While we're at it...

...let's talk about Christmas.

I'M SO EXCITED.

I spent way too much money on presents, but I spent it on things that hopefully my family will really enjoy and use.

I've got PLANS for FRIENDS that I don't see often.

Let's just say I'm super excited and hope that the time doesn't fly by (which it will.)

And now, a short vignette from NYT about giving.

"Gifts fit into Christmas because memory and narrative are their medium, as well as caring. Money is not the point. Our son, as a child, once gave us a Pyrex lemon squeezer for Christmas, of the kind driven by hand-and-wrist power, with little spikes to catch the pips.

For 30 years we have thought of him (on and off, and more or less) every time we squeezed a lemon. The other day the object fell off our kitchen counter and broke. We are both very upset. We’ll buy another lemon squeezer of course. But salad-making in our house will never be quite the same again."

Margaret Visser is the author of “The Gift of Thanks: The Roots and Rituals of Gratitude.”

It's that time again.

We've reached the last two weeks of December - time for a post about the past year.

Last year around this time and into the first days of 2009, I made a lot of trips in white-out snow to Northern Michigan. Along the way I listened to a lot of NPR. I remember a fair amount of the coverage being about the election of Barack Obama, and when they played clips of his various speeches and sound bites, I came close to tears.

I can't believe that it's December again, moving swiftly into 2010.

A lot of thinking happened this year, about my job and my career. My best friend moved away, but he still comes back to visit. (As it happens, he came home a day early and is sleeping in my bed as I write this. I'm at work, the last day before a long vacation. It's about time.)

In 2009 I planned, planted, and harvested my first garden. If you're reading this, heaven knows you are aware of my deep love for my garden. It's sleeping right now, too. I've toyed with planting a winter garden of spinach with a cold frame, but it seems like a lot of work and I am confident that being outside in winter is not as much fun as in summer. Plus I have too many books I want to read.

I ventured into the crafting world, completing two t-shirt quilts for my two favorite people on Earth. Briefly, I considered going into business and selling them for $600 a pop. Then I realized I don't have the patience for such an endeavor. There are too many pins, my mom would have to be my full-time helper, and I would need a (much) bigger sewing machine.

We had a lot of happy weddings in 2009. I believe I blogged about 2008 being a year of funerals, and how much I was looking forward to the weddings. They lived up to the expectations and were wonderful. A year-end round of loving congratulations to: John & Beca (5/2), Trisha & Scott (5/16), Kristen & Chris (6/20), Spencer & Cindil (7/19), and Amy & Bill (10/16).

2009 welcomed baby Rowan into the world, too. And for my dear friend Lauren, there wasn't a wedding, but a promise of one when she and Chuck got engaged.

Lots of new love and new life.

This year I was reminded again and again (and again) of how wonderfully fortunate I am to have such an amazing family. Every day I try to summon endless gratitute for their love and support, for their laughter and their honesty. I recently learned that the arbitrary circle we draw to include people in our families can keep changing, but it's the feelings that remain the same.

It's also the end of a decade (the naughts?). Over the past 10 years, I've moved from middle school, to high school, to college, and to a grown up job. Holy cow, that's a lot of change. This is the first end of a decade that I am able to think about in a very nascant grown-up way.

Which means I can't think of anything to say except... "WOW."

On the horizon for 2010: who knows?

Let's try to be more empathetic, and focus on others. We'll take ownership of our work and take pride in our accomplishments. Continue to be grateful, humble. Say yes to social events, call more friends, settle Catan, and continue our Archwood dinner parties. Visit the library more, read lots more. Sew those throw pillows. Go to the gym. Cook dinner with vegetables. Make big life decisions.

2009, it's been a real pleasure getting to know you, but I'm very much looking forward to 2010.

Lifelong Confusion

The following conversation occurred as I was preparing to receive the H1N1 vaccine on North Campus.

Nurse: "Are you right-handed or left-handed?"

Me: "Left-handed."

Nurse: "Turn your chair around, we'll do it in your right arm since you're left handed."

Me: "Okay."

Turns chair around with help of nurse.

Nurse: "You're the first left-handed person I've seen today."

Me: "...I'm not left-handed."

Nurse stares blankly at me.

Me: "Did I say I was left-handed?"

Nurse: "Yes."

Let this prove, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that I have had a lifelong struggle differentiating between "left" and "right." Good grief.

Another 5

I love Jen and her sister and her friend K for making these lists, so I'm hopping on the bandwagon.

Five good things about today:

1) I felt productive at work. Finally.
2) I started an educated ab workout at the gym.
3) I decided it's now okay to listen to Christmas music. Sing it to me, Nat King Cole.
4) I haven't used the elliptical machine at the gym recently (since college) and today I wasn't even going to GO to the gym, but when I made myself, I thought "I'll just use the elliptical," and who should be right next to the only open machine but the most beautiful girl in the world - my sister!
5) I'm making a delicious dinner of pumpkin and chard spaghetti.

U of M and the Economic Climate

Five things the University of Michigan has not had to do that our private-university peers have had to do due to the severe economic downturn of 2009:

U of M:

1) Does not have any taxable debt to pay.
2) Has not halted any construction projects.
3) Has not changed the endowment spending or payout (distribution calculated over a 7 year average).
4) Has not instituted any hiring or salary freezes, furloughs, or layoffs.
5) Has not stopped investing in our campus and our community: in June 2009 finalized the purchase of the North Campus Research Complex (former Pfizer complex), and commited to hiring 100 additional outstanding faculty members.

Also see this article from the Institutional Investor: http://www.iimagazine.com/pensions_and_endowments/Articles/2331336/University-of-Michigan-Cool-Character.html?p=1
Hail!

Top Chef is my life.

One of the very few TV programs that is on my must-watch list is Top Chef. I enjoy sitting on the couch in my pajamas, eating Meijer-brand ice cream or something else tasty and plebian, while reveling in the cuilinary triumphs and foodie missteps of perfectly normal and famous strangers. Often, Aaron and I will text back and forth about the drama, because if BRAVO does one thing, it's DRAMA (furnished by the Glad family of products!). Example:

"jersey mike is such a jerk"
"oooh eli should tuck in his shirt"
"robin is going home this time"
"WTF?!?! robin is still here now i miss jersey mike"

The producers of this show always make it painfully obvious to the viewers that in order to be successful and be crowned the ULTIMATE TOP CHEF (until next season) you have to make the food that inspires you, make "your" food, and execute it with the utmost degree of professionalism and chefery. Now. Nothing bothers me more than when a contestant (Eve, most notably from this season; sorry Mitten) acts like a big fat baby and worries about the kind of food that the judges want to eat and that the judges will think is clever and that will make the judges want to drool all over your crisp white cheffy coat. But really, when they try to make the food they think the judges want, they get all confused and make half good food, half sloppy mess and start crying in the stew room about how terrible they are and how much they miss their son/daughter/restaurant and they really ARE top chef material, and then they get to judge's table and start blubbering about how they were going to really truly make their style of food this episode but then Jersey Mike had this really great idea about chilled cod and polenta instead of regular food that they've actually executed successfully in the past. Then that adorable piece of man Tom Colicchio says something snarky but chock-full of truth and before they know it Padma is telling them to pack up their knives and JUST GO.

I sit on my couch and think smugly to myself, "Hah! You should have made your food, you silly cook!"

So...why in HEAVEN'S NAME do I do the same thing at my job?!

I need to suck it up, quit worrying so much about how someone else would do it and start putting my own stamp on the work that I do so that I'm proud of every contact report and project that scoots itself out of my office, instead of wasting time reading hilarious blogs that other quater-life-crisis-20-somethings write at their entry-level jobs.

I will do this until the second I decide to pack up my knives and move down to Cville.

Welcome back, winter.

Lots of my previous blog posts have gone into great detail about how much I love my garden. With fall approaching, I thought about the bountiful harvests and the great big plants and the warm autumn sun.

I forgot that this part would happen.

From Garden Summer 2009

On the first night that it got below freezing, which was a few weeks ago, I remembered to cover my plants. Last night, however, I was not so clever. The leave of my poor tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, and basil have all withered and died in the chilly October night.

From Garden Summer 2009

From Garden Summer 2009

From Garden Summer 2009

I'm super happy I already made a giant batch of pesto, because that basil is finished.

From Garden Summer 2009

The last harvest of 2009:

From Garden Summer 2009

But, that's the circle of life. The dead plants will make for really happy new plants in the spring. Plus, I've still got one beet alive and kicking, and some winter kale that can be picked out of fresh December snow.

From Garden Summer 2009

Happy fall!

A Lesson in Blogger Etiquette

Katie just gave me a shout-out on her blog, so I thought I'd return the favor (for the 4/5 of my readership that isn't Jennie). She posts yummy recipes, funny stories, lovely pictures. AND she just got published in a magazine so the writing is tip-top.

Check her out: http://kitchendoor.wordpress.com/

Blogging is a good way to get over the post-lunch sleepies, also. Word to the working wise.

When Kurt Vonnegut tells his wife he's going out to buy an envelope:

"Oh, she says well, you're not a poor man. You know, why don't you go online and buy a hundred envelopes and put them in the closet? And so I pretend not to hear her. And go out to get an envelope because I'm going to have a hell of a good time in the process of buying one envelope. I meet a lot of people. And, see some great looking babes. And a fire engine goes by. And I give them the thumbs up. And, and ask a woman what kind of dog that is. And, and I don't know. The moral of the story is, is, "Listen, we are here on Earth to fart around. Don't let anybody tell you any different". And, of course, the computers will do us out of that. And, what the computer people don't realize, or they don't care, is we're dancing animals. You know, we love to move around. And, we're not supposed to dance at all anymore."

Kurt Vonnegut

Found this in a birthday card my Dad sent me. I love my Dad.

Happier and Productive Dummy

Here is what I have been up to lately.

I have been organizing my projects and processing systems at work, because I figured out that the reason I was so stressed out was because stuff kept piling on top of my to-do list and I had no way to prioritize or organize or anything, which kept me worrying about stupid stuff and not actually bringing my best thoughts and energy to work.

Very demotivating.

My colleague Paul recommended this book to me, and I started reading it. It's called Getting Things Done by David Allen, and I am a complete convert. Let me just say, it makes a lot of sense. The guy is a personal productivity guru and he has this method that helps you develop a process for collecting your information so you don't have to think about anymore. Then you process it (decide which action to take), organize it, review it, and do it. Worth checking out; I find myself recommending it to everyone and their mother.

Guys, I learned how to use a tickler file. From this book. No one teaches you this stuff, you have to do it yourself. At least, no one taught me...

Anyways, one of the things he recommends doing is spending two days in your office clearing out all the open loops of stuff, projects, etc. that are bugging you. SO... this weekend I went into work and "implemented the process" (I know, I know, drinkin' the Kool-Aid here, but bear with me). It was hard. It took forever. I missed the first half of the Notre Dame game. (I KNOW!) I probably spent 6.5 hours Saturday, 7 hours Sunday, and 3 today after work doing this. Mostly filing reference stuff (ugh so awful) but it's done now. DONE.

And here is the best part: I feel much better. There is still tons of work to be done, but now I actually know what it is and where it is. I had a whole year's worth of stuff that had piled up in someone else's system that I had been using. My office finally feels like MY office.

I don't know what kind of dummy works all weekend to create less work, but that's the kind of dummy I am.

Youper.

I want to write a post about Michigan's Upper Peninsula after visiting some donors/alumni up there. There are notes in my little black notebook, but I haven't processed them yet.

Beet Risotto

The beets were literally pushing themselves out of the garden, screaming to be cooked.

So I looked up some recipes and found this Beet Risotto on NYT Well Blog.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/07/health/nutrition/07recipehealth.html

The recipe called for roasted beets, which is really just cooking them in a casserole dish in the oven for about an hour until they are soft and sweet.

I didn't like beets when I was little. I would often brag that I would eat anything - except sauerkraut and beets. Now I think they're delicious, although not as much pickled, and I'm especially excited that they came out of my garden. I had two giant ones, and there are a few smaller ones still in the ground.

The recipe also called for chicken stock, and I was going to use vegetable stock until I discovered that the can in my fridge had been there for an embarrassingly long time (longer than the milk...yikes). BUT never fear, I had one last bag of chicken stock in the freezer that I made back in November or December. And it was perfect, it smelled like I had just made it. Nothing wrong with a little protein.

Aaron and I learned how to make risotto last winter when we were looking for ways to use some leftover pumpkin from the famous annual pumpkin stew. Aside from the rice being a little expensive, it's really pretty easy. And honestly, there are few better smells than olive oil, butter, onion, garlic, and white wine cooking together. Oh. Man.

So this risotto had the roasted beets, the beet greens, and some cheese. Pretty basic, but super delicious. I recommend it if you have any inkling towards beets.

Pictures later, maybe.

Lunatic ravings about my garden.

Can I tell you something about my garden? I come home from work on a beautiful late summer afternoon. The day has been long, the sleepy hours unproductive and filled with facebook status updates. My favorite thing to do, when I come home, is look at my garden. It is a respite. I absolutely and unabashedly love my garden. It's tiny, and probably couldn't sustain me for very long if I depended on it to stay alive. Although, to be fair, I've eaten a giant beet, some cherry tomatoes, broccoli, basil, cilantro, spinach, and my weight in lettuce. But it's so much more than food.

Let me show you what I mean.



A progression of the garden from spring to mid August.

It's Friday, I had a modest harvest, and I'm pretty content.

Aaron's internet is better than mine.

I'm in Charlottesville VA this weekend helping Aaron move into his permanent home. He's living with 4 nice guys: Dave, who owns the house and is very tall, Will, Eric, and Logan. They take care of the house, it's all painted, and has a great yard.

I like it here.

When I get home, I'd like to make some sun-dried tomato hummus, a blueberry galette, and start on a project or two. I also want to read more. And go shopping for new clothes.

Cheese Update

Last night I went to Meijer to look for halloumi cheese. No luck, but I did find Michigan blueberries, so all was not lost. I ended up getting some other sheep/goat milk cheese in case I didn't have time to look anymore before making the salad tomorrow.

But, the story does not end there! I had a few minutes after a donor visit this morning, so I returned a scrapbook to the scrapbook store, and decided to stop by Arbor Farms. They had it! I found it! I should have known that they would carry it.

Ann Arbor, you have yet to let me down.

Halloumi Cheese Adventure: Longest Blog Post to Date

I know many of you (read: Jennie) have been clamoring for a substantive blog post about my life since Memorial Day, but instead I will write a long post about halloumi cheese. You might be wondering,"What is halloumi cheese?" Read on my friends, read on.

Last Saturday I went to the Farmer's Market and got, among other things, some zucchini and some chard (yellow stems). How fortunate for me that in the next Wednesday's Ann Arbor News (RIP) there were two recipes, one for lemon rice wrapped in chard leaves, and the other for a zucchini and halloumi salad with balsamic dressing, to be served with grilled peaches and/or whitefish. YUM.

I made the rice/chard dish, it turned out lovely. Not my favorite, but it was good. I wanted to make the salad with my sister. She's vegan, but only sometimes, and said she would eat the cheese and fish. Excellent.

So the salad was somewhat of an adventure, seeing as I've never even heard of halloumi cheese, much less eaten any of it, but the article said it was now becoming available in most local markets. It's a harder cheese made of sheep's milk that stands up to grilling/broiling well. Its description reminded me of paneer, for those of you familiar with Indian cuisine. The recipe also said you could substitute provolone, but that seemed too easy. I take after my dad - if you're going try a new recipe, you'd better find the right ingredients. It helps to explain our family motto: "no guarantees." That's different from our other motto, which is "always take some for yourself first in case there's not enough," but that's a story for another time.

Reusable bag stuffed into my bike's old green saddlebags, I peddled down Packard and Stadium towards Trader Joe's. It seemed like a good place to start; they're rumored to have a good assortment of cheeses and other local goods.

But I was actually pretty disappointed with the selection. No halloumi cheese, but also no frozen pie dough, no whitefish, and a sad selection of peaches. They also didn't have Michigan blueberries, which is a shame because they are most assuredly in season and even more assuredly delicious. I ended up only buying balsamic vinegar and bread, and putting my name in the reusable bag drawing to win free groceries for when I feel like making something a little less adventurous that calls for California blueberries.

I made my way back towards my apartment and decided to stop in Morgan & York, a wonderfully eclectic wine/beer/vinegar/cheese specialty shop. Tucked discreetly between a sketchy looking dry cleaning place and Oz Music, Morgan & York has a very pleasing assortment of candies, big metal casks of vinegar and olive oil, and rows and rows of wine and beer.

Hopeful, and ready to spend a little more than I was willing to shell out at Trader Joe's, I walked to the back of the store where the cheese counter resides. Before I even got the chance to look, the guys behind the cheese counter asked if they could be of any help. Why yes, they could. I asked if they had any of the sheep's milk cheese, describing it as the article did and telling a little bit of background about the recipe. Specialty cheese guys want to know this kind of stuff, I figured. They both had puzzled looks on their faces as I described halloumi, and said that they hadn't even really heard of it, and did not have it in stock. However, they were extremely helpful, and Cheese Guy #2 even looked it up in a book on cheese they had lying around. "You have a book!" I said. "We have several," said Cheese Guy #1, smiling broadly. They told me a lot about the cheese, and suggested a few other kinds of sheep's milk cheese that were way, way, too expensive for this recipe. I am not about to spend $20 on a half pound of cheese to feed to my vegan sister, though I love her dearly. Cheese Guy #2 told me about a few other places to try, mentioned that he didn't think Whole Foods would have it, and I was on my way back home.

One thing I realized as I was talking to the guys at Morgan & York was that although the article said the mystery cheese could be found in "most local markets," the article was taken from another paper that was not written by an Ann Arborite. What is considered local to the Associated Press is beyond me, which might be why neither Trader Joe's or Morgan & York had the stuff in stock.

Now I'm sitting at my house eating dinner because I got hungry, and the places that the very helpful Cheese Guy #2 at Morgan & York suggested lie beyond where my biking motivation levels are right now. I'm thinking about checking out Meijer (plus I need some other stuff like Michigan blueberries), and the other specialty stores he suggested, if they're not closed already. I also Googled "halloumi cheese ann arbor," and found that a woman in Chicago used to get the best halloumi somewhere in Ann Arbor, but they closed. Another site devoted to Cheeses of the Month had this to say:

"If you’ve never heard of Halloumi, it’s not surprising. It has been the cheese of the Mediterranean island of Cyprus for centuries and authentic Halloumi has only recently been exported to the U.S. Some vociferous Cypriots living in Ann Arbor, Michigan convinced the award-winning, Zagat-rated Zingerman’s Deli that Halloumi was worth pursuing. Their passion for this special cheese—combined with Zingerman’s passion for pleasing customers—is our good fortune.

Tasting Notes: What is special about it is that it has a very appealing flavor that's unlike any other cheese: mellow, but not in the least boring, mildly feta-like, notably tangy, and never too strong. Halloumi can be enjoyed almost any of the ways you'd eat other cheeses: sliced up as is for a simple snack, cube it in salads or melted it in or on casseroles. But the best way to eat this unique cheese is to fry it or grill it—briefly—until its exterior is a lovely golden brown. No other cheese grills up as nicely as Halloumi.


The light, golden-brown crust bubbles up on the outside of the cheese; the interior gets soft, not quite runny, but very delicious. Grilling Halloumi is easy. Simply slice the cheese into half-inch thick pieces, lay them on a hot skillet that's been lightly brushed with olive oil. (You can go without any oil, if that's your preference). Leave the cheese in the pan about two to three minutes, until it's lightly browned on its down side. Carefully flip the slices and fry the other side. When the cheese is golden brown on both sides, serve them one of many ways. Enjoy them solo as an appetizer with a light drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and a grind of fresh black pepper. Or try them with wedges of ripe melon. Top the fried Halloumi with a caper sauce consisting of salted capers, soaked for a few minutes to remove the salt, (then drained) and mixed with olive oil, vinegar, a bit of lemon, some crushed coriander seeds, chopped fresh cilantro leaves, chopped garlic, sea salt and freshly ground black pepper." http://www.cheesemonthclub.com/cheesefeatured/featured.htm

Don't they make it sound delicious?

Also interesting: http://www.concentratemedia.com/features/annarborpackardplatt0055.aspx?referrerID=242b14d4-d503-4634-9b66-3472f21da00b and http://www.yelp.com/biz/aladdins-market-ann-arbor.

Anyway, enough about my cheese adventure. Coming soon: pictures of my garden!

Happy Memorial Day!

The number one thing I am excited about at this very moment is my garden. My dad brought me more plants this morning, among them 3 varieties of peppers, eggplant, tomatoes, and basil. He started those in his greenhouse for me - he's kind of the best. I planted the basil and was swooning from the smell.

Everything is coming along wonderfully - the spinach, broccoli, lettuce, beets, and cilantro. The green onions are taking their sweet time, but that's okay. I thinned the lettuce today, and will have definitely enough to have salad/put lettuce on our lamb burgers tonight. Oh, it will be so good.

Here's a little before/after action:




My dad built those fences to keep the animals away, and it's been doing a fine job.

Ann Marie and Barbara, our neighbors, like to chat with me while I'm working out there. They are super nice, and I've even inspired Ann Marie to put a little more work into her flower beds. I'm awesome, what can I say?

Monday, monday.

On Friday, I made a list of donors to call, what steps to take with them, and where I thought each of them fit into the "donor cycle." I'm hoping that this helps me get a little more organized and motivated to move people more quickly towards making a gift.

This weekend was quite lovely. Friday we spent time playing Settlers of Catan, drinking margaritas and Miller High Life, and dancing to live country and hip-hop from 2001 at Diamondback. Saturday was a sunny walk to the Big House to watch Aaron graduate, a lunch in Saline, a quick nap, and a beautiful wedding at the Kensington. And Sunday we slept in, I thinned my lettuce plants, and planned Kristen's wedding shower with my Mom.

I want to put up pictures of my, literally, budding garden soon.

Dreams

"Last night, I dreamt that it was the day before Kristen's wedding shower, but it was also the day before her wedding. We were in some version of her house in East Lansing, and Deb was there, and lots of people were there. Chris was there, too, and he made some joke and then I told it the right way, and we had a good laugh together and I said something to the effect of, "Oh we're going to get along so well!" That was in the early evening, when it was starting to get dark, and we were sitting at some kind of bar.

During what I think was the next day, Deb had 24 people sitting around this big dining room table, and they were making sort of the invitations that Mom and I made for the shower, only they were something else entirely. Deb sent me around the house to find old Polaroid pictures of Kristen when she was little, but I couldn't find any and kept coming back with stacks of the wrong pictures. I was excited because I knew I would be in a lot of pictures, but I wasn't in many of them and that made me a little sad.

It turned into night, and I was sitting around a table with my sister, Brittany, and 6 or 7 other people smoking pot. When I inhaled and coughed, Brittany asked in a very concerned way if I was okay. Sarah was either laughing at me, or she didn't know what she was doing.

The next thing I knew, it was the day of the wedding, and I wouldn't have known except I opened up the door to a room, and the ceremony was almost over. Kristen, who was in a white crocheted dress, saw me and told everyone to stop, that I needed to come up and sit in the front with everyone else. Deb came to get me at the back of the church, and I was glad that they had made an effort to include me, but felt like they should have told me that the wedding was today instead of accomodating me after I found out."


Instead of working, I'm writing about my dreams, and trying to motivate myself to work and not daydream about falling asleep at home listening to the rain.

On finding your passion:

Blogger Jason Seiden writes about finding your passion - you can't follow your passions, you need to grow them.

"So before we start exploring this option or that one, we need to stoke the flames first. And that means staying focused on one thing. One fire. It may not be the location for the eternal flame, you may not even last a year where you are, but right now, we have got to invest everything we have in getting ourselves fired up about it before we can move to someplace else, because just like a campfire, if we move before the fire’s burning, it’ll go out and we’ll have to start all over.
Stop running around trying to find your passion. Your passion is already in your hands. It’s delicate, and it needs to be cultivated—wherever you are right now—before you can transfer it."

http://jasonseiden.com/the-trick-is-to-find-what-youre-passionate-about-and-do-that-right-wrong/

Confidence

Sometimes, when I'm feeling unsure of myself and my abilities, I'll sing, in my head the song that Maria sings in the Sound of Music when she's going to the Von Trapp's house for the first time, "I Have Confidence." It usually works for me. But where do other people get their confidence? For a lot of people, it's probably not that easy.

I was was the 40 millionth person to read an article about Susan Boyles, the unlikely singing sensation from Britain's Got Talent, and had some thoughts about confidence. Here is a woman, with no job, not conventionally pretty or fashionable, and 47 years old - certainly past her prime by most standards. So was Paul Potts, the winner of the first season of the show.

Both of them got condescending smiles when they walked on stage. Both were judged immediately. But they had enough confidence to sign up, walk on that stage in front of thousands of people and three beatiful and famous people, and sing their hearts out. And I was the 100 millionth person to watch them sing, and think "Oh how wonderful, blah blah blah." I realize that I'm not the first person to think these things.

What really got me about their stories wasn't the ugly-duckling-turned-swan thing, it wasn't the frog-turned-prince thing. It was the thought that there are so many little kids (and grown kids) out there who are automatically judged as worthless by their teachers, parents, peers, and even strangers. They don't look pretty, or they're not smart, or they're poor, so they're not given any opportunity to shine, to sing, to dream, or to succeed. And I think that is a damned shame. If there's a lesson to be learned here, it's believe in everybody, because I think everyone has something to contribute.

Oh my gosh that was so sappy, sorry.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/18/arts/television/18boyle.html?em=&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1240264885-0sgHH531EqtMKak1YhhwSQ

Coffee

A pleasent morning for me starts out by making some coffee at home, and bringing it to work with me in the blue Starbucks travel mug that Sarah and I bought probably 10 years ago specifically for non-coffee based drinks. I read the New York Times online for a little bit and then (hopefully) start working.

My favorite kinds of coffee that I've tried at home are of the Eight O'Clock variety, and here I'll share with you my rank-order preferences.

(1) Red Bag (original): Very good. Possibly my favorite.
(2) Purple Bag: Also very good, sometimes too bitter. But it smells exactly like chocoalte when you open the bag.
(3) Brown Bag: This one's okay.

There you have it, guys.

It's raining here and on the 9th floor of Wolverine Tower, it's kinda foggy and you can't see very far. The smell of worms is in the air.

Ruminations on Gardening

Today I planted seeds for my first-ever garden. People don't tell you (I guess namely my Dad and the blogosphere didn't tell me) that planting seeds is kind of scary. Why? Because I've put so much planning and thought and excitement into these little babies, and I don't want them to die. I have to protect them from rabbits and nasty squirrels by fencing them and buying coyote pee in a jar at Meijer. And I will protect them, because I would really like to eat the vegetables that come out of them. Here is my plan (click to enlarge):




Hopefully it will look like that only less cartoony when everything has grown for real!

Other fun things that happened today included painting my nails summer-red, and trying on all of the summer dresses that I have. 70 degree days will make you do that. AND I got a sunburn on the back of my arm when I was watering all the freshly-planted seeds!

Summer, I'm so ready for you.

Diggin' on Judith Warner from N.Y. Times

I've really come to enjoy Judith Warner's column (blog?) "Domestic Disturbances" in the New York Times. To me, she has a really insightful way of discussing some really pertanint social issues. Like this week's column (Dude, You've Got Problems), for example, about the implications of boys calling other boys "fags," "queer," and "gay." It's not entirely about homophobia, it's not entirely about bullying. It's about percieved femininity. I'd encourage you to read the whole thing here: http://warner.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/16/who-are-you-calling-gay/.

It was one reader's comment about that post, though, that really stuck with me. "I went to a conference on bisexuality about 15 years ago. A woman there said to me, "I wish you gay men would stop putting your energy into fighting homophobia and instead put your energy into eradicating misogyny. Because the problem society has with gay men isn't that they're with other men - it's that they're men who are "acting like women." If it were ok to be a woman in this culture, homophobia would just disappear." I think she's right." (Jess Thompson-Adams).

And, in another post (Looking Beyond the Brass Ring), Warner quoted one young woman's insight on achievement and life: "You can be good at a lot of things or bad at a lot of things, and it has virtually no impact on whether or not you are good at life." Right now, I can really relate to that.

I was going to post this on Twitter, but realized it was too long. So there you go, Judith, you warrent a whole blog post.

Graduation Picture FAIL

Happy Weekend!

This weekend has been pretty good. Friday, we dressed up as villains for Tasha and Bridget's birthday party - I was Rosalyn from Calvin and Hobbes, and Aaron was the East German Bobsled Team guy who gives the Jamaican team shit in Cool Runnings. We drank a ton of wine, ate tiny cupcakes, and socialized our metaphorical pants off.

Saturday was the MSU-UCONN game, and because the Final Four games were in Detroit, we decided to head down and check out the sights. They had a cool thing on the Riverfront called the Big Dance, where the Pussycat Dolls played a free show. You might not be at the peak of your career if you're playing a show, free of charge, in Detroit, for the NCAA basketball tournament. But I could be wrong. Here's a video of them singing:




Notice the 10 year old girls on their Dad's shoulders, enjoying the show. Maybe it's just me, but these ladies really aren't the best role models. And I'm happy to announce that I'm now a big fan of Hu$tle King, who gave me a copy of his break-out Jesus rap album, YUNG B.I.G. (Believing In God). I gave him 5 bucks, and Aaron and I enjoyed his faith-filled beats all the way back to yuppie Ann Arbor.

We watched the first half of the game at St. Andrew's Hall, which as those of you from the area know isn't really set up for a sports-watching party, though it lends itself well.

We consumed some cheap beer and then went to Niki's Restaurant in Greektown. Delicious pizza, terrible service. Instead of going back to East Lansing to celebrate with our Spartan friends, we decided that we'd had too much Spartan Spirit for one day and went home to watch a movie, "The Edge," with Anthony Hopkins and a very young and sassy Alec Baldwin. There were a lot of bears, and I am terrified of being attacked by one now.

Today has been filled with laundry, sprinkling cayenne pepper on my newly-emerging tulips to deter horrible hungry squirrels, and a trip to Meijer to buy pineapple and bacon for our pizza tonight, as well as some of those strips for your nose that peel out all the blackheads (yes!).

Virginia is for lovers.

This weekend Aaron and I drove about 10 hours down to Charlottseville, Virginia so he could go to a campus day for a PhD program in systems engineering. He had a good time, and I got to wander around Charlottesville for a while by myself. Aaron learned about the program, I got coffee, read the paper, drove downtown and walked around, got lunch, and talked with Aaron on the breaks he had. We struggled to find a delicious pizza dinner and a parking space, and then went back to our hotel and crashed. All in all, we had a pretty great time.

Weather-wise, things weren't so great, because apparently the week before we came temps were in the high 70's, but when we were there it was snowing. You heard right, folks, snowing. The trees had buds on them, early bulbs were flowering, but there was snow in the air. And the next day, Saturday, when we went to Monticello it was very rainy and chilly.

Instead of boring you with the itinerary of our journey (long car rides, chats, walking, driving, more driving, eating, sleeping, seeing UVa, Thomas Jefferson, etc.), I'll share with you Aaron's and my conversation about how much higher our standard of living is than it was in Thomas Jefferson's days. (Edit - maybe I'll write it all out later).

3:00 Nap Time - PLEASE!

Really, I only need about 30 minutes and I'll be good to go.

For the past month or so, I've been thinking of clever blog posts and titles, none of which ever come to fruition, either because it sounds better in my head than on a page or because I'm too lazy to type it out. Potential topics have included: missing my parents and sister when they're not in the same state as I am, a nice talk with my sister on the ride back from the airport, Shaq's weird Twitters, growing older, adult life, sunshine, making delicious pizzas, supporting Aaron as he decides what to do with his life next year, how I might have had bronchitis for a week, etc.

But in the name of procrastination, I'm blogging a small blog about how sleepy I am right now at work. I had two oversized cups of (really delicious) coffee at Cafe Zola this morning during a donor visit, then ate a pretty decent sized lunch, and am now nodding off while looking at Excel spreadsheets of potential donors I am supposed to be calling. The song that is playing in my head is the theme song from "Astronaut Jones," that skit on SNL that Tracy Morgan did a bunch of. We can thank Aaron for that one, and the fact that NBC was playing SNL "Best Of" specials last night.

I really want to call people, but have gotten very discouraged. And sleepy. I don't know how people with children survive on a daily basis. Staggering. I always think about that Seinfeld episode where George takes a nap under his desk and builds the ultimate napping environment. That sounds perfect right now, except you can see under my desk from the hallway.

Being old

I always wonder what my life will be like when I am 30. It sounds terrifying, but I don't think it will be.

Example: I was looking on facebook at an old friend from my PP days, who is about 30 (or even 35, gasp!) who has two kids. She was at a book club with her friends, and it looked like something I would enjoy; educated women talking about books and drinking wine and eating food. There was also a picture of all the wine they drank - 11 bottles of wine for 15 people. And one of them was Three Buck Chuck.

I will be cool like this when I am old. Book clubs and Charles Shaw wine.

Work parties.

Today was our post-campaign, postponed-holiday party bash for the UM development crew (all 450 of us) at the UM golf course clubhouse. We celebrated raising OVER $3.2 billion dollars over 8 years for tons of fantastic programs and research that save lives, educate minds, and do lots of other sweet stuff.

The room was kind of hot, with fairly low-ceilings, and people packed in around the food tables. There is also a student jazz quintet playing loudly in a corner, so people are shouting a little to make themselves heard. As I'm talking to my boss and one of my other colleagues, the VP for Development comes up to me, Heineken in hand, and shakes my hand while loudly exclaiming, "Kelly! How are you? ...How old are you?!"

...to which I immediately start blushing and say, "22...," much to the amusement of my coworkers. I always am slightly terrified of people at work talking about my age, mainly because I am a baby.

"Hah!" he said. "That young, and look at what you'll already have on your resume. $3.2 billion!" And he walked away smiling. It was nice of him, and pretty funny. And then the other woman I was standing with said, "And you have braces! Sorry, I thought since we were already talking about your age, might as well throw that in!"

Right. But, all-in-all, it was pretty fun.

XKCD's "It might be cool."

("And ovaries. Man, ovaries, huh? [awkward pause] ...faithfully.")

A change has already come.

I feel like the political changes that were promised during Obama's campaign will take months and years, but this is a change that has already happened, regardless of the political changes that may or may not take place, that will have social implications for America. To me, this quote just speaks volumes about what the Presidency of Barack Obama means for this country.

"For well over two centuries, the United States has been vastly more diverse than its ruling families. Now the Obama family has flipped that around, with a Technicolor cast that looks almost nothing like their overwhelmingly white, overwhelmingly Protestant predecessors in the role. The family that produced Barack and Michelle Obama is black and white and Asian, Christian, Muslim and Jewish. They speak English; Indonesian; French; Cantonese; German; Hebrew; African languages including Swahili, Luo and Igbo; and even a few phrases of Gullah, the Creole dialect of the South Carolina Lowcountry. Very few are wealthy, and some — like Sarah Obama, the stepgrandmother who only recently got electricity and running water in her metal-roofed shack — are quite poor."

From New York Times article "Nation’s Many Faces in Extended First Family" by Jodi Kantor
January 20 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/21/us/politics/21family.html?em

Vagina!

This awkward encounter happened because I had to spend another night in Traverse City to go to an Alumni Club board meeting tonight.

I walk into the hotel lobby to check into a room. As often happens in lobbies, there's a TV on. But usually they're quiet TVs, on CNN or something. This TV was loud, and was playing what could, I suppose, have been a CNN special called "Ask Our Doctors and Specialists". So the first thing I hear, loudly, when I walk into this hotel lobby is something like, "...the first state will be a red rash on the vaginal lips...", which caught me slightly off guard.

Normally, I don't have an issue with discussing sexually transmitted diseases and the like, but this seemed like a strange topic to be blasting on TV in a public space. Not everyone is as comfortable with the subject as I am, I would imagine.

I also thought that they were just covering a story and would go back to other news. But, they continuted talking about vaginas and breasts throughout my check-in process. To make matters a little more awkward, the man at the desk was a little strange. His name was Jon, and he looked like he's probably in his late 30's, with patchy brown hair that is depressingly combed over his balding head. He had a very soft-spoken demeanor, and was very polite. Our conversation went something like this:

Jon "Can I have your last name?"
Kelly "Reinhardt. R-e-i-n..."
TV "Now, if you make the incisions around the nipple, the woman will still have sensation around her breasts..."
Kelly "...h-a-r-d-t."
Jon "Your telephone number?"
Kelly "734-272..."
TV "Vagainas are great! You can't imagine what it is like to have a vagina! Vagina!"
Jon "Great, you'll be in room 247."
TV "VAGINA!"
Kelly "Thanks so much."

I'm not kidding about how much they said the word 'vagina.' I was signing some papers for good old Jon, and I had to keep myself from laughing because they kept saying things about vaginas. It was very strange.

Coffee Observations - A Little Hope

So I'm sitting at a coffee shop in Traverse City waiting for my lunch meeting to start. There is a guy who looks like he's about 17 or 18, kinda lanky, with a sweathirt on underneath his leather jacket. He has a mop of red hair, and earlier he was looking out the window very dejectedly. Playing with his hands, kind of wringing them, looking off in the distance and not at the book or the newspaper that lie unopened on the counter.

I hear him make a phone call, and he gets someone's voicemail. "Hi Mom," he says, "I'm just calling to say that I'm sorry...if I was curt with you earlier today. This whole thing has been pretty stressful and hard for me, as I'm sure it has been for you too. So I just wanted to say I'm sorry."

It was so sad and touching, that I don't know what he's talking about and I don't know what they are going through but obviously there is a little hope because I heard it in the message.

Entitled to My Opinion

I was listening to some great anti-choice radio on the way up to Northern MI today, and I heard a woman talking about how obvious it is that life begins at conception. "These unborn babies are people, humans as much as you and I," she said, "they are just like us, they are Americans."

...Hang on a minute.

Now, we can debate for hundreds of years when the beginning of life occurs, so I won't go there right now. However, the idea that each of these unborn babies is American points out, to me, exactly where the flaw in the anti-choice logic lies.

No baby can be American until it is born. If you took that baby, and put the woman in another country, and she became a citizen of another country, the baby would also be a citizen of Sweden, France, Russia, or wherever it was born. Even if the baby was born in America, it could be adopted and it could go anywhere. It could become African, Indian, Czech, or even a fundamentalist member of Hamas that grows up to learn a hatred of America. The baby could be born to a anti-choice mother and grow up to work for Planned Parenthood. I'm just saying.

You cannot be American in the womb. You are not American until you LEARN to be American.

I'm not sure how sound my logic is either, but I'm hoping you'll get the point.

The Day in Pictures

10:30 a.m., January 20th 2009

The most powerful man in America

12:00 p.m., January 20th 2009

The most powerful man (and woman!) in America!!!

YAY YAY YAY!!!

(Thanks to the NY Times for this picture that I messed up a little.)

Note to Self - Valentine's Day Lunch!

I think it would be fun to have a Valentine's Day lunch at our house, since it's on a Saturday. And invite my parents, and Sarah and some of her friends, and Linda and her friend and the kids, and Daphne and Darby, and Aaron's parents, and Tony and Kelli, and Josh and maybe his parents, and Britain if he's around, and Lauren and Chuck, and Teja and anyone she'd like to bring, and Parker, and Aaron and Rory maybe. And anyone else who would maybe like some love.


Everyone can bring something shaped like a heart, like a side dish or something, or cookies, or drinks that are red. And Aaron and I can do a main dish in the slow cooker, and we can maybe watch a movie or something!

This might be fun.

On future plans.

At this point in my life, I would rather live in a city with things to do (be aware that my definition of city includes Ann Arbor) than in a giant house in a tiny little suburb or town. I thought of this because I was considering my options for what my next move is after this job. Being well aware that I haven't even been at my job 6 months, I do think I get to at least ponder broadly about future plans.

What I decided is that I am pretty open. Lots of things sound cool and I am going to have lots of great skills to take me various places.

So here's hoping I'm brave enough to let the wind carry me somewhere interesting for a couple years.

Also, today is the 50th anniversary of Motown Records. I do love that sound.

New Year's Resolutions

1) Read more books. Currently on the list: Twilight (yeah yeah...); "A Fraction of the Whole" by Steve Toltz; the book Dad gave me for Christmas about living the good life, "Simple Prosperity" by David Wann; "Dreams from my Father" by Barack Obama; "Three Cups of Tea," and others.

2) Make more delicious recipes and keep baking bread. This includes using my Dutch Oven and our slow cooker.

3) Eat healthier and smaller portions.

4) Walk home for lunch more often.

5) Start running two days per week instead of one.

6) Close a gift at work.

7) Open a Roth IRA (Due no later than January 15th). YAY! Start fundings it...

8) Learn a new video game (like Lego Star Wars II!).

9) Travel to Chicago, New York, L.A., and Portland to visit my friends.

10) Decorate my damn office (Also due no later than...being generous...January 30).

11) Take more pictures and post them on Picasa. Maybe get Flickr if I overload there.

12) Be nicer to everyone and more compassionate.

Goodbye 2008

I was thinking about what things 2009 might bring while I was out running today, and thought that perhaps I would blog about it.

So far in 2009, I have organized my pictures on my computer, gone to New York City, cooked some food, and walked fewer times on my once-per-week mile run than in 2008.

Things that will be exciting in 2009 will be: Amy and Bill's wedding, Scott and Trisha's wedding, John and Becca's wedding, and Spencer and Cindil's wedding. Lots of weddings. Also, Aaron will be doing something exciting with his life, and that will be fun (hopefully not sad) to have happen. I will still be in my job, there will be lots of things to do and places to see, and hopefully I will close my first gift. It would be great if everyone could be happy and healthy this year.

I don't know what 2009 will bring, but 2008 was definitely a rollercoaster of a year. Lots of funerals, lots of scary news and surgery. But that surgery was followed by good news. I graduated from college, have a fantastic job that still freaks me out, and have wonderful friends. Tony and Kelli got married! Friends left, new friends came. Lots of events happened in the world that were both wonderful and tragic. Barack Obama will be our next president. My Wolverines football team had a dissapointing albeit record-breaking (sigh) season. There was love and loss and hope and scary things.

Here's to 2009!