In Solidarity

Tomorrow at 12pm in Union Park, there will be a massive Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) rally in Union Park.  The purpose of the rally is to show solidarity with the CTU in our fight for a fair contract.

The CTU has been on strike for the past five days and in addition to fighting for a fair contract, it has been protesting many problems in the public education system here in Chicago, including: the mayor-appointed school board; the use of TIF money to fund neighborhood projects like the building of a Hyatt hotel on the south side by Penny Pritzker, who controls the Hyatt hotel chain and is on the Board of Education (a clear conflict of interest); the constant turning around of neighborhood schools; the slow and steady privatization of the public education system through the expansion of charter schools and closing of neighborhood schools; the use of standardized tests to evaluate teachers; and, of course, the slow and steady plot to destroy labor unions in this country and eradicate a middle, working class (see Wisconsin, Indiana, New Jersey).

These are things I am very passionate about and am baffled every day when I realize that people simply don't know about these things (and the media does not report the truth at all).  I can't tell you how many people are seriously misinformed.  This past week, I've watched more people talk about and discuss the state of education in this country than I have in the past six years.  It's amazing.    We've started a revolution and I hope it continues to spread throughout this country.

It's also been nice to really get out there and talk to the community about these things.  And while there have certainly been a lot of haters, there are also a TON of supporters.  I hope you're one of them.  If you are, I am asking you to show your solidarity with the CTU by reposting the above image, and link this post to your blog tomorrow, Saturday September 15, 2012 in support of the CTU (if you don't read this until after and want to show your solidarity, you can repost at a later date, too.  We appreciate the support no matter the day.).  Then, leave a comment below and I will link your blog below.  Please pass this along to your friends who blog, too.

Thanks again for the support all week!  I appreciate the emails and comments!

Bettencourt Chase stands with the CTU

(Stand for Public Education designed by Paul Kjelland via Justseeds)

I Didn't Choose the Thug Life, It Chose Me

PRODUCT AND PROTECTOR OF PUBLIC EDUCATION

A New Label

There are many truths I wish I could tell you, things I feel I keep from you to both protect myself and also maintain the specific content I aim to create for Not the Marrying Kind.  For the most part, this arrangement has never bothered me.  For various reasons, I'm most comfortable writing under a pseudonym.  But if you've been reading since the beginning or if you blog-stalked the shit out of this blog when you first found it and just read post after post after post from way back to figure me out (can you tell yet that I do this myself???), then you know that slowly, but surely, I've revealed parts of myself here.  I started this blog in 2009 and I would only post a portion of my face in images.  It wasn't until was actually got engaged that I posted pictures of us on the blog.  Back then, it was more sporadic.  Now, I would say I post pictures of myself fairly frequently.  That sort of gradual trust that I built in you, my few, but lovely readers, is why I feel that I can now reveal another truth.  A big one.  And one, which, for the most part, I try very hard to avoid on this blog, but which, for reasons I will soon explain, I can no longer keep to myself: my job.

Before I reveal that truth, though, I want to talk about my absence and why, for a while, I think, I may need to not talk about things like weddings.  Currently, I have 22 posts drafted, 10 of which are from this year (the rest span three years!).  This year, like no other, I have struggled with writer's block.  When I stopped blogging the last time, it wasn't because I wanted to, it was because I had zero time to write.  This time around, I'm certainly shorter on time, but I also have felt creatively tapped.  And I couldn't figure out why.  Certainly, being burned out at work was part of it, but I've blogged through that in the past.  Why was this different?  Not that long ago, I had the realization that it was because I didn't want to blog about weddings anymore.  I mean, I did...I do, but I felt very pigeonholed by the blog.  I love planning parties and events and I love weddings, but I felt like I didn't want to talk about those things anymore.  Instead, I wanted so badly to talk about the one thing I sort of vowed to always keep private.

There are many reasons why I don't talk about my job here, the biggest of which is privacy.  I don't talk about my job to both maintain my own privacy and the privacy of those with whom I work.  I also don't talk about my job because this blog was, for so long, my distraction.  I needed some things that were separate and Not the Marrying Kind was exactly that: a place that had nothing to do with my day. Instead, it was a frothy, wedding-filled wonderland filled with amazing people that I never wanted to leave.

But reality has kicked in big time over the past year and my frothy, wedding-filled wonderland no longer does the trick.  Instead, all of my waking hours seem to be filled with job-related thoughts.  My internet time is focused a lot more on learning more about my job and its history.  And I'm feeling more creatively-fueled by an accidental side-effect of my job: activism.

You see, as of tomorrow, Monday September 10, 2012, I will be temporarily unemployed.  I don't know when I will return to work.  The future of my career is in the hands of others right now and all I can do is hope that everything works out for the best.  Why is my life in such limbo?  Because I am teacher and a member of the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU).

Tomorrow, for the first time in 25 years, the CTU will strike.  I left work on Friday and will return tomorrow only to picket outside.  A lot of people have been asking me how I feel about striking and I've been replying, "I never feel bad about doing the right thing."

Whatever you've heard in the media, this strike is the right thing.  For the last two years, teachers in the CTU have been disgraced by the local government and painted as lazy, greedy people who don't give a damn about the students.  I am telling you that the reality could not be further from the truth.  And so, I've decided I have to do my part to change how teachers are portrayed.

I've started blogging over here.  That doesn't mean I won't be blogging here, too.  For now, though, I need to be there.  I need to be standing strong with my colleagues and telling the world the reality of my job.  And so, I'm adding a new label here: education.  I probably won't post too much under it since I have a new outlet for that, but it fills in yet another detail about who I am away from this blog.

As a show of solidarity, I'm asking that you please wear red tomorrow (Monday 9/10).  It is the color of our union and is a small, but meaningful gesture.  If you are in the Chicago area and would like to know more about how you can help out, please feel free to email me.

In solidarity!

Don't Hate Me

I'll be back to my regular blogging OH, SO SOON.  I am under massive deadlines at work and have also managed to throw out my back a bit the last few days.  Fun!  The deadlines will be over after next week and then I'll be back with a bunch of posts I've been working on, including:

- Several Weekend Date posts for Humboldt Park, Superdawg, and a quick (pet friendly) trip to Milwaukee
- Marriage Monday posts about...SEX!!  Gasp!
- Wedding Wednesday posts for creative guestbooks
- Friday dances with gorgeous weddings

and so much more, including List for 2012 updates, and my May reading list!

But all of these things require time and energy, neither of which I currently have.  Soon, though, I'll be back to my old tricks.  In the mean time, don't hate me.  : )

See you guys SOOO soon!  In the mean time, enjoy this new Beach House song which I'm OBSESSED with!



P.S.  Did you see that the lovely Sara had her beautiful baby??  A big congrats to the new mom!

Balance

Um, I can't believe it's the weekend already.  I am actually happy this week is almost over!  It was a stressful week.  My last guitar class of this session is today, which means there's a recital.  Besides blogging, guitar took a hit, too.  I've barely practiced and reluctantly decided to take a break this time around.  But I don't want to never play again or give it up, so I joined the Old Town School of Folk Music.  I figured if I was a member and paying for it, I'd be more likely to sign up for classes and not give up on my folk music dreams!  : )  I'll take a break until June and sign up for the next session.  Gardening season is upon us and I plan on working long hours over the next few months.  Guitar would have been the death of me!

Anywho...I may not have gotten it together to blog Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday of this week, but I did get it together to blog today...twice (I'll be posting a weekend date later on today!).  I'm really, really trying to blog more, even if it doesn't seem like it.  I've just been so, so tired and overwhelmed with work lately.  Here's a short list of everything I've given up for work lately:

- Blogging
- Guitar
- Photography
- Talking to family
- Talking to friends
- Seeing family
- Seeing friends
- Crafting/making things
- Cleaning (A.P. does this almost exclusively now)
- Reading

And I'm sure there are more things I'm forgetting.  It makes me wonder, though, how do people do it?  I'd love to do a feature here on balance because some people seem to do it so well and I seem to struggle with it so.  I obviously have much to learn.  I'm amazed when people work full time, are part of some kind of book club or sport team or what have you, and they manage to have a social life.  I just don't get how that happens.  If they have kids on top of it, I'm even more baffled.  How do people find balance in their lives?  Do they just make a decision to leave work at a certain time or not work on the weekends?  Or are their jobs simply more conducive to having a life?

How do YOU find balance?   What tricks can you share with the hopelessly unbalanced like me?

Nervous Knots

I have my review at work today. I have to meet with my boss this morning and my stomach is in nervous knots. I know I am good at my job, but I do not work in an industry where I hear that very often. People are barked at more than they are praised. Well, actually, I think it's safe to say that's most industries. Anyway, the review is almost a week-long process, with three separate meetings, the first being tomorrow. Sooooo scary!

Keep your fingers crossed that they go smoothly! It's all I can think about!

Spring on the Horizon

Believe it or not, planting season is almost here! I've been perusing websites, magazines, and of course, Pinterest for inspiration. This year, at my work garden, I'm hoping to build:

2 additional hoop houses

A potato bin

A compost pile

I'm also planning on expanding my compost program and expanding the garden to include a not for profit farmer's market. Spring being so close is freaking me out. A lot of work is piling up and my team is dwindling. I've had several team members leave for other opportunities. Lame, lame, lame, but understandable. It puts me in the lurch, though, and I'm trying like hell to re-build a team as great as last year's. It's hard when you realize how much work it's going to be. I'm scared I won't be able to get the job done with such a small team. Hopefully I'm just being cynical.

In the mean time, I'm trying just to get inspired for the upcoming growing season. Here are some things I'd like to do as side projects:

Build a pallet garden

Make a dibber

Purchase a paper pot maker

Have you started thinking about gardening yet? What projects are you eyeballing this year?

(Photo credits linked above)

Worming Around

Peeps...I've been working hard on my list for 2012. I may not be winning with everything, but having more measurable goals for myself has made a difference. Number 26 on the list was to "Compost, compost, compost." I haven't been as great about this as I would have wished, but lately I've been getting into the swing of it.

I initially thought I was going to just collect my food scraps and take them to my job, since I run a composting initiative there. But taking nasty garbage to work isn't as fun as it sounds. A couple of weeks ago, though, things really turned around for me. I attended a workshop at the Garfield Park Conservatory (the same place we went on our 1st anniversary!) on worm composting. Besides learning about the ins and outs of worm composting (pun intended), you also got to build your own worm bin and they gave you a handful of worms to get your bin started.

Here's the thing: I actually have a worm bin at work. A colleague started a worm bin for our composting initiative. A while back, though, her job responsibilities changed and she no longer was working with me. I was stuck with the worm compost and I had no idea what to do with it.

Flash forward a few months to me in that workshop and, well, the entire time all I could think was I am a worm murderer. Seriously. I was not taking care of those worms AT ALL. I'm pretty sure I killed them all. Well, I know I didn't, because the day after the workshop I looked through the bin and found some, but I know for a fact that there used to be a ton of worms in there. Now there are a few. I'm going to harvest the remaining worms this week and start over and hopefully, they will breed and we'll get the bin going again the right way. Live and learn, I guess. (Well, kind of, because I was supposed to feed the new worms a couple of days after I got them and I freaking waited a whole week and a half because I kept forgetting. Don't worry. These worms didn't die. They had the initial stuff we loaded into the bin to munch on before I started adding food scraps.)

The new bin, I've kept at home. Technically, I was supposed to take it to my work and use it there, but honestly, it's better off at my home. I can take the compost to work instead. I'm getting better about putting scraps in as I get them and the worms are munching slowly but surely and turning my food scraps into "black gold." There are some limitations to worm composting that have made it so that I can't put all my scraps in there or all my paper, but for the most part this is a great way for us to be a little greener and for me to "work" from home. Here are some pictures from the workshop and some recent pictures of the worms working their asses off (again, pun intended) to give me a beautiful garden come spring. Enjoy the grossness!

Ollie is fascinated by the worm bin. He likes to sniff the air holes on the outside. He takes these deep snorty breaths right outside. It's kind of funny. He just can't figure out what is going on in there!

(Photos by me!)

My Boring Life

Each week, I plan on having an awesome weekend filled with fun stuff that I can blog about later. Each week, I daydream about the kickass things A.P. and I will do together, building new memories and having a blast doing so. Then the weekend rolls around and before I know it, I'm sleeping on a couch. I tell A.P. I'm going to do a bunch of stuff - run errands, go to the store, clean the house, pick a movie for us to go see. But here's what happens instead: I sleep. I sleep in, I lay around the house, unable to move, then if I can, I take a nap. Before I know it, it's too late to do anything. Plus...I'm usually too tired anyway. And I know you're thinking I'm depressed or something, but I'm not. For one thing, I know the difference. For another, I'm not alone. A.P. spends much of his weekend in the same way, though he usually talks himself into getting some chores done more than I do (I hate housecleaning. It's easy to talk myself out of that.).

The thing is, work and life are stressing me out big time. I'm unhappy with my family, working my ass off (and I had an intern doing half of my job until last week), and I'm so tired or stressed that I'm not even able to seek my creative outlets, like blogging or photography or guitar.

Plus, Ollie is great, but he's a lot of work. Sure, it's mostly fun work, but after a long day, sometimes I want to curl up and pass out for an hour. Not play endless fetch. I grin, bear it, and play the endless fetch because I love Ollie and I want him to be a happy puppy. But geez-a-lou! It wears me out big time.

All of this adds up to a nutty, boring life. One filled with not enough sleep Monday through Friday and too much sleep Saturday and Sunday. Rinse. Repeat.

I had on my list that I needed to re-prioritize my life. That I needed to put life and A.P. first and work second. It's so, so hard. And not just for me, but for A.P., too. Plus, I think we're bored of being bored. We want to do fun things. We want to have a life filled with adventure and fun. And we want to be able to walk through the door and leave work behind because, in the end, it's not important to us. But in these tough economic times, it's every man for themselves and so work has, without us trying, become a huge focus. And so, we work ourselves into a stupor and then spend the weekend in a post-work, boredom coma. Guys, what am I going to do??? I need to get out of this funk. We need to get out of this funk.

And no...we didn't get that damn tree put up, though it and the boxes of decorations are sitting outside, on our back porch, waiting to be brought inside to adorn our home.

Me vs. The Beetles

The doggie in the garden. They were mowing the lawns, so I had to stick him in with the sweet potatoes and broccoli plants. At first he didn't like it, but after a while, he took shelter under one of the sunflower plants. Hilarious.

I've been taking some pictures the last couple of weeks so that I could update you guys on the garden. But this week, a war started. And I've been fighting it all week. And it is BREAKING. MY. HEART.

I noticed them last Thursday on the pumpkin blossoms, but didn't think too much about it until a couple of days later when it occurred to me that they weren't really hanging around the plant so much as they were MUNCHING on my beautiful pumpkin blossoms. So, I did some internet sleuthing and figured out that they were some kind of squash loving beetle. I decided that when I went back in on Monday, if they were still there, I'd attack and conquer, as well as take some more photos so I could really identify what I was dealing with. I'd at least identified them as a beetle, so that would be enough to start looking for an organic pesticide of some kind.

The dog and I went to the garden on Monday and I noticed they'd spread to the squash plants on the other side of the garden. I noticed that one squash was rotting (it wasn't like that last week). I took some photos and then the dog and I headed to Home Depot to find a solution. I managed to find one pesticide spray for fruits and vegetables, which I told the guy who was helping me, "should help me kill those bastard beetles the way they're killing my beautiful garden."

I then returned to the garden and drained 3/4 of a bottle on all the squash plants (there are 13 total and they're HUGE). After that, I felt satisfied enough with my attack strategy that I returned home to do some more internet sleuthing. After some googling of "squash beetle," I finally managed to find a picture and identify my bastard beetles as cucumber beetles. I prefer bastard beetles. It sounds kinder. Here are some pictures that I snapped of the bastard beetles attacking my squash plants and my watermelon plants.

I then went to one of my favorite gardening blogs, GrafixMuse's Garden Spot. I left her a comment about my problem and she was kind enough to give me her email address and offer assistance. After she saw one of my photos, she confirmed that I was dealing with cucumber bastard beetles. She then suggested Bonide Garden Dust, said she'd had the same problem and one dusting fixed it. She told me it used to be considered organic, but to double check. So far as I can tell, it is organic, and frankly, at this point, a semblance of the organic stamp of approval is enough. After terrible spring weather, bunnies, storms galore, and squirrels feasting on my tomatoes and then strewing the half-eaten remains around the courtyard, I have HAD IT with shit ruining my garden.

Last night, I went to Home Depot again, bought some more spray and some of the Garden Dust. I figured if the spray seemed to be effective, I would use that again. If not, I'd crop dust the shit out of my, well, crop. Lo and behold those bastards had spread to my cucumber plants! So, I spent an hour in the dusk, crop dusting the shit out of my squash and cucumber plants. You reapply every 7-10 days, so I won't reapply until next week. Luckily, there aren't any fruit worth picking right now (you can't use RIGHT before a harvest) and the weather here has been really mild (you're not supposed to use it during high temperatures). I'm crossing my fingers that when I go into work tomorrow and check the garden, the bastards are gone. Otherwise, I can pretty much scrap any kind of pumpkin/squash crop. Ugh. Do you know how depressing this is? Some of those plants were grown from seeds. Farming is hard, y'all! In the mean time, here are some photos from the last couple of weeks:

The last squash we enjoyed before the bastard beetles attacked

The squash and green beans. I've got a million green bean blossoms, too. The beetles haven't affected them too, too badly, but they're certainly not helping.Some pepperoncini

Some more cucumbers growing. They haven't been affected too bad by the infestation. It's the squash and melons that have suffered the most. Bastard beetles!

Some pretty poppies and celosia

The empty hoop house. We'll start readying this for the fall garden, soon. We'll be planting lettuce and spinach.
The sweet potatoes, broccoli, and three sunflower plants.
The tomato plants are completely out of control. I finally pulled the onions because they weren't even growing well anymore. The tomatoes have completely overtaken this bed. I can't even weed it anymore.
The watermelons and one errant squash. I yanked the corn a while back. They never took off since they were stunted from not getting transplanted fast enough. Ugh.

The poor pumpkin plants, which I've had the hardest time with this year. I'm not giving up yet! You can see my pesticide in the background. I took these photos right before my attack.

(Photos by me!)

Garden Update

Did you guys enjoy the anniversary edition of Wedding Wednesday yesterday? If you missed the DIY projects I posted, you can check them out by looking here (as well as some other great Wedding Wednesday posts!). It was so fun to share those DIY projects with you guys! We didn't do much to celebrate our anniversary yesterday. At first I was really sad about it, but then I just told A.P. that we'll do it up right this weekend. Five years ago, I think I would have been sad that we didn't do something on the exact day. I would have blamed A.P. for not planning something. And truth be told, I was a bit bummed he didn't plan a surprise. But neither did I. We're both busy and tired and hot. So I forgave us and remembered that anniversaries are what you make them. And this weekend, we'll make ours great. Five years deserves that much. Heck, we've outlasted most Hollywood couples.

Now, for the garden update! The garden is growing, but not as well as I'd hoped. It's okay. It's my first year. I lost my best squash plant this week. I'm trying like hell to revive it, but it's not looking too good. The stem broke and got strong again, but then couldn't support the large plant and then it just snapped. So sad. It was the original squash plant. The one that made it through all the other traumatic weather events. Seriously, guys. I'm crying a little. I've been gardening for years and I know it sounds nuts, but every time you lose a plant you grew from seeds, it breaks your heart. Also, our corn is weird and stunted. It's still kind of early on, so maybe things will perk up? But right now, it's looking like a cornless summer. (Or maybe I will get like five baby corns and I can eat them like in Big.) Also, we planted a crapton of lettuce and broccoli and other good stuff and none of it grew. We just had too much dry, hot weather for a while, and I made a rookie mistake. It could be like the carrots and something might pop up, but right now, I'm thinking it's a bust. I'm going to replant, but I'm going to wait a little while until it cools down. It's hella hot here and taking care of the sunflower and been seedlings while the heat pounds down on the city has been...challenging. (Also, I'm well aware it's almost the end of July, but you have to remember that it only warmed up about a month ago, and then we had terrible storms, so some of this is replanting for the hell of it. I'm also thinking about installing brackets on all the beds so that I can install hoop houses to extend the growing season for any slow bloomers.)

That being said, not everything is a complete bust. The other squash plants are looking good. Our watermelon plants are taking off. The cucumbers finally boomed and now I'm trying to train them to go up the damn trellis. They took a long while to boom (we put them in in June!), so I'm not sure how that's going to shake down. Our tomatoes, onions, and peppers are wonderful, as are our herbs in the greenhouse. I see a good pasta dish in my future. We also have planted sweet potatoes and finally got the broccoli in the ground. And just for shits and giggles, we threw some sunflower seeds in the ground. We also got a new round of pumpkins in the ground. At first I thought they would give me problems, too, but they're looking good now. If we have an Indian summer like last year, we should be able to get a reasonable harvest barring any difficulties.

Yesterday, I went thrifting/antiquing and I picked up an old copy of Square Foot Gardening for Cash. It's not the original square foot gardening book, but it does explain the technique. It also explains how to grow so that you can have multiple harvests and therefore sell your crop. My job is thinking about expanding the garden and I am talking to them about doing a small-scale Farmer's Market, so this book was like a perfect little find. I think that next year we will give Square Foot Gardening a try in the expansion and continue to keep the beds set up the way we had them this year. Or maybe we'll do all square foot gardening! Who knows?

In the mean time, we pulled all of the root vegetables except three smaller beet plants and a couple of stray carrot plants that finally made an appearance. I'm going to till the rest of the bed and prepare it for the next go round. This was a decent crop, but because of the bunnies, I didn't get to thin the plants as much as I wanted to. So, I'm aware that we had a lot of sad little roots and big leaves. Here was our crop of radishes, beets, and turnips:


And because my favorite are always the weird ones. Here are my favorite radishes:

The Mermaid Tail
The Monster

(Photos by me!)