Catching Up

Posted on May 16, 2011 by Kate

I feel quite certain I had a thousand things to catch you all up on, readers, but — having been gone so long — I can now barely remember what they all were. Let’s settle for talking about the highlights, if that’s okay with you.

The Decemberists, one of my all-time favorite bands, had the bad timing to come play in Atlanta during our finals week and on the day of my friend Clarabella’s prespectus defense. Did we let this timing issue stop us from seeing them live and in concert? Of course not. Don’t be silly. Although we both would have preferred a leisurely few days in Atlanta to hang sound, shop, eat, and celebrate our good news (my work thing — more soon — and her having passed the defense), we had to make it the quickest trip ever. The show was wonderful, though, and well worth making the effort to be there.

We were in a huge concert hall in the city with seats up in the nosebleed section — quite different from the smaller, more dive-like venue where we saw them on their amazing Hazards of Love tour (that album is still my favorite of theirs, hands down). It was odd seeing them in such a formal venue and to spend the whole time on our butts in our balcony seats, but they sounded amazing and I was able to get some decent photographs with a 55-200mm lens I borrowed from Brunbec. Love this band.

After the end of final exams and grading at school, I skipped town for a few days of fun visiting Clarabella & Family in Mississippi. We needed some time to actually hang out, after all! We had big plans that included watching her four-year-old son play T-ball, lounging around, sipping adult beverages, and — oh yeah! — finally getting the literary tattoos of our dreams. You’ll have to wait to hear more about that because it deserves its own post.

At any rate, here are some of the best photographs of the weekend:

More to come soon on the tattoo, and more probably later this summer on the work developments. For now, I am going to sit back in this coffee shop with this latte and enjoy one of the last free afternoons I’ll have for a while. School starts for summer term on Thursday (can you believe it?!) and it will be back to work for me once more.

Back to Business

Posted on January 15, 2011 by Kate

What a strange week that was! Between the (disappointing) National Championship game and the two snow days, I only had a three-day week on campus, but I swear to dog it felt like ten days. I’ve got a million bits and pieces today, so here we go in list form:

School: Teaching is going to be busy and different this semester, with four honors classes. I think I like my young whippersnappers so far. The Big New Thing, though, is that I am working with two groups of grad students who are in the midst of writing their dissertations, helping them form productive writing groups and mentoring them. (Not to be confused with advising them academically, as an academic adviser would, which is a whole different can of worms, and not part of my job.) Anyway, this is a very exciting thing for me to do — let’s hope it goes well and I can really help them with their writing projects!

Music: Are you psyched about The Decemberists’ new album? You had better believe that I am. The Decemberists track I included on the Winter 2010 mix, “Down by the Water,” is from the new album, which (I happen to know already) rocks. Lots of harmonica and steel guitar and whatnot. You can stream the entire thing here. At the moment, however, I happen to be listening to the new(ish) Kanye album. Say what you will about the man and his behaviors and attitude, but try to deny how great this album is and you will fail.

Football: So, as it turned out, watching the Oregon-Auburn game was significantly less fun than I predicted. At least I was well dressed! Heh. I thought I would be delightfully bemused the entire time, happy with whatever the outcome was (while quietly rooting for the Ducks). As it happened, I was stressed beyond belief, and totally sad about the outcome. Only on an intellectual level am I able to muster any happiness for Auburn’s win. Sorry, Auburn people. I tried.

Food: This coming week is the last week of the current CSA season, which is also a sad thing. It’ll be back to grocery-store produce for me after that. I’m also kind of wondering if I’ll be able to join up again for spring, since I am trying very hard to save all my pennies for moving into a new apartment in the summer. I will have to look at my food budget and see if it’ll be feasible. In better food news, I am currently caramelizing onions on the stove top while roasting garlic underneath. If I could bottle the way my kitchen smells right now, I would.

Sports: I’ve been attending a lot of yoga lately, which has been wonderful. I’ve also been fitting in some body pump (weight lifting) and RPM (spinning) classes, which are also challenging and great. But my running just has not been happening as much. At first, after the marathon, I had to rest until my knee felt better. Then, I was hitting the treadmill for very short (2-3) mile runs, which occasionally brought back the knee tightness, so I eased off. THEN I got sick and couldn’t do anything at all. Not running is not fun.

Today, though, today! I was on my way around town, getting groceries and running a couple of other errands, and it was the most gorgeous day we’ve had in forever. I do not exaggerate. It was about 50 degrees, sunny, and beautiful. So many folks were out hitting the roads — I saw runners everywhere! “MEEE TOOOOO,” screamed my brain. I had to get out there. I wasn’t sure if it was wise, with the lingering knee tightness and the fact that I’d only been on the treadmill lately (for more stablity and less impact following my injury). But I was sick of holding back.

I strapped on my Vibrams and hit the road for one easy mile, just to test them out. It was surprisingly easy and almost effortless to run in them for the first time. I felt great. But I didn’t want to overdo it in the new, weird shoes, so I stopped back at home and switched into some “real” shoes and went back out for another 2.5 miles. Amazing. Glorious, perfect, perfect run.

Seems like a good note to end on. How about you guys: what’s the haps in your week?

Gemuetlichkeit, Hygge, Mukluk, and Other Fun Words

Posted on December 18, 2010 by Kate

It has been a lovely, cozy, relaxing week here. Now that school and the race are both done (for now), I have been finding the time to relax, listen to music, watch movies, read, cook, bake, and just generally let my stress mostly melt away.

I had a great time coming up with the song list for my mix and putting all of that together. For some reason, an evening spent at my desk with a glass of wine, listening to music and picking out my favorite tracks reminds me quite happily of college (or high school, without the wine). Truth is, I’ve always been an avid mix maker, from back in the days of my dual cassette player boombox (clear plastic outside so I could see all the nifty colored wires inside) that I used to mix up some Dinosaur Jr., Black Sheep, Guns ‘n’ Roses, Pavement, Blake Babies, and The Smiths. Those were the days!

Part of my holiday plans involve baking batches of different decadent vegan cookies to bring home to my family — partly because it is an easy and inexpensive holiday gift (that’s just part of what they’re getting, though; don’t worry) but also because I enjoy showing them how delicious vegan, organic, un-pre-packaged food can be. Particularly food that was not served at an all-you-can-eat buffet such as the Golden Corral. Oh, but now I have said too much.

Tonight I tested out the chocolate chip recipe from Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar, and they came out really well, but I’m glad I did a test run because I can work out the kinks (and eat several of them) before bringing them to my family. Plus I just love baking. I worked in restaurants part time in high school and college and one of my jobs was baker. We didn’t do anything fancy at the restaurant — mainly loaves, sandwich buns, brownies, and cookies — but I loved the chance to go into work early, before most other employees were there and long before any customers arrived. I could blast my music and roll out that dough and just kind of do my thing all morning long. This week I’ve been reliving that a little bit, and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed puttering around the kitchen while listening to my tunes. No uniform required here, though! I’ve been living in my favorite oversized Ducks sweatshirt, leggings, and sweater-knit mukluk slippers.

I also must admit that I thoroughly enjoy every chance to say the word mukluk. Go on now, say it. SAY IT. Fun, right?

In other news, my sore knee is still occasionally barking, so I have made it a point to rest this week and avoid making it any worse. No running again until I’m tip-top. I’ve gone to two easy yoga classes just to get moving and stretching, and on the whole it has added to my general feeling of coziness and relaxation.

It is seriously gemütlich and hyggelig up in here; I tell you what. Those are two more fun words to say, if you know how! No, the English word cozy just doesn’t do it justice (even if that is one of my favorite words). Well, I hope that all of you are getting a chance to relax a bit and enjoy some winter Gemütlichkeit. Are you?

Birthday Celebrations

Posted on December 14, 2010 by Kate

I managed to have two great birthday celebrations this year — first, the night after the race, I spent in Huntsville, and then the next night (my actual birthday), I went out with my Auburn people. In our Huntsville hotel room we had chocolate truffles and we drank a bottle of champagne I had brought for post-race enjoyment. Here are my two most important hydration bottles I brought with me:

One for the race, one for after. Then we went out to this wonderful little restaurant for dinner. They had a good vegetarian menu and things that could easily be veganized. It was delicious.

The big fun was to come, though: Golightly and P. took us to a karaoke bar they know just outside of town. It. Was. Amazing. The crowd was full of middle-aged somewhat rednecky types who all seemed incredibly, surprisingly capable of getting up on the stage and really singing. They were all talented! I’ve seen plenty of karaoke in my day and never have I been to a place where everyone was so consistently good. It was a little intimidating.

At first I wasn’t sure I could get up and sing in front of these folks, but a couple of things helped me decide to get up there in spite of my general off-key ways: 1) whiskey drinks and 2) a very, very drunk and obnoxious girl and her drunk and obnoxious boyfriend who could neither sing nor read the lyrics off the prompter. There was no way that I could be any worse than them, right?

Our group sang a lot. I managed to get through “Only the Good Die Young” and a duet of “Jolene” (with Clarabella) without embarrassing myself; Clarabella and Golightly both sang a couple of tunes, and P. completely wowed the crowd and made many fans with his rendition of “Luck be a Lady.” I harassed G. & P. enough that they finally agreed to do “Baby it’s Cold Outside” at the end of the night. Yes, it’s a tad creepy, that song, but I love it and they rocked it.

I am sad to report that I have no pictures of this karaoke extravaganza, but I think it is probably all for the best. I was, after all, wearing leggings as pants (tell me YOU would manage to put on real pants after running a marathon and I will shake your hand), so I am merely thankful that my friends weren’t too embarrassed to go out with me.

Back home, I dragged a bunch of friends out for drinks at our local fancy-ish cocktail bar. I did have my camera that night and I managed to capture a bunch of pictures of my charming and witty friends.

There were many, many Manhattans (as if you would be surprised about this):

And at one point I felt the need to eat the remainder of my hummus out of the bowl with my finger after running out of crackers. You know, like the classy lady that I am.

Later in the night, a few friends passed the camera around and took a few more pictures. Some of them were a bit out of focus, but I love this one because it is so genuine and exactly what I like to remember: laughter and twinkling.

I was happy to be in some of the pictures as I am normally always behind the camera. Plus I had on a pretty dress, which should be documented.

All in all it was a birthday weekend I’ll never forget. Thirty-two was a great year for me and now I’m just excited to see what thirty-three will bring my way.