Massage.

So I am sitting here at work, relaxing after my first massage in years. I used to have this theory that massages actually made me really, really depressed. I would be in this blissful, relaxed place and then BOOM! I would be transported to reality and it would suck. Because of this theory, I have avoided getting a massage for years. However, my shoulder blade had a huge knot that wasn't going away and I was having trouble moving my neck so I decided that I would give it another shot. Now, I don't really feel that sad..but I hurt pretty bad. She worked some deeper muscle in my shoulder area and I feel like she may have started working on that stupid knot. We shall see...

I also wanted to share that I finally finished the 50 Shades of Grey trilogy that American Women are going goo-goo, ga-ga (is that how you write that?) over. I am sad to say that I blew through them pretty fast and for the most part, enjoyed reading them. At times they could become monotonous and slow because there was a lot of "I love you," "I love you too," "I will never leave you" "etc.etc.," but when the story picked it, I enjoyed it as an easy, semi-dirty read. If you secretly liked twilight, you will probably secretly like this book series(unless you have trouble openly reading about sex...then don't read this book!). Anyways, I am now back to reading some books worth merit. Right now, I just started Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche. She was just at Benaroya Hall in Seattle speaking, and while I didn't get to hear her speak personally a lot of the students that I work with went. So, it was a nice surpise that I was going to read this book next anyways. This will be just one more thing I can talk to them about when the going is slow.

I didn't actually take any pictures of my pita bread so I figured that it would be boring to discuss more baking without any pictures to skim through. In fact, I have been pretty bad at taking pictures so that's why I just googled "cute bunny" and put that picture up instead. I really do love bunnies. I cannot figure out if its because they are REALLY cute animals or if its because they are reminiscent of my childhood. I grew up with bunnies as pets, so now I tend to equate any comfort object with 'bunnies.' My remaining two stuffed animals (yes, two now-two are in the goodwill bag and so technically already given away) are bunnies, and sometimes i call my boyfriend Bunny. :). I dunno. Bunnies are just a source of love, and comfort.

Santa Evita

Aww...shoot--another weekend has come and gone. This weekend was pretty action-packed with lots of activities and sunbathing. However, I still feel unfulfilled because it was Cinco De Mayo weekend and I couldn't get my butt out at night to celebrate! Friday night I didn't get out because I had to wake up early to run the Fiesta 5k Ole (which I did, came in 12th in my division! yay. My pace was 8min41seconds a mile). Saturday, Dustin and I laid down after dinner to talk and relax before heading out to Fremont but we both fell asleep. I woke up in a panic at 11pm, but the night was a bust. Blah. Oh well, besides that minor disappointment I ran my first 5k race since I was a kid, ate some killer street tacos, saw Avengers 3D (it was entertaining), and today I made pita bread and attended book club. More on my pita bread later, I just wanted to share my thoughts on this book that I just finished. 

This is going to be a pretty quick review as I am super tired and need to head to bed. Essentially, this book was about Eva Peron and primarily, what happened to her corpse after she died. First, if you are not familiar with Eva Peron and her rise from rags to riches, you should probably do some background research on her before pursuing this book. You could get by with just watching the Madonna musical, but maybe some quick reading would do you good as well. Anyways, Eva's corpse holds some mysterious power, but in a ghostly sense but also in the sense that she was a really powerful women when she was alive; who holds her corpse ultimately yields more power. The book follows both of these power struggles as her corpse engages with many different characters. Sound Confusing? It was.

I found this book to be interesting at times, but mostly so disjointed that I couldn't really connect with any of the characters. The author inserts himself in and out of the book sporadically, so I had a hard time whether I should be reading it as a non-fiction book, where the author knows all truths, or as a mystery fiction book allowing me to come up with my own hypotheses. He also inserted different documents, such as transcripts and written notes. I felt like I could follow each individual chapters, but not the story as a whole. I would tell people about the book because the subject matter is very interesting, but I did not find this to be a favorite of mine.

Tomas Eloy Martinez actually wrote another book about Eva Peron's life. I want to read more about her, so I might give his other book a try. He clearly is skilled in researching-I just wish that I could have followed his musings better.


Super late for work because I couldn't find my bus pass. (It was in my coat pocket from Friday...duh)

Rachel.

Canning Artichokes

NOTE TO SELF: Before embarking on a canning journey, you should probably learn how to cook the food for real. Also, you should probably not be hungover.

Yesterday, was a series of disasters as I attempted to can a food that I had never actually prepared in real life. Being completely unfamiliar with the artichoke was only part of the problem. First, artichokes have spikes everywhere. Ugh! Second, there are different types of artichokes so writing on your shopping list '6 lbs artichokes' is not sufficient. The recipe called for baby globe, and I bought globe. I am not sure how big of problem this ended up being and I suppose I will never know. Third, artichokes have tufts of hair in the middle of them! This was the biggest surprise of all. I cut this plant in half and a purple flower with hair comes out, it was quite an unexpected sight.

After cutting the artichoke in half, the recipe did not become much easier. The recipe said that I should pull back all the green leaves until I reached the yellow ones. Sounds easy, except my artichokes only had like 10 yellow leaves each (about 20% of the actual plant). So, I was all "that cant be right", and decided to add a bunch of the previous discarded green leaves in.? Now, I am wondering how those super tough green leaves are going to pickle the same as the dainty green ones. Also, what are you supposed to do with the fuzz that is in the inside? I took it out as I couldn't imagine eating it-but why would you not mention in a recipe that an artichoke has a massive, hairy pit and that you should take it out? Anyways, I followed the directions, made some more up, and then put the artichokes in the vinegar/oil mixture.

Yay. Easy. done. Except for the fact that the vinegar fumes gave me a MASSIVE migrane. I mean, it could have been coincidental that I chose to do canning project at the very same time that all drops of 'fireball whiskey' left my body and thus, I was just suffering a normal, alcohol induced headache. But, this one was BAD. I had to leave my canning station, dig around for advil, cry to Dustin, and then resume. Really the whole canning process, took longer than usual. So. with all these new experiences, I did manage to the get the artichokes canned in olive oil and lemon. I am still a little apprehensive about the end result, but I suppose we will see. 

Sorry that I do not have pictures of my canned goods. It really doesn't look that interesting, trust me. I would have taken pictures but I was too busy being upset about my horrible headache. :(. Next project, more carrots! A vegetable I am COMPLETELY comfortable cutting and cooking.

Rachel

I know why the Caged Bird Sings

Finally! Today, I just finished a really great book! At a slower than normal pace (as a result of not being on buses as much as usual, and the coincidental phone call while I am trying to read), I finished I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou. Now, I didn't know much about Maya Angelou except that she is popular and inspirational to the African-American community, and intimately knows a lot of famous people like Oprah and the Clintons. I had assumed that her book was going to a story of moving up in society despite all racial/gender hinderances, but done in a way that would make me as a white female disconnected. I mean, I have been reading a fair amount of literature recently written by African-Americans about the past tensions (and blatant explotion) of blacks and whites. While, I try my hardest to empathize and associate myself from the protagonist's point of view, I feel that some authors let me in (as an outsider to the culture, the 'race' and the experience) to the story better than others. In this regard, I felt that Maya Angelou did a great job with her autobiography. She was able to portray the racial tensions and stories that she had witnessed in her childhood, but still relate to my experiences and my personal, coming-of-age tale. Alternatively, through my journey with African-American literature I could just be becoming more aware of the injustices and the history, that with each book it becomes to easier to see the narrator's point of view. I apologize if my thoughts are kind of muddled, I have not done much (or basically anything besides a few conference lectures) on racial history or race in general, so I feel like its hard to articulate my thoughts succinctly or in the most correct way possible.

Anyways, I particularly enjoyed the stories from when Maya was living in San Francisco. I also found her perserverance was extremely inspirational. She also notes her mistakes and her flaws and relates those in her book as well. I will definitely read her second part.

My next book choice is Santa Maria. It is a Latino, fictional story (my favorite!) centered around the tale of Eva Peron and what happened to her after death. Besides that, I don't know much about it-so I will let you know how that goes. :)

Alright! Back to work!
Rachel

Pickled Carrots.

The most gorgeous weekend of the year so far (not much competition there) has come and gone. I had a wonderful weekend starting off with Happy Hour with free 'munchies', doing the Troll Stroll to raise money for Cystic Fibrosis and seeing Cabin in the Woods last night! Meanwhile, getting some color back into my skin and wearing a spring dress without tights for the first time! It was definitely an eventful weekend.

On Sunday, I made some spicy pickled carrots! I have now made every canning recipe that I loved as a kid. Although, my green beans (my first pickles) won't be ready until May 5 and the carrots wont be eaten until after Sasquatch. I remember circling the 'end date' of the preservation period on the family calendar as a kid, and counting down the days. Now, I have gotten a little smarter and write the date to be opened directly on the labels, so I can be reminded and excited everyday! Simple pleasures, but I can't wait to eat my pickles! My next one is to try some new recipes that I did not watch my dad make, like artichokes in oil. I love to eat those on my salad.

Henrietta Lacks

Happy Friday!

Yesterday night, I went up to the Central District in Seattle to attend a lecture series put on by Seattle University's 'Center for the Study of Justice in Society'. The conversation was with David (Sonny) Lacks, son of Henrietta Lacks who unknowingly donated the HeLa Cells that have made Modern Medicine what it is today. My fascination with Henrietta Lacks started a year or two ago when I saw the book at the University bookstore. I kept trying to buy it and read it, but something always seemed to distract me. Then last September, I finally took the plunge and bought it on my Kindle. I read it in less than a week; I was hooked. Quickly, the book tells a true story of a woman who died at the age of 31 of cervical cancer. Being a black women with a poor economic background, she got seperate and un'equal' health care from John Hopkins. At the time she went in for care, they took some of her cancer cells and attempted to grow them in a petri dish. Scientists had not yet been able to get human cells to grow outside of a human body and for some mysterious reason, Henrietta's did. Her cells ended up helping all medical developments/cosmetic developments (anything used on a human) for the last 50 years. Her cells also grew into a multi-million dollar industry, being sold by medical supplies to scieentists and researchers. The family has been mostly unaware of this and uncompensated, bringing up many issues of  patent laws, consent for research and healthcare for all. For more detailed information and background, go here (a video).

So the talk was Question and Answer session between David (Sonny) Lacks and another women. The crowd was a mix between African Americans and White ethnicites, although being in Seattle there was a very liberal air to talk. I just wanted to share some parts of the talk that I found good/interesting. The issue is extremely complex, and if you read the book you will probably be like "hmm....eh, I agree but like not really."

1) The introduction of the HeLa cell put the Polio Vaccine ahead by 5-10 years.

2) Her cells were essential to create Gardasil, the vaccination that essentially eliminates the HPV that killed Henrietta Lacks in the first place (Thank you Henrietta Lacks!!)

3) Mr. Lacks was talking about watching her mothers cancer cells under a microscope approach another cell in a petri dish and overtake that cell, and begin to divide. Mr. Lacks describes this as "My mother had attitude after death. She doesn't want anyone invading her space).

4) Mr. Lacks was talking about how racism was today "The world is now high-technology. Racism is just now high-tech."

These are just some of the highlights of the talk. There were also other issues that people tended to think were 'unfair' or 'outrages', but I didn't particularly think that was the case. It's hard to get a lot of people in a room who feel very personally affected by this and have an unbiased talk about all the issues surrounding such a complex, controversial issue. Overall, David Lacks was happy and proud that his mother has virtually saved/helped every person in the world by contributing greatly to modern medicine and vaccinations. Just something to think about when you are getting that next shot/ putting on that new layer of makeup.

Sorry for the long post!

Rachel

Books...meh.

I have some down time before I sign off from work for the day, so I just wanted to write a quick update. First, today I went down to the YMCA tech lab today and decided to see if they had some speakers for my computer I could borrow. For the whole year, I have not had speakers-and I LOVE them. Work has gone by much faster with Pandora and me rocking out to my favorite jams. I am also more voluntary to do busy work that I would normally put off. So, this is great for my productivity!

Over the weekend, I finished two books over the weekend, and I found both to be pretty blah. First I read Fool by Christopher Moore, for the April book club read. This book is supposed to be a satire off of Shakespear's King Lear. I have not read King Lear, but I really didn't find this book to be funny, nor really that amusing. The story is told from the point of view of Pocket, King Lear's jester. Basically, there were a lot of farting, peeing and sex jokes. A few of the jokes were funny and clever-but the majority of the humor in the book was elementary. Now, I am not a pretentious reader-I think Sophie Kinsella books are pure genius. However, in Moore's defense, I have never found "poop" and "sex" jokes to be funny en masse. They might get  a smile from me. I prefer book humor to be more witty and involved in the plot (meaning that a joke or a funny situation can take a while to reach the punchline). So, maybe this was not my thing and might be yours.

Okay, anybody who has been reading the women-oriented blogs is probably rolling their eyes right now. This book (part of trilogy) exploded into the internet/book scene a month or so ago as the new "mommy" porn. Essentially, since the advent of Electronic Readers, erotica fiction geared towards ladies has risen some crazy number like 300%. The idea is that since women don't have to show what they are reading anymore (via book covers), they are feeling more comfortable buying smut. They interviewed one lady who has a kindle exclusively for naughty books, and averages reading 11 a week (INSANE!). With all this background, I had to read the book that got everybody all up in arms/hot and bothered. I found the book to be a lot like Twilight (it originally was Twilight Fan-Fiction) in that the writing was simple and at times, bad, the story was basic, the man controlling, and the fact that I was in no way jealous for the protagonists' life or situation. All that said, I couldn't put the stupid book down (another similarity to Twilight). I also wrongly thought the book was going to be all smut-but there actually is an honest attempt to unmask feelings and emotions of a burgeoning relationship. 

Note: The book does try to address BDSM. I have no idea if they do accurately or not, but have heard mixed and very passionate reviews on the internet. If you read my review and are intrigued, wanting to secretly give the book a try-I would suggest reading some of the blog articles on the book, as well as reviews about the couple's relationship.

Alright! Work is almost done. 

Lastly, I just wanted to share that I have been shopping diligently to put more color in my wardrobe. Whenever I do laundry, I feel like I am just hanging out a bunch of blacks, grey's, and dark red shirts. I have started to go to H&M due to budget constraints. Not sure if that's a good idea yet, but I am happy now because I can get so much more for my buck! Hopefully, the clothes don't unravel the second time I wear them. 

Happy Wednesday!