Friday, June 27, 2008

The Meta Post

I have to say, I enjoy blogging. I feel like I have to have something interesting to write in order to post and I can't really go on an on about all the people in my life the way you can in a private journal. I also have some taboos regarding writing about my intimate life and things that go on at work - which is always a big no no. But these are certainly things one might have read in a bedside journal of mine from the far past. My journal was where I bitched about life's problems and talked through my fears of inadequacy at being a mother, or the latest hot gossip at work that you can't tell anyone, or any number of strange private thoughts that flit to the surface when your pen is scratching across a tablet on your knees. That's where blogging draws the line. For me it has a filter and a grammar check. I know there are blogs all over the world where people spill their guts and most private secrets - but those people usually live to regret that decision. I have a teenage daughter who may read this and a boyfriend who subscribes to it and a job and a family and, well, generally, an appearance to keep up.

Besides the content there's also the part about how it gets me writing. I wish I had more time to blog but really I wish I had more time to write. I like organizing my thoughts into coherent sentences and deciding on whether or not to include a visual to help with what I'm describing. I like drafting and structuring what I'm trying to convey.

And of course, beyond the content and the structure, conveyance begs the question of "to whom?" So there is the 'reader.' The fact that your words are virtually published for the world at large. I post my theses to the door. My press release on life, gone to print, as it were. I've learned that you can keep in touch with people via blogging. If I read someone's blog I get an idea of what's going on with them, what they are working on, if anything. Not a lot of posting means either nothing is going on; or so much is going on that I can't write now and the reader will find out all about it later, maybe, if that's what I decide to write about. There's the third option that what ever is going on is of the taboo ilk.

[whisper]shhhhh non-postable.[/whisper]

So, yes. Keeping in touch via blogging. Once I was fortunate enough to participate in a survey Google sent out and I thought, Oh Perfect! I LOVE that they asked ME what I think because I'm Google's biggest fan! I couldn't wait to get through the seven pages or so of yes/no check boxes and drop down menus to the text box so I could really sing their praises. However, I remember one of the questions that was asked was something like:

I keep in touch with the majority of my circle of contacts by (number the following in order of 1=most often used and 6=least)
_ telephone
_ in person conversation
_ e-mail
_ chat
_ blogging
_ post service

Now, earlier they had asked the surveyed to define their circle of contacts in terms of how many people they communicated with in a given week including people at work, people at home, people you only know over the internet, etc. So I had to come up with a number and then offer a percentage breakdown of what category the contacts fell into. So anyway that made it an interesting question because of the work people. There are people I work with who I communicate with every given week who I have never even met but I e-mail back and forth to them because they are my contact for that particular thing. So I had to choose e-mail as the most frequently used method of communication. But at the time I took the survey I chose blogging as the least used and even privately snorted that "who 'keeps in touch with their friends' by BLOGGING? That's such a one-sided conversation." But I get it now. I understand that you can keep up with people by reading their blog. I subscribe to my friends' and family's blogs (if they keep them and I know about it) and if I'm posting about my life on my blog and you want to know what's going on, well, it's kind of your responsibility to read up on my life if I'm publishing it for all the world to read. Conversely, I really enjoy reading my friends' blogs to keep in touch with them. It resembles asynchronous learning, or the theory of Piaget's regarding the ability to learn when the learner actively seeks the knowledge rather than passively accepting whatever is being taught. It places the onus of responsibility on me to read the blogs of my circle. So I accept that responsibility and in turn publish my own for you.

So read on..
LOVE

Sunday, June 22, 2008

This Crazy Life

Colin has come home from summer camp. After dropping him off last weekend, Chris and I were a little despondent from his absence and hopeful that he was having a wonderful time. We needn't have worried at all because within a day we could see photos of the campers and keep up with what activities they were involved in every day of the camp. Colin's smiling face showed up in every photo set and he had a blast. He wants to go back next year so that's the plan.

Something weird is going on at work and it's had me twisted up in knots all weekend. I don't really want to voice my fears as they are likely irrational and unfounded and I think I'll find out what it is that is going on on Wednesday because there's a special meeting on Wednesday that I have to announce tomorrow morning to everyone. I've been trying to not think about it so that all the gruesome possibilities that spring to mind will subside until I find out for sure what is happening in our division. I'll post again to follow up on that later this week.

Chris and I got the first light bill for the new rent house yesterday and were astonished and horrified. $349. That's more than my car payment. I had a feeling it would be bad like that with all the windows in this house. We plan to build frames for them and stretch some fabric around them to shade the windows for the remainder of the time we live here.

We also found out that our back yard turns into a 6-inch deep swamp when it rains. We hadn't experienced a big rain yet until this weekend and the yard was a huge disappointment. I certainly hope it doesn't rain for the 4th of July because that's the date of our big party. We are having a lot of people over - I believe about 18 people (not including those who live here.) The menu for that day includes frisbee golf for early arrivals, swimming for all in the community pool, grilling and Street View fajitas, watermelon, all the beer we can drink, sangria, and fireworks over Clear Lake. It should be fun.

On the way home from Trinity, TX after dropping Colin off at camp we decided to stop to see the scenic overlook of the Lake Livingston Dam. We were directed by this sign which pointed the way to the Dam Liquor Store. We found that the Dam Liquor Store was a tiny little hole in the wall place with a great name. Way to go Dam Liquor Store. And nice sign.










Here is the scenic overlook of the Livingston Dam. It was pretty. I expected to see something more lengthy and enormous sort of like the Hoover Dam that we would get to cross or something like that. But no. It was really just a beautiful day and a view of the lake.








Also on the way home, once we got back to Houston, we passed this truck full of wrestlers on the freeway. They were more than happy to demonstrate their wrestling skills once they knew they were on camera but this is the best shot of all of them with their masks on. Que rico - as they say. It doesn't get richer than that.

Sunday, June 15, 2008

Shaken; not stirred.

When we went to the dinner theater to watch Zohan the other night they had martini's on sale for $5 in honor of the, also running, Sex in the City movie. So Chris and I took advantage. It has crossed our minds that a fraction of the entertainment of the Zohan movie may have been a direct result of the 3 delicious martini's we each had - dirty gin w/ 2 olives for Chris; sour apple w/ 2 cherries for me. But the thought was immediately dismissed. Anyway it put us in the mood for martini's and we've been wanting another ever since.

On Friday on my way home from work I stopped at both the liquor store (for vermouth & cherries) and the grocery store (for olives) so that I could make home made martinis. I had, of course, looked up on the internet the recipe for Chris's kind of martini - gin, which we had, vermouth, which I needed, olives, which I needed, and a twist of lime, skipped this step. We had apple flavored vodka so I assumed all I needed was cherries for mine. I measured everything into the glasses and served them up. YUCK!

So Chris said, "eeh. mmm. uuhh. this is almost good but it just needs two things." My first guess was right on the money - "It needs to be cold." Bingo. He said it also needed olive juice (cuz he likes it dirty!) Secondly it needed to be more mixed. So he brings the drinks into the kitchen and asked where was the shaker.

The shaker!! Duh! how was I supposed to know? "I didn't use a shaker." I replied in my most innocent voice.

But now, 1 day later, I have perfected the Dirty Gin Martini. And it is good!

Long ago, maybe 20 years ago or so, I was a freshman in college and we had a little party. Someone, and I have to say I believe it was Miwa, bought a bottle of Gin. None of us knew what to do with gin. What 18 year old does? At that young and dumb age, and back in the late 80's, we mixed barcardi with coca cola or drank strawberry wine. Well, let me tell you that gin doesn't mix well with coke and the first to go down was Miwa. I don't know if it had anything to do with Miwa getting sick or not but I got sick too. Sick like you wouldn't believe. Sick like I'm not going to describe for you at all. My stomach was so turned, in fact, that I have not touched gin since. Not ONCE. Until yesterday.

Yesterday, 20 years after the great-awful-gin-experience of 1989, I made dirty gin martini after dirty gin martini. One for Chris, one for me, one for Chris, one for me. They got better and better. Not because I was getting drunk but because I was actually getting better at it. Tonight I made two martini's for Chris and I and it is the most delicious martini I've ever had!

So as I sign out of this post I raise this martini glass to Carmen, who for the last 20 years or so has been trying to convince me to have a martini with her to which I have always flatly refused opting instead for beer or hell even water, anything other than gin, "I don't do gin"; who this week turned a new age to catch up to my own age; for all the missed olives of the past and looking forward to all the olives of the future; who always toasts every toast with every drink "To us"; to Carmen.

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Mostly the Eddie Izzard Show

So much has gone on since my last posting it's hard to know where to begin. So I'll start at NOW and work my way backwards.

It is an absolutely GORGEOUS day here on the island. I'm looking at this day out my window and wishing I were anywhere other than at work. So I decided to blog - I'm having lunch now so it's my time anyways. Free lunch too - grilled chicken and veggies w/ salad and a chunk of garlic bread. Yummy!

Last night Chris and I joined Matt & Julie for the Eddie Izzard show. He was so funny that I wanted him to stop. It actually hurts to laugh non-stop for over an hour. I felt as if I couldn't go on laughing any longer. I loved that he threw in some politics and endorsed Barak Obama. He's Brittish and let us know that if we elected Obama we would be welcomed throughout the rest of the world. He assured us that when traveling abroad we would no longer have to pretend we're Canadian. Izzard's set reminded me a lot of Bill Bryson's book, A Brief History of Nearly Everything - and I believe he mentioned it at some point in his show too. Both the Izzard comedy set and the Bryson book attempt to focus perspective on how we got to this point in our evolutionary history and both were poignantly funny. I especially didn't know that all the ancient Egyptians were killed in a car crash. How tragic is that?

Also yesterday, my dearest and longest standing friend's birthday - Happy Birthday Carmen!! I WILL get your care package in the mail. Wish for all things Texas and they shall be in the box. Come back to Texas. Texas misses you. Rhode Islanders don't know what tortillas are!

So prior to Tuesday... Let's see, over the weekend on Sunday night we took Colin to his grandparents for a week long camping trip. We saw the movie You Don't Mess with the Zohan - comic gold! Think Mrs. Garrett from The Facts of Life getting it on with Adam Sandler playing an Israeli counter-terrorist turned hair-dresser who's nemesis is John Turturro, of The Big Lebowski; and who is being outed by Rob Schneider for stealing his favorite goat years before. We also watched Made of Honor - Chelsea's choice and a chick flick if there ever was one. Chris survived, thank God! On Sunday we also played a round of disc golf.

Oh Chris recently erected our disc golf goal in the back yard and we've been practicing. I seem to be getting no better what-so-ever while Chris is continually improving his short game. The other day I threw a frisbee and it landed in our back neighbor's yard. We walked the block over to knock on their door. A car was in the drive but no answer. As soon as we approached the door a light snapped on and we noticed a little camera eye on top of the door frame. It was very strange and gave both of us the creeps. We didn't get the frisbee back till the next day when in the daylight Chris went into the back yard because no one ever did answer the door. Weird. (Otherwise we LOVE all our neighbors! The people on OUR street are totally cool!)