lobstah

Mike left for a canoe trip and we finally had lobster!

Lowering it to it's death...

Dead, delicious, dinner.

yum.

popham beach and a birthday

We celebrated Martha's birthday with a trip to Popham Beach. It was absolutely stunning!

A most fantastic maine weekend!

why I love this office

We're all sitting on our computers in relative quiet today - there are few people in the office and we've got lots to do.

Genet zones out staring out the window and then mutters "Oh, Samuel Adams is out there"

Tracy and I looked up at her. "What?"

"Samuel Adams, out there, unloading some beer." She said, standing and staring at the truck across the street like it was along lost friend.

hahaha. Is it friday yet? We need it.

Health Care '09...we can't wait!

Saturday was SEIU's Change that Works Rally for Health and Justice. It wasn't something ROC is directly connected with, but we work in the office with the crew that's been putting it all together and it was great going to support them!

It started with a rally in Monument square. There were tons of people there from all over the state!

There was a march around the old port and downtown.

Denva was in his prime!

As for me, it was good to see the span of opinions and beliefs on what should change in our health care system. I'm still struggling to discern how I can and should respond as a christian in a society of affluence that regularly disenfranchises the poor by our institutions and culture - but at the same time one where the government can't be the eternal solution considering it too is made up of greedy, sinful people like the rest of us. It's good to struggle, but I wish for some answers.

friday excitement: gearing up for the health care rally!

Friday morning was interrupted by the challenge of helping Alec hang a giant banner advertising Saturdays' rally, outside our windows...

We had no ladder.

But we had 4 incredibly resourceful, er rather three incredibly resourceful (I just took pictures) women who strung it up from the windows!

Mackenzie and Genet went out one side

And threw it down to Alec below (a much better plan than his original...to stand on the decomposing ledge and staple it up!)

And Tracy brought it back up the other!

Success! Health and Justice here we come!

some weeks in review...

I have no excuse for not posting anything over the last 10 days. It was depressing weather and I was mopey and then it got sunny and I just enjoyed it and didn't take any pictures. So. There you have it.

Here are some brief highlights of random events over the course of these last two weeks!

Mackenzie and I went on a date to the park on Friday. It was gorgeous out. This pizza was delicious.

On Saturday our other favorite family in Portland took us biking on Peaks Island.

It was gorgeous.

and windy

Jesus met me here on Sunday afternoon. It was really great.

I needed a picture of myself and my supervisors for IWJ... woo ROC-Maine!

And finally, tonight was the last night of the ESL class I've been helping with, and these are the girls I've been working with. They're all from Cambodia and are just the sweetest bunch ever!

a lovely long weekend

If only all weekends could be three days long and include a visit to somewhere as lovely as Cape Cod!

I spent the 4th with Lauren and her friend Sheena's grandmother's home where we slept, ate, window shopped, ate, napped, swam, burned, ate, slept, chatted and so on

it was perfect.

lauren's house in Boston

Our Hostesses!

the boat parade!

lauren and I got so burned, but it was so worth it!

a little swimming at ice cream beach

happy pre-4th!

I've been wondering how a place as politically atypical as Portland celebrates the day our our nation's independance.

Well for starters, they decorated.

I'm going to miss out on the festivities though...Mackenzie and I are going to Boston!! What better way to celebrate our nation than in the home city of my Patriots!

:)

T is for teamster, teamwork, and tired!

I've been missing out on really exciting things lately because of interviews and back pain...but tonight I got to attend both a board meeting for the southern maine workers center and a membership meeting for the labor council. I felt pretty official. And I learned a whole lot about health care options, heard updates about union stuff going down in Portland, listened to some terrible stories of injustices involving workers in the community here, and was encouraged by the many testimonies and triumphs of this community. It is one fully invested in serving one another as a labor family. These people largely seem to use the labor movement as their religion and though I can see how broken and incomplete such a trade off is, it certainly is a model of honest and invested community that, as a christian claiming to be invested in the whole body, I certainly have much to learn from.

If anyone would like to offer me their informed opinion on health care, I'd love to hear it. My own opinion needs much informing. But maybe not tonight, I'm exhausted. Sounds like great 4th of july conversation though...

911

I've only dialed 911 once before. I think I was 8 or 9 and I did it on a dare and still carry a pretty significant amount of guilt for that clear waste of taxpayer resources (although honestly, I can't remember what exactly happened).

So last night when, after a lovely evening with new friends wandering around old port, a guy decided to grab my friend Cori's wallet and take off running with 4 screaming girls and two larger gentleman tearing after him; I found myself in the position to make such a phone call. Actually, I found myself stammering to explain to my dad, who I was on the phone with, what was happening. After hanging up and running around the block the opposite direction, I found another burly gentleman to help in the chase and he told me to call. So I did. And after 30 minutes, the portland police made an appearance. (I found out today that they've had to make serious cutbacks in the police force because of budget cuts...sorry for my prank call america, I'm a jerk) Still no wallet found, but luckily not much was lost, apart from an old cell phone and a few dollars in cash. I'm thankful to have been with these girls when it happened, I can't imagine what I would have done if I'd been all alone! I'm also really impressed and encouraged by the kindness of strangers to help - one guy even ran out of his apartment in his pj's to ask what was wrong and how he could help - pretty impressive!

so long june!

fun fact: We've just made it through Maine's fifth rainiest June on record. That's over 8 inches folks.

best remedy for a rainy afternoon? Pumpkin bread.

mmm. tastes like home.

and now we dream for a sunny july! (so far that's a no-go... but I won't lose hope!)

community.

I took lots of photos of our downtown adventure today, but I'd like to post just one. The word 'community' just continues to come to mind when I think about this church. I'm not sure how they manage to incorporate each of these cultures into their Baptist community of worship, but I'm intrigued and encouraged to see the body of Christ dwelling with one another and reaching into the larger community through common traditions of language and culture.

first full week friday. read: tired.

I've always thought it would be really interesting job to be a window washer. Not only do you have the risk factor of scaling tall buildings with minimal support, but you also have the built in opportunity to observe the lives of people who are really only separated from you by a pane of glass. Fascinating. These are the things I think about while I wait to interview Portland's finest restaurant owners.

I also sometimes pretend to be a tourist and sit in the square and take pictures.

It was our first well earned friday!!

So we went downtown to Old Port and finally saw a bit of the ocean.

We got the most decadent chocolate desserts. We also realized we cannot afford to live like this anymore. But, it was fun while it lasted!

good humor.

Good news! The sun returned today!

This sums up my attitude.

I had a great first solo interview and took a few pictures on the way back to the office. The tourists were out in full force and the traffic was nutso. I'm becoming more and more thankful for my pedestrian status in this city. Although, this morning I was on a different bus than normal and the route comes up on the city skyline at an angle that made me think I was back in chi-town. for a split second. :( . but. I love sunny portland a whole lot!

After an exhausting day of running around Portland for more interviews...Mackenzie and I went to help out at this christian community center called the root cellar. It was awesome!

We met these great girls our age who are serving as interns for high school mission groups that come through to serve at the center in the summer. Hurray for new friends!

We got done early so we went in search of ice cream.

We like this place. "As far as we can discern, the universe is a very silly place"

I love sun.

I got coffee ice cream on accident. With chocolate covered espresso beans. So I'm still up and quite alert even though sleeping would be real nice...

Mackenzie dripped ice cream on her pants all the way back to the bus.

bus stop.

squares.