Blood Orange Tea and Pumpkin Pie Fudge

School began on Tuesday. The day after Yom Kippur. This is the first quarter where I have “shopped” classes. I’m a pretty decisive person and usually go with what I’ve chosen–even in college. But this quarter has already been different. I first went to Introductory Modern Hebrew. And after class was told to move up to Intermediate. And then, on Wednesday morning, I went to another class–on Midrash. I sat through the class, found it interesting. But after considering my stress levels, decided that this wasn’t the quarter to be taking on Midrash translation. This will be a much easier undertaking after I have more Hebrew under my belt. Instead, I’ll be taking a class on the book of Job, in English. I’ll let you know how that goes next week, since I was not present in class this week–attending intro Hebrew instead. On Monday, I will have another “first” class. But, that one isn’t for shopping. I’ve been intentionally trying to create a balanced schedule that will allow me to be relatively successful. Hopefully, this will be it.

This weekend was a sister visit weekend. We had a lot of fun, beginning with a light meal at Whole Foods on Friday night after her train arrived. On Saturday we had breakfast out with a friend of mine. And then we bummed around and read for a bit. In the afternoon, we worked ourselves northward: stopping first in Lakeview. I easily found parking, which was amazing. I had recently seen a 190 North episode which mentioned the Coffee and Tea Exchange.  I was excited that the store was on the corner. The Coffee & Tea Exchange roasts their own beans and has a large collection of loose teas. It smelled really good inside and I succumbed to temptation to purchase a little loose tea–an herbal blood orange. I’m drinking it now. It has a very light flavor. We also discovered a cute candy store that I had never noticed in the neighborhood: Windy City Treats. We couldn’t resist going in and getting a sample of their pumpkin pie fudge–which was pretty amazing.

The rest of the mostly rainy day was spent taking photos at the Montrose Dog Beach, and then perusing the art along the Ravenswood Art Walk. Both activities were fun, albeit a little chilly.We had a fun sister weekend!

First Hike of 2009

Here in Chicago I’ve been craving the woods. Everywhere in the city there are people, even if you don’t see them. They are there, living in the 3 flats and high rises, walking along lakeshore path, or driving down the street. Even though I knew that I’d see some people on a trail in the woods, I figured it would be a good place for peace.

I went home on Friday evening, arriving just in time for Shabbat dinner. Yum! Saturday was a lazy day, beginning with laundry and Riley’s graduation from “teenager” class at obedience school. I’m so proud. I ran errands and then in late afternoon my sister and I got ready for a hike. We had planned to go to Governor Dodge, which is our favorite state park. But it wasn’t going to work out timewise. We tried out a new park: Indian Lake County Park which was about 20 minutes outside of town. It was perfect. There was a pretty lake and it was situated on the edge of the driftless region, which always makes things interesting.

We chose the easiest hike as we were still short on time. The hike was about 1.3 miles. Although labeled as easiest, at other parks it would at least be considered a hike of medium difficulty. There were lots of steep hills. The views were great, and we saw many fallen trees. My sister and talked and walked and she took some photos. Here are a few that Allison took:

And sisters on the first hike of 2009:

Spring Break is over

I had a lovely spring break. It was exactly what I needed: relaxation.

Unfortunately, it began in a rather panicky way. After spending a wonderful day with my parents, sister, aunt, and the puppy, my sister and I had Sunday school. Well, I had school to teach and she had a website to design.  So, that wasn’t break. We spent Sunday afternoon downtown, mostly people watching. She took photos at Millenium Park, we went to a cupcake bakery and bought mini-cupcakes. yum! We ate those at Borders while reading/people watching from above. We finished off our day with some yummy thai food and TV.

Monday morning was an early morning. I had ordered a cab the night before to take us to the Blue Line el stop, to shave off some travel time. Unfortunately, the cab hadn’t arrived 15 minutes after it’s promised time. So, we had to shlep to the bus to the train station. It was super windy. And I ended up running upstairs for my winter coat, which I had hoped to leave behind. After getting into the train station, my sister got her handle stuck. Whoops. I went back through the turnstile to detach it. And, of course, it wouldn’t turn again. And the machine freaked out at my card, not letting me back in. I never have gone over/under a turnstile in a subway before. Now, I have. I am short, so I craweled UNDER the turnstile. What an experience! It happened so fast that I have no details. Needless to say, we got to the airport on time. We LOVED JetBlue. It was so nice to have the personal TV screens and the free snacks (with variety) were great.

Our stay in Florida was very relaxing, as I said. My grandparents live in a country club, with a pool at the house and one at the “club”. We spent a lot of time at the club, because my grandparents decided not to keep the pool heat on. What did we do? mostly we read by the pool or swam. The weather was in the low 70s, not super warm, and there were 10-15 mph winds every day. The wind made it chilly, so that was a disappointment. But, we did get to the beach, where we did not swim. Too windy and cold. We read and my sister took really cool photos.

We had some really nice meals with my grandparents. And, for me, it was just so nice to be cooked for. And, of course, we had my Grandma’s amazing blintzes. There’s nothing like them. ANYWHERE.

We were supposed to go to a one-person theater production, however that person was sick so the show was cancelled. We thought about going to the movies, but nothing good was playing that all of us hadn’t seen. So, TV was our primary evening entertainment. We should have played a game, actually…but we didn’t. One day, though, we took Grandma to Whole Foods. They just built one nearby. That was really fun. They won’t shop there, of course, but it was a fun experience. The store was really nice and instead of the cool noodle shop at the new South Loop location, they had an espresso bar/gelato shop. (I know they sell gelato everywhere, but this was formatted differently).Good evening entertainment!

I enjoyed myself and soaked vitamin D into my skin, hopefully it’ll last. And I only got sunburned at the beach, inconveniently on my calves. Oh well.

weekend

• This weekend my sister came to visit. It wasn’t the most amazing visit of all times. Snow kept being dumped, all of Saturday which made it NO FUN. We tried to go to the Museum of Science and Industry. It was a very wet process. And, we discovered, after wandering around, that growing up going to the museum made it a rather boring adult experience. And there weren’t any special exhibits to look at.  But, at least January is free month (there) so it was worth the price
• I don’t usually do a friends thing for my birthday, since it falls between Christmas and New Years. But this year, I decided it was about time. The last “birthday” celebration I remember (with friends) is 8th grade and I threw a summer party. This time, I invited my closest Chicago friends and went out to my favorite Logan Square Mexican spot (El Cid II). There were 7 of us, only 1 person +husband ended up sickly  (sadly). First, I have to comment on the number. For me, this is amazing (not that I don’t have more than 7 friends, but after the last 2 years of living in Madison where I couldn’t have invited more than my sister and her friends to a party, this is amazing! and 3 of those friends are Smithies (that came, there would have been 4!), and my sister was there. But still. I was so grateful and it reminded me of some life positives (which in the rush of grad school stress have been slipping away). Back to the “party”. My question is why did I choose to do this? I feel strange getting so much attention, in fact it makes me want to crawl under the table (and I probably make horrible faces). It was fun to get everyone together though–these people that I love. And then, I feel guilty for them paying for my meal because we were almost all poor grad students.  But it was fun. I need to remember that. And I didn’t crawl under the table when attention was put on me (I don’t get this feeling with family, oddly). And we had yummy food and good company.
• At religious school today we went to a Catholic church. It was quite the experience for all of us. I was surprised how strongly ideological the teachers were, especially when interacting with my (very left, liberal) students. Of course we had differing opinions. But, still. It was, though, a fascinating and memorable experience.

Catching up to springtime

I’ve been meaning to post since we got back from Chicago and our family seder. So, here goes.

I stirred the pot a little at the seder this year. I just had to, I couldn’t handle it anymore. When I read aloud I changed all the “fathers” and “man” words to be gender inclusive, unfortunately I wasn’t on the ball enough to make them non-specific. And my cousin, a really great man, spoke about it before we ate. He said that we use the 1920ish (not sure of the date) Union Haggadah for its historical value. Our family has been using the same one for years. But, he supports changing the words to be more modern if we feel necessary.  I respected that. It made me feel less uncomfortable about the haggadah and seder.

We didn’t do a second night seder, because it isn’t our family’s tradition. Sometimes, I’ll attend a different seder with friends or such, but not this year. So, instead, on Sunday, my sister and I drove back into the beautiful Madison weather. We were so excited! We put our oregano outside and proceded to attempt to buy more herbs to fill that pot and the others. However it was not to be. Instead, we grilled out. Just portobellas, but I roasted sweet potatoe fries in the oven. It was a delicious spring meal. The kids in the neighboring yards were out playing and even the cat from across the street came for a visit. Just like summer.

This week is a bit crazy because I started my new job. It’s a lot of fun but busy and a little stressful. I have a lot to do in a tight timeline. I’ll do my best. The office is right near the lake, which is nice. Of course, I’m using a cubicle in a windowless office, but…

Missed Friday 5, so how about Saturday 6?

I was too distracted by our March snowstorm to write yesterday…and I forgot about Friday 5. So, here goes a special edition of Saturday 6.

1. We had a huge dumping of snow in the midwest and Madison now has had 99.5 inches of snow this season. That’s a lot.

2. I leave for a quick Duke look-see on Wednesday morning. I’m interested in what North Carolina looks like, but I am leaning towards Chicago.

3. Today, we (Allison and I) took a daytrip to Milwaukee. We went to the Milwaukee Art Museum, Miss Katie’s Diner, and the Mitchell Domes.

4. The art museum was awesome! There were some great modern art pieces especially, and the building has wings. I loved the matrix, which was a dark room with rows of hanging blue string lights. I also enjoyed the special exhibit, Foto, which was mostly photographs from Europe between the wars.

5. Miss Katie’s Diner has amazing milkshakes (I didn’t have my own but tasted Allison’s). But the rest of their food leaves something to be desired. I was excited about the fried eggplant, but it needed more flavor. My vegetarian chili was like a red vegetable soup with some spices. So, go there for the milkshakes. They might have good breakfast food though…

6. The Mitchell Domes provided great people-watching. Although it was incredibly hot, we really enjoyed the unusual flowers and trees in the tropical dome.

Keeping things in perspective

I have decided to visit Duke, because they gave me a half-tuition waiver. The waiting to find out from the rest of the schools is hard. I don’t know what my other options are. So, I scheduled a trip for after I’ll probably know my options. And I may have to schedule another trip or two after that. I didn’t expect to get any sort of financial aid, because of the master’s program thing. But, I’m definitely grateful.

If you don’t already know, I’m a bit intense when it comes to my future and making decisions. Although most of the time, I disagree with my mother about things, when I went over to drop something off today,she set me straight. I was all stressed out about paying for the flight and a rental car and a hotel. I’m used to having public transportation where I visit, and I know there are buses, but it seemed practical to rent a car. She reminded me that I would only be going to school there (if that’s the choice I made) for 2 years, most of the time would be spent studying, and what the neighborhoods looked like didn’t really matter. So, I’ll hold off on stressing about the car, hope for someone’s couch to sleep on and relax a little. But just a little.

Tomorrow, my sister and my parents are both flying off to California–my sister to the South to visit a friend, and my parents to the North to visit my grandparents.  I will be the only one in town for a whole 4 days. Time to clean the apartment, get caught up on stuff and watch some cable at the parents house. Oh, and of course, I’ll be working, too.

Stay tuned for a post on the merits of certain types of saran wrap

the opposite of the usual

Winter clothing and I have always had a tempestuous relationship. I was the little kid that needed the clips to keep my mittens together. I frequently lost my scarf, a boot, a mitten. In elementary school, my sister would somehow find the sad, lost companion and bring it back to me (I’m so glad that we were only 2 years apart). She still picks up my gloves next to the car, in the cafe, etc. I’m much better, I must say, and am using the same pair of gloves I used last winter. But, right now, the location of my hat is elusive.

However. Today, as I brushed the snow off my car (really nice and fluffy, I might add), I spotted a bright, cloth object. I grabbed it and discovered that it was my sister’s glove. The tables have turned, folks. I found my sister’s lost glove (on top of my car).

She’ll get it back tonight.