my weekend in pictures and me yelling at a woman on the street

Some of the events of the weekend:

Saturday night I went to sleep at 9:30, woke up when the neighbors went to the bar, woke up when they came back from the bar, considered yelling at them and/or calling in a noise complaint, lay in bed angry and pissed off but doing nothing until they went inside and I eventually fell asleep. In other news, I turned 90.



5k! I kept up with the pace of the race I ran on October, which is good. It was a small race, which means that I came in last. I am a-ok with this because it wasn't like I was super slow... I was just the slowest of the runners. I'm comfortable enough with myself and my running that it doesn't matter to me.


Pumpkin pie! Homemade crust and filler. Yum.


I had leftover pumpkin mash from the pie, thus ... Pumpkin bread!


Homemade pumpkin pie and bread means ... Pumpkin seeds!


An angry and hesitant shared picture of tortilla soup!

Kari and I were walking back from the bus and a woman came riding up on her bike beside us, talking about how crappy men are and how unlucky in love she is. We mumbled in agreement, etc, and thought we left her behind us. Then she rode up again and started talking about how men are wusses and pansies and girls when they don't do their "job" (whatever that is). I told her I didn't appreciate her comparing weak men to women, saying that it put women in a hierarchy under men. Well, I said it less academically. Eventually we ended up shouting and she called us lesbians, and then somehow I ended up yelling across the SA gas area, "'Man up' is not an acceptable term!" At that point, I became the yelling lady and the circle was complete. The student became the teacher.

Honestly, I started talking back to her because I've had enough with people not living their beliefs. I believe in gender equality, even - especially - in language. How we speak and the words and idioms we use reveals our inner biases and beliefs. Inclusive language in church is another fine example of this exact thing. All in all, I just didn't want to think later, "Why didn't I say anything?" Casual sexism is sexism is sexism.

The End! Now off to take a pumpkin mush bath with my pumpkin shampoo...

the happy couple

In the morning when I choose to get dressed, sometimes I consider dressing nicer so I can go straight from one job to the other. The unfortunate side effect is that sometimes I go to work at the restaurant with bits of child drool and marker on my clothes. Otherwise it's worked out ok.

I've been fast-tracked for an in-person interview with Teach For America. More to come closer to December, but it's exciting news.


The happy couple and the happy couple.

people are hungry

I'm tired of people spending ridiculous amounts of money on non-essentials. I'm looking at you, 100k wedding and $700 shoes.

There are people who cannot afford food or shelter. Where are our priorities?

The things we could fix and the people we could feed if we stopped being so self-centered. I'm guilty of it too.

We've got to get past it, though. People are hungry.


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More on my life later.

comfortable

I did adult things today. I got to work at 8, worked all day, went to the library over lunch and finished a book I was reading, worked till 5 and then worked out until 6, bought apples, peppers, peanuts, and an acorn squash from the farmer's market, and then took the bus home.

I'm slowly beginning to adjust to life outside of school, especially an "adult" existence past the three summer months I'm used to. All of my 9-5 jobs before have been summer long, so we'll see how it goes past 90 days. I was reading up on some leadership trainings and one of them talked about a 100 day performance review. I mean, the media focuses on a president's first 100 days in office, so why shouldn't we also? I know some jobs have 90 day performance reviews, but mine really doesn't. We're just starting to evaluate the kids and figure out who/what we need to target, so it's still somewhat of a transitional time. However, that doesn't mean we shouldn't see where we're weakest and try and make that a stronger area.

Anyway. I feel old, but in an ok way. A way with which I'm comfortable.

Also - two posts in one day! How bizarre.

jake's honey

The sun is rising over the trees out my tiny, tiny window. It'd be pretty if I could see it better... well, I suppose it is pretty.

I ran the Historic Riverfront 5k this weekend, took two minutes off my 5k split time from the Bellin and 1 minute off my pace. I suppose my Bellin time isn't totally accurate of what I could do at the beginning of the summer because I was running a 10k and saved some of my energy for the second half - but it's still not bad. Go me!

For breakfast I'm eating oatmeal with honey from Jake's farm plus a cup of Alterra Sumatra coffee. Yum.

It's IDGI testing this week on my preschoolers. There seems to be no middle ground in the kid's results. They're either already on target/way past target or testing so low I can't even administer the test and count those scores. We assess kids with things like rhyming (pointing to pictures that rhyme), letter naming, picture naming, alliteration (pointing to pictures that start with the same letter) and letter sounds. At least now I know who to work with, what to do, etc. There's another testing period in the winter, so we'll see how it goes.

No pies as of lately, but I'm making one for MSD weekend. That's Mother, Sister, Daughter weekend for those of you out of the know. I've missed it two years running, but I'm back! Woo!

apples and overshare

I love fall. It's probably one of my top 4 favorite seasons. I love crisp air, apples, pumpkins, pies of each variety, scarves, and the not hot, not cold weather.

What I don't love is pictures of random people from my past on Facebook, nuzzled against each other with a bushel of apples. Seriously? Maybe I'm just getting to the point where I don't feel like oversharing online (says the woman writing a blog), but that picture was just ridiculous. I considered posting it here with the faces marked out, but I restrained myself.

Instead, I'll post pictures of the apple pie I made from scratch a few weeks ago:




Notice I didn't feel compelled to cuddle with anything while making these pies, nor to take pictures of it and post it up in a disgusting manner.

Obviously the only thing I love here is cooking and pie, not exhibitionism.

dirt everywhere

Rachel says I write too infrequently. Here's another post to appease her.

I went to a MRC training in St. Paul today, not too far from Andrew's place. It was easier to stay overnight there and bike the two miles from his place as opposed to get up early and bus for an hour. I didn't think to check the weather forecast, but when I left the training at 3:45, everything was wet and still a little misty. I thought about taking the bus home, but I thought I'd give it a shot. I hadn't biked to work the two days before and missed Dance Party yesterday, so I felt kinda shitty and lethargic since I hadn't gotten physical activity.

I got so wet and so dirty on the 9 mile bike ride home, but it was really really really really fun. I sped past blocks and blocks of cars on Snelling waiting to get on 94, flew down the giant hill on Marshall and sped over the Mississippi into Minneapolis, and stopped on the Greenway bridge to snap this picture:




And these of my dirty legs:



It was a good rainy Friday afternoon.

Also, I love American Routes. It makes working at 8 am Sundays totally worth it. That is all.