The Hoppy Okapi

I’ve been getting the #reverb10 prompts every morning and thinking about them, so at least the “reflect” part of the project is working, but it’s time to catch up with the writing a bit!

Dec 6: Prompt: Make. What was the last thing you made? What materials did you use? Is there something you want to make, but you need to clear some time for it?

The last thing I made was Serrano Pepper Jelly last weekend (the day before the prompt, actually!). The ingredients were serrano and sweet peppers from Suzie’s Farm, the farm that we get our CSA from, plus sugar, vinegar, liquid pectin. The equipment I used included pint and half-pint canning jars, jar lifters, a canning funnel, and my tamale steamer/hot water canning pot that I bought at Northgate Gonzalez, a nearby Mexican grocery store. There are always more things I want to make and could use more time for, but I’ve actually done quite a few time-consuming cooking projects lately, and I think I should be more careful about over-scheduling so that I can take time on the projects without feeling rushed. In addition to trying more canning and pickling recipes, I’d like to try making croissants and pain au chocolate sometime this winter.

Dec 7: Prompt: Community. Where have you discovered community, online or otherwise, in 2010? What community would you like to join, create or more deeply connect with in 2011?

First, the guitar class I took at the beginning of the year – Guitar 2 through UCSD Extension. It was fun to spend time with a group of people who were learning new skills and techniques together and struggling with the same things as we advanced to playing trickier music.

Second, I’ve found community through biking in several ways – at organized rides, many people riding along the same route and sharing the experience at the same time; on solo rides, there’s community with other riders who I pass randomly – some I see regularly and some only once, but we’re united through the experience of biking. Biking more has also brought me community in the sense that I know the neighborhoods that I bike through better – I see different shops and roads, interact with the people, and understand the connective geography of neighborhoods better and realize how much more there is to explore.

In 2011, I’d like to expand both of those community experiences by going to music group meetings for guitar and maybe accordion players, and by taking advantage of some of the social bike rides that take place in San Diego.

Guitar Class

Dec 8: Prompt: Beautifully different. Think about what makes you different and what you do that lights people up. Reflect on all the things that make you different – you’ll find they’re what make you beautiful.

This one, I’m afraid, is a bit too touchy-feely for me to contemplate publicly. Moving along…

Dec 9: Prompt: Party. What social gathering rocked your socks off in 2010? Describe the people, music, food, drink, clothes, shenanigans.

Probably the best party of the year was the Baby Shower for my sister, in Pennsylvania on Labor Day weekend. It was an epic event with more coordinated duckie-themed items than I ever though possible, including placemats and candy bar wrappers, and a very cute yellow cake with a sugar-paste duckie sitting on a nest made of butterscotch covered chow mein nest. I was happy to be there and share the occasion with my sister, and glad that it gave me a chance to visit with a lot of people from PA who I rarely see. There were not too many shenanigans, although we did have to chase away the neighborhood cat several time when he tried to invade the party

Those are all the prompts I’ve pre-reflected upon, it seems like I’ve got some more thinking to do before the next post. Au revoir!