Why You Should Save Your Leftovers

Pretty regularly I ride the bus home from work. Staring out the window as I always do I saw a young girl walking a dog. She walked right up the trash receptacle on the street and started digging. She found a Wendy's bag. There was a french fry which she immediately stuffed in her mouth. Digging around some more, she found nothing and continued walking down the street. This is literally 5 blocks from my house.

Not to say that we shouldn't worry about hungry people all over the world but it can be easy to forget there are hungry people right in our own neighborhoods. How easy it is to box up your leftovers and offer them to someone in need. I have done it a few times and I gotta say it is a little embarrassing when the man who probably hasn't showered in months, is missing teeth, wears rags as clothing and looks completely out of it declines my leftovers. Makes me a feel a little like I don't ever want to do that again. But I've had more takers than leavers. So easy to do. You just have to set aside whatever it is that is holding you back from approaching a stranger in need. I try to remind myself to not let things hold me back from doing the good I ought to be doing. Once I step my own self out of the way, I can act as a servant more easily.

I'm also reminded to not waste food at home. I hate watching leftovers go bad in the fridge. I hate to leave something out on the counter only to see it in the morning and realize you forgot to seal it up or stick it in the refrigerator. I just hate waste in general. Not because it's like you're working for free when you throw away money in the form of food but because so many people don't have and we should be conscious of what we use.

Oh, I need the sleep alright

I need to start writing my ideas down for writing. Frankly, I'm exhausted. Remember how I said I hated sleeping. I meant to say that I hate that our bodies need to sleep so much. We have some new neighbors living in the house above us. In a word, I would describe them as AWFUL. To preface, we have lived in this wonderfully, awesome and perfect basement apartment for going on five years now. This is the fourth set of tenants in the house above. Fourth. So, I think that gives me room to be a tiny bit judgy and matter-of-fact. I think they are selfish and completely inconsiderate. It's two mid-twenty something guys who walk around like they have 50 pound weights on each foot. Even our nanny has noticed that these guys are MUCH louder than the previous tenant (who she thought was very loud). On top of that, there is no furnishings or decor, so when they talk it just echoes and I can literally make out words. What is even worse is that we can all easily hear when they are walking in their second level. The sound bounces all the way down. AWFUL.

I've got every excuse and rationalization in the book.

I know I live in a shared space and I expect to hear some level of people living upstairs. But I don't have to put up with neighbors staying up into the wee early morning hours or coming home and banging around for an extended period of time at 2:30-3 o'clock in the morning. I mean c'mon already. There is something called apartment etiquette. Most people in the city know of it. The walking around upstairs will literally prevent me from falling asleep and will surely wake me up in the middle of the night. I'm a light sleeper. Earplugs are not an option as I have a small child and need to be able to hear him.

That's my sob story. That's why I'm completely drained. Feeling exhausted beyond repair.

I need to take more pictures specifically for this blog.

To Sleep or Not To Sleep

Sleep.

It's entirely a waste of time. 

It's the best use of time. 

Ugh, the realities of life. 

(Our bed: a work in progress)

I wish there was a pill I could take that made it so that I never had to sleep. Can you imagine how much more you could do if you didn't have to sleep? While we're at it, let's get a pill so that we don't have to use the bathroom or shower. 

But sometimes I love to sleep. 

What I Like About Wes Anderson

I was trying to be vague but it's easier if I'm direct.

I hate when I like something that is relatively below the radar of the masses but then that thing reaches a level of mass audiences. If it's music, I'm glad for the band but still annoyed that all these people who don't even really know what original, good music is now suddenly love this band. They wouldn't know good music if it was performed right in front of them in the subway tunnel. My thoughts only - but, really, it's all good. Same with movies. I'm not a pioneer (because I'm just not that cool) but I consider myself an early adopter of many things. Usually a few steps ahead of the curve.

Wes Anderson writes and directs some of the best movies. They appeal to the masses, I think, in large part due to the artistic cinematography. It's beautiful and unique. Well framed and more "portrait" looking story telling. While I love that aspect, what I love most is the characters. I closely relate. But I think a lot of people just don't. And those characters are really what make his movies so wonderful. They are sad. Not just sad but their entire outlook is based on a sad reality. Always, though, there seems an optimism about tomorrow. That tomorrow will come and sad they may be, it will be OK, everything will just keep on going. There's really not a hope for some unattainable happiness.

Trying to understand why some people relate more to this than others is just a wonder to me. I think maybe I've seen more sad movies than happy and so I see the world as slightly sad. Or maybe because I am slightly sad I relate more to the sad people. If two people with the exact same background watched the same movie, could one person relate more to the sad and one just completely  miss that part? It's weird how our brains appear hardwired to see the world one way or another.

Maybe that's why I'm drawn to create happy, pretty things. Happiness is what I long for. Maybe that's why Anderson's movies are so pretty too.

Who Are These People Anyway?

Alright, the kid is taking a bubble bath right now with his Papa on duty so in light of yesterday's post, I thought I'd take my own advice on write. Who wants to clean off their dinner plate right after they eat anyways?!

Sidenote: whenever we have two kids I imagine this might not be as easily done. (Read: be happy where you are when you're there because it's only like that for right now).

I'd have to say that living in the city is probably one of the most satisfying, fulfilling, exciting, convenient, magical things in my life. I live one mile from downtown. The thought of living even three miles from the center just totally makes me depressed. I'm not your typical city girl. And I say typical in the 'my life is nothing like Sex in the City' kind of way. So I think it rather comical that when I hear stories of friends (let's call them what they really are, acquaintances) that I imagine their life to be too much different than mine. After all, we're living in the same city and last time I checked most people don't live the lives we see portrayed in the movies. They might for an hour or so but never full time the way we imagine city girls in movies to live. But it's fascinating nonetheless.

One particular acquaintance of mine met me for lunch this afternoon with a colleague. She recently returned from a two week vacation to Italy. If anyone has the kind of life I imagine a Sex in the City girl has, it's this girl. She dates a lot. And we all know what I mean by "date". Apparently, it's code. To me, other people seem so much better at living in the moment than I do. It appears as though she goes day to day doing what she wants. She goes to work and after 5 o'clock is set in some social bar scene. Dating so many people is just a mystery to me. It's intriguing to think that people actually live like that. I don't think I could.

Another thing I think about other people is that when they get married their life is an exact replica of your typical wedding movie. It's all roses and diamonds and lush flowers. The hustle and bustle of a big todo. Magic. Excitement. Perfect wedding day. Followed by perfect newly wed couple moves in to their perfect new home/apartment and now lives in perfect HD. Does anyone know what I mean? Let's face it, wedding movies are the best. But not quite reality. Weddings are a blast and getting married is wonderful and living with your spouse is cool but it's not the movies. Maybe I'm the only one who romanticizes about other people's lives but they all seem so wonderful.

I hear the bathtub draining and know the end is here. But it was a good blogging while it happened. And his little voice is singing Happy Birthday to You. Random little bugger of mine.

Making Time for the Things that Fire You Up

Today has been about laundry, meal making and playing with Jack. Oh and dishes. Oh and sweeping too. Anywho. Whilst  sweeping I was thinking about how by the end of the day I will be tired and only wanting to curl out on the couch and watch some mindless show on TV. It made me think about how I never have time to do some of the things that I really love. That made me think about how at the end of the day, when my energy is spent, if there is still cleaning to do I usually will do some of it - but if the cleaning is done, I won't spend time indulging my interests. Conclusion: spend time on the things you love because at the end of the day you will always make time for getting the things done that need to keep the house in order.

This is why I am writing even now. The makings of butternut squash soup are simmering on the stove (it's a lovely, grey day in Seattle) and I could easily be doing more dishes or moving the couch and sweeping underneath it. Instead I'm choosing to write because it fills me up. Actually, it empties me in ways. Very good ways. Emptying my thoughts into this blogspot. (BTW Blogger just tried to autocorrect 'blogspot' into 'bloodspot'. You would think blogger would not autocorrect its own name).

As a practice, one day week I will not come straight home and do household chores. I will do something that I like doing. Frankly, working the job that I have full time does not fill me up at all. There are aspects that are satisfying which is probably why I am slow to make my dreams of self-employment happen. I guess it works for this period of my life.

I Hate Slicing Apples

Food is not my thing.
What I mean is: preparing food is not my thing.

For example, I enjoy a sliced apple with sliced cheese. But do I enjoy cutting the apple and cutting the cheese? No. Do I laugh at myself when I find that I am so stuck on convenience that I cannot even slice an apple with one of those apple slicer tools? Yes.

Another example, I like cookies. But the thought of pulling all of the ingredients out of the pantry, measuring them, dumping them in the stand mixer, folding in the chocolate chips, making little balls and putting them on the cookie sheet and then waiting 20 minutes for them to bake and then repeating the little ball process several times and then cleaning everything up exhausts me.

I mean, am I right here or what?

Luckily, my brain can detect this laziness and point it out as the true bum that it is and pump it into shape to get motivated to do the right thing. Laziness in food preparation is probably one of the main reasons this country has out of control health issues that are constantly on the rise. I'm a firm believer of the quote by Maya Angelou, "Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better do better".

This post started as a poke of fun at how lazy I can be but has now shifted to food politics piece so I will just end by saying, once I discovered the real food movement I knew I had to make changes and I could no longer ignore how important it is to pay attention to what we put into our bodies. That's all. :)