8.28.2009
Things that taste good and don't take long...
1. Saute sliced eggplant sprinkled with salt (or garlic salt) and pepper in olive oil for about 10 minutes, flipping from time to time to cook evenly and make sure nothing burns.
2. Combine these items: some light mayo or may substitute, minced garlic, basil (I used a few shakes of dried, but I bet chopped up fresh would be good too.)
3. Cut up some little tomatoes
4. Toast some bread
5. Slather mayo concoction on bread, add tomatoes, add eggplant, enjoy!
Almost a Rhubarb Fool
1. Bring 1/4 cup of water and 1/4 cup of sugar mixture to a boil until sugar dissolves.
2. Add 1 lb sliced rhubarb (I used frozen cuz I had it. Fresh would be amazing.)
3. Bring back to a boil and simmer, covered, stirring once or twice for 10-12 mins until rhubarb starts to fall apart.
4. Take of the heat and check to see if it needs a few more table spoons of sugar (add 1 at a time til tastes good)
5. Serve with scoop of vanilla ice cream
8.27.2009
Life in August
I have come up with a strategy to make moving easier. Instead of freaking out and not knowing what to do with all my stuff when it's time to go, each day I'm getting rid of one thing I don't need. I have gotten a little behind, so today I need to find 4 things of which to rid myself. So far I'm giving away my organization's "Celebrating 60 Years!" mug, my seed collection (seeds are not very good in years subsequent to their intended year anyway), and... haven't figured out the other two yet. There's a Salvation Army bag in the hallway with a few delicate things in it, so I'm thinking some clothes would pad the oddly-shaped vase and "Celebrating 60" mug well. At this rate I should be living a simple, easy to manage life, with no more than I need come moving time... right?
Moving plans: ...
Moving ideas: Driving to Asheville in a few weeks to scope it out, decide if I want to live there next. I will have the lovely company of Ms. Becca Wickizer, and maybe (cross your fingers!) Erin McSpadden!! In truth, Asheville does pretty much constitute a plan. I mean, I moved to Ithaca pretty much on a whim and it was awesome. Asheville has lots of hippie/artist/environmentalist/outdoorsperson cred, and I'm sure it would work out.
In the past couple of months my household here has gone from three women to me and two men. Slow changeover as my women friends have taken steps towards manifesting their full potentials. The dynamic has certainly shifted, and while it is more laid back (which I can appreciate) it is also sometimes reminiscent of Bushwood. A LOT cleaner, and certainly older, more mature guys than that crowd, but you know what I mean? I mean, I think Matt and I were on a similar wavelength there, but...
Jack has lost 3 collars in the past month. When he goes swimming his massive mane gets droopy and they must slip over his head. After much effort to replace the collars and get him new name tags he now proudly wears a brown ribbon around his neck.
Work life: a permanent position opened up in the group home where I had been working as the primary sub. I asked for it, deciding that the flexibility inherent in being "relief" and only committing to shifts on days I wanted to work wasn't as exciting for the fall as it had been for the summer. I also asked for a promotion, had a performance review meeting with my boss, and, hopefully, will be a "Senior Residence Counselor" soon. There's a little bit of a raise, and I'm sure it will look good when applying for other jobs in other places. My boss knows about my Asheville trip, etc. but still agreed that I was deserving of a promotion for the time being.
I saw District 9 last night. Exciting. Made me cringe a few times. Made me like aliens and think Nigerians were scary. I'd recommend it, especially if you're going to the movies with a guy and he doesn't want to see The Time Traveler's Wife with you.
There's more, but I feel like the basics were covered! Time to walk the dog!
8.26.2009
Oh, Ben Stiller...
– Ben Stiller as Reuben Feffer in Along Came Polly
8.23.2009
Things I just heard on Comedy Central...
"He just hate-fucked the audience for 10 minutes."
-Payton
8.14.2009
Florida Canoeing
It was gorgeous... We went about nine miles down from Kings Landing to the Wekiva Island Marina, past gators and turtles, over giant fish and through black water and red water and beaches... Jeeze. My canoe mate (Chris J.) and I had both never canoed. It was definitely an adventure - the guy who rented us the canoes asked if we'd done it, we told him we'd kayaked, and he kinda paused, suggested we might be biting off more than we could chew, then shrugged and made us just sign a release form.
At first, it was beautiful. Then Chris J. ran me in to a tree full speed. That was less beautiful. Two minutes later, he drove us in to some reeds. Awesome. After about twenty minutes of working on paddling and steering, we were off again - watching turtles sunning on rocks, going under giant spider webs (which my brother and his other friend Chris B. insisted were incredibly poisonous and if we were bitten we'd die,) passing rope swings and going under fallen trees.
Although it was fun the whole way, there were horseflies the size of my fist that bit like they were burning you with a hot poker, and it poured buckets on us for at least two of the nine miles. Still, while it was raining, there were no bugs. Every time my canoe-mate got bitten by a horsefly, he yelled and swatted it and stopped steering, so the canoe would shake, nearly capsize - then we'd crash in to a tree. And then we'd just laugh maniacally, and get started again.
This was four hours of awesome. The only bad thing is that my phone might have bought it - I managed to keep it dry even during the downpours, but it (and my whole purse with it) got soaked when we almost-capsized after Chris J. had one of those banana spiders (which, again, we were all convinced were deadly,) land on his shoulder. His response was to flip out, slap it off him, then throw his oar at it. All I hear from the front is a growl then I'm covered in water and sailing headfirst into a sabal palm. Since my brother and Chris B. were just a turn behind us in the river, we had them grab his paddle and give it to us - but I'm just waiting to see if my phone'll come back from the abyss or not. Here's to hoping!
We also saw a baby alligator asleep on a log... Both cute and scary. :)
Best quotes of the past few days, btw:
"Do not pet the manatee. You will go to jail. Do not attempt to ride the manatee. You will go to jail."
"Why did we pick the double black diamond canoe trip for our first go round?"
"Gah... Why do you suck at canoeing?" "YOU SUCK! This is YOUR fault we're stuck." (This was from my brother and Chris B. after they got wedged between a tree and a log, so that they were blocking the entire river at that point and stuck. About two seconds after this, Chris J. and I slammed in to them (the current was fairly strong, so we got ourselves parallel to them and just hit them sideways, rather than head-on.)
"Wait... So your were so pissed at the spider that you were like, Oh, I don't want this oar any more."
~Gwyn
8.13.2009
Back Home!!!!
After a teary goodbye with friends in Yamagata, I met my friend in Tokyo to go to Disney sea on my last day/night in Japan. I didn't really want to go to Tokyo, but he seemed like he really wanted to see me, even offered to pay for our hotel room. So since he said he would take care of the hotel room and stuff, I let him do all the planning. I figured he would decide what to do since he was from Tokyo and he wanted to see me. However, when I arrived in Tokyo, this was not the case at all. He didn't have much of a plan at all, and there was no hotel room booked. Since he ddn't have any ideas as to where to go and I had lots of baggage, I suggested we find a hotel or locker to put my stuff in. We then had to go to Ueno station and take the subway up to the cheaper area of town. He described it to me as the "Tokyo Slums". Nice. I told him I didn't care where we stayed, a really cheap place and hostel was fine. And I was willing to pay. So the first place we went was a really dingy dingy "hotel/hostel" but they only had a room for a "couple". I told him I didn't want to share a bed but didn't mind sharing a room. I think he got the point. So anyways, we walked all over town, carrying heavy bags, and we got lost. Neither of us had eaten all day. And I was sick and tired and emotionally drained from the goodbye party the night before. We finally found a hotel and he booked separate rooms for us. I told him it might be better and cheaper if we shared the same room, but he insisted. So at this point it became a little weird. I think he wanted to share a couples room maybe. He also was very quiet and didn't have much to say to me. [I hadn't seen him in over a year, but we had emailed frequently during the time he was away working in Sri Lanka--btw he is a Japanese friend but we spoke in English and Japanese]. Anyways, both of us were really tired and I was starting to get sick but we decided to stick to the plan and go to Disney Sea. It was nice. But I got the impression there that he wanted more than just friends. Anyways, I felt like shit at that point and had no appetite and didn't want to wait in lines. And being around him was depressing because he was not much of a conversationalist at all. Anyways, so my last night in Tokyo was kind of a bomb although Disney sea was cool. The next day I met a couple of friends who were in Tokyo to say goodbye, then I went to the airport. I still was feeling not so great at this point. I also really hate flying and turbulence and the day of my flight was rainy and the day before the typhoon. So I bought and drank my last little bottle of plum wine before boarding the plane so I could be relaxed for take off. We sat on the runway for an hour. I took 2 suddafed PMs so I could pass out and my nose could clear up. The suddafed made my nose clear up too much and it ended up making breathing through my nose a very unpleasant and dry sensation. Take-off was shit. I downed 2 mini bottles of Jim Beam which I had brought with me for such an occasion. The captain said it was dangerous for flight attendants to get up from their seats so it was about 45 minutes until drinks were served. I ordered a scotch and soda. Then I asked for more scotch to go with my soda. I really wanted to just pass out and not wake up again until landing in DC. anyways, even after all that alcohol and drugs, I couldn't pass out. I felt pretty bad. So something gave me the brilliant idea that ordering red wine with my dinner might make me fall asleep. Clearly, I didn't know how drunk I was at this point. As I sat next to my Japanese deaf-mute airplane neighbor, I explained the reason for my excessive drinking by using facial expressions of "scared", "shit", and "crashing plane" we also conversed by writing Japanese. She was a good sport and I was thankful that I didn't have to make conversation and could get away with ridiculous gestures and smiles. At this point I started to feel nauseous. This was maybe around hour 3 of the plane ride. 9.5 hours to go. The sickness got worse and I felt myself developing a fever. So I kept getting up and getting back in my seat. I was restless. Meanwhile there was lots of turbulence. At this point though, I didn't care because I was both a) too drunk to care, and b) too sick to care. Anyways, the drunkenness wore off but I wasn't able to go to sleep at all because I felt so bad. Never again will I take Suddafed PM in hopes of falling asleep...Worthless!!! I told the flight attendants I was sick and got some hot water with lemon! woohooo. Then I felt like puking. so I sat on the floor near the bathroom at the back of the plane. Oh man. It was awful. But eventually, the plane landed, and I got home about 20 hours after leaving Tokyo. And now here I am! living to tell this story. Although I am still sick and they think I might have pig flu, but who knows, I didn't want to pay for the 150$ pig flu test so I just payed $150 for some random prescription drugs instead. I'm on day 4 of being unable to eat food without feeling a little sick. And I have yet to taste a nice American microbrew. So, keep your fingers crossed that by Sat, I will be better!!!!!! It's an absolute mindfuck being back in America right now and I'm finding it a little difficult to adjust to life at home especially after living alone for 2 years. I have only seen 2 friends so far, so I can't wait to see all of you guys because I think it will really do me some good!!! Nicky, will you be coming to MD at all before Oct. 15th? I can't believe I'm leaving again so soon!! Love you all. MWAH!
I've Gotta Feeling...
Because Nicky's quite right - it's been a while since I've seen much up here - here's my go too!
Life's been pretty sweet... At the moment, I'm down in Florida with my brother and two of his friends staying at this resort in Orlando. It's been beautiful - while I couldn't really give a crap about theme parks or what-not, James and I have mostly been just enjoying the Florida sun and doing a little traveling around the state. For example, yesterday we drove about an hour north of Orlando to Blue Springs State Park, which is this nature preserve that hosts a large portion of Florida's manatee population during the winter months. During the summer, it just hosts a bunch of locals going swimming in the 100,000,000 gallons of water that pour of the park's namesake spring - although a manatee did wander up near the springs while we were there! We didn't get to see it, but we did see a lot of large mouth bass, HUGE garr, sunfish, along with getting in a lot of river swimming in perfectly clear water.
Today we were all going to go kayaking in the Wekiwa River, but we didn't realize we had to get in the water by 11:30 am or they wouldn't rent us kayaks - there is a 9 mile downstream ride, then they pick you up and shuttle you back to your car - since they only have one pickup a day at 3:30pm. We're gonna go tomorrow though, and I think today we're just hiking around the Wekiwa River itself - it's this 5 mile hike with another one of those springs at the end of the trail for us to go swimming in! Half of our party (James' friends) just want to do a water park (eh? not horrible, but not AWESOME) so we'll have to see which half of our voting group wins - I feel like James and I, as the people in possession of a car, might just take the day.
As to the "cute boy" factor... Yeah! He's still in the picture. It's a little sad that it won't last that long - he's moving back to Korea at the end of September, and I don't think he has any plans of moving back to the US soon. I'd be a little more miffed - except that I'm ALSO not particular interested in moving to Asia, so I can't pretend this is all him being unreasonable. :)
I'll write a bit more about him later, but he's... I don't know. He's just amazing to be around. Hopefully you guys come to Ithaca before he leaves (set your calendars!) so you can meet him too.
I'm gonna go... We're doing the "what to do today" vote. Cya all on Saturday at Becca's party! I can't wait!!
~Gwyn
8.12.2009
MellowYellow
Hooray for the blog! Boring post from me. I’m extremely happy but doing absolutely nothing of consequence.
We need updates from you Nic! I’m assuming that you’re still loving your new job. Post stuff about your field. I know nothing about it. It’s interesting. So is Miami. I still want to move there. Try to get people to expand the legal market down there.
I’m at the Stone Harbor house with Matt’s family until Sunday. I’m currently on the top (a.k.a. “beer pong”) deck. I’m just came back from the beach because I’m waiting for my new school laptop to be delivered, I can’t print out the “just leave the thing” notice bc there’s no printer here. I’m really enjoying being with Matt’s army of waspy cousins. And pudge, the 2 year old yellow lab that Matt’s family is completely obsessed with. We all went down to the dog beach at dusk to watch him fetch balls in the waves. I also really like Matt’s little cousin Lee, who is 8. I’ve never really had a relationship with a child like this before. We have a lot of the same interests and I really like the gimp bracelet that she made me. I think we’re going shopping for best friend necklaces in town tonight, depending on what her mom says.
The weather has been awesome. I love SH and we found a new wedding venue where we can have an outdoor tent right next to the beach. I think it will be peachy. We have to talk to them about dates. We’ll be here until Sunday at which point we’re returning for Becca W’s party!! We also might return Saturday for Phish at merriweather… depending on what we feel like doing. I’m leaving it up to Matt. Matt's friend Pete has two extra tickets in case anyone is interested.
I quit my job on July 29 and left right after my goodbye happy hour for NYC, and eventually Montreal and Quebec with Mattie. We stayed with his cousins in the city, and various B&Bs throughout Canada. It was rockin. Except that we didn’t end up being able to meet up with Lizzie due to her fam’s amish ways.
I have orientation on the 19th. I don’t want to start, I’d like to continue my current occupation of drinking beer and playing travel scrabble. Once the lt comes I’m going to drink mini bottles of white star (a “thank you for cleaning up after my party” gift from Bec Z) and watch the sunset at the point with Matt.
The photos are
1- This little auberge called Cafe Krieghoff where we stayed in Quebec city.
2- Me at the chute Montemorancy.
3- Me and Matt on the ferry to Levis.
I hope you're all having wonderful wonderful summers. I miss each of you, as well as the group as a whole.
TILLEY: COME FOR HALLOWEEN.
Anyone interested in going up to Ithaca in the autumn time??
xoxo
OMG. If I come back for Halloween...
Harajuku Sewing Night by Bluelily