Sunday Undies

Big Spender

by jen on March 19, 2013

Dip-dyed marshmallows I made for my book club (book was Ian McEwan’s Sweet Tooth (enh))

I have a new job! It is absolutely awesome, pretty much 9-5, is really only lawyer-adjacent which means a lot of the things I did not particularly enjoy about being an attorney I no longer concern myself with (the BEST: I no longer live my working my life in six-minute increments!), the people are nice, etc.

My new job is at a financial institution, which means I have zero internet access (well, to the part of the internet I would actually like to use) during the day, and I haven’t quite got the hang of getting back on the computer when I get home; hence, the month’s silence.

When I found out I got my new job, I immediately treated myself to a few things I had been denying myself during my unemployment:

1. Showtime and HBO (got an awesome deal, at least for the first 12 months)(Hello, seasons 2 of Girls and Homeland!). Any series recommendations welcome! I am thinking Enlightened, and I am already a few episodes into Game of Thrones.

2. Some work clothes. Inevitable.

3. SodaStream accessories. My parents got me one for Christmas, but NOW I HAVE ALL THE STUFF. This has been a lifesaver for me. I have a really difficult time with water. I have figured the fiber thing out this year, FINALLY, at 36, thanks to these things called CERTAIN vegetables (I’ve got my eye on you, unfibrous green beans), lentils and my double-fiber toast/english muffin. But dude, Water. Is So. Boring. If you are a degree lower than icy, I am taking a nap in you, water. And probably not even a pleasant nap, but just a dreamless nap where I wake up and am vague on where I am, exactly, and dehydrated and in need of, well, more water. But! The Soda Stream! If you love a nice, crisp, carbonated beverage, SodaStream is for you! I have tripled my water consumption since getting one, AND, bonus, no recycling of your sad pile of La Croix/Perrier/Arrowhead bottles. AND extra bonus, way freaking cheaper!!

4. Books!! I bought Wolf Hall (amazing, but also 200 pages too long), Ready Player One (absolute blast to read!), The Night Circus (thoroughly enjoyed), and today when I get home I should also be receiving two Louise Penny books, the first two in her Inspector Gamache series, which I am really excited about.

5. And finally, this shower caddy. I wasn’t sure about spending $40 on a shower caddy, when they are usually about half that, but fortunately for Amazon, there was also THIS caddy available for $129 (I guess you could say it is the Caddie of Caddies? Harhar), which made my purchase seem practically miserly in comparison! Have you ever spent an hour perusing the reviews of shower caddies on Amazon? They are not amusing, like the Bic Pens for Her reviews, just confusing, conflicting, and immobilizing. How many different opinions can humans have on a SHOWER CADDY? An infinite number! Apparently! Which is why I have now instituted a new policy for myself on product reviews, which is just to read the top ranked ones and leave it at that. I am happy I have my new shower caddy, but the hour I spent getting there is one I will not get back.

I have no idea why I think you might consider the contents of my post-employment spending spree of interest, but now you know: I live a glamorous, glamorous life, my friends. TV. Books. The (penultimate) shower caddy.

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Another Wrapping Paper How-To: Valentine’s Day Edition

by jen on February 11, 2013

So, weird. I am totally single and do not feel the list bit annoyed by Valentine’s Day this year! Not even the advertising geniuses at Jarred, Zales, et al have gotten me down this year. I think part of it is that I do not have any single friends who are trying to get me to go to destined-to-be-uncomfortable-and-fruitless V-day singles events with them this year, and the other part is probably this wrapping paper Fred and I have been working on:

Fred, lover of snacks, pesterer of crafters, the mother snuggler of all snugglers

This is basically the same project as the chevron handpainted wrapping paper, but with a different stencil AND A WHOLE LOT MORE LOVE!! Hahaha (sorry).

Just like with the chevron paper, you’ll need:

Supplies

A pencil (I used a mechanical one because otherwise you will have to be a sharpening machine)
Butcher or craft paper (I used brown paper; white would also be pretty)
Craft paint in various colors – I used Martha Stewart Multi-Surface Acrylic Craft Paint available at Michael’s.
Paint brush, not too big
Card stock to print out the stencil on
An exacto knife to cut out the stencil
A download of the stencil: [valentine stencil PDF]

And here’s how:

Instructions

1. Download/open the stencil pattern (see link above).

2. Print the stencil (at 100% size) onto card stock or other paper thick enough to stand up to you penciling inside of it.

3. Cut out the arrow and the heart, using an exacto knife or other cutting implement, and then cut out the stencil from the paper using the black border around it.

4. Take your butcher/craft paper and lay it out on a table in the size you want. I did a sheet as big as my dining room table. If you want to finish this by V-Day without wanting to stab me by the end, I recommend choosing a modest size just beg enough to wrap whatever you’re giving for V-Day). Then tape the edges of the paper to the table to keep it in place.

5. Pick a corner. You’re going to be stenciling from left to right across your paper from that corner. Place your stencil in the corner and trace the inside. It doesn’t matter which way you start, with the arrow pointing left or right. After you’ve traced one, with your stencil still in the same direction (arrow left/right), move your stencil to the right of what you just traced, and put your stencil so that the top of the stencil is either touching or nearly touching the base of the last item (heart/arrow) you just stenciled. Repeat until the end of the row!

6. For your next row, you go back to the same corner and up a row, and you reverse the direction of your stencil (arrow on left/right (this will result in the heart being upside down/right side up, the opposite of how you had it on your first row), lining the left edge of stencil up with the first tracing you did, and the bottom of your stencil nearly touching the tracing you made below. If you wanted to be more precise, you could use something like an eraser to guide you (I did on the first row but then eyeballed it after that). Like this:

Trace this row, and then repeat the process across the paper until you’ve traced across the whole paper.

7. Now, you can choose your paint colors! You can paint any which way you like. I used a silver, light pink, medium pink, red reversing and repeating pattern. If you are going to get all fancy like that, I recommend writing in pencil in very small letters inside your traces to remind you what to paint. At least for the first couple rows until you get the hang of the pattern.

As with the chevrons, except for the silver, I mixed in some of Martha’s glitter acrylic paint as well to make the colors more translucent and sparkly:

8. Next, start painting in your pattern. The way to get the pattern to look right is to alternate your colors offset by one. So if in row one Color X is your first color, in row two, Color X should be your second color. You can see in the photo below, once I figured out my color pattern, I started painting across the paper using that rule.

9. Eventually, once you’re done painting, you’ll have something like this:

Super fun! Happy Valentine’s Day!

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How-To: Chevron Hand Painted Wrapping Paper, With Bonus Pie Chart

by jen on February 5, 2013

During my unemployment, among the crafting projects I’ve managed to squeeze in in between bouts of debilitating fear/ennui has been making my own wrapping paper. Do not be fooled by the poorly lit collage above, however; below is a more accurate picture of my time spent jobless so far:

: How I’m Spending My Unemployment

In any case, making this wrapping paper was super fun, although at some point your eyes will glaze over and you will curse my name. But shortly after that you’ll be done and have the prettiest wrapping paper ever!

What you’ll need:

A pencil (I used a mechanical one because otherwise you will have to be a sharpening machine)
Butcher or craft paper (I used brown paper; white would also be pretty)
Craft paint in various colors – I used Martha Stewart Multi-Surface Acrylic Craft Paint available at Michael’s.
Paint brush, not too big
Card stock to print out the stencil on
An exacto knife to cut out the stencil (or a box cutter; I could not find my exacto knife)
Download the stencil (I am including two versions, gif and jpeg because my printer printed the image out in different sizes depending on the file format (thanks, wacky printer!) and you can see which size you want:

[gif] [jpg]

And here’s how:

1. Download the stencil pattern (see links above) by right-clicking those suckers and saving them somewhere.

2. Print the stencil (at 100% size) onto card stock or other paper thick enough to stand up to you penciling inside of it.

3. Cut out the black chevrons, using an exacto knife or other cutting implement, and then cut out the stencil from the paper using the black border around it.

4. Take your butcher/craft paper and lay it out on a table in the size you want. I did sheets as big as my dining room table. Then tape the edges of the paper to the table to keep it in place.

5. Pick a corner! You’re going to be stenciling down your paper from that corner. Place your stencil in the corner and trace the inside. It doesn’t matter which way you start, with the chevrons pointing up or down. After you’ve traced one, with your stencil still in the same direction (chevrons up/down), move your stencil below what you just traced, and put your stencil so that the top of the stencil is either touching or nearly touching the base of the last chevron you just stenciled. Repeat until the end of the row!

6. For your next row, you go back up to the same corner, and you reverse the direction of your stencil, lining the stencil up with the traced chevrons. Like, if you filled in one chevron and then the other, and filled in the little space in between, you could get a continuous line. Like this (see the arrow I drew):

Trace this row, and then repeat the process across the paper until you’ve traced across the whole paper.

7. Now it is time to decide on a color scheme and pattern! I started out with a really colorful one for Christmas:

Then I tried a more subtle, three-color metallic scheme:

And finally, I made an ombre with pinks, purples and a blue for baby shower wrapping paper:

The ombre I had to plan out, but even then I changed my mind halfway through and ended up with 1. silver, 2. pink, 3. pinky purple, 4. purple purple, 5. purple blue, repeat backwards (i.e., after the purple blue, then purple purple, pinky purple, pink, silver). Except for the silver, I mixed in some of Martha’s glitter acrylic paint as well to make the colors more translucent and sparkly.

8. Next, start painting in your pattern. The way to get the chevrons to look right is to paint in your color pattern offset by one. I didn’t do that for my Christmas pattern and it ended up with a weird stripe effect across that didn’t look great. So if in row one Color X is your first color, in row two, Color X should be your second color. You can see in the photo above of the ombre, once I figured out my color pattern, I painted all the pinky purples and silvers across using that rule.

9. Eventually, once you’re done painting, you’ll have something like this:

Voila!!

Oof, writing the instructions out made it sound more complicated than it is. It is really not hard at all, just a little time consuming. I would say that one three feet by five feet sheet, which can wrap about three medium sized presents, took about 6 hours/8 episodes of Game of Thrones/3 evenings after work for a couple hours.

Not a tiny time commitment, but people are super wowed when you show up at an event with hand painted wrapping paper! You just have to find a way to tactfully point out that your masterpiece is handmade — otherwise people just think you’ve got excellent, on-trend taste!

p.s. This is the first time I have ever really written an illustrated how-to, so if you make your own paper, please comment or email me (jen (at) sundayundies.com) if I’ve left out any important steps, or something makes no sense. And, please email me a pic! Would be excited to see.

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It’s Tuesday, But Probably By The Time You Read This It Will Be Wednesday, Or, It Could Be Another Day

by jen on January 23, 2013

My poor/fun attempt at feather nails inspired by Coral and Tusk!

1. It is really odd to me that every time I have done volunteer work, I have gotten stuck at some point partnering with a person who complains about what they are having to do. Is this your experience? Making PBJs for the homeless at Glide Memorial: the girl next to me was waxing whine-ic about the plastic bags they were using and how difficult they were to close THE ENTIRE FOUR HOURS! Lady Mary, do you think Glide’s top concern is that the corners on the sandwich bags tuck in easily?? Tonight, volunteering for SCRAP, cleaning fabric shelves: oh, my little OCD companion, I totally understand your frustration with the lighting, it’s true, HOW WILL WE TELL THE NAVIES FROM THE MIDNIGHTS???, but let’s just keep that under wraps and try to finish washing off these cubbies, eh?

I can bond by complaining; don’t get me wrong. Hm, actually, I mainly do this with my single girlfriends about dudes and I don’t actually think it is helpful/healthy, so I am trying to stop. But I think it is nutty that nearly every time I have volunteered someone has harshed on my vibe with complaining. This is like, THE ONE TIME, you shouldn’t complain. The whole point of volunteering is to GIVE of yourself. And I don’t think it’s so much to ask that in addition to (a) time, you give (b) a tolerance to inconvenience and imperfections, and (c) a sense of humor.

2. Related: One thing that is amazing and wonderful about sorting colored fabrics onto shelves with someone is getting to see how radically different your color sense is from another’s. My drab green was this girl’s grey, my certainly-that-is-grape was her navy. Really neat, and the leaf is the cause of the leaves.

3. Not related. I am working on compiling THE GREATEST “EARLY 2013 WORKOUT MIX OF SONGS PRIMARILY RELEASED IN 2012″ KNOWN TO MAN. I have pulled some great songs from Design Sponge’s New Year’s Clean Slate cleaning mix, some from The Hairpin’s list of just best songs of 2012 (awesome not only for its selections, but even more so it’s method of selection), and some from my own collection, but can you help? I’m thinking fast tempo, upbeat/empowering, and fun. Ideas???

Also, FEED ME:

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Could You Please Move; You’re Right in Front of the Quinoa

by jen on January 14, 2013

If you somehow missed this when it first came out, enjoy! If you haven’t seen it in a while, it is STILL funny!

I mentioned this on Twitter, so stop me if think you’ve heard this one before, but San Francisco has this BYOBag policy, where you have to bring your own bag or pay 10 cents for one. This is not really that much of a penalty, and I don’t think it should be because probably all the luppies (that is a term I just invented to describe the liberal yuppies this town is chock full of (wait! sorry, it is already being used to describe lesbian yuppies, which this town also has a fair number of)) here have more reusable bags than they can shake a stick at, so it’s mainly a penalty of embarrassment if you forget yours, but not too painful if you can’t afford reusable bags.

This BYOBag policy has provided me with a couple entertaining encounters:

1. The gentleman clutching his Whole Foods 100% Organic Complete Colon Cleanse to his chest as he power-walked home. My friend, you did not want to spring the 10 cents for a gentle amble, unencumbered by fear of discovery, home? I like to imagine him at the checkout, when they asked “Do you need a bag?”, and he weighed environmental sensibility against vanity. Crap! I forgot my bags! I cannot ask for a bag for one item, I’ll seem like an asshole! They will probably think I am a single passenger commuter, too! And the human body is nothing to be ashamed of! Everyone poops! I can’t seem like I am ashamed of my own bodily functions (EVEN THOUGH I TOTALLY AM)! GAAAAAAH! I like to imagine him shouting “Noooo baaaaagggg!!!!” and throwing too much money at the checker and fleeing out the door past the locally sourced certified organic basil and rosemary plants and through the Whole Foods parking lot and into the night.

2. The other one I have spent a lot less time on internally embellishing the experience. Really I just replay to myself the phone conversation I imagine I would have if I were the dude in the Whole Foods parking lot, bagless and holding a plasticked flat of hamburger patties in one hand and my iPhone in the other: “Hey you, whatchu up to?” “Nothing much, just hanging out in the Whole Foods parking lot with some uncooked chuck and my dignity in hand, whatchu doin’?”

Also, I hope this post does not feel mean-spirited. Mainly, I just think people are silly — me, too, probably I am the silliest, in fact. I just like to make things sillier, for comedic (to me) effect.

Also also, I had a little chuckle at my own expense when, the same day as I tweeted about the fallout from SF’s pro-reusable bag policy, my friend Tina gave me for my birthday: (1) a quaint little repurposed (I think the hipster term is “upcycled”) typewriter letter J necklace, and (2) REUSABLE PRODUCE BAGS.

Hahahahaha. I will see you and your organic, free range chicken you are carting home in your Prius in that dye-free, free trade cotton bag, and I will raise you reusable produce bags filled with locally grown asparagus! What? You say your plastic produce bags are actually biodegradable? My bags do not need to biodegrade because they can be reused FOREVERRRRRRR!!!!!

All this is to say that I am a complete, total, recognized by my friends as a, semi-hipster hippie, and a lot of times I am scared that we have irrevocably pushed this planet past the point where it will be able to sustain my children(if I’m lucky enough to have any)’s children, and certainly my children’s children’s children.

But if I ever buy a colon cleanse, I’m walking that shiite home in a (paper) bag. Which I’ll recycle later. Namaste.

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2012 Wrap-Up, the Last One of 2013, Except for those Other Wrap-Ups I Have Planned, AND a Bonus Round

by jen on January 10, 2013

Crab nets on the pier. There has been a shortage this year but this has not stopped me from having several lovely crab dishes and the season isn’t over yet!

So, probably everyone else is deep into their 2013 resolutions and I have in fact been eating more fiber and I ran 5 miles (at one time!) the other day. But I still haven’t done a 2012 wrap-up, and you’re crazy if you think I’m going to let a potential list opportunity pass me by, especially during the early days of my blogging Renaissance.

I don’t think I can do the full-on questionnaire that everyone does, although I really like reading them. Instead, I give you my Accomplishments of 2012 list, most of which were complete surprises to me.

1. I left the law firm life behind me. I still do some work for the partner I used to work for because he is a wonderful person and a friend and I am unemployed, but I no longer measure my life in 6 minute increments.

2. I came up with my first product design. I will be sharing more about this later, once there is something more developed to share, but I have never made a physical product before, so, super exciting.

3. Made one good new friend. My friend Jee — we hike nearly every weekend. She, like Laurie and I (and probably lots of you, too), is on a self-improvement voyage. So we share the things we learn, the silly things that happen to us, trade insight, usually while staring out at the Pacific Ocean. Pretty awesome!

4. Dated a lot! Seriously, a lot. Most of it was fun; some of it wasn’t. I tried out new types, revisited old. None of it took… YET.

5. Read 36 books, but you already knew that.

6. Cut my spending in half. This was probably the biggest surprise for me, that I could do this, did not die, and in fact was just fine, MORE than fine. I changed things up at my job this year, even before I quit, cutting my income by over 50%, so I had to make some adjustments. I mean, there was a lot of fat to cut. If you are a single and childless (yay me!) lawyer working at a law firm, don’t own a house but do own a 2000 Subaru, you pay for a lot of useless shiite. But it was so easy to stop doing so! I cut every service I didn’t need (web tv/music services I didn’t use, nearly unused gym membership, credit monitoring (it is FREE every 3 months by LAW, you nincompoop!)), I stopped taking cabs unless really late, restarted shopping at Trader Joe’s, stopped retail therapy, stopped thinking it was okay to spend $200 on a dinner for just a random Friday night, started making my own coffee, etc., and holy crap, all of a sudden I was fine.

Actually, this is probably the best lesson I have learned in a while, and that I’ve already shared with a couple friends worried about whether to take a salary cut for that dream(ier) job. Unless you’re already subsisting on the bare minimum, you will be really surprised how painless it is to take a significant cut.

7. Realized I’m a super social introvert. I have always thought of myself as a shy person, and I am definitely quiet in group settings at first. I like to get the lay of the land, and I generally find I would like to take a nap midway through any party in my honor/at my abode (probably I should stop confessing that to guests at said party, but whatevs! It’s my party and I’ll express my desire to nap if I want to!). However! I keep a full social calendar. Like, I would say that I do something socially with people 4-5 nights per week on average, plus stuff during the day on weekends often. I thought this is what most people do, but, I have learned this year, apparently not.

Bonus Round, Which Is Really Just a Question for You All: Do any of you do stuff that often? What is your average? Do I just have homebody friends? I am thinking I might want to slow down a bit this year, spend a little more time on the couch (I added 4 more books to my goal this year!) and a little less time exercising my wallet and liver, but it’s also one of my goals to strengthen my friendships this year. If you have a partner I would imagine it makes a big difference, although I’ve had some partners who like to be as social as me, and some who preferred the couch. Thoughts?

And p.s., thanks those of you who added me on GoodReads! I already got a couple good book recommendations after perusing your recent reads! And, if any of you blog or on Twitter, I can’t tell that from just you being my GR friend, so if you like, please add in comments or email me (jen @ sundayundies.com) so I can check them out, thanks!

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All Aboard the Mexington Avenue Bus!

by jen on January 4, 2013

Happy birthday to me! It is day 3 of 2013, day 2 of my attempting to re-establish blogging as a habit, AND my birthday, go me!

This was a pretty awesome birthday. Facebook gets a bad rap, but man is it an excellent birthday feel-good vibe delivery system, helping you remember people you really like and need to see more often and making you laugh — my friends/people I have not seen in 10 years and may never see again sure are funny! Plus phone calls, texts, etc., and I could not be happier.

I didn’t do that much today (saving myself for a little shindig I organized for tomorrow), but my sister Penny and I got dinner at my favorite pizza place in SF, which also happens to have a very cute and nice manager that I have been semi-stalking, if him actually being present every third time I eat there and me eating there once a quarter is semi-stalking, since I moved to SF.

It’s nice, having this little crush on a stranger. Just as I can wishfully gaze at the pizza left on my plate and wish I could finish it because it is JUST THAT GOOD, I can wistfully imagine, um, I don’t know. Actually, I guess I never imagined anything. I mean, aside from his taking my order… and then my number, dunh-dunh-dunh. Ha. Seriously, that is as far as I imagined and I made the part about imagining him asking for my number up. This is kind of starting to be a boring story. For heavens’ sake, we all have someone we think is cute IN THE WORLD, where did I think I was going with this?

Perhaps this story is slightly jazzed up by that fact that this evening, I briefly thought perhaps said manager was returning my little surreptitious glances… until I realized he was probably just seeing if Penny and I were done yet because another party was waiting for our table? No? In any case, this little 5-minute mini-drama unfolding in my head reminded me of one of my favorite scenes from one of my favorite movies, Desk Set, I’ve written about it before here, which is about pretty much the same thing: the brief romance, the drama, the intrigue… that wasn’t.

And I guess the point is, or what I’m discovering is, that whether you’re 36 (eek!) or 12, and I assume until you’re dead, you still kind of want the exact same things every birthday: knowing there are people out there that are thinking about you, and just a little bit of excitement, even if it’s just imagined, the sort you find on the Mexington Avenue Bus.

And I got that. Plus panna cotta with a pomegranate glaze and ginger snap cookies! Happy birthday to me!

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Whatup and Whatwhat, 2013!

by jen on January 3, 2013

2013! That is kind of scary, although I am thrilled that 2012 is over. Not that 2012 was that horrible happenings-wise. I just spent a lot of it in angst about what to do with the rest of my life.

On the plus side, 2012 (I think) was the first year that I have ever made a measurable resolution and kept it! I read 36 books this year, whatwhat!

If you are on Goodreads and we’re not already pals, assuming our taste in books is at least a wee bit compatible, please add me. This year I would say I got 50% of my recommendations from my IRL friends, 50% from seeing my Goodreads friends raving about a book. And while I am kind of horrible about actually writing a review, I think I managed to get my hands on a good assortment of books this year, and you’d benefit from my crowdsourcing (please note: the Michael Crichton book was for a book club).

This year, I’m doing the Happiness Project resolution program, like Laurie, so I will have a kajillion measurable goals! But since January is all about energy, my current resolutions are actually kind of boring, like, drink 8 glasses of water, eat 18 grams of fiber every day, exercise, make my bed, etc.

And, confession: I think I am already cheating on my resolutions. I found this double-fiber bread at my Whole Foods and I can get 12 grams in with breakfast toast! That cannot be real fiber, right? Normal bread is like 2 grams? What elfin mischief goes into this double-fiber bread? But how the hell else is a person supposed to get these 25-ish(!) grams of fiber required every day? Sweet heavens! This double-fiber bread is my only hope of sticking with it.

My boring resolutions have already resulted in one exciting (to me) result: One is to tackle a nagging task each day, and my bedroom lamp had this stain, and in a fit of pique/inspiration, I spray dyed it (put RIT dye in a spray bottle and sprayed the bottom)! Super easy, and now no stain:

Here it is again, alit in all its grainy, iPhone camera glory.

So, my 2013 is not off to too bad a start. And happy new year to you! In addition to the basics like health and happiness, I wish for you the following:

1. That people will stop using the words “lippies” and “sunnies” forever and ever and ever.

2. That all of Neil Gaiman’s hopes for you will come true.

3. That all of your hopes for you, even those you’re not brave enough to write down, will come true.

4. A whatwhat. We all need a whatwhat in 2013! Lots of whatwhats! Whatwhats for all, and to all, a good night.

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One Month of Unemployment: Observations

by jen on December 10, 2012

1. I did not, just because I left my stressful, sometimes demoralizing career, suddenly become perfect and exercise all the time, and become extremely productive. Surprise!! I think for the first two weeks, in fact, I did basically nothing. I watched seasons 1 and 2 of the excellent Upstairs, Downstairs; does that count?

2. Being totally unmoored in an area I’ve always been very moored (is that a word?), has made me open to trying all sorts of stuff. Like Bikram yoga (puke-a-rific!), regular yoga that sane people enjoy, and even doing daily little meditations. I also tried zumba, which reminded me a lot of that time I tried flamenco. Except that now, I am 35 and wise enough to know that I could pretend to enjoy something I am horrible at, or I could just never do zumba again! And be much happier! It is too bad that you cannot just decide that vacuuming is not your bag, am I right?

3. I am so glad people don’t use the word “wheelhouse” regularly any more. I am sad to report, however, that much like “baby fish mouth“, “lippies” is sweeping the nation. At least the nation of interwebs I peruse. “Sunnies” was bad enough. “Lippies”????

I have done some stuff, however. I went on a hike and saw this:

I hosted Thanksgiving and made turnip candle holders and napkin rings with all my family members as wizards, a la the Black family wallpaper in Harry Potter:

And now I am deep in Christmas preparations! Since I am unemployed, it is pretty much a moral imperative that I top my previous years‘ wrapping extravaganzas, and I cannot believe how much fun I am having.

I hope you all had wonderful Thanksgiving holidays and are enjoying an onslaught of Hannukah/Festivus/Kwanza/Christmas/Etc. cheer!

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Why I Am A Sports Fan, or LET’S GO GIANTS!!!

by jen on October 11, 2012

I only recently became a sports fan. I mean, I watched the Giants and 49ers growing up, and I never ignored the Giants entirely, but after Will Clark (still my favorite ever) and Steve Young were gone, we took a bit of a breather, sports and me.

Unfortunately, for sports cred’s sake, I appear to have begun to be a fan again right as or right before my two teams became FREAKING AWESOME!!!

But whatever. The Giants I watched with my sister 2003-2008 when they played the Dodgers, so I think I get some credit for that.

And the 49ers, they just happen to be amazing right now (knock on wood) but that was happenstance for me — I suddenly realized that once post-season MLB is over I will have nothing to be excited about, sports-wise. So, football.

But people! SPORTS! Don’t get me wrong. I am a feminist and a liberal. I do not approve of rapists, dog-fighters, cock-fighters, people carrying guns, guns generally, or douchebags.

But sports. SPORTS!! I love the camraderie, the rooting for teams, the beer, the hot dogs, the nachos, the groan when that pitch/throw gets away from us, the way your heart beats faster when you wait for Romo to get that last out, and you know you’re not the only one. It is COLLECTIVE.

And even more than that, it is EPIC. I wish I could capture the way watching a game makes me feel generally, baseball particularly, and the way I felt this afternoon, sweating my way through the Giants game with 25 other coworkers in our lunch room, better than Grant Brisbee of McCovey Chronicles does here, but I can’t. Those last two innings tonight were a battle for us. A battle. I feel like I barely breathed through it all.

Partly it’s that I’m learning more about the games, having read a couple baseball books now and about to head into some football literature. I’ve got more history, more statistics under my belt, which makes every game either a predicted loss or a miracle — something I can shrug off as typical, or revel in as a statistical anomaly that MY guys made possible.

But mainly it’s that I’ve come home to the Bay Area, to MY teams, and that my family, my coworkers, strangers on the street, the marquees on our buses for goodness’ sake, they’re all in this with me, for better for worse, in Wilson’s sickness and in Posey’s (THANK THE EVERLOVING LORD) health.

And together, we can do anything. GO GIANTS!!!

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