Brother John, addendum

Another cool thing that happened while my brother John was visiting--

At one point we were discussing peanut butter with my roommate. John said, "One time, Mr Rogers made peanut butter by smashing together peanuts and butter. I smiled because I had been thinking of that too. Then I realized that, most likely, John and I had watched that episode of Mr. Rogers together about 23 years ago. I thought that was pretty neat.

The talented Bluemlein

In celebration of my last post, my sister Heather photoshopped up this gem:

she's pretty awesome. Thanks Heather!

Contra Dancing: a reasonable answer to most of society's ills

Subtitle: The Belle of the Ball


Saturday night I discovered what is sure to be my new all-time favorite thing in the history of the universe (by which I mean, a new hobby that I will enjoy very much): contra-dancing.

If you are like I was before 11:00 am on Saturday and have no idea what contra dancing is allow me to explain: It's pretty much Jane Austen style dancing only more rowdy. You and your partner stand in a line with about a dozen other couples and do a sort-of couples line dance. You keep coming back to your one partner, but eventually you dance with every fellow in the line. There is stomping and doosy-dooing, and most especially (my favorite favorite part!) swinging. Swinging is when and your partner (or neighbor, as the case may be) hold each other and spin around, using either small steps of pivoting on one foot. It is pretty much the best dance move ever. It's just like in the movies where it shows a person's face and the world is spinning behind them. Totally wonderful.

My evening of contra-dancing was practically perfect in every way. I went with my friend Nathan. We got there early enough that the band was playing ballroom-style music. I have not done any sort of ballroom dance in more than 5 years, but luckily Nathan knew all the basic steps and reminded me. We waltzed, and two stepped and even did a polka. I had forgotten how much I love to polka!! It was awesome!!! (Apparently in high school, Nathan and his friends use to sneak into a park late at night and polka dance. Why wasn't I cool like that as a teenage?)

Then the contra-dancing instruction began. The caller would go through and explain the dance before you started and then call instructions throughout. For the first half of the evening, I danced with Nathan and I think we did pretty darn good since we were both first-timers. The second half of the evening, I decided to share the wealth and dance with whoever. And let me just tell you--if getting married was still tied with a girl's ability to flirt while dancing, I would have gotten married at the age of 12. Apparently, I have the gift! I had a partner waiting for me at the end of every dance. I had to turn men down left and right. One guy even took a picture of me. It was lovely to be the belle of the ball.

Aside from being unbelievably fun, contra-dancing is such a better way to meet people then the form of dancing that is generally used today (as much as I also love the form of dancing that is generally used today AKA booty shaking). As opposed to standing akwardly in someone's arms making small talk, you are actively engaged in a fun activity which I think makes it easier to get to know someone even without talking. As opposed to being committed to just one partner for a long 5 minute stretch, you get to dance with all the other men around you and so they get to see how incredible you are. And the spinning is awesome.

Mormon Night at Carnegie Hall

Of all the super awesome performing arts events that I am lucky enough to get to attend here, I'm not sure why I'm choosing to report on this one, but I just have this urge to do so.

So, the BYU Chamber Orchestra came to perform at Carnegie Hall. Tickets were free so I went. It was so funny because it was just like at BYU--people clapped between movements and they even started with a prayer. Funny! (After the first outbreak of applause between movements, I realized I was accidentally saying to myself "don't clap! don't clap" loud enough that the people around me could hear (oops!) and they thought I was just loudly sharing my lack of satisfaction.)

Going did remind me of my happy time of seeing shows for free at BYU. It occurred to me that I haven't seen any sort of orchestra since BYU. I'd forgotten how much I really really enjoy those concerts! I will have to make it a habit to see more of them.

My roommate Amelia 's brother was the concert master so that was fun. The chamber orchestra did a good job. They played Appalachian Spring which I have ALWAYS wanted to hear in concert, Beethoven's 4th ("rightly overshadowed, wrongly overlooked" as the playbill said), a Rossini overture (did you know he wrote 39 operas in 19 years and then never wrote again even though he lived like 30 more years?), and a piece by a BYU professor who was my stake president for a while.

All in all, a lovely evening. Although I did have to chuckle to myself a few times.

Unbreak my heart

Here is a picture of my basil plant on our two week anniversary.

Why do I even try to love plants?
I'm reminded of the Sandra Bullock movie "28 Days" where at the end of a alcoholism recovery program, the sobriety guru says buy a plant and keep it a live for a year to show that you are responsible and capable before starting a serious relationship. I think the way I treat my plants is a reflection of how I live my life--with lots of passion and feeling and lots and lots of good desires, and a livable amount of knowledge, but not quite enough action. This is a cycle that I will break.

Another crummy thing about my life: the back of my legs (including the ever-tender back of my knees) are horribly sunburned. I'm happy to announce that the crisis portion of the sunburn has past, and thanks to some serious Advil use, it was bearable throughout. But it (the sunburn) is still reminding me that it's there.

Now, for some very happy things in my life.

1. It turns out that my friend Lillie uses "agra-therapy" with the troubled teens she works with (AKA she grows herbs with them). As a direct result, it turns out that she is a literal FOUNT OF KNOWLEDGE when it comes to how to keep basil alive. I am now armed with the knowledge necessary to save my poor little plant. Thank you Lillie!

2. I got to go to the beach!! Sure, it turned out cold and windy, but I went! And friends came with me! And it was fun! I've got the sunburned calves to prove it!

3. Today, at long last, I found nutritional yeast! It occurs to me that this point, that I have not yet announced by new flexi-vegan status to my blog following. So now, let me just tell you all that I've decided to adopt a mostly-vegan diet and so far (10ish days) I am loving it! I am not being super uptight about it (I ate a cookie a co-worker brought yesterday and had about .25 of a ounce of pastrami at Katz's).

In continuation of my good news regarding nutritional yeast (valued by vegans for it's high levels of B12 and it's nutty, cheesy flavor)-- I also decided to buy some soy hot dogs!

I'm excited because hot dogs are the thing I was most sad to give up. I'm optimistic that these will be tasty since it's mostly the spices in hot dogs that make them yummy and as my co-worker says "It's not like there's much actual meat in hot dogs anyway."

and then I got to work and YIPEE!! my first vegan cookbook had arrived!!! I did a lot of research and choose that one and one that focuses on quickness and budget (which has not arrived yet). I'm so excited!
I have been stocking up my vegan pantry (flax seeds, soy margarine, egg substitute, etc) and I am ready to go! Well I do still need a few more things before I"m fully equipped, but I definitely have a good start!

My brother John is awesome.

My little brother John came to visit. He was here for almost a week and, believe it or not, the above is honestly the best picture of the two of us that we got. But we had an awesome time. To give a brief accounting of his visit, I have decided to make a list of why my brother is awesome. (In the order inspired by the photos.)

1. He bought me watermelon!!!!!!
I love love love love love watermelon!!!! And for some reason, it is an expense I can never justify, although when I think about it logically, it is worth it. I've always thought that if a man really wanted to sweep me off my feet, he could bring me a "thinking of you" watermelon. I mean I love flowers as much as the next girl, but a watermelon is super romantic. It says "I know you. I know you love watermelon. I know this is something nice you wouldn't do for yourself." I loved my brother even before he bought me a watermelon, but even more afterwards (which I would not have thought possible). And he is so cute--he didn't eat any of it himself, even though I managed to save him some (for a day or two, then it was gone). Bless him.

2. We saw Patti LaPone in Gypsy!!!!

even though John wanted to "Phantom of the Opera" he went and stood in line at tdf and got tickets to Gypsy because it was what I wanted to see (even though Phantom would have been good too). And he bought my ticket! John is super awesome.

3. We had fun adventures and went some places I've never been. Seen here, Katz's Deli (you know, the one from When Harry Met Sally) John had the famous pastromi sandwich. As you can see, the sandwich is as big as you've heard.

Also, we went on the Staten Island ferry. Here are some pics. (oh my goodness--sometimes I think I could explode I love New York so much!) (in true manly fashion, John was very interested in all the forts)


4. John is a good photographer. I like this one of the George Washington bridge.

5. With John in town, every event became another chance for Team Bluemlein to dominate. John did an awesome job at the "Paper Bag Game" which involves mass amounts of flexibility. You have to bend over and pick up a paper bag with your mouth--the catch is the bag gets progressively smaller and smaller. John made it to the final round! And he was the tallest one by far, which was a major disadvantage on this game.
(he was so fast, it's blurry!)

6. John was so excited about the Indiana Jones premier, he was my inspiration to accept an invitation to go to a midnight showing. We had a fun time. My review--the movie is good to the extent that you are willing/able to suspend your disbelief. And overlook some faulty props. And plot holes. But the ninja monkeys were cool.
(this picture is a shout-out to the Lego Museum that we wanted to visit, but we found out it was in New Jersey, so we didn't go)

7. The event I have been waiting for happened--28oz cans of tomatoes went on sale for a dollar! Luckily John was there to help me pack them home. Here's a picture of him with 30 pounds of canned tomatoes on his pack, hiking up the hill.



Here's a picture of the contents of the bag I was carrying (as you can see it was pansy light). John is the embodiment of a gentleman and insisted on carrying anything heavy that we came across during his whole vacation. I love him.







8. John has a great sense of humor. Any of you who spoke with him know what I mean.

9. It was so nice to be with someone who saw the city with new eyes and was delighted with or intrigued by things I take for granted--street performers, the candy sellers on the subway, beggars, parking lots with elevators for the cars

10. John is such an incredibly person! It was so wonderful to have him around. He is so kind and charming and thoughtful. I was discussing it with a friend and we decided and that is the epitomy of masculinity.

Called Out

I'll confess every time I get in the elevator with someone else at work in the morning, I feel a little glee when I push a higher button than anyone else. Because I always do. (Feel glee AND push the higher button in case that was unclear.) Today it was me and lady who pushed "18." I got in directly behind her and with no small amount of relish (which I mistakenly assumed was kept discreetly to myself) I pushed 20. She said "Alright, alright. Your 20 beats my 18." I was shocked and slightly embarrassed (name that quote) but we then had a delightful discussion about the fruit we had each just purchased for breakfast, how excited we were about said fruit, and she recognized me as "a Christian sister" resulting in my first stranger in an elevator high-five.

True, this story is not more worth-telling than any other 15 things that happen to me in a day, but it is part of my goal to blog more often and perhaps share more of the small things that bring me joy.

Also, I wanted to brag that my friend Jeff just taught me how to insert links in my blog. All the way from Provo. Good job Jeff!

PS the elevator buttons pictured below are NOT from my building. our buttons are WAY classier then those

So many life adventures, so few blog posts

I would estimate that approximately 5% of the blog posts I write in my head actually get typed and published. I think largely it's because I think no one is interested in a post without a picture. I will ponder on this. And without further ado, present you with this picture:

I have been nesting lately. Although I have never in my life had any sort of interest in plants, gardening, etc about 6 months ago, I saw a plant at Ikea that I HAD TO HAVE. I bought it. It died. I was heart-broken. To help heal my broken heart, for my birthday Becca and Richard gave me a new plant and some Miracle Grow to help me out. That plant also died. I was very sad.

I've decided my next attempt will be an herb garden. Above is the first member of my herb garden family: Basil. If I keep him alive for a week or two I will get another and grow from there.

In the photo above, he is fresh from the farmer's market and sitting happily on my desk at work. He has since been transplanted in a cheery yellow pot and is at home.

And while we're on the subject, I really really want a garden. I am just longing for one. Sigh.

Who is this person I've become? I didn't even know what basil was when I moved to New York. (well, I knew it was an herb of course but I couldn't recognize it by smell and wouldn't have known what the actual plant looked like.)

I know it's cliche and everyone's doing it, but I couldn't help it.

I do fancy myself a speed typer.

90 words

Speed test

I'll confess it took some practicing. My goal is to break 100. I'll keep you posted.

Old Before My Time

Subtitle: How does one spell "fogey"? Seriously, how? The only English word that sounds at all similiar is "vogue" and I can't imagine it's spelled similiarly.

It has come to me suddenly and repeatedly this week that I have become an old fogey. I have outlined several points clearly illustrated that I am no longer a spring chicken.

Point One:
To begin my swift descendent into old age, I discovered Monday that rock concerts are not to my liking. I went to my first rock concert (and note, it wasn't even REAL rock, just British pop) and although I had a very good time at the concert, I found the music and especially the crazy light effects were distasteful to me. The music, as a whole, was too grating and the crazy lighting hurt my eyes. I don't see how shining very bright lights directly into the eyes of the audience members is supposed to make the music more enjoyable. (Honestly, you can't tell me I don't sound like a 80 year old right now.) However, apparently the more young-at-heart surrounding me enjoyed it. I couldn't believe they weren't shielding their faces like I was. I kept thinking "Preserve your retinas people!"

Point Two:
The next morning I went to work and imagine my joy when I discovered that my food storage order from the Church had arrived!!! Honestly, I thought excitment of this magnitude regarding a non-personal-salvation issue church point wouldn't come until I was at least 40. (I'm sure it will amuse you to know that the pictures of canned wheat on the church website are copyrighted and thus cannot be downloaded to be used on my blog. So instead, here is a picture of my very own wheat and oats sitting in one of those coat closets at work waiting for me to take them to their new home.)

Point Three:
Then Tuesday I went and saw the movie Ironman which was very good and (dare I say it?) perhaps even emotionally satisfying. I really enjoyed it. But oh my goodness, it was intense! At points I was sure my poor nerves couldn't take it! I used to LOVE being stressed out during a movie, but now, although I did love the movie as a whole, I did not love the stressful parts.

Point Four:
Last night I had a very happy dream in which I went to the library and got a book I was excited about. And I woke up in a state of bliss because I thought that I was going to write an essay on the book for class when I was done. Is this what my fantasy life has come to?

Point Five:
I can't remember the name of the book I was excited about. A senior moment at 28.

Point Six:
I've spent all day listening to Peter, Paul, and Mary.

Point Seven:
Today, I started an 401(k). Which is actually quite exciting:(a self-potrait of me and my 401(k) explanation form)
So now I'll have plenty of money for when my body catches up with my mind and becomes old. Not that it really matters because I'll be super rich by then anyway.