The Boy Who Read: 13 Years of My Harry Potter Memories

A few months ago I wrote a post about Me & Mr Ghostface in which I laid out the way the Scream franchise had affected my life in many surprising ways. As I am a fanboy to the very core, there are of course many other franchises that have changed me. But one that seems to universally change people is Harry Potter. With the film franchise winding to its inevitable close this weekend I thought I would take a minute to reflect on some of my fond memories the series has provided me with over the past 13 years.

The series was first introduced to me Christmas 1998 when on Christmas morning I unwrapped a copy of “Chamber of Secrets”. To say that I wasn’t much of a fan of reading at the time would be an understatement. My mother had heard that the books were quite popular. Given that I was 13 at the time I think I might have been a little bit of a shit about it, and snubbed the book as being for children (because at 13 I was most definitely an adult). When I returned to school after the holidays my English teacher proclaimed that we all needed to have a new book for silent reading by the next day. Too embarrassed to show my peers that I was reading a “childrens” book I covered the exterior cover with duct tape and… a Korn sticker (yes… I know… because that is less embarrassing). I poured over the pages of the book becoming more and more enthralled with Harry and his adventures attempting to locate the Chamber of Secrets. For the first time in my young adult life I was genuinely in love with what I was reading.  I can honestly say that I am not certain that I would have developed a love for books had that book not arrived at the time that it did. It wasn’t until after I had finished the book that I realized I had actually started at the second book in the series and I had to back track.

I recall reading the books one late night at a choir practice in our local church and a mother of one of the other children scolding me for reading witchcraft in “a house of the lord”. I remember pleading with her that the book was nothing more than a fairy tale. When her response was that “witchcraft is witchcraft”, I gave her the stink eye and said “You do know witches are pretend, right?”. I’m not certain how the conversation ended, but it was probably a watershed moment in my realization that there are adults in the world that are loony zealots and I had no interest in extremism, as it frequently pops into my head when I hear people taking anything too seriously.

The third book was released later that summer and to this day it is my favorite of the books (books, not movies). I have read The Prisoner of Azkaban probably more than any other book, I would say at least a dozen times, probably more. I think as a youngin’ I particularly liked the passages where the kids rebel for what is right rather than follow rules. To a 13 year old, that is pretty much the most accessible message you can send. As an adult I came to appreciate the grander themes of its plot: hope, loss, time, redemption.  Around this time my friends began discovering the series as well and any childrens book stigma was dissipating, more importantly I stopped caring.

By the time the fourth book was released the series was an internationally recognized phenomenon, Warner Brothers was full swing into production on a Harry Potter movie (Rosie O’ Donnell was in talks to play Molly, CAN YOU IMAGINE) and they had started selling merchandise in “WB Stores” emblazoned with book illustrations. The fourth book was, and still is, by far my least favorite in the series. There are a few to many plots and the action sequences struck me as being a bit overbearing. It felt like J.K. Rowling was writing a book to be made into a movie, I still love it, but it does rank at the bottom of my list. It was released in the time between my transition from Junior High to High School and I remember attending a friends summer barbecue where the only topic of discussion was the new book. It sounds silly but the image of that afternoon is so firmly ingrained in my memory as being synonymous with the summers of my youth. It would be 3 years before J.K. Rowling published another book.

During the hiatus between books the first two movies were released, I remember feeling a little let down by the first movie, I think that may have been unavoidable as the vision of Hogwarts in my head was totally different (I was particularly upset that they weren’t wearing purple robes, which it never says they do in the books). I griped over every left out detail and every left in pointless one. I thought Ron & Hermione were terribly cast and even in 2001 some of those CG effects were cheesy. Of course in hindsight I can see how wrong I was (but not about the effects, that troll and the Neville broom scene are appalling). I recently watched all 7 of the films (so far released) back to back and it is truly remarkable that the filmmakers were able to create this visual universe from the ground up. While yes there are of course differences between the characters in the book and the way they a portrayed in the films  it is amazing to me that it actually worked out so well given Ron and Hermione were cast so young and ultimately fully became their characters over 10 years. The second film seemed to resolve most of the issues of the first, taking the film in an appropriately darker direction and sharpening its visual imagery that would later be perfected by director Alfonso Cuarón in Azkaban and David Yates (the final 4 films).

I dont have many memories tied with the release of book 5. That being said, one thing does stick out quite prominently, I felt like Harry was such an obnoxious asshole in it. Harry hits his moody adolescence and takes it out on every character in the book. I have, in the past, used Harry’s behavior in book five as a litmus test. If I say to a new person “Yeah Order of the Phoenix was great, but Harry was such a dick” and they say anything but “I KNOW RIGHT” then I know they aren’t someone I want to hang around. It is a turning point in the series as well, while the previous 4 books all had a common thread but felt like installments, the final 3 are pretty much directly tied into each other. Side note: No words have ever made me more irritated in a book then when Umbridge says *hem hem*

The film version of Prisoner of Azkaban really changed the course of the franchise in mostly surprising ways. While I really don’t like the 3rd film, I give its director Cuarón credit for steering the franchise in the correct character driven and grounded in reality direction. However, I disliked the tone he took my favorite book in which was ultimately a more goofy, “wacky” and over the top approach to the magical world. While he handles scenes of emotional importance well, he doesnt seem to know what to do with the space in between. He also weaves in a subtext about adolescent sexuality (which he admitted in interviews) that felt a little premature (book 6 is where everybody becomes a bit slutty *looking at you Ginny Weasley*). Honestly what was with the Jamaican talking head…

When “Half-Blood Prince” was released I was working at a theater company in Walnut Creek, CA on a production of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella. I remember that we were knee deep in dance rehearsals for the ballroom sequence and when I arrived at the dance studio the day it hit bookshelves literally every cast member was leaning against the mirror with their face buried in their brand new copies. The second any of us were told that we were not needed for a portion of the rehearsal we fell back into our reading (much to the annoyance of our director).

When I wasn’t in rehearsals I was spending the warm afternoons with one of my best friends Ashley at her house , we would sit and talk for hours, get Slurpees and Doritos taco flavored Rollitos (rolled Dorito chips, because regular Doritos were way too hard to eat) and play the Harry Potter video games on her PlayStation 2. In the earlier games the characters were only able to say the same phrases over and over, so when you hear them for hours at time they work their way into your subconscious. I remember that during an ice level Hermione would say “I’m soooooo cold” over and over. So it became a catchphrase of ours. Those afternoons still rank among some of my favorite memories.

Best "Midnight" (2am) Showing Ever

I have mostly fond feelings for the fourth movie, for awhile it was my favorite in the series I think mostly because I had so much fun when I saw it. I was living in New York at the time of its release, and one of my best friends and probably the biggest Potter-head I know Leslie and I got tickets to see it on IMAX, we couldn’t get into the sold out midnight showing so we had to see it at 2am. Leslie dressed up as a Gryffindor, complete with a lighting temporary tattoo on her forehead and robe. Given her bright read hair we decided that she was love child of Harry and Ginny (*SPOILER ALERT* little did we know that those characters would indeed go on to have children). I dressed up as my character crush Crabbe, complete with Slytherin jacket and robe (in real life I am much more of a Hufflepuff). We sat outside of the theater for 2 hours waiting for our showing and talking with other fans. Seeing the movie on IMAX was way cooler than seeing it on a regular screen. I remember thinking that the dragon sequence was quite terrifying, but when I saw it on a screen that wasn’t 50 feet tall it wasn’t as amazing. We got out of the movie at around 4am and I remember walking down the street in Manhattan in my costume totally exhausted and the city was just waking up, I couldn’t help but smile and feel amazing about life. Just one of those New York moments that is hard to put into words. Many of my friends mock this movie as its acting is a little intense and occasionally terrible (Victor Krum, Undesirable Actor Number 1, you’re cute though so I’ll let it slide), but I remain faithfully fond of it.

Left to Right, Taryn as a student, Jenny's amazing Bellatrix costume, Hubs as Arthur Weasley and Leanne as a fortune teller

The summer of 2007 proved to be the summer of Harry Potter. Not only was the final book “Deathly Hallows” being published but a few weeks later the 5th film “Order of The Phoenix” was released. When Half Blood Prince was published there were a small group of… assholes (there is just no other appropriate term) who drove past midnight release parties shouting that Dumbledore died on page 596, I was lucky enough not to be spoiled then, but it did put the fear in that the ending to my beloved series would be ruined. By this time I was already living with my now husband Joey (who still hasn’t read all of the books, shame him for that when you get a chance 😉 and he had at this point already begun working for Barnes & Noble. So of course he worked at the big midnight book bonanza, I was admittedly nervous about attending and didn’t want to be spoiled. They had a costume contest, and I remember that I helped him put together an ADORABLE Arthur Weasley costume. Around 10pm I couldn’t resist the urge to see all our friends in their costumes and miss the big final midnight release party, so I did end up attending. When the first books started being sold though and I saw kids sit down and turn to the end of the book to see the ending first I bolted cartoon style from the building with my ears plugged (there was a dust outline in my shape, that’s how fast I ran).

Its still the cutest shit ever...

I spent the next 24 hours in a technology lock down, I refused to leave the house, go online, or turn on the radio for fear of spoilers. I finished the book in about 24 hours and managed to remain unspoiled. Since the last film hasn’t been released I will not post anything spoilery here, but I am one of the people that feels Book 7 is the first modern masterpiece. One particular characters final story is so profoundly moving and while the book is set in a fantasy world, it is one of the truest depictions of humanity ever committed to the page.  Characters I loved died, relationships long in gestation came to fruition, multiple characters revealed their true natures and the most incredible intricate thread that tied together 9 year of books was revealed (this is one area that movies can not possibly do justice, they just left out entirely to much over the years, you have to read them). I cried buckets y’all.

I have been fortunate enough to share midnight movie experiences for the past 3 films (Order of the Phoenix, Half Blood Prince, and Deathly Hallows Part 1) with my husband and my wonderful friends Lindsay and Kelley (Sadly when Part 2 arrives my husband will be out of town). In my opinion the David Yates films while not the truest to the books are the best films in the franchise. He took the work that Cuarón started grounding the series in reality and took it to the perfect level. He introduced many of my favorite depictions (what up Bellatrix and Luna, a lot of credit goes to those actors), and he managed to always set the stakes appropriately high. Every time we saw the movies we end up staying and discussing it for a long time, and its always a fun time. Usually at some point Kelley and Joey give up on Lindsay and I for gushing too long.

This weekend the story of Harry and I reaches a close… sort of.  While this is certainly the last major public Harry Potter event, I suspect the series will continue to affect my life. If anything has been proven over the years its that this series has helped me build relationships with many of the most important people I’ve known. I look forward to Joey and I reading our child the books someday and connecting with them over the stories beauty.  I look forward to huddling together on the couch and showing our child the movies that I have so many fond memories of and sharing some of these stories with them. Ultimately Harry Potter is a universal story that brings people together and creates memories, it can, if you let it speak to you at a very personal level. For all of this I think I will always be grateful to J.K. Rowling and, of course to the boy who lived.

Mischief Managed.

Planting a garden and further Gwyneth Paltrow culinary adventures

For awhile now, Joey and I have sort of griped over our inability to have a proper yard and garden. When I was a kid for a few years we had a huge back yard. I do mean huge. My mom had a variety of plants and flowers growing and it was frequently one of my chores to water them. I recall one day in a very eco-friendly California hippie style move my elementary school had an earth day celebration where they opened a community garden. I would love to tell you my class was in charge of planting something really cool, but in reality we were responsible for the compost heap and worm garden (I can still smell it if I think about it too hard. BLECH). I did sneak off though and helped with planting some tulip bulbs (my favorite flower) with another class, and at the end of the day we were each given a package of assorted garden seeds to plant at home. I planted mine and was quite surprised when I grew huge stalks of corn and sunflowers. Sadly though ants for to the corn well before i ever could.

For most of my life my mom always had something growing on our apartment balcony (she still does) .  As Ive grown older I’ve come top appreciate the presence of flowers and plants, but growing them is difficult.  This is partially because we live in an apartment that is pretty much cement as far as the eye can see and partially because we live in the desert where the heat kills pretty much everything.  Still against better judgment, I invested in a few “test-the-waters” terracotta planters and planted some flowers, saliva, thyme, rosemary and the hopeless pipe-dream of a few pumpkin seeds. I’ll keep you update if anything grows or better yet survives…

Dreaming big.

 and now further adventures in cooking…

Gwyneth Paltrow’s Kale Fried Rice– I just made this last night so it is the freshest in my mind. I am intrigued by the idea of kale but in my opinion it has always been more of a garnish then an actual ingredient. On Modern Family the gay couple Cam and Mitchell expressed shock and disgust over Kale being the new spinach at the farmers market and prior to cooking this I would have probably agreed. The recipe calls takes a half pound of  thinly sliced ribbons of kale leaves and steams them. Once they are soft but vibrantly green, she adds some garlic to pand with a tablespoon of olive oil. When the the garlic has cooked but not browned, she added the kale and 3 large scallions chopped diagonally. After that cooks for a few minutes she adds 2 cups of brown rice, then cook that for a few more minutes before adding a tablespoon of soy sauce. It could have been the organic soy sauce I used, but I would cut way back on the soy sauce since it is very salty. I loved the overall flavor but I am thinking it would benefit from the addition of some sugar snap peas or maybe even some carrots. But I will definitely be making this again as it was quite quick and easy to make and with an adjustment to the soy sauce even more delicious.

Gwyneth Paltrow’s Fresh Corn Polenta- Another pretty easy quick fix dinner. It is originally intended as a side dish but we went ahead and had it as a main course. Its perfect right now given that corn is in its peak summer sweetness. You basically cook polenta as the package directs then stir in 3/4 cup milk and 1/4 cup heavy cream, some fresh cracked pepper and the kernals from one ear of fresh corn. Then sprinkle with chives. It was fantastic, starchy comforting goodness, almost like mashed potatoes.  To make it a little more “meal”-like I might punch it up  with some additional vegetables like sun-dried tomatoes, asparagus, or broccoli and cheese.

Gwyneth Paltrow’s Berries with Caramelized Cream – A third quick fix option from Gwyneth Paltrow. This was designed as a desert. Given the red white and blue color scheme I elected to make it as a finale to our fourth of July dinner (below). Basically you take a pint of raspberries and a pint of blueberries (I added a few strawberries too)  and pour them in a cake pan. For the cream mixture you combine: 2 Tbsp sour cream, 2 Tbsp heavy cream, 1 large egg, 1 egg white, 1 C mascarpone, 3 Tbsp powdered sugar, Pinch of sea salt, Seeds of 1 vanilla bean. Then pour over the berries and bake in the broiler till golden. I have to confess, it smelled alot like cheese pizza which really yicked me out. Once Joey forced me to take a bite it was quite heavenly. It tastes alot like toasted ice cream and berries, but leave the strawberries out.

Grass Fed Beef Burger and Gwyneth Paltrow French Fries-  Since watching Food Inc I haven’t actually made beef at home or purchased it at the grocery store. Mainly because of the lack of grass fed beef in my primary grocery store (and budget), but since it was July 4th. I thought I would splurge and buy a pound of the swanky stuff. I also splurged on Bricohe buns, butter lettuce and oven roasted tomatoes.  I was quite concerned as online many blogger stated that it was quick cooking and you could ruin it. So I followed the 3 minutes per side guideline and they came out more rare than I typically like but they tasted AMAZING. They had an incredible beef flavor. If I could afford it, I would rotate it into our routine. I also made Gwyneth Paltrow’s oven fries, which were basically just peeled potatoes chunked, coated in olive oil and course salt.  Really that’s it. Joey said they were the best fries he had ever had.

The Fourth and I

Well today is Fourth, the day we Americans celebrate our nations birth. When I was growing up the fourth was always a big a deal but as time has gone on it has become less and less important. I grew up in a very small town in northern California called Benicia. It’s pretty much frozen in time, one friend once referred to it as a real life “River City” (a Music Man reference). I mean in my lifetime I have witnessed more than one public “Cake Walk” in this town.

The beauty of this is that the fourth always proved to be real life Americana at its

People line up for the Benicia Torchlight Fourth of July Parade

best. On July 3rd the town would gather on our main street for the parade.  It was always an opportunity for overly confident middle aged women to belly dance in public, kids in dance classes to do routines, the high school band to perform, and local business and churches to promote themselves with floats. I was in the parade a few times over the years for various performing groups I was involved in. Including one occasion where the theater group I was in had me sing “Heal the World” by Michael Jackson on a “float” (the flat bed of a truck), we also sang a song from Aladdin while the instructors pudgy husband walked around shirtless painted blue like the genie. That was… pretty embarrassing.

The following day about 85% of the town went down to the main city park for the Fourth of July festival and picnic. My mom always bought the fancy foods we couldn’t normally afford, my favorite being spinach dip. A variety of local vendors would sell their wares in tents and local bands would play genuinely terrible covers in front of the town Gazebo while drunk women “of a certain age” danced with themselves like they were at a real Rolling Stones concert. The whole family would relax and eat and read in the usually mild weather. As my brother and I got older we elected to run off with our friends and return to the picnic blanket throughout the day. Like all events in a small town this was a big social occasion where people would catch up with friends they hadn’t seen in a while.

In the evening the town put on a “Firework Spectacular” over the marina, which

Fireworks over the bay in Benicia

was the butt of jokes year round. It being a small town, we had a relatively small budget for these things.  Typically the fireworks would go off one at a time or in a maximum of two at a time over 45 minutes with a short finale. At some point you would see a small fire begin on the island and 4 or 5 would go off at once unplanned.  The most common joke would be after 1 fire work would go off there could be a delay of several minutes and someone (possibly the same person) would loudly say “OH WELL TIME TO GO HOME, GREAT SHOW BOYS!”. Every year the town would laugh but ultimately fall into a hushed quiet when the show started picking up pace. These were the best fourth of Julys I ever had.

I only spent one fourth of July in New York City and it was fairly depressing since I was stood up by my then boyfriend and ended up watching the fireworks alone while Mariah Carey wailed off key. Since then all of my fourths have been spent in Vegas, but so far adulthood has prevented me from ever having a real fourth with my husband Joey.  We both end up working, usually late, or if we don’t work late we are to tired to go do much. I usually cook something special but that is it. One year we watched the same fireworks show from our various workplaces over the phone.  But every year I find myself wishing for those old school holidays, who knows maybe someday when we have a kid that nuance and awesomeness will return, for now though at least I have the memories.

My last fourth of July in Benicia with friends

Summer inspired cupcakes: Lemon Blueberry and Fresh Strawberry Vanilla Bean

Summer is in full swing, its offensively hot, the pools are crowded and there are teenagers everywhere. Okay, so I am not much of a summer fan. I never really have been. I like my weather freezing to moderately warm.  Heat and I do not agree. Still, its not all bad. In particular summer foods are pretty awesome. Barbecue, corn, strawberries, cherries, peaches, tomatoes. It’s a pretty good time of year to be vegetarian. With the fourth of July quickly approaching, barebue season is in full swing. A friend is having a celebration, and I decided to bring something sweet.

I went through a period of time where all I wanted to do with my life was bake. I actually got pretty good at it, and even did a little freelance cupcake work for awhile. But ultimately I wasn’t able to produce quality at a reasonable price and the juggling act of working full time and baking till the wee hours created an environment where it stopped being fun. I still get the spark every now and then though.

Given the fourth of July holiday i wanted to make red white and blue cupcakes using natural products and flavors. The obvious choice was vanilla cake, strawberries and blueberries. I used to make a cupcake at D*ROCK Cake & Confections called “The Heavens To Betsey Ross” which was vanilla cake, blueberry cream cheese frosting with fresh strawberry and blueberry garnish.  While the cake was good, I really wanted to try something different. I decided to do a Vanilla bean cake with a fresh strawberry frosting, and a lemonade infused cake with a blueberry frosting.

For the batters, you can follow your favorite cake recipe as normal (minus and additional flavorings). To the unflavored cake batter add:

Lemon Cake

• The zest and juice of 2 organic lemons
• 1 tablespoon lemon extract
• A splash of an all natural corn syrup free lemonade (I used Newmans)
• Lemon pudding

Vanilla Bean Cake

• Scraping from a vanilla bean pod (organic ones are more potent)
• 3 Tablespoons of Pure Vanilla Extract (I know its a lot but its awesome)
• A splash of organic whipping cream
• Vanilla Pudding

For the frostings:

Blueberry Frosting

• Cream together 2 sticks of unsalted butter and half a pound of confectioners sugar (half a box)
• Puree a pint of blueberry with a splash of a natural corn syrup free lemonade
• Whip blueberry mixture into buttercream
• Add second half pound (half box) confectioners sugar, whip until fluffy.

Fresh Strawberry Buttercream

• Cream together 2 sticks of unsalted butter and half a pound of confectioners sugar (half a box)
• Puree a pint of strawberries with a splash of organic whipping cream, add regular sugar or honey to taste (depending on sweetness of strawberries)
• Whip Strawberry cream mixture into buttercream
• Add second half pound (half box) confectioners sugar, whip until fluffy.

Once the cakes have cooled, slather the lemon with a generous portion of blueberry and garnish with a fresh blueberry and/or lemon zest.  Some for the vanilla bean cake with the strawberry, I garnished with edible pearls and twist of strawberry.

BLAMO!

 

 

Date Day: Zappos Fresh and Local Market, Slidin Thru, Bad Teacher

  Yesterday presented one of those rare and elusive opportunities. A mutual day off between me and the husband.  One of those awesome, once in a blue moon occurrences where we actually get to share an entire day together. We set out with a handful of adventures in mind only one of which was scrapped (we didn’t make it out to the record store).

I have previously mentioned that I have a really, really amazing job working at Zappos. What you may or may not know is that Zappos in planning to move its corporate offices into the former Las Vegas city hall building when it is vacated some time in 2013.  Part of the planned move downtown is that the company wants to expand into building a greater sense on community in the ever growing and evolving downtown scene. One of the employee driven initiatives to do this is to launch a farmers market for locals. While the company wont be moving for at least a year they are starting on some of those community initiatives already. So yesterday they held the very first “Fresh & Local Market” at our Henderson campus.

While the event was small it definitely had the potential to grow into something bigger. A small grouping of local vendors were on hand to sell produce, baked goods, herbs, flowers, and coffee. One of the things that makes me very sad about living in Vegas is that there isn’t a real farmers market. Growing up, I think I was spoiled by having it around all the time. Given my new enthusiasm for local, slow, and organic product the event couldn’t have come along a better time.

As dorky and old as it makes us feel, natural food shopping has become something we really enjoy doing together. Ugh, saying that sounds so obnoxious, but its true. So whatever. We picked up some amazing stuff, including freshly picked tomatoes and blueberries (which will be making appearances in our late Fourth of July dinner). We also bought some terrific granola from the family run Layers Bakery, and both butterscotch and lemon raspberry cupcakes from Retro Bakery. All in all it was a really fun and energy filled event and I look forward to many more in the future.

From there we dropped out items off at home and headed out to grab some lunch at Slidin Thru Headquarters. I was first introduced to the majesty of sliders when I moved to the east coast, my preference geared mainly toward the salty greasy gastro-disaster mini burgers from White Castle.  When I moved back from the east coast sliders were no readily available, over the past few years the mini burgers have grown trendy, as has the gourmet food truck craze.  While I was training at Zappos, I was introduced to the Slidin Thru truck which specialize in hand crafted gourmet sliders. It was love. Shortly after they built a 24 hour permanent location which can be visited without needing to track down the truck via twitter.

Slidin Thru HQ is a very hip joint gang. Its features modern furniture, graffiti murals, artwork, vintage arcade games, a DJ booth. Of course the real star attraction is the food. The menu features as assortment of burgers, glass bottle sodas, fries and sweet potato fries, it also has a daily changing “Mystery Slider” which focuses on highlighting whatever seasonal or local specialty ingredients are available.

Joey and I selected the following flavors:

The Barby – melted cheddar. caramelized jalapeño. crispy fried onion strips. bacon. bbq sauce.

The Captains Order – roma tomato. arugula. crisp bacon. feta cheese. sautéed onion. balsamic reduction.

The Plain Jane – cheese and ketchup.

The Caprese – vegetarian burger composed of grilled eggplant. roma tomato. basil. fresh mozzarella. balsamic reduction.

As always the food was amazing, and the burgers were fresh and tasty. The only thing that makes me a little sad is the lack of a diet soda option. But it did give Joey and I an excuse to stop by Sonic for one of my favorite summer time drinks “Ocean Water” (which uh… isn’t diet… at all). I just love its freaky unnatural blue color and coconuty taste. It crazy delicious but the sugar will make you more dehydrated.

We also stopped by Rave at Town Square to take in a showing of Bad Teacher, which ended up being a private screening since no one else was there.  The movie was so/so, it wouldn’t be fair to call it bad or good. There wasn’t much character development, I’m not certain why any of the characters behave the way they do. It had a couple funny parts but if you haven’t seen it, it can really wait for DVD.

I'm not usually one for desert beauty but the sky is lovely this time of year

Blythe Danner’s Blueberry Muffins and Grandad Danner’s Favorite Peanut Butter Cookies

Second on deck from Gwyneth Paltrow’s amazing and awesome cookbook My Fathers Daughter is her mother Blythe Danner’s recipe for blueberry muffins.  It was actually one of the recipes that called out to me right away. I suspect this in large part was due to the crumbly goodness that the books food photographer captured and also the fact that is berry season. One particularly boring day, I was feeling a little glum about something and Joey baked these for me to cheer me up. Its your usual muffin ingredients  (Butter, eggs, non bleached flour, salt berries, ect ect) exchanged for organic and natural where applicable.  She uses the standard muffin method of mixing wet into dry bit by bit. Then you bake until they are golden.The texture is out of this world good. The muffin tops are crunchy like a scone, but the insides are a not to sweet buttery crumby muffin. I would definitely recommend making these for any special occasion. I am thinking about adapting the recipe to include a few raspberries too for a red, white, and blue fourth of July recipe.

Next up is “Grandad Danner’s Favorite Peanut Butter Cookies”, I am sucker for baked goods of course. Growing up my Dad’s favorite cookie was always the “Joy Of Cooking” peanut butter recipe, so there is always some nostalgia attached to cooking peanut butter cookies. The recipe featured in this book is your standard cookie recipe (butter, light brown sugar, dark brown sugar, eggs, vanilla, salt) but with equal parts baking soda and baking powder which makes for a (this is going to sound bad but its really quite good) sandy texture. She also uses creamy peanut butter (which I substituted for crunchy since that’s more my style) and peanut butter chips for a little something extra.  The cookie dough was quite dense, she states that you can elect not to press these cookie with a fork, but I’m not sure they would bake properly since they don’t expand much in the oven. This is actually a cookie that gets better with age.  Two days after I baked them they seemed to take on whole new qualities in flavor. Its a delicious recipe and would certainly be popular amongst peanut butter cookie fans.

Date Day: Atomic #7 Personally Crafted Vegan Ice Creams and Automobile Spies

Yesterday Joey had the day off and I got off work at 1pm, so we decided to have a little date day. Since I switched teams at work my schedule has switched to a hardcore 4am-1pm shift which is unfortunately the exact opposite of Joey’s normal 2pm-10pm shift. So the time we do get together where the other isn’t totally exhausted is pretty valuable.

Olden Timey Dvds

We spent our day with a quick stop into our local library so that Joey could use the computer and I could peruse the selection of vegetarian cookbooks. I didn’t find much that seemed really appealing, most of the vegetarian cookbooks offered very traditional take on classic vegetable dishes.  After the library we go some chinese food for lunch and headed to Atomic#7 for dessert.

I’ve been hearing for months now from every one and their mama about this place and finally paid a visit. I have to confess I didnt really realize what they were doing, I just knew they served vegan and classic ice creams. In actuality they handcraft your very own ice cream with your choice of ingredients. Folks, i’m not just talking cold stone style mix-ins. You get to pick the dairy or non dairy base of you choice (Milk, soy, almond milk, coconut milk, and more), the sweetener of your choice (natural sugar, agave, and more), the flavor of your choice, and mixins/toppings of your choice.  Then they create your base and put in a standing mixer with something like dry ice (It could be something else) which makes a very cool looking mad scientist smoke show (photo above). Your ice cream is served to you literally as fresh as possible.

I personally elected for a coconut almond milk ice cream with waffle cone chips  and coconut whip.  It was amazing you guys. Joey got something with real vanilla and cookie dough that tasted like eating the best cookie dough ever right out of the bowl. While it certainly isn’t the cheapest ice cream around, it certainly is one of the best and well worth every single penny. Go!

Atomic #7

605 Mall Ring Circle #110 Henderson, NV 89014 (directions)
(outside Galleria Mall by Panera Bread)

After our amazing ice cream we headed to the pictures to catch a matinee of Cars 2. Which was less than amazing. I think it would be unfair to say it was horrible, it was merely an mediocre sequel created to generate Toy Sales from a studio that I have come to expect only the finest heartfelt animation in the industry.  I don’t understand why they made the choice to go bland and big and incorporate spy plot into a movie that was originally about slam town heart and respect for history.  They heavy handily fold in a moral about judging people involving Mater, but they dot really flesh any of it out.  If you have a little boy, take them, they will love it, judging by most of the little girls thrilled reactions it wont fare to bad with them either. The parents leaving the theater definitely seemed bored.

Gwyneth Paltrow’s Turkey BLT’s and Slow Roasted Tomatoes

As I discussed in my previous entry Adventures in Cooking with an Oscar Winner, I am madly in love with Gwyneth Paltrow’s insane new cookbook. Its full of mostly healthy and natural recipes that are actually quite good.

In the past few weeks I have become a little obsessed with slow roasted tomatoes. I initially was using Ina Garten’s recipe from her back to basics cookbook. Ina’s take is to take Roma tomatoes, slice them in half and seed them. Then drizzle with  with olive oil and balsamic and then season with salt, pepper, garlic powder, and sugar. Then roast at 275 degree for 2 hours.  They come out soft but with little crisp glazed bits and are AMAZING.

Gwyneth’s cookbook also calls for slow roasted tomatoes (in many of her recipes) but hers are ALOT more work. She uses vine ripend tomatoes cut in half with the seeds (which are much larger)  and uses only olive oil, salt, and pepper. She also roasted hers at 275 but hers take 3-5 hours of cook time.

I did it Gwyneth, but I didn’t like leaving the oven on that long. Overall I still prefer Ina’s seedless, crispy balsamic tomatoes (photographed above) to Gweneth’s soft and rich seeded tomatoes.

One of the more simple recipes in the cook book is for her turkey BLT’s. She takes an organic turkey bacon (I just used the regular kind, but if you can find free range that’s great) and cooks it til crispy.

She then serves it with arugula and the slow roasted tomatoes on sprouted wheat bread with venganaise (a surprisingly delicious vegan mayo substitute).

THE FINAL PRODUCT!

I had mine with some all natural Boulder City BBQ Potato Chips. All in all the combination of the Vegan mayo and slow roasted tomato makes for an really awesome healthy BLT, and a better than it should be quick fix dinner.

Adventures in Cooking with an Oscar Winner

Okay, so i’m not literally cooking with an Oscar winner, but I am wildly in love with the new Gwyneth Paltrow cookbook, “My Father’s Daughter”. The cookbook is told from the perspective of how her father, a professional filmmaker and amateur gourmand, instilled a love of cooking in her.

Paltrow’s career has taken a series of odd turns over the past few years, and occasionally the star has a tendency to come across as a little… (pretentious? stuck up? judgmental? elitist?) clipped.  However I always seem to enjoy her on screen (she is tons of fun as Pepper Pots in the Iron Man movies). Off screen I can typically get upset when she talks down to reporters or readers. While the book is full of elitist gems (“On Vegenaise: “My most often-used and beloved ingredient. It can be found at most grocery stores and all health food stores—unfortunately not yet in London.“  and “One evening when I had my wood-burning stove going I realized I hadn’t thought of dessert“) I personally feel that the content of the book and her general sense of humor outweigh any perceived pretension.

The tome has a focus towards the healthy working individual.  I would guess that around 2/3rds of the book is vegetarian, many of which include instructions for converting the recipe to be more vegan friendly.  All of her choices are naturalist friendly and usually organic.  I initially purchased it for my father for Fathers Day, due to its focus on the tradition of food passed from father to child, but after flipping through it I fell in food love.

The books is divided into several categories, soups, salads, main dishes, sides, deserts, and breakfast. In the next few enteries in this blog I will write and review some of the recipes Joey and I have explored. Stay tuned.

Going Natural: Changing Up My Eating Habits

I am a hard and fast junk food lover.

There I said it… its out there.

I don’t what it is about vegetables… oh yeah I hate them. Most of them anyways. Or I did when I was younger. I have a particularly unexciting palate that loves pretty much exclusively starches and carbs. Which of course in large quantities are terrible for you. There are horror stories from my child hod regarding my refusal to eat vegetables, including on family favorite where I held a mushroom in my cheek during dinner for a full hour.

When I left home for college, no longer forced to eat only the foods my parents purchased for their home, I went a little nuts. I bought every horrible junk food thing that my parents would never let me have and every meal became an indulgence. Over the next few years my stamina and health naturally went on the decline. It got to the point where I constantly felt sick and just assumed this is how I should normally feel.

Then a trend began emerging amongst my friends. More and more of them were going vegan and vegetarian, either for health reasons or moral ones. I had previously tried going vegetarian and given up after only a few days. I assumed since the only vegetarian meals I liked were basically iceberg lettuce salads, those were my only options.

One day I became fed up with feeling terrible and decided that I would switch to a vegetarian diet 5 days a week, with two cheat days to eat as I liked. I have since been able to find many vegetarian foods that I love.

I would be lying though if I didn’t say, early on in my vegetarian days, I felt like giving up. To combat this I forced myself to watch a movie I had heard vegetarian/vegan friends raving about Food Inc.

I had been avoiding watching the movie because I felt like I was aware of how terrible slaughterhouses are and I didn’t need another voice telling me to go vegetarian. However in that moment, I did need the push. While the footage of how animals are brought to slaughter was generally what was expecting, what really shocked me was the corruption in the food industry, the dangers attached with processed foods, and the general importance of buying organic.

It’s an incredible film and well worth your time (its on Netflix Instant Watch, Hulu Plus and Amazon Prime). It is also somewhat propaganda pushing one particular point of view so take it with a least a little grain of salt. Since watching the film I have made the personal and frequently expensive choice to choose organic products when available. I am not saying I don’t still enjoy the occasional fast food run or cheeseburger, but I am conscious to make choices at the grocery store to cancel out those actions.

I am not interested in converting others to vegetarianism, veganism, organic or natural living. However since I have taken up these choices I do feel much better and and for the first time in a longtime I am excited about new foods and new options. I am enjoying the challenges of making food that is ethical, affordable, healthy and delicious.

Me and Mr. Ghostface: Why The Slasher Movie Scream Means More

 

What’s Your Favorite Scary Movie?

With Scream 4 opening next weekend at the box office, I though I would dust off my mostly abandoned blog project to write about how the franchise has changed my life. Now I know that seems silly. How could someones life be changed by in any substantial way by a gruesome tale of murder in a small Northern California town starring mostly young television actors with unfulfilled careers. Certainly, it is less common than saying that seminal classics like “To Kill A Mockingbird” or “Breakfast at Tiffanys” changed your life, but Ghostface creeped into my life in many surprising ways.

In December 1996, the then fledgling genre branch of Miramax, “Dimension Films” released “Scream” in theaters. The movie initially arrived with somewhat of a fizzle and only took in 6 million dollars in its first weekend. It slowly grew into a monster hit as a word of mouth campaign took effect. It was the movie you absolutely had to see! The first time I heard of the film was from my older brother who worked in a video store. He told me he had seen the smartest, scariest movie. I was not a particularly big fan of scary movies but the way he talked about it stoked my interest.  One evening while hanging out at a friends house we broke the rules and rented the movie on pay-per-view. I’m not certain if my parents would have approved of me watching such a violent movie, but we knew that her family definitely didn’t.

 

It all started with a scream over 911…

As anyone who has seen the movie knows it begins with the movies heroine (or so we are meant to think) Drew Barrymore as Casey Becker in her home preparing to watch a scary movie with her boyfriend. She receives a phone call from a stranger which begins as casually as all wrong number calls do. Except the caller phones back, Casey grows impatient with the caller and then in an act of pure naivety she becomes friendly, even flirty with the mysterious voice. However the most brilliantly written exchange changes the entire dynamic of the conversation.

Voice: Maybe.  Do you have a boyfriend?
Casey: mmm..no.
Voice: You never told me your name.
Casey: Why do you want to know my name?
Voice: Cause I know who I am looking at.
Casey: What did you say?
Voice: I wanna know who I am talking to.
Casey: That’s not what you said.

Its this exchange the to this day sends chills down my spine. The voice has a game to play at first the prize for winning is Casey’s boyfriend’s life and eventually her own. In the most shocking turn of events the movies biggest star is stalked around her home and is killed off just before her family can save her. This horrifying sequence changed the entire horror genre and turned me into a horror movie fan.

You’re starting to sound like some Wes Carpenter flick

The rest of the movie unfolds when the true heroine Sidney Prescott (played by Neve Campbell) appears on the scene grieving the one year anniversary of her mothers murder which played out on national television that puts that whole O.J. Simpson debacle to shame. Her group of movie savy peers are slowly knocked off one by one by the killer until the big reveal at the end. Shockingly a pair of teens are behind the killing spree. Most scary of all is they are mostly motive-less (one killer, kind of has a reason involving Sidneys mother but its pretty loose). They are just scary crazy kids. Everything about this ending feels real, and that makes it terrifying. I walked home that night from my friends house fearing what was behind every corner, every noise and every shadow. That my friends, is the earmark of a great film.

I fell in love with the movies smart characters, their love of films, the humor, the scares, the style, all of it! Most of my friends were like minded but there definitely were a few sideways stares that said “you’re a murderous weirdo”. It didn’t help that my friends and I had decided we wanted to make our own Scream fan film.

A group of young kids had made their own Scream sequel called “SCREAM LOUDER” and sold VHS copies online to fans. The film was wildly successful for an amateur effort and caught the attention of Dimension Film executives (in a bad legal sort of way).  Their actions inspired us to make our own, and in turn inspired me for a long time to pursue a career in film-making (which eventually developed into a love of theatre direction, then theatre in general which I studied in college).  However our movie fell apart when one of our cast members turned out to actually have a few “murderous weirdo” tendencies that wound him up in  juvenile hall. I know that makes it sound like I consort with shady characters but the rest of us were just innocent kids having fun.

 

Various Ridiculous Scream Merchandise I Owned (and wish I still had)

My best friend at the time Chris and I continued our fascination with all things Scream related. We bought everything we could get out hands on including the actual voice changer Stu uses (which makes your voice sound NOTHING like Roger Jackson), boots, knives the killer used, Scream Christmas lights, 3d glow in the dark wall busts, a inflatable drink cooler, Scream mask candles. I had it all. Starting to understand why some people thought I was weird? Well it gets worse.

 

The Ladies of Scream 2 (From The 1997 Rolling Stone Cover Story)

When Scream 2 was released in 1997, I had a typical Junior High falling out story with most of my Scream fan friends.  I started circulating Scream fan message boards and writing fan fiction. Fan fiction is pretty much the highest level of fanboy nerdiness in any category. I would circulate the message boards most of my day chatting about Scream and its various knock offs. Surprisingly this comes into play later on in my life. This period of my life lasted about 3 years… 3 super awkward years. During this time I was able to come out to my online “friends” that I was in fact gay. Surprisingly a lot of my fellow board members also came out this way. For me it was the very first time I admitted to anyone I was gay, and I was still accepted. A huge step in my development that wouldn’t have happened without Scream.

Some one has taken their love of goofy endings to far…

In the year 2000,  Scream 3 was released and it was a total mess. Truly the goofiest and worst installment in the franchise. The movie that closed the series was also the most disappointing.  At the time I still loved it because I was so invested in the characters but when newcomer Roman Bridger is revealed to be the mastermind behind all 3 murder sprees I could not shake the hollow feeling. A few months later I stopped circulating on the boards.

Though there was not a lot of activity in the Scream world it would pop up a few times over the next few years. Often in my life, mutual love of the franchise has created many a friendship but the most surprising resulted in much more than a friendship.

Joey and I

In 2005, I began dating a guy long distance. I was studying theatre in New York and he was living in Alabama and we would travel back and forth every two months. The first time I went to stay at his apartment, I was looking for something in his closet and I noticed he had a rare Scream 2 t-shirt. I asked him why he had it and he confessed he loved the movies like on a total crazy level. He also confessed that he and his friends had made their own Scream style amateur movie and he used to go online and write Scream fan fiction.  We spent the next hour pretty much quoting the movie verbatim.

This guy would eventually become my husband. We still frequently speak in Scream quotes and at out engagement party one friend took it upon themselves to scare the shit out of Joey by jumping out of our shower in the Ghostface garb. They stated this was because they knew how important the movie had been in our love story.

 

Ghosface makes an appearance at our engagement party

Now nearly 11 years after the release of Scream 3, the book is reopening on Sidney Prescott’s story. I’m naturally a total different person from who I was then and yet my affection for the films has never waned. I cant wait to watch Scream 4 with my husband, it may be the most romantic horror movie we ever watch. Ha!

Now if you’ll excuse me I’m gonna get some donuts, some Prozac; see if I can find some crack, Special K, X… not Malcom, and I’ll be back when I’m ready to start talking about somethin a little more “Saved By The Bell”-ish… but before I go, let me ask you…

Whats your favorite scary movie?

My 2011 Goals

Heres the thing, I don’t make resolutions anymore mostly because I never follow through on them like everyone else in the world. Goals however, I do try and achieve, of course i’m not always successful. For several years now ive set the goal of moving out of Vegas, obviously i’m still here. This year I have found a reason to stay beyond our amazing friends here, and that’s of course the life changing job I have. So in the spirit of the season here are my 2011 goals.

1. Move, into a house, near-ish to Downtown Vegas

In 2011 or early 2012 Zappos is moving its headquarters into the old Las Vegas City Hall Building. (Here is a NY times article about it for you interested parties). Their current headquarters reside exactly 2 blocks away from my apartment which is a commuters dream, the new headquarters are a traffic plagued 35 minutes away. It wont make a ton of sense for us to stay on this side of town anymore, so my goal is to rent a home somewhere within easily drivable distance to City Hall. We’ve outgrown our little apartment and I think were ready for the next step up, plus many homes have cheaper leases than we are currently paying for our one bedroom apartment. Of course there are alot of variables that have to line up in order for this goal to pan out, but I think its an achievable one.

2. A Dog

This goal is a pretty easy one, or so you’d think! Some couples go baby crazy post wedding, other couples like Joe and I go dog crazy. This past year that desire has moved further and further to the forefront. But we cant get a dog unless we get a house!  But this is a goal I believe I can achieve. Ideally I’d like a Corgi, Pug, or Bulldog. Joey wants a pitbull, but I don’t think i’m ready for big dog just yet.

3. Get A Tatoo

For several years now I’ve wanted several tattoos, I’m not sure which I’ll do first but 2011 is the year I’m going to make that happen. A few years back my friend Mike designed me a skull with a scroll that says “Alas Poor Yorick” (Hamlet is my favorite Shakespearean play) that I could use as tattoo and year after year its appealed to me,  so I think its something that I could be happy with for the long term. But I also want to do a back piece that is associated with my favorite holiday, Halloween. So we’ll see what happens…

4. Learn a New Skill Set with no obvious and immediate benefit

For years now I’ve put my education on hold, its kind of a bummer. But I want to learn something this year, like a new language or skill. A few years ago I taught myself to bake and make candies, now im ready to learn something else. Any suggestions?

5. Read at least 10 novel length books, 4 of them classics

I love to read, really I do, but I never make time for it, in general in my life I never make time for things that really make me happy (other than Joey). So I set an achievable goal of reading 10 novels, and I want four of them to be classics that Ive never read. Ive got my first classic on deck and its Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights, for less stimulating reading Ive also got a brand spankin’ new copy of The Hunger Games. Maybe I should only count teen novels as half points… hmmm.

6. Plan The Vacation of Our Dreams

For our wedding we received an extremely generous gift from my grandparents which was for a AAA travel voucher for essentially the vacation of our dreams to anywhere we want. It seems unlikely that we’ll find the time in 2011 to get out of the country for an extended period of time, but we can definitely lay the ground work. For the most part where we go it up to Joey, I know we’ve discussed a couple options and I think we are looking into European cruises so we can see as much as possible.

7. Be Happy and Laugh More

I’m not gonna lie to you guys 2010 was a rough year, there were some great times but in hindsight it feels like it was a tough one. So im going to try to focus on the positive more, at the end of the line none of the other BS really matters cause the happier times are the one worth remembering.

Neglecting Life… and this Blog

Well its been an insane 2 months. As you saw in my last blog as part of the new life I began an new job. Its been a turbulent and intense few weeks while ive been in training. Naturally a company as terrific as Zappos expects alot from their employees and its been a bit chaotic learning everything and passing all the reviews and tests to  become an official Zappos employee. But I did it and it was worth all of the work getting here.

 

My training class, we were the 100th class a Zappos! Our nick name was The Benjaminz!

what would The Benjaminz be with out a puff daddy style White Party for graduation

I wont bore you readers by fawning over how incredible it is (heres a hint: VERY) or how wonderful the people I work with are (see previous hint). After all, this blog is supposed to be about my first year of marriage and not just my (awesome) job. Heres the problem though there hasnt been an ton of living going on. Haha! You see in the epic training experience ive mostly been spending my days off trying to catch up with the day to day routine and errands. For example its taken me 7 weeks to print my wedding thank you cards. 7 weeks!  I know that etiquette says 3 to 6 months is acceptable but I definitely thought i’d be done by now. But lets backtrack to some of the living that got done since I last checked in.

Thanksgiving – The good people at Zappos were kind enough to give it to my training class off! I spent the morning with Joey enjoying sausage rolls and watching the parade. In the afternoon we went over to my parents house and the four of us had dinner. It was nice! Pretty low key in general.

 

Our Thanksgiving Table – The orange stuff is this old fashioned 50’s jello salad made with sherbet. My grandma made it every Thanksgiving and it always makes me feel like she is at the table.

Burlesque – Joey and I always go see a movie on or around Thanksgiving. Typically we see whatever Disney movie is out however I had won some free tickets to see the new Xtina/Cher musical, so I figured why not. I wish I could tell you the movie was an epic trainwreck but in reality it was just sort of mediocre. It was pretty much the same movie as Coyote Ugly but not quite as fun and trashy. There also were any really memorable songs, other than the one Joey and I love to change the lyrics to from the trailer. (Ex: “Its a freak show / its a hot mess/ dont pay to see it / BURLESQUE!” or even less relevant “Hey you Joey / Im making waffles? ! / Wouldja like one? / BURLESQUE!”) Also you could see all the nuts an bolts working under Chers freaky too taught skin.

Christmas Lighting – Yes the Christmas season came while I was gone. Given that it was our first as a married couple I wanted it to be a good one… and it was! One of our annual traditions is to go out Christmas lighting with our friends Lindsay and Kelley. What is lighting you ask? Why its a glorious American past time where you drive around with friends and family, Drink holiday beverages and OOOH and AWWWW at people lights, but more importantly you mock the ugly houses mercilessly.

My personal favorite house… they committed.

Our 3rd Annual Nog-A-Palooza – Every year. for the past 3 years, Joey and I have thrown a holiday eggnog party. The tradition centers around getting our gang of friends together to enjoy the foods of the holidays and each others company. This year, im happy to say, was a raving sucess. There was a bounty of yuletide merriment!

Christmas – Christmas finally arrived this past weekend! It was wonderful as always! I did unfortunately have to work both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, which was a bit of a bummer being away from Joe, but working was fun. I even had a customer call just to wish me a Merry Christmas which totally made my day. Christmas eve we spent at my parents house and I got an awesome new set of Cuisinart pots, as well as a bunch of clothes and other goodies. Joey and I got matching red pajamas which are so awesome. From Joey I got Epic Mickey and a bunch of awesome DVDS. Due to my super awesome new job (did I say it was awesome yet?) I was able to afford to get Joey a really nice gift this year so he got a NOOK e-reader as well as a bunch of dvds and usual stuff. When I got home from work Joey had made me an INCREDIBLE Christmas dinner. Turkey, Sourdough stuffing, Cream Cheese Mashed Potatoes, green beans and cornbread. He really is the most amazing man…

1980’s Date Day – Since Joey and I had to be separate on Christmas we were able to work it out so we could have the day after the holiday off together.  Ive been wanting to see TRON for the past few weeks, I have never seen the original but I kept hearing how good the new one was. So Joey and I first stopped in for lunch at Taco Bell and then went to see the movie. The movie itself was pretty cool, but I think I mostly just liked it because of the awesome Daft Punk score. Also… pretty lights. It occured to Joey after the movie that given our choice of restaurant and movie it was pretty much like dating in the 80’s. Also if youve seen the movie can we all talk about Michael Sheen’s appearance apparently as Ziggy Stardust? What was that about? Joey thought the movie was alright but he wouldn’t see it again. I owe him a trip to Black Swan for being such  good sport.

 

All in all life has been good, I definitely cant complain. Now that my training is complete (did you read that in a Vader voice?) things will definitely be a little less stressful.  I know I said the same thing about 2010 and that turned out to be a bust, but I really feel like 2011 is going to be a good year…

Love at First Sight aka My New Job at Zappos

 

Ethel M Holiday Chocolates

For almost 4 years now I’ve worked for MARS. You know the one, they make M&M’s, Snickers, and my personal favorite Twix. I worked in one of their smallest divisions which was their gourmet family brand Ethel M Chocolates. And it had actually been a terrific company to work for (it still is), my day to day job originally began as a “Chocolate Consultant” for a new concept of store they were beginning called “Chocolate Lounges”. The idea was that in people’s day to day lives they should experience great chocolate, and chocolate could be used much in the same way as coffee as a social watering hole.  My job was to be sort of a chocolate expert/barista/retail sales associate and I loved it. But after a few years the company dropped the chocolate lounge concept and became more of a traditional chocolate store. Over my time with the company I continued to pursue growth and new challenges, but at some point (as is common in smaller business) the opportunities became less and less frequent. So I decided to start pursuing other options…

I first heard about Zappos through my mother who had gone into a job fair at their corporate offices which are based about 2-3 blocks from my apartment. Although she had not made it through the typing test portion of the testing she was so in love with the atmosphere and told me how perfect she thought I would fit in there. And I sort of shirked it off, at the time I was actively pursuing a promotion (which I ended up not getting) at Ethel M. The second time I heard of them, was through a friend who was bragging about some incredible customer service story she had through them. I was intrigued but there were definitely no fires started.

The more time I live in Las Vegas the more friends I’ve made, and more and more of them were people who worked for Zappos and suggested I apply. Well after having struck out again in my pursuit of a promotion at Ethel M, I decided that I had nothing to lose and would apply. The application process was pretty epic, it was almost 4 months long, with testing, scenario practice and interviews. But I was eventually offered a position in their Customer Loyalty department (i.e. Call Center)

On Sunday armed with a little crate of tacos, I wished all my Ethel M buddies a sadness filed goodbye but the excitement that coursed through me was EPIC. I took a minute or two as I exited my store to say goodbye to the place. It was the first time in my life that I was leaving a job with no hard feelings, and it was in itself a strange emotion to experience. When I got home my wonderful husband Joey had rented the new Night of The Demons Remake and gotten us Cokes in glass bottles (one of my favorites) in celebration of our 3 week wedding anniversary and my new career path.

 

Joey's Surprise!

The next morning I began work bright and early, to say I was nervous is an understatement. This was the first day of my first real life grown up job. My stomach was doing flip flops, and the hurl factor was nearing an 8… 8.5. My first 4 weeks there would be a training class where I learned all about the “Zappos Culture” and their extensive and awesome customer service policies, at the beginning of my 3rd week we (the class) would have a “Final Exam” if we didn’t score a 90% we would no longer have a job. Cue The Hurl Factor leaping up to a 9. After that our trainers introduced themselves, all of them were terrific and funny people and all of them had a “Why I Love It Here” story. As each one explained their love of Zappos, I cautiously lowered the hurl factor.

We took a tour of the offices, which there really is no way to explain in words, its just totally different from any office environment ever, everyone is happy. Everyone is themselves, and no one is too formal or too uptight. In fact everyone seemed very cool, very friendly. A sharade for sure I thought (it turns out, no they really are all cool people, all the time). The cubicles are themed and decorated in different teams (one of my favorites was a a grouping of cubicles inside a Mystery Machine replica, or the graveyard shifts theme being… a graveyard). On our tour we passed a table of homemade cookies and beer… yes beer for the department (Zappos has a pro-drinking stance, although I imagine they have an anti-drunk stance obviously). Okay this place is pretty awesome… totally awesome.

The Zappos Offices. I did not take this picture, but if you did, comment and I'll credit/remove accordingly!

If I needed any further proof that I’m where I’m supposed to be, I need look no further than yesterday, one of my first calls (with a mentor of course) was to provide all the shoes for the Broadway production of ELF: The Musical. The costumer I spoke with also told me that they would be the shoes used in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. So my new job touched an aspect of one of my longtime dreams. For those who don’t know, I’m a theatre nerd, I love musicals. I also love the movie Elf, and I look forward to the Broadway production number before the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade every year. When I try to tell people this story their responses are never quite as excited as I am, but I think its DOPE.

As the week went on we learned more and more about what we were going to be doing, and what the company stands for. I woke up in the morning excited to go work (it had been awhile since work was in the “look forward to category”). But what I really dug about the place was they have the values to back all of it up. They have a series of core values which they try to encompass in everything they do, and they actually follow them. All of these values basically create an culture that embraces change, values people (not just as sales and customer service tools but as people), and encourages growth. Its remarkable. Its a company (a big one too) thats got a heart and soul.

I’m gonna like it here...

BOOKS: Sharing a Urine Soaked Bed with Sarah Silverman is Surprisingly Moving

So, I just finished reading Sarah Silverman’s autobiography today and I mostly loved it. The book is part childhood trauma tale, part coming of age artist story, and part “Behind-The-Scenes” Dish of the Stand Up Comedy scene. Told more in a series of essays than in a linear storyline, the book is pretty funny but grapples with serious issues like depression, bullying, self image, rasicim (also Poop, Farts, and Vaginas).

I fell in love with Sarah Silverman when on a whim I went to see 2005 documentary called “The Artistocrats” in which a variety of comics tell their own versions of “the world dirtiest joke” (how did it even get that distinction). In the movie she is one of many comics and she tells her own sort of cute (yet still disgusting) version of the joke, but she added a joke about being raped by her agent as a child. Tasteless. But funny.

 

My love continued to grow after seeing her one woman comedy film “Jesus Is Magic” and then reached its peak with her Comedy Central show “The Sarah Silverman Program”. Not least of all because it features a gay couple that is often a mirror image of Joey and I. Steve and Brian.

 

Brian and Steve

I know Sarah Silverman isn’t every bodies cup of tea , her humor is often offensive, blue, and tasteless. But its also a clever play on American Idiocy. She lampoons the very subject matters that are to taboo to talk about and therefor removes their power. To often Ive heard her dismissed for her Britney Spears or Paris Hilton jokes at the VMA’s, written off as a “mean” comic. But in reality she is nothing like that, her material isn’t even like those two jokes. She is a compassionate, animal loving, gay rights proponent who is extremely intelligent… she just happens to love farts.

The book has several portions that I loved and was moved by. In particular some of the bullying chapters just knocked the wind out of my sales. In particular when a teenage boy and his friends pin her to a lunch room table and force cold cuts down her throat simply because she is a vegetarian. That imagery was hard to ring out of the old noodle. Also stories about her early comedy days read like an awesome who’s who of todays most popular comedians.

Id totally recommend the book to any of her fans, if you already don’t care much for her, I wouldn’t subject yourself.

I give it 3 and half out of 5

The Ending and Beginning?

Oh hello! If you’re reading this in all likelihood you already know me, but lets just pretend for a minute that this blog is being read by the masses in which case I should introduce myself. In fact some people might think it down right rude of me not to!

 

This is me, your falling in love with my classic good looks already

My name is Derek, I am 25, I just got married, I am gay (but im really bad at it), I live in Las Vegas but im originally from the San Francisco Bay Area (hella!), and sometimes I feel lost in a crowded room.

… No im kidding. I just wanted to sound profound. Did you buy it?

You, my adorable reader may be asking yourself, why did this guy start this blog, why did he feel compelled to generate more content for the web that will go largely unread. Well, I find myself at the dawning of quarter life, a quarter of a century old and my whole life is changing. Well, at least on paper. My late adolescence was spent mostly in the theatre (pronounced th-EE-AY-tuh), living in New York, and in a mild state of inebriation. When I was 20 years old I had already developed a case of romantic cynicism spurned from a broken heart, and one (or 10) too many bad dates and failed relationships. Thats when I “met” Joey.

 

The man I love, The man I married

I placed met in quotations because initially we met in a purely Internet based way. It was the age of myspace and whilst on the page of one of my old High School friends Daniel Oxford (You may know him as Daniel Lucas or Daniel Hilton) I noticed a guy had posted a comment on his page. This guy was covered head to toe in sequins, a ridiculous shirt that said something like “I Love Ass”, and had the poofiest most insane mane of hair I’d ever seen. This guy THANKFULLY was not Joey (we’ll call this commenter “SassyPants) but in my efforts to learn more about this unique individual I clicked to view his profile and saw a comment on SassyPants’ profile from an adorable blonde chubby guy recreating the cover of “The C.D. Version of the First Two Records” by Bikini Kill. I was instantly smitten.

Now alot of people dont believe me when I say this… but when I was a teenager I dreamed that I would marry a southern blonde guy name Joey when I was 25 but only after dating him for 5 years. Im not saying it was fate necessarily but at a minimum it was manifest destiny.

 

me and my boo

We began a correspondence, it began simply with us testing the waters. We’d send each other a list of questions, some goofy, some more serious. He did send me a question that said something to the affect of “Who do you think would win in a fight, Courtney Love or Liz Phair?” and I answered “Courtney Love of course… no competition”. Thats when he was smitten.

 

This is us when we first started dating... weve aged ALOT in 5 years

We dated for 6 months, traveling between my apartment in New York City and his apartment in Alabama, and after a variety of complicated family issues on his side, my near death from spinal meningitis, his saving my life, we moved into my parents home in Las Vegas. Then into our own place a year later.

Joey works at Barnes and Noble, a culture nerd to the core. He loves books, art, kittens, food, movies, and possibly most of all music. He is smarter than I am and therefor always teaching me something or exposing me to things outside my comfort zone. He is always challenging me to look at things another way and always making me laugh. He is by far, the best thing that has ever happened to me.

 

Our Wedding Day

After 3 years of dating I proposed to Joey after a Bob Dylan concert on the roof of the Hard Rock Hotel. 2 years later on October 17th 2010 we were married at Corona Del Mar State Beach in California. It was awesome!

For the past 4 years Ive worked for a local Las Vegas chocolate company, I started working there when I was pursuing a dream of becoming a pastry chef. It seemed like a happy medium till I was knee deep in schooling. Well now I have a new set of dreams and aspirations and a new life to begin…

so… I quit.

Married and beginning a new career path, I feel its safe to say a new chapter in my life is beginning. New challenges and experiences await, who know maybe even new cities, new homes, new lives.

 

This blog wont be entirely autobiographical, I’m going to use it as a means to just talk about new things I love, books im reading, music, movies you know, just my little space of the web to spread my love around.

…so here we go, a brand new year, a brand new life, in a brand new colony

“We’ll cut out bodies free from the tethers of this scene,
Start a brand new colony
Where everything will change,
We’ll give ourselves new names (identities erased)
The sun will hear the grounds
Under our bare feet in this brand new colony”

Love is a-brewing

A new blog about Love, Culture and Marriage coming in November 2010.