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Goodbye Seattle

Let me tell you about my trip to Victoria. We got up early on Thursday morning, packed the last of our bags. and poured our coffees. I made a little breakfast and packed it up. We caught the 6:30 bus and then walked down the waterfront to the Victoria Clipper dock. We checked in and only had to wait a few minutes before boarding. Once we boarded we settled in for the ride. It was fairly smooth and quick.  I drank my coffee and breakfasted on pancakes and syrup, and yogurt and berries. 

Once we arrived in Victoria we needed to find lunch for Aron, who was starving. (he travels better on an empty stomach) We opted to stop at the Royal BC Museum. They have a great cafe  where we were able to get a simple lunch and then follow it up with gelato and coffee later. We saw the Imax movie Mummies and wandered around. It reminded me a whole lot  of the Museum of Science of Industry  in Chicago.  We wandered through a representation of a Victorian home, a cannery, and a mining operation. One of the most fun exhibits was called the party. It was a big circle of tiered cut outs of people and things that are famous in BC.  There was a computer they you used to select each individual and it gave you some great information. Most were individuals, like the man behind Mr Peanut and Vancouvers. They also included the Garbage Gobbler  and my favorite, Ogopogo.

We then moved on to the parliment buildings

What beautiful architecture, what historical buildings. We took a guided tour and were tempted to pop in to observe the parliamentary session in process, but we were tired and  decided to go check into the bed and breakfast.

The Bed and Breakfast
When I first began scheduling the trip, i was looking into booking the trip as all inclusive through the clipper. Instead I decided to  look for  Bed and Breakfasts and found Albion Manor.  I’d never stayed in a bed and breakfast before, only at hostels, motels or hotels. This was a whole different experience  It was a much more personal touch  then a hotel or motel, but was much more refined then a hostel would be. It was located about 5 blocks from the inner harbor and the Victoria Clipper dock. We had a beautifully appointed room, with a bathroom with a two person claw foot tub.  I settled in for a bath and Aron rested until it was time to head out to dinner…. details of that will go into my food blog. We then wandered across the inner harbor watching the lights and headed bed for the night.

Details on day two will come shortly…

I know I promised I’d talk more about food, and I will, soon. I want to reach the end of next week before I talk about it, because I want to draw some comparisons to my soon to be ex-workplace. You understand don’t you? I wont be burning bridges, I just want to speak more candidly then I think an employee should.

I also needed to get some homework done before midnight last night, so I’ve been concentrating on that instead of telling you how much I loved Victoria. Trip report soon, I promise.

I’ve got lots of little tiddly to do items sitting on my list that I need to get done for my last day at work, and  for the time there after.

Rob and I moved to Arizona after having only been there once. We picked an apartment building nearish to the office and set up a lease and prepared to move. Without thinking much about the weather, the distance to the office, the lack of bus lines, and my lack of driving ability we moved in. The apartment was about 3 miles from the office, and I walked it every day back and forth. With temperatures that can reach up to 120 degrees you might think its not smart to walk that much . Yet I had a CD player and a bottle of water and walked in my work clothes every day. This was the choice I made when we took the apartment, and when I took the job. I was responsible for the choices I made, so I made it work.There was an article recently about a lack of access to groceries to a certain neighborhood in Seattle. They painted a sad story, a single mom without a car, trudging a mile to a bus then the bus ride to PCC in West Seattle. She does this a couple of times a week then has to lug her 30 lbs of groceries up 10 flights of stairs to her townhouse. The framing on this article is “Poor single mom must shop every couple of days, 2 hours a trip (does that include shopping time) She should have a grocery store closer”

So I pulled a map, and puzzled over the article some more. The article has some good information, but the framing is off. The cost comparison of cherry pies to actual cherries is a good one. Trying to draw empathy for a woman doesnt work for me. Why? Because I see that she is a victim of her choices.

• She chose to live in 5th floor townhome without an elevator.
• She chose to go to PCC , there are other grocery stores in the area that might be quicker on the bus including the weekly farmers market. She chose PCC, a local food coop, which came in at the second highest grocery store according to Consumers Checkbook
• She chose to go get her groceries. Albertsons.com and Safeway.com work well too. Doesn’t have a computer? The Delrdige Seattle public library does
• She chooses to shop every couple of days “”You have to shop for only a day or two, and sometimes if you have too many bags, people look at you like ‘here comes the bag lady’ ,” said Rathbun, who has two 18-year-old daughters at home.”
• She chose to live in a hilly neighborhood without a car.

Just as I placed myself into my situation, she placed herself into hers.

I know there are Seattle people who live in West Seattle and read me. Tell me if I’m wrong. Did the area just lose a bunch of stores? (Irony points? As per the article :For residents such as Rathbun, it can be quicker to get a bus to Pike Place Market than to endure an hourlong trip up the hill to a West Seattle Safeway or PCC. What does the market have? Vegetables! And yes it is possible to do your shopping there,perhaps not all, but at least your produce)

I’m not saying that the article doesn’t have any good points about the cost off food and whats available, I’ll cover those in a future post, as i share perspective on a smaller scale food establishment.

Vacation is over???? What do you mean I have to go back to work?

Back from Victoria Trip report later.

(Photo originally by D’Arcy Norman)

More companies are using Earth day as a marketing opportunity
My suggestion for earth day? Don’t buy crap.
Don’t buy nifty little bags from Delight
Don’t buy Earthday Greeting Cards
Don;t buy earth dinner cards.

To be honest? Don’t buy anything you don’t need. Use recyclable materials. Use your ceramic cup.  Eat at home. Use silverware and a napkin. 

Comparing the two church congregations this past weekend had me thinking about what I like in a church , what I’d like to find in a church and what I dislike in a church.

What I like in a church

Community and accountability. I like smaller church groups. Small clusters within churches that gather, or small congregations themselves. I think spiritual growth should involve accountability, and i think making a connection with a smaller group of people helps that. This is one of the things that I like about Broadview. Its nice to look around at service and realize that you know 75% of the people there. I think it allows for more closeness, and it does provide more accountability then you get in a larger church.

If the church community is large, then I think that structure needs to be put into place to encourage small  group interaction.  Some of that you will get from being able to run actiities, but i think you need to move beyond that.

What I’d like to find in a church

I like churches that think outside the box. I’d like to be involved in a church that doesnt classify church as only what happens on sundays.  i like the emerging church movements ability to bring church to a different environments, to the home, to the pub, to the coffeehouse. i like that church can be a worship service,  walking a labyrinth,  a  book discussion or a  chat online. At one time there was even a service run through irc.

Additionally, I’d like a church that doesn’t feel threatened by my attendance at other churches. I am a Christian. I am a member at a church and consider them my home church, but that doesnt mean that I wont attend service at other churches. That doesnt mean I don’t have things to learn from how other  congregations embrace worship.

What I dislike in a church

Stagnation. i dislike congregations that take a take it or leave it attitude towards their parishoners. As times change and the society changes Churches will need to be more flexible, more adustable to keep up. They will have to work to address the issues  their parishoners are facing.

Feeling voiceless, nameless, unnoticed. While I enjoyed the anonyomity  this weekend, i would hope that that is not the standard mode of operation for this congregation. Visitors shouldbe noticed and welcomed.  Congregation so big that you dont reconize everyone? Then you have to build in some other structure for people to recongize and welcome outsiders.

Not being able to identify with the congregation.
This is a personal, petty bias. At times at my home church I have felt out of place based on my age.  It’s my issue to own though, and  resolution comes from either  addressing the issue or finding a congregation i can identify better with.

Bottom line, my  relationship with god is  deeply personal conversation.  How and where we connect is deeply  spiritual,  but is not tied to only one location, one church.

(part two of infinity you ask? Well this conversation is just the beginning )

My communications class required that I critique a public performance before  class on Wednesday I was going to try to go to Food Folly Follies at MOHI on Thursday, but  I instead decided to go home and play with my eee machine. So it left me with limited time between  the Tupperware party on Saturday, and having to complete my psychology work on Tuesday. An option we’d been given , though not preferred was to attend a church service. To remove some of the bias I chose to attend a service at University UCC instead of going up to Broadview,  my home church.

The difference was amazing. First off Broadview is much much smaller. Judging  by those I could see, I would estimate that there were at least five or six times more people. There was also a greater diversity in the group. Many more children, teenagers and youth. Broadview’s got a greying  population, and while there has been some new members,  the average age is still likely 15 years older then I am. Additionally, reading over the bulletin I realized that there are many more events going on there on a regular basis. With a larger group its easier to hold events and sustain them.  The University UCC reminded me a lot of my home church back in Downers Grove. The size, the population, the feel overall.  When the youth got up and did a promotion for the church’s week long vacation retreat, it reminded me much of my misspent youth . Another time another place and that would have been me giving that announcement.  It gave me an idea of what a newcomer to my church in Downers Grover might have experienced.

For this assignment, I preferred the anonymity I received . I came in, sat in the back , watched, participated and left once the service was over. That would have never happened at Broadview. The congregation is small enough that a visitor would be singled out for welcome,  and given gentle pressure to join  everyone downstairs for social hour. That slight pressure  is one of the things that has had me avoiding church. I enjoy going and very much still identify as a member of the UCC church, but I do not look forward to the initial questions of “Where have you been”  To be honest, thats the kind of community responsibility that I believe a church should have, it’s just not easy when its turned on you.   (I’m going to think on this some more and will share with you what i think a church should be and shouldn’t be, in a couple of days)

Churches are complex places. I chose a UCC church because I knew basically what to expect, even if I didnt know the players.  Even so there were slight differences in what was done, places where people sang  that I wasnt ready,  places where  folks stood that i wasn’t sure if we were to stand or not, that sort of thing. At the end , folks stayed seated after the benediction, enjoying the  piano solo. I wasn’t sure whether it was kosher to leave or not.
 Considering I was familiar with UCC services, I wondered for a minute what a true  newcomer would have thought.

I think  I should resume my church surveying and try a couple of  services at other churches. There is still that German UCC church in Capitol Hill,  The Vineyard in the University District, and I still would like to at least attend a service at Mars Hill.  I’ll probably attend another COTA service or two,  as well.

I quit my job today. You see i’m going to UW Bothell in the fall, and have decided to take the summer off to  finish up my last credits and to spend my time with family.  I told my boss today, and gave  notice of about 1 month.

Things change quickly.

This is not the post I wanted to post today. I have another one in the can ready for you, but I got derailed last night by  incredulous shock. Remember the post about kids not eating fruits and vegetables? I’d mentioned that two authors had “revolutionized” feeding their children by making up bland vegetable purees and adding  them to normal recipes to boost the  nutritional content.  Examples were adding spinach to brownies, cauliflower to chicken nuggets and so on.

Well apparently one of the chefs has a second book  out.   The Sneaky Chef : How to Cheat on Your Man in the Kitchen  Hiding Healthy Foods in Hearty Meals any Guy Will Love.

I’m agog at this.  I swear this is worse then A Man A Can and A Plan. 
At least in Man/Can/Plan  its straightforward in regards to what  you are getting. This act of sneaking around and adding things to someone else’s food “for their own good”  is degrading to the person you are cooking for, and to assume that the woman is in the kitchen “cooking for her man” smacks of sexism as well.  

This whole concept  is just immature and I hope that folks “fooling” their families learn to educate them instead  and work with them on their food issues.

I take a lot of pictures. Professionally. No I’m not a photographer, I make  photo IDs  for Big Seattle University. We have an assortment of students who come in, some shy, some excited, some vain and some not so vain.  There is a subset of students, usually women  who are above average weight, who seem to be disappointed with their appearance. They squirm in front of the camera, shifting left and right, trying , hoping , begging for a picture that makes them feel better.   Looking at them makes me sad. You see, they are all fabulous. Looking at each one of them I am able to identify something in them that is beautiful. Sometimes its their hair, their smile, their eyes.

I take a moment to compliment them as they wait for the photo to print, usually I get brushed off.
“My lips are too big”
“My hair is crazy”
“My double chin was showing”
“My eyes are too far apart”
“I hate how I look”

The last one is the most common.  
I want to take these girls aside and give them a self esteem shot. I’m not saying that they have to be ecstatic about how they look, but instead of instantly degrading how they look, they should take ownership and acknowledge  a compliment, and say “Thank you”.

Most of us don’t meet the “standard of beauty” upheld by the media.   Even if I met the  weight requirements, there would be something else wrong with me. I don’t pluck enough, not enough make up, not enough goo  in my hair, My breasts would be saggy, I wear glasses, my teeth are bad,  there would be something else that would make me not perfect. 

I’m still beautiful.   My beauty is not entrenched in meeting a standard. It is  in being who I am. It is being a fat redhead with hazel eyes and sometimes crazy hair. It is in being 5′2 and wearing glasses and  having a progressively changing fashion sense.

I just want to say “Girl you are beautiful. Start living life. Don’t shirk from photos, be it an id for school, or a special occasion. Don’t look back on the photo album and find yourself missing because you thought your nose was too big. Be fabulous,Feel fabulous. Flaunt what you’ve got, and  don’t apologize!”