Winter Walks

It's a shame that I do all my best thinking during my walk to work. (With this past weekend's snowfall, my biking days are on hold for now. This week I started taking the bus again, but any bus route I take still leaves me with a half mile walk. Brrr.) Once I get to work, I forget about all the blog/writing ideas, general life ideas, and overall positive energy that my walk inspires. I switch gears to deal with piles of laundry and dishes, dinner plans and house projects, and I bury my carefree creativity for the next several hours.

Today, though, the Miracle Thursday gods smiled on me; I had a light Real Housewife load, so I intentionally took some time to free write my thoughts when I first got in--just a few key words and phrases to trigger longer thoughts--before I made the beds and took out the trash. Honestly, what I'm thinking about this week can be summed up in two words: simplicity and progress.

Simplicity
We all lead busy lives, but we realize what "busy" really means around the holidays. There are travels to be made, parties to attend, gifts to first get an idea of then buy or create, holiday TV specials to watch, and food to cook, bake, and eat. I'm not ashamed to admit that anything involving more than one sense overwhelms me (a huge reason going to the mall is an Event), and I burn out rather easily. People don't always understand this, or they think I'm being sensitive/antisocial/depressive, but I've come to accept and appreciate my introverted predisposition. When things get busy, I crave alone time more than ever--my simplicity is reading, trying out new recipes, rearranging furniture, and online window shopping.

I've been craving simplicity in my blog life as well. You may have noticed some recent changes around here--black text on a white background, very minimal color or decoration--as I sift through what's truly important in how I share my story. I'm sure I'll add design and ornament again (I never sit long with any arrangement, physical or digital), but for now I'm operating under the motto "Content is King." I'm refocusing my energies on what I post and when, and I've started following a number of other similar blogs to stay in the know about blog trends...which brings me to my next thought topic.

Progress
This blog has wandered semi-aimlessly at my side for nearly five years--I shouldn't say aimlessly, rather it's had several unique lives based on where I've lived and what I've been doing (see: Rome, North Myrtle, MercyWorks). For As The Romans Do's 5th anniversary, I want to give new purpose to what I do on here. I have a few ideas simmering, a few still in their concept phase, and a plan to celebrate five years (forging onward into six) each month.

I'm treating December as a regroup month, a month to try out a few new things, to work on my consistency and hone my craft. You'll see me try to review every book I read, post updates on apartment events, and integrate more original pictures along with my text. I'm also testing out a new page, Poems, which you can find on the top bar, along with Blog, About, and Photos. These pages will all get makeovers as I refine my purpose and learn how best to present my digital self.

Thanks for sticking with me through my strange journey! I write to make sense of my world and my thoughts, but at the end of the day I write to be read and you guys make that possible.

I Can't Complain: (All Too) Personal Essays

I can't complain about Elinor Lipman's collection of personal essays, the majority of which were published elsewhere first, but can now be found in this slim volume. I sped right through these brief forays into her private life, and though I've never read her before, I learned a lot about her childhood, marriage, motherhood, and personal writing style. I hope these essays serve as a solid introduction to Lipman's fiction writing as I now want to read her novels.

Gleaned from Good Housekeeping, the Boston Globe, the New York Times, Gourmet, More, Salon, and the Washington Post, among others, the selections from I Can't Complain: (All Too) Personal Essays span several decades and cover varied topics, from online dating to writing a novel without an outline. The writerly side of me appreciated her explanations of naming characters and developing them by giving them unique appetites. As a woman, I enjoyed her relationship perspectives and comments on social functions. Mothers new and experienced will relate to her anxieties and joys in raising her son. Readers in general will find her insights and honest humor refreshing.

Tree Lighting at the Naw

♫It's beginning to feel a bit like Christmas
everywhere in the Naw♫

Despite below freezing temperatures and advancing dates on the calendar, it hasn't felt much like Christmas around here. I've barely recovered from turkey-induced comas and only just finished Thanksgiving leftovers. In these cases it's best to fake it til you make it, so last night we turned on the Bing Crosby Holiday Pandora station and got out our decorations. We turned on the fireplace and bam! festive.

Zoolights 2013

Zoolights 2.0 was a success. Despite zoo renovations which closed off the giraffe house, Jesus and I still saw plenty of sleepy animals at the Lincoln Park Zoo last night. The millions of Christmas lights wowed us once again with their intricate designs and sheer numbers, and the musical light synchronization was spot on.

Free activities like Zoolights are the best part of living in Chicago. Sharing the activities with someone and making them into date night tradition makes them even better.

Hump Day

As a house manager I've dealt with my fair share of home improvement projects--I've jump-started cars, replaced leaky sink cartridges and water filtration systems, fixed broken lamps and garage door openers, installed widow treatments, configured home wireless networks, repaired storm doors and shower doors, and re-lit gas-powered water heaters--so I know each project has unique challenges. Knowing this doesn't make it any easier for me to stay calm about what needs to be done around the house, though--until I remember "around the house" means "at work" for me.

I recently took a step back to remind myself that at the end of the day, my work is just work, not my life, and that helps me to let a lot of little things go. (Is the dirty laundry piling up and the clean laundry not put away? C'est la vie.) I can't stress out about someone else's problems. It's not my place, or my responsibility, to do anyone else's worrying.

Still...it will make me feel a little bit better if I can share some of the annoying things that happened today.

• When I called Kohler customer service for help removing a stuck toilet seat bolt and anchor and the customer service representative read to me word-for-word from the anchor removal kit manual.  I had the manual in front of me. I didn't call for story time, I called because the manual does not explain what to do in case of product operation failure.
• When the removal/repair part I bought didn't work for what it's advertised for, despite promises from the man who sold the parts to me that "this is the only thing that works, short of replacing the entire toilet," forcing me to call customer service. Also when the manual even admitted this might be a possibility, and here I quote step two (which was later read to me over the phone): "If that doesn't work, the bolt might need to be pried out of the anchor or drilled through."
• When the fence repair company I called two weeks ago was no-call/no-show for a price quote appointment, then told me they are "too far away to just do a repair" when I called to ask why they never came. Uh, you already set up the appointment. If we are out of your service area, why didn't you mention that before I made the appointment? Let me also add that this is a repair for something the company itself installed. We weren't too far away then, were we?
• When the fence repair company spokeswoman told me they don't do "just repairs" or are "too far away to just do a repair," but had no suggestion for other, closer, companies for me to try because they are "the only company who does these repairs." What?

These are only two of my current ongoing projects. I think it's safe to say they won't be resolved within the week, and possibly not even within the year if today's progress is anything to go by. I commend all homeowners who survive home improvement projects with their sanity intact. It's a mad world out there.

Take the Cannoli

Take the Cannoli is a fun collection of personal essays by Sarah Vowell that sometimes verged on jargon, but still remained conversational enough to enjoy. I found it clever and easy to read during a bus trip. The essays were short enough to keep my attention, long enough to teach me something, and interesting enough to warrant a nearly complete read through (I only skimmed a few essays).

Two Rivers

There's a lot going on in T. Greenwood's Two Rivers. We've got racism, single fatherhood, teen pregnancy, war, depression, widowerhood, gender roles, murder...pretty much anything that creates drama is thrown in the mix. This could make for a confusing, rambling mess, but Greenwood does a fine job of weaving these issues and concepts into a story.

I don't know how to write a plot summary for this book that includes all the storylines and isn't several paragraphs long, so feel free to read some reviews that have already summarized the events of Harper Montgomery's life and his connection to a young survivor from a local train crash.

The story develops little by little, like a slow burn, but then it explodes in the last few chapters. I think the book could be streamlined more--it could use a few more revisions to remove superfluous descriptions and flourishes--but the concrete details and events kept me interested. This would be a good book club read (I actually got it from someone who read it in their book club).

Happygiving

This is a happy season--or at least it's supposed to be. There's food and family and Christmas is less than a month away. These things can all mean stress along with happiness, so it's nice to have a list of ways to stay chipper. With Thanksgiving just two days ago, recalling happy moments should be easy to do.

1. Visit a retreat center. I consider my parents’ house a retreat. First, it’s in Wisconsin. Second, the food rocks. Third, there’s no traffic. Fourth, sweatpants all dayyyyyyyyy.
2. Write out your holiday shopping list. Done-ish. I wrote down who I need to buy for and some preliminary ideas for them.
3. Use only reusable things - don't throw anything away. Pretty much my life. Paper products are used sparingly at the Naw. We throw out banana peels and tea bags (after steeping them several times).
4. Organize a family reunion. Hmmmm...can't say I'm organizing one, but I attended Thanksgiving dinner and have a reunion in my tentative summer plans.
5. Vote. I exercised my right to vote for my favorite dancer on Dancing With the Stars this month...and she won!
6. Get a psychic reading. Instead of paying someone to tell me vague things about myself, I instead read several self-reflection books on birth order, creativity, and financial personalities this month.
7. Visit a nursery of newborns. OH HOW I WISH. Teenagers are great and all, but sometimes I want to work with someone a little cuter who doesn’t sass back.
8. Update your knowledge of your chosen field. Check. I read about writing and reading all the time. I even get in a little human services reading every now and then.
9. Have a brainstorming session. Check. Brainstormed blog ideas for the next year, ways to use pureed pumpkin, and dinner ideas.
10. Support a local artist. I consider myself lucky to be friends with several self-identified artists and they always have my support. Someday it might be monetary (like when I commission a family portrait), but for now they'll have to be happy with emotional support.
11. Think about the nature of war and warriors. This is kind of second nature to humans in 2013, so much that we don't really think about war. War just is. And then there’s Storage Wars.
12. Bake a cake. I baked a cinnamon roll cake a few weekends ago, then ate basically the entire thing.
13. Winterize your home. Candles: check. Blankets: check. Doubling up on socks: check. Flannel sheets: check.
14. Play the blindfold smell game. I play the What Are the Downstairs Neighbors Cooking Tonight game whenever I get home from work. Usually I like that game, unless it turns into the When is the Last Time the Neighbors and/or We Took Out the Garbage game.
15. Get dressed up and go out. I wore nice jeans to my anniversary dinner and to a MercyWorks event. More likely I will get dressed down and stay in with a bottle of wine.
16. Sell something in your house. I have little to nothing that anyone would want to pay money for. I donate or recycle.
17. Have a slumber party. With the amount of houseguests we get, it’s always a slumber party at the Naw. This week was slumber party time at my parents' house.
18. Subscribe to a magazine. I tried to do this. I looked up a few magazines that I thought I would be interested in, but mostly I just want magazines with great pictures that I can use for arts and crafts, and I can't justify a subscription for that. Then I found Byliner. It’s online, which means better environmentally, and the price is right.
19. Make a fool of yourself. Daily.
20. Attend a play or musical. Jesus and I wanted to see Wicked, but both of us are unwilling to pay $100+ for the ticket. Maybe next time it’s in town.
21. Hangout in an airport. Check. Spent time there waiting for my Van Galder bus before Thanksgiving.
22. Look through a book of photos on one subject. When I do this it’s usually photos of Rome or food or babies.
23. Go house hunting. Ha. Like I want to hunt out someplace better than the Naw? Trick question, there is no better place.
24. Take a siesta. I am an awful napper, but if an afternoon break of several hours was culturally a thing, I think I could learn how.
25. Enjoy each and every morsel of food. On the whole I do this.
26. Start reading a long novel. Ok.
27. Eat salad with chopsticks. I can’t even eat Asian food with chopsticks.
28. Listen to music using headphones. A requirement on the bus. I’d rather not hear all the ringtones, phone conversations, and snoring.
29. Don’t kill anything (animals, ideas…). I don't? I guess for one day I'm supposed to allow myself all the crazy ideas I can think of. I'm not an idea squelcher by nature, so this is easy.
30. Know when to quit. According to Epstein, sometimes you can’t stay happy doing what you are doing--and that’s when it’s time to quit. When things aren't fun anymore, when they are more stressful that what they are worth, it's time to try something different.
    
    
    
    

Thanks.

Thank you. Two of the most simple, yet most effective words in any language. We all have lots to be thankful for, both material things and intangibles (which are usually absolute necessities). Take a minute and think: what makes my day(s)? Who helps me, who has made me into who I am, what things do I have that get me from morning to night? I'm guessing it won't take you long to come up with a nice list. Like this one:

1. A bed. Not just my bed at the Naw, not even just a bed--but feeling welcome at so many places and knowing I have a place to go wherever I might find myself.
2. My health. My appetite.
3. A good hair day. These aren't always guaranteed with hair like mine, so when they come around (like today!) I'm all about it.
4. Going back for seconds and thirds.
5. Football, even when it doesn't end how I want it to.
6. Not having to shop today or tomorrow. (Except for food!)
7. Lists that don't go on too long.

The Brass Teapot

What's better than a genie in a lamp? Money in a teapot. When John and Alice discover a magical brass teapot at an antique store, they think all their financial worries will be gone. John is a struggling telemarketer and Alice can't find a job with her art history degree, but all they have to do is hurt themselves and the teapot "pays" them cash. Eventually, they learn that emotional pain works just as well as physical--and that the teapot will pay up when other people get hurt.

If you see this getting out of hand fairly quickly, congratulations, you're right.

From full Brazilian waxes to dental work the "old fashioned way," Alice and John know a lot of ways to feel pain. They start attending MMA fights, visiting delivery rooms, and frequenting skate parks. They get dirty in the bedroom. Then they get personal and start sharing secrets--their own and those of their friends.

I'm willing to suspend a lot of disbelief when I'm home alone on a Saturday night, so I got past the "yeah right" phase pretty quickly, and started thinking about what I would do with such a teapot. It's hard not to think about the benefits, but at what cost? It's one thing to purposely stub my toe on the coffee table, but would I hold my hand inches above the stove for a few hundred bucks?

Critical reception for The Brass Teapot was mixed, but I found it entertaining. The dark humor could have been way more dark or way more slapstick-y, but the movie stuck to an even mixture of carefree spending/money-throwing montages sprinkled with mildly graphic violence and borderline heartbreak. The acting was solid, the writing felt natural, and the soundtrack fit the movie's every emotional up and down.

Projects

I'm always working on something. Less frequently, I finish something (like printing out all my pictures and putting them into albums OR finally recycling my old and broken laptop--pats on the back for finishing those projects!), but mostly I'm "in process" with projects. I define "projects" loosely--actual arts and crafts, house improvements, recipe testings, self-improvement/self-reflection projects, or just plain old reading from my official Books to Read list. Here's some of what I'm working on right now:

Poems: I read a poem a day. Sometimes I like them, sometimes they confuse me, sometimes I have to make the poem a part of my world so I write it down in my Poems Enjoyed journal.

Duolingo: I finished my Spanish class last month and couldn't fit the next session in my schedule, but I still have my book and I downloaded this app to keep practicing--I might not advance too far, but I hope to keep up my current level of semi-comprehension.

Mayo: I love mayonnaise. I'm not a fan of the ingredient lists on most jars. Solution? Find a homemade recipe that I like and go crazy with sandwiches/salads/carb-heavy foods.

Horchata: Another pipe dream recipe that might become reality with the right combination of free time, craving, and gumption.

Candles: We have a lot of candles. We also have a lot of candle leftovers. I want to melt old candles down and make new ones, using up some of our random jars. I think all I really need are new wicks.

byliner.com: Wow so many stories must get subscription to keep reading.

Mattress: Long story short, I need a new one. Shopping around isn't my favorite thing to do, so I'm holding off for a sign from the universe about how to proceed. (Again, "in process" is the key phrase.)

Two Rivers: My current read, a loaner from Becca, recommended by her mom/her mom's book club. It's an intricate story of past and present mistakes that reveals itself in slow layers, like peeling back wallpapers and paint jobs from a room you haven't been in before.

My Hair: Always a project in process, my hair is currently two very different colors. I'm growing out my bleach job and trying to train my bangs. It's also the longest it's been in my entire life.

Christmas Presents: Gotta get 'em.


This is plenty for me to work on for the rest of the year, give or take a few more books on my reading list. And of course, this blog is my ultimate project right now. She's like my 5 year old child, always changing/growing/re-evaluating who she is and how she presents herself. Ok, so a pretty advanced 5 year old. My pet project nonetheless. My short term project is to pack for Thanksgiving and bring my appetite up to speed. JK, my appetite is SO READY.

"Cinnabon" Cinnamon Roll Cake

I've been craving cinnamon rolls for several weeks now (and actually have a homemade cinnamon roll recipe bookmarked on my computer, where it haunts me daily), but I don't have the patience for yeast recipes when all I want is a classic sugar/butter fix. Then I found this recipe at work. It's on a piece of printer paper, so I have no idea where it's from or who should get credit for it.

Don't let the lengthy ingredient list scare you--while this is a three part cake: actual cake, cinnamon marble swirl, vanilla glaze--mostly it's just butter and sugar repeating itself in different magical combinations. The measurements for the cinnamon left me with a LOT of marble swirl, which some might like, but I found to be a bit excessive. I baked mine for a solid 30 minutes, and it needed a few extra minutes to firm up.

If by some chance you don't eat it all in one sitting (or your roommates are counting calories and refuse to be seduced by the sugary madness, leaving you to finish an entire cake on your own), just reheat it in the microwave before eating. This cake is perfect in the morning with your coffee, or for lunch, or even as a bedtime snack for those of you who like to enter dreamland via sugar rush/crash.

Ingredients
Cake:
3 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1/4 tsp salt
4 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 cups milk
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
4 tbsp butter, melted

Swirl:
1 cup (Yes, that's two sticks) butter, softened
1 cup brown sugar
2 tbsp flour
1 tbsp cinnamon

Glaze:
2 cups powdered sugar
5 tbsp milk
1 tsp vanilla

Directions
With an electric mixer, mix flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, milk, eggs, and vanilla in a large bowl. Once combined well, slowly stir in 4 tbsp melted butter. Pour batter into a greased 9x13 baking pan.

Using the same bowl, mix together two sticks softened butter, brown sugar, remaining flour, and cinnamon until well combined. Drop evenly over cake batter and use a knife to swirl.

Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes or until toothpick inserted in middle (pro tip: insert into cake part, not marble part) comes out nearly clean.

While cake bakes, whisk together powdered sugar, milk, and vanilla until smooth. (I again used the same bowl...we're baking a cake, not testing out all of our bowls.) Drizzle over warm cake, serve immediately.

My 2nd Nannyversary

There will be no big celebration for my Nannyversary today. No cake representing two years of laundry, dishes, driving, and homework help. What will greet me at work in a few hours is actual piles of laundry and dishes in the sink, teenagers needing to go here and there, and groceries needing to be bought for the weekend.

Chores don't care how long you've been doing them, they just want to get done...and for the right hourly wage, I'm the gal to do them.

9:10, 11/12/13

It's 11/12/13. I woke up at 9:10. I can only hope that means something magical, despite the fact that I promptly snoozed until 9:19. If today is at least an ounce more magical than yesterday, I'd be content. The sun is out; so far so good.

Yesterday it snowed while it rained. The trees haven't even finished shedding, which meant I shoveled leaves at work. Freshly frozen leaves. It's a poetic image at least.

Today I will bike through temps in the lower 30s while wearing several layers of clothes--as long as there's no snow accumulation I'd much rather bike than take the bus.

I'm not ready to have winter this early, but I don't think winter cares all that much. My only defense is non-stop cups of tea.

The Lover's Dictionary

novel, n. and adj.

How a book can tell the oldest story known to man, but in a new and interesting way.
A love story dressed as dictionary entries: arranged alphabetically, not chronologically.
A relationship constructed with words. Words defined by the relationship.

David Levithan's novel of a modern love story told entirely in dictionary entries is a witty jaunt through one couple's relationship highs and lows. The narrator defines each chosen word with a vignette--a brief illustration, sometimes no more than a sentence, of what the word means to the couple.

I was hooked from the very first entry (aberrant) to the concluding entry (zenith). This novel ranges in depth from fresh and sweet to heartbreaking and bitter--all in the span of the alphabet. It even sent me to the actual dictionary a few times, especially when an entry could only be considered a "definition" in the most abstract sense.

Reading this book made me wish I had thought of this idea. My story would be different, but the unique format intrigues me. This would make a good writing exercise, even a personal self-reflection. A Rachel's Dictionary. We all bring baggage to the words in our lives--what feelings, stories, and memories would you attach to the words in your dictionary?

Half a Life

Half a Life is a study in halves. My copy has only half a book cover, the top half showing its original red binding, its title stamped in gold above the bottom half, featuring the protective shell which carries a few endorsements and the author's name, Darin Strauss, in white type. Most of the chapters (chapter segments?) are mere half pages--paragraphs centered on stark white--and contain half thoughts, either unfinished or unexplained. Reading the memoir only took me about half a day.

It's the starkness of the format, and of the writing itself, that creates the environment for the story: 18 years ago (or half the author's life), Strauss hit a bicyclist with his car. She later died. As an 18-year old, he didn't know how to deal with his grief/guilt, or even how to begin naming what he felt as grief, guilt, or any other number of emotions. The book carries on from the time of the accident until present time, where the author has married and become a father.

We don't get a lot of details about Strauss' life during the second, darker, half of his life--what we get are a lot of questions, a lot of pondering, and a lot of realization that sometimes there are no epiphanies, no clean healings, no logical place to put things in our minds. I tried not to put myself in Strauss' place as I read--I don't think he wants his reader to ask "What would I do if that was me?", but rather to look at our own personal baggage and understand that what we have is what we have--now what are you going to do with it? I don't think there's a wrong answer any more than there's a right one.

Before You Know Kindness

Before You Know Kindness by Chris Bohjalian is a study of characters, a slow-paced heft of a novel. It takes place largely at Nan Seton's New Hampshire home, a place where she and her grown children and their children gather every summer. Here is the main cast:

Nan herself is a vigorous woman, scheduling daily activities for her family at the club where she is a member.

Her son, John, is a lawyer who recently took up hunting near his home in Vermont.

John's wife, Sara, is a therapist and new mom (again) to Patrick, who is five months.

Willow is John and Sara's daughter. She is ten, and tender.

Spencer is Nan's son-in-law, who also grew up spending his summers in New Hampshire. He now lives in New York City and works for FERAL, an animal rights organization.

He married Catherine, Nan's daughter, a school teacher in the city.

Their daughter is Charlotte, 12 going on 17.

The characters learn what it takes to make a functional family not so functional when one night Charlotte finds John's hunting rifle in the back of his car and shoots her dad in the shoulder, believing him to be the deer that destroyed their summer garden. We also learn that Catherine is not supportive of her husband's animal rights activity in that it causes him to care more for anonymous animals than for his own family. Willow wants badly to tell everyone what really happened the night of the accident. John really only went hunting once, and had the rifle in the car, loaded, because he couldn't get the bullet out and planned on dropping the gun off with a guy on his way back home from New Hampshire. Spencer believes his shoulder injury is punishment for the pre-animal rights summers he spent as a chef, preparing tray after tray of lobster for tourists. And Nan, the matriarch, wants everyone to get along again and stop sharing their feelings all the time so they can get back to hiking, biking, and swimming.

This book had a quiet suspense and an understated humor. It took me several solid chunks of time to get through, but the chapters are short enough that I could dip in here and there as well. Bohjalian used the words phosphorescent, duress, and telegenic enough times in the book for me to make a mental note of it. I don't know if that has anything to do with the quality of the story, but take that for what you will. He did his homework to create an authentic scenario, though I don't know any family who would act quite like the Setons/Seton-McCulloughs did. The ending of the book also seems to work out pretty well for everyone involved, and though the book hasn't been made into a movie it felt a little Lifetime-y at points. On the whole, I'd say give the 50-page test--if you aren't interested in this family drama by then, you probably won't ever be.

Silver Linings of Defeat

After watching that heartbreaking Monday Night Football game, I have to cheer myself up with some small silver linings:

• Everyone around me will be in a good mood tomorrow. Not so much if I still lived in De Pere, or most anywhere in Wisconsin.
• Today marks two years since I was hired as a house manager/nanny.
• I had two dinners today.
• There's still a lot of Halloween candy at work for me to eat.
• Sidenote Silver Lining: today was National Candy Day.
• It's November 4th and I still haven't heard Christmas music anywhere.
• We almost ran out of toilet paper, but Brit and I made an Aldi run this morning before work so now we are set for a while.
• My cold is nearly gone, allowing me uninterrupted sleep.
• I got out of work early today.
• It didn't rain while I was riding my bike.
• I have a new candle and it makes my room smell brand new.
• There are only four more days until the weekend.
• Brit and I also bought a new type of cheese at Aldi: cracked black pepper cheddar.

And on that note I must now go to the kitchen to eat said cheese.

All Hallow's Eve

October comes to a close with rain and sinus congestion. I've spent this past week battling a sore throat/cough/runny nose, and unfortunately I'm still dressing up as "Under the Weather" today. This is the cold that won't end, unlike this month and Daylight Savings Time, which are both just about finished. I don't particularly like October--my tan fades, seasonal allergies lurk everywhere, and it's just not summer anymore--but I do like scary movies, candy, seasonal foods like squash and pumpkin, and sweaters. This month's How to be Happy wasn't bad either:

1. Contribute to your favorite cause. My favorite cause is food. My contribution is researching food vendors, trying to stay local, and avoiding processed food-like things. Also eating.
2. Spend a prolonged period of time with someone while doing different things. Most weekends I can be found watching football/reading while Brit does homework/works out and Jesus plays video games/reads Internet articles.
3. Have a conversation with a foreigner. I'm sure this happens more often than I know.
4. Spend the night in a hotel where you live. I would love a stay-cation some day.
5. Role-play characters with someone. Don't we all play characters every day?
6. Start planning someone else's birthday. There are so many birthdays in October!
7. Follow a common stock. When should I start investing in the stock market? Am I old enough yet? Can I buy stock in ice cream?
8. Come up with a business idea. Edible pillows.
9. Watch a sporting event on TV on mute. We like to keep the volume low on football games we don't care about, then immediately fall asleep for the next three hours. 
10. Take a picture of the same tree for three weeks. I dropped the ball on this one. I have noticed that our neighbor's tree has grown considerably in the past two years, though. Its branches now curl up and rest on our porch. We get so many squirrels out there.
11. Fast for a day. I did this on Monday. I didn't plan it, I just had no appetite and felt like I might puke up anything I ate. I ate broth for dinner and NyQuil for dessert.
12. Think of the world as a global village. I have, though not recently.
13. Memorize a poem. I have...though not recently. What I have done recently is start writing down poems I enjoy into one journal. I've found that writing poems out by hand helps me think about wording and line breaks in a new way.
14. Play the trust game. I don't know what this is. Trust falls? I'm not a fan.
15. Conduct a spirited piece of music in your living room. Most recently I conducted Justin Timberlake's The 20/20 Experience, 2 of 2. As in the entire CD. Guilty pleasure.
16. Don't wear your glasses/contacts. I can do this for about two minutes before I a) get a headache, or b) walk into something.
17. Attend a talk on a topic of interest. I'm going to a storytelling thing next week!
18. Put away everything you use today. This is essentially my job: put things away. Usually it's not things I've used, but picking up after teenagers.
19. Go dancing. Check. Did this at a wedding a few weeks ago. Also check: laugh at other (old) people dancing.
20. Walk through fallen leaves. The leaves only just started falling, and now they're wet clumpy piles in the gutter.
21. Start an aquarium. Something like this perhaps?
22. Eat leftovers. Every day.
23. Babysit. Nearly every day.
24. Write down significant life moments. Ideally every day.
25. Practice hand-eye coordination. Does dreaming that I was a tennis player count? That happened last night.
26. Give someone a back scratch/rub. You scratch mine, I'll scratch yours.
27. Throw a food-tasting party. Do you mean DINNER, aka all events I've hosted?
28. Take a different route to work. I've played around a bit with my bike route, but I think I found the most efficient way. Of course, I have different routes depending on my after-work activities (library, bank, grocery store, Target).
29. Donate blood. The last time I tried, my iron was too low. :( I was also unemployed and in need of things to make me feel like a productive citizen.
30. Visualize yourself being more creative. I do/am.
31. Dress up as a character. Today I look kinda like this.

Scary Movie Round Up

I'm not a big Halloween person. I've come to appreciate it more as an adult, but as a kid, Halloween was one of the less special holidays we "celebrated." I could play dress up anytime I wanted, so costumes weren't a unique treat, and if I really wanted candy I'm sure we had some somewhere in the house. Don't get me wrong, I didn't hate putting on a costume and getting loads of candy from family and neighbors, I just much preferred other holidays to the one relegated to a few short hours at the end of October.

Now, as an adult, I've allowed myself to expand my Halloween festivities to most of the month (largely in part because Jesus refuses to watch anything but scary movies in October). I indulge in illogical fears, blood and gore, and hauntings just for these four weeks. Some of our movie choices are great--they leave us terrified, requiring us to turn on all the lights and watch something non-threatening before we move--other choices makes us laugh with their ridiculous plots, outdated special effects, or over-the-top acting.

Here are a few of my recently watched top choices for scares, in no particular order:

The Awakening (2011)

Florence Cathcart is a hoax exposer in 1920s England. She does not believe in ghosts, just in the every day trickery of con artists. Then Robert Mallory, a boarding school teacher, asks her to come to his school to investigate the recent death of a student, Walter Portman, said to have been frightened to death by the ghost of another child. She goes, intent on revealing the true nature of Walter's death and the true identity of the ghost. While some mysteries are solved easily, others take time to tease themselves out of the woodwork of the ancient school, formerly a private estate. By the end of the movie, Florence's beliefs--about the supernatural, about her own identity--are shaken to the core.

ParaNorman (2012)

Norman Babcock is just a regular kid...who sees and speaks with ghosts on a daily basis. His parents worry for him, his sister thinks he's a freak, and the other kids at school keep their distance, except Neil, the chubby kid who could use a friend as well. When a centuries-old curse threatens his town, Norman is the only one with the power to protect everyone, he just has to get them to believe in his power first. (As an animated film, this one is more cute than scary, but still a fun Halloween watch.)

The Conjuring (2013)

When the Perrons (Roger, Carolyn, and their five daughters) move in to an old farmhouse, they have mixed feelings about its weak plumbing, odd storage places, and creaks and moans. Then stranger stuff begins happening--one daughter takes up banging her head on a bureau while she sleep walks, another finds an imaginary friend who has quite the sordid history, and all of their clocks stop at 3:07 AM. They ask Ed and Lorraine Warren, paranormal investigators, to examine the house and its quirks. The Warrens find more ghosts than any one house should have, and while this is based on true events, all the curses, haunts, and evil spectres made it a difficult story to follow. Regardless, the movie was full of scares and "oh shit" moments.

Silent Hill (2006)

This movie filled my blood/gore quota for the month and then some. Based on a video game by the same name, and named after a mining town closed down because of fires still burning in the mines, Silent Hill is your classic Haunted Child/Impulsive Parent movie. When the sleepwalking Sharon won't stop screaming "Silent Hill!" in her unconscious state, her mother decides to take her there and get to the root of her condition. It's not long before Sharon gets lost in the abandoned town and her mother has to search for her--finding out that it's not totally abandoned. This movie has some pretty creepy creatures and plenty of gruesome deaths, but it's also a tale of what happens when things get way out of hand and innocence turns to bitterness.

The Novel Cure

Not that it's a bad situation to find myself in, but I recently added several (double-sided) pages to my "To Read" list. I let myself wander around the library the other day instead of grabbing my pre-ordered books and getting out of there like I usually do. (The library is next to the grocery store. When I wander I generally have to go without groceries because I no longer have room to carry them.) What did I end up checking out? The mother of all "To Read" lists.

The Novel Cure, a collaborative effort by Ella Berthoud and Susan Elderkin, seeks to match ailment with appropriate book. The authors define "ailment" loosely: they include the usual suspects--common cold, broken heart, anxiety, all manner of fears--but also some strange ones, like "Itchy Feet," "Dictator, Being a," and "Tea, Unable to Find a Cup of." They also include "Reading Ailments" with their own prescribed cures--"Amnesia, reading associated" being cured by keeping a reading journal, for example. Several Ten-Best Lists show up at random, for the ailments that a selection of novels works better for (audiobooks, books for plane/train/hospital journeys, novels for hammocks, novels for bathrooms, novels for laughing, novels for crying...you get the idea).

Altogether, 751 novels show up somewhere as cures to potential ails. I found that I was familiar with quite a few, and have read a good number as well. As for the unfamiliar titles, the intriguing ones found themselves on my ever-growing list--regardless of whether or not I suffer from the ailment they are prescribed to.

The book doesn't list an explicit cure for having too many books to read--that's one problem we should all be grateful to have.

High Fidelity

I don't remember blogging about this book when I read it, so bear with me if I've already reviewed it. Today I watched the movie version of High Fidelity, starring John Cusack, Joan Cusack, and Jack Black (and a smattering of other more-or-less well known celebrities). It follows the book (by Nick Hornby) pretty closely, except one major difference (which I think leads to the other differences): setting.

Hornby's novel is set in London, England. His narrator, Rob Fleming, comes across as a okay bloke. A bit daft, a little underachieving, but likeable. In the movie version, Rob Gordon (I don't know why the name change) lives in Chicago. Here (or in movie world), he is kind of a jackass. He's self-centered and I totally got why his live-in girlfriend, Laura, leaves him (in both book and movie, pretty much right away).

For the rest of the book and movie, both Robs outline their Top Five Break Ups, in chronological order, leading up to the current Laura break up. Eventually the Robs get that they are the common denominators in all of their failed relationships, regardless of who dumped whom and why. Other ladies enter the scene, as do other men, but Rob(s) and Laura still have things to work through.

I liked the book because I like Nick Hornby's writing style. The story itself is okay. The movie works well because Rob, owner of a record shop, also lists many Top Five song lists, and these work their way into the soundtrack, which I thought did both book and movie justice.

The Uncoupling

What would happen if all the women in your town decided to go on a sex strike? Gradually, then suddenly, lovers turn away, wives think up more and more excuses, and sexually active teenagers decide they want to be single in their youth. Would wars stop...or begin? The Uncoupling by Meg Wolitzer asks its reader to suspend disbelief and allow a certain amount of magical realism for it to tell its tale.

There's a new drama teacher in Stellar Plains, NJ, and she's staging a Greek comedy for the high school's winter play: Lysistrata, the story of a woman who convinces the rest of the women in Greece to go on a sex strike to end The Peloponnesian War. What no one realizes is that the play brings about a spell--a cold spell--that affects the women of this small suburb.

Now solid marriages seem shaky, passionate affairs end as quickly as they started, and everyone seems a little on edge. The book's climax comes on opening/closing night of the play, to be performed only once. It is here, the the high school's theater, where we see the spell's full effects and where some measure of resolution comes.

Altogether, this was a fun and quick read. It reminded me of The Leftovers, another quiet suburb meets magical realism type book. It's a unique take on the importance of relationships and the power of physicality, though things did work out a little too cleanly for me. I wanted a little more push, even if that meant less of a happy ending. My only other critique was the homogeneity of the entire thing, though I guess the author did set her tale in the suburbs of New Jersey for a reason.

The Anthologist

I hesitate to review/recommend this book, at least in October. The Anthologist, by Nicholson Baker, is a novel about poetry, and poetry month isn't until April. Still, I enjoyed it, having checked it out without knowing its subject matter.

The narrator of this quick read is a sometimes poet currently trying to write the introduction to an anthology of poetry he has collected. Unfortunately, he's distracted by his girlfriend leaving, his laundry, his finances, the birds outside, and pretty much everything else in his small world. He does take time to teach us things about poetry, and if he gathered together all of his ramblings, he'd have a fine introduction--he'd just have to leave out all the self-deprecating pieces.

Poetry lovers will appreciate the language, the history lessons, and the narrator's own appreciation of the art. Non-poetry lovers will appreciate the story of a man trying to keep his life on track while it seems everything flounders.

How To: Fix a Washing Machine

After getting the go-ahead from our landlord ("Sounds like you guys know more about the machine than most."), Brit and I took to our washer with screwdrivers, pliers, and a hammer tonight to figure out why it wouldn't drain (likely culprit: hair).

Before we got that far, though, we poured ourselves some drinks.

The repair video makes this job seem straightforward enough, but we didn't replace the drain pump. We unhooked all the same stuff, then completely took out the black rubber drain boot to clean it out. I'm getting ahead of myself--making it to the point of unhooking and cleaning out took several hours. First, there was the problem of moving the washing machine out of the laundry room while keeping the dryer (which sits on top of the washer) inside, where it needed to stay connected to the gas line and vent hose. That took several tricky maneuvers and a phone-a-friend to Becca for some extra help in lifting/balancing/shifting.

Then we got down to taking the thing apart. One stripped screw and another phone-a-friend to Jesus for heavy duty pliers later, and we were in. We muscled the clamps off and pulled out the drain. Now, just so everyone is aware, as we disconnected the hoses, residual water leaked out. Not clean, fresh water. Old, musty, dank water. Our work space started to smell like 100-yr old fart. And as we took out the rubber boot, we saw something floating inside. It looked like a rolled up piece of plastic, but upon further inspection (pulling it out with the pliers), we found out what was keeping our washing machine from draining:

One bra cup lining (perhaps from a swimsuit?), several bobby pins...and of course some hair/lint combo clumps. A little gross, but also validating--if the drain had been clean, I don't know what our next course of action would have been. As it was, we spent some time running bleach water through all the hoses we could reach, and thoroughly scrubbed/soaked the drain/drain trap.

Putting it all back together went a little quicker and for our first test run, we threw in all the nasty rags we had just used to mop up fart water. Forty-one minutes later (aka 2 minutes ago) and...success! I just took out a load of clean, fully spun rags from our "new" washer. Brit and I will now curtsy/pat ourselves on the back while you cheer and bravo.

Back to Three/Dirty Clothes

In the past week, the Naw has lost two of its squatters and one of its essential/well-used appliances.

Diego and Becca relocated to their respective apartments and reunited with (Diego)/met for the first time (Becca) their roommates at the beginning of the month. Diego lives closer to Logan Square proper now (closer to us than he was back in his Gold Coast days, but not quite as close as next door) and Becca moved to the alley. Just kidding, but for real she lives the next street over and it takes 30 seconds to get from my bedroom to hers.

Becca has two brand new roommates, who we are excited to befriend because A) they are not a part of the Mercy Bubble, and B) that's basically our only requirement for making possible friends right now. One of them is a friend of a friend of Brooke's and the other is a friend of Bailey's, small world! (Also Becca, if you are reading this, hope you don't mind I am using your life for fodder.)

Now it's kind of quiet here...but not too quiet. An appropriate amount of quiet for three people living in a three bedroom apartment who aren't coming and going at all hours of the day seven days a week like an apartment filled with people all on different schedules. (I wondered many times what our downstairs neighbors thought of the nearly never-ending parade of people going up and down our steps.)

As for the appliance currently out of commission, I'm talking about our washing machine. Probably the biggest selling point of our apartment (even above the porch, roof hatch, dark wood paneling and pillars, and yes, even the built-in hutch), our in-unit washing machine has seen younger days. This past month we put it through the wringer (haha!) with several extra people's dirty clothes, plus all the dirty linens a tenement-style household has, which is apparently too much for the poor thing.

The machine no longer drains, rinses, or spins, which we found out after several experimental loads. Doubting our landlord would spring for a new machine, Brit and I decided to de-clog the drain this weekend. FYI: this is not a simple task & merely removing all visible screws will not help you accomplish this task. We found the drain and the pump and pretty much saw all the inner workings of the machine, but didn't have the confidence to start unhooking hoses and pulling apart wires, so broken it sits until we try again later this week.

And try we will--we did more research Jesus worked some Google magic and found a repair video featuring our exact machine and what we hope is the exact problem, so now we are set, assuming we can find a time when we are both home and not busy. You'll know we've fixed it when my pile of dirty clothes is no longer the same height (or higher) than my pile of books to read.

The Ethical Butcher

Followers of this blog/my life in general know that I've (in fits and starts) created a personal food culture/philosophy based on books, blogs, movies, personal experience, and how I grew up. I generally stick to only a few food guidelines: real food trumps all non foods (that means I use butter, not margarine) and always check ingredient lists (if I can't pronounce it, it's probably not food). Michael Pollan elaborates on these guidelines--as do many other farmers, chefs, and food activists, the most recent on my radar being Berlin Reed with his book (based on a former blog by the same name) The Ethical Butcher.

If I don't seek out and read books like these, I grow lazy in my quest to eat real food. I cheat with boxed/processed non foods or grab whatever is on the shelves at the grocery store regardless of labels. I feel bad, but not bad enough, until I remember why I started researching, learning, and changing my ways in the first place: if I am to be fully myself, a citizen of the world, I have to let my actions and my dollars show what I believe in/support/want for my life. I can't be frustrated at the rates of heart disease, obesity, and diabetes in America and then calmly eat my mac'n'cheese knowing full well that my teenage boy metabolism will take care of the extra fat and sodium for me personally, screw everyone else. Even knowing my one small change of grass fed over grain fed beef won't make a tangible difference, how can I say I support local/humane/truly-happy-cow farmers if my support is only in word and not in action?

I hesitated to write this post because I knew I would digress and get soapboxy instead of simply reviewing the book for what it is: one man's personal narrative of how he went from vegetarian to vegan to whole animal butcher to activist/community chef/blogger/writer/food educator/thoughtful omnivore and how he envisions a world where people eat ethically as the norm. In the first half of the book, we get Reed's story. He is honest, yet unapologetic. He doesn't regret his "vegan" tattoo--that's who he was at that point in his life, and it led to where he is now. After telling us who he is, the second half of the book focuses on the reader. Do we know where our food comes from? Are we asking enough questions, demanding food quality from our grocers and butchers? Again, he is honest--finding good, capital F, healthy Food can be overwhelming. What do the labels "natural," "organic," "green," and "sustainable" really mean? He knows that all people can't and won't make all the changes needed to ensure food responsibility the world over, but he encourages his reader to do what they can, based on their abilities, needs, and personal philosophies.

Needless to say, I felt convicted after reading and have been researching local grocers, markets, CSAs, and where the most responsibly-sourced food is located in Chicago. I'm lucky to live in a rather hippie-esque neighborhood, so grassroots, community-based organizations aren't difficult to find. I'm also lucky that I can afford to splurge on happy meat, and that I know my way around a kitchen, so choosing produce over processed tends to be a non-choice for me. Now I need to maintain my philosophy and allow it to evolve with the food landscape in my neighborhood. And I need more people to read this book so we can have lively discussions about where to find good eats.

Falling for Happy

Who here is having a hard time believing tomorrow is October? September, with its temperature swings, fits of rain, and ever earlier sunsets, put me through a gamut of activity and emotion. Still, my handy dandy How to be Happy list didn't fail me:

1. Doodle. This I do frequently.
2. Let loose. Less frequently, but it has been done.
3. Organize a potluck dinner. Yes, for Becca's birthday.
4. Play devil's advocate. My preferred mode of argument.
5. Pretend it's a new year. With the new school year starting and so many changes happening around here (Brit in school, Becca/Diego moving in/out) it does feel like a "new" year.
6. Go to a trade show or convention. Can I phone a friend for this one? Jesus is the convention-goer.
7. Buy a new tool to complete a project. I bought several photo albums to complete my picture-printing-out project.
8. Organize a group effort. Again, helped organize Becca's birthday celebration.
9. Pray for something. Yes.
10. Don't answer your phone. YES.
11. Imagine you had all the money you want. Okay...now what? Feel sad?  
12. Send a postcard to yourself. Umm...I write myself letters sometimes...like in my journal.
13. Read the Bible as literature. Yes.
14. Stay home all day. Yes...terday.
15. Eat popcorn for dinner. I don't think I've done that this month, but I've had crackers and cheese...
16. Ask for directions. Yes, I do this...though I rarely need to. 
17. Look through your personal archives. Journals/photos/memory box things...yep.
18. Visit a university or college campus. Not sure I've done that this month, but I sometimes drive through DePaul for work.
19. Start a tradition. Hmmm...I've continued traditions. Hard to say whether or not any are started, but I'll let you know next year I guess.
20. Test drive your fantasy car. Would need a fantasy car first...
21. Make an overseas phone call. Does the Gulf of Mexico/Panama Canal = overseas and Skype = phone call?
22. Imagine your death. I would prefer not to.
23. Be on time for every appointment. That's my M.O.
24. Tell someone the story of "Little Red Riding Hood". ?? I definitely tell stories, but not this one.
25. Play a board game. Yes.
26. Organize a clash day. Another M.O. of mine...making every day Clash Day.
27. Take a risk with money - gamble. ...Not my M.O. :/
28. Think everything through before you act. Something I strive to do, except then I get caught up in the thinking too much and forget to act.
29. Go on a boat ride. Sorry, did not have the chance to do this during September. 
30. Wish on a star. Definitely had the chance to do this and definitely took that chance.

Interpreter of Maladies

Having enjoyed Jhumpa Lahiri's novel, The Namesake, I soon found and blazed through her collection of short stories, Interpreter of Maladies. I definitely like these short stories more than her longer work, but I have to keep reading her stuff so I know for sure what I prefer.

I like Lahiri's use of food, everyday routines, and simple actions to show universal emotions. The stories highlight a moment or a phase in a person's life, or in the life of a relationship. Similar themes of immigration, race, identity, mixed-culture, community, and ritual cycle through the stories so that while each one stands alone, the entire collection feels greater than the sum of its parts.

I laughed on several occasions, sighed, and cried (only once, but I had to put the book down for a second to compose myself). I'm curious to read more from Lahiri--she published another short story collection in 2008 and her second novel just came out this year.

65th Emmy Awards/Bears vs Steelers

Two for the price of one! Tonight I will live-blog the Emmys, but as luck would have it, the Bears are also playing and my roommates would kick me out if I hogged the TV all night. Hopefully it's not confusing if I react to an acceptance speech and an interception in the same sentence. Keep this page open/refreshed -- the fun starts at 7 with the Emmys and gets amped up at 7:30 once the game starts.

6:45 pm: Putting the finishing touches on dinner, slow cooker chicken pot pie. We've gotten good at cooking for many/meals eaten in shifts to accommodate five people with different schedules.

6:57 pm: The Jets/Bills game is definitely still on CBS.

7:00 pm: Still commercials...

7:04 pm: And here we go!

7:08 pm: Interesting montage intro. Classy. NPH is charming, as always.

7:12 pm: Ha! Jimmy Kimmel. And Jane Lynch! And Jimmy Fallon! And Conan! And...that guy? I'm not good at TV.

7:15 pm: A moment, for Tina Fey and Amy Poehler. Goddesses of TV. I know that. Tina is looking super fine tonight.

7:18 pm: Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy: Merritt Wever, Nurse Jackie. No idea what that show is, but I recognize her from her role on New Girl, where she also shines. ...And best acceptance speech ever. Nailed it.

7:23 pm: Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series: Tina Fey, Tracy Wigfield, 30 Rock. I love funny women.

7:26 pm: Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy: Tony Hale, Veep. Again, I don't know Veep, but I did love Hale in Arrested Development.

7:29 pm: Robin Williams...you've aged.

7:37 pm: Jon Hamm and Alec Baldwin, silver foxes.

7:38 pm: Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy: Julia Louis-Drefus, Veep. Does Tony Hale play the same kind of character on Veep that he did on AD?

7:40 pm: Outstanding Guest Actor/Actress in a Comedy: IF JUSTIN DIDN'T WIN...what?! Boo.

7:42 pm: Outstanding Director in a Comedy: Gail Mancuso, Modern Family. Still haven't watched that show. Go Ladies!

7:45 pm: Sophia, wow. Outstanding Actor in a Comedy: Jim Parsons, Big Bang Theory. Somehow this show always wins. I don't get the appeal.

7:49 pm: Bears are up, 3-0. First and goal....Touchdown! 10-0.

7:56 pm: Is it the lighting? Everyone looks shiny and washed out. These are not the Academy Awards.

7:58 pm: No one here is into this song, sorry Elton/Liberace. Watching the Bears score another Touchdown! make a big run!

8:02 pm: Touchdown?

8:04 pm: ...Touchdown?

8:08 pm: Touchdown!

8:10 pm: What did we miss, CBS? Oh, INTERVENTION. LOL.

8:13 pm: Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series: Henry Bromell, Homeland.

8:14 pm: Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama: Anna Gunn, Breaking Bad. I think I should probably watch this show, based on the obsession everyone else seems to have for it.

8:22 pm: Cutler to Forte. Awesome. Cutler to ...the ground. Less awesome.

8:26 pm: SO glad we switched over right now. Loving this award song featuring Nathan Fillion and Sarah Silverman. Also loving all these gay jokes.

8:28 pm: Outstanding Reality Competition Program: The Voice. Wow, no win for The Amazing Race. I think that's a first.

8:38 pm: Something about Ben Roethlisberger gives me the creeps.

8:40 pm: THAT was a good catch.

8:45 pm: No, Carrie. Sorry. Back to the game.

8:50 pm: This game isn't exciting right now either. :/

8:53 pm: The accountants...and Bob Newhart!

8:55 pm: Outstanding Actress in a Drama: Claire Danes, Homeland. She needs a different dress. Different color. Different cut. Something.

8:58 pm: Outstanding Guest Actor/Actress in a Drama: Gonna be super honest here, didn't catch either of their names or the shows they were in.

8:59 pm: Outstanding Director in a Drama: David Fincher, House of Cards.

9:04 pm: Outstanding Writing in a OMG Bob Newhart is so cute. Sorry, Variety Series: Ummm there are a lot of writers on these shows. Room for one more? And the winner is...The Colbert Report. Have some class, writers...stop with the on-stage selfies.

9:06 pm: Director in a Variety Series: Don Roy King, SNL. For the Justin Show! By far the best in a while.

9:12 pm: Osos de Chicago! My Spanish class is really paying off.

9:20 pm: 27-10.

9:22 pm: Outstanding Variety Series: The Colbert Report. They win a lot, right?

9:31 pm: 27-13.

9:32 pm: Outstanding Writing in a Miniseries: (Full Disclosure, have not seen any of these)...Abi Morgan, The Hour. I like that her hair is simple/classy. Cute story too!

9:34 pm: More full disclosure, I know none of these actors/actresses.

9:37 pm: Kaley's dress is my favorite I've seen so far.

9:42 pm: Still 27-10.

9:45 pm: Break from Emmys and football to see Brooke's new school wardrobe. :)

9:47 pm: 27-13.

9:50 pm: 27-20. I looked away/stopped listening. What just happened? Watching two shows is tiring.

9:56 pm: Outstanding Actor in a Miniseries: Michael Douglas. Another guy who's really getting old. Great use of sexual innuendo.

9:58 pm: Outstanding Miniseries/Movie: Behind the Candelabra. I have a slight interest in seeing this.

10:09 pm: 27-23. The Bears have clearly taken precedence over the Emmys tonight. Sorry, non-Bears fans/non-football fans. Such is life when you live in Chicago/have more football fans than pop culture fans in your apartment.

10:13 pm: I can respect a quarterback who doesn't slide all the time/makes a hit as he's going down.

10:19 pm: We say it's a touchdown. Glad the refs agree. 34-23.

10:26 pm: 40-23. Polamalu is a beast.

10:34 pm: Side notes: We at the Naw are SO excited for the Season Premieres of Chicago Fire and Law and Order: SVU. This week, on NBC.

10:42 pm: Somehow the Bears are awesome this year. The Packers, not so much. The Steelers, really not at all.

10:44 pm: 40-23, game. See you at the next Awards Show/Football Game/Live Event!

Yogurt Chicken

This is one of the easiest, cleanest, tastiest, and healthiest dishes I've had the pleasure of making (twice in the last week). So far I've not had any leftovers when making it, but I think it would be great the next day as well. It's also super easy to modify - as shown by everyone's unique take on it. Don't like Greek yogurt? Use plain. Don't like yogurt at all? Try mayo. Experiment with cheeses, spices, etc. Try it on pork or fish or tofu. Above all, don't work too hard and have dinner ready in under an hour.

Yogurt Chicken

4-6 boneless/skinless chicken breasts
1 cup yogurt
1/2 cup parmesan cheese, grated
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 375.
Combine yogurt, cheese, and spices in shallow dish.
Line baking sheet with tin foil, lightly grease.
Coat chicken with yogurt mix (be generous!) and line on baking sheet.
Bake 45 minutes or until juices run clear/tops are golden brown.
EAT.

Learning Via Music

I'm supposed to be studying Spanish for my class later. Currently this looks like youtubing Spanish music, looking up lyrics/translations, and learning new songs. Unsurprisingly, most of my favorite Spanish-language music is by Italian-born artists. Thankfully, most Italian singers release Spanish versions of their most popular songs (sometimes entire albums) along with the Italian versions. If they are lucky/popular enough, they release their songs in English as well. Here are a few of my favorite artists/songs:

Tiziano Ferro - I love a lot of this guy's music. Italian, Spanish, and English--he has a beautiful voice and it's hard to not enjoy such passionate songs.

Perdona



Tardes Negras



Laura Pausini - Also a passionate Italian singer with songs in multiple languages. I sometimes confuse these new Spanish lyrics with Italian ones I learned while in Rome.

En Cambio No



Primavera Anticipada (featuring James Blunt)



La Sonrisa de Julia - an actual band from Spain, found when I googled "Spanish music that sounds like Jack Johnson/Coldplay/Dave Matthews Band"... Don't get me wrong, bachata/cumbia/salsa/other traditional Spanish-language music is great, but that's not what I typically listen to (even considering how diverse the genre "Latin" is). If I'm going to use music to support my language learning, I want it to be music that I would listen to regardless of language. These guys are a rock band who happen to speak Spanish.

Pain and Gain

Sometimes you watch a movie based on a true story that is so strange/horrifying you can't even cry. The reality of the events depicted is rather grim, despite its Hollywood glitz-and-glam facade, but you are too shocked to show any emotion. You sit there, asking (in your head and out loud) "Is that for real?" You laugh, sometimes because of the awkward hilarity, sometimes out of discomfort. You give your boyfriend the satisfaction of watching a movie about weightlifting for his second (but probably not last) time.

Pain and Gain, starring Mark Wahlberg and Dwayne Johnson, is a tragedy dressed in a clown suit. It tackles crimes like extortion, grand larceny, kidnapping, torture, and murder with satirical nonchalance. The main characters happen to be bodybuilders, but the movie focuses on their illegal shenanigans over their physical endeavors.

While based on actual events, the movie certainly takes creative liberty in dropping and inventing characters and plot. I thought it was well-written and crafted, and though gruesome in parts, the story itself was intriguing. I also enjoyed the large and diverse cast of veteran and rookie actors. If you have a soft stomach for blood or sensitive ears language-wise, I'd pass on this movie, but I think in general it appeals to a wide audience. Just remember, sometimes your pain is someone else's gain.

Tangled

Sometimes you need a good cry over something not real. Movies are a perfect way to force catharsis, and animated movies are an even better medium to get emotional with, I say. When you just want to get hopelessly and needlessly slobbery and boogery, why not do it with characters who aren't even real people? Animated movies allow grown ups to let down their guards and have at it, emotion-wise.

Tangled, Disney's 2010 animated version of the Rapunzel story, had me in wrenching sobs by the end, but first I laughed and giggled at its silliness. While the music isn't particularly catchy, I enjoyed the story of the princess stolen as a baby and raised in a tower by a witch. I thought the animations were clever, and because I watched with Jesus, it was fun to make comparisons between ourselves and Rapunzel and Flynn/Eugene. I haven't cut my hair in over a year, so I could relate to Rapunzel's beauty routine, and Jesus feels he, like Flynn/Eugene, is "awesome in general" (his words).

As the movie came to climactic finish, I found myself fighting tears. I know Disney isn't about dramatic tragedies, but I couldn't help but put myself in the main characters' places and imagine the dire-ness of their situations if a miracle didn't occur. Even once I knew the happy ending was on its way, I still had tears--this time of joy for the good fortune of the now beloved characters.

Pretty Muddy

I don't normally run three miles (ever), but when I do, I make sure I get really muddy. Yesterday, Mom and I ran the Pretty Muddy Women's Mud Run, a tamer cousin of other mud runs out there. Mom and Dad have already run their own mud run, and now Mom is hooked. We figured this would be a good one for her to keep going on her kick and for me to ease into this whole trend. It was also their wedding anniversary yesterday, so it made for a fun way to celebrate.

We got to the course plenty early, so after some stretching and warming up, Mom and I were ready to go. From the Start/Finish line all we could see was a tunnel filled with soapy bubbles (the first obstacle) and a giant mud pit stretched out under some netting (the last obstacle). The rest of the course wound its way through several soybean fields and wooded areas.

We didn't run the whole 5K, but we did a lot of jogging, climbing, crawling, sliding, and carrying. Since the race wasn't timed, there wasn't a huge air of competition and many of the women cheered each other on at the obstacles, or commiserated with them over shared mud coverings. Mom and I wished there were more obstacles, since many of them only required a minimum of mud activity, but we still enjoyed the tranquil setting juxtaposed with splashing in pits of squelchy mud.

We saw big girls and small girls, young girls and old girls, mother-daughter teams and entire friend groups dressed in tutus, nun habits, tie dye t-shirts, cheetah leggings, wigs, and any other costumes people didn't mind getting dirty in. Mom said that if we had a team name it could be Half & Quarter Century because of our ages.

At the finish line we were greeted with cups of water and Pretty Muddy medals. Everything we touched got promptly covered in mud until we made our way back to the hose off station, where tons of women sprayed each other off in various stages of undress. One woman stripped down to undies and bra, revealing lacy whites only slightly muddy. Her friend asked why she wore such fancy underwear and she replied, "Didn't your mom tell you to always wear nice panties? You never know who might see them later!"

I felt good after the run, and was only a little tired later in the day, but I am sore this morning. When I woke up I limped to the bathroom, holding my butt and thighs. This is what I get for doing zero training before activities. Luckily I have today to recuperate on the couch...while watching FOOTBALLLLLLLLLLLL! Sayonara Summer, here comes Fall.

Hostel Del Naw

When can you call your apartment a hostel? Probably at about the time you host 7 different people in the span of a week. The Naw has had a revolving door this past week, housing out of towners, homeless friends, and travelers.

Whether they stayed for a night during longer travels, are biding their time until a new apartment opens up, or have full blown moved in until further notice, all of our guests have been wonderful and flexible, sleeping in whatever beds are available at the moment. Still, it's been crazy always having extra people around.

PROS of extra roommates:

• Extra groceries - all of our guests have either brought us food, are willing to run to the grocery store for us, or have pitched in to grocery bills.
• Homemade meals - it's a rare night when someone doesn't make dinner for the apartment, family-style.
• Breakfast buddies - we have a built-in coffee clutch/tea time every morning!
• Spanish practice - the majority of our guests have lived in Spanish-speaking countries or are fluent speakers, yay for me!
• Extended closet - my wardrobe is always growing and changing.
• Gossip - we are staying super in the loop about ourselves and all of our friends.

CONS of extra roommates:

• Cramped bathroom time - we perform an elaborate dance at night between showers, brushing teeth, and bed prep and it starts all over in the morning.
• Little to no privacy - I'm not a private person, per se, but every now and then I need some closed-door-by-myself-room-time.
• Laundry woes - we have a lot of dirty laundry and only one washer/dryer.
• Nothing lasts! - as much as we grocery shop, the bananas we got yesterday are always gone today.
• Gossip - like the privacy issue, everyone who lives here currently knows everyone else's shit. Part of it is our "Full Disclosure" policy, part of it is the thin walls, part of it is we talk loud about everyone we know.

Much like MercyWorks, living at the Naw right now is fun, frustrating, tiring, and awesome. I'm enjoying the change of pace, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't keeping an eye out for quieter times ahead.

Never Let Me Go

There is a line in Never Let Me Go where the novel's narrator, Kathy, describes the way the students at Hailsham, her private school in the English countryside, are taught about their lives. She says their teachers ("guardians") never revealed so much as to shock or scare the children, but just enough so that they were never surprised by what they heard, like a kid who realizes he knows something, but can't remember where or when he learned it.

Kazuo Ishiguro, the novel's author, is much like Kathy's guardians while we readers are like Kathy. He reveals just enough to keep us hooked and informed, and as we read further and further we learn things we already sort of knew, or at least guessed at. His prose draws us along, pulls us through the novel, and takes us on the literary journey of Kathy's childhood to her present day adulthood.

Reviews of this book tend to be solid--I've seen it recommended on several lists--but some people weren't fans. They wanted more of a "twist," or didn't like the writer's style. There is a twist, but it's less twisty than curvy. I'd say more, but I think this book works best without prior knowledge of what this book is all about. What happens won't necessarily take you by surprise, but it will make you think.

Bristol Renaissance Fair

Labor Day has come and gone, and with it goes summer. I ended mine with a trip back to 1599, at the Renaissance Fair in Kenosha, WI. I've never been to a Renaissance Fair before, but my friend Becca warned me that there would be plenty of cleavage among all the characters who come out and dress up in traditional attire. There was also lots of facial hair, fairy wings, pet dragons, and swords.

Jesus and I dressed only for comfort, not for the time period, though Jesus did add some mustache wax to ensure plenty of compliments and 'stache comparisons. He also got picked to hold the end of a rope with several other men so that a performer could balance on it and juggle. I did not get picked for anything, but I did get a free hand massage to try out some candle lotion.

We saw men sword fight, a blacksmith demonstration, a glass-blowing demonstration, feats of strength and balance, magicians, jousting, falcons, and a man spewing insults as people pelted him with tomatoes. We ate modern food - calzones, nachos, roast beef, pizza - but there were also turkey legs, soup and bread, and beer in big mugs.

I'm glad I got to end the summer with a "Huzzah" ...but I'm looking forward to stretching out "summer" well into September, possibly October. When you're not in school anymore, summer is anytime the weather is nice.