It's October?

So I spent a week in August in Costa Rica, surfing and reading and driving roads less traveled:

This photo was taken from the window of a little white buggy I rented for a day, on the road called the "Monkey Trail" that climbs away from the northwestern coast of Guanacaste.

And here's a self portrait on the road to Monteverde.

Traveling alone can be LONELY. I had just come down off an intense period of work, and I had trouble unwinding. But I did read a GREAT book. Three Cups of Tea, co-authored by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin is the best book I read during the course of the week. Actually it's the ONLY one I actually finished. :) I would highly recommend it.

Dandy Things

Please forgive me for being so lax in blogging. It's been a busy last 3 months.

Here are two quotes that I appreciated this week. The first because it echoes my current sentiments exactly. The second is from a book of meditations a friend gave me that I would highly recommend: The Way to Love, the last meditations of Anthony de Mello.

Foundations are dandy things, but the truth is few institutions are as complacent and potentially unaccountable to the real world as private foundations. When I was a public official, my dealings with philanthropy often left me with the question - who do they think they are? -Douglas W. Nelson, president, The Annie E. Casey Foundation

And here is a parable of life for you to ponder on: A group of tourists sits in a bus that is passing through gorgeously beautiful country; lakes and mountains and green fields and rivers. But the shades of the bus are pulled down. They do not have the slightest idea of what lies beyond the windows of the bus. And all the time of their journey is spent in squabbling over who will have the seat of honor in the bus, who will be applauded, who will be well considered. And so they remain till the journey's end. - Anthony de Mello

And finally, a great tune and video that I very much enjoy...

Rehab - Amy Winehouse

Pictures of My Home from the Inside!

Here's a picture of my lovely guests from last weekend - Jess Dunbar and Carolyn and Eric Meyer. This was our best shot at the "dignified family in front of the mantle" genre. Thanks to all three of you for coming to visit and warming the house with your presence!

I know I can say what follows because Tim Dunbar has already announced it on his blog... The Jessica you see above has a tiny life growing up inside of her belly! I am so happy for the Dunbars. Tim - I made sure to drive extra careful when Jessica was in the car, avoiding all potholes and bumps - which I was able to do because she told us IMMEDIATELY when she got in the car at the airport. And I will attest that she got lots of sleep here, although we kept her up semi-late one night. I'm very sorry about that. :)

Here's a photo of our living room. It has a great window in the front that we call the "reading nook" but in my visions and dreams it also doubles as a stage for open mic or karaoke. YEAH!


And this is the kitchen table/kitchen FIREPLACE. One of my favorite parts of the house is this indoor fireplace in the kitchen with a grill inside of it. We used it last weekend with E&C and Jess for the first time. Eric masterfully built up a good layer of coals and we grilled steaks. It was so fun to have a campfire in the kitchen! And amazingly, it heated the whole downstairs which has been kinda drafty all winter. Who knows how much we would have saved on our heating bill had we learned to grill steaks indoors two months ago?!

In other news, I'm continuing to settle into my new job. My workload continues to grow, and I'm remembering how much pressure I can put on myself when there's lots of work to do. Yesterday I wrote a speech for the Senator and had a good list of other things to get through, and I think I made myself physically ill because of stress. After a good bit of sleep I'm feeling better. But I've got to remember to give myself a break sometimes.

Grace and Joel are coming to hang out and attend a prayer vigil next weekend for the fourth anniversary since the start of current war in Iraq. I'm looking forward to seeing them and to responding to this anniversary of war with prayer. Lord, hear our prayer for peace.

Two months later and time for a POST!

How's about I post a couple of pictures from the past couple of months? In which time I moved into my new casa as a homeowner...which involved one or two feats of brilliance by Bert, which is what I affectionately call my car. Exibit 1:
The house needed a bit of work, including putting a door on my roommate Tobin's room, and fixing issues with the radiators. Mom and Dad came to visit the first week we moved in and helped me fix EVERYTHING. They were my rescuers. Dad looked at a rusted-out sink pipe system and broken garbage disposer and said, "We can fix that and I know how". And we did! And I wept with joy.

Here is a picture of the outside of the house. You will have to tilt your head momentarily to the right...

Was it worth the strain on your neck??! I hope so. Sorry - I can't figure out how to rotate it! (You'll also notice the snowflakes falling -- they look like fuzzy spots -- it really dumped on us today.)

In other news, I just started a new job! A new-new job, different from the new Ethics position I talked about in my last blog. I started an entirely new position at the Senate Finance Committee last Wednesday, where I'm now the Policy Analyst for Tax Exempt Organizations. Which means nonprofits, charities, and the like. This is really a dream job for me and I already love it. Even reading 1 page per hour on Sunday afternoons in Hopkins' "The Law of Tax Exempt Organizations". Scintillating!

I'm still connected to Senator Baucus's work in Montana because he's the Chairman of the committee, which means that some of my work will focus on Montana nonprofits and rural issues. Here's a photo of me in the last days of my prior job...sad to be leaving. :)

Maybe this year...

I've been listening to the Counting Crows' "Long December" on repeat this week. Because of recent losses and heartache, I'm tempted to look back at 2006 and dwell on the feeling that "it's all a lot of oysters and no pearls". Yet in putting together this posting, I'm forced to reckon with some glaringly bright pearls. So maybe this year will be better than the last, but I'll leave my heart open and be careful what I wish for.

Saying goodbye to Grandpa. The Bailey family came together this week to remember Grandpa Clarence Bailey. He fell asleep and passed peacefully on Monday morning in a recliner in the Missouri Medical Center in Fort Benton. My quick-paced life in DC leaves little time for reflection and remembrance. This week provided a good amount. We remembered Grandpa's quiet determination that built the Bailey Land Corp. and that out-paced all of us in races and pull-up contests. He loved home-grown tomatoes, potatoes and gravy, and root beer floats.

Summer photos in MT. I'm posting some photos of the Bailey Farm this summer because I think they're beautiful. We were all ecstatic about and thankful for heavy rains in the early summer that provided a record harvest for this part of Montana's winter wheat. I got to be home a few weeks here and there last summer when I worked out ways to do my job in Montana while the Senate was in recess.









September Summit. Between June and September I worked harder than I think I've ever worked organizing the first Montana Faith Community Impact Summit. It was a one-day conference that took place September 22 in Billings, MT. I was one of two organizers on the Senator's staff. It was definitely worth every bit of work. I think it was the first time in Montana's history that church leaders, non-profit leaders, national foundations, and a Senator came together to work on solutions to the major issues facing local communities. A great moment for me happened when an economic developer, church leader, and a representative from the Ford Foundation connected on rural poverty in front of 300 participants and committed to follow up with each other and work toward effective collaboration.


Like me, you may have felt frustration when public figures (President Bush) talks about faith to get votes or to promote an agenda that's only "faithful" on the surface or ideological at the expense of real human need. I hope that this event was not that kind of thing at all. I think, rather, that it was an appropriate kind of coming together of partners for the common good. What do you think?

November's Campaign. In November I took some time off to work to get Senator-elect Jon Tester elected to the U.S. Senate. I spent much of the month in a basement in Helena slaving away on my computer with the research team. It was a great experience but it made me deeply grateful for my usual cubicle with windows. Tester is a farmer from Big Sandy, MT, and a really sharp dude. I was proud to be involved in his campaign.

Tester's victory and Senator Allen's concession in Virgina pushed the Senate Democrats into the majority and made my boss the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Finance. That chain of events was the main deciding factor for me to stay on staff in Washington, DC, for the next two years.

A December House. So, since I'm staying in DC for at least two years, and renting is expensive, and the market was right, I bought a house. My former roommate Tobes will be moving in with me and I'm still looking for a fabulous, clean, quiet tenant to rent the basement apartment. My mom's friend Jim said to me yesterday at Grandpa's funeral, "You're 24 and you've got yourself a house and no husband. Well I'll be" (chuckle chuckle). I'll post a picture when I have one. The best part is it has a small yard and it's close to work so I'm getting a dog!

So I'm saying goodbye to E Street. I've lived on E Street for the past year and a half with Meg and KM (the stalwart fixtures of the foxhole), and Crissa, Tobes, Maggie, Mia, Aeran, and Amanda (the illustrious but more temporary foxes). We had our share of struggles and heartache, that I can't deny. But we also started one of my favorite traditions that I will not soon abandon: Sunday night wallow time, in which Meg and I get "Sunday night drunk" - which means not very drunk at all - on cheap red wine and avoid the reality that Monday will soon arrive. I'm saying goodbye to my third-floor room (picture!) but encouraging all former roommates to visit me at 6th and C and consider leaving clothes in the closet so sleeping on the couch is always an option.

Travels with Grace. Two days after Christmas Grace Chisholm and I will be embarking on a marvelous adventure that we've been planning (Grace more devotedly than me I might confess) for 3 months or more. We land in Amsterdam coming from our opposite ends of the earth on the 28th. Our itinerary includes Berlin, Prague, and Belgium!!! I've heard the Christmas/New Year season is spectacular over there. And I feel like I could benefit a lot from the kind of insight and reflection that travel with a good friend provides.

New Job... And just as I was leaving the office this week I was informed that I get to be a Legislative Assistant on Ethics, which is really exciting for me. I've been waiting for something like this to come along since I started working on the hill. This is the kind of job where I'll brief the Senator on votes having to do with Ethics and Lobbying Reform and run the occasional amendment over the the Capitol in my hot little hands.

Thinking about the past year, I still feel the weight of relationships that have broken down - some early this year and some very recent -, pressure and expectations that have kept me awake at night and made me sick sometimes, and important people who have passed away. It makes me ache inside. But I also understand that good things that have come to me, and I am grateful. I pray for grace to live well in the coming year.

May we all celebrate well this holiday season all things good and right! I love you all. May your love abound more and more...

(Blog) creation in 4 months

For those of you who have been having trouble sleeping while you wonder how long I will take to set up my blog, I want you to know that I never meant to take this long. My major hang-up was what to call it. I decided against Tim Dunbar's suggestion of "enthusiasticwhitemalerightwingdomination.blogspot.com" for a few reasons. Thanks to the Lemons family's loving encouragement this week in the way of blog creation, I stumbled upon a good one, I think. More to come very soon, I promise: pictures and updates.