El CWC

My sister, who you can read about here, is attending a small art school in Redmond, WA. She has a lot of legitimate complaints about her school, which makes me question my choice to attend a school that I know hardly anything about, and to pay them a lot of money to take their classes. Will it be worth it?

Megan and I both attended and graduated from the University of Washington in Seattle, WA. We both started school there immediately after high school, earned BAs and upon graduating thought we would get jobs, work, etc. But things didn't go so smoothly for either of us. Megan works hard but hates her job, and now she works part time and attends school. I work less hard, I've finally found a job I like, and I'm about to start attending school.


The only photo I could find from College.

It makes me think maybe I would have benefited from more guidance while I was in school the first time. But then again, I was very sure of myself and about the path I wanted to be on (read: stubborn). But that path ended the day I graduated from UW. No one wanted to give me a job that had anything to do with what I studied. And the reason I studied what I studied, was because I loved it. That doesn't easily translate into a real job.

It doesn't really matter, though. I grew as a person in college, and learned plenty. Now I get to do it again, on my own terms, and on my own dime. At least Jackson will soon have a Starbucks.

El colegio central

Central Wyoming College is based in Riverton, Wyoming. I have never been to Riverton, and I don't plan on going any time soon. I am, however, starting classes through the school in September. Lucky for me there is a satellite campus in Jackson. Since I live in Idaho, I have to pay out-of-state tuition, which stinks. I am hoping for some kind of tax break at the end of the year. Does anyone know about tax breaks for school?



The Central Wyoming College mascot is the Rustler. "What is a Rustler?", you might ask.

I learned from Jon that a Rustler is someone who steals cattle. And a Wikipedia search confirmed this: Rustler redirects to Cattle Raiding.

Wyoming is full of guns and Republicans, so I guess this makes sense.

Galletas cookie

Just made up chocolate chip cookie recipe: 1/2 cup almond flour 1/3 cup whole wheat flour 1/3 cup regular flour 1/2 cup brown sugar 1 t vanilla 1/2 t baking soda 1/4 t salt 2 T coconut oil, melted 3 T soy or almond milk 1/2 cup chocolate chips 1/2 cup chopped nuts. I chose macadamia nuts, the most expensive nut in the world! Combine everything. Form into balls and moosh down flat. Bake at 350F for 10 minutes. I also added 1 t maca powder. Since they are kind of healthier than normal cookies, does that mean it's okay to eat a bunch of them at 10:30PM? I hope so.

Estudios de enfermera

I have begun the jumping through of many hoops on the path to entering nursing school.

The only school near where I live is Central Wyoming College. They have a campus in Jackson. At first I thought I didn't want to go to a school in Wyoming... But then I thought, sure I do! It's cheap, close to where I live (and where I want to continue living), and I'll be a genius compared to the other people going to school there!

That last point might prove to be false.

But anyway, I haven't even told my parents about this decision of mine. Jon thinks it's a great idea. And so do I! Especially the part about RNs making tons of money. And by tons of money I mean more than $30k a year. To me, that is tons of money.

I start classes in September, just some basic stuff, pre-reqs, science courses. Then if I get accepted to their nursing program (they only take 8 people a year...), I would start real nursing classes in Fall 2014. It's a long way off, but I'm very excited about it.

Los champiñones

I guess this post could be called instead, "La seta". In Spanish champiñón means mushroom, while seta means something like a wild mushroom. I used to think it meant mushrooms with a wider, flatter top. But I think in reality it refers to where the mushroom came from. Also perhaps any mushroom that isn't of the typical, store bought variety.

In any case, this year we've gone mushrooming a few times already. Jon is much more successful at finding mushrooms than I am. It didn't help that on the first outing of the season, Coal ran away and got quilled in the face by a porcupine. I don't have any photos of that to share, sorry.

The mushrooms we forage for around here are called morels. See Wikipedia's page on morels for some photos and information.

They are kind of creepy looking, right? After you get over the creepiness and actually eat some, you will likely change your tune very quickly. They sauté up so nicely. We've been eating them on pizzas mostly. Around Jackson, if you find a few pounds of the mushrooms, you can sell them to restaurants for around fifteen dollars a pound.

When I studied Russian in my last year at the University of Washington, I was intrigued by how the Russian language has a bunch of terms for mushroom gathering, gatherer, etc. I hadn't realized people were able to go into the forest to gather these delicious little things. But now, thanks to Jon, I am learning to gather mushrooms and enjoying the extra time I get to spend in the forest.


photo by Jonathan Cohen
Delicious vegan pizza doesn't hurt, either. The morels are the light brown things on the left pizza.

Un día especial

I live in a beautiful place. I have mountains all around me, creeks and rivers abound, rocks to climb on, single track begging for the feel of my grippy tires... And when a day off comes around, we make every second count.


Big Holes Hiking, photo by Jonathan Cohen
Don't you love family photos? I do, when the family is half dogs. We hiked in the morning in the Big Holes, a five minute drive from our house. We identified wild flowers along the way. Jon is teaching me a lot. We have a wonderful book on the flora and fauna of the Rockies.


Teton River canoeing, photo by Jonathan Cohen

In the afternoon we decided to put the canoe in the Teton River and float for a bit. We paddled along for about an hour and a half during which we saw a beaver, a mama moose and two tiny baby moose, and a blue heron. We also saw some other birds, two that looked like a heron but were more golden. Maybe some sort of crane. I'm not a very good birder, but I'm getting better.


Baby moose, photo by Jonathan Cohen

In the evening we made homemade vegan pizzas with fresh arugula from the garden and morels that Jon foraged from the woods.

Helado

Last summer I bought an ice cream maker. It is a really great machine: fast, easy, clean. Much faster and quieter than the machine I grew up with. Every Fourth of July my family would head to my grandparents' house and set up the ice cream maker. Rock salt, ice, loud motor and all. It would sit outside on the deck for hours and churn. It was a special treat that I remember very fondly.

But this machine kicks that one's butt. (And you can note that I did indeed buy it in the pretty green color.)

Today I made vanilla. I know, I know. Boring, old vanilla... But it is oh, so creamy! And you can't go wrong with vanilla, right? I mean, just think about all of the toppings...

Anyway, I am going to share my recipe!

Vegan Vanilla Ice Cream
1 can full fat Coconut Milk
1/4 cup Cashew Cream
1 Tablespoon Coconut Flour
1 teaspoon Pure Vanilla Extract
2-3 Tablespoons Agave Nectar
Pinch Salt

Combine all ingredients in blender. You can chill this mixture for a while before throwing it in the ice cream maker, or not. It doesn't seem to matter much. When you're ready, throw it in the ice cream maker per the manufacturer's instructions.

Yield is about two to three cups of delicious, creamy ice cream.

Mi hermana

My sister, Megan, is very talented.


Art from Megan's blog
Like this, what the hell is this? Only the cutest freaking pillow ever.

Okay, I actually just read the file name and it is apparently a flour sack. But my point is still the same.

Megan is in art school so that she can eventually be paid to make cute things like this. She can even make them move like in her animations. Check it out for a bowing flour sack, a jumping flour sack, and walking flour sack. She's a genius.

Now, who wants to give her a job so that she can take me on vacations? Anyone?

El yoga

The first time I did a yoga class was at Everett Community College. I was attending classes there while still in high school (the Running Start Program). I needed Physical Education credits. I thought yoga would be easy. It was so boring and uninteresting to me. I really did not enjoy a single minute of it. Except for when our instructor would give us a snack at the end of class, that part I did like.

Fast-forward seven years or so, and now I find myself with an extremely active Home Practice which I absolutely love. On days I don't practice, my body feels let down. It helps reduce stress and anxiety. It keeps me from wanting to eat everything in sight, you know those days... I guess you could say it keeps me centered. Or is it "grounded"? I don't know.

Work is about to get busy for the summer season and I am hoping I'll be able to keep motivated enough to maintain this really healthy and fun practice. I even get Yoga Journal magazine in the mail and I savor every page. I wish I had started this sooner. I think it would have helped me a lot with all of my crazy emotions.

I even tried to build a small altar/shrine thing (See YJ's example here). But Coal at the candles I put out.

Oh, and since I've never been able to tell anyone else this bit of helpful information... The best yoga advice I have ever heard was from some lady on NPR telling her story. She said, "Do yoga within your own mat." Basically this: Don't worry about what anyone else is doing, just focus on your own practice. Other people's practice doesn't matter, only your own.

La crema de Cashew

Okay, I admit I don't know how to say cashew in Spanish. However, WordReference.com informs me that the word is anacardo.

Anyway, now that that's out of the way. I want everyone to know how easy it is to make this delicacy. It took me a long time to actually give this a try, and I wish I had started earlier. Cashew cream is awesome. The only downside is that cashews are expensive. Nuts.com sells them for $10.99/lb right now. And that's not even the organic variety. The bright side is that a pound of cashews makes a lot of cashew cream.

This does not really require a recipe so much as it requires instructions.

Instructions for making Cashew Cream!
Take some raw cashews, maybe two cups or so, put them in a bowl and cover them with water. Soak for 6 hours or longer. I like to just throw them in the fridge over night.

When you think they've soaked long enough, rinse the crap out of the cashews and put them in a blender and cover with water. I have only ever done this with a Vita-Mix. I kind of doubt a regular blender would make a smooth enough cream.

The more water you have the thinner the cream will be. You can always add more water later, so start off small. I like to put enough water to just cover the cashews. Then you blend them to smithereens.

I like to store mine in a glass jar in the fridge. It should stay fresh for a week.

Use portions of the cream like I mentioned before: for pizza sauce, sweet cream for fruit, etc. You just have to season (or sweeter) the cream accordingly and your taste buds will be having a rave in your mouth before you know it.

La mejor comida del mundo

I used to think my favorite food was shrimp or something. But now I've seen the light. The best food in the world is: Cashew Cream.

What is Cashew Cream? you might ask.

It's just cashews and water. Brilliant!

You can make it sweet by adding something like maple syrup. Then pour it over chopped up berries.

You can make it savory by adding nutrition yeast, garlic, and spices. Use it as a pizza sauce!

Since I can't eat dairy, and I prefer home-made to store-bought, this is the most delicious and healthy creamy food I have ever had. Cashews and water... Who would have thought?

El coche

My car broke down about a month ago. We took it to three different shops. The first two couldn't find anything wrong with it, the third finally found something worth replacing. It worked, for a while...

Five days ago, it broke down again.

This time, they really couldn't find anything wrong with it. So they kept looking. Many hundreds of dollars later, they say I can come pick it up. Unfortunately for me, I have no way of getting there until tomorrow. Additionally, it has been pouring rain so I haven't even bicycled anywhere. I'm not the only one who is irritated. The dogs are pretty fed up with sitting around the house all day.

Tomorrow the SKoz-Mobile and I will be reunited. And hopefully it'll run for more than a month this time.

El alborotador

Coal is the younger of the two dogs. He is a troublemaker. His hobbies include, eating food off the counter, picking tissues out of the trash and terrorizing his older brother by putting Buck's entire head in his noisy mouth.

About a month ago we noticed that Coal's tags were gone. He had his collar on, but the two jiggly tags were no where to be found.

How curious, we thought. We even joked about Coal throwing his own tags away because he knows he is so naughty, he wouldn't want to be caught doing whatever bad thing he was doing!

So today when Jon sent me a text messaging saying, "You'll never guess where I found Coal's tags." I immediately said, "In the compost?" and I was right! Haha!

He's such a little stinker.

Autolavado

My car is filthy from going all winter without washing it. But... who am I kidding? It hasn't been washed in probably two years.

Today I tried to take it to the only car wash I know of in the area. There was a line. I guess everyone's car is dirty in this sort of weather.

Waiting patiently behind three other cars, looking around, I noticed some sort of sticker on the door to the booth where the car wash attendant sits. It was an anti Obama and Biden sticker. I was not so much shocked as I was enraged. I could not and would not support a business that so blatantly displays their idiotic/misguided/erroneous political views. Why couldn't the business just present itself as politically neutral? Especially in this little pocket of Blue in a vastly Red state.

I really wanted a clean car...

But instead, I got out of line, I drove away with my car still covered in mud and sand. And that is how it will stay.

Fuera de temporada

Last off season I vowed to not travel as much, or at all, during the fall off season. Well, so much for that.

The spa officially closes on October 29, and stays closed until November 24. I am visiting 4 major cities between now and then.

Denver: to visit Mikey. Monica is flying in from D.C. and Jay is flying in from Seattle. It should be a fun little reunion.

San Francisco: Jon and I are flying to SF for his friend Brian's wedding. It is a black tie event. I need to buy some shoes, all I own are flip flops.

Seattle: Jon and I are driving to Seattle to see my family. He's never been to Seattle, so it will be fun. And then we're flying out of Seattle to see his family in...

Boston: Jon is from Boston and his family is still there. We will celebrate Thanksgiving with them this year.

The day after Thanksgiving we fly back to Seattle, then the following day we will drive back to Jackson.

So again, so much for not traveling.

Los perros

Until moving to Wyoming, I never spent much time with dogs. But here, it seems as if everyone has a dog. At first, this was difficult for me. But now I live with two dogs and I love it and I can't believe I didn't start loving dogs sooner.



This is Coal. He is a big dopey-faced baby. He thinks I'm his mommy and I love the crap out of him even though sometimes he is bad.


This is Buck. He is magestic and poses for photographs. It's his birthday today and he is 8 years old. We love him, he is smart and handsome!

El verano

My first summer in Jackson is almost over. I've done tons of new activities and bought some new toys. I've been rock climbing, mountain biking, canoeing, rafting, road biking, hiking, whitewater kayaking, and soon to have been backpacking.

I bought a mountain bike! I had never mountain biked before this summer and I absolutely love it. It's something Jon and I do together. We bring the dogs and go out for an hour or so before we have to go to work. It's perfect.

I am going to be purchasing a whitewater kayak soon. I went out with my boss one day on the river. I flipped over and it was awesome.

Jon and I have Monday and Tuesday off so we're going to do a little overnight backpacking trip in the Jedediah Smith Wilderness. It's convenient because it's only fifteen minutes from the house. The doggies get to come too since it is not part of the national park.

Una curiosa experiencia

I moved to Jackson without any job prospects whatsoever. When I got here I went and applied in person for a lot of jobs, I was ready to take any job that came up. I felt lucky when the local temp agency called me wanting me to work for a sheepskin and leather company near the town square. They were going to pay me $10/hour to process online orders and phone orders for a company selling items I would never want to own or wear myself. But that didn't matter, I had a job and I was happy! Things were coming together.

About a week before Christmas, I was offered a job in a spa in one of the hotels in the village (where the ski resort is). This job was way more my style than the sheepskin company. Plus, it was for a bigger, legitimate, well-established company that I could trust was going to pay me on time, who pays their taxes, etc.

By this time I was doing the payroll and bookkeeping for the leather company, and they had some pretty sketchy business practices that I did not feel very comfortable being a part of.

I took the spa job, I started on December 27. It was so busy, trying to learn the job with so many people coming and going, checking in, trying to pay for their massages. It was hard!

After a few weeks of trying to work for both the spa and the leather company, I was feeling pretty burnt out. It was then that things at the sheepskin store started to get really sketchy. The owner had no money to pay people back for returned items that were arriving in the mail each day. More and more angry people were calling, trying to get their money back. They would change the tags on the jackets to say the size was different than the actual size, then ship it to the customer anyway, even though they knew it wouldn't fit. They were cutting out the "Made in China" tags on their products and claiming everything was made in the U.S. All sorts of bad stuff. At that point I left. I couldn't associate with a company who practices business in that way.

For months I tried to retrieve my final paycheck but the owner wouldn't pay me. He said he didn't have the money. He blamed me for things I didn't do, threatened me and swore at me when I tried to ask him for my paycheck. I told him I would not tolerate that sort of treatment and that I would take the matter up elsewhere. My boss at the spa advised me to contact the Wyoming Department of Labor Services. I did this, thinking nothing would actually come of it. Weeks passed and I didn't hear from anyone, then one day a check showed up in the mail. Hah! I was shocked. I never thought I would get that money that I worked for.

The leather store is liquidating their assets and closing the store. A week or so ago, my coworker, Kathleen, showed me an article in the paper. Apparently my old boss at the leather store had died of a pulmonary embolism. He was not a nice person, and not an honest business owner in any way. But it is still kind of a sad end to the story, I guess.

Trabajo a trabajo

Turns out working two jobs takes up a lot of time. Especially when one of the jobs you can't do during the hours of 7AM to 5PM and the other job is usually from 12PM to 7PM or so. That makes days off especially important.

However, I'm now so used to being at work that on my days off I feel at a loss for something to do. Which usually ends up with me going to my baking job for a few hours at least.

My full time job is at the spa. I started back in December and I am still here. I like working here, it is a good job. I am pretty good at it now, too.

My other job is baking for a local cafe in town. It is called JH Organics. I go in to bake in the evenings. They are pretty flexible, they let me make whatever I think would be tasty. It is all gluten free and dairy free. Some items I make are vegan. It doesn't pay much but I enjoy it. Today they had someone request a special order of a dozen or something I made last week. That's pretty exciting!


The latest dish I made, that I am quite proud of, I call Marbled Rice Crispy Bars.

Más noticias

I suppose enough excitement has passed to deserve another post.

A few weeks back I interviewed for a job in a hotel in the village. The interview had gone great, I thought they would surely offer me the job. They said they'd call with offers on Monday, start training Wednesday, etc. Monday came and went, no call. No offer. I gave up hope after a few days and moved on. I was offered a temp job and took it, started the next day. I was thrilled to have work and also have something to do during the day.

Then yesterday I got a phone call from the women who had interviewed me. She said they had an opening at another hotel and wanted to see if I was still looking for work. I went after work that day and told the temp agency my last day at the temp job would be Friday. I am excited!

This weekend is Christmas and I will be spending it away from my family for the first time ever. Instead of being home in Everett, I will be heading to Alta, Utah to spend the weekend with my friend Sam and his family. I am looking forward to having time with a family, even though it's not my family. Alta is supposed to be nice, too. Sam wants me to learn to ski. We'll see about that. Hah.

Today is Katrina's birthday. She and I went out to dinner at a Thai restaurant in town. We always have the best time when we go out together. Guys dig us, apparently. Having it be her birthday doesn't hurt either.

Also, she got a new dog and now we have a dog in the apartment! She is cute. Kind of big, but cute and happy.