Come On Everybody, to Santa Clause's Party

Well, usually I'm too busy reading Un Bon Voyage to get a post in here, but today I've either turned into a speed reader or looked at the pictures more than the text... (probably the latter, Hann, sorry! I don't understand how you have the time to make all of those posts when I barely have time to read them!)

So I'm sitting in Cafe Primo, a lovely coffeehouse with Wi-Fi where Jon and I usually spend an afternoon every week or so. We JUST finished our Christmas shopping at the farmer's market. Our tree (a baby razor palm that Jon and David dug up and put in a bucket and then plopped on the bench in our front window) in laden with ornaments (okay, like 5 ornaments... but it really can't hold any more!) and sitting above a pile of presents. I'm madly crocheting at every free moment so that our new stockings will be ready for Santa come Christmas Eve! Not being home for Christmas is certainly a bit sad, but I'm so excited about spending my First Christmas with Jon. We've got lots of plans already, like homemade cinnamon buns for breakfast and seeing that Sherlock Holmes movie, so I doubt I'll have much time to miss Peter's complaining about his presents or Hester's disappointment that everyone is still wearing their pajamas at dinner.

Work is both good and bad... our immediate superior is still an ass, but his dad can be a sweetheart. He hosted a staff Christmas party last week in which we stuffed ourselves full of processed cheese and sasuages from the Swiss Colony (this is the same guy who buys those 3-hour fireplace logs from Walmart. We live on a farm! We are surrounded by 30 acres of trees!!!) Yesterday I spent the whole morning transplanting Silverado Swiss Chard seedlings into the garden and seeding a big fat row full of French Breakfast Radishes. In the afternoon Jon and I prepared and seeded two beds of Scarlet Nantes Carrots and spent some good quality time with the chickens. (We haven't been letting the hens out of the coop during the day ever since the rooster got killed by a coyote--he's the one who keeps them together and leads them back to the coop. So we let them out to stretch their legs and eat all the bugs they want for a few hours every few days while we keep an eye on them and play with the chicks.) So, I don't know if you guys can tell, but that's a GREAT day of work. Imagine finishing a paper you've been working on for 3 weeks and getting a whole bunch of short, easy assignments out of the way. AND knowing that you've done a really good job on all of it. That's what yesterday was like.

Also, I've decided what I'm doing with my life. For the next 8 months or so. Jon and I are going to leave here in April, probably, and take our time driving back to Wisconsin. He's trying to get a job at Angelic Organics, and I'm applying to the second year of the intensive summer Arabic program at Beloit College. I'll live with my parents for the summer (hopefully he'll only be 20 minutes away at the farm) and we'll look for jobs and apartments in Chicago so that as soon as my class is done and his farming is done, we can move to the Big City! So this is all very exciting. For me.

Well, I wish I could see each and every one of you this Christmas, but an update with lots of pictures will have to suffice. That's an order! (Or at least a Christmas Wish...) Merry Christmas!

WHAT THE FUCK?

I'M ON MY WAY TO CAIRO! IN EGYPT! OH MY GOD

KEVIN

M

My mom's friends mother knits dog custem dog sweaters. She could resist and you must admit, he's a very handsome dog. Aunt Kathleen brought him a seasonal sweater, which is even cuter, if you can imagine.

His bottom.

This is how he spends a majority of his time. He is sort of a cover hog.

As cute as can be.

A long delayed update

Good evening my dear friends,
On this frosty Friday night, I am bundled up in the corner of a coffee shop in downtown Decatur eating key lime pie and avoiding the mound of work I haven't had a chance to get to due to the bigger mound of work I have been working on all week. Who new grad school would be so tough? My friend D (after big-D of course) is sitting across from me looking as though she is doing something productive which doesn't make me feel better about my self. I am doing all I can to hold out until our pre-determined 11pm wine-bar break... With finals fast approaching, Kevin's need to be petted 14hrs a day, work deadlines, and my crazy sex life, I havent had too much time for the blog. I do apologize! Here are some tid-bits of news from my life over the past few months...
Kevin!- My crazy sex life may be make-believe, but my new friend Kevin is very much a reality. He is just as lovely as a 12 pound half-chihuahua mutt could be! I really thought I might have some trouble learning to love such a silly excuse for a dog, but it really was a non-issue. He is currently the love of my life, even when he wears hand-knit sweaters, eats the Thanksgiving day turkey, and rolls in human vomit.
Babies!-Isaac the great is going to be a big brother! Bren is pregers. It is very early in the process, but according to her calculations she thinks she will be due at the end of next July. I wonder what wisdom this little one will posses (Catie, if you need an Arabic tutor, I'm sure Isaac would be willing to lend a hand).
Ok, I know things have happened, I just cant think of what they might be... I will be borrowing my dads camera soon to provide you all with a detailed tour of my day-to-day... until then, I love and miss you all!!!

Grab a drink, grab a glass, after that...

Alright, I haven't written in a while, but what to write?!?! Each day here is much like the last... which is not to say I'm not enjoying myself. I'm tearing through fun books (like mysteries and chick lit and spy novels) that I never thought I'd have enough time to read again, I'm eating delicious, local, organic, incredibly fresh food for FREE, and I'm watching episodes of Lost and various great movies (like Singing in the Rain and Dr. No, most recently) every night with Jon Fagan, who is a darling.

Of course, I am also living with some of the most annoyingly conservative and ignorant people I've ever spent a great deal of time with (I'm sure there are much worse offenders, but I've never had to live and work with them).

For example, Lance, the older ex-Navy farm business manager, told me the other day that he had two international WWOOFer requests to work on our farm that he was considering: one from France, who "sounds good," and the other from some middle eastern country, who he would "definitely not be welcoming on our farm." I said that was too bad, since I'd like to work on my Arabic. We then went into a conversation about women's rights in Islam, and he said that women were degraded and oppressed in many parts of the world, which was "stupid" (i.e., we Americans are the only smart ones). Less than 24 hours later, he asked which one of "the boys" wanted to work the rototiller (a big, gas-powered, very heavy piece of equipment), and suggested that I could do some hand-weeding.

And then there's his son, Jason, who says "dude" and "bro" in every other sentence and with whom this conversation recently occurred:

Brittany: "Yeah, I think Eleanor Roosevelt went to Wellesley. And Hillary Clinton. It's a really good women's liberal arts college."

Jason: "In other words, its a school for dykes! Am I wrong?"

Oh, how I yearn for Earlham at these moments...

(I have my moments of retaliation, though: I rototilled 8 rows yesterday. So there!)