Wednesday 30 November 2009: Run Vera Run!

My friend Kristen has spent the last many months helping to organize Run Vera Run, a 5 k run/walk on 10/11 to benefit the Vera Project, Seattle’s all-ages music and art venue. You should do this!

Run Vera Run includes:

A lovely loop around Seward Park, starting and ending at the main lawn at the base of the park.

The Official Run Vera Run Warmup: Before you run for Vera, warm yourself up with Vera co-founder Shannon Stewart, aka Inga the Ringa. Fresh off the streets of Budapest, Inga will bring you twenty minutes of the latest European aerobics fitness crazes (minus the smoking of course).

Live music by local band The Maldives

A graffiti wall painted live on-site by local artists

Complimentary massage for participants by Dr. Kristi Smith

Prizes, food and refreshments, including coffee by Caffe Vita

If I wasn’t so very pregnant I’d be the first one to sign up. Watch out for me next year!

Tuesday 29 September 2009: National Treasures

Who knows how this study can really be accurate, but it’s interesting if nothing else. A group of researchers at Kansas State University released a map of national vices, charting which parts of the country are the most and least steeped in each of the seven deadly sins.

Looks like Seattle is leading the way in greed (thank you Microsoft), envy (thank you gentrification), and pride (thank you moderate climate, excellent coffee and very tall mountains).

Monday 28 September 2009: Cooler than Cool

Women in their 50s in Columbia are earning a living making arty maternity dresses that grow with you, courtesy of Marisol Rodriguez:

In Skin, her limited-edition line of stylish, expandable clothing for pregnant women, she applies origami to organic cotton to break the hide-the-bulge mold of most maternity wear.

How do I place my order?

Friday 25 September 2009: Vintate Vantage

Favorite finds from my lunch break (from L to R): dental sample kit, Bakelite bangles and turtle pin, Bakelite adding machine with mint buttons, watch circle from the 50s

Thursday 24 September 2009: Sparky, Audrey, Russ

Wednesday 23 September 2009: Two Hearts Beat as One

When you’re pregnant you think about all of the women in the world who are pregnant at the very same time. You wonder how many women are due on the same day you are, how their pregnancies are going, and if they’re in the Third World how that might mean sporadic or non-existent medical care. Then you think about how crazy it is to live in the States–it’s not Canada, but still–to live here and to see the doctor every month, to hear your baby’s heart.

The sound of it is like eating Cream of Wheat on the first snowy morning or jumping into a pile of towels straight from the dryer. And you want every pregnant women everywhere to hear her baby’s heart, too.

I was surprised to read this on the Design Observer, but it seems like that may begin to be possible thanks to a new hand-cranked Freeplay fetal heart monitor:

…a fetal heart rate monitor whose robust form and hyper-simple interface are combined with sophisticated Doppler ultrasound technology that allows rural healthcare workers to track the cardiac response of babies in the womb and during birth. One minute of cranking by hand generates enough battery life for 10 minutes of use. A numerical display indicates the fetal heart rate, while an audio component amplifies the actual sound — a double indication of whether or not the baby is in distress.

Read all about it here.

Tuesday 22 September: Foxfire

Have you seen the Worst Case Scenarios Basic Survival Guides? How to survive nuclear fallout, how to catch a fish without a rod, that sort of thing. They’re fun and sort-of useful, maybe like watching Man vs. Wild.

I was leafing through Foxfire 4 on Sunday night with its hand-drawn illustrations straight out of Appalachia about how to make your own bread knive, berry basket. I love how earnest and slow food the Foxfire books are. How back-to-school. Maybe if I collected the whole series of 12 Johnny Appleseed would come a-knockin’.

Monday 21 Septeber 2009: Meaning meaning

We made a mobile for baby this weekend, foraged for leaves at the Arboretum and went to the art supply store to buy fishing line and dowel rods and paper-thin pieces of plywood.

Then we went home, traced the leaves and cut them out of the plywood, drilled holes near the stems and cut out the shape of a tree with an exacto knife for the center. We colored the leaves with pastels, laced thread through the h0les, and tied them to the dowel rods, then balanced the pieces. It was the first time since college we’ve ever made anything together. Besides this baby I mean. We’re both stubborn, horrible in the kitchen together, impossible at team games. But yesterday we were golden.

Friday 18 September 2009: Hearts of Space

Found these letters in the window of an antique shop in Georgetown, which of course reminded me of Hearts of Space, the best music show on the planet.

Thursday 18 September 2009: Little Time, So I List

The only cities/towns in the States I’d live in besides Seattle:

Cincinnati, OH; Providence, RI; (weirdly) Pittsburgh, PA; Bloomington, IN; Savannah, GA; Astoria, Queens; New Haven, CT; Ithaca, NY: Portland, OR; Portland, ME; SF, CA; Flagstaff, AZ

Wednesday 16 November 2009: If I carry an umbrella, it won’t rain

Outside, it looks like blueberry pie smashed on Nathalie’s dad’s rich face in that party crashing scene from Girls Just Want to Have Fun:

Tuesday 15 September 2009: True Sleep

I couldn’t sleep one night last year and all of a sudden this very worn rug came into my head. I couldn’t place where I’d seen it, thought about it until light broke. Then I went to Vashon Island a couple of months ago and there it was. In this old general store. I almost looked past it.

It’s the same as easy-to-forget TV shows like Dolphin’s Cove or Brooklyn Bridge. Everybody remembers stuff they can’t find on YouTube. Which is good way to check and see if you’re alive or a ghost of a ghost.

Monday 14 September 2009: S+H

The shipping guy left at my job. I’m the image librarian. The marketing person. And for now I’m the shipping guy, too. Which means I convey e-mail messages like this:

The labels that stick on envelopes should be printed black + 2 Pantone colors (matching your supplied sample logo) 1000 sheets of 68 x 102mm 8-up sheet (1,537 this time plus future mailings). Then black addresses on the logo label for this 1,537. One label stick on one envelope. Sticker paper sample and blueline will be sent to client in Paris for the 8-up label for approval. All additional catalogues and invitations sent directly to NYC and London will also need to be placed in envelopes and stickered with blank mailing labels.

It may sound nutty, but there’s something surprisingly gratifying in writing bullet-point messages about quantity and carton weight, sending PDFs of destination addresses, requesting quotes, that sort of thing. It’s the part of me that wants to be a tax preparer, the part that aced algebra in high school and logic in college.

In general I consider myself to be floaty verbal communicator. Somebody who thinks about vintage birds sailing on a string of balloons or pickled beats with licorice arms and legs dancing in the streets.

But this shipping stuff, I could really do this. Because it’s like every day is a post-it note, and you cross it off. You go home, wash your hands, make dinner, roll up your sleeves, tie on a bib, and dig in.

Friday 11 September 2009: Looking Forward to Looking Back

I was living in a big, old wooden house in the middle of Indiana on 9/11. My friend Karin, who I’d been in NYC with the summer before, came over. We sat cold, surrounded by farm roads, and watched the towers come down in replay after replay.

The TV in my house didn’t have an antenna, so we mostly watched snow, then saw rough outlines of buildings falling. It all seemed more fantastical than real, like a horrible Jenga cube or icicle falling off a gutter.

Thursday 10 September: Finally, a really good day

Off to eat linguine and shrimp, but I wanted to show you my new “home office” first:

9 September 2009: Serious Funghi

Apparently in Australia, they take their mushrooms very seriously.

Ever heard of the mushroom tunnel? Didn’t think so.

Tuesday 8 September 2009: Grain Edit

Had a true, long weekend, and I fell into it face-first. Long sleeps, mini-naps, re-arranging bookshelves, watching Netflix and eating chili.

Which made coming back into the world today especially difficult. Honestly, it’s left me without clear thoughts or ideas. For me, borders between the work week and weekend are more defined than ever these days.

I’m waiting for the double-cure. White wine and red. Clean hands in gloves. Babies in arms. Jesus and Mary.

Friday 4 September 2009: Hearts of Palm

Four more from California:

L to R: Emmy’s Spaghetti Shack in Bernal Heights, Palm Tree at Indian Springs; Exterior of Ritual Coffee on Valencia, Living Room at Chateau de Vie

Thursday 3 September 2009: If this doesn’t make you feel young, nothing will

I heard this old lady say, “I’ll die the day my gobbley neck scrapes the sidewalk. That’s when my pillowey ass is more likely than ever to betray me.”

Wednesday 2 September 2009: We Tell Stories

Penguin’s digital fiction project “We Tell Stories” is a collection of tales based on six classic works by six different authors presented digitally in six different ways. Kindle I can take or leave, but the idea of reading such an imaginative, visually interesting series on screen is actually pretty appealing. Check it out.

Tuesday 1 September 2009: Orange Crush

Recently, I was in California:

L to R: Bi-Rite grocery on 18th and Guerrero, Indian Springs, Hotel Rex lobby, Tartine Bakery