Ain't it funny how the Christmas season is like a race to be run. In the beginning, the slow start means making lists, checking them twice, and figuring out where best to shop. Then the pace picks up as the gifts are checked off of the list. At the peak is the traditional Christmas letter writing and the visualization of the people who will be getting the letters. Double check the Christmas letter to make sure that all of the family members are mentioned and provided an equal number of inches of attention. Dash of to Office Max and print out the Christmas letter, then write the addresses on the envelopes, get the stamps, sort out the letters by address, get to the post office. Then wait in line for your turn.
Lugging home the mail from the post office, invariably someone's post card reminds you that you forgot to send them a Christmas letter. Then you get on the computer and email the rest of the folks their electronic Christmas letter. Add in a special message on the email and attach the Christmas letter making sure that you attached the correct year's edition. Bing...the letters are sent.
Christmas dinner is on the horizon...making a list, checking it twice, checking out what market to visit for the best deals. Then the fight is on for a parking space, a shopping cart, the very last delectable tidbit, paying for the food through the eyeballs, pushing the mountain of groceries to the car, loading the groceries only to find that there were 100s reusuable shopping bags in the trunk after all. Fight travel 20 miles home to the ranch. Unloading the groceries, making sure there is enough space in the refrigerator for all of the delectable tidbits purchased.
Clean the house!!
Christmas morning, wake up and find an excited adult-baby has cooked breakfast and sorted the gifts into piles. Unwrap gifts. Throw away the trash. Put away the gifts. Eat more breakfast...then get ready for the marathon.
Then it is cook, cook, wash the dishes in the sink, cook, cook, wash more dishes in the sink. Set the table. Put out a mountain of food. Eat. Clean up. Eat desset.
Clean up. Wave goodbye to all who came to Christmas dinner. Then, crash!
The sun jerks your eyelids open whether you like it or not. Christmas is over.
Now what am I going to do with myself until February 14th?
Sunday, December 6, 2009
Friday, December 4, 2009
A Korean Drama Lifestyle
Since our kids are all out of the house, living their own lives, my hubby and I can now live our lives as we desire. Of course, the dreams of sleeping in late are destroyed by bladders that insist on being emptied at about 5:00 am or the horses and cats that neigh and meow like a living alarm clock reminding us that the sun is up already and breakfast should be served.
We do get to luxuriate in afternoon naps as the traffic rages past out house, hurrying to Hilo to buy groceries or what ever the errand or hurrying back to Volcano to put the ice cream and the rest of the groceries away.
One thing that has been a gas is our menu of Korean dramas in the evenings. Unlike American soap operas which should use the soap in their genre name to cleanse the nasty attitudes and actions, Korean dramas center on home life, the trials and tribulations of parents and children, love and loyalty, ethics and greed. It is amazing to see adult children obeying their parents!! I always get incensed to see so many drama mamas who are real witches with a capital B while the fathers in the family command respect with their logical remedies to even the worst problems...divorce and adultery. My husband always smiles smugly knowing that finally men are portrayed in the way that requires cherished adoration.
With our new found freedom, we can go to water aerobics in the evening, go out to dinner, see a movie, go to a performance...as long as we are back home by 7:45 to begin the series of Hangu entertainment. Ain't life grand?
We do get to luxuriate in afternoon naps as the traffic rages past out house, hurrying to Hilo to buy groceries or what ever the errand or hurrying back to Volcano to put the ice cream and the rest of the groceries away.
One thing that has been a gas is our menu of Korean dramas in the evenings. Unlike American soap operas which should use the soap in their genre name to cleanse the nasty attitudes and actions, Korean dramas center on home life, the trials and tribulations of parents and children, love and loyalty, ethics and greed. It is amazing to see adult children obeying their parents!! I always get incensed to see so many drama mamas who are real witches with a capital B while the fathers in the family command respect with their logical remedies to even the worst problems...divorce and adultery. My husband always smiles smugly knowing that finally men are portrayed in the way that requires cherished adoration.
With our new found freedom, we can go to water aerobics in the evening, go out to dinner, see a movie, go to a performance...as long as we are back home by 7:45 to begin the series of Hangu entertainment. Ain't life grand?
Friday, November 6, 2009
Korean Feast the Easy Way
I had a meeting at our house and in order to entice people to attend the meeting, I baited them with yummy food. I was going to make Hawaiian food but I'm often doing that so I figured I'd take a different tact. I decided to make a Korean lunch with lots and lots of garlic!!
On the menu: Beef kimchee stew, tofu-okara cakes with kochujang sauce, homemade cucumber kimchee, sutchul namul(various vegetable side dishes, rice, and sherbert for dessert. Did my practice tofu-okara cakes and found out that you need to use extra firm tofu and squeeze out the water.
Since I had classes on Wednesday, I really had to go into high gear to purchase the ingredients after class. Then I had a touch of ach-phenomenon. Why should I make the side dishes when I could go to the Korean restaurant? I priced a small container at $4.63. When I went to pick up the veggies...the countergirl suggested I purchase the veggie plate and I could get five sides for about $6...Eureka!!! There was my answer!! I ended up getting double orders of bean sprouts, and kombu (seaweed), and mustard cabbage. Uiha!! what a time saver!!
Come 11:00 on Thursday, all the food was done. My kimchee stew was made with homegrown beef, sour kimchee, bamboo shoots, turnips, carrots, potatoes, green onions, kimchee base, red pepper flakes, red pepper powder, and kochujung. The meat was a tender as butter and with hot rice...a winner!! I left the food inside the house as we had our meeting in the garage. I didn't want the smells of garlic to interrupt our thoughts.
At noon, I busted out the food. There was silence so I think the food was good.
For dinner, we copied what we've seen on Korean dramas...put a bunch of rice in a large bowl, throw in the left over side dishes, slice up some leftover chicken from the night before and add a heaping tablespoon of kochujang and stir the mixture.
Impromptu bibinpap!! What a way to end the day...we turned on to KBFD and we were in Korean Heaven.
On the menu: Beef kimchee stew, tofu-okara cakes with kochujang sauce, homemade cucumber kimchee, sutchul namul(various vegetable side dishes, rice, and sherbert for dessert. Did my practice tofu-okara cakes and found out that you need to use extra firm tofu and squeeze out the water.
Since I had classes on Wednesday, I really had to go into high gear to purchase the ingredients after class. Then I had a touch of ach-phenomenon. Why should I make the side dishes when I could go to the Korean restaurant? I priced a small container at $4.63. When I went to pick up the veggies...the countergirl suggested I purchase the veggie plate and I could get five sides for about $6...Eureka!!! There was my answer!! I ended up getting double orders of bean sprouts, and kombu (seaweed), and mustard cabbage. Uiha!! what a time saver!!
Come 11:00 on Thursday, all the food was done. My kimchee stew was made with homegrown beef, sour kimchee, bamboo shoots, turnips, carrots, potatoes, green onions, kimchee base, red pepper flakes, red pepper powder, and kochujung. The meat was a tender as butter and with hot rice...a winner!! I left the food inside the house as we had our meeting in the garage. I didn't want the smells of garlic to interrupt our thoughts.
At noon, I busted out the food. There was silence so I think the food was good.
For dinner, we copied what we've seen on Korean dramas...put a bunch of rice in a large bowl, throw in the left over side dishes, slice up some leftover chicken from the night before and add a heaping tablespoon of kochujang and stir the mixture.
Impromptu bibinpap!! What a way to end the day...we turned on to KBFD and we were in Korean Heaven.
Monday, November 2, 2009
Forgotten Things
I don't know about you but when I am stressed, I seem to add more stress by misplacing things. An envelope with $500 cash, my glasses, my keys, my wallet, an important letter...the list goes on and on. Then I go crazy looking around for it.
The latest adventure was the loss of a Walmart bag with a bottle of Bioastin, a lauhala journal, and a roll of glue. I searched all over the house, even checking the garbage bag if in case I threw the bag away. I secretly thought that my husband put the bag away in such places as the high kitchen cabinet above the refrigerator or some weird location like that. I stomped around, shaking the walls of my house with my thunder footsteps...grumbling under my breath, certain that my husband put the package away some place and feigned ignorance about its whereabouts.
Saturday night, sick with the flu, I decided to make my "clean the refrigerator" vegetable soup made with a conglomeration of little bits of leftovers. And lo and behold...there was the sucking Walmart bag in the refrigerator. Could it be possible that the culprit of stupidity was me? What a super knucklehead after all the energy I spent blaming my husband. This is indeed the time to re-air my poem on Forgotten Things.
Forgotten Things
Muriel Mililani Hughes
Me no mai mono, mie nai koto.
Things in front of your eyes are the subjects of blindness.
I just made up this ancient Japanese saying
But ain't it the truth?
Don't it just piss you off when you can't find
Some monumental crap you've been looking for?
These trivial things are so damn important at the time.
When you finally get your hands on them,
You see what a sorry excuse for treasure they are.
Okay, some people say we lose things because
Of stress or some Freudian reason
Linked to parts of the body that have nothing to do
With where we last left the crap.
Others say that we lose things because
We are so damned sloppy.
So...I love sloppy. Don't be accusing me of being
An anal retentive neatnick. Ah....See? Freud gets in his digs again.
I think we lose things because they have their own karma
And travel to Forgotten Things Nirvana
Where they exist to laugh at us as we chase our tails,
Looking under beds and piles of paper,
Sweating and elevating our own blood pressure.
Some cosmic creator of Forgotten Things has a monumental
Plan to see us squirm, suffer, and promise to repent if only
We could find the damn crap!
Beside the ancient Japanese saying that I just made up
I have come to an earth-shattering realization.
Sometimes, we are just idiots, plain and simple
And deserve to suffer.
The latest adventure was the loss of a Walmart bag with a bottle of Bioastin, a lauhala journal, and a roll of glue. I searched all over the house, even checking the garbage bag if in case I threw the bag away. I secretly thought that my husband put the bag away in such places as the high kitchen cabinet above the refrigerator or some weird location like that. I stomped around, shaking the walls of my house with my thunder footsteps...grumbling under my breath, certain that my husband put the package away some place and feigned ignorance about its whereabouts.
Saturday night, sick with the flu, I decided to make my "clean the refrigerator" vegetable soup made with a conglomeration of little bits of leftovers. And lo and behold...there was the sucking Walmart bag in the refrigerator. Could it be possible that the culprit of stupidity was me? What a super knucklehead after all the energy I spent blaming my husband. This is indeed the time to re-air my poem on Forgotten Things.
Forgotten Things
Muriel Mililani Hughes
Me no mai mono, mie nai koto.
Things in front of your eyes are the subjects of blindness.
I just made up this ancient Japanese saying
But ain't it the truth?
Don't it just piss you off when you can't find
Some monumental crap you've been looking for?
These trivial things are so damn important at the time.
When you finally get your hands on them,
You see what a sorry excuse for treasure they are.
Okay, some people say we lose things because
Of stress or some Freudian reason
Linked to parts of the body that have nothing to do
With where we last left the crap.
Others say that we lose things because
We are so damned sloppy.
So...I love sloppy. Don't be accusing me of being
An anal retentive neatnick. Ah....See? Freud gets in his digs again.
I think we lose things because they have their own karma
And travel to Forgotten Things Nirvana
Where they exist to laugh at us as we chase our tails,
Looking under beds and piles of paper,
Sweating and elevating our own blood pressure.
Some cosmic creator of Forgotten Things has a monumental
Plan to see us squirm, suffer, and promise to repent if only
We could find the damn crap!
Beside the ancient Japanese saying that I just made up
I have come to an earth-shattering realization.
Sometimes, we are just idiots, plain and simple
And deserve to suffer.
Friday, October 2, 2009
Volcano Moonlit Evenings
E Mahina
Rising from the warm sea
Travels up the mountain
Peeks through the lacework of 'Ohi'a leaves
Dark patterns of limbs and leaves
Backlit by the moon
Serenity at its most beautiful
Rising from the warm sea
Travels up the mountain
Peeks through the lacework of 'Ohi'a leaves
Dark patterns of limbs and leaves
Backlit by the moon
Serenity at its most beautiful
Monday, September 28, 2009
Furlough Fridays Turn into Frantic Fridays
While I do agree that the various departments need to cut their budgets to meet what is in the State coffers, I think that the scheduling of the Furlough Fridays cut into the student learning cycles with shorter weeks on an inconsistent basis.
It would appear to me that it would be better to consider attaching the furlough days to intersession and vacation periods. Parents can plan for extended days off rather than sporatic days here and there. As a teacher, I could plan for student work during the longer vacations so that students can do independent or directed studies activities at home...for high school students - research papers, papers requiring interviews of people in the community, art projects, the reading of tandem novels, poetry chapbooks. Many, many things could be planned to put the extended days off into real use for the students to explore, spend more time thinking and working on projects.
But what is common sense does not always seems to be the choice plan of action. It is noble of some schools to continue to run school with the teachers working for free. Despite all the public thrashing of teachers, this is really a noble act. People who are not in the field don't see the daily sacrifices teachers make for their students. But of one caution to these teachers who are willing to work for free, it would behoove them to check if they will be covered by State insurance should something happen while working outside of the State contract.
Let's hope that the financial straits we are in are a temporary measure. Rather than grumbling, we need to take action to resolve the situation beginning with the individual homes...more careful consumption, more conservative spending, better use of our resources, more consideration of our less financially able neighbors and friends. We cannot do everything but each of us can do something.
It would appear to me that it would be better to consider attaching the furlough days to intersession and vacation periods. Parents can plan for extended days off rather than sporatic days here and there. As a teacher, I could plan for student work during the longer vacations so that students can do independent or directed studies activities at home...for high school students - research papers, papers requiring interviews of people in the community, art projects, the reading of tandem novels, poetry chapbooks. Many, many things could be planned to put the extended days off into real use for the students to explore, spend more time thinking and working on projects.
But what is common sense does not always seems to be the choice plan of action. It is noble of some schools to continue to run school with the teachers working for free. Despite all the public thrashing of teachers, this is really a noble act. People who are not in the field don't see the daily sacrifices teachers make for their students. But of one caution to these teachers who are willing to work for free, it would behoove them to check if they will be covered by State insurance should something happen while working outside of the State contract.
Let's hope that the financial straits we are in are a temporary measure. Rather than grumbling, we need to take action to resolve the situation beginning with the individual homes...more careful consumption, more conservative spending, better use of our resources, more consideration of our less financially able neighbors and friends. We cannot do everything but each of us can do something.
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Anticipation, Expectation, Dejection, Revelation
It is kind of funny how we might scheme to do something, plan for it, look forward to it, consider all the positive outcomes and when the event occurs we fall flat on our faces...things did not turn out as they were planned.
That is what happened to me this weekend. I had a whole bunch of things I had sewed or embroidered and the leftovers were taking too much space in my two closets. I had to get rid of the extra inventory. So I wrote up a classified ad and had it submitted to the local newspaper. We were going to have a garage sale with discounts of 20-50% off!! What a deal? Only thing, people would have to drive waaaaay out of their way to Glenwood...a whole 20 miles out of Hilo, a whole 20 minutes of their time to get to our ranch. We posted our company sign on the front fence of our yard.
That morning began at 5:15 am. We got up and started putting up the clothes. I would say we had over 100 pieces of clothing including bikini tops, bathing suits, cowboy hats, men's and women's shirts, mu'umu'u, and all of that. The day was beautiful. The sun was shining and the cool Glenwood breezes were so refreshing. By 10 minutes to 9:00, our sale start time, I had worked up a sweat. 9:00 came. 10:00 came. 11:00 came. 12:00 came. I went into the house for lunch and still, not even a rustle of cars even slowing down as the millions of cars passed our house either going to Volcano or going to Hilo.
Finally, at about 10 to 1:00 a car drove up. It was a parent I knew from Mountain View School. We chatted. She reminded me several times I needed to do something about our welcome goose that had fallen on the side of the road. Put a rock or brick to keep the goose stand steady, she advised. So she left without even walking near the clothes racks. I walked down the driveway and put a brick on the goose stand.
I walked into the house and told my husband about what a bust our plans to get rid of all of the old inventory were. His eyes were glued to the TV as he courteously nodded. He was watching his beloved Ohio State Buckeyes and USC was marching down the field under the direction of a FRESHMAN quarterback. OSU was ahead but USC was march, march, marching down...84 yards in 12 plays under the direction of a FRESHMAN quarterback. Oh well, I muttered, we wasted $66.40 on our classified ad. He kept his eyes glued to the USC march downfield and made soft wimpering sounds as expressions of sympathy. But Damn...USC made a touchdown!! OSU lost its chance to be the first Big 10 team to beat USC in a million years!!
Defeated, I walked upstairs to my office and started doing some work. 2:00 came. 3:00 came. No other customers came. Am I going to be depressed that no one wanted to buy my clothes? Did anyone care that I spent $66.40 on advertising? I went back outside. The skies were blue. The Glenwood breezes gently blew between the clothes hanging. The clothes were glad to be in the sun and fresh air! I got my homework done. It was a beautiful day. Heck, even veteran apparel companies like Reyn Spooner had garage sales to get rid of old inventory...and they had 1000s of shirts and dresses for sale. I'm lucky I did not have 1000s of items to get rid of. Yeah...and heck...it turned out to be a beautiful day after all.
That is what happened to me this weekend. I had a whole bunch of things I had sewed or embroidered and the leftovers were taking too much space in my two closets. I had to get rid of the extra inventory. So I wrote up a classified ad and had it submitted to the local newspaper. We were going to have a garage sale with discounts of 20-50% off!! What a deal? Only thing, people would have to drive waaaaay out of their way to Glenwood...a whole 20 miles out of Hilo, a whole 20 minutes of their time to get to our ranch. We posted our company sign on the front fence of our yard.
That morning began at 5:15 am. We got up and started putting up the clothes. I would say we had over 100 pieces of clothing including bikini tops, bathing suits, cowboy hats, men's and women's shirts, mu'umu'u, and all of that. The day was beautiful. The sun was shining and the cool Glenwood breezes were so refreshing. By 10 minutes to 9:00, our sale start time, I had worked up a sweat. 9:00 came. 10:00 came. 11:00 came. 12:00 came. I went into the house for lunch and still, not even a rustle of cars even slowing down as the millions of cars passed our house either going to Volcano or going to Hilo.
Finally, at about 10 to 1:00 a car drove up. It was a parent I knew from Mountain View School. We chatted. She reminded me several times I needed to do something about our welcome goose that had fallen on the side of the road. Put a rock or brick to keep the goose stand steady, she advised. So she left without even walking near the clothes racks. I walked down the driveway and put a brick on the goose stand.
I walked into the house and told my husband about what a bust our plans to get rid of all of the old inventory were. His eyes were glued to the TV as he courteously nodded. He was watching his beloved Ohio State Buckeyes and USC was marching down the field under the direction of a FRESHMAN quarterback. OSU was ahead but USC was march, march, marching down...84 yards in 12 plays under the direction of a FRESHMAN quarterback. Oh well, I muttered, we wasted $66.40 on our classified ad. He kept his eyes glued to the USC march downfield and made soft wimpering sounds as expressions of sympathy. But Damn...USC made a touchdown!! OSU lost its chance to be the first Big 10 team to beat USC in a million years!!
Defeated, I walked upstairs to my office and started doing some work. 2:00 came. 3:00 came. No other customers came. Am I going to be depressed that no one wanted to buy my clothes? Did anyone care that I spent $66.40 on advertising? I went back outside. The skies were blue. The Glenwood breezes gently blew between the clothes hanging. The clothes were glad to be in the sun and fresh air! I got my homework done. It was a beautiful day. Heck, even veteran apparel companies like Reyn Spooner had garage sales to get rid of old inventory...and they had 1000s of shirts and dresses for sale. I'm lucky I did not have 1000s of items to get rid of. Yeah...and heck...it turned out to be a beautiful day after all.
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