wake to the moon

Moon in Houston, TX, picture by Katy 2008

i woke before the sun
and stood before the moon

the clock reminds my spirit of my mind
and i begin to mind the business of the day.

i must wake the princess from her sleep
and turn on the light that burns her eyes.

she closed her eyes to recount the journey of the night
but i was too impatient to wait.

this day promises to be ... this day.

this is the day she wanted to play outside
attempting to scoop up every worm that passed.

me, attempting to steer her towards our destination.
as if we shared a common destiny.
a common sense of direction.
a common sense of curiosity.

~Katy

Cute Ugly Couch

Couch bought for $50 from my neighbor.

untitled

hour follows hour
like water rushing in a river
the current takes hold and
one thing always leads to another

we create our own gravity
to give weight to things
we will never be able to hold
so they fall and they sink

we can only hold on to so much
you wouldn't try to
put the ocean in a paper cup.

~ Katy

Movin' On Up!

Yes, I have the theme song to the Jefferson's stuck in my head right now, and yes, (thanks to re-runs) I got the chance to be a fan of the Jefferson's as a kid. Anyway, something that I have been so afraid wasn't going to happen is now actually happening. I am moving out of my parents house. I know its pathetic. I'm 25 and I have never lived on my own. People always remind me that my patheticness is not my fault, and maybe its not, but it still feels pathetic. Anyway, I have officially been approved for my apartment. Apartment No.5!!! I got a really cool retro Mickey Mouse table off ebay that is in Tyler, Texas (you have to say that with a twang). ROAD TRIP next weekend! And this morning, I walked outside to take Alex to the bus and the people across from me were having a garage sale. They had a couch. I'm talking it up to people, but the thing is really ugly. I'm not sure why I bought the thing. I have been trying to still one of my parents couches for the past few months, and Anna has offered me Jason's old futon for free, but something about talking my neighbor down to $50 and its mis-matchiness just said, BUY ME! If I'm ever home and awake long enough I will share pictures. It truly is a cute ugly couch. That's the only way I know how to describe it. I think in the early 2000's it was probably called "french country" now I think its more "shabby chic". Well, it might be shabby chic if I got a slip cover for it. Do you have any idea how expensive those things are though? Its things like slip covers that make me wish I could sew.

Anyway, this weekend is trash weekend. I am getting rid of everything so if you find yourself by my house, come on in and take whatever you want.

Happy Birthday Disney's Animal Kingdom!

Mickey's Jammin' Jungle Parade, Photo by Katy

Ten years ago today, Disney opened the doors to its new theme park. On the service it was nothing new, a copy cat of Bush Gardens, a glorified zoo with some rides thrown in, and a touch of Disney magic. I have been impressed over the years with this park and the lengths Disney has gone to to live up to its promise of conservation and environmental education as well as entertainment. The proof is in the details. For example they don't have plastic lids on their cups, they use biodegradable instead of plastic straws, and it is not a coincidence that it shares it birthday with Earth Day. My hats off to imagineer Joe Rhodes who has a huge influence in all of this. He will be giving a talk today about the park. I wish I could be there to see it.

Happy Earth Day!

Epcot Flower and Garden Festival, photo by Katy

Freedom

One day the tall green grass
was swaying in the wind
swish, swish, swish
Freedom again and again

by Alex

Peter Pan with Alex

Her Birthday
9 and beautiful
full of spirit

we ran on the hill
barefoot,
put our toes in the mud

she sat in my lap
and we snuggled under blankets
to watch the show

watching her watch
pure magic

At home in bed
she asked if her dad called

I said no

She said
He should have

and went to sleep

No trash day 5

So the end of an era. Yes, I have 5 day weeks! My no trash week went out with bag. On Friday I went through an entire day at work with out using any trash at all. I was patting myself on the back as I walked out the door. Then it was time for the 3rd grade retreat. It was at or church, and I volunteered to help out since there were some people who backed out at the last minute. Anyway, there was a bible meal... and well... let's just say that apparently in bible times they ate on plastic picnic table clothes, kept their ingredients in plastic cups (until it was time to mix them up in plastic bowls with plastic spoons), used plastic knives to cut their apples, drank juice and water out of plastic bottles, and ate off of paper plates, with paper napkins. Wow. I think I used enough trash in that one meal to make up for all the trash I didn't use earlier in the week. Also, I was in charge of the craft room which meant, a lot of paper, metal, tape and old markers got tossed in the clean up.

I think this week has showed me what I already new. Our culture is addicted to plastic and throw away stuff. It really drove home just how entrenched this is. In trying to avoid trash on Saturday I found myself wondering what I could buy from the grocery store. The hard fact is that trash in today's society is unavoidable. Sure, there a places where going to a Farmer's market, or bargaining with your neighbors for their eggs would work, but not where I live. Until there is a grocer in the city that will re-use milk bottles, egg cartons and other containers I will be making trash.

There are ways that I can reduce trash, and I have tried to do that.
I think the most important rule is to buy in bulk. Instead of getting two packages of chicken breast, I got one large package, and then portioned them out when I got home using reusable containers. Instead of getting "snack bags" of chips and goldfish I bought bulk and reuse different containers when I want to take a snack along. Using tap instead of bottled water and bringing my own bags when I shop are two major things that are easy to do also. Oh, and as much as I hate to say it, not eating at fast food places goes a long way to cutting trash. So these are the changes I feel like I can make in my life today. I will continue to be conscious of my trash and look for ways to reuse and recycle before I throw away.

No trash day 4

I had an awesome no trash day Wednesday. That did not carry into Thursday. Well, it kind of did. I brought a rag with me to work so no paper towels or napkins. I brought my lunch in a reusable container and drank water from my reusable cup. Then I went home. It was Alex's birthday and we were going to have a picnic with my sister and brother-in-law. I would have brought sandwiches, but Alex desperately wanted spaghetti so we compromised with tortellini, because I thought it would travel better. We reused plastic ware we had around the house, but I brought paper plates and napkins, because we would be using sauce without a place to wash things and nothing grosses me out more than food left on a plate. I brought one of those "salad in a bag" things. We didn't end up eating all of it, but when I do that bag will be trashed so I'm counting it. I We also drank from aluminum cans, which we recycled thanks to the bins in the park. Oh, and I wrapped the tortellini and sauce containers in aluminum foil to keep them worm (which worked really well. I was pleased.) so we recycled that as well.

The list:
thrown away:
1 plastic tortellini packaging (no I don't make tortellini from scratch)
4 paper plates
8 paper napkins
1 plastic salad bag
2 cheese wrappers (I know I'm still eating that cheese)

Recycled
4 aluminum cans
4 sheets of aluminum foil

No trash Day 3

So I used one paper towel, yes one. The ones that are in the bathrooms where I work are so thick they are like cloth. Anyway, I used it all day, even as my napkin at lunch. I met Katie for lunch and so we went to Vietnam. I had fresh spring rolls, instead of the ones packaged in cellophane and Styrofoam, and a sandwich that came in a basket lined with wax paper. I didn't throw a lot of papers away yesterday, but I did make a lot of copies. These copies will either end up in the trash at some point or they will be put in the file room for eternity. The only other trash I made yesterday was a pizza box. I know so easy to avoid, but its Alex's birthday week and so I had to cave.

the list:

1 paper towel
1 wax paper
1 pizza box

Ollie Johnson

Balo is one of the many charactors created by Ollie Johnson

I'm not really sure how I missed this, but Ollie Johnson, the last of the "9 Old Men" passed away on Monday. He was 95.

He was one of the orginal animators in the Walt Dinsey Studios and helped to make some of the most beloved classics. Aside from working on many of the shorts, his work can be found in 15 full length Disney movies, not including a cameo he had in Pixar's The Incredibles.

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

Pinocchio

Fantasia

Song of the South

Cinderella

Alice in Wonderland

Peter Pan

Lady and the Tramp

Sleeping Beauty

Sword in the Stone

Mary Poppins

The Jungle Book

Robin Hood

The Rescuers

The Fox and the Hound

From reading the list you can see that his work touched the lives of millions, if not billions of people. His art was part of the magic that continues today. You will be missed Ollie, thank you for all you have done for us. Be sure to tell Frank and Walt hello.

Ollie's cameo in The Incredibles, Pictures curtesy of Cartoon Brew

No trash Day 2

Okay so I don't have a picture today. And I did really bad.

I ran out of time in the morning and didn't make my lunch so I got a sandwich from a place in the tunnel. That meant that I threw away the paper that the sandwich came wrapped it. I did however, tell the clerk that I didn't need a plastic bag or paper napkins, I had my own rag from home. I cleaned my office and got ride of A LOT of papers and documents. I did however, save all the clips, and made sure I took all the paper to the recycling bins and didn't trash it. Not perfect, but better. Then there was dinner. Alex and I went to the young adult bible study and instead of bible study they decided to go out to eat. I got lucky in that the place had cloth instead of paper napkins, and I went without a plastic straw in my dink. However they did bring Alex's drink in a styrofoam cup, and I'm 99.9% sure that they threw out the rice and beans I didn't eat. So I did worse. I am hoping to redeem myself today.

So the list is:
1 Sandwich wrapper
Tons of used paper (recycled)
1 styrofoam cup
1 plastic lid
1 plastic straw
two plates of food waste

I know that Alex isn't doing no trash, but I include her dinner stuff because I bought it for her.

No trash Day 1

So this morning I declaired that I was going to go a whole week with no trash. Well, this is what I threw away on day one.

2 paper towels
1 cheese wraper
1 post-it
2 junk letters (not pictured)

So here is the thing. Trash is hard to avoid. So instead of NO trash, I'm going for less trash. I'll see how good I can get by the end of the week. The no post-it think is going to be hard. I know I only threw one away today, but I could have thrown away more, but instead I just left them stuck where they were (to be thrown away at a later date). The paper towel thing could be solved if I carried around my own cloth to use after washing my hands. (I'm still thinking about that). Finally, obviously I don't have to eat that cheese, but its SO good!

Anway, I'll see what happens tomorrow.

A week of no trash

One of the blogs I frequent is the No Impact Man blog. I do this for several reason, one of which is to get ideas about how to reduce what I do. I have take a few steps toward making my life a more sustainable one, but not many. Basically I'm lazy.

So last week he challenged people to go through their trash and see what it is they are throwing away. Everything that is in the trash at my house, is not mine, in fact, I figured that most of the stuff I throw away is not in the trash at my house. So instead I kept a list of everything I trashed. It was loose. I wrote stuff down at the end of the day, but the end of Saturday it was non-existent. We cleaned a lot of stuff and so writing down everything I threw away that day would have killed too many trees.

Now here is the deal I am challenging myself to a week of no trash. That means I don't throw anything away. This is going to be really hard so I am committing to keeping track of it all on this blog. If I do throw something away, I will post it here. I hope that this helps be be accountable.

Birds are Back!

Did I ever update the bird feeder story? Well my dad, not to be defeated by rodents (because he is a man and they are . . . rodents), went back to the hardware store and bought steal cable. So yeah, there is no way those squirrels will be getting the bird seed out of his bird feeder anytime soon. He even said that he was prepared to sit out there with he shotgun and kill any squirrels that came near it! He didn't really though, which is good because I don't think it would have helped the bird situation at all.

This morning, as I was letting my dog out into the yard, I saw two birds in the yard. Dad was right. If you put in a feeder, they will come. The great part was, they weren't on the bird feeder. They were on the ground, peeking at where the squirrels had dumped the seeds a few weeks ago. That made me smile.

For the record. I have tried to take pictures of a squirrel to go along with one of these updates, but it has been weeks since I have seen one. Do they migrate? Maybe they have gotten tired of Gryffindor chasing them.

Off the Shelf

So Monday I was stuck at MD Anderson all day for an MRI and then I had to see the neurosurgeon. I took A Long Way Down by Nick Hornby with me since a friend lent it to me a while ago and she keeps asking me what I think of it. Basically its a book about four strangers who run into each other on the roof a building in London on New Years Eve. They all want to kill themselves that night for one reason or another, but after talking they all decided to put it off for a while. The story takes off from there.

This is the first books I've read of his. I have to say its the first time I have read a book that I wasn't totally thrilled with, but was interested in reading something else by the same author. I liked the guy's writing style. I like how he developed each character and how they each had their own style of writing. Pretty cool. Not many authors could do that. Some authors have problems changing their style book by book, let alone character by character.

Anyway. I felt there was a lot of bantering that we could have gone with out. In some ways I think it drove home just how pointless life is sometimes. The book group was a good example of that. What are book groups anyway besides ways for people to take up time so they don't have to spend time thinking about killing themselves. The whole book made me think about all the extra noise we fill ourselves with so we don't have to be with ourselves. I don't know if that is what Hornby was going for or not, but that alone saved the whole thing for me. Still, I'm glad I borrowed this one and didn't buy it. I don't see myself ever wanting to pick it up again. So I gave it 3 stars out of 5 instead of 4. (And that is giving him extra points for not falling for so many of the obvious cliches that plague so many stories these days.)

The MRI begins to knock

my mind captured

on the screen

my thoughts run

and hide

the mechanical

pulse increases

i close my eyes

and drift off to

sleep

Where Dreams Come True

Photo courtesy of AP

Today the Olympic flame will make its way through San Fransisco. It would probably be more accurate to say that it will be rushed through San Fransisco as fast as possible with city and Olympic officials crossing their fingers that no one gets hurt in the process.

I don't think the ISO were in their right mind when they decided to hold the Olympic in Beijing. Its obvious that the Government of China is making the most of their moment in the spot light and trying their hardest to manipulate media coverage to make themselves look good. So, I don't really have a problem with people protesting at Chinese embassies around the world and demanding the political changes they would like China to make.

I do, however have a problem with a torch bearer pulling out because they feared for their safety. They aren't caring the torch for China, they are caring it for the Olympics. It is not China's torch it is the Olympic torch. Can we separate the two? Today I decided that I can. The athletes that are competing this year are competing in the Olympics because they are fulfilling a dream to compete in the ultimate competition. To ask them to give up that dream or fear for their safety because of politics goes against the whole spirit of the Olympics, and may I add... the protests.

Literal

when they said he could walk on water
what it sounds like to me
is he could float like a butterfly
and sting like a bee
literal people are scary,
literal people scare me
out there trying to rid the world
of its poetry
while getting it wrong fundamentally
down at the church of "look,
it says right here, see!"

Journey

Moving journey through time and space

through life

dark to light

the dark = Fay

childhood fairies

to grow and dream

the magic and fantasy are real

holding imagination in your hands

fear of the known

fear of the unknown

the light = Move

to movement

to power of creation

discovering the unsure

the challenge to leave the dream

and enter into life

enter the almond

the joining of the two = self

the connection of the dream and the life

gossamer wings and limestone buildings

holding them both within

I am Katy's Journey

New Kids on the Block

New Kids on the Block April 2, 2008, photo byAP Associated Press

Okay, talk about blast from the past! I have been hearing this roomer for awhile, but didn't really think that it could happen. In the day of everything retro though, I'm glad that the guys are back. Yes, all the metal and hair band fans are rolling their eyes right now, but I was a young kid in the 80s and Joey McIntyre (you heard me 'Joe' you will always be Joey to me) was my first crazy celebrity crush. (Before I decided to only have crushes on British guys). Now I can be one of those crazy women you always see going gaga over Donny Osmond or Rick Springfield. Their concert was the first one I ever went to. (I was in 2nd grade?) And I wore that concert t-shirt with pride before it fell apart. I now feel completely vindicated for hanging on to my old Cd's and my (still unopened) Joey doll. *sigh*

Now all we need are the Tiffany and Jonathan rumors to start up and I'll be back in elementary school again.

In Honor of Rev. Martin L. King

Reg Lancaster / Getty Images file

Room in the Inn

photo by Katy 2008

Tom Sawyer's Island

Walt Disney World

Past

her presence is
never silent
or unnoticed

just as i laced my shoes
and began to shuffle
my feet again

she came flailing,
screaming,
churning

i have faced the past
many times
but for the first time
she saw me

i'd double back
but doubled knots
don't come undone

~Katy

Reality Check

Kali River Rapids, Walt Disney World
photo by Katy