Wisconsin, Vacationing in Wisconsin, and why I Heart Fall.

We took a weekend trip to Door County this weekend and I'm in love. Matt said some of the little lakefront towns reminded him of New England; I'm less familiar with New England, but they reminded me a bit of heaven. It was a perfect time to go--apparently the very last weekend of the tourist season, there were few people but a preponderance of splendid red-pink-orange-yellow trees. We are so lucky that Jeff Leach plays bridge with a lovely woman who happens to own a lovely condo in Ephraim, on the west coast of the peninsula. Here is the view from the back porch of the condo:



Sigh.

Door County Peninsula protrudes north (and a little east) from Wisconsin into Lake Michigan, and as such has little towns and harbors dotting its more than 300 miles of shoreline (little fact: this county has more shoreline than any other in the U.S.). Here's a map to help orient you, if you're at all interested in being oriented (Door County is the part in red).



As I mentioned before, we stayed in Ephraim, a village founded as a Moravian religious community in 1853. If you're like me, 'Moravian' means nothing to you--a little research taught me that it's a mainstream protestant denomination that apparently started in Bohemia (now the Czech Republic) in the 14th century. Anyway, there are several historic buildings still standing in town, including a one-room schoolhouse and Moravian church dating from the mid-1800s, but other than that I'd say there are several small shops and restaurants and many very pretty lakefront homes, and not much else. Here are a couple pictures of the lake right across the street from where we stayed:





It was, as you can see, absolutely gorgeous. I nearly died the morning after we arrived, when I could see exactly what we had somehow fallen into. We drove into Bailey's Harbor on Saturday and then visited a kind of infamous little bar, the Blue Ox (probably only infamous to those who have heard Jeff's story of the Lawrence University pre-med Door County retreat--if you haven't heard this story, it's probably worth hearing at some point). Jeff, this picture is for you:



We later went wine tasting at Stone's Throw Winery, which had some very good wines, and then went in the afternoon to Fish Creek, a very touristy but very beautiful little town with a stunning harbor.





Vinny was Mr. Popular all day. I swear, in Fish Creek, every person who passed us stopped to exclaim how adorable he is (and he is adorable, so I don't blame them).



Aly was in charge of dinner and it was delectable. For me personally, she did portabella mushrooms with goat cheese in a balsamic reduction, and I was HAPPY. Much wine was also consumed and we slept very well in the quiet of a basically abandoned condo complex in a deciduous forest on the shore of Lake Michigan. As you can imagine, this suited Matt, who is still recovering from a week of intense exams. It also suited me, who had to deal with Matt while he was dealing with a week of intense exams.

On Sunday we went to breakfast, packed up, and left Ephraim. I wanted a quick stop in Egg Harbor, which we'd driven through on the way up, just for photos. It's breathtaking.http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif



We drove home through the more rural areas of eastern Wisconsin and I must admit, I love those too. Wisconsin farms are different from California farms; they're greener, more old-fashioned; they seem as though they haven't changed in 100 years.



It was a wonderful weekend. On top of the fall colors, it was clear and in the high 60s and low 70s all weekend. Perfect weather. If you want to see all the pictures, go to my Picasa website.

Work, then play.

Interesting week at work, to say the least. We started out with 26 kids on Monday, when our classroom capacity is actually around 14. We had to be a bit creative to accommodate all those kids and it got kind of crazy; also, everything was aggravated by the fact that a) the nurses are rather crabby and dissatisfied almost all the time, and b) we have some legitimately ill patients right now and I'm amazed at how no one seems to want to deal with them. There's the kid who won't talk and walks in and out of class as she pleases, not answering to anyone, with an apparent penchant for cleaning (she makes other patients' beds, picks up their clothes, etc.). I have been somewhat in awe of this girl since she arrived, but everyone seems to think she's faking so they pretty much just ignore her as she wanders the unit without consequence. Then there's a catatonic kid. Seriously, truly, this kid came in and was walking and talking and everything and then the next day he's unable to move, speak, even blink an eye. I have never in my life seen anything like this and have been fascinated by his recovery process (and the fact that no one seems terribly worried about him: "the meds will get him back to normal, eventually"). On top of all this the unit is sort of in a perpetual state of chaos. There's a lot of politicking going on between nurses and teachers, nurses and social workers, nurses and doctors--everyone is always complaining but it doesn't really seem like there is anyone who takes charge and organizes things. I try to appear neutral since my opinion doesn't matter much anyway; I will say, however, that I sometimes feel like peoples' priorities are a little questionable (um, sick kids, anyone?). Anyway, staying neutral allows me to just chill with the kids, and I like them best of all, and I think they trust me because I'm not technically part of anyone's agenda.

My mom has been visiting this weekend and we've had a really good time. The weather is so lovely right now--it cooled down this past week to the 40s and 50s and it is now officially fall. I love the cooler weather. My mom and I have probably walked a good 10 miles this weekend and in a long sleeved shirt and fleece it's very comfortable outside. Vinny is ok, too, as long as he's wearing a sweater. He's gotten many compliments on his wardrobe lately.

This morning we went downtown and had brunch at the Pfister Hotel. Again. It's such a neat old hotel. Here is a picture of the lobby:



My mom also learned something about the very cool old building across the street (picture is below): it is an exclusive turn of the century Gentleman's Club that is still open today. You have to be invited to join, and apparently women can be members now as well (I don't really get what makes it a "gentleman's club," in that case, but whatever). Also, there used to be an underground tunnel that connected the club to the Pfister, so that members could sneak over to meet their mistresses at the hotel. Apparently that tunnel is now closed. How unfortunate.



We also walked around downtown a little (mostly we were inside a mall, to be honest, because it was sort of pouring rain outside) and I took some pictures of the river walk area, which I love. I'll post one below. I keep growing more enamored with Milwaukee's downtown; I'd love to live there at some point.



Matt has a block of tests this week and has been studying like a madman. Luckily, next weekend we are going up to Door County, a couple hours north, to have a little vacation courtesy of a friend of Matt's parents who owns a condo there. Aly and Phil are going with us. Door County is apparently very beautiful; I'm sure I'll have many pictures to post next week.

Back to Hi Mount, and a new job.

First of all, I returned to Hi Mount Road to take a few pictures of its loveliness. It was particularly stunning today in the aftermath of a CRAZY thunderstorm that kept me up all night and succeeded in knocking a whole lot of orange-yellow leaves onto the sidewalks and streets. Fall is coming! I would believe it 100% if it wasn't still so warm; tomorrow is supposed to be sunny and 76 degrees. Oh well. Here are the pictures, anyway....

In other news, I started my new job today. It's kind of crazy. I started off the day in a classroom of five kids, all of them about 11 or 12 years old. All of them had either attempted suicide or threatened to; most of them were pretty severely depressed; one of them apparently spent most of Friday on the floor screaming, even though today he seemed sweet and mild-mannered. They were all very well-behaved, actually, and most of them would talk to me if I prodded them. It was interesting listening to them talk about when they were going to be discharged. Some went home just during the course of the day, while one boy stated, quite matter-of-factly, that he thought he'd be there at least past Halloween. They're so acutely aware of the state of things, even though the adults kind of try to keep them in the dark in an attempt to promote positivity.

I spent the afternoon with the adolescents. We're talking 14 year-old drug dealers, heroine addicts, multiple suicide attempts, etc. And yet, they seemed so normal to me. That might seem strange, but hey, adolescents are adolescents. They clearly care a lot about their hair and makeup, no matter that they currently reside in a psychiatric facility. I was a little afraid that by this age the kids would be manipulative or just rude, but they were actually pretty subdued and they welcomed the opportunity to talk about themselves to someone new.

So, all in all, a pretty fascinating first day. Tomorrow I get to go to rounds in the morning and I'm really looking forward to that. All of these bizarre and sordid short-life histories. It's sad but I'm intrigued. These are not your typical special ed kids; these kids have been through more than I could even begin to understand.

I've had some people ask about Matt, so I'll tell you right now what he's been doing all day, every day: studying. He goes to school from about 8:30 am to 5:00 pm every day, and comes home and studies all evening, usually until about 11 pm. I actually think he's pretty reasonable about it. He doesn't stress himself out too much, he just studies A LOT. I got the chance to go "meet" his cadaver a couple weekends ago (the cadaver he and his group have been dissecting almost every day in anatomy lab). It was insane. I'll tell you what: seeing a dead human being, half dissected, might really affect your ideas of what constitutes a 'person.' I wasn't too disturbed by the experience because I didn't feel like it was a real person, at all. Whatever had made that man a person was completely and totally gone.

Well, that's about it for now. I have to go watch the end of this extremely disappointing Padres game. Matt has apparently taken a couple hours off studying to curse and pace back and forth while Peavey keeps giving up hits to the Rockies. Honestly, I'll be glad when the Padres season is over--they stress me out. Luckily, the Ghargers season is already over!! (I typed that very, very bitterly, just so you know.)

Basically, bragging about kitchen-related endeavors and the fact that I have a job.

Matt and I have been trying our hand(s) at cooking, with mixed results. I think he is a little more excited about it than I am, except when it comes to the slow cooker--I am sort of obsessed with that thing. I got one about a month ago and also ordered a cookbook called "The 125 Best Vegetarian Slow Cooker Recipes." This cookbook is SO FREAKIN AWESOME. First of all, it's ridiculously simple. I think the hardest thing I've had to do thus far is cut sweet potatoes into 3/8" cubes (and yes, that's kind of hard--but then again, I am a terror with sharp objects and our red Kitchen Aid knives, while adorable, are basically murder weapons). Second of all, it thrills me to come home to a finished meal. I really prefer to do the food preparation the night or morning before; it's so exciting to come home from work to a house that smells like sweet potato and barley risotto and then to be able to just sit down and eat it whenever you want.

Anyway, we've made a couple things we really liked. Chili was one--clearly a good choice for the slow cooker. Then I made this sweet potato and carrot dish with a chick pea topping, and it was amazing--probably my favorite so far. We've done a couple of the barley recipes but Matt didn't think they were flavorful enough. I liked them because they taste so healthy and hearty but they are, admittedly, vaguely reminiscent of baby food. This week I think we're going to try one of the curries, which will hopefully be a little more interesting. If anyone has any good vegetarian slow cooker recipes (or just easy veggie recipes, in general), please pass them on! To be honest, I like trying to do new things as long as they don't require bizarre and/or specific techniques (I can beat things, I can chop things, don't ask me for much more than that) or require a ton of ingredients that I've never heard of before.

I'll switch gears and talk a little about employment. When we got here I really wasn't all that worried about finding a job. Honestly, my standards were low; I wanted benefits, halfway decent pay, and a job that would be good for just one year since I'm planning on going back to school full time, assuming I get accepted, next summer. I was sort of shocked at the lack of response as I started filling out applications and sending out resumes like a crazy person, and eventually I was feeling desperate and took a job at a coffee shop in the Milwaukee Art Museum. This was not, as it turns out, a terrible idea. The Milwaukee Art Museum is pretty spectacular for a small scale museum; the coolest part of the building, where I happen to work, was added in 2001 and designed by an apparently very famous architect, Santiago Calatrava. Here's a picture from the MAM website.



I actually met a man from California the other day who had come to Milwaukee only to see this building because he's an architect himself and loves Calatrava. I thought that was pretty cool. Anyway, the coffee cart where I work is in a very beautiful stretch of hall lined with big windows that look out at Lake Michigan. Here are a couple pictures I took.





Not bad, huh? It's really a pretty chill job. My boss is a young entrepreneur who knows EVERY restaurant worth going to in Milwaukee. This has already come in handy for us; he recommended the Pfister hotel for brunch and we went with my sister two weekends ago--it's fantastic. Also, I can make a MEAN capuccino and get more than my fair share of free coffee.

Inevitably, as soon as I took the coffee shop job I got an interview for a job with the Wauwatosa School District as a Special Education Aide. I had no idea what this would entail, but as it turned out the particular school I'll be working at is located at Milwaukee Mental Health and serves children and young adults who are inpatients at the Milwaukee Child and Adolescent Treatment Center. Basically, kids with psychiatric disorders. Once I realized this, I became terribly excited. Having a Dad who's a shrink, I love this kind of stuff and I know I will find it interesting, at the very least. We get to participate in rounds each morning with doctors and nurses to get the low down on our students; most of the kids are only short-term, so each week, or even each day, we'll have a different group. I'll be working with ages 3-21 (seriously). In short, I won't be bored. I start on Monday and I'm really excited to see what it's all about. Also, they're giving me health insurance--YAY. But I'm still going to work at the coffee shop once a weekend, for some extra money, and because I have some ongoing bets with museum employees involving NFL football (DOWN with the Packer backers).

In conclusion, I now have two (meager) sources of income and I'm very glad to put friends and family (mostly family) at ease--no, I'm not going to starve out here, I swear. I might freeze, though. That's a whole different story.

Happenings in Wauwatosa

I was sort of over the whole blog thing but I find that recently I have so much I wish I could share with friends and family about our experiences out here in Wisconsin. So I think that I'll just share, and people can read or not read, and I hope it's not too terribly dull. I guess the thing is, this move doesn't only represent a (pretty extreme) change in location, at least not for me; perhaps more interesting are the little changes that have accompanied our new circumstances: being out of 'the nest' again (finally), cooking for ourselves, learning to live together, figuring out education and career stuff, making new friends, etc. And all of that on top of the fact that there are so many interesting and curious things about Milwaukee, and about the midwest in general, that I'm learning every day. AND the fact that Matt's in medical school, which (I'm coming to realize) is such an extreme circumstance in and of itself.

So, those are my excuses for starting this blog. To be honest, the real impetus was a run I took yesterday that led me to Hi Mount Road, or maybe two blocks of Hi Mount Road, on the edge of the Washington Highlands. The Highlands consist of about a square half mile of truly lovely (and large) homes, many of them designated historic sites; this neighborhood conveniently begins right across the street from us so I run through it fairly often and lust after the elegant English tudor and colonial revival-style houses and well-manicured yards. Here are a couple pictures of some of the houses--these aren't the best, actually, so I'll try and take some better ones soon.





Anyway, back to Hi Mount Road--I don't think it's technically part of the Highlands. It's a little farther east. The houses are similar in scale but a little older, I think, and they are set even further back off the road. The entire street is covered with a canopy of huge old trees, which is, I think, why I like it so much. Most roads in Wauwatosa are tree-lined in an almost movie-set sort of way, but this street in particular is almost forested. It's absolutely beautiful. I'll post a picture as soon as I get the chance to take one because I'm clearly lacking in my verbal explanation.

The reason I wanted to write about this street is that it kind of represents all the things I am coming to love about Wisconsin. I didn't expect it to be so beautiful here. We live in a suburb, but it is nothing like a California suburb--the houses are old, and they are all unique, and they were built in a way that leaves space for the trees (which, since it's starting to be fall, are truly spectacular). People are out in their yards all the time, and the yards don't tend to be fenced with 9 foot security fences like they are in the west. We have little kids running through our backyard daily, going from one neighbor's house to the other, and I love it (so does Vinny--he's made some fast friends). Maybe the real word for it all is 'charming.' And it's not surface-level charming, either. We've been here almost two months now and I keep finding new things I love about it.

I'll try not to go off the deep end about Wisconsin's wonders. Clearly, California remains possibly the best state ever invented and pretty much everyone I meet out here would rather be there than here. But it's heartening to move to a completely different place and immediately become aware of its virtues, rather than its shortcomings, and to realize that there are places outside of California that are worth living in, and that it's actually refreshing to escape the west coast for a while.

I have so many other things to talk about, namely: jobs, wine club, the countless joys of the slow cooker (I swear), and the approaching winter (ominous, at best). But I'll have to do that later. I'll leave you with a picture of our house, taken just today. It's no historical site, but I like it. (We're on the left.)