Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Seven Things You Don't Know About Me

*Psst* It's me strangers! I'm back with a fun little post that my blogging buddy Water Roots so kindly asked me to share.
It's funny, blogs get you in touch with people you would probably never encounter, ever. Though, depending on the blog, and although deeply detailed, we only get to know a small sniglet of a person's life. But damn, do we know that small sniglet like it's our own! So I thought it was great for Water Roots to share a bit about herself that I wouldn't normally get from reading her wonderful gardening blog and so I would like to share a bit about myself.
She was clever enough to tag fellow bloggers and ask them to share some things about themselves, hence why I am posting my blog. I am still a new blogger and don't have the massive crowds of followers like many do, so I cannot really tag my buddies. Though, Unspeakable Visions here is your official invite. :)

If there's a rogue blog-watcher out there, first off, "HI!!" and second, feel free to join the fun and let me know about yourself as well.

And here we go, a bit about me:

1) I work in one of the libraries of the university I graduated from. I sit in a cubicle in the deep, dark, basement (well not really deep and dark, but very basement-y). Here I catalog books both in print and online. You know the title page of your favorite book? Flip it over and read all that boring copyright information. That's what I over analyze to death everyday. It's interesting, but not my choice for a career. Plus, the whole basement thing is a little much. Where I work was originally created as a place for storage...now it houses humans. You can imagine how lovely the decor is.

2) My dream career is to become a nurse midwife. I've always been very passionate about women's health and how we approach it in the U.S. My Mom was a lay midwife for a short period of time in her younger years and she had all four of her children at home with a midwife. I'm sure she's the person I get my passion from. Ideally, I would love to have my own practice or shared practice. I would love to be able to go to women's homes, where they are comfortable, and help them give birth in a relaxed, calm environment.

3) I am the second youngest of four kids. My two older siblings are my half siblings but we never really say that. They spent much of their childhood living in California while my younger brother and I lived in New York. I always wished we could have spent more time together but alas, that is usually, unfortunately, not up to children to decide. Even though we've lived on opposite ends of the country for much of our lives, we are all very close and have surprisingly similar personalities. My older sister is the one who just had the baby. I'm trying to keep up with her growing by living vicariously through cell phone pictures. I promise myself I will see her at least one more time before she turns a year old.

4) Though I may seem quite "boring" looking now, growing up my appearance often led me to stand out from the crowds. Funny thing is, I'm often quite shy, I've always liked to blend in and not be noticed, I hate being the center of attention and am always the one off to the side watching what's going on, not being involved in the goings on. You'd never know this by my choice of appearance for most of my teenage/early adult life. I've had every normal hair color and most abnormal hair colors. I've had short, spiked, blond hair, I've had a black mohawk, and I've had long dreadlocks. I pierced my lip, my septum and had my ears gauged large enough to stick a thick marker through them. I wore fishnet stockings and plaid skirts with combat boots. It's hard being a kid. I guess this was my way of dealing with what we all thought was important at the time. (Oh how naive we all were!)
*For the record, I still have that septum piercing. Though it stays tucked up into my nose for the most part. :) *

5) Growing up my family did not have money. At all. We never went to Disney for Spring break (I never went to Disney until I was 22!), I didn't get to join Ski Club, or have the coolest clothes, my Mom made my clothes. But from the time I was about eight to my early teens my parents would take my brother and I to Nova Scotia, Canada for almost an entire summer. We drove all around the province and camped at some of the most wonderful campgrounds I have ever seen. We ate lobster and scallops right off the fishing boats. And we got a taste of how our wonderful Canadian neighbors lived. I still don't know how they did it, they must have saved the entire year for those trips. But it was an amazing experience and I miss that place terribly. First chance I get, I'm heading back there. I'll take the ferry out of Portland, Maine, just like we did when I was a kid. And hey, now I can even gamble on the boat!

6) I love, love, love to watch hockey games. Sports in general are good to watch as long as I'm live, at the game. (Though football and other such sports as golf and tennis are not my cup of tea.) We have a local team, The River Rats, (great name eh? Brings a lovely image to the mind doesn't it?) whom I love to watch. Hockey season is coming up and I'm already planning out date nights. The Boy and I especially love to go together because it's one of the few things we get to do with our busy schedules. Last year we took my parents to a game and it was great to watch my Dad get so into it. He loves making up funny names/phrases for players. Mike Kennedy, for example, would go something like this, "Kennedy! Can he getty it right in that goal!" Get it...Kennedy, Can He Getty...yeah...suffice to say it's an interesting few hours of grammatical fun!

7) The Boy and I have been together for almost four years. Our story is a funny one: Once upon a time we met while in the same 4-H club...when we were 15...young love is so funny. He lived a good hour from me but we had awesome taxi-driver-parents who catered lovingly to us. He broke up with me for another girl named Jessica. That jerk! :) Over the years we were still friends, catching up every now and then. After he moved back from college we became pretty close friends, his Mom would always tell me he was in love with me. And then one day he must have learned the err of his ways so many years ago and indirectly let me know it. I wasn't having it. Not one bit. Not after getting my heart broken once! Oh the horror!
Alas, after many months, he wore me right down, he did. And on New Year's Day back in 2006, after he spent an entire day taking care of my hungover, puking self, we decided we'd give it a shot. We were great friends then. I never regretted it for a second and still don't.

So there it is a little look into my past and present. That was fun to do and brought back a lot of great memories as I was thinking about things to write.
As far as the, ya know, gardening goes, I have finally managed to snag some photos from the garden, get them onto a computer, and then get them onto my IPod to then get them back to a computer where it will be feasible to write a decent update. *WHEW*
Shockingly I imagine my job would not appreciate me using their time to update you wonderful readers with wonderful pictures, so I'll try and snag some time this weekend and I will whip out the best darn blog update there is.

Sunday, September 6, 2009

A New Future Gardener Joins the Family!

Here is the newest part of our family, my beautiful niece! (So weird to say that! I am a first time aunt, if you couldn't tell.)
She was born July 28th (the day I predicted, by the way!) and very happy and healthy. Momma and Poppa are doing great as well!
We had a great time out in the western part of the U.S. I had never been to the upper midwest and we were able to drive right through it. Very nice. Here's a taste of some of the great views we had as we drove my little Scion xD across the ol' USA.

North Dakota

Enchanted Highway, North Dakota

rest stop in Montana


Coeur D'Alene, Idaho

Coeur D'Alene, Idaho - sunset

And one more picture of that little cutie:

one of my favorite pictures of the little girlie

So there is a little taste of how I spent six days in a car and five days in a two bedroom house with an infant. Oh wait, that may have sounded bad...

Head over to my Flickr to see some more pictures of the little cutie.

So right now I am still living out of boxes, pretty much living in two different places, trying to sign up for a class that I probably won't be able to get into because I slacked on the whole matriculation thing, cats and dogs are living together. It's just insanity, really.
This all means, blog time has become non-existent at the moment so bare with me as I piece my world back together. I promise, when I am bored this winter and not taking classes because everyone and their mom is going to community colleges - I'll be blogging up this whole world wide web, yo! Yeah!


Nerd...


Til' next time, my blogger buddies.



Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Back from the West!

Hello fellow readers!

I am back from my journey across the U.S.!
My new niece is a wonderful, adorable, poopin' machine and, hey, she's named after me, so she's on the right track so far! ;)

I'll post a picture of the little cutie soon and I will update everyone on what has been going on in the garden this past...month...yikes!

In the meantime, I'm sure you're all aware of the horrendous amounts of rain we've received here in the Northeast. It has been terrible, really. We have gone from rain almost everyday to upper 90's and humid. So the exact opposite of what makes happy little plants. It has been a rough year, but we'll gather up some highlights, I promise it's not all bad!

While you wait, here's an interesting article about the blight and how the "Walmarts" of the world are contributing to the problem.

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Road Trip!

Today is the due date of my first niece! (It is also my brother's birthday and my uncle's birthday, weird)
Though, little Jessica will probably wait another few days...
I however, cannot wait, so let's get here already!

Meanwhile, this is what I will be doing soon...


View Larger Map


And boy am I excited for a road trip. My Mama and I will be taking a few days and hopefully enjoying some sights along the way.
I could be gone any day now so wish us luck and hope for a happy, healthy, little baby girl!

Monday, July 20, 2009

What's That Saying About Losing Your Head if it Wasn't Attached to Your Neck?

Alright I'm just going to get it all out there...

Blogs will be few and far between the next few weeks. Many a things are taking up my life these days:

1) I moved.
2) I now live in a house so this blog's theme could get a little tricky.
3) I do not have a computer at my new home yet and who knows when that will happen. (I'm holding out for a Mac so we'll see when I can get myself one of those expensive little devices.)
4) I am going to be Aunt Jessica in t-minus any day now!
5) The above means I will be driving 2,000 miles across the country any day now.
6) The above two mean this here blog will be the least of my brain waves for a while! (Sorry Blog World)

What else?

Well as far as the Apartment Garden goes it is now taking up residence over at my new house, joining its friends in the E.S. Garden. My tomato plant ripened its first tomato! My big mouth was halfway into the delicious, little morsel when The Boy kindly asked if I wanted to document this occasion with a picture. It was too late. The tomato was heading towards its fate. I promise I will restrain myself the next time.
Everything else will be planted in the ground to enjoy the second half of its life being able to stretch their roots a bit more.
I'll do a round-up of the Apartment Garden successes and failures when I return from the land of...hmmm not sure quite yet. I'll let you know that one too.

Monday, July 6, 2009

Some (small) Rewards


A lobelia and mint bouquet grown in our own Apartment Garden!

I've said it a million times, I LOVE lobelia. Such a beautiful, fun, plant. Very unique shape and such a great color! Yes it is perfect. Certainly one of my favorites.

I hope everyone's holiday weekend was fun and exciting! It actually didn't rain here and I enjoyed some fireworks in the backyard of a friend's house. Couldn't have been better!




Friday, July 3, 2009

Dear rain: Get over yourself

I am taking it as a good sign that I've never really heard about this crazy, destructive disease of the tomato plant. As the article says, the rain has helped spread the disease quickly. However, it is worth pointing out that the magnitude of the spread is largely due to the fact that many plants come from the same large grower and supply to places like Walmart and Kmart. Making it much easier for the disease to spread from plant to plant as they sit in humugo greenhouses.
Another reason to buy local, friends.

Yes, I can appreciate all the wonderful things the rain does for us. We wouldn't survive without it. But daaamn it was 69 yesterday and it has rained something like 20 out of the last 25 days.

On a positive note, the rain has forced me to stay inside and get things done that need I to do. There's a big change a comin' for the Apartment Garden...oh yes...