nothing

07-06-06

 

There's really not a whole lot of new things to report. I took the picture you see above from the bank of the Schuykill River in Philly. That's a Police boat going under the old bridge. I'm sitting in Borders book store now since we no longer have internet access in the house where we've been staying.

I have a very interesting interview next week. I'm going to a wedding with a professional wedding photographer as a backup shooter. If she likes my stuff, she's going to start using me to help out at weddings. That would be a great and fun way to make some extra money. Especially since she's quite a prominent and sought-after photographer in Philly.

I will write more later... 

our apartment

06-26-06

 

Our new apartment!!

In about 20 days, Leah and I will be moving into this lovely new apartment in Philadelphia.

Our new address will be:

501 W. Hortter St. Apt. D1

Philadelphia, PA 19119 

 

 

This is Leah and me waiting to see our new place...Our apartment complex is called Pastorius Court. It is named after Francis D. Pastorius, who, in 1688, organized the first American protest against slavery. The building is really old, but has been well-kept by a Quaker management group that places a priority on renting to "only the coolest people."

Our kitchen!It is a two-bedroom, and although it's not huge, it will be enough space for the two of us. It is very near the house where we've been staying this past month, an old and diverse neighborhood that we really enjoy.

One of the two bedrooms!

As far as jobs go, we still have nothing; although both of us are "in the running" for several jobs. Leah has applied with City Year of Philadelphia and Project H.O.M.E, and she also has an interview scheduled with some medical non-profit thing this week (I'm not sure of the details).

Well, the bathroom stays out of the way...Meanwhile, I am supposed to have a 2nd interview with Temple University this week to interview for a position in the Chancellor's office, and am still waiting to hear back from GE (yes, the people who bring good things to life). We will keep you updated on how all of this turns out.

Whoever you are, we miss you and hope that your life is going well. We would love to hear from you so feel free to email us when you have time!

This cat has nothing to do with our apartment, but I thought that this photo really captures the gangster personality of the Edin-Nelson's cat.  

love,

drewandleah

alien face

 

Philly from the South Street Bridge. 

I applied for a job on the 40th floor of a building the other day.

The elevators went about 50mph and made my stomach      churn a bit.

But I didn't let on that I was feeling woozy because there were all these high-powered business people in the elevator with me and I knew that if I grabbed onto the rail and said something like "Yoooaaaaa!" with a frightened look on my face, one of the people in the elevator would surely be the same person interviewing me and he or she would email me after the intervivew to say that maybe I'm just not ready for the big time.

 

 It's going to rain tonight and even if I hadn't seen that on the news, I would know it because the sky is pouting and the wind is holding something and the dog is showing signs of anxiety. Maybe because someone said that it would rain cats and dogs...But this dog has never seen real rain -- southern rain -- where the drops are as big as mice and the drop-density-ratio (DDR) is the highest anywhere.

I see faces. There's something in the way that my brain works (and probably most everyone else's too) that recognizes faces in random patterns and shapes (like wood grain, shirt wrinkles, tree bark, gravel in the sidewalk, leftover peas, maps, and of course clouds). I assume that I see faces in random patterns because I'm always around people.

But recently, I've been noticing alien faces more often than human faces.
The eerily alien-like pattern in our rug...This, for example, is a picture of the rug in our bedroom. There is clearly an alien face in the pattern and I don't think that it was done on purpose as some kind of message to me.

So I can only explain this by assuming that I have been around more aliens lately, since now I'm seeing their faces when I study random patterns. Maybe they visit my dreams, and these emerging patterns are the subliminal whisperings of my mind...

Hopefully none of my friends are aliens. But I plan to find out as soon as possible, and believe me, I will let you know.
A picture of a real alien so that you can compare it to the one I see in my rug...

Anyway, you can be sure that I will write more soon...and better...

we love you!

drew and leah 

summer advent

           You're looking at our window of opportunity:         the computer.

That opening through which we peep in search of jobs and houses and such...

Advent -- n. Arrival of something that has been awaited.

The four Sundays leading up to Christmas are, according to the Christian liturgical calendar, part of the Season of Advent -- a season of expectation and hope.

And what we hope for is a fulfillment...the fulfillment of    a promise made long ago and many times over. Advent reminds us that life is more than life, it is life-in-hopefulness...life-in-expectation of something specific and wild and absurd and yet something deeply believable and sensible and real. Life is the juncture -- the meaningful and calculated collision -- of past and future, promise and fulfilment, nature and spirit. Life is precarious and fleeting and uncertain and yet it has been fortified with eternity.

Leah and I are in our own little season of advent. Every day, we talk about or think about or search for jobs and a place to live. We're happily residing in the Mt. Airy
My phavorite Philly photography spot...The Cathedral of Sts. Peter & Paulsection of Philadelphia with a wonderful family and in a beautiful house. But until some promises actually become flesh and dwell among us, we will remain in this season of expectation and hopeful waiting.

Leah and I both have interviews scheduled for next week, so any prayers that you could toss up about that would be helpful.

It's been good to see our friends here and it's been good to spend some time with them. I don't have pictures of our friends yet, so I'm posting a picture of Rory...the loyal and somewhat needy dog with whom we are currently living.
Rory the dog that pees on you when it thunders.

I hope that all of you are doing great...and I hope that none of you would be offended if I ended this with an out-of-season Advent prayer:

"Love and faithfulness will meet;

justice and peace will embrace.

Faithfulness will spring from the earth

and justice will look down from heaven.

The Lord shall come when morning dawns,

and earth's dark night is past.

As the watchman waits for daybreak,

so my soul hopes for the Lord.

Like the sun in the morning sky,

the Savior of the world will come.

Like rain on the meadow,

he will descend.

camping

After 1,290 miles, 9 states, and 12 Little Debbie Star Crunch snacks, we finally made it from Baton Rouge, Louisiana to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. As usual, we decided to take our time driving. We camped in beautiful Alabama and tender Tennessee.
Our campsite in Alabama. We got the tent for our wedding! And of course that's where we got the fire, too.

If, on some future road trip, you ever have the chance to stay in a State Park or National Forest as opposed to a Red Roof Inn, we highly recommend it.

There's nothing better than winding down around a campfire with some fresh grilled fish and veggies and the classic camping dessert: marshmallows and chocolate. Leah and I prefer to skip the Graham crackers because they tend to cause too much marshmallow squishy leakage.
Leah roasting a marshmallow with precision and grace. We simply take the toasted roasted marshmallow and insert a piece of dark chocolate into the warm gooey center. It melts nicely in there and if you take a little twig, you can even stir the mallowy substance to make warm chocolaty goodness. It's delicious. For a diagram, please write to: Marshmallow Diagram Request // C.O. Andrew Hood // 123 Pelham Dr. // Philadelphia, PA 19119.

The place we camped in Alabama was forested and secluded. But the park we chose in Tennessee was more RV-focused than we were expecting.
This state park was full of huge and expensive RV's, SUV's, ATV's, and TV's. And us with our tent. There were a lot of really wealthy people camping here, and they brought all the luxuries and sounds and conveniences of home with them. We felt a little out of place in our tent, but it was really beautiful there and the weather was perfect.

But we had a great time, and we made it back to Philly with no problems. I had a job interview on Thursday, but unfortunately I did not get the job.

We weren't too excited about the job, so we were not too disappointed when it didn't work out.
This is the lake that Leah and I stopped at on our way out of the State Park in TN.

Now, Leah and I are looking for jobs and looking for places to stay. Right now, we're staying with a family who is letting us use a few rooms in their large old cool house. We'll keep you informed with the latest news on the job and house situations.

leah's CRAZY hair

Update 5-21-06

Leah and I will start driving from Louisiana to Philly tomorrow!

We will be camping in Alabama and Virginia along the way, thanks to the tent, sleeping bags, and other fun camping stuff we got for our wedding!!

Check back later next week for updates!

In the mean time, have fun browsing our latest photo album.

05-19-06

The 80's was a bold decade. A bright and bold economy prevailed, bright and bold colors were popular, bold new styles emerged in fashion and music. And people expressed and reflected the boldness of life around them with their hairstyles.

Luckily those days are over.

Todays hairstyles are a bit more modest, sleek, stylish, classy, smart, etc... But of course fashion never looks silly until it's no longer in fashion.

Anyway, all this is leading up to a little story about Leah's recent haircut -- which was a great haircut. But you know how after the cut, they always do something to your hair that you would never do -- like part it on the wrong side or shape some beastly turtle-ish topiary on your head. I always carry a hat in my car when I get my haircut and as soon as I'm out of the sight-line of the barber, I slap it on and run home to take a shower.

When Leah got her hair cut, I was waiting for her at a coffee shop across the street and when she came in, both of us were laughing pretty hard at what could only be described as a tribute to the 80's.

But once we got home, Leah was able to shower and shape and make something beautifully "Leah" out of her hair again.

One of the things I love about Leah is her ability to laugh at life. She's a good sport for allowing her picture to be up here. Please see almost every other posting in our journal to see more flattering pictures of her.

Stay tuned for our next entry:

"Tennis: The Universal Language"

mothers day

Sorry for the Mother's Day entry delay. Leah and I have been busily browsing the job sites.

But I must say that our Mother's Day was incredible. We had a whole lot of fun with Mom and Rick, and that afternoon, we went to an amazing restaurant called Galatoir's

My aunt, uncle, cousin, and grandmother were there and we all ate delicious food and had a good time chatting and laughing. Then Leah and I came home and took a nap. We woke up and watched the first X-Men movie, which is actually pretty good.

We also spoke to our Mom in Wisconsin, who is healing up slowly but surely. She's back in school now and seems very happy and healthy and wise. We really missed her on Mother's Day, but were glad that we could talk with her for a bit.

leah at the farm

Leah at the farm -- Click to enlarge 

I once saw a man whose head was in a bus even though his body wasn't. He was checking to see if there was room for him on this unusually long bus; and the driver, unaware that someone was only 1/12th on, closed the doors and began to drive off.
My grandad picking blackberries along the fence...The man scuttled along, crab-like, for a bit until the shouting passangers convinced the driver to stop. He was a little bruised and embarrased, but otherwise, fine.

I think I know how he feels. One minute, your're carefully surveying the
My stepdad reflecting... situation and before you know it, the situation closes on you and begins to drive off with hundreds of people staring wide-eyed at you as things go from bad to painful to worse before you can even utter a sound.

That doesn't really pertain to anything in our lives right now, but that image has been bouncing around in my head like a bad song for some time.
My beautiful wife emerging from the shadows...

We have been really enjoying our time in humid and warm Louisiana.  It's not yet hot, just warm and moist all the time, which has been kinda nice.
My dad knocked 'em dead in Mt. Lebanon, Louisiana

We've also really enjoyed our time with Mom and Rick.

This past weekend, we went to see my dad and family in north Louisiana. We went out to the farm and spent some good time with Donna, Phillip, Joanne, Grandma and Grandpa. We also got to see my dad play a little guitar concert in Mt. Lebanon, Louisiana. He was a huge hit! Guess what's near Mt. Lebanon? You're right! The very spot where Bonnie and Clyde were shot! So Leah and I got to see where the police ambushed them back in the '30's.

Leah has been talking to her mom and sis a lot and they seem to be healing up well, although still in quite a bit of pain (please see previous entry in our Journal for the full story).

We're glad that we will be able to be with my mom for Mother's day...although we will miss our Wisconsin Mom very much.

Wherever you are, I hope you're doing well.

We love you!

drewandleah

the accident

They say that accidents happen, but what they don't always say is that accidents hurt...or that sometimes accidents change everything.

This Tommy Hilfiger neckbrace comes with reversible straps for all occasions.

Yesterday Cindy and Kendra were in a car accident. Both of them are safe at home now, but there were a few tense moments when none of us were sure exactly how things would turn out.

You can click any picture to see the large version. What you will see are two pretty women with slight (although painful) injuries, and a car that generously took most of the impact.

Yesterday, John was taking Leah and me to the airport so that we could fly down to Louisiana.
"Worse than childbirth" is how Cindy describes the pain. That's when we got the call: our flight was cancelled! So we called Cindy and Kendra, who were on their way to a bachelorette party in Madison. We let them know that we would be around for one more day.

About two minutes later, Kendra called Leah's cell phone and it was clear that something was horribly wrong. Kendra said that there had been a car accident. She was having trouble opening her car door, and Cindy had crawled out and was lying on
The car gets hurt bad so you don't have to. the ground outside -- conscious, but in a lot of pain. Leah spoke with Kendra until the police showed up and asked her to hang up. Meanwhile, I called Kendra's husband, Adam.

John, Leah and I made our way to the hospital, not knowing any details, and we waited. While we were on our way to the hospital, Kendra and Cindy were being checked out and loaded in to an ambulance. They were rushed to Lakewood hospital in Elkhorn, where they were X-rayed and examined.

Both of them have intense bruises and blisters from where their seatbelts
Airbags are basically exploding pillows. They release a lot of smoke, making Kendra and Cindy think that the car was on fire.restrained them -- and Cindy broke her collarbone. Kendra and Cindy both have a lot of soreness from strained muscles and tendons, but besides several days of pain, they should come out fine. We will wait to see if there is any lingering pain or discomfort.

The accident happened because someone in a red pickup truck turned left in front of them. There was no time to react and their car slammed (nearly head-on) into the truck at about 30 mph. The two women in the truck did not need hospital care, but both vehicles were towed from the scene.

John and I went to the yard to retrieve all the important little things that everyone fills their car with.Besides the physical pain, this was tough for both of them for other reasons as well. Kendra's husband is a little more than 1,000 miles away. And Cindy was already overwhelmed with her sewing business (prom and weddings are approaching) and a particularly busy time at school.

But the great news is that both Kendra and Cindy are alive and on their way to a full recovery.

Feel free to call or email any well-wishes!

Cindy: jcm@elknet.net

Kendra: akschafer@email.com.

And please drive carefully!!

love

drewandleah

today we fly

Today we fly. 

From the novel springtime of Wisconsin to the chronic summertime of south Louisiana. 

One chilly night in Wisconsin, we made a fire in the outdoor fire pit.  If you don't enjoy melted marshmallows and chocolate dribbling from and sticking to your face and hands, don't make a fire in the outdoor fire pit. But we love that kind of thing and had a great evening talking and laughing with Wisconsin Mom and John.

We also spent several wonderful days/nights with several wonderful friends. Chris and Sarah, Rachel and Adam, Chrissy and Adam, Jocelyn and Roberto, and our friend and wedding photographer Pam Strohl and family.

Besides our cool friends, we spent some wonderful time with family (like our cool aunt Diane, and breakfast with Grandma:-). It was great to be able to spend time with Wisconsin Mom and John. Tonight all of us are going to dinner with Kendra, who just arrived last night.

Hopefully, we will be able to make it back up here soon, but it's hard to tell since we don't really know much about our job situations.

But the exciting news...Leah finished her thesis! She emailed it out yesterday and pretty soon, the rave reviews will begin to pour in. Feel free to email her a congradulations email or two!!

Well, I will do another update once we get to Louisiana! Hope you're doing well. We love you!

drew and leah