vaguetarian tea room

Remember how Hannah and I posted about the Live Poet’s Society and our writing assignments for each other? Well, we are done! Note: If you have one you are working on, the flexible deadline is this Friday so no rush. And if you would like to join in for the next assignment, please do. I imagine Hannah and I will be assigning each other new projects sometime this week or when she returns from her trip. Keep an eye peeled!

Her assignment for me was this - Write a short story or essay using the first-person narrative. You can have as many characters as you like, but you must include yourself and a well-known character from a TV show or movie (in the role he/she is famous for). And at some point in the story, one of your characters must recite a Spenserian sonnet about something or someone they love.

My assignment for her was this - The Variety Show - The setting is a late-night sound stage in New York City, and I am your host, Teeni Frowney (haha - get the reference to Guy Smiley from Sesame Street fame?). I’ve just come back from commercial and am joking with my sidekick, TGH, and I am about to introduce your act…take it away! Hint: Please cover what your special talent/act is, what ensues, and the audience’s reaction to it all.

Hannah posted her story - it is up and ready to be read! Please give it a read - she did a great job with it. Since Hannah used her soap opera name, Amelia Auckland, for herself in her story, I did a quick ’search and replace’ in my story and copied her. So although my character is named Amelia Auckland, it is really just Hannah in disguise. What follows is my writing assignment. I actually needed to put more constraints on myself because I was having writer’s block. So I actually combined the assignment that Hannah gave me as well as the assignment I gave her and applied them both to my own story. I hope you enjoy it. Here goes…

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Just wanted to pass on the word that my buddy Calamity is having a few issues with her website at the moment. She will explain all as soon as she can but I just wanted to let everyone know she has contacted me, she’s okay, and will work it out.

Here is the latest grouping of funny search terms from my site. I get a kick out of them and hope you do too. Anyway, it’s a nice little brainless break for me so I can work on my writing assignments. Hope you are all safe and warm!

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see a naked girl - Nope. I don’t. Do you?

cartoon character lose button - That’s nothing - Teeni lose mind.

what is good about being short? - Let’s see - being close to the ground when you fall so you don’t get hurt as bad, you always have someone to look up to, you don’t bang your head as often on low ceilings, etc. I could go on. There really are some good points.

“my cat wont eat” - My cat WILL! Toast is a fattie!

stuffed moles - I hate to see them when they are hungry.

how long to dehydrate banana - Yeah, how long? And more importantly, why?

get out of room game with character - But sometimes when you are in a rush, you have to play the get out of room game withOUT character. Not as pretty, but just as effective.

loads of naked people in a room - HAHAHA! OMG - I just got the funniest picture in my head with this one. It made me laugh out loud. That’s all I can say about it. I know, Iknow, very mature of me. heehee.

green bean tea - No. Please, no. Why would anyone DO such a thing? That is just wrong.

“paige stanton” - Wow. Paige, someone was here looking for you! They must think this place is like “Cheers” or something.

what kind of meatless food vegan can eat - What kind of English sentence human can make?

fear of squash - Really, there’s nothing to be afraid of. I thought I showed you that already.

something cool for your room - Sure - my blog can be that.

mother in law saw me naked - Now THAT has to be the epitome of embarassment.

people should do the things they love - Yes, they should.

sexy teeni - Thank you muchly.

tea room foods - Yum!

vote for me naked - Or wear a scarf if it’s cold - that’s okay too!

how to make soft jubes - First, we need to figure out what a jube is…

im your pretty pic - Yes, you are. You’re my pretty widdle pic. What a good widdle pretty pic you are too. Now go sit and behave.

see my naked - Yeah? See your naked WHAT? C’mon. Spit it out. Nevermind. I don’t want to see it anyway. What am I thinking?

It seems it has been meme central around here lately! So this meme will probably be the last I do for the year. I do think memes are fun and I’m not turning snobby - but I have a couple of writing assignments to work on before the holidays and maybe you do too! I still have to write my assignment for the Live Poet’s Society that Hannah and I are doing - it’s not too late to join in, ya know! And I also still have my letter to the advice columnist to write for AntiBarbie! You can still join this one as well and win a free custom header for your blog! So those are my excuses and here is my last meme of 2007!

Background

I was tagged by the fabulous Tish at The Kat House for this meme. If you haven’t checked out her place, please do so. I finally added her to my blogroll so you all can find her. I have been reading her through my reader for some time now. I first came across Tish at Blogs We Love. I answered their ten questions and had my results posted there. You can see my results by clicking on the Blogs We Love badge on my sidebar (feel free to vote for my blog with hearts at the bottom of my questions if you like) and answer their ten questions for yourself while you are at it.

For this meme, I’m supposed to list three things that I can’t let go. I’ll follow along with what Tish (and Chip before her) did in naming one physical, one mental, and one emotional thing that I can’t let go. Okay, hold onto your hats - here we go!

UPDATE: Thanks to Chip to pointing out that this meme was artfully changed into this variation by Mark Dykman. Also props to the originator of the meme go to Dan Rinnert at dcr Blogs. He deserves a link for creating this cool meme. Now, back to the meme…

1. Physical - I can’t stop the habit I’ve had since I was a baby of running a satin ribbon under my fingernails. It is sort of a nervous habit that all started with one of those baby blankets that had satin sewn around the edges. I used to rub that satin under my fingernails as a kid but as I got older, it was very inconvenient to carry a blanket around and it also risked being made fun of and getting called Linus. So I noticed I was wearing the satin off the blanket anyway and just ripped the whole piece of satin off and carried that around in my pocket instead. As an adult, I’ve gone months and months, perhaps years without that piece of satin. However, I have worn away every single pocket lining in every coat I’ve ever owned because I’d run that little piece of material under my fingernail until it was worn through and there was no pocket left. Now I am sensible and go to a craft store and buy a couple of yards of double-faced satin ribbon. I can cut about 8 inch pieces of it and keep it with me to facilitate my habit and save my pockets. One length can keep me occupied for months at a time. The good thing is I didn’t carry over the thumb sucking habit into adulthood like I did the satin habit.

2. Mental - I needed help from TGH with this one. Finally we both agreed that I can’t let go of my childhood. I love to play games! And I miss the days when my family could all get together and get along and play some games or just get together without ending up in a feud or not speaking to eachother.

3. Emotional - I can’t let go of the loss I feel for the cat I had for over 20 years. She was the best of pets. She sometimes behaved like a dog in walking me to the corner on my way to school and greeting me when I came home, walking alongside me, obviously happy to see me with her tail straight up in the air. She always would come running when I called and I loved to hear her purr. She had two beautiful litters of kittens before I had her fixed and I believe she outlived all of her children. Even my dad, who I don’t think is a big cat person, would say she had exceptional fur. When she got older I had to stop her from walking with me because she would get winded and start panting and one time some neighborhood dogs chased her up a tree. I chased those dogs right back and screamed at the owners for not having them on a leash. I’m actually pretty lucky I didn’t get attacked, now that I think of it. But I wouldn’t have been able to bear it if they had gotten hold of her and hurt her. And we lived there before they did and had been used to walking around the block without getting chased by dogs. But, out of concern for her safety, the walks stopped. She was getting old. She passed away of congestive heart failure. She had been going downhill for the last year of her life and I tried to prepare myself for it but it still really hurt when she passed. And I still have moments when I miss her and shed a few tears for her. So I’ll probably never be rid of the hole she left in my heart, but I still will always have room in my heart and home for animals.

Whew! I’m a little wiped out from all the meme-ing and tagging so if you think you would like to do this meme, please consider yourself tagged. Please link back to me though so I can read what you came up with. You don’t have to do a physical, mental and emotional - it can just be three things you can’t let go of. I just enjoyed the extra challenge that Chip and Tish added to it.

Lots of kids love fast food chicken nuggets. But if you are a vegetarian kid there’s no chance of that happening any time soon. And you don’t have to be a kid to like those fun finger foods. So how about a version that is just as fun but without the chicken? How about chicanery nuggets made with seitan instead of chicken? These are the general idea directions and not specific as to ingredients or times. Working with wheat gluten can be time intensive because of cooking/roasting/simmering times. When I have time, I usually try to make up a big batch when working with it to make quicker dinners in the future.

I make these using the traditional method of simmering the seitan but I don’t use soy sauce, I use a vegetable broth and add some mock chicken seasonings. Simply mix up the vital wheat gluten and then tear off generous 1″ round portions, flattening them with your thumbs and stretching them to shape a little. They do swell to a larger size when simmering so remember to start off with small pieces.

When the simmering is over with you can freeze the little nuggets right in the broth that they simmered in or store them in the fridge that way for up to five days so you can stop here or continue to the next step. I store a lot of mine frozen in their broth and then pull them out and continue with the next process as I want them for meals.

Arrange three dishes - one with crushed corn flake cereal, one with egg whites or egg substitute, the third with all purpose flour. Take each nugget and dip it first into the flour, then the egg substitute, then the corn flakes. Place them on a cookie sheet covered with parchment paper.

Then bake them 10 mins each side. Serve with a couple of different sauces to dip them in, like ketchup, barbecue, or honey mustard, vand some salad and fresh veggies or maybe even sweet potato oven fries! Yum.

My natural hair color is brunette. I love being a brunette.

But once, when I was younger, I wanted to see if it was true that blondes had more fun. So I did it - I went out and bought myself a bottle of blonde and some bleach. Don’t worry, Melsie - I had a hairdresser friend who warned me to get a drabber so I wouldn’t end up with a brassy carrot top.

I was going to do it right if I was going to do it - so this was going to be a two-step job. I had to bleach all the color out of my almost-black hair first. Then when I put the blonde color on, I used that drabber to tone down the red highlights of my natural hair color. I also did my eyebrows so they wouldn’t look too out of place under the blonde bangs. I think I ended up doing a decent job. Thanks to the drabber, I didn’t end up looking like some cheap bimbo. Even my mom thought the color looked natural. At work, a lot of people told me I looked like Loni Anderson (now, mind you, this was back when I was a younger, even hotter version of myself, so it could be a little true).

Now the funny thing was that I knew three different men who I was interested in dating at the time. I never had dated more than one person at a time. I didn’t know how you could do such a thing - it seemed unfair to not give all your attention to the one person. But, we had just moved away from the town I grew up in and I wouldn’t be young and carefree forever, so even my mom suggested I date more than one person, have some fun, and not be so serious. So I thought I’d give that a shot. The trouble is, none of the guys I was interested in would ask me out. We’d spend time together and they’d flirt and stuff but no more than that. They seemed just as interested in me as I was in them, so I couldn’t understand it. Finally, I gave up on the lot of them and figured I’d start fresh. And I went blonde. Wouldn’t you know, the three guys I had been interested in ALL asked me out then.

So was it the blonde that finally got them to move forward or did they all just happen to start feeling comfortable at the same time? I’ve often wondered about this.

I was tagged for a meme by Mark over at Idle Ramblings of a Slightly Mad Man. This one is actually quite different. You get to use your iPod!

The Rules:
1. Put your iTunes/ music player on Shuffle (use a stereo or a list of your favorite songs if you don’t have an iPod)
2. For each question, press the next button to get your answer.
3. YOU MUST WRITE THAT SONG NAME DOWN NO MATTER WHAT(this is in capital letters, so it is very serious. No hiding your showtunes, folks!)

After you’ve answered all of the questions, tag 5 other people and then let them know they’ve been tagged to do the meme themselves!

IF SOMEONE SAYS “IS THIS OKAY” YOU SAY?
I Can’t Turn You Loose - Otis Redding

WHAT WOULD BEST DESCRIBE YOUR PERSONALITY?
Dirty Water – Dropkick Murphys

WHAT DO YOU LIKE IN A GUY/GIRL?
Goody Two Shoes – Adam Ant

HOW DO YOU FEEL TODAY?
Sloop John B – The Beach Boys

WHAT IS YOUR LIFE’S PURPOSE?
The Loco-Motion – Grand Funk Railroad

WHAT IS YOUR MOTTO?
Noise Brigade – The Mighty Mighty Bosstones

WHAT DO YOUR FRIENDS THINK OF YOU?
Late in the Evening – Paul Simon

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR PARENTS?
I’m Your Boogie Man – KC & the Sunshine Band

WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT VERY OFTEN?
Last Train To Clarksville – The Monkees

WHAT IS 2+2?
Twentieth Century Fox – The Doors

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR BEST FRIEND?
You’re My Best Friend – Queen

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE PERSON YOU LIKE?
You Dropped a Bomb on Me – The Gap Band

WHAT IS YOUR LIFE STORY?
Wild Horses – The Rolling Stones

WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU GROW UP?
Sugar, Sugar – The Archies

WHAT DO YOU THINK WHEN YOU SEE THE PERSON YOU LIKE?
Jackie Wilson Said – Van Morrison

WHAT DO YOUR PARENTS THINK OF YOU?
December 1963 (Oh What A Night) – Frankie Valli and the 4 Seasons

WHAT WILL YOU DANCE TO AT YOUR WEDDING?
The Ballad of Curtis Loew – Lynyrd Skynyrd

WHAT WILL THEY PLAY AT YOUR FUNERAL?
Who’s Making Love – The Blues Brothers

WHAT IS YOUR HOBBY/INTEREST?
Jerry Springer – Weird Al

WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST SECRET?
Do You Remember Rock’n’Roll Radio – Kiss

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR FRIENDS?
The Logical Song – Supertramp

WHAT SHOULD YOU POST THIS AS?

Just Can’t Wait – J. Geils Band

With this meme I tag:

Merri at Merrily We Roll Along

Paige Stanton at Eat, Bitch & Whine

Lisa at Temporal Millionaire

Kat at Snapdragons in Winter

Snoskred at Life in the Country

Annie at WriterChick Talks

I’d also tag Calamity and Red but they’ve been tagged for this one already! If there is anyone else who I missed that would like to play along, go ahead and steal the meme. There’s plenty to go around.

I was tagged for this meme by Calamity, who created it because she wanted to change the mood at her blog. There’s no way that I could refuse because it is just such a wonderful and positive meme. All you have to do is list 10 things about the day that are good, then tag as many or as few people as you want. So ten good things for me today are:

1. I woke up.
2. I didn’t have to shovel.
3. I’m in no pain, I’m warm, dry, and well-fed.
4. I got an award from a bloggy friend.
5. I was able to squeeze in a a haircut with my favorite hairdresser.
6. It wasn’t too cold out and the sun was out for a while.
7. I got to chat with a buddy and email with another.
8. I thought I was out of green decaf tea but found a whole unopened box in the cupboard!
9. My husband and cats are healthy.
10. Stealing from Calamity on this one - I am loved (that is an awesome one).

Now here are the people I’d like to tag for this meme:

Melsie at The Naked Truth

Mike at Exit 78

Kate at Kate Smudges in Earth, Paint and Life

Pearl at Interesting Observations

I tagged these particular people because I know that when I read what each of them come up with that I will have more things to think about appreciating. They each get me thinking in different ways. So I hope they can rise to the challenge of this meme. But there is no time limit or pressure on anyone to fulfill this meme - after all, stress free memes are the best kind, right?

Well, that’s what AntiBarbie thinks. Or something along those lines.

She gifted me with this adorable badge which I really love. Being considered a good friend means a lot to me. And I love the image of the bears hugging. This badge came with no strings attached but I would like to pass it on to some good blog buddies of mine. I’m only choosing two this time around because I consider ALL of you my buddies and I don’t feel like just recreating my blogroll here. Feel free to take one if you like. But I’m sure it will just be a matter of time before I see it at each of your places anyway!

These would be:

Opal at Vegan Momma for always accepting me (even when her spam catcher sometimes doesn’t)
Beth Ellen at Eclectic Studio Cafe for sharing and laughing with me

Now go and spread good cheer my little huggy bears! 

My little Diva has tagged me for the Suspicious Meme. She actually tagged me a while ago and I’m just slow in getting them done lately so they are getting all backed up. I do apologize for this.

Anyway, I LOVE this interpretation of the rules so I copied and pasted from the Diva.

The Rules:

• Write a list of things of which you are suspicious. Any number of them will do. Even the number 0 works. This is the first meme that can be done without even doing it. In fact, you’re doing it right now.
• Include the list of rules, if you feel like it.
• Link back to the person who tagged you. Or not.
• Tag however many people you want to tag. You can skip this step.
• If you acted on rule four, leave comments on their websites to let them know that they have been tagged. This step is also completely optional.
• Feel fantastic.

So here are some things that make me suspicious.

1. When someone awards me with a llama.
2. When someone in a restaurant (other than my server) comes over and asks how my meal is. What do they know that I don’t know about my food?
3. When my cats won’t eat the tuna fish that is leftover from my sandwich. Again, what do they know that I don’t know about my food?
4. When my sister (who last called me a vile name when we spoke weeks ago) calls me out of the blue. Hmmm - last I knew we weren’t speaking so what could she be calling me for now - to call me another name?
5. Natural Flavorings - Well if they are so natural why can’t you say what they are? What’re you afraid of? Because not all natural things are good to eat - could that be it? Poisonous mushrooms are natural. But you don’t see those listed in any ingredients. So is that what they are hiding? Hmmm.
6. Elevator Inspection Certificates - You are in an elevator by yourself so of course you are going to go check that little box thing where there is supposed to be a certificate saying the elevator has been checked out and is safe to ride. But instead, it says the certificate is on file at the management office or some other not-inside-the-elevator-place where you could see it for yourself. That makes me nervous and wonder how long it’s been since the elevator was checked and what the results were.
7. My country’s import system. With all the negative things to have come out of imports lately it makes me wonder what the heck kind of testing and rules do we have in place? They need to be better.
8. Built-in gratuities. Do they think so highly of themselves/their service that they have the right to decide how much of a tip I’ll leave? What makes them think I’ll be entirely satisfied with their service/product? Why do they think it is okay to set a standard for something that is voluntarily given? Should I be concerned that they feel the need to do this?  Fortunately, I’ve always been pleased with the service/product I’ve had that included a built-in gratuity, but I still don’t like someone telling me how much I should leave.
9. Phone bills. Period. I have had questions on fees and charges on almost every phone bill I’ve ever looked at, including land lines and cell phones. Sometimes I just don’t look at them to save me some aggravation. If I sit long enough and try to figure them out I can usually come to some understanding of them but lots of times it requires way too much time and also a call to customer service to find out what such-and-such charge is and what happened on this day and etc., etc. Why can’t they just be easy to understand? Paying for something you understand makes you feel a heck of a lot better than blindly forking over money when you don’t know what all those charges are for.
10. Speaking of phone bills - funny little clicks and sounds on the line when I’m talking to someone on the phone make me suspicious. Is someone listening in? Do I need to create my own secret language so I can call my mom and see how she’s doing without having the government know about it? I usually just say, “I’ll call you back from another phone - this one’s apparently been compromised.”

Okay - I’d now like to pass this meme on to my new friend CowgalUtah, who seems to like doing memes. I know you just did a bunch of them so feel free to put this aside for a little bit if you must, Cowgal! I’d also like to pass this on to my old friend (not old in age, sillies, old as in one of my oldest blogging pals), Hannah, to see what, if anything, she is suspicious of. And finally, I’d like to see what Kami would come up with on this meme. Her posts always make me smile or laugh and I bet this will be no exception.