Signs of summer

June, graduation, final meetings - all of these signal that it's summertime!  Plus, almost right on schedule, June gloom arrived in the Southern CA area.  It wasn't quite June 1st, but when I went out for a long run Sunday morning, the day was still quite gray and gloomy - ideal!  May seemed like a warmer-than-usual-month, with fires already breaking out in different parts, and I was skeptical that June would bring about the usual weather 'system', but it did, and I'm not complaining about the cooler mornings.

I have tried to already take advantage of the change of pace - Michael and I took Monday afternoon to go to LACMA and enjoy our membership there.  We saw lots of German Expressionism which could have been quite depressing, but we mixed in some late 19th/early 20th Century American painting and a Matisse cut-out exhibit.  By the time we returned  to the east side, it was the afternoon, but not yet evening, so we hit up The York, for a small but potent margarita.  Drinks on a Monday?  Yes, please!

Food-wise, we're enjoying a somewhat different menu with summer fruit and veggies, and I've already enjoyed being at home for lunch.  After less-than-responsible eating in April and May, both nutritionally and financially, I'm making a push to cook more.  This week has so far been quite the success with a white, veggie lasagna on Monday and a fresh corn salad with a cilantro lime dressing (recipe for the dressing is here - we cut down on the oil; we'll definitely be making this again!) last night, and some peach and blueberry scones today.  Not so successful is the plan to drink less beer/wine and eat less ice cream.  It is summer, after all!

After a few months of pretty lame entertainment, of both the reading and viewing variety, I'd like to be more deliberate in my choices over the summer.  It's sheer laziness that I haven't pushed myself to read or watch interesting books or movies lately.  Thanks to Michael's insistence that we watch Chinatown (again), I read a few commentaries about the last line of the movie ("Forget it, Jake; it's Chinatown").  Apparently, some people think that it connects to the death of Polanski's wife, so I started reading about that, which then led me to pick up Helter Skelter, which I'm currently reading (okay, not a great intellectual oeuvre but it's fascinating to learn about LA in the 60's and who doesn't enjoy reading about cults).  And all of this prompted us to watch Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired last night, which was an interesting documentary, to say the least.

Other plans for the summer include a trip to the Hollywood Bowl, finally, and plenty of hiking and biking, road tripping, reading, beach walking, hitting up a few more museums, cooking, napping, and training.  Not necessarily in that order.

Summer 2013, I'm ready for you!

Wind storm and gratitude

Oh, yes, Thanksgiving was more than a week away which means the ubiquitous "I'm thankful for..." moment has passed me by.  I did, however, assign my students a short essay with that topic, and one of them noted that they had similar assignments when they were in first grade.  Nice.
As for Turkey Day, it was a great weekend.  We braved the crowds of LAX, which ended up being lighter than we expected, and made it safely to Texas.  Over Thanksgiving, we enjoyed much good food and drink (lots of good drink).  In addition to the usual turkey, we stuffed ourselves on Friday, eating Mexican food for lunch and dinner, once on "our" side of the border and the other time on the "other" side.  Good times and lots of margaritas!
We also made the most of our travels!  The first photo is from our layover in Houston - damn, those beers are Texan-sized!

Upon our return to LA, our bags were delayed for no reason at all.  So, we got a drink at the Encounter bar, this crazy, futuristic 60's-style bar/restaurant (it looks like something out of "The Jetsons!").  Instead of being angry and impatient about our bags, I totally chilled out:

Now, back to the theme of gratitude.  It's a timely topic since I found myself more grateful than ever yesterday afternoon when we walked into our house and discovered that we had POWER for the first time in 60+ hours!  Power meant heat, lights, heat, refrigerator, heat, washing machine, heat.  Did I mention heat?!  I realize that we don't live in the Northeast, so losing power for 2.5 days doesn't have quite the same bite that it could, but our house had settled into a rather cold state, not budging much above 58 degrees (or something like that - maybe 55?!).  I spent the past few days wearing long underwear, Smart Wool socks and a beanie as I wandered around the house!

All of this made me hyper-aware of the fact that:
1. I obviously could not survive well if suddenly transported to a different time period where heat was not common.
2.  I am totally lame.
3.  I am totally lame.

Despite days of some grumbling and feeling 'on edge', I tried to be appreciative of the fact that we did NOT have any major damage, unlike many, many people in the Pasadena area who were not so lucky.  Michael and I also enjoyed a few candlelit nights of backgammon (I emerged the winner one night while he completely routed me the next) and good conversation.  I try not to take for granted the fact that I consider myself lucky in many ways, but this served as an important reminder, especially when it comes to living and sharing a life with a person whom I actually like and with whom I enjoy spending time.  I do believe that the regular day-to-day humming along of life can mask whether or not you actually like the person that, in theory, is your partner, in one way or another, but when you have nothing else but candles and conversation, then you sure as hell had better enjoy each other's company!
So, we did survive the crazy, record-breaking windstorm of 2011, and we both enjoyed a serendipitously unexpected day off work on Thursday.  I have experienced snow days before, when I lived in Philly and Seattle, but never a 'wind day', so this was something new.  Michael and I spent much time in the car driving around so that we could charge our cellphones.  Crazy, I know!
Friday was a bit complicated at work.  We still did not have power on Friday, nor did many of my students.  I took my cellphones and other electronic items to work and plugged them in; so did many of my students!   Needless to say, very few people (I include myself in this group) could focus on Friday.  I think people's emotions ranged from giddiness to frustration to anger.  While we resorted to bar food on Thursday, we were determined to eat in house on Friday.  We still had eggs and a few other items that we could cook up on the stovetop which did still work thanks to the gas stove.  Cooking by headlamp and candles - almost like camping!  Especially considering that I wore multiple layers.  I think my teeth were still chattering:

Finally, on Saturday - bliss, oh, bliss, our power came back on!  I would like to say that I'm a more profound person, but I was ecstatic when we walked into a WARM house.  After avoiding being in our house for a few days because of the chill that set into my bones as soon I walked into the house, it delighted me to feel welcome in my own house and to not pull on my long underwear to hang out on the sofa!

So, we still have a little shrine that we resurrected in order to remember our 2.5 day 'ordeal'.  Please note the bottles as our candle-holders!

The good, the bad, and the ugly

In Italian, that would be "Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo" and, yes, I am borrowing this phrase from that movie which is definitely worth seeing in my very humble opinion. "The Ugly" or "Tuco" played Eli Wallach (the middle guy here) definitely made the movie, but the tension between all of the characters makes it highly enjoyable.

I am not, however, here to promote movies of the Spaghetti Western variety but to break down my weekend into such reductionist terms.

Starting with "the good" - I've felt glowingly positive about the weekend. I did not touch papers or homework yesterday, which means that they will drift to the bad and maybe even the ugly before I return to school on Tuesday. Ah well, procrastination is part of teaching!

We had a lovely, social evening on Friday, braving the crappy weather and heading to Lotería Grill in Hollywood. As usual, the food and drinks did not disappoint! We had some very strong margaritas, and I ordered the huachinango (red snapper) which was excellent. We met up with a friend of Michael's from his New York days - they caught up on what had happened in the almost-five years since they had seen each other.

Yesterday was a rainy Saturday, so we decided to lay low. We did get out before the rain hit and did some shopping. As much as I hate Whole Foods, I also love it, and we did stop by to stock up on bulk items which were very economical. We also bought some shrimp for dinner which were not so economical, but they weren't outrageously expensive either. Our March "Food and Wine" offered several quick and healthy recipes, so we decided to try the Gingered Stir-Fry with Shrimp as pictured below - it definitely fit the quick and healthy definition, and we both agreed that the recipe is a keeper. We will make it again!

Source

The final part of the "good": I signed up for a swim clinic today and for lessons the next few weekends. I am supposed to be in training for a triathlon, but I've felt trepidatious about the swim leg. So, I hoped that this clinic would jump-start my confidence and enthusiasm. While it did not transform my swimming, I actually did come out of the water with the sense that I was stronger and more efficient in my strokes and that I was using my legs more. The other bonus of the clinic - it was at the Rose Bowl Aquatics center which is AWESOME! I have been swimming laps at the gym pool which is overly chlorinated and stifling, but the Aquatics center is outside. I realized that looking at the sky makes ALL the difference.

Also, today I could see SNOW while I did some laps! Yes, snow! It was kind of trippy to see some snow while I was swimming in the pool. Because of the rain and the colder temperatures, snow fell at something like 2,000 feet last night. I woke up this morning and was going to let the dogs outside to pee, when I saw the snow-covered mountains out of our front door windows. It surprised me so much that I started to yell, which got Michael out of bed. We've been repeating all day "It's so amazing!". Every time the snow fall is low enough that we can see it from our dining room area, it makes living here seem pretty magical. This happens about once a year, so not too uncommon but it always comes as a surprise and a total treat. (Not so much fun was scraping the ice off the car)

Now, the "bad": I cannot shake the stupid cold that I've had for the past week. It hasn't completely taken me out of commission, but it continues to linger and to make me feel unmotivated and lethargic. Plus, it has impacted my sinuses, so I've struggled with headaches. Ugh. I know, I know... This is minor, but it is an annoyance.

Finally, the "ugly": I am having to recognize/accept that I have a stress fracture* in my foot and that it is NOT going to just heal within a week. I went for a run on Wednesday without pain, but then I pushed myself on Friday afternoon and the pain flared up in a major way. While I find this to be incredibly unfair (haven't I suffered enough issues?!), I am trying very hard to focus on the positive. I can still swim and bike, so this will force me to focus more on those two sports and gain strength, skill and confidence rather than depending so much on the running part of the race. If, of course, this injury doesn't heal within four weeks, I WILL rant about it.

A friend also recommended that I wear sensible shoes for the next week to work. Now, I don't normally wear heels to work and I think that most of my shoes do fall into the 'sensible shoes' category, but I think that she was suggesting a new low: Wearing athletic shoes to work.

Oh, the horror, the horror! And that truly would be "the ugly".

*I haven't been to the doctor yet for an official diagnosis, but based on all the information out there (on the interweb) and also from talking to a friend who has coached cross-country and track for over 20 years, a stress fracture seems most likely. Which isn't a big deal, not really, but this with the combination of other aches and pains and the stupid cold that I can't shake, I am feeling OLD.

Grateful for a lazy Sunday

So, we were supposed to meet up with some friends for brunch, but they ended up canceling on us. While I was disappointed that we couldn't catch up with them (they live about an hour away, but we all seem to have busy schedules, so I haven't seen them since August!), the entire day suddenly opened up. We opted not to run to the farmer's market but to laze around in bed, getting up at the VERY LATE hour of 8:00 am! I've putzed around the house today - grading, washing the dogs, will do some reading for pleasure later...

It struck me that we have kept a fast-pace life as of late and that this is the first entirely FREE weekend day that we've had for well over a month. That, I think, is pathetic. As a teacher, I am well aware of the dangers of over-scheduling students and of parents who cram their kids' schedules with practices, rehearsals, tutoring sessions, games... It is often a dizzying juggling act that these kids perform. I, on the other hand, assume that since we don't have kids, it is impossible for us to be overscheduled.

How wrong can I be? Between trips out of town, birthday celebrations, social engagements, school events and responsibilities, Michael taking classes and my training and trying to be somewhat in shape, we have been scheduled to the max. So, this weekend has offered us a welcome change of pace. I took Friday off from any sort of PT, running, swimming or biking, nor did I attend a single school sporting event. Yesterday was not so footloose and fancy-free as I attended a 5-hour bike clinic at a local REI from 8:00 am to 1:00 pm. One of my goals/hopes/expectations in 2011 is to better understand my bike. I would also like to learn how to change an effing tire. The class did give me greater insight to my bike and how it works, but it did not teach me the mad skills that I need in case I blow out my tire. Sigh. I will have to watch some web tutorials, me thinks! Still, I found the class interesting, and it is SO good for me to be a student. It reminds me of my own students' daily experience and how exhausting learning is. And I was just learning about a bike, not multivariable calculus or the imperfect subjunctive!

So, that was yesterday. Today - nothing that I *have* to do. Total bliss.

Michael and I have taken advantage of the less-structured weekend by cooking a few not-standard dishes. I feel that we can get into a rut with our cooking where we just pull out one of the three Mark Bittman cookbooks that we have OR we just grill fish OR roast some vegetables. This weekend, I fully enjoyed some time in the kitchen. Friday, I made this pea and prosciutto risotto, substituting the prosciutto with pancetta which we had on hand and worked very nicely! Last night, Michael and I combined our mad talents and whipped up enchiladas with this awesome sauce. I give Michael full credit for our foray into Mexican sauces - he's been experimenting with green and red sauces and different chiles for the past few years and has had great success on many occasions. The best thing about both of these dishes - leftovers for the next few days (lunches and dinners this week)! Finally, I decided to get into the kitchen and bake yesterday, attempting red velvet cupcakes for the first time ever. They were based on this recipe from Bellaeats.com, and while I decided not to photograph the event or the final product, they ARE very tasty!

So, cheers to a lazy Sunday - I think I should plan more of these!