1. 16 October 2009 · 08:02 PM
    Why yes, thank you. I would love to spend my Friday night getting to know you.

    Why yes, thank you. I would love to spend my Friday night getting to know you.

  2. 16 October 2009 · 03:03 PM

    It’s an Erykah kind of day. Hoping some of her fabulousness rubs off.

  3. 16 October 2009 · 11:46 AM

    Note to self:

    adelamaide:

    It doesn’t have to be good.

    It just has to be done.

    WRITE.

    Amen, Amy. We’ve all been there.

  4. 25 September 2009 · 03:59 PM
    sheasylvia: The season 4 premier of Dexter is this Sunday night! I. Cannot. Wait.

    sheasylvia:

    The season 4 premier of Dexter is this Sunday night!

    I. Cannot. Wait.

  5. 23 September 2009 · 05:50 PM
    [Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]

    On our last night in Wichita, Jeff and I joined some friends for an enchilada-making party (delish, delish, delish!). It was low key and I tried not to get sad about leaving. Held it together pretty well until Tony pulled out his guitar and told me he’d started learning a new song when he heard we were moving away. His voice almost always raises tears anyway (He’s got that soulful thing that Mary J. and Anthony Hamilton do so well — raw edges that show you they’ve felt pain, y’all, and they’re gonna sing it away). But this song, it was something else. Take a listen.

    Amos Lee, “Arms Of A Woman”


    I am at ease in the arms of a woman.
    Although now,
    most of my days i spend alone.
    A thousand miles,
    from the place i was born.
    But when she wakes me, 
    she takes me back home.

  6. 20 September 2009 · 03:56 PM
    Well, we’re at it again. Packing up and movin’ on. These years in Wichita have been pretty damn good, in spite of some tough times and tears. I’ve made lifelong friends, learned so much about myself professionally and moved into new realms of adulthood in my personal life. Can’t sum it all up in one post, but it seems fitting to be leaving four years and one month to the day from when I arrived in this great big landlocked state. Everywhere I turn, there are reminders of my first days in Kansas: - Cheesy rock acts at the Kansas State Fair. ZZ Top was one of my first assignments. Heart played the grandstand last night. - Campers filled with fans headed to Winfield. At Walnut Valley I first heard the hybrid of bluegrass and speed metal that defines much of Wichita’s live music scene. - Signs announcing the Junior League’s Holiday Galleria. I’m not a social-events-calendar gal, but my new friend Josh had a booth at the Galleria for his furniture store, so Jeff and I went. We met Josh’s parents, sister and brother-in-law, who became our surrogate family out here. - The almost-complete Intrust Bank Arena. When I arrived in 2005, The Eagle was full of stories about plans for the downtown arena, to open in 2010. I swore I would be long gone from Kansas before its ribbon-cutting. Who knew? - BFF Shea’s newest blog. One of my first features included a profile of her as part of a story about local bloggers. It was the beginning of a beautiful friendship! - The wind rustling, rustling, rustling the trees. In spite of “a twister, a twister!” being an iconic movie line, I never really processed the idea that Kansas has breezes, not just gale-force winds. I’ll never give up being a mountain girl, but I’ve come to love the sound and motion the wind brings to the plains. Image: “Moving Boxes” by Robert S. Donovan

    Well, we’re at it again. Packing up and movin’ on. These years in Wichita have been pretty damn good, in spite of some tough times and tears. I’ve made lifelong friends, learned so much about myself professionally and moved into new realms of adulthood in my personal life.

    Can’t sum it all up in one post, but it seems fitting to be leaving four years and one month to the day from when I arrived in this great big landlocked state. Everywhere I turn, there are reminders of my first days in Kansas:

    - Cheesy rock acts at the Kansas State Fair. ZZ Top was one of my first assignments. Heart played the grandstand last night.

    - Campers filled with fans headed to Winfield. At Walnut Valley I first heard the hybrid of bluegrass and speed metal that defines much of Wichita’s live music scene.

    - Signs announcing the Junior League’s Holiday Galleria. I’m not a social-events-calendar gal, but my new friend Josh had a booth at the Galleria for his furniture store, so Jeff and I went. We met Josh’s parents, sister and brother-in-law, who became our surrogate family out here.

    - The almost-complete Intrust Bank Arena. When I arrived in 2005, The Eagle was full of stories about plans for the downtown arena, to open in 2010. I swore I would be long gone from Kansas before its ribbon-cutting. Who knew?

    - BFF Shea’s newest blog. One of my first features included a profile of her as part of a story about local bloggers. It was the beginning of a beautiful friendship!

    - The wind rustling, rustling, rustling the trees. In spite of “a twister, a twister!” being an iconic movie line, I never really processed the idea that Kansas has breezes, not just gale-force winds. I’ll never give up being a mountain girl, but I’ve come to love the sound and motion the wind brings to the plains.

    Image: “Moving Boxes” by Robert S. Donovan

  7. 18 September 2009 · 11:05 AM
    Of all the punctuation options available, you chose quotation marks? Bold move, I must say.

    Of all the punctuation options available, you chose quotation marks? Bold move, I must say.

  8. 17 September 2009 · 07:10 PM
    Coveting this home bar for our new formal living room. I’ve never been a “formal” person, but I figure it’s cool as long as the room is stocked with booze.

    Coveting this home bar for our new formal living room. I’ve never been a “formal” person, but I figure it’s cool as long as the room is stocked with booze.

  9. 11 September 2009 · 12:05 PM
    “There’s no such thing as perfect writing, just like there’s no such thing as perfect despair.”
    The eminently quotable Murakami — the first sentence of Hear the Wind Sing. (via dailymeh)
  10. 09 September 2009 · 06:18 PM

    Wedding + 365 = Happiness

    JEFFREY MARTIN & JILLIAN COHAN

    Shipwreck Beach, Island of Kauai, Hawaii
    September 9, 2008

    Virginia St. Claire, Master of Divinity, Celebrant

    Jeff and Jill exchange rings

    GATHERING: WORDS OF WELCOME

    We have come together to honor and celebrate the sacredness of all life and especially, today, the union of two loving beings, Jeff and Jill. We have gathered to witness and bless the vows which will unite them in marriage. To this moment they bring the fullness of their hearts as a treasure to share with one another. They bring the dreams which bind them together. They bring that spirit which is uniquely their own, and out of which will grow the reality of their life together. Let us rejoice with Jill and Jeff as the outward symbol of an inward union of hearts, a union created by friendship, respect and love.  

    READING: Samuel Clemens, written about 1842

    “This day is sure to be the mightiest day in the history of your lives, the most memorable, & the most generous toward you both—for it makes of two fractional lives a whole; it gives to two purposeless lives a work, & doubles the strength of each whereby to perform it; it gives to two questioning natures a reason for living, & something to live for; it will give a new gladness to the sunshine, a new fragrance to the flowers, a new beauty to the earth, a new mystery to life; & it will give a new revelation to love, a new depth to sorrow, and a new impulse to worship. In this day the scales will fall from your eyes, and together, you shall look upon the world anew!”

    VOWS

    Let us celebrate the abiding love which exists between these two people, to stand with Jill and Jeff, as they declare their love and the intention to live together joyfully in a sacred covenant. Please join hands.

    Jill, please repeat after me: I, Jill, take you Jeff to be my wedded husband. By the choice of my heart I take you to be the companion of my life. I love you and accept you as you are and as you will become. I, joyful and with faith and tenderness, promise to live with you, to love you and to cherish you from this day forward.

    Jeff, please repeat after me: I, Jeff, take you Jill to be my wedded wife. By the choice of my heart I take you to be the companion of my life. I love you and accept you as you are and as you will become.  I, joyful and with faith and tenderness, promise to live with you, to love you and to cherish you from this day forward.

    EXCHANGE OF RINGS

    These rings are symbols of your love for each other. In wearing them you declare the sacredness of your union. 

    Jeff, please repeat after me: Jill, with this ring I, Jeff, pledge my love and devotion to you. When you feel this ring on your finger remember that I love you, I’m happy with you. I honor and celebrate our life together.

    Jill, please repeat after me: Jeff, with this ring, I, Jill, pledge my love and devotion to you.  When you feel this ring on your finger remember that I love you, I’m happy with you. I honor and celebrate our life together.

    BLESSING TIME

    We are grateful for the gift of love, especially the love that brings us together here today. We are grateful for the gift of marriage in which two people become more than they are, because of their relationship to each other. We are grateful for the privilege we have to be here and to witness Jeff and Jill’s love for each other and their commitment to each other.
     
    May their love, as beautiful as it is, become even more beautiful and deeper in the days and months and years ahead. I believe we are each, as persons, more beautiful than we know or see. May Jill and Jeff find that beauty in each other and each within themselves through their life together.  May they deal openly and creatively with life’s challenges both by speaking and by listening, by being themselves and by making allowance for each other and by seeking together a  better way than is open or evident to either one alone.

    May all of us here learn more about love and the power of love to create, to heal and to build a better world. May Jeff and Jill receive the gift of memory for this moment. May they treasure it as it unfolds into the mystery of the future.
     
    CIRCLE OF BLESSING

    In an unbroken circle of love may we silently offer blessings to Jill and Jeff. 

    Ka malamalama o ke Akua e ho’opuni mai oukouKa mana o ke Akua e ho’opakele mai oukouKe alo o ke Akua e malama mai oukouMai kahi oukou e hele aku ai he Akua no. 

    DECLARATION

    Jeff and Jill, you have agreed to enter into this partnership. You have given and pledged your love each to the other. You have declared this love by the exchanging of vows, the giving and receiving of rings and the joining of your hands.

    Jill and Jeff, through your own declaration I acknowledge you as  husband and wife, partners in the journey of life.

    PRESENTATION

    I now present to you Jeff and Jill for the first time as husband and wife.