Note to Self

When applying for a job:

Always clear things with 3 - 5 personal and professional references, as soon as applying. Even though they aren't required at the beginning. The employer is always going to ask for references. The number and the type may vary but they will always be there. Just accept it.

Send thank you notes/presents to references. After all they are being awesome.

Write down the questions about the job on a piece of paper and take that with me. I will be nervous and I will forget. . . If I don't have questions, make some up. Let them be able to answer some questions.

Look up the employer's website and check it's affiliate sites. Have a question relating to site content so they know that I looked at it thoroughly.

When I mess up, it's okay. Really.

Gratitudes:

1. I am grateful tomorrow is Sunday. The day of rest and spiritual rejuvenation.
2. I am grateful the ayurveda and meditation is working so well.
3. I am grateful all my friends think that the setbacks I find so frustrating are no big deal. Helps me realize that I'm taking myself too seriously.
4. I am grateful for car chitchat, so much better than just sitting there being taxied.
5. I am grateful my Mother taught me how to sew. I know, Mother, I didn't want to; I still don't enjoy the process. Still, it is an eminently useful skill.

career advice

Because of his love for science, Professor Henry Eyring encouraged his sons to major in physics as preparation for a career in science. While President Eyring was studying physics at the University of Utah, he had an exchange with his father that changed his career direction. He asked his father for help with a complex mathematical problem. “My father was at a blackboard we kept in the basement,” President Eyring recalls. “Suddenly he stopped. ‘Hal,’ he said, ‘we were working this same kind of problem a week ago. You don’t seem to understand it any better now than you did then. Haven’t you been working on it?’”

A little chagrined, President Eyring admitted he had not. President Eyring recalls his father’s response: “When I told him no, my father paused. It was really a very tender and poignant moment, because I knew how much he loved me and how much he wanted me to be a scientist. Then he said, ‘Hal, I think you’d better get out of physics. You ought to find something that you love so much that when you don’t have to think about anything, that’s what you think about.’”

H. David Burton, “The Blessing of Work,” Ensign, Dec 2009, 42–46

Quoted From: Gerald N. Lund, “Elder Henry B. Eyring: Molded by ‘Defining Influences’,”Ensign, Sep 1995, 10

right is of no sex

Without the vote women will be unable to change the laws that treat them unjustly.

All that distinguishes man as an intelligent and accountable being is equally true of woman. And if that government only is just which governs by the free consent of the governed there can be no reason in the world for denying to woman the exercise of the elective franchise. Our doctrine is that right is of no sex.

~Frederick Douglass
as stated on PBS documentary on Elizabeth Cady Stanton & Susan B. Anthony 
Seneca Falls Convention of 1848
[other information here]

indoor fresh air

 

a magazine "tear out" from the first issue of the online magazine Lonny (pp.166)

fall look book

How did I not know about Toast? Ah, well, I know now . . . and in my mind's eye these are the looks I'll be sporting this fall & winter season:

 

 

 

 

Now I just need thick red hair, a beach, tall grass and some mustard yellow tops.

Gratitudes:

1. I am grateful for my sight.
2. I am grateful for texture, and the sense of touch.
3. I am grateful for cold cereal.
4. I am grateful my internal organs are still internal.
5. I am grateful for squash.
   

the walk-a-ways dress

The Walk-a-Ways Dress by Anthropologie made the rounds in the blog world for good reason - it's a beauty. Unfortunately it looked horrible on me, I even went up a size to no avail. The dress was made for a much shorter torso, or smaller bosom, than mine. However, it did spark some memories of the tee shirt dresses my mother made for myself and my sisters when we were little (and before my "I will not wear dresses" phase). The formula was simple enough: purchase a tee shirt, measure fabric for a gathered circle skirt, hem fabric, gather skirt fabric and attach to bottom of tee shirt. Occasionally, from leftover fabric, my mother also appliqued some simple shapes to the tee shirts. Looking at the walk-a-ways dress with it's silk skirt, I thought "I can make grown-up versions of those tee shirt dresses"; and if I make them for myself, there won't be any bodice length issues. Plus I could do all sorts of different skirts, not just a gathered circle. I love bubble skirts, and pleats are growing on me, lace or different-colored bands are a personal style favorite; empire waist, drop waist, banded waist, natural waist are all possible and all without the sleeve waterloo to slog through. Happiness.
And now, without further ado, some images of the dress that sparked the memories and ideas:

 

the cheaper look-a-like "Sparkler Dress" by Lulus

And also a few "inspiration" dresses:

fields of gold by anthropologie

autumn check dress by toast

silk faille dress by Lela Rose

(found here whilst looking for images of the Blushing Faille Dress by Anthropologie)

Easton Stripe Skirt by Kate Spade

and, just because it's pretty, the Plaza Jackie Dress by Kate Spade:

a domino breakfast

menu at a glance

• Kedgeree
• "Prune" juice
• Bangers (large link pork sausages are best!) and mustard
• Toast and blood-orange marmalade

kedgeree
This dish has been a British staple since the Victorian era (it originated as a breakfast entrée with the colonials in India). Traditionally made from leftovers, it's also perfect for supper in front of a movie later in the day.

This recipe is adapted from Rose Prince's The New English Kitchen.

Makes 8
The Ingredients

• 1 lb. smoked salmon
• 1 onion, halved
• 1 cup milk or cream
• seeds from 6 green cardamom pods
• 1 tsp. cumin seeds, toasted in a dry pan, then ground
• 6 fennel seeds, toasted and ground as above
• ½ tsp. ground turmeric
• 1 lb. cooked long-grain or basmati rice
• 1 tbsp. butter, melted
• 4 eggs, soft-boiled (boil for 5 minutes) and peeled

Put the salmon in a large pan with the onion, milk, and spices. Bring to a boil and turn off the heat; let sit for 5 minutes. Remove the salmon and flake the flesh; set aside. Strain the milk and pour into a large serving dish; add the salmon, rice and butter. Mix gently but thoroughly. Quarter the eggs and scatter over the surface. Garnish with parsley if desired.

"prune" juice
Prune, the delicious restaurant in downtown New York City, serves an eponymous juice that's happily made from five citrus fruits—not prunes. This combination of citrus juices is a sophisticated version of everyday OJ.

The Ingredients

• 4 cups orange juice
• 3 cups ruby-red-grapefruit juice
• 1/3 cup lemon juice
• 1/3 cup Meyer lemon juice
• 1/3 cup lime juice

Combine all ingredients, chill and serve.

From Domino magazine December/January 2007.

Photos by Justin Bernhaut.

one of those random confessions

I hug trees. Literally.

Have for a long time. I blame it on Anne Shirley; if there needs to be blame. She was always hugging trees.

Anne, walking home from school through the Birch Path one November afternoon, felt convinced afresh that life was a very wonderful thing.[She] paused to throw her arm about a slim young birch and kiss its cream-white trunk. Diana, rounding a curve in the path, saw her and laughed.

"Anne Shirley, you're only pretending to be grown up. I believe when you're alone you're as much a little girl as you ever.

"Well, one can't get over the habit of being a little girl all at once," said Anne gaily. "You see, I was little for fourteen years and I've only been grown-uppish for scarcely three. I'm sure I shall always feel like a child in the woods." [Anne of Avonlea, "Davy in Search of a Sensation". image by StudioG]

With such a personal heroine I was bound to hug trees. There's little chance now I'll outgrow the habit.

Gratitudes:

1. I am grateful for yoga classes.
2. I am grateful for my husband's kindness.
3. I am grateful for pain medication.
4. I am grateful for banana cream pie.
5. I am grateful for milk.
   

the practice of non-doing

In college I took a course in Alexander Technique. This technique developed by F. Matthias Alexander in the late 1890s and early 1900s is designed to allow the body to be in its natural alignment. Thus decreasing, and even eliminating, many physical ailments. The chief exercise in Alexander Technique is the position semi-supine. Semi-supine is to lie upon one's back, head on a book or block to allow for the natural curve of the neck, knees up with feet flat upon the floor, arms gently resting on the abdomen. Then the participant is to think the following directions:

• head forward and up
• shoulders back and down
• spine/back lengthen and widen
• knees forward and away
• pelvis pointing down (down when standing but in this case it means to the opposite wall)

Though often we would shift our bodies we were not to consciously move them. We were instead to "not do" or as my teacher put it "inhibit." I hated semi-supine. I hated it in class, I hated it out of class, I hated it when the semester ended. I was unique in this sentiment, everyone else in the class loved semi-supine. I did enjoy other applications of the directions. I liked to use them when standing, walking, talking, sleeping. I merely despised non-doing.

As I've gone along this "journey of wisdom" non-doing has presented itself as a piece of wisdom to incorporate into my life. I have resisted it - vehemently. It has caught up. For the first time ever in my life I have no plan. There is nothing for me to do. It makes no sense to me. I struggle with it. I hate it. My Alexander teacher would advise me to allow. A meditation teacher would advise me to be. Christ, the master teacher, would advise stillness.

Oh, bother.


Gratitudes:

1. I am grateful for the broom.
2. I am grateful my husband lets me re-arrange our belongings.
3. I am grateful for magazines.
4. I am grateful for golden September days.
5. I am grateful for my church community.

education of children

"It should be your care, therefore, and mine, to elevate
the minds of our children and exalt their courage;
to accelerate and animate their industry and activity;
to excite in them an habitual contempt of meanness,
abhorrence of injustice and inhumanity, and
an ambition to excel in every capacity, faculty, and virtue.
If we suffer their minds to grovel and creep in infancy,
they will grovel all their lives."

~John Adams
[Dissertation on the Canon and Feudal Law, 1756]


Gratitudes:

1. I am grateful for Netflix.
2. I am grateful for words.
3. I am grateful for windows that let in sunlight.
4. I am grateful for refrigeration.
5. I am grateful for my health.
   

laudable ambition

Cory and I finished watching the HBO miniseries on John Adams last night. Then we watched the short documentary on David McCullough and he shared an anecdote about the young Ralph Waldo Emerson meeting the old President John Adams -

Speaking of the mood of the times, Adams exclaimed with vehemence, "I would to God there were more ambition in the country," by which he meant, "ambition of the laudable kind, to excel."[McCullough, John Adams, p.640]

How exhilarating to know that there is a short of ambition that is laudable. I grew up with the very distinct impression that ambition is a dirty little secret, and what's more, even more so in a female. Yet I always felt that my ambition couldn't possibly be a bad thing as it took nothing from anyone else - I could never articulate it until now though.

Perhaps I shall dust off my ambition.

Gratitudes:

1. I am grateful for toothpaste.
2. I am grateful for running water.
3. I am grateful for my eyesight.
4. I am grateful to have a comfortable mattress.
5. I am grateful I have a pleasant bedfellow.
   

advance apologies

My advance apologies if you get inundated with posts the next few days. I'm condensing various and sundry blogs all into this one and I don't know how the posting will go.