Country Lovin’.

Hello Loves!

Last weekend, I went to Wisconsin to visit my Grandma days before her 96th birthday, and to see my parents, aunts, uncles, and a few cousins. (Well, really, just Craig and Brenda. And my cousin’s kids, HR and ZT. That’s a few?) As always, it was a beautiful experience…and it *is* an experience. There is a part of my heart that Wisconsin touches like nowhere else can.

I flew into Chicago around 130, with the expectation that I’d be spending close to two hours there before boarding my 40-minute flight to Milwaukee. I texted my parents, who were en route to Milwaukee from NJ by car and expected to pick me up in a few hours in Milwaukee. They’d had a leisurely vacation morning with a long walk, breakfast, and slow start. My dad texted back that, as serendipity would have it, they were about 20 minutes away from O’Hare. They scooped me up there and we were off to Milwaukee! (About an hour later, I received a text that my flight was delayed by an hour and a half. Even more of a win!) We went to Whole Foods for coffee and snacks for the farm, walked around Lake Michigan, then headed to Three Brothers, where we ordered far too much delicious food and talked. I am very lucky to enjoy my parents’ company so much and count them both among my closest friends. 💝

After dinner, we drove to The Farm! About two hours from Milwaukee.

Above is a poorly framed photo of a picture of The Farm, in all its glory. The farmhouse that we sleep in at The Farm is over a hundred years old and gives the sensation of having walked into a time capsule, particularly the upstairs, where the majority of my family does not like to sleep (the mattresses are probably as old as the house). Personally, I love it up there (and I can sleep almost anywhere): the rattling windowpanes, the dearth of outlets, the hidden treasures, such as my dad’s high school diploma, old photos, and other family keepsakes.

Saturday morning, our walk got rained out, so the kids and I did some face painting, which I had to quickly (and surprisingly easily) was off, so that we could get to Krohn’s for cheese curds by noon.

I got two bags of curds to bring back to the west coast and enjoyed them as a snack all week. We also stopped by the extensive yard sale happening at the house next door to the farm for this:

A lemon squeezer!

Apparently, my mom has been looking for one of these heavy-duty old-fashioned lemon squeezers ‘forever.’ And now she has one! (We also have an identical one at The Farm. Back in the day, all the farmhouses had the same stuffs.) That afternoon, my parents and I went to Algoma, a nearby town on the water, to pick up smoked fish. We also stopped into a local coffee shop and perused some beautiful handmade jewelry. For dinner, we feasted with everyone on bagels, smoked fish, tomato slices, and cheese, and it was delicious.

On Sunday, the kids went to church, so my parents and I went on a walk, just the three of us, which was lovely.

Afterwards, we went to pick up Grandma and then headed to my aunt and uncle’s cottage on Lake Michigan for an afternoon BBQ.

The views are (clearly) very beautiful. I even found myself thinking, ‘I could totally live here, and it would be so much cheaper than Santa Cruz!’ And then I remembered: winter.

The Ledvinas are known for their love of good food and good conversation, and this trip was no different. It was during this BBQ that the idea of recording Grandma telling stories first came up, and I now have plans to run with that in October. My Grandma has so much history – of our family and in general – in her head and she is still so sharp; I want to record those stories before it is too late! So, I’m planning a trip back in October to do just that, and I am very excited about it.

I was overwhelmed by emotion a few times during my short weekend visit. First because the topic of ‘getting older’ kept coming up, as all of my aunts and uncles are doing just that. My parents are the youngest of the bunch and they are in their sixties, and people are starting to talk more about how their bodies just don’t work the same as they used to. Even a couple of my cousins have had to stare down their own mortalities already. In a logical way, I totally get that this is how nature and biology and Life work, that our bodies get old and then die, and I’m down to have that conversation with people. As I’m fond of saying, ‘Getting old isn’t so bad. Better than the alternative, right?’ (Says the 31 year-old, in all her infinite wisdom.) On the other hand, the reality that this ‘getting old’ thing is happening to some of my favorite people in the world is…unsettling. As Grandma says, ‘It doesn’t do to dwell on these things.’ Moving on…

Actually, I’m going to stop my reflections there so that I can get this posted finally. I still have to update y’all about last weekend’s boating trip to my friend’s cabin, and all the rest of life! Luckily, this upcoming weekend will be a quiet one at home, with no obligations, and plenty of time to read and write, which is all I want right now. 😊

I also have my first on-call shifts this week, now that I’m officially off of probation as a supervisor. I’m a teensy bit nervous, but I’m at a big advantage over other new supervisors going on-call, as my day job as the Screening Supervisor is pretty much identical to what the supervisors do on-call. (I’m also excited because we make great money from being on-call. Wahoo!)
Love yous!

Me

Creative Inspirations.

Hello Loves,

I wonder if waking up to this will ever get old.

So… I literally can’t even talk about politics anymore. It’s too much. It’s too ridiculous. I can’t even dignify it with my attention. To this end, I won’t be sharing many links this week. This is what else has been going on…

From a Live Oak and Pleasure Point neighborhood walk.

On Friday, my coworker-friends and I grabbed a quick lunch at New Leaf (a grocery store similar to Whole Foods) and then headed over to the Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History to see our friend Stef’s exhibition.

Stef took inspiration from the refugee crisis and other migratory stories and phenomenons to inform this exhibit. She applied for a six-week fellowship with the museum, was chosen(!), and then managed to work out a three day-week work schedule for the six weeks, so she can do both. I am equally inspired by and proud of her.

Stef embroidered a large world map, a smaller California map, a Santa Cruz map, and a United States map. As people visit, she offers them the chance to share their migration story, and then she is embroidering their stories onto the map. She also gives visitors the option of embroidering themselves and has educational materials as well. She is so cool.

From a Pogonip walk. A view of Santa Cruz.

Also at Pogonip.

The snake above scared the crap out of Danny and me on one our hikes. The snake appeared unfazed.

I spent a couple of hours today working on a letter to send to all of my coworkers to encourage them to participate in union rallies. I’m as surprised as anyone that I’m taking an interest in leadership, but I have a lot of good reasons for wanting us to work to negotiate more money, and people that I trust tell me that it’s important for people to show up. I’ve never had a union before, so we’ll see how this goes.

I’ve been starting to look at listings in Felton and Lompico, tiny cities in the (breathtaking) mountains, about twenty minutes from here / the beach. The properties are slightly more affordable up there, and would likely retain their value and be easy to rent out if I wanted to move elsewhere in the future. It kills me to be throwing away all this money on rent, and – now that I’m a supervisor – I know that I won’t be leaving Santa Cruz for at least a few years. And both Danny and I love it here. How does one know when they are ready to buy?

I even like the gray mornings.

Work has been interesting, not just because of the union stuff. The state enacted new legislature and I’m in one of the workgroups to plan the implantation of the implementation. I get to work with and learn from some of the high level managers, participate in macro level decision making, and be a part of implementing *best practices* in our work. Our bimonthly meetings are becoming my favorite part of the day.

I like tracking my steps. This is my ‘Harbor Walk.’ It includes a stroll through Seabright beach, the harbor, Arana Gulch park, and then through the neighborhood, which is beautiful in itself.

I’m leaving for Wisconsin on Friday. I’m super excited to see my parents and spend the weekend with my 96 year-old grandmother. And eat cheese curds. And freshly smoked fish. And Three Brothers in Milwaukee.

I also have training for two days in Oakland this week, so I’m spending Tuesday night there. And yet, despite being gone more days than I am here, I still came home from the farmers market with an assortment of squash, greens, peppers, tomatoes, and five different cheeses. I’m getting in the Wisconsin spirit?  😜

I’ve been listening to Elizabeth Gilbert’s Magic Lessons podcasts and getting super inspired.

I made this risotto tonight. It was my first attempt at making risotto. It came out okay. It will get better.

Hope everyone has a beautiful week!

Love yous. Very much.

Me

Summer Lovin.

Hello Looooooooves!

You know that thing that moms say about their young children, “The days are long, but the years are short?” I think that actually applies to all people, all the time (and especially to weekends, which seem to flyyyyyyyyy by). I cannot believe that it’s already August and that, before long, our city will empty out again, the boardwalk will be closed during the week, and these warm days will get…slightly less warm. (I still live in Santa Cruz, after all.)

Did anyone watch the DNC last week? I did not. Mostly because I don’t need much more than a seven-second sound byte from the troll that is her opponent to solidify that I am, most definitely, with her. A coworker-friend did tell me that Michelle Obama’s speech was worth watching, so I watched that one, and he was right. She’s at least as good of a speaker as her hubs.

This video also came out of the convention and has been my favorite thing ever for the last week. I had no prior knowledge of this pop hit, and quickly became infatuated with the feel-good lyrics and video. Like any good pop song, it burrowed into my brain and began playing on a loop. And now, as also happens with all good pop songs, I want to blow my head of a little bit just to make it stop playing.

Oh, wait, I lied. This is my favorite thing ever from the last week:

That is my niece, with her little wispy hairs pulled into pigtails. My heart. 💓

Work has actually been fairly slow and manageable for the last couple of weeks, which is a welcome change from the maddening pace that we moved at March through June. One would think that I would be using this slower period to catch up and maybe even plan ahead with some new organizational techniques or ideas for improving our practice for when it gets busy again. But I’m not. Instead, I’m just moving slower. Everyone is. I’ve actually started developing a theory that we workers (and supervisors) in Investigations are a bunch of adrenaline junkies and when things slow down, we don’t know what to do with ourselves.

I still love living here. The other night, I had already walked about 15,000 steps for the day, but I was feeling bleh after I got home, and so I talked myself into going for a short walk. I only made it as far as the beach (about three blocks), and then just sat on a bench, enjoying the sunset. Some tourists walked by and I overheard one of the women comment on how amazing this place is, and I was overcome with gratitude that I actually get to live in this amazing place.

I will always, always, always be grateful for the time that I live here. ❤️

I’m also very grateful for my new bullet journal. What the heck is a bullet journal, you ask? Great question. I’ve seen ‘bullet journals’ popping up in my social media world a lot in the past year or so, and I’ve been wondering the same thing. Then, my only Internet-but-also-real friend Rachel wrote this piece, which explains it perfectly. About a third of the way through reading her description, I was still not getting it, but then, it clicked, and I realized that I absolutely had to make one. For those who won’t read her explanation/aren’t all *that* interested, a bullet journal is basically a combination of an ongoing to do list, a planner, and a journal, all customized and rolled into one notebook. For me – a person who has different To Do lists and planners on white boards, post-its, and then also a separate journal – this is IDEAL for keeping track of my life. So, a couple of weeks ago, Danny and I walked downtown to Bookshop, and I purchased my first ever Moleskine notebook, with a dotted grid, and then I happily spent two hours setting up my bullet journal.

To give you an idea, here are a few pages:

The Yearly Calendar (or, ‘Future Log’ in weird bullet journal lingo)

One of my monthly pages.

Probably my favorite page.

The ‘Weekly Log.’ I really like the tiny calendar.

Each day also gets its own page, to keep track of what you need to do that day, and any journaling that you want to do. I’m not quite obsessed, but it IS a really nice way to start and end each day. And, you know, keep track of my life.
This is normally where I’d post links to all the stuff that I’ve been reading, but… It’s too heavy. The news is so hard recently.[Although, let’s be for real: racism in all its forms has *always* been a problem. We just have cell phones and social media, so we (white people) are just more aware of it now.] I have some very strong feelings in support of the Black Lives Matter movement, and I remain hopeful that this could be a time of revolutionary change and committed to marching in the next BLM protest in the Bay Area in support of that revolution.

With that, I wish for you all to have a wonderful week, and encourage you to find beauty and gratitude in each day. 💝

Love yous very much.