sometimes i feel

like gardening

2011-05-03T15:09:00.000-04:00

It's been a while since I've written in the blog, and I know everyone is very upset, but I've been busy.

Quick update since my last post approximately 7 months ago...

Last I talked to everyone I was on the herbalife diet and it was going quite well. My initial goal was to stick to it for a month and possibly lose a few pounds and feel better. That was a success! I stayed strong for over 4 months but eventually grew tired of fruit. I still have a shake every now and again if I don't feel like cooking but I'm not on the strict one meal a day diet.

I also posted about my haikus. Well, I have probably written dozens of haikus since my last post but most of them are on Christmas cards and napkins so none have survived in my possession.

So what's going on now, you ask? I started a garden!

I am very proud of this accomplishment! My plants have been alive for almost an entire week! I started on April 29th, a good planting day. Inside I have two cilantro plants, three pineapples, a sweet basil, and a purple basil. On the deck facing east I have my passion fruit vines. Right now they look like little plantlings but they are already starting to grow their first little tendrils! I'm hoping they will grab onto the railing and create a wonderfully romantic deck scene decorated with beautiful little fruits :)

On the main part of our deck underneath the ac drain from upstairs I have a new rosemary. My last rosemary plant had a terrible end to it's life with the help of hyena bitch, the neighbor's dog. This one will be better protected and hopefully give years of fragrant bounty. Finishing the new family on the southwest facing deck I have a bay rum bush (YUM!) and a cherry tomato plant. Fingers crossed on that guy!

So, that concludes the contents of my garden. If I make it to the next optimal planting day without losing anything I hope to add more herbs and possible more tomatoes or hot peppers. I also want lettuce but I fear it's too windy up here for their tender little leaves. Maybe I can find a way for them to live inside too...

been a bit blustery around here!

2010-09-04T16:51:00.000-04:00

Trying to photograph the hurricane!

So, it has been a very long time since my last entry. There have been ups and downs but here I am, sitting at AYH, alive. First order of business, according to this morning's measurements I have lost 8.8 inches from various parts of my body. So, YAY! I believe most of those are from the chesty region, but whatever, inches are inches.

Preparing my shakes has been a bit of challenge given the whole hurricane situation. Luckily we have a generator so every morning and evening I got a little bit of power with which to use the blender. Jacks is my savior for lunch. That signature salad is delicious, I'm also a huge fan of the rastaman wrap. It's a veggie burger cut up with squash and zucchini in a wrap. YUM!

Hurricane Earl was entertaining, he happens to be a fantastic gardener. Our trees are perfectly pruned and we, like most of the island, were lucky not to have any real damage. I still don't have internet, but we've been running on a generator and when I left the house this afternoon it looked like we might actually have power! That would be fantastic, with all the diesel fumes around I can just feel my dna evolving...

So here I leave you, until we meet again. May the Shwartz be with you, and just a touch of the Force.

first week is OOOOVVVAA!

2010-08-24T18:05:00.000-04:00

So, today ends week one. I have officially been eating one meal a day for seven days. How do I feel? I'm going to go with good. I feel good. According to my measurements I'm losing random 1/4 inches but I think that might just be normal fluctuations. I haven't weighed myself since I don't own a scale. I'm not discouraged at all though, because I really do feel good.

Sunday was the chili cookoff, that was probably a bit of a setback. I wouldn't exactly call random ramekins of chili a "balanced meal" but that was my meal for the day... I did learn something fun this week. These products are doing a wonderful job of boosting my metabolism, and apparently that affects alcohol consumption. I would definitely not call myself a drinker. A glass of wine with dinner and an occasional cocktail while out is about as far as I go. But the other night I went crazy and had a beer, and my energy booster pill. I woke up the next morning feeling like I had been binge drinking for days and was suffering the hangover of the century. Luckily it was just a headache, but to a non-drinker that's pretty upsetting! I didn't make the connection but Jason said that it must be the boosted metabolism...

Unfortunately success is pretty boring, and I'm feeling pretty successful thus far. But you know what's not boring? Today I wrote two verses of a song, 8 haikus, and 2 limericks. If you've read older posts you know I love to write, so I am going to share with you some of the poems I wrote today. I'm keeping the song a secret in hopes that a real musician is going to read it, put it to music, and make it good.

girl in hula skirt.
yeah, i'm totally jealous.
evil thoughts ensue...

my lyrics are dumb
linguistically challenged
genius to the core.

how much is out there
to scribe with pen and paper
document the world.

feeling fantastic
supercharged and flying free
feels good to be me.

i just wrote a song
called i'm a weeble wobble.
i hope you like it.

i wrote five haikus.
wait, now i'm on number six.
will it never end?!

saucy limericks
bubble through my lingual lips
onto your deaf ears.

so this is what 3AM looks like...

2010-08-21T15:57:00.000-04:00

Blueberry spritzer shake! YUM!

I have to apologize to all of my adoring followers who have been gazing longingly at their computer screens waiting to see a glimmer of life from my blog or facebook account. I haven't had internet since Thursday night and have been completely out of the technological loop. I don't know how we survived before Facebook, I'm lucky I found anybody! (Odd side note that Jason brought up the other day, how boring would "Dazed and Confused" have been if they had Facebook?!)

So... Days 3 and 4 have brought some entertaining challenges and victories. Lessons 1-5, don't take energizing pills late in the day. Or do, I guess, If you have always wondered what 3AM looks like through the eyes of a tired body and crazed mind... Last night I took all of my vitamins (including the don't take after 3pm one) with dinner because I was going to see a band. BAD NEWS BEARS! It was entertaining up until about 11PM, but after that my body decided it didn't agree with my mind about the whole being awake situation.

Also, if a bottle says to take it with food, don't take it while you're thinking about food, wait until you're actually eating it. I knew that we were going to eat lunch at Molly Malones, so I took my lunch pills before we left the house so I wouldn't have to carry them with me. Oops... By the time we got to the restaurant I realized that I had made a mistake and had to beg Penny (favorite waitress, ever) to bring me some crackers so I could get some life back. But then the crackers started to fill me up so when my lunch came all I barely ate any of it!

I have to say I have been making some D LISH ISH smoothies. I'm not sure if I've mentioned this before, but I love frozen blueberries! I just figured out that my blender likes it much better if I don't use ice, so for lunch today I am enjoying frozen pineapple, frozen blueberries, apple juice, and a splash of cranberry juice. YUM! I accidentally fell asleep for a few hours today so I'm just getting to lunch, but I am most definitely enjoying it! I did a frozen blueberry spritzer for breakfast so I get to eat a full dinner tonight :)

That reminds me, I was so good yesterday. Since we ate lunch at Molly's I knew I had a shake in my future for dinner, but Jason and Erica decided to grill. What did I do? I made my shake at home and brought it with me. It was the first time I'd had my shake meal while I could smell the other food, but it was fine. I didn't steal a single bite. And the dogs didn't bother me because I wasn't eating grilled chicken.

I haven't quite decided what to do about my 3rd energizer pill since I took my lunch one at 3... I don't really want to see 3AM again. Last night was entertaining, but sleeping all day today has been pretty boring. So, here's hoping the rest of today goes smoothly.

day two!

2010-08-19T22:24:00.000-04:00

Morning.
Day 2. So I feel like I need to clarify the purpose of this new diet, for me. I am constantly skipping meals, panicking mid-day and eating disgusting things. Then by the time I get to dinner I'm so hungry I eat everything! That is not the recipe to a healthy lifestyle. With Herbalife I am guaranteed two "meals" a day that I don't have to think about. Even if I'm not hungry, I make the shake. Then when it comes time for my one meal it won't seem like I have to eat everything in sight. I am also excited about saving money on going out to eat. This morning I made a coffee shake again, but I didn it a little bit differently this time. I started by putting about 8 ice cubes in the blender, then my two scoops, a tiny bit of natural sugar, and about half a cup of coffee. I normally drink more coffee than that but with the energizers in the powder and the pills it's probably a good thing to slow down a little bit. Today at lunch I think I'm going to reheat some leftover paprika chicken (YUM!) and then do a shake for dinner, see what that does for me. I'm also excited because I'm going grocery shopping to pick up some frozen fruit. I LOVE FROZEN BLUEBERRIES!!!! I hope cost-u-less still has those monster bags for $5... I wonder what a vege vanilla shake would taste like...
Lunch.
I <3 paprika chicken. I was a tad hungry throughout the morning, but not enough to tempt me to do anything other than eat the sample pizza bite at cost-u-less… I resisted the sparkling lemonade and cheese platter though! I think using just a tiny bit of coffee worked for my shake this morning. I didn't feel over energized or cracked out, I wasn't very hungry, and no headaches from not drinking my normal mug of coffee. I was also able to cut out the 1/2 and 1/2 which I'm sure saved me a load of unneccessary calories. As planned I reheated some leftover paprika chicken for lunch. So as not to over eat I only took half a piece of chicken which ended up being a little less than half the size of my hand (which for those of you who know me know that is VERY tiny!). Then I put two scoops of cous cous and chick pea mix with the yogurt, YUM!!!!! Best meal ever, and great for leftovers. If anyone wants it let me know. Or maybe someday I'll post it on here because it is a definite crowd pleaser. A quick note on the late pills yesterday... I was pretty wide awake until around 11, but then I decided to go to sleep and I did. I've never had much trouble falling asleep. I did however wake up in the middle of the night which is strange (after having some very odd dreams) and I had trouble getting back to sleep for about an hour. Apparently this is normal for some people but it doesn't happen to me that often. It could be the pills, who knows. Maybe it's just the change in diet, I don't know! But, it's day 2 and I'm feeling alright, so I'll keep going. My goal, btw, is to stay consistent for two months and then I'l going to re-evaluate and alter as needed.

Evening.
I have to say that dinner is an absolute success! I took about 6 ice cubes, a cup of frozen blueberries (I <3 FROZEN BLUEBERRIES!!!), some cranberry juice, and a little bit of club soda, and my two scoops, and voila! My very own blueberry spritzer, but no rum. Can I add rum? Is that acceptable to the plan? I don't know! Maybe after a really tough day it's ok to throw a thimble or so in :) My ONLY problem tonight is that I think I did too many ice cubes, I ended up with a little bit that fell into the sink as I was pouring it into my cup, but not enough for me to be worried. I think today went really well. The full lunch worked pretty well, I mean who can turn down paprika chicken?! I only had one accident and that was when I gave in to the pizza bite sample at cost-u-less but that was more curiosity than caving in to a craving... I remembered to take the energizing pill earlier this afternoon so hopefully my sleeping pattern won't be so weird tonight. I'm ok with the weird dreams, they were actually pretty pleasantly entertaining, but I don't like being awake in the middle of the night.

like I have an abandoned blog!!!!

2010-08-18T19:08:00.000-04:00

I just remembered that I have a blog! A very long time has passed since I last wrote, but now I have a life change that I would like to share.

I just started a new diet, Herbalife, and I have decided to keep a diary of my experiences. I was going to keep it hidden away in a password protected spreadsheet, but I figured since nobody (including myself) reads this blog, I'll put it up here!

So.... Day 1!

I took before pictures, that I am not proud to show, but since nobody's going to see it anyway I'll put one up purely for documentation purposes.

Morning. For breakfast I made a shake with coffee. Drinking coffee is not recommended by the program as it's toxic, but I have to have my coffee. Tomorrow I'll use less coffee and more ice so it's more shakey and less iced coffee-ee. I had to add 2 splendas to make it sweeter, maybe with less coffee the powder will be sweet enough. We'll work up to no sugar. I also added a splash of 1/2 and 1/2. Took the pills about 1 minute ago, nothing yet...

Lunch. So…. After my coffee "shake" and all the vitamins this morning I ended up totally cracked out. Entertaining, but maybe for everyone else's sake I should avoid that in the future… Luckily I brought my sample protein bar when I left the house so I ate that with a bottle of water on the way to C-dub (Coral World) and fixed the crackedness. For lunch I made a pineapple shake, with no added caffein. I put in one huge piece of my frozen pineapple, a few ice cubes, and some water. This actually tastes delicious. I have a very nice dinner planned too. This should shape up to be a decent first day.

Evening. AKA WAITING FOR DINNER! So today was entertaining. Everything tasted good but I'm ending my day a tad bit hungrier than normal and just a little cracked out. It's alright though, I am confident that each day will be easier as my stomach, and mind, adjust to the new lifestyle. I went snorkeling for almost 2 hours so I feel that was sufficient exercise, but swimming always makes me hungry! For dinner I am going to make rosemary and thyme tilapia with halved baby potatoes and yellow squash. Baked, not fried. I would like to eat it now, but it's not dinner time yet. And the food is raw... So I wait while the fish defrosts but when Jason gets home I will be very excited to be eating real food! So concludes Day 1, I'll report tomorrow on how I "react" to the evening pills (that I was supposed to take earlier) that I take with dinner.

like taking a break!

2009-10-26T10:45:00.000-04:00

I have been really busy lately adjusting to a new job and figuring out what to do about the old one and it has really added some stress. Thankfully in the past few weeks I have also discovered two amazing websites! I first heard about this site when I was sent HERE! The article is about slowing down your life and how sometimes doing less will help you do more and do it better. LOVE IT!

Shortly after discovering this site they added a sister site, Zen Family Habits. That link will take you to today's article about how to live hassle free. It's really similar to the slow secret, I just love it. I think everyone needs to keep an eye on these two sites and really take what they have to say to heart. We are all so busy and cluttered that we think that's how it has to be! We need to just slow down, enjoy life, and do what we do well.

like writing haikus!

2009-07-12T08:49:00.004-04:00

Image by ionushi via Flickr

I'm sure everyone (that's like 6 of you now!) has realized that writing is really important to me. I think that it's crucial for surviving in the professional world, but I also think it's a lot of fun. My favorite thing to write is a haiku.

I think a very important moment for me in my writing of haikus is when I was in school at the University of the Virgin Islands I did a project for one of my creative writing classes and I realized that I could write haikus about anything. I know this sounds silly but in school you learn that haikus are generally nature related so all of my haikus up to that point were about nature. In that class my final project was a collection of unconventional haikus and I've never looked back.My twitter updates, facebook statuses, and most cards I write are all haikus.

So yesterday I was at home doing random housekeeping stuff and throughout the day I think I wrote about 5 haikus about what I was doing and it got me thinking, "Hey, I should actually keep track of all these haikus I write and compile them into a book." So I started writing them down with the title "Haikus for Every Day" in my miniature composition book, I love that thing! I might make it one of those daily calendars or maybe just a 365 page book with a haiku for every day of the year. I feel like I could fill that up pretty easily, I write a lot of haikus.

start writing poems
with a pencil or sharpie
it doesn't matter

like giving props

2009-06-28T13:55:00.004-04:00

I would like to commend Smashing Magazine for their article today on improving your writing skills. As I'm sure anyone who has ready any of my blog entries knows, I take writing and grammar very seriously so to see an article like this posted on a very popular blog makes me incredibly happy.

The article has some fantastic resources that I really wish I had known about when I was in school getting my English Degree (not that surprising, eh?). There are sections on grammar, common mistakes, general writing skills, a section on copywriting, tools, and much more!

I encourage all of you (all three of you?) to go and check out some of the resources in this article and see where it can take you!

Happy writing!

online creeping... cha or nah?

2009-06-24T06:58:00.002-04:00

So obviously the world is changing. Besides the obvious passing of time and all natural wonders that come with it we are now experiencing the explosion of social networking. Between Facebook, Myspace (if you're 13), LinkedIn, Twitter, and other such networks you can know almost everything about somebody without ever having an actual conversation! So the question this brings to my mind is... online creeping... cha or nah? How much creeping before you become a creep? Where is the line and how many times are we going to cross it?

I think that it is not the "creeper" at fault if they obtain too much information. In all seriousness, people need to think about what they're putting out there for the world to see and realize that no matter the privacy preferences it's still pretty easy to access. So I say creep on creepers! If you don't want somebody to know something, don't put it online! From there it's a free-for-all, take what you will and give what you want.

nobody is very smart.

2009-06-02T08:05:00.006-04:00

So new goal, FIND THE SMART PEOPLE!

I've noticed that there is a serious lack of brain power in the world. Growing up I never thought that I was all that smart. Not embarrassing, just average. I guess I can attribute that to having a smart family and smart friends. A fool among fools feels no foolery. I just made that saying up, btw, and I like it. And yes I just said btw. Anyway, so surrounded by all these smart people I felt rather average, then I started to notice the world around me. If I'm not very smart, and I'm smarter than all of these people, then the world is doomed! I know I touched on this in my grammar post, but are you serious? College graduates, "ivy leaguers", and other such personalities missing basic concepts, sounding generally idiotic! Like I said before, I don't consider myself to be all that smart, but I'm going to start asking for IQ scores and administer basic comprehension tests before having a conversation with anyone. If this is how the entire world is then it's no wonder we're destroying the habitats of everything (including ourselves) and wreaking general havoc on the planet.

I don't want everyone to be like the smart people who are so smart that they're terrified to be dumb, because that's no fun. They just end up acting condescending to make sure you know that they're smarter, and if you actually outsmart them they may just start cheating at life (or scrabble) to prove their dominance over your brain.

So, new plan. I'm finding all the smart people.

Enkai was amazing.

2009-05-10T11:48:00.005-04:00

I didn't expect it to go any differently than it did, but I still want to tell everyone that my first time eating at Enkai (used to manage Shinshen) was fabulous. I've never written a restaurant review, so I'll just tell it like it was.

The menu was pretty much the same as when they had Shinshen. As far as I'm concerned that's a good thing. First thing's first, the location. I have to admit I was worried when I found out where they were going. That location hasn't had the best of luck with bars or restaurants, and it's not exactly a well traveled road. That being said, I love it! They did a great job decorating with local artwork without being over the top. My only complaint with the setup is I feel like we were sitting in a very dark spot and it was hard to read the menu. Everyone else seemed to have enough light, it was just that one table. Now onto the food. I had the sunomono (I think that's how you spell it) for an appetizer which is a cucumber salad with ginger, seaweed, crab, and a butterflied shrimp. This was one of my favorite items before and it is still fantastic. I am more than happy not to share. Also at the table was a miso soup (it disappeared too quickly for me to try some so I'll take it as a good sign) and edamame. I used to think that you couldn't mess up edamame until I had it at another restaurant where it was soaked in butter, but Enkai seasoned it perfectly. The rolls were delicious. Pictured above from right to left (approximately) is the Bourbon roll, crunchy spicy tuna, kyoto (another tuna roll), they dynamite, and the sunshine roll. The Bourbon was one of my favorites at Shinshen and it has not lost its quality. It has the perfect amount of crunch, sweetness, and just plain goodness. You can never go wrong with the tuna rolls, and the dynamite was dynamic as always. I'm pretty sure the sunshine is a new roll, I liked it. Unfortunately I do not have the memory to recall the contents. If anyone knows please comment, I'm sure everyone (including me) would love to know what goes in that or any of these rolls.

I hope this was informative and interesting for all, and I hope it encourages you to visit Enkai for an evening that is sure to impress. Just be sure to call to make reservations, it's no secret how good they are.

completely exhausted

2009-05-09T14:48:00.002-04:00

I am feeling completely exhausted today. My feet hurt from running around decorating for the birthday party at Coral World today. It's really cute, I did a pretty good job. Every time I have a party I buy a stuffed animal from the gift shop because they make great decorations, and I have some stiff paper fish that can be taped up around the Blue Water Terrace. I wish I had more decorations than this, but I really don't have enough parties here to have enough of a budget to buy anything else. This morning I went to KMart and spent $40 on candy, small toys, and clown fish that are meant to go in your bathtub to reduce slipping but work great for the food table decorations. I then decorated the area from 9AM to 10:45, right before the party arrived. For pretty much the duration of the 3 hour party I was running back and forth between my office and the party making sure everyone was happy. Finally at 2:15 (15 minutes after the party was over) I went down to clean up. I was overjoyed to see that they had cleaned the area, but unfortunately my decorations also got cleaned out. I feel awful and I definitely wouldn't try to charge them for it, but now I have to restock my decoration supply, with very little money available in the birthday area, and I have to explain why I didn't stop them from taking it. Ugh, it's just exhausting. I wonder how bigger aquariums handle decorations. Do they have enough money not to worry about "stolen" decorations? The answer may be unreachable to me, but still I wonder...

So, that's why I'm completely exhausted. But luckily I have a delicious Premium French Soda, Pomegranate, Organic, in a beautiful glass that Jason got me at lunch. Yay.

Everyone needs grammar lessons.

2009-05-07T07:45:00.005-04:00

I think that everyone should be required to consistently pass grammar and composition "tests" in order to continue functioning in society. I have noticed that as social media and email correspondence is increasing in social and professional settings, our attention to how we talk has gone completely down the drain. Right now, as I am checking Facebook updates, I am appalled at what people choose to share with the world. For the most part these are people who went to a college prep high school with me and moved on to Ivy League schools and other top notch colleges around the US. One girl read a book in which a few parts "in lightend" her. Now I could go on and on with things that annoy me that I see posted on Facebook and other social networking sites, but eventually someone is going to recognize something they said and that might end badly but what I really want to say is that we need to realize that it is important how you present yourself whether it's talking to you boss, your neighbor, or in 140 characters or less on Twitter. People are looking to find business relationships in ways that previous generations never would have imagined and if we are to have a fighting chance of avoiding Idiocracy. I can tell you that if I am ever in a managerial position where I am looking for new employees I will not be hiring the girl (or boy) who can't spell, can't write, and decides to post it all over the world.

I am not going to suggest putting a spell checker on every Facebook, Myspace or Twitter update, just think before you write.

sometimes i feel... like i am drunk behind the wheel.

2009-05-06T08:41:00.002-04:00

I would like to dedicate this blog to a song. Sometimes I feel like I'm drunk behind the wheel, sometimes I feel like throwing the wheel out the window and screaming at the top of my lungs, and sometimes I feel like grabbing the wheel and going with the flow.

"Sometimes I feel
Like I am drunk behind the wheel
The wheel of possibility
However it may roll
Give it a spin
See if you can somehow factor in
You know there's always more than one way
To say exactly what you mean to say" - Fastball, Out of My Head