I'm really tired of lists now

Since missing so many blog entries this past week, I have discovered that I am not very excited to get back to making a list a day. So on this second-to-last day of March, I'm declaring list month over for me. This will make it more difficult to decide what to write about, but hopefully I can come up with things that are not totally boring so that my handful of readers won't abandon me (if they haven't already.)

Something that Mark and I have been thinking about a lot is travel. We just scheduled a week-long trip to Seattle in June -- it will be my first visit to the city and the first for Mark in over a decade. Seattle is a place that I think I'll fall for because of its west coast laid-backness and mild summer weather. We're staying with Mark's aunt and uncle, with whom we are excited to spend some time and who also seem excited to host us (which is nice since we just emailed and asked if we could come out!) At the top of our list of things to see is Olympic National Park -- we really enjoy hiking, and I really want to see what temperate rainforest is like! I'm also hoping that we'll get to visit some wineries in the area. We may also have to do a day trip to Olympia, just to see the state capitol, which is becoming a tradition for us -- so far we've been to Madison, WI; Indianapolis, IN; Des Moines, IA; and Austin, TX, together (note that Springfield, IL, is not on the list yet -- we've both been there on school trips when learning about our native state, but we haven't been there together -- I think a Lincoln tour will have to beckon us downstate at some point. I'm betting my parents would be up for a short trip down with us sometime!)

Also potentially on the horizon is a short-term assignment for my job to Mumbai, India. They are looking for volunteers to go for about a month in June/July (yes, that's monsoon season!) to help train several new hires in my department. I've put my name on the list for consideration, and Mark would likely come with me since his summer is very flexible. The thing that I'm really nervous about is how long I'd have to be on a plane -- I am generally really tense while flying, and I don't really want to know what it would be like to be that tense for most of a day. Hopefully having Mark with me would help, and I also might calm down just from having to be up there for so long. But I don't like the idea of being afraid keeping me from traveling to such an interesting place, so the possibility of 16-20 hours of sheer terror didn't stop me from volunteering.

I also mentioned the other day that Mark and I are planning a road trip to Maine with Jeff & Heather in August. I'm looking forward to seeing a lot of the US that I've never seen and also getting some relaxing and quality time. It's very cool to have family members who are also friends who live pretty closeby. :)

In October, I am planning to fly down to Texas for about a week to help my sister, Shanna, out after she has her wee little baby (hopefully it qualifies as "wee little" since my nephew, Alex, was eight and a half pounds!) At this point, it looks like her husband, Pat, is likely going back to Iraq this summer (boo to the Army!), so that will make it more difficult to adjust to being a new parent again. I'm hoping that I can make myself useful and also spend some quality time with Shanna and Baby H.

That may be all of the travel for the year, unless the holidays bring any other times for jetting around.

My blog truancy

I have been in Cincinnati this week for work, and my days have been pretty jam-packed with meetings and group discussions, followed by group dinners. Thus, I have been neglecting my blog. This may not sound like a very pleasant time (it's far from a vacation), but in spite of my fatigue, I am in fact having a good time. I've gotten to meet and re-meet people, since my department hasn't convened in a couple of years. Do I have a list left in me? I don't know, let's see...let's do personal highlights from each day so far this week:

1. Sunday - Mark and I talked with his brother, Jeff, and sister-in-law, Heather, on the way to the family Easter dinner, and I think we're for sure on for a road trip to Maine together this August. Very exciting!
2. Monday - We went out for a group dinner to kick off the week here in Cincinnati, and after we got our appetizers but before we were able to order, we were informed that the kitchen had lost power & gas. It ended up being surprisingly fun that we all just had wine, appetizers, salad, and dessert.
3. Tuesday - Gosh, Tuesday always sucks to find something good about. It's not that this day was bad, it was just the least notable of the week in terms of highlights. I did like the little bar & grill that a lot of us went to for dinner (they actually had a really tasty veggie burger), and I got back to my hotel room in time to see most of American Idol.
4. Wednesday - It's cheesy, but we had this little segment over lunch for Show 'n Tell, where people each brought a 5-minute topic to share. I really enjoyed this segment...and I know this is creating a food-centric pattern now, but I also really appreciated dinner, even though it happened at a steakhouse. I just hope that my two big glasses of wine didn't make me say anything completely stupid...but I think I stayed pretty coherent and aware of my choice of discussion topics (I think I just risk being too no-holds-barred with a drink or two in me).

Matching dresses, hidden candy

Since it's Easter, here are a few of my favorite Easter-related childhood memories:

1. Mom always made matching Easter dresses (typically the same design in different pastel shades) for my older sister, Shanna, and me...and sometimes she also made herself something that coordinated with what we were wearing.
2. Of course, we were so adorable that we also got our pictures taken in our beautiful new dresses, which typically involved Shanna (who didn't like pictures or cooperation) crossing her arms, crying, and not looking at the camera, and me next to her smiling as though nothing is wrong. It's funny, but I think I like these old pictures more now because of Shanna's scowling...it could get a little dull if we were both just smiley and sweet in all of them.
3. Our grandma also got us stuffed Easter bunnies each year, which we loved. They were typically adorable and fluffy, and like our dresses, a matching pair in different spring colors.
4. Mom also hid Easter eggs for us every year, either outside if the weather was nice or throughout the house if it was rainy or cold. It varied whether she chose to stuff plastic eggs or hide little chocolate ones...the plastic ones were important for outdoor hunts, though. What I remember about the process of Easter egg hunting is that it sucks to have an older sister involved, because she'll always find more, and then things have to get evened out after all of the eggs have been found. My mom developed some good egg hiding tactics, though, even going so far as to label each egg with an "S" or a "W", so that we could each hunt only for the eggs that belonged to us.
5. I also remember different points in the year when we would just be hanging out and we would stumble upon a lonesome little chocolate egg somewhere in the house that we missed at Easter -- and not necessarily the previous Easter, either. Sometimes we'd find an egg and be like, "Hey, this is the kind Mom hid a couple years ago!" And then, of course, whoever found it would eat it, even if it was a little whitened with age. I kind of wish Mark would hide chocolate all over our apartment so that I could occasionally experience this kind of delicious excitement. I mean, wouldn't it be cool if I went to get a book off the shelf someday and found a candy egg behind it?!
6. I almost forgot this one, and I can't believe it: dyeing hard-boiled eggs. Every year, we'd get the cheap Paas egg coloring kit, which included 6 color pellets (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple) to dissolve fizzily in vinegar and water, a white crayon for repelling the dye and leaving secret messages on the eggs (usually each person in our family would have an egg with their name on it), useless decorative cellophane egg sleeves, stickers, cardboard rabbit and chick character standups, and a wire egg dipper. Mom kept the wire dipper every year, so that we got quite a collection of them after a while and didn't have to share with each other or between colors. We liked seeing just how long we could leave an egg in a color to get it as deeply and brightly colored as possible, and we also really enjoyed making half-half colored eggs with each end dipped in a different color. Once they were colored to our specifications, we would let them dry in the cardboard tray that was formed by punching the circular pieces out of the back of the dye kit box. Once they were dry, we would put the eggs back into the carton that they came from the store in, and I would enjoy egg salad for the next couple of weeks, always preserving my favorite eggs until all the others had been eaten. Shanna was never a big fan of eating eggs, so there wasn't much risk of her swiping mine. :)

And on that note, Happy Easter!

I won't consume you, but it's not because I don't love you

I really can't believe it's snowraining today, on the second day of spring! Hopefully flights won't be so ridiculously backed up this weekend that my flight to Cincinnati for work on Monday gets screwed up...

Now, back to the program, I will list things that I miss eating now that I've become a vegetarian (my inspiration is Easter in a couple of days, which features a lot of non-veg-friendly treats):

• Marshmallows - why, oh why, must they contain gelatin? I want to burn them on the outside and eat them with graham crackers
• Jell-O - although I must say, I miss it a lot less since I found a vegan version that uses plant cellulose instead of gelatin, to the same delicious and jiggly effect
• Lamb - in general, my departure from meat was an amicable parting for me, but once in a while lamb sounds lovely
• The turkey chili at Bar on Buena - I don't miss the "turkey" part of this one, just the delicious chili spices and texture, along with the sour cream and cheese on top...but they don't make it sans turkey, so woe is me

Eating is nice in Chicago

My mom has been following my blog for a week or so now, and she suggested some topics for upcoming entries. Today I am going to take one of her suggestions and list my favorite restaurants in Chicago:

1. Bar on Buena - this place is in Buena Park near where I used to live. It has great beers on tap, and yes, also tasty food. It was a surprise to me that a bar would have so many vegetarian options. My parents (especially my dad) also love this place.
2. Indie Cafe - a little Japanese/Thai restaurant nearby...I am slightly obsessed with their Panang curry.
3. Hopleaf - okay, this is another bar, but it's a Belgian bar in Andersonville with very tasty and interesting beers and excellent food -- again, surprisingly vegetarian-friendly.
4. Heartland Cafe - I love this place not only because they have a huge and very healthy menu, but also because they have a general store with all kinds of organic & natural goodies.
5. Green Zebra - This is one of my favorite splurges, an upscale vegetarian restaurant in West Town that is really tasty. I like that their courses are small so that I can try a lot of things, and their special non-alcoholic beverage concoctions are amazing (pink peppercorn thyme soda?! Great idea!)
6. Bin 36 - This is where Mark and I had our wedding reception a couple of years ago -- it's not the most vegetarian-focused (you have to ask for the current vegetarian dish, which isn't included on their regular menu), but it's doable and for omnivores and those who love wine and cheese, it's delicious.
7. Hannah's Bretzel - a little organic sandwich shop downtown at Washington & Wells. I rarely run out to buy lunch, typically opting to pack food, but when I do go out, this is one of my favorite places. Their sandwiches are tasty and fresh, and they also feature an entire wall of premium chocolate bars...my kind of place!
8. Alice & Friends - Korean vegan restaurant near where I live. The whole atmosphere in this place is so serene, and they make some really good unmeat (I'm generally not a fan of plant-based meat imitations, but this place does unmeat really convincingly and it's yummy.)

Okay, I have to run and get ready for work now...I'll add on later if I think of more!

The CTA brings us all together

I've lived in Chicago for almost 4 years now, and in the course of these few years, I've encountered some really interesting characters on the trains and buses. Some of my favorites are:

• Shovy lady - This person gets on the train around the same time as me in the morning, and I'm fascinated by her. She waits for the train to pull in, and then as it is slowing, she follows the nearest door to its stopping spot, where she aggressively steps in front of whoever was actually standing by that door in order to be the first one onto the train. I could understand this if the train was at all crowded, but it's early and one of the northmost stops on the line, so there are tons of seats...and she does this every day. I find myself wanting to thwart her by stepping in front of her and up to the door as she is trying to push through (I did this yesterday, which resulted in a grunt of irritation from her and a little inner "hooray!" for me. I shouldn't make a habit of this.)
• Petty lady - This is the lady who I didn't notice walk up to me because I was reading, and whom I only noticed when she started petting my head. I gently removed her hand, and she got the signal that she should go have a seat, so it was resolved easily enough. At least two of my coworkers have had similar experiences, so this must be a regular morning commute occurrence.
• Touchy guy - This guy was I think my first awkward encounter on the train. He started off by swinging around the upright pole and telling me I was beautiful...which could only be a sign that things were only going to get more uncomfortable. After a few moments, it was time for him to get off the train, but not before he attempted to caress my cheek in farewell. My flinching reflex was on it, though, so I only got knicked by his approaching index finger...I was relieved when he was gone, and it at least made for a couple of good laughs for the other passengers.
• Leany man - This guy sat next to me on the way home once, and as is the case for many commuters, he couldn't help but catch a few winks on the way. The problem is, if you're going to sleep on the train, you have to know how to keep yourself upright while doing so -- this guy had unfortunately not honed this skill, so he kept snoozing and leaning on me, then waking up when I would nudge him, then snoozing again and leaning again. And I don't mean a little lean here, I mean I was supporting the bulk of his torso weight. Weird.
• Off key cell phone singy boy - This guy decided it was appropriate to turn up his music on his poor-sound-quality cell phone speaker and sing along with it. Which is silly because of course nobody else wants to hear his music, and if we did we'd like to hear a decent recording through real speakers, probably on our own mp3 players, and then we also wouldn't want him to mumble loudly along. This went on for 20-30 minutes, I think, until one of our fellow passengers informed him of how completely inconsiderate it was. Oy.
• Scary cursy lady - This lady went off on a CTA employee, who had told her that she couldn't leave her cart in the middle of the aisle, where people would have a difficult time getting around it to get on/off the train. Simple enough, right? Apparently not...this little older lady let loose a 10-minute string of the worst cursing my ears have heard to date, basically attributing the CTA guy's request to racism and sexism. Mark and I were very relieved when we reached our stop.

I think I will leave it at that for now, because that's representative enough and I also have a meeting in about 4 minutes. Hopefully I won't have anything to add after my commute home today!

Ryan Seacrest is Uh-noying

As I mentioned previously, Mark and I are hooked on American Idol. The show just began, and as usual it started with a dramatic shot of Ryan Seacrest exaggerating its importance. Ryan is completely inexcusable because:

1. His smile is really tight and forced
2. The way that he says "This is American Idol" is way over the top
3. He acts like he enjoys sniping with Simon Cowell, but you can tell he's really uncomfortable with the ribbing when it comes back at him
4. He seems to relish the power that he has in dismissing contestants each week...he dangles it over their heads before dealing the death blow
5. His name sounds like a screen name for a soap opera character
6. He's supposed to be the attractive young host guy (I think?), but he's not that young and is kind of creepy, especially when he puts his arm around female contestants

Mark of quality

It's 9:37 on Monday night, and I have been trying to get Mark to come up with a good topic for my blog for the day. He is currently in the bedroom be-jammy-ing himself since I rejected his first idea (how on earth can I rank my favorite dairy products? Way too hard...) So instead, I thought I'd list some of the things that I like about him (but note that this list is not comprehensive, it's spontaneous):

1. He likes really lame puns (hence "Mark of quality" as this post's title)
2. He's a big softy and likes everything wholesome and purely good -- like the Christmas spirit at the end of the movie Elf, that gets him every time...and the nutritional content of broccoli
3. He's a natural nurturer, and he makes me nutritious meals and encourages me to get enough exercise
4. He's really smart, but he is amazingly low on ego (per point #2, he likes just getting along, not dominating)
5. When my friends come over on Monday nights for religious discussion/Bible study time, he is content to sit in the back bedroom for some quality alone time with his computer and a double shot of scotch
6. Dissatisfied with his own belt today because it was too bulky for the shirt he was wearing over it, he borrowed my rainbow stripe belt to wear instead...which is just cute
7. He can get sucked into the same silly TV shows that I get wrapped up in, like Criminal Minds and American Idol, so I don't feel so ridiculous for watching them

Easily embarrassed

I was a very shy kid, and I had the capacity to become very deeply embarrassed, sometimes at things that seem pretty small now. Here are some childhood moments that were embarrassing enough to stick in my conscious memory:

1. In kindergarten, we had to take these standardized tests (which in itself doesn't make sense to me -- what are they testing in a standardized way among 5- and 6-year-olds? sharing skills? nursery rhyme fill-in-the-blank?)...anyway, I completed a section of the test, which I knew because there was a big STOP sign in the corner of the page. My best friend at the time, Jenny, was not done yet, so I held up my page to show her where to STOP. Of course, the teacher saw me showing Jenny my page with answers, so she of course called me out. Fortunately, though, she must have figured I was spacy and not actually cheating, because she sent me to lay on the classroom rug and do the "bicycle" with the other kids who had finished (for those of you not schooled in the "bicycle", it involves laying on your back with your legs doing circuits in the air as though you're on a...can you guess...bicycle).
2. In first grade, I remember a conversation among some of my classmates about the order in which they washed different parts of their bodies when taking a bath. One kid (who was notoriously trouble, I should have known not to jump in) posed the question, does anyone wash bottom to top rather than top to bottom? Having tried out this radical method of self-cleansing, I said that I had. He, of course, seized the opportunity to point out that this meant I had washed my butt before my face...eeeeeewwww. I was mortified.
3. In second grade (somehow this is becoming more chronological than I intended), I had a teacher who was so hateful toward children that I can't imagine why she would ever have become a teacher in the first place. (In her defense, though, she was slightly less hateful than the other second grade teacher in my school, whom my sister suffered through.) Anyway, one of my teacher's favorite things to do, besides to teach us how to mispronounce Spanish, was to survey the classroom and pick a kid out with the line, "(insert name), go wash your hands." Which everyone knew meant she had caught the kid picking their nose...which of course she called me out on once. The extra crappy thing is, I think I may have been itching not picking that time...
4. My dad's company used to have annual picnics, which I don't remember well except that they always had a lot of strange people I didn't know at them. One year, though, I remember going to look for my dad, and having found him, tapped him on the back to get his attention since he was facing away from me. However, when he turned around, he wasn't my dad at all but a big mustached man, who promptly roared something that the other big men around thought was funny (I don't remember what he said, just that it was loud and drew attention). I was so embarrassed, but now I think, what a jerk. Who'd use a confused little girl to get a laugh instead of helping her find her dad?
5. Another annual event when I was a kid was mother-daughter banquets, which were church luncheons in honor of Mother's Day where mothers and daughters came in their best spring dresses and grazed on a buffet of midwestern homemade fare. (One year, there was a fashion show involved, in which my sister and I modeled our homemade dresses. I think that was sometime after we stopped being cute in our homemade dresses, though.) On the year that I am thinking of, my mom's mom came to the banquet, and we were helping set up. At one point, I realized that I liked swishing my dress around and started lifting it up in the back to get a pleasant draft. Silly, yes, but I started out cleverly doing this with my butt facing under a table...but then I forgot about this key safety measure and started swishing with my butt facing away from the table, which my grandma promptly informed me was not a good plan. Oops.

Okay, I think that's enough of memory lane for now. I'm still pretty easily embarrassed, but maybe not quite as easily as when I was a kid, fortunately...

Amnesia

The past couple of days have been themed along the lines of "remembering things that have been forgotten." A preliminary list to illustrate my point (which hopefully also makes up for missing a blog entry yesterday):

1. My sister-in-law, Heather, blogged about things that she used to know but doesn't anymore.
2. Mark and I zoned out in front of the TV last night, and we ended up watching a random game show called "Amnesia", where the contestant has to answer questions about their life in order to win money.
3. The book I've been reading this week (Eat Pray Love, by Elizabeth Gilbert) has been making me reflect on how much I've forgotten to just relax and enjoy life as it's happening.

So now, my actual list of things that I've forgotten that I once knew:

1. Math - I mean, sure, I use statistics in my job, but most of what qualified me for a bachelor's degree in this subject is gone (I have no idea how to prove anything, like the fact that there are infinitely many prime numbers...did I ever know how to prove that? Oy.)
2. The names of all of the books in the Bible, in order (I think I could patch together some strings of names, but rattling off all of them is not happening. Goodbye, junior high.)
3. Grammar - Since ceasing to be graded on things like correct punctuation and not splitting infinitives, I've really begun to slide downhill here...and I used to be really spot on. (Can you blame me, though? I get emails from coworkers sometimes that have things like "its" and "it's" mixed up...who's going to hold me to a higher standard of self-expression?)
4. Enjoyment - This may sound dismal, but I guess it kind of is. Does anyone else relate to being so responsible and future planning-focused that you forget how to be alive and participate in right now?

I'm sure there are lots of things that I am forgetting that I have forgotten...but there's not much I can do about that now, is there?

Wednesday: what day?

Yesterday had too many other things involved in it (mostly work-related), so I never did get to my blog. Let's pretend that didn't happen since in the grand scheme of things, it doesn't matter. Today I'm going to make a list to reassure myself and my readers that the decision not to have children is a perfectly legitimate and not uncommon reproductive choice -- here are some notable people who never had children (with lots of credit to online sources...this list is definitely not off the top of my head -- but I tried to include a variety of people):

1. Frida Kahlo
2. Gloria Steinem
3. Simone de Beauvoir
4. Oprah
5. Annie Sullivan (Helen Keller's teacher)
6. Amelia Earhart
7. Immanuel Kant (philosopher)
8. Florence Nightingale
9. Susan B. Anthony
10. Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell
11. Julia Child
12. Christopher Walken
13. Stevie Nicks (singer, of Fleetwood Mac fame)
14. Katherine Hepburn
15. Dr. Seuss (and nobody could say he didn't like children, either!)
16. Jesus of Nazareth (um, argue with that, right?)

Alright, I'll leave it at that for now, even though I assure you that there are plenty more!

Tuesday is not a good day

A lot of people get "a case of the Mondays" each week, but I maintain that Tuesday is worse because:

1. Monday tends to fly by with beginning-of-the-week busyness, but Tuesday drags after the weight of all I have to do during the week sets in.
2. I'm tired from Monday, but I still have three days to go after this before I can really rest.
3. Fun activities don't get planned for Tuesdays - Mondays are sometimes holidays, Wednesday brings occasional hump day events, Thursday night is a feasible pre-weekend unwinding time, and Friday, well, it's Friday.
4. On this particular Tuesday, I am cranky because "springing forward" has robbed me of daylight when I need it most: waking up time.

The only redeeming value to Tuesday is incidental -- I was born on a Tuesday, so I guess that's one good thing about it.

Songs I sang with my coworkers tonight

A bunch of my colleagues and I gathered at my coworker Charlyn's to celebrate the upcoming wedding of Jazz, another one of my coworkers. The primary activity for the evening was karaoke, so I thought today's list could be songs that we sang tonight:

1. All That She Wants by Ace of Base
2. Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen
3. I'm Too Sexy by Right Said Fred
4. Africa by Toto
5. Wake Me Up Before You Go Go by Wham
6. Faith by George Michael
7. I Swear by All 4 One
8. Quit Playing Games with My Heart by Backstreet Boys
9. The Boxer by Simon and Garfunkel
10. Yellow Submarine by the Beatles
11. La Bamba
12. Eye of the Tiger
13. Living on a Prayer by Bon Jovi
14. Karma Chameleon by Culture Club

and plenty more that I'm forgetting, I'm sure...

I also blame my dad

Okay, so it's dad's turn to be accused of making me the way I am (I have also added a few things to the mom list from yesterday that have occurred to us since making the list):

1. My face - not only do I have facial features that resemble my dad's (brown eyes, prominent nose, sizeable mouth), but I've also inherited his ability to make facial expressions ranging from the goofy to the grotesque when the need arises
2. My height - dad's 6'1", mom's 5'4" or so, and I'm 5'9"
3. I have large feet, so does dad
4. My tendency toward somewhat violent affection - dad sometimes squeezes mom lovingly, to the point of a painful exclamation from mom...I occasionally inadvertently inflict pain on Mark in my earnestness as well
5. I have a bizarre sense of humor, dad is also strange
6. I'm a compulsive and quick eater, and I have a serious sweet tooth - dad seems to inhale whatever is put in front of him, and I share his love for chocolate
7. I love music - dad's a guitar player and has been throughout my life
8. I'm good at math and technical stuff - dad's an engineering designer, I'm a statistics geek
9. I hate exercise - as dad says, this is "because it sucks", although we both concede that it can be helpful in counteracting our compulsive eating habits
10. I'm a procrastinator - we both put off the inevitable as much as possible

I blame my mom

As a tribute to my parents' visit to Chicago this weekend, my list is going to be parent-themed today (and probably will be tomorrow as well). Over dinner, we were considering ways in which I take after each of my parents, so here's a list of traits I've inherited from my mom:

1. My hair - it's fine, thin, and reddish brown, like mom's
2. I don't like to share - like mom, I prefer to get my own dessert, etc.
3. I am uber cranky when I'm tired and/or hungry
4. I like word puzzles and games (Scrabble, Boggle, crosswords, etc.)
5. I gravitate toward leading the way when in a group (I think we both like to be the first to discover things)
6. I love reading and go through a lot of books (mom often checks out several books at a time from the library and plows through all of them in the course of a couple of weeks, which is much cheaper than my habit of buying lots of books and trying to get around to reading them all)
7. I also enjoy writing (my mom has kept a decades long journal that has evolved from pen and paper to electronic format since the advent of home PCs)
8. I like creating crafty things (mom sewed lots of clothes for my sister and me when we were younger, and I knit)
9. My hip-to-waist ratio is quite large - mom and I are both pear-shaped
10. I have ridiculously slim wrists - mom has recounted how when she was in kindergarten, her wrists were smaller than her infant sister's
11. When it comes to browned food, I like things "well done" - mom likes her marshmallows, toast, pancakes, etc. burnt

I'm a little obsessed with Ani DiFranco

I love Ani DiFranco, but until now I've never given much thought to what my favorite songs are from each album that I own. Today is the day to change this, I'll go from oldest to most recent album (leaving out live albums because it's just too hard to decide):

1. Fire Door, from Ani DiFranco
2. Gratitude, from Not So Soft
3. Blood in the Boardroom, from Puddle Dive
4. Overlap, from Out of Range
5. 32 Flavors, from Not a Pretty Girl (the title track is a close second)
6. Joyful Girl, from Dilate
7. Swan Dive, from Little Plastic Castle
8. Come Away From It, from Up Up Up Up Up Up (It was hard not to pick Hat Shaped Hat)
9. Providence, from To The Teeth (#2 is Hello Birmingham)
10. Marrow (Revelling) and Subdivision (Reckoning), from Revelling/Reckoning
11. Slide, from Evolve (this was really hard to choose from!)
12. Animal, from Educated Guess
13. Knuckle Down, from Knuckle Down (Sunday Morning is second)
14. Decree, from Reprieve
15. Alla This, from no album yet but I love it and couldn't leave it off the list

My dirty secret

We both hate to admit it, but my partner, Mark, and I are hooked on American Idol. Tonight was the much-anticipated cut down to the top 12 contestants (which was devastating to watch) -- this is my ranking of them:

1. David Archuleta - who doesn't love this kid? I could just squeeze him!
2. Jason Castro - love the dreds, love the voice
3. Brooke White - she wouldn't have been this high on my list if she hadn't done such a great version of "Love is a Battlefield", plus she's genuinely sweet
4. Carly Smithson - great vocalist, not much more to say
5. Michael Johns - very cool, his version of "Bohemian Rhapsody" from auditions has stuck with me
6. Ramiele Mulabay - she seems to pull off just about any style well
7. Syesha Mercado - love her fashion, beautiful voice
8. Amanda Overmyer - like her Janice Joplin voice and the fact that she's legitimately different from the other performers
9. David Cook - doesn't do much for me, I agree with Simon that he doesn't stand out
10. David Hernandez - too cheesy
11. Chikezie - way too cheesy
12. Kristy Lee Cook - when will she leave so I can be happy? Again, I'm with Simon -- she's forgettable, and I don't understand how she keeps getting enough votes to advance

Some of the best books are freakin' sad

I am reading a really compelling book right now, and it happens that it's profoundly sad (I had to stop myself from crying on the train while reading on the way home from work). Here are some of my favorite devastating stories (both fictional and true):

1. Cracking India, by Bapsi Sidhwa - a novel set at the time of the partitioning of India into India and Pakistan (which I am currently reading)
2. The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy - a novel set in southwestern India, about a family's sad history (this is one of my top 5 favorite books)
3. Jesus Land by Julia Scheeres - a memoir of a woman raised in a harshly conservative Christian family and sent to a creepy religious correctional camp in the Dominican Republic, where her brother was also sent
4. Beloved by Toni Morrison - a novel about a slave woman and her love for her children, particularly one child whom she lost (I won't give away details)
5. The Girls Who Went Away by Ann Fessler - a collection of accounts from women who gave up unplanned children for adoption when they were young, in the time between World War II and Roe v. Wade

Things in the conference room I'm sitting in

I'm at work for an early meeting (7:30 a.m.!), and I have set up camp in a team room, where I will be stationed for a full day of meetings. Here's what's in the room with me:

1. My stuff: laptop, glass of water, folder with meeting agenda, notebook, pen
2. Black office-issue conference phone
3. Round conference table with 7 lime green upholstered and gray-metal-armed rolling office desk chairs
4. Two white boards, one hanging on the wall to my left and one leaning against the wall across from me
5. Small round side table, and on it a stapler, a tape dispenser, and two dry erase markers (one red and one black)
6. On the floor next to the small side table: A circa 1996 computer monitor with no accompanying CPU or accessories, a white board eraser, two classic yellow #2 pencils, and a couple of inexplicable 2" black disks with screw-like things sticking up out of their centers
7. A small blue recycle-bin style trash can

Names of my plants

I have a lot of plants, and they all have names:

1. Marshall - a 3-foot dracaena named on the occasion that I was a graduation marshal my junior year of college
2. Humphrey - a mosaic plant named after Humphrey Bogart (I love Casablanca)
3. Simone - not sure what kind of plant she is, but she's beautiful and has striped leaves, named after Simone Weil, a Christian social philosopher
4. Miles - again, never have figured out what type of plant he is, but he's named after the main character of Richard Russo's Empire Falls, who I really identified with
5. Vera - an aloe vera plant (get it?!)
6. Oswald (aka Oz, Jr.) - a purple passion plant, named by my friend and roommate in college, I'm not sure if it was because he sat in a window like another Oswald did, or if it's because he's purple like the cartoon octopus by the same name
7. Phyllis - a cactus (pachypodium, madagascar palm) who I thought deserved a spunky and hilarious name
8. Habakkuk - an arrowhead plant who is named after a Biblical prophet because the name is cool and there are some passages I like in the book
9. Esther - an aluminum plant who is also named after a Biblical figure, although I don't remember precisely what the inspiration was for this
10. Phoenix - a wandering Jew who I received as clippings from a friend's mom, which I proceeded to let sit in a plastic bag for a month or so. Amazingly, Phoenix survived this ordeal and I thought I'd give her an "overcoming the odds" kind of name
11. Bud & Dotty - orchids for whom I am a foster parent since my friend Erin decided she was killing them. Bud is named after the one humongous bud (and resulting yellow flower) that he has produced since living in the bathroom, and Dotty is named for the three little buds that she is working on now.
12. Minnie Elaine Rose - a miniature rose that just moved in after my partner's great aunt Elaine's birthday party (Minnie was a centerpiece at the event)

People awesome enough to name someone after

My list today is of people unrelated to me whom I admire enough that I would consider naming a kid after them (although this is purely hypothetical since my partner, Mark, and I do not plan on having children). The list is in no particular order, other than the order in which people occur to me -- hopefully I remember all of the people I'd like to include, otherwise I may have to add on later.

1. Ani DiFranco - feminist, folk musician, poet
2. Martin Luther King, Jr. - pastor, civil rights leader, crafter of powerful words
3. Bill McKibben - environmentalist, author
4. Salman Rushdie - novelist, social commentator, wit
5. Elaine Wagner - chiropractor, nutritionist, natural healer

Reasons why I'm a vegetarian

My sister-in-law told me yesterday about National Blog Posting Month (NaBloPoMo), an event in which those of us who would like to be more disciplined in our blogging make a concerted effort to post every day for a month. For March, the theme for NaBloPoMo is lists, so I'm going to attempt to keep up on this. At the moment, I'm rather doubtful that I'll hit all 31 days of March, but it's worth a shot.

My first list is of reasons why I'm a vegetarian (a question I get asked occasionally):

1. Meat production consumes more energy than is produced in the resulting food, and Americans consume a disproportionately large amount of meat versus citizens of other countries -- which means that eating meat, particularly in the quantities that Americans generally do, is at least as large of a concern when attempting to cut energy use as initiatives like greater fuel efficiency in cars and appliances.
2. In fact, meat production produces more greenhouse gases than all forms of transport combined, and large-scale meat producers are also some of the worst environmental polluters (http://www.odemagazine.com/doc/49/meat-is-methane)
3. The American meat industry has historically employed undocumented immigrant workers, who endure treacherous work conditions in animal processing plants and have little or no leverage to do anything about it because they need the wages that they earn and limited English language skills constrain their employment options
4. The American meat industry also relies on the mass production of livestock, a large proportion of which are eating diets that are unhealthy for them (e.g. cows eating corn instead of grass, which their multiple stomachs are meant to process) and/or live in what for humans would be considered condemnable housing (extreme crowding, no proper sanitation) and/or are pumped with antibiotics to combat the consequences of their living conditions and with painful growth hormones to make them as large and profitable as possible.
5. As a byproduct of the mass production of livestock and the pumping of tenement-dwelling, unhealthy animals with antibiotics and other chemicals, our meat is less healthy and at times potentially dangerous to us. Recently, the USDA announced the largest meat recall in US history due to the processing of very sick and physically abused cows into low-grade ground beef, much of which was used by government school lunch programs(http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/18/business/18recall.html?sq=meat%20recall&st=nyt&adxnnl=1&scp=10&adxnnlx=1204383678-0s8hi9Ot/KykNEAQ4DBDdw)
6. In addition to avoiding negative health effects, a nice benefit of eating a vegetarian diet is that if done correctly, it is quite often healthier than a meat-centric omnivore diet, particularly for the heart. This is in sharp contrast to the broadly held perception that vegetarians are emaciated and lacking vital nutrients -- and pleasurable eating experiences. I've had the best meals of my life since I stopped eating meat and started diversifying my diet beyond the same old meat options. (http://www.vegetarian-nutrition.info/updates/vegetarian_diets_health_benefits.php)
7. In America, meat is meat is meat -- so if you eat any meat, you end up eating all meat, without regard for its origins. Eating meat only rarely, and only when you know that it comes from a good local & sustainable farm, is a difficult option to exercise.