Average Jane

Average Jane Makes A Plan

It's a little early for new year's resolutions, but I got an idea earlier this week and decided to run with it.

I was thinking about all of the things around the house that need to be done but get skipped over because procrastination is a way of life. Some are large and some are small, but there are a LOT of them in my house (and probably in yours as well).

So how do you ensure that you'll get to them? My mind went straight to spreadsheet.

What if I made a list of every area of the house that needed tidying, put them on a spreadsheet and associated each one with a weekend next year? Breaking the work down into bite-sized chunks with two days every week set aside to get them done seemed more than reasonable, especially for smaller jobs.

I opened Excel and pasted in the dates for every Saturday in 2020, marking off the weekends when I would be out of town or busy with a holiday. Then I started thinking of every drawer, cupboard, cabinet, closet and shelving unit in the house that needed to be reorganized. I put in a column for the room the problem area was in, another for the specific location that needed to be addressed (e.g. "upper drawer to the left of the sink"), and a notes column for more complicated projects.

As I began adding projects, I developed some rules. One was that if I got something done early, I could either take off the weekend I had assigned to that task or use it to do something else early. As I was making the list, I kept thinking, "I should do this or that sooner!" Which sounds great, but without the list and the assigned date for accountability, history tells me I wouldn't get to those things ever.

There's a pretty wide spectrum of difficulty and effort associated with the 47 weeks of projects I eventually listed. They range from cleaning out a single drawer to renting a roll-off container and cleaning out the garage. There are only 3-4 large projects on the list that will probably take an entire day or weekend. I tried to limit the scope of the assignment to tidying, rearranging and cleaning, but in one instance there will be a little light reconstruction under one sink.

Only one thing made it on the list twice and that's organizing the closet in my bedroom, which is arranged as an overflow pantry. It gets out of control pretty quickly, so I thought I should tackle it once in the spring and once in the late fall.

Now that I have the list set, I'm considering adding another section for additional projects outside of the original scope. For example, I have a couple of rooms I'd like to re-paint this year and I need to cut down some trees in my yard. Some general to-dos like taking the mower in for maintenance would be good to add as well.

To kick the whole thing off, I gave myself two relatively small assignments this coming weekend. One involves cleaning out and throwing away an old side table so I can be ready to rearrange my bedroom furniture when the headboard I got for Christmas arrives next week. 

I'm pretty pumped up about this whole idea. Next on the agenda is to print out the spreadsheet and hang it someplace where I'll see it every day. Heck, maybe I'll even get gold stars to mark the completed items.

Have you ever tried something like this? Leave a comment and let me know!

Photo by Jessica Fiess-Hill, cropped, used under CC by 2.o

Average Jane Goes Out for the Evening

As someone who regularly performs with a band, you'd think I'd be steeped in nightlife, but that's not actually the case. When I'm singing, it's all work and when I have a weekend night off, a lot of times I spend it at home or doing something low-key like going out to a restaurant.

Last night I got together with some friends and went to First Fridays for the first time in quite a while. It's getting a little cool out, so there were fewer bands playing than usual, but there were plenty of galleries open.

I'm not usually a big shopper at First Fridays, but I made an exception this time. One of the galleries featured a holiday market with artists from an old workplace of mine. I bought four small skull prints from the 52 Skulls project that artist Michael Schultz is working on this year. 

I also bought a beautiful handwoven and hand-painted scarf from Wrinkle in Time Weaving because I couldn't take my eyes off it and I decided I needed a new accessory for fall and winter.

Last but not least, I ran across Madi Apparel for the first time. I loved their "buy one, donate one" model, so I bought something from them as well. 

Aside from all the not-buying-Christmas-gifts-but-instead-getting-myself-stuff, I explored numerous galleries with my friends and saw a lot of beautiful and thought-provoking art. This painting by Jessie Fisher was one of my favorites.

Once we'd had our fill of galleries, we strolled by the food trucks lined up on the street and I got a very satisfactory hummus and falafel sandwich. We ended the evening at Thou Mayest, which is a coffee shop and a bar, and one of my favorite hangouts in Kansas City. Because I am decidedly on Team Coffee, even at night, I had a Mason jar full of Ethiopian coffee and a cherry tart to finish my evening meal.

I got home by about 9:30 (not too far past the dog's supper time) and went to bed at my usual time. So maybe "nightlife" is overstating things, but it was fun to go out and do something different.

Average Jane's Halloween Costume

This year I put more effort and expense into my Halloween costume than ever before in my life. I got it in my head that I wanted an Edwardian or Victorian style costume, so I started idly searching online for a theatrical-quality one. I knew I'd be wearing it to perform with my band on Friday night, so it needed to be of sufficient quality to function as a comfortable, wearable garment.

Ebay had a lot of delightful options and I ordered a lovely one that consisted of a long, black coat with a black underskirt.

When the dress arrived, I tried it on and absolutely loved it, but the underskirt was so long that I had no choice but to buy a hoop skirt to support it. Going to the weird costume shop was an adventure in and of itself, but I managed to come away with a reasonably-priced (read: cheap) hoop skirt. I only drew a little bit of blood threading and fastening the hoops.

I also searched online to find a suitable hat to go with my costume and soon found the perfect one. Seriously, I'm going to buy a hat box to store it in because this is a fabulous hat. It was a little too large, but I consulted the internets and it turns out that the universal solution for that problem is foam weatherstripping. I actually happened to have some on hand and, sure enough, it worked like a charm.

Somewhere along the line it occurred to me that I hadn't really decided what my costume was supposed to be. I asked one of my Facebook groups: suffragette or vampire? The consensus was that I should be both. That's when I made this sash:

 

Yes, the slogan is anachronistic, but it's worth it. Also: vampire. So, you know.

I watched YouTube videos to learn how to do vampire makeup and a period-appropriate hairstyle. My hair styling test went nicely but you couldn't appreciate any of my efforts once I put the hat on, so I decided not to worry about my hair. I cobbled together vampire-like makeup using cheap eye shadow and Halloween face paint mixed with my regular cosmetics. I happened to already have a tube of stage blood that had never been opened, so I drizzled some down from one corner of my mouth.

Because I knew in advance that I would be making myself up with pale makeup and I wanted to minimize the amount of skin coverage that would require, I decided that the final piece my costume needed was a high-necked blouse. I found the perfect one at a thrift store for less than $5. It was probably the cheapest part of the whole costume. It was made in England and couldn't have been more right for the outfit. A little soak in Oxiclean and a bit of ironing was all it took to make it work.

Unfortunately, the day I finally put all of the costume parts on at once, the sash proved to be the weak link. The letters kept coming off and I didn't have time to figure out a solution, so I ended up being a garden variety Victorian vampire after all.

I wore leggings and boots underneath for warmth, which was a good idea because it started raining about five minutes after this photo was taken. My band played outside under a tent and despite the presence of propane heaters, it was very damp and chilly. If we'd played indoors I might have been hot and sweaty, but my costume was pretty much perfect under the circumstances.

Since I now own a nice costume, I imagine I'll be wearing it repeatedly over the coming years. There are plenty of possibilities to vary the theme and I'm in favor of any that don't involve quite so much makeup because pale face paint isn't a particularly flattering look, despite the fact that my husband told me I looked too beautiful to be scary (thanks, honey!). 

Average Jane in 2015

Since I'm coming up on my eleventh blog anniversary in a few weeks, I figured the least I could do is get a post written to start the year.

Picking up where I left off, I've been easing into the new year pretty gently so far. My band played a New Year's Eve gig that went quite well, and we've had a break since then except for recording a four-song demo and learning some new songs to replace a few duds in the set.

I got my annual case of bronchitis right on schedule, so that was a couple of weeks of coughing with ten days of antibiotics in the middle. Fortunately, that's out of the way now.

Sooty the foster cat is integrated with the general cat population and although he and Dr. Jones frequently face off and shout at each other for no apparent reason, the transition ended up being pretty chill. I had a dream that he told me his name was really Izzy, so my husband and I have been trying that on for size and it seems to suit him. 

Is he staying? Probably. He's of uncertain age with a chronic disease, so I'm really not sure anyone else would be willing to take him. We like him, he likes us and we were obviously willing to save his life, so seeing him through the rest of it seems like the kind thing to do. Not that he appears to be on the brink of death or anything; he's lean and he pees a lot (in the litterbox, fortunately), but otherwise he seems happy, energetic and generally fine.

For the foreseeable future, I'll be channeling my charitable impulses toward cats into TNR for the free roamers in my neighborhood and leaving it at that.

I've been spending time with friends, playing games, trying to keep the house in some kind of reasonable shape, and trying to decide what my year is going to look like.

I'm not anticipating any major changes, but I do know that I'd like to entertain a bit more than I did last year and I also have a couple of trips I'd like to take if I can get my budget slapped into shape. I keep joining additional board gaming enthusiast groups, so I'll probably be learning a bunch of new games this year. If I'm feeling really gung-ho, maybe I'll rearrange some furniture in my house. Whee!

How's your 2015 going so far? Any big plans or just more of the same?

Average Jane on Dive Bars

As someone who performs in a classic rock band, I have spent a good amount of time in dive bars and I have to say, I kinda love them. If the idea of going to a slightly seedy neighborhood bar worries you, you’ve probably been misled by Hollywood. In reality, they're just another place in any given community where people gather, hang out, meet other people and take a break from the daily grind. And drink, of course.

I doubt there's anyone who knows that better than Scooter J. He’s an acquaintance of mine who has been on a quest since 2006 to drink in as many bars as possible. I’d almost forgotten about his bar project, but it popped up in Google search results today when I was looking up a place where my band is performing next month.

My dad has always been a dive bar connoisseur as well. Usually he has two or three regular places where he goes with his friends. Right now, one of those is in downtown Kansas City and it may be the ultimate dive I’ve ever experienced. He and his buddies are clearly regulars as evidenced by the fact that on my last visit, more than one upcoming event posted on the bulletin board by the front door referenced them by name.

It’s the kind of place that has small plaques set into the bar to indicate long-time patrons’ customary spots. Oh, and there’s a big liquor bottle on a shelf over the bar filled with some kind of sandy substance. My dad pointed to a photo of a man on the wall and said, “See that bottle? That’s him. He used to be a regular here and when he died, he was cremated and they put his ashes up there.”

The bar where my band played last weekend is developing a nice neighborhood crowd. As soon as we arrived, various regulars started coming up and chatting. One guy latched on to some friends of mine and visited our table repeatedly as we had our pre-show dinner. By the time the night was over, the band was teasing me about how many new "boyfriends" I had among the many guys who kept coming up to gush over how much they enjoyed the show.

The bar itself can be its own character. We once played a place so small that they had to tip the pool table on its side to make room for the band to set up. We were still so much in the way of the staff that they wound their way through the band members on "stage" every time they needed to get back and forth from the bar to the storeroom or kitchen. It's probably a good thing the fire marshal didn't choose that time to stop by.

A few weeks ago, we were playing at another bar with a tipped pool table as a backdrop and in the middle of a song, the large, translucent plastic lens from one of the fluorescent ceiling fixtures fell down onto the drum kit. Without missing a beat, our drummer flung it aside and kept going. We have video of that somewhere; I need to get a copy. That’s the same bar where we tripped the breakers twice during setup before we decided to forego having lights behind the band.

A lot of times the word “dive” seems unnecessarily harsh. I’m aware that some of my more well-heeled and conservative friends probably don’t get out to working class drinking establishments much, but a lot of times what they call a dive is just a bar as far as I’m concerned. It may not be fancy, but it fulfills its purpose.

Even the many biker bars my band tends to play have seemed non-threatening in every way. Honestly, I’ve seen a lot more bar fights in "fancier" bars over the years. Yes, a lot of people are drunk, but other patrons tend to step in if someone looks as though they might stumble into the band or otherwise do something disruptive.

After looking up the latest dive bar where my band is booked, I feel nothing but pleasant anticipation for another show. Apparently the owners are really nice, and I think we'll have fun. What more can you ask for?

Average Jane Visits Equality House

On a recent road trip, we stopped in Topeka to see Equality House. It was a Sunday, so no one was around, but my sister took this photo of me out front with my niece and nephew. We were attempting peace signs with varying degrees of success.

If you don't know the story of Equality House, you can read about it here. It was cool to see it in context and have the opportunity to make a donation.

Average Jane and Death

I don't recall when I first ran across The Order of the Good Death blog, but I liked it immediately. I've had an interest in funeral practices, the death industry and the physical aspects of what happens after death for as long as I can remember.

I read "The American Way of Death" by Jessica Mitford as a teen after discovering it in my parents' bookcase. I was equally fascinated when I later ran across "Vampires, Burial, and Death: Folklore and Reality" by Paul Barber in a box of books my neighbors passed along before they moved. When "Stiff" by Mary Roach came along, I found it even more enlightening, which had me fully primed when The Order of the Good Death's founder, mortician Caitlin Doughty, came out with her book, "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes: And Other Lessons from the Crematory."

Last night Doughty was in Kansas City speaking to a good-sized crowd at the Kansas City Public Library about her book and her thoughts on how death customs in the United States are changing and how she thinks they should change more.

A couple of weeks ago I went to a local reading group discussion of the book and as I listened in, I thought about what draws me to the subject.

One of Doughty's major points in the book is that death has become largely hidden from the American public to the point that we don't even know that we have options when someone dies other than having them whisked off for embalming or cremation.

I thought back through my own experiences of people around me dying and it occurred to me that until very recently, I had never seen a relative of mine after they died. I'd been to a lot of funerals of friends, but only memorial services for relatives.

That's not to say that I necessarily wanted to see any of my deceased relatives' bodies before cremation, but I think it's important to look at the fears behind the urge to turn away and see if there's peace to be made with them.

Of course, that brings me around to what I might like for myself when my own death inevitably comes. As someone who just this morning washed an aluminum pizza pan so it could go in the recycling bin, I'm definitely in favor of an environmentally friendly option. Caitlin Doughty says in her book (and repeated on stage last night) that she'd like to have her body exposed to nature so that animals, microbes and weather can return her to the ecosystem. I like that idea as well, although the "cat in the back yard" method of just burying someone in a hole works for me, too.

I'm certainly in no hurry to die, but I can't help but be curious about the whole subject. It's good to know that the ways things surrounding death are generally done in our culture are not set in stone (I swear that wasn't meant as a gravestone pun. Or was it?).

The book is on bestseller lists, so clearly I'm not the only one interested in this topic. Have you read her book? How did it affect your thoughts and opinions?

Average Jane's 2013 Photo Retrospective

With the help of my iPhone, I have documented 2013 pretty thoroughly. Here's a look at some monthly highlights of what turned out to be a pretty great year.

* * * * *

In January we "temporarily" took in a beautiful foster cat named Tinkerbell from The Animal Rescue Alliance (T.A.R.A.). Now her name is Kaylee and she lives in my husband's recording studio when she's not hanging out in my office window.

In February, I joined the band Frisk and we recorded a demo at Digital Pulse Studio.

In March, I went to see Jenny Lawson speak and she signed my non-digital copy of Let's Pretend This Never Happened.

In April, I attempted two race events in one day. Below you see me optimistically starting the second one, despite being completely over it by then.

In May I went to BlogPaws and caught up with lots of my bloggy friends!

Lots of stuff happened in June, but the Glow Run was probably the most photo-friendly event.

In July, my band started performing regularly.

By August, my new dietary changes were in full swing. I discovered a delicious tofu topping for pizza.

I spent the first two weeks of September in Sweden with my dad. I know—I never got around to blogging about it. You can find the whole photo set on Flickr, if you're curious. 

In October, the universe sent me a message by way of a guerilla street art collective.

November kicked off two full months of fun parties with friends.

...which have continued throughout December.

 

I even hosted several of my own parties, but I never remember to take photos amidst all the hubbub.

Right now, 2014 is a big question mark. Changes, they are a-comin'! I'm not sure exactly what the next year will bring, but I'm confident that it will be just as bright and shiny and filled with love and laughs as last year.

Average Jane Celebrates the Winter Solstice

Yesterday morning I got up at my usual time of slightly before six o'clock, baked a batch of doughnut muffins, and walked across the street to share in an annual tradition that my new neighbors have to mark the winter solstice. At 7:35 a.m., we all went outside and sang the first verse of "Here Comes the Sun" as the sun rose, then went back inside for breakfast, coffee, mimosas and some vintage games. It was delightful.

I ducked out once and went back home to take Toby outside and retrieve my phone, which is when I saw the text asking if I could go out and finalize a kitten adoption. My printer is broken (although I have plans to try to fix it myself thanks to Dr. YouTube), but I was available to meet the family and send their new kitty home with them.

Once I was out and about, I decided to run a few errands to prepare for the upcoming holidays. My band was supposed to perform last night but our show got canceled because the bar had somehow booked two bands for the same night. With that kind of time on my hands, I figured I might as well fix a few things around the house, so I went to my favorite local hardware store and picked up supplies.

Naturally, I also stopped for coffee and a pastry because it's the kind of thing I do.

By the time my husband woke up around two o'clock, I was almost finished eating the previous day's leftovers for lunch and a nap was looming. I slept for almost two glorious hours and the dog didn't even notice I was in bed, which made for an uninterrupted sleep.

The weather had been icy since about noon and by the time evening rolled around, it was enough to keep us fairly close to home. We had dinner at a nearby restaurant with another couple, then stayed in for the evening and watched the documentary Sound City, which was really well done and interesting.

It was a lovely day and a great way to start two weeks of holiday celebrations.

Photo credit: cats in gloves

Average Jane Makes An Ugly Sweater

Disclosure: I received free craft and drink materials related to this post but was not otherwise compensated and all opinions are my own.

Like a lot of bloggers who have been around since the early days, I get quite a few PR pitches every week. The majority of them are either irrelevant to the focus of my blog or generally not of interest, but occasionally I get a really good one and I'm happy to participate.

In this instance, it was an email with the subject line, "Special Invitation - #ItsGoingToGetUgly This Holiday Season With Maker's Mark!" Well, that was certainly intriguing! Take note, budding PR professionals: the subject line is vitally important for blogger pitches. If you don't catch me there, chances are I won't even read the email.

The message went on to invite me to a Maker’s Mark DIY Ugly Sweater Party in the form of a webinar on a particular evening and asked me to send my address and sweater size if I'd like to participate. I assumed they would be sending alcohol, so I provided my work address because my home state gets snippy about that kind of thing.

The day of the webinar, this is what arrived:

• 1.75 liter bottle of Maker's Mark in a novelty box that disguised it as a fruitcake
• A little sweater for the bottle (apparently a sought-after collectors' item)
• Bottle of Angostura bitters
• Small bottle of orange liqueur
• Small bottle of organic Crown Maple syrup
• Packet of hot chocolate mix
• Tiny jar of edible glitter
• Three small cookie cutters for making fancy orange peel drink garnishes
• A plain white sweater in my size
• LED battery-operated light set
• Fabric glue
• A bag full of different kinds of fabric trim, sequins, patches, etc. 
• Small sewing kit with already threaded needles (which was a genius idea for people who would probably be crafting while drinking)

That was pretty impressive and definitely ramped up the excitement for the webinar. 

At the proper time in the evening, I lined up all my drink ingredients, including the warm milk, whipped cream and orange that had been cited as the only items not in the kit, and logged into the webinar.

The hosts were New York mixologist Pamela Wiznitzer and celebrity fashion stylist Quentin Cortez Owens. She walked us through the preparation of drinks while he worked on a sweater and offered tips for personalizing them and, most importantly, adding the LED lights (which I haven't done yet).

The first recipe was a Maple Old Fashioned, made with the organic maple syrup instead of simple syrup, Angostura bitters, Maker's Mark (of course) and an orange peel cut into the shape of an evergreen. My shot glass-sized measuring cup has most of the measurements worn off, so I think I made mine a little weak, but it tasted great.

With that drink beside me, I was ready to tackle the sweater decorating. I hadn't given enough thought to how that was going to proceed beforehand, so I had to scramble to set up my card table as the webinar progressed in the background. I got caught up and had my sweater nicely in progress before we prepared the second drink, an orange bourbon hot chocolate. I made mine with almond milk, but I went ahead and took a chance on real whipped cream. It was sprinkled with edible glitter, naturally.

The hosts were very personable and there was a lot of fun interaction between the participants within the hosting application and on Twitter with the hashtag #ItsGoingToGetUgly, although one person tweeted, accurately I thought, "so... @makersmark may have overestimated my ability to tweet, craft and drink at same time." Still, during the span of the webinar I managed to get my sweater done and finish both my drinks. 

It was quite an elaborate program, but it went flawlessly and was a lot of fun. It inspired me to sign up for the Maker's Mark Ambassador Program, which will obviously lead me to a long-term relationship with the brand I would not otherwise have had.

Big thumbs-up to Evins Communications for the great job they did coming up with the program. I love to see blogger programs done right!