Day 3 - Your Favorite Television Program

We don't have cable t.v. Our television is in the second bedroom that serves as Tracey's "man cave". Currently there are tools all over the couch in that room so we don't hang out in there much.

We use Netflix and have a Roku box hooked up to the television so we primarily watch t.v. shows that are on Instant Watch on Netflix. We watch a few shows that are still on through Surf the Channel. Right now, we are watching or have caught up on:

• Grey's Anatomy
• Sons of Anarchy
• Weeds
• Dexter
• Project Runway (this is mostly me)
• Breaking Bad
• Law and Order: SVU

I also like 'Top Chef' and am re-watching the 'Nip/Tuck' series. I also love 'Golden Girls', 'Six Feet Under', and 'Arrested Development'. Tracey tends to like shows like 'NCIS' and 'Oz'.

Around here.

Doll heads in someone's backyard

Dinner last night: mushroom alfredo with roasted summer squash and pearl onions from our CSA

Our morning coffee

Conversations

Silly snippets from conversations around our house. They're ridiculous but usually involve belly laughs that make my heart swell with love for this girl.

At the grocery store, when deciding which mixed fruit package we should get:

Me: This one. It has berries and melons.
Her: Perfect. I like berries more and you like melons more.
Me: I love melons. Cantaloupe, honeydew, watermelons. All melons. Especially pumpkin melons*.
Her: Pumpkin melons...?
Me: Think about it.
Her: HAHAHA.
Me: I made you say Pumpkin Melons out loud at the grocery store.

Last year after I made some cupcakes:

Me: If I were a cupcake, this is what I would look like.
Her: Yeah, it totally has JBF** frosting.

After I made a cake last night:

Me: Will you bring me a slice, please?
Her: *brings me a slice with a bite taken out of it*
Her: TAXES!

* I call her Pumpkin
** Just Been F*!#@ed

Day 2a - Your First Love, in great detail

My first love is the only other person I've loved besides Tracey.

My first love and I met when I was a few months shy of 19 and she had just turned 21.

My first love was my third girlfriend and I was her first.

My first love was half Filipino and taught me how to make her favorite Filipino dishes and how to say 'I love you' and 'My armpits are stinky' in Tagalog. My first love was 4 inches taller than me and I often had to stand on my tip-toes a bit to kiss her. My first love had an athletes body and wore a lot of knit caps over her shaggy black hair. She lived in jeans and hooded sweatshirts. She had a tattoo of a Japanese style tiger that took up most of her left calf.

My first love and I lived together in a one bedroom apartment in a building built in 1911. It was on a block between a park, a hospital where my mom works, a street that once literally divided the white section of Tacoma from the non-white section, and the most crime ridden neighborhood in Tacoma called Hilltop. We lived on the fourth floor and there were a million steps to our apartment. There were built-ins and pull-out beds and a clawfoot tub. The previous tenants did not disconnect their telephone service and her dad had an AOL account that he never used so we had dial-up forever.

My first love and I had two cats, both of which have been re-homed as she couldn't take them with her and I was unknowingly allergic.

My first love and I eventually moved up in the world and lived in a two bedroom fourplex in the nicer area of Tacoma while I went to school and we both worked. Her younger brother came over a lot and they would get stoned and play video games for hours.

My first love and I went to Mariner's games and Canada and Hawaii and river rafting for her birthday. She loved Dave Matthews Band and we would go see them at the Gorge every Memorial day weekend.

My first love would surprise me by slipping money into my wallet for me to get pedicures and draw me bubble baths in clawfoot tubs with lit candles on the bathroom vanity.

My first love stayed in Tacoma for six months after I moved for college. I wanted her to use that time to reflect on our relationship and decide if she wanted to move down with me.

My first love and I lived with my best friend from childhood and another friend for a year while I went to school and she worked for Nike.

My first love and I wanted different things in life. She loves adventures and spontaneity. I do, too, but not as much. My first love wanted to live in a condo with less upkeep and travel and never have kids. I want an old house filled with babies and a giant backyard that my wife mows. My first love was more passive than me and tried her best to avoid conflict. I want someone who will tell me to shut up when I'm being unreasonable but know they still love me.

My first love and I ended things somewhere between our sixth and seventh year as a couple. I put all of her things in the dining room until she finally found a new place to live. My first love and I tried to stay friends but we couldn't. Not full-time, anyway. My first love now lives with my childhood best friend which makes things slightly weird.

My first love showed me what I wanted in a partner, both good and bad. My first love showed me what I was good at as a partner and what things I needed to work on. My first love helped me understand what love and commitment and partnership are more than four or five less significant relationships ever could have.

Day 2 - Your Favorite Movie

Movies, like music, are something that I'm never really up-to-date on. A preview needs to really intrigue me to draw me to a theatre to watch one before it goes to video and, if I don't see it before then, I usually forget about.

We actually went and saw 'Inception' a few days ago and I had more to say about how expensive it was ($18.50 for soda and popcorn?!) than the movie itself. What can I say? I'm an old lady in a young woman's body.

My all-time favorite movies are:

• Mermaids
• Dazed and Confused
• Now and Then
• Planet Terror
• Kill Bill 1&2
• Best in Show
• Drop Dead Gorgeous
• High Fidelity

When given the option of movies to watch, I tend to gravitate towards documentaries. I will watch them about anything. Seriously. The last one we got from Netflix was about Dr. Bronner's Soap. I ended up not watching it for whatever reason but the fact that it even made it into our list says something, I think.

Day 1a- Introduce Yourself

I'm a visual person. I like to see pictures and drawings and charts and videos. So, I hope to include them in most of my posts.

This is me:


I'm 27. I was born in Kitsap County, WA in March. I have two sisters and a brother that I was raised with and a half-sister from my dad's second marriage. In the first thirteen years of my life I lived all over Washington state. Most of that time was spent in Eastern Washington with a brief stint in Vancouver. My mom re-married when I was 13.



We moved here when my mom re-married and it's where I spent most of my early teens. The only pertinent thing about this town now is that my parents and siblings still live there and it's where I met one of my best friends, Bonnie, when I was 13. I lived with my dad for a brief time just outside of Seattle. After I graduated from High School, I moved back to the 253 for five years and lived here:

This is the first place that captured my heart. Tacoma is like that weird kid in school that everyone picks on because it smells and isn't as cool as the popular kid which may be why I love it. It was the main port in Washington before Seattle's port was built and retains a strong blue-collar, working class population still. It's gritty in parts and beautiful in others. Like the Neko Case song says, "there are no hollow promises of a bright future." It's a refreshing break from the self-entitlement that people in Seattle and Portland have. That life should owe them something and that you need to have 38 Ethiopian cafes within a mile of your $400-square-foot condo. So, I lived here and worked in a coffee shop and went to community college.

After I finished my Associates Degree, I moved here to finish my BS:



I lived in a house in a nice neighborhood with three other girls and still worked at a coffee shop. I finished my BS in Community Development and concentrated on housing and economic development. After I graduated, I took classes for a year as a post-bacc and planned to go to graduate school for Urban and Regional Planning. I stopped going after realizing that I couldn't really afford to keep going and that planning requires a lot of 'after hours' to attend neighborhood association meetings, city council meetings, and was too politically geared. I didn't want to jump through a billion hoops to get affordable housing developed. So, now I still work at a coffee shop and am competing with the hundreds of other like-minded people in Portland to try and get a job doing something I care about.


In the meantime, I live with my sweet fiancee and a giant dog in a duplex and our friends live on the other side. We live in a neighborhood downwind of a Nabisco factory so the air smells like cookies in the evening. My favorite things in the world could be described as vintage or whimsical. Our house looks like this inside:



I make subversive cross-stitches and watch a lot of Netflix. I love Indian and Lebanese food and baking. I'm a type A personality so I don't like spur of the moment or unexpected situations and plan everything in my life three steps ahead. I also like to clean. A lot. I'm queer identified and femme in every sense of the word.

In Russian, Misha is a diminutive for the Russian male name Mikhail (Michael). Most bears appearing in Russian fairy tales have this name, because it is similar to the Russian word for Bear - Miedvied (Russian Медведь), of which the diminutive form is Mishka. I, however, am not Russian. :)

Day 1 - Your Favorite Song

I like music. I, however, do not live for music. I only listen to the radio in the car and I'm never up to speed with most new music. Living in a city full of hipsters that have seemed to make finding the most obscure bands a favorite past-time has made me a little bitter about even talking about music.

I listen to everything. I grew up listening to Fleetwood Mac and Heart with my mom and heavy metal with my dad. I liked punk and ska as a young teenager and electronic as an older teenager. I like classic rock, new wave, 90's alternative, bluegrass, mainstream hip-hop. I'm pretty nondiscriminatory with my musical selections and have no problem admitting I usually have bad taste in music.

That said, I don't have a favorite song. So here are some songs I like right now and some all-time favorites:

30 Days.

I'm a horrible blogger so I'm going to try this 30 Days thing going around.

Day 1 - your favorite song
Day 2 - your favorite movie
Day 3 - your favorite television program
Day 4 - your favorite book
Day 5 - your favorite quote
Day 6 - 20 of your favorite things
Day 7 - a photo that makes you happy
Day 8 - a photo that makes you angry/sad
Day 9 - a photo you took
Day 10 - a photo taken over 10 years ago of you
Day 11 - a photo of you recently
Day 12 - something you are OCD about
Day 13 - a fictional book
Day 14 - a non-fictional book
Day 15 - your dream house
Day 16 - a song that makes you cry (or nearly)
Day 17 - an art piece (drawing, sculpture, painting, etc)
Day 18 - my wedding/future wedding/past wedding
Day 19 - a talent of yours
Day 20 - a hobby of yours
Day 21 - a recipe
Day 22 - a website
Day 23 - a youtube video
Day 24 - where you live
Day 25 - your day, in great detail
Day 26 - your week, in great detail
Day 27 - your worst habit
Day 28 - what's in your handbag/purse
Day 29 - hopes, dreams, and plans for the next 365 days
Day 30 - a dream for the future

In conjuction with this one:

Day 01 – Introduce yourself
Day 02 – Your first love, in great detail
Day 03 – Your parents, in great detail
Day 04 – What you ate today, in great detail
Day 05 – Your definition of love, in great detail
Day 06 – Your day, in great detail
Day 07 – Your best friend, in great detail
Day 08 – A moment, in great detail
Day 09 – Your beliefs, in great detail
Day 10 – What you wore today, in great detail
Day 11 – Your siblings, in great detail
Day 12 – What’s in your bag, in great detail
Day 13 – This week, in great detail
Day 14 – What you wore today, in great detail
Day 15 – Your dreams, in great detail
Day 16 – Your first kiss, in great detail
Day 17 – Your favorite memory, in great detail
Day 18 – Your favorite birthday, in great detail
Day 19 – Something you regret, in great detail
Day 20 – This month, in great detail
Day 21 – Another moment, in great detail
Day 22 – Something that upsets you, in great detail
Day 23 – Something that makes you feel better, in great detail
Day 24 – Something that makes you cry, in great detail
Day 25 – A first, in great detail
Day 26 – Your fears, in great detail
Day 27 – Your favorite place, in great detail
Day 28 – Something that you miss, in great detail
Day 29 – Your aspirations, in great detail
Day 30 – One last moment, in great detail

Finished.

Because she didn't want a ring.

Done by our friend Chaz at Skeleton Key Tattoo, Portland, Oregon.

The bird will eventually be shades of blue with an orange-red underbelly. The flower and the top parts of my name will be red and the banner will be an aged looking yellow-gold.

my world.

06.16.10

Game Over, Sucker!

Summer Planning

Spring quarter is over on Monday for me and I cannot wait to start doing non-academic stuff! When I want! Not after I write a paper or finish reading an article of community food security or transcript a focus group! Except for when I'm serving the evil Siren, of course.

This summer I want to:

- Investigate home ownership more

- Consistently track my cycle

- Take a class or two at Modern Domestic

- Create some lightboxes

- Use every bit of produce we get from our CSA

- Go to a fair

- Bake lots of yummy goods with berries we pick from Sauvie Island

- Catch up on 'Grey's Anatomy'

- Peacock feathers!

- Always be in the middle of reading a new book

- Go to the coast or Orcas Island

- Watch a Mariner's game

- Go to the drive-in

- Work the biscuit a lot!

An Explanation of Sorts

My first blogging attempt, no.36, documented days spent in a brief move to Tigard. This move happened so I could sleep with my love every night without having to go home to get new clothes or check my mail. So, from November 2009 to March of 2010 I commuted 20 miles/day, momentarily lived with a crazy puppy, and observed the modern day Suburbanite in the name of love.

Now we are back in Portland. Things are happening. I'm moving the few entries from no.36 here since they're important but creating a new space for the amazing things we're about to do.

And so it begins...

The sharks came on Tuesday (04.27.10). This is only exciting in the sense that I can finally start charting. Which, of course, I didn't start until today because I'm awesome like that.

My cycles tend to be between 33 and 37 days which is on the longer side of normal. I'm curious to see if I'm actually ovulating when my body feels like I am. I can usually feel a twinge or slight cramping (usually on my right side) about 10 days before the sharks actually attack which I recently learned is called Mittelschmerz.

So for now... charting. Finding a known donor is trickier than one would think it would be. Perhaps the 9 page PDF I created that basically says 'You will not be the father. You will not be the father. YOU.WILL.NOT.BE.THE.FATHER. Legal babble. Legal babble. You must disclose to us if you have any risky sexual behavior while donating to us. Don't infect us. YOU ARE NOT THE FATHER.' is a little scary. But so is the idea of someone trying to fight us for custodial rights or passing along a nice STI. And that's more important.

[no.36] - Some day we'll own a home (not in Tigard)

This house is around the corner from us:

I am totally in love with it. I love Craftsman houses and this is one of the cutest ones I have ever seen. I would paint it a darker grey with white trim and a red door. And it would look like this inside:


















And there would be little pumpkins learning how to bake and change oil, make crafts and play video games, french braid and pull pranks, organize and destroy, do ballet and roll around with puppies. And lots and lots of love.

[no.36] - Tigard in mp3 form.

Tracey opened one of her Christmas presents tonight. I got her an iPod Nano to replace the mp3 player she had. Things are getting classier around here.

Old & New

Or, as Tracey put it, "Tigard on the left, Portland on the right." Yes, Tigard pretty much is an archaic, 2 pound mp3 player from the early 2000's that lost it's charge months ago because the power cord can't be found.

[no.36] - Messes in Tigard: Flying Poop

I hate poop. So much. I don't know how I am going to do diapers with kids. I hate seeing it. I hate smelling it. I hate picking it up. I hate stepping in it. I hate cleaning it. This is a universal hatred that is non-discriminatory. People, animals. It doesn't matter.

There is a puppy who lives in 36 that does not belong to me or Tracey. He has yet to learn that carpet, linoleum, couches, beds, people, and concrete are not places to relieve himself. I'm pretty sure that thinks those are actually the places he is supposed to poop because he does it so often. Either that or he hates me and Tracey which is also entirely possible.

Awhile back, while we were enjoying breakfast, Caleb started barking in the little ones direction. Despite being deaf, little one heard the bark, started spinning in circles and as I looked up to see what was going on, I saw something fly across the room and hit the wall. I thought it was a wet leaf until Tracey asked if it was poop. Being the inquisitive young lady I am, I went to examine it.

It was.

The flying poop, as captured by Pumpkin's cell phone

I ran outside to cry and Tracey cleaned it up. She's my hero.

[no.36] - Holidays in the Suburbs: A retrospective

Halloween

My Pumpkins


I like to make him pose. My kids are going to hate me.


Pumpkin's Pumpkin

Thanksgiving



A 20 lb. turkey acquired for $5. Hell yes.


The secret ingredient is resentment.


Sour cream apple pie + pumpkin pie = <3


Pretty much how she always eats.


Christmas


All the loot ready to be unwrapped.

[no.36] - The Post Office

Main Street, Tigard, Oregon.

I had to go to the Post Office a few days ago to mail out Christmas packages to my grandparents and Tracey's parents. It's on Main Street, which isn't that far from #36, but I somehow managed to drive past it three or four times. I may have thought it was on the north side of the street when it's really on the south and didn't bother looking on the south side the first three or four times. Anyway, here is some historical background on this little street from Wikipedia:

The period between 1907 and 1910 marked a rapid acceleration in growth as Main Street blossomed with the construction of several new commercial buildings, Germania Hall (a two-story building featuring a restaurant, grocery store, dance hall, and rooms to rent), a shop/post office, and a livery stable. Limited telephone service began in 1908.

In 1910, the arrival of the Oregon Electric Railway triggered the development of Main Street and pushed Tigardville from being merely a small farming community into a period of growth which would lead to its incorporation as a city in 1961. The town was renamed Tigard by the railroad to greater distinguish it from the nearby Wilsonville, and the focus of the town reoriented northeast towards the new rail stop as growth accelerated.

1911 marked the introduction of electricity, as the Tualatin Valley Electric company joined Tigard to a service grid with Sherwood and Tualatin. William Ariss built a blacksmith shop on Main Street in 1912 that eventually evolved into a modern service station. In the 1930s the streets and walks of Main Street were finally paved, and another school established to accommodate growth.

It's really not that long of a street. There's a bike shop, a post office, a stationary and stamp store, a few places to eat, a liquor store, and a dry cleaner.

Bicycle Shop on Main Street.

What's on the street is not really important. What is really important is the beautiful people of Tigard that were waiting for me inside the Post Office.

• Soft Butch: The city of Tigard is full of soft butches. They always seem to spot us and give Tracey some sort of weird bro nod. I don't like them. This one was beautiful. Black eyeliner, fully lining her eyes, a subtle faux-hawk. I think she was going for some sort of rock and roll look, only it wasn't really working since she was wearing tapered jeans and a dated blazer. I tried to capture this spotting with my cell phone camera but was balancing three boxes and couldn't do it without being obvious.
• Old Lady Who Reads in Line: This lady was nuts. She had her packages on the ground and kept kicking them to move so that she could continue reading her Danielle Steele hardcover novel. Maybe they were too heavy for her to hold. I don't know. The man in front of her (see below) looked over his shoulder, away from the line of people, to cough and she immediately snapped her book shut, tapped him on the shoulder and told him that he needs to cover his mouth when he coughs. She then turned to me with a look in her eye that said she wanted me to agree and I just kind of shrugged my shoulders. I wasn't about to get involved in some sort of weird stand-off between her and the...
• Gay Man in a Hunter Green Corduroy Jacket: Nothing really special about him except he looked like a taller, chunkier version of the Soft Butch and gave old woman devil eyes when she scolded him for potentially infecting us all with H1N1.
• I'm Too Important for This: As all of this is going around me, I hear a woman screeching about how she doesn't have time to wait in the line of people. When I turn towards her voice, I was delighted. A Tigard Goddess in 4" stacked heel sandals, tight blue jeans, and an even tighter turtleneck sweater, bleached out hair and way too much make-up. You know, someone who probably was an extra in a Motley Crue video at some point in their life. Loved her. She not only had the nerve to cut in front of 15 or so people but was allowed to by the postal office workers. Obviously I need to dress up more around here in order to get things done more efficiently.
  

I would like to thank the postal workers of the Tigard USPS office for moving the line quickly so I didn't have to encounter any more people.

Chinese Restaurant on Main Street.

[no.36] - Christmas in Tigard

Scenes from the neighborhood. It's not Peacock Lane but it's still Christmas, right?








And what Christmas looks like inside 36. The sweet little Pumpkin did such a fantastic job on this. I heart her face so much.