I've almost ditched my phone and other almost-updates

1.  My home phone was hooked up last week, and I purchased a phone (two, actually) and an answering machine.  The plan now is to get Margo a new cell phone tomorrow and end my service with AT&T on Wednesday.  Keep me honest, dear readers.

2.  We saw our dear friend Lisa George and her son and two step-children at the end of August.  It was wonderful, and made me want to hang out with her more.  Sadly, at least in terms of her proximity (which we were not taking any advantage of at all), things in her life changed significantly earlier this month, and she moved back to Montana.  Which has inspired my own nostalgia for Montana (or Iowa, or wherever I could live in a small town, quite frankly).  More on that later, perhaps.

3.  Hiking has been a bust this year.  We were so busy this summer that we hardly got any hiking in at all.  We had a couple of nice hikes (Little Si, which nearly killed us; Squak Mountain), but hiking largely fell by the wayside.

4.  Playing the Wii every week has also fallen by the wayside.  Unless, of course, watching Doctor Who on Netflix Streaming counts as playing the Wii.  (and can I tell you how much I love Doctor Who?  I have a new board on Pinterest devoted to Dr. Who geekery)

5.  Trying new recipes every week.  I've tried a bunch of new recipes.  Whether I've tried one every week is debatable.  Maybe on average.  We bought a new programmable slow cooker, and I have made some nasty shit in that thing.  Recipes that look good on first blush, but result in the wasting of enormous quantities of food and the eating of cold cereal for dinner.  One recent positive standout, however, were the batch of snickerdoodle pumpkin cream cheese sandwich cookies that Margo and I recently collaborated on.  Those were an unmitigated success.  Also, Margo has been cooking more, which is great, but reduces my opportunities to use new recipes.

6.  I have no update on the countertops, much to Margo's chagrin.  We keep spending the money in the home improvements/fun savings account on fun and travel rather than on home improvements. 

7.  We are heading to the Seahawks-Bengals game on Sunday!!!  I'm pretty stoked.  Also trying not to think about the miserable fantasy football season I'm having this year.  I'm 1-6 and have had the low score in the league in two weeks.  Quite a fall from last season, where I actually did pretty well.  Apparently that beginner's luck only lasts a year, regardless of the degree of your naivete.

8.  I haven't gotten a pedicure in months.  My pedicure buddy has two small children and has had a hard time getting away for a pedicure.  And I haven't had the impetus to go on my own.  And Margo hates to have her feet touched, so I'm on my own.

9.  We are trying out the Tahoma Farms CSA through Terra Organics.  I'm really liking Terra Organics and the Tahoma Farms CSA.  The CSA will end this week or next, and then we have the option of a number of other organic produce boxes.  Two appealing options are the Pacific Northwest box and a build-your-own option as well.  Another nice feature is that they deliver.  We come home on Tuesday evenings to a box of organic produce. 

10.  No dinner parties as of yet, but we are hosting a brunch potluck this weekend.  I'm thinking that might count.

11.  We actually went to Zoo Tunes twice this summer.  Once to see Lucinda Williams (who was significantly less drunk than the other time I saw her) and once to see Brandi Carlile, who totally rocked.  Things I learned:  we need some of those low chairs for outside concerts and I really don't like being out on weeknights.

Sports Fan?

Any of you who have known me for any length of time prior to last fall know that I have never been an athlete.  Nor have I ever been particularly interested in sports.  The possible exception being the season that I spent as a manager for girls basketball in middle school for what was arguably the best team in the tri-state region.  I also enjoyed attending the occasional high school basketball game while I was still in high school.  Then I spent a brief period of time trying really hard to enjoy baseball when I first fell in love with Margo (she was a Seattle Mariners fan before we ever moved to Seattle).

Whether you knew this about me or not, you may have noticed that I have a couple of sports-related goals on my list of goals.  One of my goals is to attend a Seattle Storm game at least once a season, and the other is to attend a Seattle Seahawks game.

Fortunately, I remembered that I needed to attend a Storm game this year about a week and a half before the end of the regular season.  Margo and I went to a game on 9/9/11, where the Storm played the Phoenix Mercury in the last game of the regular season.  I had been to a game once before, back when I was in grad school, but Margo had never been to a game.  I knew what a treat we were in for, but Margo had no idea.  The game was really, really awesome.  The Storm are the defending WNBA champions and the Phoenix Mercury is a really excellent team as well.  And Storm fans are extremely enthusiastic and quite loud.  One of the game-unrelated sources of entertainment for me was watching the little baby dykes cruising each other in the cheap seats.  It reminded me of the purely social-sexual function of attending high school football games as an adolescent.

One of the funny things about the Storm game is that Margo didn't really want to go in the first place.  Before the game started, she turned to me and said something to the effect of, "I don't really even like basketball."  She had a wonderful time in spite of herself (as did I).  In fact, she had such a good time that we are discussing the possibility of buying season tickets for next year (or going in on them with another couple we are friends with).  Not to mention the fact that she has asked me to buy her a Katie Smith jersey approximately 78 times since we went to the game.

I am also, as much as I am loathe to admit it, a recent football fan.  I blame my younger brother (Hi Matt!).  He invited Margo and I to join his Fantasy Football league last year, which we did.  I did quite well in the beginning, in spite of having a strange draft strategy.  I figured that I didn't know enough about football to try to have a football-related strategy, so I drafted only players from places I had been that didn't have objectionable criminal records.  I wound up with a pretty solid team and watched a lot of football in the process.  I was actually sad when the football season ended. 

I'm in the same league again this year, and used a similar draft strategy.  It's the second week of the season, and so far so good.  Now, I'm trying to actually learn more about the game.  I've been reading more game analysis and Margo just bought me a book about football.  And, believe it or not, I just asked for Madden for the Wii for my birthday.  So it follows that I should attend at least one NFL game, and since we live in Seattle, it will be a Seahawks game.  In spite of the fact that they were brutally slaughtered by the Steelers today.   Anyway, we have tickets for 10/30/11, and I'm looking forward to going.

Better Off?

I recently read Better Off: Flipping the Switch on Technology (Beth, I think you'd really like it and thought about you frequently while reading it).  As you may know, one of my goals is to ditch my iPhone, which I'm getting quite close to doing (the contract is up this month).  The primary reason that I decided that I wanted to get rid of the thing is because my attachment to/dependence on it has been making me uncomfortable for some time.  I spend way too much time on it, all too frequently to the exclusion of engaging in actual life activities or connecting with the people most important to me.  Ironically, I have much less deep and meaningful contact with my family and friends since acquiring the iPhone and much more superficial contact with a wider variety of people. 

Reading Better Off has led me to an even broader evaluation of the relationship that I have with technology and whether it is actually improving my life.  In that evaluation, I have begun to question whether I need to have a cell phone at all.  I lived quite happily and successfully without one well into adulthood.  I talked with my friends and family members on the phone with great regularity.  If I wasn't home, people just didn't get to talk to me.  I didn't have the immediate gratification of getting information I needed from people without engaging in the social niceties that may, in fact, have been solidifying and cementing our relationships.  As some of you know, I posted something on Facebook asking for people's feedback on my potentially getting rid of my cellphone.  Many people appeared horrified, some even comparing the idea to cutting off a limb.  And it was, in part, the ferocity of the opposition that has helped me move towards getting rid of my cell phone altogether.

My plan is to ditch my cell phone in favor of a landline of some kind.  Margo will keep her cell phone.  Although she has come around to the idea of not having a smart phone, she's not quite on board with not having a cell phone at all.  And it could come in handy in case of an emergency, I suppose.

I'm not sure what else will get the boot in my re-evaluation of my life.  Facebook is on the table, although I really value the re-connections I've made with some people, particularly people from my hometown.  I may just do a major downsizing on Facebook again.  Google+ might go as well.  It hasn't blown me away so far, but we'll see what happens.

One of the major points the author makes in Better Off is that manual labor can be more efficient and more enjoyable than using modern technology.  I'm going to be looking around my home and seeing what I can do manually in lieu of relying on machines.  I'd love to hear from you all if there are things you've started doing for yourself that you used to relegate to machines.  And I'll keep you posted on my progress.

I'm Back. Hopefully it sticks this time.

Obviously, I should have written goal #40 a little more specifically, as in "Start a blog and update it consistently."  I got a talking to from my little brother earlier this week while on a family camping trip (Hi, Matt!), so anyone who is still optimistic enough to be checking for updates has him to think.  He said some very flattering things about the blog, and then castigated me for neglecting it for so long.  And he's right, at least about my utter neglect of the blog.  And it's not that I don't think about writing blog entries.  In fact, I'm frequently composing them in my head.  It's just that, at the end of the day, I can't bring myself to do it.

I think I can attribute some of my inactivity to a brief upsurge in depressive symptoms.  Which is something that I have been having all kinds of internal debate about whether or not to post to my blog.  Most of the people who are the very closest to me know that I've struggled with depression for most of my life.  But this isn't something I've previously shared with the rest of the world.  There are a lot of complicated reasons why that is the case, but the biggest reason is the stigma that is still attached to admitting that you have something as terrible and shameful as depression.  As a mental health professional, I recognize the inanity of bowing to that stigma in my own personal life, but the fact remains.  And as a mental health professional whose co-workers occasionally read my blog, I've been a little worried about putting it out there on the internet.  But there it is.  I have depression.  To be more specific, Major Depressive Disorder, Recurrent. 

The last year has actually been pretty good.  I've worked really hard to find the right combination of medications and activities to help me keep things under control.  I've had a lot of help and support in finding the right tools and doing the work I need to do.  But, unfortunately, that doesn't mean that I'm not subject to the occasional relapse in symptoms.   And, oddly enough, when I start feeling bad, I stop doing a lot of the things that bring me satisfaction.  Apparently blogging is among those things that goes when I'm feeling worse.  But along with trying to get a couple of miles of walking in at least three or four times a week, I'm trying to get back in the saddle of working on the blog.

Jenny's Visit

As I mentioned previously, my friend Jenny came to visit in May.  Jenny is one of my oldest friends.  I realized recently that she and I have been friends for 20 years this summer.  Somehow we've managed to stay friends through some pretty rough times and over great distances (she lives in Tennessee).  She flew in on a Wednesday night (which quickly turned into Thursday morning) and stayed until Monday morning.  I took both Thursday and Friday off and did my best to give her a nice overview of Seattle while she was here.  We did a number of fun and touristy things, some of which I had not done before.

On the first day, we slept in a bit and then had lunch at Two Tartes because I had a Living Social deal there.  We both had sandwiches and split a pastry, all of which was quite tasty.  Then we made our way to Fremont for the Theo Chocolate factory tour.  For those of you who do not know, Theo Chocolate makes some of the best chocolate on the planet.  And their factory tour is quite educational and opened my eyes to the variety of flavors that can be found in chocolate the first time I took it.  You also get to eat quite a bit of chocolate while you're there, which is an added bonus.  After the factory tour, we met Margo and another of our high school friends, Cate, for dinner at Tutta Bella in Columbia City.  It was fun to see Cate and eat delicious pizza.  Here's a picture of the three of us together in front of Tutta Bella.

That's Cate in the middle and Jenny on the right.  After dinner, we also hit Saltwater State Park and did a little birdwatching.  Mostly we saw Surf Scoters and Buffleheads while I talked excitedly about birds to Jenny.  I do a lot of excited talking about birds these days.  Here's an action shot of me talking about birds while Jenny listens patiently:

On to day two.  On day two, we started out at Pike Place Market.  I took Jenny to Piroshky Piroshky for lunch.  This is always one of my favorite places for lunch or a snack.  We also went to the original Starbucks store (Jenny has a friend who is obsessed with Starbucks) and got a monster cookie at Cinnamon Works.  Here is a picture of the special official golden column in the Starbucks store that tells you that it is, in fact, the first Starbucks store. 

We had to wait in line a ridiculously long time to get into the darned Starbucks store.  I don't really understand the attraction myself, but I try to accommodate.  Then it was on to the Space Needle, which I have not visited before.  That also required a lot of waiting in line, as well as a number of terrible attempts at self-portraits on the way there, this being the worst:

The Space Needle was kind of cool, but really expensive.  I don't know that I would do it again, unless I had an out-of-town guest that felt really strongly about going.  It was almost 20 bucks.  Luckily we went on a really clear day (one of depressingly few that we've had this year), and the views were pretty incredible:

After the Space Needle, we met Margo for an early dinner and drinks at Lunchbox Laboratory.  It was pretty delicious, and they serve mixed drinks with Tang as an ingredient.  Then it was home to recover from the day.

On day 3, we met another high school friend, Morgan, and his girlfriend Ryan for the Underground Tour, which I had always wanted to do.  It was pretty awesome, and a great lesson in Seattle history to boot.
The tour guide was fun, and I always love hanging out with Morgan.  Here's a picture of our little party in front of the totem pole and the pergola in Pioneer Square (minus Margo, who is behind the camera):

After the Underground Tour and lunch at Tat's, we rode the lightrail back to Tukwila and then went to Kubota Garden.  Kubota is one of my favorite places in Seattle, and it was fun to show it off to Jenny.  One of the best things about it is that it's free.  It also has so many little nooks and crannies and bridges and ponds.  Here's a picture of Jenny and Margo on one of my favorite bridges there:

That was pretty much the end of the third day.  On day four, we took the ferry over the Bainbridge Island to have lunch with another friend from high school, Brandi.  Neither of us had seen Brandi in 16 years, which is a long time.  It was really lovely to see her and catch up.  She's just as sweet as she ever was.  Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures from that day, which was Jenny's last day.  Then we headed home and lazed in the living room and watched The Invention of Lying.  Jenny left the next morning and life went back to it's usual routine.

It was fun to see Jenny and to be able to do some fun things that I had been wanting to do for a while.  It was also fun to have the impetus to see the other folks from high school that live in the area.  I didn't even know Brandi lived in the area until Jenny was getting ready for the trip.

Just today, I got the sweetest thank you gift in the mail from Jenny.  It was a beautiful picture book from Shutterfly with pictures of her trip and narration about the trip.  It's fun to have such a tangible reminder of the trip, and to be able to look back at it and be reminded of all of the fun things we did.  Thanks, Jenny!

Fishing in the Dark

I am so close to actually fishing.  I've had a fishing license for at least two months now.  I bought a fishing pole a couple of weeks ago.  I bought a book about fishing.  I started reading the Washington State fishing regulations, and that's where things got a little bit overwhelming.

When I added all of these bits about fishing to my list of goals, I did it with memories of fishing in a pond or a lake with my dad as a kid.  It seemed like it could be a great way to spend some time outdoors and also provide us with an occasional meal of fresh fish.  I had no idea it was so complicated.  For those of you who are not familiar with the vagaries of fishing regulations, let me just give you a taste.  I just have a freshwater license.  I cannot fish in any rivers or streams that enter into Puget Sound or the Strait of Juan de Fuca.  Statewide, there are only certain fish that I can catch, in varying numbers and with varying size regulations.  Then, virtually every single body of water has it's own set of regulations regarding fish that may be caught that may differ from the statewide regulations in a variety of ways.  In addition, I'm not sure that I could positively identify any freshwater fish aside from a Northern Pike.

We went camping this weekend and were going to be staying near a lake in which it is possible to fish.  I took my fishing pole.  If it had just been Margo and I, I might have gone fishing, but the thought of trying to go fishing with an additional audience was just more than I can handle.  I'm confident that fishing will happen soon, however.  I just need a little more information and a little more time to work up to it.

It's Been Too Long, and There Are So Many Reasons

I can't believe it's been more than a month and a half since my last post.  I started with such good intentions and have gotten incredibly far behind.  The last month and a half has been busier than it had a right to be, and the blog (and you, gentle reader) has suffered as a result.  I have much to update you about, and you will note that the list of birds seen and identified has grown substantially.  I guess the bright side of not blogging is that it has largely been because of the fact that I have been busy living, and doing all of the things I wanted to do when I started this adventure.  In addition to all of the fun things we've been doing around here, my baby sister graduated from college and Margo's grandfather died, both of which warranted road trips.

Several goals have been achieved since my last post, each of which will receive a post of their own.  I bought a fishing pole (and a net, and almost went fishing).  We went to the Arboretum while everything was in glorious bloom.  My friend Jenny came to visit.  I went to the Northwest Folklife Festival.  We went camping AND visited Mt. St. Helens in the same weekend (this weekend, in fact).  We have tickets to two different Zoo Tunes concerts (the first one is coming up on Wednesday).

So stay tuned, and updates should be headed your way, if you haven't given up already!