That's Weird

I got up this morning and found my bathroom cupboard open. "That's interesting," I thought, "I don't remember grabbing anything out of there." Then I walked out into the main area of my apartment and found a box that usually sits on top of a basket of junk in the corner but was now in the middle of the floor. Now, I know I didn't leave that there. But it wouldn't have fallen there (it was pretty sturdy), and the door was locked and chained. So, I think I might be sleepwalking.

UUUUUUUU

On another note, my Mom is coming to visit tomorrow. So I need to clean my house!!

Starbucks: A Vacation Photo Journal

Travel Day

This Starbucks was in the airport, before security. I knew there would also probably be one after security, but I had already been to that one and I had a little bit of time to spare so I got a drink here. I had to drink it kinda fast, though, because I couldn't take any liquids through security. Vacation, here I come!

Day 1

We were walking downtown on my first day here, and our agenda was kept secret from me. We approached a Starbucks, and I thought about asking to stop, but I wasn't sure what we were heading to and I didn't want to seem crazy. But it turns out that Starbucks was our destination! Wahoo!
Mara gave me a fantastic cartoon map of downtown with all the Starbuckses labelled. She also pointed out to us that she was dressed like Starbucks that day!

To keep my current Starbucks infatuation from going overboard, I feel that it is appropriate to limit myself to one drink a day. I explained that Mara and Idris, but Mara disagreed. "We need to go to at least one more today," she argued. And I figured that I would disregard my guideline while I was on vacation and there were so many new locations around.
We stopped here for dessert after dinner, and spent a long time sitting and relaxing.

Day 2

We stayed at home this day, and did not have any Starbucks. Instead, we lounged in the sun (and I got a bit of a sunburn), ate apples and peanut butter, took a walk, barbecued dinner, and watched a movie. It was a nice day.

Day 3

I ventured out on my own this day. I took the transit downtown, and then walked quite a ways to my destination instead of transferring and taking the transit farther. I got off at the wrong stop, which made my walk longer, but as a result I passed the only Starbucks I saw on that portion of my journey. The barista was very friendly, and he reassured me that I was going north. He also exclaimed, "I love no-water-earl-grey-tea-lattes!" and that was refreshing, because they often just misunderstand my request. ("Non-fat?" "No, no water.")

On my way back from my solitary adventure, I was relieved to find this Starbucks. I was thirsty, I was running short on time, I wasn't exactly sure where I was going (my map didn't include all the streets), and a quick Starbucks stop is always good news in such cases. And this location had this fantastic sign - since when is "booyah" a word acknowledged in advertising?!

Day 4

On this day, we went to a different city - one that only has 2 Starbucks locations, neither that was close to where we were. Thus, we did not enjoy any Starbucks on this day either. But I made up for it on the other days!

Day 5

We met downtown around lunchtime (well, lunchtime for one, breakfast time for the other two of us) and we were hungry. After we had lunch, I pulled out my Starbucks map and asked where we were. It turns out we were really close to this Starbucks, so we stopped by there after lunch. Idris, are you sure that you don't think I'm crazy for this Starbucks infatuation?

After exploring the art gallery, I stopped here for refreshment as I concluded my vacation. I was tired of walking and it was nice to rest my feet before I headed back, and to sneak in one more Starbucks experience before I headed home.

Travel Day

This was in the airport, as I left and came home. I enjoyed the drink while waiting to board the airplane, and the lemon cranberry scone as an on-flight snack.

Moment of Anticipation

I'm at the airport. I'm going on vacation, going to visit a friend.
My last-minute ride was half an hour late. A neighbour who noticed me sitting on the steps offered to drive me, and I was just taking him up on it when my friend pulled up. But I made it in time. I checked in online already, and I zipped through the baggage check.
I packed light! I fit all my stuff into my mini wheely luggage! ... and two carry-ons. But one of them just has my coat and shoes in it, and gives me more flexibility in case I come home with more than I go over there with. (Can "I packed light" and "I'm bringing four pairs of shoes" go in the same sentence? I guess that's two sentences, so the answer is no.)
I could barely find the food court! "I think the airport shrunk on me," I thought. But then it showed up.
I found a Starbucks, one I hadn't been to before, and got a London Fog. (And some madeleines!) Another one to add to the list! I took a picture of the Starbucks; maybe that's how I'll chronicle my trip.
The airport has free internet!
My flight leaves in 75 mins and boards in 45. I'm going to head across security in 15 mins or so - but first I need to finish my 'coffee.' Can't take liquids past security, and I know there is a Starbucks on the other side, but I also know I've been there before. That's no fun.
I bought a sub. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner in one?
This is a good moment - the moment of anticipation, waiting for something good to start. Waiting to get on an airplane and take off, and having a few minutes of leisure to enjoy this moment.

Tiny Grass

It's summery outside!
And I am so tired.

Doodling

I really hate it when...

...I complain about something I see in someone else that bothers me, and then begin to notice it more and more in myself.

I'm sorry?

Completed

I thought I'd share about my most recent crocheting project. I found this pattern (with recommended colours and everything) in a little pattern book, and I thought it looked so good. When I realized that I could find all the colours I bought the yarn and started making it. But that was back in October or November; it hasn't been my priority project. That has been for several reasons: I had two Christmas projects to complete, I've been excited about working on other projects, and once I got going on this one I thought the colours clashed. It's hard to be excited about something when it seems to be turning out ugly. Luckily the dark variegated colour joining all the squares together also really tied all the colours together, and the completed project looks way better than I feared along the way. But although I had started making it for myself, I don't really need another blanket and I didn't think I was going to like it as much as I had hoped, so part way through I changed my mind and decided to donate it to the silent auction benefiting the Children's Hospital that we will be having at work next month. I took it in and donated it today.

Basic Concept: Granny Square, with solid rows instead of shells
Yarn: Red Heart Worsted Weight (Super Saver)
Colours: Light Yellow, Cornmeal, Gold, Carrot, and Fall
Hook Size: 6.50 mm

Now I'm on to an even more exciting project!

Joke

What did the bunny say to the moose?
......
......
......
......
......
......There's some peanut butter over there!


Would you believe I made that up all by myself?
We laughed a lot at it tonight.
Sometimes the stupider something is, the funnier it is.

And Counting

So it turns out I'm not one of those people who can recall a conversation word-for-word. But ours went vaguely something like this: She said that someone posed to her the idea of counting how many individual different McDonaldses she has eaten at in her lifetime, and how that number seems huge at first, but is probably a lot smaller than originally imagined. A very interesting thought. However, I don't particularly like McDonalds. If I had a choice between eating at McDonalds and anywhere else, I tend to chose the other option. I mentioned that I would be more interested in counting how many Starbuckses I've been to. That number would be significantly larger.

I started a list; I got up to 23 specific ones that I can remember (plus one more I know I've been to but I have no idea where it is... in an Albertsons somewhere on the way to California). Now I want to try to expand that list! I think it would be fun to map out. (Does anyone know of an online map program where you can mark points and save where you've been?)

But I'm approaching this project thoughtfully, with consideration. Do I really want to do this - to begin a new obsession of visiting as many Starbuckses as possible, of codifying my life into yet another list (adding the list of Starbucks locations I've visited to the list of license plates I've seen in order, and the list of countries I can name)? Not that I tend to be an obsessive type of person (I don't think...) whose lists rule her life... And I suppose a good part of life consists of the games we play.

Skoch's Recital Concert

It was one of those evenings when it's hard to leave the house. Except you don't realize how hard until you're already out, and then you regret it.
Not that I actually regret going. The concert was fabulous, excellent, and amusing. The back-up band called themselves "The Coat Hangers." I think my favorite song was "Play That Funky Music White Boy." As well as having fantastic music, they had a bar fridge and couch on stage, and when a member of the band was exempt from a song he'd pop open a soda and relax. And Skoch played one of the songs with his guitar behind his back. It was awesome.
Everyone in the band was someone I have cared about significantly or vicariously. That meant I owed them the loyalty of being there (which I was glad to give), and that also made me uncomfortable. Because we're not in each other's lives anymore. And I just feel awkward around school crowds - not just them but everyone there. I didn't want to mingle during intermission.

I was so grateful to be beside a friend, someone who remains in my life and whose friendship I really value. I sat there imagining how I might introduce her to someone, and I surprised myself by the strength of the terms I'd use to describe our friendship. But whenever I think of expressing it to her, I lose all my words.
We sat in the front row, so we had a great view - but once things got started I all the sudden feared that I was much too boring, bland, and tired to be in the front row. Sigh. And at the end of the concert I discovered that I am afraid of participation. Big sigh.

I spent the concert thinking...
People are busy. They already pretty much have enough friends. Especially the fabulous people. I don't dare ask for anything... especially when I don't have much to give in return.
When I thought back to that time of life and re-immersed myself in that setting, I found myself asking, "Was I loved?" as if that was the question of utmost significance. Most of me answers, "Not enough." But part of me knows that the people surrounding me were loving, and that if I didn't feel loved that's not entirely their fault. I don't think that I felt like I was able to love them well, and then I didn't know how to receive their love for me.
I know that my true friends loved me, and somehow that seems tangential to the problem. I mourn the fact that I didn't feel loved, known, and accepted by the entire group, and that I wasn't able to feel or show that I cared for the group at large. Having a few true friends doesn't fix that. Unfortunately.

Books Read - Winter 2010

1. The Know-It-All by A.J. Jacobs
2. Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery*
3. Anne of Avonlea by L.M. Montgomery (#2)*
4. Anne of the Island by L.M. Montgomery (#3)*
5. How Proust Can Change Your Life by Alain de Botton
6. Gourmet Rhapsody by Muriel Barbery
7. 21 Days to a Thrifty Lifestyle by Mike Yorkey
8. Candide by Voltaire
9. Essays by George Orwell
10. The Tao of Pooh by Benjamin Hoff
11. At Home in Mitford by Jan Karon
12. Every Young Woman's Battle by Shannon Ethridge & Stephen Arterburn

* = in partial fulfillment of my New Years Resolutions

Notes:

- I really enjoyed The Know-It-All, subtitled "One man's humble quest to become the smartest person in the world." A.J. Jacobs also wrote "The Year of Living Biblically" and "The Guinea Pig Diaries," and in those books he alluded to this one, so I've been interested in reading it for a while and was happy when I found it on sale in a paperback edition. This is his story of reading through the Encyclopedia Brittanica from cover to cover (er - covers to covers - I guess it's 32 volumes). He passes on tidbits and facts that he learns through his reading, and he also shares his personal experiences related to this gain of knowledge: other people's opinions towards his project, awkward situations where he blurts out more than he should, the fine imposed by his wife for sharing irrelevant facts, his efforts to live up to his family's legacy of wisdom. Although it may sound dull to read a book about a guy who reads the encyclopedia, this book is highly entertaining and worth reading.

- I read Anne of Green Gables over and over when I was young, but now it has been a long time since I've taken them off the shelf. I remember how Mom bought me the whole set at Costco, and how proud I was to be reading something with a reading level of ten years old when I was only nine. Now as I re-read them I have found that I remembered almost everything from the first book, but I've forgotten almost everything from the next few. None of the scenes in the third book were familiar to me and I never knew what was coming next. That will change a little bit as I progress to the final few books of the series - I have some recollections from them because they were my favorites. But the things I remember the most are the things included in the movies. And I also wonder if the middle books are just less memorable: I already forget details, and I just read them!
Lucy Maud Montgomery changed her writing style a bit between the first and second book of the series. For instance, in the second book she started using ellipses (...) where brackets or dashes would be better suited. Then in the third book she began using dashes where commas would have worked just fine, but luckily that didn't go on too long.
If I met Anne in real life these days, I'm not sure that we would be friends. She would say I have no imagination, and I would say she's too gushy. I've been impatient with that lately - in real life as well as in literature.

- Gourmet Rhapsody (the sequel to The Elegance of the Hedgehog) was fantastically good, but a little anti-climatic. A food critic on his deathbed searches for a long-forgotten perfect taste, but what he finally comes up with, choux, is something I am unfortunately unfamiliar with, as the book is translated from French.

- In an English class anthology, I once read "Shooting an Elephant" by George Orwell, and it was so interesting that it made me realized that essays don't have to be boring and dull. Unfortunately, many Essays are still boring and dull, and I was so glad to be finished reading this book. Granted, there were some good ones, but after reading fifty pages about English Socialism around the time of the World Wars, I wasn't really taking this book seriously anymore.

Delights

My Mom came to visit me! I was a little apprehensive about this; I find spending time with my family very tiring, if she was going to come to my place I would have to do a lot of cleaning, and I wasn't feeling well in the week preceding her visit. But it turned out lovely. We spent our time away from my apartment, so it didn't matter that it remained a bit of a mess. Instead, we went shopping and went out for dinner.

The hilight of our adventure was going to the Farmer's Market. I was surprised to find it open in March, and then I was surprised again to find so much classy stuff there. (That's where Mom got the beautiful cup of coffee pictured above.) I discovered some things that I didn't expect to be able to find anywhere - like French desserts!

They had macarons! I've had a macaron infatuation for the last few months, since I found a box on clearance in a grocery store freezer and found them to be amazing. They are soft and crispy and chewy and sweet and magnificent. My wanderings on the internet tell me that they are very fancy and quite rare. It seems that you can get them at upscale stores in large cities, and people become all snobby and insist that only the very best ones are any good. It looks like there is one place here that sells them, but it's really far away from me so I haven't made it over there yet. (Unfortunately the grocery store where I first found them doesn't carry them anymore.) I was astounded to find them at the Farmer's Market! (There were actually two booths there selling macarons.) "This is my dream come true," I told Mom with my mouth agape, and I introduced her to the delight. Someone told us that these are the new cupcakes - the new overpriced rage. I liked them before I knew that. However, I think that part of my infatuation may be related to the fact that they were a novelty - something I couldn't get whenever I wanted. I also think I may have preferred the cheap frozen variety. Still, though, this was very exciting for me.

At the Farmer's Market, I also found madeleines. I have been wanting to try these since I read about Proust and how they feature in one of the scenes in his novels. They are like a pound cake in a shell shape (and somehow pound cake tastes better like that than it does in a slice), dense yet fluffy, with a hint of lemon. They carried an air of simplicity, and in that way they reminded me of creme brulee. As I ate them, I sat quietly and practiced mindfulness.

I sound like a frog.

I have been sick this week with the most bizarre "cold" I've ever had. I've had one constant symptom: a strained voice, bordering on no voice. That's the first problem that appeared, along with the necessity of daily three hour naps. The first night I woke up constantly because swallowing was such a struggle. Then I had a day where my lower back hurt and all my skin felt over-sensitive - I couldn't get used to wearing clothes. Then the next day my neck was all stiff and painful and I said my head must be too heavy. That's around when I started coughing (not earlier, which I found strange). Now this morning I woke up with an eye infection. The only eye infections I've ever had have been when I've had bad colds, and I wonder if they're related - like the cold is going up into my eye? As well as this strange array of symptoms, I am surprised by symptoms I don't have. I've only sneezed once, and my nose isn't running or stuffed up. Anyway, the good thing is that one weird symptom tends to leave when the next one comes (except for the voice problem), but I wonder what my problem will be tomorrow!

Baby Blanket

Someone at work asked me to make a blanket for her daughter, providing me with the materials and an example, and thereby introduced me to a new style of baby blanket! It was so easy: you take two pieces of fleece of the same size, cut "tassles" all around the edge (I made them about four inches long and the width of a ruler), and then you tie the tassles together, top with bottom. No sewing necessary! It was really easy, and it turned out pretty cute.

Peaceful

This was the view when I got to work this morning. Between the sun beginning to rise on the horizon and the foreground of houses lay a blanket of clouds. The radio called it fog, which I guess is an accurate description when you're in the middle of a cloud, but looking at it from above I could see the ripples. It was like a dream world.