Volvita: Girl Enigma

Oh, hello!

2008-07-20T19:45:00.002-05:00

What does a person even say when she lets half a year pass without updating her blog? I guess I will tell you what's happened this year:

1. I got a job.
2. I got engaged.
3. I graduated with my master's degree.
4. I got unengaged.
5. I moved out of the house that I shared with Neil for 2.5 years and into a pretty awesome apartment of my own.

I love my job. I sort of love being single and sort of hate it. I'm going to the beach in three weeks and I'm super excited about that.

So that's my extremely eventful 2008 in a nutshell. Now that I've broken the seal, perhaps I'll start blogging here more regularly again. And perhaps I will also redesign Volvita.com. I've been piddling around with iWeb lately and I really rather like some of the templates, even if they are templately. I never said I was a web designer. Stay tuned!

On unemployment, creativity, frustration, and so on.

2008-01-03T22:12:00.000-05:00

Here I am on the sofa in my PJs with my boyfriend, my dog, and a cup of cocoa. This should be relaxing, and it is, to some extent. But I am restless, too.

I had a productive day today. I completed everything on my to-do list, which included:

-Washing the dishes
-Cleaning the litter box
-Taking out the trash
-Finishing the laundry
-Changing the bedclothes
-Straightening up the bedroom
-Vacuuming the bedroom
-Getting started on undecorating the Christmas tree

This is a pretty full day for me. In my unemployed mopiness I can and often do spend entire days sitting at the kitchen table (or, even worse, in bed) piddling on the Internet and checking various job posting websites entirely too frequently. It's been nearly a month since the semester ended and one would think or hope that I'd have used this time to get a lot of reading done, or to have worked on some writing, or to have cultivated a new hobby. Or even just to watch a lot of movies I've never seen or something. But I've really done nothing of the sort. I don't keep the house clean, I don't cook gourmet dinners every night, and I haven't cultivated an exercise habit. It's become pretty clear that I make a terrible homemaker.

I am still waiting to hear back from the temp agency. I am still applying for other jobs as I find them. I am trying to stay positive and not worry about the fact that we really are running out of money. I'll have a residual student loan check coming soon. I didn't want to have to live on that money, but better that than not having any money at all.

Anyway, my point. I do have one, I promise. With all of this sitting around I've had a lot of time to think, and the start of a new year always makes me introspective anyway. I've been thinking about the fact that in a way I have done what many people would consider the hardest part: I quit a job I didn't particularly like. I leapt and had faith that the net would appear. I'm still waiting for the net, but the important part is that I did indeed make the leap. I'm unemployed and I can make anything I want out of it. What is it that I want?

Logic dictates that I do something with this master's degree that I am a mere 3 hours away from completing. That's been the guiding force behind my job search. Obviously I love Women's & Gender Studies and I would love to have a job relevant to my degree, both because I'm interested in the field and because it would be nice to feel that all of this education was not for naught. But there is also this other, crazy part of me that wants to do something else, that wants to become a freelance writer, or a web designer, or a baker or chef, or some other sort of passionate, free-spirited thing. The sorts of jobs I've been applying for virtually guarantee that I will be installing myself in yet another office or cubicle. This isn't necessarily a bad thing; I've done work in these sorts of environments that has been incredibly challenging and rewarding. But what if I did something else?

The question, of course, is what. And there's also the issue of time; if I wanted to try something freelancey and/or entrepreneurial, I should have started working on it back in August, when I was teaching and taking classes but also had a lot of free time on my hands and several months worth of income taken care of. There's really no time left now. I need full-time employment - or full-time income, anyway - as soon as possible.

I'm sure that eventually the temp agency will call, and then eventually one of the other places will call, and I'll have a full-time job and benefits again (that's another thing; I only have 6 days of health insurance left). But in the meantime, I can't help but feel that I ought to be doing something worthwhile with my time. Something that only the unemployed can do. Besides, you know, spending the day in my pajamas eating cookies. What will it be?

Woman plans, God (or whatever) laughs.

2007-12-29T10:43:00.000-05:00

So. Things have been a bit trying as of late. You may recall that in August I quit my job so that I could teach a course at U of L. It was a huge leap of faith for me to do this, knowing that once the semester ended I would be unemployed. But I leapt and figured (hoped) that the net would appear.

Early in the semester a friend and classmate of mine who works for the state mentioned that she would be hiring someone in December. I expressed interest in the job, and she seemed thrilled at the prospect of hiring me. In late November she told me that she had requested permission from the state to hire someone. She never promised me a job, but things looked good. She explained to me that the whole process, from posting the job to actually hiring someone, would take about 3 weeks.

Boy, was I relieved. The pay for the job was great, much more than I've ever made before. The job would be challenging, would involve lots of training and a certification, and was something that I could actually make a career out of. I immediately started envisioning all of this, especially the money. Neil and I have been working really hard the past couple years to get our debts paid down, and we've been making good progress. But with this new job it suddenly became possible that we could be debt-free in 2008. Then we could spend more money fixing up the house and traveling. I also decided that to celebrate once I got hired, I would buy myself an iPhone.

I have to mention here that in December 2006 I very narrowly missed being hired by the Kentucky Foundation for Women. I was one of three finalists for a job there and I got the rejection letter in the mail the day before Christmas. I never knew something like that could break my heart, but it did, a little. Surely my end-of-the-year employment ambitions would be met with more success this year. I'd already had one major Christmastime employment disappointment. This would be the job that would make up for all of that.

This job, however, has yet to appear on the state's web site. I know this because I check it multiple times a day. I have watched other jobs in other counties appear on the list, stay their requisite 10 days, and then disappear again. No mention of the position I'm interested in. No problem, I figure, it's probably just hung up somewhere in the state bureaucracy. I emailed my friend about it a few days ago, but I haven't heard back from her yet.

Then, yesterday, I see in the paper that the state's finances are a disaster and that there will almost certainly be a state-wide hiring freeze starting next week.

Yeah.

And, to make this whole situation ever-so-much more delightful, our decrepit piece of crap furnace bit the big one in November, and we had to replace it to the tune of $7,000. We didn't have $7,000. We didn't even have a fraction of $7,000. We have financed the entire thing, effectively doubling our debt.

I am trying to remain upbeat. I had a very good interview at a temp agency yesterday and they think they'll have something for me next week, so I will have some income again. I've also applied for a position with a non-profit that I'm really interested in working for, and I think I'll at least get an interview with them. Something will come along. But, barring some kind of miracle, 2008 is not going to be the financially comfortable year I'd hoped for. It will more than likely be another year of scraping by and watching our meager incomes make tiny, barely visible dents in our debt. There will definitely not be an iPhone.

Like I said, I'm trying to stay upbeat. I do actually believe that negative attitudes attract nothing but more negativity. But I am mere months away from completing an education that, including undergrad, has cost me over $30,000. Right now it doesn't feel like I have much to show for it.

Blog Tartare

2007-12-20T21:52:00.001-05:00

I know I really, really need to do a real update here, and I will soon, I promise. Maybe even tomorrow! But in the meantime I would like to point you in the direction of Blog Tartare, the new food blog that Neil and I have started. You should check it out!

2007-10-30T22:35:00.000-05:00

In lieu of an actual entry, have some Otis and Franklin!

Some Awesome Stuff from the Weekend

2007-10-22T09:22:00.000-05:00

1. Dinner at L&N Wine Bar. My parents took me and Neil to (belatedly) celebrate my birthday. You know that kind of high feeling you get when you've eaten just the right amount of really amazing food and had a couple of glasses of wine? Yeah. Tuna Humphries is my boyfriend.

2. Erin Keane read from her new book of poetry, The Gravity Soundtrack, at the Jazz Factory. Not only is she a fellow Erin, she's a fellow Germantown resident. And a damn good poet. I really, really loved her work.

3. Lotsa Pasta - I know this place has an entry in my Guide to Louisville, but I went there Saturday and feel compelled to mention its awesomeness once again. I stocked up on edible birthday presents for a friend and also picked up a pizza, some frozen pizza dough, and a package of spinach gnocchi. I had to leave when I felt I could no longer fight the urge to toss every delicious or interesting-looking item into my basket.

4. The Art of Simple Food by Alice Waters - The whole premise of this book is that if you use high quality, seasonal, and preferably locally-produced foods, you don't have to do much to them to create delicious meals. I can cook inasmuch as I can follow a recipe, but I never learned a lot of the basics of cooking. (Most importantly, perhaps, I've never learned to properly use a knife. I've never cut myself, but both Neil and my mother gape in horror anytime they see me cutting vegetables.) Alice Waters gives a lot of those sorts of basics: how to use a knife, what sorts of cookware you should have, how to care for your cookware, how to store different foods, etc. But the main point of the book is that if you learn a few foundational techniques and what's in season when, you can pick up whatever looks good at the farmers' market and build a meal around it without much effort.

For an example of what I love about this book, let's look at the chapter entitled "Four Essential Sauces." The four sauces are vinaigrette, salsa verde, aïoli, and herb butter. Alice writes:

These four sauces, though basic, add so much flavor, dimension, and color to meals that I can't imagine cooking without them. Any one of them can pull a meal together and turn a simple plate of meat and vegetables in to a finished dish; and they're so easy to prepare that once you've made them a few times, you'll never have to look up these recipes again.

That's how I want to cook. I want to go find an awesome piece of fish somewhere and decide to mix up some herb butter to put on it and then just do it, instead of fumbling with recipes. I also love the idea of eating what's seasonably available. I'm hoping that with the help of this book Neil and I can transform the way we cook and eat. Because frankly, the bulk of what we've eaten the last few months has been Lotsa Pasta's pizza and ravioli (oh god, the walnut and gorgonzola ravioli; what bliss!). While I know that Lotsa Pasta makes these products with much better ingredients than Tombstone and Chef Boyardee, the reason we eat this way - we are too lazy and/or busy not to - remains the same, and I don't like it. So I'm hoping that fixing delicious, good-for-us, simple foods will become something that I enjoy and am good at.

Site Updates

2007-10-13T14:51:00.001-05:00

I finally updated the photos page. Now it links to my Flickr account, where you can see photos in nice neat sets and leave comments and stuff. Enjoy!

So I said I'd been having thoughts about turning 27. This is the first birthday that bothered me a bit. And I'm a person who generally thinks it's very dumb to get upset over birthdays. In fact, I've been sort of looking forward to my 30s, because I've heard from so many people that they're much better than the 20s. But 27 just makes me think, "Wow, I can't believe I'm this old!" I don't think 27 is actually old by any means. Rather, I think I'm shocked that I've gotten to this age this quickly. I was talking to 30-year-old friend recently; neither of us could get over the fact that when we met I was 2 weeks from my 15th birthday and he was 18. And now we're 27 and 30! How did this happen? It doesn't seem like it could have possibly been that long. And that's what bothers me, I think; it seems like in a blink of an eye I'll be 37, and in a few more blinks I'll be dead. Well, more than a few, I suppose. It's just weird to have so much life behind me already and that it's gone by so quickly.

Love Story

2007-10-09T12:47:00.001-05:00

This is a sweet story.

67 years later, a love renewed

I must admit, I'm a total sucker for this sort of thing.

In other news, I turned 27 yesterday. I have a lot of thoughts about that, but they'll have to wait.

Bad Housekeeping

2007-09-27T18:41:00.001-05:00

Back when I was working a regular full-time job I used to fantasize about the unemployed life. I thought that, in my heart of hearts, I'd actually be perfectly content to stay home and keep house and let my hypothetical husband support me. (Only if there were no kids, though.) It sounded pretty sweet to me; housework wouldn't take too long if I did a little every day, and I could spend the rest of my time reading, writing, going to lunch, and shopping for and preparing delicious gourmet dinners.

This semester is about as close to that as I'm probably ever going to get, and let me tell you, it is not all I thought it would be, not by any means. I am teaching one class and taking two, and while that does take up a fair amount of my time, I have more leisure time now than I have in years. Neil, on the other hand, is working full-time, taking two classes, and for the next few weeks also teaching adult ed. And his band has started practicing again. I said from the start that I wouldn't mind picking up his household slack; he certainly has plenty of times for me while I've been working and in grad school. But you know what?

It sucks!

I am so tired of doing the dishes. I am so tired of doing laundry. (So very tired of laundry! Where does it come from?) I'm tired of funny household smells that linger no matter how often I change the litter box. I'm tired of either going to the grocery store or, more frequently, not being able to come up with anything to eat in the house. I'm tired of feeling guilty any time I ask Neil to help.

Not, mind you, that he is being entirely unhelpful. He did the last round of dishes and does other chores and errands when he finds time. It's just that since I am the one with the free time I'm the one who should be doing this stuff, and I'm really not. I'm not keeping up with it at all. I really hate it. And I have no idea how stay-at-home parents do it. I can't even handle the mess generated by two adults, a dog, and a cat. I think about my mom and my grandma and my nana and wonder how they did it without going crazy. How did they spend such large chunks of their lives at it? Were they resentful? Did the feminist movement speak to them at all?

Not, mind you, that this is a matter of oppression for me. Quite the opposite. This is a temporary situation in which I am actually incredibly lucky to (a) be able to teach and (b) be able to attend school without outside employment. But it has given me a taste of the drudgery endured by so many women, both stay-at-home moms and working moms. My mom did both, staying home with me until I started kindergarten, and even after she went back to work full-time the bulk of the household duties remained squarely on her shoulders. It's only in the last few years that she's gotten my dad actively involved in things like dishes and laundry. (I like to think that this started when I first got into feminism and, in response to my mother's complaints about ironing my dad's shirts, I asked her why he didn't iron them himself. She said at the time that she did it out of love. Apparently she has since found other ways to display her affection.)

I'm writing this after a day spent doing nothing of substance besides finishing The Corrections, which I highly recommend. I'm still in my pajamas. I meant to do dishes and laundry but I didn't get around to them. But I'm sure they'll be there tomorrow.

Pescatarianism

2007-09-11T09:44:00.000-05:00

Neil and I are about two and a half weeks into an experiment in pescatarianism (no animal flesh besides seafood). Almost all of my "vegetarian" friends are, in reality, prescatarians, but I don't like to call myself vegetarian because it's inaccurate and I feel it takes away from people who truly do not eat animals of any sort, something I could probably never do.

Anyway. My reasons for giving up mammals and birds as food are threefold.

1) The environment. Factory farming is really bad news. If you want an example of exactly how, try this.

2) Animal cruelty. The conditions in which animals are raised and slaughtered are abhorrent. Pigs, cows, and chickens are all intelligent, social animals who experience pain and fear.

3. Health. Vegetarians have lower risk for heart disease and cancer.

Of course, eschewing these animals for these reasons does not mean that I do not still want meat. Last week we went to Shiraz, where I usually get the joojeh (chicken) kabob. I love the joojeh kabob. But I got falafel instead (which was actually maybe the best falafel I've ever eaten). Last night I reeeally wanted some boneless chicken wings. We got the Morningstar Farms buffalo wings instead, and they were good, but still did not satisfy my urge for gooey Buffalo Wild Wings. But, you know, that's okay. I don't have to eat everything that I want, and the satisfaction I feel knowing that I'm doing good for the earth, animals, and myself almost makes up for the fact that I'm going to Philly this fall and won't be able to eat a cheesesteak.

Otis photos

2007-09-06T17:23:00.001-05:00

I've managed to assign keywords to my thousands (literally, thousands!) of photos in my iPhoto library, so the next step is to organize them all with Flickr so I can share them with people. Let's start with an Otis set.

More photos of more things and people to follow!

Changes

2007-08-23T07:10:00.001-05:00

Things have certainly changed since I last wrote here. The biggest change is that I quit my job a few weeks ago. I had been there about a year and a half and while it wasn't the worst job imaginable (and I do, honestly, miss the lack of stress when compared with what I'm doing now), it was going nowhere and I needed to get out. So I did.

And now what? I'm finishing up my coursework for my master's degree and teaching Women's & Gender Studies. That's the entirety of my occupation right now. It's pretty amazing have school as the main focus of my life right now; I feel like this semester is a tremendous gift. I will however be glad when a few weeks have passed and I'm more comfortable with my new routine. It's a difficult adjustment.

Not too much else is going on right now. (Isn't that enough??) Neil has gone back to school as well, getting a second bachelor's degree in graphic design. I think he's a little stressed out because he's still working full-time on top of school, but I'm sure he'll adjust.

Last week we went down to Gulf Shores for our annual week of utter laziness. It was wonderful and I wish we could have stayed longer. We ate a whole lot of seafood, read on the beach, floated in our tubes in the Gulf, played miniature golf, went to the movies, went outlet shopping, and generally did whatever we felt like whenever we felt like it. I think that health insurance should cover our week there as mental health care. It's amazing what a difference it made for both of us. We're trying to hang onto that feeling in the face of all the stuff we have to do now.

Since I have a little more free time now, I'm hoping to add some stuff to the site soon. More entries in my woefully incomplete Guide to Louisville, and a better way of arranging photos. I'll post where when/if I update stuff.

For the anonymous commenter who asked about my Passion Party: the first one went very well. It was a lot of fun and I sold more stuff than I expected to. I kind of put the whole thing on the back burner after the first party because I had a gig as a teaching assistant through most of July, and that plus my full-time job left little time for anything else. Now that that's out of the way I'm ready to get going on the parties again. I have one booked for next month already and I have several other people who are interested, so I'm optimistic about it.

Doves

2007-07-09T17:46:00.001-05:00

All spring and now, apparently, into the summer, doves have been trying to nest on our side porch, which looks like this:

Sometimes they just make a mess and drop nesting materials all over the porch and give up. Sometimes they succeed in making a nest. And then this happens:

Sad. Will they never learn?

Passion Parties

2007-06-19T08:57:00.000-05:00

Here's some exciting news: I've become a Passion Parties Passion Consultant! Go check it out:

I'm having my first party - an open house - on June 30. I hope plenty of people will come and that some will book parties of their own!

And!

2007-06-10T14:03:00.000-05:00

I finally fixed my feed and permalinks, so you can add me to your regular reads and share all my terribly fascinating posts with your friends!

G-town forever, hos!

2007-06-10T10:48:00.001-05:00

So said some young hoodlum once overheard by our friends and fellow Germantown residents Paul and Allison, and so say I.

I didn't choose to live in Germantown. I mean, of course I did to some extent when I moved in with Neil, but he bought this house before we met. Before we started dating I had little knowledge or opinion of Germantown. When I moved in I was happy, of course, to be living with Neil, happy that the neighborhood was near my then-newish job downtown, and happy that the arrangement would be good for both of us financially. But our little house in Germantown didn't have nearly the cache of the address I'd just left on Cherokee Road, nor my previous residence (and first apartment) on St James Court. I loved Neil and our house, but Germantown didn't seem like much to get excited about.

How wrong I was.

It turns out that we live within walking distance of my dear friend Tabetha, as well as the aforementioned Paul and Allison and Neil's mom (who, contrary to the stereotype of the crazy evil mother-in-law, is totally amazing). We can also walk to Kroger, the delicious cafe in the Louisville Antique Mall, delicious pizzeria Jockamo's, and the Nachbar (hideous MySpace page, awesome beer list). We're just a few minutes from the Highlands, downtown, and U of L.

All that aside, Germantown is awesome because of its people. True, we did have the neighbor from hell for quite a while, but he and his incessantly yowling dogs are now gone. People are friendly. More and more 20- and 30-somethings are moving in and putting down roots here (and giving rise to things like the Germantown Shotgun Festival). Even though I grew up in a nice neighborhood in a house I loved, there was little sense of community, and the only things within walking distance were gas stations and a Long John Silver's. This whole neighborhood pride thing is a new experience for me. I like it.

2007-05-30T09:30:00.000-05:00

I feel like this is what I look like today. I slept well enough last night, but I can't stop yawning.

Our Memorial Day weekend was a nice combination of productivity and utter laziness. We did manage to do quite a bit of yardwork and some housework. We saw Away from Her, which was excellent and sad. Monday night we had our own little cookout with cheeseburgers (gorgonzola - yum), corn on the cob, and baked beans. We ate out on the deck as the sun set with a citronella candle flickering on the table and Otis napping at our feet. We saw the summer's first fireflies.

Neil and I are reading Bend Sinister together. He's farther along than I am. He likes it and I am glad. Chapter 7 (the Hamlet chapter) has made him laugh out loud.

I sent off some poetry this morning to a local contest. I haven't the slightest idea of the caliber of writing this contest attracts and thus how my work might compare, but at least I put it out there. I've been working a bit on some fiction lately, too. Writing fiction now is a lot harder than it used to be. It came so easily to me when I was a teenager. I was much less self-critical then. I recently bought a Count Basie album that I listened to a lot as a teenager and I'm hoping that it will help me get back in that free-flowing creative headspace.

I've been fretting again (as I do so frequently) over what I'm going to do with myself after I graduate. Part of me thinks I should do something really practical and get some sort of schooling or training that will clearly prepare me for a career; a second master's in mental health counseling, massage school, anything that will allow me to graduate and say "Okay, now I am a ______." But then the other part of me wonders how I can even possibly consider doing anything but the one thing I should have gone to school for in the first place: writing. As a grad student in Women's & Gender Studies I feel like I have made up for a lot of stuff I missed out on as an undergrad; I've lived near school, made friends, had fun, and gotten good grades. It's been the complete opposite of my undergrad experience and I am grateful for it. But the missing piece is that I've been doing this whole higher ed thing now for going on eight years and I've managed to skirt almost entirely around the thing that is closest to my heart.

So I started looking at creative writing MFA programs (again). My obvious first choice was Spalding, because it is here in town and offers a low-residency program (low- or brief-residency programs meet for 7-10 days at the beginning and end of the semester, but the rest of it you spend working independently under the direction of a faculty member). However, the program at Spalding is about $26,000. I already have more than that in student loans, so there is NO WAY I'm going to do that. I kept looking at similar programs around the country and found that tuition was similar, and of course I'd also have to factor in all the travel and lodging expenses for the residencies. I started to get discouraged until I realized that Murray State has a low-residency program and that it's CRAZY cheap. With in-state tuition it would be about half the cost most of the other programs I looked at. So I think that is my plan now.

Of course, that raises the question of what the hell I'm going to do with a MFA in creative writing. I have one current and one former co-worker with these degrees, and suffice it to say, our workplace and job duties have pretty much zilch to do with creative writing. But I feel confident that I could come up with something. I'd like to teach, and the MFA is the teriminal degree in the field, meaning that I could teach college. I'm not about to enter the college professor job-finding rat race, but I could definitely adjunct at local colleges, esp. since I will already have experience doing so in WGST. I would love it if U of L would let me come up with a class that somehow combined the two. And I could do workshops and stuff. For a class I had last fall I had to come up with a sample grant proposal for a fake non-profit, and the non-profit I made up held writing workshops and retreats for middle school girls. I think that would be so awesome! I also really like the idea of Women Writing for (a) Change, but oddly (and sadly) enough an estranged friend of mine has already opened a Louisville branch. We had a falling-out when we were much younger and I've tried to reconnect with her but she's not interested, which is a shame, because I think Women Writing for (a) Change is totally awesome and I'd love to just talk to her about it.

Anyway. That's what's been on my mind the last few days. Now lunch is on my mind. I have a Lean Cuisine I don't want and City Cafe is serving calzones today. Hmmm.

Gertrude

2007-05-25T07:19:00.000-05:00

My MacBook arrived yesterday. It's pretty sweet! I'm especially enjoying iSight and Photo Booth. Here's a photo I took with it right after I got it.

Stuff-and-things

2007-05-23T17:37:00.000-05:00

I came home from work and decided that the clothes I had on - gray slacks and a sleeveless black shirt - while a perfectly nice ensemble, felt very not-me. Or at least didn't fit my current mood. So I put on some cropped sweat pants - actually, no, let's call them yoga pants - some yoga pants and a yellow t-shirt with the Nestle Quik bunny on it and put my hair in pigtails and I feel much better now.

Needless to say, many things great and small have happened since I last wrote here. I've been asked to teach an intro Women's & Gender Studies class this fall, and I'm going to be a teaching assistant for such a course in July so I can figure out what the hell I'm doing. I'm nervous but quite excited about it. This fall I am taking a course called Women's Personal Narratives and a creative writing course. In the spring I'll do my culminating project and then be done with my master's degree! Yay! Except, um, then what? I don't know yet.

Our beautiful deck is done, aside from the railings and various other cosmetic things. We're hoping to have a come-sit-on-our-new-deck! cookout soon. It was a big hit at our Derby party before it was even nailed down. :)

I've ordered a MacBook and will maybe (hopefully) have it tomorrow. My iBook suffered the logic board failure so common to G3s and G4s and, after much wringing of hands and gnashing of teeth, I bit the bullet and decided to upgrade. (Right now I'm using Neil's old eMac; not too sexy but still quite functional!) I cannot wait to get my hands on that MacBook, though. I've already named her Gertrude. Isn't there something exciting about customizing a brand new computer, adding all your stuff to it arranging things just the way you like them? It's like moving into a new home, except much less of a pain in the ass.

This morning I finished reading White Teeth by Zadie Smith. It probably sounds rather un-literary of me to say this, but I kind of hate it when a book builds and builds to this huge climax and then you get half a page of denouement and the rest is yours to wonder about. It's not that I want everything all tied up nice and neat for me with a bow... except maybe I do. I don't know. It was still a great book, despite that and the fact that nearly all the characters were unbearably annoying. Zadie Smith is amazing, especially considering that this was her first novel and it was published when she was 25. I'm in awe of her.

I've ordered a second copy of Bend Sinister by Nabokov; now that I'm done with White Teeth, Neil and I are going to read it together. I read it in 2003 but I want to read it again and I think Neil will really like it. And it will be fun to have someone to discuss it with as I read.

My wanderlust is acting up (though really, when is it ever not?) and we have a few trips planned for the summer. In July we're going up to Chicago for the Pitchfork Music Festival, primarily to see the New Pornographers. Yoko Ono is going to be there, too. I really have no opinion on Yoko, but I think it will be fascinating to see her just because she's, well, Yoko. Iron & Wine are going to be there too; I'm looking forward to seeing them. And I'm excited about checking out Chicago. I've sort of been there twice. I saw a Cubs game there and immediately came home afterward, and I went to the Bolingbrook Ikea. So, yeah, not much of a Chicago experience.

Also in July we're going to see the Cubs play the Reds in Cincinnati. Neil got us free tickets through one of his sales reps, and even though Cincinnati is not that big a deal to either of us, we thought we might take the opportunity to spend the weekend there and see what we can get into.

I'm hoping that in August we will be able to make our yearly pilgrimage to Gulf Shores, though that remains to be seen. All I can tell you is that I think about it all the time. The seafood, the beach, the laziness, the napping, the miniature golf... Total bliss.

Neil's giving someone a private camera orientation lesson thingy right now, so I'm trying to find ways to occupy myself until he gets home and it's time for dinner. I'd like to read but I don't want to start on anything with Bend Sinister on its way. Perhaps I'll find some short stories somewhere.

Panang!

2007-04-01T10:45:00.000-05:00

Earlier in the week I decided that over the weekend I wanted to fix panang curry, one of my favorite Thai dishes. I searched my beloved AllRecipes and didn't find a recipe for it. So I turned to the rest of the Internet to see what I could find. I'm always a little wary of online recipes that don't have any sort of user ratings or reviews. That might sound unadventurous, but what happened on St. Patrick's Day was a perfect example. I found a recipe for chocolate orange Guinness cake. Sound delicious, right? It was actually incredibly bland. I am a total cake junkie and the leftovers didn't even get eaten.

But anyway, I wanted to panang, so I decided to risk it with this recipe. Neil and I headed to the ValuMarket in the South End, which is well known for its wide variety of international foods. We found the panang curry paste, but not the kafir lime leaves. An incredibly helpful ValuMarket employee told us that he'd discuss it with the produce guy and see if they could get some in the future. Anyway, we headed home with the curry paste, some really cheap and fragrant fresh basil, coconut milk, jasmine rice, fish sauce, and of course some beer.

This panang curry turned out to be one of the best things I've ever cooked. This is no testament to my cooking skills - it was incredibly easy to make - but rather to the general tastiness of Thai food and the quality of this recipe in particular. It was just as good as the panang curry at Thai Smile, which I adore. We ate all of it (the recipe didn't say how many servings, but I'm quite sure it was more than two) and will probably make some more later in the week. It was that good.

In order to make it a truly multicultural evening, we rented Good Bye Lenin! Neil had never seen it, and I'd seen it but wanted to see it again. I fell asleep (as I tend to do when watching movies at home, especially if I've been drinking), so I will have to re-re-watch it before we return it.

Now on to such exciting Sunday chores as laundry, vacuuming, and homework. Neil is currently replacing the innards in the toilet, and if the weather holds he gets to mow the grass!

Come to this show or else!

2007-03-27T21:31:00.000-05:00

Checking in

2007-03-20T17:28:00.000-05:00

Man alive, has it really been almost a month since I last wrote here? As usual, I still don't have time to say much (homework beckons), but I will give you two exciting bits of news and one thing I want. Ready? Go!

Exciting Bit of News #1 - Neil's band, Old Man, is playing their first gig in over two years later this month. It will be on March 30 at the Rudyard Kipling. I'm really excited about this and I hope that everyone will come out and support them.

Exciting Bit of News #2 - If you have looked at my home and garden photos, you've no doubt shuddered in horror at the hodgepodge of building materials that is our back porch and patio. (Or maybe it's just me that does that. Anyway.) I'm pleased to announced that next month my dad, who mascarades as a mild-mannered non-profit executive director by day but is really a Deck Builder Extraordinaire, is going to tear all of that out and build us a lovely deck. This is going to make summertime entertaining a whole lot of fun, instead of something moderately embarrassing. I see tiki torches in my future.

One Thing I Want - One of these adorable bags (I can't decide on a color) from IMOOI. Neil will yell at me if I accumulate any more bags, but I don't care. I'm in love.

The last month-and-a-little-more of the semester is upon me with all of its papers (okay, two papers this semester, but one of them is really long and nasty), so who knows how long it will be before I get back here. I'll try to be more regular though. I promise.

Volvita's Grand Opening

2007-02-22T20:34:00.000-05:00

Welcome to the newly completed re-design of Volvita.com. I'm pleased you've stopped by! Please have a look around and, if you're feeling so inclined, leave a comment here or sign the guestbook.

Right now I'm pretty happy with the way things are, but eventually I'd like to add some more of my writing, as well as some photos for my Guide to Louisville. I'll update this blog when I've made significant changes to the site, and also (hopefully) on occasion when I have something interesting to talk about.

And now it's almost time for Neil, kabobs, and Grey's Anatomy!

2007-02-18T22:57:00.000-05:00

Glory be! I just figured out how to make this blog appear on my home page without looking all stupid! Tonight I shall go to bed with a great sense of accomplishment!

2007-01-07T23:30:00.000-05:00

I had every intention of blogging again sooner than this - after all, how am I ever going to build a loyal audience without regular entries? - but life has once again gotten in the way. The good news, however, is that I have plenty to talk about!

I finished Zadie Smith's On Beauty. It's been a while since I did so I can't really get as specific as I'd like, but I enjoyed it very much. I picked up her first novel, White Teeth, but haven't had a chance to start it yet. I just found out that Smith is only five years older than me, which makes On Beauty all the more amazing, considering how much she dealt with the inner lives of middle-aged people. I'm looking forward to reading White Teeth and The Autograph Man and seeing how she's evolved.

After On Beauty I read Push by Sapphire. I had actually listened to it as an audiobook some years before; I was going on a road trip with my parents and then-boyfriend Jo (we were teenagers) and I had been assigned the task of choosing audiobooks from the library. God knows why I selected that one, but suffice it to say that it made for some uncomfortable moments in the car. The story made quite an impression on me though, and it stuck with me, even though the title and author did not. Not too long ago I stumbled across it online somewhere, recognizing the synopsis, and decided to read it. It deals very, very graphically with incest and is not a pleasant story, but it's a fantastic piece of storytelling.

Next on my list was The Handmaid's Tale, which I finished today. I'm not sure how I went this long without ever reading this (or anything else by Margaret Atwood). It's rather eery that it was written in 1985 and is perhaps more relevant now than it was then. Atwood has an incredible imagination that is nonetheless thoroughly grounded in the reality of American culture. I am really looking forward to reading more of her work.

As far as my own work, I wrote and submitted something - to a real, paying publication - and was quickly rejected. I wrote for my college newspaper and was published in a school lit mag (it didn't hurt that I was friends with the poetry editor) but this was my first attempt at getting paid for my writing. I can't lie, it made me feel shitty. I know that rejection is a part of every writer's life and that I'm going to have to get used to it if I'm going to make a go of this, but it's very hard for me. It's the main reason I stopped trying to begin with, not wanting to face it. And frankly I'm not really sure where to go from here. I suppose I should focus more on writing than trying to publish, though if I published something - anything, even just a poem - I think writing would come more easily to me.

I do at least have some writerly plans for 2007 that should help me get focused and stay that way. I'm going to go to a Women Writing for (a) Change retreat in April and a workshop at the Iowa Summer Writing Festival in June or July. I also want to get involved with Women Who Write.

I'd like to promise another entry soon, but school starts tomorrow (Gender & the Law and Minorities & Medicine) so who knows what's going to become of me in the coming months. I will try though!