Bunch of Other Stuff

Well maybe not a bunch. But definitely some.

• Made an appointment with Kathryn at Dogstar for the next tattoo on the inside of my right forearm on December 23rd. Won't be doing "Fear is a Liar" after all; she talked me out of it - she knows what I want more than I do. Heh. It will be free form, as you'll see the end in the knots. True knot work you can't see the beginning or end of the knot - but it needs to be big so it doesn't close up. Don't have that option on the forearm. I suppose I'll have to match the left forearm at some point 'cause that's how tattoos are - can't have just one. Some people do not get the Pictish inclination for the tattoos. Whatever. It's in my DNA.

• Speaking of DNA - did I tell you Ancestry.com found my two percent "Uncertain"? Caucasus. (Syria, Iran, Iraq) Seriously not the woodpile I was expecting. Things are more broken down - 24% Ireland. 7% British Isles. 61% Western Europe (My Scandinavian is Danish; my gut feeling.). That explains why I love the rowing machine - all that DNA memory of longboats. Heh.

• Had a very nice Thanksgiving at Susan and Tony's house. They entertain like I wish I did. No worry, no stress. You're family; hanging around the table nibbling on cheese and drinking cava, everyone at ease. My contributions were bacon jam and cranberry conserve. Talked to The Boy and OSD in the morning. It was a lovely day.

Thanksgiving 2013

• The dates had died out there for a bit, perhaps due to holidays. Now I have one tomorrow night with a poet from Hillsborough. Here's hoping he doesn't hold his spoon like a two year old. 

• Went to the Durham Rock and Shop Market at the Durham Armory today and spent $ on ME. (I'm my favorite person to spend money on.) Bought a fused glass skull necklace by Isabel's Rose and a Durham skyline necklace by Metamorphosis Metals. The bull can be added later if I want. And I want. It pretty much makes the skyline.

• On the weightlifting front, I did squats with 95 lbs Tuesday night and...my knee hurt. Just saying. Then overhead presses and Turkish Get ups. All my least favorite stuff in one night. UGH.

• I'm restless and moving the furniture doesn't help. If [when] I dream I'm pregnant, we're in trouble. (new beginnings and change.)

• A friend gave me this hat. I think of myself as more of a fedora person. What do you think?

Alright, that's it for now.

Astrid

Is the name of my inner Viking. It means "God[dess] + fair, beautiful". I'm channeling her big time lately.

It occurred to me recently that I have been sleeping for a long time. The last seventeen years were about my parents: either being with, worrying about, or grieving for. Before that, The Boy. 

Remember my "Frustration" post? Well, that old fisherman friend referred to in the post has lit a fire under this Scandinavian/Scots-Irish arse and I'm hell bent on finding that adventurous girl I used to be.

I've joined a gym; I'm doing a session with a "love your body" coach next week. When I'm in kickboxing class (which I LOVE), that Astrid is front and center. 

My raven tattoo (finished a year ago this month) heralded the return of the warriorpoet. The beserker. The woad-painted Pict. 

Look out world - I'm awake. And I'm coming. 

Frustration

Oh tiny little group of readers, I am wrestling with the nomadic nesting syndrome again.

Sometimes I just want to scream about the RUT I'm in.

A part of me deep down is adventurous, spontaneous, brave, and bold - the beserker, the warriorpoet.

There used to be more of that when I was younger. The person who climbed up the face of this mountain (Old Woman) one fine summer day by herself, just because:

See the line of trees above the yellow building? That was my route.

This site says it's 2,563 ft to the top; 3-8 miles. But that's referring to the trail on the back side of the mountain. The trail-less face may be more or less than that.

No water bottle, no food, no bear spray; I didn't even tell anyone I was going. Just did it.

The person who lived in a tent in Alaska; washed her hair in a steam, in the coldest water you ever felt. Who clambered over rocks and climbed up cliffs to get to the perfect ocean vista, praying I would see an orca pod. (Never did.)

What happened to her?!

On the other stupid damn hand, I love routine. I love my creatures and my creature comforts. I love my own bed, my jalapeno jelly green wall, my wood floors, my art, my friends.

I had a light bulb moment late last year when The Boy was talking about buying a dog boarding business.
He was always jumping from restaurant to restaurant when he was a chef. It made my stomach hurt. I've worked for the same company since 1999 (minus the "sabbatical" year of 2010-2011).

Then it dawned on me - he is a risk taker. And I am not in this stage of my life.

What's brought all this on (again)?
A friend from the past contacted me on Facebook last week. He's in SE Alaska salmon fishing. He sends me these fantastic pictures of the water and the mountains and I can smell the brine and the fireweed and the alders and the spruce.

Photos - JP

I MISS it. I miss the magnificent breathtaking adventure of the place.

Somewhere near Sitka, AK. Photo - JP

Once again my nomadic Viking blood is stirred up. Hell, those Spanish, Portuguese, and Italians got around as well. 98% of my blessed DNA is composed of sailors, explorers, risk takers.

So what the bloody hell is the matter with me?!

I want to have my cake and eat it too.

More to come...

Since You're Wondering

I'm sure you have been...

The Y-DNA and mtDNA tests have backed up the Ancestry.com test.

From Africa my mother's forebearers (Haplogroup H) marched up through Central Europe over to Denmark, Sweden, and Norway. Read a BBC article on the mtDNA testing of ancient skeletons here.
I'm betting we are either subclade H1 or H3 - the first and second most common subclades of the H group. Should you wish to learn more, read this.

Determining the subclade is another damn test.

My father's peeps (Haplogroup R1b - most common haplogroup in Western Europe) did much the same; a slightly different route though Central Europe to Denmark, then popped over to the British Isles (more than 80% of  people in the Scottish Highlands, Ireland, and Wales have the R1b marker). Read more here.
As with the mtDNA, the Y-DNAsubclade test is more dollars.

The "uncertain" 2% is still unsolved...

Confessions of a DNA Junkie

Is there a DNA Anonymous meeting nearby?

Several weeks ago I ordered the Y-DNA test for my brother. About two seconds later, I ordered the mt-DNA test for myself. We are awaiting the results (one week down out of the 4-6 week waiting period. Not that I'm counting or anything. Heh.).

Genebase, the company doing the tests, says this about the difference between Y and mt DNA:

The Y-DNA carries information about an individual’s paternal ancestry. The following characteristics of Y-DNA make it suitable for paternal ancestry analysis:

1. It is found only in males and is inherited strictly from father to son (the same way that the surname is passed down).
2. It’s genetic code is very stable (low recombination rate).
3. It contains STR markers which can be used to trace an individual’s recent ancestry.
4. It contains SNP markers which can be used to trace an individual’s deep ancestry.
5. The Y-Chromosome is passed down directly from a father to all of his sons and remains relatively unchanged throughout the generations. For example, a distant male forefather will pass his Y-Chromosome down to all of his sons. His sons will then pass the same Y-Chromosome down to all of their sons in the next generation and so on. Thus, all males who are connected to a common forefather will have the same Y-Chromosome. This manner of inheritance is identical to the manner in which the surname is passed down in most cultures (i.e. from father to son along the male lineage). As a result, the Y-Chromosome will allow two males with the same or similar last name to determine whether they belong to the same original family line.

Determining your Maternal Ancestry

Your set of mtDNA markers is unique to you and your maternal line and contains valuable information about your maternal ancestors.  mtDNA is passed down strictly from mother to child.  By testing your mtDNA, you will be tracing the ancestry of your direct maternal lineage (your mother's, mother's, mother's..... maternal lineage).  The results of your mtDNA test allows you to trace your maternal ancestry in several ways:

1. Deep Ancestry Analysis (mtDNA Haplogroup): Your HVR1 and HVR2 results will allow you to predict which mtDNA Haplogroup you descended from. Haplogroups are ancient family groups and the study of Haplogroups pertain to "deep" ancestry.  Unlike tracing family lineages in traditional genealogy, deep ancestry is a look at our ancient ancestral roots from tens of thousands of generations ago and shows how all people living today are connected to an ancient ancestor who lived in Africa over 100,000 years ago. To date, over 28 major mtDNA Haplogroups have been identified, and a unique set of markers are associated with each mtDNA Haplogroup. By examining markers in the HVR1 and HVR2 regions of your mtDNA, you can predict the mtDNA Haplogroup you most likely belong to. However, the only way to confirm the prediction is through mtDNA Haplogroup Backbone SNP Testing or the Coding Region Full Sequencing test which focus on additional markers in the Coding Region of the mtDNA.
2. DNA Archaeology:  DNA testing has been used to answer many anthropological mysteries, ranging from the identity of the remains of the Romanov family to identification of mummies. With your mtDNA markers, you can compare your own mtDNA to the findings in these fascinating studies and see how you may be linked to ancient families and figures.
3. DNA Reunion: By testing your mtDNA, you will discover the unique set of ancestral markers that were passed down to you from your maternal ancestors along your direct maternal line. You can compare your mtDNA markers to others to determine whether there is a possible maternal link. Such comparisons are useful for confirming or refuting existing research using traditional genealogy.
4. Indigenous DNA:  Compare your mtDNA markers with a large database of indigenous populations from around the the world to see which population most closely matches your mtDNA type. 

Is all this boring you? Sorry, it is fascinating to me. And my parents. I remember getting the the family crest (hanging in my house at this very moment) they ordered (my guess - National Geographic). That was back when you sent a check in the post. My dad spent hours looking at microfiche in a library in Georgia. Of course, my mother could recite her family's genealogy going way back. 

I would love to have my sister and brother take the Ancestry.com DNA test (it's a combo of haplogroups), just to see how their genetic pie slices up. 

According to a very nice man at Ancestry, the "uncertain" (in my case, 2%)  markers are tied to regions rather than ethnicity. My siblings could possibly have zero uncertain markers or they could have more. He also said that children who look more like one parent over another most likely got a bigger part of that parent's DNA. Based on that, my brother and I have a bit more of our father's mix and my sister would have more of our mother's. 
Think of your parents' DNA as a pot of vegetable soup with two potatoes, two carrots. Each bowl of soup will have a different proportion of veggies, some more carrots, some more potatoes, even though it came from the same pot.

Counting myself, I know five people who've done the Ancestry.com DNA testing. Three of those are from the South, and each of them have an "uncertain" component. Two of them are from California - no "uncertain". 

That strikes me as funny.

My cousin asked me if I was nervous about the results. Absolutely not; I think it's exciting. But then, I wanted to be an archaeologist. This is kind of like that - only with myself. 

The DNA Results Are...(drum roll please)

According to the test, my genetic pie cuts up like this:
79% Scandinavian
19% Southern Europe (Italy, Spain, Portugal)
2% Uncertain

Uncertain means "...small traces of a specific population may have been found in your DNA, but the probability levels were too low to pinpoint it to a specific ethnicity. This is not uncommon and as more genetic signatures are discovered with a higher confidence level, we may be able to update this percentage over time."

I was in a bit of a dither for a spell - where's Scotland, Ireland, France?! I know people came from there.

Here's what Ancestry says:
"So if you look at your family tree, it may indicate a pedigree-based ethnicity of 30% English, 20% Scandinavian, and 50% Italian (based on birth locations of your great-great-great grandparents). While this is one valid way to look at ethnicity (and in fact has been the only way until recently), DNA analysis can reveal the actual percentage of your DNA that is reflected by these ethnic groups. So your genetic-based ethnicity might reveal you are 40% British Isles, 15% Scandinavian, and 45% Southern European. Both measures are accurate and informative—but they are measuring different things."

Huh?!

I found the explanation  at The Genetic Genealogist to be more helpful than Ancestry's:   

"Remember that “Everyone Has Two Family Trees – A Genealogical Tree and a Genetic Tree.” Your Genealogical Tree is the tree containing ALL of your ancestors.  However, only a tiny subset of these individuals actually (randomly) contributed DNA to the genome that you walk around with today.  These ancestors are the only individuals in your Genetic Tree.  It has been estimated, for example, that at 10 generations, only about 10-12% of ancestors in your Genealogical Tree are actually in your Genetic Tree!

Accordingly, even if a decent percentage of your ancestors at 10 generations originated in the British Isles, there is possibility that your DNA – and thus your Genetic Ethnicity Prediction – could include very little or absolutely no British Isles ancestry, simply because of the rules of genetics."

Back to Ancestry: "Ancestry.com defines the “Scandinavian” with the modern day locations of Norway, Sweden, Denmark, but explains in their FAQ that it can mean much, much more:

Ethnic groups moved around. Because people move over time, (and when they do they take their DNA with them), a group may contribute DNA to other groups at different times. So ethnic groups can be defined by time and place—not just location. For example, if you have German or British ancestors in your family tree, it’s a possibility that your genetic ethnicity may be partly Scandinavian. The Viking invasions and conquests about a thousand years ago are likely responsible for occurrences of Scandinavian ethnicity throughout other regions. And there are similar examples for other ethnicities. With your results, we provide historical information describing migrations to and from the regions to give you a broader picture of the origins of your DNA."

How crazy it that?!

As soon as I have a bit of extra cash, I'm going to do the National Geographic DNA test too; this is fascinating stuff.

And those Vikings got around!