Planning out a St. Patrick's Day Feast!

To my new lady-friend, St. Patty's is on par with Christmas. I plan on making up quite a little feast because her mother will be visiting us. As usual, I am perusing Martha as well as not martha. Of course, I want to create the standard fare of corned beef and soda bread. However, a criticism I have often heard is that Irish immigrants rarely ate beef because they could not afford it. I thought back to a conversation I had with my dad about what my grandfather used to eat when my grandmother went away to teacher training. I'm not about to seek out headcheese and turkey drumsticks but I think I am going to go in the turkey direction. Based on mine and Cassie's love of rosemary, I'm thinking of roasting a turkey breast with rosemary and thyme. That sounds vaguely Irish, right?

As for other dishes, there will, of course, be soda bread:

Though I think I will use currants instead of raisins. Hopefully, this summer I will pick some currants off our bush in my father's yard so that I can dehyrdate them for future soda bread endeavors. I imagine my own great grandmother plucking the little red berries from the same bush to create her own jellies and breads.

I'm also thinking of making salted new potatoes and brussel sprouts (cabbage if I can't find the sprouts). Another story my father often tells about my Irish ancestors is how my great grandmother would keep a pot on the back of the stove and all of the leftover from the week would go into the pot then be cooked down until you could drink them through a straw. For this reason, my father avoided going to his grandmother's house on Friday nights, when she usually served her gourmet leftover porridge. I think I'll stray from this tradition for my St. Patrick's day dinner and just boil the potatoes and greens until they're a little soft and salty.

For dessert, who could resist a black and tan in which the "tan" is actually ice cream? Bring on the stout float!


I cannot wait to begin cooking this... in nearly two weeks. Planning out dinner weeks in advance might be a sign that I could do with at least a part time job...

Couch Surfing, Part II: Pet Surfing

When couch surfing, one often encounters residents of the four-legged persuasion. This leads me to another couch surfing rule and since I've lost track, I'll say it's Couch Surfing Rule 37: be friendly to your host's pets. Hosts appreciate this and will be much more likely to invite you back. Above is Nada in Connecticut, laying with her head in my lap.

Mona and Tigershark live with Mo, Annr, and Rachel Brown in Philadelphia. They don't normally get along very well, but I managed to capture them spooning!

Imogene calls Plattsburgh, New York home. She is fed by Cassie but she's the kind of independent thinker who would definitely not consider someone her owner.

She's quite a large Red-Eared Slider. She's about 30-years-old!

She's not the brightest and is completely unaware of a little bit of pepper hitching a ride on her shell.

Moose lives in New Paltz, New York with Lauren and her many housemates. Moose is a very affectionate cat who laid in my arms like a baby last night. Though, he also tried to sleep on my face the night before.

Expect more silly themed photo blogs about couch surfing!

PYIC: an Introduction

Above is me and itty-bitty Al Gore. Seeing Al Gore speak was just par for the course during the Presidential Youth Inaugural Conference, for which I was a Faculty Advisor. I did this through the same company that I worked National Young Scholars Program for this past summer. The hours were long, sometimes allowing us under four hours of sleep a night, and the logistical planning was sub-par but we got through and I think most of us had really wonderful experiences.
I was entrusted with the education of a group of 28 high school students, most of whom were freshmen with a single senior in the mix who was a great sport. We were intended only to have two hours of actual curriculum with them--and of course a good portion of this was supposed to be spent on ice breakers. However, our site lead was really amazing and had us lead a Presidential Group Meeting on the first full day of the conference and let us pick which PGM curricula we would teach in our next two meetings. While fourteen-year-olds are not my choice age group (particularly ones who do not believe in global warming), it was worth the experience.


At our three conferences (Presidential Youth Inauguaral Conference, Junior Presidential Youth Inaugural Conference, and University Presidential Inaugural Conference) we had a total of 15,000 students. At PYIC, we had 7,500 students. In our Presidential Group/Housing Site we had the most students in any one place: nearly 800 scholars comprised the Taft Presidential Group. My co-workers in Taft were all amazing. Anytime we were out and about with PYIC, Taft was the group that took the initiative to get things done. Though a lot of people left the conferences incredibly frustrated, I think we were all proud of what we had done together. Fingers-crossed that I'll see many of them again this summer for GYLC in China. The Westpark Best Western in Tyson's Corner will always hold a special place in my heart.

(Westpark Taft image from my housing lead, Kristan Corcoran)

Couch Surfing, Part I

Since the beginning of January, I have slept in ten different places. These range from friends' beds, to parents' houses, to conference centers, to hotels, to cushions on floors. For the past week, I have been a couch-surfer. I am looking for jobs in Western Massachusetts and it seems much easier to do this from the area than from Long Island. This way, if I actually get an interview, I can easily get to it. Though it has only been a week, there are some rules I am learning:

1) Bring your own towel. It would have been much easier if I had and I feel like I wouldn't be crossing an awkward line.
2) You can sleep two nights in one place Monday-Wednesday, but three nights Thursday-Sunday.
3) If the person who is hosting you has a significant other, you may feel like you're invading even when they don't.
4) Air mattresses can easily be moved from room to room.
5) Make a list of who offers to host you and prioritize by sleeping arrangements--linoleum floors at the bottom.
6) Try to see your friends before you stay with them so that they get a chance to say how great it would be to have you on their floor.
7) Spend a lot of time in public spaces during the day--this makes you feel less of a burden.
8) Make friends with your friends' friends.
9) Be charming and positive.
10) Sleep whenever your host wants to. If they go to bed at 10, you go to bed at 10.

And now for the oops moment of the week:
Apparently, air mattresses are not meant to be left inflated for a few days. One of my closest friend's had been hosting me, but to give her some space, I ended up taking the air mattress from her room down the hall into her friend's room. Sometime during the night, I discovered that the air mattress was slowly deflating. I woke up later to discover that I was sleeping with air all around me, but none underneath me. I was effectively sleeping directly on the floor. I did not get up, I did not complain--I just tried to roll over and think of Korea. So rule number 11 is: deflate your air mattress every day and re-inflate it every night.