the owls are not what they seem

It has certainly been a long time since my last blog; many things have happened in the meantime, but rather than recap everything I figure I may as well just start where I left off—infrequent & by no means all-encompassing notes on, well, pretty much nothing special. Guess I’ll just include a few photos from lost time & let them speak for themselves.


(me and rebecca hiking in cloudcroft, white sands in the far background)

I don’t know what prompted my bloglessness, & I especially understand that I have probably by now lost most all of my already small reader pool but I shall carry on as though they’re there. There is no there there.*

We had a low key weekend, probably partly due to joe’s illness, and my newfound interest in embroidery. I just started this abstract embroidery montage thingy, which led a friend to insult its lack of thing-ness and burst my bubble. Thanks Rebecca. Just kidding.

We went to see ‘there will be blood’ and that was definitely the highlight of the weekend. It’s an amazing film; a tour de force, Daniel day-lewis’s opus, blah blah. I highly recommend it & joe and I can’t get it out of our heads. I can’t quite interpret exactly what they were getting at; the lead character is repulsive & magnetic & there is no redemption in the end.

It’s been a long January and it seems like ages, not weeks, since we were back home in Minnesota.


(reece on xmas)

Now it’s back to the old routine, which is pretty much a conveyor belt of the same old thing, centered on work. There is a good energy with the kids in the program so that makes it easier. Other daily living things, cleaning, laundry, cooking, etc. take up most of my free time. That and the twin peaks series which is also amazing. We are about half way through & it’s the default activity of the moment in a good way.


(laura palmer from twin peaks)

Musically still in the animal collective/panda bear phase which has been set for a good long time now, since we saw them in el paso several months ago on a whim not having heard them much. Also dorn brought over some interesting early 80s records the other day, so have some new things to explore.

Am looking forward to a mid-march trip to Puerto Vallarta followed by a much-anticipated visit from my mom. Hoping to see anna when she comes into Albq for a few days this month. Hoping that the hurt family stops over sometime in april when they move. Trying to figure out what to do once summer comes…definitely thinking a lot about a japan/hong kong trip, mainly because we’d have places to stay so mostly just the expense of airfare would hold us back. Also that it may be really super hot during that time.


(joe & joe at chaco canyon over thanksgiving)

I’m reading ‘the places in between’ by rory stewart, about his walk across Afghanistan in 2002. It’s been a fun read, I mean a good read, because I don’t envy what he was doing & I certainly don’t think he had a ton of fun doing it. But it sheds light on a foreign world that’s largely unknown to outsiders. Some of the culture out there seems completely outrageous to the western mind. Or at least my western mind. Anyway you should read it. I needed some non-fiction in my life.


(here's a typical scene at our house. nothing too exciting.)

Work-wise things have been busy but I think going relatively well. Aside from building & improving the program I’m also taking a hard look at myself and my management style (or lack thereof). I’ve never really had to manage others much, apart from the summer camp last summer, and it’s been difficult at times. I used to just assume that people would inherently do whatever they could to improve the program (this is in the context of the non-profit world, I don’t really know much about corporations or anything since I’ve never really worked for them, but I imagine that motivation there is mostly purely economical)…well anyways I’ve found that management is more delicate than that. I’ve also found that it’s hard for me to delegate tasks because I’d rather just do them myself in most cases since then they’ll be done my way, but that has led me to near-burn out several times since this new job & I can’t do that anymore, there’s just too much else I need to focus on. It’s been a good learning experience for me.

Enough about work. I shouldn’t be thinking about it on a Sunday night anyway.

We’ve been making good tofu, joe’s been messing around with the new loop pedal & the voice recorder, I’ve been loving my new camera (although not traveling enough to really use it as much as I’d like), olive’s been a superstar. Yes that’s corny but if you have a pet you know what I mean. If you don’t have a pet then you probably just barfed in your mouth a little bit. Too bad.

Thinking about the future, as always, as most people do. Have no idea exactly what to do, but what else is new? hopefully the new future includes some blogging!

*Gertrude Stein quote, for roy, who for some odd reason knows who Gertrude Stein is, and can answer trivial pursuit questions about her.

I'll leave you with a series of jungle-themed glamour shots!