So by the time lunch break rolled around today, it was nice and warm out today. I took a new route, listening to a Sound of Young America podcast on my way– one from 2005 with Paul Feig, creator of Freaks & Geeks. I like that he drew inspiration for the show based on his own life as a high school burnout and the lives of the show’s writers, and he explicitly stated that they didn’t try to throw in a “lesson” into each episode…an “aw, gee, mom and dad, you were right” or something along those lines. You see that far too often in these “coming of age” tv shows. And yet, the show only lasted a season due to these silly things called “ratings.”
It’s funny how walking up just a block or two in most of Philadelphia feels like a time-warp. Or a socio-economic-warp, really. Ritzy little cottages with white-picket fences on one street, a crumbling rowhome with a chain link-enclosed trash-littered yard the next. I hope that doesn’t make me sound like a pompous middle-class white person too much, because I don’t mean it like that. It’s just very, very strange to see. Speaking of Philly, I really can’t wait to move away from collegeville. Hopefully we’ll find a nice apartment, at a nice price and with nice neighbors. I can always dream, right?
Since I’m keeping this blog public, I won’t go into much more detail about my extremely-interesting life (but I will continue to overuse hyphens between words). I have grandiose goals of learning new things, going to new places (italicized because I hate when people say “go new places”) and generally having greater enthusiasm for the little things in life. So I guess this is a mostly family-friendly little blog about that, and whoever feels like reading…well, good for you (and me! I’m selfish and like feeling listened to).
One of my goals is growing herbs (from starters, not seeds, in my apartment) and learning how to sew. I might need a sewing machine. Craigslist, perhaps?
I’m going to start with a simple tutorial I found– http://www.spoolsewing.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/birdpattern1-1.pdf
It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s– the first one. A bird. I don’t know, cat toy? Is that too old ladyish? But we’ve all got to start somewhere, and as much as I like to think I’ll be making fancy springtime skirts and reversible bags in no time, I know that’s unrealistic.
I have more goals (not just sewing), but let’s try this whole thing in a one-project-at-a-time way.
Almost time to go home! Even though I just had a big mug (the last bits, unfortunately) of some awesome chipotle split pea soup, I’m excited for tonight’s dinner– burritos. I sauteed some mushrooms that I needed to use up with red and black beans, a little cumin, paprika, garlic powder, pepper and onion strips and a chipotle in adobo (those little cans are great– you can freeze what you don’t use in a plastic bag and take it out as needed). I’m going to make some guacamole, trying to come up with my own recipe and incorporate some remaining cannelini beans. I made some “Mexican pesto” last night which has been frozen into ice cubes, and that’ll be drizzled on top for prettiness. Rice will be in the burritos, of course. And some cheap salsa to which I added corn and cilantro a while ago. On the side, I’m going to pan-fry some plantains coated in cornmeal– my first time using plantains, I think. We’ll see how it goes. I had a lot of fun making a short little cookbook for my mom, so I’ll probably talk about vegan cooking a lot here too, and trying new things/making my own recipes. My Google Reader contains many vegan cooking blogs, and I’ve gotten a lot of inspiration there and from a few cookbooks. But all of that will be saved for a future post.
