Making Me Happy, 3/4/16

Happiness Friday!

If I'm not careful, these posts could turn into a broken record of "Susanna loves Hamilton and Sleepy Hollow." But Sleepy Hollow has really hit its stride, not quite to Season 1 levels of awesomeness but solidly entertaining, ever since it came back from its midseason hiatus. If you've ever been a fan or are thinking of trying it, you should watch to improve its chances of getting renewed for Season 4.

And this song from Hamilton, wherein Hamilton helps Washington prepare his farewell address, has been much on my mind as we move through the election process. (Something which is NOT making me happy. I don't think I've ever been as scared by my own country before. People! Please. Vote courage. Vote compassion. Vote civil liberties. Vote for a generous, open-hearted, open-minded America. History has its eyes on us.)

This particular performance is at the 2015 George Washington Prize Dinner at the Gilder Lehrman Institute, hence the modern suits instead of colonial costumes:


"One Last Time" from the musical Hamilton from The Gilder Lehrman Institute on Vimeo.

And, fanfic being fanfic, because both of these obsessions of mine are rooted in the American Revolution, someone wrote a crossover. (Actually, several someones.) As an added bonus, it's quite well-done: Don't Be Shocked When Your Hist'ry Book Mentions Me. Basically, Crane and Abbie follow a lead that takes them to a crypt under Trinity Church in Manhattan, where they find Hamilton--the real historical one--in a state of suspended animation similar to what allowed Crane himself to come back to life in the 21st century. The newly revived Hamilton steps into modern Manhattan a couple months into the musical's run, leading to this gem of an exchange toward the end of the first installment:

“I scarcely recognize it,” said Hamilton, looking up and down the street at the changed face of the city. Grief settled over his features, once again. “What sort of place could I have, in such a world?”

A bus came to a stop just past them, pulling up to the corner. It had Hamilton’s face plastered over its side, near ten feet tall, with his name in letters half as big.

“What on earth,” Hamilton said, staring.
“Apparently there’s a play? A new one. On Broadway,” said Abbie.
“I want to see it,” Hamilton said immediately.
Abbie pulled out her phone, and after a minute’s tapping her eyebrows went up. “It’s sold out,” she said.
“The next performance, then,” said Hamilton.
“It’s sold out until May,” said Abbie.
“Ha!” said Hamilton. For the first time he looked a little less distressed. “I don’t suppose Madison could sell out a play for so long.”

There! Next week I have to think of something to be happy about other than Sleepy Hollow and Hamilton. Maybe. I hope.

Making Me Happy, 2/19/16

Happiness Friday!

First of all, I know I raved about Hamilton just last week, but this week it won Best Musical Theater Album at the Grammys and performed the opening number live from the Richard Rodgers theater, so you can see what the staging and actors look like.



This isn't my favorite song from the bunch, but it certainly does an impressive job of summing up the first two decades of Alexander Hamilton's life and foreshadowing the rest of it in four minutes...and it just confirms my belief that men's clothing has been going downhill since at least 1815. I would totally love to walk around in a world filled with men dressed like Hamilton and Burr in that clip...especially if I still got to keep my jeans, at least for everyday. (The big sweeping skirts and corsets might be fun for grand occasions.)

Moving along, I've been on an organizing fit lately, based partly on Marie Kondo's Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up and partly on Fay Wolf's New Order. Right now I've my dresser, the pantry shelves, and the closet and bookshelves in my office the neatest they've EVER been, and it gives me such a feeling of relaxation to look at those neat, well-organized, uncluttered spaces. Hopefully by the end of the year the whole house will be the same way.

Last but far from least, I read my first Jim Butcher book this week (The Aeronaut's Windlass) and enjoyed it. There's always a special pleasure to discovering a new-to-you author with a nice long backlist to delve into.

Making Me Happy, 2/12/16

Happiness Friday!

First off, I'm happy that I get Presidents Day off work, so this will be a long weekend for me. (The last one till Memorial Day...oh, wait, can't let any sadness into this post.)

Speaking of not allowing sadness into this post, Super Bowl? What Super Bowl? I did, however, see an awesome though too-brief concert with Beyonce and Bruno Mars.

Also, though I discovered it months ago, one thing that's consistently making me happy is the Hamilton soundtrack. Just in case any of you haven't heard about it yet, Hamilton is a hip-hop infused musical about the life, accomplishments, and ultimate downfall of Ten-Dollar Founding Father and first Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton. It sounds crazy, but most people I've met with even the slightest receptivity to musicals or history fall hard the moment they hear the soundtrack.

So if you haven't heard it yet, here's a taste. "Yorktown" gives a good feel for the overall sound and style:

Here's Aaron Burr's big Act I number, "Wait For It," the most gorgeous villain song I've ever heard:

Trust me. Hamilton. It is made of awesomeness. I'm jealous of all my friends who have seen or will soon see it on Broadway, and I'm already plotting how to see it when it comes to San Francisco a year from now (not with the original cast, though...oh wait, HAPPINESS POST...must stop with the sadness).

Making Me Happy, 2/5/16

Happiness Friday!

Sleepy Hollow is back tonight. Sure, I angst over this show way too much at times. That's life if you're watching a show as a dedicated shipper of a pairing that isn't (yet) canon. (Ichabbie 4EVA!) But the previews for tonight's midseason premiere look really good, so set your DVRs.



Cam Newton in the Super Bowl. As long-time followers of my blog or Twitter feed know, I've been a big fan of Cam Newton since he led Auburn to the national championship in 2010, and I'm rooting for him to achieve the rare (possibly unique?) combination of Heisman Trophy, Lombardi Trophy, and collegiate national championship. I'm sad my Seahawks aren't back again this year (I was hoping for the revenge/grudge match against Brady and the Patriots), but while the Hawks are my team, Cam is my player. And all the kerfuffle over his personality, celebrations, etc. only makes me root harder for him. So....War Cam Eagle!

Last but far from least, I'm SO happy the days are finally getting noticeably longer. I always get the winter blues with the short, gloomy Seattle days six weeks to a month on either side of the solstice. This week was the first in ages where I neither arrived at work nor left it in the dark, and I can already feel my mood and energy levels starting to pick up.

On enthusiasm

Instead of a What's Making Me Happy post for this week, I decided to write something about the importance of allowing yourself to be happy--especially when that involves being a fan.

“To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact you must give it to no one, not even an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements. Lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket, safe, dark, motionless, airless, it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable.”
                                                                                  --C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves

       
I’m by nature an enthusiastic person. Even an intense one. If I care about something at all, I throw my whole heart into it. If you’ve ever been on Twitter while I’m live-tweeting an Auburn football game or if you’ve seen my recent gushing about Sleepy Hollow, none of this will be a surprise to you. Given the right prompting, I can wax equally enthusiastic about the pizza at Serious Pie, my mother’s stuffing recipe, the military merits of the Duke of Wellington, or the beauty of the Episcopalian liturgy. In my world, if it’s worth liking, it’s worth loving.

And yet until very recently I was trying to suppress that side of my personality. That suppression grew out of a laudable desire to maintain a professional and self-disciplined persona, especially while wearing my writer hat, and especially but not exclusively online. While I don’t have any truly embarrassing internet incidents in my past, in my younger days I had a bad habit, albeit one hardly unique to me, of treating the internet as a sort of diary that talks back. I overshared. I spoke without thinking first.

Once I realized what I was doing, I over-corrected. It’s good that I’ve learned that the internet is public and forever, and that I should therefore step away from it when I’m feeling ranty or needy. It’s even better that I didn’t become published until I was mature enough to force myself to stay offline at all costs upon receiving bad reviews, at least until the urge to rage and cry has passed.

But somehow as a side effect of all that praiseworthy self-control, I started holding in my passions and enthusiasms too. Part of that is my habit of defensive pessimism that I use to protect myself from heartbreak by expecting the worst--like how if the Mariners are ever up by 10 runs with 2 outs in the bottom of the 9th of Game 7 of the World Series, I’m STILL going to be cautioning everyone not to jinx things by celebrating before the final out, and honey you better put that champagne right back in the fridge because remember Super Bowl 49? Of course you do.

Yet it wasn’t just a coping mechanism. Somehow I’d got it into my head--though I never quite spelled it out to myself--that I should’ve outgrown my enthusiasm by now. I’m over 40, after all. Shouldn’t have I outgrown the urge to scream for joy over a football game, or being so caught up in a TV show that I race downstairs to catch it the instant it airs, DVR notwithstanding? Is it really seemly to get a physical rush from singing Handel? And isn’t everyone kind of tired of foodies now? So I tried to deny that part of myself, or at least to keep it under a tight rein.

Only I recently realized that holding back my fangirl enthusiasm was hurting my passion for my own life and creativity. If I didn’t let myself care too deeply about the season-long real-life saga of a beloved sports team or get caught up in shipping characters on a favorite TV show, I struggled to awaken that passion when I was the one inventing the saga and the romance. And my love of cooking and trying new things in the kitchen is at least in part fueled by my passion for eating, of being That Person Who Tweets Her Restaurant Meals in the most cliched of foodie fashions.

Which is where that CS Lewis quote at the top of the post comes into play. Sure, fan-love isn’t on the same level as love for family, friends, God, or the greater good of humanity...but it still matters. It’s part of what gives joy to all those deeper loves. And there’s vulnerability in being a committed fan. Maybe some people are shaking their heads and thinking, “Aren’t you too old for this?” And, you know, FOX might cancel your favorite show, or your baseball team might miss the playoffs by one game, or your football team might pass on 2nd and goal at the one when they could’ve just handed the ball to Marshawn Lynch. None of that would hurt if you didn’t let yourself care. But I don’t want to live like that--it’s as flat as room-temperature soda that’s been sitting out in a half-drunk open can for days. So I’ll keep caring even if sometimes it makes me look like a fool or drives me to rage and weep. Life is better that way.

What's been making me happy this week, 1-18-15

I had a tough time coming up with anything to say for this post, since it's been, in a quiet way, a very sad week for me. One of the key members of an online community that was my internet home for many a year died suddenly last weekend, and though I hadn't been an active participant on the board in a long time and she and I weren't close, it was still a blow.

But there have been some happy things nonetheless. I'm excited that my Seahawks are going back to the Super Bowl. And that was some game, too! Best ending I've seen since the Kick Six.

I got to go to the farmers market yesterday, which sounds like a summer thing, but Seattle has a couple of year-round markets. If you have access to a year-round farmers market, do make time to go. There isn't the ridiculous abundance you see in July and August, but I was able to get local, organic hazelnuts and carrots, some beautiful fingerling potatoes and apples in unusual, not-found-in-supermarket varieties, and the local bacon I adore.

In book news, my critique partner Rose Lerner has a new release, True Pretenses, which I can highly recommend from having read it as she was getting ready to send it to her publisher.

I'll be back next weekend, hopefully with more happiness.

What's Making Me Happy This Week, 12-27-14

A somewhat belated post, but I've been happy enough this week that I don't want to skip it:

1) Quiet family holidays with plenty of time to read. We had Christmas for just the three of us in the Seattle branch of House Fraser, though we'll see more of the family (my in-laws, to be specific) next week. I worked Christmas Eve and Boxing Day, but I won't be back at the day job till January 5. It's a treat to have a week or so without my usual pressures and multiple commitments to just plain relax.

2) The best pizza in the world is back on the menu at Pagliacci. Unfortunately this is a pleasure you can't share unless you also live in the Seattle metropolitan area...but if you do, the Chicken Rosemary Primo is back on the menu! Get it while you can, since the seasonal pies only stay on the menu for about a month. And while I like the late summer prosciutto fig pizza almost as much, there's just something about that combo of chicken and potatoes on an olive oil base on a cold, damp January night...oh nom nom nom.

3) Singing the Whole Thing. Last night I was at my third of three Messiah singalongs, this one at University Unitarian Church. Every other singalong I've attended has sung maybe half the oratorio--focusing on the Christmassy and/or better-known bits. (No one leaves out the Hallelujah Chorus, of course. The singers would mutiny, and I'd lead the charge.) But last night we took four hours, including two intermissions to soothe our throats with hot drinks and restore our blood sugar with cookies and fruit, and sang all of it. Instead of having soloists, everyone with the appropriate vocal range joined in on the solos, so I got the fun of joining the tenors on "Every Valley Shall Be Exalted" and singing "Oh Thou That Tellest Good Tidings to Zion," which has to be one of the best things every written for an alto.

And imagine this sung by 30-40 robust bass voices, not half as polished but a mighty wall of sound:

I got to sight-sing songs like this:

What's Making Me Happy This Week, 12-20-14

1) The fact that tomorrow is the solstice and from here the days start getting longer again. Northern Hemisphere SAD sufferers around the world, rejoice! We're halfway through the dark.

2) Because it's almost Christmas, I took the opportunity to re-read one of my favorite fanfics of all time, No Reservations: Narnia.  Yes, you read that right. It's Anthony Bourdain in Narnia, and it's crazy-fun. The author, Edonohana, nails Bourdain's voice. A sample:

I’d longed to visit Narnia when I was a kid, but every time the notoriously capricious entry requirements, such as the bizarre and arbitrary lifetime limit on visits, relaxed the slightest bit, it would get invaded, get conquered, get re-conquered by the original rulers, or get hit by some natural disaster. The “Hundred-Year Winter” put the kibosh on the one time my parents even considered it.

 It has Reepicheep trying to drink Bourdain under the table, and pranking him into having dinner with a group of Marshwiggles:

I live for the moments when I put something that looks and sounds disgusting into my mouth, and it turns out to be sublime. That moment doesn’t happen. The mud-potatoes taste like badly rinsed potatoes. The fermented waterweed has the texture of natto and the flavor of spoiled cabbage. Dredge-the-pond tastes exactly like it sounds. The eel stew is surprisingly tasty, with the gritty, mysterious complexity of a fine gumbo, but I wouldn’t call it sublime.

The story is in every way awesome. Go and read it.

3)  I picked up a bottle of spiced blackberry wine from Rockridge Orchards at the farmers market this morning. I tasted a sample before buying, which the proprietor kept hot, like mulled wine. Which is very much what it tasted like. Delicious. I'm debating whether to drink it with Mr. Fraser this week or save it for my next party.

What's Making Me Happy This Week, 12-5-14

Another challenging week for this topic, not so much because I've been unhappy (I haven't especially) but because I've been so BUSY. The day job has been crazy, so I've been either busy or tired. Still, in keeping with my new discipline of finding things to be happy about...

1) Obscure Christmas carols and songs. I get a little tired of the usual standards (though it's nigh impossible to ruin "Joy to the World" or "Hark, the Herald Angels Sing"), so my playlist runs to songs like these:







2) I've just started reading Mary Robinette Kowal's Shades of Milk and Honey, and so far I'm loving it.

And that's all for now. I'll be back next week with another dose of happiness, big or small.

What's Making Me Happy This Week, 11-28-14

I can already see that making this a blog feature is going to be good for me. Because even when there's a lot of bleakness in the world (including the very literal kind where we've just entered the dreariest two months of the year in Seattle, where it's still dark when I come into work and dark already when I leave, and the few hours of daylight are often grimly gray), it forces me to look around and find something positive to share with you all! So here are some things that have made me happy this week:

1) I learned while reading a book on life in Elizabethan England that Sir Francis Drake's ship The Golden Hind, the one that circumnavigated the globe, was a major London tourist attraction in the decades that followed...AND you could rent it out for banquets! As someone who's done a bit of event planning in my day, that just charms me somehow. Imagine being an Elizabethan bride and holding your wedding banquet on that ship!

(This is a replica of The Golden Hind. The original rotted after about a century per Wikipedia.)

2) This fanfic where Rocket Raccoon from Guardians of the Galaxy visits Sleepy Hollow and is confronted in a bar by Abbie Mills. It's good goofy fun that IMHO completely nails the character voices.

3) Cinnamon toast. It's the perfect bedtime snack for cold, blustery nights. Miss Fraser likes to make it with me now, which gives me a certain Circle of Life feeling, since it's the very first thing I ever learned to make in the kitchen as a child.

4) I'm always looking for new ideas for quick, convenient, and reasonably healthy recipes for weeknight dinners, what with the whole having a full-time day job and being an author thing. This week I added two more to my repertoire, Kid-Tastic Pizzadillas and Sausage Ragu over Creamy Polenta.

5) No matter what happens in the Iron Bowl tomorrow--and given the way Auburn has collapsed down the stretch, I'm not optimistic--I will for the rest of my days rejoice that I live in a universe where this happened:

What's making me happy this week, 11-21-14

I listen to a lot of podcasts while I do housework or commute, and one of my favorites is NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour. Which is just what it says on the tin--a small group of smart, interesting people with varying interests in pop culture talking movies, TV, books, comics, music, etc.

Each podcast closes with the panelists listing what's making them happy this week. The happy things are supposed to be something listeners could seek out themselves (the better to be made happy in turn), and they're not supposed to be self-promotion, though occasional exceptions are made on both counts.

Anyway, I like this feature so much I decided to copy it. So without further ado, here's the first edition of What's Making Susanna Happy This Week:

1) This bourbon chocolate pecan pie recipe, which I made for my day job's annual Thanksgiving potluck on Wednesday. It is AMAZING. Perfect balance of bourbon, chocolate, and pecan deliciousness. Coworkers of mine whose only prior experience of pecan pie was store-bought or restaurant claimed I have some kind of magic touch...which I don't. It's just a really good recipe, and not a difficult one if you have solid basic cooking skills. Pecan pie is SO much easier than buttermilk biscuits, poaching eggs, roasting large chunks of meat, or anything involving yeast, f'rex. So give it a try!

2) My new favorite TV show, Sleepy Hollow, had a wonderful, well-paced first season...and has been struggling a bit to recapture that magic in Season 2. It's not just me saying so, either--there have been all kinds of articles to that effect, including this, my favorite of the bunch. So why is it in my happy list for the week? Because Monday night's episode was brilliant, and brought back two characters who've been MIA most of the season (Jenny Mills and Frank Irving). I'm still dubious that the writers will ever convince me that I ought to root for Katrina to do anything other than die self-sacrificially or (preferably!) be revealed to have been Secretly Evil All Along, and I'm completely meh on Hawley, but I'm back to eagerly anticipating new episodes.

3) Sharing geek TV with my 10-year-old daughter. She's getting to the age where it's not always easy to connect, so I'm glad we have a shared love for everything from Doctor Who to My Little Pony. Today she was home from school recovering from a stomach bug and I was home from work taking care of her, so we watched the new episode of Legend of Korra, along with "The Sin Eater" from S1 of Sleepy Hollow. Since I binge-watched S1 in September and was already spoiled for such key events as the identity of the Horseman of War, it's fascinating to watch her watch and see if she'll figure it out before All Is Revealed. And while today's LoK suffered a bit by being a clip show--I understand Nickolodeon cut the budget at the last minute, and am I ever Not Happy with how they've mismanaged that show--it was again a pleasure to watch it with Miss Fraser and to laugh together at Varrick's antics.

So that's what's making me happy this week. How about you?