There’s More for Your Life

I’ve emerged from my hiatus to share a rant about Sears. Sears, who sold my mother-in-law a refrigerator on Monday and delivered it to our home yesterday. This same Kenmore refrigerator, purchased at Sears…DOES. NOT. WORK.

I came home from work today to find the ground chuck in my freezer a rather unappetizing shade of gray. A service tech (not a Sears employee) came to my home this afternoon–after many hours of phone calls–and confirmed that the appliance is, in fact, not working. As if the smell of rotting food didn’t give that away. The refrigerator is registering a balmy 68 degrees which, as those of you in the food business may know, makes the food housed therein unsafe for human consumption.

As I write this, my mother-in-law is trying to get them to deliver a new refrigerator to my house. The earliest estimates for delivery are Friday. Friday, people: as in two days from now. They are also unwilling to compensate me for the food that is now rotting and unsafe for my children to eat. What they did offer was a $100 Sears gift card. Are you kidding? Like I want to spend more money there?

I have taken to my Twitter page, my Facebook account, and any other media to share my frustration at both the sub-standard product I received and the cavalier attitude of company representatives with whom my MIL has made contact.

If mama’s not happy, ain’t nobody happy. If mother-in-law ain’t happy, well…you know the rest.

Update: The social media folks from Sears saw my tweets and have since made contact. As of right now, the new fridge is scheduled to be delivered on Friday; they have also agreed to mail us $100 to go towards the cost of the spoiled food. Fingers crossed, you guys.

J-O-B

People of the Internets, there is big news around here at Casa Flamenco. Big news as in…wait for it…I got a new job! As if that wasn’t exciting all on its own, the job I speak of is a teaching job. Finally! After years of longing and preparation, the time has finally come.

I am teaching 6th grade Language Arts at a new school scheduled to open in just a few weeks. I am so thrilled to have this opportunity to work with students, and I’m thrilled to have found a placement at a school where the administration is very supportive of its teachers. My AP taught for this particular school management company (at a different site), and both she and the principal expressed their belief that I would make a good fit at the school.

For the next few weeks, I’ll be in training classes and working on lesson planning in preparation for the start of the school year. I’ve got lots of prepping to do, and I cannot wait to hit the ground running. Whoo-hoo!

It’s Official: I Suck at This

Whew! Okay, now that I’ve gotten that out of the way, I can move on.

Kind of.

I haven’t posted on this blog in a LONG time. Why? I’m not entirely sure, but I guess the short answer is that I guess I felt I didn’t have anything to say. I kept waiting for a time when thoughts, feverishly percolating within the hat rack above my neck, would cry out for release. As one would expect, it didn’t happen. And it didn’t happen because the act of writing is a craft that needs to be practiced constantly. If you’re not writing all the time, you’re going to get rusty–and it’s going to get a lot easier to concoct any number of ridiculous excuses for not writing. Like having to organize my closet, pay my taxes, and steam the carpets.

When I originally started blogging, the focus of my work was on food. Zoe’s dietary needs dictate that we proceed carefully when cooking–and I wanted to share what I had learned with others. And I still want to do that.

Then, I started moving in a different direction, talking about books and other stuff–things like school and family trips, etcetera. I started to get too wound up in the idea that this blog should have one very well-defined focus and that’s it. But then I started to feel suffocated by that idea, and then the words just stopped.

So, I think it’s time that I just write about the stuff I want to write about and remove those self-imposed limitations. Because at the end of the day, I want to know that I put what was on my mind and in my heart on a page (or server, as the case may be). It may not fit into any of those neat and convenient tags or categories I’ve placed on my blog in the past, but I’m okay with that.

Redemption

My husband can attest to the fact that I have really good memory. That skill can be a mixed blessing. When you need to recall something quickly, you’ve got it. On the flip side of that, you are challenged by not being able to simply forget things you’d rather see fade off into the recesses of your gray matter.

Back in November of 2007, I made my first attempt at Thai Chicken Coconut Soup. And the results were less than stellar. In fact, I recall sharing with the internets the fact that my kitchen (and my senses) were smacked upside the head by the intensity of a certain ingredient:

“The good news is that my kitchen smells like lemongrass.

The bad news is that my kitchen smells like lemongrass. And only lemongrass. And now all I can smell is…lemongrass.”

Yeah, so that didn’t go so well. But I’m a determined little bugger, and I never quite gave up on the idea of successfully executing this dish.  I’d revisit the recipe, toy with some of the ingredients, and try again. I just wouldn’t let it go. I couldn’t forget my earlier failure, and I was obsessed with getting this darn thing right.

Well, Peoples of the World Wide Web, I have finally done it! Today, I made the soup…and it was FREAKING DELICIOUS. The creaminess of the coconut, the brightness of the LEMONGRASS, the saltiness of the fish sauce, and the spiciness of the Thai chilis: everything just came together beautifully. I’m still planning to play around with some of the seasonings, but I’m pretty darn happy about how things turned out. Once I’m done with nailing down precise measurments, I’ll be sure to update this post to include the recipe.

Getting My Book On

I took a short (yeah, right) hiatus from my quest to read all 100 books on Newsweek’s Meta-List, but now I’m ready to jump back into the proverbial saddle. I should point out that I did read a few other books during the break.

Possession by A.S. Byatt is, I think, the best book I’ve read this year. If you’re into metafiction, this is definitely one to check out. Since I am a lover of the Victorian novel, I really enjoyed how Byatt was able to incorporate elements of the Victorian into modern times. I understand that a film version of the book exists; however, I’ve heard from numerous sources that the movie is not good, so I don’t think it will be added to my Netflix queue anytime soon.

The other book I read is Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin. I wanted to love this book: I really did. A former instructor of mine, whose opinion I value greatly, suggested that I read it. Sorry, but this book did not do anything for me. I don’t want to give too much away, but I will say that it’s set in Paris in the ’50s and it deals with questions of morality and love and, well, it’s pretty unconventional stuff. I think reading it right after Possession may have been a bad decision on my part. I’ll give Baldwin another chance, but it’s gonna be a while.

So now I’m ready to tackle something else. I was fortunate enough to receive a Barnes & Noble gift card for my birthday (thank you, brother-in-law!), so I picked up a few books. I still have a stack of books on my desk to read, but I was in the mood for something else. Today, I’m starting Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe. I’ve heard lots of positive feedback about this novel, so I’m looking forward to diving in.