Chuck Klosterman & my friend Jenny Mae

I have an online friend named Jenny Mae who I intend to meet one day. Until then, I enjoy her via ye olde internets. Jenny is a gardening, plug-wearing, red/baking/Jesus/music/tattoos/family loving, kinda-sorta anarchist in Columbus, Ohio. She’s also on Twitter, where she provides good thoughts and hilarity.

A while ago she passed on her responses to Chuck Klosterman’s 23 questions that he asks people before deciding if he can love them. You can read all of Chuck’s questions here and here (plus the answers that each of those bloggers gave), and if you google his name + 23 questions, you’ll find even more. But now, I’m going to share with you a couple responses Jenny Mae gave that show why I love her . . .

7. Defying all expectation, a group of Scottish marine biologists capture a live Loch Ness Monster. In an almost unbelievable coincidence, a bear hunter in the Pacific Northwest shoots a Sasquatch in the thigh, thereby allowing zoologists to take the furry monster into captivity. These events happen on the same afternoon. That evening, the president announces he may have thyroid cancer and will undergo a biopsy later that week.

You are the front page editor of The New York Times: What do you play as the biggest story?

i'm far more interested in the paranormal, mysteries of the world than politics so the president is the low man on the totem pole right off the bat. if the president DIED, sure but a biopsy? i say good day sir! i'd run sasquatch because he was shot and an injury is more sensational and interesting than just being captured. HOWEVER! the loch ness monster was most certainly captured in scotland so this might finally be my "in" with david tennant (who is scottish, duh) if i profile nessie.

8. You meet the perfect person. Romantically, this person is ideal: You find them physically attractive, intellectually stimulating, consistently funny, and deeply compassionate. However, they have one quirk: This individual is obsessed with Jim Henson's gothic puppet fantasy The Dark Crystal. Beyond watching it on DVD at least once a month, he/she peppers casual conversation with Dark Crystal references, uses Dark Crystal analogies to explain everyday events, and occasionally likes to talk intensely about the film's "deeper philosophy."

Would this be enough to stop you from marrying this individual?

i can deal with the dark crystal if he can hang with my doctor who. win/win & lose/lose

18. You have won a prize. The prize has two options, and you can choose either (but not both). The first option is a year in Europe with a monthly stipend of $2,000. The second option is ten minutes on the moon.

Which option do you select?

I WOULD LOVE TO BE THE FIRST PERSON ON THE MOON!

(Jenny doesn’t believe we’ve been to the moon)

20. For whatever the reason, two unauthorized movies are made about your life. The first is an independently released documentary, primarily comprised of interviews with people who know you and bootleg footage from your actual life. Critics are describing the documentary as “brutally honest and relentlessly fair.” Meanwhile, Columbia Tri-Star has produced a big-budget biopic of your life, casting major Hollywood stars as you and all your acquaintances; though the movie is based on actual events, screenwriters have taken some liberties with the facts. Critics are split on the artistic merits of this fictionalized account, but audiences love it.

Which film would you be most interested in seeing?

the real one. i’m much more concerned about people's opinions that i know and love and clips of my actual doings than someone else's interpretation. however it'd be boss to see who plays me.

*  *  *

And here are a few more questions that I simply thought were funny.

23. Consider this possibility:

a. Think about deceased TV star John Ritter.

b. Now, pretend Ritter had never become famous. Pretend he was never affected by the trappings of fame, and try to imagine what his personality would have been like.

c. Now, imagine that this person—the unfamous John Ritter—is a character in a situation comedy.

d. Now, you are also a character in this sitcom, and the unfamous John Ritter character is your sitcom father.

e. However, this sitcom is actually your real life. In other words, you are living inside a sitcom: Everything about our life is a construction, featuring the unfamous John Ritter playing himself (in the role of your TV father). But this is not a sitcom. This is your real life.

How would you feel about this?

5. You meet your soul mate. However, there is a catch: Every three years, someone will break both of your soul mate's collarbones with a Crescent wrench, and there is only one way you can stop this from happening: You must swallow a pill that will make every song you hear--for the rest of your life--sound as if it's being performed by the band Alice in Chains. When you hear Creedence Clearwater Revival on the radio, it will sound (to your ears) like it's being played by Alice in Chains. If you see Radiohead live, every one of their tunes will sound like it's being covered by Alice in Chains. When you hear a commercial jingle on TV, it will sound like Alice in Chains; if you sing to yourself in the shower, your voice will sound like deceased Alice vocalist Layne Staley performing a capella (but it will only sound this way to you).

Would you swallow the pill?

14. For reasons that cannot be explained, cats can suddenly read at a twelfth-grade level. They can't talk and they can't write, but they can read silently and understand the text. Many cats love this new skill, because they now have something to do all day while they lay around the house; however, a few cats become depressed, because reading forces them to realize the limitations of their existence (not to mention the utter frustration of being unable to express themselves).

This being the case, do you think the average cat would enjoy Garfield, or would cats find this cartoon to be an insulting caricature?

Dance Party Friday!

I didn't think Blogger was going to let me get this Dance Party started! All it took was a little patience, and BAM! Dance Party Friday is back on.


No strict theme again today, these are all just songs that really, really make me dance. If these come on, no matter where I am, I kinda have to shake it. Just saying.


This song swings and hits. Never misses.



One of my favorites by Mos Def - You know the motto - Stay fluid even in staccato. This song tells a great story about Hip Hop's origins, present and future.



Now this song? I've likely put here on my blog about 37 times. It's also on my Facebook, Twitter, Livejournal, mp3 player, laptop and of course, etched in my mind. I've always loved Wham! and George Michael, and this song. But sometime in the last year, my work buddy Sara and I realized that we both loved this song. One of us left the other a voicemail of nothing but this song. That continued back and forth and evolved into singing it in the hallways and elevators at work, posting it on each other's Facebook pages, texting it to each other and generally finding a way to bring it up once a week or so. It's "our" song. If we were 4th graders, we'd couple skate to it. I daydream of us going dancing and hearing it come over the soundsystem . . . if we're not already on the dancefloor, we BUMRUSH it and do this amazing freestyle dance that occasionally comes together in choregraphed sections that neither of us practiced before. Just like in the movies!

So I told Amy (one half of Mike & Amy from last week's DPF) about the song & she asked me to play it today . . . should I expand my daydream to include Amy as part of our spontaneous club routine?! I think it will depend on how she handles getting a text message every other day with a random lyric from this song. Will it break her? Or will she embrace it and begin hearing it at the most inappropriate times? Like when someone tells you about something their baby did, and you think, "AND NOW YOU TELL ME THAT YOU'RE HAVING MY BABY, I'LL TELL YOU THAT I'M HAPPY IF YOU WANT ME TO" which makes you think, really, George? As if the "Last Christmas" video wasn't proof enough that you are NOT having sex with women.



My favorite version of a great Beasties song.



Get down, Get Low . . . fun at the club!



Not a big hit for Madonna but a great club song. This is a song that gets better the louder you listen, the more bass you have.



I wish I could have found the performance of this song from the Chris Rock show in the early 2000s. It was awesome, namely because of the 4 backup dancers who were doing all kinds of stepping & partner tricks.


So . . . ANY REQUESTS?

Headbands, Humidity and HOLLA!

I am going to crank this puppy out! Let’s see if I can put together a blog post in 2 minutes or less.

First, if you have a minute, I’d love for you to go to my shop’s Facebook page and weigh in on the headband photos I put up this morning. Would you wear something like that? How would you want to see it modeled or displayed? What information about it would you want to know?

Next, the weather in Chicago has finally decided to be NOT COLD AND SNOWY ANYMORE, yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyy! Of course, warmth in Chicago is never too far ahead of my nemesis: humidity. Jerk. Humidity makes you sweat even if you’re just strolling along at 8am and the temp is only 75 degrees. Humidity makes your curly hair go nuts and it makes your straight hair die a flat, flat death. I asked on Twitter if I was allowed to complain about the humidity yet, and was told no, to appreciate the NOT COLD AND SNOWY ANYMOREness of the situation. So that’s what I’m doing. I can’t wait for BBQs, ice-cold drinks, swimming, a little gardening and coming inside to air conditioning for a reprieve.

Finally, here are a few things that have recently caught my eye on ye olde internets.

Citrus Leaves Hard Cover Book by Allison of the fuzzy grapefruit shop at Etsy. Allison is one of my Chicago Style Crafters teammates and an awesome chick to boot.

 

Converse and Flower Record Vinyl Glass Metal Frame Pendant Necklace by blue order on Etsy. A favorite shop and seller of mine – Scott and his wife Rosemary come up with some of the coolest art and accessorites. Cool functional art – right up my alley.

 

I’m already married and didn’t even wear white to my wedding (I wore wine! as in red!), but I think this photo and this sash are beautiful. It’s the Ivory triple flower bridal sash with pearls and rhinestones by another Etsy teammate of mine, Steph of the shop Clark and Diversey.

Dance Party Friday!

Today's Dance Party is going to be a mix of stuff I've been listening to lately. No theme!


I can't wait to hear more of her stuff, I love this song!



Just try and tell me that this song doesn't KILL. Listen loud! I don't speak Portuguese but I've listened to it so many times over the last 13 years or so, that I can sing along with it. I love how you can hear so many different influences from around the world in one song.



I'm a big Fleet Foxes fan and was excited for their new album that just came out. I don't know the rest of it very well, but I do know this song because it was released prior to the rest of the album, and I've of course listened to it a bazillion times. What I love about it - and the rest of their album - is that there is a really old school, 60s, Simon & Garfunkel vibe going on. Can you hear it?



I had this CD in college, it's really, really good. The other night on Jimmy Fallon, the Roots played it a bit on one of the commercial intro/outros. I got so excited to hear it!



I have no idea who this band is, but it's the only Dance Party USA video I can find. Do you know how much I loved this show when I was a kid? I luuurrrrrrved it. It was hands down, my favorite show. I wanted massive hair like the girls on the show, and had a crush on both Chris "Batman" Buster and Chris Tully. Chris had an older brother named Ed who wasn't as cute as Chris. Chris was a White Boy Who Could Dance so we all loved him. Pretty sure they all had rat-tails. And who can forget Princess, who was in love with Prince and dressed like him? Not me! I drew this amazing picture of them all dancing on their yacht, which is what they did in the summer time when they went to the beach for the show. This awesome link captures a whole lot of details from the show, so if you were a fan, read & crack up.



Speaking of 80s dance songs, this one is still one of my favorites. You could switch up some of the obvious 80s instruments (I imagine a keytar was part of the recording of this song) and this would still be a great pop/r&b song today.

Speaking of keytars . . . I've always loved this and enjoy throwing it at people every so often:

George Michael, who you should know by now that I love (and follow on Twitter) says this song is pure sex. Hmm.



I enjoy both this song and the video.



If you don't know Josh Ritter yet - GET TO KNOW HIM. He's outstanding.



Look! A request! This one goes out to Mike and Amy, basically the cutest couple around. *gag* NO, I'M SERIOUS. They're really cute.

Levity

 

Some of my favorites from The Best Obnoxious Responses to Misspellings on Facebook. Enjoy!

 

And, the one that actually made me cry, I laughed so hard:

I love you, Daniel. Wherever you are.

5 Minute Personal Cards

Tonight I’m attending the Emergency Fund’s Annual Meeting and Reception! I’m excited about it, so of course I Tweeted about it this morning . . . and then realized that I don’t have any sort of business cards to hand out.

My affiliation with the Emergency Fund is through my Etsy shop, but it doesn’t feel right to hand out my shop cards at a function like this. However, it wouldn’t make sense to hand out my 9-5 job’s business cards, either – because there’s not an obvious connection. We’ll just ignore the fact that I’ve been in my “new” role at work for over two years and just realized this morning that I still haven’t gotten new business cards. They are obviously in hot demand. /sarcasm

So on my way to work, I stopped by Kinko’s (there’s one across the street from my office) to see if they had any blank biz cards that I could print on. They did! This afternoon, I took a 5-minute stress break (accreditation prep is no joke, folks) and threw together my card. I decided to go super simple and a little quirky. There are 200 cards in the pack but I only printed 20. I’ll probably not hand out more than 2, but the others can be used in the future, and I have 180 left to print up in various ways, as needed. I got the Avery Clean Edge Business Cards, and they do come apart with a clean edge. I’d say 1 out of 10 had a tiny bit of perforation “teeth” left after pulling them apart and those rubbed off pretty easily. Neither Kinko’s nor Avery asked me to write any of this!

Here’s the front – just my name & personal email:

And the back:

“Wife. Mother. Higher Ed Professional. (Very) Small Business Owner. Excited About Philanthropy. Likes To Wing It.”

I also used my scissors and tape to whip up a last-minute card holder, using a cute card someone sent me. Inspired by this post about repurposing cool paper into envelopes.

I figure that’s sufficient for tonight. I’ll let you know if I actually got to hand any out!

Crisis Fatigue

Where I work, we occasionally have small discussion groups called “Difficult Dialogues”, which are open to employees and students alike to attend. There is always a specific topic – something that isn’t super easy to talk about – and they’re considered a time when you should be free to share your thoughts without fear of judgment.

One I went to last year was on the topic, “What Are the Conditions of Your Giving?”

We talked about what what conditions must be met before we give our time and resources to people in need. For example, what reasoning do we go through in our mind to decide if we’re going to give cash to a panhandler? What about to charitable organizations, or disaster relief situations? What prompts us to give to some and not others? What must the recipients do, or do for us, in order for us to give? It was a really thought-provoking discussion. We talked about how we feel about panhandling (very common in Chicago), whether we give anything to those who ask. Who we don’t give to and why. What we give (money, food, discussion, cards with info about shelters, etc).

One thing we talked about quite a bit, that I hadn’t really thought of as being related to this topic, was going through fatigue. Giving fatigue, crisis fatigue, save-the-world fatigue.

This discussion happened sometime after the February 27^th, 2010 Chile earthquake. How do I know this? Because we talked about how after the Haiti earthquake (from January 2010) received such news coverage and we all felt so heartbroken and tied to that event. We all gave money and helped raise money and talked about Haiti. It was in the news, you couldn’t get away from it.

But then just 6 weeks later, a massive earthquake happened in Chile and there was mass destruction and loss of life as well. And the world – we – didn’t respond the same way.

Some of us in the room said that we had a personal connection to Haiti, and we think that’s why we responded so strongly to Haiti and not to Chile. But most of us agreed that we were experiencing fatigue. We couldn’t handle seeing any more images of devastation. We couldn’t seem to find the motivation to get out and fundraise again, so soon after Haiti. We were ready for lighter things like funny movies and focusing on our families and going about our normal lives. We were just worn out from all the heartbreak and didn’t have the energy or motivation to go through it again.

We examined this a few ways, but I’m bringing it up now because I see it happening again.

If you’ve been following my blog awhile, you know that I’ve been involved in raising some money for the Red Cross to benefit relief efforts in Japan after their huge earthquake & tsunami. I got really involved in those efforts, and I got involved in the Handmade With Purpose blog’s efforts, and I got involved with the Emergency Fund, who I’m donating some of my shop proceeds to.

And then, tornadoes started developing across the Southern U.S. (article & video in that link from Weather.com)

I was raised in Wichita, KS – we have tornadoes every year and there’s always some damage. Every few years, a major tornado causes horrible damage & takes lives, somewhere in our region in Kansas, Oklahoma, sometimes Arkansas or Missouri. So this is the sort of thing I personally know pretty well and feel a strong connection to. Normally, I would be ALL OVER drumming up participation in some sort of fundraiser or putting together lists of orgs you can donate to, sharing info about the individuals who are doing small but important things on their own to help.

But I haven’t. I’m worn out. I don’t know what the official name for this is, but I have crisis fatigue. And I feel guilty about it.

I know that the world’s problem resolution doesn’t reside on my shoulders alone, and that I can’t be expected (by myself or anyone else) to give over-the-top energy and work to every important cause that presents itself. But I still feel sad that I’m . . . not more sad.

Have any of you experienced this? I’m sure you have, I imagine it to be a really universal thing. I suppose I want to explain why I haven’t jumped on this . . . and why I won’t be able to jump on every crisis that happens. Even the ones that might have a more personal connection to my life.