Holiday cheer

I thought this was a fitting holiday e-card for my December of reducing paper waste.

A few other pictures of my reduced waste holidays:

Much Ado About Toilet Paper

Re-purpose genius: I wrote a love note on that homemade caramel's paper wrapping.

Ya know, I meant to write more about paper and packaging during the Reduce Paper Waste month of Operation Consumption Liberation.  I really did.  But here we are, December 16, and I’m still scrambling to figure out what the heck I’m going to do on Christmas Day since I’m waiting until after the big day to travel home this year. Christmas orphans get lonely, yo!  Feel free to drop by my place or invite me to dinner. (FYI: I like peppermint stick ice cream. Also, doorbells and sleigh bells, schnitzel with the noodles.)

Anyway, since my last post, I:

• Bought a car after the pokiest 4-month-long shopping process ever.
• Hosted a friend on my floor for several days.
• Got shingles. (Not contagious unless you’ve never had the chicken pox and just happen to touch one of the open blisters in my armpit—because I’m totally walking around with my armpit exposed in the middle of December—THEN you might get the chicken pox.  Anyway, the blisters itch like crazy.  For two days I felt all achy and worn down in that flu-like way for the first two days.  And since I live alone, there was no one there to make me soup. Poor shingles-afflicted, single-occupant, Christmas orphan me….)

How is that for a whine fest?  Memo to self: this post was supposed to be about paper. 

The Paper Challenge

This month is all about gift wrapping.

I can’t believe it is already December 4. The last month of my Operation Consumption Liberation challenge!  While I *may* be gearing up for OCL 2 in January, for the time being, let’s break down my December challenge: I want to reduce my consumption of paper products and other packaging (we’re talking bubble wrap and Styrofoam peanuts, people.)  I chose December for this particular challenge namely because the holiday season’s abundance of gift-wrap.  But reducing my paper waste goes far beyond skipping the fancy gift-wrap paper.  Here are a few things I am currently and will be doing this month:

To meat or not to meat?

Operation Consumption Liberation’s month of not consuming meat has ended.  Before I move on to December’s challenge, I wanted to dive into some of the ethical, environmental, and health-related questions that pop up when assessing meat consumption in the USA.  Before I started this month, I asked my currently, and formerly, vegetarian Facebook friends why they went meatless.  I only got three responses (FYI: all three are no longer vegetarians), but I wanted to share a little of what they said.

From my friend B.: “I started because I loved/love animals and couldn't justify killing them just so I could eat. Then I lived in a veggie house, so that made it even easier. I started eating meat again when I realized (as sad as it sounds) that I didn't care enough to keep not eating meat (which is a sad commentary, I think, on the ubiquity of meat in our society).”

But I love you! (Credit: Jim Champion from Southampton, UK [CC-BY-SA-2.0], via Wikimedia Commons)

The reason B. became a vegetarian is the reason many people become vegetarians.  Whether you ever went to Bible School or not, chances are you still are familiar with the Ten Commandments and the commandment “Thou shalt not kill.” Yes, this refers to killing other human beings, not animals. There’s the argument that the animal world is full of predators that kill prey—“if animals kill for food, why should we hold ourselves to a higher standard?”  Still, many people struggle with the idea that the steak on their plate used to be a cow, and that this cow was bred, raised (often on unsuitable grain and supplements in the confined space of a feedlot), and killed explicitly so that humans could eat it. From a moral standpoint, eating animals presents a lot of grey area and conflicted emotions.  I do not know if I could personally slaughter a cow, chicken, or fish.  And I do occasionally wonder if I should only eat the animals I hypothetically could execute myself.  By this rule, bugs would likely make up the bulk of the meat in my diet.

Talking Tofurky

A confession about Thanksgiving:

I’ve never been that mad about the turkey.

Photo by Lee R. DeHaan

Ditto for the gravy. But the dressing, the mashed potatoes, the cranberry sauce, the sweet potatoes with burnt marshmallows on top, the green bean casserole…sign me up. I will eat that stuff until I am green in the face and as bloated as this here squirrel:

"Fat Boy" photo by James Marvin Phelps

Upon learning that November was my month to give meat theheave-ho, at least half a dozen concerned friends and family asked if perhaps I’d forgotten the turkey holiday while planning Operation Consumption Liberation’s annual agenda. I didn’t—although, upon looking at the scrap of paper on which I originally outlined my rough ideas about OCL, it appears that I briefly entertained making May my meat-free month. No, I chose November for meat-free month precisely because of Thanksgiving, the most meat-focused American holiday of them all.

“Are you crazy?” my turkey-loving friends have asked, to which I have replied with some variation of my “I’m not that into the turkey” speech above. Others, including my dear mother, have inquired if I would be eating Tofurky this year, to which I have replied with some variation of the following rant:

Soup's on!

Right before I started Operation Consumption Liberation's month of meat-free eating, I asked my Facebook friends for some vegetarian recipe suggestions.  I specifically requested fast, easy, and, above all else, filling recipes—got to get full, after all.  Now I already have at least two vegetarian cookbooks, but it’s always good to get new ideas and suggestions from one’s amigos, especially since my default for vegetarian cooking is to just make a soup.

Guess what?  My friends’ vegetarian cooking default must also be soup, because everyone’s suggestions (with the exception of one friend who suggested a recipe website) included some soupy-stew creation that is best eaten from a bowl with a spoon.  I suspect this prevalence of soup recipes may not actually be a vegetarian thing as much as an “it is autumn and the weather outside is cold and wet” thing.  Soup is kind of magical at this time of the year….  Anyway, I’m working my way through my friends’ recipe suggestions and I took pictures of the results:

 

This was an extremely filling vegetarian chili recipe from Cooking Light, which my friend Sarah recommended.  I used the wrong kind of “quick cook” barley—the flakes versus the pearls—but despite the fact that it looked like my chili contained oatmeal, the chili was pretty great: fast, easy, spicy, and super filling.  

 

Dia de los Inocentes

We're in the midst of the Día de los Muertos holiday. The Day of the Dead holiday, as Wikipedia puts it: "focuses on gatherings of family and friends to pray for and remember friends and family members who have died. ... People go to cemeteries to be with the souls of the departed and build private altars containing the favorite foods and beverages as well as photos and memorabilia of the departed. The intent is to encourage visits by the souls, so that the souls will hear the prayers and the comments of the living directed to them." In most regions of Mexico, November 1 (today) honors children and infants, calling that day mainly as Día de los Inocentes ("Day of the Innocents"), while November 2, referred to as Día de los Muertos or Día de los Difuntos honors deceased adults.

So I was wondering, what about deceased animals?  Maybe the ancient indigenous cultures that first practiced the Day of the Dead traditions did not believe that animals had souls.  Besides, people don't typically pray about and discuss dead animals that much. (Except pets.  We all have stories about our dead pets.  Prayers for their souls though... that's another story.)  Or maybe they thought that the souls of dead animals might be wrathful because of how humans treated and used them.  

Or maybe there is there some Dia de los Vacas y Bueys I don't know about?

Breaking the TV Shackles

It doesn't seem possible, but my month without TV is over!  What happened to you, October?  Blink of an eye....

Ah, October, you went by so fast!

I noticed two somewhat negative behavioral developments during my month without TV:

1. I spent much of the time I would have wasted watching shows on Netflix repeatedly checking my email, Facebook, and OKC accounts.  
2. I hardly got any knitting done and I put off folding laundry for almost a week, because these are tasks I typically do while watching entertainment.

Hmmm, there may have been some logic in combining my no Internet & no TV months after all...  That said, there were some very positive behavioral developments over October:

Sweatin' to the Tube

Last night, while explaining Operation Consumption Liberation and October's challenge to a new friend, I had a momentary freak-out: "ACK!  I did an exercise DVD the other day.  Is that cheating?" Technically, in the sense that my eyes were somewhat trained on the boob tube for ~25 minutes, yes, I did break my rule.  But I didn't enjoy it.  I mean, I sweated and suffered! 

Sadly, I was not Sweatin' to the Oldies (2) the other day.

After a minute or two of consideration, I decided that exercise DVDs are a totally legitimate exemption to my month without DVDs, TV, Hulu, and Netflix. This is a distinction of healthiness. While there are some people for whom aerobic activity is not advisable without the supervision of a doctor, exercise is a crucial component for healthy living. Working out along with a small-screen Denise Austin or Richard Simmons or Jillian Michaels might not be as effective as running a 5k or working with a trainer at the gym, but it IS good for the ticker.  There are clear and undeniable benefits to one's overall quality of life.

It is much more difficult to identify such health benefits in the act of watching TV programs and DVDs for sheer entertainment.  Yes, television programs and movies can engage the brain and educate (see NOVA, Sesame Street, Charlie Rose, or Jeopardy), stimulate some of the senses (see the impressive visual effects on Game of Thrones, costumes on Mad Men, or consider Ken Burns' "Jazz"), and provoke cathartic releases. (It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia is good for hysterical laughter to the point of tears, for example.  Or watching any movie on an airplane will incite me to cry.)  And sometimes, after a super busy or emotionally taxing day, it feels good to many of us to sit down and simply tune out for a little while to whatever mindless drivel is on the tube.  

Mad (Wo)Men: Why don't people in the real world dress like this?

The problem is how often we sit down in front of the TV to tune out for a little while and then don't get up for two, three, or four hours because we've been sucked into an America's Next Top Model marathon on VH1.  Or we stay up way too late watching whichever Netflix-streaming show we're currently obsessed with because we HAVE TO KNOW what happens in the next episode, and the next, and the one after that.  

I justify such sprees by multitasking: I file paperwork, I knit, I fold laundry.  But am I efficient at those tasks?  Not usually.  In fact, the one thing I seem to do faster and more in front of the TV is eat.   So let's review: I'm spending hours sitting around lethargically, dragging out household tasks, eating empty calories, and I'm still going to bed much too late.  There is nothing healthy about this slate of co-morbid habits.  They are human, but they are not healthy.  This is exactly why I decided to do a month of no TV etc.

You dare to turn off the Elimination Panel?

There are many other ways we can choose to entertain, stimulate or refresh ourselves at the end of the day.  We can call up or go out with an old friend and catch up.  We can go to a concert or gallery,  take a bath, or take a walk.  Shoot, if I'd been smarter in designing my October, I would have vowed to replace TV viewing with making out--so much more entertaining and stimulating than TV! (Though not exactly relaxing...I hope!)  Any of these connect us more with the three-dimensional world and do more to promote good health.  That said, following along with an exercise DVD is as 3D of a TV-watching experience as one is ever going to find. 

I will say, nine days into October, that I'm not having a hard time not watching TV et al. at home ever night.   However, thus far, I'm not seeing a remarkable improvement in my productivity or healthy habits, probably because I'm filling the void left by TV and DVDs and streaming with surfing the web and checking Facebook repeatedly.  Oops.  Maybe I should have merged my Superfluous Web Browsing and No TV/Netflix/etc. months like I contemplated earlier this year.  What happened to more evening walks?  So that's my goal for the next week: less browse, more walk.  

What co-morbid bad habits plague you?  How does watching the small screen enrich your life and how does it deplete your life?  I'd love to hear about your experiences!

Until next time...

TV brain suck

In my web perusal, I checked my weekly horoscope on the Onion website today (I'm a Leo).  Here's what it said for the week of September 20th: "You'll undergo a crisis of conscience when you realize that, despite being a faithful American, you don't really want to watch anything that's on TV right now." While I'm not sure that I'm experiencing any "conscience of crisis" per se, I thought this was a timely horoscope given the start of the new television season and my impending month without TV, Hulu, and Netflix.

I chose October for my no TV month specifically to coincide somewhat with the network TV premiere season.  My thought was that if I could avoid all those programs for a month early in the season, maybe I would never bother to start watching the American version of "Prime Suspect" or "Ringer."  And maybe I would never bother to get caught up on all the episodes I'll miss of "Glee" (which I've been SO OVER for the last season and a half...but yet, I'm still watching).  After all: I have no DVR, nor do I use a VCR (who does?); the first episodes of the season may no longer be available on Hulu or the network's websites come November 1; and I really dislike watching things out of sequence.  When conceiving this month's OCL goal, I really thought to myself, "I will finally free myself from TV brain suck."

I will exact revenge on ABC for creating this piece of crap by not watching ABC for 31 days.

Of course, most shows actually premiere in September.  So I've been doing my best not to watch any new programming this month.  Instead, I've been re-watching on Netflix all four seasons of "Mad Men" (this show is so smart and well done--the artistry really reveals itself best with a second viewing) and sporadic episodes of "Family Ties" (IMHO, Michael Gross has never gotten the acclaim he deserves for his fantastic comedic performance as Steven Keaton). I also watched the entire first, and thus far only, seasons of the BBC's "The Hour" ("Mad Men" style plus British plus mystery=happy Jess) and ABC Family's "The Nine Lives of Chloe King" (it's like old-school Buffy, but without vampires!).   And I've streamed a movie or two as well. (I watched "Charade" with Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn last week--such incredible witty dialogue and so much fun!)

Michael Gross, comic genius.

Local eating conclusion!

"...accept the seasons of your heart, even as you have always accepted the seasons that pass over your fields."  --Kahlil Gibran

 

Homegrown tomatoes!

I had grand plans to post a whole lot during September.  I read "Plenty: One Man, One Woman, and a Raucous Year of Eating Locally" by Alisa Smith and J.B. MacKinnon with intentions of sharing interesting facts and similarities in their challenges and mine this month.  I've taken so many bad food photos with my phone, it is ridiculous.  I religiously biked to the farmers market every Saturday and, in the supermarket. I scrutinized the labels of food products to see if they fell into my 300-mile radius.  I browsed the internet extensively for groceries and restaurants with local foods.  What can I say?  I've been so busy doing research on local foods and cooking local foods and eating local foods that I feel like spending my limited free time blogging about local food.  

Bad food photography--local beans, tempura @ the Red Cat in NYC.

Dinner at the ballpark

So my friend TI generously gave me a ticket to tonight's Mariners-Royals game.  These are teams with records of .420 and .414 respectively, so the game was pretty low stakes.  At this point in the season of a losing team, going to the game is all about checking out the kids that have just come up from the minors and enjoying the simple rituals of baseball.

Safeco Field on a beautiful sunny day, much like today...

One of my game day rituals has always been to stop at one of the many hot dog vendors along Occidental to nab a brat before going inside Safeco Field. I load that brat up with mustard, ketchup (or catsup, if you prefer), relish and kraut and I chow down on it all the way through security into the park and to my seat.  Soon after, I get a beer to wash down all that processed meat product.  And perhaps after that, I'll partake in some garlic fries.  After nine innings, I can't wait to get the hell out of there and head home to brush my teeth.  I also am typically DYING of thirst.  It's a bizarre dance of ecstasy and torture that I put myself through pretty much every time I head to Safeco for a ballgame.

WAH!  I'm thirsty and my breath stinks and my team sucks.

Now it is possible that one of those Occidental vendors carries hot dog products made from locally raised pigs and cows.  Not likely, but possible.  Upon accepting this ticket, I realized that I'd probably be using one of my freebie non-local meals out, or packing my dinner.  So imagine my surprise when I googled "Safeco Field eating local" tonight and saw that the 'Pen got renovated in the off-season and it now features several new concession stands featuring locally grown and locally produced food!  Of course, I had to explore. 

Local eating = lots of cooking

A few pictures of some of the food I've made so far with locally grown and produced ingredients!

Cooked Rye Berries: grown in Winthrop, WA

Light Oat Bread with NW-grown wheat flour and Tillamook butter

Locally-produced fettuccine, squash, onion, basil, beans, & tomatoes from the farmers market

Loco for Locavore!

A few years ago, I read Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver with Steven L. Hopp (her husband) and Camille Kingsolver (her older daughter). For anyone who is not familiar with the book, Kingsolver describes on the book’s website: ”Animal, Vegetable, Miracle (Harper Collins, 2007) is the story of a year in which our family deliberately fed ourselves on products grown close to home, and what we learned from the experience.” I was inspired by the book. Earlier that year, I’d read Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma, and I was already going a little bit nuts about the whole Locavore thing. I’d had a Community-Sponsored Agriculture (CSA) share for several summers in a row, and that particular summer (2007), a friend and I were growing a fairly decent sized garden of our own on her property.

A beautiful, exhausting labor of love

After I read Kingsolver and co.’s book, my locavore fanaticism hit a new high. I poured over every freaking label in the grocery store searching for the most local box of cereal/can of beans/carton of milk possible. When I’d come home with one over-priced sack of groceries. My partner at the time would stare at me in amazement and horror when I’d arrive home over an hour later with just one bag of groceries, particularly after he saw the receipt. His expression seemed to be asking, “How is it possible you spent all that time in the grocery store and bought almost nothing to eat for so much money?” I’d ignore his bewildered gaze and calmly unload my local cheeses and apples and hazelnuts.

Organic Broccoli--$4 a pound.  Yikes!

Slave to the Web

My month of reducing my superfluous web browsing is over.  Looking over my list of what I said I would not do online, it is clear that I part-succeeded and part-tanked this challenge. Here’s a brief report card of how I did with each item:

     1. I'll be abstaining from all items listed under "Super Superfluous." 

This was a mixed bag. In terms of social media websites (Facebook, Twitter, etc.), I abstained almost 100%.  I accidentally logged into FB the very first day.  That’s it.  If this were the whole of my “Super Superfluous” category, I’d get an A.  But it isn’t. While I managed not to peruse online stores for things I don’t need, and avoided YouTube and strangers’ blogs, I totally looked up every cast member of Game of Thrones on IMDB.  AND I spent over an hour late at night reading stupid gossip on EOnline!  Grade: C 

"Moon of my life, my sun and stars" Credit: HBO

      2.  I will spend no more than 15 minutes daily looking at friends' blogs and the news 

          online.

Aside from gossip “news” on EOnline! (so not news), I did keep myself in check here. Grade: A

It's kind of like dating. But it isn't.

(FYI: I took no special pictures for this post, nor did I scour the internet for appropriate images.  Thanks to my friends and family for having adorable pets.)

Ten days into "No Superfluous Web Browsing" month and I’ve only logged onto Facebook once, entirely by accident—you’re a hard, hard habit to break, Facebook.  As soon as I saw my feed pop up and realized my mistake, I logged out IMMEDIATELY, I swear.  I know I’m not missing anything *too* crucial, because I set it up so I get an email for any messages to me, any events, and any notes or tags (I’m on to you, QH).  But I do kind of miss it.  I feel a little out of the loop.  So I’m trying to redouble my efforts to add more connection to friends outside the social media universe and that’s proving to be a little, how should I say it, humbling…?

Look at that humble face! (Friends' dog)

Quit Your Superfluous Web Browsing Already!

Superfluous
--adjective
1. being more than is sufficient or required; excessive. 
2. unnecessary or needless.

3.  Obsolete. Possessing or spending more than enough or necessary; extravagant.

I'm seeking to greatly reduce my "Superfluous Web Browsing" for my Operation Consumption Liberation challenge in August.   You may be asking, what exactly qualifies as "Superfluous Web Browsing."  Excellent question. Here are some examples of what, in my subjective opinion, isn't, might be, and totally is "superfluous web browsing":

A letter to my Facebook friends.

In preparation for No Superfluous Web Browsing month, I just posted a shorter version of this as a note of my Facebook page. 

Dear Facebook friends,

Perhaps you've been following my "Operation Consumption Liberation" project on my blog.  If you've haven't, here's the gist of it: every month I've been giving up or restricting my consumption of a different object or behavior.  These are things, I feel, in which overindulging has a negative impact, be it on my physical health or success, or on the environment.

For August, I'm restricting the amount of time I spend consuming all the random crap the internet has to offer.  I want Superfluous Web Browsing to consume less of my time.  I'm still pinning down exactly what I think "superfluous web browsing" and what I will allow myself to do. (Like, looking up the weather forecast?  Okay.  Reading Wil Wheaton's totally geeky blog late at night? No, no, no.)  But here's the one parameter for this month I'm set on: No Facebook.

The July Power and Water Report

It’s the last day of JULY and my month devoted to reducing my water and power consumption!!!  Tomorrow, I’ll put up the post that defines my August challenge to reduce my “superfluous web browsing” (in addition to taking a Facebook hiatus).  But before moving to the fresh and new, here’s my end-of-July wrap up.  First, I want to report what I did to reduce my water and power consumption in the rooms that my home tour did not visit.  Then we’ll look at my month-end bathroom water stats to find out how mellow my water yellowed. (I know, eww…)

Underthings tumbling

As my month of reduced water and electricity consumption starts to wind down, it's Laundry Day, where we pop into my laundry room to look at how I've been cutting water and electricity use in that realm of the household.

But before we poke through my present dirty laundry, let's look at my dirty laundry a few years ago.  I wrote last time about the dish washing process at Punta Mona, the permaculture organic farm in Costa Rica where I spent the summer of 2009.  In many ways, the things I'm doing this month are things that I had to practice while at Punta Mona.  For example, my showers:  like at the Mona, I get in, get wet, and then turn off the power.  Then I shampoo and lather.  Turn on water to rinse.  Turn off, condition and shave.  Turn on water to rinse.  Done. 

For the love of God, please do not urinate in the showers!

Actually, the above description leaves out a Punta Mona step I've been including in my showers: every time I took a shower while at Punta Mona, I washed at least 1 piece of clothing, even if it was my bathing suit.  At home, I do this while the water warms up (which was NOT part of the Punta Mona shower experience).  Since I frequently shower post-running, I pre-rinse my running bra, running pants, and sometimes a shirt or underwear under the running faucet while it heats.  Then, after I'm all soaped up, I soap my clothes up.  And then when I rinse, I also rinse them too.  This process adds a little to my shower time, and I'm not sure it is the most effective method.  But it has cut down on how often I need to do laundry.

Wash my dishes!

The Coziest Kitchen in Central America!

In the July of 2009, I packed up my backpack and I took off to Costa Rica to spend a month as an intern at Punta Mona, a permaculture farm on the south Caribbean coast.  It was definitely an off-the-grid experience, with very limited electricity and running water.  The solar panels needed a part that was unavailable in the nearest towns, so the kitchen was the only area of the farm that we had access to electricity at all during my stay, and even there, we only ran the lights during the dinner hours.  The rest of the time, we relied on candles and headlamps and battery- or solar-powered devices and chargers.  You'd think we would have slept more given the fact that the sun set around 6 PM every night.  Not true... 

Holla! Who needs an electric alarm clock when these guys will wake you at 5 AM?

In terms of the water situation, we used rainwater that was collected in a huge basin, located up a hill from the farm center.  The water ran through pvc pipes to the kitchen sink, to the bathroom sink and the laundry sink, to the showers, and to the greenhouse.  I believe we had a separate rainwater catchment system for drinking water, equipped with a filter.  My knowledge of the exact workings of the water system was limited, for sure.  But it was impossible not to be aware of the shortage.  If the pipe from the hill came apart somewhere along the way, we'd have no water until someone found the detached joint and repaired it.  Depending on the showering and watering of the residents, the water flow varied.  It never blasted from the faucets, at most there would be a steady, small flow.  More typically, a dismal, slow trickle.

Out of the Frying Pan

My month of reduced electricity and water consumption and our tour around my apartment continues today with a look at energy consumption in the kitchen.

Our setting...

Oh, the kitchen. There are so many damn electrical gadgets in the kitchen! Here's the low down on the gadgets and appliances I use more or less daily that consume power (listed in order of how often I use them):

Let It Mellow.

As I said in my last post, we'll be examining my water and power consumption habits, and efforts to reduce that consumption, room by room this month, starting with:

THE BATHROOM

First, a few fun facts* about water consumption in the bathroom:

• A running faucet uses 3 gallons of water per minute.
  
• Flushing the toilet accounts for 26.7% of daily residential indoor water use.**
  
• The average bath uses about 50 gallons of water.
  
• The average shower uses 3 gallons per minute, or ~25-45 gallons for a shower. (That means the average shower runs between 8 and 15 minutes.)
  

*Source: King County Water Saving Tips

**Source: American Water Works Association Research Foundation, "Residential End Uses of Water"

To find out what my water consumption in the bathroom was before this month, I did some data collection last month. I put two index cards on the wall of my bathroom and hung a sharpened pencil from the towel bar. On one card, I did a running tally of how often I flushed the toilet. I did not require visitors to my home to tally their flushes, nor did I keep a tally of how many times I flushed when at work, at the gym, at friends' homes, or during my five-day vacation. This tally specifically looked at my flushing habits in the privacy of my own home. Let's dive in, shall we

Turn Your Lights Down Low

Not my s'more: Flickr user Eric Dickman's (Creative Commons)

I ate two s'mores last night.  With dark Hersheys chocolate--caffeinated chocolate!  Hooray for the end of Consume Less Caffeine June!  That said, I haven't really jumped back on the caffeine wagon just yet.  I think it took the whole 30 days without a trace of it for me to finally feel normal without it, so I know caffeine has super powers over me.  I'm reluctant to let it waltz back into my life and take over control of my energy again.  So you'll just have to appreciate the little time we have together, caffeine, and stop bugging me for more.  Coffee, I mean YOU.

Meanwhile, Operation Consumption Liberation has moved into the month of reduced power and water usage.  Before I dive any further, please note the "reduced" in that last sentence.  Nope, this is not "consume NO power or water" month.  I am not going all "Little House on the Prairie," cooking all my meals over a fire, reading by candlelight, washing my dishes in rainwater and water pulled from my well.  

Reading by candlelight... Not so good on my eyes.

A Love Letter

A love letter:

Coffee, you haunt my mornings.  Your tantalizing scent beckons me from the endless coffee shops in this city of Espresso, tickling my nostrils to awake a deep yearning to feel you warming the mug in my hands, pleasing my taste buds with your robust flavors.  I want to savor your aftertaste on my tongue long after you’ve entered me to penetrate my digestive tract with your caffeinated powers.  Oh, Coffee.

Coffee, my coffee: you are not unlike a lover who has been called away from me for business in Hungary or Cairo.  I want to be with you so badly, but I can’t.  Okay, technically I can, but I won’t.  Because I’m a masochist?  Maybe, but it’s more than that.  I need to prove to myself that I can be as happy and fulfilled without you as I am with you, and that, in the future, I can enjoy your company without such attachment.  It isn’t healthy to crave something as badly as I crave you, Coffee. 

Coffee, all the yogis say you’re no good for me, but they don’t understand what a special relationship you and I have.  To pass the time until we’re reunited, I’ve been seeing Rooibos Tea, who is quite nice.  But as much as I enjoy Rooibos’s company, nothing compares to you.  Without you, the world seems a little foggier, sleepier, blander.  I walk through my days a pale imitation of myself when I’m with you; I’ve little of my usual pep and vibrancy.  Poor Rooibos probably thinks I’m a total square but you know better, Coffee.

Good god, Coffee, you really have a hold on me.  It’s closing in on four weeks since I quit you, but you know as well as I do that I haven’t *really* quit you.  I may have put some physical distance between us, but I can’t stop thinking about you.  Every morning, I call your name, I swear, I do.  I’m counting the days until we are reunited, when I can again touch my lips to you, and drink you in.  Oh, Coffee, my Coffee.

The world's tiniest violin

So when I announced that I was giving up caffeine for June the other day, my friend SW sent me a note, telling me that she was playing the world's tiniest violin for me.

And here it is...

Okay. Maybe I deserve a little ribbing for my woe-is-me-I-want-caffeine 'tude.  SW, like many of my friends, chose to give up caffeine during her first pregnancy and lived through 8-9 months of limited caffeine intake without any major whining. The idea of forgoing caffeine for that long truly makes me shudder and shake, so I realize that my month of going without caffeine is a relatively small sacrifice.

Still, when I caught the fragrant aroma of CW's coffee yesterday at breakfast, I felt this wave of melancholy wash over me as I thought nostalgically, Remember when you had a cup of coffee at breakfast too?  And last night, at my monthly writing group meeting, when the host cracked out the Vosges chocolate bar, I was nearly overcome by the beauty of those rich, dark chocolate squares.  Cue the tiny violin.

If I can put my chocolate and coffee coveting aside, I am actually faring rather well without the caffeine.  Sunshine helps, and Seattle was blessedly sunny over the weekend.  Today is more of a struggle, with blah overcast skies. It is almost 2 PM and I don't feel like I've really waken up yet, despite doing my AM yoga, doing my 10 daily hops, going for a run, showering, and working.

The sleepy-day situation is not helped any by the fact that it's pledge drive week on KEXP.  (Give, y'all!)  Pledge drive means less music, and rocking out sometimes helps me wake up.  So I need some tunes, some really great wake-up tunes.  I'm asking for your support: please send me fantastic, fun wake-up song suggestions for my Who Needs Caffeine? playlist.

Put your song suggestions below, or email them to me.  Please do not send me song suggestions in the following categories: death metal, Katy Perry-style pop, anything with Auto Tune, or country.  It isn't that I don't occasionally enjoy songs in those categories, but they're more likely to annoy me, and they just don't get my engine going first thing in the morning. I'm looking for happy, upbeat, feel-good songs, a la John in the Morning's Friday song selection, "Show Me" by Mint Royale:

Isn't that a happy upbeat song?  I will post my compiled wake-up song list later this month, so you all can get your spunk on without the caffeine too!

Now that I've moaned about not consuming caffeine this month, let's talk about what I'm adding more of this month to my life.  It's cold, it's sugary, it melts... Yup, I'm talking about Ice Cream.

My first notable frivolous purchase after my budget-focused May was this: 

Now is an electric ice cream machine really, bought off of craigslist for $10 really a frivolous purchase?  Given the fact that I already have a beautiful old-fashioned hand-crank ice cream maker with a robin's egg blue-painted tub, yes.  Given the fact that said old-fashioned hand-crank ice cream maker won't turn right now, and getting it fixed will likely cost more than $10, maybe not.

So I ran out and nabbed this big, loud, electric baby to keep me in ice cream through the summer Friday morning and whipped up a batch of custard-style strawberry ginger ice cream for dinner that night.  I referred to the ginger ice cream recipe in David Lebovitz's cookbook, The Perfect Scoop, which is much like this one from his website, except without white chocolate. Meanwhile I let the strawberries macerate in lime juice and sugar--I added those right before mixing the whole thing in the machine.

This is a "Day After" photo.  Look how big that 4-quart can is!

The results were DELISH.

This bowl was for breakfast on Saturday.

My goal is to make ice cream every week this summer, when I'm not on vacation.   After looking at Lebovitz's cookbook and website, here are a few flavors I'd like to try: 

Salted Butter Caramel Ice Cream

Roquefort-Honey Ice Cream

Candied Bacon Ice Cream

Dried Apricot-Pistachio Ice Cream

And the list goes on and on.

So would you like to eat ice cream with me this summer?  Perhaps, if you suggest some super awesome wake-up songs for my playlist, you can! From your song suggestions, I'll select my 3 or 3 favorite, most wakey-wakey-helpful songs. If you live in the greater Seattle area, and your song makes me twist and shout in the AM hours, I'll make a batch of ice cream in a flavor that tickles your fancy to share with you. You ask: "Is this a bribe?"  Why, yes, it is.

But I LOVE Caffeine!

I write to you on No Caffeine June Eve in my Operation Consumption Liberation.  And physically, I'm good to go for a month without coffee, tea, colas, Barq's root beer, Mountain Dew, chocolate, Excedrin, NoDoz, and any other caffeinated-energy drink/concoction.  When I say "physically," I mean that I have been cutting down my caffeine level semi-steadily over the last five weeks to the point where today I went completely caffeine free.  Now going without caffeine for a day does happen from time to time in my world.  But going without caffeine for thirty days straight--Ha!  Are you crazy?  (Answer: clearly!) 

My May 12 morning cup of coffee, fully loaded of regular

Unlike this past month or, say, No Alcohol March, I've been actively preparing for this month of my OCL, "training" if you will, since late April.  I've had caffeine-deficit migraines before.  I had a few this month while cutting back.  They suck. So for my morning cup of coffee, I slowly started mixing decaf coffee beans with my caffeinated beans in the coffee grinder.  I gradually increased the decaf and decreased the regular.  About two weeks ago, I stopped regular beans all together.  I sucked down decaf and its approximately 13mg of caffeine for a week, and then for the past several days, I drank Yogi Tea's Mayan Cocoa Spice tea (5mg per cup).  And today I drank Provence Vanilla Rooibos tea, which someone generously bought at The Teacup to have on hand at his place for me during No Caffeine Consumption month. 

My May 12 morning cup of regular poses with a regular-sized cup of coffee.  Sniff.

I wasn't quite so conscious about cutting my consumption of chocolate.  Dear GOD, I love chocolate.  I wasn't going to include chocolate in my No Caffeine month.  Then, while I was researching the various amounts of caffeine in coffee and decaf, I saw that a 1.45-oz serving of a Hershey's Special Dark Chocolate Bar has 31mg of caffeine, and a regular Hershey's Milk Chocolate Bar has more than my Yogi tea (mind you, I like REALLY dark chocolate best).  So I decided that I better quit chocolate this month as well, to make sure I'm not secretly feeding my caffeine addiction.

Espresso Dark Chocolate--caffeine frenzy!

This leads me to ask: Am I really addicted to caffeine?  Answer: I don't know, I'm not a doctor!  I can tell you that when I smell coffee in the morning, it makes me smile. Except for the last few days when I've had to decline, and then the smell of coffee makes me want to whine and kick things.  Seriously. I can also tell you that the prospect of eating good chocolate makes me feel a little funny in the stomach; it is similar to how a gal feels upon reflection the morning after she kisses a super awesome someone with super awesome kissing powers for the very first time.  I LIKE that feeling.  A LOT.  

Only hot cocoa can make me smile like that.

So giving caffeine the boot this month may feel at times like I'm mutilating a part of my soul.  I expect suffering.  Please, send me Celtic sea salt caramels (these ones, please) and Fresca.

To counterbalance the withdrawal of my favorite drug, I'm adding a few things to my month.  1. More Ice Cream (without chocolate or coffee, of course).  2. 10 hops in the morning (to help wake me up, and according to my yoga teacher, to build bone density).  3. 30 minutes minimum of yoga in the mornings (to make me dewy-eyed and strong and pliable).

And now I'm off to bed, so that I'm not too desperate for coffee in the morning!

Money, money, money.

Breaking news: I managed NOT to spend money in this candy shop.

My apologies for being an inconsistent blog writer.  It happens.  But holy cow, May is almost over already and I really had meant to write more this month. Recap: May has been Operation Consumption Liberation's official month of Reduced Frivolous Spending, the unessential goods and service month, and I laid out in this length post here what constitutes frivolous spending in my book, and committed to spending no more than $132 on frivolous things this month.  And as the month winds down, I can report that I've done pretty well with this whole budget thing (though not as well as I thought I had ten minutes ago--math is not my strong suit).

My frivolous spending since I checked in with $32 spent on May 6:

• $3.25--hot cocoa @ SeaTac Dilletante
• $2.87--coffee and donut @ EWR's Dunkin' Donuts 
• $40--dinner in Astoria, NY w/ JC and WR
• $2.50--coffee @ Chappaqua Station
• $7.70--pizza @ EWR
• $2--bagel @ Eltana
• $2--coffee @ Bean City
• $9--movie @ NW Film Forum w/GM
• $3--cupcake @ Cupcake Royale
• $9--3 tomato plants @ U-District Farmers Market (though is this really frivolous...
• $1.99--pint of Honey Cinnamon frozen custard
• $2--half of an elephant ear at Folklife w/CW.

*May 7-May 30 Total Frivolous Spending: $85.31

*May 1-May 30 Total Frivolous Spending: $117.31

*Remaining Frivolous Spending Budget for May 31: $14.69

Expense worthy: $2 Eltana wood-fired bagel

 

While the no-spending thing has been challenging at times, I have not suffered too much this month. Which is good, because as someone who is under-employed at present, I really NEED to have a tight budget. Which is tricky because right now, it feels like every single valuable thing I own is falling apart.

Example A: the car mechanic tells me that my car needs an est. $2774 worth of repairs and you know that auto mechanic estimations are always low, because they're sure to find two more parts that must be replaced in the process. Considering that I bought said-car two years ago for $4300...  It seems like I'm better off spending that money to get a newer car.   Wait, what money?  Do I need a car that bad?  I could live without it, but it would compromise some things, like my volunteering and where I seek employment.  Plus, I like the freedom of having my own car.  It IS a luxury though.

Car, why do you make me suffer so?

Example B: I noticed this week that the laptop which I'm typing this on now is splitting along the seam of the screen.  If I close it, it gaps open a quarter of an inch at one corner.  Note that I purchased said laptop in early 2006.  I've added RAM, updated this and that, replaced batteries, but let's face it, this thing is kind of a dinosaur.  It weighs 17 pounds.  I've been debating a replacement for a full year.  It needs to happen soon.  Frivolous spending?  Well, no, I'm a writer, I can even write it off on my taxes, I suppose.  But I do have a second laptop though it has less RAM, less stuff on it, and I bought it used--it's probably older than this one.  It does weigh less though...  I should probably dump both of them for a new, super-light, super-fast machine. 

Money-worries face.

Example C: Half of my regularly-worn long sleeved shirts have rips or holes in the arms.  Some have been mended once or twice already. As of yesterday, both of my wear-everyday-fall-thru-spring boots' zippers are broken.  My socks are holey.  I need new clothes.

And so on. 

Given these expected expenses and my under-employment, this month's practice has certainly made me think more about money and its role in my life.  I hate that making money and spending money preoccupy so much of my thoughts and energy, be it taking crap writing jobs for crap pay so I can pay for home Internet service (sadly, a must-have) or using that Internet service to search for less crappy jobs with less crappy pay.

I am taking steps to remedy my situation, but I am also trying to be patient and to take actions that honor my aspirations and values.  Yes, there are days when I think to myself, "you just need to buckle down and take any  job with benefits that will have you."  And then there are days when I think about how unhappy I used to be, and what I changed to make my life more peaceful and happier.  On those days, I know that, while taking the first full-time job with benefits I can find may settle my money worries for the time being, it likely will be at the cost of the balanced and content life I've worked so hard to have.

As this month comes to a close, I think I'm going to continue to set myself a frivolous spending budget.  I like these questions from And Then She Saved to help me determine whether or not something is frivolous or, as she puts it, "expense worthy."  I'll be applying these questions soon in my car, clothes, and computer decisions!

No expense NY fun: walk the Brooklyn Promenade on a sunny afternoon.

 

Oh yeah, recap of my efforts to add more outdoor outings this month! Though the weather has not been terribly cooperative, I've managed to squeeze some nice outings in: a park outing in NY with my sister-in-law MR, my 7-month-old twin niecews, and their dog; a Greenlake walk with CI and daughter S; strutting the Brooklyn Promenade and visiting the Astoria Sculpture Park with JC; playing corn-hole BBQ at MO & QH's; and a few runs, walks, and a 36+ mile bike ride out to Redhook with CW. If you want to go for a pedal or a walk with me, summer is just around the corner!

I'll be posting again tomorrow as NO CAFFEINE MONTH kicks off....