Big Girl Cooking (And Other Anomalies of Growing Up)

For the first time ever, I am living somewhere on my own where I am wholly responsible for...everything. I am renting an apartment in a renovated Victorian in midtown Savannah where I pay rent and help split a water bill, electricity bill, and internet bill (we've opted not to pay for cable). That's all fine and dandy, but it also means that I am suddenly responsible for every single meal, every single day. Prior to returning to Savannah for this school year, I made a decision to try to eat healthier and exercise more, in an attempt to combat some bad habits I've formed recently. As eating out isn't very friendly to that decision or to my wallet, I've had to figure out how to feed myself from the grocery store, which is an interesting task when the only things I ever make in a kitchen are macaroni and cheese or cupcakes.

But I recently found this recipe for Creamy Scrambled Eggs via Laughing Cow as I was contemplating cooking some scrambled eggs with Laughing Cow cheese in them. The recipe inspired me to go ahead and try my initial thought...with some revisions. The end result was tasty, filling, and healthier than you might think, so I figured I'd share it on my blog, even if for no purpose other than having it for my own future reference.

Using the aforementioned recipe as a starter, I whisked together three eggs (they were even cage free, grain-fed eggs). I added a dab of French's Dijon mustard with chardonnay, and then decided to put about half a spoonful of Philadelphia's reduced fat Italian cheese and herb cooking creme. I've been pretty enamored lately of the cooking creme; I usually add it to my macaroni and cheese. I skipped the pepper suggestion on account of the fact that I had no pepper on hand (it's on our shopping list).

While I was mixing these ingredients together, I had a pan going on low heat where I had a dab of butter melting. I always like to grease the pan with a little butter and a little olive oil before scrambling eggs; it helps with the cleanup later and adds a nice flavor to the eggs.

I poured the egg mixture into the pan and let it start cooking, then I pulled out my fantastic Thomas' cinnamon raisin flavored bagel thins, which I popped in the toaster for my preferred degree of toastiness (for me, that's basically just warm). Then I spread half a wedge of the Laughing Cow cream cheese on my bagel. Laughing Cow is amazing; it's lighter and healthier than regular old cream cheese, but tastes just as delicious. The remaining half of the wedge I threw in to my scrambled eggs, which were about half cooked at this time. I mixed the cheese in and let it melt in with the eggs, taking my eggs of the stove once they were fully cooked but still a smidgen goopy. Cover your bagel with eggs and you have a delicious meal, prepared in minutes.

The end result was creamy and flavorful; I especially liked the raisins in the bagels, which would occasionally produce a sweet tone to compliment the savory flavors in the eggs. This experiment was definitely a keeper. I ate my meal while watching Doctor Who.

Now if only I could figure out how to cook meat that doesn't come in a frozen meal...

Olympic Inspiration

When I was in 8th grade, I joined the track and field team with my friends. Most of my friends actually had skills that were useful to the team; some were runners, some were jumpers, and others were strong and made good throwers. I hated to run, and I was slow anyway. I figured I could be a thrower, too, but it turned out I wasn't any good. But the team was a no-cut sport, so I stuck around. The coaches saw I wasn't going to help win any meets, but one coach found an important purpose for me: he didn't have enough runners for long-distance runs, and without the right numbers, the team would not qualify to compete. So he talked me into running, despite my hatred of it, and long-distance running at that. Suddenly, I found myself huffing and puffing around the track, anywhere from two to four laps per race. I was always last, but I always finished, which was all that mattered to me. The best part of this experience, however, were my teammates - and sometimes even other teams. People knew I wasn't a runner. People knew I stood no chance. People knew I needed encouragement just to keep going. So what did people do? My team ran alongside me. My team finished their races and events and ran with me, cheering me on. I came in dead last to happy teammates.

I still hate to run. But I have a strong fondness for my former teammates, and a very happy memory of my time on a track team.

I was reminded of this story today when I heard the wonderful story of Niger's men's single-sculls athlete. He competed in the Olympics in a sport he had never, ever done before. He came in dead last, but the world cheered him on as he finished. You don't have to be first to be a winner, and you don't have to be the best to inspire people.

There's a lot of ugliness in this world, but I love the Olympics for this very reason. It's a moment for the world to come together, to cheer each other on, to inspire and amaze each other, and to embrace our common humanity. This story follows stories of women representing countries that have never allowed women to practice sports before. Sometimes, winning is simply making it to a point you never thought you'd make. Go world!

Overhearings in Starbucks and Other Life Things

No, I haven't fallen off of the face of the planet. I have, instead, spent the majority of my summer slaving away and hopefully earning some money to afford my London internship program. I'm working full-time at the American Cancer Society, and then part-time whenever I get called in at Old Navy. Oh, and I'm taking an online course towards my official major change. It's a busy life I lead, let me tell you.

But working in downtown Tacoma at the American Cancer Society for the summer means that I frequent Starbucks. A lot. It's a good way to kill time during my hour-long break. And I hear the strangest things in Starbucks, which will allow for an interesting segment in my blog.

I would like to bring you the first installment in: Overheard in Starbucks.

Our first example is perfect and brilliant in one small sentence. No back-story necessary. Pompous Guy came in and told his Lady Friend "actually, it's panino. Not panini. Singular." Well, Pompous Guy, if you're going to go being all pompous with Lady Friend, maybe you should at least get it right: panini, like salami, is in fact that Italian word for something plural. However, Americans and Canadians and most English-speakers have turned those plurals into generic, all-encompassing words for singular or plural. Furthermore, panino and panini both mean any sandwich not made with bread in Italy, whereas here it means any sandwich that has been pressed or toasted. Yes, I felt compelled to look it up. Thanks, Pompous Guy!

This next example happened yesterday, and it still makes me laugh. I can only imagine what was happening on the other side of these conversations...

Weird Lady walks in and takes a seat at a table near me. She's drinking coffee out of a to-go cup which she keeps setting down inside a for-here mug. Beats me. She pulls out her phone and starts making phone calls to people who are obviously surprised to be hearing from Weird Lady, and evidently haven't spoken to her in quite some time. Weird Lady begins asking these people the most bizarre questions, including "who do you think this is?" (Oh I don't know, but you called me), "I just thought it's been long enough I could call you again", "there's just so many memories. So many memories.", and my favorite "is your wife in a wheelchair yet?" (At this point, I have to wonder if she might be threatening people...) She then concludes each phone call with a coffee date (or in one case of an anti-coffee type, a tea date) in Seattle for next Wednesday. Watch out, Seattle. Weird Lady is coming to a Starbucks near you.

Stay tuned, folks.

Good News! I AM Alive!

Hi folks, I apologize for the lack of updates. Plenty has happened, I've just been busy with life and forgetting about the blogsphere for a while. Here are some brief updates about what I have been up to since I last posted:

• I decided to leave Savannah a quarter early and return home. It's been fabulous to be home!
• I am taking an art history class online; this means I am online often, but usually for academic purposes. We are approaching our final week of the quarter, and I am working on a paper regarding pop art, which is very interesting.
• I went to the Spring Fair with Jesse and Zoe to make up for missing the Puyallup Fair in September. Unfortunately, the roller coaster was closed. :(
• I'm job hunting - this week alone I've interviewed at Old Navy and at Build-a-Bear. They've been going well, hopefully I'll find some way to make money this summer!
• I attended the Roger Waters The Wall concert in Seattle last night; this was my second time seeing this spectacular show.
• My family got a puppy who is somewhat psychotic, but terribly cute and loving.
• I have decided to change my program at SCAD and my future career goals, which brings me to the meat of this entry:

I am going to switch from the Graphic Design MFA program to the Arts Administration MA program. I'm terribly excited, and I believe it is a much better fit for me. When I return to Savannah in September, I am registered to take an intro class, a legal issues in the arts course, and a business writing course. Part way through the quarter I will officially apply for the major change, and hopefully be on that new track the following quarter. Winter quarter, I'm still going to London, and I have asked my program to find a placement for me focused on arts administration. Then I will return to Savannah in the spring and graduate in June 2013 with my Masters. How terribly exciting!

To hold you over, enjoy my brother's new puppy Irby.

Facebook and Job Seeking

When I first began writing for The Mooring Mast during my junior year at PLU, I wrote an article about the importance of maintaining a professional and mature demeanor on Facebook, as job recruiters often like to peruse candidates' profiles (my story can be read by clicking the Mast link up there, and clicking through the pages to the third spread). Apparently, this has reached a whole new level - one that is entirely inappropriate and is violating privacy. According to this news story, some employers are now asking for applicants' log in information, so they may peruse profiles that are fully utilizing Facebook's privacy settings.

This is very disturbing and unsettling; I looked up the Facebook User Policy, and under section four, point eight, I found this (as expected):
You will not share your password, (or in the case of developers, your secret key), let anyone else access your account, or do anything else that might jeopardize the security of your account.


So I propose the following advice to any job seeker who may run into this particular situation: if you don't need or want the job very strongly, politely decline and leave the interview. A company that thinks this behavior is remotely appropriate has questionable ethics at best.

However, if you do want the job, or if you believe you truly need the job, then politely inform the interviewer that sharing your log in information would be a breach of Facebook's User Policy. I would tell the interviewer that I am more than happy to add them as my friend if they wish to access my profile; for people concerned about a few private posts, you can create lists within Facebook and determine who, specifically, gets to see what you post. While I have never felt the need to utilize these measures (I like to keep my Facebook as benign and appropriate as possible, for all members of my friends list), I always suggest the implementation of them for people who find it appropriate. Additionally, I would point my interviewer to my professional LinkedIn profile and my Google+ profile, pointing out that the same information is contained in each place.

Hopefully, precedent will be set making it illegal for job interviewers to ask for private and personal information such as your log in information. Until then, it's probably best to steer clear from such inappropriate practices. Big Brother doesn't need to watch you this closely.

Mommy Blogs!!!!1111 LOL OMG

I plan to update at some point about Saint Patrick's Day in Savannah, which was a bit crazy (or cray-cray, as I was teaching a Taiwanese girl in my class to say), but first, I bring you this:

I've been following this inspirational, really amazing blog called Eli's Mom Blog. Eli also runs It Just Gets Stranger, home of the wrong-number-texts blog post that I shared on Facebook a while back that had me laughing until my sides exploded. Anyway, Eli told his wrong-number-texter that he kept a mom blog...and when she believed him, he actually created it. So now there's Eli's Mom Blog, which is about a fake-mommy-man (the man isn't fake, he's just a fake mommy) and his fabulous inspirational children with names like Fortify, Casper, and Opaque.

Eli hosts these SUPER AMAZING CUTE craft contests, and invites the other mommies (presumably all fake, but who knows?) to contribute their own creations. This week's contest was dream catchers, and so I entered. As a fake-mommy, my children include Roger (female, pronounced Roh-jay) and Roger (male, pronounced Rogue-er). We were all just SO EXCITED to participate in Eli's craft contest. Here is my submission. I really hope I win! Fingers crossed everyone!

Wow Eli, you are such an inspirational mom!

I saw your latest craft contest, and I had PROMISED my children that I would compete next time, and so naturally I woke them both up RIGHT AWAY. My daughter Roger (pronounced Roh-jay, obviously, but so many people have trouble grasping that) and my son Roger (Rogue-er, CLEARLY) were so excited!! They plan to make these themselves tomorrow. But in the meantime, here is MY submission. My daughter Roger thoughtfully came up with the title for the submission: Domesticated Dreams. It includes some fun beads from Roger's latest birthday party, her pageant lipstick (it's an ADORABLE shade of sparkly pink!), a can opener (even though I only serve my children FRESH fruits and vegetables, we do like to keep cans on hand for feeding the hungry in our neighborhood, because it just BREAKS MY HEART to see people who just are not as BLESSED and FORTUNATE as I AM!), and of course Roger's ABSOLUTE FAVORITE HAIR BOW. Her brother Roger was so happy to see such a wonderful representation of the fabulous women in our family. I am just so proud of my AMAZING CHILDREN. They really look up to your Fortify, after all. We ALL hope that some day they can meet such an inspirational young lady!!! 


Hope all is well with your family,
Sarah

If you're still looking for entertainment, Eli also posted an entry with his wetsuit lounging about the house; I also died laughing. In fact, just peruse his blog, because it's quite entertaining. He names his inanimate objects, too.

Blog Background

I need input, folks. Which picture should I use for the background of my newly revamped blog? 1) Paris stairs (currently in use), 2) Rome, or 3) The Seine at night? Leave your input in the comments, on my facebook, or go to my profile and send me an email. I'm incapable of making decisions.