AAAANNNNDD...we have a winner!

Congratulations, Melanie K, you are the official winner of the Amy trivia.  She may have had a slight advantage, seeing as we've been friends for 11 years now.

She posted her comment on my FB wall, since she didn't have any of the accounts required to comment (sorry, guys), so I have pasted her comment below:

"Hmm, well I will guess C, B, A, D, and D, although I don't know how you can think movies A and C are stupid. Although I wish you didn't hate cheesecake, cause it's delicious, I can understand. Also, I totally feel the same way about tea!! Since you've seen "The Holiday" now, I'll tell you the house Cameron Diaz stays in is the type of house I want to own someday. And lastly, if the guy in #6 is who I think it is, yes!! tell him. :)"

Correct answers:

I do not eat cauliflower.  White food weirds me out, especially white food that grows in the ground.  It's just weird.

The animals I'm pet-sitting for are named Tigger, Honeybear, and Smilie, the first two being dogs and the latter being a cat.  You can tell they were named by kids, eh?  But the names actually fit the personalities.

I have never read "Crime and Punishment."  I read "Kidnapped" in middle school and don't really remember it, "The Scarlet Letter" in high school and enjoyed it, and have read "The Brothers Karamazov" TWICE.  If that doesn't earn me some sort of prize, I don't know what does.

At the time of the quiz, my fingers were painted pink, which is odd for me, and my toes were green--mint sorbet, to be exact.  Thanks to Rachel T. for introducing me to that color!  My toes remain green, but my fingernails are now painted purple.  *Ahem* lovely lilac.  I feel like a menopausal scrapbooking fanatic when I write that.  "Excuse me, Sally, could you pass me the lovely lilac cardstock?  It matches the shirt I'm going to put on after I stop sweating from having a hot flash."  But I digress.

I did NOT think "Up" was stupid.  In fact, it's one of my favorites.  "Wall-E", "Despicable Me", and "Madagascar" were all mediocre, in my opinion, although I wish Steve Carrell would've used that accent on "The Office."

So there you have it!

Last time I spoke with Melanie, she was still thinking about which dessert she wanted..."There are so many good choices!"  I think I'll use that as my excuse to post my first cooking demo.  Be kind to me.

Sidenote: Wisconsin weather in summer is super bipolar.  Four days ago the high temperature was 94 F.  Today?  55, with a low of 43.  FORTY-THREE.  If this was fall, we'd all be covering our petunias and bringing our precious prize-winning geraniums inside to avoid the frost.  So I've been sitting on the couch all day, in a sweatshirt and socks, curled up in a blanket.  I'm currently contemplating a cup of hot chocolate.

Shiveringly,

Amy

Random acts of kindness

I was on Pinterest today (as I am most days) and ran across a link to this blog.  It documents 35 random acts of kindness a woman did with her kids for her, you guessed it, 35th birthday.  What a fun idea!  I'm nannying a lot this summer, and this would be a GREAT activity to do with "my" kids.

Other random acts of kindness I've heard of:

- ask to pay for the person behind you in the drive-thru
- give care packages to the homeless
- play music at a nursing home or hospital
- if you have access to a friend's house, go over while they're at work and make their bed, straighten up, and cook them a nice meal
- mow your neighbor's lawn as well
- collect all the stray shopping carts at your grocery store
- adopt a soldier here.

I DARE YOU.  There.

Inspirationally,

Amy

thoughts from Garrison Keillor

I was listening to NPR on my way home from babysitting today, and I was just in time to catch Garrison Keillor's "The Writer's Almanac."  I enjoyed the daily poem, and thought I would share it with you.


Excerpts from Ron Padgett's poem "How To Be Perfect":

Get some sleep.

Eat an orange every morning.

Be friendly. It will help make you happy.

Hope for everything. Expect nothing.

Take care of things close to home first. Straighten up your room
before you save the world. Then save the world.

Be nice to people before they have a chance to behave badly.

Don't stay angry about anything for more than a week, but don't
forget what made you angry. Hold your anger out at arm's length
and look at it, as if it were a glass ball. Then add it to your glass
ball collection.

Wear comfortable shoes.

Do not spend too much time with large groups of people.

Plan your day so you never have to rush.

Show your appreciation to people who do things for you, even if
you have paid them, even if they do favors you don't want.

After dinner, wash the dishes.

Calm down.

Don't expect your children to love you, so they can, if they want
to.

Don't be too self-critical or too self-congratulatory.

Don't think that progress exists. It doesn't.

Imagine what you would like to see happen, and then don't do
anything to make it impossible.

Forgive your country every once in a while. If that is not
possible, go to another one.

If you feel tired, rest.

Don't be depressed about growing older. It will make you feel
even older. Which is depressing.

Do one thing at a time.

If you burn your finger, put ice on it immediately. If you bang
your finger with a hammer, hold your hand in the air for 20
minutes. You will be surprised by the curative powers of ice and
gravity.

Do not inhale smoke.

Take a deep breath.

Do not smart off to a policeman.

Be good.

Be honest with yourself, diplomatic with others.

Do not go crazy a lot. It's a waste of time.

Drink plenty of water. When asked what you would like to
drink, say, "Water, please."

Take out the trash.

Love life.

Use exact change.

When there's shooting in the street, don't go near the window.

Excerpts from "How to be Perfect" by Ron Padgett, from How to be Perfect. © Coffee House Press, 2007. Reprinted with permission. (buy now)

Casual formalities

Hello,  blogosphere!  Long time, no see.  Sorry about that.  Life happens.

Well, we've been in a relationship for what...11 days now?  Wow.  Time flies.  I think it's about time I introduced myself some more.  Here goes!

1.  I hate cheesecake.

2.  I am a Christian who believes in gay marriage.

3.  I love reading classics.

4.  I really wish I liked tea.  Isn't it just a charming beverage?

5.  I wish I didn't like coffee.  But it's depressingly effective and necessary.

6.  I've liked the same guy for a year and a half now, and am thinking of just telling him to his face.  Thoughts?

7.  I love being a barista.  For realz.  The tips could be better, but I guess that's what you get for working at a college.  :)

8.  I just watched "The Holiday" yesterday and think Jude Law is cute and Cameron Diaz is annoying.

9.  The world needs a pop music revolution.  Seriously.  Not all of us want to hear you sing about sex ALL THE TIME.

10.  I have two pipe dreams.

• Pipe Dream A: go to culinary school in France or Italy and open my own little cafe/trattoria and have four kids, including a set of twins, with my super hot husband.  

• Pipe Dream B: I never get married and move to Tibet with my best friends, where we open an orphanage in an old Victorian  mansion in the Tibetan countryside/mountains (those exist, right??).  We will grow much of our own food and raise goats, chickens, sheep, and have a menagerie of miscellaneous dogs and cats.  I'll be in charge of cooking and booboo-fixing.

Okay, think you've got a handle on who I am?  Time for a pop quiz.  I'll make it super tricky and random, so even my besties can play along.  Oh, and there's a PRIZE.  I'll make your favorite dessert from scratch and mail/deliver it to you.  Even if you happen to be my reader from Malaysia.  Yup.

[I actually have a secret agenda for this quiz.  I want to know why I have over a hundred readers and not a single comment...hopefully I'll draw some comments out of you with such a stellar, invaluable prize.  Please?]

Enough stalling.  Quiz time.

1. I refuse to eat:
a) yogurt
b) chicken
c) cauliflower
d) hot dogs

2.  The animals I'm pet-sitting are named:
a) Triscuit, Wheat Thin, and Ritz
b) Tigger, Honeybear, and Smilie
c)  George, Lionel, and Mercedes
d) Tom, Dick, and Harry

3.  I have never read:
a) Crime and Punishment
b) The Scarlet Letter
c) Kidnapped
d) The Brothers Karamazov

4.  Right now my fingers are painted ___ and my toes are painted ___.
a) green, green
b) not painted, not painted
c) not painted, pink
d) pink, green

5.  Which of the following movies did I NOT think was stupid?
a) Wall-E
b) Madagascar
c) Despicable Me
d) Up

Alrighty!  The first person to guess all five answers correctly wins a delectable dessert delivered to their doorstep.  Delicioso!

Inquisitively,

Amy

Garage saleing! Saling? Sale-ing?

I have a mission for you: go to a garage sale!  I was a bit skeptical at first, but honestly, it's pretty addictive.  :)  I'll be moving into my first apartment this fall, and it's been fun to stock up on some living essentials for much less than what I would've paid in stores.

Lame excuses:

1) I don't know where any are...
Solution: Click here!  This website lets you search by zip code to find garage, moving, and estate sales in your neighborhood.

2) Garage sales are for old people.  I'm too cool and hip...
Solution: Well, guess what else is cool: not being broke.  So suck up your pride and go find some great deals!

3) There's nothing good at garage sales--it's all junk.  Well, one person's junk is another person's treasure! Don't believe me?  Scroll down for pictures.

Isn't he cute?!  Elephant teapot:  $5.

Pampered Chef nonstick skillet with glass lid: $1.

Fully-functional KitchenAid toaster: $3.

The list goes on...a $90 Pottery Barn square mirror for $5, a beautiful purple shower curtain with liner for $3.75, etc.  Plus, you get to meet really sweet people and explore new neighborhoods.

So go explore!  You'll be surprised with what you find, and maybe get inspired to host your own sale.  Make money and get rid of some things you never use--does it get any better?

Thriftily,

Amy

Grieving

"Grieving is a cyclical process." - A wise friend of mine.

 Truth.

178 days ago I lost a dear friend in a plane crash.  She was 21 years old.

I expected my grieving process to be linear and predictable, to follow a prescribed set of steps.  Denial?  Check.  Pain?  Check.  Bargaining?  Check.  Go through the seven stages of grief and you're done, right?

But it doesn't work that way.

The first few days were rough, and her funeral remains the most difficult day of my life.  After the first few weeks I expected things to slowly but steadily get easier, but they haven't.  I am constantly reminded of her by little things: wearing a certain pair of shoes that she also owned, seeing people who look like her in the grocery store, dreaming about her, seeing low-flying planes, and running across her phone number in my contact list, since I still don't have the nerve to delete it.  All of these instances spin me back into grief.  The cycle seems to continue forever; each time it's a little different, but it's always painful.

So where do I go from here?  I don't know.  I don't have any answers.  But I do know that the process of grieving and remembering her has, strangely, helped me move on.

I will never forget her, nor do I want to.  But I am confident that the memory of her will continue to be more joyful and less aching.

Looking forward,

Amy

Whisking music

My friend Melanie and I made a 4-layer lemon poppyseed cake yesterday.  Didn't it turn out well?

Isn't it pretty?!?  Okay, fine...that's not exactly how ours turned out.  We blame the heat and the humidity. But it was pretty delicious.  We filled ours with homemade lemon curd for a little extra tanginess, which used the five yolks left over from the cake.  Yum.  Here's the cake recipe, and we used this recipe for the lemon curd.

But during the 3-hour process, we discovered that Canadian a capella folk music makes for excellent whisking music.  The Wailin' Jennys, to be specific.

If you haven't heard of them, you are in for a real treat.  They are something very special--sort of a cross between Ingrid Michaelson and Celtic Woman.  Here are two of my favorites: "The Parting Glass" and "One Voice".  Take a listen.

No, really.

Then picture yourself whisking.  Doesn't it just work, somehow?

Peacefully,

Amy

PS - I figured out how to create links--can you tell?

Lost Curiosity

I'm currently reading Charles Dickens' "The Pickwick Papers" and loving it for several reasons.

1) All the characters have epic names.  Take Misters Snodgrass, Winkle, Slumkey, and Count Smorltork, for example.  These names play homage to Dickens' charming wittiness and sense of literary humor.

2) It reads like a play.  Some of the lines are so amusing and imaginable that when you read them, you can hear them being spoken in your head.  For example:

Here a lady (Mrs. Hunt)  is introducing Mr. Pickwick to Count Smorltork, a foreigner:

"Count Smorltork, Mr. Pickwick."
"What you say, Mrs. Hunt?  Pig Vig or Big Vig--what you call--Lawyer--eh?  I see--that is it.  Big Vig."
"No, no, Count, Pick-wick."
"Ah, ah I see," replied the Count.  "Peek--Christian name; Weeks--surname; good, ver good.  Peek Weeks.  How you do Weeks?"

Google tells me that the book was made into a 1952 movie and 1985 TV series, but I think it's high time for a remake.  Here would be my casting:

Mr. Pickwick, an insatiably curious and somewhat naive intellectual: Robin Williams
Mr. Winkle, a lanky sportsman: Owen Wilson
Mr. Tupman, a very fat romantic: Kevin James
Mr. Snodgrass, an emotional poet: Johnny Depp
Count Smorltork, a ridiculous foreigner: Sasha Baron Cohen

There.  Now that should incite some comments!

3) The premise of the book is pure intellectual curiosity, which I find tragically absent from the 21st Century.  Mr. Pickwick runs a sort of intellectual/philosophical club, where a group of men gather to talk about life.  They decide to send the delegation of Pickwick, Winkle, Snodgrass, and Tupman off galavanting around England, simply to meet people and hear their stories.

That sounds amazing to me.  Why doesn't anyone do that anymore?  By "that" I mean travel without an itinerary, talk to strangers, and just be generally curious enough to be willing to leave their home, family, and friends.  Granted, many of us don't have the wealth or time to undertake such an adventure. Then again, maybe our priorities are just wrong.  Maybe we just need to say, "Forget society.  Forget retirement funds.  I just need to get out of here and do something, anything, maybe even nothing."

I think it would serve us all well to be a little more Pickwickian.  Spontaneity, curiosity, and adventure are undervalued in the 21st Century.  Let's bring them back.

Curiously,

Amy

Day 2: Writers' block

It's probably not a good idea that I needed this website for my second post: http://www.blogtap.net/blogtopicgenerator/.  But was fun to see what ideas it generated for me.  Instead of writing about any of their suggestions, however, I decided to write about why I'm not writing about any of their suggestions.

1) What to do on a Sunday afternoon: As a college student, this is a no-brainer.  Frantically finish homework, realize you're out of underwear and actually have to do laundry, and scrounge up some dinner since you're out of meals for the week.  None of this sounded like good blog material.

2) The top 5 popes: Seriously?  I can't even name five popes.  Next!

3) Math or English: There's no discussion here.  Creativity trumps logic, every time.  But I thought that might sound a bit closed-minded, so I won't write about that.

4) The Braille system: Well, from my personal experience....umm....as a seeing person, I think it looks awesome (which is obviously not the point), but I have yet to ever see anyone use it, so I should perhaps refrain from commenting on its effectiveness.

5) Chocolate or vanilla: This one actually has some potential.  Life is built on variety, or at least should be.  There are chocolate days, and there are vanilla days.  Chocolate days are days of passionate emotion and either angst or cozy indulgence.  Vanilla days are happy and carefree.  But perhaps these are only my personal views, so I'll not impose them on anyone else.

So there you have it: 5 computer-generated ideas I won't write about.

Fondly,

Amy

Hello, what do you think of commitment?

Hi there.


I'm feeling a bit sheepish.  


I feel like I just walked out on a giant stage in front of 6 million people--6,840,507,003 people, to be exact--with nothing to say.  Which, in fact, I did.  Sort of.


I wonder: do I have anything to say?  I guess we'll find out together.  Knowing me, this could be my first and last blog post ever.  I'm excellent at starting adventurous projects and never finishing them.  Just ask my cross-stitch, garden, half-alphabetized spice rack and Jane Austen anthology.


But I'm getting ahead of myself.  Let me introduce myself: I'm a college student studying theology and pre-nursing, an unashamed foodie, a reader of books I don't have time to finish, a regretful coffee drinker, a bashful musician, and a garage sale addict.  Anything else you wish to know?  Well, I suppose that's what the comment section is for.  Ask away!


What will I be posting on this blog, you may ask?  Excellent question.  When I envision my blog, I picture stimulating philosophical debates and delicious, Pinterest-worthy food tutorials, and hopefully having at least three non-related followers.


But let's be real here.  As a (broke) college student, this could just turn into a place where I vent my latest diatribe against the education system, tuition fees, the seeming inability of guys to ask girls on dates, my historical theology class, and how cold Illinois winters are.


If the latter is the case, I give you full permission to roll your eyes at my impudence and cyber-stalk someone else, even if you are related to me.


Enough fluff.  I have a question for you all:

What makes men afraid of commitment and women so anxious for it?  Is this distinction unique to the United States?  Do culture, religion, political leanings, etc. have any bearing on this issue?  And what other implications can commitment have besides marriage?

This is not a rhetorical question; leave behind your thoughts/input/passionate rants. Let's make this blog interactive.


Wish me luck!  And stick around, okay?  There are few things more depressing in life than writing an unread blog.


Good night, Guten Morgen, konichiwa,  bonjour, and bienvenidos.


Amy