Learnin' to Fly (#1)

I have to be honest.  The idea for my #1 on my 30 Before 30 list was a Groupon for flying lessons that came across my email while I was living in NYC.  At the time, I was like, why not?  And then work got in the way, of course.  Anyway, now that I have weekends (well, this one may have been my last before the bar exam), I thought it would be perfect to do.  Fortunately, Groupon cooperated and had another special. So in December, I purchased flying lessons for the bargain price of $169.  I sort of just bought the lessons without thinking through the fact that I would be UP IN THE AIR thousands of feet above the ground where I could plummet to my death if something went awry.  This did not enter my mind until I was in the flight simulator part of my lesson (good timing, right?).  At that point, it was too late because we were already walking to the plane.

For those of you that knew me in high school, me taking flying lessons would crack you up.  I was the girl that took drivers' ed at 16 and didn't get my license until almost 4 months after my 17th birthday.  I was rather busy in high school (extracurriculars and whatnot) and had a boyfriend who was a year ahead of me and thus could drive me to school too.  I also was the girl that burst into tears when her drivers' ed instructor told her to turn on the car.  Yes, this same girl flew a freakin' airplane on Saturday (and started the propellers all by herself)!

I should also note that my hubby is deathly afraid of flying.  He gets very nervous/ anxious in commercial planes.  I'm SHOCKED that he came up into the plane with me.  I'm also very proud of him.  He made a decision that he didn't want to miss me crossing something off my "bucket list" (that's what we call it to people we don't know. 30 Before 30 is harder to explain).  What a sweet guy and good for him.

So, the photos.

Me in front of the 4-person plane (so tiny!).

Erik while we were loading up.

The instructor was going through pre-flight stuff while I was so responsibly getting my photo taken.

The feeling of being in the air is indescribable (at least by me).  It was so peaceful up there.

We flew at sunset, which was perfect.

SFO
Doesn't this look like one of the sentry robots from the Matrix?

Me flying without the instructor's help.  Watch out for hills!!

Downtown SF

Golden Gate Park

Focusing.  You can see the Golden Gate Bridge in the background to the left.

Golden Gate Bridge

Alcatraz at 2,000 ft.  I was surprised at how built up it was.  Not sure why that was surprising...

SF

Getting ready to land

We made it!

I am SO SO THANKFUL for this experience.  I'm thankful for having the money to be able to swing the lessons and thankful for my "just do it" perspective.  I think that one thing my father's early passing taught me is that we never truly know when our time is going to come so we should live each day to its absolute fullest.  Sure, I probably should have been studying and sure, we probably should be saving our money for a new home, but you know what? I wouldn't take that hour back for anything.  I flew a plane.  Flew it.  By myself (for some of the time).  I'm so happy that I put this on my 30B30 list because I'm not sure I could have justified it otherwise, which is also silly.  I want to go up again sometime (maybe not very soon because I do need to start focusing on passing the California bar exam).  I think I may actually pursue my pilot's license, or at the very least, take a few more lessons and see what I think since they will count towards the license anyway.  It was a little difficult to keep up with all the gauges and radio communications, but I'm sure that gets easier with practice.

At any rate, I'm going to check this one off the list and consider myself a badass for at least a little while.  I think I've earned the basking in my own glory for at least a week. :)  I'm sure Erik will get annoyed with me soon and then I'll come back to earth again.  In the meantime, I have a new happy place -- a feeling of weightlessness and floating on air.

Scavenger Hunt: Lincoln Center

Okay, every time I see "Lincoln Center", I say it in my head in either Heidi Klum's voice or Tim Gunn's.  Yes, I think that means that I've seen one too many episodes of Project Runway.  Anyway, when I lived in NYC in summer of 2009, I walked past the construction site of the new and improved Lincoln Center (it was originally started after much lobbying by Robert Moses in 1959). (Ch. 162)  Around the time that the Lincoln Center was first being thought about, West Side Story debuted in 1957 about the Puerto Rican immigrants who were moving in large numbers to the West 60s known as "San Juan Hill". (Ch. 162)  Side note: What's crazy to me is that the 60s were considered way out there and a bad and "shabby" neighborhood and now, there are in the "safe zone".  As in, I would walk alone late at night there.  Apparently, despite the upper middle class folk moving up there in the 1910s, the Great Depression changed that.

A mere 4 years after West Side Story debuted on Broadway, when the movie came out, the entire area had been cleared out in anticipation of a rehabilitation project. (Ch. 162) Like I mentioned above, President Eisenhower broke ground in 1959.  The project displaced 7,000 people and did succeed in revitalizing the neighborhood.  It's now the largest performing arts venue in the country. (Ch. 162)

View from the front.  The architect added a cool function - on each of the rises of steps is the schedule of performances.

So, I got to see Fashion Week from the outside.  I looked for famous people but I didn't see any.  That being said, I probably wouldn't recognize them anyway...

This dude's shoes are something.

She was being photographed... maybe famous?

Division of Household Chores

E and I have lived together a sum total of a little over 2.5 years (obviously this is subtracting the year we lived apart).  Before we lived long distance from each other and really before we moved to Boston (and I was a stay-at-home wife for a month and 1/2), Erik and I were in a really great groove.  Sundays were chore days and we each had our own tasks.  My preference would have been chores first thing Saturday morning so we could enjoy the clean apartment for the rest of the weekend but marriage is about compromising.  In contrast to my point of view, E's POV is that he has 2 days to do it so he'll stretch it out the entire weekend. This has been the subject of many fights and I assume it will continue to be.  He also does not like doing any chores on Fridays (but who can really blame him for that one).  Because I find cleaning cathartic (and honestly waaay better than bar study more recently), I end up with more chores and although this isn't completely equitable, I'm okay with that.

The biggest hurdle to overcome when dividing up housework is not getting into the nagging wife or "mother" role or, in the resister's case, the "petulant child" role.  It kills any romance. Seriously.  When we first moved in together, there was definitely an adjustment period.  I'm very organized and clean by nature—Erik is not necessary messy but more just doesn't see things or prefers to do other things with his time (in grad school, that was working in the lab).  The odd thing is that he prefers it to be clean but just needs help seeing the things that need to be straightened up.  At the beginning, before we sat down and divvied the chore list up, I would get angry at him and he would be, like, "it looks fine to me!" So, we talked about it and came up with a list of chores that we could each do every weekend (sometimes pushing things off if grad school was too insane).  Fortunately, a lot of the things I really disliked Erik would do and vice-versa.  Erik also told me that he really likes lists.  Rather than me tell him what I wanted to do, he would rather I put it in list form and just hand it to him.  Made him feel better about getting nagged, I guess. :) 

So, every weekend, I would make a list of everything that needed to get done that weekend with two columns for him and me.  Recently, and through some pinspiration (credit: keight, I totally stole this word from her because it's amazing) having to do with calendars and menus in frames, I came up with a similar idea for our chore list.  Our daily and weekend chores have little variation so I opened up Word, made these puppies and then put them into document frames we had lying around:

The font that I used was Zapfino.  I downloaded it ages ago from a free font website to make our honeymoon album.  Thought the font would bring some good vibes to the chores.

I put them up in the kitchen next to our cork board (used for coupons, apt. notices, etc.).  Also, this way they are in a visible place but aren't glaringly obvious for when we eventually make new friends and then invite them over. 
Side note: I've had that poster on the left since I was 11 years old.  I'm still impressed with my 11 year old self.

I know they are rather plain jane but I wanted to do something quick and dirty.  I kind of like the simplicity of them.  And besides, it makes the chores easier to read!  As you can tell from the photos, we color-coded them (pink and blue—how typical).  Since I'm the family "manager", I take care of assigning chores on a daily basis (usually the night before).  These have saved me a bunch of time so far and are more environmentally friendly that using a notepad every time!

Anyway, I'm sure all of you are wondering what Erik thought of all this.  I, frankly, was really concerned that he would be offended and feel like I was treating him like a child with a "chore list" available for the world (okay, our guests) to see.  I broached the subject very carefully with the ominous, "I made something today, and I'm not sure what you are going to think about it..."  Yeah, I know how to bring things up well, right?  His immediate reaction was, "We need to pin this!"  Isn't that cute?!  I was so relieved.  I think this is better for both of us for many reasons, not the least of which is staying organized and seeing what the other person is doing.  These two chore lists also are helping us more effectively communicate and run our little household.  So, yeah, yay us! :)  I should also note that Erik has been awesome the last month while I've been studying for the bar.  I study during the weekends too and had been getting stressed about the chores (hence this craft project).  Last weekend, he ended up doing a lot of the chores on my list (which he could clearly see thanks to our new set up), which was a huge relief.  I guess I'll keep him around for awhile.

Monte Bello Open Space Preserve

Three weeks after our hike in the Russian Ridge Open Space Preserve, we decided to up the ante and do a 4.5 trail run.  Wow.  I'm pretty sure I messed up my back so much that I had to see a chiropractor stat.  We survived and there weren't many photos to show for it.  I hope to go back because we only did 4.5 miles of the 6.7 mile loop.

Now, Monte Bello Open Space Preserve (#48/60) in the Santa Cruz Mountains (Note: photos are limited because we were running it):

Me with my new car! The car fits our new outdoorsy lifestyle. lol

I should mention that this hiking location is a mere 25 minutes from my work.  In fact, it's 25 minutes south on the same road my firm is located.

We are so lucky.

The strange thing about the hikes we've been on here is that they are mostly fire roads.  Very different from the hiking I had done before in Maine.

And that was Monte Bello Open Space Preserve.

The whole concept of an "open space preserve" is a little weird for us.  According to their website, there are 26 open space preserves in the Bay Area.  Apparently, these were all made in the early 1970's via a voter initiative.

Scavenger Hunt: Stadt Huis & Fraunces Tavern

So... several months later, I'm finally getting back to blogging about my scavenger hunt adventures in NYC.  Miss them? To be honest, it's been hard to even think about writing these.  I missed NYC so much (until recently but more on that later) and it was actually painful to look at the photos.  After the holidays, I have emerged happier about where I live and the fact that most of my family/ friends are buried in snow right now when I got a tan hiking this past weekend contributes to that happiness.

Therefore, I bring you Fridays in NYC.  My goal is to start having an NYC adventure for you (and me) on Friday mornings.  I think this will work well for two reasons: 1) Posting once a week seems like a reasonable and doable goal and 2) Thursday nights I get the tv/ living room because of Project Runway, Grey's and Private Practice, which means I also have that time to blog without being interrupted.  Now, this may be disrupted for a few weeks close to the bar exam for obvious reasons but I hope to get back into it even with getting back to work.  I have a long way to go to catch up on this series of posts.  I've blogged about 64 of the 182 chapters.  So maybe if I post about 2+ chapters each week, I'll be done by 2013! LOL.

As you may remember, when Hurricane Irene was threatening NYC, I rushed downtown to the financial district to make sure I saw anything should the entire area flood, get cornered off and then be covered in mud when the surge eventually subsided.  These sites are from that adventure.

First up, Stadt Huis (Ch. 5).

Remnants of the excavation. 18th Century cistern.

 In 1647, Peter Stuyvesant arrived in New Amsterdam and led the town single-mindedly (curfew, second sermons on Sundays, penalties for serving beer on the Sabbath...) (Ch. 5). New Amsterdam, under Peter, became the first legally charted city in America, which had the practical effect of limiting Peter's control by establishing a council of alderman, chief magistrates and sheriff and district attorney. (Ch. 5) Of course, they were appointed by him so... At any rate, they met in a tavern on Pearl Street, which was renamed Stadt Huis (City Hall). (Ch. 5) Sometime during the next 330 years, the site became in disrepair and in 1979, when the lot was being developed for a skyscraper, NYC mandated an archaeological excavation. (Ch. 5) All that remains of the "beginnings of the political life" of NYC is an outline in yellow brick to mark where the Stadt Huis would have been. How many people do you think walk over this every day and have no idea what it is?

View from street.

Fast forward, 100 years later and down and across the street to Fraunces Tavern (Ch. 17).  After the successful conclusion of the American Revolution, Washington "held a banquet to honor his officers and say farewell". (Ch. 17)  He thought this would be his last time in NYC.  Anyway, during his "final" trip to NYC he used Fraunces Tavern as his home base and the proprietor of the establishment would eventually become Washington's personal steward. (Ch. 17)

Fraunces Tavern is still a working tavern with a museum on its upper floors.

Have you heard of the Sons of the Revolution? I hadn't. It's for the male lineal descendants of any one who actually assisted in the American Revolution.

Martha, You Are One Crazy Lady

I'm not sure where in the world I found this recipe.  I was going to blame my friend CR, but she didn't pin it on one of her boards.  So I guess the only person I can blame is myself.  Do NOT attempt this recipe unless you have a lot of time on your hands.  Seriously, I was up cooking until 11:30pm and ended up not being able to cook my other planned meal for the week (Roasted Broccoli and Cauliflower Soup).  That one may be from CR, but I'm not going to go to Pinterest to find out for sure right now.

In case you didn't click on the link, the recipe is for a White Bean and Vegetable Stew.  Sounds easy and not too time intensive, right? WRONG.  First off, I will never commit to a MS recipe without reading the entire recipe first.  The ingredient list looked easy enough (minus the radicchio - had to google it and the baby artichokes - just went with the big 'uns since Safeway didn't carry the babies).  But the step by step instructions included some tidbits of pure insanity.

Ingredients:

• 12 ounces (1 3/4 cups) dried cannellini, or white beans
• 1 tablespoon whole black peppercorns
• 2 dried bay leaves
• 1 small onion (about 4 ounces), thickly sliced
• 1 tablespoon salt, plus more to taste
• 2 lemons
• 12 (about 1 3/4 pounds) baby artichokes
• 1 bunch (4 cups loosely packed leaves) fresh basil
• 6 tablespoons olive oil
• 4 large leeks, white and light-green parts only
• 2 teaspoons minced (from 2 large cloves) garlic
• 1/4 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper, plus more to taste
• 1 cup dry white wine
• 3 (about 1 pound) radicchio
• I should note that I added chicken sausage in an artichoke and garlic flavor.  Erik needs some meat in his meals so I thought this would be nice way to add it in while keeping with the flavor profile.  I sliced it into thin circles.

Directions:

1. Pick over beans, discarding any stones or broken beans (Where is Martha getting her beans?!), and rinse. Place in a large saucepan, cover with cold water by 2 inches, and bring to a strong boil. Remove from heat, and let stand 1 hour, covered. (Alternatively, beans can be placed in a bowl, covered with 2 inches of cold water, and soaked overnight, or alternatively, you could buy canned beans and chicken stock and save yourself the next 2 hours of prep).)
2. Drain beans, place them in the saucepan, and add enough cold water to cover by 2 inches. Tie peppercorns in a small piece of cheesecloth, and add to beans along with bay leaves and onion slices. Return the mixture to heat, bring to a boil, and reduce heat to medium low. Simmer until beans are very tender, 35 to 40 minutes, adding 1 teaspoon salt about 10 minutes before beans are finished cooking. Remove from heat, set aside, and let beans cool in their liquid. (Why?!!?! Needless to say, I did not do this.  In fact, I just dumped them into the soup as soon as they were soft.) They can be cooked and refrigerated in their liquid up to 2 days in advance. (Now you tell us!)  This is also the point where I browned the sausage.  The chicken sausage is technically cooked but I find that browning it in a skillet gives it a nice caramelized taste and a good texture for stew.
3. Meanwhile, fill a large bowl with cold water. Cut lemons in half, squeeze juice into water, and add lemon halves. Trim about 1/2 inch from tips of artichokes, and pull off tough outer leaves. Trim stems to 1/2 inch, and trim off dark green outer layer of stem. Slice artichokes in half lengthwise if small or in quarters if large. Use a small sharp knife to remove the purple choke from artichokes -- if the choke is not purple, it is not necessary to remove it. Place prepared artichokes in the bowl of lemon water. Set aside. (Nothing offensive here.)
4. Remove basil leaves from stems, discard stems, and wash leaves thoroughly. Drain and lay leaves out on paper towels, blotting away as much water as possible. Place basil in the bowl of a food processor, add 4 tablespoons olive oil, and process until smooth, about 2 minutes. Transfer puree to a small bowl, cover immediately with plastic wrap to prevent discoloration, and refrigerate until needed. (I skipped this step entirely.  I just used a basil puree from the squeeze tube at the grocery store.  Seriously, those squeeze tubes are life savers sometimes.  We use them in limited circumstances for those items that we use every now and then, but if we bought these things fresh, they would go bad before they were entirely used.  We use them for basil, cilantro and ginger.)
5. Cut leeks into 1/2-inch rounds, and place in a large bowl of cold water. Let sit for 5 to 10 minutes to rid them of any dirt and sand. Lift out of the water, and drain in a colander. (Do NOT do this.  The best way to clean leeks is to cut off the white bottom and then make a bisecting cut lengthwise.  Then you clean each layer individually and then cut up.  Sounds more time consuming, but this was just terrible and a waste of water and a clean bowl!)
6. Heat remaining 2 tablespoons olive oil in a Dutch oven or large saucepan over medium heat. Add leeks, garlic, 1 teaspoon salt, and 1/8 teaspoon pepper, and cook until fragrant and tender, stirring frequently, about 10 minutes. Drain artichokes, discarding the liquid and lemons (What?!!? I'm throwing away two whole lemons!?!  Those suckers are expensive! What the heck! If I had known this, I would have use one of those pre-squeezed lemon juice concentrate things (another way Erik and I cheat -- mostly because citrus is rather expensive right now)), and add to leeks along with wine. Cover, and cook until artichokes begin to become tender, about 15 minutes. Uncover, and cook until liquid evaporates and artichokes are tender, about 5 minutes more.
7. Meanwhile, cut radicchio heads into 1-inch wedges without removing the core; it will hold the leaves together. (You should go ahead and cut into thin strips.  It'll be easier to eat with a spoon later.) Drain cooked beans, reserving cooking liquid. Remove and discard bay leaves, onion slices, and peppercorns. (Again, I'm wasting the onions?!  Also, looking at the cooked bean mixture, it would have been a HUGE pain in the ass to sift out the onions.  I just added the whole kit and kaboodle to the leeks and artichokes.  Tastes fine and is not as wasteful. This is also the point where I added the sausage.)  Add beans, 2 cups of the cooking liquid, remaining 1 teaspoon salt, and remaining 1/8 teaspoon pepper to leeks and artichokes. Cook until beans are heated through and liquid has thickened, about 15 minutes. Stir in radicchio wedges, and cook until wilted, about 5 minutes. Adjust seasoning with salt and pepper, if necessary. Stir in 3 tablespoons of the basil puree (or the basil from a tube). Serve immediately with the remaining basil puree on the side (or don't because you didn't make it.)

So, yes, this took seemingly forever for a seemingly easy soup.  The initial taste though? Fabulous.  It had to just be a taste because I wasn't going to have ANOTHER meal (Erik make skirt steak tonight) at 11pm.  I put it right into tupperwares.  We got 7 meals out of this recipe.  I think my portions were a little heavy handed, but I'll adjust for me.  They were probably just right for E.  

Oh, I should also note, that I really paid no mind to the salt and pepper suggested amounts.  Since I was adding the sausage, I wasn't sure how it would go and I'm really salt intolerant.  I would like to think of ways to make this a slowcooker meal or other ways to cut down on prep/cooking time.  Maybe jarred artichoke hearts? Canned beans would probably be best.  Anyway, the end result was fabulous.  Erik got asked a bunch of questions about it at work the next day.  And the homemaker in me was pretty proud. :)  That being said, I want to make it again; however, it may just be more than I can do right now.

So, We Decided We Are Going To Be Outdoorsy

I'll preface this by saying that it took us almost 4 months to make it into the city of San Francisco (we only live 45 minutes away).  When we moved here, we were amazed at all the outdoorsy things to do on the weekend.  Hiking, wineries, beaches . . .  So that's where we were and, for the most part, are focusing our free time—that and getting our apartment in order (almost there!).

Anyway, when we moved here, we literally looked at each other, shrugged and said "Let's be outdoorsy."  We decided to be the kind of yuppy outdoorsy people that "hike" in sneakers and J. Crew shorts and go for a wine tasting beforehand. Oh well.

Anyway, I present our first hiking excursion on October 8, 2011: Russian Ridge Open Space Preserve (Hike #53/60).  Some vitals: Easy 3.6 mile loop trail in the Santa Cruz Mountains.

There were deer at our trail head.

The sky is ridiculously blue where we live.  This photo is no exaggeration.

There was a random bench on the trail.  You can kind of read it in the photo, but here's what it says: "There is great peace in this natural beauty... We must all help to preserve it."

View from the ridgeline. You can see the fog starting to roll in.

There was a short section of the hike that took us through an oak forest.

More brown grass and trees.  In the spring, this hike is supposed to be THE place to go to see wild flowers.

You can really see the fog rolling in on the right.

It almost looked like we were in an airplane.

One of my favorite photos from the hike.

Erik was sneaky and got a photo of me.  Not sure why there's a black box on the top...

And that, my friends, was Russian Ridge Open Space Preserve.

More Kiva Giving and Real Life Volunteering (#19)

Yes, I'm getting caught up!  I've been working on my 30 Before 30 behind the scenes and now I'm sharing with all of you.

I've been staying true to my goal of every time my Kiva loans get repaid to pay it forward to other people in need.  Since Erik and I have been thinking about the logistics of buying a home and saving for said home (while trying to get out of debt -- grad school for 8 years combined + living long distance for a year in two expensive cities will do that), I've decided to start helping people with their housing needs.  Meet my new Kiva borrowers:

Chimeddorj Chadraabal from Mongolia

"Mr. Chimeddorj, 27, is a fireman in the security service of the airport in Ulaanbaatar, the capital city of Mongolia. He has been in his job for five years, and his monthly salary usually does not meet his family's necessities. He is unmarried and lives with his father and his two younger sisters.

They live in a house that was built in early part of 1970. Lately it has became old and difficult to live in because it has been damaged in its all parts such as the roof, walls and internal decoration. He is planning to make insulation in its wall at first due to the cold and heat loss during the wintertime. It is important to warm his house and to reduce further smoky coal usage. Also, he will buy an electric furnace for his house heating. According to his plan, the smoky coal usage of his family will be stopped after these renovations at his home.

The loan he is taking will be used to purchase the building materials to make adjustments to his house and purchase the electric furnace for smokeless heating."

Haneen Abu Hableh from Palestine
"Haneen is a 26-year-old young woman. She is married and a mother for one son and two daughters. Her husband is a blacksmith with low income. Haneen wants to purchase new home furniture such as bedroom furniture for her children, living room seats, dinning room furniture, etc. to offer to her family their needs for furniture to live in better and comfortable home conditions. Haneen needs to take a loan from FATEN for 2,000 USD since her husband's low income isn't enough to cover all these purchases. When Haneen gets the loan, she will be able to purchase all the family needs for furniture, so she will satisfy her family needs and offer to them better home living conditions."

Hannen was not photographed (but her husband was) because she is a conservative woman.  In fact, all the women I was looking at to invest in were all conservative and their husbands were photographed instead.

And, so you all don't think I'm just going to donate my way through my 30 charitable acts, Erik and I participated in a food sort at Second Harvest Food Bank through my firm.  It's actually pretty cool to work for a place that organizes group volunteering on "school nights".  It was fun to hang out with my colleagues and "do good". We made bags of food for senior citizens.  It's sad to think that this may have been their only groceries for the week.  And quality control? Not really existent.  When you're doing something on that scale, I can see that it could be hard.  I found 2 expired cans of food in my bags. Was I the only one looking? At any rate, we filled 1,050 bags of food for seniors in our neighborhood. Wow.  Here's a photo from the warehouse.

Us in front of all the bags we filled.

Books! (#2)

I have a confession.  I have been holding out on you guys.  I've completed 4 books since August 2011!  They are all audiobooks, but I say they count and props to me for using my unpacking/ cleaning/ home-creating/ commuting productively.  I may or may not have finished a real book, but I can't remember so it doesn't count.  I have been working on An Omnivore's Dilemma for awhile so it's unlikely.


Anyway, I present #s 4, 5, 6 and 7.  Too bad bar review books won't count toward my 30 books. . .

Great Expectations

I feel like I should have read this book, like, 10+ years ago when I was still in high school, but, alas, I did not. I enjoyed the twist towards the end about Pip's benefactor (spoiler alert).  I thoroughly enjoyed being whisked back to Victorian England, and it made me want to reread A Tale of Two Cities again.  That being said, I don't remember much about the story itself, mostly because it's been awhile and just ask Erik: I never remember books I read.  Sigh.  Should save me money when I get older at least. Also, makes me wonder whether I did, in fact, read this 10+ years ago.  No matter.  New to me this time.

Around the World in 80 Days

Again, this was a book I thoroughly enjoyed but my stupid Audible app deleted all my insightful and witty comments that I bookmarked while listening to it!  I added those comments so I could share my insights with you guys... Sigh. Anyway, it was a nice adventure that transported me away from my boxes.  It also was an interesting illustration of what you could do if money was no object.




The Feminine Mystique

The most striking thing about this book is that it could have been written in 2011 not 1963.  I feel like the same family dynamics keep re-occurring.  The one big difference is that in Betty Friedan's time, there was immense societal pressure to stay at home and excel at homemaking -- even if that wasn't where your true passion was.  I have several friends that went to college and have made the choice to stay in the home.  That's the key part though.  They chose to become stay at home moms.  I, personally, don't think I could do it.  I think I would end up alphabetizing our pantry or some other such nonsense.  I also don't think I could be at home with kids all day. But who knows, right? Anyway, back to the book.  Another really interesting thing that I hadn't thought about before was the influence of advertising on women in the home.  The guilt that women would feel about not doing enough for the family.  A new washing machine/dryer? It did not necessarily ease the burden on the wife/mother because now it meant that bed linens could be changed once a week or sometimes even more frequently.  One part of the book I found particularly offensive was Ms. Friedan comparing women in the home to holocaust victims in concentration camps.  Yes, she went there.  So offensive!  At any rate, it got a bit much at times and she seemed very preoccupied with sex in several of the chapters, but all in all, I felt like I learned something and it made me think about the choice that I might make and the choices that my friends have made.  It also made me feel like I could be more efficient with my housework.
 
A History of the World in 6 Glasses

This may be my favorite book of the 4 mentioned in this post.  From Amazon.com:

A History of the World in 6 Glasses tells the story of humanity from the Stone Age to the 21st century through the lens of beer, wine, spirits, coffee, tea, and cola. Beer was first made in the Fertile Crescent and by 3000 B.C.E. was so important to Mesopotamia and Egypt that it was used to pay wages. In ancient Greece wine became the main export of her vast seaborne trade, helping spread Greek culture abroad. Spirits such as brandy and rum fueled the Age of Exploration, fortifying seamen on long voyages and oiling the pernicious slave trade. Although coffee originated in the Arab world, it stoked revolutionary thought in Europe during the Age of Reason, when coffeehouses became centers of intellectual exchange. And hundreds of years after the Chinese began drinking tea, it became especially popular in Britain, with far-reaching effects on British foreign policy. Finally, though carbonated drinks were invented in 18th-century Europe they became a 20th-century phenomenon, and Coca-Cola in particular is the leading symbol of globalization.

It was a very cool 7 hours and 38 minutes.  I would sit in my garage and wait to hear just a little bit more.  A few tidbits (because the Audible app didn't crash this one).  Tom Standage talks about how shared glasses equal community because you can share a beverage in a way that you can't share food.  There are ways to share a cut of anything that's not entirely equitable and gives someone an undesirable portion.  I suppose the very last sips of the shared beverage would be yucky but you catch my drift.  Another thing I did not know was that originally coffee was considered a type of liquor.  He also described coffeehouses as the internet in the age of reason.  Also, back when Coca-Cola was originally invented people would combine soda (even the coca-cola flavored variety) with wine on a regular basis (starting in France).

So that's all the books for now.  I'm going to finish the Omnivore's Dilemma soon -- it's a tough read.  I feel like if you read that book and read all the articles about how terrible the food at the grocery store is for you, you would be a recluse farmer and have your garden in a biosphere so that acid rain didn't get to it (but then you would have water table concerns... oh heck, we're all screwed).  I've also recently listened to a short story by Ann Patchett, "This Is the Story of a Happy Marriage."  It was poignant and gave me some much needed prospective on divorce.  I mean that in terms of I know several people who have been through divorces in the last few years and I wish I had encountered this book sooner so I could have been a better friend to them.  Anyway, also on the agenda: In the Plex by Steven Levy, The King's Speech by Mark Logue and Billy Budd, Sailor by Herman Melville (my dad's favorite book by good ol' Herman).