Nearly 4 years ago on Yahoo, at the suggestion of a friend who lives far away, I started this little turd of a blog. My friend was convinced this blogging thing would be an effective way to keep up with each others’ lives and feel more connected even though, geographically speaking, we were very very disconnected. As a new arrival in Nashville, knowing absolutely NO ONE here, it seemed like a good idea to me; a seductive lifeline to keep loneliness at bay.
The blogosphere wasn’t completely foreign to me. I had been reading the two separate blogs of long-distance friends on Live Journal for a few months and it really DID seem to let me into their lives a little despite the fact that we saw each other face-to-face maybe once a year. I was convinced that reading about their lives, even though I wasn’t a participant, connected us in a unique way.
And yet, recently I have seriously considered the cessation of all blogging endeavors because increasingly it is making me sad and leaving me feeling ever more disconnected, the exact opposite effect for which it was intended.
Here’s the problem: relationships of any kind require two-way interaction. It’s not enough for me to broadcast my life to the world without any kind of feedback or exchange. If I read about someone’s life and do not comment, there is no relationship. Worse perhaps, if I DO comment on someone’s blog and they do not respond to or acknowledge the feedback, there is no relationship. I am guilty of all of the above.
While blogging, Facebook, and Twitter seem like reasonable solutions to the problem of loneliness experienced by a more and more mobile population, for me personally, utilizing these tools has made me feel more isolated than ever. Of course I actively participate in my own life – and I love my life – but through blogging and Facebook, I am merely an outside observer to the lives of my friends.
To say that blogging (and Twitter, Facebook, even email) is anti-social and enhances disconnectedness is to render the user(s) blameless. If someone tries to use technological communication as a sole means of maintaining relationships, they are probably using it in the wrong way. But that’s what it’s come to. I have never been a heavy phone user – just not my preferred medium. Never has been. Especially now with cell phones, lengthy long distance phone calls can be made cumbersome with fuzzy or sporadic reception. And I simply do not make time to really get comfortable and have a long phone conversation where I am focused 100% on the person I’m talking to. It’s dreadful, but it seems somehow decadent to laze around on the phone doing absolutely nothing but talking (I absolutely refuse to talk on the phone while driving).
I use to write extensive letters to maintain contact and relationships with long distance friends. Then I switched to email. It was faster. But with faster, came higher expectations. Replies should be quicker, right? But we all get so much fucking email every single day. And soon the email I intended to reply to has been lingering in my inbox for well over a month and I feel like I should respond but I can’t just type off a quick response, it has to be meaningful or what’s the point? So it lingers still while I try to find time to reply properly.
A year ago, after much deliberation, I finally bit the bullet and joined Facebook thinking this, at last, was the perfect way to be connected to friends. Alas. I despise Facebook. Obviously I’m in the minority. I guess I just don’t get it; I don’t appreciate it or enjoy it the way others seem to. Perhaps if I actually posted something, anything, to my Facebook page, I would feel more connected. The problem is that I rarely think I have anything evenly remotely interesting to post. Again, obviously I am in the minority in my thinking.
Anyway, I guess partly why I’ve lapsed in my blogging endeavors lately is that sometimes it just seems mostly pointless and only serves to make me feel even more disconnected than I already do.
Don’t think that I solely lay the blame of my isolation feelings at the feet of technology. I seem to go through hermit phases – some more lengthy than others – where I find it difficult to participate in anyone’s life but my own. I think it’s genetic. I suppose this blog post could indicate I am emerging from one of these phases. We’ll see.
5.26.2010
5.05.2010
High & Dry
Rest assured Joanna, Daniel and I (and the cats) survived the Nashville deluge. It was an unprecendented rainfall event this past weekend and many Nashvillians sustained devastating loss and damage due to the flash flooding. We were very fortunate and lost nothing. Not even power. Our house remained dry. Our yard and trees remained intact. And our vehicles are fine.
The creek on our property which is normally 3 feet or so across became a raging 15-20foot wide river and flooded out the bridge at the end of our street. A few of our neighbors had some serious flooding in their basements, but no one has been displaced like in some parts of the city.
Some of the low lying areas are nearly completely submerged. Still. Schools have been closed all week as well as many businesses and government agencies. Public transportation has been suspended. Many roads are still closed due to non-receding water or flood damage. We have been mandated to conserve water and use it only for drinking and cooking. There are suddenly hundreds of homeless folks living in temporary shelters across the city. Some people lost everything.
The volunteer efforts have been phenomenal (they don't call this the Volunteer state for nothing!). Despite the tragedies, it has been heartwarming to see the outpouring of kindness and compassion towards those whose lives have been dramatically altered.
If you want to donate to the Nashville Red Cross flood relief effort, you can do so by simply texting REDCROSS to 90999. An automatic donation of $10.00 will be made and will be charged to your next phone bill.
The creek on our property which is normally 3 feet or so across became a raging 15-20foot wide river and flooded out the bridge at the end of our street. A few of our neighbors had some serious flooding in their basements, but no one has been displaced like in some parts of the city.
Some of the low lying areas are nearly completely submerged. Still. Schools have been closed all week as well as many businesses and government agencies. Public transportation has been suspended. Many roads are still closed due to non-receding water or flood damage. We have been mandated to conserve water and use it only for drinking and cooking. There are suddenly hundreds of homeless folks living in temporary shelters across the city. Some people lost everything.
The volunteer efforts have been phenomenal (they don't call this the Volunteer state for nothing!). Despite the tragedies, it has been heartwarming to see the outpouring of kindness and compassion towards those whose lives have been dramatically altered.
If you want to donate to the Nashville Red Cross flood relief effort, you can do so by simply texting REDCROSS to 90999. An automatic donation of $10.00 will be made and will be charged to your next phone bill.
3.29.2010
3.23.2010
What's For Dinner?
This whole No Sugar thing we're doing has had more impact on our lives than I anticipated it would. Once you start reading ingredient labels to look for sugar, you notice all the other crap that's jammed into most of our packaged foods too. It's kind of startling (and disturbing) how so much of our processed "foods" contain ingredients that seem better suited to a plastics factory or chemical laboratory.
After watching the documentary Food, Inc., I looked around on Netflix for similar "Big Food" related documentaries and found The Future of Food - another really eye-opening film centered mostly around the almost extinct seed culture in our country and the increasing prevalence of genetically modified food. Scary stuff. Even scarier that companies aren't required to label products containing GM ingredients here in the U.S. like they are required to in European and Asian countries.
Thus, in addition to sticking to organic and local produce, we are also purchasing far fewer processed, packaged foods from our grocery stores and looking for "No-GM" labels provided by ethical food companies on the packaged foods we do buy.
As you can imagine, eating out at restaurants has become almost non-existent for us as well - especially at chain restaurants (which we rarely patronized anyway).
As a result, we have been preparing and cooking 3 meals a day, 7 days a week for the past 5 weeks. Well, okay, there have been a couple of restaurant meals at local restaurants where we can easily assess ingredients - but really, only like 3 times since we started the No Sugar experiment.
All of this requires planning, and time, and effort. It's exhausting. But in a good way. Breakfasts are usually handled by Daniel because as much as I'd like to be, I am simply NOT a morning person by any stretch of the imagination. He makes a variety of things throughout the week like oatmeal, or eggs, or toast. Sometimes fruit or cold cereal is involved. This morning, for instance, he put egg, cheese and bacon on half a piece of toasted whole wheat pita bread. And a little almond butter on a banana. We may not be eating refined sugars but that doesn't mean we are deprived of good tasting whole foods.
I typically cover lunches and make them directly after dinner the night before. Lunches very often include dinner leftovers, or a sandwich, fruit, carrots, chips, nuts...whatever suits my fancy at the time. Daniel's lunch today consists of a roast beef sandwich (on sprouted whole grain bread, with lettuce, cheese, and horseradish), a cup of vegetable chili, a Granny Smith apple, and corn chips.
Dinners are almost always a team effort, and it's an enjoyable endeavor cooking together every night. Except for Mondays. Mondays I'm on my own because Daniel has class until 9:30 pm. In the past, I would've maybe stopped at Wendy's or Taco Bell on my way home from work so I wouldn't have to cook for just me. Or I would've gone home and had a bowl of cereal, a couple of cookies, a Lean Cuisine, or whatever.
But not lately. Lately, even when on my own, I come home and I cook dinner. Just for me. So, last night I came home, snuggled the kittehs until they demanded their daily treats, and then pulled out vegetables, beans and spices, and got to chopping.
The vegetable chili I made is a recipe I love mostly because it's highly versatile, really delicious, and easy peasy. It does, however, take time to chop everything (unless you have mad knife skills - I do not have mad knife skills). Onion, bell pepper, serrano pepper, garlic, zucchini, carrots, and mushrooms all have to be chopped. But then, it's just throwing things in a big pot and letting it cook for a total of about 35 minutes.
Here's the recipe:
Vegetarian Chili - adapted from Emeril Lagasse
2 tablespoons canola oil
1 1/2 cups chopped yellow onions
1 cup chopped bell peppers
2 tablespoons minced garlic
2 to 3 serrano peppers, stemmed, seeded, and minced, depending upon taste
1 medium zucchini, stem ends trimmed and cut into small dice
3-4 carrots, chopped or sliced
2 cups fresh or canned corn kernels (about 3 ears)
1 1/2 pounds portobello mushrooms (about 5 large), stemmed, wiped clean and cubed
2 tablespoons chili powder
1 tablespooon ground cumin
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
1/4 teaspoon cayenne
3 cups cooked beans, or canned beans, rinsed and drained
1 (15-ounce) can diced tomatoes with juice
1 cup vegetable stock, or water
In a large, heavy pot, heat the oil over medium-high heat. Add the onions, bell peppers, garlic, and serrano peppers, and cook, stirring, until soft, about 3 minutes. Add the zucchini, carrots, corn, and mushrooms, and cook, stirring, until soft and the vegetables give off their liquid and start to brown around the edges, about 6 minutes. Add the chili powder, cumin, salt and cayenne, and cook, stirring, until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add the tomatoes and stir well. Add the beans, and vegetable stock, stir well, and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer, stirring occasionally, for about 20 minutes.
I put cheese on top, because...well, because I love cheese. And scooping up the chunky chili with blue corn chips is very tasty.
The corn chips we got at Whole Foods. They are Garden of Eatin' brand and claim to be organic and without any GM ingredients - there are like 3 ingredients, corn, oil and salt. They are really crunchy and salty and delicious.
I even had dessert with my dinner last night. Raisin date bread with real butter. The bread we found at a little country Amish store in Nolensville. The kind of town where if you blink while passing through, you'll completely miss it. It's a good trip from our house, but totally worth it. This bread is moist and delicious and contains no refined sugars - just dates, raisins, and apple juice. And it's made with whole wheat flour.
Planning is most definitely the key to cooking and eating well. We grocery shop once a week and buy the things we'll need to make our three meals a day for the upcoming 7 days. Yeah, it takes a little forethought, but it's really nice to come home and know what you're having for dinner. And that it will be real food.
After watching the documentary Food, Inc., I looked around on Netflix for similar "Big Food" related documentaries and found The Future of Food - another really eye-opening film centered mostly around the almost extinct seed culture in our country and the increasing prevalence of genetically modified food. Scary stuff. Even scarier that companies aren't required to label products containing GM ingredients here in the U.S. like they are required to in European and Asian countries.
Thus, in addition to sticking to organic and local produce, we are also purchasing far fewer processed, packaged foods from our grocery stores and looking for "No-GM" labels provided by ethical food companies on the packaged foods we do buy.
As you can imagine, eating out at restaurants has become almost non-existent for us as well - especially at chain restaurants (which we rarely patronized anyway).
As a result, we have been preparing and cooking 3 meals a day, 7 days a week for the past 5 weeks. Well, okay, there have been a couple of restaurant meals at local restaurants where we can easily assess ingredients - but really, only like 3 times since we started the No Sugar experiment.
All of this requires planning, and time, and effort. It's exhausting. But in a good way. Breakfasts are usually handled by Daniel because as much as I'd like to be, I am simply NOT a morning person by any stretch of the imagination. He makes a variety of things throughout the week like oatmeal, or eggs, or toast. Sometimes fruit or cold cereal is involved. This morning, for instance, he put egg, cheese and bacon on half a piece of toasted whole wheat pita bread. And a little almond butter on a banana. We may not be eating refined sugars but that doesn't mean we are deprived of good tasting whole foods.
I typically cover lunches and make them directly after dinner the night before. Lunches very often include dinner leftovers, or a sandwich, fruit, carrots, chips, nuts...whatever suits my fancy at the time. Daniel's lunch today consists of a roast beef sandwich (on sprouted whole grain bread, with lettuce, cheese, and horseradish), a cup of vegetable chili, a Granny Smith apple, and corn chips.
Dinners are almost always a team effort, and it's an enjoyable endeavor cooking together every night. Except for Mondays. Mondays I'm on my own because Daniel has class until 9:30 pm. In the past, I would've maybe stopped at Wendy's or Taco Bell on my way home from work so I wouldn't have to cook for just me. Or I would've gone home and had a bowl of cereal, a couple of cookies, a Lean Cuisine, or whatever.
But not lately. Lately, even when on my own, I come home and I cook dinner. Just for me. So, last night I came home, snuggled the kittehs until they demanded their daily treats, and then pulled out vegetables, beans and spices, and got to chopping.
The vegetable chili I made is a recipe I love mostly because it's highly versatile, really delicious, and easy peasy. It does, however, take time to chop everything (unless you have mad knife skills - I do not have mad knife skills). Onion, bell pepper, serrano pepper, garlic, zucchini, carrots, and mushrooms all have to be chopped. But then, it's just throwing things in a big pot and letting it cook for a total of about 35 minutes.
Here's the recipe:
Vegetarian Chili - adapted from Emeril Lagasse
2 tablespoons canola oil
1 1/2 cups chopped yellow onions
1 cup chopped bell peppers
2 tablespoons minced garlic
2 to 3 serrano peppers, stemmed, seeded, and minced, depending upon taste
1 medium zucchini, stem ends trimmed and cut into small dice
3-4 carrots, chopped or sliced
2 cups fresh or canned corn kernels (about 3 ears)
1 1/2 pounds portobello mushrooms (about 5 large), stemmed, wiped clean and cubed
2 tablespoons chili powder
1 tablespooon ground cumin
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
1/4 teaspoon cayenne
3 cups cooked beans, or canned beans, rinsed and drained
1 (15-ounce) can diced tomatoes with juice
1 cup vegetable stock, or water
In a large, heavy pot, heat the oil over medium-high heat. Add the onions, bell peppers, garlic, and serrano peppers, and cook, stirring, until soft, about 3 minutes. Add the zucchini, carrots, corn, and mushrooms, and cook, stirring, until soft and the vegetables give off their liquid and start to brown around the edges, about 6 minutes. Add the chili powder, cumin, salt and cayenne, and cook, stirring, until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add the tomatoes and stir well. Add the beans, and vegetable stock, stir well, and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer, stirring occasionally, for about 20 minutes.
I put cheese on top, because...well, because I love cheese. And scooping up the chunky chili with blue corn chips is very tasty.
The corn chips we got at Whole Foods. They are Garden of Eatin' brand and claim to be organic and without any GM ingredients - there are like 3 ingredients, corn, oil and salt. They are really crunchy and salty and delicious.
I even had dessert with my dinner last night. Raisin date bread with real butter. The bread we found at a little country Amish store in Nolensville. The kind of town where if you blink while passing through, you'll completely miss it. It's a good trip from our house, but totally worth it. This bread is moist and delicious and contains no refined sugars - just dates, raisins, and apple juice. And it's made with whole wheat flour.
Planning is most definitely the key to cooking and eating well. We grocery shop once a week and buy the things we'll need to make our three meals a day for the upcoming 7 days. Yeah, it takes a little forethought, but it's really nice to come home and know what you're having for dinner. And that it will be real food.
3.19.2010
You Can See the Stars in Nashville
You'd never guess it, being in the "Fly Over" zone and everything, but little ole Nashville gets quite its share of celebrities living in or visiting the city.
Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin were recently here for a few months. She was, apparently, filming scenes for an upcoming movie
Gwyneth has a website called GOOP, where she is posting about her stay in Nashville. Quite a few of her favorite Nashville highlights are straight from our very own East Nashville neighborhood like Marche, Margot, The Turnip Truck, Ugly Mugs, Olive & Sinclair, and Drew's Brews. Check It Out
I am not one of those people who is obsessed with celebrity sightings, and Nashville kind of has a reputation for being chill about its celebrity residents and visitors.
Anywho, it's nice to know our little city made a positive impression on our latest famous visitors.
Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin were recently here for a few months. She was, apparently, filming scenes for an upcoming movie
Gwyneth has a website called GOOP, where she is posting about her stay in Nashville. Quite a few of her favorite Nashville highlights are straight from our very own East Nashville neighborhood like Marche, Margot, The Turnip Truck, Ugly Mugs, Olive & Sinclair, and Drew's Brews. Check It Out
I am not one of those people who is obsessed with celebrity sightings, and Nashville kind of has a reputation for being chill about its celebrity residents and visitors.
Anywho, it's nice to know our little city made a positive impression on our latest famous visitors.
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