Turkey Day Recap

Happy belated Thanksgiving!

We had a great holiday back in WashMo. Highlights include:

-Not one, but two, delicious Thanksgiving dinners. My dad had to work Thursday evening, so we had a wonderful lunch with my parents, then we headed over the Brett's parent's home for Round 2.

Meal #1 at my parents house.

To prepare for the turkey/ham/mashed potato/pie onslaught, we had our own Turkey Trot in the morning (Brett ran, I walked). Although it was a little cold, I think this is a nice tradition to start.

-Visiting with friends, old and new. We had lunch and watched the Mizzou game with our old friend Nick and his girlfriend. Nick's family has two pugs, so there was only one way I wanted to watch the game--covered in pugs.

#puglife

-Seeing some family. We stopped by my cousin's adorable new home, where I got in some baby cuddles and got to catch up a bit with my extended family.

-Dinner in St. Louis with my parents at a very nice restaurant. Yum.

-Riding around town on my dad's Can-Am Spyder with Brett. We drove on some of the windy, scenic roads in town. We also stopped at the high school parking lot so I could drive around a bit. I learned to drive a car in that parking lot, so it was only appropriate.

My mom's helmet, my dad's bomber jacket, my face, and my husband.
We were parked when we took this picture, don't worry.

-Taking in the Garden Glow. Last night, Brett and I went with my parents to the Garden Glow at the St. Louis Botanical Gardens (the Gardens are covered in Christmas lights and holiday decorations). We had a great time. 

I hope you and yours had an equally wonderful Thanksgiving holiday!

The Shai-Hulud of Earworms

I join the rest of the internet in commanding you to watch this video, which Glen Weldon of Pop Culture Happy Hour called the Shai-Hulud of earworms.

Then you must read this Buzzfeed article. Then you must read Dune (which really goes without saying). At that point, we will have enough shared cultural references to have a conversation.

Sylvan Esso

Since hearing a recommendation on NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour, I have been listening to Sylvan Esso's self-titled album on Spotify on repeat. PCHH particularly praised the single Coffee, but the track that I have most enjoyed is Wolf. 

Black Tie Optional

Brett was in Chicago this weekend, and we had the nicest time.

First of all, I simply enjoyed being in Chicago for a weekend. I have been visiting Brett in Champaign most weekends or have been out of town for one reason or another, and it felt great to wake up in my own bed on Saturday morning. I drank a Chai tea latte, got caught up with Parenthood, and cuddled with the cats.

Brett had an event downtown in the morning for class, and when it finished, I met him and his good friend Bob for lunch at Siena Tavern. The caramelized brussels sprouts pizza was outrageously tasty (on another note, did you know that the vegetable is spelled brussels sprout and not brussel sprout? I just learned, thanks internet!).

Saturday evening, Brett and I attended a black tie benefit because we are ever-so-fancy (actually, my boss is the president of an organization, and she was kind enough to invite us to their annual scholarship ball). It was fun to play dress up for a night and attend an elegant event. Of course, in classic fashion, we did not take any good pictures--you will just have to take my word for it that Brett looked exceptionally dapper.

The apartment seems particularly quiet now that Brett and the cats have gone back to Champaign. This weekend made me look forward--even more so--to the weekend when they move up permanently.

Serial

I am an avid podcast listener. One of these days, I will write a blog post about all of my favorite podcasts, but, for now, I am going to write about my new favorite podcast: Serial.

Serial is the new podcast from many of the same people behind This American Life. Instead of telling many stories within one episode, as This American Life does, Serial is the same story told over 12 episodes. The story is a dark one: in 1999, a high school student from Baltimore named Hae Min Lee was murdered. Her classmate and ex-boyfriend, Adnan Syed, was arrested, charged, and found guilty of her murder. He is currently serving a life sentence.

Serial is not the Innocence Project. The host of the podcast, Sarah Koenig, seems to sway between finding the evidence against Adnan strong and disbelieving that someone she finds personally charming could be a murderer. This is the tension that makes the show so interesting for me, but I also think it is what will ultimately make listening to Serial a frustrating experience. The podcast is still being produced--I doubt the producers are going to catch Adnan in a lie that proves he is guilty or will find evidence, 15 years after the fact, that proves his innocence.

It is almost impossible to listen to this podcast without coming up with your own theory about what happened. I have one, and I have been bothering Brett, who does not listen to the podcast, about it for weeks. Have you been listening? Do you have a theory? Or, likely more accurately, am I completely missing the point of the podcast by coming up with a theory of what actually happened?

Transparent

I recently blazed my way through the first season of Amazon's television show Transparent. I knew the premise of the show before I started watching: Transparent is about a family consisting of divorced parents and three adult children, and, in the first episode, the patriarch of the family attempts to tell his children that he is a transgender woman.

Despite knowing the premise, Transparent took me completely by surprise. I thought the show was a comedy. The casting of Jeffrey Tambor (of George Bluth, Sr. fame) as Mort/Maura, and the promotional pictures for the show gave me that impression.

Look at these smiling faces--would you have thought this was a comedy as well?

While the show has humorous points, it is not a comedy. The tone is similar to HBO's Girls--awkward and realistic. The members of this family are sometimes cruel and almost always selfish. 

But, despite the show not being what I thought it would be, I thought it was very good. Uncomfortable to watch at times, but very good. I liked how the characters are full, if flawed, people.