Make it Your Own

I have had plenty to talk about; unfortunately, I was either time-strapped or just couldn't organize my thoughts very well. I'm very sorry if anyone has felt ignored. I made a few promises I couldn't keep this week, and I'm *really* sorry about that! I spent time at Yahoo! Answers and on e-lists, but I was actually earning my paycheck and doing other things, too.

So. The crazy bastid in North Korea tested something that at least registered on the Richter scale and went 'splody like a new nuclear warhead, whatever it was, and now he wants to threaten the rest of the world with it, and even if it can't reach us, he sure can make life miserable for the Japanese and South Koreans. We thought we were going through 9/11 all over again on Wednesday, but it was a new Yankee player being an idiot, showing off, and killing himself and his flight instructor in the process. Brian Vickers won his first NASCAR Nextel Cup race, but it was such a dirty way to do it--crashing the first and second place drivers, Dale Earnhardt, Jr. and Jimmie Johnson, in the last lap--that it just felt icky all over.

So. I had some pretty new MiYO (Make it Your Own) tiles, which L'Ailee is still figuring out how I'm going to earn the right to use, for my (and it is *mine*, as she only uses it to store Luna bars and Powerade) kitchen. The pipe under our bathroom sink leaked, and I ran to the hardware store and fixed it better than the plumber did the last time this happened, I hope. At least I caught it before it caused a flood all over hell again. When the plane hit the building, L'Ailee's night class was cancelled, and she needed a bit of comforting, like many who were there for 9/11. I made these awesome vegetarian potstickers that I am going to share the recipe for tomorrow, assuming anyone still does Recipe Saturday.

Last night, we went to dinner. L'Ailee gave me some orange blossom cologne she'd found. (My Citra, the stuff sold in Florida tourist traps, is running low.) It smells very similar, only it comes in a large glass bottle that makes it look really low-class. Actually, it made me think of the bottles that contained the Jamaican Bay Rum that Milhouse, my male friend who was a boyfriend in our teens, used. I loved the Jamaican Bay Rum, which is also a Floridian tourist-trap staple. Maybe one of the reasons we stayed friends is that we have a similar aesthetic.

Something I did last night thrilled L'Ailee. I never liked to share food, ever. I still don't, really. Maybe it comes from not having much when I was small, or just from being a big sister having to defend her stuff from a grabby kid brother. Whichever, this has always annoyed L'Ailee, who considers it her constitutional right to take whatever she wants off the plate of any of her dining companions without even asking. (Her best friends have spoiled her; they have no problem with their "little sister" doing whatever she wants.) Well, last night, I wanted a chocolate cake sundae on the menu for dessert, only I saw someone else get it, and it looked insanely huge. I asked L'Ailee if she wanted to share it, and ordered it with two forks. She grinned so wide, and her eyes just shone. "You *really* want to do this? You really want to share a dessert with me?"

"Well, yeah, it's ginormous, and I'm trying to lose weight..."

"No, no, no, no! I mean, do you really want me to eat it from the same plate?"

I got it then. "Baby, you know, considering what else we share, I think we can share a big dessert sometimes."

"Okay! That's fabulous!" I think she enjoyed it more than any other dessert she's ever had at a restaurant with me! And I enjoyed looking at her happy face. It took so little to make her smile like that, I thought. I can bend sometimes, and it doesn't hurt. Awesome possum.

We watched "My Name is Earl" and TiVoed "Ugly Betty," as is my weekly habit. (I think it's mean of the networks to schedule their shows like that; I'm just glad "Survivor"'s latest gimmick put me off that show for this season, so I don't have to keep up with that, too.) We laughed at both. She shook her head over "Ugly Betty." She thinks America Ferreira's "very cute," even in her Ugly Betty attire! "She looks so much better than those skinny fashion zombies," L'Ailee said. "She looks interesting and real. She looks like fun. I love her smile. She looks like she means her smile. And you can hug her without breaking her bones." Then she clapped her hand over her mouth. "Jaya, I'm so sorry."

"No, that's fine." And it was. I don't work for a fashion magazine, but sometimes I feel like the Ugly Betty of my workplace--I wear glasses, I'm chubby, I'm called cute rather than beautiful or glamorous. But L'Ailee isn't interested in skinny glamazons. She can throw a rock and hit one where she works, she can even fit in among them when she lets her hair grow and puts on her designer knockoffs, but she doesn't care. She wants a woman who has a genuine smile and feels good to hug. She wants interesting and fun. She wants *me*. Really. Wow. Let the crazy old men of the world play their power games, let the idiots of the world show off. I've been blessed, even so, and today I know it.

And some other things to think about:

Hell Houses, the scariest Halloween tradition of all.

Images of the Sounion temple of Poseidon, in Greece. Just absolutely beautiful. As a surfer, I gotta love Poseidon!

Are Organic Rice Krispies a bad thing? Mark Morford thinks so.

Debunking the top myths about ancient history.

Pagan pumpkin carving!