The uprising's that are spreading across the Middle East and into Italy are incredibly inspirational to me. I am very moved by the momentum of it all, and how people are willing to stand up to corrupt dictators/regimes for a chance at freedom. They are mostly young people, they say on the news, who don't understand the complexities of life or economies in these countries where the dictators hold things together, but in Egypt they were not just young people, and not just poor people either. And if they are just young people in Bahrain and Libya then that is ok, because even though they are naive, they are also the people with enough hope and idealism to change things for the better. Reality of the everyday has not squashed, oppressed and molded them yet. But they are not just young people.
As for me--
I work on the weekends only, at minimum wage mind you, so I have the whole five-day week free (cross your fingers). I don't need to work full-time right now because I have to pay only to support my wants, and I try to keep them minimal (although I really could use help sticking to a budget, and with investing my dollars).
This morning I woke up at 7am and I proceeded to make crepes from a recipe my French sister Laura emailed to me. I used rice flour rather than wheat because I'm going gluten-free, I also used hemp-milk just for the heck of it, but I did use eggs as the recipe called for. next time I am going to use flax seeds instead of eggs: 1 egg = 1TBS flax seeds (ground or whole) mixed with 3 TBS water and mixed until gelatinous.
It was difficult figuring out how long to wait before flipping the crepes, but it would have been easier if I read Laura's directions first, "flip when the edges are golden brown." I started doing that and it worked perfectly, though I think they're just a tad too golden brown on the bottom.
Suddenly while I was making the crepes, I was reminded of being back in 7th grade when Jessie and I made crepes to represent our country for some activity. Everyone had a country and had to bring in food from that country. We had Ireland and found that they ate crepes there. I just remember being in her kitchen, and ending up with this huge bowl of a watery mixture when her mom stepped in and made the crepes for us because whatever we made were not crepes, haha.
Now I'm getting hungry again so I think I'll lightly steam some broccoli add lemon juice (mmm) and maybe a little shredded cheese and wrap it up in a crepe! Yum!
After that, I might see what movie is on TCM now... maybe! I know that I should definitely go outside because the high is in the 40s today!! Crazy warm compared to last week when it was like 04 degrees out. I feel I should spend one hour outside, walking on trails or sidewalks but we'll see...
I have some books I'd like to read as well. Maybe start a new craft project.
Finally, later I have bellydance class at 8:05pm.
***
I spent almost the last week at Dad's, and when I am there I feel like I can let myself out of the tight self-school and health food shaped box I have put myself into. This means that I snuggle up under the electric blanket on the couch in front of the tv and I watch old movies and E! and the Food Network.
I've been sick the past couple of days, so I watched a lot of good old movies on TCM, because they are showing award winning films from the past. Some that I really enjoyed were:
"The Goodbye Girl",
"A Free Soul" (1931) with Clark Gable, Norma Shearer, and Lionel Barrymore. This movie was made in the first few years of talkie films, and presents the cold and airy houses of the Victorian era and the tension with the freedom found through Women's Liberation movements of the Roaring Twenties and before then. In the film I was surprised with Norma's flirtatiousness with her father, it was somewhat incestuous in appearance and made me uncomfortable! However, i liked their openness and closeness to each other, and this is an OK thing, but different than I'm used to.
What Norma was wearing in this scene I thought would pass, no questions asked, as fashionable today in 2011, except the gloves, but lets bring gloves back! I don't understand the etiquette and fashion surrounding them, but I'm sure with time you figure it out. Hm... Anyway, it's interesting that something fashionable in 1931 could be equally so today.
I'm reading a biography about Margaret Mead and Ruth Benedict right now, and they are graduate students in the late 1920s, so about the same time this movie was produced. The idea of being a free soul was widely thought about in American society back in this era. So this movie was not a completely random idea, but was contiguous with things that the masses were pondering in this era. So, if you are to ever see this movie (but this goes for most movies, really) consider it an insight into what sort of thoughts were going on in the minds of the me's and you's 80 years ago.
I watched two Woody Allen movies:
"Radio Days" - is so funny! And I remember it from watching the Carmen Miranda clip in one of my American Culture classes called The Latin Tinge about Latino music, it's origins and influences with Jesse Hoffnung-Garskoff.
After that was another Woody Allen movie I haven't seen called "Hannah and her Sisters" which my boyfriend Bryan summed up very well substituting me and my sister Laura for the sisters in the film.
He said, "I'm Michael Caine and I'm leaving you for Laura because I realized I'm in love with her" but then in the movie Michael Caine goes back to Hannah because the other sister who he was cheating with dumped him because he took too long to leave his wife Hannah, and then he realizes how much he really does love Hannah after all.
Ah, life. Who knows what is will bring. It's wonderful because you don't have to worry about what will happen, even if you plan you can never predict. So go ahead and plan, but don't worry because what happens in your life really is not up to you, at least in the big picture. You may try at one thing while it lands you a job at another. I like this idea. It is exciting.
Finally, I watched "My Man Godfrey" starring William Powell and Carol Lombard (who, evidently, died soon after) It was the prime-time movie of the night so Robert Osborne said his piece about it. It was very good with some big names. Mostly I wanted to watch it because I had heard so much about it before and I thought it was my duty to watch it.
The plot:
William Powell, a "forgotten man" -aka a homeless man who lives under the bridge in a tent city- is taken in by a wealthy daughter to butle (i like this word) for the family. Interestingly, this family reminded me immensely of the Hilton sisters and the Kardashians. Who knew? They must have always existed and are not modern phenomena. He ends up being from a wealthy Boston family, lands back on his feet, provides inspiration for the family, leaves them and builds a community to house and support the other Forgotten men he lived with.
The plot was not as I suspected, but it was a good movie. And now I've seen it so I've enriched my film knowledge, and understanding of cultural references.
This is a good representation of the movie because the mother (on right) and the two daughters (one pictured in back) were really dumb, ignorant and spoiled characters.
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tata
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