One Size Fits All

My first award! I’d like to thank the Chile Chews committee for giving me this award which did make me blush ("brilliant? me?awww"). Not sure why its Brilliante though. I’m a language dud…hence the confusion.

Per the rules:

1. The winner can put the logo on her blog.
2. Link the person you received your award from.
3. Nominate at least 7 other blogs.
4. Put links of those blogs on yours.
5. Leave a message on the blogs of the girls you’ve nominated

And now the awards….

First is Ms. Arduous who is moving to London,

Then its classic cookery who’s got a bun in the oven.

I have to nominate orgie who has the cutest little sons,

And Working for Rachel who got back from her blog va-cay-shun.

Heather just quit working for the man,

but who can forget Rob who is the King of making jam.

And last but not least we come to number seven,

Melinda of course! Her pancakes were a slice of heaven.

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And bonus, 7 random things about me

1.  I’m not very tall, but I wish I were shorter

2.  I stopped biting my nails when I began wearing braces on my teeth.

3. My shoe size is 8

4. I love the smell of lemon in pretty much anything

5. I hate having my picture taken

6. I wear grey alot

7. I’m a big fan of recursion

Well with both me and my husband having years of experience in a variety of fields that indicate our brilliance and flexibility, not to mention degrees in fields that are supposedly desperate for employees - we’re both still unemployable. Or at least, no one want to bother hiring people 3000 miles away. I feel like I should have just gotten a Literature degree like I wanted to, and I would have at least enjoyed my college experience.

So I’ve decided to turn this realization into something positive. One reason why we would eventually want to go back on the job market will be to pay off our student loans and save up to buy some land. I will continue to pay my student loan while on the cross country trip, since the monthly payment is a bit less than $80. I’ll start paying more than the minimum once I get a job on the W. Coast. Husband’s student loan will be on deferment for  roughly 3-4 months. His next payment’s due date is sometime in 2010 because we’ve been paying two to three times more than the minimum during the past year which keeps pushing the due date forward.

Because we’re leaving in the Fall, we might run into rough weather somewhere in the middle, and I’ve been playing around with some ideas.

One idea was to hang out with friends in Colorado being the dirty, smelly, unemployed bums that we will be. Maybe we’ll get some temp jobs, but if the economy is heading south, who knows how the temp market will be. This will mean that we’ll just be burning through our savings. 

Another idea was to head south into New Mexico or Arizona and work on a farm in exchange for room and board. This will give us some useful skills and knowledge and we can keep our savings intact. But are farms busy in the late fall/early winter in the South West? One farmer that I contacted said that there would be work to do, and he wants a 2 week minimum committment. But then what do we do during Christmas season when everything shuts down? Enjoy the desert scenary? Peak into Mexico and hope the border patrol ignores me? Continue to San Diego and then head north?

Some of the farms in the Northwest that need help all year round are located on islands. Which would be a bit of a problem since I can’t swim. I know I should have learned to swim all those times my husband dragged me to the public pool or the beach, but not only does water scare me, but I also find it icky - and the Atlantic isn’t exactly clean either. And I have issues with wearing a swimsuit.

Then of course is the Greyhound option. Some of my readers are getting a bit too excited about my trip and I need to manage these expectations. So please calm down and remember that I am really wimpy and a scaredy cat. We can all celebrate my accomplishment and get excited after I wind up on the Pacific coast in one piece. 

Edit: Another option is house sits. Pick up dog doo and mail in exchange for a free room and/or board.

I’ve been having a hard time lately in trying to read some of the blogs I read regularly. They are filled with such happy, positive information about reaching out and forming communities. About doing good, about being a happy, shiny, person that I’d like to be.

And I’m reading meditation articles about doing metta meditation on various people: me, people I like, people I don’t know, people I dislike. I finally gave up and just decided to focus on me because I am important and I should learn to like myself first instead of all these other people I may or may not care about.

I am aware and its true that I am leaving this city in a little over a month (~36 days), but the negative feelings I have toward this entire city is getting worse and worse everyday.

I just hate this city. I hate the people, I hate the trash, I hate the noise, I hate the aggression, the anger,  the abuse I see on public transit between parents and their kids, the people who don’t pick up after their dogs, the crappy public transit, the aggressive drivers, the pervasiveness of certain institutions, the political corruption, the homeless people,  the lack of enforcement of noise ordinances, the crappy service from service workers, and on and on and on.

I read this post by Daharja last week and thought a lot about her message, the point that hit me the hardest was this one:

If you are in a large city (anything above about 200,000 people counts as large in my books), get out of it.

Because:
In times of unrest and uncertainty, that’s where the riots will be.

And I realized with a start that that was true - at least considering where I live now.

But first I should explain why I wound up living in crappy areas to begin with. 

When I first began studying about racial relations and American history in college, I learned the importance of taxes. I learned that property taxes and income taxes (city/state) play a big role in who gets what: public playgrounds, pools, trash pickup, street cleaners, libraries, etc. After some bit of thinking, I decided to voluntarily live in economically depressed areas because I wanted to effect some sort of change with my money in whatever tiny way I could, because money talks. Picking an economically depressed area in this city is easy-peasy: there are only three pockets of the city (of roughly a few city blocks - small city blocks) that are not actually "ghetto". The rest is all crap. So I just began living in crappy areas. Its true that I wanted to save money, but overall the savings on rent was basically minimal, especially considering the fact that I have a tendency to live in small spaces and have a very frugal lifestyle.

But now…I am just beaten and the optimism I used to have is replaced with just hardened anger. Yes, I had this grand illusion that I would be some sort of saviour - that was naive and foolish of me. But its a bit hard to be the only person on a block to recycle/bicycle/sweep the sidewalk/contain marital conflicts indoors/contain trash and entertainment choices indoors/etc/etc. One of the reasons I moved into my current neighborhood was because the place is ethnically one of the most diverse in the city. I had alot of positive thoughts of how I thought life would be like here. But it isn’t how I thought it would be. I don’t know…it just makes me very sad. Its very depressing to ride through the city (one of my big hobbies is exploring parts of the city by bicycle), and see all this decay everywhere. I am not Mike from Satan’s Laundromat, I don’t find urban decay fascinating anymore. I feel very sad seeing how this city was poised for greatness 40-50 years ago and then just fell apart and never quite recovered.I’m sad that the general attitude I perceive is one of negativity. In a nutshell, this is not the place for me. I think I’m going to keep running away until I find a place that I can tolerate. I hope that happens before I am senile.

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The odd thing is I don’t live in a area where there are burned out shells of buildings. Its true that there is some sort of crack den a block away (per scary newspaper stories) from me, but its basically a middle class neighborhood. I think its the people that make the city, and I just dislike the people in this one. 

While doing some research, I came across The Pedestrian and Bicycle Information Center (PBIC) website. From their about page:

The Pedestrian and Bicycle Information Center (PBIC) is a national clearinghouse for information about health and safety, engineering, advocacy, education, enforcement, access, and mobility for pedestrians (including transit users) and bicyclists. The PBIC serves anyone interested in pedestrian and bicycle issues, including planners, engineers, private citizens, advocates, educators, police enforcement, and the health community.

One of their links had suggestions for addressing community problems encountered when bicycling including one I frequently encounter: motorists who drive too fast and speed limits not properly enforced by law enforcement officials. One of the suggestions offered to remedy that problem was to develop partnerships with law enforcement - a suggestion I cannot recommend highly enough.

I had urged my husband to get involved with the local neighborhood watch committee (because I’m just too exhausted after work to do anything besides collapse). The neighborhood watch committee is composed of a bunch of busy bodies who call in various things: graffitti (because of the broken window theory), suspicious people who loiter too long or too often and anything else that makes the neighborhood unsafe. One of the neighboring watch committees had a cop who patroled the streets with the participants which was an excellent way to get to know not only the work that the poorly paid cops do, but also their motivations (almost always admirable), the laws, their capabilities and most importantly - how to not be afraid of one. It also helps to form a partnership with law enforcement if it helps dispel negative stereotypes of bicyclists. From PBIC:

Many law enforcement officers perceive that the bicyclist is at fault in most cases, because the bicyclist should have been more careful, or due to a misunderstanding about the traffic laws, etc. This is most obvious when it comes to investigating and reporting crashes, but law enforcement officers can also have a similar attitude when it comes to enforcing the law. Without some training, many law enforcement officers believe that the best (or only) way to protect bicyclists is to write bicyclists tickets. This type of unbalanced enforcement may be ineffective or even harmful in promoting a safe bicycling environment.

Training programs that address other ways to enforce bicycle laws and incorporate research findings related to bicycle crashes and effective programs can help change these perceptions and attitudes. Courses on crash investigation can be useful for changing officer’s perceptions about bicyclists. The training should be given to the officers who enforce the traffic laws as well as those who investigate bicycle crashes.

Anyway, I am glad that there is some sort of blueprint on how to deal with problems and obstacles bicyclists face.  

After napping for 5 hours yesterday in addition to an 8 hour night’s sleep, I finally feel well rested. Well rested enough to try out new foods.

After reading Organic Needle’s post on zucchinis, I decided to buy this new vegetable (?) last weekend at the farmers’ market. I don’t think I’ve ever eaten zucchini before and I’m so glad my first attempt at eating and cooking it turned out so well. I made Orgie’s Aunti’s zucchini bread for breakfast this morning and it was delicious! I used 1.5 cups of whole wheat flour and 1.5 cups of all purpose flour. I used 2 cups of sugar (the last of it, that I’ve been trying to finish) instead of 2.5 cups and added a bit of nutmeg, per Orgie’s suggestion. I also baked some potatoes - cut them up and added cumin powder, chili powder, salt and butter. Pictures below:

I made fried rice last night. Ingredients include Lundberg’s brown rice, purple cabbage, carrots, string beans, leeks and seitan. The seitan was made using this recipe which is soo delicious and crunchy.  Below are pictures of the fried rice and the seitan being fried.

Some people fly and/or ride the train to far off and exotic destinations. Others stay home and have a staycation. What other options are available for the tightwad who wants to experience new locations without spending money? I’ll call it googcation: or using google for a vacation.

When researching our next place to live, I emailed arduous, sfordinarygirl and m for a list of their favorite neighborhoods. And they gave me a HUGE list of neigborhoods to check out. And so it was time to go on my googcation.

One of google’s features is their "street view" and in order to get a vague idea of what a neighborhood was like, I would "walk" around and try to experience this new place as best as I could sitting thousands of miles away in front of a computer screen. So below are some pictures from my most recent googcation.

I’ve been thinking about God for a very long time. And since its one of my many favorite topics I’m going to jot down some of my thoughts for future reference.

— 

If you want a label, I consider myself to be an atheist. I believe that when I die I will disintegrate into the soil. Unless I am burned to a crisp…in which case I will wind up blowing in the wind.

Anyway.

Karen Armstrong has been very instrumental in solidifying my thoughts on religion and the concept of God. Because of her writings I’ve come to a satisfactory answer on the role of religion and the concept of God and, the origin of the idea of a God. In a nutshell, today I believe that God represents all that is good about humanity and that goodness lies within every single person…unless they’re schizo I suppose. I imagine that the full realization of that goodness is what amounts to enlightenment - what Gautama Buddha is most famous for having attained. I am not entirely certain about this since I am not actually enlightened. I expect to have a halo around my head when I am enlightened and hope to blog about that feeling in the future.

I was feeling fairly despondent about many things when I arrived at the conclusion that one of the main reasons that so many people go around raping and pillaging the planet and its inhabitants is because they do not believe they possess that goodness in themselves…they possess some sort of self-hatred and they externalize that self-hate by crapping on everything. And since these people do not believe that they possess any goodness within themselves, they project it into this mythical being: God. God is wonderful, all-knowing, all-loving, all that is wondeful and great. I’ve read accounts of fundamentalist religious people believing that its okay to crap on Planet Earth because heaven will have a bountiful supply of everything, including free energy and paved streets of gold. That sentiment really bothered me, and I meditated on my feelings for a long time and finally came up with the conclusion that:

a. these people are delusional

b. these people possess alot of self-hatred and since I tend to ride that boat occasionally - I found it to be very sad.

— 

I’ve been doing metta meditation for the last several months and I’ve been doing it on myself. Several months ago, I was meditating and I saw this young woman (I guess I saw her in my head - its a bit hard to describe). I tend not to make eye contact with people, so I avoided looking at her. But I snuck a glance again  and found her looking at me with this incredible love, and kindness. And she was very beautiful. I freaked out a little bit because I am apparently a bit homophobic, but then got confused because the woman I was looking at was myself. First thought I had was, "wow! I’m pretty cute!" Then I cursed myself for the stray thought and continued looking at her, and I had this feeling or knowledge that she would take care of me and that she loved me very, very much. Elizabeth Gilbert in Eat, Pray, Love had a similar experience as I did. So its not something I am unique in experiencing.

I don’t have some grand conclusion about that experience  but shortly after that, I realized how this God idea originated. I am not a goddess (although you may feel free to pray to me and send me lots of money and email me your bank info), but I have finally come to a satisfactory conclusion about God which I stated above. Its a bit hard to describe, but I finally feel at peace.

Last night I made a fava bean dip first seen on Green Bean’s blog. I was too lazy to make it into a finely ground paste. I mashed it and quickly stuffed myself with it. I made pita chips to go with it. Also called pizza crust chips because the recipe I use to make pita and a pizza crust is the same. The flour, salt, pepper and olive oil is not local.

Today I made quiche. After seeing Heather’s post of a crustless quiche, I was inspired enough to make one. But then I thought I would  like a quiche better with a crust. So I made one with a crust. I used this recipe but I modified it a bit. I added half a cup of chickpea flour to the crust because I’m trying to finish up my chickpea flour. I added mushrooms, because Heather did and made my mouth water. I cooked the mushrooms and onions in butter (all local) before adding it on top of the eggs (which I had mixed with sour cream and local basil). The flours and sour cream are not local.

Delaware’s bicycle maps have tips on how one can live car free or car-lite in Delaware. The tips can be used for any place.

Its easy to live a car-lite, or even car-free, lifestyle in Delaware! Use your bicycle and these tips to start down the path to a healthier, more efficient form of travel.

1. Find your home on the Delaware Bicycle Maps and draw a circle with a one or two mile radius around it. Use a highlighter to mark places inside the circle that you regularly visit.

2. Choose a familiar place and try bicycling rather than driving. See if you can find a comfortable route and secure parking. Add a new location every 1-2 weeks.

3. See if you can find a closer destination for errands that fall outside your circle. By slowly increasing the number of bicycle trips and incorporating transit or using a carshare program, you’ll be living car-lite in no time!

I’m just inventing a term here because I don’t know if someone else has already come up with these thoughts and given it a name.

Over the past several years, I’ve been educating myself on some very useful matters: where my food comes from, peak oil, American history, monetary policies of the U.S., societal issues such as race relations, feminism, etc. I happen to like American history because its fairly new, and the effects of many events are still affecting people today. Indian history is very exciting and everything, but I started learning about it in third grade about what stuff was like in the B.C. era. Can you imagine the dates to keep track of? The battles that were fought? Which dynasty screwed over some other random dynasty? Lineage going back over a thousand years? In a nutshell I hated history because it was soo tedious and lengthy. But U.S. history is small and tiny and, learning about 10 key facts will make one seem like a genius in mixed company.

But that’s not what this post is about. This post is about how I wish I lived in this magical world where I didn’t have to worry. Where everything was safe. Where the food was not contaminated, the people were not jerks, where the poultry and meat farms were not horrid places for the animals living in them.

I was at a regular grocery store recently and was despairing over how little I could buy at the store. The Eat Local campaign has been successful and thus produce available with the "eat local" stickers, but the produce was not organic. I couldn’t just pick up any old fruit or veggie. I couldn’t pick up any meat because it came trucked in from god knows where. And was Bessie satisfied with her life before her head was chopped? I couldn’t tell. The organic milk was from Horizons, not some local farmer who was a pasa member. I know in time things will change, but why was there a change to this industrial/corporate environment where everything is so sterile?

And I do live in a crappy neighborhood, but why can’t I just walk out without stressing out on whether some random perv or jerk (always male) who will bother me? Why can’t I walk outside on the sidewalk barefoot instead of worrying about random nails and crushed glass from bottles that are broken every single night by nut bags? Why can’t I ride my bicycle without having someone yell or curse at me? Or buzz me and then hit on me?

One of the many reasons I’m interested in a bicycle trip across the country is because I’ve heard that it might restore my faith in humanity.  I have very little faith in pretty much anything which doesn’t add much to my self confidence, but I’m hoping to get across in one piece without hating everyone on the planet and cursing it to hell.

The Maryland State Highway Administration (SHA) recognizes bicycling as a legitimate mode of transportation and recreation and addresses the needs of cyclists on all roadway improvement projects where appropriate and feasible to do so. In 2003 the SHA developed a statewide network of bicycle routes using on-road and off-road facilities. The purpose of this effort was to provide long distance touring cyclists direction and guidance when crossing our state. Our goal was to make your bicycling experience as safe and enjoyable as possible while providing links to towns, cities and points of interest. The routes were developed in cooperation with Maryland’s Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee and input from local cycling organizaitons and citizen members.

Over two months ago, I complained that using baking soda on my armpits as a deodorant made my pits very, very itchy. Organic Needle suggested mixing baking soda with corn startch. I started using that mixture immediately.

So how did it work? It worked somewhat well. I don’t have itchiness every single day and my pits are not red from all that scratching, but I still have itchy pits. I’ve been showering more frequently now that its summer, and I go without using my deodorant mixture of corn startch and baking soda on some days to give myself a breather.  But I still have scratchy pits. As I mentioned before, I’ve used the following natural deo solutions: Tom’s of Maine, the rock, apple cider vinegar and rubbing alcohol to no effect. I smell bad when I use rubbing alcohol and apple cider vinegar - the smell does not dissapate. And it doesn’t work.Plus I can’t stand the smell of apple Cider vinegar or rubbing alcohol on me.

Are there some other solutions I could try? I used Dove’s deo before switching over to these eco-friendly options. And besides having a slimy feeling pit I had no problems with odor or itchiness or anything else.

I’ve been doing nothing but reading and planning for our bike trip for the last several weeks now. I’m still leaning toward putting together my own route, but if for whatever reason that’s not feasible I’l use the Adventure Cycling (ACA) Routes for the entire trip.

This is my (our) ideal trip:

Very little automobile contact and most of our journey will be on rural roads and bike trails.

Farmers’ markets along the way. I am hoping not only to find farmers’ markets but find them open all the way until Thanksgiving.

Inexpensive campgrounds/motels/hostels. Or just warmshowers hosts for the entire length of the trip.

Nice people who will either leave us alone (if they aren’t nice) or somehow help us by giving directions or water or permission to pitch our tent somewhere decent.

Good weather (har! har!) 

No aggressive animals 

The less we spend on the trip, the longer will this vacation last. I am expecting to reach Southern Colorado (CO) in November and the plan is to stay there until Spring (if the snow season has begun) or continue on using ACA’s Western Express route to reach San Francisco.  If we stay in CO, we were thinking of getting some temp jobs to last until Spring and then continuing the journey. Of course, I might just get sick of everything on our second day of riding and decide to get on a Greyhound and be done with this nutty plan. But I’ll try to be optimistic for now.

Since we’re wimpy and cheapskates, we plan on cooking nearly all our meals on the road and riding very little every day. So this is basically going to be the Snail Express route to the West Coast.

I’ve been reading that riding every day gets one’s intestines in tip-top shape - so that means that our chance of getting colon cancer is even less and our time spent hunting for toilets will be greatly increased. I’ve also been thinking of using the diva cup for the trip and am wondering if I should get this device called a freshette.

I bought our tents and sleeping bags (which can be zipped into one large bag for warmth and snuggle purposes although other activities might be dicey), and a stove that claims to use alcohol but is very flammable (so this might be a 100% fossil fuel-free trip).

We bought our bikes (Surly LHT) over the weekend. So I guess there is no turning back now.I also have sold our chest of drawers our futon (which was our bed) and other miscellaneous items. For now we’re sleeping on a foam pad until I buy us sleeping bags.

I also signed up for a 0% interest credit card. The introductory interest rate expires in August 2009 so I can rely on it if I really need to. The card has a picture of the U.S. flag to show my patriotism. The catch to the 0% interest rate is that the billing cycle is 25 days and when I made the call to activate the card I got connected to a live, loud, human being from Utah who was very determined to sell me my own peace of mind that cost only this or only that. He detailed a long list of horrible events that could go wrong: death, dismemberment, accident of other types, and so on. And he went on to say how sad it would be if my loved ones were relying on me for their livelihood. Yes it would be sad, that is why I expect my husband to fend for himself and I don’t have anyone else dependent on me.

I was in a good mood so I let him go on and on about how some customer thanked him because he broke his hip falling down the stairs and thanks to this program that cost so little he now is happy (with broken hip) and less stressed.

O well. I’m still a bit stressed about the trip mainly on how much we have to get done before we go.