Salient Sunday, Dec 19

Highlights of the Past Week!

1.) PARTIES! Saturday night was a holiday party hop as we drove from one party in Monroe to another in New Milford and ended at the last in Danbury. Monroe Party was hosted by some of Lover's friends, who wined and dined and chatted. New Milford Party was a relaxing stop with my Borders Crew, and was graciously hosted by Vinny and Kristen. (Shout out to the Borders Crew!) Danbury Party is a theme party that happens every year, hosted by my friend Kevin. This year's theme was "Xmas in Las Vegas," and people got dressed up in outrageous costumes as they always do (there were at least two Elvis', some burlesque dancers, and call girls). Gambling occurred in one corner, a crowded bar in another, games in the front, and dancing by the jukebox. Each party was special and filled with special people! ;)

2.) Sister Sleepover! My little sister (she's taller than me, though) slept over and we played Dragon Age before doing some gift shopping. We both love RPGs! Lover grumbled over the terrible graphics, but Sis and I can look beyond and get into the storylines. 'Cuz we're cool like that.

3.) Dinner with the 'Rents. The Mothership and her fiance came down to our place to see our totally cool lights on the house and our perfect holiday tree (we also call it the Xmas Tree, the Solstice Pine, and the Hanukkah Bush). Then we went out to eat in Fairfield to Centro, an Italian place that lets you draw on the table with crayons. Crayons FTW!

4.) Cards. The cards printed with my illustration came! I lettered about 80 cards for friends and family to be sent out in the mail. It took a long time, but I really enjoyed it!

5.) Shopping for Gifts. I am one of those people that will slowly start to shop for the holiday in mid-November, and then quickly finish it up at the last second. And I can't wait to give them away!

Cheers to everyone! Feel free to share your highlights with me!

Ricky Gervais: Why I am an Atheist

I don't think anyone should have to defend their position from any belief standpoint. I agree with Gervais in that beliefs only become a problem when they are forced upon other people. If you want to understand why some people may be atheist, and why they may feel strongly about it, check it out.

http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2010/12/19/a-holiday-message-from-ricky-gervais-why-im-an-atheist/?mod=wsj_share_facebook

Salient Sunday

Highlights of the week:

1.) The Bust Magazine 2010 Craftacular! Over 300 vendors with handmade and upcycled items. I got to see Mei-Ling and peruse her shop Twitch and Whiskers, and I accidentally bumped into Amy Sedaris' table. I got some ideas for gift-making, and Lover and I did some walking around in the City.

2.) I went with Lover and his parents to find a tree. We found our tree, and his parents found their tree, and celebration followed over lunch and drinks. Then Lover and I spent the evening decorating the tree and playing video games. We glued googly eyes to the star. Tree win!

3.) Continuous Learning Day (part of the AmeriCorps Public Allies program) happened in Bridgeport, and we got to learn more about the legislative process and how lobbyists and advocates come into the arena to introduce and fight for bills to pass. It's intense, and I'm even more intrigued about bills and policies.

4.) The Bridgeport Public Allies team had their Community Conversation, in which we received really constructive feedback to help inform our team service project. I'm really looking forward to seeing it happen.

5.) I finished my painting for a holiday card to send out to family and friends. I'll post it here after I send it out. Happy Holidays, people!

Expectations and Praise

I was thinking today about some of the sermons I listened to from the Unitarian Universalist Church of Danbury, where I am a member. Once per month, the church has a layperson lead the sermon, which leads to quite a fun variety in church services.

I specifically recall one where Joni Lowe, owner of Positive Energy Dance in Brookfield, talked about "the brag" and the "updive." Defying one of the pervasive aspects of our culture where people tend to hear more criticism than they do praise (whether or not it is true), the brag is a purposeful announcement of accomplishment in some area of one's life. It could be as simple as "I picked my dirty socks up from off the floor this morning," to "I found the cure to cancer." The updive is the purposeful response containing only high praise ("You picked up your socks, when really you didn't have to? Wow! Way to get organized!" "You found the cure for cancer? You deserve a Nobel Prize.")

The intent is to cultivate a culture wherein merit is given where merit is due, even for the merest and smallest of chores, even things that are expected or easy. Yes, I can expect that people should clean up after themselves, but really, that's my placing a personal value judgment to an action. Action (and inaction) exists no matter my opinion.

I bring this up only because my co-worker today mentioned that she was going to pick up her daughter's report card. Her daughter has been a straight A student since kindergarten (she is now in high school), and got an 84 in math. My co-worker was stressed out about her husband's reaction to their daughter's slip in the grade. Then she shared with me that he would criticize their daughter even if she got a 98 on a test ("What happened to the other two points?") rather than praising her for getting a good grade in the first place.

I can attest from personal experience that this is a dangerous road to take on a child's grades.

I can understand where we're allowed to have certain expectations in certain relationships and in communities, jobs, etc. However, our expectations can lead to a lot of disappointment and conflict. There has to be give and take, and there has to be praise and recognition of the positive, and if an expectation is not met, there has to be a fair dialogue. Meaning, if I expect something of another person and they don't meet my expectation, I have to determine whether or not it is a fair expectation, and if I'm sure it is, how can I and the other person work together to have it met...if the other person is even interested in meeting it.
Of course, this isn't always easy. But, that's life. It is a work in progress.

I'm not a parent, so I have the luxury of time to think and consider my actions. I hope that if one day I have a child who gets a 98 on a test, I will say, "Great job! I'm so proud of you!" And if the question she or he missed is an indication that they needed to study that particular part of the topic a little more, I'd help them with it. Becaue it's my expectation that they do their best and improve upon themselves when they can.

Anyway, anyone who reads this blog is totally allowed to leave a brag, to which I will respond with an updive, no matter how insignificant your action may have been to some.

Bridgeport Help Portrait 2010

Help Portrait is a global not for profit movement that provides free portrait photography to families and individuals in need. I and a few other Public Allies got to be a part of the movement this past Saturday in Bridgeport. It only took a few hours of our time in printing out pictures, taking on-scene photos, doing set-up and breakdown, and signing folks in.

The Bridgeport organizers of this totally awesome event gathered professional photographers, make-up artists, and more volunteers to help the day run smoothly - and so it did! We had approximately 250 families in a span of five hours. Individuals got a free 5 x 7 and families got an 8 x 10, as well as forwarded e-mails or burned CDs of their photos.

 

I got to walk around and spend time with some of the participants. I sat down and talked with one woman who lost her son the year before. She told me about how she still sees her son in her grandson's face and in his antics. Another woman brought in her three little girls - seven, four, and four months. We drew with crayons together. Help Portrait's slogan is "A picture is worth." The people coming in were thrilled to get their make up done and see professonal pictures of themselves and/or of their family. I saw a lot of moms bringing in their kids to pose, smiling as they fussed over their hair and clothes. There was a lot of laughter and good feeling in the atmosphere.

I can't wait for next year, when we can do it again! Whether you volunteer, or you are a recipient of volunteer services, there's more to it than the actual service supplied. In this case, the service supplied was a nice portrait. Beyond that, we (both volunteers and recipients) are building bridges and creating community. Community is what supports and strengthens us as social creatures. Anyone can volunteer, and anyone can share a smile, a story, or solace.

"A picture is worth."

Salient Sunday

Salient is a word that describes a feature that is prominent, conspicuous, most noticeable or important. In topography or architecture it is that section which juts out to form an angle.

Really, Salient Sunday is just the day where I talk about the highlights of my week. And, my week will include 9 days instead of 7 this time.

So, in the extended week of November 27th to today, December 5th, the highlights were (and not in order of importance):

1.) Having potato latkes and celebrating Hanukkah with Lover's family. I love celebrating holidays now. Any of them. Just the fun ones.

2.) Volunteering in the Bridgeport Help Portrait 2010 event!

3.) Seeing my Forest Folk friends for plenty of food, community, and crafts!

4.) Recrafting an altoid tin with pretty paper and glitter. Simple crafts are a great break from fine arts stuff.

5.) Painting two more pictures for Kathy's children's book.

6.) Getting a hemoglobin count of 13.2. A good count is 12-15, and as a vegetarian, 13.2 is great!

7.) Building a raised garden bed with Lover in the backyard. It's 32' long!

8.) Putting up the holiday lights on the roof of the house and on the tree in the front yard, and getting to come home to their rosy glow everyday since.

9.) Finishing "The Joy of Living" by Tibetan monk Yongey Mingur Rinpoche and starting "The Female Brain" by neuropsychiatrist Louann Brizendine.

10.) The condom demonstration! For those who don't know, part of my job is sex education, and we finally got to "Ok, we want you to wait until you are ready to have sex, and when you are ready, to know how to put a condom on correctly to prevent against pregnancy and STDs." There were many humorous moments.

If you have any salient moments or events from your week that you'd like to put out there, feel free to comment!

Merry December!

It is finally getting cold in Connecticut. Though we had some chilly days in November, there were plenty of bright, beautiful and nothing brumal.

In my old blog, I had started listing monthly goals and accomplishments, here, for all to see, for extra motivation on meeting the goals. I’ve been remiss in that, and have decided to correct it.
So, drum roll please…

Goals for December:

1.) Starting with health. I have been performing a weekly session of yoga. I am increasing my minimum of sessions to twice per week (at 30 minutes each), plus a minimum of one 30 minute session of dance. I have ceased running because I dislike the cold… But it’s not entirely out of the picture. My ultimate goal is to do cardiovascular exercise everyday for at least 30 minutes, but I am taking it step by step. The yoga relaxes my mind, makes my body feel young and limber, and helps protect against injuries in running or dancing.

2.) Again with health. I am looking to reduce my intake in calories, especially empty calories like fried foods, and sweets. But I have such HORRENDOUS chocolate cravings. I have cut out the extra mochas and hot chocolates by reducing my budget for them. Foods filled with proteins and plenty of fiber will help with hunger cravings (as will drinking plentiful water), but I don’t know what will help with the chocolate. Any ideas? Right now my goal is no more than one hot chocolate per day, and no more than one serving of chocolate dessert, be it in the form of candy or baked goods.

3.) Make and send out holiday cards. I always think of it too late every year. I am going to make it a priority.

4.) Consolidate the boxes in the basement – I am still unpacked! But I know I can reduce the amount of boxes and the amount of space being taken up, so I will work on doing that. Starting first with unearthing Lover’s workbench.  ;)

5.) Get the sewing machine out, working, and sew some things I’ve been wanting to sew.

6.) Work on the gift idea that Lover and I had for some peeps. It’s an awesome idea – we just have to get to doing it!

Thanksgiving Weekend

I can't contain the effects of this past weekend (a nice, long weekend thanks to the secular holiday of Thanksgving).

1.) The holiday itself. Lover and I went with his family in NYC. His aunt and uncle own a house where a lot of the extended family gathers each year. They hired a piano player and had hours of sing-alongs. When the piano player left, another uncle put on a CD of some great hip-hop tunes to which people danced. Meanwhile, the roughly 25 of us that were present chatted, mingled, rocked our hips and sipped wine and beer. When we sat down for dinner finally, everyone around the table named things they were thankful for. I said I was thankful for my family, my dog Malai, my job, and for their family.

2.) Black Friday. I'm not a big shopper. But since Lover's family makes Thanksgiving a three-day event (!), we drove back into the city, and had dinner again. We walked around and happened upon a craft fair in Union Square where Lover and I invested in some art for our kitchen (aren't these the cutest??? My favorite is the one-eyed furry guy named Gnaw. The artist is kudu-lah and has an etsy shop.) Lover and I share a thing for art that might be considered a little strange...

We also found a snail for our aquarium (yes, we have been looking). His name is Happy. And he leaves trails...get it??? He'll also help maintain the cleanliness of the tank which makes for healthier fish.

We visited the megastore of all Petcos. I never realize how much the NYC Petco offered - kittens for adoption, and a giant variety of creatures and creature accoutrements. I saw so many cool crustaceans that Lover decided it was time for me to be removed from the store. I'll admit the idea was a good one, because I can be a impulse pet buyer (but I am also an excellent pet caretaker, and my impulse occurs only after I have googled the care needs and history of the animal in question with my phone - yay for technology!).

We visited The Strand, a very large used bookstore. Used bookstores are of course among my favorite things of all time. I was removed from that store as well before the buying really began. :)

And then we went by a really eco-friendly recycling type of store whose name I can't for the life of me recall! Lover bought me a wallet made of Tyvek (he really thinks I would do better to carry one), which is a material that cannot be ripped and acts as a barrier against liquid water (water vapor can penetrate, but that is not an issue). I was curious about the sustainability/recycling aspect and found this (from Wikipedia) among confirming info from other sites:

 "Though Tyvek superficially resembles paper (for example, it can be written and printed on), it is plastic, and it cannot be recycled with paper. Despite the fact that some Tyvek products are marked with the #2 resin-code for HDPE, it is not usually collected with plastic bottles as part of municipal curbside recycling programs. Instead, DuPont runs a program in the United States where disposable clothing, coveralls, lab coats, and other Tyvek disposable garments can be recycled, as well as providing a mail-in recycling program for envelopes."

So it seems to me that Tyvek is only eco-friendly when is it is being continually used or repurposed. The kit DuPont uses to recycle (it's actually downcycle) Tyvek costs you $15. A Tyvek wallet is a good example of Tyvek being eco-friendly, because it need not go into a landfill, unless I purposely try to wreck it with scissors, in which case it can still be reused for something else or it can be sent to DuPont. However, it is still plastic. Plastic does not biodegrade - it photodegrades, meaning it becomes tiny particles present in our soil and water. Plastic is forever. This is why I am not a fan of plastic bags at stores, and carry my own cloth bags. The unfortunate effect of downcycling is that the materials produced are of a lesser quality than the original item.

However, it's an awesome wallet - thin, lightweight, and highly durable. It'll last me many, many years, and then if I get tired of it, I can always send it to a place like Unstitched Utilities, which reuses Tyvek to create shoes.

3.) Saturday. We woke up early, played video games, and fell back asleep. We woke up again, and then decided to put lights on one of our trees on the front lawn. That turned into lights for the tree and the whole house!

But I can't tell you how delightful it is to come home to a colorfully lit house for the holidays.

4.) Sunday. Not such a relaxing day, but a productive one. Lover and I built a raised garden bed for the backyard - 32 feet long! I'm so glad to have that and the vermicomposting started. I still want to build an outdoor composter. I already have a lot of seeds (yay for seed sharing with friends), but January and February will mean ordering ones I don't have, and March is indoor planting time!

And that is about the sum of my Thanksgiving weekend. I hope yours was wonder-full.

Annelids!

I wrote a blog in which I was waiting for worms. Since the arrival of the worms, I have yet to share my excitement and fascination with this admittedly odd project. 

(I say that it's odd only because it is outside the knowledge and trend of the mainstream society, though worms are a natural option for composting processes.)

Worm composting is known as vermicomposting, and the "movement" and process of vermicomposting is known as vermiculture. After reading "Worms Eat My Garbage" and ordering a vermicomposter and a pound of Eisenia fetida (red wigglers, as your run-of-the-mill earthworm will not survive in the vermicomposter), I can now say I am a participant in vermiculture, and my kitchen scraps don't go into a landfill. Woot!

I prepared the vermicomposter with their bedding - a layer of coir to start, with a layer of shredded newspaper and cardboard. In one corner I put some tomatoes and lettuce leaves that were starting to go bad.

The worms are packaged in peat moss and travel for two days. Worms need moisture to breathe through their skin, and peat moss contains just enough moisture for them to travel. I imagine they are much happier now in their new home!

Every other evening I walk down into my basement with about a pound of food scraps and shredded newspaper (a 1/2 pound of substance per day per pound of worms for feeding). I place the food with the newspaper on top (good fiber!) in a different spot each time for the worms and all the other microorganisms that come with them to work their magic! It has been about two weeks, and already I can see a change. Worm poo everywhere.

Let's be honest, folks. A lot of dirt is worm poo. Good compost is a healthy mix of worm poo (called castings) and decomposed "stuff" forming a rich, earthy humus that plants love. Healthy, organic soil means healthy plants, which can lead to a healthy you.

Giving Thanks

It's the holiday of gratitude and abundance, for most.

My own hope every time this holiday comes around, is that I can maintain at attitude of gratitude throughout the whole year. Sometimes I forget about the little blessings, and sometimes I am acutely aware of just how fortunate I really am.

So, I am challenging myself to think of 30 things within the next 15 minutes. My list of what I am grateful for, and not in order of importance:

1. My brain. It sometimes is not functioning at the level I would like it to be, but it has allowed me to be adaptable, to learn, and to progress as a human being.

2. My mother and my sister. I would not be here without them.

3. My love. He is loving, supportive, understanding, accepting, funny, intelligent, empowering, and a number of other adjectives that make him wonderful and inspire me to be a better me.

4. Malai. She is the bee's knees. Even though she's a dog, and not a bee.

5. My friends. Especially the besties.

6. My ridiculous amount of pets aside from Malai. They provide much amusement, and an opportunity to care. That's Phoenix (FiFi) the snake, Crabulon the Mighty and The Kraken the crabs, and the six goldfish: Queen Marigold, Frosty, Fin, Pebble, Midas, and Silverbutt. And I suppose I shouldn't forget the one thousand worms who are composting my kitchen scraps in the basement, all known as Veronica Jrs. 

7. My health. I am living, breathing, walking, and I am also grateful for the urge and the resolve I have to maintain at least a good level of health.

8.. My houseplants. I get a sense of well-being whenever I am caring for them, and I am grateful for that.

9. I said my friends already, but I also want to specifically give a shout out to the Forest Folk. I love you, guys.

10. Public Allies. The people.

11. Public Allies. The program. 

12. This blog and my journal. Both help to keep me sane.

13. Art supplies. They provide promise.

14. The creative urge that I have to satisfy. It keeps me going.

15. Shelter. I have a home and a bed to sleep in, plus awesome people and pets living with me. 

16. Nature.  Nothing makes me feel better than taking a walk along wooded paths, or taking in a view of a rainbow over the Rocky Mountains, or just looking at the Rocky Mountains themselves, or taking a plunge into clean, ocean water, or observing Nature's creatures big and small. Nature is awesome.

17. Access to the internet.

18. Books. Books are awesome.

19. Eyesight. I am thankful for being able to see.

20. Legs. I am thankful for strong, healthy legs that can carry me far.

21. My dancing pole. I love my dancing pole, and the opportunity it gives me to feel strong and sexy.

22. Music. I am so very thankful for music.

23. Oxygen. Go planet Earth!

24. Bills. Yes, I am thankful for bills. They indicate that I am able to afford things that other people in the world might not be able to afford, or even have access to.

25. My right to vote and my right to civic engagement. Some people don't have that.

26. Time. I am thankful for the time that I do have.

27. I am thankful for language, and I mean language in all its forms. It provides connection to others.

28. I am thankful for crayons. 'Nuff said.

29. Yoga. Both the asanas (physical postures) and the philosophy.

30. Humor. I am grateful for a sense of humor.

So, I could be more specific with a lot of things, and I am definitely missing things. But there's a lot to be grateful for, all year round. Like, this octopus below.

LOL. I've been looking for an excuse to post him. He's so cute!!!

Happy Thanksgiving.