A steady blog this time?

I'm moving my blog. Yes, again. But this time, I'm making it for keeps. No more one blog for one adventure for one year and then back and forth again. Nope. You can update your bookmarks and this time, keep them there. My new blog is called Goat Milk and Cookies, and is located at quinoacake.blogspot.com. And yes, there are stories to both of those strange food combinations.

I've discovered that I really don't know when I'll be in one place for more than one or two years. Honestly, at this point, it doesn't seem extremely likely in the next five years or so, and I felt like I just kept jumping around blog-wise. I'll keep jumping around in reality, but you'll be able to find all my adventures on my new blog.

-Bethy

Toksook Bay

I'm in Toksook Bay today (through Wednesday) for work. I am here with my coworker Virginia, who is from here, and that makes the village trip so completely awesome. It's hard to come into a community and try to help people when you have absolutely no legitimacy at all, but seriously, having someone who is from the community vouch for you makes all the difference. That, and it's fun to have snowmachine rides with someone you know, and a mother who is making dinner tonight. :) Virg took me on a little ride to the ocean today - I guess technically, it's the Bering Sea, and I snowmachined on the Bering Sea!!!

Toksook also has three windmills that stand up on the bluffs just overlooking the water, and they're really beautiful from the sea. And as pretty as it is now, it's still all white and snowy - I bet it's fabulous during the summer, when it's open blue water and open blue sky.

I guess I'll have to come back :)

More updates on Toksook later -

Love, Bethy

Stand up.

I'm furious.

I'm furious and I am not sure what to do about it.

I rarely blog about political things because I find I'm either preaching to the choir or picking a fight. I know that I have friends who disagree with my liberal leanings, and I'm ok with still being their friend. I wouldn't want everyone to agree with me all the time - that would make life pretty damn boring. And, honestly, before now, I haven't felt that extremely affected by political bullshit going down in DC. I have been functioning just like most Americans - only paying attention to things that will impact me right NOW.

Well, you got it. There's something impacting me. ME. RIGHT NOW.

I am an American citizen with no health insurance, and a pre-existing condition that prohibits me from getting coverage with most providers. I have a job. I pay my taxes. I love my country and I recognize that sometimes people can't pay doctor's prices for essential services like pap smears, breast exams, STD tests.

I stand with Planned Parenthood because even with a job, I need help paying for medical expenses.

Abortion has nothing to do with my argument. If those on the other side of this feel that people who would go into Planned Parenthood for an abortion shouldn't be able to, what would they say to me? I'm not going in for an abortion. I and other low income and/or uninsured Americans are going in for condoms, or for a pap smears, for birth control pills, or for information on STDs, for breast exams, or for prenatal care. Where would you have us go?

As an American, as a woman, as someone who would never block access to cancer screenings to ANYONE, regardless of age, sex, race or political leanings, I stand with Planned Parenthood.

Will you stand with me?

-Bethy

I can do pictures now!!

So, I'm learning about how to post pictures to this blog. Yes, I know, I should have been doing this for AGES, but there are some things that I've just never messed around with. So, I'm going to be uploading some completely random pictures here.

This one is Chris and me at Chelsea's going away party. As a team, we identified the most kinds of booze in unmarked jars, and we won the two worms in the bottom of a bottle of tequila. I thought it would be gross, but it was even worse than I imagined. Of course, that's because I freaked out and bit down once the worm was in my mouth. Gross.

The promotional picture for Swan Court String Band's concert in December. Kevin described to us, over email, that he "altered the picture and cut everyone's head off". No lie, I was kind of worried...but I think it turned out great! It puts the focus on the instruments anyway, which is what we wanted since Lisa's turned away from the camera, and we all had funny looks on our faces.

Ok, enough playing with this for now. Hopefully this means that when I'm at my own computer and I want to post some pictures it'll be easier. Also...

HOLLA AT JOHN WALLACE!

-Bethy

Sun Rising

(the title of this blog is in reference to and in appreciation of my friend Scott Donovan and his blog Redbird Rising that tells his adventures as a second year JV in Pheonix. If you want to feel a little better that someone is helping the wounds of the world heal, read his blog. Then, send him a postcard or something fun because he makes no money doing this...)

So, sun rising. I looked out the window just about 10 minutes ago and saw the sun rising. I am fortunate enough to have a window seat in my office, and though I'm not staring out the window every second, when I'm looking at my computer screen, what's going on outside is visible at all times through the wonder that is peripheral vision. Pretty much every day for the last few weeks, I have taken a minute or two when the sun is set to rise to just look at it, to see the snow glistening, to take a few pictures of the ball of orange come up over by the radio tower, then the shop, then City sub as the sun has moved where it rises in preparation for the solstice.

I'll be at home for the shortest day of the year, which makes me a little sad. It seems like an overly sappy theological comparison, but I like to see the darkest day turn into the day after, that no matter how bad, is, by comparison, a little lighter. I guess I think of it as a little Dark Night of the Soul business.

And up here, it's dark. Today, official sunrise was 10:50am, sunset 4:30pm. 5 hours, 40 minutes of day.

It's also -25 degree windchill, which is the topic for another day. That is FINE if you are just walking from your house to your car, but the frostnip on my face has not been enjoying the walks to/from work. Tonight it's supposed to get a little colder, and tomorrow and Thursday are expected 20 to 35 below. Washington is going to feel absolutely tropic!

Speaking of, I'm excited to be home for a few weeks (just short of two), it'll be good to see friends and family, and eat all the Polish food I possibly can. YUM.

Love, Bethy

...and all of a sudden, it was December

Where is the time going?

It honestly feels like I've just been back in Bethel for a month or two, and already, I'm starting to prepare to head home for Christmas. Month 4 is coming up, and winter is in full bore. 2011 is coming in less than a month, and my first semester classes at KuC (guitar, science fiction movie class and jumprope) are either ending soon or have already ended.

The Swan Court String Band performed at the Cultural Center on Saturday to an absolutely fantastic audience, and it was a blast! It was amazing feeling to do a whole show by ourselves. If nothing else, I think that sometimes I need a little reminder that I'm essentially a performer at heart, and the stage lights always remind me of that - every time.

It's cold this morning - with windchill, -22 degrees. It hasn't been that chilly recently, and honestly, I'm hoping that the cold will wait until I'm back in WA for Christmas. Haha. That's probably a completely unrealistic wish, but I will wish for it anyway.

I'm cooking and baking more, which I love, and making up recipes with whatever I can find. And I'm working on my guitar skills especially now that my class is over, and I want to keep working on fine tuning some of my violin skills. I think I'm ready to retrieve my copy of my Mendelssohn concerto when I'm home for Christmas, and start working on it again. I need to find that drive to perfect it that I had senior year of high school.

I find that as I grow older, I don't have the same push to be better at things. I tend to avoid things that I'm bad at instead of trying to get better at them. Maybe in 2011, I'll start working on that, haha.

Enough for now - work, then violin lesson, then dinner, then sleep. Sleep just isn't happening as much as it used to/should. Sometimes I miss it, but more than that, I'm just tired all the time, and I miss feeling rested. And it's doing bad things for my coffee addiction. :)

Love you all, see many of you in 3 weeks!!

Bethy

Amaze Me

Amaze Me
by Ty Greenstein
(© 2001)

New Jersey born, yeah
The flat land of Nebraska
From Decatur, Georgia
To California

Let's dig up the map and
Let's leave while we're happy
I wanna see Tucson
Before it's all gone

Chorus:
Amaze me, America
Save me from armageddon, high road to heaven

Eight hours at the airport
Wanna hightail to Gulfport
Wanna sit on the back porch
And stare at the stars

From the chemical water
Of new york's dirty harbor
To the rock of gibraltar
At the end of the world

Chorus

Let's dive to Atlantis
Let's hear what they'd tell us
From the bottom of the ocean
I really want to know them

Chorus