Lady Lawrence’s Blog

August 8-14 is Resurrect Romance Week. At first I pictured some gruesome ritual, raising zombie lovers from the dead. Not sure what this says about me, but it can’t be good.

It’s actually an observance created by a romance writer (surprise, surprise). the idea is to encourage couples to find cheap or free ways to express love rather than relying on the over commercialized romance industry. Sorry ladies—no “bling”. Couples are encouraged to leave love notes, whisper sweet nothings, and perhaps the occasional throwing your jacket over a mud puddle fellas (is chivalry dead?).

I guess this stems from the belief that once a love grows old (or married) that the “romance” dies. I don’t think it dies it just metamorphoses into something else. Suddenly little courtesy’s–like letting me stretch out on the couch because I had a rough day, seem terribly sweet and romantic. Still it never it hurts to find new and creative ways to tell that special someone that you love them. I know I never get tired of hearing it, so I guess Matt doesn’t either. So this week I will do just that. Watch out Matt—expect to get swept off your feet…inexpensively.

So I’m at it again. Now I beginning with August, and August has some interesting observances, including American Adventures Month, What will be your legacy month and Happiness Happens Month.

Happiness Happens Month is a celebration for the incurably optimistic.  I thought at first this was just some benign attempt at cuteness, but then I stumbled upon a website for the Secret Society of Happy People. This seems to be some kind of underground ring of jolly souls bent on world domination. Their mission, to uproot and conquer pessimism by infecting the world with contagious dose of positive thinking. This is a warning for cynics everywhere, if you feel like someone is out to get you…they are.

However since I have made it my mission (for no particular or important reason) to honor as many of these unusual observances as I can, I will here and now confess my own secret happiness. Truth is, the past 10 years have been some of the happiest of my life. I married a wonderful man, moved into my first house, and now we are expecting our first child. So after further examination, it appears my glass isn’t half of anything, it’s actually pretty darn full.

….So there, are you happy now?

I haven’t posted in a while but I haven’t forgotten. I decided that my blog needed a new focus. Something to help direct me and keep me writing.

I was thinking about it and I realized that there are a lot of weird observances out there–one for almost every day of the year. I’ve written about this before in older posts.  I thought it would be a fun experiment to try to observe as many of these as I can and write about it here on my blog. To my readers (the 4-5 of you–loyal and appreciated), please comment with any ideas of days, months or week observances you think I should try to honor. I will also use my twitter account to document this as well.

April is National Poetry Month, so in honor of this month I have composed this poem about poetry.

Whether a words smith or a Wordsworth

Their craft defines each age

Their rhyme schemes riddle

And children giggle at

Words

Falling

off

the

page.

Alliteration, meter, and onomatopoeia

The tools that earn much praise

The metaphors

We all adore

Oh, let me count the ways

Like Frost on a snowy evening

No two are quite the same

Even Yeats and Keats

Who will never repeat

Have different sounding names

From a narrow fellow in the grass

To a Whitman counting each blade

Shakespeare to Angelou

Shelly to Langston Hughes

They are masters of their trade.

If you can recite Kipling

Familiarize yourself with ancient lore

Know why the cage bird sings

Of cabbages—and kings

Then be a metrophobe nevermore.

Wednesday, I got a chance to attended the Susan B. Anthony Birthday Luncheon. The Luncheon is organized by the Susan B. Anthony House, (her home–now a city landmark) located here in Rochester, NY.

This year, 2010, marks the 90th anniversary of the 19th Amendment. That’s the one that allows me vote every November.

Instead of a keynote speaker, this year there was a keynote presentation. Actor Elizabeth Rainer performed “Hear My Voice: Win the Vote”. a vignette about a second generation suffragette and her battle and final success to secure the vote for women. It was an amazing presentation, with so many stories I had never heard before. Like how many of the women were arrested and sent to work houses, where they went on hunger strikes. The guards would force food down their throats through tubes. There was one story about a guard forcing milk down a woman’s nose because she refused to open her mouth (there was a picture on the big screen too—ugh). There were also stories about men attacking the female protesters and even firing gun shots at them. All the stories were accompanied by a video with old photographs of some of the stories and events.

I feel very fortunate to have the opportunity to celebrate such an important legacy, and left feeling especially proud to be a woman.

Well done Guy Fieri. Matt and I made the East Utica Greens and they were delicious.

East Utica Greens

Matt even had a Utica Club just to complete the picture. It wasn’t that hard, but it was messy cutting up all the escarole. I think next time I’ll splurge and get the pre-cut escarole.

A co-worker of mine just sent me a recipe for tomato pie too.  So I’ll have to try that next. Utica is coming to Rochester!

They are at it again. The food network is once again discovering the outstanding cuisine of upstate New York. This time Guy Fieri (who I follow on twitter) has tackled East Utica Greens. For those of you who have never had East Utica Greens, they are fantastic, and not anything like southern greens. They are made with Italian greens (Escarole) and hot ham, hot peppers, and of course garlic! For years I have been asking (even begging) people for the recipe but no one has been able to give to me. I even tried to figure it out myself, but that was a disaster. So now Guy Fieri has beat me to the punch.

The story he tells is pretty funny too. He was at the Turning Stone Casino and was eating a veggie platter. Smack in the middle of the food served was this “green stuff” (as he said). He was afraid to try it, so he had his assistant eat it. When she couldn’t stop eating it, he was like “I gotta try this!”….haha, yeah that’s kinda what it’s like.

So I’m going to try his recipe and see if he got it right. Look forward to another blog post with the results. To the Food Network I have to ask…So what’s next? Grape Pies? Tomato Pie? Garbage Plate?. I’d actually like to see if one of their stars can figure out what’s in the Garbage Plate sauce–I bet it is wonderful

The frost made a beautiful icy pattern on our hallway window

Here’s a tale for all winter naysayers. After a week of traveling and visiting with friends and family, Matt and I have finally had a weekend home alone. It has been a very snowy and cold weekend. Snow can be a bother when you have someplace to be, but when you have no commitments it’ s a wonderful reason to stay inside with someone you love. Matt and I have hardly left the house, instead we have spent this weekend in cozy warm clothes, sipping hot chocolate and looking out at the elegant falling snow. I even made a lamb stew in the new dutch oven my parents gave me for Christmas. I started a new book and have already finished 12 chapters. I really can’t think of a better way to spend a cold winter’s day.

Tomorrow is Monday and I will have to return to work. The snow will once again become an unwelcome foe as I fight my way through and against it to get to work on time. In a few months I will long for the first signs of spring, but I hope I never forget the romantic beauty that snow brings. I really can’t imagine living with out it.

Not sure what this says about me but I love having all my shopping done and all my presents wrapped (in coordinating paper) under the tree before Christmas. It puts me in a holiday mood.

This year is our first holiday in our own house. And now that we have a fireplace, we can actually hang our stockings with care. (before we hung them on a closet door knob).

I also decided on what holiday treat to make this year. I was going to do baklava, but that proved to be very hard. I made a practice one and it tasted great, but was very time consuming to build–so not very practical during the busy holiday season. Instead I made candied orange peels dipped in chocolate. They look fancy but really they were very easy and very yummy.

I know, I know. I haven’t posted anything for a while. It’s really a shame too, because I’ve had a lot going on. For those who haven’t heard Matt and I just bought our first house. We’ve also had a first household crisis. The kitchen ceiling sprung a leak the day before Thanksgiving.:(

Speaking of Thanksgiving. We had 11 people this year. Including my grandmother and her husband David. We were so excited to have everyone over. It was by far my best Thanksgiving yet. I tried some new recipes and I loved them all. I also borrowed a turkey roaster and it made the turkey very moist. I think I will buy one for next year. Yep, already planning for next year.

I have decided to make my New Year’s resolution to be a better blogger. So wish me luck.

The title of this post refers to a cry Matt and I heard from a fan at an Amerks game once. We thought it was a very odd cheer, but now we like to say it before games.

So it begins again, hockey season is here, and we love it. Today was an exhibition game against York.  RIT is looking good this year. They started off strong, leading 3-0. York started to catch up, with the score 3-2 by the third period, but RIT held them until the end. I’m looking forward to a great season! Next week–Colgate, we got your number.