Miramar Air Show

OK, the photo isn't from the air show, but I like it.

I have a soft spot in my heart for Marines, and for Marine rotor craft units. My dad used to maintain them, and as a child I remember going to Marine Corps Air Station Tustin and just being in awe of the huge hangars they had there. The city of Tustin desperately wants to tear those hangars down in the name of development, and when that eventually happens a part of my childhood, a part of whatever mythology I crafted for myself, will die forever, to only live in my memory. When I am gone what will be left?

I went to the airshow last weekend, and had a blast. When I was a little girl my daddy would take me to the air show in Chino, and I imagine the air show in Tustin as well, to see the planes. To go down to Miramar last weekend and touch the aircraft again was a delight for me. To smell that odd, distinctly military smell of sweat, dust, and motor oil was a treat. To feel that cargo webbing and steel painted over in olive drab again was heaven. To touch the nose of the Super Stallion that touches the sky - is ecstasy.

To be among Marines again, to be among the few and the proud. I was comfortable in that environment, being on a military base again. If you know how to talk to them, they'll let you in their world.

"Hey Marines! Do you know where [Parking Lot] Silver 1 is?"

"Oh sure - it's all the way down this road. Here; I'll walk you out."

"Oh that's not necessary"

"It's OK. We're not doing anything around here anyway. (To his buddies) Hey watch that van and make sure nothing happens with that."

"How are you tonight?"

"Oh, we're all right - been doin' this since seven this morning. We'll probably be here until midnight tonight, and then we get to wake up at six AM tomorrow and do this again." I don't know anyone in the military who doesn't complain about this all-encompassing duty that seems to allow for less-than-optimal sleep. I mean, they ALL do it, and they all use the same phrases.

"I see." A car approaches from behind, and the Marine's buddy says, "Hey man, move over to the side of the road."

"Eh, he can go around." He waves his arm so the car will pass.

They're all so young. When we walked onto the flight line that afternoon, there was a slender Marine wearing cammies that looked oversized for his tall frame, and BCGs that made him look geeky. I wonder if he joined to prove his friends he was tough. He gave us a big grin and waved us into the correct direction.

One Marine stopped me to check my bag and called me ma'am. Whenever grocery checkers call me ma'am it kind of irritates me, because I am NOT old enough to be a ma'am. I make exception for the military.

Some psychologist says that the sound of car engines arouses women. I think jet engines work better. :)

Coffee Break

Sometimes (more often than I care to admit), I will wander across the street from work to the Coffee Bean for a cup of that delightful black brew. I know I'm going far too often because the employees recognize me and know me by name. They even know what I typically order - a small (or regular, depending on how tired I am) Americano, with room for cream.

An Americano is comprised of espresso and hot water. If that's not enough for you, get a Red Eye. It's espresso and drip coffee. I like the term sailors and Marines have come up for it: A "depth charge".

Anyway, I'm at the bar thing that has the sugar packets and carafes of half-and-half, 2%, non-dairy and whatever else they have out for creamer. It's nice that they have those little sticks for stirrers. So much better than the short plastic straws, which never reach the bottom of your cup to stir up the sugar crystals.

He walks in. I haven't seen this dude in ages. Back in the day, we would head out for Starbucks runs around 10:00 AM and commiserate over failing relationships and work politics. Since the last time I ran into him, he's moved at least once and had a baby with his girlfriend (wife now? I didn't check his hand for a ring). This was the guy who used to tell me, "Don't chase 'em; replace 'em!"

"Hey!" He says. "I haven't seen you in forever! What's new?"

I wait for him to order, and as he's pouring cream and sugar into his cup he says out of the blue,

"Diane, you're going to make a great mom."

Huh? Where the hell did THAT come from?

"You know why? You're patient, and really kind."

I know he's being sincere, but it wasn't quite the pick-me-up I wanted that afternoon.

Polanski Media Circus

Polanski defenders lose sight of true victim

(Steve Lopez is the journalist who wrote the book that inspired the film "The Soloist". I blogged about the film earlier this year.)

This whole Roman Polanski extradition thing is really a media circus I do not want to watch.

I think this issue will last until Polanski dies, or until he is extradited and faces trial. No matter what the victim's wishes are, he still committed a crime. One which I don't feel was fairly served in the 42 days he spent in jail before bailing.

I don't feel the outcome of this case will cause more sex assaults to go unreported, as I think getting law enforcement officials to believe a crime has even taken place is hard enough.

If Polanski truly wanted this thing to be over, he wouldn't fight extradition and would just go pay his debt to society. But I guess it's easier to be a martyr.

Fortune

"Keep Your Plans Secret For Now"

Recipe - Greek-Style Stuffed Peppers

I made something like this a few weeks ago with my new boyfriend. We had a lot of fun, and the food was really tasty. This is a good "team effort" recipe that allows for breaks and "downtime". I would also hope that it's really hard to screw up.

My problem is that I don't have an oven in my apartment, and I've yet to be motivated enough to get propane for my grill (now THAT would be REALLY tasty!). So I've altered the recipe to suit my devious purposes. If you *do* have an oven and want to try out the original recipe, do note that a lot of people have found it to be a bit bland, and suggest to double the seasonings.

Greek-Style Stuffed Peppers
1/2 c. diced onion
2 cloves minced garlic
1/2 - 1 lb lean ground meat (preferably beef; I used 2/3 lb leftover bison from my parents' visit)
1 tsp ground pepper
1 tsp oregano
1 c. cooked brown rice
1 can diced tomatoes
2 large bell peppers
1/4 c. crumbled feta cheese, plus more for topping

In a large saute pan, saute the onion and garlic until the onion is translucent, about 10 minutes. Add the meat and brown. Add the pepper, oregano, rice, and tomatoes. Cook until most of the liquid is either evaporated or absorbed by the rice.

Meanwhile, either halve the peppers or cut the tops off of them, and scoop out the seeds and membranes. Boil some water (may add some salt if you want) and add the peppers. Cook for 3-5 minutes, depending on how soft you like them cooked. Drain the peppers.

Incorporate the cheese into the filling mixture, and then fill the peppers with the filling. Sprinkle additional feta on top of the peppers (I ran out, which is why you see no feta garnish in my photo) and consume with extreme prejudice.

I suspect this takes about an hour from start to finish, and is well worth the effort expended.

Wanderlust

Alaska Airlines now charges $25 per piece of checked luggage. To me, this is completely unacceptable. I've wanted to learn how to travel light and be basically as mobile as possible while traveling, but I suppose this has become the final incentive to actually do it.

I recently purchased an Eagle Creek Thrive 65L, which meets the size restrictions for Alaska Airlines' carry-ons. I think the H + W + L dimensions end up being something like 45.8", so it might end up a little large if I tried to take it on a different airline. On the other hand, if I learn to pack light I could compress it a little bit and get away with saying it's not really 45.8" but some other, smaller number.

The Thrive 65L only comes in Eagle Creek's "medium" frame size, which is a pity because my torso length is something like 15" ("short" or "small"). I did e-mail Eagle Creek and suggest they make this in either a women's version (as the woman's fit Thrive 75L is too big to carry-on) or adjustable for a shorter frame.

I've written about my love of Eagle Creek products before. I strongly believe in their packing aids, although it could just be how awesome their marketing team is.

My level of wanderlust was tolerable before I received the backpack; now I feel like I *must* travel somewhere. Rediscover myself and meet new, interesting folks. Eat strange food. Have adventures. Pity my next trip won't be for another month or so, and it's a short trip at that. Any suggestions of where I should go on vacation next summer? I'm thinking Peru or Argentina. . . and I suppose this is only if I don't take a summer class.

If you have the wanderlust and want to travel on the cheap, I suggest checking Travel Independent out. That site has a wealth of information on it.

Restaurant Review - Peter's Place

Yet another case of moving to more convenient pastures, only to find a really great place to eat not far from where I lived. . . . .

Peter's Place is located in a tiny strip mall of Asianish stores. . .it's in the strip mall just North of Sue's Kitchen, which has fantastic Taiwanese beef noodles. But I digress.

To date, Peter's Place is the only restaurant I've found in South Bay that serves Chinese breakfast. I think the next nearest place to get Chinese breakfast is at least an hour out of South Bay, but someone please correct me if I'm wrong. My favorite breakfast of all time is a bowl of warm soy milk accompanied by shaobing and you tiao. They have both the salty and the sweet soy milk, and while I like them both, I prefer the sweet soy milk. I can't tell if they make it from scratch or if it's just soy milk out of a jug and heated up. There's a place in Rowland Heights that makes their own soy milk and it's absolutely divine. And fan tuan; I only had the savory kind but I think they have the sweet kind too. The shaobing was particularly delicious.

They also have a bunch of other dishes like dumplings and noodles and fried rice, but I don't intend on coming here for anything but Chinese breakfast on lazy Sunday mornings. I'll probably be a greedy pig too and get extras for breakfast during the week.

The family who runs the restaurant is really friendly, and the menu is in both Chinese and English (which means it's got to be good!). The waitress was particularly forgiving with my butchering of the language. At least I'll have the opportunity to practice my Mandarin more.

Peter's Place
23816 Crenshaw Blvd
Torrance, CA 90505
310-539-6058

Three Year Anniversary - Let's Punch It!

Three years ago, I moved to L.A. to start my career and grow new roots.

Tomorrow, my pension with my employer vests, which means that when I retire I will have supplementary income to help with the bills. Wow. I'm a company girl all of a sudden. When did that happen?

My three-year anniversary of moving to L.A. was actually last Thursday (the 10th), but when I think of my life really starting in the City of the Angels I think of the day I started my career.

My life has become something I could not have dreamed it would be. With each passing year, I've grasped new opportunities and had adventures I could not have imagined having when I was in college. With each passing year, my quality of life has improved and my general happiness has increased.

My career is finally feeling like it's going to take off. I'm making it in one of the best schools for graduate study. I'm generally healthy and I'm grateful to have good friends and loving parents. I'm truly grateful for what I have, because in many ways it seems to me I've been blessed more than the average person. A few years ago I don't think I would say my cup was more than half full. Now it overflows.

I like the idea of double fisting Life. We only have so much of it, and I want to get as much experience, as much knowledge, as much adventure as I can possible handle. Time is a resource I must not squander. I barely even have the time to contemplate its passing.

In the new Star Trek movie, Captain Pike commands Ensign Sulu to "punch it" when pulling the Enterprise out of space dock. That is totally how I feel about my life right now. Let's go!

Movie Review - Extract

As I sat through this funny film, I was bothered by my lack of ability to figure out the point. Maybe there was one, and I missed it. But it feels like there should be a clever point, with a film titled "Extract", centered around a flavoring extract owner whose side-kick at work is played by J.K. Simmons. Blame the Coen brothers and their brilliant dark comedy from last year, Burn After Reading (also involving J.K. Simmons).

Joel (Jason Bateman), the flavoring extract owner, ain't getting no loving at home. His wife, Suzie (Kristen Wiig), loses the loving feeling after 8:00 PM when she slips the sweatpants on. So every night he races the clock to get home before 8:00 PM, and every night gets sidelined by the annoying, well-meaning, socially clueless neighbor who lives across the street.

Dejected, Joel heads to a local bar, where he is consoled by Dean (Ben Affleck) who encourages Joel to have an affair.

Hilarity ensues.

This is probably not worth going to see in the theaters, although it is very entertaining at times. I think the best part of the film is near the end when Suzie berates the annoying neighbor. Poor guy just couldn't take the shock.

It Goes To Eleven

For the past few weeks my stress levels were running around seven or eight. Stressful, but manageable. I was successfully juggling work, school (and school-related stuff), running, and my other two exercise hobbies as well as my social/love life. I was tired at the end of the day, but in command of my domain.

This week, I find out my stress level can go to eleven. Damn. All of a sudden, I was desperate to keep all of those balls in the air. If I let any of my exercise plans slip, stress doesn't get relieved and I become a lot more unpleasant to deal with, not to mention seriously unhappy. If I let school slip, I don't get the education that I crave. If I let work slip, well, school doesn't get paid for and neither does my car or apartment. You get the picture.

Tonight while I was running, I remembered how hard it was for me to get to the point where a 5K was something I didn't need to train for to do well in. I didn't have the mental endurance to push myself further. I limited myself with my physical, emotional, and mental pain. I spent several years at that level, not knowing how to break out of the glass ceiling I'd made for myself.

For me, it took a lot of courage to gain the level of self-trust needed to regularly go beyond three miles. Some days I still struggle to run five miles, but I consider that distance now my regular training distance. It's been only very recently that I've been able to consider ten miles an easily-obtainable long run.

This is a matter of perspective. A year ago, ten miles might as well have been one hundred. I was very demoralized that I might never reach my goal of running the marathon. How could I run twenty-six-point-two miles when I had such a hard time running three-point-one? Today, I feel my goal is within my grasp and I know that I have the training and the mental strength to reach out and grab it.

Just where am I going with this? Well, this thing that has caused so much stress in my life will not be the toughest thing I have to face in life. It was unexpected and possibly life-altering. To top it all off, there is absolutely nothing I can do to change it. Facing this thing head-on will be practice for when I have really difficult stressful events to deal with. Learning to relax, to breathe, to maintain inertia and forward motion, these are the skills I'm going to obtain from this difficult experience.

Because my mental toughness goes to eleven too.