Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Today was Long

Without going into too many details, I'll try to impress you with the pile of work on my desk today. I issue documents on a regular basis. Work orders, if you will. Though it's tough to really get an average quantity, I'd say it's safe to estimate that on any given day the norm might be 40 orders issued.

Today I issued 140.

I'm mentally exhausted.

I don't even want to read my emails. There are too many of them.

Update

I found the spider.

I smooshed it.

It's dead now.

Sunday, September 4, 2011

A Fine How-Do-You-Do

There's a spider loose in my room.

I wouldn't mention it except that it's big. It's a big spider. It's the scurrying kind. Elongated and ergonomic. Not like the lumbering fragility of the Daddy Long-legs. This one looks ready to put up a fight. It's made two laps around the scanner, which is how I noticed it. The problem is that I have a stack of past paycheck stubs (clipped together and ready for archiving), a pad of paper, a two-hole puncher, a post-it pad, a newspaper section, a tour book of New York, and a battery operated mosquito repellent on top of the scanner.

So you see, the spider has the upper hand. The element of surprise. I'd have to clear all of those things before I got a chance to lift the scanner and all the commotion would give the little bugger plenty of heads up.

I can't just spray the shelf that it's on because those chemicals are usually not good for the plastic rating that is used for technological gadgetry. I made the mistake of using mosquito repellent once and just because I brushed up against the bed frame, part of the finish melted off. I don't want to take a chance with the scanner.

Now what?

Food Snob, Reporting for Duty


I’m amused at the responses I got about yesterday’s food intake. One poke was from an older cousin, and another from a younger friend. Both were in a mild, “Dude, that can’t be good for you” sort of spirit, but it made me wonder how well some of you know me.

In fact, my choice of ingestibles yesterday was so out of my norm that they are the very reason I found them worthy of posting. I'm not much on junk food. I only occasionally find myself in the midst of a senseless craving.

The real me:
I love real food. I prefer to cook at home and if I eat out I seek out food that is as fres
hly made and discernible as food as possible. This means that I either go with cold meals like subway sandwiches or I have to resort to the kinds of places I've accumulated in my repertoire over the years. Places like quality sushi or mom and pop hole-in-the-walls that serve stews, broths, soups, or hot meals that look and behave like they came off of a kitchen stove and not a freeze-dried plastic pouch. I prefer butter to margarine because it's a real food and not a chemical invented in a lab. I prefer sugar to Sweet 'n' low or Equal for the same reason. I won't eat processed cheese-food, preferring real cheddar or provolone or monterey. I'll eat a steak, occasionally, but am not the least bit enticed by a fast-food burger.

I'm overweight because I like food. Real food. So I tend to indulge in it. But I've always preferred the real thing so, thankfully, extra pounds notwithstanding, I'm actually healthier than I look. My body knows what to do with the food I put i
n it. The chemistry is basic, non-complex. If I ate chips and processed food as my norm, I'm sure I'd be in quite a state. Our bodies don't know what to do with synthetic chemicals so they're thrown out of whack and complications arise.

I'm lucky. Considering I'm such a big fan of food, I could really be in bad shape. But somehow and for some reason, very early on, my palate decided on the road it was going to take and it was a "cleaner" taste. It's not a holier-than-thou choice, it's just honest. Even as a kid, I didn't really take to soft drinks. Ask anyone in my family - people who’ve known me since I was a baby – what my favorite drink is and they’ll tell you it's milk. I drink milk. Yes, milk has fat. But bodies know what to do with fat and my body shows that it knows what to do with fat. So, I'm fat. I'm glad
my body doesn't have to deal with high-fructose corn syrup or preservatives and additives. I can't imagine what shape I'd be in then.

Yesterday I had chips. My huarache was primarily made of beans and cabbage. The chorizo was just to flavor the beans. I refilled my water thermos three times yesterday, and then I had one glass of orange juice, a couple of hours later, one of cranberry juice (I always drink one liter of cranberry juice at the onset of a new month), and then I called it a day.

Today, I had a rice noodle and liver pho with fresh bean sprouts and basil. Washed it down with a glass of soy milk. The perfect lunch.

Now I’m home and having a glass of mandarin juice. Again, the real stuff, squeezed from our tree, not from concentrate.



For dinner, I’ll probably keep it simple and make a torta: a sandwich on a keiser type bun, but instead of mayo, it has a pureed bean base. I’ll make it a turkey sandwich and use up the last of the cabbage for that fresh crunch. Salsa adds flavor as well as lots of fresh ingredients that are nothing but good for you.

I’m pretty spoiled. A couple of weeks ago, mom and I were out running errands and seeing that they day had gotten away from us and we were not looking forward to standing in front of a stove, we made a stop at a fast-food place. The food was ok. The fries were the only thing I can say I really liked. By the end of the day, I felt like I had a brick in my stomach and it was clear to me that my system is just not tolerant of whatever the heck that was. I’m glad I have these responses to fast food because it’s a good deterrent to making these establishments a regularity.

As for chips, they are my occasional treat. My weakness is salt, so I do have to rein it in if it’s been particularly acute. But usually it’s just a passing craving, so I know I can indulge it and not re-visit this little obsession again for another few weeks. PMS is a bitch.

Saturday, September 3, 2011

Three-Day Weekend: Day One

Breakfast:
V-8 (Spicy Hot) and a handful of Lay's potato chips.

Leisure:
Damages, Season 3 marathon

Lunch:
Chorizo and bean huarache (look it up) with a peach daiquiri.

Leisure:
Pop in disc 2 for continuation of Damages, Season 3 marathon.

Thursday, September 1, 2011

*Reminder

Again, I remind you that if you get these posts via email, the videos included in the posts do not show up in your email version. You'll have to see the blog directly to see the videos that were posted along with the writing.

Speaking of Music...

I seem to be more often in need of some winding down at night. I've always been a night owl and struggle with ever getting anywhere near the recommended 8 hours per night. Sometimes, music will do the trick, but I have to be very careful of the selection, as the wrong choices will just serve to further entice and trigger a little musical-fest domino effect.

So, I've put together a "beddy-bye" playlist o iTunes that I resort to and which seems to be doing the trick so far.

There's the inevitable: Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata

The epitome of calm, languid serenity.

Though it's not at all really for sleeping, many years ago I developed a certain charm for Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique, specifically The March which is either the 4th or 5th movement. I can never remember which. It's silly, but that singular note from the oboe almost to the end makes me hold my breath.


But my forever favorite is Smetana's Die Moldau. I just love its clarity. Really beautiful, flowing music that depicts exactly what it sets out to: the flow of water.


On a more modern note, just thinking of Vangelis's theme to Chariots of Fire makes me smile. There's an anecdote that goes along with this that I can't pass up the chance to share. If you're family, you've probably already heard this, but bear with me. The movie was all the rage, up for tons of awards, and winning four, so off we went to see it. It was so packed that we (mom, dad, brother and I) had to split up and find seats where we could. It was the first time we had ever done that kind of thing but mom found a seat across the aisle from 10-year-old me and we sort of lost where the other two managed to run off to. Half way through the movie I heard a distinct snore. Not like a muffled snort. No, this was a dragged out snooooooore, like it was 2am on a warm summer night. I turned to look at mom and we had that look that said we'd both identified the sound. It's impossible to give someone an elbow nudge when you don't know where amidst the sea of movie goers in the theater he might be. I was mortified for the people who had to sit around him. It doesn't come up too often anymore, but we didn't let Dad live that one down for quite some time.


Lastly, though I didn't like the movie when I saw it and can't even recall what it was about now, Clint Mansell's Requiem for a Dream is one of those I can listen to over and over. It's fantastic.


Cannons and Coco



Dad's got Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture blaring on the backyard speakers.

I'd taken to the yard to get out of the warm house and sit on the cool grass under the mulberry and brush Coco. It's one of his favorite activities and as he's gotten older, he can no longer stay standing through the whole thing, so I let him lay down and brush as much of him as I can reach depending on which side he's leaning on.

It's all very dramatic. Dad's drinking orange soda on the bench swing, Cleo (the only one who's sense of urgency matches the music) is running in laps like a crazed lunatic, Coco's hair is coming out in handfuls, and cymbals and drums climb towards that crescendo that makes the fresh, early evening take on a surreal setting.

I like the contrast. I sense a trend. Maybe I'll do dishes to Beethoven's Ninth. Lends a little gravitas to the occasion.

(By the way, if you're one of the ones that gets the these post via email, I don't think the video gets transmitted. I think you actually have to click on the link to go to the blogsite.) And if you are one of the ones that gets these posts via email and I'm wrong, please let me know.