Friday Five

Since I don't feel like telling a story today, or doing too much thinking in general, I've decided that I'm going to do the Friday Five.  I notice that this blog is slowly becoming a predictable, daily-themed situation (Ten on Tuesday, Wordless Wednesday, Things I Love Thursday, etc) but I do what I can to just keep writing.  Eventually the mood will strike and I'll have another real life tale to tell, of places visited and people seen.  For now, my keyboard is just the tiniest bit off balance unless I keep a sliver of cardboard under the upper left corner. As small as this is, it is maddening enough to frustrate all the creative juices out of me.

I know, I sound like SUCH a drama llama right now. Well, we do what we must to keep the tortured artist in us alive, eh?

Anyway, Friday Five is a tradition of answering five random questions on your blog on a Friday. Yes, I know what you're thinking, this is basically half of a Ten on Tuesday and it's on, well, Friday.  The difference here is I will do it using random questions that people ask me specifically, instead of just copying it from someone else's blog like usual.

However, since you all have had no forewarning and no time to prepare deliciously random questions to ask me, I have made up the following questions myself to get the ball rolling.

But this is the last time. The ball is in your court now, readers. Enough of me doing all the work here, slaving away at my slightly wonky keyboard for your amusement.  Post it in the comments, send me an email, or write it on the back of your grocery list and mail it to me.  But only after you've gone to the store and gotten your groceries.

Pick a book from the shelf and write down one of your favorite lines.

"Ce qui embellit le désert," dit le petit prince, "c'est qu'il cache un puits quelque part..." 
from Antoine de Saint-Exupery's Le Petit Prince


Translation: "What makes the desert beautiful," said the little prince, "is that somewhere it hides a well..."

What was the most interesting conversation you've had in the last 48 hours?
me "So the locking mechanism isn't connected, because when I hit 'lock' on the key fob, it clicks but doesn't catch so the door remains unlocked and then the car alarm goes off when I open the door."

Ranie, body shop owner "Yeah, I tell you, technology. Not like the old days. In my day, you had to crank a handle to roll down the window. Back in the '70s, I was a Navy man, a spotter in the ships. I'd have to stick my head out the porthole after the gunman fired to tell him if he was on the mark or not. '50 clicks to the right' or '25 clicks to the left' I'd say. And then I'd tell him how many rounds to fire: 'On mark, 3 rounds'. Nowadays they do it all by satellite. No need for us spotters anymore. Heck, technology's making us all obsolete."

He fixed the lock. The personal anecdote and aggrieved worldview were free of charge.

What does the 30th song in your iTunes library say about you?
Well, I have my library in alphabetical order by artist, so that makes song #30....
"Truth" by Alexander


Hmm. A rather good song; a folksy, jangly tune off of the solo album of the lead singer from Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeroes.  And yes, that last sentence sounded as hipster music snob to me as it sounded to you. So there you have it, I'm a hipster music snob.

What is the phrase you have (over)used the most recently?
"Step into my office." I love how pompous it makes me sound because a) it implies that I'm slightly superior to you in some way, no matter the context and b) I don't actually have an office. Teehee.

What is the best thing you've seen all day?
 I give you this photo of a dog's (and coincidentally, my own) perception of time:

Source: I'm sorry, I forget! but google "dog's perception of time" and you will see this image all over the place.


Whew. Coming up with those questions required more thinking than I intended. Your turn. Leave a question. Please. It will just be too embarrassing if I am forced to make up five more for next week. But don't let it get in the way of your having a good weekend.

Wordless Wednesday

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Tuesday Treats

This morning I went to the park with my mom, my brother, and a friend and biked 15.6 miles. Ok, so they biked 15.6 miles. I did about 11 and spent the last four of those miles making friends with a saxophone player named Famious. Story for another time.

Anyway, then I came home and promptly undid all of that good work by making these (excuse my poor food photography):

Most luscious, decadent cupcakes I've ever made. Seriously. In between the dark chocolate cake and chocolate buttercream frosting is a layer of cheesecake.  Yes, cheesecake. Because the only thing better than either of those things is the two of them put together. In adorable black and white paper liners from Michaels.

I know, you're fanning yourself right now.

Here's the recipe. This is not for the faint of heart. The frosting alone calls for 18 tablespoons of butter.

Now you're fanning yourself with both hands. But it's ok, because I'll just bike another 11 miles tomorrow.

Maybe. 
Whatever, we only live once. :)

Lessons from Abroad: The Price of Public Restrooms

One little quirk about Europe is that generally, to use a public restroom, you have to pay for it.  It can be anywhere from a few cents to 2 Euros/SwissFrancs, not enough to break the bank, but enough to be a nuisance.  I can't tell you how many times I held up the line as I dug around frantically in my pockets/backpack for enough spare change to get me in to the throne room. Whether it be a dour-faced attendant in a striped apron, a coin-slotted turnstile, or simply a white china plate, your business remains unfinished until the money leaves your hands.

Now in my home city, I soon figured out which department stores and restaurants had free bathrooms. But when I was traveling, I used what I could find and it always came at a price. How I grumbled and pined for the restrooms of the motherland! Get in, get out, your wallet untouched! I have to pay to relieve myself? How preposterous!

And then I came home. 
One road trip after another, one gas station/fast food restaurant bathroom after the next and now the shoe is on the other foot.

Oh Europe. I would throw a thousand glittering coins at your feet to see the pristine chambers within your rest stops. Oh Switzerland! How I long for your motion-activated air fresheners and your self-cleaning toilet seats. A hundred sonnets I have composed about the white sparkling walls, the floor-to-ceiling stall doors, the alpine-scented handsoap! I offer you my pockets, all my riches, for the chance of one more use of your facilities. Come now, and we shall perform our ablutions with delight in the ambient lighting and softly playing elevator music of the room for "Les Femmes".

But it is not to be.  A single, salty tear rolls down my cheek as I perch uncomfortably on the metal prison pots of the Midland Community Park restroom, that are somehow always wet and always cold, even though it's 90 degrees outside. On the way to the faucet, my feet dance a complicated samba around the prostrate carcasses of dead cockroaches and pools of dear-goodness-I-hope-that's-just-muddy-water. One, two, three futile pumps at the soap dispenser, a sad wheeze of plastic the only indication that it once contained the promise of clean hands.  With a mournful sigh, I push on the "Hot" tap, hoping the temperature alone will cleanse the filth of this horrible experience. 1.7 seconds later, the water shuts off with a gurgle. Thus begins the confusing process of holding the faucet on with one hand while rushing to wet the other. 

And then the drying, or lack thereof. If it's not the weak breeze of an air dryer, it's scratchy brown paper towels that leave splinters in your hands. Finally, the escape route: an intricate strategy that involves opening the door with the paper towel and then lobbing it into the trashcan. One misplaced trashcan, one empty dispenser and the whole jig is up. I JUST WANT TO LEAVE WITHOUT TOUCHING ANYTHING. 

And so I come to you, reader, embittered but reproved. Learn from my woes: "Free" is not necessarily better, especially when it comes to the bathroom.  If you ever visit Europe, don't complain about the price of the public restroom.  Take a moment and enjoy the fact that you will be far less likely to leave with some sort of communicable disease. And for those of you sticking around the States: If you can't hold it til you get home, at least bring hand sanitizer with you.

Things I Love This Week

Ok, technically it's Sunday so these are the things I loved last week. Oh well, details!

> Camping and all the related bits: 

• the campfire
• making smores 
• the way time passes completely unacknowledged
• walking around barefoot in the grass and pine needles
• being able to finish a really good book
• sitting around like slugs in shorts in those folding camp chairs, gabbing away about Civil War prison camps. Ok, so this one is probably just me. 
• being completely "detached" from the modern world: no computer, no phone, no problems. If you can't reach me by smoke signal, then it's not important. 

>Bar soap from The Body Shop. It smells amazing and it's made out of natural oils and jazz so you're not washing yourself with any strange chemicals. I'm not normally someone who cares, but I've been weird about it ever since I found out that formaldehyde is a popular ingredient in cheap hair and body products. Yeah, formaldehyde, the stuff that pig you dissected in high school biology class was soaked in. Gross.

>Graduation cake. Please stop inviting me to your graduation parties. I've been to 3 in the last 2 weeks alone. The cake is too delicious, I can't resist it!

>Expanding my herb garden with cuttings of peppermint. Summer, prepare yourself for icy pitchers of lemon mint water...

>Missing my cousin's piano recital but getting to see it later on UStream. Technology is awesome. And coincidentally, so was your playing, Lindsay!

>Finally getting around to framing some of my own photography. 

Around the Internet:

>Rock Scissor Paper. Completely unnecessary but really adorable things like elephant stationary, notebooks, coasters, and coffee mugs with owls on them.

> The Swiss Bakery Online. They have real store locations in Virginia but I weep with happiness that while I'm in Indiana, I can get all my favorite Swiss food goods sent to me at a flat $6 fee. Yes, Cailler chocolate, raclette cheese, and Laugen rolls can all be mine within a few days time. Huzzah!

> French Connection's "You are man? You are woman?" ad campaign. The ad spots are random and hilarious. Shift + click to check them out: Le Cinema

>Paper banners from Banter Banner. So cute.

>This is a couple of weeks late but, Twitter user @Stefmara posted this picture of the Endeavor shuttle launch from her window seat as the plane flew by. So cool.

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Hope there is plenty to love about your week!