Plastic Box

Noms

Okay, before I share this recipe with you, let me just say that if I were to write a cookbook, it would be titled Half-assed: For those who don't love to cook but are tired of Hot Pockets. I am the queen of "buy most of the ingredients and then stir together," but I gotta tell ya...this is GOOD!

I cooked two cups of basmati rice in four cups of boiling water, then combined it with one 18-ounce carton of V8's butternut squash soup. Dear lord it tastes just like risotto, which takes about four times as long to make. And it makes enough to last all week (for one). Go forth and boil water!

I also discovered these little (overpriced) single-serving things from Green Giant. They come in broccoli & cheese, corn and peppers, etc., and it's a tiny plastic container covered in cellophane...of vegetables! Throw in microwave and commence eating veggies. Woot!

I've been eating pretty poorly lately and was NOT happy with the clunky, manual slide scale at the doctor's office the other day. I need to put down the Cakesters and pick up some carrots. Also, I'm checking out Deceptively Delicious in order to make some of the recipes for me to take into work, as well as for some of the kids that I babysit every now & then.

In other news, my grandparents are hosting a reunion/family picnic this Saturday, and I get to meet some relatives from France for the first time. Fun!

Ahhhhhhhhhhhh...

I got to put my toes in the water.

It's my second-favorite thing about summer, following close on the heels of that "green" tomato plant smell in the garden. But yeah, the toes went in and the next thing you know I wake up with a "laugh hangover," my voice shot from hours of talking and singing and laughing with some of the coolest people on the planet.

Driving home on the turnpike today I was equal parts incredibly tired and incredibly aware of even the smallest, shiniest thought in my head. It was like fireflies of happy, pushing out the fear and guilt and creakiness that had stayed too long.

Thank you, Schmidts, for never failing to amaze me with your friendship. Spending this time with your family at Tappan made me remember how you turned out so dern good. :)

Yeah yeah, I made a Facebook album already. I can't help it!

You Can't Take It With You

In boxing up some things (*sigh*), lovingly labelling them and preparing them for storage, I came across a small Rubbermaid bin that held, among other things, my bouquet and sash from Prom Princess 1995, pictures of powder puff football...and a newspaper clipping from my performance as Penny in You Can't Take It With You. I dug deeper and found my script, dog-eared, highlighted, abused as only a high school drama script can be abused, and then the program for the show; the cover illustrated by my papa, as most of them were during my four years at BV.

I thumbed through it, some names long forgotten, and came across the note from our director, Phil Kilbourne. This was the only year that the play was directed by someone not on faculty, and I had the extreme privelege of playing one of the leads. Before the curtain rose on me and my typewriter opening night, alone on the stage, he kissed my temple and whispered "This is your show." It was paternal and encouraging and something I will never forget. Reading his words tonight moved me, and I would like to share.

You Can't Take It With You is one of the greatest of all American comedies, indeed maybe the greatest. But don't let that scare you. I know when anyone says to me that such-and-such is the greatest anything, that usually is my cue to take a nap. Much as I love Gone With the Wind and Citizen Kane, I sometimes find it a bit difficult to remain awake by the time the credits roll. This is not the case with You Can't Take It With You. This is my fourth, or is it fifth, involvement with this gem, and I have yet to tire of it.

The first time I ever did this show was, like the actors tonight, in high school. (I think if you were to ask everybody at the Tony Awards, they would say the same thing.) This was the late sixties, and I found Grandpa's message in Act Three to be tremendously exhilarating, and I have endeavored to follow those precepts ever since. The idea that you could actually enjoy what you do for a living, that to pursue your dream instead of a wage, was I think the strongest single source of inspiration for me in entering a career in theater.

I could have been a doctor. I would have probably had a fine life, caring for the sick of New Jersey, and taoday have a lovely house and a lovely practice. This is what was expected of me, and who's to say I wouldn't have loved it. But I would have always known, deep in my heart, that I would not be living my real life, that the dream I had would only still be that...a dream.

Today I do not have a house, and I am working in an occupation with the highest unemployment rate of any unionized profession. I wouldn't trade a moment of it.

So to all of you out there, remember...there's still that saxophone in the back of your closet. It's never too late. After all...you can't take it with you.  ----Phil Kilbourne

#world

It's no secret that I'm sort of a big big fan of change, newness, adventure, exploration. It's why I get sucked into so many "task forces" at work, it's why I poke at buttons on a new camera or phone even when I don't know what they do. While not always the first adopter, I'm always willing to give it a try and look like I know what I'm doing. 

The link below is to a beautiful and insightful article about Twitter, and I encourage both fans and foes of that little blue bird to give it a read.
http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/paul-constant-reviews-twitter/Content?oid=1774875

Thinking back to 2004, when I started this blog, Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, etc. were not the prolific connectors they are today. Writing here felt very exposed and, as Paul writes in the article, narcissistic.

But now, I check up on my friends (new and old, ones I see every day and those I'll never meet) daily, and get to experience the wonder that is the myriad of directions that life has taken us all. It's not just seeing where they work or looking at photos of their kids' birthday parties, it's opening our eyes to what life really is....it's big, baby. And the more we use these technologies to connect, lurk, link, and share, the more we allow room in ourselves for empathy, comedy, and variety.

That may be the optimist's view of the interwebs, but hey I'm just pushing buttons to figure this out.

A few of the passages from Paul's article that most resonated with me are these:

We're telling each other stories, 140 characters at a time, as they unfold. If you can't see the value in that, you're hopeless.

It's watching the human inventiveness that arises from the restrictions—watching the way people play with the limited space—that's fun.

As in haiku, which has dozens of esoteric limitations, when you constrain a form, you can often broaden what people can do with it.

Of course people chafe at the constraints and make messes of language trying to shoehorn it in. (It's because we're humans. It's what we do.)

And lots of people take smug satisfaction from pointing out that Twitter is a fad, like Friendster, that will soon disappear.

They're right, of course.

But specifically, what's wrong with fads? What's wrong with trying out new things or acting like kids playing dress-up in a full wardrobe?

Timewave zero

On Wednesday, during lunch hour, it will be 12:34:56 on 7/8/09. I wonder if we'll get a mini-apocalypse to whet our pallates for the big one in 2012. 

At the very least, Summit Entertainment should have waited to release Knowing until Wednesday just to play off the hype (and by hype I mean just the bunch of nerds that think the numerology of 12:34:56 7/8/09 is cool).

There's a pretty hilarious website dedicated to the 2012 nonsense. Check out the "celebrity believers" flash file in the upper left corner. Hell, if the Smashing Pumpkins, Shirley Maclaine, and Li'l Wayne believe the theory then sign me up! I want on this crazy train! Where's my official 2012: the end T-shirt?

Staid

Just me and Kitty here today, about to go stretch out on the sunny deck, both of us.
Perfect day for a little solitude
After consecutive days of newness and joyful noise and hard work and love.
I like to see that I am still the same when all alone.
An apple core of goodness,
Though sometimes, my skin, it bruises
Others.

In the end I am thankful for these days, when Kitty looks up at me to silently remind
What a long strange trip it's been.
But hold tight little fella,
This sun, too, will set...and tomorrow we set out again.

"Congratulations to meet you!"

It's the second morning this weekend that I've woken up early but stayed in bed, stretching to reach my book while remaining under the warmth of my blankets. Here I lay for a while longer, finding a path of my own by reading about Liz's (in my head we're on a first-name basis). Though we are different, as any two people naturally are, there are common threads that bind us. And I love to wake up to her words, encouraging me and making this real.

Somehow she and the "characters" she met in her travels have a way of articulating things that I have been trying to say. Things that have so far been nebulous thoughts that wouldn't fit into letters. So here are a few of my favorite passages (and yes, mom, I am using sticky tabs instead of dog-eared pages):

---------------------------

Liz: "I seriously believed that David was my soulmate."

Richard: ""He probably was. Your problem is you don't understand what that word means. People think a soul mate is your perfect fit, and that's what everyone wants. But a true soul mate is a mirror, the person who shows you everything that's holding you back, the person who brings you to your own attention so you can change your life. A true soul mate is probably the most important person you'll ever meet, because they tear down your walls and smack you awake. But to live with a soul mate forever? Nah. Too painful. Soul mates, they come into your life just to reveal another layer of yourself to you, and then they leave. And thank God for it. Your problem is you just can't let this one go...You can't accept that this relationship had a real short shelf life. You're like a dog at the dump, baby --- you're just lickin' at an empty can trying to get more nutrition out of it. And if you're not careful, that can's gonna get stuck on your snout forever and make your life miserable. So drop it."

L: "But I love him."

R: "So love him."

L: "But I miss him."

R: "So miss him. Send him some love and light every time you think about him, and then drop it."

----------------------------

"I look at the Augusteum, and I think that perhaps my life has not actually been so chaotic, after all.  It is merely this world that is chaotic, bringing changes to us all that nobody could have anticipated.  The Augusteum warns me not to get attached to any obsolete ideas about who I am, what I represent, whom I belong to, or what function I may once have intended to serve.  Yesterday I might have been a glorious monument to somebody, true enough --– but tomorrow I could be a fireworks depository.  Even in the Eternal City, says the silent Augusteum, one must always be prepared for riotous and endless waves of transformation.”

----------------------------

"This is what we are like. Collectively, as a species, this is our emotional landscape. I met an old lady once, almost one hundred years old, and she told me, 'There are only two questions that human beings have ever fought over, all through history: How much do you love me? and Who's in charge?'  Everything else is somehow manageable."

----------------------------

In daylight hours, I refused a certain thought, but at night it would consume me. What a catastrophe. How could I be such a criminal jerk as to proceed this deep into a marriage, only to leave it? We'd only just bought this house a year ago. Hadn't I wanted this nice house? Hadn't I loved it? So why was I haunting its halls every night now, howling like Medea? Wasn't I proud of all we'd accumulated — the prestigious home in the Hudson Valley, the apartment in Manhattan, the eight phone lines, the friends and the picnics and the parties, the weekends spent roaming the aisles of some box-shaped superstore of our choice, buying ever more appliances on credit? I had actively participated in every moment of the creation of this life — so why did I feel like none of it resembled me? Why did I feel so overwhelmed with duty?

I don't want to be married anymore.

My husband was sleeping in the other room, in our bed. I equal parts loved him and could not stand him. I couldn't wake him to share in my distress — what would be the point? He'd already been watching me fall apart for months now, watching me behave like a madwoman (we both agreed on that word), and I only exhausted him. We both knew there was something wrong with me, and he'd been losing patience with it. We'd been fighting and crying and we were weary in that way that only a couple whose marriage is collapsing can be weary. We had the eyes of refugees.

----------------------------

"Destiny, I feel, is also a relationship --- a play between divine grace and willful self-effort. Half of it you have no control over; half of it is absolutely in your hands, and your actions will show measurable consequence. Man is neither entirely a puppet of the gods, nor is he entirely the captain of his own destiny; he's a little of both. We gallop through our lives like circus performers balancing on two speeding side-by-side horses: one foot is on the horse called "fate," the other on the horse called "free will." And the question you have to ask every day is --- which horse is which? Which horse do I need to stop worrying about because it's not under my control, and which horse do I need to steer with concentrated effort?"

Overdue anger

   Way to go making me all freaked out by politics again, Strickland. I thought I was sooooo over this after the second Bush burn, but now you're hittin too close to home. Have any lemon juice you could pour straight on this ridiculous budget cut?

One colleague said that he is "livid that other less essential agencies, such as the Football Hall of Fame, are not being cut at all, and others are even seeing increases. For instance, the Department of Development, which gives grants to national corporate interests to build Chuck E. Cheese franchises and the like, has had its funding RAISED from 2008 to 2010 by nearly three times the amount that is being cut from libraries. Why can't this increase be reduced in order to support public libraries instead?"

Here is the message from my SLA listserv:

As many of you are aware, Governor Strickland has proposed a cut to state
funding for public libraries of $227.3 million in fiscal years 2010 and
2011 as part of his plan to fill the $3.2 billion gap in the budget that
must be balanced by the Ohio General Assembly's Conference Committee by
June 30. This will mean a more than 50% cut in funding for many of Ohio's
public libraries. Libraries could close or face significant reductions in
operations as a result of the Governor's proposal. This cut is in addition
to the 20% reduction in funding that libraries are already facing, because
their funding comes from 2.22% of the state's declining General Revenue
Fund.

With some 70% of the state's 251 public libraries relying solely on
state funding to fund their operations, the reduction in funding will
mean that many will close branches or drastically reduce hours and
services.

  The Governor's proposed funding cuts come at a time when Ohio's public
  libraries are experiencing unprecedented increases in demands for
  services. In every community throughout the state, Ohioans are turning
  to their public library for free high speed Internet access and help
  with employment searches, children and teens are beginning summer
  reading programs, and people of all ages are turning to the library as a
  lifeline during these difficult economic times. Ohio's public libraries
  offer CRITICAL services to those looking for jobs and operating small
  businesses. Public libraries are an integral part of education, which
  Governor Strickland says is critical to the state's economic recovery.
  But it is unlikely that many of Ohio's public library systems,
  especially those without local levies, can remain open with these
  proposed cuts.

  About 30% of Ohio's public libraries have local property tax levies that
  supplement the state's funding. However, with the Governor's proposed
  drastic cuts in the state funding for libraries, even those libraries
  will face decisions regarding substantial reductions in hours of
  operation, materials, and staffing.

  For additional Information: http://saveohiolibraries.com/ and http://www.olc.org/SaveOhioLibraries.asp

The General Assembly Conference Committee will likely make their decision about this proposal this week. Please contact your legislators today!

Post a message to Gov. Strickland's Facebook page

If the outcry across the web (nearly every Ohio library [and even some non-Ohio libraries] have posted ways to contact Strickland about this) is any indication, the people of Ohio DO NOT WANT THIS.

It's no secret that libraries shaped me into the super-awesomeness that I am today. But I'll bet they did and still do play a part in your life and your community, too. They are not disposable and they are not going to take this lying down.

What do you want to be when you grow up?

I'm so used to updating my Twitter page and Facebook status that writing blog entries is a lot harder than it used to be. I guess our collective patience has been reduced, eh? There's so much going on right now that I don't necessarily want to spill here...not yet. So combined with my shortened focus, I also can't write about what I really want to write about.

But one exciting development is that I have set a goal to attain my teaching credentials by the end of 2011. Wright State has a program that can be catered to people who already hold an MLIS, so at the end of the program and after taking PRAXIS II, I will be qualified to be a school media specialist and/or a substitute or regular teacher (English or media/information subjects) in the state of Ohio.

Cool, huh? I should have paralleled this certification with my MLIS program at Kent, but hey, I was working full time, paying out of pocket, moved cities, and planned a wedding/bought a house while desperately cramming in classes and papers. So we'll just say that it was best to wait.

Things'rrrrr lookin up...

"So let me hold you tight and share a killer, thriller, ow!"

So my good friend Sarah and I have a goal to learn the Thriller dance this summer. Whilst searching YouTube for some instructionals, I discovered "Thrill the World"...and have found an extra-credit goal for us:

THRILL THE WORLD 2009

I downloaded the starter kit. Eeeee! As far as world records go, this is one I can't miss.

And I know that you've all probably seen it, but this video of prison inmates doing Thriller is still amazing.