How to eat chocolate

My niece Klara and nephew Caleb at a family friend’s wedding last weekend

Buddhism - the dirty secret of the McCain campaign

Because I am a journalist and my contact information is splashed across news media directories worldwide, I get a lot of crackpot kind of emails. The latest comes from a man who’s appalled that John McCain recently met with the Dalai Lama and addressed him as “your Holiness.” “With his right hand,” declared the email writer, “John McCain confessed his Buddhist faith.” From his letter, you’d think Buddhism to be a four-letter word.

Yeah… crackpot emails generally don’t work, but they are even less effective when you send them to a reporter who’s also one of those Buddhists.

Gas prices reach new high (or low)

Brandon and I are lucky in that the exorbitant gas prices haven’t affected us as much as, say, my brother who has a 45-minute commute each way to work every day. Brandon’s company is just 7 miles away and my office is usually my home office. His Jeep only gets about 14-miles to the gallon, so we usually take my car about town, which is much more fuel-efficient at 28-miles to the gallon. Still, the high cost of gas was enough to make us cancel a scheduled weekend trip to Chicago last month. The gas cost alone would rival that of our hotel stay.

But you really know gas prices are getting out of control when women resort to selling their bodies for gas - read story here.

Brandon’s been clamouring for one of the “new” Smart Cars (which have available in Europe for a decade). Last night, a local news channel took a look at them and I was surprised to find that they only get about 38-miles to the gallon and they’re a really rough ride. My sedan, which is probably three times as large as the Smart Car and very comfortable, gets just 10-gallon less per mile. You’d think in our infinite technological prowess that we’d be able to make cars that are more fuel-efficient. Or maybe they have, but as conspiracy theories would have it, the car manufacturers are in cahoots with the oil companies. Who knows. All I know is that that cute retro Vespa scooter is looking better and better each day.

Newport’s Green Thumbs

When my contractor neighbor told us that Newport’s historic East Row was comprised largely of gays and older émigrés from Indian Hill (one of the nation’s richest ZIP codes), I thought he was exaggerating or homophobic or a combination of both. But after being greeted by four gay couples in the first four homes of the eight-home Newport Garden Walk Sunday, even I had to admit the astuteness of his observation.

Despite Esquire magazine’s declaration in 1957 of Newport as “the most wicked city in America,” the city today is surprisingly conservative. The Committee of 500, a team of religious do-gooders, first set siege on the “Sin City” in the 1960s, declaring war on the city’s gambling, vice and prostitution bosses - for more on the city’s history, go here. By the time Brandon and I both moved here, much of the evidence of Newport’s illustrious past had disappeared, existing largely today in the memories of local old-timers who recalled the city’s heydays with equal parts nostalgia and censure.

The East Row Historic District sits comfortably at the foot of what is called Mansion Hill – the mansion in reference is the Wiedemann Hill Mansion, which was built for beer baron heir Charles Wiedemann in 1894. The area became a favorite of wealthy business owners and merchants in the late 1800s and its financial demographic hasn’t much changed since. Still considered one of the most prestigious and expensive areas of the city, stately Italianate and Queen Anne style homes mingle along tree-lined streets with many boasting impressive (and professionally designed) back-yard gardens. Here are a few highlights from them and our tour:

More photos are available on our online photo gallery here.

It must be Friday

Being a mobile journalist has its perks. I can work from home in my pajamas or from my “satellite” offices (a.k.a. coffee houses with free wifi) in the communities I cover. I absolutely hate being confined to a cubicle eight hours a day, so the freedom is great. But sadly, it also means that I miss out on such zany office-themed events as Crazy No-Pants Day. Here’s an email one of the editors just sent out:

To: News Users
Subject: WHO LOST THEIR PANTS?

A pair of pants — with belt — found its way to right behind my chair. If they are yours — or if you see someone walking around without pants — let me know.

It kind of puts a whole new spin on Casual Fridays.

Urban Dictionary Meme

I got this from my sister on MySpace, but I thought it’s be fun to pass around. Here are the rules:

1. Answer the survey question and then look up your answer on www.urbandictionary.com and paste one of the definitions found there along with your answer.

2. Post it on your blog and include illustrations if you like.

3. Link to the person who tagged you and tag more blogs if you feel so inclined.

Here’s mine:

1) Your name?: Rachel.

“A smart, sassy and sexy young woman who knows things from fashion to film to literature, from Manolo Blahniks to Mahatma Gandhi. She impressed everybody in the meeting. She’s such a Rachel.”

2) How old are you: 29

“29 is akin to, in the words of most, “Humping a Humpback whale. The 2 from sideways looks like a whale’s hump and tail, hence the whale part, and the 9 is you. 29 resembles you humping a whale. It is a strange new thing that is catching on rapidly.”

3) One of your friends?: Lisa

“A very attractive kind of the female gender who has a sultry gaze and a great figure. Lisas are usually attracted to common types of carbohydrates and will devour them vigorously if let loose without caution. Extremely attractive.”

4) Where will your next vacation be?: Hocking Hills (for our one-year anniversary in July). Hocking Hills wasn’t in the dictionary, so I typed in “woods” instead.

“Incarceration Term-Used to describe whites in prison/jail. Short for peckerwood, a derogatory term used to portray dumb white boys. Much like redneck.”

5) Favorite Food?: Veggie Samosa

“Indian savory pastries filled with curry, generally potato curry. Quite possibly the most perfect things ever created by humankind, they are a treat for all occasions and a cure for all ills. Well, except violent gastrointestinal upset due to overconsumption, and we won’t do that again now will we? Needless to say, they’re radtastic.”

6) Hometown? Milford

“a collection or gathering of attractive young to middle age mothers who guys want to bone.”

7) Word to describe yourself?: Creative

“What teachers call you when they don’t want to say you are a dumbass.”

8 ) Car you drive?: Sedan

“Town in (North)Eastern France were France got pwned badly by Germany on September 1st 1870.”

9) Last person you talked to on the phone?: Contractor

“Someone who doesn’t have the skills or talent to hold down a permanent job. They are inherently lazy and sneaky.”

10) Your occupation?: Reporter

“The “Reporter” (n) A Gordita combo meal from Taco Bell. Just as a firecracker has a report, so too does the Taco Bell Gordita. If you have it for lunch, the report will occur around 3 o’clock. In other words, you will have to pinch a loaf shortly after eating it. The “Report” time varies per person.”

I am tagging Ottermatic, Lisa, Deniselle, Lindsay and Thoughtracer.

Oddly reassuring

34 As a 1930s wife, I am Poor Take the test!

I can haz cheeseburger?

You’d think I’d get right on finishing up the last two papers of the entire academic year, but alas, I have been procrastinating endlessly all day. My latest procrastination find? The site I Can Haz Cheeseburger.

I’ve got lots of silly, funny pictures of our furbabies I can submit. Here’s my first submission. Meet Grayson, my beautiful cuddle cat who has a thing for odd positions and shoes.

Irony

I’ve spent a collective seven years in college, earning two degrees and a soon-to-be-completed master’s degree and amassing more than $50k in student loan debt so that I can write a feature story on lawn bowling.

The irony does not escape me.

On weddings

When Brandon and I got engaged, we both knew our wedding would be, to say the least, unconventional.

My ring is made of socially-friendly moissonite; Brandon’s is made of wood collected in an environmentally-friendly manner. I had already lined up the officiant: a Buddhist and pagan Catholic lay minister whom I met while writing a story on the opening of the spiritual retreat by her and her life partner. We would write our own vows. The setting was to be decided, but the ceremony was to be outside and any flowers to be in pots so I could throw them in my garden afterwards. The reception would be vegetarian and alcohol-free, prompting my brother to grumble about bringing in his own six-pack and bag of McDonald’s. In lieu of wedding gifts, we’d ask our patrons to donate to a non-profit charity.

It was after hearing NPR’s Talk of the Nation address contemporary weddings that we decided to elope. I planned the bulk of my wedding with three phone calls within two days. We got married a month after making the decision.

My mother was dismayed, of course, at being robbed of a chance to play mother-of-the-bride at the first wedding of our family, but I think even she enjoyed our garden-side ceremony in front of a Victorian mansion on an island forgotten in time.

Planning even a small wedding as mine was stressful, but memorable. I took great care to select things that meant something to us and would remember for a lifetime to come. I imagine the Bush family is experiencing that same kind of excitement in their family’s own first wedding this Saturday. The president sounds like every father about to walk his daughter down the aisle: flushed with pride, with a twinge of sadness as his child marks this next passage in her life. There is a tendency for people hold those in leadership positions to near superhuman standards, perhaps rightfully so. Still, it’s stories like that remind me of the humanity of even George Bush.

Weddings are joyful family events. As George Bush gears to celebrate his own daughter’s wedding, I only wish he would extend the same heady experience to everyone and not just those he deems worthy of the right to marry the one they love.