Sidewalks of Buenos Aires

This may sound like a totally random, and fairly ridiculous topic, but one of the things I adore about Buenos Aires are the sidewalks. They change so much. In the US, the sidewalks are really a public space in that they are built and maintained by the city, which tends to mean a pretty uniform type of paving tile or concrete slab.

In Buenos Aires, this is not so.

As far as I can tell, the building is responsible for the sidewalk directly in front of it. This makes for patchwork sidewalks. There are poured concrete sections, pathways of small square paver stones, portions of patterns pavers, even painted tiles. It is less than predictable, and for some reason, to me, completely lovely. It is just one of the ways that Buenos Aires is different than every other city I have been in. The city has such a lovely mix of everything, not just sidewalk tiles.

I feel like I am part of the city waking up as I walk to work.

Argentina is not a country of early risers. Because of the schedule of the consular division, I work from 8 to 5, which is considered very early to start work. I am on the streets before the rush starts, and see shopowners putting up their awnings, unlocking their doors. I see how every morning the doormen of buildings and the owners of shops wash off the sidewalks in front of their buildings. I feel like an insider, like I get to see the city before it is all shiny and polished and ready for business. And feeling like an insider, well, that feels good.

Grand Canyon Trip

Pretty Sunset seen on the way to a football game

a lovely composition

Birds on the Wires from Jarbas Agnelli on Vimeo.

fun image...

gotta love the wisdom of college students...

Is there really anything left to say?

Late at night

i sit on my bed

feel the tenseness in my shoulders

a combination 

of exercise classes, 

carrying water, 

and stress

i stare at my computer screen

willing my thoughts to arrange themselves into an essay

look through old photos

read and reread the texts

wish i could just go to sleep

i sit

listen to the hum of the air 

the soft breath of my roommate

and chill music from pandora

i sit

my mind preoccupied with my to-do list for the week

always thinking of the next thing

but

maybe

for now

I will live

just today

i sit

and i listen

and i think

i think of that girl trapped in the wallpaper

too weak? 

just caught,

pinned into a role she has no desire to inhabit

i am not that girl

i will live for me

pursue my passions

my interests

once i figure out just what they are

but for now

i sit

i think

i begin to write.

Possibly a Successful Slideshow of Camping in the Chiracahuas

A few more excellent quotations

Am I not using this door right?

-Loni 

It's a complicated equation involving the location of my dad's desk, the TV, and the prevailing couches...

-Eric (on which room in his house is the family room)

Yes I am THAT short

any mail in box?

unfortunately, no clue

time to jump and see

Completely random and Very Funny Quotations

From a random girl I walked past in front of the MU-

"...and then I told him...there is like no way those could be my pajamas...I don't even own any pajamas!"

"...and then we get to the Count (a character in the Marriage of Figaro) who, lets face it, is basically a complete asshole." -Dr. Jacquie Scott (my badass human event teacher who wears gorgeous clothing, great heels, and is a totally awesome feminist...)

In my Bones, Stones, Human Evolution textbook-

"The chances of a structure like the human eye arising completely by chance are like a hurricane blowing through a junkyard and by chance assembling a Boeing 747"

"God Bless Women...its the little things you learn, like you will never again wear jeweled underwear to pilates, because that cute little jewel is now forever imprinted into your back." 

-Pilates teacher

"Basically...people have sex. And then along comes a baby."

-Dr. Thomas Puleo (who, incidently is the best dressed male professor I have ever met)

I walked past...then I backed up and walked past again...

...hmm

Slideshow Help

I have been trying to get the slideshow to function....and as far as you all can probably can see, it is not working very well. I have a bunch of pics tagged scattered_alaska, and the only one that shows up is Justin in Prince William Sound. While a lovely picture, there are plenty of other ones I would like to show up... And it now seems to be working in the preview window but not actually on the blog...but now it is only showing like the five pics Rianne has posted...so confusing.

And don't stop reading at my boring post, Andrea has a lovely picture and poetry down below.

Psycho Weather

All this fall, people in Tempe asked me how I stood Alaska in the winter, why I didn't simply freeze into one big popsicle...and so on. I tended to reply with my various tour guide-y facts about Anchorage being more temperate than one might think, and actually in most cases having a milder winter than the Midwest. I would also mention that you can always put on more clothing but can only take so much clothing off... Had this been a more normal winter that is the case, and granted it is the case, but 10 below is absolutely freezing no matter what excuses one offers up.

I was home during a cold snap...yuck...and it was long too! I personally blame it on Justin, cause the day after he left the temp went within the average range again. I recognize there isn't NECESSARILY a causal relationship, but I still maintain that the cold snap was his fault...

I was looking at the weather page, which has a graph of the past week or so of high and low temperatures, along with lines that delineate the average highs and lows for this time of the year. Anchorage went from days of having the high be near or below the average low temperature, to Monday when the temp range was within the averages to Tuesday and Wednesday highs being WAY above normal highs.

The last two days ASD has canceled school because the warm temps put a lovely layer of water on top of the existing ice, I think Alaska may be the only place where school gets canceled because it is too warm :) It has also been gusting wind, hard enough that the house sounds like it is about to lift up like something from the Wizard of Oz and my mom is afraid the wind will take out one of the trees around our property which would probably NOT be a good thing because many of them are tall enough that they would most likely hit the house. Also, in the typical classy Novak style, when my dad and brother replaced our old fridge with another (not a new one, but more functional) they decided for some reason to leave the old fridge on the back deck. I'm not sure if it was dangerous to get it down the stairs, if they were defrosting it, or they just got lazy. Anyway, the fridge has been a lovely deck ornament since sometime this fall, and got frozen to the deck with all of the snow and ice, however in the warmup that all melted, and the fridge was freestanding. This morning, we woke up to all of our trashcans blown away, and the slightly scary fact that the winds had been strong enough to move the refrigerator about five to ten feet across the deck. I guess it is good to keep things interesting :)

I guess this all just fits the Alaska maxim of: Don't like the weather? Wait ten minutes, it'll change.

My Melancholy Mood at wanting to be back at college yet at the same time not...

Why can't we get all the people together in the world that we really like and then just stay together? I guess that wouldn't work. Someone would leave. Someone always leaves. Then we would have to say good-bye. I hate good-byes. I know what I need. I need more hellos. ~Charles M. Schulz

Dinking around on html with little success

I am trying to get a slideshow to work properly...I would get it to display the first picture but nothing after that. Also I tried to make the blog have three columns so that we can have slideshows for different people etc...and so I was looking up tutorials online...trying to edit the html and having little success.

If anyone wants to try to make it work, I can make you guys have admin powers if you need them to edit the format, just save a backup copy of the format before you do too much. I throw out a challenge to you all, I don't know what the reward is quite yet, but you can suggest appropriate prizes...

Is anyone else amused by this?

a watercolor of a photo from prince william sound

Justin and I were exploring a really cool creek area (I took Aimie and Andrea as well)

Fun with Photoshop!

I am extremely excited about my recent acquisition of photoshop on my laptop. I found a tutorial on making photos look like watercolours, so here is one of my first tries. This could be a very addicting program...

Haiku for a Rainy day

what is going on?

wetness falling from the sky 

weather befuddles :)