The weather is so beautiful today. I can't even begin to explain how it makes me feel. It's like waking up. Not just going through the motions of life, but actually living in my skin and connecting with the world around me. I am in an excellent mood for some reason. I think most of it is the weather, but there's this incredible optimistic feeling about life in general that has to be about something else.
I want to go to Ocean City and sit on the wall. I want to eat funnel cake and watch people go by. I want to dance to the latest summer song and have some zany adventure a la Beach Party. If only I could bottle this feeling for days when I just can't feel anything.
Here's hoping it's a great weekend to follow-up.
Friday, March 23, 2012
Monday, March 19, 2012
Scotch Group
A few months ago, I assumed the role of Organizer for the Baltimore Scotch Sippers group on Meetup. Aside from the membership fees for meetup, I thought it would be a fairly easy thing to organize and I was mostly right until this weekend. We had an event on Thursday that went a little off the rails due to the antics of one attendee. This person also caused a problem at our tasting in January, the same problem.
My attendee (let's call him/her "H") purchased a bottle from the bar that was holding the tasting. It was sold at a discounted price as a special courtesy to our group. H decided to open the bottle at the bar and offer shots to other attendees. It was pointed out that this was not only illegal, in accordance with Baltimore City Laws, but also incredibly rude. H did not care.
Fast forward to Thursday, H arrives late. In an attempt to catch up with everyone else, H reaches across the bar and pours his/her own drink. The owner of the bar sees this and calls H out on it, reminding him/her about January in the process. A verbal warning was issued and everyone moved on. I started to distance myself from H as I was completely embarrassed to have him/her associated with our group. About a half an hour later, I see the owner of the bar take a bottle away from H and return cash.
Apparently, H had purchased yet another bottle and proceeded to open it and offer shots to other patrons. After the warning, the bar owner had no choice but to return the cost of the bottle (less the cost of the shots) and ask H to leave. I felt that the owner was incredibly calm during the exchange and I had mad respect for him. H, of course, feels that he/she has been targeted by the owner and has no concept of what he/she has done.
So today, I have had to clean up some nasty messages on our meetup page and send out an e-mail to all of our members detailing what happened on Thursday and setting guidelines for future tastings. I did not want to air all of H's personal business in front of the group, but he/she started accusing the bar and the owner of over charging and being crooked. H told everyone to check their credit card statements and I had to address that in an equally public forum.
The owner of that bar has been nothing but helpful to me and the group. He has provided a free meeting space for us and sets up affordable tastings. I know that it's a mutually beneficial relationship, but he doesn't have to do half of the things he does. I really had to take a deep breath and wait to respond to H's messages because I consider the owner of the bar to be a friend. I don't do well when I see that people are being unjustly treated and I do even worse when that person is a friend.
My attendee (let's call him/her "H") purchased a bottle from the bar that was holding the tasting. It was sold at a discounted price as a special courtesy to our group. H decided to open the bottle at the bar and offer shots to other attendees. It was pointed out that this was not only illegal, in accordance with Baltimore City Laws, but also incredibly rude. H did not care.
Fast forward to Thursday, H arrives late. In an attempt to catch up with everyone else, H reaches across the bar and pours his/her own drink. The owner of the bar sees this and calls H out on it, reminding him/her about January in the process. A verbal warning was issued and everyone moved on. I started to distance myself from H as I was completely embarrassed to have him/her associated with our group. About a half an hour later, I see the owner of the bar take a bottle away from H and return cash.
Apparently, H had purchased yet another bottle and proceeded to open it and offer shots to other patrons. After the warning, the bar owner had no choice but to return the cost of the bottle (less the cost of the shots) and ask H to leave. I felt that the owner was incredibly calm during the exchange and I had mad respect for him. H, of course, feels that he/she has been targeted by the owner and has no concept of what he/she has done.
So today, I have had to clean up some nasty messages on our meetup page and send out an e-mail to all of our members detailing what happened on Thursday and setting guidelines for future tastings. I did not want to air all of H's personal business in front of the group, but he/she started accusing the bar and the owner of over charging and being crooked. H told everyone to check their credit card statements and I had to address that in an equally public forum.
The owner of that bar has been nothing but helpful to me and the group. He has provided a free meeting space for us and sets up affordable tastings. I know that it's a mutually beneficial relationship, but he doesn't have to do half of the things he does. I really had to take a deep breath and wait to respond to H's messages because I consider the owner of the bar to be a friend. I don't do well when I see that people are being unjustly treated and I do even worse when that person is a friend.
Friday, March 9, 2012
Best Sister Duo - EVER
I received some pretty exciting news this morning: The Sweethearts of the Rodeo have a brand new album coming out! I know they aren't that familiar to a lot of people, but they were my sister's favorite duo when she was younger.
We would listen to them on car trips and knew every lyric by heart. For the past few years my sister and I have talked about going to their Thanksgiving concert in Nashville, but it never seems to work out. Perhaps we'll get to see them perform their new album somewhere closer to one of our homes.
Tuesday, March 6, 2012
Le Weekend - Or - Revisiting a Childhood You'd Rather Forget
I came off of last weekend, with my sister, feeling very positive and happy. She really went out of her way to make it special and it meant more than I can say. This most recent weekend, in contrast, was very disappointing. It made me feel very alone in a place where I have both family and a social network. I was headed out to meet the dads for my birthday dinner. Which sounds like it should be a happy occasion and something that would propel me even further into a good mood, but it didn't end up that way at all.
The dinner reservations were made for 3:00pm on Saturday and I was supposed to meet everyone at the Dads' house at 2:30pm so we could all drive together. Between getting over this cold that won't seem to go away and trying to catch up on laundry from the trip, I knew I wouldn't make it to my dad's by 2:30. So I called them as I was headed out of my neighborhood and asked them to text me the address for the restaurant. I wouldn't make it to their place on time but, as I live closer, I wouldn't be late to the restaurant. Dad agreed to send the address and ended the call but didn't hang up. He has this problem of not hitting the "end call" button on his phone and I've gotten numerous phone messages with a lot of background chatter. Normally this is just amusing, but on Saturday he proceeded to complain after he thought he'd hung up.
I heard him tell the other people in the car that I "always do this" and "couldn't be on time for anything." His friend, O, offers the suggestion of telling me to meet a half an hour earlier, like she does with her son, so I'll get there in time. At this point, he realized that his phone was still on and quickly hung up. Had I not been using the blue tooth feature in my car, I would never have heard the details of the conversation but I did and I proceeded to lose my shit. I thought about calling back and saying I couldn't make it after all but I knew they had people coming. So I called my sister in an effort to calm down before I would have to pretend was normal.
I am not a person who is habitually late to things. I value promptness and see chronic lateness to events as a waste of my time. I get this from my father. However, more often than not I will be ready to go at their house and have to wait for one or the other to finish getting ready. The times I have been late, or called to say I'll meet you there instead, have been due to traffic or having to work late - things completely out of my control. At first, I felt like my dad's comments were very two-faced and he was putting on some kind of act for his friend. Second, it made me feel like I was 5 years old again and he had told me he was very disappointed. I was the kind of kid who would punish herself if told her parents were disappointed in her behavior.
But the part that caused me to have a complete meltdown in my car was the residual effects of living with his last partner. It was like he was saying I was irresponsible to his friend. I have a gut reaction to anyone implying or outright saying I am irresponsible, careless, worthless, or stupid. I know most people would have a strong reaction to this as well, so it shouldn't be surprising. But I spent almost every day of ten years being told how terrible I was, but never to my face. My dad's old partner would wait until I was just out of the room, but still in earshot, to say what he really thought of me. He would wait until my dad wasn't around so that no one would catch him. He would belittle me and make me feel like I was a terrible person because I came out of my room. And this is was exactly how this situation on Saturday felt to me.
I know that my dad doesn't intentionally leave his cell phone on after ending a call, but my knee-jerk reaction was feeling like it had been done on purpose. And then I was 15 years old again, just waiting for someone else to come home so I could breathe, so I didn't feel so alone. It wrecked that entire feeling I had from the previous weekend and I just wanted to curl up in my room. But I went to the dinner and I even went to the wine bar with everyone afterwards. Still, I went home earlier than I would have and just hid in my room the rest of the night.
It was the worst feeling. And, of course, I haven't said anything to my dad about it. This is not the type of family we are. We don't even talk about what happened when he was with his old partner. We just pretend like everything's okay until it is.
The dinner reservations were made for 3:00pm on Saturday and I was supposed to meet everyone at the Dads' house at 2:30pm so we could all drive together. Between getting over this cold that won't seem to go away and trying to catch up on laundry from the trip, I knew I wouldn't make it to my dad's by 2:30. So I called them as I was headed out of my neighborhood and asked them to text me the address for the restaurant. I wouldn't make it to their place on time but, as I live closer, I wouldn't be late to the restaurant. Dad agreed to send the address and ended the call but didn't hang up. He has this problem of not hitting the "end call" button on his phone and I've gotten numerous phone messages with a lot of background chatter. Normally this is just amusing, but on Saturday he proceeded to complain after he thought he'd hung up.
I heard him tell the other people in the car that I "always do this" and "couldn't be on time for anything." His friend, O, offers the suggestion of telling me to meet a half an hour earlier, like she does with her son, so I'll get there in time. At this point, he realized that his phone was still on and quickly hung up. Had I not been using the blue tooth feature in my car, I would never have heard the details of the conversation but I did and I proceeded to lose my shit. I thought about calling back and saying I couldn't make it after all but I knew they had people coming. So I called my sister in an effort to calm down before I would have to pretend was normal.
I am not a person who is habitually late to things. I value promptness and see chronic lateness to events as a waste of my time. I get this from my father. However, more often than not I will be ready to go at their house and have to wait for one or the other to finish getting ready. The times I have been late, or called to say I'll meet you there instead, have been due to traffic or having to work late - things completely out of my control. At first, I felt like my dad's comments were very two-faced and he was putting on some kind of act for his friend. Second, it made me feel like I was 5 years old again and he had told me he was very disappointed. I was the kind of kid who would punish herself if told her parents were disappointed in her behavior.
But the part that caused me to have a complete meltdown in my car was the residual effects of living with his last partner. It was like he was saying I was irresponsible to his friend. I have a gut reaction to anyone implying or outright saying I am irresponsible, careless, worthless, or stupid. I know most people would have a strong reaction to this as well, so it shouldn't be surprising. But I spent almost every day of ten years being told how terrible I was, but never to my face. My dad's old partner would wait until I was just out of the room, but still in earshot, to say what he really thought of me. He would wait until my dad wasn't around so that no one would catch him. He would belittle me and make me feel like I was a terrible person because I came out of my room. And this is was exactly how this situation on Saturday felt to me.
I know that my dad doesn't intentionally leave his cell phone on after ending a call, but my knee-jerk reaction was feeling like it had been done on purpose. And then I was 15 years old again, just waiting for someone else to come home so I could breathe, so I didn't feel so alone. It wrecked that entire feeling I had from the previous weekend and I just wanted to curl up in my room. But I went to the dinner and I even went to the wine bar with everyone afterwards. Still, I went home earlier than I would have and just hid in my room the rest of the night.
It was the worst feeling. And, of course, I haven't said anything to my dad about it. This is not the type of family we are. We don't even talk about what happened when he was with his old partner. We just pretend like everything's okay until it is.
Thursday, March 1, 2012
St. David's Day
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| Welsh Bunting in my cubicle |
For St. David's Day this year, I actually went all out. Normally, I forget it's the first until about halfway through the day. But I had purchased my Welsh Flag Bunting in the UK last year and I was determined to do it up right. There is nothing like hanging decorations in one's cubicle to draw attention and I had the pleasure of explaining my celebration to many a passerby. But this just wasn't enough for me.
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| Welsh Cakes |
My dad's friends in Bristol posted pictures of their homemade Welsh Cakes so I decided to research traditional St. David's Day/Welsh dishes. I found two very tasty recipes for Welsh Cakes and one for Chicken and Leek Hotpot. I invited my friend, Andrea Schwartz (of "Do As I Say" fame), to help me. The Welsh Cakes proved a little more challenging than I thought, thankfully Andrea had experience with baking, and the substitution of oil for lard did not hold the cakes together as well as I had hoped. Overall, I was very pleased with the result and felt they were every bit as good as the ones I'd had last year. I made sure to pack up half of them for Andrea and the other half for work.
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| Chicken and Leek Hotpot |
The Chicken and Leek Hotpot recipe was very attractive because it was cooked completely in the microwave. I feel like I should have cooked the vegetables a little longer before adding the chicken but, again, I was not disappointed. Next time I will also add more carrots for color. I have three more meals out of this recipe and will definitely make it again. I was unsure of whether or not I would like Leeks, as I haven't really had them before. In my mind, I thought they were similar to onion and while I enjoy the onion flavor I don't particularly care for crunching on the pieces themselves. But the Leek has a sweeter taste to it, possibly from cooking with the carrots, and I ate every part of the meal.
I sincerely hope that I am able to do this again next year and that this was the start of a tradition for me. I think we only equate traditions with families or couples and we forget that it's just as important to create them on an individual level. It helps us to connect with our friends and feel like we're a part of something important. So here is to the start of a new tradition for me!
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