The Great Ebacher Quilt

So I've been meaning to blog about this the last couple of days, but Mara and Pat have kept me busy having fun with them.

I was doing my thing, running around the internet a week or two ago, learning things. First I learned a bit about bonsai. I think it's AWESOME and would love to collect my own from the wild and/or train one of my apple seedlings to be a bonsai, possibly cascading as that style really strikes me. Learned a bunch about it. Then I went to etsy, one of my favorite web places. Art coming out of their ears, over there. Although I'm yet to buy anything it inspires me endlessly, and I got to looking at quilts. Then the idea struck.

How about I sew a quilt? No really. A big quilt, for a queen or king sized bed. And being that I get ambitious with art in this fashion, why not have it be all about the fam? So here's how it goes. Later, perhaps, I'll post a nice little diagram to better visually represent this.

Around the perimeter each person gets one big square (1 ft x 1 ft) with just their name and some embroidery. Next to it (either beside or below) this same person has a large that is broken up into nine 4x4 inch blocks, each of these depicting visually an aspect of their personality or personal experience that they feel defines who they are and that they would like to use to represent themselves. So for example, I'll have a block with a little panda for china, as that study abroad experience broadened and deepened me and opened me up to the world in a way. Miesha wants to have ABC as one of her blocks to represent her love of language and pursuit of speech pathology. These small blocks will be done with individual applique and then pieced all together. There will be two additional blocks to represent interests that are common to the whole family - like the names of our foreign exchange students, owned pets, and direct inlaws. That's all on the outside. On the inside will be the Ebacher crest (yes we have a crest). I'm thinking the main colors I'll use for background will be red and cream, because black shows up nicely on both and I'd like to do most of the stitching with white and black threads.

Now I know what you're about to say. I'm insane. I know that. This is one of those big projects over the course of which I'll learn a lot of skills and probably around the middle I'll grow very frustrated with. It will occupy a lot of my free time. But I think it's AWESOME and a future heirloom, and how cool to have that in the fam, really? The idea that mom had was that after I finish sewing it, it could be exchanged between family members at christmas, and each year that family member would have it all year. Isn't that awesome? I think it's awesome.

So far I've got my squares, dad's, miesha's, and mara's. Dom, you're the only one left! So think about it and get back to me soon. Don't think too hard about it, though - impulse is a good thing with this!


In other but very related news, I got an interview monday with a veterinary clinic in vancouver for a receptionist position. I'm officially THRILLED. I rocked the phone interview. But the pay will be good (better than 10 with room for a pay increase) and with it, I can buy my first bolts of background fabric for The Quilt! Huzzah!

My time with Mara has been really fun so far, and I look forward to the last few days I have out here with her. I'm a bit too tired to recount what's happened on my trip so far, so that'll have to wait for a future post. <3

I am very happy.

- me

PART 1 -- Obama rally: Portland, Oregon 2008!

PART I: the line, the crush, the decemberists

YESSS! OBAMA RALLY! IT WAS SO AWESOME!!!

Here's a step by step photo journey.





This is documenting the very beginning of our journey - right after we left the driveway, Obama stickers on the dash!




This was the line in front of us, looking toward the waterfront. We were within three blocks of the front of the line - a reward for being there before 9:30! The line behind us was unfathomably long...imagine how long the line would have to be to fit all the people who eventually fill the waterfront park!! Ridiculously long is the answer.




Once we got in line there were a lot of people wearing very cool shirts. I loved this one, advertising Obama's book which recently came out. My camera focused on it perfectly. <3




The Secret Service, well before the rally started headed toward who knows what secret servicey thing. There was excellent security on premises, we went through metal detectors and there were police and police boats and military types about, but not oppressively.




This is the view of the waterfront park, once we reached our final position close to the stage, looking away from the stage. Yeah. This is just the start of something beautiful.




The DECEMBERISTS played to warm us up. No joke, I was listening to them while I was in the line, waiting. I had NO IDEA they were going to play before Obama hit the stage...I love The Decemberists! Dad got some audio recordings of them but I didn't think to do that. All I could think about was how awesome the music was, and how much my feet hurt. XP




Here they are, playing away. This is my camera at maximum zoom, trying its hardest. At the time I think they were playing Crane Wife. I <3 you Decemberists! You made me forget how hot it was getting, and how much my feet hurt.




This is the explosive size of the rally in all its glory. Wow. Portland really does love Obama!

PART 2 -- Obama rally: Portland, Oregon 2008!

PART 2: OBAMA ARRIVES! HUZZAH!

After the Decemberists jazzed us up with their inspiring but strange music (that's how I like it!) we were pepped up by a girl about the same age as me. She was not Obama, so I didn't take any pictures of her. Then a senator in support of Obama stood up and talked for a little while. He was a senator, so I took A picture of him...but meh. THEN OBAMA HIT THE STAGE!!






Here he is with Michelle Obama and his two girls. Don't they look like a beautiful family? Please forgive my camera but it doesn't have a telaphoto zoom. As it is we were lucky to be as close as we were!












This is him, giving his awesome speech. Oh Obama! You set us all on fire! We cheered! We booed when appropriate! It was a thrilling speech. Healthcare! Environment! Tuition! Education! War! Inflation! Alternative Energy! He also mentioned Bush's recent comparision between those who seek to negotiate with middle eastern nations and those who wished to negotiate with Hitler. Oh, there were many boos. He is not interested in being forced into false dichotomies like "friend of hilter" or "patriot/war mongerer" and he is a smart man and can recognize that. Good smart Obama.

...More images from his speech. He wants you! He touches his nose! He spreads his hand upon the masses! GO FORTH OBAMA NATION! WE CAN CHANGE THE WORLD!


Unfortunately all things must come to an end. So Obama said goodbye, and we waved and cheered until we couldn't see him anymore. This is just what it was like

If you can't read that, click on it, it might get better. Origional picture is of course higher resolution. Obama says: Bye bye Portland, I'm gonna go become President now! and the cheering, enthusiastic crowds says: Rock on!

PART 3 -- Obama rally: Portland, Oregon 2008!

So that's how it went. These are a few other pictures from the rally experience.






Dad's Hat!

and...


My shirt, with Obama love on it.























The rally was THOUSANDS strong, around 75,000 people. Huge. This is a PRIMARY RACE my friends. Can you believe it? Believe it. Because getting out of there was a whole different kind of hell, lol. For a while we were accidentally in the line for the bathroom, as we are all lemmings in the disguise and we all thought we were headed OUT. No, just outhouse.

Now I am at home, I have received a healthy dose of Obama and I am happy. The End.

Oh! And last night's dream

last night's dream...before I have a new one tonight.

Since it's been a while I only remember fractured images, which completely fail to connect to one another.

It seems I was traveling. Why, or how is completely unknown. The first place I was in was Ireland. There were rolling green hills. A lot of sheep. I met a woman there who I fell in love with, and she had this beautiful accent. I think I mostly loved her accent.

Then I was in some South American country. We were about to eat suckling pig, which I find impossibly disgusting. These little baby pig carcasses, some of them halved and some whole were being laid on super long grills and into a long trench fire-pit. In my dream I didn't have my usual reaction to it (omg, pigs are smarter than dogs and these are BABIES) but it was all just tasty meat to me. There was some guy there who was showing me how to lay the halved faces on the grill. I mean ew, when I woke up and rethought about it.

So. Apparently I want to travel? Idk.

Tonights emotions

So, I got this feeling tonight. Not in the pit of my stomach - that usually just means I have either gas or indigestion. No, it was feeling in my chest, like a fluttering tremor. Like a very tiny earthquake. It started the moment I walked in the door to dogsit here, again. I love dogsitting at Brenda and Gary's place...it's like pretending that I'm responsible and independent. I have a key to the front door, I can watch tv and sleep in a bed and here I am, the only active human. The only person. I can almost pretend that it's my place. I think that's why I got the earthquake initially.

I like being alone. I know people are always saying that "man is a social animal" and "no man is an island" and things like that, but I thrive on seclusion. To close the door and listen to music and read a book...a lot of the time it's all I need to feel happy. And the internet, of course. I have to able to learn new things too, that's what the internet is more or less for in my opinion. And when I'm by my lonely I can think about things at my own pace, I can let ideas percolate and solidify in whatever manner they like. Not that the great white tower of self-seclusion is always a safe place to be. It can be dangerous to be always by oneself, you lose perspective on the outside world, you forget the power of human interaction. Woah tangent. Anyway, the earthquake is actually a symptom of the other part of me. That part that needs to smile and laugh at strangers. That needs to dance enthusiastically. To sing kareoke. To not think. To chat carelessly with friends.

Why the earthquake came when I walked in the door isn't that surprising. I've been in hermit mode for the better part of four weeks. My personality being cyclical in nature, it was simply time. Time to go out. The change in environment spurred my resolve.

In answer to the earthquake, Dezi texted me. She must have a sixth sense about these kinds of things, she sought to "liberate me from my basement cave," which is naturally where she assumed I'd be. And I was all about that.

So I went out, I had a shot or two, sang ridiculously loud and sometimes off key! I met Dezi's new girlfriend who's awesome, and I had an all around wholesome good time. But when I got back to my car, there was this feeling I got. It was not the earthquake, or indigestion. I felt somehow anxious. Somehow nearly panicked.

I don't know why I felt like that. All the way home, the anxiety was there. To my benifit, it did keep me driving the speed limit (but then, my constant fear of concealed police cars can do the same!). But this nameless dread...

maybe it's because I know this isn't my house. This isn't my life. I'm still a basement-dwelling, nearly-postgrad, unemployed semi-adult. I'm gutless when it comes to pursuing my own dreams. The money I spent out at play tonight is not money I had to "work" for. I earned this money pretending to live a life that's not mine yet.

The new feeling, the anxiety, is not unfamiliar. It stirs up every now and then. It's this restlessness. It makes me want to hit the street and walk until I can't walk anymore, and then find a hotel and somehow start a new life. It's what made me, last semester, take a bike ride out ten miles, as far as my screaming legs would let me. The anxiety that makes me want to say fuck it all and just GO. Just stop treading water.

I want my own place. I want a job, where I can feel appreciated and I can do my work well and improve. I want these things, but I am (as always) petrified by fears of my own inadequacy and the specter of failure.

I'm not precisely unhappy with my current situation. There's a lot of free time involved. But as mentioned before, the white tower is a dangerous place to be.

Those are my feelings for tonight. Huzzah.

<3 Maddie