It is a good thing.
Awhile back I started this blog and I was crazy about writing and posting and following and then ... I hit a wall. Work got crazy, I had to work more hours at the Lottery Yarn and I stopped blogging. I never stopped to ask myself why. Looking back, I think that was wrong.
I loved writing and loved the new community. Why did I stop? I felt like I ran out of time. The thing is, I didn't run out of time, I ran out of time for me. I was setting aside time for my job, my second job, cleaning, cooking, errands but I set no time aside for me. Maybe that is why I am so cranky.
So I started again. I did not put a ton of pressure to blog daily but I did find myself thinking about writing again. The little spot in my brain that enjoyed it woke up and wanted to work.
Then, the comments started to roll back in, not as many as before but there are some lovely bloggers that remembered me. Then I saw that SITS was in Philadelphia and although it was sold out, I sent an email to be on the waiting list. Then, a friend told me a should be a writer (yes, I have heard it before but at this time, it worked with the falling into place thing) after reading what I wrote in my blog. Then, I was offered a ticket to the SITS conference. I was able to wrangle a day off from Lottery Yarn and
BOOM!
There is me, going to a social media conference to network and learn how to love my blog more through all sorts of ways. I am excited about meeting Kathy, Tiffany and Francesca. I have known them for awhile on line and I get to meet them in person. I am excited to take this writing thing to the next level and I hope you will come along for the ride. :)
Monday, August 16, 2010
Thursday, August 12, 2010
Writers WorkShop: The Craziest Reason I Ever Got in Trouble as a Child
This is a bit of a rehash of a post from a few years ago but it is very much in line with today's Writers Workshop assignment although I was more teen than child at the time. It is also very funny...at least to me. :)
Awhile back I wrote about my Cape Cod summer love (ok, not really love but you get the idea). I mentioned that there were bells involved at some point and that I would write about them later. It is now later.
So this guy that I met on the Cape who turned out to be the best kisser ever and I were out on the beach near our house one night. It was dark and I couldn't see my watch. I didn't worry though because I could always hear the church bells ring the hour. I had to be home by 11pm.
So there we were, kissing on the beach on a blanket. The moon was out, the water lapped on the beach and his sweatshirt smelled heavenly, like suntan lotion and 'guy' (in a good way). So I listened for the bells to let me know what time I needed to be home. You can see where this is going. I of course lost track of time and never heard the bells. My Mom sent my brother out to the beach to look for me and of course he saw me but what was he going to say, "Um excuse me, but can you get your face off that guy because it's after your curfew and mom is pissed"? Considering he was all of like 7 or 8 at the time, I think not. So he of course reported back that I was kissing a guy on the beach on a blanket. (BTW, my brother was also the one that told my Mom about my tattoo and my bellybutton piercing. Thanks, T.)
Eventually, I must have gotten it through the kissing fog in my brain that it was late and I did not hear any bells. So we made our way back to the house. He left and I went inside. Sitting at the dining table in their nightgowns (not pj's, nightgowns) were my mom, my aunt and my grandmother. They were all still up. My mom was all, "What were you doing out there this late, you were supposed to be home by 11pm, yadda yadda, yadda." I was all, "But it wasn't my fault. I didn't hear the bells!" They all looked at me, like "What is she talking about." I said, "You know the church bells. I was waiting to hear them and I didn't hear them. It's not my fault!"
***crickets chirping***
BWAAAHHHHAAAA! All 3 of them burst out laughing, trying to compose themselves to be mad at me. My mom snorted then my aunt. Eventually I just had to walk away because they couldn't stop. Unfortunately, I still got punished the next day. I had to come in an hour earlier my last night on the Cape. From then on, every year, I was the butt of the joke about "The bells, the bells!"
I would not have normally chosen to rehash an old post but considering that this year... OVER 20 years after this incident... my mother chose to say, "Oh, listen, those are the bells, Jen." I think that this post is relevant to the topic of Writers Workshop. :)
Awhile back I wrote about my Cape Cod summer love (ok, not really love but you get the idea). I mentioned that there were bells involved at some point and that I would write about them later. It is now later.
So this guy that I met on the Cape who turned out to be the best kisser ever and I were out on the beach near our house one night. It was dark and I couldn't see my watch. I didn't worry though because I could always hear the church bells ring the hour. I had to be home by 11pm.
So there we were, kissing on the beach on a blanket. The moon was out, the water lapped on the beach and his sweatshirt smelled heavenly, like suntan lotion and 'guy' (in a good way). So I listened for the bells to let me know what time I needed to be home. You can see where this is going. I of course lost track of time and never heard the bells. My Mom sent my brother out to the beach to look for me and of course he saw me but what was he going to say, "Um excuse me, but can you get your face off that guy because it's after your curfew and mom is pissed"? Considering he was all of like 7 or 8 at the time, I think not. So he of course reported back that I was kissing a guy on the beach on a blanket. (BTW, my brother was also the one that told my Mom about my tattoo and my bellybutton piercing. Thanks, T.)
Eventually, I must have gotten it through the kissing fog in my brain that it was late and I did not hear any bells. So we made our way back to the house. He left and I went inside. Sitting at the dining table in their nightgowns (not pj's, nightgowns) were my mom, my aunt and my grandmother. They were all still up. My mom was all, "What were you doing out there this late, you were supposed to be home by 11pm, yadda yadda, yadda." I was all, "But it wasn't my fault. I didn't hear the bells!" They all looked at me, like "What is she talking about." I said, "You know the church bells. I was waiting to hear them and I didn't hear them. It's not my fault!"
***crickets chirping***
BWAAAHHHHAAAA! All 3 of them burst out laughing, trying to compose themselves to be mad at me. My mom snorted then my aunt. Eventually I just had to walk away because they couldn't stop. Unfortunately, I still got punished the next day. I had to come in an hour earlier my last night on the Cape. From then on, every year, I was the butt of the joke about "The bells, the bells!"
I would not have normally chosen to rehash an old post but considering that this year... OVER 20 years after this incident... my mother chose to say, "Oh, listen, those are the bells, Jen." I think that this post is relevant to the topic of Writers Workshop. :)
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
Love and Marriage...and other stuff
This is the man I married 8 years ago today. In all fairness, I did ask him to give me blue steel as I took this shot. :) He drives me crazy in good ways and in bad (wasn't that part of the vows or something?) and he can grill.
This is better. We were a match made in heaven. We are both difficult people and he lets me win most of the time. He has a kind heart and a very soft spot for the fur babies (sometimes too soft considering he'll let G-dog take my side if the bed if I am not careful). When we first got together, he played guitar, wrote me songs. He made me cards and one time when he was teaching a camp, made me flowers out of paper. He was hilariously funny and could disarm you in a second with is terrible puns. One time he even spray painted his love for me on a football field. No joke.
Now it is eight years later. He is no longer a teacher, the guitar case is a tad dusty and I have heard all his jokes...I am not kidding...EVERY SINGLE ONE. I have not gotten flowers in a while, paper or otherwise and song-writing has been replaced by power point presentations for his sales job.
Sometimes...it makes me sad.
Then I remember, this is the man who comforted me when I was at my very lowest and supported me when I left my last job and took a much lower paying one to keep my sometimes questionable sanity. This is the man who no matter how hardened, cynical or jaded I become, he tries to make me laugh (and usually can). This is the man who silently stood by and let me go off like a raving lunatic on USAirways when they screwed us out of a weekend away, just because he knew I needed to do it (also I suspect he didn't want any misplaced anger going his direction, smart that one). He makes sure he tells me he loves me every day, even when I don't feel like saying it back, and kisses me every night when we go to sleep.
...and he can grill...
I have it pretty good I think. :)
Friday, August 6, 2010
Yum! Veggie Meal On My Own
I had the house to myself last night. That means drop the a/c a couple notches, both doggies on the bed with no grumbling from M-dog and a veggie meal for me.
Sabrina over at Rhodygirl Tests wrote about Zucchini Pasta a little while back and I was dying to try it for all the same reasons she wanted to do it.
1. I love a big bowl of pasta but do not love the cals that come with a big bowl
2. I love zucchini and there is plenty of it right now
The recipe for the zucchini pasta is very simple.
Zucchini Pasta
-Use a veggie peeler to peel ribbons of zucchini.
I was trying to figure out the best way to do this as I wanted to have some of the skin left on the zucchini pasta both for nutrition (fiber) and for looks. The green stripe along either side of the ribbon looked pretty. I found that if I stripped off the skin on 4 sides of the zucchini length-wise and then started peeling for the actual pasta after that, I got exactly what I was looking for. The ribbons were about an inch wide. I peeled only until I started seeing seeds. At that point, the zucchini looked like a square block. What I should have done was grate it and toss it in the freezer for adding to other things later but I already had a ton so it went to the compost pile.
- Steam the ribbons over salted water for 2-3 minutes.
- Toss the zucchini with your favorite sauce or simple topping
Sabrina used pesto which looked amazing. She also suggested marinara or even just some garlic and olive oil. I had a bunch or really good looking tomatoes from my CSA that were begging to be put to good use so I made a quick sauce with tomatoes, cipollini onions, garlic and white wine. Other than the chopping/seeding of the tomatoes, this recipe is very quick and easy.
Tomato Sauce
- Seed and chop tomatoes (I used 4 large), chop onions (3 small cipollini but you can use any type you like), chop garlic
-Heat a little olive oil in a pan over medium heat and add onions. Allow to soften at least, you can caramelize too if you like the flavor, add garlic and cook for about 30 seconds (I am TERRIBLE at letting garlic burn so I always add it when there are other things in the pan already), add the tomatoes and a little salt. The tomatoes will give off a good deal of liquid, allow it to cook down to concentrate the flavors. Once most of the liquid is gone, add some white wine (I poured anywhere from 1/4 to 1/2 cup I think, just out the bottle) and allow that to cook down.
-When you are satisfied with the consistency of the sauce, remove from heat and add zucchini ribbons, toss gently.
-Plate and add your fave cheese to the top. I used a pecorino romano.
-Something I did not do which I will next time is allow the sauce and the zucchini to sit for a few minutes to let the flavors meld. I realized that I needed to do this when the dish kept getting better the more I ate. :)
You'll notice I had an ear of corn in the first pic. I ate that as an app, raw over the sink...OMG so good! If you live in the Philly area, Maple Acres Farm in Plymouth Meeting has the BEST CORN EVER!
This dish was wonderful. I will make it again and again. I think next time I will make less sauce and allow the texture of the zucchini to be highlighted more. It was similar to pasta and I found that the ribbons with a little green skin were firmer (in a good way) than the ones without skin. This could be a great side as well especially if you have a significant other or other dinner partner that must have their meat at every meal.
Funny - I had a green stain on my hand from holding the zucchini and peeling. I have zucchini all the time and this was the first time that happened. Took a little scrubbing to get off too.
Let me know if you give it a try!
Sabrina over at Rhodygirl Tests wrote about Zucchini Pasta a little while back and I was dying to try it for all the same reasons she wanted to do it.
1. I love a big bowl of pasta but do not love the cals that come with a big bowl
2. I love zucchini and there is plenty of it right now
 |
| This is what I was working with |
The recipe for the zucchini pasta is very simple.
Zucchini Pasta
-Use a veggie peeler to peel ribbons of zucchini.
I was trying to figure out the best way to do this as I wanted to have some of the skin left on the zucchini pasta both for nutrition (fiber) and for looks. The green stripe along either side of the ribbon looked pretty. I found that if I stripped off the skin on 4 sides of the zucchini length-wise and then started peeling for the actual pasta after that, I got exactly what I was looking for. The ribbons were about an inch wide. I peeled only until I started seeing seeds. At that point, the zucchini looked like a square block. What I should have done was grate it and toss it in the freezer for adding to other things later but I already had a ton so it went to the compost pile.
- Steam the ribbons over salted water for 2-3 minutes.
- Toss the zucchini with your favorite sauce or simple topping
Sabrina used pesto which looked amazing. She also suggested marinara or even just some garlic and olive oil. I had a bunch or really good looking tomatoes from my CSA that were begging to be put to good use so I made a quick sauce with tomatoes, cipollini onions, garlic and white wine. Other than the chopping/seeding of the tomatoes, this recipe is very quick and easy.
Tomato Sauce
- Seed and chop tomatoes (I used 4 large), chop onions (3 small cipollini but you can use any type you like), chop garlic
-Heat a little olive oil in a pan over medium heat and add onions. Allow to soften at least, you can caramelize too if you like the flavor, add garlic and cook for about 30 seconds (I am TERRIBLE at letting garlic burn so I always add it when there are other things in the pan already), add the tomatoes and a little salt. The tomatoes will give off a good deal of liquid, allow it to cook down to concentrate the flavors. Once most of the liquid is gone, add some white wine (I poured anywhere from 1/4 to 1/2 cup I think, just out the bottle) and allow that to cook down.
-When you are satisfied with the consistency of the sauce, remove from heat and add zucchini ribbons, toss gently.
-Plate and add your fave cheese to the top. I used a pecorino romano.
-Something I did not do which I will next time is allow the sauce and the zucchini to sit for a few minutes to let the flavors meld. I realized that I needed to do this when the dish kept getting better the more I ate. :)
 |
| This is what I ended up with |
You'll notice I had an ear of corn in the first pic. I ate that as an app, raw over the sink...OMG so good! If you live in the Philly area, Maple Acres Farm in Plymouth Meeting has the BEST CORN EVER!
This dish was wonderful. I will make it again and again. I think next time I will make less sauce and allow the texture of the zucchini to be highlighted more. It was similar to pasta and I found that the ribbons with a little green skin were firmer (in a good way) than the ones without skin. This could be a great side as well especially if you have a significant other or other dinner partner that must have their meat at every meal.
Funny - I had a green stain on my hand from holding the zucchini and peeling. I have zucchini all the time and this was the first time that happened. Took a little scrubbing to get off too.
Let me know if you give it a try!
Thursday, August 5, 2010
If I Could Do it Over...
I love Mama's Kat's Writer's Workshops. They really get me thinking about events in my life, things I'd like to do, etc. This one was odd though because I was having a hard time picking a topic. This subject won out when I pulled a number out of a coffee mug.
1.) If you could do it over again…
The problem with this is, I would not want to do many things over because I believe that the teeniest, tiniest change can alter an entire life. That scares me a little. If I had changed my path by one footprint, one small decision to skip rather than run or walk things could be very different, better, worse, etc. Then I thought about what I would WANT to be different and went backwards from there.
I came up with one thing:
I wish I had switched majors in college.
I kick myself every day for this. I got to a point in school where Marine Biology was not doing it for me anymore. I didn't like the professors (they were oh so high and mighty with that #3 school in the country for Marin Bio label), I didn't like the fact that there were almost no jobs with only an undergrad degree (more school! WHAT!?) and I hated the fact that for each science course I had to take a lab with an other 3 plus hours a week for only 1 credit. I was also taking geology courses but I think I liked the subject more than the thought of actually getting a degree in it. All I wanted to do was get out of school. I am not sure if it was just because I was in major I didn't love anymore or if it was because at the age of 19 or 20 I wasn't ready to know exactly what I wanted to do with my life. I truly think it's the last thing. I mean lets face it, it took me until I was 35 to figure out how to deal with my hair. How was I supposed to figure out my entire life at 19?
Hind-sight being 20/20 I would have done exactly what another friend had done, drop the science and major in something in the English department. Even then I loved to write and I loved me some literature. I didn't have her guts though (love ya L!). I still don't. I was afraid to make a change like that for fear of facing the same ire from my parents when I suggested to them that I take a semester off. It is so funny (not ha ha funny by any stretch) to look back on it now because I could have told them and worked it out. I have only myself to blame...
and to fix.
Maybe it's time I started looking at what I can do about what I WANT to do...what I could do if I HAVE (not had) the chance to do it over again.
1.) If you could do it over again…
The problem with this is, I would not want to do many things over because I believe that the teeniest, tiniest change can alter an entire life. That scares me a little. If I had changed my path by one footprint, one small decision to skip rather than run or walk things could be very different, better, worse, etc. Then I thought about what I would WANT to be different and went backwards from there.
I came up with one thing:
I wish I had switched majors in college.
I kick myself every day for this. I got to a point in school where Marine Biology was not doing it for me anymore. I didn't like the professors (they were oh so high and mighty with that #3 school in the country for Marin Bio label), I didn't like the fact that there were almost no jobs with only an undergrad degree (more school! WHAT!?) and I hated the fact that for each science course I had to take a lab with an other 3 plus hours a week for only 1 credit. I was also taking geology courses but I think I liked the subject more than the thought of actually getting a degree in it. All I wanted to do was get out of school. I am not sure if it was just because I was in major I didn't love anymore or if it was because at the age of 19 or 20 I wasn't ready to know exactly what I wanted to do with my life. I truly think it's the last thing. I mean lets face it, it took me until I was 35 to figure out how to deal with my hair. How was I supposed to figure out my entire life at 19?
Hind-sight being 20/20 I would have done exactly what another friend had done, drop the science and major in something in the English department. Even then I loved to write and I loved me some literature. I didn't have her guts though (love ya L!). I still don't. I was afraid to make a change like that for fear of facing the same ire from my parents when I suggested to them that I take a semester off. It is so funny (not ha ha funny by any stretch) to look back on it now because I could have told them and worked it out. I have only myself to blame...
and to fix.
Maybe it's time I started looking at what I can do about what I WANT to do...what I could do if I HAVE (not had) the chance to do it over again.
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
Cape Cod: Beach Beard
If you have been reading for awhile and even if you haven't you know my love for the Cape of Cod is infinite. There are things that happen there that don't happen in other places. I feel at peace while I am there. I am able to soul search with ease.
This also happens:
Ritual shaving of the beach beard. What is a beach beard you may ask? For the past few years my husband, brother and his friends have had a beach beard 'contest'. There are no winners really it is more an exercise of laziness to see what they look like with facial hair. Most of them are pretty clean cut the rest of the year but they let themselves go while they are on the Cape. A day or two before leaving they shave their beards into something to attract attention.
When you are in an area like Cape Cod THIS attracts attention. Peter and I were walking to a cafe at the marina on our last day and all of a sudden he doubled over with laughter. It seems the teenager that was walking towards us gave him an incredibly dirty look.
I decided to walk a few steps ahead after that.
Don't get me wrong, it is amusing and they seem to take much pleasure in the traditional ritual.
I just worry that one year we are going to see men in their cranberry shorts embroidered with whales and women in the Lily Pulitzer showing up at our front door with torches and pitchforks.
This also happens:
Ritual shaving of the beach beard. What is a beach beard you may ask? For the past few years my husband, brother and his friends have had a beach beard 'contest'. There are no winners really it is more an exercise of laziness to see what they look like with facial hair. Most of them are pretty clean cut the rest of the year but they let themselves go while they are on the Cape. A day or two before leaving they shave their beards into something to attract attention.
When you are in an area like Cape Cod THIS attracts attention. Peter and I were walking to a cafe at the marina on our last day and all of a sudden he doubled over with laughter. It seems the teenager that was walking towards us gave him an incredibly dirty look.
I decided to walk a few steps ahead after that.
Don't get me wrong, it is amusing and they seem to take much pleasure in the traditional ritual.
I just worry that one year we are going to see men in their cranberry shorts embroidered with whales and women in the Lily Pulitzer showing up at our front door with torches and pitchforks.
Monday, August 2, 2010
Journalism Today: Fail
I read an article today regarding how a dog attacked its owner. Now, I realize that it is awful that this happened. I am sure that the victims were scared and hurt. When I first read it my outrage was more about what probably caused this to happen (dog did not just go nuts) rather than what I am about to write. When I stepped back and thought about the way the article was written it got me thinking more deeply.
Is that what journalism has come to in print media?
"When Deborah Hankin's boyfriend left her and his gargantuan Cane Corso Mastiff, she continued to care for him like her own, feeding him every day at 2:30 p.m.
But in return, the beast turned around and mangled her and a friend Saturday afternoon at her home"- Philadelphia Daily News 8/2/10
This lead reads like a fiction short story rather than a news article. That in itself is disturbing enough. The rest of the article was poorly written as well. The more I thought about it, the angrier it made me. There was absolutely no research done for this article. The writer took it upon herself to use the skills she learned in a fiction class to make her article appear more interesting. That is not news writing.
It seems to me these days that when journalists...and I am using that term VERY loosely... are tasked with writing about a subject, they sometimes feel the need to either glamorize/exaggerate it, no better than a reality tv show, or they insert their own opinion in what is CLEARLY not an opinion piece. I see this daily in any number of print and tv journalism pieces. It seems to me that some journalists do not know where the line between opinion and fact lies.
I like to write. I did not go to school for it but even I know the difference between an opinion piece and a news piece. Both types SHOULD require research from different angles and both should read like a well informed person wrote it. A news piece should cover all the angles, tell the facts and give readers a well informed idea of an issue or event. An opinion piece should show both sides, or many sides of an issue then proceed to use well thought out research, writing and words that would back up the opinion of the writer. Don't they teach this to aspiring journalists anymore? I am torn between believing if it is laziness on their part or ignorance.
I guess in a world where reality tv is king, Rush Limbaugh is considered informed (about his own opinions and not much else) and the Tea Party thinks that "Don't Tread on Me" is their own motto (please, again lazy people that could not come up with their own slogan) this is going the be the norm rather than the correct.
Is that what journalism has come to in print media?
"When Deborah Hankin's boyfriend left her and his gargantuan Cane Corso Mastiff, she continued to care for him like her own, feeding him every day at 2:30 p.m.
But in return, the beast turned around and mangled her and a friend Saturday afternoon at her home"- Philadelphia Daily News 8/2/10
This lead reads like a fiction short story rather than a news article. That in itself is disturbing enough. The rest of the article was poorly written as well. The more I thought about it, the angrier it made me. There was absolutely no research done for this article. The writer took it upon herself to use the skills she learned in a fiction class to make her article appear more interesting. That is not news writing.
It seems to me these days that when journalists...and I am using that term VERY loosely... are tasked with writing about a subject, they sometimes feel the need to either glamorize/exaggerate it, no better than a reality tv show, or they insert their own opinion in what is CLEARLY not an opinion piece. I see this daily in any number of print and tv journalism pieces. It seems to me that some journalists do not know where the line between opinion and fact lies.
I like to write. I did not go to school for it but even I know the difference between an opinion piece and a news piece. Both types SHOULD require research from different angles and both should read like a well informed person wrote it. A news piece should cover all the angles, tell the facts and give readers a well informed idea of an issue or event. An opinion piece should show both sides, or many sides of an issue then proceed to use well thought out research, writing and words that would back up the opinion of the writer. Don't they teach this to aspiring journalists anymore? I am torn between believing if it is laziness on their part or ignorance.
I guess in a world where reality tv is king, Rush Limbaugh is considered informed (about his own opinions and not much else) and the Tea Party thinks that "Don't Tread on Me" is their own motto (please, again lazy people that could not come up with their own slogan) this is going the be the norm rather than the correct.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)