Life aboard a Schooner...

these are the first three blog post I've made since embarking on this new chapter of life.  I started writing them on Facebook Notes, but I decided to go ahead and revive this blog.  I started it for a reason, after all.

So, going forward, this is where I will be writing.

https://www.facebook.com/lindsaymachine/notes

first three are titled: "Something Old, Something New...", "The Starting Line", and "Land Legs"

Ballerina Dancing and Beauty Shopping

My brother Derek got to be at home with us today, allowing me to sleep in.  Crazy as it sounds, I kind of wish I hadn't.  When I woke up and joined them upstairs, she was dancing and he was asleep on the couch.  I had so much fun "ballerina dancing"!  We even played a song on guitar called the "ballerina song" yeah, the words are "Ezra is a beautiful ballerina." 

So that made me think.  This little girl is the product of a recon marine and a tomboy girl.  How in the world is she so girly?  I love it.  I have always, throughout my life, been of the nature persuasion.  Meaning that I believe we can't help but turn out who we were always meant to be no matter what.  My upbringing was extremely opposite of who I am now.  I took great lessons from my parents, but I figured things out for my own.  I'm excited to be on this journey with Ezra and to be able to watch her learn who she is as she takes her very early steps to discovering her loves and life!

 

This is an attachment of our Vine of the Ballerina Song.

Follow me on Vine/Instagram @lindsaymachine

~Aunt Lindsay

Revitalization

I seem to find myself starting things and not finishing them all the time. I do cook now, since that was the original reason I started this blog. I actually work in the kitchen of a restaurant. Which is not to say I'm a chef, but I do have considerable knife skills and possess the ability to not burn things in the oven. I also followed my heart back to Lafayette, LA. I have been involved in the local theater scene and getting back into music. And then.... Two days ago I moved to Panama City Beach, FL. Yes, that's right. I moved in with my brother and his roommate to help him take care of his daughter, Ezra. I never, in a million years, thought I would be in this life. I'm not the person who ever wanted children. I watched a couple of girls after school and worked in a daycare and worked in the children's department of that big huge chain bookstore that's putting everyone out of business, but nothing this intensive and time consuming. Let's get something straight, I'm not tooting my own horn and I do love my niece to pieces, but the reaction of the masses when I tell told them that I was dropping my wonderful single life in the town I love to move and nanny was strange to me. I got a lot of "you're a good sister" and "he's lucky to have you". My thoughts? I am lucky to be in a position to help, but more so, if I weren't I would find a way. This is my family. If you wouldn't bend over backwards for your family, who would? And therefore, this should be the norm. I feel like we've gotten away from the loving family mentality as a whole. Yes, things change, people move forward, and the old ways are exactly that - old. However, there are some things I feel should not have changed. Sure, divorce is higher than ever, and families can be separated, but why can we not bring ourselves to support our families and help out any way we can? I have my own issues with my family. None that matter so much that I wouldn't help or accept help from any of them. I do believe that I have one of the best core families out there though. This situation is the best example I can think of. My parents couldn't come down here to Florida, as they own a small business in Kansas and are helping my other brother and his wife with their children. Also the reason my Kansas brother and/or his wife couldn't help either. But I could. And my parents are helping me by buying a car seat for me to transport my niece to and from places we need to go. So lucky doesn't quite cover our situation, and I'm still not sure I believe in a typical ideal of God, but in this circumstance I think the term "blessed" is appropriate.

blessed   Use Blessed in a sentence bless·ed [bles-id; especially for 3, 7 blest] Show IPA adjective 3. divinely or supremely favored; fortunate: to be blessed with a strong, healthy body; blessed with an ability to find friends. 

And of course, we live on the beach in some of the best weather in the country. Can't complain about that!

Alright. The reason for my reboot of this blog? I want to document this year. It may be more or it may be less, but for better or worse I'm here for a year. I love you all. I love my family. I love my crazy life.

~Aunt Lindsay

Summer of Reading

This summer has been exceptionally HOT. I can't seem to find any actual WICHITA dates, but Medicine Lodge seems to have reached 63 days (or more) of 100+ degree weather. That's over two months, folks. Since that is our summer here, I have NOT been turning on the stove that often. When I did cook it was usually just to boil some pasta. One great thing about pasta is that you can keep it around and make different meals out of it. Italian dressing for an easy cold pasta salad, a few veggies, maybe add some pasta sauce from a jar, some spices... the possibilities are, well not quite, endless.

No, this post is not about food.

It is about books. I was a damn reading fool this summer. I Finished the Sookie Stackhouse Southern Vampire series (the books that HBO's True Blood is based on) by Charlaine Harris. I read 7 of them in about a week and a half. Mindless dribble, and about the closest thing I'll ever get (and admit) to romance novels. Don't get me wrong, I thoroughly enjoyed them! They are just a very easy read, and not too much existentialism to digest. My entire purpose for reading them was that up to that point I had read a lot of serious non-fiction and just needed a break. After I finished those, I headed over to the Mercy Thompson novels by Patricia Briggs. More fantasy, yes, but not so much overtly sexualized characters. Although I do enjoy the series (I got through 3 in a week), I was ready for something different. My brain needed some stimulation. So what did I decide to read? "The Sea of Monsters" by Rick Riordon, second in the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, shelved in Young Readers. Yep. Deep. Ok, it was a hot summer!! At this point it's the middle of July. I saw through my FB feed a link to an NPR article about Superhero books. One in particular caught my eye called "Soon I Will Be Invincible" by Austin Grossman. I would qualify it as a 'good' read, but I wasn't awash in amazement afterward. I bought along with 'invincible' a book I had noticed 2 years ago when I first started working at Barnes & Noble - "The Unit" by Ninni Holmqvist. I read this book in just over a week, and only at work. I only get approximately one hour to read at work, that is if I don't get interrupted. So only reading for about an hour for 5 days is saying something! This was a fast read and I really wanted to keep going. In fact, the day I finished it I came home and finished it in my room. I just couldn't wait to see what happened. The subject of the book hit somewhat close to home - it takes place in the somewhat possibly near future (in Sweden) where women over the age of 50 and men over 60 are taken to be experimented on humanely and have their organs harvested if they are not working in a profession deemed 'productive' and have not had children. The antagonist ends up getting pregnant (sorry if I spoil it, but you see it coming) and the rest of the book is written in a way that makes you think. Excellent. Recommended. Next I picked up "Juliet, Naked" by Nick Hornby. I've only read one other Nick Hornby title - "High Fidelty". I enjoyed his style and the voice of the book, and now that I've read another of his I am kicking myself for not picking his books up sooner and more often. Being a musician struggling to admit that I am so, books about morose musicians appeal to me. This happened to be part of the storyline. Girl is with Boy (ok, so they're almost middle aged), Boy cheats on Girl and therefore Girl has great excuse out of a lousy relationship. Girl meets musician (who is coincidentally the subject of Boy's obsession) and starts to think she can live again. The end of the book leaves the character's future to the reader's imagination, as if we think of these things everyday anyway. It seems like real stuff and real people as opposed to fantastical worlds where anything is possible. I am currently reading "Super Sad True Love Story" by Gary Shteyngart. I waffled over starting this book (since I had already bought it a few weeks ago) and trying out "The Help" which has been so popular. I decided to go with 'love story' a) because I had it and b) because a friend and former co-worker had previously mentioned she enjoyed it. I'm just a few chapters in, I'll let you know if I like it at the end!

Til next time... Good eats and reads
Lindsay

inner monologue-ing

I have started to constantly ask myself if the way I could act is necessary. Choices to be made, life affecting choices are coming my way more than ever. Well, at least I'm noticing these opportunities now rather than ignoring them as I did years ago. When I moved away from Louisiana (which I definitely regard in hind-sight as a stupid decision) I was still thinking off the cuff. It was shortly after the move (a very short two months after) that I realized it was a dumb decision that (at the point I realized this) could not be reversed. I had no choice but to make the best of my situation. I tried living the way I had in the past, and it got me nowhere fast. So I took stock of the people I knew, chose the ones who were good for me and went forward. Not all of my choices panned out, but I can honestly say that I have no hard feelings toward the totality of the people I called friends starting the year off in 2009. When I had to concede defeat to independence in Manhattan (KS) I was finally at a point where I could humble myself enough to ask for help from my parents. It was rough going after a while, but with help from my grandparents I was able to move out and get on some solid solo ground again. This was a little over a year ago, and I once again thought I would be able to pick up my carefree independence where I had left off in Louisiana. After just a few months I discovered that was not the case. I no longer found joy in the idea of, as they say down south, "Laissez le bon temps roulez" (Let the good times roll.) I found a routine and stuck to it, as best I could. I was lucky enough to find three jobs that worked within each other and slowly struck a successful note. It's been through that schedule, this last year, the positive changes made and friendships acquired that I've finally come to realize myself as an adult. Resulting in the eye and mind opening experiences of this last week. Twice I have been put into situations that came about completely out of the blue, and as I look back on them, have come out sparkling. Yeah, I know, that's not too humbling. And I'm aware that it may be too early to judge, but let me explain a bit further. I think a lot while I drive, and while I'm in the shower, and when I start to go to sleep. Lately I've been thinking a lot about where I am in regards to the rest of my life and relationships. I always say I don't want to get married. And I really don't. I have no plans to get married and I never have. I was never one of those little girls who planned her wedding, or picked out what kind of dress I wanted, or what names I would have for kids or anything like that. Recently, this singleness has made me sad. So sad that I've gotten myself into some really stupid relationships. Not that the guys were bad to me, or for me for that matter, but I really had no place being in any sort of resemblance of a relationship at all! And for that I apologize to those guys for wasting their time. So, back to my recent revelation. All my thinking lately has made me decide that I'm turning a leaf over. Here is my declaration. I'm no longer looking for Mr. Right, Mr. Right Now, OR Mr. Whatever. I've got a job with responsibilities to maintain, friends who are good to me AND for me that I want to be there for as well, and a life to cultivate. I have for too long been preoccupied with getting my kicks right now. I am officially becoming an old fart and saying no. I am only here to be your friend, and if you want more than that, please have the where-with-all to stop yourself and say no. There are plenty of great ladies out there who want to be with you, now and or forever, and I am not one of them. So fellas, let's be buddies. I'm good at that.

Let the title of this post be "An inner monologue that turned into a diatribe on singleness"

more veggie pasta experiments

I needed another quick lunch today, so I decided to go a more italian route.

I once again boiled a small amount of wheat linguine. I then seasoned a frying pan with olive oil, minced garlic and crushed red pepper. I opened a bag of frozen italian style veggies into the pan. After about a minute I added some thyme, basil and oregano. I tossed the veggies in that and then added about a teaspoon of honey, tossed the veggies some more then added a little italian dressing, tossed again. As I was waiting for the veggies to cook all the way through I opened my fridge and thought about what else I could add. I had some blackberries and raspberries that were about to spoil if I didn't use them soon, so I thought 'what the heck... I'll try it'. I put in a handful of the berries, stirred them about the mix a little then tossed the mix. The finished result was very tasty. The sweetness of the honey, dressing and fruit complemented the seasoning well. This was just a bunch of stuff from my kitchen thrown together off the cuff though. Now that I've tried them together, I think next time I'll make a glaze with the honey/dressing/fruit mix... possibly add some fruit jelly (apricot, orange marmalade) into the glaze.



The pic is a bit blurry, but you get the idea. You can see the seasoning and the berries all up in there. YUM!

mid-day quickness

Today I was contemplating what to eat... I boiled some noodles and decided to do some stir-fry with my own seasoning choices. I seasoned the pan with about a tablespoon and a half of sesame oil and garlic with some thyme. Then I added the veggies, just a stir-fry blend from the frozen section in the grocery store. I added a little more sesame oil and some hoisin sauce and put the veggies over the pasta. YUM!

Just a quick documentation. This was a yummy and easy lunch and I'm taking the rest for dinner at work.

Added bonus: it smells amazing!