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August 20, 2007
filling things up
Take me, for example, and ETL. I did it for six weeks religiously, I lost weight, I felt profoundly better, and my medical labs improved.
Five months later, while I'm eating a lot more veggies and fruit than I ever used to, I am not vegan. I'm not even vegetarian. My lack of self-control is troubling.
But right now, my little unspeakable crisis has taken over my life, so the thought of spending hours in the kitchen preparing vegan food just isn't going to happen right now, much as I might like it.
So last night, I made a decision. Rather than taking food away, which seems to be a big issue, I'm going to add food. If there are fruits and vegetables, then I'll eat them first... and afterwards, I can have whatever I like. It doesn't matter if the veggies were cooked in butter, etc, etc. I'm just going to try to be eating more of them.
I tried it last night going out to dinner with some friends. I said that I was going to be ordering some things for myself, but I'd probably share them if they came in a large enough serving. I ordered a salad, green beans and corn (this is a tapas joint we went to). It was great. I finished the corn (because, what's not to love?) but not the salad or green beans, and I was full.
That's the plan for the time being, at least. To try to not be obsessed by what I'm eating, but to make sure I'm getting some healthy things in at each meal.
....
So, my beloved and I were heading out yesterday morning when I noticed a whole lot of willow tree in my neighbors' back yard. In fact, a big branch had partially broken off one of our willow trees, and was now entirely filling their back yard. Yikes! Their backyard is 50x50, pretty standard for our part of town, and it blows me away that that branch is practically 50x50. That's crazy!
August 18, 2007
a post about knitting
It's been a really crazy week this week and I haven't been bicycling. I know, I know. Part of it was having the second incidence of heat exhaustion this summer a week or two back, so I've been really careful about bicycling in heat, bicycling hard, and anything that might set me back.
On one hand, it's a tremendous pain, not bicycling. But on the other hand, it's meant that I could be knitting on the bus, and that is a very positive thing.
I am going to bicycle downtown today for the Tour de Fat bike parade, and I'm looking forward to that.
But interestingly enough, I've really been ramping up the knitting over the last couple weeks. I started a summer shawlette (pictured above, taken a week ago) maybe two weeks ago, and in the last week, I've been making huge progress. I'm making it in my favorite 4-ply cashmere which will be delicious for my mother-in-law and is tremendously soothing to me.
I think cashmere might be the yarn equivalent to cheese. When I get stressed out, I turn to dairy. A friend of mine spelled it out for me: women get stressed and they turn to ice cream. Or lattes. And here you're having sweetened milk... just like being back at Mom's teat.
She's on to something, and I know it's obvious, but it really resonates for me.
Let's face it, cashmere is much better for me than cheese.
...
Last night, I went with my friend Kathy to see Cat Bordhi speak. She has a new book out called New Pathways for Sock Knitters, Book One. We were both a bit paranoid that the hall would be full to overflowing, so we tried to get there early. But between grabbing some conveyor belt sushi and getting to the hall (which was actually not in the World Forestry Center, but in one of the little round building surrounding it, tucked back in the trees), we showed up right about the time it was all supposed to start.
Strangely, the hall was not full, at all. We bought books, looked at and petted the display socks, chatted with Cat, complimented knitted things that folks were wearing, and nibbled on cookies and brownies. And, of course, we knit.
Kathy knew a lot of folks there, of course -- she's a knit blogger, there were a handful of knit bloggers there. And by handful, I mean a generous handful, making up a significant percentage in the crowd.
I think the location killed this, sadly. The World Forestry Center shares a parking lot with the Zoo, which had a sold out concert that night. Usually, the music starts early, like 6pm or maybe even earlier. So the lot was full. The encouragement to take MAX, our light rail, was ignored. The traffic on the highways was heinous, and that makes sense because it was almost at a standstill at 1 in the afternoon.
But those of us that were there sucked up as much Cat Bordhi wisdom as we could. She was great.
And it was wonderful for me to have an evening that really engaged me. Since this weeks crisis has ocurred, I've been consumed by it. I can't think about anything else. Significant chunks of time must be devoted to it every day, 3-4 hours. I feel like I'm cheating every other part of my life.
But to have a couple hours to just think about knitting, to think about restructuring socks, a strange and difficult concept to wrap ones mind around, was such a luxury and was so wonderful.
Kathy was totally in documentarian mode and will for sure have pics and commentary. My camera stayed in my purse
