Days 22-27

The word of the day is: PROCRASTINATION

Or maybe it’s more that  I am not nearly interesting enough to write about myself and my life every day. Well, to be honest – since we’re such close friends -, I’ve thought every day of blogging (See how that worked out?) and I just didn’t.

Let’s start with some yummy food, compliments of Pinterest.

Since we were crapped on by the Snow Gods, I thought soup was in order. I prepared for this by buying the ingredients for this tomato soup ahead of the storm. I also bought the materials for grilled cheese – the natural compliment for such a soup. I wasn’t too impressed, sadly. I opted for the no cream option…maybe that was it. It just didn’t taste like tomato soup to us. This may also have to do with the connection of memory and taste. Happy, warm, memories of tomato soup and grilled cheese center around a very well known red and white can. A similar effect was not achieved by this soup, as I had hopped. Don’t get me wrong, it was good, but did not hit the memory as I had hoped.

Food and memory are just so intertwined; I think anyway. The smells, sights, and tastes of a childhood dish just bring you back to a different, better?, simpler?, time. For me, food has a way of crossing the boundaries that the passing of a loved one puts up. When I make some of my grandfather’s recipes I swear it’s like he’s with me again. Making the food reminds me of all the times we made X food and eating it is like a brief glimpse to a past where he was still alive.

I digress…

For dessert, the most important part of any meal, I made these with a few minor changes. I didn’t make the filling as outline here. Instead I bought a raspberry jam that sounded amazing and used that instead. I followed everything else to the T and these were AMAZING.

During this week I made these chicken thighs. I followed this recipe exactly, but was a little less than thrilled that the sauce, which sounded so good, was a little less than amazing when all was said and done. So, here was my fix:

1. Take the thighs out of the pan after 15 minutes (as prescribed in the recipe).
2. Broil them for 5 minutes to achieve a nice crispy crust on the skin and to finish cooking them through.
3. Meanwhile, mix about a table spoon of corn starch with a little over a tablespoon of water to create a thick-ish/watery paste.
4. Poor corn starch mixture into sauce in the pan and whisk.
   1. I had to add about a table spoon more soy sauce, another lime worth or juice, and about a tablespoon of veggie stock into this to get it to the consistency I wanted.

This gave me an amazing gravy that I happily spooned all over the chicken and rice we had.

I’ve been making my way through 1984 and I am enjoying it. There are some aspects of this book that would make it interesting and difficult to teach.

I am particularly fond of this line:

Perhaps a lunatic was simply a minority of one.

I am not sure what it is about this that hits me, other than I can see the truth behind it. How many times throughout history has someone said or believed something that the masses did not agree with only to be labeled a lunatic…a heretic. Then, later, it is found out that they were correct and thus no longer a lunatic. This fact is address right after this line when it is said that:

At one time it had been a sign of madness to believe that the Earth goes round the Sun; today, to believe the past is inalterable.

I have been pondering this bit for the last few days. I thought it was worth sharing.

 

Here is a little Haiku I wrote about the snow. There is some unladylike language therein…

Day 21

Sometimes I feel like being a child is a bit of a sham. You spend that whole time seeing adults and they make adulting look freaking AMAZING. All you want to do is be an adult. You play games where you pretend to be adults, you play with toys that are adults – even if they are unrealistic ones (I’m looking at you Barbie.)- and you think about how awesome life will be when you are an adult.

You grow a little, you’re an adolescent, and that’s when you get the first clue that adulting may not be as fun as you thought it might be. At this point you have chores (a job), more and more homework (responsibilities), you are worried about who likes whom (interpersonal relationships – drama), and you have to go to bed and get up every day to do the same stuff (school). At this point some kids realize that adults may have been lying this whole time and others still think once they are grown and out of school the world will be their oyster…

…and sometimes they learn it’s a rotten oyster (Do oyster rot?). You get to college and it’s clear that adults have been lying. While trying to not fail at college you’re holding down 1 (2…3…) job(s) and trying to be a person as well. You get the idea that your time isn’t really your own, and that starts to become ok…not really, but ok.

And now you’re out of college working in the field you have just spent or borrowed thousands upon thousands for (Maybe? Or maybe you’re working where you can get a pay check since that fancy piece of paper didn’t yield the end result you expected…). You wake up every day and go to work, you come home, eat, goof off a bit (write in your Bullet Journal or your newly formed blog), and then you go to bed and repeat.

Was this what the adults of my childhood were doing? Did they have these same down thoughts that I am having today. They made adulting look so much cooler than what I am experiencing. But, on the other hand, I did just eat some Girl Scout Cookies (Caramel deLites – my favorite) because I wanted to. I went and bought these cute little owl hand warmers, because I make my own money and can buy that kind of whimsical crap. I get to listen to whatever I want on the radio in my car (in my case an Pod Cast or audio book). I can go to bed whenever I want…while understanding the ramifications of that choice. I can buy as much Harry Potter stuff as I want (job…again)!

So maybe the problem isn’t that I/we feel lied to once we cross the bridge to adulthood, maybe we just loose sight of those simple pleasures of childhood. As a kid my family couldn’t afford whimsical things, they were a waste of money. I had NO – NONE…ZERO- control over the radio, which is something I always hated. Bed time, hello, the bane of every kids’ existence is somewhat nonexistent for us. And oh, sweet Order of Merlin First Class, I can buy anything I want (after I have covered the necessities in my life of course) that has even the remotest of connection to The Boy Who Lived.

Maybe the joy of being an adult, even when adulting sucks big time (like today for  me…), is that we have the luxury and means (for the most part…) of indulging our inner child. We can finally have those things we so coveted as children. The problem is, now, somehow we want more and simultaneously we don’t appreciate what we have.

Now I am going to go to bed and take my fun wool socks that I also bought today with me. I will brush my teeth, hop into bed, read a little, then pass out.

Being an adult doesn’t seem so bad now…

Day 19

So, I got it into my head that since I couldn’t find a pattern for the fingerless gloves that I had in my head I would design them instead. (Of course I am now thinking of How the Grinch Stole Christmas – “…If I can’t find a reindeer, I’ll make one instead!”)

Over the course of the last 2 nights I have gotten a grand total of about 10 rows. The other hours have been spent crocheting then tearing everything out and trying again…and again…and (you guessed it) again… Funny thing? I don’t feel that defeated by it. I feel like I am getting closer and closer to my goal. I’ve been keeping track of my work in the creative section of my Bullet Journal so that I can make a mate once this first one (Righty, as I like to think of him.) is done. I’m using a mixture of things I like from patterns and my own requirements so it should be interesting (my favorite euphemism…). They’re going to be Franken-mittens!!  I’ll post more when there is something worth seeing and the places I got inspiration later.

Another project I have decided to get into is reading all the books from this list.  

 I made a checklist with the titles and put it in the cover of my journal. I’ve decided to go down the list, and not jump around. That way I have books to look forward to during the ones I’m not a fan of. Some will be rereads, and that’s ok, some will push me a bit more than I tend to like, and that’s ok too. I’ve downloaded 1984 and I’m ready to go!

Day 16, 17, and 18

Dinner and dessert were pretty awesome last night. Sunday is our “family dinner” night so I always try something new. Enter Pinterest; I love Pinterest. My usual “method” (and we’ll use that term loosely) is to search: “dinner ideas”, “easy dinner ideas”, “healthy dinner ideas”, or something like that. After that I just start scrolling and look at titles. When a title gets my attention I read the recipe. I try not to go for recipes that require me to buy ingredients that I will never us again unless I am making this recipe again. We live in a small house, so space is at a premium. After I find one that looks yummy, relatively easy to make (something that will take no more than 2 hours), and whose ingredients are within my realm of possibility and necessity, I Pin it and that becomes dinner. I follow a similar process for dessert; Sundays are the only days I make dessert.

The verdict for this (past) Sunday:

Tuscan Bean Soup and Funfetti Mini Cheesecake

I forgot to take a picture of the soup…it was that good. I can tell you though that the timing is off on the recipe. It took me about 20 minutes to chop everything up. My guess is the 5 minute approximation is if you used some sort of tool (mentioned in the post) to help. I don’t have that tool, just a knife and a cutting board.

I did take a picture of the ingredients though!

I couldn’t get yellow squash (they are look terrible at my local market) and I just used Italian seasoning instead of Rosemary and Thyme. Also, I didn’t use the hot pepper flakes since one of my company doesn’t like hot stuff.

This is my hubby’s dessert. He asked for a lot of whipped cream and a single sprinkle.

I’ve also been very happy with my Bullet Journal. It has really kept me in line lately.

Here is one of my latest pages.

I am happy yo say that this journal has helped me cook more, exercise more, and eat less. *Happy Dance*

Today I am waiting on this. My poor dog has terribly dry skin and allergies that cause her to scratch at her ears SO badly that she loses fur on her ears every year. I have exhausted many of the options available to us.

We’ve tried:

1. Fish oil
   1. After a while she just started to smell fishy and that was quite unappealing.
2. Coconut oil
   1. This seemed to work for a while and my pup LOVED it. However, when the really cold parts of winter rolled around it didn’t seem to be as effective for the ears, but overall he coat was pretty good.
3. Over the counter allergy human meds
   1. Again, they seemed to work…and then stopped…so we stopped using it.
4. Doggy Allergy meds (vet)
   1. We finally broke down and went to the vet and they gave us something…it kind of worked but not really…
5. Doggy Allergy meds (0ver the counter)
   1. This appeared to be working, but you have to put it in their water and we dog sit. We didn’t feel comfortable putting it in water that other pups, who may not need the medicine, in our house would inevitably drink.
6. Olive Oil
   1. My pup’s coat was pretty good until it got colder. Also, an unforeseen consequence, was that she started gaining weight. We were feeding our pup the normal amount we always do and then the extra calories from the oil were added. We started cutting back a little on the food in favor of the oil. Now that winter is here with a fury it doesn’t appear to be doing as much good.

So here we are with yet another attempt to keep my furry baby happy, healthy, and not itchy. I will report out later.

Day 15

How can such a boring, nondescript, day leave person so tired…? I can barely keep my eyes open. I think I may start reviewing audio books here. You know, for a focus. /yawn

Day 14

Good bye Professor Severus Snape. You will be missed – always. 

Day 13

I’m not sure what the correlation is between tracking what you eat and eating less…other than there is one for me. The first two days of my tacking were kinda bad…and that was with me trying! That obviously means I was doing WAY worse than I thought I was. Each day got a little better as I monitored what I was eating better. I thought I knew what I was doing. Now I’m back to weighing and measuring everything and I’m really seeing how bad my “eye” has gotten. 

I also think something happens to your stomach when you begin eating less and eating better food options. Right now I’m sitting here, quite full, and clocking about 500 calories less than my goal, which makes me at (probably) about 800 less than a few weeks ago. I wanted something sweet to eat, but not because I was hungry…I just wanted the taste. 

That’s actually a big problem of mine: eating for a taste instrad of hunger. Like, I would be content with after chewing the food if I didn’t have to swallow it…is that gross…TMI? I feel like I can’t be alone here. (I hope.) I am not eating for a purpose but for a sensation attainment…? Well, whatever it is I am winning the battle tonight. I’ve brushed my teeth and I am in bed. 

Score one for me! 

Day 8

This has been one hell of a week. I don’t know if it’s me or what. It has just been/felt horrible and has made me feel like I can’t do my job anymore. Here’s hoping that next week is better.

On the upside, we watched The Imitation Game tonight and it was awesome. Benedict Cumberbatch is just a great actor. Also, my dog is such a sweetie; she just LOVES to cuddle! Even on the worst days that warms my heart.

I think I may pursue a lifetime wish to learn ASL. Some local community colleges offer a couple of classes and then after that it seems like I just practice…

Another thing I found, which I found interesting, was this. I have always toyed with writing a novel…but lacked the structure.  I’d like to believe that this could help me. A quick search to understand this Google Sheet led me to this page. Maybe I will add this as an objective in my Bullet Journal.

Bad Blogger

I wanted to start a blog to to communicate to the world – The World. I am not saying that I am super interesting, but that doesn’t mean I don’t find an interesting thing every once and a while. I mean, come on, even a broken clock is right twice a day…right?

As is my general luck, I decided to start this blog about the time I was diagnosed with Epstein Bar. Due to this fun little sickness I can hardly do anything but go to work. It’s a sad day when the idea of sitting in front of your computer (or your surface in my case) and typing is too much. The worst part of this sickness is the brain fog. I never thought about how my thoughts came to me. Now I do. Now every thought is conscious. I feel like I am wading through pudding, grasping for thoughts, every time I think of something. It can be scary at times, honestly. Last weekend I was dizzy all day and would have to stop what I was doing to concentrate on a specific thought when I was talking with someone. Oh, and I had a headache all day. Fun, I know.

So, apparently, I just sit and wait until I am better. Great.

Well, I am going to back to laying on the couch and binge watching some guilty pleasure TV.

Dear self,

I don’t feel like adulting right now. I’m too tired and sick to adult. I would like to go shake some sense into past me who thought that being an adult would be awesome. -_-

Well, I would if that wouldn’t hurt the whole time space continuum thing… My limited knowledge of this comes solely from Sci-Fi novels…but they’re probably right. Right? At the very least I wouldn’t want to step on a butterfly and start WW III. Considering how much of a klutz I am it would probably be a public service, should time travel become a normal thing, for me to stay squarely in my time line going only in the forward direction. 

Being an adult is a lot like time travel, well maybe only a little (ok not at all). Stay with me here… Say I decided to adult and make a decision, which then has a result and that result is either positive or negative. Had I not time traveled and stepped on that butter fly (decided to adult) then tragedy (or not) could have been averted. Ok, that was a stretch even for me. 

I cannot not adult, which sucks. I just have to put my big girl pants on and make my adult decision…*pouts (in the most adultly way possible)*