what's better than spending a day off work at an art museum?
hmmm?
getting into said museum for free.
this monday LACMA is free for all. so of course i'm going.tonight was my first training meeting with the students i'm taking to Ukraine this june.
this is going to be a very good six months.
i am 32 years old.
i have never felt the need to be embarrassed about my age or refuse to tell someone my age.
i have never wished to be older or younger than i am.
i am what i am.
i love the fact that with age comes wisdom.
i make much better decisions now than i did when i was 22. and i will make even better decisions when i am 42.
but i don't look my age. most people guess 26.
now, most 32 year old women would LOVE to be mistaken for being 6 years younger than they are.
i HATE it.
i've recently been thinking a lot about why i hate it so much when people tell me i look so young or that i am so young.
i've come to the conclusion that it is because i have been through a lot in the past 32 years. and i mean a LOT. most people have no idea the amount of shit that i've been through. i have gathered much experience and wisdom and am proud of the person i have become. and i don't want to be mistaken for being some young, green girl who is still figuring out who they are.
i know who i am.
i am also coming to the conclusion that our society is structured in a way that women who are unmarried without children are subliminally seen as somehow inexperienced or incapable.
i am neither.
and there seems to be nothing i can do about that.
but i see things brewing on the horizon which will take my professional life to a place where people may finally take me seriously and respect me.
i'm looking forward to that.
this skit is a few years old, but i saw it posted on another website a few days ago and it made me laugh out loud. so i thought i'd share.
well, it has taken me a while, but i finally completed phase 2 of the ongoing backyard project.
during phase one, i took a bunch of bricks out of the planter i used for my vegetables. so in phase two, i used those bricks to pave over a section of dirt next to the fence. and it sat that way for over a month. until yesterday. i finally bit the bullet and toted my cactus collection from my parents' house to mine and set them up in their new home. all 65 of them. whew.
and as you can tell in this picture, the vegetable garden is doing quite well. we've started eating the lettuce and spinach, and the peas are about to organize a coup and take over the entire backyard. things are coming along quite nicely, i must say.
but we'll see how long it takes for me to finish phase three...
this afternoon micah and i spent some time just walking around riverside. first was fairmount park, which neither of us have ever really spent any time walking around in.
and then we ended up downtown. we ate some dinner and then when it got dark we discovered that we really needed jackets, so it was just a quick walk past the mission inn and a stop for some kettle corn. (the kettle corn guy was very chatty, by the way. we learned about the science of popcorn. he was awesome.)
and that is the end of my polaroid film. i have none left. and it is getting really expensive. we'll have to see about my future with polaroid.
well its been about a month since i last blogged. or really did much of anything creative-like, for that matter.
i have an art piece that has been sitting in the garage for over a month in a half-done state.
i haven't really felt like knitting anything.
on my trip to victoria over thanksgiving, i came home with only two digital photos and half a roll of film photos from my AE-1. (those will probably get developed three months from now. just wait.)
i think i have what is commonly known as the wintertime blues. or i'm in a funk. take your pick.
i used to really like the holidays. christmas was my favorite time of year. and then over the past 5 years or so, things slowly changed. now i find the holidays to be completely depressing.
let's just say that christmastime is not really made for single folk. and at every turn it seems to be re-established that this is the time of year for loved ones and togetherness, while i once again have to slog through it all alone. completely alone. (not to diminish my parents and sister, but at 32 years old, the desire is for my own family.)
this is why i usually take road trips during the christmas season. maybe my reasoning is that if i leave my normal surroundings and visit with friends, i will be able to avoid the soul-crushing depression that normally descends along with the christmas tree and presents.
but this year i am staying home for christmas. i have looming in front of me two weeks of free time. i'm looking forward to the time off work, but am hoping that i come out the other end relatively emotionally unscathed. we'll see.
so i'll leave you with pretty much the only creative thing i've done in quite a while. here's a video i made at the beach in victoria. it was so peaceful and beautiful, and i loved the sound the waves made on the pebbles.
waves from elizabeth herrity on Vimeo.
this morning i felt like making blueberry muffins.
and no offense to betty crocker, but i think that taking a few extra minutes to make them from scratch makes a HUGE difference.
first, i start with buttering and flouring the muffin pan. i think that this is well worth the extra effort, because it gives the bottoms of the muffins a finer texture than just using a spray does.
next i mix up the batter with some organic butter, organic sugar, organic eggs, and organic milk.
then fold in the organic wild blueberries from Trader Joe's. yup, these puppies are 100% organic! (ok, the flour isn't organic. so maybe 90%)
drop the batter into the pan and sprinkle a little sugar on top to make them a little sweet and crunchy.
then bake and let them cool in the pan like this.
mmmmmmmmmmm.
as evan says, they taste like they were baked by Jesus.
yes. they are THAT good.
monday night i made pies. apple and pumpkin.
there really is nothing to a pumpkin pie. a can of this, a can of that, some sugar and spices, and voila! an orange snot-pie. (yes, i hate pumpkin pie.)
but there is something elegant and beautiful about an apple pie. it is a lot of work, but the result is totally worth it.
step one: peel and slice apples.
step two: sugar and spice.
step three: make the crust.
step four: put it all together with some butter on top.
step five: make it pretty.
step six: bake to perfection. then enjoy. vanilla ice cream is optional.
the persimmon is an interesting fruit. if not familiar with it's qualities, it can be rather confusing. is it more like an apple, a tomato, an orange? what? do you eat it right off the tree or wait for it to soften? do you peel it? eat it whole? then when it is ripe, what the heck do i do with it? i think most people avoid the persimmon out of sheer confusion.
i had never really had any contact with this fruit until i was in college. i actually remember where i was at the time. i remember that alissa had arrived late to Dr. Baloian's 'Life and Teachings of Jesus' class, which was a HUGE no-no. the man usually locked the door at precisely 8am to keep out stragglers. but i guess this morning he made an exception, maybe because she was carrying a plate of persimmon cookies. the plate got passed around, and i remember thoroughly enjoying that strange little cookie.
a few weeks ago, alissa finally priveledged me to the recipe for those cookies. and then one of my bosses brought me a bag of persimmons from his tree. it was fate.
i had to wait a little while for them to ripen and soften, but yesterday i finally made my first batch of cookies.
they are SO good.
i have finally found respect for the persimmon.
this time last year i wrote a post to tell you that i was going to lead a team of students on a trip to build houses in mexico over spring break.
i am excited to tell everyone that i have been chosen to lead a team again this year! only this year i will be gone for three weeks in june, and we will be spending our time at an orphanage.
and this time instead of just telling you where we are going, i'm leaving you to figure it out. below is pictured the country's coat of arms, and their currency is called the hryvnia. have fun!
i am one of the first people to admit that the english language is completely retarded. i feel great compassion for anybody who is trying to learn it.
but for those of us who grew up speaking this language, there is something that i feel the need to point out...
as stated above, the english language is often confusing and frustrating. take the homonym. when two words are spelled the exact same way, but pronounced differently and with different meanings. example: sewer. did you see a person who sews or the conduit for waste?
or the infamous homophone: there, their, they're. don't get me started on this one...
and then throw in all the words that we get from other languages, and it becomes a complete nightmare.
but the one that i've been hearing used incorrectly a lot recently is the difference between cache and cachet. that little 't' makes a big difference.
cache is pronounced kash, like money cash.
definitions:
1.A hiding place used especially for storing provisions.
2.A place for concealment and safekeeping, as of valuables.
3.A store of goods or valuables concealed in a hiding place: maintained a cache of food in case of emergencies.
4.Computer Science A fast storage buffer in the central processing unit of a computer. Also called cache memory.
cachet is pronounced kashay, like sashay with a c.
definitions:
1.an official seal, as on a letter or document.
2.a distinguishing mark or feature; stamp: Courtesy is the cachet of good breeding.
3.a sign or expression of approval, esp. from a person who has a great deal of prestige.
4.superior status; prestige: The job has a certain cachet.
ok, i just had to get that one out there.
i hope you all learned something.
it seems i haven't really done much blogging recently. i guess i haven't felt very 'bloggy'. it also doesn't help that i was sick all last week. bleh.
but i thought i would share one of the things i've been up to recently.
one of the many things i love to do is work out in the yard. i especially like to grow things i can eat. so since the roommates gave me free rein in the back yard, i decided to turn a weird little planter in the middle of the patio into a vegetable garden. i took out a bunch of annoying bricks, mixed in a bunch of amend (also known as manure, or cow poo, for the non-gardeners), and planted a bunch of winter vegetables. today i finished building a makeshift trellis for the peas and covering the bed in mulch.
i'm proud of my little garden, and can't wait until i can eat what grows.
this morning the roommates and i got up bright and early, piled in the car, and headed out to Oak Glen. it was a beautiful morning, and we had fun at parrish ranch and riley's farms, buying apples and cider and other various apple products. it was hard to get up early on a sunday, but when we got in the car to come home and it became unbelievably crowded, we were certain that early morning was definitely the way to go.
we got home around noon, and i set out to make a batch of apple butter. i figured it would be an easy task to head over to the grocery store and pick up a dozen canning jars and begin the job. apparently i was deluded into thinking it would be easy. canning jars are not that easy to find anymore. i went to the two closest grocery stores and target, and ended up having to drive out to WinCo to get them. once again, WinCo saved the day.
so i've spent the past four hours making eight half-pint jars of apple butter. it really isn't hard. just time consuming.
so who wants some?
a large slice of hommemade soda bread, slathered in a dense layer of nutella may very well be the best afternoon snack ever.
and by that i mean EVER.
i have recently had a longing to go camping.
my parents started taking us camping when i was only a year or two old, and we went pretty much every summer of my childhood. even from trips as an adult, i have very fond memories of camping.
it dawned on me this summer that i have not been in a tent out in nature for almost six years. so i decided to do something about it.
i reserved a site at silverwood lake for the weekend, and seven of my people friends and three canine friends joined me.
it was cold and sometimes windy, and we didn't really do much, but i had a great time.
today i started thinking about where we should go camping next summer.
i have traveled to places where on the plane ride home i was already planning my next trip. like ireland. but with ireland its more like trying to figure out how to move there.
when coming come from paris, the feeling was more like 'i enjoyed myself but i don't ever really have to go back'.
that has changed in the last five months.
i just can't stop thinking about paris. its one of those places that just gets under your skin.
i can't even really put my finger on why, but i just really want to go there again.
it won't be for a while, because there are other places i need to go first, but paris is now back on my list of places to go.
my friend carmen took these photos and gave them to me all taped together. its hanging on my wall. but today i started messing around with free photo stitching software. (since i have a really old version of photoshop that doesn't have that ability.) not the greatest result, but its still pretty neat.
so it looks like our economy is teetering on the edge of the crapper. but if we've learned much of anything at all from history, we should know by now that there are things that we can do now to prevent a recurrence of the great depression.
it may not be a popular thing to say, but i support this $700 billion bailout-thingy that they're kicking around in washington. not as a 'here's a crapload of money, just let us know how you use it' blank check, but definitely with regulations and oversight and an attempt to fix the systems that got us into this mess.
and even though he can say some pretty kooky things sometimes, i believe that moby's rant on this subject pretty much sums up what i've been thinking.
ok, financial markets and bailout.
this might not make me very popular, but although i don't like it, i support the $700,000,000,000.00 bailout.
why?
because it will prop up our banks and investment houses long enough for real reform to implemented and it will keep the u.s and global economy from sliding into depression.
if more banks and investment houses fail you'll see a severe recession and possibly a depression.
and this effects everyone.
the reason that people start businesses and create jobs is because they have access to capital.
the reason that people buy houses or renovate houses is because they have access to capital.
if people close businesses or stop buying or renovating houses they will stop creating jobs.
people will be fired.
unemployment will skyrocket.
retirement accounts will dry up.
more mortgages will be foreclosed on.
and the world will head towards severe recession or depression.
this bailout isn't bailing out fat-cats on wall street, it's protecting local businesses in iowa and kansas and sacramento.
it's protecting shakey mortgages in idaho and florida.
it's protecting retirement accounts in alaska and maine.
it's protecting your job.
it's protecting your neighbors job.
wall st screwed up. seriously. the collusion between the different financial service providers has been disgraceful and dangerous.
and securitizing high-risk mortgages was, in hindsight, a disastrous idea.
wall street screwed up.
but to let the banks and investment houses fail and to let the dow and the nasdaq (and the ftseand the dax and nikkei, etc) plummet is to create a crisis that will effect every person onthe planet (the global depression of the 20's and 30's, resulting from protectionist trade practices, caused world war 2, for example).
the republicans (and some democrats) in the house of representatives (most of whom know nothing about global markets and finances) have made a huge mistake in not supporting the bailout.
to be clear, no one likes the bailout, and no one is happy at the thought of having to use taxpayers money to buy up crummy securities.
but it's a necessary evil, and to let the banks and investment houses continue to fail would have deleterious consequences that people can't even begin to imagine.
again, not just for bankers and brokers, but for you and your friends and your grandparents and your children.
the markets do not exist in a bubble, and to pretend that they do is to exhibit a dangerous lack of understanding of how the global economy actually works.
if the gop in the house don't pass the bailout they won't be punishing wall street, they'll be punishing you and your friends and your family.
moby
Dennys opened his eyes as the wind dropped, was silent. He raised his face to the stars, and their light fell against his cheeks like dew. They chimed at him softly. Do not seek to comprehend. All shall be well. Wait. Patience. Wait. You do not always have to do something. Wait.
Madeleine L'Engle - Many Waters
not many people utilize the united states postal service anymore. but who doesn't love getting something fun in the mail?
my friend alissa and i try to send each other as much for-reals mail as we can. and i always get excited when something comes from her.
i received an extra-fun package from her on wednesday.
it contained...
two of my favorite candy bars in the whole world, purchased in canada. a poster from one of my favorite bands, of montreal. a sticker from this year's portland zine symposium. a polaroid from a coconut records album. a drawing alissa did of my cat newton. the latest clutch/invincible summer split zine. (i'm super-excited about this) one of alissa's gocco prints of a pregnant octopus riding a bicyle. the outside of the package has her grandmother's persimmon cookie recipe. (can't wait to try that one out.) and a circa 2000 photo of me with orange hair in front of the chicago museum of contemporary art.
equal parts random, delightful and delicious.
it pretty much made my day.
i spent some time this evening putting together some of the cities that will potentially be on my european pastry tour. as you can tell by the map, there are a few too many.
the next step is to research the regional cuisine of each of these cities and bring it down to a manageable number.
any thoughts or recommendations?
(yes, i am super type-A and color-coordinated the markers by country. red for germany, purple for austria, yellow for switzerland, blue for belgium and the netherlands, and green for france. i admit it. i'm a nerd.)
View Larger Map
(edit: i've whittled it down to the 22 cities pictured above, but at the rate of 1 city a day, not counting travel days, this would take 3 weeks. hmmmm. i may have to just limit this to france...)
i think i may have finally pinpointed why i despise summer so much.
yes, it is hot, but heat in itself isn't really enough to despise an entire season.
it is because the heat keeps me from the activities i enjoy most.
my garage art studio is like a sauna, therefore no art.
turning the oven on makes the kitchen waaaay too hot, therefore no baking.
working in the garden in 100 degree weather makes me feel like i'm going to die, therefore no gardening.
it just feels wrong to be knitting when it is hot outside, so very little knitting.
i am left with very little to satisfy my need to create. and summer drags on for months.
so by september i am extremely restless and anxious to really dig in and make something, even though i know the heat will last for at least another month.
in the meantime all i seem to have the energy for is watching movies and drinking beer.
on tonight's agenda...watching idiocracy and drinking a newcastle.
ahhhhhhhh
we have a new roommate...
who necessitates me keeping a baby gate on my bedroom door.
our kids don't play together very well.
everyone come by and say hi to newton. she'll be waiting for you.
i usually get looks of pity when i tell people that i get my medical coverage from Kaiser. i can completely understand where these looks come from, but i've been going there my entire life, thus i know nothing different. sure, they sometimes leave you feeling like banging your head against the wall would be more productive, but you learn how to work their quirky system.
one of the benefits of being covered by Kaiser (under my current employer's coverage, at least) is that all immunizations are free and the copay on prescriptions is about $15 for a 3 month supply of whatever cures your ills.
this morning i went over to the medical offices to get the last in the series of Hepatitis A and B shots which i started before my Mexico adventure. in and out in 10 minutes, and not a penny spent. while i was there i decided to look at the pharmacy and see if i could get my new favorite drug at a better price than at the local Walgreens. i usually drop almost $30 a month to keep my allergies at bay. i figured, hey, i can get prescription drugs cheap here, maybe i can get an OTC medication for cheap too. turns out i was wrong.
this is how i discovered a pharmaceutical conspiracy. you think i would have learned this while working at a pharmaceutical company...
it had been at the back of my mind that zyrtec had gone from prescription to OTC much quicker than normal. now i know why. insurance providers (like mine) can lose a lot of money by giving out a 3 month supply of pills for a flat $15 copay. so they petition the pharmaceutical companies and FDA to move them to OTC quickly so they can up the price, since most insurance companies don't cover OTC products. so a product that would have cost me $5 a month now costs 6 times as much only because i now no longer have to go through my doctor to get it. is the convenience really worth it? i'm thinking no.
so i think i'm kind of screwed until zyrtec-d goes off patent....in 2016.
