Excuses, Excuses, Excuses

Yep, got excuses for starting to run this past Monday.

Shortly after my last post, I stepped in a hole in my front yard on the way to the mailbox and tore some tendons and tissue and such in my left ankle. Luckily, no fractures, but had to wear my pretty "boot" for a few days and it was painful for some more days.

Day after Thing 1 and I returned from High School camp, worked 9 hours at our church youth group's food booth. Needless to say, I slept most of Monday away!

BUT, (and that's a big "but") I did start the Couch to 5K in 9 weeks TODAY! Bought new shoes yesterday, so my feet hurt a bit (will purchase some Super Feet inserts today to help compensate); chose the wrong direction to run, as I hit a couple of small hills that didn't help with the running times; and only ran for 1  1/2 of the running times (I'm REALLY not in any kind of shape to run for anything!).

I started. That's all that counts. Although, it may take me 12 weeks to run a 5K, instead of 9. Stay with me, loyal readers!

Procrastination...

(Enter blog humming the song "Anticipation" instead, insert "Procrastination")

If you know me, you know that I'm a procrastinator. Don't get me wrong, I get things done, I just wait until the last minute to get them done!

So, this running thing I've talked about? Yeah, haven't started it YET. I've been mulling over what I should make my blog post about -- anything, except my starting to run.

I have set the date...Monday, August 9th...I will begin the Couch to 5K in 9 weeks program. It's downloaded into my iPod and now that I've made it public, I have no excuse! Wouldn't want to let my faithful blog readers down now, would I?

Why 2+ weeks away for a start date, you may ask? Thing 1 and I go to High School camp with our church in a week and I wouldn't be able to do any running as I'm a counselor that week. Excuses, excuses, excuses. What did I just say about procrastination?

Anyone wanna run a 5K with me in October?

Food Porn

Lately, I've been cruising the blogdom of bento boxes. So many fabulous pictures...all are zero calories and zero fat to consume! I just can't get enough of the stuff!
According to justbento.com (my favorite bento blog, EVAH!):

Bento (written 弁当), or obento (お弁当) to use the honorific term, is the Japanese word for a meal served in a box. Beyond that basic definition though, just about anything goes as to what kind of box or container is used, as well as what is put inside that box.

Different types of bento

(See also: Types of homemade bento.)

There are several different kinds of bento, with different purposes. Makunouchi bento are elaborate bento meals presented at formal meals, meant to be eaten at table. This is the type you will see served in restaurants, arranged in elegant lacquered boxes. Kouraku bento are picnic bento, to be shared by a group of people enjoying themselves outdoors - the most popular settings is while enjoying the cherry blossoms in spring ((o)hahanami). Ekiben (a shortened form of eki bento) are boxed meals sold at train stations for travellers (though nowadays you can buy ekiben at many other places, such as department store food halls or convenience stores).

The kind of bento that have garnered the most attention recently, especially outside of Japan are what are called ‘cute bento’ ‘art bento’ or ‘entertaining bento’ (entertain-bento), extremely elaborately decorated small works of art, as exemplified by the work presented on sites like e-obento (Japanese). These are usually made by mothers for their small children. There can be a high level of competitiveness in this arena, which I’ll talk about sometime.

Finally, there’s the plain simple bento that most people bring to work or school for lunch. It’s important to note that most Japanese people do not spend their time making elaborate ‘cute bento’ - that’s more in the realm of a hobby rather than practical everyday living. The type of bento you will see here will be in the category of practical, everyday bento. This is the type of bento that Just Bento concentrates on.

Another bento blog I like is bento zen .

This BBC website has a great blurb about the history of bento. Check it out!

What Thing 2 and I have been looking at is all the "cute bento" stuff online, but am thinking that will try for the everyday type of bento, with a bit of the cute stuff thrown in for good measure...or when the feeling strikes me.

There is A LOT of stuff out there to make bento meals more fun. Nothing like another bad "habit" to fuel.

A couple of cookbooks I own:

Kawaii Bento Boxes: Cute and Convenient Japanese Meals on the Go, by Joie Staff that has bunches of recipes and beautiful full-color pictures, along with an index of bento favorites classified by color. Although it has the word "cute" in the title, there are many ideas in the book that would fit right into a basic bento.

Hawai'i's Bento Box Cookbook: Fun Lunches for Kids, by Susan Yuen. This is definitely a "cute" bento cookbook! A great book for lunches for little ones in your house. Although, there is a large section of 'ono recipes in the 2nd half of the book that not only has the ingredients and directions for the recipe, but a picture of the finished product.

On my bento cookbook wishlist:

Hawai'i's Bento Box Cookbook: 2nd Course, also by Susan Yuen

501 Bento Box Lunches: 501 Unique Recipes for Brilliant Bento, by Korero Books

Someday, maybe, I'll post a picture of my bento attempts. Maybe not. For now, I'll concentrate on making lunches healthy and more appetizing/appealing.

Summer Fun

Summer has arrived...well, as much as it can in the Pacific Northwest! I so enjoy the warm summer days around here. Not a big fan of high heat -- or desperate cold, for that matter!

I think I've got a handle on the meal planning business...I think! Got 30+ pages of "info" (large font-filled pages) for my webpage off to my website creator Spice Girl G; tweaked the recipes to look more appealing (to read!); figured and added nutritional information to the recipes; re-did my meal plan packet; professionalized the forms and such that go into the intro packets; and generally messed up the side table with piles of papers! Next? Work with some clients!

Now, I'm ready to do some cooking of my own! My mid-life crisis has requested that I amble off into some different and fresh Asian inspired dishes...maybe it's my palate that is directing this shift from down-home comfort food?! Needless to say, I've been browsing a bazillion (yes, I do mean bazillion) food blogs and picked up a stack of cookbooks to peruse from the library and have found a couple that look promising...

Into the Vietnamese Kitchen: Treasured Foodways, Modern Flavors, by Andrea Nguyen; Quick & Easy Vietnamese: 75 Everyday Recipes, by Nancie McDermott; and Asian Dumplings: Mastering Gyoza, Spring Rolls, Samosas, & More, also by Andrea Nguyen.

 

What else? Oh, yeah, with the slightly better weather that we've been having, I've scheduled some walks into my life. I have to start walking, before I can run, yes?

New Direction...Am I lost?

The Road Not Taken
by Robert Frost


Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;


Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that passing there
Had worn them really about the same,


And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.


I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I –
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

Have been praying and mulling over what direction God has for my outside-the-home-job-life...What to do? To whom do I talk to? Do I need to update my resume (which I haven't done in 13 or so years!)?

With a simple status update on Facebook on meal planning for my own family, God gave me a new direction...meal planning for other families! I've had 10 people talk to me about meal planning for them!

With a little prayer and creativity, I've created my own personal cottage industry! And my personal "Spice Girl" has offered to be my webmaster! Thanks to my guinea pig EC, too!

God is good.

Now, let's hope I don't get lost.

Self-Organized Criticality

So, on my mid-life crisis world tour, I’ve decided that I REEEEALLLLLY need to get organized. I like to think (or bluff my way out of) that I am organized…to an extent. I know where the general location is of the form I was working on is in a PILE on my desk/coffee table/floor next to my bed/yada yada yada. In my head, I’m pretty organized. On my desk, not so much.

Thus, in my quest to find a definition of organized, I found this term “Self-Organized Criticality.” Sounds like it might apply to me. Read on for the definition:
“In physics, self-organized criticality (SOC) is a property of (classes of) dynamical systems which have a critical point as an attractor. Their macroscopic behavior thus displays the spatial and/or temporal scale-invariance characteristic of the critical point of a phase transition, but without the need to tune control parameters to precise values…SOC is typically observed in slowly-driven non-equilibrium systems with extended degrees of freedom and a high level of nonlinearity. Many individual examples have been identified…but to date there is no known set of general characteristics that guarantee a system will display SOC.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-organized_criticality

Huh.

Here’s MY definition:
In Rosabella’s physical [and emotional] life, self-organized criticality [SOC] is a property of her dynamic system of welfare which has a critical point [midlife crisis] as an attractor. Her macroscopic behavior thus displays the spatial [desk/coffee table/floor next to bed] AND temporal [brain function filing cabinet] scale-invariance characteristic of the critical point [again, midlife crisis] of a phase transition, but with the need to tune control parameters to precise values [based on her own sorting and understanding]…SOC is observed in her slowly-driven non-equilibrium life system with extended degrees of freedom [from daily life obstacles] and a high level of nonlinearity [that would really be easier to do if life was more linear]. Many individual examples have been identified [SHEs, Emilie Barnes, OrganizedHome.org]…but to date there has been no known set of general characteristics that GUARANTEE a well-received organizational system will display SOC in Rosabella’s life.
[Parentheses and italics and bold font are mine]

WTF?

According to wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn , organized is defined as: “methodical and efficient in arrangement or function; ‘how well organized she is’; ‘his life was almost too organized’”

Yeah, right. Like I’ve heard that before.

Procrastination

PROCRASTINATION refers to the counterproductive deferment of actions or tasks to a later time. Psychologists often cite such behavior as a mechanism for coping with the anxiety associated with starting or completing any task or decision. Schraw, Wadkins, & Olafson [Who the heck these dudes are, I have no idea. But they were quoted in Wikipedia, so they must be important.] have proposed three criteria for a behavior to be classified as procrastination: it must be counterproductive, needless, & delaying.

Procrastination may result in stress, a sense of guilt & crisis, severe loss of personal productivity, as well as social disapproval for not meeting responsibilities or commitments. These feelings combined may promote further procrastination. While it is regarded as normal for people to procrastinate to some degree, it becomes a problem when it impedes normal functioning. Chronic procrastination may be a sign of an underlying psychological disorder.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Procrastination
[parentheses mine]

So, I’ve been procrastinating about my midlife crisis.

According to the above referenced Wikipedia article, it looks like I might be showing signs of an [or another, as the case may be] underlying psychological disorder.

Sheesh.

Define "Midlife Crisis"

According to Wikipedia:

"MIDLIFE crisis is a term coined in 1965 by Elliott Jaques [(January 18, 1917-March 8, 2003) a Canadian psychoanalyst and organizational psychologist. FYI, he developed the notion of requisite organization.] and used in Western societies to describe a period of dramatic self-doubt that is felt by some individuals in the “middle years” or middle age of life, as a result of sensing the passing of their own youth and the imminence of their old age. Sometimes a crisis can be triggered by transitions experienced in these years, such as extramarital affairs, andropause [male menopause] or menopause, the death of parents or other causes of grief, unemployment or underemployment, realizing that a job or career is hated but not knowing how else to earn an equivalent living, or children leaving home. The result may be a desire to make significant changes in core aspects of day-to-day life or situation, such as career, work-life balance, marriage, romantic relationships, big-ticket expenditures, or physical appearance.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midlife_crisis
[parentheses mine]

Again, someone writes it better than I would...gotta love plagiarism.

Midlife Crisis

I turned 41 yesterday. And I decided it's time for a midlife crisis.


I finished reading Morgan's Run, by Colleen McCullough, last night. Was reading it for my Lit 'n' Latte reading group. Had read the book when it was first published back in 2001 or so, but didn't really remember much about it, other than I had liked it. Needless to say, in re-reading it, I made myself really pay attention to what I was reading.


Yes, it is a historical fiction book, but what I really pulled from it this time has come to mean more to me than I could imagine. The author, Colleen McCullough, writes it best:


     "Yet somehow we have survived the first five years of this ill-conceived, misshapen experiment in men's and women's lives. I am not sure how this has happened, except that it is perhaps evidence of the persistence and perseverance of men and women. It would be wrong to say that England offered us a second chance here. We were not offered any chance, first or last. Rather, we behaved according to our natures. Some of us simply vowed to survive and, having survived, then hurried 'home' or still skulk about. And some of us, having survived, were determined to being again as best we can with what we have. I put myself in the second group, and say of it that while we were convicts we worked hard, we incurred no official displeasure, we were not lashed or ironed, we effaced ourselves in some situations and made ourselves useful in others...


     It is fair to say that very few of us had any idea what sort of stuff we were made of. I know that I did not. The old tranquil, patient Richard Morgan...was passive, content, unambitious and small. His griefs were the griefs of all men -- loss of what he loved. His vices were the vices of all men -- self-absorption and self-indulgence. His joys were the joys of all men -- taking his pleasure in what he loved. His virtues were the virtues of all men -- belief in God and country.


     Richard Morgan was resurrected in the midst of a sea of pain, and finds the pain of others more unbearable than his own. He takes nothing for granted, he speaks out when necessary, he guards his loved ones and his fortune with his very life, he trusts hardly anybody, and he relies on one person only -- himself...


     By the grace of God and the kindness of others, I have had a fine run."


I may not be a convict of England, but I have found I have been living my life as a convict of the world. My midlife crisis is leading me away from the world and more toward what God has in store for me.


I want to be more like the "resurrected" Richard Morgan. I want to have a fine run.


P.S. My maiden name is Morgan. And I will begin to run.