Chew On This!

Warning: There is a reason why this post is labeled "TMI!"

So, I seem to have inherited a habit that my father has, which is to literally inhale my food. Let me clarify: My dad eats so quickly that I'm pretty sure that I've never actually seen him take a bite before. Everytime I sit down to eat with him at the table, I bow down to take my first bite, and by the time I look up, he's done. And that's after he served everyone else first and then sat down to eat himself!

I share this habit, though not quite to my dad's extent. I'm not sure if this was learned (his mother, my grandmother, eats pretty quickly), or if it was the result of the fact that my dad was child #5 of 6 (and getting food was a competition?), but, for whatever reason, he zooms through every meal.

Anyways, lately I've realized that the way that I am able to eat so quickly is that I don't really chew my food. Like, at all (no swallowing jokes, please!).

Also, lately, especially at work, I've been having a problem after I eat my breakfast. And that is that my abdomen feels like it's going to explode about 1/2 an hour after I'm done eating. Yup, gas (T! M! I!). And I started getting really worried thinking I was developing an intolerance to lactose or gluten or something, but, I've finally figured it out: It's because I don't chew.

Chris off-handedly mentioned the other day that people digest carbohydrates mostly with their spit while they chew. This got me thinking: I eat a breakfast chock-full of whole grains every weekday morning, and I most likely don't do that whole spit-digesting thing. So, for the past three days in a row, I have made a point to chew my food (it's weird because it's actually really hard for me to do! I'm not used to it at all!), and guess what? No badness anymore! Yay!

I've read some articles about "Mindful Eating" before (which is essentially when you take your time eating and enjoy every bite in order to be completely in the present), but now I'm totally sold. The problem is that I've been eating the way I do since I can remember. Old habits die hard, so "they" say. It's like I'm programmed to stuff as much food as fast as I can into my body (like Coltrane does when I feed him)... Perhaps this is a survival instinct-type thing? The other issue with this is the fact that the brain takes like 20-mintues to register the "full" feeling, so it's easy for me to overeat.

Anyways, I'm going to really try to chew from now on. Wish me luck.

If I Had a Boat

This past weekend, Chris and I got a 16-foot sailboat. We've been saving for over a year into what we call our "Boat Account," which allowed us to get a trailer hitch put on Chris's van and to then purchase this boat. And, we still have some leftover.

The original plan was to get a 25+ foot boat in a few years in order to spend a long period of time (a couple or a few months) living on it on the Chesapeake Bay. That is still the plan, but we decided it made sense to spend some money on a smaller boat now so that we can get our sea legs under us before we spend a significant amount of time on our eventual big boat. Well, I at least need to find my sea legs... I don't know how to sail, and I get motion sickness. Chris has been sailing for years and is quite adept at it.

Here are some pictures of Chris with our new boat (You should have seen us getting that thing into the back yard from the street!):

Now is where we need your help. We spent a good deal of time yesterday compiling a list of possible boat names. We then went through and picked our favorites. Here they are, and please tell me what your opinion is and/or if you have another good idea:

"Serenity": The name of Captain Mal's ship on the show Firefly (which we both love). The only reason I hesitate is that I saw a beautiful sailboat with this name when we were in Florida. I guess it would make me feel like a bit of a copycat. Other than that, it is pretty much the perfect name!

"Anabel Lee": This is the name of the ship in a song by Josh Ritter that is called "Another New World." The main character is convinced that there is another new world "at the top of the world" and he takes his trusty ship, The Anabel Lee, and goes off searching for it. The line I like is "Oh the Anabel Lee, I saw their eyes shine, the most beautiful ship in the sea..." At the end of the story, the main character has to burn the Anabel Lee in order to keep from freezing to death at the top of the world (Jack London style). I did some digging and found that Edgar Alan Poe wrote a poem called "Anabel Lee," which is surely where Josh Ritter got his inspiration and the name for his fictional boat. In the poem, Anabel Lee freezes to death (Oh, Poe!). So, I guess the downside to this would be that name is, perhaps, a bit morbid. However, in the story, I view The Anabel Lee as an incredibly loyal ship, who would die for her captain.

"Whisper": Chris and I both read Chesapeake by James Michener in the past year (I think I've mentioned it before, one because it took me so long to read, and two because it is one of the best books I've ever read. And I've read quite a few books). There is a Quaker family in the book, The Paxmores, and they build ships. Even though they're peaceful by nature, one of their best ships ends up getting involved in trade and warfare. It's captained by a crazy MoFo named Turlock, who tries to run goods from all over back to the Eastern Shore. The ship is called "Whisper," and it's the fastest, most maneuverable boat out there.

"The Twombly": This is another Chesapeake reference. Towards the end of the book, the Turlock family has possesion of a "long gun," which can kill a hundred geese or ducks with one fire. They are outlawed, but the Turlocks manage to hold on to their gun by their cunning. The long gun they own is named The Twombly, for the man the Turlocks bought it off. It sort of represents holding on to the old ways.

"Anne Bonny": We were trying to think of some cool, non-obvious pirate reference, and this one is awesome: Anne Bonny (along with another woman named Mary Read) ended up on Calico Jack's pirate ship (Calico Jack was Jack Rackham, who is famous for designing the Jolly Roger pirate flag). She and Jack were supposedly lovers, but she dressed as a man while on board to fool the rest of the crew. She was sentenced to hang for being a pirate. The end of her story is unclear; she either got out of the hanging by claiming pregancy (and then went on to die in her 80's in York County, VA) or she was hanged/disappeared right after the trial.

"Kestrel": This was Chris's idea. A Kestrel is a relatively small falcon that is known for its brownish, greyish feathers. It hovers above its prey and then drops right on top of it. It's fast and striking.

"Windhover": This is going off of Chris's Kestrel idea. Apparently, a colloquial term for a Kestrel is "Windhover" because they use a headwind to stay in one place before diving for their prey. I was excited about this because I studied Gerard Manely Hopkins in college, and he wrote a very cool poem called "The Windhover." Yay for literature! Plus, (duh), sailboats and wind definitely go together.

"Slainte": (Pronounced Slan-Cha). This is the Gaelic way of saying "cheers!" which literally translates to "health!" Chris and I are both Irish, he more than me (could you tell?).

"Raga Sa": A Raga is a scale in Indian music. "Sa" is a specific scale. The different scales have different meanings and are attribted to different seasons. We liked the way Raga Sa sounded, and thought it would be cool to name the boat after something musical.

"Wilda Faye": This was my grandmother's name, though she went by "Faye." She died when I was five years old. We thought it would be a nice name for the boat, and a nice way of remembering.

"If I Had A...": This was my dad's idea. The title of this post is named after a Lyle Lovett song called "If I Had a Boat." It's pretty much a fantastic song... the chorus goes: "If I had a boat, I'd sail out on the ocen. If I had a pony, I'd ride him on my boat..." Good stuff! Seriously, check out the song.

Now is where you come in. What should we name the boat? Either cast your Boat Vote (pick one of the above) or suggest something else entirely!

Thanks guys!

This is How Fried My Brain Is Today...

(Insert Hopefully-Clever, Witty-While-Simultaneously-Tinged-With-Seriousness Post Here)

Have a great weekend... or else! (Photo by Kimberly Zicopula Harrison)

Happy Friday Everyone!

Mama Bear

Lately, at my job, I've felt like a bit of a Mama Bear (Rawr!). My company's facility managers (who are all male) are from and work all over the East Coast. I'm often included on phone calls with all of them (because my boss is their boss, and, I'm transitioning into a role where I'll be taking care of issues at their respective locations), and I bring some different perspectives to the table then they do. The first one is the young perspective (I'm younger than everyone else... I suppose this is contradictory to the whole "Mama Bear" thing, but it does feel that way!), but the most obvious thing is that I'm the lone female (don't let my name fool you!)

For example, we were discussing the best way to keep our dumpsters (remember, I'm in the grease biz!) clean... when they get really gross, we pull them from the field and try to get them tidied up as best we can. Apparently, even a power washing doesn't quite do it, so the guys were talking about buying a sandblaster and trying that. I knew they were all thinking about how much fun it would be to play with a sandblaster, meanwhile, I shoot them all an email with safety measures to consider when using a sandblaster... perhaps a bit of a kill-joy, but, whatever, people have died from that shit, yo! And they all laughed at me (and then asked me if I was a sandblasting expert...).

Today, we had all the facility managers come in to town for an all-day meeting (which was the first time I'd met most of them in person!), and I was in charge of things like booking their hotel rooms, making dinner and lunch reservations, and picking up breakfast for all of them. So, that domestic, nurturing side of me kicked in (who knew it was there?) and I overdid things a bit. Like, I made hotel reservations and emailed each one of the guys directions there, tailored from his specific location (because I didn't want them to get lost!). And I made dinner reservations at a restaurant they could walk to from the hotel. And I got up at 6:30 this morning to get fresh bagels, doughnuts, and fruit, and to make a giant pot of coffee before the guys got to the office at 8:00 for our all-day meeting (btw, I'm exhausted). I guess I just felt personally responsible for their well-being and comfort while they were in my town and at my office.

Rawr!

Poor Chris... Between work and Coltrane (who, incidentally, has pink-eye or something... his eye is goopy and weepy...poor, poor bun!), he doesn't get very much of Nurturing Me (Although, it is quite possible he thinks this is a good thing). I guess I need to try to channel my "care-taking" tendencies towards him a little more (though, I cook him a brand new meal once-a-week and I... wait, no. Well, I do... no, he does that... and I give him... hmmm......... RAWR!)...

On a similar note, my company has started its own blog, so I thought I'd link to it in case you all are interested in biodiesel and/or the oil crisis: http://greenlightbiofuels.wordpress.com/

Stress Dreams

When I'm stressed out (which is probably about 79.5% of the time), I often have stress dreams. I have the occasional random one (like, recently I had one where people were trying to kill me and my friends and I ran someone through with a sword), but a lot of the time I have one of a few recurring ones. I'm not sure if this happens to other people, but here are my recurring stress dreams (you know, for your amusement):

My Teeth Fall Out:
I have probably had about 50 of these dreams. They're always slightly different though. The people I'm with vary, my circumstances vary (I've had one where I was pregnant, in a hospital, AND my teeth were falling out), and the way I lose the teeth varies: Sometimes one of my teeth will be knocked out, other times they'll be loose and then slowly start to fall out, other times I can feel them rotting out of my head... and the sensation of dream-losing teeth may be the worst I've ever "experienced." I almost always wake up convinced that I'm sans teeth, ready to call a dentist; they seem that real. And well, that's pretty stressful.

I Can't Remember My Locker Combination
I'm in high school and back from some long break. I get to my locker, but slowly realize that I don't remember my combination. I turn the dial over and over, and maybe I remember two of the three numbers, but I can never get that last one. So, I'm turning and turning and turning and the bell rings, meaning I'm late. So, I go to the main office to ask the secretary for my combo, and she's really pissed at me or there's no one there who can help me, and sometimes my backpack is really really heavy. Yay for high school.

Chris is Mad at Me
Chris is really mad at me for some reason: I caught him smoking, I found out he likes another girl, or he's just tired of my bull shit. And we argue and he is just seethingly mad and says all sorts of mean things to me. These are really bad because I wake up feeling negative feelings towards him, even though he didn't do anything wrong!!!

The other awful thing I do when I'm stressed (which, again, is most of the time) is grind my teeth in my sleep. Chris says this is the most awful sound in the world. I have a mouth guard that I wear, which is incredibly dorky and makes it so I can hardly talk (and makes me look like a hockey player). So, when Chris and I are talking before we fall asleep, I wait to put it in, lest I get unmercifully made fun of. And, inevitably, there are times when I fall asleep before I can remember to put it in. And, when that happens, I wake up with a very sore jaw and/or a nasty headache the next day. When I do wear it, I slowly chew my way through it. Even though it will supposedly last forever. Obviously, modern dentistry has not taken into account my special brand of stress; I must be some kind of Super-Chewer.

But, so far, no matter what, I've woken up with all my teeth still in my head.  Knock on wood. Ow.

Walking on Egg Shells

I was making a cake with some wonderful girls a little while ago, and, when I went to put the spoon that I had used to eat cake batter into the dishwasher, I asked my friend if the spoon should go head up or head down. She looked at me like I was slightly crazy; like, why would you ask about something so silly? Do whatever the hell you want, right?

In my life, wrong.

Growing up with divorced parents meant two separate households with two separate sets of expectations and rules. For example, at one house, silverware went into the dishwasher head up. At the other, it went head down. Now, that seems like it should be easy to remember, but that's not the only difference there was between the two, so it's understandable that I had issues keeping things straight.

Honestly, now that I'm thinking through the differences between my two households, I'm thinking it's a wonder my sister and I aren't schizo.

Here are some examples:
Dad's House: Egg shells go into the trash.
Mom's House: Egg shells go into the garbage disposal.

Dad's House: Wooden spoons are not to be placed into the dishwasher.
Mom's House: Why on earth wouldn't you put wooden spoons into the dishwasher?

Dad's House: The house should be kept cold.
Mom's House: It's freezing in here, turn up the heat!

Dad's House: After using a frying pan, immediately put it in the sink and run water into it so it can soak.
Mom's House: Absolutely do not run water into the frying pan; it will ruin the non-stick material!

Dad's House: Coffee is the caffeinated beverage of choice.
Mom's House: Tea is the caffeinated beverage of choice.

Dad's House: The dogs stay outside.
Mom's House: The dog stays inside.

Dad's House: Call us at 10:00 PM no matter where you are to let us know you're ok.
Mom's House: Wake us up when you get home so we know you're ok.

Dad's House: No need to eat breakfast; there isn't time!
Mom's House: You are not leaving this house until you are stuffed full of eggs. And throw the egg shells into the disposal, please.

After thinking through that, I feel like I'll accidentally put the egg shells into the dishwasher aftering soaking the wooden spoons in the sink.

Oy!

Will Eat for Food: Part 2 of 2

Every Thursday, I try to make a new dish for dinner. You know why? Because I am sick of all the stuff I make all the time. As Chris would say, "BOOOOOOOOOORING..." Also, as I've mentioned, I'm trying to be a little healthier.

Anyways, Thursdays are the days where I have a little time to whip something interesting up before Chris gets home. I wish I'd started taking pictures of all the dishes I've tried to make, but I didn't until recently.

The thing that first inpsired me to try making new things was a magazine I found in this cottage that Chris's parents stayed in when they came down to visit in April. The magazine is called Eating Well, and I thought that pretty much everything in it sounded wonderfully delicious and healthy. So, I stole the magazine, naturally.

I made this AMAZING recipe out of it that was oven-roasted leeks with chicken and a little bit of cream over whole-wheat pasta. Since I didn't get a picture of it, here's the picture from the magazine:

And holy shit, it was GOOD. I could eat it once a week!

I also recently made this yummy egg dish with smoked salmon and avocado (two of my favorite things... seriously, if I could only pick two foods to eat for the rest of my life, I'm pretty sure they would be salmon and avocado). Check it out:

The dressing on the salad in the picture came from Eating Well also. It's an avocado-cilantro dressing. It was ok... not spectacular.

Let's see, I made Mediterranean wraps (with cous-cous, parsley, lemon, feta, tomatoes, cucumbers, and chicken) a couple weeks ago, and I made my own turkey burgers last week.

Tonight, I'm making seared tuna. I made a marinade out of soy sauce, wasabi, brown sugar, rice vinegar, and garlic, and I will be throwing it on a pan of hot oil for about 30-seconds. I'm also making a veggie stir fry with rice noodles to go along with it. Yum.

I will try to keep documenting my cooking experiments, as it will also keep me accountable in making something new and healthy each week.

Suggestions are more than welcome!

Sun Sick

I've been having this weird issue of late, which is that I've been breaking out into a rash after being out in the sun for prolonged periods of time. It seems as if my body is turning on me in my old age. Now, I realize there are worse things out there, and that I should be grateful that I'm mostly healthy. I am grateful, but it's just that I LOVE being outside, and I love wearing shorts, tanktops, flipflops, etc. I love the beach, I love kayaking, I love wearing as few articles of clothing as posssible (yes, there is a parallel b/t how much I love being outside and how much I love food)... I love the sun, but it does not love me.

I went to a dermatologist today and was told that I have Polymorphous Light Erruption, which is, indeed, a sun allery. The description is below:

http://www.cnn.com/HEALTH/library/polymorphous-light-eruption/DS00911.html

So, as the summer progesses, the allergy should become less intense. I hope so. I really do.

Seriously, who the hell is allergic to the sun? You know, the sun: The giver of ALL LIFE.

Will Eat for Food: Part 1 of 2

I'm trying to be relatively healthy of late, but there's just one catch:

I. Love. Food.

I love shopping for food, buying food, cooking food, smelling food, eating food, drinking wine with food, and I love devouring any and all of the leftovers the next day. I love food other people make. I love the Food Network. I love looking at fresh, colorful food in a market. I love reading recipes. I love food blogs and columns. I love imagining what certain types of dishes will taste like. I love eating with my hands, eating with a fork and knife, and eating with chopsticks. I love sandwiches. I love melted things. I love hot food and cold food. I love sweet things and tart things. Salt is heavenly. If something tastes good, I love to eat as much of it as I can. And then maybe some more.

This past Thanksgiving, I injured myself from eating too much. I was couch-ridden and moaning for four hours. I'd do it again, too.

So, it does not come naturally to me to practice the whole "all things in moderation" credo when it comes to food. Not at all. If it's good, I want as much of it as possible.

But, lately I've been doing alright, and here's how: I've found a few new things that are good for me that I LOVE, and I've stopped being as much of a miser as usual (yay for my job!) and started letting myself spend a little more money to get things that I know I love that are wonderful and healthy. Also, putting aside portions ahead of time (while you're NOT hungry!) is incredibly helpful. So, here are my typical meals:

Breakfast: Now, I love a big, greasy breakfast. But during the week, I keep it healthy and yummy:

• Kashi GoLean Crunch Cereal- 1 cup with skim milk
• 4-5 big strawberries
• A hardboiled egg

(The Kashi is a recent purchase and good lord, it's good. It's a little expensive, but I think it's worth it. Strawberries are something to buy when they're in-season, and a carton lasts me three breakfasts. And the bun LOVES strawberry tops. The hardboiled eggs are great because I can make them all at once for the whole work week. I'm so satisfied after this breakfast, that I'm able to wait a little longer to eat lunch.)

Lunch: The place where I work is surrounded by amazing restaurants and food vendors. This can be good, and this can be bad. The best thing I have access to is a reasonably-priced salad bar next door... I make my lunch salad with:

• 1/2 romaine Lettuce, 1/2 spinach
• Shredded carrots
• Cucumbers
• Artichoke hearts
• Wasabi peas
• Artificial crab meat
• Cheddar cheese
• Balsamic vinegar
• Pineapple on the side

(I will also admit to often buying a chocolate chunk cookie along with my salad...)

Dinner: This is the hardest meal to keep healthy for me. Especially because I either eat what Chris makes or try to make something we'll both like. Here's a typical I-Don't-Want-to-Spend-Too-Much-Time-On-Dinner healthy-ish meal that I make:

• Salmon fillet with a little brown sugar and brown mustard
• Cous-cous
• Salad or asparagus or steamed broccoli 

(I wish I could eat salmon every single day. Wait, no! Moderation!)

You'll notice in the title that this is Part 1 of 2. That's because I also want to do a post on something I've been trying to do lately, which is to try making a new recipe once a week. It's been fun, mostly healthy, and yummy.

Mmmm, food.

Glaring Mistakes

I've done a lot of traveling by car lately, and I've come to realize that I'm the only person on the road who's not a dumbass. I'm sure you're all very nice outside of your cars, but I'm pretty convinced you all (that is, everyone but me) magically turn into dumbasses as soon as you turn the key in your ignitions. It's like you have a Clockwise-Turning Magic Wand of Stupidity on your key rings.

I don't know how many times I've witnessed someone trying to zip across the highway, only to just miss getting T-boned by a semi. Because they'd rather die than have to wait ten seconds for traffic to clear the area. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is a dumbass thing to do. I don't care if your wife is having a baby in the passenger seat; that is no excuse to do stupid shit on the road. Do you want her and your semi-born kid to die? No. Oh, and I was driving home in a really bad thunderstorm yesterday, and people were tailgating and speeding and being DUMBASSES. And, of course, I passed a nasty accident where someone's shiny, red car became a shiny, red mess. I'm sure they're very sorry for tailgating that giant truck that ended up not even having a dent in it. But, you know what? I'm sure they'll do it again when they get their car back from the auto-body shop. Cuz they're a dumbass.

Whenever someone does something freakin' stupid on the road, I make sure to glare at them. I'm not talking just looking at them. I'm talking a death-stare, an evil-eye, stink-eye, bore-a-hole-into-their-BWM stare. An I-hope-to-god-you-never-procreate stare. Sometimes, Chris and I try to do this as a team, so as to make our point stronger (but only if it is safe to). If I'm driving, I don't want to be a dumbass and take my eyes off the road while passing the dumbass in question. So, when it is necessary, Chris will perform the glare from the passenger seat. See? There's a right way and a wrong way to punish someone for their dumbassitude.

So, let's start taking the high road, people. Drive safely, and don't endanger yourself and others because your dumbass is running late. You should have left earlier. Oh, and if you see someone else do something stupid, it is your civic duty to glare at them. But only if it's safe. Don't be a dumbass.

100

A very merry un-birthday to me! This is my 100th blog post at Ryan the Girl. You hear that, Internet? I should be getting a letter from the president any day now.

I decided that the best way to commemorate this noteworthy occasion was to read through my old posts and revisit the past year (almost... I started this blog on July 9, 2010) of my life. When I started doing this, I realized that I left a few loose ends untied. There are promises that I never kept, pictures I never posted, themes I never continued, and books I never finished. So, here it all is:

I started this blog with a small commentary on gender and labels (through my own life and experience), and I feel I haven't come back around to that theme as often as I'd like. I mentioned the complex I have regarding competition with males and Ryan the Girl Moments and how my name has been such a big part of my life, but I have not visited that topic in some time. Lately, at my job (which requires a lot of doings via email since there are several locations on the East Coast), people in other locations have just started realizing that I'm a girl. And I think that may have changed the way they think of me and treat me. Not necessariliy for the worse, but I think I'm regarded differently than I was. Also, I had one guy speechless on the phone the other day after I said "This is she." That's always fun!

Another thing. When I got my Netbook, I promised pictures of it. Alas, I never got around to it. Also, I had done a post where I drew pictures with Microsoft Paint, and, I meant to start posting silly Paint pictures regularly. But, that never happened. So, I decided to combine the two:

That's me very happy to have a new computer!

I also participated in NaNoWriMo this year, and I blogged about it a bit and posted some excerpts. However, I never finished my book. I said I was hoping to finish it this year, but I am going to recind that statement. I'm simply not feeling connected to it anymore. So, I'm putting my half-book (I wrote about 26,000 words) to bed. However, it was great experience and I'm excited to try to write another book sometime soon.

So, those are the big ones. Going through all the posts, I also noticed that my tone shifted a bit. I started out less-than-serious and a bit hyperactive, and I've since mellowed out and gotten a bit more serious. I'd say that's because I'm happier than I was when I started.

Also, an interesting thing: The most popular post I wrote was about Kubb, a Viking lawn game. I believe this is because there aren't very many articles available on it, and my blog must come up when people google "Kubb." The second-most popular post is Today, I Peed in the Woods, which, well, is slightly disturbing...

And, well, thanks to everyone who has been reading, whether it's regularly or once-in-awhile or just once. It means a lot to me.