We are Liz and Alex. Born two days apart back in 1989, we have worked, learned, lived, and laughed together since 2008. These are some of our thoughts.
Have you ever seen the movie Stranger than Fiction starring Will Ferrell and Maggie Gyllenhaal? If not, you should. You could even borrow it if you like. It tells the story of an adorably awkward IRS agent named Harold Crick who's death is foreshadowed by the voice of a narrator in his head. This clearly comes as quite a shock to Harold, and at a rather inconvenient time as he is auditing an anarchist baker who he may or may not be developing feelings for. And that's where we come in.
Ana Pascal is her name and she is the most bad-ass, rad baker this side of the cookie sheet. The reason Harold is auditing her and her shop is because she refused to pay the portion of her taxes corresponding to military spending. And boom! There we have it: an anarchist, activist baker who sticks it to the man. Why would we not want to be her?
Harold bringing Ana flours. So cute.
But, in more concrete terms, one of the reasons we love her (besides being a self-employed baker with a sweet sleeve tat) is also her openness to new experiences. I mean, a socially inept IRS agent is probably the last person we would consider dating, but despite a rather hostile beginning, their relationship flours (sic) into a quite loving one.
Ana also represents someone who knows what she wants, and isn't afraid to make sacrifices to get it. She was a law student at Harvard; but decided that she could make the world a better place by baking. (Cue The Bee's favorite line from Ms. Pascal: "...I figured if I was gonna make the world a better place... I would do it with cookies...
") That sacrifice is admirable, and one which we think should be emulated. In a society where people are urged to get ahead by whatever means necessary, to choose a "practical" major (full disclosure: neither The Hawk nor The Bee did so), and see each other as competition; the easy path is to ignore your passion, to not try and make the world a better place. We think we should!
That is not to say that either The Hawk or The Bee is currently "following their bliss," but Ms. Pascal is someone who, though fictional, we definitely want to be when we grow up. Plus, who doesn't like cookies?
One of the features we would like to institute on this blog is a weekly "What We're Reading" post; a book report of sorts. So here's our first go.
Liz is reading: Mrs. Whaley and her Charleston Garden
Today I got a phone call that I was anxiously awaiting. Standing on the playground at work I felt my pocket buzz, took a sneaking peak at my phone, saw the local area code and did a little jig in my head. It was my most recent new job prospect calling me back. On my break I was finally free to check my messages only to find out that the job was given to someone with more experience...yet again. How are you supposed to get experience when no one will give you any? But I digress.
Last week I had applied at a local floral shop and the owner and I had nicely hit it off (making today's call even more disappointing). I expressed my love of flowers and told her about my most recent read (that had actually made me want to even apply). The book was called The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh and it was wonderful and I highly recommend it. I've been in a flower mood all spring and even more so since I read that book. Which leads me to this week's read, Mrs. Whaley and her Charleston Garden.
Through William Baldwin, Emily Whaley tells us the story of her famed garden in Charleston, SC and how it came to be. She gives gardening tips (my favorite being to take advantage of borrowed landscape. AKA highlight that mountain on the horizon or the beautiful roof-line of a neighbor's house with your plantings).
At the time the book was written, Mrs. Whaley (also known as Cheeka) was in her mid-80s and adorably southern.
This is her and her dog Rosie. So cute.
While I don't agree with everything she has to say, or even all of her landscaping ideas, it is definitely an interesting book that provides vivid images of the South and its horticulture.
Here are some pictures of the garden:
Not quite my taste, but pretty nonetheless. Plus, this is in a small, walled backyard in Charleston, so its pretty impressive. So for any of you flora fans out there, this book might just be for you.
This week Alex has been reading fragile things by Neil Gaiman
This past year I have really poured myself into one particular activist project where I have taken on a significant leadership role. That work, combined with my 9-5 (well 9.30-6.00 technically), and looking for a new job--albeit half-heartedly--has left me feeling very drained. For me their needs to be some sense of wonder when approaching activist work: you're seeking to change systems and thought patterns for the better, it's sort of a magical thing! So, I turned to Neil Gaiman.
In his introduction, Gaiman says
"As I write this now, it occurs to me that the peculiarity of most things we think of as fragile is how tough they truly are. There were tricks we did with eggs, as children to show who they were, in reality, tiny load-bearing marble halls; while the beat of the wings of a butterfly in the right place, we are told, can create a hurricane across an ocean. Heart may break, but hearts are the toughest of muscles, able to pump for a lifetime, seventy times a minute, and scarcely falter along the way. Even dreams, the most delicate and intangible of things, can prove remarkably difficult to kill.
In this collection Gaiman serves up a mixture of poetry, short stories, and even something that may qualify as a novella (although I'm not sure how long that is). I find it so refreshing because while it is decidedly grown-up, there is a sort of magic and splendor to his writing. Like his poem "Instructions"
Overall his work reminds me that what is seemingly fragile whether that is my time, my hopes surrounding my activism, my sanity, whatever it is: it's actually probably a lot stronger than I give it credit for. Which is what I really need right now.
We are Alex and Liz (the Hawk and the Bee respectively) and this is our little corner of the internet. Our friendship was forged back in 2008 while sophomores in college. From there we worked in an environmental organization together, lived next door to each other, and even worked together (with a little play thrown in between).
This blog is our attempt to illuminate what life is like for the recent college graduate living in a small town, trying to discover who we're meant to be.
Liz was your typical idealist college student, majoring in English with minors in Women's Studies and Environmental Studies. Upon graduation, she was promptly slapped in the face by the reality of a 40-hour a week job and little time for much else. In these small windows of free time she enjoys cooking veggie meals with her boyfriend Matt, playing with her little black kitten Penelope, reading, writing, watching bees, wearing moccasins, drinking tea, and taking long walks through the cemetery. She hopes to be a beekeeping librarian and yoga instructor when she grows up and help others keep their dreams in the face of the real world.
Alex entered into college a Global Justice major, realized that wasn't quite up his alley and promptly switched to a Social Justice major whist picking up a minor in Communication Studies. When he graduated he realized that those weren't quite marketable in a small town; so he got to waiting for a Master's program while working a full-time job. When he isn't working he is probably on a conference call or doing some sort of activist work, cooking up vegetarian delights (or disasters depending on the availability of spices), reading, doing social media, or playing with his orange tabby Merlin. He hopes to grow up to be an activist & professor, or to work with an NGO, he's not quite sure.
Our posts will be both collaborative and individual, we'll be sure to let you know which are which. We hope you enjoy, or at least tolerate our thoughts.
