I’ve been tagged

November 19, 2007

Normally, I suck at internet memes. I’m always bad about returning emails and blog comments, so this should really be no surprise. When Karen tagged me, I completely bailed. I’m sure I had some excuse, something must have been going on, something is always going on, but I totally flaked. This time, I magically got tagged twice, on the same day, by two of my oldest friends who have never met and don’t even know the other person exists. Even with my expert rationalization skills, I can’t let this one pass me by. So, Ali, meet Mark. Mark, meet Ali. Great minds think alike.

Here I go:

1)Include these game rules at the beginning of your blog post

2)Each player lists six facts/habits about themselves

3)At the end of the post, tag four more people by posting their names, and leaving a comment on their blogs that they have been tagged and to look at your blog for the rules.

Random Facts about myself:

1) I always have to start any list like this with the obvious crazy fact. I left home and school at 16 and lived in my car while I worked three jobs and put myself through community college, and then transfered to BYU. I went from the street to happy valley, UT. Quite a culture shock for me.

2) I think I need at least 10 lives to be able to explore all my interests. At one time or another I wanted to be: a singer, an actress, a fashion designer, a high school history teacher, a therapist, a surgeon, an artist, a writer, a graphic designer, a scrapbooker, a craft show host, a politician, a journalist, a literary editor, a photographer, and a craft artist. And when I say I wanted to be them, I mean sincerely. I’ve at least gotten some education in that direction. Some of those things I’ve actually done, some I tried hard to do and failed, some I still hope to do, and I’m sure even more things will be added to the list as time goes on.

3) I’ve always considered myself a feminist, and I seem to have come out of the womb that way. One of my earliest memories of school is chasing a boy around the playground to expound on all the accomplishments of women and why in fact, girls do not drool while boys rule. I was probably 5 at the time.

4) In person I come across very outgoing and gregarious, but privately I’ve struggled with anxiety issues all my life. Just after I was married I went through several months of intense agoraphobia and didn’t leave the house unless I couldn’t help it. Even now, I usually avoid running errands on my own, and if Bear is available, I don’t go anywhere without him.

5) In the back of my mind I’ve always believed that I would end up famous one day, and even now I’ll still give the occasional imaginary Oprah interview as I’m stuck in traffic.

6) I was always absolutely clueless about boys and their intentions. Once a guy tried to ask me out by asking if he could see a review I’d done for a class, and I just told him to go talk to the professor. She had a copy. Another boy who was a good friend of mine and a big singer/songwriter fan serenaded me with “I’ll Have to Say I Love You in a Song” and I didn’t get it at all. When he finished, I just asked him to play something else. I was such a dummy.

And since Mark’s version asked for a seventh, here’s the one I always pull out as the ultimate story topper:

7) A former roommate of mine got pregnant and decided to give the baby up for adoption. The baby was adopted by another former roommate of mine who never met the mother. It turned out the father of the baby left the mother for a man: my old high school boyfriend. dun Dun DUHHHH.

Filed Under: Are you kidding me?, The Good Life

Lessons just for me

October 11, 2007

This past weekend was our church’s bi-annual general conference, where we all watch a broadcast of the church leaders giving speeches. I always adore conference weekend. I love the peace and quiet of just sitting around the house with Bear, I love the meaty talks given, I love getting to listen to the prophet.

This conference was unusual in a few ways. We had to watch it up at my inlaws because we were celebrating family birthdays, and I really missed the quiet at our own house. I love my niece and nephews, but kids do complicate trying to sit still and listen.

I also had two talks that just felt written for me alone. I couldn’t have gotten the message any clearer if the speaker had stopped talking and said, “Ok, Reese, listen up because this part is for you.”

There was also one talk in particular that left me pretty steaming mad, but I’m not going to dwell on it because I’ve already said my peace in other places and I’m trying to get over it. I will just say that I was disappointed we only got two female speakers at conference, and that that was the message our president decided we needed to hear.

Anyhoo, moving on….

Here were my profound moments of revelation:

Saturday morning Elder Spencer J Condie gave a speech called Claim the Exceeding Great and Precious Promises. It was so beautiful, all about how God will not forget the promises he’s made to us if we fulfill our covenants. When he quoted “And God remembered Rachel,” I just sobbed. My life has been ridiculous. Seriously, ridiculous. This stuff does not all happen to one person unless they’re addicted to drama and make it happen themselves. I am not that person. This year, well I’m still afraid to jinx myself, but this might be the time when these promises are finally fulfilled. It’s just been so difficult to keep going, to not lose my faith or get mad at God, and I needed this talk to remind me what I’m striving for.

I also really benefited from Elder Eyring’s talk about journal keeping, O Remember, Remember. This one came on when all the kids were running around, everyone needed to be fed, people were coming in and out of the room needing to be caught up, the house was just filled with the noise and bustle of a large extended family, and I could only catch about every other sentence. From out of the fog of distraction came this one thought as clear as a bell, “I heard in my mind—not in my own voice—these words: ‘I’m not giving you these experiences for yourself. Write them down.’ “

I’ve very often felt that the past five years have been wasted. I have no additional education, no valuable career experience, no children. I have often asked God what that time was for. I think that was my answer.

Filed Under: Matters of Faith, The Good Life

Year of Pleasures #6

August 23, 2007

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Look at this awesome little gadget! I got it at a fancy cooking store at an outlet mall nearby. I was there with my mother-in-law Marie and my sister-in-law with her two boys. Marie went inside just because she loves to sample all the fancy dips and spreads, and they had a demo set up with this little palm held peeler. It was only $5!

It’s so simple that even 4 year old Micah was peeling away at a carrot and not a finger got bloodied. And if it was possible to get bloody with this, good old Micah would have found a way.

I just used it the other day to make potato salad and for the first time in ages, I actually peeled the potatoes myself instead of making Bear do it. Now if only they would make a gadget that would make doing the dishes entertaining.

Filed Under: Stuff I Cook, The Good Life, Year of Pleasures

What did people do before the internet?

August 15, 2007

I got an ipod for Christmas, and I’m crazy about it. It’s revolutionized the way I work around the house, the way I go grocery shopping, the way I stayed sane at the boring desk job, and best of all, the way I sleep. Long time readers know I am a chronic insomniac, but this magical little box has rescued me from my nightly affliction.

On some of my really really bad endo nights, we’d move the TV into the bedroom since I couldn’t leave the bed. It ended up just keeping me awake longer because I’d want to watch whatever visuals went with what I was hearing. I just couldn’t resist the temptation to look up. But now I just listen to podcasts and I’m out like a light. There’s no visuals to distract me and no voice in my head thinking of 40 different things, so I end up just being lulled to sleep by the soothing radio voices.

It’s also upped my productivity level by at least double since I used to spend ages and ages online reading one newspaper or another, and now I can get it all in handy podcast format. Now I can get my witty NPR commentary while I’m picking out my fresh tomatoes.

I thought I’d share some of my favorite podcasts with you, and hopefully you’ll comment back with your favorites. My ipod is only half full, for crying out loud.

My first and foremost favorite is the show that sucked me into NPR and I’ve since listened to nearly every show they’ve done. I used to just sit for hours in my studio making stuff and putting on show after show. Now I can listen to them no matter where I am. They’re notorious for their empathetic journalism, but I just love listening to the stories they tell: This American Life.

I can’t even remember how I found The Sound of Young America, but I got so hooked so fast. I’ve been back through the archives and listened to just about every show from this one too. It calls itself “the show about things that are awesome,” and it’s totally true. It consists mainly of interviews with all sorts of awesome people. Mainly comedians, but also musicians, writers, actors, anything that strikes the host, Jesse Thorn, as particularly interesting. He also produces the excellently funny Kasper Hauser Comedy podcast, as well as the goofy Jordan Jesse Go, which is really just two guys talking but there’s something so winning about it that I find myself listening to this podcast before almost any other.

Next comes my NPR obsession. Well, I should probably say Public Radio obsession and include the first two. I tend to not stray very far from what you’d find on your local listener supported radio. If you search through iTunes for NPR, you’ll find so much great stuff! My top is Fresh Air with Terry Gross. She’s a great interviewer, really focused in on the creative process, and she gets the best guests.

You can also search for PRI, which is a distributor for Public Radio content. That’s how I found Fair Game, which is billed as “the Daily Show with a girl for a host.” I don’t find this quite accurate. It is a humorous take on the news, but it’s no where near as barbed, or as incisive as the Daily Show. Still, those are big shoes to fill. That’s how I also found Studio 360, which is another great arts and media show. You might be noticing a theme here.

Individual public radio stations also post their own podcasts, and my favorite of these is KCRW in Los Angeles. They host a million great podcasts, but my favorites are The Treatment and Morning becomes Eclectic’s Song of the Day The Treatment is another interview show, but they focus solely on the movies, interviewing writers, actors, and directors. It’s a fascinating view into the creation of a film and it makes me appreciate the finished product in a whole new way. Morning Becomes Eclectic is kind of ubiquitous in LA. It’s a fantastic show that highlights underground or underappreciated music, and a lot of hipsters just use it as a Cliff’s Notes for what music they should like. You can’t blame the show though, it’s not its fault it’s so good.

I also just got hooked on a new podcast, RadioLab out of WNYC in New York (obviously). I heard it recommended on both This American Life and The Sound of Young America, so I knew it was for me. It’s similar to This American Life in that it’s a radio show that features stories produced by journalists, but the way they use the medium of radio is really kind of mindblowing. The rapport of the hosts comes across as truly natural and not all fake passive-aggressivey like your local newsanchors, and the sound of the show is just amazing. Such a great find.

I’ve downloaded a few more, but I really can’t recommend them yet. To be honest, I’m kind of in a podcast rut. Everything I thoroughly enjoy is either no longer being produced (zefrank) or is some satellite of Public Radio. I’d really love to get some good crafting podcasts on board, but so far, I’ve honestly found them all boring. I don’t want to listen to two women discussing all their unfinished projects and debate yarn content. That doesn’t really do anything for me.

So, got any hidden gems to keep me from being completely sucked in by all things NPR?

Filed Under: The Good Life

Year of Pleasures #5

August 14, 2007

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My Sirius satelite radio. I got it for Christmas last year at the same time – through an accident of planning and communication – that I got my ipod. At the time I thought it was ridiculous to lay out that much money just so that I could never ever at any moment be without a musical soundtrack to accompany my movements, but I take it all back. They are two of the best gifts I’ve ever received.

We had to return the first Sirius a few months ago for a warranty issue, so the whole time I drove back and forth to work at my temp job I was forced to listen to drive time DJs. I shudder just thinking about it. Why do DJ’s suck so very hard?

It has 30 preset stations and I’ve got them all filled up (but I was kind enough to give Bear 5 of his very own. Even though one of them is used on *deep breath* Hair Nation. *shudder again*). It even comes with a tiny little remote which I mocked at first, but my goodness is it ever handy to not be constantly reaching for dials while you’re trying to drive. I’ve discovered so much new music off of it, my CD want list has tripled. And I never have to listen to inappropriate sex talk at 7:30 in the morning or any other wacky hijinks in between playing the same four songs right into the ground.

Filed Under: The Good Life, Year of Pleasures

Year of Pleasures #4

August 7, 2007

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A wonderful part of living in San Diego? Costco carries flats of Coke imported from Mexico. This means that they not only come in a bottle (everything should come in a bottle – it gets colder and tastes way better) but they are made with real sugar – not corn syrup. Wicked good stuff.

Filed Under: The Good Life, Year of Pleasures

Year of Pleasures #3

August 1, 2007

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Ah, freshly made Dilly Bars, how I love you.

Our local Dairy Queen seems to be having some issues. Their main freezer is broken so they can’t do any cakes (and oh man a dairy queen ice cream cake with the carmelly crunchy center is just one of the very best things a person can eat) and they can’t keep boxes of novelties on hand. This was a major major source of frustration for me until recently.

We’d go there about once a week asking for dilly bars, and every time they’d be all out, or the bars were just then being made, or they only had two left. I got so frustrated we drove to the next town over to get boxes of dilly bars from them. They were disgusting.

The other Dairy Queen sold us boxes that had been made by corporate and sent in. They were the same kind that you can occasionally find in grocery freezers. Made with really heavy ice cream and stuck in that freezer for who knows how long. They were gritty with freezerburn.

The dilly bars from our Dairy Queen were freshly made on the spot with their delicious light soft serve that tastes like ice milk. A dilly bar is huge and when it is a hot summer day I want something light and wonderful, not two solid cups of thick vanilla ice cream.

My Dairy Queen’s broken freezer turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Now we’re just smarter and we call ahead.

Filed Under: The Good Life, Year of Pleasures

Year of Pleasures #2

July 24, 2007

I’m not a fan of most of our landscaping. I’m actually not a fan of a lot of Southern California landscaping, because so much of it consists exclusively of palm trees and birds of paradise. Our backyard right now is a random mix of a million tiny palm trees, some tall grassy things, the obligatory birds of paradise and some random climbing thing. After my visit to the flower fields, I just can’t wait for next spring to plant loads of sweet pea and ranunculus and roses, but even if I had the funds, mother nature just won’t cooperate with my timeline. But I want an Oompa Loompa, NOW.

In the meantime, I have discovered two little gems in my yard that I’ve grown to love. The first is a huge jasmine bush just outside one of the sliding doors, and when we open up to get a cross breeze on a warm night, the whole house takes on the sweet smell. It’s heavenly.

We also have a large tree in one corner of our yard (well, large for a tiny suburban SoCal plot) that I thought was some kind of a citrus tree because of it’s large waxy leaves. When the good twin came over she immediately spotted it as a magnolia tree, and sure enough there was a big fat bloom hiding just above the leaves.

Now I’m finding all kinds of these cone-shaped buds on the tree, which I’m watching closely to see how they grow.
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With everything else we have to do to the house, landscaping is a really really low priority, so luckily I have a few wonderful little surprises to tide me over until I can turn the whole place into my own private flower field.

Filed Under: The Good Life, Year of Pleasures

Torn between two lovers

July 24, 2007

We started reading Harry Potter on Saturday. We have a tradition of reading them out loud together, usually Bear reads while I work on one project or another. I can’t bear the thought of buying the book twice like a rational person would, and neither of us can wait to discuss while the other person finishes, so we continue with our bizarrely old-fashioned ritual. Can’t you just see me in my rocking chair, knitting, while Bear reads to me? We just need a few doilies spread about and a gramophone in the corner to make our geriatric conversion complete. Our problem is that we’re also in the middle of a summer long 24 marathon. Somehow us TV fanatics *completely* missed the boat on that one, and we’ve been obsessed with it ever since we saw the first episode.

We just finished season 4, and it ended in such a way that we had to immediately begin season 5, which we happened to have on hand thanks to the glories of Blockbuster online.

So we keep going back and forth, Harry Potter? or Jack Bauer? We’ll watch an hour of 24, and then read a chapter, and then watch an hour, and then read a chapter. But then the show got really good, and we couldn’t wait any longer.

I’m trying to stay away from most of the internet so I don’t find anything out, but at this rate, I might be avoiding things for weeks.

Filed Under: The Good Life

Year of Pleasures #1

July 17, 2007

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There’s a little birds nest that hangs under the eaves of my roof. When I first saw it I thought that I would have to find a way to move it, due to the enormous pile of bird poo that sits directly underneath it, right outside my back door.

After living here for a couple of months, though, I wouldn’t dream of it. I know nothing of birds, so I couldn’t begin to tell you what kind they are, but they are not so loud as to be disruptive, I just get to hear a quiet hum of bird chirps all through my morning. As someone who tends to find mornings themselves to be pretty darn disruptive, (Light! Someone turn it off!) I just adore having little feathered companions singing me into my day.

We’ve also learned the hard way that the people we bought this house from did absolutely nothing and I mean not One Darn Thing to keep this house up, so I now suspect that enormous pile of poo to have accumulated over several years. I think I’ll deal with hosing my patio off every once and a while.

Filed Under: The Good Life, Year of Pleasures
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