kiswahili...

or whatever. i'm just sitting here waiting for my husband to finish translating an email that was written to him in swahili. we're about to leave to go to greenville for the night. ya!

a long weekend and 4 more days of work to go before my big break. yippee! i'm starting to get that mixed nervous/anxious feeling about the trip. one minute i feel like we're totally prepared and then the next i'm certain it's going to be a disaster, which i know it's not. but what i'm really dreading is the plane ride. i keep thinking abou the fact that 2 of the 3 flights (seperately) will last longer than 1 work day. yikes!

ok, i'll stop rambling because chris is ready to go. sean and cheryl, here we come!

the autobiography of malcolm x

i just finished reading this book (as told to alex haley). my friend anthony gave it to me back in april sayng it was his favorite non-fiction book and a "must read" for everyone. took me a while to trudge through it. i think i just wanted him to move on from white-hating and get to the facts of his life. "the white man's the devil;" yea, yea, i get it. but now that i'm finished and have read the thoughts and comments of alex haley himself at the back of the book, i really enjoyed the read and can completely understand anthony's opinion that everyone in america should read it.

if i sit back and think about the image that came to my mind about malcolm x before i read the book, it was of a villain, someone to be afraid of. completely opposite of martin luther king, jr. MLK = good guy. MX = bad guy. why is that? i didn't even know anything about him (sorry, i missed the movie). but that's what society did to him. he started out bigoted and seperatist (justifyably so in my opinion). but he came around to see the larger issues of culture, class and race. now that i've read the book i have a lot more respect for the man. i still don't agree with all he said, but i don't think of him in negative terms anymore. i now see him as a good guy, a martyr.

so, yea, even if you don't agree with me, or my new friend malcolm, read the book.

what am i going to read in africa?

any suggestions anyone?

gotta be:
- easy enough to transport
-but lengthy enough to last 54 hours of transport (at least)
-and not about genocide or ethnic violence (not the place, folks)

my boy be's smart #3

check check it out!

jelly bean!

Happy Birthday, oh sister of mine! i hope you get to have ice cream and cake today. and perhaps, just perhaps, get 7 bunches of flowers.

this is my busiest 2 weeks of the semester

or at least that's what i've been saying to almost every person who asks "how's it going?" the state standardized tests start on monday so everyone is crazy, teachers and students alike, and all of my programs come crashing to an end at one time. so i have graduations to run, work parties to facilitate, end of the year reports, all that kind of stuff that i don't mind doing, but not all at once. so tuesday i had the end to my biggest program, FAST. and now that that graduation is over with, i think i can sail through the next few days okay. but i sure can’t wait for it all to be over (for this year).

on the home front things are pretty hectic too. i’ve not even really seen chris for a few days. well, that’s not entirely true because he did come to help out at FAST graduation from 4:30-10:00 PM. he has his homeskillet visiting while he participats in some bike races around the state. the reids set off from MS this afternoon, so I hear, and should arrive sometime tomorrow. then saturday is chris’s big graduation (congrats ol’ boy!) and our shin-dig saturday night. if you didn’t get an invitation, drop me an email and i’ll give you the specifics.

so that’s the 4-1-1. i do have the night “off” tonight so i think i’ll check out the laundromat down the street. being in a new place, I gotta check out the new hotspots.

itinerary

itinerary,
originally uploaded by Waldie's World.

here it is, folks. it's official. we're going to africa! this is our itinerary, not that you can read it. but tis for real.

i even got my vaccines on thursday. four shots at one time didn't hurt as much as i anticipated. but i think my body has been mad at me because i've had a low fever for the past 24 hours. but after sleeping all afternoon, i'm feeling a lot better.

my 4 heroes

we went to hamido and hawa's apartment tonight for our regular wednesday night english class. tonight hamido learned to read and spell these words: write, read, say, copy, draw, color, number and name. and she really did learn and recognize these words where at the beginning of the night she did not. cool.

signed, sealed, delivered

mom sent this photo since i couldn't find one.

3 years

tomorrow will be my and chris's wedding anniversary. (and dogwood and ingrid's, too. happy anniversary, guys!) i went looking on snapfish for old stored photos of our wedding and i couldn't find any. suspicious. i thought we had some online. but alas. that was before our digital camera as well so i guess we don't have any on computer files. use your imagination. or stop by and see the pictures and movie we have at home. anyone? anyone?

anyway, back to our anniversary. so, yea. 3 years. good stuff. i got a great guy. to give you all an example of how great he is, i'll share a story. while the 2 of us sat on the couch tonight, chris caught a fly with his hand. one hand. that's skillz.

so here's to a great guy, a great marriage and 3 wonderful years. happy anniversary, scoobs.

my boy be's smart, part 2

chris was awarded the outstanding senior in sociology award today at usc. it was a long, but nice ceremony in the horseshoe and once i moved to the shade i enjoyed being outside for a few hours. afterward we got to go inside the university president's house for a reception. swanky place. anyways, we didn't take the camera into the president's home so we have no pictures of that. but if you want to see a few more of chris and his award, click on the picture above.

pardon our mess. we're under construction

click on the picture to see a set of picts of our new place. it's pretty unimpressive with no pictures on the wall and things just randomly strewn about. but it'll give you an idea. while you're there, check out picts of our trip to charleston during my parent's visit. or you can click here to see them.

our new pad

okay, okay, i said i'd post pictures like 2 days ago and i've still not done it. i'm hoping to take some this morning but just in case i thought i'd write the post first then do the pictures, that way if i don't get to the pictures, well, you all would still know what's up.

so we officially moved saturday, though we spent a good part of the week prior pre-moving-bringing boxes over, cleaning, etc. saturday went well, thanks to several generous friends who lent vehicles and/or time. by the afternoon we had everything moved in and chris and i were arranging and rearranging everything to make it work. by now we have most things unpacked but a lot of that is just sitting around on the floor waiting to find a home, as i'm sure you'll see in the pictures to come.

the place is cute, though. it has a few quirks-leaky fridge and 2-prong outlets only (!!)- but otherwise it's a sweet deal. we've already decided we're having a housewarming/graduation party on may 6th to show the place off. come on over if you're around!

HOLY SMOKES!

we're officially going to africa! for 3 weeks on june. we booked our tickets yesterday. it's the most money we've ever spent in one shot but it'll be totally worth it and, as my sister-in-law said today, we just need to get there.

so we fly out of columbia, into atlanta and then layover in amsterdam and into dar es salam. then we'll travel through tanzania, staying for a few days in mwanza, the 2nd largest town in the country, on the coast of lake victoria. chris's teacher is from this town and he's promised us some friends to stay with and, hopefully, some non-profit organizations to volunteer with or to see. then we'll go to nairobi, kenya and will leave the continent from there.

i'm typing this on our new-to-us computer!

mom and jim have been here since friday night. we've been bus-bus-busy. but not too rushy-rush-rush, which is nice. saturday we trampsed around columbia, going to some our our favorite haunts. sunday was charleston and mepkin abbey. yesterday, though, i came down with some sort of cold. slept all morning while mom and jim revisited our favorite columbia spots to make more purchases. then i drug myself up to go to the congaree national park. i bailed on a work function i was supposed to go to last night because i didn't feel up to it, but opted to go to the movies with everyone to see neil young, a heart of gold at the nickelodeon. it was good but i got sleepy in the end. don't know what's in store today, but this afternoon we finally (and hopefully) sign our lease! woohoo! and we'll take advantage of $.55 slice night at pizza man for a last evening of fun before mom and jim hit the road early early wednesday morning. pictures of the visit to come.

i think i might have a "neatball" sandwich for dinner

well, chris pretty much updated you on our week already. so i don't want to feel redundant. but a few things of note.

we think we've found an apartment to move into. for reals this time. not the places chris mentioned. we looked at 2 on tuesday. apt 1 was just a little too shabby for what we wanted. and apt 2 was just a little too big for what we wanted. but we looked at a place wednesday that seemed just right. so we submitted an application last night and we're the only people to have seen it so i can't really see why we wouldn't get it. hopefully we'll hear from the property manager tomorrow. but here's a brief description to feed your palate just a little bit. 2 bedroom, 1 bath, central heat and air, hardwood floors, little green space out back and "woody-ish" behind, 1 block from a big park. woohoo! ya park!

timero, the grandmom bantu, can now write her name perfectly without looking at another copy of it for guidance. we have 5 woman this week (plus a screaming infant). i'm appreciative that nicole is now helping out, and that chris is taking the noisy (albeit cute) kids outside.

mom and jim come tomorrow. yippee! and they’re bringing a newer computer for us. with os 10! out of the dark ages we come! fun things me might do during the visit: pick strawberries, mepkin abbey and charleston, $.55 slice night at pizza man, oh yea, and move.

thanks for the well-wishes

as most of you who read this know, yesterday was my 28th birthday. it was a lovely day spent mostly with my husband. but i received lost of phone calls, birthday cards and well-wishes. so thanks, everybody for thinking of me!

if you're curious what we did...well, friday night i got together with "the ladies" to watch i robot. enjoyed the movie, but the company was much better. they even made a cake for me and sang happy birthday. then saturday chris and i drove up and down the streets of select neighborhoods looking for houses to rent. it was such a treat to just meander and hang out with my guy. then we went to the columbia international festival, had an awsome lunch (from india, the carribbian, and turkey) and watched the entertainment. then last night we went up to the lake to have a cookout with some friends. all-in-all, a very laid back and relaxed day. perfect!

something cool to check out

mom sent me this link the other day. i don't normally pass along this kind of stuff, but this was actually really cool. plus, it's to a beetle's song, so you can't go wrong.

and...this is not something "cool to check out" but rather something i just checked out myself in the mirror so it's on my mind. well, on my head actually. grey hair that is! it must be my fast-approaching birthday (it's saturday! hint, hint.) but i just noticed a spot in my hair that has WAY more grey hair then it used to! how distinguished. or something.

today i saw something i had never before seen

while stopped at a red light i saw a man in one car successfully sell a pair of shoes to a woman in another car.* gives the words "door-to-door salesman" a new meaning.

*okay, i actually didn't see the transaction completed. but the guy showed the woman some shoes (without either of them leaving their cars) and then when the light proceeded to turn red he motioned for her to follow him into the burger king parking lot where, i presume a transaction was perhaps completed. but still, that's savvy.

check it out

i don't really know what it was about fuzzy's post that made me want to read one day in the life of ivan denisovich. it's probably my on-again, off-again eternal search for things that put my life in perspective. but in any event, i got it from the library last week and finished it off this weekend.

excellent book. and it didn't depress me. just like watching fight club will make me feel better about the world, this made me feel better about people. i guess that was the author's intention so i'm fairly unoriginal in this. but it just all made sense to me. under such inhuman and abject conditions i felt that the characters behaved in very human way. well, i won't go into it here. but check it out.

i'm beginning to think i like russian literature. first the master and the margarita, then anna karenina, now the life of ivan denisovich. that can't be all the russian literature i've read though can it? hmmm.

humbling

one of my jobs at work is to bring various speakers into the school or an individual classroom. today i brought in the operation get smart team. they were 3 guys and 2 girls talking about the choices they made in life which led to the various crimes that they committed which eventually landed them in jail. these folks are serving time anywhere from six years to life for some really hard crimes.

i feel really fortunate to have met these individuals and to have heard their stories. certainly they have committed some heinious acts and that should not be forgotten. but they bear their souls every day, earnestly pouring out their faults and foibles for the betterment of the young people in our community, so that they don't make the same mistakes. i have not seen any better form of rehabilitation. and in the process it made me realize what a truly blessed life i live.

catching up on old photos

here's a few pictures from last weekend which we spent in georgia, if you remember.

this is what we spent most of our time doing, though. puzzles.

techno-rific weekend

even for the techno-idiots.

friday i got an early birthday present! thanks scoobs (with the guidance of fuzzy i hear). i've spent a lot of this weekend entering all my oh-so-important dates and my contacts' addresses and stuff. yaaa!

then, yesterday we realized office max was going out of buisiness (or at least the 2 stores in columbia that i went to are). so we bought a new phone (our old one was not liking to dial 3's and 6's, which had become a hassle). and we bought a new printer (our old one stopped working a few weeks ago and found out we could fix it but it would cost more than the worth of the machine). of course, in typical waldie and chris fashion we got home and the printer was not compatable with our operating system. boooo!

so today we've gotten an offer to be given another computer, a better one. for free. thanks bo. yaaaa!

the heat is off

i think.

for those of you who were worried that we would die of heat stroke in our apartment. i'm not 100% sure if they did anything or not though. it got cold last night so we opened the windows and it was managable in here. but it's fairly warm again today and the apartment is still cool-ish. at least cool enough to walk in the back room. so hopefully it'll stay this way.

also i had my 3rd or 4th visit with the somalis. i really like them and am so excited to be getting involved in their community. today i came over and there was a somali woman named halima there. she speaks english fluently (she's been in the us, it seems, for a while). so she was able to give me a little more information and i could tell her about myself. she was very sweet. she reminded me of sister thomasmari (for those who know her) who was always gentle in telling you what she thought you should be doing and how you should do it. so now all of a sudden i've realized that i've changed my times for tutoring in order that i can help another mom who was always working when i came over in the afternoons. but also i'm now trying to find someone to go with me to help the kids while i help the moms. don't really know how that happened but i guess i feel flattered that she was comfortable enough to pressure me into the change. i really don't mind.

africa to our apartment?

i'm in the worst mood ever and as such, i probably shouldn't be blogging. i've purposely not really talked to anyone today because i know i will just not be a nice person. i'm not exactly sure why i'm in a bad mood, though much of it, i guess, stems from the fact that our apartment is 90 degrees, despite running the AC full blast all day. how is that possible, you may ask. well, friends, for those who don't know, we live above the boiler room. so in winter when the heat is turned on, our floors are heated. normally not a big deal when it's like 40 degrees out. but it's been in the 80's for the past 2 days. but the heat is still on in our place. so i've been sweating all day and spitting nails. poor chris. my anger is doubled because we wanted to move out and they won't let us. so urgh to usc graduate and family housing!

we spent friday and saturday at my grandparents' house in rural georgia again. this time we didn't pick pecans, but we did pick turnips. i have, no joke, like 10 pounds of turnips (thanks chris!). if anyone in the columbia area wants some, please let me know. one can only eat so much turnips. anyways, the weekend was good, even though there were way too many people in a way too small house. my uncle, his daughter, her roommate, my 2 grandparents, 2 HUGE dogs and 3 cats were all there (plus me and chris of course). the house is only 4 rooms so it was tight. but it was good to see everyone and as always we had great (albeit way too much) food. plus we got legal advice and a recipe for the almost-famous oat balls from my uncle sammy. so yea, that was my weekend.

now i'll go back to wallowing in my ill mood.

four things

because fuzzy asked so nicely...

Four jobs I’ve had
Cheese Cutter
Trail Blazer
Program Implementer
Site Coordinator

Four movies I can watch over and over
Lord of the Rings Trilogy
Little Women
13 Going On Thirty
Fight Club

Four TV shows I love to watch
I don’t have any TV reception so I don’t watch TV. However, we do have the following on DVD:
Fraggle Rock
Will and Grace
Dave Chappelle
Looney Toons


Four places I’ve been on vacation
Bermuda (May 1996)
Egypt (May 2000)
Monti Cristi, Dominican Republic (March 2004)
Okefenokee Swamp, Florida (April 2005)

Four favorite dishes
Ice Cream (my favorite flavor changes with my mood)
Pasta Bella’s (now non-existent) olive oil spread
Pretty much anything mom makes
Veggies and dill dip

Four websites I visit daily (I’m going to change this to weekly because the only thing I have time to visit daily is the GNC (data entry site for work)
CNN
Waldie Family Photos
Bill check
My blog (yes, I really do check it. I usually can’t remember what I last wrote.)

Four places I’d rather be
Sleeping late with Scoobs
Outside on a walk
Africa
At mom’s sitting down to dinner (or having hors d’oeuvres & cocktails

Four bloggers I’m tagging
Rachel (blog already would ya!)
Ben (because I want to read something other than complaining and politics on your blog)
Bo (it’s all in the family)
Theresa (because I never comment on your blog)

what does good friends, yummy food and a 10 year-old waitress have in common?

answer: greenwood, sc .

thanks, sean and cheryl for a fun saturday. you helped pull us out of our slump!

(*and i'm not kidding about the 10 year old waitress. she waited on us at tw boon's. she was the only server in the whole place and undoubtedly was the most precocious child i've ever met.)

my boy be's smart

he just was picked to be awarded the outstanding senior award in the sociology deparment at usc. smarty-pants!

happy birthday, waldie's world!

it all started a year ago today. wow, does time fly.

life plans, or something like that

i figured since i’ve been on this computer way too long trying (unsuccessfully) to get my printer to work, that i should at least maybe post a quick update.

it’s been a tough week in this reid household. but it looks like we’ve at least decided that we’re going to stay in columbia for the year. we’re going to start looking for apartments because we have to be out of ours by may 10th. chris will get a job and we’ll try out the 2 breadwinners thing for a little while as he looks at grad schools and such for fall 2007. oh, and we’re getting a dog. because i want one.

africa to columbia

i just spent my first afternoon with the somali mothers to whom i will be teaching english every wednesday until who knows when. it's a long story how i stumbled upon this opportunity. but let's just say they need help and i'm happy to provide it.... except, yikes! how does one go about teaching reading, writing and speaking of english to people who speak no english? i should mention for those who don't know it already, i don't speak mai mai (their language) either! so this will be quite an intersting process and i certainly will be learning just as much (if not more) from them as they will be learning from me.

i have a few (very few) thoughts on how i think i might approach this task. but i realize that my friends and family are all highly intelligent people with brilliant ideas and lots of unique experiences. i'd be open to any and all constructive suggestions anyone might have as to how i could help these women learn english. post any thoughts here. seriously, dudes. ideas. i need them.

friends are good distracters

i thought i'd follow up the previous sad post with a bit more upbeat post.



thanks, melissa, for visiting over the weekend, especially given that essentially you paid a lot of money to put up with 2 cranky and depressed friends.

this picture was taken at congaree national park, where we beat the rain and took a nice little hike on saturday. we also ate good food, played games with more friends and drove around charlotte.

updates

i know chris has emailed and/or called most of his close friends and, for the most part, the word is out. so i thought i'd just go ahead and put it out here as well to get the prayers going. chris's dad, david, had his regular two-month check-up on thursday and they found some not so good news. the nodes are larger and more numerous in his lungs and it has metastasized again to his liver. obviously this is bad news and, in fact, is worse "bad news" than we really thought we'd get. the good news is that (other than the cancer) david is in excellent health. tricia keeps him pumped up on vitamins, he's eating healthier, goes to work, and is continuing to live his life like normal. he's going to go on 2 more chemos (4 total i think) and will keep going every other week to get his treatments.

that's pretty much all the news we have at this point but we'll update more as we know more. thanks, all, for your continued support and prayers for david and the family.

my cousins rock

literally.



last night chris and i went out to augusta, georgia to soul bar to hear my counsin's band, a fir ju well play. as always, the show was excellent and i am always immensely impressed by their level of skill and talent.

an added bonus was seeing fellow atlanta-based performer anna kramer.


anna was also an excellent performer and i really enjoyed her music. a fir ju well played backup for a bunch of her tunes and was impressed (yet again) by their level of skill on someone else's music.

both bands will be touring up the east coast and then a fir ju well will head west. check out both of a fir ju well's websites for dates and locations.

we took a bunch of pictures. click here to see the set.

just in case you doubted us

you may remember our stories about our peace corps recruiter being kind of flaky and always just repeating the same story to us.

well, we just got another round of emails from her today. thought i'd share, you know, so you all would be as up to date as we are.


Original Message from recruiter:

>From: "Lorenzo, Bernadette"
>To: 'waldie', chris reid
>Subject: Peace Corps
>Date: Fri, 10 Feb 2006 13:22:33 -0500
>
>February 10, 2006
>
>Hi Waldie and Chris:
>
>I just wanted to let you know that I submitted your biodata to
Placement.
>I
>will let you know when I hear something. Thanks for your patience.
>
>Sincerely,
>
>Bernadette Zayas Lorenzo


Chris's Response:

From: Christopher Reid
Sent: Friday, February 10, 2006 2:40 PM
To: Bernadette Lorenzo
Subject: RE: Peace Corps

Thanks so much. We look forward to seeing where the next steps take us.

Chris


Bernadette's Response to Chris's Response:

February 10, 2006

Hi Chris and Waldie:

Thanks for your patience. It is a longer and tougher process for
couples.

I'll let you know when I hear anything.

Thanks,

Bernadette
(404) 562-nnnn


...so, uh, there you go.

sean asked

"why does the organic milk i just bought have a "sell by" date of march
25th? if anything, i would have thought that things without weird
chemicals in them would have gone bad faster."

and i responded pretty much like: "i don't know. i've noticed that one too. i'll do a little digging to see what i can find."

so, sean and others, here's what i've found.

there's no straight answer, (when is there ever, right?) not even with organic (sigh). apparently, sean, we're not the only ones to notice this. when i googled "organic milk expiration date" a lot of good hits came up. there's all ends of the spectrum in this debate, ranging from these guys, who make some valid points but are a little too pro-business/conspiracy thinking for my palate, to this group of concerned parents, who explain that it's because organic milk is ultra-pasteurized (see the link to know more about what that means), which removes the microorganisms and spores that cause spoilage.

i just got up to see what brand of organic milk i bought this week (i vary depending on where i shop). i have organic valley, which is certainly one of the larger businesses selling organic foods. the expiration date is march 17th and it looks like the milk was shipped out of wisconsin, though i can't quite tell because it says on the box that it's processed and packaged at a plant stamped above but i think that info is in code.

this raises an important point, of which i am constantly amazed that i have to remind my nieve self--buyer beware (even with organic). even though you think you’re doing good by buying organic, sometimes you could still do better. i think the pro-business guys are right that you should really pay attention to where in the US your dairy products (and all products) are being shipped from because we all know that local is better in so many ways (and there’s no argument against that!).

so thanks, sean, for asking the question and forcing me to do some research. when i go to rosewood this weekend i’ll be sure to pick up all the milk boxes and take a closer look.

help save americorps nccc

most of you all know that in 2001 chris and i met while volunteering with americorps national civilian community corps. if you've ever spoken to either one of us about our year of service you'll know that it was one of the most rewarding, life-altering experiences we've ever had the prilige of having (an not just because we met each other;).

well, in an effort to cut down the federal budget, president bush is threatening to completely shut down the nccc program. it really doesn't look good, judging from the comments today by the chairman of the board and the ceo of the corporation for national service. they just basically said that they'd like enough money to shut down the programs properly.

in my opinion (and the opinion of countless others) that's just simply not good enough. please sign a petition to help save the nccc program. even better, send a personal letter to your senator or congress person.

here were my comments about why i think americorps nccc is worth saving:
AmeriCorps*NCCC is a program with a rich history steeped in dedicated, quality service toward the American public. Stemming from the Civilian Conservation Corps, which provided valuable jobs to needy & able Americans in the 30’s & 40’s as well as laying down the foundation for much of our nation’s valuable natural infrastructures, the NCCC has lived up to its legacy by providing a myriad of invaluable services to Americans in every corner of our country. NCCC members have provided services that range from disaster relief in 2001 to victims of the attacks on NY and DC and in 2005 to victims of hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, to helping build houses for the needy, to assisting low-income children achieve greater academic success. I implore you to maintain the funding of AmeriCorps*NCCC and allow future generations to continue delivering this valuable service to our fellow countrymen in need.

strike one

sorry, folks, for being MIA lately. i've just been swamped both at home and at work and have either not had the time or the brain power to put anything down here. it's not really going to let up until next month, too! yikes!

but we did have a little bit of new news today. we heard from catholic relief services, our thus far #1 choice for international service. and it was el negativo. chris spoke with the guy, a very nice gentlemen. and i was afraid we failed our personality tests. but that's not true. they just couldn't find a place to put us, a couple. so alas, that one's down. but it's good to know and we'll move on to other options. can't say i'm not bummed but we knew this going in. it's hard to find slots for married couples in the smaller programs. so it just wasn't meant to be and we'll look into putting more effort into the other 4 programs we're applying for.

blasted technology

here's a little fact about me. in some cases i'm really particular about details and making everything "just right," i.e. stuff at work. then, in other cases i couldn't care less about perfection, i.e. stuff with technology.

you may have noticed i've added a few links to the right of my blog. but my blog does some funny thing (it may have bothered you in the past) where it likes to just randomly add extra lines with bullets wherever it likes (eventhough the code is the same on each line). it now seems to want to be really obnoxious (look to your right now). if it bothers you you can either A) tell me how to fix it or B) suck it up.

i really don't care that much about it so i'm opting to B) suck it up (at least for tonight).

the trio is complete

check out my sister here. i can't promise it'll be grammatically correct, but she's a hoot!

weekend on

i wouldn't necessarily say we had a whole weekend on. but saturday chris and i spent 12 hours and 9 hours respectively roofing a house. we were volunteering with homeworks, a non-profit organization that does repairs on homes (kind of like habitat). it's always fun to get back into the saddle again, as they say. unless you end up like this:





and this is just the sunburn. you can't imagine how our arms, legs, hands, toes, EVERYTHING feels today. ouch! but good work was done. we should do it more often (once we recuperate).

eye of the tiger plays here

this is a little belated.



but contrats to kaiser for being a bad-ass! here's a marathon runner if i've ever seen one! that's 26.2 miles of pure running, for those not in the know. all for a good cause.

way to go, dude!

trip to the country

chris's nutz,
originally uploaded by Waldie's World.

chris and i went to south georgia this weekend to visit my grandparents who spend their winters down there. my parents were also visiting, so it was a double bonus.

it was good to be out in the quiet of the country and hear nothing but birds chirping (and dogs barking). we picked pecans! now we just have to find a place to get the cracked (anyone in columbia know of a place??). and we picked fresh turnips. i cooked them tonight at home. delicious!

i can't repost it

so i just sat here for like an hour and drafted this long post about chris's drug-induced recovery from his colonoscopy and how upsetting it was to see my husband so vulnerable. but before i could actually publish the post netscape crashed and i lost the whole post. it was really emotional for me to write and i just can't write it again.

i'll just leave it at this: i love my husband. it was heartwrenching for me to see his mind so altered. the image will be permanently engraved in my mind. i hope that we never have to deal with that permanently. life is delicate.

mom and bo, one night only!

as chris referenced, he and i made the treck to good ol' "hot-lanta" in the cold season to visit the parents.



mom helps out some friends with their wholesale business once a year at the americasmart. this place was crazy! the picture, of course, doesn't do it justice. this was just one of the buildings and the floors just go up and up.



one highlight, among many, was visiting with our favorite band (and cousins) a-fir-ju-well, redubbed for the weekend el-fir-ju-well.

a small rant

chris and i were all jazzed up to go to the georgia aquarium this weekend in atlanta. that is, until we realized it would be close to 50 bucks for us both to get in! that's right. $23 per ticket! that's crazy. so, needless to say, we won't be seeing the whale shark this weekend, not because he's not worth it, but because we can't afford it. :(

Don't think I forgot

Happy Birthday, Chirper!

An Epiphany on the Epiphany

I have suddenly realized something. And it’s not so much that I just now suddenly realized it. Because, truly, it’s a thought I’ve had all along during this process, but the reality of what it means has come to light for me and Chris during the past few days and I feel it’s worthy of a mention.

Many years ago Chris and I decided that we were going to Africa to be missionaries. It was a decision that the two of us made with much deliberation and much discussion between he and I . During the process, we have never gone to our family and friends and asked their permission to do this. We have asked advice. We have asked for blessings. But, like people do in major life decisions (marriages, moves, pregnancies), we just made a choice and moved forward with our plans.

Today (or over the course of the past couple of days, actually) I think Chris and I really started to understand the sacrifice that our friends and family are going to be making when we finally do go abroad. As I said, Chris and I made this decision about our life, but in so many ways, we made a major decision on behalf of everyone who cares for us. Because while we are gone in Africa, we are not at home with them. I know this may not translate to the blogosphere so well. But what I mean is that our friends and family will miss out on having us as a major part of their lives for the 2 years that we’re gone. We will not be there for holidays, celebrations, funerals (God forbid), accomplishments, etc. It is not simply that WE will miss these occasions, but we will not be there for THEM during these times. And in most cases, (as much as it may baffle me:) they seem to want us there. I don’t mean to sound egotistical or anything here. Bear with me.

My sister went to Italy for a year in college. Even all these years later, I still remember the Christmas she was gone as one that just was not right. It was like a piece of me was gone because she was not there. I was so used to her being around on holidays that I did not realize how much of ME resides with HER and how much of that comes out when we are together.

THAT is the sacrifice that we are asking our families to make. And that, in many cases, is a huge sacrifice for them. A sacrifice that they had no say in.

Now, I must say for the record that ultimately I don’t think that we should have asked anyone’s permission. And I am not necessarily apologizing for the decision that we have made to be missionaries. I am not apologizing because in many ways I think that the feelings of loss that some might actually have a purpose.

For one, that sense of loss that will be felt by our family is a microcosm for the loss and pain that the people we’ll be helping feel every day of their lives. Certainly I don’t mean this in terms of family and friends, because I am sure that they will have that. I mean in terms of equality, justice, sanitary conditions, basic human needs. The people in the part of the world that we look to serve are missing a whole lot more than we can ever imagine and I think that it is important for people to think about loss on a global scale, as well as a personal scale.


A second way that I think the feelings of loss can serve a purpose is in that it shows how connected our world is. When we speak of our world in terms of its global scale, we often think in terms of technology or environment. But I like to think of it this way. As I mentioned previously, while we are gone small pieces of our loved ones will also be gone with us. But we will be bringing those pieces of our friends and family with us to Africa. That piece of you that may be missing on Christmas when I am not there…that piece will be with me when I am in Africa as I am telling my story to those I meet. So even though our friends and family may not physically be present with us while we are gone, you will be there. And you will contribute to our service in a very real way. And when we come home, we will be bringing pieces of Africa with us to share with you. We will be bringing the world closer together as we try to make this planet more livable. It is an amazing way that you all will be sharing in our service.

I know you all did not ask to share in our service. But you will. What greater sacrifice can there be than to give of one’s own? And, essentially, without a choice. I cannot think of any greater sacrifice. And so to our family and friends, I say thank you.

extolling the virtues of the avocado

ethnicly sheek,
originally uploaded by Waldie's World.

our friend, ian was so thoughtful as to give us for christmas the BEST cookbook EVER! (no offense to any other cookbook anyone has ever given me in the past). it's written by angela shelf medearis who writes children's books, aparently. but that's neither here nor there.

i've only been home from vacation about 1 week and i've already made 4 recipes from this book. it's just totally cool. the best so far?

check this out (wow is it good!):
avocado, grapefruit, and spinach salad

1 large, firm avocado, peeled, seeded and sliced
1 large pink grapefruit, peeled, seeded and divided into sections
6 c. baby spinach leaves
1/4 c. grapefruit juice
1 tsp honey
1/2 tsp dijon mustard
1 clove garlic, minced
1/3 c. olive oil
1 tsp salt
1 tsp ground pepper

combine avocado and grapefruit and chill for 30 minutes.

mix all the remaining ingredients together (except spinach) with a wisk. dish out the spinach onto plates. cover with avocado and grapefruit and pour over dressing.

(the dressing itself is sooooo good. very refreshing!)

CRS update

chris and i had a "telephone discussion" today with catholic relief services. the point of the conversation was simply for them (gerald lambert, in this case) to tell us the process of applying and for us to ask him any questions we had at this point. we talked for about an hour and he really clarified a lot of info for us. basically we're at the very beginning of the process.

we've done steps 1A (initial application) and 1B (phone call), next is 1C, followed by 2A-C and 3 A & B. he's mailing us a mental health questionnaire which will, apparently, determine if we're crazy (yikes!) and then we actually apply (step 2A), which is like 20 pages long. so, we've got a long way to go, folks. but we told gerald that we were really excited about the program and that we were interested in continuing with the process.

some intersting points about crs: although the volunteer program is new (it's currently in its first year), crs is very well established and has programs in 99 countries around the world. of those, there are basically like 55 potential countries that crs would think of placing volunteers. this gives them the ability to be fairly flexible in their placements according to volunteers skills and knowledge, as well as their intersts. also, the volunteers serve 16 months abroad and then 6 months in the us basically spreading the word about international needs and global issues (cool!). they are expecting to accept only about 13 volunteers this year (out of a pool of around 100-150).

goodbye vacation

it's been so nice having you around. i look forward to the next time our paths cross...

new year's resolutions

new year's day is traditionally celebrated by the catholic church as the world day of peace. i can't think of a better way to start the new year.

as such, our priest's sermon this morning was about peace. he quoted some thoughts by ron rolheiser which i thought were especially poignant. i don't know what specific piece of writing father tim was inspired by but i did a little internet searching and found this article.

in the article, ron rolheiser is speaking about working toward peace and how, quite simply, we need to be the change we wish to see in the world. he further states (and i wholehearted connect to this) that we often get overwhelmed with the lack of peace in our world and the seemingly impenetrable amount of destruction and inequality that we often just think that we can't really do anything about them. but, he says:

"Large, global issues notwithstanding, issues of personal integrity are generally what make or break our happiness, not to mention our character and our intimate relationships. In the end, they aren't petty concerns at all. They shape the big things. Social morality is simply a reflection of private morality. What we see in the global picture is simply a magnification of the human heart."

in other words, ron rolheiser is asking: how can we build a just world without first dealing with these issues in the inner recesses of our hearts? how often do i snap back at someone with a hurtful witticism, or lay someone off with a passive-aggressive response? how often do i harbor my own feelings of destruction and inequality which inevitably taint my actions?

ron rolheiser asks: "How are we to build a just, loving world, if we cannot, first of all, tame selfishness inside us?"

holy smokes! how can that be legal?

despite the fact that i've lived in south carolina for 2 1/2 years and have celebrated 3 new years eves here, last night i experienced my first true "south carolina" new years. we went to some friends' house out in the boonies to hang out, play some games* and light fireworks . it was unbelievable! i've never really seen "non-professional" fireworks, having grown up in a state (surrounded by other states) where fireworks were illegal. all i could say was "holy smokes!" they scared the crap out me. they were like real fireworks that, like, went up in the air and let off spays of color(s). it was totally crazy. i kept wishing mom was there because the booms were really loud and i know she likes those. fun times, but definitely a dangerous sport.

*as an aside, chris kicked butt on dance dance revolution (but not on karaoke revolution).

they drink human urine, you know

meep meep,
originally uploaded by Waldie's World.

this is a sad story. but, not to sound like a know-it-all because i really don't know that much about it, but i have know about the diminishing number of pikas since 2001, while working in americorps. in july of 2001 i had the unique experience of working on mount harvard at an altitude of 14,420 feet to help build trails for hikers. it was one of the most difficult experienes of my life. but that's completely irrelevant to this post.

at the top of the mountain were two types of animals, pikas and marmots. pikas are extremely rare and are only found at the tops of mountains, as the cnn article states. i was told by our site leader that not many people have studied them but we know that with the increasing temperatures, the very delicate tundra of high mountains are diminishing, causing a decline in both animals.

as a side note, those of you who know my embarrassing story about being incredibly ill on the mountian and being "meep meeped" at by small animals who wanted to eat my urine...this was one such animal.

while i'm blogging

i thought i might add this quote, which is taken from donald wood's book biko.

"there exists amongst men, because they are men, a solidarity through which each shares responsibility for every injustice and every wrong committed in the world and especially for crimes that are committed in his presence or of which he cannot be ignorant. if i do not do whatever i can to prevent them, i am an accomplice in them. if i have not risked my life in order to prevent the murder of other men, if i have stood silent, i feel guilty in a sense that cannot in any adequate fashion be understood juridically or politically or morally...that i am still alive after such things have been done weighs on me as a guilt that cannot be expiated.

"somwhere in the heart of human relations, an absolute command imposes itself; in case of criminal attack or of living conditions that threaten physical being, accept life for all together or not at all."

donald is of course talking about apartheid in south africa and the call for all people (white, black and other) to not just talk about the evils of the separate state, but to act as well. and the words are actually attributed to karl jaspers. but i thought these words really summarized my feelings and are a great answer to the question people often ask of me and chris, "why go to africa?"

v'burg visit

for all those wondering, our mississippi trip was very pleasant. i am sure that chris will post about it more. he actually wanted to post tonight, but seeing that he's passed out on the chair at the moment, i thought i'd link these pictures from fuzzy.

thanks for the gift cards!

you all will be happy to know that our camera issue has been resolved. no, we did not find the old camera that walked away (wouldn't that have been nice!?). today we purchased a new camera, thanks in part to gift cards and christmas/birthday money. we decided on a different camera, one with a higher zoom and greater megapixels. i think i just couldn't buy the one we had before because it would seem like a step back and that was just more depressing. so hopefully this little buddy will be a good investment. and i'm not taking it to work this time!

cats and presents

well, my parents beat me to it. but happy birthday hubby! it will be full of cats and presents, for what more could you ask?

as you, dear readers may want to know, chris and i made it to mississippi in record time and it was probably the easiest trip we've made thus far, except we got a crack in our windshield about 10 miles from our destination and we're taking our car in the AM to have the tired checked out b/c it's making a strange "thump-thump" sound.

other than that, on a complete tangent, we've heard from catholic relief services. they wanted to schedule a "telephone conversation" today. but we are unable to accommodate because we're picking up chris's sister at the airport at the exact time they wanted to chat. so we're hoping to reschedule for early january. will keep you posted as we know more. very exciting!

a carolin' means christmas

last night a select few of us (some of my favorites, in fact) from our YACS! (Young Adult CatholicS) group went christmas caroling at an independant living facility. i have to say, i was a little nervous about just going out and caroling. you just never know the reception you're going to get. and, hey, i'll admit it, sometimes retirement facilitites are depressing. plus, our group had no "formal training," persey, and i wasn't sure i wanted to go make a fool of ourselves (though i guess the hard-of-hearing are a good group to do that in front of).

in any event, it turned out surprisingly well. chris and i both agreed that it was a great time. i hadn't sung carols since i was a kid in the choir. it was really...well...christmasy. not to mention the fact that the residents loved us (even the jewish woman with the hanukka sign on her door requested "we wish you a merry christmas)." it was just so sweet. one touching moment was when a woman called us into her apt (we were singing up and down the halls). she said she was the resident's nurse and that she had "been critical" for the past few days. the nurse had stayed with her night and day and was just trying to get her to hold on. she said that she wanted to give the resident some sort of feeling of christmas but couldn't figure out how since she couldn't leave her bed. so we went into the woman's bedroom and sang 3-4 songs for her while the nurse sat in the living room crying. really touching. i guess this goes to show what i have always believed but don't often practice: it's always important to step outside your comfort zone. you don't know what you'll find, but it's often something life-altering.

on with the festivities

so the party on saturday went off with nary a hitch (with the exception of a few medium-sized children running wild in our house for the first half of the night, no biggy). we estimate we had about 40 people over throughout the course of the night. not the masses we had anticipated based on previous experience. but that's a solid number and keeps the choas in a bit of order. though now we have lots of food and cider left over which we'll dispose of tonight when we go caroling with friends. you can read one review of the event here.

today is jim's birthday. so i should say, "HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BO!" sorry we're not there to go to the movies with you. but in honor of your birthday, i'm giving blood this afternoon.

the joy of the season...

is knowing that it's 1:00 PM on friday and i don't have to be into work for another 426 1/2 hours (that's just over 2 weeks folks, keep up!). that's just fabulous. if i weren't so drained i'd be a bit more overtly enthusiastic. but do not be fooled, i'm ecstatic.

so, what do i plan to do? rest? not yet. big party tomorrow. so for now more cooking and cleaning and sprucin' up the joint. party. then rest. maybe sneak a movie (king kong) in there too.

on a side note, if i had a camera (which you all may remember , i don't), i'd take a picture of the cutest wreath that i made. my first attempt. hurt like crap to put together, thanks pointy evergreen!, but it's cute!

i am thinking

i should blog something. but i'm too tired.

*horray for amy for graduating by the way! we'll miss you.

the lion, the witch and tito puente

this weekend has been chock full o' movie-going and cookie-making, both of which are obvious signs of the holidays for me.

friday night i saw pride and prejudice (i know. i know. p&p on the opening weekend of narnia! don't worry, read on.) with the ladies and was honored to be invited into "the nightcap club," a club of whose existance i had no previous knowledge. basically i was the recipient of a hand-made nightcap like they wore in the "olden days." thanks mag, i shall wear it with pride!

saturday i spent making cookings and other goodies for our upcoming shindig and other various holiday obligations.

then today, sunday, we went to the much-anticipated narnia. i'm sure chris will give a full review in due time. i'm not really a "review-giving" kind of person. but i'll just say it was fabulous. it's been years since i read the book so i really didn't recall the nitty-gritty of the story line; so i have no clue where they deviated from the book. but the acting was great, animation amazing, music fabulous, and i was totally pleased. but that whole good vs. evil thing gets me every time.

the rest of the day--you guessed it--more cookie making. but as chris and i decorated our cute, cute, cute cut out sugar cookies, we rocked out to tito puente.

friday afternoon musings

i am breathing a sigh of relief as my week from hell is over. i can't say the week got worse but it certainly didn't get any better.

i am comforted by the thought that i have only one more week left and then 2 weeks off. so right now i plan to curl up on the couch and watch one of my two comfort movies, i haven't decided yet which one (and those who know me well will know the choices), as i make christmas cards.

if this week were a jeopardy category...

it'd be "week from hell" for $1000.

my week was already going to be hectic enough, what with a few more potlucks (2 in one day), the conclusion of the big program i run at work, as well as the preparation for graduation and various other end-of-the-year rushy-rush-rush stuff. but add to that the fact that my (our) digital camera has disappeared ("taken" perhaps by someone at work), my nice bracelet (yes, the one chris gave me for our wedding) broke, my ink cartrige is out (bad time of year to try and get another one from the school supply lady), and oh...what else can i heap on there?? that seems like enough for now. it seems like every day has had a minor disaster that makes it really difficult to clear my already full plate.

the bright side (because there always has to be one): i'm done my christmas shopping, i have all the parts to the bracelet to fix it, and i'm not working another 12 hour day this week. i'll make it through, (dramatic sigh goes here).

(p.s. hope you're having fun in florida, mom and jim. jerks!

holiday-friendly shopping

chris and i ventured out today and took advantage of some holiday shopping. we first went to the "normal" haunts that most folks go to (target, bed bath and beyond, and other large box stores). then we stopped by columbia's new ten thousand villages store. it was so great. we loved every thing in the store. i wish i had gone there before buying most of my presents already!

so i thought i'd spread the word and tell folks to shop there online. support fair trade and artisan crafts. (of course there are lots of other cool places to shop fair trade as well, this is just one.)

delayed

snooz-fest.,
originally uploaded by Waldie's World.

Yup, this pretty much sums up most people's Thanksgivings, I think. Eltriptophan-induced sleep. Except that doesn't explain why I pass the heck out after one* of our meals.

In any event, it wasn't all sleeping, I'll have you know. There was plenty of walks on the beach, eating, playing with the kids, eating, early christmas present-opening, and dog shenanigans. Click on the image or here to see the picts of our weekend of fun.

(Thanks Waldies for the good times. Always great to see you and catch up. Thanks mom and jim for the hospitality and food and you know...everything.)

*The dinners were all were so delicious and I ate too much at all of them so i can't remember which meal it was that I passed out, Thanksgiving or another one.

more is less with peace corps

quick update on peace corps just to let you know that we don't know. our regional recruiter called today basically to say that nothing will happen with our application until february of 2006. i am not really sure how that differs from what she originally told us nor do i know what that means in the grand scheme of things. but that's what we now know--february.

in february the folks in washington, dc, will sit down and look at all the couples who have applied. based on our experiences and the projects available the pc people will pick who they think would be a good fit for each project. when i was on the phone with the recruiter she was leading me to believe that this was a setback. but now that i'm thinking more about it i'm realizing that it is right on the path of what we read and heard.

but regardless, in february we will hopefully know at least whether or not we will be moving forward.

how do veggies spend thanksgiving?

vegetarians often get weird quesions at thanksgiving. it's ok, we're used to it. so to answer the age-old question, what do you DO without meat (because what IS thanksgiving without a dead bird on your dinner table)? check out this website to find out what we do to replace the void in our dinner.

thanks, kaiser for the link:)

test failure

i tried to send myself a blog posting using my email address from work this morning. but, because you do not see the post here you know it failed. oh well. but i know why! i had the wrong address. duh.

in any event, the post was pretty much this.
i'd be crabby because it's a monday, it's rainy and i'm note feeling too hot. but it's a 2 day work week (now with 1 day down), our heat (finally!) kicked on last night, and i went to bed at 9:30. so i actually don't feel so bad today!

peace corps interview

that was a painless interview. i was wrong though, our recruiter didn't forget about us. but, like last time, she called and asked for 15 more minutes to look over our file. in any event, we still really don't know anything. she's as vague as you'd expect from the government. so she told us *again* that it's a "different process for couples" "i have to speak my coordinator and see what to do next" "you have to be flexible" "there's a different process for couples" "it may take a little longer" "there's a different process for couples".

sooooo, if you ask what we've heard from peace corps we'll say....

you guessed it folks, "it may take a little longer, it's a different process for couples."

ttickets in hand. ready to go

for harry potter of course. not for the carolina clemson game that i keep hearing about even though i couldn't care less. though i guess i should care if it's in columbia or not b/c the traffic is always a pain (anyone in cola can you fill me in on that?).

back to HP. about 100 pages to read before 6:00 tonight. i've been trying to breeze through the book again in time for the movie. that's why i've been mia on the posting this week. sorry folks.

and we should be getting a call any second now from our peace corps recruiter to do our couples interview. she's 4 1/2 minutes late already. wouldn't be surprised if she forgot about it. more on that later.

el negativo

today was just one of those days where everything was either totally negative or misunderstood as wrong. i spent a large part of my day writing a negative recommendation, if that makes sense. i had to write a document about how this guy stinks at his job and is not holding up his end of the bargain. what a waste of energy! and then the rest of the day i was defending myself for something that i was instructed to do. mondays, bah!

BTW

i know i spelled "hardqore" wrong in my previous post. if you really want to know, it's an insider reference about a friend who was so HQ he ate one egg for every day of month for a whole month (as in 1 egg on the 1st, 2 eggs on the 2nd...you get it).

paint the world in technology

ok, so i was supposed to get off work at noon today. but there was a little painting project going on at one of my schools and i just couldn't resist joining in. this particular school is under construction resulting in part of our campus being cordoned off by particle board barriers. the 2 magnificent art teachers decided to paint murals along the walls of the construction to prevent students from tagging them with their own artwork. various teachers and volunteers were painting all day today but there is just so much to do that they really weren't making any headway. and it was a beautiful day in sunny south carolina, so instead of leaving at noon i decided to stay and help.

while painting i was engaged in conversation with one of my coworkers and she was talking about her husband who works in 4 richland two high schools as a german teacher. he uses distance education to teach his classes. the classrooms are all hooked up with computer systems that are networked to a distant location and then the teacher teaches the students through a system of video conferencing. now i know this is nothing relatively new, they did it in college. but i just thought it was so amazing that they're doing this on the high school level. and i started thinking, why don't people do this in developing countries to help rural schools get teachers?

now let me say that i know someone must be doing this already. and i'm sure it's not as simple as i'm making it. but "they" say that technology is what is going to bring the 3rd world out of poverty.

so i'm just saying...i'm going to look into this...

hardqore fightin'

tonight i got a butty-kicking by my husband. no! not a real butty-kicking. in mortal combat shaolin monks on the XBOX. erica and fuzzy sent it to us for free (thanks guys!) about a month ago because their now ex-roommate is the producer. but until tonight we've not even had time to unwrap it. but this evening i was able to distract chris for a few minutes to kick my butt. but then after about 15 minutes i got bored (typical me) and left chris in there for another 1/2 hour while he played alone (typical him). so now i can hear the sounds of butt-kicking coming from the back but i don't know whose butt is being kicked this time.

i'm rerun

if you had asked me to name all the peanuts characters (like the ladies did last night during outburst) i wouldn't have thought of rerun. which makes sense considering this character type is-what is it?- "often overlooked by people." i don't know if i'm always rerun, but lately i've been a little down in the dumps so i'll say it's true right now.


Which Peanuts Character are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

my part?

in the wake (pardon the pun) of the newest disaster, i've been utterly horrified at how helpless i've felt to do anything. every day i've heard the numbers of the dead rise and rise and rise, now reaching upwards of 73,000 and knowing the numbers will get bigger as the himalayan winter approaches.

so thanks to a recent dog walking job (and thanks mag for passing it on to me) i've been able to send a little money. i know they say that if everyone gave a few bucks the people in need would be able to get shelter and escape some of the most harshest circumstances. but i can't help but wish i could do more. but for now i suppose this'll have to do.

it represents my personality

"it" meaning hot tomales, of course. that's what a 6th grader said to my coworker, ami, yesterday when she commented on how much he liked hot tomales. it was one of the wittiest lines i'd heard in a while. it just hit my funny bone because here's this awkward little white boy and he says hot tomales represent his personality! hilarious!

all this happened at a middle school dance, mind you. i made a booth with a guessing game and candy as a prize. it was actually more fun than i was expecting. i hadn't been to a middle school dance since...well, i was in middle school. and i was not particularly fond of them at that time. but i found it mildly amusing to be at the dance, of course compounded with feelings of compassion for the kids who were there because you know there's always drama at a middle school dance. heck, what am i saying? everything's drama in middle school period. but anyways, yea, good times. and hot tomales apparently are the new craze.

a swing and a hit

today was my first go at eucharistic ministering at st. thomas more. i found myself oddly nervous. i was thinking that because i'd done it like a bazillion times at my old church, i'd feel like an old hat. but i really was afraid i'd make a mistake. probably i was intimidated because i was worried that everyone in the church would be looking at me like, hey, who's the new EM?

but anyways, it went off without a hitch. i really enjoyed it. what i liked most which i don't remember thinking about before, was that i got to really connect with about 1/2 the people in the church. i looked them in the eye and then, as i placed the eucharist in their hands, i generally touched their hand (or their tongue for the one lady! oops!). it just felt like i was bringing the community closer to me and i really liked that feeling.

i'm up at bat again at 8:00 AM this tuesday, as it's all saint's day (a holy day of obligation, if you pay attention to that stuff).

catching up

this weekend chris and i teamed up with tricia and adam to drive up to asheville to visit michelle. it was a fun-filled weekend which include delicious home cookin' (thanks michelle and scott for the great meal!), a shortish hike in bad shoes, wonderful restaurants, a random high schooler swimming in the city fountain, my cousin hannah, a brisk view of the clouds surrounding craggy gardens, and good conversation with good friends, just to name a few.

thanks guys for the good times.

p.s. to michelle, i'd have featured a solo picture of you but i don't have a picture of you alone, so i hope this'll do;)

a year in the life

dara brown's blanket,
originally uploaded by Waldie's World.

i can't believe it, but on 10/21/05 i finally finished cross stitching this blanket. i started around christmas time last year when i found out my friends dave and maria were expecting their first child. well, almost a year later i've finally finished the blanket. dara is now over 4 months old!

so, the lesson learned is it takes longer to make a blanket than a baby. remember that when you're thinking of doing either.

whose child is this?

check out my brother's blog for a hilarous rendering of my mother and a recent unfortunate event.

peace corps interview

some have been asking how my peace corps interview went on friday, though i think i might have already recounted my impressions to most of you. but for those who're interested here's a brief summary.

the long and the short of it is that we'll definitely get into peace corps (barring any medical complications). bernadette, our regional recruiter, said that she was going to start the recommendation process before we've even finished our interviewing with her. see chris's post for more detailed info on the process (or the peace corps website). in any event, she has to recommend us to national peace corps, then they call us back with an offer. when bernadette recommends us she picks a location and a type of job she thinks we'd be good at. pc national can take the recommendation by offering us something within those paramaters or they could offer us something totally different, it's their descration based on what is available. anyways, bernadette has it in her head that we would be best suited for an agricultural assignment. now if you know me and chris at all you'll know that our agricultural experience pails in comparison to our youth work and community development experience and you might be thinking we'd be more suited to that type of work. but bernadette does not really listen so well to what we want. she wants us to be "flexible" and be "open to the peace corps experience." she says that they are in dire need of people willing to do ag work and that it is extremely difficult to place couples, leading us to believe this might be the only way we'd get into pc in the next decade.

now, i think in general an agricultural assignment wouldn't be so bad if it were in africa . we'd still be in the country of our choice; we'd still be living and working in the community and learning a lot about the culture; and frankly, all povery, social inequality, etc. in developing countries are tied very closely to agriculture. so that would be cool. BUT bernadette has given us doubt that she is really listening to our desires and chris and i are sceptical that we'll get africa. so in summation, we're still going through the process with pc, but we're really going to be sure to have some other back up programs which might be more suited to our specific desires. (our couples interview is friday, november 18th--more then.)

they're up

you got it, square dancing old folks!,
originally uploaded by Waldie's World.

finally posted the pictures from the weekend in mississippi. click on the picture to see the album.

witty title goes here (i'm tired tonight)

after 2+ years of sitting (peacefully i might add!) and not actively participating in church in terms of lectoring, eucharistic ministering or what-have-you, i've finally decided to get up and serve again. there's really no excuse for me taking so long to do it, except that i got worn out from my last church, which i admit is a poor excuse because that's why people get worn out (because there's not enough of us!). but anyways, tonight i got trained (which is a funny concept as i was never trained before) but i appreciated the training. and starting next sunday i'll be a eucharistic minister again. check out the schedule if you'd like to come at receive from me (that's a joke). i'm looking forward to it.

thanks acs

i can't believe i'm saying it, but thank you, student loan corporation. they just forgave $300 of my undergraduate perkins loan because i work with "at risk youth." for once it pays to work for no money! woohoo!

a small step for mankind (catkind?)

allie,
originally uploaded by Waldie's World.

alright, i don't 100% buy maslow's hierarchy of needs as an absolute theory that will explain or fix everything in and of itself. but i do think he had a good point on the lowest level and i got to see it in action this weekend.

on thursday chris's parents found this kitten (if you can call it that, it's so small (smaller than the picture looks!)). they tried to put the kitten with another momma cat who had just given birth, but she rejected him. so they brought her into the house and started bottle feeding her. on thursday she was so small and starving for food and water that she could barely hold her head up. on friday, when chris and i arrived, she was mostly sleeping and lolling around, waking only to eat (voraciously!). by saturday she was interacting a bit and even peeing! on sunday, though, she had a complete transformation. she was roaming around the house, eating the solid food in the other cats' bowls and even playing (with the one who wouldn't hiss and swat at her, thanks buffy).

i have to say, as someone who works in the world of long range goals it was amazing and gratifying to see a theory in action. as i watched the kitten gain more and more strength (and subsequently, gain skills) i felt that she was taking the small steps that so many of the kids in our country are also struggling to take. so many skeptics think that children can overcome any obstacle, and they can. but there are people out there struggling to just make it another day. if this kitten can undergo such a drastic transformation over a weekend imagine the difference that can be made in our country if we just gave people a fair chance.

honeymooners

happy (10th?) anniversary tomorrow to mom and jim!

reid shinanigans

this weekend chris and i head off to mississippi for the reid family reunion. some highlights to be expected (in no certain order):

seeing the reids (of course)
the reid reunion on sunday
sleeping in a king sized bed in a dark cool room
going to the mississippi fair (fried candy bars, perhaps?)
meeting the blues (finally!)
lots of animals!

enough is enough

dag yo! when does it become a child welfare issue??

FAST

i facilitated the second session (out of 10) of my families and schools together program at elw last night. it went really well. actually, it was probably the smoothest session i've ever run. that would be thanks in part to two things: 1) only 5 families (also out of 10) showed up. i'd love to have better attendance, but it is always easier to have fewer people. 2) i have a really good team. sure there's one guy who does nothing, but you'll always have that. the other staff and volunteers are great! (thanks tricia helping out!) they're the kind of people who can just do something and not have to be walked through it, which seems to be an amazingly rare trait these days. so thanks guys for making my job easier!

papa reid update

the CAT scan on friday indicated still no change. he will continue chemo as regularly scheduled and the next checkup will be in december. the doctor was very pleased, as are we.

caffeine

caffeine,
originally uploaded by Waldie's World.

one of my most favorite things in the world is my morning cup of coffee. i am very particular about it. i usually only have one cup a day, no more, definitely no less. but what provides me with almost more joy than the actual cup of morning joe is the arrival of my new shipment (ordered in 5 pound packages). for the next 6 months i'll be savoring oromia blend.

hurry up and wait

i had my peace corps interview scheduled for 2:00 PM today. for the past couple of days i kept thinking it was at 12:00 and had to remind myself, no waldie, not 12:00. it's 2:00. 2:00! bernadette lorenzo was going to call home at 2:00 and i was totally jazzed.

well at 12:00 the phone rang and it was bernadette rescheduling the interview! perhaps i'm psychic.

but i'm bummed because i was really excited about the interview. not just excited about the interview itself, but i like to get things done. this would've been another check off the list of things to get done and would've been one step closer to being in africa.

oh, well. so now we're rescheduled for friday, october 21st at 3:00. this time, i'm going to keep thinking 3:00 and it'll happen. hopefully.

another one enters the blogosphere

gashwin.

1 hour 15 later

turns out they didn't really need me at the red cross afterall. i should've known, and i kind of did. but i sat for an hour and talked to a very nice case worker/volunteer, got a brief tour of the building, and came home an hour early. that's my karma for laughing when chris's application got overlooked a month ago.

the good news is that i got home an hour early. and as i'm sitting here typing this the phone rang and i was able to have a very pleasant conversation with my father-in-law, with whom i speak rarely, if ever, on the phone.

diggin'

diggin',
originally uploaded by Waldie's World.

this is a picture of chris, with our head lamp on, trying to get something from behind the stove. something i dropped, i should add. what a sweet husband.

but i posted this picture because it seemed to be a fair euphemism for what this week has been like...diggin' to stay afload.

both chris and i have been super busy for the past few days. he's been busy with school work, exams, and work work. i worked 10+ hours monday, 12+ hours tuesday. and today i finally worked a normal workday, but i am about to head off to volunteer for red cross katrina disaster relief. it's my first night at it so i'll let you know how it goes. i don't really know what to expect but at least it's not my normal work.

that goat's got devil eyes!

as many of you know, chris and i have no tv. so we tend to be a little out of the loop when it comes to tv shows and pop culture....alright, alright, it's ME who's out of the loop. chris reads enough magazines and "stuff" to keep him amazingly up to date. ANYWAYS, at a friend's house on friday night i was FINALLY able to see some of snl's tracy morgan skits, brian fellow's safari planet and astronaut jones. i didn't see all of the shows, but i saw some of the favorite and oft quoted of the reid family. hilarious!

i heart america

yesterday i went to the opening ceremony and swearing in of the new city year class in columbia. i love going to those events every year. it reminds me of my own americorps year, which i feel so far removed from, and makes me feel connected again. i even teared up during the star spangled banner, which i've been known to do from time to time. it also reminded me that good things are always happening in small movements around the country and that people are working to make positive change. it's nice to have those refreshers every once in a while.