Rook and Tangle

Sugar Space

Tue, 18 Sep 2012 00:15:00 -0400

Last time I was here I was lying down on my back in our lawn. It was midsummer evening, my favorite hours of the year, and in strong contrast to my rural childhood I was lying down with my head three feet from concrete, four feet from where the street’s druggie had passed out, 30 feet from a brewery, and 50 yards from a notorious dive bar. I lay down on the grass and looked into the sky and talked with Eric, the air shaded from yellow to red to dusk, like swimming in a lake we floated on the light and standing up was like diving into its depths.

Then I blinked and was here, sitting on the couch three months later with graduate school graduation, a new job, volunteer trip, birthday parties, dinners, early mornings, late nights, deadlines and responsibilities fulfilled tieing together the yawning chasm of the the last three months.

I’ve heard that the mind is like a house, with rooms and closets and cupboards, locked and unlocked - and I’m sitting in the middle of the house at an old chest full of keys, and I’m pretty sure I just dropped the last handful of reeses pieces in the chest.

Makings

Thu, 01 Mar 2012 00:25:01 -0500

Working downtown I encounter a lot of homeless people. Today I walked down first ave and saw what seemed to be a couple teasing a blind man with a severe developmental disability. I slowed down to check out the situation and the man of the couple started saying quazi-agressive things to me so I crossed the street. I stayed and peeked around the parked car to see if the situation was alright or if I should call the police-at second watch the blind man seemed to be on good terms with the couple, he followed them down the street-had I misread the quazi head lock? I still feel haunted that the couple was abusing the blind man; that he followed them because he got attention or love from them even in their abuse, or didn’t know any better - I don’t know if I did the right thing by continuing on my walk.

10 minutes later I passed by a woman sitting on the ground rocking herself in fetal position. She talked to herself and rocked-I couldn’t understand words, but there were sounds of rage and sorrow mixed together. A few minutes later I walked back down the street. There was vomit by where she had been sitting, two piles of it, and she was now pacing back and forth in front of an empty storefront, completely engaged in her own mind, vomit smeared on the back of her jacket.

After I passed the woman I went into Bartell drugs to buy some mascara, passing by a man with some sort of disability selling Real Change. He spoke like his tongue was cut off or numb, his clothes piecemealed together. As I wandered through Bartell’s his muddled voice range out every time the automatic doors opened: rea change, rea change, rea change, rea change, rea change.

How long, O Lord? Have mercy on us.

New Year

Mon, 09 Jan 2012 15:03:46 -0500

It’s a new year and a sunny day outside. I feel rested, inspired, and given the New Year’s blessing to self-actualize a little more-if only I can stop checking the craigslist free listings. 2011 was a really happy year in the Borgh residence. It was my 5^th year in Seattle (Eric’s 4th) and we’ve finally settled in, evidenced by the fact that I only get lost about once a month, know exactly where to find the ketchup in the grocery store, and have a “gang” of friends (think Archie comics: “Call up the gang, JugHead’s metabolism has reversed and he’s the size of a house!”). We’ve lived in the farmhouse for 2.5 years and now enjoy the presence of the woman’s roller derby and a brewery on our street. We got new housemates who delight us with their fun and thoughtfulness-I was recently handed a homemade pumpkin spice late in my to-go mug on my way out the door. I’m also learning a lot about being a real adult from them, ie, that standing up in the kitchen eating couscous out of the pot with a mixing spoon doesn’t count as dinner.

We are deeply involved with our church’s youth group as volunteers. For proof I can show you a hair curling technique that I learned from one of the girls during a five hour long hang out session or give you the definition of the word noob. But I really love those kids and being with them adds a lot of spice and joy to my live.

Eric added beekeeping and cheese making to his list of creative projects. I’ve added “learned to have fun” and “am reading again” to mine. I’ve also started playing the piano and writing a little bit more. None of that writing will ever become public, but it’s very reassuring to sit down with paper and pen and find that I haven’t gone crazy or lost my identity: Becca’s still home and has gotten a little bossy lately. Also, after the purchase of a pair of hot pink running shoes early last year I’m up and running again-which is one of my favorite arduous pastimes.

Life since high school felt like a whirlwind, 5 moves in two years, marriage, graduating undergrad, finding a job, supporting a husband through an emotionally rigorous graduate program. The last year has been a culmination of all the work we’ve done trying to make Seattle home and the huge relief we feel at experiencing stability; It’s freeing and joyful.

So from this last happy year we’re turning another chapter. Eric completes school in April and will be looking for a job as a mental health provider (nervously holding our breath until he finds that job) and I just applied for graduate school (to be a therapist-yes, we will screw our kids up), We are anticipating many fun and scary changes. Here’s to a wonderful 2011 and many hopes for a challenging and life-giving 2012!

Thankful

Wed, 24 Aug 2011 12:43:46 -0400

My closeted perfectionist needs some perspective this morning (she’s still mad that I didn’t go on a run yesterday) and so I thought I’d help her out by showing some appreciation for the life I do have.

Thankful for:

Backpacking trips with beautiful weather, hard physical challenge, and people that are different than me.

The sun outside today.

A job at a good company with great coworkers.

My health.

Wendell Berry.

The bookmarks tab on Firefox.

Dreaming and imaging beautiful spaces.

The gift of writing.

Our country’s infrastructure-in awe of its complexity.

Grad school in a year.

Routine.

My grandmas sand dollar necklace.

Sisters moving closer.

Getting to support a living wage for migrant workers through a CSA box.

Recycling.

Three years of hard work in my marriage that makes it what it is today.

Allison Krauss’ music.

Family, friends, loved ones.

I recently did the decorations for my dear friends Dan and...

Mon, 25 Jul 2011 23:18:00 -0400

Instead of a guestbook there was a quilt

This sign went up at the reception

Bride's Bouquet

Groomsman's Boutineer

I recently did the decorations for my dear friends Dan and Erin’s wedding. I wasn’t able to take many day-of photos (too busy scurrying around), but I do have a few pre-wedding photos of a few different elements at my house.

Their colors were yellow and green, and core to Dan and Erin is a commitment to living simply and giving away what they have to others, along with an organic, happy, whimsical touch. We worked together to honor their commitments and put something together that would create a happy, festive environment with touches of simplistic, homeade decor. This meant a lot of fabric (1/2 off at JoAnne’s fabrics), yarn, burlap, butcher paper, tissue paper, ball jars, and inexpensive potted plants. A group of 10-20 of Dan and Erin’s committed and amazing friends came early to the wedding and in about two hours we got the majority of the decor set up. It was a fabulous experience and one where I learned a lot about what I enjoy and where I want to continue learning as I create for these types of events. I L-O-V-E doing this. love. The best part is that I got to do what I love for people I love!

I think that I might not be shy anymore… When I was seven...

Mon, 18 Jul 2011 15:43:00 -0400

Me and Hannah Barrett

Le Fete

Golden Gardens

Me with BPYG girls

At a friend's Birthday

I think that I might not be shy anymore…

When I was seven I was too humiliated to ask my teacher if I could go to the classroom. Instead, I peed my pants and when little Ricky sitting next to me noticed a “drip, drip” from my chair I told him very innocently that it must be the Capri-sun leaking from my backpack. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve always had a bossy streak and a quick answer. This weekend I organized 15 people into doing the decoration for a wedding in two hours; I’ve vacillated between bossypants and pee-your-pants.

But this weekend I went from working hard-hard at the wedding to my friend’s 30^th birthday party, where I partied until 1:00pm. The next morning I joined MHGS student leadership to dance…in public….in a silly/amazingly fun team building exercise. I’ve had more challenging conversations in the last two days than I’ve had in months, and the culmination of all of these things mark a wonderful change that’s happened in me. I find myself somewhere in the middle of the two extremes: in charge, but less intense; quiet, but less afraid, and much, much happier and more eager to continue embracing and experiencing life.

I’m thinking of freshening my room up, inspired by some of...

Wed, 08 Jun 2011 20:20:41 -0400

I’m thinking of freshening my room up, inspired by some of these items. However, I need to

1. Keep it under $100
2. Keep the yellow wall color

My to-do list:

Make above yellow carpet
Add black trim to curtains
Paint blue pillow covers
Sew black trim onto white pillow covers
Sew orange and white striped pillow case
Make two nights stand shelves next to bed
Reinstall lamps above night stand shelves
Make reclaimed wood headboard…or see if Eric wants to do it

Whew!!! It still needs some collaborative conversation between Eric and I, but hopefully we’re on track to creating a really fun and great bedroom.

Flowers

Sat, 09 Apr 2011 23:51:50 -0400

I’ve always loved flowers in the house, but never thought I could afford them. However, I’m discovering that for an average of $10 a week, I can keep 1-2 vases of fresh flowers in the house. For all the pleasure and sense of ease $10 a week can give me, I’ve totally decided it’s an investment worth making.

Seed Planting Time at the Borgh’s

Thu, 03 Mar 2011 00:00:07 -0500

Prepping the pots

Preparing the soil

Got the seeds

All Done!

Seed Planting Time at the Borgh’s

I’m not that great at giving presents. For Christmas this year...

Tue, 01 Mar 2011 14:27:01 -0500

I’m not that great at giving presents. For Christmas this year I gave Eric his present a week after Christmas, hastily wrapped and shoved under his nose. So Valentine’s day was my opportunity to redeem myself. Radiolab tickets for the 5^th avenue theatre came up for sale and I pounced on them. But then Eric heard about the show and called me, his mouse hovering over the “buy tickets” button. The tickets hadn’t come in the mail yet so I had to improvise. I grabbed some red, white, and pink paper, scissors, and double sided tape and made an envelope and tickets. It’s pretty simple, but I think all you crafty people out there will agree that these little impromptu projects can be so much fun.

Vintage furniture for rent

Mon, 21 Feb 2011 17:00:08 -0500

Vintage furniture for rent

Valentines Day at the Borghs

Tue, 15 Feb 2011 11:33:19 -0500

The New New Year

Fri, 11 Feb 2011 13:15:42 -0500

Hi everyone! It’s been a while since I posted anything significant, and I’m excited to get into the groove of posting again. This New Years I made of list of hopes. Not resolutions, but hopes. Among them were:

Update my blog more
Get back into running
Eat healthier
Crafting more

At the heart of my hopes is wanting to live life better, whittling away the extra anxieties in my life and giving more time to the things that deep in my heart and my body I want to do.

But doing what I want means giving myself grace when I fail too. I hit the ground running after Christmas break and have just finished up doing laundry from the Christmas trip to Cali. Here’s how I did with my new years hopes in the month of January:

Updated blog once
Never ran
Ate Mac and Cheese straight out of the pot, slouched back on the couch after a long, long day on more than one occasion.
Never crafted

So I declare February my new new year, begun with a restful weekend out of town, and christened with a beautiful sunny day.

And to mark this new new year, here are some new amazing things in my life:

The snooze button. Who knew that waking up 10 minutes early and hitting snooze would be so amazing. Also, I’ve started going to bed at 10:30. Getting enough sleep has been one of best parts of new new year.

Running. Physical therapy is the new black magic. On Saturday I went for my first run in a year and a half. Now I just have to wait for it to be light enough in the evening so I don’t get raped when I go for a run.

Sufjan Stevens. It’s taken me a long time to get on the train, but I was listening to his Christmas album a few weeks ago and everything fell into place.

BDG jeans for 30 bucks. Every woman has to find her jeans. It’s more of a struggle for some than others, but every one has to put up with too low, too tight, too short, too long, too awkward, too flary, too skinny jeans. Well I found me some lady jeans, except they’re too expensive. Unless they’re on sale. And they were on sale for $30!

I know that Portlandia makes fun of hipsters and their bird use,...

Fri, 28 Jan 2011 12:25:18 -0500

I know that Portlandia makes fun of hipsters and their bird use, but I can’t help myself, birds are just so amazing. Here are two of my favorite.

Searching for a good read at my parents house for Christmas I...

Tue, 04 Jan 2011 14:05:22 -0500

Searching for a good read at my parents house for Christmas I happened on several shelves of our favorite childrens books. Most of them are pretty beat up, torn, drawn on, stamped, “property of Rebecca Rose Lack” over and over and over. I remembered stealing the fluffy white feather comforter from my parent’s bed, pulling it over the floor air vent by the big french doors and sitting huddled up beneath as the air blew the comforter up and the light from the window streamed in. I read for hours in my illuminated igloo; here are some of my old favorites.

Why I love my homeland

Thu, 30 Dec 2010 00:00:07 -0500

Why I love my homeland

What happens when you leave an onion in the ground until...

Tue, 28 Dec 2010 13:56:17 -0500

It was at least three feet tall!

What happens when you leave an onion in the ground until December.

Photo

Mon, 27 Dec 2010 16:42:31 -0500

Photo

Mon, 27 Dec 2010 16:41:10 -0500

Tumblr lost my posts, so here’s the finished up...

Mon, 27 Dec 2010 16:38:50 -0500

Tumblr lost my posts, so here’s the finished up gingerbread cookie photos: Cookie Prep