Natural Sceptre

I love using different pans to cook dinner.  When I first moved into this place, and for most of the summer, all we ever did was cook Kielbasa on the “contact grill.”  I say “contact grill” because it make my mom laugh every time I said it.  Haha.  It got to be that I HATED washing it.  We went between tilapia and rice….kielbasa and rice…chicken and rice, and I hated how heavy and how snappy and how hingy it was.  After we got married and after John moved in, all of a sudden we had a rice maker (two! one doubles as a steamer!) an electric skillet and a wok.  Tonight we made stew beef, fried in the wok in extra virgin olive oil, onion, garlic and celery salt with mixed veggies and smashed potatoes.  And John made fresh bread (gluten-free of course) so we even had warm bread out of the breadmaker.  It might be somewhat simple…but I looked at our plates tonight and felt proud.  Grownup food!  I’ve EVEN started to use the OVEN.  As in, make chicken or pork chops in there.  It’s a brand new world.

I’ve also been searching for the perfect strainer.  We got one for our wedding that’s great, and has hingy legs that hold it up over the sink, but I found it too big for most every day uses.  Then, we had two wiry ones that were IMPOSSIBLE to clean.  Who knew?  Not me!  So I bought one from Wal*Mart that I thought would solve the problem.  It didn’t work.  I had five…and none of them made me happy.  Then John and I were wandering around IKEA and we saw this.  APPARENTLY, they are called COLANDERS, and this one has changed my life.  I love it, it’s perfect.  And seriously, $1.99?  That’s amazing.  I love IKEA. 

Today has been pretty good.  There was sleeping, there was breakfast…then we ran some errands.  I was a little stressed because we needed to go to Costco.  It’s a love/hate relationship with Costco…I love filling our freezer with meat, and not shopping for a few weeks…but I HATE dropping however much money it takes to do it.  Then, I remembered.  I got a rebate check from when I bought my computer earlier this year!  It covered the bill exactly.  I love stuff like that!  We also had to get a part for John’s car.  The fan relay was broken, and was stuck on the “on” position.  This little problem killed his battery at work the other night, and he could drive his car just fine as long as he got a jumpstart.  So, 20 minutes of driving around, a few dollars (ok, a few more than a few) I pulled my car around and we hooked them up, John put in the new part, and Wal-Lah!  Fixed.  I am so happy to be married to a man that knows that fan relays exist. 

I had to review a movie for my film class again…I chose Amelie.  A French film that I love.  Here’s the thing, they played it on campus at the International Cinema, but I didn’t go see it there, I opted to rent it instead.  Turns out there is a bit of nudity and sexual content that probably would’ve been cut out if I saw it on campus, as well as a montage of a sperm fertilizing an egg and a baby being born (about 5 seconds long) in the opening.  I have fixed feelings about this.  I can’t even explain to you how much I love this movie.  John watched it with me today and said, “Of course you love this movie, Amelie is you!”  She collects rocks just to hold them and throw them, loves to put her hands in bins of beans, just because it feels nice, and has a series of other idiosyncrasies that mirror my own tendencies to get lost and pay attention to little things I enjoy.  I love how she falls in love- I love that she helps people find happiness and see the extraordinary in the ordinary, but I know that I couldn’t recommend the movie to anyone.  It’s French…and so the sexuality isn’t the same as you would see in an American movie- and it is definitely not just to draw viewers.  There is no element just thrown in to be risque, it’s all part of life, a commentary on being human- imperfection and quirkiness and all.  And even still, I see that Mormon-Ad with the ice cream sunday with a bug sticking it in reading, “It’s good except for the bad parts.”  But there’s something in me that just won’t see this as ugliness.  I generally have a pretty sensitive spirit when it comes to movie, but I felt uplifted by this one.  What do ya do?

We watched another one this weekend for my film class called, “A Room with a View,” by the BBC.  It was a little older, and was full of a specific kind of English Humor that I love…(this Sense and Sensibility, not Mr. Bean).  Again, we encountered a scene that we DEFINITELY wouldn’t have seen in the International Cinema.  There are two younger guys and a Vicar who all go swimming somewhere in the middle/end of the movie.  Things are going swimmingly until all of a sudden, they’re naked and chasing each other around for 10 minutes.  And it shows EVERYTHING.  Seriously.  I’VE SEEN A NAKED VICAR.  Or, at least, an actor playing one.  John and I were shocked…stunned, not sure what to do.  I have no idea how that’s even allowed.  Let’s be honest.  No one wants to see that.  What’s up with BYU picking foreign films with nudity, cutting it out for the IC, and having all kinds of students forming a love for a film that’s going to SHOCK THE CRAP out of them in 5 years when they decide, “I loved that movie, I should buy it and watch it again!”  One of those, “I don’t remember THIS part” moments.  3.  Naked.  Men.  That’s all I’ve got to say.  BYU is responsible for that one.

So now I’m going to do some work, then write up a bunch of reviews of these films online…and then maybe do some science.  Life is beautiful, minus naked vicars, that is.

Do you remember that movie with that red-haired actress…Molly someone or another…Pretty in Pink, I think.  The sister is getting married, and ends up with girl troubles on her wedding day, and so she takes some medicine  and is super drugged all day.  If I could only get my hands on some codeine, that would so be me today.  But I’m actually feeling better.  And I KNOW I’ll feel better tomorrow.  Hope has returned. 

Don’t you love how I share my bodily/health issues with the world?  It’s great.  No shame.

I’ve started reading this book called, “Woman, an Intimate Geography,” and I gotta tell you, knowing why things hurt is absolutely no consolation whilst they are hurting.  I actually just skipped the two chapters on the uterus.  It was too crazy, I started to get paranoid about stuff.  The first two chapters on reproductive cells were FASCNIATING.  The first part of the chapter was all about how amazing it is that women’s eggs form while they are still in the uterus themselves, and that all those eggs are by default, female.  If you think about it, it’s some sort of maternal continuum, woman cell contained within woman cell for eternity.  It’s very cool.  But as I go along, not even the happy feminist hippie jokes the author throws in can help me through the detailed biological material in some of the later chapters.  It’s like thinking you’re a tricycle, and finding out that you’re actually a continental cruise liner.  So many more moving parts than you thought you had.  Where before, I felt relatively well-equipped to handle any “malfunctions,”  any symptom now can be a sign of something wrong below deck.  Yeah.  I should stop reading the book for awhile.

Today is work day.  I’ve got a couple of chapters to finish up, and then I’ll go home to rue being female for a couple of hours, maybe clean up a bit and do some homework.  Jonathan is perhaps planning some sort of Transformers event…while I loved seeing that movie in theatres…I’m wondering if it was one of those watch it one time and be satisfied kind of films.  Not sure.  Last night I watched “Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles,” an assignment for film class.  It’s one of those movies where you’re going along, all happy and intrigued…and then all of a sudden something happens that just completely draws you out.  In this case, a little boy going poo.  It SHOWS it.  I was eating a Reese’s peanut butter cup when it happened, and honestly, I was beside myself.  I didn’t see it coming at all.  The film is in Japanese, and I wasn’t always being attentive enough to the subtitles, but you would have THOUGHT that I’d be prepared for something like that by the storyline.  I haven’t decided what I think about it yet.  Best to go to class tomorrow and have the teacher explain to me why my first experience seeing another human being defecate should be considered artistic. 

Ok.  Enough ramblings.  Time for work.

I just woke up from a nice Sunday nap. I feel asleep about 1…hard. I woke up around 3, just as hard. My sleeping symptoms are quite clear: I’m getting a cold. As I sleep, I don’t know the world even exists, but when I wake up, I’m too uncomfortable to stay in bed. All I can do is take some vitamins, rest up, and hope that I get better and not worse.

As I woke up today, even with the sniffles, I just felt happy. I was comfortable covered in my duvet (that John thinks is too hot to sleep under), and John had crawled in bed to take a nap sometime after I fell asleep and was sleeping deeply as well. We had such a good day yesterday. It was a good morning at church. Laying there, I felt calm, and fulfilled, and just happy. Life is pretty good

Yesterday we woke up and ran up to REI. We both were able to get new backpacks for school- ones that carry our laptops- and I got a new coat/jacket. Now I just want it to get cold. We also went to Harmons (oh how I love Harmons) and got some groceries…and a brand new pumpkin cup. I saw it and just HAD to have something to help me start to celebrate fall. I put it on the sink in the bathroom, and as I did had a super strong memory about a pumpkin cup my mom kept on the sink in the bathroom when I was a kid. I remember being excited that I didn’t have to ask for help to get a drink of water anymore. It’s funny the things that pop into our minds from time to time.

I also spent a bit of time yesterday getting myself organized for school- outlining what I need to read and getting my notebooks together. I did some work, which, since I have so much more to do during the week, will probably spill over onto Saturdays from time to time.

Church was good today. Sacrament meeting was a bit long, but we had a new Sunday school class. It’s on Family History, and there are only like, 6 of us who are taking it. I think we might actually be using the time to work on our family history, which led me to call my Mom and ask her to send me some things she has giving me/trying to give me for awhile. I’m glad to have the time/impetus to get going a bit on this, even if to understand what there is to do and stop being so overwhelmed with the thought of it.

So, that little list of what’s up and what’s going on brings up to now. I was thinking about the movie that I saw in Film class last week, called Not of This World. It was about a nun who was working towards taking her final vows. A lot of people around her are pressuring her to consider another lifestyle, and yet she goes along with her work heading towards her goal. As she’s walking through a park on day, a man hands her a baby he found in the park. She tracks the sweater that the baby is wrapped in, and finds a man who owns a laundromat who she thinks may be the father. As the story goes on, she interacts with a lot of different people, all having something to do with the baby. A number of these people tell her that she can’t understand what they are going through, because she has “renounced” everything. What is so incredibly obvious to everyone watching from the outside, is that having “renounced” everything and renouncing everything are two very different things, and that the woman is just as much a woman and a person as every other person in the story. Nun, or not. Even more touching is a man who she interacts with who asks her the same question two different times in the story. “If I had been someone else, would it have made a difference?” The first time she says no, and he is left to believe that she is like everyone else sees her; a woman meant to serve everyone with no specific connections to anyone else. The second time, however, she tells him yes. That the difference was made in the situation because it was him, and they admit to their connection and affection for each other. It doesn’t have to be about love or devotion or even about the baby (who neither of them have anything to do with in the end) it is simply about being human, and the need to contribute, to matter, and to interact with other people. I loved the movie, and even though I told you the end (basically) it’s definitely worth watching, as long as you can find some enjoyment in subtitles.

Well, I think I’m going to go see if John wants to wake up and make some food. Jonathan should be coming over later. The dog, he found, by the way, did have an owner. Jon’s boss found the person who lost him the next day. Makes us both want a dog, bad. Alas…one day.