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Happy Hanukah Yayoe!
And Apooh- thanks for...
December 20, 2003 by Sadie in Sadie & Greg
Happy Hanukah Yayoe!
And Apooh- thanks for pickin' me up.
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Apooh,
The reason the fam thought you could ...
December 16, 2003 by Sadie in Sadie & Greg
Apooh,
The reason the fam thought you could pick me up is because you'd already be in Portland visiting Jamie's family. If that's not the case, please do what you feel comfortable with.
My real email address is sadierynmiller@hotmail.com
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All is well in sunny Noho
December 12, 2003 by Sadie in Sadie & Greg
All is well in sunny Noho. The fourteen inches of snow has melted clean with yesterday's rain, and we are left only with wind chill. Anna is neck deep in finals, studying as I type, and I am just plowing through the christmas retail season.
Here is my flight information, for Adam's benefit. BTW, thanks for the ride.
Arrive in Portland on Dec 24th, 10:45 pm on Delta 441. Leave Portland at 7:00 am on December 31st.
hugs,
sadie
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Sadie's crazy link (not suitable for children...
November 25, 2003 by Sadie in Sadie & Greg
Sadie's crazy link (not suitable for children)
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Let it be known that I am accepting suggestio...
November 24, 2003 by Sadie in Sadie & Greg
Let it be known that I am accepting suggestions for gift ideas, also known as wish lists. Most poeple will recieve coal and hand made paper goods, but for those of you who have no actual paper good needs must resort to listing so I can figure out how to make what you want out of glue and styrofoam.
All is well and sunny, chilled but not unbearably cold here. Anna and I made tacos last night, a wonderful flashback to the days of mom, Seraph and I when we didn't have a microwave or a step father role model person. Quite tasty.
I can't wait to come home.
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As the HUD requirements for the Analysis of I...
November 19, 2003 by Sadie in Sadie & Greg
As the HUD requirements for the Analysis of Impediments piled up, I began to look for an easy exit from the planning internship. In an exhausted overwhelmed moment I told the director of planning that I just couldn't do it all by myself. So now I have a fellow intern picking up the easily packaged parts of my projects. She will finish up the small business interviews for the assessment project while I muck through the impediments bit. I think this will really help me organize my thoughts and time and give the projects I can't do to her. Yes!
For the record, I bought my plane ticket, and Adam has graciously promised to pick me up at 10:30 on Christmas Eve. I fly out on the 31st of December- short, but hopefully very very sweet.
I heard from Jenny M.S. this evening, and having been poor and isolated for five months, she's decided to apply for grad programs in creative writing- the UofO, UVA, and UNC. Kudos for her and her brave slaying of the GREs.
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A very windy day in Northampton, causing the ...
November 14, 2003 by Sadie in Sadie & Greg
A very windy day in Northampton, causing the wind to whistle through our seventy-plus year old windows. They promise we'll get new ones in a month, but for now its sweaters indoors for us. Nevertheless, the sun is brilliant, as it tends to be on sickeningly cold days, so I'm feeling quite cheery. big hugs.
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Christmas wish list:
2 pair black socks
S...
November 11, 2003 by Sadie in Sadie & Greg
Christmas wish list:
2 pair black socks
Spices with complementary recipes, or sufficient how-to
2004 day planner
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Anna played the Spring solo of Vivaldi's Four...
November 03, 2003 by Sadie in Sadie & Greg
Anna played the Spring solo of Vivaldi's Four Seasons this evening at a local church. It was inspiring to have her practice in the apartment this week- my cleaning muse. Work is tiring and promises an early holiday rush, but I have a sturdy back for it. Feeling a combination of overextended and locked into a futureless limbo, which is odd, as I'm still in good spirits. Could be all that halloween candy...
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This Saturday was my first full day off since...
October 29, 2003 by Sadie in Sadie & Greg
This Saturday was my first full day off since early September, and what a perfect day it was! Anna and I went to an honest diner in Florence, a very small town abutting Noho, then puttered around on foot, snooping though an antique warehouse and buying up books at a great little place. The rest of the week has been very good. Sophia (a wonderful co-worker) and I played tricks during the slow bouts of a rainy Sunday, putting little notes on people's car windows like: I left someone in your trunk. I'll pick him up next week if that's OK. Moments like these make me glad I have the flexibility of a small store and low-key management. The internship is picking up and I'm actually getting to use my brain these days, attempting to put together a task force for the analysis of impediments to fair housing project.
Big hugs!
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Just checking in
October 21, 2003 by Sadie in Sadie & Greg
Just checking in. Big hugs and muscles for the construction project.
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Here is a picture of my living room, which ...
October 15, 2003 by Sadie in Sadie & Greg
Here is a picture of my living room, which Adam so graciously posted. The living room is actually wonderfully light, but this photo is a little backlit. The other photo is me and Anna Monas, a friend who is currently studying at Wesleyan. The pictures behind are finger paints by Sam and watercolors by Yayoe! Thanks, Apoo!
I made a wonderful tuber cassarole last night and am considering making pumpkin milkshakes and acorn squash this evening. I love a whole month of bumping into people on the street, looking up at the trees or down at the fallen leaves.
My friends and I are keeping in contact with much greater frequency these days, because a) grown-up life in new cities is scary b) the trauma of losing Skye and Lucas is still fresh with all of us and c) everyone has free night and weekend minutes on their cell phones. To condense, Katie is doing biology research in L.A., Sara is working at Banana Republic in S.F., Megan Wells-Jamieson is working as a tellar at Wells-Fargo and at Banana Republic in Carmel, and Morgan is still loving the metal industry in Chicago. And everyone is excited about the World Series. It's a crazy world out there.
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Well, today is my long day
October 09, 2003 by Sadie in Sadie & Greg
 Well, today is my long day. Cooperation with several commissions, councils, and departments within the city limits is challenging. I’m trying to formulate questions to assess various federally funded projects, with the help of far too many people who don’t realize they want to help me yet. Sometimes throwing the net out so far brings back a whole lotta nuthin, and while I must be patient and learn the nuances of these things, it is currently frustrating to try to understand what is needed from this project.
However, I painted the whole bathroom on my two half-days, and it is now sparking white and lavender, a radical change from dark colonial blue. It is seemingly twice the size it once was, and a little too bright, compared to the rest of the antique white apartment. But at least it is my own. Lindsey likes it too- she thinks it looks like a Victorian powder room. The woman who used to live in the apartment with Lindsey, Eva, thinks it looks like a beach house. I think it needs a little lime to jazz it up.
A shout out to Jaqui Shine, who loves the website and I think would secretly like her own page. She keeps my days at Essentials interesting by dropping in and being sweet to me.
Amen, mom.
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While the warmth of summer is gone now, the l...
October 05, 2003 by Sadie in Sadie & Greg
 While the warmth of summer is gone now, the leaves are turning and the sky is no longer heavy with the exess of someone else's hurricane. This is the New England I love.
I've decided to go home with Anna and her brother Noah for Thanksgiving, because I have tuesdays and wednesdays off, and if I take the monday before Thanksgiving off, will be able to drive to Detroit and back again quite comfortably. We'll have Thanksgiving on Wednesday because the day after Thanksgiving is very busy and I'll need to help facilitate the selling process at Essentials.
Anna is making a video for continuum mechanics on the physics of spinning, and is sitting next to me in the library checking out tornado and diving movies. All the ice skating movies are at home and hopefully the break dancing flick will be back in circulation soon so she can scoop it up. Modern engineering education sure is funny.
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The joys of half-day tuesday! I finished at t...
September 30, 2003 by Sadie in Sadie & Greg
The joys of half-day tuesday! I finished at the city planning office, had eggplant for lunch, then had enough time to open a checking account at a local bank. I should probably transfer everything from my old bank now that I'm living and working in the area, but I'm just so gosh darn attached to UlaneO. I mean Oregon Community Credit Union. Maybe the name change is a sign.
I'm off to a city planning and development conference on thursday morning at Hotel Northampton- very fancy, very exciting.
Saw Finding Nemo, at last, this evening. Clever and fun for a whole family of college kids.
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This is me in my beautiful kitchen! The door ...
September 24, 2003 by Sadie in Sadie & Greg
 This is me in my beautiful kitchen! The door behind me goes to Lindsey's room, with our pantry in between. When it's warm we eat on the back porch, and there's a built-in ironing board just behind me in this photo. I get to iron my sheets and cook fall stews at the same time!
Today is Mountain Day at that big womyn's castle on the hill, so Anna and I have a country (campus) picnic schedualed after my internship this afternoon. After very heavy rains on tuesday, it's crisp and chilly- the absence of humidity the first sign of fall. However, I am at City Hall all morning, cringing as the self-important lady yells at poor Wayne Fiden, director of planning and development. She knows I want to run her out of the office with my icy (yet depressing and resigned) stares, but I don't think I have the authority. Everyone else, including the odd but cheery James, owner of the dogs, seems not to notice the tongue lashings she gives to Wayne. I can't imagine why he communtes to work for this. Nevertheless, knowing the aching joints resulting from retail, I appreciate the three hours of prescribed sitting every day.
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The owner of Squeeky doesn't know what to do ...
September 21, 2003 by Sadie in Sadie & Greg
The owner of Squeeky doesn't know what to do with Squueky's new affinity for me. Three years without a bum scratch must be hard for a dog, I suppose. I learned from the best, of course, if anyone remembers Sobaka's love for the ass rub.
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Huge news from the homefront! I'm excited to ...
September 19, 2003 by Sadie in Sadie & Greg
 Huge news from the homefront! I'm excited to hear about mom's new situation, Yayoe's new paint job, and Adam and Jamie's bourgeoise upkeep. Happy birthday, Jamie- I hope you find something wild to do. I'm in the middle of another 12 hour work day, but at least the internship is at my own pace. The rain might keep consumers away from Essentials this weekend, but one can't really tell. Maybe we'll sell all of our thirty dollar illuminated umbrellas. Yayoe- I sent Dorothy several thank you cards, but if she's not checking her P.O. Box, her not getting them is her own choice. The smooth haired chihuahua at work, Squeeky, is finally warming up to me. If I scratch her bum at regular intervals, she remains civil.
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My first day off! No more for me though- I st...
September 17, 2003 by Sadie in Sadie & Greg
My first day off! No more for me though- I still have the internship in the mornings on tuesdays and wednesdays. Anna and I saw a great lecture by a latino cartoonist and I convinced her to check out the Pirates of Penzance from the music library and watch it with me. Ahh, the good life.
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Do government employees ever arrive at work o...
September 15, 2003 by Sadie in Sadie & Greg
 Do government employees ever arrive at work on time? Perhaps Northampton is just very low-key. Mom worried that I'd have to wear stockings, but it looks like the director is the only one in a tie- no jacket, for sure. the rest in jeans.
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First Dick, Baba, Skye, Lucas, and Irene
September 12, 2003 by Sadie in Sadie & Greg
First Dick, Baba, Skye, Lucas, and Irene. And now Johnny Cash. What a fabulous six months. I feel too pressured to come home, if that makes any sense... a little burnt out on grieving.
It's my first day of work. I also started a big new project at the internship- life here has finally started to accelerate. I might work two instead of three and a half hours a day at the internship, as one full+ one part time job will get tiring very quickly.
My work schedual:
internship: 8:30-12 mon-fri
essentials: thursday, friday, saturday 1-9, sunday 12-5, monday 11-7
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yes, lead air and lead cookies
September 11, 2003 by Sadie in Sadie & Greg
yes, lead air and lead cookies. but i'm staying and praying here for the weekend. second interview at essentials today. the two hairless dogs at work are giving me the sniffles. one can't even touch them without being growled at, as if they weren't already perfectly shaped for a drop-kick. with the new black hair i feel like a real bad-ass, joan jett meets lydia from beatlejuice. it makes it a little easier to meet the day when one feels like biting it.
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while i toyed with the idea, i don't think i'...
September 10, 2003 by Sadie in Sadie & Greg
while i toyed with the idea, i don't think i'll be able to come home for the weekend. i simply can't budget a short-notice ticket in right now. but thank you for your kindness and calls this week.
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hangin in there
September 09, 2003 by Sadie in Sadie & Greg
hangin in there.
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Well, I just returned from a successful meeti...
September 05, 2003 by Sadie in Sadie & Greg
Well, I just returned from a successful meeting with Wayne Fieden, the director of city planning in Northampton, who took me in and told me that because I am unpaid, I get more exciting work than work-study students. Classist, but to my benefit. However, I think his idea of 'exciting work' is internet research on sewage systems instead of filing.
This afternoon is an interview with Essentials, the stationary and fancy home stuffs store. I'm wearing my glasses to look extra funky sophisticated. I doubt I can compete without ANY retail experience, but at least I'm arty.
The apartment is coming along, although the former roomate just took our one counter in the kithen, and without it (the wonderful wooden cutting block on wheels she took) we must butter our bread in the pantry.
This will all make sense once my friend returns to Northampton from Weslyan with her digital camera and I can take a few pictures of the apartment for you.
I had friends over last night and we watched Wonder Boys. Felt a little grown up to have friends over at my place. It's a good thing.
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I am sitting in Anna's new half-unpacked room...
September 01, 2003 by Sadie in Sadie & Greg
I am sitting in Anna's new half-unpacked room, feeling like... nothing. I cannot say that being in Morris house is uncomfortable (yet) nor that I feel settled into my new apartment (yet). It is total and complete limbo, hopfully until I start the internship and find a rut. I have miraculously found a bed, and all of my sweaters in the Morris house trunk room are safe and unmoldy, so all in all things are lining up. Will keep you posted.
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Mom and I had lunch with Ann Leong, whose hus...
August 27, 2003 by Sadie in Sadie & Greg
Mom and I had lunch with Ann Leong, whose husband also died of pancreatic cancer a year ago. She gave us wonderful advice on sewing quilts out of clothes and recommended Something to Crow About in Springfield. It was nice to be listened to by someone who had felt what mom and I are feeling, and then grew to understand why, which I think I am still at a loss about. She said that we are born and trained to problem solve, and this is one unsolvable problem that we are stuck with. A paradoxical slap in the face, if you ask me.
The grieving process has not dampened a love for Gregory Peck, however, and I rented Spellbound by Hitchock last night- wonderful! Way better than The Ring. Next pick: Notorious.
My new email address is sadiemiller@hotmail.com. Snail mail address is 55 South St. Apt. 2 Noho MA 01060.
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I have a few days left until I fly back to No...
August 25, 2003 by Sadie in Sadie & Greg
I have a few days left until I fly back to Northampton, so today was a day of shipping off extra stuff. I have an eye appoointment and an appointment with Morgan Munro to say goodbye to Eugene on foot. I imagine we'll stumble around downtown reminicing about high school, then go to a movie. Hopefully I'll have time to play with everyone one more time before the east coast has me for good.
and the smith email account doesn't work anymore, so i'll keep you posted as to what email i decide to use.
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Anna arrived in the Metro Detroit airport wit...
August 18, 2003 by Sadie in Sadie & Greg
Anna arrived in the Metro Detroit airport with its power was off, so it took a few days to get her luggage. However, although the treadmill still does not work properly after the power was turned on, her family, on a whole, seemed to live through it. Perhaps a few more days and they'd have taken Seraph's/a few Iraqi's advice on taking to the streets. Sounds good to me, the corporate American deregulating neoliberal bastards.
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I'm in chilly San Fracisco, wishing very much...
August 11, 2003 by Sadie in Sadie & Greg
I'm in chilly San Fracisco, wishing very much that I was in Eugene. Not that Morgan and Luke haven't been wonderful, but they are good to me knowing that they stand in for the perennial good company of family. Seraph and I agree, losing two people in three months is bad for the spirits, but I keep reassuring myself that the process of grieving is an enriching one. I'm still waiting, though. Many hugs.
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All my thoughts and prayers are with the fami...
August 08, 2003 by Sadie in Sadie & Greg
All my thoughts and prayers are with the family right now. Mom, please tell the Milosovic's how much I am thinking of them and wishing them peace.
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I felt like I got dumped by professor Donna R...
August 05, 2003 by Sadie in Sadie & Greg
I felt like I got dumped by professor Donna Riley last week. She stopped returning my emails. I called her office today, and, as I anticipated, it was not malice but mediochre communication skills that prevented her from contacting me. She isn't particularly used to having someone work for her, causing much confusion and frustration between us. Anyway, I'm pretty much done with the position as it stands. I wish I had known that it would turn out this way so I could have organized my summer differently. Not that I haven't enjoyed babysitting and cleaning, but perhaps volunteering at St. Vincent de Paul's housing dept. or poking around Eugene's planning office... oh well. The free time was theraputic.
I'm leaving for San Francisco with Morgan and Luke on Wednesday morning and returning on Tuesday or Wednesday. We're taking the weekend in L.A. and playing with various friends. Should be fun and relaxing.
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7/17/03
From Luke
One day I find myself t...
July 24, 2003 by Sadie in Sadie & Greg
7/17/03
From Luke
One day I find myself talking with refugees in Al Wihedat camp near Amman, Jordan, about the loss of life and land, about struggle, about hope and hopelessness, and the next day I find myself safe at home in my San Francisco apartment. Though I rest myself in relative physical safety, there is no safety in my thoughts. I now carry with me the many stories of pain and loss that were entrusted to me throughout my travels, stories which I will never forget.
“It’s difficult to think about Palestine when you have to struggle just to feed your family…but as a refugee, it’s impossible to forget Palestine.”
Al Wihedat camp is notorious for its extreme poverty, as I was told by a camp resident named Ahmed, “some people in the camp are deadly poor.” In addition to facing discrimination as Palestinian refugees, many face compounded discrimination for being residents of Al Wihedat, “it’s hard to get a job if you say you’re from Al Wihedat, and it’s impossible to get a job with the government if you’re from Al Wihedat.” According to UNRWA statistics, literacy in Al Wihedat is extremely high, yet few students are admitted to universities, and even fewer can afford to pay tuition.
A new monolithic 5-story high castle-like police station erected at the entrance to Al Wihedat is symbolic of the relationship between the Jordanian government and the residents of the camp. Such an expensive project seems obscene in the face of such poverty, taking up a space in the camp that would likely house several hundred people. More telling however, are the many scars and graves that are the legacy of the September War of 1970 when King Hussein of Jordan launched an attack against Palestinian refugees in response to several airplane hijackings carried out by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). I had the privilege of talking to Um Mohamad who still bears the scars of the September War. Um Mohamad is the mother of six, though the bomb that came through her house and changed her face forever, also took the lives of her two daughters, leaving her with four sons to raise in the rubble. The family is from Jaffa, and Um Mohamad’s father was forced to flee Jaffa in 1948. According to her son Samir, “growing up in the camps, you have two things in mind, first that you are a refugee, second that you must struggle for your right to return home to Palestine. Though we are citizens of Jordan, we are always treated as refugees.”
Anjad is a new resident of Al Wihedat, whose presence challenges the definitions of "refugee” or “displaced person” as established by the UN Relief Works Agencies (UNRWA). According to the UNRWA refugees are, “persons whose normal place of residence was Palestine between June 1946 and May 1948, who lost both their homes and means of livelihood as a result of the 1948 Arab-Israeli conflict. UNRWA's definition of a refugee also covers the descendants of persons who became refugees in 1948.” The category of “Displaced Persons” was created to account for those made refugees in the war of 1967. There is no category to account for people like Anjad, and the steady diaspora of Palestinians resulting from continuing Israeli military violence and the socio-economic attrition of Palestine. In 2002 Anjad, father of two, was wounded in an Israeli attack on the West-Bank city of Bethlehem and was forced to flee to Jordan for medical attention. In that attack, eight other people were wounded and two were killed. He showed me where the bullet entered his belly, traversed through his abdomen, and exited through his back. Anjad was shot by an automatic rifle mounted on a tank made and paid for by the United States. He narrowly escaped being run over by that tank, though his friend did not, his friend was shot, crushed by the tank, and left bleeding and immobilized. While there were many in the area who were seriously wounded, the Israeli soldiers obstructed the arrival of an ambulance fo
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The new phase of my life isn't working out so...
July 21, 2003 by Sadie in Sadie & Greg
The new phase of my life isn't working out so well. Someone else has my new email address, so it's back to the old one until it's figured out. I spent the afternoon with Emma, Sam, and Margo, the real babysitter. As Margo and Sam ran around in the nerd cave, i strapped on Emma and made almond scones. Since Adam's party, baking is my new thing. I'm working up a repertoire for cooking by myself in the fall.
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Is living together better than marriage? An i...
July 08, 2003 by Sadie in Sadie & Greg
Is living together better than marriage? An important question my friends are now pondering as they consider shacking up. So many have pets together... ack.
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I've finally changed my email address from sm...
July 07, 2003 by Sadie in Sadie & Greg
I've finally changed my email address from smiller@smith.edu to srmiller@smith.alumnae.net. A new phase of my life, defined by an email address.
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Another message from Luke, now in Jordan
June 26, 2003 by Sadie in Sadie & Greg
Another message from Luke, now in Jordan.
Written 6/21/2003
Passports stamped ENTRY DENIED, the Israeli border police found it a
crime
to visit Lebanon. Even more noteworthy, they find it a crime to convey
the
truth about the occupation, supporting the basic human rights of
Palestinian people; "your kind are not welcome in Israel, not now not
ever."
Now stranded with the wonderful people of Jordan, myself and another
member
of our delegation spent part of the last week visiting Palestinian
refugee
camps in Lebanon, and the southern part of the country that was
liberated
in May of 2000 after 20 years of Israeli occupation.
Several women working for the empowerment of Palestinian women refugees
articulated why they find the living conditions of refugee camps in
Lebanon
to be the worst of the entire Palestinian refugee population.
"We are denied rights of citizenship, Lebanese law prevents us from
working
in 73 professions (those where unions are allowed), after 55 years, we
still
don't have rights to water, electricity, to buy or inherit property."
In the Shatila refugee camp there are over 17,000 people living on 1
square
kilometer. Hot makeshift cinder block buildings rise up six and seven
stories. Many families live in small rooms with no windows to the
outside,
over one-hundred sharing one bathroom and kitchen.
Um Khaled, age 87, displaced in 1948 and living in the Shatila camp
said,
"They told me I would be able to return to my home in Haifa in four
days.
That was many years ago and now I fear I will die here, because I am
not so
well."
While the state of Israel is responsible for creating and upholding
this
refugee crisis for over 55-years, the refugees in Lebanon have been
repressed and attacked from all sides; political factions from the
Lebanese
civil war, the Lebanese military, the Israeli military, and UN-RWA who
continues to reduce their services to the refugees.
Some of the worst atrocities brought upon Palestinian refugees are the
massacres of Sabra and Shatila, where in September of 1982 under the
supervision of Israeli Defense Minister Ariel Sharon, the camps were
surrounded with Israeli tanks while the Israeli-allied Philangist
militia
raped and killed up to 11,000 Palestinian refugees. We were taken to
visit the mass grave of those who were killed in the massacres,
thousands
of bodies lay there, no memorial, no names...
Palestinian refugees in Lebanon are forced to struggle daily both for
their
civil and human rights within the State of Lebanon, and for their
fundamental right of return. Time and time again we are reminded that
the
rights of 6-million Palestinian refugees can't be ignored forever, "we
will
return to our homes."
In the spirit of justice,
LUKE NEWTON
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One of Adam's gaming friends who lives in Isr...
June 10, 2003 by Sadie in Sadie & Greg
One of Adam's gaming friends who lives in Israel sent an email with his condolences for our loss. Robert emailed a month or so ago, and mom and I haven't gotten around to emailing him, so we thought he might like us to post our deepest gratitude for his email. We are sitting in our safe basement, typing away with full awareness of the uncertainties that he and his wife live with. We have friends who have chosen to work on kibbutzes, and other friends who are, at this moment, bearing witness in solidarity to the hardships of life in Palestine. We wish you peace and pray for you in our own little ways. Your thoughts are the greatest gift you could give us.
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A message from Luke:
Hello dear friends-
...
June 06, 2003 by Sadie in Sadie & Greg
A message from Luke:
Hello dear friends-
I write to you on the 36th anneversery of the war that began on June 5th 1967, in which the state of Israel occupied the remaining Palestinian territories of Gazza and the West Bank, along with other lands in Egypt,Jordan, Syria and Lebanon.
I have attempted each night to record the numerous stories and observations that I have taken in during the early days of my journey, yet after only four days the stories seem to collect at the tip of my pen faster than I can write, coagulating there while many slip from my mind before I get
the chance to commit them to paper. As you read the experiences that I relay to you, please keep in mind that what I write in my reports is but a small selection, a fraction of the stories that are shared with me each day.
All members of our small delegation have arrived safely in Jerusalem, each with varying degrees of interrogation by Israeli security, from 1 to 5 hours. Interrogation at the point of entry is a tactic used to exclude human rights, peace, and liberation advocates from the country. I made my journey from Amman to Jerusalem on the morning of July 1st. On the way to the boarder, I shared a taxi with a former Palestinian professor from Berzeit University near Ramallah. As we drove through the dusty hills, she recounted the way in which she was forced, by the conditions of the occupation, to quit her job as Professor. Prior to the reoccupation of the West Bank her home was but a 15 minute drive from the university, however after the rapid multiplication of checkpoints and settler-only roads, it became physically impossible for her to drive to class. She was forced to allow a 2-hour commute, walking through several checkpoints, down and up steep enbankments transferring to four different taxis, simply to go to
teach each morning. Some days she would be arbitrarily held at checkpoints, missing her classes entirely, other days half of her students would not be able to make it, and not infrequently she and her students would make the entire journey only to be met by soldiers at the university gate,
militarily forcing the closure of the University, denying its students an education in clear violation of international law. ³No one should be expected to live under such conditions. Those like you who have lived
all of their lives with at least the freedom of movement would certainly not do well with such treatment.² I could accompany this story about the inhumanity of checkpoints with at least a dozen others that I have heard in
my first days here. Most notably, in the afternoon of June 2nd on there way home to their families, several hundred Palestinians were forced to sleep on the street when the military closed the Calandia checkpoint near East Jerusalem. Checkpoints are one of the many forceful restrictions on Palestinian freedom that fills people¹s daily conversations.
Descending from the plateau in Jordan down into the valley of the Jordan River we passed a destroyed village, scattered bunkers, and row upon row of razor wire, ominous reminders of the war in 1967 where the eastern shores
of the Jordan River were not able to retain the tide of the Israeli military. Reaching the boarder, our bus was greeted by far more M-16 rifles than smiles. Dawning my tourist hat, I was able to cross the border with relatively little interrogation. With my first step into the occupied West
Bank of Palestine, I waited for a taxi with several Palestinian women with children who had been interrogated and held for over 6 hours. With my first breath of Palestinian air, it became clear that as a white male
and US citizen, I am awarded more rights and better treatment by the Israeli government than Palestinian people who have lived here for countless generations.
I have spent much time walking through the narrow cobbled streets of the Muslim quarter in the old city of Jerusalem; the heart of Palestinian society for several thousand y
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I wanted the family to know that Luke Newton ...
June 03, 2003 by Sadie in Sadie & Greg
I wanted the family to know that Luke Newton arrived in Jerusalem yesterday on a solidarity mission to occupied Palestine. To all those who pray, this seems like a good time to start.
Anna made it out safe and sound this morning.
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writing to you safe and sound from dearborn h...
May 21, 2003 by Sadie in Sadie & Greg
 writing to you safe and sound from dearborn heights, mi, better known as anna's house. i'm about to have double fudge chocolate ice cream, so this must be short...
thank you. i love you. ah, this weekend was a little like heaven- funny and well worth the wait.
and emma- as the beastie boys would say, let it flow, let yourself go. slow and low, that is the tempo.
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I turned in my last paper this morning, so am...
May 12, 2003 by Sadie in Sadie & Greg
 I turned in my last paper this morning, so am actually done with all undergraduate work ever. Ah. I had a wonderful slumber party with Megan the night before last, watched X-2, which she liked so much that we saw the first one in the morning while eating breakfast in Hopkins in our pjs... my fourth viewing this week. Lovely.
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Megan has cordially invited the family to Hop...
May 09, 2003 by Sadie in Sadie & Greg
Megan has cordially invited the family to Hopkins house for dinner next Friday, and I do hope you say yes.
I too saw X2, having not seen the first one, but I liked the second it so much that I rented and watched the first. Three times.
I am almost finished with everything- I have an extension on one paper until monday, but everything else is turned in. Just feeling a bit incapacitated and irrational with everything I used to feel competent and efficient about. One foot in front of the other for now.
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More things to do during graduation:
Chill i...
May 06, 2003 by Sadie in Sadie & Greg
More things to do during graduation:
Chill in new artist-created bathrooms in newly opened art gallery
Read virginia Woolfe's writings in rare book room
Poke through Northampton's back alleys
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Mom- you are such a poet
May 05, 2003 by Sadie in Sadie & Greg
Mom- you are such a poet. make me (and anna) cry every time.
It is a blessing to have love in the woodwork, coming to my room and emailing me with grace. We are still the luckiest people in this little wobbly world.
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Dirge Without Music
Edna St
May 04, 2003 by Sadie in Sadie & Greg
Dirge Without Music
Edna St. Vincent Millay
I am not resigned to the shutting away of loving hearts in the hard ground.
So it is, and so it will be, for so it has been, time out of mind:
Into the darkness they go, the wise and the lovely. Crowned
With lilies and with laurel they go; but I am not resigned.
Lovers and thinkers, into the earth with you.
Be one with the dull, the indiscriminate dust.
A fragment of what you felt, of what you knew,
A formula, a phrase remains,—but the best is lost.
The answers quick and keen, the honest look, the laughter, the
love,—
They are gone. They are gone to feed the roses. Elegant and curled
Is the blossom. Fragrant is the blossom. I know. But I do not
approve.
More precious was the light in your eyes than all the roses in the
world.
Down, down, down into the darkness of the grave
Gently they go, the beautiful, the tender, the kind;
Quietly they go, the intelligent, the witty, the brave.
I know. But I do not approve. And I am not resigned.
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Wild Geese
by Mary Oliver
You do not have...
May 04, 2003 by Sadie in Sadie & Greg
Wild Geese
by Mary Oliver
You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles thorough the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting -
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.
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My final presentations are finally over, and ...
May 02, 2003 by Sadie in Sadie & Greg
My final presentations are finally over, and my last class at Smith college is in the morning. I'm chillin' in the computer lab, polishing up a sociology of the arts paper and thinking of all of you.
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Anna was just given a great internship in Ben...
April 29, 2003 by Sadie in Sadie & Greg
Anna was just given a great internship in Benin with an appropriate technology organization (http://www.enterpriseworks.org/) through USAID. She'd be going for two months, which is very very exciting.
All is well here.
Much love!
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And she fixed it
April 28, 2003 by Sadie in Sadie & Greg
And she fixed it.
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My Landscape Studies power point presentation...
April 28, 2003 by Sadie in Sadie & Greg
My Landscape Studies power point presentation is stuck on a zip disk and I was so salty that Anna is sitting here trying to fix it. Ah, these tech wiz kids. But I just reserved a lecture hall to show Bend it Like Beckham for my house, so things aren't totally out of control.
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The water filter improves turbidity (a
April 28, 2003 by Sadie in Sadie & Greg
The water filter improves turbidity (a.k.a. makes more turbid)and pH! It leaks too!
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I'm preparing my sociology of the arts presen...
April 24, 2003 by Sadie in Sadie & Greg
I'm preparing my sociology of the arts presentation on 'patronage systems in Russian art' for this afternoon. I just thought up that title.
The water filter, far from filtering our dirty soapy greasy smelly water, is leaking all over the machine shop floor as I type. I'll fix it this afternoon.
So life is humming away and pulling me along.
Love to you.
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I was just wandering around the art building ...
April 15, 2003 by Sadie in Sadie & Greg
I was just wandering around the art building looking at senior art exhibits. They're terrible. Firstly, no one can be that grumpy all the time. Secondly, art is not soley for the alienated and shouldn't soley be for alientating audiences. And thirdly, although I understand and respect depressing art, being depressed while making art doesn't make it good. Thank heavens I'm going home this afternoon and will not have to see bloody sculptures and dresses made of latex gloves for a whole week.
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This morning I was sitting in engineering whi...
April 14, 2003 by Sadie in Sadie & Greg
This morning I was sitting in engineering while professor Riley promoted the dept. to two prospective students. She was talking about trying to hire someone to redevelop the curriculum of the course and link it to a real community, raising her eyebrows and encouraging the class to take up her offer. Of course, these are engineers, off to Ford for summer internships and not interested in silly little appropriate technology. So I said, "I'd love to do this work". And she said (in the middle of class), "I'd love for you to do this work, and you could stay at home and fly to colorado with me to meet the engineers without borders people." And I said, "Super." And she did a happy dance. And so I am now gainfully employed for the summer. Isn't that exciting.
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We are all going to see Bend it Like Beckham ...
April 12, 2003 by Sadie in Sadie & Greg
We are all going to see Bend it Like Beckham at the Bijou when I get home, no matter how stiff the chairs are, no matter that every seat in the house is a bad seat.
http://www.bijou-cinemas.com/schedule.html
I absolutely can't wait to come home.
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Last night I had a lovely dinner with Jennife...
April 05, 2003 by Sadie in Sadie & Greg
Last night I had a lovely dinner with Jennifer Walters, who is my shrink and spiritual mentor, if people with ambiguous feelings toward the Lord can have such things. Then Anna, megs, and more drove to Greenfield and danced to bluegrass 'till our pits sweat and our feet swelled. It was most exactily what I needed. Noah, Anna's brother is here now, and keeps potentially stressful weekends much lighter out of necessity to keep him entertained. Hope all is well with all ya'll, and that there is not too much smoking and drinking (mochas) without me.
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i fully approve of the lessons- i'm hoping fo...
March 30, 2003 by Sadie in Sadie & Greg
i fully approve of the lessons- i'm hoping for some direction on how to make soup in five hours. i figure if i know how to make soup, i'll survive grad school. best to all,
sadie
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i'm back from belize, without any flight comp...
March 24, 2003 by Sadie in Sadie & Greg
 i'm back from belize, without any flight complications, and even an early flight from chicago to providence that allowed an early arrival in northampton. smith is humming away- i have an engineering meeting in 45 minutes and a 20 pger to write by thursday- back to normal. i'm in a goodish mood, probably from the vitamin d and a little family face time under my belt. feels good to sleep in my own bed while dreaming of sunny beaches.
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I decided to make a virtual tour of Smith and...
February 25, 2003 by Sadie in Sadie & Greg
I decided to make a virtual tour of Smith and Northampton, so those who are coming to graduation can have a taste of what is in store for them.
We begin on Green Street at Shelburne Coffee Roasters, where everyone you ever wanted to know squeezes into an 8x12 shop to get some local brew and a scone. From there, we may wander up to center campus, where for literature fans, is an excellent and very accessible rare book room. There is also an interesting collection of alum published books in the beautiful alum house on lower elm. After the frollick in center campus, we might meander up toward the chapel via the road by the botanical gardens and green house, stopping to smell the orchid collection along the way. We may even decide to go kyaking with the boats available in the boathouse on Paradise pond. After a long day of refinement, we may have a hearty meal at bottle of Bread in Shelburne Falls, watch a movie at the Acadamy of Music or Pleasant St. Theatres (both in downtown Northampton), or rent a hottub at East Heaven on Green Street. And then to bed with thoughts of commencement and illumination night dancing in our heads!
(note: Adam cleaned up the hyperlinks. :)
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Anna and I are sitting here in the engineerin...
February 23, 2003 by Sadie in Sadie & Greg
Anna and I are sitting here in the engineering building, working on a grey water sand filter for Botswana. Our group has worked last night and all today, and I can't imagine when it's going to end. However, being that it is our first anniversary, we are planning to go our for dinner (yeah!) and potentially a movie (hoorah!) and then the local zen hottubs (ahhhh...). So it isn't so bad. And I get to feel like a science nerd for a whole semester!
I love you all.
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Hello all
January 30, 2003 by Sadie in Sadie & Greg
Hello all. I have just finished a wonderful book called "The death and life of great American cities" for landscape studies. After some rearranging, I am taking a landscape studies colloquiam on urban social spaces, a landscape studies survey lecture series, urban sociology, the sociology of the arts, and engineering, policy and development. Anna and I are taking the engineering class together, incidently, but as our strengths are complimentary, I don't anticipate any competative dynamics forcing me to whip her ass at her own discipline. But that is neither here nor there. All is well, and I am fully in the groove. Northampton had a small but lively protest for peace this afternoon, which I was lucky enough to join. Much love.
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