Warning, emo soul-searching ahead

/ Shane / Leave a comment

Last Sunday night I got all excited thinking about my evening of knitting and watching Downton Abbey, and then I stopped for a minute and thought, “How’d I get here?”

(Okay, shut up, I didn’t do one of these maudlin retrospective posts for my birthday, so I’m due.)

It sounds stupid to say it, but I think lately I’ve learned that you should value what makes you happy. How did I learn that? Was it because of having kids? Was it because I’ve spent the last year thinking a lot about simplifying my life? Did a little birdie whisper it in my ear out in the woods at the Haven?

Things that make me happy:

  • Spending time with the kids, like ice skating and playing checkers
  • Writing
  • Playing guitar and accordion
  • Reading
  • Being outside
  • Knitting
  • Trying new foods / experiences
  • Travel

Things that do not make me happy:

  • Clutter
  • My daily commute
  • Buying things

Geez, seems kind of obvious when you put it like that. How did I not know this until I turned 33? Isn’t that like, the one thing everybody knows?

Sometimes I think that past me would look at current me and say, “Dude. I don’t even know you anymore.” But then other times I think that I’m still me, only more so. Like I’ve finally arrived at the end of this path I’ve been traveling down my entire life. Maybe past me would look at current me and say, “Ah ha! That’s the answer to the equation I’ve been working on! That’s the last sentence at the end of the book that makes this all make sense!”

The good news is I know what makes me happy, which is more than a lot of people. The bad news is not knowing what makes you happy makes it a lot easier to convince yourself to keep doing all the crappy things you have to do in life whether they make you happy or not.

Quote Monday doesn’t have a ticket

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Me: “Well, the Packers won’t be going to the Superbowl this year.”
Ollie: “Are they at home, crying in their beds?”

Evie: “I had my best dream ever last night. I was coming out of ballet class, and there was money! I was stuffing my pockets full.”

Ollie, singing: “Deck the halls with boughs of I.”

Ollie and Sara were sitting on the train platform, waiting for the train. An employee was coming down the platform and emptying each trash can by tying up the bag, checking for trains, and then throwing it out across all the tracks, maybe 40 feet or so.

As the man worked his way towards were they were sitting, Oliver leaned over and said, “I think they’re going to throw us next.”

“Downsizing Pluto” now live at Daily Science Fiction

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“Downsizing Pluto” is now available at Daily Science Fiction.

From my story notes:

I was having a discussion with my sister-in-law Anna about the removal of Pluto as a planet, and she wondered, “What will happen to the Roman god Pluto, now that his planet isn’t a planet anymore?” Call me old fashioned, but I believe that all physical phenomenon in our world can be explained by the antics of powerful supernatural beings. Logically, it was the other way around: the god wasn’t hurt by the downgrade of the planet, the god was downgraded, and the planet followed suit. Or at least that was a more reasonable explanation than a couple of scientists got together and decided that something we all agreed was a planet wasn’t a planet anymore.

Go forth to read and rate (click 1 – 7 “Rocket Dragons” down at the bottom of the story). If you want to comment you’ll have to come back here, since there isn’t any commenting over there.

XOCO

/ Shane / 1 Comment

When it comes time for a birthday dinner, we turn to our favorite Chicago chef, Rick Bayless. This time we tried out Frontera’s little sister XOCO (pronounced “show-co”).

It was perfect! Exactly what we needed.

The food was amazing, and fresh, and unique, but everything was very low key. With the kids, we’re always looking for a compromise between something amazing and something where we’re not going to disturb people. That’s exactly what this was (at least before 5 p.m. on a weeknight). No waiting in line, no waiting for a table, and not many people around to disturb.

We had a couple of tortas (Baja Chicken Torta and Choriques to be specific). I thought they were both good, but the baja chicken was amazing.

(This is not actually what we ate, but I stole these pictures from the XOCO website and beggars can’t be choosers)

Sara had the Carnitas Caldos, which is a spicy soup with pork and avocado chunks. This was also good, but very, very salty.

Of course, in the midst of all this good food, Evie only wanted to eat tortilla chips.

Until dessert that is. We each had a churro and we shared a couple of mugs of their amazing hot chocolate. I don’t say cocoa, I say hot chocolate, because it was like drinking a delicious cup full of melted chocolate bars. It was so rich and thick that I’m really not sure I could have finished a glass by myself. But sharing it was just perfect, and gave us an excuse to try two different kinds. For my money, the almond milk one was better, but everyone else preferred the classic.

XOCO is great if you’re looking for something a little bit quicker and easier than Frontera, and well worth the trip downtown (even if the meter did cost me $3.50 an hour!) Thank you Mr. Bayless for never failing to exceed expectations! (P.S. We finally broke down and bought a copy of Rick Bayless’s Mexican Kitchen, so we can stop checking it out from the library all the time!)

Things That Annoy Me

/ Shane / 1 Comment
  • There is a couple of Dr. Pepper billboards that I see on my way to work. Basically, they show the torso of a man wearing a generic Dr. Pepper-colored tee-shirt and holding a can of Dr. Pepper. Over the tee-shirt they wrote (in a completely different font), “I’m a Bears fan” and then put a little Bears logo in the corner. Who do you think you’re fooling? Aside from the fact that Dr. Pepper thinks I’m dumb enough to go, “Oh, they say they’re connected to the sports team I like, I guess I’ll start buying that now!” the very nature of the generic, slap-dash, non-specific billboard only serves to highlight the fact that Dr. Pepper is a ruthless, bloodsucking corporation who cares not a whit about me and my fan loyalties. This is practically the photo negative of the feeling they’re trying to engender. At least spend the time, jeez.
  • Honking. No joke, someone honks at me every single day driving around Chicago. Usually it’s when I’m waiting to turn on green and someone behind me honks to encourage me to go. I cannot stress how rude this is. Usually when they honk I can’t actually go. It’s one thing if I’m not paying attention or something and you draw my attention to the road. But if I’m obviously paying attention (I’m creeping my car forward), then you are saying, “I know you don’t want to go, but I’m smarter than you and I know better than you do.” For example, the other day there was a long line of people who got off the train crossing the street, and someone several cars back started honking. From where they were, they probably couldn’t see the people crossing the street, so they didn’t know that if I went I’d be plowing through a solid wall of bodies. And that is precisely my point: from four cars back you have no idea what is going on up by me and why I’m not going. So now you’re actually enticing me to commit a crime, possibly murder. Let’s all settle down a little bit, shall we?
  • Speaking of honking, I can’t stand people honking to get someone to come out to the car. In this day and age, when everybody has a cell phone, there’s really just no excuse for this. The 50 condos worth of people on our street would appreciate it if you would give your party a call and keep it between the two of you, instead of including us. And if they don’t come out after the 10th honk, your honks are obviously not hurrying them. I think we can say pretty conclusively that they know you’re out there. (I certainly know you’re out there, and I’m not even expecting you.) Maybe, just maybe, they’ve got something going on that’s more important than you. You’re going to feel pretty dumb when you find out they were lying there dying, but you couldn’t bother to get out of your car. Or maybe your honking is causing them to go slower just to spite you. That’s what I’d do if I knew anybody rude enough to do this to me.
  • The weather report. I used to never check the weather, but now that I check it every day, I know less about the weather. Seriously, I gain more information by just peeking out the window. The official report always puts at least 10% chance of rain, just to hedge their bets. 100% chance of rain? How can you ever be 100% sure of anything, especially given your record weather reporting website? Well, guess what? IT DIDN’T RAIN. So thanks for nothing.
  • Those super loud “vortex” hand dryers. Yeah, maybe my hands might be one molecule more dry than with the old fashioned hand dryers, but guess what? I value my hearing more than semi-dry hands.