hearts in other places

Given our upcoming posting, Eric and I keep a close eye out for news about Iraq – sadly, usually bombings. Yesterday morning, in the lead up to the country’s first elections since the US troops left, we read about scores of people killed throughout the country from various car bombs and IEDs; I was somewhat alarmed to read that one of them was at a checkpoint en route to the Baghdad airport. Because of Iraq’s current political situation, these reports are upsetting, but not entirely unexpected.

I was much more surprised when Eric texted me in the afternoon about explosions at the finish line of the Boston Marathon. I always feel so blindsided by this sort of violence ripping through something so celebratory – which I’m sure is exactly the intended effect.

In the end, though, whether Baghdad or Boston, this kind of violence is horrifying and senseless. People want to shop at markets, and run through city streets, and cheer and laugh and generally live their lives. The kind of people who go to such crazy lengths to disrupt our collective humanness defy any kind of understanding.

It would be nice, though, that since our hearts are all in Boston today, they could be in Iraq or Pakistan tomorrow.

Winter weekends

The Great Canadian Pastime of talking about the weather is out in full force today, at least here in Ontario – it’s snowing! Thanks to technology, people are writing facebook updates, posting photos, and texting their bosses that they can’t make it in, all on account of the snowstorm we’re getting.

I’ll be picking up a few supplies on my way home tonight so that we can properly sequester ourselves indoors (hot chocolate, wine, flare guns…). In the meantime, here are some things for you to click on or look at if you’re also buried in snow.

Good satire is far too rare these days.

Another photo competition, another page of (mostly) mind-blowing photography (but raise you’re hand if you’re needlessly irritated by the “motherhood is the most important thing in a woman’s life” shot).

This looks delicious - definitely on my “things to bake” list.

36 hours in Mexico City  sounds like taco-studded bliss.

Go home, evolution, you are drunk.

This is sad.

Fashion!

the art of fielding

I wasn’t going to read The Art of Fielding, even though I kept seeing it on “year’s best” lists, because I was all, “ugh, baseball.” But then, on Slaughterhouse 90210 (which, by the way, is a fun blog to follow, because it pairs stills from movies and TV with choice quotes from great books), I saw this quote:

“David’s sense of humor was awkward and mechanical, as if he’d learned it from a book, but over time this mechanical quality could come to seem funny in itself.”

And realized that it sounded exactly like the kind of book I would enjoy, baseball or no. This was correct – it’s one of those books that, yes, is about baseball, but is also about love, and ambition, and friendship, and maturity, and how life laughs at our plans. Also, tangentially, Herman Melville and exhuming bodies.

My only nitpick would be that, having recently been 22 myself, I doubt that there would be so many wise-beyond-their-years 22 year olds in such close geographical proximity, unless I really did cheat myself out of something by not attending a liberal arts school in the US.

on twentysomethings

You can’t go a week without reading an article about my generational cohort these days. Some of them talk about how we are narcissists drifting through life in our parents’ basements (to save cash). Some of them are responses to those ones. And some of them point out that people in their twenties always act like we do, so it’s NBD.

All of these, though, end up making me feel kind of weird sometimes, because I can’t really relate with the descriptions of my peers’ lives, at least not as portrayed in the NYT.

I think, Am I missing an essential experience?! Meandering through my 20s working as a barista and drinking on weeknights and sleeping on a crappy futon and, and…

Then I remember that I did that, all through university and beyond. But that buying a real mattress was a peak life experience, because my 6 year old futon was really uncomfortable (sorry, guests). And that I spent the first half of this decade doing exactly what those articles are talking about – but that I’m in my late twenties (eek) and have managed to get started on the never-ending task of building a life that includes plans and careers and yes, boring adult stuff like taxes, but also lots of cool things, like eating pancakes for dinner because there are no parents around and getting to do work that’s challenging and enjoyable, albeit sorely lacking in free espresso.

Seeing old friends over the holidays, we were told several times that we were “grown ups.” Like we had crossed some barrier and been handed utility bills and jobs and now officially Have Our Shit Together. Which, really? Sure, I have these aspects to my life that have long-term implications and are therefore I guess signs of adultishness, but I am still very much figuring things out as I go, mostly by taking notes on how to do this stuff from people who seem to have more practice, except when I forget a pen.

 

Just cause you’re crazy doesn’t mean that you’re free

Did anyone else use to use song lyrics in their MSN names to show how deep and insightful they were? That was pretty much my favourite thing in high school. I also enjoyed the liberal use of xs, square brackets, and backslashes. It was very poetic.

non sequitur

Anyways, I’m still not above using a catchy song lyric when I can’t think of a blog post title. This isn’t a very deep post though; I thought I’d dump a bunch of random links here for you to peruse if you’re bored this weekend!

I will never stop loving chukkas and desert boots. Here’s a great-looking pair from Peru!

I’ve never watched the show Girls, but this article made me really like Lena Dunham.

This song has been stuck in my head all week.

We’re going to go see Zero Dark Thirty tonight. Have you seen it?

Oh, just a cool cave on the Dead Sea, nbd.

Have a great weekend, home slices!

In which I feel blergh

source: allcreatures via buzzfeed

Despite priding myself on NEVER GETTING SICK*, it appears as though I’ve fallen under the weather just in time for, well, some actual nice weather, not to mention the weekend. What poor timing, immune system!

I forsee lots of sweatpants, reruns of the Simpsons, and flipping through cookbooks while drinking tea in my future… if I felt better, it would probably be great, in fact.

So in the spirit of staying on the couch all weekend, I offer you a variety of links for your pleasure.

This roundup of animals on Buzzfeed made me choke on my coffee while trying to suppress laughter at work this morning.

This band is called Stars, and is from Canada. Have you heard of them? They are great.

I’ve already bought these pants in two colours, and am eying a third. So comfortable!

I made this soup the other day, and it was delicious.

Came across this tumblr this morning, and thought it was adorable!

This interview of Jay-Z by Zadie Smith kind of makes me wish she was always a journalist.

*My theory being that denying my illness will somehow prevent it. So far, this theory has not yielded positive results.

Christmas Kicks

Despite my general aversion to shopping, there is one kind of marketing that is 100% foolproof on me (dear advertisers, please stop reading now).

If something is a normal article of clothing but is artisan, made by a master craftsperson, one-of-a-kind, or otherwise different in a non-kooky way, I am sold. Do I want a hand-made dress made from old jeans that someone’s selling on Etsy? No thank you. Do I want a purse that looks like every other purse but was made by a master pursemaker in a bucolic setting? Please let me throw money at you!

This is why I’ve been eying Schier Shoes for a while. Normal desert boots? Maybe. But they’re made BY HAND, by GENTLEMEN in NAMIBIA. YOU GUYS.

I had decided on a neon toe cap pair, but given their long shipping time I was going to wait and buy them in a few months, so that I could actually wear them when they arrive instead of locking them in my closet to wait out winter.

But then they had a sample sale on Instagram, and I saw these:

In my size! So I jumped on them. As I type this, those beauties are headed towards my feet. I might not get much use out of them for the next few months (unless I wear them indoors), but considering that we’re moving to a desert, I thought that they were a reasonable investment.

Do you ever make impulse purchases? Does this count as an impulse purchase, considering that I’ve been contemplating buying a pair for 8 months?

Have a great weekend!

Cocky rooster

I love Friday link round-ups, but I’m way too lazy to ever do them myself. But, in the spirit of occasionally doing stuff, here’s a Saturday list for you!

A Sriracha beer cocktail from the Kitchn – it was delicious!

A fascinating (and long) article about elevators.

A cool video about Sao Paulo.

A hilarious mash-up of the Dark Knight Rises trailer.

We’re relaxing in Ottawa this weekend – a friend’s going-away party, a fun workshop, and pizza for dinner… plus some more posting research! Hope yours is great as well!

PS – stalk me on instagram @meaghantothemax for hipster photos of the dog and what I’m eating.

Sesame Otsu Soba Noodles

Eric’s sister got me Super Natural Every Day for christmas, and it’s become one of my most-referenced cookbooks. I’d been meaning to try this recipe for soba noodles for a while, but kept forgetting to look for them in the store. Last week I found a package and decided to give it a try.

It was delicious, but I was a bit confused – in Heidi’s photos, the noodles look, well, noodly – long, slurpy, round. The noodles I bought were flat, and although I only cooked them for 4 minutes like the package stated, they seemed to explode into little short noodles – sort of like you’d expect to find in crappy chicken noodle soup. They still tasted good, but did I overcook them?

The only way to find out is to eat more noodles.

Everything that happens before death is what counts

Image from yahoo news

Last night Eric and I were driving home from the Science Museum, where we had gone to watch the transit of Venus across the sun. A terrible pop song came on the radio called “the Veldt,” and the announcer said that he was pretty sure it was a reference to a video game. I knew better – it was a reference to the classic Bradbury short story of the same name, about children who build a deadly world in a high-tech virtual reality playroom.

It was timely and sad to hear today that Mr Bradbury died. Everyone knows how great Fahrenheit 451 is, but it was his short stories – the Veldt; Dark they were and Golden-Eyed – and most of all, Something Wicked This Way Comes – that always blew me away.

Something Wicked is one of my all-time favourite books – I read it when I was quite young, and was delighted to find when I read it again last year that it’s grown so much better as I’ve matured. Beyond the fact that he so perfectly captures the thrill of Halloween to children, what resonated with me this time was the beautiful lament for the innocence of childhood, and the fight to remain good (however sticky and confusing a notion that may be) as an adult. Maybe not the most ground-breaking theme in literature, but one of the best-executed examinations of the topic that I’ve ever seen.

If you haven’t, I’d strongly encourage you to check out Bradbury’s other work, as well as donate to a library in his honour.

Also, watch this amazing tribute to him from a few years ago.