little e updates

hello friends.

I miss you gise so very much, I miss us all together and I miss each of you separately.

So this is what I got to do for the holidays: Flew out with Phil to visit Leah and Michael (meeting of the boyfriends!) and I have to report that Michael is very nice and fun and generous and funny and I haven't ever seen Leah so happy and giggley with a boy. he gets full marks in my book. Phil said to Michael one night, "What do you think about how the last four letters of your name backwards spell..." (!) And they hadn't noticed that yet!~ that's fate for ya. We left Denver just in time to escape the blizzard, and went to Disneyland. great fun. and I got to talk to Noelle on the phone while I was standing amid crazy families frantically taking pictures of the most gigantic christmas tree. We need to talk more Noe, your last blog sounds really cool, I think that's so neat you are doing that, and I want to hear more about it.

Next we went to Disneyland for grownups: Venice Beach, and stayed with a friend from High school. We met up with Brigetta and Ben, just back from Hawaii, and JUST ENGAGED! that's right folks, weddin some time next summer. (she'll be making a formal announcement sometime soon). THey are very happy, and just the same. Nik was a no show, and Andrea too, (where are you Andi?? are you in Seattle yet? call me I want to see you) but Nik had an excuse of romancing the Sarah Jo who was up from AZ, so he's off the hook. I'm just a little gossip aren't I?

We then drove up to Selma, CA to meet all of Phil's hundreds of tall, very religious farmin relatives. Poor Phil had to defend his Parent's recent split over and over again ("they just need to find Jesus together") and fend off the marriage questions at us (we are living in sin.)THen we drove to Portland for Christmas, and back to Seattle.

I want to hear more gossip from all of you about your lives!!! I will be making calls New years eve, and I have a new number, so don't think its acrazy and don't answer (a crazy you know at least) 206-948-8198. There.

and subbing is going well, stressful and thankless, but I'm working. and those little snottys get me always sick sick sick! But they're so cute so I don't mind, most of the time.

love and good cheer to you all !!!!!

little e

Lovely Ladies

Oh my women, I miss you. It has been almost 6 months since the wedding, and I haven't had nearly close to my fill of you all. I want to know what is going on in your lives. What is moving you, inspiring you?!

Me, I am getting more and more passionate about ecological and economical development. I am gearing up to figure out how to get a group of green developers and people with general knowledge about green techonology to speak to the residents of my neighborhood here on the river (Aaron and I sit on the board, I am treasurer!). I would love for people to see how easy and economical green alternatives are to implement into their home and daily lives. I am not quite sure what, if anything exists like that, and if nothing exists like that, I will have to invent it!

Also, I have a website www.raingift.com. Check it out. It is really important to me, and you can read the story on the site.

I am also in a training program to lead introductions to the Landmark Forum, which is the most rigorous and way cool experience I have encountered. It is a 6 month leadership training and development program that essentially chips away at who you are until all that is left is a lithe, muscled agile leader! What I mean by that is that throughout the program, all that stuff that prevents a person from being in action and from being fully self expressed...all that stuff gets cut away until what is reveled is just you. The Landmark Forum is pretty awesome in itself. It is 3 days and an evening, a forum for you to examine who we are as human beings, how you got to be the way you are, and what you want for your future. You get clarity around what it is that you most want out of life. Yeah, sounds pretty f*%#$ing awesome doesn't it?!

Anyway, I miss you all and think of you often and don't say so often enough.

Love Love Love and Happy Holidays.

Noelle

HB K* 25

Happy Birthday you amazing woman you!

Hope you had fun this weekend, and will have good cake tonight.

Love from the Maidenhead...we miss you!

HB 26 NN

noey:
happy birthday my dear...
eat.drink.be merry!!!

Happy Turkey/Tofurkey Day

ladies:
I hope you all had wonderful thanksgivings!

much love,
kasia

Politicas

I'm happy to say , that Washington Democrats were also sucessful this year. One thing no one mentioned is Nancy Pelosi. Go ladies! Maria Cantwell, the incumbent senator won against this slimeball Mike McGavick, so that was good too. Yes, Rummy is out! Read the article about him in the New Yorker this week; I haven't had a chance, but the picture in it of him is awesome. I'm thinking dart board? Go www.myspace.com/alexisdiana
Love you girls
Lex
ps-Andi-I'm sorry that we didn't get to hang out more when you came up here:(

Ladies!

We have so many victories today, here in Minnesota and around the nation!! We voted in the first black man and Muslim into congress from Minnesota!! He is an incredible man to boot. He ran his campaign from Love, and even chanted that at his victory parties, and never negative campaigned, which was a huge departure from th e other campagins in the state.

We did however, keep our icky governer, Tim Pawlenty....nasty man, no integrity. He won by a slight margin of voters.

But, next time around, we can see what a difference we can make, becuase Instant Run-off Voting (IRV) will be our means of voting in these elections!! That is exciting, and is perhaps my most favorite victory of them all. We will get to rank our politicians in order of preference, and no one will ever need to fear that they are wasting thier votes. You should check it out, what IRV is all about, have a ballot innitiative in your own state to implement IRV.

What an exciting day.

Love to you all, let me know how the victories came rolling in in your own state, and where we can look for victories next time.

Much love!!

Noey

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

Ladies ladies...
HAPPY HALLOWEEN...
I am sure you all brought sexy back and I want to see proof
(aka pictures of all your costumes)

much love

kasia

Where my girls at?

Where are they?

Missing the lot of you. Can we have another reunion soon? Cause I sure could use some Maidenhead love.

-L-

halloween: oooooooooo

Hey girlie q's
Well, Halloween is nearly upon us. I don't know why I'm excited though...I don't even have a costume! I think I'll just throw on a wig and some make up, we'll see what I turn out to be. Hoping to make it to em's party on Saturday with the lovely Andrea in town! Can't wait to see both of them! Sounds like Noelle might make a trip out here to have some Seattle fun (oxymoron?). I just had a meeting with a director who wants me to Assistant Direct with her. The play is call "A Dream Play" and it sounds totally out there. I can't wait to read it and start working on it. It's going to perform in May, and she wants to get started now, so I think this will be a huge piece! Lot's of crazy Expressionist stuff!
Hope you all are great and that your fingers aren't broken so you can blog back.
Ps, I'm on myspace now...I never thought it would happen!

HB 25 EC

10-4 good buddy!!!!
now it is your turn to celebrate being old!!!!
party it up maidenhead style and know that I wish I could
be there with ya.... cake....party hats...cake...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY EM!!!!!

miss/love ya,

k to the p dizzle!

WE LOVE YOU MAIDENHEAD OH YES WE DO

WE DON'T LOVE ANYONE AS MUCH AS YOU

WHEN YOU'RE NOT NEAR TO US

WE'RE BLUE

oh MAIDENHEAD WE LOVE YOU

love emily

VEGAS BABY!!!

ladies:
so I was thinking 2 things:
1. how much I miss hanging out will all of you.
2. that I have never been to vegas

so.....

how about we all meet up in Vegas for New Years?
Yes? No?

I am looking into availability etc and will keep you posted.
and if $$$ is an issue, charge it baby... you only live once and
god forbid I die without seeing the pyramids in vegas.
plus we could all dress like old lady gamblers
I am thinking lots of shiny spandex! :)

let me know..

xoxo luff xoxo

k to the p dizzle

HB 25 AM

andi:
happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday my dearest andrea...happy birthday to you.

birthday greetings from the east coast to the west coast.
celebrate this quarter century mile stone as if we were all with you.

xoxo much luff xoxo

kasia

new address

Hi All,
So I have moved. I am sending out an email with my new address, but just in case you check the blog more than your email - yeah........
It was a good couple days of chaos b/c of stupid lease timing we had to move everything to my parent's garage first and then to the new apartment, even though my old and new apartments are only 3 blocks apart. But the new apartment is nice and it is almost completely unpacked.
I hope you are all still doing well. Also I updated my 'back from the ice' post and included two pictures.
e.

Wowee Zowee

Hi everyone! Emily here. What exciting adventures you have all been up to! I love the pictures and the stories:so cool. I have been bogged down in correcting papers and surviving the intense land of inner city middle schoolers. I ended up teaching 6th(going into 7th) grade reading at WA MS in Beacon Hill. All of my kids were there because they flunked at least 2 classes during the year. Because my class was added on at the last minute, my 2 classes were made up of the kids that the other teachers "gave to me" because they didn't want to deal with them. In one class there were only 4 girls, fights everyday and a lot of apathetic, self-concious namecalling. Not to mention being spit at. It was quite a learning experience. My first partner teacher quit after 2 days, the second one after a week and then we had subs. They didn't give us the curriculum until the second week, so I made up a lot of stuff. We analyzed song lyrics and did readers theatre with Agust WIlson and Romeo and Juliet. I had to fail people which was hard, some kids wouldn't do anything but sit, tap their pencils and glare. I think most of them liked me though. I've learned some new slang! It made me feel kinda old to have to ask, "what does that mean?" Anyway, now it is done, and I am moving! Phil and I and our friend Jorden have moved into a cute 3 bedroom in Shoreline, just north of Seattle. We have a great yard and fireplace! I still have lots to move in, but it is great and now we just have to get our cats to get along. WE ARE HAVING A HOUSE WARMING PARTY ON OCTOBER 28th AND YOU ARE ALL INVITED. So, if you should find yourself in the northwest, you know you've got halloween plans availiable. We are planning it now because then we can hope to get as many people to come as possible. AND WE WANT YOU. Ofcourse, I agree with Lex that Seattle is a great place to visit anytime, and please do. I really want to go to Disneyland sometime soon. Well, this overdue message is long, Mostly I want you all to know that I am thinking about you, and lookingforward to when we can be all together again. Can you believe summer is almost over?! AH! ok, by now, love Emily

Images of China

sorry, I have over 500 pictures, so I tried providing a limited assortment.

just in case you wanted to see the others. go crazy
http://www.kodakgallery.com/AlbumMenu.jsp?

China is the new Prague

Knee-How (Hello) from China. ok, actually I am back. After a flight from Shanghai to Beijing to JFK to having the 3rd flight of the day cancelled, so a night in New York, I finally arrived in Washington DC about 36 hours after I left the wonderful land of China. China looks so much like Eastern Europe, from the buildings to the transport, to people's little stores, fruit stands, clothing, advertising, etc. I had a great stay, almost 2 weeks, we did 2-3 days in Beijing (the Great Wall, Tiannamen Square, the Forbidden City, Temple of Heaven, Lama Temple, Pearl Market, etc)Xi'an (the Terracotta Warriots, Big Wild Goose Pagoda)Guilian (river cruise, markets, crazy night life, and yes this is the city where we ate dog) and finally Shanghai (awesome bars, Chinease acrobat show). Ok, so I could go on and on, but basically it was amazing, friendly people, beautiful country and yes I ate Chinese food every day, which was surprising similar to American Chinese food (but I did try goose foot, chicken feet, duck cheecks, and dog, otherwise it was a lot of pork, chicken, rabbit, celery and watermelon) and yes I was very glad to have a burger upon my return home.

much love and peace,
kasia

Back from the Ice

Hi All,
I am back from Greenland now, and returned to a pretty intense week of heat and humidity here in Madison which has just subsided in the past day or two. It was quite the change to go from almost zero humidity and below freezing temperatures to close to 100% humidity and hundred degree heat.

I had an excellent time at Summit (named so b/c it is at the summit of the Greenland ice sheet). I learned a whole bunch and met a lot of really cool people. I also got to eat so much really excellent food. There are two cooks on staff over summer which make very yummy food for all of us at the camp to eat, and you get to eat so much b/c you burn so many calories up there digging and all, in the cold climate. The research station there was about 30 people while I was there, 10 of which are summer over staff that run the camp. The 'winter' conditions are great however because unlike winters here it is really sunny all the time (b/c the sun doesn't set), and b/c you are always dressed for the cold it doesn't seem so bad. All in all I really enjoyed it and I would definitely go back.

(The first picture is an overview of the camp from the plane on the flight in, the dots in rows are the 'arctic oven' tents, aka tent city, and the second picture is me in one of the snow pits we dug)
Love you all.
Erika.

Is anyone feeling like they need to come to seattle? Bumpershoot is coming up and this is the year to go. Kanye, Atmosphere, Steve Miller, Yellowcard, AFI, Blondie, New Pornographers, Matt Costa, Blue Scholars, and MOST importantly, Macha Monkey. We are doing a staging of the songs from our last play. It'll be fun!
If Bumbershoot ain't your cup of tea, there is always late/early Sept/Oct when MM's next show is. It's gonna be awesome too. Anne Marie is working with us, and hopefully we'll get Raz and Ellie in on it too. PS-If any of you (leah, andi, or em) know of any guys that want to audition for a play in SEattle let me know. All the guys that have audition suck...well all but one. Just a side note.
Case in point, Seattle is great place to visit! And I would love to get you guys to see some of my work. This time I'm only assistant directing (not doing both ass.dir AND stage managing) so the director is giving me scenes to direct and running some rehearsals. It's cool to know that people are going to see (and HOPEFULLY LIKE) some of my work. I'm ready to get out of the stage managing booth and work with actors more. I'm very excited :)
Hope everyone is great and call me some time.
Love Lex