popcorn!

who knew? popping popcorn on the stovetop is yummy.

its my new thing, at least for this holiday break.  and it comes without the chemicals of microwave popcorn.

and extra delish with lemon pepper on top.

yak trax

now i try not to be a commercial for gadgets.  

but!  seriously!  these things are amazing.

turns out it is CRAZY icy here in juneau, making running quite a trick for the klutz like myself.

these things, yaktrax, give whole new meaning to my favorite word: GRIPTION.  and they just slip over my running shoes.

me. snowboarding.

busted!

this happened today:

i'm rounding the corner in line for the ski lift, happy that i've managed to make it through what i would call "pillows" of snow on the blue run.  and this woman points to the snow & asks if this piece of plastic in the snow is mine.

i barely turn around, assuming she couldn't be talking to me, & continue struggling to dig my pass out of my layers to show the guy.

but, oh my!  it was mine!  there, in the snow, lay the top part of my rear foot binding.  

damn.  thanks, i say & shuffle, in my still-awkward-snowboarder-on-flat shuffle, out of line.  and wait for greg to make his way down whatever path he has chosen.

he shows up & i wave the piece of binding.  he says, "you're done for the day!"

what!??!  i only made it one time & i was really looking forward to going down the as-of-yet out of my range west bowl!  

as he slides up to make new friends in line, i hoof it down the hill & to my car.

sad, sad, snow-filled day.

but its as if the gods knew my snowboarding day had gone up bust.  20 minutes after the busted binding, the chairs overheated & stalled for about an hour. 

and just now greg fixed the binding!  i'll be back in action tomorrow (hopefully the chairs will be, too)!

shaking hands with the gov'

okay, so this isn't a picture (photo credit: brian wallace) of me shaking gov. sarah palin's hand; but it could have been.  

last week, the gov opened up her mansion for all of us juneau-ites to see her house & eat her cookies & drink her hot cider &, yes, shake her hand.

she told me my hand was warm (probably b/c of the cider, i explained).

next month, you can see her in vogue.  she is known as america's "hottest" governor.  why not have her picture in vogue?

too bad she's a republican.

and then the nuns.

i mean, sometimes nuns blow me away.

check out these IHMs in Monroe, MI & their environmentally-friendly chapel remodel.  

a friend of mine who used to be a member of this community told me that when the monastery switched over to its water recycling program (referenced in the above video), people in town were shocked by the increased water pressure in their home showers, etc.

i just like nuns.

just like sodak...

guess who i saw on the plane last night from anchorage to juneau?

three hints!

1. last year around this time, he had a big W shaved into his hair; all in support of the d'ham wolverines wrestling team (also his traveling mates last night)

2. he's married to "hooper tundra tales."  rumor has it he's headed to cabo after returning from scenic sitka.

3. he called me, "dugan".  and there are only 2 people in the state of alaska who know me as dugan.  and the other is a woman.

any guesses:)?

its a small state, folks. 6 degrees?  try 3.  

just like sodak.  

the captain cook

captain cook. hat's the name of the hotel i'm staying in tonight.  funny.  since its in anchorage, at the crook of the cook inlet, the name is doubly funny to me.  

tomorrow we're doing a training for new big brothers/big sisters school mentoring coordinators.  its all about the 40 developmental assets, kids.  well, that & community engagement & multiple intelligences.

when did my life become buzz words & catch phrases?

is that what it means to be professional?  we know how to get by in a very specific type of jargon-world?  

coldy!

yo!  it is COLD in southeast.  

and, frankly, i can't believe how much alaskans complain about the cold.  might be almost as much as they complain about the heat.

this complaining about the weather.  is it human nature? i mean, what is a good midwesterner without a gripe about the rain or the sun or the snow or the wind?  

so i join in with all of humankind and hope the arctic wind blowing in from the yukon territory stops soon.  we need snow, y'all.  i bought a season pass.

also, thank gawd for long underwear.  

wedding pics

yo! a few professional photos of our wedding weekend.

scones

i, my friends, am a surprisingly great scone maker.

this version is a honey-yogurt version, with some walnuts added in for texture.

true, they were tastier when we hadn't eaten all of the huckleberry jam steph gave us at the wedding.

still, delish. from a great little cookbook, the fiddlehead cookbook, a juneau classic the ladies at work gave me.

a bow, folks, a bow. thank you.

wedding prayers

greg has a new ski column.  and many of you helped make it happen! check out the first one:

"A skiing 'pagan' prays for snow

Can a wedding-day prayer in South Dakota affect Juneau's weather? 

A few weeks ago in the middle of my wedding Mass, I managed to slip in a request for a winter with lots of snow.

Everyone with skis, a board, or snowmachine do-ing nothing should take up the cause in their own way, every chance they get.

As a non-Catholic standing before 150 new Midwestern family members at my wedding, I asked them all to pray for a banner snow year in Juneau.

They all replied, "Loving God, hear our payer."

I've developed a pagan thing that is more manageable than organized religion. Comfort and guidance derive from the teachings of atmospheric sciences, wisdom and humility through daily mountain worship, so the prayer was offered with little "faith" that five words could deliver 48 to 100 inches of snow by Thanksgiving.

Now as the snow level creeps closer the sea and the cooling effects of a mild La Nina grows weekly since that wedding Mass, I have to ask if there is something to my new relatives' prayer.

Snow has fallen almost every night since then.

I've heard talk of violent crime dropping by 25 percent for 72 hours in Detroit because a group of Tibetan monks sat meditating in the center of the city sending out good energy.

There was good energy on my wedding day.

Last March a researcher from the University of Arizona concluded that intercessory prayer had an effect on its subject. He found that "prayer offered on behalf of another yields positive effects."

Could the effects of that big South Dakota prayer be compounded here?

It's the time of year when the local faithful flock to Centennial Hall taking in snow sermons by the longtime traveling revivalist Warren Miller, then getting some fresh preaching from the good folks at Teton Gravity Research.

According to a wise friend, it's really group energy that affects weather most. To best affect the weather, he says, you have to get the heart pumping with a little dance and "send a little vibration."

A local weather-shaman in the Juneau office of the National Weather Service acknowledges there is some room in forecasting for faith. I asked him if the prayers of 150 Catholics in South Dakota could affect global weather patterns.

Unfortunately his faith is limited to the three-day forecast model: snow today, a 40 percent chance of rain and snow showers Monday, and rain and snow likely Tuesday."

on the road again

i'm not sure that i'm a bad picture-taker. i mean, being married to a professional photographer does make me pale in comparison. but i do know how to frame a picture and capture a moment.

the thing is, i forget to do it. i have been carrying a camera around for the last 8 days and have snapped about 10 pictures. in those 8 days, i have traveled as far north and as far west as i ever have--anchorage (at that point, the farthest north and the farthest west) and fairbanks (quickly replacing anchorage as farthest north). and now i am in delta junction, the famed end of the alaska highway.

not far from chris mccandless land...

and all i have to show for it is this google image of delta junction. so here's where i am, map-wise!

i'm doing ethics seminars with high schoolers & 8th-graders this week (that's what you get to do when you have a master of theological studies, i think...). its a blast, actually.

and the cold is subsiding. three cheers for a day in bed with tv on computer.

and look! kelly's alaska country inn has free wireless. who woulda guessed?

sick

i hate being sick. i actually can't remember the last time i was sick. maybe sometime in my first year of div. school.

so now i'm sick. got sick at my job's conference this weekend--four days of "Youth Leadership Institute." on day 3, my throat was a scratchy mess. by day 4, i was guilting the kids into being quiet b/c i was so sick. ay. so i'm home sick for a day.

in other news, i recently learned that if i don't keep a hundred billion thinks on my desktop, my computer runs faster. great news.

mormons

check it: greg & i have moved to the ridge of mt. maria. it is also known as "mormon hill."

there is a little placard to that affect just to the north of us. apparently, mormon missionaries arrived here in the early 20th century, assumedly to convert the sinful gold miners and prospectors.

well, today, as i trucked my recycling into the car, i stumbled upon 2 very nicely dressed young men. they asked to help me with the recycling and then asked, "have you ever talked with missionaries?"

i nodded, smiled, and said yes, thank you. big smiles the whole time. i got in my car, drove away as they meandered over to the placard, reading about their predecessors.

i do think its gutzy what those kids do...two years on the road, trying to convert strangers. all the while wearing suits & ties. dang. i spent 2 months on the streets of minneapolis pan-handling for greenpeace...that was enough for me. and i got to wear whatever i wanted, as long as it didn't include sunglasses (no one wants to give their credit card number to someone whose eyes they can't see...).

perhaps relatedly, i have moved onto jon krakauer's under the banner of heaven, a story of fundamentalist mormonism in america (to which, of course, the LDSers are decidedly not associated).

gotta love religion in america!

Mt. Juneau, 3,576 feet, Juneau, Alaska. The avalanche originated at the top of the streak of white running down the mountain right of center. Mt. Maria is the foothill to the right. Picture taken February 4, 2005 by O. Richard Kent. http://westjuneau.com/weather/jan_19_1972.htm

mary chapin carpenter

one of my more annoying habits to people who live with me, i think, is that sometimes i really just like listening to songs on repeat.

tonight, it's "stones in the road," by mary chapin carpenter.

i have liked this song for a very long time. and every once in a while, it just hits the spot.

g is sick. over half of my office is sick. apparently, there is a crud going around juneau. gawd, i hope i don't get it.

ugghers.

next week: my first ever trip to the big city ("town" as the hoopers in bristol bay [ironically, not hooper bay!] know it): Anchorage. wahoo! its my work's annual conference & i'm helping lead the youth leadership institute.

and a weather update? snow seems to be well on its way here in juneau! gotta be better than all this rain:)

alaska insurance

tomorrow it happens, y'all.

i switch over the cars to alaska insurance. if not state farm, then progressive. and then?

alaksa license plates! only a few more days of massachusetts license plates are in my future.

next in line: alaska driver's license.

that's right, ladies & gents, i'm trying to become an alaskan. make it official & all that.

here's trying!

cell phone antena

for a day, yesterday, i was without my cell phone. seems like no big deal, right? i don't actually use it that much & i am the new renter of a landline for our DSL (thank you, stupid acs). just a lazy saturday afternoon on my agenda.

but i felt kind of naked without it. like i wouldn't be able to do something if i needed to.

for example, i was at fred meyer buying some supplies for having dinner with a couple people last night. g needed some basil for the delicious ginger squash soup. but they didn't have it, so i wanted to call him to see about a substitute...and i couldn't!

little things, huh?

anyway, turns out the antena just fell out. found it on the floor this morning & replaced it.

felt like i replaced by sturdy black t-shirt.

and just 4 years ago, i thought cell phones were ridiculous.

tables

what do you think about this table? my husband long ago promised to build me a kitchen table just like the one i had to sell in boston. despite the new home depot that opened in juneau last month, i'm getting doubtful. so i'm tempted to buy this one. whatdaya think?

in other news, finished "into the wild." thank gawd, i was kind of transfixed by it. anyone eager to chat about the pull of that particular story, call me. or at least email:). happy weekend, gators.

wood stoves

i am being a stereotype. i don't know how to chop wood. i don't really know how to start a fire in the wood stove. and, quite frankly, i'm kind of content to just have greg do it.

what??!!! that is terrible. i can hardly believe myself. if i lived in the alaska bush, i would be a threat to myself.

but i live in juneau.* and it is oh so true.

let the record show: i organize a mean file cabinet. and i fancy myself good company (especially when i'm not in grad school:))

(p.s. check out the funny "Dugan-Skinner" thing in the background. three cheers for my cousin kathy for getting the names right!)

*an interesting note on the "Alaska bush." the term technically means towns that are not on the road system. well, juneau isn't on the road system. we have about 20 miles of road up & down the gastineau channel. and you can't drive here. but we aren't the bush. the definition of "Alaska bush" must also include something about population, but no one comes out & says that!

internet in alaska...

sucks. that's all there is to it. its expensive, slow, & they expect you to have a phone line and/or television & think you're crazy when all you want to do is watch a little streaming video online. and they have TERRIBLE customer service. i have NEVER waited less than 30 minutes for a "customer service representative." i think they should call it "customer disservice."

rant rant rant. i know. turns out i got a bit spoiled by the big city internet for $17.95 at super-speed.

though, do love at&t alascom. had to disconnect with move b/c of moving to mountain ridge. oh well.

no viva acs! no viva gci!

into the wild

okay, okay. i know its a cliche, but i've recently picked up jon krakauer's "into the wild." a captivating bit of journalistic writing, if i do say so myself. i am slightly embarrassed to admit i don't think i'd heard of neither this story, nor the book.

i can't quite figure out why i'm so drawn to it. is it that i have met, chatted with, & had beer with a good handful of would-be chris mcclandesses?

whatever the draw, i find myself interested in the religious undertones of it. i do think its interesting how he seems so drawn to experience something bigger than himself, something outside his bounds. almost like an evangelist's quest for God (note the capital G). or a Buddhist's quest for enlightenment. pilgrimage, maybe. but of a notched up sort of quality. i think its fascinating how we quest for things beyond ourselves. god, euphoria, nature, whatever it is. the quest, the idealization of that "it," has such similar qualities.

so i recommend it. haven't seen the movie yet; not sure i will. the old time alaskans at work have heard that sean penn really romanticizes & makes a hero out of chris.

maybe when it makes it to netflix:).

the fall

technically, this is the 2nd time i have moved to a place known as “southeast.” north carolina was the first. and now this part of alaska is referred to, in shorthand, as “southeast.”

as a midwesterner, i grew up with a deep love of the fall–the crisp air, crunchy leaves, blue skies, & the lingering wifts of cross country meets. i would wait out those long, dank, summers all in hopes of the lovely fall that always slipped a bit too quickly for me into winter. in southeastern u.s., fall came late and stayed until early december. by the time it finally arrived, i was already a puddle of humidity.

here in southeast alaska, i seem to have missed it. perhaps it was the 2 weeks we were gone for the wedding, but it seems winter is here. the temps are topping out in the low 40s and i am scrounging for scarves, hats & mittens. without me noticing, all the devil’s club turned bright yellow & the occassional oak leaf is clinging to its branch; just barely.

it pours rain here, and people say: “oh, fall is here,” with a disappointment in their voices. what!?! fall is the best time! but people here love the summer. and as i think about it, summer was a lot like a midwestern fall. and it looks like fall might just be the rain before the snow.

this may very well be the first place i have ever lived where i love summer.

p.s. i certainly hope the irony of a resurging blog being kicked off with a post about the weather has not been lost on the primarily midwestern audience of this blog:)

(photo credit: Lance McVay, http://photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=2755352)

wikipedia.

okay. wikipedia. who doesn't love a little quick research? a place for fast answers, now.

the mcdonald's of the internet, it seems, right?

we know its not good for us, but every once in a while we can't help but indulge.

well.

check this. notable residents of watertown, sodak: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watertown%2C_South_Dakota

me.

really makes me rethink the drivethru.

double-post

this is me, the queen of the world. have summited chilkoot pass. was standing on a camping platform in beautiful british columbia, canada.

(and was dry, warm, and cozy for the first time since i woke up that morning.)

check out our blog at our wedding website for more pics and a slightly different take on hiking the chilkoot.

gold! gold! gold!

the chilkoot trail was the most-traveled route into the yukon where gold was discovered at the end of the 19th century.

today, the chilkoot is "the longest museum in the world"--spanning 33 miles over the chilkoot pass at 4,000 feet.

greg & i just returned from hiking this great little trail. all along the way are old telegraph wires, old cable cars, rusted-out boat bodies, & cemeteries of opportunistic gold-hunters. the depression of the 1890s seems to have made enough people desperate enough that going to the yukon goldfields seemed like the best idea. whew.

the trail, as you can see from the map, crosses into british columbia--and the canadian mounties required that people carried, literally, a ton of supplies into canada. so sometimes people made up to 50 trips over the pass--which, by the way, was covered in snow last week. they were crazy.

so, now, the trees have finally recovered from being absolutely destroyed--the land was stripped so that the goldrushers (also called stampeders) could build boats and head down the headwaters of the yukon on the other side of the pass.

pictures greg took'll come later. we had a good time, even though we had to buddy up with 3 other people. and now we own a tent. funny.

4th of july in juneau (redux)

fireworks in juneau, from the stoop of our apartment!

4th of july in juneau

during the gold rush days, miners had 2 days off a year--Christmas & the 4th of July.

apparently, the legacy continues. 4th of july is supposed to be a big deal up here. big. my soon-to-be-boss tries to leave town.

a parade (with a now-famous "bong hits for jesus" banner flying, it is rumored), fireworks (even though it doesn't quite get dark yet...), and kids' games (this year they dug for chocolate pudding in cupcakes to learn about drilling for oil. gotta love natural resource extraction!).

should be a blast...i'll let you know how it goes!

false call

okay, so my reporter fiance got the facts wrong: in anchorage, smoking in bars ended the other night. here in juneau, we happy beer-drinkers will have to wait until jan. 1, 2008, to be pleasantly smoke-free.

in other news, ate a small peanut butter & banana picnic out on douglas island today. yummy & beautiful all in one! douglas, alaska, just across the bridge from juneau, used to be the biggest city in southeast. after the gold rush ended, it dropped in population & is just a little town on douglas island now. i think we'll move there soon.

last night!

drum roll, please, ladies & gentlemen:

tonight is the last night that people can smoke in bars in juneau, ak! three cheers for anti-smokers! three cheers for the end of second-hand smoke while you're already drinking beer! three cheers for smoke-free clothes at midnight!

in other news, i made it to alaska. i live in alaska. its kind of like saying, i live in north carolina. maybe if i repeat it over and over enough times, i'll actually believe it.

my mom turned 54 yesterday...just one day after she learned how to skype-talk to her daughter in alaska.

youngwomenandcatholicism.blogspot.com is coming along swimmingly. narrowed the wide-array of choices to 34 (+2 if you count mine & jen's). anyone know a publisher they'd like to hook us up with?

and thank god. the home depot opened up in juneau yesterday. people around town say its bigger than cosco. well, thank goodness.

updates!

ah, the poor blog. i think this is the longest i have abandoned it. ayay!

it has been a whirlwind past coupla weeks. here's what i've done:
-graduated from harvard (call me: kate dugan, m.t.s.)
-drove to chicago with my mom
-one bridal shower down, one to go.
-changed travel plans to alaska from ferry to flight
-drove to watertown with mom
-wedding planning (who knew it would be so hard to say: no, i hate those shoes?)

so i'm back! i get to juneau next week & start the job search then. wahoozers!
anyone coming to chris' on friday? i hope so!

i also hope gas prices take a significant fall this weekend.

k.

ugh.

things i don't care about: bible in public life
david's reign over israel
lyman beecher's close-mindedness
whatever apocolypticism means

things i do care about:
finding a job in juneau
graduating
saying g'bye to people here
doing laundry

what i need to do today & tomorrow:
care about list A.

too bad for me!

one more one more. ayay.

cloistered nuns; whadya think?

check out this forthcoming documentary on 20/20 about cloistered nuns: http://abcnews.go.com/2020/Story?id=3160621&page=1

every once in a while, i wish i had t.v.

nuns, nuns, nuns. sometimes i think if i had been born in the 1930s or 40s, i'd be a nun. maybe that's why i feel such a kinship to reports like this. or maybe its just st. ben's in my skin!

update: finals

two down, two to go.

one week. shew.

shew.

seriously. people need to stop talking on the quiet, no-talking floor of the library. if you want to chat, go downstairs. the rest of us are wigging out. your joking, friendly-sounding laughter is not appreciated in these parts.

calm, i am not.

a confluence

may 17 is the ascension of christ day.

may 17 is world telecommunications day.

they even made stamps (see above).

that is hilarious. christ's ultimate communication with god (in form of bodily leap into heaven) and with humans (for some, the message christ left behind was: found my church!). all on the same day as the world will celebrate leaps in bounds in the ways we communicate with each other, including this little blog here.

i am dying of laughter. can't wait for may 17.

in other news, finals going fine. blegh. 10 more days. holy shoot, kate, stop blogging & get writing.

resolution!

yes!! ladies & gentlemen! i did it!

i told my roommate the tick-tocking was driving me crazy. and she just laughed, offered to put the thing away.

i feel so much better.

in a slight amount of pain from eating too many cookies today, but that'll pass.

(mint brussels are, bar none, the best cookie in the whole wide world, even if eating too many of them makes your stomach hurt).

being a chicken.

because i have the communication skills of an 8-mos old, i have reduced myself to earplugs for the ticking clock.

do i sound slightly crazy?

if i do, its because the clock drove me there.

its back to the library after this poor decision to study at home.

wonder if they'd let me put a stove in the library.

update on the clock

roommate woke up & was peering at the clock. oh dear.

i told her i think i broke it.

she assured me its not that fragile & then fixed it. tick tock. great.

i told her i like the clock, its nice.
couldn't she see i was lying through my coffee-stained teeth?

just opened window on 40-degree morning. the sound of the interstate blocks the tick tocking quite nicely, thank you.

tick tock, tick tock

my roommate, who is a lovely woman i am excited to have found as a temporary livingmate, just put a clock in our kitchen.

now, i am pleased as punch that she finally appears to be moving in, settling in. her things are slowly popping up around the apartment--i like that.

but i have a thing about those clocks that tick really loudly. you know the ones--quite popular at stores like target. they usually run on a double-a battery & look cutesy. that's just fine.

but the ticking. oh my god. its like it enters my brain & i can't get it out. greg says i'm being over-dramatic. he doesn't know i'm the kid who had to take the battery out of chris' heirloom clock by taking it off the wall one night as i slept over. or that i used to take the one off my parents' kitchen wall when i was up late studying in high school...the ticking just does me in.

so now. she sleeps late in the a.m. & i have dislodged the battery. i'm finishing a paper for tomorrow; i think i'm justified in doing so. but i also seem to have broken the hour hand. shit. the ultimate irony will be when i realize i can't fix it & have to spend my hard-signed-for-loan money on a loud, ticking clock. woe is me.

phone tag

i think erin & i win the contest on this one. between my launch into finals & her grad school/work schedule, i think we have each left 4-5 messages for one another. i'm not sure i've ever played such a great game of phone tag.

i thought this sort of thing was supposed to end with cell phones. weird.

i wonder who wins in this kind of game.

lookin' forward to the game, e!

several bad signs

let me unpack all that is wrong with this scenario:
1. the only good coffee on the east coast is starbucks. east coast sucks.
2. i drank coffee in the afternoon. i haven't done that in months. that means i was uber-tired by 3pm. will i be able to sleep tonight? no good.
3. its friday after 5pm & i'm staring down a long weekend in the library.

on the plus side:
1. please note that i have no scab on my forehead from nervous picking!! wahoozers!!
2. black t-shirt is new (therefore, not smelly)!
3. note the window behind me. i've found a new lovely spot in the library. with a bigger table--all the better for spreading out my stuff!

welcome to finals, my friends.

three weeks from today, i'll have written 4 papers, taken a test & (assuming i pass them all) will be skating to graduation.

housing

okay, so i know i'm supposed to be writing my final papers and studying for my final test (what??! a TEST in grad school? whatever), but g&i are thinking about what kind of standards to have for an apartment-hunt in juneau.

here's what i've got for standards:
-wood floors are a must(preferably no carpet at all)
-washing machine in building
-monthly rent won't break the bank
-nice landlords
-good light is a definite plus

what do you think about in rentals?

back to the papers.

live!

i know, i know. the wait has been dreadful. but fear not!

kate & greg wedding central is now live.

we even have a cheesy wedding email: kateandgreg.wedding@gmail.com.

later loves,
k.

the time has come

i wonder if the thing about getting older is true--somehow the pace of time actually changes. is it possible that the length of an hour is as intersubjective as we are? is it possible time changes rhythm with us?

its true; i'm in an existential anthropology class. was it the jargon that gave me away?

i have entered the time flux grumpily known as "finals." four papers, four weeks. may 18th, loves, may 18th. and then chris comes on the 22nd!! wahoozers!

(and then i get to work on the fun stuff: young women & catholicism!! project going smashingly! nothing like living in the moment, huh?)

off to write about nuns in 1834 & the fire at the convent. gotta love the 19th century scandals! latergators, k.

st. joseph

all right, loves. i need to do some research on you. if any of the following questions are compelling to you, please email me.

if you have happened to stumbled across my blog on the very bottom of searches for "st. joseph, real estate agent," welcome.

the paper of the week is about st. joseph statues and the practice of burying them upside-down on a piece of property on is trying to sell, in order to aid the process. so...

1. have you ever participated in this kind of ritual? if so, what happened? what were the results? were you surprised?

2. has anyone in your family done this? what happened? what do they think about it? what do you?

3. have you heard of this ritual? if so, what do you think about it? why?

thanks, loves.

(and, just for the record, i own my own statue of "st. joseph, home seller kit." purchased by greg, at the mall. the mall. the carmelite chapel and giftshop at the mall.)

hair cuts

have y'all seen "stranger than fiction"? i'm a fan. but what i'm actually more of a fan of is maggie gyllenhaal's hair in that movie. can i have that 'do?

greg kept reminding me that she doesn't wake up with it looking like that. maybe mine'd be different.

itching for haircuts is usually a reverberation of other changes going on in my life. i, like other pals of mine, somehow want a physical marking of the larger, less obvious, changes going on. like g&i are moving to juneau, ak. like g's leaving at the end of the month. like i'm completely unmotivated to do my homework. like i'm nearing the end of my masters degree & have no idea what to do with it. like i'm spending a LOT of time thinking about catholicism. like i'm doing marriage prep.

so, hair cuts. too bad i don't have a professional staff following me around, making my hair look like gyllenhaal's. well, they'd probably make me wear more than just a black t-shirt & jeans, a sacrifice i'm not quite prepared to make. so i guess its okay.

save that date: sept 22, 2007.

its coming to a mailbox near you, friends.

to 26...

Twenty-six has been many things. It has been the year I got engaged to the man I love. It has been the year I launched into one of the most meaningful projects of my life to this point. But one thing it has not been is angst-free. In fact, it has been the most “angsty” year of my life.

My theory on 26, as many of you have heard, is that it is a uniquely angst-ridden age. You are too young to think rhythm and patterns are blessed; you are always waiting for the next thing, for the current thing to be done. Waiting, anxiously, for the next event of life.

By 27, I hypothesize—dream, perhaps—we have a better appreciation for what it is to be patient, to know that this is life; its not about waiting for the next adventure. Now, that is not to say that I expect adventures to cease or even subside. But I do think that with 27 comes an understanding that they are not all that life is.

When I was 13, I used to trip and fall down a lot. My aunt promised me I would outgrow it when I turned 14. Now, most of you here know that I am still waiting to grow out of that phase! My dream, today, is that 27, unlike 14, will be the dawning of a change. My dream is that tomorrow morning, I will usher in an angst-free, mellow-style, appreciation for the moment, spirituality in the daily way of being.

Anyone here who is 27, don’t tell me I’m wrong. I don’t care; I have to believe.

To those of you who have yet to turn 26, I am sorry.

To those of you are still 26, I am sorry. It is good on this end.

To those of you who are beyond 26, I’m coming!

And, to 26 itself, good riddance, fuck you; a toast to your passing!

birthday

that's right.

its february. i'm a pisces.

and i'm throwing myself a "thank god i'm not 26 years old anymore" party.

we're making sushi burritos, burning an effigy of 26 & i'll be making a speech about 26 itself. festivities start at 7pm; effigy & speech at 8.

peaceout, peacesters, kate

young women & catholicism

so! its official: i am working on a project with my friend & colleague (that's what we're trained to call each other here at hdiv!) jen. we want to collect memoirs/experience-based critical reflections by young (18-35) women in Catholicism & publish them in an anthology!

any of you interested? it is quite true that motivation for this project comes from beautiful conversations with friends about the role of catholicism--sometimes tormented, sometimes beloved--in their lives. i'd love to read more about it & hope you consider submitting.

youngwomenandcatholicism.blogspot.com.
much love. k.

redux: experiment

okay. so i have had a couple days of chilling & am ready to report that is do seem to have grown a bit paler (thank you, andover library) & maybe lost a couple of pounds (who needs weight watchers when stress will do the job just fine!). but, all in all, i do seem to have made it through january in one piece.

and only one or two of the papers are embarrassing!

that's right, team...i'm bbbbbaaaaaaaaaaaaccccccccckkk!

DONE!

DONE!!!

berenstein bears & too much trident

its true. i've been chewing a lot of gum.

picking my head less, though. nervous habits; gotta love 'em.

gum & bananas.

ah, the diet of champions.

my paper is going down the drain & greg is sick.

dreamin'

let's go here, huh?

screw the last paper & just get on a plane & go to ireland.

how worthwhile is a masters, really? does anyone even know what a master of theological studies is? c'mon...none of you kind of want to ask "what are you going to do with that? all of my farmer winegrowers in the gorge did.

it snowed a teeny tiny bit this morning...just enough to tease me into thinking it might actually snow. but no, it's already stoped. there's something odd about writing papers in the greyness. some people argue its motivational because they don't want to be outside & so they just dig into their work. valid. but i kind of think there's something nice about an hour of two of sun-shininess (not hot, mind you, just crisp & bright) to lift the spirits.

i'm too much of a perfectionist to blow off this last paper & hop a plane. too bad, really. someday, maybe i won't be like that. any bets on the chances?

three down, loves, three down. one left. one more to go.

countdown

okay, so the irony of being in finals in january at hds hit me as i sat in a class at boston college this afternoon. for all of the rangling and bashing of catholics i have done, i definitely thing the catholics trump the uus (hds is a long-time hotbed of unitarian universalists) on this one. finals before the birth of christ, before the celebration of lights, before everyone goes to mecca, before the macabbees beat the bad guys.

now that that's clear....

six days left. well, seven if i count today, but that doesn't seem necessary. i have already been quite dramatic enough this month. somewhere around 144 hrs. but who is counting? well, greg probably is. he may be the only one who hates january at harvard with the same intensity i do.

burtsbees

it is with a sense of pride over having not lost my burt's bees that i reach the metallic bottom of a tin of the ol' beeswax lip balm.

when i reach the edges, i know its time to get some more.

today, pals, was that day.

with a tinge of sadness, i throw away the old guy & take the wrapper off the new. its been real, old tinny. thanks for the ride.