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13 October 2005

French romance

Laurant does not have a visa to work in the US, however he comes twice a week to volunteer with the city kids for the non-profit sailing program. He walks over an hour to get here, for a two-hour sailing program. This dedicated (not to mention incredibly handsome) French-man recently got married to the disappointment of many American women (myself included). The weather is miserable today and he arrives in full foul weather gear ready and happy to take some kids out sailing. Not surprisingly the program was cancelled as kids now a day seem to have forgotten how much fun it is to play in the rain! On this man's jacket is a sock knotted up and sewn to the front reflector. Not anything special, just a plain old white running sock with too high of an ankle to be be with current fashion trends.
So the story starts in Ireland on a sailing adventure with Laurant and an amazing girl. The trip was unforgettable. Afterwards Laurant and the lovely girl split ways not knowing the next chance at meeting they would have. He came home and unpacked his bags and lo and behold, *gasp*, a sock from the girl had been mixed in with his laundry. Now cherishing a sock may seem absurd to most, but it holds more value than remembrance. He sewed it on his sailing jacket to remind him every time he went out of the wonderful trip and as a promise to see the girl again. It has been three years. The sock is still there, looking too well cared for to be three years on a rain jacket. Laurant is newly married and still refuses to cut the treasured piece of this girl away.

12 October 2005

And it will be winter before you know it

I find most people to be more decisive in the fall. Summer heat is too heavy to make up your mind on anything. 'Oh, I have all summer to do that'. Unfortunately those warm months are shorter than we remember them being every year. Summer is also the time for selfishness. 'I need to look good in that bikini'. 'I need to have FUN! I need to go on vacation'. blah blah blah. But the leaves start to turn and the cold wind blows in and suddenly people start to change as well. Maybe its some ancient survival pattern in us where we need to prepare ourselves for a long winter ahead. Time to be productive! The crisp air makes you walk with a faster step. Maybe its simply the fact that we all have fall engraved in our minds to mean the start of school: a new beginning, a chance to prove ourselves, an opportunity to learn. But it also seems that people are suddenly more desperate to have someone else sharing that life with them. Summer is a great time to be single: sweaty aromas and active lifestyles. It's great to sit by the pool by yourself, but apple picking and hayrides... Not so much fun alone. We are all subconsciously looking for that winter romance all of the sudden. The one who will see us through the holidays and be our saving grace when your greatest fear is grandma trying to set you up with her new "smart and attractive" wealth advisor who spends his time manipulating wills of the elderly. Relationships start popping up all around us... Every one is doing it!

09 October 2005

local agribusiness

There was an interesting commentary in the newest Patagonia catalog... yes a clothing magazine, but none the less interesting article on surviving off of locally made substances (food, beer, and I am sure mary jane as is expected by Patagoniacs). To think that almost everything we consume has been on a 16 wheeler touting down the highway polluting the earth with emmisions and high levels of gas consumption (or is it deisel?) is frightening. Agriculture is an interesting business. Politicians hand out paychecks to farmers to leave their land un-plowed while other farms have increased their productivity a thousand times over due to fancier irrigation systems, updated machine technology and of course the poison that is regularly sprayed over our crops to keep the bugs hungry (lesser-beings we might deduce have no right to food - bugs, starving kids in Africa and the poor Americans in Louisiana). These increases in production have lessoned the man hours needed to produce our crops and perhaps lowered the amount of laborer jobs in America.
Farming is no longer a profitable business. When you can fly in a plane full of roses from Ecuador for the comparitive pennies that you would pay for land and labor in America, why grow roses here? Why should Americans support local farmers when we can support the deforestation of Brazil for our Starbucks coffee beans? Personally I would prefer a cup of fresh hot apple cider brewed at my local "pick your own" farm than Starbucks' lattes whose ideas of fair trade are exploiting the workers and paying the middle man more (thats a whole separate rant). I would love to have my own Alpaca farm in the Appalacians. Spin and dye wool and sell yarn (and of course handmade socks and sweaters) in a small corner store. However, even buying the land let alone livestock and a house to live in would put me in debt I could never repay. Good luck to the naturalists who do not get a family farm handed down to them. Perhaps I could make my fortune in the stock market and convert my winnings over to land 20 years from now. The idea of being self-made in the agriculture business is increasingly harder to accomplish.
Imagine throwing out those frozen pizzas in the fridge and instead using wheat, stewed tomatoes and fresh cheese from the local farms and daries. Sounds delicious to me. Fresh food not only tastes better but it does not contain the preservatives that are needed for mass-produces store bought food.
Maybe eating local food will even help to reduce the obesity epedemic that has Americans by the balls. McDonalds and Denny's would not be on every street corner making those hang-over breakfast mornings a little harder for us all, but better for the rest of the us now eating acorn squash for dinner instead of that quarter pounder and fries. Perhaps I would be craving fresh blackberries now instead of pad thai. Don't get me wrong, I love international foods! But for heavens sake, shall I bring up the 18 wheeler to your house to eat straight out of?
Maybe our problems extend from the Texan's "bigger is better" theory. Our super-farms are producing enough food to feed far more people than we have on this continent. Why then are people going hungry? The bigger farms must package their product in such a way to be transported across the nation to our local deli or Giant super that even the trash for the food we consume is incredible. Take a look at how much plastic is used next time you shop at the super. I see those little blue plastic bags we carry our milk home in floating in the harbor almost everyday.

Everyday I walk to my office I want to call up UTZ and protest their packaging materials. Why do our potatoe chips have to be stored in such hard plastic? could they use a recyled paper product instead? The bag of salt & vinegar chips you just ate with lunch are now floating next to my office increasing the lovely black sludge mess that resides 47 feet below me on the floor of the Patapsco. On a good day I can see 3 feet down into the Harbor, but after a good rain the trash from your lunch comes floating down the sewer grates from the city streets where you decided it was more convenient to non-chalantly throw your trash to the curb instead of the recepticle all of the way down the block.

08 October 2005

Wood ducks

Duck hunting is an interesting sport. Certainly not one that I am willing to devote large amounts of time sitting in the pouring rain for. The wood duck is a beautiful creature with remarkable feather coloring. The bird sighting was wonderful and I spotted many wood ducks, mallards, swallows getting ready to head south, two herons and an eagle. The hood of my rain coat filled with water as we stood there in the rain waiting for more mallards. Dad decided it would be a good idea to empty it out on my back. Very funny. Spent the rest of the morning freezing and praying my fingers would un-prunify themselves. Had lunch at the marina off of the Sassafrass where I helped deliver the Martha Lewis skipjack to earlier this year.

Researching Red Rocks. Planning on November 17th-22nd flying out to Vegas, spending some time with Katie and sport routes. Flights to Vegas are on sale right now, nice! Want to camp out the whole time, but the last night spend at the Bellagio or another equally amazing Vegas joint. Of course I cannot do this without spending the entire time laughing. Thinking about bringing my short black dress, lots of fake gold jewelry and coping a New Jersey accent for an evening out on the town. Flirting with some high rollers from Russia where I overhear their latest mob plans and help them traffic money through the casino winning a red sports car. Regular Vegas vacation of course. Back to climbing... Looks like the Black Corridor on the second pullout is the place to be. Having never climbed on sandstone before I am nervous about my ability to pull hard on the routes, but sure I can handle most of the 10's perhaps with a few hangs. Wilson said sandstone when wet breaks off easily. If it rains there will have to be a few canyon hikes waiting for me. Wilson wants to travel off to Zion for an overnight aid route. Maybe I will stay through Thanksgiving vacation with him and attempt something crazy. There is something deeply unsatisfying about aid climbing to me. Jugging routes has no appeal to me. Sleeping on a portaledge is even further from my idea of a vacation, but it would be an adventure!

02 October 2005

Aww, how old is your dog?

To increase my recent unsocial behaviors to an even higher level, I am currently knitting an aveleen (spelled how it sounds not how its sopposed to be). It's a neck warmer, slash hood, slash hippie headband. Oh, and it's pink with cute ball tassels and an interesting rotating patern to it. My first attempt at circular needles and not as confusing as origonally assumed. Maybe I do have a slight bit of intelligence in me, although with the current lack of learning anything new that intellegence level is certainly stagnant.

Midtown Yoga on Preston Street is certainly the hottest place in town... literally. Community Vinyassa on Sunday nights for only $6!!! Sweating so much I can wring it out of my hair. Reaching new levels of flexibility and confidence in my poses. The fast-paced session gets my heart running and mind more in tune. If only the normal session fees were more reasonable to us poor young professionals. Although I don't consider myself in that group quite yet as I don't seem to ever have a "real" job. I guess floating offices don't count as professional environments.

After realizing the full extent of my recent immoral behavior in relationships I have taken a new turn! Hooray for good behavior - one gold star for me! I stopped talking to the cheater. Trying to have more of a relationship with Wilson when he isn't pouting. And my older man decided to fall of the face of my earth two weeks ago. He is currently sleeping on a portaledge on El Cap. I guess that is good enough reason for him not to call me, but what about the week before he left? If we go out again I am going to make sure I am quite honest and open with my need for having a more continuous behavior pattern out of him. A "real" relationship, and not just the convenience kind that he seems to enjoy too much. The worst part is that I cannot stop thinking about him and his little boy smile. There is an amazing song by Jewel ... "It's not your little boy smile. It's not your little boy name. It's those big boy hands that are the ones to blame". The power in her voice makes me want to sing along loudly with the windows down hoping all men hear me and my copied wisdom.

Yesterday was the Fells Point Festival. Parking was even more insane than expected. Thousands of people walking around; most with a beer in their hands. I brought Goose with me. The attention levels go from the occasional eye contact to every other person stopping to pet him and ask me silly dog people questions. "awww, how old is he?" Really, who asks this question? Why does it matter? The one lady who was telling me I had a good 6 years left before he dies, but not to worry about it because he's worth it now even though the pain of his death will leave me with a heavy heart. OMG! People are crazy. If I wasn't walking around with Ben looking like a cute couple, I am sure I would have gotten a few new guy introductions. Men seem to love the fact that he is named after a Top Gun character.

Apparently Turkey does not have enough rapport to join the European Union under a full membership. Bush and FEMA are idiots when it comes to national disasters. The south is a mess due to hard-hitting hurricanes. The Supreme Court will have a new debut next week with Roberts as the new Cheif Justice and someone yet to be named (hopefully not a conservative born-again everyone is fearing). And who leaked the name of the CIA operative? Oh the world is a mess... the question is, will I ever be important enough to make a difference?