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May 26, 2007
the problem with weekend mornings
The problem with weekend mornings is a problem of entitlement. I wake up, and I'm like, where can we go for breakfast? Oh, we could go here with the luscious eggs or here with the luscious potatoes or here with the cheese grits. This place has a great egg sandwich. Would it be a problem to order it with bacon. Mmmm bacon...
Last night, I dreamt about ordering pancakes.
This is my slippery slope. There are only a couple vegan options for breakfast, and they aren't open early, and they tend to be all about carbs.
For whatever reason, mostly because this is the way it's always been with sweetie and I, weekend morning means going out and having breakfast. And breakfast out means definitely not ETL.
Unfortunately, I know what I want and that seems much more important than what I need. Even as I'm writing this, I'm thinking about my breakfast options which are all about starch and eggs and/or cheese.
Worse yet, today sweetie and I are going on a brewery crawl in the Columbia Gorge. It's going to be great: we have a designated driver, and we're going to hit at least three (and maybe five) brewpubs. At the first place, there'll be pizza, which I was thinking I'd probably allow myself a piece. I mean, I'm already going to be having beer.
See the slope? It's pretty steep.
Anyways, I should quit bitching and get some breakfast. Here at home. Of good stuff.
May 25, 2007
Kids need ponies!
I fell off the face of the earth again, didn't I?
Sorry. I'm settling back into a routine of trying to behave myself. I'm back on the ETL track, and not calling it all off if I slip (as I have been doing for about the last month). I've been on since Monday, and I've lost 4 pounds. I'm one pound from where I ended the 6 week detox.
I've been riding the bike almost every day the last couple weeks. It helps that we've had nice weather, but I participated in a GPS biking study, so that forced me to behave like a cyclist, even if I wasn't feeling like it. So, I've had two solid weeks of bike commuting.
To my surprise, my average speeds have risen. Going to work, I average about 9 miles an hour! Coming back home, it's more like 7 or 8 mph. This is much better than I ever would have guessed.
I've been using the bike lane on Naito just about everyday. It's great. No one seems to know about it yet, so there's no real bike traffic, and it avoids the problems of using the waterfront park path, which everyone and their cow uses, and tourists, walkers and runners forget that they're supposed to be sharing the path. The last couple times I've ridden it, I've had to come to a complete stop because there will be five walkers walking abreast, talking or wearing headphones, who haven't responded to my bell or my calling, bicycle behind you.
That's frustrating. I know when I walk, once my endorphins kick in, it's as though I'm drunk... which is why I stay stuck to the right handside of the path as if I were velcroed.
A couple of days back, I killed our new blender making a smoothie. It was sad, very sad. So sweetie went out and bought a new blender... which started making the warm, electrical smell the first time I used it. Is it just me? I used about twice as much liquid as I usually do, and it still seemed reluctant.
I hope all you Americans have a good long weekend! Stay strong and play safe!
May 12, 2007
long, good day
I had a bad day yesterday at work, the second or third bad day in one week. To make matters worse, I underate at lunch (because I worked through lunch, and I didn't think I could take the extra five minutes to walk to the soup stand), so I was hungry most of the afternoon.
By the time I got myself home, I was mad at myself for not taking care of myself, as well as for expecting that my coworkers would communicate with me when there was a huge project that they were very late with.
I had planned, and indeed, looked forward to seeing T. Colin Campbell, author of the China Study talk about plant-based diets. I thought I had got my sweetie's buy-in, that he would go with me. But by Friday morning, he was making lots of "you'll have a great time" type statements.
Anyways, I couldn't bare the thought of doing alone to the talk, and I wanted a friendly face to commisserate (sp?) in case I started to cry again. Indeed, my Saturday plans seemed suspect too.
I had planned to go to the St Johns parade. I had wanted to go to VegFest. I had a giant beer tasting party to go to at 2pm, and I expected that I probably wouldn't get out of the party in time to go back to VegFest. And now I was unsure that I'd even want to leave the house come Saturday morning.
Anyways, Saturday morning came, and Sweetie volunteered to go with me to the parade, so up to St Johns, we went. First stop was Adam's house, where the whole scooter club were busy decorating their scooters with stuff from the dollar store. It was clear immediately that I had not taken the whole decorating thing seriously enough... and I kept thinking about how I could apply these ideas to decorating my bicycle for bicycle parades.
We spent another couple of hours waiting for the parade, in the parade line, and at Sandie's house. I chatted with other scooterists, with bicyclists, and for the most part, anyone who would talk to me. I knit compulsively on my project, a cashmere moebius cowl I had been hoping to finish in time for Mothers Day.
Then, the parade started. Then, we find out we've won best vehicle group, which can't be because the vehicles are attractive: we've a mix of plastic scooters, motorcycles, and mopeds. We don't have a single vintage in the group, unless you count a fifty-something BMW. Maybe it's because we're a mixed race group in a mostly segregated city? Or that we're maybe 40% female?
Or maybe it's the fact that we're huge hams, we don't organize or coordinate any of our antics, figure 8s and loops, and that's obvious. We almost hit folks in the crowd, and they love it, we ride with some skill and obvious joy, and dagnab it, we really like each other.
Anyways, we had a great time. A great time. No collisions, no one dropped a bike, no children hit.
Then, we headed across town to go to Fred Fest. Basically, this was a fundraiser for a sick Brew Crew member, celebrating Fred Eckhardt's birthday. We were immediately overwhelmed by the length of the lines, and number of people there, but once we got into the beer line, time went pretty fast, or at least fast enough. We chatted with our neighbors in line, and others too. Beer luminaries were there. We had some incredible beer, luckily in very small quantities, with some really good food.
By the time we got home at a little after six, it had been a really long day. But a good one.
May 9, 2007
back on the horse
So, I'm back on the horse. Is the horse going the right way? Who knows.
I had a cheerful entry to write today where I rode into work and it was chilly and sunny, where I ate my fruit and felt great, where I sat in the sun to eat my lunch, and I had these moments where I felt like my salad and my soup were just so incredibly delicious.
But this afternoon has been stressful. I've managed to bring the server down several times, which is just one of those things you don't want to do. It would happen, and I'd feel the adrenaline, my throat closing, my blood pressure rising.
Take me back to my Happy Land!
Things have been really good, though, this afternoon excepted. We made the Houston trip without incident, and yes, I gave in to Tex-Mex. I still ate a pile of fruit and salad, and I gained 5 pounds. All in all, I can't be upset.
So now I'm back to eating good, plant-based mostly. I want to get back to feeling good.
