Things & Stuff
Today in my imagination,
I woke up from lovely dreams in a comfortable bed.
I had perfect bed-head.
I spent the morning in a Paris cafe, sipping coffee and reading a book.
I ate cupcakes for lunch.
I swam in the ocean all afternoon.
I ate cotton candy for dinner.
After dinner I rode the ferris wheel.
Then I went back to my snowy cabin for bed.
What did you dream about today?
All images linked to sources.
I’m reading a book that has me in a tizzy.
It’s called Refuse to Choose: Use All of Your Interests, Passions, and Hobbies to Create the Life and Career of Your Dreams. I admit to loving self-help books, because even though many of them end up being cheesy or underwhelming, every now and then there will be a nugget of inspiration that makes me see things differently.
This book is all about “Scanners”… people who have a bajillion different interests, who start projects but don’t finish them, who want to learn and try and do and experience EVERYTHING. This book is about me.
I can’t explain to you how excited I was to read the first few chapters… I actually ran into the living room and interrupted Justin to explain it all to him. It’s like I make sense to myself now… and I finally feel that there are other people out there like me who just can’t settle on ONE career, ONE hobby, ONE life.
I made a list of all the things I’ve done in my life… from moving to Boston to starting yoga teacher training… from cooking at a bed and breakfast to performing in one-act-plays… from learning photography to cooking to learning about cocktails to knitting to sewing to learning French. There are so many things in this world I want to do! And until now, I’ve always felt like such a quitter… I never finish anything. I stopped halfway through yoga teacher training and personal chef training. I took half of one chemistry class for pre-med. I stopped knitting when I could knit a scarf easily. I stopped sewing, and embroidering, and scrapbooking.
The author of this book, Barbara Sher, says that I am not necessarily quitting at these things, I’m just finished with them. While others may delve into a topic so deeply that they eventually master it, I prefer to do something until I feel competent at it, then move on. My goal is not to master each thing; it’s to feel that I am competent, that I could apply those skills to help others, to satisfy my curiosity and then move on. And, most importantly, THAT’S OKAY.
Ohmyga, internets! It all makes sense! I want to take barista training, I want to work in a restaurant. I want to teach English in a foreign country, I want to document everything I eat, I want to learn French and Japanese. But I don’t want to do any of these things for the rest of my life, and THAT’S OKAY. It’s exhilarating! It’s like a load has been lifted from my shoulders!
I am learning how to speak French now. And once I feel competent in it, I’ll probably stop. I am learning photography… but I have no desire to become a paid photographer. I like to cook, but do not want to be a chef.
It’s like I’ve finally given myself permission to try anything I want to, and, more importantly, to stop doing that thing when I’m satisfied, without guilt. It’s possible that the rest of the world will still judge me… I still hear it sometimes…
“When are you going back for med school? Are you taking any classes this semester?”
“Are you interested in finishing yoga teacher training?”
“Are you going to sell your photographs?”
“Are you going to write a cookbook? Become a food critic?”
“Why are you learning French? Do you plan to live in France?”
No, no, and no! I just want to do these things, until I don’t want to anymore. And, unbelievably, that’s okay.
Heck, I’m not even finished reading Refuse to Choose, and it’s already changed my life, just by giving me permission to be me. This is why I love books… I learn something amazing from every single one (I’m reading Little House in the Big Woods right now also… and learning how Pa made bullets and loaded his rifle and butchered hogs… fascinating!). Anyway, I just had to share this with you all, because I’m so excited for tomorrow, and what new thing it will bring… and I’m so excited to be able to drop a project when I’m done with it, instead of when I think others would be satisfied with it. Amazing!
Happy Saturday, internets!
And sometimes you need to make them from scratch, and eat five at one sitting. 🙂
I had a ton of batter left, so I cooked up the rest of the pancakes, layered them with wax paper, wrapped them in foil, and popped them in the freezer for another day.
Pancakes
Combine flour, baking powder, salt and sugar together in a large bowl.
Combine egg, milk and butter. Add to the flour mixture and stir until smooth.
Drop by large spoonfuls or 1/4 cup measure onto buttered hot griddle or pan. Cook until the top is full of bubbles, then flip and cook the other side. Serve with warmed syrup.
Makes 10 – 12 pancakes (depending on how big you make them)
Source: ? I think I learned how to make these when I cooked for a bed and breakfast.
Happy Cinco de Mayo! In our household, we celebrate this momentous day with Japanese food. Apparently.
I’ve been under the weather all week, and Justin has excelled at taking care of me. Today he brought a smorgasbord of delights from Sushi Zushi. We’ve eaten there before, and I remember that it was very expensive and just okay… but we had ordered only maki rolls and such.
Ever since I found this blog, I’ve been infatuated with Japanese food. I checked out the Sushi Zushi menu, and was so excited to see a few non-sushi things I wanted to try. Here’s what we ordered:
Below left, Agedashi Tofu: Deep-fried tofu topped with ginger and dried bonito, with a light sweet soy broth. Mmmmm. Perfectly tempura fried, mild on the inside and lovely dipped in the broth.
Middle top, Gyoza: basically pot stickers, and they were really good.
Right, Beef Yakimeshi Rice: Teppan-fried Japanese rice with beef, eggs and vegetables. This was like a flavorful fried rice with yummy nuggets of beef.
Below left, Beef Yakisoba: Stir-fried buckwheat noodles with beef and vegetables. Super tasty.
Middle top, Miso soup: Yum.
Right, Salmon Musubi: Rice mixed with grilled smoked salmon that’s then shaped like a triangle and baked. I think this was originally in the cute triangle shapes before it made the trek back to our place. It was good, but seemed too fishy after a while.
Below left, Miso soup for me. 🙂
Middle, two pieces each of salmon and escolar nigiri. I love this stuff.
Right, Mini Curry Rice: Steamed rice with curry sauce. Meh.
So when all was said and done, we finished one miso soup, the nigiri, the gyoza, the agedashi tofu, and about half of the yakimeshi rice and the yakisoba. The curry and musubi were our least favorites. And now we have lots of leftovers for lunch tomorrow.
We also have a fridge full of Farmhouse Delivery produce to cook up… just as soon as I’m feeling up to cooking again. (Oh! Justin did boil up two ears of corn from our bushel before we ordered all this takeout food. Um, we were really hungry, I guess.)
Have a good evening, everyone!
I had lunch with my coworkers a while back at Hai Ky on the drag. Everything was really good… I now have a go-to place for really good pho.
I loved the peanut sauce that came with the spring rolls, which were stuffed with shrimp and pork.
The pho was bright and fresh, the noodles perfectly cooked, the steak super-tender.
The vermicelli with pork and egg rolls was also super tasty.
Remi added lots of fresh jalapenos to his… I think Justin would LOVE this dish.
