Debajo de el tiempo

Did I say that right? I'm feeling a little under the weather today. Not physically, rather mentally. It's weird how I can (or anyone for that matter) can be in great spirits, going with the flow of life, thinking positive thoughts about everything changing and unfolding all of the time....and then one day, just one day, those doubting thoughts start to creep in. Then it's like a snowball, they just keep coming and coming until you are plowed down with doubt.

I have made a tremendous amount of headway over the last week in my quest to re-locate to Costa Rica. For those of you who know me, it's a miracle I even chose a location to begin with. I've been scheming, dreaming and otherwise talking the talk of moving to another country for YEARS now. My people have been very nice, and not told me to shut the F up they are sick of hearing about it.

Listen, I've had my job for twelve years now. TWELVE YEARS. You cannot imagine what is going on in my head. Luckily, a lot of it is happy. Some of it is fear. How am I going to pay for my healthcare and dental? How am I going to EVER save enough money to get my teeth worked on if I live in Costa Rica on a Costa Rican salary? Will I stay there forever? Will I not last even a month? What about my cats? What about my family? Not only am I thinking about these things....but I am terrified of being unproductive and lazy when I am collecting unemployment in Chicago. I have so many projects and things I want to do and I'm afraid of laziness. And of course I cannot be living on unemployment forever. I think one year is the time period. Am I going to figure out what I want to do next with my life instead of settling for some crappy job in Chicago and remain miserable? I want to spread my wings. I want to get into a field I love. Here's my thoughts right now....Elementary Education, Applied Linguistics (ESL), and Latin American Studies. I have no idea how I'm going to do all three but I want to. Is that crazy? Ok, enough of my rantings....by the way, I updated a few prior posts if you wanted the recipes for any of my meals I made.

Chicago: By Kate Greve

Ok I know I said I was going to tell you all about my experience with Level 1 ESL at the not-for profit free English classes I teach. And I haven't finished my Yucca Shephard's Pie post. And ....and....so many more. It's really crazy before I leave for Costa Rica (I bought my 9 year old nephew an MP3 player, had to load mine and his....I'm not so technologically proficient with these sorts of things so it's taken me 3 days after work to arrange my music and load the damn things) and on top of it all I wanted to get this photo book started for my mom for mothers day and my aunt is coming in today from California. Whew. SO sorry but I wanted to share with you some magnificent photos of Chicago by my friend Kate Greve. I always love her photos and I think you will too. They really capture the essence and FEEL of Chicago. In fact, my blog picture is by Kate as well! Thanks Kate!

Ethiopian Food

I had some lentils and green peppers I needed to use up. I googled "recipes with lentils and green peppers". From there I went with it. What a delicious treat! Post recipes tonight if anyone is actually reading this right now.



Recipe:

1 cup brown lentils
1/2 tsp cayenne
1/2 cup water
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup green bell pepper diced
3/4 cup onions finely chopped
salt and ground black pepper to taste
2 x garlic cloves minced
3 tbl olive oil
8 x won-ton wrappers
2 tsp sweet Hungarian paprika
1 x egg yolk beaten with
1 tbl water
1 tsp fresh ginger root grated peeled
1 tsp coriander seed ground
oil for deep-frying

Rinse the lentils and bring them to a boil in the water. Reduce the heat, cover, and simmer for 45 minutes. Meanwhile, saute the onions and garlic in the olive oil until the onions are translucent. Add the spices and chopped green peppers and simmer, covered, for 3 minutes, stirring often.

Remove the pan from the heat. When the lentils are tender, combine them with the sauteed vegetables. Season with salt and pepper.

Cut the won ton wrappers in half to form rectangles. Place a wrapper vertically on a flat surface and brush it with the beaten egg mixture. Put a rounded tablespoon of the filling on the lower end of one of the rectangles. Fold the left bottom corner up and over the filling until it meets the right edge of the wrapper and forms a triangle. Next, flip the filled triangle up and over, folding along its upper edge. Then fold it over to the left on the diagonal. Continue folding until you reach the end of the wrapper and have formed a neat triangular package. Repeat this process with the other won ton wrapper rectangles. Deep-fry each pastry until golden in 2 or 3 inches of oil heated to 360F. You can keep the fried sambussas in a warm oven until they are all prepared and ready to be served. Sambussas are best eaten hot.

source:http://ethiopianrecipes.net/sambussa-ethiopian/

My How The Neighborhood Has Changed......

Your Children Should Learn Spanish

Blagojevich Reality Show In Costa Rican Jungle

As if Illinois weren't already in the spotlight enough due to the scandals of it's government.......You know, looking at Illinois as an insider, I really didn't know how the puzzle piece fit into the rest of the puzzle. I live here. Yes, prior governor George Ryan is in jail for the illegal sale of government licenses, contracts and leases by state employees. He was named in a 22-count federal indictment including charges racketeering, bribery, extortion, money laundering and tax fraud and is now serving prison time. Ok great. Next up after George Ryan, Governor Rod Blagojevich, the second Serbian American to be elected governor of any state in the United States, was arrested on federal corruption charges. He was charged with conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud and solicitation of bribery. Another point in case regarding citizens of Chicago, in particular, is the well known and accepted fact that City of Chicago government has been corrupt for ages! Love Chicago. And in a sick way I kinda like Mayor Daley, but his camp (and his father's camp before him) are all incestuous in their business affairs. They're all sucking eachothers proverbial d*&cks, so to speak. And we just turn our heads the other way. Poor neighborhoods don't get potholes fixed in timely manners. Downtown gets a revamp of Grant Park that cost millions of dollars, yet schools are closing down in neighborhoods that can't keep up. I should back all of this up with some statistics and stuff but I'm going to have to do that another time. This post is actually intended to be funny. Wait, enter laugh...........As if Blagojevich's "couch antics" on all of the daytime talk shows weren't enough when he was "attempting" to defend himself to the public and garner media support (god knows HOW THE HELL he was going to do that all the while appearing to be a crazy felonious person) he now wants permission from a judge in the middle of his court case to give him permission (which he does NOT have now) to appear in a reality show in Costa Rica in June! He wants to be dropped in the middle of the Costa Rican jungle and appear on a reality show called "I'm A Celebrity....Get Me Out of Here!" Ummm.....whose guessing that this Sneaky Slimy Serb (sorry, I know a lot of really awesome Serbs....but this one's a slimebucket) is going to run off awol in the middle of Central America? BET. he gots a plane waiting to carry him off to the promise land. AHEM.

I cannot stop laughing (and also questioning more deeply the politics of this state) profusely in bewilderment over the antics of this guy WHO USED TO BE OUR GOVERNOR......how did we put someone like this into office? I wouldn't even call him an a-hole, I just call him a pathetic, seriously cuckoo, delusional, wack job out of touch with reality. wtf? So as a Chicagoan, there is so much that comes across our plates on a daily basis, that we just become sort of numbed by the usual corruption of our government. I think that everyone is so busy trying to stay on top of their own life they have little energy left at the end of the day to devote to making a difference. I guess that goes for most people. In the end, we end up shrugging our shoulders and laughing in dismay and going about our business. I also heard Chicago was ranked one of the most miserable cities to live in. That's news to me and I'm going to have to do some research. I love Chicago and think it's one of the best cities in the world.

Ok, enough ranting. I think you will all enjoy "I LIKE SQUARE BUTS" as much as I did.

The Week of Technology

Please bear with me. I'm trying to bear with myself. The list of topics I intend to blog about grows exponentially daily. However, in my quest to make this blog functional and aesthetically pleasing, I've been focusing on the design and technology aspects. As you can see, I learned how to put a "subscribe by email" link on my page. That took about two days. Here's what I intend to accomplish:

1. Learn how to create a "read more" link so that my entire postings don't ramble on, on the face of the blog. Apparently there's some tricky html involved with this. Might be awhile.

2. I really love the photo I have associated with Noisy Chicagoan. However, the trained designer eye (and maybe the untrained eye) notices that there is a light green border on the right side of the photo...and it doesn't look right. It doesn't look HORRIBLE but it doesn't look right. I'm assuming I could photoshop the picture but I'm not sure if that would compromise the pixels or something. Any thoughts?

3. I need to add "tags" (that's what they're called right?) so the postings can be brought up under any one specific topic. Get ready for an onslaught of a lot of random topics. What do I file the edible anus chocolates under? Miscellaneous? Perversions? lol.

4. I'd like to play around with the headings and their colors, sizes and fonts and placement. I really like the way Cancun Canuck did her page layout in terms of the headings and tags etc....All in all, she's got a great blog. Among others.

5. Which leads me to my fifth, and as far as I know at this moment, last item to tackle before I am satisfied about blogging real content where I can invite readers....completing my blog roll. There are so many amazing blogs out there. Much like life the ones I randomly ran across became like favorite books of mine, except they are ongoing and multidimensional and even interactive! Beats television every day to learn about people's lives and the diversity people bring to the world.

Ok that's enough for right now. I'm at work and dreading breaking the news to my boss that my Costa Rican vacation is actually going to have me gone 8 days from the office and not 5. I'm sweatin yo.....I'm sweatin......