BarkDust: July 2004

Watching TV till the cows come home...

Ok, really I'm not as pathetic as my last post sounded! I do more than sit around and mope....sometimes I even turn on the t.v. ....which has been relatively interesting this week. ***First of all, there was the Democratic National Convention. Those of you who know me well, will not be surprised that I had already made up my mind who I would be voting for in this election. My cynicism and disgust toward the current administration has only grown in its intensity. I will politely refrain from all the things I COULD say here. On the other hand, I haven't been that excited about my alternatives. John Kerry just seems.....dull...especially when compared to the other Democratic candidates who had been vying for the spot. So, the DNC needed to convince me that if I voted for John Kerry I was going to feel confident that some positive changes would be made when he comes into office. Believe it or not, despite all the rhetoric and pomp and circumstance that generally make me feel MORE cynical, I did end out the week feeling positive for once about the future of democracy and the Democratic party. This was not necessarily due to anything either of the Johns or their wives said however; but from the hope evidenced by Barack Obama. If you missed the speech because it was not televised (except for PBS), you need to see it for yourself. Here's a brief excerpt: "....we are connected as one people. If there’s a child on the south side of Chicago who can’t read, that matters to me, even if it’s not my child. If there’s a senior citizen somewhere who can’t pay for her prescription and has to choose between medicine and the rent, that makes my life poorer, even if it’s not my grandmother. If there’s an Arab American family being rounded up without benefit of an attorney or due process, that threatens my civil liberties. It’s that fundamental belief—I am my brother’s keeper, I am my sisters’ keeper—that makes this country work. It’s what allows us to pursue our individual dreams, yet still come together as a single American family. “E pluribus unum.” Out of many, one." This is the kind of leader that could restore some of my hope and trust in democracy. If we can find leaders who truly believe this and act upon it, I would be proud to call myself an American. ***On to further and more weighty television viewing....Amish in the City. I am conflicted about this show. On one hand, it seems exploitive. Here we take relatively innocent and naive young Amish kids and throw them into t.v. "reality" which means an artificial world of money, temptation, strange roommates and cameras in every corner. Can young people who grew up without televisions understand how participating in this show could radically change their lives? Will the Amish even take them back after a rumspringa like this one? Will their lives be "ruined" due to this experience? Is it ok for UPN to exploit the one group that doesn't have a strong enough lobbying group to prevent a show like this one from airing? After all, "The Real Beverly Hillbillies" was cancelled after huge protests by folks representing the Appalachian community. Would they ever think of airing "Orthodox Jews on a Pig Farm" or "Devout Muslims Living in Las Vegas"? Wouldn't the outcry from those communities make sure such shows never saw the light of day? On the other hand, I watched the show last week and was rivetted to the t.v. set. Here were 5 really interesting, relatively articulate, young Amish people ready to explore life in the big city. I felt UPN generally cast the Amish kids in a positive light. In fact the "city kids" came off looking shallow and ridiculous in comparison....particularly the one vegan girl who believes that cows are aliens. I also read an interview with Mose and Ruth who both said that they felt it was a positive experience for them. They would have left the Amish for rumspringa anyways and this show gave them the opportunity to have much broader experiences than they would have had staying in the rural Midwest. (By the way, the one Amish guy "Randy" is from Indiana. Does anyone know anything else about him? He is one hot J.O.!) There were moments that were definitely worth watching the show for--Ruth's sheer joy at seeing the ocean and an art gallery for the first time....Mose struggling with his faith--what would happened to his soul if he had drowned while living outside the Amish community? I'll probably keep watching it even though I agree with Donald B. Kraybill that “...the series will provide little educational information on Amish life and culture. Rather it places Amish teens in a national zoo, of sorts, where millions can giggle and snicker at their way of life. It’s just sensational commercialism at the expense of the real Amish.” (Newswise) ---deb who sometimes feels she's Amish in the city

Becky Home-Ecky Gets Lonely

It's a "normal" day around here. Yesterday I was Becky Home-Ecky all day and so the house is clean and the laundry is done. Some of my friends have asked me if I'm bored being at home by myself during the day. But I am rarely bored. I have so many crazy creative ideas in my head that tend to keep me amused. What does get to me is the "aloneness" though. In the summers in Indiana I always made it a point to have an outing every day--lunch with a friend, shopping, helping out with something at church, teaching at IUSB--something. So I'm having to be more creative about how to meet people. Last week I signed up for a drawing class at the Sellwood Art Academy (trust me, the name is more impressive than the actuality). It was fun even though most of the other students were twelve and thirteen year olds :) I guess I'd better get used to that age range again if I'm teaching middle school in the fall. I really like the instructor so I think I'll take a printmaking class with her next week. Today I'm going to wander about in a neighborhood called Hawthorne where I heard there are cool vintage clothing shops and a bead store and some other possibly interesting places. Our friends Michael and Debra Bonn had a baby on Sunday. Yay! Her name is Audrey Lisa Bonn. I think they should come home from the hospital today. We'll take dinner over to them some night this week. That will give me some human contact :) We have visited two churches here in town but neither of them have made us go "Aha! This is the church for us!" I don't think that really happens though (the aha thing). One church is Imago Dei. I think it's affiliated with the Vineyard churches. It meets in this great old church over by Laurelhurst park. The service was filled with a lot of 20-40 year olds. It's a new church...only 2 or 3 years old. We liked a lot about it but the odd thing was that not a single person came up to talk to us or greet us or anything. I know they aim to be very nonconfrontational with seekers/visitors but....I'd love for someone to just come up and say hi. I'm sure we'll give the church another chance since there were so many other positive aspects to it. Next time we'll have to go to the meeting they have for newcomers after church. The other church we visited was Portland Mennonite Church....smaller...more traditional service...lots of hymns....very Mennonite...It felt comfortable, sort of like slipping on a really old shoe. But who wants to wear a really old shoe? Two people went out of their way to greet us which was really nice. It felt a lot like Belmont except without the big group of 20 and 30 somethings that we enjoyed so much there. We may return there as well. I sort of would just like to pick a church, commit to it, and start building a new community around ourselves here in Portland. --deb

The bedroom....you will not see shots of the office/studio space....it is a mess!....that's where we stuck most of the boxes we have chosen not to open...plus there is a jumble of art supplies and computer and camera equipment....

The kitchen....I think this is fairly self-explanatory!

Mom and Wendy asked for some pictures of our apartment so here they are. Nate found this handy little piece of software called Panarama Maker that splices several pictures together so you get these nice wide views.

...'nother day in paradise...

well today turned out to be just as hot as the previous 2 and in an apartment without air conditioning, sleeping conditions are best described as miserable.... so, with a less than stellar night of sleep, our plan to get up and hit the road for an early morning ride was delayed for a while.... we got to our jumping off point at the light rail park 'n ride in NE portland at around 8 am, while it was still reasonably "cool"... we had a nice ride on a route suggested by a co-worker... the first few miles were on the levee along the mighty columbia river where we had a clear view(actually kinda hazy) of mt. hood... our route took us in along the sandy river where we got some shade.... and after some light climbing we ended up at vista house/crown point where you get a great view of the columbia gorge...... a few miles further would have taken us down to the famous multnomah falls, but that would have meant a killer climb to get back up and we didn't have it in us today..... we got back home before the worst heat of the day hit.... it was a really nice 40mile round trip, which i'm sure we'll be riding more in the future ..... to escape the rising heat in our apartment, we scooted off to the theater and saw the bourne supremacy.... which was ok for a typical hollywood flick.... tomorrow is supposed to be cloudy and cooler.... yes, i'm actually looking forward to a cloudy day..... n...

..out of the frying pan...

so, we move to the northwest... land of eternal rain..... riiigghttt.. this is the second day of 100+ degree weather..... but the humidity stays a lot lower than it does in indiana.. at the hottest point today(102) around 6 oclock, the humidity was at 16% ..... which in nicer than the 80%+ we're used to .. so instead of feeling like you're in a steam bath, it feels like someone left the oven door open..all day long.......... it's also a little different that the hottest time of day is not noon-ish, but rather at 5 or 6 oclock.... i guess the valley we're in causes the heat to build up until we all spontaneously erupt in a firey death.... or something anyway, at around 6 we happened to be at the oregon zoo amphitheater (which is greek for "bowl of heat" ) .... someone at work had no use for their concert tickets to see John Hiatt and Lucinda Williams ... we would have paid good money to see either of them by themselves, but instead we got to see them both for free..... yee haw.... and as a bonus, chuck prophet did a short opening segment.... we had a good time and i think the elephants that we're about 50 feet behind us enjoyed it to.... they didn't allow us to take pictures (the zoo people, not the elephants), but i remember the everning as looking something like this .. later, n..

This is our baby niece, Kalvary Rose! Welcome to the world baby girl and happy 1 month birthday! ---aunt deb

Little Tidbits of News

We both have jobs and our house is "sold".... Last week I accepted a full-time learning specialist (that's what they call special ed. teachers for kids with learning disabilities out here) position at Waluga Junior High in Lake Oswego. It was sort of a tough decision to make. I had a couple of more offers and opportunities to interview other places. It seems special ed. teachers are in just as much (or more) hot demand here as they are in Indiana. Anyway, I really like the principals and the director of special education that I interviewed with and I started to get excited about the opportunities that this school will afford me. After that, none of the other schools really had a chance. I'll work with 7th and 8th graders who have difficulties primarily in reading and writing. The other learning specialist is also new to this school. I met her last week. Her name is Stacey and we hit it off right away. We have two HUGE rooms and we got to decide how we want them set up. I hate it when my idealism and my reality have to collide. Ideally, I would teach in some very poor urban school with a great deal of ethnic and cultural diversity. However, I happen to want to work for a school system that really WORKS. One where I will be encouraged and supported in my job. One where I will be expected to strive for excellence. One where I won't have to count every single piece of paper that I use. These two situations rarely occur simultaneously--especially since schools are funded in a large part through property taxes. So....once again I sacrifice my ideals on the alter of realism. I'm hoping Waluga will sort of bridge these two desires. It is a wealthier school district that has a great reputation for excellence. My particular junior high is in a less prosperous area and includes several apartment complexes that look less than wealthy. I'm hoping that the number of Asian restaurants that I saw in the community means that there is beginning to be more ethnic diversity too. Meanwhile, Nate seems to be settling into his job at Ankrom Moisan. At first he was a little frustrated by having to change CAD software. It really slowed him down for a while. He seems to be enjoying his coworkers though. He's glad to be back working with Michael Bonn who he worked with previously in Indiana. The highlight of Nate's day is when the "Pony Espresso" wagon stops by--a breaktruck that serves coffee drinks--what a Northwestern concept!!! Maybe Nate will add some more stuff about his job in here at some point. We got a good offer on our house in Indiana last week. It was close to our asking price (and we were asking more than we actually expected to get. It does sound like we will have to pay to have some minor repairs done. We're just glad that it looks like it will close early in August and then we can start looking for a house to buy out here. If you need a real estate agent in Mishawaka, I would recommend Mary Jo Shively. She has been great with handling everything for us long distance. Well, I should go finish cleaning up the kitchen and then run some errands (I hear the bike shop calling my name :) --deb

Yup. That's where we live.

The Moreland Theater by night. We saw Fahrenheit 9/11 there.

Cycling in one of the parks along the Willamette.

The Oaks Pioneer Church---the Willamette River is down the bluff behind the church.

Happy To Be So

Our friends and family are so kind. We have recieved so many phone calls, emails and cards in the 2 1/2 weeks we've been in Portland. Everyone wants to know if we like Portland. The answer is a resounding YES! There are times when Nate and I are out "exploring" and I do a little dance of joy because I am so thrilled with where we are. It seems to fit us. We live in a neighborhood called Sellwood-Moreland. It is a small residential neighborhood just southeast of downtown. We're on the east side of the Willamette River. Most of the homes are bungalows built in the 1920s and 1930s--some have Arts and Crafts elements. It's a quiet neighborhood most of the time --except when you can hear trains being linked together in the middle of the night in the railyard just east of us. 17th Avenue is the Moreland shopping district. It is about 3 blocks away from us. There are the basic small-town necessities--an old-fashioned hardware store, a grocery, flowershop, barber shop, and a post office. Then throw in some antique shops, bridal shops, and art galleries. Plus there is the ubiquitous Starbucks, a Tully's coffeeshop, a taqueria, a sushi bar, Cha Cha Cha, Pizzicato Gourmet Pizza, Springwater Grill, Caprial's Bistro, Tartine, the Ironhorse Restaurant, and Papa Haydn's. Then there's the Moreland Theater. I read some place that it is the last single screen movie theater in town. Beyond the Moreland district is the Sellwood neighborhood centered around 13th Avenue. We haven't explored this as much yet but that's where the public library is and more antique stores, coffee shops, and restaurants. Down by the river is the historic Oaks Pioneer Church that is now owned by the neighborhood association. Over 300 weddings are performed each year here. It overlooks the Sellwood Riverfront Park where there are free concerts every Monday night. There's also the Springwater Corridor--a rails-to-trails bike path. Anyhow, I feel like I'm babbling on. I just wanted to give you a brief little picture of our neighborhood and give you a feeling for why we're enjoying it so much. (And there are NO MOSQUITOS here! at least not that we've seen) --deb

Nate's office--Ankrom Moisan. It is about a 15 minute bike ride from our apartment---just across the Willamette River.

THE TRIP WEST: We're driving...and driving...and driving (note look of grim determination on our faces)

THE TRIP WEST: ....and driving....

THE TRIP WEST: The "high" point of our boredom on I-80 (we recommend flying!)

THE TRIP WEST: Our new apartment in Portland.

THE TRIP WEST: How are we ever going to get everything into a two-bedroom apartment?

We've Finally Gone and Done It

Yup, we've started a blog. We're not exactly sure why but here are some possible reasons: 1) to spill all of our dirty secrets out to the public at large (naw...) 2) to communicate with friends and family who live far away 3) as a personal vehicle of self-expression 4) to have yet another excuse to play with our digital camera 5) to give us a distraction at work that could plausibly LOOK like work ("Well, he is busy at his computer....it must be legitimate.") As you know, we've recently packed our bags....and our car...and our 5 bikes....and various and assorted boxes of books and art supplies....and hauled it across the country to Portland, Oregon. At some points we've wondered if we've completely lost our minds to move to a strange land and leave behind our lovely little house in Indiana and our office mates and church community and family and dearest friends. On the other hand, it's been a fabulous adventure so far. We LOVE the Pacific Northwest! Within easy walking distance we have coffeeshops, art galleries, a grocery store and hardware, several fine restaurants, two parks and the entry to a rails-to-trails bike path. Not too far away is the Willamette River and we are just upstream from downtown Portland. Mt. Hood keeps watch over the city and on clear days what is left of Mt. Saint Helens is visible too. The Columbia River Gorge is just up the road, and the Pacific coast is only a couple of hours away. We have SOOO much exploring to do! I must be off. -deb

THE TRIP WEST: Finally we're in Oregon!!!!

BarkDust

Saturday, July 31, 2004

Watching TV till the cows come home...

Tuesday, July 27, 2004

Becky Home-Ecky Gets Lonely

Saturday, July 24, 2004

...'nother day in paradise...

Friday, July 23, 2004

..out of the frying pan...

Thursday, July 22, 2004

Monday, July 19, 2004

Little Tidbits of News

Saturday, July 17, 2004

Happy To Be So

Friday, July 16, 2004

Thursday, July 15, 2004

Wednesday, July 14, 2004

We've Finally Gone and Done It

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