Question of the day

monomania \mon-uh-MAY-nee-uh; -nyuh\, noun:
1. Pathological obsession with a single subject or idea.
2. Excessive concentration of interest upon one particular subject or idea.

What could people accuse you of having a monomania about?

On the road again

I have taken to writing down random blurbs when I am eating at restaurants on the road. On the road -- it sounds so glamourous, eh? Not quite the rockstar lifestyle, but it sure is interesting. This is something I wrote a few days ago... I am not sure if I get my point across, but for my readers that really know me, I think they will catch my drift.

This is what it has come down to. Sitting at a Starbucks in Connecticut, sandwiched in between a RiteAid and a Big Y, staring out at the various palette of SUVs that stream on by this little strip mall. Slurping on a Pumpkin Spice latte – which I ask for a medium ---- oh no, ma’am it’s a Grande. What can I say, I needed the caffeine. And pumpkin might just be my downfall. That and dark chocolate and ginger.

At what point does the guilt stop? Over buying something at a chain. Over grabbing that quick fix. Are there lesser evils out there? I avoid Wal-Mart (except when it comes to fabric), McDonalds (except when on I-90), Starbucks (except when I am traveling for work and I am in fear of getting lost and have time to kill between visits). See, everyone has their exceptions to the rules. Forgive me for liking the music at Starbucks. For finding this Pumpkin Spice Latte and that Pumpkin Scone quite tasty.

Is giving out free wireless that financially damaging? I just want to check my email, download new podcasts, feed my blog addiction and make sure that I have not missed anything that major in my world of geek related pop culture. TMobile has this place covered, and those little airwaves cost a pretty penny. It’s just charged air, right? Next thing you know, you will have to pay for radio….


Even this damn spell check changed my “Walmart” to the correct Wal-Mart. Even Microsoft knows what consumers must know. Unfortunately it can’t stop people from saying “Victoria Secrets”. I hate that blasted store, but man its like nails on a chalk board taking that damn “s” and adding it at the end of the other word. Although iPod still goes as a word that is misspelled. Interesting…

How do I avoid being a Yuppie? My dad calls me that and it makes me cringe so much. The things according to him that make me a Yuppie:
*Love of coffee – especially flavored
*Technologically competent.
*Own an iPod
*Have seen many “artsy” movies
*Have a Masters
*“Bleeding Heart” Liberal
*Environmentally aware
*Snub various chain places
*I use a laptop in coffee shops. (guilty, right now.)
*I prefer local breweries to the Buds and Millers of the world.

Which, I am many of those things. I can’t deny it, I am even proud of many of them. Does that make me a yuppie? I counter with this:

Things that I do not make me a yuppie:
*I make my own purses. I do not own any Coach. I think they are the ugliest things I have ever seen.
*I drive a 97 Ford Escort station wagon, and will until it dies.
*I have a Masters degree in poetry and student personnel administration. I am not earning any money there.
*Read Comics
*Own several action figures.
*Have only gotten something dry-cleaned three times in my life. That is like once a decade.
*I wear $9 watches that I lose a lot.
*I like mud.
*Tattoos, two.
*I seldom coordinate.
*I have degrees from two state schools, small ones that are not overly prestigious.
*I genuinely enjoy bowling, mini-golf, and bingo.

I could keep on going. But I honestly fear the yuppie mentality. Wanting something bigger and better, never being content with what you have. When honestly, its enough to have what you have. Yes I would love a new computer. I would love more books. But in terms of big ticket things --- I could care less. The whole car thing I don’t really get. Constantly trading up for the new year, model, feature. It’s a frickin’ car! Honestly, I just would like to earn more to get rid of my loans. I don’t like that hovering over me. It’s for my education, that I worked very hard for and I paid for. Or am trying to pay for. I like my apartment that I share with two other people. I don’t need to constantly upgrade. I think that is what is at the core of a yuppie: Upgrading constantly to keep up with people that are scrambling to do the same thing. If people could just chill out and assess what they have, I think most people would be fairly pleased.

This is an actual word

commodious \kuh-MOH-dee-us\, adjective:
Comfortably or conveniently spacious; roomy; as, a commodious house.

I have the Dictionary.com Word of the Day as my home page. Some times it amazes me what is actually a word. This one sounds made up to me. Like someone was just trying to sell a house and they point to different things and say "This is so spacious and...... commodius!"

Other favorites from past days


small beer \small beer\, noun:
1. Weak beer.
2. Insignificant matters; something of little importance.
adjective:
1. Unimportant; trivial.

tetchy \TECH-ee\, adjective:
Peevish; testy; irritable.

vade mecum \vay-dee-MEE-kuhm; vah-dee-MAY-\, noun:
1. A book for ready reference; a manual; a handbook.
2. A useful thing that one regularly carries about.

sui generis \soo-eye-JEN-ur-us; soo-ee-\, adjective:
Being the only example of its kind; constituting a class of its own; unique.


Now use all of those in a sentence!

I am becoming an old woman.

I am looking at fabric online. I know, I know. But I kind of geeked out over this one:

Sara Recommends

Butter Chicken

This is always a good choice at any Indian restaurant, but I found an easy recipe for it. It makes for great leftovers and freezes well too. I was quite proud of myself for making this.

The Monhegan Pie from Portland Pie

Steak, caramelized onions, green peppers, blend of three cheeses and a garlic sauce make this pizza delectable. The best non-red sauce pie I have ever had.

Barenaked Ladies are Me – Barenaked Ladies

I love this band. They are my band. Everyone has some musical artist they have a weakness for or have stuck through time with them. This is the band for me. This album is different than the standard “One Week” fare that most people associate them with. Its witty (I was a baby when I learned to suck/But you have raised it to an art form) and rocking with “Wind it Up”, it grapples with our world in “Take it Back” and just challenges you listen more closely to lyrics like in “Easy”. You might be led astray by the music, but the words are contradicting the tone of the song. And of course I got the Deluxe Edition from iTunes – which includes the second album Barenaked Ladies are Men, which will not be released until January. The song “Maybe Not” makes me want to be in a relationship just so I can break up to it.

Water

Cheap. Refreshing. And apparently, you need it to live.

Sewing from a pattern you made

Not only do you feel accomplished, but you feel almost as hip as Project Runway without the drama. But also sadly without Tim Gunn. Tell me to make it work!

Veronica Organa?

Very, very interesting.

Office Observation #2

Are lunches sadder in sandwich baggies or some variation of Tupperware?

I think the sandwich baggie. Even if it is a sandwich. Though I think a basic two slices of bread with cheese and your lunchmeat in a Tupperware container is trying to be more than it really is. Like its trying to keep up with the Jones' of last night's leftovers of homemade lasanga. The left overs that are most often brought in are of the pasta variety. Either people eat a lot of pasta OR don't eat it all and you are stuck with it for a few days, or it makes for the best leftover. Tupperware typically houses food that is prepared, rather than slapped together. I think the person with Tupperware 7 times out of 10 has the better lunch.

What is the saddest office lunch you have seen?

Blogger's Note: Yes, I hate that I used the word "baggie" too.

Poem by Kenneth Rexroth and my commentary.

The Love Poems of Marichiko
IV
You ask me what I thought about
Before we were lovers.
The answer is easy.
Before I met you
I didn’t have anything to think about.

-Kenneth Rexroth

Okay, this could be the single jaded person in me – but does this poem seem creepy to any one else? Nothing to think about before the lover. Noooooothing. Not a single thought. Granted, I know damn well as a poet that you can use hyperbole or other devices. But, I still think this is a little weird to me. I think if I met someone, and they were like “Oh darling you are so wonderful. I am so glad you came around because now I can think. At last!” I would tell them to piss off. I think that meeting someone can give you clarity of mind, heighten your senses to see the world in different ways, or even see the world through someone else’s lens. It probably clouds your mind blissfully too. This poem just gives me the creeps.

I think the geek in me just peed a little

I love love Brian K. Vaughn and what he has done with comics. Especially Runaways. I read that whole first "season" of it in one night. He is leaving the title after a few issues. And who is replacing him.... Oh, none other than my compadre, Joss Mother-lovin' Whedon.

Oh Wegmans.... how I miss thee!

I look at Western New York with this weird mix of nostalgia and "get me the hell out of there!" (How do you sum up "get me the hell out of there" in a word... suggestions?) I do consider Portland my home, the place that I feel like I belong. But, I do miss a lot of things about it. I love saying the word "pop". It just makes sense, it feels like home. I will cling to that word no matter how many people cringe. I miss euchre. Anyone in the Portland area that plays it? Zweigles -- lovely hot dogs -- they come in white, too. And they are miles better than these little skinny radioactive red hot dogs out here. Lilac Festival. Parkleigh Pharmacy. Buffalo wings that are more than just Franks Red Hot on them and with bleu cheese -- none of this Ranch dressing hulabaloo. Bakeries with what my aunt calls Jewish rolls -- flaky and light and just barely sweet. WBER on the radio when ever I want! Major influence on most music I am exposed to today and back then. And Wegmans.... I never thought I could love a grocery store as I do that one. The best subs I have ever had are made there. They make really good Chinese food. My friends and I would sometimes have scavenger hunts there. The one in Pittsford you can sit in the cafe area, get a great cup of coffee, and forget you are in a grocery store. Not to mention, they practically have employed every member of my extended family at some point. They consistently make the Forbes top 10 for employers that treat their customers the best in the nation. I should write sonnets to Wegmans. But my poor attempts at iambic pentameter would just come out so.... Shaws. Or for those people still in Western New York -- Big M.

I yoinked this from a fellow Fredonian and pulled out the ones I can relate to.

You know you're from Rochester when....

"Waking up with the Wease" doesn't mean that you have a respiratory infection.

The thought of eating a "garbage plate" makes your mouth water.

The worst four-letter word you could say is "Fuji".

Toronto is about 70 miles away, but it takes four hours to get there.

You know that a "Can of Worms" is not something that you take fishing.

Your baby's first word is "Wegmans".

In a city where it snows at least 90 inches a year, they build a new sports stadium with no roof on it.

It can be 70 degrees one day, below freezing the next, and you think nothing of it.

Your low-fat diet is never low enough to exclude an Abbott's custard.

You order a white hot and a pop, and the counterman knows what you're talking about.

You know who Vinnie and Angelo are.

You can go to any mall on a Saturday and see at least 5 people you either work with, went to school with or dated.

You awaken from a deep sleep, look at the clock and see that it's 6:00, but you have no idea whether it's AM or PM.

When 12+ inches of snow falls overnight, but you never thought of NOT going to work.

In winter if the temperature hits 45 degrees and the sun comes out, people walk around downtown wearing shades and no jackets.

There are places at the poles that seem to get more sunlight during the winter months than we do.

Wegmans is somewhere to go on a Friday night, for entertainment.

Half the change in your pocket is Canadian, eh.

You think that people from Pennsylvania have an accent.

Your idea of a seven-course meal is a six pack of Genny and a bucket of Buffalo wings.

Fly me to the moon

When I was in third grade, I wanted to be an astronaut. Everything I wanted was up on that moon. I themed everything I could in my school work around being in space. We went to DC for a family trip and going to the Air and Space Museum was like walking in one of my dreams. I wanted to go to Space Camp so badly. My parents were never in a position to send me there. It was my pony. I really saw myself floating around in the shuttle, floating M&M's and Tang to another astronaut. Looking at space in a different view. I would lie there in my bedroom, and I could see through my window the stars. It was like I had my own block of sky right there, this one square of sky that belonged to me.

I wonder if I have any dreams as lofty as those were. I gave up on it, because I think as a worldly fourth grader, I realized how hard it was to be an astronaut -- how much science and competitveness was involved. How it was almost like wishing to be President. It was out of grasp. I am not sure what my dream changed to then -- but I do remember I never stopped keeping my head in the sky. I am still there sometimes. There is nothing more satisfying to me than a really good sky. Crisp, clear -- sharp points of light reaching out to be wished on, counted on. One of my favorite skies was one night in Fredonia -- Jay and I had gone for a walk and found ourselves at the ampitheatre. The sky was so clear -- but there were a few huge white billowy clouds. They were illuminated by the moon. They were so white and bright against that black sky. I remember just lying on my back not wanting that sky to go away. Wishing that I could make the sun wait just a little bit longer so I could have it. Time is like that when things are good -- wanting to hold it in your grasp, trying to put the brakes on the rotation of the earth. But we all just keep spinning, your dreams changing with the seasons sometimes. Other ones weather it all. Tough, resilent, staying with you.

Caption Contest

Who can think of the best caption for this picture?

Photo credit to Brian Lewis.

Retro dream.

I have been having alot of vivid dreams lately, but none of them can really be blogged... Shameful the things that have happened to Mike Rowe in my dreams.. uh, yeah. So here is one from the past.


Monday, October 4th, 2004

I had a dream where I was swimming in a pool -- like a high school inside type -- with Ben Stiller -- and we got to talking about Joss Whedon. And he said I would kill to work with him. And I said me too!! and then it cuts over to this film shoot where Joss is directing with Ben and Will Ferrell and this woman who kind of looks like Holly Hunter -- but its still not her. Well the movie is called Wolfenstein and Will Ferrell is playing this mad scientist and Ben is playing his scientist side kick. Then some people start getting murdered. and there is this board full of tiles that has clues on it: spatters of blood, axes, weapons etc. and I am in the movie wearing a cape and then someone else gets murdered and Ben Stiller and I have to grab the correct tile and try to solve it, so we grab a tile with the blood spatters and start running down this crazy hallway and we are being steady camed the whole way through. Then at the end is a catering room. I go in there and try to find water, but there is only booze, and I go thirsty. and then I go to this other room (sans cape) and there are some people -- who look like they would be extras and crew members and we start talking about Joss and what he has worked on. And I was like "oh have you read fray" and "Oh have you heard of common rotation" and so on. Then this guy leans over to me and says "You know Joss likes a critical mind, so if you want to work with him you need to sound smarter then you are coming off right now" and I said "Thanks for the info but you are a jerk." And then there is a cut to scene of Holly Hunterish and will fighting and she is winning and she is in a costume where her skin is painted all white and she has the letters on her chest and she has a blue cape and green hair and she is defeating Will and her costume is kind of disturbing because it outlines her womanness. Then the fight and she wins the formula, but then they end up having sex.