June, 2003

New Inspiration

smile.jpgI’ve begun a new morning regimen (read: walk/jog/skip/leap/hiking) that involves waking up with a conscious effort to be happy. On my walk this morning I encountered an extremely large quantity of fauna in a 15 minute period: 1 deer, 1 bunny rabbit, 1 groundhog, 3 chipmunks, 10 butterflies!! Anyone can adopt this new way of being, all you need to know is that during one’s walk, it is imperative that one shouts at the top of one’s lungs “HEY!!! I’m ALIIIIIVEEEE!! (insert BIG grin and hysterical laughter here) I’m Alive!!!”. It’s a good start to the day.

The sun was really bright this morning–this is most of what inspired me to get up early and begin the “Don’t worry be happy outlook” (Or rather, the “Only-worry-when-effective-and-absolutely-necessary Outlook”). In essence, it’s a lifestyle change. Here are the main components:

“A” Acts
Acts of appreciating the world, life and me.Acts of appreciating the world, life and me.
I am Gumbo
A conglomerate of my favorite exercises– based on T’ai Chi, Yoga, Pilates, Butts ‘n Guts, Kickboxing, Absolute Abs, and some of Cindy Crawford’s favorite moves (I feel a special bond with Cindy since we have the same beauty mark above our lip). Motivating/relaxing music is an essential component for this routine. This morning’s music of choice: Pink’s Remix of “Get the Party Started” featuring excerpts of “Sweet Dreams,” Tatu: “All the things she said,” and I don’t remember the artist but the song is called “Sex Machine”–it sounds like “Get up! Get on up, ah! Get up, get on up-ah!”

Roughage
I’m hoping to expand my appreciation of leafy greens. To this end, I would like to introduce to you Project Green!! Each week I will create (or perhaps compose is more the more accurate term) a new salad –and EAT it. My goal is that by bombarding myself with positive exposure to lettuces and vegetables, I will learn to love and even CRAVE them (crave–I know, can you imagine?!) We’ll see how it goes. Starting out easy:

Greek Goddess Ensalada
Red Lettuce
Vine-ripened tomatoes
Baby carrots
Baby bella mushrooms
Red pepper
Vidalia onion
Homemade oil & vinegar dressing (2/3 cup oil, 1/3 cup vinegar, S&P, Shake it baby, yeah!!)
Homemade crutons (Drizzle old bread you’ve cut into 1/2 inch cubes with olive oil and herbs of your choice. Bake at 350 degrees until golden)
Feta cheese

Alcohol
Although it’s not all that fun drinking alone, sometimes (especially when living the life of a hermit), it becomes necessary. I’m currently obsessed with homemade hard lemonade. You use this recipe and kick it up a notch with some Absolut vodka.
Dessert Dreams
In trying to lead a healthy lifestyle, I’ve begun having fresh fruit for dessert, rather than massive amounts of peanut butter and chocolate chips.

I’m hoping to expand my appreciation of leafy greens. To this end, I would like to introduce to you !! Each week I will create (or perhaps compose is more the more accurate term) a new salad –and EAT it. My goal is that by bombarding myself with positive exposure to lettuces and vegetables, I will learn to love and even CRAVE them (crave–I know, can you imagine?!) We’ll see how it goes. Starting out easy:There’s much more, but I’ll have to continue later as my lemonade has rendered me quite intoxicated. Night night!

Wedding

phoebe_john.jpg

AIEEE!!! Just got back from my sister’s wedding in Pennsylvania. It was great! This picture certainly does not do either of them justice due to my Photoshop woes. (You see, I scammed a pirated copy of Adobe from some friends and now the serial number has expired–>alas it no longer works. Fiddlesticks. Does anyone know how to fix this? Or perhaps you have a copy of Adobe that you’d like to send to me?? 🙂 That would be Excellent. Anyhow, it’s as good as you’re gonna get until I save up $900 to buy my own version or until some other solution presents itself.

But back to the wedding…it was great fun! Held at the Centre Bridge Inn on the Delaware River, we were fortunate enough to enjoy our own private ride on a barge-pulled-by-mules! What fun! I’m not even going to promise you pictures in the near future, because it will be impossible for me to upload new photos until mid-August. (TRAGICAL!!!! I just made four beautiful pages, but there’s no way to upload them at the library!! Can we say “frustration?!?!” I think we can).

September Shoes

shoes.jpgI went home for a day this week and it was SO nice and cozy and warm and fuzzy. Sometimes it’s just nice to be in a safe familiar place, isn’t it? Mom and I went to Rochester to see September Shoes at Geva Theater. It was aurally stimulating. I have to say that the plot wasn’t all that exciting, but the scenery and music and visual presentation was excellent! It was nice to go to a fine arts production after not having been to one in quite a while.

Still raining here. Flood watch today!

Righteous!

  • June 9, 2003
  • Categorized: The Rock   Tagged:

squirt.gifJackie and I went to Pen Yan last night to see Finding Nemo–the new Disney movie that’s in theaters right now. It was so good!! It reminded me of The Little Mermaid a bit because all of the characters had very distinctive accents and because it was set under water. hee hee! The moving pictures were beautiful! The movie was made using Pixar, which is a special computer animation process that creates the actual images and things you see. It’s quite interesting! Pixar also created Toy Story and A Bug’s Life, but interestingly, I didn’t think that these movies looked at all alike! I guess that’s one of the nice features about being able to computer generate original artwork–it can look completely different with each movie! Anyways, Nemo was a great movie and I highly recommend it!

I’m heading home for a night on Tuesday to pick up mail, do laundry, and visit the fam and the house. It’s good to get a change of scenery every so often, don’t you think? Also, I have made a new resolution to “get out more” and see the fingerlakes area. Planned trips thus far include: Pen Yan Farmer’s Market and a day-long hike on The Fingerlakes Trail.

Yoga fleas

  • June 4, 2003
  • Categorized: The Rock   Tagged:

yoga.bmpI think that the weather here in Hammondsport has set a new record. It feels like it’s been raining every day for the past two weeks!! AIEEE!! When will it end!?!?!

I joined a great yoga class today! Woot! It’s an hour and a half long twice a week–our instructor is extremely good at leading meditations. Today she was talking about something like the sky is your mind… and I totally related to what she was saying on some other level of consciousness. That will be a nice relaxing treat I feel!

Minnie Mae got freaking fleas two days ago. AGHIAHGIAHGIAGHIA!!! Have you ever heard that James Taylor song about the flea? Well, that is EXACTLY how we are feeling right now. Today I went on a “kill the fleas” mission and bathed her, sprayed her (while ‘fluffing’ her hair as the bottle reads), thoroughly vaccuumed the entire house and every surface she has ever slept on, and sprayed the entire place with Flea killer stuff (which also guarantees that it kills spiders and roaches: Can we say DING!). Then, I sprayed all the laundry, removed all sheets and blankets, washed them out…bler bler bler….what a freaking pain, but sooooo worth it. Those little guys better be GONE within 2 hours because we are both sick to death of itching! GROSS!

The apartment hunt continues–if you know of a place near St. Helena, CA that needs occupation, drop me a line, yo!