Blogging again, but elsewhere!

I have started a new blog - it will have a similar topic however I've begun eating Paleo so my recipes will be focusing on that!

Back to the NW for the Future

A good find

I found this little dude looking up at me on the sidewalk today after work. He was laying on the cement next to packed and trampled snow. Fallen from the hand of his previous owner and picked up by me on a day when a little gift went a long way to improving my mood.
Today was a good day.

Planning your meals and not wasting food

Design*sponge grocery planner

Bon Appetite 7 habits of highly effective grocery shoppers

I'm getting ready to head to Brooklyn, I have a bit of food that I brought from Ithaca but really I want to start over. I want all new spices except for the newest spices I have. I have some flour and basics, but really I just want to treat it like I'm living in Italy again. Buy food, cook it. Buy food, cook it. make left overs, have some pasta. Buy food, cook it.

I will be much more active in this job than my past jobs, so I need to account for that when bringing lunch. I also will be working in areas that will most likely not have salad bars and delis with tasty sandwiches... so I really need to make sure I bring hearty foods that keep me going. I'm a little concerned about getting bored (food wise). I may end up getting a microwave for th job site if there isn't one there, so I can eat warm food. I'll try the food thermos again but it doesn't stay HOT it ends up being just warm. Cheap foods are beans and rice... together they create a complete protein... cheaper than meat! Salads will be good too. I will be packing lunch everyday, dinner 2 days a week and a snack everyday. I'd like to go to some yoga classes, trying out different studios. With my classes 2 days a week it doesn't make sense to get an unlimited pass for any yoga studio because there are at least 2 days a week I won't be able to go. For now I'm going to try to stick to a few classes a week.

My new job starts Monday, and I have class that night. We are being fed lunch on Monday which means I don't have to figure out lunch until Tuesday. It's hard to plan a meal when I don't know when I'm moving in (Sunday night, tomorrow, hopefully). And I have nothing in the fridge :P

Cheers to a new job, moving forward and personal growth. May this be the best year yet.

I can still keep the nickname... even if the person who gave it to me isn't around anymore

Smyles
:-);-):-D:-p:-x:-)):->:-/:-/:-(:-O:-x
I'm gonna own it.
(all images from imgur.com)

Getting ready

I'm getting geared up to start my new job (Monday morning!). Half of my stuff is loaded in my car, tomorrow I put the other half of things in my car. Hopefully I can move in Sunday, but there is not guarantee. What's up with the first of the month being on a Monday? I feel like renting should be from the first to last weekend of the month, it would be so much more convenient for moving. I've been looking up lots of articles and storing them on my computer because I won't have internet in my new place. Tonight the focus of my research is on food, especially food without an oven. My new place has a fridge, microwave, and double electric hotplate.

How to Eat Your Trash

How to Eat Less Meat

Pastas and their appropriate sauce applications Nice photos of pastas :)


Recipes that don't require an oven
Icebox Cake, I won't be able to make cookies (though I will be able to make cookie dough!)

Um, I'll find more later

You know what's free but painful?

Letting go.

Suffering is like street meat. After enough of it you realize it sucks and you should just let it go, even though it smells good... The analogy worked better in my head.

Pain is inevitable, bad things happen, tough times happen, but holding onto a certain view of something doesn't make it go away. It makes suffering happen. It is painful. Like holding onto a rope that is sliding up, the only way to not feel the pain of rope burn is to let go of the rope. I have been suffering these 2 months because I cannot let go of this view/understanding I had of the world. Trust me, I have been working on it. But today, to receive a casual forwarded link from him, it felt like salt on the wound. How can your first contact with someone who's heart you broke be so casual and nonchalant? I have to fight harder to let go. Fight harder to remember that everything is happening perfectly, that the universe wouldn't give me anything I couldn't handle, that I will get through this... that I am getting through this... that I have so much to be grateful for and so much ahead of me. I cannot let this hurdle continuously trip me from my future... whatever that may be.

I am filling my calendar up with classes and work starting next Monday (life of a pauper by choice... food stamps, not enough to live on in NYC, but a great learning experience and opportunity). I can only hope (nay, wonder) what windows this door will lead to. 3 months ago I wouldn't have seen this all happening, yet here I am. And making the best of it. I've been told I'm brave... I have been reading the Pema Chondron Collection my mom lent me and it has been very helpful. I haven't had a steady enough mind to mediate today, but reading and thinking about it helped immensely. She said that her husband early in her marriage told her she was the bravest person he knew because she was the biggest coward but went ahead and did what she was afraid of anyway. That's where I feel I am. I don't know what the future will bring. I had my first graphic design class today and I loved it. I was riveted. I don't know where my career is headed. I feel like I'm interested in too many things to pick one. How can I combine all aspects of design? I don't think of myself as brave because I'm scared and nervous. But I am still changing my life, even without him. Perhaps because of him. I don't know what the future will bring. I used to always have a plan and now... I know where I'll be working til Dec, I know where I'll be living and taking classes til April. Next January I have no idea what my career plans will be, where I will be going or what I will be doing. It would be liberating if it wasn't so frightening. Hopefully in these next 1 months I'll learn to face that fear. To be at peace with it and be aware of what's going on around me so I can hop through any open windows or doors of opportunity that my choices may offer me in the next 11 months.

On a slightly different note. If you live in NYC and are looking for a way to spend your day for little money and maximum relaxation... Spa Castle, on a weekday, $35 for 3 levels of pools, hot tubs, jets and saunas is pretty freaking amazing. I also got a chair massage of my back for $15/10 min (the most affordable massage option). They have other services like manis and pedis, hot stone massage and waxing... less of a fun filled cheap day though to include those. I went there with a group of girls on Friday and it was totally awesome. We were there from 1pm til about 8pm. On the weekends it's busier and $10 more, so less enticing. 6 days til I start working my below-minimum wage job. These next 11 months are going to be interesting...

New job!

I have accepted an Americorps position with Habitat for Humanity! I'll really have to be thrifty... it pays about $840 a month (that's after taxes), with a unlimited metrocard and a $200 rent voucher a month. In New York City... this is gonna be a bitch! I'll be able to get food stamps, which will help. I should have plenty to blog about, from the internet cafe near my place because I won't have internet. I won't be able to save any money, but at least I'll be able to bring in some money, rather than living 100% off loans. My student loans will be on deferment and I will get a stipend at the end of my 1700 hours of service toward tuition or loans. I made sure I'll be able to take a few days off to go to my brother's wedding, yay! There will be a couple trips, one to Iowa in June and another somewhere in the Fall. My best friend is doing the same job (she's been there several months already)- but I don't think we'll be working at the same site, at least not often.

The position will be a construction site leader. Teaching volunteers how to do the work, delegating, quality control... all things I was doing at Yestermorrow without being asked. This time it's actually my responsibility :) I'll be taking Introduction to Construction Project Management as well as Introduction to Graphic Design in the evenings, and hopefully going to some insight meditation group sittings. This set period of having a job/responsibility will be nice to structure my life a bit while I try to figure out what to do next!