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merely talk

rantings and ravings with little cohesion and plenty of pretension

 

Domesticated


For those of you who don't live in E-town, we got a lot of snow this weekend. Which makes sense, all Albertans know that the first major snowfall always happens to fall on or around Halloween. Thus most little kids end up wearing "skier" costumes out trick or treating. Unfortunately a lot of adults haven't quite learned that lesson. I had an enjoyable evening at work on Saturday, watching many a young stupid girl trying to navigate icy and snowy Whyte Ave while wearing only stilettos and underwear.

There's something about the snow that makes me what to cook. On Sunday I had the day off from work. And I had decided that I had done enough school work in the week, so I was able to take the weekend off from homework as well. So after sleeping until what I thought was noon, but what was actually 11 (yay time change). I got up and started cooking.

My friend Andrea had brought me back a pumpkin from her Aunts patch in Saskatchewan and she had given it to me on Saturday. While I was looking for Pumpkin soup recipes I came across all these other delicious sounding dishes I had been meaning to make. So instead of making soup (I didn't have all the ingredients anyway), I made myself some roasted chickpeas. This is one of the easiest things I've ever made. All you need are a can of chickpeas a favourite herb for seasoning and olive oil. And the roasted chickpeas themselves are such crunchy goodness! While the chickpeas were cooking I also made a curried lentil dish. Also very easy to make and unbelievable tasty. And it made my house smell so good.

This morning the roommie and I went grocery shopping and I got all the supplies I needed for the pumpkin soup. The recipe I found called for heavy cream, but I decided to use coconut milk instead to make it vegan, and man was that a good call. I had so much fun chopping up the pumpkin, setting aside the seeds for roasting, and adding little extra ingredients to the soup (it only called for nutmeg, but I threw in some allspice and cinnamon too). Creating in the kitchen just gives me so much joy and makes me happy. And there is something just so satisfying about orange soup. It's very comforting.

Even now, I'm still itching to do some more cooking.But I need to stop for the day. I now have enough food to last me over a week. Also there is very little room in the fridge as is, and I've run out of Tupperware containers. So I guess I'll just have to do my homework now.

Sigh.

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I haven't heard of most of these....

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I'm not well read

One of the blogs I enjoy reading on a regular basis is 50books.com. The writer is a lovely woman in Vancouver who enjoys a similar philosophy on reading as I do. Today she linked to a list of 1001 books one must read before they die.

I looked at it, and I've only read 54. But I recognized a majority of the titles, and I have been meaning to read a whole bunch of them. Some of them are even currently piled beside the bed waiting for me to crack them...

The list is written chronologically, and what I found interesting was that until about 1930 my number was pretty low. So most of my books are classics. Which makes sense if you think about school, but not so much if you think about me working in a book store.

Anyway I thought it was fun at least. It's not going to make me rush out and buy War and Peace or anything, and I definitely think that their are books left off the list, but it's fun all the same.

In other news some fellow WST gals and I are making some pretty funky buttons to raise funds for the Campus Sexual Assault Centre. Their to raise awareness about the issues of consent when it comes to Acquaintance Rape (which is the most common rape, and the most under reported.) I'll keep you posted on how things continue to develop, but I'm pretty excited. I like this whole political activism thing.

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Awake


It's 7:21 in the morning. And I'm awake. My alarm will not be going off for another half an hour. It's still dark outside. And I'm awake, have eaten breakfast and have a cup of coffee beside me. I'm awake and have already been surfing the net for a half hour.

Even though I know I should be upset that I'm awake. I'm not really. I know that tonight when I leave school at 7:30 in the evening, I'll be annoyed. I'll probably be pretty annoyed in two hours when my first class starts. But right now I'm not. I kind of like the mornings in the winter. I like waking up and drinking coffee when it's still dark out. There's a coziness too. I love how quiet and still the city is. How quiet and still my apartment is. Coffee always tastes better in the fall and winter.

The girls from work came over last night for our traditional Wednesday night fun. We were originally going to drink some wine, do some crafts (like knitting) and watch bad movies. Instead we just drank wine. And got very, very drunk. It was good times. And the mild headache I have this morning was totally worth it.

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Seriously.


Where did September go?

 
 

Defacing Public Property



As I walk to and from school and work I have occasion to see a lot of graffiti. I have to say that Edmonton artists can be quite creative. I mean sure there is a lot of stupid and useless stuff out there, but there also seem to be many artists who understand that if their going to be defacing public (or private) property with a message, the message should be a decent one.

Two particularly fun ones have recently caught my attention. The first is near a school who's field I cut across on my way to work. It's a picture of three smokestacks with the words "Go Oil Go!" written above. Well done my lefty friend. Making fun of the oil industry and the hockey fanatics all in one.

The other one I've particularly enjoyed is on the side of a grey mailbox-y thing. The one the mailperson gets their letters out of, instead of the kind you put mail into. I think it's on 111th street, possibly 112th. I don't really pay attention. Anyway it's ribbon like letters stenciled on and in neon orange spray paint. And it says: "Needs more colour". The first time I saw it, it made me smile. And for the next few blocks I tried to figure out why I enjoyed it so much. As messages go it isn't that interesting. It's cute sure, but was the grey mailbox really improved? Was this a message that could justify the crime? And really no. But then I realized I was just really happy with it because the artist spelt colour with a u.