- Gonna head home after long work day & have some birthday cupcakes. Then I'll go and lift heavy things at the gym. #itsallgood #
- RT check out @miriamkp's research on historical lobotomy photos. So compelling! On NPR's @sciarts website: http://bit.ly/cCGLp7 #histsci #
- Just wooped @taojunky at arm wrestling #thesebicepsaregoodforsomething #hewenteasyonme #
- Looks like my launch of ePortfolios 2.0 (an online platform for promotion & tenure dossiers, built on #wordpress is ready for #ChapmanU #
- Catgirl's birthday is today! She never ceases to amaze me w/ her strength, wit & creativity. And it just gets better as she gets older… #
- My "Saturday Sprint" post is referenced in the latest ProfHacker post at The Chronicle: http://bit.ly/bhe6dm #lifeofahistorian #
- Does anyone local have an IDE to USB cable that I can borrow for a few days? If so, DM me :) #
- WIll be 48 degrees at 6am tomorrow. Maybe too cold for paddling?? #outrigger #
- My kiddos in our garden, 5 years ago: http://bit.ly/cWOIEF & http://bit.ly/aqmTCd #veranogarden #
- 1st & last time I'll ever leave my garden gate open when I leave http://brizzly.com/pic/3TOC #goodbye #
- I think every plant on my porch has thorns #roses #blackberries #dwarfcitrus #
- Dreamt of bulldozers tearing down our trees: orange, lime, lemon, pear, peach, plum, apple, pomegranate #veranogarden #whyohwhy #
- Ok, gonna take a hot bath now, with fancy smelly bubbly stuff. :) #itsbeenalongday #
- Plants dug out of garden: 38+; times I fell into holes: 3; new pots purchased: 10; friends who helped: 4; shovels broken: 1 #veranogarden #
- We found Ned the garden elephant! #veranogarden #
- Bought more pots, now back to digging! #veranogarden #
- Tuberous roots #veranogarden http://brizzly.com/pic/3TFS #
- 3 more roses & lots of heavy lifting #veranogarden #sogladihavebicepsasbigasmyhead #
- He's wishing this could be more of a win-win situation for everyone #veranogarden #
- Just talked w/the contractor in charge of demolition. He's sad to be razing #veranogarden but glad to have work for his team [+] #
- Rose #2 is such a beauty http://brizzly.com/pic/3TEX #dontworryiwonttweeteveryrose #veranogarden #
- Rosebush #1 in a pot. Only 24 more to go… http://brizzly.com/pic/3TEU #veranogarden #
- MISSING: Ned the garden elephant is missing from our garden plot. Plz return ASAP! http://bit.ly/dhDTqr #
- A #ChapmanU PSA: watch the American Celebration via live webcast this year! http://bit.ly/9PKIz5 #
- Starting 3-day countdown until my community garden plot (and all of Verano Gardens) are bulldozed. For more hi-rise #UCI campus housing. #
Morning glory was one of the peskier problems in our community garden. It took root all along the fences and around the trunks of trees. I was lucky that there was very little morning glory in my garden plot, but in others it was a constant battle to keep it at bay.
But despite its proclivity to take over the garden, it’s such a lovely vine. So photo-worthy. Especially against that backdrop of blue blue sky.
Today is Catgirl’s birthday, so she’s really been on my mind for the past few days. At times like these I want to yell from the rooftops just how wonderful my kids are, but words can’t really even contain the awesomeness of these kidlings. So how about a few pictures?
When she was about a year old, the kids went with John to Hogle Zoo and had some photobooth fun (she had such big brown eyes and was curious about everything!):
Even as a toddler, she loved to play dress-up. Back then that usually meant dresses (and usually they were purple–this is an exception to that rule):
Here’s Catgirl on a fancy dress-up day in kindergarten. With her very best friend (they still keep in touch online even though they’ve been at different schools since first grade)
Catgirl has quite a sweet tooth, and her favorites have always been berries:
She loves the ocean and the beach. When she was small we would spend hours just digging around in the sand. Here she is on Christmas Day at Crystal Cove state beach a few years ago:
This, taken just as she entered her teenage years, with her post-braces smile:
And most recently, Catgirl’s award-winning self-portrait:
One thing I enjoy the most about working at Chapman University, is the neighborhood around the campus. It suits my historical sensibilities quite well…
The streets have artful lamp posts:
And there are lots of antique shops to peruse. Today, for example, I came upon this vintage quilt all made of necktie squares:
And then I return home to my office in Memorial Hall, one of the loveliest buildings on the campus:
This post was originally published on August 25, 2008:
I spent several hours this weekend in my garden. It was bliss. I pulled weeds, watched insects, and chatted with my neighbors. I also ate mostly out of the garden because I was on my own and I’m quite content with a lunch of grilled zucchini.
I know everyone isn’t as enthusiastic about gardening as I am–what are your magical/blissful spaces and places?
“If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.”
~Marcus Cicero
Photo: Bee on the lavender bush near my sidegate. If you look carefully, you can see my red bike parked just beyond the fence slats :)
First published on July 1, 2007:
My lantana plants are such a source of joy. I have three now: purple, yellow-orange and red. I just love the ways their colors spread and change as they open their series of petals. Truly a burst of sun each time I gaze on them. :)
The windows of my soul I throw
Wide open to the sun.
~John Greenleaf Whittier
Some of my raw emotions about losing my garden aren’t only about the loss of a plot of land. I always knew that it was not mine to keep. I always knew I would move on.
But maybe I just wasn’t quite ready yet. And it seems such a slap in the face to lose a magical productive food-growing urban garden to such a ridiculous development project. (h/t to my Quaker friend the “chard lady” for the video below. I missed spending time with her at the Quaker fall retreat to clean out my garden this weekend, at a time when I very much needed to be with Friends. Which made it all that harder….)
[blackbirdpie id=”603783528710145″]
As I’ve mentioned on twitter, my community garden plot is set to be bulldozed on Monday morning, to make way for some new high-density housing for graduate students at UC Irvine. That the current on-campus housing is already under-occupied is not a concern to those who have made this plan, I suppose. That our garden has been on this ground since the 1970s only makes is easier to put on the chopping block (many newer buildings are also being dozed). I don’t know if I’ll ever invest my heart so deeply in a plot of earth again.
The slideshow below is mostly from my garden, with a few images from other gardens that I love, too. I’ll be capturing whatever other photos I can over the next day or so as I clean out my plot, and post them here.
If you are so inclined, I really would love some garden poetry in the comments below this post. I am needing that right now.
[flickrslideshow acct_name=”pilgrimgirl” id=”72157594574704345″ border_width=”5″ border_style=”solid” border_color=”#cccccc”]
- sunscreen, sunscreen, sunscreen #tweetyour16yearoldself (h/t @grannybike) #
- When you write that letter to your future husband in YW, know that every line of it will come to pass… #tweetyour16yearoldself #
- Do not let your brothers take the Mustang #tweetyour16yearoldself (sigh) #
- Just found a leftie climb shoe through @EVOLVclimbing & it even has xtra space for my long 2nd toe. Awesome! #lifeofanamputee #
- Got some #THATCamp posters on my office door: http://brizzly.com/pic/3T2M #THATCampLA #
- The morning light via my office window (related note: it'll be 90 degrees here today) http://brizzly.com/pic/3T0Q #
- Loving the taiko concert outside my window tonite! #drumsdrumsdrums #
- Tobykitty can now store 3 pills in the back of her throat for up to 5mins & then spit them out behind the couch. #catskillz #herewegoagain #
- If a reality show offered to "re-do" your wedding, would you go for it? #ithinkitsoundsfunbuthaveneverwatchedrealityTV #
- My Tobykitty just keeps breaking my heart. So sweet, hanging in there despite not eating now. Just wanting love from her family… #
- RT @MHpodcast Listen to a podcast interview with Amanda French about #THATCamp http://bit.ly/ay6biT #thatcampsocal #
- RT @alyankovic: Don’t forget to vote today. Unless you’re a complete idiot. In which case, really, feel free not to. #
- "I remember" http://bit.ly/d4aCX5 via @ebertchicago #
- So excited about the Daniel Richter seminar tomorrow–his history writing has had the greatest influence on my own:http://bit.ly/aVT1Ix #
- GameBoy is a monk from the Argent Dawn http://brizzly.com/pic/3SAF #
- Catgirl is a mad scientist! http://brizzly.com/pic/3S9H #
- Do you think Ikea sells cabinets for spare-leg storage? #lifeofanamputee #
- Didn't watch all of the #rally4sanity but what I did see was reminiscent of "Exit Through the Gift Shop" #meh #
- All cyborgs/robots aren't scary #rallytorestoresanity :) #
- Danielle reads Billy Collins http://brizzly.com/pic/3RU3 #
- Isaac reading the gnome poem http://brizzly.com/pic/3RU1 #
- David reads his gnome poem http://brizzly.com/pic/3RTZ #
- John gets an ovation! #rigoramortis #
- Moses reading from The Book of John: http://brizzly.com/pic/3RTY #rigoramortis #
- Basking in the afterglow of having read The Apetizer from @johnremy's story http://brizzly.com/pic/3RTX #
- Tim's reading from #rigoramortis http://brizzly.com/pic/3RTW #
- Carolyn is sending people to walk the plank http://brizzly.com/pic/3RTG #
- Ann is a deviled egg! http://brizzly.com/pic/3RTE #
- And @benjaminlind is packing some heat! http://brizzly.com/pic/3RTC #
- Sharine is tofu (not Lady Gaga, but Lady Peta) http://brizzly.com/pic/3RTA #
- It's Elwood! http://brizzly.com/pic/3RT4 #
- Vampire! http://brizzly.com/pic/3RT2 #
- Lumberjacks! http://brizzly.com/pic/3RT1 #
- We're going to do a dramatic reading of @johnremy's zombie story! Woot! #
- Ginger is at my party! http://brizzly.com/pic/3RSV #
- Ginger is at my party! #
- Maybe it's a good thing that I left my regular Mac laptop at home today #computeroverload http://brizzly.com/pic/3RQ5 #
- Just talked to car sales person. he kept asking me what color I want. Am I weird that color is one of the least impt purchase factors?? #
- Gonna need to replace my car ASAP. Looking for car-choosing & buying resources–haven't done this in over a decade! (help!) #
- Today I'm talking "pretty" at the Exponent Blog: "Pretty" – http://bit.ly/9yX4Ib #
Recently I was shopping with some friends and we stopped in a Lush store. I’d never been in this particular store before, I had a lot of fun sniffing the brightly-colored products. The salesgirl gave us an awesome salt scrub on our hands, and I was feeling quite groovy-relaxed. One of my friends asked if now that I was working, if I was indulging in myself more often and buying beauty products like creams and lotions and soaps.
It’s true that now I do have a bit more financial freedom (despite most of that extra money going for sick cats and grad-school tuition!). But…I think because of having a family for so many years, and having pinched pennies for years and years and years….buying sensuous bath soaps really isn’t on my radar. Right now I’m thinking about retirement planning and my kids’ college tuition and that newish car that I’ve really gotta buy sooner rather than later.
Isn’t that just totally boring? Probably. But also, nearly every time I’ve actually drawn a bath and put the bubbles in, I find that I just can’t wait to get out, get dried off, and get something else done.
I am so weird.
Me and Shunn, originally uploaded by mind on fire.
Here are two of my very-favorite SF authors, Bill Shunn & John Remy! If you aren’t familiar with Bill’s writing, I highly recommend his podcasted memoir The Accidental Terrorist (about his LDS mission) and his futuristic short story “Inclination.” John Remy’s latest publication is a short story about zombie gourmands in Rigor Amortis
I keep writing and re-writing what I want to say in this post, and it still isn’t coming out right. But here’s an attempt…
Although I’ve been “very productive” in my life these past few years–working towards my PhD, advancing my career, pursuing my hobbies passionately, supporting my family, etc. Many things still fall through the cracks….
For most of my life I wrote letters to my extended family members weekly, and dutifully visited them. For the past five years, I have only intermittently remembered their birthdays and other gifty-holidays. I rarely call. Thank you notes are mostly unwritten. When my great-aunt died a few days ago, I was completely shamed by how lax I’ve been in supporting her the past couple of years.
I feel truly awful about this, and the more I realize how terrible I feel, the more it compounding all of the other ways in which I fail everyday. Whether its missing a deadline, or blurting out something asinine in an academic conversation, or forgetting to follow-up with a friend…I mess up constantly. Constantly.
Some days I just wish I weren’t so fallible, so busy, so careless, so self-absorbed, so tired, so focused, so weak.