Bi Cycles

Everybody's got something to hide
 'cept for me & my bicycle..
photo by my savior of the day,
https://www.instagram.com/maryelizx/

I got this bike from a Cat in Wyoming, on my way to start college in Utah. She got it for a song and only wanted the leather saddle. It fit me perfectly, and has been more dependable than any man I've yet to meet outside of my family... (Except maybe the Holy Trinity) It has traveled with me from Utah to Ohio, from Ohio to NYC, from NYC to Ohio and back to Utah, and went to Berkeley and Yakima with me last summer. I love to ride it to work and to church and along rivers and up mountains (and down again, whee!!!) I am a speed demon, and unlike my bother J have yet to be tarred for my sins... Dad, thanks for letting me keep my training wheels until you pointed out that I wasn't even using them anyway, they were never touching the ground. Thanks for teaching me that it's about the circle, not the up and down. Thanks for teaching me that you pace yourself, and you take turns in front and turns drafting, and you go in a zig-zag up the hill so that your lungs don't explode... Mom, thanks for telling me when I was still in elementary school that giving birth was like riding your bike up a mountain to see the sunset but even better because you got to take a baby home with you afterward. SJW thanks for being the strong silent type who gets his son to sing the song "bicycle" while sweeping the garage. (Or for marrying a woman who did that.) MW thanks for having more bicycle wheels than anyone can shake a stick at, and for letting me have the pleasure of finding the long lost one. Juju, I love you and yes, sometimes it sucks. But we will never break up, ever for eternity. I'm not temple divorcing you, so don't even ask. NG, you have produced more wonderful humans and provided them with bikes and let me be the first one to see Ra roll over and sit up on a bike. PC if you don't love bikes already you will soon. Also, you may yet prove to be just as dependable or so than this bike. Why doesn't it have a name? I don't think it even has a gender...

Near George Washington Bridge in
Manhattan...
Photo by Elizabeth Leitzell,
http://eleitz.com/about/

Little v touching a bike as we pass,
with her in her stroller trike...

The bike artisans confer... 

Again, EL/LE... http://eleitz.com/about/ . My sexy legs...

I know, you don't believe it, but I am a Mormon...

This video explains very succinctly one of the big reasons that I'm a fan and an active member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints/LDS/Mormon church. I love my family, all the different crazy branches of it--Mormon, Jewish, Sikh, Mexican-American, Romanian, Punjabi Indian, European mutt. I'm constantly amazed by the similarities that pop up across the ethnic and generational divides.

I am grateful for those that have gathered and retold and recorded stories of my ancestors

-GSG (Bapu) for tape recording his parent's telling their crazy life stories (Beji was a hoot and a half, and a strong independent woman & loving mother) and for taking me on a military-march style tour of Punjab, where he was raised Sikh before moving to America to attend college and join the crazy Mormons, who's doctrine made more sense to him. Thankfully, for the benefit of all his brothers and consequently nieces and nephews, he did not abandon his family when he switched religions, and he is somewhat responsible for a vast number of organic rouge grapes being produced in Cali & for bringing Kansas the plant genetics genius BG.

-GoGo for asking her mother-in-law all sorts of questions about her family: how she grew up in Canada as the child of Romanian immigrants and how she managed a mental illness with motherhood with the support of an excellent husband and father Julius. (who was also a haberdasher, just wanted to throw out that word. No mad hatter, as far as I know.) GoGo has shared these collected stories with her children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren and also with me. (I need to record more of her memories before it's too late and will be eternally grateful that she took such an interest in her husband's family history.);

-I miss Mom/Grandma Betty frequently and am so glad that I got to know her personally and hear her stories, even if I often refused to learn the lessons that she was trying to pass on. (It is with very typical family stubbornness that as she would attempt to tame my tangled locks and my eyes would sting with tears, I would listen to her recount how she had been too proud to speak up when it hurt when a family friend had combed her hair at my age, and although she was counseling me to do the exact opposite, I refrained from telling her how painful her combing was because I was strong and thought I had to prove it.)

-The actualy Aunt Flo, for helping her children put together a book recounting stories like that of fireman/dairyman/cotton farmer Daddy Joe, my great-grandpa and the youngest son of polygamist Helaman Pratt, who raised his families in Mexico once polygamy was outlawed in the US/Utah. Daddy Joe's mother, Bertha, was having no luck finding a husband in Utah, and so moved to Mexico after visiting her sister and becoming the 4th wife to her sister's husband. After Helaman's death, the two sisters set up household together, with Bertha teaching school to support them financially and her sister raising the children and managing the household full time. I'm related to Mitt Romney through this line, somehow.

Hopefully my facts aren't too mangled. These are the stories that are in my brain and heart and inform my identity as a proud Caucajewmexdian. As I type these, I see that all 4 branches held women, strong and faithful matriarchs, of great power and influence for good in the world and their families. I am honored to live in their legacy and hope that I add my own stories worth passing down!

Craftiness with Ji. Martha would be proud.

Part 1

Obviously, I need a stylist for our next production. Ji looks fabulous, but I am a little too laissez-faire for my own good sometimes...

Stay tuned for Part II...

India Memories

I can't believe it's been 10 years this month since I returned from 4 weeks in India! I joined my maternal grandfather, G.S.G.  who was there doing family history research. His ancestral home was in the middle of a remodel, so we stayed with a family that's related through marriage in a village nearby. My job was to document photographically. Here are some highlights. 

The milk makers in the courtyard of a relative's house. You haven't lived until you've had fresh, warm waterbuffalo milk with sugar. Yum!

Processing wheat. Or at least pretending to so I can photograph it...

The traditional outdoor oven, a cousin of mine.

Yes, that is me! I still have that outfit...

These guys were kind of a fixture on that wall. This is what my grandfather though his retirement would look like... Didn't work out that way. He's too much of a work-a-holic! And the Mormon faith doesn't believe in traditional retirement, either.

A city building. Have to look up what town this was in... We went to see a palace museum there, and visit the family of one of Amarjeet's friends, Dilpreet, who was the English teacher at the high school. She and the librarian helped Amarjeet show me around.

I think this is Ludhiana, the nearest "city" to where I was staying in Sidhwan Khurd. We went there pretty regularly for shopping. Open air stores are the norm, as is the mash-up of English and Hindi. 

I wanted to learn some Punjabi, and my grandpa did buy me a book "Learn Punjabi in 24 days" but I didn't stick with it. I know a few key words and phrases, like milk, pretty girl, good day, and thank you. 

Although culturally you don't use thank you as much there. They serve because you are their guest, no thanks needed. I ate at the table with the men and not in the kitchen with the women since I was a guest. It got kind of lonely...

Ready for a pre-wedding party... An off the rack Salwar Kameez, the others I got were all custom made for me, although not to MY specifications, but to what the tailor thought was fashionable. They were so tightly fitted that I doubt I can still wear any of them... A benefit of saris, I guess :) I'm glad most of the Punjabi outfits I've inherited are for house wear and much looser.

Three of the sisters I stayed with are on the right: Bhole (Amandeep) in turquoise, Amarjeet in green and their youngest sister Jaspreet? in white Harpreet?, cousin in pink and navy. The first two, as well as another sister, live in California now and are married to my cousins and their mother's nephew. 

A traditional Sikh wedding. Groom with fancy turban, bride next to him in red. Men sit on one side, women on the other. Everyone covers their head and removes their shoes before entering the Gurdwara, meaning Gateway to the Guru, or chapel, as signs of respect and holiness.

Notice the groom's ceremonial sword... All devote initiated Sikhs, male and female, keep the signs of Khalsa, or the leadership of the Sikh faith. 

Khalsa translates to Sovereign/Free or Pure/Genuine. It was a rejection of the cast system started by the 10th and last Guru or prophet Gobind Singh, on March 30, 1699. This group replaced the Gurus after Gobind Singh's death. I believe I've even been to the spot where it was started. It is in many ways similar to the priesthood and Temple endowment status of certain members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 

There are many parallels between my Grandfather's childhood religion and the faith he embraced as an adult. It's fascinating to me to study and find these. One of his brothers is very devote Sikh, and came to India while we were there for a religious retreat. We joined him for the last couple of days, and I did sit in the building for awhile while and chanted with them in Punjabi. I meditated on my Temple experience. Later I was outside reading my Bible or Book of Mormon, and a woman came up to see why I was not inside and Amarjeet had to translate and tell her that I didn't speak Punjabi. "There is salvation even being in the building!" was her reply.

 Khalsa College for Women, that some of my ancestors founded, after their son was killed, so that their daughter could get a better education. This was on the edge of the town we stayed in, and the campus of the co-ed high school was next to it. There were even dorms so out-of-town students and staff could live on-site during the week, and a shuttle system for them to visit home on the weekends. I believe the Greater Gill Clan, as we call the descendants of my great-grandparents, donated a few computers for the campus.

Nek Chand's Rock Garden,  in Punjab's beautiful planned city Chandigarh which also boasts a man-made lake and a rose garden, making many people's trash into treasures for all to enjoy!

Cousin Pum and my Grandpa, or Bapuji (father in Punjabi) at the rock garden. Boys we found sitting just like this...

Pretty sure this is Amritsar, the town where the Sikh's Golden Temple is located. Also the Martyr's Well. 

This is Sikh men cleaning dishes after people have eaten at the free vegitarian Langar kitchen at the temple. If you think that the Hari Krishna make good food, try a Sikh Langar. Although I don't recommend the rotis made by machine...

Fresh made juice. Ask in advance that no salt and pepper be added...

Shh! Wasn't supposed to eat any street food... only got sick once while I was there, and I think that was from drinking water at a public fountain... Only bit by mosquitos when I was in the city, too. Not in any of the villages.

More water buffalo...

At the Punjabi/Sikh history museum... Good restaurant next door where I had salty lassi for the first time and the corn flat bread that goes with Saag (spinach).

The Hindu temple felt like a trip to a theme park... A priest came out and gave me a red mark on my forehead and a special gift of a coconut, some makeup and candles. (Not everyone got a gift.) I did like ringing the bell on the way in. :)

Amarjeet and I had to hold hands while we walked into the lion's mouth, the only path to the rest of the mountain...

God is love, and He is remembered everywhere in India. On trucks, by cab drivers on the dashboard, written in chalk on the sidewalk...

The wild peacock that knew we would admire and feed him roti dough. He would land on the roof and walk down the stairs to the inner courtyard, where I would sit and read during the day, unless I could convince my hostess to let me help shell peas...

The daughter (?) of one of the house helpers, with a milking stool. The families' water buffalo and calf.

Ah! The Golden Temple, see reference above :)

Very busy day! 

Tejinder (? sorry, I am bad with names), with an offering plate.

Tejinder, the librarian who kindly leant me books in English, including one of Punjabi folk tales, Amarjeet who taught PE and Dilpreet who taught English at the co-ed high school. The best tour guides ever! :)

A lady scolded me, in Punjabi, for wearing Western garb to the Golden Temple. I did mostly wear Punjabi clothes while there. The skirt is actually from my friend Lama's visit to Samoa, I think.

My auntie Ranjeet in her modern kitchen, at the "Nasib House" which is a tribute to her cousin, my grandfather's older and only sister, who died when her son was little and my grandpa was in college. Ranjeet married her widower and raised her son as her own. 

The house girl at Nasib house was a very enthusiastic model... Back courtyard.

Life with Children

I have an amazing part-time job as a sitter for 2 of my nephews (& occasionally niece, but she's usually at school while I'm there) while my sister-in-law teaches at the nearby college twice a week. I get to play with the boys, feed them lunch, attempt to get them to nap, and clean up from all of these activities. I get paid, and I get to eat delicious leftovers for lunch. (My sister-in-law is an excellent cook.)

Ji, who is currently 3, is always saying extremely quotable things. (For example on Tuesday he told me that he loves me because I let him use "xissors." Which for the record happened once before this statement. It did happen again several hours after this statement, probably because of this statement. He has my number. When I was in college, a friend in the photo program with me once teased me that I would let a monkey use my camera if the opportunity came up. I would just tell the monkey to be careful.) Today when I asked him to go pick out some books to read (a before nap ritual) he said, "Let's do a scary book. Like Mouse Paint. That one's not scary for people." Then I was left trying to remember if Mouse Paint has a cat or a snake in it. (It's a cat. Or at least hints of cat.)

Ra's humor is more the Buster Keaton type, as he does not say words yet. Or do baby signs if an outstretched hand with fingers opened and closed will suffice. It's amazing the range of things you can express with this one gesture. Banging your feet rhythmically against your high chair also draws attention to your recent lack of food or boredom with the food given to you. We think he's going to be a musical genius. He can just reach the piano keys while standing, and gently picks out a very melodious arrangement. Another pastime of Ra's is transferring food from one place to another. Pieces of bread dropped into bowls of yogurt. Baby food poured out of the container onto the tray to be used as finger paint. Today he got meta and put his bowl of yogurt inside of his bowl of soup. (After dumping most of the soup out in disgust.) He also managed to turn his bottle upside-down while I was holding him and trying to wash dishes at the same time and doused my shirt before I realized what was happening. So much for multitasking.

Usually Ra will play quietly and happily by himself in the bedroom while I lie down with Ji to get him to sleep for his nap around 2 pm. (Sometimes their naps align, but it's rare, like an eclipse.) Today Ji was especially cuddly, stroking my arm and nestling against me. His movements stopped and breathing finally slowed, but I was afraid that if I moved he'd wake up again. Ra decided to get out a toy that makes noise and to squawk loudly himself, and Ji woke up, full of energy. I tried to bribe him to by offering a cookie if he'd lie down with his eyes closed again, and I gathered up Ra to snuggle in bed with us (Ra was not tired, but was willing to cuddle for a bit.) But the damage was done. No nap for Ji today.

Sometimes I try to bring something to do with me. Today I brought the ingredients to make our own graham cracker-like cookies and the animal shaped cookie cutters that I bought at Ikea thinking how much Ji (& my sister Ju) would like them. We made some cookies before lunch and then saved the rest of the dough to finish when K got home from school. K was not content just to use the cookie cutters, however. She had a grander plan in mind. She traced around her hand and made a hand-print cookie. Then she made another one of Ji's hand. Meanwhile Ra, who was mad when I shut the dishwasher (his personal playground. I had to stop him from climbing onto the open door), took the plastic lids that I had given him to play with and hid them inside a pot, in the cupboard he managed to open.

 Can you guess which pan of cookies I decorated with raisins and which one Ji decorated? In case you're wondering, it's Ji's professional opinion that the bottom right shape is a wolf, not a fox. Wolves have fluffy tails, too. The squiggliest shapes are from the pieces between the cookie cutters. I got lazy/creative.

Hand-made cookies! You can find the recipe here. It was very simple and delicious. The dough held up well being rolled out multiple times. It's also vegan, so no raw eggs to worry about when Ji started eating the dough. Although I did have to tell him to stop so we'd have dough to make cookies. (I did double the recipe, and we baked 4 cookie sheets worth.)

Homemade Socks

 I am a member of Goodreads, but I have not updated my book selection in 2 1/2 years. I've been debating if I should start again. I logged on and found this message between my sister and I from 5 years ago. She's still obsessed with both socks and The Count of Monte Christo. I have yet to knit a work of literature into a wearable piece, however. Right now I'm knitting an octopus.

Dec 06, 2008 02:42PM

Hey Olivia,

The Count of Monte Christo Penguin classic 1,000 some pages edition I have on my book list would be a schweet Christmas present. The copy I have from the library right now is missing the first 36 pages and some other random pages in the middle so it is kind of hard to understand the whole story.

Ju

Dec 06, 2008 07:20PM

I'll keep that in mind. Although I thought the socks would be my Christmas present to you...

Olivia

Dec 07, 2008 07:28AM

Oh yeah. I'll have to pester someone else then. or you could knit the entire story into a REALLY long sock. It would be like a tapestry that I could wear! That would be the best Christmas present ever.

Ju

Grocery List

I forgot to buy some misc items this week, and so I started a new grocery list on the fridge. They are:

burnfree
magnets
baby wipes

B came into the kitchen, and read them as one item: burnfree magnetic babywipes. She thought this was odd, but if there was such a thing, I would be the one to know about it.

Think about it for a minute: babywipes that attract poop so that you don't have to wipe, and also don't burn your baby. What a wonderful product that would be!

I also had a conversation with Bapu, my grandfather, about needing more patience. This is what he said: "I would like to be able to buy patience from the store. But you can't, so I buy ice cream instead. Then when I need patience, I eat some ice cream."

Adventures in parenting

Got to practice my parenting skills (or lack thereof) with Ji (pronounced Gee) and Ra today. (My 3 year and 10 month old nephews.) My sister Ju fixed a plate for Ji with 2 varieties of hummus-- (one with beet & one with basil), veggies and multicolored chips. "Umm, pink hummus, my favorite!" said Ji. Ju laughed. "It's not funny," he scolded. He asked if he could sit on the floor to eat, and I let him. There were too many exciting things to do, so he only ate a few bites here and there. At lunch he wanted a roll with cheese, and got very upset with me for spreading hummus on half of the roll. So I ate that half, and was going to eat the rest of his hummus, but he protested about that too. He did finish it.
     
Ra let me try out babywearing (yes, it's a thing) for a few minutes at a time, then he'd lean as far over as he could to let me know that he wanted to roam free on the floor. I need to sweep before I babysit him again. He was very good at batting my hand away when I tried to see what he had in his mouth. He also has a habit of chewing on his tongue, so it's hard to know when he has something else in his mouth. He was very disappointed when I closed all the doors along the hallway, he stopped at each one to check that it was closed.

One of the favorite activities of the morning was playing with large  styrofoam pieces from electronics packaging that Uncle Paul was getting rid of. Ji built things with it, while Ra banged two pieces around.

Although I spent most of my time playing with the boys, I did manage to make some vegetable stock and scald and cut up many preaches to freeze. I also managed to clean up after the boys and leave the house slightly cleaner than before. Ji did manage to get red marker all over his hands, and I didn't notice until he was using the toilet and I was trying to figure out where the pink marks on the toilet were from. As I cleaned off his hands best as I could, he asked "What bird is red?"
       "Cardinals are red. They have a pointy tuft of feathers on the back of their heads. There are lots of cardinals where Grandma and Grandpa Z live."
       "I'm a cardinal," he informed me. "Do they have red hands?" He asked.
Later I realized that Ra's pants were wet because I had sat him down on the bath mat which was wet. Luckily he was wearing a onesie, so I just took his pants off. He had already repeatedly kicked his sandals off.

I was glad to see N when she came to pick up the boys, and I hurried to get a to work for the afternoon. But I am looking forward to having them again next week. As I told N, it was fun but a little exhausting. She knew just what I meant :)

Pancakes!!! For Lunch!!!

Grandma G, Ji, and Grandma V:  3 generations bonding with Bisquick!

      My mom came for a visit last week. She was mostly here to see grandkids, but I did get to hang out with her some too. On Saturday she came over with my oldest niece and nephew. M and I had been talking about making pancakes for lunch (after deciding that we should pioneer bagel smoothies: "It's Not Nearly as Bad as it Sounds"), and I thought this would be a fun thing to do with the kiddos. Just as I set the Bisquick down on the counter, Ji materialized next to me and pronounced his desire to help. His first step was scoot a chair to the front of the fridge so that he could reach the freezer, where he knew that there were frozen strawberries. (This kid knows where we keep the good stuff.) I partially defrosted some and let him at them with a butter knife. (I did stress that he could only use a knife if an adult was supervising.) Turns out even the blunt side of the blade can cut through partially frozen strawberries. K was much more interested in making signs for our restaurant. They have their own restaurant, Rosie Rose's, at home. Ji is the cook in their play kitchen and K manages and markets the restaurant. I have eaten many a plastic fruit and vegetable soup there. I am occasionally employed to work in the office at Rosie Rose's, where I take internet orders and balance the books.

      Reader's Digest (which keeps coming in the mail even though Grandma stopped subscribing) had some ideas to liven up pancakes: dividing up the batter and making each a different color with food coloring, using a squeeze bottle to make lacy shapes; that I thought would be fun to try. Instead of just using food coloring, though, I thought we could also use different ingredients. So we made one batch with peanut butter, dyed yellow, and one with strawberries, dyed pink.

      I had gotten a Tolovo Pancake Pen as a gift, and M (check out his new haircut) was the master of pancake creation. He went beyond just letters to pictures using both colors of batter! Notice the lion face on the left below:

      We all enjoyed a hearty lunch of pancakes and scrabbled eggs. Although Ji's request to have ketchup on his pancakes went unanswered. The best part was that Mom volunteered to do all the dishes and cleanup :).

Hanging with the horses while the pancakes cooked. Notice Dell, Ji's nephew.

All I Wanted for Christmas...

      This Christmas was the first one that I haven't spent with immediate family members, since more than half of them were in India for a wedding. It was also the first time that I haven't taken off most of the week between Christmas and New Year's. Somehow I decided that this meant I was taking Christmas off--I only bought presents for my oldest niece and nephew (I figured that the youngest 2, both under 3 months, wouldn't care if I didn't get them anything.), I didn't make treats for anyone, I only sent out 7 cards.

     My aunt invited me to spend Christmas Eve and Christmas day with her family. Since they live around the corner & I love to hang out with them, this seemed like the best idea. She said that they would make a stocking for me, and even get me presents. She asked what I wanted. 
     I have a habit of asking for very practical presents. I think this may be because I try very hard not to want things, so that I won't spend too much money. "I want my own toilet plunger," I told her. This was the first thing that had come to mind. "The kind with the accordion bellows." (This request may seem a little less strange if you know that I live in a house with 6 other people. There are 3 bathrooms, and only one toilet plunger, which is kept in a storage room in the basement. I don't need to use it that often, but when I do need it, running downstairs to get it is no fun.) I did manage to think of a few other things, including these:

A sandwich-shaped case and dinosaur sandwich cutter.

I've enjoyed many grilled cheese sandwiches shaped liked dinosaurs this last month. :)