September 27th, 2008
I write from the Boulder Coffee Co. in the South Wedge of Rochester, New York. The Boulder Coffee Co. is an unfortunate and boring name for a coffee house that is otherwise very cool. Lots of saggy couches, original and mismatched artwork, exposed brick, a stage area. Also, excellent music (Mermaid Avenue was playing when I came in).
This morning I attended the Stronger Together conference, put on by the Planned Parenthoods of Western New York, Rochester, Syracuse, Finger Lakes, and Hudson Valley. It was a fun day, filled with faces I hadn’t seen in a while. Shelby Knox, of the Education of Shelby Knox, was the keynote and she did a great job. She’s super friendly and accessible and 22 years old. She hung around for the rest of the conference and it was pretty clear that she loves what she does, which is travel around the country giving talks about feminism and repro rights.
Later tonight I’m having dinner with two of my professors from college at their house in Rochester. I’d been planning on killing the few hours in between the conference and dinner by visiting my favorite used book store (maybe ever) on Monroe Avenue: the Brown Bag Bookshop. Tragically, the store appears to have closed. When I saw the “For Rent” sign in the window a little piece of me died.
I drove around aimlessly for a little bit until I found this coffee shop (it’s gotten way less cool, by the way, the free wifi they advertise is only working, like, 30% of the time) and now here I am. It’s been a very Whitney-in-college kind of day: conference on a campus, struggle to find parking, Geneseo friends past and present, visit to Brown Bag (kind of) and Abundance Co-op, dinner with Ken & Caroline.
It’s funny though, the college-like activity I found myself enjoying the most–the thing I’m almost feeling nostalgic for–was the aimless wandering. I don’t know if I’ll ever have a time in my life more self-indulgent than my four years of undergrad and I don’t think I’d really want to return to it, to be honest. But man, it was nice this afternoon to just not know where I was going or what I’d do or how I’d find it.
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September 26th, 2008
So since posting this photo online, I’ve had a few questions about the pattern–namely, where’d you get the pattern? Listen up: there really isn’t one. Here’s how I did it:
Step 1: Do a Google image search on “buffalo” and pick your fave. I recommend a solid-colored version. Step 2: Using microRevolt’s knitPro 2.0, upload your chosen buffalo pic at the “cross stitch” and “regular” size settings. Step 3: Print out the gridded picture and grab your supplies. Step 4: Find the middle of the knitPro “pattern” and begin stitching from there. In this case, I found the middle of the buffalo’s back and from there knit the outline of its entire shape. Now I’m filling in. Step 5: Stitch away!
Don’t be afraid to go freehand for a bit. I’ve since input images of anchors and telephone wires into knitPro; I’ll let you know how they turn out. If you’re looking for help with letters, try subversive cross-stitch’s text generator or their other tools.
Tags: Buffalonian, craftster, cross-stitch, how-to
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September 23rd, 2008
Put up a post about my recent bathroom and office makeover/renovation on This Old, Old House.

My use of my office as a place to write and read has increased 1,000% since removing the carpet. Who knew? Actually, I did. I totally knew.
Tags: homeowner heaven, this old old house
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September 22nd, 2008

There are few things sweeter (or more distracting) then coming home to find three kittens–two black, one orange–hanging out on your front porch. When Sean got home later, the orange kitten was actually hiding in the potted lilac tree. Can something be any cuter?
I had to seriously fight the urge of not taking one of them inside with me, and I’m allergic to cats. At one point the orange one sat there and CRIED while its mom went to look for its siblings. And then you know what it did after it finished crying? It looked up at the window I was leaning out of and MADE EYE CONTACT WITH ME. I am in the midst of one of the worst months of allergy irritation ever and I still ran downstairs to try to find the little babe.
Lesson: kittens are evil.
Tags: allergies, homeowner heaven, kittens
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September 22nd, 2008
Happy first day of autumn. It is appropriately cool here in Buffalo but with a bright blue sky it is near impossible to stay inside. It gets dreary fast so I’m planning on a long walk after Sean and I make dinner tonight.
I read this quote about fall today, and it spoke to me as both a homeowner and a project-starter. Some might find it dark but I like the honesty. I welcome the excuse to put some chores–and even some former hopes–to bed.
“I love the fall. I love it because of the smells that you speak of; and also because things are dying, things that you don’t have to take care of anymore, and the grass stops growing.” – Mark van Doren, poet.
The photo to the right is of my office last November, the neighbor’s tree full of bright yellow leaves.
Tags: autumn, fall, homeowner heaven
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September 21st, 2008
It’s Sunday afternoon, a cup of green tea is cooling down beside me. Music from my roommate’s studio is coming up from underneath the floorboards; I don’t know if it’s something he made or something he likes. The quiet repetition is kind of meditative.
I just gave Sean a ride to his downtown office, where he had to pick up some work to do from home later today, and then dropped him off at The Clubhouse (I will explain that at another time, if he lets me). On my way back to my house, I drove past what looked to be a fairly substantial drug raid. Police officers in plain clothes–some with bulletproof vests reading POLICE over them–had about 6-9 suspects handcuffed and were running in and out of the house. The neighbors were taking pictures on digital cameras from their porches.
As I turned my attention from the raid back to the street, I realized I was about to drive over a pool of red wetness–it had to be blood. I drove over, checking my rear view mirror for a confirmation but couldn’t make it out as I moved farther away.
When I pulled in front of my house a couple minutes later–the raid was around the block–the neighbors two doors down were out on the front porch as always. The teenage boys were fixing their car in the driveway and waved to me. The nice African man who bought the crumbling house across the street at auction was back at his endless repairs, power sanding the clapboard under some windows. The Burmese kids were playing in their fenced-in front yard; the TV came through the windows of my tenant’s house as I walked to my door.
Everything was as it always was, the soft feeling of Sunday morning left undisturbed by the chaos down the street.
Steve, Micaela, and Kevin were downstairs smoking cigarettes in Steve and Sara’s kitchen, taking a break from the music-making. I told them about the raid and the blood, and they nodded. The things you get used to.
Tags: Buffalonian, crime, homeowner hell, neighborhood
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September 17th, 2008

A couple weeks ago my mom and I drove out to Spoth’s farm and nursery and picked up some perenniels for dirt cheap. It was storming outside, loud thunder and rain so loud we had to shout while inside the greenhouse. The tables were mostly empty, with a few rows of rotting herbs and flowers, and the ceiling was filled with these gorgeous, overflowing baskets of blossoms. The cash register was closed, we paid on the honor system.
Tags: family, snapshot
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September 17th, 2008
So here it comes, a better version of me -F. Apple
I recently challenged myself to create five mini-biographies of (you guessed it) me. I did this in response to a day of feeling like crap, like I was an uninteresting and boring 9-to-5er. I made the first one reflective of my mood at the time, and tried to make the following four about the parts of my life I knew were there but that I wasn’t seeing in the haze of my bad mood. Here’s what I came up with:
The loser version. Whitney gets to work every morning by 9 a.m. Sometimes she’s there before then, and she likes to eat lunch at the library cafe downtown. She is very tired these days and often makes pasta for dinner because it’s the easiest thing she can think of. Whitney wishes she had more time to write and exercise.
The homeowner version. Whitney is a twenty-something new homeowner living in Buffalo, New York. In the past year she has learned how to snake a toilet, replace ceiling tiles, and clear out a flooded basement. She is still learning how to use power tools and figure out when contractors are trying to bullshit her. Her house was built in 1886 and the inside is painted in bright, circus colors.
The craftster version. Knitting, painting, zine writing, envelope-making, and cross-stitching are among Whitney’s treasured past times. Her friend Brynn taught her how to knit on a bus ride from Siena to Rome, Italy. The old Italian women sitting behind them coached Whitney on her first stitches by using dramatic hand gestures. Currently, she is working on a cross-stitched collection of text message shorthands; she has completed “OMG” so far.
The Buffalonian version. Whitney was born and raised in Western New York and after some brief travel after college, decided to settled down in the City of Buffalo for awhile. She enjoys walking across the Rainbow bridge to Niagara Falls and riding her bike through the flat streets of the West Side. At the moment, Whitney works for the City government and hopes to have a hand in making Buffalo a greener, growing place to live.
The kitchen sink version. As if she didn’t have enough projects in the works, Whitney recently taught herself how to cross stitch and promptly started stitching Christmas gifts for friends and family. She’s also writing a YA novel, several personal essays, and many overdue letters. She has approximately a thousand half-finished knitting projects and grand plans for her garden. She just bought and launched her first all-on-her-own website and is pretty excited. Whitney is very busy and full but that is how she likes it.
Tags: Buffalonian, craftster, homeowner heaven, homeowner hell, me myself I
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