Amazing Pizza

So yesterday I tried to continue with my eating healthy & fully with a salad bar lunch at Whole Foods (hot squash medley in tomato & onion sauce and a salad of spinach & field greens with Broccoli, Quinoa, shredded carrot & grilled chicken breast topped with Balsamic vinegar). Then I made a salad & pizza for dinner. It's one of my famous Trader Joe's Pizza Concoctions... I "hunt & gather my way through the store. It was amazing. Try it sometime. : )

Trader Joe's Pizza #5

• 1 ball of Garlic & Herb Pizza Crust Dough
• 2 hunks of Hearts of Palm=, sliced into circles
• 10 Pitted Kalamata Olives, sliced into quarters
• ~ 5 Marinated Artichoke Hearts, juice squeezed out & separated into different leaves
• ~10-12 large leaves of fresh Basil
• ~ 5 baby portabella mushrooms
• 1 Tbsp Coconut Oil
• ~1/4 cup of Quattro Formaggio Shredded Cheese Mix
• 2/3 jar of TJ's Vodka Sauce

Preheat oven to 425 according to crust package directions. Put 2/3 of the jar of Vodka Sauce into a sauce pan and boil over Med/Hi heat until turns into a wet paste consistency (~15-20 minutes). Either slice mushrooms or chop coarsely with a chopper. Saute mushroom pieces in Coconut Oil for ~ 5-10 minutes. Roll out crust to size of pizza pan or stone (mine's about 14-16 inch). Top Crust with Vodka Sauce Paste, basil leaves, sauteed mushroom, chopped olives, Heart of Palm & artichoke. Finish topping lightly with cheese. Bake for ~7 minutes or so. This crust never seems to get "golden", so just poke it. Cut, serve & enjoy!

If sliced into 8 pieces, this ends up being about 230 +/- calories per slice. : )

In addition to the pizza, I made a small entree salad of baby spring greens, fresh garden tomatoes, pine nuts, a medley I got at Whole Foods comprising coconut shavings, raisins & Cacao Nibs, and some sweet chicken I made by coating chicken breast pieces in a mixture of honey, agave, & Cassia Cinnamon. This was topped with Extra Virgin Olive Oil. I made the mistake of putting in the Kalamata Olives. Bad idea. Don't do that with a sweet salad. Lastly, there were Champagne grapes for dessert.

Hope you get a chance to try the Pizza & enjoy!

Another Diet Shift

I just got back from a 5 day MovNat (Natural Movement) Seminar with Erwan Le Corre and will discuss more of that at some later date... I've had a minor epiphany though concerning what I eat.

They had us on a Paleo Diet and the switch was not bad, especially since the food was prepared by a Frenchman, but I noticed no major effects. When I returned to normal everyday life, I went for a gourmet Mushroom puree pizza, some buffalo chicken croquettes & a pint or two of beer. The next day, I went on to an amusement park, got the Mahi Mahi Fish & Chips, ate only half, added an afternoon snack of fries, and topped it off with a Margarita, chips & salsa, and a half of an enchilada dish. he next day started with my normal breakfast Luna Bar, and a quickie lunch at McD's of Fillet o' Fish & apples. By mid-afternoon, I was feeling lethargic & irritated. I immediately ran off to Trader Joe's to stock up on natural Raw Almonds, unsweetened natural sun dried raisins, a couple of packages of grapes, some fresh spinach, fresh mozzarella, Bananas, blueberries, more almonds, and some coconut milk, coconut oil & agave. Last night I ate about 4 oz. of steak, seasoned & grilled, a salad of fresh spinach with some basil from the deck, copious tomatoes from the deck, raisins, almond slices, olive oil, & balsamic vinegar, then a side of grilled veggies, an ear of sweet corn, and a dessert of bananas, blueberries, almonds in coconut milk, honey, agave & coconut oil (the last 3 in small amounts). half way through the meal I started feeling alive again & was more than full, but not unpleasantly so... Further, I was not hungry this morning and only ate my breakfast bar because I needed something with my antibiotics (will explain later). Today I brought the Almonds & raisins and some dried apples with me in case I wanted a snack (didn't really) and then ate a gyro salad for lunch. I'm staying full & not feeling nearly so lethargic today. Hmmm... idea: more raw, more fresh, more veggies, add some healthy fats, avoid processed foods altogether. We'll see how this goes. : )

Public Service Announcement

Oh my holy __(fill in expletive of choice)__! It's been a longtime since I posted anything. Honestly, I've been crushed under the guilt of not being able to write up a description of our trip to Alaska since I was unable to post the photos for a long time. Ah well...



I found this CNN story today... Why? Really WHY must people demonize playing and having fun? Is fun something that is only allowed for kids? If so, then I might as well just kill myself now or revel in being a self-centered, perpetually adolescent generation Y-er. I mean, seriously... what's the purpose of posing and being staid & reserved? There's this whole social stigma about "This is what you wear at this age, this is how you act, this is what you look like and this is the way you move, this is what you like..." etc, etc, ad nauseum.... What a load of bunk.

Anyway, done with my rant and on to playing a bit of catch-up with you, my dear readers (all one of you...). : ) The alaska trip was fabulous and I'll hopefully devote an entire post to that at some point. The summer's been hell-a busy, so I've been going quite crazy, getting behind, and falling quite short on a lot of my resolutions.

At some point, I've gone crazy and decided I needed to be getting a more well-rounded exercise regimen. I found a theory called MovNat, an updated version of Methode Naturelle, which has been on my radar for about 2 years now, but I've never done anything about it. I also found an exercise concept called Exuberant Animal, which is all about full body & mental wellbeing through play-activities. Conveniently, the local Rec Center has classes by one of the only EA instructors on teh East Coast. Yay! Basically, it's a minimally structured exercise class based on being silly and whatever the Kwame decides seems fun at the moment. So far we've used such recognizable childhood favorites as Tug-of-War, Follow the Leader, Crabwalks & Wheelbarrow races among other thing. There's a lot of partnering and cooperative aspects too. It's a good silly time. I hope tonight's class is still on! At some point with all of this, I went crazy, decided to be "spontaneous" and signed up for the MovNat seminar in Summersville Lake, WV. I embark on that adventure tomorrow. Bright & early. Let's hope I come back in one piece.

This past weekend we went to the Jane Austen Ball at Gadsby's Tavern & hit a pool party downtown that ended up being a filming location for MTV's "The Real World". Interesting.

I think that's about it for now. I'll get more pics up someday and see about taking photos of the seminar. Fun.

Roadkill I am not! (at least for now...)

So as I said last time, I decided to try this Bike to Work Day thing, although I didn't officially register because there were no "Pit Stops" on my way to work at all & I don't want the cheesey T-shirt & I was going to do it or not based ont he weather forecast. So for the past two days I cleaned my bike, oiled my bike, inflated the tires & attempted to attach the headlamp & tail light. I still need to replace my front tire & probably my back brakes, but it was ready to go. The weather cleared, at least for this morning... if it's too miserable come time to go home, I'll probably just take Metro & bus and come back for my bike later.

Riding to work was a relative success... I got out the door & discovered that my shifter wouldn't work, so I oiled it and fiddled with it and then I only had one of the three gears, so I fiddled with it some more... got it to the point where I had all 3 gears, most of the time, and got going. The headlamp and taillight were useless - the taillight because I dropped it and then it refused to light, and the headlamp because I had to McGuyver it to my bike basket and it kept sliding so that it pointed straight down or straight up. Will figure out a more permanent solution someday. It was a nice ride, pretty relaxing until I got into the parts of G--D--- Alexandria, where they don't allow you to ride on sidewalks & don't provide any bike lanes. Fortunately, that was only a small part of the trip & most of it was spent in neighborhoods and riding with a good view of Cameron Run (a stream). I think it seemed like a good way to start my day, except I'm already getting hungry. DOH! Maybe I'll try to do this more often on nice days. I have to admit, though, that I am a wuss and would not choose to bike commute on cold days, snowy days, humid days, rainy days, etc.... so I think it'll only be an occasional thing unless it ever becomes a necessity. It'll be interesting to see how much my bottom hurts later.... I have a cushy old-school cruising saddle seat with the springs at the back and then have put a gel padded seat cover on top of that, but I still remember hurting after the last time I rode it for any distance. We shall see.

Sailing update: We did get to go out for class last night, and my lessons are now done with... I didn't get failed, I feel pretty comfortable with the boat now, so Yay! I get one free week of sailing to practice with and then I'm going to have to start paying (boo!) Maybe I should just get a boat.... ; )

Step 1 in Quest to Become a Real Pirate

Last year, Jonah & I discovered a number of sailing clubs and marinas that rent sail boats in our area. This is great! We love sailing (he loves sailing, I loved clinging to the side of the boat in fear - going from 125 ft of solid wood around me with high gunwales, i.e the Niagara, to an 11 ft. fiberglass boat is a bit of a change). So with all of this excitement about our new-found resources, we promptly didn't go sailing at all last year.



This year, I decided that I should learn to sail. There was at one point a possibility that we might get a boat, but I think that's on hold. Also, I'll feel more comfortable going out with J for an afternoon if I a) get comfortable and realize that a small boat is NOT out to get me, and b) know what to do in case, heaven forbid, anything were to happen to Jonah while we were out & I'd have to get us back safely.

So here I go, I've signed up for a 10 hour sailing class at the Belle Haven Sailing Marina and it's 4 nights after work of 2.5 hours of instruction per night. It's cheaper to take a weeknight class, and, upon taking it, I think it's better since it *feels* like I get to go out more since I go out four nights instead of two days.

Anyway, so here's how it's been:

• Day 1: Not so sure I like the instructor, though I like everyone else at the Marina. My fellow student & I can hold all of about 2 words worth of a conversation and then end up staring at each other. The 19 ft. Flying Scot feels a heck of a lot more stable than I expected. This is a good thing. We learn rigging and where the sandbar is, and that the Orange Buoy is named "Bob." We switch turns controlling the tiller and the jib sheets while Bill, the instructor, controls the main sheet. Eventually the one on the tiller is put in control of the main sheet two and I quickly discover that my gut instinct, when the boat starts to heel, or lean too far, is to do exactly the right thing to make it capsize. This does not bode well. Lastly, we're called in early because there are large ominous black clouds moving in quickly & I have a minor internal freak out since I don't trust the boat or myself or anyone else in a storm.
• Day 2: I start filled with great trepidation, but I am entertained by the resident dock dog, Hunter. He's a Chow or part Chow and OWNS the dock. He supervises the comings and goings. We get out to the moored boat & rig it & get ready to sail. I don't take out the boom crutch in time, the tiller gets stuck (because the crutch is in the way) and the boat spins around, promptly getting the mooring line tangled around the centerboard. eek. Laura strikes again. We can't raise the centerboard, the rope is stuck on it, we can't push the rope off since it's wrapped too tightly. Eventually dear fellow student determines which in which direction the line is anchored & I figure that if we rotate the boat ( using it like a canoe), we can unwind it. Goodie! It worked. Off we go. I get more comfortable, I'm not trying to capsize us anymore. We get lots of good quality time in, we make it out onto the river channel, learn right of way rules, & channel markers and have a generally successful day.
• Day 3: Beautiful, sunny day. I find myself wishing that my office window did NOT overlook the waters that I sail on. I want to play hookie. We have a new guy on our boat who is joining us since his class before had to be rescheduled due to weather. we practice tacking & jibing and man overboard drills. Bill goes to throw a life vest in the water as man overboard, but knocks his hat in as well. We practice 4 or 5 man overboards until we can successfully retrieve his hat, which seems to be camouflaged with the water (sentimental value?). It goes well enough, I'm feeling pretty darn comfortable, but I'm irritated by the new guy who'd rather talk than pay attention to the sail trim... he's letting the main sail, the one that provides the power, luff, i.e. not hold wind. It's not like you can't tell. The sail makes noise when it luffs. You hear that noise, you look, you take in the sail. It's easy. I got to see an Osprey fly off with a fish too. Yay!
• Day 4: sitting at my computer desk feeling like I'm rolling with a boat. I think it's lack of sleep. Most likely class will have to be rescheduled because of forecasted scattered thunderstorms. Wish the darn thing wasn't so weather-dependent. Will keep you all updated.
  

Maybe if I pass the class I'll get myself a pirate hat & become the fearful "Bloody Binkle of the Potomac"!

Speaking of weather, I am working frantically on getting my bike (I think mine is a 1971 model, same shape & colors though... different seat) in shape for summer with the hope of participating in Bike to Work day on Friday, just to see how that is. However, I don't think I'll do it if it's too miserable. Boo!

I don't think it's enough

$3825.00The Cadaver Calculator - Find out how much your body is worth.

So I totally don't think it'd be worth that to sell my dead body to science.... I mean, it wouldn't even cover funeral costs, I bet, and well I guess you'd save money on burial... but daggnabbit, I want to be buried in a grave easily forgotten so I can potentially be rediscovered by archaeologists in a couple of thousand years. So please don't sell me.

Forming a new religion around the internet...

Why would I do this? Because the internet is my SAVIOR!!! I've had rusty looking gunge leaking out of my fridge periodically for close to2 months. I figured it was the drip pan overflowing or something? This morning I found 1/2 inch of water in the bottom of the fridge under the veggie drawer.... Issues! So I googled "water leaking into bottom of refridgerator" and foudn a lot of answers to that question stating that there's a drain from the freezer to the drip pan & that it gets clogged & probably needs to be cleaned out. YAY! I disconnected a bunch of sh!# and lo-and-behold, after getting brown/greyfridge splooge all over my arm, I found that my drain part was clogged. I've since openned it up, cleaned it out & confrimed that water is now flowing just fine through the drain. let's hope that does it. : ) I'm also builing a religion around headlamps because I cannot think of a more useful device invented by man.

Unfortunately, I started fixing my fridge be taking apart the freezer compartment (which turned out to be completely unnecessary). On the upside, I got to see what the cooling mechanism of a freezer looks like & it's pretty darn cool...

So that happened.

Well, on to more happy things... Last night was the Glen Echo Evening with Strauss (Viennese Ball). As always, it was fabulous! We got dressed to the nines & had a nice evening, though we were constantly mistaken for Prom-goers over dinner.

I had so much fun & even got to get someone on my dance card for the Polka!!! Even better, he bore a striking resemblance to Steve Martin. Too bad I didn't get a picture... The best pic of the night though, was one I got of J on the carousel...

I don't know about anyone else, but with that profile and the tux and the hair the way it is, he totally looks like a romantic lead from a Jane Austin movie, don't you think??? : ) Maybe it's the side-burns...

Better Health Through Better Eating?

It's no secret now that I have noticed a difference in my overall health when I change my diet & eat better. It's led me to pay more attention when news articles talk about "eat this and not that". Totally fascinating. I don't buy into it 100% because for every article you find saying 'red wine is good for you', there's a corresponding one that says 'red wine is not good for you, especially women' or some such. I ran across this article the other week that continues to fascinate me: Better Together. I like all those food combinations, and I don't thinkit'll hurt any to try & eat those things together a little more often, though good luck remembering it all.... but what really fascinates me is the proposition on the first page that we may have evolved to like those combinations because it it more beneficial. I'd like to know more about studies that test that hypothesis.

Going Green?

This weekend we were up at Syracuse for J's grandfather's memorial service. We'll miss you Papa.

While we were up there visiting, I got to spend some time talking with J's aunt, dreamer. I've always enjoyed being with her and this time was no exception. She makes very nice jewelry out of natural gemstones and was talking about how she's had to learn about the different meanings or 'powers' of the stones since she does a lot of her selling at psychic fairs and such. One stone I've been drawn to a lot is Serpentine. It's just pretty, but for a lark, I looked up the meaning on Emily Gems via a google search. Here's some of the interesting things the site said... "Serpentine makes an exceptional meditation stone. It helps you to find inner peace. Some of the uses of serpentine include: Protection against poisonous creatures such as snakes, insects, etc; Balances mood swings; Encourages the ability to solve conflicts by peaceful means." Interesting coincidence considering I've been feeling under a considerable amount of turmoil until recently and have been finding a great desire to wear the serpentine bracelets that I have. Also, I've noticed that I've been drawn to a ridiculous amount of green items lately - a green purse, a green hat, several green shirts & sweaters, green jewelry etc.... Is it that there is a lot of nice green available this year or is there more to it? So I figured I'd look up symbolism of green too. "Green contains the powerful energies of nature, growth, desire to expand or increase. Balance and a sense of order are found in the color green. Change and transformation is necessary for growth, and so this ability to sustain changes is also a part of the energy of green.
Put some green in your life when you want: a new state of balance; feel a need for change or growth; freedom to pursue new ideas; protection from fears and anxieties connected with the demands of others"

Coincidence? Who knows. Maybe it all goes along with some people's theories that horoscopes and astrology are generic and seem accurate because you read what you want to into them. Maybe not. Maybe there's something to "all of it" - the ancient theories and arts. But regardless, none of that negates the fact that green is apparently making me feel good right now and there seems to be no harm in wearing it. : )

Barefooting

I find myself frequently facing questions about my crazy running shoes and Barefoot Running in general. The long & short of it all is that I think biomechanics is cool and I totally buy the theory that "supportive" shoes do more harm than good if worn your whole life. Regardless of how I feel, you can make up your own minds on the subject if it even interests you at all. I'll even make it easy for you and share my links that I've found either useful or fascinating.

• This guy's site has a lot of reading.... http://runningbarefoot.org/
• This has some opposing viewpoints... http://runningtimes.com/rt/articles/?id=5810 and http://www.runwashington.com/features/barefootrunning.html
• Blog of a barefoot runner... Has an interesting running technique video.... http://runbarefoot.blogspot.com/2007/10/form-video.html (the most fascinating part is at about 4:50 if the narration irritates you)
• Has some interesting stuff... http://completerunning.com/running-blog-mark/index.php/archives/category/barefoot-running/
• Also kind of interesting... POSE is frequently paired up with Barefooting since they use the same posture principles and POSE frequently makes use of running flats which are the next best thing to barefoot, mechanically... http://www.posetech.com/training/archives/000198.html
• Here's something from a marathon site... http://www.marathonandbeyond.com/choices/clift.htm
• a phys site... http://www.physorg.com/news84737938.html
• http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06157/696125-114.stm
• South African Medical Research council: http://www.mrc.co.za/mrcnews/july2005/running.htm
• NY Times articles: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/23/fashion/thursdaystyles/23Barefoot.html and http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/08/sports/othersports/08barefoot.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=barefoot%20running&st=cse
• These are interesting, but I am skeptical of anyone who refers only to excerpt and not the text as a whole, who knows what else was found... http://www.barefooters.org/medicine/
• From National Geographic: Oldest Footprints with modern anatomy found and Humans were born to run
  

That all being said/shared, I'll let you know how my "strengthen your foot for greater mobility later in life" experiment goes.... I don't think that one will be solved for at least 30 years though. : )

UPDATED: Thanks to Karina for posting this in the Comments: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/moslive/article-1170253/The-painful-truth-trainers-Are-expensive-running-shoes-waste-money.html

Figuring Stuff Out

I've been figuring some stuff out and it's feeling really good. I had a "mental" week last week... I got some info early in the week that shed a lot of light on a problem that I've had for going on 2 years now, and it led to a lot of emotional ups & downs while I processed & figured stuff out. In the end, I'm feeling soooo much better, but it led me to figure some other things out as well. For instance, my shoulders started knotting up about 2 weeks ago. I know it was stress related. No matter what, I could not get them to relax out. Then I went mental, and that exacerbated it. Finally, I gave up & went for my first real massage yesterday - it's worth the money to me to get it worked out & relaxed now before I have a 7 hour drive and a maybe stressful/maybe not weekend. Anyway, that worked out he kinks & loosened up my neck and it was wonderful, but today I am noticing that my shoulders are so used to being knotted up that they are trying to revert to that. I'm having to fight my own body today and it's very weird. I keep noticing my shoulders wanting to hunch up near my ears and etc.... Secondly, I discovered, or made the connection rather, that my worst "Mental" days the past month have been days where I am excruciatingly tired. I KNOW I don't handle lack of sleep well... If I stay up too late I get psycho & depressed. Cast parties in Highschool, while theoretically fun, were when I usually scared myself the most by getting into unreasonable paranoias and depression. Needless to say that when I put 2 and 2 together, it made a whole BUNCH of sense that my "depressed" feeling days were when I had gone too long without good sleep. The result of this realization is that I've set myself a goal of trying to get at least 7.5 hours of sleep a night. It's a mid-year resolution? Well, anyway, out of the past 3 days, I've succeeded twice in 3 nights. Not too bad to start.... AND I've been feeling GREAT!!! (even though the weather's sucked & been rainy & I think I'm starting to get mouldy...) If all I need to do to be happier & healthier is to eat better and sleep enough, well DAMN!

Ah, lastly, Joy-of-joys! I can finally have that Peanut Butter Milkshake!!!!!!!!!! I made & have maintained my goal weight for at least a week! Woot! I will officially stop dieting now. I will still track what I eat to manage and maintain what I've done. I will be doing more Rock Climbing soon and keeping up with my running hopefully, so if you see me getting any skinnier from this point (doubtful), it'll only be due to toning. Well, Cheers, everyone!

What now?

I am bothered by this... more later.

Cherry Blossom 5K

Well, it was that time of year again. The Cherry Blossom 5K has come and gone. Three of us ran it this year: myself, J & Lori. (see pic). Yes, those are the infamous Run Fatboy Run Shorts again. A special thanks again to Jason (AKA PunkJr) for the kindly gifting of the shorts last-minute last year. He will forever have a special place in my heart. Our times were posted yesterday. You can either look for yourself, or I can tell you that I came in at 29:55 total with an avg pace of 9:38 per mile. I was #168 out of 1056 women. Not too shabby. I am happy with the overall improvement... A year ago: 11:44 pace, 196 lbs., 34 inch waist. Today: 9:38 pace, 136 lbs., 26 inch waist. I'd say this has been a productive year. So as far as running goes, I'm hoping to form a running group to keep me to it this summer. I'm setting a goal to continue to work up to a 10K by this fall & see how I feel. I'd also like to improve my pace a little bit. I can do one 8 min mile if I really want to and I'd like to see if I can work up to that for next year. That would be cool. Do I think I'll get to a 10-miler at some point? Who knows. The only thing I DO know for sure is that I won't have the same breakfast next year. I might go back to my Kraft Mac & Cheese at 5 AM breakfast.... This year, well I figured eating at 6 AM when my race would start at 8:40 would be fine since that's nearly 3 hr digestion time. I had 1 Luna Bar, a 1/2 cup 1% fat Vanilla yogurt, & about 3-4 tbsp. Hummos to get some extra protein. My stomach cramped up during the race. I hate my digestive system.

In other news, I had an awesome Hanami weekend with Luke and perfected my banana-PB-Nutella crepes. More to come later.

Are we married?

Today in the news is an article about a bill that passed in Vermont Legalizing gay marriage that will probably be shot down by the Governor and an Iowa supreme court ruling that overturned the definition of marriage as between one man and one woman as unconstitutional.

That got me to thinking once again if Virginia technically consideres J & I married. Here's the letter of the Virginia State Constitution (it's Article I, section 15-A if the link isn't cooperating). I remember when this law was on the ballot a couple of years back. It made me mad on a number of levels and I voted against it. Let's not even get into a discussion about gay Marriage and whether or not gays should be allowed to marry or if it should be called marriage or something else. There are a zillions ways you can argue and discuss the topic. I don't feel like going there. I'll be blunt and say that in my own humble opinion I believe in equal rights and equal treatment for all and leave it at that. As such, regardless of whether you think it's right or wrong, isn't marriage part of the "pursuit of happiness" for some people? How can you exclude that from some when the constitution if the state garauntees the pursuit of happiness? Here's the main thing... if you ARE going to write a law that's designed to exclude a particular group, OR if you're going to vote for a law that excludes a particular group. You sure as hell better write the language properly.

The intention of the amendment was to define marriage as between one man & one woman and then also prohibit recognition of a gay marriage legal status from another state. According to the wording of the section, the VA constitution now fails to recognize any status from another state that is not "marriage" but "intends to approximate the design, qualities, significance, or effects of marriage". Where does that leave heterosexual couples who get a civil union in another state?

It will probably never effect J & I since I don't think anyone will give two shakes about our legal status since we're still "one man, one woman", but they could. We did not get married by a religious official. I don't know if our union, by Pennsylvania definition, was legally a "marriage" or a "civil union" since it was performed by a Justice of the peace. If it's a Civil Union, we should not get the same rights as married people? And people voted for this thing without taking off their gay-blinders and considering how the language COULD effect others not intended as the target. This just illustrates how this whole thing is a load of bull shit and ignorance seems to overpower reason at every turn. I hope it all turns around soon.

Pretending like I'm going to Scotland.

I finally made the excursion to the Royal Mile Pub last night to try out their special scotch tasting night. Thank you to everyone who braved the trek with me. Sorry I got stuck in the middle of the table so I couldn't mingle - I was thinking we weren't gonna push all the tables together. : ( I was pleasantly surprised to find that the food was excellent and remarkably fresh tasting (not like processed US pub food at all). I TRIED THE HAGGIS!!!! And even more exciting: I liked it! *shhh... don't tell!* Now that I've spilled my tea on myself 3 times, I find I must swear that I am neither still drunk nor hung over. Lastly, and sadly, the Beef & Guinness pie was not a replacement for those that I loved across the ocean. It was good. try it, but it was more beefy-oniony-gravy than I was looking for. Maybe I should stop trying Guinness pies and just give up & make my steak & ale pie recipe I found online. Anyway, the wait-staff was lovely and efficient and I had a nice evening. I've also determined that when my friend Dave comes down, I MUST take him here & camp out for the night.

The other main reason I went was for the scotch tasting. They have an extensive list and a special pairing on Thursdays.
And this is how it went:

• Starter: 16 yr old non-chill filtered pairing of Glenlivet & Longmorn - I wish they had been paired with the regular equivalent... it's hard to tell the difference between regular & non-chill filtered otherwise.
• Inchmurrin - was OK, not my favorite, but drinkable
• Caol Ila 12 yr. - tasted more like a campfire than Laphroaig, and had no other body to redeem itself with
• Glenrothes Special - by far, one of the nicest of the night.. full bodied, yet sweet almost to the point of being like a sherry - it paired up extremely well with the Trifle that we had for dessert.

Experiment Update

Day 1: started with 2 qt. tea, worked 6 hrs., finished off 1-1.5 qt.
Day 2: Started with 2 qt. tea, worked 9 hrs., the 2 qt. was GONE by 11:30 am.
Day 3: started with a little under 2 qt. tea (spillage on way to work), regulated better, worked 8.5 hr. ended with 1/2 qt. left
Day 4: fell off bandwagon due to lack of sleep and went straight for soda. Started with 1.75 qt. tea, at 2:05 PM, I have 1.75 qt. minus 1 mug left.

The adding in veggies thing has definitely worked. Apparently my body loves veggies and hates everything else I put in it. Today I weighed in at 134.5.... the first time under 135. I'll see if i can hold under 135 for a week and if so, PB shake for me!!!! Yahoo! Today I made sure to get green beans with my bison cheeseburger and tonight will be nothing but meat & carbs (i.e. steak pie & scotch, and more scotch). But back to "being good" tomorrow! They had better serve the steak pie with Peas. Every steak pie we got in Scotland came with a side of peas (granted, that was the worst steak pie we had)...

Who knew?

I guess I'm in style, according to this... 17 Ways to Style Your Hair (or something like that).

Who knew? I do this almost every other day because it is super fast & easy. I agree with them that it's good to use bobby pins because they break your hair less, but I do NOT agree that it needs to be done on Day-old dirty hair. I always do it when my hair is wet. And actually, if you have any sort of natural wave to begin with, you can usually work a nice wave into the sections that you're putting up before you pin them... just gently push the wet hair back toward the roots and see where the waves form. Leave them there and arrange the hair in a pin behind that. Maybe spray with a little bit of hairspray if you want the wave to stay super defined & you're done. You may notice, if you increase the pics, that I wave it on one side and not the other. That's because one half of my head doesn't do it. I'm a minimalist and don't force my hair to do anything it doesn't want to most of the time.

Experiment on self #221

In great quantities, over long periods of time, soda is bad for you. Who knows what the artificial stuff in Diet soda will do really? You know that. I know that. The fact still remains that I am addicted to soda. At work, I drink for one of these reasons: A) I'm thirsty, B) I need caffeine, C) I want something flavored in my mouth, D) because I suck on any consumable liquid put in front of me. With the exception of maybe, MAYBE reason B, There is no reason why I need to drink soda specifically. So why do I? Because I'm lazy and forgetful. Some days I just don't feel like walking down the hall, cleaning and filling my teapot and waiting for the water to boil (lazy). On days that I DO go get water & put it on to boil, I start doing work while it boils and realize 2 hours later that I've never made my tea. I turn the hot-pot back on and then promptly forget about it again, ad nauseum... Really, it's much quicker and yeilds more predictable results if I go pop money in the vending machine and grab a diet Coke. Finally I've hit a breaking point and realized that I MUST stop because the amount of soda I'm consuming disgusts me and the waste from all those bottles disgusts me and the waste of money that is my habit is disgusting.

I've come up witha solution and I will be seeing if I can stick to it.... A big vat o' iced tea. This satisfies both my need to drink and ease on environmental and financial impact while appeasing my lazy, forgetful self. I went out and bought a Thermos Pump Carafe in a 2 qt. size. and made 3 qt of iced tea in my tea maker last night. This morning, pour tea in carafe & off to work with me. I have my stainless steeel travel mug and plan to refil it all day. I dunno if 2 qt. will last all day, but we'll see. If this works, and I strongly suspect that it will once I make it a routine, please don't harass me about bringing my tea with me when I come to visit on long road trips.... It's really hard to find good unsweetened bottled tea in gas stations and 7-11s.

In other health and experiment related news...
I'm always impressed at how well minor home surgery seems to work. I took a spill in a parking lot over a week ago (literally tripped over my own feet, quite embarassing) and scraped up my hand. I must not have cleaned it & dressed it well enough the first time around because after 5 days it was still hurting, a bit red, and raised in one spot. Seemed like beginning infection to me.... So I reopenned it, applied alcohol, HO, and more antibiotic cream and it cleared up by the next day and was completely fine in another 2. Love it when that works.

Also, allergy season is starting up full swing again and I am once again going to try to subject myself to as much fresh air as possible to acclimate to the allergens. Yay! So far, so good.

Lastly, after realizing that I was no longer on a "plateau" for weight loss, but rather the La Brea Tar Pit (yeah, that's me...), I started looking at what I was eating and I've once again dropped all green vegetables, if not all vegetables period, out of my diet. AGAIN. So I've been trying to get 2-3 servings of veggies in per day again. I think it's helping already and that's only been 4 days ago. Wheee.... veggies are so critical.

Birthday Suit... uh, I mean dress....

P3250099
Originally uploaded by binkle52

Yup, well, it's a tradition started by my mum when I was little. She made me Birthday dresses as a kid. I think, maybe, it stemmed from the idea of Easter dresses since my birthday is generally close to Easter... eventhough we don't really celebrate Easter... hmmm... Well anyway, at some point I got "too old" for birthday dresses. Then, Freshman year in college, I found an awesome dress in the local vintage store... $22 - way too rich for a college student... so I bought myself a birthday present. : ) That restarted the tradition. I still have that dress. It was a stretchy Hawaiian number from the 600s so it stuck with me through all my weight shifts. I think the Elastic is FINALLY starting to go though, so I'll probably have to get around to replacing that. Anyway, so I stick with the idea of the birthday dress. Here's this year's birthday dress. Yay! This is, however, regardless of the fact that it's 40 degrees out. not cute dress weather at all. Oh well!

Do Neutral Colors have to be "Neutral" to be Neutral?

Neutral colors... you think tan, creme, brown, navy, black, and maybe white depending on how it's used. Supposedly these colors can go with anything. I don't like them. Black is good for shoes, clothes and dresses and that's about it. I do not like my coats to be black or any other "accessory" that is typically mass marketed in black. For the past couple of years I've had an awesome purse that was an olive faux-suede, well structured thing with a copper buckle. The olive color went with EVERYTHING. It is awesome; however, I've had that thing for close to 5 years and I'm not sure how much more life it has left. You see, I'm a practical purse person... I don't like to switch it out. I want it to look clean, be small and functional to fit my essentials in a well-organized manner. (The "small" is a must because I am a packer and can get an amazing amount of stuff into ANY given space and the more space = the more stuff, and quite frankly, I value a healthy back.) I want it to look neat and not like something a middle-aged business woman would carry (i.e. not shiny black or brown). It must be easy to get into so I can access my money quickly and not make everybody in line wait as I fiddle with my purse. It must close well to be relatively Klutz-proof, because I am one. Most importantly, it must go with everything I own so I don't have to change it out. Actually, I did see these awesome bags one time... Miche Bags. They'd be a great solution for me, but don't fit my final must: it MUST be cheap. I destroy things. The likelihood of me accidentally destroying something (re: Klutz discussion) is directly proportional to how expensive it is. Given my needs, I've been in hall trying to find a purse this season. Almost everything is big, looks like a bag and has no structure, is made out of that obnoxious "designer initial" fabric, looks like a middle-aged business woman purse, or is too expensive. Finally, in a fit of desperation, I found one that was small, had at least 3 pockets to appease my organizational sense, and closed reasonably well, although it is still bag-like. I will deal. Here it is, my new baby:

So now the question must be asked - can I make Lime green be a neutral? I have been pondering it and I think I can do it. It doesn't make any sense. It'll be an accent piece when I wear black, true, and maybe with white too, but i don't frequently wear white. But for most other things... I wear a goodly amount of green, but not shades that will clash. It'll go with browns, oranges, purples, blues, yellows... I think it'll work. Just don't expect to see my running around in matching pumps. It seems there is only a certain type of woman who can pull off lime-green pumps (hint: not me - I also don't feel like I can pull off those gigantic bead necklaces either).

Wish me luck! : )

What must people think of me?

OK... I just realized that I can't figure out how two parts of my personality coexist... I don't know if I should bother thinking about this, but here's what I was pondering:

Part A: I'm paranoid about what people think of me.
Part B: I could care less what people think of me.

Huh?

Examples of part A: I constantly think other co-workers must think I have IBS because I literally RUN to the bathroom every time I have to go. I constantly worry that if we're out at dinner with a group, if I get up to go to the bathroom at the end of the meal, I'm concerned that people will think I'm Bulimic (especially since I've lost so much weight this past year).

Regarding part B, even though I have concerns as demonstrated by the examples of A, I don't let it stop me from running to the bathroom, or going after a meal out. Also, I don't seem to care what anyone else thinks of me in general. I do what I like regardless of whether it's "normal." I wear costumes to work, I run randomly (through shopping plazas, through the halls at work, etc), I put my hair in pigtails even though I'm nearly 30, and have no qualms to rocking out to Bubble-gum J-Pop at odd times.

I don't know how to reconcile the two.

Ah, and the running through the halls at work set me to thinking that school is what was probably responsible for me not running at all until recently. You are told so often when you are little, especially at school, not to run. "Don't run in the Halls!!" etc. Daggnabbit. We'd all be in better shape if they'd stop yelling at us not to run. Thoughts....

wondering...

well, after working a long day today, I went out for a run. I'm running out of time (pun not intended) as I've mentioned before, so at this point, I've thrown the Couch to 5K out the window... My last run was 20 mins straight through, ended up being 2.12 miles and I felt OK at the end, so I decided to go for 25 mins this time and see how far I ended up going. I essentially ended up hating my life for the last 10 mins because my stomach was upset that I had consumed an energy bar 30 mins prior and I felt like I was really slowing up for the last 7 mins or so, but all in all I made it 2.6 miles in 25 mins and that works out somehow to 9.5 min per mile, so I guess I'm still doing OK.

Also, I thought I'd see what my resting heart rate is just cause... I can't find out from those stupid blood pressure machines because I have an irrational fear that they're going to go haywire, never deflate and chop my arm off, so my heart is always racing. So just sitting here, the resting heart rate is 48 bpm... I think that rates as "healthy", but I suspect that it just means my heart is as lazy as the rest of me.

Also fate dictated that I would stop working tonight after the internet glitched 3 times and then I couldn't get my login to register any more. Guess that means I should go to bed! :) G'night all.

screwwed, yet still going...

so, I am facing impossible odds towards finishing, with decent "marks," the quarter at work... so I'll be working mostly every waking moment. I'm taking a break tonight, tomorrow night (St. Paddy's) & wed (climbing, yay!)... and will go to a party Sat night. Otherwise, I will be working. Working, working, working, working, working....

Well anyway, as part of the working push, I stayed up until 1:30 AM last night & ended up getting 4 hours of sleep. My big problem is that I haven't really done well with the whole training thing and the Cherry Blossom 5K is on April 5... that's 3 weeks away. EEK! So I figured I could give running a try today. Due to lack of sleep, I was highly skeptical that this would even work since my scheduled run was 20 mins straight through (first time I've done this since September). Doom! The first half-mile I was pacing at 8 mins/mile. Then for the second half-mile, I developed a stitch in my side I started pacing out to average 9:30 mins/mile. Things were not looking good. Traditionally I have mental issues at this point... I don't wanna do it, I'm not gonna make it, I won't be able to keep it up.... etc, etc. But I had set myself to go as far as the mile point, turn around, and then see how far past the start I could go in 20 mins. As it turned out, my normal breaking point never came. I just kept plodding along. After a while I felt like I was plodding, but in the 20 mins, I went 2.129 Miles and it averages out to about 9:30 min/mile. This is pretty darn good in my book - especially since last year I paced out at 11:44. That's marked improvement and it feels good. Guess I won't be running an 8 min mile for the race! : ) If I do the same as last year and pace out a little faster than my normal (i.e. faster than 9:30), I might have a hope of being in the top 100 of women. That would be cool. The absolute best part was that eventhough, by all intents and purposes, I should have been grumping at myself by the end... I wasn't. I was a little slower, but I was warmed up and the stitch had gone away and I really stopped because my watch said to. I felt like I could have kept going. I'm sure that if I had to run it today, I could complete the 5K with no worries. This makes me happy. I did learn one lesson though... I can't spend the day drinking tea & soda before I run. Most of the last mile I spent with my fingers crossed that I wouldn't wet my pants... If I need caffeine for race day, I might look into a pair of Depends. Also, I need to stop losing my form (i.e. losing my concentration) in the middle, otherwise I'll crap my knee out.

Prepares to be stoned... (with rocks, not that other type)

So recently there have been a number of things flying around, like Holder calling us a "nation of cowards", etc, etc... which were well summed up in this article by Jeff Adair. After several weeks of pondering and secretly thinking, "gee, they're right, and I've thought that all along," I feel that we currently live in a nation of people afraid to speak what they truly feel... perhaps for fear of "offending someone else." Should we blame the Political correctness movement of the 90s? Dunno. All I know is that I had thoughts this morning, thoughts that I will share in just a moment, and feared that if I voiced them I would be either flamed online or publicly stoned... Am I really scared of what others think of me? No - if you know me well, you know I have very little regard for that. There's still something about the atmosphere of our country that makes me feel like I shouldn't say certain things. So here're my thoughts of this morning...

Last night I was talking to my mother in law about how parents don't give kids much outside time anymore (she was suggesting creating a fenced "secure" area that was just purely nature with a place off away where parents could sit & still watch, but childrens could run free without fear - kinda reminds me of a dogpark) and this led to a discussion about whether kids are really less safe today than when I was growing up in the early 80s, or is it all a reaction due to media fear-mongering that if you let your kid out of your sight for 1 second they will be scooped up & stolen and or you'll get the rotten-parent of the year award. This got me to thinking... Maybe kids are somewhat less safe these days if left to their own devices to play in neighborhoods because not many people are home anymore. It seems like a double-income household is more the norm these days, and so not many people are ever home. If fewer people are home, there are fewer eyes in any given neighborhood to watch out & make sure everything is ok. I've felt for a while that double income families are what have led to the decline of a "neighborhood" as it was stereotypically defined in the 20th century.

This led me to think this morning that maybe, inadvertently (and this is the part that will get me stoned), part of this economic meltdown can be linked to and blamed on the feminist movement. Don't get me wrong.... I am glad that I can drive a car & not be arrested, unlike in Saudi Arabia.... but ok, so women used to predominantly stay home, take care of the house, raise the kids. I've spent some time staying home between jobs. It sucks. You know why it sucks? Nobody else is home. None of my friends or neighbors are around during the day & I feel isolated. I can easily imagine that if one person of every household was home during the day, we'd all go stir crazy, talk to neighbors, go over to "borrow a cup of sugar" and end up staying for an hour chatting over a cup of coffee or keeping each other company while doing the laundry. I know that not everyone in a neighborhood would get along or be friends, but there might be more cohesion and more of a community interest in knowing what's going on outside your four walls. OK, so feminist movement gets into full swing... big push for women in the workplace. The push gets so big that eventually, socially, you feel like you're a martyr if you're female & don't have a job. So it starts slowly, double income families start popping up more and more. Double income means more money free to spend. More money leads to some people upgrading the American dream from a house & a car to a nice house and an expensive car. Americans have been ill-disposed to the "keeping up with the Jones'" demon, I think since this country began... so now more normal people have more stuff, and more normal people feel like they need more stuff because other people have that other stuff. So we turn into a consumer economy. Then, it's not enough to have a job as a woman, but now the new status thing is the power-jobs in the 80s & 90s. MORE MONEY! But since we make more money, we need to look like we have more money to impress other people or because at this point we feel like we're entitled to it. So then people start pushing to get more stuff or bigger stuff or better stuff and the credit companies feel like it's not risky anymore, credit cards begin getting more prevalent and we're now able to EASILY buy stuff we can't afford. YippEE!!!! MORE stuff! And then we're not happy with the nice simple house when we can buy a big mansion-looking thing, that has dropped into our price range because builders figured out where they could cheap out on materials. And so it got to be a thing for normal middle-class people to go in for the faux luxury stuff that's out of their price range because we got too far away from the reality of hardship and too used to the money of double income, so people were more willing to stretch to get that better thing and more companies were willing to stretch and extend risky credit because they're also too used to the money.... Then Boom. So I'd really like to see a socio-economic study done to see how much, if at all, any of this really stemmed from the feminist movement and the huge push for women in the workplace. OK, begin the rock throwing now.

In other news, I strongly believes that Teavana's tea called Matevana, should be renamed to Crack-vana.

Peace out. If you don't hear from me again, you'll know the raging feminist mobs have gotten to me. It's not that I don't like being able to work or think that women should stay home.... but if one person from every household worked and the other would stay home, then it would be interesting to see how much companies might scream that "there aren't enough workers available".... hmmm...

Culinary Crepe-riffic Masterpiece

So tonight I decided I wanted to cook since we'd both be home and I hadn't thought about it enough to get something ready in the slow-cooker. So I thought about it and got inspired on my way to the grocery. IF I could find pre-cooked shredded chicken or something of the sort, I'd try concocting crepes. I didn't find shredded chicken, but I found Oscar Meyer Deli Fresh Oven Roasted Chicken Breast Cuts (perhaps the longest product name known to man...). Game on. I collected the ingredients listed below (those not already in my kitchen - aka anything perishable), and set to work mincing to my little heart's content using my electric mini chopper (LOVE IT!). All in all, it didn't take too long since the chicken was already cooked and etc. Let me say "yum". Also surprisingly moist enough that it didn't need a sauce or gravy over top. Just a little sweet and then rich with the brie & herbs and garlic & spinach & chicken. If you try it, let me know what you think. (note: normally I make 5 lbs of pulled chicken & stockpile it, but I haven't done that in a while).


Light Savory Crepes #123

* Binkle's Crepe Recipe

*6.5 oz. Brie
*1.5 C sliced mushrooms (minced)
*3 cloves worth of minced garlic
*2 cups baby spinach
*1 package (6 oz.) Oscar Meyer Deli-Fresh Chicken Breast Cuts (or 6 oz. of precooked chicken) [also minced]
*2 Tbsp Herb de Province
*1-2 Tbsp olive oil
*2+ Tbsp Red Wine Vinegar
*1 C red grapes quartered

Mince Mushrooms and Cooked Chicken. In large skillet, saute garlic and spinach and Herb de Province in olive oil until spinach is 2/3 way cooked. Add minced mushrooms, chicken, and red wine vinegar & continue to cook ~5 mins. Add grape quarters. Warm through. If you only have one skillet, transfer mixture to another pan to keep warm on low heat. In large skillet, make a crepe covering the bottom of the pan (should get 4-5 crepes out of Binkle's Crepe recipe). Cut up brie into small bits. Once crepe is ready, place a quarter of the brie on the crepe while still in pan to partially melt. Add crepe filling into center of crepe over top of brie. Roll up, serve, and prepare second crepe in same manner.

This should serve 4 to 5 people. If serving 4 and get 5 crepes, then divide 5th crepe into 4 pieces, and roll with filling of fruit preserves for after dinner munchie.

If you want nutritional info for the filling, click here.

Running Update

It'll be interesting to see how this idea of "using the Couch to 5K interval training to increase my speed" works out.... Currently I'm training on week 5... Brisk 5 min. walk, 3 min. run, 90 sec walk, 5 min run, 2.5 min walk, 3 min run, 90 sec walk, 5 min run.... Saturday's run was a tad bit disappointing, I wasn't feeling 100%, I didn't want to get my butt in gear and I kept choking on my own spittle (iiieeeeewwwww....). Saturday I was slow. This was irritating since I'd been doing short runs at 7-8 min mile paces.... Today was much better and I was able to clock myself better. It went as follows:

• 3 Minute: clocked at a 7 min. mile or 8.44 mph
• 5 Minute: clocked at a 9 min mile or 6.5 mph
• 3 Minute: clocked at 8.25 min mile or 7.25 mph
• 5 Minute: clocked at 10 min mile or 6 mph

Granted, it is not horribly surprising that I can maintain a faster pace over a shorter distance and that my pace will slow as I get tired. It'll be interesting to see how this all plays out over the next month or so. It seems like I almost get more tired when I take the walking breaks, though I have to admit that I'm doing a quick, speed-walking, shuffle thing in between each. I wonder what would happen with the speed overtime if I just kept oging to the whole 16 minutes.... I am hoping that I can average less that 10 min per mile for the duration come race time. That would be cool. I doubt It'll be like the dream I had last night where I completed a 5K in 20:34.... that's a little less than 7 minutes per mile. While that would be AWESOME, it would also be highly unlikely. I'm hoping I didn't kick J in my sleep because I had a sore part in my thigh this morning that's normally sore from running. : )

Basically, here's my theory... I like running, but I have a short attention span. So I'm thinking that i'll be able to do longer races if I get faster because I can go farther in the same amount of time.

* crosses fingers *

The New Experiment....

So after seeing what I have deemed to be proven results by improving my diet and increasing my vitamin and vegetable intake (well, duh...), I am now on a kind of naturally improving my well-being kick and have run across this article about Omega-3 Fatty Acids. And once again "well, duh..." I mean, people have talked about Omega-3s for quite a while and I had noticed, but it seemed like such a side note... and honestly, I wasn't sure it was anything more than another hype thing. I'm still not sure it's anything other than hype. It does seem like a giant ad for that one company, but there are also a lot of facts and scenarios presented that have made sense to me. I'm thinking it's worth a try. J has been saying he wants to eat more fish. So we'll try to work more fish in per week and I'll see about finding fish oil supplements (know I have some cod liver oil up in the closet somewhere...). The plan is to try this for a couple of months and see if I notice any difference in how I feel, in the Fuzzy-head syndrome I've been experiencing of late, and in my overall anxiety and mood swing levels. Eeeeee!!! *claps and dances * It's always fun to have a new experiment to try on myself.

*Shhhh...* Don't tell....

Funny story: As you may or may not know by now, I'm a bit paranoid that people will think I'm up to something. Dunno why. I get freaked out if a cop car passes me going the other way with lights flashing because OBVIOUSLY he is going to make a U-turn and come after me even if I'm driving like a granny.

So today I brought in a Sugar Free French Vanilla Coffee-Mate and some Bigelow White Chocolate Kisses Tea. The coffee mate actually makes the tea taste respectable & pleasant. I realized that I had nothing for portion control - no measuring spoon. So I figured an old Coca-Cola cap looks about 1/2 Tbsp.... I'll use that. So now I have a bottle cap that's crusted in fine white powder, a desk that's semi-covered in fine white powder (the stuff gets EVERYWHERE!!!) and it looks like I've been cutting a line at work. Great. : \

Thanks, Mom

I'm becoming strongly convinced that my mum & dad raised me too well. At least, I figure most of my critical skills that I cherish have come from them. I think about myself a lot... I like to call it introspection. I figure out what's bothering me, why it's bothering me, where it comes from, and then figure out a way to either fix it or work around it. I've learned over the years that this is a skill that is not common. The other thing I've gotten from my upbringing (I presume) is, to borrow Obama's phrase "Yes I can!" This is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it's let me be able to do most anything that I set my mind to, because I don't really believe "I can't"... Any instance of "I can't" that crops up in my life, I recognize as "I don't want to take the steps necessary to do it". Right now I can't do the uneven parallel bars, but I have no doubt that if I worked on it, took classes, and trained, that I could. "I can't understand economics and finance" is really: "the stuff irritates me and I just don't want to bother with learning about it." Really, I can't honestly think of something that I believe I couldn't do (with the exception of that just stated - is that a paradox?). As such, since I believe everything I can do is a learned skill, I have two big issues: A) stupid people irritate me to no end and B) I lack empathy when people have certain shortcomings.
Regarding A), I'm not talking about stupid as in low IQ. People who aren't smart don't bother me at all. It's people who say "I can't...." and therefore remain stupid that irritate me. I ran into that a LOT when I was teaching and I still run into it when dealing with dancing. There's not a lot of "Learning" that can't be achieved by just working on it.
Regarding B), I have a hard time when people are consistently late or insensitive or always "having issues" or etc, because, at least to me, time management, dealing with other people, and coping skills are all LEARNED skills. I have a really hard time feeling for people in certain situations because they really do have the power to "fix" their situation and just choose not to because they say they "can't".

So, thanks Mom & Dad... I'm really glad that "I can"... I don't know how you got it into me, but I'm glad you did. Now I just have to figure out how "I can" have more empathy... or maybe I should just say "f- it" and let everyone else drown in their own "I can't"-ness. hmmm....

Another Beginning

So I got back from New Years' with this grand scheme of blogging my little heart out and talking about all sorts of cool random stuff. as that continued to happen, the cool stuff kept piling up & then I'd put off writing until I could sit down and do that justice. That has not happened either and at this point it's time to just sit down, say "F- it!", sweep all that stuff under the carpet and pretend there isn't an unsightly lump in the middle. Let's try this again. Today's topic is "My favorite downfalls."


So here it is, in no particular order, My Favorite Downfalls:

• Peanut butter - yes, this whole recall has been a nightmare from hell for me.
• Cheese - I've been finding myself craving all sorts of cheese products, particularly cheese & tomato, aka ravioli, pasta dishes, pizza, etc...
• Good bread (well, really, any bread) - it makes me fart & I should avoid it, but I just can't say no. The best: I had some 'Popovers' the other night (a-MAZ-ing... aka Yorkshire pudding)
• Garlic - no description necessary
• Pad Thai - the cheesy food that cheesy Americans always order at Thai places... It's my comfort food. What can I say?

More to come later, I'm sure. By my downfall of this exact moment would be Doritos.. classic, nacho cheese Doritos (classified as a cheese downfall). This being said, I've still been doing reasonably well... I'm waffling right around 135. Not steady enough to feel like I'm allowed to indulge in my PB Milkshake that I promised myself, but I'm almost there. I'm down from the line between a size 16/18 to teetering on the line of 6 to 4... This makes me happy. Please keep in mind that I'm not intending to brag. Peek into my brain: I mention this stuff because I can't comprehend it. I feel like I need to get some sort of grip on reality. I remember looking at size 6/4 jeans and thinking "what kind of stick insects can fit INTO those???" Then I'd pick up my pants and they'd look normal. Now I pick up my size 6 or 4 and they look the same size as the 16s that I used to have. I guess I don't quite look the same in the mirror, but I look the same as I THOUGHT I looked. Also, I sit down on the toilet and I SWEAR my thighs squish the same distance over the sides of the seat. I know there must be a difference, but I can't get it into my head and I'm honestly quite worried that if I don't keep trying to convince myself of what size I really am, I could maybe turn into one of those skinny girls who're always saying "I'm fat" and trying to do something unhealthy. I've also found that I'm very self-conscious about going to the bathroom right after dinner. I'm worried that people will think I'm bulimic. Really, all people should be worried about is that I'm psychotic and have a massive disconnect between my head and reality! : )