Gary & Melinda Part Deux: The Economy

Hello Friends,

I haven’t updated about Gary and Melinda because, frankly, I was worried about them.  They had such a busy first two days.  They worked so hard to make their little nest.  By the end of the second day it looked like this:

Ooooh look at all the progress

And then Day Three:

It is amazing what thumbless, armless birds can do in one day

But then day 4:

Day 4

But  then…

Day 5,6,7...

Uh oh.

Don’t get me wrong.  They didn’t fly the coop.  Melinda still sat on it all day long.  But now she just stares at me blankly.

Look at those beady, little soul-less eyes.

 

At first I thought that Gary and Melinda must be, er, special little morning doves.  They just didn’t really “get” that a nest was supposed to have, like, walls.  And a bottom.  Perhaps they came to live here because of our resident social worker.

My opinion changed, however, when I started seeing more of this:

 

"Uh, If you need me, I'll be at Fowl Shots"

Look at Melinda’s dejection.  Look at Gary’s defeated birdy shoulders and cold disregard for his bride’s feelings.  They can’t even look at each other anymore.

They  have this Angela’s Ashes situation going on.  Gary is gone a lot.  Melinda weeps. And you know why that is?  Why are they settling for sparse uncomfortable sticks, when their nest should be lined with the softest of goose down and dryer lint?

It’s the economy, folks.  The Economy.

Bam.

I imagine a possible conversation goes something like this:

Gary: [Arrives to the nest, empty-beaked.]  Where’s dinner?

Melinda: How can I make dinner when I am so busy putting this nest together.  Not that we have very many sticks to make it with…

G: That’s so typical, Melinda.  You know I try! But the–

M: “Yeah, yeah, Gary.  I always have a finely arranged pile of twigs everytime you come back!  And all I hear about is how the Robin account isn’t bringing in enough twigs!”

G: “What?  You think twigs grow on trees?  Someone’s got to work for them!”

M: “And you never even notice me anymore!  You’re gone so much, we only communicate through Tweets!

Aaaaaand so on.

They presumably fight so often that they don’t have time to finish the nest.  It is a little sad, but then that is modern life.

However, for all of their fights they are quick to make up:

 

 

"Come on, let's never flight again"

Look at those lovebirds.  Cuddling.

Gary and Melinda teach us a valuable lesson: the thing about love is that sometimes you have to wing it.

 

Stay tuned for next time when Melinda gets a part-time job and Gary buys a new set of wrenches.

Meal: Tilapia, Asparagus, and Tomato Salad

I got a few requests for some recipes for photos pasted on my facebook, so I’ll share.

Here is the entire meal, which serves about 4.  These are very easy recipes–hope you enjoy them!

fish fish.

Herbed Tilapia

4 tilapia filets

4 cloves garlic
2 TBSP fresh parsley (or basil)
juice of 1/2 lemon
2 TBSP olive oil
salt, pepper, cayenne, etc

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Place fish in oiled baking dish.  Mix remaining ingredients in small bowl.  Cover fish with mixture.  Bake for 20-25 min or until fish flakes easily with fork.  Serve with extra lemons if desired.

Roasted asparagus

1 bunch asparagus
1 tsp soy sauce
1 tsp balsamic vinegar

Wash and trim asparagus.  Lay out on lightly oiled baking sheet.  Cover with soy sauce and vinegar.  Turn to coat.  Bake at 375 degrees for 15-20 min.

Tomato & Avocado Salad

1 ripe avocado
1 lg tomato
1-2 slices onion/
1/2 tsp balsamic vinegar
1 tsp olive oil
basil (fresh, if possible), salt, pepper, other spices to taste

Skin, de-stone, and chop avocado into slices.  Slice tomato.  Arrange on a plate with onion slices.  Mix oil, vinegar, and spices in small bowl.  Drizzle on vegetables.  Serve.

Garlic Bread

2 TBSP butter, softened
4 cloves garlic ‘
2 tsp Italian spices–oregano, parsley, rosemary, etc
Bread

Mix first 3 ingredients.  Spread on bread.  Bake at 375 degrees for 15-20 min.

Meet Gary and Melinda

Hello Dear Readers,

I know it has been a while.  Turning in my globe-trotting pants for the stiff lederhosen of academics has not made for very many interesting stories in the last…say…two years.  And I apologize for that.

But, as spring is sort of pretending to come to Chicago, I finally have something worth blogging about.

 

Meet Gary and Melinda, our two newest roommates:

Gary and Melinda Doveczeck

It would seem these two little dears have taken up residence in the corner of our living room window.  These two birds are in love. Like, so totally in love.  So in love that they have decided to build a nest!

What usually happens is that Melinda sits in the corner, Gary flies away, and usually returns about three minutes later with a little twig in his beak, which he then drops on top of Melinda.  He flies off again, leaving her to arrange the new found stick in her growing cluster of sticks.

Gary drops a stick on Linda

And then flies away.

When Gary is gone, Melinda arranges, coos, and generally is pretty cute.  She also has to deal with a giant creature on the other side of the glass, constantly eye-prodding and taking photos.  But honestly, I don’t think she minds.  She likes the company.  This is what she does all day:

Sit sit sit. toooootally bored.

So this whole process went on for quite some time.  And this was the result of Day 1:

Nest, Day 1

Aw.  I don’t know what they could possibly do the rest of the day.  They don’t sleep here at night.  Where do they sleep now?  Who knows.

I am going to try to keep an ongoing record of their exploits on our window sill, which, judging by the last two days, involves a lot of sticks, cooing, and flying back and forth.

Stay tuned.

 

New Dream

I had a dream that I met my mom and sister for lunch at a Jewish heritage museum. I was topless and had tons of cream cheese in my hair (for remote viewing purposes). A Mexican waiter sat down next to us, started eating some extra food, and said (in Spanish) that the catfish was good, but he’d “only eat it on a picket line”

This was my FB status today, but then I remembered I post wacky dreams on here.  So yea.  There’s that.

Fire Alarms…

Last night I suddenly awoke to what I though was a rogue alarm clock; what I thought was my rouge alarm clock, screaming in my ear.  It seemed to be impossibly loud and I kept smacking it and hitting snooze, which didn’t seem to work.  I then fell out of bed trying to unplug it from the wall–also unsuccessful as that sucker has somehow melded to the outlet.

So the jolt from the floor made me realize that, perhaps, this sound was coming from outside.  A quick look in the hallway confirmed my suspicion, as a crowd of confused looking foreigners shuffled down the stairs, wearing nothing but pajamas and snow boots.  I joined them.

Once we all finally made it downstairs, we found all the Ihouse doorways to be clogged and most people were just kind of shouting and laughing at each other over the ear-splitting sirens.  I met up with some friends and, after stopping to go to the bathroom, we went to the front room to sit on the couches.  Hey–it was cold outside.

Emergency vehicles sprayed the streets with mutli-colored flashing lights, their violent warnings came through the windows and played out on the faces of those wondering what the hell was going on.  We just sat and tried to talk on the couch; some people were outside, but not many.  Everyone was in various stages of dress and undress–one guy in a towel, another with just pants on.  Tim was in gym shorts, a white t-shirt, and sockless dress shoes.  Danyelle had her laptop–”Hey!  This is the most expensive thing I own!”

Soon Connor came over and said that the stairs he came down in the East tower were “full of smoke”.  We didn’t believe it–if it were a fire, there would be more panic, right?.  “This is a real fire…there’s like an actual fire.”  Meh.  Sure, whatever, Connor.  “You guys are idiots,” he probably added.

And it was true.  I’ve never seen a lamer response to a fire; hundreds of people milling around, blocking the exists, standing in the middle of fire doors, keeping them open; staying inside.   Connor said he even saw two people running upstairs in a panic, though that might’ve been the guilty party (“I didn’t know what they did, but they sure did”).

Firefighters marched through carrying large metal canisters of something, they hurried, but were rather nonchalant about the whole thing.   Police, too.   After about 15 minutes, rumors circulated through the crowd.  The smoke was actually a fire extinguisher.  Or maybe dust.  But what was the fire extinguisher being used for?  Who knows.  Someone was messing with it.  The alarm stopped.  People cheered.

Everyone shuffled back to bed.  Probably, like me, couldn’t sleep the rest of the night.

Huh.

Today I found out that doctors get to listen to music while they do surgery.

And the music they choose varies from doctor to doctor.  Some like classical, some like AC/DC.

What would you listen to while cutting into someone and trying to prevent them from dying?

 

 

Ann Arbor

So I feel partty relaxed. I don’t think it is so much that the workload has relaxed as much as I’m getting a little more used to it.

This weekend I visited Nick in Ann Arbor via Megabus; though I was a little nervous about going that way, it was fantastic and easy (like I knew it would be anyway).

We went to a U of M football game (with 106,999 other people), carved two-hour pumpkins (see pictures on facebook!) and roasted seeds, walked all over, went out for fondue, had a fantastic pizza, cleaned, and watched Back to the Future.  All in all, it was a very relaxing time that really helped me remember there is a world outside of Hyde Park.  Woohoo.

Now I am back in the throng of work; an endless stream of reading, papers, characters, the blur of notes on a page.  Tonight though I think a few of us are going to watch Volver.     This is a movie that reminds me of Alice and Mike (hello Alice and Mike!) and makes me happy for the time I get to spend with them.

Still not too sure about Thanksgiving plans.  Thinking about Blo-No most likely.  So…anyone doing exciting?  The Nick should be with me.  And maybe Luna?

ok.  This post is total crap.  But it is a post.  Back to my paper!

I just finished a two-page Chinese satirical essay about a “Chinese phenomenon” as exemplified through a humorous anecdote.  That is on top of the other 4.5 hours of Chinese I studied today.  That is on top of the entire book I read this weekend and the other online readings I did.  That is leaving out the book I have to read/critique I have to write of the book by Thursday.

And that was week one.

And I didn’t even finish my Chinese homework.  I probably have two more hours of work (or more) on it.  It would be less, but all of the homework is in simplified characters, so before I can even start on the context/meaning, I have to figure out with the traditional character equivalent is.  It means I am looking up every third word instead of every eight or more.  It really slows me down. 

Staying home, studying on a Saturday night.  That’s how I roll.  Not setting foot one outside from out of bed to back in bed.  Yea.

Today was nice, though.  I went with a friend on a walk.  We meandered to the Asian garden by the musuem of Science and Industry and then walked along the lake for a while.  It was sunny–on of the last beautiful days before the frosty plunge into seven months of unpleasent.

The joggers were out, the bikers were out–someone was acutally swimming.  It was like the collective understanding that this summer, too, shall pass.  And the charm of fall will soon give way into sludge. 

NOw I’m just feeling too…busy?  Time to get in the hang of reading again.  Blegh.

–In cutting this post off, rather abruptly.  Apologies.

Week 1

Haha.  For saying “my blog is back up and running” and then only posting once since then is kind of funny.  I guess I need to get back into the habit of blogging again and find time for writing (and for working out, and for reading, and for….).

A lot has happened since I moved here on the 21st.  My first two classes were only yesterday, but everyday I’ve been so buys just trying to get my affairs in order, get projects in jobs in line–the typical startings up of a new beginning. 

It was a little shaky at the start (as you could read by my blog post).  I didn’t know ANYONE where I lived and only one person at the school (though she was pretty busy and lives a bit far away).  It was lonely for a while, sitting alone, eating alone, making food alone.  Trying not to be overly desperate and friendly during short elevator conversations with other house members.

Now, I have somewhat of a network.

With the communal kitchen and everyone’s busy schedule, a lot of people form what are called Dinner Clubs.  I got together with a couple of strangers I met in orientation and we made our own little dinner society.  Basically, it is like a co-op.  Each person (or pair) cooks one night a week and buys the groceries for that meal.  Then everyone  helps set the table, wash the dishes, etc.  That way, you only have to cook once a week, but you get to eat nice, cooked hot meals every night.  It does save money, as there have seemed to be a lot of leftovers, so we can eat them for lunch and things.

I like everyone in our club, too.  They are all interesting, intelligent people.  Who can cook (or at least assist!) decent food.  That’s something else about UChicago.  Basically everyone I meet in a M.A. or Ph.D program here is amazing.  They all have crazy, fun backgrounds, are intelligent, nerdy, care about academic things, LIKE school, are eccentric, a little socially awkward…it is really fun.

The undergrads, for the most part, are a different story.

To their credit, they haven’t really had a chance to strike out and do anything on their own, but there is definitely a kind of attitude among them.  This is an institution with 10,000 grad students and 5,000 undergrads.  They only people I’ve met so far that have any kind of Ivory Tower syndrome are the youngin’s.  And this is something they’ll grow out of I’m sure.  So.  Everyone is pretty down to earth, though giddily excited about really esoteric things (like Taiwanese funeral customs…). Heh.

Living at the ihouse is nice.  I was a little taken aback at first–since it is kind of like a dorm and all, but really it is kind of fun.  You really don’t spend too much time in your room (which was designed to be ‘monastic’), so you spend a lot of time in the lounge (there are some AMAZING musicians here who just sit down and play piano whenever) or the dining room (complete with ping pong, foosball, pool…), the library (take a book/leave a book policy, publications from all over the world) the kitchen (SO many ovens/stoves).  It is really fun to be downstairs around 6-8 pm, because the  kitchen is just FLOODED with people that are running around, cooking, washing dishes, frantically stirring, etc.

Another thing I’ve noticed about UChicago is that there is a piano in EVERY room.  Everywhere you go practically, any room that holds more than thirty people, will have a piano in it.  Ivy on every building and a spinnet in every room.  Aw. 

I usually get up early in the morning and work out.  I mean, I always work out, I just sometimes do it later in the day.  The pool is beautiful and exactly 1 mile away.  Almost every morning around 6:30 am, I make the trek to the athletic center and swim.  I love it–lots of windows, olympic-sized, newish. And the locker rooms have really nice saunas!  Plus, I get two miles of walking in just to go swimming (let’s see how much I like that in January…).  I walk maybe 4+ miles a day.  I’ve lost four pounds. And I feel great.

The thing that is the WORST about here is that there is no Nick.  Having him here would make it just about perfect. 

OK.  I think I’ve written about all anyone could stand to read at the moment.  Once I get a little more into class, then I’ll explain about that.

Oh! Also!  I got a job! Yea!  Basically I’ll be an assistant events coordinator for the creative writing department.  Hoorah for events planning and writing.

Adios!

Holy Chicago, Illinoise.

Well.

So I’m here.

Yes.

I’m here.  In a dorm room overlooking Hyde Park.  The view is great, the room is small. 

I’m on the ninth floor.  I’ve been here for about five hours.  Pretty much all unpacked and organized.  I’ve sorted all my sortables into the cubbies and shelves and drawers that will constitute their and my home for the next, oh, nine months or so.

My mom dropped me off.  It’s like a tradition.  She took me to my first day at Millikin; she took me to O’Hare the first time I went to Taiwan.  And today she dropped me off at the University of Chicago.

After she left I looked around at the beautiful, sunny day.  The green parks and the gothic architecture.  I breathed in the colorfully tagged street signs and ivy-covered town homes.   I have to admit, tears welled in my eyes.  I walked back up to my room and felt lonely.

I felt…isolated in a way, marooned.  It was the exact same feeling I had my first night in Taiwan–alone in the unknown.  No real friends so far, no clue of what is beyond or how everything will work out.  New place.  New bed.  New view.  New city. 

I know everything will work out–it always does.  My dad called me and reassured me that, give it a week, and the city and the new life will be “old hat”.  That i’ll have an ever-expanding social circle; that I’ll always have someone there to call if it gets to be too much in a moment.

For really loving the people in my life so much, I have a bad habit of trekking out on my own and then hating it…for about 2 days…and then loving it.  I wish Nick were here, though.  Looking out onto Chicago by night; each lamp, each light is like a little island, a warm, telling beacon in a sea of sooty darkness.  He would like it. 

When I felt lonely at night in Taiwan I used to sit on top of the old dresser on the bay window, overlooking city and the mountains; watching the never-ending stream of headlights on far away streets; picking out the roads that the black had turned to Icicle Light lined canals; seeing the dim, shining windows of faraway apartment towers.  The view comforted me.  It made me feel altogether small and powerful, like I was a miniscule speck in an unspeakable whole, but a whole that only I could witness, a whole that only I could understand.

Tonight, I look out on the buses and buildings, the sirens and stoplights of a city in motion and it feels like I don’t understand it at all.  Or perhaps, to be more accurate, I don’t understand it yet. 

Here I’ll give myself one night–one night of solitude, one night of isolation and nostalgia, one night of mourning an Old and tomorrow, tomorrow I will be celebrating a New.