Go Chargers!

I went to my very first NFL game today.  WOO HOO!  I can't believe the *craziness* that is tailgating.  It was like driving through a circus to park except there weren't any fences to keep you separated from the animals!  

Thanks to the advent of the cell phone and texting, it didn't take me long to find my friend, Nancy, who invited me to the game with her and her friends.

Love Ken's apron!

Yes, yes.  It was also Halloween today.  Alex didn't forget.

You can't really see them, but all the Chargers girls wore costumes and, of course, were cute as hell.

Nancy on the left, with Chris and her sister beside her.

Today, I am grateful for many things, among them:

I got to see my first NFL game without a TV around it.

Nancy's friends were very friendly and made me feel right at home with them.

The CHARGERS WON!!  Let the winning streak begin!

Happy Halloween!

My monthly Scrabble party was last night and we had some first-time players:  Dr. Jekyl, Lady Godiva, and a couple of pirates to name a few.

Yesterday, I was keenly aware of how grateful I am to have a fun group of friends to play Scrabble with every month.

Sewing 101

So (sew?) way back when on October 2nd, in this post, I expressed my gratitude for a co-worker giving her sewing machine to me for the low, low cost of lunch at El Torito's.  And then I never mentioned the sewing machine again after that.  There was a good reason.  

     T     H     I     S     

My first attempt to sew something on my own was a complete disaster.  Either the sewing machine didn't work correctly, or the seamstress didn't work correctly, and my bet was on the seamstress (I first wrote "sewer", as in "one who sews", but then quickly realized that you might think I switched to plumbing.  No wonder "seamstress" is a word.)

Understandably, I became disheartened and frustrated when I couldn't figure out what I was doing wrong and pushed the machine aside vowing to figure it out another day.

A couple of days ago, one of my co-workers asked if I had sewn anything yet, and I relayed my pitiful story.  She knew right away what the problem was and said if I brought the machine into the office, she'd give me a quick tutorial.  Which I did.  And now I can sew!  Turns out I was doing about 60% of the threading steps wrong.

Thank You, Beryl!  For your excellent sewing lesson at lunch today.

Cuckoo for Cookbooks

A couple of days ago, I talked about writing prompts and how we used them in the creative writing workshop I took at Squam.  For one of the exercises, Lizzy, our instructor gave us a minute to think of a common object in our homes and then gave us about 20 minutes to write about it.  The rules were 1) don't think about what you're writing, just write whatever comes to your mind, and 2) don't censor yourself.

Here's what I came up with:

My cookbooks sit on a shelf arranged in no particular order.  Various sorts of tags stick out from the tops and sides of the pages all down the row.  Each style of tag represents a separate session of combing through each book and selecting the group of recipes that I'd try next.

Some are yellow post-it notes.  Some are long, thin strips of paper that I tore off from a scrap sheet of paper.  And some are plastic strips with arrows pointing to the marked sections.

All these recipes, none ever made.  The organizing is the easy part, the follow-through requires more effort.

My mom's dinner rotation consisted of Shepherd's Pie, Tacos, Curry, Chili, Spaghetti, repeat.  My dad bought cookbooks for her to encourage her to mix it up a bit.  The bindings stayed in tact.  The only time they were opened was when my dad threw them in a fit of rage, weary of eating the same five meals over and over.  Cookbooks lay splayed across the floor displaying exotic dishes we'd never taste.

I have a collection of Asian cookbooks bought during the time I discovered Asian food.  When I was a vegetarian for a year and a half, I bought a copy of every vegetarian cookbook I could find.  My years at Weight Watchers produced a growth in the diet cookbook section.

I have a few of my mother's old cookbooks, too, but I haven't made anything out of them.  Although I do frequently refer to mom's Betty Crocker cookbook to remind myself how many minutes it takes to hard boil an egg.  For some reason, I can never remember.

I learned three things from this exercise and the workshop in general:

1)  Free writing, when you don't censor yourself and you write down whatever comes to mind, even if you don't want to, is a really, really good way to figure out why you do the things you do.

2)  I constantly think about food!

3)  I constantly think about food!!  (Did I mention before, I took a sewing workshop here as well and made.... an apron.)

I had lunch today with my good friends Linda and Jan.  Linda did use one of her recipes and made fabulous Black Bean Burgers with Mango Salsa and Sweet Potato Fries.  Dessert was Sugar-Free Ice Cream with fruit toppings and some sugary things of which I did not partake.  (But to be completely honest so that I can sleep tonight... she had some trail mix out, I took some, and when I saw the mini chocolate pieces in it, rather than moving them aside, I ate them.  So...technically, I had sugar today.  But psychologically, I haven't.  Does that make sense?  I don't feel guilty about it or feel like I failed.)

Linda and Jan.  True Blue Friends.  I'm grateful for our lunches together.

(Naturally) Sweet Dreams!

When you're at the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on!

I have to be honest.  Today was not a good mental/emotional day.  I was successful in resisting sugar, but my body and psyche were not happy about it.  I feel as though I've fallen into a tiny pit of depression, pulled in by the physiological sugar addiction.  I catch myself thinking, "If I just had a doughnut, I would be in a better mood."  It's not too, too horrible though - it's just making me lethargic and lazy and down.  All I've done tonight is play on my computer; I haven't prepared my lunch for tomorrow, I didn't exercise, I'm going to lose some life points in the Health Month game for not completing a couple of my daily goals, and so on.  I know these days are normal, that there's nothing wrong with me, that perfection isn't possible, so I'm not beating myself up about it.  I'm trying to focus on the fact that despite how I feel, I did not give in to the evil substance that is sugar.  


I know when I get exercise back into my routine consistently, I'll feel better.  Exercise will help with the low moods I'm experiencing during this withdrawal period.  I'm thankful that 30 Days of Yoga starts in a couple of days.  That oughta kickstart some good vibes...get those endorphins going...feel like my old self again!


Here's what I'm especially thankful for today:

Thank You, friendships, old and new.  I am lucky and fortunate to have so many beautiful, intelligent, funny, charming, generous and supportive friends in my life.

(Naturally) Sweet Dreams!