Humanitarian Aid website to check out

http://www.unembraced.org

Our church (Kairos) is spearheading a project to bring much-needed aid to the Turkana people of Kenya...namely to help the huge population of orphans. Two men from the local church in Kenya--Moses and Joshua--are currently visiting LA. Joshua spoke at our church service this last Sunday, and both men came to our canvas group last night and answered a string of questions from us.
It is truly humbling and inspiring to talk to these guys. Joshua and his wife have 4 of their own kids, plus take care of 6 orphans. Both men have a heart to provide for and protect these 'unembraced' children of their area.
I asked them a question about what the average family in Turkana eats...vegetation doesn't grow, so there was mention of eating porridge at school, corn and beans provided by organizations like Oxfam, and lentils (or 'canadian peas') for kids at school too. Otherwise, it seems that the primary sustenance is meat...but the people can't eat meat every day, or they would eat up all of their livestock. So they may go 2 weeks feeling hungry and then eat a goat...they may decide to sacrifice even a small dinner one night in order to eat the next. And I am a spoiled American who wants snacks on top of my 3 meals a day. Geez.

Though browsing a website doesn't do justice to meeting these people in person, please feel free to browse, and join us in giving if the Spirit so moves you.

So, it's been almost a month...

Wow, hard to believe that in the last month I simply haven't found the time to post anything new on my blog...
I meant to--believe me.
I thought of waxing poetic when my faithful, old (albeit way beat up) Honda Accord finally pooped out on me a number of weeks ago.
(Now Josh and I are sharing driving his VW Jetta.)
I considered sharing some heartfelt thoughts on the eve of moving my stuff into the new apartment I'll be sharing with Josh. But moving takes forever and no extra time was found to blog.
I had banked on being able to post something once we got unpacked in our new place, but we soon discovered that there was no free wireless internet in our apartment building's lobby as had initially been promised...hmmmm.
While couch-hopping this last week, I figured I could sneak onto a friend's computer and put something on my blog...but no, it was enough of a battle just turning up by 10pm each night.
But here I finally am...my pals S&V just left for a trip to Puerto Rico this morning, and I'm staying at their place for the next few days, so I was determined to put some form of communication up and let you know I'm still kicking...

It has been a crazy month.
For work, I transferred stores but the original promotion was reneged on. So that was an adjustment, as was the move, as was the car, as was spending less time with Josh, as was having no time to exercise, as was being sick for about 3 weeks straight.
Then last week I was offered management of the store I transferred to, and as of this last Monday I officially took over the ship (so to speak). I am determined to do the best job I can, but such a big change so close to our wedding (and all the last minute drama it's enduring), is a bit of a challenge.

But as the Beatles sang, "O Bla dee, O bla da, Life goes on..."
And it does.

To leave you with something a bit more palatable, the following pics I leeched off of my friend Christy. She snapped them at a 'roomie reunion' a couple of weeks ago, when a bunch of us got together at a tasty pizzeria in Larchmont. (That explains the red glow).
While we never all lived together at once, I think Christy and Elizabeth managed to live in the apartment with most/all incarnations of the mix.



From left to right: Sarah, Stacey, me, Elizabeth, Elise, Christy, Tammy
Elizabeth/Elise/Tammy
Sarah/Stacey/Me

Baseball and life

Hi Friends!
Once again I acknowledge the lack of effort I have been devoting to keeping my blog updated. Sorry to an avid readers...Life has been super-busy...so much so that the countdown to my wedding isn't even in the forefront of my mind these days! (But it's 40 days to go for anyone who's wondering...)
This pic is from my recent visit to Wisconsin. To my left are my pals Lisa and Nick. The 3 of us called ourselves the trailergators. One year for Lisa's birthday, we had a 'trailergator' party and got alligator-themed items. I worked at a bakery in my hometown, and was able to order cupcakes with gators on them made out of frosting. Lisa was the purple one, Nick was the green one, and I was the blue one. Would've been well-represented by this pic here if only I had wore blue instead of Gray!



And this is Josh and me at a Dodgers game this last Friday night.
Our friend Matt--who is as much an avid baseball fan as Josh--was celebrating his birthday.
This was my second baseball game ever. The first was the weekend before when Josh took me to see his favorite team--the Baltimore Orioles--play the LA Angels. Josh did an excellent job of fielding all of my questions, and I actually enjoyed the game. By the end of it, I was even moving to see if foul balls were being caught (aka I really did care!). The Dodger game wasn't as fantastic for me due to a a number of reasons 1)there was so much going on in the crowd that it distracted me from the game...for instance, one home run was hit, but I missed it because our section was batting around a beach ball 2)Josh and I stood in line at the concession stand for 2-3 innings waiting to get hotdogs. They were so slow!!! 3)I ended up chatting with Matt's wife Kim at the end of the game, which was great--but again, I wasn't really paying attention to the game.
So the moral of the story is that I have learned that yes, I can quite enjoy watching a sports game...but I am still the same Kristie--no sportsified, die-hard bbal fan version to deal with.

In other news, Josh and I went apartment-hunting last week too. We found a nice place in an apartment building not too far from where I used to live last year. I was a bit sad that we didn't end up getting a place closer to where our friends live, but I guess that's life. The apartment we picked makes sense for us.
AND I found out the same day that I am getting a promotion through work and will be managing my own coffeeshop starting next week.
Wow!

Here are some pics!

Hi Friends!
So, one of the presents Josh gave me for Christmas was a digital camera. I have to admit, though I used to be an avid picture-taker in my younger years, I am quite the opposite at this point in my life. Regardless, the camera was a fun present and I have enjoyed snapping a few random shots. So in the last month or so, these are the images I have collected to share with you all...

A couple of weekends ago, Josh and I went hiking in Angeles State Park. We were amazed to see snow...turned out that because of the snow, we only got about a mile in and had to turn back on the trail because tennis shoes just weren't going to get us where we wanted to go.
The above shot is a rock along the trail. From far off I thought it quite resembled an alien head, but closer up, I changed my mind and could quite certainly see a likeness to George Washington...
The below pic is Josh and me!
And this was the view only a few feet from where we stopped and had lunch. :)
Below is a coffee mug I got Josh from Starbucks...snapped it shortly after we figured out how to work the camera.
And this next one is my bedroom door laden with all the Christmas and Birthday cards I received in December of '07. If you contributed, I thank you again! :)
These are my two favorite canines in the world right now...my furry friends Mitzy and Buggins who belong to my pals Eric and Audrey. Whenever I stop over at their place, I look forward to some good puppy-petting!
This is Audrey, Eric, and Josh hunkering down to an intense game of Settlers...Audrey beat me by one turn!
And this is a pic Josh snapped of me as soon as we got the camera out of the package on Christmas Day!

When you've got no one to blame but yourself...

So this morning was one of my blessed days off of work.
I slept in, which was WONDERFUL!
I ambled out to my car around 9:30 am...off to go pray with a friend.
And, whaddayaknow...there on my windshield was a parking ticket.
ARGH!!!!
My initial reaction was anger.
The stupid road I park on never has enough stupid spots anyway, and if I park in the stupid alley, I have to get up and move my stupid car before the stupid city would need access to the alley and tow me. What's more, it was garbage collection day, so everyone had their stupid garbage receptacles out on the curb, taking up space! I had found one blessed possible spot to park in when I got home late last night, but when I was backing up, the stupid wind was shaking one of the stupid garbage receptacles and so I thought I hit it with my bumper and I pulled ahead a couple feet. This left me parked a couple feet into the stupid red on the curb, though the vast majority of my car was clear. I pondered the difficulty of the garbage truck getting by, but figured I was safe...especially considering how many people park their stupid cars completely in the red and get away with it!...but not on garbage mornings...
I looked at my ticket and balked at the $70 fee this would cost me.
Money I could have put into my wedding fund...
Money I could have gotten Josh a nice 6 month anniversary gift with...
Money I could have spent during my upcoming trip to Turkey...
Money I worked hard for and had now squandered.

My mind briefly did a scan of all the people I could blame for this unfair catastrophe. Perhaps due to my creative thinking abilities, I came up with a few options.
But ultimately I had to admit it...I was the one who screwed up.
Kristie, did you park your car in the red?
Yes.
Kristie, did you make the decision to leave your car there instead of reposition it?
Yes.
Kristie, did you decide to not get up before now and move it to a safer spot?
That's right.
Ok then...so it's your own darn fault--deal!

Minutes later I wrote out my check and mailed it from my friend's place. At least I could get on with the rest of my day...and hopefully I learned my lesson.

Guy in a Movie Theatre

So yesterday afternoon Josh and I went to see a movie at a cheap theatre here in LA. There was a guy in the theatre that was really rather interesting. ...humorously, intriguingly interesting.

There was music playing before the movie started and he was playing his harmonica along with the different songs. Honest! He stayed silent during Fiona Apple's "Paper Bag" (great song!), but that cut out anyway to have the previews start.

The funniest thing was when a promo/commercial came on that featured about 30 seconds on this guy walking along to "Kashmir" by Led Zeppelin. Harmonica Guy went for it and jammed like part of the band for half a minute.

Wow, sometimes real life can be real amusing!

God bless ya, sir!

:)

"Art"

So this past weekend my Mom and her boyfriend have been visiting me out here in LA (which is a long way from Wisconsin!). Friday we went to Knott's Berry Farm, which probably would've been a lot more fun if we had more time to spend there (in the four hours we were there, we went on 3 rides, saw one performance, and looked through one exhibit). Anyway, to me the highlight of the trip was when we watched a Native American guy perform a traditional hoop dance. The above pic should give you some idea... He started out with picking up one hoop, and by the end, he was probably handling a dozen or so. REALLY impressive!
What's more, afterwards he spoke for a minute.
He mentioned that in Native American culture (I'm not positive if this extends to all tribes, but its the impression that I got), there is no word for "Art". All the singing, dancing, etc. are seen as a form of prayer. I really like that idea...

My First 10K!

So about 2 years back, I ran my first ever official race with my good Pal, Foxx back in Minneapolis. It was Lifetime Fitness' 5K Reindeer run around Lake Harriet...in the nasty cold. It was a great experience though, and certainly has remained a noteworthy page in my life.
Today I officially moved onto Chapter 2 in my racing career (ha!). I undertook a 10K run in Santa Monica with my good friends Kim and Matt F. Here's a shot of Kim and me after the race:

Kim told me once that her parents know me as 'the girl from Wisconsin who wears flannel', and so I had to grin on the car-ride to the race when I realized I was fitting the mold once again.
And how was the race?
Mile 2 felt GREAT to me. Mile 5 was a push. By Mile 6 I was pretty sure I was going to die.
The three of us ran together most of the way, but Matt (who had been pacing himself) shot ahead when he saw the finish line. I told Kim it was ok if she wanted to smoke me too. She encouraged me to sprint, but I know my limits and kindly declined. Kim's a trooper and stuck by me till the end. We finished with a time of 1 hour, 1 minute and about 20 seconds. If you take off the time it took us to get to the starting line, that's actually closer to about 1 hour. I feel great about that! I think it's the fastest I've ever run for that long of a distance!
Yay!
And here's one more photo that Kim snapped of me stretching out by Matt's car at the end...she and Matt both found it funny, and I guess I'm willing to look like a dork if it could make someone else smile too:

At work today, I had a short conversation with my pal Audrey and my boss Mike about how living in Los Angeles feels like living in limbo.
As in, I grew up in a place with 4 distinct seasons. So did Audrey.
Without those environmental cues, time seems to just sort of hang...rather than march steadily on.
Where did the last year of life go...? Where did the last month go?

Mike--being a SoCal native--could offer no sympathy.
I fruitlessly tried to explain the benefit of seasons to him.
"Fall has a feeling," I stressed, "and you can't feel it out here."
Mike grinned obliviously.
"In fact, it doesn't even feel like summer out here! I mean, I know it's hot and everything, but in Wisconsin and Minnesota summer felt a certain way and I'm not getting it out here..."

So to all of you who yearn for California's temperate conditions I say this: Yes, it's nice. But it can also feel a little like the twilight zone. You've been warned...

KR Recommends: ethical chocolate, beach scenery, good music

Yes friends, today you get the motherload of recommendations from moi. First off, we have Endangered species chocolate:
http://www.chocolatebar.com/news.htm
What's so great about this chocolate?
Well besides the DELICIOUS taste (I have only tried one variety so far, but I'm planning on tasting a lot more as soon as I can get myself to a Whole Foods store!), this chocolate is made from cocoa grown/bought ethically! As many of you may not know (indeed I only found out a few weeks back myself--thanks Elisabeth L!), a good chunk of the world's cocoa is harvested from farms that use child and/or forced labor. Crazy, isn't it?! Because of the nature of buying cocoa from different farms internationally, it's almost impossible to tell if what you're eating has come from a forced-labor farm unless it specifically says it hasn't. So, until that has changed, I've decided to remove regular chocolate from my diet. Can I be honest? It's been hell!
Thus, hooray for this company which sells chocolate I don't have to feel bad about consuming! PLUS it benefits endangered species (as its name implies), has recently contributed funds to get a missionary to Africa (medical missions), and is based in the great Midwest--the state of Indiana.
Next up, Dockweiler Beach near LAX. I've gone running there for over a year now. Today was one of those days, and the beauty of the place (yes I am serious you people who snub your noses unless it's Santa Monica or Venice Beach!) can be striking. On foggy days, not as much, but today was a sunny day. There's one stretch where the side of the bike path is lined with rocks. As I ran past it today I looked out at the beige sand, the sea-green waves, and the endless variations of grey and brownish stones and thought...WOW! I tried to freeze the picture in my memory. To me, it was undeniably lovely. And the seagulls are always a friendly/welcome touch too.
Lastly...good music! Last week I bought the latest release from Scottish Lads, Travis. Their album is called The Boy With No Name and now pumps my total count of Travis cds up to SIX! (Ok, so one's an interview cd, but still)
Now, some music grabs you at first listen and keeps you rocking. I won't suggest this cd fits into that category. BUT, it is such that after a run through (or two), it begins to warm up to you and infiltrate your world. By your 7th or 8th listen, you can't imagine not recognizing the greatness of these tunes. And singing along with Fran H. is always a joy...
I came to appreciate these guys more fully after seeing them headline at The Quest in Minneapolis back in September of 2000. They are an AWESOME live act! And after you see them fully of energy, you hear even the calmest of their songs in a new light. Welcome back, Boys...God bless ya!
And what's this news that I hear from VH1.com? The Verve is reuniting? For real?!!! Crowded House deciding to get back together has clearly influenced a number of good acts to follow. ;) I look forward to the new album. Urban Hymns is a treasure (and Richard Ashcroft's solo stuff is darn good too!), so I have valid hopes for what will follow (albeit 10 years later)...

Home again, Home again, Jiggedy-Jig

As incriminating as this photo may look, it's not bad at all. This is a pic of me from roughly one week ago...enjoying a Ginger Brew (Ginger Ale) at my pal Foxx's place in Minneapolis. Good times! Foxx has been a great friend for a number of years now, and we've been roommates twice. She graciously let me crash at her place for a few days while I was in town. (As did my pals Jess & Karl, but I didn't get any pics of their lovely home.) This next pic is one Foxx flashed in her mirror as we did half-hearted karate kicks...really, we can both look more fierce if we want too. :)

So anyway, Folks, I've been back in LA for over a day now. It struck me as rather amazing that I was looking forward to returning. In some sort of weird way, this city (which I once despised with a passion) has found a way to feel like 'home.' I was shocked myself when I referred to it as such, but there you go...home for now anyway.
Driving in WI & MN was like a walk in the park while I was there. (Despite my wheels turning out to be a Town & Country Van...not used to that!) I talked with my friends Spot and S who are both from MN and lived/live in LA too. It's quite a difference! Once you drive out here and get used to it, you'll never complain about traffic again! The lanes on the freeways in MN are wider, there are significantly less cars, and when you see all the street parking you could ever want, it nearly brings a tear to your eye.
Which makes me wonder all the more, how on earth could I have missed LA?! Weird..
Transitions are just weird in general.
They are like a puzzle my brain just can't ever figure out. There always seems to be something unfinished...incomplete...maybe that's the essence of life...maybe the day it all feels fulfilled is the day you die.
When I embarked on my vacation, it was amazing how the last 11 months sort of melted away...almost like I woke up from a coma, and there I was back where I'd always been. Now back here in LA, it's sort of the same thing. Like the last week and a half was like blinking my eyes for a moment. As I walked to the library yesterday, and then later drove to work, it felt like I had never left. Time and space...ever enigmatic...
I will say that as wonderful as it is to be a guest in someone's house, nothing beats your own bed...or your own car...your own life...