stew

i love stew. especially now, in autumn. my mom makes 2 kinds of stew... one affectionately called "grandma's stew" and one affectionately named "leila's stew". now, i'm not sure which grandma, and i don't really know who leila is, but these women had some good recipes.
this will also be a "stew post" in the sense that i have many odds and ends to blog about. here we go....

first, there are some songs i have been listening to and loving lately, and i feel compelled to share them with you, in hopes that you will find them, and listen. the list: "what sarah said", "transatlantacism" , "a lack of color" , "the sound of settling". and "passenger seat" by death cab for cutie, "waiting room" and "psalm 118" by shane & shane, "witness", "martha's foolish ginger" and "ribbons undone" by tori amos, "ha ha" and "parachutes" by Mates of State, "the only living boy in new york" by Simon & Garfunkel.

I mentioned awhile ago that I love the people in the Chacos repair department in Paonia Colorado. Allow me to expand on that. I've had my beloved Chacos
for about 2.5 years. They have taken me hiking, canoeing, swimming in rivers, walking around town, running to class, traipsing about Germany and so on. They have been with me to comfort me and protect me. Okay, enough of that,..they are GREAT. you get the point. So at some point over the summer I must have stepped on some sharp glass, as I noticed a fine slit through the bottom of my right Chaco. I was saddened, but all hope was not lost. The chaco people will repair different parts of your sandal, which is kind on the pocketbook, environment and well, the heart if you are particularly attached to your pair of Chacos. This is great! I made the mistake in putting it off and putting it off, not wearing them very much in August as to not aggravate the damage. Well, the week before ACL i realized that it would be impossible and sad to not have my chacos to wear during ACL weekend. Long story short, there is this very nice lady in Paonia named Eileen, who not only made me feel like her long lost granddaughter on the phone, but also meant what she said when she said they would rush them. I marked on the box that I needed them back by thursday. They were on my front porch on Wednesday, with fresh new soles. thanks Chaco people! thanks Eileen!

So last weekend I went camping with my great friends. It was a wonderful, beautiful trip.
The place we camped at wasn't your old pull off the highway place, no sir. To get there, we drove two hours (though a beautiful drive through the Ozarks) and then hiked for an hour and a half to get to the site. We camped under this overhang, no tents, just sleeping bags around the fire pit. It was amazing. It was dark by the time we got there Friday night so our hike in was lit only by the moon and our headlamps. However, we stayed on the trail and made pretty good time. Our campsite was a short short hike from an amazing place. You walked up a little hill, and suddendly you were at the edge of a cliff overlooking the beautiful tree covered hills. We went up at for the first time at night. The moon was giant and bright. The view was overwhelming at first sight. We sat on a rock and yelled into the night air over and over listening to our echos come back. After sitting around the fire (and roasting things like, oh peaches, which were good!!) and a good nights sleep in sleeping bags, we woke up early to walk back up to the cliff to watch the sunrise. It was a long time waiting, and a cold time waiting, but the sunrise was beautiful, and seeing the valley in color was wonderful. The trees are just beginning to turn their brilliant colors. The hike out was tiring, and we deviated from the trail (in the daylight, not at night, oh no, but with daylight!) but were soon back on. I was the keeper of the s'more material, and was an idiot and left it back in town in my trunk, so when we got home from the trip eveyrone came over and we had grill roasted s'mores in the front yard.

Tuesday I attended an all day diversity training workshop that was mandatory for all social work majors. I loved it, mostly because I am a dork and I like workshops. It really was great though. Great to hang out with my "colleagues", great to learn about and discuss important issues, etc. We had to do one exercise where we had to fill in the blanks in this sentence "I am a/an ____________ but I am not (a/an/__) ___________
It was wonderful to listen to everyone's repsonses. There were so many different ones; "I am a woman, but I am not weak", "I am black, but I am not violent", "I am agnostic, but I am not immoral", "I am small, but I am not unable", etc. The first thing that came to my mind, and what I filled in was "I am a Christian, but I am not judgemental". This is my response, because so often, people go so far to one side of "accepting" that we end up excluding. I have seen this happen to people who share my faith. Everything, every belief system, every tradition is okay, except for yours because we think you are a certain way (or sadly because people have misrepresented it to be so). It was so heartening to hear several others have a similar statement; "I am an evangelical Christian, but I am not politically conservative", "I am a Christian, but I am not closeminded" etc. and it was great for everyone else to hear that, for whoever might be struggling with that as far as their own personal biases or prejudices...while we all have our own to be working on.

Today, I had to go to an environmental concerns meeting in city hall for a paper i have to write about the interworkings of groups. anyways, it was semi-interesting, all the watershed talk and whatnot. however, while the drive there and back was beautiful because of the trees, and well, because this town is beautiful, it was also sad and dumb. why? because i saw THREE big stupid signs announcing new condo developments. !earth to rich people with power: that's not what we need! i understand that it's an invitation to a certain demographic that they want to fill this town with, but it is very sad, and it is further marginilizing the real residents of this community, who could never, ever afford to live in these places. how about affordable housing?

sigh. breathe....now is probably a good time to pray, and go to sleep. but first....
go look at this it is funny.
go here to this Chilean cultural heritage site
oh, and i added a few quotes i love over there to your right on this page...over there above the archives.

goodnight loves....

*all hiking photos in this post by Brother (T-rev)*