So, Obama is making me smile/cry all over again. Today he went to volunteer at a food bank along with his daughters and wife (leading by example as usual). The kids at the school across the street, well, noticed. They put a sign reading “We love our Prez” in the window and, apparently not wanting them to feel unrequited, Barack Obama decided to pay them a spur-of-the-moment visit. When he did, well…

If that doesn’t make you smile, here on Thanksgiving-eve, nothing will. I suggest you read the whole article and look at ALL the beautiful photos. And now, back to my sweet potatoes.

I don’t know if any of you have seen those commercials featuring stars like Clint Eastwood and Arnold Schwarzenneger touting the multi-faceted natural wonder that is California…but frankly, it’s not false advertising. Here’s me and the roots of an overturned Redwood, perhaps the awesomest kind of tree there is:

redwood

After a friend’s wedding in Northern CA, Mike and I stayed on in Sonoma County with my parents, hiking, drinking some wine, eating, exploring cute little towns, taking in the rocky Pacific Coast, drinking some wine, and drinking some wine, and…you get the idea. But wine is good for you, or at least that’s what the French say. I think the best part, besides the company, was the scenery, though. I LOVE California!

pacific ocean

I don’t want to hide my political leanings here - politics is more a part of my life these days, so I want to share it. And I certainly hope that you’ll take any of my political ranting as an invitation to express your opinions here, too. This is all to say that last weekend, I made the trek to Nevada to volunteer for the Obama campaign. And here’s how that went.
Read the rest of this entry »

Last night, during the second presidential debate, I was reminded of the one of the things I like most about Obama; that is, his ability to motivate me to participate. He’ll talk about the Peace Corps or community service and and all I can think is, “where can I sign up?” Interesting, then, that my desire to participate in my country’s government has been put to the test today, at…yup, jury duty! And here’s how it’s gone:

7:30 am
I arrive at the criminal justice building downtown and get in the security line. The officers around the metal detector are already just slightly cranky, as though they’ve dealt with one idiot too many today, but…it’s 7:30. The police officers who direct me to the elevators are quite friendly, though. (I could have figured it out on my own - there are signs - but I’ll later realize that this is just the beginning of all the redundant instruction I’ll hear today.) In the elevator, I notice that there’s no 4th, 8th or 10th floor. Weird, eh? I wonder if they really don’t exist, or if they’re just super-secret floors closed to the public. Read the rest of this entry »

I’ll admit that I wanted to write another political blog, or at least, a whiny one - the economy’s crap and the campaigns are turning nasty. However, I’m resisting the urge to mope publicly.

I’m not a true stress eater, but food is definitely a comfort on a day like today. Or any day. I made a comforting tortilla casserole with a southwestern bean and corn salad tonight, taken from my Mollie Katzen cookbook. The casserole called for buttermilk, and though I’m usually a slave to a recipe, I didn’t want to hunt down the real thing. Thanks to the internet, I now know that you can make buttermilk by throwing a tablespoon of lemon juice (or white vinegar) into about a cup of milk and letting it sit five minutes! It’s amazing how tickled I was by a trick that everyone else probably already knew about. And I’ll definitely be using the internet to figure out recipe substitutes before I run to the store for that ingredient I forgot…although you can’t always substitute or omit, as I discovered last week when I forgot the baking powder and made rock-hard muffins. But THAT is another story.

There was a great Maureen Dowd article today that took a look at Sarah Palin’s “relationship with the English language.” Do check it out!

With Tina Fey’s parodies so closely mirroring what Palin herself says, and with Palin sometimes seeming like a folksy caricature of herself, it’s easy to pretend that she is indeed a funny character. But over the last couple days she’s been repeating a smear about Obama “palling around with terrorists,” claiming that he’s an outsider who “doesn’t see America like you and I see America.” Not so cute and folksy anymore.

I’m worried that people will take her recent, nastier-than-ever, attacks on Obama seriously, but a democratic strategist pointed out: “The problem is the messenger. If you want to start throwing fire bombs, you don’t send out the fluffy bunny to do it.” Plus, people who take her at her word were probably a lost cause, anyway, because I did also read today that she called Afghanistan “our neighboring country.” Oh, boy. Bless her heart…

1. Audio gear and girls don’t necessarily go together

2. Audio engineers and live music…don’t necessarily go together (yeah, I’ll explain that one)

3. Everybody loves free stuff!

As mentioned in my previous blog, I came up to San Francisco to play at the Performer Magazine booth at the Audio Engineering Society conference today. Mike and I have been to San Francisco a few times, now, so we’re feeling oddly in between tourists and people who truly know where they’re going. Today we took the bus for the first time, and the 12:22 bus came right at 12:22! The bus ride back from the conference site to our friend’s apartment was not as smooth, because traffic had really picked up, but nonetheless, I’d certainly give San Francisco high marks for public transit. Not that they asked me to rate it… Read the rest of this entry »

The problem with being self-employed is that it sure doesn’t come with benefits. I’ve seen too many terrible things - like cancer - happen to people my age or barely older (or younger), so I don’t believe in going without health insurance. Many of my friends in LA, who work as freelance musicians or writers, simply go without. Since I’ve stopped working a full-time ‘day job,’ I’ve been paying out of pocket. But in a weird twist of events, today I’ve been put into a position where I’m potentially without insurance. I’ve spent the whole damn day up to this point applying for a new health plan. It’s confusing enough when you have to choose between plans your employer might offer, which I’ve done, but when you’re starting from scratch, it’s completely overwhelming. You pick the plan you think you can afford but then find out they don’t cover brand prescriptions, or maybe the doctor’s visits aren’t covered, so you start all over again. And then you could very well be rejected, and you’re back to scratch, and you feel that you’ve been punished for any health problem you’ve ever had. Literally. Like I’m sitting here wishing I didn’t have asthma, not because it’s a health problem, but because it might interfere with my ability to get insured. Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve been a bit quiet recently, mostly because I’ve been traveling - some travel was for music, and a lot of it has been with and/or to see family. I am in fact about to take off yet again, to Romania this time, to meet Mike’s family. It’s something we’ve been wanting to do for a long time, and I’m incredibly grateful to have the flexibility to do it right now. When I return, I’ll post some photos from ALL of my summer/early fall travels - a little retrospective montage, if you will. Read the rest of this entry »

I used to blog about my LA experiences a lot, which people seemed to find fairly entertaining. I suppose when I was an idiot getting off the bus at the wrong place and getting into altercations with people at the 7-11 (’member that one, folks? if not i’ll tell the story again), that was funnier than my current routine, which is more, well, routine. However - every day I notice quirky things, some of which seem uniquely LA and even uniquely my neighborhood and some that I’m sure we all recognize.

Some choice moments: Read the rest of this entry »