just laura

I love this poem every time I see it, and don’t think I’ve
posted it here before. For more on him, there’s target="_blank">a nice interview you can check out. -Cat

Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front
by Wendell Berry

Love the quick profit, the annual raise,
vacation with pay. Want more
of everything ready-made. Be afraid
to know your neighbors and to die.

And you will have a window in your head.
Not even your future will be a mystery
any more. Your mind will be punched in a card
and shut away in a little drawer.

When they want you to buy something
they will call you. When they want you
to die for profit they will let you know.
So, friends, every day do something
that won’t compute. Love the Lord.
Love the world. Work for nothing.
Take all that you have and be poor.
Love someone who does not deserve it.

Denounce the government and embrace
the flag. Hope to live in that free
republic for which it stands.
Give your approval to all you cannot
understand. Praise ignorance, for what man
has not encountered he has not destroyed.

Ask the questions that have no answers.
Invest in the millenium. Plant sequoias.
Say that your main crop is the forest
that you did not plant,
that you will not live to harvest.

Say that the leaves are harvested
when they have rotted into the mold.
Call that profit. Prophesy such returns.
Put your faith in the two inches of humus
that will build under the trees
every thousand years.

Listen to carrion — put your ear
close, and hear the faint chattering
of the songs that are to come.
Expect the end of the world. Laugh.
Laughter is immeasurable. Be joyful
though you have considered all the facts.
So long as women do not go cheap
for power, please women more than men.

Ask yourself: Will this satisfy
a woman satisfied to bear a child?
Will this disturb the sleep
of a woman near to giving birth?

Go with your love to the fields.
Lie down in the shade. Rest your head
in her lap. Swear allegiance
to what is nighest your thoughts.

As soon as the generals and the politicos
can predict the motions of your mind,
lose it. Leave it as a sign
to mark the false trail, the way
you didn’t go.

Be like the fox
who makes more tracks than necessary,
some in the wrong direction.
Practice resurrection.

“Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front” from The Country of
Marriage, copyright ® 1973 by Wendell Berry

I’ve spoken with a handful of people lately who are heading to South Africa who wanted travel advice… two different groups I met are going for World Cup games, and the adventuring Dougli are going to visit friends. These conversations inspired me to put some of my own trip notes into a more organized (and hopefully useful) format. I spent a week in Joburg in July 2006 and then returned to South Africa for almost a month in January-February 2007 to explore more of the country. Read on in this post for logistics info and sights visited. Remember that prices listed were from my time there in 2006/2007, and may have changed since then. For more stories of our personal adventures, visit www.travelingcat.com and use the South Africa tags or categories on the right column to find posts and pictures from our adventure. Enjoy!

I. Before you go
A. Recommended viewing:
“Tsotsi” won the 2005 Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film of the Year

B. Recommended reading:

• Nelson Mandela’s “Long Walk to Freedom.”
• Disgrace, by JR Cotzee. Only read it if you’re ready for a “willfully painful” book. Working-out of personal and political shame and responsibility. Also concerned with his country’s history, brutalities, and betrayals. Also intent on what measure of soul and rights we allow animals.
• Barbara Trapido’s Frankie and Stankie, a girlish ‘memoir’ of apartheid South Africa. Not the most powerful book, but good intro to SA.

C. Transport Options

• Rental Cars – We used Budget Rent A Car. Driving from place to place gave us the flexibility to move when we want to which was an incredible gift. It also puts us closer to life on the road, which includes dodging all matter of obstacles on the road – cattle, goats, sheep, people, the occasional pig and even a monkey here and there. We came out mostly unscathed with the exception of one incident with kamikaze sheep. Note: if you hit anything, it’s the farmer/shepherd’s fault since they should pay better attention to the animals.
• Baz bus (tourist bus) – delivers to the major hostels in each spot along the coast between Joburg and Cape Town
• Local buses – small, cheap, crowded, used primarily by locals
• Tourist buses – super nice with hot cocoa service, sleeper seats, movies, etc. www.intercape.co.za
• Internal flights on airlines like Mango – www.flymango.com

D. Food
1. Biltong – beef jerky – the South African equivalent (but it’s WAY better)
2. Braii (BBQ)
3. Ostrich – As a former vegetarian, I had to re-learning everything about meat after avoiding it for 10-15 years. Ostrich meat is way leaner than beef and is way better for you. Happily, it actually tastes better than cow meat too. So if you haven’t tried an ostrich fillet lately, I highly recommend it.

E. Accommodation
Coast to Coast http://www.coastingafrica.com
There’s a free 300 page book called Coast to Coast that lists a full page on each (that is willing to pay) and it’s got more detail than Lonely Planet ever will. It’s also now online!

F. Developed
I’ll admit my ignorance and be honest with you: I wasn’t expecting to arrive from the village in Kenya and find Johannesburg quite so developed. Make no mistakes… South Africa is definitely a first world/developed country and Joburg is a world class city. In Joburg you can eat Thai, sushi, or Greek food all on one city block, and follow those with happy hours anywhere you like. There are coffee shops, pastry shops, dance clubs, hip bars, cute boutiques, art galleries, and street vendors selling crafts.

II. Johannesburg
We stayed with friends in a beautiful part of town called Melville.
A. City Living
I came to SA straight from the Kenyan village and all of the little “city living” things we took for granted in the US were pretty outstanding for me.
1. Book reading by a best selling South Africa author
2. Amazing jazz concert – Free concert series at University of Witwatersrand – Johannesburg campus
3. Art opening of a new photo exhibit at a downtown gallery in Standard Bank
4. Wandered a Sunday market near the local mall… so many homemade crafts and homemade clothes
5. Indie record stores like Canned Applause in Melville – For all your import and indie needs! We walked inside and I was absolutely stunned to see Shins t-shirts, Sub-pop posters, Postal Service CDs, ACL Fest DVDs, and more. Want to check out some South African indie bands? Try the Dirty Skirts or Eyes Wide Open.
B. Apartheid Museum
Can horrify you. Some of the photos, especially the ones by Peter Magubane, made me cry. The propaganda films pissed me off. And the whole of it made me ashamed to be white, even if I wasn’t in on the British or Dutch oppression of the black African people.
C. Hector Pieterson Museum and Memorial
Named for the 13 year old boy who was among the first killed by police in the 1976 student uprising in Soweto. The museum shares first hand accounts of brutality and uprising from students, parents, politicians, and journalists who were there. Incredibly moving personal stories, films, and photos of the revolution.
D. African Footprint
Musical in a fancy theatre that tells South Africa’s history through two hours of singing and dance, from native dance to 1950s jazz. Was fun, but could’ve skipped if we wanted to save money.
E. Constitution Hill
One of the closed down prisons where Nelson Mandela was kept as a political prisoner is now open as a museum where horror stories abound. The site also hosts the new building for South Africa’s highest court of law and has exhibits about Mandela. Free tours of both.
F. Maropeng – the Cradle of Humanity
Maropeng is outside Joburg by a few hours and very worth the car rental/drive. Perhaps the best/most progressive museum I’ve ever visited. Hidden behind a big hill is a new, gorgeous museum with the history of mankind, much of which is based off of fossilized apes and humans found in the area, pretty much the oldest in the world.
Museum had lots of great historical info, original fossils, and hands on displays for kids and adults both. Beyond the normal stuff, they went a step further to discuss sustainability, present socially relevant facts, and ask what we can do to preserve our world. Super progressive minded museum! One of the many scary facts I learned: 25% of the earth’s mammals are predicted to be extinct in 30 years! Another scary idea that I knew but really sinks in more here… we’re likely on our way to the sixth great extinction, and ours will be the first caused by us instead of being caused by nature (no more volcano problems, none of this ‘earth hit by asteroid wiping out the dinosaurs’ type of extinctions that have happened in the past).
G. Soweto – Africa’s largest black city, site of 1976 student protests that began the fall of apartheid, home to the only street in the world to have housed two Nobel Peace Prize winners, ex-president Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu.
Soweto is South Africa’s largest black township with a population of about 3.5 million. (Ie. The British government kicked the Africans off their land and sent them to small, restricted bits of lands… just like the Americans did to the Native Indians who were the original inhabitants of North America). These black townships were low income housing at best, slums at worse. Moving people to Soweto didn’t silenced the black Africans. Soweto was home to many activists who helped bring an end to apartheid, is famous for the student uprisings in 1976, and one Soweto street holds claim to the title “only street in the world to have two Nobel Peace Prize winners, ex-president Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu.”
Soweto today is home to 3 million people who speak 13 languages as well as s’camto, a street language. It houses Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital, the largest hospital in the southern hemisphere with 6,000 beds and some of the most sophisticated medical facilities in the world. Opposite the hospital is Africa’s largest taxi rank from which 10,000 vehicles depart daily. Despite an unemployment rate estimated at 45% there are many informal businesses such as roadside garages, butcheries, exhaust repairs, barber shops, spaza shops (basic groceries), shebeens (unlicensed taverns), payphones and roadside kitchens, amongst others.
Soweto came to the world’s attention on June 16, 1976 with the Soweto Riots, when student protests erupted over the government’s policy to enforce education in Afrikaans rather than English. Police opened fire on 10,000 students in a peaceful march and among the first to die was 13 year old Hector Pieterson. 566 people died, and there are many chilling videos and photos documenting the struggle at the Hector Pieterson museum and the Apartheid Museum. The impact of the Soweto protests reverberated through the country and across the world. In their aftermath, economic and cultural sanctions were introduced from abroad. Political activists left the country to train for guerrilla resistance. Soweto and other townships became the stage for violent state repression. These events, spurred on in large part by the first student protests, helped bring the eventual end to apartheid in the 1990s.

III. Durban
Translux bus from Joburg to Durban – 100R ($15), left at 8:30am arrived at 4pm. We’ve moved around a bit while here to experience different parts of town… city centre, north beach, and south beach.
A. Banana Backpackers, city centre
Near wide selection of massage parlors and escort agencies. Not classy, but totally acceptable. 100R per person per night to share a double bed. Kitchen, TV, laundry, courtyard, 10 minute walk to the beach, free local calls
B. Umdholti Resort, in Umdholti, a beach town about 15km north of Durban
Cost for us: free (gift of a stranger!). Usually $100+.
Upscale resort town, mostly time shares and condos
Time share unit was on the beach, has private kitchen, bath, 4 beds, tv, seafront balcony, pool, bbq pits, etc. Wow! Is near Umhlanga (an upscale town with Thai food, sushi, Italian, etc) and Ballito.
C. Anstey’s Backpackers, 10 minutes south of Durban on the beach
Camping costs 40R per person. Surfboard rentals, pool, internet, TV, great balconies, book exchange, free coffee and tea, nicest kitchen I’ve seen in any hostel anywhere in the world. The staff were super cool, informative, opinionated, and full of personality. Only 30 meters/1 minute from the beach, cafes, pub, etc.
D. The Bat Centre – art galleries and free live music on Fridays and Sundays at
E. Free art museum
F. Free Natural Science Museum (nicer than Kenya’s and you save $10!)
G. relaxed at the pool
H. swam in the ocean,
I. cheap internet (6R per hour is way better than Melville’s 35R for 45 minutes).
J. Monkey memories
We stayed at a condo in Durban on the very first week of our South African adventure and there were “Beware of monkeys” signs posted about, with warnings to leave doors and windows closed when you were away. The monkeys weren’t opposed to getting in your room and stealing from you. We didn’t have any force their way into our room, but definitely had to guard our stuff down at the pool where the monkeys were running all over and grabbing drinks and snacks sitting next to sun bathers or under lawn chairs.

IV. The Wild Coast
South Africa has a lot of coastline, so each section gets its own name. We drove through the Hibiscus Coast, the South Coast, the Wild Coast, the Garden Route, etc. To say the scenery is stunning is a huge understatement – we have seen a huge range of landscape here – from dunes meeting rivers meeting the ocean, wide swaths of low bushes, old deciduous forests, to unbelievable rocky coastlines.
A. Hiking at the Oribi Gorge (10R).
We left the N2 Highway and had to head down dirt roads littered with lots of small huts, cows, sheep, goats, horses, and dogs roaming free. It felt like we were driving through Smurf villages. I was excited to get into the Xhosa land of mud huts with thatched roofs, but wasn’t expecting them to be painted such great blues, greens, and pinks. How delightful!
B. Coffee Shack Backpackers (40R camp)
happening place! Waterfront lot, hammocks, board games, fire pits, gorgeous bathrooms, etc. The hostel seemed to be the main attraction.
C. Hole In The Wall Backpackers (40R camp)
Connected to a hotel, so can accommodate any price range or privacy comfort levels.
Hiking – The hostel was lovely, but the main attraction was nature. We did lovely day hikes around the coast, swimming, saw a beautiful ‘hole in the wall’ rock formation. Great memories from those hikes.

V. The hamlet of Hogsback
We traveled inland to Hogsback, an area that claims to be an inspirational place where Tolkein got his ideas to write Lord of the Rings. The forests are lush and deep, full of butterflies, giant trees, waterfalls, and plenty of ornate spider webs.
A. Away With The Fairies Backpackers (45R camp)
Lovely, laid back space, nice communal dinners prepared for you. Hostel had lots of common rooms, a crazy pool, and even a giant tree you could climb to get to the very high up tree house! Recommended!
B. Hiking
The hostel has free maps for hiking… we did a 8 km hike through the mountains that supposedly inspired J.R.R. Tolkien to write Lord of the Rings. Great waterfalls, big trees, nice folks, and lots of local legends.
C. Visit The Edge
A nearby labyrinth overlooking the valley below. Free, beautiful, zen.

VI. The Sunshine Coast
A. Addo Elephant National Park (20R)
Cheapest, self guided safari you could imagine, and you get SUPER close to the animals. Honestly, we had elephants come within one foot of the car. Amazing!
The original Elephant section of the park was proclaimed in 1931, when only eleven elephants remained in the area – today this finely tuned ecosystem is sanctuary to over 450 elephants, Cape buffalo, black rhino, a variety of antelope species, as well as the unique flightless dung beetle, found almost exclusively in Addo. The Big 7 (Elephant, rhino, lion, buffalo, leopard, whales and great white sharks) in their natural habitat.
B. Stayed at Orange Elephant Backpackers (30R camp)
A rather odd backpackers with no common room, but the kitchen was well stocked and the bathrooms were nice. Oh, and instead of a pool, they had a trampoline. Restaurant/bar maybe functioned as common room – meals were fine and they had books/games. The hostel wasn’t anything to write home about, but the proximity to the park was perfect.

VII. The Garden Route/Plettenburg Bay
A. Monkeyland (90R student price)
“Monkeyland is the worlds first free roaming multi-specie primate sanctuary. Monkeyland has as one of its aims, to create awareness about the plight of primates and to show that with a greater understanding of our primate cousins, that we can all live in harmony.” So fun!
B. Albergo for Backpackers (50R camp)
Nice space. Has a pool table, free coffee and tea, tv and dvd, a bbq/braai pit, decent kitchen, clean bathrooms, internet, breakfast lounge, and outdoor tables. Not bad for $6, eh?
C. Tsitsikamma National Park
We took a gorgeous drive through/around Tsitsikamma National Park, but it was raining pretty hard so we didn’t do the hiking and adventuring we were hoping to do.
D. Monkey Memories
Monkey hijinks hit an all time high at MonkeyLand in Pletts. I guess it shouldn’t be a surprise that a sanctuary for monkeys would hold lots of trouble makers. They had staff with water bottles to squirt the meddling monkeys and they carried big sticks (not to whack the monkeys, but to make scary noise). The monkeys weren’t deterred. They were stealing from the cafe (I thwarted the attempted of Tarzan by scaring him in the cafe), stealing from us at our picnic table (one monkey got Susie’s Sprite, but didn’t fare well attempting to use her straw), and we heard the fabulous tale of a monkey in the gift shop who showed up with a stick of his own to show the security folks he knew their game.

VIII. Oudtshoorn
The capital of ostrich breeding business since the 1800s – highly recommended!
A. “Backpackers Paradise”
My vote hands down for the best hostel in all of South Africa. Well appointed place with great open space, multiple well stocked kitchens, multiple TV rooms, multiple sitting rooms with couches and chairs, free coffee and tea, internet café, prepared meals, braai nightly (aka BBQ), swimming pool, bar and pool table, amazing staff, book exchange, and even visitors books for offering advice to other travelers. Amazing!
B. Ostriches!
I’d once read a passage in a book about “how to ride an ostrich” and decided seeing an ostrich farm would be one of the sillier “can’t miss” opportunities in life.
Take a tour of the Safari Ostrich Farm. We learned the history (still active since the 1800s!), saw the farm, got a 75% discount from our hostel (only 24R!), and even got to see jockeys doing ostrich racing! Not only that, but they let 3-4 lucky participants each tour get a FREE OSTRICH RIDE! I highly recommend $3.50 for an ostrich tour and free ride. Quite worth the trip!
C. Meerkat Magic!
I fell in love with meerkats after National Geographic published an amazing photo essay a few years back and have been a big fan ever since. As you know, meerkats are only found in one place in the world – sub Saharan Africa. And as I found out this week, there’s only one program in the world that lets you go out into their natural habitat with a conservation program – Meerkat Magic. It has to be a sunny day, and you have to put up with the somewhat crazy man who leads the tours, but I was more than happy to fork over hundreds of rand for the experience. I wanted to see them in person and wanted to learn more too. While Grant the guide was a bit of a crazy man, you’ve got to respect his ideals and the program he works with. They’re the only meerkat conservation program worldwide that leaves the meerkats in their natural habitat and doesn’t domesticate them by handling them or feeding them.
We got up and drove to the meeting place at 4:45am, made it out to the conservation site by 5:15am, and then hiked out to one of the 60+ boroughs by 5:45am. Then our lessons began. Did you know the meerkat is a tiny rodent, just larger than a rat, and their closest relative is the mongoose? Did you know they dig with sharp claws into the ground to hunt for insects?
Grant shares pictures. (Guests are forbidden from taking pictures as the organization needs the film revenue to help fund their conservation work and rely on BBC, National Geographic, etc.

IX. Route 62 through wine country
We decided to skip the rest of the garden route and stay in-land. It was totally the right decision for us. R62 is the “longest wine route in the world.” The drive was hot in January (37C is about 106F) but we slathered on more sunscreen and enjoyed the stunning mountain views.
A. Swartburg Pass
First stop on route 62 was the winding gravel road of Swartburg Pass – one of the “most spectacular passes in Africa” with views of the Matjies River valley. Scary and impressive.
B. Ladismith
From there we headed on back roads and more gravel to Ladismith. Not much there except a fabulous stop at a cheese and ice cream factory (yum!), but both of us were big Paul Simon fans and Ladysmith Black Mambazo fans, and that was enough to make excited about driving through the town of Ladysmith.
C. Warmwaterberg Spa
Hot springs between Barrydale and Ladismith at Warmwaterberg Spa. We went to a cool old resort called Warmwaterberg Spa (established in 1886 with three outdoor “Roman bathing pools” overlooking the gorgeous surrounding mountains and valleys. The 41C hot mineral water was fabulous, the setting amazing, and my head spinning. Germans apparently rate these among the top three hot springs in the world for their heat and mineral content… among other things they’ve got low levels of sulfur and high levels of lithium.
D. Robertson
Robertson – a small town in the Breede River Valley with wine, roses, and race horses. It’s nestled into the most gorgeous purple hills imaginable and has about 10% of SA’s vineyards, and amazing hiking opportunities.
1. Hiking
We spent a day at a local nature reserve and did a great, easy trail up to the edge of the mountains followed by an hour long rock scramble. Our goal was swimming in the many small rock pools and the bigger waterfall at the end. The water was quite chilly, the dip in the pools was refreshing and the views and rock formations were gorgeous. We heard about the hike courtesy of Robertson’s Backpackers.
2. Robertson’s Backpackers Hostel
Another in a line of very impressive hostels where we camped. Among its unique amenities included local wines, gorgeous bathrooms, eclectic original artwork around the house, and most interestingly a Moroccan lounge and hookah bar. We decided to peruse their video library and opted for a late night showing of the Breakfast Club on VHS.
E. Stellenbosch
Stellenbosch, the heart of South Africa’s wine country. Stellenbosch is actually SA’s second oldest city and vineyards were first planted there in the 1600s. With our luck we not only arrived on a Wednesday (the most happening day of the week). it was a college town with lots of bars (lower drinking age + 17,000 college students + wine country = party time in Stellenbosch).
1. Cellar tour at Die Bergkelder
Tunneled into the slopes of the Papegaaiberg mountain. We did all of the tour’s samplings there and both ended up tipsy before 11am. Some of the best wines I’ve ever had: Fleur de Cap.
2. Jordan Winery in Stellenbosch
Very laid back winery, much like you’d find in Washington’s wine country near Seattle or near Walla Walla (it’s sold in the States under the Jardin label).
3. Vrede en Lust Winery in Franschhoek
Vrede en Lust was the classiest winery I’ve ever seen, way fancier than Napa Valley. (They host weddings and cater to a rich foreign clientele). We picked Vrede en Lust because they also hosted a cheese and olive products shop onsite, as well as beautiful grounds and guest cottages. Little did we know the woman behind the counter would be so amazing… from advice on wines and local history to tattoo shops in Cape Town and gourmet dinner recommendations in nearby Paarl town.
4. Dinner at Noop
Most amazing dinner I’d had in recent years. Noop is a tiny artsy gourmet restaurant connected to a coffee shop and florist. The funky feel was very Seattle though the gourmet food quality was decidedly New York or Houston. Our bread, main meal, giant decadent dessert, coffee, and truffles only came to $11 each. Wow!
5. Stumble Inn Hostel
We stayed at the Stumble Inn, a packed, very popular hostel right in the middle of town. All of the beds and rooms were sold out, but we had Susie’s tent and they still had room for us. Young-ish crowd.

X. Cape Town
We returned our rental car in Cape Town to save money and went back to public transit (slow, but it got us door to door). We stayed with friends, but many folks we met recommended Long Street Backpackers. We spent a fair amount of time at the beach, shopping, and eating. My goal was to get there in time for the Cape Town Pride celebrations, a Pride parade, and a rocking Pride street party
A. Robben Island
Tour of the prison island where Nelson Mandela and other freedom fighters were jailed. All tour groups led by former inmates. Powerful.
B. Long Street and Green Market Square – wander aimlessly
C. Hiked Table Mountain.
Even the “easiest” routes are supposed to be ‘difficult and hair raising’ and the guard at the bottom told us it can be full of bandits who jump out of the bushes and mug you at knife point (they apparently can’t use guns because guns cause rock slides). We had no muggings, no baboon attacks, not even sore muscles. The views were gorgeous and the other people hiking were super fun and social. We even had a new friend Andy join us for the hike, a 60+ year old Brit. The hike was a bit harder than he initially expected, but he did great and bought us drinks at the top to thank us for “taking care of him.”
D. We drove a loop around the Cape
Started in Big Bay, then into town through Table Mountain National Park, then out to a arts and craft market at Hout Bay, lunch on a farm (can’t remember where), back home for a late dinner. Sadly, we didn’t have time to go all the way south to Cape Point.

We were super sad to leave and miss the rest of South Africa, but wanted to get up to Namibia to check out the desert and sand dunes and continue the adventure!

I did a few cellar tours in Stellenbosch, and have been wishing for the past two years that I remembered what wines I enjoyed most. (I was a bit tipsy by 11am, as I rarely drink and am a bit of a lightweight). Well, I’m excited to say I’m now found them!

Fleur du Cap (Bergkelder) Pinotage 750ml 2007
Price Range:
$10.00 to $13.00
Sku: 19620

Tasting notes
Dark red with violet hue. Prominent plum, cassis, smoked beacon aromas that are complimented with hints of vanilla. On the palate, it is a medium bodied wine packed with strawberry, raspberry and spicy flavours. Soft matured tannin with a fruity finish. An easy, approachable Pinotage that can be enjoyed now, and as the wine matures for the next three to four years.

Wine maker notes
The grapes were hand-picked when the crop reached maturity at 23,4-24,5° Brix by the beginning of February. In the cellar, the juice fermented on the skins for 10 days at 82.4°F. After malolactic fermentation the wine was matured in second-fill casks for 18 months. The wine was bottle-matured for a further 18 months before release.

Bergkelder Chenin Blanc Fleur du Cap Noble Late Harvest 750ml
Country: SOUTH AFRICA
Region: COASTAL REGION
Sub-Region: STELLENBOSCH
Grape Varietal: CHENIN BLANC
Type: Still wine,Dessert

Interesting read. I’m definitely one who tries to fit everything in at the cost of sleep. -cat

Wake up, women: Sleep is a feminist issue
Depriving ourselves of needed rest is a lousy way to prove how
hardworking we are

By Kate Harding, Salon.com
Monday, Jan 4, 2010 12:05 EST

“If you ask us,” say Glamour editor Cindi Leive and Arianna
Huffington, “the next feminist issue is sleep.” Personally, I never
would have thought to ask those two what the next feminist issue is,
but they make a pretty good case. “Americans are increasingly
sleep-deprived, and the sleepiest people are, you guessed it, women.
Single working women and working moms with young kids are especially
drowsy: They tend to clock in an hour and a half shy of the roughly
7.5-hour minimum the human body needs to function happily and
healthfully.” The negative effects of chronic sleep deprivation are
well-documented, but that doesn’t inspire enough people to prioritize
rest, and women often end up in a vicious cycle of sacrificing sleep
in order to do extra work and make sure their domestic duties are
fulfilled, causing all of the above to suffer. “Work decisions,
relationship challenges, any life situation that requires you to know
your own mind — they all require the judgment, problem-solving and
creativity that only a rested brain is capable of and are all handled
best when you bring to them the creativity and judgment that are
enhanced by sleep.”

Huffington and Leive invite readers to join them in a one-month sleep
challenge that they’ll blog at the Huffington Post and Glamour’s Web
site, but feminist issues generally demand an examination of the
cultural forces behind them, not just a bunch of individual
commitments to change. If you ask me, not that you would, the key
problem is here: “In fact, many women do this on purpose, fueled by
the mistaken idea that getting enough sleep means you must be lazy or
less than passionate about your work and your life.” As “The Sleep
Doctor” Michael J. Berus says, “It is amazing to me that sleep
deprivation is both a method of torture in some countries and a badge
of honor all at the same time.”

As a critic of the weight loss industry, I’m not so amazed; the same
can be said of calorie restriction. The classic Minnesota Starvation
Experiment, which subjected 36 conscientious objectors during World
War II to “semistarvation,” found that healthy men subsisting on
around 1,800 calories a day — more than many commercial diet programs
allow today — suffered serious mental and physical consequences, just
as sleep-deprived people do. A 2005 review of the study in the Journal
of Nutrition noted:

As semistarvation progressed, the enthusiasm of the participants
waned; the men became increasingly irritable and inpatient with one
another and began to suffer the powerful physical effect of limited
food … The men reported decreased tolerance for cold temperatures,
and requested additional blankets even in the middle of summer. They
experienced dizziness, extreme tiredness, muscle soreness, hair loss,
reduced coordination, and ringing in their ears. Several were forced
to withdraw from their university classes because they simply didn’t
have the energy or motivation to attend and concentrate.

And those were the ones who made it all the way through the study.
“Two volunteers broke diet and were excused from the experiment; one
stopped at various shops for sundaes and malted milks and later stole
and ate several raw rutabagas and the other consumed huge amounts of
gum and admitted to eating scraps of food from garbage cans. Both also
suffered severe psychological distress during the semistarvation
period, resulting in brief stays in the psychiatric ward of the
university hospital.” So, six months on a number of calories
equivalent to or greater than some of the plans offered today by
companies like Jenny Craig and Weight Watchers drove a couple of guys
to the psych ward, and left several others barely able to function. If
that’s not chilling enough for you, consider this footnote to one of
the 2005 torture memos, courtesy of the Bush Attorney General’s
Office: “[W]e note that widely available commercial weight-loss
programs in the United States employ diets of 1000 kcal/day for
sustain [sic] periods of weeks or longer without requiring medical
supervision. While we do not equate commercial weight loss programs
and this interrogation technique, the fact that these calorie levels
are used in the weight-loss programs, in our view, is instructive in
evaluating the medical safety of the interrogation technique.” How
could it possibly be medically suspect — never mind torture — if
regular citizens are paying for it?

So basically, around this time of year, a whole lot of people resolve
to do the same thing to themselves that governments, including ours,
do to recalcitrant criminals. And a whole lot of those are women. And
hell yes, it’s seen as a “badge of honor”; one need only listen to an
average group of women sharing a meal to learn that those who draw
attention to dieting behavior (“I’ll just have a salad, dressing on
the side”) are lauded as good, virtuous, etc., while those who dare to
eat for fullness, let alone pleasure, will chastise themselves before
anyone else can (“I’m going to be bad and order dessert”). It’s
strikingly similar to how we talk about sleep — functioning on five
or six hours’ worth is seen as a heroic accomplishment, while getting
a full eight hours on the weekend is regarded as indulgent (“Sleep is
for the weak!”) — but the major difference between the two torture
techniques-cum-badges of honor is that those restricting calories
often claim to be doing so for health reasons, with the support of
much of the medical community, while sleep deprivation is widely
understood to be unhealthy. We praise ourselves and each other for
carrying on through exhaustion in spite of its health effects, but for
carrying on through semistarvation supposedly because of them.

The common denominator in terms of cultural approval, then, is that we
reward those who endure the deprivation of biological necessities,
regardless of any toll it takes. In other words, it’s straight-up
puritanical bullshit. Getting by on six hours of sleep or 1,200
calories a day aren’t moral triumphs any more than saving yourself
until marriage is — in fact, both can make you dopey, cranky,
listless and malleable. So the challenge should not only be to get to
bed at a reasonable hour, but to quit talking and thinking about a
chronic lack of sleep as though it’s evidence of a strong work ethic,
and about attending to our bodies’ needs as though it’s a mark of
indolence. As Huffington and Leive put it, “We’ve already broken glass
ceilings in Congress, space travel, sports, business and the media –
just imagine what we can do when we’re fully awake.”

http://salon.com/life/broadsheet/feature/2010/01/04/sleep_challenge

This year I decided to spend a solo Christmas in Seattle. Work uncertainty meant I didn’t know till the last minute if I’d have a job past Dec 31st, and tickets were crazy pricy by then, and I don’t have much time off, and well, it just seemed easiest.

Turns out while I miss my fam and friends in Texas, I’m also quite excited to have some rare quiet time to myself. It’s been a rather insane year in my life (read: hard, painful, draining, depressing, confusing), and I’m finally feeling a little more like myself again. Yesterday after work I had some friends over for creative night. Today I telecommuted for work, did some emails, then went to a local nursing home with friends. They put up a notice online that they were looking for volunteers to dress up a little and pass out gifts. We had a huge crowd of volunteers, passed out gifts to every resident, sang some carols, took pictures with Santa, and had a lovely time. Felt like a good thing to do if I had free time in my schedule and I’m glad I did it.

I then came home, marveling at the warm and sunny day we’re having, and decided to grill up a steak on my BBQ grill. Can’t do it in rainy weather, so today was a perfectly indulgent day to eat steak. :) This afternoon I did some long overdue gardening, did some baking, and then spent some time running errands for parties. That’s right… despite the plan for a quiet week, seems there are many, many orphans in town and lots of parties all weekend. Three parties tonight. Three more parties tomorrow. And even a few generous offers to spend the holidays with local friend’s families.

Saturday’s going to be a snow shoe trip with the girls, and Sunday is another creative project day. Good times! Perhaps it’s not a traditional Christmas with a baked ham and a big meal, opening gifts or hanging stockings on the fire place, but I’m not exactly living a traditional life this year. At this point I’m just incredibly thankful to have made it this far, still mostly sane, finding my health, gainfully employed a while longer, a roof over my head, and surrounded by friends. This Christmas I give thanks to all of the kind, generous, patient, loving people in my life. I don’t even want to think of how empty my life would be without all of you in it.

Birthday festivities continued this week with a Solstice bike ride on Monday that made me so, so, so happy. We celebrated the darkest day of the year with a night time bike ride with 14 friends out to Lake Union for dinner at the Ivars Salmon House. So great! They sang. Restaurant guests shared their greetings. I rode away from the crowd at the end of the night with everyone shouting greetings to me across the dark night sky. I felt alive, invigorated, loved.

Tuesday was my actual birthday and I left work at noon to have wonderfully relaxing spa day with great conversation with wonderful Caroline (free spa entrance on your birthday at the fancy Korean day spa!). Spa day was followed by a home cooked vegetarian feast with Jess, Caroline, David, and Jacob on the evening of my birthday. Jess even made a flourless chocolate tort… yum! And Mez sent flowers. And many dozens of friends called, emailed, text, sang, and Facebooked greetings in my direction.

I’m pretty blessed on a regular basis to be surrounded by so many people who are so consistently kind and generous. Thank you all from the bottom of my heart!

Some years my birthday seems to get overshadowed by the holidays… easy to happen when it’s only three days before Christmas. Two years ago on my birthday I was drugged out and laid up in bed after surgery. Last year I wasn’t with my friend in Austin, or with friends in Seattle, I was with Mez’s very sweet family in Florida. It was a lovely birthday, but wasn’t somehow an organic me-fest.

This year, somehow, it’s a birthday extravaganza all month long. My celebrating started two weeks ago with a “fake” birthday lunch with Mez at Boka and a really lovely “fake” birthday dinner with David at Flying Fish. Those was followed that night by a small gathering of friends for a low key celebration night, hosted by Mez and Offspring house. I wore sequins. I hung upside down in a yoga sling. I was surrounded by friends. There was flourless mocha chocolate tort from Dilettante Chocolate. Everyone was sweet. It was lovely and low key after a hard week.

Flying Fish
flyingfishrestaurant.com
2234 1st Avenue
Seattle, WA 98121-1615
(206) 728-8595

Boka Kitchen & Bar
www.bokaseattle.com
1010 1st Avenue
Seattle, WA 98104-1008
(206) 357-9000

Dilettante Chocolate
www.dilettante.com
538 Broadway E
Seattle, WA 98102
(206) 329-6463

Today’s been a good day, and it’s just keeps building off the continuing goodness of the week. Last Friday I went to a house party with David’s friends… a wonderfully organic fundraiser for Sharehouse with spoke word, open mic, ice cream made with liquid nitrogen, musical performances, and lots of familiar faces. First of all, any house party can be good times and lots of fun. But to add the fundraiser component made me quite happy and delighted to be surrounded by such caring people. And speaking of the caring people there, David and I have been dating since August and I’ve been slowly meeting a lot of the folks important in his life. It’s now December and I can go to their parties knowing who a fair number of the people are. And this particular party had Jason Webley as an added bonus. He’s friends with the crowd, sings and records with the crowd, and I was feeling like such a fan boy. I’ve seen him in concert a dozen times in the last nine years… this was my first time being in a crowd with him at a party. I’ll call it the icing on the cake for an already fun Friday night. :)

Saturday just kept getting better and the whole day made me infinitely happy. David and I woke up and decided to make snowflakes (out of folded paper and scissors, just like when we were kids). It was immensely rewarding… who knew?! David’s snowflakes were super impressive and it was a good time. While we were crafting, my housemate Mars texted to tell us he was thinking of getting a Christmas tree. How fantastic! He came home, we hung the snowflakes on the windows, decorated the tree, made a paper chain, and decorated the whole house in a matter of a few hours on a lazy, cozy Saturday morning.

We then had friends over for a cookie decorating party, then headed to three other holiday parties happening the same day. (Christmas Crawl = a dozen overlapping holiday parties all on one day). :) I don’t remember the last time I decorated a Christmas tree, made snow flakes, or made and decorated Christmas cookies. It was a lovely day with lovely energy and lovely people. Our house was crowded, buzzing, packed upstairs and down with a few kids and lots of happy people, sugared out, holidayed up, drinking spiked cider or mulled wine, and enjoying themselves. It was also the first time all three of us have been here to throw a party… so it felt all the more special to host together. Needless to say, Saturday was a good day.

And to close out the weekend Sunday night we did Tacos & Hip Hop at David’s place with all of his housemates. Who can ask for more out of a weekend? Not me! :)

Winter Solstice 2009: Facts on Shortest Day of the Year

Brian Handwerk
for National Geographic News
Updated December 21, 2009

Today is the winter solstice and the first day of winter in the Northern Hemisphere. It’s all due to Earth’s tilt, which ensures that the shortest day of every year falls around December 21.

But it’s not all about astronomy. Since ancient times people have marked the winter solstice with countless cultural and religious traditions—it’s no coincidence the modern holiday season surrounds the first day of winter.

Solstice in Space: Astronomy of the First Day of Winter

During the winter solstice the sun hugs closer to the horizon than at any other time during the year, yielding the least amount of daylight annually. On the bright side, the day after the winter solstice marks the beginning of lengthening days leading up to the summer solstice.

“Solstice” is derived from the Latin phrase for “sun stands still.”

That’s because—after months of growing shorter and lower since the summer solstice—the sun’s arc through the sky appears to stabilize, with the sun seeming to rise and set in the same two places for several days. Then the arc begins growing longer and higher in the sky, reaching its peak at the summer solstice.

The solstices occur twice a year (around December 21 and June 21), because Earth is tilted by an average of 23.5 degrees as it orbits the sun—the same phenomenon that drives the seasons.

During the warmer half of the year in the Northern Hemisphere, the North Pole is tilted toward the sun. The northern winter solstice occurs when the “top” half of Earth is tilted away from the sun at its most extreme angle of the year.

Being the shortest day of the year, the winter solstice is essentially the year’s darkest day, but it’s not the coldest.

Because the oceans are slow to heat and cool, in December they still retain some warmth from summer, delaying the coldest of winter days for another month and a half. Similarly, summer doesn’t hit its heat peak until August, a month or two after the summer solstice.

Winter Solstice Marked Since Ancient Times

Throughout history, humans have celebrated the winter solstice, often with an appreciative eye toward the return of summer sunlight.

Massive prehistoric monuments such as Ireland’s mysterious Newgrange tomb are aligned to capture the light at the moment of the winter solstice sunrise.

Germanic peoples of Northern Europe honored the winter solstice with Yule festivals—the origin of the still-standing tradition of the long-burning Yule log.
The Roman feast of Saturnalia, honoring the God Saturn, was a weeklong December feast that included the observance of the winter solstice. Romans also celebrated the lengthening of days following the solstice by paying homage to Mithra—an ancient Persian god of light.

Many modern pagans attempt to observe the winter solstice in the traditional manner of the ancients.

“There is a resurgent interest in more traditional religious groups that is often driven by ecological motives,” said Harry Yeide, a professor of religion at George Washington University. “These people do celebrate the solstice itself.”

Pagans aren’t alone in commemorating the winter solstice in modern times.

In a number of U.S. cities a Watertown, Massachusetts-based production called The Christmas Revels honors the winter solstice with an annually changing menu of traditional music and dance from around the world.

“Nearly every northern culture has some sort of individual way of celebrating that shortest day,” said Revels artistic director Patrick Swanson. “It’s a lot of fun for us to dig up the traditional dance and music and even the plays [honoring] that time of the year.”

Of course, as the name suggests, The Christmas Revels mix ancient winter solstice traditions with customs of the holiday that largely replaced winter solstice celebrations across much of the Northern Hemisphere—Christmas.

Winter Solstice’s Christmas Connection

Scholars aren’t exactly sure of the date of Jesus Christ’s birthday, the first Christmas.

“In the early years of the Christian church, the calendar was centered around Easter,” George Washington University’s Yeide said. “Nobody knows exactly where and when they began to think it suitable to celebrate Christ’s birth as well as the Passion cycle”—the Crucifixion and resurrection depicted in the Bible.

Eastern churches traditionally celebrate Christmas on January 6, a date known as Epiphany in the West. The winter date may have originally been chosen on the basis that Christ’s conception and Crucifixion would have fallen during the same season—and a spring conception would have resulted in a winter birth.

But Christmas soon became co-mingled with traditional observances of the first day of winter.

“As the Christmas celebration moved west,” Yeide said “the date that had traditionally been used to celebrate the winter solstice became sort of available for conversion to the observance of Christmas. In the Western church the December date became the date for Christmas.”

Early church leaders endeavored to attract pagans to Christianity by adding Christian meaning to existing winter solstice festivals.

“This gave rise to an interesting play on words,” Yeide said. “In several languages, not just in English, people have traditionally compared the rebirth of the sun with the birth of the son of God.”

December 21, 2009
Labor Data Show Surge in Hiring of Temp Workers

By LOUIS UCHITELLE, NY Times

The hiring of temporary workers has surged, suggesting that the nation’s employers might soon take the next step, bringing on permanent workers, if they can just convince themselves that the upturn in the economy will be sustained.

As demand rose after the last two recessions, in the early 1990s and in 2001, employers moved more quickly. They added temps for only two or three months before stepping up the hiring of permanent workers. Now temp hiring has risen for four months, the economy is growing, and still corporate managers have been reluctant to shift to hiring permanent workers, relying instead on temps and other casual labor easily shed if demand slows again.

“When a job comes open now, our members fill it with a temp, or they extend a part-timer’s hours, or they bring in a freelancer — and then they wait to see what will happen next,” said William J. Dennis Jr., director of research for the National Federation of Independent Business.

The rising employment of temp workers is not all bad. However uncertain their status, they do count in government statistics as wage-earning workers, adding to the employment rolls and helping to bring down the monthly job loss to just 11,000 in November. Indeed, the unemployment rate fell in 36 states in November, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported last week, partly because of the growing use of temps.

The bureau, which issues the monthly employment reports, does not distinguish between permanent and casual employment, with one exception: it has a special category for temp workers, the men and women supplied by Manpower, Kelly Services, Adecco and other agencies.

Last month 52,000 temps were added, greater than the number of new workers in any other category. Not even health care and government, stalwarts through the long recession, did better.

“Sometimes we’re asked by a company to bring back ex-employees as temps,” said Joanie Ruge, a senior vice president of Adecco. Some are even ex-employees who have been laid off. “That does happen,” she said.

In the past, temps who do well have often been offered regular employment, with higher pay and benefits. Given the uncertainties about this recovery, companies are not doing that now, and temps, as a result, are less likely to spend as freely as regular employees or to qualify for credit, generating less demand than permanent employment would.

Adding to this undertow, corporate America is investing very little in expansion at a moment when current capacity — the machinery and floor space now available — is underused. And pressure is rising on the Obama administration and Congress to offset the shortfalls by authorizing more stimulus spending — enough to bring the national unemployment rate down from the present 10 percent.

“Depression has been forestalled only because major government borrowing and spending is filling the gap,” Albert M. Wojnilower, a Wall Street economist and consultant at Craig Drill Capital, said in a newsletter last week.

Caution in hiring is certainly the watchword at Eggrock, which makes prefabricated bathrooms in Littleton, Mass. During the summer, Eggrock received its first new order since the recession began: 462 units for a hospital project in Canada.

The order caught the company with only 10 workers on the factory floor, down from 45 early last year. But rather than recall those who had been laid off, Eggrock arranged for 40 temps from Manpower: plumbers, electricians, assemblers and the like.

“The biggest factor in prompting us to shift from temps to permanent employees would be a solid order backlog,” said Phillip Littlefield, a vice president at the company. So far a backlog has not materialized, or even a second order, although there is an “uptick in interest,” as Mr. Littlefield put it. “We are optimistic,” he said.

Halfway across the country, in Burlington, Iowa, the recession bypassed the Winegard Company. That is perhaps because Winegard makes television antennas and satellite receivers, and in hard times people watch more television, said Denise Baker, Winegard’s director of human resources. Whatever the case, to keep up with new orders, the company has added 70 workers in the last two years — all of them temps.

“An actual employee with benefits costs more than a temp or a contract worker,” Ms. Baker said, “and as long as I can still get highly skilled temps, I’ll go that route. It gives me more room to reverse course if the economy weakens again and sales do finally sink.”

Given the nature of the upturn, that could happen. After 18 months of contraction, the economy expanded from July through September at a 2.8 percent annual rate, and many economists expect the expansion to be even stronger in the fourth quarter, approaching 4 percent. The rebound is robust mainly because of a “turnaround in inventory policies from breakneck liquidation to slow accumulation,” Mr. Wojnilower said.

If this restocking of shelves and warehouses were to stop or slow next year, a possibility that concerns Mr. Littlefield and Ms. Baker, then the temps, freelancers and contract workers they and many other employers now use would have a harder time moving from casual to regular employment.

The temp agencies often promote themselves as employment agencies — skilled at quickly finding qualified workers whom companies can convert to regular employment after using them initially as temps.

That mechanism works well in good times, but not these days, certainly not for Walter Latham of Coram, Long Island, who lost his job 14 months ago as a project manager at the Reserve, a money market fund based in New York.

His wife, Marjorie, works for Kelly Services as a temp at a health insurance company’s call center, and Mr. Latham, 56, finally joined her two weeks ago after hunting for months for higher-paying, permanent work. The temp assignment pays him less than $25 an hour — “a long way down from the $135,000 a year I once made,” Mr. Latham said.

The Lathams have gone through the more than $200,000 in savings that he accumulated during 20 years in the financial services industry. The call center assignment ends on March 31, and neither Mr. Latham nor his wife have gotten any hint that the insurance company would convert them to permanent employment with benefits like health insurance, which neither has today.

“My future is Latham Golf,” he said, describing a Web site that he and some partners started 15 days ago to teach subscribers how to swing golf clubs. Until Latham Golf pays off, if it ever does, Mr. Latham says that he and his wife, who sells jewelry on the side, will continue to work as temps.

“I’ve never seen the job market this horrible,” he said, “when you couldn’t get a job or even an offer of a job at a decent pay level.”

My housemates and I are hosting a mini-party today. Feel free to come on by this afternoon for Christmas cookie decorating from 4-6pm! Nothing required but smiling faces! :)

Friday, December 18, 2009

National Service Agency Solicits Public Feedback on Social Innovation Fund

Anticipated $200 million in public-private funding will support transformative solutions to major social challenges and improve nation’s challenge-solving infrastructure

WASHINGTON, DC – The Corporation for National and Community Service released a draft Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA) for its 2010 Social Innovation Fund (SIF) grant competition today. The Corporation is soliciting public feedback on the funding notification through January 15, 2010.

“The bottom line is clear: Solutions to America’s challenges are being developed every day at the grass roots – and government shouldn’t be supplanting those efforts, it should be supporting those efforts,” remarked President Barack Obama at a June 2009 gathering of nonprofit and philanthropic leaders. “Instead of wasting taxpayer money on programs that are obsolete or ineffective, government should be seeking out creative, results-oriented programs like the ones here today and helping them replicate their efforts across America.”

The SIF, a new public-private partnership authorized by the 2009 Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act, is designed to create new knowledge about how to solve social challenges in the areas of economic opportunity, youth development and school support, and healthy futures, and, improve our nation’s challenge-solving infrastructure in low-income communities.

“These are challenging times, and marginal progress is far short from being enough today,” said Stephen Goldsmith, the Chair of the Corporation’s Board of Directors. “We have to do business differently to ensure that Federal resources are touching the lives of those that need it most, and that is what these funds will do. The SIF will identify creative, effective programs to meet critical needs and provide public-private capital to broaden the reach of programs to more communities.”

In Fiscal Year (FY) 2010, the Corporation expects to award an estimated $50 million in Federal funding to five to seven intermediary organizations. Annual awards, which will run for five years, are expected to be in the range of $5 million to $10 million. Intermediary organizations – grantmaking institutions – will apply for SIF funding and then make sub-grants to a portfolio of promising nonprofit organizations.

The network of SIF grantees and sub-grantees will leverage Federal investments through partnerships with the public, private and philanthropic sectors to ensure greater impact. The funding mechanism calls for every $1 in Federal funding to be leveraged by $3 in private funding, for a total public-private investment of $200 million. Critically, intermediaries will also be expected to provide a range of strategic supports to their portfolio organizations, including in the areas of management, fundraising, and especially, evaluation.

The draft funding notice reflects months of outreach to stakeholders in the nonprofit, private and public sectors. These conversations particularly influenced three key decisions.

The SIF will require funded intermediaries to focus resources on promising nonprofit organizations with “rigorous evidence of impact.” By establishing a clear evidence and impact standard, the SIF will drive greater resources to those organizations with strong potential to make dramatic progress on some of our nation’s most critical social challenges.

To ensure that intermediary and nonprofit organizations from across the country have an opportunity to benefit from the SIF, applicants may apply and propose to host an open awards competition. While a preference may be given to applicants with a ready portfolio of promising nonprofit organizations, this open awards provision recognizes the benefits of building new intermediaries committed to searching for transformative solutions.

The SIF prizes geographic diversity among intermediary and nonprofit organizations, acknowledging that solutions to critical social challenges adversely affecting all Americans must be given the opportunity to thrive anywhere in America. Applicants with a rural focus are encouraged to apply. To further contribute to the spread of innovative approaches across the country, funded intermediaries will be required to collaborate and share their knowledge broadly through a learning community.
Click here for more information about the SIF and click here to listen to a conference call held on December 18, 2009. Feedback can be emailed to SIFinput@cns.gov. The deadline for feedback is January 15, 2010. The final SIF funding notice is expected to be released in February 2010.
The Corporation for National and Community Service is a federal agency that engages more than five million Americans in service through its Senior Corps, AmeriCorps, and Learn and Serve America programs, and leads President Obama’s national call to service initiative, United We Serve. For more information, visit NationalService.gov.

So nice to be in warm, sunny Florida at the beach with family! I spent the week relaxing… hanging by the pool, taking my nephew Gus to the beach, going to the park and the zoo with my nephew, etc. Also spent much quality time holding my little 4 month old niece Maggie. The nightly tradition of happy hour during sunset with family continues to be great… margaritas, gorgeous views, and aunts, uncles, cousins, my brother and sister in law, parents, etc. This year Mez’s family was there during Thanksgiving and they joined us for a meal on Saturday and we went there for a meal on Friday. There was also the gift exchange where I won Apples to Apples… and then proceeded to teach the G3s how to play (G3s = my generation. My grandpa = G1. Dad, Tom, Kandy, etc = G2. The cousins = G3. Gus and Maggie = G4). Good times. My gift given in the exchange was Up and I was delighted to introduce it to everyone who hadn’t seen it yet. I was to instill a sense of adventure and worldly curiosity in my niece and nephew, and think this Pixar movie did an excellent job of telling a sweet story and including healthy adventure and a lust for life.

Sweet, sweet David picked me and Mez up from the airport upon our return and that made returning to freezing, frosty Seattle a whole lot easier. :)