Mt. McKinley
Dustin in the Park
Katie and Dustin
Katie, Dustin, and ErikaWednesday, July 11, 2007
Thursday, July 5, 2007
Dr. Mom and Return to SWING
My Mom's a doctor! the week of June 16th, the family and I met up in Chicago to celebrate the passage of my Mom from her dent-in-the-couch thesis-writing phase, to her hooding as a velvet-capped wizard (I haven't seen a wand yet, but I keep looking...)! Dad and I flew into Chicago Tuesday morning, rented a car, picked up Uncle Kim, then headed over to Mom's hotel to get her and Chris, whereupon the five of us cozied into our rental car and began the drive up to Canada. Woo, road-trip! 8 hours later, we arrived at Poverty Point and the food-fest began. My great-grandmother's 99 years old now, and lives with her 68-year-old boyfriend Ram in Hamilton, Ontario. Ram tends the garden (he's planted grapes!), while Granny is queen of the kitchen.
Granny's Red Currant Pie
In anticipation of our arrival, Granny made us a red currant pie (for Mom and Kim), a chocolate pie (me and Chris), and a rhubarb/raspberry pie (Dad, connoisseur of all pies). Tasty...
Mom and Granny (making a chocolate pie)
Next year, in 2008, Granny will be 100, Mom will be 50, and I'll be 25... we're already planning the party. We're also on the look-out for any relatives that fall into the 75-year-old category, or the much-joked-of age 0 (not it!).
Chris and I also had a few interesting conversations with Ram this time, who I feel like I don't know particularly well... evidently he came to Canada 22 years ago, fleeing religious persecution in Iran (he's Baha'i) after being imprisoned for several years without being told why... he's not so excited about Islam... or about religion in general anymore. He told me that he hopes everyone will leave their religious "clubs" and learn to love each other. Hmmm... when I was in China where religion isn't so accepted, playing computer games seemed more prevalent than loving each other... but it sounds like a good idea...
Dad With the Chain Saw
Pulling Down Dead Branches
After stuffing ourselves full of Granny's tasty vittles, talking to Aunt Betty and Uncle Al (masters of quantum touch), and attempting to clean up Granny's pond through the use of brute strength and a chain-saw, we were off again to Chicago. There we met up with the the rest of the clan - Auntie and Jim, Grandpa and Arla, and "Aunt" Linda Curda. To continue our culinary adventures, we ate three solid meals a day, with desserts well-placed in between.. oooh...
Triumphant Ph.D.!
somewhere in there, we got ourselves out of the restaurant bench seats long enough to meet some of Mom's classmates, and see her get hooded as a Ph.D. in Adult Education, yay!
Don't Do It!
We also saw Cirque Shanghai, where small Chinese people bent themselves into uncomfortable looking positions to amaze the audience. Ooh! Oow! This inspired Chris and I to contemplate the pressures of modern China...
Back to Alaska, I had a few days off to play in the mountains, and succeeded in spending far too much time kayaking in Prince William Sound without sunscreen, giving myself bright red legs (they've faded into brown now) and a dizzying case of heatstroke. Oops.
Then Dustin and I began to teach dance again, woo-hoo! We taught for a week at the Alaska City Folk Arts Camp, where the admirable and much adored Mary Schallert let us teach latin dance (merengue, Argentine tango, salsa), swing dance, and a pretty awesome introduction to dance class where I played a lot of movement ( i.e. interpretative dance) games with the munchkins... hehe.
Yesterday also marked the re-inauguration of SWING (Society Working to Improve Negative Grooves), the dance group Dustin and I are running for the third summer in Anchorage. Kids 12-20 come hang out, get a mini-lesson, then dance with each other, eat whatever tasty treats they've brought in, and have fun! We had about 40 kids turn up last night to jump and groove, and I'm feeling pretty happy with my dancing life.
There's always the future though.. summer doesn't last forever, and at some point I'll have to decide what I'm doing in the fall (where?) when the summer camp season of swing dance fades into fallen leaves and frost... Sometime soon, I keep telling myself, I'll look for something else to do (social justice work? a *gasp* job?), but at the moment, Mom's projects from work (editing! data entry!), dancing, and the great outdoors are keeping me entertained.
Granny's Red Currant PieIn anticipation of our arrival, Granny made us a red currant pie (for Mom and Kim), a chocolate pie (me and Chris), and a rhubarb/raspberry pie (Dad, connoisseur of all pies). Tasty...
Mom and Granny (making a chocolate pie)Next year, in 2008, Granny will be 100, Mom will be 50, and I'll be 25... we're already planning the party. We're also on the look-out for any relatives that fall into the 75-year-old category, or the much-joked-of age 0 (not it!).
Chris and I also had a few interesting conversations with Ram this time, who I feel like I don't know particularly well... evidently he came to Canada 22 years ago, fleeing religious persecution in Iran (he's Baha'i) after being imprisoned for several years without being told why... he's not so excited about Islam... or about religion in general anymore. He told me that he hopes everyone will leave their religious "clubs" and learn to love each other. Hmmm... when I was in China where religion isn't so accepted, playing computer games seemed more prevalent than loving each other... but it sounds like a good idea...
Dad With the Chain Saw
Pulling Down Dead BranchesAfter stuffing ourselves full of Granny's tasty vittles, talking to Aunt Betty and Uncle Al (masters of quantum touch), and attempting to clean up Granny's pond through the use of brute strength and a chain-saw, we were off again to Chicago. There we met up with the the rest of the clan - Auntie and Jim, Grandpa and Arla, and "Aunt" Linda Curda. To continue our culinary adventures, we ate three solid meals a day, with desserts well-placed in between.. oooh...
Triumphant Ph.D.!somewhere in there, we got ourselves out of the restaurant bench seats long enough to meet some of Mom's classmates, and see her get hooded as a Ph.D. in Adult Education, yay!
Don't Do It!We also saw Cirque Shanghai, where small Chinese people bent themselves into uncomfortable looking positions to amaze the audience. Ooh! Oow! This inspired Chris and I to contemplate the pressures of modern China...
Back to Alaska, I had a few days off to play in the mountains, and succeeded in spending far too much time kayaking in Prince William Sound without sunscreen, giving myself bright red legs (they've faded into brown now) and a dizzying case of heatstroke. Oops.
Then Dustin and I began to teach dance again, woo-hoo! We taught for a week at the Alaska City Folk Arts Camp, where the admirable and much adored Mary Schallert let us teach latin dance (merengue, Argentine tango, salsa), swing dance, and a pretty awesome introduction to dance class where I played a lot of movement ( i.e. interpretative dance) games with the munchkins... hehe.
Yesterday also marked the re-inauguration of SWING (Society Working to Improve Negative Grooves), the dance group Dustin and I are running for the third summer in Anchorage. Kids 12-20 come hang out, get a mini-lesson, then dance with each other, eat whatever tasty treats they've brought in, and have fun! We had about 40 kids turn up last night to jump and groove, and I'm feeling pretty happy with my dancing life.
There's always the future though.. summer doesn't last forever, and at some point I'll have to decide what I'm doing in the fall (where?) when the summer camp season of swing dance fades into fallen leaves and frost... Sometime soon, I keep telling myself, I'll look for something else to do (social justice work? a *gasp* job?), but at the moment, Mom's projects from work (editing! data entry!), dancing, and the great outdoors are keeping me entertained.
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