Tutoring Days 2-4

So I've tutored 3 more times, and I love these ladies, but I'm worried I'm losing them because I hadn't quite figured out their old system, and they have 2 years of this and a previous tutor that they loved. I think I'm flopping in comparison because I don't know what the expectations are.

After reading a million blogs and things from ESL tutors, I decided to go with 1984 for a book to read. The ladies weren't giving me a lot of direction. It's a HUGE leap for them. Maybe too much. M seems like it might be crossing the line into frustrating read. C seems to be excited about it. I don't know about D. She wasn't there on Thursday.

I do have a better plan to make this work. C, now that I finally met her, was able to answer questions about how things worked before so that I have a better idea of what is a reasonable expectation for what to cover in a class.

Game on. Don't let me screw this up. Failing at this sort of throws a kink in my librarian plans. Although, I think I could very effectively be a coordinator of these sort of things. I'm organized, smart, and efficient. I could be the force behind the tutors. That would be great, but how would I ever get such a job without acting as tutor? Blergh.

Tutoring Day 1

So communication about tutoring yesterday (Tuesday) was a flop. The previous tutor called the group and let them know we'd be meeting, but I forgot to send a reminder, and then when I did, I think I sent it to the wrong numbers (I have 2 sets). End result--no one showed up.

D forgot her book, and she lives far away, so she didn't make it. I still haven't heard from C. M remembered after I sent a text, so she showed up late, and then we had an awesome time.

Of the three, M's English is the poorest, although I think it's still good. She has no problem just taking off in Spanish, and it was fun because even though I missed most of what she was saying, I caught an enjoyable amount with the help of the limited Spanish knowledge I have and with my French. She's hilarious and I like her a lot. It will be a good opportunity for me to build my Spanish while I help others with English.

I feel a lot better about this tutoring thing having met M. She's outgoing and out-spoken, and it's good for me because I can be a bit shy. D is also shy, so I think between the two of us, tutoring wouldn't be that productive without M to draw us out. She's just awesome.

We have a textbook and workbooks to go through, and they're helpful for building vocabularly and practicing elements of grammar, but I kind of think this group is ready to step up. I might ask them if they want to do the textbook one day a week and the other day we can work our way through a novel and talk about it. D wants to work on her writing, and M told me she likes to write as a hobby, so we could write responses, and perhaps do some creative writing too.

I'm excited.

Been Reading a Bit Lately

I read all of Dune, finally! Check off most important sci-fi reading to do off my list.

Then I read this awful (okay it wasn't that bad) mystery novel my boss loaned me: Deep, and Dark, and Deadly, I believe it was called. It was a YA book. I'm sure lots of people like it. I was intriqued at moments, and I wasn't bored reading it. I just often found myself thinking "that dialogue is a plot device." I don't like to feel so blatantly directed by dialogue and action in a story. It should seem subtle and natural, and I really found a lot of moments in that book unnatural...and it had nothing to do with the supernatural element to the tale.

I'm currently reading Eragon. My friend Jamie recommended it to me like a thousand times, and I'm just getting to it now. I wouldn't say it's an amazing story. I'm not in love with the characters, but I'm definitely hooked. There's something there, although at times I find the description a bit over the top. I'd say it's my favorite read of the summer since I finished Rick Riordan's The Throne of Fire. It's good to geek out and read nerdy dragon stories. My thirteen-year-old self would be happy with my adult me for this reading choice.

I don't know what I will read after this. So many choices. Perhaps another sci-fi. I didn't love The Female Man, but I liked how it got me thinking. I want to do some intense mind-bloggling thinking.

Day of Yum, Part 2

I finally got to eat some of my tasty treats!

The Chargrilled Yellow Bell Pepper soup is good, even chilled, but I think the flavor comes out better when it's warm. I would not put the gremolatta on a warm version. It would taste too lemony. The gremolatta is very good on the chilled version though.

While the base for the coffee ice cream was super tasty, the coffee flavor is almost imperceptible in the frozen and churned finished product. What I have in my freezer tastes more like vanilla with heath bar. In the future, I will double or triple the instant coffee and espresso. I may even try to stir a little instant coffee into what I have to sharpen the coffee flavor.

To go along with my chilled bell pepper soup for dinner, I made a little venison (butterfly cut--not sure of much more). I had planned to eat this Saturday, so I pulled it out of the freezer, threw it in a tupperware with coffee, beer (a dark lager), molasses, soy sauce, lime juice, garlic, and maybe a hint of cayenne pepper. I can't fully remember, and I definitely didn't measure. Then I threw it all in a skillet on med-high, and flipped the meet quite a few times to keep it juicy. The end product smelled like heaven and tasted like it too. The tang of the venison came through too, so it wasn't lost in two days of intense marinade. Heavenly. I am so excited by how good it was. I can't wait to eat the leftovers over the next couple days.

Yum, yum, yum. I'm going to have a beer while I bake my red velvet cake, and then I will indulge in some ice cream. Ciao!

Day of Yum!

Today I went a bit crazy in the kitchen. Both sinks are full of pots and pans, the stop top is bearing the burden of the ones that won't fit in the sink, but it was successful.

I prepped the base for my coffee heath bar ice cream. I'll pick up ice after work tomorrow and finish it up. I did taste the base, and it's heavenly!

Then I made the zucchini cornbread. Amazing! It does have a very buttery flavor, so you could cut the butter a bit. I did add parsley as some reviewers suggested. Yum, yum, yum.

Last, but not least, I made a Chargrilled Yellow Bell Pepper Soup. It's a chilled soup, so I can't indulge untile tomorrow on this treat either, but the bit I licked off the spatula was very tasty. My taste test was also suggestive that this would be good warm too. It actually tasted a bit like a soup I had at Harry's once.

Since there's no link to the soup, here's what I did.

1. Halved and de-seeded 3 yellow bell peppers.
2. Broiled them until the oustide was blacked.
3. Wrapped the peppers in a damp cool cloth and let them cool.
4. Pelled off their skins.
5. Then I finely chopped the following:
• the 3 bell peppers
• 1 very small potato
• 1 very small onion
• 1 smaller carrot
6. In a medium/large saucepan, I heated 3 tablespoons olive oil on medium heat.
7. Then I tossed in a teaspoon of minced garlic and my chopped onion and cooked for 5 minutes.
8. Threw in the peppers, carrots, and potato, some salt & pepper, and cooked for 5 minutes.
9. Poured in 4 cups of vegetable stock and brought to a boil.
10. Lowered the temp and let it all simmer for 10 minutes.
11. Pureed it in my happy blender.
12. Strained it into a large bowl, and placed in a nice cool space in from fridge to chill.

It needs a mimimum of 2 hours to chill, so I haven't eaten it yet. When I do eat it, I will put Gremolata on top (mix of 3 tablespoons finely chopped parsley, 1 lemon's worth of zest, and 1 garlic clove diced up).

This soup will go very well with my zucchini bread.

Tomorrow, I will endeavor to conquer red velvet cake. I did buy all the ingredients for it today.

Writing, Baking, Pawning Books

It's going to be a busy Saturday. At least, that's the plan, but I never accomplish half of what I want to on Saturday. Sunday seems to be much more productive for me. It's probably because I am a procrastinator to my core.

Today starts with a bit of sad news. I think my parakeet Holmes is sick. He was balled up and shaky, sitting in his furry little blue house this morning. He never sits in the house -- I think he can tell it was the favored spot of his predecessor. He didn't acknowledge me when I sing-songed his name, and his response when I lightly tapped his cage was not his usual enraged panic. He's generally startled and irritated all at once when I catch him off guard. He just sort of meandered around to face me this morning.  I'm hoping it's that the apartment is ungodly cold this morning. I'm in a sweater and wrapped in a blanket. I've also noticed this apartment is alarmingly moist for living in near-desert climate. That worries me for my Australian native bird--the moisture.  If he doesn't perk up later, we'll head to the vet.

Then before finishing this post, I got distracted with Youtube videos from new discoveries Danny Tieger and Julia Nunes. Julia is really talented. I love the pairing of her voice with ukulele. See First Impressions for a sampling. Danny's voice is not as great, but his lyrics, his daring, and his presentation completely make up for it and make him unique. See The Gollum Song and My Universe Revolves Around You for his clever wit. I'm also a big fan of Ode to Pollster.

Now that I've finished being sucked around Youtube by the vortex of curiosity. I'm going to go to the store to get things for baking a red velvet cake and zucchini cornbread. The cake is a practice run for my sister's bridal shower. The zucchini bread is for daily snacking of which I commonly partake.

Then, I need to focus on writing a short story for the new blog I have intended to start for weeks. When I finish that, I will read Dune. I've never experienced this sci-fi classic from Frank Herbert before, and it took me a bit to get engaged, but I love it. I don't think I have Netflixed all week because of Dune.

I also wanted to take some books to the used bookstore to get them out of my living room, but I don't think I left enough time today.

Being an Adult - More Frequent Bad Days

I keep telling myself that I won't be a real adult until I can afford a place with a backyard so that I can have a big furry dog to mess it up. This has always been my marker of adulthood. I also attach the requirement for a garage or at least a carport to qualifying adulthood.

I change my mind. I'm an adult already -- I hate my job.

Better Book Titles has provided this gem of a new title for Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day.

If this is how we measure adulthood, I am most assuredly an adult right now. I aspire to find a more childlike job where I can not feel this way on a nearly daily basis. Let's test librarianism -- soon.