A Thanksgiving Miracle

Monday in St. Louis, I took my dog on a walk with my iPod clipped to my sweatshirt and my phone. I took out my earbuds to talk to my sister and when I hung up the phone, I looked down and my little red iPod shuffle was gone. GONE. I had already been walking an hour and had to call Kyle to help me look and we didn't find it that day. In fact, I walked the dog on the same route Tuesday and Wednesday, and didn't find it. Part of the reason was because in St. Louis they have this thing called fall where all the leaves fall off the trees - the RED leaves which are the same colour as my RED iPod.

Thursday morning, though, I got a phone call - a girl named Lisa up the street had found my iPod. Good thing I had my name and phone number engraved on the back :)

Holidays...

...are a little different this year - this year we have a house, and today we're going to go on the hunt for Christmas lights to adorn our roofline and bushes. We're going to try out a living Christmas tree - not just live, but one you can plant after Christmas. I am usually daunted by the fact that we've got so much work to do on our house, but I am far more excited that this is the beginning of many years of holiday decorations, filling the house with candlelight and family and friends :)

We are finally back from a relaxing 2 weeks in St. Louis. My presentation with Bill at the American Music Therapy Association national conference went really, really well - I love conference, I needed to be filled back up with the company of over 1,200 music therapists from around the country and to refocus, rediscover the different facets of my passion. I also got a bit of a job to keep me going in this time between taking my certification exam and finding a solid job.

I've got to go back to Austin tomorrow (yay traffic!) and will be there for my last week at work, which means closing things up with the adolescent girls I've been working with, my last First Thursday on South Congress, and saying see you later to the wonderful friends who have supported me as these last 6 months flew by. I still can't believe I'm done with my internship. Now all I have to do is finish my thesis and I'll be graduating in May. The light at the end of the tunnel just keeps getting brighter :)

St. Louis is for lovers...of life

Greetings from St. Louis!  We've been here for the last few days - weddings and family galore :) 

I've been reading a lot of the newspaper, which is quite different from newspaper in Austin, Texas.  If you remember, Missouri was a much debated state that is made up of a lot of white Catholics.  I read one article about how Catholics were either being denied or asked to seriously consider taking communion if they voted for Obama, lest they rain damnation upon their head. It of course had a lot to do with the abortion issue.  What's maddening is another article I read (different news source) about how certain pro life groups are unwilling to compromise on the abstinence sex education issue.  So, the hope is that we'll lower the abortion rates not by educating youngsters about safer sex practices but by closing our eyes, spinning around 3 times and hoping that their moral compass will point them in the right direction?  Maddening. 

The other article I read was from the AP about how hate crimes have risen since election day.  This in particular makes me angry.  Has our nation really returned to a time when burning crosses and randomly assaulting black people is an acceptable outlet for anger?  It's appalling.

I prayed a lot this morning for the new president and his family - they're going to need it.  

Other than the newspaper I've started on The Audacity of Hope, which I recommend to those of you who didn't vote for him, and those who did.  I don't want to be one of those who thinks the new president poops rainbows and butterflies, and want to understand him more.  People say that he's underqualified for the presidency due to lack of experience but this is a man who studied and taught constitutional law for 10 years at Columbia University and from what I've read so far is trying to hash out how our government has gotten in the mess it is currently in and really has a passion to try and fix things.

The other reason the book is really good is that it makes me want to go back and study all the government that I didn't pay attention to in high school.  There's a LOT of history in the book and a lot of things one doesn't consider, especially the struggles of African Americans and what legislation has and hasn't done for them in the past.

As for me, I think though I lean liberal, I'm at the point that I'm tired of the bi-partisanism that rules this country and hope that with this presidency everyone can get more involved. I guess that makes me an independent.  Constitutionalist.  Whatever.

Kings of Leon

So, maybe I'm a little late to the game, seeing as the album Only By The Night was released September 23rd earlier this year.  I'd heard of the band, Kyle totally loves them, and as I love to hate bands he likes, hated them.  I can't really put a finger on why, maybe it was butted up too close to the latest dark and twisty Modest Mouse (yes his taste in music is excruciatingly cool. love that about him. and by love i mean hate.) but after watching Gossip Girl last night, my window into everything cool and fashionable, I made a date with myself at Waterloo Records for lunch the next day.  

Aaaaand I pretty much haven't stopped listening to the album ever since.  "Sex on Fire" is crazy catchy, hot, and I also really like the next track "Use Somebody" as well.  What I like most about the band is that they've got this simmering energy that reaches its climax only when the song is really ready to.  Plus, what's not to like?  They're a bunch of cute dudes making great music.

running away again

so I've got that renewed omg-must-work-out thing going right now - walked yesterday about a mile and a half before my stomach kept me from going farther (further detox from the weekend - blecch) and then today I went 5 miles - walked 1 mile, then ran 100 meters walked 300 for 4 laps, ran 200 meters walked 200 for 4, ran 100 walked 300 for 4, and walked 4 laps. So I guess I ran a mile and walked 4. Might do the same tomorrow, depends on how I feel.

mmm veggies

After overindulging in lots of meat and alcohol this weekend, I decided to cook every vegetable in the house last night - pasta with artichokes, spinach, garlic, squash, with a side of brussel sprouts and a salad with avocado to boot. nom nom nom.

Wurstenfesten

I'd like to introduce you to the sunshines of my life. On the left we have Connor and the right is Katrina. They are a year apart, which is interesting because their mothers are also a year apart. The other interesting thing is that though I am related to both of them, they are not related to each other :)

I've tried over and over to figure out the best way to relay the story of the weekend but without some background knowledge and perhaps a flow chart, you're not going to get it. My dad Rick and his girlfriend Regina gave their daughter Debbie up for adoption I think when my dad was 18. He married a woman named Lauri later and had another girl named Michelle, then divorced, then married my mom, Nora, and had me. Debbie has three kids - Taylor, Parker, and Connor, and Michelle is getting married this New Year. On mom's side, before she married my dad, she was married and had 2 kids, Jodi and Paul.  Jodi is married and has one daughter - Katrina. Okay. So. Now we can go on, quick, before I have to explain my cousins-who-are-really-like-my-siblings-because-their-moms-died.

This weekend, Debbie brought her kids, including the cuteness above and the two dudes below. I was so nervous driving in for dinner on Friday night because it had been YEARS since I'd met my neice and nephews and an internal debate raged all of Friday - do I stop at Toy Joy and get them all presents? What the heck is the right thing to do here?
I ended up just driving to NB and the night pretty much ended up being a huge reacquaintance with me and my sister, and running around playing music and being crazy with my neices and nephews.

The next day we all went to Wurstfest during the day after watching UT play Baylor. In the mean time, my sister's step sister (Jodi's dad's third wive's daughter) and husband came into town, so at the table in the Biergarten we were this huge, crazy mess of family.

I would say that I don't know how other families handle this sort of spaghetti of family, but actually I do.  From what I know, a lot of people who have messes of steps and halves and such don't really get on that well.

We all joke about putting the "funk" in dysfunctional but really, I love love LOVE my family.  

As my half sister's step sister put it this weekend, after going through hard times herself she could see how these kinds of things happen...that our parents all did things out of love and created this huge tangle of a generation that decided to throw out conventional wisdom, erase the boundary lines and love each other regardless of what our parents did.  For example, Kat ended up staying with Connor Saturday night, something my sister was way conflicted about due to the nature of the strained relationship between my mom and dad. But you know what?  Everyone was cool with it, and best of all we didn't need to explain the whole nasty story in a language 6 and 7 year olds would understand because really, they would just understand that they couldn't see their new friends and their parents/aunts/uncles wouldn't tell them why. Anyway, it was a really amazing weekend, one that I am still very much processing.  I'm looking forward to a renewed relationship with my sister and us all growing closer through the years.

In other news, my sometimes-intimidating-because-he's-so-dang-awesome supervisor called me "intern extraordinnaire" today.  

Point Christina. 

And PS hanging around Debbie's kids totally solidified my desire to have three kids. It was chaos, man.  I loved every minute of it.

Huh? What just happened?

Well here it is folks, the beginning of the end. This next week I've got 4 days of work, then I'm off to St. Louis for two weeks, then back to Austin for tying up of loose ends and such. I am so ready to be done with this limbo thing and back in Dallas and into real life, whatever that will bring.

The Accidental Chicken Farmer

On Wednesday night, The Great Kate and I went to Cipollina to experience their Farm-to-Table dining. They do these every first Wednesday of the month and feature local Austin farmers who supply the restaurant with organic, local ingredients. The three course meal is $35 that can be accompanied by a wine pairing - $7 for white and $7.50 for red. We were dubious but still hopeful when we read the first item on the menu: Chicken Liver Mousse. I've tried foie gras once when I was in France and totally hated it, so I hoped that this chicken liver stuff wasn't going to be totally gross. Also, if you've done any research on how they treat ducks that are farmed for foie gras, it's positively disgusting - they cut off their beaks and feet and feed them so their liver will be huge. It's inhumane. Therefore, Kyle's morally opposed to it and I just simply won't touch it 'cos it tasted gross in the land that's famous for it.

We grabbed a cozy table in the corner and sipped our wine while anxiously awaiting the first course. The presentation was beautiful - a disc of mousse topped shredded greens with a basalmic vinagrette and garnished with two pieces of rosemary bread. As a bonus, the farmer came out and spoke with us about what from his farm we'd be eating. The mousse, in a word, was fantastic.

I suppose at this point you're thinking, "Wait a minute, isn't she a vegetarian?" I should explain that it's not that I don't like meat...anyone who's ever been around me when I'm in the vicinity of sausage pizza knows better. What concerns me is the practices that surround the industrialized meat industry that involves not only horrendous acts done to the food we eat but also the food that our food eats that is laden with hormones and antibiotics. In fact, when I stopped eating meat altogether at the beginning of this year, my cramps actually went away. I've always said that when I can trust the source of my meat, I will go back to eating it. However, I definitely will eat meat not as the centerpiece of my meals but in small quantities because my stomach just cannot take it.

The second course was absolutely to die for - we had pasta imported from Italy with local roasted chicken, sided with a fried poached egg and some more of the rosemary bread. The portion was just right, the chicken cooked perfectly, and the mystery of the poached egg...well, it was like eating an egg overeasy on your breakfast. Heavenly. The wine pairing (I had the red) also went beautifully with the meal. Topping everything off was the most exquisite creme brulee I have ever eaten. It was spiced with vanilla and cloves and I would have licked the bowl if we weren't in a classy joint. The atmosphere of Cipollina truly reminded me of real Italian bistros in a refreshing way.

After dinner, we spotted the farmer and went over to thank him for our meal. The Great Kate, being a journalist and all, asked how he got into farming chickens and it turns out that he and his wife were moving to Austin, and his brother in law was on a plane going to Austin and happened to chat up a guy who was selling 11 acres of a chicken farm in South Austin. He says that he came by it quite accidentally - he'd never touched a chicken in his life but now oversees every bit of the processing, from hatching to delivering them to local restaurants. I was pretty sure we were the first customers to ask him this question because his face lit up like a Christmas elf as he spoke of his 1500 chickens and how he's getting ready to buy lambs and pigs for the cooler months.

It was an awesome experience and if you're ever in Austin on the first Wednesday of the month, I recommend going to Cipollina and checking out the local fare. I also learned that there are many other restaurants in Austin that also serve locally grown/raised food, like Vespaio. It may be pricier, but think of the good things you're doing for your body.

way excited for America

I don't really care who you voted for, this is a huge moment for America and a huge moment in our lives - something we'll tell our kids about.

quotables

Working at a mental institution has it's hilarious points:

Me: "Are you involved with something called MHMR? Does that sound familiar to you?"
Kid: "No. What does MHMR stand for?"
Me: "Mental Health/Mental Retardation."
Kid: "I'M NOT RETARDED!!!"

Lady (while charging up to me): "I've just wet my pants!"
Me: "M'am, it looks like you should change your pants."
Lady: "No I won't! I'm PROUD of my pee pee!"

*gasp!*

I just found out that my cousin & Jason Mraz will be in St. Louis on November 23rd.

I WILL ALSO be in St. Louis November 23rd. That is in fact the evening of the morning I am presenting at the AMTA conference. I kind of want to go to the show again - is that weird?

spread too thin, again.

I know, I know - that's like saying, "Dude, did you notice the sky today? It's like, BLUE," or mentioning in passing that the Pope is Catholic. But whatever, I had a really good day. We threw an awesome Halloween festival for the kids, I got my face painted, and I set up a one to one session with a kid. I'm also on a high from the ridiculously cute song I wrote with one of my groups about the Fall and how everything changes (weather, our clothes, time) this time of year and how we take care of ourselves. Maybe I'm finally getting ahold of this dual diagnosis MHMR thing. Then of course the geriatric group right after me bombed. Live learn and mo'betta, as we used to say back when LHB was cool.

Gobbledegook.

Sigh.

I have so much to say that I don't really know where to start. My mind/daily life lately seems to be lots of little blurs of activity. Work is really good - I have three more weeks 'til St. Louis and then the wedding and then the big fancy national music therapy conference where I just found out I'll be presenting to as many as 100 people (depending on if people want to get up early to check out my presentation but seeing as I apparently beat out a bunch of other multicultural MT presentations, I predict that all THOSE GUYS will be at it. At least, I hope so.) (was that too long for a parenthetical statement?)

Kyle keeps asking what I want to do while we're in StL and my thought is that we'll get there, party for the wedding, have a blast in the aftermath with family and friends and then I'll spend 6 solid days freaking out. THEN I can concentrate on things like Thanksgiving and...NOT graduating in December.

Oh yeah, that's a long story. The short of it is that working where I work is um, stressful. I really feel like I've thrown myself wholeheartedly into it and if I've procrastinated on my thesis, it's only because I've been doing things like hanging out with friends, which is a VERY GOOD THING for my sanity. Especially considering where I work. Besides, I can start studying for my orals NOW and get that over with in a timely manner as well as defend my paper (if that LADY will EVER give me my DATA) (or heck, even show up on time I mean, AT ALL, for the appointments we set) and plan a really good graduation/housewarming party. Maybe by then we'll have a new bathroom. K's really ready to be done with the summer camp bathroom we're currently tolerating.

At any rate, my advisor laughed out loud when I told her that I no longer have any pride - just do whatever it takes for me to get this dang paper written, rewritten, defended, whatever. I just want to get it done. When you start out writing a thesis you think it's your THING and then you realize along the way that it's just another flaming hoop (albeit a very small tricksy hoop that keeps changing on you) that you have to jump through. I've even second-guessed my brilliant scheme to write a thesis thinking to myself, "Is it too late to turn this into a professional paper?" (yes) and a good friend recently put it best when she said that she's leaning toward a ppaper because writing a thesis is more for if later you want to get your Ph.D. in which case you'd have to write an equivalent somewhere along the way and who's to say first off that she even WANTS to get her Ph.D. and second, if that happens it'll be pretty far down the line and how can she make a decision now on something she may not want down the line? As for me, I know that I want to be a professor, know that I want to get my Ph.D., know that it's going to be loads of work especially if I want to start up the ol' baby maker in the next 5 years.

Wow - getting that all out of my head was really therapeutic.

Speaking of therapeutic, the Jason Mraz show in Dallas was AMAAAAAAAZING and not just because our sweet tickets were 13th row. When I get the rest of my brain cells together, I'll write about it because it was probably one of the better shows I've been to.

Also, leaving this place is going to be really hard for me in a couple weeks - I've come to really love and enjoy my coworkers and it's going to be tough to leave them.

No promises that I'll write any time soon because I have to make boxes and peel grapes for the Fall Carnival on Wednesday and then it's back to Dallas on Friday!

Advice

So, Etsy friend(s): I'm thinking about selling my stuff on Etsy. How do I get started, what are the good/bad points of it, and how do you deal with payment/shipping/etc.

I also need a good name for my store if anyone has suggestions...

Heck. NOW what?

There is a very serious potential buyer with his eye on the house I am currently staying at. The question is, if it sells, what the heck am I going to do for the next 4 weeks?

My first inclination is PRAY. Not for the house not to be sold (of course) but because I really really have no idea what I'm going to do. This would of course happen the very day after I write how warm and fuzzy and comfy I am here.

breathe in, breathe out, wash, rinse, repeat

The thesis saga continues, unfortunately. I had asked the Administrator in charge at the school I did my work at if I could use the scores from a standardized test. Now, the test is comprised of several subtests, and if you were an Administrator, would you let your eager music therapy student know that not all of the subtests would be given? I hope if you're ever an Administrator, that you would, because they of course use tests A and B, while my prospectus was approved for the use of tests B and F.

This is of course along the same lines of me asking when the test is given and leaning on "at the end of the year" when in fact that meant APRIL. This thesis writing thing really is becoming a large test of my patience and perseverance. I am always ALWAYS learning that. If you're ever bored one day and think to yourself, "Hey Self, I wonder what God's teaching Christina today...humm...." It's PATIENCE. I guaran-freaking-tee you.

In other news, thanks to The Great Kate I am reading for pleasure again and it gives my brains a special kind of tingly feeling. I do believe that reading makes one smarter and find it freaky when people tell me they don't like to read. That's like, not liking babies or puppies. I also took myself on an impromptu date to JoAnn's fabrics which was probably a bad thing if you're asking the Hubs, but not if you're talking to my creativity. Between the reading and the crocheting and the Christmas-present-jewelry-making, I finally feel....rested here for the first time after moving up to Round Rock.

Other good things that are going on: My mom is finally out of the hospital - thanks for all the thoughts and prayers and wishes. Another good thing: Colt McCoy is looking like Heisman material. I think he deserves it more than Vince Young did because this year the whole team looks tight, amazing, like a machine that will not be stopped.

Oh and did I mention I got the sweet hook up for the Jason Mraz show this Thursday in Dallas? My family rocks my world.

not funny ha-ha

After a taxing 24 hours and a 45-minute chat with my dear Maria about internships, I got this in my fortune cookie:

:I am always doing that which I cannot do in order to learn how to do it:

I think I am going to frame that in with a picture of my coworkers when I leave. Which is by the way in like 5 weeks. Time really does fly.

Walking and Running

In other news, here's my playlist for tonight in order:

Margarita Stand - Bob Schneider 2:22
Friends In Low Places - Garth Brooks 4:20
*I'm Yours - Jason Mraz 4:03
The Heart of Life - John Mayer 3:18
Can't Stop - Ozomatli 2:56
**So What - P!nk 3:34
Snow (Hey Oh) - RHCP 5:35
Bombananza - The Scabs 4:36
No Baby Swings Like Mine - South Austin Jug Band 2:38
Hideaway - The Weepies 2:49
Wonderful Rainbow - Israel Kamikolawe (or whatever) 4:53
Sunrise - Norah Jones 3:21
Hallelujah - Rufus Wainwright 4:09

Total Time: 48.4 minutes

* denotes song that I ran to. In hindsight I don't know that I'd pick a four-minute song right off the bat, maybe something shorter. Oh well, next week.

** denotes song that you can really get your powerful woman strut on to.

Cancer Sucks.

Today I was reminded of why I started this whole crazy idea of triathlons in the first place.

My beautiful and driven roommate in college Sarah started UT's Colleges Against Cancer in affiliation with the American Cancer Society and for some insane reason implored scatterbrained, flaky, undergrad me to head up her entertainment chair. I think I was supposed to delegate but not sure I did, but anyway, one of the first meetings, Sarah asked all the chair people why we were involved in CAC. I of course was running late and didn't know I'd be saying anything at the meeting, so I just started talking about the people I knew who had dealt with cancer - my paternal grandmother had just passed away from lung and colon cancer, my maternal step-grandfather died from pancreatic cancer when I was in high school, my dad and paternal grandfather both had bouts with skin cancer, my friends Chris and Joanna were diagnosed the same summer and then my dear Kelli had a scare as well later, and most importantly my mom, who was diagnosed with thyroid cancer when I was born and because of treatment wasn't able to breastfeed me.

Just this summer I've had two dear friends and mentors diagnosed with some form of cancer, as well as a scare in Kyle's family. A friend at work is having abnormal tests show up and is waiting on the results and earlier this week one of my newest, dearest friends just informed me that she's going in for surgery before the end of October.

People, to be honest this stuff scares the shit out of me. There are no more words at the moment.