Is she, or isn't she...

I've been dying to get home this evening to look this up. Yesterday, while talking to a co-worker, I was allowing that I have certain skill sets that enable me to get people to tell me things. I was getting ready to say that I was a 'connector' (which I think is true) but at the same time I was starting to say this, he said I was a Maven.

A Maven. I've heard of it, and when I think of it, I think of a wise, old crone. Hmmmm. But, as a label, well - might be true. Although there are MANY definitions of a Maven, here are some themes:
(1) an expert or connoisseur, often specif. a self-proclaimed one - from yourdictionary.com
(2) A person who has special knowledge or experience; an expert. American Heritage Dictionary
(3) The word comes from the Yiddish meyvn and Hebrew mevin (מבֿין), with the same meaning, which in turn derives from the Hebrew binah, meaning understanding. Wikipedia, first paragraph
(4) In network theory and sociology, a maven is someone who has a disproportionate influence on other members of the network. Wikipedia, second paragraph
(5) Malcolm Gladwell used it in his book The Tipping Point (Little Brown, 2000) to describe those who are intense gatherers of information and impressions, and so are often the first to pick up on new or nascent trends. The popularity of the work of Safire and Gladwell has made the word widely used in their particular contexts. Gladwell also suggests that mavens may act most effectively when in collaboration with connectors - i.e., those people who have wide network of casual acquaintances by whom they are trusted, often a network that crosses many social boundaries and groups. Connectors can thus easily and widely distribute the advice or insights of a maven. Widipedia, 4th paragraph (I might be both, a maven and a connector!)

I could go on - there are pages in google of definitions or impressions - I cherry-picked, obviously, the ones that I think fit. My perogative, my blog. But, I do believe he may have been on to something.

People have come to me my whole life and told me their story. I really don't know why. These days, I just ask the question, but back in high school or college that would have been to bold and brazen. They still told me. One of the references almost sounded like a witch (chrone), but I still like to think that my boss/co-worker/friend is right - I am the White Oprah.

Which explains all.

Keep Austin Weird

I am slightly jealous of my son. He lives in Austin, and the non-conformist in me would love so much to live there - let my inner-hippie out. If you stay away from I-35, you really get to see cool Austin - piercings, a lot of hemp, eat a lot of veggies and the best part - you slow down a little. My son lives in Southwest Austin and the husband and I spent Friday and Saturday morning doing 'authentic Austin' - rather the UT Austin which I'm pretty tired of.

The husband is a UT grad, and if you've ever known one... it can be insufferable. They really DO think the sun shines on them just a little bit brighter - and sometimes the combination of the range of the color orange they wear does force you to shield your eyes - but not because they have a special glow. Some ranges of orange just are not meant to be mixed - but I defy you to say that to one of them...not a pretty picture.

Anyway, I digress. We went to the Shady Grove in South Austin for lunch and sat with our fellow hippies - well, we were hippies in our head at least but most of the folks around us were real ones. Old ones too - there is something fascinating to me in being around elder hippies - I'm amazed that they had the courage and conviction to really look and live like that their whole life.

Next was the Hula Hut on Lake Austin where we enjoyed a cold one, out on the deck, in approximately 105 degrees. We needed to take a nap after that...

Dinner was at Trudies - so good, still south (only near the dreaded I-35) and so incredibly crowded. If there is a recession in Austin, and we hear there is, you could not have told by the crowd waiting to eat. Food so good - worth the wait.

Saturday morning was the quintessential Austin experience - the Sunset Valley Farmer's Market which is just on the other side of the highway from my son's house. He loves this market and has friends from college who sell gulf shrimp AND sell their ceramics. Funky stuff like this. And then truly unusual pieces like this stunning rock. These artists/botanists create all these pieces of 'live art' called waterstones. They seek out exquisite rock sources, this one happens to be shale from Arizona, and craft the stone in a way that it can house what they call 'Air Plants'. These plants have developed to a point that they take their nutrients from the air, no root system. If we take good care of this little plant that resides attached to this rock, by misting it every three days and not letting the part that is adhered to the rock rot, we can expect this little plant to bloom and re-bloom for years.

This will be the husband's job. He is excellent with plants - his parents have both been gone for over 7 years and he has kept alive plants the family received from their services. This is in preparation for our taking possession of some plants my mother is ready to pass on that she got out of may grandmothers house when she passed - in 1983.

We also bought some Feta cheese that we will eat with the homegrown tomatoes we also purchased - for this I cannot wait for dinner tonight. All and all, an awesome way to spend 24 hours.

So when was the last time the YOU sat through a drum solo - live?

I'm sure it was one of those ideas that sounded so great when it is several weeks out. My friend CZ emailed saying - 'I'm buying tickets to Bob Schneider for Friday, August 7 - you guys want to go?" I saw the group copied - who were all our buddies - and knew that pure peer pressure would be involved - nobody was going to say no, don't want to go.

Before I responded though, I needed to find out - who is Bob Schneider? My first source was my habit - itunes - and I liked the few clips I heard, based on popularity. Next, I saw a revue - 'Bob' is an Austin dude - okay, this sounds good. So, I checked calendar and emailed the husband to see if he knew if he had any plans on August 7 - which was a month away (I knew that answer, but we have agreed to check with each other before making commitments - took us about 25 years to get to that point). He responded with 'who is Bob Schneider'?

Fast forward to yesterday. Busy, busy week, staying up too late and getting up early to workout - I'm tired. Email comes in around 10:30 a.m. from CZ - change in dinner plans - meeting at new, groovy place on Henderson (approx 4 blocks from our first house) at 6:45 because 'Bob' doesn't start until 10 pm. THUD. On a Friday night that is definitely bed time - and 'Bob' will just be starting... OMG, I will need a nap.

Nap taken, party hats on, we pick up the D's down the street and head out to PARK - the new restaurant. Still early so a lot of people in our age range. Then as we are leaving around 9:30, we have seen friends of both our sons who I'm sure are surprised to see us at a trendy spot that THEY hang out at... and it's off to the Granada to see 'Bob'.

I was texting with both boys, so proud of us that we were still awake and actually having a great time! A couple in the group had seen 'Bob' in Austin with their kids and hadn't quite prepared the rest of us for some of the raunchiness of some of the songs... guess we're old enough to hear that stuff, but do we really need to? Oh well, I have to say - it was a blast and we all felt very cool.

Then at the end, 'Bob' introduced the band - and each member got to show off their skills and the last was the drum solo - it was 12:30 a.m. and I was done.

What I love though, is these are the same people we've been doing this stuff with for over twenty years - another experience - and that made it worth it.

Food Glorious Food

"The way to a man's heart is through his stomach" - I know I heard this phrase a million years ago and probably thought very little about it. Makes men sound pretty simple, and as time has gone by, I'm discovering that to be true.

My husband is tall and pretty lean - honestly, if I had to get him through food it would have been a short courtship. My fabulous cooking skills have only been honed in the last few years. The person with the biggest issue about food has always been me, not him.

I knew to keep lots of good stuff to eat around the house for the boys as they were growing up - starting at about Jr. High, and all through high school I kept cheap stuff from Sam's that they could eat in mass quantities. I think I've probably purchased my last box of frozen taquitos - and hot pockets. I knew I was a pretty special mom as long as I had good grub in the house.

While they were in college, I became so popular when I came to town because I would always take them and their friends to dinner - big breakfasts were best - less expensive and no alcohol included.

In the past several years, I learned I could wow my dad when he came to visit with good food, and really good Dreyer's ice cream - OMG - he loves it. The last time he was able to visit, on the way to my house from the airport he asked if we could go to IHOP. Once we got to my house, he asked if I had any of that great ice cream. This obsession with the next meal has become more pronounced as time has gone by. Actually, I understand it - my dad's health has been precarious for several years, he's not able to do much for himself - variety and quality of food has become a high point of his day.

So why am I talking about this? Last night we went to my old boss/buddy Steve's house for dinner. It was wonderful - we took dessert which was ice cream, berries and chocolate sauce. By 10 it was time to go home, we had forgotten to have dessert and left it there for them to have for the weekend.

Well, before we went to bed, the husband began lamenting the fact that we forgot to have dessert. This morning before he left to play golf - he mentioned it again - that he didn't get to have his favorite dessert (it's now been elevated to his favorite dessert). Then, when I was headed to the store, he asked me to buy every exact thing we had taken over to Steve's last night, that we left there, so he could FINALLY have it tonight.

I'm not sure that buying him his new favorite dessert has anything to do with getting to his heart - this time I'm using food to help him move on to a new topic!