reading the newspaper

A few years ago, I was a TA for a U.S. government class. One of the things I learned is that young people don't watch the news. Or read the newspaper. Why did I learn this in a U.S. government class? Because apparently, this little tidbit of information has implications for voting. Young people don't read the newspaper, and they don't vote. I'm sure that I'm simplifying the argument, but the logic is that by staying informed about what's going on in the world, you get (and remain) interested, you learn about new stuff, you care about stuff, and so you vote. That, in a nutshell, is how the two are connected.

I never read the newspaper until I came to grad school. Some of my fellow grad students lament that their students don't know what's going on in the world, but I don't join them. Because I was one of them. I was one of those undergrads that really didn't know what was going on in the world. Not unless it was really big news, like the 2000 presidential election. I don't know what changed for me, but something did. Maybe I decided that since I was now a grad student, I really needed to know about current events. Maybe I thought I would seem smarter. Is it working? You tell me. I love to incorporate current events in my discussion sections. Sometimes it's the first time the students are learning about what's going on, but most of the time it's not. (I hear that the Daily Show and the Colbert Report are doing their part to keep young people updated on current events)

I was a faithful LA Times subscriber, the print version. In an effort to become environmentally friendly, act my age, and transition to the 21st century, I canceled my subscription last spring. I know, I know, sometimes, I am a little slow to adapt to new technology. I was among the last of my friends to get a cell phone and a computer. I started texting only a year and a half ago. So it's not surprising that I was among the last of my friends to read the newspaper online. It seemed like a good decision at the time. After all , I rarely read the business section and I read the sports section only when 1) it is during the Olympics, 2) it is during the baseball playoff season, and 3) the Twins are playing the Angels. So not only was I wasting paper, but I was paying for sections that I wasn't even reading.

I tried my best to read the online version, but I was lost in the morning without my paper to go with my coffee. What was I going to do now while I ate breakfast? I made several unsuccessful efforts to read the news off my laptop while eating my breakfast drinking my coffee. It never worked.

I finally gave in last week and renewed my subscription to the LA Times. Finally I have something to do while I eat breakfast. And I feel so much better now, knowing what is going on in the world. It's a great way to start my day.

falling in love with fall

After 30 years, I have finally decided that my favorite season is fall. Whew. Now you can sleep peacefully, having learned that critical bit of information. I've tried not to play favorites all my life, but in the past couple of weeks, I've realized that there is no denying that fall is my favorite season. It's the baseball postseason (which is simultaneously exciting and depressing). I love it when the temperature starts to drop, the outside air feels cool and crisp, and the leaves turn gorgeous combinations of red, yellow, and orange. Sadly, I don't really get to experience these perks of fall in Southern California. The temperature begins to drop, but not enough for me to get out my fall jacket.

BUT, do you know what I do get to experience? Fall foods. Pumpkin, cranberry, and gingerbread, oh my! When fall rolls around, I start baking. A lot. I adore the seasonal fall foods, and I even begin to hoard them, saving them for later dates when stores don't stock them. A surplus in cans of pumpkin come in handy when you want to bake a pumpkin pie in May. Sometimes my stocking up is a tad unnecessary, but I do it anyway. I'm still using a jar of molasses purchased last season, and I still purchase extra jars, even though it's not a seasonal item. (It's just that last year, I went looking for molasses and I REALLY needed it, but the store had run out. That's just not happening to me again.) And did you know that cranberries keep in your freezer for a year? They do! I've already purchased a 3 pound bag from Costco. I never realized how much I liked cranberries until I found myself missing them last spring. I told Drew that I would stock up on like 20 pounds of cranberries so I would have them year round. He was certain that I wouldn't be able to use 20 pounds in a year, and I would like to prove him wrong, except that I'll get bored if I bake nothing but cranberry muffins, cranberry scones, cranberry coffeecake, etc for a year.

I recently purchased a gingerbread cookbook. It is fabulous. I've already made the gingerbread cake, and it is beautiful in my glass cake stand (a birthday gift from my parents- thanks mom & dad!) This weekend, I am making this. And pumpkin cupcakes. And ginger cranberry bars. It's going to be a yummy weekend.

moving, settling in, and baseball

It's been about 2 weeks since I've last blogged, but I have some good reasons, what with school starting and moving. Last weekend, Drew and I moved in together, and the move went pretty smoothly (we had some great friends helping us- shout out to you, W!). We woke up to rain on moving day, and that made us a little nervous, but the weather held up for the rest of the day. The unpacking is nearly all finished, and the place is starting to look like a home. Merging our stuff was quick and painless, mainly because we didn't double up on anything. Drew had the furniture, I had the kitchen stuff, for example.

Our new apartment is the same layout as Drew's former apartment, but it is more spacious than my former apartment. There is a lot of storage space, and my closet space has increased exponentially (sure, it helps that Drew takes up so little of it, but the closets are considerably larger than my old one).

Our only "disagreement" is over what to do with the Joe Mauer poster and the Derek Jeter poster. In case you didn't know, Drew is a Yankees fan (this is a flaw that I've been willing to overlook), and I am a Twins fan. It's a minor disagreement of course, but I really hate the Yankees. (On a sidenote, I once very briefly dated a guy from New York, and I asked him about his baseball team allegiance. He reassured me that he was a Mets fan, and so I decided that this was acceptable and that we could continue seeing each other. See? I take this stuff seriously.) So far, Drew and I have decided to put the posters on the sliding closet doors in the office, but I've been trying to figure out a way to get Mauer a better location in the apartment, prompting Drew to tell me that I'm the trickiest person he knows.

You may also know that the Twins and the Yankees are playing in the first round of the ALDS (American League Division Series). We didn't know that this was going to happen until after we moved in. One of our friends, while helping us move, pointed out that this would be a possibility. He joked that if this were the case, after the outcome, everyone might have to come back to help one of us move out.

This is the 2nd consecutive year that the Twins and the Yankees have played in the 1st round, and this time has been equally depressing. The Twins have home field advantage, but the Yankees have already won the first 2 games. The 3rd is tonight, and the Yankees could very well sweep the Twins. If this happens, this would be the 3rd time that the Twins have been swept in the first round in the past 5 years. This would be the 4th time since 2003 that the Twins have lost to the Yankees in the first round.

According to Wikipedia, the Twins-Yankees matchup is a recurring matchup in the ALDS. I'm not sure what qualifies as a recurring matchup, but I guess that October will always be an exciting (or tense) month in our household. And in case you're wondering, I'm not a Yankee Hater during all of baseball season. Very early on, Drew and I instituted a rule: I am not allowed to cheer against the Yankees (and he is not allowed to cheer against the Twins) unless they are playing the Twins (unless they are playing the Yankees). It's a fair rule and one that I've never tried to weasel my way out of.