Knew it wasn't that simple

My phone woes are not over. I knew it was too simple. But instead of triple checking everything I decided to just believe that things MIGHT actually be changing and going the way they were supposed to for once.

I was wrong. So very very wrong. AGAIN.

Tuesday I arrived home to see the service people tried to come by but couldn't get to the box so they needed to access the premises. This does not surprise me. The alley is quite overgrown and blocked off at one end, so it's not inconceivable that they need to go through my house to get to the phone box where the line comes into the house. Now, my service at this point is still with AT&T, and they were the ones that sent out the tech. The notice in my door was from Verizon, and it told me I needed to call and schedule an appointment. So I do this: first, I call AT&T, and they tell me to call the service people directly since they left the card. So I call Verizon. And I'm told that yes, I called the right place. AT&T contracts with Verizon for the physical maintenance. And yes, they can set up the appointment. So we do. For Friday afternoon between 1pm and 5pm.

I'm sure you can see where this is going...

Anyway, after making that appointment, I call Verizon to have my service switched over after being insulted for the umpteenth thousandth time by the AT&T phone and DSL technicians. They tell me that the order is all set up, and like I said in my previous post, I'm actually going to get some nice discounts and it will actually cost me quite a bit less per month for the same set of products I'm getting now. Well, they call back two days later and tell me that there's a small problem. In order for them to switch the DSL, I need to call and put in an order to cancel my DSL with AT&T first. Once they see that the order for cancellation is in, they can place the order for internet service through them. OK. Granted, this creates some minor panic as it means I won't have home internet access for a good 8 to 10 business days between canceling my service with AT&T and when the service with Verizon actually gets activated. But I can deal. Really. [takes several deep breaths] So I call and cancel my DSL with AT&T on Thursday. Effective Dec. 7th, which is the end of my billing cycle and due to various reasons, pretty much the earliest date possible for them to flip the f*cking switch to turn it off (I don't understand why it takes a minimum of 5 business days, but whatever). The only good thing is that it will be the end of the billing cycle so there won't be any credits/partial bills etc. for them to screw up.

Now, the service tech coming out has nothing to do with my service switch. Nothing. It does, however, create some confusion when I call to confirm the appointment, but it gets cleared up. I confirm that my service will be switched now that I've canceled my DSL with AT&T, AND that a tech is coming out to the house on Friday afternoon to fix the physical problem with the line. I'm told everything is fine. Remember, this is Thursday. And everything is all set. No problem, I am assured multiple times. Everything is clear.

Again, WRONG. So very very wrong.

It's now Friday. I took the afternoon off work and waited all afternoon for the technician. No one showed up. So I called the nice little number they gave me to inquire if the tech didn't show by a specific time. I'm told that the appointment had actually been canceled. WTF?? No one told me. Seriously. NO ONE TOLD ME. Apparently, I called the wrong place and should never had been able to make the appointment in the first place. Federal guidelines and all. But that still doesn't explain why no one f*cking told me this or let me know the appointment was canceled. It took an hour on the phone to get this answer. ONE HOUR. And my phone line is still full of static. Which means my DSL signal is intermittent. And there's nothing the Verizon people can do.

I literally started to cry. I sat there on the phone with the person and sobbed. I'm the CONSUMER. It's not my JOB to know these things. I'm NOT the company. They are. How am I supposed to know the Federal guidelines regarding who I have to make an appointment through for service on my physical line? I just call the help line and go through the f*cking menus to talk to a person. Ultimately, after my sobbing for a good 10 minutes, they tell me I can either cancel my order to switch service to them, or wait until the service switches and then call and make a NEW appointment directly with them, or try calling AT&T again to make a new appointment through them. I manage to get out between sobs to NOT cancel my order to switch my service. But it's now been clarified that they can't even switch the service until the DSL is OFF completely. Which is different than what the other TWO people told me. Fine. Whatever. So my service won't be switched from AT&T to Verizon until December 7th.

Back to the problem that started it all. The physical line. I call AT&T. The first time I called, they told me to call the service people at Verizon directly to make the appointment. I've now learned that was wrong. So I call back to schedule a service appointment, but since it's after 5pm on a Friday, they can't send anyone out today. Despite the fact that I already had an appointment, which, ironically, is showing up in their system even though I didn't make it through them. [Are you confused? Yes? Well, so am I] We're now trying this again, and I have a NEW service appointment on Monday morning between 8am and noon. This means I have to live with the static on my line and the DSL problems all weekend. Yes, I'm quite cranky about this. OK, VERY cranky.

But cross your fingers that the service technician shows up on Monday morning. One way or another, this will all be over soon. But if this keeps up, and I get frustrated enough, I just might cancel my home phone line altogether and go with cable internet access and wireless (i.e. mobile/cell) only for my phone...

Success! I'm free of AT&T!

I have left AT&T. When I called to complain (yet again) about my intermittent DSL service (which continued all evening because it was still raining), the screwed up order, and other such delights, I learned a valuable piece of information. I was no longer under any contract with them for phone or DSL. I asked and had the person repeat themselves 3 times just to be sure. Apparently the previous customer service individual I spoke to was wrong (this is NOT surprising). No contract meant I could leave them at any time without penalty. Apparently the gods were smiling on me.

So I left. Effective Wednesday afternoon I am a Verizon customer. My home phone number will NOT change. And I'm actually going to save quite a bit of money since I can now bundle my phone, internet (DSL), TV and wireless into one bill. One bill to pay for all those services. Simplification at it's finest not to mention using less paper! And voice mail is included. No more paying for voice mail (AT&T...get a clue and enter the 21st century: stop charging for voice mail!). Just the phone service alone is cheaper than what I could get as the most basic service through AT&T. Their high speed internet is cheaper by over $10 too. What's more, bundling gives me some nice discounts on services I already had (TV and wireless). I've been a happy Verizon wireless customer for about 5 years and I have no complaints about my DirecTV service during the past year (except when the weather wrecks havoc with my reception during my favorite shows, but that's not their fault). So far this looks promising. At the very least, I won't have to be insulted by AT&T's customer "service" reps when I call to report a problem anymore. That alone is worth switching companies for.

So good-bye to AT&T. No more frustrating so-called customer service for me!

What next? (a rant)

My home phone and DSL service is through AT&T. Because I was an AT&T customer in my PCOR due to their merger with SBC, and because I was technically still under a DSL contract when I moved here, I had to continue to use AT&T or face an over $200 early termination fee. Fine, whatever, I'll continue with AT&T here in Philly. I wasn't too concerned, as my service with them in various previous cities had been pretty good. I hadn't had a whole lot of problems, other than the usual complaints about things like international long distance costing too much (what else is new). But the switch over was not smooth. I should have seen this as a warning about what kind of service I was in store for from AT&T out here. The two regional service areas told me different things, my service got screwed up, and it took multiple phone calls over the course of several days just to get my service set up correctly, i.e. the way it was written on my contract and in all my account information. For some reason, there was a disconnect between what I was paying for versus what I was getting. And ironically it was the regional service provider back in my PCOR that was able to fix the problem, or at least communicate with the AT&T people out here to get it fixed.

Alas, that was not the last of my problems with them out here. I have had various problems with AT&T over the past year. Static on my line. Intermittent connections. DSL issues. You can read about them here and here. Why haven't I switched, you ask? Well, that damn contract thing again. With DSL you sign up for a service contract, usually for a minimum of one year. Mine somehow morphed from a one year to a two year contract when I moved out here. So until August 2008 I am still under contract for DSL service. But my problems haven't been limited to just my DSL. I've also had issues with the general phone line. I've made countless calls to report problems with my service. And for awhile I thought things had been resolved and the problems fixed.

I was wrong. So very very wrong. And I have two issues with them now, one an old problem, and one where they screwed things up with my service plan yet again.

It's raining today. For months I had issues with massive amounts of static on my line every time it rained. Literally every single time it rained. And they tried to tell me it was a problem with the wiring in my walls. Yeah, sure, um, NOT. And every time I had to call twice: once to report the problem of the static on my general phone line, and then call back again to report the fact that the static caused my DSL signal to become intermittent (i.e. no internet connection). After a multitude of angry phone calls from me, they finally sent a technician out to the house to look at the connection between the house and the incoming lines sometime this past summer, almost a year after I first reported the problem. And the problem appeared to have been fixed by the technician. We had rain storms for days. One that even exposed that slow leak. But I had no problems with my phone service or my DSL.

Again, and I admit it, I was WRONG. It hasn't actually been fixed, I was apparently just lucky for a few months. I had to call this morning and report static on my line yet again. The static was so bad I could barely hear the prompts from the automated system on the other end. I called before I left for work, around 7am. No, I have no idea when the problem started, as I was asleep until 5:30ish. But it's raining, so presumably it started sometime after the rain started in the middle of the night. And of course my DSL signal is intermittent so I have no internet access AGAIN. They're sending another technician to see what's going on at the connection between the house and incoming lines. Sometime today or tomorrow before 7pm. Fabulous.

But this is not my only problem. I called on Nov. 14th to change my basic phone service (not my DSL, just the phone, which has no contract) to a simpler plan. I had done my research, I knew exactly what I wanted, but for some reason the system wouldn't let me do it myself online. So I called. And spent a good half hour on the phone repeating myself and refusing other offers. Only to be told at the end that their computers were down for maintenance/upgrade and once they got it in the system it would take 7 to 10 days to process the switch. Great. So I proceeded to track my order online. My order was put into the system on Nov. 19th. It was processed on Nov. 21st. My order was for a basic phone line package with two features: CallerID and call forwarding. And I was keeping my voice mail (which they charge for...who charges for voice mail in this day and age?? but that's another rant). I made it abundantly clear to the technician that I did NOT want call waiting. I loathe call waiting. Hate it with a passion. She asked me three times and all three times I said no. And when she read my order back to me, she read it to me correctly: NO call waiting, just CallerID and call forwarding, with basic phone service.

But guess what? AT&T screwed up my order. Yup. They f*cked up my service yet again. Somewhere between that phone conversation and the entering of the order into the computer, or between the order in the computer and completion of the order, CallerID got replaced by call waiting. So I haven't had CallerID since before Thanksgiving. And what's worse, they charged me to make the service plan changes. Yup. I paid them to screw up my phone service. I am so beyond pissed right now. This evening I have to make yet another phone call to have them fix it (i.e. get rid of call waiting and turn CallerID back on) and have them refund me the service charge for the change. Because I'm not paying for their mistake. And I will be a pain in their rear until they refund me my money and fix the problem. Or until they release me from my contract so I can go someplace else with my business. Because this is unbelievable. How is it possible for them to screw up the same problems over and over and never fix them?? What the f*ck am I paying them so much money for each month?? I just can't stand it.

How one company can be so beyond incompetent as to do EVERYTHING wrong with a customer all at once I have no idea. And then try and blame it on the customer. How they survive and keep such a lion's share of the market is beyond me.

What friends are for

What do you get when you put together 3 type-A personalities to help move a 4th type-A personality? Entertainment, of course!

Saturday I drove down to the Washington, DC area. SB, one of my good friends from my PCOR (previous city of residence), has moved to just outside of DC in Maryland. And two of my other good friends had driven over with her to help. LC, LP, and SB helped me when I was leaving, too. If your best friends, who don't want you to leave, are willing to help you move far away, you know you have the best friends in the world.

Anyway, SB, LC, LP and LP's roomie A drove over from my PCOR on Friday (a very very long drive with SB's two cats and her dog just to make it interesting). They couldn't get into the apartment until Saturday morning at 9am, so I got up literally before dawn, got my dog and myself in the car with plenty of coffee (for me), and drove down to join them, a little less than 2 1/2 hours each way. The drama started immediately. When the truck was loaded and locked up, the lock was put on in such a way that they couldn't get the key in to unlock it. Fortunately, we had help in the form of A. He did something involving a brute force and wrench and managed to get the truck open. I didn't witness the application of brute force and frankly, I don't want to know.

This is where the type-A personalities really made things interesting. SB was moving into a small second floor apartment. There was a living room, bedroom, kitchen, and a spare bedroom/office. The bathroom was occupied by her cats. Because SB also has a dog, the dog was put in her crate in the spare room (now forever dubbed "Rosie's room"), and Aussie napped in my car all day (just trying to contain the drama a bit). We all were trying to organize things, offering advice as to where boxes should go, when to move in specific items of furniture, etc. We had a really funny moment where LP commented on how it was clear that SB didn't care anymore so we could do what we wanted now, which SB heard, started to object but then realized was true so we all had a good laugh break. But none-the-less everything got moved in. SB has about a third of the stuff that the rest of us have (i.e. only two boxes of books...right now I have three boxes of books to GIVE AWAY...imagine how many boxes of books I'm keeping). With LP moving things from the back of the truck to the ramp, and me, SB, LC and A taking things upstairs, it only took about an hour and a half. An hour and a half of good work, and we were all definitely tired by the end, but it all got done.

Except for the couch. SB had a full sized couch with big poufy arms on it. Yes, HAD. She no longer has said couch because it couldn't fit up the stairs and through the door. Just before the landing in front of her apartment door there was a right turn. What's more, the landing was small, and had a low and sloped ceiling. There was no way that couch was gonna fit. And we tried. We moved it up the stairs, got it all the way to the turn in the stairs and then realized that the way we had it wasn't going to make the turn. So we moved it back down flipped it around a different way and tried again. Back up the stairs. This time we made the right turn, but couldn't get it onto the landing or through the door. Despite all five of us trying to get that couch into her apartment, it just wasn't going to fit. No way no how. So we moved it back down the stairs and back into the truck to be taken away and donated. Fortunately SB didn't have any attachment to the couch and was willing to part with it. Eventually she will get a new (smaller) couch or futon (that can be taken apart to move it). Sunday I realized that I have a bruise on my shoulder from where the couch was resting as we tried to get it up the stairs. No, I can't tell you when the bruise happened, but the couch was resting on my shoulder at one point as I supported it with my legs on the stairs.

Once the truck was returned, the rental car for LC, LP and A's trip back home was picked up, and a pizza was ordered and picked up (OMG zpizza is delicious!), we all had a chance to sit and visit for awhile. So good to have some time. I really miss them all so very much. That's the sucky thing about moving, you have to leave people behind. Lucky for us in this day and age you're never that far away. The drive down to SB's new place is easily a day trip so hopefully we'll see each other more often. And I'll make a trip back to see LC and LP for a long weekend in March for my birthday.

My legs are sore from all the trips up and down the stairs (despite all my biking), but I'm still smiling from the opportunity to see my friends for the day. It was worth it.

Accents

No one can ever guess where I'm from. I have no true "accent" that affiliates me with one part of the country.

What American accent do you have? (Best version so far) Neutral You're not Northern, Southern, or Western, you're just plain -American-. Your national identity is more important than your local identity, because you don't really have a local identity. You might be from the region in that map, which is defined by this kind of accent, but you could easily not be. Or maybe you just moved around a lot growing up.

Click Here to Take This Quiz Brought to you by YouThink.com quizzes and personality tests.

This quiz supports that. I just moved a lot. I'm not from the middle of the country (as marked on the map). But I did live there for a few years. Some of my words come out sounding like I'm from one place, others like a completely different part of the country. Add a few pieces of international slang into the mix and yeah, I'm an American mutt with a dash of international cosmopolitanism. And proud of it.

Thanksgiving leftovers

Leftovers are my favorite part of the Thanksgiving meal. The open faced hot turkey sandwiches are perhaps one of my all time favorite things to eat. Seriously. A nice slice of bread, topped with turkey, some dressing/stuffing, possibly mashed potatoes, and then gravy. Warm it up (oven or microwave, your preference), and top with cranberry relish/sauce. OMG so good. Yes, a carb fest, but so delicious I really don't care.

Yesterday I made a Thanksgiving menu of experiments. Recipes I've been wanting to try, but I didn't want to make someone be a guinea pig. Here's a brief review of what I made and how it went.

Turkey breast, brined: I've never brined a turkey before. Alton Brown (food and science nerd GOD!) swears by this method and it's supposed to keep the turkey moist during roasting. The brine I made included water, white wine, orange juice, peppercorns, whole allspice, fresh ginger, brown sugar and salt. I actually put the turkey breast in the brine on Wednesday night, and stirred and flipped the breast over first thing Thursday morning. The total brine time in the fridge ended up being about 18 hours. Anything between 12 and 24 hours is good. I rinsed it, rolled it up and tied it with twine so the skin covered all the meat, rubbed it with a little bit of oil, salt and pepper, and thew it in a roasting pan with onion, celery and apple chunks (aromatics make for good roasts!). It certainly came out tender and moist, and the brine gave the meat a bit of flavor. You could definitely taste the salt, and I'd prefer to not taste it, so I need to figure out what I did or what I need to do to fix that. Maybe I need to rinse it more before roasting, or roll it up and tie it before brining to reduce the surface area exposed to the brine. But I could taste a hint of ginger and allspice, and I liked that very much. Overall, quite delicious.

Dressing: no stuffing, as I'm not roasting a whole bird. So instead I'm making my own dressing, with fresh bread cubes dried out in the oven. We've always used the bag of bread cubes in the past, but I wanted to make only a partial recipe (like only one-fourth of the usual size), so it was actually easier to make my own out of a small loaf of white bread. A little onion, celery, broth, butter and seasoning, and you have dressing. Mine turned out a bit dry, but it sure tasted good. I just need to add a bit more broth to keep it moist. But it did soak up the gravy quite nicely.

Gravy: of course. Made from the pan drippings, which have all this great turkey flavor plus the aromatics. Tasty stuff. No giblets, no hard boiled egg, just pan drippings, pepper, some broth and thickened up with a broth and cornstarch slurry. It didn't thicken up the way I wanted, but gravy is an art. I just need to practice more. As my mom said, "it's in the doing" that you master gravy. It did thicken a bit as it cooled, however, so I did something right.

Brussels sprouts: I love these. Love them. I love to roast them with other veggies, or even just steam them and top with some butter and a touch of vinegar. This year I decided to try another Food Network recipe, this one from Giada: Brussels sprouts with pancetta. OK, so I didn't have pancetta...but I did have BACON! Brussels sprouts, bacon and garlic sauteed together. How can you go wrong. Seriously. Because I used bacon rather than pancetta and it tends to be fattier, I did have to pour some of the rendered fat out of the pan before I added the garlic and sprouts. OMG so good. I could eat this all by itself for dinner!

Mashed sweet potato with ginger: I bought fresh ginger for my turkey brine, and had a bit leftover. My friend LC told me about these amazing mashed sweet potatoes with ginger that she had sampled from Whole Foods. So I decided to try and recreate it. I baked the sweet potato in it's jacket, and then peeled and mashed it up with milk, a touch of butter, shredded fresh ginger, a touch of brown sugar, and just a dash of salt and pepper. Fantastic. Absolutely fantastic.

Cranberry-apple-orange relish: OK, so this one is a tradition. But as I said before, the holiday just doesn't feel right without it. I'll probably make it again for Christmas at Grandmother's this year. And I do love eating it. A full recipe gives me a weeks worth, but I honestly don't get sick of it. It also has some candied ginger in it, and I always throw in a bit extra to give it an extra little bite.

Mulled apple cider: another tradition. I bought a 1/2 gallon of fresh local apple cider at the farmers' market on Wednesday, and simmered it with whole allspice, whole cloves, cinnamon stick, a sliced orange and a touch of sugar. Between the cider and the turkey the house still smells incredible.

The menu verdict: I will definitely try this menu out again on guests. An excellent Thanksgiving meal. I even took a few pictures and put them up on Flickr, the turkey breast roast turned out that pretty and the Brussels sprouts that delicious looking. I'm actually kind of impressed with myself that it did turn out that well. I wasn't expecting it. A very satisfying plate of food. Aussie thoroughly enjoyed her plate as well [the dog gets just a bite of everything...it is a holiday after all].

The leftover sandwich today (and tomorrow, and Sunday, etc.) should be damn good. I realize there was no dessert listed, but I'm making Pumpkin Rolls today (yes, five of them), and I will have to sample one to make sure they turn out right. Cook's prerogative, you know (nudge nudge, wink wink).

Hope everyone is enjoying their Thanksgiving leftovers as much as I am!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving has to be my favorite holiday. It's a combination of some of my favorite things: cooking, eating, and hanging out with friends and family you care about. And even better, there's no gift pressure. I know, I know, Thanksgiving is supposed to be about being grateful for everything in your life. Well, when I can't think of anything better than getting together a bunch of family and friends and just hanging out together and eating lots of good food. Not much makes me happier than that. And I see the purpose of the day as just that. I'm grateful for my friends and family, so I choose to spend the day with them. It makes sense to me.

Growing up Thanksgiving in our house was always a completely random gathering of people. Most of which were either unable to travel or had no place to travel to. So my family threw open its doors and welcomed everyone to our table. Most of our guests only had my family in common, and often had never met. You'd think that this would cause tension, but somehow it never did. And the group of people was different from year to year.

People would start arriving mid-day to hang out for a few hours before the feast. We had snacks out, hot mulled apple cider (non-alcoholic) simmering in a coffee carafe (specially designated as cider-only), a jigsaw puzzle out on the non-formal dining table, and music on in the background. The football game would be turned on, but with low volume so as not to intrude on conversation. My parents are both from Michigan, so the annual Detroit Lions-Dallas Cowboys game is very much a part of the Thanksgiving tradition in both families (yes, I will have the Lions game, this year versus Green Bay, on myself in the background today). But it certainly wasn't the center of attention at our house. Usually people gathered around the jigsaw puzzle with a mug of cider and a plate of snacks, and chatted while trying to fit pieces together.

There was no kid table in our house. We all sat at the big dining room table together, pulling in extra chairs from all over the house. The day before we'd put the extra leaves into the table, and put down the tablecloth and candles, and set the table with the china (which we used for all holiday and special occasion meals). And yes, even us kids got to use the china. One year the cat decided to "help" us. We had a sheet we would put under the tablecloth as an extra layer of protection for the table. She figured out that if she got a running start from the living room and jumped on one end of the table, she could slide all the way to the other end on the sheet! She'd then jump off and circle around to do it again. Mom and I just stood there and watched, laughing hysterically, spreading the sheet back out after each pass. Eventually she lost interest and we were able to set the table, but she took probably a dozen "rides" on the sheet first!

The big feast was usually mid to late afternoon. Everyone brought one dish to share, usually a dish considered traditional in their family. Our Thanksgiving feast varied from year to year depending on the guests. Yes, we had central elements (turkey!), but it was so cool to see what other people considered traditional dishes. Over the years a few became part of our traditional dishes. But this also meant that often we had duplication. A few years we had multiple green bean dishes. Most years we had at least two different cranberry sauce/relish recipes, as we had our own traditional Cranberry-Orange-Apple relish. I still have to make that relish either for Thanksgiving or Christmas or the season just doesn't feel right. And my cousin likes the cranberry sauce from the can that you slice. But more duplication meant more yummy foods to try and more yummy leftovers (my favorite part, I'll get into that more in my next post).

We always made the turkey, as well as at least one dish of dressing. There was always whipped/mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes baked with brown sugar, butter and marshmallows on top, dressing/stuffing, rolls, salad, cranberry sauce/relish, various vegetable dishes like broccoli-cheese casserole or green been casserole or braised baby carrots, at least one chilled jello salad (such as pistachio fluff), and of course gravy, one with giblets and one without. A feast. Definitely a feast. You had to pace yourself so you had room to sample everything on the table. And that was just dinner. Dessert came later.

After eating, an assembly line was usually set up to clear the table, package everything up, and do the dishes. It never took long. Then we'd take a break and work on the puzzle, watch the parades or football on TV, visit, or just fall asleep on the couch and take a little nap. After an hour or so, people would start to think about dessert.

Dessert was just as much a feast as dinner. We always made our traditional Pumpkin Roll, which we'd make ahead as it had to be chilled (one less thing to do on Thanksgiving day!). There was also usually a pecan pie (did I mention my mom's family is from the South?), a pumpkin pie, and a few years there was even sweet potato pie. Or fruit pies like apple or mincemeat (with suet but with chopped apple instead of meat so it was sweet rather than savory). And plenty of ice cream or whipped topping for the pies. Guests would bring other desserts that aren't usually considered Thanksgiving desserts. I remember a chocolate-toffee layered dessert with cake, pudding, whipped cream and toffee bits, kind of like a trifle. Yummy. There was a delicious pear tart one year as well and unfortunately I didn't get the recipe.

This year I have no plans other than to make a meal for myself and spend the day at home. And I'm actually grateful for that. I'm grateful to have the time to myself to put things in order in my house and my life. To continue the purge of un-needed and un-wanted belongings that I've been dragging around. To recharge. And I am cooking myself a Thanksgiving dinner, with all sorts of recipes I've been wanting to try for sometime now. If they go well, then I'll have a lovely Thanksgiving menu for next year. If they go badly, well, let's just say the dog will be very grateful for a few days.

So Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Limits

A friend asked me today when I was going to start saying "no" when I'm asked to participate in something or do something in addition to my normal work/life. This is a question I get asked often and I've discussed it before. I'm not very good at saying no, but I never really could explain why I'm not good at it.

I finally have an answer.

I will say "no" when I no longer have something to say or something I want to contribute.

Presumably, that means when I finally say "no" it will be because I'm dead.

An evening of Bach

Last week my friend AH asked me if I would be interested in an evening of Bach with her and DS on Sunday. It's been quite some time since I've had the opportunity to enjoy some beautiful classical music so I jumped at the chance to join them.

The Curtis Institute of Music here in Philadelphia does a series of student recitals every year. Over one hundred. Sunday night was once such recital, in a beautiful location: St. Mark's Church. St. Mark's was built in 1849, and it's a grand stone building, very Gothic Revival. Needless to say an incredible setting for an evening of baroque music.

The concert was the complete Brandenburg Concertos by J. S. Bach. This is quite the endeavor, especially for a student recital. Most student recitals are small groups, or solos with accompaniment. These Concertos require multiple different arrangements of instruments and people, all of varying number. Sometimes a student would be playing the lead part, yet in the Concerto immediately previous or following they might be the support. Not an easy situation for a student, yet an incredible opportunity. The evening was divided into two halves: No. 1 through No. 3 at 4pm, and then No. 4 through No. 6 at 7:30pm. Between was a dinner break.

One of the things that makes this arrangement of the Brandenburg Concertos unique was the harpsichord (side note: what's with harpsichords almost always being painted in gaudy colors? the inside of the lid on this one was bright orange with a gold border!). And in some it was the support, yet in others it took a more prominent role. Each Number had a combination of strings and/or wind instruments and the harpsichord. Not something you get to hear everyday.

No. 1 had some great echoes between the violins, the oboes and the horns. The violins would play the melody solo, the whole group would play, the oboes would have the melody solo, the whole group would play, and then the horns had the solo. It was really interesting to hear how each different type of instrument changed how the melody sounded.

In No. 2 the trumpet was awesome! The trumpet player was a young woman and she rocked it. It was a small trumpet, almost like they had folded it in on itself, but wow what a sound. She had a great clear tone and never got lost behind all the other players.

No. 3 was all strings. The cellos were great. And the professor played the harpsichord for this one because there's a moment where Bach gives the player liberty to do what he likes. Pure improvisation. I'm sure he decided how he was going to play it that very day.

Next was the dinner break. St. Mark's is in a part of town with restaurants everywhere. And nearby was Monk's, home of yummy Belgian beer and mussels. AH went for mussels with a bit of spice (she has a cold so spicy food is always nice to help clear the sinuses). I decided to try their burgers this time, getting the "Trappist" with lettuce, tomato and goat cheese, hold the raw onions please. It was quite yummy. DS also had a burger and we split a basket of their yummy pommes frites. But the Bourbon mayo that comes with the fries was all his (Bourbon is just not my thing). And of course we all had a beer (how can you not?).

We got back to the church in plenty of time to get a good seat for the second half.

The violin player that had the primary part in No. 4 was amazing. His fingers positively danced on the strings. It was such incredible finger work and he played it effortlessly. The two flutes played off of each other beautifully, alternately letting each other be the stronger sound. And with such beautiful clear tone to their playing. In general all the players were so impressive during all three movements of No. 4.

No. 5 contained the harpsichord solo. The professor played again for this Concerto, as one movement contained quite a long solo with plenty of room for interpretation.

For No. 6 there was another unique element: no violins, only the lower strings (viola, cello and bass). It was beautiful. It was amazing to see how the violas played almost "around" each other, one playing then the other, chasing each other through the melody. I love canons in music. Many of my favorite musical pieces are canons, so it was great to hear one with a pair of violas.

All six of the Concertos have this wonderful layering element to them. I love how Bach layers the music and you can hear him building them: one instrument starts, then another picks up the melody, then a third, then eventually everyone joins in. And try as I might, I can't pick a favorite one. I enjoyed them all immensely.

It was an amazing evening of music. And I was positively humbled by the talent of these young musicians. I'm going to have to check out other student recitals. You just can't beat an evening of free classical music played by a group of students that obviously have a passion for what they are playing.

Remnants

I recently made a decision, a freeing decision. I decide to not force myself to do something. To not force myself to finish something. Typically I set a goal and complete it. I usually go the distance, the long haul. Whether I want to reach that goal or not by the end of things, I still complete it. This time I didn't. I decided to NOT complete the goal because a) I didn't want it anymore, I had lost all interest and passion, and b) it has no relevance to my life and career. My life and career has gone in a very different direction than I thought it would. At one point the goal was relevant. It fit with the direction I thought my career was headed. Then things changed and made a sharp turn to the left about 4 or 5 years ago. But I kept working towards the goal because I started it so I felt had to finish it (that stubborn streak I have). A rational person would have stopped at that point and asked why they were doing it. But I'm not always rational. I kept working towards the degree. A degree in a topic that at one point I enjoyed and thought was going to be part of my career. And I was very very close to the goal. But I was forcing myself and making myself miserable trying to reach it. So I finally stopped and asked myself why? Why was I doing this? What was the point? How does this fit with my life and career? I had no answers. No reasons. So I decided to stop. I don't need it. Deciding was like a breath of fresh air. I felt lighter. Free. Like I had thrown the albatross around my neck into the next galaxy. And calm. It was the right decision for me.

And then I realized I could purge. I didn't need to keep all the related stuff anymore.

So I spent part of my weekend purging the stuff I've been hauling around for years and years...3 copier paper boxes full of papers and notes to be recycled...a rather large box of binders (anyone need 3 ring binders?? various sizes available! I'll even throw in some dividers!)...a copier paper box full of books that I read because I had to but can't say that I enjoyed or will ever read again (buh bye Garcia Marquez!)...plus random related materials I've accumulated either by people giving them to me or in relation to a class (art exhibit pamphlets, notes from talks, etc.), a pile of paper clips and binder clips, a stack of note cards, and a small bag of trash.

What I'm left with are remnants. The files still on my computer. About a shelf and a half (maybe a little more) of books that I read and enjoyed or authors I've intentionally collected (Jorge Luis Borges, Tomas Eloy Martinez, and Isabel Allende to name three off the top of my head). Some reference books (kept one dictionary, got rid of the other two! wait, why did I have three anyway??). A couple of nice art prints. A file folder of all the "official" paperwork and info. And that's it. Those are the remnants of about 10 cumulative years of studying. And I feel so free.

Makes me want to purge some more. What else that I've been hauling around can I get rid of? I've got a 4 day weekend with Thanksgiving this week. That should be plenty of time to do some serious cleaning and purging.

New tires for my bike!

My bike's tires were old. Original to the bike. Which I purchased in January of 2000. For bike tires to last as long as they have is a small miracle.

Riding a bike in the city streets of Philly is like riding through a minefield. Not only do you have traffic, pedestrians, and other bikes, you have the streets. The streets themselves are their own challenge. Potholes. Debris and trash. Broken glass. Carpet staples (caused one of my flats). Bad repair jobs. Street car rails. Sink holes. And that's a short list.

So I was getting fairly frequent flats. Because as careful as you may be, that carpet staple is hard to see when it's raining. And my tires were old. And weren't designed for street riding. They were just a layer of rubber, no liner, and made for trails and soft ground. When I got my most recent flat yesterday morning on my way into work, I decided to do something about my frequent flat problem when I took it to the shop for repair. I decided to get new tires.

Tires that were made to deal with the hazards of city street riding. Tires with an extra layer of tough rubber built in. And a nylon mesh webbing lining the interior to resist punctures. The tires I got were recommended by the guys in the shop and were what I considered affordable (as in not set me back more than $100 for front and rear plus labor). These guys ride the streets every day. These shop guys have more than one bike outfitted for different purposes, and the one outfitted for the streets use these tires. I'll take that recommendation, thankyouverymuch.

So I have shiny new tires! It is a bit odd to have such shiny new tires on a bike that's definitely not shiny (wow does my bike need a tune up and a good cleaning). But I'm sure the the new tire look won't last long. I give them less than a week before the road grime covers up that shine. Especially since it's raining today.

Memory

Memory is a funny thing. Why do you remember what you do? Why are some memories stronger than others? I'm always surprised by how a smell or a sound can bring something back.

And how is it that memory can surprise you? If you knew something, then you should remember it. So why do I frequently surprise myself with what I remember? I've been reviewing some old course work recently, and I've been stunned by just how much I remember.

It's also funny what you commit to memory without even realizing it. In library school I remember my cataloging teacher telling the class that they didn't need to remember the MARC tags used for the books format. I looked at my friend and quipped "too late!" With daily use as a student employee in the library cataloging department I had pretty much committed all the main tags to memory. And despite the fact that I don't use them every day anymore (I deal with a different format of material and while some are the same, not all the tags overlap), I couldn't forget them even if I tried.

I suppose the memories never go away, we just lose the ability to access them. The mental paths we build when we're actively using the material deteriorate with lack of use. Much like a road, without maintenance they eventually become overgrown and crumble, some probably, and unfortunately, never to be rediscovered. I've still got a lot of course material to go through. I better sharpen my mental machete to cut through the overgrowth!

Cooking in the fall

I love the produce in season in the fall. While I love tomatoes and lettuce and zucchini and all the other spring and summer fruit and veggies (ok, I'll admit summer stone fruit is to die for, but apples are one of my all time favorite fruits), I love the produce that comes into season around September and sticks around all fall and into winter. Apples. Sweet onions. Potatoes. Squash (including pumpkin). All sorts of root veggies. And yes, even cabbage and Brussels sprouts. When the weather gets cold, there's nothing that beats a nice warm baked squash or potato. Or roasted veggies tossed with a touch of olive oil, salt and pepper. It makes you feel warm from the inside out.

One of my favorite things to have for any meal in the fall and winter is to just bake a squash with cheese in it. It was one of my favorites when I was living in Buenos Aires: calabaza con queso. The squash is so sweet when it cooks up, and the cheese so creamy and salty. It's the perfect combination.

Butternut squash and acorn squash make great soups. I have this great Thai inspired pumpkin soup that I don't mind eating for days on end. And I made an acorn squash soup with onion, apple and curry the other night that is a close second and only gets better the next day. Butternut holds up great in coconut curry sauces. And it's delicious on pizza. Spaghetti squash is yummy with brown butter and sage. And that's just a short list of my favorite ways to prepare squash. They work well in desserts too. And baking (breads, muffins...squash muffins are so good).

And then there's the yams and sweet potatoes. Bake those in a foil packet with a pork chop, some apple and onion and you've got a one pot meal. Or just bake them and mash them up with butter, sauteed onion and some parmesan cheese. Or turn them into soup with a little bit of bacon sprinkled on top (because everything is better with bacon).

I love the fall and winter. It's not too hot to cook and the possibilities are endless. And Thanksgiving is coming soon. So much cooking...so little time.

A random encounter with a neighbor

I had an interesting experience today on my evening walk with my dog. One of my neighbors hugged me. Now, before you freak out, one, the dog was with me and didn't get upset so he must be non-threatening (she would have barked/freaked otherwise), and two, this is someone I see regularly. He plays his drum over by the Zoo for the zoo-goers coming and going to the main parking lot. My daily bike commute takes me along the path between the entrance and the lot, right past where he sits. I see him pretty much every day when the weather is nice. And every day he shouts a greeting and waves at me.

Now, when I get home, I change out of my biking clothes before I walk the dog. Often I see him walking home from his spot by the Zoo. Turns out he lives probably a block or so from me on another street. So I walk by his house everyday with the dog, and I know he's seen me. But he didn't recognize me as the same person who biked past him.

That is, until today. Today when the dog and I walked past him while he was standing there talking to another neighbor, he looked at me and said: "Hey! You're my bike chick!" I smiled and confirmed this and started to walk past him. And then he hugged me. No sh*t. Just hugged me. Needless to say, I didn't see that one coming and was stunned momentarily. Based on his breath I'm fairly certain he had started happy hour for the day a few hours early, so he was in quite the good mood. My neighbor that he had been talking to chuckled and told him to "leave the poor girl alone." I just smiled, pulled myself out of the hug, told him I'd see him later, and kept walking.

Really, what else could I do?

Last weekend

CH arrived Friday evening, and since we were both hungry and I miraculously found a parking spot near 30th Street Station, we decided to grab a pint and some food at Bridgewater's Pub. For a place inside a commuter center/train station, they have remarkably good food and typically an excellent selection of beers on tap.

On Saturday we got up and spent a good amount of time debating food and activity for the day over coffee. We decided on Colonial Pizza for lunch. It's not too far from me, and the reviews I read were pretty good. We wanted something quick, as we did have an afternoon activity goal: the Penn Museum. We chose to get a salad and so-called "small" strombolis. They were HUGE. I'm sincerely afraid of the size of the large version. We ended up taking the other half home, and it was still a meal in itself on Sunday. Wow. Very tasty, but be prepared. My car still smells faintly of strombolis and we could smell them every time I opened the fridge the rest of the weekend. On Monday the smell was still lingering. It was certainly tasty enough that I'm going to have to go back to try their pizza next time.

Borderline over-full, we attempted to get to Penn Museum. I say attempted because it was our goal, but as with all best laid plans, sometimes they go awry. I got lost. Yes, yes I did. Have I mentioned that I don't drive much in Philly? I knew I was still on campus, I kind of knew where I was (things look very different when you're on foot/on a bike than behind the steering wheel of a car), and then we crossed a bridge and took a mini tour of South Philly. Oops. By the time found our way back to the Museum, which involved several illegal u-turns (yes, Jenna, I "flipped a b*tch"), it was a bit too late. We would have only had about 45 minutes before it closed. What's more, there were people everywhere because the UPenn football game was just getting out and the stadium is across the street from the Museum. So instead of seeing anything cultural as planned, I provided CH with ample opportunity to make fun of me. Nice job on my part, no?

As I mentioned, we had dinner plans with KS and RK at Fogo de Chao. I made a reservation for 8:30. Upon arrival, KS was given this pager thingy that lights up when your table is ready (smacks of suburban places like Cheesecake Factory). But despite the reservation, we didn't actually get seated until 9:30pm, a full hour after our supposed reservation. [Note to self: next time make my reservation for earlier than I want, or bring a snack in my purse.] But the evening did improve markedly once the pager thingy lit up. The first thing they asked us as we were sitting down is what kind of water we wanted. We all kind of stuttered for a moment, not usually being asked if we want tap, still or sparkling water with our meal. The wine list was extensive, with bottles displayed from floor to ceiling on most of the walls. Apparently the restaurant is located in what used to be an old jewelry store, so the architecture is quite ornate. High ceilings, lots of beautiful wood, and decorative touches and chandeliers in brass, silver and gold. Quite the setting. The high ceilings made it a bit noisy, but it was still quite beautiful.

We started our meal with the amazing salad bar that contained all sorts of "gourmet" and decadent things including hearts of palm (a first for RK and CH, they liked it), artichoke hearts, procuitto, tomatoes (fresh and dried), fresh mozzarella, parmesan cheese still in the wheel (they provided a tool for you to chip off chunks! so good!), asparagus, mixed salads, and so on and so on. Really quite the salad bar spread and certainly not your typical buffet bar. I could have made a meal of just selections from it. With the salad bar they brought us some cheese bread. This was not just any cheese bread. These were small crispy puffs of goodness, all soft and chewy inside. Light, fluffy, and absolutely divine. The literally melted in your mouth. CH and RK said the basil dressing was delicious. KS and I stuck to bits and pieces of veggies and cheese, sampling a variety of things rather than getting a lettuce salad, trying to make sure we had plenty of room for the main event: the meat.

OMG the meat. On swords. Each of us was given a little cardboard coaster that was green on one side and red on the other. You turn your little coaster from red (no thanks) to green (serve me please) and they just keep walking around. Servers with some type of grilled/roasted meat on a sword/skewer, with a platter below to catch the juices and knives to carve you off a piece. They would set the platter on the edge of the table, ask if you wanted well done, medium, or medium rare, and start cutting you off a chunk from the skewer. We all had little tongs to grab the pieces as they were cut. Each table has a "guide" of all the different varieties of meat (a mix of cuts of beef, chicken, and pork, including sausage); some were better than others, and some so tender they practically could be cut with a fork. The "house special" really was special and I do recommend it.

the house special
(sorry, camera phone pic, doesn't do it justice)

We all agreed that probably our least favorite of the evening was the filet mignon, which should tell you something about the quality of the meats and how well they were cooked. Juicy and crispy all at once.

With all this meat, they also brought sides: polenta, fried bananas and mashed potatoes. The polenta was perfect. It was fried, and crispy on the outside while still being soft and creamy on the inside. Perfect for soaking up all the juices from the meats. The fried bananas were nice as well, having a creamy texture to cut the heaviness. We were not a mashed potato table...the only thing left untouched.

Amazingly, after all the food and beverages (yes, they do serve caipirinhas, and well made ones too), we found room for dessert. KS and I decided to try the strawberry cream, served with a black currant liqueur. RK got the papaya version. CH decided to be different and get the turtle cheesecake. So delicious. I'm so glad we went for it. The cream is like and ice cream, but more intense, and the liqueur on top added an amazing flavor. CH was quite pleased with his cheesecake as well. With the base prix-fixe (all you can eat), plus drinks and dessert, this is not a place I can afford very often. But it is well worth saving your pennies for the occasional visit.

On Sunday, CH and I were still full from dinner the night before, and just couldn't get ourselves going. We spent a good deal of time talking about things we could do, and then not moving. So instead we had a lazy day involving football, work, more football, more work, naps, more football, and yet more work, although neither one of us felt like we were very productive (my attention span was practically nil). And of course we had plenty of "help" from the dog. There were some rather important football games on TV such the meeting of the only two unbeaten teams, the Colts and the Patriots, and while I'm not a fan of either team (go Detroit!), wow what a good game. Now the Patriots are the only unbeaten team. It was a nice lazy Sunday. Complete with excellent company.

Clocks, clocks, and more clocks

How many clocks do you have in your home? Have you ever counted?

Sunday was the end of Daylight Savings Time. So when I got up, I had to go around and "fall back" an hour on all my clocks. I found that they fell into three categories: automatically maintained by an outside source, ones you use all the time, and the ones you have and forget about except for twice a year when you have to change them.

Things like my computer, my cell phone, and even my VCR (yes, I still have one, and yes, it still works) change automatically. Some outside system lets them know. Never mind the fact that my VCR clock changed a whole week earlier than it was supposed to. And since my satellite cable goes through it to get to the TV, changing it back to the correct time was pointless, because every time the outside system sent an update, it changed back again. Sigh..."helpful" technology strikes again.

The clocks I remember to change are the one on my bedside (because that's my alarm clock), my watch (but not usually until I put it on again for the first time after a change), and the big kitchen wall clock.

Then there are all the other clocks in my house that I forget about. Until I look at one of them randomly and think "OMG! I'm late/early!" or just get all confused because my watch says something drastically different. One of the clocks in my car [why are there three on my dashboard? I can't answer that, I have no idea] I just don't change because it's a pain in the neck. And I don't drive often enough for it to be an issue. Clocks I forgot about this time: the microwave [I actually had to pull out the manual to find out how to change it!], the clock on my stereo, and a random clock up in my study/office that I've had for ages that I also forget to change the battery in so it's often just stopped anyway. And I forgot to switch the timer on my light until it went on at the "wrong" time yesterday afternoon (light timers are a beautiful thing...never walk into a dark house again!). And I'm sure there's one more clock somewhere I'm forgetting. Which I'll find it sometime next week.

Why do I have so many clocks in my home? That's a good question. I'm not sure. It's not like the dog can tell time (or that she'd care even if she could). Does anyone really need more than one or two clocks in a home? Why do we have so many? Why are we so obsessed with time and the fact that we never seem to have enough of it?

So did you remember to change all of your clocks? I have to remember to call and remind my parents that the time difference between them in eastern Queensland, Australia (where they don't observe the silly clock-switching thing) and here (Eastern time zone) is now 15 hours instead of 14 hours. Your difference may vary.

Daylight Savings Time beginning and ending is also a good time to remember to change the batteries in your smoke detectors. Whether the detectors actually work or not (sometimes this is debatable, just ask Catachresis), you don't want it beeping incessantly at 2am because the battery was low because you forgot to change it. So go buy that 9-Volt battery (aka size "E") that fits nothing but the smoke detector and change it. And then go find that clock you forgot to change.

Finally Friday

So I actually got trick-or-treaters! The ceramic pumpkin in the window did its job. I'm fairly certain I had some repeat visitors. Usually it was the same kid, but with a different group each time. All in all, just over 50 kids came by, of all ages and in various states of costume (some very elaborate, some not actually in costume at all, and everything in between). Aussie wore her horns on her nightly walk around the block, amusing my neighbors and confirming for them that I'm quite possibly insane. But they loved it. She barked every time there was a knock at the door or the doorbell buzzed, so she was exhausted by 8:30pm from all the excitement. I did have a little bit of leftover candy, but my colleagues made short work of it on Thursday morning.

It's been one of those weeks where I just feel like I'm slogging. [Need more coffees!] Between the leak over the weekend, the leak repair on Monday and Tuesday, a trip to the dentist, and Halloween on Wednesday, I was just busy and didn't have a whole lot of downtime. I'm so glad that Friday is finally here.

Fortunately, I have a nice relaxing and fun weekend planned. My friend CH has a meeting in town next week (Monday to Wednesday), so he's coming into town tonight to hang out for the weekend. So I have an excuse to not be responsible and to play in my city all weekend. I love having company for that reason, I get to do all the fun stuff too! Not sure what we'll end up doing, but I do have a running list of things to see and do (including a Stieglitz photography exhibit at the Philadelphia Museum of Art). And restaurants to try. There's always a restaurant I want to try or a cuisine I'm craving. We are going out for dinner on Saturday with my colleague/friend KS and her husband RK to Fogo de Chao (a Brazilian steakhouse), which sounds delicious.

But right now I better get back to work so I can be irresponsible all weekend.