: ON SALE NOW UNTIL APRIL 4th OR UNTIL SOLD OUT

Basically -- buy them now or you lose. And no post-Easter sales. It worked on me and I did buy one in February. None since. They are still on the shelves.

The other Easter treat is a hot cross bun. My aunt was the guinea pig for this and tried one from McDonalds while in town.
Aunt: Are these good? What do they taste like?
Employee: Oh my gawrd, they're so yurmmy!

It was a decent sales pitch but, according to my aunt, they were not yummy. Nor yurmmy.

The most striking thing about Easter is that is a public holiday. Even before things got really PC, when I was in school, we sometimes had days off surrounding the Easter weekend for "spring holiday." I remember how bitter I was when I went on to university and there were no more days off that were, uh, celebrating spring.

Good Friday is a public holiday. So is Easter Monday. In fact, the permanent staff at my work had today (Thursday) off.

In the most bizarre twist, most library branches are closed all four days, except for the branch closest to our apartment. It's open one day in the four: Easter Sunday. Huh?

I noticed yesterday a restaurant said they were closed just Good Friday and Easter Monday as well. I never looked much into the prominent religious ideology of Australia but it seems to place a high importance on these particular days, enough that most of the city is shutting down.

Last year, Jon and I went to Korean church for Easter. This year, we're going to "the highest public vantage point in a building in the Southern Hemisphere" and to the Pancake Parlour. It's our last weekend in Melbourne, this great city that never really became our friend -- more like a cool roommate. We lived pretty well together (even if we grumbled under our breath here or there), but we never really hung out. We'll miss it for its familiarity... but there's going to be no good-bye party.

Unless you count a few stacks of pancakes as a party. Party of two?

Checklist

2010-03-29T01:36:00.000-07:00

I've made a list of things we need to do in order to get off this island. Are you in?

We checked a big one off the list today: quit our jobs. It was tough. Both Jon and I love this job and wonder if we'll ever get anything comparable again. Such great pay! Such low responsibility! Our supervisor said "Oh, that's too bad, I'm losing two of my hardest workers." Such esteem boosters!

The list has a couple of other large items like how to file our tax return, how to send money home, how to cash in our retirement (that's right, we have a retirement fund in Australia! It's a strange feeling, "retiring" in Australia just a year after we "retired" in South Korea.). Most of the list consists of small things, though: how to get the bus station in Melbourne. Or the train station in Adelaide. Or the airport in Alice Springs.

Not everything on the list is all business--there's play, too! This weekend we finally scratched off from the universally recognized list, Must Do in Australia. We attended a footy game.

As previously mentioned, we created our own comedy of errors by erroneously attending a rugby game and acting like it was Australian Football. This time I read the fine print on Australian Ticketmaster and booked ourselves to check out Western Bulldogs Vs. Collingwood Magpies.

It's hard to know who to cheer for when you're an outsider. Generally, you go for the home team but what if both teams are from the same city? I thought I would go for Collingwood since there is a Collingwood poster at my work (and I love my work, remember?). I dressed in blue & red, remembering those colors from the poster.

Turns out, Western Bulldogs' colors are red & blue. Collingwood is black & white (memory is AMAZING!). So I decided to go for the Doggies (as they were obnoxiously called). Jon's plan was to root for the team that scored first, which was also the Doggies.

We got seats in the third to last row in the top tier of a 50,000-seat stadium--we were a mile away. I was so certain it was going to be, uh, less full since the game coincided with the biggest race at the Grand Prix--turns out there's enough people to go around to sell out everything.

It took us most of the game to figure out the rules and the scoring (look it up yourself). It's played on a round field and people pass the ball by kicking it or hitting it like a volleyball. There's four posts and you get either 1 or 6 points for getting it through the posts. There's not a lot of tackling, which gave it kind of a soccer-like feel, especially with a lot of passing to get it advanced down the field. I'll call it "Throw Soccer" (just like I renamed rugby "Wrestle Running").

Bulldogs started off weak but came back even with the Pies. Then I think they took a group nap or something because Collingwood scored and scored and scored and all the brutish Western fans started cursing up a Brit-speak storm ("Bollocks! Wankers! Get yer head outtar yer arse!"). They lost by 6 goals, which, judging by the Western fans' faces, was a very sheepish defeat. We spend much of our time in Australia turning to others to determine how we are supposed to feel.

Jon and I were feeling content, though, to check another Aussie thing off our list. Next to do: see a platypus and maybe eat a kangaroo (okay, not really on that one).

11 days left in Melbourne. !O_O!

What's a-happenin'!

2010-03-26T02:33:00.000-07:00

* It's taken me until this week to realize what a major city Melbourne is. Last week, nearly every car rental was spoken for thanks to Melbourne Fashion Week. Last night the streets of the CBD were packed for the Melbourne Comedy Festival and our tram was equally so with throngs of fans from the season Australian Football opener. I've been waking up to the sounds of fast cars thanks to the Grand Prix. Melbourne is happening! I feel like a ghost for not noticing.

* We walked by a fatal accident today. Coming out our apartment, our street was strangely traffic jammed. We walked to the major intersection and saw the northbound road was blocked off. We narrowly missed our tram so we walked up the tracks to get the bigger junction where more city-bound trams cross through. We passed a slew of cop cars, a badly dented car, an overturned motorcycle and... a black bag? There were two shoes next to it, one on it side, the other right-side up a few feet away. It was obvious someone had died. It was strange walking by it, we were so close and all intersections were blocked far away so it was eerily still. We got to work and found the news about it.

* We bought tickets to our FIRST footy game this weekend. The "first" part is important because whilst in Sydney, my family and I attended a match between Wests Tigers & Manly Sea Eagles. It wasn't until the next day that we learned that was actually not a football game, but rather rugby. We had no clue! If the storms don't out-do us as predict, we'll finally authenicate this experience.

* An Auckland hostel... that's all that's left to book of our 6-week trip. We leave 2 weeks from tomorrow. This is really real!

Limbo to Oblivion

2010-03-24T03:03:00.000-07:00

Are you still reading my blog? Wow. Thanks.

Well, my family came and went and did they have fun? Uh... well, they said they did. But they sure looked tired. I tried to jam the week full of opera houses, koalas, kangaroos and penguins. I really wondered what their impression was of Australia. For Jon and I, it's not that foreign at all. At this point, we don't even notice they drive on the "wrong" side of the road, we only hear accents if they are exceptionally thick and we don't flinch when we say "brekkie" or "no worries". I remember reading another expat blog around when we first got here and they proclaimed "It's SO different here!!!" To us, the jaded folks, it's not different enough. So... I just hope it was foreign enough to my family that it was worth it to travel 8,000 miles.

My family's departure sort of marked the home stretch... we came back to work with only 3 weeks left. Jon and I whipped out the credit cards and finished booking everything on the Australian end of our epic vacation (save a hostel in the middle of nowhere in Tasmania.. they want us to send a check???). As for our 3 weeks in New Zealand -- well, we haven't actually booked anything. But we've looked up routes and prices and in probably about 45 minutes could secure 3 weeks of vans, hostels, trains, busses and ferries (for MUCH cheaper than Australia -- Laura, if you still read this blog, Australia seems to run circles around NZ when it comes to sticker shock treatment... but maybe I just gotta step on the island before making that claim). In Australia, we are going on 3 tours, renting two cars, taking 5 planes, 2 trains, and an overnight bus. In New Zealand we're doing one tour (glaciers!!) and otherwise driving/bussing around. So chill. We're going to need it.

So right now... we're in limbo. We've done nearly everything we can to prepare for the biggest trip we've ever taken, all we can do is wait for April 10th to take off. We're biding our time, finishing up seeing the Melburnian sights (erg--mostly restaurants) and working. In the bigger picture, we're also heading into limbo: going to Minneapolis, getting a six-month lease, transitioning to...?? We don't quite know. We're ending 20 months of life overseas. Unlike this trip, that part is not planned out at all. We're taking the NZ approach.

One last limbo: My hair. My roots were screaming at the world like a cranky toddler and instead of buying peroxide treatment to shut them up, I decided to do something a little more... transitional. It's not permanent, it's just for now.

I have no idea what to do next.

The Best (or Worst) Vacation Ever!

2010-03-11T13:06:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow I'm going to Sydney for the first time. We're heading over Saturday afternoon, we've got what I think is a pretty good hostel booked not too far from the main attractions, like the Opera House. Sunday morning we've got to get up and out fairly early because... my family arrives in Australia!

This is rad on at least two accounts. From my side: Jon and I have been living overseas for 18 months now and have had no "official" visitors. We met up with Ruth in Korea and Katrina and Starre in Australia but in all of those cases, they didn't come to visit us, they were just like "hey, I'm going to be in your city, let's meet up!" We've had a lot of people say they wanted to come visit and a few who we actually pulled out the calendar and the flight schedule to try to hammer out a plan, but for some reason or another (THE ECONOMY!), the credit cards never made it out of their hiding spots and we each remained firmly on our respective continents.

My aunt was kind of the instigator of this trip and for that, I'm grateful. She took the initiative with the travel agent, corralled a group (aunt, mom, brother, cousin, cousin's friend) and even shouldered some of the cost.

Which leads me to the second reason this is so great: my mom is traveling! She has never gone overseas before and only glimpsed the ocean for the first time 2 years ago. I think the number of times my mother has flown can be counted on one hand. She doesn't particularly like traveling (how are we from the same gene pool?) but she's doing it. I'm so proud.

BUT (yes, there's a but and it might be big)... this trip is going to be very expensive and very short. That's a lot of pressure. Sleeping on planes can be difficult and the flight is 15 hours from LA (plus 4 hours to LA). They'll arrive early Sunday morning and the only way to combat jetlag is to GO and try to keep going until bedtime. I have a feeling Day 1 in Australia might be a little miserable for them.

I've never been to Sydney so I feel I'm really shooting from the hip trying to plan things out. And the group (2 20-year-olds, a 26-year-old and two women in their 40s & 50s) is kind of a hodgepodge. Plus it's mid-March, aka mid-September weather-wise if we were on the Northern Hemi. I always think of mid-September has having the potential to be really hot or really cold. The beach shows up many times in my itinerary. I hope this isn't going to be all Polar Bear Club.

But I compiled a list of attractions too lengthy to complete that they can all vote on and sent out instructions to bring swimsuits, sandals, and a very warm sweatshirt or jacket.

After 3 days in Sydney, we're moving the party to Melb. I know Melbourne! This will be easy... except they are literally here for 40 hours. Jon and I will head back early on a budget flight (Qantas domestic is too rich for our blood!) and he'll go back to work and I'll graduate from fraidy-cat left-side driver to van-driving, tour-guiding, acting-like-I'm-cool-with-it left side driver. Melbourne is beautiful and hip and interesting... but if you are in Australia for as short a time as my family and this may be the only overseas trip you ever take--you are gonna wanna see something more than buildings. The first evening will be kangaroos and penguins, the next full day with be a drive all the way down Great Ocean Road and back (+ koalas) and then Friday morning, they take off. Yikes! It's going to be intense, but hopefully like National Geographic-intense, like "what a thrill!" and not "what a drain! whomp whomp..."

On my two times going over to Asia, I found the jetlag coming home to be far more severe. As far as I know, they all arrive back in MN Friday evening and will be back at work/school on Monday.

So... I really want to make it worth it. They are flying so far, spending so much and will be so exhausted during and after the trip--I just want to hear "....but it was worth it."

Looking at the world differently

2010-03-10T13:59:00.000-08:00

I'm a little disappointed that this blog hasn't been made into a movie. Or a TV show, or at the very least some magazine/newspaper/website column. In 18 months, I've worked up to 3 followers, all of whom are my friends and two who I'm pretty sure don't use blogspot anymore.

I'm almost 30 (16 months!) and haven't worked a serious job yet. The longest I've held a job has been a year and a half and just when I think I'm going to settle down somewhere, I get romanced by some far off locale and start plotting how to get there (South America 2011!).

So while one side of my brain is happily avoiding real life, the other half realizes my age and believes I should have made some progress, career-wise. I think--29 seems like a good age to get "discovered" as they next greater writer. My eyes are magnetized to these overnight-success stories where people seem to have been plucked out of nowhere and catapulted into some high-profile, highly-creative gig. Well, I'm ready for that.

Unfortunately, all I have to show for it is this blog and a few clips from my magazine internships in 2006. Instead, I've spent my 20s taking opportunities to lead a life less ordinary: I've lived with a nun in South Dakota and built houses for homeless people, I've worked as a nanny for wealthy, thinks-they're-famous artists in the suburbs of New York City, I've interned for two national magazines, I've worked in the psych ward and I've lived in South Korea and Australia... not to mention traveled to nearly every US state and dozens of countries in the world.

So that leads me to this moment in time: 28, ready for this absolutely NOT beaten path to finally lead me to some uncommon success or recognition. Right now. Like, yesterday.

I realize that these expectations are like buying paints, brushes, and a canvas at the art shop and bringing them to a gallery and saying "Here I am, an artist--will you pay me now?" .... as if having all the materials makes me an artist.

Of course, every outside observer of the person standing with paint in hand would say -- you have everything you need right now--just do it!

That's where I am stuck. I told Jon that I've been feeling bloated with creativity lately. Like my body is swollen with ideas, I can just feel this energy below my skin but I can't figure out how to direct it out of me--through my hands, my mouth, whatever I need to do to express creativity. It's stuck in there. And it keeps building. I feel like I'm going to explode!

Now barfing creativity doesn't seem so bad to me--my biggest worry is this: If I barf up a story, will anyone read it? If I sneeze out a painting, will anyone look at it?

I'm realizing I have to give this idea up in order to unblock myself. I have to stop thinking that when I put pen to paper, out will come a Pulitzer Prize-winning book that will be optioned into an Academy Award-winning movie. That my drawing will end up in a gallery. That my photograph will end up in a magazine.

Artists just have to put their work out there. Or they toss and turn and squirm and cramp like I have been for the past year.

Instead of writing for money or fame or recognition, I need to just write to release the creativity that's mounted inside of me. Instead of thinking "How can I make you like me," I just say "this is me."

I'm also trying to apply this philosophy to that other area I fret over, my health and fitness. Instead of thinking -- how can I look attractive to others?... I need to shift my mindset to -- how can I make my body work better for me?

By 30, I think my worldview will have completely shifted. That's a good thing.

Speaking of shifting worldviews, I don't think I've ever shared this but in both Korea and Australia, world maps look like this:

We just look at the world in a way that makes the most sense to us, I guess.

Computer Love

2010-03-07T16:30:00.000-08:00

I always get a little vacation anxiety--usually, I fret about arriving in a foreign city, ending up in the wrong part of town and being robbed. Australia, like Asia, is incredibly safe and as long as we avoid getting bashed by drunk blokes, we should be fine. Instead, we fret over things like poisonous spiders, poisonous snakes, poisonous jellyfish and SHARKS. Considering we're going to be spending a considerable portion of the trip in the wilderness/ocean, this could be a reasonable fear.

But you know what--New Zealand has basically NO poisonous animals. Apparently there are two mildly toxic spiders but they are so rare, they are nearly extinct. It's also very safe when it comes to physical safety. New Zealand was starting to look like a little utopian oasis.

But then we found out about .... CAMPERVAN THEFT.

Apparently getting your car or camper broken into is a ridiculously common occurrence in NZ. I found one website that said there were 53,000 reported incidences of vehicle theft in the last year... and there's only 2 million people that live there. Of course, they said rented cars and campervans are more frequently targeted because they are more likely to have valuables in them.

Jon suggested (or was it declared?) that we send our laptops back to America. My family is coming to visit this weekend and we could send them back with my mom and brother. They fly home March 19th.... we get back to Minnesota on May 20th... that's ........two months without computers!!!

I spent a few hours Googling campervans+laptops+broke into or some variation of it to find out the true risk of this... well, it appears there is a realistic chance of it happening. They listed some of the spots that theft most often occurs and, what do you know, it's where we plan to go on our road trip!

I took a walk to clear my head and once I calmed down my worries a bit, I realized that's exactly what I needed: to calm down. To stop worrying. To "let go." Let go of my computer addiction. No doubt, not having a computer will be more difficult--but we'll also be freer. We can pop in an internet cafe when we need to (and utilize computers during our downtime at work for the three weeks pre-trip) but we'll definitely be more in the moment without a computer. We've basically been on our laptops since we landed 5 months ago--looking for housing and work, keeping up with old friends on email and Facebook, planning trips, and just mindlessly web-surfing. I think it will be good for us.

(...though no doubt, withdrawal is inevitable!)

Not bringing laptops will not prevent our campervan from being broken into--but if that happens, it will prevent us from losing pieces of electronics valued at $1000 a pop. Now the most valuable thing coming on the trip with us will be my Canon Rebel XSi. And I'll wear that around my neck at all times. Even when I'm swimming.

Aside from preparing for the worst, we've been looking for the best of New Zealand as well, and both Jon and I are really excited to go now. I'm most excited to go skydiving in the Southern Alps, to hike on a glacier and to spot whales on the east coast. And I'm looking forward to living in a van down by the river!

Come Inside, the Water's Fine

2010-03-03T15:54:00.000-08:00

I'm having blog-writer's block today and whilst feeling compelled to blog, can't seem to manage more than a few sentences. Everything I write is so serious... and I want to be a light-hearted, funny gal. So I'm doing something totally random and deeply personal: Sharing with you my Google searches.

The Mind of Rachel as told by Google.com

Today
10:52 am... "google searches" -- Well, I have to figure out how to find the Google searches. Also, I don't notice the Web History button in the upper right corner of my browser

8:54 am... "trippy taco" --- Where we will have lunch today. We've been warned that some burritos comes with raisins and beetroots in them.

8:48 am... "moonlight cinema" -- I bought some complimentary tickets on ebay to watch movies in the Botanical Gardens... except this is the 2nd to last weekend, it's supposed to rain, and the last weekend we will be in Sydney. Trying to devise alternative plan.

Yesterday
11:32 pm... "minneapolis stuff blogspot" -- My friend Chris' blog. He writes about stuff in Minneapolis.

1:25 pm... "fashion skool" -- My friend Suzy's blog. She writes about her cool Minneapolis/NYC life.

11:47 am... "happy birthday in Korean" -- I want to say happy birthday to my friend and fellow English teacher from Korea, Laura. Even though I've wished many people "happy birthday" in Korean, I can't remember how to say it--and also I lack a Hangeul keyboard so I must copy-and-paste.

10:33 am... "sculpture by the sea bondi" -- A cool thing to do in Sydney, maybe it will be happening when my family comes? No. It happens in October & November. Big miss.

9:51 am... "st kilda library" -- Need to search the library catalogue and see if they have Season 2 of In Treatment. I need to find out what happens to April and Mia! They don't have it. I must continue to wait...

9:41 am... "st cloud state chile" -- My former university, St Cloud State, has a study abroad program that goes to Conception, one of the cities hit hardest in the earthquake. This semester, I find out, there were no SCSU students studying in Chile.

Mar 1st
12:09 pm... "buy snorkel mask cheap" -- Uh, snorkeling masks are like $100! I said "cheap." Also, for the fact I am moving to Minnesota, maybe I don't really NEED snorkeling equipment--it may be the land of 10,000 lakes but lakes are not as exciting as oceans. There, I said it!

12:05 pm... "seadragons" -- Do yourself a favor and Google this yourself. Seadragons are awesome and it turns out, flock around Victoria. If only I'd known sooner (aka when it was warmer)

Feb 28th
10:48 pm... "jem holograms" -- Jon has not only never heard of this show, but also believed it wasn't actually quite popular and watched by millions in the 1980s. I need to set him straight.

8:02 pm... "unicorn whale" -- You know, it's a whale and it has a unicorn horn? What's it called? Oh, it's a narwhal.

6:36 pm... "c to f" -- I claim to have mastered the formula for converting Celsius and Fahrenheit but I think that applies only to spring & summer daytime temperatures--not to cooking temperatures. FYI: 200C = 392F. Now you know.

1:27 pm... "sailing whitsundays habibi" -- Finally need to book this sailing trip and do so for $60 cheaper EACH going with the website with the hyphen between "sailing" and "whitsundays"... or was it without? I don't know but it's finally booked!

1:09 pm... "sydney radisson plaza" -- My mom called to say my aunt has booked them at the Radisson Plaza in Sydney and I should check prices and see if I can stay there too. I learn it is a 5 star hotel and immediately head over to HostelWorld.com. But I'll for sure spent a lot of time over there visiting (...the pool).

12:02 pm... "hyundai imax" -- In planning my family's visit, I know the only way to see Aussie wildlife is to get out of town. The car rental site has a pretty cheap "people mover" so I Google some of them to see how cute these minivans are. Will I still look cool driving this?

Feb 27th
9:05 pm... "re de veux", "ree de veax", "rie de veax", "rie de veau" -- We're watching Iron Chef and Iron Chef Italian just made a pretty delicious-looking mushroom dish containing the aforementioned ingredient. After a poor showing of French spelling on my part, I find out it's actually "ris de veau" -- a sweetbread containing veal offal ie pancreas, thymus and/or thyroid glands. Jon gags.

8:32 pm... "smoke detector keeps beeping after new battery" -- Yes, we have this problem right now. Solution: leave batteries out of detector. Please, nobody set our building on fire!

3:18 pm... "day fall starts in Australia" -- Answer: March 1st. Happy Fall, Aussies.

I Know This Much Is True

2010-02-25T15:30:00.000-08:00

Well, we leave 6 weeks from tomorrow for our six week trip. For the past few weeks we've been slowly researching and booking various sections of the trip. I feel like I'm building a house, mostly building from the bottom up (or beginning to end) but some things are being dealt with out of order.

Here's what we know about it so far:

We leave April 10th for Tasmania
We are flying in and out of Launceston. Commonly, people go through Hobart but with just 72 hours on the island, we wanted to see Cradle Mountain and the Ring of Fire in the northeast most of all so we're just sticking north. We rented the teeny tiniest car we could find. It might actually be a Micro Machine.

We fly back to Melbourne on April 13th, sometime in the afternoon. We'll collect the rest of our belongings and catch an overnight bus to Adelaide.
I didn't make this picture but it's basically our exact route, with a two extra stops in Queensland.

We'll arrive in Adelaide at 6 am and will enjoy that fine city until 12 pm (sidenote: It's commonly referred to by Australians as "a hole"). At noon, we'll hop aboard a train called The Ghan and head into the Outback.
Basically we are going through the trouble of going to South Australia/Adelaide just so we can take this train trip through the Outback. I'm really looking forward to it! (sidenote: It's actually cheaper to do it this way than fly from Melbourne)

We'll arrive in Alice Springs in Northern Territory on April 15th. The next day we booked the cheapest Uluru/King's Canyon tour group we could find. We'll spend two days camping outside in sleeping bags.

Strangely enough, one of the things I'm most excited about in Alice Springs is the fact that all the hotels/hostels have pools! I've worn my swimsuit only once since arriving in Australia--and it's summer here!

After our 3 day tour, we'll fly to Cairns on the 19th. Between the next two days, we'll spend one day on a Great Barrier Reef snorkeling tour and the other bumming around Port Douglas, which my friend recommended as a great place to visit.

April 22nd we spend pretty much all the daylight hours on a train down to Airlie Beach. Airlie Beach is the launching point for Whitsundays sailing tours. Again, we've gone with the cheapest.
This is probably the thing I wanted to do most in Australia and the thing Jon wanted to do least. I say: We get to sleep on a boat and that's awesome! He says: We have to sleep on a boat and that sucks. There's going to be lots of snorkeling and I found a blog of someone who went who saw dolphins and sea turtles. Can't WAIT!

After 3 days on the boat, we'll rent a car and drive down to to Eungella National Park, about 70 km south of Airlie Beach. We're going platypus hunting!
I mean, the only thing we'll "shoot" them with is cameras. Apparently this park is the best place in Australia to spot a platypus. When Google searching images of the park, I also saw some pictures of crocodiles. I saw a crocodile (or was it an alligator?) once in Louisiana. I was scared of it. I think I'll be scared of Aussie crocs, too.

April 27th we fly from the Whitsundays to Brisbane. April 28th we fly from Brisbane to Sydney.

In Sydney, we'll wrap up our Australian lives. We'll close our bank accounts, ditch our mobile phone and... whatever else we need to do to get out of here! We're visiting Sydney in two weeks when our family comes so our 2nd time in Sydney will be checking out whatever we missed the first time around. We've only got 3 days. On May 1st we fly to Queenstown, New Zealand.

Well, we have almost no clue what we're going to do in New Zealand. Most of the people we've met here have never been there before so it's not like people are telling us "Oh you're going to NZ? Be sure to check out this place or that place!" We got a lot of recommendations in Australia and also, well, we're here so places to go are more apparent.

Just yesterday we realized that NZ, particularly the south island, is, like, all mountains. Can you see halfway down on the south island, Christchurch on the east coast and Fox Glacier on the west coast. Looks like a straight shot, right? Well, no. Due to The Southern Alps, you have to go totally around the mountains to get there. It's like 400 km because of this. And see Queenstown & Milford Sound in the southwest? Right next to each other! Except there's a big lake and mountain and again, it's about 250 km of out-of-the-way trekking to get there. We don't want to just skip these things--it may be our only time in this country!

So what's the solution?
Campervan!

So as of press time, we plan to rent a campervan to explore Queenstown, Milford Sound, Mt Cook, Fox Glacier and Christchurch for about a week. We'll then spend another week going up the coast from Christchurch towards Wellington. Our third and final week will be on the north island checking out Auckland and either Bay of Islands or Rotorua (or both?).

New Zealand: you are difficult to plan.

I'm getting excited. Really excited. We're just going to do some UNREAL things: sleeping outside in the desert, train through the Outback, platypuses, sea turtles, Tasmania, campervans, sky diving.

Wow. Is this real life?

The Anti-climactic Climate

2010-02-24T17:28:00.000-08:00

Well, a few of you have excitedly asked where in the world will Jon and I live next? Sorry to disappoint you but the answer is....
MINNESOTA

I know, womp-womp. But actually I'm actually really thrilled with the decision because it's going to enable me to keep "going."

We'll stay in Minneapolis approximately 6 months. In that time, my brother is getting married, my college friend is getting married and we'll have lots of time to visit our friends and family, particularly Jon's new nephew and his mom, who will just be finishing up chemotherapy for breast cancer when we get there in May. We plan to live cheap, car-free lives. We have different ideas about how to spend our time in Mpls. I want to work part-time in the psych ward again (I checked and currently, all three Mpls hospitals are hiring... hopefully it stays that way 4 months down the road) and take lots of classes: Spanish, improv, writing, aerobics, strength training, sailing... can I take a sailing class in Minneapolis? If I can, I will! Jon plans to work and work and, oh yeah, work. When he's not working he wants to save all his money. Jon's like that.

But really, saving money will be important because we plan to backpack South America! Jon says one month, I say two-plus but we both want to depart around January. My friend is married to a Chilean and might be moving to Chile so that's even more incentive to go. Machu Picchu, Bolivian Salt flats, Buenos Aires. Yes, Yes, YES!

So that will be in the most unpleasant part of winter (since it's summer below the equator--again!) and we plan to swing by our future city of choice in America (likely Seattle) on the way home to look for an apartment. Hopefully we'll find something because around March or April, we'll make the big move west. And be done traveling for a few years...............................uh, just kidding! You know how many Alaskan cruises leave from Seattle? And I've never been to British Columbia. Win!

Everything, as always, is subject to change. But for now, this is the path we'll trek down and if leads us to Seattle, great, and if not... well, we're pretty open to anything.

My name is Rachel, I'll be your tour guide

2010-02-23T15:03:00.000-08:00

Last weekend I had a great date with Jon where we had delicious brunch and visited the National Gallery of Victoria whilst wearing pretty clothes. Thankfully I took a lot of pictures so now I can recreate the date on the web and you can feel like you're on a date with us! Let's go!

First, we must wear something nice. I mean, it's an art gallery! That's like, a fancy place to go.
I believe I am wearing a southern hemisphere Christmas dress... satin and short sleeves? Only for those of you who put Christmas presents under palm trees.

First we'll swing by Tusk on Chapel St and squish amongst the other painfully hip to enjoy some out-of-doors brekkie.
My choice (closest): Green Eggs & Ham or pesto scrambled eggs. Jon's is some sort of chorizo sausage and egg concoction with mushrooms that taste like little funghi miracles in your mouth. Also, Jon will get most of my ham. 'Cause I'm "vegetarian." (le sigh....) Both of us love our choices and love this restaurant. Backs are patted for good selection.

We don't want to stick around too long as people hover around waiting for a tiny table. Time to hop a tram and head to the Arts Precinct.

When we get there, a bunch of people are drinking glass bottles of something. Turns out, be-vested Bundaberg Ginger Beer employees are handing out free samples. Jon and I plan to just share one but are handed two. Instead of being practical and saving one, we both attempt to chug them both before heading indoors. Not wise.
It's tasty, but it's prone to the law of diminishing returns and we end up tossing about a quarter away. Turns out, one container has 40+% of the RDA of sugar. FUN FACT: Did you know there is no Recommended Daily Allowance for sugar intake in the United States? Well, there is in Australia. And it's approximately 2 sodas worth.

We take our gurgling guts inside.

It's only vaguely noticeable in pictures but the glass wall behind the naked man is a rain wall or water wall. It cries rain all day and all night.
We saw many an adult lying on their backs and watching this stained glass ceiling. Hey, people walk around barefoot everywhere here in Australia, why should lying on the floor of a museum seem so strange?
Some, uh, European art? Forgive me as I've gotten EVERYTHING I've learned from art history.

One of my favorite sections - modern furniture design. I would love both of these pieces. If only there weren't security cameras everywhere. Oh bother.
The modern art section was a little slim - I mean, it's no MoMa... but I was able to mumble "I could do that!" half a dozen times. Love modern art and its ability to make me think I possess equal or greater talent than that on display.
Unbeknown to Jon, he made himself a perfect model for some "art gallery" photos. This should be stock footage in some ESL handbook ("HE GOES TO THE MUSEUM.")

There was a gallery of fashion from several eras -- including Kylie Minogue's 1980s Dolce & Gabbana ... hmm, looks a little Gwen Stefani circa 2000s. Recycled? We're on to you, G.
There was a brochure of the galleries in the museum and it include another "art gallery" photo that I loved--so I snapped the exact same picture. Do you love it? It's so "stock"!

The oceanic art room was a little sparse but I was thrilled to see this:

A Papua New Guinea license plate. When I was 7 or 8, my family took a trip to Wisconsin Dells and one of the games we played was to find license plates from other states. I took this game very seriously and I remember showing the list of license plates I saw during "show and tell" later in school. I really think that this license plate game was the seed that made me want to travel all over the world. I mean, yes I love the act of traveling and seeing new places--but I'm gonna be honest, 50% of the thrill of traveling is checking off that country, city, state, landmark on my mental (or sometimes physical) list and saying "Saw it!"

PNG is more than likely a place I'll never make it to. But now I've seen its license plate. Check.

Moving along, they had a great display of Francisco Goya drawings. If I ever get back into art again, I think I'll make things similar to what's seen above. I love nonsensical art!

And I love the translation of the title of the above drawing.Our last stop is Asian art. I thought this above series was great until Jon read the placard and found out it's supposed to be viewed from right to left. The grey blob at the bottom seems to be a fuzzy dead baby bird and the dark bird is sitting on a branch that apparently ascends (I liked it better when I thought it descended to the groundling).
Jon's computer background is this picture! Small world...
I don't know much about Hinduism or the southeast Asian religions but I do love when things have multiple heads and extra appendages. So intriguing.
One of my favorite parts of any museum is the gift shop. It always has something really bizarre and quirky ... and overpriced, so with the exception of the time I volunteered in an art gallery gift shop and got a small discount (and spent a ton!), I never buy.
Especially not $89 hats, even if they are ADORABLE! But I guess I have the picture for as long as my memory card holds out... and that was FREE!

***

Did you have fun on a date with Jon and I? I hope so. After the date, we went grocery shopping and ran other errands and I walked a mile home in 93 degree heat and wind and sweated on my dress and flashed all passer-by-ers. It was a great day.

The Good, the Bad, the Ugly

2010-02-22T07:44:00.000-08:00

The Good:

This episode of Flight of the Conchords. It's kind of hard to recommend this show outright. The humor is very dry and you kind of need to get to know Brett and Jemaine for a few episodes to find their antics funny but once you do--I swear it, so funny!

I'm not sure if people unfamiliar with Australia will really catch all the Australianisms laced in the episode but I love the mock-segregation between NZ and Oz... especially since I think to the rest of the world, these two countries basically seem one in the same (I mean, look at their flags!)

In the episode, the New Zealanders HATE the Aussies and the Aussies are kind of like -- what, what's your problem? Kind of like how it seems so many Canadians seem to loathe Americans and yet Americans are like -- what's a Canadian?

The Bad:

So, in this borrowed city of mine, where I haven't never felt even an ounce of unsafety -- there have apparently been ten people stabbed in two days over the weekend.

Guns are not legal in Australia and there still are occasional gun incidents, but instead Australians express their violence through stabbings, bashings or glassing. It's definitely made me raise an eyebrow but it can be hard to believe something you don't actually see. I mean, yes, I read the articles and see things on the news but---I also leave work at 11 pm every night, take the tram 30 minutes south and walk another 10 to my front door and about the most hazardous thing I worry about its stepping on busted beer bottles or being burned by someone waving their cigarette around (<--what I consider to be the gravest danger in Australia!).

The Ugly:

My computer. I'm not sure who is to blame: HP or Windows. But something has been causing a real plethora of problems with my 5-month-old laptop. Today before work I was browsing the internet. The laptop signaled the battery was getting low. I brought it into the bedroom to plug it and resume browsing. I didn't, however, notice that despite being plugged it, the charge was not registering. This, annoyingly, has happened before.

I did "the tricks" of taking the battery out and replugging everything in and it doesn't work. I try again when I get home. I go to bed and toss and turn for a variety of reasons, most unresolvable in the middle of the night but decide I can only achieve a peaceful mind if I can at least clear up one issue--my computer issue.

Then I spent about two hours Googling any variety of HP+won't charge+no LED light+plugged in+NEW. I tried it in two different outlets. One or both of these things finally solved the problem at 2:30 a.m.: I removed a camera memory card from the laptop card reader and I moved it to a 3rd outlet. It worked. I was pissed.

I hate cars. I don't want to own any more cars because there's nothing I hate more than a sound or a smell or a light coming on and not knowing how to fix it and it just imagining dollar signs dancing in my mind. I've been happily car-free for nearly two years. Unfortunately, I think my car maintenance void has been filled with computers. I bought the 3 year warranty for my computer, but what good is that 8,000 miles away in Australia? Several Google searches suggested a motherboard problem. Motherboard problems sound expensive and lengthy. So I guess when all these problems were "solved" with a new outlet (the others all worked!) or unplugging something--and it took me many hours to figure this out--I just feel ...a little.... enraged at my computer. Ugly.

In other news, Jon and I have decided where to live when we leave Australia.

I'll write about it next time.

09 in Pix

2010-02-17T00:49:00.000-08:00

Stealing (or is it borrowing) from my friend's pictorial of 2009, I decided to share some pictures from the last calendar year of my life living on 3 continents.

January
Boracay, Philippines
Sun setting on White Beach, which is on my Top Ten lists when it comes to the world's greatest beaches. I think we were eating Mexican for the second time. We were only there for 5 days.

Singapore
We had flown into Singapore for just one night, as it was cheaper to fly to Singapore from Manila, stay the night and continue on to Phuket than to get a direct flight to anywhere in Thailand from the Philippines. We stayed in Chinatown but really wanted to be in Little India. We walked over an hour to get there and along the way passed this graveyard(?).

February
Bangkok, Thailand
It took two cabs to get to the Grand Palace, as the first cabbie was one of those scammers who try to take you to their "friend's shop" to give us a good price on... I don't even remember what. The second guy got very lost, which was amazing as the Grand Palace is one of the biggest tourist attractions in the city. I had to rent a sari to cover up my scandalous leggings.

March
Busan, South Korea
My first and only visitor -- Flat Stanley! I took him hiking in Seoyong. He didn't even break a sweat.

April
Jinhae, South Korea
Ironically, both Jon's and my school shared a birthday and therefore we both unexpectedly had a Wednesday off in April. We hopped a bus and went to the Cherry Blossom Festival in Jinhae.

Busan, South Korea
We finally made friends in April, after mostly just having each other for the first half our South Korean stay. We went and hung out in a rented basement room nearly every weekend for months. Early on, we blew up the circuit breaker and were forced to enjoy ourselves by candlelight. We did.
Busan, South Korea
Buddha's Birthday wasn't officially until May but in late April, we went to the Lantern Festival that honored that pot-bellied guy. This was still in dust season and it was absolutely freezing. Both Jon and I were mildly sick from dust and I think watching this parade for two hours in the cold made us much worse... but it was one of the best parades I've ever seen.

May
Busan, South Korea
The power back on in the basement.
Busan, South Korea
Going to Lotte Giants games ended up being one of my favorite pasttimes in Korea.

North Korean border, South Korea
We went up to Seoul twice in May, two weekends in a row actually. The second time we went on the tour of the DMZ and got a glance at North Korea. It was hilly.
Busan, South Korea
To fulfill a goal of mine, Jon and I hiked over 10 km from Beomeosa Temple (with Buddha Garden above) to Oncheonjang and then basically almost home to Minam from there. The route isn't officially 10 km, but, well, we got lost for a big part of it. I don't think Jon ever hiked again.

June

Busan, South Korea
It's not quite beach time for Koreans but it was for foreigners. It was starting to get hot in June but the ocean was still very cold, hence a thick fog.

July
Masan, South Korea
One of the best things we did in Korea was go "indoor camping" in Masan at our friend's uncle's kiwi & persimmon farm. It had electricity but no plumbing.

August
Kyoto, Japan
We thought it was bad luck that we booked our trip to Japan during a big holiday season, as prices would be expensive and accommodation scarce--but it wasn't much of a hassle and actually, many Japanese were dressed in traditional dress and kimonos. It was an anthropological minefield.
Seongsan Ilchubong, Jeju, South Korea
Our last weekend in Korea, we finally made it to "the Hawaii of Korea," Jeju Island. We had just a few short days there so we jammed everything in as tightly as we could. Our first morning there, we took a bus two hours to Seongsan Ilchubong (Sunrise Peak) and hiked it. We didn't get there in time for the sunrise, but it was just as well. It was quite cloudy when we woke but by the time we we reached the summit, the skies were perfect.
Busan, South Korea
One of my last nights in Korea, atop Busan Tower in Nampodong. My last week in Korea was filled with many awesome nights of fun and merriment saying good-bye to friends and to the city.

September
Gooseberry Falls, Minnesota, USA
Jon and I went up to Duluth soon after returning from Korea to visit my parents. My mom was happy to play hostess and suggested we go up the North Shore to see one of the most famous waterfalls in Minnesota. Minnesota's not a big "falling water" state.

October
Melbourne, Australia
I think this is from our second day in Australia. We were jet-lagged, sticker-shocked, and kind of thinking we made the wrong decision to move to the bottom of the Earth. As shiny and beautiful as Melbourne was, we didn't know if it was so inviting. We wondered if we'd ever love it here.

November
St Kilda, Australia
Well, if anything was going to convince me to like Australia, it was St Kilda. Just like in Korea, the sea gives me happy energy and on this sunset stroll, we found wild penguins. The night we found penguins I felt like things were going to turn around--and they did.

December
St Kilda, Australia
Christmas at the beach. Last year we had Christmas at TGIFriday's in Korea, this year, Christmas on the beach in Australia. I think we're due for some snow in the future.

Technically, I visited 8 countries in 2008, but even just stepping in 7 countries in 2009, considering I lived in 3 of them kind of blows my mind. It's hard to imagine I'll ever have a year all over the map like this one again. That makes me feel sad & glad. I love it, but it is lonely, even if my best friend was with me 99% of the time.

2010 will no doubt be amazing--my mind feels like it's going through a growth spurt and I'm pretty excited to tackle other sides of myself besides just "the traveller"--though, fret not, the passport will most definitely be involved... and likely a cross-country U-Haul as well.

Lovey Fest

2010-02-11T16:45:00.000-08:00

I don't have a lot of great stories to tell so I'll just share some pictures sitting in my camera.

Last week before we started our job, Jon and I walked 7 km to the CBD. We went to see that apocalyptic heart-warmer The Road and do some Christmas shopping (in February, for real).
The walk took us along the Royal Botanical Gardens, which is littered with some interesting statues.
I think naked volleyball player is my favorite. I don't officially know he is playing volleyball but officially, he IS naked.
I bought this bag in Japan at a 100 yen store aka the dollar store.
I stole this idea from the internet but it still thrills me everytime I look at it:

Today is February 14th but four days ago, for the first time ever, Jon and I celebrated "Valentine's Day." This would be the 4th V-Day that we've experienced together and the first 3 were totally ignored. I have my high maintenance side but being fawned over on February 14th isn't something I ever required.

BUT, I felt like after a few years, our relationship was getting a little too relaxed... so I bought Jon some Valentines presents:

I mostly bought this because it's such a bizzaro contraption. It's basically just water and you twist the top and a fizzy little disc plops into the water and effervesces into orangey wonder. I couldn't find the ad on YouTube but they have it on the main page of the company website if you want to be blown out of your seat by force of Awesome.

Turns out it tastes exactly like Emergen-C. But much more expensive.

I also HAD to get Jon these:
Yes, I know these look just like Teddy Grahams but they are not... they are Tiny Teddies! We first heard about them on the TV show Kath & Kim, where lazy slob Kim was always looking for Tiny Teddies to snack on. Then they had a ridiculous Saturday morning advertisement for Tiny Teddies where they dance with some prepubescent kids. They lost me (or was it won me?) when the animated bear-shaped cookie started doing the Running Man. Jon needed to be gifted these.

Lastly he got this:Shepherds Pie or meat pie with a mashed potato top. Before we even came to Australia, we found a blog of someone eating one of these things and Jon vowed to follow in suit as soon as possible. Well, 4+ months have passed and no potato(-topped pie). I had to step in and take action. Nothin' says lovin' like gifting something I would never eat myself!

The drink, BTW, is an "Arnold Palmer" or lemonade + ice tea. So delicious! Even if I keep erroneously calling it a "Tom Arnold."

Whilst doing this shopping for the most romantic of V-Day gifts ever, Jon snuck out and bought me these:
Ahhhhhhhh. Heart, melting all over the place. I've never been big on girlie stuff like flowers but after more than 3 flower-free years with Jon, I might have dropped a hint or 70 that flowers would be nice! I actually wasn't expecting anything from him (I might have accidentally never given him a Christmas present, even though he gave me one--whoops!) and had kind of given up flower hope so the surprise was oh so pleasant and sweet.

All week has been St Kilda Festival, which I support as I love St Kilda, but I haven't actually gone. Yet. Tonight You Am I is playing, which might be the first band I ever knew from Australia (before I even knew AC/DC or as the locals call them -- Acca Dacca -- were Aussies). Going to see them is ticking another "authentically Australian" thing off the list, right up there with koala-spotting and alligator-wrestling (still must do....).

I Need Some Magic Fingers!

2010-02-08T12:33:00.000-08:00

As I'm writing this, my shoulders ache quite a bit. So do my armpits. My neck is sensitive to the touch and I can't easily move around. It's Tuesday morning and I'm still suffering the consequences of something I did this weekend: Boxing Class at the Beach.
That's not my picture (and obviously not me!) but I just want to give you an idea that, visually, a workout class on the beach seems cool, but in real life is hot, exhausting and has the potential to make you very hurt-y. (My pain tolerance is incredibly low and thusly when I suffer it, I revert to the maturity of a child and name the experience words like "hurt-y" and "ouchies.")

The class gave me the ol' 1-2 punch of pain: 1) muscles that still scream at me 48 hours later and 2) my first REAL sunburn. I think I might have blogged about getting my first sunburn on one of those outrageously hot days months ago but let me be honest--I remember that "sunburn" and it was a small triangle on my shoulder. Yeah, one shoulder. This current sunburn looks like someone dumped red paint on my arms, neck, shoulders and chest. Maybe more of a maroon or even a burgundy as I'm aloe-ing the crap out of it and it's quickly turning into a dark, dark tan. I've never been a fan of the tan, maybe because I could get one so easily, to the annoyance of my pasty-white friends who couldn't even get nearly as dark as me after 10 tanning sessions and I'd brown like a turkey just walking to the car.

Hmm, I think I started off this blog on the wrong tone--I believe my achy shoulders intercepted messages from my brain on the way to my typing fingers.... 'cause actually, I totally plan to do more beach workouts in the future! (Ahem--they were free!)

I found out about it through Meetup, but the event was so not Meetup-y at all. In fact, of the 50 people there, I only found two that said they were there for the Meetup. I figured this out because as everyone arrived and pulled out their boxing tape and gloves, we stood on the sidelines and looked lost. In kind of a last-one-picked scenario, one of those girls ended up being my boxing partner because as everyone else had paired up, we still sat on the edge of the beach, gloveless, saying "I don't know what to do!" She was cool, Australian, but I felt sorry for her--she was very tall and she got paired up with one of the shortest people there (me!). Since I needed to serve as her punching bag on multiple occasions, she had to squat down pretty low to deliver a straight punch. So maybe I gave her an extra quads workout?

I think I lucked out because even though she was a lot more fit than me, relative to everyone else there, we were both firmly on the slacker side. "C'mon, punch harder, you're only cheating yourself going slow!" the instructor yelled to everyone, but probably mostly to us. Even as I punched at a tortoise's pace with my 1kg (2.2 lb) weights, I knew I'd suffer dearly later. And I was right!

The class taught me more than boxing moves and what a nice beach they have in Port Melbourne (I wanna go swimming!). It taught me if I want to be fit, I'm going to have to probably start pushing myself at a similar level, multiple times a week. It taught me that even though I've accumulated a light tan from walking to the store, an hour in direct sunlight without sunscreen will burn me.

I'm not sure if my sun exposure and sore body is 100% due to beach boxing. It's plausible that about 7% is due in part to my activities on Saturday: learning the Thriller dance (and Dirty Dancing and Slumdog Millionaire dances). At a boat show.

Me and 200-300 of my Melburnian neighbors headed over to Docklands to learn Movie Moves. It got there early and sans clock and was starting to think, y'know, based on the boat show, that maybe Thriller dancing wasn't happening. Just as I was about to leave, it came to life (like crawling out of the grave ala Thriller, right?). It was taught by a very un-dancer-like 50-something woman and her three extremely fit young dancer friends.

We started with Dirty Dancing. Kick kick kick sidekick proved difficult for me but I mastered spins and claps! You needed a partner for the beginning so I just awkwardly stood aside. From there we learned Thriller. It really is one of the most fun dances to do, though my Monster Walking is a little deflated and not at all scary. Lastly, we learned Jai Ho from Slumdog Millionaire. This is also a fun one because it involves a lot of hip-wiggling. My extra-wide hips actually felt useful for once in my life. Again, Jai Ho has a lot of spins and claps and I nailed them all!

After an hour, we sequenced them all together. It was quite crowded at this point and some parents and children decided to just dance any-which-way which totally meant in my way so I was forced to Thriller dance right over a child. Hey, Thriller dancers are zombies and zombies don't know right from wrong.

Apparently this continued on another hour but I escaped, a big sweaty mess, after completing the entire sequence once. During that time, someone had taken my picture with a professional camera. I don't know who they were but when Googling the internet to find pictures from the event, I came across multiple advertisements posing this dance session as a "kids event." There were a dozen or more kids there but widely, it was adults like me. Kids don't care about Thriller!

Next week, they are again teaching those 3 dances and adding two more: Saturday Night Fever and Waterloo from Muriel's Wedding. I'm thinking I might go! If anything, the piazza where it's held is Melbourne's version of Hollywood's Walk of Fame and they've got statues of famous Australians like Kylie Minogue and John Farnham. Must. Take. AussiePopCulture. PICTURES!

A Job With A View

2010-02-04T14:23:00.000-08:00

Life in Australia is suddenly easy. And it's wholly because I got a new job. At the phonebook.

I have no clue what happened to my last temp agency. It seemed so promising. I talked to another temp there and she said they were the best agency she'd been with, that they were always getting her great work. I called them at the end of the hospital job and they were like "Okay, we got you high on the list." Last week went by and they never called. In fact, mid-week the phonebook called and offered Jon a job. I asked for one too and they said "Sure!" Very sketchy, but I've been learning if a door opens for you, you should probably take it. The old agency never called so on Tuesday we started our new gig.

They told us it was strictly data entry, no phone calls. I still didn't believe them. How could I be hired instantly for a job that doesn't suck? The fact that they had advertised constantly and interviewed hundreds of people didn't bode well for it seeming like a job that people would like and want to stay at.

But.... I love it! Now, I'm not certain if it's a great job because it IS a great job... or because my last job was a TERRIBLE job and this, by comparison, seems like a 7th floor office suite nirvana.

It just has so many perks:
- It pays great. Best money I've EVER made (of course, in Australian dollars).
- Jon sits at the desk next to me
- No phone calls!
- It really IS strictly data entry... no phone calls and no additional "busy work" duties
- Can listen to headphones all day
- So far, there's actually been target maximums... as in, when you enter this much data, you're free to do what you want until the shift ends.
- Our supervisor is so relaxed, he says things like "It's so quiet here, so go ahead and talk to each other, it's okay."
- I work the night shift until 11 pm and by 6 pm, the whole office is empty. It's quiet and we can roam around anywhere.
- My co-workers are all cool and friendly people. Some are even Australian (they really do exist!)
- I LOVE having mornings off. Sleeping in (even if I am bad at it), having motivation to be productive... so much better than coming home at 6 and sitting on the couch until 9 and then feeling like there's no day left to do anything.
- It's consistent work and we're just about guaranteed work until we leave (they said 3-6 months of work so I think we're good).
- We have a VIEW. No more tinted windows. No more basement. Floor to ceiling windows, 7th floor, overlooking Melbourne. Love it.

I'm quite pleased with the world right now--everything that's happened to us has led up to this point... Jon not getting work for two months, Jon narrowly missing out on the job a couple weeks ago, my other job not calling me with additional assignments. For a backpacker job, this is just about perfect. I think we'll be able to handily earn what we need for our big trip.

My co-workers are a little less enlightened. Honestly, the job is BORING. I would say it's actually more repetitive than the call centre job, as with each task here, we repeat the same three steps over and over and over. And OVER. But for Jon and I, wearing headphones instead of a headset and being able to complete the targets easily and not having someone trying to coach of into the target stratosphere is an oasis.

It's entirely possible in a week's time I'll be posting a blog called "I hate my job!" but for now, it's good. It's all good.

Weekend plans: Learning choreographed dances from Dirty Dancing, Thriller and Slumdog Millionaire; a kickboxing beach workout Meetup; finally mailing out my "Christmas" presents.

Happy. :)