Liberally Kosher

This past Sunday I made gin (above, right) with Janet* and Sally* from church. I believe I posted the recipe in a previous entry but if I didn't, and you want it, let me know. It was not a long process to make the gin so we also infused some vodka with orange and cinnamon (above, center), and some other vodka with pears and thyme (above, left). The pears and thyme idea was a spin-off from a delicious recipe that my sister Jasmine* shared with us: brie and pear quesadillas. We made these to feed the church ladies and we had some extra pears and thyme, and some extra vodka, so we put it all together. In our wisdom, we left out the cheese and tortillas. It looks pretty, so if it tastes bad, it's not the end of the world.

It was gorgeous yesterday, the first warm sunny day of spring. It got up to 64 and almost melted the snow. I was about to head home early, and planned to sit on the deck and plan out the next 2 years (or so) of my career, because my postdoc could end this April 30th if I so chose. My friend Erin* who works on my floor was less busy than usual and wanted to get outside, as did I, so we went walking around without jackets like barbarians. Hmmm...I bet the term "barbarians" is offensive to people living on the Barbary Coast. There is such a thing as the Barbary Coast, right? On this topic, I was recently informed that the term "gung ho" may be offensive to Asian people, and on another occasion informed that "gypped", as in "cheated", refers to gypsies, which are an ethnic group somewhere (Turkey maybe?), so that's not kosher. OOh "kosher"... hmmmm....possibly offensive to Jewish people when used too liberally. Oooh "liberally".... hmmm....may offend the majority of Americans..... hmmmmm..... But seriously, I think "gung ho" and "gypped" might be better left unused. ANYway, it was SO wonderful to walk in the warm sunshine. It put a little change in my attitude and made me more open to trying something new. So I stopped in at a gift shop that I had been meaning to check out for the last two years. In one corner of the shop was a fortune teller. I sat down and asked her to look at my palms and do a tarot card reading.

She asked what was on my mind (isn't she supposed to know that already??? HAHAHAHAHA.) I told her the first thing on my mind, which was that it was a beautiful day, and also that I was going home to think about the next 2 years of my career, so maybe we could talk about that.

My palms and the cards told her that, among other things, I should not plan the next two years of my career right now, but instead, I should focus on doing whatever I enjoy, and taking some risks, and taking time for family and friends, and following my heart, and seeing where all of that leads. She emphasized that I should make sure to keep a steady income during this process, and that it won't necessarily lead to letting go of all aspects of my past education and skill building. She said that my career would be a tapestry rather than a straight line, that I would use different parts of my training in unexpected ways, and that I was doing a good job of overcoming my fears, and needed to keep going with it.

Obviously this is all common sense and not in the least bit boat-rocking, but it was definitely worth the money to have someone hold my hands and tell me all of this to my face. She also impressed me by telling me specific important events in my past and when they happened, and wove in some Greek mythology that I hadn't heard of that I could really identify with. Plus she was nice.

The Spupspes are coming this Friday for a week! Our church membership ceremony is this Sunday and this is a big deal for them, so they are coming up earlier in the year than planned. We made them promise also to come up later in the summer as well, so that they could enjoy the warmer weather. We'll see if that happens.

I thought I had more to write but it's not coming to me right now, and I have to do some work so that I can get a St. Patty's day beer this afternoon. So that's all you're getting from me.
*Names changed.

Capers

I was just reading through the blogs I like to read through every five minutes of my waking life, thinking about how I want to update my blog, when I decided to just update it and quit thinking about it. It's going on 8:00 a.m. and I don't have anything on the calendar today except a baptism at 1:00. I should mention that it's my baptism. Stanley is getting baptized as well. It's a prerequisite for becoming members of our church, and I read through the church's statement of faith and what baptism means to them, and it didn't offend me, and actually sounded kind of nice, so we're taking the plunge. Not literally. We're just getting sprinkled.

Remember the baptism scene in Oh Brother Where Art Thou?



I asked our pastor if we could have a baptism like that and she just laughed as though she thought I was joking.

Stanley mentioned the possibility of clothes shopping today, so I'm planning to hold him to it. I would like to buy another pair of high heels so I'm ready for the next high-heel party, whenever it may be.

Speaking of clothes, I am digging the whole Can Michelle Obama Single-Handedly Revive the Fashion Industry buzz. When she arrived at the President's Address to Congress this past week, I involuntarily uttered the word "Wow" in appreciation (rather than in a train-wreck sort of way). I just thought her dress was great.


I thought for sure someone must have a blog that chronicles everything she wears, and indeed they do. I added it to my blogroll on the right.

I've been really materialistic lately. Have you noticed? I like to think of it as sort of a rebellious expression of patriotic artistic consumption. A "REPAC", if you will pardon the acronym. And REPAC is CAPER spelled backwards, and capers make life and food more interesting and tasty, respectively. So that makes my materialism okay.

My sister's boyfriend's brother has been nominated by Obama as the Under-Secretary for Policy at the Department of Transportation. That makes me 112,459th in line for the presidency. I will not take this responsibility lightly.

Neither the aforementioned sister, whose pseudonym escapes my memory at the moment (edit: It's Lotus*. Thanks, Lotus!), nor my other sister, Janis/The Chicken Lady** have yet succumbed to Facebook. I'm just curious to know if they have decided against it, or if they are considering it, or if they have not yet considered it. In any case, it would be nice to keep in touch in that way if they are so inclined. If not, don't worry about it.

Have a great weekend!

*Name changed.
**Name changed and doubled.

House Party

Tonight might be the night that I wear the shirt/dress/skirt/halter top/waffle maker/chimney broom all-in-one garment that I went off about in the last entry. I'm going to a High-Heel Party, the second of such parties that I have attended with this group of ladies since the year began. Okay, let's be succinct. It will be the second of such parties I have attended ever in my life, with anyone. Tonight the temperature is going to get down to 7 degrees F, which is about as cold as it was for the first party. The hostess smartly asks people not to wear their heels to the party, but rather to bring them and put them on upon arrival. I think it's the only way she would get anyone but the most moronic invitee to show up for a high-heel party at this time of year. My God, I can't wait for Spring.

These parties are fun. I'm not being sarcastic, even though the following description sounds like I might be. The evening involves sitting, sipping champagne, eating brie, chatting, and whipping out a new pair of shoes once in a while for the other guests to ooh and aah over. I had totally intended to buy another pair of shoes before tonight but it didn't happen. I feel that my shoes will be deemed sub-par. Perhaps I should walk a mile in someone else's shoes. Then I will know what it is to suffer.

My new favorite website: Etsy.com. It's a huge marketplace for buying and selling handmade items. I had wished for a website like this and was so glad when I happened upon it. It has a lot of cool features such as many different ways to search for items: editor's picks, sellers who haven't sold anything yet (would be cool to be their first sale, esp if their stuff is great), items just listed in the last couple of minutes, and the requisite (and utterly useful) category/keyword search. I bought something from the site. Would you like to know what I bought? Okay I'll tell you.

Look how cute.



It's made from a Scrabble tile. I'm not sure which letter is on the back because I haven't received it yet. It was $13.00 plus $1 shipping. If you want a similar necklace (no two are alike, as far as I know), the one who made/sold it is "deciduoussoul". I like this necklace because of the following factors, conveniently lettered for easier reading.

A.) The house. It reminds me that I have a house, and a house blog. I like anything that reminds me of aspects of me. I like me. WOO, me.
B.) The tree. It kind of looks like it could be a birch tree and in fact, in the description, the artist says it's a birch tree. Ergo, birch tree. Just like the one we have in front of our house.
C.) It's got French on it for some reason. This reminds me of our trip to Paris.
D.) Is that bermet in the background? It seems more green than bermet but photos can lie, and it might turn out to be bermet in real life.
E.) It's on a Scrabble tile. Reminds me that I was once addicted to Scrabble (more precisely, Scrabulous) and overcame this addiction. This makes me proud.
F.) It's cute.

I have to get ready for the party so this will have to suffice for a blog post. Hope you're doing well. Miss you.