"Hey Erin, you were a cheerleader. Make up a family cheer," shouted Jon and Courtney from the floating pontoon platform.
Uh, uh, uh. "Go big H?"
I'm still working on what comes after H - I - L - L, but the initial moves are down!
Aug 15, 2011
Cheerleader
"Hey Erin, you were a cheerleader. Make up a family cheer," shouted Jon and Courtney from the floating pontoon platform.
Uh, uh, uh. "Go big H?"
I'm still working on what comes after H - I - L - L, but the initial moves are down!
Aug 14, 2011
Rubberbanding
Last month I taught summer school and moved. Two big tasks that drained me, yes, but also uplifted me. Worth it on both fronts! However, my reading/writing time was severely compromised. I'm going to blame the heat! Texas has been a dry oven this summer. Yes, it's always hot, but this summer has been incredibly dry as well. The local news aired pet advisories, which makes me nervous - if animals can't hack it in the heat, what chance do we humans have?
Thank goodness we hightailed it to Minnesota for our yearly reprieve. The weather here during the summer IS a vacation all by itself. My kids have been playing outside for hours each day and it makes me happy to hear gleeful laughter on the trampoline or see them biking in front of Grandma and Grandpa's house.
Here are some shots of our attempts at Human Rubberband at the cabin. The kids had fun, but the whole thing is a bit trickier when the participants have such widely differing heights and weights. Still, lots of laughter and only a few stepped-on toes!
Thank goodness we hightailed it to Minnesota for our yearly reprieve. The weather here during the summer IS a vacation all by itself. My kids have been playing outside for hours each day and it makes me happy to hear gleeful laughter on the trampoline or see them biking in front of Grandma and Grandpa's house.
Here are some shots of our attempts at Human Rubberband at the cabin. The kids had fun, but the whole thing is a bit trickier when the participants have such widely differing heights and weights. Still, lots of laughter and only a few stepped-on toes!
Jun 24, 2011
Foodie show-off
Sometimes I fancy myself a kind of foodie. Really, it's more like I love to read the Dining & Wine section of the New York Times on Wednesdays (especially Melissa Clark's A Good Appetite!), I like receiving cookbooks for gifts and checking out new ones from the library, I have fun at our local farmer's market and I enjoy eating expensive chocolates. Oh, and I'm a vegetarian. And I like Indian food. And Thai food.
But I'm very superficially skilled in the kitchen. I used to be better, but then the other adult in our family, the one who also enjoyed eating things that didn't come out of a box or freezer and who also perused cookbooks and spice aisles, moved out, and I moved into a house with a rather shabby, tiny kitchen. Also, my life sort of collapsed in on itself, like a failed souffle. So my skills are less now than they were four years ago, five years ago. Just like piano playing, a lack of practice really takes a toll!
I know how to do some things really well (make lentil soup), some things marginally well (make other soups without any kind of recipe that I can eat straight for three days) and some things not at all (whole wheat lemon sugar cookies). I know enough to know how very, very little I know ... and how much I would like to know. So I guess that's where my true gift lies - I have an aptitude for listening to other people talk knowingly about food!
I wanted to create a fancy food blog post all the same, atrophied skills or no atrophied skills. I have so much fun following my friend Becca's yummy recipe blog, my friend Sara's delicious food blog and Dinner: A Love Story that I wanted to try a post worthy of this free site space I've been allotted! And one night several months ago when my kids were staying with their bread-baking father, I looked at the meal I was making for myself and decided to take pictures. I did a little last-minute food styling just to perk it up!
Care to join me the next time I prepare Pea Ramen?
But I'm very superficially skilled in the kitchen. I used to be better, but then the other adult in our family, the one who also enjoyed eating things that didn't come out of a box or freezer and who also perused cookbooks and spice aisles, moved out, and I moved into a house with a rather shabby, tiny kitchen. Also, my life sort of collapsed in on itself, like a failed souffle. So my skills are less now than they were four years ago, five years ago. Just like piano playing, a lack of practice really takes a toll!
I know how to do some things really well (make lentil soup), some things marginally well (make other soups without any kind of recipe that I can eat straight for three days) and some things not at all (whole wheat lemon sugar cookies). I know enough to know how very, very little I know ... and how much I would like to know. So I guess that's where my true gift lies - I have an aptitude for listening to other people talk knowingly about food!
I wanted to create a fancy food blog post all the same, atrophied skills or no atrophied skills. I have so much fun following my friend Becca's yummy recipe blog, my friend Sara's delicious food blog and Dinner: A Love Story that I wanted to try a post worthy of this free site space I've been allotted! And one night several months ago when my kids were staying with their bread-baking father, I looked at the meal I was making for myself and decided to take pictures. I did a little last-minute food styling just to perk it up!
Care to join me the next time I prepare Pea Ramen?
First step, assemble the raw ingredients!
(Don't worry, the Vitamin C is just for garnish. The soap is just to thicken the sauce.)
Take care to remove the nasty "Chicken Flavor" pouch in the ramen. My homemade sauce is much better and should be, since it's my best recollection of a dipping sauce one of my Korean tutoring student's mother made for me nine years ago: 4 cloves garlic, a bunch of sesame oil, four shakes of soy sauce, toasted sesame seeds and a sweetener. Tonight, I'm going with agave nectar, just to be adventurous.
(p.s. the agave nectar provided a bright sweet note in the tangy sauce. Success!)
Next, bring the ramen to a boil in a shallow sauce pan. This should take 30 seconds or so depending on how much ramen you dump in.
Add a bag of frozen peas to the boiling ramen water. When peas reached desired state of non-frozenness, remove from heat. If the dumping of the peas splashed so much water that the pilot light was extinguished and the "heat" removed itself, just let the peas sit in the still-hot water for a couple of minutes.
Drain peas and ramen in colander. Return the drained noodles and peas to the sauce pan and stir in the spicy sauce. Add more garlic if you have no plans to see anyone in the next 24 hours.
Enjoy! (I certainly did. I wolfed down the food so quickly I failed to take a picture of the plated meal, but it sure was fun to think about how pretty the whole meal would look online.)
;)
Mindful eating
On Wednesday, June 8th, I drove to the Southwest Vipassana Meditation Center, just south of Dallas, for a ten-day silent meditation course. On Sunday, June 19th, my 39th birthday, I returned home a transformed woman.
I am trying to write down the high points of this intense, sometimes painful, very paradigm-shifting experience, but blogspot decided to eat up many of my words.
So in that vein, I'll share just a bit about what I ate at the retreat. :)
This ten-day sit was about meditation, not eating. Let me be clear on that point. But I found that our meals and food selections were an important part of the meditation boot camp. On the drive to the center, I visited a bit with Courtney and she happened to ask me if the retreat included lessons on "mindful eating."
"Oh, not that I know of,"I told her. "I think we spend most of our time meditating."
Which was true. We spent between 8-10 hours a day meditating. We were silent during the meditation hours and the other hours, whether walking, cleaning or sitting on benches under shady trees. However, all that silence ended up teaching me quite a bit about mindful eating! Something about eating in silence amplified my awareness of the clinks of forks and knives against plates, of metal ladles scraping the sides of serving bowls, the sounds of chewing and swallowing - and my awareness of how much I wanted to eat and needed to eat.
I quickly learned not to overestimate the portions I thought I would eat, but to instead start with a small bowl of whatever looked yummy and then return for seconds if I still needed food (which I did on the curry day and the taco soup day). I also enjoyed taking surreptitious glances at sit-mates' plates, just to see what they were eating and in what combinations. I smiled to myself during one lunch when I noticed that the woman sitting next to me - a 6'2" former volleyball player - was eating, in addition to her salad, soup and whatnot, an entire dinner plate full of steamed broccoli. Wow.
At the far end of the daily lunch buffet table was the salad station. Each day, we could create fresh salad combinations with neatly cut rectangles of deep green lettuce, bright beet shreds, chick peas, frozen peas, shredded cheese, sunflower seeds, raisins, plump squares of peeled cucumber, coarsely chopped bell peppers and quartered tomato wedges. In addition to bottles of olive oil, red wine vinegar and italian dressing, we could douse our salads with a homemade sesame dressing that knocked my socks off!
Most days we did not have dessert, though a surprise apple brown betty with whipped cream made an appearance toward the end of the week. Instead, there was a small bowl filled with Andes mints next to the cucumber canister. I really enjoyed the taste of chocolate and mint after each meal - something sweet, something creamy, but not heavy.
Although we were not supposed to read or write during the retreat, I accidentally brought my planner and a pen into the dorm room. Starting at bedtime on day 4, I wrote just a few words each night before falling asleep to help me remember the highlights of that particular day, especially the main meal selection! Here is what I ate for for the main meal each day (all of the food was vegetarian/vegan & I was in heaven!):
Wednesday dinner - soft tacos with spicy refried beans and brown rice
Thursday lunch - penne pasta with marinara sauce
Friday lunch - navy bean soup and brown rice
Saturday lunch - spinach lasagna and french bread
Sunday lunch - minestrone soup and tofu "steaks" (I only tried the soup... the gray rectangles drizzled with balsamic vinegar didn't quite do it for me)
Monday lunch - curried chick peas with basmati rice
Tuesday lunch - split pea soup and french bread + oatmeal chocolate chip cookies!
Wednesday lunch - spicy taco soup with corn chips
Thursday lunch - corn chowder and curried eggplant with rice
Friday lunch - mung beans (served in a pea soup consistency) and spinach quesadillas
Saturday lunch - delicious leftovers ... but I was so busy chatting with my tablemate, I barely touched the lasagna I had put on my plate
Saturday dinner - hummus & baba ganoush with vegetables + leftovers
Breakfast options were the same each morning ... and oh-so satisfying!: hot oatmeal, stewed prunes, cottage cheese, plain yogurt, fresh fruit, dried cereals and bread. I usually ate a bowl of oatmeal with peanut butter, honey and a little milk, plus cottage cheese with fresh fruit and raisins.
We did not eat any kind of dinner Thursday evening - the following Friday. Instead, at 5 p.m. each day, fresh fruit and ginger tea (basically hot water with shreds of ginger boiled in) was served. The first few days I ate a grapefruit with a little brown sugar on the top, but before too long, I realized that I was not hungry in the afternoons. Two good-sized meals with adequate protein in them really filled me up. And the evening discourse was so tasty to my mind and heart that I didn't seem to crave food in the same way I do when I am at home.
And since I've been back home, I've only had two donuts total! :)
p.s. that's a joke! (Wait, I actually have eaten two donuts ... but you know what I mean! Right?)
Jun 3, 2011
Family photo, but not too awkward
This picture was snapped at a goodbye dinner ... and even though we were all very sweaty from dancing and sitting outside on a warm Texas evening, I like it. I wish you could see Annie's high top Converse shoes - customized with a Sharpie! She's already got a style all her own - dark skinny jeans, patterned t-shirts with feminine elements and edgy or darker patterns. Graham is easy to dress - t-shirt, elastic band shorts, crew socks & insulin pump (you can see it hooked to his waistband).
And yes, I gave myself a haircut. I chopped it off about a week ago, then really trimmed it carefully two nights ago ... as in, multiple mirrors, good lights, sharp scissors and a hairstylists comb. I am happy with how it turned out. Going to a professional stylist is fun and worth it ... but I've managed to pick up a trick or two over the years. Of course, I'm sure I'll need a professional cut in about six weeks, just to clean up the ends, but for now, my hair is very forgiving, since the high humidity in the summer makes it wave!
And yes, I gave myself a haircut. I chopped it off about a week ago, then really trimmed it carefully two nights ago ... as in, multiple mirrors, good lights, sharp scissors and a hairstylists comb. I am happy with how it turned out. Going to a professional stylist is fun and worth it ... but I've managed to pick up a trick or two over the years. Of course, I'm sure I'll need a professional cut in about six weeks, just to clean up the ends, but for now, my hair is very forgiving, since the high humidity in the summer makes it wave!
May 26, 2011
Dancing queen
Annie has a dance recital this weekend. Her competitive jazz team - Petite Elite - will perform to "Groove Thing," a funky number, and "Shine," a lyrical piece. Can you tell which costume goes with which song?
Her ballet class will also be performing with the rest of the ballet company. She is dancing the part of a baby wolf (in the cutest shimmery gray costume ever!) in a kind of princess mash-up the ballet teacher has created by combining the plotlines of "Enchanted" and "Tangled."
Moving blues/news
Earlier this spring, my friend Corinna shared that her family was relocating to Tallahassee, Florida at the beginning of the summer. They leave next week, in fact. Corinna and her family live two blocks from me, though it seems farther than that because our neighborhoods are separated by Texas Avenue, the main and busy thoroughfare of our town. I only cross Texas Ave. by foot on parade days. Still, by car, we are one minute apart. This closeness has facilitated great closeness. We have carpooled to preschool, Vacation Bible Camp, dance lessons, Little League, basketball practices and more. Our children have some overlapping activities and Corinna and I often swap driving duties. Corinna has also been known to zip over to my house at midnight when she sensed distress. I have helped her clean out her pantry, she has helped me paint my living room. She even watched the first two episodes of "30 Rock" one night while sitting on my bed. At the time, my TV set was in my bedroom, so seating was limited. Corinna is a natural hostess as well & we have been the happy recipients of invites to holiday meals, summer BBQs, cocktail parties (me, not the kids) and afternoon playdates. I have called her in a pinch when I needed someone to pick up my kids from school. And just yesterday, I picked up her kids from school. We even managed a pretty solid nine-month stretch of being regular Gold's Gym workout buddies!
So her impending move is going to be a huge loss. I can't even begin to put it into words.
I will note that she thought they were going to move last summer. A different job offer came up and they were all set (meaning, they sold their house) to move to the west coast. But that job offer ended up not being a good fit and they stayed put, knowing time was limited. At the time of last summer's announcement, I was in an incredibly fragile place, emotionally and psychologically. I was limping along, having just realized that the name for my malaise was depression but still in the early stages of treating it. To say that Corinna had been instrumental during the rebuilding that followed my falling apart is an understatement. She took over all the details for our children's shared activities - ordering supplies, making arrangements, keeping track of dates, and so forth. She drove us to dance tournaments in far away cities and listened to me talk and talk and talk. She gave me something to hang on to: "Erin, you won't always feel this way."
She also helped keep me from holing up during the nights and days when my kids were with their dad. We went to movies and sang karaoke. I took her to a Spoon concert in Austin last fall and we had a blast. And there are few people I would be able to share that experience with. Bless her heart, she wasn't even a Spoon fan at the time!
So when Corinna told me they were moving for sure, I started thinking about what that move would mean for me.
I also felt for the first time in a long time (three years) that I might have enough energy to move to another house. For the past two years, I couldn't stomach the thought of packing up boxes and relocating. The whole process seemed so draining I didn't even want to consider it. When I moved back in 2008, the experience was physically and emotionally exhausting. I wasn't prepared for many months to think about doing it again.
But I finally felt like I might be up to moving. I mentioned this to my friend Ulrike, who is also a close friend of Corinna's. Within days, Ulrike located a home in her neighborhood that was available. That house didn't end up working out, but Ulrike was undaunted. She found another house - across the street from HER house - on the cutest block in the city of Bryan, practically. This little neighborhood is in a historic district near downtown Bryan. The homes are older, beautifully maintained, carefully preserved. I have long loved Ulrike's home and the neighborhood, and believe me when I say I never imagined I could afford to live in the neighborhood. But tucked in between some larger homes is a sweet 1929 kit house owned by a woman who loves the neighborhood but has to move because of her fiance's job. She doesn't want to sell, but she wants someone to take good care of the house and to enjoy the house's charming features. And that someone is going to be me!
I signed a lease yesterday. Amazingly, once I factor in the money I've been spending on an alarm system which I'll no longer need, this new home is only $100/mo. more than what I'm paying for the house I'm currently renting. The house I'm in right now has wooden floors, three bedrooms and a super convenient location, but it is hardly fancy. Modest is the right word. A modest home on a modest block. It's been a good home for us and it was available right when I needed it three years ago. But I feel a little bit like the Jeffersons ... that I'm moving on up.
Of course, a historic home isn't everyone's cup of tea. Thank goodness it IS my cup of tea! Even better? The new house has two bathrooms! We've struggled with one, mostly because Graham and Annie often need to use the bathroom at the exact same time (when they wake up, right before bed, as soon as we get home from school, etc. etc.).
But the thing I'm most excited about is that the new house has a dining room AND a large kitchen. I will need to purchase a table for the kitchen, actually. I keep telling Annie that this means we will be able to get out games and puzzles and crafts and NOT HAVE TO PUT THEM AWAY before we want to eat. Truthfully, I am often so daunted by the need to put everything away that I don't even want to get those things out.
Other perks -
a working (gas) fireplace
wooden floors
a cat door
nice, shaded backyard with several spots for the hammock
a carport (with a cute chandelier)
great neighborhood where kids play basketball, build forts, ride bikes and spend lots of time outdoors
proximity to Ulrike and her family + several other wonderful friends I've met through her
proximity to a family with two diabetics - the mom and a 10 year old daughter. I am crossing my fingers that Graham can develop a friendship with this daughter & gain a diabetes buddy!
three bedrooms (we didn't want to lose one)
a utility area INSIDE the house (no more laundry in a 110 degree oven)
enough kitchen cabinet space that I won't have to keep my rice cooker, blender, crockpot, soup pot, cookie cutters, platters, paper goods and more in the GARAGE
great curb appeal
Only drawbacks -
the bedrooms have an interesting configuration - my room is in between each of the kids' rooms and doesn't have a separate entrance
the carport shed is smaller than my garage/giant closet, so I'll have to be smart about space
the location is farther from College Station (but closer to Blinn!)
I will have to figure out how to dismantle and remantle our trampoline. Sigh.
The moving timeline will be the last two weeks in July. Instead of the way I packed moving into two different but equally insane weekends back in 2008, I will move things over the course of two weeks/three weekends. The first two weekends/week of that window I will be kid-free, so I can work like crazy and not worrying about forgetting to feed them. :) My plan is to move every single non-BIG piece of furniture and all articles of clothing, dishes, mirrors, linens, decorations and appliances myself. I will get help for the washer, dryer, fridge, piano, couches, desks, dresses, table and bookshelves. And trampoline! But I hope to make the furniture moving day a pretty straightforward affair. I know that I have many ward friends who will help. I also know that many of those ward friends cannot have forgotten helping me move in 2008. We all gained some gray hairs during that experience. I figure that if I pay a couple of my students to do the trampoline, the actual pieces of furniture can be loaded onto a truck, then unloaded in an hour.
Of course, I also thought I could move my entire house in about 25 boxes back in 2008, so I've been wrong before. But this summer, I will have several weeks to get all the work done.
Nothing will replace Corinna and her family. (Did I mention that my children love to play with her children?) But I feel a bit more secure at the thought of being ensconced in a neighborhood of friends and future friends. I will miss Corinna beyond words, but I will also have some resources that will help make day to day life better.
So her impending move is going to be a huge loss. I can't even begin to put it into words.
I will note that she thought they were going to move last summer. A different job offer came up and they were all set (meaning, they sold their house) to move to the west coast. But that job offer ended up not being a good fit and they stayed put, knowing time was limited. At the time of last summer's announcement, I was in an incredibly fragile place, emotionally and psychologically. I was limping along, having just realized that the name for my malaise was depression but still in the early stages of treating it. To say that Corinna had been instrumental during the rebuilding that followed my falling apart is an understatement. She took over all the details for our children's shared activities - ordering supplies, making arrangements, keeping track of dates, and so forth. She drove us to dance tournaments in far away cities and listened to me talk and talk and talk. She gave me something to hang on to: "Erin, you won't always feel this way."
She also helped keep me from holing up during the nights and days when my kids were with their dad. We went to movies and sang karaoke. I took her to a Spoon concert in Austin last fall and we had a blast. And there are few people I would be able to share that experience with. Bless her heart, she wasn't even a Spoon fan at the time!
So when Corinna told me they were moving for sure, I started thinking about what that move would mean for me.
I also felt for the first time in a long time (three years) that I might have enough energy to move to another house. For the past two years, I couldn't stomach the thought of packing up boxes and relocating. The whole process seemed so draining I didn't even want to consider it. When I moved back in 2008, the experience was physically and emotionally exhausting. I wasn't prepared for many months to think about doing it again.
But I finally felt like I might be up to moving. I mentioned this to my friend Ulrike, who is also a close friend of Corinna's. Within days, Ulrike located a home in her neighborhood that was available. That house didn't end up working out, but Ulrike was undaunted. She found another house - across the street from HER house - on the cutest block in the city of Bryan, practically. This little neighborhood is in a historic district near downtown Bryan. The homes are older, beautifully maintained, carefully preserved. I have long loved Ulrike's home and the neighborhood, and believe me when I say I never imagined I could afford to live in the neighborhood. But tucked in between some larger homes is a sweet 1929 kit house owned by a woman who loves the neighborhood but has to move because of her fiance's job. She doesn't want to sell, but she wants someone to take good care of the house and to enjoy the house's charming features. And that someone is going to be me!
I signed a lease yesterday. Amazingly, once I factor in the money I've been spending on an alarm system which I'll no longer need, this new home is only $100/mo. more than what I'm paying for the house I'm currently renting. The house I'm in right now has wooden floors, three bedrooms and a super convenient location, but it is hardly fancy. Modest is the right word. A modest home on a modest block. It's been a good home for us and it was available right when I needed it three years ago. But I feel a little bit like the Jeffersons ... that I'm moving on up.
Of course, a historic home isn't everyone's cup of tea. Thank goodness it IS my cup of tea! Even better? The new house has two bathrooms! We've struggled with one, mostly because Graham and Annie often need to use the bathroom at the exact same time (when they wake up, right before bed, as soon as we get home from school, etc. etc.).
But the thing I'm most excited about is that the new house has a dining room AND a large kitchen. I will need to purchase a table for the kitchen, actually. I keep telling Annie that this means we will be able to get out games and puzzles and crafts and NOT HAVE TO PUT THEM AWAY before we want to eat. Truthfully, I am often so daunted by the need to put everything away that I don't even want to get those things out.
Other perks -
a working (gas) fireplace
wooden floors
a cat door
nice, shaded backyard with several spots for the hammock
a carport (with a cute chandelier)
great neighborhood where kids play basketball, build forts, ride bikes and spend lots of time outdoors
proximity to Ulrike and her family + several other wonderful friends I've met through her
proximity to a family with two diabetics - the mom and a 10 year old daughter. I am crossing my fingers that Graham can develop a friendship with this daughter & gain a diabetes buddy!
three bedrooms (we didn't want to lose one)
a utility area INSIDE the house (no more laundry in a 110 degree oven)
enough kitchen cabinet space that I won't have to keep my rice cooker, blender, crockpot, soup pot, cookie cutters, platters, paper goods and more in the GARAGE
great curb appeal
Only drawbacks -
the bedrooms have an interesting configuration - my room is in between each of the kids' rooms and doesn't have a separate entrance
the carport shed is smaller than my garage/giant closet, so I'll have to be smart about space
the location is farther from College Station (but closer to Blinn!)
I will have to figure out how to dismantle and remantle our trampoline. Sigh.
The moving timeline will be the last two weeks in July. Instead of the way I packed moving into two different but equally insane weekends back in 2008, I will move things over the course of two weeks/three weekends. The first two weekends/week of that window I will be kid-free, so I can work like crazy and not worrying about forgetting to feed them. :) My plan is to move every single non-BIG piece of furniture and all articles of clothing, dishes, mirrors, linens, decorations and appliances myself. I will get help for the washer, dryer, fridge, piano, couches, desks, dresses, table and bookshelves. And trampoline! But I hope to make the furniture moving day a pretty straightforward affair. I know that I have many ward friends who will help. I also know that many of those ward friends cannot have forgotten helping me move in 2008. We all gained some gray hairs during that experience. I figure that if I pay a couple of my students to do the trampoline, the actual pieces of furniture can be loaded onto a truck, then unloaded in an hour.
Of course, I also thought I could move my entire house in about 25 boxes back in 2008, so I've been wrong before. But this summer, I will have several weeks to get all the work done.
Nothing will replace Corinna and her family. (Did I mention that my children love to play with her children?) But I feel a bit more secure at the thought of being ensconced in a neighborhood of friends and future friends. I will miss Corinna beyond words, but I will also have some resources that will help make day to day life better.
p.s. the two windows directly to the left of my van are both kitchen windows. Having spent the past three years in a kitchen without ANY windows, I am going to love having a kitchen with 3 windows + a backdoor with a window!
"Yay! I want to mow the lawn!"
Do you see where the hammock could hang?
The light fixture and string of light bulbs STAY!
May 4, 2011
It's the end of the semester
With regards to this blog, the end of the semester means:
a) I have time to post (especially while students are writing their final essay exams)
b) I am in the mood to clean up!
Let's start by 'cleaning up' this bunch of photos that I've had sitting on my desktop computer's desktop.
Minnesota stuff
I love this 'winter' map of my home state. And I love the word map of Minneapolis.
The photo is of the Twin Cities from the air, post-Metrodome snow collapse.
Sometimes (okay, most of the time), the following thought hums through my mind: Your real life is waiting for you in Minneapolis. It's like a low-grade fever, except it makes me cold instead of hot.
Kind of depressing.
Especially since I won't be leaving this state for at least a decade.
I feel like I'm in the prequel to "Sliding Doors", a version of that Gwyneth Paltrow movie NOT starring Ms. Paltrow, where the heroine FAILS to step through the train's doors. I have been dreaming of moving back to my home state for sixteen years. But the funky oasis on the Mississippi keeps chillin' without me. (Literally chilling - it snowed in April. Brrrr!)
Bank Stuff
One of my visual hobbies is keeping track of signs of poorly-named banks. Unfortunately, my bank was purchased by a larger bank with this kind of lame name. I don't want to mention it here (identity theft alert!) but I am taking pictures of banks with non-bank names (First Convenience Bank? Oh, come on!) and someday soon I'll turn those pictures, including one of my bank, into a post. But I won't tell you which one is my bank.
Religious
When I taught a Sunday School lesson on the Sermon on the Mount, I created a looping slide show of various artistic representations of this famous Biblical story/scene. This painting is one of my favorites from that lot.
The building in the painting is the Provo, Utah LDS temple. Now, I've never really appreciated its style of architecture. But this soft watercolor rendition makes it *almost* beautiful to me.
Typewriters
My mom had a red typewriter, just like this. (Do you still have it, Mom?)
Look - Tina plays the typewriter!
Salad days!
Fascinated
What's this becoming ... a fashion blog? Ha!
Like lots of other folks, I enjoyed watching snippets of the royal wedding. Loved Kate's dress, of course.
I also loved Princess Letizia of Spain's dress and hat. Stunning. (She's the one on the right.)
And I thought Queen Elizabeth looked sharp. Nice hat, nice color!
May 3, 2011
"Courage to be imperfect"
I'm wondering why fear/inauthenticity/covering up is so often my default mode in certain situations? Why so much facade building? Is it fear of losing connection/friendship/status that drives me/us?
I have a feeling I need to practice more role-playing, just to get used to sitting with feelings of discomfort that come when I knock down the facades and engage in genuine interactions, especially with my students.
Saddling up
Apr 22, 2011
Bikini babes
I don't wear bikinis, never have. (Uproarious laughter ensues!)
I do love tankinis, however. And last summer, I had the rare experience of finding and purchasing a bathing suit I liked. I like it so much I'm already worried about making the seams and buckles and straps last. My fear of suit disintegration isn't paranoia. I wear it all the time from May - September! I love swimming, so in the summer months, my kids and I hit various pools multiple times a week for hours at a time. All that chlorine can't be good for the suit... so I rinse it out and I tuck it in at night, praying that the suit will live to see another summer. Still, I fully understand the reality that I shall probably never find another swimming suit I like as well. Lightning doesn't strike twice. I can only hope that maybe by the time my blue-striped tankini falls apart, Land's End will be manufacturing 1920s-era women's suits, the kind with bloomers and puffy sleeves!
In the meantime, I keep my eyes peeled for suit trends. This sometimes involves going to people.com and clicking through the slide shows of famous people at the beach. In my most recent perusal, I found these three photos. Three celebrities in bikinis, but one of these ladies is not like the others.
I think Gwyneth Paltrow's suit is cute. She is rail thin, but looks healthy, like someone who works out and eats nutritious food. She doesn't look like some kind of augmentation nightmare and her skin is pale. Points for the natural look. (Natural as in, she has a trainer, live-in housekeeper, nanny and stylist to aid her in achieving that look. Still, many celebrities have that kind of help and still go for the bronzed plastic look!)
Kate Beckinsdale is way too skinny, but I like the feminine touches on the suit. She looks relatively demure, in a skin-baring way. I don't like the hat with the attached hair though. Oh wait - is that her real hair? Coulda fooled me!
But Cameron Diaz scares me. I know she's ripped and I appreciate that she hasn't implanted double DDs, but still, something about this suit/this picture gives me the beach-willies. Why am I having such a negative reaction to her? She isn't baring any more skin than the other women ... so is it the wet, slicked hair? Or is it the mercenary bent of her jaw?
Mar 17, 2011
Lip service: a story in pictures
Once upon a time, a ho-hum woman found herself in an un-plumpfortable situation, having run out of her favorite CityLips gloss wands but needing, more than ever, a shot of style. Let's not mince words - her glam was gone. See how tired she looks? It's not from seeing a late showing of "The Adjustment Bureau" right before this picture was taken. It's because she ran out of lip gloss.
Some time after publicly declaring her love for CityLips (and all the CityFill-in-the-Blank body parts), a package arrived in the mail.
For her.
From a certain C. Hubbard, the SAME C. Hubbard who had first provided her with a taste of CityLips.
The package was a padded envelope, which both disguised and protected the contents.
She held her breath! Then she ripped the envelope open!
(Originally, she was going to include a vanity shot that featured both the envelope and her big smiling teeth, but realized that it was a terrible photo AND a breach of privacy, since anyone reading this blog could have easily copied C. Hubbard's address, then pestered her for beauty products!)
The envelope contained TWO CityLips gloss wands.
(Side note: She had previously decided to refer to them as 'gloss wands', not knowing whether or not that was the accurate product name, but deciding she liked the sound of such a product. Only C. Hubbard can offer a final word on the official name of the heavenly product. We know the brand name is CityLips, and we know they are "Instant collagen stimulating lip treatment[s]", but can we call them gloss wands, ye gloss goddess?)
(Side note: She had previously decided to refer to them as 'gloss wands', not knowing whether or not that was the accurate product name, but deciding she liked the sound of such a product. Only C. Hubbard can offer a final word on the official name of the heavenly product. We know the brand name is CityLips, and we know they are "Instant collagen stimulating lip treatment[s]", but can we call them gloss wands, ye gloss goddess?)
The package also contained - gasp! - a secret note, so secret it used STICKERS to spell out its glossy message: "Happy Plumping Erin !!" It was clearly sent from a friendly type of person, which C. Hubbard most definitely seems to be, because only a friendly type of person would stick a smiley face on the bottom of a secret note. Also, only a friendly person would send two tubes of a costly, valuable, delightsome beauty aid.
Golly, the woman could have KISSED ol' C. right on Ms. Hubbard's CityLips.
She applied the peptide-rich gloss and waited the requisite sixty seconds.
Voila! Her glam was reclaimed.
She was glad she was wearing a metallic threaded shirt for the picture, all the better to show off the glitz of her newly plumped CityLips! (It is ironic, yes, that this is the worst overall photo of the story, yet cannot be deleted since it best shows the shine of her CityLips. Seriously - check out that tint and sparkle, but ignore the crazy stare. This stuff is the best. It doesn't rub off, it doesn't add a bunch of unnecessary color that bleeds onto a person's teeth or into her wrinkles. In this picture, only a clear gloss has been applied, yet it packs a wallop of color! The color is the lip's own natural pink, accentuated by the tingle of the gloss's stimulants. It looks natural, but better! It makes every day feel like Senior Picture Day!)
Feb 23, 2011
Community
I don't watch television.
On a television set, that is.
Oh, I used to. I used to have a Dish satellite on the top of my house. Those were the Bravo days, filled with "Top Chef" and "Project Runway"marathons. I had a DVR filled to the brim with "Charlie & Lola", "What Not to Wear", you name it. I might have even watched "The Real Transvestite Hoarders of Orange County Penitentiary", a pseudo Bravo series joked about on "30 Rock." I paraphrase Liz Lemon (from memory): "That show is disturbing. Why does the warden let Lady Extravaganza have so many spoons?" Back then, if I wanted to do laundry after my kids were in bed, I could happily fold and enjoy the exploits of those dozens of Duggar children or catch a few episodes of the timeless classic "Three's Company". (Now I just let the laundry pile up inside the washer.)
But when I was moving, during the summer of 2008, I decided to be done with cable and such, partly to save money, partly to ween my children off of, as they call it, "channel shows." Of course, they see plenty of 'channel shows' with their dad, but at my house, they are only allowed to watch movies we rent from Hastings or RedBox or check out from the library or already own. Poor kids, they only have like 40 choices available to them on any given day. {Snort, giggle.}
I was also happy to get rid of that tacky satellite dish that perches on the roofline. Unfortunately, the *modest* home I rented and moved into already had TWO stuck on the roof. Nice. All of the scuzz and none of the snazz.
I have genuinely decreased my overall television show watching. And movie watching. A year of depression will do that to ya, and let me tell you, I knew something was wrong when I would hear about various friends watching, say, "Glee", a program I enjoyed, and yet would feel too weak to watch the latest episode. I can't explain that feeling, but I know it well.
But one steady friend who accompanied on this move and over the last few years is "30 Rock." If you have a chance to spend much time with me IRL, and if you haven't shot down my frequent references to Liz and the gang, then you will hear me subtly (?) inserting snippets of that show's dialogue into my OWN conversations (as in the first paragraph), i.e. "That reminds me of a recent '30 Rock' episode where Jack's baby is born in Toronto, and when Liz finds out, she gasps, and Jack says, 'Yes, my baby is Canadian-American but I will love her just as I would a human baby.'" And then you would wonder what Canadian-American babies had to do with what we were actually talking about. Not much, no. But since when does pure laughter need a reason to be inserted into a conversation? Just smile pleasantly.
So even though I don't really watch television shows on a television set, I still catch "30 Rock", "Modern Family", "Arrested Development" and "Community" on hulu.com. (Admission - I also watch "Psych" episodes when they are being aired!)
"Community"? Yes, the hit NBC sitcom no one's ever heard of!
It was recommended to me by ONE OF MY STUDENTS, which makes sense, since it's a television show about a community college and a band of lovable losers who take intro courses together. Formulaic, yes. Ridiculous, yes. But funny, yes, as well. Funny to me, at least. I laughed and laughed at this moment in a recent Dungeons & Dragons-themed episode. I have no idea why it was quite so funny. Please tell me if you have the same reaction to "Britta, he was an imaginary waiter."
On a television set, that is.
Oh, I used to. I used to have a Dish satellite on the top of my house. Those were the Bravo days, filled with "Top Chef" and "Project Runway"marathons. I had a DVR filled to the brim with "Charlie & Lola", "What Not to Wear", you name it. I might have even watched "The Real Transvestite Hoarders of Orange County Penitentiary", a pseudo Bravo series joked about on "30 Rock." I paraphrase Liz Lemon (from memory): "That show is disturbing. Why does the warden let Lady Extravaganza have so many spoons?" Back then, if I wanted to do laundry after my kids were in bed, I could happily fold and enjoy the exploits of those dozens of Duggar children or catch a few episodes of the timeless classic "Three's Company". (Now I just let the laundry pile up inside the washer.)
But when I was moving, during the summer of 2008, I decided to be done with cable and such, partly to save money, partly to ween my children off of, as they call it, "channel shows." Of course, they see plenty of 'channel shows' with their dad, but at my house, they are only allowed to watch movies we rent from Hastings or RedBox or check out from the library or already own. Poor kids, they only have like 40 choices available to them on any given day. {Snort, giggle.}
I was also happy to get rid of that tacky satellite dish that perches on the roofline. Unfortunately, the *modest* home I rented and moved into already had TWO stuck on the roof. Nice. All of the scuzz and none of the snazz.
I have genuinely decreased my overall television show watching. And movie watching. A year of depression will do that to ya, and let me tell you, I knew something was wrong when I would hear about various friends watching, say, "Glee", a program I enjoyed, and yet would feel too weak to watch the latest episode. I can't explain that feeling, but I know it well.
But one steady friend who accompanied on this move and over the last few years is "30 Rock." If you have a chance to spend much time with me IRL, and if you haven't shot down my frequent references to Liz and the gang, then you will hear me subtly (?) inserting snippets of that show's dialogue into my OWN conversations (as in the first paragraph), i.e. "That reminds me of a recent '30 Rock' episode where Jack's baby is born in Toronto, and when Liz finds out, she gasps, and Jack says, 'Yes, my baby is Canadian-American but I will love her just as I would a human baby.'" And then you would wonder what Canadian-American babies had to do with what we were actually talking about. Not much, no. But since when does pure laughter need a reason to be inserted into a conversation? Just smile pleasantly.
So even though I don't really watch television shows on a television set, I still catch "30 Rock", "Modern Family", "Arrested Development" and "Community" on hulu.com. (Admission - I also watch "Psych" episodes when they are being aired!)
"Community"? Yes, the hit NBC sitcom no one's ever heard of!
It was recommended to me by ONE OF MY STUDENTS, which makes sense, since it's a television show about a community college and a band of lovable losers who take intro courses together. Formulaic, yes. Ridiculous, yes. But funny, yes, as well. Funny to me, at least. I laughed and laughed at this moment in a recent Dungeons & Dragons-themed episode. I have no idea why it was quite so funny. Please tell me if you have the same reaction to "Britta, he was an imaginary waiter."
Feb 12, 2011
A catch
Back in my tenth grade year of high school, I had a crush on a certain senior I'm going to refer to as Garrett, mostly because that was his name. He had a nifty middle and last name too, but I'll keep those to myself. Garrett had a certain style that captured my eye from across the cafeteria nearly every day at lunch. I was so captivated by his cornucopia of stylish clothing combinations that I began to predict - with impressive accuracy! - his clothing ensembles for the next day. Not to him, of course, just to myself. But I somehow managed to put my finger on the pulse of his clothing rotation cycle and had a pretty good sense of when a red plaid pants day or a green tennis shoes day was coming. Or a black & gray twisty sweater day (see below). I'm sure I managed that feat by obsessively scanning his outfits every single time I saw him. He was just so cool - tall, red-headed and a 1987 hipster with Benetton style. A Twins fan too, as I recall. Of course, we were all Twins fans that year. Administrators broadcast the daytime World Series games in the school cafeteria during school hours!
My actual interactions with Garrett were very limited. He did, however, call me that winter to ask me to attend the Snow Ball with him and the group he was a part of. Somehow the information that I had a crush on him had made it to him EVEN THOUGH WE HAD NEVER SPOKEN TO EACH OTHER. I accepted. Then he voided the invitation a few days later and the message was delivered to me via a mutual friend, a kindly blond senior named Amy who I knew through orchestra. (It's a mildly amusing to imagine how the same interactions would have transpired had I been a member of the class of 2010 instead of 1990. The dis-invitation would have come via text, of course, and I would have posted a cryptic yet bitter message on facebook in response.)
I was so offended in my fifteen year old way that I felt it necessary to convey my disappointment to Garrett in person. It would be a first for our "relationship", that face to face conversation. (Yes, I am laughing as I write this.) Even then, I was terrible at pretending smug disinterest. Cannot do it now, couldn't do it then. Instead, I waited for him in the front hallway of the first floor of our school, waited until I knew he would be passing between classes. I stepped into his path, noted the way his face scrunched in annoyance, and then said, "You should have called me yourself."
Zing! Way to start with a right hook, Erin! My pleasant delivery and peasant skirt probably didn't help on the intimidation front either.
He sighed, the exhalation of a cool senior who probably had to deal with this kind of nonsense multiple times a week, and said, "Uh, I didn't want to beat a dead horse."
I'm not sure if he even knew my name. But boy, that steamed me. "I am not a dead horse!" I responded in my frostiest tone of voice before stomping away. I can only wish I had been wearing Benetton boots when I made my exit. (I wasn't.)
Fast forward to the 21st century. Garrett is artisanal baker in the Twin Cities. Well, of course he is. Am I shocked? He was cool then and I'm sure he's cool now. I'll have two loaves of pesto foccacia, please!
Which brings me to the original idea for this post. Garrett had a friend named Chad. Chad was even cooler than Garrett. Chad was the alpha boy to Garrett's cute sidekick, the bleachhead on the right in the above picture. I had a thing for sidekicks and definitely preferred Garrett's quirkiness, but even so, I knew of the high place Chad occupied in the high school popularity ranks, standing proud with that spiked hair and symmetrical grin on his social pedestal.
So imagine my surprise when FB recommended that I look at a friend's album a few months ago and I clicked my way through to a more recent picture of Chad. It's not that he isn't still handsome, it's just that I didn't expect to see so many hunting and fishing pictures or so much camo gear from the new wave boy who looked like he was performing with Flock of Seagulls during his summer breaks.
I was so offended in my fifteen year old way that I felt it necessary to convey my disappointment to Garrett in person. It would be a first for our "relationship", that face to face conversation. (Yes, I am laughing as I write this.) Even then, I was terrible at pretending smug disinterest. Cannot do it now, couldn't do it then. Instead, I waited for him in the front hallway of the first floor of our school, waited until I knew he would be passing between classes. I stepped into his path, noted the way his face scrunched in annoyance, and then said, "You should have called me yourself."
Zing! Way to start with a right hook, Erin! My pleasant delivery and peasant skirt probably didn't help on the intimidation front either.
He sighed, the exhalation of a cool senior who probably had to deal with this kind of nonsense multiple times a week, and said, "Uh, I didn't want to beat a dead horse."
I'm not sure if he even knew my name. But boy, that steamed me. "I am not a dead horse!" I responded in my frostiest tone of voice before stomping away. I can only wish I had been wearing Benetton boots when I made my exit. (I wasn't.)
Fast forward to the 21st century. Garrett is artisanal baker in the Twin Cities. Well, of course he is. Am I shocked? He was cool then and I'm sure he's cool now. I'll have two loaves of pesto foccacia, please!
Which brings me to the original idea for this post. Garrett had a friend named Chad. Chad was even cooler than Garrett. Chad was the alpha boy to Garrett's cute sidekick, the bleachhead on the right in the above picture. I had a thing for sidekicks and definitely preferred Garrett's quirkiness, but even so, I knew of the high place Chad occupied in the high school popularity ranks, standing proud with that spiked hair and symmetrical grin on his social pedestal.
So imagine my surprise when FB recommended that I look at a friend's album a few months ago and I clicked my way through to a more recent picture of Chad. It's not that he isn't still handsome, it's just that I didn't expect to see so many hunting and fishing pictures or so much camo gear from the new wave boy who looked like he was performing with Flock of Seagulls during his summer breaks.
Apologies for posting this personal picture of him. However, I cannot send those apologies directly to him AS HE WOULD HAVE ZERO RECOLLECTION OF ME. Also, I don't know where he lives. But that sure is a big fish.
Feb 11, 2011
A gem of a father
Today is my dad's 75th birthday. I looked up the related gifts for year 75 and learned that the gift for a 75th birthday or anniversary should be a diamond. (Note to self: order cufflinks, pronto. Cubic zirconias will have to do.) And while I didn't actually purchase a diamond in time for this birthday, I think the stone is an appropriate symbol for the wonderful person he is, and not just because he likes to tell stories about living for a time as a child in an old coal shed (no joke). Like a diamond, his character and humor has been forged through many experiences, some trials. Like a diamond, he is multifaceted, interested in culture, history, language, politics ... and most especially, his family. Like a diamond, he is strong.
And also like a diamond, he shines in his setting. During our family vacation over Christmas, all of the adults stayed up one evening to play games after the little kids had gone to sleep. This is a tough feat to pull off, but we gathered around the long table in the cabin we were staying at and started in on a new board game. One of the best moments for me of the whole trip was the sight of my dad laughing and laughing once the game had devolved into the silly state our family enjoys so much. In fact, if a board game isn't able to transport us to the "laughie" stage, it's probably not a keeper. My dad's belly laugh is so much fun to witness, it made everybody else laugh as well.
Happy birthday, Dad!
Here is my dad with the grandson who shares his name.
Lovey-dovey
These NPR cards are the best, are they not? Happy Valentine's Day indeed. I may just send this one to myself!
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