Day 34 – Jumping In Puddles

I don’t have any photos of this… bummer.  I love jumping in puddles.  I’m sure I did it as a child, but my fondest memory of jumping in puddles is from college at OSU.  It was an autumn day.  Jesse and I had been dating for just a couple months.  Our friend Rayne was visiting us.  The three of us ran all around campus barefoot, running, jumping and splashing in the puddles.  What bliss!

Last night Jesse and I went on our nightly neighborhood walk in a torrential downpour.  We were soaked before we had reached our mailbox.  On our way home, we passed a flooded sewer drain that was just too perfect to pass up.  Jesse beat me to it, but we were both jumping in the deep, cold puddles with youthful abandon.

Jumping in puddles is one of those activities that can keep you young.  It feels so irresponsible it’s delicious.  I hope I never outgrow the urge to dance and play in the rain!

Day 33 – Colleen Pakkianathan

Colleen and Stephen

Colleen is my step-cousin – my step-dad’s sister’s daughter.  I am writing about Colleen today because she became a mama today!  She welcomed her first baby – a little girl named Emma Claire – this morning! I am so happy for Colleen and her little family.

Colleen and Emma at 36 4/7 weeks... yesterday!

I have always really liked Colleen.  One of my first memories of her was playing on the swings at an elementary school here in Eugene.  Sounds like we’ve known each other for a long time, right?  Well, we were 18 at the time… never too old to swing!  Colleen is a very sweet person – one of those who is always smiling.

The Debbies and Colleen (aka Colleen's mom, my mom, Colleen)

Colleen and her husband are both doctors – she is an anesthesiologist, he an OB/GYN (which I’m sure came in handy during the pregnancy!).  They live in California, but I hope they move up to Portland (with the rest of her siblings!) soon.

Day 32 – The Little Colonel

Lloyd Sherman is the title character in The Little Colonel series by Annie Fellows Johnston.  These are really, really old books.  When I was little my mom started reading them to me.  She had read them as a little girl, and so had her mother.  The Little Colonel is a little girl who lives in ‘Lloydsboro,’ Kentucky.  She has many adventures, but is an intelligent, well-mannered young lady with good southern values.

When I was little, we didn’t have the complete set of books.  Whenever we went into a used bookstore, we would look for the books we were missing.  I often got one as a gift for Christmas or my birthday.  It was always so exciting to get one of the missing Little Colonel books.

I’ve never actually read the entire series, but I am in the process of attempting again.  Right now I am re-reading The Little Colonel at Boarding School and Lloyd and her friends continue to get into well-behaved-mischief!  I can’t wait to get to The Little Colonel’s Knight Comes Riding to see who Lloyd married (although Granny kind of gave that away 15 years ago when I got that one for Christmas…).

Day 31 – Ben Folds

I love Ben Folds.  I loved Ben Folds Five, but that didn’t work out, so now I just love Ben Folds.  My college roommate, Kate really got me hooked on Ben Folds with the Whatever and Ever Amen album.  We listened to that a lot.  I also listened to Songs for Silverman a lot while I was in Azerbaijan.  Ben is a really talented musician and a very witty lyricist.  I got to see him live while I was in college and he put on a really good show, playing lots of instruments and singing many of my favorite songs.

So, there’s this guy on YouTube who’s doing chatroulette with a paino… I was convinced he was Ben Folds…

Then Ben Folds did this:

Now I’m not so sure, but I think both are awesome and hilarous!!

Day 30 – Vincent Van Gogh

(I can’t believe I missed TWO days!! I’m a bad blogger! Apologies…)

Van Gogh has always been one of my favorite painters, perhaps because he was one of my dad’s favorite painters.  I think I saw this painting at the MET in New York (or at least a similar one) and really loved it.  I love how Van Gogh’s paintings show motion.  Just look at the sky and branches in this painting.  You can see the wind.  I love it.  It’s the sort of fantastic reality in which I would like to live.

I saw this painting at the Getty Museum in LA long ago, when the Getty Museum was in the old Getty mansion, not up on top of the city as it is now.  I love the vibrancy of the colors in this painting… the blues, oranges and even the whites seem to live on the canvas.

I really love how Van Gogh was able to capture life in his paintings.  I love the mood and feeling of this painting.  It’s such a sweet moment.

Day 29 – Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close

This is my favorite book.  Absolutely my favorite.  And I have read a lot of books being an English major and all.  And this is my favorite.  Jonathan Safran Foer wrote this book when he was 28 (which makes me feel quite lazy and unaccomplished) and it is truly a work of art.

Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close is an amazing story of Oskar Schell, a young boy in Manhattan.  Oskar is a nine-year-old tambourine playing, letter writing, searching Francophile pacifist.  Foer created his story using three separate but overlapping narrations, one a first person narration of Oskar’s life, the other two narrations of other people (whom I won’t reveal…).  I am not a literary critic to I can’t really give you any amazing insights into how this book is an amazing work of literature.  I can only tell you that it changed my life, my idea of grief, my expectations of what literature could and should be.

Day 28 – In My Life

In My Life is one of my all time favorite songs.  I think the first time I heard it was at IHS graduation – a South Eugene grad sang it acapella.  It seemed very fitting for a graduation ceremony.  There have actually been quite a few times in my life when this song fit the moment perfectly – high school graduation, leaving for college, the diaspora of the Camannie Girls, leaving for Peace Corps, leaving Peace Corps.

It’s just a lovely little song that seems so very honest to me.  It’s about love, friendship and memory.

Day 27 – The Light in the Piazza

This is a musical that I saw right before we left for Peace Corps when it was on tour in Portland.  I instantly fell in love with the romantic music, the beautiful sets and costumes and the love story.  It is set in Florence, which is quite possibly my favorite city in the world.  In Azerbaijan, I couldn’t get the music out of my head, so I had someone send it to me.

I love this.  I can’t even really describe why I love it so much.  I think it is just beautiful. I remember the moment I fell in love with this next song… We used to take the train from Mingechevir to Baku because it was the most comfortable option.  It took about 7 hours.  One day we were coming into Baku and I was watching the landscape change from few houses spread out to houses that were more compact and closer together.  I saw laundry drying, children playing, and  I remember thinking that I need to really pay attention to what I was seeing since I knew I wouldn’t be there forever.  Then this song came on.  It’s all about beauty and love and unexplainable things.  I think at that moment, I felt that for Azerbaijan and for, I think, myself.

I also just realized that the man who originated the role of Fabrizio is Matthew Morrison, Mr. Schuester from GLEE.  He’s amazing.

Day 26 – Cindy Swanson

Cindy was my sitemate in Mingechevir during Peace Corps.  I really enjoyed Cindy.  She was always quite positive about everything, so that always helped when I was feeling a little down.  She worked in the World Vision office and always had great stories of driving to neighboring villages with her coworkers.  One story I will never forget is how the driver of the car, as he was driving, pulled out a gun and shot a duck in mid-air.  Only in Azerbaijan… or perhaps other parts of the US… I’m not exactly sure…

Cindy, Bev and Natalie

Cindy was what Peace Corps calls a ‘mature volunteer,’ but I think she always referred to herself, Bev and Natalie as the old ladies. I spent one day in the bazaar with Cindy and Bev, shopping for sparkly pants, underwear (always an interesting experience) and hair baubles.  I loved having a semi-normal girls’ day out with these ladies.  It almost felt like we were out shopping at a mall in the States… no, not really.

Cindy and our other sitemate, Mike

Every Wednesday we had a Hub Night with all the Ming sitemates.  We would go to someone’s house and eat Americanish food.  It was something I looked forward to every week.  Our sitemates were our family while we were in Azerbaijan, so it was always nice to hear what was going on in their lives.

Day 25 – Corvallis

Corvallis is a lovely little town in the heart of the Willamette Valley.  It is where Oregon State University is located, and I lived there for about 5 years.  I really, really, really love Corvallis.  I have a lot of good memories of walking around, going to the parks, driving around with the windows down, eating lots of good food (the best Chinese restaurants in Oregon), and just being youthful in Corvallis.

I suppose there isn’t anything inherently amazing about this little town other than the fact that it holds so many memories of friends and falling in love with my husband.  Jesse and I love to head up the valley for a day or even a couple hours in Corvallis.

(I stole all these photos from the Internets...thanks Internets!) :/