The view from here

Not to say that I've wasted my month here thus far, but as the calendar reminds me that I only have two weeks left here, I think about all the ways I could have better managed me time. Sunday was the perfect example of what every single day here should be. After waking up at 8:30, I spent my day knitting, reading for my online class, finding jobs online to apply for, making more sculpy jewelry, working on metal-wrapped stone pendants, walking to my gramma's, kayaking back from there to our cabin, swimming, taking photographs and playing cards with my family. And if you even think about saying that I should be doing nothing because I'm on vacation...I loathe you. 

What I mean to convey through that laundry list of my day-to-day hobbies is that my ideal day is that right there. And that should have been the majority of every day here. But I have accomplished quite a bit, and hindsight is 20/20, so that's that. I can only enjoy what my summer has been, and look forward to these next two weeks. 

And I cannot even fathom how quickly these two upcoming weeks will be. Until this past weekend, my entire summer had essentially just been shared with my mother, my aunt Camille, and my grandmother. But as my aunt departed on Thursday, my mother's younger brother arrived with his family on Saturday. And as they depart this Thursday, the influx of my entire family will begin to arrive Saturday and Sunday. Cousins, mom's cousins, second-cousin-once-removeds, they will all flutter into the nearby cabins for our family reunion, to take place the first full weekend of August. And then, just a couple short days after the reunion, my mother and I will make our way back to Maryland, where reality stares us in the face.

This all sounds so melancholy. I don't mean for it to be. It has essentially just taken me by surprise, the speed at which this summer is whirring past me. Deep down, I knew it would, but the realization still startled me a bit when it jumped out and announced its arrival.

When I arrive back in Maryland, my real gauge of how successful this summer is will be if I can keep this frame of mind back in the real world. If I will be able to focus on my career, and on getting into grad school, and on the hobbies that I so adore. If I can remain productive and just...happy. From my viewpoint here in Northern Minnesota, from atop the clouds of my own personal heaven, I think this summer will be a success. But, to quote my own personal mantra....We'll see.

And in case you're wondering what the view from my own personal heaven looks like, enjoy some of the shots I've taken over the last few days. 

-K

Can I have a pint of Leine's Amber? Sorry we only have 22oz and 16oz

The last few days have been fairly uneventful. My awful sleep schedule has sequestered me to my bed til noon each day, so I spent the last two nights trying to pull all-nighters to reset myself. It makes sense in my world, I assure you. Anyway, I succeeded last night, so with any hope, I'll be crashing in about half an hour. But in the meantime, I'm going to blog my silly blog, and start reading the new Elizabeth Gilbert book, which I just ordered from Amazon. 

It's a pretty sweet world we live in, where I can be out on my lake, twenty minutes from even a grocery store, yet I can order books and supplies online and have them dropped at my doorstep two days later. 

This evening, my mother and I went into Virginia, (you know, the home of the nearest Target and Walgreens? 40 minutes away?) to shop and run errands. Since it was late afternoon when we went into town, we opted to get dinner at a regional chain after our shopping. We sat down, and I began to peruse the beer and wine menu because, when we go out for dinner, I have a habit of getting a beer. It gives me the nice excuse to try local brews.

The only local beer on their list was a Summit Pale Ale, and while I appreciate the St. Paul brewery, I found their Horizon Red Ale to even be too hoppy for me, so I definitely avoided their IPA. (Aside from Summit, the only other Minnesota beer I've found in restaurants or liquor stores is the Lake Superior Mesabi Red Ale, which is phenomenal.) So this evening, I decided that even though I can find it anywhere, I would go for a Leinenkugel's Amber. Now, although Leine's is distributed throughout the country, they are still a microbrew located in Chippewa Falls, WI. And since we pass the brewery en route here, I think that's close enough to local. But enough of my inner monologue. I picked the brew, now time to order. 

I always wait til I order my meal to order a beer, because I don't want to finish it before food even comes out. So after our order, I ask the waitress if I could have a pint of Leinenkugal Amber. She looks at me, quite concerned, and explains that they don't have pints. Perplexed, I ask her what size beers they do have. She thinks for a moment, and let's me know that they have 22oz and 16oz. I smile, ask for a 16oz, and wait until she is out of earshot before I quickly raise my palm to my face and mutter to my mother...

'A pint is 16 ounces.'

At least we both got a good laugh from it. And I got my beer, so I cannot complain. But I do need to find a better selection of local beer, because I know it's around here somewhere, I just need to hunt it down...

And now, since I don't have any pictures of, you know, beer, enjoy some miscellaneous shots I haven't had the excuse to post yet!

-K

I need my memory. Memory!! Huh, what?

In my entire family, there are very few people even close to my age. I have three cousins within five years, and another two second cousins within 3 years, but that leaves about 70 relatives that are much younger or much, much older. Surprisingly, I know, most of my family falls in the latter category. But since I was young, that fact never really phased me. With my mom being a teacher, I spent every summer, all summer, here at my cabin until I was about 14, and thereafter I would spend between 2-4 weeks here. 

In other words, I have spent a lot of my life here in this cabin. With no one my age around. 

When I was really young, this was an issue to me, but once I hit teenagedom, I was content enough to play cards and visit with my family. Which leads me to this summer. Just after my mother and I arrived at our cabin, the Fourth of July weekend hit. I briefly visited with my mom's cousins, and four of their blond daughters, and countless of their blond spawn. And my eldest brother was here. 

 (I told you, blond spawn.)

But aside from that long weekend, it's really just been my mother and I during the days, joined by my aunt and my gramma to play cards at night. Which is interesting, to say the least. Though our combined competitive drives add up for some serious, silent game play, it's pretty phenomenal that we get the chance experience that each night. I think of the plethora of people who don't like their immediate family, let alone their extended family. Or even if they like those related to them, they don't always get the chance to spend significant time with them. 

Tonight, I opted to sit out on games, but sat by to knit* as my gramma, my aunt and my mother played a game of suicide rummy. (If you're lucky enough, one day I'll explain that overcomplicated card lovefest to you.) I often chimed into their conversations of current events, medicine, birds and canoe trips, but for the most part I was engulfed in my project. So engulfed that I didn't even respond to my recent name, 'Memory!' (queue facepalm in 3...2..) Yes, as I sat innocently knitting, my mother couldn't remember something, and so kindly called for her memory to help her out. So she literally called out for her memory to assist her. Only as she and my aunt began giggling at her absurdity did I realize that oh...she meant me. But these are the kind of silly stories that sum up my experiences at the lake. And I think that's pretty impressive.

And if I haven't painted a sufficient example of what cards and visits with my aging family is like, well, I have photographic back-up of course!

-K

*And yes, I realize the irony of me discussing how I'm surrounded by a bunch of old geezers, and I'm knitting while playing cards with them. Commence laughter. 

Dear Minnesota..

Dear Minnesota:

Though your pristine beauty has afforded me great joy during my summers with you, I am reminded tonight that you are not, in fact, perfect. Surely, I avoid your painfully chilly winters that seem to dump yards of snow, and your record breaking, negative 60, temperatures. But during my lazy summer stays with you, I enjoy even the stormiest bouts of lightening, and the chilliest of evening breezes. That being said, I acknowledge that you are the land of ten thousand lakes. Lake being the sort of habitat that mosquitoes just love. And I acknowledge that your residents jokingly refer to those buzzing little pests as the true state bird. Truth be told, I am reminded nearly every day, that those little bugs are out to drink my blood, and in thinning said blood, make me itch like a mother- 

...

But really, Minnesota, my dear and loyal companion. THIS IS EFFING RIDICULOUS!!!

With no ill intentions meant, I really do love you. Do you just think you might be able to amend this situation somehow? I would be forever indebted to you.

With love and optimism for the future,

Karianna

A shower!! At Marvilion!

As previously mentioned, we don't have plumbing at our wonderful Marvilion. Though it's been a bit of an inconvenience at times, it's never been a major issue to us - After all, my grandmother's cabin, a half mile walk down the road, allows us to be able to shower on a regular basis, and the lake at our fingertips allows us an easy way to wash our hair, etc. 

But now, at last, we have a shower at the cabin.

Last fall, my mom contracted a guy to build a brand new outdoor bathhouse/sauna for our place. Up until then, we had a building, which used to be a proper outhouse, that housed our composting toilet. The contractor tore that down and rebuilt a gorgeous new building that includes a large sauna, a double shower, our composting toilet, and a double sink. With an electric pump bringing lake water up from the shore, we have (undrinkable, but,) usable plumbing!!

Because of a few set backs, the shower wasn't quite usable for the first couple weeks of us being here. But lo and behold, this afternoon I actually used the shower.

I don't think you quite comprehend how awesome this was. Yes, you heard me. I'm excited to have taken a shower. Now stop judging. 

In other news, with wild blueberries in full bloom up here, my mother and I went for a walk the other day to harvest a few. Though someone had already gone through and picked all the ripe little berries, we got a beautiful walk out of our trip, and I snapped a few photos of the flora surrounding us. Enjoy! 

 -K

I can handle this

Since waking up at 10:30am this morning, I changed directly into my swimsuit, laid out on the deck while working on my online class, looked up some more online classes to take this fall, started bookmarking some jobs to apply for once I update my resume, and requested information from the grad school of my dreams. Oh, and I went swimming.

I cannot complain about days like today. Life is good. I need this. 

-K

Nutella and Peanut Butter

Eating habits at the lake are peculiar.

My mother doesn't really cook - she opts for nibbling often instead of indulging in full meals. Which is fine for me for 2 meals per day, but when it comes to dinner, I need something substantial. Because of this, I often end up cooking us dinner, having to remind my mother that, oh yeah, we need a meal. I enjoy cooking, so it works. However, for some reason I have yet to determine, my eating habits at the lake vary quite a lot from those at home. 

And yes, I just asked my mother, the same goes for her.

I'm sure a lot has to do with the fact that it's summer, so we're eating a lot of fresh veggies and fruits. And the fact that we only have one electric burner. And that we have to wash all our dishes by hand, with no running water. If nothing else, all this means is that we eat a lot of sandwiches here. A lot.

Anyway, since I came up to the lake I've been very attentive to what I've been eating. Mostly because I was doing so much physical labor at Ruby's, I knew that I couldn't eat as much here or I would gain a lot of weight...fast. That, in conjunction with wanting to lose a bit of weight, has made me very aware of what I eat.

Which includes nutella and peanut butter. Okay, so that doesn't exactly fit into a health food kick, but everything's fine in moderation, right? :) But seriously, have you ever had a sandwich of just nutella and creamy peanut butter? Aaaaaamazing. 

This may the most banal thing to blog about, but it's been interesting for me to pay attention to while I've been up here. Vacation allows one to notice the menial things that are too superfluous to notice while busy. It's kinda awesome, isn't it?
...
On a totally separate note, we have a psycho deer living on our property up here. We've seen her many times, by herself, grazing in our meadows. But apparently she hates us. We think she has a little fawn nearby, but this doe is outright aggressive! If anyone is outside, including our quite deaf dog, she will actually come closer to us and start making these weird huffing/clicking noises. It's very odd. But she's cute, see??! 

Though the dog is safely inside, now, I was afraid the deer was gonna charge the poor thing as she ignorantly went on sniffing through the grass. Oh well, no deer injuries today. There's just danger everywhere you look around here, I guess. ha. haha. Alright, enough mindless rambling. Time to get back to working on my online class. Vacation is wonderful.


-K