The Summer in Many Parts

First there was the part where I was really busy getting ready for Annual Meeting, and then actually going to Annual Meeting. (See previous post re: the fun and excitement that awaited me in St. Paul!)

The next part was a bit more relaxing, and a different kind of fun.

My roommate accompanied me on a trip across the Midwest to see my family in Kansas. We hung out in Lawrence for a long weekend with my sister and her family, including my two-and-a-half year old nephew. This adventure included a petting zoo where K got to feed some baby goats...

...and lots of moments of him just being super cute:

The next part found me back in Chicago with an extra day off work, in which I exercised my love of vegetables and support local producers at the Lincoln Square Farmer's Market. Those mushrooms are DELICIOUS.

I do seriously love eating food produced by people I can actually meet and talk with about how they farm their land. Makes for tasty meals, too!

This next part is not really about me... but it's the part where my friend and co-worker, Liz, found herself being side-hugged by Illinois' ousted governor, the infamous Blago, photographed, and published in the RedEye:

I find that part pretty hilarious, given who Liz is, and that Blago just randomly grabbed her out of a crowd to pose with.

The next part was extremely excellent:

a short, but sweet, visit from Emily, Fred, and little Dean Betcher. They rolled into town late last Friday, on their way to Michigan from visiting our other Emily in Minnesota. We stayed up too late, then got up early to a breakfast of biscuits and grave with good friends. Saturday morning I headed down to the John G. Shedd Aquarium with the Betchers, to take in all the aquatic life therein. I hadn't been to the Shedd in quite a long time, and thoroughly enjoyed myself in the company of good friends (and thousands of other Chicagoans).

Then there was the part with more good friends at Ravinia for a Chicago Symphony Orchestra tribute to Bernstein, Copeland and Gershwin:

(the company of great friends, like Christin, makes adventures worth it)

(Jon was there, as well. He's pretty serious about his Hostess Cupcakes.)

(with the always-lovely Ann-Marie)

Many more parts of the summer to come yet, I'm sure, including a second Ravinia visit, a trip to see family, and a brother's wedding. But so far, the parts are adding up to a great summer!

You might not know it, but I love sports...

...or maybe you do know it. Maybe you know that I am a pretty competitive person. And that I love college basketball. Even, on occasion, I may choose to watch a football game. I generally know what is going on in the world of sports.

And so it may seem overly-logical that I love Sports Night, the short-lived 1998 TV comedy/drama from Aaron Sorkin. Which makes sense on another level: I love The West Wing and Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip.

Thanks to my good friends Jon & Christin - who share my love of late-90s television series and Aaron Sorkin - I recently finished watching the entire Sports Night series (all 2 seasons of it). It was a rocky start for me with the show; I am so familiar with Sorkin's more update style (and that of many of the actors on the show as well) that the early episodes seemed a little off. But soon I was sucked in and loving it.

And what better time to watch a TV show about sports than as fall is showing up for real? Seriously, if you are unfamiliar with this series, but love sports, Aaron Sorkin, Joshua Malina, or Felicity Huffman, you should really check it out!

Season Finales and the Freedom of Summer

I rarely admit this, but I am a television addict.
(See Ellen's monologue from May 6.)

Admitting this is the first step to recovery, yes?
Well, I think the second step is the current wave of spring season finales. Thank the Lord! Now, I enjoyed nearly every minute I devoted to The Biggest Loser, Brothers & Sisters, Grey's Anatomy, and several other shows I may be too embarrassed to reveal on the World Wide Web. But there comes a point in the year when it is just time to cut the cord. As much as season finales are for the vacations of the actors, they have also got to be to re-interest the television viewer. I cannot imagine an entire, unending year of wondering how much weight Mike has lost this week. Or waiting for Izzie to suck it up and get treatments already. Or the crazy Walkers and their insane affairs. Thank goodness it is summer! Freedom! (Well, until Project Runway starts...)

The Joy of Simple Things

Tonight I am baking my favorite sort of baked good: banana bread. This used to be a much more regular occurrence in the Megan & Mandy Show, but many things have changed and not much is regular any longer.

I am excited, though, to share this offering with my friends and former colleagues as we gather tomorrow to celebrate the next steps of our lives. A few months ago, as I was preparing to leave the Office, I blogged about how thankful I was for all that these great people had been in my life. Tonight, I feel even more blessed to still be a part of that family (no matter how dysfunctional we can be).

***

My favorite banana bread recipe:
(I'm not sure where this one really came from.)

1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
3 ripe bananas (2 cups mashed)
1 cup sugar
2 eggs (or 1 cup applesauce)
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 cups flour

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees; spray a regular-sized bread pan with baking spray
• Beat the butter until softened; add the bananas one at a time (if frozen, warm in microwave on low power so they do not re-harden the butter), stirring to incorporate smoothly.
• Add sugar and eggs; blend completely.
• Gradually add remaining ingredients, stirring to incorporate fully.
• Pour into bread pan; bake 50 minutes to 1 hour until bread is firm and lightly browned.

(For extra fun, stir in chocolate chips or nuts just before pouring into pan.)

Oxfam America Collegiate Click Drive

The 2008 Oxfam America Collegiate Click Drive has begun, and is steadily adding to the funds for microcredit loans to be distributed in developing countries and economies. Head on over to PovertyFighters.com to start clicking. Whether you are a student, alum, parent, friend, or of no connection to North Park at all, feel free to select North Park University as the school for which your clicks will count -- or choose whatever school you feel drawn to. This is one competition that is more about world-wide results than the glory of winning.

Magazine: GOOD

I may be a little media obsessed, what with all the time I spend with newspapers, television news, magazines, radio, books, music, and too many hours on the world wide web. But it is a rare occasion that I stumble across something in this far-spanning category that piques my interest enough to linger longer than necessary. Today while checking out what might be new over at Rosa Loves I found a note about GOOD Magazine. Their friendly, unique site opens with this statement:

Welcome to GOOD, media for people who give a damn.

In my world, where "sarcasm is one of the many services we offer," there was no way I couldn't be caught up right there. Upon further investigation, Good Magazine (well, their online site, so far) became one of those rare things that makes me remember that this media-obsessed world can do something beneficial, and do it fairly easily. Their statement:

We see a growing number of people tied together not by age, career, background, or circumstance, but by a shared interest. This revolves around a passion for potential mixed with fierce pragmatism and creative engagement. We sum all this up as the sensibility of giving a damn. But to shorten it, let's call it GOOD. We're here to push this movement and cover its realization.

While so much of today's media is taking up our space, dumbing us down, and impeding our productivity, GOOD exists to add value. Through a print magazine, feature and documentary films, original multimedia content and local events, GOOD is providing a platform for the ideas, people, and businesses that are driving change in the world.

So, along with publishing the stories, ideas, and creativity that will challenge the world to change, GOOD goes one step further by donating 100% of all subscription payments to one of 12 nonprofit partners, chosen by the subscriber. It's a wide range of organizations, doing some pretty awesome stuff all over the world. So, if you're looking for a new magazine and a way to enact change in a positive way, head on over to GOOD and see if it might fit the bill for you.

Thanks to Becca for the beautiful flowers.
Thanks to God for the gorgeous snow.
Thanks to Adobe for the wonders of Photoshop filters.

Something to Love

This week's Relevant Magazine e-newsletter featured a story about the Rosa Loves organization. This company, started by a couple friends over some cups of coffee, is dedicated to the idea that the things we do every day, and the things we often simply take for granted, can serve to do good for people all over the world. They believe in the power of people to change the world in tangible ways, and have taken that idea to the clothing world.


From their website:

We hope to encourage individual people to get involved in the community around them on a somewhat tangible scale. We will accomplish this by providing financial support to those in need by infiltrating the t-shirt industry with a new perspective of how clothing can serve a purpose other than outfitting. Everyone has a story. Everyone has a need. By using art and creativity, we hope to foster hope and encouragement through the aid of apparel. Each story will be told through stimulating graphics and actual text that will appear on the inverse of the shirt directly in line with the heart, where the Rosa Loves movement stems from.

Rosa Loves is less about charity and more about awareness, awareness that we are all apart of something greater and are therefore joined by common threads.

In a world concerned with justice and integrity, we often talk about free trade and fair trade, about living on things not produced in sweatshops or by child labor. I would like to think that Rosa Loves is taking it one step further - not only refusing to support oppressive practices financially, but taking those same dollars to places that are rebuilding our world. This is some clothing I would be proud to wear.