Moving The Blog

Hello There,

I moved my blog over to the following address:

http://www.ricochetdreamer.blogspot.com/

No reason to have a different web address from the title of the blog, now is there?

All of my posts and things should theoretically be at the new site, though. So please come visit me over There

Thanks!

Food For Thought

Secretary of Food?

I heart Gardening, and Ethiopian Food

I am in love with my tiny little garden. I also love the perk of living in a place that allows me to harvest arugula and basil mid-December.

This month's Cooking Light magazine has a great "Inspired Vegetarian" section that focuses on Ethiopian Food. It's written by Marcus Samuelsson, the author of Soul of a New Cuisine: The Discovery of a Continent, an African cookbook.

It's a beautiful thing how a kitchen can be a portal to other cultures, different worlds.

Last night we took one of the recipes from Cooking Light's Ethiopian food feature, Red Whole Wheat Penne Pasta (the Italians *attempted* to colonize Ethiopia, so there is an Italian influence on Ethiopian cuisine- the "red" part of the recipe comes from the fiery sauce made from local spice blends that replaces marinara or pesto- a syncretization of culture, on your dinner plate). The recipe required a good amount of basil and arugula- which, if I were to purchase at the store would probably run around $5 (I figure at least $2.50 each for containers of the fresh herbs). For me, the cost was that of 2 seeds and a little care, which eventually produced the beautiful plants who make their home in the raised bed we built for them.

The temperature here has only just barely dipped below freezing,and only a handful of times, so with the help of a frost blanket, my little green friends are still happy and growing, this late in the year. Amazing!

Last night cooking was more than an average weeknight ordeal. I felt connected to the earth when I clipped away herbs from the garden, and I was able to cook up a sense of place along with the food. It's a little thing, but it means a lot, to me.

Exercise, ReCommitment, Changing Goals, Healthy Living

So last week totally knocked me out physically. The healthier I feel the more I realize how sick I was. Ick!! But the point is I have been getting back my strength, and the past couple of days I went jogging (about 4 miles each time).

And I realize several things. First of all, it really is true that I feel better when I exercise. My spirits are lifted, my head is cleared, and I feel a little tingly and exhilirated. It's good to be out of breath, good to feel your muscles being used. Yesterday made me remember why it is exactly that I love to get outside and run.

Secondly, I realize how nice it is to be able to go out and run at all , especially after being sick and not being physically able to run. But I also remember how, Not too long ago, I couldn't run. Not because I was sick, but because I was, well, fat. I was anything but "in shape." I couldn't run half a mile, much less four. It took a long time and a lot of effort to get to the place where I am today, and even though I haven't been at the top of my game lately, it's so much ahead of where I used to be; back then I couldn't even think about going on a 4 mile run- now that's a pretty short run to me.


Thirdly, I realize I can do a lot better.

The past month hasn't been a great month for me, running wise. I, once again, allowed myself to get sidetracked with school/work/family etc. And once you miss a few exercise sessions for "legitimate" reasons, like having a paper due, or it being Thanksgiving and family's in town, or what have you, it becomes awfully easy to skip a run because "you just don't feel like it."

But, as Natalie Goldberg points out, if you wait until you feel like running to run, you never will. To further that, I've never regretting going for a run. But I sure have regretting not going on a run. It has to be a priority.

Because of my running setbacks over the past month, my goal has changed. It's changed from running the full marathon to running the half marathon at Cowtown. I'm very disappointed in this, because I let it happen, but at the same time I'm a big believer in learning from mistakes. There's some good that'll come out of it- my goal has also changed from just wanting to finish to finishing with a PR (personal record). Right now my half marathon time is 2:28. That's about an 11:30 min. mile, I think. I have never claimed to be fast. So, getting a PR should be definitely doable.

But I have a bigger, overreaching goal. I really feel like I can be healthier in general. I want to be stronger, leaner, and smarter about the choices I make- because those choices ultimately affect my body,my endurance, even my longevity- and that by extension affects my relationships with people I love. And, as I've talked about before, I really feel like the better shape I'm in physically, the better shape I'm in mentally- I think better and can focus better if I'm exercising regularly and consistantly. And there's tons of research to back that up. It's not just me.

Now I realize, though, that the better shape I'm in physically, the better off I am emotionally, too. I haven't researched it much but I'm pretty convinced that exercising really does make me happier, at least, and I'd suspect that would be true for most people. I really think it does something positive to my brain chemical levels.

It's really just a coincedence that I'm wanting to ramp up the attention I'm paying to my health fairly close to the "New Year's Resolution" date. It's sort of been a general resolution that I made a couple years ago now. Most people who know me know that around that time I lost about 30 lbs, after practically a whole lifetime of being overweight. After the 30lb. mark, I just sort of stayed the same. But like I said, I know I can do better, it's just a matter of committing and following through. I think I'm going to experiment here with a "living well" series, maybe where I talk about my ongoing efforts to be healthier.

I obviously have too many categories in my hodgepodge blog already, so why not add just one more?

Garden update

No Bagged Salad in this house!






This is what I had for lunch today: Organic field greens strait from the backyard.

Bicycles Win!!

This picture is of what the New Magnolia Street is going to look like sometime next spring. It's the street where J&I walk or bike to for date nights or the Arts Goggle- the street with the Vegan Restaurant, the Egyptian Restaurant, the and the completely delicious Nonna Tata's, as well as a whole slew of other interesting (read: unchained) places to eat.

It's also the corridor we use to get us to South Jennings, which takes us into downtown relatively safely on bike. Now, with the bike lanes, it will be even safer, and we won't have to worry so much about cars zooming by.

I am so excited at this progress! :)

Piano Smirks :)

This week my piano students are having their next-to-last piano lesson for the semester. One of the young ladies in particular started out in August very shy and timid in her playing, and it has been my mission in life for the 60 minutes I see her each week to build as supporting and nurturing environment as possible. I had to retrain her in several ways, starting with the banning of the word "Sorry."

During the first few weeks she apologized every few bars, and you could just see the frustration/near tears that come with feeling like you have to play everything perfectly when you're just not there yet. Tonight, she didn't utter that word, "Sorry," once. She played her piece (which she was convinced originally that she couldn't play) and then looked at me and smirked, as if to say, yeah, I know it was good. That development of confidence is the most important thing she could have learned in the past few months; way more important than the scales and cadences.

I'm so proud of her :)

Glorious Day!

The thermometer today read 98.6! I still feel a little weak and sniffly but am glad to be appearing human to the outside world.

And just for clarification- J was actually a sweetheart during my whole ordeal (like he always is). I mean, he wasn't actually here for most of it (thank goodness!). Apparently, if you have a fever, it doesn't really matter if it's 101 or 102...a fever's a fever, unless it gets reallly high, like 104.5 or something. The more you know.

I'm just glad it's over.

Musical/Cultural Ecosystems

Claude Levi-Strauss is an anthropologist probably most famous for writing The Savage Mind and for his belief that the "savage mind" is equal to the "civilized" mind. He also rejects the idea that the Western mind is somehow unique and privileged.

He's 100 years old.

I heard him being interviewed recently, and he was saying how he's pessimistic about the future, because of how many and how quickly human cultures are dying, and wisdom and knowledge with them.

We talk a lot about climate change and globilization, and the effect of said phenomenon on the physical world. But we don't talk much about the effect on culture. We talk about extinction of animals and the negative impact of deforestation in regard to animal habitat- but for some reason the effect of such things on human cultures- on human habitats- on the extinction of human cultures- is less spoken of.

I'm of the opinion that diversity is a marker of a healthy community. In ecology, landscape diversity includes variety, pattern, connectedness, resilience, and integrity. We accept this in reference to communities of plants and animals, but it also applies to ourselves.

When ways of life change, culture changes, too, and when culture changes, so does the music. To back up a little bit, when environments change (i.e, are Westernized, or homogenized, or when agricultural lands are taken for modernization, etc.) the way people live changes, then culture changes, and so does music. In other words, environmental changes result in musical changes.


If we think of musical tradition in an ecological framework, we might consider a musical genre a species in a kingdom, and a specific musical tradition as a breed within a species. As such, we can expect that a musical tradition might breed with, or be influenced by, other nearby musical traditions. For example, the city church in Ethiopia I went to, Tekla Haimonut, has been influenced by more secular traditions of cd recording and even a shift to the vernacular language, and some other differences as well.

In continuing to think of music in an ecological or evolutionary framework, we can expect music to be shaped by environments, in that a musical tradition can and does adapt to particular environments. Animals, for example, of the same species might, over time, develop a more curved beak more suitable to cracking nuts.
Music adapts to place and time as well.

So, in order to preserve musical (and other human) traditions which thousands of years old, the preservation of the environments in which that music was traditionally performed within, their natural habitats, is also required.

Well...

...I thought I had this thing kicked but I have now surpassed even the ferret in body temperature (102.4 at last check). I think my head might explode.

I showed J the thermometer, and he said, "What? You're fine."

I said, "but doesn't the fact that my fever is higher mean that I'm getting worse??" To which he replied:

"That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard. You're fine."

I am not fine! I had hardly walk straight and have rockets of snot spewing forth every 2.3 seconds. I can't hear, taste, or speak functionally. I sleep more than a three toed sloth. In what universe is that considered fine?!?!

I reiterate: A physician as a spouse does not provide much sympathy when you are sick. Their perspective is skewed.

Enough with the Emoticons!

It has come to my attention that the past several entries have begun with a smiley face, a sad face, and ellipses. No more! I am determined to resume posting entries of substance, despite the truly incredible volume of snot that continues to pour out of my nostrils. I swear, as soon as I blow my nose, I can literally hear it filling back up again. Also, I feel like I have moose ears. Not that I can hear anything, mind you.

My temperature is now more reflective of a human's instead of a ferrett's (I read somewhere that a ferret's normal body temperature is 102), so that's a definite improvement over yesterday, which was completely horrendous. At least J was at the hospital and so I was saved from my husband seeing me resemble a giant sea slug suffering from all manner of ill.

So today I need to catch up on final paper tasks as my the extra time I allocated myself time was stolen ever so un-remorsefully by creepy crawly micro-organisms. Blast them all!

But either after I (best case scenario) finish my next paper, or (more likely) reach a stopping point, I'm going to come back and write either about musical ecosystems or how hippies and super christians really have quite a lot in common.

:(

I take back what I said about preferring me getting sick to my computer getting sick. This is totally horrible, and much worse today, as now I have developed a respectable fever. All I've done for the past 24hrs is sleep and cough, drink some hot tea, then blow my nose and go back to bed. Awful.

J's on overnight call but he got me set up with cans of chicken soup and dino-bite spaghettio's. If that's not love I don't know what is :)

hopefully I will be better tomorrow.

:)

Happily, my final draft for my paper for my Islam and Politics course is now complete, despite the sniffles/sore throat/upset stomach/achiness thing I currently have going on. I think some people refer to the above as "the flu." I don't know what I have, but it is not a happy thing.

Unfortunately, when you husband sees people with chronic heart failure on a daily basis it doesn't do much for his sympathy level. I text messaged him that I was sick and I got back "Well, go buy some soup." haha At least he followed up with "The doctor will take care of you when he gets home." What a dork.

At least (1) of my papers is completely finished, down to the last footnote. It turned out being 10 pages longer than I thought it would, even after editing. That's a happy thing, as I don't think I could have produced anything somewhat coherent today. I think I went through a whole roll of toliet paper (grad student kleenex) in between paragraphs.

I have two more papers to finish up, but I have plenty of time to do it. It's always good to plan and schedule to finish early so that you don't box yourself in when unexpected things- like getting sick- happen. And something like this always happens. If it's not physical illness then it will be computer illness, an honestly I'd rather it be me.

ugh...must rest.... ::sniffles::

???

How does your immune system know when final papers are due, and why must it thwart you???

::sniffles::

Still here!

I've gotten a few "Have you fallen off the face of the earth?" comments, so quick update:

J's family came in for Thanksgiving and even though J was on nights and so was only semi-conscious and even then only for a few hours, it was great for everyone to be together. Also over the holiday, J had a birthday- so in addition to the turkey and pie, there is an Italian Cream Cake here as well (it's his favorite and I make it every year- but now he's not home enough to eat enough of it! So it just lurks on the kitchen, along with enough leftovers to last us at least another week!)

I purposefully scheduled my writing so that I wouldn't have to focus on that when family was in town, so I could focus on them instead of on writing papers- this is good, but that means today is all about the paper writing :)

3 papers and I'm done, and they are shaping up nicely- around 60 pages and edited w/ footnotes.

I have a few posts I've been meaning to post:
Music Ecology
Tips on Writing Papers
Garden Update

So after I finish writing, I'll come back in fill in the gaps here...