I went to the state capitol today to sit in on some committee hearings for the Family Policy Class I am in. I walked there, heels and all, because it was a gorgeous day and because well, we just live so close. I must say it felt a little symbolic walking right out the front door of my apartment building and directly into a meeting where bills that will affect millions of people were being processed. In the span of thirty minutes I went from my one-bedroom apartment with all hand-me-down furniture to the center of our local government. Never had to say who I was or why I was there- just walked right in (anyone who has taken an 8th grade civics class is like, “duh”, but the blending of the physical and ideological struck me). Now granted, the process of actually writing a bill or being able to testify on behalf of a bill is obviously more selective, and there is a lot more that goes on between legislators that is not seen in committee meetings or on the floor, but when you think about it within the span of all of world history, even that level of transparency and accessibility is pretty amazing.
I was thinking a lot about this on my walk home. It is too bad that our political environment is so reactive. As a liberal (in case you did not know this about me), when I hear a depiction of the United States as the most highly evolved or ideal society, I feel compelled to point out the great injustices that still exist here and the ways in which we can (and need to!) improve. Any human endeavor is going to be flawed and have unintended consequences. The danger with expressing a hyper-positive view of our country, is that if we truly believe that at any one point this is “good enough”, so many voices and problems will go unheard. What would have happened had we been satisfied with the “democracy” in the Jim Crowe South, for example? However, this critical eye can lose sight of all things that are positive (guilty as charged). Perhaps to conservatives, this is like hearing a spoiled teenager claim that their parents are the worst people in the world, while thinking about all of the sacrifices and care that this kid is taking for granted. I see that- I saw that today as the capitol and state building were filled with very committed and caring people all working on our behalf. It is pretty exciting to think that the process of decision making is open to a great many people and is quite transparent. On the other hand, it is pretty sad to think that this process is still quite dominated, true not by those with “birthrights”, but by what remains to be a quite racially, economically, and educationally homogenous group. Our debates so easily turn into America as either the greatest nation on Earth or the most corrupt and devoid nation, but could it be both admirable in many respects and in need of continued reform? I will do my part and try not to be so reactive and acknowledge the great many things this country (thanks to those very people who did not settle and held our government accountable) does provide to its citizens.
Thanks for listening,
Kirsten
Thursday, April 2, 2009
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
The Great Curse of 2009
This has become a legend in the O’Brien household. 2009 began with my car getting hit not once, not twice, but three times IN ADDITION to being broken into AND the window getting stuck in an open position (in Minnesota in January…) from a break-in 4 years ago (apparently we are lucky it has been working this long). None of the collisions were our fault and two were hit and runs (i.e. the girl who hit Will paid for one bumper, but we now have a hole in the other)….Needless to say we have become good friends with the workers at the auto body shop and they are actually really wonderful and helpful-they have even met Mosby and recommended dishes at local restaurants to us. Note that all of these things took place before the month of February!!! After the first two incidents, we thought, “this is weird” but after the fifth problem we were looking for hidden cameras thinking Ashton Kutcher might be around the corner waiting to tell us we were punked and that we actually won a brand new car and maybe a trip to Hawaii or something. Maybe we should be the first couple featured on Extreme Car Makeover- Ty could come and demolish civic and replace it with a shiny new one with seats made out of baseball bats or canoe paddles or whatever hobby we tell him we have.
We were hoping this bizarre case of bad luck would stay behind in January. After all, I was headed to southern California for my friend Ashley’s wedding over Valentine’s day weekend. I was going to escape the frigid temps, spend time with some of my favorite people in the world, and enjoy all of the wedding festivities. We had been planning for weeks. Before leaving for the airport, though, we thought we’d give Mosby some extra fun and bring him to a dog park so he could run to his heart’s content. Long story short, Friday the 13th + ice covered dog park (there was literally no grass or snow showing in the entire place) + really fast dog + dansko’s (which have zero traction) + spindly wrists = TROUBLE. Mos was loving the park and was running towards me as fast as he could, but he couldn’t stop on the ice or go around me. I was actually expecting him to run into me, but I figured he would jump up so I was bracing myself for going backwards and figured at worst I would just land on my butt like most of us Minnesotans do at least once a winter season. However, he didn’t jump so I went right over top of him with no time to brace myself. I knew pretty much right away that my wrist was broken, but having broken my wrist/hand 3 different times as a kid (the spindly wrists), I think I was more upset that I was going to miss my flight. I figured, throw a cast on that thing, and let’s get to the airport!
It didn’t take long for me to realize that this was a little different than my other breaks. Taking off my coat at the ER was the only time that I actually looked at my wrist and let’s just say I couldn’t look at it after that…yuck. They had to reset my bone, and with all the expenses of our modern health care, the “high-tech” contraption they used to do this was made of a clothes hanger and four Chinese finger traps hanging from it (the things that you got as kids where you put your pointer fingers in either end and when you pulled, they would be stuck inside). The doc hung my hand upright from the traps and then hung weights over my bicep to pull the bone down and then about 3 people pushed it back into place. Crazy, huh?!
The next week we met with the orthopedic surgeon- I had broken the bone in about 3 places, breaking a section off and knocking the joint out of its place. So, they pieced me back together with a plate and some screws. Losing the use of your dominant hand is pretty challenging and Will needed to continue on with work and school, so my mom came up to help out for a few days after the surgery and my dad took the dog down to Caledonia for a couple of weeks. Those first three weeks were pretty painful and challenging, but by the end I could move my fingers pretty well and my life was slowly returning to a routine. I was excited to get my removable splint and get on with recovery. Unfortunately, things were not healing quite right. At my two week appointment I was unable to move my wrist past 90 degrees (think handshake) to a palm up position. You know there’s something wrong when a whole team of doctors come in to check out your x-rays! Apparently some bone was sliding out of joint or something when I would turn my hand. This was very discouraging to hear. They were going to try to gradually turn my wrist and hope that my muscles would grow strong enough to hold the bone in place, but if that didn’t work I’d have to have another surgery.
So for the next two weeks I gradually twisted my wrist around about 1 degree at a time and velcroed it in place with this crazy butterfly splint thing. Eventually I did get it palm-up and the x-rays looked good at my last doctor’s appointment. So it looks like I might not need another surgery! So now I am doing a lot of physical therapy, working on getting my wrist to turn back to palm down (which I’ve pretty much gotten, but now it won’t go palm up anymore) and to bend my wrist, which is pretty pathetic right now. I have decided that my priorities for things to be able to do again are: 1. Type 2. Write 3. Eat with a utensil (I can always use my left) 4. CANOE 5. Play tennis 6. Throw a baseball. Typing and writing are getting there, my hand just starts to hurt after a few minutes. The rest seem like a long ways off, but I am really hoping. Given the break, it’s not realistic to expect 100% functioning, so these are my goals:)
So, we are thinking that we have some AMAZING luck coming our way for the rest of 2009 to balance out the beginning:) Despite the challenges, we have been blessed with wonderful family support, great friends, understanding coworkers, and a great marriage. Poor Will had to do the work of three hands (sometimes four because my left hand isn’t good for much) all while finishing up his master’s thesis! But we are slowly on our way back to normal and now are looking forward to his graduation. Wow, if you made it to the end of this post, good job! We have just been so focused on getting through each day and catching up on work, we have been seriously M.I.A.- so we thought we’d catch you up. We are hoping as appointments, muscle pain, and academic stress gradually diminish over the next couple of months, our social lives will be able to pick up again and we’ll be able to catch up in person!
Kirsten
We were hoping this bizarre case of bad luck would stay behind in January. After all, I was headed to southern California for my friend Ashley’s wedding over Valentine’s day weekend. I was going to escape the frigid temps, spend time with some of my favorite people in the world, and enjoy all of the wedding festivities. We had been planning for weeks. Before leaving for the airport, though, we thought we’d give Mosby some extra fun and bring him to a dog park so he could run to his heart’s content. Long story short, Friday the 13th + ice covered dog park (there was literally no grass or snow showing in the entire place) + really fast dog + dansko’s (which have zero traction) + spindly wrists = TROUBLE. Mos was loving the park and was running towards me as fast as he could, but he couldn’t stop on the ice or go around me. I was actually expecting him to run into me, but I figured he would jump up so I was bracing myself for going backwards and figured at worst I would just land on my butt like most of us Minnesotans do at least once a winter season. However, he didn’t jump so I went right over top of him with no time to brace myself. I knew pretty much right away that my wrist was broken, but having broken my wrist/hand 3 different times as a kid (the spindly wrists), I think I was more upset that I was going to miss my flight. I figured, throw a cast on that thing, and let’s get to the airport!
It didn’t take long for me to realize that this was a little different than my other breaks. Taking off my coat at the ER was the only time that I actually looked at my wrist and let’s just say I couldn’t look at it after that…yuck. They had to reset my bone, and with all the expenses of our modern health care, the “high-tech” contraption they used to do this was made of a clothes hanger and four Chinese finger traps hanging from it (the things that you got as kids where you put your pointer fingers in either end and when you pulled, they would be stuck inside). The doc hung my hand upright from the traps and then hung weights over my bicep to pull the bone down and then about 3 people pushed it back into place. Crazy, huh?!
The next week we met with the orthopedic surgeon- I had broken the bone in about 3 places, breaking a section off and knocking the joint out of its place. So, they pieced me back together with a plate and some screws. Losing the use of your dominant hand is pretty challenging and Will needed to continue on with work and school, so my mom came up to help out for a few days after the surgery and my dad took the dog down to Caledonia for a couple of weeks. Those first three weeks were pretty painful and challenging, but by the end I could move my fingers pretty well and my life was slowly returning to a routine. I was excited to get my removable splint and get on with recovery. Unfortunately, things were not healing quite right. At my two week appointment I was unable to move my wrist past 90 degrees (think handshake) to a palm up position. You know there’s something wrong when a whole team of doctors come in to check out your x-rays! Apparently some bone was sliding out of joint or something when I would turn my hand. This was very discouraging to hear. They were going to try to gradually turn my wrist and hope that my muscles would grow strong enough to hold the bone in place, but if that didn’t work I’d have to have another surgery.
So for the next two weeks I gradually twisted my wrist around about 1 degree at a time and velcroed it in place with this crazy butterfly splint thing. Eventually I did get it palm-up and the x-rays looked good at my last doctor’s appointment. So it looks like I might not need another surgery! So now I am doing a lot of physical therapy, working on getting my wrist to turn back to palm down (which I’ve pretty much gotten, but now it won’t go palm up anymore) and to bend my wrist, which is pretty pathetic right now. I have decided that my priorities for things to be able to do again are: 1. Type 2. Write 3. Eat with a utensil (I can always use my left) 4. CANOE 5. Play tennis 6. Throw a baseball. Typing and writing are getting there, my hand just starts to hurt after a few minutes. The rest seem like a long ways off, but I am really hoping. Given the break, it’s not realistic to expect 100% functioning, so these are my goals:)
So, we are thinking that we have some AMAZING luck coming our way for the rest of 2009 to balance out the beginning:) Despite the challenges, we have been blessed with wonderful family support, great friends, understanding coworkers, and a great marriage. Poor Will had to do the work of three hands (sometimes four because my left hand isn’t good for much) all while finishing up his master’s thesis! But we are slowly on our way back to normal and now are looking forward to his graduation. Wow, if you made it to the end of this post, good job! We have just been so focused on getting through each day and catching up on work, we have been seriously M.I.A.- so we thought we’d catch you up. We are hoping as appointments, muscle pain, and academic stress gradually diminish over the next couple of months, our social lives will be able to pick up again and we’ll be able to catch up in person!
Kirsten
Sunday, February 8, 2009
Our Boy
Our dog, Mosby (AKA Mos, Momo, Da Mos, Momocita, Mosbaliscious, etc.) keeps us laughing everyday. We love having him in the fam and can't imagine it without him now! Here are some recent pictures of him:)
He can tell spring is coming and is already loving the squirrels that are out (who are probably confused by the unusually warm weather this week). We took him for a walk at Como Park today and it was warm enough for only a fleece! Heat wave!!! Ever since we've had snow on the ground (Nov.), Mosby likes to burrow into the snow, so we call him Torpedo Doggie. It's pretty hilarious, so we finally filmed it. It's even funnier when the snow is more powdery, but he still does his best in this icy snow:
Monday, January 19, 2009
So Long 2008, Hello 2009 (i.e. the year of the gopher's stadium)!
Hi All,
It's been a busy finals, holiday, and break season so we apologize for our blogging hiatus. We finished up 2008 with a bang on our 10-day trip to Seattle to visit friends and family. It was great to see everyone and we are so glad we had the opportunity to go.
This past year has been a busy one for us again with lots of new experiences and growth. Here are a few highlights of 2008 for the Bengtson-O'Brien clan:
* I did my first conference presentation at the Midwest Sociological Association's Annual Meeting in St. Louis, MO. We road-tripped with our friends Nick and Shannon and a great time seeing a new city.
* We spent the summer working at Clearwater Lodge on the Gunflint Trail in Northern Minnesota. It was an amazing time of camping, meeting new people, canoeing, and hanging out in our new favorite town, Grand Marais.
* We moved to St. Paul and have an apartment in a fun historic neighborhood, perfect for walking our new dog, Mosby!
* Will began his counseling internship at North Central University. He is counseling students and is working with a great staff.
* We again had season tickets to Gophers football. We figured we had nowhere to go but up after a 1-11 season last year, so we were shocked they started off the season 7-1. Unfortunately, they ended up losing the last 5 games of the season, but we still had more to cheer about this year and are hoping for even more next year.
* Stephen (my brother) and his girlfriend, Kirstin, got engaged! We are so excited to have a new sister in the family!
* Our friends, Jill and Tory, got married this fall in southern California and we were lucky enough to be able to go out to celebrate with them. It was a wonderful reunion with friends and it was great to escape the Minnesota weather, even if only for a weekend.
I know you must be thinking, "Wow, 2008 sounds like it was really eventful, how are they going to top it?!" Well, we are working on that. Here are some things that are in the works for 2009:
* I am returning to southern California for my friend Ashley's wedding in February. I will be happy to trade the -30 degree temps for anything above 50!
*Will is graduating from Bethel with a Master's in Counseling Psychology in May. It will be the end of a long and busy road and he is really looking forward to being done with school (and I'm a bit jealous myself!).
* Will's brother, Taylor, is graduating from the University of Washington this year, so Will is planning a road trip out there for the early summer.
*I have a conference in San Francisco this summer and another in Atlanta in the fall, so we are looking forward to doing some more traveling.
* And I almost forgot, the Gophers' new outdoor stadium opens!!! We are STOKED!
Well, that's the scoop. We will do our best to keep up with this as school begins...
Till next time,
Kirsten
It's been a busy finals, holiday, and break season so we apologize for our blogging hiatus. We finished up 2008 with a bang on our 10-day trip to Seattle to visit friends and family. It was great to see everyone and we are so glad we had the opportunity to go.
This past year has been a busy one for us again with lots of new experiences and growth. Here are a few highlights of 2008 for the Bengtson-O'Brien clan:
* I did my first conference presentation at the Midwest Sociological Association's Annual Meeting in St. Louis, MO. We road-tripped with our friends Nick and Shannon and a great time seeing a new city.
* We spent the summer working at Clearwater Lodge on the Gunflint Trail in Northern Minnesota. It was an amazing time of camping, meeting new people, canoeing, and hanging out in our new favorite town, Grand Marais.
* We moved to St. Paul and have an apartment in a fun historic neighborhood, perfect for walking our new dog, Mosby!
* Will began his counseling internship at North Central University. He is counseling students and is working with a great staff.
* We again had season tickets to Gophers football. We figured we had nowhere to go but up after a 1-11 season last year, so we were shocked they started off the season 7-1. Unfortunately, they ended up losing the last 5 games of the season, but we still had more to cheer about this year and are hoping for even more next year.
* Stephen (my brother) and his girlfriend, Kirstin, got engaged! We are so excited to have a new sister in the family!
* Our friends, Jill and Tory, got married this fall in southern California and we were lucky enough to be able to go out to celebrate with them. It was a wonderful reunion with friends and it was great to escape the Minnesota weather, even if only for a weekend.
I know you must be thinking, "Wow, 2008 sounds like it was really eventful, how are they going to top it?!" Well, we are working on that. Here are some things that are in the works for 2009:
* I am returning to southern California for my friend Ashley's wedding in February. I will be happy to trade the -30 degree temps for anything above 50!
*Will is graduating from Bethel with a Master's in Counseling Psychology in May. It will be the end of a long and busy road and he is really looking forward to being done with school (and I'm a bit jealous myself!).
* Will's brother, Taylor, is graduating from the University of Washington this year, so Will is planning a road trip out there for the early summer.
*I have a conference in San Francisco this summer and another in Atlanta in the fall, so we are looking forward to doing some more traveling.
* And I almost forgot, the Gophers' new outdoor stadium opens!!! We are STOKED!
Well, that's the scoop. We will do our best to keep up with this as school begins...
Till next time,
Kirsten
Saturday, January 3, 2009
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Into the sunrise
I cannot get over the final broadcast of The Current's Morning Show w/ Dale Connelly and "Jim Ed Poole" (Tom Keith). (Tom/"Jim Ed" is retiring)
For you out of state-ers, these two have been doing a Garrison Keillor-esque variety show for the past 25 years. Since we moved to these Twin-towns, we've been enjoying some solid radio play on The Current (much more enjoyable than KEXP...but that's another post). However, the morning show was a disconnected, zany show that was hard to stomach at first. With its birthday songs for loyal listeners, kid friendly folk sing along songs, and the last second prepared sounding skits about nothing it is different from the radio my generation knows.
Maybe it was the move to the elder St. Paul, or turning 27, but I've been loving this show for the past 3 months. A complete change of appreciation. And now it's gone. I'm sad that I wasn't in to it earlier on.
But today I'm sad that I was in the audience at the Fitz or having pancakes at the church next door. What a beautiful way to go. I hope my retirement party is half of this. From the packed house, to the bands that showed up at 6am to make the show completely live, to sad tribute songs, to the all the we wishers on the live blog burning their eggs at home while crying over the end of this era, it was a bittersweet tribute. I choked up...after just 3 months.
There's no way I can do this show justice. I'd encourage you to listen to it. Read the live blog transcript. Check out the photos.
And get into the next wave. Dale is starting a show on HD radio, but you can get the live feed online. Or check out the new Current Morning Show, starting tomorrow.
Enjoy.
Sunday, December 7, 2008
Top Albums of 2008...oh how i love the current
(this list was heavily influenced by this weekend of studying with The Current cranked...)
Here's your completed ballot.
Your albums:
The Black Keys - Attack & Release
Passion Pit - Chunk Of Change
Calexico - Carried To Dust
Maps Of Norway - Die Off Birdsong
Terry Lynn - Kingstonlogic 2.0
Cold War Kids - Loyalty To Loyalty
Nada Surf - Lucky
Gnarls Barkley - The Odd Couple
MGMT - Oracular Spectacular
Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin - Pershing
Black Kids - Partie Traumatic
Mates Of State - Re-Arrange Us
Santogold - Santogold
Caesars - Strawberry Weed
Of Montreal - Skeletal Lamping
Animal Collective - Water Curses
Atmosphere - When Life Gives You Lemons…
Ben Folds - Way To Normal
The Ting Tings - We Started Nothing
I'm From Barcelona - Who Killed Harry Houdini
Your Write-in Selections:
Stars - Sad Robots
+/- - Xs on Your Eyes
School of Seven Bells - Alpinisms
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Friday, November 28, 2008
Monday, November 10, 2008
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