the cooperative restraining order clinic (croc).

There's lots of things I could say about CROC. I could say that I was extremely unprepared when I started and was probably still unprepared when I left. I could say that I was both amazed and concerned by the amount of hours my co-workers put into accomplishing work that was never going to be finished. I could say that while I had both frustrating clients and motivating clients and pathetic clients and heart-wrenching clients, they were all clients and they all deserved more than life had given them. I could say it was one of the most meaningful experiences my short life has had thus far. And I could say that it taught me the fragility of human life and the immense burden and joy it is to help others. And while I could say all this (which I did), it doesn't come close to explaining the value of what CROC provides to the San Francisco community. My experience doesn't come close to reflecting some of the immeasurable changes that have occurred in some women's lives.

Sad is simply one of the emotions that comes to mind when I think about what void there would be if CROC were not to exist. Domestic violence is a tangible problem, one that consists of punches, slaps, degrading language, verbal assault, kicks, lies, and manipulation (to name a few). It is extremely deadly. But the services that CROC provides along with numerous other domestic violence agencies are life savers (literally)! So, if you're in San Francisco, consider attending TONIGHT'S fundraiser. If you can't and would still like to give, click here. It is a highly worthy cause!

Colorado vs. California

This is Emily.

Emily's birthday was last Tuesday, but it wasn't until this past Saturday that we were able to celebrate!

And to celebrate we went to Balistreri Vineyards right here in good 'ol Denver. Who knew Denver had wineries? But apparently this one had won its share of awards.

And apparently Emily's boyfriend Chris isn't such a big fan of wine.

I don't know if you can tell by the picture below, but there was a plethora of wine to taste. And all for free (beat that California wineries)!

We had such fun tasting and eating (did you notice that platter of food in the first pic? if you didn't, go ahead and scroll back up to drool over all the goodness.) We also enjoyed the amazing weather that facilitated a beautiful afternoon.

Sadly, I didn't get one picture of Emily and I together, but Happy Birthday Emily!!

The match-up: Colorado vs. California

The Good:

1) California's scenic Sonoma County wineries are hard to beat. The rolling hills, the majestic sunsets. It's magical I tell you. (California: +1)

2) BUT, something (a lot of green somethings) must be said when wine tasting is free. It also happens to be magical. (Colorado: +1)

3) I may have eaten the best cheese/appetizer plate of my life. (Colorado: +1)

4) I like my wine to hint at fruit, perhaps not drown me in it. (California: +1)

5) San Francisco is in California (California: +1)

6) Friendliness, friendliness, friendliness & great service. (Colorado: +1)

The Bad:

7) Although the temperature outside was nice and relaxing, warm wine tends to not be. (Colorado: -1)

And The Ugly:

8) I've been charged $20 for a single tasting at a winery in Napa, 'nuff said. (California: -1)

9) Balistreri looks as though it's smack dap in the middle of the industrial side of town, not so much an ideal location. (Colorado: -1)

The total count: California = 2, Colorado = 1

(close, very close, did I leave anything out?)

Again, Happy Birthday Emily & thank you so much for being born & planning an extravagant evening!

radiator

Have you ever lived with a radiator?

Living with one is a chore.  How should I explain it?

Perhaps, an accurate portrayal would be a very loud, long-winded tea kettle.

Tuesday night was the first time since moving in that it has been cold enough for our landlord to turn on the broiler.  We had a brief conversation with him on our way out to a cafe and he mentioned it might get down into the 30s.  A few short minutes after we arrived home that evening, a hissing sound began, which perplexed me because it only seemed to get louder.  Was it a cat?  Was the cat dying?

And then the sound turned into a whistle, a steady, reliable one.  Had I left on the tea kettle?

The whistle grew angrier and angrier.  Finally, the realization hit that the 4 radiators throughout our apartment had fired up.

Alas, the relief of knowing ended oh so soon when I realized that this would be the normal background music for most of fall and winter!

the dress I'm going to model on march 20th!

bedroom revitalization, part 2.

A dresser.

A couple weeks back, I found a dresser I liked on craigslist. So, of course, I phoned the seller and made an offer. A few days later, there that dresser sat in our bedroom. Having only spent $70 on a solid (semi-antique) wood dresser, I felt rather pleased. But, I was not content there. I had made up my mind to paint the thing, spruce it up a bit.

This is what we started with.

The feet are rather cute.

Yesterday, we made our way to the hardware store and spent $20 on paint, brushes, and drawer liner.

We set up shop in the living room/dinning room/study.

And I took off the drawer knobs to give them a little extra pizazz.

From there the real fun started. We busted open our pail of onyx tinted paint and got to painting.

Here's Micah putting on the first coat.

And here's what the knobs look like after I got my hands on them.

A second coat of paint, a couple beers, and burgers & fries later, we assembled our masterpiece.

And we patted ourselves on the back for a job well done.

We also added my attempt at painting. They're dandelions if it's hard to tell.

And that concludes the transformation of our dresser.

What do you think?

working from home.

Today Micah and I are working from home. My working from home consists of checking email, chatting with veronique, blogging, reading, reading, and then maybe some reading. His is check email, call in to work meeting, fix morning problems, and finish creating a masterpiece program so his co-workers can do their job.

We have plans to make breakfast after he gets off his phone call and then 'work from cafe' this afternoon.

I could get use to work from home days!

happy birthday dad & sister!

Today is my dad and my sister's birthday! Yep, they were born on the same day, just obviously not the same year.

According to the pocket-knife key my sister and I gave him on a birthday long past, my dad's the #1 dad. I can almost here Will Ferrel in Elf echoing, "You did it, congratulations! Number one dad! Great job everybody." But in all sincerity, he really is a great dad. He may not always have the answer I want him to have and we don't see eye to eye on a lot. But, I think his years of life have made him a thinking, honest, and passionate person. He is definitely someone I look up to. And, if 19 years of teaching high school math doesn't make you a saint, I don't know what does.

Happy Birthday Dad!

And 29 years after my Dad was born, Kristen was born. It was a rainy, autumn morning...just kidding, I have no idea what the temperament was that day. Anyway, Kristen's always been there to point her little sister (that would be me) in the right direction. I'm told she taught me my ABC's and spelling my name, because how could she of suffered the shame of letting me go off to school ill-prepared. And her sense of humor (or should I say sarcasm) is top notch. She's brilliant, determined, and beautiful!

Happy Birthday Kristen!

Oh, and have I mentioned they run marathons? Because they do! My mom and I don't, maybe it's a September 17th thing.

Happy Birthday to two-fifths of my family!

complex.

There's no denying that racism is still very real in today's U.S. society. At times race relations are desperately swept under the proverbial rug, and at other times race is at the forefront of political news, everyday conversations, and therefore on our minds. Currently, we find ourselves in the latter.

The last couple of days, I have found myself thinking a lot about the heightened frenzy supposedly revolving around President Obama's policies and in particular the debate on national health care reform. And in these days, I have noticed my blood pressure rise, my heart beat in rapid succession, all while feeling a concurrent sense of hopeless disbelief. It is not simple anger that I feel when I see signs smearing, "Bury Obama's healthcare plan with Kennedy" and "Barack Hussein Obama The New Face of Hitler". I am appalled and furious. I am washed away in a tide of inability to respond in rational, meaningful, and constructive ways.

The hatred flows not from opposition to our current president's ideas, plans, or policies; it is the undying efforts of certain individuals and groups to present Obama as a terrorist, a communist, a socialist, a Nazi, a whatever to present him as a part of "them" and not "us." It would be ignorant to play this off as nasty party-line fighting and name-calling. Avoidance of naming racism when we see it is the easy way out. It would let us off the hook. So, in the last few days, I have attempted to allow a broader understanding of how racism plays an integral role in politics. I have revisited the complexities of electing the first African American president; the role of diplomat he must play in order to maintain peace. And in this sense, I applaud former president Jimmy Carter for publicly speaking what Obama cannot.

What is going on can little be summed up in an lacking blog post, but the importance of engaging in conversation around racism and its impacts is certainly no less.

the quarter system.

The University of Denver operates on the quarter system. Each quarter is composed of 10 weeks. Yes, only 10 weeks to obtain and retain all the information my classes have to bestow upon me. I have yet to decide how I feel about this, but I'm going to give it the benefit of the doubt. First off, this structure allows me to take at least 3 more classes in the same amount of time as the semester system. Secondly, if I hate a class, I only have to suffer through it for a measly 10 weeks. And lastly, a month and a half break from Thanksgiving through Christmas sounds wonderful!

Tomorrow, I begin my classes at the Korbel School of International Studies (sounds impressive, no?) Well, I'm darn right nervous about it. Let's be honest, I'm little prepared for this. Here's hoping that I won't be washed up in a sea of political jargon and forget about my social work roots.

I leave you with a few pictures of the weekend adventure to Breckenridge, courtesy of Melissa & Andrew's keen driving capabilities!

award for cutest dog of the year goes to:

the redheads!

thoughts on my new life.

It's almost been three months. Three months (minus 10 days) of marriage. Two months of Denver. And a little over a month of grad school.

All these things are New. Very new. New and exciting and scary and confusing and, and, and...

(1) Marriage. June 20th was one of the happiest day of my life. I got to wear a pretty white dress, enjoy the company of my bestest friends and family, and marry my favorite person! I hope a contagious smile always spreads across my face when I think about the beauty and promise that day holds. And it doesn't end there.

I love being married.

I love groggily waking up to Micah getting ready and hushing me to go back to sleep. I love receiving texts throughout the day asking me how's my day going. I love planning and dreaming of European Escapade 2011. I love experimenting in the kitchen, and when that doesn't work eating popcorn and skittles or cereal for dinner. I love knowing that someone knows me. I love being part of a family of two.

Micah is the most patient (not when driving) and encouraging person I know. It is with bursting emotions that I can say I love him so much.

disclaimer: Marriage is hard. I'd be a liar to say otherwise.

(2) Denver. I miss San Francisco terribly. I miss muni and nextmuni.com and reasonable public transportation arrival times. I miss Thai Place 2 and the hundreds of other really good thai restaurants (and all ethnic restaurants for that matter), Bi-Rite, and TJ's. I miss decent corner stores. I miss high quality lattes and Philz coffee. I miss bikers and pedestrians rights! I miss speaking Spanish. I miss home.

Although I miss so much, I'm learning to appreciate Denver. I'm learning to not hold on so tightly to what I do not like and grasp on a little longer to what I do. And when I do this, I can tell you about Meinger's art store which I love, love so much. I can tell you about Novo coffee which is so darn close to a Blue Bottle latte. I can tell you about Cheesman park and how its two block proximity makes it a perfect running spot. I can even tell you about the Irish bar that hosts University of Alabama football games and the raucous crowd we enjoyed last saturday thanks to a competitive game with a Bama win.

And when I let go of my hold on the picturesque pacific ocean, I can even tell you about the mountains. And I should tell you about the mountains, because they are absolutely stunning.

And pictures don't even do them justice.

(3) Grad School. I jumped in at full speed in July and I was fascinated and yet slightly unfulfilled from the get go. Academia has welcomed me back with arms wide open. It has ushered me into reading and provoked me to think and write. And, I love new school supplies with such a passion that even taking notes is thrilling! But, school is not work. And after being gainfully employed for the past 4 years, I have felt somewhat unproductive escaping to the "safe" world of books and classes. I no longer interact with people and their situations; I hear about them instead.

And, since Tuesday's International Studies orientation, I've been pushed even further out of my comfort level (of social work-y feelings). I've entered into a political world I know little about. But as I feel myself floundering around, I know that I won't be lost forever. At some point, I will feel like a graduate student. At some point, I will feel like a wife. At some point, I may even feel like a Coloradan. At some point, I will feel like I belong to these new worlds I have joined.

happy birthday grandma.

Today is grandma's birthday. She's 80 years old, which means she was born in 1929. She was born just a month shy of the start to the U.S. Great Depression. I wish I knew more details of her life. I wish I could picture what it was like for her growing up on a farm in Mississippi. I wish I could understand life through her eyes.

I know her as a truly Southern lady (or when I was a kid I knew her as "lucky charms grandma"--she knew how to win me over). She isn't a socialite, but she's southern through and through. She has weekly hair appointments and goes nowhere without appropriate matching jewelry. She loves grits and vegetables 'southernly' cooked to the point that they have no nutritional value. She visits my grandfather's grave on his birthday and father's day. She makes shortbread cookies every christmas without fail because she knows my dad loves them so much. She may seem soft spoken, but she's got spunk. I think she's an introvert like me. She also avoids conflict (another way we're pretty similar). And, she's my namesake. Clara. It's her first name, which she actually doesn't like and therefore goes mainly by her middle name, Charlene.

As I write this post, something inside me smiles. Grandmothers are such special people and mine is no exception. And I really think she enjoys being a grandmother. She loves to spoil her grandkids and throws most rules to the wind.

Happy Birthday, Grandma!

bedroom revitalization, part 1.

Here's what we started with.
An empty room.


And a bare closet and shelf. (I promise the wall color isn't such a heinous shade of mustard yellow or split-pea green.)


Here's what our bed has looked like since we arrived in July. Just sheets. A) because it's hot, B) because we didn't have a duvet cover for the comforter.


But, then..I found the this pattern from crate and barrel. I hunted it down at an outlet store in New Jersey.



And, lo and behold, it finally arrived in the mail today!
So what did I do? I tore into the box like a kid on Christmas morning, and threw it onto the bed faster than you can say marimekko tamburiini bed linens.

And there you have it, our new bedding!

i might have eaten four cupcakes yesterday.

but, they were SO good. hmm..peach cupcakes with brown sugar cream cheese frosting.