Thankfulness: Ithaca in Retrospect

I was 16 years old when I first visited Ithaca. It was one of those crisp spring days--Ithacans, you know what I'm talking about--when the sky is blue and the trees are green and everyone walks around with stupid smiles on their faces, rapturously joyful at the temporary departure of the long, cold, grey Finger Lakes winter.

Photo from my first visit to Ithaca, 5/29/99

I moved to Ithaca the month after I turned 18, my parents' minivan packed to the roof with items my mother was sure I'd need (plastic storage boxes? aluminum foil?), unaware of that Cornell's East Hill weather machine produced perfect weather only for the 10 days of pre-frosh campus visits in the spring, and another 4 days for parents' weekend in the autumn. Bastards.

I was blissfully unaware.

Hiking in Treman as a freshman, 2000

I didn't think about or understand responsibility, relationships, or being an adult, or prioritizing what was important to me, or what was important to me, or how hard it can be to remain sane in an insane world. Hell, I even considered voting for George W. Bush in the 2000 election (what can I say--it was my first election--before 2000, donkeys and elephants were zoo animals!). In short, I was a kid.

I spent four years on The Hill.

The Arts Quad, 2003 (?)

Then I graduated. :-O

Graduation, 2004

Unsure of where I could go and what I could do, I decided to roll down the hill to a little apartment on The Commons. I told myself that it would be just for a year for a little relaxation after so many years of schooling, and then I would... I didn't know. Build my life?

One year turned into two years turned into five years. I struggled and thrived and struggled a little more. Boyfriends came, stayed, and left. I invented myself, abandoned that, reinvented myself. The world spun madly on, bright blue spring skies giving way to the succulent greenness of summer, then the festival of autumn colors, then the greyscale of winter. Again and again.

Filmore Glen near Moravia, 2005

I wonder if anyone has a moment when they realize they are an adult, a full member of a community. I didn't, but after returning from Peru this spring I realized that I had a career--not just a "job"--and I had friends--not just drinking buddies--and I had a relationship and I gave directions to tourists and I recognized the same faces in Wegman's and I could list all the best hiking trails in the County and actually knew people on Common Council and also knew to leave town for graduation and move-in weekends, lest a wrong-way driver run me over on Seneca Street.

I had built a life. Or rather, I had built my life.

Peppers for sale at the Farmers' Market, 2006

I'm finally leaving Ithaca, just shy of 10 years here. I'll miss my adopted hometown. I'm leaving a lot behind:

• Saturday morning breakfast burritos at the Ithaca Farmers' Market
• Wegman's, where you can find anything.  Anything.
  
• The Lindseth climbing wall: so vertical, so slimy, so beloved
• Scaring deer on a Sunday afternoon walk on the Black Diamond Trail
• Saying "I've got nothing" at work (it's still funny)
  
• Thursday Night Girls' Club
  
• The lakehouse, even the Man Cave
• The Tompkins County Public Library
• My 7 (11, really) sycamores
  
• Finger Lakes dry Riesling
  
• Red-winged black birds in the marshes near the Inlet
• Being reallyreallyreally excited to teach at COE
• Not being the only woman not wearing makeup
• Napping in the cargo net in Kate & Tim's climbing cave
• Trying to answer the question, "How many buses does TCAT have?"
• Sleeping in a hammock
• Ithaca's one million festivals
  
• Cocoa Bean Supertramp & Biggie Smalls, two of my favorite felines
• Ithaca's 15 minute rush "hours"
• Riding my bike
• Complaining about the weather but secretly enjoying it
  

The last ten years have made me who I am. This Thanksgiving, I am thankful for Ithaca, 2000-2010.

Lovely's birthday, 2009

October "To Do" List

• SAVE!!! - Done
• Get eye exam - Done
• Send application materials to Earthwise Valley - Done
• Reduce 401k contributions - Done
• Start Blog - Done
• Update/ upload resume, writing samples, references list - Done
  

Days until departure:  120
Months until departure:  4

Bread!

Nothing beats the smell of bread baking in the oven, especially on the first night with a forecast for ice and snow.

My Bread Recipe

Combine 2 c. bread flour, 2 c. hot water, 2 T. sugar (brown sugar, honey), 2 T. oil, 2 t. salt, and 3 packets of Fleischmann's Rapid Rise yeast. Stir it up and let it sit 8-10 minutes to let the yeast wake up.

Add another 3 c. bread flour, adding a cup at a time, stirring and kneading until all of the flour is worked in. Knead for 5-10 minutes until the dough is elastic. Let the dough rise in a warm location for an hour.

Beat the hell out of the dough. Slap it down, punch it, beat it up. Then, shape the dough into one or more loaves and place them on a glass 9x13'' pan sprinkled with lots of cornmeal. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 25 minutes.

Hi, Micheal!

A beautiful spider has taken up residence on our deck.

I usually don't refer to spiders as "beautiful." I like reptiles (quite a lot, actually); amphibians are pretty cool; I tolerate class Insecta. To tell you the truth, members of class Arachnid kinda freak me out.

I don't mind little spiders, and I don't mind Daddy Longlegs (Pholcus phalangioides, or the cellar spider), but a spider the size of Daddy Longlegs with a large, juicy body and thick, strong legs to rival Cindy Crawford's? Yikes.

Yet the natural world is neutral. Existing in the natural world means existing with sunshine and storms, rainbows and rot, songbirds and spiders.

To that end, I haven't evicted Micheal. Oh, yeah--although I avoid anthropomorphizing animals, my mother suggested that I name the beautiful spider Micheal. So, she's called Micheal. And she's moved from her small web to a larger web, nearly two feet across, with the symmetry of a modernist sculpture.

I think that Michael is either an oak leaf spider (Aculepeira ceropegia) or a European garden spider (Araneus diadematus), both of which are orb weavers. Leg tip to leg tip, she's about 1.5 to 1.75 inches.

I like paying attention to the little dramas of the natural world. It puts my own mental storyline (i.e. what I tell myself about my personal experience) into perspective. It reminds me that my perception of my world is only my perception, and that everyone/ everything from the Dalai Lama to Michael has their own story.

Michael's story continues after the jump!

Autumn in Upstate New York

It's autumn in upstate New York!

I took a walk in Danby State Forest this past weekend. Thatcher's Pinnacles, with its wonderful view of inlet valley, has always been one of my favorite places here.

The autumn colors were at peak. This hickory looked like it was dressing up as the sun for Halloween.

The weather is getting colder, and the summer vegetables have long since withered and gone brown. We pulled the carrots out last weekend, and yesterday I cleaned up the remains of the snap peas, tomatoes, and cucumbers.

Time to pick apples, make applesauce and hard apple cider (and apple jack!)... dinners of acorn squash and wild rice... drinking cinnamon tea and enjoying the feeling of being tucked into a heavy wool sweater... what an awesome harvest season!

Little Garter Snake

I ran into this little garter snake while I was out walking on the Black Diamond Trail last weekend. Literally--I wasn't quite paying attention to my surroundings, and I nearly stepped on her!

I couldn't believe how aggressive she was. I bent over to look at her, and she struck my finger! I was plenty startled and yelped loudly enough to make a lazy deer look up from his munching. Fortunately, she just banged her snout against my hand and didn't actually bite. She lunged again as I was trying to take a second picture.

The photos were taken with my unremarkable cell phone camera (yeah, I know... cell phone in the woods). I really should start carrying my camera with me everywhere, like I used to... or... not: better to pay attention to brave little garter snakes than nearly to step on them.