O'Reilly Home

To Wait

by Shaun

I’ve discovered... while I enjoy change, I don’t like waiting. Some people don’t like change, but I’ve always found it exciting and fun, like the improv game where you’re in a scene and then someone yells “freeze” and tells you that you’re now in a new scene, and “go.”  It’s electrifying! One minute “you’re Lebron James shooting a jumpshot,” and then you freeze mid-shot and become “a blade of grass trying out for American Grass Idol” (or something like that).

I like the change in that game, but I wouldn’t want to stand there frozen for very long. I’d get tired and impatient and I’d just want to be moving, either following through on the jumpshot or belting out Hendrix’s “The Wind Cries Mary” in front of the grass judges. And the thrilling, deep satisfaction in acting is that you really dive in and unleash all you’ve got into that one character or that one moment. I think it just feels good to give everything, no matter what you’re actually doing.

Some people don’t like change, but I don’t know anyone who likes to wait. 

Yet, that’s what I’m doing right now. I just turned in my second application to the Literature and Environment program at the University of Nevada, Reno. And now, we wait. Which isn’t all that new, I’ve sort of been waiting since June of 2008. I waited to apply, applied in Jan. 2009 and then I got rejected and have waited to apply again. But I think it’s starting to wear on me now.

The wear isn’t really from a need to necessarily get in (though, that’s what we’re aiming for here!). The wear has been the waiting to know what I can give myself to next. I’ve spent a year and half in a sort of limbo and I’m ready to get out.

In the improve game, I was “doing ministry with kids and families” and I called FREEZE on myself ... and the crowd (the world, the Man, me, whoever) is still talking over what my next role will be. Somebody needs to call something out and say “Go!”

And I’ll be that embarrassing blade of grass, I really don’t care. I just want to be.

On a practical note, I think I’ll know something within the month. Then I can break a leg.

My Paper, in Wordle

by Shaun

My first, article-length paper for the literary nonfiction class I'm taking this semester - on the link between Loren Eiseley and Wendell Berry.  I needed a representation other than the 15 pages...

School, the Day 2 saga

by Shaun

It was only the second day of school and I already almost didn't make it to class!  I took my sweet time this morning, having coffee and reading blogs (specifically, Wet Behind the Ears by Julie McQuitty Rhodes).  Then I go to pump up my bike tire (front tire desperate for it - unrideable without it), and there's a problem.  Something with the tire valving was not allowing any air to get in there.  Crap!  I've got about 5 minutes within which I need to be on the bike and headed west on Cheney St!  

I fooled with it a bit, but then gave up on the bike and jumped online to check the bus schedule - we have 2 different route stops nearby.  I find the schedule, Crap!  It only comes by on the hour and will come by at perhaps the worst possible time.  I would be 15 minutes late to class if I took the bus.  But, who cares, it's my only option.  Okay, I need some bus money.... oh, Crap!  We got no cash here!  I mean, I find like 30 cents, that's it.  That's not going to work.  "Crap" is turning into, well, you know...

I contemplated dropping the course and just walking to starbucks to take the edge off.  I could get my registration money back and by a Wii or somethin'.  Then, I remembered -- Kyndra's bike!  It's an okay size and has good tires on it.  It's yellow and all, but hey, I got no qualms with that.  As long as it gets me there on time.

Suffice it to say, I had to fish it out from the basement, dragging it up the back stairs while trying to move the awkward "stair roof" thing with the rusty nails out of the way.  Come over sometime and I'll show you!  It was also a grueling task.  But, I was on the road in time - that's what matters.

In the end, I rode hard and made it to class with 3 minutes to go.  Not bad!  Of course, my face was tomato red, I was sweating like the Chip N' Dales SNL version of Chris Farley, and trying hard to keep the breathing under some semblance of steady control.  I think I pulled it off; I mean, I didn't pass out.  

Really though, the class chatted about Annie Dillard, and the tiger of my back-in-school excitement  was fed a healthy, literary snack.  The registration fees are worth it, I think.  And I guess in the process of learning new things at school, I'll ALSO be learning more and more about what makes my bike work!  At the least, I'll find a way to keep the tires inflated.

"When I go biking, I repeat a mantra of the day's sensations:  bright sun, blue sky, warm breeze, blue jay's call, ice melting and so on.  This helps me transcend the traffic, ignore the clamorings of work, leave all the mind theaters behind and focus on nature instead.  I still must abide by the rules of the road, of biking, of gravity.  But I am mentally far away from civilization.  The world is breaking someone else's heart."  

~Diane Ackerman

Reno Review

It's been a week since we got back from Reno - a GREAT trip.  After all of it, Kyndra and I were just about pinching ourselves to see if we were still in reality.  Who knows what can happen between now and then ... but things are looking really good there now. 
I had meetings with professors in the Literature & Environment department - they were encouraging and challenging - probably the best combination I could have hoped for.  I am thrilled to get there and begin studying.  We also met a lot of grad students in the "L&E" program and they are great as well - really good vibe to the students and the whole campus in general.  This was all very encouraging. 

Kyndra got to observe at both the Renown Medical Center and The Continuum and she enjoyed both.  There were a lot of unknowns, but now she has a good feel for the places and feels good about transitioning from student here to intern there.

Outside of a good general likeness of the town of Reno, the biggest encouragement was finding a place to stay!  We have put down a deposit on a really nice little place in old downtown Reno and we are REALLY looking forward to living there.  When we got there and began calling places to rent, they were all looking to be filled in the next few weeks (understandably).  It didn't look like we had much of a chance of securing something for June, yet. 
So, we began tossing around the idea of buying a home there.  Maybe we could get into something that would come available in June.  That process put us online, looking at what's available.  Homes are a little more expensive than they are here, and we wanted to live in a cool downtown area instead of out in the growing suburbs, which was even a bit more expensive.  BUT, we spotted a nice home online - had just been listed on 3/12 - newly renovated into a "green", energy efficient home, and very cool.  It was 280 sq ft.  We were intrigued. 
The next day we decided to go by and just give it a look.   I had seen these types of homes - a downstairs room with just an upstairs loft - and I thought they were great for cool cabins in the woods or just for a unique and simple living experience.  I don't think we were really considering it.
But we drove there and ended up interacting with the developer of these simple green home sites - eco-compact homes.  She showed us all in and around them and she told us the great history of these small brick homes.  There are three homes being renovated as one room with bathroom on the first floor and and ladder leading up to a loft area.  The fourth brick home actually has a small "bedroom nook" built onto the back of it, so it won't be a loft but will have all the other stellar "green" amenities.  The fourth home is 380 sq ft.

Kyndra and I left our meeting with her SO intrigued.  We spent the whole rest of that day wondering if we could put together the money to buy a place like this.  It's the kind of thing we would want to keep forever, we're sure.  We know it's not for everyone, but for us - right now - it seemed like such a cool opportunity to simplify, live differently, and in many ways, practice what we preach.

But we couldn't put together how to buy a home as we move there without jobs.  We called and left a message saying "we love your project, we'd be interested in renting, let us know if it's an option." We didn't think it was an option - Kelly told us how she owned many properties and wanted more and more to help people OWN homes.  She spoke about how that fostered good responsibility and a "sense of place" for people to take care of where they live.  (Okay, now she was speaking the exact language of the grad degree I'll be going for - we are SO in!)  BUT, she mentioned that if they rented one it would be the one with the bedroom nook on the back.  Then we said that's the one we would want - our dogs couldn't make it up those ladders in the lofts anyway.  Then she said it wouldn't be ready for another 45 days.  Then we smiled and said, "okay, where do we sign?"

What had started with some worry (that we couldn't find anything on this trip and we'd have to come back in May and then finally in June) ended with us meeting a great lady, finding a spectacular place, and putting a deposit down on a green home that will be ready for us just as we arrive in June.  Wow. 

Other than that, we hung out at our casino and also enjoyed some day trips to Pyramid Lake (30mins north) and Lake Tahoe.  We are stoked about the great fun that surrounds us in Reno, and that surrounds the town itself.  We'll include details on all that in the years to come :)

Now, some pics.  All of which are HERE ON FLICKR.

Hair Poem - Trichomes

Again prompted by Sunday Scribblings' theme, hair.  Here's a poem:

Trichomes

The world is connected.
Though sometimes that seems like
a mislaid reverie,
I hold fast, still imagining.

No matter where I am,
however shut-away,
I can find one strand of green growth, and there
make contact with villous dendrites and trichomes,
the intricate hair-system of plant-life.

My fingers brush the tiny fibers and
in gentle fellowship acknowledge
that, despite our divorce,
we flower together.

ASLE conference

Hey, in case you check here, but you don't check out ThoseAwake, I wanted to update and let you know that I'm at Wofford College in SC this week (with Brian and Richard), at the Biennial Conference of the Association for the Study of Literature and the Environment.  It is going great, and we leave here tomorrow (friday) to head home.
We're blogging it over at ThoseAwake, and we're posting pics here.

peace.   

go vegetarian

My first attempt at blogging my short (though fulfilling) journey to vegetarianism is posted over on ThoseAwake.  Most of it is based on thoughts by Henry David Thoreau, whose Walden passages have been very challenging.  I'd love your response - help me fine tune what has driven me to make the life-change.  I think the best change would really happen within community, so ... lemme know.

here's a taste:

One farmer says to me, "You cannot live on vegetable food solely, for it furnishes nothing to make the bones with;" and so he religiously devotes a part of his day to supplying himself with the raw material of bones; walking all the while he talks behind his oxen, which, with vegetable-made bones, jerk him and his lumbering plow along in spite of every obstacle. - Walden

from Thoreau's journal

sometimes, it's just good to quote.

Thoreau's Journal: 18-July-1851 It is a test question affecting the youth of a person,—Have you knowledge of the morning? Do you sympathize with that season of nature? Are you abroad early, brushing the dews aside? If the sun rises on you slumbering, if you do not hear the morning cock-crow, if you do not witness the blushes of Aurora, if you are not acquainted with Venus as the morning star, what relation have you to wisdom and purity? You have then forgotten your Creator in the days of your youth! Your shutters were darkened till noon! You rose with a sick headache! In the morning sing, as do the birds. What of those birds which should slumber on their perches till the sun was a hour high? What kind of fowl would they be and new kinds of bats and owls, hedge sparrows or larks? then took a dish of tea or hot coffee before they began to sing?