Journeyed to the Center of the Rogue Valley

Figured it was time for a new post. So I'm sitting at our Rent-A-Center table, drinking some Richmond coffee, listening to Local Natives, and contemplating our first 2 weeks in Medford.

Well, Medford is definitely no pacific northwest town in a lot of ways... the first main way being, of course, that it's almost in California. We are nestled in the southern Oregon wine country, surrounded by orchards and mountains, which catch some beautiful cloud developments and double rainbows! Definitely not lacking for beauty around here, but also not lacking the rain that you would expect out here. Which, superficially I don't mind because it helps my hair curl, nor emotionally, because I can sit on our big porch, watch the rain, drink some tea, and channel some "Ashley Curl" for some interpretive dancing to my favorite spirituals. Uptown girls know what I'm talking about :)

I've explored the city and surrounding areas quite a bit, and here are a few snapshots of our lovely scenery:

Now, as for the day-to-day setting:

Leslie works. She rehabs and lifts (mostly) sweet old folks at a nursing home all day and occasionally gets the inappropriate pick-up line that is immediately texted to me back at home. She's doing great as the breadwinner and keeping the ship a-sail out here.

I, on the other hand, have busied myself with the following activities so far:

- Broadening my culinary reach through "The Pioneer woman" and "The Barefoot Contessa" as well as haunting some local food hot-spots, like the farmer's market, the Ashland Co-Op (which is where I am basically begging to work), and occasionally stupid Safeway when I need that one ingredient I forgot.

- Throwing goldfish crackers in a ziplock baggie for Leslie's lunch, kissing her on the cheek (in my mind) with a "have a good day sweetie" to get her on her way in the morning.

- Obsessing over which climbing shoes are going to be best for our newly established rock climbing hobby... I have my father's genes when it comes to chronically researching products.

- Nursing rock wall wounds such as: achey forearms, achey shoulders, achey quads, achey toes, okay just achey body everywhere.

- Craigslist-ing like its my job... so I can find a job. I have emailed randos for the following "gigs" so far: Doing a teenage boy's Zombie makeup for halloween. Moving a lady out of her house (she called back and said, "You were the only girl to respond to my ad. So I had to call and tell you that you must think you're incredibly buff." I said, "Oh I'm tiny. But I'm willing."). Babysitting/Nannying. And I even posted my own ad about being a personal grocery shopper/nutrition consultant.

- Reading a lot. And contemplating: The concept of "home." Grad school options. Intentional communities. New monasticism. Why I'm on this adventure. Glorifying God where I am: right now. Wanderlust vs. community immersion. Relationships thriving. Relationships lost. Desires. Humility. Sacrifice. Thankfulness. [I have a lot of alone time]

- Sweating over my halloween costume. I really wanted to be a character from Arrested Development. I know, I know. The show's been off forever and it's "sooooo mainstream" now. But whatever. I love it and considered the options of: 1 - Tobias. But I'm not gonna "blue myself" and wear only cut-off jorts. 2 - Lucille. But I don't have a Chanel suit or a mainline of vodka. 3 - Lucille 2. But I think my hair is too long to make her characteristic "points." 4 - Lindsey bluth. But a shirt that says "slut?" really??? probably not. 5 - Rita (aka - charlize theron). But then I'd be technically going as a mentally retarded female and that's just a bit offensive. 5 - Marta. but it's just too generic. And there were 2 of them.

hm.

so I'm going with the partial peacock costume I got at this sweet vintage store around here. Except that I have to make my feather tail, which is no small feat. We're heading up to Portland tomorrow... where we'll hopefully see Ben Lambeth and head out to a party with our friend (and maybe yours), B. Cole.

That is all for now. Because that is a lot. And Mandy Moore's "Candy" just came on my itunes and that is just not acceptable at the moment.

Love and love and love.

~slt