Caelyn and I spent the day at the Fort Worth Zoo yesterday. For the adventure, I made a little on-the-spot to-the-zoo-and-back mix (hence the length, just about an hour and a half). If you can’t tell, I chose the songs based on their titles, not necessarily their themes. Since it’s a quick mix, it’s not really put together well by sound. I’d definitely arrange it differently if I spent time listening to how they do/don’t blend together. But I did keep like animals together, like at the zoo. (I might try, but I’m not sure I could accomplish both the sound and animal organization at once, anyway. I don’t think I could work in “Bears” sound-wise either, and Caelyn deserved for at least one of her songs to be included.)

There’s a shift too, from watching the animals to thinking like them.

And there are too many of the same artists in there. That’s a mix no-no. But what can I say? Belle & Sebastian and Caribou like animals and they come to mind quickly. (Maybe I should’ve just listened to The Milk of Human Kindness.) Anyway, sorry there’s no artwork or download option. I’m sure you’re not in this for my playlists alone, but I’m the administrator around here. (Nothing on this list is so obscure that you couldn’t find it on iTunes, if you’re interested.)

Please Do Not Feed the Animals

“The Beast and the Dragon, Adored” — Spoon
“Wolf Like Me” — TV on the Radio
“Lord Leopard” — Caribou
“Paper Tiger” — Beck
“The Fox in the Snow” — Belle & Sebastian
“Comfy in Nautica” — Panda Bear
“Weird Fishes/Arpeggi” — Radiohead
“Whalebones” — Man Man
“Funny Little Frog” — Belle & Sebastian
“The Boston Monkey” — Otis Redding
“Bees” — Caribou
“The Predatory Wasp of the Palisades Is Out to Get Us!” — Sufjan Stevens
“I’ve Got You Under My Skin” — Frank Sinatra
“Bears” — Andrew Peterson & Randall Goodgame
“A Good Flying Bird” — Guided by Voices
“I’m a Cuckoo” — Belle & Sebastian
“Side with the Seeds” — Wilco
“My Little Corner of the World” — Yo La Tengo
“Fidgeting Wildly” — Centro-matic
“I Shall Be Released” — Bob Dylan
“Jumping Fences” — Olivia Tremor Control
“Geometry of Lawns” — The Clientele
“Fireworks” — Animal Collective
“Pet Sounds” — The Beach Boys

May all your days be as zoolicious as mine.

With the return of NBC to iTunes and the dawn of HD episodes, we’ve been re-watching the last season of The Office. I’d almost forgotten how funny it is. Not the show in general, just last season, because what’s fresh on my memory are the episodes after the strike. I may be in the minority, but, I think that while those episodes were good, something was just off. I didn’t feel like we were back in sync until “Did I Stutter?” where Stanley and Michael come head-to-head.

But it really is a funny season. And it brought us some major relational shifts: Dwight & Angela broken up, Michael & Jan living together, Jim & Pam dating. I care about each of those, and I know getting involved in PB&J is the cool thing to do, so I hesitate to even mention them, but it’s hard not to when I see the way Jim looks at Pam in those first few episodes.

John Krasinski nails it! I’m not sure there’s a girl in all of America whose heart doesn’t melt when he even just thinks about Pam. Last night that look got the best of me:

Me: “I’m sure Jim & Pam will end up together, even if they break up, because this is TV and it would be cruel for the writers to do that to the fans, but do you think they’d end up together in real life?”

Chris: “Of course they’re going to end up together. You can’t build that much anticipation around two characters and not put them together.”

Me: “Yeah, but I mean in real life. Would they end up together or do you think they’re too good together or something? Too much alike? You think they’d have this great relationship until a bit of doubt crept in and ruined it or do you think it’d be smooth sailing? And if they didn’t end up together, you think they’d be able to be happy?”

Chris: “Jim & Pam in real life?”

Me: “Yeah.”

Chris: “In real life, Jim & Pam aren’t real.”

Don’t worry. I know Jim & Pam aren’t real. But I do think they represent real humanity. And I don’t know if they’ll end up together on TV or not. The Office takes some close looks at some hard human issues. That’s part of what I like about it, but I doubt they’d end in such a heartbreaking spot. I don’t know if those two would end up together in real life either, but I figure there’s a higher chance that they wouldn’t in that scenario than on the airwaves.

Nothing profound came out this conversation, just that Chris doesn’t think about TV in terms of real life and he couldn’t think of a reason why those two made-for-each-others wouldn’t get together and stay together. And I, obviously, get caught up in the reality of TV all the time and wouldn’t doubt for a second that they might not end up together just because that’s the way it happens.

With that melancholic mood in place, we settled in to watch the last two S1 episodes of Mad Men, the show we’re currently watching at night. Chris picks the nighttime show — we just finished S4 of Alias and the most recent season of The Closer. He picked Mad Men too, probably because his design buddies love it, but it’s not his usual fare. It’s a quiet drama, all relationship, the opposite of what he likes. But he says he’ll come back for the second season, which is good because I’m at least mildly interested in finding out what happens to these people.

But that’s not the point. The point is the season finale wrapped and I went to sleep with this bit on “nostalgia” curled up beside me:

In case you can’t tell, Don’s an ad man, making a pitch for a slide projector. He’s a complex man who’s taken his wife for granted and run away from his past. (The guy who leaves the room crying is in the doghouse with his wife.) Don’s pitch sounds like a pitch, but I still really like what he says about nostalgia.

Then this morning I came across this story about these two young people who really are perfect for each other and know it instantly, but when they start to doubt that happiness should so be easy, they decide to test their rightness for each other by breaking up and waiting to see if life brings them back together. Years later, they do meet again, but by that time life has taken their memories and they walk past each other forever, not realizing that every other love will never be as perfect.

It’s a well-written story, and you know what? It’s what I said could happen to Jim and Pam and got scoffed at for just last night!

Just to drive this weekend’s nostalgia theme all the way home, I also read an article on eMusic where this musician lists her favorite albums. She starts the description of one with, “You know how people who love music are always talking about how an album takes them back?” That got me thinking, because while I figure she’s probably right, I’d never imagined that that’s not true for everyone. I mean, I have albums I listen to for the mere sake of going back, but that also happens unintentionally. And with all the sensory ties to memory, it’s hard to believe music wouldn’t do that even for people who aren’t “music lovers.”

Anyway, I planned on connecting all these incidents into some cohesive thoughts on the nature of nostalgia, memory, media (TV, literature, music), and the senses. (I was gonna tie The Office into memory, maybe via personality, but really, I just wanted to talk about The Office, as if you can’t tell from Twitter.) And I was going to revise each of those points down, but Caelyn’s crying, so I guess I’m not. I’m sure I’ll be getting nostalgic later this weekend anyway, so maybe I’ll have some new thoughts that’ll make a nice tie-together post on Monday.

In the meantime, this is what you get.

But I will try to sneak away for comment responding sometime this weekend! (Thanks for all yours!) And, I’m not sure if it was a request or a threat, but here ya go, JSmo! If you make your first post something about the psychology of memory, I might not even have to finish this series.

Me, throwing another shirt on the bed: “Gaaaah!”

Chris: “What was wrong with what you had on the first time?”

Me: “Those stripes just don’t work with low-rise jeans.”

Chris: “I thought you looked great.”

Me, pulling another shirt off its hanger: “Yeah, yeah. . . . SERIOUSLY! This is ridiculous!”

Chris: “What’s wrong with that one? T-shirt and jeans?”

Me: “There are two kinds of t-shirt and jeans when it comes to women. One says, ‘Sexy and effortless.’ The other says, ‘Asexual slob.’ This right here says, ‘Welcome back to the Maury Povich show, today’s topic: Surprise! You’re married to a hermaphrodite.’”

I’ve been doing a lot of shopping lately. Kinda. I’ve been looking at a lot of clothes and shoes, trying to decide how to make the best use of my cash. Basically, I need an entire new wardrobe — right down to the skivvies. So far I’ve purchased two pairs of jeans, a pair of black pants, 2 pairs of shoes, a stripped button-down, a belt, a sweater, and two semi-dress shirts. I’ve got a black skirt from another life and a few size 10 shoes from my old 9 1/2 or 10 days. I’ve got some things that I’m hoping to get taken in. Then I’ve got t-shirts that are too big and a stack of tanks that fit perfectly, but I’ve only got 2 layering tanks, which means after 2 days I can either re-wear a layering one and be smelly or let my bra straps hang out and be trashy. (Or do laundry, but c’mon.)

I know lots of people have less. And it’s not a big deal, because I don’t get out all that much. But still. It gets to me sometimes.

The shopping gets me worked up sometimes too. I don’t mind shopping. But, really, I’m in a curious stage, walking that line between 21 and 39, frumpy mom and MILF Island. Plus, I’ve got to worry about being original/not getting boxed into my Definitive Year of Style*, while still not looking like I’m trying too hard to stay hip.

[Read more →]

Chris and I were talking the other night about our parents as grandparents. I mentioned that I thought mine have done a pretty good job of not “parenting me through parenthood.” My in-laws haven’t caused trouble either, but, to be honest, I expected my parents to have a harder time.

I’m sure my mom has wanted to jump in. She’s told me more than once that it’s time to start carrying a wooden spoon so I can “tear that baby’s hiney up” any time I want. And just last weekend I coaxed a little criticism out of her over lunch at La Madeline, where Caelyn helped herself to individual servings of Land O’ Lakes sans bread. My dad thought this was brilliant: “Would you like a little more butter, Caelyn? Katy, go get her another one!” My mom couldn’t keep the disgusted look off her face. I couldn’t help but comment, “Caelyn, your Grammi Roo’s makin’ that face because there’s no way she’d have let your mommy do what you’re doing.”

Mom straightened up in her chair, “You got that right! But I’m not the one who will have to deal with the consequences.”

True, but I figure 2 tablespoons of butter now and then can’t do any more harm than the daily ding-dongs that showed up in my lunch.

Anyway, the butter incident is actually what sparked the parents as grandparents talk. Truthfully, while I did expect restraint to be difficult for my mom, I still anticipated it because I knew that my dad would be hard-pressed to let her offer more than casual advice: “Ruth, you’ve got to let them make their own mistakes and learn from them.” And my mom would be hard-pressed to not do whatever my dad said.

(This was not my dad’s stance while I was growing up. His policy states that prevention, protection, and intervention are always the right option until a child reaches 21. At that point, if said child is benefitting from your money via higher education, you retain the right to lay down the law on the things that destroy a person’s life, the greatest of which would be smoking.)

So, even though I haven’t done a lot of things they way they would, they’ve done a good job of not letting it get to them. I’m afraid, though, that the time will come when I’ll cross a line and my mom, fearing the spiritual demise of her grandbaby, will have to say something.

I love my parents. I’m glad for their example, and I welcome their counsel and prayers. But (I’ve mentioned before) that we are very different people; we have different parenting styles too. And, while we mainly have the same values, we disagree on a few big issues. So, naturally, I plan on approaching some things differently than they did. If there really is a “line,” I figure it’ll be crossed when we get to those issues. And I figure two of the biggest stink-raisers will be sex (which I’ve written about here) and rock n’ roll (which I’ve written about here and here).

[Read more →]

Pan-Seared Ahi Tuna Sandwiches

Chris found this for me about a week ago. I’ve wanted to tell you about it, but I’ve held off, thinking I’d rather wait and show you my finished book. But, let’s face it. I’m not going to have it in my hands any time soon.

I started out thinking I’d just do 20 recipes at a time. I was entering them carefully, one by one, but by the time I’d racked up 6 complete recipes, I’d thought of lots of others that I wanted to add but didn’t have enough time to do right then. I was afraid I’d forget my inspiration, so I made entries for each of those with just the titles, thinking that I could go back and edit them later. I came up with 70-something! All of them are straight out of my head, which means to make sure I’m writing them down correctly, I’ll have to wait to write the entries until the next time I cook the item.

So it’ll be a while.

[Read more →]