Since we moved to Seattle, Craig has been working at a bank and I've been working at a secondhand clothing store. While my hours are pretty sporadic and flexible, Craig's are consistent and non-negotiable. Banks have to be open, and bank employees need to be there when they are. "You want some time off? Great! But it will have to be when none of your co-workers are taking their well-deserved vacations."

Ergo, our vacation time for the Christmas season actually took place from December 5th-8th. It was sort of an early anniversary gift to ourselves (our three-year anniversary is on December 27th). We had Brian and Natalie (brother- and sister-in-law) babysit the kitty while we headed to Cannon Beach, Oregon.

Cannon Beach is this amazing coastal town in northern Oregon, just off the Pacific Coast Highway and about an hour and a half away from Portland. I took a day trip there in 2007 while I was attending Portland State University, and with some killer off-season deals for lodging, we decided it might be a nice place to relax.

Oh, it was.

That enormous rock you see in almost every picture is Haystack Rock. You may recognize it from The Goonies. It's tremendous.

We stayed at Blue Gull Inn, which is managed by a company that has quite a few properties on the coast. They were fantastic, and the prices in the off-season are seriously cheeeeeap. We'll definitely be back.

My favorite memory from the trip took place on our last morning. We woke up as early as we could make ourselves, grabbed some beach chairs and books, and headed down to the water. Craig had this thing the whole time we were there about "tempting the ocean," getting as close as possible to the waterline without actually getting wet. We placed our chairs strategically so that the higher tides would go right past us, forcing us to lift up our feet while the legs of our chairs sunk lower and lower into the watery sand. We stayed there for an hour or so, reading and laughing and sinking and taking pictures. Whenever we were on the beach, at any point during our trip, I got a sense of earthly majesty. It was pretty overwhelming, but in a good way, in a wonderful way.

MeWriMo: Thirteen Days Worth (That's So Many Days)

Day 4: Document Something Old


I took pictures of a very small percentage of the things that I got secondhand (meaning from thrift stores, from consignment shops, hand-me downs from my mom or from friends, etc.).

shirts and sweaters

purses, hats, belts, jewelry, scarves

Day 5: Document Something New
(This one is a total stretch.)

The newest news in my life is that Craig and I have been assigned to be part of a dance festival for church. (Assigned, not called -- although we were asked if we would accept the assignment.) It's evidently going to be a multi-stake situation, really huge, happening in May, and we ... will have something to do with it. We don't know what. But okay. It will be a lot of scenes like this:

Including tye-dye.

Day 6: Document Art


I have a folder in my Google Reader called "art inspiration," so here are some images from that. I really gotta get going on making my own art again.

"Bullseye Geometric Print" from twoems

"sisters" from Galen Smith

Day 7: Document Autumn

Day 8: Document Something Funny

This is firmly in the category of "funny because it's true." I found it here.

Day 9: Document Inspiration

I snagged this quote from the Flickr photoset "Thanks, Oprah!" 

Day 10: Document Your Coffee Break

I don't drink coffee, so pass. BUT: I will say that a Dollar Tree location recently opened up right across the street from my workplace, and so Dollar Tree is the new official sponsor of my lunch breaks. And I'm glad about that.

Day 11: Document Your Favorite Shoes

woven leather loafer-like shoes, Naturalizers brand, secondhand from Value Village, $8

Who can choose their favorite shoes without any second-guessing? I'm not sure that my choice is really the top pair out of all my pairs, but they are pretty close. These ones are mega-comfortable, as well as cute/stylish in a "my grandma or grandpa might wear these" sort of way. They're also the newest shoes in my closet (newest to me -- they were probably made in the 80s).

brown and black leather riding boots, Laredo brand, secondhand from Junk in My Trunk, $1

The runners-up: these Laredo riding boots that I found on the best thrifting day of my life. These are boots that were probably $100+ dollars originally and can be bought on eBay and other such places for $40-$60 ish. I found them for $1. They fit wonderfully, are super tough-looking, and they work with so many outfits. I'll never, ever get rid of them.

Day 12: Document the Highlight of Your Day

I watched the documentary "Bill Cunningham New York" today. It's been in my Netflix Instant Queue for a while, and it just seemed like the right fit for my morning of washing dishes and picking up dirty socks from the floor. What a great film! Bill Cunningham is a very well-respected photographer in the world of fashion, yet he is the most understated, salt of the earth sort of guy. He lives this incredibly pared-down life in New York City, and his whole focus is on documenting interesting, notable clothes. Because he loves them. It was a very inspiring and sweet film. Highly recommended for those who like documentaries. Or clothes. Watching Bill at work sincerely made me want to change the way I live my life, and it also made me feel like I can change the way I live my life, and there aren't many things in this world that I can say that about.

Day 13: Document Hopefulness

Just an excuse to share this picture from about a month ago. That's my husband, along with our niece and nephew (Sydney and Wes), on the banks of the Puget Sound. Also, speaking of hopefulness, I've gotta list a few songs that are making me feel pretty jazzed and hopeful lately.

"Uncharted" by Sara Bareilles

"Horchata" by Vampire Weekend

"I'm Gonna Be Somebody" by Travis Tritt

"America the Beautiful" by Ray Charles

Day 14: Document a Friend

I don't often talk about Craig as my "best friend." It's partly just an issue of titles, titles that best describe a person's relationship to me. I would say that there are probably five people who are my "best friends" -- Craig, my mom, Chelsea, Jesus, and myself. Do I call all of them "my best friend"? Not usually. Craig gets the title of "husband," my mom gets the title of "Mom," Jesus has lots of very obvious titles, and I don't really need a title to explain my own relationship to myself. By default, the title of "best friend" is usually saved for Chelsea. If I were to call her "my former roommate," that wouldn't be a title that really described our relationship. Similarly, if I were to call Craig "my best friend" and introduce him that way, it would probably be a little strange to say later on, "Oh, also, I'm married to him."

That was such a digression from the real point.

The real point is this: even though I don't talk about it often, Craig is a best friend of mine. These days, with our recent move to Seattle and our isolated-ness from many of the people we'd call "friends," our reliance on the friendship parts of each other has become more and more and more. We almost only have each other to talk to about our days, our sore muscles, our thoughts about music, our food cravings. I love that I married someone who was firmly my friend before we ever got together -- and not just any friend, but one of the most supportive and intimate friends of my entire life.

Day 15: Document Your Commute

This one was taken at the Renton Transit Center, waiting for the bus doors to open. That's my bus in the foreground (or, rather, one of the three buses I take in order to get to work).

Also on my commute that day, this ad was on the side of that same bus:

They are Mormons. And so am I. But four million bucks says I never get a bus ad. No worries -- here's my Mormon.org profile anyway.

Day 16: Document a Life

This is the "life" of our trip from Utah to Washington, the journey of our move. The pictures I chose are slanted to allow for the most cute possible, so there are several images of our niece Audrey.

the UHaul truck and our car behind it - Idaho Falls

Audrey wearing a "hat" made out of her dad's arm sling - Idaho Falls

Tyler, Janna, and Audrey, on a walk - Idaho Falls

Audrey with Uncle Craig, at Tyler's soccer game - Idaho Falls

Audrey watching "Bubble Guppies," with her monkey and alligator - Idaho Falls

Megan & Kent's house - Spokane

(we had buckets of fun with those two, but all the pictures were lame, sooo ... you just get this one)

pictures from our drive through Washington

at home in our new apartment, nesting by painting the living room purple

And finally ... pictures of what I wore. Please hold your applause.

I've liked a lot of my outfits over the past few weeks, but I've forgotten to take pictures/haven't been able to because of the rain. No matter. Onward.

MeWriMo: Three Days Worth

First fact about me: I do not like white chocolate. And it's apparently not even chocolate.

I subscribe to this blog called GOOD, and each month, they start a new challenge for readers to participate in (if they so choose). The month-long challenge is a general way to improve as a person (like "perform acts of service" or "live healthier"), but GOOD then gives a daily challenge that's more specific and fits under the umbrella of the larger challenge (like "Buy a meal for a homeless person" or "Snack on fruit rather than the crappy stuff you usually go for").

The GOOD challenge for November is to document your life, and this works out as a perfect motivation for me to start working on the good ol' blog again and hop on the personal history train that has been toot-tooting its way into my world for a while now.

I'm calling November "MeWriMo," which is a shameless ripoff of "NaNoWriMo," the abbreviation for "National Novel Writing Month." NaNoWriMo also takes place in November, every year. I thought about participating this time around, but I decided to do some non-fiction, personal-type writing rather than do the fiction thing. You can call that "Memoir Writing Month," or "MeWriMo." And it's all me, baby.

So anyway, I'm following along with the daily documenting challenges from GOOD.

Day 1: Document Street Style

tuesday

(earrings from DownEast Outfitters, cardigan from Old Navy, Trouve tee-shirt from Goodwill, watch from a shop in Provo, Levi-Strauss jeans from DownEast Outfitters, Cole Haan loafers from Goodwill, jacket from Macy's, bag and gloves from Target)

wednesday

(necklaces from yard sale and Buffalo Exchange, Gap sweater from Goodwill, skirt from Buffalo Exchange, Naturalizers shoes from Value Village)

thursday

(headband from Target, vintage Nordstrom top from Value Village, BDG jeans from Buffalo Exchange, Naturalizers shoes from Value Village)

I'm gonna keep documenting my outfits this month, even though it was only the challenge for the first day, for a few reasons. The first one is that this blog got its start with outfit pictures and so forth, and I'd like to have that as a continued part of what I'm recording here. I've also started working with clothes for a living and have spent some good brain time thinking about my personal style, so I've got some new things to say. Anyway, anticipate that.

Day 2: Document a Pet

Walter!

Walter has been our cat since August 25th. Craig and I had this deal going where we decided that once we had moved to Seattle and we both had jobs, we would get a kitty cat of our very own. (Craig and I both grew up having family cats, and by sad coincidence, both of our beloved, elderly family cats passed away over the summer, so we went through our grief and realized all-the-more how much goodness a terrific pet can add to your life.) On the very day I got hired at my current job, we got our bums down to the local Humane Society and took a look around. There were many friendly cats who were eager to play and cuddle, and we almost overlooked Walter entirely. He was very mellow in a cage on the bottom row. We only noticed him because, at whatever angle it was at the time, Walter looked like a mini-cougar. It was pretty distinctive. We played with him for a while, and even though he didn't seem super-interested in us, it seemed like a good fit. With a few signatures and interview questions behind us, we were taking him home an hour later. It took about three weeks before he would even leave the bedroom of our apartment, but now, he roams with ease. This cat is ridiculously set on cuddling with us. Anytime Craig or I are sitting still for more than 90 seconds, he takes advantage of the opportunity and hops onto whichever lap is most convenient. He also sleeps in bed with us and has gotten really great at not bothering our sleep in any way. On the downside (every relationship has a downside), he has a bit of a problem with cat snot. He expels it regularly, in quantities that are seriously astounding.

I'm not gonna say that I understand parenthood now that I have a cat, but I will say that I kind of understand parenthood now that I have a cat. I love this animal a lot, so much so that I attend to his bodily functions and want to have conversations with other people about those bodily functions. What could be more mom-like than that?

Day 3: Document Happiness

How's this?

It's better than this.

The crazy thing is that those last two pictures, where I'm looking horrendous and showing off my crackers, were taken because I said to Craig, "You know, I think I'm feeling a lot better now. Go ahead and take some pictures so we get this all documented before leaving the hospital." Which means that at this point, I was feeling better. My appearance before this moment must have been just heartbreaking.

I had vaginal surgery back in July (wrote about it briefly right here). Was it happiness? No, not in and of itself. I was very sore for a while there, and coming out of the anesthesia was a terrifying experience. But it was a big step, an important step, one that (fingers crossed) will help me become a mom someday. That brings some happiness to the equation. I also got to have my husband and my mom take care of me for an entire week, which was just marvelous. We moved to Washington two weeks after the surgery, so we had to stuff a lot of Provo happiness into the post-surgery days, and I think we succeeded.

Thoughts: "The Head of the Woman is the Man" and 1st Corinthians 11

Since church yesterday, something has been on my mind. I'm struggling to describe exactly how it's been on my mind, because it hasn't been infuriating me or inspiring me or depressing me or anything so straightforward as that. The closest description I can think of is this: it has been bothering me. My family cat, Simba (who died a few months ago), used to have this habit of kneading a surface with her front two paws before settling in to take a nap on it. She would sometimes knead the surface for several minutes. That action reminds me a little of what this thing has been doing, kneading my brain/heart over and over because it can't find a suitable place to settle in.

Here's what the thing is: our Sunday School lesson covered, among other scriptures, the eleventh chapter of 1st Corinthians. The verse we focused on was verse three, "But I would have you know, that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God." The instructor drew a diagram on the whiteboard in order to illustrate things more clearly, where the word "God" was at the top, followed by a down arrow to the word "Christ," followed by a down arrow to the word "Man," followed by a down arrow to the word "Woman." I'm not sure how to show that in a vertical format (the way she drew it), but here's what it would have looked like in horizontal form:

God --------> Christ ------------> Man -----------> Woman

Once she drew the diagram and started moving on with what this meant for us today, etc., my husband leaned over to me and said something along the lines of, "It will be interesting to see how she handles this. I hope the comments don't get too awkward and weird." I appreciate that he said this, because he was acknowledging that the verse we were covering, the discussion we were starting, and the diagram on the whiteboard were problematic. But, to me, the verse itself and the very sensible diagram it inspired ... they were already awkward. Things were already weird. In fact, things were already painful and, in my opinion, very harmful. I was already being reminded of what led to the time in my life when I very seriously thought that being female put me at a disadvantage for earning God's love, gave me a late start in the race for exaltation, and meant that I was less important than my husband, my brothers, and all the other men in my life.

How do we interpret 1st Corinthians 11:3? How do we interpret a verse that says Man is higher up on the chain of whatever than Woman is? How do we interpret Woman being one extra step removed from God and from Christ -- because she is female? How does this make any sort of spiritual sense?

Here are some other passages to note from 1st Corinthians 11.

vv. 8-9: "For the man is not of the woman, but the woman of the man. Neither was the man created for the woman, but the woman for the man." (I'm thinking this refers to the creation story of Adam and Eve, from which Paul is extrapolating the proscribed relationship between men and women. That's my first thought.)

vv. 11-12: "Nevertheless neither is the man without the woman, neither the woman without the man, in the Lord. For as the woman is of the man, even so is the man also by the woman; but all things of God." (This seems to oppose the earlier statements about men being prioritized over women. Is that what's going on? Is Paul saying that, ultimately, we all need each other and we can realize equality through Christ? I'd like to interpret it that way, but it just doesn't fit with the other verses, so I'm at a loss.)

Chapter 11 has a lot of talk about "heads" -- God being the head of Christ, Christ being the head of Man, Man being the head of Woman, who should and should not cover their heads while praying, etc. I'm really confused about what "head" means in these passages. I'm confused about a lot of it. None of the interpretations I've turned over in my mind have really fit. In a breath: I don't know what to make of this.

I can't reject this teaching without understanding it more fully (getting a handle on the context in which it was written would be a good starting point), so I won't throw it out just yet, but I also won't embrace it or act like I'm sure there's some good explanation for it. I'm not going to play that game. My strongest inclination is to overlook verse three in favor of the gender equality that I know is divine, righteous, and needful.

(Speaking of overlooking a particular scripture or teaching, I'll point out that just a few chapters over, in 1st Corinthians 14:34-35, we read this: "Let your women keep silence in the churches: for it is not permitted unto them to speak; but they are commanded to be under obedience, as also saith the law. And if they will learn anything, let them ask their husbands at home; but they are commanded to be under obedience, as also saith the law." I'm saddened to read this, but I am thrilled that we don't give this counsel the time of day in today's Mormon church meetings. We overlook it. We ignore it completely. If anyone brings up the idea, we respond that this verse was a reflection of the time in which it was written, not meant for modern churches. Point being, if a smaller doctrinal point does not square with the reality of the gospel or the reality of what we believe to be true, it's okay to say, "Ehh, forget that." Pluck out the thing that offends, right?)

This post is obviously in ramble format. I'm not writing an essay or manifesto here. But this thing, as I said in the first place, has been on my mind, and I felt like getting it out in words might help. I think it has. To add a touch of elegance to the post, though, I'll quote Galatians 3:28 and follow it up with a quote from Eugene England.

Galatians 3:28 - "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female; for ye are all one in Christ Jesus." (Note that this teaching, too, was preached by Paul.)

"... it seems to me we must not accept any interpretation of scripture, or any statement by a church leader or teaching in a church meeting or church school class, that denies or diminishes the clear, central doctrine that all are alike unto God, black and white, male and female ... Racism and sexism are clear and destructive evils, inconsistent with our preparation for Christ's coming and, most seriously, effective denials of the impartial love of our Heavenly Parents and of the power of the Atonement of their son. People who feel that they -- or anyone else -- because of their skin color or sex do not have the same standing or privileges before God cannot exercise faith in him unto salvation. It is time to stop such beliefs. I suggest that we each find a way, first to expunge them from ourselves, but also to refuse to allow them to continue to be taught unchallenged."

- Eugene England, Sunstone, April 1990, pgs. 24-5