Saturday, April 30, 2011

Listening and being listened to

    Sharing the "highlights" from my unfortunate thursday morning experience with Julie, whom I babysit for, was totally enlightening.  She laughed, said, Oh That's Nothin and told me that she totaled her roommates brand new bmw when she was in college.  Julie made me feel a lot lighter about the whole ordeal, and talked to me at length, giving me real whole-scope Perspective on the sitch before giving me a hug and sending me on my way.
     I went out to the beach there on the south end, and relaxed for a spell, drinking a can of my fav Blue Sky root beer.  Then I bicycled over to meet Vanessa at her house.  Best thing ever!  We had a serious amount of catching up to do.  What does catching up mean anyways?  For us, its inquiring about how specific things in each others lives, listening, responding, in an exchange that is, at best, The Most Wonderful Time ever.
When I'm with Vans, my whole self just relaxes..much more than when I'm by myself or out in the world.  We complement and compliment each other.  And contemplate the world around us.  I did some work on my paper and we watched a great episode of Glee (Born this way) and shrieked with pleasure over the original Gaga video of the same name.
    Now I'm at Cafe del Mar, dogs and bare feet welcome.  I'm here very possibly for the last Saturday a.m. ever! Crazy! Vanessa noted that I'm already in the Final goodbye stages of things as I related that I may have walked down Chancellors Walk for the last time already.  When I expressed trepidation about leaving friends, specifically Vans, Vans assured me that We have our whole rest of our lives to experience with each other!  Shes so right, whether thats a phone conversation or a skype or a visit or a seasonal vacay or 10 year stay at an ashram, we're so good together like hot water and tea leaves..both dependent on each other to make a drink steeped with wisdom.  Yes, I admit I love metaphor and employ it alllll the time to describe the world around me.  I became more cognisant of that after I leafed through I is an Other: The Secret Life of Metaphor at my local barnes&noble.


   

Thursday, April 28, 2011

pretty awful morning

    Good thing I had a happy outlook on life and a calming run around the loop this morning to prepare me for what happened when I left for class at 7:15.  My roommates' cars and mine are packed into our little backyard and I knicked my roommates car as I backed out.  I checked it out, thought, "Hmm, I will probably have to tell her about that..yea.." Called Dad, he was calm of course.  I called my roommate next,, 5 mins after it had happened.  She flipped out, as I thought she would, but I was just glad she couldn't chew me out in person as I called her from the road.  Later, she called that rude, but then also proceeded throughout the morning to tell me she might file a police report and get me charged with Hit & Run.  My dad thought this was ridiculous, as we had told her we would pay for the damage (a dint, scratches).  Everything got handled, but man, I hate to mess with the Dramatic Roommate Storm. 
      But there are many many illustrious silver linings to this unfortunate situation.  For starters, I was reminded of my thankfulness to have a person, my dad, who is my refuge and my strength when the world is totally and completely overwhelming for me.  He comforts me and slays the dragons at the same time, don't know how.  Tears are steadily streaming down my face as I sit in the starbucks right now because I'm so grateful to have him.  He sets a great example for me, and that makes me happiest of all, to think that I will be able to be like him when I am a grown up.  More tears.
    Of course, I am well aware that I am a deeply sensitive person and I will be highly prone to crying for like a week at least.  Oh man, hope Stephen is ready for me to cry during the honeybee documentary tonight.  I'm sure he is.
     My friend Charlie helped me out by listening to me as I cried/talked about the hit&run idea that had been introduced, and how I thought cosmetics and cars were anyway. as I walked to my 3rd class.  I am proud of myself for attending all my classes despite my nagging wallowing-want to shut down now-thoughts.  In actuality, I actively participated in all of them!  I asked questions in oceanography, was involved in the physics demonstration of the day, and raised my hand to answer two questions I knew in natural resource management.
     I am a tad upset it didn't even thunderstorm during my school day..that's why I was driving and not bicycling to school in the first place..but that is wasted energy for sure.  My dad told me, "Go see if there is still an ocean at the end of charlotte street (where the house I rent is).  Sooooooo sweet.  Oh gahd, more tears.  Salt water heals all.

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

gourmet wednesday

   Man nothin can hamper my mood!  Though I am hampering my progress on my 2 papers due Monday plenty.  I got a flat tire yesterday so I had to walk 4 miles in the hot noon sun to bike cycles, but that was jsut OK, you know?  I kept hoping a passerby would ask me if I wanted a ride, but at the same time didn't want one, I just was wishing our society was more compassionate towards one another really..but anyway I made sure to hydrate plenty for the rest of the afternoon so I didn't get sun sickness.
    Yesterday evening when I was shoppin for groceries at the co-op, Stephen gave me a ginormous sweet potato that had a some weird lookin gnaw marks on one end and a big eggplant that was on its way out.  So last night I plotted, and today I cooked!  Totally gourmet creations were had.  Of course, I shoulda been poring over "Protecting the Ozone Layer" and other books for my montreal protocol paper, but I felt that sweet potato and eggplant selections in The Enchanted Broccoli Forest were just much more of the moment.  And I'm trying to live in the present moment as much as possible of course..so I cooked! 
      A single serving (plus a lil extra) version of a  "pleasant and subtle" Sweet Potato Pie which included a sprouted flour crust and wheat germ/grated cheddar topping.  The recipe called for seedless oranges which I didn't have but I subbed in some frozen mango puree, worked great!  Love that puree, I've been eating it like a popsicle..so tasty to eat while chillin on the beach after a morning run.  But that's not all..I cooked the eggplant too!
        Made another EBF recipe..Israeli Eggplant Salad (just one of four different eggplant salads) and it turned out great too!  I chilled it and had it for supper, wrapped up snugly w/ hummus & spinach in some blanched collard greens and served with some mango jalepeno hot sauce that who else? but Stephen made.  Ooh and the best part about that salad was that I got to use parsley that I grew out on the back porch!  My first homegrown herb!  Soo special. 
     Well tomorrow I will not get to spend much time in the kitchen, but less gourmet, as I have packed a roasted eggplant/spinach  sandwich along w/ a gorgeous big salad.  Also, I'll have my fav homemade naked juice which makes me feel all sunshiney.  Though it is forecast to be thunderstorming all day!  I've got my LAST 8 am class so I will be away from 7:30am til late..no lounging around cooking in my underwear at noon tomorrow!  I will work on my papers at starbucks after class before Stephen and I go see Vanishing of the Bees at Thalian Hall!  Charmed life.
    My environmental studies seminar class had our last class period together today..and the 12 of us have been discussing all the big issues this semester and getting as pretty much as close as you can get with a college class so we decided we wanna have a hang out finale!  Soo glad.  I suggested The Lighthouse and I think that's what'll go down!  They have an attractive chill area there on the side now w/ Adirondack chairs and some benches.

Saturday, April 23, 2011

The Police, a Kitten, Swimming

"Some may say
I'm wishing my days away
no way
and if it's the price I pay
some say
tomorrow's another day
to stay
I may as well play"

Gah I was listening to The Police earlier today and still have a bunch of lyrics floating through my head.  I don't mind at all!  Makes for great singing-quietly-to-yourself music, esp. when bicycle riding.  I took a quick ride around 7 tonight as I wanted to get some pics of purple martins for my bird field notebook project.  I was going to ride down to the house of a family I babysit for on the channel side of the South end, as they have a martin house..but there were several purple martin houses before that and I got some good shots of them.
I forgot to tell Mom that I saw flocks of glossy ibis like 3 different times in the past 2 days, flying both over Banks Channel and along the ocean on the South end.  I was staying at this suh-weet house for the past week as I was housesitting & catsitting for another great family I babysit for.  Great birdwatching, I tell ya, when you can watch the ocean, the inlet, and the channel all at once.  The amazingness of the house was enough to overwhelm me, of course.
But I calmed down pretty quick and had a lovely time listening to music and cuddling with the kitten who happens to have no tail (it was amputated when he was a newborn because of an infection).  Seriously,  this cat had such personality! I really miss him taking me away from my self-oriented tasks to stroke him or talk to him.  Or spray him w/ water if he was wrestling the older cat..haha.  My fav thing he would do was perform acrobatic leaps over things (including the other cat!).  I found myself thinking that I would really like to get a kitten, like could  I do that?  Yes, yes I could..something to think about for sure.
I went for my first swim of year 2011 today.  It's crazy, I haven't even been swimming in a pool yet this year, and my first swim was in the good old Atlantic.  It was definitely a crisp water temp, totally refreshing after a 6-mile run in the afternoon sunlight (note to self: get Rx sunglasses!).  I had debated doing a 10K race this a.m. that was taking place to raise money for a great cause, the WB farmers' market, but decided against it in favor of having a slow Saturday a.m. (and my last in the awesome house!)  I tried out a pumpkin scone recipe, drank coffee on the fourth story porch, and did got into some reading material for a class instead.  I'm reading from 3 great books that takes me through the ozone hole discovery and recovery, as I am presenting and writing about the Montreal Protocol for my environmental studies seminar.