So, I have this ever-growing pile of books on my bedside table. It keeps growing, day by day...I have been anxiously anticipating the arrival of summer and the free time to read them. And then I noticed the theme: food. And I remembered that this is, in large part, what I study every day. And then I decided to get credit for them.
So, here's Sarah's Graduate Course in Food, a Summer Reading List:
The Omnivore's Dilemma; Michael Pollan
Fatland; Greg Crister
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle; Barbara Kingsolver
The Ethics of What We Eat, Why Our Food Choices Matter; Peter Singer
Sweetness and Power: The Place of Sugar in Modern History; Sidney Mintz
Food Politics; Marion Nestle
What to Eat; Marion Nestle
The End of Food; Paul Roberts
And then, my list of books to read in my space time:
Empire Falls (again) Richard Russo
The Fruit of Stone; Mark Spragg
A Little More About Me; Pam Houston
A Year of Magical Thinking; Joan Didion
Olive Kitteridge; Elizabeth Strout
The Art of Racing in the Rain; Garth Stein
The Autobiography of Mark Twain; guess who
A Slice of Organic Life
I know you're all thrilled...but if anyone feels like reading along, feel free. I'm always looking for company and conversation.
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
BIRD GONE THANKS (OWENSVILLE)
fallswithgrace@yahoo.com has forwarded you this craigslist.org posting.
Please see below for more information.
Date: 2009-04-16, 11:24AM
Please see below for more information.
BIRD GONE THANKS
Reply to: sale-ag3fw-1125205400@craigslist.orgDate: 2009-04-16, 11:24AM
BIRD IS GONE
- Location: OWENSVILLE
- it's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests
Original URL:http://columbiamo.craigslist.org/zip/1125205400.html
this craigslist posting was forwarded to you by someone using our
email-a-friend feature - if you want to prevent these, please go to:
http://www.craigslist.org/cgi-bin/te/hJ3ZmV2YsxWdukDOpJ3ZsVmeAFGZvxmYld2Zj5icA02bv
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Not Hotter Than Me
I'm actually contemplating this one...I mean, just for the sake of the experience.
Date: 2009-02-27, 8:53PM
Looking for Bridesmaids - w4w
Reply to:Date: 2009-02-27, 8:53PM
So, my fiancee and I are getting married in June. He has 8 groomsmen lined up and I only have one bridesmaid. So, I need some girls who are attractive and around my age to stand up in my wedding. You can be single or taken. It doesn't matter....you just have to be hot. But, not hotter then me. Email me for more information. The wedding will be in Madison and you won't have to pay for a thing.
Hope to hear from you!
- Location: Madison
- it's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests
Original URL:http://www.craigslist.org/about/best/mad/1053693787.html
this craigslist posting was forwarded to you by someone using our
email-a-friend feature - if you want to prevent these, please go to:
http://www.craigslist.org/cgi-bin/te/hJ3ZmV2YsxWdukDOpJ3ZsVmeAFGZvxmYld2Zj5icA02bv
Yet another genius on craigslist...I ask you, why o why would you sell one coffee mug?
Reply to: sale-4qmmx-1124510430@craigslist.org [Errors when replying to ads?]
Date: 2009-04-15, 9:33PM CDT
This is a blue coffee mug with black handle, top and middle section. It has a stainless steel inside to keep your drink warm. :). It has a swivel top on lid that opens and closes. Used. We are asking one dollar cash only. We have to many so we are getting ride of this one.
Coffee Mug - $1 (columbia)
Reply to: sale-4qmmx-1124510430@craigslist.org [Errors when replying to ads?]
Date: 2009-04-15, 9:33PM CDT
This is a blue coffee mug with black handle, top and middle section. It has a stainless steel inside to keep your drink warm. :). It has a swivel top on lid that opens and closes. Used. We are asking one dollar cash only. We have to many so we are getting ride of this one.
- Location: columbia
- it's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests
 |
Monday, April 13, 2009
Quitter
I didn’t make any New Year’s Resolutions this year. None. I didn’t set goals, I didn’t attempt to break bad habits, I didn’t secretly in my heart hope to win the lottery or fall in love. I am a consummate list maker, so this is something quite unlike me. However, I’d like to go ahead and recognize the fact that in not planning out my bazillion goals for the year, I think I actually managed to achieve a few.
One being that I have, I believe, quit smoking. By accident, sort of. Here’s the thing. I smoked a lot in college. I smoked a lot after I got divorced and worked in a bar. Then I moved to a city where none of my friends smoked, you couldn’t smoke in bars or restaurants, where they cost almost as much as a mediocre bottle of wine and where it was generally looked upon as a character flaw. So, I cut back. When I say cut back, I mean I smoked once every few days. Sometimes, once a day. Sometimes once a week. But somehow, I just couldn’t quite give that up.
I moved back to Missouri where my friends smoked, but you still couldn’t smoke in public, and they cost as much as microbrew. One day on my way to work, I looked at the car pulled up beside me and saw a woman in her late thirties, not bad looking, sucking on a cigarette and looking completely unattractive. I mean, my first impression was "ew." Then I thought—Oh, God. That could be me.
When my Dad was diagnosed with cancer, you’d think it would have been the final nail in the nicotine coffin. I would have tossed them aside and never looked back, you know, bad genes and all. A better person with more will power might have been able to. I am not her. And, frankly, I don’t want to meet her because I don’t think I’d like her. As I tried to navigate a family in shambles, a financial disaster, and a complete lifestyle upheaval, I clung to the things that relieve stress for me: food (eating and preparing), booze, running and smoking.
We made it. Dad is officially in remission, less than a year after he was diagnosed with Stage IV colorectal cancer and told his odds were not favorable. After sixteen weeks of recovery from major surgery, after radiation and two rounds of chemotherapy, in less a month he will be out of the woods, a survivor. Personally, I have found some rhythm to my chaotic life once again. I have dug myself out of a financial wasteland (it’s been a long climb). And, somehow, I quit smoking.
I was at the doctor the other day and she asked if I was a smoker and I could confidently say no.
When I was twenty-two I had a long list of things I wanted to do with my life. I wanted to travel abroad, I wanted to go to grad school, to live in another city, to write for a living. I wanted to have a job that thrilled me instead of one that was safe. I put off a lot of those things in the name of love. Five years later, I'm finally able to say that I've accomplished those things. Or, perhaps better put: to have those experiences. I’ve found a certain peace in that…having doggedly gone after the things I truly, deeply desired, even when it was hard and scary. Thank God I did.
I’m twenty-nine. Perhaps it’s those challenges that I’ve faced in the last nine months, or perhaps it’s just wisdom with age…but I for the first time don’t feel a nagging feeling that the list of things I haven’t done is longer than the list of things I have.
I’ll probably always be a listmaker. I’ll probably always have things that I want to try. I have a little more faith that those experiences will come to me, that I don’t have to chase them quite so much.
Sort of like quitting smoking. It just stopped seeming fun, so I stopped doing it. Easy as pie.
Did I mention that I'm giving up sugar for two weeks? Old habits die hard.
One being that I have, I believe, quit smoking. By accident, sort of. Here’s the thing. I smoked a lot in college. I smoked a lot after I got divorced and worked in a bar. Then I moved to a city where none of my friends smoked, you couldn’t smoke in bars or restaurants, where they cost almost as much as a mediocre bottle of wine and where it was generally looked upon as a character flaw. So, I cut back. When I say cut back, I mean I smoked once every few days. Sometimes, once a day. Sometimes once a week. But somehow, I just couldn’t quite give that up.
I moved back to Missouri where my friends smoked, but you still couldn’t smoke in public, and they cost as much as microbrew. One day on my way to work, I looked at the car pulled up beside me and saw a woman in her late thirties, not bad looking, sucking on a cigarette and looking completely unattractive. I mean, my first impression was "ew." Then I thought—Oh, God. That could be me.
When my Dad was diagnosed with cancer, you’d think it would have been the final nail in the nicotine coffin. I would have tossed them aside and never looked back, you know, bad genes and all. A better person with more will power might have been able to. I am not her. And, frankly, I don’t want to meet her because I don’t think I’d like her. As I tried to navigate a family in shambles, a financial disaster, and a complete lifestyle upheaval, I clung to the things that relieve stress for me: food (eating and preparing), booze, running and smoking.
We made it. Dad is officially in remission, less than a year after he was diagnosed with Stage IV colorectal cancer and told his odds were not favorable. After sixteen weeks of recovery from major surgery, after radiation and two rounds of chemotherapy, in less a month he will be out of the woods, a survivor. Personally, I have found some rhythm to my chaotic life once again. I have dug myself out of a financial wasteland (it’s been a long climb). And, somehow, I quit smoking.
I was at the doctor the other day and she asked if I was a smoker and I could confidently say no.
When I was twenty-two I had a long list of things I wanted to do with my life. I wanted to travel abroad, I wanted to go to grad school, to live in another city, to write for a living. I wanted to have a job that thrilled me instead of one that was safe. I put off a lot of those things in the name of love. Five years later, I'm finally able to say that I've accomplished those things. Or, perhaps better put: to have those experiences. I’ve found a certain peace in that…having doggedly gone after the things I truly, deeply desired, even when it was hard and scary. Thank God I did.
I’m twenty-nine. Perhaps it’s those challenges that I’ve faced in the last nine months, or perhaps it’s just wisdom with age…but I for the first time don’t feel a nagging feeling that the list of things I haven’t done is longer than the list of things I have.
I’ll probably always be a listmaker. I’ll probably always have things that I want to try. I have a little more faith that those experiences will come to me, that I don’t have to chase them quite so much.
Sort of like quitting smoking. It just stopped seeming fun, so I stopped doing it. Easy as pie.
Did I mention that I'm giving up sugar for two weeks? Old habits die hard.
Tuesday, April 07, 2009
Guess Where I'm Going?
Yes, I'm gloating. But I'm very excited...its my 30th birthday present. Across the pond I come to descend on the land of my people...all by myself in Ireland for seventeen days. I can hardly stand it!!!
I recently re-read my list of 30 things to do before I'm 30. I have accomplished approximately half. But, frankly, the most important half I think. And I'm well on my way to another quarter...the rest are things like surfing and skydiving, and, well, the surf and the sky will be there for another year, I say.
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Thar He Blows
I’ve worked more than a few customer service jobs in my time. Between being a telephone operator, a server, a bartender and a “bookseller,” I’ve developed what I believe is a pretty thick skin, accompanied with a nice dose of humor and a well placed glaze of sarcasm. Said sarcasm is usually much more for my benefit than for those I’m waiting on, because, frankly, most of them aren’t paying enough attention or aren’t smart enough to figure it out in the first place. However, there are days in which my nerves are more frayed than normal, or when the skin is easier to wriggle beneath…and those days, inevitably, produce the most assholes.
I have a few things to say to the general public:
1. Use your words. You are a grown up. They gave you a driver’s license and a job for a reason, presumably. When I ask you a question, it is appropriate to respond with a declarative response. Yes or no will do, but if you weren’t RAISED IN A F-ING BARN, it would do you some good to use your “please” and “thank you’s.”
2. There are things I have to ask/tell you. I do this, frankly, to make our interaction as short and sweet as possible. When you are in my house, play by my rules. Otherwise, go somewhere else. If I ask you how you want your steak cooked, don’t act as though I’m troubling you in some way. If I ask you if you have a discount card, telling me “NO, and I don’t want one” is not an appropriate response. A simple “medium rare, thanks” or “no, I don’t.” will suffice.
3. When you are rude, I don’t offer you specials or discounts. Your food sits in the window longer, and could possibly arrive cold. I suddenly slow down the process of checking you out to a snail’s pace. Passive aggressive? Probably. I call it sanity saving.
I have more, but I’ll stop at those for now. So, one Friday night I worked at our friendly local Barnes and Noble, and a nicely dressed older gentleman came in to buy a pile of books. He was rather short with me, but I was willing to give our short relationship the benefit of the doubt, as he appeared to be a semi-regular customer. However, when he wrote a check and didn’t have an ID to go along with it, things went awry. No ID, no check, I say, as politely as possible, asking if he perhaps left it in his car. He says, no I never carry it (problem, as in order to drive, one is required to carry a driver’s license). And then began to belittle me...when he finally said “what are you trying to do, here, prove a point?” I looked right at him and said “No, this isn’t fun for me either, sir. I’m just trying to do my job, though admittedly, it’s less than pleasant at the moment.”
This exchange goes on for a while, and after several calls to the manager, he finally leaves. This leaves me a bit frazzled, to be truthful. Not more than a half-hour later, I take my lunch break. I try not to frequent the mall food court if possible, but in the absence of alcohol, I decided Taco Bell would have to do.
And there I am, standing in line at the Taco Bell, trying to place my order, when the jackass next to me, obviously less than sober, begins to…I don’t know, heckle me. I mean, we’re talking construction worker catcalling. I do what most women have been trained to do over the years—I mean, didn’t your mother ever tell you “they do that just to get your attention. Ignore them and they’ll just go away.” Yeah. Your mom was wrong.
You see, after several minutes of being ignored, this man, a 6’3” dude jacked up on uppers, leaned in and BLEW ON MY NECK. TWICE.
And that’s when I lost my shit.
“WHAT. THE. FUCK. Did you just BLOW on me? DID YOU JUST BLOW ON ME? That's fucking disgusting, asshole. No, do not turn away, mother fucker. Did you just mother-fucking BLOW one me? What the fuck are you trying to do? Get your nasty-ass Taco Bell breath the fuck away from me. Yes, step away. Who the fuck do you think you are—“ This went on for a while.
At first, he was laughing with his buddy. Then, his buddy started to back away. He had this look of panic in his eyes. Panic became pleading…you know, that “please, please stop yelling, lady” look.
I calmly turned back to the high school boy waiting to take my order.
“I’m sorry to keep you waiting. I needed to deal with the man who just BLEW on me, you see. I’ll have the al fresco taco with chicken, please, and how about a diet coke?”
I have a few things to say to the general public:
1. Use your words. You are a grown up. They gave you a driver’s license and a job for a reason, presumably. When I ask you a question, it is appropriate to respond with a declarative response. Yes or no will do, but if you weren’t RAISED IN A F-ING BARN, it would do you some good to use your “please” and “thank you’s.”
2. There are things I have to ask/tell you. I do this, frankly, to make our interaction as short and sweet as possible. When you are in my house, play by my rules. Otherwise, go somewhere else. If I ask you how you want your steak cooked, don’t act as though I’m troubling you in some way. If I ask you if you have a discount card, telling me “NO, and I don’t want one” is not an appropriate response. A simple “medium rare, thanks” or “no, I don’t.” will suffice.
3. When you are rude, I don’t offer you specials or discounts. Your food sits in the window longer, and could possibly arrive cold. I suddenly slow down the process of checking you out to a snail’s pace. Passive aggressive? Probably. I call it sanity saving.
I have more, but I’ll stop at those for now. So, one Friday night I worked at our friendly local Barnes and Noble, and a nicely dressed older gentleman came in to buy a pile of books. He was rather short with me, but I was willing to give our short relationship the benefit of the doubt, as he appeared to be a semi-regular customer. However, when he wrote a check and didn’t have an ID to go along with it, things went awry. No ID, no check, I say, as politely as possible, asking if he perhaps left it in his car. He says, no I never carry it (problem, as in order to drive, one is required to carry a driver’s license). And then began to belittle me...when he finally said “what are you trying to do, here, prove a point?” I looked right at him and said “No, this isn’t fun for me either, sir. I’m just trying to do my job, though admittedly, it’s less than pleasant at the moment.”
This exchange goes on for a while, and after several calls to the manager, he finally leaves. This leaves me a bit frazzled, to be truthful. Not more than a half-hour later, I take my lunch break. I try not to frequent the mall food court if possible, but in the absence of alcohol, I decided Taco Bell would have to do.
And there I am, standing in line at the Taco Bell, trying to place my order, when the jackass next to me, obviously less than sober, begins to…I don’t know, heckle me. I mean, we’re talking construction worker catcalling. I do what most women have been trained to do over the years—I mean, didn’t your mother ever tell you “they do that just to get your attention. Ignore them and they’ll just go away.” Yeah. Your mom was wrong.
You see, after several minutes of being ignored, this man, a 6’3” dude jacked up on uppers, leaned in and BLEW ON MY NECK. TWICE.
And that’s when I lost my shit.
“WHAT. THE. FUCK. Did you just BLOW on me? DID YOU JUST BLOW ON ME? That's fucking disgusting, asshole. No, do not turn away, mother fucker. Did you just mother-fucking BLOW one me? What the fuck are you trying to do? Get your nasty-ass Taco Bell breath the fuck away from me. Yes, step away. Who the fuck do you think you are—“ This went on for a while.
At first, he was laughing with his buddy. Then, his buddy started to back away. He had this look of panic in his eyes. Panic became pleading…you know, that “please, please stop yelling, lady” look.
I calmly turned back to the high school boy waiting to take my order.
“I’m sorry to keep you waiting. I needed to deal with the man who just BLEW on me, you see. I’ll have the al fresco taco with chicken, please, and how about a diet coke?”
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Once Again, I am not Dead
Buried alive, maybe, but not dead.
Spring break occurs in approximately 8 days. At which point, I promise to post blogs about at least one of the following topics:
Reply to: comm-derkz-1071216446@craigslist.org [Errors when replying to ads?]
Date: 2009-03-11, 11:07PM CDT
Lost a veiled chameleon, possibly snuck outside. She will probably be dark green, 8 inches long or so if you find him.. Please let me know.
Spring break occurs in approximately 8 days. At which point, I promise to post blogs about at least one of the following topics:
- keyword analysis (ala Brooke)
- the quality of care received at local student health center (yes, groan and look concern, as if I haven't heard that one yet)
- the man who accosted me at the Taco Bell (this is a good one, trust me)
LOST: chameleon (Columbia)
Reply to: comm-derkz-1071216446@craigslist.org [Errors when replying to ads?]
Date: 2009-03-11, 11:07PM CDT
Lost a veiled chameleon, possibly snuck outside. She will probably be dark green, 8 inches long or so if you find him.. Please let me know.
- Location: Columbia
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