22 Days and Counting!

As I walked into the airport this morning I felt another rush of excitement.  You see, I have been mainly calm and apathetic about my ticket to Australia but then, all of a sudden, the anticipation catches up with me and I begin to dance a little jig. Sometimes in my mind, most often quite literally, but the neighboring stares don’t bug me. I am sure they wish they were going to Australia for three months too!

I am on my way to Connecticut to see my grandparents and other east-coast family and this is my second to last flight before my 13 hour doozer. Dozer? I guess a little bit of both as I will definitely doze on that flight. Ok, enough word play for now although I am having quite a bit of fun!

 I am really looking forward to touching down in Brisbane in 22 days. I shall expect a full welcoming party with fireworks, chocolate, dancing bears, etc and I think I will actually get more than I bargained for! In all seriousness, Todd has very amazingly organized a trip to Fraser Island for the weekend I get there. So after 13 hours of flying, I will be dragging my tired self up to one of the most beautiful places in Australia (and probably the world). Fraser is known for being the biggest sand island in the world and absolutely unbeatable in its diverse and spectacular terrain. Poor me, right?

Many people have asked what I will be doing while I am there and the short answer is that I really have no idea. On a vacation visa I will be unable to work but I will certainly keep myself busy.  There is a food kitchen that Todd has volunteered at a few times that I hope to become acquainted with and I really want to supplement the class I took this summer on web design and really get my hands dirty.  I was much busier with the kids than I initially expected and so I feel like I am falling behind my own goals for web design domination! In any case, I am not a couch potato (or a potato of any kind) and so I assure you all that I will keep myself and my brain fully occupied and exercised! 

The Call of the Loon

The call of the loon, long and mournful, is a sound I will forever connect to the Minnesosiates community at Hand Lake. I have been coming here since before I can remember and yet this may be one of the last times I come back here. This place that was such an integral part of my childhood has been changed forever.

My Grandpa Smith passed away in January and so the family gathered at the lake this past weekend to celebrate the life of Grandpa Joe and his beloved wife, my Grandma Win, who died a few years ago. This morning we gathered on the shore of the lake and sang and read a poem that ended with the words, “Love doesn’t die, people do. So, when all that’s left of me is love, give me away.” Family and friends then stepped forwards to pick up wrapped boxes of intermingled ashes that we took to spread around this place that they called home for so many years. They were friends for seventy-eight years and partners for sixty-seven years. Truly an amazing feat.

As we all gathered around the table, and many of us fought back tears, stories and reflections were shared; one of which I would like to repeat here because of it’s incredible nature. My Grandma and Grandpa were held at a Japanese concentration camp in the Philippines during World War II. My Uncle Fred (my dad’s older brother) was born there and they were thankfully released in 1945. At one point during their imprisonment they were moved on the night of December 26th from one site to the next along a road that the Allied Forces often bombed because a large Japanese base was nearby. Years later, my Grandpa was talking to a soldier that was in the American Air Force and stationed miles from this site. When they mentioned that they had moved from one location to another, the soldier asked during which night this had occurred. When he answered, “the night of December 26th,” the soldier looked at him in awe and said, “that was the only night that we did not bomb that road because the fighter planes had run out of fuel and could not get off the ground.” To imagine that my grandparents, and therefore, my own life was rhetorically saved by an empty tank of gas is truly amazing.

Stories like that just blow me out of the water. The unpredictability of life and the importance of treasuring our time together seem to be a common theme for me right now but at least I know that with this mindset I can live without regrets and follow in my grandparents’ footsteps: living each day to the fullest but always remembering to stop and appreciate the little things, like the call of the loon.

In the kitchen there is a door frame with our heights over the years-
Jan STILL grew from last time! 

Jessica (my cousin)'s boy (Emmanuel) being introduced to sparklers

Jan and Jo-Jo (one of Mary's grandchildren)

Uncle Fred blowing out the candles on one of three cakes!
(with Sebastian's help of course (another of Jessica's boys)

Hola! Te he extrañado!

It is amazing what a new country can do to your (or should I say, my) desire to write.  I have been trying to get myself back to my blog for months now and yet my daily happenings seemed trivial and quite uninteresting…. I am sure that my insanely busy schedule of late also has something to do with my lack of inspirational pep.  No amount of coffee has convinced me to stay up and write.  And now… can this babbling even be considered writing!?

To catch you all up (with facts that I am sure I have already shared):

I bittersweetly left Knock Knock in early June to move up North and help take care of my cousins for the summer.  Basically, I am a live in nanny for a bundle of kids and I left early this morning for Puerto Vallarta, Mexico with five kids in tow.  

Other news to share before I continue on with my Mexico stories:

Todd and I are happily back together after he made me a surprise visit back in April.  It was so incredible to see him again and it was as if no time had passed.  We are currently counting down the days until I go back to Australia for three months to suss things out with him (54 days!). 

In any case, today was a muggy, gross, hot day and not the best way to start our Mexican vacation but everything has smoothed itself out and I am looking forward to some solid play time with the kids and fun time with my friend Rach (from high school) who is joining us next week!

So at the risk of sounding INCREDIBLY American, I have to state that I finally managed to enjoy myself and feel excited about the next week (plus) was when Lin and I walked into Costco today in Mexico.  In case you were wondering, yes they have it and YES our American membership worked.  I have NEVER been so happy to see that place.  Lin and I walked in and an hour and a half later we emerged with food and drinks and I felt so much better after being surrounded by “comfort” foods.  In this case, not rich, overbearing, fatty foods that lead you into a coma but common, comfortable, foods that I recognized and I knew would bring me my own bit of happiness. 

Was I being incredibly snobbish? Yes.  But honestly, after five children bouncing off the walls, I needed some plain, non-fat yogurt, bananas, oranges, and pressed deli meat from Costco.  It’s the little things right?

And now, I can enjoy and submerge myself in the amazing richness and color that permeates Mexican culture.  And so, for now, Buenos noches. 

Cat is outta the bag!

So there have been some things that I alluded to in the last email that have been up in the air and they are now (somewhat) settled so I can officially share my happenings! I have been delaying telling you all about my current job position/ occurrences because everything was very much up in the air at work but I talked to the head honcho at work last week and so I can now publicly explain my goings-ons.  I will be bittersweetly moving on from Knock Knock in the next few weeks (around 4+) after they find my replacement and I help train him/ her.  My experience at Knock Knock has been incredible and I have met some incredible people and learned a ton but as most of you know, the entertainment industry is my passion and so I must be true to myself and continue on to that.  Of course, I am also DEEPLY interested in travelling and so that is also on the table but at the moment I am just seeing where the pieces to the puzzle fall.

Second big announcement (duh duh duh duh!) is that I purchased a car today (albeit used but still cute with lots of pep).  It is an '08 Nissan Versa and I found it via craigslist (also where I found the KK job coincidentally... although not, cause everyone finds stuff on there nowadays :-D). It is in excellent shape (minus 4 tires that need to be replaced) and so I will go to bed a happy, independent, although poorer person.

I guess my news wasn't THAT exciting but it all adds up to the fact that I am growing up at an alarming rate (even for myself).  Geez, what's next? House payment? Children? Definitely not! Give me a solid 8-10 years for that scariness ;-)

Thoughtful Absence

Lake Merritt

It is interesting because I actually have written/ started quite a few blog posts over the past month but they all seemed like the ramblings of my subconscious and more journal entries than thoughts for public knowledge ;-).  I have not come to any great epiphanies during this absence but have spent lots of time with various friends including an incredible trip to the bay area this past weekend.  My friend Madelein lives in Lake Merritt, Oakland and the incredible people, culture, and beauty tucked into this small little part of the bay made me even more determined to move up there in the future (dreams anyways). I flew up on Thursday night and walked Madelein to work on Friday along the lake and into the Oakland metropolis.  I scooted my butt home to put in a full 8 hours for my own work and then went into SF for dinner and drinks with an old friend from Cal.  Saturday was a blur of caffeinated shopping, eating and cooking amazing food (spanakopita) with Dan and KK.  Sunday was more food and board games with other friends.  It was a whirlwind weekend that has left me tired, happy, but already missing my friends up North.  Another trip is definitely on the books soon!

In SF before dinner with Josh 

I promise to start writing again (when I actually have something to write about).  Some things may be changing/ added/ deleted from my life so stay tuned! Intrigued? ;-)

Madelein and Oliver 

Vegan baking with Madelein :)

Maybe being a CA girl IS cool....

So after a tough few weeks I am back onto a "America is kinda cool..." kick.  I am definitely NOT saying that it is my favorite country or a place I want to live forever but it is growing on me... from an objective point of view I can understand why people get cocky about America, especially if they are from CA and *gasp* dare I say it... Los Angeles? Now you all have to know that I am not the biggest fan of LA.  In fact, if you asked me a few months ago I definitely would have listed it in my top 3 least favorite cities.  Lately, however, I have had some friends show me the nuances of this area and I have to say that this city may actually make it into my top 50 favorite cities.  Probably number 50. But still. It's a start! :-)

Some of the things I have been doing to budge my thinking:
1) Even though it is a city of a badgillion people, it can still seem small at times.  A few weekends ago I had plans with friends to go out in the city and we decided on the Silver Lake Area.  I had another friend text me to tell me that he was headed to Silver Lake and that I should join.  Low and behold, we ended up at the same bar.  Pretty cool huh? It was an awesome bar too.  Very low key with awesome live music and super friendly people to talk to.

2) After the night out in Silver Lake my friend Ali and I decided to go for a hike in the Hollywood Hills.  Apparently this is THE place to go on a Saturday morning.  The trail was packed and I can definitely understand why.  From our perch we could see all the way to Catalina Island.  The LA skyline set against the ocean was really quite beautiful.  Of course, I still prefer hiking in an area where you don't see someone new every 2 feet but it actually became a kind of people watching experience.  I have never seen so many people who looked like their dogs.  Small little yappy dogs with their blinging collars and women attached to them trying to fit their bodies into tiny little jumpsuits.  Tall, tan, chiseled, men (aspiring actors, I bet) with their black labs and Australian Shepards.  In any case, Ali and I had fun contributing to the swirl of people as we hauled ourselves up the trail.

3) Live Music. LA is truly a musician's haven.  One of my friends from Berkeley, Noah, is a fantastic musician and he practically breaths the LA music scene.  For example, last week he saw three concerts, in the space of four nights.  On his night off we went to this awesome Mexican restaurant on Beverly that was populated with... any guesses? Musicians :) In any case, I am not complaining, he has an amazing taste in music and I a great deal of my new love for LA is due to him.

4) Disneyland.  Always a childhood favorite but let me explain.  This past weekend I went to Disneyland and California Adventure with Liz and Ali.  There is one ride that takes you on a "trip" through CA. Basically it is a ride where you are a swing and you "soar" through video footage of CA.  They have made it as interactive as possible by shifting your seat as you fly and spraying scent into the air that corresponds with the footage (ie. orange smell through an orange grove, pine through trees, etc).  Pretty darn cool in itself but it was amazing to see all these parts of CA that are so unique and undiscovered for me! California really does have an incredible breadth of experiences, cultures, landscapes, people etc...

Ali would kill me if she saw this but I think it's cute! :) 

Such is the randomness of life.  Weird things like amusement park rides make me appreciate one of my identifying labels: a born and bred CA girl.  Just like the Beach Boys said, "I wish they all could be California girls..."  Yah, I guess we are pretty cool ;-)

In honor of Grandpa Joe 1912-2011

Richard, Bard, Grandpa, KT, Dad and I - Christmas 2010

I would like to dedicate this post to my beloved Grandpa Joe Smith who died yesterday at the age of 98 and a half.  He had such an amazing life and I am sure my Grandma Win and the rest of our family who has already passed is welcoming him with open arms.

There is nothing more important to me than family and friends.  I am so glad I went to Virginia over the holidays to visit my Grandpa, Aunt Barb, and cousins Richard and Kyle.  Our time is so precious and I felt/ feel that it was so necessary to reconnect with them.  I hadn't seen my dad's family in four years or so and yet it seemed like no time had passed at all.  We stepped right back into the Smith family traditions: card games in front of a roaring fire, praying before all meals, fresh strawberries + vanilla ice cream + angel food cake (Grandma's old specialty),  lighting sparklers for fourth of July, and most importantly reconnecting with family and the nature all around us.

The main cabin at the lake

My most consistent memories from my dad's family take place at hand lake, a small lake in Minnesota.  Our family has owned a cabin (now 3) there for the past 50 years or so.  At the lake I learned how to dig for worms and other bait, fish, play barnyard, capsize canoes, observe beavers build their dams and most importantly: try to protect myself from the flocks of mosquitoes that would be my companions on those weeks by the lake.  My dad's family is definitely rooted to the earth and more country mouse than city mouse.  Looking back, I appreciate so much the refuge that this family and that place gave me from the craziness of the world.

While I was in Virginia, Richard was talking about how he wants to get a boat up at the lake so he could teach his future kids how to water ski and wake board.  As we tossed around ideas and old memories I felt so comforted by the presence of the Smith family retreat.  It is a place of escape and rediscovery and I am so proud that that place, and these people, are, and always will be, apart of me.

My Grandma and Grandpa raised three amazing children: my dad, my Aunt Barb, and my Uncle Fred, and I know that they, and the rest of the family will carry Grandpa Joe (and Grandma Win) in their hearts forever.  Love to all,
xxx

Grandpa's birthday '08 (at the lake) 

Playing blitz; grandpa called it "the bean game" 

Christmas decorations

Grandpa and the cat resting their eyes 

More bean game

Sunset at the lake

Our fishing dock

Dad, me, Grandpa, Barb and Richard; after church lunch