It grows on you...

In my childhood, I was somewhat of a picky eater. I had kind of unusual tastes for a kid, like loving raw vegetables and shredded cheese for snacks. I also didn't eat sandwiches for several years, because I didn't like when things had too many flavors at once. I guess the best description was that I had was like a taste for simple foods, a restricted palate.

Once I left home for college though, I became much more open to trying new foods. I quickly learned that things that I was afraid of trying, or that I assumed would be gross were actually wicked delicious. One food experience that really stood out for me was when Paul first got me to try Clam Chowder. I was convinced that I hated this soup, because I thought the idea of eating clams was kind of icky. Clam Chowder also has a weird, unique smell to it that can be off putting at times, particularly if you don't know what clams taste like. The minute I tried it though I regretted missing out on all those years of chowder eating, and full heartedly admitted that it was delicious.

Some other foods though, took me multiple tastes to realize how great they were. I guess there are just some flavors that you have to get used to. My acquired tastes include:

Chamomile Tea - I always found the flavor to be too medicinal, and I went through a phase where I couldn't eat or drink anything that reminded me of cough syrup (I'm looking at you, grape popsicles). I've been drinking a lot of bedtime tea lately though, and it really gave me a liking for the flavor. Now it's one of my favorite kinds of tea.


Feta Cheese- Feta and I got off to a bad start. When I worked at the Hatch, I had to restock the feta for the greek food station. I had never really encountered Feta before, so having to handle a giant block of it, submerged in a tub of water, was a little much. I was grossed out. Lately though I've enjoyed this cheese in pasta and sandwiches. I got over our bad first impressions.

IPAs: Almost nobody likes IPAs the first time they try them. They're very bitter, and completely different from Lagers and Ales. I remember quite distinctly saying that I'd never like IPAs. But lo and behold, they are now my favorite type of beer. I think that as you try more and more beers, you start to crave the flavorful taste of Hops in you beverage.

Sushi: I remember gagging the first time I ate sushi. I left the restaurant thinking I'd never eat it again. Strangely enough though, I started craving sushi not too long after that. I think it's a meal that makes you feel fulfilled after eating it. I initially just liked the satisfied feeling I got after eating raw fish, but then I moved on to actually really liking the flavor. Now its just about the only way I eat fish.

Strange how your tastes change!

Sounds I Like

So I have a new favorite instrument: The Hang



It's a hollow, donut-shaped, tuned percussion instrument from Switzerland. It's a pretty new innovation in sound, first produced in 2000. It makes a beautiful, ethereal sound scape. It's so cool that new instruments are still being made.


I kind of want one, but they are apparently kind of hard to get. Only the original inventors make them, in a small workshop in Bern. And in 2009, they announced that they will not being selling Hangs for the year, because they were working on advancing the design of the instrument. Man, they look like a lot of fun to play.

*love*

Extremes!

Earlier this month, Paul and I went up to Wells for a long weekend. It was really nice. We got some time at the beach, and the water was miraculously warm enough to swim in. We also went on a little adventure to nearby Mount Agamenticus.

The most memorable part of the weekend though was probably the cognitive-dissidence inducing dining experiences I had on Saturday. In the afternoon, Paul's Mom, some family friends, friends of family friends, and I went to a local Bed and Breakfast for a formal tea. In all, we were a party of 7. In all, we were all ladies.

I had already seen one of the women, Bev, earlier on that day. I was reading out on the deck of the trailer, when she came wandering up the row calling out "Betty? Where are you? Betty?" It was like she was calling for a dog. I found out then that Betty was another woman in our party. She was slightly older and a living breathing stereotype of a lady from Queens. She apparently met some folks at another campsite and started hanging out with them.

When we walked through the door of the turret-topped Victorian mansion, we were greeted by an intensely earnest, impish lady in her 60's. She implored us to sit down a beautifully decorated table, dotted with honey pots and sugar bowls and small vases of wild flowers. The place settings were meticulous and violently floral.

"I'll be right back!" called our hostess, "We're just ironing our aprons!"

We were given laminated menus, with a list of teas sold by the pot. We all took a moment to look around and admire the dining room, sun pouring in from the long windows through the sheer drapes. The walls were loaded with floral wall paper, and shelves bursting with extra china and oriental antiques.

Shortly, our hostess returned with our waitress, Millie. She had the face of a 80 year old lady, but the hair of a 30 year old tv weather lady. She seemed sort of tense, and had a noticeable facial twitch when she talked. Three times during the course of our tea, she nearly took out half the dishes. Maneuvering around the room, she jostled a chest high, wall-mounted rack of china with her elbow. The plates and teacups rattled disconcertingly, and a few people in the room gasped. Later, her freshly starched apron got caught on a nearby, unoccupied table, and she nearly dragged everything with her. Everybody at the table started shouting "Whoa Whoa! Watch out!"

Aside from the comical elderliness and froufrou decor, this place was seriously lovely though. The cookies and scones were all fresh baked, and served on a elegant brass pastry tower. It all came with locally made jam and clotted cream. Millie and the Hostess got in a little scuffle at one point over who got to take credit for the lemon curd.

"If you hear shouting back there in the kitchen, you'll know why!" one of them had exclaimed.

The tea was really exceptional, and came with the thinnest slices of lemon I've every seen. 6 of us shared 3 pots, and Betty got Hot Chocolate, because she doesn't like tea. Good thing she was at a tea house, huh?

My favorite part was when Betty told the shaky waitress that she doesn't like Tea, so Hot Chocolate was her only option.

"I'm really much more of a coffee drinker." She said.

"Oh! Well we've also got a variety of European style coffees" Millie stammered.

"No, No Hot Chocolate is fine" she returned, a little louder than necessary.

Later on, as we were slathering our freshly baked scones with jam, she expressed again how much she would have liked a coffee. Somebody mentioned that they had coffee here, and Betty said something like "Oh I wish I had known that." It got a little awkwardly quiet then.

Most of the ladies ordered fruit flavored teas. Paul's mom and I opted to split a pot of "Buckingham Palace Tea Party", which was a blend of Earl Gray and Jasmine. It was very nice, especially with a little honey from a beehive shaped jar, and one of those impossibly small lemon slices. I felt very sophisticated with holding the thin bone china, and keeping my ceramic tea pot on a little candle-fueled warmer.

It was quite luxurious all in all, with the decadent desserts and the fancy dishes. Millie even gave us a porcelain bell to ring if we needed anything. We ended up using it once, even though most of the ladies were very very embarrassed about doing it. Someone wanted to know what one of the types of cookies was called again. I left feeling quite fancy indeed.

Not even 4 hours later, we were getting dinner with the family at Biker-friendly establishment called "Big Daddy's". The walls here were covered by corrugated metal and facetious road signs about rednecks. There were pool tables, and a live music stage where a guitar player was warming up for later that night by playing "Stash" by Phish over and over again.

While waiting to be seated, somebody made a double entendre about somebody liking to eat a lot of nuts, and everybody laughed. This would not have flown back at the B&B. Millie would have been so embarrassed!

Our new waitress was a 40 year old lady with long, candy-apple red dyed hair and gigantic breasts. She wore a trucker hat and a skin tight t-shirt.

Nick, a college-aged family friend who joined us, ordered an appetizer sampler that came in a basket the size of a marimba. The hot sauce for his wings came in flavors like "WTF" and "The ass-burner". When the waitress found out that Nick worked at a chain upscale restaurant, she flirted with him and tried to find out how said chain makes their whipped butter.

Eating in two places that were so profoundly and fundamentally different took me a few days to wrap my head around. It definitely made the weekend interesting!

Time for Pooches!

So, I guess I appear a little preferential to cats here on this blog, what with the "cat" category and all the Caturday posts. But I love dogs too! I was raised in a family of Dog people, and never even interacted with a cat that much until I lived with Rabi. I think it's time that the dogs got their day (eh...). So:

Caroline's 6 Favorite Dog GIFs

6.

5.


4.


3.

2.


1.

It's a funny old world

I am currently on the job hunt! My tenure at the Quaboag Valley CDC is officially coming to an end on August 31. I'll miss working there, it was a really positive experience. Too bad crummy Deval Patrick only lets you do Commonwealth Corps for one year.

I've had a fair bit of luck on my search, and have actually had several interviews. But nothing has panned out yet. The competition is fierce, and the bulk of who I am up against out there are far more experienced. I'm sure something will work out for me sooner or later, but I'm starting to lose confidence that I'll be transitioning immediately from one job to another. C'est la vie.

This job search though has gotten me thinking more about the global economy. I recently watched this really interesting episode of Vanguard where they examined the migrant workers of the Philippines. An astonishing large fraction of the nation's people leave the country every year to work in other countries. They send billions of dollars back to their families every year, but this monetary influx isn't improving the economy.



I thought it was really interesting too, how so many of these laborers go to Saudi Arabia for employment. Saudi Arabia is a country that I realized suddenly I know almost nothing about. I know we get our oil from them, and that their moral code is extremely strict. But it's hard for me to imagine moving there and living there and working there. Though it's unlikely that that would happen to me, as women are largely barred from working in the Kingdom.

Being morally obligated to be covered head to toe all the time must be kind of a drag. Check out their bathroom signs. It's a far cry from our triangle-shaped skirt ladies.



As the Original poster said: "The only uncovered woman in Saudi Arabia and she's on the door of a toilet. It's a funny old world."

Iwatani's Sketchbook

I thought this was so neat! These are the original, hand drawn designs for the classic video game, Pac Man. Such a cool peek into the creator Toru Iwatani's journals. What a beautiful intersection of video games and art.




Pac man is 30 this year, as commemorated by the google playable interface:

http://www.google.com/pacman/

Dumbo - 1941

Dumbo was a movie I watched somewhat regularly as a little kid. On the surface, it seems like a nice story about an underdog flying elephant who overcomes his tormentors and becomes a star. With it's bright colors and circus setting, it initially seems like a lighthearted tale. But there's a lot of darkness here. I think Disney does a good job of subtly suggesting at the harsh realities of circus life. The cruelty to animals, the backbreaking labor, and the discrepancy between the public face of the show and actuality of the inner workings.

One of the songs I remember liking best from this movie was the "Song of the Roustabout". I think it was the driving rhythm and the spooky minor key that appealed to me. Also, I thought it was really neat to see how circus tents were built, and I liked that the animals helped.



This is one of the songs that people often point to as proof that Dumbo/Disney is racist. The idea of this scene is not inherently racist. It shows the intense, thankless labor that black people were resigned to. However, some lyrics (specifically "when we get our pay, we throw our pay away") are pretty prejudiced seeming. Basically, this song has nothing on the Crows singing "When I see an Elephant Fly."

The weirdest scene in the movie is when Dumbo and Timothy the Mouse get WASTED.



It's got a trippiness to it that was way ahead of it's time. The part that starts at 1:50 is my favorite, I know all those lyrics by heart. And at 2:08, we get a sweet elephant Voltron, neat!