I have a job now. I’ll be at the U of C, doing tech stuff.
I’m going home for a week tomorrow, just to get some Southern R&R before I go back to work.
Further bulletins as events warrant.
News.
July 1st, 2009Beginnings…
June 16th, 2009As my mind wanders (as it has time to do nowadays), I think of story beginnings. Beginnings for stories that may see paper at some point. Stories that could start a stream of consciousness conversation that could lead to laughter. They are stories I hve in my head, and it’s a fitting tribute to them that I seek to write them down and then off my mind goes to something else.
So, I’m writing them down and sharing. Feel free to add on. To ridicule. To simply be read by anyone else is more freedom than these had in my head. Of course it can be argued that some of them needed to stay there…
“He stared at her, hoping that somehow his eyes could emit lasers or a heat ray that would render her a bubbling pile of gelatin, but she laughed off his intent gaze and turned to find her friends, now on their way to find others to annoy with their fakeness.”
yup, you guessed it…more fun w/recipes
June 9th, 2009honey-apple pancakes: first try – nom. second try – nom. the 2nd time around, i used a teaspoon of apple pie spice instead of the 1/4 teaspoon called for in the recipe. i also added some chopped walnuts to my batch, b/c, well, i had them and i figured honey + apple + walnuts = win. still nom, although the additional apple pie spice seemed to have v. little impact on the flavor. methinks i’ll keep experimenting with this one.
grilled cumin chicken with fresh tomatillo sauce: nom. i skipped the sauce b/c jalapenos and i don’t play nicely together. the chicken, though, turned out well. i think next time i’ll let it marinate a little longer, just to see what happens.
cuban pork chops with mojo: epic nom. i skipped the garnish b/c i’m not a huge watercress fan. same goes for avocado. and i used 2 relatively large bone-in pork chops instead of 4 b/c that’s what i had in the freezer. i’d make it again.
pasta with onion, bacon and goat cheese: somewhere b/t meh and nom. i skimped on the red onion b/c 4 onions seemed a bit excessive to me – i think i probably used the equivalent of 1 sliced red onion. i don’t know if i’d make it again, since there’s so many other pasta recipes w/bacon that we like.
sweet and spicy chicken: epic nom. i had a couple of packs of chicken thighs in the freezer that i was going to use to make lemon-garlic chicken again, but decided to try this instead. for the brown sugar, i used 1/2 light and 1/2 dark brown sugar, just as an experiment. i’m definitely making this one again.
rigatoni with creamy mushroom sauce: somewhere b/t meh and nom. i used button and baby bella mushrooms. maybe i would’ve picked up more of the shallots/garlic/white wine flavor if i’d used all button mushrooms, b/c all i got taste-wise was mushrooms, pasta, and cheese.
garlicky lemon shrimp: nom. the version of the recipe i have calls for 3 tbsp. of lemon juice, so that’s what i used. i also used large shrimp (31-40/pound) instead of medium. i’d make this again.
pina colada pork chops: nom. i used chili powder instead of cayenne pepper, and i should’ve had the stove turned up a little higher so the sauce could thicken a bit more, but it was still nom.
lime-jalapeno chicken: nom. i skipped the jalapeno, and added a 1/2 tsp each of black pepper and garlic powder and a 1/4 tsp each of dried oregano and onion powder to the marinade.
penne with shrimp and herbed cream sauce: nom. i used large shrimp (31-40/pound) here instead of medium, and i used a can of diced tomatoes that i drained instead of the canned whole tomatoes called for in the recipe. no red pepper flakes, so i used a little bit of chili powder. oh, and i used dried basil instead of fresh, and skipped the parsley altogether.
giant chocolate chunk cookies: somewhere b/t meh and fail. i hesitate to call these fail, b/c, well, we’re talking about cookies here, and cookies should be made of win. but these were not. maybe the dough wasn’t blended as well as it should have been. i don’t have a mixer, so i blended the sugars and butter together by hand, then used a spoon to mix in the liquid and flour mixture. maybe i should’ve added the flour mixture all at once instead of in batches. maybe i should’ve only kept the dough in the fridge for an hour instead of two and a half hours. i don’t know. the cookies weren’t inedible, but they definitely weren’t nom.
shrimp paulista: epic nom – would make again. i used one pound of shrimp and adjusted the rest of the ingredients accordingly. i recommend serving this with rice.
this time: last year and now
June 6th, 2009full disclosure: i totally stole this idea from another site. you should go read that first and then come back here.
o hai! welcome back! now that you know how this is supposed to work, i’ll start. actually, i should say first that i checked our archives for june 2008 and we were pretty quiet that month. i don’t know if it was b/c we were mad busy, or if we just didn’t have that much to say, or what.
this time last year, i was gearing up for another summer in chicago, which, despite the heat, really is one of my favorite times of the year. looking back at my calendar, i had plans to attend a concert or play or something at least once a week during june. i was also trying to build up my savings b/c i’d pretty much decided that i needed to quit my job before the year was over, and i figured it’d be january or so before i was back at work full-time. work really was making me miserable and crazier and cranky and burned out and i was really dreading going to work every day. i think i’d reached the point then when i’d get to the office somewhere b/t 9:45 and 11:00 a.m. even though work started at 9. of course, i’d be there until 6, or 7, or 8, or 9, depending on how much work i had to finish that night or if i had voice class or ddpp or other plans.
work drama aside, though, i think i was relatively happy.
this time right now? i haven’t worked full-time since september. my savings is down to the bare minimum needed to keep the account open w/o getting charged a monthly fee, i’m sick of sending out resumes, and i honestly have no idea when i’ll be back at a ft gig. i alternate b/t being zen about the process and knowing that the ideal gig for me right now is out there somewhere, and being really fucking pissed and frustrated b/c i’m not working full-time.
and yet i’m happy and, dare i say, a little saner than i was last year. i think removing myself from my job had a great effect on my psyche. i’m sure i would’ve dealt with james’ death way differently if i were still at work. not to say that my former co-workers are mean and wouldn’t have covered for me if/when i needed them to, b/c they would’ve, but i definitely would’ve been more distracted by work bullshit instead of focusing on me and my family. it would not have been pretty.
some things have been constant b/t last year and now, though. we’re still here at urbantherapy. we’re still married. we’re still in love. we still try to keep in touch with y’all as best we can. actually, y’all have troy to thank for that, b/c he’s usually the one saying we should call so-and-so or write such-and-such. i tend to be way more lax about that stuff.
so there you have it. feel free to do a comparison of where you were and where you are in the comments, or take it to your blog, or your facebook page, or e-mail, or whatever.
re: the 5th sunday rule
June 1st, 2009when i was growing up, i had to go to church practically every sunday. my childhood was relatively traditional in the ‘black folk who go to church regularly’ sense, in that saturday was the day i had to get everything together for the next day. church outfit clean and pressed? check. underwear, shoes, and accessories all picked out and ready to go? check. choir robes clean, ironed, and hung in their bag in the closet by the front door so i could grab them on the way out? check. hair washed, pressed, flat-ironed, oiled, curled, or whatever? check.
as you might imagine, this got a little tiring, esp. once i was in high school and really wanted to stay home and do nothing.sundays off were a precious and valuable thing. if we were on vacation (not to be confused w/visiting family out of town, b/c we’d probably still go to church then) and skipped a sunday, it was cause for much internal rejoicing on my part. aside from that, though, we went…well, religiously.
except for 5th sundays. i swear i thought my brothers created this rule all by themselves and i was proud to be related to such geniuses. it’s simple, really: you get the 5th sunday off from church. in high school, this was the best.thing.EVER. seriously. i was already at church 2-3 times a week b/c sunday service, choir rehearsal, and bible study. combine that with an insane amount of homework and my never-ending list of chores, and i was pretty wiped out by the time saturday evening rolled around.
but the 5th sunday rule would make it all better. i don’t remember when it first happened, but i’m sure it took a few times for it to sink in. when it did, though, it was awesome.it wasn’t a hard and fast rule, though. i couldn’t assume that 5th sunday would equal no church. i had to wait until that morning to get up and find out what decision had been made:
“it’s 9:00. are we still trying to make it to church today?”
“nope. go back to bed if you want.”
a whole morning and afternoon with nothing to do? oh, it was beautiful. sometimes i’d find out the night before that we’d be playing hooky the next day, and that was even more spectacular. why? b/c then i could go ahead and do all my prep for monday (outfit, bookbag, homework, lunch, etc.) on saturday so i could do as little as possible on sunday.
once i got grown, i started invoking the 5th sunday rule for myself. to this day, it’s a running joke b/t me & my brothers. if any of us happened to show up at 1st c. on a 5th sunday, we’d give each other the ‘what are you doing here?’ look. if james & i talked the next day and one of us hadn’t made it to church, we’d just say ‘5th sunday’ and that would be that.
i was reminded of all of this yesterday as i got ready to go to church. yes, on a 5th sunday. my rationale was that i’d missed 2 sundays in a row, so this was as good a time as any to go. in my head, i could hear james saying something like ‘what are you doing? it’s 5th sunday! we’re off today!’ and it simultaneously cracked me up and made me a little sad.
now, the 5th sunday thing has become less of a rule and more of an option. if i’m feeling lazy, i can use the 5th sunday rule. other times, like yesterday, i’ll get up and go. as it turns out, i wasn’t the only family member at church yesterday. none of us said anything, and we didn’t shoot each other any weird looks, but i’m guessing we all thought about it.
i was talking to troy about this yesterday morning and he reminded me that his family also had a 5th sunday rule. i’m curious, readers – did your family have and/or do you currently have a 5th sunday rule? discuss.
i swear i’m gonna do a ‘real’ post soon.
May 29th, 2009in the meantime, though, i’m sharing one of my favorite poems with you. i’ve had pieces of it stuck in my brain off and on this week and i’m not sure why, so i’m taking it as a sign that i should reacquaint myself with it and/or (re)introduce y’all to it. enjoy.
Biographical, autobiographical…
May 25th, 2009He’s up before his alarm again.
He shifts and looks left at his wife, stuck in some position that, if he tried it for even three minutes, his arm would fall asleep.
It’s futile, but he tries this every morning; to get out of bed without waking her. On very few occasions he makes it, but its more a function of the small chance that she’s actually sleeping well for once. Her sleep is light and easily interruptible, very much unlike his. He’s been known to sleep through earthquakes, thunderstorms, and fire alarms, and can count the number of crappy nights of sleep in his lifetime on two hands. He wants to be able to bottle that ability, refine it to pill form, and be able to give it to those tortured individuals he knows who lay awake at night while he’s having weird dreams.
His side of the bed is bordered by a wall, so he has to get out at the bottom of the bed. He starts to pull the covers off slowly and begins to move towards the bottom of the bed, where he’ll launch himself onto his feet and do a joints check – what part of his body doesn’t want t be pain-free today? He’s halfway down the bed when she stirs. Dammit, he thinks.
She doesn’t open her eyes, but she’s awake. The bright morning light forbids her to do so. She is most assuredly not a morning person, while he’s not really sure that he is. He waits for her to say something; the definitive statement of whether she really wants to admit she’s awake or not. Instead, she shifts again, and he can see that she’s reached for his pillow, cooling from a night of being sweated on.
He’s worked to his feet, running inventory. Breathing depth. Nasal passages obstruction. Joints: fingers, knees. Neck roll. With that completed, he starts to ponder what he wants for breakfast. Golden Grahams? Oreos? Do we have milk left?
Before he leaves the room, he looks back at her, under the covers, his pillow now hugged to her. He can’t help but smile; his first of hopefully many for the day. He supposes she feels him still standing there in their small bedroom; they’re pretty attuned to the feeling that one is looking at the other; more than 12 years have earned them that sixth sense, at least.
His eyes, perpetually underperforming and unable to make out with clarity items which are more than three feet away, nevertheless grant him one moment of clarity; he sees her face under the pile of comforter and sheet obstruction and the smile upon it, and that makes his smile broader.
“Pillow,” she quietly murmurs, and snuggles deeper into it. He hopes in his fantasy world that she finally visits that Land of REM sleep. He’ll hold onto that notion.
He smiles again, even wider this time, turns and leaves the bedroom, heading into another day.
more recipes, part 3
May 12th, 2009bon appetit! 
chicken and chorizo pasta bake: nom. a few substitutions were made – i used milk instead of cream, mixed 1/2 the cheese in with the pasta/meat mixture, and seasoned the chicken w/seasoned salt and garlic powder. i made this b/c i had a link of leftover chorizo in the freezer and couldn’t figure out what to do with it. i’m not sure i’d go out and buy chorizo for the specific purpose of making this again, but that’s just me.
quick jambalaya: i am many things but a food snob is not really one of them. far be it from me to say that jambalaya can only be had in new orleans and anything else is a pale imitation. hell, you can give me a box of zatarain’s jambalaya mix and some smoked sausage and i’m a happy girl. that said, i have to admit to laughing every time i look at this recipe in my file b/c it involves bbq sauce. final result: somewhere between nom and meh. after we tried it, we decided to pick out the shrimp and sausage and just eat that.
ravioli with spinach and bacon: i thought it was nom. troy’s no spinach fan, so i consider it a small victory that he even tried this. i’ve decided i’ll only make it when troy’s out of town. oh, and i skipped the salt called for in the recipe and felt ok about that, since i’d salted the pasta water and there was bacon involved. and b/c i’m kinda lazy, i used a bag of baby spinach instead of chopping up spinach.
cuban black beans and rice: i say nom. troy says meh. i skipped the radishes b/c, well, i’ve never really understood the point of radishes, and i have no idea why you’d want them on or in beans and rice. i added a little dried cilantro vs. fresh b/c that’s what i had, but i probably could’ve added a little more.
mushroom and chicken quesadillas: nom. don’t be afraid to add seasonings as you see fit with this one. i think next time i’ll warm up the beans a little bit and add some pepper and/or garlic powder. i used pre-cooked chicken breast strips, which made things easier (and also provided a little more flavor, imo).
orzo pasta with shrimp and feta: meh. i thought the final result tasted kinda bland, even with the seasonings i added during preparation. we basically picked out the shrimp and whatever feta and orzo decided to come along for the ride. luckily troy had leftover quesadillas as a supplement.
grilled stuffed chicken breasts: nom. messy, but nom. ok, so it was messy b/c i made this on the foreman grill and the chicken didn’t really lend itself to stuffing as neatly as the picture would indicate. at troy’s suggestion, i used dried basil instead of fresh, and it still tasted nom.
chocolate-toffee cookies: nom. the recipe says it’ll yield 4 dozen cookies. if you’re like me, you like using an ice cream scoop to measure out cookie dough, which means that you wind up with about 2 dozen large cookies. i don’t think these will be replacing the symphony brownies any time soon, if for no other reason than i don’t own an electric mixer. it took a lot of mixing w/a spoon and kneading w/clean hands to get these ingredients to resemble cookie dough.
walnut-crusted tilapia: nom. would eat again. i let the fish cook for the whole 15 minutes listed, but it could’ve come out a couple of minutes earlier. i didn’t make the swiss chard, though, so i can’t comment on the nom/fail of such.
*snikt*
May 11th, 2009Man, I figured I hadn’t written in a while. And a lot has happened since the motivation of this post happened. So., I’ll sum it up.
So, I saw Wolverine with Donna and Dave.
As an action movie, it didn’t suck.
As a comic book movie, it sucked equine gonads. And to avoid totally nerding out on you, I’ll leave it at that.
I went back to work for a week. They were short a person, so they gave me a call. I worked 40+ hours, helped get some things done, and generally made myself an asset. I had a major epiphany, though.
I really have to let it go. I got let go on iffy circumstances through no fault of my own, but it was such a great place to work (especially compared with my job with the PR firm, aka Hell on Earth before it) that I’ve never really acted like I’ve moved on since October. I’ve come back to visit numerous times. I have great ex-co-workers who put the bug in my old boss’ ears to let me come back for the last week. But good gravy; It’s like coming back to where the old house was before it burned down and you moved to the van next to the river. I’ll keep contact with my folks there, maybe go to lunch or something, but it’s not as if I’m getting the green light to start back working there anytime soon. And in the meantime, we got bills. I got dreams, but dreams don’t keep the cable on.
We have new additions to our blogroll-linky thing. w00t, I say.
More as I remember, or come up with something more pertinent.
i suppose i should actually write something at some point…
May 8th, 2009but for now, you’re stuck with another quick entry. although i am working on another recipe post that probably will go up w/in the next few days or so.
i had a little emotional meltdown today, borne primarily of frustration. once i calmed down enough to talk to troy about it w/o being a wreck, i figured out that i was having a moment similar to the one featured
here at the 4:45 mark.
this is where i point out that in the time it took me to find this clip, i probably could’ve uploaded it from my machine (yes, i have this clip on my machine and on my ipod) and been done with it. and yes, this is the 2nd time i’ve posted about my mindstate resembling a tv or movie scene. welcome to my life.