today's bike ride- stops along the way

yum!

Bird Man + Fried Turkey

thanksgiving soccer

As some of you may know, every year on Thanksgiving I (pretend to know how to...) play soccer. This year was the 36th year of carrying out the tradition which started with my parents and their friends their first year out of college when they didn't have enough money to travel home or to cook a delicious meal. So, they said, let's just get together and play football! They continued this tradition every year until everyone started having kids and they decided football was a bit rough, at which point they changed the game to soccer. It's been funny watching the game change over the years, from a bunch of little kids running around to a bunch of super fit, strong adolescents, to a bunch of out-of-shape college kids hungover from the night before. Our parents, the founders of the game, have gotten slightly less limber and speedy over the years, but we all still come together to play every year, 10 am, Greely High School.

Captain #1, Harry

Captain #2, Mike

Pure intensity

Joey the amazing goalkeeper

something to ponder

I went to see a career advisor last week, and she asked me a question I hadn't really thought about before. She asked me to think about about my role within an organization or company versus the organization or company itself- which is more important to me? For example, if I had a great job working with people and performing tasks which were fulfilling for me, would it matter if Exxon Mobil (the enemy, obviously) wrote my paycheck? That's a pretty extreme example, but the point is, do I need to feel like I've contributed to the greater good at the end of the day, or would I be happy by simply being in a position which was challenging and professionally fulfilling? For the last two and a half years I've worked for a government funded exchange program which I truly believed contributed to small but important perspective changes from foreigners about the U.S. I constantly met brilliant people from around the world, many of whom I really believed were doing amazing things to make the planet a nicer place. Before that, I worked/ interned for GirlSportWorks, the UN's World Food Program, Maine Audubon Society, Environment Maine, and the Organization for American States. ALL of these places have a mission which involves a cause. I suppose that's what I've always been naturally attracted to, and to be honest, I'm really NOT sure I could make the switch at this point. I also wonder if my age has something to do with it- I'm young and have very little responsibility. I only have my mouth to feed and no mortgage. Does this make me more selfless and more likely to work for little money but for a cause I believe in? Does solving- or helping in any minor way to solve- the innumerable problems this country and world has seem so important to me because I don't have a family to think about? And will those priorities shift as I DO have to be more selfish about time and money? Not sure...

I would love love love to hear your thoughts about this one!

i love this so much

JENGAAAAA!!!

So I hadn't played Jenga in at least 10 years, but Ben and I found ourselves at a cozy little bar in New York which happened to be hosting Jenga night. You got a free round for signing up, plus the competitive 10 year old Jenga player in me got a little excited about the prospect of taking down the entire bar in this wood removing and stacking game. We ended up winning multiple rounds to land us in the CHAMPIONSHIP game (very exciting!) which Ben lost for us (our competitors were very Russian and very serious), but it was really fun and made me want to bring the tradition to Portland. The other fun thing was the championship game was played on a table everyone in the bar could see (so every move was scrutinized), and was played in Giant Jenga format (each Jenga stick was about a foot long). Good times.

my 19 hours in boston

Karina invited me to come down to Boston for a family dinner. This consisted of Karina, Frannie, Jeff (Karina's boyfriend), Jeff's two sisters and his brother-in-law. Jeff's sister Courtney and her husband Tim hosted us in their beautiful apartment. Theme of the night? SUSHI! Karina (and Fran?) are quite the expert sushi chefs, so they volunteered to show us all how it's done.

GROCERY LIST
Sushi Grade Fish (we got tuna and salmon, cooked some shrimp, and had some crabmeat also)
Sushi Rice
Veggies you like in your sushi such as Cucumbers, Carrots, Avacado
Spicy Mayo
Seaweed paper (not sure this is actually called seaweed paper, but I think it's a good visual)
Your favorite accompaniments: soy sauce, pickled ginger, wasabi, etc.

Check it out:






SO YUM! And really easy! Definitely going to try this at home.

to do

stormy night + daylight savings

This is my alarm clock which I've had since I was 10(ish). To set the time you have to hold down the "CLOCK" button and then "HOUR" or "MINUTE", depending on which one you set. To set the clock back an hour, as one does during fall Daylight Savings, you have to press it 23 times. Because the clock is old and has been through young years of sticky fingers and my adolescent years of candle obsession (read: wax everywhere), all the buttons are a little touchy and sometimes you finally get to the 23rd hour but then it skips forward an hour, right where you started. Anyway, point is, I really hate changing this particular clock and usually put it off a few days. However, we had this crazy rain/ wind storm last night, and lost power. Not totally sure when that happened but, here's the crazy thing: it came back on at EXACTLY midnight! When those kinds of clocks get disconnected, they restart at 0 hours, or midnight. When I woke up this morning, the time was blinking (meaning it had been disconnected), but it was exactly right!! I was so pleased.

(productive) things i've done in my first week of unemployment

1. Campaigned for Democratic Congresswoman Chellie Pingree (she won)!
2. Gone to Whole Foods every day and made dinner: Cauliflower & Chickpea Curry/ Stew, Brussels Sprouts, White Beans & Cheese, Roasted Squash & Parsnips with a delicious maple glaze, and a Pumpkin Barley Soup. Everything was super yummy. My mom grew a bunch of butternut squash in her garden. It's delicious.
3. Did all my parents' dry cleaning, and was surprised (pleasantly? unpleasantly?) that the woman running the show there spoke English fluently (first language, in fact).
4. Consolidated three jars of honey into one.
5. Analyzed the family cell phone bill and brought it down $200/ month. My dad had no text message plan and my brother's plan had 500 texts a month and was sending over 1500 a month. You do the math. We're all on unlimited texts now.
6. Taken one zillion pictures of Desmond.

Well, hello!

It's my new blog!! I've been dying to blog again since I left Cusco last year and consequently ended my "Elise in Cusco" blog. I was waiting for a brilliant idea to come to me about what this new blog could be about, but it hasn't yet, so I've decided just to go for it. I'm blogging on the premise that being unemployed will expose me to some unique opportunities less accessible to those who work. Hopefully these experiences will be exciting to write about.

I'm also writing under the belief that guilt is a human emotion and that if my blog knows (= no blog post) that I watched The View, Gilmore Girls, Rob & Big, Keeping up with the Kardashians, Full House, Tyra and Ellen in ONE sitting, I'll be more likely to take advantage of my time.

I make no promises that this blog will rock.