Wednesday Should Always Be a Day Off

I found a clipping I took from a local newspaper last summer and thought I would share it below. I like the idea of a midweek break! It sounds refreshing. I am fan of 30 hour work weeks, 3 day weekends, and idleness in general. It's imporant to me.

 

"Idleness is not just a vacation, an indulgence or a vice; it is as indispensable to the brain as vitamin D is to the body, and deprived of it we suffer a mental affliction as disfiguring as rickets. The space and quiet that idleness provides is a necessary condition for standing back from life and seeing it whole, for making unexpected connections and waiting for the wild summer lightning strikes of inspiration — it is, paradoxically, necessary to getting any work done."

- From the article The 'Busy' Trap by Tim Krieder

 

 

Wednesday Should Always Be a Day Off

By William C. Wadsack

Originally printed July 2012 in the Herald Democrat, Sherman, Texas

Weekends are so relaxing that Mondays can be very difficult to face. I always find it hard to get up and get moving at a specific time on Mondays - especially after spending the previous two days relaxing and sleeping as late as I want. I know this is a problem to which people all over the world can relate.

My other issue with Monday is it's so far from the next weekend that it saps my will to make it through the week. Tuesdays are easier to face because it's at least one day closer to the weekend, which seemingly makes it more tolerable. Because of that I've been advocating for three-day weekends as a rule for years. However, last week's July 4th holiday gave me a new idea, because it was right in the middle of the week.

I propose that, as a society of civilized individuals, we adopt as common practice that Wednesday is a day off every week. Businesses that are closed on Saturdays and Sundays would also close on that day. Instead of a weekend, we could call it a midweek.

So then, when someone says to me, "Mondays are tough," I can reply, "Yeah, but only two days to the midweek."

We could all have an extra day off to recuperate and recharge for the end of the week. It may take some getting used to, but after the adjustment I believe we'd all be much happier.

The only problem I can foresee with the plan is that it may hinder some people's ability to make a living. I think the best way around this would be for employers to simply increase everyone's pay so the extra day off doesn't hurt anyone financially. If employers aren't willing to do that, for whatever unfathomable reason, then as a society we should agree to lower the price of goods and services.

That may hurt our nation's economic standing with the rest of the world, but we'd be worldwide trendsetters and I think it would be worth it. After we prove the value of the plan, we can then export the idea around the world. Once all the other countries adopt this revolutionary idea, we'll all be back at the same economic levels at which we started.

If neither of these economic solutions catch on, I'll have to go back to the drawing board as soon as I get back from my midweek.

Fall Colors & Orange Spice Paint

We've painted! Matt was pretty reluctant to make any permanent changes to our apartment since we've only signed a one year lease but I was persistent in my demands to paint. Eventually, we compromised: if I did all the work including painting the wall back when we move, I could paint the wall whatever color I wanted. So I chose Orange Spice paint by Better Homes and Gardens!

Let me tell you, an accent wall has made our space feel so homey. I adore the warmth and brightness this color adds to our living room, especially with how gloomy the Pacific Northwest has been this fall.

What we're into this week:

• Matt is playing Borderlands 2 and Torchlight II. He just finished reading The King Killer Chronicle by Patrick Rothfuss and began reading the Mistborn Trilogy by Brian Sanderson earlier this week. He's plowing through books with his 2 hours of commuting time Monday through Friday.

• I'm reading The Southern Vampire Mysteries by Charlaine Harris and watching the HBO TV show based on the novels called True Blood (I'm just starting on season 4 of 5). The books are fast paced and funny, but I'm not as big of a fan of the TV series.

• Here are a few quotes that have been on my mind recently:

• I only do this until I get dizzy & then I lay down on my back & watch the clouds, she said. It sounds simple but you won't believe how many people forget the second part. - Proper Steps, StoryPeople.com

• Things to know about the future 1. It doesn't have to look any particular way, but around here, if it doesn't, a lot of people will never speak to you again. - Future Things #1, StoryPeople.com

• Anyone can slay a dragon, he told me, but try waking up every morning & loving the world all over again. That's what takes a real hero. - Real Hero, StoryPeople.com

Downtown Date Success

Our downtown date was a success! The bus ride took about an hour both ways, but it was nice to be able to read instead of having to drive during rush hour traffic. We enjoyed walking around, people watching and getting to eat two meals out at a restaurant in one day! 

Ere relaxing while I pack boxes just before our move!

Matt and I on the bus to downtown Seattle bright and
early. We're testing out his commute to his new fancy job!

Street art near Pioneer Square.

Matt at breakfast in this little diner/deli. Delicious omelettes!

Me at breakfast enjoy the fresh brewed coffee!

Strange street art taking up several parking spaces, which I think
might have been the point. 

Apparently it was pedestrian participation preferred so I tied
some hot pink strings to other strings.

Outside the downtown Seattle library. I <3 libraries!

Down the strangest hallway I've ever seen.

So bizarre.

Oh dewey decimal system, why must you make me laugh?

Our new Ferris Wheel that cost $14 pp to ride. Absurd!

Intense street preacher who basically said that we're all going to hell.

Near Pike's Market Place

Guerrilla gardening!

 

Beecher's handmade cheese. Yum!

Flowers I picked from the garden :)

Transitions for Team Smelkins

Image Credit: someecards.com

Since my last update a few exciting events have occured in the Smelkins household:

• We paid off our car loan!
• Matt left his crappy day job at a big-box retailer. Today was his last day!
• I realized that my temporary, part-time restaurant job has morphed into a year long, full-time commitment that is leaving no room for seeking full-time, meaningful career-type work. So I'm leaving Olga's and this is my last weekend waiting tables!
• Matt had an interview last Monday and a job offer by that Friday to be the newest Quality Assurance Engineer with a local company!
• Matt's starting wage will be larger than our yearly combined income!

Life is changing in a wonderfully strange way. It is awesome that we are both leaving jobs that were killing us to pursue work that we enjoy. Until I find myself an adult job like Matt did, I'm going to continue on-call work with our local DV agency.

Tomorrow Matt and I are going to take the early bus to downtown Seattle to check out the timing and bus route he will be taking to work. Since we'll already be downtown we're going to make a celebratory date-type event out of it! I'm very excited and you can look forward to a picture post detailing our date.

Image Credit: vahidbehzadi.wordpress.com

Team Smelkins Moves. Again.

How often does this stable couple move in the first 16 months of their marriage? Three. So far. It could be more, but dear god I hope not.

With the way our old lease ended and new lease began, Matt and I had 36 hours to move our stuff, profusely clean our old space, and crash into our new place. And I can honestly say this is the only time I wished that we had more deadbeat friends who had nothing better to do than haul boxes up and down a half flight of stairs in exchange for a big meal and a cold beer.

My favorite quote from our moving experience came from Matt when he was driving the 14ft U-haul across town and excitedly shouted "I'm in a big orange tank!" And let me tell you, it felt like we were driving around in a tank so he wasn't exaggerating. Our tiny Corolla will never be the same to us after the power of a tank.

On the bright side of this madness, Matt and I will be able to celebrate meeting my life goal of living up North for a year or more in our shiny new apartment. Hooray! We're in a slightly smaller space than our previous apartment, but we now have a washer & dryer in unit and that was completely worth the sacrifice in square footage. Our new complex is very cute and we live right by the amenities so that Matt can easily continue his evening workouts.

The only downside we've discovered is that our apartment has an east facing window in the bedroom. This means we get oodles of early morning light in our bedroom while we're still trying to catch up on beauty sleep! I've bought some curtains to put up, but we need to borrow/purchase a drill before we can set them up. I'm not sure how excited I am about Matt operating power tools in the near future....

Visitors from Texas & pictures from a hike to Silver Falls

In early August, Team Smelkins received visitors from my hometown in Texas. Sunshine and MacMan were able to stay with us for a week which gave us plenty of time to explore the area. We took two trips to downtown Seattle & Pike Place Market, visited the EMP & Seattle Aquarium, experienced zip lining on Camano Island, walked the beach at Point Defiance State Park and hiked on Mount Rainier.

It was a full week of tourism and by the end of it, I was exhausted and quite a bit more poor than I was seven days prior. Truly though, we were so pleased to have visitors and I open-arms-welcome Sunshine, MacMan and anyone else from back home who cares to visit us in the future!

I'm currently at work (being entirely unproductive) so I don't have access to most of my pictures but here are a few from our hiking day trip at Mt. Rainier:

 

Silver Falls, Mt. Rainier

Matt and the absurdly large tree root system, Mt. Rainier - Silver Falls Trail near Ohanapecosh

MacMan attempting to straighten out the crooked tree, Mt. Rainier - Silver Falls Trail near Ohanapecosh

Work, work, work for the busy bee

Oh my goodness. Where to begin?

Things have been crazy hectic on my end, hence the lack of updates. Two days after Matt and I celebrated our anniversary, my mom came to stay with us for a week. We acted like tourists and took in all the sights and ate delicious food. White truffle pesto, Dungeness crab, a double chocolate cookie lavender ice cream sandwich, calamari steak, lavender lemon cookies, figs on pizza, and  the list goes on and on. It was an interesting to see my life and this city through someone else's eyes.

Immediately after my mom left town, I started working part-time on-call relief (8 – 24 hours per week on average) for the domestic violence shelter (DV) I had been volunteering with since January. New jobs are never easy, especially ones that deal with crisis work, and DV is no exception. This position has been amazingly exciting and absurdly stressful but I am incredibly happy to be with such a wonderful agency doing work that I am proud of.

My part-time serving job at Olga's has morphed into a full-time position with the change in management in May. We got a new general manager (who is wonderful) and lost half the serving staff within a few weeks (not everyone enjoys change). Olga's is in the process of hiring and training new people, but nothing happens quickly in a corporate company so until then we're all sharing the strain with fewer days off, busier work days and shorter breaks.

Between being full time at Olga's, part time with DV, keeping my volunteer hours with Planned Parenthood and commuting across the metropolis, I have been a very busy bee. It's fun to have a full planner again, but I'm ready to find a balance that leans a bit more towards the leisure side than I'm currently sporting (more hiking in my Seattle summer please!).

Matt has been wonderfully supportive and is often the only reason I survive the madness of daily life. Our kitten Ere and her adorable furry face being survival mechanism #2. When these things aren't quite curing the insanity, I take several big deep breaths and just let it go. Life moves on.

"Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and
absurdities have crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day. You shall
begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense."
-Emerson

Our One Year Wedding Anniversary!

I've been considering what to write for this commemorative post for several weeks now. Did I want to reminisce about our wedding, discuss the ways that we've grown as a couple over the past year, wax poetical about love and marriage in general terms? I even looked back to my journal for inspiration. What I found there made me laugh:

January 18th, 2011

Official confirmation of plans to wed.

January 23rd, 2011

Is this really happening? To me?! I am 110% ready to marry Matt and spend the rest of my life with him. I do not doubt that we can conquer and work through anything that comes our way. One big rule: we will NOT be the gender stereotypical husband & wife, but partner & spouse. Things have been so crazy and I really need more to time to relax but life is running me ragged! Maybe next weekend? I promise myself right now that this will NOT get out of hand. I will have a beautiful celebration but not at the expense of my sanity or anyone else's. What I care about wedding-wise: spending time with my family and Matt's family; a pretty, simple dress; a clean, handsome suit; two comfortable rings. Screw the rest!

March 6th, 2011

Talking to Matt on the phone - today has been stressful - the past few weeks have been stressful. I bought a dress for the wedding celebration. SIGH. Things have gotten difficult. Fast. But I guess we will survive. This will all end soon. 10 week countdown to May 15th, 2011!

And that is the last post in my journal. A few months after my last entry, I started this blog but that is a lame excuse for my absence in a journaling habit I've kept over the past decade. In my defense, I think that the 5 months of our engagement were the craziest, busiest and most emotional months that I've experienced since I was a wild and hormonal thirteen year old.

Anyway, after great indecision I finally decided to share the two pieces of relationship advice that have stayed on my mind over the past year. The first nugget of marriage wisdom comes from Matt's cousin, Autumn, who wrote to us and said, "There is no magic formula for a successful marriage, only love, trust, honesty and open communication. When all else fails there is always paper, rock and scissors to help with compromises!"

I love this advice because it demonstrates the basic tenets of any good relationship (love, trust, honesty, and open communication) while admitting 1) that marriage takes effort and 2) what works for one marriage won't necessarily work for another. It also recognizes that comprise and humor are useful tools when problems arise (which they undoubtedly will)!

The second piece of advice came from a random gentleman at the grocery store. Matt and I were debating the merits of different coffee brands and flavors when he approached us. He told us that we reminded him of a younger version of himself & his wife who came to pick out their daily brew just after being married forty three years ago! After telling us this adorable anecdote, he cautioned us with a gentle phrase, "Hang in there. Stay in love."

At first, the phrase "stay in love" seemed a little too generic to be good advice, but after reflecting for a while I think I understood what he meant. He meant that we should stay fond of each other as people, stay interested in the daily things and small quirks, stay connected and aware of one another. All those little things that people in love do without a second thought. 

Why those two pieces of wisdom have stuck with me, I don't know but I like them and there is comfort in knowing that good advice is out there, even if we don't really need it just yet, still being newlyweds and all. One year down, seventy eight years to go (I'm going to live to be a hundred, don't cha know)!

Anniversary Dinner Date!

Mothers & Daughters

Happy Mother's Day to all the amazing Moms that I know, including Grandma's and Momma's-to-be! Where would we be without y'all? In honor of day, I thought I would share  my absolute favorite Mother's Day postsecret card ever posted and a heartbreakingly beautiful letter:

The Found Essay: Letter from a Mother to a Daughter

“My dear girl, the day you see I’m getting old, I ask you to please be patient, but most of all, try to understand what I’m going through. If when we talk, I repeat the same thing a thousand times, don’t interrupt to say: “You said the same thing a minute ago.” Just listen, please. Try to remember the times when you were little and I would read the same story night after night until you would fall asleep. 

When I don’t want to take a bath, don’t be mad and don’t embarrass me. Remember when I had to run after you making excuses and trying to get you to take a shower when you were just a girl? When you see how ignorant I am when it comes to new technology, give me the time to learn and don’t look at me that way. Remember, honey, I patiently taught you how to do many things like eating appropriately, getting dressed, combing your hair, and dealing with life’s issues every day. 

The day you see I’m getting old, I ask you to please be patient, but most of all, try to understand what I’m going through. If I occasionally lose track of what we’re talking about, give me the time to remember, and if I can’t, don’t be nervous, impatient, or arrogant. Just know in your heart that the most important thing for me is to be with you. And when my old, tired legs don’t let me move as quickly as before, give me your hand the same way that I offered mine to you when you first walked. 

When those days come, don’t feel sad—just be with me, and understand me while I get to the end of my life with love. I’ll cherish and thank you for the gift of time and joy we shared. With a big smile and the huge love I’ve always had for you, I just want to say, I love you, my darling daughter.”

Essay courtesy of Spring In The Air

Hippie Recipes

I love eco-friendly living - it is better for our planet, better for the creatures we share the earth with, better for our health & longevity and better for my budget! I'm sure we've all heard similar things in the past few years as green living has created a nook for itself in mainstream media and culture, so I won't lecture. But I thought it might be interesting to share the team smelkins attempts at a more DIY, earth-friendly kind of life.

The areas in our home where we have made the biggest changes (aside from the fact that we have barely enough belongings to fill a 700 sq. ft. apartment) is in our bathroom and kitchen. We're pretty simple folk in the respect that if it's not easy or decidedly worthwhile, we just won't do it. In light of this fact, most of the recipes and ideas listed below are pretty basic. 

Bathroom:

Shampoo
I've been without shampoo since November 2010. To wash my hair, I use about 1 tbsp of baking soda diluted in ~1/2 cup of water. I usually only wash my hair every 2 or 3 days. I love getting to spend money that was previously allocated for shampoo on adventurous food products such as raw cacao nibs and chia seeds. More info on being shampoo free here at Babs LJ.

Conditioner
Using baking soda as a shampoo can be rough on your hair, especially if you are using too much or washing too often (mistakes I've made in my no 'poo venture). To keep my hair soft and dandruff free, I rinse my hair with a mixture of ~1 tbsp of vinegar in ~3/4 cup of water every time I shampoo my hair, making sure I give my scalp a really invigorating scrub when I do so. When I first started, I used apple cider vinegar but now I usually use white vinegar (for no reason other than it's what I have on hand).
FYI, Matt uses a 3-in-1 body wash/shampoo/conditioner. The smell of vinegar weirds him out.

Dry Shampoo
In between washing days, my fine textured hair can start to look a little oily so I brush it out with a bit of cornstarch (~1/4 tsp?) mixed with a few drops of essential oils. Too much cornstarch can make my hair look dull, so I am careful to use as little as I need to de-grease my locks.

Lotion
I started making my own oil based lotion so that I can keep the chemicals I put onto my skin and into my body at a minimum. The recipe I use can be found here at Sonoma Garden. I really like a scent mix of lavender, rosemary and mint but you can scent with anything you like.
I've also made a salve using a similar recipe with smaller portions and cocoa butter instead of beeswax that is really moisturizing and good for cracked/dry hands. The cold weather and frequent hand washing at my job make this a twice daily beautifying step for me.

Deodorant
I don't deal with sweat all that often, especially since we live in such a cold climate now, but I am still in the habit of daily deodorant. In the past I have used a homemade deodorant recipe (which you can also find at Sonoma Garden) that I really liked. Now, I just rub on a little bit of my homemade lotion with a thin layer of my dry shampoo on top and that gets me through the day.
I still have a store bought anti-perspirant in my cupboard for those days when I need a little extra help like when I go to interviews or am in stressful social situations, but that's not what I use everyday.

Make-up Remover
I don't often wear heavy makeup (watching the Story of Cosmetics was a major deterrent), so water or a little olive oil usually does the trick. I keep a travel size squeeze bottle of olive oil in my bathroom just for this.

Mouthwash
There are a bunch of homemade mouthwash recipes out there. I stuck with a super simple recipe because I had everything on hand. In a jar, I put two cups of water and added 9 drops of both tea tree oil (for it's antiviral, antibacterial, antifungal, and antiseptic qualities) and peppermint (for it's minty flavor). Just be sure not to swallow it, similar to as if it were a commercial mouthwash.


Kitchen:

All purpose cleaners
Water, baking soda, and vinegar clean just about everything in our home during day to day life. Water for cleansing, baking soda for scrubbing power, and vinegar for disinfecting & de-stick-ify-ing.
I don't want to waste time re-writing what someone else has written better so let me link you to the internet for more info: Gorgeously Green - Natural Cleaners and Earth Easy Non-Toxic Cleaning.

"Tough on Grime" scrub
This scrub has saved my life more times than I can remember! I use it in the kitchen and the bathroom to scrub anything that is too hard to get off with plain baking soda. It's not too complicated - all I do is mix in a jar ~1/2 cup of baking soda with ~1 tbsp of dishwashing soap, add a few drops of essential oil for good smelling-ness and shake! I use this mixture to scrub away anything from tub grime to food burnt onto the bottom of my pans.

Okay, so now that you know what a hippie I am, I hope we can still be friends. Being unconventional can be hard, often inconvenient, occasionally time consuming and regularly requires lengthy explanations to those around me, but I like a challenge. As many changes as I've made and as much research as we've done, I'm not perfect. My net impact on the environment isn't zero (like No Impact Man) or even close to it, yet every day (or as often as I remember) I recommit myself to doing my best for our world. 

If you have any questions or concerns, you know where to find me!

Gardening Update

Last time I posted, I was writing about local food and gardening and it's about time I updated you on the latter of those topics. We've had quite a bit of sunshine lately in the PNW and the weather is starting to warm up (highs of 60 degrees and lows of 40 degrees)! The advent of spring has slowly started to change the landscape and it's starting to look like the place Matt and I fell in love with when we visited on our honeymoon.

The local flora are taking advantage of the warming weather by putting out buds and flowers by the ton. One of the pacific rhododendrons living in our apartment complex is heavy with beautiful blossoms. Did you know that the pacific rhododendron is the state flower of Washington?

Anyway, about a month ago I planted the potatoes (organic red potatoes that I accidentally let sprout on my counter) and snap pea seedlings (from Lowe's - nothing fancy there). They're both growing great thus far. I even put in some stakes for the snap pea plants to grow on because their little grabby vines were grow all over the place (they're a bush variety so I wasn't supposed to have to stake them but this may be for the best).

Sprouted potatoes just before I covered them with 1" dirt.

Tiny potato plant breaking the soil! (~ 1 month later)

Snap Pea plants just after planting.

Snap Pea plants growing big! (~1 month later)

I won't be doing another round of planting for another month or so but I am really excited about what we already having growing. By my porch I also planted a little patch of echinacea seeds and another patch with a daisy wild flower seed mix. The daisy seedlings are just now poking their little leaves above the surface.

Matt laughs at me every time I drag him outside to show him another seedling but I am so terribly proud of all my little plantlings! I can't help it. I don't think I have a particularly green thumb but I am determined to be a backyard gardener even if we live in a landscaped apartment complex. 

First Day of Spring

How can such a cloudy, drizzley day be the first day of spring? There are no butterflies or bees hanging around our back patio and it's only 44 degrees outside. From what I understand, we won't even get spring time weather for another month here in Seattle. That is a total bummer. 

On the other hand, that fact does give me a bit more time to plan the container garden I am going to start. Since this will be my first time growing plants to eat, I am going to start with easy crops like potatoes, zucchini, baby lettuce, peas, tomatoes and strawberries. I might throw a few herb plants out there too - like mint and lemon balm. I really need to get my on potato and pea planting. Their planting time is now! I'll keep you updated on how things go with the gardening. 

Until then, we will keep enjoying our produce from the Full Circle Farms delivery box we have signed up for. We get fresh, local, organic produce every other week delivered to our doorstep!

Above is a picture of one of our first boxes! We've been getting them since December and it is still amazingly exciting every time. It is always a lovely surprise what produce we get in our box (though you can pick & choose if you want to so it doesn't have to be a surprise). 

I love our produce box because one of my goals in life is to eat locally and this delivery allows me to do so without breaking the bank! Matt and I still run supplemental trips to the grocery store for specific produce and other grocery items but I love the seasonal produce and I keep trying new recipes because of it!

Anyway, I gotta run. More updates later.

How Darkness Came to Cuddle in My Lap: The Story of Erebus

One of my co-workers, who we shall call Bandanna Man, is the most abrasive person I have had the pleasure of working with.* He is fond of glaring at people through the expo window, grumbling about fixing the mistakes of grown-ass adults, and generally harassing everyone around him. Bandanna Man often claims that we (the servers at Olga's) should all be riding the short bus instead of bothering him with our petty problems.

One evening, the food for one of my guest's (a pepperoni pizza - a long ticket item) came out to the table all wrong. I stormed back to the kitchen with the offending pizza in hand, indignant that my guest should have to wait twice as long for their food because of a needless mistake, and shoved the plate back into the window and said, "Bandanna Man - I needed this pizza without cheese!".

"The ticket didn't say no cheese."

And as I distinctly remembered specifying "no chez plz" in the special instructions area of the order I responded with, "YES. IT DID." I was right. I knew I was right. I had to prove I was right.

"No."

"YES. IT SAID NO CHEESE. WHAT IS YOUR PROBLEM? CAN YOU NOT READ? I NEED A PIZZA WITHOUT CHEESE. MY GUEST HAS A DAIRY ALLERGY. IT SAID NO CHEESE YOU JERK!!! WHY ARE YO-"

Thank goodness another co-worker dragged me away (forcibly and while I was still screeching) otherwise I would have gotten myself fired (or at least written up) because I had no kind words to utter at that moment in time.

About twenty minutes later, my guest had gotten their cheese-less pizza and my ability to think rationally had returned so I walked back to the kitchen and apologized, "Hey Bandanna Man...I'm really sorry for yelling earlier. It was kind of stupid and uncalled for."

"It's okay. I messed up your pizza on purpose." **

That was not a response I had anticipated. In fact, his response was so absurd that I couldn't do anything but laugh hysterically. Bandanna Man was so rude to me that I decided I wasn't going to talk to him anymore.

So a few nights later, when I was getting off work well past dark and Bandanna Man asked if I need someone to walk me to my car, I was too surprised to say no. I typically deny chivalrous attentions from men, especially my co-workers, because I hate the idea of being some fair maiden who needs rescuing. But Bandanna Man's ninja move got the best of me.

On our way out of the restaurant, I began some idle chit-chat and Bandanna Man began complaining about the bitter cold of early morning dog walking here. Our conversation turned to cats and whether I wanted one and how Bandanna Man's wife had saved a kitty that was abandoned behind Olga's and that they were hoping to find a good home for it.

And all I could think was please give me a kitty! I need the unconditional love and amusement of a pet in this lonely, rainy state. I called Matt to confirm that "yes" was the only answer we were capable of in this situation. Within minutes, I was driving to Bandanna Man's place to take home a half-starved, fur-matted, impossibly adorable stray cat.

Our first cat-venture, was to the vet for a check up. The kitty hadn't previously been microchipped so there was no way to track down any possible owners if she was a runaway. Weighing in at a pathetic 5 lbs, the kitty was assessed to be about 10 months old with good teeth, no incurable health issues, and a sweet tempermant. This meant she could be ours forever!

Good thing too because we had already named her for her potentially beautiful coat. Erebus - a primordial diety in Greek mythology, one that has been around since the beginning of the universe, representing the personification of darkness.

I cannot wait until Erebus has a few more weeks of TLC, because she is going to be beautiful instead of skin and bones. Her coat is going to be long, full, and shiny instead of matted and patchy. At present, Ere (pronounced "airy") spends 60% of her time sleeping, 30% eating, and 10% engaging in sweet kitten-like behavior. She gives us more cuddles and attention then most kitties I've met and I am happy to accept them while her benevolence lasts. She's been through so much and I am pleased that we'll be able to love her back to health and aristocracy.

So thank you Bandanna Man, for your abrasiveness because without it I never would have accepted your kindness and thus never gained the pleasure of cuddling with all that is darkness and shadows and night.

* Just to clarify: This anecdote including Bandanna Man, while being true, in no way fully encompasses our interactions at work or his personality. Bandanna Man is a generally good guy and sometimes a shitty customer service job can make you grumpy and crazy in ways that are very unlike you. I like all of the people I work with, Bandanna Man included. Also, I wouldn't say ugly things about my co-workers on the internet even if I did have ugly things to say.

** Bandanna Man went on to explain that when I went back to the kitchen earlier in the shift to clarify with him that the pizza needed pepperoni but no cheese, that we had miscommunicated. He thought I wanted the pizza to have both pepperoni and cheese and that's what I came back to the kitchen to clarify.

Larry & Olga's

On this beautiful and sunny (!!!) afternoon, Larry came to pay us a visit. Who is Larry you say? I am glad you asked! He is our new little bird friend. 

About a month ago, Matt and I were both wishing we had a more interactive pet. We had just returned from our family visit and there were dogs, cats, children, horses and fish to play with! Chuck Testa the fish is very pretty but he doesn't fetch or snuggle in your lap or anything that cool (although I've heard that you can teach betta fish tricks, that just seemed a little too nerdy for us). So instead of paying our $500 pet deposit to get a typical sort of pet, we spent $20 on a bird feeder and seed. 

And for the first few weeks, we didn't see or hear anything coming from our back porch. We would open the blinds every morning and forlornly stare at our bird feeder. I know sometimes it can take a few week for birds to catch on so I decided to give them some help! I scattered bird seed all over our back porch and sidewalk. And the next day, we had birdie visitors. The birds come to see us whenever the sun is shining (the birds never seem to visit when it is cloudy out and I want their cheerful chirping the most) and we kept receiving visitors until all the seed on the sidewalk was gone. 

Because I was being helpful and throwing seed on the ground, only 1 bird ever found the actual bird feeder. He was smart and chirpy and Matt named him Larry. When Larry is eating at the bird feeder, I've tried to get closer to the window to see his markings or take a picture to show you all. Larry does not like this and promptly flies away. He is a very private and skittish bird, but I am happy to have him anyway! Maybe Larry will help the other birds figure out the bird feeder situation...

From Squidoo

In other news, I have been very busy at work. Olga's was a madhouse around Valentine's day and I've worked way more than I usually do. Good for our bank account, bad for the lonely library books stacked by the couch. Working more has gone pretty well, except for the angry guest I had the other day that made me cry. The man said that he was insulted by the awful service I gave him and that I completely ruined his birthday. 

I can admit that I may have been a tad neglectful of his table (he didn't get more bread without asking and his water glass was mostly empty) but I was running around like a mad woman about 5 feet away trying to take care of my other guests (the birthday celebration of an 8 year old and her entire family and a very needy 5 top with two little kids). But it wasn't like I wasn't available if he had really needed something (he could have stopped me and asked - being a waiter does not make me a mind reader) and it wasn't as if I was messing around on my cell phone and ignoring him (I was legitimately busy as he could see! The whiney jerk).

Usually when guests are rude to me, I can just blow it off and understand that life makes everyone ugly sometimes. But the fact that this man personally insulted me and said that I ruined his birthday was just too much. How absurd! Why is it that if you work in the food service industry, people feel they are allowed to treat you like dog poop AND get a free meal for it?

On the bright side, my manager didn't ream me for the guest complaint like I thought he was going to and my coworkers spent the rest of the shift being really nice and trying to make me smile again. Some days I hate my job, but for now it pays the bills and I am content. Anyway, I am off to enjoy the sunshine while it's here and I have some free time. Have a great day!

Saturday Share on a Sunday

Things have been pretty stable in our corner of the world - I work, Matt works, we get days off and hang out together. That's the gist of it. I did go back to the doctor for my health concerns but he was pretty unimpressed with my lab results and told me to come back and see him when I was sick. So hopefully my body will heal itself and I am going to try and help it along with some fanciful food therapy initiatives. 


Basically, I'm going to modify my diet and journal about it to see if I can find a diet that helps me feel more energized with less daytime fatigue and less susceptibility to general illnesses (flu, common cold, etc). I am starting with increasing my vegetable and fruit intake and cutting out meat, dairy and processed foods. So far, I've been at it for five days without any noticeable results other than (and this may be TMI) better bowel movements. I've often heard it said that digestive health and a good immune system go hand in hand so maybe I'm on the right track. I'll hold off on any judgments until I get more data though.


What we're into this week:

• I am perusing several books right now, mostly about vegan diets and urban homesteading. I started another book today sent to me by the wonderful Mrs. E called The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin. It's a book by the author who spent a year dedicated to increasing her happiness while still living a real life (no trips to foreign countries or leaving her day job behind) and the things she learned from her adventure. So far, I love it (and maybe I will embark on my own happiness project!). 
• I finished a fascinating memoir a few days ago called The White Masai by Corinne Hofmann who falls in love with a Masai warrior and moves to Africa to be with him. This book feels like reading her diary and she tells us so many intimate details - the good, the bad, and the ugly. Incredible.
• Matt has all but forgotten about video games and immerses himself in learning how to program in python and build web pages. It is amazing how intensely he can focus on a subject to the exclusion of everyday life (like eating and vacuuming and laundry).
• We occasionally watch the sitcom "How I Met Your Mother" and enjoy every episode, even the painfully awkward ones. I highly recommend it for the laughs it gives us as we follow the social and romantic lives of the outstanding cast of characters.

Does this count as a New Year's resolution?

"I'm a strong proponent of having adventures, but only in the name of achieving balance. Stand still for too long and you're restless, run for too long and you're exhausted. The other side of the coin is the static serenity of home. 

If you're prepared to exercise a healthy dose of both daring and caution, the only caveat is this: An adventure without a mission feels a lot like wandering, and wandering - for too long - feels a lot like being lost. The conclusion? You don't necessarily have to look before you leap... just know why you're leaping."  –  Kathleen S., 2011

When I originally imagined moving to a new, faraway, and foreign place, I thought it would be such a life altering adventure. I truly thought that after Matt and I got to WA things would fall into place just the way I envisioned it because obviously, if I was living someplace else than I would stop procrastinating and start doing all of the things I wanted to accomplish with my life.

As you can see, I had a ridiculously unrealistic and romanticized idea of what my life would be like if I were living somewhere else. It was silly for me to assume that my location would change my life so grandly when the biggest piece of the puzzle was still the same – me.

After five months of feeling unsettled, I think I have finally realized what has been missing – a rallying point, a sense of direction for my everyday choices (and a nearby support network to see me through, but I can't have everything, can I?).

When I was in school (as I have been for the past 16 years), most of my choices revolved around my education – what books I would read, what my daily schedule looked like and how much free time I had for extracurriculars and friends. This is the first period of my life not determined by my first day of class, the school holiday schedule, and exam times. I feel lost without the guiding force of the school year.

The days seem to blur together as I aimlessly wander through them towards no particular objective. To remedy my drifting, I am going to embark on a journey, albeit a slow and ambling course, of self-improvement to see me through my days. As a beginning point, I am going to use the product of an exercise that I did with Matt two years ago. What we did was, individually and without conferring, create a list of short & long-term goals we wanted to accomplish (this was to help us evaluate our future plans and make sure there weren’t any huge discrepancies between the visions we had for our shared future).

What I would like is to utilize this blog as a tool to evaluate my progress while keeping in mind the broader goals I want to achieve. Of course, I will be ecstatic to cross off minor goals I achieve along the way but what I really want is for this to be an ongoing project of self-development. To start, I will list the goals as I originally wrote them (last edited 3/2013):

• Make dean’s list
• Don't get pregnant before graduating from college
• Earn a job I love
• Volunteer for a cause I love
• Live up North for one year or more
• Live abroad for one year or more
• Buy local products (meat, seafood, produce)
• Read more nonfiction books
• Become an amateur astronomer
• Become more interested in current events and news
• Become politically engaged
• Stay physically fit
• Plant a flower, herb, fruit and vegetable garden
• Build a house
• Evaluate and develop the spiritual facet of myself
• Develop and maintain relationships better
• Be a supportive lover, friend and coworker
• Don’t get caught up in the insignificant details
• Be a looking glass for others
• Grow up to be a Centenarian (added 8/2012)

A few of these things I have already accomplished, a few are currently in progress, some I haven't even thought of yet and some I will not even begin to tackle for another decade. Regardless, it is nice to see all my life-goal ducklings written in a row – it gives me a sense of purpose. I want to live in a better world, therefore I must begin with being a better person.

"The place to improve the world is first in one’s own heart and head and hands." - Robert Persig

"Action is character, our English teacher always says. I think it means if we never did anything, we wouldn't be anybody." - Jenny Mellor in the movie "An Education"

#SeaSnow

Seattle is undergoing some really intense weather. We've had freezing temperatures and snow storms and sleet and ice storms the past few days. The power has gone out at our places of employment and at some of our co-workers homes (but not for us, thank goodness!).

We are grateful that Matt's work is closed because of the power outages and hope that my evening work shift will be canceled as well. I really don't wish to be driving on these roads, especially after dark. Our tiny car was not built to handle such wild conditions, nor have I much experience with them. (Update: my shift tonight was cancelled!)

We are safe and warm right now. Drinking lots of hot tea & hot chocolate, eating chili & oatmeal. Thank goodness I stocked up on food and good library books a few days ago! Thus far, we are enjoying being snowed in and are hoping to remain so until the weather & road conditions become more reasonable.

The winter wonderland we woke up yesterday!

When the snow was just beginning....

Snow on all the plants & cars

Sledders in our backyard

The snow after the sledders got to it. It melted some yesterday
& then refroze during the night. The snow isn't so soft and fluffy anymore.

Finally we were brave enough to venture out for a few minutes!

Ice clinging to the tree branches.

Icicles on the bushes

Back indoors with my cookie monster feet to keep me warm!