Vacation planning

Honestly, my brain is basically mush right now. I am in a fog of grading, and a fog of mortgage paperwork, as both my semester and my home purchase are slated to conclude this week. I'm in two fogs. 

But! Nigh unto all of the brain cells I have left are currently being devoted to EXCITEMENT because I  will be going to Japan on vacation in a few weeks. 

Some brochures Chris picked up at a festival in Central Park.

Here are some of the things I am doing to prepare for the trip: 

• reading contemporary Japanese books. Three of my favorites so far have been Kitchen, by Banana Yoshimoto, 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami, and Kibo ("Brimming with Hope"): Recipes and Stories from Japan's Tohoku by Elizabeth Andoh: a cookbook of homey Japanese cooking with a lot of cultural information thrown in.
  
• looking at beautiful pictures of old Japan.
  
• reading about other people's packing strategies for long-ish trips.
  
• practicing some basic phrases by listening to recorded language lessons. I've been using the Pimsleur lessons and they seem pretty good for learning some stock phrases such as, "Excuse me, do you understand English?" and "Where is Hibiya Avenue?" and "I am not feeling well." I also now know three different ways to say thank you, and in which context to say each. I have no delusions of actual conversational ability, though. I hope merely to convey well-intentioned politeness.
  
  The Pimsleur guide is weird, however, in that it consistently positions me as an American man who is addressing and sometimes answering for a Japanese woman. I have just learned how to invite the Japanese woman back to my place for a drink. Literally. Thanks, Pimsleur, for confirming that I am not your target audience.
  
• doing all of the practical things (buying a Japan Rail Pass, making hotel reservations, getting copies of our passports laminated [thanks, Stella!], setting up a roaming data plan, reading guidebooks from the library, writing down where the U.S. Embassy is, etc.)
  
• shopping for a smallish, flattish, leather crossbody bag that zips all the way across the top.
  
• asking knowledgeable friends for advice. This is ongoing. In fact, do YOU, dear reader, have any advice for preparing for this trip? Or bag-buying advice? 

Nota Bene: You are still welcome to weigh in on next year's project!

On the Difference Between Embarrassment and Shame

The other day, worried I was running late, I hurried to class and was disconcerted to find none of my students there. Instead, the instructor who teaches in that room before I do was still wrapping up class. I realized that even though I've been teaching on this schedule for two years now, I had AMAZINGLY forgotten what time my class began and hurried to arrive at the room fifteen minutes early. Whoops. I was embarrassed and promptly told everyone I encountered about how I was absentminded, foolish, etc.

I told everyone about this because I was embarrassed. However, if I had been fifteen minutes late to class because I forgot when it began, I'd probably be ashamed instead of embarrassed. And I certainly wouldn't have jokingly told all my colleagues about it. When I do things I am ashamed of, I don't want anyone to know about them at all. I mean, I don't even want to know about them myself. Embarrassment is funny and public; shame is heavy and private.

The Merriam Webster Dictionary defines shame primarily as "a painful emotion caused by consciousness of guilt, shortcoming, or impropriety" and defines embarrassment primarily as "something that embarrasses <the scandal was a major embarrassment>." Hey, thanks, Merriam Webster! That was a big help. They define the word embarrass as "a: to place in doubt, perplexity, or difficulties b: to involve in financial difficulties c: to cause to experience a state of self-conscious distress<bawdy stories embarrassed him>" 

So, my discussion of embarrassment here isn't even the primary function of the word embarrass. And frankly, I don't think "a state of self-conscious distress" covers it. There wouldn't be an entire field of British comedy based on embarrassment if that was all there was to it. 

I'm not sure the definition for shame really covers what shame means, either. In her afterword to The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison asserts that for rapists, rape has "or once had" a "glamour of shame."* It was that phrase that made me think about this difference. I have never felt glamourous when I have been ashamed of myself; that might be nice. Glamour can be comforting, after all.

I guess I am still figuring out the nuanced differences in how I think about these emotional states. Embarrassing things are funny. Shameful things are not. Perhaps embarrassment is caused when I make mistakes that don't hurt anything; shame is caused when I make mistakes that do.

• I am interested in how others think of these terms - do you use them interchangeably? Differently, but not how I do? 

Nota Bene: You are still welcome to weigh in on next year's project!

*Citation TK - my book is at school and I am at home.

Into the Great Unknown; a.k.a. Blogging Next Year

Ladies and Gentlemen, I would appreciate your input.

This is my 48th blog post, which means that I am nearing the end of this year-long list-blogging experiment. I like having a Weekly Thing, though! I'd like to KEEP having a Weekly Thing next year.*

SO, folks, what should it be? These are my current contenders:

• Take the "no new clothes" pledge for a year. I'd still buy used, and maybe handmade, but mostly I'd be swapping, mending, and making do. I would document alterations, acquisitions, and maybe outfits weekly.
• Make a thing a week. Sometimes it would be a craft project, maybe sometimes a science experiment, maybe sometimes a writing exercise, maybe sometimes try a cooking technique I've never tried before; document what gets made.
• Straight up, try at least one recipe I've never tried before once a week. 
• Handwrite and illustrate a Book of Hours. Create a couple pages a week.  This is something I've been thinking of doing since Grad School studying Medieval manuscripts. 
• Begin a personal book club - Commit to reading one classic I don't already know know each month; blog about my thoughts weekly. If anyone in the area wants to join in, we drink beer and eat cookies once a month and talk about the book when we finish it. 

Please leave your vote (or write in a different suggestion) in the comments! 

Clothes? Crafts? Foods? Something Bookish? 

* See this post on why my year ends and starts in the summer rather than on January 1.

One Lady's Memorabilia is Another Lady's Ephemera

I see a lot of plays.* I am also kind of a packrat. I love paper ephemera. Therefore, it is my default to save all my Playbills/programs for every play I see and put them in a box for Future Reminiscences. I do, in fact, take them out and page through them fondly years later and reminisce, too! I have decided, however, that it is time to acknowledge that not EVERY play I see is worth memorializing in this manner.

So I have developed a method to determine which programs I keep. In a given calendar year, I keep all programs from shows I see in that year. When I get home from a show, I stick my ticket in the program and stash it in a Designated Spot.* Then, the next January, or whenever I see the first show of the next year, I pull out ALL of that year's programs and make the cut. What gets kept gets stored; what gets recycled gets recycled.

These are the shows I saw in 2012. Well, most of them. This is before I made the cut, but after I had misplaced some programs. 

I am now in my second year of using this method and it is working for me for a few reasons. First of all, it is better than storing everything immediately because it creates some built-in reminiscing time about when I saw the shows to reinforce the memories I want to reinforce. And of course it eventually requires less storage space than would storing them all. Besides that, it is also better than making the cut show by show immediately after I see each one because that decision might be one I'd regret later. Seeing all the programs together helps me decide in an informed manner which of the shows counted as the year's best theatrical experiences.

*Many are free; many are heavily, heavily discounted using various memberships.
**It's next to the cookbooks.

Chard Chip Victory!

As we all know, kale chips are The Best. I had tried making chard chips in a similar way in the past, but to no avail. I kept ending up with tough, soggy leaves and disappointment. A couple of days ago, however, I finally achieved Chard Chip Victory! I MIGHT like them more than kale chips.

crisp and delicious.

Chard Chips: 

Wash and dry chard leaves. Remove tough center veiny things.

Chop into pieces the size of the palm of my hand. (Or fine, your own hand.) They'll cook down in size.

Roll in towels to press out all moisture.

Preheat oven to 300 F. Most chard chip recipes say 275; that's probably fine if your oven is reliable.

Dump dry chopped leaves into a bowl; toss with olive oil to coat very lightly and sprinkle spices to taste. I used Penzey's chili powder, cumin, and salt and pepper.

Lay out leaves on a foil-lined cookie sheet in a single layer, not overlapping at all.

Bake for about 25 minutes, until they turn crisp and translucent.

UNLIKE kale chips, I found it was better to slightly undercook rather than slightly overcook.

Enjoy.

Retraction

Remember a while ago when I wrote about doing the hundred push-ups program? And I said I'd be doing the same thing with slightly more advanced push-ups and also sit-ups? It turns out that was a bad idea.

I watched youtube videos about good form for sit-ups, and really didn't feel I was doing anything very strenuous. Yet, I have managed to injure myself. I sprained the ligament that goes down my spine on the right side (I had not realized this was possible), and now the right half of my upper body is in spasm. The left side doesn't feel so great either.

So now I am seeing a chiropractor three times a week until it stops hurting so much. He has given me stretches to do a couple times a day, and forbidden me to do any more push-ups or sit-ups until he says it is okay to start again. Alas.

30 minute dinner: fresh mozzarella, polenta, and eggs a la Jesse over roast asparagus

The pan on its way into the oven has enough polenta and asparagus for three dinners. Yay, leftovers!  

This isn't a real cooking blog. If it were, I would probably have titled this post "15 minute dinner" or "10 minute dinner," because the meal takes only 10-15 minutes of prep time. However,  I am more concerned with the time it takes to go from thinking "I'd like to be eating" to the time when I actually am, in fact, eating. This menu takes me 28 minutes from walking into the kitchen and turning on the oven to sitting down with a plated meal.

Ingredients:
prepared polenta in log form
fresh mozzarella
fresh tomatoes
fresh eggs
asparagus
olive oil
canola oil or butter
spices - I used salt and black pepper on the asparagus and freeze-dried shallots and lemon pepper on the eggs.

ACTIONS:
Preheat the oven to 425.

Slice polenta into 1/2 inch thick rounds. Brush olive oil on the bottom. Top with a thin-mint sized chunk of mozz and some sliced tomatoes.

Wash asparagus and break at natural breaking point. Gently shake dry. Drizzle with olive oil and add salt and pepper (or other desired herbs and spices) to taste.

If oven is not hot yet, wash things while you wait. If you need to keep killing time, arrange a small bowl of pickled mushrooms to accompany your dinner.

Put asparagus and polenta rounds into oven and set timer for 10 min.

Start Eggs a la Jesse: Heat canola oil or butter (and onions or garlic, if desired) in frying pan over medium heat. When hot, break in eggs. Sprinkle with spices of your choice. Cover with well-fitting lid and turn down heat to medium low.

As soon as the whites are done, turn off the heat and let the eggs sit until the yolks have reached desired consistency.

Check oven after 10 minutes. With my oven, I turn the pan around and cook for another 5 minutes to heat evenly.

Eat dinner.

Variations on a theme: 

• Want to take this to work to eat for lunch? Hard boil the eggs instead and everything will be delicious at room temperature. 
• Made enough for leftover polenta and asparagus and want to vary your protein intake? Reheat in the toaster oven with a Boca or Morningstar patty from the freezer. Or toss white beans in a quick vinaigrette with some dried basil and oregano the night before and eat cold.
• No asparagus? Try zucchini medallions, thinly-sliced wedges of cabbage or vertically-halved broccoli or cauliflower florets instead.
• No fresh mozzarella or polenta? Try cheddar over rye bread or parmesan over sweet potato rounds. You might want to par-cook the sweet potato rounds in the microwave a bit first, depending on thickness.