Could you blame us?

Oh, puleez, like if you saw this FINE automobile sitting outside at bartime unattended, you wouldn't want to crawl all over it and take pictures too.

*POP!*

Okay, remember those little monkey stuffed animals that they made in the '80's? They had soft furry bodies and hard plastic hands and faces and their mouths were in a weird little "O" shape so they could suck their thumb? Man, I just totally want him to jam his thumb in there when he's makin' that face. If I'd have looked over and seen him looking like that I would have done it myself!

Ugh...SO Boulder

The only other place that a hippy drum circle of this magnitude and enthusiasm could occur is in San Francisco (ok, maybe Madison too). Seriously though, this gang had it all: shirtless "I'm too sexy" pony-tail guy, Lady of Long Armpit Hair doing the classic 'hippie twirl', even the corporate guy who just can't help 'feeling the energy'. Boulder is like Madison except that the hippies are all trustafarians who drive Blazers and the real estate is three times as expensive. Screw that....my hippies better be broke and spanging on a corner...Naw, hippies are alright though. Living in Chicago was kind of strange after growing up in Madison. I don't think there is a single white boy dready in the entire metropolis (not that that's a bad thing). Honestly I think there might be some kind of dead hippie dumping ground somewhere just outside the city limits...oh, the horror...the ground littered with hempen jewelry and forlorn little misshapen hackeysacks; all those patchquilted pant legs jutting up into the air...*shudder*

Rocky Mountain National Park

Mark and I recently returned from a trip to Boulder, Colorado to visit his sister and meet up with the glorious members of Red Seven, my teammates from Americorps*NCCC. Thursday we took a drive up to the top of Rocky Mountain National Park and ascended 4,000 feet in less than an hour, resulting in some serious altitude related nauseau and giddiness. It dropped about 25 degrees and rained much of the last part of the drive so Laura and I froze our faces off in the back of the jeep. We emerged at the top with a look that could charitably be called 'windswept' but was more accurately 'crackhead in a windtunnel'. However, the view at the top was worth it.

I'm too sexy for my commute

So, I'm walking home from work and talking to Miranda on the phone. I had just emerged from a very self-confidence crushing dressing room experience at Urban Outfitters where the Maxwell Street days sale had been occurring. Everything there seemed to be much to small and full of superfluous and complicated snaps and ties and bows and sparkles which made me look like some kind of tightly cased sausage. Following this humiliation, however, I spotted a crisp dollar bill on the sidewalk outside a coffeeshop and bent down to snatch it up. Half-way down it dawned on me that there was probably going to be poo smeared on the other side of it or at the last moment it would be yanked away by the fishing line upon which it was tied and I would be one embarrassed little kielbasa. Thankfully this was not the case, and the dollar was MINE! Things are looking up now, and as I near my house, I almost don't care that I look like a schlub. My hair is in its most unflattering half ponytail with side wings coming down, I've got no makeup and 'hangover' written all over my puffy and (now) sweating face. Miranda and I discuss how hot it is and our weekend plans when a late 20's non-descript guy who had been walking on the other side of the streed approaches and says something about 'sorry to interrupt' and 'I'm on a mission to get a random woman to make out with me' and 'would you be down with that' and 'spontaneity' (!!!!!) Wha?! I declined, politely, saying that I had a boyfriend, but again.....Wha?! Are my powers of seduction stronger than I originally thought? Does this guy go around asking many women this question or had he admired me from afar and chosen the most ballsy pickup line in history hoping that I would be helpless to resist the romantic whimsy of the request? (I prefer to think it was my irresistible animal magnetism)

Skinny puppies

My cousin Alex rescued these three little boxer pups from a shady breeder. They were so skinny and lethargic but just the sweetest little things. Two of them seem to be doing pretty well after a week or so of antibiotics and fluids and lots of chicken broth and Alex is in the process of reporting this jerk to the USDA. Anybody interested in buying one once they are fattened up and made healthy, let me know...they are all looking for good homes. And be very careful about where you buy your animals...many of these places are puppy mills which overbreed the parent dogs and mistreat the puppies. Dogs are more than just expensive accessories and there are many excellent animals at your local pound.

Bike Tour

This day we decided to take a cruise around the neighborhood on our bikes. There is a really nice path going from Sayner to Boulder Junction and we went about 10 miles along it. We stopped for ice cream and found little secret lakes and streams. We swam in Crystal lake during a rain storm and Carter, aka The Beastmaster, caught a pine snake which I then had to carry back in my backpack. Originally he said that he would just ride his bike the 5 miles home dangling the squirmy biting reptile by the tip of the tail but that idea got ixnayed real fast.

The Stump Dump

Isn't she a beauty? The Stump Dump is an annual event held in St. Germain where local men dress in drag and lip-synch songs. My personal favorite of the pageant was Nancy Sinatra singing 'These boots are made for Walkin' but really all of them were so horrendously magnificent that I don't know how I would have chosen a winner. I'll tell you what though, these guys would get eaten alive at El Gato Negro!

In Sayner, the better

Yesterday I returned from a glorious week in Sayner, Wisconsin at my Aunt Katie and Uncle Mike's cabin. It was fantastic and so nostalgic for me to finally return to da Nort' woods of my yute, doncha know. Just down the street from their place was the tiny little bar that my family and I would make a pilgrimage to every spring...this was a very special bar, you see. From the animal farm out back they would bring in the litter of bear cubs. Drop twenty-five cents into a little metal box at the door and you could go into this room and play with the little bears for as long as you liked. One year, a bear sucked on my sister's chin for half an hour, leaving a bright purple hickey for days afterwards. Even hearing the words Minocqua, Tomahawk, Jim Pecks, and Webber's inspire the fondest memories of my childhood. Naturally, I embraced my experience fully: drinking cans of Milwaukee's Best Light, smelling of campfire and bugspray, laying in the sun on cheap lawnchairs and eating nary a green vegetable the entire week. No, no...in da' Nort woods they don't have green vegetables...maybe you might put a little iceburg lettuce on your whitebread and turkey sandwhich but HERE we eat chargrilled meats and fish caught fresh from the lake and only salads containing mayonaise and ham chunks, damnit!

Shout Outs...

So after many, many many hours of traveling, Jo and I have made it home safe and sound. Sorry I have been slacking a bit on the blogging but the last week really flew. I will be messing around with my pictures in the next few days and will blog some more stuff, I promise. Also, I plan on keeping this thing going, since I do tend to take at least one fabulous trip a year and dangit my regular life is pretty exciting sometimes too! Anyways, I just wanted to use this time to thank a few of the people who made this trip possible:

Joel and Karon: Thank you SO much. You guys were incredibly generous to open your home away from home to me and I hope that I was half the guest that you were the host.
Claire and Derek: Thanks for being my tour guides, travel buddies, roomates, etc.
Kiki and Friends: Thank you for showing us around...Jo and I had a fantastic time and you really showed us a side of Jakarta that we would have sadly missed otherwise...keep in touch and come to Chicago!!!
Mark: Thanks for airport transportation and plant watering while I was gone, babe!
Mom and Dad: Thanks for raisin' me right...

Ok, before I get carried away...thanks for reading my blog and commenting, it made me feel really special to know that peole back home were thinking about me. Come out to the Union tonight (Thursday) for afro-beat music on the terrace at 9pm and to sample some of the weird buffet of Indonesian treats that I brought back with me.

Gnnnuaahrf!

It's 5:30 am. I am NOT listening to Jo again when we are out and I say "its time to to go home, Jo" like a responsible person and she says "NO! MORE BEER! You can sleep on the plane!" All that thinking just equals sore heads and crabby attitudes in the morning. uff. off we go.

Tevin Campbell? Seriously?!

So, ever since seeing Lost in Translation, I have wanted to go and sing Karaoke in a place like the one in that movie...the whole belting out "Its not unusual" in front of a BAR full of strangers always seemed a little intimidating and I figured a private room might be the way to go. Last night, my dream was realized. We met Kiki and her friends and all went to Picnic to sing our hearts out. The really surreal moment, however, came when I realized that I was chillin' out with ten super hip Indonesian cats all belting out Tevin Campbell's 1992 hit "Can we Talk"....they ALL KNEW THE WORDS! Kristy and I used to jam out to that tape when we were in grade school, for Gods sake! It was an awesome time: beer bottles were broken, air guitars played, falsettos cracked, and heads banged...we even drank "jungle juice" out of a black plastic bag! Kiki is the best!

Go Persija!!

Yesterday we went to a local soccer game which was populated almost entirely by 7-12 year old boys. We were the ONLY white people in the stadium and probably among a 15 percent minority of people over 18 years old. Persija, the home team, won 2-0 and the crowd was wildly singing and chanting the whole time. The coolest thing, though, were the mobs of kids wanting to have us take their picture afterwards and how they all swarmed willy-nilly on the roof of every car to ride to and from the game. Literally 20 little kids would be clinging to every available surface: the roof, the hood, holding onto the back, miraculously sticking to the sides; playing drums and cymbals and jumping off to dance and beg for cigarettes at every stoplight. Seeing a pile of little 9 year old Indonesian kids puffing on smokes while STANDING on the roof of a rickety van going 45 miles down the freeway was definitely one of those "only in Indonesia" moments.

Oh great, another breathtaking vista...

Here are Karon, Derek, Claire and Jo on the beach at Tanah Lot, the most photographed temple in Bali. It was an absolutely gorgeous place to watch the sunset.

Duh!

Ok, so I just realized that I had my blog set up to only allow comments from registered users, so I changed that. No excuses now, comment away!

Goa Gajah

In the meditation cave of Goa Gajah (Elephant Cave Temple), built in the 11th Century.

Don't Mind if I DO!

So what does one do when it rains for three days straight, ruining previously held ambitions of bicycling in the mountains and visiting elephant sanctuaries? Well, I think we all know the answer to that one...

Ulu Watu and the Kecak Dance

Bali is very famous for the many varieties of traditional dance and we did manage to catch a few of the most prominent ones, most notably the Kecak dance held every night at sunset in the temple of Ulu Watu. This was truly one of the most incredible experiences of my life and if the combination of gorgeous sunset...on a cliff overlooking the ocean...in a hindu temple...in Bali wasn't overwhelming in itself, you THEN have about 40 naked to the waist Indonesian men come in shaking their hips around and doing this crazy frenzied choral chanting stuff and waving their hands around and then there are dancers in big scary costumes setting bales of hay on fire and sending showers of sparks flying into the air and you could easily pee your pants as a result the sheer super ultra awesome-ness of the situation.

Unabashed Vanity

So we are now back in the fair city of jakarta and after three days of almost non-stop rain in Ubud, the smog and hot sun is a (mostly) welcome change. I can't believe that there is only 1 week left of my time here! Bali was beautiful and we met so many great people that made our stay there such fun. Here is a picture at Dreamland, an amazing little secluded beach popular with the surfing crowd South of Kuta. I know you can't see the beach but I picked this shot purely because of how dang cute I look, so you'll just have to imagine the beach part. Feel free to comment upon how attractive I am.

Ubud

Yarrr, I wish I could post pictures, but I will have to wait until we get back to Jakarta on Tuesday. Bali has improved dramatically since Kuta, which I liken to the Wisconsin Dells of Bali: Crowded with agressive hawkers and drunk, badly dressed, overweight tourists. Sanur, however, was beautiful and we found a great bungalow in a hotel that was completely empty. On my birthday we had Indian food and then we all came back to the hotel and had a very pre-teen-esque party (aside from the beer) where we: taught the guys who worked there how to play spoons and "one-up, one-down" and demonstrated (over and over and over again) the pure comedic hilarity that only a whoopee cushion can provide. The next night we caught the first game of the world cup at a local bar (which Costa Rica sadly but unsuprisingly lost) and had
foreign(h)ers teach us swearwords in their native language (always a joy!)

PERKELE!!!! (Finnish)
PERGI KAMU!!! (Bahasa, helpfully translated by the bartender as "Get away from my face" haha!)

Ninja bandit Manicurists!!

So we have made it safely to Bali and actually found a pretty awesome hotel down a quiet alley with rooms for 5$ per person per night WITH Air conditioning and breakfast included, a pool, and live performances of Balinese dances at night. It is nothing fancy...in fact, there is a very bizarre window from the bathroom to the rooms so that the bathroom is like an aquarium with curtains in front of it and the shower is just a bathtub with a spray hose which has some faulty wiring that causes you to be shocked (gently) if the lights are on when you take a shower (I'm not kidding!) Everything has been fine except that today I was swindled by some particularly relentless manicurist ninja bandit ladies. One of them begged me to just let her paint one nail for free so that I could show other people and send them to her...the next thing I knew, I was in a tiny back room of a shop with FIVE manicurists huddled around me painting little flowers all over my nails and toenails and me protesting the entire way. They then told me that they usually charge 40$ just for the toes and that they have starving children and no tourists come since the bombings and they need rice and please, Katee, you such nice lady, please you help us...so I threw some money at them (more than I should have, although no where NEAR 40$ which is ludicrous to even imagine that they would charge that b/c I had just gotten an HOUR long facial for 8.50$ and all they did was make little dot flowers that took about 3 seconds a piece) and ran out of there! Then I felt very manipulated was all upset with myself and was like "ugh, Bali sucks!", so I took a walk on the beach where I realized that A) It was only 10$ that I spent and B) The flowers did look kinda cute.

First Jakarta Party

The Embassy Playground party was really fun and the venue was amazing. Although we became hopelessly lost on the way there, Derek was our steadfast protector and guide and we made it eventually. We were then promptly introduced to Kiki's 600 closest friends who were all super friendly and very fun. These crazy sparkly bugmen on stilts seemed to be everywhere and made for many great photo ops.

Leaving for Bali

We will be in Bali for the next week, so I may not be posting for a bit and didn't want anyone to think that I am dead...I probably am not.

Embassy Playground

Today we picked up Jo from the airport! She arrived safe and sound and is settling in. Tonight we are supposed to meet up with Kiki and go to a big party called Embassy Playground which sounds amazing! $15 and there are tons of international DJ's and bands, including Rabbit in the Moon, who I haven't seen live in a million years.

Kiki!

So this is my Indonesian friend Kiki that I met on myspace. We went out for sushi and some drinks the other night and she is gonna be showing me the Jakarta nighlife while I am here. She is a graphic designer and all around adorable and fun gal whose fashion sense puts me to shame...although I might have to hit her with the one-two DOUBLE POW of my Borneo outfit and knock her socks off!

Es La Ultima Moda

Check out this sweet outfit my uncle picked up for me in Borneo. I am sooo gonna rock this when I get back to Madison.

Taman Mini Indonesia

This was a cool amusement park type place that had life-sized examples of all the different styles of architecture found in Indonesia and tons of different museums. Considering the fact that Derek and I paid admission to get in, admission to four museums, had lunch, and rode the cable cars all for under $5, I'd say that basically...it rocks here. There also was a little tiny monkey in a suit that carried around this little bucket for people to put money in. It was so cute I could cry.

Oh snap!

Them's fightin' words!

Little Orphan Dewi

Every Tuesday, Karon and Claire go to this woman's house who brings over a gang of kids from the local orphanage to play and swim in the pool for a couple of hours. I went with and it was crazy! Not only do I not know how to say the three most important things when dealing with large groups of children: "NO", "Come Here" and "STOP", but these little guys and gals were an especially wild bunch who were intent upon destroying everything in their wake. They were very cute though and here is a picture of them peering through the gate waiting for the car to pull up to take them home.

Sigfried and Roy was not far from MY mind

This was scary. Very very scary. Even though the tiger seemed to be half in the bag on valium, he totally snarled at the handler when Claire got her picture taken before me. I was like, "uh-uh, no,no,no, he looks pissed, I'm not going in there!" but the guy was like, oh its fine. I held my breath and tried to sit as still as possible but I don't think I pulled off a very natural smile and I felt a little guilty about the whole thing afterwards (the orangutang seemed to thoroughly enjoy himself while this smacked of exploitation)

Malayan Sun Bear

Yesterday Derek and I went to the zoo. It was enormous and when we first got there we were the only people in the place that didn't work there. It was really cool and you could get ALOT closer to the animals than you can in the states. At the monkey cages they would come down and get right up to the bars and stick out their little hands and you could touch them. The malayan sun bears are really freaky, they have beady little eyes and loose skin and long grey tongues. They kinda gross me out and for some reason I kept imagining one of them under my bed. After the zoo we went to a very ornate temple in China town that was pretty interesting. They had these ginormous candles and there was enough incense in the air to choke you dead but it was decorated very beautifully all in golds and reds with different deities all over and we checked it out for a bit.

Pasar Senen

The other night we went to the cake market. It was awesome and I felt like a famous person cuz I was wearing my beautiful red flamenco skirt because we had gone to Cafe Batavia and everyone was starring at us (mostly because we were white but I prefer to beleive it was because I was looking so devastatingly beautiful). Anyways, cakes galore!! Small ones, big ones, little jello packety ones that I had to restrain myself from squeezing and poking, crazy kids cakes with barbies and cars and little McDonalds happy meal toys all over them. It was amazing and the huge tray of little petit fours (sp?) style cakes that we bought cost a whopping fifty cents. Some of the prices for things here just boggle the mind and I am constantly handing people bills that are ten times larger than what they need to be. Today at the zoo they would not break a 100,000 rupiah bill, which is the equivalent of ten american dollars.

Straight outta Indiana Jones

Last night for Karon's birthday we went to Cafe Batavia, a famous restaurant which was built in 1806. The atmosphere was so cool, very 1940's Dutch Colonial with low lighting and kind of a safari thing going on. The food was fabulous and I had lobster thermidor for the first time. There was also a live 5 piece band which came around to your table and played all kinds of beautiful random music: spanish bolero songs, Sinatra and suprisingly enough, some hits from the 80's that were almost completely unrecognizable if not for the deciphering of phonetically sung lyrics like this little beauty that sounded like:

"Kay-ress weees-pa of a goo fren". "I never gonna dance again, gee-ra feet ta got no ree-ma"

It was BY FAR the best rendition of Careless Whisper, by George Michael, that I could have imagined.

Urgent Emergency

So, yeah, some of you have probably heard about the many disasters occurring in Indonesia this week. I assure you, I am fine as frog hair, but here follows a rundown of the scary bits:

The Earthquake: Yjojakarta had a large earthquake yesterday morning (6.2) which killed more than 3,000 people but we did not even feel it here (in Jakarta). I will be going there though in a couple of weeks so it is a little bit scary because I might have been there. The lady who gave me a massage yesterday was like, meh, no big deal, there are earth quakes all the time here, but I don't think people were aware of how serious it was as death counts continue to rise. 80% of the buildings in the area have been razed so it looks like going there is out of the question.

The Volcano Eruption: Mount Merapi has been erupting for the past week and a half or so and experts do say that the seismic activity in the region could cause a larger eruption. This is not really too much of a worry, most have been evacuated from the danger zone already and I actually want to go and check it out if it is still going on when I am in that area. Supposedly, Borobrodur (largest Buddhist temple in the world) is a bit ashy right now but, you know, gotta go see it while I'm over here! Hopefully I'm not entombed in a fiery lavic inferno which melts my bones like butter on georgia asphalt, but its not likely and honestly, if ya gotta go...

The Bird Flu: 33 of 36 provinces here in Indonesia have had documented cases of the bird flu but so far, no close contact with chickens and I feel just fine and dandy. I'm not too worried about it as it is mostly the poor, young, and infirm that tend to die from it. I'm confident that I could pull through considering that here I am basically a millionaire and I'm young and supple and full of life and all that (haha, supple)

So yeah, exciting stuff. I'm totally on the highway to the danger zone, although it really doesn't feel like it here in my luxury apartment with a view of the pool and garden. Thanks for your concern though and I promise I will exercise caution while I am here. I would like to return safely myself.

Pray, Sacrifice livestock, cast protective spells, or just keep your fingers crossed for me!

Jet Lag

Ugh. Three thirty am and I'm hopelessly awake, again. An hour later and the muezzin's call to prayer begins to echo across the city just as I am contemplating a second attempt at sleep. Last night, staying awake until 9pm was a supreme effort that I abandoned shortly after my speech started to become garbled and formulating sentences akin to algebraic calculations.

You can hold a monkey for less than a dollar

 

Yes. Here I am, holding an Orangutang. An ORANGUTANG! He was just like a little baby...well, a really hairy little baby with opposable big toes. 

Oh my Gawd! Did we go to High School together?!

Here's an excerpt from a little conversation that occurred in the Santa Monica mall that I like to call: "Welcome to LA"

Kathy to Charlie on the escalator: "I think I know that girl!"
Charlie: "No you don't"
Kathy: "Dude, no I swear! I think she's from Wisconsin"
Kathy to girl: "Hi. Do I look familiar to you?"
Girl: "um...no."
Kathy: "Cuz you look really familiar to me...I'm from Wisconsin"
Girl: "Oh! Well, I'm from Minnesota."
Kathy: "Did you go to school in Wisconsin?"
Girl: "No.
Girl: "but, um, I was on TV"
Kathy: "Ah...what show?"
Girl: "The Starlet."
(Recognition dawns...The winner of the ONE reality TV show that I actually watched, a short-lived America's next top Actress style nail-biter, is standing in front of me. Emily and I were extremely INTO this show, although I would never have admitted it.)
Kathy, awkwardly: "oh! Yeah! You won. Well...congratulations..or...whatever."

Oh man. That was Soooo the quintessential "Wisconsin farm girl goes to the big city" moment. I forgot that this is where the famous and semi famous people live.

My homeboy, Burt Reynolds

The whole 7 hour layover thing worked out smashingly! Charlie came and picked me up immediately when I got off the plane and we headed out to Santa Monica for a walk down the promenade and the pier. Fish tacos and Tecate at WaaHoo's were awesome and then we just chilled at his apartment (with his roomate, named Taco, coincidentally) until it was time to get back to LAX.

The adventure BEFORE the adventure

So last night at around seven pm, I'm sitting on the couch with Misti, having spent a relaxing but productive day acquiring the last little odds and ends that I needed for my trip, when I decide to look at my itinerary. Having looked at it many times over the course of the last few months, I was shocked to discover that my flight to LA was NOT tomorrow at 10pm, but TONIGHT at 9pm.
No, actually, 'shocked' doesn't fully convey my feelings at that moment...perhaps flabbergasted, appalled, mortified, disbelieving, nausea might more adequately describe that moment. I believe the first words out of my mouth (after: "wait. no. no. what the? no. NO!") were "Am I in the TWILIGHT ZONE!?" I briefly entertained fantasies of just running into my room and diving under the covers to curl up in a fetal position and rock myself to catatonia, but pulled it together enough to sit on hold with STA for forty-five minutes (giving me ample time to chill out) and reconfigure my flights. Long story short: 100$ fine, and a 7 hour layover in LA and I am back on track, albeit with a more humbled attitude. On the bright side: Charlie, on incredibly short notice, is coming to save me from a seven hour purgatory at LAX.

Here's a picture of a bush I took in Chicago. Isn't Blogging EXCITING?

Welcome to the wide world of cyber narcissism

mmmk, so this is my blog and I'm testing it out. Gotta put on my pretties for everyone so that when I actually get some content, it will be something that people want to look at.