Chihuahuas are so last season!

Summer is upon us. When I became of aware of the sulstice I also became aware of the wonderful fact that college lets you get a jump start on summer. Hear I am thinking I am enjoying summer when really I am enjoying "pre" summer. Poor high schoolers have to wait until real summer begins. Not us older and wiser folk. Well, I guess this is my last one so I better enjoy it.

What? What did I do on the solstice you say? I tried to remember my camera for the day and succeeded but the battery was "exhausted" by the third picture. It doesn't matter because the most important part was captivated. First, and less important, was the Saturday morning weight class. After class, Barbara and I went to Bay View on the South Side and ate rasberries and vegan/sugar free muffins (they are like miniatures of that fat free/sugar free/vegan bunt cake Bubba demolished at Alex's Birthday!) with a friend at the farmer's market. We then went for a bike ride along Lake Michigan and I got a taste of the upcoming trip.

One thing I want to mention before I disclose beautiful pictures on your face--has anyone read about the 17 girls in Mass who preplanned their mass pregnancy? The "bump" phenomenon it's being called. Karen (Barb's friend) said that these kids claimed they thought it was cool because Britney's little sister is apparently worthy of role modledom!! She's not even a B-list celebrity! Why did I even bother saying that? A child is not a chihuahua! Even a chihuahua is a lot of responsibility! Just another reason why T.V. should not substitute a babysitter. Kill it. Kill your tele.


link to report







After the bike ride we had to run some errands that happened to be located right in the middle of the Milwaukee Sulstice Festival in Riverwest. So I got to go to Beans and Barley to get quinoa AND watch a rousing/intense (could make Meg W. cry) game of dodgeball ball while feverishly munching on a superb black bean barrito.

I came home, worked on some GIS, talked to my mom on the phone and then made some awesome quinao nut hash for dinner. I sure had a good food day now that I write it all down in here.

The movie I sealed my first summer night with was about high school debate teams. Particularly, a pair of students from Long Beach whom used the debate forum to rip apart debate as an inaccessible and thereby racist system that no longer served the purpose of discourse on issues but rather accolades students who can parrot other people's arguments with no actually purpose of personal resolve. This immediately triggered memories of late nights in Kyla's room debating with Kate. I think the movie is called "Resolved" (though the kids making change ultimately fail--we will pick up where they left off Ky!) and I really think she should see it because I am interested to hear her argument against (assuming it would be).


"...honest differences are often a healthy sign of progress."
- Ghandi man, shit.

i don't want a pickle...

i know, i know, the lighting makes her look juandiced but trust me...she's a beaut.



my handle bars make all the girls scream.




and if you look at the back tire you will notice it is flat. but! it is now fixed and up and running!

so, now that she's in my possession, paranoia has set in. i wonder about her wellbeing 24 hours a day. i ride her to and from work and today, when carl told me we were going to jazz in the park tomorrow, i almost declined because i wanted to ride my steed home. so basically, my life is much improved, though i am still transitioning priorities from the freaky first time motherhood sort, to regular im still 22 sort.

and that juandiced lighting and white concrete--that's just my office. it's actually quite nice when the music is playing and my mother's gardening poster is up, oh, and when the accountant doesn't kick me out. actually, i'm secretly in love with the accountant in a weird "when i am a professional writer you will be a staple character" kind of way. i will leave you with the lyrics from one of the most true songs ever written.

i don't want a pickle...
i just want to ride on my motor'sicle...
and i don't want to die...
i just want ride...
...on my motor cy...

-Arlo Guthrey

the three e's

economy, ecology, and equality--madonna couldn't spin a hotter track. this mantra is stuck in my head like vogue. In school it always seemed to me that working on all three at the same time causes a brain melt down, a system failure. i would ask professors "How do we take action?!" like it was so hard to contribute, that what we need is genius innovative ideas to fix this crisis we are in. my perspective is changing.

this is mostly due to my job. somehow, ownership of homes needing substantial rehabilitation seems to hit all three. people come to this organization with very few assets, have access to translators and creative funding such as sweat equity, and start building wealth. these people are not creating new utopias on greenfields, they are rehabilitating old homes and improving old housing stock. they are investing in neighborhoods which can only be improved. finally, due to the unequal racial playing field and immigrant status of most of our clients, this is their first home and first opportunity to invest in something that will provide them with equity to raise the level of the playing field. renters become stakeholders! empowerment!

i am beginning to see how well people can improve their own situations when provided with the access they need.


as for my bike...tonight might be the night i upload the photos...

Take Your Medicine

It is 7:30 in the morning on a Saturday. I have 15 minutes before we get in the van and go to the weight class that makes me feel like the weakest individual alive. I'm a little more scared this time, knowing what lies ahead, but I figure it is best to take your medicine, even if it tastes like poo. But it is really hard to be dying from dips when this beautiful girl in front of you is doing double time. I just start staring at people and, this girl I just mentioned, really confused me because I don't think she has any hair on her body. Her arms looked hairless! And that made me a little self conscious all of a sudden, like, oh, should I have left my hair at home? WHAT?? SHE should be self conscious! Who does that? Anyway, the icing on the cake, as mentioned in the last post, is that my 60 year old aunt and her friend can totally handle this work out and I'm like a young struggling tub of butter to them. Gross.

Carl and I met my aunt and uncle for dinner last night on the waterfront in the "Third Ward." The TW is a very swanky/yuppie area; picture all old warehouse conversions to loft space and very designed shops. What's bizarre about it is that it is sectioned off from the rest of the city by water which causes is to be a severely single income level area. So, while it is nice, it is also sort of like a wealthy suburb with cooler digs. I think I finally understand what they are trying to do at the Navy Yard in Philly.

I got my phone!

Is a kid on a leash still funny if no one can hear you laugh?

So I'm hear in Milwaukee (Mi-wuakee as pronounced in the local dialect), just in time for the flooding. I spent Sunday night knee deep in mud (no lie) bailing water out of basement window casings and constructing dams out of unsaturated organic matter while lightening lit up the sky. But that is just a glaring blemish on an otherwise beautiful peach. The morning before the storm was spent at the gym doing my first ever adult life gym class and this woman was fierce. After watching my 60 year old aunt and her friends school my ass on the one hundred sit up/push up combo, we went for a bike ride. This is where I caught my first glimpse of Lake Michigan and road through my second ever Olmsted park (counting Central Park and discounting Bryn Mawr which was designed by Olmsted and Sons). After a 6 mile ride or so we ended up at Beans and Barley where my cousin met us for tofu scrambler and fresh orange juice. I went off on my own to the Urban Ecology center, biked back into town and went to the Riverwest (I think) library with some post cards for Kyla and Nadia. I started reading White Teeth, got distracted and left my post cards in the library which is embarrassing because they were filled out already and now some stranger knows all the juicy and scandalous information I had written all over them. When we got home it was chaos because the sump pump didn't turn on and the basement was flooding. This wasn't just an ordinary freak out either because my aunt and uncle are trying to sell their house so, the environment was what I would call "severe" and I think Rog had a Vietnam flashback because he sure made me feel like I was in the shit. The next morning I caught up on GIS work (though one can never truly catch up so it seems) and went to the Locust St festival only to find that I missed the annual Beer Run. Next year, Kyla Quillin, you and I will run that 5k even if I throw up foam the whole way. I saw some great bands (check out .357 String Band) and my uncle was serving beer so I was hooked up. While at the festival, I kept seeing things that made me think of people I know. I didn't get lonely but I began to feel like a crazy person chuckling to myself about inside jokes with people who weren't with me. There was this band (fat bottom something or other) with a lead singer who was Marciniak's doppleganger (sp?), voice, performance, body...EVERYTHING. So of course I thought of Anna and Alix. And then I saw a kid on a leash that looked like a monkey with one long arm (the leash not the kid) which anyone could have appreciated. There was a tiny dog dressed in a hot dog suit (Emma), a girl with a crocheted hat and dirty clothes (JP)...I can't really think of anything else but the festival was more fun than I ever thought I could have while alone. I regret to say that woman danced without any reservations in front of a huge seated crowd watching the marciniak doppelganger and looked awesome. I wished Kyla was with me because I know she wouldn't have thought twice about jumping in and I could just go off her energy but I stood in the back challenging myself to go in front of all those people and just own the dance but...I'm a coward. Next time. The whole vibe was that of Burlington and it was nice to be totally relaxed around dirty college students.

Other than the flooding I find this place to be totally beautiful and full of potential. Though many places are segregated by race here I have never seen places so well integrated and so many people aware or working towards multiculturalism. It is beautiful both environmentally and socially and I'm thus far happy with my decision. Obviously I work here too and my next post will indulge that. I just wanted to get this off the ground with something comical rather than heavy and inspiring.

As for keeping up with old friends: I am visiting Sarah McHugh in August. Amanda W is visiting in July. Biking with Ky in August. And Siri hinted to Summerfest.