Our visit to the Place of Evil Spirits

"The name Enumclaw is derived from a local Native American word meaning "Place of evil spirits" and the city is named after a mountain about six miles north. The local Indians believed that the Thunder Bird lived in a cave on this mountain, and had changed tribesmen into thunder for all time."

Well this is Mount Ranier from Cathy's back yard, not the evil spirit mountain. Our visit to the Calvert household was blessed with snow. They had four inches that morning before we arrived. It was cold and crisp and we had a great visit with Cathy, Jake and Jess.
We enjoyed getting up to speed on Cathy's latest work with the Muckleshoot kids in her after school program on the reservation. She's doing amazing things and has 46 kids involved! Very cool. Here's more about the tribe: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muckleshoot

Jake is working on his clothing business and is moving to Colorado, with hopes of eventually returning to Ellensburg to get his restaurant going. Jess is cranking through her senior year in head start college classes like no other and will be able to finish college in 2-1/2 years.

We had a nice visit, and drove straight home to pick up Laura at the airport. We walked into the airport as she was pulling up to the gate. Perfect timing. And good to have her home.

Christmas on Dunbar

OK, so we want to pretend that Christmas was fine without you kids around, but the reality is the hot tub tripped off in the middle of the night so it was only 91 degrees in this picture. Perhaps an apt example of how Christmas just was "luke warm" without you.

It was a shear delight to see Chris and Laura's face on Skype. We missed the call later in the evening to see Catherine too. Next time.

Our family party was very good. It kept us hopping with over almost 40 people here. Al and Cheryl from across the street came over, too. Lots of food and good conversation.

And we closed the evening with Talledega Nights. It was much funnier watching it with a bunch of guys than with Miss Cynthia, and the uncut version left in stuff that detracted from the fine production my mind had made it out to be. Oh well. Shake and bake, baby.

Now on to the rest of the week. A fine collage of visits, culminating in Laura's return on Friday. Thanks for drawing us a diagram, Laura. It was very helpful! We'll follow the perscribed plan. Remember to call us with your latest flight information.

Here today

Christmas came and Christmas went.

Here's a list of what happened today:

-shower
-coffee
-presents
-cooking
-big breakfast
-big clean-up
-LOTR the two towers
-cooking
-skyping
-big dinner
-big clean-up
-more skyping
-LOTR return of the king
-little bit of snow
-overview of new york travel guide book
-little bit more skyping and blogging

All of this happened, it's true. More than this happened, I'm not lying. We hung out with two Germans and a Korean. We discussed Christmas in different cultures. We sang a Christmas carol together. Friends and family is all I needed for Christmas. I got it. For the lot of you who weren't involved in my Christmas day, just know that my soul is not completely satisfied without you. God gave me more than enough today to remind me of how blessed I am. And I know I am beyond blessed, and I know that I will truly feel it when I come home on Friday to my parents (who hated to see me leave in the first place), to my boyfriend (who has been sure to tell me daily how badly he misses me), and to my closest friends (who I've yet to even give a merry hug to). Oh boy, I'm happy here, but oh the joys that come with home. Tomorrow, we're off to New York bright and early in the morning (that is if it doesn't snow too much, but what fun would that be if it did?!). We'll be going with Steffi and Tina. Nice people. I'm very very very excited. I love this place, I love my family, I love my friends, I love this holiday, I love love love...

So I bid you all a good evening, a happy heart, and a merry Christmas.

Laura

Skyping

OK, then. We have successfully come on line in the world of Skype. Cynthia and I talked with Justin in Paris this morning. Now perhaps we'll see all you kids in Pennsylvania on Christmas.

Key things to remember: load the camera software before plugging in the camera, or you'll have to start all over (I didn't read the camera instructions first...). You'll be prompted to download updates, too. Then you can test the camera with the Microsoft Lifecam software.

Skype is a snap to install on your PC. It will be interesting to do some snooping into whether your G3 processor can do the video Skype at all, or if it's just not so good. For now load it on the house computer, and then snoop around a bit. It's all pretty intuitive. I had to pull my speakers forward on the desk and face them away from the camera to keep it from feeding back (squealing) on Justin's end...

Look forward to seeing you guys. Our user name is The_Clothers. Peace family.

family as a whole?

I'd like to open this blog by stating that this Christmas is monumental for the Clother family.

I went for about two months thinking nothing of spending Christmas 3,000 miles away from my parents, but come Monday morning, I definitely felt a sadness settle over me. After I waved goodbye to my parents and Trippe once I passed through security, I turned my head and shed a few tears... it's true. I do cry sometimes. Laura's not heartless. Anyway, I was very sad for a good 24 hours and I think that made up for my lack of sadness for the past two months. No?

So, my venture out to Pennsylvania has been exciting, exhausting, peaceful, chaotic, happy, hungry, uncomfortably full, fascinating, and, most of all, entertaining. The companions and I seem to get along pretty well. I think they finally accepted me on Tuesday night, when I danced my butt off with them over a period of about an hour and a half. We partied hard and that's all I have to say about that.

Thanks to Trippe, I've taken some fantastic pictures and videos with his camera. I can't wait to show them off. Thank you, Trippe.

Tonight, Chris and Catherine had the night off, so we went to the mall. We arrived after six and left at 10:45. We left with very few bags and I had an upset stomach. My oh my, we sure know how to shop... We bought things for ourselves and we're going to wrap them up and open them on Christmas. It's not quite the same as it was at home, but oh well.

I've been sneezing like a lunatic since I got on the plane to get here. No idea why.

I've almost crocheted two scarves since I've arrived and it's only been three days.

We're going to New York on Tuesday and staying the night in an apartment seven stories up off of Broadway. Yea, pretty serious. I'm excited.

I'm also tired.

I love you, family.

I love you, friends.

I love you, whoever else is reading this (it seems that a lot more people read our family blog than I thought).


Good night.

Christmas Cactus Considerations

With seemingly perfect timing, as if its growth is directed by our seasonal to-do list, my Mom's Christmas cactus is blooming.

Before Mom died she asked what we would want of hers. Odd, but practical question, I guess. Cynthia zeroed in not on furniture or jewelry, but this plant. And I'm so glad she did. It grows as a memorial to Mom; our mother and friend. And for me, memories of Mom year after year trying to get the blasted thing to bloom at all, let alone at Christmas.

Through the years she tried everything to trigger its blooms from moving it to new locations throughout the house, in front of windows, away from windows, submitting it to isolation in a dark closet, and once even throwing it out as so much compost, where it bloomed upside down in the flowerbed...

Now this cactus blooms each year at Christmas without any effort on our part. I have started to write many applications for this cactus story, but I'll leave it to you to draw your own truths. For me, it's God honoring Mom with something she always wanted. A Christmas cactus that blooms at Christmas.

This is Chris, the day before my sister comes to stay with us. K and J have a bell choir performance today at the non-denominational church down the street, so I went to check on whether K was moving. She told me she would be up at 6:19, which is when she set her alarm for, but at 6:34, she was not moving, so I knocked lightly on the door, which I found was not resting in its jam and the door pounded into its place when I knocked on it, making a loud sound and stirring K immediately. I expected an apologetic muffle from the other side of the closed door, as K had failed to be responsible this morning, but after I asked if she were moving, I heard her quietly reprimanding me for pounding on the door. I explained how the door pounded against the door jam, and that it wasn't intentional, but that it doesn't matter because she is running late, and I don't think she understood me because she said to me again how it is against the rules to pound on the door and how I am not supposed to do it. So, in a stern voice, because I was irritated, I said that the door slipped and that she needs to get moving. She said okay in a cheerier tone, and I huffed away. And I woke up today with the front part of my hair making a great big 'S' curl like how I hate, and last time it did this, it took like a week to calm it back down into hanging in a more manageable way. I really hope I don't look like a dope for the majority of the time Laura is with us.
Here's some news about what's going on this week, little sister: it sounds like afternoon classes have been canceled for everyone, so that those involved in rehearsals for the Friday send-off christmas thing can rehearse everyday. But swimming may very well not be canceled, because it is 'therapeutic' for a lot of the companions. So bring a swimsuit for sure. Catherine and I will both have times working on the land this week, and you will be dragged to help at least once, so bring some clothes you can get grubby in. And...some parents of a student here have offered their place to any coworkers at Soltane interested in using it over the holiday break. They won't be using it because they will be elsewhere, so Catherine and I expressed interest in us using it for one night between the 26th and the 27th. The place is a fancy apartment seven stories up and six blocks to the west of central park. New York Just may be a bit more relaxing than I was thinking it would be.

White Christmas?

Looks like 25-50% chance of a white Christmas for you guys in PA. Our map is far less hopeful, but today we have a crusty white ground and icy streets from yesterday's little storm of hail and snow. I'm happy enough about a little snow that when two snow balls came out of nowhere; one narrowly missing the hood and the other hitting the side of the car, I chuckled. Cynthia thought it was more serious. I thought we should drive back and give them another try.

So there was this huge wind storm last night, right? ...and all these power lines went down, rendering us without electricity, bored, and helpless. We managed. Lit candles. We even played a game once we figured out whose turn was when and whether or not we were going around clockwise. We settled with clockwise. We attempted to take pictures of each of us, but Dad's didn't turn out, so I put the ones of mom and me up, and instead of dad, I put the bouncing Santa Clause up. Sorry, Dad. After the parents went to bed, I was left bored and wide awake with no internet. I scrounged around in the laundry room by candle light for a flashlight. Upon finding one that put off enough light to work in, I hung it from my reading lamp over my bed and crocheted until my benadryl kicked in. What a night, huh? I woke up freezing. The power came back on right after I took a shower and started to freak out about not being able to blow dry my hair. Praise God.

Point is, it's Christmas time and I'll be in Pennsylvania in three days with my beloved siblings and all of their fabulous companions.

Morning Sudoku and Rudolph

So today we are having coffee in the living room. It's a nice setting with the tree and all, but no kids in the house at all. Laura spent the night with Trippe and Witney, and they're off on a great adventure today. I could bang around in the kitchen without disturbing Laura's sleep, which made me a little lonely.

Cynthia woke up early with anxious plans for the family Christmas at our house intermingled, no doubt, with sadness over all our kids being in PA for the holidays. We'll see how the all goes. I'm excited for all you kids having a special time together though. These will be memories that last a lifetime.

Me, I'm fighting a zit right on the end of my nose. It started yesterday at church, and by last night I looked like some sort of drunk. Today Cynthia had me pop it and soak my nose in hot water. She says it will help. I still think having me sit in the living room with my nose in a coffee cup of hot water was some sort of joke that will come up in conversations throughout the next few weeks... Call me Rudolph. Today's our staff meeting, so there's no hiding in a closed office today...

On Thursday, it was so cold outside, and Catherine and I had the night off, so we went to a movie in Pheonixville. Pheonixville, being named after a flaming eagle, has a festival every holiday season where someone in the town erects a a large eagle shaped sculpture made out of dry wood. We saw this year's sculpture (it's sitting in a field by the side of the main road), and it's around 16 or 17 feet tall, and in a week or so, they are going to light in fire in a parking lot. We watched the movie 'the U.S. vs. John Lennon' and we learned about the overall political and cultural mood of the united states during the late 6o's and early 70's. Our friends Jason and Mia came with us, and we briefly discussed the reasons for wanting to make a movie on this subject, and we constructively criticized the abrupt ending of the film all while standing out in front of the theater in the freezing cold, because we were watching, in the glow of the nearby streetlights, the beginnings of the first snow of the season. Once we realized just how cold we were, we hustled and jogged through Pheonixville's little strip of downtown to the dark parking lot where the Mitsubishi was, all while the snow persisted. The ground was so cold and the snow was rather dry and dusty, and the wind was terribly invasive, and the snow blew around in menacing swirls over the surface of the street. We enjoyed daydreams of waking early the following morning to shovel sidewalks so that everyone in wheelchairs could get around, but by the time we got back to Soltane, the snow had eased and stopped. we let Jason and Mia out of the car and then Catherine and myself went on to Pizza Uno's for a late dinner.
Friday, the temperature didn't rise above freezing, and the sky rarely had more than two clouds in it, and it was windy, and it was my least favorite kind of weather. Me and Catherine went to get coffee, and then we went to Kimberton Hills, the camphill for older people. They have a place to get lunch there, and a thrift store that's open four times a week for four hours at a time. We got some warm soup and some old books and for dinner last night, we had Macaroni and cheese that we made. Sara looked sad last night, and I thought for a moment that it might have been because of the blog I wrote last about us not wanting to live in Rockrose. I don't actually think she knows about this blog, but if she did, reading that last one might have made her sad. So I reread the last blog, and I thought that it wasn't very mean, but was honest and even-handed. So I decided not to erase it and instead planned to confront Sara about the issue at hand if it came up. It turns out she was getting sick last night (which means she's probably not going to help clean the house today, how convenient for her) and that made her look sad. Before Christmas break though, she has to have a meeting with each coworker in Rockrose, one on one, facilitated by one of the entry activities coordinators about how things are going in the house. I don't think I'll be able to opt out of being honest about my feelings, so I hope it goes okay, and I hope that she won't take any newly developed animosity for me out on Laura when she gets here.
When Laura gets here, she's going to help me cook meals, go swimming at the YMCA, do land work, make things in the pottery studio, watch the students fix things in home maintenance, and do movement in the morning (Catherine and I do the quasi-yoga class every Tuesday and Thursday, but you can do the tai-chi one, or you can go jogging). You may or may not have fun, but there's always rest hour after lunch, and there may be some special Christmas activities in the community while you're here, like maybe a christmas play or something, that I might be one of the three kings in maybe.

Night Time Surprises

On our way home from the staff Christmas party I spotted a big bird perched on a street sign near our house. Wierd to see a bird at night. We turned around and went back to stare face to face with a barn owl keeping watch over Jenne Road. Beautiful bird.

This is Thursday, and away we go!

I'm in a funny spot in life.

I can't wait to go to Pennsylvania. It will be nice to vacate Oregon for a while and look at the world from a new place. Maybe it will allow me to look at my life unbiased. Probably not, though, since I'm still me and can't escape my own skin very easily.

I need to be doing so many things right now, but I don't want to do anything but sleep and read. There's another reason I'm looking forward to PA, I won't have any stresses. I will be able to read and sleep and talk with my siblings.

I love talking to relatively new friends who know my siblings but don't know that I'm related to them. When they find out, it's like I'm automatically 10 times cooler. It goes like this:

Laura: So, I'm visiting my brother and sister-in-law in Pennsylvania for Christm--

Relatively new friend: Wait, are you Chris' sister?

Laura: Indeed, I am. Isn't that fantastic?

Relatively new friend: Yeah! I love him!

Laura: I know. I know. I do too. So, anyway, I--

Relatively new friend: I think I went to a show with Chris and Catherine once. With Danielle... Wait, no... yea! with Danielle!

Laura: I'm sure you did.

Relatively new friend: Sorry, go on.

Laura: It's okay. So, anyway, I'm going to New York while I'm there and--

Relatively new friend: Chris is an artist, right? Did they work with the Somalis last year? 'Cause I think I did that with them too.

Laura: Yes, he is. And, yes, they did.

Relatively new friend: Sorry. You're going where now?

Laura: It's fine. Don't worry about it. I'm going to visit Chris and Catherine in Pennsylvania.

Relatively new friend: Awesome! What are they doing in Pennsylvania?


...the conversation goes on like this and the relatively new friend looks at me in a whole new light, or rather a whole new shadow. Ha, but what a magnificent shadow to live in.

Things to do today:
-read bible
-study for practical nursing assistant final tomorrow
-work
-maybe find a moment of peace?

I'll end this blog on a low note. My life is busy as heck with the most boring crap.

Actually, I'll end with a poem by, you guessed it, Dorothy Parker.

The Searched Soul

When I consider, pro and con,
What things my love is built upon-
A curly mouth; a sinewed wrist;
A questioning brow; a pretty twist
Of words as old and tried as sin;
A pointed ear; a cloven chin;
Long, tapered limbs; and slanted eyes
Not cold nor kind nor darkly wise-
When so I ponder, here apart,
What shallow boons suffice my heart,
What dust-bound trivia capture me,
I marvel at my normalcy.

Another weekend has gone by and for the past two days it has been clear and breezy and cold. There is one type of weather that I think is the worst, and it's when it's clear, breezy and cold.
Catherine hatched a scheme last Thursday night that would make our experience here at Soltane more enjoyable overall. The best house at Soltane is called Nantmel Farm. It's the best because it's a house original to the property here and is really old and lovely and sits amidst the trees on the edge of the forest. It has the most amazing porch that looks out at the large trees in the yard. The best householder lives in this house and so does the best coworker. Both of these people are committed to doing a good job, actively helping out, and they think and talk about things that Catherine and I are interested in. There are two other coworkers that work in Nantmel Farm, and from what we've heard, they don't try very hard and they don't help out the most. The students in Nantmel Farm require more attention than those in Rockrose, so it requires extra effort to get by in Nantmel Farm every day.
So, what can happen is that the two coworkers of Nantmel Farm, a guy and a girl, can trade places with Catherine and myself. They can come live in Rockrose where the students are independent and amicable for the most part, and have a laid back time like they want to have. They can chat it up with Sara and Christoph because they would probably get along with Sara and Christoph much better than how Catherine and I do. and...Catherine and I could move to Nantmel Farm and live in the dingy little room they have there and work with people we can relate to and like to be around and after working really hard all day long we could go out in the evening and sit on the porch and look at the trees.
That's the plan. It would save us from the disagreeable architecture of Rockrose, whose expansive floorplan is a pain to traverse on laundry day, and from the near unusable deck here that sits exposed to the weather, either baking in a midday sun or being beaten by a howling wind or being drilled by an unexpected thunderstorm. Who puts a deck on a house that faces the west without any cover on it whatsoever. We like sitting on this deck in the morning before eleven, or in the evening after dusk. And then it gets cold, and there is nothing, nothing secluded about the setting surrounding the deck. I hadn't realized how interested I am in seclusion until this deck. And the house is painted disagreeable colors. Stylistically, it must have come from the early nineties because it reminds me of our living room at the fourth street house, except the decor here is poorly done. I would say our old living room was a balanced mix of pastels and floral prints, well selected lamps and furniture, while here the furniture and accessories are haphazard and incongruent. And our coworkers...they are nice and they have good intentions, but we are so far from relating to them, and they seem like they have little interest in relating to us. We walked into the house at the end of our free day last Friday, and after saying hello to Sara and Christoph sitting in the living room, received no acknowledgment from Christoph, and no hello from Sara, only an accusation that Catherine had not turned in the week's bread order. This is an example that demonstrates how we feel about our relationship with these two in a general sense.
So sometimes it's a little rough. It's really not as bad as this message lets on. It just feels nice to rant about it and know that people who like me will read it and tell me that it will be okay. On a lighter note, Laura Clother, from Portland, Oregon, will be coming to stay here in a mere two weeks. Catherine and I are beside ourselves with enthusiasm and have been working hard on a schedule of events. So far, we know there will be movies, coffee, and pizza uno's.

Dorothy Parker

Trippe bought me a book of poetry by Dorothy Parker.

He said that if I were a female poet thriving in the thirties, her poems could have easily been written by me. Here's an example:

Observation

If I don't drive around the park,
I'm pretty sure to make my mark.
If I'm in bed each night by ten,
I may get back my looks again,
If I abstain from fun and such,
I'll probably amount to much,
But I shall stay the way I am,
Because I do not give a damn.

Here is another example:

Frustration

If I had a shiny gun,
I could have a world of fun
Speeding bullets through the brains
Of the folk who give me pains;

Or had I some poison gas,
I could make the moments pass
Bumping off a number of
People whom I do not love.

But I have no lethal weapon-
Thus does Fate our pleasure step on!
So they still are quick and well
Who should be, by rights, in hell.

This is barely the tip of the iceberg--this woman is magnificent. I'm having a helluva time reading her poems.

I don't know if Trippe is completely right, but I love the comparison.

Firday Night Kitchen Dancing and BBQ

Here's Miss Cynthia dancing in the kitchen. We just got off the phone with Chris and Catherine, making plans for visits in the spring. It will be good to see them.



A spontaneous barbeque broke out to celebrate.