Things of Interest

After a very late night of practicing and preparing for a class presentation last night, this morning I was awakened far too early to the sound of a jackhammer working on the street right outside my window. Fantastic.

ModCloth is having their Cabin Fever Sale. Stuff is priced down by $100 or more; things you might never be able to afford are suddenly at Old Navy prices! Check it out.

I read Mark Bittman's piece on McDonald's oatmeal over my own bowl of oats this morning.

"Incredibly, the McDonald’s product contains more sugar than a Snickers bar and only 10 fewer calories than a McDonald’s cheeseburger or Egg McMuffin. (Even without the brown sugar it has more calories than a McDonald’s hamburger.)"

I haven't been in a McDonald's in, well, a long time, and I was glad to be consuming a very tasty bowl of oats that I knew were just oats, water, a spoon of almond butter, a drizzle of almond milk, and a sliced banana. My fav. And no unpronounceable ingredients.

Space Shuttle Discovery launches this evening on its final voyage - the beginning of the end for the shuttle program. I feel oddly - and yes, irrationally - depressed about this. I used to want to be an astronaut. I knew every shuttle in the fleet and the date of each maiden flight, the name of each first crew member. I idolized astronauts from commanders to payload specialists, but especially pilots. I wanted to join the military and be trained as a pilot, and then work for NASA. It was all planned out in my little sixth-grade head. I read everything I could get my hands on about space travel: its technology, its history, its projected future. Well, with three more shuttle launches before the end of an era, it's obvious this particular dream didn't come through for me. With no training in the sciences whatsoever (well hang on, I did take a gen ed course in college), the only way I'll be leaving the clutches of gravity is if NASA needs a violinist to go serenade as-yet-undiscovered citizens of other galaxies. Or if I become extraordinarily wealthy and can buy myself a ticket to the moon someday.

Well, just so I don't end this post on a depressing note, I want to make these spicy black bean cakes sometime soon. First I need to master a vast amount of violin music (preferably by this afternoon), finish preparing a presentation on Shostakovich's Violin Concerto No. 1, and make it through several rehearsals and other obligations.

I need more time in my life. If I had more time, I could have become both a violinist and an astronaut. If I had more time, I could cook tasty meals and be in grad school at the same time. If I had more time, I could learn to take great pictures on my Nikon and also master the Bach C Major Fugue. If I had more time, I could...

...I should...

...stop spending it by writing on my blog?