Question...

How long can you be in a funk before you become the funk? Until that prolonged state of being is a permanent part of who you are? Can a funk cause permanent change in a person?

Beauty in Reuse

In the class I'm taking, we are studying ecology and reuse and how we can apply those to an early childhood classroom and reduce our footprint. My group taught a lesson to a group of 7-10 year-olds, posing to them the following question: How can you express motion with water? The photos below are some of the shots I captured of their creative and inspiring work.


This class really has helped me to see the beauty in such regular things, and the power of taking something and making it new again. I have always felt a strong awe and appreciation for the work of children, and this was no exception. You may not see it, but I hope you can find a bit of the beauty that I found in these pictures. =)

Birthday Week Playlist 7/20/08

Here's the playlist for my birthday week. Take it as you wish, as always. =)

Miss Misery-- Elliott Smith
Anything But Ordinary-- Avril Lavigne
In My Room-- Grand Lee Buffalo
Good Intentions-- Toad the Wet Sprocket
Shoe Box-- Barenaked Ladies
Big Yellow Taxi-- Joni Mitchell
Moondance-- Jonathan Rhys Meyers
Magic Carpet Ride-- Steppenwolf
Run Away-- Real McCoy
So You Say It's Your Birthday-- Lennon-McCartney

It's my birthday, so I can if I WANT to...

So, since today is my birthday I feel justified in sharing some random photos that I like and no one else in particular has to care about. Enjoy, and I'll at least try to keep the captions informative, if not interesting.

Here's my Bo Bo Joe (Hoban) at the beach. He's the most snuggly dog you'll ever meet, and he has the BIGGEST tongue! Unfortunately, he does like to use it in giving too many kisses. Watch out!

Here's Mr. Gaius at the beach, sitting pretty in the hole he dug all by himself. He had the best time! Flung sand all over me, of course, but I don't mind. He looks too cute to try and stop him!

Between him and me, at least ONE of us should lift some weights!

Aaaaah, the gratuitous magic of artfully taking photos of one of the best books ever in my back yard. Not that it needed it, but I think it looks even prettier, by the flowers with the sun on its face... Did I just cross a line?

This is the first gardenia that has bloomed on this bush since I planted it over a year ago. Come to think of it, it's its first flower ever. I could put that in my other blog! The Gardenia symbolizes joy/ good luck/ secret love. I could use quite a bit of the first two... If it wants to stand for secret love then I'll push it through the fence and hope that someone who needs it comes by.

I just thought this one came out pretty. Watch out, someone I know may get this on a card some day. Just act surprised, and humor me by saying it's a pretty picture at least, before you point out that you already saw this shot online.This shot and the one below go together. The sign says (with parts removed), "Bridge Unsafe, Cross At Own Risk." This is the bridge:
This is one of those times when Trina and I asked ourselves-- as this was in LaPush-- who, or how many people tried to cross this bridge before they put a sign nearby?This final one is a sign that Trina and I found pretty hilarious on the drive to Port Angeles. I think you had to be there, so I just put this in for her. Thanks for being excited about my birthday for me, Trina! Happy my Birthday to YOU!

Playlist of the Week 7/13/08

Here's my playlist for last week. A little more upbeat, yes? Okay, but it is a little... =)

Barenaked Ladies-- Call and Answer
Barenaked Ladies-- Some Fantastic
Evanescence-- Hello
Evanescence-- Good Enough
Foo Fighters-- Best of You
Fugees-- Bohemian Rhapsody
Goo Goo Dolls-- Iris
Good Charlotte-- The Anthem
Heart-- Stranded
Oasis-- Champagne Supernova
Simple Plan-- Welcome to My Life
Simple Plan-- Perfect

Forks Weekend Playlist

Here's a Twilight-themed playlist from last weekend. It's my faves from the playlists that Stephenie Meyer created for all 3 of her books. We downloaded most all the music and listened to it all. Enjoy!

Alanis Morrisette-- Uninvited
Coldplay-- Fix You
Evanescence-- Going Under
Evanescence-- My Immortal
Hoobastank-- The Reason
Matchbox Twenty-- Unwell
Muse-- Apocalypse Please
My Chemical Romance-- I'm Not Okay
The Fray-- Over My Head
The Killers-- Mr. Brightside
Vertical Horizon-- Best I Ever Had
Weezer-- World Has Turned and Left Me Here

The Twilight Edition of Our Trip to FORKS!

For the Fourth of July weekend, Trina and I were headed up on the familiar drive towards where her family lives in Washington. After a grumpy phone call, we blew past and spent the weekend in Forks and Port Angeles! The weekend was filled with great fireworks and all the sights we could drum up from the Twilight books! (which was our motivation for going, anyways...) Everything in Forks was booked, so we got a hotel in Port Angeles. We made it up there about 1:30pm on Friday, check in, and then headed into Port Angeles.

We found a spot to park, and then cruised around downtown PA on foot. We had done our research, and so using the maps on the Forks website as reference we found the PA spots from the books quite easily.

Gottschalks is the one main department store in town, and the spot where Angela and Jessica purchased their dresses for the dance. The movie theater pictured above is the theater where Jessica and Bella, and then later Bella, Mike, and Jacob go to the movies in PA.

Our next stop was Port Book and News, which was hailed as the bookshop that Jessica pointed Bella to on their first trip to PA. As you can see (kind of) from the lower left, they are hosting a midnight release of Breaking Dawn at that very spot! In my opinion, I kind of thought the Odyssey Book shop reminded me a bit more of the eclectic shop described in the book. I leave you the photos to decide for yourself, though I of course digress to the map, hoping they possibly got consult from Stephenie herself on her visit there. =)

After cruising the streets downtown, killing time until it opened at 4pm, we ate dinner at Bella Italia! The famous site of the dinner Bella and Edward had together on the night their relationship took a real turn.

It was an adorable little restaurant. The atmosphere was great, the servers were a bit frazzled since we caught them right at opening, but still very nice. The food was excellent!

We booked it out of town after dinner, to escape the inevitable traffic block expected from the PA Fourth of July parade that was starting at 6pm. The fireworks show was fantastic, the best I've ever seen! We headed back to PA, not getting there until after 11:30pm. We crashed for the night, and then the next morning found a Starbucks and were off to Forks!!


The drive from PA to Forks is BEAUTIFUL! It's about 60miles, and took us about 90 minutes the first time, and got it down to about 70 minutes the 5th time. =) It's a very twisty-turny road, and drives alongside two beautiful lakes, where we averaged about 35MPH for like a third of the drive. Having actually driven it and ridden it makes the fact that Edward drove it in like 20 minutes even scarier!! Bella's lucky it was dark and she couldn't see! =)

We arrived in Forks, and headed down to the Chamber of Commerce to pick up our Twilight packets. It had references to the area, a map of the Twilight sites in Forks, Trivia from all 3 books, an a packet of sand from first beach! Map in hand, we headed out.

We found Forks High school, and though it wasn't exactly what I imagined, I could actually pictures many of the scenes playing out here. It was a mish-mash of buildings, some brick, some new yellow stucco, and some really old grey and blue buildings. It was an eerie place, so empty for the summer.

Here's a shot of the infamous parking lot from Forks High.

Our next stop was the Thriftway, where Bella goes grocery shopping in Twilight. Connected to that grocery store is Forks Outfitters, the Newton's place where Bella gets a job. They are actually one long building, which was interesting. Almost felt like a smaller version of a Fred Meyer inside!


On to the Forks Community Hospital, where the beautiful Dr. Cullen works and Bella has been fixed up more than once. They even have a parking spot for Dr. Cullen!!


This is where the Police department of Forks is located, all wrapped up into the City Hall, Jail, District Court, and the utilities. Very unassuming building, but not unlike the place I imagined Charlie spending much of his time.

This one wasn't on the map, but this restaurant is what I imagine to be The Lodge, the restaurant Bella and Charlie, and half the school, went to for Graduation dinner. It's the only semi-nice restaurant in all of Forks. At the Forks Subway (which is located inside the mini-mart at the Shell station...), they actually had a Twilight Sandwich! I gave it a try, and it was pretty good! We took our lunch and headed out of Forks, and down the 110 highway (also known as LaPush Road) towards First Beach!

This shot of the Escape is the exact half way point between LaPush and Forks, and our presumed guess at the Werewolf-Vampire dividing line. As we pulled into LaPush, we found the store that the LaPush gang was hanging out in front of.

We passed Third Beach, Second Beach, and then.... nothing. There's no sign for First Beach! We had to ask to be sure we'd found it. It was a beautiful place, very popular for surfing and camping over the Fourth of July weekend. It was misty while we were there, but with sun breaks that made the day quite beautiful. There is a small band of sand, backed up by tons of driftwood and the beach covered in pebbles, almost like I imagined from Stephenie's great description. The cliffs in the distance of the third picture remind me of the cliffs the LaPush gang and later Bella jumped off of. I only wish we could have made a driftwood fire!

Trina and I on First Beach

After our lunch on First Beach and our tour of LaPush, we headed back to PA. We looked for a spot that could be the hidden turn off to the Cullen's place, but couldn't find it. We also consulted the map for a way to possibly find the way to the Meadow. What we found was that Edward's directions state "to take the 101 North, then go East on the 110 until the pavement ends." However, the 110 doesn't go East off of 101. I kind of liked it better that way... like the meadow really does only exist for Bella and Edward. There was a place on the map that showed where they marked the field where the vampires play baseball. However, the location didn't really seem to fit what I remembered. I think it's more the only flat field they found that worked for them. So I leave you, as a final thought from our most fantastic trip, with the alternative suggestion Trina and I found to represent the baseball field.

(YES, it's a joke. This is a local field in LaPush.)
Hope you enjoyed this peek into the real sights of the Twilight books!
(If you want to see more, you'll have to wait until I get my scrapbook together!)