The Book Nomad

Obsessive Poem Reading

Mon, 11 Nov 2024 16:57:49 GMT

I can't stop reading this poem.

I am a big fan of the email newsletter. I subscribe to so many that I get up at 5am to ensure I have morning newsletter reading time. Some I pay for full subscription access, and some I only get the free versions. Either way, I read all of them. They often stay in my inbox for weeks because there are links or ideas I want to return to. Sometimes I go back, often I don't. The most common ones that hang around are from Andrea Gibson , Holly Whitaker , Chris La Tray and Nadia Bolz-Weber .

A while back I was signed up for Nice Cave's The Red Hand Files but then I unsubscribed. I have to keep my newsletter list tidy or it can become unmanageable! For some reason, I recently resubscribed and it was because of this I was introduced to Tom Hirons' poem called Sometimes a Wild God . Tom wrote Nick because Nick (and The Bad Seeds) titled their newest album Wild God.

It's this poem I am obsessively reading. It has overt fairy tale imagery - ivy, mistletoe, wrens, kettles, foxes , otters and bears with flying houses and fist pounding lightning. It speaks to the wildness inside us all; the wildness we tamp down as we age and take on adulthood.

The wildness is calling to be released.

I would post the poem here if I could but I guess that's illegal and all. So you'll have to follow the link. Please take a minute to read this vividly written poem. And consider letting your own Wild God out, if even just for a bit.

Sometimes a Wild God

Hot Take: Work Kills Creativity*

Thu, 12 Sep 2024 19:00:42 GMT

*This is not that hot of a take. It’s common knowledge but it’s more evident to me than ever.

It’s been 19 months since I wrote on this site. Do you know what happened 19 months ago? I started working full-time again. Actually, I worked FULLEST time meaning I started my new full-time job while also teaching my evening class until they found someone to replace me AND I kept working my restaurant job because I liked it, and I am crazy, and my new full-time job did not pay me very much money.

How on earth was my brain to also do the type of processing I like it to do most? Impossible! And now I find myself in between jobs with some time for brain processing and here I am! Back to it! Even better, I recently spent 8-ish days in Mexico City, and I wrote 22 pages of a manuscript I hope to turn in for application to a writer’s workshop.

Halfway through this creativity-killing time at my job(s), my friend Romy recommended I read Welcome to the Hyunam-dong Bookshop by Hwang Bo-reum. I love me a good bookshop book and requested it from the library right away. This is a story about a Korean woman named Yeongju who quits working for The Company and opens a bookshop in an out-of-the-way location. The main plot is about the employees and customers at the shop and all the ways Yeongju works to make sure the bookshop can survive more than two years.

What surprises me is the underlying tone about the state of work. This is a theme throughout the book and multiple characters struggle in different ways. One woman starts coming into the bookshop and spends hours crocheting or knitting. After she’s been coming there for a while, she eventually shares she had to quit work because she was so angry about being a contract employee for 8 years and having been promised a permanent position time and time again for it never to happen.

Yeongju worked and worked and worked at The Company until she realized she had no passion for it and couldn’t continue in the same capacity which would end her marriage thus ending her relationship with her mother. All because of work!

There are other stories of other characters struggles to figure out how to live a good life and do the necessary work required. One character says, “The problem here is not that the labour process presents no opportunities for expression and identification, but that the employer expects workers to become fully involved and invested in the job.”

I find this so true. In an interview, if you make any indication you want to make sure the salary will fit your needs, you might be looked at as being all about the money and not passionate enough about the job. In my full-time job helping refugees find work, I coached them on this – telling them not to inquire about the salary in the interview. Focus only on the job and the company. It feels so superficial.

Are businesses so delusional that they think the pay, hours, conditions, etc. don’t matter to us? That the work itself will sustain us? Can I eat a memo for dinner? Will that presentation work as a rent check?

Well, sure they are. Because often, we are afraid of not getting the job so we go along with it and make it sound like the job is more important than our families and outside lives and whatever else we want to be doing with our time. Like writing, learning new needle crafts, and sewing with our mothers. Walking in the park with our dogs and the children in our lives. Sitting on a bench in the park and listening. Just listening.

Another character says, “That said, the problem is that our society is too obsessed with work, and working takes away too many things from us. It’s like we surface from the depths of work to get a breather, only to feel thoroughly spent. And when we return home after a long workday, we no longer have energy for leisure time or hobbies.”

I know it sounds like I am anti-work, and I am not. I like working. I like the sense of accomplishment work brings me. I like having structure in my day. I often like having co-workers. And I think the way we work is so, so broken. We get this one life. We all die. We spend most of this life working for others. I started working at 14 years old and have only had a few months off since then. The way things are going, who knows if I will ever get to stop.

Maybe I just need to adopt the mindset of Minjun, the barista at the Hyunam-Dong Bookshop:

“His simple life -yoga, work, movies, sleep – was starting to feel like a well-put-together routine. Perhaps life was enough as it was.”

Blergh. I didn’t mean for this to come out as a complaining post but alas -that’s what happened.

Lets take a moment to focus on the positive. Since I am in between jobs I’ve started an embroidery project, a sewing project and a knitting project. I started writing this post! I started writing 22 pages of my non-fiction memoir thingamajig!

I’ve been working with my dog and he is becoming a very good dog! He and I walk MILES a day – here’s to our health!

I have not stained my deck or taken my shed parts to the town dump. But. That’ll happen someday.

I am certain no one is reading this anymore, so I’ll sign off now. Here’s to someday, hopefully, everyone going on strike and fighting for 6-hour work days and universal healthcare not tied to our jobs. That’s reasonable, right?

The Life and Times of the Tiny Dictator

Tue, 07 Feb 2023 15:21:23 GMT

An Ode to Midge

On the afternoon of February 6 ^th , 2023, in Bismarck, ND, Midge changed her world. She was born sometime between the years of 2005-2007. A lady never reveals her true age.

Midge began life in Pueblo, CO and lived under the moniker “Snickers.” She grew up in a bad situation, with too many siblings. As soon as she could, she took off for the big city of Denver and changed her name to Midge. She found a house with two roommates, a dog named Lilly and a cat named Pepper, whom she would live with for many years.

Midge tried a lot of different occupations during this time. She was a home organizer (moving all the shoes from the front door into the bedroom), a home decorator (pulling up the carpet in the bedroom through the bottom of her crate and moving her dog bed to and fro-all around the house), and an escape artist (running out the front door every time it opened). She even tried a stint as a crucifixionist, poking holes into the hands of those encouraging her into her crate.

Midge had some bad times in Denver, too. She didn’t understand consent, jumping onto the laps of anyone and everyone she could, while also doling out doggie kisses. She got into drugs (Prozac and shot-gunning bong hits) and was often angry at everyone around her. Eventually, she decided to change her ways and enrolled in therapy (obedience class) and anger management (more obedience class). These didn't help as much as she hoped and she found herself in prison where she spent a month sharing a cell with a fellow prisoner named LaDonna. LaDonna really helped to turn Midge around and she came out of prison a very good girl. She still didn’t trust other dogs, due to her early life with too many siblings but she did finally stop running out of the front door at every chance.

In her later years, she really found her voice and learned how to use it. She would not take no for an answer and became very persistent, growling and barking until she got her way- earning her the nickname The Tiny Dictator. Midge was always a fashion icon, rocking her hooded sweatshirt right up to her last days. She took up causes such as green bean advocacy, became quite the traveler, and found her soulmate Hazel.

Midge is survived by her soulmate Hazel, her ND family and her CO family, including the best aunties Christy and Juliette.

We can all learn from Midge. Find your voice and use it. Don’t take no for an answer. And eat your green beans, of course.

The Spines of Books

Sun, 29 Jan 2023 16:30:00 GMT

A poem

My bones are made from

The spines of books

Stories course through

My blue veins

Words act as nerves crossing

The weft and weave of my skin

Perhaps, mistakenly, it feels as if

Stories curse my veins

Infect the blood cells

With too many impressions

My veins blue, indeed

The neural pathways

Spark, Ping, Sizzle

H e a t i n g u p

Until the passages

Traverse my body

And change the shape

Of my soul

What if the next adventure is to indulge in no adventure at all?

Fri, 20 Jan 2023 17:14:37 GMT

In Great Circle Jaime says, “The compromise is that I’m living day to day without making any sweeping decisions.”

I realize I have fallen into this way of thinking. Whispering to myself, everything is fine today.

Although I do still enjoy imagining other lives, get caught up in the swell of possibility, for the first time in a long time I feel settled.

Jamie’s sister Marian says, “Is that compromise? It sounds a bit like procrastination. You don’t think you’ll go back to being how you were before, do you?”

I know I won’t go back to being how I was before. I know that today. I’m not sure what I’ll know tomorrow.

Reading articles about women realizing they are tired of working the corporate ladder and feel vindicated in my low-paying jobs with no benefits.

When the farmer in Spain doesn’t reply to my emails about a room and board work agreement, when the Airbnb host in Greece offers me his camper van instead of his home, I decide it’s all too much and I give up. I’m not upset about it. I’m relieved.

Instead, I make easy plans to see the Redwood Forest, right here in the good ol’ U. S. of A. I plan to stop in Medicine Bow, WY on my way from Denver to Bismarck next time I’m there. My next adventure is right around the corner instead of a nine-hour flight away.

I make plans to make less plans. I stop looking for more jobs. The low-paying jobs I have now are quite fulfilling and they pay me enough to cover my health insurance and put a little aside.

What they give me is time. Time to have lunch with my sister-in-law on her birthday. Time to take a 4-day weekend to see my new niece. Time to take a walk downtown on a Wednesday and bring Roxy a sandwich while she slings books at the low-paying bookstore where I no longer work. Time to read all the books in my house. Time to volunteer in the middle of the day.

Call it compromise. Call it procrastination.

I call it feeling settled.

The End of the World

aimee.geurts@gmail.com (Aimee Geurts) — Tue, 27 Dec 2022 19:59:02 GMT

Or the idea of it, anyway

I suppose I should be writing a 2022 year in review or something but...I just don't feel like it. Honestly, there are so many best book of the year lists it's overwhelming and I'm not going to add to that. Instead I'm going to talk about the cheery topic of the end of the world, as seen through the eyes of Ray Bradbury. Stay with me.

_____________________________________________________________________________________

I’m on the worst ferry ride imaginable.

11 hours overnight.

Sleeping on the floor of a large, overly bright room that used to be the reservation desk area. The desk is still in place, and we prop up against its undersides.

The coffee machine in the bar breaks right as my turn in line comes up.

I am too tired to try to find the bar on the next level so I return to our stolen seats coffee-less.

I don’t remember what we are talking about, probably tattoos, and Kim says to me, “You’ve never read The Illustrated Man by Ray Bradbury?”

No. I have not.

I am only recently interested in Mr. Bradbury and I’d not heard of this title. I request it from the library on the spot, have to wait a few weeks.

When it arrives, I like the story of the titular illustrated man, with his moving tattoos that tell stories. The book is comprised of those illustrated stories so we can read about them since we can’t actually watch them.

The stories themselves are mostly comprised of fantasy tales about the future, space men and sometimes about their families back on earth, waiting for them-looking up into the sky every night- searching for Mars or the Moon. They are about alternate reality and often space but there’s something magical about Bradbury characters- their humanness amongst the stars.

And then there’s this one story, ‘ The Last Night of the World .’ This story is about a family, the mother and father have had the same dream, the people in their town have had the same dream, and because of the dream they believe the world will end before they wake. They do nothing abnormal, go about their day as they typically would. They are so calm in their knowledge of the end of the world. There’s something beautiful about their calmness. It is a very short story and so beautiful.

I read it and immediately find a link of the whole text and send it to approximately five people who I think might appreciate it. I want to know what they would do the night before the world as they know it ends.

I am playing The Question Game with a new friend and the card asks, “You have seven days to live. How will you spend them?”

I think about this a lot. At first I thought I’d spend those seven days getting my affairs in order- getting my journals in a safe place!- or getting rid of all my stuff. But then, I think I’d rather spend that time with my loved ones. I have a lot of loved ones. How will I make that work?

Maybe I’d rather spend it reading my favorite stories one more time. Spend my time rereading The Poet X, Everything Sad is Untrue, The Poisonwood Bible, The Archivist, The Night Circus, The Astonishing Color of After, rereading Richard Brautigan and J.D. Salinger and Anne Lamott and Pema Chodron and Thich Nhat Hanh bell hooks and, and, and...

For some reason, I can only imagine the last night of the world, or even just of my world, to be NYE. Maybe because I lived through Y2K when none of us knew what would happen the morning of January 1, 2000? I can’t imagine the world ending on say, June 11 ^th . What sense would that make?

So, the last night? If I know it’s my last night? I think I’ll cook my favorite meal (whatever I might decide that is, I have no idea), take a bath while listening to my favorite songs on repeat ( Lovely Rita , I’m looking at you), and go to bed early.

What would you do?

I Have Learned

aimee.geurts@gmail.com (Aimee Geurts) — Sat, 17 Dec 2022 17:09:17 GMT

How to Winter

I have learned

How to Winter

I have learned

To dig my heels in

So as not to lose the ground under my feet

I have learned

Mittens are better than gloves

So as to keep the tips of my fingers in working order

I have learned

To layer pants over long johns over wool socks

To wear a hood with a built in furry mask

I have learned

There is no bad weather, only bad clothing choices

I have learned

How to Winter

In this frozen tundra, where winter is worse than I ever could have conjured in my imagination

And really, it's not all that bad

I have learned

Walking though the streets

In negative degrees

Makes me feel

I am a badass

I have learned

How to winter

With my body but also my mind

I am not bothered by the cold

I am not bothered when my boots slip

Under me

I am not bothered when I walk my dog down the stairs

And glance over the snowy tops of trees

To see the reddish hue of the sunrise

Looking through the fog of my breath

Creating ice crystals in the air

I have learned

To keep frozen vegetables

Soup stock

Beans and rice

On hand for the weeks of snow days

Piled one after the other

At the mercy of the snow removal company

I have also learned

To set up flight alerts

To sunny places

Because by February?

No thank you

Prairie Greens and an Ode to Maggie Nelson

aimee.geurts@gmail.com (Aimee Geurts) — Mon, 17 Oct 2022 22:59:25 GMT

Color theory in the most rambling way...

Summertime and the few weekends I drive from Minnesota back to Bismarck, I am so taken with the colors of the North Dakota prairie. I cannot get over the colorful, gorgeous landscape. Lush greens, mint, vibrant yellow and pale lavender. Grasses that turn red by September butted against those lush greens, in the ditches and in the fields. Don’t get me started on the sunflower fields.

I had never considered North Dakota to be a beautiful state. I do now. Beautiful in a way previously unknown to me, a landscape I'd grown unused to. The vibrant colors have me gawking out the car window, talking myself out of stopping to try to capture the image with my iPhone. The phone camera will never do the actual landscape justice.

I decide to paint the living room, dining room and kitchen of my new home in these greens. I want to surround myself with these colors all year long, especially in the middle of winter when the landscape turns dirty white with the snow that won’t leave. I want accents the color of the prairie wildflowers: lavender, ruby, scarlet, goldenrod, periwinkle.

But now, I am spending too much time surrounded by blue. I am minorly obsessed with Maggie Nelson’s book Bluets, a sort of love letter to the color blue, reading and rereading, making notes as I go and submersing myself in the language of blue.

I visit Greece. When we think of Greece, we think of blue. All of us. We all do. I do and you do too. The rooftops of Santorini, the view of the ocean and sky, the flag. Blue, blue, blue.

I get an album in the mail from my vinyl subscription service, Her Favorite Colour by Blu. A new Greek friend sends me a movie recommendation, The Big Blue, about divers in the ocean. The biggest, bluest thing there is. Blue is everywhere, all around me.

I’ve always been a blue person. I don’t own one piece of green clothing. I know because I always get myself into trouble on St. Patrick’s Day.

As the time to buy paint approaches, I find myself panicking. Can I surround myself in green? What will it do to me? Who will I become?

Green is the color of envy and jealousy, the color of greed.

Picasso had a Blue Period . Yves Klein patented his own shade of aquamarine, International Klein Blue, IKB 79 . No one had a Green Period.

In Bluets Maggie Nelson says of the color green, “ Stop working against the world, I counseled myself. Love the one you’re with. Love the color green . But I did not love the color green, nor did I want to have to love it or pretend to love it. The most I can say is that I abided by it.”

I cannot commit to green, not yet. But I buy sample cans of paint from the Natural Wonder series with names like Privilege Green and Liveable Green. These are encouraging names if nothing else. I find the little dollop of paint on the top of the can soothing. It feels more alive to me than the paper color sample.

So. I will not commit to the color green, not yet. But I will paint small squares on my walls. I will see if it is indeed Liveable Green. Maybe there is hope for my green life yet.

I'm Going to Greece, B*tches!

aimee.geurts@gmail.com (Aimee Geurts) — Fri, 23 Sep 2022 17:19:03 GMT

Again, I am sorry I called you b*tches.

Well. In the middle of my trip to Spain and Morocco I declared I wasn’t interested in European travel and want to stay stateside (mostly due to long flights and too much time in airports and having to fill out all the forms. ALL THE FORMS, PEOPLE! Not to mention I did get Covid on my Spain/Morocco trip which was not a gas.) seeing some National Parks and riding some trains.

And here I am on my way to Greece. This trip was already in the works and I am glad that it was and AFTER THIS I swear I am staying in North America for at least a year.

But until then! I am going to Greece! My mom and our family friend are joining me – maybe I’m actually crashing their trip? Hard to say. Who can remember.

However, I’ve been doing the planning and I just want to take a minute to blast Expedia and Aegean Airlines. Thank you for letting me do that here. I hate them both.

A fun part of this trip is my friends David and Tony will be leaving on their honeymoon to Greece the same day as us and we will be meeting them in Athens for dinner! Tony found this funky place with fairy tale inspired décor called Little Kook . Looks fun!

Roxy, Kim and I will be spending a few days in Athens before moving on to Crete and Naxos. I am most excited about our daylong train trip where we visit no less than SIX monasteries! I may finally become a lady monk and never return. We will also be taking an olive oil tour (obvi) and maybe even cooking with someone’s Grandma while doing some island hopping.

Now lets talk books!

I am taking two with me. The first, titled Freedom and Death (or sometimes Freedom or Death ....weird) by Nikos Kazantzakis, was recommended as THE Greek book in this article by Conde Nast Traveler Magazine and the second, Bluets by Maggie Nelson (I have read this before, as assigned in one of my Lighthouse Writers classes and I LOVE IT and am delighted to be reading it again) is basically a love letter to the color blue and inspired by the blue rooftops of Santorini (even though we aren’t going there).

Additionally, I used my 199 Cemeteries To See Before You Die book to scope out two cemeteries ( Proto Nekrotafio Athinon and Kerameikos Cemetery ) I want to check out in Athens. I’d rather see those than the Acropolis or Parthenon. Am I fired?

And finally, I can’t wait to track down a Greek language copy of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland! Wish me luck!!

The Reading List and A Life Update

aimee.geurts@gmail.com (Aimee Geurts) — Sun, 11 Sep 2022 13:53:15 GMT

Ain't Life Grand

It's been a busy end of summer over here at The Book Nomad Headquarters...aka my camper dining room table. Mid-August I started my fall semester at SJSU and an internship with EveryLibrary , the first and only public action committee for libraries. I am helping them on their Fight for the First initiative, working on fighting for First Amendment rights for all of the books, all of the authors, all of the children who need to read these books.

I'd love it if you went on their website and signed their list of library supporters petition or even purchased a few banned books to spread around from their Banned Book Store. These book bans gotta stop.

Speaking of bookstores...my other exciting news is I am back at it as a part-time book seller. I worked in bookstores in Denver on and off for 10 years and have always dreamed of working in a bookstore again. I recently joined the team at Ferguson Books & More , an independent shop with locations in Grand Forks, West Fargo and Bismarck. I'll be in the Bismarck store starting mid-October. Stop in and say hi!

I am still looking for other work because turns out selling books is not that lucrative. Let me know if you've got some spreadsheets or projects I can organize!

So now to some talk of actual books. I finally sent out my third installment of The Reading List. This time I snuck on six books which are....

Everything Sad is Untrue * by Daniel Nayeri
The Seven-Storey Mountain by Thomas Merton
The Winter of Our Discontent by John Steinbeck
Jitterbug Perfume by Tom Robbins
I Was Told There'd by Cake By Sloane Crosley
The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield

*Please read this one, if no other!

The next two lists will feature banned books and BIPOC authors. I am really excited to put those together and I finally went through all 200 of my Bibliophilia postcards so I am also excited to find new postcards to send them on. It's the little things, ammiright?

I have only a few days left here in Minnesota. Yesterday, I was sitting on the end of the dock staring at the lake as it glittered at me, feeling quite sad about having to pack up the camper. I have to remind myself it turns to winter here too, eventually. Because I only spend summers in Minnesota, it has become a magical fairytale land to me.

However, before I land myself square into my second North Dakota winter, I get to spend a week in Denver visiting everyone and celebrating my friends, David and Tony, at their wedding and then I am on to Greece for two weeks with Roxy and our family friend Kim.

At the Table in Barcelona

Thu, 18 Aug 2022 15:04:10 GMT

We talked books, of course!

It’s been almost two months since I’ve been back from my trip to Barcelona, Tangier and Madrid. The most common question people ask when they ask about the trip is, “What was the best thing you did?”

Which obviously is an impossible question to answer! The trip through Ace Camps Travel was outstanding and like nothing I’ve ever done before. I normally travel as cheaply as possible so to be in really nice hotels and be so well taken care of was a totally different experience for me. If you have the opportunity to go on an Ace trip, I highly recommend doing so. Our guide through the trip was Camila Loew, a foodie extraordinaire who runs Sobremesa (I highly recommend getting a copy of her new cookbook, The Sobremesa Cookbook! ). Sobremesa translates to "table-top," or "at the table," and Camila told us, to the Catalans, it signifies the time at the table after the meal when everyone is hanging out, chatting, debating (Probably smoking too. Man, people in Spain smoke a lot!).

Our group did a lot of this. We spent so much time at the table. We got to know each other and we had great conversations. I had convinced myself before the trip there would be a bunch of influencers on it, so I was delighted when I arrived and found out I was being a crazy person, per usual. One morning at the hotel, during breakfast, we started talking about the one book everyone must read.

This list is from that discussion (we also discussed recent reads, so I added those to this list as well):

A Fine Balance by Mistry Rohinton

Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts

The Overstory by Richard Powers

This Tender Land by William Kent Krueger

The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo

The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles

Deacon King Kong by James McBride

Hell of a Book by Jason Mott

Soul of an Octopus by Sy Montgomery

The Xenogenesis Series by Octavia Butler

West with Giraffes by Lynda Rutledge

The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich

And this brings me to my favorite part. Not only did we eat at amazing restaurants and I learned to love vermouth, but, I also had the best strawberries and tomatoes of my life at L’Hort d'en Didac , a farm we toured and had lunch, and we did unexpected things like cook at Restaurant Semproniana while getting stern talkings to (lovingly, of course) from the chef, and we walked our way to lunch in a field of trees with sheep off to the left and the Pyrenees behind us, eating what we had foraged along the way with Iolanda Bustos and we had dinner ‘through the times’ in a funky artist studio where a giant cat named Norman scowled at us the entire time and we dipped our bread into candle wax as way of communion before the meal.

However, my favorite part was the sobremesa. All the sitting and talking we did. We hatched plans, we devised new businesses, we shopped for bridesmaid’s dresses. We learned about each other. Some of us have plans to see each other again. I hope to dog-sit all the dogs. But mostly, I hope to chat more and if there are amazing strawberries and tomatoes there too, all the better.

Scenes From a Wasted Summer

aimee.geurts@gmail.com (Aimee Geurts) — Sun, 07 Aug 2022 22:03:52 GMT

August 5th hits and I start to count all the ways I’ve “wasted” my summer.

1. I haven’t made it to yoga every day nor have I walked at least 2 miles per day

2. I haven’t written every day

3. I haven’t gone kayaking every day

4. I haven’t done a single painting, despite setting a goal for a 100-day project

5. I bought all the supplies to learn how to make tofu and haven’t even opened the boxes

Then I realize I am being silly, and I haven’t wasted anything. Instead of hitting goals, I’ve reconnected with old friends, made new ones, deepened connections. I spent three weeks in Spain and Morocco. I’ve spent actual quality time with my family and The Tiny Dictator. I’ve gone out visiting and had a handful of folks from Denver come share my tiny camper for the weekend.

I’ve spent time in antique malls, vintage boutiques, and flea markets. I’ve bought some weird shit and already had to take one carload of books, portrait paintings and even a framed taxidermy bat back to Bismarck. Next time I go I’ll take the busted-up, goldish bird cage I grabbed for eight bucks at the flea market.

I didn’t write as much as I’d have liked but I wrote what might be one of my favorite poems .

I lived through a tick latching onto my knee and then being ripped out by tweezers.

Some of my best days are the ones where I don’t leave the campground:

-I take the dogs for a spin around the loop, maybe Hazel and I hit the frontage road and take the path along the wildflowers.

-I listen to Margaret Atwood on The Ezra Klein Show podcast while I clean up years of Google photos albums.

-I read a chapter of belonging: a culture of place by bell hooks, connecting with passages such as:

“My visits home almost always left me torn: I wanted to stay but I needed to leave, to be endlessly running away from home.” And, “All the years I returned home to visit I sought sanctity in my parents’ house and rarely ventured out. Now and then I ventured out to the porch or walked in the backyard. But I did not take to the hills.”

-I read a few poems from Maggie Smith’s poetry collection Goldenrod and then another chapter of belonging before taking a break to read a Mary Oliver poem from Devotions .

-Maybe I apply for a few remote jobs, maybe I don’t.

-Maybe I wander down to Roxy’s camper a time or two, see if she’s doing anything of interest or if she has better snacks.

-Maybe I take a vermouth with an orange slice and olives down to the dock and stare at the water for an hour, maybe I don’t. Maybe I see the turtle stick its nose out or see the muskrat swim by. Hopefully, I hear the loons as they fly overhead.

-Maybe I watch Hulu for an hour or call a friend.

-I definitely gaze at the sunset out my back window. Or maybe from the deck while I keep an eye out for the pair of hummingbirds that sometimes flit around.

I’ve a month left of this wasted summer. I hope to continue properly squandering my time here. Maybe even make a painting or two. But if not, the hummingbirds will stop by to let me know it’s going to be just fine.

Tentacles

aimee.geurts@gmail.com (Aimee Geurts) — Thu, 21 Jul 2022 20:56:50 GMT

A ghost makes contact

Reaching its tentacles

Through the mist

Tentacles made of

Stories, shared history, past trauma

Love and hate

The history I hold

In this meat-sack

I call a body

Some might say

I hold it in my heart

But I know

I hold it in my brain

Where I toss & turn the words

Churning the old phrases

And even conversations yet to happen

I go to the woods

To clear the tentacles

From my head

I should have been here all along

A neon green caterpillar

Scoots in front of me

Oblivious to my existence

A small brown frog

Sits in the middle of the trail

Patiently waiting for me to cross

The creek babbles

Chattering and ranting

Whispering ideas through my ears

Despite the calm of the woods

I know I’ll let the ghost in

One way or another

I have my own tentacles

Sticky at the ends

I am ready to strip the layers of skin from us both

*Inspired by the Neil Gaiman poem The Hidden Chamber

I'm going to Barcelona, b*tches!

aimee.geurts@gmail.com (Aimee Geurts) — Tue, 31 May 2022 14:00:28 GMT

(I'm sorry I called you b*tches.)

May 2020 my friend Katie and I were going to go to Barcelona. No need to tell y'all why we didn't but we didn't. And now, we finally are! Covid tests in our backpacks and all. This is really my first big girl trip where I'll be doing some things on my own (unlike that time I went to Canada to try solo travel and realized I just took myself to mini Denver, I do feel like I will be challenged this time!) including spending four days in Madrid solo.

But I'm getting ahead of myself.

I will meet Katie in Barcelona where we will join up with the folks from ACE Camps Travel and take a culinary tour of Barcelona as well as spend a day on a coastal town called Costa Brava. From there we will go to Tangier for a week as well as spend a day in Chefchaouen , the blue city. Then Katie heads to Holland to see her brother and nephew and I will go on to Madrid for a few days, where I am sure I will be out of money and plan to spend each evening in the Prado Museum during free hours. Lucky for me there are a few museums that have free hours plus a huge park near where I am staying.

I wish I could remember which art history class I first learned about La Sagrada Familia (pictured above) but...I cannot. It's been since then that I've wanted to go to Barcelona. While I will not be touring the towers of the grand building, I couldn't even make it to the top of Bishop Castle in Rye, CO, I'm sure it will be quite the experience even without the towers. In preparation, I have been reading about Antoni Gaudi, La Sagrada Familia's architect. I am learning a lot about other buildings in Barcelona too so I can't wait to see those as well. Who knew I'd become so crazy about buildings. When I think about the next places I want to go, it's mostly because of buildings I want to see. Like the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul or the Alhambra in Granada.

So. The books. I'm reading the Gaudi biography and also picked up a lovely Taschen edition with photos of his building. I also learned George Orwell wrote a book called Homage to Cataloni a which is about the Spanish Civil War and will be my "light" airplane reading. I also picked up Naked Lunch by William Burroughs, which I've never read, because he wrote most of it while in Tangier. I'm not excited by this book so we will see if I get through it while I am there. If not, I have a copy of Leaving Tangier by Tahar Ben Jelloun about a Moroccan brother and sister who end up living in Barcelona.

The one thing I want to find while I am on this trip is a copy of Alice in Wonderland in Arabic. Cross your fingers for me! I am only taking a carry on so I cannot bring much else back. The book alone might set me over my weight limit but I will wear it on my body if I have to do so!

If You Lived Here, You'd be Home by Now

aimee.geurts@gmail.com (Aimee Geurts) — Sat, 28 May 2022 12:24:12 GMT

Scouring the shelves at Roxy’s camper, I find a book called, If You Lived Here You’d be Home by Now: Why We Traded the Commuting Life for a Little House on the Prairie by Christopher Ingraham. Now this guy is truly looney tunes. He left a suburb of Baltimore for the tiny town of Red Lake Falls, MN – population 1400 – after visiting one time. Ingraham is a writer for the Washington Post and had written an article that placed Red Lake Falls at the bottom of list ranking the most beautiful to the uglies US counties. When people from Minnesota, and Red Lake Falls in particular, found out about this, they protested in their Minnesota Nice way and invited Ingraham to their town to prove him wrong.

They proved him so wrong in fact that he and his family eventually moved to the little town. I do not think he is looney tunes for leaving a suburb of Baltimore, I just can’t imagine the culture shock of moving to a town of 1,400 that has winter for 8 months a year. Moving to Bismarck from Denver was a big shock, I can’t imagine if I’d moved somewhere even smaller.

Although, after reading this book, I can see myself now being ready to move somewhere even smaller, especially after spending a few summers in MN Lakes Country. I currently live outside of a 1,300-person town and about 10 minutes away from Detroit Lakes, which has about 9,000 folks. I’m guessing that’s permanent residents and doesn’t include summer folks.

As I become more and more overwhelmed by the news and events in the world, I keep telling myself to focus on where I can help and that is my local community. Last summer when I was here, staying in my mom’s RV with her, I made lasagnas for Lasagna Love and delivered them weekly. I was turned on to this organization by my bestie Paula and I’m so glad. This is the first volunteer organization where I truly can feel the impact of my time, when I make and deliver a lasagna right to someone’s front door. However, after using up all my mom’s propane this summer, I think I’ll wait until I get back to Bismarck and a real oven to resume my lasagna making. In the meantime, I need to find something to do here…a way to feel like I’m helping.

In Ingraham’s book, he talks about the transition for he and his wife to small town living. He continued to work remotely, and his wife took on the task of staying home with their two-year old twins. In Baltimore/D.C. she had a career she had excelled at but felt burned out by the time they decided to move to MN. But the transition from career woman to stay at home mom was tough for her, as anyone could imagine. Ingragam writes,

“Service and volunteerism- the forces that keep many rural Minnesota towns afloat- happen to be the same thing Briana (his wife) thrives on. Economists and demographers have a name for this-social capital. ‘The links, shared values and understanding in society that enable individuals and groups to trust each other and work together,’ as the Organisation for Economic and Co-operation and Development calls it.”

This is one reason I am grateful for my new lifestyle. I work less and volunteer more. In Bismarck I volunteered in the English Language Learner classroom, which I started doing because I needed practicum hours for my TEFL certificate but even after I decided I probably won’t be teaching English as a main job, I stayed on because the people were so wonderful, and I felt like I was really helping. I also volunteered at the State Archives which was originally for experience for my degree but can now see how important the work is to history of the state and am looking forward to returning there in the winter.

Sometimes I start writing these posts and they go in completely different ways than I thought. Which is to say, I’m not really sure what my point is here except maybe I really wish everyone would get more involved in their communities. It’s easy to give money. It’s hard to give time. I get that. But it’s also so much more rewarding to give time than to give money. To see where your contribution is going. Make lasagnas!! Read stories to elderly folks. Walk shelter dogs. Take your neighbors soup when they are sick. Watch their kids so they can have a much-needed date night. Get to know your neighbors! (Also, a great way to make friends when you move to a new place!)

That is one great thing about this campground community. These folks will help you. The best part is you don’t even really have to ask. Maybe you mention that you need to figure out your gate. Then you go into town to the store. When you come back, someone has fixed it for you!

Also. Read this book. The stats he shares about how people in rural areas are happier than urban dwellers, even though most urban dwellers look down their noses at rural areas (I was one of those, I can attest to this) are fascinating and really make a person think. And don’t be too surprised if I move to an even tinier town someday…

(Ingraham mentions he and his wife stopped at Itasca State Park on their drive out to Red Lake Falls to find a house before they moved and that his wife said it was there in Itasca that she knew this was what they were going to do. Itasca is where I decided to buy this camper and figure out how to spend summers in MN. It is a truly magical place! Come visit. I’d love to take you and see what new life decisions it brings to you.)

The Reading List - Part Two

aimee.geurts@gmail.com (Aimee Geurts) — Thu, 19 May 2022 13:46:25 GMT

This is what 50 postcards looks like...

It took me a week to get these written and luckily, I had help from my niece with the stamps! I was happy to hear from a few folks after round 1, telling me they went to their local library to try to get copies of the books on the list. Success! Hope that happens this time around.

So, what's on this list?

In no particular order....

Awakening Loving-Kindness by Pema Chodron
The Fall by Albert Camus
The Archivist by Martha Cooley
The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
In the Dream House: A Memoir by Carmen Maria Machado

Have you read any of these titles?

If the Wind

aimee.geurts@gmail.com (Aimee Geurts) — Fri, 13 May 2022 12:42:41 GMT

If the wind doesn't stop

I think I'll go mad

If the wind doesn't stop

I think I'll go ma

If the wind doesn't stop

I think I'll go m

If the wind doesn't stop

I think I'll go

If the wind doesn't stop

I think I'll go

If the wind doesn't stop

I think I'll go

I think I'll

I think

Greetings from Austin

aimee.geurts@gmail.com (Aimee Geurts) — Tue, 26 Apr 2022 15:04:21 GMT

Honky tonkin' partners need apply.

I sit on the stoop of my East Austin Airbnb, listening to the neighborhood birds. I’ve got a copy of Mary Oliver’s Devotions , a book I picked up at a two-story bookstore in downtown Austin called Book People (Austin's largest independent bookstore! Made me pine for The Tattered Cover). I find it interesting this book is arranged newest poems first, oldest poems last. I start at the first poem on the last page, wanting to engage with Mary Oliver chronologically.

The first poem I open to, Morning in a New Land, starts,

“In tree still dripping night some nameless birds

Woke, shook out their arrow wings, and sang

Slowly like finches sifting through a dream.”

The reason I’m outside on the stoop is to listen to these crazy birds. Most of them are grackles, the loudest birds I’ve ever heard, the most talkative. They seem to live in a tree in a house across the street flying to and from it frequently. They are very busy birds.

I decide to take a walk around the neighborhood, drawn in by the colorful houses and the promise of murals. I find a little free library and grab a gorgeous, hardcover Lonely Planet book that tells tales of epic hikes. While I do bring it back to the Airbnb with me, it doesn’t make it into my suitcase to come all the way home. I remind myself I am not someone who is likely to take an epic hike, preferring a more mundane version.

The Airbnb has no books at all (travesty!) so I also leave behind my copy of The Thirteenth Tale . I had loaned it to my travel companion for this trip, Tony, and he carted it in his suitcase to return to me. It is one of my all-time faves and I struggle leaving it behind, but I know I can buy a new copy and I tell myself it is better to share the story than hog it.

Tony was with me for the first few days of the trip. We eat*, drink** and spend hours watching for bats***. We engage with an interactive art exhibit and the botanic gardens**** and listen to jazz in a basement club***** while drinking stout old-fashioneds. We walk, we walk, we walk. We go on a hunt for pickle beer******, trying four places before stumbling upon it at Trader Joe's.

On my days alone, I visit art museums. Three of them*******. I relish having the time to pay attention to the art, instead of zooming through as I normally do. I eat more******** and I walk more. I don’t do any honky-tonkin’ which means another trip to Austin is certainly in my future.

The first day we are there, I am completely overwhelmed by the city-ness of it all. So many people, long waits at restaurants, the city smells, the cost of drinks. I wonder if I'm broken for cities. The second day, I feel better, more acclimated. It is a good reminder to me to remember to find things to do besides eating and drinking. Wander through neighborhoods even if they aren't Instagram worthy. Take in the outdoor spaces the city has to offer. Be ok with a night in watching New Girl on the host's Netflix.

Just be. It's a good day to have a good day. Nobody cares if you're miserable so you might as well be happy. Etc., etc.

All places we ventured are recommended!

Picnik (the best server ever, Amanda!)

Fluff Meringues and More (Perisian tea cake!)

Joann's Fine Foods (super cute diner vibe and yummy mex food!)

Counter Cafe (finally, some TX based hot sauce!)

Rockstar Bagels (Vegan salmon and lox!)

Love Supreme (Elote sweet corn 'ribs' and plant based chicken wings!)

Velvet Taco (Nashville hot tofu tacos!)

Yummi Joy (all their ice cream is vegan!)

Haymaker (veggie burger on texas toast! yes!)

Hotel San Jose (delicious yet tiny and expensive froze and pina coladas!)

***

The g.d bats never showed!

****

Wonderspaces

Zilker Botanical Gardens

*****

The Elephant Room

******

Best Maid Sour Pickle Beer

*******

The Museum of the Weird

Mexic-Arte Museum

Blanton Museum of Art

********

Lou's (cutest outdoor space!)

Phoebe's Diner (MIGAS! YES, PLEASE!)

Special shout out to the H-E-B grocery chain for having take-out vegan pizzas in their pizza shop!

The Book Nomad hits the road...er...the air

aimee.geurts@gmail.com (Aimee Geurts) — Wed, 13 Apr 2022 16:05:54 GMT

Traveling finally seems like a thing we can do again...??

In The Art of Travel , when sharing a reflection on a trip to Barbados, Alain de Botton says, "I had inadvertently brought myself with me to the island."

In The Clean Daughter , when planning a family trip to the Netherlands, Jill Kandel says, "Sometimes, the preparation's as much fun as the adventure."

In Between Two Kingdoms: A Memoir of a Life Interrupted, Suleika Jaouad shares a theory of a man she met on her 100 day road trip, "When we travel, we take three trips. There's the first trip of preparation and anticipation, packing and daydreaming. There's the trip you're actually on. And then there's the trip you remember." She quotes him as saying, "The key is to keep them all separate as possible. The key is to be present wherever you are right now."

These quotes are all very relevant to me right now, as I plan to meet a friend in Austin over a long weekend and as I plan a longer trip this summer to Spain and Morocco. It's been quite a while since I've been on a long trip, or any trip really. I went to the Dominican Republic for a wedding in October but a trip like that hardly requires planning. You show up and hang out on a beach chair waiting for someone to bring you a pina colada in a coconut.

The ideas or preparation and anticipation are where my mind is currently as I get ready to leave more that a foot of snow (some of the snow drifts are waist high!) to go sunny Austin, TX. My friend Tony and I are currently sharing ideas on where we want to eat and what we want to see. I can sometimes get too involved in the planning of a trip. I've been known to make spreadsheets. With this trip, I want to take it day by day. I have a few loose ideas of places and experiences but we have no concrete plans, which feels really great. It keeps the expectations in check as there really aren't any.

I relate to the quote by Alain de Botton when I think about how I want to spend my time in Austin, a place known for its nightlife and music as much as its food. I have been reflecting a lot on previous travel and trips where the travel styles of the folks on the trip didn't really jive. I wonder why, when I am in a different place than home, I expect myself to suddenly become someone who likes to stay out all night, drinking in bars. That's not who I am in real life so why do I think that's how I want to spend my time in other places? This is just one example of a travel expectation that does not line up.

Because of this realization, I call Tony and we have a discussion on what we want to do and how we want this trip to go. I want to make sure we both enjoy our time and that we will want to travel together again. Same goes for my longer trip in June. I will be spending a little over two weeks with a friend who I've never spent that much time with before. I've learned I need a lot of downtime, a resource I have never really allowed myself in the past. Especially when I am in a different place, this is important to me, as is trying as much is possible to stick to routines. I want to set this expectation ahead of time so when the time comes for me to have downtime, I don't feel bad or like I'm letting anyone down.

Sometimes I just want to be the girl with a book in a hammock watching the backyard crabs!

Most importantly! I picked up two books relating to Austin. One takes place in Austin and has fairies, goblins and other wonderful monsters which makes me very excited to read it. Dreams and Shadows by C. Robert Cargill is about an Austin musician who landed there after leaving the Limestone Kingdom. However, this version of Austin includes genies who drink whiskey. Fabulous!

I also bought Ship of Fools by Katherine Anne Porter, who was born in Indian Creek, Texas. This book was published in 1962 and turned into a movie with Vivien Leigh. I love having a follow-up movie to watch.

The thing for me to remember is I am taking myself on these trips. If I remember that, I should be just fine and truly be able to enjoy myself.

A Case of the Februarys rolls into Spring Nostalgia

aimee.geurts@gmail.com (Aimee Geurts) — Wed, 23 Mar 2022 14:39:28 GMT

The other day, in the car on the way to sushi happy hour, Roxy says how spring used to always make her feel so nostalgic for Colorado. I was shocked to hear this as this is something I go through every year and had no idea other people felt the same way, much less my own mother. She said she doesn't feel that way this year, not towards Colorado anyway. This year her yearning is for Minnesota.

My spring nostalgia is for very specific places. The back deck of the house in Hazen, ND that I grew up in and my grandma's deck in Conifer, Colorado. The cool spring mornings, the sunshine and the sound of the birds all bring me right back there. I imagine eventually I will add my mom's deck to that list, her deck on the house I am living in with her right now. I think this spring, I also feel it for the dock on the lake we stay in Minnesota.

A quick google search tells me we are not alone in this. I easily find a handful of blog posts of other folks who feel this way as well. For me, it's hard to mix this with my case of the Februarys. I want to only be excited about spring. For me, nostalgia is a bit sad. It's a longing that can't be filled. So I sit with it. And look forward to the mornings soon to be spent on my mom's deck.

And of course recognizing this is a thing I go through, I want to read my way through it. Books added to my list:

On Nostalgia by David Berry

The Future of Nostalgia by Svetlana Boym

The Way We Never Were: American Families and the Nostalgia Trap by Stephanie Coontz

And here's a whole list of books to read when feeling Nostalgic! I love me a great reading list: Books for When You're Feeling Nostalgic and Dreamy

The Reading List - Part 1

aimee.geurts@gmail.com (Aimee Geurts) — Wed, 09 Mar 2022 16:04:28 GMT

All my best ideas...

Sara Nisha Adam's The Reading List came highly recommended from one of my groups of reading buddies, who I call The Book Homies. The Book Homies and I throw around so many books it is hard to keep up. I add a lot of them to my To Be Read list and never look back. But The Reading List was different. I love books about books or books about bookstores or books about libraries. This is a book about books, libraries and a reading list. A match made in heaven. The gist is that a reading list by an unknown author brings together an unlikely group of folks who live in a London suburb. I was pretty excited because I've read all but two of the ten books on the list but the last one is a 1,000 page book I've never heard of so I likely won't be reading that.

Anyway, after reading The Reading List , I told The Book Homies we should make reading lists and leave them all around our towns. Then it occurred to me I could send them out on my postcards. So, over two weeks, I wrote out 44 postcards with the first installment of my own reading list. I created a list of 15 of my favorite books and broke that into three sections. It is a pain in the ass to write the same list 44 times on a postcard so I will definitely be spreading these out! I happen to have two sets of the Bibliophilia postcards though which means I have TWO HUNDRED of them to get rid of. This seems to be a great use of them.

Did you receive a postcard? Had you already read any of these books? Do you plan to now? Lets discuss!

This is Water

aimee.geurts@gmail.com (Aimee Geurts) — Tue, 22 Feb 2022 15:45:41 GMT

The stories we tell ourselves are the stories others hear about us

A story I tell about myself

Is I have a terrible memory

And I read too many books

To be able to remember things

My brain is simply crammed too full

A new friend gave me a copy of David Foster Wallace’s This is Water:

Some Thoughts, Delivered on a Significant Occasion, about Living a Compassionate Life

A commencement speech he delivered in 2005

He talks about goldfish and god and eskimos and the grocery store line*

But more importantly, he talks about the default settings we all have

Our powers of observation that are nothing more than habit

And instead, to be able to choose our thoughts

How we experience our experiences

Because we are the center of the experiences

They all happen to us, they all happen to me

And now I wonder

Do I have a terrible memory

Or have I not been paying attention?

*Recently, I was in line at the grocery story and the women in front of me finished her check out and THEN asked to purchase stamps thereby requiring another entire transaction and THEN she asked for a raincheck for some item that was on sale and out of stock (I assume?) and I didn’t even know rainchecks were a thing FFS! And THEN I realized I was having my very own David Foster Wallace experience and I took some deep breaths and reminded myself I hardly ever have to wait in line in this grocery story and this is really a one-off experience, and the cashier woman is being quite patient and how lovely to have time. I have the time to stand in this line and not be pissed off by stamps and rainchecks. I have the time.

The Poet X - The Best Book of 2022

aimee.geurts@gmail.com (Aimee Geurts) — Tue, 08 Feb 2022 22:54:33 GMT

I know what you're thinking...

Isn't it a bit early to declare the best book of 2022? It is only the beginning of February.

I would feel the same if I were you. However, I am willing to go on record declaring The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo the best book I will read in 2022. And I'm only half done!

I stumbled upon this book when searching for short audio books as a way to motivate me to get on the treadmill. It has sort of been working but now that I can only listen to this book while on the treadmill, it's totally working. Every once in a while, a passage or phrase will stop me dead in my treadmill tracks and there has been a time or two when I find myself moved to tears on my treadmill.

The Poet X is fifteen-year old Xiomara who lives in Harlem with her twin brother, who she calls Twin, and her Dominican parents. Her mother's main love in life is Jesus and she tries her best to get X to feel the same. The story, basically Xiomara's journal, is written in-verse and I highly recommend listening to the audio version because it is beautifully performed. I usually listen to audio books on a faster speed but I slowed this down to give it its due.

I can't do The Poet X justice with my own words so I'm not even going to try. However, after listening yesterday, I decided I have to get every parent who is growing a young adult to listen (or read) and have their young adult listen. It's a coming of age story told differently than any I've heard before. It's about a girl coming into her body and dealing with the male gaze upon her body before she is ready, rectifying with the religiosity of her mother, and pouring all her feelings into her journal in a fragile yet righteous way as only a teenage girl can.

I'm already looking forward to the end of the year to see if my prediction is true.

As the World Burns

aimee.geurts@gmail.com (Aimee Geurts) — Tue, 25 Jan 2022 17:00:04 GMT

As long as the world stands, God will take care of us.

Oh, really?

I was recently in a hotel and found myself in need of a Bible. Much to my dismay, after checking all the drawers, there was no Bible to be found.

See, my great-uncle is what you would call…um….politically aggressive and he told my mom, after expressing passionately his distaste for AOC and The Green New Deal, she needs to read Genesis chapter eight. I had a feeling the hotel wouldn’t have a copy of the bible but I had to check anyway.

(Oh geez, this reminds me the last time I saw the Bible in a hotel was in a ramshackle place in Costa Rica. It had a joint delicately tucked into the pages.)

ANYWAY! Last night I remembered I have this Mark Chagall Bible from his museum in Nice, France so I gave that a read. I had never actually read a bible chapter before. I think what my great-uncle was getting at is summed up nicely in the last sentence of the chapter which reads, “While the earth remain us, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not seize.”

To me this means, as long as the earth stands, we will be taken care of by god.

However, it says nothing about what happens when the earth is standing but on fire and under water all at once.

I'm doing it again

aimee.geurts@gmail.com (Aimee Geurts) — Mon, 17 Jan 2022 16:15:06 GMT

It took 5 days to break my 2022 promise.

I promise myself, in 2022, (Not a resolution, mind you. A promise…) I will focus on one book at a time. And wham. I find myself in the middle of FIVE books.

I start the year strong. I read Louise Erdrich’s The Sentence . I read Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca , based on a recommendation from the main character in The Sentence . I watch Hitchcock’s 1940 version of Rebecca . I do one thing at a time. I am good. (Erdrich does the meanest thing possible at the end of The Sentence . She gives an extensive list of books to read, based on the recommendation of the main character, Tookie. Tookie works in a bookstore and is very well read. Now I must read all of those books. It’s terrible.)

The one of five I start first is a book-mail gift from a former co-worker and Marinuska book club attendee. I receive an unexpected, padded envelope from her and open it to find the last book I saw her reading, right before I left Denver. Late Migrations: A Natural History of Love and Loss is a collection of essays by Margaret Renkl (illustrated by her brother Billy Renkl). Renkl writes about her relationship to nature and animals as present in current day life in Nashville, while interspersing stories from her childhood in Alabama.

One essay about an old dog, told from the dog’s perspective when his humans leave for the day, unravels me in a way that makes me put the book down for quite a bit. It is common with me and books of essays or short stories to stretch out their reading. I almost always have at least one on the nightstand for when I’m in between books.

I find myself getting ready for a flight from Denver to Bismarck and need a new book, so I do what any other avid reader does and get myself three. I download The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid on audio. This is an accident because I thought I requested the e-book from the library, but it was the audio version. I do that from time to time. I don't love listening to books because it's hard for me to concentrate but after waiting for a few months, I'm not going to wait any longer. I recently read Jenkins Reid’s Malibu Rising and enjoyed it so I decide listening to Evelyn Hugo will be ok. I am bit skeptical because the main theme of famous actress hiring an unknown writer to write her tell-all biography sounds so much like one of my favorite books ever, The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield (read this if you haven’t!). I think this did taint my experience but overall, I enjoyed Evelyn Hugo .

I also download two library books, one non-fiction and one poetry collection. Northern Light: Power, Land, and the Memory of Water is by Kazim Ali, whose autobiographical poetry book Bright Felon: Autobiography and Cities was introduced to me in a Lighthouse Writer’s Workshop class, I attempt to read sitting belly up at the airport bar, over a coffee and breakfast sandwich. I stop reading because it’s making me too teary. I no longer apologize for crying but leaking emotions out of my eyes, alone at the airport bar, is where I draw the line.

In Northern Light , Ali returns to a small town of his youth, a Canadian town called Jenpeg. Jenpeg was constructed for the purpose of building a hydroelectric dam in Manitoba. Once the dam was complete, the town was torn down. As an adult, Ali stumbled upon startling information on the environmental effects of the dam and the local Pimicikamak community. He decides to visit the area even though the town of his youth is dismantled. The story of the people in the community is at time heartbreaking, at times hopeful and yet always giving and kind. It’s also a story of Ali, searching for the meaning of place and being. Soul-searchingly trying to answer the age-old question, “Where are you from.” I highly recommend both Bright Felon and Northern Light.

The last one is a poetry collection called The January Children . It reads like a memoir, another story of finding one’s place in a postcolonial world. The author, Safia Elhillo, was born in Sudan while it was occupied by the British. She addresses some of the poems to the late Egyptian singer Abdel Halim Hafez, which I found very endearing way to share the culture of her youth. These poems could be read casually over a week or devoured in one sitting, which is what I did. I can't wait to read her upcoming novel, Home is Not a Country .

I am proud to say I am currently reading only two books! I am rereading The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune. It's my book club's January pick. And I am reading Five Tuesdays in Winter by Lily King, a short story collection. I will keep reminding myself of Adam Grant's words of wisdom and work on quality over quantity.

The Best of 2021

aimee.geurts@gmail.com (Aimee Geurts) — Tue, 28 Dec 2021 18:39:38 GMT

2021 was a bit of a blur.

Not only is 2021 year two of the pandemic, it is also the year I sell or donate most of my belongings and move to another state. My books come with me. All of those heavy art books in the photo above? They move with me. I manage to read more books in 2021 than in 2020, which I thought a feat not possible.

However, as I look back at my Goodreads list of books read, there are some I have absolutely no memory of; I could not tell you what they are about. I did a lot of distraction reading in 2021, more than normal, so I don't mind the missing memories. Because I have this website up and running again, I plan to slow down in 2022 and take in more of what I'm reading, in order to write about it. For now, I know the books I do remember must really be something or they wouldn't stick out. Here are a few of them:

Best easy-read, distraction series:

The Mirror Visitor Quartet by Christelle Dabos

Although this French series is labeled a quartet, my research tells me a fifth one is out in France and we over in America just have to wait for the translation to be done. This is story built in an imaginative, fantasy land where the main character, Ophelia, can put her hands on any object and read the feelings and memories of the object's owner, current and past. Of course there's murder, mystery and intrigue along the way, as forces bigger than Ophelia threaten her magical world.

Best non-fiction:

Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking by Susan Cain

I take a quiz and decide I'm a Highly Sensitive Person so, I do what any other HSP does and try to read a book about it. The one I want has a long hold list and the library suggested Quiet while I wait. I can't turn down the library. The best part of this book is the history given about how 'personality' became a thing, how salesman are born and how, all of a sudden, instead of proving they can provide for a family, men must rely on their wit and pick-up-lines in order to get women to fall in love with them. Cain also does extensive research into the Western way of valuing the loudest in the room, even though that often doesn't mean the smartest or best idea. Truly fascinating read on personality.

Best short novel:

So the Wind Won't Blow it All Away by Richard Brautigan

This is in one of my Brautigan collection books and a story I'd not yet read. I'm so glad I did. A very quick read, the story's narrator is a young man looking back on time leading up to a life-changing event that happened to him as an 11 year old. A cast of quirky characters like only Brautigan can provide, including a couple who arrives at a local fishing hole every night with a truck bed full of furniture that they unload each and every evening, fishing and eating dinner from their couch. There are many laugh out loud parts of this story, blended with Brautigan's unique way of sharing raw emotion.

Best classic P.I. novel:

The Thin Man by Dashiell Hammett

As soon as I start reading The Thin Man , a series of images run through my mind and I realize I've watched the 1934 film version of the nove starring William Powell and Myrna Low as Nick and Nora Charles. I keep reading and am quickly drawn into the story, as I don't remember how the movie ends. It's a classic whodunit and Nick and Nora are a witty, fun couple, although certainly fueled in part by their all-day whiskey drinking habits. This genre isn't in my normal repertoire but I vow to read more. I pick up The Maltese Falcon , also by Hammett, but don't like it as well as The Thin Man . Open to suggestions!

Best memoir:

The Odd Woman and The City: A Memoir by Vivian Gornick

I first learn of Vivian Gornick on a podcast episode of The Librarian Is In , New York Public Library's podcast about "books, culture, and what to read next." In The Odd Woman and The City , Gornick writes about chance encounters in NYC, her twenty-year friendship with a gay man named Leonard, and bits and baubles from her past. I underline many passages, impressed by their truth and succinct sentiments and send the book to a friend who I think will connect to Gornick's wit. I also read Gornick's Unfinished Business: Notes of a Chronic Re-Reader and purchase The Story and The Situation: The Art of Personal Narrative . I have become a Gornick worshipper.

Best fiction:

The Witch's Heart by Genevieve Gornichec

The Witch's Heart tells the story of Angrboda, a banished, giantess witch to becomes the wife of Loki and the mother of three of his children, Fenrir, Hel, and Jormungandr, who all play pretty darn big parts in Ragnarok, the battle at the end of the world. Fenrir swallows Odin, which is kind of a big deal. ANYWAY...This story is told from Angrboda's perspective and the storytelling is magical. Gornichec does an amazing job describing the feeling of isolation even a giantess witch can feel as well as a mother whose children are not what she ever expected them to be.

I will admit I was very mad at Marvel by the end of this book because I thought Thor: Ragnarok was the real story. I've been lied to! And the original story is so juicy, why change it and put a "happy" ending on it. ANYWAY AGAIN. My bad for not being better educated on Norse Mythology. Which reminds me I did read Neil Gaiman's Norse Mythology , apparently having forgotten all about it.

Best angsty illustrated poetry:

Dandelion by Gabbie Hanna

In this collection, Gabbie Hanna is both author and illustrator. She gives us clever worded observations on everyday exchanges as well as deeper revelations of self-discovery. I read this over the summer and I take pictures and send messages with so many of these poems. It seems like every other page is riddled with words I connect with.

Best Biographical Novel:

Everything Sad is Untrue by Daniel Nayeri

I've saved the best for last. If there's one book I tell people to read this year, it's Everything Sad is Untrue. Told in the voice of an Iranian middle -schooler who goes by Daniel, I am laughing and crying all over the place. Daniel tells the story of how his family came to be refugees in Oklahoma and he uses Persian folklore to weave his past and present. Daniel uses an honesty in his story-telling not capable of adults. It's his middle-school perspective that makes this story harrowing and hopeful all at once. Please read this book!

I'm sure there are more good books on my list but this takes me to about July and that's as much as I can remember or give bandwidth to at the moment.

Here's to 2022 and continuing to slow down daily practices. Cheers!

The Thing About Cloud Cuckoo Land is....

aimee.geurts@gmail.com (Aimee Geurts) — Tue, 21 Dec 2021 21:32:20 GMT

He got it all too right.

The things I already lose sleep over. The things I already obsessively read news articles about. The things I already feel powerless over. He hit them all on the nose.

The ‘he’ I speak of here is Anthony Doerr, the author of the novel Cloud Cuckoo Land . Doerr wrote one of my all-time, top-five* favorite novels, All the Light We Cannot See . (I wrote a post about it many moons ago that you can read here .) So, you can imagine my delight upon hearing he wrote another book…finally. At the same time, I hesitated to read it because of the importance of All the Light We Cannot See.

But then, my book club chooses it for December and forces my hand. A week later, my sister-in-law and fellow book club member calls me, “Does this book get happier?” she asks. She tells me she doesn’t think she can finish. This surprises me given the book we read previously was about an elk ghost who murders four men , and she had no problem with that. Because I’m familiar with Doerr’s writing, I tell her to stick it out. He will bring it together. It will be worth it. As one character says, “Sometimes the things we think are lost are only hidden, waiting to be rediscovered.”

A few nights later I am in bed reading and start thinking to myself, I don’t know if I can finish this. It is seriously stressing me out. And that’s when it hits me. He’s encompassed all the world’s worries into this one book. The most prominent being climate change but he also hits on animal cruelty and war, just to name a few. The things I already lose sleep over.

The thing holding it all together is of course, the power of a story. The different five storylines, which also happen to be different timelines, all revolve around a piece of literature named Cloud Cuckoo Land written by Greek philosopher Diogenes. It is this thread that weaves the storylines together and the thread that keeps me connected and hopeful. I keep reading. I stick it out.

I won’t say this book has a happy ending, but I will say there is joy, redemption, and forgiveness. He brings it all together.

*Can I get a heck yes for a High Fidelity reference?

The Book Nomad "blurbs" a book

aimee.geurts@gmail.com (Aimee Geurts) — Tue, 14 Dec 2021 23:17:59 GMT

Sky Blue

Recently, a writing pal from Denver asked me to write a blurb for their new children's book, Sky Blue. I was truly delighted but also slightly nervous, having never done such a thing. Worried I wouldn't know what to write, I approached the task as anyone else would surely do. I googled, "How to write a book blurb." Lucky for me, the book was very easy to write about because it is a heartwarming story about a young person named Sky Blue navigating the loss of their pet dog, Honeybunny. The subject is near and dear to me as someone with young nephews and niece as well as an old lady dog. It can be hard to explain death to children and Sky Blue does a wonderful job tackling the subject.

Paul Bunyan by Shel Silverstein

Mon, 13 Sep 2021 01:21:00 GMT

Two very important things here, folks.

One, check out this adorable Etsy shop, KeepTheFaye . I’ve purchased nearly all versions of her postcards for my postcard project. I love her designs!

Two, did you know Shel Silverstein wrote a poem about Paul Bunyan ? Here in rural Minnesota, you can’t drive ten miles without seeing some reference to Paul Bunyan. What a character. It got me wondering if other states have their own folk characters like Paul and Babe? I can’t think of any. ANYWAY! I was delighted to find this poem and subsequently, when I went on a Shel Silverstein rabbit hole search, I found out he wrote Boy Named Sue by Johnny Cash! How did I not know that??

Here’s the hilarious KeepTheFaye postcard I mailed with a snippet of Silverstein’s poem on the back. The poem is too long to fit on one postcard so the recipients had to google the ending.

Paul Bunyan

He rode through the woods on a big blue ox,

He had fists as hard as choppin’ blocks,

Five hundred pounds and nine feet tall…that’s Paul.

Talk about workin’, when he swung his axe

You could hear it ring for a mile and a half.

Then he’d yell ‘Timber!’ and down she’d fall…for Paul.

Talk about drinkin’, that man’s so mean

That he’d never drink nothin’ but kerosene,

And a five-gallon can is a little bit small…for Paul.

Talk about tough, well he once had a fight

With a thunderstorm on a cold dark night.

I ain’t sayin’ who won,

But it don’t storm at all…round here…thanks to Paul.

He was ninety years old when he said with a sigh,

“I think I’m gonna lay right down and die

Cause sunshine and sorrow, I’ve seen it all’…says Paul.

He says, ‘There ain’t no man alive can kill me,

Ain’t no women ’round can thrill me,

And I think heaven just might be a ball’…says Paul.

So he died…and we cried.

It took eighteen men just to bust the ground,

It took twenty-four more just to lower him down.

And we covered him up and we figured that was all…for Paul.

But late one night the trees started shakin’,

The dogs started howlin’ and the earth started quakin’,

And out of the ground with a ‘Hi, y’all’…comes Paul!

He shook the dirt from off his clothes,

He scratched his butt and wiped his nose.

“Y’know, bein’ dead wasn’t no fun at all’…says Paul.

He says, ‘Up in heaven they got harps on their knees,

They got clouds and wings but they got no trees.

I don’t think that’s much of a heaven at all’…says Paul.

So he jumps on his ox with a fare-thee-well,

He says, “I’ll find out if there’s trees in hell.’

And he rode away, and that was all…we ever seen…of Paul.

But the next time you hear a ‘Timber!’ yell

That sounds like it’s comin’ from the pits of hell,

Then a weird and devilish ghostly wail

Like somebody’s choppin’ on the devil’s tail,

Then a shout, a call, a crash, a fall–

That ain’t no mortal man at all…that’s Paul!

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The Book Nomad’s first Bismarck book club!

Mon, 23 Aug 2021 19:34:00 GMT

Since moving to Bismarck, I haven’t had much luck finding a book club so I have decided to start my own!

Event details here: Book Club

Hope to see you there!

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Minnesota is…

Mon, 19 Jul 2021 12:35:00 GMT

Grass-green fields

Glassy mirror lakes

Blue skies

My soul at rest here, in rural American

My nose works over time

Smelling

Brown sugar

Maple

Skunk

The loons make the strangest noises

Trilling through the sky

Terrifying and thrilling

The flies may drive me to suicide.

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Practicing Retirement

Thu, 20 May 2021 17:54:00 GMT

I put my house on the market on a Thursday, right around the same time in the afternoon that I take a flight from Denver to Bismarck. I decide it will be easier to be completely out of the house while there are showings and I need to help Roxy (aka my mom) get the basement where I will live cleared out. Midge goes to stay with Christy while I am gone, for which I am so grateful. Midge and Christy are bffs and Christy’s daughter Juliette is not far behind.

I have spent the last four months, since I made the decision to sell my house and all my belongings and move into Roxy’s basement, getting rid of stuff. Sorting and selling and throwing. I have Roxy’s affinity towards emotional attachment to things plus I have this weird thing where if I ever spent any real money on it, I can’t possibly get rid of it. I also have a really hard time getting rid of gifts, whether I like/use them or not.

However, something clicks after I decide to upend my life and all of a sudden I no longer have that attachment. It is as if Marie Kondo has finally, all the way, gotten through to me. My friend Jennie, as side hustle, goes to thrift stores and buys and resells things so she offers to help me sell my stuff. We split the money 50/50. This is amazing to me because I would not take the time to try to sell all the little stuff around my house but she does and we make about $1500 to split. When my roommate moves out she takes some of my smaller furniture. My friends, upon me telling them of my new life plan, all claim some piece of furniture or another by the end of my plan reveal.

I get rid of so much stuff I can’t believe it but the thing is, you wouldn’t even be able to tell. It was all stuffed in cabinets and closets and random drawers. I have lived in this house for almost seven years, two and a half on my own, and have been filling it up the whole time. Once the stuff is gone, I can feel it. It feels so good. I never want that much stuff again. I still have some bigger furniture to get rid of but mostly, I am surrounded by things that truly bring me joy – my books, artwork friends have made or I’ve collected on travels, my records…that’s really it.

I come to my mom’s house feeling really good about the shape of my house. And then I walk into her basement and I get STRESSED out. So. Much. Stuff. And she has even been getting rid of a lot already. She found a shop in town that came and bought a bunch of her cool, vintage belongings to sell in their store. But my sister lived in the basement for a while and she has the same stuff thing (genetic I guess). We pack up six totes full of her clothes and paperwork. In order to get them to the garage, we have to clean the garage. It’s overwhelming and I don’t sleep the first night but slowly we start chipping away at it. I jokingly call my mom a hoarder but really she is a collector. It would be so much easier if she was a hoarder and we were throwing out trash but instead, we have to decide what from her amazing pottery collection has to go, which antique books, which handmade tables etc., etc.,

The good news is, she is sick of the stuff, too. We start referring to the stuff as ‘possibility’ because that’s what it all is to her. She is a very creative person and everything item of stuff in this house holds possibility. She also has so much stuff from when we were kids, not to mention all the pottery I’ve ever made and gifted her. It’s easy to see where my attachment comes from. We work slowly but surely, taking countless trips in her Subaru to the thrift store. We certainly don’t get everything we need done before I move here but we make a really good start.

This week at home is good practice for what my retired life will be like. Before I left, I told people at work that I really want to take this time without doing any work. I can’t remember the last day off I had where I still didn’t do some work. For the most part, I am successful. I have to do a few things, like approve time off and remind someone on my team who calls with a headache that I’m off for the week. Then, I get the call that they’ve decided on my replacement and I have to make a training plan for Monday when I return. Mid-week, I find myself missing my team and my co-workers. Man, I am going to miss them.

Roxy and I wake early-ish, go for walks, make a Blue Zone breakfast and then I do homework or write or whatnot and then we clean stuff. We make more good-for-us food and take trips to the thrift store. I see my brother, sister-in-law and their kids a couple of times while I am here. I sign up for a TEFL certificate class. I attend my NLAPW meeting via zoom. I read six books. That’s one great thing about Roxy’s collecting, so many books I haven’t read. We are going to get a Little Free Library and fill it all straight from this house.

While there’s more work to do, I am feeling pretty darn calm about everything going on right now. I have two months to go until I am back in North Dakota. I know they will be busy but I don’t think I’ll lose anymore sleep.

I would recommend all the books read while here:

– Miss Benson’s Beetle by Rachel Joyce, Anxious People by Frederik Backman, Glitter Up the Dark: How Pop Music Broke the Binary by Sasha Geffen, Lean & Strong: Eating Skill, Psychology & Workouts by Josh Hillis, Adventures in Opting-Out (this was a re-read) by Cait Flanders, and Finding Freedom: A Cook’s Story; Remaking a Life from Scratch by Erin French

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Going Home

Fri, 16 Apr 2021 22:34:00 GMT

We learn through pain that some of the things

We thought were castles turn out to be prisons,

And we desperately want out,

but even though we built them,

We can’t find the door.

– Anne Lamont Help, Thanks, Wow

I am in my burnt-orange faux leather reading chair, feet up on the multi-color ottoman listening to the same side of a Billie Holiday album over and over again. The chair is very deep, and it requires a sort of launching action to get out. I push myself only far enough to move the needle to the beginning of the album but not quite far enough to flip the album to side B. I am reading Cait Flander’s newest book, Adventures in Opting Out: A Field Guide to Leading an Intentional Life . This will turn out to be the second book of Flanders’ that will change my life, the first being The Year of Less: How I Stopped Shopping, Gave Away My Belongings, and Discovered Life is Worth More Than Anything You can Buy in a Store . (This girl likes a long title.)

I am having some sort of full body experience while reading this book. Flanders is talking about how so many of us are taught by our parents that the correct path in life is to go to school, get a good job, buy a house, plan for retirement; that is the way things are done and you don’t stray. That is certainly how I was taught and thus far, I have abided and it’s served me well. I have hit all the checkmarks. I continue to read and there are feelings and emotions bubbling up from me that I realize I have been pushing down for god knows how long. I start imagining calling my mom and telling her I want to come home and I can’t imagine this without hyperventilating and palpitating. I feel hot from the inside and my face is flushed. This can’t be good.

Go home? Really??

I finish the book and check my watch. I need to get in the shower because I am due to wrap cookies with my baker friend, Jennie, in about two hours.

In the shower I sob uncontrollably. The hyperventilating and palpitating haven’t exactly subsided yet either. I am glad my bathroom fan is loud. I get out of the shower and look in the mirror and notice I’m covered in red splotches.

I debate calling my mom but don’t yet because once I say it out loud, I can’t take it back and I realize this is why I am having this full body reaction. After years and years of making hundreds of new life plans and never going through with them, I know deep down, even if I’m not ready to say it out loud, I am going to go through with this.

And this is the most anti-Aimee life plan.

Going back to North Dakota. An entire part of my identity is wrapped up in hating North Dakota. When I tell people I grew up in North Dakota and they say, “Oh, I’ve never been there,” my reply is something along the lines of, “Well, yeah. Why would you?” Followed shortly by, “No, actually Mount Rushmore is in SOUTH Dakota.”

Seriously, guys. Mount Rushmore is not in North Dakota and people from my side of the state don’t talk like they do in the movie Fargo. Let’s just clear that up from the get-go.

I finally call my mom and I can’t talk because I am crying. She is used to this, so she waits patiently. I say something reassuring like, “I think I am having a crisis.” More crying. More waiting. And then I think to say, “But, I’m ok.”

Finally, I compose myself enough to speak. I want to come home. I miss my family. Because they live in dumb North Dakota, I only see them a few times a year, mostly because I refuse to go there in the winter and my brother never brings his kids (or himself) out to visit me. I want to sell my house and all my belongings and live off the money while going to grad school. I want to be retired with my mom and learn how to be a proper aunt. I want to work part time at a bookstore or bowling alley or the Heritage Museum. I want to rent an Airbnb in Winnipeg for two weeks and another in Austin for two more weeks. I can do school from anywhere. I want to immediately convince them all to move away from North Dakota and go instead to Minnesota.

She says, “Obviously, I am ok with it. But you really need to think about if you will be happy living here.”

I don’t think I will be able to know if I can be happy there until I try it. That’s what Cait Flanders says. Try.

So, that’s what I will do. I will try.

I am going home.

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Writers & Lovers by Lily King

Sun, 14 Mar 2021 16:52:00 GMT

The best part of the book is how the first half describes Casey writing (or struggling to write) in the mornings, going to her job at a fancy restaurant in the afternoon and dating some dudes. (I obviously also see a bit of myself in this story…) What is so interesting is that King goes into a lot of detail about what happens at the restaurant, describing how many are at Casey’s tables, what they order, how Casey interacts with the other people who work at the restaurant, etc.

But it is actually interesting. At one point I realize I basically have learned a lot about how a restaurant works and am still quite intrigued by the story. King does an amazing job with the details of the mundane. And all the while it is building to a happy yet not cheesy ending. You really feel like Casey has earned her happy ending. Girl has been through a lot.

I appreciate the sections where Casey’s friend Muriel gives her advice on her novel. Feels like its stock-full of little tips and tricks. There is a part at the end where Casey attends a writing workshop and it is in so much detail, I do the exercise myself.

And the books referenced…I love nothing more than learning about new books from the book I’m reading. Here is a list of the books I added to my To-Be-Read list:

There Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston

Hunger by Knut Hamsun

Woodcutters by Thomas Bernhard

Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson

Independent People by Halldor Laxness

The Evening of the Holiday by Shirley Hazzard

I know I was rooting for Casey because I see some of myself in her story. I highly recommend this novel to any wannabe writers. Also…references to T.S. Eliot in this book remind me that so many writers reference Eliot. When will I learn to understand and appreciate Eliot?? Maybe I need to take a class.

And finally, a reference to Amiri Baraka aka LeRoi Jones, who I first read about in the beloved novel The Archivist . This is a reminder of another author whose work I need to delve more into.

My favorite books are the ones that give me homework. Writers & Lovers delivers.

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Sometimes, You Share Your Room with a Fox

Sun, 07 Feb 2021 16:50:00 GMT

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I’ve Given It Up

Sun, 17 Jan 2021 18:27:00 GMT

Then, somehow, I came across Quit Like a Woman: The Radical Choice to Not Drink in a Culture Obsessed with Alcohol by Holly Whitaker and read it in a weekend. I was at day fifteen without drinking when I started the book and finished it on day seventeen. I immediately went to my hallway ‘bar’ and packed up all my liquor, cocktail shakers and glasses. Well…not all my liquor. I saved the bottle of coffee infused Kraken rum because it makes for a really great rum cake. I even packed up my beloved Havana Club rum. Currently, that box of booze is at the front door while I decide whose doorstep to drop it.

There’s so much good information in this book but what I really clung to was the idea of the Integral Map and the four quadrants of our lives we need to round out: I, We, It and Its.

Broken down like this:

I = Internal Processes such as psychology, beliefs, spirituality, existential meaning, knowledge and meditative stats. Which for me means more reading, writing, reflections, learning, therapy, meditation and at home yoga, as well as getting some sort of damn morning routine down. It also means more me time than ever before. One thing the pandemic has taught me is my pre-pandemic life was exhausting and not fulfilling in the right ways. I’ve learned I would rather make myself breakfast and read the New York Times in my chair instead of going out to brunch. This is still very surprising to me!

We = Shared Meaning such as belonging, community and relationships. I have been working on expanding my We into different areas of interest. I recently joined a women’s writing group and am part of two writing critique groups. In addition, I joined the board of a non-profit whose goal is to help other non-profits and I am really proud of the work we are doing. I also remembered how much I love to dance and I signed up for an Adult Contemporary Jazz class. I have no idea what I am getting myself into there but I am excited to find out.

It = Physical body meaning nutrition, lifestyle, exercise, vitamins, balancing gut health, etc. I am always working on these things and falling in and out of good/bad habits. So far this year, I am doing what I call ‘healthy lunch club’ with a co-worker, getting up in the morning to do yoga before work, walking Midge and treadmilling after work, given up chicken and turkey in addition to beef and pork and working on incorporating more whole foods into my diet and working with a naturopath.

Its = Environmental structure which means home environment, housing, career, health insurance. There will be very big changes in this category for me this year.

This morning I got up and drank some hot water with lemon and ginger switchel while I did my version of meditating. Then I did thirty minutes of yoga. I have friends coming over this afternoon and when they told me, upon invitation, they’d bring the wine, I told them to bring whatever they’d like to drink but that I won’t be having any wine.

Little by little is how this life gets changed

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Elephant Rope

Sun, 10 Jan 2021 16:48:00 GMT

It’s Friday night and I walk up the block to Paula’s house to eat pizza, salad and seafood bisque with her family and another couple. Everyone else goes out to smoke and Paula and I start discussing our level of contentment and/or happiness with our lives. We both decide our lives are A+ and this gets me thinking: Is my life an A+ because of being in Denver or is it an A+ because I am the A+ and wherever I go, I will create an A+ life?

The next morning my women’s writing group meets over zoom. The inspirational message of the day is the story of the elephant rope, as story I have heard before but this time it takes on a different meaning.

Is Denver my elephant rope?

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2020 Best Books

Sun, 03 Jan 2021 15:53:00 GMT

No reason to go on about what a doozy of a year 2020 was except to say, I didn’t really have much I felt like writing about despite the fact I read 127 books. I sure hope to never read that many books in one year again! Here are a few of my favorites (in no particular order):

FICTION

– The Office of Historical Corrections: A Novella and Stories by Danielle Evans

– My Grandmother Asked me to Tell You She’s Sorry by Fredrik Backman

– Bow Grip by Ivan E. Coyote (I picked this up in Calgary in 2019 and only just read it – really great story and writing.)

– This Is How It Always Is by Laurie Frankel

– Monogamy by Sue Miller

– The Friend by Sigrid Nunez

– Hex by Rebecca Dinerstein Knight (One of the only books I read every single word and sentence – so beautifully written. Also, quirky and seems like something I’d like to have written.)

– The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow

– There There by Tommy Orange

– The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern (The same author as The Night Circus …another great example of masterful story-telling.)

– The Murmur of Bees by Sofia Segovia

– In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado (In this memoir, she compares her life to fairy-tales and lists ‘tale types’ in her footnote – the format is like nothing I’ve ever read.)

– The Weight of Ink by Rachel Kadish

Non-FICTION

– The Book of Delights by Ross Gay

– Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: A Therapist, Her Therapist and Our Lives Revealed by Lori Gottlieb

– Adventures in Opting Out: A Field Guild to Leading an Intentional Life by Cait Flanders (Another life changing book from Cait Flanders, the author of The Year of Less .)

– Bluets by Maggie Nelson

– The Principles of Uncertainty by Maira Kalman (An illustrated journal -such a fun read.)

– Mating in Captivity: Reconciling the Erotic and the Domestic by Ester Peral

– Coyote America: A Natural and Supernatural History by Dan Flores (The things we humans have done to coyotes – heartbreaking! And yet, they are so resilient.)

– Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer

– The Blue Zones Solutions: Eating and Living Like the World’s Healthiest People by Dan Buettner

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Radicalized

Sat, 31 Oct 2020 16:59:00 GMT

I watch my free will slip through the river of sangria

Drop by drop, out of the pitcher

To gather at the bottom of a 99 cent IKEA glass

Through the low flame

A dog in a god-damned hoody jumps from lap to lap

To finally take space, curled on the cushion of a guest’s chair

February 2nd will live in infamy

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Still life

Tue, 08 Sep 2020 17:54:00 GMT

a poem inspired by the essay Still Life by Kathleen Stewart

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Shining, Bright

Sun, 06 Sep 2020 17:54:00 GMT

Me, either, I said

Unless it’s about mayonnaise

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Alchemy

Sat, 05 Sep 2020 19:02:00 GMT

a poem inspired by the paintings of Remedios Varo

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Wisdom for Composing My Project

Tue, 01 Sep 2020 02:38:00 GMT

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The Coyote Myth: Wild and Urban

Sun, 05 Jul 2020 19:13:00 GMT

I very recently reread Prodigal Summer , as pandemic has me reading like a maniac and I have a lot of time to revisit my favorites. Shortly after I finished, I was at my mom’s house and noticed her copy of Coyote America: A Natural and Supernatural History by Dan Flores. Flores gives biological information on coyotoes and also shares their importance in Native American religions, including a couple of folk tales about Old Man Coyote. In this book, I learned Coyoacan , the neighborhood I stayed in while in Mexico City, means the place of the coyotes. The name coyote is from an Aztec word in their Nahuatl language: coyotl .

The hard to read sections of this book are the parts where he explains government efforts to eradicate coyotes, after (mostly) successfully eradicating the grey wolf. I haven’t yet finished the book because it got to be too much to read about the poisons they use on coyotes and the suffering the coyotes endure due to the poisons. Pure torture. And yet, the coyote does not surrender. Instead, they breed more and have larger litters. And yes, they are sometimes found in our cities. Where they eat rats and other small animals that we humans want nothing to do with. Yet, we chase them out of urban areas, too.

Do you have coyote story? I have seen one in the alley behind my home in Park Hill. Otherwise, I haven’t encountered any since leaving North Dakota. I hope someday to see them again.

Coyote tale resources:

Elderberry Flute Song: Contemporary Coyote Tales by Peter Blue Cloud

American Indian Trickster Tales (Myths and Legends) by Richard Erdoes and Alfonso Ortiz

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The Overstory by Richard Powers

Sun, 03 May 2020 15:35:00 GMT

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Favorite Short Story Collections

Sat, 28 Mar 2020 16:04:00 GMT

Inspired by my impending short story class at Lighthouse Writers Workshop , here’s a list of a few of my favorite short story collections:

Better Than Fiction 2: True Adventures From 30 Great Fiction Writers : I’m sure there is a Better Than Fiction 1 however, I was gifted the 2nd edition so that’s what I’m going with. This is a collection of travel adventures from fiction writers. It’s been a great example for me on how to think about writing about my travels. Also, it’s just entertaining!

The Color Master by Aimee Bender: I can’t remember if I read this first or Bender’s lovely work of fiction called, The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake first but either way, I love her writing. Whether full-lengtthh fiction or short stories, Bender certainly has a way with words. She also contributed to xo Orpheus: Fifty New Myths , which I would recommend as well.

Wild Ducks Flying Backward: The Short Writings of Tom Robbins : I have read Robbins’ Jitterbug Perfume a handful of times. I love it. I was going through my bookshelf a few days before my latest trip and I saw my copy of this short writing collection. I was in the mood of getting rid of things I haven’t used and I thought, I’ve had that for years. I’m clearly never going to read it, I should get rid of it. And then I remembered short story class! So instead, I started to read it. It’s mostly essays and articles he wrote about travels and musicians with a few stories and even some country song lyrics. His phrases are like no other and I’m glad I picked it up instead of giving it away.

Where the Light Falls: Selected Stories of Nancy Hale : I can’t remember where I heard about this one but I remember them saying Nancy Hale had been forgotten and rediscovered. I was really enjoying these stories and then the book was due back at the library so I didn’t get to finish them. I will be requesting it again as soon as I can enjoy the library again.

The Book of Delights : This is a collection of essays written by poet Ross Gay. He set out everyday to document on experience that delighted him. It’s such a funny, warm and endearing collection.

And last but not least…. 100 Years of the Best American Short Stories . Need I say more?

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Professing My Love for Richard Brautigan

Sun, 15 Mar 2020 15:54:00 GMT

In “Coffee,” the narrator goes to an old flame’s house and asks for a cup of coffee, which is funny because I recently broke up with a guy because of the way he asked me for coffee (Ok, ok, that wasn’t the only reason). My favorite lines from this story are, “Her clothes adjusted themselves to her body. I won’t.” I sometimes wear as many as three shirts at a time and will often complain about them being in an argument with each other. I wonder if this is why.

Anyway, the first old flame isn’t happy to see him and leaves him the ingredients to make his own coffee (noted). So, he heads to another old flame’s house and she does the same thing. In the end, he didn’t want coffee at all and realizes, “They say in the spring a young man’s fancy turns to thoughts of love. Perhaps if he has enough time left over, his fancy can even make room for a cup of coffee.”

Amen to that.

Another favorite from this collection is called, “I Was Trying to Describe You to Someone.” Brautigan, in less than two pages, makes me want someone describe me in similar fashion. He describes the girl in relation to a movie which, “showed Electricity like a young Greek god coming to the farmer to take away forever the dark ways of his life.” He ends the story, “I wanted electricity to go everywhere in the world. I wanted all the farmers in the world to be able to listen to President Roosevelt on the radio. That’s how you look to me.” If that’s not romantic, I don’t know what is.

There’s another one called, “Lint,” that is about four sentences long. This encourages me. Maybe I can figure out how to tell an entire story in only four sentences!

Another collection called, The Edna Webster Collection of Undiscovered Writings , includes a few stories but is primarily very, very short poems. Here are a few of my favorites:

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Marinuska: An Art & Travel Book Club- Cuba, Add’l Reading

Sun, 08 Mar 2020 14:26:00 GMT

Of all the Marinuskas, I had the hardest time picking a book for Cuba. I ended up reading four books and picking Ruins by Achy Obejas. I do want to mention the other books I read though. Maybe not perfect for book club, but very good reads and they all give good insight into Cuba’s history. One of them was a short story collection by Achy Obejas called The Tower of the Antilles . I really love her writing. These are stories about a Cuban-American woman and focusing on the intersection of being from/of both places.

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2019 Best Books

Wed, 01 Jan 2020 16:57:00 GMT

2019 was a doozy of a year. While it was fraught with emotional heartbreak and huge financial changes, I chose to focus on the good things. My one line a day journal asked me yesterday what my best memory of the year was and it was good to think about the year as a whole and not just the bad parts. I did end up doing quite a bit of travel and got to do it with some of my very best friends. In addition to those trips, going to France with my mom was definitely the highlight of the year. I am so lucky to have had that experience with her.

While thinking about my favorite books from the year, it was hard for me because so many of them on my Goodreads list, I didn’t even remember the story. I think I read so much more this year and also just consumed much more media in general between books, podcasts and watching library DVDs on my new portable DVD player (!), as I spent more time alone than ever and needed my mind occupied. I have four books I want to mention and only one is non-fiction, which is quite a change from 2018 where I read so much non-fiction, mostly based on getting rid of my stuff and getting my finances in order.

I can’t recommend this beautiful book enough!

The Astonishing Color of After was similar to Creatures in that I found so many beautiful sentences in it. Unfortunately, I hadn’t started my decided notebook and while I know I captured some, I can’t figure out which of my fifteen other notebooks I wrote them in! This is a Young Adult book I had chosen as my book club choice, based on it having the highest rating on my TO READ list. In this story by Emily X.R. Pan, Leigh is a young girl navigating life after her mother commits suicide. She ends up traveling to Taiwan to meet her mother’s parents and has some intense spiritual experiences during her time there. Leigh believes she sees her mother in the form of a bird and she is trying to find the bird. This story prompted me to write about my own experience with my father and cousin in the form of mourning doves. You can read that post here if you’re interested.

What’s interesting about this book and Creatures is they are both the debut novel by each author. I am always so fascinated when an author can knock it out of the park on their first book. How do you do that??

I can thank my favorite podcast with Dax Shepard, Armchair Expert , for making me aware of Tree of Codes by Jonathan Safran Foer. JSF is one of my favorite authors and I’m not sure how I had never known this book existed. This book is not only a moving story, but also a work of art. JSF cut out the words from his favorite book by Polish-Jewish writer Bruno Schulz called The Street of Crocodiles . Because of the die-cut of the book, I found reading it aloud made it easier to follow and because of that, I think the impact was much larger. The story ends up being about the father of a family and his general health decline and it is so beautifully done. I did try to read The Street of Crocodiles after but the father in that story, and his decline, was too familiar to my own father or at least I connected it that way. So when it was due back at the library before finishing, I was ok to return it unfinished. I want to give it another try eventually.

I want to also mention my favorite movie of the year, Jojo Rabbit. I am not usually drawn to Nazi/Hitler movies and I’m not sure why I wanted to see this and am so glad I did. I have actually seen it twice and would pay to see it again! Jojo (played by Roman Griffen Davis) is a ten year old boy navigating Hitler’s Germany and is a member of the Hitler Youth Camp. In addition, Hitler (played by director Taiki Waititi) is Jojo’s imaginary friend of sorts. After seeing it the second time, I did read some reviews who mentioned the sort of buffoonery of adult Nazi characters and also the Hitler character himself. I can totally see their arguments but for me, the story of Jojo is where my focus is and this is the real heart of the movie. I don’t really know how to put into words all that I loved about this movie – just see it! The actor who played Jojo is so extraordinary and I can’t wait to see what he does next.

Also…Sam Rockwell. Need I say more?

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The ONE Thing – Folklore Self-Education continues

Tue, 17 Dec 2019 00:44:00 GMT

The journey of my folklore self-education is sure turning out to be a long one. I last wrote about this in July! Since then, not much has happened except I made it to a Moth performance and I took a class at the Lighthouse Writers Workshop . I did re-register at Metro to see folklore classes offered in the Spring of 2020 because I did not take one this fall.

AND THEN! The most exciting thing of all! In early August I saw a post on Facebook from the American Folklore Society in which they were congratulating Virginia Siegel for becoming the Arkansas State Folklorist. I was super intrigued by this because I did not know State Folklorist was a thing. I looked up the Colorado State Folklorist to find there isn’t one. Colorado doesn’t even have a folklore society. So, I did what any sort of stalkery person would do. I found Virginia’s email address and sent her an email asking for her advice on how to become the Colorado State Folklorist.

A few months go by and I did not hear back. Which, lets be honest, I was not expecting a reply. Except! At the end of October she wrote me back! Last week we had a wonderful conversation and she put me in touch with the Wyoming State Folklorist who happens to be from Colorado. I was really losing all steam for this project, really feeling lost and not knowing where to even begin and now I’m feeling completely re-energized and inspired. I’m not sure what will come of this, and if anything, maybe I am going to have to move (to Kentucky) for grad school after all.

In the meantime, I’ve started researching cowboy poetry which I didn’t know was a thing until last week. There is a gathering! They gather! It’s coming up in January and I will definitely be there. Anyone want to join me? I also bought the domain name coloradofolkloresociety.com because it was available! I have no idea what to do with it or how to make a website but at this time, I hope to use it as a resource to start gathering info on Colorado’s folklore and rich cultural history.

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We’re headed to France!

Sat, 26 Oct 2019 15:24:00 GMT

Not too long ago I also read The Lost Vintage by Ann Mah. This story follows Kate, who is on a journey to becoming a master wine taster and just so happens to have a family vineyard estate in Burgundy. There is a WWII story line weaved in here which makes the book read a little like a mystery. Although it took me a little bit to get into it, I very much enjoyed this one overall.

But now! I’d love to read something that takes place in Nice or somewhere close. Any recommendations?

We are going to be there for six days and have two tour type things planned (half-day walking food & wine tour, of course, and a drive to the country to visit the Fragonard Perfumery and some vineyards) and the rest of the time free. I’m excited because the Musée Matisse is a thirty minute walk from our hotel and on the way is Musée national Marc Chagall . the national Picasso museum is in Vallauris, a thirty minute drive from where we are, so I might see if we can fit that in as well. In our area, there are too many bookstores to name! Can’t wait to find a French version of Alice in Wonderland with an illustrator I don’t have.

Picasso and Matisse biographies I recommend:

To read:

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What’s Barramundi got to do with it?

Tue, 15 Oct 2019 01:05:00 GMT

I choose a meal with barramundi having no idea what it was. A quick google search let me know it was a fish. Great news. AND THEN! I found all these fun facts about barramundi (I’ve picked only the most fun for this list):

What delighted me the most was finding a folk tale all about barramundi!

Barramundi, A Love Story

An Aboriginal Folktale of the Fish of “Forbidden Love”

Long ago in the dream time there were no fish, so the people lived on animals, roots and berries. They were all content. That is, except for Boodi and Yalima; young lovers who wanted to marry. However, they were forbidden because their tribe required Yalima to marry an elder so she could take care of him. Determined to be together, Boodi and Yalima ran away, knowing that to go against the Elders was punishable by death.

They ran far and wide, but were relentlessly chased by the tribal elders. Eventually, they came to the edge of the land where the water began, and they knew that in order to survive, they would have to stand their ground.

With the angry tribe descending upon them, they gathered wood and made as many spears as they could. But the tribesmen were too numerous, and soon the lover’s spears were all spent. Boodi turned to his beloved Yalima and said, “For us to be together, we must go into the sea to live.” And so they jumped off the cliff and descended into the water.

Boodi and Yalima are still there, in the shape of the Barramundi hiding amongst the mangroves. And the spines on the fin of the barramundi are said to be the spears thrown at them by the tribe.

Those who believe in the folktale say barramundi has special aphrodisiac qualities. they also call it by its other name: ‘Passion Fish’.

*photo courtesy of Green Chef. My table does not look that nice.

*fun facts and folk tale courtesy of this website: https://www.thebetterfish.com/thecurrent/barramundi-fun-facts/

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The Astonishing Color of After by Emily X.R. Pan

Sat, 05 Oct 2019 14:32:00 GMT

The mourning dove is named because of the haunting coo sound it emits, which to many is a sad sound. Some say the sight of a mourning dove signifies the need to take a deep breath and look for peace within. All doves symbolize peace, not just the mourning dove. Dove symbolism can also mean the end of a problematic cycle in one’s life. In other words, there are possibilities of new romance, new friendships, and new beginnings on the horizon. It’s up to whomever spots mourning dove to decide if they believe this or not. Maybe it was just a few neighborhood birds hanging out by the water source.

I choose The Astonishing Color of After by Emily X.R. Pan for my book club’s September pick. I choose it like my last pick…by going to my Goodreads “Want to Read” list and choosing the book with the highest reader rating. This method does not disappoint! In The Astonishing Color of After , the main character, Leigh, sees her mother as a bird shortly after her mother commits suicide. Leigh hears the bird speak her name in her mother’s voice. The bird leaves quickly and Leigh leaves the front door open and a bucket of water out anticipating her return.

The rest of the book is about Leigh’s journey to Taipei to track down her mother, the bird. Leigh has less than 49 days before her mother makes a transition to rebirth. During these 49 days, her mother will, “process karma and let go of the things that make them feel tied to this life – thinks like people and promises and memory.” I’m fascinated by other countries death traditions and beliefs, reading many books on the topic. I recently ran across a Haitian belief, from Edwidge Danticat’s short story collection, Everything Inside , which stated the soul has a year and a day and then it will be, “reborn as a shadow, a dream, or a whisper in the wind.” I wonder if it becomes someone else’s shadow, in this scenario. Maybe the shadow takes on its own identity and sense of self, like in Haruki Murakami’s Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World . I am beginning to keep track of all these shadow references. For what, I don’t yet know.

Leigh’s father doesn’t believe Leigh’s mother has come back in bird form. I mean, what dad would? But I did, because it had happened to me. The mourning doves that came to visit me on my 40 ^th birthday were my father and my 2 ^nd cousin Melanie. Some version of them, anyway.

When I was young, my dad worked in Minnesota a lot. He would drive for eight hours to arrive home in North Dakota late Friday night and then head out for another eight hours on Sunday morning. While he was in Minnesota, he stayed with his cousin and his cousin’s family. Looking back, he probably spent more time with them than he did with us. His cousin had four kids, around the same age as me and my siblings. Melanie was the oldest at about four years older than me. Eventually, my dad was able to work closer to home and did not travel to Minnesota nearly as much.

Fast forward to my 37 ^th birthday. My dad came to visit and see my new house. The morning of my birthday (He was not known for great timing.) he tells me the doctors found a tumor in his lungs. Ten months later, he is gone. At his funeral, my 2 ^nd cousins were there and after talking to Alyssa, Melanie’s younger sister, I realized just how much time he had spent with them.

Fast forward three more years to the morning of my 40 ^th birthday. I learned via Facebook that Melanie, with whom I shared a birthday, had committed suicide. I spent the entire drive home from work thinking about how upset my dad would have been by this, trying to clear the tears in order to drive safely. I realize I was making up how my dad felt, as I never had talked to him about Melanie, or any of the other kids either. Then I arrive home to see the mourning doves.

There is no question in my mind those birds were my dad and Melanie. Whether they were there to tell me happy birthday or just to let me know they were together, in wherever the heck you go when you die, I’m not sure. But I’m sure it was them. A few days later I shared this with Alyssa. She told me that in Minnesota, on the same day, her brothers had also seen two mourning doves. A few days later, she also saw one.

Until recently, I assumed the Minnesota mourning doves also represented Melanie and my dad. Then my mom asked who I thought the other dove represented for Alyssa and her brothers and it occurred to me the second dove could be someone entirely different for them. It has been over a year since Alyssa and I had this conversation so I don’t feel like I should go back and ask now. For my own story, I’m going to keep assuming it was also my dad.

In the end, I don’t know if Leigh’s father ever really believed her. I do.

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Folly Beach and Charleston, SC

Sun, 29 Sep 2019 14:48:00 GMT

Because we went at the tail end of hurricane season, I chose a few hurricane related books before the trip. I already read Jesmyn Ward’s Salvage the Bones , a fictional story of a family during Hurricane Katrina. After a quick Google search on “books about hurricanes,” I picked up Zeitoun by Dave Eggers and Isaac’s Storm by Erik Larson. I didn’t end up reading Isaac’s Storm but did read Zeitoun . I had not read a Dave Eggers book before and am glad I started with this one. Zeitoun is the last name of a Muslim family living in New Orleans during Katrina. This is a true account of the Zeitoun family’s experience of Katrina and in addition, the handling of Katrina by the government, which is quite shocking.

Besides just reading sad hurricane stories, I wanted to read a book based in Charleston. I noticed I had Sue Monk Kidd’s The Invention of Wings on my Kindle so that was an easy pick. After I finished it, I realized I had read this book before but it is a good one, so I didn’t mind reading it twice. The story focuses on Sarah Grimke and her maid, Handful, who is ‘given’ to Sarah at her 11 ^th birthday party. Sarah tries to refuse Handful because even though she is only 11, she already knows she doesn’t want to own another person.

At the end of the book, the author talks about her process of fictionalizing the sisters Sarah and Nine Grimke, who were early pioneers in the fight against slavery as well as the fight for equal rights for women. These notes at the end were almost as interesting as the book itself, learning where the author took liberties and where she stuck to real life details. Monk Kidd lived in Charleston and had never heard of the sisters until she saw their names as party of Judy Chicago’s The Dinner Party art exhibit.

We took a horse drawn carriage history tour of Charleston, pulled by a horse named Rodney. I didn’t read the end of the book and the author’s notes until after the tour and I wish I had read them before, so I could’ve asked to see the Grimke home, which still stands in Charleston. I must go back to see a 500-year-old tree; I’ll try to see the home at that time. I’m planning a southern road trip next year around this time of year, although I will probably make sure it’s after hurricane season!

Restaurant recommendations Folly Beach:

Restaurant recommendations Charleston:

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Marinuska: An Art & Travel Book Club – Colombia

Fri, 20 Sep 2019 15:55:00 GMT

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A Conversation with My Inner Critic

Fri, 20 Sep 2019 02:06:00 GMT

Me: “What’s up, Critic?”

Critic: “Just wondering why you’re not working?”

Me: “There are dishes to be done.”

Critic: “Bologna! They were there yesterday, and you didn’t care.”

Me: “Well, I need more time to really sit down and write and if I have to do the dishes, I can’t. Also, the thing I’ve written that I really liked, I was day drunk in Mexico and I gave up drinking and I’ll never write anything any good ever again!”

Critic: “Not with that attitude! Pull yourself together. You did it once, you can do it again.”

Me: “I better go back to Mexico.”

Critic: “Or read the blog post sober and figure out what you liked and do it again.”

Me: “Good idea. So now, what if no one wants to share their story with me?”

Critic: “Everyone wants to tell their story. People love to talk about themselves. Don’t you love to talk about yourself?”

Me: “Yes, when people are asking questions and seem genuinely interested.”

Critic: “Exactly! So, ask questions and seem genuinely interested!”

Me: “I AM interested!”

Critic: “So, what’s the problem?!”

Me: “I think I better go do the dishes.”

(Based on an exercise from the Lighthouse Writer’s Workshop class titled, Writing 101: You Gotta Start Somewhere)

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Folly Beach, South Carolina – To Read

Sun, 08 Sep 2019 15:18:00 GMT

Isaac’s Storm by Erik Larson and Zeitoun by Dave Eggers are both hurricane related and look worth a read so I requested them from the library. Although! I am banned from checking out again! I swear I returned those two books! In addition, Sue Monk Kidd’s The Invention of Wings has been sitting on my kindle for years. It takes place in Charleston and will definitely be my airplane read.

Any other South Carolina recommendations for me?

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I am a Badass. You are a Badass, too.

Fri, 16 Aug 2019 03:13:00 GMT

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Bruno Bettelheim and The Meaning of Life

Thu, 18 Jul 2019 12:55:00 GMT

The opening line of Bruno Bettelheim’s The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales states, “If we hope to live not just from moment to moment, but in true consciousness of our existence, then our greatest need and most difficult achievement is to find meaning in our lives.”

I was first introduced to Bettelheim when I took Children’s Literature at Metro, back when I thought I was going to be a teacher. This was eight to ten years ago and I am just now picking up the book, as part of my Folklore Self-Education project. What struck me about the opening line is Bettelheim relating fairy tales to finding meaning in our lives, specifically children in their younger years. This is not a connection one typically makes.

Ever since my dad died four years ago, I have been slightly obsessed with the search to find meaning in my life. Add to that turning 40 last year and it has become a high priority, on both small and large scales. I have become that annoying person who says things like, “Every day is a gift!” and, “This is the only July 18th, 2019 I am ever going to get so I better spend it well!”

Then, on a large scale, as I see people struggle I wonder what the hell is any of this about? You go to work, to the gym, make dinner, walk the dogs, watch a show and it’s time for bed. Rinse and repeat, to then die! And for some, these daily things are really hard work. This sounds very morbid and depress-y and I assure you it is not. Just contemplative. I feel very fortunate in my life. I have everything I could ever want: great relationships with friends and family, a meaningful job, travel, health, kooky dogs, a garden and yet…I still wonder what is the point? Why am I here? And I realize I am probably making something out of nothing and the whole point of it is to grow my own zucchini and be content with that.

Later, in the intro, Bettelheim says, “To find deeper meaning, one must be able to transcend the narrow confines of a self-centered existence and believe that one will make a significant contribution to life – if not right now, at some future time. This feeling is necessary if a person is to be satisfied with himself and with what he is doing. In order not to be at the mercy of the vagaries of life, one must develop one’s inner resources, so that one’s emotions, imagination, and intellect mutually support and enrich one another. Our positive feelings give us the strength to develop our rationality; only hope for the future can sustain us in the adversities we unavoidably encounter.”

This is a lot to unpack and we are only at page 2 of the intro to the book! What he later gets at, what I believe he is telling me, is to return to the place of childhood curiosity, remove ego and learn all over from the meaning and importance of fairy tales. To see past myself and figure out how to make significant contributions. Easy, peasy….right?

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The ONE Thing evolves.

Sun, 07 Jul 2019 16:38:00 GMT

Ever since my declaration to go to grad school for Folklore, preferably in OR, I’ve had a nagging feeling it is still not the right thing. The two main reasons are it would involve going into more student loan debt and the whole moving thing. I am throwing around the idea of creating my own education path, one that doesn’t involve traditional education. Then I ask myself if this is out of fear or because it makes the most sense. It is a very difficult conversation to have with yourself because how do you know yourself is being honest with yourself?!

Over the weekend, I was lucky enough to be invited to the Ladies Brunch League where I brought up my dilemma. I was given so many good ideas and two questions/suggestions really hit home. The first is if I NEED the degree for what I hope to do with Folklore. The answer is most likely no because my goal isn’t to enter into academia. The second is, for how much this degree will cost, can I take trips and figure out a way to talk to people about their folklore and write about my experiences. The answer is YES! That would be amazing. The program will cost approximately $60k. I can definitely work in some good trips for that much money. The Ladies threw out a few other ideas of groups/activities I have been thinking about and have not yet tried out, mostly due to stranger danger etc. Toastmasters , Lighthouse Writers and The Moth all came up.

The topic of folklore is so broad. I was having a hard time figuring out what arena I would like to focus. When I really think about it, it all comes down to storytelling, which is what makes Toastmasters, Lighthouse Writers and The Moth all really perfect areas for me to get started. I am not sure yet if the goal is for me to become a storyteller or to somehow document other people’s stories. This is all part of the journey.

The brunch conversation was really helpful for me. Only one of the other Ladies knew me so the rest of them could give me unbiased advice. They are all Ladies working towards/with their passions and it is refreshing to hear them agree, when I expressed not wanting to give up everything and go all in how I originally planned, to instead create my own way of doing.

That seems like enough for now. I guess this is the way The ONE Thing goes. I can’t get too stuck on it going exactly one way or the other. I have to be open to it ever evolving. The number one goal is to show up. I nearly chickened out of going to brunch. I am so glad I made myself go.

Today begins my self-directed study of Folklore and Storytelling.

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Going Solo…was kinda boring.

Thu, 20 Jun 2019 13:25:00 GMT

However, I think I know why. I played it very safe. From my choice of destination to my choice of activities. There was nothing challenging about this trip exactly because I chose a place where there wouldn’t be! I was telling people, I’m going to Canada because it’s safe and they speak my language. So what did I really expect! The hardest part of the trip was sitting alone at the bar at Native Tongues and not being able to take out my book because the space was so crowded so I sat and watched the bartenders. And yes, I did talk to strangers. I even tried to invite myself to dinner with a group of girls on a mystery girl’s trip (more on a mystery trip later) that I met on the amazing Albert Food Tours walking tour. .

The biggest thing I learned about myself is if I travel alone, I definitely need more to do than go out for drinks and meals. I don’t like spending my money that way in Denver and I don’t like it elsewhere either. My day at Banff National Park was torpedoed by heavy smoke from wildfires. If I had been able to spend a day doing that I wouldn’t have felt as bored.

That being said, I enjoyed Calgary and am really dying to get to Banff now so I see another trip in my future. Maybe I can take my rental car from Banff right on over to Vancouver. And, I know I have to plan a more challenging solo trip next time. You know, if I want my life changed and all.

Calgary recommendations:

Alt Hotel – East Village : This is such a cute hotel. It’s brand new so they didn’t have their restaurant open yet but right across the street is a tiny warehouse with a coffee shop, bakery, meaty restaurant (it’s called charbar and they also have delish pizza) and bar that served as hotel bar. The location of this hotel is great, easy walk-able access to a lot of good places (when the city isn’t covered in smoke). Their lobby has a lot of different common, social areas and a pool table. Looked like a fun hangout place, even though it was empty the whole time I was there.

Native Tongues : I got there for happy hour and the place was packed. It is so cute and another thing I realized about myself when I’m alone is I feel awkward taking photos of things I normally would have…like this restaurant and the food! Anyway, I had a house marg that was super tasty along with a couple of tacos. My favorite was the Esquites: corn, mayo, cheese, onion, cilantro and herb oil all served up in a little bowl. I don’t really love corn and I don’t like raw onions or cilantro (why did I even order this??) and yet this was soo delicious I’m going to try to make it at home.

Betty Lou’s Library Speakeasy : This place is serious about rules. They have them posted outside and they go over them before you enter. Despite the fact that there is not a single book in the place!…I really liked this weird, dark bar. Great cocktails and great jazz music.

Madison’s 1212 : This restaurant made me have to choose between a poke bowl or weird, fancy nachos! Hardest decision ever. I went with the poke bowl. I was here for lunch and the server gave me a list of good cocktail and breakfast places. I liked going out to lunch alone better than dinner. Seemed like people had more time to talk at lunch. I recommend a poke bowl with a glass of the house sangria.

Book stuff: The Calgary Public Library is amazing…it’s new and the architecture is not to be missed. It’s so bright and airy. In the Inglewood neighborhood (walking distance from the Alt Hotel) I found two bookstores. The Next Page is an open room with books lining the walls and a few tables along the middle with features. They have a coffee bar as well. A few blocks away is Fair’s Fair Quality Books . This place is older and crammed to the tippy top with books. Neither had a new (to me) Alice in Wonderland so I left with one new book of poetry. While in Calgary I read Blue Sunflower Startle by Yasmin Ladha. I found it doing a Google search of “books that take place in Calgary”- very clever, eh? I’ve never read a book written in this style before. It seemed like poetry mixed with storytelling. I loved the way it was written.

The Glenbow Museum : I only made it to one museum and this is a good one to go see. They have four floors full of art as well as a floor dedicated to Calgary specific stuff. Hard to explain…gotta see it yourself! It is sort of like the art museum and natural history museum combined into one. The highlight was the Kent Monkman installation. I didn’t know he is Canadian.

Mystery trip: On the food tour, there was a group of six women from Northern Canada. They take a group trip every year and every year it is a mystery to four of them. They have a group bank account, put in a set amount of money and then two of them (this rotates) plan the trip and the others have no idea where they are going or what they are doing. The morning before the walking food tour, they had run a 5k! They get a list of things to pack but they didn’t even know what they were doing that evening. I love this idea and want to put together a group like this – Let me know if you are interested!

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Going Solo

Mon, 27 May 2019 16:09:00 GMT

Thank god I’ve out grown this extreme shyness. I go to the grocery store alone (although I hate it now for different reasons and mostly order my groceries to be delivered!) I go to movies alone. I go to lunch alone. I am mostly ok going places alone. Where I’ve never gone alone before is to another city, state or country. I have never traveled alone.

Things in my life have changed and I no longer have my main travel partner. I realized I may not always be able to find someone to go with me when I find a good flight deal, Just yesterday, I came thisclose to buying a ticket Munich for March of 2020. Luckily, I wised up before I hit purchase. Also lucky for me, my mom is retired and has an adventurous spirit. She committed to two trips with me so far, our first being Mexico City last year and our next being France at the end of this year.

I picked Canada for my first solo trip. It seems like they are nice to women, they speak my language and the flight is quick and cheap. My first destination choice was Vancouver but Calgary is the winner with a shorter, direct flight. The first thing I did in my pre-planning was made a reservation for Betty Lou’s Library , a library themed speakeasy. With cocktails named after authors, I know I am going to enjoy this place. I also decided to book a three hour walking food tour through Alberta Food Tours . The rest of the time I plan to spend wandering. I want to go to the new library (free!) and I found a bookstore (free!) and even a bird sanctuary (also free!). I rented a car for $27 so I can go to Banff National Park so that will take up most of a day. Not to mention I need to squeeze in a museum or two.

I figured it would be a good idea to look up some solo travel tips so I picked up Lonely Planet’s The Solo Travel Handbook . It has a lot of info for people who are going to be traveling solo for longer than a weekend and still has lots of good tips. It has a few paged dedicated to women’s solo travel specifically. And while I’m not staying in a hostel…I learned to bring a headlamp! Anyway, I especially like the tips on how to eat street food without getting sick – that’s great info. In the back it has recommended locations for solo travel. It’s a good little book and a quick read. I recommend it.

This whole trip is out of my comfort zone and especially renting a car and driving in a new place. I have a hard time following directions even with GPS telling me where to go. I always make a wrong turn! And, this is why I am glad I am doing all of it. Now lets just hope I actually leave my hotel and do all these things I have planned.

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Failure, Fear and The ONE Thing

Tue, 14 May 2019 14:55:00 GMT

Fast forward to the other night when, reading aloud to my sister an excerpt from The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results by Gary Keller, I found myself unable to stop crying. I know myself well enough not to be too concerned, although my sister was rather freaked out. I’m a cry baby and I accept it. It’s how I express emotion, even if sometimes I’m not sure what that emotion is at that exact moment. I usually figure it out eventually.

In this case, I figured it out pretty quickly. The section I was reading was about living big, titled “Blowing Up Your Life.” In this excerpt Keller says,

I know the ONE thing that I want to do. I want to go to grad school full time and earn a Master’s Degree in Folklore. I have wanted to do this since I was still in school, earning my art history degree. It’s scary because it means starting completely over and it also means moving. Only a handful of schools offer this program and none of them in Denver. The top on my list right now is Eugene, OR. According to this book, to go all in means to put ALL my eggs in the basket, instead of dividing my time between multiple plans as is typical. I’ve decided to take micro-steps so I don’t get freaked out. I have to be proficient in another language, which I am not. So that’s step 1. I have to take the GRE. So that’s step two. Etc., Etc. This is a three-five year plan for me and I know that if, in that time, I still am working towards this and really want it – it’s the right thing. If not…well…I’ll at least know another language.

I’ve done it before. I quit my big girl job to go back to school. And it worked out swimmingly. I didn’t have to move though, that’s the difference. I’ve lived in Denver for twenty-two years, coming here for college when I was eighteen. I have an amazing community here and it will be hard to leave, if even for two years. Cuz that’s the thing…I can always come back.

So, here I go. Putting all my eggs in one basket. I’ve signed up for Spanish II in the fall…back to Metro I go. I am also taking a Women’s Folklore class, better make sure I really like it. In the meantime, I keep working on paying down my student loans and not going back into debt. I keep reading all of the books. I do everything I can to make this work. Come on eggs…lets go.

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All the Light We Cannot See – Akumal, MX

Sun, 28 Apr 2019 16:28:00 GMT

For hours yesterday, the rest of the group snorkeling in hopes of spotting a turtle, I take up residence on a beach chair. I read a fluff book picked off the community bookshelf in the condo and tan my body. Later on we walk to town for dinner and on the way back we take the back way across a rocky beach. Daniel, my best friend’s six-year old son by my side, holds my hand and assures me, “Don’t worry. I got you.”

Today we travel to Muyil to float in a river and explore the jungle. Birds, bees, butterflies.

To read the obstructed ending. All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr has been embedded in me since I first read it five years ago. On a rainy day in Costa Rica, after too many rum shots, I read the words of Marie-Laure about her father, “…but he is distracted; he smokes so much it is as if he is turning himself into ash.” Two weeks prior my own father told me he had a tumor in his lungs. When I read these words of Marie-Laure, I can only think of him. While Marie-Laure had her father for a few more years, I had mine for only ten more months.

I realized, upon the second reading five years later, I picture her father as my father.

I am moved to tears on nearly every page. I am a skimmer, often making my way quickly to dialogue. This book does not allow for that. Each word, every sentence so well-written.

It is curious to me how much smoking and cigarettes are referenced. It’s almost as if the cigarettes are an additional character.

Page 27: “Her only sanctuary is in bed, the hem of her quilt at her chin, while her father smokes another cigarette in the chair beside her, whittling away at one of his tiny models, his hammer going tap, tap, tap, his little square of sandpaper making a rhythmic, soothing rasp.”

Page 30: “Then he lights a cigarette and goes to work on his miniatures at a workbench in the corner of the kitchen.”

Page 45: “He glows sapphire when he sits over his workbench in the evening, humming almost inaudibly as he works, the tip of his cigarette gleaming a prismatic blue.”

Page 52: “Her father lights a cigarette.”

Page 77: “Coffee. Cigarettes. Bread?”

Page 78: “She hears the sparking of his lighter, the suck and flare of tobacco as his cigarettes ignites.”

Page 89: “He lights another cigarette. Six to go.” and then…”When his cigarette is gone, he eases Marie-Laure’s feet to the ground and covers her with his coat and opens the rucksack.:

Page 107: “He lights a cigarette; three left.”

Page 109: “Coffee and cigarettes.”

Page 110: “Two cigarettes left. Inhale, exhale.”

Page 119: “Her father takes his final cigarette from his shirt pocket and lights it.”

Page 121 &122: “Probably Marie-Laure should be more curious…she’s six or seven years old, newly blind and her father is sitting in the chair beside her bed, whittling away at some tiny piece of wood, smoking a cigarette…”

Page 129: “Soon enough there is the familiar smell of his cigarettes: Gauloises bleues .”

Page 144: “Every time she comes within earshot, Marie-Laure hears the fsst of her father lighting another match.”

Page 150: “but he is distracted; he smokes so much it is as if he is turning himself into ash.”

Page 196: “He yearns for cigarettes.”

Yesterday would have been my dad’s 68th birthday. Hard to imagine. When I think of him smoking, I picture him sidled up to the Jenn-Air, on a stool, blowing smoke into the vent. I can clearly hear the vent.

Next month marks four years without him.

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Reading Challenge 2019 Update

Thu, 18 Apr 2019 06:00:00 GMT

When I picked this up, I didn’t realize it was a murder mystery despite that being on the cover quote from the New York Time Book Review. I was happy when I realized it would fill a Read Challenge category and even happier after reading it. I loved this book. It’s Delia Owens’ first novel and I find that so impressive. Somewhere along the way I saw someone say fans of Barbara Kingsolver would enjoy this story and they were right. What I love about Kingsolver, all the background on nature etc, was also what I loved about this story.

Kya, the main character, was abandoned by her entire family at a very young age. This was hard for me to swallow – that her parents and all her brothers and sisters would leave her behind. The siblings had to escape the alcoholic abusive father and I understand that, yet I don’t understand why one of them wouldn’t have taken Kya with them. Anyway, with the help of a few people Kya learns to be self-sufficient in the family shack in the marsh of Barkley Cove, NC. And by few, I mean three. A young boy her age, Tate, and an older gentleman called Jumpin who owns a store off the marsh. Jumpin’s wife Mabel becomes a care-taker to Kya as well. Eventually, popular boy Chase Andrews is added to the mix and that’s where things start to sour. Chase is found dead and Kya is charged with his murder.

I won’t go into any spoilers regarding the murder. My favorite part of the book is when Tate finds Kya’s nature paintings and descriptions, after he helps her to learn to read. She goes on to sell these as book collections and is able to make a living while continuing her solitary life in the marsh. My least favorite is all the poems by Amanda Hamilton! I can’t even say why but I would eye roll whenever one would come up. Of course, at the end, it makes sense why there were so many but until then…eye-roll city. This is a great, easy story and I would recommend it to anyone.

Self-Help – soulful simplicity by courtney carver

See my previous post about this one! soulful simplicity – A Good Reminder from courtney carver

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soulful simplicity – A Good Reminder from courtney carver

Tue, 16 Apr 2019 12:30:00 GMT

This was a great reminder to me of all I learned last year and brought up the idea of leading a simpler life in general, not only in relation to acquiring and discarding of belongings. This is what most of the books I read in 2018 focused on, to live a simpler life and to pay off debt. I spent last year very focused on ‘stuff’, not acquiring more and drastically reducing what I kept. The main purpose of this, for me, was working towards financial freedom.

What I didn’t realize after My Year of Less, was I would end up down a person and a dog with an entire house to fill (and pay for) alone. Naturally, as one might do after a breakup, I threw out most of my prior year’s learnings, spending my hard-earned money eating out, ordering delivery chicken shawarma sandwiches like they were going out of style and buying fancy cocktails at happy hour. I did not want to be home alone, so I ramped my social life up to 11. I was still fairly successful not buying clothes, shoes, handbags or jewelry per the rules of 2018’s shopping ban. I did have to buy a few things because I lost weight over the last year (yay!) and needed new jeans, etc. I was off the spending fast wagon and how.

Being nearly five months post-breakup and with Spring in the air, I feel I am ready to buckle down again. soulful simplicity reminded me of where I felt best spending my time, in addition to my money. The night I finished the book I deleted Facebook, Instagram and Uber eats (no more chicken shawarma!) from my phone. I realized I was using Facebook and Instagram in place of writing on this blog, which is not how I want to spend my time. I want to spend it researching and writing.

I ended my Netflix subscription and plan to do the same with HBO and Amazon Prime (after Game of Thrones, of course. I’m not a total barbarian.). It has become important to me to go to the gym and when I go out for dinner or happy hour (things I truly enjoying doing!) I come home and watch TV and do not make it to the gym. I have decided to slow down on the amount of plans I am making and am going to request as many social activities as possible come in the form of a hike or a walk in the park.

Normally, I would set some sort of rule for myself like I only get to go out once a month for dinner and drinks. Instead, I’m going to stick to my budget and allow myself to enjoy those activities within reason. I am glad the weather is changing because I love to be in my backyard and guess what…it is free to be there! I am already planning a dinner party…complete with Shibori dyed tablecloths and napkins and flower arrangements by my sister.

Speaking of my sister, she and I created our capsule wardrobes today. I ended up going two pieces over because I found two pairs of my favorite summer shoes shoved in the back of my organizer. Hopefully, as this goes on, I’ll be able to remove two other items that I’m not wearing as much as the others and then I will be at thirty-three pieces fair and square. I was surprised by how hard shoes were for me. I ended up with shoes being nine of my thirty-three pieces! Oh well. This is all an experiment. Progress, not perfection. Right?

*I like how the title and her name are in lower case on her book cover so I kept it that way here!

PS I used this to fill the category Self-Help for the 2019 reading challenge.

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Marinuska Two: Hard-Boiled Wonderland and The End of the World

Thu, 11 Apr 2019 06:00:00 GMT

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Getsemani, Cartagena – What We Read

Sun, 07 Apr 2019 16:40:00 GMT

In Colombia I read Fruit of the Drunken Tree by Ingrid Rojas Contreras, which I had been saving specifically for this trip. I’d been dying to read it and the story did not disappoint. Seven year old Chula befriends the family’s new live-in maid, a young girl named Petrona. The story flips between Chula’s and Petrona’s perspectives as they both navigate family dynamics in the time of Pablo Escobar’s reign in Colombia. Set in Bogota, the amazing thing about this story is that it is loosely based on the author’s real life story. Cannot recommend this enough!

Jennie and i both read Love in the Time of Cholera (another Gabriel Garcia Marquez) as well. It was a reread for me, as this is one of my favorite all time books and I have read it a few times. To me, the story of Florentino Ariza and Fermina Diaz is a familiar one…when you instantly fall passionately in love with someone only to realize you had sort of lost your mind in the moment! The idea of ‘romantic spark’ and if it can truly lead to a long standing love…or if it burns fast and furiously will it also fizzle fast and furiously? Anyway….this is my favorite Garcia Marquez book and I want everyone to read it!

A few weeks after we were back, a book I had ordered to take with arrived. Oblivion: A Memoir by Hector Abad tells the story of Hector’s father, also named Hector. Hector the elder, a doctor whose first priority was the health of the Colombian people, including clean water, publicly criticized the Colombian regime which eventually led to his death by paramilitaries in 1987. i am glad I read this book and would recommend it to anyone wondering about this time in Colombia’s history.

Honorable mentions go to these large art books by Colombian artists:

I picked both of these up at the Denver Public Library once I got back. Great editions.

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Getsemani, Cartagena – I Cannot Believe I Forgot the KGB Bar!

Sun, 07 Apr 2019 16:04:00 GMT

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Getsemani, Cartagena – Day 4 (Last day!)

Sun, 07 Apr 2019 15:37:00 GMT

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Getsemani, Cartagena – Day 3

Mon, 01 Apr 2019 00:36:00 GMT

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Getsemani, Cartagena – Day 2

Sat, 23 Mar 2019 14:33:00 GMT

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Getsemani, Cartagena – Day 1

Sun, 17 Mar 2019 15:26:00 GMT

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2019 Reading Challenge

Sun, 17 Feb 2019 22:45:00 GMT

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Bookstores of Cartagena, Colombia

Sun, 17 Feb 2019 21:11:00 GMT

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2019 Reading Challenge Progress

Tue, 12 Feb 2019 08:00:00 GMT

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quicktrip MOROCCO

Thu, 07 Feb 2019 06:00:00 GMT

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Wish List – Cartagena, Colombia

Tue, 05 Feb 2019 08:00:00 GMT

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Marinuska Media Suggestions

Sat, 19 Jan 2019 00:12:00 GMT

Whew!

What a time!

In our introduction section of the book club, I asked everyone to name a book or movie they’ve recently enjoyed or a TV show they binge watched. Here are all of the recommendations shared:

Books:

TV shows:

Movies:

Please add your recent great book/movie or binge-worthy TV show in the comments!

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2018 in review – The Books With the Biggest Impact

Tue, 01 Jan 2019 19:38:00 GMT

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Book Review: Once Upon A River by Diane Setterfield

Wed, 26 Dec 2018 22:31:00 GMT

Once Upon A River is rich with character development and backstory. The book is divided into the different family stories and the beginning spends much time setting up each family so that when they come around to join in the same story, their roles are clear. The two main family stories revolve around the Armstrongs and the Vaughns, each staking a claim to a little girl who is washed up along the shore of the river. She is either Amelia or Alice and neither family is quite sure, while both desperately want her to turn out to be the little girl they have each been missing.

Along the way, we learn more about the characters as we all try to figure out who the little girl is, to whom she really belongs. We also meet “talking” pigs, river boat photographers, a myriad of bad guys and voracious story tellers. In addition, the character named Quietly acts as the Grim Reaper of the river. Setterfield does an amazing job weaving the stories of all together. I enjoyed the story of the Armstrongs best, Robert and Bess, and the story of their relationship and family, and the way Robert was with every human and animal he met. While I still love The Thirteenth Tale the most, this book did not disappoint.

Introducing! Marinuska: An Art and Travel Book Club

Tue, 11 Dec 2018 13:08:00 GMT

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Can You Ever Forgive Me?

Tue, 04 Dec 2018 06:00:00 GMT

Anyway! The movies we saw were Instant Family (cute) and Can You Ever Forgive Me? starring Melissa McCarthy. McCarthy plays author Lee Israel who wrote a memoir of the same name. I had never heard of this book nor the author Lee Israel prior to Thanksgiving. Israel was a biographer who wrote the stories of Estee Lauder, Dorothy Kilgallen and Miss Tallulah Bankhead in the 1970s and 1980s. In the movie Israel is working on a biography of Fanny Brice, a model, comedian, singer and actor from the 1930s to the 1950s. Brice is the title character in Funny Girl , herself being portrayed by Barbara Steisand. Israel had a talent for writing about obscure women, which is why she was forced into her brief criminal career of a literary forger, forging letters from Dorothy Parker, Katharine Hepburn and Noel Coward.

Can You Ever Forgive Me? is funny in a cutting sort of way and tragic all at once and Melissa McCarthy does a great job balancing the two. Richard E. Grant, who plays Israel’s friend and co-conspirator, steals the show as Jack Hock. I don’t usually like to read a book after seeing the movie but in this case I think I’m going to give it a try. I’m hoping maybe with a memoir the experience will be better, although I am not sure why that would make a difference.

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The Perfect Children’s Book Library: Part 1

Thu, 08 Nov 2018 06:00:00 GMT

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The Book Nomad Travels to….the Office! Topic of the Day: Employee Engagement

Thu, 01 Nov 2018 06:00:00 GMT

Employee Engagement Titles

Positive employee engagement is driven by organizational effectiveness as proven by Kataria, A., Rastogi, R., & Garg, P., (2013) in their article, “Organizational Effectiveness as a Function of Employee Engagement.” The authors create a study to prove this relationship and find their hypothesis to be true. Employees at a small home services company prove this by working together to restructure their bonus program. These employees exemplify vigor, dedication, and absorption (Kataria, A., Rastogi, R., & Garg, P., 2013, p. 3) as examples of positive engagement. Cain (2006) states an employee is someone who recognizes conflicting goals and sees the juxtaposition of effectiveness among company goals, which puts the employee in the position of being able to provide answers to problems in a way management may not be able (Kataria, A., Rastogi, R., & Garg, P., 2013, p. 2).

This is precisely the scenario in which the employees at the small home services company followed. They identified a problem within their department, solved the problem and at the same time, set higher goals for themselves to earn an even larger bonus and improve company performance. They showed engagement and stretched their skills into areas they hadn’t been stretched before. Some may have been more engaged than others, as engagement is an individualized task.

Two customer service representatives (as nominated by the rest of the team) of the home services company requested a meeting with their manager. The manager had no idea why the meeting was requested, as a meeting of this type had never been solicited before. The customer service representatives revealed a plan to revamp their department’s bonus structure. The representatives cited conflicting goals and inconsistencies between the department goals and company goals, as well as, against other department goals. The manager reviewed their intentions alongside their plan, suggested a few revisions, and set a deadline for draft two.

The manager took the requests to her bosses, the company owners, as per the company hierarchy. The three of them reviewed the proposal together and identified that while this was a good start, it did not solve the problem the employees were attempting to resolve. The manager went back to the two customer service representatives with further feedback and set another meeting. At the second meeting, the customer service representatives solved the problem and their final proposal was again taken to the owners of the company. The owners of the company approved all conditions of the proposal, giving the customer service department a big win.

The employees of the customer service department showed engagement in their job by working together as a team to revise their bonus structure. Instead of complaining, or perhaps very drastically quitting, at the perceived injustices they saw, they worked together to create change. They elected appropriate spokeswomen and managed to give themselves a raise as well. However, the most important thing they did, was create clear guidelines for themselves to earn a win. This win is an example of positive reinforcement. Not only are they being awarded with a created reinforcement, (Daniels, A.C., 2016, p.66) they also rewarded themselves with positive emotions by successfully hitting their goals. Kataria, A., Rastogi, R., & Garg, P., (2013, p. 9) state, “Positive emotions for instance compassion, joy etc. lead to the positive activities in organizations like helping behavior, and create an upward spiral of positive feelings (Cameron et al ., 2003).” This act of engagement lead to happier, more productive employees.

The customer service bonus program revision exemplifies the term employee engagement as an act that shows, “a desirable condition, has an organizational purpose, and connotes involvement, commitment, passion, enthusiasm, focused effort, and positive energy” (Erickson, 2005; Macey and Schneider, 2008) (Kataria, A., Rastogi, R., & Garg, P., 2013, p. 4). The representatives saw themselves in a position to deal with changing demands in their job and felt encouraged enough to work together to create a proposal to bring to their manager. When employees’ ideas are listened to and, even better, when some are implemented, workers become more engaged (Daniels, A.C., 2016, p. 187).

In addition to the positive emotions and effort the employees felt, they also learned negotiation skills and in turn, presentation skills. Harder (2017, p. 82) says, “Creating an environment that builds good presentation skills offers opportunities for people to present what is valuable to them. It opens the doors to stronger career paths.” The two customer service representatives chosen to present the proposal were Level Four Customer Service Representatives, the highest in the department. They were not chosen because they were the best at presenting, but instead chosen because of their level. They were given the opportunities to expand their presentation skills and will be even better the next time they need to do so.

The Level Four Customer Service Representatives may have felt more accomplished than their peers, as they were directly involved in the negotiation process. It is important for managers to realize the motivation of individuals and not group all team members into the same motivation potentials for positive reinforcement. Daniels (2016) indicated negative reinforcement gets results immediately but positive reinforcement brings results for the long term (p. 51), which is a driving force behind creating positive reinforcement. In addition, negative reinforcement, “gets a level of performance that is just enough to get by” (Daniels, 2016, p.51). Negative reinforcement does not acquire the type of employee engagement that drives organizational effectiveness. Employees need to experience the effects of positive reinforcement to believe in change, as “change is only a mirage unless people actually experience the reality of improvement” (Fullan, 2011, p.52.). While the rest of the group will feel the positive reinforcement of larger and more frequent bonuses, additional work may need to be done to make them feel as impacted as the two spokeswomen.

Employee engagement is one factor directly impacted by organizational effectiveness. As shown in the example of the customer serve department, employee engagement can lead to teamwork and problem solving. This is important because engagement drives performance and employee attitudes. Creating environments that allows employees to learn new skills is an example of a positive reinforcement guided work environment. Employee engagement needs to be considered on an individual employee level in addition to a team level. It is the duty of an organization’s leadership team to create an environment where organizational structure supports employee engagement.

References

Daniels, A. C. (2016). Bringing Out the Best in People: How to Apply the Astonishing Power to Positive Reinforcement . New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Education.

Fullan, M. (2011). Change Leader: Learning to do What Matters Most . San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Harder, D. (2017). The Workplace Engagement Solution . Wayne, NJ: Career Press.

Kateria, A., Rastogi, R., & Garg, P. (2013). Organizational Effectiveness as a Function of Employee Engagement. South Asian Journal of Management, 20 (4), 56-73. Retrieved October 14, 2018.

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The Tale of Marinuska or A Traveler’s Lesson

Thu, 25 Oct 2018 06:31:00 GMT

Roxy and David

Two women, mother and daughter, embarked on a journey to a faraway place. Upon their arrival, they took rooms in a quaint casita, guarded by a large dog with sharp teeth and a ferocious bark. His name was Lucas. Neither woman had been to this faraway place and neither spoke the language of the locals. They had to seek help to succeed in their wishes.

We knew Marinuska* had great power. She walked into the casita with a breeze blowing behind her, slamming the door shut. Lucas laid at her feet, mesmerized by her power. We had been promised Marinuska could take us to find that which we were seeking. In great detail, we told her of what we were looking. She assured us she would be able to help. For each location, she demanded a price of 1000 pesos per person and told us we would be guided to the locations we were seeking and that we would be fed along the way. We put our trust in Marinuska and gave her most of our pesos, assuring her we would deliver the rest the day of the adventure.

We didn’t give Marinuska another thought until four days later, the promised morning of the adventure. Much to our surprise, she didn’t arrive. Instead, a man named David picked us up. Again, we were most trusting as we didn’t ask any questions and got in his car. David assured us he knew what we were looking for and could take us there. When we let him know we had decided not to seek one of the locations, he told us it was our day and not to worry. He said as long as we had settled up with Marinuska, all was well.

With David, we drove into the country side for an hour and a half, him telling the tales of his people and giving a thorough history of the area. Finally, we reached out first destination, the ancient city of Teotihuacan. After learning the ways of the people of the city and having an early morning mezcal drink, we stopped for lunch. We ate the food of the locals and drank ancient pulque. David asked for payment for the meal, which was strange because Marinuska assured us we would be fed. David then told us he didn’t always know what those higher than him had promised and waved away our pesos.

Back to town we went, another hour and a half ride, where David took us to the second location. We arrived at the Dolores Olmsted museum in the afternoon and wandered the grounds, spying peacocks and ancient dogs all around. Again, David filled us with tales of history and adventure. We had intended to see three places and even without the third, we returned to the casita early in the evening, exhausted after a long day.

Before we’d even unpacked our bottles of mezcal, Marinuska blew into the casita. She is a small woman and yet, she stood imposingly before me, staring me down. I had no idea why she was there so I began telling her what a great day we had with David. She cut me off, demanding the rest of her payment. I explained we told David we only wanted to find two of the locations and that we did not see all three. She insisted it did not matter and we still owed 1000 pesos. I was under her spell. I nodded and climbed up the stairs to my room to gather the rest of the funds. I handed them over without a word and she was gone.

Disclaimer: The reason it took me so long to post this after my last travelogue day is, despite the fact I wanted to write this in as a pseudo fairy tale, I ended up feeling bad I was essentially portraying Marinuska as a witch! I shared this with my mom and her reply was, “Well, she kind of was.” Ha! Anyway, I have never booked a tour of this kind before and I’m wondering if a) that is the way tours go, even if you decide not to do something you still have to pay or b) we were duped by a tiny, scary lady! I do know that next time I am going to make everything very clear before I get into anyone’s car. Also, because we booked straight through Marinuska, there was no company we could go back to and ask these questions.

However! If you are looking for a guide in Mexico City, I would highly, highly recommend David. He was so full of knowledge and so passionate about the history and culture of his city. Contact me if you’d like his information. You can book directly with him!

*Not her real name!

My favorite fairy tale collections, etc.:

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Mexico City Travelogue – Day 8: Teotihuacan and Museo Dolores Olmedo

Thu, 20 Sep 2018 08:00:00 GMT

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Mexico City Travelogue – Day 7: Gandhi bookstore day

Wed, 19 Sep 2018 08:00:00 GMT

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Mexico City Travelogue – Day 6: Part Two, Leonora Carrington and fancy dinner

Tue, 18 Sep 2018 08:00:00 GMT

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Mexico City Travelogue – Day 6: The Lacuna Day aka A Day at Frida’s and Leon’s houses

Thu, 13 Sep 2018 06:00:00 GMT

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Mexico City Travelogue – Day 5: Market Day

Tue, 11 Sep 2018 06:00:00 GMT

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Mexico City Travelogue – Day 4: Xochimilco and Island of the Dolls

Tue, 04 Sep 2018 08:00:00 GMT

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Mexico City Travelogue – Day 2: Dérive and playing with clay

Thu, 30 Aug 2018 08:00:00 GMT

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Mexico City Travelogue – Day 1: Coyoacan

Tue, 28 Aug 2018 08:00:00 GMT

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The Story of Elmer

Thu, 16 Aug 2018 06:00:00 GMT

Elmer came to the family via my grandmother’s bosses. The bosses had owned Elmer for an unknown (to me) amount of years and decided it was time to sell. My gma jumped at the opportunity, knowing how badly my mom, Roxy, wanted one. I have no idea where the bosses took Elmer, or if they even ever did. The bosses sold Elmer to Roxy, and reluctantly Geno (my dad) for a mere $2000. Elmer made the drive from Colorado to North Dakota and settled into Roxy’s and Geno’s backyard, where he didn’t move again for ten years. He spent the ten years in North Dakota as the best lawn ornament anyone could ask for. He became a storage shed for decorative items and good intentions.

Time passed with Elmer in the backyard, lots changed, and Roxy decided to sell the very backyard Elmer spent so much time. She sold the house and all the land and asked me if I’d like Elmer. Eric and I had hypothetically talked about it a few times and when it came time to decide if we were going to take Elmer or if Roxy was going to sell Elmer, we decided we’d take him. It is hard to turn down a 1975 Land Yacht Airstream. We said yes.

Eric is frustrated with me because I haven’t put much effort into Elmer. I recently realized it is because we have no plan for Elmer once he’s fixed up. I have no sense of urgency because there is no end game. We have no truck to pull him and no land to set him upon – no truck to tow, no land to stow.

I’d like to take a year and see the country. I don’t want to wait until I’m retired to drive my RV around. My dad waited until he retired and look how that worked out for him. He got cancer instead. I could do some freelance writing, Eric can work from anywhere. Some people move into their Airstream with five children. Could we do it with three dogs? I don’t know, but I’d sure like to give it a go. I’ve already got my hashtag figured out: #48statesandanairsream. Good, right? On a recent camping trip, we talked about the idea of buying some land a bit south-west of Denver and parking Elmer there, first to be a place we stay while we build a house and then to become a guest house. Isn’t necessarily a concrete plan, but I’m going to use it for motivation anyway. Roxy is here, and we went to IKEA to look at curtain options for Elmer. My sister just got a job at a place where she can maybe get us a discount on linoleum flooring.

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Wish List – Mexico City

Tue, 07 Aug 2018 06:00:00 GMT

I am FINALLY going to Mexico City! It’s been number 2 on my list (after Barcelona, however I think Barcelona is slipping because it is obviously number 1 on a lot of people’s lists and it looks too crazy with tourists) for quite some time. I have an Art History degree and the area of concentration I liked the best was Latin America, so I took as many classes as I could on the artists of L.A. My favorite class was called Latin American Modernisms, which covered modern art of the 20th century in Latin America – aptly named! It was this class this introduced me to Wifredo Lam , a Cuban modern artist who is most famous for his painting titled, The Jungle . After seeing Lam’s work at the Museo Nacional de Bella Artes de Cuba , located in Havana, I decided to write my thesis paper on him.

Anyway! A lot of this class covered the Mexican Revolution which began in 1910, and the art produced as a result of this civil war. This class is where i was introduced to “The Big Three” of Mexican muralism: Diego Rivera , José Clemente Orozco and David Alfaro Siqueiros , who created many public murals in Mexico City. Because of this, and of course, because of Frida Kahlo , I have wanted to go to Mexico City ever since. And here I go! Not only will I be seeing a lot of amazing things, I will be creating art with Marie EvB Gibbons – a Denver artist.

Places on our itinerary:

Photo courtesy of www.isladelasmunecas.com

My mom and I are staying two extra days and during that time I hope to see:

Despite my shopping ban, I am hoping to bring home a new bangle bracelet (I like to get one on all my big trips), some sort of center piece for my dining room table (to sit a top the rug I brought home from Fez), and my big ticket item is a rug for our downstairs living room. We do not need one but I’ve recently decided I hate the one down there! I’m not sure I want to bring a large rug back though so it’ll have to be pretty amazing. Also, I’m hoping to bring back many bottles of Havana Club rum, the stuff from Cuba not Puerto Rico. Our favorite!

Stay tuned for what I see and find!

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Restaurant Review – St. Paul, MN

Thu, 26 Jul 2018 15:08:00 GMT

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Lets talk about F. Scott Fitzgerald – St. Paul, MN

Sun, 15 Jul 2018 15:54:00 GMT

Today I embark on my second trip to Minnesota thus far in 2018. This time I’m headed to St. Paul for work and am lucky enough to be able to stay through the weekend with my best gals, Roxy and Ash (mom and sis, respectively) to celebrate my upcoming 40 ^th birthday. We have dinner reservations with a friend I grew up with on Saturday night and I’m hoping to hit up the Walker Art Center, one of my favorite places in Minneapolis. Our Airbnb looks kinda crazy, it’s called the Artist’s Parlor and has about a million padded, upholstered chairs in the living room. Maybe we’ll experiment with absinthe while we are here. Always happy to have a kitchen and the place is only 3 minutes from a Trader Joe’s.

My F. Scott and Zelda collection.

In deciding what to read on this trip, the first author who pops to mind when I think of St. Paul is F. Scott Fitzgerald, who was born in St.Paul and lived there through his adolescent years. Too obvious? Yes, and that’s ok. I realized, although I own many of Fitzgerald’s works, I have only read The Great Gatsby . I have read a lot ABOUT Fitzgerald and his relationship with his wife Zelda Sayre, and recently watched the Amazon series, Z: The Beginning of Everything , with Christina Ricci portraying Zelda (I thought she was great in this role), which sadly was not renewed for a second season. In addition, I have read a lot of Zelda’s writing too. However, The Great Gatsby is one of my favorite books. I’ve read it a handful of times and watched all movie renditions. So why, have I never completed another one of his books? I know I have started them, never to complete. Why do I own so many? I’m guessing it has to do with the Fitzgerald’s celebrity, their life story being so juicy in and of itself, without any need to embellish in a fictionalized tale and it would be hard to read any of Fitzgerald’s works without picturing it autobiographically. I’m not into that idea and yet, I’ll try.

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s first book, This Side of Paradise , published in 1920 when he was only 24, was a great success. I was thinking I’d take this one with me and perhaps start a chronological journey through Fitzgerald’s writing. However, that happens to be one I don’t own, and I won’t get it in time from the library. Instead, I’ll take with me The Beautiful and The Damned , about the troubled marriage of Anthony and Gloria Patch. I’m going to take West of Sunset by Stewart O’Nan, which is a fictionalized account of Fitzgerald’s time as a screenwriter in Hollywood. Additionally, on the list to go on this trip is a memoir titled A.D . by Kate Millett. The title character, A.D. or Aunt Dorothy, was Millett’s aunt and a society figure in St. Paul. I snagged a copy at a thrift store in Bismarck, ND and have been hanging on to it for this trip.

I just found out that the 2008 film, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is an adaptation of a Fitzgerald short story of the same name! I had no idea!

The friend we are meeting for dinner on Saturday gave me a recommendation for Rain Taxi , whose mission statement is, “Rain Taxi champions aesthetically adventurous literature.” They have gobs of book reviews on their website and looks like a pretty great organization. They publish a print journal as well as working in the community.

Minneapolis/St Paul publishers to watch:

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To Be Read – July

Fri, 06 Jul 2018 11:35:00 GMT

Zandbroz book section (photo courtesy of their website) PS One of them says NOMAD!

On the way back to Bismarck (home of my immediate family) from Minnesota, we stopped in Fargo to make a special trip to Zandbroz Variety . This is one of the coolest stores and my what a variety it has. Books, home goods, jewelry, cards, you name it. What I love the best is the book section that takes up one whole side of the store. Great picks and recommendations. This time, I also noticed a large book room in the back, full of vintage (used) books and specialty items including a whole case of signed, first editions. They called this room Danz Boys Books. They were ‘closed for browsing’ but the store bathroom is in that room so we got to peek around. In the Zandbroz book section, I wandered around and did something I’ve never done in a bookstore before. Instead of adding the books I was interested in to my Amazon cart, I added them to my library hold list. I’m seriously contemplating adding books to my shopping ban, because that is somewhere I spend with wild abandon. I have so many books I have not yet read and continue to add more.I am working on paring down my books, yet again, so it seems like a really good idea to stop adding more! It does make me feel guilty to go into a bookstore and not purchase anything – I hate it when bookstores close. And yet, I was really proud of myself for only buying my nephew a book ($18!) and putting the rest on my hold list at Denver Public Library. Here’s what I added to my list (plus a couple I had picked up right before my trip).

*All synopses borrowed from Amazon. I wanted to write my own but it’s 5 a.m. so cut me some slack.

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Restaurant Review – Bismarck, ND

Thu, 21 Jun 2018 12:08:00 GMT

Yeah, you read that right, I’m reviewing restaurants in Bismarck, ND. I’m as surprised as you are. Bismarck happens to be a place I find myself going more frequently since, as of last year, my entire family moved there. On one of my recent trips, I made my family take me to three new restaurants and they were all really super. I flew in late on a Thursday night, (Frontier only has one flight per day and the times are all crap! What are you gonna do.) and we went straight to Butterhorn , a sort of updated, hip, old-timey cowboy type of place. Since there were six of us, I made a reservation for 8pm. Only one other table was full but hey, Open Table points amiright? We ordered the namesake Butterhorn, which is a large bun type piece of delicious served with whipped butter. When googling Butterhorn to try to find the origin, you find out they are either Turkish, Jewish, or even a cookie! So…. who knows. My sister and I shared the Beet & Pumpernickel salad and the Indian Butter Chicken. The server kept calling the salad “Beet & Pump” which made me highly uncomfortable. I think he got a kick out of it. My mom, aka Roxy, ordered the Squid Ink Chitarra and my brother the Butterhorn Burger. Overall, everything was delicious and just weird enough to feel like adventure-time eating. The Squid Ink pasta was a bit over-orangey but that didn’t ruin the meal. My fav was the Beet & Pumpernickel salad (I will not say Beet & Pump!), which was layered with butter lettuce and perfectly spring time tasting.

Fireflour brunch entrees.

The next morning, Roxy and I went to Fireflour Pizza & Coffee Bar for brunch. They have a few pastries and two different brunch entrée items, in addition to toasts with different toppings and some yogurt and granola. We ordered one of each of the entrée items, Roxy having the Prosciutto Benedict and me with the Eggs & Greens. The Eggs & Greens, plus my coffee drink (a Café con Miel or honey latte with cinnamon, nutmeg and vanilla) was one of the best breakfasts I’ve had. On my last trip back I returned, looking forward to having another Miel. They were out of almond milk, so I couldn’t have one which was very disappointing. However, they apparently had enough almond milk to make me a cappuccino and put honey and spices in it. Confusing. ANYWAY! Back to the Eggs & Greens. So delicious, spicy, and salty! The greens and eggs were heaped on a tasty piece of very thick toast in a tomato, pepper sauce. I will return.

Next stop, noodlezip . Don’t go here if you are starving. The place is teeny, and you will probably have to wait. We were there at an off time and still waited for about twenty minutes. It was worth the wait. I had the best eggplant of my life. Eggplant is hard for me. I always want to love it and typically in restaurants I like it, at best. I can’t cook it myself, never works out. Whatever they do at noodlezip, they should win an eggplant award. The eggplant was my sister’s meal – luckily, she was happy to share. I had the Spicy Seafood Noodle – quite tasty although it had octopus and I’m working on not eating octopus after reading The Soul of an Octopus by Sy Montgomery. Those darn things have emotions and memories! I would highly recommend reading that book and planning to never eat octopus again. Roxy and sis got Crème Brulee for dessert, which seems like a strange thing to get at a noodle joint but it had lemongrass, vanilla beans and fresh berries and they loved it.

noodlezip Spicy Seafood Noodle

Bismarck is a growing city and has a lot of great options, while still having a homey, small town vibe. Here’s a list of additional restaurants to try if you find yourself in NoDak:

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I’m having a love affair with Meg Wolitzer – Denver, CO

Sun, 10 Jun 2018 17:10:00 GMT

I recently read Meg Wolitzer’s newest book, The Female Persuasion , and then immediately followed it up with her 2003 novel, The Wife . The quote above is from The Wife, near the end of the book, a few pages before the bombshell hits the plot. I had been waiting for something to happen, enjoying the story and yet knowing that something more had to be coming. As I got closer and closer to the end, I felt there had to be more and it had to happen soon and boy, did it. At the time, I didn’t realize the quote above was a big clue to the bombshell and it stuck out to me just the same.

In my own relationship, I certainly see myself fitting the quote and yet, it’s not because it’s expected OF me (well, maybe it is now because I’ve made it the norm) and I’m trying to look back and see when and how I decided that was my role. Most of the time, taking on the traditional wife role irritates me and yet, I’ve done it to myself. We joke about trying out a role reversal, especially when I’m bitching about doing the dishes yet again, and I’d really like to give that a try. I recently (this week!) learned how to start the grill, which is very empowering and also now a burden. I liked not being able to grill and here it is, no longer an excuse!

The one thing I’ve still got going for me…I can’t start the lawnmower.

So as with everything….baby steps.

Follow up reading:

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My Almost Half Year of Less – Denver, CO

Thu, 31 May 2018 01:31:00 GMT

One tiny closet full of dresses- approximately 35, give or take.

I’m not even sure now, five months in, what prompted my shopping ban. I remember texting my two BFFs and my mom and sis with the idea. BFFs thought I was crazy, mom said she would do the same. I set my shopping ban for one year with no new clothes, shoes, jewelry, or handbags. So far, I have purchased one sweatshirt. I have been given a handful of clothing items and a pair of shoes as well, which at first, I considered fine because I didn’t purchase them – they were free! Now, after doing the ban for five months and recently reading The Year of Less: How I Stopped Shopping, Gave Away My Belongings, and Discovered Life is Worth More Than Anything You Can Buy in a Store by Cait Flanders, I realize the point of this ban is so much bigger than just getting free ‘stuff’ because in the end, I still must find room in my closet(s) for it all and thankfully, these five months have changed my relationship with stuff.

When I started the ban, the purpose was to save money and travel more. I also have a hefty student loan bill I’m aggressively paying on, as I have a goal of having it paid off in five years (stretch goal: two years). I don’t really have any idea how much I was spending on clothes, shoes, jewelry, and handbags as I didn’t have any sort of monthly budget in place. I disliked shopping (in stores) but loved a good online or thrift store deal and jewelry was really my downfall, especially when traveling. Also, I was always the best person to invite to your in-home jewelry, leggings, face product, etc. party because I would feel so bad that you, the host, had spent money on food and drink that I would always purchase way more than I could afford. I eventually had to stop going to those but then people started doing Facebook shopping groups! I am ashamed to admit I amassed a rather large LulaRoe collection in a very short amount of time thanks to being able to shop on Facebook.

After reading The Year of Less , I really wish I had read it before starting my ban, as her first instruction in the how-to guide in the back of the book, “Your Guide to Less,” is to declutter your home. Flanders claims that once you have gone through your stuff and realized how much money you have wasted on owning, say, six LulaRoe dresses, it will help you to realize you don’t want to waste more money buying these types of items. She then says to take inventory of what you already have. This is imperative. Someone gifted me a very cute pair of Tom’s wedge sandals and I was so happy because I was convinced I didn’t have any black summer sandals professional enough for work. The other day I was looking through my ‘other’ closet, where I keep off-season clothes and shoes (which has recently been re-purposed to hold only dresses because I need an entire closet for only dresses!), and found TWO pairs of cute black sandals. Which means I now have THREE PAIR! Similarly, I was picking out a dress to wear to a friend’s BBQ and thought I had one good shoe choice and then found I had five different pairs of shoes that would go with that one dress. That one dress is one I’ve had for years but don’t often wear and the dress received many compliments at said BBQ, proving further I don’t need new things, but to wear the clothes I already own.

Five pairs of shoes for one dress. Cute though, huh?

My sister was here over a weekend and she helped me to get rid of clothing I was hanging on to for weird sentimental reasons such as, that t-shirt with safety pins all down the sides made me feel really punk rock when I wore it eight years ago, never mind the shirt no longer fits me. I still had the dress I wore to my high school graduation, which was nothing fancy, from Deliah’s of all places! I also had the dress I wore to one of my best friend’s high school wedding (yes, you read that correctly) which will also never fit me again. These, and many other items that no longer fit me, will be donated to a good cause. This is the second time since the shopping ban I have gone through my clothes to get rid of what I no longer wear, and I know I still have so much more to go through and donate. I feel like I need to take a week off work to do a proper declutter. To take precious vacation time to go through all my belongings makes me see how big of a problem this is and makes me happy I’m no longer adding more to the stash which will eventually be donated anyway.

What was most relevant to me in Flanders’ writing was how she described her friend’s and family’s reactions to her bans or even various life choices such as her decision to stop eating meat when she was 24 or when she decided to stop drinking. She explains how she spent her time, after making these decisions, explaining herself to the people in her life. She talks about how people treated her differently each time she made one of these life changes and even still with her shopping ban. Her experiences and feelings are so like some of my very own. People telling me that I’m more fun when I’m drinking, when I’m working on cutting back on drinking or just taking a break. People saying, “Oh, you’re eating cheese?” in an accusatory tone when I’m taking a break from being dairy free because sometimes you just need a piece of cheese! People telling me things are necessities when I am declaring them wants as a method of talking myself out of buying them. The relationship piece can be a bigger struggle than the willpower piece.

I know a few people who are doing comparable bans. If you are considering taking something like this on, I can only say I highly recommend it and I highly recommend reading The Year of Less before embarking. There are so many books on this type of topic right now, which I think is very telling as to the state of our relationships with things. I believe there is a movement towards finding happiness not related to things, belongings, or material possessions…but maybe that’s something that happens naturally as we age. As I creep closer and closer to turning 40, I’m finding myself re-evaluating my relationships to so many things, ideas, people, and goals. I don’t regret my shopping ban for one second and am confident I will make it through the entire year.

Follow up reading:

Link to the seven-week budget ecourse I’m taking: Money Tracker

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ATD Conference – Sunny San Diego

Sat, 12 May 2018 15:37:00 GMT

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Colorado ESL Refugee Orientation – Denver, CO

Thu, 03 May 2018 12:00:00 GMT

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Surrendering – Bismarck, ND

Fri, 27 Apr 2018 16:37:00 GMT

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A Magical Place – Moab, UT

Wed, 04 Apr 2018 14:12:00 GMT

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The Book Nomad

Obsessive Poem Reading

I can't stop reading this poem.

Hot Take: Work Kills Creativity*

*This is not that hot of a take. It’s common knowledge but it’s more evident to me than ever.

The Life and Times of the Tiny Dictator

An Ode to Midge

The Spines of Books

A poem

What if the next adventure is to indulge in no adventure at all?

The End of the World

Or the idea of it, anyway

I Have Learned

How to Winter

Prairie Greens and an Ode to Maggie Nelson

Color theory in the most rambling way...

I'm Going to Greece, B*tches!

Again, I am sorry I called you b*tches.

The Reading List and A Life Update

Ain't Life Grand

At the Table in Barcelona

We talked books, of course!

Scenes From a Wasted Summer

Tentacles

I'm going to Barcelona, b*tches!

(I'm sorry I called you b*tches.)

If You Lived Here, You'd be Home by Now

The Reading List - Part Two

This is what 50 postcards looks like...

If the Wind

Greetings from Austin

Honky tonkin' partners need apply.

The Book Nomad hits the road...er...the air

Traveling finally seems like a thing we can do again...??

A Case of the Februarys rolls into Spring Nostalgia

The Reading List - Part 1

All my best ideas...

This is Water

The stories we tell ourselves are the stories others hear about us

The Poet X - The Best Book of 2022

I know what you're thinking...

As the World Burns

As long as the world stands, God will take care of us.

﻿ Oh, really?

I'm doing it again

It took 5 days to break my 2022 promise.

The Best of 2021

2021 was a bit of a blur.

The Thing About Cloud Cuckoo Land is....

He got it all too right.

The Book Nomad "blurbs" a book

Sky Blue

Paul Bunyan by Shel Silverstein

The Book Nomad’s first Bismarck book club!

Minnesota is…

Practicing Retirement

Going Home

Writers & Lovers by Lily King

Sometimes, You Share Your Room with a Fox

I’ve Given It Up

Elephant Rope

2020 Best Books

Radicalized

Still life

Shining, Bright

Alchemy

Wisdom for Composing My Project

The Coyote Myth: Wild and Urban

The Overstory by Richard Powers

Favorite Short Story Collections

Professing My Love for Richard Brautigan

Marinuska: An Art & Travel Book Club- Cuba, Add’l Reading

2019 Best Books

The ONE Thing – Folklore Self-Education continues

We’re headed to France!

What’s Barramundi got to do with it?

Barramundi, A Love Story

An Aboriginal Folktale of the Fish of “Forbidden Love”

The Astonishing Color of After by Emily X.R. Pan

Folly Beach and Charleston, SC

Oh, really?