blogorrhea

I'm getting old. Well, not really *old*. Older, perhaps. Went to the optometrist this morning and confirmed that I am starting to experience the vision changes that older folks get -- where you can't see things close to you as well. My distance vision has hardly changed (still slightly nearsighted), but I've noticed that at the dinner table I have to remove my glasses in order to see my food. So there you go. O-L-D. Old.

Galette de la fraise et la rhubarbe

Nat attended Camp Gourmet in San Francisco this week. It's his second year attending the camp, and this year was better than last year. They made more complex and interesting food, including this beautiful and very tasty Strawberry Rhubarb Galette. It's a folded pie crust made with cream cheese, delectable, flaky, amazing. I'm so impressed with this I've even given it a French name (correct my grammar, please): Galette de la fraise et la rhubarbe.

I'm going to beg him to write the recipe down and make it again for us. Soon.

The Washington Post's film critic, Ann Hornaday, wrote a clever review of "The Incredible Hulk". She's my favorite film reviewer, and here's why:

1. She has a great command of the English language and a style that can be silly and fun yet serious. And engaging.

2. She is downright funny. " All the actors hit their marks with professionalism and class, including Tim Roth as a Russian-born sharpshooter enlisted by the General to dispatch Banner, and Hurt, who once told me that he adopts a spirit animal for every role he plays. With his ballistic blue eyes, silvery widow's peak and a mustache capable of picking a fight at 20 paces, he seems to have chosen Mike Ditka."

3. Her insights are meaningful. "Tyler gives Betty an appropriately angelic nimbus of ethereal gentleness as the one Beauty who can tame the Beast, although it's possible to wish that the filmmakers had given her something better than a wispy "It's okay" to say during their most pivotal encounters."

Basically, she rocks.

I'm getting myself a 16 GB iPhone after they come out on July 11. I'm sick of having a regular cellphone, as much as I love my Nokia cameraphone with its Zeiss lens, because I can't text very well without a keyboard. Also: I noticed that most keyboards on cellphones are QWERTY keyboards. I don't understand this. This doesn't make sense to me. It's not as if you can use all of your digits to type in the letters. Why don't they make them alphabetical?

According to the news, Morgan Stanley analyst Ole Slorer is predicting that oil will be over $150 a barrel by July 4th. My first reaction is that this guy is driving the price up, and it's probably benefiting Morgan Stanley in a huge way.

Let's remove the analysts from the investment banks. Analysts should be independent of financial institutions, not paid directly by them. It's a total racket. The emotions involved in financial speculation are erratic and crazy enough. It all points to big bucks for the big guys and negative bucks for the little guys. Like the average, everyday consumer. Yet another reason to push for financial reforms.

After watching the DNC Rules Committee's Florida and Michigan discussion and results this past Saturday, I am of the mind that Hillary Clinton is determined to take her case as far as possible, even if it fractures the Democratic Party and McCain wins in November. If that happens, her career is over, as far as I'm concerned. She will never get re-elected to any office, and her chance of running for President again in 2012 will be finished.

There is nothing straightforward about politics, which I find supremely frustrating. In my utopian universe, people are honest and direct with one another and treat each other with dignity and respect. Ha. There was a veneer of party unity and respect at the DNC meeting, but Harold Ickes's vitriolic speech after the Michigan proposal was put on the table was ugly, and sets the stage for either a nasty fight within the party or Clinton's team trying every last wicked maneuver to leverage her for as high a position as possible, which at this time is the Vice Presidency.

I could never survive within this environment. To think that these conniving folks are the ones running the political machine is disheartening at the least. The mind games and strategies that they concoct could make your head spin.

Now that I've been rejected from grad school, what do I do? The ego is somewhat bruised, but will recover. I went to my 20 year reunion at university this past weekend and had a great time seeing many people again, talking with a bunch of folks I knew and even didn't know. The only difficult part, really, was telling them that I'm a stay-at-home mom. Not because I feel particularly guilty about this, but because everyone's eyes glaze over. It has to be one of the most undervalued jobs ever. This is a choice I've made, along with my husband, to look after our kids as much as possible.

Ethan will be going to preschool this fall on a part-time basis. Since my grad school plans have been blown out of the water, I'm now planning on trying out for a new chorus and getting a part-time job. I'm now thinking of narrowing down my nonprofit interest to public health. Brian told me I should have become a doctor. He told me to go to med school. I don't think I have the stamina for all of the education that is required in order to become a doctor at my age. It will take me about 10 years.

So my latest thing is to continue pursuing an MPA and perhaps try even harder to get a Master of Public Health (MPH) degree. This might actually be useful if I ever want to go grassroots in another country. I could work at educating people about their health.

And I'm still mulling over the book I'm reading, Out of Poverty by Paul Polak. This book is truly inspiring. It makes me want to think about how to solve entrenched poverty in this country. I've always liked the idea of living in an ivory tower and coming up with potential solutions to big problems, but Mr. Polak indicates that this kind of solution-making is not exactly successful. He advocates going to the source (the poverty stricken around the world) and asking them what they would need in order to get themselves out of poverty. He and his company then have worked hard to come up with viable solutions to sell to these folks at a very low cost, one that doesn't break the back of his company, so they can bring themselves up out of poverty. The idea that most, if not all, people in this world would rather do for themselves than have someone else do for them and their families is not exactly novel, but it is so obvious that when seen in the written word it's utterly illuminating.

And there you go. More ruminations on this. I'm sure I'll be thinking even more about these things as I read more and more about this topic.

Just checked my admissions status online at SFSU, and didn't get in to grad school! Bummer. I was hoping to have a bunch of interesting classes to attend this fall. Seems like my education may have to occur independently. When Ethan heads out to kindergarten in a couple of years, I'll have to start from scratch, without the benefit of grad school. Or maybe I should be applying to a different kind of grad school, like Cal's Public Policy program.

Maybe I'll start a part-time job this fall! I'll definitely need something to do while Ethan is at preschool. And I'll have the time to join a different chorus.

View from below

Ethan showed great interest in my sister's Casio Exilim camera last week. On a whim I bought him his own exact same camera. It's charging up right now. In the meantime, he's taken some photos with my little Nokia cameraphone that I just had to upload to Vox and share with y'all.

Sidewalk

We spent nearly four hours at the playground this morning/afternoon. Ethan was a frothy, muddy, happy mess at the end of it. He spends his entire time barefoot, tromping around the dirt among the trees and bushes, playing in the sand, climbing trees, running around with his friends Angus, Rowan and Bella. In the city there are so few places to really just be a free little kid. This particular playground is one place where they seem to feel so free.

Midtown Terrace door

I can't wait for the camera to finish charging so I can hand it over to Ethan. I bought a 4 GB SD card -- hope it's big enough for him!

Let me start by saying that I am not a horse racing fan. I have never been to a horse race and have zero interest in this sport. But today's recent front page headline about Eight Belles coming in second at the Kentucky Derby and breaking both front ankles, then being euthanized immediately after diagnosis on the track in front of the spectators is sick. I actually am glad that she was euthanized in front of everyone, because maybe this will mean that people will become outraged and stop supporting this sport. Too many horses are run into the ground for money. Sure, some horses love to run, and they should be allowed to run. For their own pleasure. Not for human pleasure and money.