NOLA for fun!

Tim and I went to New Orleans. We met up with his mom, dad, brother and sister-in-law. My camera broke before the trip. As a result, I don't have photos as they were all taken with Tim's camera, and now erased from his camera, which makes it more difficult to get them on my computer.

I'm considering a large purchase of a very nice camera. Suggestions?

NOLA was way fun. Great city, but I wouldn't want to live there for an extended period of time.

Next up? Death Valley National Park most likely. After that?

Oh, also, I decided to separate my travels from my thrift store finds. You can find my new blog at www.againstmyboyfriendswishes.blogspot.com.

Mixed Bag

Seattle...


Seattle was great (minus the noises I heard coming from my neighbor at the hotel - that was gross).I went to an amazing conference, got to travel to Port Hadlock via ferry and meet with some cool people from a potential sponsoring organization, and do service with the AmeriCorps State Program Office on 9/11.


Nice peak!


I consider the timing of this shot with the sailboat quite perfect:)



Near Port Hadlock - not bad! Port Hadlock was actually slated to be the port for Washington, not Seattle. So, there are a lot of really awesome old buildings downtown. It's cute. It's small. I went to the co-op there. It's a pretty hippie place - kinda like a Davis without the university. It was at the co-op that I heard a 5 year old being asked if he was drinking carrot juice and he proudly responded, "carrot and BEETS!" Only in a place like Davis would this happen.



This is the sustainable farm the team would work at - pretty!


Now, on to my thrift store finds...

Cool office supply...this might be coming to work with me.

I found the orange basket thingy most recently (the letter holder was a find from a while back and the little planter I got on ebay). The basket is set by the door and perfect for keys.

Owls!

Clever ice bucket (not sure if or when I will ever use it, but it's a nice design)!
And finally, a little sampling of my recent shots of fruit from the Davis Farmer's Market (America's Favorite!):






No planned trips right now, except for maybe New Orleans for Thanksgiving. Tim and I have also been thinking about heading to Monterey to check out the aquarium. I haven't been there for years. Any other suggestions?

?

How does the whole world now know about this? When will it stop?

16-year-old Derrion Albert Beaten to Death in a Mob of Children

Saturday, September 26, 2009

According to police, 16-year-old Derrion Albert was an innocent victim who was dragged into a mob of teens fighting on Chicago’s South Side.

The news comes from WLS-TV, ABC 7 in Chicago:

Authorities say 16-year-old Derrion Albert was walking from school in broad daylight when he was beaten to death.

It happened on Thursday in Chicago’s Roseland community on the far South Side in the 300-block of West 111th Street.

According to authorities, Derrion Albert was kicked, punched and beaten to death by several teens near the Agape Community Center.

Police say about a dozen teens were in a massive fight with sticks around 2:30 p.m. Albert got dragged into the mob.

Albert was taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn and pronounced dead around 6:30 p.m. Thursday.

Witnesses say the fight that Albert appeared to have walked into was between mostly students from his school, Fenger High, identified by the uniforms they wore.

"These were kids beating kids," said Milton Massie, director, Agape Community Center.

Police are studying video from outside the Agape Community Center. One witness said she saw kids go in after Albert with two-by-fours:

"It looked like 100 kids. We’re talking about kids all over the place, in every direction…On the video, there were kids hopping over cars. The kids had huge sticks. They were going after each other. It seemed as if it was not so much a targeted, but it was random," said Massie.

"Everyone was just letting him get beat…it was basically like he was really by himself," said Tynesha Jackson, witness.

"He was down and they started kicking him. Then I saw they had, like two-by-fours, that’s when we realized that someone need to do something," said Linda Cotton, Agape Community Center.

The center employees pulled Albert’s beaten body to safety.

"He would gasp for a breath a few times but he was unconscious and lying there," said Cotton.

But it was too late.

According to his grandfather who raised him, Albert attended Bible class on Tuesday evenings and church on Sunday.

Our children did this.

We need to pray about this one, and for Derrion Albert and his family

The New Hood

So there's this church down the street (actually, there are about 10 that surround the park near our house) that has a stand that sells fruit every Sunday. Yum. There's also this place called Osaka Ya that sells handmade mochi. They also have a window that you can buy Hawaiian style snowcones out of (ice cream in the bottom!). Our favorite new coffee place is Naked Coffee Lounge. They have this drink called the Kerouac - four shots of espresso and cold (but no ice). Yum-OOO. There's also this event call Chalk It Up that was pretty cool. Here's some pictures from the new hood:





Next up: My recent trip to Seattle and more thrift store finds!

The Dirty, Fried South

I went to Vicksburg, MS for work. We had a meeting with staff from all 5 of our NCCC campuses across country. Although I didn't want to make the trip for an entire week, it ended up being worth the trek. It was cool to meet people face-to-face, learn about where NCCC is going (big changes with the Serve Act), and have an excuse to eat fried. I had a cold the entire time, but that didn't stop me from enjoying the fried pickles, fried catfish, fried cornbread balls (aka hush puppies)...you get the picture. These were taken on my last day there when I started to feel a little better and could partake more completely.

fried pickles - a little taste of heaven.

This lady is souuuutheeeern. I had to pretend to take a photo of my co-worker, Larry to get her!

Hush puppies are probably my favorite fried.


People in the South love dead stuff on boards.

Can you see that? The catfish comes with all SIX of those items. What? Who are these people?

SF and Thrift Stores = Happiness

So, this past week I went to SF for a training. It was called "Managing your emotions in stressful situations." After I signed up, this overwhelming fear came over me that it would be me and a bunch of ladies sitting around in a room crying. Then, when I got there, there was a bunch men. So, I thought, "Crap, it's gonna be a bunch of angry dudes and a bunch of crying ladies." (Yeah, you can say something here about me and my gender stereotypes, that's fine.) Luckily, it wasn't, but it still wasn't that great. However, the clam chowder in a bread bowl was. These photos I took from lunch on Pier 39.



I also found a couple of cool things at a recent trip to a thrift store where I spent a total of $16.00. The fabric I'm gonna use to make curtains for the kitchen in our new place. It's all open and I don't like to see clutter. Plus, how could I pass up this awesome vintage fabric for $6.00?

6.25.2002

Today is the anniversary of my mom's passing. Her favorite flower was the Iris. I remember she would go to my godmother's garden to collect bunches of flowers and bulbs to plan in our yard. Her hope was to surrounding herself with just some of the beauty from my godmother's field of iris.

My mom was a lover of all things beautiful. To me, it's interesting that these were her favorite flower. They are described as "showy," but my mom wasn't. She was modest and humble. However, the Iris is also beautiful, delicate, feminine, and very sculptural - words that relate greatly to things my mom was drawn to and represented.

The last thing my mom sketched was a bunch of irises that were brought to her while she was sick - only a week or so before she died. The next step was for them to be painted. She never got to the painting, but I still have the faint pencil drawing. I thought I'd post these photos of Irises taken a couple month ago here in Davis, in memory of her.

MT, WY, and OR, oh my.

A couple weeks ago I flew into Billings, MT for work. I had to drive down a couple hours to Nowheresville, WY to visit with the sponsor that will be hosting the team. The team will be living on a working ranch. It's amazing. I'm jealous. I'm pretty much in love with Montana and Wyoming. However, it's so conservative - a comparable religious vibe to the south. I walked into a cafe to get some lunch and there was three women with bowed heads praying before lunch. Not my thing, but it sure is purty.








Billings is actually pretty cool. They also have awesome antique shops that I may have wondered into during my search for lunch. I'll post my finds later maybe.

Now, on to Oregon...

We went to Portland for my birthday. I liked it a lot. I mean, I could probably live there. But, there's this weird vibe going on (yep, that's twice I used that word, but I can't think of an y other way to describe it. Plus, I live in California now, so you know... I actually don't think I even used that word while living in Chicago except to make fun on Californians.) There were a lot of sorta grungy peeps playing guitars randomly all over the place. It also seemed like people just sorta hang out and work a little at places like Voodoo Doughnuts and coffee shops so they can afford more tattoos. People didn't seem especially happy and there were quite a few disgruntled drivers that likes their horns. I donno... I'll need to go again to double check. Great food, though!

We stayed at an awesome hotel, Hotel Modera. They upgraded us to a suite and left us a bottle of wine on our room. It was so awesome! We also went to the farmer's market, ate at Andina, walked around the Alberta Arts District, drank Stumptown Coffee, ate Voodoo Doughnuts and cupcakes, went to the Chinese Garden, drank Rouge beer, and walked a lot (we didn't rent a car).














Good times!