Slow Cooker Sunday

Last year, for my birthday, my parents got me a Crock Pot:


It would be correct to say I was less than thrilled. However, never wanting to show anything but gratitude for a gift, I hope, and the fact that it was red, and I love when kitchen items are pretty colors, I kept it. (And I'm pretty sure Daddy picked out the red.)

Mom said it would be so easy to just throw a few things in in the morning, leave it all day, and then come home to a meal. Let's see about that...

So easy
I have to admit, compared to my other forays into cooking, it has been rather easy. And I've grown quite fond of the little contraption and the goodness it has brought me. I tend to make a lot of appetizer-type foods, which are my favorite type of food, as well as some soups and stews. It's really just good for someone like me, of the "never preheat-cook everything on 450-burn is just a variation on well done-what the hell is mince" school of cooking, to put everything in at once and leave.

Throw a few things in
Except, I'm really not the type who can just "throw" something together - whether it be ingredients, an outfit, or an assignment. All my meals require scouring for a recipe, making a detailed grocery list, and then making 15 laps of the grocery store trying to get everything I need.

Even then I still have trouble, since this is me. I made a chipotle chicken stew for the brother last month that miraculously came together despite my not knowing the real difference between chicken breasts and thighs. (I came uncomfortably close to asking the guy beside me at Safeway the difference between breasts and thighs. I then imagined how that would sound, the kinds of answers I would receive, and laughed to myself.)

Leave it all day
The idea of leaving an appliance on in my rented apartment for 10+ hours while I'm away, terrifies me. I'm just not sure my renter's insurance covers death by slow cooker. Thus I tend to make my meals on Sundays and eat off them all week. Coming home to leftovers on Monday is less nice than sitting down to a freshly-cooked meal on Sunday, but it's certainly better than chicken nuggets and french fries for the 9,000th time.

Come home to a meal
As has been made clear here: I hate to cook and I'm not good at it. I especially hate paying for food, going through all the effort and money to cook for one person, and maybe not like it but still eat it for a week. So all in all the little crock pot that could, and the handy box o' recipes the parents also gave me, has been perfect. (And, no, I'm not the only one who eats what I make. Others have tried things as well and they've yet to stop being my friend, or die.)

Tonite's meal is Brown Sugar Chicken, my first attempt at just "throwing" whole pieces of chicken in and letting it do its thing.


However, lest ye think the slow cooker has cured all my cooking calamities, it has not. I had trouble with the meat part since I didn't know if my three pieces of chicken were equal to the six half-pieces called for in the recipe. I decided there was a 75% chance it was, and stopped halving the recipe, which was good since I forgot I was halving, and at one point had to scrape off some brown sugar and black pepper. I also, as you can tell from the picture, couldn't quite manage the "chop and smash" of garlic, either. But this is all still an improvement from last month when I tried to weigh chicken using the bathroom scale.

I'm sure everyone's just dying to eat at my place now, right?


The finished product. Really tender and juicy and it fell right off the metaphorical bone. (It was boneless chicken, I'm not sure what the correct phrasing is here.) I don't think I'll mind eating this all week.

Word of the Day

strug∙gling

Verb

1. to proceed with difficulty or with great effort
2. to lose a shoe while walking in the crosswalk on a major street – for the THIRD time in one’s life
3. to swipe an ID instead of a debit card at Walgreen’s and then stare in confusion at the machine
4. to only make it through the day because at the end lies Glee
5. to realize way too late that due to the putrid and festering sore on American leisure - aka baseball - there will be no Glee in Whoville tonite
   
   
   Will: Who's to say everything I do is 100% on the ball?
   Sue: No one would say that.
   -Glee

This is why no one likes you, Georgetown.

Oh, wow.

Georgetown student advertises for personal assistant

"[He] posted an ad for someone to tackle 'some of my everyday tasks,' such as organizing his closet, dropping him off and picking him up from work, scheduling haircuts, putting gas in the car and taking it in for service, managing his electronic accounts and doing laundry (although the assistant will be paid only for the time spent loading, unloading and folding clothes, not the entire laundry cycle)."

The really sad thing is, if he'd let me work in the evenings and weekends, I'd do it for the extra spending money for the holidays.

Just kidding. I don't even fold my own laundry. (I pile it on the desk chair -- it's like a treasure hunt every time I need a sock.)

"It's exciting to find your way anywhere in DC. Why would you have four H streets?" (Jon Stewart)

Last Saturday night I crossed half an item off my Bucket List: I saw Jon Stewart perform live. (The full item is to see a taping of The Daily Show.)

I have been watching his show since high school and have now hung on his every wonderfully sarcastic word for nearly ten years. His show is what got me through the Bush years. (That, and my acquired talent of throwing things at the television.) And now, though things have changed, it's still my favorite way to end the day and still the best prevention against object-throwing. (Yes, I still throw things, but a lot less often now.)

I just really can't say enough about how much I admire what he does or how intelligent and on-the-spot I find his satire to be. It was hyper-political, sarcastic, funny, and biting. Just the way it should be.

A few favorite jokes, that I could remember:
On birthers:
"What is wrong with people?...We as a society can no longer agree on what reality is."

On gay marriage, courtesy of Politico article:
"What is our problem? It has nothing to do with anybody. 'Because that would force us to accept them.' Yeah, you wanna know what? Go fuck yourself. Too bad! 'But we have to hear both sides of view.' No you don't. They're not equal. One's wrong."

On Socialist accusations:
"It's the same shit as before. It's not tyranny, you're just in the minority."

On Catholicism vs. Judaism:
"You have Lent, we have Yom Kippur. You have 40 days, we have one. You're still shopping retail!" (paraphrased)

It truly was an amazing night and well worth the wait. I know I'm leaving out tons of good stuff but each minute was better than the last so it's hard to recall it all.

Even though we weren't supposed to take pictures, I did manage to take this gem with my phone at the end. It's him, trust me.


Local media coverage:
Politico: Mr. Stewart comes to Washington
GW Hatchet: Jon Stewart caters to Colonial crowd

The times they are a-changin'

"Hubert even resorted to incendiary language--incendiary for the genial Hubert, at any rate--demanding that Jack drop 'the razzle dazzle, fizzle fazzle.'"
-Edward M. Kennedy, True Compass, re: Hubert Humphrey

"He uses fuck like a combination of comma and semicolon, to punctuate and highlight his thoughts."
-Naftali Bendavid, The Thumpin', re: Rahm Emanuel

Further proof that the tenor of public discourse has changed in the past 40 years. Though I'm not judging either of them. But I will admit I'm 1,000 times more likely to spout something closer to the latter than the former.

Tuesday...FAIL

Alarm clock...FAIL
(After seven years of faithful service, it didn't go off Friday, Monday, or today. Worked perfectly on Saturday and Sunday, however.)

Wardrobe...FAIL
(I ironed four shirts, tried on six, finally went with the first one I put on.)

Bus driver...FAIL
(Saw me running to catch it, pulled away anyway. Bastard.)

Caramel apple cider...FAIL
(I figured if anything could salvage this day, it would be this. I didn't take in to account searing hot cider burning my esophagus.)

Work...FAIL
(The problem with getting paid to write: WRITER'S BLOCK. Do they have worker's compensation for that ailment? Maybe if we had a public option.)

"Some days, even my lucky rocketship underpants don't help."
(Calvin, of Calvin and Hobbes)

(Not that I have rocketship underpants -- though maybe that would help?)

Friday Soapbox: U2 Edition

Time for another happy soapbox post. For the past two weeks I've been listening to U2 pretty much non-stop. I've been making note of my favorite lines, because that's just what I do. Thus I present a non-exhaustive selection of some of my favorites. No promises that all the lyrics are correct as it's practically a guarantee with me that there will be a misheard lyric or two. Or ten.

After the flood all the colors came out
Beautiful Day

Love left a window in the skies, and to love I rhapsodize
Window in the Skies

If your way should falter, along this stormy pass
It's just a moment, this time will pass
Stuck in a Moment You Can't Get Out Of

I wasn't jumping, for me it was a fall
It's a long way down to nothing at all
Stuck in a Moment You Can't Get Out Of

Lift my days, light up my nights
Mysterious Ways

If you want to kiss the sky better learn how to kneel
Mysterious Ways

I found grace inside a sound, I found grace it's all I found
Breathe

Free at last
They took your life
They could not take your pride
Pride (In the Name of Love)

Where you live should not decide, whether you live, or whether you die
Crumbs from Your Table

Can you see the beauty I had inside of me?
What happened to the beauty I had inside of me?
City of Blinding Lights

Baby slow down, the end is not as far as the start
Please stay a child somewhere in your heart
Original of the Species

I believe in the kingdom come, when all the colors will bleed into one
I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For

You've got to cry without weeping
Talk without speaking
Scream without raising your voice
Running to Stand Still

I was speeding on the subway, through the stations of the cross
Moment of Surrender

I know it aches and your heart it breaks and you can only take so much
Walk On

And if your glass heart should crack and for a second you turn back
Oh no, be strong
Walk On

How long must we sing this song?
Sunday Bloody Sunday

Every generation gets a chance to change the world
I Know I'll Go Crazy if I Don't Go Crazy Tonight

Can you hear me when I sing
You're the reason I sing
You're the reason why the opera is in me
Sometimes You Can't Make it On Your Own

The worst of us are a long drawn-out confession
The best of us are geniuses of compression
Cedars of Lebanon

And many, many more...

"If people are interested in magic, then we're up for it...the spell that can occur when a band and audience really connect." (Bono)

Last weekend I went home to North Carolina for the U2 concert at Carter-Finley Stadium in Raleigh. I bought the tickets in April and can't believe how fast it got here, and that it's already gone.

I've said it before, that I think for the most part I've grown more tolerant of other views, except for when it comes to U2. I think this is because I connect to their songs on such a deeply personal level. The best word to describe it is visceral, which is how my friend Jan described it after we saw them in concert in 2005. There are certain lines, notes, guitar riffs, and Bono solos that just inspire and pull at me unlike anything else. I very rarely let my guard down or let something sweep me away, but when I listen to their music, I barely notice anything or anyone around me. Which when you're in a stadium with 60,000 other people, is a big deal. It was a practically-perfect show and I hope to repeat the experience many times in the future.

The spaceship stage. (Amid the regrettable sea of Wolfpack red. Ugh.)
Mom and me.
Opening - Breathe.
Video screen expanding.
Close-up.Bono.
A blurry Edge and Bono, acoustic Stuck in a Moment...
Ultraviolet (Light my Way) and an attempt to capture the coolest mirror/disco ball ever.
Sunday Bloody Sunday - green for Iran.Thanks, boys.

Highlights:

• Improvised Amazing Grace and Lean on Me
• Acoustic Stuck in a Moment...
• The point where Bono took an audience member's political banner and began singing a hymn, before tossing his microphone to the guy and letting him sing, which he did very well, before tossing it back.
• Anytime any of the band members moved around on the bridges and around the stage.
• Mom really excited the first time she saw The Edge

Lowlights:

• Drunk guy beside me who fell on the row in front of ours, then stomped on my foot, kicked over our drinks, and kept trying to sit in my seat.
• Drunk couples in front of us, one of whom kept rubbing on her friend's husband, before later also falling on the row in front of her.
• Seriously, too much Wolfpack red.

Friday Soapbox

The Roman Polanski arrest has been dominating the headlines this week. (At least the headlines I read.) And I really just can't take it anymore. People who defend his actions under the guise of his talent, age, or history, are making my stomach churn.

You aren't above the law simply because you make films for a living. Believing that his position in society excuses him from his actions creates a dangerous rape culture where you trivialize the plight of the victim as you idolize the perpetrator. And any attempts to brush aside his actions because they happened so long ago are offensive to women who have suffered similar pain and who can spend a lifetime getting over it.

I know the victim just wants to put this behind her, and she deserves to have her voice heard more than anyone, but justice is not up to an individual, and the final decision has to be made by the system. A system that he ran from, by the way.

The bottom line, as I see it:

• He drugged and raped a CHILD.
• He fled the country instead of facing the consequences.
• He broke the law in a heinous way and deserves to pay.

End of story.

"Well, it turns out, I've got a rose garden." (Pres. Shepherd, The American President)

One of my Mom's favorite movies is The American President. I really like it too, and bought it on DVD last month. However, Mom is not capable of changing the channel when it's on. In fact, I think she has a sixth sense when it's on and probably hasn't missed an airing in years. And of course she has it on DVD, too. These three facts equate to me seeing it approximately 164 times over the years when I lived at home. It's a good movie, but yeah, that's a bit of an overkill.

So when they had the movie poster in the American Presidency exhibit at the National History Museum, I decided to have a little fun.


You know I love you, Mom.