Things That Make You Go Hmm...

Just got a traffic ticket on my way back from my night class. The pull over was because my "tag light" was burned out. The tag occupies about 1/48th of my license plate in the upper right hand corner. Does it have its own little light I never knew about?

"Tag light? Is that the light over the license plate?" I asked.
"Your tag light."
Helpful. Thanks.

I managed to find in the glove compartment, among the dental bills, tuition bills, and car repair bills, at least one paid insurance bill with our policy number on it--convenient since i had recently cleaned my wallet, and apparently pared away the cards.

Registration--last year's. But the number is the same, and since he literally spent half an hour back at the patrol car, I have to assume someone on the other end of the walkie had a computer and confirmed everything was paid up.

After a few more minutes, he returned.

I'm issuing a warning for the tag light, but I'm citing you for not having up to date registration in the car.

"Does citing mean a ticket?"
"I'm issuing you a citation."
"Is a citation a ticket?"
"Yes."
Really, was that so hard?

I drove home, berating myself for lack of organization, but arrived home to find the registration in a perfectly legitimate file folder, marked "auto." The notice on it said, KEEP THIS DOCUMENT. IT IS YOUR REGISTRATION. Nowhere does it say: Keep This IN YOUR CAR. I had obviously looked at it, thought, "Let's see, the tag goes on the car, maybe I'll keep this document in my files, where if something happens to my car, I can access the information on it."

Apparently what I was supposed to think was, "Let's keep this document in my glove compartment, so if my car is stolen or broken into, the thieves can look and find my full name and address too!"

P.S. Monthly "citation" quotas don't exist. It is merely coincidence that today is the second to the last business day in September.

This is What Acceptance Looks Like

My first acceptance letter for a real "print journal!"

Dear Barrington Smith-Seetachitt,

I'm pleased to inform you that we at Sycamore Review are in love your
submission, "My Panda," and would like to include it in our fall/winter issue.
A hearty congratulations! You note in your cover letter that it is a
simultaneous submission, so as soon as you confirm that it hasn't already been
accepted elsewhere, we'll send a you contract in the mail.

Thank you for your submission. We look forward to hearing from you.

Is it a form letter? Are they "in love" with everything they accept? Probably, but still, it felt sooo nice!

In Case You Miss Us

And want to see our smiling mugs.
Haven't received too many pics yet from my friend Christa's wedding in Indiana this summer, although I can't complain since I carried a broken camera around all weekend and didn't even notice because I didn't take it out of my purse! Friend Joe sent this one, of me, flanked by Chicago friends Anne and Paula, and an unaware Paul.

Blah.

Oh no...I feel a little sick! Like a little pressure in my chest, accompanied by the occasional weakish cough, dry eyes, a bit of extra mucus in the back of my throat. I'm a bit spoiled because I've been sick so rarely over the past couple of years, that when it does happen, I get bummed.

Oh..plus this---when I do get sick, it seems often to be accompanied by a crick in my neck...I don't have a theory yet to explain why this might be.

A Post About Hummus

Generally I try to avoid foodie posts, since I believe there are so many in the blogosphere--but then, there's probably a reason for that. People are interested in food, at least their own, and sometimes the compulsion strikes. Also, in my case, few other exciting things are happening, so...

I believe I might have mentioned in the past my love for Sabra Supremely Spicy Hummus. I like it better than my own hummus—I think mostly because of the kick. I first started closely inspecting the label in the hopes of seeing what the spices were, so that I might add them to my own recipe. Sabra, despite the fact that the spices rest atop the hummus as almost a separate entity, is tightlipped about their exact composition, preferring to refer to them on the nutrition label as “seasonings and spices.”

Once my eye was drawn to the label however, I could not help but notice that the oils used were not olive, which I tend to be prejudiced toward, but “soybean and/or canola oil.” Plus, I never really trust the “and/or” in labeling….They make thousands of containers of this hummus…don’t they know? And finally, the fat content of one ounce of Supremely Spicy Hummus was 6 grams. Not terrible, but for me, eating a serving size of one ounce of hummus is about as likely as eating just four potato chips. I decided to take a store-bought hummus hiatus.

Recently however, a combination of new job, laziness and the fact that a neighbor currently has our food processor has recently sent me back to store-bought hummus. The first day I went shopping for lunch fixings I was drawn to the Sabra case, but brought up short by the Athenos brand on sale 2 for $4.00. Generally Athenos is a little bland for my taste, but I let my eye wander and Hmm, what’s this? saw something new. Spice Three Pepper Hummus, with “Pure Olive Oil and Spicy Three Peppers.” I checked the label…only 3 grams of fat. I threw it in the cart.

The three pepper hummus was pretty good—not as creamy, which I expected, because it’s not as fatty—but good. As I ate, I looked at the label to revel once again in my cleverness. Reading past the comforting whole foods of chickpeas, olive oil, red, green and jalepeno peppers, I arrive at the last few ingredients…the ones behind the words “less than 1 percent of.” My personal opinion is, that any time a product specifically states “less than 1 percent,” it means that at least one of the ingredients they are about to list is just plain bad for you. In the case of Spice Three Pepper Hummus, that ingredient is High Fructose Corn Syrup. Why, I wondered—would that be? Why does a plainly savory concoction of chickpeas and oil need sweetening? The answer I found from doing some research, is probably that along with sweetening, HFCS increases shelf life, reduces freezer burn, and makes items a little softer and more pliable. All good for the manufacturer…but not so good for the consumer. If you want to read more about the evils of the corn syrup conspiracy, you might want to look here, or here, or here or here.

Just on principal I decided to go fat over fructose, a week later I returned to the Sabra Hummus case, only to find that every flavor was sold out, except Jalepeno Hummus. Really? Ugh, I thought.
But the clock was a ticking, and I didn’t have any other great lunch time ideas, so I picked one up and took it home.
Sabra Jalepeno Hummus is my new favorite hummus. For some reason, it has only five grams of fat, dropping one from the Spicy Hummus, and the taste is cleaner. When I get my food processor back I’m going to try to make it myself, but until then, Sabra gets my weekly $3.89.

Fun Cancer Reads

I think one of the most valuable things I learned from my screenwriting experience was how very helpful it is to really look at a good grouping of example works that deal with some of the same issues your project will have. So for the screenplay I watched John Hughes movies form the 80’s, other movies about high school, about romance, about high school romance. (I’ve looked for movies about invisible people, but there is a dearth, so as I prepare for the third draft, I’m watching movies about ghosts).



So, to get to my point, I am now working on some essays about cancer. I have books stacked so high on our side table that is a precarious maneuver to turn on the lamp. Many deal with various perspectives on healing and illness, now the medical industry works etc. But the ones that have really caught my attention, that I have actually read, and really very much enjoyed, are the memoirs. Of the three that stand out to me so far, two are graphic memoirs, Cancer Vixen, by Marisa Acocella Marchetto, and Miriam Engelberg’s Cancer Made Me a Shallower Person. The third, the product of a writer/editor who was struck by the disease, riveted me, and has me going back to it’s pages to see how it is crafted, is Katherine Russell Rich’s, The Red Devil.

Cause for Lament

Madeleine L'Engle has died. She was 88.

Once, A Wrinkle in Time rocked my world...And many of her books-both adult and children's-- that I read while growing up made me think a lot about compassion and faith and suffering and forgiveness.

Thanks and good passing Madeleine!

Que sera, sera--but que sera?

So, while in Indiana, my sisters and I went to see a psychic in Indianapolis named Jennifer. I’ve seen her two other times in the last fifteen years, when finances, location and need have converged, and never cease to be amazed at how accurate she is (though not absolutely perfect in every instance). She tends to be really strong on where you are in your life and what's going on with various relationships in the present, etc...but she does also foray in the future a bit.

Keep reading this blog for the next decade and see if these things happen:

I have children—one maybe even two within the next two years...a girl then a boy.
I will go back to school around five years from now for undisclosed subject matter.
I do not get cancer.
We move houses sometime this year.
I write an unintentional book.

I think one of the reasons I am not a complete addict to hearing about my future is that it doesn’t usually help that much in a practical sense. For instance, I tried to pump her for information about the unintentional book, thinking maybe if I knew the subject matter I could start keeping notes, maybe sneak in a little research…but of course, this information wasn't available, which is probably for the best—because if I intend to write the book, it won’t be unintentional, will it?

The most interesting case of how clues the future don't always help was when I was younger (mid-twenties), Jennifer described to me someone I was going to meet who was going to be a be a fairly serious boyfriend. She described his height, his eyes, his hair, and a few personal details about his life. And when she got to his age she said she saw the number 6--like he was perhaps 26, although he seemed older...she wasn't sure, it was something I would find out when the time came. So for several months I had my eye on this guy who was twenty-six who was a little too tall for the description, but cute enough that I tried rationalize that and half-hoped...but nothing came of it. Meanwhile, I really started to like this other guy who I figured was not interested/out of my league. He was thirty-four...his age was printed in a magazine article I had read about him, people knew he was thirty-four. Then one day after we'd been together for a couple months he confessed that the buzz was inaccurate, and he was actually thirty-six! In that moment it didn't hit me. But sometime later, I remembered Jennifer's prediction, and lined up all her descriptions against the guy and realized it was him to a T. Had I known it was him and thought I had a chance to begin with I probably would have acted all nervous and freakish and never ended up with him at all...one of those movie things where if you know the future then you do something different, you'll change it.

Still, now that the idea has been put in my head, I really want to write an unintentional book!