What I have learned tonight.

In the six hours I have been at Newark Airport tonight waiting for my flight to London I have learned the following things...at a about a rate of one per hour. Maybe travel really does broaden the mind.

1. Buy more than one magazine, the boredom is unbelievable.

2. Bring your own laptop, always, sharing is not fun.

3. Buy candy while the stores are open.

4. People can apparently sleep anywhere, floors seats, standing up, anywhere.

5. There are only so many hours you can spend in Duty Free.

6. I don't really like travelling.

I think I already knew the last one but tonight served as a reminder. Only eight more hours, who knows what I will learn in that time!

What's Cooking?

Since the departure of roomdog my dinner no longer appears on the table magically in time for Jeopardy each evening and I am teaching myself to cook. Coming from the "burn them and turn them" school of cookery this was a major challenge. I turned to the internet for ideas. I came across this website allrecipes.com which has thousands of combinations of chicken and potatoes which even my fussy wee self can manage with an ingredients search and everything. It is genius and my current favorite, after accuweather.com. Even if you don't intend to cook anything it is worth a visit for the entertainment value.

The best part about all recipes is that the ideas are submitted by real people and reviewed by them. For some reason people seem to feel the need to tell you intimate details of their lives along with their recipe for beef stroganoff. "I first made this in June of 1983 when my aunt Mary came to stay for my nephew’s first communion after a thirty years absence." They tell all about dinner parties and romantic breakfasts, family flu's and potlucks. It's like a whole soap opera of its own. One of the most common things to do in a review of a meal is to quote your husband, "My husband Tom will never eat green beans but when he tried this casserole he said "Mmm, lets never eat them any other way again" or your children "Mom these taste just like McDonalds." You also get to rate the recipe using the five star system and upload pictures of your creation. I love the way reviewers explain why they have given this number of stars. "I had to turn the oven down five degrees and had to use extra butter so this only gets 4 stars." It is acceptable to give alternatives, some of which completely trash the original recipe and give a completely different set of ingredients. My greatest success was the white chocolate and cranberry cookies but I will keep making them til I get a good enough quote to put in my review.

What makes me laugh most is who are these people? They are from all over the world and are in their little kitchens surrounded by garlic and baking soda dreaming up creations which win prizes at State Fairs and County Bake Offs. (Where do you have to live to go to a Bake off? I want to go!) Do they really exist because I sure don't know any people like this...except maybe me. I made Angels Famous Stew the other night and Randy said...just kidding. Check it out http://www.allrecipes.com/ (and yes roomdog you can just scroll over and click on that link too.)

What are you clapping for?

My little brother has a MySpace blog which has chilled him out no end. He can get a lttle intense about things like the polar ice caps melting or the amount of effort it takes to get a panda to mate but since he started blogging he has become much more relaxed. He says it helps him to get things off his chest and then we no longer have to listen to his rant of the week. So today I am going to try that little bro, it is time for people to stop clapping.

Being Scottish I often find myself in the enthusiasm minority in the USA. Don't get me wrong one of the reasons I moved here was that I like the American positive energy and the way they get excited about things but the clapping...what is it about? I don't understand why people clap for the following:
Finding the Daily Double on Jeopardy. They don't clap for choosing any of the other questions.
Being old. Why do we clap when someone says "I'm 73 you know." Is it just a well done for making it this far?
Winning a raffle. It is chance people, the winner just bought a ticket, same as you they didn't do anything special.
Clapping in the cinema, you know they can't hear you right?
Deal or No Deal. The whole show is just one big extended clap as is the Moment of Truth. Not that I watch these shows you understand.
Clapping should be reserved for something special, moments of true achievement. I do however appreciate the spontaneous clap, when someone is speaking or performing and the audience breaks into applause because they just can't help themselves, that's the kind of applause I would hope for. Rant over. Thank you little brother now I can return to my Saturday.

Questions

There are many questions which swim around my head, like why do people clap for the contestant who finds the Daily Double on Jeopardy? (More on this later) But my main question today is why are Friday afternoons so long?

It's really not the Carbon Footprint Roomdog

I talk to Roomdog a couple of times a week now on the phone. One of our favorite conversations is about how we adjusting to the changes since she moved away. I was worried about how I would adapt and just always thought that Roomdog would be fine. Well she is. She has a great new job and is moving again but after today's conversation I realize that she relied on me for some things too.

Roomdog is afraid of computers. I taught her some basics to get by and we used to have Publisher tutorials on quiet afternoons. Technology amazes her more than my parents and she is a wee bit scared of it. Today I asked her, "Have you read the blog yet?" She says , "Oh not yet, I am saving it up to read like a book. Can I print it out?" I tell her it is really not that serious it is just for entertainment value for me. She tells me a big long story about what she does when she gets access to the internet. Roomdog doesn't like a messy inbox and has to delete things immediately. She was thinking so much about the wall posts on her facebook page (which I made for her) she had to have me log in for her and delete them. Having known Roomdog for a long time I say, "You don't know what a blog is do you?" I was right, she didn't. So I explain it to here and tell her "I have sent you the link in an email, you know you can just scroll over that and it will link for you." Silence then "Well I don't really do that." Silence " You don't know what scroll means do you?" No. Now I understand the conversation we had a few months back when Roomdog tried to tell me there was nothing really on the internet.

I feel bad. Roomdog taught me to feed myself before she left. She gave Randy a whole tutorial about not taking the last Coke ever and how to look after me. So Roomdog I will be available for more lessons via phone...so you don't have to pretend that your reluctance to use the internet is about your carbon footprint.

If Roomdog was here

Spending time at home tonight. If Roomdog was here I know what I would be talking to her about, the questions going around my head.

1. Why am I suddenly obsessed with baking? Cupcakes, lemon bars, cheesecake, cookies. I am all about the baking. I tried to intellectualize this, is it about measuring or being in control...not so much. I just like stirring and eating the cookies. I even made cookies with the kids today thinking that they would find it relaxing. Not so much. They refused point blank to put the cranberries in and two girls almost came to blows in a teaspoon versus tablespoon debate. I guess not much is relaxing when you are a troubled adolescent. They liked the cookies at least.

2. What is with the fear mongering on the network news? Tonight I have been told to be afraid of canned vegetables, losing my home, a recession, the weather, baby shampoo etc etc etc. And where was the news? Last night's was better. "A play station may just blow up in your pants!" Honest to God direct quote.

3. Why is called a laptop? It doesn't fit on the lap comfortably really.

4. Is Corey Booker running for president? I keep seeing him everywhere. (He is Mayor of Newark, watch "Street Fight" a documentary about his first campaign.) I think he might in the future; he would have my vote if I had one.

5. Why can I not get the spell-check to work?

6. Why did I not go to the pub again?

Randy

My friend Katie asked me the other day. "Who's Randy? He sounds helpful" He is. Randy is my boyfriend and he is good at it. He has a whole bunch of great qualities but something I have noticed more during the last couple of weeks is that he is supportive. As I think about the future he is there to listen and to encourage. He thinks I can do anything.

I started writing my blog when my roomdog left because I had too much stuff swimming around my head which was not always conversation worthy and I didn't want Randy to have to hear it all. The blog is kind of an outlet. Irony is, Randy is the one who reads it. The blog is not really for you Randy. It is meant to give you a break. You listen to what I have to say all day long. You are the one who gets the random conversation pieces when I am tired or mad so you don't have to read it anymore.

It's sweet that you do though.

P.S. When Randy saw this post he wanted it known that he also just did the dishes and made me tea. Helpfulness acknowledged.

Chicken Wings are so Obvious

My sister has a fear which some may find irrational. This fear is of being obvious. It started when my mum sent her to the store on Christmas Eve when she was about 7 for carrots. She was so embarrassed because everyone would know that the carrots were for Rudolf...how obvious! As she got older she dreaded walking home with Christmas paper or buying candy at Halloween, wearing team colors on the day of the Cup Final or being drunk at New Year. I wonder what my sister would make of Super bowl Sunday.

It really takes years to adjust to a new culture. A first you ignore it. You continue to refer to trousers and celebrate Guy Fawkes Day. You argue about the pronunciation and stick to your own traditions. After a few years you begin to get tired of explaining what a jumper is and call jam, jelly just for ease. It takes another couple of years to get into American traditions like holidays and in this my seventh year in the US I am getting on board. I am totally down with Thanksgiving, well not the origins, just the current holiday. One day, no presents, great food and hanging out. I get the Fourth of July thing. Summer holiday, BBQ, hanging out. Still working on a couple of others and this Sunday it is time for me to embrace the Super bowl. I intend to root for a team, eat snacks and drink beer...sorry sis.

The best thing about American holidays and traditions is that they are new. There are no expectations which can't be met or bad memories. No family pressures (other people's families always seem easier than your own) or disappointments, just new fun times. Being away from home is not always easy but it is an excuse to join in fully for your first Thanksgiving or first Hanukah. To be totally obvious.
Go Giants! (Or Patriots)

Superdoopertrooperlooper Tuesday

Being a "Non-Resident Alien" in America I don't always feel that it is my place to voice my views of American Politics. Suffice to say that being from the UK I find that American opinions tend to be a little more right wing than I am used to. While I didn't think that it was my place as a foreigner to impose my opinions in a country where I am a guest, it does surprise me that people here tend to be pretty uninterested or uninformed about what is going on in their country. Teaching a class on current events to teenagers highlighted this for me.

Me: : "Ok, a real easy one to start, who is the president of the USA?"

Student: "Ehhh...Bush Washington?"

I was shocked originally until I watched what passes for news here, Local lies, rumors and hearsay as Roomdog used to call it, where every story is about an individual (or animal) in the local area or if something big is reported then it's "How does it affect your commute" I spent the rest of the year advertising the BBC News and begging the kids to watch it. I overheard this exchange in my class one day...

Student 1: "Why she so crazy about the news man, It's all she talk about"

Student 2: "She just really love the news man, she just love the news."

These two guys went back to writing their response to the role of America in Iraq or something similar. The point is that I have wondered why people find it difficult to get engaged in the political process, to become involved in that which can affect their lives. During this political primary season I have watched and read, listened (mainly to Randy who is all about Obama) and taken in the way the political process is reported here and have come to some conclusions.

At first I started with the network news. If you want to really understand anything, this is not the place to get your information. If you don't have any background information the news will not help. There is no mention of any ideology, manifesto or campaign promise, just of who had their haircut, what they ate today, who fell over or played the guitar. They might talk about poll points but they don't explain what any of this means. Instead they drag up what a candidate did in 1976 or where they went to school. It comes across like an episode of Access Hollywood, or worse TMZ. People this is not Brittney or Beniffer, this is your leadership!

Not finding what I needed there I turned to the Internet. You can find a great deal of information on the internet if you have the patience to look. I think you also have to be wary of who is sponsoring what is said. The adverts and sponsors make me nervous, why are these companies willing to spend money on these messages? So back to the TV I go and to the independent media like NPR and PBS where I like the reporting but have been so spoiled by the high pace of the other stations, I get bored and zone out.

Then I tried the Sunday morning political commentary shows like meet the press and Like It Is and all those ones. I like these shows and they can give you more information but I have a problem with the language. There are way too many metaphors and analogies going on here. There's a lot of mixing of metaphors and miss quoting of proverbs and I usually just feel as if I am intruding on someone else’s conversation. These shows can be a little elitist but if the alternative is Tyra interviewing the candidates, I know which I will choose.

Having taken all of this in using the supposedly "free" media here I make up my mind who I would like to win. Then I returned to my roots and to what my parents told me when I was little. "You have to look at the issue, talk about it and think about. Be suspicious of any message you get too often in the media, think why are they telling me this? Don't be afraid to support who you think represents your ideals and never be afraid to ask the hard questions or raise the difficult issues." Good advice which stays true after 25 years which became the basis of my current events class and the basis of who I will support for President.

Whatever you decide during this season the most important thing is to vote and I think to speak up for the kids who get to inherit what the next administration will leave behind. My dad was very strong on this..."People fought and died for those votes! If you don't take part you don't get a say." So this Tuesday please take the time to vote, and maybe you will speak up for those of us who can't.