My Candle Vegetable

It is not often that you find a vegetable that you can be passionate about. However, as I was expounding upon the virtues of the “sayur lilin” (translated candle vegetable), I realized that I had discovered my vegetable. And seriously, this veggie is awesome! I would eat as much of it as you could cook for me!

I first tried it when I still lived overseas on the island of New Guinea. I was doing some service work in a remote village with my high school and the people hosted a “baker batu” or pig feast for us. The sayur lilin was part of the feast and I had never seen anything like it. The vegetable was long and covered by a husk-like outside. The vegetable inside had a fantastic texture and resembled a long, thick piece of wheat. The taste was not strong, but delicious anyway.  

One of my greatest regrets about leaving West Papua, Indonesia is the loss of sayur lilin. As I was telling Andre this morning, someday I will have to go back and revisit the vegetable passion of my youth!

So… I was wondering if anyone else had discovered a vegetable they can get excited about? 

A Sad Realization

There is nothing worse than the discovery that love is conditional. For me this discovery did not come from my huband ( who is wonderful) but from someone else. A person who was very close to me. Apparently:
1. I'm too fat for her. If she truly was just concerned about my health, she would tell me this once, twice, maybe three times. Telling me every day, up to 5 times a day when she know I feel bad about myself already says she can't stand to look at me.

2. I am not spriritually adequate. I (heaven forbid!) paly Dungeons and Dragons. I occasionally enjoy a movie with a rating above PG. Also, I do not go to Church every Sunday.

3. Nothing else about me matters. Talking about my life, interests, etc... is shallow and uninteresting. She has actually told me this. I hope that someday this person will love me for real. But until then this experience has been very disillusioning.

My Top 10 Happy Things

Everyone needs happy things to keep life moving and upbeat. I have developed this list over the last couple of years. Here are some of the things that keep me smiling.

1. My very favorite thing is to drink an iced soy latte while playing Yatzee with Andre. We have always loved playing games together and right now Yatzee is our game of choice, primarily because it is a game of chance. If no skill is involved, no hard feelings, right? Which is a good thing because regardless of chance and odds, he still manages to will 99% of the time.

2. I love to travel and to plan adventures. I moved around a lot as a child which infected me with the travel bug. Andre and I have gone of a couple of adventures since we’ve been married, but my favorite was an impromptu trip we took to Chicago. We were antsy one weekend and so just hopped in the car and drove to a ritzy hotel in Chicago (made affordable by priceline.com of course). We found a great sports bar, went to a comedy show ‘Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind,’ and had just enough time the next morning to grab a donut before speeding back to Indiana and my job. Awesome!

3. Cooking has always been a hobby of mine. It started with an inspiring batch of brownies I made in middle school. Everyone loved them. I thought “hey! I might have discovered a talent, here!” and it all snowballed from there. Now I love gourmet cooking, pie baking, and can even cook authentic Chinese! Is my husband lucky or what!?

4. Happy thing number four is Bed and Breakfasts. I love the old fashioned decorations, homey rooms, and the personal feel of the inns. And the breakfasts… to die for! If I don’t run a coffee shop one day, I have also dreamed of starting a B&B. It would combine my mad cooking skills with happy thing #5.

5. And happy thing #5 is… decorating! I enjoy browsing through furniture stores and art galleries. In my fantasy I have a beautiful apartment with an unlimited decorating budget.

6. For the past 2-3 months I have been taking a health supplement called Reliv. Reliv is happy thing #6 because it has helped me feel more alive. For the past several years I have felt continually fatigued and nauseated, saving all of my energy for my job. Now I have a new sense of vitality and a zest for life. I actually want to get out of bed in the morning.

7. As well as playing games, Andre and I love to read together. Usually Andre reads aloud and I use the time as an excuse to cuddle (I take those every chance I get ;). Sometimes we get so wrapped up in a story we can’t put it down. Our most recent read was ‘The Hunger Games’ series by Suzanne Collins. We felt withdrawal pains for the week after we finished the books. Some other books we have LOVED have been The Little Prince, Ender’s Game, and The Neverending Story.

8. I love to laugh, ha ha ha ha! Youtube has been providing me with giggles since I discovered it. As a woman with a degree in education, by favorite video is:

           

            http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLYc6tMbPHk

These two commercials make me laugh every time I see them:

            http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9sEI1AUFJKw

           

            http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hElms3Jk1Ls

And I fell in love with Andre after seeing him dance to this video:

            http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bAN7Ts0xBo

9. Flowers smell beautiful, they are alive, and they can brighten any room (with the exception of Venus fly traps and other carnivorous plants.) Black-Eyed Susans are my favorite; they bring me back to when I was a little girl vacationing with my family in Bemidji. Orchids are also high on my flower-love lists as are lilies (which Andre buys for me every Valentines Day.)

10. The final, but not least, of my happy things is children’s literature. I have found that they provide an entertaining and speedy pick-me-up. If you don’t believe me you should look up some of these books:

Chickens to the Rescue! By John Himmelman

How to Speak Moo By Deborah Fajerman

But Not the Hippopotamus  By Sandra Boynton

Personal Penguin by Sandra Boynton

Well, these are my happy things, I would love to hear about yours!

You, Me, and Wheelchair make Three

One thing I have always taken for granted has been my mobility. I never thought that I would be doing what I did today: picking up my handicap parking permit at the DMV. I have been struggling with chronic pain for several years but I was unprepared for the complete loss of mobility that I suffered about 4 months ago. I had a swollen and painful left foot as well as torn cartilage in my right hip allowing for no weight bearing. Until the doctors at Mayo Clinic figured out what to do with my foot and what was wrong with my hip I found myself in a wheelchair.

One of the first things that I discovered in my wheelchair is that most businesses are not as accessible as they would like to think that they are. The hotel that I was staying in while I was Mayo had an “accessible” room, but ironically their actual building was hard for me to get into. There was no handicap button on the door to help me in. If I was alone I would have to sit by the doors and wait for someone to walk by that would be able to assist me.  Definitely a humbling experience.

Shopping malls are also surprisingly inaccessible. There was very little that I could do in my wheelchair so my mom drove me to the mall once or twice. Some stores were easy to navigate; Kohl’s being by far the best store I visited. However, many of the stores were so cluttered or had such narrow isles that I could not even go in. Claire’s and Icing fell into this category. I understand that some stores have a lot of product, and not a lot of space, but there has to be a way to arrange their wares without keeping out potential customers.

Anyway, I am continuously thankful that I will not be permanently in that chair, and I have a lot of respect for those who do have to endure a permanent loss of mobility. I hope that businesses and people in general will endeavor to become increasingly aware of the importance of accessibility and what accessibility actually means. Have any of you run into stores or businesses who consider handicap accessibility to consist of one special parking spot?  

Coffee Shops and Me

Today I spent some time in Greyhouse, a coffee house just off the Purdue campus. I like to think of myself as a connoisseur of coffee shops, and Greyhouse is my all-time favorite. It is always clean, warm, and they have fantastic coffee. My favorite drink, of course, is an iced soy latte. Today I was by myself, but Andre often joins me and we play Yatzee or Cribbage while we enjoy our drinks.

           

So many positive memories and emotions are connected to coffee houses. When Andre and I started dating we frequented several of the coffee shops in Eau Claire. Ironically neither of us really liked coffee at the time. Andre would get tea and I would get some girly drink in which I could barely taste the coffee, and then we would enjoy each other and the atmosphere of the shop. Our favorite game was Cribbage and we often brought it along. Sometimes we would play chess but Andre hated that because I always won. I laughed when Andre told me that after his first defeat he had downloaded computer chess so he could practice. (Between you and me that didn’t help.) There is balance in the relationship, though, because I fee the same way about Boggle. Andre had a phenomenal vocabulary and he always manages to find words I never knew exited.

I have always hoped to one day start my own coffee shop. I would love the opportunity to create a cozy, inviting atmosphere. What would be better than having creative license in my favorite place? 

5 ways to help me reach my goals

1. Exercise every day Monday – Friday. I have a membership at a great club and one of the trainers there showed me a routine I can do without aggravating my hip. I just have to buckle down and do it!

2. Find new recipes. I love to cook, and I can be a picky eater. I just have to explore new healthy recipes to find fun foods. Ideas anyone?

3. Vacuum every day.  If I vacuum I have to make sure there is nothing on the floor, right? Also – you would not believe how far my guinea pigs can throw their poo and bedding! I swear that if I don’t vacuum you have to be careful where you step in a five foot radius around their cage!

4. Practice my flute for 20-30 minutes a day. It will be easier if I at least pick it up, right? I borrowed a hymnal from my mother in law so that I have some pretty and simple songs to play.

5. Drink a soy latte every day. Hey, when you are happy your goals are easier to reach. J

Pigs and Pets

As a child my favorite place to go was the petting zoo. And, if I were to be completely honest, not much has changed. I had all sorts of pets growing up. My family always had a dog, but because I grew up on the Island of New Guinea, we also owned several more exotic pets. My favorite was a parrot named Blaze. She was beautiful with her bright colors, red, blue, yellow, and green. She would sit on my shoulder and nibble gently on my earlobe. One pet that was not a favorite was our wallaby, Roo. He was a cute little thing when he hopped around the house but he developed some unfortunate and violent tendencies. He would often attack my mom while she was cooking and dig his claws into her leg until she fed him a scrap of whatever she was making. Roo’s ultimate mistake was when bit a chunk out of my side after I shooed him off my bed because he had messed all over it.

Now that I am married and living in the US, my pets have become slightly less exotic, although no less exiting. Andre and I currently own two guinea pigs, Spoik and John McCain. You would think that guinea pigs would be stupid, dull creatures, but we have been amazed at the uniqueness of our pigs’ personalities. Spoik is an angsty creature while McCain is the strong silent type. The place where this is most evident is in their struggle for dominance. John McCain will plant himself in one spot and say “Spoik, I am alpha because I am a rock!” Spoik, on the other had does his best to annoy McCain to death. When McCain is hungry Spoik will join him at the food dish and start to slide himself over the top of it until his belly has completely blocked McCain from the food. Sometimes Spoik will threaten McCain with his “war dance.” He’ll sidle up next to the poor Senator and weave his butt around. Apparently this is supposed to seem ferocious, but it makes Andre and I laugh every time. My favorite is when Spoik decides to take food out of McCain’s mouth instead of getting his own from the food dish. Watching our pigs is never boring.

           

I’m sure my pigs are not the only ones with personalities. Does anyone else have any good stories? 

Humiliation by Flute: 101

Emotions are running high on this second day of working towards my goals. I am eating well, taking my Reliv, and doing the dishes. However, as I psych myself up to reach for my flute, foreboding music plays in the background. I don’t know if you play an instrument, but it can be scary to perform solo in public, especially on the flute. Not only can you miss a note, but you can be off key, have a bad sound, or accidentally buzz your lips together (very humiliating.)

            Sadly, I discovered first hand the shame of a poor performance when I was in eighth grade. At the time my family was attending a small church in North Carolina. 99% of the congregation was over 60 and so they were eager to get me (a large part of the 1% of young people) involved. I was asked to solo during the offertory and accepted. By then I had been playing for three years and was excited to show off my skills.

            I chose a song and practiced and practiced, paying special attention to my intonation as I was to be accompanied by a pianist. I practiced for hours the day before my performance. On the big day I got up early to warm up and played for an hour before church. Unfortunately, I had never lifted weights or done much exercising. If I had I would have known that you can only use a muscle so much before it needs a rest. Well, my mouth muscles ran out of juice just before the offertory. The piano played a short intro, I began my solo, and I sounded beautiful for two measures. Then… nothing… I could not play another note. There was a long, awkward silence while I tried to continue and then I fled, crying, out of the sanctuary. Embarrassing.

            Public humiliation is never fun, but I have to say that I am grateful mine happened in front of 99% of older adults. So now you know why the goal of a public performance is a challenging one. Whish me luck! I’ll need it.  

New Year's Suggestions

I've made a list of New Year's Resolutions every year I can remember since I was in Middle School. Loose weight, floss daily, be funnier and more outgoing, find a boyfriend, get strait A's. Nothing out of the ordinary. For some reason, though, my resolutions never lasted more than 2 weeks or so. If you are disciplined enough to floss every day, kudos to you. This year I've decided not to make any resolutions. I've decided on New Year's suggestions. That way when I fail after two weeks it won't feel so tragic. So...here are my 2011 Suggestions.

1. Get in shape. I know it is important to set realizable goals so I've decided to loose 60 pounds, bench 50 pounds, and have the body of a playboy bunny. I mean, all I want is to hear whistles when I walk into a room.
2. I started to play the flute when I was in 5th grade. I had wanted to play the French Horn, but it was too difficult for me. I loved playing my flute. My dad and I would play together from a hymnal. He would play the background while I trilled the melody on my flute. By the time I graduated from highschool I was really good. But dissapointments in college caused me to put it away. I now sound like a choking parrot, but I would like to play again. So - goal number two is to relearn my flute well enough to play in public by Christmas. 
3. Be a better housekeeper. I hate messes, but I am also a terrible procrastinator. (As is evidenced by these New Year's suggestions being posted on January 17.) I know that if I have a pile of dishes, I can count on them to still be there after a movie. However, I've discovered over time that if dishes are left alone they tend to get frisky and reproduce. So I am going to suggest to myself that I stay more on top of my cleaning.

Well, if I was to suggest every needed improvement to myself, this post would never end, so I will focus on these three. I would love to hear suggestions from anyone on how to accomplish these goals. I also love trying new recipes, and I need some healthy ones. So here I am, signing off and hoping to wake up tomorrow and find myself a better, more disciplined person!