Recently in Laine's haphazard life Category
My Garden's Mystery Death
I've been on an urban farming kick lately (tune in next week for some great photos and other dispatches from a thriving urban farm in St. Paul!) and I've been trying to turn a corner of my backyard into a small edible garden. So this spring my better half and I built a raised bed, planted seeds, and waited anxiously. Most of the seeds germinated, but once up, they stalled. Nothing was getting bigger and, then, some of the plants started to get yellow spots and die.
Something nefarious was happening to our plants. But what? Copious research [read: a quick google search] ruled out pests, underwatering, and overwatering. We figured the raised bed and compost effectively ruled out poor soil. Finally, we told our neighbor about our plight, and he said, "Oh, sure, the problem is the black walnut tree."
Turns out the black walnut -- a beautiful tree prized for its high-quality wood -- gives off a plant toxin that kills other plants in the vicinity! The chemical, called juglone, is concentrated in the tree's roots, buds, and nut hulls, with a much smaller amount in the leaves. Any plant near the tree's roots or in the canopy's drip path will be affected. Our raised bed was right under a stately but poisonous black walnut.
I've been badmouthing the black walnut ever since. I've wished it every sort of harm you can imagine. So today I wanted to clear my karma by trying to find some good things to say about black walnuts (don't you imagine there's a special sort of punishment for people who go around badmouthing trees?!). First, as I mentioned, black walnut wood is incredibly valuable. If you have a full-grown tree, you could sell the wood for a mint. Or plant one as an investment -- for your great, great grandchildren. Second, some things supposedly do grow under a black walnut. I haven't tried them yet, but here's a partial list of plants that can survive this poison tree:
Plants/Trees that tolerate Black Walnut Trees:
Beech
Black raspberry
Bleeding Heart
Catalpa
Cherry
Chestnut
Chrysanthemum
Clematis
Crabapple
Flowering dogwood
Hollyhock
Honeysuckle
Jacob's Ladder
Juniper
Kentucky bluegrass
Locust
Maple
PawPaw
Red Cedar
Tulip
Wild grape
Backyard Breakfast
My breakfast this morning came entirely from my garden! I had 6 radishes (dusted with sea salt) and 10 strawberries. They tasted incredible, and you can't beat the feeling (or the price) of just walking out to the yard and picking what you've grown.
I've been gardening for a handful of years, but I'm learning new things about the garden everyday. I thought I would do a couple posts on some of the more helpful garden advice I've come across lately. To start, here's a list of edibles that do well in part shade. Urban gardeners often have one or two shady spots in their yard, and most edibles like all day sun. But these plants can get by with only 4 to 6 hours of direct sun each day. And some of them, like peas and radishes, are quick to mature so you can grow two crops of them each summer instead of one (plant one crop in early spring, one in early fall and -- voila! -- you have two harvests in one summer).
Edibles that can tolerate part shade:
Beets
Carrots
Cauliflower
Chard
Cucumber
Lettuce
Onion
Parsley
Peas
Radishes
Spinach
Winter squash
How do you eat raw garlic?
I've read that you get the most benefit from garlic when you eat it raw (that is, raw garlic gives you the most free-radical fighting power). I love garlic -- when its roasted or sauteed or cooked in any way. But raw? The only palatable way I've found to eat raw garlic is to blend some raw cloves in white bean dip. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to eat more raw garlic?
Kava Test Run
I was feeling stressed the other day and so I bought some Kava extract. A tall shrub that grows in the South Pacific, Kava is said to ease anxiety and help with insomnia. I remember hearing about its wonders when I worked at the co-op years ago.
I took some when I got home from the store and I felt.... absolutely nothing (except for the tingle that alcohol-based tinctures leave in my mouth). I tried again the next day and nothing! Maybe I'm immune to relaxation? If anyone has had a different, more successful Kava experience, let me know!
My Caffeinated Morning
I like coffee, and I especially like lattes. But to keep myself from spending my life savings at the coffee shop, I only allow myself to get a latte when I can scrape together enough spare change to afford one. This usually results in me tearing apart the house looking for dimes.
This morning I came up short. All I could find were some Canadian pennies and a handful of "Eat Local!" buttons I picked up at the State Fair a few years ago. So, I grabbed my French press and made my own. And making my own reminded me of a few money-saving and deliciousness-enhancing tips when making your own coffee:
1. Look for a burr grinder, which coffee connoisseurs say are superior to blade grinders, at a secondhand shop. I found a barely used, pristine condition burr grinder there for $8. The only trouble was that the previous owner used the grinder for flavored coffee and the smell of Irish Crème still lingered. So I used this old tip...
2. Run bread chunks through the grinder. The bread absorbs the smell. Problem solved.
3. Pay attention to water quality. Coffee is about 98 percent water, and so the quality of water you use makes a big difference. Use filtered when you can, but avoid distilled. When water is distilled, all the naturally-occurring minerals are removed and that will make your coffee taste flat.
4. If using a French press, choose a pot with an all stainless steel plunger that can be disassembled and put in the dishwasher or scrubbed vigorously by hand. The coils on the plunger collect oils from the coffee beans over time and can turn your brew bitter.
5. Caution: You can put the all-glass carafe from your French press in the dishwasher, but give it wide berth. I cracked my first French press when I put it too close to a bowl in the dishwasher. Now I usually just scrub the pot with vinegar (to break down the oils) by hand.
Okay, happy coffee drinking! And happy Friday!
Energy Indulgences
A new study in the UK has found that people who made energy efficient improvements on their homes are more likely to indulge in energy excesses -- thereby defeating the purpose of the improvements!
As The New Scientist (March 20-26, 2010) reports, "Small excesses add up to large costs. The results of the studies -- seven of them in total -- suggest that such energy creep could wipe out as much as half of the anticipated savings from making homes more energy efficient."
Not only are homeowners losing out on monetary savings, but officials fear that target reduction rates for energy consumption might not be achievable.
We had insulation put into our old house (built in 1928) this year and I know that I've fallen victim to the "Well, now that it's insulated, let's crank the heat!" mentality, but this is a good reminder not to give myself an 80-degree pat on the back for being so energy efficient on a cold winter night.
An Update from Everyday
I put a lot of pressure on myself to blog and blog well, which translates into me blogging way less than I want to. I always think, "Gosh, I should have some really illuminating point to make and my prose should be shiny and perfect." But today as I was trying -- and struggling -- to think of something illuminating and shiny, I realized that perhaps the most interesting and useful things I could share are the most mundane.
So here goes:
I've been reading for pleasure a lot lately. Here are some of the better books I've read:
1. The James Deans by Reed Farrel Coleman -- This is a classic hard-boiled detective novel set in 1980s Brooklyn. It's a fun read, a good mystery, and Farrel Coleman has some great one-liners. It's an easy read and diverting. Read it if you like whodunits, the 80s, and/or The Maltese Falcon.
2. Raymond Carver: A Writer's Life by Carol Sklenicka -- This is a terrific biography because it is so detailed. Read it if you are a big Carver fan or if you like extremely bleak true-life stories.
3. Game Change by John Heilemann and Mark Halperin -- No matter what your political stripes, this chronicle of the 2008 election will alternately amuse you, scare you, shock you, and keep you on the edge of your seat (even though you know the outcome). My only caveat is not to read this book before bed; some of the chapters made me really anxious and then I couldn't sleep.
4. The Sun magazine -- And I don't mean the gossip mag. I mean the other one. Every time I read this magazine, I am both totally inspired and totally depressed. It's an odd but not unwelcome feeling. Try it.
Second, here's an easy recipe for chipotle hot sauce. I've been addicted to this stuff lately. Warning: its really hot, but its worth it. (The recipe, which I adapted slightly, is from the terrific cookbook Vegan with a Vengeance by Isa Chandra Moskowitz. Vegans and non-vegans alike should own this cookbook.)
- Cut up one large onion and about 4 cloves of garlic
- Saute the onion and the garlic in olive oil on medium-low heat for about 10 minutes
- Add two chipotle peppers in adobo sauce (these are canned chipotles that usually come in a blue can). Be careful, the peppers are really hot and if you get any sauce on your hand, wash it off right away
- Sautee for another minute or so
- Put the onions, garlic, and chipotle pepper sauté in a mixing bowl and add some water (about ¼ Cup, or more if you want a thinner sauce)
- Blend with an immersion blender
Voila! You have an awesome hot sauce. I usually eat it over black beans or I use it as a dip for chips or I mix it with Mayo and put on sandwiches.
Finally, here's my new favorite kitchen tool: the immersion blender (which plays a seminal role in the hot sauce recipe). This thing is so versatile and great and SO much easier than the regular blender for so many things. It's awesome for blending soups, sauces, dips, you name it. I find most of my kitchen gadgets secondhand, but I couldn't find an all-stainless steel immersion blender at the value village, so I saved up and bought it from the kitchen store. In my opinion, totally worth the price!
High-End Kitchen Equipment, REALLY Low Prices
The absolute best place to
buy fancy -- or any -- kitchen gadgetry is the second hand store. Consignment
stores always have truckloads of never used or barely used kitchen items -- my
theory is that people buy fancy kitchen gadgets believing that simply having
them will magically make them want/like/have time to cook, but when that doesn't
happen, and the gadget has been in the box unopened for a year, they drop them
off at the thrift store -- which means you can have a gourmet kitchen on a
college student's budget. Here are some of the standout items I have found at
thrift stores:
- Atlas Stainless Steel Pasta Machine, $7.00 (Retails new for around $90.00)
- Le Crueset Enameled Cast Iron French Oven 9qt., $30.00 (Retail: $299.00)
- Le Crueset Halo Enamel-on-Steel 1.5qt Tea Kettle , $3.00 (Retail: $55.00)
- Cuisinart Stainless Steel Automatic Burr Mill Coffee Grinder, $4.99 (Retail: 50.00)
- Cuisinart Ice Cream Maker, $12.00 (Retail: $50.00)
- Williams-Sonoma Glass Cake Platter, $6.99 ($65.00)
- Marble rolling pin, $2.99 (Retail: $80.00)
I could go on and on because pretty much my whole kitchen has come from the consignment store -- all my pots and pans; all my cake, bread and muffin pans; all my baking tools -- at a fraction of retail price.
Having said that, I'm a person who believes you don't need any fancy kitchen gadgets to be a good cook or to enjoy cooking. New York Times food columnist and cookbook author Mark Bittman makes all his meals and tests all the recipes for his cookbooks in his tiny Manhattan apartment. For all the great kitchen stuff I have picked up at the thrift store, I make almost every meal with a pot or skillet, a wooden spoon, and a sharp knife. That's it.
If you need some kitchen staples or gadgets, head to the consignment store, but don't let lack of equipment stop you from cooking! Pretty much all it takes to make dinner is the desire to do so!
Wardrobe Malfunction
This morning I was walking to the bus stop and I was halfway there when I realized I was wearing two different shoes: one with a heel and one without.
Yep, that's right, I walked a block didn't notice that each half of my body was at a different height. It was like when you drive somewhere and when you arrive at your destination you can't remember any part of the drive.
Numerous and varied studies have shown that we often don't pay quality attention to the things around us. Whenever I read one of those studies, my first thought is, "Sure, maybe that happens to other people, but not me! I always know what's going on around me!" I guess I have to revise my self-assessment.
I know this much: I better start paying attention when I'm getting dressed or tomorrow I might show up at work with my pants on backwards.
My TV got stolen....and I love it!
Okay, so it didn't exactly get stolen. I am selling my old house and I used the TV to stage it. Since we're a one TV family, that means we're going without in our new house.
I panicked at first. "How will I fill my nights?" I gasped. "What will I do?" The answer, it turns out, is a lot! It turns out I LOVE not having a TV. Here are some of the things I've rediscovered:
1. I'm learning to play the piano.
2. I'm cooking more. Without a show or a Netflix to plop down in front of, I think, "Gosh, maybe I'll make dinner." And then I do.
3. I'm reading again. Sure, I read regularly; I'm an editor. But back when we had our TV and I would get home from work, I'd tell myself, "Ugh, I've been editing all day. I'm sick of reading! I'll just watch TV." But it turns out that was just an easy excuse to watch TV. I have plenty of mental space left for books -- and now I have the time to read them!
4. My better half and I are spending more time doing actual interactive things. Several nights in a row last week we sat at the dining room table and played board games. We played chess. We got out the video camera and filmed our dogs doing tricks.
We've been having so much fun without the TV, we don't know if we want it back. We're thinking we might keep it in the basement when we get it back and drag it up only for the occasional movie.
Touting the Benefits of Tea
Last
Saturday, I tumbled out of bed and headed straight to the library. I had to return
a book before the doors opened or I'd get a fine.
I'm
not a morning person. At the library, I staggered around the parking lot, hand
to brow, groaning, "Caaaaaw-feeeeeee...Caaaaaw-feeeeee," while drivers swerved to
avoid hitting me.
Finally,
my exasperated better half said, "Listen, you're not going to make it to the
coffee shop [still a few blocks away from the library]. As a matter of public
safety, you need caffeine right now, and there is a tea shop across the street.
Let's go."
Too
weak to resist, I stumbled to the tea shop. I love tea, but I knew that this
morning required something stronger. I resigned myself and started chugging an
Assam. It was surprisingly invigorating, and it tasted great.
I
wound up having coffee later (force of habit), but the rightness of that
morning tea got me wondering about tea, how it differs from coffee, and its
health benefits.
Here's
what I know so far:
- All true tea comes from the same plant -- camellia sinensis -- which means all tea contains caffeine. BUT, tea has much less caffeine than coffee, often as much as 50% less.
- Unlike coffee, tea contains the amino acid L-theanine, which can cross the blood-brain barrier and have calming effects on the brain.
- The combination of caffeine and L-theanine in tea makes it the perfect non-jittery pick-me-up. The caffeine makes you more alert and awake, and the L-theanine helps you concentrate and stay focused.
- If you want less caffeine in your tea, you can steep tea leaves for 30-45 seconds, then discard the water and re-steep the same leaves in new hot water. This will reduce the amount of caffeine in your cup of tea between 20 and 50%
This salmon would be perfect with just a pinch of To Kill a Mockingbird
I love eating alone in restaurants. It's just me, a good book, and no pressure to make idle chit-chat. But on my recent excursion to Iowa City for a workshop, I made a point of putting down my book at least during the main course.
I've been trying to pay more attention to what I eat while I'm eating it, aware that if I'm nose deep in a good book while I chomp away, I'm missing out on the pleasure of what I'm eating. Plus, it's been shown that people who don't pay attention while they eat snarf down waaay more than people who are paying attention. (For more on the fascinating psychology behind how much we eat and why, read Mindless Eating by Cornell University food researcher Brian Wansink. Great book. For more on why taking pleasure in what you eat matters, see "Eating With Pleasure," an new EL interview with nutritional psychologist Marc David).
The second reason I'm trying to give up reading during the main course is because restaurant plates are usually so big I can't see over them to my book while I eat -- and its not okay to sit on my knees in a restaurant just to get the height I need to see the printed page!
Turned out for the best, though: being fully present for the funnel cake I ate after the salmon was worth the literary absence.
(And if you find yourself in Iowa City, stop by the Motley Cow for brunch, lunch and dinner; they use fresh, local, organic ingredients and the atmosphere is charming and homey. Plus, their funnel cake is the only fried food I've ever eaten and not immediately felt like I would get type-2 diabetes.)
Distraction: The Secret to Increased Productivity
I spent the morning thinking about flying pigs.
This is just a quick dispatch to tell you that I was working on a blog post (no, not this one), and it had been dragging on all morning. Not sure why. Maybe, I thought, I'm distracted by the economy. But, no, that's not it. I haven't been all that worried because the way I figure: if all heck breaks loose in the markets, we'll all be sunk -- and there's no comfort like company.
Then I thought: maybe I'm too excited about tonight's vice presidential debate (now that's my kind of sporting event!) to focus. But this presidential contest has been going on for over a year, and I've managed to get plenty of other things accomplished. So scratch that.
Is it the leaky plumbing in my new house? Goodness knows I don't want a mold problem. Could be, I guess. Is it that today's my birthday? Maybe. I did spend a few minutes this morning dreaming of what I would buy for myself if someone gifted me $10,000 (top candidate: a new, high-efficiency furnace).
Then, I thought: maybe its just plain, old-fashioned restlessness. You know, the stare-into-space-for-no-reason-at-all-despite-your-best-efforts-to-focus kind of day. The day when you try to get to the point (of your blog post, your work project, your dirty dishes, you name it) but nothing helps.
These days strike once in a while, and, in my experience, there isn't much we can do to hurry them along. They serve some purpose, I've decided. Maybe it's the brain's way of taking charge and mandating a break from our continual multitasking. Maybe it's the only way our brains can get a vacation from our usual high-speed routines.
Whatever it is, I've been trying not to get upset at myself for what I perceive as lack of ambition and focus (which is my tendency). Instead, I've been trying to expand my definition of success beyond productivity and "getting things done." I'm trying think of taking a break, staring into space, pondering everything and nothing all at once, as just as necessary as being productive.
And, look: I managed to produce something anyway -- this blog post. Giving in to my distraction netted me the result I hoped to achieve in the first place. Sure, it's not the first post I started to write, but it's probably better than the original one I couldn't get off the ground.
Did Someone Say Deep Fried Snickers on a Stick?
I love the Minnesota State Fair, which is weird, because, in isolation, every individual component of the Fair is one that I despise.
I mean, please! The large crowds, the transfats, the smell of livestock. And I swear you can get Hepatitis C just by looking at the carnival rides.
Yet, inexplicably, the Fair is one of my favorite events of the year. I cannot explain why. Maybe it is the unbridled conviviality. Maybe it is the late August days, languid without being melancholy (a rare feat, I find). Maybe it is the fantastic crop art (It really IS amazing); or the 90-pound butter sculptures of Princess Kay of the Milky Way; or the prize-winning banana breads and jams and flower arrangements and pumpkins and you name it. And maybe, just maybe, it's the deep-fried pickles on a stick, though I wouldn't know since I would never eat something so unhealthy.
Ahem.
What do you find inexplicably happy-making? Whatever it is, I say make it a small (or big!) part of your day today. The hectic pace and perma-stress of modern life often crowds out life's giddy little joys. So before the more serious and scholarly mindset of autumn rolls around -- and we roll back our sleeves and set our minds to big projects and prepare for winter -- sneak out of your obligations for an afternoon and do something giddy and silly and wonderful.
You won't regret it.
And if your indulgence happens to be the same as mine, I'll meet you at Sweet Martha's cookie stand. But I'm not splitting my bucket of cookies. You'll have to get your own! (Not, of course, that I would know what those unhealthy cookies taste like. I mean, please!).
Make a Political Statement -- Take a Nap
At the rate The Squirrel (above) naps, she's the most political dog in the world.
True to my last post, and with the idea of vacations and taking a break on my mind (see my last post), I headed up the block to TeaSource for a cup of afternoon tea.
While I was en route, a car drove past with the following bumper sticker: "The most radical thing a woman can do is rest when she is tired."
How apropos!
And what a great perspective: resting as a political act, as taking a stand against our culture of perpetual inertia and constant productivity. Napping isn't just for the tired anymore! It's the pursuit of the true reformer and activist.
So, good citizens -- women and men -- take a stand against being overworked and harried! Do something radical! Take a nap!
How to Dog Proof Your Yard
My dogs own my deck.
At my house, the arrival of summer means a spontaneous doubling of living space: my deck becomes the brightly-lit reading, dining and crafting room. My backyard fire pit becomes a second kitchen. My clothesline becomes my de facto dryer. My front steps become my phone booth (real classy like, I know). And on and on.
I'm not the only one. My dogs are also outside with a vengeance, barking at defenseless older people as they walk by and scavenging for maple tree helicopters and rocks as the mood strikes. They've also claimed the deck chairs as their own (see photographic evidence, above).
But that brings me to the matter at hand: Sharing the backyard with Spot isn't always a seamless endeavor, especially if the human family members want a garden and the canine family members treat the yard like an all-you-can-eat-buffet. There's also the matter of safety for both pets and humans.
So here's some advice on how to have a beautiful backyard/extra summer living space that's also fido-friendly -- and safe for all:
1. Say NO to pesticides -- Cancer risk is much higher for pets in homes where pesticides are regularly applied to the lawn. Remember, they are putting all four paws and often their noses directly into whatever goes on the grass. They're also bringing the toxins inside with them (and so are you if you step in the lawn) where the toxins become dangerous indoor dust that everyone in the family breathes in (and even more is getting tracked onto furniture or the bed if you let your dogs lounge in those spots). Avoid chemical lawn treatments and embrace natural weed control instead, including:
• Corn gluten meal -- inhibits seed germination and is a pre-emergent weed killer. Apply in early spring before weeds come up.2. Un-treat your lumber -- Treated lumber is loaded with nasty chemicals, including arsenic, that can leach into the dirt where Fido digs and sometimes snacks. Stick with untreated cedar for garden borders or fencing.
• Mulch -- mulches help control weeds naturally, but avoid using cocoa bean mulch in any area where dogs have free rein. Cocoa is toxic for dogs when ingested.
• Rock gardens -- Rocks as mulch are also pretty, and are generally safe for Spot. But if your dog is a serious backyard grazer, avoid them -- especially if the rocks are small and your dog is small (big things happen fast in small intestinal tracks). Eating too many rocks can cause intestinal blockage and, in some cases, death.
• Let your yard go natural -- this is perhaps the healthiest (and simplest and cheapest) option for your personal health, for your pet's health and for the environment.
3. Fix-up burned grass naturally -- The backyard doubles as your dog's bathroom and you can often tell exactly where they go #1 because of the burned grass. Apply Gypsum to the to the affected areas to help minimize burns. You can also try putting a little brown sugar on the affected area and watering. This is said to help attract worms, who in turn help aerate the soil and improve drainage. (Note of caution: dogs may want to snack on lawn care additives that smell like, or are, food. So apply before a big rain or water well to keep them from grazing on your soil amendments.)
4. Plant dense -- Dogs have bad depth perception and can't always see single plantings (which means they are more likely to tear through them). Plant dense to help Spot see what's coming as he tears around the yard. (Note, this will not help if your dog is simply naughty.) Another bonus: dense plantings naturally inhibit weeds.
5. Get a motion activated sprinkler -- Most dogs hate getting wet, so a great way to keep dogs out of backyard gardens is to put a motion activated sprinkler in the bed and wait for Spot to saunter over and lift his leg. He'll get soaked and saunter off and your garden will get a nice mist. Kill two birds with one stone!
Free Cup of Coffee (with strings attached)
My free cup didn't have whip cream. Sigh. Maybe I'd have drunk it if it did.
(Photo credit: Scott Beale / Laughing Squid)
Having woken up late (per the usual), skipped breakfast and hair washing (sorry, aesthetics), I was flying to work one day last week when I realized that I wouldn't make it through my morning meeting if I didn't get something to eat.
So I breezed into an upscale chain bakery that happened to be en route.
Me to Cashier: I'll have one of those buttery, quiche-y, egg-and-spinach-y things to go.
Cashier: Comin' up! Would you like a cup of coffee with that? We're giving away a small cup of coffee with the purchase of buttery, quiche-y, egg-and-spinach-y things!!!
Me (desperate for a cup of coffee, but having just spied the stack of Styrofoam to-go cups from which, on (health) principle, I do not drink): No, thanks. I'm okay.
Cashier (undeterred): C'mon it's free! I'll get you a cup!!
Me (lying): No, no. I've had too much this morning already. But, thanks.
Cashier: Nonsense! There's no such thing as too much caffeine -- and it's free! Here! Here's your free cup! Take it, it's free!
Me: . . .
Cashier (beaming): . . .
This free cup of coffee should have made my morning, right? Been a bright spot in an otherwise routine day? I mean, what kind of loser gets depressed when they get something for free?
Well, I was depressed. So by my own logic I concluded I was a loser and just got on with my commute. But later I thought about it more, and something dawned on me: right from the start, my free cup of coffee was far from free.
First off, the cup was made of polystyrene foam, a dangerous synthetic material that has been known to leech toxic materials into the beverages it contains (polystyrene contains benzene, a known human carcinogen). The stuff also takes over 900 years to biodegrade and causes starvation in marine wildlife (polystyrene is one of the most ubiquitous marine pollutants). What's more, producing polystyrene is a huge energy hog. That adds up to a pretty steep environmental and personal health cost for a "free" cup of coffee.
Next, there was the cost to my newly clean car. After I poured the coffee on the grass, the cup was about to become free-floating garbage in my beleaguered Subaru. This seems like a small cost in the grand scheme of things, I know. But stuff adds up, and it takes a psychic toll (especially if, like me, your car tends to serve manifold functions, including purse/lunch cart/storage unit/roving Dumpster). This cup = more stuff = more psychic toll. (The high number of consumer products produced today also takes an environmental toll. Check out the great interactive video, The Story of Stuff, for a clear-eyed picture of the life cycle of stuff.)
Another cost of my free cup of coffee? My annoyance at my inability to refuse it. I felt like I'd been forced into the free coffee, but in reality, most cases of feeling forced into something are really cases of us having said yes despite our wish to say no. So then I became annoyed with myself for having not stuck to my guns and said no. Then I became doubly annoyed that such a simple thing should be so hard to say no to, and then I became triply annoyed that boundaries and limitations and being clear are such hard things to master. I'm an adult, for goodness sake. How hard is it to set a boundary with the bakery counter guy?
I've read that getting better at saying no takes practice (read more on how to say no here), and that the best place to start practicing is in low-stakes settings like, say, a bakery. Sigh. I guess I need more practice. So I'm heading back to the bakery tomorrow, but just in case I still can't refuse, I'm bringing my own refillable mug. Then, at least, good coffee won't go to waste.
The Financial Incentive to Clear Your Clutter
Decluttering is good feng shui.
In the spring, I clean. I start the process with visions of an immaculate, nearly empty Zen-like home (Interestingly, the soon-to-be-clean house in my imagination also has all-new, sleek and modern furniture; a new set of nonshedding, nondrooling pets; and, for the first time in my adult life, sophisticated curtains not purchased at Ikea), but I end the process overwhelmed, half done, and hiding in the garden to avoid having to lug any more crap to the Dumpster.
Then, last week, I read the old classic Clear Your Clutter with Feng Shui by Karen Kingston (Broadway, 1999) in search for some last minute motivation — and boy did I find it. Kingston devotes a section of the book to calculating how much clutter can cost you financially (what’s a better motivator than the bottom line?).
Herewith, from Kingston:
What does it actually cost you to keep the stuff? Sometimes when all other reasoning has failed, it is the simple financial mathematics that brings people to their senses about their clutter. Let’s do some sums. Go into each room of your home and estimate the percentage of space that is taken up by things you rarely or never use. Be very honest with yourself as you do this process. If you want the blatant truth, include everything you don’t absolutely love or haven’t used in the last year…In an average-sized home, you may end up with a list that looks something like this: 1. Entrance/foyer — 5 percent 2. Sitting room — 10 percent 3. Dining room — 10 percent 4. Kitchen — 30 percent 5. Bedroom 1 — 40 percent 6. Bedroom 2 — 25 percent 7. Junk room — 100 percent 8. Bathroom — 15 percent 9. Basement — 90 percent 10. Attic — 100 percent 11. Garden shed — 60 percent 12. Garage — 80 percent Total Clutter 565 percent Now divide the total by the number of areas. 565 percent divided by 12 areas = average 47 percent junk per room! So, in this example, the cost of storing clutter works out to a staggering 47 percent of the cost of the rent or mortgage for your home.Needless to say, I have been in the basement emptying old college papers and grade-school art projects nonstop for a week.
I See Good, Real Food
My everyday routines are so deeply ingrained that I almost never think of them as choices.
For example, I don’t always put a slice of lime in my water glass, then fill the glass approximately 1/3 the way with star-shaped ice cubes, then top the glass off with filtered water, then chomp down all the ice, and only then drink the water because it’s what I choose to do. No, no. I do it because that’s how water is drunk, of course!
The severity of my “routine blindness” caught up with me the other day in the grocery store. I’d been watching a podcast of the irrepressible Michael Pollan (a food journalist and one of my personal heroes) lecture at Stanford about his new book In Defense of Food and about the reductive nature of “nutritionism,” the notion that individual nutrients and vitamins are the healthiest part of a food and, hence, can be isolated and repackaged in bottles as "Vitamin A" or "Beta Carotene" or what-have-you with the same healthy effets.
As EL has covered ("The Whole Thing" from the March 2008 issue), and Pollan and others continue to report, nutrients in isolation don’t appear to do our bodies any health favors.
Tara Parker-Pope writing in The New York Times ("The Case for Real Food," November 5, 2007) summarizes the research findings of David R. Jacobs, an epidemiologist at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health on the failings of nutritionism.
"Dr. Jacobs believes that nutrition science needs to consider the effects of “food synergy,” the notion that the health benefits of certain foods aren’t likely to come from a single nutrient but rather combinations of compounds that work better together than apart."So, anyway, with all this on my mind, I was cruising the aisles at The Wedge and thinking “Gosh, I need to eat more fruits and vegetables.” Yet my next actual thought was: “Well, crap! Now how in the world am I going to do that?!” I’m so set in my ways — even at the grocery store — that it didn’t even dawn on me that the answer to eating more vegetables was, ahem, buying more vegetables. Instead of moving through the produce section and grabbing what I always grab (bananas, apples, limes, mandarins, garlic, onions, cauliflower, carrots and parsley), I could grab — gasp! — anything else I wanted. Lettuce? Sure! Cabbage? Of course! Broccoli? Yes! Fennel? Why not! I could even grab more of what I already grab. (Sometimes big discount stores put limits on that week’s specials — No more than six supercheap and really sugary juice packs per customer, please! But no one’s going to stop me from buying 10 bunches of carrots if I want to!) So mechanized was I at the grocery store that I’d stopped even seeing other fruits, veggies and foods. I’ve been going to the same co-op three times a week for 6 years and last week I had to ask where the scallions were (pretty embarrassing). So now I’m trying to go to the grocery store at least once a week at a time when I’m not in a hurry. I make sure the dogs have been walked and I’ve gotten a handle on household chores and any other pesky life detritus, and then when I go to the store I’m able to just order the world's best chai from the deli and then leisurely stroll around and really, really SEE the foods I’d been ignoring in my zombie-like state and everyday haste. It’s actually made grocery shopping fun, and I’ve made some marvelous-tasting discoveries — crisp new varieties of olives (not just the Kalamatas I always get), tangy Miso, brisk pink and gray sea salts with delightfully nuanced flavors. And the bonus? It’s healthier, too.
Health Magazine Editor’s Dirty Secrets Revealed!!
Here's a picture of my dogs cuddling. They have nothing to do with this post. They're just cute.
A friend once asked my better half if it was tough to live with me sometimes because I’m, like, so “into health.” What if you just want to eat grizzly nachos and drink soda all day one day, the friend asked? Does Laine let you?
First of all, I try never to force anyone to conform to my health habits, such as they are (more on this in a second) because (1) there’s nothing attractive about a pedant, (2) much as I secretly believe otherwise, I’m not the boss of anyone’s life choices, and (3), and perhaps most significantly, being preachy and dictatorial isn’t effective. In fact, it often has the opposite effect.
Of course, I wish everyone on earth shared my worldview on health and eating, on the environment, on what constitutes quality TV programming, etc. But I’m not going to win them over by being preachy. Instead I just try to do what I think is important and what makes me feel happy and healthy, and I try to have no expectations for anyone but me. And if, along the way, someone says, “Wow, that olive and feta quinoa bake didn't taste as bad as I expected!” so much the better.
But this brings me to what I really wanted to talk about: the expectations we have for certain “types” of people, say the health conscious, or athletes, or hard driving executives, or stay at home parents, or artists, or University professors, or teenagers, or you-name-it. The type of expectations some people have about "health nut" me.
Now we’ve all read those sweet little essays about the NFL player who’s passionate about ancient Greek poetry or the top neurosurgeon who listens to Kelly Clarkson everyday on his commute, and we know all about how we should dispense with our preconceived notions and be more open-minded blah blah, so I’m not going to repeat that discussion here.
What I’m going to do instead is go straight to the fun bit, the “dirty secrets revealed!” portion of every “preconceived notion” story. That’s why we read them in the first place, right? To revel in the contradictions. To match them up with our own. To affirm this person’s humanity and subsequently our own. To delight in our shared imperfection. It’s like that time I read that the Queen of England eats breakfast cereal every morning out of an old Tupperware container. More than just being titillated, I (and the whole of England) was overcome by the sheer humanity of this detail.
I’m not the Queen of England and I won’t even pretend to pretend that anyone would interested in knowing how I eat breakfast cereal (or anything else about me for that matter), but I am, as Desi’s friend suggested “into health” — someone who eats mostly vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds; who eschews corn syrup and white rice; who’s an environmentally-conscious grow-my-own-food-and-buy-only-second-hand-clothes sort — which adds up to a whole set of expectations worth shattering. Hence:
The Secrets of a Health Magazine Editor Revealed!
Here are some of my less healthy habits:
1. I eat cookies like it’s my job. I can resist ice cream, brownies, cupcakes, etc. But stick a plate of cookies in front of me and I’m like a 4 year old. I will eat them until I’m sick.
2. I love TV. I believe TV is one of life’s purest pleasures and I’ll watch it before I’ll engage in any number of other pursuits. I know full well that I could probably spend my TV-watching time in healthier and more fulfilling ways, but I won’t give it up. They’ll have to pry my TV out of my cold, dead hands.
3. I do not go to the dentist twice a year like I’m supposed to. I usually go once a year. Maybe.
4. How do I love thee, caffeine? Let me count the ways….. The stuff makes me jittery, uncomfortable and agitated, and I know it. I drink it anyway. I love its boldness, it’s electricity, its snap and richness. I love the way it makes me feel even when it makes me feel bad.
5. Point of sale displays in big-box stores were designed specifically for me. I know these things are meant to sucker me in and I know I should be savvier (and, if I do say so myself, I’m fairly responsible with my money). But plop me in the check-out line at Target, get me started perusing the POS display and suddenly I realize that a tube of Carmex, a few packs of triple A batteries and a discount DVD of Corky Romano are life necessities. How did I ever live without these things? Seriously, I have no idea.
So there you have it. My point with all of this... well, okay, I don't have much of one other that I love these types of stories and so I assume others must too. Though, also, I think part of living well is embracing our humanity, our contradictions, our whole lives. Otherwise we can wind up feeling compartmentalized and ashamed about who we are, and that just ain't right. Sure, we should always be on a path to improvement and healthier living and all of that, but meanwhile, I'm proud to say that I'm a TV-addicted, caffeine-swilling, cookie-devouring impulse shopper. And hooray for that.
I can’t help myself. It’s a disease.
No wonder I eat some of this every 10 minutes. It's addictive.
I Don’t Have Time to Write This Blog.
Laine's garden in happier [read: warmer] times.
I’ve been meaning to put up a blog post for more than a week now, but I’ve been so busy working on an EL story on time and how we need more of it that I haven’t had the time. (There's a great story (not mine) on making time for vacations in the current issue of EL.)
Beyond the inherent irony here, how depressing is this? It’s sad to preach something I can’t manage to practice. More than that, even, my time crunch also makes me want to utter (in complete earnest) one of the most cliched phrases on earth: “I wish there were more hours in the day!” How did I become the cliché I preach against?
I guess the better question is: how could I have avoided it? Time shortages are a stalwart of today’s culture. It’s almost a badge of pride to continually be working. Even we who preach the importance of “making time” routinely ignore the message. “Yes, yes,” we say. “Of course we should all take vacations! And put the computer away at 5:30 pm and focus exclusively on family, or leisure, or creative pursuits! Even I’m going to do it, too.... right after I finish writing this article on why making time for our lives is important. Don’t wait up…”
To break this mold — at least for right now on this Thursday afternoon at 1:46pm — here’s a list (rather than lengthy posts) of all are the interesting things I’ve been meaning to blog about if only I had the time. Probably works out better for you, too. Who has time to read all this stuff anyway?
1. If you are sick, for goodness sake, stay home. A recent New York Times story reports on the benefits to companies, employees, and (somewhat counterintuitively) our own productivity, when we actually stay home from work when we’re sick. Well, sure, you’re thinking, isn’t that what people already do? Perhaps some of us, but not everyone. In fact, recent studies have shown an increased trend in “presenteeism,” or the insistence on showing up at work or other events no matter the degree of one’s illness. (On a sidenote that will further reveal how disconnected I am from what I write about: I am in the office today and I’m sick. What kind of crackpot am I? To my credit (if I get any at this point), I was out sick the last two days and felt better this morning, came in and then felt worse all over again. Co-workers, I’m sorry. I’m going back home when I finish this post.)
2. Good food is thrilling. I interviewed celebrity chef Nathan Lyon this week. I’ve never met someone more excited about fresh, local food. Lyon is like a human mash note to good eating. (I had a work meeting directly following our interview. While I was in the meeting taking notes on my laptop, he sent me an email with a picture of the honey lemon tea soufflés he whipped up right after we got off the phone.) A side note: he offers some really useful tips and techniques on cooking basics on the website for his Discovery Health TV show A Lyon in the Kitchen.
3. I’m going to join a CSA this year. I’m giddy at the prospect of all that fresh produce showing up at my doorstep once a week. While I was looking for a CSA in my area (find one in any area in the country through Local Harvest), I discovered that there are fresh flower CSAs, too. Fresh, organic flowers from local growers once a week at my door? Too decadent to be true! To beautiful to ignore! I have this gut feeling that I should save my money for my poor dog’s physical therapy (I have a tripod). But wouldn’t the boost to my spirits from fresh weekly flowers be so powerful that it’s worth it? These flowers look so amazing I think they would even boost the dog’s spirits.
4. February in Minnesota is brutal. Long slog of winter be gone! The picture up top is of my humble garden in the peak of summer. I have it as wallpaper on my computer during February. Only one day to go 'til March....
4b. Okay, so, for technical reasons that I don't understand, I can't get the picture of my garden to post. But in the spirit of going home before I get my coworkers sick (see item #1, above), I've decided to figure out how to post it tomorrow.
How did I get here?
Contented Chaos: Laine finds herself happily in the middle (and in need of a chiropractor).
The Latin phrase, in medias res means, roughly, “in the middle of things” or “ in the middle of the story.” I love the phrase because it captures the way I almost always feel — that somehow the events and progress of my life have no beginnings or endings, that they’re happening on the hidden storyboards of my life without my consciousness, until, one day, I wake up and realize I’m smack in the middle of them.
You know, it’s that feeling like: Whoa, I’m a grown up now, and I have a spouse and kids and a house and…. how did that happen? And you can never quite find a concrete answer — somehow it all just seems to have happened without your explicit knowledge or consent, somehow you were just dropped into your life in medias res?
Often this what-have-I-gotten-myself-into? scenario is played for tragicomedy: the movie protagonist wakes up one day and realizes his marriage isn’t working, he’s gone bald and his kids hate him. His only waking thought is, “Ack! How did I get here?”
And sometimes, sure, life can feel this way. Who hasn’t woken up on a Monday morning and felt the oppressive weight of another day? Job’s grown tedious. Household chores feel overwhelming. Dog ate your favorite shoes (Yes, Aidan, I’m talking to you.) (And, yes, vigorously-eye-rolling reader, I pretend my dog reads my blog.)
But the opposite happens, too. In fact, more often than not I wake up strangely comforted by the dense, complex, often conflicted yet insanely delightful middle of my life.
Because when I stop and really think hard about what I want in my life, I discover have it — a loving family, a cozy house, good health, my own washing machine, a garden plot, a warm cup of tea, an endless stack of good books, superior friends, creative pursuits, a small, warm place to bake. I feel happy and honored to be in the crazy, wonderful middle of my life. I wouldn’t choose anything else.
Sure, sometimes the middle of life is chaotic (which is the whole raison d’etre for this blog). But even the chaos seems joyful when I step back and look at my life with a wide-angle lens. I don't ask myself, "How did I get here?" I ask, "Why would I ever leave?"
I think, perhaps, the middle of our lives is the perfect place to be. Especially right now for yours truly — as I write this, I'm snarfing down Jamie's fantastic, homemade Valentine's treats (Jamie, you're endlessly talented!), listening to the best cover of a Don Henley song ever that Jen sent me (Jen, you have impeccable taste!). Who could ask for more?
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