Positively Positive

Les and I swung by our local Tower Records to check out the sales tonight. If you haven’t heard, Tower Records is going out of business, liquidating all their stock, and closing all their stores (maybe except for one or two). It’s a sad state of affairs. But it is an opportunity to find some unusual things for a very good deal, so we as gawkers went in to see what there was to see.

Les picked up a couple of good CD deals at 75% off, and I browsed through magazines, which were 80% off. Most of the magazines just didn’t fit my personal interests (Atlanta rap, tattoo artists, Tulsa skateboarding, Ford truck customization, etc.), but one title caught my attention -– Ode. Although I have never heard of it, I was roped in by the subtitle, “For intelligent optimists.” Honestly, I don’t count myself in the world group of exceptionally intelligent people and I struggle to maintain even a façade of optimism sometimes, but I thought, “Now, that’s [an intelligent optimist] someone I’d like to become. Maybe this magazine will show me how!”

I haven’t read through all of it yet, but I’m enjoying it so far. I think the thing that is most stimulating to me in what I’ve read is that it is truly an international magazine (yet conveniently in English, for me), with all sorts of interesting stories from around the world. Six of the 17 Letters to the Editor (my favorite section in any magazine) were from the Netherlands, and 8 were from the US, with the rest being from England, India, and Chile. Interestingly, there were no letters from Canada, making me wonder whether they're keeping up with their letter-writing reputation these days or just slacking off up there. Maybe their computers are snowed in? Three of the letters were from Portland, OR, once again reminding me that this must be one of the coolest cities in the US and why have I not been there yet?

I saw an advert in Ode for www.zaadz.com (the word for “seeds” in Dutch) and decided to check it out. It appears to be a more grown-up, intelligent, and activism-driven version of MySpace, so of course it totally peaked my interest (often on MySpace I feel like I'm one of the few people who isn't just about drinking, partying, taking internet quizzes [even though I do love them], and trying to collect as many "friends" as possible). I just started my profile today, under my now-common moniker of "It's Lisa, y'all" (which is leading me to wonder what I'll do if I ever move out of the South!). I haven't added much of anything in there, but I'm working on it. After writing up profiles for Blogger and MySpace, I have to find a quiet moment to compose if I want this one to be anything more than a cut-and-paste from the other sites. And, as you can imagine, this is a bit challenging during the holiday season. New year, new Zaadz profile?

Whew! Back in the South

We just got back from a week-long Thanksgiving break in Michigan. It was SO great to see all of our wonderful family members who lived up there and it really made me wish that they lived somewhere warmer (hint, hint, family!) so that we could live near them again. They are just some of the best people I know!

Of course, I suffered from my usual “this would never happen in the South!” culture-shock as we drove North. In Ohio, I went to step into an elevator and the man in the elevator (who did actually have the right-of-way, but I didn’t see him when I started to step in) pushed passed me without acknowledging my existence as I tried to enter the elevator before he had a chance to exit it.

In contrast, on my first day back in the office, a man who was carrying his lunchbox and a tray of cupcakes sped up to open the door into the building for me, pushed the UP button on the elevator, and let me enter the elevator first. A girl can get used to this kind of treatment, which will then prevent her from being able to live anywhere else. Manners -– something I just love about the South! Way to go, guys!

Tiny, tiny art

I’m off work today for a “mental health day” and am enjoying sleeping in, reading some stuff on the internet, and will eventually enjoy things like going outside and doing stuff (I am hoping to get a few work-hours-only cancellations in our National Parks Passport Book today).

I followed a link to this site on Wired.com and thought you folks out in the rest of the world would enjoy it if you haven’t seen it yet.

I really love people who go out and just “do art” randomly on the streets of their city and then document it (although I’m not particularly a fan of straight-up graffiti bombers with zero talent) and share it with others. This artist’s work is interesting to me because you could conceivably stumble upon it if you happened to be looking in the right place at the right time. “Hidden in plain sight,” so to speak. And the small stories these mini art works tell are both true and entertaining. Huzzah!

Speaking of chastity belts (which we weren't)...

Folks, I’m here to talk to you about the humble zipper. I just learned something about the zipper this week that I never knew. Apparently, some zippers have sliders (that’s the little thing that you pull to zip or unzip the zipper) that lock, preventing the zipper from being unzipped while the slider is in the “locked” or “down” position. No more “XYZ” situations for me!

I found out about this unexpected zipper technology while I was talking to a friend of mine at work. I had just gotten a new pair of pants and was telling her that I liked them very much, but complained that the zipper kept sliding down part-way. She asked me if the slider was in the locked position or not. “What are you talking about? Locked?” I asked. She explained that many zippers on pants have the locked/unlocked feature to save you from embarrassing situations and told me to check my own zipper slider. I did so (delicately, in the middle of her cubicle) and found that it was indeed in the up or unlocked position. Ah ha!

After I learned about this locking feature, I made sure to lock my zipper after every trip to “see a man about a horse” and had no further problems. I was so excited about my new knowledge that I told a couple of my friends about it and found that none of them had ever heard of it either. I tried to find a page that explained the technology but came up empty-handed. It seems that you either know about it or you don’t and, if you want to have it explained to you, you need to learn to just accept things on faith instead. It will not let you (or your zipper) down!

Happy, Happy, Dane, Dane!

Denmark is the happiest country in the world. The United States is the 23rd most happy, out of a total of 178 countries. Not too bad, but lower than I expected. Now I feel sad. Oops, I think we just slipped to 24! I’d better hold it together.

With fire, is how he cuts his hair

Les and I recently saw an independent film about the Shakespeare & Co Bookshop in Paris, France. The name of the movie is “Portrait of a Bookstore as an Old Man.” Although I felt like I was watching Part 2 of a movie I had never seen Part 1 of (in that it seemed like a lot of information was just thrown out there with no explanation, as if you already knew about these people, this history, this author, this artist), there were many shocking, laugh-out-loud, and tender moments. I thought, “If I were just a bit more literary, I bet I would really enjoy this movie a lot.”

So, all you avid readers and smart people out there -- check out this movie if you get the chance. I promise that you won’t be disappointed.

Beauticians, on the other hand, should probably steer clear. The 91 year old owner cuts his hair by lighting it on fire and then snuffing it out before it gets too short. I think that would be painful to watch if you were a professional. On the other hand, my friend got THE BEST eyebrow grooming from a gas grill that was a little too-much-gas/too-late-lit. Foomp! But they looked really good!

Borders Layoffs

I used to work at the Borders (the bookstore) corporate office in Ann Arbor, MI. Those of you who live in the area, work at Borders still, or used to work at Borders are well aware of the fact that about 90 people were laid off there this week. The article about the layoffs in the Detroit News was quite short, so I’ll just post it here:

Borders Group to lay off 90 staffers, mostly at Ann Arbor headquarters
Santiago Esparza / The Detroit News

Borders Group Inc. today announced the layoff of 90 workers, most from the bookstore company's headquarters in Ann Arbor. The layoffs represent about 6 percent of the workforce there, said spokeswoman Anne Roman.

The staffers can receive counseling and severance pay of 30 days of pay plus one week's pay for every year of service. Borders also will provide opportunity for these employees to meet with a professional recruitment firm.

"We have a responsibility to our employees, customers and shareholders to maintain an appropriate balance of costs relative to current and projected sales and income opportunities," Roman said. "Looking at our current trends and five-year plan, it is clear that corporate costs require adjustment at this time."

Roman said the layoffs are not related to the company announcement today it has corrected its first- quarter financial statements, posting a 31-cent loss, two cents more than announced on May 23. The error occurred in fiscal year 2005, company officials said.

There will be no layoffs at the chain's Borders and Waldenbooks stores, Roman said.

The day after it happened, I talked to one of my friends who was laid off and I got the names of other people in the company who were also laid off. Many of them were some of the best people I know and certainly people who had worked hard to make the company as good as it could be, sometimes by asking the unpopular questions or by stepping out of the “yes man” box to bring issues to the forefront. After I heard the list of the employees who got cut, it felt a little bit to me like the company was getting rid of some of its thinkers and questioners to allow itself to move forward on its current path without harassment. I also wondered who would do all the work with these people gone.

The whole situation made me really sad. The economy in all of Southeast Michigan is pretty challenged (part of the reason why we moved out of Michigan), so I know it will be difficult for my friends to find jobs if they want to continue to stay in the Ann Arbor area. Also, letting go of some of its most Borders-esque people (long time employees who really care about the employees in the stores and are trying to make the company great, rather than just profitable) seemed to signify a cultural shift for me -– out with the old and in with the new. I feel that, not only did my friends lose their jobs, but Borders as a company also lost a little bit more of what made me love it in the first place.

Obviously, business is business and publicly-traded companies need to do what they need to do to make the company profitable (something that Borders has been struggling with for quite some time). I get that. But I’m just enough of an idealist to believe that you can hire passionate people who work hard and are innovative and are thinkers and this can lead you to be successful as a company. I don’t believe that the lack of vision at Borders sits in the lower ranks of the company (where most of the cuts occurred). Instead, the upper management is desperately reacting, instead of deliberately acting.

Oh, ipod! What am I going to do with you?

I got a little ipod for Christmas (just in case you're wondering, I named it "Little Dudelo"). I wasn’t sure when I was going to use it and if I would even enjoy it. I’m not exactly the first adapter of new technology and was thinking, “What I am going to do with this thing? How am I going to find anything on here?” I could see an ipod being useful if you ride the train to work for more than 30 minutes each way or if you are on vacation and don’t want to take your CD collection or if you are moving overseas and can’t take much stuff, but I didn’t know how an ipod would fit into my life. It seemed like more trouble than it was worth. My husband, on the other hand, was THRILLED!

In the past week, however, I have really started to enjoy my ipod a lot. I work in a typical office with the typical office distractions: doors opening and closing, people talking in the open areas or on the phone in nearby cubicles, people yelling at their computers, meetings in nearby conference rooms, etc. I have found that putting my ipod on while I sit at my desk allows me to ignore all of the distractions that are not aimed at me but just happen to occur near me. It also cuts down on some of the distractions that are aimed at me because people assume I’m busy and leave me to my business when they see the earphones in.

Overall, I like the soundtrack of my life to be created by the noise of my surroundings. I’m not generally the type of person who wants to impose a soundtrack of my choosing upon my environment by wearing headphones everywhere I go. I find that I need quiet time where there’s nothing demanding my attention. I’m also a friendly, outgoing person and find that wearing headphones greatly decreases your opportunity to interact with people. But sometimes you do want to cut down on interaction or distraction and I have really enjoyed having a tool to help me do that.

The only bad side effect is my tendency to sing along to my music or do a little dance at my desk. Hopefully, my cubicle neighbors are wearing their own headphones to cut down on that distraction.

Matt Besser Does Belmont

Tonight we went to a show at Bongo Java’s After Hours Theatre, across the street from Belmont University. Les had read that Matt Besser was going to be in town on his “Woo Pig Sooie” spoken word/comedy tour. If you’re like me, you might be saying, “Who’s Matt Besser, again?” He’s the curly-haired guy from The Upright Citizen’s Brigade, Les reminded me. “Oh, that guy!”

If you’re now saying, “What’s The Upright Citizen’s Brigade?” I guess I have to say that you should just stop reading this post now and go check out the DVD. UCB is scathingly honest, completely ridiculous sketch comedy that makes me laugh, gasp, and fidget in my seat, sometimes all in one scene.

We got to the venue about 40 minutes before the show. With time to kill, we went over to Tabouli’s for a quick bite to eat. I was surprised to find pretty good Middle Eastern food at a restaurant I had never heard of. Nashville’s best kept secret? I must explore that part of town more.

We rushed through dinner to get back in time for the show, only to find that the show had sold out. The woman who seemed to be in charge said that they might do a second show, so we put our names on the waiting list and decided to walk around the surrounding neighborhoods while we waited.

We found the Belmont area charming. We had never been in this area before and really enjoyed walking and looking at houses and yards and the people out and about.

Lucky for us, there was a second show and we got in (how awesome is it that Matt Besser stayed to do two shows back to back?!). When we got up to the After Hours Theatre area, we realized why the first show had sold out so quickly . . . the venue only seats about 35 people! Very intimate!

Matt covered a range of topics during his hour-long show: religion, politics, social pressures, etc. He read letters from his grandmother to his mom that were disturbing and shocking. I could relate to a lot of things he talked about, and I found his somewhat random jumping-from-one-topic-to-another style familiar and conversational. There were sad parts and laugh-out-loud parts and audience participation parts and parts where you just nodded your head or sat and thought. He did a great job.

The show ended with all of us doing the Arkansas Razorbacks cheer: Woo Pig Sooie! Fun!

Here’s a write-up of the show to read if you’re interested. It was a really neat experience, both because of Matt Besser’s performance and because of the tiny venue we saw it happen in.

Boots and Pack

We’ve been doing quite a bit of hiking in the state parks around Tennessee, trying to enjoy the nice weather and be more active overall, and today we decided to splurge as an anniversary present to ourselves and buy hiking boots and a water backpack.

We went to REI in Brentwood and each bought a pair of Vasque hiking boots on sale (woo-hoo) and picked up a Camelback Rim Runner, too. It holds 100 ounces of water, which just about gets us through a four-hour hike if neither of us are water piggies.

Of course, we had to go and try out our new boots immediately, so we headed over to Edwin Warner Park to hike the blue trail. With our new boots, we felt much more stable on rocky areas and on mud. We also found the padded socks we bought very comfy and cozy to walk in. Best of all, we totally look like real hikers now! So outdoorsy!

Since buying our gear, we have had an opportunity to use it four or fives times so far. We really like everything we bought and are so glad we got it. Hike on!

Urban Hike #3

Yesterday was one of those days when not much was going on around town, but we felt up for adventure. We decided to create our own. Les came up with the idea of walking from our house into downtown Nashville -– about a 6-mile walk. We knew we were capable of doing it, we just didn’t know how long it would take us or how walker-friendly the route would be. I’ve always felt that you are sure to see interesting things when you walk instead of drive, so we packed our camera into my little “Mr. Friendly” backpack (I bought it in Taiwan. It looks like this, but it’s yellow instead) and headed out.



We followed the same route that we usually drove when heading to the Predators hockey games. It was kind of a warm day and, 15 minutes into the hike, I had out my bandana and my persp-towel, and was sweating like crazy. I was sure that we were going to be completely dehydrated by the time we got to downtown and started wondering, “Why are we doing this again?” which is not really a good thing to be thinking 15 minutes into your multi-hour hike. We stopped and drank big bottles of water about an hour into our walk and used the extremely air conditioned restrooms at a gas station (I mean, it was COLD in there!), which much improved my mood and outlook. We passed some things we had wanted to check out up close and took photos -– a multi-nozzle fire hydrant spigot, a set of abandoned train cars on a bridge, a big cemetery with rolling hills and interesting monuments, a cute yellow building near the power station, construction projects along our route that we had been curious about, etc. I also looked over the edge of every bridge we walked over, just because that’s something I like to do.



We also noticed things we weren’t expecting to see. There’s a house on Spence Lane that has about 40 cement animals scattered around the yard. We had seen that before, but what we hadn’t noticed was that every single animal was wearing a small pair of sunglasses in honor of the summer season. This was probably the highlight of our trip. We also realized that many of the bridges on Hermitage Avenue have people living under them, way up high in the “rafters,” where you would never see them if you were just driving by (I’ve since tried).

It took us about three hours to get into downtown, but we did dawdle along the way. We were sweaty, dirty, smelly, and just overall unappealing by the time we got there. We walked down Broadway and all the tourists looked so clean and sweet-smelling by comparison. I felt like I had just come down from the mountains into civilization. We went into one of the little ice cream shops to get water and use the bathrooms and enjoy the air conditioning, and then we strategized our next steps.

We decided to walk across the pedestrian bridge into East Nashville and see how that went. We were able to find the “cool” part of town and got some snacks at The Turnip Truck (I just love that little place!). Les got directions to Rosepepper Cantina in East Nashville. One of our vegan friends had told us that they offered healthful, quality food with lots of vegetarian (and even vegan) options. Since we were “in the neighborhood” we decided to try it out.It took us another 45 minutes to walk to the Rosepepper. You kind of go out of the neighborhoody parts of East Nashville to get there, so we wondered if we were lost. Getting lost in a car can be frustrating and inconvenient, but getting lost on foot on a multi-hour hike can make you feel like you’re going to have to sleep out here on the streets because you’re expending the same energy you need to get home. Despite my moment of doubting, our good directions didn’t fail us and we soon were sitting down (ahhhh!) and eating some delicious Mexican food. It was some of the best food we ever had and walking four hours to get it might have had something to do with that.

After dinner, we were in a hurry to get home. We had about four hours of real daylight left and, unfortunately, the area closest to our house is the worst area for pedestrians (very little shoulder by the road, no sidewalks, and hills/curves that don’t give you or cars much visibility) so we were eager to get through there when we could be well-seen. It took us about 3.5 hours to make the trip back home from Rosepepper. We had a fast pace and lots of energy after fueling up our bodies. Nonetheless, the last 15 minutes were really hard. We were tired, and it seemed like the entire last part of our hike was uphill (you also don’t notice all the hills along your route until you’re walking), including the major hill into our apartment complex. I had to do some serious motivational lectures in my head to stop from throwing a temper tantrum and insisting that Les get the car and come back for me.

We did make it home before dark and it did feel great to have walked all the way from our house to East Nashville and back. What a sense of accomplishment! Today we went out and drove our route to see how many miles we walked. Although we were extremely tired yesterday and still tired today, we were still surprised by the total –- 20 miles! This is by far the furthest we’ve ever walked! Best of all, I got 45,058 steps yesterday. A new record!

10 Years

Today is our “first” 10 year anniversary! Wow! And hooray!

Aside: We had two wedding ceremonies so we celebrate two anniversaries each year. Our first wedding was in May in Michigan and was a pretty unusual “progressive party” style of wedding, ending with a ceremony on the beach. Our second wedding was in June in Pennsylvania and was a very lovely and traditional church wedding. The great thing about this (aside from everyone getting their “dream wedding”), is that if we forget our May anniversary, there’s always our June anniversary.

Time has really flown by and we can’t believe we’ve already been married 10 years. Les was so cute and was telling everyone all about it at work, even customers. What a romantic!

Here’s to another 40 years together!

Prunes, the REAL Musical Fruit

I know this is kind of weird, but I think I like prunes. I feel like I’m about 30 years too young for this emotion, but I’m openly admitting it nonetheless in case there’s a Youthful Prune-eaters Club out there that I can join.

One of my earliest experiences with prunes was not a particularly good one. It was at Lou Mitchell’s restaurant, in the shadow of the Sears Tower in Chicago. This is a diner of “extras” – you get piping-hot donut holes when you walk in the door, ladies get little boxes of Milk Duds as they wait in line, and yes, you even get a prune as part of every meal (maybe to balance the high-calorie diner food?). Because there’s always a line at Lou’s, we opted to sit at the counter for faster service. As soon as we sat down, the busboy put a dish of prunes in front of each of us. They were very fresh – sweet and wet, with the pits still inside. Quite hungry, and knowing that it might be a while before we got our food, I decided to see what this prune thing was all about, and ended up somewhat choking down the fleshy fruit, not at all sure that I liked the strong favor and the slippery texture.

The busboy, mistaking my desperate hunger for an enthusiasm for prunes, decided to hook me up with another prune, giving me a sweet wink as he took away my pit-dish and put another prune on the counter. I swallowed nervously and tried to smile enthusiastically, but did take my time getting around to prune #2, lest a prune #3 not be far behind.

So, it’s surprising that now I’m eating at least a serving of 7 prunes every day after dinner. I may have been roped in by the clever advertising on the package – they are not called “prunes” (except in very small print) but rather “dried plums,” which sounds much more appealing. The packaging also talks a lot about all the great nutritional elements of a prune (other than just the fiber that old people love them for) and it’s pretty convincing. In addition, the mini prunes I eat are more like big raisins than the wet, slimy lump I had at Lou Mitchell’s years ago, though the flavor is the same.

Try a prune out and see what you think. I’ll let you know when I start drinking any of those powered fiber mixers old folks are always advertising on TV. Then you can really start to worry about my premature aging.

A Saturday in Nashville / Urban Hike #2

Today was a pretty fun day of diverse activities. We swung by the Ryman to pick up tickets for the Erasure acoustic show tonight – something we had been meaning to do, but just hadn’t managed to actually accomplish. They still had tickets left in the balcony (they are only playing a few dates in the US and not any other dates close to us, so we weren’t sure), so we snagged those and then headed out to kill time before the show.

Les had read that there was a local art festival in Centennial Park, so we went to check it out. After many years of attending and fighting crowds at the huge Ann Arbor Art Festival, it was actually a breath of fresh air to not only have fewer artists to look at, but also to have fewer crowds to squeeze through. And the quality of art was just as good!

One of our favorite artists was the couple Lucius & Lenda DuBose. Lucius has some fabulous bird prints that we were immediately drawn to, but they are also wonderful people who we enjoyed just chatting to for 20 minutes about birding, art, and print-making. We hope to see them again in the fall at the bigger Nashville Art Festival. We want to buy one of their prints for Les’s mom, but we need her here to help pick it out.

We did buy a gorgeous wood cutting-board after our onion-flavored watermelon fiasco of a week ago (see Signs of Summer post), but managed to mostly just really enjoy walking around without consuming too much.

To further our urban hiking experiences, we decided to walk from Sitar Indian Restaurant in the Vandy area to the Ryman Auditorium downtown. It’s a little over a mile and half and probably about 20 blocks. It doesn’t sound very far when you say it that way, but it seems far when you’re driving it because you’re going from one side of town to the other. It definitely seems even further when you’re walking it because you get out of the city, over the highway, and you feel like you’re in a land between two lands. The walk there was fine and interesting and enjoyable, but the walk back after the concert was quite rainy and Les couldn’t see a thing through his splattered glasses. I kept saying, “Hey, we’re creating a memory here!” but I was seriously regretting our decision to walk to the show, especially as our clothes got wetter and wetter and heavier and heavier and it seemed like the entire return walk was uphill. We thought about taking a taxi, but we couldn’t remember whether the roof light was on or off if it was available (I now know that if the number light is lit up, the taxi is available; if the top light is off, the taxi is in use) so we just trudged on.

When we finally got to our car, we felt a great sense of accomplishment, but decided that next time we would definitely take an umbrella at least . . . or drive.

My Erasure “5 Things” are:

1. The songs translated surprisingly well into acoustic, countrified versions. I didn’t know many of the songs, but Les (who did know most of the songs) was impressed with how good they sounded as country songs.

2. The crowd was wildly enthusiastic. For once, I felt like I could sit back and not clap at all and still be assured that there would be multiple encores.

3. The balcony is THE place to sit in the Ryman – great view, more elbow room, great sound.

4. Andy Bell said that he was so happy to be performing that he just had to lick the stage. He did, and told the crowd that it tasted just like strawberries. He’s darling!

5. They ended with Respect, which got everyone up and dancing and singing along very dramatically. This music just brings emotive singing-along right out of you!

TMBG

They Might Be Giants came to town! We just had to go! Les has never seen them live except for an in-store performance at Borders, and I haven’t seen them live since New Year’s Eve 1992 (I think – it’s so long ago, now).

They were originally going to be at City Hall, which is a venue we’ve wanted to go to for a while, but then they changed the venue at the last minute to Exit/In, a smaller club that we saw Sharon Jones at and like quite well.

We got to the club and queued up outside in a sizeable line of people who appeared to have never queued up before (there were two lines for apparently no reason). When we got to the door, we found out that I needed ID to get in, even though – I assure you – I definitely appear to be over 21 and our tickets said nothing about ID being required. We rushed back to our car, drove home, got my ID, searched for parking, and got back to the club in time to see the show, though we did miss the opening band and heard he was great. I am yet again SO thankful for living in such close proximity to the city! If that had happened in Michigan, when we lived an hour from everything, we would have either skipped the show, snuck in, or I would have gotten to wait in the car. Yay, Nashville!

The show was great! TMBG are so clever and energetic and wonderful! We had a fabulous time!
A few years ago, when Les and I were going to 2 to 4 shows a week, we devised a system to boil down our show experiences and document them so that we would walk away with specific memories from each show. It’s just called our “5 Things” list (obviously, it’s more about documenting things than selling our system to the public through clever naming and marketing!).

My They Might Be Giants 5 Things are:

1. A lot of their songs were faster, more upbeat, rockier takes on the album versions. At times I thought I was at a punk show. Rock on!


2. They had a confetti cannon for one song. How awesome is that?


3. The audience was “old” – for once I felt like a young person at 32.


4. I asked for and got the set list from the sound guy. It’s my first set list ever, and even though it’s not the band’s set list, it still had interesting drawing on it and was cool.


5. They played a song called “Fingertips,” which is just a bunch of short snippets from never-written songs. It’s a weird song and not exactly one that would be easy to play live, so I was thrilled to hear it.

Urban Hiking

As many of you who have read my blog know, I have a step-counter and am a little bit obsessed with “getting steps” (10,000 at least) every day. I usually get around 5,000 steps at work, leaving me with another 5,000 steps to get after I arrive at home. Usually, that’s not too much of a problem, but if I arrive home with fewer than 5,000 steps, it can be challenging to get all those steps just walking around our apartment complex.

Yesterday, I arrived home with about 2,800 steps -- a new low for me. Getting up to 10,000 required an intervention, not just a little additional effort. Les, who has become committed to getting me 10,000 steps every day (come hell or high water), suggested a small “urban hike” to make up my deficit. “Let’s walk to our Post Office and back,” he said. Because this is exactly the type of adventure that strikes my fancy, I was chomping at the bit to head out.

Our Post Office is probably about a mile and a half away from us. There are no sidewalks where we live. We have to walk through a construction area that doesn’t have much of a shoulder for a short part, but the rest of our route is either off of the main road or on a road that has a very generous shoulder. We kind of walk past my office on our route and, since I have often wondered if I could walk to work, I was interested to see how long it took us to walk to the Post Office and how dangerous it was to be a pedestrian in a non-pedestrian-friendly area.

It took us about 45 minutes to make the walk each way. This was because we kept stopping to check out things we had never noticed when driving this same route. It’s amazing how much you see when you’re moving at a slow pace: turtles swimming in a pond, baby geese and their parents, old computer monitors dumped in the bushes, a collection of beer bottles in the woods, a parking lot that is easy-in/how-do-I-get-out, unusual businesses you’ve never heard of, weird flowers and trees, and even interesting-looking people encapsulated in their cars driving by.

You also never notice the hills when you’re driving in your car. There’s one killer hill that is long and gradual and I was convinced that we would never make it to the top. But we did, and then there we were . . . at the Post Office.

I have to say that I felt a great sense of accomplishment after we did this walk. I told a lot of people about it and took pride in their looks of, “What on earth were you thinking? Who walks on streets?!” Although it’s obviously much more productive to drive from Point A to Point B, it’s interesting to find out what is within walking distance of your house and what it is like to walk somewhere instead of driving there, the world blurring by your car windows.

Save gas – try walking somewhere.

Living a Lie

At the last Predators home playoff game, every attendee received a bunch of plastic strips to wave around in the air during the game. Half way through the first period, the announcer said (and it was written on the jumbotron, too), “Everyone, wave your pompons!” “Did he just say ‘pomPON’?” I asked Les, incredulously. Les, who was watching players skate around on the ice, gave me a grunted response, signifying that this was neither the place nor the time to ask such a ridiculous, non-hockey-related question.

So, during the first intermission, I asked the couple in front of me, “Did you hear the announcer say ‘pomPON’?” “Yes,” the woman replied, “and it’s printed in the program, too!” We both agreed that we had always thought it was “pompom” and now felt like we had possibly been living a lie for the last 30 years. As if to make us feel worse, the man added that he was familiar with the “pompon” term. His high school had a Pompon Squad, and he remembered very clearly that it was an “n” and not an “m” at the end of the word.

When I got home, I had to Google it to find out which term was really right. After all, can you really believe a hockey announcer and a hockey fan who says he remembers cheerleading squad information 15 years after the fact? Apparently you can. After looking this up online, I found this following information on a Common Errors in English website:

“To most people that fuzzy ball on the top of a knit hat and the implement wielded by a cheerleader are both “pompoms,” but to traditionalists they are “pompons,” spelled the way the French—who gave us the word—spell it. A pompom, say these purists, is only a sort of large gun. Though you’re unlikely to bother many people by falling into the common confusion, you can show off your education by observing the distinction.”

I couldn’t believe that I had been so grammatically incorrect for so many years! Next thing you know, I’ll be saying “Valentime’s Day,” “ying and yang,” “libary,” and “expresso”! Ugh!

Signs of Summer

As the weather has been getting gradually warmer here in TN, I’ve been seeing the signs of summer appearing in my everyday activities. Two weekends ago, I painted my toenails for a CD cover photo I was making about picnicking. Painting my toenails is one of the earliest signs of summer-to-be. It means that I am committing to wearing toe-less shoes at least three or four days each week so that everyone can see my awesome polish-job (“Hide it under a shoe-toe? No! I’m gonna let it shine!”). For my fake picnic set up, it was about 75 degrees out and certainly felt warm enough for a picnic outside on the as-yet-unmowed lawn. You could feel in the air that summer was coming. Yes, it was exciting!

Here are a few other signs of summer I’ve observed so far this season:

1. Last weekend we ate a watermelon. It was actually pretty good (8 out of 10 on the Larry-Lyle rating scale – my family’s standard measurement for watermelon), but we unfortunately sliced it up on a cutting board that had last had onions on it, and the onion taste managed to permeate the watermelon in parts! Oh, well!


2. I have put away my ice scraper (being from Michigan originally, I am one of the few TN residents who own a deluxe ice scraper with brush, two blades, and an extendable reach option) and gotten out my sunshade (folks, I still attest that this really does keep you car cooler).


3. Les and I are looking at lawn furniture. Sure, we only have a small balcony at our apartment, but it would be nice to sit out on it on these cool spring evenings.


4. I’m starting to wonder when the pool in our apartment complex is going to open. There have already been a few days when swimming seemed appealing.


5. We’re starting to make our list of summer festivals we want to attend in Tennessee (any ideas, please comment in my blog).


6. Les is wearing shorts and Birks everywhere except to work.


7. The outside patio at restaurants is fuller than the inside rooms.


8. It’s too hot to wear my hockey jersey to the Predators games. I have to carry it there, then put it on over my short sleeves once we get inside the arena.


9. My feet are getting too hot in regular shoes and I’m only too happy to show off my sparkly toenails in flip-flops.


10. People in my office have started wearing short pants and tank tops to work.

If summer hasn’t quite made it to you yet, be patient. It’s coming in all its glory soon!

Weight on the High Seas

I heard on the radio that the Coast Guard is taking a look at adjusting the per person weight average on smaller boats from the current 140 pounds to possibly as high as180 pounds in reaction to the American obesity epidemic. This has been brought about by a couple of ferries that capsized because (they think) there was too much weight on board and the boat became unstable. The last time the weight average was adjusted was in 1960. It’s hard to believe that the average American has gained 40 pounds in 40 years, but I suppose that a pound a year isn’t that dramatic of a weight gain . . . on a single person. It seems pretty dramatic as a national average.

Ferry operators are upset because this will change the maximum number of people allowed on the boats – one man said his load will go from 260 people to 225, for instance – and that will reduce their profits. He also complained that the weight adjustment doesn’t make sense for captains who more often take out a group of children rather than larger and heavier adults. Maybe it’s time to say good-bye to the idea of weight averages and accept the fact that things are too diverse and atypical to stay with our old system.

I may be too pragmatic, but I feel that the obvious answer here is to make a law that all charter boat operators weigh in their customers to make sure they do not go over their maximum weight, regardless of the number of people on board. Although some customers may feel uncomfortable with this, it really is for the good of all on board and has to happen. If you are afraid of getting on a scale, then charter boating is not for you.

Right now our luggage gets weighed on flights (and on small planes the flight attendants actually move larger people around to balance the weight on the plane) and there are certain sports like sky-diving and bungee jumping which have weight requirements because of the limitations of the equipment. It doesn’t seem radical that boating requires similar safety measures.

Historic Nashville

I love historic photos of places and old postcards, so when I stumbled upon this Historic Nashville website, I thought I would share the wealth with all of you. There are some interesting images and write-ups here. I know virtually nothing about historic Nashville, so even reading about who Granny White was (there is a road named after her, after all) was interesting.

What’s your favorite picture or tidbit?

How's Your Pooh-sticking?

I was scanning through the various news pages today and stumbled across this story on a real Pooh-sticks competition that is held annually in Oxfordshire. I read the books as a child and have played Pooh-sticks on a number of occasions, so I thought it was fun that someone got serious about it for charity.

This story also seems to demonstrate that you can make an event out of anything, which is comforting. I do enjoy easily entertained people (like myself).

When I mentioned this news story to my husband, he said, “You should include a link to some information about that UK band called the Pooh Sticks. Are they even still doing anything?” It appears that the Pooh Sticks have disbanded, but I’m including a link to their unofficial fan page here anyway.

Second Friday of Exploration

As part of my own March “use up that paid time off” Madness, I left work early two Fridays in a row (this time I actually made it out of the office by 1:00 p.m.) to have some fun with Les. We got a late lunch at our favorite Indian restaurant, Sitar (where I actually enjoy the non-buffet better than the buffet), and then went exploring in search of the old City Cemetery.

Les knew approximately where it was, but I had never even heard of it. We started just driving south on 4th Avenue, looking for signs of a park-like atmosphere among the industrial buildings. Suddenly, there it was! But unable to react quickly enough, we drove right by the entrance! We tried to circle the block, but ended up not being able to find a way around and found ourselves over by the Nashville Sounds stadium instead. In attempting to loop around another way, we noticed Fort Negley up on the hill. Surprised that we had never noticed it before and curious to see what it was about, we parked our car and got out and walked around.

The area seemed well-maintained and well-documented. Although it was virtually empty when we visited on this cold, gray day in March, I would imagine that it’s much more active during the summer months when droves of Civil War enthusiasts visit the South. At least there were a lot of parking spots.

From the top of the fort, we could look across the valley to the City Reservoir, yet another thing we had never noticed before, despite the fact that one of our favorite record stores – Grimey’s – sits right in its shadow. I always wondered what that “Reservoir Park” across the street from them was all about. A Nashville local landmarks page says: “Located at 1401 8th Avenue South and built between 1887 and 1889, the Reservoir is an elliptical masonry structure with a holding capacity of slightly more than 51 million gallons in two sections. In 1912, the southeast wall broke, pouring 25 million gallons toward the fair grounds. There was property damage, but no lives were lost. The gate house visible from nearby streets and highways contains the valves that control the flow of water from one side of the reservoir to the other.” You can’t get too close to it because it is surrounded by a high fence, but it was interesting to see it anyway.

Eventually, we did manage to make it back to the Nashville City Cemetery. Although it was colder and getting too late in the afternoon to really enjoy our time outside, we did a quick circuit around the area. It was kind of sad to see the state of disrepair that our oldest cemetery is currently in. A lot of headstones are broken and unreadable and the grounds seemed neglected. There were bullet holes in some of the windows and the fences around family plots were bent or missing entirely. It looked abandoned and uncared for. This is a shame considering how many famous early Nashvillians are buried there and what a part of our history this site represents. If you haven’t been there, I suggest you go and check it out before it gets any worse.

This Friday wasn’t as fun as the Friday before due to the colder weather and lack of sun, but we still stumbled upon three interesting things here in our fair city.

Cedars of Lebanon, TN

Over a year ago, a person I met on a graveyard tour of Warner Parks ("Take a walk back in time visiting the cemeteries of the Parks. Take a step into the future to see what park staff and volunteers are doing to preserve these historical treasures.") suggested that I join her and a group from Tennessee Trails on an excursion to the Cedars of Lebanon State Park, about 35 minutes East of Nashville.

The scheduling didn't work out at the time, but this Saturday Les and I ventured East to check it out for ourselves. Since I am still obsessed with "getting steps" (thanks to my hip-side step counter), I suggested that we take the five-mile trail through the woods. We started around 3:00 p.m., and I was sure that we could hike five miles in three hours, getting back to the car before the sun went down around 5:45 p.m.

The "cedars" in this state park are actually juniper trees (I looked that up on the internet -- I'm not that much of a tree-identifying genius...), but were mistaken for cedars by the first settlers in the area. Aside from a forest of juniper trees, the other interesting thing about this park is that there are a lot of limestone sinkholes throughout the area, many large enough to fall into and crack your head open. We also saw a few sinkholes that looked like they could be caves, but since we didn't have our spelunking gear with us, we stayed top-side.

The discovery of these big holes did create a sense of urgency as we considered navigating the trail post-dusk, and our first-hour exploratory attitude shifted to, “Let’s not dawdle too much!”

By 5:30 p.m., I was convinced that we were certainly never going to make it around the loop to the trailhead where we had started. It seemed like we had been walking for hours, and I was reminded of the time I walked the 8-mile loop at Kensington Park, convinced by mile 5 that I had surely walked past my parked car and was going around a second time (I hadn’t – it was just a really, really long trail). Back in the juniper forest, I was encouraged when we came out of the dead-quiet of deep wilderness and emerged on the edge of a housing development. We hiked in sight of open fields and houses for 15 minutes, before heading back into the woods. Just as I was starting to feel a little nervous (again), we saw signs for the trailhead and were back in our car by 5:55 p.m.

Overall, the Cedars of Lebanon State Park features a variety of terrain, a pretty level hiking path, and a definite sense of being far away from civilization. But we hardly saw any wildlife, which seemed odd for being so far out in the woods with nary a human in sight (new slogan for Cedars State Park: “If you hate wildlife, you’ll love our park!”). Because of the tree cover, you are rarely hiking in direct sunlight, but you don’t get much of a breeze either. We were glad to be visiting the park during a mid-70s day rather than a day with a higher temperature. We thought it could get a little hot in there during the summer months.

After hiking, we drove further down Route 231 to Murfreesboro to get dinner at The Clay Pit, an Indian restaurant we had read good things about. Although the cafeteria-style buffet is unusual (you feel like a piggy getting up in front of everyone to ask for seconds; on the plus side, there is less wasted food), the food was great and the staff made you feel very welcomed.

All in all, it was a great day!

Oblivious to Modern Technology (once again)

I was sitting at a red light the other day and happened to look up and notice that the traffic light for the cars crossing my lane was really thin. Like razor-thin. Like if-you-took-off-the-glare-shields-and-the-light-turned-sideways-you-could-barely-see-it thin. When did this happen?

Sure, I had heard the rumors about LCD lights being used in traffic lights. I had even noticed that some traffic lights appear to have flat lenses now instead of the rounded lenses I was used to. Yet in my mind, the depth of traffic lights remained the same, regardless of the type of light used. I was picturing all lights to be as thick or thicker than the light in the photo above, only to find that I am completely oblivious to modern technology once again!

On a related topic, for years I have been curious about how lights know when to change colors. Sure, some lights are obviously just on a basic timer, but what about those lights that seem to know when a car is waiting on a low-traffic road and can change in response? If you are curious like me, you need to wonder no more, because I have finally gotten around to doing the research for you! You will be happy to know that some lights have a metal-detector-type sensor buried under the pavement that can detect the metal in your car and know that someone is waiting. Of course, if you drive an all plastic car, this will be an issue. Otherwise, it works nearly flawlessly.

Next time you're sitting at a light, look up. Are you shocked by its thinness also?

Friday Afternoon Delights

I have a little extra vacation time at the end of this year (our fiscal year ends in March, oddly enough), so I've been able to take a few Fridays (or Friday afternoons) off this month, enjoy some of the warm-ish Spring weather, and spend some time hanging out with Les during weekday daylight hours.

Last Friday was a beautiful warm and sunny day, more like early May than mid-March, and I couldn’t wait to get out of the office and into the great outdoors! I left my office at 2:00 p.m. (barely “early,” but those few extra hours do count), went home and changed, and then Les and I went off in search of food (yes, I had skipped lunch to get out early). We headed to Maggiano’s Little Italy for a late lunch. It’s a chain restaurant on West End that we had heard good things about, but had also heard that it was a nightmare to get into because it was so popular. As expected, it was pretty empty at 2:30 p.m., and we were able to get in and out in less than an hour (I should say we were able to be rolled out of the restaurant an hour later, full of gnocchi with vodka sauce and roasted new potatoes), and move on to our next stop.

Being obsessed with “getting steps” like I am, the key goal for me for the day was to get my step-counter up to 10,000. I had spent most of the day at my desk (working hard so that I could leave early), so I was only at 3,000 by 2:00 p.m. We headed to Radnor Lake State Park (one of Les’s favorite walking areas because of the level terrain and the abundance of wildlife) and got moving. During our hike, we saw about 15 turtles (including two very large turtles who appeared to be mating in a small pond – racy!), a few different birds (but nothing too exciting), three muskrats, and what appeared to be a beaver (with signs of beaver activity on trees in the area). We also saw lots of cute dogs (on leashes), a few cute kids, and a variety of people walking around the lake.

Since we still had an hour of daylight 8,000 steps later, we decided to drive around the Radnor Lake area and see what we could find. We stumbled across the David Lipscomb University area, an area we had never been to before (and one where we wish we could afford to live), and got takeout from Perfect Pizza (yum!). We headed home, pizza in hand, and caught up on some of our recorded programs (we are totally digging Deep Sea Detectives on the History Channel at the moment), and both agreed that it was a perfect day thanks to good weather, good activity, good food, and quality time together.

Thinking about blogging does not a blogger make...

While there are some pursuits where thinking about something is nearly the same as actually doing it (like, philosophy, for instance, and . . . erm, okay, I can't think of anything else that really applies here), blogging is not one of those things, unfortunately for me.

As you can see from my blog, there's been very little DOING lately even though there has been a great deal of THINKING going on. Really, I swear! I think about blogging all the time as I'm driving down the road...

What's been taking my time lately? Well, for a while I could use the Olympics as an excuse. We had just gotten a DVR (think "Tivo" but with a different name, through Comcast) and we were recording every ounce of Olympic programming. Our DVR was constantly at 98% full. We were watching four hours of Olympics a night for a while there, and that was fast-forwarding through all the commercials and the boring parts of the events themselves ("Nope, no falls yet! 30 laps of speed skating to go. Keep fast-forwarding!"

Now, I'm currently addicted to Ape Escape 3 for PS2. It's my perfect kind of video game -- cute monkeys, not too hard, not many jumps to make over an abyss, etc. I'm at 51% right now, and will keep renting it with my free blockbuster coupons until I'm nearly done . . . or completely sick of it. In Ape Escape 2, I got to a part that I could not get past, and I gave it up around 75%. We'll see how far I get on this one.

But, just so all of you know, I am thinking about blogging and hope to one day soon be more than just a thinker again.

Public Art in Nashville

During the Christmas holiday, a friend visited us from Tampa, FL. He moved to Tampa about a year ago and has spent the past 12 months visiting and photographing every public art site that he can find in Tampa and the surrounding area. When he visited Nashville, he was interested in doing something similar in our lovely city. The problem was, I couldn't find a list of public art anywhere. I knew where a couple of pieces were, but did not know of a compiled list that you could work towards "checking off."

Since my friend's return to Tampa, I've been compiling my own personal list of things I want to see and do in Nashville and I revisited the public art checklist idea. I did a little research, but could only really come up with this site. While the details about each of the pieces listed are extensive, I know that there are a lot of works left off of this list. Do any Nashvillians know of a more comprehensive list that exists? If not, I'm half tempted to make up a list of my own.

Urban Explorers

Although Les tells me he has known about Urban Explorers for years (which means I knew about them at one time, too, but have managed to forget it somewhere along the way -- my brain is kind of small and doesn't have a lot of extra space, so I have to abandon unused information to make room for new details), I am just (re)discovering this interesting group of people. They break into abandoned buildings, underground passageways, and other places otherwise reserved for "authorized personnel" only, explore these forbidden areas, and often photo-document what they see.

I just spent a few moments Googling for photos of Vanderbilt University's underground tunnels, which I read about in an old article in the Nashville Scene. Although I didn't find what I was looking for, I did turn up photos from the adventures of other Urban Explorers.

I really liked the photos on this website so I thought I would share them on my blog. The pictures that had the greatest appeal to me were the ones from abandoned office spaces. I think that's because I work in a typical office and know what it should normally look like. Therefore, seeing binders all over the floor or shelves of unused supplies or a copier that hasn't been turned on in months is a strange glimpse into my own personal Bizarro World. And, being the nosey kind of person I am, my mind can't help but speculate on what I'd find in their filing cabinets or on the speed dial buttons of their phones.

It seems like it would be very eerie to walk around a building that is unused but still full of machinery, office supplies, and furniture. I would imagine that you would get a bit of a post-apocalyptic feeling, as if you were the only person left in the world.

However, potential creep-out aside, the real reason I wouldn't be a good Urban Explorer is that I'm too "goody two shoes" and too afraid of getting caught. Still, I can enjoy living vicariously.

Happy Birthday, Poe!

I just heard on NPR that today is Edgar Allen Poe's birthday. I thought, "Wow! Who knew? I should totally go home and read some Poe! I have a BA in English Lit after all -- reading Poe is what I do!"

Then I thought, "Who are you kidding? You're never going to go home and read Poe! You're going to be reading Bartimaeus instead. Poe is too depressing for bedtime reading, and you never really liked his stories that much anyway!"

Then I thought, "Seriously, who has time to keep track of the birthdays of famous dead people? I can't even keep track of my car keys!"

So, Poe, I won't be reading any of your works today, and I didn't even know it was your birthday, and I guess it doesn't even matter to me that much, but I hope it was happy.

Honorary Family Member

My husband got a new program for our iMac and, in the process of learning how some aspect of it worked, he stumbled upon this family's website. I love their videos and now would like to be an honorary member of the DiLoreto family. If you have a moment, please check out "MTV" and "Beach Dancing." I laughed and laughed. Even the grandparents are SO fun!

If you're not out of your seat while watching these home movies, you obviously don't have your volume turned up loud enough.

Shake it!

New Invention Request: Cereal Sieve

I just poured myself a bowl of cereal, emptying out the box. As I got to the bottom, it was mostly dust, with a few tidbits of real cereal. Herein lies my dilemma: If I dump the entire contents of the box into my bowl, all the cereal dust will create a sludgy effect which is really gross. If I leave the last five tablespoons in the bottom of the bag, I feel like I'm wasting cereal.

I tried to use a standard spaghetti strainer to get rid of all the dust, leaving only the bigger bits behind, but somehow the cereal dust ended up clogging up the strainer holes, and it really wasn't very effective.

Any brilliant ideas?

Series Photos

Series photos are something that I enjoy but have not created for a few years. If you looked through the personal photos of my college years, however, you would find at least three or four different photo series in my collection. My favorite is a series I did with an exclamation mark sticker I pulled off of a CD case. I have a whole roll of film of various people holding that sticker. It still makes me laugh.

I was delighted when my husband found this web page, documenting a series of over 900 photos where people are covering one eye. It reminded me of a similar series of photos I had on my wall in college . . . I had just happened to stumble across three photos in music magazines of people itching one eye, and I lined them all up together.

It looks like the blogger has his email posted at the bottom of the page, and I bet that if you took a photo of yourself covering one eye, he would post it on his blog. Pretty cool!

Bathroom Queue Ponderings

As I was standing in line for the restrooms at the end of the last Nashville Preds game, a few thoughts crossed my mind. In an effort to put a toe over the line into "too much information" land, I thought I would share those thoughts here.

1. It is great to be a woman at a sporting event. For once, the guys restroom line is as long or longer than the girls. Ha, ha!

2. Seriously, what are women doing in those stalls that it takes them so long to come out again? The mind reels. Especially since they come out of the stalls and then primp in the mirror for another five minutes. Our lines may be shorter but the time per person is extremely inefficient. Hurry up!

3. In Taiwan (where I lived for six months), they really know how to queue up for the restrooms. Each person stands in front of a specific stall door, thereby eliminating most of the line that usually bottlenecks the entrance to the restroom. It makes the line look a lot shorter to people entering the restroom, making your restroom visit less discouraging (at least initially). Queueing in front of a specific stall also eliminates those moments of indecision when two stall doors open and you're not sure which one to go for first. On the negative side of this restroom strategy, if you pick the wrong door to stand in front of it could be really annoying. I keep meaning to try and organize it sometime, but I think the people in the restroom might be totally freaked out by it. On the plus side, the line might actually get shorter as people flee from my freakiness!

I was trying to find a link to a study I once read about where "scientists" measured the amount of time women took in the restroom vs. men. It was at least twice as long for women. Instead, I found this link to a research project someone at the University of Chicago Law School was doing on men's vs. women's restrooms. Since it's topical, I thought I would include the link here.

Wax Me 16

One of my hesitancies about getting my bushy eyebrows waxed in the first place was that I worried they would be waxed unevenly, making me look like some kind of a freak (as if my own plucking was perfectly symmetrical or as if having two furry catepillars above my eyes didn't make me look like a freak!). And I must admit that I usually come home, look in the mirror, and do some additional grooming after I get them waxed. This last waxing, however, I looked in the mirror and noticed that my right eyebrow was much more arched than the other one, making me look like I was raising one eyebrow in a sarcastic manner.

This immediately took me back to my teenage years, when raising one eyebrow sarcasticly was something that happened many, many times a day. My friends and I would practice single eyebrow raising in the mirror, and see if we could raise our left eyebrows as effectively as our right ones (ambidextrous eyebrows?). I remember someone even giving me this compliment once: "You can really raise that one eyebrow really high! Wow!" Obviously, my eyebrow-lift exercises were paying off!

Of course, I fixed the left eyebrow so that it looked similarly sarcastic, thereby neutralizing the right one. And then, just for kicks, I tried to raise just one of them sarcastically. I'm not that good at it any more, but my left eyebrow is definitely the stronger of the two. Maybe some more exercises are in order. Just in case.

Waste as Art

All of us have probably seen art made out of garbage at some point in our lives (if you haven't, you might need to get out and visit a contemporary art gallery a little more often). Although it sometimes make you feel like you're being tricked by people cleverer than you into believing anything is art, a lot of garbage-as-art can really be beautiful, emotional, and overwhelming in its meaning.

One of my recently discovered trash artists is Chris Jordan. His series on consumerism and waste is really powerful. Check out his photographs here. Be sure to read his artist statements because I think they give even more meaning to the photos (as a good artist statment should!). His series on waste not only makes me even more driven to be a good recycler, but also makes me reconsider the long list of things I want to buy.