Bookish Penguin

Entries in 101 in 1001 (20)

Tuesday

16Feb2010

Baba's - Baltimore MD

Tuesday, February 16, 2010 at 7:30AM

96. Try five new restaurants. (5/5)

Baba's Mediterranean Kitchen
745 East Fort Avenue
Baltimore MD 21230

For lunch on Saturday, Mike suggested we walk over to Baba's Mediterranean Kitchen, an adorable Middle Eastern restaurant not far from his house. This way 1 - we wouldn't lose any of our parking spots and 2 - well, he promised it would be yummy . . . and he wasn't kidding.

The hubby and I split a caprese salad (mmm, always a fave) and I had falafel in a pita platter and the hubby had the chicken kabob platter. Their hummus has a lovely level of garlic and was honestly quite possibly the tastiest hummus I have ever had (and, let me tell you, I am no stranger to garlic hummus).

On the decor side, the restaurant is best described as completely charming. It's on a city corner and has a great collection of tables and chairs, probably able to seat maybe a total of 12-15 people in the restaurant (maybe a few more?). The owner has hung up black and white photos of his family around the restaurant and also has a great collection of hanging and wall lamps lighting the room. The service was wonderful (and I would say so not just because the owner knows Mike and Tracy because they go there so often - I have a feeling the owner is always that nice).

So, on a scale of 1 to 10:

Food: 10

Service: 10

Decor: 10

In short, LOVED it. Love, love, yum, yum.

Candice |

When Everything Changed

Sunday, January 31, 2010 at 8:52PM

16. Read 30 books I haven’t read before and blog about them. (20/30)

When Everything Changed: The Amazing Journey of American Women from 1960 to the Present
~Gail Collins

If you are a woman: RUN and go read this book. If you know a woman: RUN and read this book. If a woman gave birth to you: RUN . . . now . . . and read this book.

The narrative and stories in this book are amazing. I've been tinkering around in women's studies since college and so I've read plenty about how things have progressed, but the stories in this book still made me so incredibly furious at how things were not that long ago. The book also made me grateful for what's changed, but then increasingly angry about what hasn't changed yet.

For example, did you know we almost had universal child care in the 1970s? The amount of time I've spent reading, thinking, and talking about daycare is incredible and I don't even have a child yet. We were almost there but, in episodes eerily similar to what is currently happening with the health care debate, rumors were spread about what exactly "government run child care" would be like and how it would "Sovietize" our children (*cough* socialism fears *cough*) and so it was voted down. That was a particularly depressing and upsetting passage of the book to read because it hit so close to home.

Did you know that women weren't widely allowed to get credit until 1974? That means credit cards, car loans, mortages, et cetera. If a woman wanted to buy a car, the dealer would ask her about her plans to have children since (the assumption was) women who had children then didn't work and would no longer make their payments. And, of course, there was nothing illegal about this question. The part that was extra crazy-making to me? I was born one year later in 1975 . . . so roughly until right before I was born, my mother would not have been able to buy a car. It's unfathomable.

Did you know there were laws on the books preventing women from doing jobs that required them to lift more than 30lbs? A woman wanted a promotion where she worked but it required pushing something 35lbs, so she was told she couldn't do that job. She realized the typewriter she had to lift every day weighed 40lbs, so when they told her she couldn't have the new job, she refused to lift her typewriter, which, naturally, the company fought her on and penalized her for. She continued to fight and eventually won. Thank goodness for women like her.

And, you know, of course women shouldn't lift more than 30lbs... because, you know, I'm sure no woman ever lifts a child who weighs more than 30lbs. Silly womenz, thinking they can do things like what their bodies are capable of.

Women were shot and run off the road just for being in the car with black men. Women's workstations were defiled with trash and urine when they dared work in a traditionally male, blue collar environment. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg was denied a clerkship when first starting out because she liked to wear pants and the judge hated women who wore pants. Female flight attendants (back when male flight attendants weren't allowed) were required to bend over to serve drinks and light cigars on "men only" executive flights. And, per the book, if you go back far enough (if I recall, we're talking 100 years ago), men would never be punished for rape if the woman got pregnant because the theory was a woman couldn't get pregnant if she didn't enjoy the sex. I couldn't believe that when I read it. My heart goes out to the women who were negatively affected by that law.

Are you angry yet? Because I'm furious just remembering these things and the thousands of other instances in the book that made my blood boil. So, yes, I highly recommend this book. It's amazing how far we've come and gives me hope that we'll be able to make it to true equality one day.

Candice |

Moose: A Memoir

Sunday, January 10, 2010 at 12:58PM

16. Read 30 books I haven’t read before and blog about them. (19/30)

Moose: A Memoir
by Stephanie Klein

I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with Stephanie Klein. I really adore some of the things she writes/says (sometimes she video blogs) and I get really annoyed or turned off by other things she writes/says. Not surprisingly, my reaction to her fat camp memoir is the same. In Moose, "Klein shares the cutting details of what it truly feels like to be an overweight child, from the stinging taunts of classmates, to the off-color remarks of her own father, to her thin mother's compulsive dissatisfaction with her own body" (Amazon).

So many of the details and events in the book resonated with me. I went to summer camp; it wasn't a "fat camp" yet many of the details were achingly familiar (except I never made out with anyone at summer camp). The Amazon review is right in that Klein shares a lot of remarkably familiar details of what it's like to grow up as a fat kid.

That said, most of Klein's story is different from my own and was truly fascinating to read. She mentions several times how she was interested in sex much younger than many of her classmates and friends and I couldn't help but link that to later issues with body image and eating. Klein, though, never explicitly makes the link which makes me wonder if we, the readers, were meant to make it or if it just really hadn't occurred to her.

My main issue with the book, the one that left me feeling unsatisfied with it, is the writing - in particular, the choices made at the end of the text. The book is called Moose because that was a name the kids at school called Klein, but it feels like a stretch when Klein extends this into her college years at the end of the book. The book is primarily about her summer "fat" camp experiences and the end feels like it betrays this purpose by meandering into other topics. The story deserves a much better wrap-up than it has. Even framing those final scenes/anecdotes/reflections as a prologue would have been an improvement. It makes me wonder about her editor(s).

I did mostly enjoy the book, though, and will continue to read her blog. She has a unique take on life that I haven't seen anywhere else and I am interested to see what else she has to say.

Candice |

Another "mighty" list

Wednesday, January 6, 2010 at 7:15AM

I'm addicted to lists; I admit it - especially these days when my memory has the holding power of a sieve. I will forget to do something as I'm walking from one room to the other to go do it. Oh, mommy brain, why?

This is why I write my lists down or, in the case of long ones, keep them on my blog. I love to see other people's 101 in 1001 lists and think about things I'd like to do on my next 101.

Then there are the life lists; they're like 101 lists but not limited to a 1001 day timespan and they tend to include some more complicated or "pipe dream" type items. Maggie of Mighty Girl has her Mighty Life List (which is so awesome and includes things like go dog sledding, swim with bioluminescent plankton in Puerto Rico - which she did! - and wear a large hat at the Kentucky Derby) but she recently added a list of 100 Skills Everyone Should Master.

A list dictating things "everyone" should be able to do? My mind reads that and hears, "Challenge!" As I looked through the list, I felt good because many of the items are things I either know or believe I can do - and, if I can't, they're things I do feel I should be able to do.

The key difference with this list is that these aren't things you're just supposed to have tried or done; they're things you're supposed to be able to do (well). Here are the first ten items on the list (supplemental links from the original Mighty Girl post):

1. Set goals
This one's easy. I love to set goals but more than that, I love to accomplish those goals.

2. Keep a plant alive
Yeah, not so good at this one. Will work on it one day when I don't have a baby or puppy around (i.e. years from now).

3. Care for a baby:
How to Hold a Newborn Baby
The Five Ss from The Happiest Baby on the Block will soothe most fussy babies

Well, yes, this would be a good one to know. I do know the information given in those two links, but I want to learn more (and will, by necessity).

4. CPR
A pregnant friend of mine is taking an infant CPR class - something that never occured to me to do, but I think is an excellent idea. I have to see where there's one around. I learned some CPR in high school - both adult and child - but that was *cough cough* nearly 20 years ago.

5. Feel confident naked
Hm, maybe in my next life. But truthfully, I feel pretty good these days, but I think a lot of that comes from being married. I feel 90% confident around my husband - but if something were to happen and I had to date someone new, that confidence would tank. So I'm not truly confident naked, but I'm working on it.

6. Interview for a job
I'm pretty good at this. There have only been two jobs that I've interviewed for that I didn't get (which makes it all the more heartbreaking when I don't get the job because I'm used to getting it).

7. Bake a birthday cake
Done - and tasty (and not from a box).

8. Use a fire extinguisher
I can use one, just haven't had to.

9. Use a compass
Um. Yeah. I learned this in Girl Scouts but was never great at it. I have a terrible sense of direction and a terrible gut understanding of direction; I get turned around really easily. I would be lost in the woods for a long time.

10. Express condolences
This isn't ever easy, but I feel that I'm good at it (as odd as it seems to say it's something one can be good at). I've seen some people be terrible at it, though, so being good at it is definitely worthwhile.

Little by little, I'll post the rest of the list. Check it out if you haven't already. How do you fair?

Candice |

3 Comments |

tagged

100 Skills,

101 in 1001,

blogging in

Blogging,

life

Monday

04Jan2010

From house to home: a resolution

Monday, January 4, 2010 at 12:58PM

I'm with Brittany at MommyWords in that the New Year really feels like it starts today. We're really conditioned to begin things anew on Mondays: jobs, diets (yech), exercise plans, schedules. When was the last time you started a whole new routine on a day other than Monday? It doesn't happen too often. I even started my 101 in 1001 list on a Monday.

So I felt little motivation to think about New Year's resolutions before yesterday, as I began to ponder the new week (and, really, new year) ahead. I have tended to make New Year's resolutions in the past and, like many other people's, they usually include behaviors or goals that fall in the "life-betterment" category, like: eating no fast food, quitting soda, exercising more, spending more time outside, and so on. But a lot of those things are already on my 101 in 1001 list, so I don't have the usual resolutions this year. It's a big year of big changes coming up, so what would I resolve to do? Be the best mom I can be? Well, duh, clearly I'm going to do that; I don't need a resolution to remind me.

But there is one thing I want to dedicate significant time and attention to this year: making our house into our home.

We rent the first floor of a house, so in a way we have both an apartment and/or a house, terminology-wise, and we've lived here for almost a year. However, there are only two pictures hanging up, both in the living room. The rest are either unframed, not yet printed or not yet hung. (Getting that done is one of my new 101 in 1001 changes.) When someone walks in, I don't think there's much that says, "Hey, Tom and Candice live here" (other than the stacks of schoolbooks, multiple stacks of school papers, and growing stacks of Mustang 5.0 magazines; guess which of these items isn't mine). So the whole home-making idea is going to go beyond just hanging things, but that'll be a part of it.

The first impetus for this is, of course, The Force (and, just to note, dictionary.com defines "impetus" as "a moving force," so there you go). We're changing the "office" into the nursery and I have some very definite developing ideas about how that room is going to look. I want the rest of the apartment to have that same purposeful feel - that it was designed specifically with the inhabitant(s) in mind.

The second impetus for this is:

Is that not the cutest pupper face ever?

Meet Buster, the half Yorkie/half Cairn puppy that my parents bought my husband for his birthday. My parents just picked him up on Saturday (Buster will be two months old this Wednesday) and he is currently residing at my parents' house since my mom isn't working and can watch/feed/play with him all day. He's little and young so he needs someone around to make sure he gets his mid-day meal, gets to do his business on the newspaper (he's already trained!), and gets to play.

Going nose-to-nose with my mom . . . look how wee tiny he is!

We're going to see how he progresses, grows, eats, et cetera, and determine when he'll move over to our house full-time when it seems like he is (and we are) ready. Before that, though, we need to cover up our outlets (apparently puppies like to lick outlets), shampoo the carpets, and make sure anything dangerous is out of his reach (which, admittedly you can see, is not that high - lol). But we need to do a bit of baby-proofing anyway, so this kind of blends with impetus #1.

(And, yes, it is relatively crazy to get a puppy when you're expecting a baby. This isn't news to me, but he was a gift so what could I say. Actually, I'll tell you what I will say - this is the hubby's dog primarily so if the time comes that he's an issue, it's the hubby's issue to handle.)

So there are those two little wee ones. Then there's me. I hate being in a home that feels like it's without character, without organization, without peace, and with clutter. I hate it. I also hate that if you look around, the ratio of my stuff to the hubby's is about 9:1. I have, admittedly, run the place over with my things (err, mainly my books), so I'm setting out to give my closets and dressers a serious going-over (charity donation coming up) and I'm also going to pack up a bunch of books that I don't foresee needing for school or teaching (those will go in the basement).

I've only ever had my own room (well, since I was a teenager) or my own apartment, so it's new to me to blend my belongings with someone else. Not unlike learning to blend our finances, this is taking time but I finally feel ready to take it on. It's not easy to pack up items you're attached to or used to seeing regularly. My books feel like friends, honestly, and so do some of my clothes. When I pack them up, I actually tend to say good-bye (or bye for now) to them. (Am I the only cuckoo one that does this? I'm kind of scared to even know.)

But perhaps the pregnancy is helping me move along with this. My life and home, in large part, are clearly going to belong to someone new now. They'll be mine, but ours - and that "ours" is all three of us, so I'd like our home to at least accurately reflect the current two - yours truly and the hubby - before we two become a three. I don't expect to finish this resolution before my due date (May 19), but maybe the nesting will kick in and I'll be in super-future-Mom mode in April and get more done than I anticipate. If I don't, that's okay. I'm giving myself the year for this. I hope it takes less than a year, but it's okay if the year is what we need.

Candice |

5 Comments |

tagged

101 in 1001,

Buster,

baby,

design,

holidays,

life,

marriage in

Baby,

family,

life