The annual posting!

Hi Gang.

I give up. I love this blog. And I never update it. So I can't even apologize anymore for not doing so. It's just how my life is gonna be from now on. But! I will throw stuff on here... from time to time... when the blue moon rises over the red sea and the griffon flies from the west. (sigh)

BUT OH MY.

It's gorgeous here in BC. The license plates aren't kidding when they say "beautiful British Colombia" ... and I haven't even gotten to travel through much of it yet. It's like... holy cow wow gorgeous.

And I live a 10 minute walk from the bay. I am SO close to the ocean guys. It is so fantastic. I've always lived near water. The year I spent in Domfront was the longest I spent away from moving water of some kind (the closest river was viewable, but not easy access). And being back near it was one good thing about leaving Basse-Normandie (though I miss it terribly). But I've never lived so close to the ocean. It's pretty damn amazing.

And the views. Just. Wow. 

Campus in Fog

There are more bald eagles here than you can shake a stick at

I love the ocean foam

Ugh. Too pretty. I can't even. 

Spring and all in bloom

Sunsets.

And all of these photos were taken with in a 10-minute walk of my home. Yup. It's pretty awesome here. 

Good golly gracious me, maybe it's time to dust off the blog...

Hello guys and gals, for those of you will and able, swing back on by the blog. Remember to check it once every month or so, Lucy is about to begin the ramblings again!

Because guess who is leaving Seattle at the end of August?

Yep. To the shock and amazement of no one at all I'm moving again.

And this time it's another move north. I'm headed to Vancouver, Canadaaaa~

Not just for kicks and giggles, OH NO. I'm going to grad school.

[eeeeeeeeeeeeeee oh god what]

I will be beginning a two-year masters program at the University of British Colombia (UBC) in Vancouver. I will be pursuing a MLIS - that's Masters in Library Information Sciences to you not yet in the know.  At some point I'll put up a big long post about what I want to do with this, and how libraries are not obsolete, just in the process of great change, and how important I think digital archiving and international public access to digitally archived resources will be (I have quite a lot to say on those subjects, I've spent nearly three years thinking about it and trying to decide if this is the right path for me). Just, not now. Seattle is currently too hot for that kind of thinking.

So... YES.

I'm currently working at a doggy day care in Seattle (and why, oh why I haven't yet posted some of my stories about that I don't know... because it's pretty wild), but by the end of August I will be packed, in storage, and headed up to the great land of weird french, maple syrup, and poutine!

So if any of you are still interested, I will try to do some blogging. Because it makes me happy, when I have the time to do it. So, so be it.

As always, ask me questions! Make requests for stories you want, or details, or whatever.


ALSO PS: I just found a drafted blog post that I never actually published, so for you good little people there will TOTALLY be a second post this week! (featuring an answer to a previously asked question, because I do like to answer your questions!)

Wow hello?

Golly you guys! I had nearly 40 people view my last post. I feel super popular considering that it wasn't about anything more interesting than how I had rented an apartment and work a lot... so that is both awesome and motivating.

I do forget sometimes that I really love to write. It is calming (or energizing depending on the topic), and a really good way to get myself out of the daily grind of life. So I suppose that I'll use this new found motivation to start writing more often.

At the moment my biggest project is trying to suss out grad school. Which means applications, working out funding, working out who I need to beg for letters of rec (beginning the begging), and generally non-fun things. On the bright side I believe that I will not have to re-take the cursed GRE. So yay there!

I'm only just beginning the process really. I'm still narrowing down schools, trying to be reasonable about it, not apply to too many... you know. But I think really the biggest battle I'm fighting in all this is staving off waves of retrospective panic.

Some of you may remember, some of you may not know, but I loathed applying to colleges. I mean, really, truly hated the whole process. And now I am voluntarily putting myself through all this again? Really, I think, honestly it won't be so bad this time through. But I viscerally remember all the stress and worry associated with doing it the first time around, and I'm having to work really hard to not let myself slip back in time 6 years. Fighting those demons, oh yeah.

Also: why is applying so FREAKING EXPENSIVE? It's already expensive enough just going to grad school, why do we need to cough up an additional $90 + dollars ($150 for UBC guh) just to apply? It doesn't seem fair. I mean, I know universities have to go through a lot of work processing applications... but isn't that just part of their job? Or maybe I'm just cranky.

Anyway. Narrowing down schools and starting to look at funding. Won't this be fun?

Answer... not really.

At all.

But the end result (providing I get in somewhere) sure should be!

So, lucky you all just got a couple hundred words on my anxiety about graduate schools. Would you be interested in reading other things? I can back-track through past travels I never rambled about? (Istanbul, London, more being a teacher-ness) I could give you tales of "city living" (buses. I have words.) What do you want to read people? I love it when you read, so I want you to read things you would actually be interested in! That way you will keep coming back... muahaha!

Seriously. What?

Jobs and studios and interns oh my!

Well, as shocks utterly no one at all, I'm a terrificially bad blogger. Show of hands for who is surprised?

...

No one?

...

Nope.

So, I'm in Seattle, and guess what I've done? I've committed to a relationship! Be amazed and awed. I'm entering into my first long-term relationship. It was a rocky start, and I wasn't sure how we would suit... but a couple of weeks in and the jitters are wearing off. I'm adjusting, making some changes, and making plans for future improvements. I think we are going to be very happy together.

I am talking, of course, about my little studio apartment and the fact that I signed (for the first time ever) a 12 month lease. I'm here until the end of next August, barring massive changes of course. As one never knows what the universe will throw one's way.

But frankly my wee little studio and I are getting along rather well. I'm in an old 1920s era building, smack in Capitol Hill (a happing spot. What?).

The studio has its quirks of course. But by and large it's lovely. It fits my bed, will fit a small desk if I can find one, has hardwood floors and trees outside the windows. My radiator turned on recently, my kitchen sink occasionally spits out strange colored water, and one of my floorboards cracks at random intervals. It's got a walk in closet, a bathtub, and an oven. (This last is not to be sneezed at... the housing market here is NUTS. I heard from someone recently that Seattle is only behind Manhattan and San Francisco in the "finding housing is a task of epic proportions and impossibility" field. And I would totally believe it. Really. Finding this place was a trial.)

It's walking distance to both my jobs (more on those later), near good foods, and quite close to Century Ballroom where one can go dancing pretty much any day of the week. Whee!

So that is that.

I'm working in a Bagel Deli and as a waitress in a Lebanese restaurant.

I love the Deli. I wash a lot of dishes, am becoming brutally efficient at our new ipad cash register, and have made friends with lots of our regulars. I also eat a lot of bagels.

I may also be learning to say bagel correctly because nobody has given me any funny looks over my pronunciation.

The Deli is pretty much the perfect set up for a TV sitcom. The cast of characters is allll there. We aren't really close friends, but everybody comes in with different stories or issues. And working service is... full of "hilarious life moments." But yeah. Some day I'll write my own show. I've got the long-suffering, I've been working here too long character. The attractive, works too much, big-city savvy heart-breaker. The I'm only working here until I can get my CD launched and I'm playing gigs every weekend in December, my girlfriend is too pretty for me guy. The just out of college, recently back from India, spacey but hilarious girl. The girl who's been around forever, loves babies and small dogs, and is just waiting for her spot at the perfect job to open up she's already been hired there was just a misunderstanding about when (if) they actually needed somebody new. And me.

The waitress job is new. Jury is still out on how I feel about waitressing. Though increased respect for anyone who does it (and I already had high levels of respect) is a thing.

Aaaand internship joys.

I start an unpaid internship in a week. I have feelings (mostly negative) about unpaid internships. But that is sadly the reality of the world right now. And at least this one sounds like it will be a total blast! It's also not a full-time, unpaid internship so I don't have to get all up in angry arms.

I'll be an editorial intern at a small, but decently well renown comic publisher called Fantagraphics. They actually are the people who republish all the Peanuts cartoons. They are also the publishers of one of my old favorite graphic novels from high school called "Castle Waiting." If you like comics, check that one out! Great stories, cool art, and awesome world-building. Sort of like a new fairy tale. AND volume two just came out! I am so excited!

Yeah, anyway. Editorial internship. I fully intend to buy red pens. Even though I suspect it's going to be all computer works these days. And I'm really quite excited to get going. I'll be learning new programs, ins and outs of a publishing office, and get to climb around in their dusty store room from time to time. Sounds awesome? Sounds awesome!

I'm making some awesome friends up here. Wei the sweetest sexy salsa dancer, Pauline the French girl interning at the Alliance Francais of Seattle, meeting some of kiddos really lovely friends, getting to hang out more regularly with Logan, a friend from UO. Seattle is treating me pretty well!

So~! What do you want to know? Ply me with questions and I shall reply in a (hopefully) interesting and (possibly unintentionally) hilarious way!

Life in the big city: Installment 1

In Seattle:

Hi guys. I’ve moved to Seattle (for those of you who didn’t know), but that is TOTALLY NOT THE IMPORTANT THING AT ALL.

Guess what the important thing is?

It’s the Seattle public library. I’m sitting in it right now. And you guys. You guys. MY MIND SHE IS BLOWN. Like. Boom blown away gone not here come back in a week blown away.

I actually can’t believe this place. It is ten stories tall. TEN STORIES OF BOOKS. I may weep.

And it’s a very modern building. Lots of white, and the escalators are in neon green, and the top floor has weird pillow padding on part of the ceiling… which is a bit odd… So it’s not exactly my typical idea of a library (rich wood, paneling, muted light, you know), but it has all of the important things; books, nooks, and helpful librarians.

Can we talk about the nooks? This place totally falls into the maze category of libraries. And I love it for that. I can’t wait to work out the weird little stairwells, and the “book spiral”. Yes, they have something called a “book spiral”- it’s basically a never-ending walk upwards through non-fiction. For realsies. With alcoves, and hidden reference librarians, and it’s just so cool.

I’m currently sitting on the very top floor. Tippy top tenth floor. Under a wall of light, glass, and honeycombed metal that slants above my head like the roof of an attic. There is light, and sunshine (and blessed air conditioning, because Seattle is totally feeling the west-coast heat wave too). I’m sitting at a desk in a reasonably comfortable chair, with a light above it. There are other tables with power outlets on them, deck chair seating near side-tables, and did I mention the light?

Now, I’ve only been here an hour. And far be it for me to deem this a perfect library. I can already tell you that their circulation is vastly different from what I am used to. I’m not sure if it’s better… there are certain advantages to how they have it here clearly, but also some significant drawbacks. I’m sure as I familiarize myself with things here there will more differences, better or worse.

But for the moment you guys I am totally floored. It is so modern, so sleep, and just so pretty… And for sure whoever designed it decided to make it as bright and light as possible. A wise choice for the Pacific Northwest.  Very wise.

Yes. So, I may stay in Seattle, even without a job, just so that I can come and oogle this library on a regular basis. I already have a collection of classic short stories at my left hand, ready to be checked out and read, and my volunteer application form was dropped off before I even made it past the first floor.

Ten stories of books.

I can’t even. 

Nature of Trains

So I wrote this thing. And I think it's rather nice. And so I feel that I should share it. For those who are interested.

This may eventually be part of something longer. But for now, I think it stands rather well alone. There are some word tweaks I may do, but for now it seems like a good way to break the hiatus here.

~~~~~~~~~

There is something special about trains. It’s maybe how, by their very nature, they are transitory- yet familiar. A train is a train, the whole wide world round. There is no hiding the swaying nature of a train, the faint clickity-clack that never seems to disappear from under the carriages, even long after iron wheels have fallen off, behind, out of favor and into the foggy past. A carriage may be open, with benches, or closed with cushioned seats. There will almost always be a dining car- maybe just a bar with soggy sandwiches wrapped in plastic, maybe a small restaurant with roses in china vases, silverware and deferential waiters. The lavatories will always be small and cramped, you will never get enough water out of the sinks. Conductors will always be cut of the same cloth, friendly, memorable in the moment, yet utterly forgettable; an unusual skill that, I suspect must be inherent and cannot be learned; only honed. Like the slow careful cutting of a precious gem.

We see trains in our future. Peek into science fiction and there are trains. Perhaps now they fly, perhaps they travel to different dimensions, or ever onwards towards the end. But there will always be trains- ever since the first train took a flat-bed of humans along less than a mile of track at a whopping 5 mph, trains have become ingrained in our subconscious. More so than even individual vehicles they allow us to encounter humanity. One is not apart, one cannot stop where one wills, on a train you are on a ride of destiny. You never know who will sit next to you, who will be a conversationalist and who won’t be. It’s a nearly pure sort of experience. It reminds me something of the pilgrimages of old. You didn’t get to choose your walking partners, you simple fell into step. Each time you embark on a train journey you become a character in your very own Canturbury Tales.

Humans, even the solitary ones, need (at least for a time) that crush of humanity. That reminder of otherness. Perhaps of sanity, or of the madness that exists, or that people can be decent and good, or that they can be angry loud and selfish. I think that a journey on a train allows us to see what our next steps should be, allows us to evaluate ourselves as we are crushed and combined next to some other random survey of our kind.

The Absent Blogger

That's me! In case you hadn't noticed.
I'm good at being absent, especially while living Camp Life. (capital letters totally necessary)
It's been one heck of a crazy summer (expletive carefully removed), and I've met some amazing people, done some crazy things, had some wonderful days, and a meltdown or two. It's been an emotional ride, and I think some of it I will have to re-live with you all.

First, let me begin with a shout-out to the Hometown USA team, you all MAKE MY LIFE. In so many ways. You rock, I miss you, and I cannot believe how lucky I was to get to work with such an excellent team. I hit it off with most of you sort of stupidly well, and I think we ran a pretty damn good camp. (expletive remains, because it's appropriate. And you all know I can swear like a sailor when necessary. Yes Stewie, I'm looking at you. Face down in the grass during Grocery Run.)

Hometown, for those (most) of you I haven't been able to chat with this summer (and I do apologize for promising letters and not delivering. The busy that I was, just cannot be described), is the English Language camp that I worked at for four weeks this summer. We did a week of training and two, two week sessions with foreign kids who came over to learn/speak/improve/be immersed in English.

It is quite a program. I have great respect for these kids; they come so very far from home, we get them fresh off the plane, tired, jet-lagged, home-sick, and culture-shocked. And proceed to throw them, willy-nilly, into American Camp. They have activities twice a day, and Brain Train (a small language learning group) twice a day as well. I was a Brain Train instructor, and I loved it. Even when I didn't love the BT...but that's another story.

These kids eat food they've never had before, we take away their coffee (the Italian girl was a bit sad at this), we have them swim in a lake (natural body of water oh my!), we even field trip with them to a real American Mall! Oh you can all imagine my joy at that outing... (pause for blatant sarcasm to sink in) And generally do our best to make sure they have a fun, educational, and hopefully exhausting (so they sleep!) time.

Most of the kids that we get are from Asia, so even the smallest things are different for them. Meals are a time to learn how best to efficiently use a knife and fork, rather than chopsticks. Something that most of them struggle with. Think about it, your family has a set way of eating, what is polite what isn't. So do the Chinese, but their manners are different from ours. We try to get them more acquainted with the general American niceties, so that they won't be totally out of place when they arrive at their host families.

That's right. By and large, all of the kids we get go on to a host family and a year in an American high school. This was true of our second session where all but ONE of our seventy plus kids went on to stay somewhere in the US. (We only had two Europeans that second session. I've never been in a minority before, that was new.) Our first session was much smaller, and more diverse. We had kids from all over Europe as well as the Asians. So about 10 kids stayed and went on to host families there. Like I said, brave kids!

Right. So that's a brief rundown of Hometown. Now for the fun bits, the bits about actually being a counselor, part of a team, and clearly totally insane.

I made a joke part way through the second session, that "Of course I'm crazy, it's why they hired me!" But then I sort of thought about it, and it a way it's true. You have to be a little crazy to be a good counselor. You have to be creative, flexible, think on your toes, and capable of working with other crazy people. I think the "normal" people are the ones who have a harder time with this job.

And it's not an easy job. No sir! It's 24/7, pedal-to-the-metal, knock down, drag out, work. Every hour I had off was spent in planning for my next lesson, planning for an evening activity if I was in charge of one, being the Hometown blogger and uploading videos and photos to the site, or trying to catch forty winks. Ask my family, I think they heard from me once each parent. In a month. I spent a lot of time being tired. But you learn, the hard way or the easy way, that napping is sometimes much more important than planning.

But oh gosh, if you enjoy the work, every thing is so worth it. I worked so hard, but it was amazingly rewarding. To watch kids learning new vocabulary in leaps and bounds. Pick up new concepts, be able to express opinions, get involved, get excited! It is so, so worth it! And when one of your lesson ideas pays off, it's even better. (Thank you Mrs. Ippolitti, for middle school Jeopardy! It was a smash hit in my Brain Trains! Amazing what ideas stick with you years later...) Getting a tearful hug goodbye from an excellent student, or from a surprise student you didn't realize cared... there really isn't anything quite like it.

I also got to be part of a team. Helping other Brain Train teachers with their lessons, getting suggestions from them, we were such a good unit! Alice gave me great games, Laura took my suggestion of a press conference and ran with it into such a good lesson I intend to steal it someday for my own purposes. Isaak created the idea of a full High School simulation, and dang but it worked! (Still too bad we didn't have an obnoxious bell though, everyone's favorite part of school...)

Basically it was bonkers, and exhausting, but fantastic. I loved it. And oh the stories I have! Did you know I can actually catch a football? I was amazed too!

Part of being a camp counselor means being more than just a teacher. Some of the roles I played include (but are not limited too):
-a waitress
-a screaming Justin Beiber fan
-choir teacher (I had to SING, on my OWN, in FRONT of PEOPLE. What.)
-Vanna White
-a Banshee
-a voodoo witch (which, by the way guys who packed up the costumes, did you dismantle my stick? I meant to do that for you... sorry!)
- Rose from the titanic (twice. Because Patrick and I rock it. And Scott is the perfect iceberg.)
-Water and Milk
-A husband on safari
-Iron chef announcer
-mom
-mistress manners
-English Mastery Diva
-bellowing grumpy person (not any fun, but often necessary- oh the two minute showers...)
-a person who litters
-Spy Guy
-a sobbing person in reaction to litter
-a judge for a talent show
-cleaning lady
-blogger (so I was actually blogging! Ha! Just... not... here... totally counts for my two a month right?)
-photographer
and so much more!

Some of these stories I will share with you, because they are too much fun not to. And my goodness I got to have a lot of fun.

So more updates will come in the next couple of days. I'm back from Camp-Land, and about to begin the journey back west in search of a "real job"... but I'm doing it the slow way, by TRAIN! Yes, my love affair with trains continues. I'm sure you will hear more about it. I wonder if I should blame Agatha Christie for my love of trains... or if it just comes naturally?

Questions about camp life? Requests for particular stories? You know how I love your feedback! I hope some of my readers made it through the drought of updates. Thanks for sticking with me through all my ramblings!

~L