Skotte has been to Con on the Cob for the past several years, but this was my first time!
I’ll be talking about my experiences over the next few days.
The basics:
♪ I played in 3 rpgs (role playing games)
♪ Several board games were played
♪ Awesome music was experienced
♪ Met lots of new friends
♪ Got to see beautiful Fall leaves on the way
The Rogue Princess Squadron has been taking on Geek Social Fallacies. (They have currently written their thoughts about 2 of the 5.)
My thoughts –
I don’t really have any experience one way or the other, and tend to agree overall with what Princess Ang said. (What the other princesses added gave me lots to think about!)
I can say with total personal authority that I do not take constructive criticism well. In fact, in school I got excellent grades for the most part, but always had negative marks for constructive criticism.
My reactions today are much better than they were as a child. But, they are still not that great. *wink*
Because of this, I have spent a large portion of time thinking about WHY. Here’s what I’ve come up with!
My parents always told me to try my best. When I try my best, and it is not good enough (or maybe simply not what the person had in mind), I feel like I failed. It has taken me a long time to figure out that sometimes a person’s reactions (mine included) sometimes have nothing at all to do with what actually happened.There are always going to be a myriad of reasons, some that you may never even know!
Sometimes it is sort of like auditioning to be a tall skinny girl character when you are a beef muscley dood. You are not going to get the part because it’s not meant for you.
In this way, life is not fair. But, when you don’t “win,” other opportunities open up that you never anticipated in the first place. But you have to be open to them.
When I am criticized, I shut down. Therefore, I am not open to what might come next. It can be a real big problem for me, and it is something I work on every day.
I have a problem. My attention span is only so long.
Example – I play in a D&D (Dungeons and Dragons) group occasionally. After about five hours, I am done. Five hours is a long time, but depending on when we start playing, many players want to go longer! And I just can’t do it. I start to fidget, look at my phone, wiggle in my chair. I consider these things rude to do, but trying to control my behavior seems to make it worse, so I go with my flow.
I read this article on The Lefsetz Letter on Grit and took this quiz which Angela Lee Duckworth, professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania has authored. Her research has concluded that it is Grit that makes people successful. They stick to their passion until the job is done.
Jeff Bridges in “True Grit”
I immediately (after waffling for a few minutes) took the quiz, and arrived at a score of 3 (from 1 to 5), which does indeed sound like me – somewhere in the middle. And then I spent the rest of the day thinking about it.
I am what Barbara Sher has coined a Scanner. (Click here to hear her talk about this concept.) I am interested in many things. When I went to college, I was a voice and violin double major because I simply could not choose between one or the other. I have so many projects started – knitting, crochet, embroidery, jewelry, scrapbooking, photography, etc.!
So, I can’t say that I stick with a project until it is finished – but, then I realized that I AM sticking with the overall topic of crafting!
Other examples – I just spent 21 weeks completing a reputation grind in World of Warcraft. Ok, it’s a game – but still… You have to commit to doing it!
So anyway – my conclusion is that being a 3 in Grit is pretty fine with me – And there are things that I CAN do to stick with projects that really hold my interest, and let other projects fill the holes of my soul that need a little magic.
I finally watched The Cabin in the Woods a few days ago.
Oh my, it is such a great movie!
I was expecting something closer to Cabin Fever.
I saw this picture on Shorpy.com and immediately thought of the movie.
Don’t go in there!!!
(You SHOULD however totally check out Shorpy. Beautiful historical pictures that capture our past!)
Today, I turn 37. I don’t feel any need to hide my age. People think I either look younger or older than I am, so it makes no difference to me! I have earned all of my 37 stripes, and look forward to earning at least 37 more spots. (Bonus points to anyone who caught that veiled reference to a song!)
This is also proof that I walk to the beat of my own drummer.
So, today – I am asking people for one of three things. You can (of course) do all three!
So – the short scoop is, send a:
I was looking at Pinterest when I came across this recipe for Gluten-Free Meatballs.
I have been avoiding corn for while, so I was curious what this recipe used. It was a pleasant surprise to find oats in the recipe! Oats are one thing that doesn’t contain gluten, but it can be cross-contaminated from being grown close to other grains. I always buy gluten-free oats for this reason.
I also avoid beef, so I used 1 pound each of ground chicken and ground turkey. Skotte bought some mild poultry sausage for the sausage portion. I mixed them up and baked them yesterday, early in the morning before the heat really set in.
For the sauce, I sauteed an onion in olive oil and butter with a sprinkle of garlic powder before adding an organic jar of roasted garlic tomato sauce. We need to restock some garlic bulbs soon. The extra onion really adds a nice flavor. My dad had some cooking sherry in the pantry and I also added about a tablespoon of that.
I was thinking about adding a can of stems and pieces of mushrooms but Skotte doesn’t like them, so I was nice. I ate my mushrooms during my breakfast today instead.
The last thing I did was prepare some brown rice pasta. Dad usually made the pasta, so I don’t have much experience with the exact timing. The pasta ended up being a tad too crunchy, but still edible. The meatballs were the best part by far!
It was my intention to get myself up and moving by June 1st. I got myself moving on May 27th, when my father went into the hospital for dehydration. Unfortunately, he never came home. It turned out that he had T-Cell Lymphoma, and an aggressive form at that. He died on June 25 while I was watching him. I still can’t believe it. Before Memorial Day, he was still driving us around and making us breakfast and loads of other things. I miss him so much.
But, in order for me to not fall into another horrible depression, I have to move forward. I am not going to beat myself up for all of the things I said I was going to do and didn’t. I am going to take what works and do it more, and what doesn’t work, I will leave it behind. Life is too short!
My dad lived a very full life of 76 years, but it seems much too short to me! I always told him I expected him to live to 120 years old. He gave it his best shot.
This is my family at Easter 2013.
We went to eat at Ruby Tuesday a week ago, and I had the most fabulous drink – something called A Watermelon Fizz.
“The refreshing taste of summertime. Sweet watermelon blended with mint, lime juice, and club soda. Served chilly over ice with fresh mint.”
I am determined to make my own version of this soon. Or go back for as many as possible this summer.
Ingredients:
one can of lentils
olive oil
1 cup chicken broth
2 bay leaves
canned baby onions in a jar (in brine), like 1/2 cup (remove brine)
1 teaspoon cumin
1 Tablespoon Simply Organic brand All Purpose seasoning
salt and pepper to taste
2 small cans or 1 large mushrooms, stems and pieces, liquid dumped
one can of zucchini with tomatoes (has garlic in it, also)
one can of artichoke hearts in brine, remove brine
one cup uncooked rice, whatever variety you like
2 cups water
butter, 2
parmesan cheese
extra water as needed
First, I put the can of lentils in a pot (deep with lid if possible, like when making soup) and add a generous helping of olive oil (approximately 1+ Tablespoon) and around a cup of chicken broth. Heat on Med High. Add 2 bay leaves. Add onions. Stir. Bring to a boil. Add cumin, all purpose seasoning, salt and pepper and stir until mixed. If the liquid decreases too much, add more water. We’re aiming for mildly liquidy soup.
Start the rice now, by adding 1 cup dry rice to two parts water. So, if you want more or less rice, adjust accordingly. I like to add in a dollop of butter and a pinch of salt when I cook rice. Stir and bring to a boil on Med High, then turn temperature down to low, put a cover on, and wait the allotted time. (Depending on the rice, it could be between 20-30 minutes.)
During this time, keep an eye on the lentil mixture and the rice. When the rice starts to look almost done, move on to this next step.
Remove the bay leaves. Add mushrooms, zucchini, and artichokes to lentil mixture. We don’t want the artichokes or zucchini to get overmushed, so we’re trying to heat them up, make them soft. Stir this every few minutes.
When the rice is ready, add another Tablespoon of olive oil to the rice OR a Tablespoon of butter and stir completely. Add 1/2 cup of parmesan cheese to the rice, and mix.
When the rice is still moist but slightly like a risotto parmesan sauce, and the artichoke and zucchini is warmed, lentils mushy, you can combine the rice with the lentil mixture. Stir well!
Serve immediately, and enjoy.
This is my first mail from South Africa! I am very excited.
This beautiful postcard came from Derika.
I love the collaging, the tree branch stamps and cut-outs, the different papers, and the numbers! I love numbers!
Every postcard I have received so far in iHanna’s 2013 DIY Postcard Swap have been fabulous. Each one has contained something meaningful to me. Maybe they are universally meaningful.
As I look at them again and again, I find something new and inspiring. I find something to be grateful for, and something to meditate on. I am so glad that I took a chance and jumped into this swap, even though I was a bit scared. Why scared? Art is sometimes a raw look into one’s soul, and it’s scary to put yourself out there! But it is worth it!
Thank you, Derika!
Coriander in the Spice Rack 