Things I love

The following things made my life better today:

The Magic Pants


My parents gave me these pajama pants for Christmas, and they are without a doubt the most comfortable pants I've ever worn in my life. I look forward to getting home just so I can put these pants on, and I fervently wish they were not so obviously pajama pants, because I would wear them everywhere.

Butterball


I first discovered Lush on a trip to Toronto, back when their only store in the US was in California. Their bath bombs are awesome, and none so much as the Butterball. I can't even describe how soft my skin feels when I get out of the tub after using one of these. They're amazing.

McGinty's


Back when I worked at Ruby Tuesday, I had my bar. I could walk into Champions and the bartender would have my drink ready before I even sat down. There was always someone to talk to, and it was a very comfortable place for me to be. Things change, obviously. I don't work at Ruby Tuesday anymore, Champions has gotten progressively rougher, and I don't have a bar to call my own anymore. But I suspect that McGinty's could become mine. Good food, good drinks and good friends--a lovely night was had by all.

Gnudi. Yes, pronounced Nudie. Get your chuckles out now.

I am not known for my culinary prowess, so when I actually manage to cook--and make it taste good--I am usually very proud of myself. Sometimes I take pictures, like tonight.

During the inaugural speech, I was clicking around the Internet, because these days watching something on TV just isn't enough. I found my way to Big Red Kitchen, (I have no idea how. I don't even remember what I was searching for) and found Robin Sue's post about Gnudi. I followed that over to the Food Network. All of a sudden, I was inspired. Also, intimidated. I went into this with the assumption that it would be a godawful mess.

Instead, voila. Gnudi.


It is basically described as the inside of a ravioli, without the outside. O. and I agreed that it tasted very much like the filling of a spanakopita. Best of all, it was easy. Prep time was only about fifteen minutes, and the biggest problem I had was timing everything, which is an ongoing issue for me. The gnudi was finished before I'd even thought about boiling my pasta. As a time saver, I boiled the pasta in the same water as the gnudi, which worked out perfectly. This is definitely one I'll try again.

The finished product:

In case you were wondering...

No heat in the library...day 5. Or 7, counting the weekend.

DCPS rocks!

Things that irritated the ever-loving crap out of me today

1. The schoolbus. It was not the bus itself that irritated me. Rather, it was certain inhabitants of said bus. The bus was pulling up as I was getting ready to leave my house this morning. No problem. The kids load, then the bus turns right and I turn left. It's a delay of about two minutes. Well, not this morning. This morning the bus loaded, then the driver waited for a kid who was running for it. As that kid boarded, another kid appeared over the crest of the hill, also running for it. As he boarded the bus, a girl appeared over the crest of the hill, casually strolling like she had not a care in the world. By the time Her Highness finally boarded the bus, I'd been waiting for about six minutes, and the line of cars behind the bus stretched all the way around the curve.

2. No heat in the library, day 2. I would imagine most people reading this would be in the DC metro area, but in case you're not familiar with our weather conditions, I offer the following math problem. DC + January = f@&!ing cold. I had preschoolers in there turning blue. By midway through the day, I was inventing reasons to go into the teachers lounge. There, the heat worked so well all the windows were open to make it bearable. (Your tax dollars at work, DC residents.)

3. No cable or internet at home, day 2. I am currently blogging via iPhone, which is not the most efficient method of writing lengthy messages. We came home yesterday and our front lawn looked like someone had driven heavy machinery through it. We suspect that this is because someone did indeed drive heavy machinery through it, and cut our cable wire while they were at it. Comcast is coming to look at the problem, which means it should be fixed sometime in early 2011. Meanwhile, the series finale of Stargate: Atlantis is airing right now, and I'm not watching it. Dammit.

99 in 2009

I downsized this year. 109 in 2009 seemed very daunting, so I scaled back to 99. Which is still daunting, but less so. It's under 100, anyway. In a day or so, I'll post a 2008 roundup, but here's a preview: I did a whole lot of nothing last year. It ain't pretty, folks.

I have great hopes for this year, however. Bring it on. Happy New Year, everyone.

Health/Personal Care

1. Develop a workout regimen.
2. Develop a skincare regimen.
3. Get braces.
4. Learn to apply makeup.
5. Ride the Sligo Creek Trail.
6. Go kayaking.
7. Ride my bike at least once a week during the months of May-September.
8. Take my lunch at least four days a week.
9. Drink 48 oz. of water daily.
10. Limit Diet Coke intake to meals.
11. Play tennis at least once.
12. Do yoga often enough for it to have a cumulative effect.
13. Go skiing.
14. Get tested for hypoglycemia.
15. Personal
16. Floss daily.

Financial

17. Cut up all credit cards except one, which will only be used for work-related purposes that will be reimbursed immediately.
18. Save at least $250 per month.
19. Pay all credit cards on time.
20. Stick to a zero-based budget.
21. Pay cash as often as possible.
22. Consolidate IRAs.
23. Do my taxes before March 1.
24. Make $2,000 during the summer.
25. Write a will and a living will.
26. Get renters insurance.

Career/Professional Development

27. Get my certification in DC
28. Apply for certification in Virginia and Maryland.
29. Take one Spanish class.
30. Take one professional development class through WTU.
31. Read one professional development book per month.
32. Plan for the week by Saturday night.
33. Get involved in a professional organization.
34. Write two booktalks per week.
35. Do not leave for the day with unshelved books.

Household

36. Hire an organizational consultant for the house.
37. Redecorate the bedroom.
38. Implement the FlyLady strategies and make a serious effort for at least a month.
39. Plant a garden and keep it tidy.
40. Rent a community garden plot and plant a vegetable garden.
41. Make sushi.
42. Make salsa.
43. Waste less food.

Travel

44. Visit Rochester.
45. Visit one state I’ve never visited before.
46. Take a road trip.
47. Visit the Thousand Islands.
48. Go camping.
49. Visit Chapel House at Colgate University.

Personal/Social

50. Have friends over to visit at least once a month.
51. Plan a wine club meeting for at least ten months of the year.
52. Join WIN.
53. Join the Young Benefactors of the Smithsonian.
54. Send birthday cards.
55. Send Christmas cards.
56. Have all Christmas shopping finished by December 1st.
57. Personal
58. Read the entire Bible.
59. Attend church services from four different denominations.
60. Take lessons in a musical instrument.
61. Write a novel.

Environmental

62. January - Use a reusable bag for all purchases.
63. February - Begin recycling at work.
64. March - Eat vegetarian three nights a week.
65. April - Take public transportation to work at least twice per week.
66. May - Plant vegetables.
67. June - Plant a tree.
68. July - Develop a strategy for recycling more.
69. August - Eat locally for one week.
70. September - Buy as much as possible from farmers markets.
71. October - Eliminate all single-serving food purchases.
72. November - Switch to environmentally friendly cleaning products.
73. December - Calculate my carbon footprint and develop a strategy for reducing it further

Culture and Local Attractions

74. Go to the top of the Washington Monument
75. Take a tour of the White House
76. Tour the Holocaust Museum
77. Visit Mount Vernon
78. Visit Harpers Ferry
79. Go to a movie at the AFI Silver Theatre
80. Take a duck tour
81. Attend an event at the Kennedy Center
82. Attend a formal gala
83. Go to a DC United game
84. Go to a Nationals game.
85. Got to a Capitals game.
86. Visit the Anacostia Community Museum.
87. Try a new restaurant (January)
88. Try a new restaurant (February)
89. Try a new restaurant (March)
90. Try a new restaurant (April)
91. Try a new restaurant (May)
92. Try a new restaurant (June)
93. Try a new restaurant (July)
94. Try a new restaurant (August)
95. Try a new restaurant (September)
96. Try a new restaurant (October)
97. Try a new restaurant (November)
98. Try a new restaurant (December)
99. Go stargazing.

Fear

The train pulled into the Farragut North station, half of the cars dark, with a placard on front saying "Special." I had just enough time to process the thought that I'd never seen a train labeled that way when the door to one of the dark cars slid open and a woman stepped out. She was dressed head to toe in black, with a stocking cap on her head and a very, very large gun in her hands.

That was when I stopped breathing.

She stayed on the platform for perhaps ten seconds before she stepped back onto the train and the doors slid closed. And then the train began to honk. I didn't even know Metro trains had horns. The sound was deafening, echoing through the station. The other passengers on the platform began to look around uneasily. The train slid forward about fifteen feet and the door opened again. The woman stepped back onto the platform.

There was activity behind me. I hadn't even noticed the man with the gun, standing at the door of the next car down. Two other men quickly began pushing money carts, like those you see in casinos, off the train and around the corner, then pushing other carts onto the train. There was a sense of urgency and tension that was almost palpable. I was afraid to stare, but couldn't look away. I started breathing again, mostly. The woman and the three men stepped back onto the train. The doors slid closed and the train pulled out of the station. They were gone.

I'd never given the least bit of thought to how Metro moved its money around, but now I guess I know.

The sense of general unease and nausea stayed with me for the ride home. I get motion sick on Metro anyway, and the two glasses of wine I had at Science Club weren't doing me any favors either, but this was different from usual. For the first several moments, while my brain put the pieces of what I was seeing together into a coherent picture, I was paralyzed by fear. My brain locked onto the one image--gun. Really, really big gun.

I spent the rest of my trip home in a fairly introspective mood. I thought a lot about what it means to live in or around DC and about the fact that I more or less accept the fact that we might as well have a big old bullseye right over downtown. That was my first thought, you know. The woman was, I'm sure, a Metro police officer, but the first reaction of my panicked brain was terrorist. From my vantage point, I couldn't see a badge or other insignia, and it was a really, really big gun. And it's been said before that transit systems would make great terrorist targets.

I have more thoughts on this, but I'm saving them for tomorrow. It's late and I'm too tired to be introspective anymore.

Back to high school

I've gotta tell you, folks, I do not care for delayed gratification. When I want something, I want it now. This is why I'm likely to be a bit twitchy for the next few days, at least until my copy of Eclipse arrives from barnesandnoble.com. It actually arrived yesterday, but I returned it to the store because the dust jacket was ripped (I'm compulsive, so sue me) expecting to just do an even exchange for a new copy. B&N's method for dealing with this is pretty asinine, and the upshot is I left without the book but with a new one on the way. If I'd known this would happen, I'd have read the damn thing before I returned it.

But, whatever.

The whole situation has put me in a YA frame of mind. I stopped by the library this evening to find something to fill the hole until Eclipse arrives, and I made use of its painfully small YA section. This is what I love about YA. When you read it as an adult, it's usually a pretty quick read but it's entertaining because you have the benefit of hindsight. Yeah, you can see the disasters coming from a mile away because you actually lived through high school, but it's so easy to get caught back up in that high-school, oh-my-God-he-talked-to-me mindset. Particularly if, like me, you were a geek in high school who never got to do any of the exciting stuff.

So without further ado, my list of awesome YA that even an adult can love.

Twilight
I was late on this bandwagon. I finished the first book last Saturday and the second one last night. The wait for Eclipse is going to be brutal. Partly, I've always had a thing for vampire stories, and the whole star-crossed lover deal is always a winner. But really I think it boils down to the fact that I--I who hate chick lit, who won't watch sappy movies, who thinks Nicholas Sparks is Satan incarnate--I am a sucker for an angsty teenage romance. I mean, think about high school. Think about who you were dating in high school. Can you imagine wanting to spend all of eternity with that person? (You don't count, Jenni.) I mean, not everyone hit the unfaithful-drug addict-high school dropout trifecta with their high school boyfriend like I did, but usually those are not romances that are made to last. But damn if Stephenie Meyer doesn't sell it. I was only about 50 pages in before I realized how hooked I was. I'm doing a terrible job of selling it. But it's awesome.

How I Live Now
You have to respect a book--particularly one aimed at young adults--that takes on a topic like incest but handles it sensitively. Set in the near future, it's a story of falling in love with the absolute wrong person. When war breaks out, American fifteen-year-old Daisy is stranded in England with her cousins—and no adult supervision. As the realities of war sink in to the five children, Daisy and her cousin Edmond find comfort—and love— in each other. Their comfort is short-lived, however, as the children are forcibly separated and Daisy and her cousin Piper struggle to stay alive and find the others.

Rats Saw God
Nobody is more surprised than Steve York when he’s selected as a National Merit finalist. Steve cuts class. He spends all of his time stoned. And he planted a marijuana seed in his guidance counselor’s fern. He’s drugged out, depressed and failing English—despite a 760 verbal SAT score. When his guidance counselor investigates, he finds that two years ago, Steve was a straight-A student. He challenges Steve to write a 100-page paper on the topic of his choice in return for a passing English grade. Steve chooses to explore the last two years of his life in the paper—which may be just what the counselor ordered.

Written by Veronica Mars creator (not musician) Rob Thomas, this is an amazing story of a life totally derailed by one series of events. It's kind of like a Catcher in the Rye for a new generation, if Catcher in the Rye didn't suck so much.

I Am Morgan le Fay
Morgan was born into a world where women have little power, where men make all of the decisions, where a son is valued highly above a daughter. But there is a power reserved for the women alone. It is the power of the Fay, the Faerie. When Morgan learns to harness that magical power for herself, she changes history, for she is the half sister of the legendary King Arthur. She is Morgan le Fay, and her power will bring down Camelot.

I also have a weakness for Arthurian legends. Traditional tellings of the story are very focused on the male characters, and the women are often either evil or spineless. Nancy Springer chooses to focus on Morgan le Fay as a child and young adult, ending the story before she encounters King Arthur as an adult. Morgan is classically seen as a villain in the mythology, but Springer’s take on the tale is that of a good if misguided girl who lets the allure of power lead her astray.

Forbidden
Elinor is lucky, so lucky. She is lucky to be part of True Cause, because True Cause is the True Cause. She is lucky to not be an Outsider, because Outsiders don’t know salvation. They don’t know Howard. Elinor is lucky to be one of Howard’s Chosen, because she will become one of his wives when she turns sixteen. Howard is the Savior, and he chooses very few. Elinor is lucky. But sometimes she doesn’t feel so lucky. Sometimes she wonders why telephones and newspapers are Forbidden. Sometimes she wonders why the Outsiders seem so content with their sinful lives. Sometimes she wonders why she keeps meeting the Outsider boy Jamie, even though she knows it’s wrong. Sometimes she wonders if this is all there is to her life.

Creepy and touching. And creepy.