MishMash

The Fiance's off with friends so I am home, having some fun of my own...um, blogging....

Okay, my life is not the most exciting, but I do have some positives to discuss. First, I had a volunteer "opportunity" - it's not work, it's an "opportunity" - at the Matthaei Botanical Gardens and Nichols Arboretum annual plant sale. I worked as a cashier's assistant and then at plant pick-up, which is a coat-check system for plant shoppers who want to continue to shop or need to bring their cars around for loading. It would have been a fantastically good time except that it was probably 40 or colder with the constantly gusting wind chill. I was miserable. Then, on only two days' notice, I had to show up at my bartending job (not my usual night to work), which was fine because it was warm. I was so exhausted after 8 hours out in the cold (and did I mention that I worked the night before, so I only got 5 hours of fitful sleep, due to thrashing winds?) and was therefore afraid I'd snap, and unleash my exhausted fury on a co-worker or customer. I didn't, though, and that is more a credit to the nice people I work with and the nice clientele than it is a credit to me, though I am pretty nice too, most of the time.

I may have been a bit short with my sister, though, who has been discussing wedding colors and bridesmaid/flower girl dresses with me (she's a bridesmaid, her 6 year old Miss C is a flower girl). I was too tired and confused to talk dresses at the end of the day, so I hope I didn't sound too awful and negative, but I probably did. But a new week begins tomorrow, and with it, a new chance to register for fantastic wedding gifts (why is this less fun than it sounds??), a new chance to find my wedding dress fabric (in case of failure, break seal on credit card and buy a damn ready-made dress!), a new chance to find someone to marry us (did I not mention that shortcoming in our Big Wedding Plans??? Actually, I think I did!).

I've updated the book list to the right. Good stuff now, so check it out! My main book right now is Unfinished Desires, somewhat of a mystery the way it is set up...deep dark secrets, etc. Poseidon's Steed is research for a novel I will someday, God Willing, write. And Say You're One of Them is another in a series of recently (deservedly) popular books out of native African writers...well written, populated by figures that jump off the page with their human-ness, and quite foreign, which gives me a chance to learn about the world I am economically limited from exploring at this particular time. And I am still basking in the afterglow of having finished The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Klay...new book soon, please Mr. Chabon!

All is well in the world for now. I hope for the same for you, my readers.

I’m Okay with May

 

So happy to have good weather!  And it is gorgeous weather indeed!  Short sleeve wearin’, dandelion-pickin’, tomato-plantin’ weather!  Aaahh, I forgot there was any reason to live in Michigan until this month arrived with its light breezes (and fair amount of rain) and sun to bask in! 

I just got back from a tutor social for the tutors at Washtenaw Literacy, which is an adult literacy non-profit.  Nice people and a good cause!  I will be administering the blog for the yearly fundraiser, World in a Basket, which I will be missing this year because it is the day before our wedding.  Nothing else going on.  I have a little bit of work trickling in, not much, though May is Wedding Month, and hopefully the rest of summer is Work and Earn Lots of Money time!  Off to bask in the season!

A Brief Take on The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon

 

First of all, I’ve been away far too long, considering Windows 7 (with which I have a love/hate relationship) makes it so easy to write on my blog – no signing in, no selecting the blog I want.  Despite the ease, work has really picked up for me, and I hope it stays that way, but it makes me realize how leisurely was my career before March/April rolled in, and how exhausting it is to run every aspect of your own business with more than 1 client at a time!

Then there’s the wedding.  We are moving closer to booking entertainment, if I haven’t scared off the musician we like with bridezilla requests.  I also have confirmed a dressmaker, and need only get fabric and nail down the shape I want.

Then there’s the volunteer work, which Fiance does not condone in the least.  I will have to cut back on volunteering if my business picks up any more, so let’s hope for it!  In the meantime, I’ve been tutoring once a week (which ends in June) and I will be blogging for a literacy non-profit’s upcoming annual fundraiser (which I will miss because it is the day before our Big Day).

And then there’s the liquid cash flow job, a.k.a. bartending 2 nights a week, a huge improvement from the last server position, but still a distraction…though often a good distraction, because after my day job, I can relax a bit even though I’m working…there’s no use crying over a spilled Manhattan, after all.

Can you tell my usual joie de vivre is absent?  Fatigued, I guess.  Wishing the clouds would clear and the temperature would rise for good and allow me to relegate my winter clothes to the basement where they belong! 

So, with that update, I’m ready to move on to something I am actually quite pleased with.  I finally finished The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, a Michael Chabon novel ringing in at over 600 pages.  While it was no Joyce or Faulkner head-scratcher, it was denser than a 600 page work of genre fiction (I can get through 700 pages of Harry Potter or Twilight in 2 days easy).  Which is why I took multiple breaks lasting months at a time while reading it.  Which is why my disjointed consumption probably disqualifies me from critiquing the novel.  Which is fine, because there’s nothing to critique, I loved it. 

The novel tells the story of Sam Clay and Joe Kavalier, cousins and  partners in comic book creations in NYC during Hitler’s empire-building reign of terror throughout Europe.  Joe comes from Czechoslovakia to escape persecution of the Jews and send for his family later.  He moves in with Sam and they get to work inventing fantastic comic book heroes that fight Hitler and the Nazis.  The first big chunk of the book covers Joe’s escape from Europe in a coffin holding his village’s golem, and the first few years of comic book creation and modest fame, along with Joe’s relationship with artist Rosa and Sammy’s relationship with a handsome actor who plays the radio part of their most popular character, the Escapist.  The second chunk of the book covers Joe’s struggles to get his younger brother to America, along with the lesser struggles Joe and Sammy have with the exploitative owner of their comic book creations, Sheldon Anapol (which is the only aspect of the novel I would critique – somehow this reader was unable to develop sympathy toward the protagonists regarding this storyline, while the other storylines brimmed with humanity and created a feeling of empathy)………

I have decided not to go on with a synopsis.  What’s the point?  Then you might not read the book, and you should read the book!  Like I said, it’s good!  It’s full of interesting characters, tragedy, good dialogue, funny stuff, violence, and love.  What I liked most about the book was the story itself.  I have a hard time reading what I consider “genre fiction,” which often tells a fascinating story but in general is poorly written.  This book is well-written, as is all of Michael Chabon’s work, but it also tells an exciting story.  It was full of action, things happening.  “Literary fiction,” which is what I usually read, oftentimes follows the internal thought processes of characters, but contains little action, or if there is action, it is pretty typical (wife dies, someone kills someone and deals with aftermath, lots of aftermaths as a matter of fact, and people sit around thinking about stuff related to aftermaths).  My point is, well-written novels equipped with fascinating and original stories are not so easy to come by, so I give this book a gold star and hope for more of its quality soon.

By the way, I heard that there is a movie in production of The Yiddish Policeman’s Union, another good one by Chabon.  I can’t wait – the Jewish state of Alaska intrigues me!

I’ll come back soon, with more pep in my step.

Craftsifaction

I was able to channel my strong desire to create and sew my own wedding dress into some other projects. I finally finished a side table/bench I've been working on since early autumn, when I dumpster-dived (curb-scavenged, really) for this worn, old bench in my neighborhood, which I rescued from town dump oblivion by lifting from the roadside and spiriting home in my arms under a light drizzle.



I spray-painted the legs red...thinking it would be nice to have some color in the house. I then took to gutting the moldy cushion, unveiling a flat piece of wood.



Then came the winter, and with it, a crisis of identity and lack of utility for the bench project, and a bout of Seasonal Affective Disorder for me, preventing me from leaving my bed, let along mustering the creative energy to face the red-legged bench.

Alas, the sun came out in late February, bringing with it a desire to undo the red, bring back light. So I painted the legs off-white, wiped the top to make sure no mustiness remained, and cut to size a length of decorater fabric (given to me as a birthday gift by my Sandy in Austin, along with an old copy of Vogue Sewing...she knows me so well!).

I glued down the fabric, smoothed it, cut the edges, and glued it under...



...and, voila!



I am going to put on this bench a lovely flower lamp that used to belong to my grandmother, and that my mother brought with her, with love, in an airplane carry-on from the west coast. The moral of this post: accomplish your work in your own time, in your own way...go with the flow because S.A.D. and winter will have their way, but you will have the last laugh...and the last craft.

Wedding Dress Blues

I am heading toward dangerous territory…convincing myself that I can make my own wedding dress.  Yikes!  Somebody stop me before I do it!  Really, I went to a dressmaker yesterday in Royal Oak, a funky burb of Detroit, to talk about having a dress made.  Don’t get me wrong, there are many beautiful dresses out there, and many of them would be fine.  If I am going to go beyond “fine,” though, then I will need to be more involved in the dress’ creation.

What I want:  a light, light blue dupioni silk, with creamy ivory or ecru accents…fabric flowers, feathers, ribbon, just some type of accent.  Slightly flared skirt, simple bodice – either strapless or scoop neck.  And a creamy ivory or ecru bolero jacket or shrug to wear during an outdoor ceremony.  Bottomed off by a pair of natural colored cowboy boots.  Sound fantastic to me…doesn’t exist.  So it has to be made or I have to give up on it.  And seeing as how the wedding is still 7 months away, I can’t give up on it just yet. 

Well, on the phone the dressmaker told me the average price for floor-length wedding dresses by her was between $500 and $1100.  But after setting foot in her door and showing her my ideas, it somehow shot up to $1300, not including the bolero/shrug.  The nice thing about this is it includes all alterations and fabrics.  The not nice thing about this is that the dress I have in mind truly is a simple cut, so despite my lack of expertise in sewing dresses I am pretty confident that this would be a simple dress, at least pattern-wise.  I asked her how to get the price down a bit and she said I could get a less expensive fabric than dupioni.  The only problem with that is that one of the reasons those dresses in wedding store display windows are “fine” is the yards and yards of satiny, polyester stuff that does not appeal to the touch or the eye.  So I am not negotiating on that.

Which leads to my Saturday night plans.  I am going to hunt for dress patterns and material.  And then I am going to give some serious thought to making my life slightly miserable for a little while and putting together my own dress.  Stay tuned…

Laissez le Bon Temps Rouler...er, donde esta el sol????

Mardi Gras has come and gone, leaving in its wake 40 days to reflect on death and resurrection, a concept well illustrated by Michigan's kindergarten-strict adherence to the classic four season timeline. We got winter when the official winter season began some time in December. We will get spring when the official spring season begins, some time around Easter, which is April 4th this year. Like Jesus' biblical journey back to life, the tulips and daffodils will emerge from the earth once again. Until then, though, that somber reminder...from dust you came and to dust you shall return.

Well, it's not as if I have literally been reflecting matters of life and death since last Wednesday, especially not with all the recent springy weather. This Friday I had my sunroof open. Today I had my car windows down as I ran errands. I basked in the sunshine. I did not once use the car sunroof when I lived in the desert, but I now use it every so often to augment winter sunbreaks (my Seattle sister's term). This sunbreak is just about over, though, with a winter storm warning to last through the week. The past few weeks, we have had snow during the week, then warmer weather toward week's end, which foiled Fiance's and my plan to explore local cross-country ski trials. So we are hoping this week will not end in weather warm enough to melt all the snow (though this is the last time I will say that this year...after this week, it is all pray for spring pray for spring pray for spring).

Back to Mardi Gras. Being one who loves to embrace other cultures, particularly when it comes to food, I made a traditional King Cake...this is a Louisiana thing. It apparently originated in France. I have had delicious King Cake before, and mine came out okay, but like many yeast-based creations of mine, was a bit dense, and by Day 2, a bit brick-like. King Cakes can be shared from the Feast of the Epiphany (always on January 6th) up to Mardi Gras (this year February 17th), and I shared mine 2 weeks before Mardi Gras. It went over well, because even after a ridiculous amount of preparation and baking, it tasted exactly like a cinnamon roll, and who doesn't like a cinnamon roll? But next time, I will follow the recipe I found on some "work smart not hard" person's blog which went something like this: open one of those cylindrical cans of raw cinnamon rolls, shape it into an oval, bake, ice, and sprinkle with some sugar you bought already colored gold, green, and purple (that's right, I used food coloring to custom-color my sugar!). Though if you are a glutton for punishment, check out the Southern Living recipe I used at http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=1152929. I actually have a hard copy of the recipe, clipped from my grandma's magazine - the hard copy tells you how to make your own colored sugar: simply add a few drops of food coloring to a small bowl of sugar and wisk until combined.

But since I live in Detroit and not New Orleans, I would be remiss not to mention the paczki, the ubiquitous Polish Mardi Gras treat. I went to the nearby Looney Baker in Livonia (if you are ever in town you must get their apple cider donut...mmmm) to pick up paczki for the Fiance and I to share. The girl who helped me at the counter said they had been extremely busy trying to meet all the special orders for paczki that come in that time of year. Hmmm, I thought, these paczki must really be something! To be honest, I was a bit disappointed, though this should not reflect on the excellent Looney Baker (which sports a blow-up Homer Simpson eating a donut during the Christmas season). The paczek (singular form) is basically a jelly donut, though you can also get a custard-filled. The difference, as far as I can tell, is better ingredients, but I have never been a fan of jelly donuts, so alas, I did not have any point of comparison. I sincerely apologize if this critique offends paczki fans - I have had only one experience with the paczki so far, but will gamely give it a try next year - who am I to pass up a donut?

A Date Downtown

Fiance and I went on a rare date last night (to put it in perspective, before last night, our dating life was scheduled to be placed on the Endangered Species List). He won tickets to a Red Wings game at work, so the destination was downtown Detroit. To begin the night, we decided to take in a word-of-mouth favorite, Slows BarBQue. Apparently, famous people like the Rolling Stones and Bill Clinton consider it a must-go when in Detroit (and I ask you, when in Detroit? Not since I've lived here!). Anyways, I am not so foolish as to ignore a commendation from Bill Clinton regarding homestyle eats, so we Googlemapped our way to Corktown, the Irish neighborhood downtown where Slows is located. Slows faces the deserted and barb-wired Michigan Central Station, a building which never fails to fill me with awe (and regret that it sits there abandoned).

The picture, by yours truly, is shaky, a result of not using a flash or something, I don't know, I am terrible at taking photographs. It's hard to see, but some tagger lacking a fear of heights or an instict for self-preservation sprayed "Save the Depot" near the top of the building. Slows is basically surrounded by rundown buildings and small businesses that don't look too booming...I guess some years ago this is where my Irish family would have congregated, had I grown up in Detroit, but now it doesn't look like too many people consider this as a destination neighborhood for much other than barbeque.

At Slows, Fiance and I had The Best Macaroni and Cheese Ever There Was. I will not accept any comparisons or alternate best-mac'n'cheese comments from anybody unless they first taste Slows' mac'n'cheese, end of story...that is an open invitation to meet me at Slows to resolve any debate. I felt a strong urge to photograph my own plate of mac'n'cheese after taking a few bites, to commemorate the event, but was frankly too embarrassed. So I finished it off, along with amazing ribs and brisket, and washed it all down with some local microbrews. I unfortunately had to change my plans for dessert, due to extreme fullness...I was so disappointed I had to pass on the Chuck Norris, a dessert that will kick you in the face! (If my dear readers would like to see a picture of the famous mac'n'cheese or the much-desired Chuck, check out http://www.slowsbarbq.com/.) The place was packed with red-clad diners who'd had the same idea as us. We finished up and waddled to the car to proceed the mile and a half (can't walk after eating that food!) to Joe Louis to watch the Wings...lose to the San Jose Sharks in a shootout.

I looovve going to hockey games! And it is even better when you have good seats, row 16 in our case, right behind the goal. After pro baseball, pro hockey is my favorite in-person spectator sport (sorry football - though this statement excludes Longhorns football, which actually trumps baseball and hockey). And Red Wings fans are crazy...a lot of them are little old ladies, who fit into the cute but crazy category. Detroit is Hockeytown U.S.A., after all. Though the Wings lost, it was a great time, and a great date! And to top it off, we were able to get out of the Joe parking garage in less than 2 minutes, an amazing coup upon which I still marvel!

This little boy waved his hat around the whole game to get on the Jumbotron, mission accomplished toward the end of the 3rd period...hooray!