Cookies and Books

Today I made my special chocolate-cranberry-oatmeal cookies, which are made with all healthy ingredients and are also delicious! This time I even made them with white chocolate chips, which is an interesting twist.

Chocolate-Cranberry-Oatmeal Cookies (or Goddess Cookies, because according to Jena, they are what keeps me young, blonde, and strong. [or something.] )

(adapted from Quaker Oats' Vanishing Oatmeal Raisin Cookies recipe--you can basically mess with the proportions/ingredients as you like, but this is what I do)

1/2 cup + 6 Tbsp apple sauce (or butter)
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1+ tsp vanilla (my general rule about vanilla: always add more.)
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour (or, you know, whatever kind of flour)
1+ tsp baking soda (add a little more because of the apple sauce)
1+ tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
3 cups oatmeal (I use only about 1 1/2 or 2, but it's just preference)
1 cup craisins

Combine apple sauce and sugars; add eggs and vanilla, beat well. Add combined flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt; mix well. Add oats and craisins. Blah blah blah toss onto a cookie sheet in absolutely perfect spheres weighing exactly ten grams each blah blah blah and bake at 350F for 8 to 10 minutes. Makes enough cookies to share with your friends or hoard over the course of a week.

I also read this book:

Which was a very beautiful, human book about ten people who are trapped in an Indian visa office in an American city after an earthquake, each sharing one amazing story from their life as they wait for death or rescue. Read it.

Still, despite all this, my weekend has been excruciatingly boring. Sigh. :-/ I need to do something legitimately exciting next weekend. Like seriously.

Day 31, 32, & 33: On My Way Home!

My last days in England were spent scuba diving off a much less challenging beach (still so cold my hands didn't work for like half an hour afterwards), visiting family, and shopping in Truro, the nearby city/town. I don't think it has as many people as Denton (?) but it's much more dense, much more city-like: it has all the fancy shops and pedestrian areas and tall buildings, which Denton, for the most part, lacks. It's a neat town, though, Truro is.

And now I'm on the first leg of my journey home: Truro to London by train. I'll be home by tomorrow night (though for me it's slightly longer than that). So now, that Beatles song is playing in my head, "We're on our way home, we're coming hoooome!" Yay! (Seriously, there's a Beatles song for every conceivable situation. Not even joking.)

Wow. I just watched a man pull up a QR code on his iPhone in place of a ticket, which the lady scanned with a machine. I swear one day no one will need wallets because it's all gonna be in a little wallet app on our phones.

Random thought. Sorry. Anyway...

As I've been training, I've been reading the book State of Wonder by Ann Patchett. For Seeley vets, you will understand why I found it funny when I read the synopsis:

"In a narrative replete with poison arrows, devouring snakes, scientific miracles, and spiritual transformations, State of Wonder presents a world of stunning surprise and danger, rich in emotional resonance and moral complexity.

"As Dr. Marina Singh embarks upon an uncertain odyssey into the insect-infested Amazon, she will be forced to surrender herself to the lush but forbidding world that awaits within the jungle. Charged with finding her former mentor Dr. Annick Swenson, a researcher who has disappeared while working on a valuable new drug, she will have to confront her own memories of tragedy and sacrifice as she journeys into the unforgiving heart of darkness..."

Eh, eh? Catch the references? The last phrase loses all subtlety: yes, this is basically Heart of Darkness told from a woman's perspective. Instead of the Congo, it's the Amazon, instead of Marlow, it's Marina, instead of Kurtz, it's Dr. Swenson. But the fact remains that the basic plot is the same: unassuming average person is thrown into a jungle which has a mind of its own (the symbolic "heart of darkness," the potential for evil at the hart of all mankind) to find the elusive genius hidden away within, only to discover a wealth of moral ambiguity and so-called "spiritual transformations" there. Even the titles bear the same rhythm: state-of-won-der, heart-of-dark-ness. The reviews on the cover say this book is "a masterpiece," but I feel the petulant urge to argue that it was Joseph Conrad's masterpiece first.

No, no. I am too harsh. This really is a fabulous novel, and original in ways other than the obvious. The characters are interesting, the plot is not exactly identical to Heart of Darkness (though the themes are), and it explores some very fascinating issues. It's a lot more personal than Conrad's novella, more modern and intimate and accessible (and feminine). It doesn't have that heavy existential overtone, which I kind of loved in HoD but will admit was exhausting. Also, without the hindrance of being a vocal narrative or whatever you want to call it (where Marlow is telling the story in real time) it was a much more conventional read (whether that's a good thing is up to you). I really did enjoy this book; Patchett is clearly a very intelligent writer. But it was especially interesting having just read Conrad's version. So yeah. Make of that what you will.

I am including this picture because I feel obligated to include something colorful for your poor internetted minds. I promise as soon as I'm home these posts will become much more aesthetically pleasing, and arguably more interesting for some of you. Not long now!

Day 30: Rough Seas and Red Lions

After sleeping in almost ridiculously late and finishing my book (I'll get to that later) my father and I went scuba diving off Maenporth Beach. Sort of. We swam 200 meters out into the sea (in the rain, in the frigid water, each with what felt like my entire weight in equipment, and getting tossed around by rocking waves), went under for a few minutes and saw, oh I dunno, three different kinds of fish and lots of algae and lots of seaweed and lots of sand, but mostly just murky water, then proceded to fight the tide back into shore (a long swim) after deciding that it wasn't worth it in these rough conditions. Also, neither of us had enough weights on our weight belts to get us all the way down. Oh, it was exhausting! I'm glad we did it, because we've never been successful in scuba diving in England before, but god was it tough going. By the time I got out onto the beach I was lugging around an extra thick layer of water all around my body as well, and my too-big shoes were completely bloated and my fingers didn't work because of the cold water. But maybe tomorrow the weather will be better and we'll get back in our astronaut suits and dive down at Pendennis, which is supposed to be better diving. Maybe.

Then we came home and I tried to rest but instead ended up making Easy Bars and Flapjacks, two Australian snacks which are delicious. I will include the recipes, because recipes are one of my things.

EASY BARS

3/4 cup brown sugar
200g butter
1 1/2 cup flour
1 egg
1 cup chopped dates/dried fruit

Melt butter and sugar in a saucepan. Remove from heat. Add flour, eggs, and dates. Spread in a greased pan and bake at a moderate temperature (maybe 350F?) until they look edible.

FLAPJACKS

6 tbsp Golden Syrup
200g butter
12 oz oats

Melt butter and syrup in a saucepan. Add to oats and mix to coat. Spread in a greased pan and bake for a while at a good temperature until they look edible. Haha.

But seriously, both these things are delicious and worth making for easy picnicking.

Blah blah blah then we eventually went to dinner with some friends of my grandparents, Mike and Sheila Golding, at the Red Lion, a really neat old restaurant that was built in 1500 or some such ridiculous year a million years ago. It had a lot of ambience,, and some really nice candles that made for wonderful entertainment, until I stuffed it out on accident. But food was good. Lots of olives.

Now I'm in bed and I desperately want to go to sleep and I want all this orientation nonsense to sort itself out because, no, UNT, I will not be attending both Orientation 5 and Orientation 6, and I would like it very much if you would realize that before I "miss" the first one and you freak out on me. Also, I wish you would save all the classes I need for me, but I doubt you will, so blah.

All of this nonsense is so confuuuuusing. :-/

Oh, and I was going to talk to you about Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger! Overall I thought it was okay - not nearly as good as The Tie Traveler's Wife, but Niffenegger is clearly a talented writer with a very distinctive style that I happen to love. While this story was less...I dunno...charismatic? than her first, it certainly wasn't a waste of a novel. But it was more depressing, and not in a the cathartic, life-affirming way of TTW. Just straight up depressing. As in, it will make you depressed. It was one of those books that kind of leave you feeling ill because of the complete moral ambiguity and the horrible dilemmas and ultimately the decisions that the characters make that, despite the element of fantasy (ghosts/afterlife), are so prevalent in real life, even if they are kind of hidden (because they suck). So yes, it was a valuable read. But not an uplifting one and kind of a stomach-curdling one, too. And I don't usually like ghost stories, so I don't know if this is something a ghost-story lover would enjoy, but just...have caution. I didn't really like any of the main female characters, either. I kind of loved the main male characters, each for different reasons, but they were ultimately disappointing (in an entirely human way - I'm not blaming the author for this). The girls, on the other hand, all had that weird mental/personal feverishness that made them hard to connect to and almost repulsive, as if their personalities are diseased. I'm not sure if that makes sense here, but if you read the book you'd know what I mean.

I don't mean to sound so critical - the book was legitimately good, a fascinating look at some of the weirdest kinds of relationships, from twin sisters and their twin parents, romances with massive age differences, dead lovers, spouses struggling with OCD. It was truly absorbing, just incredibly hopeless. So, read with caution. But do read.

Day 26: Baileys Reunite! Maenporth At Last! (attempt no. 2)

So for the record, this is my second time writing this post, so I am quite frustrated. The first one was long and detailed and interesting and written in my new foldable bluetooth keyboard for the iPhone. But when I was finished, said iPhone failed to save the post, and all of my glorious work was lost. Due to my general anger at this piece of machinery, I'm not even going to attempt to replicate it, and just highlight the important bits.

1) I'm with my family again! And yesterday our relations, Jennifer and Roger, visited, and it was very nice to meet them - such interesting people!

2) I'm having fun but looking forward to coming home in a week. Maenporth is my last stop on this glorious journey, and a good last stop at that. But it will be nice to get back in the swing of things, focus on college, and makeup for missing hanging out with my dear friends and boyfriend for a month.

3) Stuff about how Maenporth is awesome. See picture below. Also, credit goes to the grandparents for owning the house and letting us come here basically all my life.

4) Sea kayaking. We did it in Maenporth bay. Saw the shipwreck (decaying but still extant), a purple cave-tunnel, and fluorescent blue seaweed that turned brown outside of the water.

5) Was accosted by a small Siamese cat with bells on to be his personal masseuse until further notice.

6) The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger. Ohmygod just read it. I probably wrote an entire page about this book and now that's gone and I want to cry so just read the freaking book and be amazed by how beautiful and intense and well-written and deliciously long it is, and be confirmed in your humanity and blah blah blah whatever else I said it would do to you. Especially if you're Anna or Laura. And then come talk to me about it. And no, I don't give a crap if you've seen the movie. Just do it.

7) Books are amazing and I wish I could just read books all day and make money instead of getting a job. Oh wait, that's why I'm becoming a publisher. Cool. We're good.

Day 20: Crashing Cafés, Hopping Trains, and

McDonalds ice cream sucks. I remember thinking that years and years ago, the last time I had it, but I decided to give this "classy" McCafe a second chance, as, after my travel- and waiting-filled day, it is the only food place near the hostel and I am starving.

Also I just looked to my left and saw a hefty woman grope her equally hefty boyfriend's crotch. Oh god. McDonald's. O_O

I have spent an inordinate amount of today sitting quietly in cafe corners, far outstaying my I-bought-your-food right to a seat. I had to leave the hostel at ten but my train for Liverpool didn't leave til four thirty and I've done everything in Stratford worth doing. So I did laundry. And went to a used bookshop. Both things I somehow thought would take more time, but I still managed to sit in Starbucks for an hour, The Tea Room Cafe for two hours, and the train station for three. And then, of course, spend an hour and a half on one train, half an hour in another station, then two hours on yet another train. And after navigating my way to the hostel dragging my stupid luggage, sitting in Mcdonalds. Stealing their Internet (hey, it's free) and eating their almost-water lettuce and a Cadbury McFlurry (sadly, the two healthiest things on the menu).

But on the bright side, I bought two books for £4! Seriously, why don't they sell $2 books in the US? They're new books too, and in good condition. I read one today, while I was doing all the sitting and waiting, and that's where the glass comes in.

The book I read is called The Girl With the Glass Feet by Ali Shaw. It was a very mature, beautiful, sad, and magical book - not because of its content really, which encompasses fantastical beasts (that aren't actually that important contextually but have a more subtle metaphorical role) and death and illness and love and how the past haunts the present (but only because the present unwittingly lets it) - but because of the delicacy, sensitivity, and honesty with which it was written. I have never read a book quite like it (and never will again, I suspect) and it's hard to say I enjoyed the experience. I loved the book, yes - adored it, even - but it's not an easy story to wrap yourself around. On the one hand it's a painfully true love story between a reclusive young man who can't stand the idea of touching people and a once-adventurous girl whose feet, to her immense confusion, are turning into glass. The setting is a remote British isle riddled with strange, inexplicable things hiding in the bogs that go unnoticed except by the odd few, whom this story concerns. Despite the elements of fantasy, this is not a fantastical book. At times it can be uncomfortable in its rawness, it's incisiveness into these characters' struggling souls as they face every unglamorous new emotion possible, where before they were carefree and numb, with all the pain of the past buried under the distractions of seclusion and routine. A truly, truly fascinating and moving book. Worth reading if you like to be challenged and left with questions you otherwise would not have thought to ask yourself. Strangely beautiful, quietly powerful, vibrantly colorless, and unfailingly even-toned. A work of literary merit.