tata jesus is bangala!

For those not in the know, that is a line from Poisonwood Bible. The father/missionary character shouts it repeatedly to his skeptical congregation in the (former) Belgian Congo, and it either means that Jesus is precious (which is what he thinks it means), or Jesus is the poisonwood tree (not a good thing to be). I have been thinking of this line approximately once every minute in the current incarnation of my job. I am going through some donated materials, most of which come from Nigeria, and most of which were published by mid-20th century missionaries. You want the whole Bible in an indigenous African language? Got it! Just want the Gospel of Mark? Got that too. Or maybe you want a concordance of the New Testament. You're in luck! It's pretty amazing to me that these people went to the trouble of learning all of these languages just so they could publish a Bible. And I don't mean amazing in a good way.

Moving on from that, not only am I depressed about proselytizing in Africa, I am also depressed about the state of the environment. I am reading yet another Barbara Kingsolver book, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, and it is making me feel like I would never want to bring children into our terrible world. I don't think it is supposed to make me feel this depressed. I think it's supposed to make me want to do more gardening and more shopping at the farmer's market. And I really do like it and agree with it, but I just feel despair. This is why I can't bring myself to watch An Inconvenient Truth. I know I would just want to throw myself in front of a car (in an ironic twist).

And for even more depressing news, undergrads are back at UCLA. I was very much enjoying the peace and quiet of the summer. Now I have someone moving into an apartment across the street with a moving truck. Seriously, is your mom's Explorer in the shop?

it's raining, it's pouring...

If you don't know the rest of the words to that song, you must not have grown up in the NW. The promised "storm" has arrived this evening and it is raining beautiful rain outside. I opened the window just so I could listen to the sound. Which reminds me that I wanted to promote a business that we found when we were in Joseph. It is a very cute little bath and body products store...and, get this, the founder/owner/man who was behind the counter making soap is actually from Joseph (pop. 1095). If you have ever visited any rural small town, you can imagine our astonishment that the (male) owner of a cutesy bath and body shop would actually be a native. Anyway, it's called beecrowbee and I am currently enjoying their lavender/geranium soap and their spearmint/fern (whatever "fern" smells like) candle (which does not smell minty, because I would hate that).

back in the saddle again

mountains reflecting in the lake
Originally uploaded by kitty.pants

I am pretty sure I only update when either Katie or my sister bug me about it, so good thing I have them. Last time I graced you all with my presence, it was five million degrees outside. Now, we are apparently facing a storm of unprecedented force (for September in LA). That means...rain! I just read the weather alert and it said it will be "more like January than September," which I think means it will be 55 degrees and drizzling.

I had a lovely little time while I was at home en vacances. Spent some time at the beach, witnessed Dad catching a chinook salmon while I read Gourmet. I had to cringe and look away at the whole part where the fish gets sent to a better place. Not to be too graphic, but there was definitely some fish blood in the boat. My main thought was that this never happened at the goofy trout farm my parents used to take us to when we were little. I'm pretty sure the fish just expired the minute you reeled them up out of the water.

Mom and I also took a trip out to Joseph, OR, which is in the northeast part of the state. Practically Idaho! There are some beautiful mountains, a lake, and lots of varying scenery. We overheard one woman say "this is just like Lake Tahoe," which is true in that there were trees and a lake and not true in that there is not one casino. Sadly, we just had to settle for taking walks, reading, driving to scenic locations, putting our feet in the river, watching trout swim upriver to spawn, learning about the Nez Perce's effort to return to their land, and checking out the very small public library.

For the final portion of my vacation, Dad took us to his new favorite Portland taco truck, Mom and I went to a plant show, and we all went out to a yummy dinner.

Back in the real world, the world of impending stormy doom, I'm on a kick of making dinner. My mother has successfully nagged me enough to get me to do this. I mean, I always ate dinner but it was not necessarily anything I slaved over for very long. So far this week I've made rosemary chicken drumsticks and a broccoli mushroom casserole with wild rice on the side. Anyone want to come help me eat all this food?

baby, it's hot outside

That's a cute little Christmas song joke there. Since I last posted, I have read at least five books, I think. I also had my last day of summer school and had an interview for an internship that I will be doing next quarter at a nearby public library. It's a small city system, so I'll get to involve myself with lots of the workings of the library.

Lauren, Beadle, and I went to a "white party" on Saturday night. I discovered I basically didn't own anything white. It was amusing to be with lots of LA film industry people--the people who did Wordplay were there!

Given the fact that it has been incredibly hot around here, I had the good luck to be invited to hang out at the beach this weekend. I lay around on the sand in Newport Beach all day Sunday and today. Life is hard. Actually it is, because when I got back to my apartment today, my thermostat said it was 90+ degrees in here. Now we are at 86, so that is more bearable. Apparently it's supposed to cool off later this week, but I will be home where it will probably be raining or something!