ARGH!

Inconsiderate people suck. It's just a fact.

For example:

I was recently asked to deliver some files to the office for a co-worker who was leaving town early the next morning. She said she'd drop them off in the evening. I waited. And waited. At about 9pm I left her a message asking if she was still going to come by. Mind you, I put my own plans on hold to wait for her because I agreed to do her this favor. She finally responded at about 10:30 that she had decided instead to go home and not worry about the files and just forgot to call.

That's inconsiderate.

Or this:

I was recently moved into an office that I now share with several people (another post on how I feel about this at a later date...). I decided that since I'm leaving and don't have that much more time here I'd put up with it. Now, when I have conference calls, which is very frequently, I am careful to speak at a volume that will be as minimally disruptive to my (many) office-mates as possible. When I meet with other people in my office, I try to make sure that we aren't disturbing the work of the others or find a conference room to meet.

My office-mates however find it necessary to YELL at each other across the room and when they are sitting right next to each other. They put conference calls on speaker phone and feel the need to yell into the phone. And then there's the incessant tapping of the fingernails on the hard desk surface while on the phone and nervous shaking of legs which cause squeaking of chairs.

That is inconsiderate.

I have asked them to take calls off of speaker phone and I have asked people to turn their volume down when possible but COME ON!!!! You share space with other people. Why do I have to tell you that you are being inconsiderate? I know I am sensitive to annoying sounds but really? Is this necessary?

It makes me really really grumpy and I don't like being grumpy. It's not a good look for me.

car alarms

Growing up my sister had (and still has) extremely sensitive hearing. She could hear every little sound and I can only imagine how incredibly annoying that must have been as a young person. I feel like maybe I have developed the same supersonic hearing as an adult (I was always a little slower...). Unfortunately mine only pertains to repetitive sounds that I find not only annoying but intensely infuriating.

Car alarms. I hear them. I hear them over every other sound. Apparently I even hear them from inside full and loud restaurants and bars with doors closed (at a recent birthday party, we were inside a packed and loud bar and I heard my friend's car alarm from outside the bar - my friends now think I'm crazy - well, crazier).

This brings me to the question: what good do car alarms even do?

Here's the thing: car alarms go off all the time and when they do, nobody does anything. Everybody just gets annoyed (especially me). Nobody actually looks to see if a car is being broken into or stolen. People who have car alarms eventually get up to see if it's their car that's making all that horrendously infuriating noise, hanging their car clicker thingy out the window to see if it will turn the alarm off. If it's not their car, they just go about their business. That's if they pay attention at all.

I have only once in my life had a car alarm. It was in a well-used red Fiat Uno in the early 1990's. I didn't know I had a car alarm and had no way of turning the damn thing off the first time it decided to go off while I was still in the car with the car running (well-used Fiat, remember). Luckily I was at our community theater where lots of semi-tech-savvy people were willing to assist. As 4 or 5 of these semi-tech savvy people tried to get the alarm to quiet itself, I finally just told them, "RIP IT OUT!" and so they did. And that was that.

In other words, car alarms are dumb. Just had to get that off my chest.

fleissig, fleissig

Instead of a lazy Saturday - which is typically my first choice for a Saturday, whether I can afford it or not - I decided to be productive. I was assisted in this decision by the fact that I had to be up at a decent hour since my apartment building is being re-keyed and the locksmith was going to be here by 10. That meant that I had to get up well before that so I could get dressed, clean the apartment and wash the dishes. I have absolutely no idea why I feel that it is necessary to clean my apartment for the locksmith but hey, any form of motivation works!

After I had done all that it was 10 and the locksmith wasn't here yet. Then I remembered the big bag full of fresh produce from my weekly local organic produce delivery. So, I decided to prepare for the week:

First I made breakfast burritos to freeze, whole wheat tortillas filled with a mixture of red, kidney, and black beans, some salsa and a sprinkling of cheese. YUM! I can just grab one in the morning on my way to the office, heat it in the microwave when I get there and have a great start to my day!

Then, as the locksmith was still not here, I decided to finally cut up the GIGANTIC butternut squash that has been hanging around my kitchen for a couple of weeks. Last weekend I bought some short grain brown rice so I decided to make butternut squash risotto. It turned out to be a pretty big batch so I froze that too. Now I have 5 servings of butternut squash risotto ready to grab for lunches or quick dinners.

Then, since I had a pile of butternut squash already cut up (it was just too much to use it all in the risotto) I looked around for ideas of what to do with it. AHA! I had a bunch of carrots and so I decided to make creamy carrot and butternut squash soup. I used a starchy potato instead of cream to make it creamy and that is now cooling until I can put it through the food processor to make it smooth and creamy. More lunch options for the week!

It didn't matter at all that the locksmith came and went at some point, I was on a roll. I turned next to the meyer lemons. What to do with them? I briefly considered a meyer lemon pie but quickly realized there are no graham crackers (for the crust) in my pantry. So, instead, I have made dark chocolate and lemon sorbet. It's going in the freezer as soon as it cools and it will be a delicious treat after dinner tomorrow night.

I am stopping myself now because my freezer is full and I realize there are only so many lunches in a week and I'm a bit over that quota. Besides, I should probably write some cover letters and send in some job applications before the day is over since that was supposed to be the purpose of spending my Saturday at home. The good news is that now I have a clean apartment, a clean kitchen, and lots of already prepared food for the week. This means that I can spend my Sunday and the evenings this week doing the job hunt thing without having to take time to prepare food or clean.

Also, since I spent a good chunk of the day brainstorming cooking ideas, I have some good ideas for quick dinners this week to use the rest of my produce if I get sick of risotto or soup, including fresh trumpet mushrooms over pasta, savory kale pancakes, and stir fried collard greens.

I love the wonderfully fresh produce available year-round in Northern California!

OK, now it's time to find a job!

Every once in a while I decide to spend an evening out, alone. Here's how it works: make no plans, find a nice looking restaurant with a bar, sit down, order a drink and take your time looking at the menu. There is absolutely no rush. In fact, the more time you spend there, the better your chances are of meeting interesting people. And in the meantime, you have the chance to have a splendid meal, engage in interesting conversation, and thoroughly enjoy yourself.

Last night I did this. I had an amazingly delicious meal (duck confit, seasonal vegetables, reduction sauces...), I learned that there are some interesting and very strange but tasty drinks out there I've never heard of before, and I went to a movie with formerly complete strangers who are now new friends.

So, the recipe for a delicious evening of new experiences is as follows:
1 part you
1 part adventure
1 part good food & drink
mix until ready to chat & learn new things.

Enjoy! I do.

Famous for a day (or evening as it were)

As I sat down in my reserved seat in the movie theater at the Palm Springs International Film Festival, the ladies next to me (in non-reserved seats) asked, "are you famous? You look like you're famous." Somewhat surprised, I had to inform them that, no, I am not famous but the people I am with are famous. They are the director/writer/producer/everything-else team that made this fantastic film (check out the trailer at www.leadingladiesmovie.com).


(Erika and Daniel - the film makers)

Since my friends were not anywhere near me at that moment, I think the ladies next to me were a little disappointed in my answer.

I've never "looked" famous before. And that evening I did, I guess. At the after-party after the special gala event screening of the movie, I got to experience what it must feel like to be a celebrity - the scale being relatively minuscule by comparison, I am sure. I walked into the after party with my fancy famous friends directly into a sea of cameras. Well, it was more like 5 or 6 but we stopped and posed and I was thinking, "why am I in this picture? I shouldn't be in this picture. I'm not part of this. They're the famous ones! I'm messing up the picture." But there I was, posing and smiling like I belonged.

The evening progressed and it was so much fun! Happy people, good music, dancing, drinks, the works! The oddest thing however was that complete strangers kept coming up to me and asking to have their picture taken with me and telling me "I love your style! You look so great! You are fabulous! Do you feel fabulous?" Initially I was a little nervous that maybe I should recognize these people or that I was supposed to know how to act or what to say. After the second or third one, I stopped questioning this bizarre phenomenon and just smiled and went along with it. By the end of the evening I was well-versed in posing and smiling with complete strangers as if they were my best friends.

I swear I had my picture taken more times that night than I have in the last couple of decades combined. It was a little nutty but I had SOOOOO much fun!

So far, of all the film festivals I have attended over the last year (all 3 of them!), this is the one was the fanciest and made me feel most famous. So, yay Palm Springs International Film Festival! And YAY Leading Ladies!

Let Love Lead


(This lady is a Swedish film maker who my friends thought looked like me. I guess she doesn't count as one of the complete strangers since they had met her a few nights before.)

it's the little things

It's the little things that make me happy. It's the little things that make me crazy. It's the little things that cause the big things to fall apart. It's the little things that people think they can overlook, which would really only take a tiny little bit of energy to pay attention to and which, when overlooked, cause really really big problems and a whole lot of energy to fix.

just saying...