BLOGIVING: It’s not all about money 30 April 2008

I realize I would be doing a disservice to National Volunteer Week to only talk about giving money, when there are zillions of other ways to give and serve.  Philanthropy, after all, is at its base a LOVE of PEOPLE.  And you can love people for free.

• (Quick tangent. Indulge me.  Driving home tonight, and there’s a Justice Jewelers commercial on the radio.  417 folks no doubt have heard at least four-hundred-and-seventeen of these ads, always with Woody Justice telling us he wants to be our jeweler.  I sometimes feel a little upset at these, because he targets the “clueless but love-struck male shopper” demographic, and reminds me that though I know plenty of clueless boys, not a one of them is buying me a diamond. [AND I'm not quite sure I'd want him to either. Fair trade and all.]  Well tonight’s was especially alienating.  And I quote, “to be truly happy you have to have someone to love.  Have you found someone to love?”  No Woody Justice, I haven’t.  And I don’t need your diamonds to be my best friend.  Thanks.)

That tangent was not quick. Apologies.

Where was I…loving people! right! One of the simplest ways—and most obvious, but easy to forget—is just through words.  Sometimes I wish there was a stronger word than “thanks.”  This word gets tossed around to everyone from your grandparents to the Starbucks drive-through guy.  Not that it’s bad to be generally polite, but sometimes I wish there were words beyond “thank you” for those moments when I want to tell someone they really saved the day.  Gratitude is so simple, but can mean so much.

I’m also really touched by Charlie Gibson’s sign off at the end of the ABC Nightly News. Have you seen it? He wraps up the news story, previews the ABC line-up, then just says, “I’m Charlie Gibson, and I hope you had a good day.”  I know, I know…it’s generic and ultimately impersonal, but the couple of times I’ve seen it, it has made me feel warm inside.  Just knowing that there are so many people who might be lonely or overworked or hopeless and who might just need a couple of kind words to start to turn things around.

 

Volunteering is about more than words though, too.  I love the quote Todd Parnell used in his inauguration speech at Drury just last week:  ”Hope is a verb with its sleeves rolled up.”  In order to truly make change, there has to be some action to match the words.  To bring a little Jesus into it, there has to be some fruit or ain’t nothing growing.  To paraphrase.

This concept became real to me one Saturday in February.  We had a work day at The Skinny Improv, where everyone was required to be there and do odd jobs, organize costumes, build things, etc.  It is true that I volunteer to perform there, but that (most of the time. ha.) doesn’t feel like work. I love it.  There’s something different about giving yourself to an organization to do the dirty jobs.  To be on your hands and knees picking up trash.  To have sticky fingers from changing the soap dispensers.  It’s not glamorous of course.  It’s not the high heels and the black shirt.  But it’s all important.  It all adds up to giving people a break from their everyday lives, to making little moments of magic happen on stage, to creating something new that wasn’t there before and won’t happen again.

Helping people, volunteering, giving is made up of both the glamour and the grime.  Often heavy on the grime.  And I don’t mean “glamour” narrowly in the sense of recognition/fame (though that’s part of it I guess.  Giving money can get you recognition.) I mean also non-monetary rewards, like someone saying “thanks.”  That kind of recognition can be much more meaningful anyway.  

I’m learning, though, that there will be a lot of moments that feel thankless. There can be lot of fighting uphill when you’re trying to do what you think is right.  But that’s not a reason to stop.

Hm…and now real life is a metaphor for running…if that seems random, you have some catching up to do. Go back to July and start reading.  I’ll wait.

BLOGIVING: Make It Right 29 April 2008

I was only able to catch a few minutes of IDOL GIVES BACK this year, but the show delivered enough warm-fuzzy moments and celebrity cameos to make my little heart happy.  (I stumbled upon it during last year’s Idol season, and I remember loving Ellen’s quirky co-hosting and also crying a lot.  Inspirational television philanthropy gets to me sometimes.  Let’s not talk about Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.  The phrase “move that bus!” brings on friggen pavlovian tears at this point.)  This year perhaps the most exciting celebrity appearance was Brad Pitt.  Tell ya what, ladies, that is one seventh-grade crush that I will never outgrow.  (My real seventh-grade crush, on the other hand, has been off my radar for about six years now.  I think I heard he has a kid.  I used to think his opinions mattered so much, and now I have no idea where he even lives.  Yeah, no, I get it now God. Thanks.)  

It’s silly, but I just admire him so much.  Not only is he beautiful, and has local-boy charm that you just have to love, but he cares about making a real difference and uses his celebrity to help people who really need it.  

 

Cutest moment by far:  he’s interviewing these kids in New Orleans, about their hope for the future, and one little guy says he wants to be a baseball player/lawyer…in space.

Make It Right is working to build homes for families displaced by Hurricane Katrina, so kids like that little guy can have some hope of a future.  It sounds so cheesy, but don’t let it be.  There are real people right now who still have no home.  

I remember watching the early footage of New Orleans on TV after Katrina.  I was a senior in college, and sat in the comfy chair in my comfortable dorm, and just couldn’t believe that this was really happening.  I got really sad and angry.  And then I decided to start a drive for the Red Cross.  It almost makes me laugh that this was the next logical step for me.  I couldn’t just sit in my chair and be sad.  I had to do something about it, no matter how small.

So here’s something that can still be done, for people who are still hurting—over two years later.  Even a little money can help. (Jimmy Buffett is listed as a recent donor on the site. Dude has made a living out of singing about the beach.  If he can do it, you can!)  You can help give little kids the chance to be athlete/attorney/astronauts by giving them a home (an environmentally-friendly one at that!)  

And you’ll make Brad Pitt smile.

He will squint at you until you give.

Rejection. 29 April 2008

So…remember a few weeks ago I said a new “big goal” was to submit to the online nonfiction journal BREVITY before the end of May?  Well I did it!  The deadline for submissions before summer was actually April 15…cheeky magazine and your clever deadlines…I got it in on time, and then waited patiently.  Just yesterday I got a response via e-mail.  These folks are an electronic journal and they don’t mess around. You submit via email, they respond via email.  Subject line:   “re: submission”.

 

Dear Ms. Jenkins,

Thank you very much for your recent submission to BREVITY.  We are shocked (though pleased, as well) by the number and quality of submissions we are receiving these days, and the calls are becoming more, and more difficult.

I am sorry to say that we will not be able to use your essay, but we appreciate your sending it for our consideration.

Good luck with your writing.

Rachael Peckham
Managing Editor

 

And there you have it.  My first rejection from a “real” literary magazine.  And I couldn’t be more thrilled. (Could be slightly more thrilled, of course.  But rejection is good.  Makes you grow, yadda yadda. Right?)  And still I’m glad that I followed through and gave it a try.  I’m inspired to keep on trying.  Just today I discovered SMITH magazine.  Six-word memoirs. Are you kidding me?! I’m in love.

And besides…maybe I don’t want to be published in a journal that adds unnecessary commas to common phrases like “more and more”.  (Ok I admit that was petty. But I was rejected.  Let me be a little bitter.)

 

BLOGIVING 28 April 2008

This is another title I’ve been sitting on for a couple of days.  Too cute?

This is National Volunteer Week, and to celebrate I thought I’d start something I’ve been thinking about for a while.  Use the blog to share inspirational stories I’ve heard, or link to nonprofits that you dear reader can support, or talk about helping people in big and small ways.  The big and small ways that people help me all the time.  Hopefully I’ll have BLOGIVING posts once a week, but this week I’m going to TRY one every day…because I know if I’m too busy to think about helping other people, I’m too busy.  (Call Oprah. I just had a moment.)

Today I’m going to start with an easy one.  The blog’s about running right? (or at least it used to be…) Well it sure is lucky that running and doing-good are easy to combine.

In 2 weeks (oh god, just 2 weeks…) I’m running in THE KITCHEN RUN, a 5K supporting–you guessed it!–The Kitchen, and all the amazing work they do for our homeless neighbors in Springfield.

This is super-exciting for a few reasons.

• 1) I get super-excited about most things.
• 2) This is the first race that I’m doing specifically for the cause.  Sure my half-marathon helped St. Jude, and I was glad to do it, but that race was more about ME.
• 3) The race is still about me. I’m going to try to place in my age bracket. HAHAHAHA. No seriously.

So, dear reader, if you are a Sprinting Springfieldian as well (oh you better believe I just said that!), you should also run.  Just don’t run faster than I do.

 

BLOGUMBO 28 April 2008

I thought of this title a while ago, and you know I’ve been excited to use it ever since.

I feel like my entries lately are quite sundry and varied, like my thoughts. I don’t post very often, but I do collect snippets on sticky notes and envelopes, e-mails to myself, just waiting for the day I put it together. Like today. 

So here we go.

BLOGUMBO. You know, like the soup.

 

FIRST a movie:

Saw Baby Mama with one of my bffs last night.  I can now confirm what many people have no doubt suspected for quite some time:  I would go gay for Tina Fey.  OR at the very least (as she is married with a baby, after all, and I am pretty sure I still like boys) wish very deeply that she was my older, hilarious mentor / friend.  I don’t think I’ve enjoyed myself so much in a movie in a long time, just because I’m like the little kid who dresses up like Spiderman over it.  She’s so great! I literally want to be her. And let’s not even talk about the cute outfits and having Greg Kinnear as your late-thirties love interest.  It does NOT get better.

 

Lately I find myself loving when old things feel new again:

• Driving to The Wallflowers with the windows down (try not to sing.  you can’t.)
• Catching a rerun of Wayne’s World on a Sunday afternoon
• Running into high school friends I haven’t seen in—oh god—six years
• Seeing little dressed up prom kids downtown last weekend…

 

Other random thoughts:

• I really can’t wait for the sex and the city movie.
• I am falling back in love with Cole Porter songs.
• There may be nothing cuter than making a cat listen to an iPod.

 

AND I’m running again!

I’m discovering I get tired of some songs on my iPod, but arcade fire and ben folds can sing to me any day.  My unspoken goal for myself was to feel comfortable in some nike outlet shorts, which I bought way back in December, by May 1.  Well I tried ‘em out over the weekend, and I’m only slightly self-conscious over the shorty shortness. 

As I’m walking home, I get a little nod from a creepy dude with his window rolled down, and for once I am not offended. Thanks guy with the afro driving the old Honda!  And you’re welcome.

 

AND finally a moment of opinion:

A couple weeks ago Colbert and John Stewart both made a lot of to-do over the absurdity of the media asking, “is Obama an elitist?”, and I agree. I WANT a president who thinks he’s better than me.  Please. Know more about foreign policy than I do. It’d be a welcome change. Har har har.

I have been accused myself—only a handful of times, I assure you—of being smug (mostly by opponents during trivia games when I get particularly carried away) or just the teensiest bit pretentious about my book/music/movie taste…and I do place high value on being humble and grateful, but I also value being intellectual, and am always trying to improve myself.

Well, I feel a little more justified after I read an article from NY Times about women and booksnobbery. (okay okay before I sound too pretentious, I have to admit that I linked to this article from stuff white people like, which I suppose is in its own way pretentious—oh we’re so funny and ironic! Link to us and buy our book at urban outfitters! (there’s not a book, but there will be. Learned it on wordpress. Again, listen to me and my obscure facts.)  BUT I still love it. and wish I’d thought of it first. So there.)  I guess I’ve been in the university system so long that I take it for granted that people want to be smart and learn and improve.  But I also know it’s not true.  I heard some statistic that 80% of Americans didn’t read a book last year.  I don’t think I’m an intellectual elitist for thinking that’s effing insane, but maybe I am.  And so be it.  

It is kind of deal-breaker. I’m not saying I wouldn’t date a guy if he didn’t read, but I’m sorry, if your facebook wall doesn’t list favorite books I’m going to get a little nervous.  If the ratio of books-read to Judd-Apatow-movies-watched in the last year is skewed in the wrong direction, I will think twice. 

No, I guess I am saying I wouldn’t date a guy who doesn’t read.  I was an English major. I want to be a writer.  Books are kind of what I do.

Not that it matters.  There are no boys who would’ve read this far by now anyway.  Good one.

In honor of tax day…a trip down memory lane 15 April 2008

For the last few weeks, whenever I’d think about doing my taxes (and don’t worry, they’re filed. I’m not a criminal) a vivid memory of a scene from Full House would come to mind.
(Something’s not right in my brain. I often can’t remember what I did the day before yesterday, but I can produce mental transcripts of TV shows I watched 15 years ago.) Disturbingly nerdy. But it amuses me, so I will share it. And hope it amuses you.

Scene: Joey and Michelle are chatting. Uncle Jesse and Aunt Becky have just gotten married. (That episode I don’t remember, but I bet someone said “have mercy…”) Michelle is distressed because she can’t get Uncle Jesse or Aunt Becky to answer the door to their attic apartment. Hubba hubba.

Michelle: What are they DOING up there?
Joey: Well, Michelle, they’re doing their taxes.
Michelle: Are they going to be doing their taxeees every NIGHT?
Joey: For the first couple of months…

And scene!

Drove by the post office on Chestnut today, and saw an interesting real-life tax day scene as well. There’s a handful of fair-tax supporters holding up signs painted on sheets and poster board. Their signs say things like The IRS is a fraud and honk to end war. Just a few feet away, there’s one soldier in full camo, holding his own sign that says Thank you. That money supports soldiers like me.
Hm.
That gave my little mind something to chew on. Would there be a better juxtaposition than that? I wonder if any tv stations got that on camera. What an illustration of what I was feeling when crunching the numbers on my too-confusing 1040. (I was also feeling curiosity about what happens next. Who keeps track of all this? The process and organization is mind-boggling. Whose job is it to open my envelope, double-check my W-2s? It’s bizarre, but I really want to know who it is. Is that all they do all day? How does the IRS work? Essentially, I want Mr. Rogers to send the magic trolley to the IRS and show me. I trust when he shows me how crayons are made. (but are taxes much like hot dogs? would it be better not to know?)) Okay but back to what I was feeling. A mixture of love for America and mistrust for America’s leadership.

Love and mistrust. I could write a book.

On a slightly related note, I looked at my Yahoo horoscope today, hoping it might have something insightful to say about tax day. It was this: It’s a good day for you to separate the good people in your life from the bad ones.
Oh yahoo…if only it was that simple…

Movies / Books 11 April 2008

Finally updated the “movies” and “books” pages. So…now you know a little bit of what I’ve been up to. Maybe I’ll write commentary…someday…

Trying to read 25 books in year #25.

Movies have disappointed me lately, comedies at least. Looked forward to Be Kind Rewind and Run Fat Boy Run, but then laughed for only the wrong reasons. On the other hand, I had a surprisingly fabulous time seeing Step Up 2 The Streets. (And I just admitted that. In public.) Looking forward to the summer season…though with 3 weeks at MSA and 2 weeks in Italy I’m not sure when I’ll find time…

Week in Review 9 April 2008

There Will Be Blood
Last week I finally gave in to the peer pressure. Everyone else was doing it…so I gave blood. (is there anything I won’t do for free a tshirt?)

Giggled to myself at the top-secret questionnaire: “have you ever come into contact with someone else’s blood?” (good lord!) I sign a waiver that says, among other things, that I agree to “invasive procedures” to get my blood.

As I sit in the blue lawn chair, arm swabbed up and waiting, I’m more nervous than before I went skydiving. I think it’s because I know what needles feel like, and I’d never jumped out of a plane.
They’re listening to KGBX, and I know I’ll never think of “If you like pina coladas…”, “love lift us up where we belong…” or “I can only imagine…” the same way again.

It wasn’t so bad, after all–though I did have to put my feet up twice from a warm, near-pass-out feeling. I got a heroic hot pink pressure wrap and free tshirt. And all I lost was a pint–about 1/10 of my blood. 8 more weeks and i just might do it again.

Rockin the Suburbs
Last week I saw Ben Folds. Super sexy.
I can’t get enough of the rock-out piano and the lunging in the tan pants with the grey tshirt and the too-big glasses and the pitch-perfect singing and the nerdy jokes and the maracas and the leading us like a choir and the encore and the loudness and the dancing like a white girl.
Too much fun.

Opening guy: Eef Barzelay (god bless you) wears the all-white suit and does the squat-and-jump with his guitar, and is entertaining and has the clever lines, but I feel too ill-equipped in music assessment to actually rate him. (especially after reading Lester Bangs’ “Astral Weeks” for class. That’s music writing.) Too excited to be objective. He dedicates a song to all the ladies, we enjoy that. He says that the Mormons think that Eden was in Missouri. I say to Jill “I wonder if he says that to all the states…”

We were in row D. As in DAMN! (only said like my RAs sometimes say it…daaaayum!) Looked back at one point, when all were singing bitches ain’t shit, and there were SO MANY PEOPLE behind us.

He sang (almost) all my favorites, except Song for the Dumped and Luckiest—which are my earliest and most vivid ben folds memories. So…maybe it’s for the best.
First memory: went to smart camp for gifted junior high kids. The weekend field trip to Silver Dollar City. Singing “Give me my money back” on the bus back from branson…over and over and over. This was in 8th grade (ten years ago!).
Most vivid: hearing “The Luckiest” for first time, in my car on the way to see freshman boyfriend. It was on a CD a boy (this one just a friend) had given me to expand my musical horizons. (Freshman me knew she loved Dave Matthews, but not too much else.) Today it can still make me cry. So simple and beautiful and sad.
But let’s not worry about what didn’t happen.

Could feel the noise in my chest. Couldn’t stop smiling at the piano skills. Bought a tshirt. All is right with the world.

That’s Amore
Last week I for-real committed to going to Italy in July. I will turn 25 in Venice.
Looking at my old passport photo–she looks so tiny. I can’t believe they let her go to India. I can’t believe they let her go on dates.

I am excited that my trip to Italy gives me another BIG ASSIGNMENT: learn basic Italian phrases, watch Roman Holiday, listen to Dean Martin. Eat lots of pasta and drink lots of wine. My kind of assignment.

one more thing
ps—did you see the April 08 Vanity Fair?

“It might as well be Spring” 1 April 2008

To make up for an extended Spring Blog Break, here’s a little montage of all things spring that have been making me smile lately. I hope they do the same for you.

You know it’s springtime at Drury when…
…Boys start playing volleyball in the sand court between Wallace and Smith, putting their board shorts and athleticism on display
…Dogwood trees are in bloom, so Drury Lane smells oddly like fish sticks

It’s medieval jousting time in the park on National and Sunset. Someday I want to do more than drive by and laugh. I have a feeling this is an experience not to be missed.

Deaf actress Marlee Matlin is on the newest season of Dancing With The Stars. I don’t even watch the show, but I caught her on Ellen, and this story is make-me-cry inspiring (well, as are many stories, I admit). She can’t hear the music, but she can still dance. Love it.

Went to a bridal shower last weekend. Maybe I was feeling particularly schmaltzy (well, when am I not…), maybe this was a particularly special bride-to-be, but I was struck by the power of love and family and friendship and connection and memories. It’s enough to make a girl feel a little warm inside, even a girl who’s usually pretty bitter come bridal shower time.
But I also can’t help but conjure the Sex and The City episode where Carrie wants to have a single-shower. (just looked it up, it’s season 6, episode 83, “a woman’s right to shoes”) Yeah, I’ll admit I’m a little jealous when I stop to think of all the brand-new kitchen gadgets that I await me, and society deems perfectly appropriate for my friends and family to buy for me, IFF I commit to a legally-binding long-term relationship with a man…

I love the first flip-flop friendly days, and allowing my toes out of hibernation

I’m a sucker for new tank tops in a variety of bright colors and sassy patterns, and will pay Express way too much to let me have them

Easter: Yes I enjoy the redemption and family togetherness, but my favorite part has to be putting peeps in the microwave. Did you know if you stick toothpicks in them beforehand you can make them joust?

Another Easter highlight: the candy. Starburst jellybeans, Cadbury, old-school marshmallow eggs in Styrofoam cartons. Does it get any better?

One more: Saw a little girl at Target, sitting in her mom’s cart, pointing up at an Easter ad: “look at the chickie! He’s got a mag-a-nifying glass!” Adorable!

On a recent Sunday run I crossed paths with a family: mom in sunglasses, dad in baseball hat, baby in stroller, dog on leash, cat trailing lazily behind, out on a midtown spring walk.

And finally, a random musical moment, featuring Momma Partridge in younger days. Taken out of context it’s really amusing. Note the tuxedo-wearing fellows.