Marie Javins's Blog, page 44

New World Manners

I always feel foolish when I automatically thank someone after they’ve done nothing meriting a thanks, and it just slips out.

But I feel even stupider when I thank Siri.

Define First World Concerns in the Form of a Question

I'm a fan of peanut butter, but over the last six months I've been trying out other nut butters.

So here is my report. You didn't ask for this, but great news, you're getting it anyway!

Almond butter: Yum. This can be delicious. It can also be bland. Depends on the manufacturer and the ratio of oil to almonds. But almond farming is messy and destructive. Not the farming itself, I guess, but when you do more than a little almond farming, and it takes a lot of almonds to keep us happy with our almond milk and almond butter.

Coconut butter: On its own, not so great, but mix it with almond butter and this is big yum. But again, our obsession with almonds is unsustainable, at least until we figure out how to not drain the world of water and bees while we farm almonds. (I guess coconut isn't really a nut? But it says nut right there in the name.)

Sunflower butter: This tasted disgusting to me. Like taking a bunch of sunflower seeds and smashing them up into a paste. I don't mind sunflower seeds, but I did mind a smashed paste of sunflower seeds. Right into the trash bin.

Cashew butter: Dee-licious. The only nut butter that was yummier than this was the Rx Nut Butter kind that usually has some almonds in it. But cashew butter is also super expensive. Maybe I can grow a cashew tree on my balcony?

What's next? Maybe brazil nut butter or macadamia nut butter. Or maybe I'll go back to the basics with peanut butter.

(Hint: In case you don't know this, the way to deal with the oil separation in nut butters is to turn the unopened jar upside down for a while before you open it, then once you've mixed it up, keep it in the refrigerator.) On to Tuesday!

Human Nature

I've never wanted to travel more than right now, while my passport is off for renewal.

Which leads me to...where could I go for a weekend that 1) is new to me and 2) doesn't involve Mexico or Canada?

I'm thinking Oahu and a ukulele factory, but that's going to take a few days more than a weekend, isn't it?

Small Business Support

In Burbank, the liquor store is a great place to shop for all your cacti needs.

Luxury Lodging on the Road

Someone I used to work with (Rob) read my 2006 book Stalking the Wild Dik-Dik, and his primary complaint was "Why couldn't you have written about your entire trip instead of just the Africa part?" He hasn't traveled much at all, and he's curious about life on the road.

Of course, I started out with a story about the entire trip, but the publisher wanted an Africa travelogue, so that's what I wrote. I directed my ex-colleague to both the 2001 and the 2011 MariesWorldTour sites, but I doubt he'll get around to reading 24 months worth of blog posts.

But then I started thinking. What IS life like on the road? We have such fantastical ideas of travel—a world of luxury (ha, no) and adventure.

Yes, there is adventure. And my idea of luxury transforms to a car with a seatbelt after a few months of being crammed onto gearshifts and onto the back of motorbikes.

So here, Rob, is a look at the luxury of long-term travel. I pulled a bunch of photos of hotel rooms out of my photos database. I think this gives a pretty idea of the relentless nature of travel, as well as what a reasonable budget gets you once you graduate out of "on a shoestring" hostels.

Here are photos of a bunch of hotel rooms I stayed in during MariesWorldTour 2011. 

Mattress Shopping

I’ve been learning about mattresses for a little over a month. When I first got to LA, I bought an IKEA latex mattress, with mixed results. I've been thinking of buying a new one.

Today I made another trip to the local department stores, where I again tried out the beds that have made it to the finals. (I tried a bunch of the mail-order ones and most of them were way too squishy, not as good as my IKEA one.)

Let's see...Beautyrest 900-TSS Medium Firm. Stearns and Foster Hurston Luxury Firm. Maybe a Brooklyn Bedding hybrid but I'd need to try it again next time I'm in Manhattan. 

I spent several minutes on each, on my sides, back, front. I’m not buying until my tax return is in, but napping in downtown Burbank is fun...

...until you remember lice exist. Now I’m paranoid about department store mattresses.

Last Century

My mom posted this photo of the two of us.

Late 2000 in my old studio on Avenue B. Cute.

Roof Shopping

I'm in the market for new drainage and a new roof for my house in Jersey City. 
I love having an 1895 row house that looks like a mini-castle. 
Until I started getting estimates on a new roof. Now my intricate roof seems more like a problem than a charming detail. 

David, CA

"Burbank is also home to the largest Ikea in North America."

I knew that and most of the other tidbits in this article, but I did not know Burbank was named for a dentist named David Burbank.

Maybe I'll just start calling it David.

This One Alone Could Win Most Games of Strip Passport

I caught the bus to the other bus over to the DMV in Glendale this morning, so I could upgrade my driver license to the Real ID kind. The new one will have a star on a bear, so I guess that's good?

Immediately afterwards, I dropped my passport into the mail for renewal. It expires in June, so I can't really go anywhere on it anyway. I wish I'd applied for it earlier so I could fit in a trip to Baja for some whale watching, but it might get back in time.

I paused before I sealed the Priority Mail envelope.

My passport. This passport.

Spain. Morocco. Mauritania. Senegal. Gambia. Mali. Burkina Faso. Ghana. Togo. Benin. Nigeria. Cameroon. Gabon. Both Congos. Zambia. Namibia. South Africa. Madagascar. Thailand. Laos. China. Tibet. Nepal. India. Bhutan. Indonesia. Borneo. Brunei. Singapore. Australia. New Zealand. French Polynesia. Easter Island. Japan. 

And that was just 2011.

I'd gotten the maximum pages in my 2010-2020 passport. 100.

They don't make them like that anymore. My new one will have only 52 pages, so I'll never make it through the whole decade on one. I'm getting the card as well so I can go by land to Mexico without getting stamps. And god knows what my next photo will look like. I'm pushing the high end of "youthful" at the moment. I got three sets of photos this time before I liked just one of them. I know I'm ridiculous.

My 100-page passport will be returned to me, but with a hole in the corner. In the meantime, there's plenty of whales I can see in California.