tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-84736434539829244622011-10-13T01:58:50.723-07:00Change is hard for some people.shannonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06413088166930550209noreply@blogger.comBlogger301100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8473643453982924462.post-54901893534765577062010-07-02T02:21:00.000-07:002010-07-02T02:25:21.859-07:00

Well, folks (those of you who still check this blog), I am dusting off my untouched keyboard and having a go at--yes, that's right--a brand new blog. Holes in my Rainbows is officially closed for business. Thank you to anyone who's read any of it, even though almost none of you comment (ahem), it means everything to me to think of you there, taking the time to read what I've taken the time to

shannonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06413088166930550209noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8473643453982924462.post-79913535918031100732010-03-31T11:16:00.000-07:002010-03-31T11:37:35.355-07:00

compliments of In lieu of finding blog-worthy things in the suburban limbo in which I currently exist, here is a glimpse into the life of a swim teacher (me). It's almost impossible to describe these kids (or in some cases, adults) as they test out unfamiliar waters, some wild and uninhibited, melting seamlessly with the aquatic world, and some stiff and unnatural, paralyzed by fear. There's the

shannonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06413088166930550209noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8473643453982924462.post-37031483293063553902010-03-29T11:43:00.000-07:002010-03-29T11:43:08.969-07:00

Most of the time I think my life is boring. My life in the suburbs, anyway. The two days of the week that find me strutting around the Mission District in my trendy flats and long necklaces, helping kids write about leopards and the color of their skin, and rubbing elbows with members of the San Francisco literary community are supreme exceptions. But that's just two days a week. The rest of the

shannonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06413088166930550209noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8473643453982924462.post-57666184536711892932010-02-21T17:50:00.000-08:002010-02-21T17:53:11.736-08:00

Hi! Remember me? I'm the girl who used to update this blog. Holes in my Rainbows has been hibernating during the cold California winter, and while I can't promise anything, it looks like maybe, maybe, some posts are about to blossom. Again, though, no promises. With honest optimism, however, I do give you these photos I took last weekend. Evidence that Spring, sweet green and warm and light,

shannonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06413088166930550209noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8473643453982924462.post-8746925802823181032010-01-16T19:17:00.000-08:002010-01-16T19:17:09.072-08:00

Loyal readers, I am thrilled and altogether delighted to announce my most recent pursuit as a shiny new intern for the San Francisco nonprofit 826 Valencia. It's a writing center in the mission district that provides free and spectacularly fun help to kids ages 6-18 in all their literary endeavors (fiction, nonfiction, poetry, basically any form of expression with the written word).  This

shannonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06413088166930550209noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8473643453982924462.post-34016292886318326912010-01-04T23:28:00.000-08:002010-01-04T23:33:40.419-08:00

We put our dog to sleep two days before Thanksgiving. Euthanized her, rather. Put her to sleep? Euphemized her. She was old. Cadi (pronounced like Katie). Fourteen or so. It was a difficult decision because, technically speaking, she wasn't really ill. She had arthritis and trouble getting up the stairs. Sometimes her legs just failed her completely. She was stiff, tired. In more pain than she

shannonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06413088166930550209noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8473643453982924462.post-40549287597175608202009-12-23T19:55:00.000-08:002010-01-04T23:33:16.692-08:00

 Having spent all my money on 7 weeks of travel with my beloved, I am for now reduced to settling for whatever odd job I can squeeze a few bucks out of. The other day, it was babysitting. I found the family on craigslist. The lady of the house said her mother was in town to help with the kids while she recovered from surgery, but she needed back-up for the day. So I went. She answered the door

shannonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06413088166930550209noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8473643453982924462.post-36848033115290126202009-12-10T20:03:00.000-08:002010-01-04T23:34:10.480-08:00

Yikes. Well, the blinking lights and blackout sales have made it impossible to ignore; the holiday season is upon us! Get out the ginger snaps to be inhaled whole and the candy canes to be looked at but never eaten because it's time to celebrate! We're getting into the holiday spirit by turning the TV to the Sounds of the Seasons music channel while we arrange assorted creepy Santa heads

shannonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06413088166930550209noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8473643453982924462.post-44340619346942950112009-12-09T13:38:00.000-08:002009-12-15T23:44:57.991-08:00

Well here I am yet again staring at a month since my last post. A whole lot of things have happened since this time in November when Jordi and I were still cruising down the California coast looking for another place to set up camp. We made it back up to Livermore for Thanksgiving after 5,714.4 miles of driving together. Five thousand, seven hundred and fourteen miles. I wrote it out for a

shannonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06413088166930550209noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8473643453982924462.post-54683444684299248632009-11-09T18:12:00.000-08:002009-11-14T21:48:30.646-08:00

I know I haven't written very much about the road trip so far, a combined result of laziness, lack of internet time, and just the sheer fact that it hasn't been all that great. Just kidding! But I'd be lying if I said it hasn't been hard. Two months of constant every-breathing-second togetherness with anyone is a great recipe for tension and conflict, and attempting to execute a road trip like

shannonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06413088166930550209noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8473643453982924462.post-61528391250497978392009-11-03T16:42:00.000-08:002009-11-03T16:53:02.864-08:00

I'm in Santa Cruz sitting at a coffee house trying to write, but an old white-haired local won't let me. He's here "doin' lap top" today with an iBook G4 that looks like it was buried in mud and then tied to the back of a truck and dragged down the road. One of these Berkeley graduates from the '60s who's lost a few screws and now blurs the line between the derelict and the tax-paying. He just

shannonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06413088166930550209noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8473643453982924462.post-62413912629847295132009-10-27T15:00:00.000-07:002009-11-03T15:27:00.212-08:00

Friday marked our entrance back into California, back into the sun. Not to say we didn’t see blue skies our whole time in Oregon, Washington and British Columbia, but it was scarce and the sun that did shine shone cold. But yesterday morning we woke up in Redwood National Park and looked up to see cracks of blue sky through the trees, walked out of the forest into bright, distinct warmth. We

shannonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06413088166930550209noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8473643453982924462.post-59294934563240943552009-10-20T13:57:00.000-07:002009-10-20T14:11:15.209-07:00

Unusual circumstances brought us to the town of Lynden, Washington, a place that we would have otherwise cruised right by. Jordi is applying for a graduate program conducted in English that requires him to take the TOEFL exam to prove his knowledge of the language. The only testing center that roughly coincided with our itinerary was at the Christian high school in this little town situated just

shannonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06413088166930550209noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8473643453982924462.post-72171291002963078092009-10-16T14:00:00.000-07:002009-10-20T14:10:44.868-07:00

Here are a few of my photos from the wonderful place that is Portland, OR. It was a brief visit, but it didn't take much time before we were asking ourselves we why don't live there. It just fit.

shannonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06413088166930550209noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8473643453982924462.post-84630904236506079672009-10-13T13:11:00.000-07:002009-10-20T14:09:49.577-07:00

After our night of horror sleeping 30 feet away from the grunting Larry atop a cold mountain, we treated ourselves to coffee and a giant blueberry muffin at a cozy place called Stage Door (that apparently also does cabaret on the weekends). It was warm and friendly and a little quirky (as most of Mount Shasta City is), and the muffin was fluffy as a cotton ball. The events of that morning

shannonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06413088166930550209noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8473643453982924462.post-17110546025009758592009-10-06T11:18:00.000-07:002009-10-20T14:08:15.062-07:00

Checking in from Portland here, though I won't be spending time talking about our gracious hosts in this funky Southeast neighborhood, the eclectic Easter egg Victorians, the crisp first days of an Oregon autumn, the vintage stores, coffee, books or dessert bars. It's all delightful and warm and fuzzy, but the night we spent on Mount Shasta makes for a far more interesting story. The sun was

shannonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06413088166930550209noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8473643453982924462.post-34585710629993385152009-09-28T12:34:00.000-07:002009-10-20T14:07:01.354-07:00

Ladies and gentlemen, the road trip is officially about to begin. We spent a weekend in Lake Tahoe with my parents, and have now given ourselves one day to assemble all necessary items for 2 months on the road before heading off to Yosemite, the first stop on the itinerary. That one day of preparation is today, and I'm sitting here staring at the Blogger logo instead of sorting laundry,

shannonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06413088166930550209noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8473643453982924462.post-8813519132408097422009-09-23T18:34:00.000-07:002009-09-24T01:57:14.688-07:00

As I waited this afternoon in Livermore's Piazza for Hair (fancy, eh?) while a woman called Gail coiffed Jordi's mane, I started flipping, as one does, through Ladies' Home Journal. Making my way for the interview with Meryl Streep and Amy Adams I stumbled across this article about chronic worriers. Below the title, the infinitely wise Ladies at the Home J. asked, as though speaking right to me,

shannonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06413088166930550209noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8473643453982924462.post-37098989138479426132009-09-18T19:45:00.000-07:002009-09-18T19:50:18.174-07:00

I'm writing this post for two reasons: one is to provide more details about the next few months of my life, and the other is to use that oh so clever, impossible to resist title that I'm sure has you all just tickled. It does, doesn't it? Doesn't it? I know. Anyway, as we speak, there is a Dutchman flying over the continental USA, soon to land in San Francisco, get in a little Honda Fit, and be

shannonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06413088166930550209noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8473643453982924462.post-86226097523716882302009-09-18T14:04:00.000-07:002009-09-19T02:05:17.398-07:00

The next time you want to buy a gift for a special someone (including yourself), consider supporting a local Bay Area artist, Rebecca Medrano, designer of Riella Creations. She makes truly beautiful jewelry by hand, each piece unique and from the heart. To browse her lovely creations, visit her etsy shop, and see what's new on her blog.

shannonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06413088166930550209noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8473643453982924462.post-1888347362359480602009-09-15T03:34:00.000-07:002009-09-15T03:34:04.320-07:00

Tonight, as I was carrying my heavy Trader Joe's bag through the dark parking lot, I saw a mother and her child get out of the car next to mine. The mother wore lavendar scrubs and crocs, probably having finished a day of work at the nearby hospital, and her little boy, maybe 5 or 6, wore a bright tie-dye shirt. As she helped him climb out of her old minivan, an ambulance sped through town, its

shannonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06413088166930550209noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8473643453982924462.post-29045120458462284132009-09-14T03:08:00.000-07:002009-09-14T03:08:47.439-07:00

Over the weekend on a trip down to sunny LA, I enjoyed a lovely afternoon with my family at the Huntington Library. We took a liesurely stroll through the botanical gardens and saw some very old manuscripts, including Shakespeare's First Folio. These are a few of my favorite photos from that delightful Saturday afternoon.

shannonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06413088166930550209noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8473643453982924462.post-59041998629420729602009-09-14T02:36:00.000-07:002009-09-14T02:47:16.188-07:00

Since I claim in my irresistably charming 'About Me' to be a big reader, I thought I might prove it to you all by sharing from time to time what it is that I'm currently falling asleep to when I go to bed every night. At the moment, it is none other than The Lord of the Rings. Some of you may wonder why I hadn't already read this monstrosity, while others may wonder if it isn't a few too many

shannonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06413088166930550209noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8473643453982924462.post-68079270615532363322009-09-08T17:45:00.000-07:002009-09-18T13:44:16.712-07:00

I hope you all had a great long Labor Day weekend! I missed 4th of July this year, and I've been out of the country for the last two Thanksgivings, but dammit! I was here for Labor Day. And with the heat we're having this week, it doesn't feel like the end of summer to me. Though, I guess that's also probably because I don't have a job and don't go to school and am, all things considered, a

shannonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06413088166930550209noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8473643453982924462.post-90128593158777214432009-09-07T18:48:00.000-07:002009-09-07T18:48:34.739-07:00

So the current happenings in my life are... um, let's see... mostly just trying to figure out WHAT THE HELL TO DO WITH IT. I spent a shiftless year in Europe, my greatest ambitions to maintain sanity while two heart-stealing little boys (or vampires, if you'd rather) sucked all the energy right out of me, and to see as many different places as I could cram into 3-day weekends. Now I have a 2-3

shannonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06413088166930550209noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8473643453982924462.post-67118049295715827432009-09-06T00:39:00.000-07:002009-09-06T00:39:43.198-07:00

  I was just scrolling through my iPhoto and decided to start sharing some of my favorite photos with you every so often. I'll just pick out one from time to time and post it to give the bloggy a little color and something to look at. Ya know, for those times when you can't bare to read another word of my infinitely insightful written treasures. For starters, here's a produce shop in Madrid. We

shannonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06413088166930550209noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8473643453982924462.post-57158395295629324872009-09-05T00:52:00.000-07:002009-09-15T19:45:12.719-07:00

As you all know, I've returned to California. Livermore, California to be precise. This is the town where I grew up and where my parents still live. It's a town I know and love, and can't help but appreciate for its quirks and eccentricities--usually hidden behind the guise of typical American suburbia. We have, for example, the longest burning lightbulb ever recorded in history. Seriously, it's

shannonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06413088166930550209noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8473643453982924462.post-43884246611072833572009-09-05T00:10:00.000-07:002009-09-05T00:11:18.087-07:00

Hi all! Just wanted to share something that I can't get enough of. I discovered Dan Goodsell's art last summer at the LA Times festival of books. Explore The World of Mr. Toast and find dozens more delicious little treasures like this one. Mr. Toast, seen here enjoying a rainbow snow cone (what else?), can be found doing all kinds of silly things, along with other characters like Shaky Bacon, Joe

shannonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06413088166930550209noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8473643453982924462.post-64767473891068027822009-09-04T16:38:00.000-07:002009-09-04T16:41:35.784-07:00

After a 24 hours of travel, I am now back in California feeling appropriately strange after having spent a year on another continent, with just one stateside visit over Christmas. It's been a while, and I found myself searching for the flush handle on the toilet at my parents' house because it of course isn't a plastic button to push on top, like I'm now used to. Welkom in Amerika! The night

shannonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06413088166930550209noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8473643453982924462.post-47365994997192866512009-08-31T04:34:00.000-07:002009-09-04T16:39:24.633-07:00

Welcome to the new home of Holes in my Rainbows! The old location can still be reached here, but from now on this will be the place for all new content. It's still the same blog, but with a snazzier look, more features, and an explanation of the title. (It's more than just a pretentious empty emo metaphor, I promise. It comes from something.) As I enter another period of change in my life, I

shannonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06413088166930550209noreply@blogger.com1