Patience

I feel compelled to write tonight just to get some of my recent thoughts on politics out there and into the world.
President Obama gave an incredible speech tonight. I was transfixed and amazed at the wisdom of this leader of ours. But it is not the speech that is driving me to write, I've been wanting to write about my thoughts for days now.

To be frank, I've been incredibly annoyed at the media (NPR!) for constantly saying "Americans are angry" (about jobs, the economy, bank bailouts, blah blah blah). So, I want to be clear. I am not one of those angry Americans. In fact, I'm not angry at all. I am patient. And I am amazed at the lack of patience many (half?) Americans seem to have. President Obama inherited 8 years of mistakes. Surely he could not be expected to fix all these mistakes in one year? To think otherwise is naive at best.
Although I was elated and relieved that Obama was elected (obviously), I was also very nervous. I remember telling Jay that I hoped people didn't expect a completely new America in one year. I hoped that Americans would realize change doesn't occur quickly, especially with our divided politics. And, sadly (at least before his speech) this seems to be the case.
I can only hope that his inspiring speech will strike a cord with some Republicans and Democrats. I hope that both parties can get past their silly and childish behaviors to take care of pressing items that need serious attention (ummmm - like health care and climate change). We can't bicker about loss of jobs if there is no livable planet to bicker on! That is an exaggeration, I know.... but sometimes I think we forget how important it is to take care of our habitat.
I could go on and on about politics. I haven't been thrilled with the stagnant waters around climate change policies, I can't believe the Supreme Court's decision last week, I am shocked that many Americans don't want health care reform (hellooooo out there? why don't we want to provide health care for everyone? who are we???), and I dream of equal rights for ALL people (black, white, gay, lesbian, Native Americans). But I know I can't always get my way. What I don't understand is why even reaching a compromise it so completely impossible. If both sides are a little unhappy, maybe that also means both sides are a little happy. And isn't that better than the stagnant and stinky water we are treading in now?

Carmelita

Well, we have nothing exciting to report on the blog. Really, life has been relatively boring the last two weeks. Jay spent a week down in CA taking a course for his job and I spent every minute of my "life" (if it can be called that) putting lectures together and grading. I am lucky to get time to swim, but I still hit the pool even if it means that I'm up until 1am instead of midnight. Crappy is one way to put it.
We did have a little fun this weekend though. We both need new hiking boots badly, so we have spent the past two weekends visiting REI stores to try on boots. The Bellingham store did not have a great selection, so we headed to Seattle today to try out boots in the big store. Jay got lucky - they had a boot that fit him well and he got a pair! I'm not so lucky, seems no one wants to make boots in a "narrow" width anymore. So my feet area sliding all around in the boots (this spells BLISTER). I'm going to have to special order a few different types that REI doesn't normally stock to see if something will fit my silly narrow feet.
That's the boring stuff.
The FUN stuff is that we found a brewpub Jay had heard about called Hale's. So we sampled their beer and a spent-grain pretzel before driving further north to Carmelita's. This is a restaurant that my sister told me about a year ago! It was voted one of the top 10 best veggo restaurants (yes, that means no fish) in the nation! So, I had been dying to go there and tonight was the night. We were not disappointed. I actually listened to the specials (normally I tune these out because they are never veggo) and I could order anything on the menu! And LOOK at the menu. Bliss. Bliss. Bliss. These people are not messing around, the food was lovely. This was clearly the highlight of the past two weeks. Now whoever comes to visit us will get dragged here by me! Yum!

Mashed potatoes on Mt.Baker

We were treated to a visit from our good friend Erik over the new year. Erik and I met up in Seattle (I had just flown in from NY) and braved the good public transportation system of Seattle to get up to Everett, where Jay picked us up. I really love taking buses! Despite jet-lag, all three of us headed out to our local brewpub (Rockfish Grill) to bring in the new year. Typical of old Anacortes, there were no young folks at the brewpub. It was us and lots of honky-tonk fun-loving 40-60 year olds. They were all having a grand time dancing to the Stevie Ray Vaughan cover band. After we had some beer, we joined in on the dancing for one song....but mostly we felt a little out of place as the youngest peeps at the bar. We are still hoping to recruit east coast friends to move out to Anacortes because it is a damn cool town simply in need of the 30-something!

We did not go skiing until Saturday...Erik and Jay went for a hike on New Years Day and I stayed home and tried to sleep off a cold I was fighting. I felt better by Saturday and hit the slopes with Jay and Erik. It was quite the day - it snowed hard all day, so we had reduced visibility and lots of wet clothes by the end of the day. The snow was super wet - no fluff for us! Jay summed up the conditions as a bunch of mashed potatoes topped with the occasional sour cream. Not the easiest conditions to ski in, but it didn't matter, we had FUN.

Knee deep in the taters

We dried out our clothes after skiing at the Boundary Bay Brewing Company in Bellingham. Too bad we have to drive by this brewpub whenever we head home from Baker.