reception!

this too shall pass

I've mentioned before, but I love LOVE Ok Go. I love this video. I love pretty much any song that incorporates a marching band. Reading The AV Club's article on love-at-first-sight art made me think of Ok Go. One of Erich's friends bought their first album because he thought the cover art was cool (I'm not sure if he had heard of them or not... the cover art was the explanation I heard). Loved the it. Bought the second album for Kari for Christmas, but then realized I probably liked them more than she did. Not that she didn't like them, just that I anticipated she was a bigger fan than she actually was. Oops. I won't lie; that's what happened.

Also - The Jerk. I remember watching it when I was a kid and thinking it was so funny. I didn't see it again for years, partially out of the idea that it might not be as good as I remembered, that my memory built it up to epic proportions. When I finally did see it again a few years back, it lived up to my memory, which is saying something.

Hmmm, what else. Today is the reception for family and friends after our wedding earlier this summer. Everyone coming to one place just for Andrew and I. I have a love/hate relationship with being the center of attention. I really don't like blowing out candles while people watch me and sing Happy Birthday (or an equally appropriate song in the public domain). Opening presents at a wedding shower a few weeks ago was equally unnerving. But at the same time, I like parties, especially parties in my honor.

I should go wash dishes before my mom gets here. I don't want her to think that I actually use my kitchen. Use it a lot, by the pile of dishes in the sink.

a little bit of everything

So... I haven't written anything for awhile. Not because my life has been particularly exciting, because it hasn't. Well, maybe a little bit.



Scones with raisins and nuts.


Chocolate cheesecake for Andrew's birthday! It got a little cracked in the middle - I think if I had taken it out of the oven 3 minutes earlier it wouldn't have cracked... next time.

Chicken Parmesan (with window ledge basil) for Andrew's birthday dinner, recipe from Food Matters by Mark Bittman. We substituted eggplant for mushrooms.


My bruise from giving blood. Pictures are of Day 2 and Day 10. I had the bruise for two weeks, just disappearing before heading east for the JCLorst wedding.

We're not very coordinated. Also, Jake is a fight instigator while Rachel just wants to love.

And then Andrew's high school friends Ross and Linnea got married last weekend, which meant Andrew stood up in the wedding and got to dress classy-like. I enjoyed it.

They really liked those suspenders. I may or may not have encouraged some suspender-action. Your call. Also, I think that's a fantastic picture of Ross (red tie).

Window ledge basil and cilantro! It's doing pretty well in its present condition. I switch between worrying about over-watering and under-watering. They get plenty of sunlight and it's been so hot lately that I've been watering them daily to make sure they don't die. If they die, I can't eat them.

This little cilantro plant didn't turn out too well... I think too much sunlight/heat. Oh well, I can put something else in that pot.


The street broke open and gushed water last week. They're still fixing it (often loudly at 7 AM). There was literally a crack in the street and a bubble of water coming out of it. I don't know how it happened, but it flowed for 24 hours before the city had someone down there. You can see in the picture where the crack is - at a downward angle away from orange vested-dude where the water is shiny.

My DJ set from DDPP last week:

Kari - expect a CD with your package. It's sitting on my counter and I just have to write a letter, burn some CDs, find a present and then mail it. Also, I really wanted to buy a Toy Story 3 padded envelope to send to you, but I thought it might look too fun and someone would steal it.

I am on book 53 for the year, which makes me within sight of my 6o books goal. My last ten books have been Codex, Lev Grossman (Not as good as The Magicians - skip Codex); Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, Barbara Kingsolver (seasonal recipes!); Buying In, Rob Walker; God in the White House, Randall "what I like to call ..." Balmer; Pearl of China, Anchee Min (very good! couldn't get into her Madame Mao book though); Picking Bones From Ash, Marie Mutsuki Mockett (recommend it); Sherlock Holmes and the Red Demon, Larry Millett (Holmes in Minnesota - yes!); The Happiness Project, Gretchen Rubin (enjoyed it); Black is the New White, Paul Mooney (really funny. I want to see more of his stand-up now); Where Men Win Glory, Jon Krakauer (about Pat Tillman's life, death and ensuing military cover up).

Ok. I have to go buy some QTips. I ran out on Saturday and it's hard for me to do without them. They're one of the things I'd bring to a deserted island. Yesterday it was difficult for me to shower and then not QTip my ears. I can't go on like this much longer.

Bacher out.

some stuff

Hehe, we got married.

My windowsill basil tastes and smells delicious. Mmmmmmmm. After I touch it, my hands still smell like basil.

registry guilt

Well, the Bellin Run this weekend happened as planned. I did not run as planned because apparently, my plans were off. Thank you, Nike+. That 6.5 mile run I did last week? 6 miles. Nike+ tracked my 10k at 7.6 miles. So my expectation of running a 10:30 pace? Based on inaccurate numbers. It just meant I had to readjust my expectations. I ran faster than I did last year by 2 minutes, but I still felt I could have done better. I think it's hard to do well when you're standing around for at least 45 minutes before your wave starts. Maybe I'd do better on another 10k.

Andrew and I are getting things ready for our wedding this weekend and the party in August. We had some extra time today before going to a work picnic, so we went to Target and started of thinking of things we'd like on the registry. There's somethings we know for sure (box set of Indiana Jones movies, magnetic knife stripe), but we (especially Andrew) feel conflicted about asking for a bunch of stuff. We already live together and have collected things like dishes, pots and pans, etc. We could register for nicer things, but as a whole, we have no real issue with the things we have. It seems wasteful to register for things we don't really need or would simply like to have because we have the option of having them. I'm surviving perfectly fine without an egg plate so far.

However, people like to bring gifts to weddings and we want to help people celebrate their excitement with us. People coming to the small wedding this weekend have already asked about what they can bring - both in terms of gifts as well as food.

I don't know. My non-materialistic side is brushing up against the idea of going into Target and pointing at stuff I want. Any suggestions for managing feelings of registry guilt?



EDIT:
Of course. As soon as I write out my registry guilt, I head over to A Practical Wedding and Meg offers her lovely, often incredibly useful, advice:

The registry is not about the wedding, the registry is about the marriage. For us, we hope that means a long life with a passel of kids, a ton of family gatherings, and lots of cooking. So for us, that’s what a registry is about – letting our friends and loved ones build that home for us. The registry is like a barn raising.

another list and other things

60 books up to this point:

The Family, Jeff Sharlet
The Film Club, David Gilmour
Righteous, Lauren Sandler
Death in a Prarie House, William Drennan
Three Cups of Tea, Greg Mortonson and David Oliver Relin
In Tongues of the Dead, Brad Kelln
Manhunt, James Swanson
The Heroines, Eileen Favorite
Che’s Afterlife, Michael Casey
Slam, Nick Hornby
Things I’ve Learned From Women Who’ve Dumped Me
Her Fearful Symmetry, Audrey Niffenegger
The Hardest Questions Aren’t On The Test, Nathan
Brain Rules, John Medina
Team of Rivals, Doris Kerns Goodwin
Offbeat Bride, Ariel Meadow Stallings
Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell
Shakespeare Wrote For Money, Nick Hornby

I just finished book 18, which means I'm three books ahead of schedule of 5 per month. I really enjoyed Team of Rivals and provided a lot of details about what made Lincoln a great president. He was very gracious in dealing with people, even when they didn't deserve it. At the time, some would say to a fault, but usual it meant that people were very loyal to Lincoln when he needed it. Her Fearful Symmetry got a lot of press as Niffenegger's second novel after The Time Traveler's Wife, but I wasn't as grabbed by it as her first novel. It was an interesting concept, but I couldn't like her main characters. They were too whiny, too unbelievable. It was interesting, but I wouldn't read it again. The Heroines was also kind of annoying.

There haven't really been any fiction books this year that really grabbed me... Hopefully something good will come along soon. I've got Food Rules by Michael Pollen at the library for me right now with some others requested. I've been waiting for Barbara Kingsolver's The Lacuna for months now, along with The Magicians (Grossman), Juliet, Naked (Hornby), and The Abstinence Teacher (Perrotta).

As you can tell from book number 16, there may or may not be a wedding in my future. Well, there will be weddings (5 so far this summer. Seriously?) but I suppose my own is in the works. That's right, another one bites the dust. I mean... whoo hoo marriage? Marriage!

Ok, kidding. I'm pretty psyched about it. The engagement was in talks for awhile but then I kind of jumped the gun and proposed to him on the fly. I ambushed him at the door with a loaf of his grandmother's zucchini bread and asked him before he could get both his boots off.

The big bash will be next year sometime, either spring or fall. Yeah, we've got some concrete details down for sure. We've got to save up some money to get things in motion, but I also think it would be helpful to get an idea of how much we need to save also. Which means a guest list, an idea of where things will be, etc.

I don't know if you know this, but I'm a little bit Type A. Ok, more than a little bit. I'm a Type A in Type B clothes. I've slowly begun to realize it in the past few years, but it shouldn't have been any surprise... I mean, I wrote an 80 page paper in college for fun, went to grad school, organized massive community events on a weekly/monthly basis, serve as president of the leadership team where I currently work, etc. Andrew is considerably less Type A than I am, which is nice but I don't want to feel like I'm running things. I feel like my own personality type will feed into the myths about weddings and "brides" that I despise.

I really hate gender stereotyping and the wedding industry is plagued with it in the worst way. Example: We got our fingers sized at a jewelry store so we could order our rings online. I asked all the questions and did the majority of the talking, but upon leaving, the salesperson shook Andrew's hand and not mine because, of course, he's going to be bankrolling the ridiculous diamond bling (These are our rings, btw. No diamonds).

So while most people expect the lady to plan most or all of the wedding (and go crazy about it), I want ours to be planned with equal input and effort and a fair division of labor. This is where my Type A-ness will be difficult because at times I feel like if I don't do something myself, it won't be done right. Generally, not just in relation to this. Andrew's opinion is important to me so I don't want to steamroll him, but that's my general nature. He knows this already, so it's not like it's a surprise. We'll just have to be careful in navigating it.

I'm intriqued and appalled by the wedding industry in general but I feel like it's watching sausages being made. Except at the end you don't have sausages but a marriage. Maybe? Did that metaphor work? Cross out marriage and put wedding. Marriage will be good, wedding will be the sausage. Except I generally like weddings because there are open bars and dancing. Fine, no sausage metaphor.

I just sneezed 4 times in a row. Allergies? No!

Maybe I'll get my hair cut this afternoon. I've been needing it. I think I last got it cut in November.

Official training for the Belling begins next week. It'll be nice to have some kind of structure to my workouts.

Maybe I'll make something different for dinner tonight. Stop by the grocery store after the proposed haircut?

Time to go blow my nose. Bacher out.

nat and owen

two out of three

I walked out of the house this morning and ran into my friend who lives down the street. As we walked to class together, we talked about how little time was left in the semester, how much work we had to do, and what I'm going to do after graduation.

In her experience, someone should have at least one of three things when moving to a new city: friends, a job, or a place to live. Well, I've got great friends and as of Saturday, I've got a place to live. Kari and I found (what looks like) a great place in Uptown, really close to lots of things to do. I'm looking forward to living there with Kari. She's emailed and called countless times to ask questions about rooms and rugs and plates and shower curtains... Needless to say, she's very excited.

Now I just have to get that job nailed down. I'm oh-so excited about the search process. Ok, a little less than excited, but I'm working on it. Two out of three 'ain't bad.

Next up: Nat's wedding.

full speed ahead

As I've been telling Olivia lately, my mind is mushy. I feel like it's going to be mushy for another few weeks, still. I feel like there's a push regarding getting stuff done - I've got a presentation in class tomorrow, I had a paper Tuesday, I have another presentation/paper Monday and another the Tuesday after that. Then starts the round of final papers.

Looking at a calendar, I'll have all my grad school work done by May 2.

Then I can breathe again.

Kari and I are looking at apartments and it's a little nerve wracking, partially because I'm not there and partially because I don't have a job yet and partially because it's the first step in a post-education world. We're looking around Uptown and Loring Park. At least in that department, there's lots of options and lots of leads to follow. Well, Kari's doing most of the calling and touring.

I've got a list of jobs to apply for, mostly it's just the cover letters that need to be written. I also have a corresponding list of jobs where I've sent resumes/interviewed; that list fluctuates as I add jobs and I take away jobs when I get the (seemingly inevitable) "we've recieved a record number of applications and have decided not to interview you" email. Although I'm anxious to get out of school, part of me wishes I was waiting a year, when hopefully things won't be so bad. Perserverence, I suppose.

I'm flying out for Nat's wedding on Wednesday, and there's a long list of things I'd like to accomplish before I head out there. I suppose it's not stuff that I'd like to accomplish, but that I have to finish. While I'm there, I'd prefer it if I didn't have to do any work at all and can just focus on enjoying my friends and what's going to be a wonderful weekend.

I should go to sleep. It's getting harder and harder to get out of bed in the morning. Plus I have to be at school early tomorrow to prep for my presentation. At least it's something I love talking about - violence and The Passion of the Christ. I was specifically asked to be on a panel for one of my classes because of my research in undergrad. It's an honor, really.

Only four weeks until I can breathe.

Saturday Numbers Game

Original Beatles songs in my iTunes: 149
Beatles covers in my iTunes: 37 - 32 from the Across the Universe soundtrack
Total number in my iTunes: 186 Beatles songs (or forms of them)

Sunflower bundles bought at the farmer's market for Katie's wedding bouquet: 3


Days until I get to go see Andrew again: 33
Days until our 1 year anniversary: 38


As of Saturday, Bacher sisters: 3

I had my first piece of writing due today, for my Ruth and Esther class. I think it went well, but I'm excited to get it back from the professor to see her thoughts. It was a book review of a book titled Assertive Biblical Women, and from what I read, I wasn't very impressed at all. It was supposedly a book highlighting different women and their assertiveness (for good or for bad) through the Bible, but what it turned out to be was a narrative retelling of their stories with slight witty quips and commentary added in. First off, the author read WAY too much into these stories, making remarks like, "Man, Ruth was probably relieved to find out she wasn't barren! It had probably crossed her mind!" or "Vashti [the first queen in Esther] probably had a party for the women because she wanted to band together with the harem. Or maybe as a sign of solidarity against the king." I'm sorry, but personal musings on biblical texts should NOT be included in scholarly work. Maybe it was in addition to the narrative structure, but the book wasn't for a scholarly audience as the author had intended, but more for a bible study. Also, the man doesn't know how to integrate commentary. It was ridiculous! He'd write, "So-and-so gives this interesting reading of Esther..." and then quote 6-8 sentences of their work, and then move right on to the next commentator and large block of quotation. Not to mention the word choices he used were unhelpful in helping to rethink the stories in a feminist context. I found several examples of "feminine wiles" or "feminine coyness" or how the Ruth/Boaz story demonstrates a reversal of "traditional gender roles" when Ruth initiates a relationship, sexual or not, and Boaz wants to keep the interlude on the down low until he can integrate Naomi and Ruth into his posse. I'm sorry, you can claim to be a feminist all you want, but when you write in those terms it's not helping at all. It's a retelling of stories of women with sassier language. At least acknowledge it for what it is. And the most surprising part is after I finished, I read a review in a journal and it was all sunshine and flowers out of the guy's ass! I mean, did the reviewer and I even read the same book?

Anyway, I'm excited to get the review back because then I can see where my writing stands compared to grad school expectations. For Hamline, after I finished my FYSEM summer reading paper, I thought it was pretty good. Reynolds, however, disagreed and to this day, it's the only C I've earned on a paper. But it was helpful in making me realize where my writing needed improvement and how to make those changes. Reynolds is really good at setting up guidelines for revising writing and all of the structural and content-based aspects you need to look at. He's probably helped my writing/revision process most of any teacher I've had, with Polk and Thompson from high school (the bastard) coming in second and third for grammatical issues. To this day, Thompson is still one of the biggest jackass teachers I've ever had a class with, but also to this day I cringe and rewrite whenever I use the word "got," "get," or the passive voice.

From what I heard in class, I'm excited to read the book I Am, by Athalya Brenner. The book is set up around the concept of women in the Bible sitting around a table telling their stories, but also acknowledging commentary/literary pieces written about them. For example, Dinah puts her situation in terms we're used to hearing, like date rape. Mom, I think you'd like this book too.

Next week Gloria Steinem is giving a lecture downtown. The only unfortunate part is I've got NT section right until it starts. I'd never make it downtown and find a seat in time if I stayed the whole time. I'm torn between missing section, which I don't want to do, and seeing Gloria Steinem. Uuuuughhhh. There aren't many sections and it's important to go to all of them, but... Gloria Steeeiiiineeeeemmm (that was me whining). There's really only one option here, though. When am I ever going to get a chance to hear Gloria Steinem again if I miss this? Maybe again, but, maybe not. I'm sure sections won't miss me.

Tomorrow I'm going shopping for a dress for the wedding with Olivia (I had to change that from "wedding dress" to "dress for the wedding" ... could have been misleading). I'm excited and annoyed all at the same time. I'll let you know how it goes. I fly home in two weeks from today! I'm excited to see the family and Andrew especially. I've also heard rumor of a lot of people that'll be at the wedding or in town for the weekend. Some high school people (Yang, Christine, Matt Lawton), people from church (the Eberts, Grace), the Lithuanians, ect. And I think Neal is coming into town! Woo! I'm excited. Since Erich and Katie aren't having a reception, I think everyone should go to St. Brendan's Inn on Saturday and celebrate without them. At least, that's what I plan on doing. I'm also psyched to spend some time in St. Paul. I haven't seen my St. Paul family since my going away party (obviously) so I miss them. Plus I get to spend extra time with Andrew! And Kari.

Everyone should check out my brainchild: Overheard at Yale Divinity School.