Elaby's LiveJournal - 57 Academics

All my friends have been doing this meme, so it's made me want to fill it out too :) Unsurprisingly, my answers to several of the questions are the same as Rachel's :)

( 100-question meme )

I'm happy to finally unveil something that's been months in the making: Rachel and I have started a blog together!

Arboreal Rainbow

This summer, while we were spending a quiet week dogsitting for our friend Bethany's adorable puppies, Rachel and I decided that we wanted a place to chronicle our story and preserve the some of the precious bits of our lives together. We came up with the blog name Arboreal Rainbow as a meeting of the symbols we both love best: trees for me and rainbows for Rachel. It evokes the image of rainbows living in the treetops.

We only have a few posts so far, but we plan to add all sorts of things, from knitting adventures to tea reviews to the story of how we met. I hope you'll take a look! <3

Rachel and I went on a whale watch yesterday -- Rachel's first ever and my second, though the first was long enough ago that I don't remember much about it. It was one of the best experiences of my life.

This morning, though, I was going about my business, getting ready for work as normal, when I got suddenly very sick. I'll spare you the gruesome details, but I think it was due to dehydration (it was pretty hot yesterday, even though I tried to drink a lot of water on the boat). So I stayed home and slept until noon. I feel worlds better now but exhausted, so I'm writing up our adventure.

I don't have very many pictures because I was too entranced, too captivated by the whales to try looking at them through a viewfinder. But I do have one or two :)

The whale watch was out of Rye, NH and was organized by Granite State Whale Watch. Rye is one of the prettiest towns in New Hampshire: it's located on our teeny tiny inch of coastline and is home to Odiorne Point State Park, the Seacoast Science Center, rolling dunes, bird-filled estuaries, really nice beaches, and about a hundred eye-popping mansions. The sun was out bright as we drove down the shore road past all of these and made our way to Rye Harbor.



We got there about a half hour before the ship was going to depart, so we got a pretty good seat on the starboard side near the bow. It was HOT waiting for the ship to leave; there was a bit of a breeze but it didn't do much against the sweltering sun. Once we started moving out, though, the wind picked up and it was utterly perfect.

Rachel bought me a hat at the ticket counter, and I was very glad I had it!



I was pretty much exploding with excitement, and as soon as we started moving, Rachel was too <3



We chugged out past the harbor walls and caught a glimpse of some harbor seals on the port side of the ship. As we passed the Isles of Shoals, the captain told us a bit about the islands (although I could scarcely hear him over the sounds of the engine).

It was such a gorgeous day, with the sun blazing above and the horizon swathed in haze, creating a pale shimmering curtain against the blue sky. I always expect the energy of the ocean to be this deep, heavy, mysterious thing, imposing and powerful, and that's how it is with your legs in it on the beach... but out there on the water with the wind and sun and the sparkle of the waves, it just felt free. Light and floaty and untethered.

The first whale we sighted was a fin whale, the second largest creature to ever live on earth. They're the most commonly sighted whale near Jeffery's Ledge, the bountiful feeding area we were exploring. This one was identified as Dingle, a whale they see pretty often. It was so, so huge. Its black back with its small curved fin kept sliding up out of the water and in again as it sent plumes of breath up. The ship turned to keep it in our vision, so we watched it long enough to recognize the extra-arched back that signaled a deep dive. It came up again for several more breaths every five or ten minutes.

After we spent some time with this whale (and a couple of minke whales that we could just see in the distance), we moved along to explore some more.

The next thing we came upon was a surprise: a basking shark. We could see its dorsal fin puttering along (the naturalist narrating the whale watch said that they normally can only see basking sharks on calm days because their fins aren't visible in choppy water). It didn't notice us for a while and so it swam quite close to the boat, and we could see its huge, grey bulk just beneath the surface. Basking sharks are the second largest shark in the world (and they only eat plankton!). It was pretty amazing because the fin whale hadn't gotten close enough to really see any of it except the parts that came out of the water.

Next we encountered another fin whale, Crow. This one came closer and closer, finally close enough that we could see the swoop of paler grey coloring just behind its blowhole. The whale's skin shone a gunmetal color in the sunlight. Then, as we all watched spellbound, it sunk under and resurfaced again right next to the ship. Its fin breaking the surface was incredible to behold. It lifted its head slightly out of the water -- something neither it nor the other fin whale had done -- and the naturalist pointed out its white lower jaw. Fin whales are asymmetrically colored and only the right side of their lower jaw is white. It was so beautiful, so amazing, that it took my breath away. I think it raised its head to get a look at the ship, because it was so close by.

The next whales we saw were both humpbacks <3 And I got a couple of pictures of the first one! This is Patches, a humpback that Granite State Whale Watch sees frequently but hadn't encountered yet this season, so they were really happy to see him.

Here's Patches' back as he started curving for a deep dive.



And here's his beautiful tail!


We got to watch him dive over and over, displaying the unique pattern on his fluke as he went down. When he was at the surface, we could see the most remarkable thing -- his white pectoral fins shone an incandescent green underneath the water. The next one we saw was called Quill, and gave us an equally impressive show. Humpbacks are so lovely -- I would love to see one a little closer <3

Eventually our time was up and we had to turn back. But on the way back, just past the Isles of Shoals, we saw a bunch of harbor porpoises! They were splashing around, feeding, and a flock of gannets were gathered around them. Once or twice we saw their dark silvery backs arch above the water.

Back in Rye Harbor, we talked to the naturalist and some of the interns and adopted a humpback whale, Owl (for Athena).



It was such an experience, full of wonder and amazement. Whales are such beautiful, otherworldly creatures. I want to go on another soon <3

For the past few weeks, a Baltimore oriole has been visiting me.

The first time I met him, he was chirping his little birdy head off outside a coworker’s window. Sitting about twenty feet away, I wondered what the sound was, but I was engrossed in work and couldn’t see where it was coming from. My coworker leaned out of her cubicle and hissed, “Katie! Katie! There’s this gold bird outside!”

The windows of our office building are reflective on the outside so that people can’t see in. (We must have privacy as we type away on top-secret insurance documents, I suppose!) Because of this, birds are always mistaking our windows for a twin tree to the ones outside and attempting to land in the reflection. Usually they just skitter along the glass; once in a while, they get a little more forceful.

This particular coworker sits near a big evergreen tree that presses up against the window, and when I answered her summons, I saw a bright orange and black oriole sitting in a branch, inches away from us. Because they can’t see us, birds tend to land on the sill or on close branches and allow us to get a really good look at them.

This one was utterly stunning. His black back was shiny, and the feathers on his breast melted deep yellow to the most vibrant orange. He had bright eyes and a smooth, charcoal-gray beak that he opened to sing for us a melody that would become familiar over the next several days.

I got to know that song very well. Every time I heard a clear “chirp chirp-a CHIRP chirp... chirp!” I’d look around for the oriole, and there he’d be: either sitting in the tree outside my window, jumping about in the bushes right below the stone sill, or perched on the sill itself, his little face peering up at the glass and wondering, as my coworker put it, “Why won’t that handsome bird in there play with me?”

I haven’t seen him for a week. I think perhaps he’s moved on. But it was such a blessing to see him here, up close, in all his dappled night-and-day glory <3

I’m going to talk about food and my dietary choices :D I’ve learned that food is something that touches people on an extremely personal level, so please know that my decisions, my likes and dislikes, are what’s best for me and only me – I would never want anyone to feel belittled or as if I think they should change their own choices because of what I do. Just sayin’ <3

( Decisions )

Today has been a perfect Valentine's Day <3

We slept in this morning and I was so excited to give Rachel her gift that I made her put on her glasses and stay in bed and I ran and got it XD I wrote her a poem and inked it on this beautiful brown scrapbook paper with a faded castle in the background, and then I glued it on a border of scrapbook paper covered in faded brown and red embroidered roses. I was rather proud of myself. She loved it <3

Our plan had been to visit Shalimar India for dinner in Portsmouth, but since it was supposed to snow today into tomorrow (TWO MORE FEET WTF) we went for lunch instead. It's our favorite Indian restaurant. We always get the vegetarian dinner for two, which includes the best vegetable soup in the universe, two samosas, two entrees (Rachel had Shalimar Baji and I had Chanaa Masala), rice, raita, naan, and rice pudding with chai for desert. I always bring half home and end up STILL stuffed XD While we ate, we set down in writing our GRAND PLOT for our BJD characters' timeline and the multiple AUs we have going XD We need a freaking flow chart to catalogue everyone's reincarnations/parallel timelines/whatever. We have, let me see -- a Roman incarnation, an Anglo-Saxon incarnation, Council of the Chosen (the circa-2000 vampire-werewolf-paranormal RP monstrosity that started it all, which Rachel and I took part in during college), a secret agent AU (BECAUSE WE SAW KINGSMEN LAST NIGHT AND HOLY CRAP IT WAS MIND-BLOWING), the Pacific Rim AU, Taylan and Dante's recent reboot where they live during an apocalyptic vampire/werewolf war, a post-apocalyptic the-Earth-reclaims-itself world where Aster is from after the end of the vampire/werewolf war, a post-post-apocalyptic scary technology-overrun world where Poppy is from and ultimately where she goes back to become, uh, deified, and finally the mermaid incarnation which takes place AFTER Poppy's final reset of the planet.

HAHAHA BEST VALENTINE'S DAY LUNCH EVER XD

After that, we stopped at Home Goods because Rachel wanted a pretty wooden tray like willow_cabin has to arrange her crystals in, and we ended up getting a couple of really cool things :3 We did find a wooden tray, and we also found two dishes for our altars: Rachel's is silvery-iridescent and kind of shaped like a pyrite sun, and mine looks like greeny-metallic lotus petals. We also got two incredibly awesome teapots: they're both white porcelain, and the body of one is in a basket-weave pattern with a handle like two reeds twined together with a tiny bird on the lid, and the other is shaped like a conch shell. I've never seen a teapot like it. Rachel also got a little sugar dish with a bluebird handle on the lid that she plans to FILL WITH GLITTER. I kid you not. We also got two heart-shaped taper candles that are, as I type, flickering on our dresser-top altars.

We got home just as it started to snow, and I suggested that we swap out some of our less-loved teapots for the new ones. We went through the tea things and set a few items aside for the donation box, and then this led to a whole living-room-wide decluttering. We rearranged three high shelves (one actual shelf and two tops of hutches) and one bookcase. Our collection of lesbian Willow Tree figures got a nice clean space (yeah, I'm sure they're meant to be sisters, but they're ALL LESBIANS IN OUR HOUSE - we have these ones: wifeys, totes girlfriends, not just for sisters, LOL SHE'S MY WIFE NOT MY MOM, and yeah, married).

After a good few hours getting rid of stuff and reorganizing, we took ourselves upstairs and played Fantasy Life all evening :) It's snowing outside and we have nowhere to go tomorrow; it's shaping up to be a great weekend.

I had a really nice, low-key Christmas. We invited my parents over to our house on Christmas Eve and ate delicious appetizers and desserts. We popped Christmas crackers, played with the little toys inside, looked at nineteenth-century photographs of Kittery Point (where my parents and I grew up, not to mention both sides of my family going wayyyy back), and giggled over a Victorian young woman’s health and hygiene guide I borrowed from Rachel’s library.

On Christmas morning, Rachel and I drove over to my parents’ house with three boxes stuffed full of gifts. We ate bagels for breakfast, opened the stockings (a Rachel tradition! My family always opened stockings last, but we converted when Rachel joined us :3), and spent the next several hours opening presents. We open them one at a time so everybody can watch <3 I was very blessed with goodies this year! Here’s a run-down of my favorites:

- Additional RAM for my laptop. It makes SUCH a difference! My laptop only had 2 MB before, and just opening/closing Text Pad was a nightmare. Heaven help me if I wanted to open more than five tabs in Chrome. Now I have 8 MB and things work so much faster. I can actually load multiple .gifs now without Chrome asking me if I want to kill the page!

- Rachel got me a set of Lord of the Rings sampler teas from Adagio <3 <3 <3 IT IS SO COOL. Teas include White Tea of Kings, Elevenses, Wizard’s Grey, Second Breakfast, Barrels of Tea (the only one I’ve tried so far – DELICIOUS), and Enchanted Tea.

- My parents got both of Rachel and me Fantasy Life, a 3DS game that we absolutely adore. It’s a mixture of questing, crafting, and monster-slaying where you’re able to choose a Life (like a profession – I’m a cook right now) and improve at it until you’re a master. You can switch Lives as often as you want so you can experience all of them, and your progress in previous Lives remains the same. The plot is charming and the dialogue is hilarious. I have yet to become frustrated with any aspect of the game, which is really remarkable. I love it <3

- I got two books on Neolithic tombs and monuments, one that explores the spirituality associated with them and one big coffee-table book full of lush photos. I can’t wait to immerse myself in both of them.

- Aster got some really badass new clothes, which you can see on my Flickr. She also got a gorgeous pink/purple galaxy-patterned sweatshirt which I haven’t taken pictures of yet.

- I got a DVD of AKB48’s documentary, To Be Continued, which follows their career throughout 2011. It’s swoonworthy. They’re all so freaking cute. It had a lot of interviews and discussed how they’re encouraged to put their personality into their performance (when most of them assumed they’d have to conform to a specific “idol” image). I don’t know how much of it is fabricated for the fans, but they seem to really care about each other and consider themselves a family.

- Rachel got me several scarves from Mexicali Blues on sale, and they’re soft and happy <3 I’m wrapped in one right now! I also got some flannel-lined khaki pants (man, should’ve worn those today ¬_¬), a sweater, and some socks at the L.L. Bean’s outlet. Yay for discount Bean’s clothes!

- We took advantage of the Fable Tribe closing sale to get a bunch of gorgeous Glamourkins <3 <3 <3

We had snacks for lunch, as usual (chips and dip, devilled eggs, crackers and cheese, and nuts), and lasagna for dinner with my mother’s apple pie afterwards – she makes the best apple pie known to man.

This year, I took the week after Christmas off, for the first time (when we weren’t traveling to Colorado) since I graduated from college. It was PHENOMENAL XD We spent whole days playing Fantasy Life; we visited bead shops and stocked up on varied and nutritious bird food for the finches; we moved a table my dad had fixed up for us from my parents’ basement and set up a new doll photography area; we went to the movies TWICE IN ONE DAY (something I’ve never done before XD Made possible by a movie gift card I won at work and my manager’s holiday Chipotle gift card); we cleaned and rearranged and flopped around doing nothing. I had to go back to work on Friday, but I was one of three people in the office so it didn’t feel like a “real” work day. I haven’t had such a relaxing holiday in a long time :)

We saw The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies on Tuesday! And as I’m suffering somewhat from post-series withdrawal, I wanted to blather on a bit about it.

I can’t believe it’s over ;_; SILMARILLION MOVIE, ANYONE? RIGHT? RIGHT?
T_T

On the whole, I really enjoyed the Hobbit movies a great deal. They were lighter in tone than the LotR movies (but not as light as the book) and they felt like they kept in the spirit of the other films. In the interest of organization, I think I’ll break this up a bit XD

( Spoilers, natch. And you know how long-winded Tolkien makes me. )

I have the day off tomorrow! :D And that is a wonderful thing, because today I helped finish the biggest case at work that I've ever taken part in. It came down to LITERALLY THE LAST MINUTE. I am a noodle-person now. I surely have fewer brain cells than when I woke up this morning.

Tomorrow, I plan on wrapping presents, doing yoga, having lunch with Rachel on campus, and going to oil painting in the evening. My painting teacher is putting on a student art show in January, and I'm going to be in it! I have one painting to put in so far; I hope to finish another, but I'm behind on it because it was too snowy (and I was too peopled-out) to go last week.

I'm very excited for Yule/the Solstice on Sunday. Rachel and I are planning to make a Solstice feast for dinner and then we'll have a ritual with candles and bells.

I think we have all our gifts bought, or at least the materials to make them. The gifts we'll be sending to friends through the mail may be a little late this year ^^;;

The other night, when we were getting the trash and recycling together to put out, Rachel ran and got me and insisted that I come outside with her. I didn't have any socks on but I put my bare feet in my fleecy Bean boots and bundled into a coat and followed her outside. It was cold and the sky was extremely clear, and Rachel showed me how one particularly bright star on the horizon was twinkling, flickering, and visibly changing colors from white to red to blue like a Christmas light. The stars were so bright that we could see the Milky Way. Rachel showed me Orion's bow, which I honestly had never realized was visible before. The stars were so brilliant and flickery, like you could see what they were made of. As I was looking up at them, I saw a shooting star <3