10 years and 1 day.

I noticed a lot of posts of blogs and Facebook and Twitter yesterday about the tenth anniversary of September 11.  I did think about writing something, but in some ways, I feel like we, as a nation, are not defined by that day, but by the day after.

I was a senior in high school.  When Mrs. H. interrupted our floriculture class, we all knew something was up.  Ms. C.-C. returned, clearly shaken and said, "Students, the United States has been attacked in New York."  I didn't know it until that moment, but her daughter was in the armed services, and she knew in that moment, it likely meant that war was imminent.

When we left that class, the hallways were loud.  No one knew what to make of what we had seen.  In gym class, Mr. F. made us go outside to play boom bat.  (Boom bat is like baseball with all foam bats and balls.  It is the dumbest game ever.)  In a move that was rather defiant for this group of seniors, we walked off the field, walked back inside, and demanded that someone let us watch the news.  For the rest of the day, we went in and out of lessons and watching the news, even though our principal tried to tell the teachers not to let us watch tv.

I wondered then and still don't understand why he thought by not watching the news he could shield us from what was happening.  Our world was changing and closing our eyes and ears wouldn't stop it from happening.  In AP English, my favorite teacher of all time, Mr. R., canceled his lesson plan and allowed us to have an open discussion of what we were thinking and feeling.  The range of emotions was huge.  To be honest, I didn't really feel anything.  I hadn't made sense of it yet, so how could I form feelings?

We learned late in the day on September 11 that a classmate's father worked in Tower A.  She spent the morning frantically calling him, unable to get through.  It turned out that he was caught at home a few extra minutes that day and missed his train.  It still gives me goosebumps to think about that.

But, back to what I was saying about the next day.  The next day, I got up and went to school.  My parents went to work.  They did not break us.  Over time, we revisited the topic of September 11 and people were still emotional about what it meant for the future.  This year, when I learned of the death of Osama bin Laden by U.S. troops, I again didn't know what to feel.  I am no longer the 17 year old who lived September 11, 2001.  The death of the mastermind behind the attacks did cause some sense of closure, but I wondered if it would change anything.

I do not talk about feeling patriotic often.  I try to take things on from a worldly perspective and sometimes I disagree with the moves we make as a country.  However, I do recognize how lucky I am to live here.  For all of our faults, there are greater things that define us.  We are a nation that will not forget.  We are a nation that keeps going.  They did not break us.

Who loves weekends?

It is not a huge secret that I don't love my job.  It's totally tolerable, but when Friday afternoon rolls around, I find myself staring longingly out the window at weekend freedom.  Freedom, of course, is a relative term, since Matt and I have had our weekends packed full of activities from weddings to birthday parties to concerts and everything in between.  Still, I love weekends and try to savor every moment that I am not in the lab.

On Friday night, Matt and I decided to grab a quick bite before he headed out with friends.  We have a favorite Indian restaurant that is a short walk into town, but there is often a wait there and they go all out with their meals, so it is not a quick option.  We have been wanting to try another place that is right down the street (just another reason we love Northampton!), so last night was the night.  We split some Chicken Shahi Korma and Chicken Vindaloo with Garlic Naan and Whole Wheat Puri.

Indian food just never looks that appetizing, but it's so delicious!

The verdict was that this restaurant was decent, but will not be replacing our favorite place.  However, service was super fast, so it will be an option for nights that we need Indian and can't go to our usual place.

This morning, I had my usual wake-up call from a little grey furry alarm clock.

Meet Lulu!

We adopted Lulu from a local shelter almost two years ago.  She runs the show at our apartment. She is usually very sweet, cuddly, and tolerant of us constantly picking her up.  In the morning, though, she has an annoying habit of waking me up by licking my eye lids.  I have to hand it to her, it is extremely effective, and since her reflexes are much faster than mine at that hour, she can wake me up and run away before I get a chance to spray her with water or otherwise deter her from scraping my eye lids with her sandpaper tongue.  

So, I got an early start today.  I fed Lu and made myself some raspberry coffee.  I really love raspberry coffee, so as soon as I took a sip, I forgave Lulu for disrupting my slumber.

I only own mugs with penguins on them.

I threw a load of laundry in and decided to make some Pear Spiced Muffins.

These are the worst muffin tin liners ever.  They made my muffins a little wonky, but they still taste divine!

Pears are my favorite fruit and these muffins are amazing.  I hate raisins (I feel like I'm not supposed to hate them, but I really really do) so I omitted them.  I probably could have substituted some other dried fruit or added some walnuts, but I actually really like my muffins plain.  My Grammy Marge used to make me non-blueberry muffins when I was little ( I know, I know, what kind of crazy person doesn't like blueberries?), so I find muffins without adornment very comforting.

I did mention I'm not that great with pictures, right?

My plans for today include finishing up our laundry, bringing my car to my Mom's so Walter can give it a little tune-up, a quick trip to the mall, and tonight we are heading to the Amherst Brewing Company for our friend Chris's birthday.  I intend to have some fried pickles and enjoy time with some of my favorite people.  Happy weekending!

Today I am...

happy that: I'll be finished with laundry by 10am.

less than happy that: nothing!  It's the weekend!

daydreaming about: fried pickles.

Current reading:  Bossypants, by Tina Fey

Next up: Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins

Playing on the flute:  Nothing yet, but maybe I'll find some sheet music this weekend.

Resolutions, confessions, and dinner with friends.

I feel compelled to share with the class that this is my fourth attempt at blogging in the past six months.  I decided I wanted to chronicle some aspects of my life--my search for the right career, my cooking and baking endeavors, and my trials and tribulations as a research technician--but, blogs are weird.  A blog feels sort of like a diary, but you let (and encourage) other people to read it.  Um, what?  Each time I came up with a theme for a blog and began writing, I felt like it got too personal, too whiny, or just not interesting to anyone but me.  I read a lot of blogs, but recently a trip to Running Foodie made me realize what I was doing wrong.  The entry was about body image, but I realized that I have a self-talk gremlin that's a real jerk.  The gremlin was making it's way onto my blogs and making me feel worse, rather than better  The take home message from the entry about self-talk gremlins is to never say something to yourself that you wouldn't say to someone else.  And with that, I put into motion my September Resolutions.

I know it's more traditional to make resolutions at the start of the calendar year, but because my boyfriend, Matt, and many of our friends are teachers, I sometimes feel like the school year calendar is the norm for us.  And, why not make resolutions in September?  The umbrella resolution is to be more positive, enjoy the wonderful people I have in my life, and cut myself some slack.  Maybe it's because I'm a scientist and I'm trained to be as specific as possible, but I knew I also needed to make a list of specific things I wanted to change, or else it would all fall by the wayside.  They are, in no particular order.  To begin playing the flute at least two times a week.  To plan and cook dinner at least 4 times a week.  To bake something (and give most of it away) at least once a week.  To read from a book, as opposed to a blog or magazine, every day.  To chronicle my resolutions here, updating at least twice a week.  And, that's it.  I am not sure if doing these things will make me a better person, but I do think they will make me a happier person, and that is enough for me right now.

Because I read a lot of blogs, I know that many people who have blogs are talented photographers and spend a lot of time staging photos of their food or crafts or friends or whatever.  I am not one of those people.  I leave the photography stuff to my friend, April, of April Eve Images.  But, I will try to include some sort of visual representation of whatever I'm blogging about.  Today, it's a dinner we shared last night with April, her boyfriend, Will, and his roommates, Dave, and Greta.  Will lives right down the street from us and we hope to have many dinner parties like the one we had last night.

April was the chef last night and she made some really delicious risotto with asparagus, mushrooms, and peas.

Stirring away.  Look at the steam flowing from that pot!

I asked her if I could help somehow, but she had already done the bulk of the work for the risotto, including sauteing these yummy looking mushrooms...

Seriously, yum!

She said I could make the salad dressing.  These are her directions.

"Blend that shit together."  So technical.

We ate dinner by candlelight on the porch.  We were thoroughly entertained by Dave and Greta's cat, Felix, a.k.a. Fefe, who was observed smelling April's hair and using her back to do some parkour from one side of the window sill to the other.  After dinner, I brought out some Apricot Espresso Chocolate Chip cookies, with modifications from Running Foodie.  I forgot to take pictures of them, but you will have to trust me that they are the best cookies on the planet.  All in all, it was a successful night with great food and great company.  

Today I am...

happy that: it's Friday!  And that it isn't raining!

less than happy that: iTunes mysteriously deleted my favorite Regina Spektor album!

daydreaming about: getting some new shoes this weekend.

Current reading:  Bossypants, by Tina Fey

Next up: Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins

Playing on the flute:  Nothing yet, but maybe I'll find some sheet music this weekend.