The Great Inversion in the Sky

It was a fun adventure trying to explain to people what I was doing for the holidays. Wellll, going to New Jersey for a week, then to Salt Lake City, but flying into Las Vegas and driving up, but then to Bullhead City for New Year's, and then flying back to New Orleans on New Year's Day (which has since changed, but more on that another time)...

Mike came with me to Salt Lake City to celebrate the wedding of my dear sweet friend Hilary and her husband Patrick. I was honored to be a bridesmaid!



I'd only previously been to southern Utah to visit Bryce and Zion from a Las Vegassy direction (Mike too, since we went on that trip together). The drive up I-15 from Vegas to Salt Lake City involved a lot of mountains and eventually, snow. The long vistas got my head spinning a little, especially on the low sleep, high caffeine kind of way we were running through the holidays. But Mike and I took turns driving and made it the six hour drive through space and time safely.

Space and time? Oh yeah. We left Vegas at 6AM for our six hour drive. Except, I got time zones all wrong, which would be a continuing theme on this whole trip out west. Utah is on mountain time. Nevada is on Pacific time. Arizona is on whatever time it wants and that confuses me (Arizona does not observe Daylight Saving).


Salt Lake City and the Wasatch Mountains... through the seasonal smog

Anyway. Hilary and Patrick had a beautiful wedding and threw an awesome party afterward. It was so great to visit with Hilary and her husband and a few other college friends, and to dance the night away like a crazy lady.


classy people at the end of the night...


Great Salt Lake behind us, the sun in front of us...

Salt Lake City was pretty neat, but I was surprised by the smog. In winter, with the cold air at high elevation, pollution just kind of sits in the basin between the Wasatch and Oquirrh and other mountains, with warm air on top (atmospheric inversion! ask me about it sometime) holding it down. Still, lovely.


Great Salt Lake State Marina, Oquirrh Mountains

I'd like to see more of Utah. Good thing Hilary and Patrick live there. Congratulations, Lamberts! and yaaaay Utah!

the ocean

I always try to see the ocean when I'm home, just to make sure it's still there.



Jamie and I were going to meet up, potentially to record a Christmas greeting to our beloved Katie over in Chinook. I had suggested we meet up at the Sawmill in Seaside (a pizza place and bar) instead of going all the way down to Katie's neighborhood by Island Beach State Park, where we usually hang out.

I forgot what happened to Seaside this fall until I got over the bridge. Ugh.




The Sawmill, all melty and unsafe for occupancy but still standing thanks to some serious sprinklers

It was hard to go over there, but I'm still confident in the strength and resiliency of New Jersey. I'm glad I made it to see and feel and hear and smell the ocean for a few minutes before heading west. I may like to wander, but home is home.



Till next time, New Jersey.

tidings of comfort and joy

Some background music for you:



Church is so important and so personal for me. It's been a really fun and interesting few years of exploring many different churches, but the truth is: I came into this season with a heavy heart.

This year has been marked with a deep sense of loss after finding that I needed to move on from both the church I grew up in and my other church home, my camp. I'm grateful for many years of many good things from both beautiful places, but find myself heartbroken and feeling homeless.

That's not to say I don't love Bayou Blue-- I love my little rural church very much, for many reasons. I also love Louisiana and New Orleans and bayou land and wetlands and trees and grasses and mucky soils, but that doesn't quite make it home. You know?

So, speaking of home. I landed in Newark last Wednesday. I am so, so, so happy to be in New Jersey (you don't know how beautiful Newark Airport and Elizabeth Seaport look until you're feeling so far away from home on so many levels, although the fresh blanket of snow and the glorious view of the Manhattan skyline complete with Freedom Tower didn't hurt, either). This may come as a shock, but I've kept pretty busy. I had a long-overdue nerve block, and after a few hours of rest, a 245ish mile roadtrip on Friday, time with Mike's family on Saturday, and another trip up north Sunday into Monday to accomplish holiday baking and soil expedition.

Not going to church right now isn't really an option in my book. Not only are we strongly encouraged to attend worship regularly as employees of the church through YAV, but I'm at a place on my own journey that requires constant attention. My solution this past Sunday was to attend worship at the church I was baptized in up in Montclair. It worked out very well-- I was welcomed very warmly as soon as it was mentioned that I'm a Spain, and my great aunt was there. It was especially good to be with her, as it was the first anniversary of Uncle Fred's passing. We went to a Christmas hymn sing before church together, where the carol "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" stuck out at me because of the tidings of comfort and joy part.

What am I taking comfort in right now? I am blessed beyond measure. I have an awesome family and am marrying into one equally as great. I have incredible friends. I have work that I enjoy. I have amazing adventures to places I never imagined I'd see. I have good health, now greatly improved by that nerve block and getting off the high dose of pain medicine that has fogged my brain for the past seven months.

My brain might be clear of tramadol but is definitely bogged down by something else. Being a sort of gypsy is exciting and fun in many ways, but I do miss having a home. There are no easy answers with this stuff, and I didn't have a good solution for tonight, so I went to the church I grew up in. I was thankful that a few of my friends were attending the late service, which made it a little less painful to sit out of choir for the first time in at least 20 years. I stopped by the choir room to visit and say hello to old friends, who voted by cheering that I get a robe and join them, but I couldn't do it. I needed a little distance. Funny, how I'm feeling sad because I feel so far away, and yet I need some separation too.



I love the themes of Advent. Hope, Peace, Joy, Love. While I'm not feeling especially peaceful this Christmas, I am definitely grateful for the many ways that the others manifest themselves in my life. Reuniting with loved ones. Remembering my way all over NJ. Walking without limping. Soil expeditions. Planning another epic Christmas dinner (creole deep fried turkey being the centerpiece). Gearing up for more adventures-- Utah and Arizona in the next week, New Jersey again in February, and of course all over South Louisiana.

I have great hopes that all of these things will settle out in time. It's just a heavy weight to carry meanwhile.

Wishing you a very happy, hopeful, peaceful, joyful and loving Christmas.

sweet sixteen in Zimpel Manor

Today begins the sixteenth week of our household's complete existence, and my last week in New Orleans before the holidays. We're still getting the same questions about our household being a bad reality TV show or if we've all synched up yet, but we've come a long way.

Our first time all together, at orientation:


Our first meal all together, at Zimpel Manor:


And now? We received our first compliment in response to announcing we all live together, when we went out for wine and cheese a few weeks ago at St. James Cheese Company (where I clearly had a beer with my soft cheeses, thank you). The awesome woman behind the counter celebrated how joyful we were and how awesome our household must be.

She's not entirely wrong. We certainly have our fair share of bumps in the road (this is, after all, New Orleans, and if you've never driven here... I don't necessarily recommend it*). They are new every morning, with additional layers and nuances as time goes on and we discover more permutations of our quirks. However, for a household of eight people, we function reasonably well. I don't believe any of us are starving and we have yet to go over on our grocery budget. We rarely if ever need to wait for a shower or toilet. Even the thermostat wars are really more like peace rallies. We all pretty much point to the same night when we clicked as a domestic unit of sorts: the night Alyssa tried to be my wedding planner.

Since then, we've reached new levels of householdery. For one, we have received mail addressed to Zimpel Manor. Granted, it was from our boss, but who cares. Furthermore, we can now all pretty much identify whose clothes are sitting in the dryer. And speaking of clothes, this happened last week, on the same day, completely unplanned:



(photos courtesy Kalyn)

I mean, it was only a matter of time till Hot Dog Johnny's happened, but even Anna Leigh and Alyssa's shoes looked similar. We may not be totally in synch in the way that most people mean when they ask that question, but we're clearly on some shared wavelengths around here.

Happy Sweet Sixteen, Zimpel Manor, and many more!



*Fun fact: The roads in South Louisiana, especially New Orleans, are terrible. I've heard stories about this being related to the Federal government holding infrastructure money hostage until states raised the drinking age to 21, but whether that's true or not, subsidence, poor drainage and Live Oak roots sure do wreak havoc on the roads here.

out of the fog

It's hard to remember that it's December when it's still pretty consistently warm enough for t-shirts. I mean, it only just became fall, like yesterday, when a cold front dropped the temperature by 40 degrees and dropped about 1/4 of the cypress leaves:


At home, I usually have my Christmas concert to snap me out of November mode (I love Thanksgiving!), but the weather and the fact that my work has been quiet for the past week or so has really kept me in this foggy bubble with little regard for the upcoming holidays.

Then it was actually really foggy this morning out in bayou land. Visibility approximately 50 feet:


And this at 11:30 or so was a vast improvement over the conditions when I drove out to Bayou Blue before 8AM. 

I decided to combat this oblivious aloofness by listening to Christmas music all day. I'm not usually one for songs about Santa, but this one added a little boogie to my ride home from the bayou and a little Advent into my heart:



Wishing you and your loved ones peace and joy this Christmas season.

Audubon Aquarium of the Americas

I've been having one of those weeks when I don't have much to show for my work. On top of that, my new friend from the Episcopal service corps, Lindsey, had taken today off to come plant trees with me, which was cancelled on account of that neato cold front that swept across the continent today.



So even though I felt like a bum and didn't want to get dressed or leave the house, when Lindsey suggested we go to the aquarium, I agreed. For one, she's cool and generally has good ideas. Second, she found a great deal on Living Social: half price admission! And I knew I'd enjoy it once I got there.

I was right. That place is SWEET.


penguins!


parakeets!


sting rays!


nettles!

And lots of cool fish and an enormous albino gator and some cute otters and some other cool fish and sharks and stuff! I found this display rather curious--



I guess those oil companies can pat themselves on the back for funding a nice tank that shows how oil rigs can form interesting habitats for all sorts of creatures. They left out the part where the oil leaks kill wildlife or how the construction of said rigs destroys wildlife habitat in the first place, etc. etc.

I find it interesting how many oil companies are getting away with murder in the Gulf. Conservation groups and local residents are having trouble holding them accountable for the damages they have caused along the coast. The government doesn't want to hold them responsible, because oil brings so much money into the state... BUT at what cost, exactly?


But, stepping off my Wetlands Advocate soapbox, the aquarium was pretty cool. I can't remember the last time I went to one. Good change of pace in an otherwise pretty quiet week in my little world down here in South Louisiana.