Life Less Ordinary

I never realized how much time I wasted on the computer until I got my new one. During the six months I had to go without, I attributed my overabundance of free time to things like not having to go to class or being unemployed (which, granted, are both viable excuses); in actuality, however, my lack-of-internet was the culprit all along.

Not being wired for a pretty substantial length of time gave me a chance to do other things -- like read. I hadn't read for fun (at least not more than a book or two) in years, and yet, I found myself checking out things from the library in double-digits and demolishing three or four good-sized novels every week. On top of that, I also watched tons of movies I'd never seen -- some good, some not-so-good -- and caught up on all the TV I'd missed while I was pretending to be a busy busy college student (well, at least the stuff I could get for free).

Now, the five minutes or so that I used to spend on the computer daily (just to check my email and such) often manages to stretch into hours. When I think back on where that time went, I can't even remember what I was doing half the time. You know how microwave minutes are always longer than regular minutes? Well, I'm pretty sure you can fit about ten internet minutes into one normal one. Don't ask how or why...that's just the way it is. I do know that I spent four hours the other day playing stupid games on Yahoo. FOUR HOURS. How does that even happen?! (I'm ashamed to say that I'm kind of addicted to the time-management/own-a-restaurant-and-serve-your-customers-the-correct-things ones, which is weird considering that I would never in a million years want to work in food service.) The fact that I somehow fall into a time-sucking vortex every time I turn the computer on means that I am so much less productive than I used to be. I'm down to one book every two weeks, if I'm lucky, and my ability to watch an entire season of something in one day? Gone. (I know that it doesn't sound like I was being super productive in the first place, but at least it felt like I was getting things done, even if those things were only polishing off season three of Rescue Me or reading a memoir in two days.)

I've decided that something needs to be done about this nonsense, so I'm going to limit my computer access for a while...I'm not sure how yet, but it's going to happen. (By the way, that four hours I spent playing games took place while I was "taking a quick break" from the job search. My brain clearly doesn't want to continue with this charade.)

Speaking of jobs, I have job-related news! I've been volunteering with a campaign since I hit the 6-months-post-graduation mark (which also coincided nicely with interviewing for the position with CC...imagine that). Anyway, the organizer (/speechwriter/volunteer coordinator/policy analyst/research fellow) was conspicuously absent from the wiki for a couple of weeks, and I was a little concerned because he usually updates daily. Having checked Google News and not finding his name in any incident reports (what? I said I was concerned), I shot him a quick email asking what was up. He responded a few days later saying that he had actually decided to transition out of the campaign and that they were looking for a new organizer (duhn-duhn-DUH). He didn't offer me the job or anything, but he said that if I was interested, he would recommend me and get me on the short list, which is better than nothing. Also, they're looking specifically for someone with event organizing experience, which I have. We'll see. This all happened towards the end of the workday on Friday, so I'm thinking no one's even going to be looking at candidates until Tuesday or Wednesday at least, but it's exciting nonetheless! I'm not getting my hopes up though...I learned my lesson after last time. The jobs itself looks pretty intense -- the only paid employee, 50+ hour work-weeks, commuting to SF pretty often, and minimal pay -- but it's actually something I could see myself doing as a career, and you can't get much better than that.

Other things: I'm trying to get out and be more social. I'll hopefully be joining a Stammtisch at some point (it's like a language club...you just go to a bar and drink and practice German with other people who are learning); I also found a group of recent grads that meet up all around the area, and they seem really cool. I'm not sure whether I can bring myself to go alone though, since they seem to all know each other already. But if I bring some friends along, there's no way I'm going to meet anyone new. Quite the conundrum.

Well, happy September! It's starting to look like Autumn here, but it certainly doesn't feel like it with massive heatwaves and such. We're having a Labor Day BBQ tomorrow to enjoy the weather while it lasts.

The Candy Man Can

Hello to all of you lovely people out there. I decided another update was in order, as my previous post wasn't very informative. Also, there are pictures (!!!), so read on...

Things to which I have been up (it doesn't sound right, but it is grammatically correct):

• NightLife at the Academy of Sciences: Museums are probably second on my list of "favorite things ever" (trivia capturing the top spot, naturally), so when I heard that the Academy was hosting weekly after-hours parties for the drinking-aged set, I was so in. It wasn't quite what I was expecting: I naively assumed it would be a bunch of like-minded twenty-somethings who showed up for the learning and awesomeness instead of being in it for the drinking, but I was wrong. Still, it was pretty cool. The highlight of the night was some guy hitting on me in the "Extreme Mammals" exhibit. I totally shut him down without realizing that he was attempting to chat me up, and I felt really badly after I figured out what had happened. Oh, me.  

Tree frog!

Jellyfish are so photogenic.

Overlooking the aquarium walk-through.

Lepidopterophobia: fear of butterflies.

• I HAVE A NEW COMPUTER. Also, a new printer/copier/scanner thing and a new iPod (of the Touch variety). There is too much technology around me! I can't possibly handle it all. I haven't even delved into the mysteries of the iPod yet, but my MacBook and printer are both amazing and I love them. I also love the fact that I no longer feel disconnected from the world and everyone in it. It's pretty awesome. 

• I went to the Boardwalk! A little history, for those of you unfamiliar with the wonder: Built in 1907, the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk is California's oldest amusement park. It's one of those parks where admission is free and each ride costs a certain number of tickets. Basically, it is pretty much amazing, and every week during the summer, they have 1907 nights where everything only costs a dollar. So we decided to go. S and I went early to avoid traffic and hit up Capitola on the way. The only affordable thing in Capitola: salt-water taffy. We bought almost a pound and a half. Then it was off to downtown SC (which is a lot like Berkeley, only cleaner and less frightening) for some dinner. Delicious dinner, might I add. No I did not have the Skippy Burger. And then Boardwaaaaalk! We had to ride The Giant Dipper twice because it's my favorite and also the best ride there. (Oldest roller coaster on the West Coast. For some reason my friends didn't really want to know that fact. I have no idea why.)

 

SO GOOD.

Deliciousness.

Please note: Skippy Burger. Ew.

 

 

YES.

• News from the job front: The organization with which I interviewed updated the job listing to extend application dates, which, I'm assuming, is their not-so-subtle way of telling everyone who has already interviewed (see: me) that they haven't found the right person yet. Thanks for that, CC. Sure, I would have given up my hopes of going abroad so you could overwork me for what was sure to be less-than-minimum wage, but why should you email me to tell me you're not interested? Why would that be necessary? No, I wasn't waiting by my computer, obsessively checking the listing for any changes, just in case. Where did you get that preposterous hypothesis? It's very frustrating, although I'm sure I'm preaching to the choir. Just...how hard is it to send an email? I mean, really? Stupid. Anyway, I'm applying for a job in the language lab at one of the community colleges around here. It's not quite full-time, but I would still get benefits (awesome) and I would have time to continue volunteering in the political scene if I felt so compelled. I'm actually kind of qualified too, so I'm hoping I'll at least get an interview. We'll see.

I guess that's it for now! I hope you all enjoyed this photo-heavy post. It was kind of hell to put together, so I might keep updates to one or two pictures from now on.

Happy August!

People Are People

For the past couple of days, I've been helping my friend, S, with a little art project. Maybe "little" is the wrong descriptor; let's try "preposterously huge and insanely difficult" instead. She's moving into her very first apartment in a couple of weeks and has been going a little crazy with the decorating ideas. The most recent one was a coffee table. But not just any old store-bought coffee table. This one was going to be custom-made, collapsible, and the tabletop was going to be a black-and-white photo collage of her and her boyfriend, D's, favorite moments. (Okay, I know all of you know who I'm talking about, but just humor me.) My description makes it sound kind of ridiculous, but it actually looked amazingly cool when we were finished with it. Anyway, helping her cut, paste, and place all the photos from their respective childhoods and beyond made me a bit nostalgic for my own past, so I paid a visit to my grandparents' garage.

Why my grandparents' garage, you ask? As it turns out, I don't actually have any baby pictures of myself. Actually, I don't have any pictures of myself before I was about nine years old. Unfortunately for me, neither do my parents. It seems that in the hustle and bustle of post-divorce changes of address, all of the boxes containing my childhood photos were lost, never to be seen again. Sad, but true. Luckily, my grandparents were ardent pack rats and saved every single photo my parents ever sent them. (Not-so-luckily, my parents were less-than-diligent about sending photos after my brothers were born, but I'll take what I can get.) So, today I made my way over to the house to see what I could dig up.

I didn't really know where to start, but after some searching, I found some of the photo albums I was looking for. Of course my brothers had a whole scrapbook, but baby me was conspicuously absent. More searching revealed a couple of "cards and letters" boxes that looked very promising, so I dug into those too. Sadly, no photos, but, elbow-deep in spider webs, I discovered something even more precious: I managed to catch a glimpse of my grandparents as real people.

They both died when I was young. Not super young, mind you, but they passed before I was old enough to consider them as anything other than "my grandparents." Digging through the correspondence they'd sent each other over the years, I realized that they were real people who were really and truly in love with one another. I know it sounds stupid -- of course my grandparents were real people -- but I honestly never even considered the fact that they had lives before they were grandparents. People tend to think of time in terms of their timeline, as in "oh, that happened before I was born" or "yeah, I think I was about 7 when that happened." Even as a student of history, I find it really hard to come to terms with the fact that people were living tens of thousands of years before I even existed. Grappling with the idea that my grandparents were living lives and experiencing things ridiculously similar to my life, 60 years later, really rocked the metaphorical boat. I read through what might possibly have been the very first letter my grandfather ever sent my grandmother: one in which he explained that he had broken off his four-year relationship to a girl he didn't love, a girl his family expected him to marry, and requested permission to take my grandma out on a date. I spent hours reading those letters. I experienced their lives as they got married; their trials and tribulations as my grandpa was drafted into the Navy during the Korean War and as he tried to comprehend the senseless violence that was occurring all around him; and the eagerness and hope that kept him going as he waited for the day when he would be discharged, so he could build his dream house and be with the woman he loved. (It sounds like one of those sappy historical dramas, right?) I even found their wedding photos and the bible that was used during the ceremony, inscribed with the phrase "May you live a long and happy life together." And they did. At least, I think they did. Like I said, I never really knew them as people, but finding all this stuff -- all these memories that had been literally just gathering dust for years -- really makes me wish that I had. You can't change the past though. For now, I'm just thankful for the fact that I have a second chance to get to know them as people and not just as my grandparents.

Also, in case you're wondering if I was successful in my original quest, I was. I did ultimately find a handful of ridiculously adorable photos of me, and since I've been told that a picture is worth a thousand words, I'm including one of my favorites.

I originally had a different photo in mind, but baby me was nakey, and I wanted to preserve at least some of my dignity.

A legitimate update later, I promise!

When You're a Stranger

I love trivia. I mean, I love it a whole lot. I could regale you for hours with little tidbits of information I've picked up in the twenty-two years I have been on this planet. It's one of the reasons I'm so good at all things historical; I just remember things: names, dates, places, sequences of events. I have no idea why my brain works the way it does, but I love it. (This savant-like tendency applies to song lyrics as well, but that is slightly less handy and a lot more annoying for everyone around me.)

Still, even though I watch Jeopardy religiously and worship Alex Trebek like he is the modern-day equivalent of the golden calf, I recently had to come to terms with the fact that not everyone has the same kind of respect for useless knowledge that I do.

Case in point: pub quiz. My passion for the trivial has made me a stalwart devotee of Quiz Night at the local bar. Every Tuesday, rain or shine, win or lose, I am revved up and ready to go, but my teammates have become slightly jaded. It's understandable, naturally; I mean, I think the best we've ever done is second-to-last place (unless you count winning for "Best Team Name," which is sort of an honor but doesn't really make anyone feel less dumb). Long story short, after weeks and weeks and weeks of losing horrendously, and in the spirit of communal sacrifice (on my part, at least), it was decided that pub quiz would be forsaken in favor of something a little more appealing to the rest of the group.

With that, I was on the hunt for a bar that would satisfy all our needs (cheap beer being top among them, I'm not gonna lie). I found a few that looked promising, the reviews made the rounds via email, and last night we hit up a place called The Oasis. Sounds relaxing, right? Um...wrong. It was loud and kind of dingy with a not-so-prime strip mall location and a loyal group of middle-aged regulars in various states of inebriation -- basically everything a dive bar should be. The barkeep swore like a sailor, we were constantly harassed by one particularly stubborn drunk (he was hitting on one of us...we just never figured which one), and there may or may not have been a fight in the kitchen during our brief stay. Still, despite all this, it was one hell of a night; I mopped the floor with the opposition at pool (sorry, guys) and learned a whole lot more about some of my friends over a pitcher at the local watering hole (which, in my opinion, is really the best way to get to know someone); honestly, what could be better? Let's just hope next week can measure up.

In other news, there's still no word on the interview front. People keep telling me that they're jealous that I have this very specific idea of what I want to do with my life, but outside of working for this particular organization, I'm really pretty clueless. I mean, where do you start looking for a job when your goal is to change an entire political system? Should I try to worm my way into the bottom rung of the political food chain or should I head straight to the source? Should I accept any old job just to make some money or should I hold out for something I'll actually enjoy? There are just so many questions. Anyway, I'm giving them until Friday, and then it's open season on the job front. I'm being a bit pessimistic at the moment because being pleasantly surprised is a lot better than being bitterly disappointed in the end, so I'm just trying to keep my options open.

What else? I'm still rock climbing, and I've managed to keep myself relatively healthy somehow. (For someone as injury-prone as me, that's saying a lot.) I'm also in the throes of summer and am trying to soak up as much sun as humanly possible with camping and BBQs and trips to the park. It's working out pretty well too. Oh, and I made cupcakes! Peanut butter cup cupcakes, to be precise. If there is a more perfect combination than peanut butter and chocolate, I certainly haven't found it.

Happy July, everyone!

The Song Sings Itself

I didn't realize until a couple of weeks ago that I've been keeping a pretty regular pace of one blog per month on this thing. Unfortunately, once I realized that, all my attempts at updating for May failed. (I currently have three other posts "in progress" and unpublished on my dashboard, and who knows when, or if, I'll ever get around to finishing those.) Anyway, here is one last-ditch effort.

It's been a particularly drizzly month in the Bay Area. The way the local meteorologists are telling it, you'd think we were bracing for a flood the likes of which only Noah has seen. As it stands, however, we're just experiencing a bit more weather than usual. Personally, I couldn't care less -- I love the rain -- but as May bleeds into June, I find myself missing the sun.

In an effort to escape the nimbostrati* that have been hovering over my beloved hometown for the past few weeks, it was decided that a road-trip to Santa Cruz was in order. Google Weather for the area was holding steady at a sunny 73°, and although the Northern California coast is famous for being a bit finicky, we figured we would give it a go nonetheless.

We hopped in the car in the early afternoon and made our way to Natural Bridges State Beach. I'm still not really sure why they call it that, because I didn't see any bridges (natural or otherwise), but it was a nice beach all the same. After laying out the towels and getting all sunscreened up, I began my most recent library find -- Smile When You're Lying: Confessions of a Rogue Travel Writer by Chuck Thompson -- and let my mind wander. It naturally made its way across the Atlantic and wound up smack dab in the middle of the Cote d'Azur. Don't worry, I'll spare you the details of my month spent backpacking along the Mediterranean (I know, even I'm jealous of me), but I can't help but think back on that time whenever I find myself face-to-face with The Big Blue. And when I do, I start missing it more than ever. I'm not really talking about the places I went, although each was amazing in its own right (even Florence, despite the fact that it was never under triple digits, temperature-wise, when I was there); it's more a feeling that I miss: the feeling you get when you're traveling without any reservations or set plans. It's a feeling I had after graduation, when it seemed like the whole world was at my fingertips, but it's gradually begun to seep away. Now that I've completed my resume (it took me a whole week, but I did it!) and have started sending it off to potential employers, the world available to me seems to be shrinking by the hour. I started with all seven continents (alright, let's be realistic and say six...you couldn't pay me enough to go to Antarctica), but the radius has now narrowed to "commuting distance from my dad's house." Sometimes it feels like I'm suffocating in this town, which is an odd feeling for someone who had only been out of the United States once, and only for a day, before a year ago.

That little bit of mental meandering somehow managed to color the rest of my time in Santa Cruz. We headed downtown once we'd absorbed all the vitamin D we could and spent the few daylight hours we had left window shopping (actual shopping was avoided on my part, but not for lack of trying). I couldn't enjoy it properly, though. There was always this little voice nagging at my subconscious: you should get a real job before you buy anything. But what if I don't want a real job? What if I want a job so spectacularly amazing that I won't even care about buying things anymore? Well, who doesn't, right? Even in bookstores, we somehow always managed to end up right next to the travel section; Europe was literally staring me in the face. I just couldn't get away. We had dinner at a tiki bar, and all I could think about was dropping everything and just moving to Hawai'i. It's a pipe dream, sure -- I mean, what would I even do there? -- but it's been done before, and I don't see why it couldn't be done again.

I guess I'm just wondering if this level of dissatisfaction is normal. There must be people out there who are happy to just go from college to career and then work their way on up to retirement and beyond. Should I be one of those people? Or is it okay to want something more?

Am I some sort of travel-crazed mutant who needs changes of scenery to grow strong? Is the prospect of adventure my radioactive spider? (Wow, that was nerdy.)

It's all too much to think about right now. I really wish someone would just grab me by the shoulders and point me in a direction, any direction. But I guess being a grown-up means there's no one around to make my decisions for me anymore. This song, sadly, won't sing itself.

*Yes, it is a real word, and yes, I did do research to figure out a fancier way of saying "rain cloud."

Life or Something Like It

Warning: this post is a bit more intense than usual, full of revelations and whatnot. Continue reading at your own risk.

The long-time drama teacher at my high school died yesterday. It was sudden; he was teaching class on Monday, and by Tuesday he was gone. Heart attack. And that was it. Word spread like wildfire -- I got phone calls, facebook messages. His online profile was overwhelmed with memories from his students, both past and present -- stories of the impact he had on the lives of each and every one of them. The facebook group created in his memory went from sixteen members to over a thousand in the span of twelve hours. And I didn't feel anything. After all, I had never taken drama. All of my friends had been thespians, so of course I spent the majority of my time in the drama room with them, but I had never actually known the man. Spoken a few words to him, maybe, but I had never really known him.

It hit me like a freight train this morning: even though I had never taken his class, never had a conversation with this guy, he had more of an impact on my life than possibly any other person I had ever known. He never judged me. He never asked what I was doing in his office or why I was hanging out in the theater after hours; he just accepted that I was there and, since I was going to be there anyway, put me to work. By giving all of us, the so-called outcasts of the caste-like system present in most high schools, a place where we could be ourselves and stay out of trouble, he opened doors that never would have been opened otherwise. I met best friends and boyfriends in that office. That 16'x10' room, plastered from floor to ceiling with the marks of a beloved teacher -- senior portraits, thank-you notes, and of course the belongings of students who enjoyed a brunch or lunch spent in Tim's office more than almost anything -- turned my slight curiosity about theater into a passion and a love. I have so many good memories of my senior year because this man let an inexperienced newbie (me) who had never taken a stagecraft class in her life, who didn't know a thing about building a set or running the fly, work on one of the biggest productions our district had ever put on. I had finally found a place where I felt accepted for the person I was, not the person I thought people wanted me to be, and Tim made it all possible.

Drama simply won't be the same without him, and I consider myself very lucky to have had the chance to know this amazing person even just a little. I hope he knew what an impact he had and how loved he truly was.

The Little Woman

It's amazing how comforting baking can be. I think it's the fact that, no matter what, you will always get a concrete result, which is something that can be said for very little else in life. I always feel accomplished after a date with the stand mixer, and in these uncertain times, I definitely appreciate the little victories.

On the menu today: apple turnovers. I've been attempting to recreate some of the foods I loved in Germany, and near the top of my to-do list was a little pastry called an "apfeltasche" (literally: apple pocket). Every time I walked into the Innenstadt in Göttingen, I would pass this little bakery that had the most amazing goodies: raspberry-and-creme-fraische-filled scones, cheesy bread, marinated chicken pockets...I'm drooling just thinking about them. If I had a choice, though, I would always grab myself an apfeltasche. There was something about the combination of the flaky croissant-like crust and the warm, gooey, cinnamon-apple-y innards that could brighten up even the gloomiest of gloomy days.

I decided that today was the perfect opportunity to try out the recipe I found in my new cookbook, How to Cook Everything. It has recipes, as you would expect, for practically anything you could possibly imagine. I've already tried out a few and it hasn't failed me yet. I figured today would be the perfect day to try out another -- all of my friends were working, it was pouring rain, and my car was on the fritz. Little did I know, apple turnovers weren't going to be the easy-peasy dessert I had thought them to be.

Step one: Core, peel, and grate four tart apples. -- Simple, right? Coring was the first problem. There is actually an implement in my kitchen, purchased long ago, called an "apple corer." You'd think it would have been specially designed to perfectly core an apple, but it wasn't. It's basically a ladle, but instead of a spoon at the bottom, it has a metal ring (supposedly the size of an apple core, but in reality, much too small). At the bottom of the metal ring, it has tiny teeth to eat through the skin and flesh of the apple. Of course, it managed to cut through the skin and flesh of the baker as well. After I bandaged myself up (clumsy people really shouldn't work in the kitchen, but I can't help myself), it was onto the peeling. You'd think if coring was an issue, peeling would certainly give me a couple more band-aids here and there, but I made it out alive. Lastly, the grating. For those of you who don't know, apples are slippery. Apples are especially slippery without the skin. Add a box grater to that mix and you have a recipe for disaster. I'll just leave it at that and let your imaginations run wild from there.

Step two: Mix in fresh-squeezed lemon juice, lemon zest, cinnamon, sugar, and corn starch. -- This step was easy enough, but naturally some of that fresh-squeezed lemon juice managed to leak into one of my freshly-applied bandages. Nothing stings like lemon juice on an open wound.

Step three: Cut sheets of puff-pastry (homemade in theory, but I took the easy way out and purchased some from the store) into squares, place a spoonful of the apple mixture inside, and seal into triangles. -- Also, not as easy as it sounded. My apples were apparently extra juicy (that's what she said) and the mixture kept spilling out over the sides of the puff pastry. I ultimately had to suck it up, dirty another dish, and strain the bejeezus out of that stuff. Once I had solved the seepage problem (I know, I'm making this super appetizing), I sealed everything up, sprinkled sugar on the top, and scored them so they wouldn't explode in the oven.

Step four: Bake in a 350-degree oven for 40 minutes and eat. -- The baking part was a piece of cake, but of course I had to fail in one more way before my baking journey was done. Apparently I was a bit too eager and managed to burn myself on, what I can only assume was, 350-degree apple goo. It was worth it though. The apple turnovers were mouth-watering, and although I didn't manage to perfectly replicate my beloved apfeltasche, I still managed to find a base recipe with which I can experiment. I'm sure my friends and family will be more than willing to taste-test all my attempts.