The Metaphorical Magpie

Morning, My Dears

I'm becoming an earlier bird these days. My schedule at the paper has changed because of some changes being made at our printing plant. The paper needs to be done slightly earlier to accomodate. Thus, I'm going in, and getting up, earlier, too. With the exception of one year, I've been working a night shift for the past fifteen years or so. When I first started at this paper, my shift was 5pm - 1 am. It's knocked around over the years. It's been 1-9 pm for several years. Now, I'm going in an hour or two earlier. Twice a week, I'm out the door earlier than the alarm clock would have been blaring a month ago. It's taking some adjusting. My blogging time is usually in the morning. Today's the first day I felt coherent enough to pop in to say "hello, friends."

There are loads of photos I want to share with you soon but right now I've got to hop skippitty  out the door to meet my carpool partner. We started meeting yesterday and we plan on driving in two days a week. The carpool lot was overflowing with cars. I was afraid we weren't going to find a space to leave one of our cars.

Quick question for all my foodies out there: Can you suggest a natural sweetener that I can use in coffee and tea that is lower calorie than sugar or honey? I can't eat aspartame, it makes me sick, and Splenda seems to contribute to my chronic inflammation. So.. agave? Brown rice syrup?

Nervously rubbing two nickles together

With the cost of gas rising by leaps and bounds, my el cheapo instincts are eerily sharp right now. Last week, I sat in a gas line waiting to catch the $3.17 price at the parkway rest stop before they changed their price the following day. The fact that the parkway rest stops in NJ only change their prices once a week was once a little know secret but on that particular day every tv truck and newspaper was out there crowing about it. Hence the long lines. I had a flash back to the 70's, sitting in the back of my mother's Honda hatchback, happily drawing, smelling the crayons warm from the sun beating in the windows as we waited for gas. Are gas lines going to be the new norm? Sweets may fill his tank once every few weeks or so unless we take a longish trip to New York or Philadelphia. I commute 100 miles a day, so my tank is hungry twice a week. Today I paid $42 to fill her up. Oi!

It's time to get as creative as possible here. A recent attempt to carpool with one coworker didn't make it past a week. I'm going to try again with a woman in my department. We went to our department head and asked for our shifts to be the same on two days a week so we can carpool. On the other three days, I may have a slim chance of traveling with the man I was driving with earlier. Or I may attempt taking the train occassionally.  As gas gets more expensive, this option may become more financially attractive. Right now it's more trouble than it's worth.

Anyone who knows me in real life, knows I am super thrifty. The other day my sister was telling me a story about her son and said, "he's like us- cheap." The two of us can stretch a dollar like salt water taffy. There for a while, I was relaxing, trying not to be so thrifty. Even Cyndemouse, who's taught many a thing about thrift, told me last year that sometimes I can be downright cheap. There is evidently a fine line between financial responsibility and freaky. Recently I took this book, "America's Cheapest Family Gets You Right on the Money: Your Guide to Living Better, Spending Less, and Cashing in on Your Dreams," out of the library and realized I am not nearly as cheap as this family but I'm getting there. (Note: I took it out of the library instead of buying it)

I notice I've been getting really weird and hoardy feeling about groceries. One of the tips in the book was to grocery shop less frequently to avoid impulse purchases. Great tip. I also find it helps to have a menu plan for the week and and a grocery list with me once I hit the store. We usually shop on Sundays but I'll often pop in midweek for something additional. This week, I found myself going in just to cruise the clearance sections of the store. I scored big time on Sunday when I stumbled upon the produce boy marking down spring mix, shitake mushrooms, and vine ripened tomatoes down to 59 cents a package. Basically, the yuppy vegetables aren't selling. Which tips me off to something being off for real in how other people are spending these days.

A few stories I came across this week, prove to me I am not the only one behaving differently lately.

Yesterday, the Wall Street Journal had a story about people stocking up on groceries and  the New York Times had one about women buying themselves lipsticks as a treat instead of bigger ticket items.

Usually, I keep my free flowing thrifty tips off blog but in light of the times, I think I'll begin talking about how I'm pinching every penny's cheeks before I let it slip out of my fingers. I'd love to hear how you're doing it, too.

Culture Shock Report: March/April 2008

Last month, I had a lovely March culture shock report all typed up and then Typepad balled it up and threw it out the window. I didn't have the energy to go at it again. So this is a double issue.

Television:
The Riches
Men in Trees
The Office
30 Rock
Greys Anatomy
Real Time with Bill Maher

Film:
Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story- I really, really want to like anything that comes from the Apatow gang... but this film was self indulgent, a total lift of big chunks of material, tasteless, mean spirited and in big chunks simply unfunny. What a let down.

Gone Baby Gone- I missed seeing this Oscar buzzy picture before the awards show. It kept me up the night I saw it. Not just a procedural cop drama, this film poses tough moral questions in an even tougher Boston neighborhood. I give kudos to any film that utilized Morgan Freeman and decided not to have him do a voice over. Thank you, Ben Affleck.

Lars and the Real Girl - I liked this. This is the type of film that can quickly turn to a heavy splash of quirk or uncomely humor. Lars did not go that route, choosing to play it straight. I chose to go with it, accept Lars' delusion and appreciate the fine performances by the ensemble cast including Ryan Gosling, Patricia Clarkson and Emily Mortimer.

Smart People (in theater)- I saw Sarah Jessica Parker on The View and I was swayed to go see her in this small film. The cast was great, Thomas Hayden Church, Dennis Quaid and Ellen Page (who filmed this before Juno). Unfortunately, the story was thinly drawn and it felt like a bit of borrowing was done from Wonder Boys and The Savages, which I would wholeheartedly implore you to see both if you have not. Smart People isn't special like these other two.

Listening:
So much music came into the house in the last two months. In March, I special ordered from Amazon UK discs by Adele and Operator Please.

There have been repeat listenings of recent acquisitions, Vampire Weekend, Lima Finn and Kate Nash. Spring leads me to places on my ipod that have been neglected for a while- The Clash, The Old 97's, The Stone Roses, The Shout Out Louds, the Futureheads.  I think this season is looking to be particularly full of music you can dance to which suits me just fine. It feels good to bust a move.

Other incoming records worth mentioning include:
The Kills- Midnight Boom
MGMT- Oracular Spectacular (loving the track, "Electric Feel")
The Raconteurs- Consolers of the Lonely
Erykah Badu- New Amerykah, Part One (4th World War)

Live Shows:
The Raveonettes, Black Acid- 3/30/08 at Maxwells, Hoboken, NJ
Kate Nash, The Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players- 4/19/08 at the Trocadero, Philadelphia

Reading:
Magazines: Martha Stewart Living, Bon Appetit, Fortune, Elle Decor, New York, Entertainment Weekly, Body + Soul, Budget Travel, Girfriend Getaways (came bundled with my Budget Travel), Everyday Food

Enjoying the small stuff

Yes, I know, I fell off the NaBloPoMo wagon in the past week- HARD. There's a big lump on my rump from the fall. Did you know that sometimes you will write a post for an hour- a post with more links than a charm bracelet- and then Typepad will just EAT it when you attempt to post it? It's happened to me twice in the last month. It makes me very angry at naughty, post gobbling Typepad, so I decide to not speak to it for a few days and then I start to forget and come around again.

It's just been so gorgeous here this week, that I'm besides myself with the niceness of it all.

Here are some highlights:

Celebrating Sweets birthday with a trip to Philadelphia for Cuban food and the Kate Nash show.

Woodchuck cider on tap at the Trocadero.

My dogwood tree is going to bloom any day now. I think I'll de-ribbon the wish tree over the weekend.

Helping my neighbor look for her lost cat.

Watching the grass along the parkway being mowed and smelling it's fragrance waft through my car's windows.

Spending a glorious day in Brooklyn with M.Heart traipsing through Greenwood Cemetery, the Brooklyn Botanical Garden and tracking down THE BEST pizza at Di Fara's. Then spending the evening with Talulah sipping margaritas and walking along South Street Seaport admiring the twinkling bridges and ships. A full day spent with a new friend and an old one is an excellent combination.

Making homemade yogurt. This makes me ridiculously puffed up with pride.

Magnolias and lilacs and cherries, oh my!!!

Putting on sunblock and getting out in the sunshine.

Taking a quick walk in the afternoon and a quick rest in the sun before going back upstairs to work.

Wearing a dress.

Grey's Anatomy came back.

Thoughts of collaborations on several projects.

Planning a little road trip.

Self Portrait Challenge: Puppy love

Photo by J-Po

For more absurd images, the pool is open at Self Portrait Challenge