Check your tires

This is an embarrassing story. 

In 2011, I blew out one of my tires on the highway on my way to teach school in the morning. Thank God for AAA, they came right away, put on my donut, and I went to school and promptly made an appointment to get a new tire. Not knowing much about cars, tires, or anything outside of my neighborhood in DC, I picked Sears- it seemed like a safe, retail-chain bet. A sad "adults know this but kids don't" thing I learned is that when you blow out one tire, you actually need to replace a pair of them, because you have to keep the wear on the treads even. What a buzzkill. Hundreds of dollars and two new tires later, I left Sears. 

For the next two years, I drove around on my new tires. Now, I live in DC- the district of congestion- and after I stopped teaching, my commute shrank to 3-4 miles, mostly at speeds of 15mph or lower. I kid you not, sometimes I think I could have jogged to work faster than I drove for the last two years. Alternately, I took the metro. So needless to say, my car didn't see very much action, save a rare trip to a concert in the suburbs or to BWI airport. 

But things changed once I started my new job this summer. Now, I spend hours each day in the car, driving all over the highways of Northern Virginia, the beltway around the city, and even up into Montgomery County. One huge pro to driving my car at highway speeds is that my gas mileage has really improved! But after a few weeks, I realized that my car was shimmying. Any time I hit 55mph or more, my steering wheel wiggled and if I looked over at my purse in the passenger seat, I could see it shaking. 

I got scared. I remembered a fearful story from a friend about this exact symptom, followed by her tire LITERALLY falling off her car. Google told me it was probably just a tire-balance issue, but just in the same way that WebMD will convince you that you have Lupus every time, my internet search on "shaking steering wheel" didn't do much to calm my fear. I brought my car in to the dealer the next day. 

My mechanic's name is also Tori, so we have a pretty good bond going on. She called me back to the desk just 10 minutes after I turned over the keys. I didn't even have time to connect to the waiting room Wifi. "Tori!' She called. "Did you by any chance lend your car to someone who may have blown out a tire and replaced it?"

Uh, what? 

"No, why?" I responded, baffled. 

"Because you actually have one tire that is a DIFFERENT SIZE from the other three tires on the car. Have you ever had any tires replaced from a blow out?" 

And here's the embarrassing part of this story: Yes. In 2011. 

Apparently, I have had a wrong-size tire on my car for more than two years and never noticed. I felt so stupid, but then I asked my mechanic why they hadn't noticed it either during the full circle inspections I've gotten in the last two years... her response? "If you're not looking for it, well, you're not looking for it!" 

Luckily, I still had my receipt from Sears, and they replaced the tire for me without any hassle or cost, even two years later. But buyer beware: As I have started telling this story to friends, two other people have had the exact same thing happen to them! It's insane to me to think that someone whose job it is to put on tires would put on two different sized tires, but I guess they kind of are all round, black and made of rubber. The moral to the story is this:

1- If you have new tires being put on your car, check the sides and make sure they are all the same size!

2- SAVE YOUR RECEIPTS!!!!!!!!! 

Cheers to a wobble-free future. 

Peace and Love. 

Meet Basil

A few weeks ago, I bought a bunch of basil at the supermarket. I was going to make pork banh mi sandwiches (a new obsession!) but realized that I wasn't going to be home for most of the week at dinner time. I didn't want my basil to go bad, as it was key to the recipe.

I figured fresh basil couldn't be that different from fresh flowers. So to keep it green, instead of just throwing the package in the fridge, I clipped the bottoms on an angle and stuck it in a vase on my windowsill.

Fast forward to the end of the week. I was so impressed with how green and pretty my basil had stayed, no wilting whatsoever and adding a lovely fragrance to my little kitchen. But upon closer observation, I realized that there was something else going on here-- my basil had grown roots in the vase! The clippings were growing into their own plant!

I had no idea you could do this with basil, but I have seen my dad do this for years with Christmas cactus clippings. I decided to plant my newly-sprouted clippings in a pot with some dirt I covertly stole from my apartment's flower beds using a laundry detergent cap as a shovel, and hope for the best.

I am happy to report that a few weeks later, and with some proper pruning, my basil is growing strong!! And more exciting news-- my friend Holly has given me some mint clippings, which apparently do the same thing. I guess I might need to pick up some actual pots and soil from the hardware store soon.

My mini-ist of gardens. 

I'm so excited about my little urban garden! If any of you have any other plants you think could do well in my studio apartment windowsill, I'd love to know!

Peace and Love.

Playing Pioneers

What was life like before the advent of smartphones? I completely admit, I am addicted to mine. I am that sicko millennial who checks Facebook 20 times a day, texts more than is humanly possible, has every email forwarded to my phone from both my work and personal inboxes, and... I confess... who sleeps with her phone under her pillow so as NOT TO MISS ANYTHING!

Things were bad enough when my Internet shorted out this weekend. So, imagine the creep of cold dread that happened as I scooted across my couch, reaching for a book, landed on my purse, and heard a faint, sad crackle.

Yep. Goodbye LED screen! And goodbye phone! And goodbye remaining connection to the Internet! Thankfully I know that I'm prone to klutz moves like this one, so I have insurance. I will get a new phone in "3-5 business days," but until then I figure I will just have to use my oven timer to wake up in the morning (no, I don't even own an alarm clock), check emails at work, and take this new-found freedom to update my blog from the public Internet in my building lounge!

It's actually been a very creative few weeks so there's lots of fun to tell about! Even though my phone is busted, the memory card is OK, and I was able to salvage a few pictures from my recent adventures.

Following in my Dad's weird hobby footsteps, my friend Kate and I decided to take a random pickling class. I actually thought it was one of the most useful of the cooking classes I have taken so far in DC. You can pickle pretty much anything and I felt like I learned so much about not just pickles, but preserves and food safety in general. In the class, we made pickled oysters, pickled vegetables, and even pickle cocktails! (I'll pass on the cocktails from here on out, but I have to say that the pickle juice does cut the alcohol flavor entirely, a lot like a martini.)

Pickles on the left, pickle cocktail on the right. 

Continuing the creative trend, my coworker Rachel came over to my house and taught me some cake decorating basics! I know how to do a basket weave now, everyone! And stars! And bows and leaves! This is something I've wanted to learn since high school so I'm glad I finally took a stab at it. Roses are still a mystery to me and I can't even picture how my mother had the patience to create all the amazing cakes she did throughout our childhood, but I will say this: homemade birthday cake frosting RULES. I forgot how good that awful stuff is. Check out my handiwork below!

Finally, it was a great party weekend and I've been so lucky to be extremely well entertained and well fed for the last five days. The gluttony peaked this weekend at one of Jason's colleagues' weddings. The bride and groom's families are both from India, so this was a humongous traditional Indian wedding, and it was a blast! No expense was spared, and it was so cool to see a traditional Indian wedding ceremony. The outfits are stunningly beautiful, and the traditions are at once meaningful and playful between the bride and the groom. And of course, the authentic Indian food literally made my nose run, but it didn't stop me from eating platefuls. Delicious!

So, that's all for now. Looking forward to reconnecting with the universe in just a few days. Until then, off to read the paperback book I picked up from my apartment building's club room.

Peace and Love,
Tori

A Dream is a Wish...

"...If you keep on believing, the dream that you wish will come true."

What bunk. I've been wishing hard every second since I got home that I was back in Disneyworld, but every time I wake up, I'm still in my own bed!

That's the amazing thing about Disneyworld. Everything about it is just so...darn...perfect! I can't figure out how something this enormous, with this many moving parts, works so well. Everyone is so happy, from the bus drivers to the ride operators to the waitresses. It reminded me of my summer at the Dodgers, where Dr. Charles had a group of us doing research on the total experience of going to a ballgame. He proposed that the experience started the moment you entered the parking lot to the moment you left. How was the view as you walked in? Where did you eat? Was ketchup available? Did the bathrooms have a hook on the door for your purse? It was those details, he hypothesized, that were more important to having a returning fan base, than if the team won or lost. Well, this is what I mean by the perfection at Disney. Everything, and I mean everything, was ideal. And that perfection, and that happiness- manufactured or not-- does rub off on you!

Jason and I only had two days of park passes, and with his conference, we probably couldn't have done it any differently. Saturday we took on Magic Kingdom. We slept in and got to the park around 2pm. It sounds late, but we realized that we had an extraordinary advantage over the vast majority of people there: No strollers! With nothing to hold us back and map in hand, we plotted our path and then boom! boom! boom! ran from ride to ride to ride. Disney has an amazing system now called "FastPass." It's included with your admission. You pick a ride you really want to go on (Say, Space Mountain.) You put your card into the FastPass machine. You'll get an entry ticket for a future time, usually about an hour or so later. At that time, you can return to Space Mountain, and cut the entire line and hop right on! Disney also has cellphone apps now that tell you the actual wait time at any ride around the park. So if at 3pm you get your ticket for a 4:30 ride on Space Mountain, you can check the app and see what other rides that have short waits to fill in the times... Pirates of the Caribbean here we come! That's where our mobility came into play. We probably zigzagged back and forth across the whole park 15 times. Then something else glorious happened...at 8:30pm, the park became empty. We could walk on to any ride we wanted between 8:30 and 11pm. So we did just that! By the end of the day, we were totally sweaty, filthy, and gross, but we had taken Magic Kingdom by storm and even rode Space Mountain twice. Somewhere in the middle of this day, my camera broke, but not before getting this one happy picture:

Our second day was at Epcot. Ugh, if there was ever a park that needed more time! Epcot is huge and definitely more "adult-y." I remember thinking it was kind of boring as a kid and now I know why. The rides are definitely not the best part. The best part is the "World Showcase" where Disney has basically blown up "It's a Small World" and lets you walk around to different "Countries." The people working at these little villages are all authentically from those countries, and you can buy food and booze all along the way and shop and dine. But with just a half day there, we did the FastPass war again and suddenly found ourselves at 8:45pm with the park about to close at 9pm. (The 11pm close at Magic Kingdom really made a huge difference!). We had just started our "around the world" journey and suddenly realized that we had no time! The last boat back to our hotel left at 10pm, so we sat down in "Germany" for dinner and had to call it a night.

There's so much more I could write about Disney. The hotels could be a vacation all by themselves. The restaurants, the water slides, the sand-bottom pools, the towels wrapped up to look like Mickey, it was all too perfect and too fun. Jason and I were actually and truly sad at the airport on our way back, in disbelief that it was over. At least I had a smile this morning while I drank my coffee:

I hope that if you're reading this, and you're a grown-up, you think about going back to Disney soon. It could be with a group of girlfriends, your parents and siblings, or maybe someone special! But doing Disney as an adult is just as awesome as it was when you were a kid. If anyone is planning a trip, find me and I will be happy to share what I learned!!

Peace and Love.

Ticklin' the Ivories

Tonight, as a conclusion to one of my New Year's resolutions, I had my first ever piano recital.

I have performed in so many venues in my life, from massive crowded ball parks to intimate family picnics. It's always interesting to me what situations make me nervous and what situations feel like a breeze. Playing the piano in a small college auditorium, hilariously enough, was one of the more nerve-wracking encounters in my performing career!

This is pretty ironic considering that less than a year ago, I sang in front of 35,000 people at Fenway Park. But it's a totally different feeling. By and large, big audiences feel anonymous. You can't actually see whom you are singing to, so it feels almost like you are performing by yourself. But put me in front of a small crowd (that included my boss, by the way) and it's a whole different world. You can see people's faces, hear their voices! They can see your mistakes UP CLOSE! 

Obviously that's a silly thought, because they don't notice your mistakes ever. But it just feels that way, especially when your hands are visibly shaking over the keys! And especially when it's your first stab at really performing an instrument that still feels so new to you! 

Besides the super shaky hands (thanks, Dad, for the genetically inherited occupational tremor!) tonight actually went very well. I was the last act in the recital of all of the vocal and piano students for the semester. My friends Amanda and Meredith came to listen to me play and Jason was there, too! It was so nice to have my friends there to cheer me on. Even though it made me nervous to have them there, it was also really joyful! 

If you are a real piano player and you watch this video, you will laugh because it is so simple. But I am really proud of how far I've come in just 12 weeks of lessons. When I started, I couldn't play a scale or even read a bass clef. I have decided to keep taking piano for a little while even though the school year is over-- it's just too fun, and I'd like to eventually be able to accompany myself when I sing! Maybe next time there won't be so much shaking! 

Enjoy! Peace and Love. 

Blossoms by Night

I have bad luck trying to visit the Cherry Blossoms. It seems like every year, I'm just a little bit off and I always wind up disappointed. One year, I was on vacation during peak weak. Another year, I helped a friend schedule a visit with her whole family, only for them all to bloom and and fall off extremely early before they arrived. Even this year, my grandparents visited last weekend, scheduled to be the "peak," only to find that most of the blooms had not yet arrived. But I was bound and determined that this year, I'd go see them in all their glory! 

Jason and I decided to go Friday after work, but a batch of loud morning thunderstorms that day had taken their toll. The ground was covered with petals like snow, blown off by the wind and the rain, and green leaves dominated most of the trees. As we approached the tidal basin, I also realized our timing was off. At close to 8 pm, it was dusk more than sunset, so already it was hard to see the expanses of pink and white in the distance that make the experience so breath-taking. 

"Ugh," I sighed. "We missed it. And it's dark. This is very underwhelming." 

"Just keep an open mind," Jason replied. "We'll just go for a walk, it will be nice up close." 

So we carried on, and decided to loop the trail and just enjoy an evening stroll since we were there already. But we hadn't gone far when I noticed a bobbling white paper lantern, and a small group gathered around the distinctive shape of a park ranger hat. My grandpa has always taught me to stop and listen to these kinds of things, since volunteers and tour guides will always know more and be able to tell you the inside story, so I tugged on Jason's sleeve to stop and listen, if just for a few minutes. 

Well, before I knew it, the park ranger, Doreen, had passed off her lantern to me so she could hold up photos as she told the incredible history behind the Cherry Blossoms in DC. I was entranced, right along with the rest of the tourists. Doreen was someone with passion and warmth, she loved her job and was such a good storyteller.

Doreen is in the background!

A few minutes quickly became more than an hour as we followed Doreen around the basin path, stopping every so often to learn about the people, history and science that lead to the amazing festival we have today. For example, I didn't know that the trees we see today were actually a second batch sent from Japan-- the first batch arrived to Washington infested with insects and disease and had to be burned. And I'd never heard about the society ladies that chained themselves to the cherry trees in protest over the construction of the Jefferson memorial (Sadly, their noble efforts didn't amount to much-- the memorial stands, as FDR wasn't interested in their environmental "flim-flam.") We also learned about the conflict the park rangers face each year as trees' natural predators, beavers, try to make a home by chewing down these diplomatic gifts! 

I love cheesy things like this tour, and couldn't have been more pleased that we had run into this group. I left the tidal basin skipping and smiling, and Jason teased me with a healthy dose of "I told you so." Running into that tour was a complete surprise for both of us, but proves that you never know what amazing things can come out of a situation if you refuse to write it off as a failure. Just take a walk and see what you find!

You can read the official history here: http://www.nps.gov/cherry/cherry-blossom-history.htm

Peace and Love. 

Wowee... Grandma and Papa visit DC

It's been a long time since I last wrote in this blog, and with Lent over and my return to social media, I decided now was the perfect time to revisit my writing. Especially because this blog's two biggest fans-- my Grandma and my Papa-- were here to visit me in DC this weekend!

I've worked with children of all ages for a very long time, and one of my favorite things about working with kids is how differently they see the world. It's refreshing to look at life through that different lens, to feel their energy and appreciation for the little things like lunchtime or discovering a dandelion puff. But spending the weekend with my grandparents this weekend (as well as with my other Grandma a few weeks ago) has really got me appreciating the view of the world through the eyes of people who have been on this planet for 8 decades.

My grandparents are still very active, and wanted to visit the Air and Space museum, the cherry blossoms, and the World War II memorial, which wasn't there the last time they were in DC. It was a lot of walking and rides on the metro, but they were troopers! We decided to go to Air and Space first.

I have been to Air and Space a half dozen times, and have reached the point in my life where the Smithsonians are old news. But being there with my grandparents made the museum come alive in a whole new way. My grandparents wanted to check out the WWI and WWII exhibits. For them, it was not just a museum, it was a trip into their past. It's incredible to me to think that my grandparents lived through these times. For me, WWII is the fodder of American Girl books and TV miniseries. But for my grandparents, looking at a plane isn't just looking at a plane, it's realizing it's the kind of plane that my grandmother's cousin died in. Seeing the pilot's pamphlets and wartime pinups bring my grandparents back to their childhoods. They remember living on rations, listening to the Pearl Harbor bombing on the radio, the people in their towns who earned the medal of honor. I suppose that one day, I'll feel like that walking through the 9/11 exhibit at the Newseum. I'll be able to say, "I was there...I remember that day."

After a long day of sightseeing, we all went out to dinner to Buca di Beppo, which delighted my grandparents with its decorated walls and Italian music. "Wowee!" my Grandpa said. "Never in my life have I been to a place like this!"

Over dinner, even more amazing stories came to out-- for example, I learned that my Grandpa had a speaking role in a John Wayne movie, and that John Wayne was always bumming my Grandpa's cigarettes. I learned that my Grandma's cousin who died in the war was abandoned by his mother who ran off with a man to Reno, and was raised by my great grandparents. If anyone reading this is related to a certain Effie Brown in Reno, our family still has it out for you!! And of course, my grandparents finally met Jason, and loved him, which made us all very happy.

Overall it was a lovely weekend with my grandparents, and I'm thinking of my Grandpa's advice: "Just look forward, no more looking back!!" He and my grandma living it up in Florida this winter, sightseeing all over Williamburg, VA and Washington, DC, and sharing their memories and enjoying each day was a great reminder to love every day that you're alive. Thanks G and P-- I love you!

Peace and Love,
Tori