Coming Home to Kansas

Browsing my computer tonight, found some great pictures.

Don't know when this is from, but pictures of Hannah and her quilt.




The most stunningly beautiful picture of Hannah I've ever seen. Taken in Lawrence June of 2003.


Wedding photos. My favorite part of this picture is Eliza (and that's Hallie's red hair on the far right edge).


I'm not sure if this photo actually flatters any of us.


After the ceremony and reception, everyone stayed to watch Tim perform in "Merry Wives of Windsor." The directors were so excited that we used the space for our wedding (then subsequently sold out the house with our guests) that they made me a fancy throne from which to see the play. Um, yeah. I was kind of embarrassed. I hate being the center of attention.


This is what I look like drunk. (An extremely young-looking) Katie and I at a cousin's wedding, 2003. (And for the record, Katie is NOT taller than me. She just always happens to stand on a platform when we get pictures taken. Funny, that.)


Tim in his element.




Yeah. So. Remember that picture I posted around Halloween, when I was the crow, and he was the . . . god knows what? I found this one titled "rick james," so now we know. I took a series of pictures like this in sepia, and damn if he did not turn out rather pretty. Ok, in this one he looks rather Spinal Tap-ish, but I swear there were a few quite sweet pictures. Sepia is a beautiful, beautiful thing.


For a while, I did a series of driving photos, and this is one of my favorites


First road trip together, can you guess where this was taken? The famous bridge near, um, Cedar Point? (I can't remember, actually.)

I need some good books for holiday reading, books beyond the brain candy I normally consume over break. So any suggestions would be fantastic!

We sorted out the holidays early. Since dad isn't home most thanksgivings, we do thanksgiving with the in-laws at my house. We always have something different. Turkey, ham, crown roast, roast pork, roast beef. We rarely have turkey since Marc and I don't like it as much anymore. Then the sunday after thanksgiving, we go to Marc's grandparents and have dinner there.

For christmas, we go to his parents for christmas eve, his grandma's mid morning and my parents christmas afternoon and evening. We've never really fought about where the holidays were spent. Or if we did, it's been so long I just can't remember anymore!

I used to hate the holidays trying to figure out how to divide the time. I have never gotten along with my inlaws especially steve's mom. I wanted to spend as little time as possible at their house (plus smelling and feeling like you gad sat in the middle of an ashtray is not a good thing) &refused to alternate xmas and thanksgiving. We were eating two thanksgiving and xmas dinners when we made the trek from nebraska. The longer we lived there the less we came back due to having to work the next day. Plus it was easier to be with us opening presents and having dinner with friends (always someone who had nowhere to go cuz they couldnt fly home airmen dont make much). Since they got divorced its much easier. His dad got remarried and likes to go to missouri to spend time with his family on xmas. So we do xmas with them before and his mom moved to florida with her boyfriend. So she mails the gifts. Then xmas day is free to spend with my side. So now there is no pressure and i dont hate the holidays anymore!

I must admit, the details of Ellie's planned Christmas Eve menu sound tantalizing. It got me thinking about how we all may have particular foods connected to the holidays. I got on a kick several years ago where I decided I needed to have my own culinary Christmas specialty. So I started making chocolate almond biscotti -- and my family loves it. Although, I have to say, after you make something over and over, your own taste for it tends to diminish. Still, I love making it every year -- in fact, I'll be making my second batch of the season this afternoon to take back to Kansas.

So what do you all like to eat/make/cook/bake over the holidays? I mean, this can be simple, every day kind of stuff, too. (To be honest, I look forward to Sonic holiday shakes every year. Just had their gingerbread blast the other night on a splurge! Aren't I pathetic?) But perhaps you have very particular memories and traditions connected with certain foods and tastes? It would be nice to hear about them in connection with general traditions we've been talking about.

How are you celebrating? What are some family traditions you have?

Christmas Eve is Tim's final run of "Christmas Carol," so we can't fly to Chicago until the next day. I am going to make a fancy meal of seared Ahi tuna, risotto, asparagus, and a good chardonnay. Afterwards, we may nibble on some organic dark chocolate, because Tim's not much for fancy dessert, so I've learned not to bother when it's just us. Then we'll open presents, even though we had planned not to give each other them this year. (Well, I'll open one from him, and he'll open one from his sister, because I really did stick to our agreement, even if he did not.) After that, if we feel like being daring and tempting our early wake-up time to drive to Birmingham to catch the plane, we'll open up a special bottle of mead we've been saving, and smoke a joint, and see where that leads us. I don't know. We'll see.

Christmas Day will start butt early for a 1.5 hour drive to Birmingham so we can arrive in Chicago around lunchtime. We'll exchange presents with Tim's mom and sister, take a nap, then all pile in a car to hit the big Barta clan celebration in northern Illinois. Those are always raucous, loud, exhausting, and wonderful.

I guess we haven't started any Barta-Moran-Gittings traditions yet.

As a kid, Christmas Eve was my favorite. We'd make a nice dinner of steak and shrimp. Mom would make pumpkin or coconut custard pie. We'd get to use the fancy china. Katie and I would each open one present before bed. It was always a lovely, quiet night. (Well, except for when I'd sulk because Katie's present would be better than mine.)

From high school on, we'd also go to the Presby church's vesper service. The tiny church would be lit solely by candlelight, and we'd spend an hour singing Christmas hymns. Very hushed and very beautiful. Afterwards, we'd drive around Marion, and sometimes the lake, looking at Christmas lights. (Ooooh, now I know how we can end our evening here!)

Christmas Day, we'd wake at a leisurely hour. Mom would make a coffee cake, and tea, and we'd have breakfast while taking turns opening presents. Even though we'd never have a ton to exchange, we'd drag it out and make it last an hour or two. We'd probably have a big dinner in the afternoon or evening, but I really just remember the mornings because I loved them so much.

Hm. Now I miss those traditions. It's just not the same when you have carefully negotiate the land-mines of splitting time between two families during holidays. The only time Tim and I really argue is on this single issue. Hopefully it will get easier the longer we are together.

As you may know, I have plenty of time to think. And most of the time I´m obsessing about finding a job for when I get back...and also trying to make the most of this current one. Which leads me to asking, in the interest of getting to know each other again...

What was your best job yet? And your worst? And what are you looking forward to doing in the future, in terms of work?

My worst was this Office Space kinda job at Allen Press in Lawrence. I lasted 3 months, measuring graphs and weather maps to put in academic journals. I spent a lot of time at the xerox machine. There were no windows and my coworkers were an assortment of bitter resigned people who lived for either bowling night or the monthly office potlucks. I got written up for not working 45 hours a week one time, AFTER I´d given my two week notice. Bleh. I went to work for this company that hired temp workers to grade standardized essay tests, written by eighth graders. It was much better.

The best...well, working on the farm in Illinois was hard, but really cool, ultimately. I got to be outside a lot, I was in charge of the running of the kitchen, almost everyone I worked with was really cool. I think the time I had it the best, though, was when I was working at a farm near lawrence every morning, at the produce department in the afternoons, and doing illustration work on the weekends. Didn´t make that much money, but the work was rewarding.

And...I´m looking forward to being a textile artist. And working with kids part time, in some capacity. Also, maybe, my own small organic farm. Thats the dream. Now I want to hear about yours.

Ok, this is so stupid but I have to ask. Do any of the rest of you get kinda excited when your little code you have to type in to submit your comment almost spells a word? I look at it every time and get amused if it sounds funny when I say it. I'm such a freak.

I added another pic of this year's tree (to the left). See, it's the same thing!





This was our Christmas tree from last year (on the right). And really, I have it in the same spot this year, with pretty much same ornaments -- so not much has changed. I do miss the few years when Topher and I had a real tree. But I don't miss watering it and vacuuming up the needles!

Sarah and Jennifer, if you look closely, you will observe numerous Blount-created and inspired gems! And the Victorian Santa was a gift from Catie and Garrett's Aunt Janet. And note the Ronda Reindeer circa 1983 or something. I love the way stories can be told through Christmas ornaments -- and you don't need Hallmark to do it for you.

I was watching Friends the other day (don't judge me!) and Joey and Phoebe were in Vegas, debating whether to drive Phoebe's cab all the way back to New York. Joey convinces Phoebe to do it: "C'mon, we'll get to talk and play car games and renew our friendship!" She asks, "Are you asking me to have a 'frienaissance'?"

I'm glad we're all having a frienaissance. Just thought I'd share.

Today the first snow is finally here. It makes it really seem like winter. Too bad it wont be much. The winter makes me miss nebraska where a trace is like 12inches. You can fall back in the snow and make a real snow angel and not having to worry that you're going to land on a rock that will pierce your back. We lived there for 7 years i guess there had to be something i missed besides the fab malls and the friends i made. It just doesnt seem like winter without that wonderful white blanket of frosty cold.

I was talking to mom this morning and she asked me if there was another Nick Volker. When I told her no she said I had to watch the news today. I would write the whole thing, but it's something you just have to watch. And now it makes more sense that he moved to another church this past summer.

Please ladies and gents, wipe the shock off your faces.


the ksn.com page is down so try here: kwch KSN has the video so you'll have to click on the news today link above to see the video.

I don't. Last night a heavy fog moved in and made everything muffled and Christmassy...kind of like snow. It's clearing off now, but it will be back tonight. I got up around 7, and made breakfast, then listened to Harry Potter on tape while I untangled my knitting project. There is something so soothing about undoing knots. Then I put on Grateful Dead and burned some incense(hey, man, I'm a peace corps volunteer), while taking a sponge bath. Talked to my neighbors about making soap and walked to town. So, here I am, conversing across the bandwidth with you all. I'm happy to see that Mark has arrived. It tals good.

And the people here, though sometimes annoying, are very nice, in general. Also, I have lots of really funny stories now. In the last week I have been asked if I am family of George Bush, if I weigh 190 lbs, if I'm a man or a woman...how can you not be amused? And then, simultaneously, kind of sad for people who, through no fault of there own, have such a limited view of the world. We are lucky in many ways, not so much to be americans, or to have money, but to have access to lots of different ideas. The education system here is pathetic.

And, it's mango season. 15 cents for a medium-sized one, 7 for a dollar. You should all be jealous. Unless you are allergic to them...some people get blisters around the mouth from them. Turns out they are related to poison ivy.

Do you have them? What are they usually like?

I prefer saying "holiday," but down here in the South, they're not all P.C. like that, so mine was just flat out a Christmas party.

It was last night, and was, in the beginning, strange, and the end, lots of fun. Ooooh, also: Christmas bonuses! Mine was $50, for being in my second year of employment there ($25 last year. Nothing much, really, but it will be helpful towards this gorgeous quilt I want from World Market that Tim refuses to spend budget money on, and I've never been given bonuses at previous jobs, so that's good.)

Last year, when I was new to the agency, it was dinner out at a bar & grill, exchanging presents, then leaving, for I knew no one.

What I was used to in Chicago was a lame lunch at a bad hotel buffet, smuggled-in flasks to doctor the sodas, and then the real party would begin at a bar after the official work party was over. This was the time everyone who was anyone would show up at happy hour. (I suppose this was a result of many people missing the most infamous holiday afterparty of them all, so everyone showed up in subsequent years.)

I made it to that legendary happy hour. In fact, I figured heavily into that year becoming legendary. Tiny neighborhood bar, fitting only about 30 people body-to-body, and I showed them all my recently pierced you-know-whats. (I was not particularly shy about them sober, but yes, the drinks were strong that night.) Also, a friend drunkenly told my work crush about my feelings; I left my glasses in his pocket for some reason, and had to come to work in my prescription sunglasses the next day (looking like the poster child for hangover chic, plus having to face him knowing he knew how much I liked him, and wondering if he'd seen my tits the night before); and I ended the evening at a Hispanic drag show.

Aw, that kind of makes me miss the crazy old days . . .

But, I suppose, in its own way, this year's Christmas party was also fun.

Viewing&postn is go n 2 b way easier i didnt get the outdated leftovers (ghetto crap) is what i said n the middle of my pissyfit i think steve felt bad last time he got a new fon i got his brothers old 1 i hated it i have lost it&left it everywhere hint hint he got the 3 mo old video fon chris upgraded 2 1 that is basically a mini comp with the same price so i could also inherit his laptop needless 2 say yea me!

.... but I don't. And no frets. I'm not pissed. Not really. Not at all. Really. :)