Tuesday, May 10, 2005
anyone there yet?
so...
its been a long frickin time since anyone has written to this blog. geez, i almost forgot my password. somehow i remembered it. i noticed that nobody has written here in over a year.
well, i thought maybe i'd get this thing going again just to see if anyone still cares.
my life as of these days:
living in pittsburgh. participating in the mennonite urban corps program--working in historic preservation and cultural conservation. its interesting. my term ends soon and i'm not sure what's next. all i know is that there are more adventures to be had.
i still keep in touch with my cabinmates. neil is here in pittsburgh, he's an urban farmer. i saw tom at his farm in goshen a few weeks ago. and i know doug is finishing his masters in new york and dan is in arizona. i know that tina is in wisconsin with her husband and i've heard recently that heather and her husband moved up to minnesota. i talked with katie recently, she is on a farm on orcas island, washington. and i believe aaron and his wife are still in south korea. i also know that sara jo and her husband moved to seattle. and i also believe that winona is back in lancaster. anyway, i thought that info may be of interest to any of you wondering where people are these days. if anyone else could contribute to this info, i would be interested in knowing more.
i hope that everyone is well, and that everyone still has that "o.e." spark somewhere in their lives.
live well.
ben
its been a long frickin time since anyone has written to this blog. geez, i almost forgot my password. somehow i remembered it. i noticed that nobody has written here in over a year.
well, i thought maybe i'd get this thing going again just to see if anyone still cares.
my life as of these days:
living in pittsburgh. participating in the mennonite urban corps program--working in historic preservation and cultural conservation. its interesting. my term ends soon and i'm not sure what's next. all i know is that there are more adventures to be had.
i still keep in touch with my cabinmates. neil is here in pittsburgh, he's an urban farmer. i saw tom at his farm in goshen a few weeks ago. and i know doug is finishing his masters in new york and dan is in arizona. i know that tina is in wisconsin with her husband and i've heard recently that heather and her husband moved up to minnesota. i talked with katie recently, she is on a farm on orcas island, washington. and i believe aaron and his wife are still in south korea. i also know that sara jo and her husband moved to seattle. and i also believe that winona is back in lancaster. anyway, i thought that info may be of interest to any of you wondering where people are these days. if anyone else could contribute to this info, i would be interested in knowing more.
i hope that everyone is well, and that everyone still has that "o.e." spark somewhere in their lives.
live well.
ben
Friday, October 31, 2003
cabin 8, yet again
one week from tomorrow cabin 8 will reunite for the celebration of a certain somebody's wedding (not mine, of course).
thats right, another reunion for the infamous hotcake house.
more on this later.
ben
thats right, another reunion for the infamous hotcake house.
ben
Sunday, October 26, 2003
Dining with Ann
Howdy.
Peter and I on a recent visit to San Francisco met up with miss ann speyer. We had dinner together at Ann's "second home," Little Baobob, a little cajun resturaunt in the Mission. Very good food and Great company :)
She left last Wednesday for two weeks in Haiti. She'll be visiting her sister who is teaching there. Can't say I wasn't a bit jealous.
That's all.
Peter and I on a recent visit to San Francisco met up with miss ann speyer. We had dinner together at Ann's "second home," Little Baobob, a little cajun resturaunt in the Mission. Very good food and Great company :)
She left last Wednesday for two weeks in Haiti. She'll be visiting her sister who is teaching there. Can't say I wasn't a bit jealous.
That's all.
Tuesday, August 12, 2003
the last graduate
hello all,
its really good to see this new interactive digital life-form take shape. i must admit, at first i was a little skeptical. yet i really was excited to see dana's email in my inbox. its good to hear these voices again.
so here i am.
i finally finished calvin college three weeks ago. i am probably gonna stick around grand rapids for another season. since oregon, i have been working at a used bookstore, which i will continue to work at for awhile. the first thing i did when i got back from oregon was apply to work at this bookstore, and have been working there since. my perverse dream is to have a personal library like the one at lincoln.
i hesitated writing this because i thought, damnit i am just beginning the phase of life that many of you have already gone through. hell, some of you are married and have careers. i felt that everyone is grown up and i am still kind of playing this role of "college student", and that there isnt anything substantial that i have to show for myself. then i thought, ah fuck it, these are oregon extension students, career or not they are just as goddamned confused as i am. right?
so, ben boss in a nutshell: still wearin tattered jeans, dreaming crazy inarticulate possibilities, and still captivated by the sound of a gravel road and the scent of burning pine. and maybe i am just a little more digital.
my hopes and dreams: to continue falling in love, to work with gypsy children in transylvania, to learn more spanish, to spend winters in guatemala, to live in the hispanic neighborhoods of chicago, to make pancakes at midnight, to read a book or two, to listen to the elderly and the homeless, to write or song or two, to ride a camel across the sands of morocco, to breath in the stars with my friends and family, and to ride my old red bike to the end of the road.
i hope that all of your lives are beautiful.
sincerely,
benjamin (aka zen ben)
its really good to see this new interactive digital life-form take shape. i must admit, at first i was a little skeptical. yet i really was excited to see dana's email in my inbox. its good to hear these voices again.
so here i am.
i finally finished calvin college three weeks ago. i am probably gonna stick around grand rapids for another season. since oregon, i have been working at a used bookstore, which i will continue to work at for awhile. the first thing i did when i got back from oregon was apply to work at this bookstore, and have been working there since. my perverse dream is to have a personal library like the one at lincoln.
i hesitated writing this because i thought, damnit i am just beginning the phase of life that many of you have already gone through. hell, some of you are married and have careers. i felt that everyone is grown up and i am still kind of playing this role of "college student", and that there isnt anything substantial that i have to show for myself. then i thought, ah fuck it, these are oregon extension students, career or not they are just as goddamned confused as i am. right?
so, ben boss in a nutshell: still wearin tattered jeans, dreaming crazy inarticulate possibilities, and still captivated by the sound of a gravel road and the scent of burning pine. and maybe i am just a little more digital.
my hopes and dreams: to continue falling in love, to work with gypsy children in transylvania, to learn more spanish, to spend winters in guatemala, to live in the hispanic neighborhoods of chicago, to make pancakes at midnight, to read a book or two, to listen to the elderly and the homeless, to write or song or two, to ride a camel across the sands of morocco, to breath in the stars with my friends and family, and to ride my old red bike to the end of the road.
i hope that all of your lives are beautiful.
sincerely,
benjamin (aka zen ben)
Sunday, August 03, 2003
We Have Arrived!
Hey all,
We have arrived & unloaded the truck, and are now in the process of unloading boxes & making this little house a home! It's been an adventure so far.
The trip out here was mostly uneventful and fine. A few snafus along the way, but we stayed alive & healthy, the cats stayed alive & mostly healthy (one got sick the day after we got here), and the truck survived with little-to-no beating. Adam wanted me to share the story of our biggest snafu with you all, so here goes:
Late Thursday, on the road, we were in eastern New Mexico somewhere between the border of Oklahoma and Albuquerque, and it was dark. Maybe 10pm? We were relatively low on gas, and didn't stop soon enough to fill up. By the time we realized we were really low on gas, we were in the absolute middle of nowhere. Ever been in the desert at night? Pitch black - a darkness I've never experienced before. Ever. The stars were amazing - the sky enormous - but we didn't really have a chance to stop & appreciate them. Exits were scarce along this desolate stretch, and when Adam finally saw one that said "gas", he took it. Just off the exit, it was still pitch dark. A tiny local petrol station was just to the right off the exit, but it was dark & closed - maybe permanently. Instead of getting back on the highway, Adam thought that maybe just over the hill there was more. I was skeptical, but kept my mouth closed...mostly. We got over the hill, and there was nothing. Black. Road. Desert. But we were a few dozen yards down the road before Adam decided it was futile. We couldn't turn around, b/c the street was too narrow. We couldn't back up & do a multi-point turn b/c with the car on the trailer behind the truck there were too many pivot points & we'd just jackknife & be stuck. We kept going. A sign said "gas - 23 miles". We probably couldn't make it that far, but had no choice. After 3 or 4 miles, I was freaking out, so we looked for a place to turn around. Tricky. We tried to use a driveway (there was actually one house about 3 miles down this road to nowhere) and that didn't work. We tried at a spot that looked flat, not flat enough. Finally we got to a spot where, as far as we could tell in the light from our headlights, the ground was flat enough on both sides of this tiny country road to make a big loop. Adam took the chance, looped around, I swore a few times, and we made it back onto the road. We ran out to check that the car was okay, it was. We glanced up at the stars for a few seconds, hugged b/c we actually got turned back around, and headed toward the highway. By the time we got to an exit with a real & functional gas station, we'd gone another 20 miles or so. In our 35 gallon gas tank, we filled up with no less than 35.4 gallons. Yikes. I guess we were literally on fumes.... Scary thought to be stranded on a desolate street in the desert with our entire houseful of worldly possessions, two cats, and no gas. But we made it. :)
Coming through the mountains on the last leg of the trip took 3x longer than it would have in a car, but with the truck & the trailer pulling the car, we could only go about 10 mph. The last 30 miles took over 2 hours. It was absolutely beautiful driving in here. The town of Silver is pretty much surrounded with the Gila (pronounced Hee-la) National Forest, so we drove through a good chunk of that on the way in. Amazing! Beautiful. It felt like Oregon or Washington - lots of mountains covered with pine trees. My expectations of the weather & terrain here have been shattered - it's better & more amazing than either Adam or I had pictured.
I don't have a digital camera or I would send you all pictures of the area & the house. It's a small house & it was very stark when we walked in. It's got character b/c it's old, but there's not much to it. The kitchen is the biggest room - with LOTS of cupboard space. That's the best. We just got the office halfway set up, which is how I've got email back. We have a few cacti in our backyard - little ones, but cacti nonetheless. It's very hilly here - the mountains are crazier than I thought. I didn't know what "high mountain desert" meant, but I'm starting to understand. The horizon stretches further than I ever imagined, and way far off after you look across miles of desert, are mountains. Not mountains like in Washington, but mountains. We have a big clawfoot tub in the bathroom, and a fake wood-burning stove in the main room. We'll probably never get that going, but it's sort of fun. It adds character to the room.
The weather is perfect - sunny, hot, dry. It's not hotter than GR summer weather, and it's not humid, so it's very nice. Not just tolerable - nice. Breezy all the time, which will be fun when we unearth our windchime. :)
There's a long driveway & a carport w/ a big storage shed in the back. There's a big front yard (corner lot) with a great shade tree in the front. St. Francis Newman Center Catholic church is across the street - directly across the street. For you CNA/C3 people - it's nothing like St. Al's. I bet you could fit St. Francis in the front lawn at St. Al's. It's nice too, b/c a lot of the people park down the street and walk to the church, or they live close enough to walk. There's lots of church-related foot traffic down our street, so we get to see people & maybe we'll meet a few more that way.
The next door neighbors have a little weiner dog. Yesterday the guy took his four-wheeler out for a ride, and took the pup w/ him for a few blocks. We had fun watching, but I'm not sure how much the dog liked it. ;)
We got a tip that firefighting might be a good job opportunity for Adam, so he's going to look into that this week. We found a few grocery stores & restaurants, and there's a nice little pocket park a few blocks away w/ benches & basketball courts & gazebos. There's actually some grass in the park too. ;)
It's greener than I expected here. En route through Oklahoma & eastern NM it was desolate desert and we wondered how anything can survive, but it's not bad at all in Silver. There are still trees & grass, just not as much or as green as GR.
We have a great open front porch w/ a railing, and we've got a few chairs out there. If any of you want to come by for a drink or a slice of watermelon or a popsicle, you are welcome to join us out there on the porch.
I guess that's about it for now. If you've got specific things you want to hear about, go ahead & ask & I'll be happy to update & fill in flavor text details as much as I can. I have to go unload some boxes before Adam gets impatient from doing it w/o me. :)
Love you all - stay in touch. So far we've (sort of) met a meager 8 people. Janine (my NM email contact through whom we got the contact for this house) & her boyfriend Nick, Judi (the real estate lady), Father Marcos & another guy from St. Francis, a waitress at Pizza Hut and a waitress & the manager of a little local Mexican restaurant. So we need to stay connected to long distance friends!!
Bethany Joy Lange (and Adam :))
We have arrived & unloaded the truck, and are now in the process of unloading boxes & making this little house a home! It's been an adventure so far.
The trip out here was mostly uneventful and fine. A few snafus along the way, but we stayed alive & healthy, the cats stayed alive & mostly healthy (one got sick the day after we got here), and the truck survived with little-to-no beating. Adam wanted me to share the story of our biggest snafu with you all, so here goes:
Late Thursday, on the road, we were in eastern New Mexico somewhere between the border of Oklahoma and Albuquerque, and it was dark. Maybe 10pm? We were relatively low on gas, and didn't stop soon enough to fill up. By the time we realized we were really low on gas, we were in the absolute middle of nowhere. Ever been in the desert at night? Pitch black - a darkness I've never experienced before. Ever. The stars were amazing - the sky enormous - but we didn't really have a chance to stop & appreciate them. Exits were scarce along this desolate stretch, and when Adam finally saw one that said "gas", he took it. Just off the exit, it was still pitch dark. A tiny local petrol station was just to the right off the exit, but it was dark & closed - maybe permanently. Instead of getting back on the highway, Adam thought that maybe just over the hill there was more. I was skeptical, but kept my mouth closed...mostly. We got over the hill, and there was nothing. Black. Road. Desert. But we were a few dozen yards down the road before Adam decided it was futile. We couldn't turn around, b/c the street was too narrow. We couldn't back up & do a multi-point turn b/c with the car on the trailer behind the truck there were too many pivot points & we'd just jackknife & be stuck. We kept going. A sign said "gas - 23 miles". We probably couldn't make it that far, but had no choice. After 3 or 4 miles, I was freaking out, so we looked for a place to turn around. Tricky. We tried to use a driveway (there was actually one house about 3 miles down this road to nowhere) and that didn't work. We tried at a spot that looked flat, not flat enough. Finally we got to a spot where, as far as we could tell in the light from our headlights, the ground was flat enough on both sides of this tiny country road to make a big loop. Adam took the chance, looped around, I swore a few times, and we made it back onto the road. We ran out to check that the car was okay, it was. We glanced up at the stars for a few seconds, hugged b/c we actually got turned back around, and headed toward the highway. By the time we got to an exit with a real & functional gas station, we'd gone another 20 miles or so. In our 35 gallon gas tank, we filled up with no less than 35.4 gallons. Yikes. I guess we were literally on fumes.... Scary thought to be stranded on a desolate street in the desert with our entire houseful of worldly possessions, two cats, and no gas. But we made it. :)
Coming through the mountains on the last leg of the trip took 3x longer than it would have in a car, but with the truck & the trailer pulling the car, we could only go about 10 mph. The last 30 miles took over 2 hours. It was absolutely beautiful driving in here. The town of Silver is pretty much surrounded with the Gila (pronounced Hee-la) National Forest, so we drove through a good chunk of that on the way in. Amazing! Beautiful. It felt like Oregon or Washington - lots of mountains covered with pine trees. My expectations of the weather & terrain here have been shattered - it's better & more amazing than either Adam or I had pictured.
I don't have a digital camera or I would send you all pictures of the area & the house. It's a small house & it was very stark when we walked in. It's got character b/c it's old, but there's not much to it. The kitchen is the biggest room - with LOTS of cupboard space. That's the best. We just got the office halfway set up, which is how I've got email back. We have a few cacti in our backyard - little ones, but cacti nonetheless. It's very hilly here - the mountains are crazier than I thought. I didn't know what "high mountain desert" meant, but I'm starting to understand. The horizon stretches further than I ever imagined, and way far off after you look across miles of desert, are mountains. Not mountains like in Washington, but mountains. We have a big clawfoot tub in the bathroom, and a fake wood-burning stove in the main room. We'll probably never get that going, but it's sort of fun. It adds character to the room.
The weather is perfect - sunny, hot, dry. It's not hotter than GR summer weather, and it's not humid, so it's very nice. Not just tolerable - nice. Breezy all the time, which will be fun when we unearth our windchime. :)
There's a long driveway & a carport w/ a big storage shed in the back. There's a big front yard (corner lot) with a great shade tree in the front. St. Francis Newman Center Catholic church is across the street - directly across the street. For you CNA/C3 people - it's nothing like St. Al's. I bet you could fit St. Francis in the front lawn at St. Al's. It's nice too, b/c a lot of the people park down the street and walk to the church, or they live close enough to walk. There's lots of church-related foot traffic down our street, so we get to see people & maybe we'll meet a few more that way.
The next door neighbors have a little weiner dog. Yesterday the guy took his four-wheeler out for a ride, and took the pup w/ him for a few blocks. We had fun watching, but I'm not sure how much the dog liked it. ;)
We got a tip that firefighting might be a good job opportunity for Adam, so he's going to look into that this week. We found a few grocery stores & restaurants, and there's a nice little pocket park a few blocks away w/ benches & basketball courts & gazebos. There's actually some grass in the park too. ;)
It's greener than I expected here. En route through Oklahoma & eastern NM it was desolate desert and we wondered how anything can survive, but it's not bad at all in Silver. There are still trees & grass, just not as much or as green as GR.
We have a great open front porch w/ a railing, and we've got a few chairs out there. If any of you want to come by for a drink or a slice of watermelon or a popsicle, you are welcome to join us out there on the porch.
I guess that's about it for now. If you've got specific things you want to hear about, go ahead & ask & I'll be happy to update & fill in flavor text details as much as I can. I have to go unload some boxes before Adam gets impatient from doing it w/o me. :)
Love you all - stay in touch. So far we've (sort of) met a meager 8 people. Janine (my NM email contact through whom we got the contact for this house) & her boyfriend Nick, Judi (the real estate lady), Father Marcos & another guy from St. Francis, a waitress at Pizza Hut and a waitress & the manager of a little local Mexican restaurant. So we need to stay connected to long distance friends!!
Bethany Joy Lange (and Adam :))
Monday, July 28, 2003
what am i doing??
Namaste, everyone! This is Bethany, and I just discovered the world of blog. Neat idea, corny word, but I'll work with it.
My current situation is one of panic & anxiety, and I'm attempting to stay controlled & channel my anxiety into healthy excitement. I am approximately 36 hours away from leaving my lifelong home in Grand Rapids, MI for Silver City, New Mexico. I am absolutely terrified...and yet I can't wait to get there.
A little context: I graduated with my BA in English, got married in the fall of '01 to Adam Lange and started a term in AmeriCorps around the same time. I signed up for a second year after the first b/c I loved it, and I still didn't know what else I wanted to do. As an AmeriCorps member I worked at a free health clinic & did event organizing & promotion, volunteer recruitment, community development, etc. all related to health. So, I got hooked.
I'm now going BACK to school (I never in a million years thought I'd return) and moving across country with my husband & 2 cats - leaving all family & friends. In September I'll begin the herbal studies program at the New Mexico College of Natural Healing for a two year certification program. I'm really enthused about the people there & the program & the warm weather, but I'm apprehensive to say the least about all the unknowns, and the fact that my nearest friend or relative will be no less than 10 hours away....
Tonight's my last night in my house in Grand Rapids, so I have to go take care of stuff and get ready to relocate. Next time you hear from me, I'll have a whole new life. Crazy. I think I'm insane...but at least my hubby's coming along for the ride. :)
Current read (I like this trend):
Twilight Goddess: Spiritual Feminism and Feminine Spirituality by Thomas Cleary & Sartaz Aziz
Thanks all - and I love to hear more from you
My current situation is one of panic & anxiety, and I'm attempting to stay controlled & channel my anxiety into healthy excitement. I am approximately 36 hours away from leaving my lifelong home in Grand Rapids, MI for Silver City, New Mexico. I am absolutely terrified...and yet I can't wait to get there.
A little context: I graduated with my BA in English, got married in the fall of '01 to Adam Lange and started a term in AmeriCorps around the same time. I signed up for a second year after the first b/c I loved it, and I still didn't know what else I wanted to do. As an AmeriCorps member I worked at a free health clinic & did event organizing & promotion, volunteer recruitment, community development, etc. all related to health. So, I got hooked.
I'm now going BACK to school (I never in a million years thought I'd return) and moving across country with my husband & 2 cats - leaving all family & friends. In September I'll begin the herbal studies program at the New Mexico College of Natural Healing for a two year certification program. I'm really enthused about the people there & the program & the warm weather, but I'm apprehensive to say the least about all the unknowns, and the fact that my nearest friend or relative will be no less than 10 hours away....
Tonight's my last night in my house in Grand Rapids, so I have to go take care of stuff and get ready to relocate. Next time you hear from me, I'll have a whole new life. Crazy. I think I'm insane...but at least my hubby's coming along for the ride. :)
Current read (I like this trend):
Twilight Goddess: Spiritual Feminism and Feminine Spirituality by Thomas Cleary & Sartaz Aziz
Thanks all - and I love to hear more from you
Wednesday, July 23, 2003
Exciting New Site Updates!
Since marrying a computer whiz I have learned a few tricks of the trade. I've made some changes to this site that should make it much more user friendly. Here's the rundown.
1. The site is now up on the live web. So now you won't need to log into blogger to read the entries. All you have to do is go to oe1999.blogspot.com.
2. We can all add a title to our entries. Whatever you type in the 'title' box will show up in the grey box at the top. This serves a dual purpose... the grey box makes a nice division between the individual entries and it gives a little insight into the entry.
3. What if someone says somthing that you would love to respond to? Now you can. Click on the "comment" link at the end of the entry to post a comment. Note: everyone visiting the site can read these comments, not just the author of the entry.
4. Links. The right hand navigation bar is home to some links. I've got three catagories up there now... a)our own websites b) other sites that others might like to visit c) archives: once we have more than a week's worth of entries you can go back to read the old ones.
I've got one more project in the works... if you've got any thoughts or comments or if you want to add a link just let me know and I'll show you how to do it, or I'll do it for you.
cheers, rebecca
1. The site is now up on the live web. So now you won't need to log into blogger to read the entries. All you have to do is go to oe1999.blogspot.com.
2. We can all add a title to our entries. Whatever you type in the 'title' box will show up in the grey box at the top. This serves a dual purpose... the grey box makes a nice division between the individual entries and it gives a little insight into the entry.
3. What if someone says somthing that you would love to respond to? Now you can. Click on the "comment" link at the end of the entry to post a comment. Note: everyone visiting the site can read these comments, not just the author of the entry.
4. Links. The right hand navigation bar is home to some links. I've got three catagories up there now... a)our own websites b) other sites that others might like to visit c) archives: once we have more than a week's worth of entries you can go back to read the old ones.
I've got one more project in the works... if you've got any thoughts or comments or if you want to add a link just let me know and I'll show you how to do it, or I'll do it for you.
cheers, rebecca
Tuesday, July 22, 2003
Howdy!
Kudos to Dana for pulling this together.
Hubby Peter and I were visiting Lincoln a few weekends ago and I was happy to find it mostly the way I remember it. When we aren't globetrotting we call Beverly, MA home. Peter is a web developer for Christian Book Distributors and I am finishing up a graduate program at Tufts University in Museum Education. I am currently interning at a museum in Portsmouth, NH creating a hands-on, interactive history exhibit.
While it might not always be terribly exciting you can read more about what I'm up to at our website. Search around a little and you'll find some recent pictures from OE.
Kudos to Dana for pulling this together.
Hubby Peter and I were visiting Lincoln a few weekends ago and I was happy to find it mostly the way I remember it. When we aren't globetrotting we call Beverly, MA home. Peter is a web developer for Christian Book Distributors and I am finishing up a graduate program at Tufts University in Museum Education. I am currently interning at a museum in Portsmouth, NH creating a hands-on, interactive history exhibit.
While it might not always be terribly exciting you can read more about what I'm up to at our website. Search around a little and you'll find some recent pictures from OE.
