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What I’m Into – February 2014

Posted in Books, Food, What I'm Into, Writing on March 3, 2014| 2 Comments »

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February was a fun trip to meet dear ones from the Internet in person, a gathering, and weird weather.

It was affirmation, anxiety, a bit of melancholy, and a grounded feeling that I’ve been missing lately.  Welcome back, old friend.

I attended the IF: Gathering in Austin, and I stayed with Story Sessions sisters at a house in Dripping Springs. The conference was good and nerve-wracking and triggery and crowded and inspiring and loud.  The stay at the house was relaxing and lovely and easy (for the most part). And Nicole and Jennifer gave me shells and found poetry (don’t judge their gift by the quality of the picture above).

February weather is on crack.  I mean, I know I am in Texas, so I guess I am used to it.  But it was icy the first half of the month and 60-70 degrees the second half.  And today it’s “icy” again.

Here’s what I was into this February:

To write:

I am on schedule with my goal to write 100 blog posts this year.  I totally count posts that I guest-write for other places.

One of my poems was featured on the Story Sessions site – How It Begins and Ends

Possibly the most important thing I will do this year – guest praying as part of Osheta Moore’s Standing our Ground…in Prayer series

I am also on schedule with Fishbowl word count.  It might actually get finished this year!

To read:

I read about poetry and food this month.  More accurately, I read books that made me want to go to places.

My favorite poetry was Mary Oliver’s A Thousand Mornings.  It makes me want to go back to Cape Cod.

I finished Plum: Gratifying Vegan Dishes from Seattle’s Plum Bistro.  There’s not much chance that I will ever make any of the gorgeous dishes in this book, but if I decided to, there’s plenty of detail in the recipes.  There is a great chance, however, that I will make a point to visit the Plum Bistro the next time I’m in Seattle to taste the gorgeous dishes in this book.

My favorite thing that I read in February was probably Style Me Vintage: A Guide to Hosting Perfect Vintage Events.  When and if, at long last, I finally get married, the bachelorette party will be a Speakeasy.  I already have the playlist started and half the menu planned (and by “half the menu,” I do mean the beverage portion).

To watch:

This month, I learned what everyone was raving about.  Downton Abbey and Sherlock.  I love Downton Abbey, but I need to own Sherlock and watch it forty-two times and maybe write some fanfiction.

I also started watching The Following.  My boss suggested it, and I agreed to give it a try, because I love me some Kevin Bacon.  I don’t know if I can recommend it, because you guys – this show freaks me out.  It’s so damn creepy.  I wouldn’t wish the emotional and mental torment this show has put me through on anyone.  I am also attracted to the serial killer on the show, and I am a little uncomfortable with that. If you watched Dexter or Breaking Bad, you can probably handle it.  I’m just not used to this sort of thing. But it’s so good, so I just can’t quit it.

To hear:

Because I’m super excited about the Veronica Mars movie, and I’m currently reading Welcome to the Monkey House (Vonnegut), it just seems fitting that February would be full of The Dandy Warhols.

Also, Stephanie Trick on piano makes me miss my piano:

And I have basically been listening to every version and spoof of Let It Go I can find.  Here are my favorite three:

To taste:

So, on the way home from Dripping Springs,  Adela and I stopped at Rolling in Thyme and Dough.  Weird name.  GLORIOUS BREAKFAST SANDWICH. Egg and cheese on a croissant….with pesto.  Also, it’s just a cute place.  It would not be unreasonable for you to travel from wherever you are just so you can enjoy this sandwich.

This pales in comparison to the Breakfast Sandwich of Glory, but I have also been on a chicken salad kick.  I normally despise mayonnaise, but occasionally, I just have to have chicken salad.  My favorite – rotisserie chicken (because I totally cheat and get my chicken already roasted at the Kroger), Vegannaise, red grapes, celery, and pecans on rye.

I’m linking up with Leigh Kramer – go over and see what everyone is into!

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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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Silence

Posted in Story Sessions, Work, Writing on February 2, 2014| Leave a Comment »

This week in Story 101, we practiced silence. This week was a crazy week at work.

This week, I sucked at silence.  Well, sort of.

I tried to stay away from Facebook during work this week.  I gave myself ten minutes in the morning to answer questions on the group that I admin for work, to wish people a happy birthdays, and to answer direct messages.  I was going to spend ten minutes and then log off.

Then an announcement needed to be made on the group page.  New residents requested to be added and then came to the front desk, perplexed that it hadn’t happened immediately (because doesn’t EVERYONE live and die by their Facebook notifications?). Then our supper club meeting on Sunday had to be overhauled. Then etc.  Then I just kept logging back in to do one more thing.

I tried to stay off Facebook during work.  I failed.  I did this log-in-log-out business for two days. Then I just gave up logging out.

But at home, that was a different story.

At home, it was quiet.  Finally quiet.  Blissfully quiet.

I did not log in to tend to work or anything else.  Because I don’t work (for the job that pays rent) at home, and I don’t work (for the job that pays rent) for free.

At home, I do what I love.  And this week of silence gave what I love the space to rest and breathe.

Even at home, my writing time, no matter how faithful I am to stick to it, is usually a rush-in,go go go,

don’t pause to ponder

just write write write

And even then, there’s not time to get everything I planned to do in the time I had to do it.

This week, with silence, I had time to ponder.  And I loved it.

The problem with silence is that when I get it – even a little of it – I start to crave it. All the time.

And the normal stresses of being an introvert in an extrovert job are multiplied by ten billion.

There’s no silence there.

It’s loud loud loud loud loud.

People talking at and over each other.  Not to communicate.  Not really.  Just to hear their own voices. And I know they aren’t hearing anyone but themselves, because their responses are comically non sequitur.

It could be an SNL skit.  I try not to laugh – which I really want to do, because it’s absurd and hilarious, even if they don’t mean for it to be – because sudden bursts of laughter from the previously silent desk clerk will provoke a whole new set of chatter as they try to figure out what’s so funny without ever stopping to listen for the answer.

Oh, wow.  That would be even funnier.

Talking talking talking talking talking.  So much blah blah blah

And I feel blah (blah blah).

And I get it.  I do.  It’s mesmerizing to hear your voice.  To learn its sound.  To hear words that come out that might be your ideas or might be a variation of someone else’s ideas but are out there.  You put them out there.  You gave them your voice.  And it’s especially mesmerizing when it’s new – when you are learning new things and meeting new people.

You know, like people do.  When they’re first-year students.  In a dorm.  Where I work.

I get it.

I just can’t deal with it when I know that the silence is waiting for me on the other side of the time clock.  When I can go home and breathe it in.  Breathe it out. Inhale.  Exhale.  Unwind.  Unclench. Where it will actually matter that Facebook is off or that I’m not on Pinterest.  When I can choose silence and actually have it choose me back.  When I will actually get the silence I’m seeking.  Where choosing silence actually works. Where I can go, as May Sarton phrased it in Journal of a Solitude, “to take up my ‘real’ life again.”

Is it this way for everyone?  The increased intentional silence a reminder of the glory of what everyday life could be (should be…must be)?  Does it make them yearn for quiet solitude to be the thing they do full-time rather than the thing they have to make time to do?  Do they feel even more unsatisfied than they usually feel with where their choices about how they make a living – make a life – have landed them?

In this way, silence has been a mixed bag for me this week.  I love it, but because I love it, I am more acutely aware of how much my life lacks it.  I am thus dissatisfied.  And restless.  And wistful.

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2014 Resolutions – Words, Food, and Beauty

Posted in Beauty, Books, Food, Resolutions, Writing on January 2, 2014| 5 Comments »

Today is the first day that I’m back at work.  I am glad no one was here to see me coo at these little fellows who greeted me once I got my computer hooked back up.  That would have been awkward.  It was an exuberant cooing.

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(This is a snapshot of my computer screen. Sadly, I was not present to take the original photo, and I would give proper credit to the person who had the good fortune to be near enough to these little guys to take the picture, but the photo/website has since been taken down, so the world will never know the identity of this lucky, lucky person.)

Seriously.  Look at the face!  And the puffy, stubby tail!  I love everything about red pandas.

Anyway…back to the topic at hand…

Last year, I finally admitted to myself what I want to do with my life.  I want to write.  I want to be published.  I want to spend my days staring at a computer screen and writing terrible first drafts and editing like mad and watching those terrible first drafts become something I would actually let another human being read.  So three of my five 100s are related to this goal:

1.  One hundred books read

Just as I would not trust a pastry chef who never ate cake, I also don’t trust writers who don’t read.  It teaches me.  Reading Elmore Leonard is how I learned to write dialogue that didn’t just sound like my characters puppeting my own voice.  Reading poetry is a reminder to be picky about word choice, particularly when editing.  Reading is vital to writing well.

2.  One hundred thousand words written

I will finish Fishbowl this year.  I will finish Fishbowl this year.  I will finish Fishbowl this year.

I am committing to writing at least 100,000 words toward fiction or poetry – projects that, ultimately, I would like to submit for publication.  This might seem like a lot, but really, it’s only double the goal for NaNoWriMo, and I’ve been known to do that in just one month.  It’s less than 10,000 a month.  It’s 275 words a day.  This post is going to be longer than 275 words, and it will only take me about half an hour to finish it.  An average of half an hour a day spent on fiction or poetry is not a lot.  So surely, I can reach it.

3.  One hundred blog posts

Now that I’ve actually managed to start keeping up with a blog again (and by “keeping up,” I do mean “I have posted at least once a month for a year.”  Don’t get your expectations all raised.), I remember how helpful it is to have a place where I speak in just my voice, not through the voice of a character.  It helps me differentiate between the two.  It helps me edit.

It also keeps me connected to people, which is important because I sometimes forget to do this on my own.  I don’t have a lot of followers, but I do have a faithful few.  And I appreciate you all!

So those are my word-related goals. If you want to follow my reading list, you can follow/friend me on Goodreads.  I will try to post an update here once a month in order to keep track of the other two goals.

Next, there’s my health situation.  Last year was a healthier year than the one before, as I successfully avoided the emergency room, but there is still room for improvement.  I still don’t know what’s going on with my digestive system (my doctor has suggested a full scan, so that’s a fun thing I get to do this month), but we’ve narrowed it down enough to identify some things that trigger my episodes, and the main offender seems to be lactose.  Sad times.  I love me some lactose – specifically, cheese.  Fortunately, most of the time, if I don’t overdo it, I can offset the problem with a couple of enzymes in pill form.  There are, therefore, very few items I have to give up entirely.  Cheesecake is one of them.  Never again.  Cheesecake is delicious, but there’s not a cheesecake in the world that is worth what I went through last month, and there’s not a pill in the world that can compensate for the ridiculous amount of dairy in a slice of cheesecake.

But even though taking a pill is an option, I don’t wanna.  I don’t want to have to take a pill every time I eat something.  That’s not what a proper solution looks like to me.  So my fourth resolution is:

4.  One hundred vegan recipes, tried and successfully eaten without taking a pill or getting sick

This will ensure at least 300 meals, snacks, or treats for which I will not have to medicate.  I estimate an average of three servings out of most recipes, as most of them are written for at least four people, so an average of three will offset the count for the relatively few recipes that are single-serving.  To keep track of this goal, I have created a Pinterest board where I will post pictures and recipes that I have tried and successfully managed sans pill assistance.

And last but not least, my One Word for 2014 – beauty.  I am looking for it.  I’m not sure what I’ll find.  I’m not even sure what to call it when I do.  Pictures of beauty?  Examples of beauty?  Ideas about beauty?  I imagine that I will be writing about beauty, but I don’t want to stifle discovery by limiting expectations.  I want to remain open to whatever I need to learn from it.  So here’s the last goal:

5.  One hundred moments of beauty

I have also created a Pinterest board to track this goal, so we’ll see how that works out.  My first wordy post about beauty is on the board, along with a picture of one of the beautiful things in my apartment that doesn’t get much use as it was originally intended but is still beautiful nonetheless.

So that’s my year.  What do you hope for your year to be?

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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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NaNoProWe

Posted in Simplify, Writing on November 3, 2013| 2 Comments »

The novel is started.  My characters are self-absorbed jerks, so I might have to give them a nice social cause  or a back story that justifies their jerkiness, just to keep from killing one of them off soon.

Their misbehavior, of course, played right into the Seventh Annual National Novel Procrastination Weekend.  I’m not avoiding writing!  May it never be!  I’m merely avoiding murdering one of the little bastards in my story.

And that closet wasn’t going to organize itself.

In doing so, I have stumbled upon an epiphany:  I have a whole lot of stuff that I never use.

No one needs this many t-shirts.  If I wore a different shirt every day, without any repeats, I probably wouldn’t have to do laundry until mid-January.  I wish I were exaggerating.

I have two more loads of laundry that I’m not going to do today, because if I did, I wouldn’t have any place to put the clean clothes.  My closet and drawers are overflowing.

On the one hand – oh, what magnificent abundance!

On the other, freakishly larger hand – oh, what frightening excess!

One might say, “Why don’t you just go in there now and get rid of half of it?  What’s the big deal?”  Clearly one has never met me, or if one has, one is quite mean-spirited and is trying to bait me.

I have control issues with getting rid of things when I don’t know that those things will be used and not just tossed in the trash. Sure, I made this pile:

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But I am already second-guessing my choices, wondering if they’re good enough that someone will actually want them and get some use out of them, or if they will end up being tossed in the garbage after a year because the good people at the thrift store need to make room for other items.  It helps that two of the shirts are going to the desk, where I know the part-timers will fight over who gets to take them, because they have to wear a UNT shirt at the desk, and none of them have been working in Housing as long as I have, so they’ll welcome the extra shirt.

I know this is good.  This is something I need to do.  Still, it gives me anxiety.

Anxiety is no excuse for impeding progress, though.  So every month, I am going to get rid of at least ten items of clothing.  I’m going to continue this monthly practice until my closet and dresser can actually hold everything.  And if I buy something new, I have to get rid of a comparable item before I can welcome the new one to the fold.

Okay.  Now back to those pesky teenagers.

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All Saints Day

Posted in Church, Thanks, TV, Writing on November 1, 2013| 2 Comments »

“Lord, your saints come from every nation and every tribe. Such is the beauty of your kingdom, where every race and -people are honored and recognized as being made in your image. Help us live lives of peace and reconciliation that pay homage to the diversity of your great cloud of witnesses. Amen.” Common Prayer

November is a month of reeling from the furious writing of NaNoWriMo.  It is also Thanksgiving month.  Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday.  The special combination of gratitude, delicious meals, family, and the kickoff to my family’s holiday season extravaganza makes life magical.

This morning, I changed my calendar to November 1.  My friend Melissa bought me a Castle calendar, and November’s picture is a close-up of Nathan Fillion’s face.  That was the first thing I was thankful for this month.

November 1 is All Saints Day.  I am thankful for those who have come before me.

Today, I am thankful for:

1. My Story Sessions sisters and the NaNoWriMo group.  This is going to be fun.

2. I am thankful for Mary.  I did not grow up in a tradition that talked about Mary a lot, so I’m late to the party.   I am open to reading recommendations.

3. Getting feedback on my Fishbowl story from my workshop group.  With their help, this story is just getting better and better.

4.  My favorite Elvis song.  I wish I could find a clip of Jesse L. Martin singing it on Ally McBeal, because that’s actually my favorite version, but I suppose this will do:

5.  And let’s not forget – Nathan Fillion.

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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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