Gardeny Things

I love my garden. I love working in it, I love learning more about plants and soil, I love eating things that I grew, I love bring a plant from seed to maturity, I love seeing the bees at work on the flowers while the birds peck at the ants. It's a good garden now, and will be even better next year.

On our way back from Fernie (via Saskatchewan, where I was given a parsley plant) today we stopped at Josh's parents to pick up even more plants. It's a joy to have someone so willing and happy to share plants with me, and I've now been gifted hollyhocks along with many more bedding plants to fill out the gaps in the garden. The hollyhocks will have pink flowers, and I have seeds for hollyhocks with flowers that are almost black, and I'm hoping they will mix and seed around and I'll have blackish-purpleish-pinkish flowers towering above the other plants in a couple of years. It's a long game with hollyhocks; they're biennial - the first year they grow enough of a plant to survive dormancy in the winter, and the second year they flower and set seed - so I won't see the black flowers until 2020, unless I buy an already-flowering plant. Which honestly, I might do.

The bedding plants mostly went to the front, and the hollyhocks are going to join the delphinium, day lilies, and irises in the side bed. Before I can plant them out, however, I have to carry out Operation Extreme Makeover: Garden Edition, which involves digging out nearly all of the plants in the side bed, doing some major weeding, and replanting things in a way that makes sense. I arrived home to discover that the flowers are done on both the day lilies and the delphinium, so the timing is perfect. I need to get the hollyhocks in the ground within a couple of days, so Operation EM:GE is going to be carried out this week.

I've got other garden tasks to complete this week, including trimming and supporting the tomatoes, doing a huge amount of weeding in the veg bed (there was a heat wave the week we were gone and things have gone wild and are starting to set seed), pulling all the radishes, and eating some of the chard. We've moved from weather hovering in the high 30s to a much more friendly mid-20s, so it's a good time to get out there. We were gone for a bit over a week and I've been missing my plants.

Mother's Day Buttress

   The trouble with rock climbers is that they understand up and they understand down but switchbacks are a foreign concept to them. So when the bottom of a climb is uphill from the parking spot, the path to it just goes straight up the hill. Just straight up, no switching back, just plodding up a hill in a nearly straight line, which is miserable. And the descent is not much better, because why would you make a path more walkable if it means deviating from walking straight down the steep hill? Talus and rubble on slab! Best for walking. (It is not).

   REGARDLESS, while parts of getting to and from the actual climb were sub-par the climb itself was quite enjoyable, the view was lovely, and it was an all around splendid day.  Plus part of the descent path meandered through some lovely forest at at the top of a cliff and it was all very nice despite all my complaining about climbers making paths.

   SO: a couple weeks ago my bro and I both had Friday off, and decided to climb Mother's Day Buttress in Banff National Park. It's an 8-pitch 5.6, with a couple alternate pitches to bump it up to a 5.7 or a 5.8. We opted for a 5.7 pitch, but shied away from a chossy, crumbly 5.8 corner. Here's a picture of it, which my bro took (we were still on the approach at this point):

thanks, bro

   We left the city at a little after 7:00, drove out to Banff, parked, got out of the car, started getting our gear in order, and said "oh hey, there's a bear," because there was a bear across the highway from us. BUT it was going the opposite way from our destination and was a black bear, so whatever. We make loud noise in the forest so that bears will stay away from us anyways. If it were a grizzly we would not have been so blase, but it was not. 
   

some topo for alla y'all

    At some point (I think in pitch 2? Maybe 3), I was a couple of moves up when I pulled a hold. It wasn't a big one, but I lost my balance a bit and almost fell, and although I was perfectly safe due to ropes, etc: I still had a "SIRI CALL MOM" moment. Limestone is notorious for loose rocks, and sometimes they come off of the mountain when you are in the process of putting your weight onto them. Yay? There's also sometimes parts of the limestone that sound hollow when smacked, which is disconcerting. BUT that ain't gonna keep us from climbing, yo.

hi, I love to climb

   On pitch 5 (I think? Hahaaaa, I was not keeping track) we went off-route which resulted in us making the climb seven pitches instead of eight, and needing to rely on a built anchor instead of one with bolts and chains, etc. Climbing on trad gear is sometimes a bit funny, because I'll be following my brother up the route, pulling his gear placements out, and sometimes they are thumbnail sized nuts or tiny cams (those links are so you can see what nuts and cams look like) and I'm all "hahahhaaa what in the world" because how is that going to keep me safe? But they are rated at between 2 and 14 kNs, so really there's nothing to worry about. And if you're worried, just don't fall. That's the key: don't fall and you'll be fine.

    The climb had all sorts of different climbing, which was great! One pitch would be all slab and the next one would be juggy and then there's be some good cracks in corners and it was all good. When we arrived at the top we exclaimed about the view, since it was indeed very lovely. Some panorama action for you:

I didn't even get Lake Minnewanka in this picture, it was SO PRETTY

hi, I'm at the top of a cliff, I love it

   Basically, the climb was fun and enjoyable and the lame parts of the approach/descent were an equitable exchange for the pleasant parts. One such part was when we arrived at the top of Cascade Falls, where the wind was blowing the water back up the falls, which was excellent because a) it was awesome to see, b) we got sprayed with cold water on a hella hot day, and c) I had a drink from the stream because I was out of water and we were up high and there weren't signs of goats and I live on the edge. All in all, a banner day.

smile real wide if you love climbing

How to Tell if You've Been Doing a Great Deal of Yoga

(We interrupt our regular programming to bring you this post, brought to you by a 30 day yoga challenge)

You start referring to your "side body", "back body", and "front body" without batting an eye.

You've thought, at least once a day, "man, I could really use a hip-opening practice later today." (Alternately, heart-opening) 

You are very connected to your breath. Mindful breathing FTW. 

You think you are starting to understand what it means to "breathe into your fingertips"

You tell your brother to move with his breath while climbing a hard route at the gym. 

You think/talk about breathing All The Time. 

ARE YOU CONNECTED TO YOUR BREATH RIGHT NOW?!? 

You are sometimes accused of showing off when you stretch at the climbing gym. 

When your arms are shaking in low plank/torso is shaking in boat/legs are shaking in an extended balancing pose you say to yourself, "this is good. This is nice. I'm grateful to myself for taking the time for this practice." 

You truly are grateful to yourself for taking the time for your practice. 

You aren't sure how it's possible to be so sore and feel so limber at the same time. 

Your back-bends might be impressive but you need to create some space in your side body. 

You have, already a few days in, noticed an improvement in your climbing. Bonus! 

Unfortunately you've ALSO noticed that your posture is AWFUL. 

But you also are working on accepting where you are in your practice, which includes accepting your posture while committing to put effort into improving it. 

You roll your eyes at some of the over-the-top yoga-y affirmations, even though they are pretty nice to hear. 

You read pages and pages of Slightly Aggressive Affirmations to counteract the yoga-talk. You are hella affirmed. (You are glad that Alice tweeted about this SUPER AWESOME blog)

You don't bother rolling up your mat and putting it away because you're just going to use it tomorrow. 

Savasana is your best friend, your foam roller is your second best friend. 

You know that savasana is important and rushing through it isn't beneficial but oh man sometimes you want to even though it is, as aforementioned, your best friend, but your North American brain just doesn't LIKE lying on the floor and practicing stillness, until you are a couple minutes in and suddenly you realize that this really is a nice time so you take some deep, mindful breaths and do some praying because you ain't gonna watch your thoughts float around like little clouds, you have to draw the line somewhere. 

You expand your rib cage when you inhale, feeling the expansion in your back body, and it is awesome. 

You always bring it back to your breath, eventually. 

PMA

   Yesterday I went rock climbing, had birthday dessert for one of my little brothers, and went to one of my older brother's houses and watched a short documentary about New York hardcore. It was a big day.

   I got my hand caught between the rope and the rock while lowering off of my last climb of the day yesterday, and while it is now swollen and blue-ish, I'm very glad it's not broken. People sometimes ask me or the people I climb with if we are afraid of falling and dying, to which I always say no (and sometimes do a little explaining about how safe climbing is with proper gear and knowledge). What I am afraid of is falling and breaking my ankles, or doing significant damage to my hands. It is weirdly reassuring to be high enough up to know that "if I fall here, I will not be maimed and waiting for rescue, I'll just be dead" whereas if I broke my hand badly or lost a finger or broke my ankles, I'd have to at best refrain from climbing for weeks or months, and at worst have my ankles fused and never climb again. There are people who go to the same climbing gym as me who are missing fingers, so I'm not too concerned about that. You can re-train your hands. It's the ankles, really, that worry me. However, my hand is fine and we are cautious climbers, so all is well.  

   Hardcore may not be your thing, but regardless of your music tastes you should probably watch this documentary. It is great. Watch it especially if you are interested in underground music movements, or straightedge, or what people do after having been in the hardcore scene.

Skaha, I Love You

before (clean baby hands!)

after (if we were climbing in the Rockies there'd be more blood)

   My brother Tyler and I spent Easter weekend in BC, climbing Skaha Bluffs near Penticton, and here is how it all went down:

   Wednesday: we decide that we are going to leave at 7:30, stay in the hostel at Castle, then set out from there uber-early to make it to Penticton in time to get in some climbing. Shortly after 7:00 we decide we'll leave in the morning and skip the hostel. We say we'll leave at 4:00, but of course we switch that to 6:00 instead, like reasonable human beings.

   Thursday: OMGOSH it's 5:15, wake up, shower, chow down a banana, get on the road! You are going to CLIMB in the SUNSHINE AND WARMTH today!!! But first you have to drive for eight hours :( But WHO CARES, it will be WORTH IT.

   AND IT TOTALLY IS. After a long drive (Why is Kelowna so huge??) we arrive at our campsite, check in, set up the tent, and high-tail it to the bluffs. We climb some easy routes and get super stoked about climbing something that isn't a) plastic gym routes, b) polished limestone, or c) freezing cold. Skaha Bluffs are all gneiss and after limestone it is like climbing on rocks made of angels. ANGELS.

   We leave after bumping our grade up to 5.9 (Tyler climbs a trad 5.10a, I do not). It gets a bit chilly but we don't even care. A stop at a market for soup and breakfast/lunch fixings means that all we have to do is heat our soup, chow down, bed down, and sleep till morning.

it's alright I guess

   Friday: we wake up at a much more reasonable hour and make our way immediately to the bluffs. We are staying at a campground across the lake from Skaha Provincial Park and it is alright I guess (hahahahaaa, we have a tent site right on the lake! Gorgeous). We climb ALL DAY and it is AWESOME. I get in my first lead of the season on a 5.6, and it is scary and great at the same time. After a winter of gym climbing it is a bit of effort to get my head back into the outdoor game. Skaha climbs are verrrry crimpy, which results in sore finger pads and elbows. It is very much Tyler's style and not so much mine, but crimpy climbs have been on my "get better at this" list and I am very pleased with how I'm doing. We get on a 5.8 which I constantly want to take a break on but I power through and am quite proud of myself. We are stoked on life.

I took essentially this same picture many times

   Saturday: my climbing weekend came with the caveat of making sure I got some school done, so we take it easy in the morning (including making good use of the camp showers. Let me tell you: there ain't nothing much better than a good shower after a couple days of hard outdoor work) and head into Penticton to locate two things: a guidebook and a Starbucks with electrical outlets. We find the guidebook in an adorable used bookstore where I cannot resist a book about Arctic exploration, and find the Starbucks down the block. Tyler logs climbs and figures out what we'll climb today and tomorrow, and I write about the effects restructuring in the public and private sectors has on Canadian women. The Skaha guidebook is excellent, my essay is alright.

I <3 used book stores

   We drive up the winding road to the crowded parking lot, and realize we may have to make the long ardous trek from lake-level to bluff-level, and we do not look forward to it. A Conservation Officer tells us the lots are full, but we arrive just as a family is leaving. We snag their vacated parking spot and feel triumphant. Lunch is crackers and meat and cheese, which we relish.

   But what about the CLIMBING!? We get in an excellent afternoon at Red Tail wall, despite a group that hangs out on the climbs we want for an amount of time that we decide is impolite. But! A couple two-star 5.7s make up for any waiting around we had to do. I cheer at the top of one of them; it was such a good climb and I am so happy to be out here. We chat up the people climbing beside us, they are friendly, we are friendly, the world is friendly.

someone left their blood on the rock, gross

   We get back to camp, eat supper, drink wine, and soak up the beautiful night. The moon is nearly full, the sky is nearly clear, the wind has died down, everything is bright with moonlight and good company/experiences. We decide to climb in the morning tomorrow and find a place for sitting and schooling in the afternoon. I have almost finished my book (Girl in the Dark).

   Sunday: we wake up and it is cold, but no matter! We eat breakfast at the trailhead and set out on a short almost-hike to the Go Anywhere wall. We arrive as the sun is juuuust hitting the top of the climbs, and peruse the guidebook and snack until we feel like the rock will be adequately warmed. So follows a decent climb, a great climb, and a FABULOUS climb which I unfortunately have to take a break on due to weirdly sore elbows. My poor joints are not used to several days of sustained climbing. Nevertheless, my general level of "so stoked on life" continues to rise. Everything is awesome: the view, the climbs, the garter snake we see on the way back to the parking lot. I love it all. I belay Tyler on a sustained 5.10b, I do not feel up to much beyond 5.8 at this point.

oh yeah, 5.10b, you did it, nice work

   We drive into town slightly later than intended, find a (different) Starbucks, and camp out for a couple hours. I write about women's movements in Canada, Tyler pores over the guidebook, I draw all sorts of blanks on writing anything academic. I think my face is sunburnt. We decide on soup for supper again, and head back to camp via the grocery store.

   Back at camp we pack up as much as we can, and eat a great deal of food because we are STARVING, oh my GOSH. I read Villette until I almost drop it on my face because I'm falling asleep.

   Monday: it is calm and clear when we wake up, which is excellent since it is time to break camp and pack up the car. Our plan is simple: tear down, climb for as long as we can, drive home. Tent-take-down goes quickly, we eat pizza buns for breakfast, and we are on our way! Back to the Red Tail wall to send a 5.7, a 5.8, and a 5.10b which I don't even think about attempting. We say things like "just move up" and "I got a hold of that jug and I knew I was taking it to sends-ville" and "gaston into a hand jamb" and of course climbing jargon sounds ridiculous.

much ropes. so safety. wow. carabiners.

   Too soon, it is time to walk back to the car and power through eight hours of driving. Kelowna feels like it takes up two thirds of the drive but we DO see a sign for "Butt Road" and stop for blended coffee drinks/books at a Chapters so WHATEVER, Kelowna. You thought you could beat us but you CAN'T.

   Once we get into the Rockies we see a great deal more snow than when we left. Apparently while we have been wearing t-shirts in the afternoon and maybe getting sunburnt, a cold front has moved into my homeland of Southern Alberta. We are even more pleased with our climbing trip, since there is no way we would've ventured out into the Rockies to climb while it was cold and snowy.

instead we climbed in THIS

   At last: home. The trip was excellent, and it is also excellent to be home again home again jiggity jig. I sent a couple 5.9s this weekend, which is the level I had laboriously worked myself up to last season. I got in a lead on a 5.6, and had several 5.7s and 5.8s that felt GREAT. I am pleased with my abilities. It was a very good few days, and much needed.

Tom Longboat

   Kate Beaton of Hark! A Vagrant fame published a comic about Tom Longboat today, and I am sorry to say that I didn't know about him before. Now I do though, and he was awesome. Also, my low-level googling has led me to this picture, which I love:

   Look at their faces!

   Anyways, I advise you to type "Tom Longboat" into google dot com and do some reading.

body image

   I feel like I am doing "pretty alright" in the body-image area, and I want (and don't want) to talk about it. I'm not sure if this is the right platform, and I'm not sure exactly what I want to get across, but I've been feeling that I ought to write about this for awhile (hence this post being in my draft section is some form or another for several months) so here goes.

   Maybe I should set some parameters first. I'm not looking for any sort of pity/sympathy, and I'm not fishing for compliments. I want to be honest and so I'll be writing a few things that I don't really talk about very often and outlining a few things about the way I see myself that not many people know. I've gotten more comfortable with talking about body image, so maybe I talk about it more than I think I do, but I don't think it's a super common topic of conversation for me. This post is going to be largely about physical appearance, which is odd considering that my journey away from hating my body has been largely one of de-emphasizing the way I look and concentrating more on an interesting thought life and fostering the fruit of the Spirit, which are way more important. It started with appearance though, so that's what I'll write about here. 

   I'm not really sure how to start, so I'll just say what people probably can guess: I, like nearly all women (and some men) that I know, had some fairly severe body image and self esteem issues growing up that I carried into adulthood. Basically: I used to hate my body, and now I don't, and I'll tell you how/why. 

   When I realized that something had to be done about the toxic way I viewed and talked to myself (lots of words like "fat", "ugly", "stupid", and "boring" were involved) I also realized that the way to change the way I felt/thought/spoke about my body was not to make my body smaller. Hating my body was not only pointless and unproductive, it was also extremely harmful. If I had such strong dislike for it at the size it was, losing weight wouldn't suddenly make me love it. The problem wasn't my body, it was the way I thought about and viewed it. That realization took a long time to come, and my initial efforts at body-acceptance were pretty much the same as my previous patterns of self loathing. I thought that if I only lost weight, or changed my hair, or wore make up correctly, but mostly if I changed my weight, that I would finally accept and like the way I looked. Of course, that didn't help me with how I looked at the moment. 

   After a long time of attempting and failing at diets and exercise methods that had the solitary goal of "get thin", I knew that it wasn't working and I had to do something else. It was hard to change what I thought about my body, so I took the tack of thinking about my body as little as possible. Whenever negative thoughts about they way I looked cropped up, I would turn my mind to something else entirely. I had been advised to replace negative thoughts with positive ones, but replacing "I'm ugly" with "I'm beautiful" felt like a giant lie and it was easier to switch from "I'm ugly" to "it looks like the floor needs vacuumed" or "it's time to get ready to go to work" or "where is my pencil" or anything else, as long as it wasn't about my body or my looks. This got surprisingly easy, and eventually I didn't really think much about my body much at all. I stopped looking in mirrors as much as I had before.

   In the meantime, I had taken up yoga and was learning to enjoy the poses and the strength that comes with them. The focus of yoga isn't on being the best in the class or on looking the best, but on what the body can do and how you can gently push yourself to lift the limit on your abilities. The focus is on function and kindness and encouragement, not on looking good. The mirrors in the yoga studio were there to keep me from injuring myself with bad form, not for me, or anyone else, to judge how I looked.

   Taking not-thinking-about-looks and yoga together meant that my mind shifted from thinking about and putting value in my appearance and put the emphasis on what I was capable of. I took a slow trip from "my body is fat and ugly" to "my body is a body" to "my body can get into increasingly difficult poses, and if I keep practicing I will keep getting better". Form to function. My legs can walk, my arms can lift, my hands can hold, my face shows my emotion, my belly helps me breathe deeply. It mattered less and less what I looked like and more what I did with the machine I live in. 

   That last sentence shows the next step I took: I am not my body; I live in my body. It is a machine (an extremely effective and amazing machine, really) and I am a soul. My value doesn't come from what I look like, or how good I am at physical activities. I had been looking at the outward appearance, but God looks at the heart. 

   Presently, I eat for enjoyment and to be healthy. I don't permit myself to feel guilty about what I eat. I understand that excessive bad food makes me lethargic and makes it more difficult to be active. I exercise in order to improve in things I love to do. I rock climb and bike and I continue to practice yoga. I work out so that I can be better at those things, and so that I can be healthy. I am gentler and kinder with myself, which enables me to push myself further. I wear clothes and make up that make me happy, I don't wear them to please others. 

   I'm not always good at this, as evidenced by my emphatically declaring "I just want to look nice!" to a friend of mine just the other day, or by sad mirror glaces when shopping with my much thinner friends or how I often react to compliments by laughing. I still have days where I slip back into negative self talk, and days that I just really want to be conventionally pretty. I sometimes catch myself worrying over what other people think of the way I look, and worrying that I don't look good enough or normal enough or any other "enough". However, it gets more and more simple and easy to stop a body hate spiral before it gets going. My body is a body, just like everyone else's. It carries me around and responds to what I put into it. I have a choice between working with what I have or wasting energy on hating it. 

   I still call myself chubby sometimes, but I usually mean it in an observational as opposed to a disparaging way. After all, I'm not even entirely sure where the line between pudgy and chubby and fat is, or what the hell "curvy" means, or why there seems to be a construct of body-image issues as the purview of a certain body type. When I call myself "chubby", I usually just mean that I am a large-ish size and therefore my high waisted jeans sometimes dig uncomfortably into my belly if I sit slouched for too long, not that I look down on myself or my looks. "Chubby" isn't a value statement, it's just an adjective.

   I won't tell you that I think I'm gorgeous or that I never compare myself to other women or that I don't often suck in my belly or wish I had less back fat, because that wouldn't be true. Here's the truth: I am now, usually, indifferent to my looks. When I do consider my looks I usually come away thinking I look remarkably average, with the occasional pretty day and the occasional "what is happening, why do I look so weird" day. I don't mind it, though, and the time I don't spend on fretting over my appearance I get to spend on reading or figuring out what I can do instead of how I look or investing in relationships or conceivably anything else. If I can take the energy I used to spend hating my appearance and put it towards learning to be more kind, then I am doing alright.

   To sum up: I stopped thinking harmful things about my looks and body by making an effort to stop thinking about my body altogether. Eventually I could think about it again, because my default thought pattern had changed to an ability focus rather than a looks focus. After all, how much do my looks really matter? Not very much, and that's okay. The human body is a truly remarkable machine, and I'm glad I have one and that it functions well and that I can climb and stretch and swim and it just keeps going. I want to encourage you to look at your body as just that: a body. Your arms are arms, your legs are legs, your torso is a torso, and that matters more than what they look like. Your body is a machine made of meat, and you get to be the spooky ghost that operates it.

best of 2014: movies + tv

   First things first, here they are friends, the 41st - 45th movies I watched this year:

1. Cowboys & Aliens (11)
2. Meet Me in St Louis (44)
3. Rounders (98)
4. The Dark Knight (08)
5. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (05)

    All quite different from each other, clearly. And if you were trying to figure our which of these I'd watch and write a paper about for an university course, it would be that gem of hilarious cinema: Cowboys & Aliens.  What a world we live in.

   On to the best of! For the movies I picked my two favourites that I saw in theatres and one that I don't think many would find and watch unless they came across it by chance (as I did) or heard about it from a friend.

• Noah (2014, Darren Aronofsky)  This movie has garnered a great deal of attention and discussion, and when I watched it and posted about it earlier, I said that I felt I did not need to add to the conversation, except to say that this was a truly beautiful and poignant film. I still feel that same way. It's gorgeous. It's moving. It's worth your time. 
• Interstellar (2014, Christopher Nolan)  Speaking of movies that are beautiful (and filmed in Iceland), after you see Noah might as well see Interstellar. It's got space, it's got weird locations, it's got (fake) science. It makes me think that maybe one day they'll make a movie of Foundation. 
• Barbara (2012, Christian Petzold)  This might be the best movie I've seen all year, and maybe last year too. It is golden. It makes a point of being understated and a bit claustrophobic. It's also in German, but please don't let that dissuade you. A doctor living in Eastern Germany in the 80's makes a request to leave, and is subsequently relocated to a rural hospital and put under constant surveillance. Maybe I'm not making it sound very thrilling, but see this movie. I think it's on Netflix still. 

 SPEAKING OF NETFLIX, do you like TV? I do. I highly recommend these:

• The West Wing
• X-Files
• The West Wing
• X-Files
• The West Wing
• X-Files

   Start watching those and you'll be fine

  And that's that for this installment, folks. If you click on the "Movies" label at the bottom of this post you can see/read about the other films I watched this year, if you feel so inclined.

tattoos

   It is a truth universally acknowledged that by getting tattoos a person is essentially asking the world to openly gape at them. Or so it would seem, from my experience so far. I recently got a rather large, rather visible tattoo, and since having it I've been stared at a lot on the street. It is a weird feeling to walk along and suddenly notice that many pairs of eyes are trained on your leg, let me tell you. Besides being stared at I've also been told that I will undoubtedly regret being tattooed, been asked what I'm going to do or how I'm going to cover my tattoos on my wedding day if I get married (sometimes the "if" gets a little extra emphasis), been told that "oh, I just find tattoos so ugly", and so on.

   Normally these kinds of things don't bother me. I'm not a baby, and I'm entirely aware that tattoos aren't for everyone. I like my tattoos, and I don't mind if others don't share my high opinion of them. For some people tattoos are associated with a lot of negative things, and it takes effort to get past that. For others, it's purely aesthetic and they just don't like them. That's fine! People are allowed to think differently about things. That being said, I'd like to give you a few simple pointers in dealing with your tattooed friends and acquaintances, and these have more to do with plain old politeness than anything else.

1. Please don't stare. Tattoos are interesting and somewhat unusual and the eye is drawn to them, but staring is different from looking. When I say "staring" I meant the look that judges as opposed to the look that just says "oh hey! a tattoo!"
   
2. Do not touch them. I've had strangers poke and prod my tattoos and let me tell you, it is not an enjoyable experience. Unless you are absolutely certain that it is okay for you to touch a person, just don't do it.
3. If you know the person quite well, it is probably okay to ask what their tattoos mean. Keep in mind, however, that they might not mean anything or the meaning might be intensely personal. If they say "it's personal" or something else that essentially translates to "I am not comfortable telling you" then don't press the issue.
4. We all know what assuming does, and I recommend that you don't make hasty assumptions about people with tattoos. Don't assume that they are are bad parents, or that they don't have a good relationship with their family, or that they've fallen off of any variety of wagon and into the gutter (all things I have heard people say, sometimes right to me after seeing that I am tattooed). All sorts of people are tattooed and making hasty generalizations about them only makes you look silly at best and harshly judgmental/prejudiced at worst. 
5. Speaking of assuming, please don't assume that people will eventually regret their tattoos. They might, but they probably won't. When you say this, you are essentially saying "I don't think you are capable of making a lasting decision that will have repercussions throughout your life." That is a weird thing to say to people, especially if you know them well enough to have ever asked if they will get married or have children. Those are also decisions that will last a long time. 
6. If you tell me that I will look terrible when I am old I will probably say either "so will you, what's your point?" or, "actually, I'll look amazingly cool." Everyone is going to look old when they are old.
7. If someone has a tattoo and you think it is great, you can tell them so! It's like someone saying you have a great shirt, or that your hair is looking especially fly today.

so far

money

   As a departure from constant books books books, I am here today to talk to you about that inescapable woe: money money money. Or rather: some money-saving plans I am concocting/putting into action this month.

   It feels a little ridiculous to say I am "concocting" money saving plans because money saving is not very complicated. Here's how to do it: spend less. Voila, I am a genius. My  solution is straightforward and simple, and only requires a small degree of tenacity to carry out.

   This year, I have some big plans which will require big cash. Namely:

• Tuition
• California road-trip
• Sweet tats

   Since these will all suck up a great deal of money, I need to be spending far less than I make in the meantime. The things I spend the most money on are books and clothes and so: a partial spending fast. For all of February/March, here's what I can't spend money on:

• Clothing (including shoes and accessories)
• Books (so sad)

   And that's it. Now, this is an odd month for me to do this, but a good one. It's my birthday on the ninth (omgosh, happy birthday to me) and on top of that, it's my 25th birthday (a MILESTONE) and usually I am somewhat liberal in birthday-gifts-to-self.With my favorite things taken away (as if I don't have enough books/clothes already) I'll just have to be satisfied.Gift cards aren't included in "spending".

   As an added bonus, this will give me time to finally finish adding the rest of my books to my cataloging app and give me some incentive to get some closet-purging done.

resolve

   New Years. We love it. We hate it. We tried so hard and got so far, and in the end it doesn't even matter.

   Last year my resolution was simple: watch fewer movies and read more books than the year before. I kept it, which wasn't actually that hard because I read a paltry 25 books in 2012. 70 movies and 25 books in 2012, 62 movies and 40 books in 2013. The goal for this year is somewhat more challenging, especially considering that I will be starting school which, incidentally, involves a lot of reading and will take up a lot of my time.

   Resolved 2014:

• Read at least 52 books
• Watch at most 52 movies
• Read through the Bible

   I've decided that reading the whole Bible should be a rolling resolution. I should do it every year.  I've read through it, but there are some books I've only read once and that's a crying shame.

school

   "Behold, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?"

   My textbooks and course materials arrived today, my excitement grows and grows. On January 1 I can begin submitting assignments and doing school proper.

• HIST 215 Europe: Ancient to Early Modern
• PHIL 252 Critical Thinking
• CMNS 301 Communication Theory and Analysis
• CMNS 302 Communication in History 

   Course materials include: How To Lie With Statistics, the 1938 broadcast of The War of the Worlds, readings on Charlemagne, and a documentary about Marshall McLuhan.

   I've hung a lamp above my desk. Space has been made for textbooks on my shelves. A chipped mug holds necessary writing utensils. Course pages are being bookmarked. I'm very much looking forward to being in school again.

   On December 23 I have my last shift at the Jubilee.