a hodge-podge (is that hyphenated?)

the things you come up with after a couple drinks...gerber daisy, strawberries, tangerines, sausage, corkscrew...a true hodgepodge (a lovely lady who will remain nameless wanted to cover it in fondue chocolate)

I cannot boast about my English skills.  I do know more English than any other language (which says almost nothing), but am always questioning spelling, grammar, and punctuation.  You’da thunk I’da learned that at Brandeis…

…I think hodge-podge should be hyphenated…no, it is not.  It is a compound word.  Here is a guide for determining if a word should be compounded, but if you don’t want to use it, just type it into Google and you will have your answer.  What did we ever do without the internet? I have no idea.

See, a hodgepodge already.

This weekend was a hodgepodge, too.  Highlights: 82 degrees at the beach on Saturday, been reading my favorite book, “Eat. Pray. Love”, again (If you haven’t read it and do any of these 3 things ever, pick it up now, even if you are a dude.  It is fabulously funny and touching), saw “Marley & Me” after having finished the book last week (also fabulously funny and touching), reworked my birthday party plans when 30 people RSVPed to go to a sushi restaurant that would only take 14 (feeling very loved), saw my favorite philosophical friends (who lead me to read Emerson’s “Self-Reliance” this evening), got news that one of my best college friends got engaged (they are dropping like flies, but I am so happy for her), saw my favorite, favorite kids,  and stumbled upon a wunderbar gluten-free baking mix.  Whoo.  I need a vacation.

Some points of clarification:

1. I am not a philosophy scholar.  It could definitely come off as boasting that I am “leisurely reading Emerson on a Sunday evening” and soaking up every morsel.  The truth is that I don’t really understand half of it, and the quotes I do get only sunk in after the fourth time.  I actually went to college about half an hour from Walden Pond, and sometimes tried to read Emerson and Thoreau while laying on the shore of this historic monument, but with very little success.  I usually got bored and picked up a Cosmo.   I am happy to report that I did have more success this evening.  Here are some of my favorite nuggets:

It is easy in the world to live after the world’s opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude.

Men imagine that they communicate their virtue or vice only by overt actions, and do not see that virtue or vice emit a breath every moment.

Trust your emotion. In your metaphysics you have denied personality to the Deity, yet when the devout motions of the soul come, yield to them heart and life, though they should clothe God with shape and color. Leave your theory, as Joseph his coat in the hands of the harlot, and flee.

A man should learn to detect and watch that gleam of light which flashes across his mind from within, more than the luster of the firmament of bards and sages. Yet he dismisses without notice his thought, because it is his. In every work of genius we recognize our own rejected thoughts; they come back to us with a certain alienated majesty. Great works of art have no more affecting lesson for us than this. They teach us to abide by our spontaneous impression with good-humored inflexibility then most when the whole cry of voices is on the other side. Else tomorrow a stranger will say with masterly good sense precisely what we have thought and felt all the time, and we shall be forced to take with shame our own opinion from another.

The voyage of the best ship is a zigzag line of a hundred tacks. This is only microscopic criticism. See the line from a sufficient distance, and it straightens itself to the average tendency. Your genuine action will explain itself and will explain your other genuine actions. Your conformity explains nothing. Act singly, and what you have already done singly will justify you now. Greatness always appeals to the future.

I am excited to have been reintroduced to the writing at this time in my life.  I love hearing God speaking through any means by which we are willing to listen.  There is truth and wisdom everywhere, under every seemingly unfortunate experience, detour, and relationship (and even cheesy movie) if we are willing to open our eyes to see it.  Hallelujah!

That being said, there are some great movies our right now.  I already commented on Slumdog Millionaire. Benjamin Button and Marley & Me both held a similar lesson: life is short and will end in death, so make the most of your relationships and time here (and “to thine own self be true” as lived by Marley and Brad).  My friends tease me because I am so keenly aware of this fact, and frequently have panic attacks that I am not “on track” with “where I should be”.  I am beginning to have this sneaking suspicion that I am right where I should be, its only my perception that may be flawed.  I do think its good to have a fire lit under us from time to time (otherwise we may wake up when we are 50 wondering where the years went and why our dreams were yet unfulfilled), but it is the razors edge: be here now and move forward with intentionality.  I hope that makes sense to someone other than me.

2. The baking mix is awesome.  It is made by Pamela’s, the same peeps who make the yummy shortbread cookies I told you about last week.  I got a 4 pound bag at Lassen’s (a 3/4 lb bag was $7) for $16, so you will see many glorious treats coming out of it in the upcoming weeks.  This is the kind of stuff that will keep me gluten-free.  Today I made a Gluten-free Sour Cream Coffee Cake with Pine Nut Streusel for a birthday celebration with my 2 new friends who share my 1/24 birthday.  I am telling you, with cake like this I will never cry over my gluten intollerance again.  It was SOOOOOOOO GOOD.  I served it with fresh farmers market strawberries and whipped cream.  The recipe is on the 4 pound package and I substituted pine nuts for the walnuts, eliminated the raisins, and cooked it in a bundt pan.  Voila!  You can do it, too!

happy birthday to us!!

3. My favorite family: I lived with the Lomelino’s for the first 2 years of their oldest son Samuels life.  He is my BFF (best friend forever).  They have since had 2 more, Hope and Jeremiah, and I just love them all to pieces.  Having them in my life makes me feel totally content to wait at least…10 years before having any of my own.  I mean, seriously, they get so excited to see me and we have so much fun together that that mommy-part of me is left totally fulfilled after a day with them.  I could write a book of short stories of our time together.  This weeks story would be titled: “The Missing Underpants”: Samuel (3) misplaces his underwear in the bathroom and is convinced that he accidentally flushed them down the toilet.  I begin to believe it, though Hope (2) says she took them (she didn’t) and we look for them for 15 minutes before Hope finds them under the bathmat.  The sheer excitement over her discovery put a smile on my face the rest of the day.  Love those kids.

Pics taken by Rob Wang, who seems to have this amazing ability to excel at EVERYTHING he does.  He taught himself photography, teaches himself Mandarin Chinese while training for marathons, and has decided to become an Olympic curler.  Who does that?!?!?