Month: February 2008

Taking The Time To Notice

I’m a tense, testy little person. I don’t have a lot of patience sometimes and I have a lot of things tumbling around in my mind like a load of laundry in the dryer. Not to mention, I’m extremely hard on myself when I think I’m not accomplishing things near my potential. At any given time, I’ll have long running commentary going on in my head about any number of things.

However, for a moment today as I was rushing somewhere in the cold (where did the high around 50 degrees go?), I actually stopped to look at a bare tree. The tree was bare of leaves but amazingly (this is why I stopped) had buds on it.

I had a former coworker once tell me that cooler fall temperatures weren’t on the way when I said the trees knew something that we didn’t currently know. It was hot as hell at the time the conversation took place but the leaves were changing colors. And pretty soon, the temperature dropped and it felt like fall. There was no gradual transition, it just happened that one day it was hot and the next it wasn’t.

There are still patches of icy snow on the ground here. However, I still think the trees know something we don’t yet – spring is coming. I’m glad I noticed…

My Oscars Moment

First of all, I have to say that I fell asleep before the end.

But, before I fell asleep I had the opportunity to see one of my FAVORITE actors accept his Academy Award – Javier Bardem. I have always been drawn to his performances since the first time I saw him in Before Night Falls. I started watching the movie in the middle and didn’t know what the movie was or what his name was (I was watching cable at my sister’s house and didn’t know how to get to the guide – just think I’ve worked for cable companies) and wouldn’t know until much later. Since then, I’ve been hooked. He is a very masculine man but it is his nuanced ability to portray the tenderness and vulnerability of his characters that sends me. Last night’s acceptance speech provided another opportunity to admire Mr. Bardem – he attended the awards ceremony with his mother (instead of a “Hollywood” date) and he took time during his speech to thank his mother, although I have no idea what he said. From watching his interaction with his mother off-stage, he is definitely affectionate.

Insert {BIG SIGH}

I saw No Country for Old Men solely based on the fact that he was in it (and also because I was curious to know what in the world WAS that thing that he was toting around killing people?). To steal a song from another of last night’s Academy Award winners, La Vie en Rose, “Non, je ne regrets rien”.

Around The World In A Couple Of Hours

Today I went to Celebrate the World: An International Cultural Arts Festival held in Maryland Heights. While there, I had the opportunity to see: young girls from the Philippines perform ceremonial dances; a Japanese drum group (composed mostly of non-Japanese students) perform traditional drum performances that could compete with marching bands; a group of dancers of various ages (from grandchild to grandmother) perform traditional Greek dances; a group of dancers and drummers perform traditional West African dances and music (where are their backbones?); and a Latin orchestra perform Latin music accompanied by various salsa dancers.

Best of all, it was FREE! I had to cancel a trip to Europe that I had half-planned for this month but feel as if I’ve traveled farther than the original trip would have taken me. This afternoon, the world came to me.

An End To Yet Another Period Of Unemployment

I’ve been in Saint Louis for a little over two years and have found myself unemployed twice – the first time, unwillingly due to a layoff; the second time, willingly due to a bad fit. I took a huge chance by leaving my last job and I’ve gone through some tough times since I made that decision. Initially, I was ecstatic to have taken a stand for my own peace of mind but the cost of that stand almost also destroyed my piece of mind. Just when I was starting to doubt myself and the decision, a wonderful opportunity came along. In many ways, it is exactly what I need for where I am now.

During this job search, I’ve gone on interviews where I felt as if we both were thinking “who the hell is this?!” I even went on two separate interviews where the interviewers asked me pointedly personal questions about how I felt about the bad times that I’ve had since I’ve been in Saint Louis. I have done and continue to do a lot of soul-searching about the chain of events that have occurred since I’ve been here, however, I don’t think I want any job so bad that I’m willing to bare my soul in order to be considered for it. Just as asking a person’s age or if they have children during an interview is considered to be inappropriate, so too is asking a personal question of that magnitude. Don’t get me wrong, if asked out of concern, I will answer a personal question. However, neither of these instances were examples of people asking out of sheer concern. I once was accused of maybe having too much pride but I don’t think it is too much pride but a certain level of dignity I prefer to maintain.

However, those incidents are in the past and I have a wonderful future to look forward to at my upcoming job. For just a moment I needed to vent, now I’m going to keep it moving.

I Don’t Like To Cook But…

I was in the kitchen the other morning preparing some truly southern comfort food – grits. Not really liking plain food, I decided to jazz it up some. Following is my “recipe”:

4-6 slices of bacon cut into thin pieces
“some” herbes de provence
“some” salt
2 cups water
1 cup milk (makes the grits creamy)
1 cup grits
“some” cheese

Cook the bacon and the herbes de provence together until mostly done. Add the water and milk and bring to a boil. Add the grits and some salt to taste, reducing the heat to simmer. About two minutes before the grits are done, stir in the cheese making sure to also scrape the bottom of the pot so that the grits don’t stick (you probably should do that periodically but I only do it once).

Voila!

My next adventure in grits land will include shrimp. I will share if it tastes good. I will probably also share if it doesn’t taste good, after all, I did mention that I don’t really like to cook so there will be some disasters…

Currently listening:
Collected
By Massive Attack
Release date: 04 April, 2006