Direct Route

These are the directions from my apartment to Cold Stone via bicycle. If that is not a sign from God I don't know what is. It's like they built that bike path there JUST FOR ME! The Mpls Bike Path Planning Committee noticed that Cold Stone was just a little bit far away and realized that I have very demanding ice cream needs and so they said, "Hey, I think we need to make sure Kate can get to that delicious ice cream establishment on her bike as quickly and efficiently as possible - let's build her a DIRECT ROUTE!" AND THEY DID!!!

Educational Television

When I was very young, my Dad and I liked to watch certain shows together. When I say young, I mean we have photographic evidence of my early fixation with MacGyver at the ripe age of about 4 months. That's right people, forget the Baby Einstein - that stuff can't teach a kid to disarm a missile with a paper clip or make a fishing lure from a gum wrapper! I actually have a poster signed by one of the producers. What can I say? I was a HUGE fan - and really, what toddler doesn't love Richard Dean Anderson?  I still have a scar on my finger from when I was pretending to be Macgyver and closed my Dad's Swiss Army knife on my finger in the fourth grade. Luckily,  Macgyver also taught be how to elevate and apply pressure...

Although Macgyver was my main obsession, we also watched a lot of Mash, Night Court, Cheers and for a while, China Beach. That's normal t.v. for a little kid, right? I don't remember much about China Beach besides the intro and the fact that I LOVED the theme song. It was a "We Gotta Get Outta This Place," by the Animals. I remember singing along and, oddly enough, I also remember thinking about how the lyrics described the Vietnam War. Yeah, that's right people, lemme see your Baby Einstein get your kid to conceptualize that business! China Beach went of the air in 1991, according to IMDB, which means I was tossing around those deep thoughts before age 8! I know, right - completely non-intuitive parenting strategies, but go ahead and be impressed, you know you are.

So, anyway today I was humming this song to myself at work and it just took everything in me not to sing the chorus out loud... unfortunately, there was never an episode where Macgyver gets his way out of doing data entry with only my scotch tape and bic pen...

Spring Fever

Don't you know what that is? It's spring fever. That is what the name of it is. And when you've got it, you want--oh, you don't quite know what it is you DO want, but it just fairly makes your heart ache, you want it so! It seems to you that mainly what you want is to get away; get away from the same old tedious things you're so used to seeing and so tired of, and set something new. That is the idea; you want to go and be a wanderer; you want to go wandering far away to strange countries where everything is mysterious and wonderful and romantic. And if you can't do that, you'll put up with considerable less; you'll go anywhere you CAN go, just so as to get away, and be thankful of the chance, too.

Tom Sawyer, Detective

by Mark Twain 

My new favorite recipe

I had an incredibly delicious salad the other night for dinner, and the recipe was super easy. I LOVE this salad! Really, you gotta try it! It doesn't sound like much, but it is awesome.

YUM!

bibb lettuce

1/2 apple, diced (I used golden delicious)

2 tablespoons sliced celery

grilled chicken breast, sliced

2 tablespoons toasted whole almonds, chopped 

Creamy Buttermilk Dressing 

Ingredients for Dressing 

Makes 1 1/4 cups 

3/4 cup low-fat buttermilk

1/4 cup soybean oil mayonnaise

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

1 tablespoon minced chives

1 tablespoon chopped parsley

Coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper ( I added a little garlic salt and rosemary too)

Whisk ingredients together in a bowl. Refrigerate for up to 3 days.

Makes me feel even worse about never doing laundry...

"Don't say you don't have enough time. You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Helen Keller, Louis Pasteur, Michelangelo, Mother Teresa, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson, and Albert Einstein." 

- H. Jackson Brown Jr

  

Uff da  - that's a good one. If anything can be considered both shocking and obvious at the same time, this is it. I have to give credit to Charade for this bit of wisdom.

I am an Emotional Creature

I read this poem the other day and felt a very strong connection to it. I left out part of the middle, because it was kinda long, but I recommend reading more from Ms. Ensler if you like this. How often do you feel so strongly about something that it burns up in your ears? For me, it's almost daily, so this poem really validated me. Thanks Eve Ensler :)

I am an Emotional Creature

I love being a girl
I can feel what you're feeling
as you're feeling it inside
the feeling 
before.
I am an emotional creature. 
Things do not come to me
as intellectual theories or hard-shaped ideas.
They pulse through my organs and legs
and burn up my ears.
I know when your girlfriend's really pissed off
even though she appears to give you what
    you want.
I know when a storm is coming.
I can feel the invisible stirrings in the air.
I can tell you he won't call back.
It's a vibe I share.

I am an emotional creature
I love that I do not take things lightly.
Everything is intense to me.
The way I walk in the street.
The way my mother wakes me up.
The way I hear bad news.
The way it's unbearable when I lose.


I am an emotional creature.
I am connected to everything and everyone.
I was born like that.
Don't you dare say all negative that it's a
    teenage thing
or it's only because I'm a girl.
These feelings make me better.
They make me ready.
They make me present.
They make me strong.


I am an emotional creature.
There is a particular way of knowing.
It's like the older women somehow forgot.
I rejoice that it's still in my body...


This is not extreme.
It's a girl thing.
What we would all be
if the door inside us flew open.
Don't tell me not to cry
To calm down
Not to be so extreme
To be reasonable.
I am an emotional creature.
It's how the earth got made.
How the wind continues to pollinate.
You don't tell the Atlantic Ocean 
to behave.


I am an emotional creature.
Why would you want to shut me down
or turn me off?
I am your remaining memory.
I am connecting you to your source.
Nothing's been diluted.
Nothing's leaked out.
I can take you back.


I love that I can feel the inside
of the feelings in you,
even if it stops my life
even if it hurts too much
or takes me off track
even if it breaks my heart.
I makes me responsible.
I am an emotional 
I am an emotional, devotional,
incandotional creature.
And I love, hear me,
love love love
being a girl.


- Eve Ensler, 2010