Category Archives: unexpected adventures

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  six weeks in the desert: green valley, arizona

  Posted on June 28, 2013 by nikkimeredith in odds and sods, rituals, science/research, unexpected adventures.

  At home above my desk I have posted this poem by Mary Oliver: Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it. Oliver calls the poem “instructions for living a life” and it’s advice I try implementing every day of the year — every day except for the six weeks between Memorial Day and the 4th of […]

  Post Tagged with Arizona desert, baby names, desert living, monsoon season, rattlesnakes, saguaro forest, Sonoran desert, the dangers of the desert
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  this old house: my life in a highly permeable membrane

  Posted on May 10, 2013 by nikki in aid work, odds and sods, unexpected adventures.

  My house breathes. That’s not the technical term for it, of course – the technical term is that it has “excessive air infiltration.” I had an energy efficiency audit last week that confirmed it. Jim from the energy utility here in Austin hooked up a blower door to my entryway and let it rip. The […]

  Post Tagged with culture shock, energy efficiency audit, fixer upper, fixing up a house, old house renovations, termite infestations, termites in Africa
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  they do it better in dutch: sex workers and the disabled

  Posted on January 15, 2013 by nikki in health and beauty, movie review, politics and religion, unexpected adventures.

  My mom’s last two blog posts about sexual surrogacy and the movie “The Sessions” (see part 1 and part 2) reminded me of one of my old pieces of dinner party trivia. In Holland, the government pays sex workers to have sex with physically disabled people. I know – crazy, right? At least that was […]

  Post Tagged with disabled people and sexuality, sex workers and the disabled, sex workers in holland with disabled people, sexual surrogacy, social services in the netherlands, the movie the sessions
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  thanksgiving in jail

  Posted on December 1, 2012 by nikki in holidays, unexpected adventures.

  In September I started teaching a journalism class at the county jail here in Austin. The homework assignment I left the students with before Thanksgiving was to write a review of something they experienced either in jail or in their past: a TV show, a movie, a concert. I gave them five minutes of class […]

  Post Tagged with forgiveness, jail, jail writing classes, thankfulness, thanksgiving essays, thanksgiving in jail
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  absence makes the stomach grow fonder: food variety deprivation, fantasy and phenomena in the humanitarian aid worker life

  Posted on October 21, 2012 by nikki in aid work, odds and sods, rituals, unexpected adventures.

  Food cravings are a motherfucker. After a few weeks of being in the field with the same slop every day, my gastronomic fantasy life takes on a bigger and bigger portion of my conscious and unconscious mind with debilitating consequences. I’ve been through this cycle enough times now to recognize the signs and symptoms, which […]

  Post Tagged with aid worker food, eating same thing every day, food cravings, food deprivation, food fantasies, importance of varied food, no food variety
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