This started me thinking about how I pair things. Like when I see Dale Cooper enjoying coffee with hot cherry pie it just kind of squigs me out. Hot cherry pie, or anything fruity, requires hot tea, duh. Coffee is meant for chocolate and/or caramel desserts. Cheesecake and other vanilla type things can go either way, though I’d prefer a nice Earl Grey if I’m having creme brulee.

Similarly, I cannot abide a peanut butter and jelly sandwich cut diagonally — that’s got to be cut in half with rounded, blunt halves. And you can’t expect me to be okay with any mayonaise based sandwich cut bluntly in half, that’s got to be diagonal. PB&J or honey = half, rounded and everything else = diagonal. Right? Who is with me here?

Yes indeed, fine by me!

The wrong way

Do any strange pairings rule your life? These are the only two I can think of off the top of my head, but I’m sure there are more.

We slept in and made breakfast and drank coffee at leisure with cats strewn about us.

We walked up and down and sideways and oceanways and greenways — all over Capitol Hill and a nice long trek around Discovery Park. We hit the market, we hit a movie. We had a cozy dinner with L & R. We watched a lot of Mad Men. It was superb.

I didn't think I wanted to wear a ring (I'm not a big jewelry person) until I remembered that I had my great grandmother's stored away - it's sweet and small and makes me smile

More recently it was just a secret thing to be happy about. Now it’s more of a Time to Get This Show on the Road sort of situation. I just need to stay away from the wedding blogs because I tried reading a few and they made my brain crack in half.

On to other topics: I’ve been experiencing a music resurge lately. I’ve been listening to new or new-again bands lately like Hot Chip, LCD Soundsystem, and Santogold. It’s nice when you hit a wave of music thirsting.

Also?
Ro
co
co!
The new Arcade Fire is knocking my fancy pants right the hell off.

“Yes, you can return your materials to any of the branches.”

“Sure, the DVD checkouts are free.”

“Storytime programs are entirely free.”

“You can have up to 50 CDs at once.”

“Yes, we have the new __________ CD.”

“Free wireless.”

We’re not used to getting things for free anymore. Some people are so excited/surprised/delighted when they hear what the library is all about that they thank me as if I personally started the whole thing. I love when that happens. It’s like Christmas has come in mid-August. The patrons are smiling, I’m smiling, people walking by are smiling and they don’t even know why. It’s all magical.

I’m writing about this because a) it’s awesome and b) I was finally on the other end of this kind of exchange today. Yesterday I signed up for the Downtown YMCA. I don’t know what took me so long — there’s racquetball, saunas, steam rooms, and a whirlpool! I used to belong to crummy Gold’s Gym and even though it was cheaper per month, they had all sorts of shady cancellation limitations and scary locker rooms and no fancy stuff.

So today I noticed on my paperwork that I could also use the (close to my apartment) Madison facility once a month as well. Or so I thought. I headed down there ready to hear that I had to pay extra or only come on special hours or some weirdness. Instead, here’s how my pee-my-pants with joy discussion w/ a YMCA staff person went today…

Me: So, I joined the Y downtown, but it says I can use this one once a month, right?

Them: No, you can use it any time you want.

Me: The one downtown, right, but this one I can only use once a month.

Them: Nope. Anytime. As much as you want. You can go downtown then drive here and come here, too. Whenever.

Me: Seriously?

Them: Seriously.

Me: OK. Wow. Rad. So, then, if I want to add my partner to the membership, I have to wait like, a year, or until my membership expires or…?

Them: Nope. Just whenever. It cost $35/month more.

Me: But yeah, but, I have to like, wait until some special…

Them: Nope. Whenever. Just let us know.

Me: And then…he can come here, too? Just…whenever he wants? Like I can go downtown and he can come here?

Them: As long as we are in this building, being the YMCA, you can come whenever you want.

Me: Wow. You guys are the nicest people in the world and I love you. I LOVE THE YMCA!

Them & Me: (beaming smiles all around)

Now I get the joy, and I’m going to do my best to be even more excited when a patron is excited, because places like the library and the YMCA? Rare in this world, and so worth being excited about.

Monorail makes you feel special. Like you’re in on some joke — a tiny stand that serves amazing coffee that most people walk right by on their way to somewhere else. If you stop there, you’re in the club. But there’s more levels than that. I’ve been observing, and here’s what I’ve got so far:

Entry level = you stopped and got in line
Level 1 = barista* recognizes you with a knowing smile
Level 2 = barista notes something nice about you (wallet, coat, etc.) and it makes you smile because no one really does that anymore, you know?
Level 3 = barista will ask you “the regular?” – note: this only happens once, before you move to…
Level 4 = barista will smile at you and make your drink without asking what you want
Level 5 = barista will say “Hey ____!” and you will reply with “Hello, _____!” because you’re just that tight. Some small talk ensues. I’d assume the Level 4 no-asking-drink-making is implicit.

I don’t think there’s a Level 6, but I could be wrong. I was at Level 2 for awhile, then jumped up to 4 pretty quickly. I can’t really hear too well when people say the barista’s name, but I think it starts with a “D.” I’m not sure if I wait for her to introduce herself or how one really gets to Level 5. I’m not really sure I even want to, it seems like a pretty serious morning commitment – small talk. I dig Level 4 because I don’t have to talk at all and that really suits my 8:40am mindset.

_____________________________________
* How has Starbucks managed to make this word seem like a semi-insult, I don’t know; couldn’t find a better word, though

Reading in the hammock

We’ve got another trip planned in a few weeks — Sky’s brother’s wedding down in L.A. We’ve been doing our own little stealth wedding talking and planning – not sure when, where, or even how, but at some point. You know, assuming we don’t say FUCK IT and go to the court house on a Wednesday afternoon. We’ll see.

Kathy in the sunshine

You made him what he is, and I’m so thankful for that, because I love him so much. I can’t imagine who we will bring all of our ideas and problems to, who will sit with us over dinner and hash it all out. Who’s going to shout out “That’s GREAT!” when we nail some idea on the head? I respected you fiercely and loved you warmly. Thank you for existing.

I’ve been using tumblr a lot lately. It’s quick. It’s easy. I actually update when I use it. I’m keeping this blog because hey you never know*, but I’m sick of the spam comments and I just don’t feel too bloggy no mores. Plus life is WAY HEAVY RIGHT NOW. Buy me a drink sometime if you want to hear about it, but it doesn’t make me feel too share-y. I’d rather keep up by posting links about bacon and easy stuff like that.

Point your guys here, please —–> Jennyopolis.org

* If I have some major soul searching type of blogging that I need to do, I might do it here, but then I might just scribble in my for reals paper diary, too. Who knows.

I had a lovely few days in Washington, D.C. attending a library conference. I stayed in a sweet B&B: there was no breakfast, just a bed. In a bedroom. A really nice bedroom that would’ve completely sufficed as the best studio ever if it were 1998 and I was in San Francisco. The place was huge and had a big bay window and ginormous bed. The rest of the house was very nice, too. I didn’t see much of it as I was gallivanting much of the time.

Here’s my condensed idea of Washington, D.C., in bullet point format + 1 photo:

D.C. has its share of the weird

• people were very nice, smiled when you passed them on the street, and were altogether charming
• some of the monuments (okay, 1, it rhymes with “stinkin’”) make me cry
• it isn’t a great place to be a vegetarian, but if you are and you love Thai and Indian food you will be O.K.
• D.C. Metro is the fastest, most on-time, cleanest, most thorough and CHEAPEST subway system ever and I loved every minute riding it – I’d jump on and off trains just to see what was above ground, it was so easy to get back on and not get stranded
• it’s super fun to ride a bus across state lines – I was in three different states/districts throughout any given day – fun!
• Georgetown was expensive and everyone was rude – it was like a little mean island in an otherwise sparkly ocean; I visited a lot of neighborhoods and that one was just the worst. I had a total Pretty Woman moment when some snotty lady in an not-even-that-nice boutique asked me if I “really wanted” to be looking through the $18 Italian soaps. Bitchyface. And yes, I did.
• you pretty much never forget you’re in the nation’s capital because of the constant presence of a) tourists and school groups, b) people in assorted uniforms, and c) ads in subways with big military guns and planes on them

The conference was OK – I learned a lot of interesting new data and formed some new ideas, but overall I found it kind of a lackluster experience. It was super clique-y and it wasn’t even really a clique I wanted to be a member of: librarians who kept talking about the technology but rarely naming a use for the technology. 3892009393 conference retweets made my head spin: repeating something someone else said that someone else said that someone else said? Not interesting to me. Theorizing about what you could maybe do if you had X, Y, & Z? Not interesting to me. Real life examples of what you’ve done and how you did it? Awesome, but those were few and far between. I walked away feeling lucky to be surrounded by fresh, outward-thinking, service-obsessed, and impassioned librarians on all sides at my job – I don’t necessarily need to go to a conference to be inspired or feel a sense of community.

I got from my B&B to Sky’s office by way of subway->bus->plane->plane->lightrail. About 15 minutes after I arrived in Seattle proper, we were picked up by our awesome real estate agent Ms. K. She whisked us away to a handful of selected houses. We fell in like with one of them and discussed it at length. Then we went home, ate, and I crashed headfirst on the couch. I woke up the next morning and drove 7 hours to a ladies’ getaway in Oregon. It was a lovely little weekend with my momma, my sister, my two aunts and my gram. It was fantastic and funny and comforting and all of the things that hanging with your family ladies should be.

I drove home on Sunday afternoon, just in time to meet Sky, our other awesome realtor Ms. R, Sky’s mom, and our friend Lotus, the former contractor. We were looking at the “like” house again and kind of fell in love. The neighbors were great, the view was better than we remembered, and we saw some wood underneath the ugly carpet. Lotus knocked on walls and kicked at some wood and declared it probably okay, so we went ahead with an offer. We offered what we could afford (minus some $ to fix this lady house up) and damned if they didn’t accept our offer! Crazypants. Now we’re waiting on the inspection and hoping for a May closing. This thing happened so quickly we’re still pinching ourselves, but in a very blissed out and satisfied way.

We’ve started a little tumbleblog to keep the email traffic down (no need now to send a photo every time I spot a cute toilet). You can join us in our house-musing at A House Named Meg. Yeah, we named the not-even-ours-yet house after Meg White (wait until you see it – you’ll understand why). And yeah, we then started a blog based off of a Johnny Cash song. What can I say?

We’ve been looking at houses and condos, and doing a lot of general life planning/what shall we do with ourselves/what do we want to accomplish type thinking in the last few weeks. It’s got me in a sort of reverie.

I still think I’d love to move to a small town and live in a church (with mice maybe, a la Graham Oakley books). I’d like to bicycle to work at my sleepy town library, and help Sky build crazy treehouses for whimsical, rich folk. Dreams and reality rarely align, however, so we’ve been working out some backup plans…