YES.

I love Youtube videos of ridiculously talented youngsters.  And now that I'm not quite a youngster anymore, I don't even feel that twinge of jealousy you get when someone your age is really really amazing at something.  Case in point: LeBron James is pretty much my age.  Jerk.
But this girl is 11, so I just think she's awesome.

Plans

When I graduated from Whitworth, I sort of hoped I'd never have to write another paper.  I am actually willing to admit that a large part of the reason why I studied theatre and math was the relative low number or writing assignments.  I procrastinate on writing papers because they terrify me, and then I always spend at least twice as long as everyone else on them.
So I'm a little bit nervous about grad school.
The biggest perk to my new job (aside from being an awesome job working with awesome people at an awesome place) is that I can go to school for free.  We really feel like I should take advantage of the opportunity, since it's a pretty amazing one.  And Whitworth offers a program that relates to higher ed, a M.Ed. in Administrative Leadership.  If I take the GRE like yesterday and apply really soon I could even start in the Spring.
But I doubt that anyone will let me choreograph or graph equations for credit in my masters program.  It will be three years of getting home from work, reading, and writing papers.  Good thing I am married to Mr. Responsibility, or I'd probably never do it.  Also, the incentive for going right away is that, after four years at my job, I will have earned free grad school for Travis too (if he decides to go into education, business, or theology).  Ideally, I will finish before Travis starts.
Good thing God is bigger than my inability to start a paper.

Along for the ride

Travis takes fun very seriously.

I love being Travis' wife.  He is the best event planner, and is always coming up with new ideas for things to do.  I tend to fall asleep when I have down time, but Travis is all about leaving the house, going to new places, and not taking naps just because you can.
Also, I now have weekends off.  Evenings and weekends, actually, whenever I'm not traveling.  I haven't been home much on evenings and weekends since we got married.  This weekend, Travis and I went peach-picking in Greenbluff, took Sassy on a walk/run/hike on the hill behind Holmberg park, went to church (we are looking for a church home here- I really like First Pres), explored Manito park, and went grocery shopping together.  I didn't even take a nap today, because I wasn't bored or tired.  I feel like maybe a little bit of Travis' energy is finally rubbing off on me.  Actually, I feel like I've always been energetic, but I've been using it up working 60 hour weeks.  This new change of pace is delightful. 
However, still can't keep up with Sasquatch:

Yeah she's at the top of that hill.

Template

Because I blog a lot, my blog template is very important to me.  I really love mine (the dandelions in the corner are just like the ones on our wedding invitations/the beautiful mirror our friend made us for our wedding), but I am finding that it is super common and popular, and therefore maybe not worth sticking with in the long run.  What I really want is a custom template with actual pictures of actual places (and maybe dogs) I love.  I have no idea how to do this.  When I look online for blogger templates, all the designs I like have been downloaded hundreds, often thousands of times.  Still searching . . .

Something new

Thoughts on my first two weeks at new job:

• Having my own desk is great!  I love to organize the files and keep my purse and lunch in the drawer.  I have created a color-coded and alphabetized system for all the papers/maps/letters that randomly show up on my desk, and every time I file something it's a little victory.  
• I have never had a sedentary job before.  Past jobs have included: ropes course instructor, camp counselor, Curves trainer, dance instructor, touring actor, and shoe fitter.  Up and down and all around, basically.  But now I go to work and sit at my desk, then go to meetings and sit, then go back to my desk and sit some more.  I treasure the infrequent opportunities to run an errand (which is why I take paperwork everywhere instead of using inter-campus mail, and why everyone in HR and payroll knows me), and even the hour a day I'm on my feet giving a presentation.  Also, there is food in the office every day, and it's never healthy food.  I have been thinking about joining a gym so I can take aerobics classes, but it's hard to justify when we know that soon I'll be out of town, and it'll continue until Thanksgiving.  Travis has suggested I try running, since it's free and you can do it any time.  I'm tempted to try it, until I run around the yard with Sasquatch for 3 minutes and remember that would be a terrible, terrible idea.  
• I want to know how to do everything right now.  It was a point of pride at Capezio that I knew I could answer just about any question we came across in the store, from shipping and receiving to ballroom shoes.  It feels good to be competent and capable.  It is humbling to be the one with a lot to learn, and I am often afraid of over-stepping my bounds and saying something wrong to a student or parent.  It's a fine line to project confidence when needed, and be willing to ask for help when needed too.
• It's so nice to be able to eat lunch outside every day.  In Texas I would not have done this in August, unless I had time to shower and change afterward.  I usually eat at the picnic tables in front of the auditorium, but I'm not sure what I'll do when campus is full of students in a few weeks.  I'm thinking of bringing a picnic blanket and keeping it in my desk drawer so I can sit on the grass behind the little house where I work.
• I can't wait for everyone to come back to campus!  Most professors working and travel off campus during the summer, so I have only seen a few of the professors I was close with.  And campus is just so full of life when it's over-run with students.  Fall was always my favorite time of year there, so I'm bummed I'll be gone for much of it, but excited for the times when I will be there.  And I'm looking forward to becoming an accomplished traveler, a la George Clooney in Up in the Air.  I'm going to learn to put on my belt so fast, just like he does. 

Scaredy cat

It's open knowledge that I have never been much of an animal person, never really liked dogs, and never wanted to own one.  Now that I have a dog, and I am completely in love with her, I don't feel guilty about this.  But I do feel worried sometimes that I'll mess her up, since I have no idea what I'm doing.  
And now it's official: Sasquatch, 11 months old, is afraid of just about everything.  Here is a partial list:

• machinery noises
• riding in trucks
• people walking up to her
• people just standing there
• wind/rain/lightning
• fireworks
• stairs

We have no idea what we did to make her such a scaredy cat.  She is well-trained and pleasant in every other way.  But Travis will walk in the house, and the first 10 seconds are sheer panic until she remembers that "oh, that's the person I try to climb in bed with every night."  The fur on her back sticks straight up, her tail goes between her legs, she runs backward, and worst of all she barks.  The most grievous instance of "scared Sasquatch behaves badly" was last month when my mom flew to Austin to drive north with me.  The night before we left, Sasquatch wouldn't go anywhere near my mom without completely losing it.  Because my mom is super scary.
And today I have been trying to get her to play with me outside, but she refuses to do anything but sit by the door, I assume because it's windy.  I try to be brave.  I even spent an entire summer doing one thing that scared me every day.  But I feel like this wimpy dog must be picking up on some fear in me and projecting it to the world.  At least if I were a dog, I would be afraid of actual scary things, like:

•  aggressive dogs who like to bite
• eating sharp and/or poisonous things
• getting hit by a car
• getting lost.

If only she were afraid of these things.  Well, at least she's beautiful.

Good/Bad/Ugly

I had a hip hop student the past two years who would always start her turn at share time with "I have good news and bad news: which do you want first?"  I always picked the bad news first, because it's better to end things on a lighter note, but usually they were both just plain old news and one wasn't particularly worse than the other.  An example:  "The bad news is that my brother's birthday is next week.  The good news is that we are learning about African animals in school."  Oh did I mention she's six?
By the end of the year, a half dozen students followed this model for their share time, which was funny but took up a lot of time in which we could have been learning the two break dancing stalls I can do.  Now, it's my turn.
We'll start with the bad news first:
I had a monster migraine today.  I'm sure I've had migraines this bad before, but it's hard to imagine when you're in the middle of it.  How is is possible that my brain didn't just completely shut down from the pain?  Aren't you supposed to go into shock or something?  Maybe my body doesn't have the usual self-preservation mechanisms.  Anyway, it was about 6 hours before I started feeling any relief, and there's absolutely nothing good I can say about those six hours, so I won't try.  Needless to say I went home sick from work, which was double lame because 1) I really wanted to be there and 2) I had to drive home in pain.  I am now trying to eat some soda crackers- my first food since a whole day spent vomiting, and they seem to be settling okay.  I am also trying not to over analyze the last 24 hours, because there's really nothing I ate that I don't eat on a regular basis, I got enough sleep, and a person could go crazy trying to figure out what they did wrong all the time.  I finally fell asleep around 2 pm and woke up feeling a lot better (and extremely grateful for relief) around 3 pm.
Good news!
After all of that, I was able to make an appointment to view the red corner house that became my dream home this weekend.  It was a little nerve-wracking viewing it alone, but now that I've seen the inside I know Travis is going to love it.  There is so much storage!  A 2-car garage!  A fenced yard for Sasquatch!  A fully finished basement with 3rd bedroom!  A dishwasher!  Tomorrow I am going to call about the logistics of Travis applying without actually being here yet, and hopefully we'll be able to get our application in before anyone else does.
Ugly:
Please pray for the moving van that Travis is currently driving across the country, and for the fearless passengers.  Travis and Sasquatch are beautiful, but the trip itself is a beast and made all the more difficult by truck/trailer/dog.  I can't wait to have them here as soon as Thursday night!

Good call

Airplane dog

My new job is awesome.  Living in our Phil and Katie's basement is awesome.  Seeing good friends is awesome.  But being away from Travis and Sasquatch?  Not awesome.  We have been apart for 13 days (totally not counting), and it will be another 4 days until they arrive. Because you know what?  It takes a long time to drive from Austin to Spokane!  It took my mom and I four days with some extensive sightseeing stops on the third day.  But Travis is driving up in a 26-foot truck with a trailer on the back, so I think even without the sightseeing, they are going to take longer than we did.  I wonder if this would be faster . . .

I am trying not to have too much anxiety or guilt about Travis making the trip alone, since we are commanded not to worry, and if anyone on the planet can handle a crazy solo trip like this (plus dog) it's Travis.

And now, for a photo montage of the daring duo (in the exact order in which the pictures were taken):

Travel Notes: Day 2

WHAT ARE YOU?!

Day 2: Trinidad, CO to Rock Springs, WY.  Sunny and 95 in Denver, black skies and lightning storms in Wyoming.  iPod wouldn't turn on for hours, which was sad, because it was cool and stormy so we had the windows up anyway (oh, by the way, no AC).  But then Travis (via phone) helped me fix it, and we listened to the rest of Prince Caspian and part of Dawn Treader.

I also spent much of the afternoon puzzling over the miles and miles of fences along I-80 in Wyoming.  They were just fence sections, so they couldn't keep anything out, but someone obviously went to a lot of trouble to put them up and maintain them.  Our best theory at the time, based on the signs we read at a rest stop, was something about keeping some ground exposed during the winter so the lovely wildlife could forage for food.  We were way off.  These are snow drift fences, meant to save money and time clearing snow from the roads.  But I bet the lovely wildlife enjoy the fences as well.

Wild cows?

Travel Notes: Day 1

Day 1: Austin, TX to Trinidad, CO.  Long, hot (102 degrees, no AC), sometimes beautiful (New Mexico grasslands, I'm talking to you).  Listened to The Lion, Witch, and the Wardrobe, and half of Prince Caspian.  Liked the kids and the badgers, disliked insincere-ringmaster Aslan.  Mom and I made full use of a spray bottle with attached fan, as well as a cooler full of ice.  We tried putting towels in the cooler of ice, but this didn't actually make them as cold as you'd think. See more pictures of our trip here!

Texas does not have a lot of rest stops.  Instead they have picnic areas, which really means "you can pull over but you can't go to the bathroom here."  But some of the rest stops that do have bathrooms also have little museums and are super beautiful and air-conditioned. 

Tree full of turkey vultures.  These guys are huge and like raw meat.  Good thing I took that awesome accidental scenic route an hour out of the way!

Texas is huge!  But mom is still smiling, which is a credit to her character and ingenuity in road trip cool-down methods.

Young Me/ Now Me

Here's a great blog where they post pictures of people recreating old pictures of themselves.  It's even better than it sounds.  Case in point:

I had wanted to take a photo of my son standing on my hand just the way I had stood on my dad’s hand as a baby. My wife snapped the photo and we were amazed at how much I resembled my dad in pose in that 40 year time warp. I will note that although my dad was holding me up in the air outside along the side of a road, I was holding my son, Warren, over a soft bed!

Zedonk!

Look at this sweet baby:

Awesomely, this zedonk is named Pippi Longstocking

 Zebra dad, donkey mom.  Apparently, zedonkeys can't breed, which is just so sad.  Here is another picture:

I don't know this little guy's name.  Who else famously wore striped leggings?  The Cat in the Hat?

Another installment of

Yikes/Yipee!
Here we go:

Yipee!  I am done teaching.  Done choreographing.  Done at the studio, and done with everything job-related in Austin.  Two of the four dances went very well, and the other two were, let's be honest, a bit of a mess.  I really try to choreograph dances that will challenge the dancers even in the spring, when they will be performing them at competitions and in recital.  But teaching a dance that is, by design, too hard now, all in two hours, can be a disaster for the poor dancers.  You should have seen their poor glazed-over expressions.  Still, this falls into the Yipee category because they are taught and done, and another teacher will be able to figure out which parts are too hard and tone them down. 

Yikes!  Travis went to his family's house to change my transmission fluid, and I stayed behind because my head was hurting again.  It's been off and on.  Yesterday was pretty bad, and it reminded me of all those teaching days from this past year when I would get a migraine right as I started teaching, then have to deal with the music and wrangle the students and keep a smile on my face for the next 5 hours.  I really do think that the music is part of what triggers it, or at least doesn't help once it starts. 

Yipee!  This is a little yipee because I will not be teaching in Spokane, and even though I will miss it, it may be a change that my head needs.

Yikes! But yesterday, I did have to teach, and then was head-achy through our family party, Danielle's birthday party, and our goodbye reception at church this morning

Yipee!  All of which were really wonderful!  To my surprise, I didn't full-on cry once, though there were moments it was close.  It was especially close this morning at church when some of our friends and students got up to share memories of Travis and me.  They even made a circle around us and prayed for us (and okay I guess I cried a little bit, but you would too).  I loved hearing students, staff, and parents express that they would miss Travis' big heart and passion for the kids.  Travis even gave an awesome little goodbye talk about how important the youth are in the church, how much God values them, and how much they can do if they are willing.  I am so lucky to be married to this guy, and already so eager to come back and visit.

Yikes!  Watched The Brothers Bloom instead of packing. 

Yipee!  It was good.

Goodnight from the Huskissons!

p.s. Sasquatch is a noisy dreamer.  She grunts and especially hiccups, and it is the sweetest thing in the world.

Learning is NOT always fun

New things I've learned this week:

1. Dogs can have allergies
2. Allergies can cause eye and ear infections
3. Dogs can also need root canals
4. All of the above are expensive to treat, if you don't have health insurance
5. Guess who doesn't have health insurance?  Dogs. Specifically, my dog.

AND in the time is took me to write this, Sasquatch took off with both kitchen towels.  Good times in puppy land.

Remember when you looked like this, puppy?

Currently choreographing

17 Years by Ratatat

•  modern duet with 9 crates the dancers stack and push and move around.  It's very industrial but playful. 

Home by Marc Brousssard

• four little girls in workman jumpsuits with push-brooms.  bluesy jazz.  Man is it hard to find jumpsuits in children's sizes that don't say "correctional facility" on the back.

Game On by Pitbull

• latin/pumped-up-for-the-game jazz.  I'm trying to trick this out so my girls can win at competition, but it goes against my very nature. 

Good Vibrations Glee Cast Version

• this is supposed to be an old-school hip-hop duet for an 8 and 9-year old.  I am praying for inspiration like my mom said to do.

All are in progress (okay, Good Vibrations has not been started), all due by 9am Saturday morning.  I am feeling overwhelmed, but excited that I am four dances away from being done with work in Austin and starting my new job at Whitworth! 

Losing it

Terrible headache last night.  I have two kinds of really bad headaches: those during which I keep my cool, and those that turn me into a weepy mess.  Over the course of the past year, with near-constant migraines, I got better and better at keeping my cool.  Migraines that would have had me sobbing in the dark five years ago, skipping class even though I knew I'd lose 4% of my grade, were now my companion all the time, and I couldn't just lie in the dark all the time.  So with God's energy (because I had none), I dress-rehearsed shows, fit pointe shoes, taught dance to dozens of 5-year-olds, and led my d goup, and most of the time I did these things without falling apart.  I found it was helpful to 1) cut out any unnecessary activity, even if I really loved it (goodbye dance company, blogging) and 2) be really honest with the people around me that I was in pain.  Poor Travis had to hear it every day, but at least I wasn't keeping it to myself and then pouring it out in tears once a week. 
About 3 months ago, all this changed.  I finished the slow process of going off all my preventative medications (under the guidance of my favorite neurologist), cut out a few foods that were against my migraine diet but I'd been sneaking anyway (goodbye, pickles, you gave flavor to everything . . .), and received a huge gift from God: less migraines.  Far less.  Over the course of the past 3 months, I've had maybe 10 headaches that I'd describe as real migraines.  I've observed that some of them have been more severe and lasted longer than this past year- they fit the traditional model for my headaches up until this year, though, and the frequency fits too.  I'm really optimistic that I'm back to being a 4 migraine a month kind of girl (down from 20-25).  There has been lots of praising God in our household, and I feel like myself again.
However, when I do get a migraine now, or three in a row like I've had the last three days, it's very easy for me to lose my cool.  I forget the peace that God offers me and skip straight to being terrified that the constant pain is back.  The pain is mixed with anxiousness and regret and uncertainty, and it makes it a lot harder to fall asleep (if I'm in the position to do so) or go about my day (if I have to). 
This morning I woke up almost pain free (I took medicine, of course- my headaches take a long time go away on their own), with a very sore neck, but relaxed eyes, which is a good sign that it won't be back soon.  Migraine sleep isn't very refreshing, but I do feel refreshed by the clarity the morning brings.  Wherever I go, even if it's back into migraine-shadow, God is with me.

Travis quotes

After the Rangers game tonight, I turned on Make It or Break It, the cheesiest/best/only show about gymnastics.
Travis: I hate this show
Me: You hate this show?
Travis: Yes.  This show makes me hate people.
Me: Does it make you hate me?
Travis: No . . . but I wish there was another character on this show . . . who was an assassin.

Big mistakes

1) Say Yes to the Dress is a tv show is about a bridal store.  They always talk about how it's very important to pin down a budget with a bride, and only let her try on dresses within her budget.  Otherwise, she might try on and fall in love with something that's completely out of her price range, and then be heartbroken and unhappy in any other dress.  I've just committed the choreography equivalent of this error.  I have been trying for weeks to find the perfect song for a latin jazz dance I'm setting on my girls on Saturday.  NOTHING is right.  Not enough pop, not enough latin, not enough to dance to, not appropriate for 12-year-olds . . . And I finally fell in love with a song.  However, upon translation I realize that it is about a hotel-room tryst, and way into the realm of inappropriate for 12-year-olds.  On the one hand, they might not translate it.  On the other hand, there is an English-language version that lays it out pretty clearly.  Give a girl a break, Shakira!
2) I was about to go pick up props for my dances, then go to the studio and choreograph.  There is SO MUCH to be done.  But I walk outside and it starts storming.  Texas-style.  Which means there is no going anywhere unless you absolutely have to.  So I decided that I need to at least do something else productive.  The house needs to be mostly cleaned and packed by next Monday.  The logical place to start was un-folded laundry.  So I pulled it all out.  All of the unfolded laundry in the house.  And you know what?  It won't even fit on our couch.  We're looking at HOURS of laundry folding here, with more in the washer and dryer.

It's go time.

Also, if you know of a song that sounds exactly like "Lo Hecho Esta Hecho"/ "Did It Again," but isn't that song, let me know . . . 

Compare and Contrast, part 1

Washington

Now that we are saying goodbye to Texas, I am thinking a lot about it, about what I love here, and about how Washington will be different.  I remember feeling some culture shock when we first moved here two years ago.  It was slight, because Austin is basically Portland in the middle of Texas.  But it was definitely there.  Here are some things I've noticed that are not the same in Washington (at least the parts I've lived in) and Texas (the part I've lived in):

TREES

There are big, beautiful trees in Austin.  Mostly oak, cedar, walnut, pecan, and mesquite.  Many of them flower in spring and early summer, turning the city a dozen shades of pink.  Then many of them change colors in fall, and look barren in winter and early spring.  During migration periods, they are so full of tropical-sounding birds that you can barely see the tree behind the birds, and parking under a tree is hazardous.  They give everyone allergies, even a girl from the forest who's never had allergies in her life, and especially her poor husband.

In Washington, the trees make Texas trees look like shrubs.  Their branches stretch out toward the ground rather than twisting up to the sun, and they are tangled with underbrush that grows so thick you can't walk between them.  They are mostly evergreens and maple, and they keep the landscape green even in the middle of winter.  They make up actual forests, and cast everything in shade.

GEOGRAPHY
Texas is flat.  We live in the heart of the Texas hill country, and there are definitely hills.  Many of them are even called mountains.  Mount Bonnell, in west-central Austin, is a quaint 780 feet above sea level.  The highest peak in Austin is the flat plateau where we live and I work, at 1100 feet.  There is a real mountain in West Texas, but it looks more like something out of a John Wayne movie than a winter wonderland.  This is, after all West Texas, the actual Wild West.

Guadalupe Peak, TX

Washington, on the other hand, is like God took a lump of play dough, started to flatten it out with all the different play utensils he could find, and then got distracted and left it a big, lumpy mess.  There are gorges and two mountain ranges and huge bodies of water that twist their way around the land.  The mountains don't rival Colorado, say, but the difference is that you can go from the ocean to a snow-covered mountain in just a few hours. 

Mt. Rainier, WA

LOTR Commentary, Part 2 (this movie is HOW long?!)

It's dark out now. Watching the Return of the King without Travis here is looking like a worse and worse idea. Did I mention I scare easily? And I totally forgot about the whole paths of the dead thing, which I did not remember at all when I was reading the books. So: Sasquatch and I have closed all the blinds and checked the locks. Luckily she is a pro barker with a fierce protective streak.
Commentary continued:
That Gollum is such a jerk! He threw away the lembas, and convinced Frodo that Sam is his enemy! Not in the book. The steward of Gondor is a jerk too, telling Faromir he preferred his brother. That is in the book.
On the other hand, Theoden, king of Rohan, is great. I liked him in the book, and in the movie. I love how Legolas and Gimli ride together on a horse. I bet that when Tolkien was writing the books, and he decided to have them ride everywhere together, he had no idea how cute it would look on film.
Sometimes I like to think about this: if the people I know were living in New Zealand when the LOTR movies were filmed, what would they be cast as? Travis could be a human. I would probably be a hobbit. And Sasquatch would be an oliphant, obviously.

See the resemblance?
Actually, she could be Shadowfax, Gandalf's horse, because Shadowfax is fast, loyal, and beautiful.
Gandalf just knocked out Lord Denethor, the steward of Gondor, because he was being chicken. It was awesome!
Halfway there! I just switched to disk 2, and went to put disc 1 in its Netflix return envelope to send back. The only problem: there's a huge bite taken out of the middle of the envelope. I wonder who did that?
If we are only now getting to the giant spider, then what did Frodo and Sam do for all of the second movie? Fall down a lot? That's probably it. It's getting close now. Time to turn the volume down. It's the best way I know to make an intense scene a little less scary.
Sam found the lembas bread! Now he just has to find/rescue Frodo. Not a big deal.
Sam is fighting Shelob, the spider. I have given up sitting on the big couch, which Sasquatch is not aloud to sit on, and gone to sit next to her on the smaller couch (which is fair game for puppies when covered by the green blankets).
Here comes the king of the Nazgul. He fights with a mace. Time to defeat him, Eowyn and Charlie from LOST. Eowyn just said "I am no man." After the King of the Nazgul was all "No man can kill me." In the words of my sistas, the Spice Girls, GIRL POWER.
If someone ever says to me, "I hold your oath fulfilled. Go. Be at peace," I will know that something big just went down, even if I'm having short-term memory loss.
Mordor looks way scarier in the movie than I pictured it when I was reading. I guess that's the benefit of not watching scary things: my brain doesn't go there automatically. I was picturing West Texas, maybe, with a few less cacti (though definitely still cacti), and a few more orcs.
Now my favorite thing from the books is going to happen. Sweet Eowyn and even sweeter Faromir are going to fall in love. I hope she doesn't stay angsty too long. They are going to be so happy together! Also, the music that plays around Eowyn reminds me of Riverdance.
Sam's big speech! "I can't carry it for you, but I can carry you!" Don't you just want to chant "RUDY. RUDY"?
And then a bunch of eagles randomly show up. I forgot about the talking Eagles. I hope they at least don't talk in the movie. WHAT?! They just rescued Frodo and Sam. Those Eagles are HUGE. Unnecessary, Peter Jackson.
And now everything's peachy. Even the lighting is peachy. Thank you for keeping me and Sassy company during the scary parts, blog. I don't think we'll need you for all ten endings.