Bookworm: January 2018

Lol, I went a bit nuts this month. Having the whole first week of the month off from work for winter holiday AND being totally sidelined by illness for that week forced me to pound through more books than usual, due to being so down-and-out, and I re-read a few more than I usually do. A good month, all said and done! 

Loved: 

Rich and Pretty, Rumaan Alam: This was one of those books where I recognized someone I knew in one of the main characters and it hit me like a deeply solid, impactful gut-punch. Those little moments of recognition kept happening - in so many of the phrases, the vignettes painted throughout. It's a gorgeous examination of the complexities of female friendship and I recommend it VERY highly. 

Texts from Jane Eyre, Mallory Ortberg: I blew through this in an hour, went back and read most of it again immediately after, and forced it upon Dave and Laura during our post-cocktails wind-down for the evening. It is SO deliciously witty and on point - the reimagining of literary heroes and villains through the modern medium of texting is a juxtaposition any bookworm would adore. 

Enjoyed: 

Single State of Mind, Andi Dorfman: As a shameless "Bachelor" franchise fangirl, this was of course on my list for the month - I was not a huge fan of Dorfman's first effort, but this resonated a bit more for me. Despite the shameless namedropping and privilege-flaunting, a lot of her musings on life as a single woman in her late twenties struck me as worth remembering - I found myself highlighting in my eBook as I read. Worth it, I think, if you're a "Bachelor" lover too - otherwise, eh, skip it. 

Daughter of Empire, Lady Pamela Hicks: I've heard this autobiography mentioned several times as a great behind-the-scenes peek into the early years of Queen Elizabeth II's reign, and I picked it up as a quick, light read. It was gossipy and fluffy and totally fun; while the insights to the Queen's early reign were there, I enjoyed it just as much for the Downton-esque drama portrayed throughout the author's chronicle of her life in post-Imperial India and as a titled debutante in post-war London. 

Dazzling Brightness, Roberta Gellis: A retelling of the Hades and Persephone myth that fuses in a little romance and a little sci-fi. This was by no means "highbrow" or "quality" literature, but I read it, and its two sequels, in about a day each (largely poolside). I'm thinking about diving deeper into mythology...we'll see! 

Shimmering Splendor, Roberta Gellis: The sequel to "Dazzling Brightness," a myth-meets-romance-meets-magic retelling of the Eros and Psyche myth. It was good - again, an easy and undemanding read that reminded me a bit of Philip Pullman or Tamora Pierce. 

Fitness Junkie, Lucy Sykes and Jo Piazza: Everyone in the world seemed to have this on their lists last year, so I'm a bit late to the game - that said, this biting satire of the world's obsession with health, wellness, and fitness made me legitimately laugh out loud a few times. The story itself - a workaholic faced with the conundrum of losing either weight or her company - was a bit surface-y, but this would be a great beach read regardless of its lack of deeper significance. 

Tolerated: 

Enchanted Fire, Roberta Gellis: The third in the myth trilogy I read, and I didn't like it half as much as the first two. This reimagining of the Orpheus and Euridyce story was largely set on Jason's Argo, and was way too pedantic and bickery for my taste. I slogged through it, unlike the first two, and was relieved when it was over. 

Re-reads: 

Scarlett, Alexandra Ripley: I went on a "Gone With the Wind" binge toward the end of December and picked this up as soon as I got back to the Bay Area - it was the perfect old familiar friend to get me through being sicker than most of my adult life. I love that it gives Scarlett and Rhett a happy ending, with stops in Charleston, Savannah and Ireland along the way. 

Crown Duel, Sherwood Smith: We marathoned the Harry Potter movies early in January and it got me jonesing for a good fantasy book. This one, originally published in two volumes, is a sort of "Hunger Games" meets "The Crown" meets "Potter" with a little helping of Tamora Pierce in there - it's an extremely quick, light, escapist read that I have enjoyed on and off for over a decade now. 

Little Women, Louisa May Alcott: I clearly needed to start 2018 off with some of my favorites, and Alcott is a perennial love of mine. I could write volumes on how much I adore "Little Women," but I'll forbear...needless to say, sometimes a familiar old treasure is the best kind of book. 

Little Men, Louisa May Alcott: Again, Alcott's a go-to for me as a literary equivalent of comfort food, but I don't love either of the sequels to "Little Women" as much as I love the original. Still a good old friend to visit, though! 

Jo's Boys, Louisa May Alcott: More of the same as "Little Men" here, but it's always fun to watch Alcott's little heroes and heroines grow up. 

Eight Cousins, Louisa May Alcott: This novel, and its sequel (below) are two of my favorite Alcott works - wholesome and charming and just the right amount of preachy, coupled with being super-fast reads. Highly recommend for fans of "Little Women" who haven't read them before! 

Rose in Bloom, Louisa May Alcott: See above - seriously, pick them up. They're also available in the public domain through Project Gutenberg - one of my favorite sources for my oldies-but-goodies. 

today:

- bought "Hamilton" tickets to see it in New York in three short weeks

- made a to-do list that is too long to feel even remotely humane 

- kicked ass in a meeting this morning, got my ass kicked in a meeting over lunch, and saved someone from feeling like his ass was getting kicked in a meeting this afternoon

- checked off three annoying little "adulting" tasks I've been putting off for weeks

- actually felt like writing it all down and popping in here to say hello

- briefly changed my desktop background to ^that picture up there, then decided I would just post it up here instead and call it a day

...and there you have it. Hi, campers. Bye, campers. Happy Monday, chins up, et cetera ad infinitum. 

Ruminations on the future of MinneapoLiz (and a few funny photos)

A serious meditation below, but please enjoy the collection of outtakes from this Thanksgiving, when all Jodester wanted was a "nice photo of all three kids together," and we gave her these. Sorry Mama Bear! We love you!

Lately it seems like every time I sit down to write anything, it leads off with the caveat of "I'm sorry it's been so long, blah blah blah BUSY STRESSED SO MUCH TO DO" - and that's really started to bother me. I'm trying very hard this year to say what I think, in the spirit of being open, so here goes: I think a big side effect of this move and new lifestyle is that the importance of this space for me is starting to dim a bit. I still love to write, and I still find it incredibly cathartic and gratifying to put something out here that seems to perfectly encapsulate what I'm thinking at any given time. Those times, however, are less and less frequent as my workdays are busier, my social life is more fulfilling, and my life in general is lived more off the page than on it. 

This is a shift I didn't foresee. Since the moment I sat down and started writing this blog, it took on a momentous significance in my life. I used it as an anchor point of sorts - a place to process a major career shift, a lodestone and confessional while working through a horrible breakup, a digital exercise book that forced me to chronicle and create in equal parts. I treasure the memories I've captured here, and the different ways that blogging has forced me out of my comfort zone. 

Why the sudden apathy, then? For the first time in a long time, my precious 24 daily hours are rife with other, more appealing ways to spend my time than writing. Unlike my previous job, I actually work full days here - and in the lulls in my day, I take lengthy walks and explore Stanford, or pop into a yoga class, or get lost in the art museum(s) on campus. After hours, I'm cooking and feeding a very hungry and effusive roommate, or spending time nurturing nascent friendships, or devouring books in our hot tub, or indulging in the kind of shenanigans that are so quotidian that they're hardly "blog-worthy." 

In short, although this is getting really long, I'm happy, but in a different way than I've been for a long time. I'm happy in the mundane, unremarkable way that doesn't need to be voiced to be manifest. Maybe a better word would be content? I am at stasis - a point of equilibrium where, though life isn't perfect, it's balanced. Apparently, part of that balance bears the implied consequence of much less writing. 

I think a lot of this silence comes down to discipline (or a lack thereof), frankly, and that disgusts me to a certain degree. An anecdote: in second grade, I vividly remember our teacher trying to explain the word "lack" to the class by making us go around the circle and say something we lacked. While other seven-year-olds offered up things like "crayons," "trucks," "chocolate milk," I, being a precocious enfant terrible, threw out "I lack discipline." I couldn't understand why every adult in the room laughed, but the statement has held true all my life.

I am not a naturally disciplined person - it takes an enormous amount of effort and fortitude to change a habit or check off an onerous to-do list. Once I commit to something, though, and get into a routine, I tend to cling to it with a tenacity that would belie the lack of discipline I claim. Writing this blog has been one such instance - I built a very rigid process out from 2014-16 in which producing blog posts was a part of my day as inexorable as brushing my teeth. That changed in 2017, along with so many other momentous changes. While I feel like I should want to get that back, I'm not sure I entirely do - which leads us to this massive rumination. 

I don't know if I'll keep blogging for the immediate future, let alone forever - I miss writing when I don't do it, but do I miss it enough? Is the cost worth the benefit? Do I gain enough from this investment of time and energy to justify forcing myself to make it a priority again? This doesn't even scratch the surface of my thoughts on this topic - vanity and self-importance, privacy versus authenticity, honesty against the desire to protect others. We'll see what shakes out in the next several months, but for now, I'm going to promise myself (and you) at least this: no more apologies for my absence, and no more excuses for why I'm not writing. 

Thanks for enduring this extremely self-centered essay, and for being here and who you are! I appreciate you!

Cooking lately...

Since moving, I've taken advantage of our absurdly spacious kitchen (and two roommates who rarely cook!) to really go wild cooking. Dave will eat pretty much anything that's put in front of him (evidence below) and is generally highly complimentary - it's insanely gratifying.

- my mom's fabulous secret-recipe Chex Mix, which was a staple of all our childhood events and, this year, came out for both our Stanford tailgates and our Christmas party. The batches are enormous, and you can trash them up with whatever you like - I put chocolate-covered cashews in the holiday batch and it was a delight. 

- "Melt in Your Mouth" pumpkin cookies, half with this brown butter pumpkin spice frosting and half with this cinnamon cream cheese frosting - I've made these cookies every fall since Kaitlin and I first made them on a trip to Baltimore way the heck back in 2013...the recipe is incredibly easy and makes a huge batch. I made them this year for our "Worksgiving" potluck, and doubled the batch - thank God, because we went through ten dozen cookies at home and work in a matter of maybe a few days. 

- I've gotten super into marinating chicken breasts, as Safeway runs insane sales on their boneless skinless six-packs pretty much weekly. Two favorites: this rosemary balsamic marinated chicken and this honey lime cilantro chicken, which Dave grilled for me and we shredded up to use in tacos. SO GOOD and so easy! 

- Early in the fall, I woke up craving pancakes. We had a big thing of pancake mix taking up space in our pantry, so Laura, Dave and I made them (it was my first time ever actually making pancakes!). I trashed them up with bourbon butter maple syrup and they were awesome. Fast forward to last weekend, when I was (again) craving pancakes, but we were out of mix. I looked up a recipe from the internet, tried to make them, and oh my god they were SO TERRIBLE. For some reason the outsides burned before the insides even cooked, and they were near-raw in the middles. Dave, being a sweetheart and way too nice to me for his own good, still ate them and didn't make (too much) fun of me...his patience with my foibles is genuinely deeply appreciated. 

- October to me means all the pumpkin/squash/apple food possible, and I made this butternut squash mac and cheese with bacon, caramelized onions, and apples twice this fall. It is so decadent, but shockingly not that bad for you - the whole wheat pasta, coupled with replacing most of the cheese with butternut squash purée really cuts down on some of the calories. 

- This lemony thyme pasta salad was a staple at the cabin every summer, and I made it with grilled chicken sometime this fall - I kind of lost track of what month it was when our December still felt like September. It's light and tangy and fun and different - I love it. 

- Holiday baking! I went ham this year given we were having a huge Christmas party, I had a work potluck, and Dave wasn't going home/needed tradition brought around our neck of the woods, clearly. I did ginger snaps, peanut blossoms, white chocolate-dipped pretzels, and a TOTAL fail batch of Spritz cookies...for some reason, the cookies would just not detach from the press, and I got irrationally irritated about midway through and just threw the dough away. The ones I actually managed to make were super good, but I just think Spritzes are maybe not for me. 

- As I've mentioned a couple times here, we had a holiday party. It was awesome, and the best part, in my humble opinion, was the food. I wanted everything to be very easy to eat while socializing, so in addition to the usual suspects (cheese plate, charcuterie, chips and salsa, and of course the cookies!), I made these astoundingly good bourbon barbecue meatballs, along with super-easy but very fancy-looking cranberry brie bites and a Mexican spinach dip that was a huge hit (Dave, in particular, was a BIG fan...ooh, a tablecloth!). 

- To go with all the killer food at our party, I made a holiday sangria that I thought, based on the recipe, was going to be crazy-potent. So I labeled it accordingly, and everyone was very cautious - at first - as they drank it out of very festive glittery plastic champagne flutes (thanks, Target!) . Turns out the Kirkland sangria wine I bought was low-alcohol and nobody got drunk off the sangria at all...at least not until I started just randomly adding brandy and entire bottles of red wine to it midway through the evening. I am nothing if not a hostess who is relentlessly focused on her guests having a VERY good time. 

On the books coming up soon in Lizzie's Kitchen: alllllllllll the eggs, chicken breasts, salads and healthy veggie side dishes imaginable, and none of the fun desserts, pastas, or cheesy melty delicious things I'm craving. Booooo January, you're the worst! 

A couple of quick things...

A few different friends have shared this on Facebook lately and every time I see it it makes me positively cackle: 

I love that I have joined the "LOL"s after so many years of life in the "FUCK FUCK FUCK IT'S COLD"s! 

On a less profane note, I actually skipped the Golden Globes this year - in getting over being sick, I honestly completely forgot they were on and spent my Sunday afternoon/evening at Costco and cleaning our bathtub because #glamorous. That said, I loved the #TimesUp movement to wear black dresses on the red carpet. Primarily because black is my go-to for all formal events...oops? 

Favorites of the night included: 

Jessica Chastain's fabulous sparkly back (I have such an affinity for that neckline, too)...

Allison Janney's intricately detailed sleeves - almost figure-skating adjacent, which seems appropriate given her win for "I, Tonya!"

The endlessly elegant Nicole Kidman, who absolutely knocked it out of the park - she is so statuesque and beautiful, and gave such a lovely speech upon her win. 

And I actually adored Elisabeth Moss's chic little 50s-esque number - I would wear that to death. Completely up my alley. Bonus points for fabulous shoes, too!

And my misses...

Yikes, Caitriona Balfe - she's so pretty and this Chanel monstrosity looks like a weird combination of a harness and a garland on a barmaid in the Wild Wild West. 

Margot Robbie's dress, in my opinion, did nothing for her and the embellishment combined with the shoulder poufs and that massive deep V was kind of weird. Not that she isn't gorgeous, it's just way out there and weird for my taste.

And poor lovely Emma Watson - that Havisham-wannabe thing is swallowing her whole. Ancillary thought - are her shoes formal TOMs?

Anyway, I loved all the black because I am a fiend for black dresses and black clothing in general (as I type this, I'm wearing black pants with a white shell and a black sweater/scarf/earrings...eek!). And I thought the dialogue on the red carpet was interesting, although I'm not one to discount the meaningfulness of asking what designers celebs are wearing - those looks are spectacular, whether good or bad, and I think the designers deserve their moment in the spotlight too! 

Of course, couldn't talk about the Globes without a little love for America's apparent 2020 president-elect, Oprah...I'm kicking myself that I missed her speech live, but Youtubing it and reading the full transcript was almost as good. I have such an appreciation for truly eloquent orators - there's something to be said for a speaker, male or female, on any given topic, who truly knows how to work the room and to give a speech, not just to speak. Her delivery was impeccable, and the energy in the room listening to her looked electric. 

Looks like I need to get cracking on watching movies...Oscars are right around the corner, hooray!