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September 2, 2010, at 10:20 pm
In the last post about My Book About Me, I mentioned that I sometimes have difficulty choosing a favorite. I’m a typical engineer; ask me a simple question and my initial answer to you will probably be ‘it depends.’ Multiple-choice questions can be torture.
A note about watermelon: I typically eat it several days a week.
But about that indecisiveness — nowhere is it more apparent than in my treatment of the ‘When I Grow Up, I Want to Be’ page.
For those keeping score at home, I was considering a career as a mother-millionaire-veterinarian-singer-dancer-farmer-doctor-nurse-lion tamer-policeman-artist-dentist-mailman-actor-banker-tv star-football player-movie star-photographer-telephone operator-gold miner (especially that one, I circled it five times)-judge-jockey-president-magician-mayor-camel driver-acrobat-dog trainer-fisherman-yak trainer. I was also thinking maybe a cowboy-indian-astronaut, but possibly just as a hobby.
I’m an engineer, which was not a choice, but I’m still considering farmer-astronaut-millionaire.
I have always liked to read and I fondly remember the basket in my bedroom that I would fill each week or two with new library books, but I am pretty sure the following number is a fabrication:
What six-year old knows how many books they’ve read?
Okay, I have to prepare you now for the saddest page of the whole book — the autograph page:
“Most kids can’t get them all.” How many kids get none? In my defense, all of the relatives lived far enough away that we didn’t see them often. As to the rest, that is what we call foreshadowing. But seriously, like most children I was taught not to talk to strangers. And everyone I don’t already know is a stranger. Don’t ask me to explain how I know anybody at all.
True story: once I was very young and I was at the mall with my mom, walking through an awesome aquarium that was set up in one of the storefronts. A woman pushing a stroller with a son about my age told me that he would like to share his candy. So I forcefully said, “No!” — because stranger offering candy, duh. I don’t remember anybody’s reaction, but a minute or two later my mom told me it probably would have been okay that time. And I have been utterly confused about rules (and strangers) ever since.
All of that stuff kind of helps explain why I don’t know anybody in the city where I’ve lived for two years. I happen to think I’m a pretty nice person:
Wait, what?
I’d like to leave you with two original stories that I wrote. Transcript after the photo (I have added some punctuation).
Story #1: There was a sheep and she was 1 year old and she was just born. Her mother loved her so much that she did not leave her same with her dad. He protected them. The End. PS. There was a dog and she had been traveling for 8 years and was 20 years old. Saw a goat and the same thing happened to him.
Story #2 (‘A littel secret’): Ones a brontasaras came to his class. He told dueplotacus a littel secret about his mom and dad geting davorst. Dueplotacus said mine did to. Soon school was out thae went home dueplotacus invited brontasorus over. Thae had fun and lived happalie ever after. The end.
August 31, 2010, at 10:00 pm
Sammy, the Crow Who Remembered may be my favorite book, but I must admit that there is a close second…
You may have caught the headlines about a recent study which claims that one’s personality is pretty much set by age 7. I can attest that this is true. After all, though I started this book in my fifth year, I was six — er, seven when I finished it (did Michelangelo paint all roads leading to a bear in the woods in one day? No, he did not), so you can assume that anything I am about to share with you is still true today.
But wait, I’m getting ahead of myself. As the book says, first of all there is one thing you should know: I am a feminist.
Sometimes I wear a big false nose.
Occasionally I have bad hair days.
I often find it difficult to choose just one favorite.
Oh my gosh, how did I know that those are my favorite colors??
As is to be expected, this book is too important to share just a few pages. Come back Thursday night to get a little more personal, including my career aspirations, an amazing look into the workings of my mind, and the saddest page of the entire book, which is strikingly prescient.
August 29, 2010, at 10:00 pm
I was reminded of this book by a recent post at Childfree Chic:
My parents got a bunch of children’s books that had been purged from the local library system, and this was one. Apparently it wasn’t very popular — it appears to have been checked out just once.
However, out of all the beautiful, colorfully illustrated books I grew up with, this black and white book from 1969 became my favorite.
It was about a crow that had made friends with a woman who lived at the beach, as well as with her cat, her grandchildren, and a seagull. In the story, Sammy plays with the children every day until he meets a lady crow and flies away with her and some others.
Ultimately, Sammy misses his people too much and leaves the other crows, returning to his friends at the beach.
I’ve always loved crows because of this book — they’re all Sammy to me.
What was your favorite book as a child? How did it influence you?
August 24, 2010, at 10:00 pm
I think I wore myself out with that last post. Hopefully I’ll recover in time for Thursday’s.
True story: that donkey bit me. I had a half-dollar sized hickey on my forearm for a week. Never trust a jackass.
August 22, 2010, at 10:00 pm
Look at what Ms. Childfree Chic has passed on to me:
Check her out for a taste of true Southern style and your weekly martini fix!
This meme requires me to tell you seven things about myself that you may not know. Try these on for size:
1. I’m a dedicated Dr. Pepper fiend and have been as long as I can remember. Luckily for me, Texas is the home of Dublin Dr. Pepper, so our grocery store sells Dr. Pepper made with Imperial Sugar year-round. It usually comes in cute little glass bottles, but right now it is also available in cans for Dr. Pepper’s 125th anniversary.
2. I considered a career as a herpetologist. I had a pet garter snake as a kid, and later a pet corn snake. The former ate goldfish and the latter ate baby mice (‘pinkies’). My dad would pick up the pinkies for me at the pet store on his way home from work, and I would put them in the cage and run away so I couldn’t hear them squeal. When I was away at college with my snake, I found a supplier of frozen pinkies. I liked this a lot better and the snake didn’t care once they were thawed. She once escaped in my dorm room and I had to go to Campus Security to get her back (she briefly escaped from them as well). I didn’t get in trouble because they were so amused. Eventually I housed her with a boyfriend and she escaped for good.
3. I played the cello from 3rd grade through high school. I have a beautiful Rudoulf Doetsch but I don’t read music very well anymore. Mark had my bow rehaired for me and I would like to take private lessons.
4. I may be an engineer, but I have a big creative streak. I loved drawing and creating shoebox dioramas when I was younger, and now I especially enjoy creating mosaics. I still like to make silly dioramas. Unfortunately I don’t have a place to make anything in our current home, so this blog is my main creative outlet for the time being.
5. I started rowing as a freshman in high school and loved it. Rowing paid for part of my college education, gave me a permanent connection to a lot of great people, and provided inspiration with every sunrise on the Schuylkill River. I haven’t been in a boat in a really long time but I dream of having my own single scull and a quiet lake where I can stroke through the morning mist and watch the sun rise again.
6. I nap almost every day, even weekends. The only days I don’t get to nap are the days when I go directly from work to spinning class. I can nap in the heat or in bright light and sometimes with the television on, but I can’t nap very well in a car or an airplane. I have to be careful about napping on the couch, though, because for me that can trigger sleep paralysis. Even when I’m not having sleep paralysis, I have dreams that make Inception look like a documentary.
7. I married a pirate! We were married in the Cayman Islands during Pirate Week. Jes bought some props and we hammed it up. The resulting shots are some of my favorites.
So now I’m supposed to pressure someone else into doing this meme. I’m nominating Julia over at WafflerToaster. Visit her for some delicious recipes and a taste of life in Berkeley!
August 12, 2010, at 10:00 pm
Oh, is it Thursday night already? Well, let’s see if we can make a graceful exit from the week. I know a place where you can find supplies if you are lacking serenity:
Fly away from the worries of the past week and be free!
Yep, I’m ready to let the sun set on this week.
Do you have anything exciting planned? My M.O. is the usual: good food and lots of relaxation!
July 29, 2010, at 10:00 pm
I have this thing about the taskbar on my work computer — it has to be arranged a certain way. My Outlook must be the left-most button. My personal webmail is next. It doesn’t really matter what comes after that since I’m opening and closing programs and spreadsheets all day, but if something goes wrong (like accidentally shutting down Outlook), I will not hesitate to close every window so I can put things back into the correct sequence. I hate when that happens, but someone has to restore order to the universe.
Am I alone in this? A couple days ago a former coworker of mine sent me a Facebook message just to tell me that he had eight windows open and his Outlook was number six or so. He even sent a screenshot just to torment me. I honestly don’t know how anyone can work that way.
Anyhow, it’s almost Friday and I’m ready to drop. Would it be wrong to sleep through the whole weekend? At the very least I’m not getting out of my pajamas without a very good reason!
Ah, that picture always makes me laugh. Have a great weekend!
June 17, 2010, at 10:00 pm
I just love them!
That’s most of ‘em. The warmer ones are stowed away until cool weather returns. They’re my uniform most weekdays — cardigan, camisole, trousers, jewelry. I look polished but I’m super-comfortable and I didn’t even have to iron or tuck anything in. Nobody really knows how lazy I truly am just by looking at me. I also carry one whenever I’m wearing a sundress or sleeveless shirt, since I’m always cold.
I prefer 3/4-length sleeves, which work most of the year in Houston if you’re an office-dweller like me. I have a soft spot for a good cashmere sweater, but I think the most versatile fabric for everyday wear is an acrylic blend, which is easy to care for and still looks good after countless washes. My current favorite source for the perfect cardigan is Express. Mine are probably the most frequently worn items in my wardrobe, but they still look nearly new.
June 13, 2010, at 10:00 pm
I love bath and body products. Really love them. But my rate of use seems inversely proportional to the amount left in the bottle. Here’s the body lotion situation under my bathroom sink, with the two largest bottles containing no more than 10% of their original volume:
That doesn’t include the bottles that I stuck in my gym bag in hopes of using them up. And let’s not even talk about the perfume situation, or the hair product situation, because I really like trying a variety of those things, too. To be fair, though, the hair product situation is usually worsened by running out of my products of choice, not finding them at the store, and having to substitute with something that ends up being kind of crappy but not necessarily awful, and therefore really difficult to use up. But now I order my mousse by the economy pack (see left side of picture), because just when I find something that really works, they stop selling it in any brick and mortar store and I have to hoard it by the case via Amazon.
Now that I’m looking at that picture, I’m pretty sure a couple of those items are probably close to ten years old. Once in a while the whole ‘products’ thing just gets so out of control that I purge anything I know I’ll never use, but apparently I am in denial about some things. I’m really sick of looking at this motley collection of lotions, so I am currently sporting the most thoroughly moisturized skin in Houston. Darn it, I am determined to get through these stupid lotions…so I can try some new lotions.
June 6, 2010, at 10:00 pm
We all know that we should be wearing sunscreen. But what if almost everything you thought you knew about sunscreen was wrong?
The Environmental Working Group is a non-profit group of science and policy experts who review scientific literature and do some in-house work for the benefit of public health and the environment. Their 2010 Sunscreen Guide took a look at 500 beach and sport sunscreens and recommended a mere eight percent of them.
The offenses:
- misleading SPF claims, including not protecting against UVA rays
- containing retinyl palmitate (vitamin A), which may be photocarcinogenic
- containing oxybenzone, a potential hormone disruptor
What does the FDA have to say about all this? Not much; they’ve been working on sunscreen regulations for over 30 years and still haven’t finalized any. Well, what about the Skin Cancer Foundation seal of approval? It’s available for any SPF 15+ product, with a $10K donation.
So what should you look for? Forget the SPF 50+ sunblocks, for starters. According to BASF research, you’re not going to get better UVA protection than SPF 20, and you may not get any if you simply trust the claims on the front of bottle. So apply liberally and often. Really, you need to reapply it! I’m certainly guilty of not reapplying as much as I should. It just seems like so much work when I come back from a vigorous swim and sand gravity sets in.
Your best bet for broad-spectrum protection is a mineral sunblock — something containing zinc or titanium. Mexoryl and avobenzone get EWG’s go-ahead, as well. The hard part is that you’re not going to find a lot of these at the drugstore. Again, you can’t go by the claims on the bottle — you need to read the ingredients. Either shop online or make a list of the good ingredients and bad ingredients and bring it with you. You could also check EWG’s ratings and write down a few brands. I found a small array of mineral sunblocks at my local Whole Foods. Some of them were imported and were outrageously expensive. I decided to try one by Goddess Garden, which was one of the better values per ounce:
I tested it on Saturday, as we were supposed to go to Galveston Island for the day. We never got there, but I did wear the sunblock all day while we did errands around town. My first impression was that it is a lot thinner than the chemical sunscreens that I’m used to, but getting it absorbed still takes some work. To my eye, there was still a faint whitish cast to my skin for a little while after it was absorbed, but that is probably to be expected with titanium, which helps give some paints their opacity. I wouldn’t call it greasy, but it does have a little bit of the typical, heavy sunscreen feel when it first goes on. This particular sunscreen has a light, pleasant lavender smell which dissipates fairly quickly.
That’s all well and good for the beach, but I’m not sure it’s a product I want to use on my face on a daily basis. EWG does have ratings for moisturizers and makeup with SPF, which I’m going to have to check out. I’ve been using this product for a pretty long time and love it:
Excuse the scuffed and dirty appearance of my bottle — it travels in my gym bag every day. It does double-duty for me as a primer and a sunscreen, but to my disappointment the ingredient list contains both retinyl palmitate and oxybenzone — they even tell you right on the front that it contains vitamin A! I’m not too concerned for now because I work in an office and am not exposed to much sunlight, but I suppose I won’t be wearing it to the beach and will have to do some shopping once I finish the bottle.
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