Beauty Break

Yesterday I invited a few friends over for a Beauty Break. My sister came with the beauty products she sells so that my friends and I could try them out. I made strawberry cupcakes and chocolate cupcakes for the night and served them with coffee and strawberry blooming tea. No pictures of the drinks, but I do have pictures of the cupcakes and making of. And if you have a chance this fall to spend a night with your friends eating sweets and playing around with make-up, I highly recommend you take advantage of the opportunity!

Yogurt & Book Banning

I love plain Greek yogurt. Throw in some fresh fruit and I'm good to go for breakfast, lunch or dinner. (And, apparently it's one of the Best Healthy Foods You Aren't Eating.) So when I was wandering through the grocery store one day and discovered Greek yogurt with chocolate my eyes instantly lit up! See, I also have a thing for ice cream. I try not to eat it often because it's an overload of dairy, fat and calories but... it sure is good! So when I saw Greek yogurt with chocolate I thought that maybe this could be an acceptable replacement for ice cream and bought the pack of four cartons, which is the only way it came.

I took one bite and passed it off to my mom, who took one bite and passed it off to my dad. Who loaded it up with peanut butter. And then with even more peanut butter. And after topping it off with a little more peanut butter thought it was acceptable and finished the carton. (He likes mixing peanut butter with different things after reading an article about a local Lebanese restaurant owner who makes his own--delicious, I might add--hummus for his restaurant. He is now in process of making hummus mixes--such as hummus and guacamole--after mixing hummus and peanut butter in an attempt to get his daughter to eat it.) Now we have three cartons sitting in our refrigerator, waiting to be eaten.

So, tell me your stories! Is there a food you once bought thinking it would be healthier substitute for a bad food? Was it as good as you expected or did it completely flop?

In other news, people who know me are aware that I am not a fan of banning books. Take a look at this list. I am often shocked when I look through lists of banned books to see exactly what people are banning. Some of the books banned include the only classics that actually interested me when I was assigned to read them in high school as well as other books that just confuse me. Why was The Old Man and the Sea by Hemingway banned? Could it possibly be for putting students to sleep when forced to read it?

Over the weekend the YA literary world was outraged when a man in Missouri requested that the book Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson should be banned from a school district, along with Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut and Twenty Boy Summer by Sarah Ockler. I won't go into too much detail here because others have discussed this topic much better than I could. Instead, I will direct you to Laurie Halse Anderson's blog on the topic. In this post she gives many links to some of the discussion that has taken place about the attempted banning of her book, including links to the original complaints made the man trying to ban the books.

This weekend I'm off work and I haven't been feeling well so I'm planning to spend the weekend in, drinking lots of tea and water and resting in an attempt to get better before I get really sick. This means plenty of time for reading! I'm hoping that, along with homework, I will finish reading Speak and will be able to get through at least half, if not finish, Twenty Boy Summer. Look for more on those two books in the near future!

I also feel like I should add one of the more interesting Hemingway books to my reading list for the weekend after that comment above. I do like Hemingway, just not The Old Man and the Sea.

Quotes from The Diving Pool

Quotes from The Diving Pool by Yoko Ogawa. I copied them down this morning.

"Her lips were like two maggots that never stopped wriggling, and I found myself wanting to squash them between my fingers."

- - -

"He would come down from the diving board and return to the Light House, where his muscles would warm and soften like silk floss, and then he would soak up all the things that set my nerves on edge—Naoki’s raspy voice, the scraps of food flung about by the children, my mother’s endless chattering. It seemed strange that he could be so good when life had treated him so badly: a father who ran off when he was born and a mother who had abandoned him for the bottle. I prayed desperately to be bathed in his kindness."

- - -

"I was sure that Jun would dive into only pure water, and I wanted his dive into to me to be perfect. I wanted him to enter with no splash at all.

Once we’d finished talking about that morning so many years before, we couldn’t think of anything else to say. The sound of time flowing between us became the sound of the water trickling quietly from the faucet until dawn."

- - -

I'm going to a one year old's birthday party tonight, which actually should be a lot of fun as all of my coworkers will be there. It is rumored that my former boss will be showing up and, most of all, I'm excited to see the one year old's mother (and him, of course, he's a cutie!).

But someone needs to remind me that I need to start reviewing French grammar! Tutoring starts on Tuesday and I'd like to be able to tell him that I actually do know a little bit of French!

The Diving Pool: Three Novellas, by Yoko Ogawa

I decided to take a break from studies to post a book review.



As with Hotel Iris, Ogawa highlights three quiet girls. In the title (and first) story, a high school girl obsessed with her foster brother watches him during his diving practices while looking for ways to release the frustration she feels at being the only child of parents who own an orphanage. In the second story, Pregnancy Diary, a young woman writes about her older sister's pregnancy in a diary. The final story, Dormitory, follows the story of a woman who returns to the dormitory she stayed in throughout college and befriends the manager.

Ogawa is an interesting writer because she introduces these shy, quiet characters and begins to spin a story that is somewhat disturbing. She provides her readers with great character studies. Following along with Hotel Iris, the writing itself is absolutely beautiful. Particularly in the first (and most disturbing) story, there were some gorgeous quotes. I haven't copied them down yet so I don't have any to share with you today, but maybe soon.

(Book cover taken from bn.com.)

Thursday Afternoons

One of my favorite restaurants is a small Columbian restaurant that is near my niece and nephew's school. Every Thursday, my parents volunteer at that school. (I had actually been thinking about volunteering as well and would have been placed in my niece's class, but with my work schedule I decided that I needed the time to study. Maybe next semester.)

Today, after my classes, I hopped on a bus and stopped at the restaurant. My sister recently mentioned getting a quesadilla for lunch one day and ever since I have been in the mood for one! So, today I ordered a quesadilla and an iced tea (tropical and so good!). Because it was a little chilly, I finished the meal with a hazelnut latte to warm up. Usually when I go I eat their breakfasts, which they serve all day. On the menu is a traditional Columbian breakfast as well as a wonderful array of pancakes. I'm not a pancake person but when it comes to eating at this restaurant, they are a tasty way to go! You can order pancakes plain, but why would you when you can also get them filled with many different types of fruit? One of the best pancakes on the menu is the plantain pancake which, of course, is a pancake made with plantains and covered in a type of cheese. I can't think of the name of the cheese (I'll check the menu next week) but it fits the pancake and tastes much better than it sounds. Believe me, I was skeptical at first, but I love it!

I think this will be my new Thursday routine, and it sounds much better than hanging out on campus all day (I used to spend the entire day on campus)! Go to my favorite restaurant, eat some tasty food, meet up with my parents and see my niece and nephew after school. There's also a bakery down the street and I'm thinking I might have to stop in once or twice. The pastries are all wonderful but are definitely very bad for you. But did I mention the pastries are good? And that you can smell them from down the street?

I might not be able to eat any other day of the week but let me tell you, it will be worth it!

Fall Is Here... And So Are New Beginnings

Swimming lessons began on Monday. I love these days! ... talking to my sister while my niece and nephew splash around in the pool. Afterward I stayed at my sister's for awhile to watch my niece and nephew while my sister and brother-in-law were at a business meeting. My nephew fell asleep on the way home and slept through the night. My niece and I did our homework together. When she was finished with hers we played with beads and then told stories over a dinner of Lebanese food. Once dinner was over we read another "Jack and Annie" book -- a Magic Tree House book -- before bed. I love spending time with my niece! She's a sweet, creative girl who says the cutest things. Highlight of the night: "My parents go to bed at 8:30, that's why I go to bed at 8."

Television shows are starting their new seasons. What shows are you watching? Last week The Vampire Diaries started and this week I watched the season premieres of Gossip Girl (will probably be dropping this one), Life Unexpected (I ♥ Baze), and Parenthood (I ♥ Lauren Graham).

Next week will be the premieres of Dancing With the Stars, The Event, Hawaii Five-0, Running Wilde, Bones, Grey's Anatomy and Private Practice (might be dropping this one now that my favorite character is gone). I know, I know, I watch too much TV! But hey, I have to find some way to procrastinate doing my homework, right?

Actually, I've been doing well with staying on top of my homework this semester. Maybe this is a new beginning too?

Conversations

Recent conversations with customers:

(With an older middle-aged customer who asked me out a few weeks after his son asked me out.)
Him: * sniffing the air * You smell good!

- - -

(Two separate conversations with the same customer. “Her” in the second conversation is my coworker.)

Him: What are you doing tonight?
Me: I have a friend coming over.
Him: A friend?
Me: Mm-hmm.
Him: Girl friend or boy friend?


Him: What are you doing tonight?
Her: Going home and going to bed. I have to work all weekend.
Him: And you. What about you?
Me: A friend is coming over.
Him: A friend, a friend! I’m always hearing about these friends!

- - -

Old Customer: You can see anything you’d like as long as I still have clothes on.
Me: Could you pull that on… out!?

(My coworkers had fun with that story when I told them about it.)

- - -

It's been a long weekend of work, work, work, a dinner out with the work girls, and a little bit of homework and movies mixed in. This all equals little sleep over the weekend, which is always a great way to start a new week of classes! Oh well. C'est la vie!

My niece and nephew start swimming lessons tomorrow and I'm going along to help my sister out. These are fun days, so I'm excited! At the start of a new semester with a poetry workshop (as my senior seminar!) I am full of ideas, which feels wonderful! So, things are good. In addition to that, I have a busy week of work planned. Hopefully at the end of this week I'll be ahead a few weeks ahead on my class reading. That would make life even better right now!

9/11/01

I was choir when everything started on this day nine years ago. We were preparing for a concert so we were up on the bleachers singing our hearts out. I learned about the attacks when I walked into study hall and saw it on the TV screen. I stopped in the doorway and watched the footage for a few minutes before moving to my seat.

I still remember that at that time many in my class didn't know what this meant for our country. They looked at the TV, shrugged off the news and started chatting for the rest of the hour. But I couldn't turn away.

That day and the days following were the first days that I actually felt afraid in my country. I was taking care of my sister's dog and I made my dad walk outside with me at night when we had to take the dog out. And while we were out there I would watch the skies.

It's hard when this day rolls around to relive those memories but I also believe it's necessary.

Back On Campus

Classes start this week and I had my first round this morning starting with Jews of the Mediterranean, which is a history class and the last of the upper division courses outside of my major that I have to take! I was relieved to see that the paper for the class will be about a book we'll be reading by an author that I've looked at numerous times in the past. For someone who writes essays about books all the time this is right up my alley!

I also had my Modern Theory class with a professor I had last semester. This is one that I had originally signed up for about a year ago, but dropped because the reading load was too much with my other classes. I was disappointed when I dropped it because the professor was wonderful; he had a dry sense of humor that he incorporated into lectures and he made class our fun. The first class period was an overview of the theorists we'd be studying, complete with pictures and fun stories of each. So when I saw that my professor from a class last semester would be teaching this one I had to sign up for it to make the loss of the previous professor worth it. She has so much information to share and I'm excited to continue to tap into all the knowledge she has. And... there are no papers in the class! This is because of all the reading we'll be doing, but still... no papers... and for that I'm excited!

The other great thing about these two classes is that our final will be a take home final!

Outside of school, my friend Sam knows that I support an organization called charity: water, whose mission is to bring clean, safe drinking water to those who don't have access to it. Clean water is a passion of mine and I believe in the mission of this organization. And this is one of the reasons I like this organization so much, after a mission that didn't go as planned they still report it.

Live Drill - No water for our birthday in Central African Republic from charity: water on Vimeo.

The One With Three: Numismatics, Classes, Cucumbers

Happy Labor Day!

I spent most of the day at work and most of that time was spent visiting different websites. We only have access to .gov websites so slow days end up turning into educational days as we surf different websites. Today I looked at the US Mint website and read up on the First Spouse coin collection. I've always been fascinated by the wives of the Presidents because so many of them have done great things. The first spouse coins feature a portrait of the first spouse on the front along their name, which number spouse they were and the dates that they were in the White House. On the back is an image representing the spouses legacy. For those President's who weren't married during their presidency, the coin features Liberty in her depiction in their day on the front with a picture representing the President's legacy on the back. Here are a few of my favorite coins:
-- Abigail Adams, I love their letters.
-- Jefferson's Liberty, for it's depiction of Liberty.
-- Dolley Madison, because the image on the back (and what she did) is awesome.
-- Julia Tyler, my favorite, for the image on the back (and the portrait is pretty cool too).
-- Buchanan's Liberty, for it's depiction of Liberty.

In other news, classes start tomorrow. I'll be taking Jews of the Mediterranean, Modern Literary Criticism and Theory and the Poetry Writing Senior Seminar. Starting in October I'll be adding a geography to the line-up of classes. I'm thinking that without French my semester will be much easier than the last three. I'm hoping, at least.

I'll end with a tasty way to prepare cucumbers. I have customers who regularly bring us cucumbers, tomatoes and peppers from their garden throughout the summer. Yesterday they brought in some bags and even though my dad had just purchased a good number of cucumbers at a local vegetable stand, I couldn't resist taking a bunch of the wonderful looking cucumbers that they brought in! My boss was telling us about one of her relatives who grows cucumbers and has found tasty and simple ways to prepare cucumbers. All you need to do is cut them in slices and dab a little bit of olive oil and black pepper over them. And it is very yummy! I'm sorry for the crappy picture. I took it quickly, in crappy lighting.

Hotel Iris, by Yoko Ogawa

Ogawa (The Housekeeper and the Professor) explores the power of words to allure and destroy in this haiku-like fable of love contorted into obsession. One rainy evening, Mari, a downtrodden 17-year-old who helps her demanding mother run a seedy seaside hotel, overhears a middle-aged male guest ordering an offended prostitute to be silent. In the days that follow, every word—both spoken and conveyed in surreptitious letters—from this man, a hack translator who may have killed his wife, gradually and inexorably leads Mari to submit to his every sadistic desire. Ogawa’s relentlessly spare prose captures both Mari’s yearning for her lost father and the translator’s bipolar oscillation between insecure tenderness and meticulously modulated rage. As this savage novel drives to its inevitable conclusion, Mari’s world collapses around her in both a terrifying bang and a pitiful whimper. (Cover photograph and summary from Barnes & Noble.com.)

Hotel Iris, to me, is a novel of contrasts. There is the contrast of the named versus the unnamed characters, the spoken word versus the written word, and who can share more freely, those who can speak verbally or those who are mute. In this novel, Ogawa illustrates that the reader can come to know the characters referred to only by their titles better than the characters whose actual names are known and that the written word can be more honest and freely given than the spoken word. I felt that the amount of described bondage scenes overshadowed the rest of the novel. It's not that these scenes were incredibly descriptive, it's just that the reader knew this was happening and didn't need as much as detail as was given each time. But the beauty of the writing made this book well worth reading; I found myself anxious to read more as I was soaking up the gorgeous descriptions.

He shook his head, and I felt his every tremor through my cheek as I leaned against his shoulder. Coming through his bones, his voice sounded clearer and calmer, as though it were welling up from the depths. (Pg. 89)

A Little Dash of Color

(Photo courtesy of Soapnet.)

This week I visited the hairstylist to freshen up my hairdo before the new semester with a cut and color. This time I decided to go dark. Really dark. Like, on a scale that starts with 1 being the darkest, we combined a 2 and 3. I can pull off the dark look, but it’s obviously not a natural color for me. It’s just a fun color and it’s one of the few fun colors I can do.

I’ve often thought it would be cool to throw a funky color into my hair. That’s not to say that I would completely color my hair blue, even for a short period of time, because that’s not something I’d do. Can you imagine trying to coordinate outfits, make-up and jewelry to a specific color every day? But I have thought that it would be fun to throw in streaks of color like a dark blue or green. (Although, now that I think about it a little more, there could still be coordination issues with streaks of color.) The only problem is that my workplace won’t allow it.

So, I’ve thought about the day when I can do something fun with my hair. You know, the day when all my dreams come true and I’m a bestselling author and no one cares what color my hair is. Yeah, when that day comes, what would I do with my hair? Of course, me being me, I convinced myself that if that day comes, it will probably be years from now and I’ll be too old to pull off streaks of funky colors.

Which brings me to the woman pictured above. Lauren Koslow, who plays Kate Dimera on Days of our Lives is (according to Wikipedia) in her 50’s and look at her hair! Do you see that beautiful blue streak? So, maybe there isn’t a too old. Maybe there’s a time when you start to do it differently than you would have done it before; instead of streaks of color you add a streak of color. And, to be perfectly honest, I like the one streak better; it’s a little dash of color!

So what about you? If you were to do something different with your hair, what woudl you do?

Oat and Yogurt Facial Mask

It's September and I am now counting down the days until the start of the semester--six days (including today) to be exact. It's a strange time of year, this last week before a semester starts. Throughout this week I try to soak up as much free time as possible while making last minute preparations for the semester.

Part of soaking up free time includes the last few days of spending time with friends without the thought of homework I'm not doing hanging over my head. My friend Sarah came over again to watch the second season of Sanctuary (which is breaking my heart!) and to continue making our way through the only season of Moonlight.

Lately we've been doing "girly" things while watching our shows. We started with painting our finger and toenails and did our make-up during the next get-together. When we talked about not being completely happy with our pores I came up with a new idea: a pore reducing homemade facial mask.

So I searched this lovely thing called an internet and found a recipe for a homemade oat and yogurt facial mask.

Oat and Yogurt Facial Mask

You will need:
2 tablespoons oats or oatmeal (not the quick-cook kind)
2 tablespoons yogurt

This mask is so easy to make that I don't even need to write this out into steps. All you have to do is grind the oats and mix them with yogurt. Refrigerate the mask for a few hours before applying.

I don't think I ground the oats enough and if I had it might not have been quite so messy but let me tell you, it was an experience to apply this mask! We removed our make-up and applied the mask. It was falling over the place but eventually we were able to pack it onto our faces. Since we were watching TV I lost track of time, but we probably had the mask on for about twenty minutes before we took it off. And that was another experience!

Sarah noticed that overtime the yogurt hardens into it's own mask beneath the layer of oats. It was pretty cool. We could feel the effects of the mask immediately upon removing it. While we didn't notice a huge change in our pores, but the mask softens the skin. Like Sarah said, it makes your skin baby soft!

Here are some making-of photos and Sarah with the mask.