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Archive for the ‘What I’m Into’ Category

What I’m Into – January 2014

Posted in Books, Food, Story Sessions, TV, What I'm Into, Writing on February 4, 2014| 3 Comments »

This month January was fast.  I just don’t know where it went.

The semester started, and then it just took off.  I only have the one class this semester, so it seems like a year goes by between teaching days.

I made resolutions and chose my one word.

I started Story 101, and you’re going to hear a lot about that.  Yes.  Even more than you already have.  It seems that every other post is from a prompt from the class.  If you haven’t taken it, go ahead and follow the hyperlink above, because the spring session starts soon, and you don’t want to miss out!

Here are some other things I’m into:

To write:

I had the honor of guest posting as part of Preston Yancey’s series on what women want from the church.  That was scary and also fun.

I worked on some of my WIP, but not as much as I planned.  Other than the guest post (which I actually wrote in December), it’s been a bit of a blah writing month.

To read:

It has also been a light reading month.  I have been reading books on writing for the ecourse, and so far, May Sarton’s Journal of a Solitude has been my favorite.

To watch:

Ah, the reason that writing and reading have gone the way of the VCR this month…

My habits clearly think we’re still on holiday, because I’ve been watching way more TV than I usually do.  I got several seasons of Friends from Michelle and Steve for Christmas, so I have been reliving happy times.  That scene in The One With The Blackout where Ross gets attacked by the cat while the group is inside singing Top of the World?  I still laugh just as hard now as when I first saw it.  That’s just good TV. And nostalgia has not changed my unpopular position – I just don’t give a flying fig about Ross and Rachel’s relationship.  I know I’m supposed to care deeply, but I do not.

Parks and Recreation – I don’t want to talk about it.  I just want to let it know that I saw what it did. *stern face*

Community – I’ll talk about that. Nathan Fillion, how are you so adorable? Okay, that’s pretty much all I had to say on the subject.

As far as movies go, I went to see Frozen again, and this time I took my sister.  I love this movie.  I’m pretty critical of Disney, and I still have a couple of it-might-have-been-nice-ifs, but overall, I love it.  I even have a post planned to discuss the depths of my love for this movie, and that doesn’t happen very often.  It’s rare that I am able to invest in characters so quickly.

To hear:

I really love this song:

It makes me miss tango.  I’ve been feeling dance-y lately and listening to a lot of this-would-be-a-good-tango-song songs.

To taste:

Most of my meals lately have been odd combinations of frozen holiday leftovers. The most memorable was the taco roast-kale-Parmesan quesadillas.

I also made a pretty fantastic batch of Burgundy Beef after I had a glass of a disappointing wine.  It certainly redeemed itself in the dish.

My favorite thing I made all month, though,were my vanilla coconut waffles.  I could eat these every morning for the rest of my life.

So that’s my month.  I’m linking up with Leigh Kramer, so hop on over there to see what everyone else is into!

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What I’m Into – December 2013

Posted in Books, Food, Poetry, TV, What I'm Into, Writing on December 31, 2013| 5 Comments »

This was a weird month.  It’s the first time I’ve been at a church that observes the liturgical year.  It’s the first time I’ve really “done” Advent (does one do Advent?  Is that something that’s done?  Or experienced?  Or watched?  I’m not sure which verb goes there.).

I’ve also been sick most of the month, so food choices have been limited.  It also limited my coffee consumption – I went completely without for a week and a half – which, as you might imagine, put me in a fantastic mood.

And let’s not forget North Texas’s little Icetember adventure. Because large quantities of ice are so rare in Texas, it’s not really cost effective to keep the resources to deal with it.  It’s cheaper to just shut everything down until it passes.  So we did.  Happy 4-day Icecation to me! I got home at about 4:00 on Thursday, and I did not even walk out the door to get the mail until the following Wednesday morning. Ah, introvert bliss.

One might think that, between being iced in and having to stay home sick and getting two weeks off from work for regular holiday vacation, I would have gotten a lot of writing/reading/TV watching done.

Heh. Not really.  Not any more than usual.  My house is pretty clean, though.

Here’s what I was into this month, besides deep, leisurely cleaning.

To write:

I wrote a lot of poetry this month.  I participated in Story Sessions’s 40 Days of Poetry. I guess it wouldn’t be a lot to people who usually write poetry, but for me, the nine or ten poems I wrote is more poetry than I wrote the rest of the year combined.  So for me, that’s a lot.

I also ranted about freedom of speech, which a couple of friends picked up and shared on Facebook without my sharing it first.  I didn’t have to point it out to them.  Translation: my friends read my blog and like what I write.  Sweet!  Thanks, friends.  That made my week.

To read:

As inspiration, I also read a lot of poetry this month.  I reacquainted myself with the likes of Neruda and Donne, and I reread Adrienne Rich’s Fox collection.

I mentioned last month that I jumped on the Divergent bandwagon, and during Christmas, I finished the last two of the trilogy.   In a day and a half.  I haven’t been sucked into something that completely in a while.  I have a confession, though.  Unpopular opinion #427 – I liked the ending.  I’ll try to tell you why without giving anything away to anyone who inexplicably has not read it yet.  Any other ending would have been, at best, a contrived mess.  I would even go so far as to say that the ending that a lot of people wanted would have been a betrayal of the craft, because when an author foreshadows something so blatantly, she ought to make good on it.  I mean, I read a lot of YA fiction, so I have a pretty high tolerance for teenage angst, but if I had sat through three books of it and ended up with no learning curve or subsequent resolution, that might have merited a nice, healthy tossing of the book across the room.  And that would have been problematic, as the book was large (hardback), and I was at my mother’s house, and she has many breakable knick-knacks.  So, for knick-knack’s sake, I am glad that it ended the way it did.

To watch:

This month that has meant reruns of Gilmore Girls, How I Met Your Mother, and The Office.  This month has also meant made-for-TV Christmas movies, because that’s what Mom likes, and Pawn Stars, because that’s what Dad likes.  I’m not opposed to either choice, but the hours upon hours spent…let’s just say that, while the trip to their house was lovely in many ways, I’m really happy to be home, where I’ve spent the last two days watching the second season of Castle.

To hear:

I have been obsessed with The Bangles this month.  You know how you wake up with a song in your head every day, and it stays with you for most of the day (no?  Just me?  Okay, then)?  At least half the month, that song for me has been a Bangles song.  You’d think I would be sick of it, but no.  I blame Lorelai Gilmore and growing up in the 80s.

To taste:

The Sickness put a bit of a damper on my meal choices this month.  I’ve apparently been really into vegetable broth, potatoes, applesauce, and peppermint tea.  I had to cancel Supper Club one night, because I wasn’t sure I could even take the smell of the meal I had planned.

But around the 20th, I started to feel better, so I got brave and had some toast, then some peaches, and by the 25th, I was able to enjoy my dad’s crock-pot turkey, roasted in a citrus gravy, which was either the most delicious thing I’ve eaten all year, or I was just really happy that it wasn’t broth.

So that’s how 2013 ends for me.  What are you into?

I’m linking up with Leigh Kramer – follow me over there!

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What I’m Into – November 2013

Posted in Books, Feminism, Food, Music, Thanks, TV, What I'm Into, Writing on December 7, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Let’s take a little trip back in time to when it was actually November.  November has two big things going for it:

– Thanksgiving month!  My favorite holiday with my favorite holiday traditions.

– NaNoWriMo! I didn’t finish this year, but I’ve got a new character whom I love.

The weather could have been cooler.  We had way too many days that made it up to 80 for my taste, but so far, Icetember is making up for it.

Here’s what I was into in November:

To write:

My NaNo piece this year started to be YA fiction about a group of five friends (because nobody has done that before /sarcasm).  I am a proud pantser, but having nothing other than names and costuming in mind before starting is not much to work with.  So about ten days in, I decided to start over with stories about Uncle Wallace the Christmas Mouse.

Uncle Wallace is this fellow:

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He lives under my Christmas tree. He holds a bell in one hand, and a random basket of apples in the other.

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I want to believe that there is a deep, meaningful reason for the person who created this masterpiece of holiday decoration to put a basket of apples into his hand.  Clearly, Uncle Wallace has stories to tell. He’s just letting me write them down.

So I didn’t make it to 50,000 words, but Uncle Wallace does have a Facebook page.  So there’s that.

I also wrote a couple of blog posts of which I am proud.  I linked up with Sarah Bessey in celebration of the Jesus Feminist launch with this post, and I wrote Going Home as part of Tara Owens’s synchroblog on Coming Home. 

To read:

I finally made it through The Unbearable Lightness of Being.  There were many lines in the book that I liked.  Unfortunately, there were several pages to wade through between each of those lines.  I’m happy I read it.  I’m happier that I’m through reading it.

My book club read Bill O’Reilly’s Killing Kennedy.  The book was fine, but I don’t like his writing style.  I would read some of it out loud and imagine it in his voice, and that made it a little better.  I would watch it as a documentary.  I also read Dad is Fat and imagined it in Jim Gaffigan’s voice, but that just made it funnier.

I jumped on the Divergent bandwagon, and I am hooked.  I finished book one, and I’ll be buying the other two (or, let’s face it – all three – I can’t have an incomplete trilogy on the shelf) to read over holiday break, because the wait at the library is looooong, and I am impatient.

My favorite book of the month was Pastrix by Nadia Bolz-Weber.  I tried to find my favorite quote, but I’d just end up quoting half the book.  I have narrowed it down that much.  This book made me snort-laugh and ugly-cry, sometimes in the same sentence.  That’s pretty much what I look for in any book I read about God.

To watch:

I’ve been into Burn Notice this month.  His accents are sometimes good, but usually terrible.  Just awful.  But he’s so adorable (and sure, also badass) that I just don’t care.

I haven’t watched much else, unless you count the ridiculous number of hours I spent watching made-for-TV Christmas movies with Mom and the Psych marathon of Christmas episodes over Thanksgiving.

To hear:

November was a weird soundtrack of industrial music (…I don’t know), Memphis Blues (I blame Uncle Wallace), and classical music (because that’s what I listen to when I write).

To taste:

November means homemade candy.  It’s my favorite holiday tradition.  Every year, on Black Friday, we do not shop.  We put up Christmas decorations and make candy to share with friends and take to parties.  This year, we made five different candies – Martha Washingtons (coconut and pecan nougat, covered in chocolate – my favorite), Texas Millionaires (caramel and pecan nougat, covered in chocolate), peanut butter bon bons (peanut butter nougat – you guessed it – covered in chocolate), dark chocolate fudge with peanut butter, and buttermilk pecan pralines.  Can you tell my parents have pecan trees?

My dad made my favorite meal this month.  He made enchiladas with flour tortillas (instead of the traditional corn), and he made them special for me by substituting goat cheese for the cheese he normally uses.  I am not ashamed to admit that I ate five in one setting.  I also do not recommend doing that.

What were you into in November? Need recommendations for your holiday break?  I’m linking up with Leigh Kramer – go over and see what everyone else has to say!

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What I’m Into – October

Posted in Books, Food, TV, What I'm Into, Work, Writing on October 30, 2013| 8 Comments »

These shenanigans:

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My boss likes to decorate the hall for holidays.  Even the bathroom.

The hall has been festive.  Homecoming is happening in a couple of weeks, and they’re going to haunted houses this week and picking out their costumes.  They all have declined to have their pictures taken for this post, but trust me – it’s really cute.

The weather is finally not terrible here!  It’s stormy today, which I love.  It’s been cooler, and that’s fantastic.

Here are my favorite things from October:

To write – 

I accepted The Nester’s challenge to write for 31 days on a topic, and my topic is “31 Days of No Fast Food.”  Only three more posts to go, and I will be finished!  That’s most of what I’ve written.

In non-bloggy news, I finished some editing on Fishbowl.  I also mapped out the characters for my NaNoWriMo novel this year.  It’s called Oddities, and it’s a YA novel, possibly steampunk-y because I want to play with that era, there are gadgets involved, and when I picture my characters, they are wearing corsets, vests, bustles, and spats.

To read – 

This was a month of reading things slowly and drinking them in, which is why I probably only made it through three books this month.  Worth it.

Every Shattered Thing by Elora Ramirez – I really loved Stephanie.  This story broke my heart.  It’s possible to read it quickly, but I don’t recommend doing so.  You’ll want to take your time.

Rilke’s Book of Hours: Love Poems to God – To say that I read this collection is an understatement. I read and re-read and pondered and absorbed. I want to brush up on the German I started learning in college so that I can read it in its original language.

My Bookstore: Writers Celebrate their Favorite Places to Browse, Read, and Shop – I was perfectly calm when I started this book. It was a nice little group of essays by writers on their favorite bookstores. Then I got to the essay about Book People, and all the feelings came out of my eyes.  I want to go to all these places. I will neither confirm nor deny that I have mapped out various road trips designed specifically to do so.  This is a very dangerous book.

To watch – 

So…Scandal.  I love it.  They’re not very nice people, these people.  Some of the dialogue is trite.  They talk very quickly.  Olivia Pope is emotionally intense all the time, and I don’t quite know what to do with that.  On the one hand, it’s nice to imagine someone so emotionally expressive being successful in that environment.  On the other hand…EVERYTHING makes her tear up, and sometimes I just want her to get a grip, because let’s face it – she’s running a country here.

I also have been watching season one of Arrow.  I avoided doing so for so long, because being part of Smallville fandom taught me that the only acceptable Green Arrow is Justin Hartley.  The good:  Oliver Queen is a superhero, and he looks like one (you’re welcome).  The bad: Oliver’s inner monologue is terrible.  Just awful.  It makes me laugh every time, which I assume is not what the writers were going for.  Fortunately for them, the bad seasons of Smallville trained me to look past bad writing/acting and just focus on the positive when it comes to people in costume, saving the city.

To hear – 

Esthero, Portishead, Sneaker Pimps, Massive Attack. It’s been a trippy kind of month.

To taste – 

I have been writing a lot about food in my 31 Days posts.  The one thing I just can’t stop talking about is caponata.  I love it, I love it, I love it.

Cooler weather makes me want to cook.  This weekend, it’s chicken and dumplings.  Happy.

What have you been up to and into this month?  I’m linking up with Leigh Kramer – hop over if you need some recommendations.

 

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What I’m Into – September edition

Posted in Food, TV, What I'm Into, Writing, tagged on September 30, 2013| 4 Comments »

September is the month when two of my favorite kids in the world were born.  In fact, I remember the call I received ten years ago today.  I had just walked out of the building, relieved and also sad to be leaving my last class of my first semester at El Centro (I started working there as a substitute for the department chair while she was on maternity leave).  Then my phone rang. On a windy day in downtown Dallas, I learned that my best friend had just given birth to her son Micah and that mom and baby were doing just fine.  He’s so smart and so bold.  He’s a lot taller now, but here’s the first picture I have of him:

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Has any other face in the history of the world ever been that sweet?  I just don’t see how that’s possible.

A few years later, his sister Raven was born in September, too.  She is funny and creative and has an intense moral compass, overflowing with compassion, that I pray she never loses.

Happy birth month, beloved ones.

Here’s what else I’m into:

To taste –

Apparently, the sound of football makes me want bar food.  That seems to be the major theme of my meals this month.   I also blame National Cheeseburger Day (September 18), but, really, that only covers the one day.

My favorite things that I ate/served people this month:

– Vegetarian Beanie Weenie – just sauté some onions, cut up some veggie dogs, add some beans (I used a mix of cannellini, pinto, and black beans), spice it according to taste (I recommend chili powder, cumin, and a sprinkle of brown sugar), and you have one delicious treat.

– Sausage and sauerkraut on Bavarian Rye with horseradish mustard

– Frito pie (both veggie and traditional)

– Goat cheese quesadillas with roasted red peppers and olives

Honorable mention goes to Whataburger’s Avocado Bacon Burger.  This burger gives me so many happy feelings and only a little bit of indigestion (worth it).

And no bar food meal would be complete without a cold beer.  Beer goes well with all of these things.

 To read –

 The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman – I read this book in one sitting.  Granted, it’s pretty short, but I just couldn’t put it down.  Gaiman is such a captivating storyteller.

 Lie Still by Julia Heaberlin – This was our book club read for this month, and I liked it a lot.  I read it over the course of a weekend.  I like the way she created suspense and didn’t give too much away too quickly.  Some of her “Texas women” characters were a little caricature-y and over the top, but she pretty much admitted that in the Acknowledgements section, so I can’t be too upset about it.

The Tucci Cookbook by Stanley Tucci – I want to marry this book and have its babies.  Delicious, starchy babies.  I haven’t technically finished it yet, but that’s because I keep putting it down and going to the store, because I have to make the food in the picture IMMEDIATELY.  I might be talking about this one for a while.

 To watch –

Because of my voracious love affair with his cookbook, I had to watch Stanley Tucci’s The Big Night.  I have three thoughts:  1) I want all those foods on that screen, 2) I need to have more parties with dinner and music and dancing, and 3) like a good wine, Stanley Tucci only gets better with age.

I tried to get into Rescue Me.  I almost made it through the first season.  Nope.  Not going to happen.

TV is back!  My current favorites (changes weekly):

– Revolution.   I watched the entire first season in one day.  And now I’m all caught up and need to see the premiere.

– Parenthood.  I missed this family so much!  And you can’t prove this, and I’ll deny it if you try, but it’s possible that I might (or might not) have let class out early so that I could watch the premiere.

 To hear –

 My friend Karyna played at a wine bar, so I went to see her, which I hadn’t done in a while. Windchimes and Honeybees is my favorite song of hers.

I have been on a weird hair band kick (specifically, Poison and Whitesnake).  I’m not sure what that’s about.  I’m also not sure that I want to analyze it further.  It is what it is.

 To write –

For those of you who have followed since the livejournal days, I am back to working on the Fishbowl story.  I really love my main character Bob.  He might be my favorite character I’ve ever written.

I am also starting to gear up for NaNoWriMo.  I am thinking about trying my hand at Young Adult.  I can do that for a month.  It’s also going to be set in a different era, so I might be biting off more than I can chew.  It will be interesting to find out.

I’m linking up over at Leigh Kramer’s blog – won’t you join us?

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What I’m Into – August Edition

Posted in Books, Food, TV, What I'm Into on September 2, 2013| 4 Comments »

ImageI almost didn’t write what I was into this month (erm…last month.  It’s totally still August in my head).  I didn’t try many new recipes.  I didn’t watch any movies.  I barely even watched TV, although I will give a mention to Pushing Daisies, which you should really see, even though it was only two seasons, because those two seasons were awesome, as I re-watched a couple of episodes of that one night.

I’m not sure I’m really into it or would suggest it to anyone sane, but what I’ve been doing this month is writing a manual for front desk operations at the residence hall where I work while also trying to open said residence hall for the year and start the classes I’m teaching this semester.

I’m otherwise into sitting down and staring into space because it’s too hot to do anything else, except maybe eat snow cones.  Because August.

I’m really into sandwiches this month.  Sandwiches are delicious, and making them doesn’t heat up the apartment.  I have renewed my love affair with pastrami on rye.

It was Michelle month.  I ventured out of the house mid-month to go see Rupert-Michelle, and we went to Argentina Bakery, where I had the adorable macchiato and empanada you see pictured above.  I also kept China-Michelle company the night before she flew back, and we found a great Italian restaurant with (more importantly) a great wine selection just a few miles from the hotel.

I also read some things that I really liked:

1. I re-read The Little Prince.  The conversation with the fox is still my favorite part.

2. Me Before You by Jojo Moyes, which I found frustrating at times but liked overall.

3. Daring Greatly by Brene Brown,  which was exactly what I needed to read before starting a new semester.

4. Let’s Explore Diabetes with Owls by David Sedaris, which was a lot of fun.

And I started reading And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini, which I love. Having not even made it halfway through yet, I know that this is my must-read, go-out-and-buy-this-book-immediately, take-a-day-off-work-to-finish-it recommendation this month.

What are you into this month (besides air conditioning – oh, sweet, glorious air conditioning!)?  If you want more suggestions, lots of folks (and I) are linking up over at Leigh Kramer’s blog – go check it out!

 

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