Book Review, Frozen Lakes, and more Cat Pictures

As you might know, the northeastern part of the United States has been harangued with excess snow, record-breaking low temperatures, and more completely frozen over lakes then we know what to do with (which, as you'll see is kind of cool).  Yesterday when I got to work there were small icicles on my eyelashes.  ICICLES ON MY EYELASHES! Now tell me, when was the last time that happened to you?  Anyway, I've undertaken an abundance of indoor activities during this time, including catching up on my massive reading list.  One of these days, perhaps I'll just post my reading list instead of an actual blog entry, and I bet it will be the longest blog entry in the world. This week, I finished reading Where'd You Go, Bernadette? a novel by Maria Semple.


This is the cover art.  As you see it features a woman who looks like she stepped out à la 1962, with a hair scarf and large dark glasses.  I was definitely into the cover art.  I also love the title, because it just leaves you with so many questions such as:
1. Who's Bernadette?
2. Where did she go?
3. Why did she go there?
4. Who is looking for her?
5. Why should I care where Bernadette went?

And so on.  Needless to say, with all the blurbs on the cover about how delightful the book was, I decided I would definitely give it a shot.

To tell you the truth, this novel was not what I was expecting at all, which actually made me like it even more!  It is first and foremost a satire about a dysfunctional family who live in Seattle (ergo, some of the satire directly targets certain aspects of Seattle culture, I'm not sure how accurate this part of the book is since I've never visited Seattle, or even the West Coast in general, so I can't even draw regional comparisons).  Semple tells this story from the perspective of Bee, Bernadette's daughter who is putting together stacks of documents including emails, faxes, letters and other correspondences from Bernadette, her husband and Bee's father Elgie, doctors, administrative assistants, busy body neighbors, and everyone in between as she tries to figure out why her mother disappeared, and where she may have gone.  I've met some people who have told me they "just didn't get it."  I can empathize with this, at the start of the novel, Bernadette is portrayed by her neighbors as certifiably insane.  She's anti social and wears dark glasses everywhere, she doesn't participate in the PTA like other parents (a travesty!), and she allegedly ran over another mother's foot with her car.  When you read the emails from Bernadette, her topics of conversation imbue a practically stifling level of weird quirkiness that may possibly be covering some ongoing mental illnesses like depression and anxiety, but you also have the distinct impression that she's a freaking genius.  I really liked this book because practically all the characters become better people by the end of the book.  Even the terrible neighbor character about whom I had an immediate horrible visceral reaction at the beginning of the novel, delightfully surprised me with accepting accountability for some of her more devious actions, and taking steps to make amends with the people she affected.  When the day's over, this book has a happy ending, not a perfect ending, but a happy one with the promise of continued positive change.

Moving on to the weather.  It. Is. COLD.  Last Sunday, I started a new job (yippee!!) and after the training session I had the rest of the afternoon to myself.  Since my new office is right on the Lakefront, I decided to take a stroll out on the lake.  Yes, I walked on the frozen lake because, you know, everyone else was doin' it.  But actually they were, there were families, old people, young people with dogs, college students, tourists, and me strolling around the lake, and contemplating walking all the way to New York (probably, I don't know for sure).  What an amazing experience though, I'm not normally a picture taker, but I took some pictures of the sun pouring through the clouds, and of the vast expanse of completely frozen over Lake Champlain.

 So this is a patch of ice someone scraped the snow from.  It's quite black, or perhaps a very very dark green.  Either way, it was eerily look down and see basically nothing.  It's almost disorienting, and like Anne of Green Gables, I could imagine I was floating through space, unhindered, weightless, without a thought for the suffocating confines of life on earth.  I'm not sure Anne would ever have imagined anything quite like that, there wouldn't really be any context for space travel in 1880s Prince Edward Island, it's more of the "imagining" part to which I found parallels.

 If you've ever been to Burlington and visited the water front, you may remember being at the ECHO Center, the Spirit of Ethan Allan, or even the boardwalk and seen a rocky wall apparently sitting in the lake.  I still am not quite sure what that's for, I bet I could easily find out if I asked someone at the ECHO Center.  My point though, is that is picture here to the right is of that wall, and I was standing on it because I walked across the ice to get to it. 

 No words for this one really, I just think it's gorgeous.

I really have nothing else to say about anything except I hope Vermonters vote on Town Meeting Day next Tuesday (March 3), and LOOK AT THESE PICTURES OF MY KITTY!!

She's just so absolutely adorable I don't know what to do about it.  So there.  I'm sorry this was a pretty anti-climactic ending.  I didn't even write any poems this time (yay! says the audience).  Anyway, practice makes perfect, and hopefully I'll have a better, more uniform post that will capture your hearts and minds, and tire my fingers with my furious typing!

I Vote Vermont (and You Should Too)

Hello everyone! Guess what we get to do in two weeks time? VOTE! Yes that's right ladies and gentlemen, on March 3 we will take to the polls and vote on municipal issues like the school budget, town budget, local ballot referendums, and mayoral candidates.  I'd like to briefly take a moment and recount a fictitious discussion that took place between myself and my neighbor the other day (in my brain).

"Morning! Golly, I'm sure excited to vote in a few weeks...three cheers for participatory democracy!" I wave, smiling as I pass my neighbor's porch on my way to work.

"Didn't we just have elections in like, November?" My imaginary neighbor asks me.

"Well yes, we did.  However, those were state and federal elections, and these are municipal, or local elections.  You'll be voting on things like the school and town budgets, not POTUS or state senators" I reply.  "In fact, I'm really excited to vote in March because there's a Referendum on the ballot this year in Burlington to which I've taken particular interest.  When Burlington residents, including yourself, receive their ballot on March 3 they will see these questions,

“Shall the City of Burlington Charter, Acts of 1949, No. 298, as amended, be further amended to delete the requirement that certain appointed members of City boards and department heads be required to be legal voters of the city of Burlington and instead require that they be Burlington residents, by amending sections 48, 120, 130, 183, 196, 203, 218, 226, 276, 277, and 322, to reflect the change from ‘legal voter’ to ‘resident’ of Burlington?”

and

"Shall the Vermont Constitution be amended to give residents of Vermont who are not currently citizens of the United States the right to vote in municipal and school elections?"

As I'm sure you know, voting rights in the United States is directly linked to US citizenship.  If you are a US citizen, you can vote in elections, if you're not a citizen, you can't vote.  Historically though, that has not been the case."

"WHAT!?" Says my imaginary, bunny-slipper-wearing neighbor in disbelief.

"It's true!" I reply. "On February 4th, I attended a panel discussion at City Hall on restoring voting rights to all Vermont residents for local and school board elections.  In 1977, non-citizen Vermont residents were stripped of their right to vote in municipal elections.  Prior to 1977, voting was extended to 'citizens of the United States and persons who have become citizens of this state by virtue of the constitution or laws are, while residing in the state, citizens thereof.'  Essentially, if you live in (insert Vermont town of your choosing), and pay taxes in this town, you can vote in local elections."

"So, why should I care about this? What's the big deal whether non-citizens can vote in Burlington anyway?" Says my privileged-natural-born-citizen neighbor.

"Well, did you know, Seven Days published an article about this issue in January, and according to the author,  about 1,900 people, or about 4.5 percent of the population of Burlington are legal non-citizens.  All these people live here, pay taxes here, send their children to Burlington schools, contribute actively and positively to the community, and yet have no voice when it comes to issues like, for example, voting on the school budget, which will directly impact many of their, or their families' lives.  Remember what happened last year with the school budget in Burlington?  It didn't pass the first time, and the second time it passed by only a narrow margin.  How would you feel if you had children and you couldn't vote for their school budget?  I personally would feel dis-empowered."

"So become a citizen, duh." retorts my voisin(e) (French for "neighbor").

"Did you know it takes years to apply for US citizenship? It can take anywhere between 5 and 15 years to become a US citizen, which is a really long time.  That's a long time to wait to vote for your kid's school budget.  Additionally, were you aware that you don't actually have to be a US citizen to serve in the military?  So you can serve in the military, but not have the right to vote, which I don't think it quite fair."

"Hmm, that doesn't seem very fair at all.  I can see how a non-citizen resident in Burlington might become frustrated if they are barred from fully participating in their communities.  I wouldn't even be able to serve in some Burlington city boards or departments if I wasn't a US citizen, which would make me sad, because all I really want to do is make Burlington a great place to live for everyone," laments my invisible-now-converted-to-the-cause neighbor.  "And if non-citizens were allowed to vote locally, they can see how awesome it is and maybe they'd want to become naturalized citizens."

"That's certainly a possibility!" I reply enthusiastically.

"Well, how can I learn more about this issue?"

"I learned a lot about this issue through the group I Vote Vermont, which is a grassroots group of Vermonters who want to restore local voting rights to non-citizens.  They're pretty cool, they have a really informative website, and a Facebook page!"

I add, "Just be sure to double check your Ward, because they recently redrew the lines according to the 2010 census, and I know my Ward has changed from when I last voted in November.  You can verify your name on the voter checklist, and see your Ward's sample ballot.  Election day is March 3rd and polls are open from 7:00am-7:00pm, but you can go to City Hall and vote anytime between now and March 2nd! I'm so happy to hear you're going to support this referendum!"

"You bet! I'm so excited to exercise my civic responsibility to ensure that everyone in my community can, if they choose, participate as fully and as happily as I will in making our city a better place!"  Says the critic-turned-supporter-more-empowered-happy-neighbor as s/he skips off into the sunset to get to the polling station before it closes.

Getting Back Into the Swing of Things

It's a blustery, snowy afternoon in February, just the way I like it.  I'm able to curl up on my couch with a cup of hot tea, VPR Classical playing through the "radio" (an app on my phone), and cancel all of my routine evening commitments on account of the weather.  However, now that I have nothing else to do today, I sheepishly slink to my laptop, open it, and begin writing this blog post after many, many months of writing absolutely nothing.  When I had started this blog back in September/October, my goal was to write about once a week.  That felt reasonable.  Once November hit I became busy/lazy/preoccupied and neglected to write, although often I would catch myself thinking about something, and then think,"that would be a really good entry for my blog," and then do absolutely nothing.  In this entry, I will recap some of the things I have wanted to write about.  It's a new year!  The "restart" button has been hit, so let's start fresh by summarizing post ideas I had last year.

1.  When November rolls around, Thanksgiving is on everyone's mind, and gratitude is the name of the game.  Recipes are traded, relatives are visited, flights get cancelled and there may be crying.  Personally, I love the ritual of this holiday.  In November, I had wanted to do a food blog entry in which I documented my forays into baking a pumpkin pie using an actual pumpkin, like the kind one may decide to carve a face into on Halloween (only smaller for baking).  Speaking of Halloween, this is a picture of the pumpkin I carved:

Cute right?  I put a tea light in it and burned it on my coffee table to provide romantic lighting a few days after Halloween when I cooked myself to a delicious homemade meal.  I had plans Halloween night and I didn't want the responsibility of leaving a flaming gourd on my porch with the possibility of starting a fire.  (Since the building next door to my house actually did burn down a few weeks ago, I can say in hindsight that I definitely made the right decision).  Anyway, the pumpkin pie I made turned out great! I brought it to my parents' house for Thanksgiving along with some Vermont artisan cheese platters.  Check it out, I did it myself:

The cheese was a big hit, and someday, mark my words, I will talk about about Vermont cheese in this blog.  We've got a lot of really amazing cheese makers in this state, so it may actually have to be a series.  For my Thanksgiving entry I may have also wanted to reflect upon the people and circumstances of my life which I am thankful for, but at the moment, that reflection will take more time and effort than I'm willing to commit right now.

2. Holiday Alternative Giving!!!
The moment Thanksgiving ends, thousands, perhaps millions of Americans take part in that crazy shopping season that always makes me feel a little emotionally and morally nauseous.  So, I decided to compile a list of "alternative" gifts one can give to friends and family.  Now that I think about it, this list shouldn't be limited to the holiday season, so go crazy year round with meaningful and thoughtful gifts for the people you care about.  Here are my suggestions:

• Buy Fair Trade or support Local Artisans and Producers:  Consumers who choose to shop for local or fairly/directly traded goods are returning capital to their own communities and in communities that have been oppressed, marginalized, and otherwise excluded or prevented from earning a decent living for themselves, their communities and families.  Maybe you'd like to make some homemade cookies using fair trade sugar, fair trade chocolate, and locally produced flour.  Perhaps you'd like to give your new baby niece a warm sweater that was knit by a woman in Uttar Pradesh, India.  You can find locally produced and Fair/Direct Trade food items in most grocery stores and coops around Vermont and Burlington maintains an indoor Farmer's Market throughout the winter, which makes those sorts of products much more physically accessible to those of us who live in the area.  Burlington has two stores, the Peace & Justice Store, and Ten Thousand Villages which offer a variety of Fair Trade and local crafts from over 60 vendors from all parts of the globe.
• Make a Donation in someone's name to a non-profit!  Instead of physical gifts, you can choose to make a meaningful donation to a variety of non-profit organizations undertaking many important missions right here in Vermont or in other parts of the country or the world.  Below are a smattering of some suggested non-profit organizations (many of them are in the Vermont or Burlington area, but some do operate at a national or global level). 
• COTS
• Vermont Ibutwa Initiative (VIBI)
• Liberty in North Korea
• Peace & Justice Center
• King Street Youth Center
• Sara Holbrook Center
• UNICEF

Now, let me be clear, this list comprises some non-profits that address certain issues I personally find compelling; I actually am directly involved with some of the above non-profits through volunteer work.  However, there are so many more non-profits in Burlington and elsewhere that are doing good work, but need more support, so I suggest, when making a donation in someone's name, you find out what issues or causes they are passionate about, and make your donation to a group that focuses on those issues.

3. NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTIONS (NYR)!!
What's my resolution? I have given the matter very little thought.  I spent New Year's Eve and the subsequent 5 days pretty darn sick, and 100 percent miserable, so I didn't get to do my usual timely reflection on the past year, and efforts I could take to make my life better in 2015.  As always, I guess I resolve to take steps to move my life forward in positive ways.  My "life" consists of a lot of different parts, my professional life, which involves my career(s), education, and possibly even a vocation.  There's the vast pit of hobbies and interests I have, and there's the personal relationships I share with lots of different people, most notably my friends and family.  I know for a fact that my "life" is not always properly balanced, sometimes I work too much, I may let some relationships slide, or in turn focus so much on certain relationships that I neglect the hobbies and activities that bring me joy.  So here are a few very specific things I will attempt to integrate into my life this year to reach my NYR:

• Practice thinking like David Foster Wallace urges us to do in his commencement speech to Kenyon College in 2005, entitled "This is Water."  This video is only an excerpt, but it really does a good job highlighting the key points he makes.  It makes me happy.

• Practice Nonviolent Communication: It's a new (read: Better) way of communicating!  Much like the above video, nonviolent communication facilitates better, more empathetic connections with the people you talk to, which allows you to resolve conflicts and differences is a more productive way.
• Take healthy risks: I already tried going to a Body Pump class last week at the gym, and you know what? It wasn't as scary as I thought, in fact I rather enjoyed it, so here's to a year of high intensity weight training!! :-) I can take other healthy risks besides one's related to my personal health, I can apply for the hypothetical "dream job," sing karaoke in front of everyone, etc.  I think you get the picture.
• Check off titles on my reading list.  I think that's pretty clear, don't you?

 So, that's it really.  That's my resolution.  So there you have it, summaries of posts that could have been had I actually bothered to write them.  Thank you all for humoring me as I try to get back on the horse (sorry for the cliché!) and try this blogging thing again.  Full disclosure: I think trying to post every week was a bit more work than I intended, so I will try to post bimonthly and see how that goes.  Thanks again, and continue being wonderful human beings!!