Wee Ones

Posted on August 18, 2008 by Anne

Back to back trips to Buy Buy Baby and Babies ‘R Us this week to find an extra tall baby gate to contain my frisky feline had me thinking about babies.  I expect that as the marriage count among my friends is continuing to increase, steadily behind it will come the baby count.  Eeeek.  Babies.

Until recently, I used to say that the only thing I knew for sure that I wanted to happen in my life was to have children.  Not that I wanted these children any time before my mid-thirties, but I knew I wanted them.   Maybe it’s me just readjusting my life plan based upon a realistic expectation of fruition but now I’m not so sure.  I mean, certainly I think I still want to have children, but now I’m beginning to consider that it could NOT happen and I could also be okay with that.  For example, I don’t think I want children enough to consider having them without a partner.  I hate to make my life decision about having children contingent upon the (seemingly impossible) feat of finding a partner, but I also can’t really fathom the workload of a single parent.  Having children seems hard enough with two parents.  Also, there’s a degree of selfishness that I think you get accustomed to being alone and I can see now how sacrificing that needs to be a clear choice.  Last but not least, seeing all of that horrendous baby crap really grated on my sense of aesthetics.

Cheddar is doing a fine job fulfilling my hypothetical evolutionary need to nurture.

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Scratch that

Posted on July 30, 2008 by Anne

New plan for household revitalization that doesn’t involve spending as much $$: DIY.  I’m going to paint the laminate shelving unit that I hate.  I realized I don’t actually hate the unit itself.  I hate moving it (and have vowed to never do so again) and I dislike the light wood.

So, after some Apartment Therapy and Ikea Hacker research it appears I can paint it even though they are maple or birch veneers.  Now in an ideal world I’d be able to stain it a deep dark almost black chocolate color, but I’m pretty sure I can’t stain those veneers.  So paint, in a high gloss blackish chocolate, will have to do.  I think the darkness will contrast nicely with the brushed metal supports.  Luckily I can do test spots on the back supports.  My cursory research suggests the steps are sand paper, vacuum/clean, numerous coats of paint.  It doesn’t need to last forever so that’s my plan for my first attempt at DIY.  The living room is now void of table and chairs so there’s plenty of room for my project after I get back from Iceland.

Did I mention I was going to Iceland on Friday?  Ten blissful days of cool rainy (read: ideal) weather in a Scandinavian country.  V. excited.

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Furniture Fun

Posted on July 28, 2008 by Anne

I’m itching to buy furniture again.  I sold my table and chairs because we never used them, and now I’m contemplating a pair of chairs.  While Ikea appeals to my wallet, I’m lusting after this chair from Room & Board…

Naturally, I wouldn’t order it in that color.  I’ll give you one guess which color I’d go with…

I’m not quite sure about the ottoman situation.  Is one enough?  Or maybe a non-matching ottoman that’s large enough to be shared?  That’s trickier.

Then, I also need to replace the eating area in a more convenient size and location so that we might actually use it.  I like this table idea (also from Room & Board).

It’s narrow enough (30″) that it could just go up against the wall with 3 chairs, but you could pull it out and add a fourth chair if you needed to.  Or even do two chairs on the long side.  I’d prefer the walnut top, but at $400 less, I think I’d go with the plain glass top.

Then I also have to get chairs.  Eeesh.  Maybe Ikea chairs will do. At $19.99, this Stefan chair could be hard to beat.

So, 2 chairs, 1 ottoman, table, 4 dining chairs = $2366 + tax + shipping.  The chairs are the bulk of that though.  More debating required.

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The Battle of Vera Bradley

Posted on July 17, 2008 by Anne

This video is sort of long and sort of boring, but it’s a good sample of what Cheddar and Sushi do all day long. On this day they were fighting over who got to sit inside my Vera Bradley duffel bag (which for some reason, they both love).


Posted in Animals, Funny, Video | 1 Comment

Storytelling

Posted on July 4, 2008 by Anne

Some people have a talent for storytelling.

Sufjan, who, in addition to writing songs, tells precious little stories…

And my brother’s friend Crans, who crafts these lovely gems from Paris…

I was tempted to play carols at work on my computer to get people into the Christmas spirit. But playing music out loud in the office is a delicate art. One day I went out but accidentally left music playing through my speakers—an ambient techno mix intended to offend no one. The boss told me later, “you made the office sound like a sushi restaurant.”

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NYC stories 1.2

Posted on June 28, 2008 by Anne

I’m waiting in line at the laundry with one girl behind me while a couple in front of me disputes something about their laundry detergent.  Two or three minutes go by.  A man walks up carrying a bag of laundry and steps in front of me.

Me: “Hey, there’s a line.”

Him: (shrug)

The couple leaves just then.  He steps inside with his laundry and puts it on the scale. I go in after him and stand right next to him – it’s a small space.

Me: “Is there a reason you think you don’t have to wait in line?”

Him: (shrug)

Me: “Do you think you’re better than us for some reason?”

Him: “That’s right.”

Chick behind me to the guy: “You’re a really pleasant person.”

He leaves.

Ahhhh New York.

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Highs

Posted on June 10, 2008 by Anne

I read this article in Scientific American about a girl with musicophobia: she had seizures in response to music.  And not just any music – only music she liked.  Music she didn’t like (jazz, classical) had no effect.  Partially because music is basically unavoidable in urban life (stores, ring tones, street musicians, etc) she chose to have brain surgery to remove the part of her brain where the seizures started.  She ended up able to listen to whatever music she liked – but I wonder if her enjoyment had changed?

It got me thinking about what life would be like if you had to avoid music – or at least choose to live without it.  What if  music couldn’t be part of your life?  I’m sure there are plenty of people for whom this wouldn’t be a challenge.  They are either disinterested or passive consumers of music.   For me it would be devastating.  Would something else replace that near euphoric high of that perfect combination of sounds?  What else could really feel so good?  Sometimes I wonder if that’s the feeling people who are athletes or runners talk about.  The release of endorphins or serotonin or dopamine or whatever feel-good neurotransmitter it happens to be that causes that high.  And does every person have that something?  I know I’ve felt it in plenty of different situations – music just happens to be the one that’s easiest to control and replicate.  I can’t make someone fall in love with me, I can’t count on excelling at any specific task.  Music, however, is always there.

In This is Your Brain on Music, Daniel Levitin discusses how music stimulates the entire brain diffusely, while most processing tasks are focused in one specific region of the brain.  I’m still working my way through the book, but this concept makes sense to me.  Music really does, more than anything else, seem to work it’s way through the entire mind; I’ve used the phrase “bathing every neuron” before.  Even better, sometimes it works its way down to your heart.  It’s a reliable high.

Today’s high courtesy of Coldplay’s “Strawberry Swing.”

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Yogurt Tales

Posted on May 19, 2008 by Anne

Somewhere in high school or college, when eating healthy became something of a competition among friends, I first became addicted to yogurt. Always having been skeptical of sugar, I stuck religiously to the artificially sweetened, fat free selections, but still with plenty of natural carbohydrates from the dairy and moderate protein. I scorned those who thought they were “eating healthy” and then consumed 45 grams of sugar in a serving of yogurt (that’s more than 3 tbsp!). There’s nothing wrong with eating sugar every now and then, but yogurt somehow got a rap as being healthy. In reality, unless you really pay attention to what you select, yogurt is more like dessert.

Then in 2005, along came Greek yogurt – specifically the Fage Total 0%. I was thrilled. It’s higher in protein, lower in carbohydrates, fat free, thick, creamy and wonderful. With a dollop of pumpkin butter or honey on top you’re still coming in lower in sugar and now without all those scary artificial additives and sweeteners. I started using agave nectar on my Fage earlier this year – supposedly it has a lower glycemic index than honey, but really it just tastes better with the yogurt. Trader Joe’s and Stoneyfield farms started releasing their own versions of Greek yogurt.

Recently, I’ve discovered the next yogurt revolution… Siggi’s Skyr. It is nothing short of the best yogurt of all time. From the label: “All natural. Milk from grass fed cows. No aspartame. No sucralose. No gelatin. No artificial colorings. No preservatives. No high fructose corn syrup.” Nutritionally it’s similar to the Fage and it comes in delectable flavors: Orange and Ginger, Pear and Mint, Blueberry, Pomegranate and Passion Fruit, and Plain. The ingredients reveal that it is just skim milk, agave nectar, live active cultures, vegetable rennet and whichever fruit. Oh, and it’s a Scandinavian food, but locally produced – even better!

Posted in Food | 3 Comments

This Week’s Life Hacks

Posted on May 18, 2008 by Anne
  1. You can set a locked maximum volume on your iPod. I like loud music. I always want it a little bit louder. I want to feel like it’s inside me – even when I’m on the subway. But, I’d also like to be able to hear when I’m 60. So… Settings —> Volume Control. Set a locked maximum volume. So no matter how much I try to slide that volume bar up, it stays put right at safe listening level.
  2. You can screw with the Date Added date in iTunes by changing your system date and time.My cat likes to stomp on my keyboard and delete songs from my iTunes library. When I then add them back in, they’re all out of position (since I sort primarily by date added). Solution: figure out what the time is supposed to be, change the system date/time, add the track, change it back. Yay. Play count is a different issue :/.
  3. Acorn squash has lots of potassium. The RDA for potassium is about 4700mg. The RDA for sodium is 1500mg. The basic idea is that you keep your potassium intake at double your sodium intake. Do you have any idea how impossible this is?? A large banana has 450mg potassium. A serving of pretzels has 450mg of sodium. Eat basically anything prepared at a factory or in a restaurant and your salt intake is going to exceed the 1500mg mark. It’s going to be more like 2500mg. Hence the ridiculously high potassium requirement. It’s like they are adjusting for our excessive sodium intake. Acorn squash is the jackpot – 900mg potassium and 8mg sodium per serving.
  4. Omega 3 fatty acids boost mood. The average American eats an Omega 6: Omega 3 ratio of somewhere between 14:1 – 20: 1 (Omega 6: Omega 3).  The recommended ratio is between 10:1 and 5:1 with some experts suggesting that even lower (4:1 – 1:1) might be ideal.  My diet right now is 6:1.  Something to work on.
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The Wedding Industrial Complex, Part I

Posted on May 14, 2008 by Anne

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I’ve been griping about weddings for quite some time now. Call me bitter. Call me cynical. Probably I’m a mix of both intermittently – particularly at weddings. At any rate, this year being one in which I won’t attend a single wedding, it seemed the best timing to theorize about the wedding industrial complex, hopefully without offending any of my friends. For the record, of the twelve weddings I’ve attended in the last four years, I’m fairly certain all the people actually getting married had a great time and were happy, and really that’s what the day is all about. Also for the record, I didn’t really like formals in college or dances in high school either – so maybe this is all just the adult extension of an inherent objection to getting dressed up and dancing. Finally, just to be clear, I don’t have an objection to the institution of marriage. I do believe that it’s both possible and reasonable to spend the bulk of your life with one person. How you find that person, I have no idea. I’m not sure I’m really looking just yet. But that’s another story.

My objection to the wedding industrial complex comes from two distinct places. The first is a more personal aversion. It comes from the place of being a chronically single person who (for what are probably defensive, self-protective reasons) finds herself uncomfortable with the concept of romance. The second is purely fiscal in nature. I was by no means raised in a frugal atmosphere, but I learned to think of money with a sense of responsibility and practicality.

I don’t think I really need to define the wedding-industrial complex, right? It’s everything from the magazines to the romantic comedies, the websites to the dress fittings, the flowers, showers, rings, and registries. It’s spending thousands upon thousands of dollars on one piece of jewelry and one big day.  It’s women being lavished upon and rescued by men.

Part I is about the ring. It all starts with the ring. Until recently I think I was just as convinced as every other girl that I needed or wanted a big diamond ring on my left hand. What changed my mind? Well, first of all there’s the fact that the size of diamond that every girl thinks is necessary seems to be dependent mostly on how important a social status marker it is for them. How big are their friends’ rings? How much can Mr-Ring-Buyer afford? How big are the rings at the grocery store or the boutique around the corner? How big was mom’s ring? How important is money and socioeconomic status to the couple? It doesn’t seem to have a lot to do with anything about the relationship. When I questioned a friend once on the practicality of buying the ring if money was tight, she explained, “Well, it’s really important to us.” Really? More than housing and groceries and having a social life? More than the down payment on a house? When I moved from grad school and Massachusetts to Manhattan and the land of new money, the rings got significantly bigger. It’s ostentatious consumption at it’s best. I haven’t even watched Blood Diamond yet, but you can bet that it’ll only add fuel to my fire. The mere fact that there is a process for certifying diamonds as conflict-free makes the industry suspect. I also love when girls talk about what size ring looks good on their hand. Please. On the other hand, I’m not really one to buck tradition and I do think there’s something important about having some sort of symbol, so what’s my suggested alternative? It seems to me like there ought to be plenty of vintage, ready to be reused gems out there. Since the traditional diamond engagement ring didn’t become a “custom” until the mid 1900s (thanks to brilliant De Beers marketing), there are hundreds of years of precedent to draw inspiration from.

Now, because I like to try to play my own devil’s advocate, I find myself wondering how I would respond if I were ever offered a ring by someone I loved. I can see how it would be hard to say no. I guess the question would be what was the motivation for his buying it? Did he buy it because he wanted to or because he felt like he had to? And would I look at it for years to come wondering what else it could have paid for? What amazing trip or year of tuition? I know there are plenty of women out there who dreamed of their rings and weddings as children and are happy for this one remnant of fairytale in our lives. I’m not saying it’s wrong for them, just that it probably deserves some thoughtful consideration.

Posted in Culture, Life | 4 Comments