Concrete

I like these: www.designboom.com/shop/concretering.html

Get, then find a way to inscribe stuff on the concrete...or set things into the concrete, that would be cool. Like glass, shells, gems, your baby's first tooth...no, wait, probably not that...

up early, got a worm

Networking and waking up early. It does kind of work. I think.

Got up at 7:30, checked email, and lo, an opportunity to check out a job. Did that, went to do my little part time gig, went up to the interview, and came back home, exhausted.

Then, on a whim, I went onto hulu and watched an episode of Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution. Stunning. Kids who don't know what an eggplant or tomatoes are....Anyway, I was so moved that I actually wrote to the guy through his website to laud him. It was a little unbelievable what was going on in the school. One might be tempted to think that these kids, being in West Virginia, well, they're just a bunch of hicks, right? But hicks who don't teach their children what vegetable names are??? These 6 year olds who didn't know potatoes, tomatoes, peas, ...none of it! They didn't know that tomatoes make ketchup, and that the french fries they immediately knew come from potatoes. Can we take this to mean that there is something seriously wrong in this country? Maybe, maybe not. But it is, by itself, rather off.

OK, bedtime.

things worth getting up for

Well, I was up at 7am yesterday to get to Yale for the Yale Celebration of Women conference, and today I was up at 6:45am. Wasn't really sleeping that well, but mostly because I was so fired up about the Yale conference. I was incredibly inspired and encouraged by the people I met there. I never really thought a Yale women's group would be supportive for me, being a mostly solo kind of girl, but these women were incredible. With their warmth combined with their intelligence and accomplishments, they present a powerful and powerfully motivating force. This is the best of alumnae fellowship and connection. Really bright, passionate people with hearts as big as can be.

Women I met over lunch, having never met them before, after hearing about me and where I am in life were kind and said, "you're obviously smart and talented. Take a risk!" You can't achieve if you don't risk. One woman, whose husband, a lovely Japanese-American man, was there with her, comprehended the nature of being raised with an Asian heritage, rife with risk aversion and deep seated desire for security. But, she said, you won't be able to be passionate, achieve great things, (build your world) unless you take a risk.

One fabulous lady from the first class of women admitted to Yale is a neurologist, and she had this terrific yellowy-orange fireball kind of energy. Sitting next to her, hearing her talk, I just soaked in her energy, basking in the sense that with women like her in the world, injustice and the status quo won't stand. Inspiring.

A younger woman I met was passionate about water sanitation. She has a PhD in water sanitation. This was really quite cool, and we talked about composting toilets. Her passion was infectious, as was her energy.

Speakers at the event were equally inpsiring. One young woman in her mid-20s started a non-profit during college and has built it into a worldwide organization in about 5 years. She was obviously young, obviously not worldly and polished compared to 20-30 year veterans of non-profits, but the fact that these older women were embracing her was inspiring to me. She's doing good, but it's equally important the she be publicly recognized by her elders - amplifying the good she does.

Women law professors, kick-ass ladies with razor sharp brains! Nothing is sexier.

And advice from the first female state surpreme court justice, who started as an art history major, never imagining a career in law, much less becoming an influential state supreme court judge. Be passionate, ask questions, seize opportunities as they come, don't be shy, tolerate the spotlight and tolerate criticism - don't take it personally. Family first...

All in all, a wonderful way to spend a Saturday.

FAIL

For some peculiar reason, unknown at the moment, I stayed up until 1:45am last night playing sudoku online. Why?

1. Habit.
2. I was a little wired from having a pretty active day, and did not start the unwinding process early enough - was tired at 10pm, but stayed up because I was hyped up on doing my taxes. Obsessive brain needs an off switch.

Prevention?
Well, I think ultimately, it's the process of habit building. One mistake does not a habit make or break. So, we slough it off, get on with the day, and plan tonight to wind down early.

Some tips gleaned from various sources for winding down:

1. write down your schedule for the next day
2. take a warm shower before bed. Help set up good sleep body temperature.
3. write down whatever might be bothering you (I don't think this one would work for me.)
4. meditate.
5. keep weekend and weekday wake times the same. Changing things on the weekends resets, or more correctly, upsets your internal clock.
6. Dim the lights at least 30 minutes to bedtime. (Reading in dim light usually gets me. However, my obsessiveness doesn't enjoy reading stuff without getting engrossed. That's a cue to tell my obsessiveness to take a long walk off a short bridge.)
7. white noise. Perhaps.

A food insert - almond joy recipe

Since I am banning junk foods from my life, it would be useful to learn how to make good "junk" food. Like this.

The only other junk foods I have made good is salty oven-roasted sweet potato fries. Can you eat these every day? OK, I would get sick of them eventually, but they are quite tasty.

And the roofer pitches in

The roofer called at 7am, a full half hour before I was supposed to wake. I was half-awake as it was. The pounding rain on the roof of the past day and night is oddly hypnotic, but not in a sleep-inducing way, today.

Why did the roofer call at 7am, you may ask? Indeed. It could be because he's Irish, or because he's a workaholic, or because he was trying to passive-aggressively get back at me for not choosing him to work on the roof a few months ago. Oddly, I believe it may be all of the above. Regardless, he called, I answered, we arranged a time for him to come by, and I went back and dozed for another 15 minutes.

But when I got up at 7:30am, I was ready to exercise, eat a healthy breakfast of microwaved sweet potato (rinse tuber, wrap in Glad Clingwrap, nuke for 5 minutes, presto done, and don't eat the skin), and get onto emails. Then went to do some freelance work (CAD drafting for a guy who gets up at 5:30am and does "BodyPump" in the mornings), spent time with a friend, went to orchestra rehearsal, and finally, am back home reading JKLasser's book on 2009 TAXES! Shazaam!

I am an obsessive by nature, let's be clear. Taxes is not something I have to read about, I am compelled to. It's like a tic. It's like how I've been obsessively reading economics. And I had to figure out what a present value calculation is. Not many people (quick, what's the percentage of economists in the world?) know it - that is, less than know what that blond bimbo Jessica Simpson is up to currently. Actually, I could easily forget it, but I will probably obsess about it to the point of re-reviewing it.

For kicks and trivia quizzes later on in the nursing home, the present value of an annuity is the value you intend to get at the end of the time period divided by the rate of return per annum. Sounds simple, just have to have the right numbers. Also, there are "present value tables" that accountants use to do this without sitting down with a calculator.

Oh - one final note of a health/dietary nature: I had some Doritos and cheddar cheese last night for the first time in several months. I also had four Thin Mint Girl Scout cookies at the freelance job. My elbows hurt today more than they have in some time. Interesting, no? I just ate half a bunch of fresh organic celery and a cup of ginger tea to atone - my own personal, edible Hail Mary.

A new goal - 7:30am

The new goal is to wake up at 7:30 every morning...and actually, eventually get to 6:30am. The reason is, not because I need to be more virtuous, which some people I know automatically associate with waking up early, but because I need to get a lot of stuff done, and waking up earlier gives me a sense of control that waking up for a job doesn't.

The things I'm looking to do include
- getting a lot of economics self-study under my belt
- Spanish
- violin
- eventually pick up a second career - perhaps in finance or some financial field.

So, I hereby return to this blog to record progress. Today I was up at 7:30 - although I was certainly awoken earlier having heard the resident, crazy mouse make a noise akin to it dropping its massive girth from some height and landing on the ceiling. I went for a walk that took about an hour, had breakfast, started into an econ lecture.

ANd now for the recipe portion of our post:
I have a favorite dressing composed of
olive oil (fat),
garlic (savory),
soy sauce (salt),
lime or lemon juice (tang)
honey or agave nectar (sweet)
and red pepper (spicy).

Notice how it's got pretty much every major flavor in it? Well, you can also get this mixture this way:
olive oil, garlic, soy sauce, chopped apple, and ginger.
1 - Saute chopped garlic (a few cloves) and fresh sliced ginger (an small inch long piece is enough) in the olive oil for a couple of minutes.
2 - Add chopped apple (half an apple is good, chopped pretty finely), give a squeeze of soy sauce, or however much you prefer. Or you can just salt it with regular salt.
3 - cook until the apple is softened.

I made this the other day and dressed a package of brussel sprouts with it. Very tasty. I might have added more tang with a bit of lemon or lime juice, but wanted to see how much tang the apple would impart. I'd say, a bit. Not much, but a little.

Quinoa with Sauce and more Cauliflower

Mmm!
Cooked some quinoa in the rice cooker - too much water, but that's ok.
Cooked a sauce this way: In a pan cooked olive oil, sauteeing garlic (2 cloves) and chopped fresh ginger (1 inch, peeled) until translucent. Added a squeeze of agave nectar, a squeeze of lime juice (one wedge), and dashed some salt.

When the quinoa was done, I put it in with the sauce and mixed it up. So tasty!

Meanwhile, in the toaster oven, I roasted cauliflower and chopped onion. I put the cauliflower on a sheet of aluminum foil, drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled turmeric (anti-inflammatory) and galangal (not sure what this really does) and sea salt. It took about 30 minutes at 450 to cook, and the end result is what I have typically found of roasted cauliflower. OK, but not my favorite way to eat it. Well, at least I've tried it.

I ate the quinoa with the cauliflower and had a scrumptious repast this noon. !!!