China
I think I can say it’s official that I am going to China at the end of December for about 7 weeks. I sent in my info for my visa last week. I think it’s also pretty official that I will be spending March in France. Which means I can be officially excited. Which means I am SUPER F*@#ING EXCITED!!!!!
I’ve been trying not to be too excited since I got word that this was a possibility. To have fully unleashed my excitement and then have it taken away from me would have been too painful, made worse by the fact that I would be spending my winter, still temping, in the Official Worst Place To Spend Winter*, the Midwestern United States (Siberia might be a worthy contender for that title but I have never been there. If you have, please comment). You would probably have found me sitting in the corner of my room, searching flickr for photos of the wonderful places I should be visiting and crying into my hot toddy.
I have wanted to go to China since I was 5. I know I’m an over exaggerator but this is no over exaggeration. When I was 5, I saw the TV special, ‘Big Bird in China’. I was completely enthralled. While watching that show my wanderlust was born. I remember seeing one particular part, where Big Bird takes a boat down what I believe is the Li Jang River to find the Phoenix Bird, and saying to myself, “This must be the most beautiful place on earth. I have to get there.”
Here’s the scene:
I mean, who wouldn’t want to go there?? It’s absolutely enchanting.
Unfortunately, I don’t think I’ll be able to make it to the Li Jang River. It seems to be pretty far from anywhere I will be. But as far as I know, the schedule isn’t completely set in stone. Perhaps with a couple days off I can get there. It would be nice to fully realize the dream.
I am looking forward to exploring the places we are visiting and reporting back. Luckily, I have a few connections to people in China. In my travels, I’ve found it so helpful to have a local showing me around, avoiding tourist traps and taking me to places I never would have known of on my own. In addition, I have never been to a place that is as culturally different to the US as China. And I’ve heard from friends that sometimes the great language barrier that can exist there tends to make one feel kind of helpless.
So here is where you could be very helpful. If you know anyone in China, can I borrow them? Even for just a friendly email exchange? I need people. And tips. Lost of tips.
Here are the cities in which we are performing as of right now: Shanghai, Huizhou, Chongqing, Hefei, Changzhou, Taizhou, Wenzhou, Beijing and Yantai. Now, I’m pretty decent with geography. At work, when I’m not busy and when I’m not staring longingly at flickr images, I’m usually taking geography quizzes. But I haven’t heard of most of these cities. When I started looking them up I was surprised by their populations. Hefei? Almost 5 million people. Taizhou? Almost 6 million. I guess I shouldn’t be shocked considering China is a country of over 1.3 billion people, but it just amazes me that there are all these ginourmous cities that I’ve never even heard of.
Oh yeah, as to why I’m going….I will be singing with an Irish group. I don’t think the outfit has been named yet. It seems it will be a dance show with a live band and some songs thrown in there. We’ve touched on some songs we might be doing but I’m looking forward to working on that further with the musicians. It might seem a little odd that I’ve signed up for something when I don’t even know what it’s called or what I’ll be singing but the music directors, Kieran and Liz, are old friends of mine. I trust them and admire them as musicians so I’m happy to be working with them. But really, they had me at ‘free trip to China’.
I’m really happy to be singing again, as well. I remember how much I missed singing when I dropped out of a perfectly good masters program for classical voice and went to work at a ‘normal’ job in Chicago. There were many things I missed about it, but I was surprised at how much I missed the actual, physical act of singing. It had been nearly the first time in 10 years that I wasn’t singing almost everyday. I’m looking forward to having that in my life again.
While 2010 is shaping up to be a pretty good year, I’m going to focus on enjoying the rest of 2009. And I can do it a little more contentedly knowing I won’t be sitting in this cube in a few weeks.
* This is not actually official
Filed under: China, Travel | Leave a Comment
Tags: Big Bird, China
I donated blood the other day. Right now I’m turning my shoulder so you can pat me on the back through time and space. They have a blood drive every couple months at work which makes it very convenient. Needles and blood don’t bother me and I actually kind of like donating blood. Is that weird? Perhaps it’s the free gifts. I’ve never met a free gift I didn’t like. So far I’ve collected a first aid kit, jumper cables and a captain’s chair. Perhaps it’s because it’s an hour off work. Perhaps it’s because it’s an excuse to gorge myself on sugar. “Self, you need that Babyruth. You’re donating blood!…Self, just finish all 6 Oreos in the package they gave you. You just donated blood!”
The most important reason is a little more personal. A cousin of mine was recently diagnosed with non-hodgkins lymphoma. He’s only a couple months into his treatment and he’s already received a great deal of blood. He wouldn’t have made it this far without it. It’s frustrating to have so little you can do to help in situations like these. Bringing over dinner, listening and cracking jokes is about the best I’ve come up with. And while my cousin isn’t getting my blood, it’s nice to know that someone took the time to give theirs to him and that someone else who needs mine will be getting it as well.
I remember when I donated blood after September 11th. That was the thing to do in the weeks proceeding the attacks on the Twin Towers. We were all looking for something, something to do to feel like we were helping in some miniscule, fleeting way. And that thing turned out to be donating blood.
I went with my roommate at the time, Hassan. We had been good friends in college and were both starting grad school at Northwestern that week, he for theater and I for classical voice. He had just flown back from Kuwait on a one way ticket and had just gotten a cell phone, that we both had to use for a couple weeks, on September 10th. We answered the phone in those following weeks with, “Hi! And make sure to say, ‘Hi’ to the FBI!”.
Class was canceled for a few days and we decided to go into Chicago and donate blood. Hassan was a bit anxious as I’m sure many Arab men were in the days following 9/11. The office was jam packed. After about an hour we were called, first myself and then Hassan. Now, let me just pause to reflect on how easy it is to pronounce Hassan – HAH-SAHN – two syllables, the same vowel. This is 1st grade phonics, people. But the name they called after mine wasn’t Hassan it was……wait for it……”HUSSEIN?? HUSSEIN??”
The conversations came to an abrupt halt, all eyes on poor Hassan. “It’s HASSAN. NOT HUSSEIN!!!” he yelled so all could here. But the damage was done. He was Hussein. Thank goodness the name has since been redeemed by one American President.
I know this sounds strange but I’m quite fond of my blood type, B negative. Any other B negs in the hiz?? Roughly 2% of the world population is B negative. We are an exclusive club trumped only by the AB negatives at 1%.
I’ve learned some interesting things about my blood type through the book ‘Eat Right for your Type’. First of all, they suggest I eat lean red meat, and dairy is fine as is caffeine and alcohol. That sounds easy. But what I like the most is that my blood type is descended from hunter gatherers and is found mostly in people of African and Asian decent. Ha! I’m nearly the whitest person I know! I love this because it is so not me. My prissy, dainty hands and feet (in fact, I’ve never met anyone with smaller thumbs than myself, and yes, I ask people to compare) would lead one to believe that I am descended from from some delicate ladies who spent their days lounging around their drawing rooms, reading and gossiping as in an Austen novel. Snooze!! I’d much prefer to have the blood of a hunter gatherer coursing through my veins.
Anywho, I had no idea I had this much to say about blood. And folks, I’m not telling you to go out and donate blood. I’m just telling you that if you do, don’t pay any attention to that “Don’t drink any alcohol today” bit. You can definitely have three glasses of wine later that night and still operate respectably. Trust me. *
* Don’t trust me.
Filed under: Uncategorized | 2 Comments
Hunter Lovins
One of the greatest things to come into my life lately has been the podcast and my new favorite thing about podcasting is itunes U. It’s amazing the schools and lectures you have access to through it. You can practically podcast your way to a college degree which is much cheaper than actually going to college and you can do it at your boring temp job. Unfortunately for me, I have a feeling that if I put ’Masters Degree in General Studies from itunes U’ on my resume, I would not be taken seriously.
I’ve been listening to a lot of things out of UC Berkeley, particularly from the Business School and the School of Public Policy. A while back, I listened to a talk by Hunter Lovins (sweet name) about the theory of Natural Capitalism and it really interested me.
What I think she’s saying is that true capitalism should look at all forms of capital, not just monetary, such as human and natural capital. To ignore the others to maximize immediate profits is unsustainable, not just for the environment, but for the long-term profitability of a company. She argues that the companies that are going to be most profitable going into the future are the ones who operate under principles of environmental sustainability. She has some examples of how this is already happening.
Asleep yet? Great.
I’m sure she can explain it better herself:
And if you want to hear her drop some serious knowledge bombs here’s a much longer video where she goes into greater depth about how sustainability can generate profits, increase productivity and innovation, enhance national security and how companies are putting it into practice. Oh, and she ties it all together with ‘Lord of the Rings’. Nerdalicious.
Filed under: Current Events, People Doing Wonderful Things | Leave a Comment
Tags: economics, knowledge bombs, podcasts, sustainability
All the Single Lady
I totally suck at keeping up this blog. Totally suck at it. And I’m sure that’s ok. And I’m sure that no one (hi mom and dad) misses it. But I do like writing about silly things whether anyone is reading or not. And I’m going to get a lot more interesting very soon, I promise. Well, for about 6 weeks, at least. I’m 98% sure that I’m going to be doing a tour of China with a yet-to-be-named group (not because I’m being secretive but because it really doesn’t have a name yet) just after Christmas. It’s nearly all booked but I’m going to wait till I get a contract or ticket or visa before I let myself get too excited.
Part of the reason why I’ve not had much time to write is that my entire summer was eaten up by weddings, nine to be exact, seven of which were on consecutive weekends, two of which I sadly had to miss. I am not complaining about this, though. Being with family and friends at weddings and the gatherings that happen around them is a pretty wonderful way to spend your time.
Which leads me to my next thought: Have you even felt like you were the only single person at a wedding? I’m sure many of us have. But, have you ever been at a wedding and looked around and realized that you are literally THE ONLY SINGLE PERSON THERE? This summer I had that delightful experience. At one point, Beyonce’s masterpiece ‘Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It)’ came on and I looked around me and it was all married ladies. Ok, one was engaged but the point is that they all had a ring on it.
Something in me snapped.
I proceeded to yell, “You’re not single! You’re not single” and push every one of them off the dance floor including the bride (sorry, Jill). The DJ responded quickly with, “We can let the married ladies dance to this song too!” (his allegiance obviously with the bride) to which I responded, “No we can’t! this is MY song…MINE!” It was momentary. Everyone laughed. And if you can’t laugh at yourself then, well, you’re dumb.
In fairness, there was one single gentleman there. But he had his shirt off for most of the reception. He was also involved in an alleged breast-grabbing incident. Plus, he kind of reminded me of Charlie from ‘It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia’ but a little less endearing. In light of these things and the fact that he was very sweaty, I stayed away from him.
Despite my episode, it was a beautiful wedding and a beautiful weekend. It was in Sutton’s Bay on the Leelenau peninsula. The Leelenau peninsula might be my favorite place in Michigan though Pictured Rocks and Beaver Island are close behind. Saturday and Sunday were spent driving the peninsula taking in the landscape, local food, trying to decide which cottage I wanted to buy and looking for Mario Batali. In fact, one of the reasons I want a cottage there is so I can become friends with Mario Batali. After reading this article, I can just picture myself sitting on the shore of Lake Michigan, sipping prosecco while Mario Batali makes me pizza in the oven he had flown over from Italy. Plus, I bet Bourain stops by from time to time.
Filed under: Great Lakes, Great Times | 1 Comment
Tags: Leelenau peninsula, Mario Batali, Single Ladies
SETI@home
I went through a phase where I really wanted to be an astronaut. While the catalyst for that might have been the awesome! movie, Spacecamp, I took it quite seriously, well, as seriously as a 9 year old can. I had my career path planned out. I was going to major in Astrophysics and then enter the Air Force and become a pilot. I was desperate to go to one of the real Spacecamps in Florida or Alabama (partially because I thought there was a good 50/50 chance that I, too, would be accidentally launched into space) but couldn’t find a way to raise the nearly $1500 need to do so. I still remember the two boys in my class who were lucky enough to go. About fifteen years later, still jealous, I had a conversation with one of the Spacecamp alums about his time there and, shockingly, he said it was nothing like the movie. Apparently it was kind of like a very long science class – no lovable, talking robots, no shuttle flying simulations, no accidental shuttle launches – lame.
My dreams were completely shattered when I found you have to naturally have 20/20 vision to be an astronaut. I have something more like 20/700 vision. That is not an overexaggeration. I am actually legally blind without glasses or contact lenses to correct it. I was crushed. I guess I still could have majored in Astrophysics (pause for laughter) and done something less glamorous on the ground but it seems my academic ambition peeked at around 9.
It has still remained an interest I fulfill by reading authors like Stephen Hawking and Brian Greene who simplify these complex ideas enough for me to understand them. But I found out yesterday that we can all take a more active role, at least in the search for extra-terrestrial life, with SETI at home. That’s right – E.T. Leave it to those hippies at Berkeley to think up this one.
So I think I’m going to run this on my own computer. Let’s find some aliens, people! Maybe they’ve figured out this healthcare thing. Maybe they will shoot us with lasers that come out of their eyes. Maybe they have fingers like sausages and like reeses pieces. I’ll let you know what I find.
Filed under: Uncategorized | 2 Comments
Tags: aliens, astrophysics, Brian Greene, SETI, Spacecamp
The Great Kale Giveaway
I planted a vegetable garden for the first time this spring. I am actually surprised at how little I know about gardening. My mom usually had a garden in the summer when I was growing up. I would have thought something would have sunk in via osmosis. And I loved helping my grandfather in his huge garden though, come to think of it, my job was usually limited to the finding and killing of slugs.
I’m considering this my starter garden. Some things are growing nicely like the tomatoes and eggplant.
Other things…not so much. The pole beans are a hot mess. I grossly underestimated the amount of poles needed. I planted three seedlings per pole and it has become clear to me that I should have only planted one. I’m sure that this is common knowledge that I have somehow missed. The poor beans are just grabbing onto anything around them, including each other, leaving this tangled mess on the ground with one lucky plant flourishing up the pole. I also misjudged the poles and trellises needed for some other plants as well. I tried to remedy this as they were growing but I think it was too little, too late. You can see my efforts in the photo below:
Are those ski poles, you ask? Why yes! Is that an upside-down clothes hamper frame?? Indeed it is! Kudos to my dad for making some trellis-like-things for me out of scrap steel from his shop. But clearly, it looks ridiculous. I mean, it looks like I just dumped a bunch of trash on it. Or it looks like some sort of art installation commenting on a post-industrial green revolution.
The one vegetable that is growing at a rate that I can not handle is the kale.
all this could be yours!!
Kale kale kale. I’ve been eating it nearly every day for weeks trying to put it into everything. I never really ate kale all that much before and I’m not that sure what to do with it. Honestly, I grew it because when I saw Anthony Bourdain’s show on Greece he talked about how all the greens in the Greek diet make them some of the healthiest people in the world. Well, I wanted to become a healthy, strong Grecian so I thought I’d try my hand at kale. I’m finding it’s one of the heartiest, easiest plants to grow. Here’s where you come in. The first person to comment with a recipe incorporating kale will win some kale fresh from my garden. I will mail it to you. Don’t worry, when it’s fresh off the plant it stays good for quite a while. If no one has a kale recipe then the first person to comment with the word ‘kale’ will win. Just type in ‘K-A-L-E’. Please? Pretty please?? And, mom, if you’re the only one reading well then, I will just hand some to you tomorrow.
Also, if anyone has any gardening tips I would love to hear them. Including what grows well in this area and when to plant it. I’m hoping to have a garden every year. And I’m hoping this will be the only one with ski poles.
Filed under: No Calorie Left Behind | 8 Comments
Tags: anthony bourdain, gardening, kale, slugs
Honeybee
I wanted to evangelize about one of my favorite places in the city of Detroit, Honeybee Market, after hearing that it had been robbed over the weekend from a friend who lives near to it. It seems like it was a premeditated, well-orchestrated operation where they went through the roof to steal the safe. I’m so disappointed to hear about this. While Detroit has a thriving farmer’s market and a growing urban agriculture movement, it is hurting for grocery stores and healthy sources of food. Detroiters, on average, have to travel twice as far to get to a grocery store than a fast food restaurant or convenience store. It is becoming a genuine public health problem.
This is one of the reasons Honeybee is so fantastic; it helps fills that void for southwest Detroit. It’s a large grocery store that, while it focuses on Mexican food specialties, has a good bit of variety, an awesome produce section and is reasonably priced. Their own brands are of great quality as well. I rarely buy guacamole, preferring to make it myself, but I can never pass up theirs especially since you’re greeted with a taste of that and their salsa, both made fresh daily, upon walking in the store. Another thing I love are the piles and piles of fresh, handmade, corn tortillas toward the back. You can get 20 for a dollar or something ridiculous like that.
There are few, food-centric events I love more than a good taco night. For the last one I hosted, Honeybee was the only stop I needed to make for the whole shebang. I picked up a pork shoulder there for only $0.99 a pound. I used this recipe for a pseudo-mole from my fave food podcast, The Splendid Table. It seemed to be a hit.
It’s so exciting to see a flourishing business in Detroit these days that is also providing a much needed service to the community. I realize there will be increased levels of crime from the sheer desperation that comes from a city with a 25% unemployment rate. But it’s still disheartening to see a few bad apples targeting a successful business that their community so desperately needs. I hope that Honeybee recovers from this quickly and continues to be successful. And for those of you nearby, I hope I’ve convinced you that it’s worth the trip.
Filed under: Detroit, No Calorie Left Behind | 6 Comments
Tags: Detroit, Guacamole, Honeybee Market, pork shoulder, Taco night
Eats
I wanted to share some recipes that seemed to be hits at a barbecue I helped throw this past weekend.
The first are mini-cupcakes with lavender vanilla buttercream. There is an ice cream shop in my absolute favorite place in the entire world, Dingle Co. Kerry Ireland, called Murphy’s. The story that was relayed to me was that it was opened by two American brothers who made a lot of money on Wall Street (I hope it wasn’t from credit default swaps, jerks). Eventually, they decided to get out of the fast lane, move to Ireland and make ice cream. Tough life, eh?
They make the ice cream at the shop using a lot of local ingredients. One of the many delicious things I’ve had there was lavender ice cream. It was surprisingly delicious. The lavender worked well in the rich ice cream. So I thought I’d translate that to some buttercream frosting.
For the basic recipes I turned to my girl, Martha Stewart. She has loads of cupcake recipes on her website. You can find the ones I used here and here. I would most definitely cut these recipes in half unless you’re planning on feeding over 50 people. I modified the frosting by using a Madagascar vanilla bean instead of extract and by adding lavender extract. I would suggest adding the lavender a few drops at a time and tasting often. You don’t want it to taste like you’re licking some potpourri. When I make these again, I will probably use a more traditional buttercream frosting without the meringue. It tasted fine but the consistency was a little off. Also, I would suggest using a high quality butter. I found some good, Amish butter at the local farmers market that didn’t break the bank.
As you can see in the photo, I put raspberries on top which, while they looked cute, I found they over powered the delicate flavor of the lavender. I would leave those off in the future. Learn from my mistakes, people.
The second dessert I made was kind of a s’mores pie/bars thing. The basis for this recipe can be found at smitten kitchen. I use this recipe for the ratios which I adjust depending how many people I am making it for. You do have to pay special attention to the temperature of the sugar/corn syrup/water mixture and that you do not add it to the gelatin too quickly. Otherwise the sugar and gelatin will separate. It will taste the same but just look kind of weird.
I made a couple of adjustments to this as well. I toasted some coconut with butter and sprinkled it on top of the chocolate after it chilled and before the marshmallow fluff was poured on top. Then I drizzled some caramel on top. Making caramel is super easy. It’s just equal parts butter and brown sugar (I think everyone left the bbq having consumed at least one stick of butter). Then just shave some chocolate on top and bam! done. And it only took 4 hours.
Ok, so while this dessert does have like 15 steps and does take quite a while to make, much of it is just letting it chill. It is made infinitely easier if you have a standing mixer.
And finally, I had a lot of questions about how to make the black bean burgers. The nice thing about them is that you can add everything to taste as opposed to meat-based burgers. I just basically take canned black beans, mash them and then add oats (I just used regular old quaker) till it is the consistency of ground beef. Tomato paste was my binder. Adding an egg would have been helpful but we had a vegan coming. Then for flavor I added diced red onion, garlic, cilantro, ground cumin, cayenne pepper and s&p, all to taste. I may have over cilantroized (<—new word!) them. I tend to do that because I love love love cilantro. I baked these at 375 (I think) for about 30 minutes and then fried them on a grill pan with some olive oil for a couple of minutes on each side.
Thanks to Anne Wainwright Mader for the photos!
Filed under: No Calorie Left Behind | 4 Comments
Tags: black bean burgers, cilantro, Dingle, lavender vanilla buttercream, Martha Stewart, Murphy's, recipes, s'mores
the woman who sits behind me
There is this woman who sits behind me. Let me begin by saying that she is very nice and I believe she means well. But she can also be a great test to my patience. She is one of those people, who we’ve all known, who will randomly reveal something way more personal/inappropriate than the otherwise benign conversation allows for – a sudden hijacking from normaltown to awkwardville.
In my time working in restaurants, I have met countless people like this. For some reason it seems many people working in the service industry have inappropriate things just falling out of their mouths. My favorite story comes from a woman I met while in training for a server job. Unsurprisingly, she didn’t last the week. While we were discussing the issue of over serving customers, she relayed a story about a friend of hers that went something like this:
I have a friend who had a few glasses of wine at Red Lobster for dinner one night. On the way home, her dog jumped in the front seat. She reached down to grab it and slammed into the back of a school bus. Her two year old daughter flew threw the windshield and was decapitated. She was able to say goodbye, though, because she lived through the next 24 hours.
The only reason why I am sharing this gruesome story is because I’m 1001% sure it is false. The first and most obvious reason being that humans can’t live 24 hours after being decapitated. Then there are all the other irregularities - why was the dog just sitting in the car while she was at dinner? Why was a school bus out at night? Was the child not buckeled and just wandering freely in the backseat?
Plus, she had a personal story to share for nearly every topic we discussed that week, many involving people dying shocking and untimely deaths (The first day she told us her boyfriend had just died the week before in a tragic snowmobiling crash as he turned around to wave to his brother). She was clearly a bit out of touch with reality.
Now, that is an extreme case and the woman behind me hasn’t said anything nearly that crazy. But this is how our conversation went this morning:
Me: Good morning! How are you?
WWSBM: I’m fine. How are you?
Me: Good, thanks.
WWSBM: It’s my brother’s birthday tomorrow.
Me: That’s nice.
WWSBM: He’s hard to get a hold of but I’m going to try to give him a call.
Me: That will be nice.
WWSBM: Yeah, if he’s not drunk this time.
*awkward silence*
Filed under: Uncategorized | 4 Comments
Tags: tmi
Iran
I am kind of obsessively following what’s been happening in Iran via Twitter and some blogs. The way people in Iran have harnessed technology to organize rallies and to act as citizen journalists and witnesses, countering what the government controlled media is putting out, is truly amazing.
To hear of hundreds of thousands of people gathering in peaceful protest, even with the threat of violence from the military, is awesome in the truest sense. These people are brave in a way that makes me wonder if I would be strong enough to do the same.
Filed under: Current Events | Leave a Comment
Tags: Iran
Recent Entries
Categories
- China (1)
- Current Events (2)
- Detroit (2)
- Great Lakes, Great Times (1)
- No Calorie Left Behind (3)
- People Doing Wonderful Things (1)
- Travel (1)
- Uncategorized (5)
