A day of doing not much somehow equals a long post

Real food is important at any time. I haven't read much on the subject--but it seems like a mindset I was raised with. I do how Michael Pollan sums it up in his manifesto:

Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.

That, more or less, is the short answer to the supposedly incredibly complicated and confusing question of what we humans should eat in order to be maximally healthy.

...And you’re better off eating whole fresh foods rather than processed food products. That’s what I mean by the recommendation to “eat food,” which is not quite as simple as it sounds. For while it used to be that food was all you could eat, today there are thousands of other edible foodlike substances in the supermarket. These novel products of food science often come in packages elaborately festooned with health claims, which brings me to another, somewhat counterintuitive, piece of advice: If you’re concerned about your health, you should probably avoid products that make health claims. Why? Because a health claim on a food product is a strong indication it’s not really food, and food is what you want to eat.

You can see how quickly things can get complicated.

Being sick I want real food, but don't have much energy to prepare it. A couple of recipes that seemed easy enough to prepare, despite not seeming to be out of bed for more than 2 hours at a time all day.


First, chicken. Mom's recipe for the crock pot. It turned out simply enough, despite my not having cooked a chicken any time recently. And now I'm prepared to make chicken soup in the crock pot tomorrow.

Roast Chicken

Thoroughly wash one 3-4 lb. roasting hen and pat dry.
(Patting dry ensures good browning.)

Sprinkle cavity generously with salt, pepper, and parsley.

Place in Crock Pot. Dot chicken breast with margarine.

Sprinkle with parsley, basil, tarragon, or rosemary.

Cover and cook on HI 1 hour, 15 min.; then LO 8–10 hours.
(Or to cook it faster leave it on high. I'm not sure how long it takes then. Maybe 3-5 hours?)

Second recipe is adapted from Mollie Katzen's Enchanted Broccoli Forest. Basically chop up the ingredients and throw them in the oven. The pan I used was a bit big for the amount I cooked, so a little bit of burning happened, but it was still good enough to make again.

Tsimmes

1 sweet potato, peeled and chopped into inch-size pieces (or so)
1 carrot, peeled and chopped
1 onion, peeled and chopped
1 apple, chopped (see what I mean about the chopping?)
Handful of dried apricots, chopped
Squirt of lemon juice
Pour in some orange juice
Add a little apple juice (the original recipe, about double what I made, called for 1 and 2/3 cups of juice)
1/2 tsp. salt
Sprinkle of cinnamon
Dash of ginger

Preheat oven to 350.

Mix ingredients together in bowl. Put in baking dish (apparently want it deeper rather than thinner layer). Cover (aluminum foil worked for me) and bake for a while. 1.5 to 2 hours? I went a bit over. Then again, I burned.

And it is now most definitely time for bed again.

ahem

"Mommy, what's too sick to go to school?"
"A fever over 100."
"Then I better not go to work tomorrow....."

I feel miserable. Thing is half of my classes went well today. Two were absolute nightmare. I can almost pinpoint when the flu hit me. I've already called in. (I was supposed to be observed tomorrow, that's going to be rescheduled.) Some classes really haven't been doing work recently and so I feel guilty, because seriously, they're not going to get it done tomorrow. But coughing. Aches. Exhaustion. Fever. Sore throat. It's pretty clear that the only place I'm going tomorrow is the doctor.

A comment I left on a friend's blog

She was talking about missing college but knowing that there's no way to go back.

Even if I moved back to the town and just hung around auditing classes all the time, so much of what made it wonderful is gone out into the world, dispersed. I am homesick and there is no home to go back to.

For my part, I don't even know what home I'm homesick for part of the time. Some of it is the friends who have left, but some of it is just the type of people who are at my college. And I think part of it is the actual place. Studying in the chapel, or certain spaces in the library, or wandering the trails around campus.

I was the same way with camp--which was my home pre-college--for a long time. Even after I stopped working there, I expected that I would need to visit annually for many years. But when I went back last summer I realized that, while camp will always be home, I don't need to visit anymore. I've moved on some (assisted in part by the changing nature of the place, but mostly the changing course of life). I half-hope that the adjustment away from college will be the same. That before too long I will go back and realize that I've moved on to another home.

Though I don't know where that home will be.

Straws that break the back

It's finally getting warm, which is great. I went on a hike yesterday. I love that it's not dark when I go to school in the morning. Sure it's supposed to snow again tomorrow, but really, it's nice.

Except.

The fridge has stopped working.

And the temperature outside means that the car is no longer an extra freezer.

And I don't want all my food frozen. Some I just want chilled.

The freezer is working, so hopefully it's an easily fixable if you know what you're doing thing. But I've already cleared out the ice that was blocking the vent from the freezer to the fridge. And readjusted controls. And the food's just rotting. Smells awful.

And it's not like there's a grocery store I can just run to on a daily basis for what I need. Really this needs to be fixed NOW.

I talked to maintenance this morning. Hopefully this won't take as long as the pipes. Hopefully the bill for it won't be passed back to us (like the price for heating the pipes). The problem with the school being your landlord is that there's no one who's really dedicated to fixing the problems in the same way.

Delayed post...

Today I went to the Post Office.

At least I tried to.

I left the trailer during the hour when the window was open. I wanted to say hi to whoever was working and check if there were updates on the funeral for the father of some students. On my walk over, I stopped to talk to the security guard. We chatted. No updates on the funeral that he'd heard. He loaned me a book. Eventually a friend called, giving me an out. "I need to go clean up before she arrives." By the time I got to the Post Office it was closed. Locked up for the weekend. I thought the front door stayed open until noon, must be 11:30. Alas.

I do love that the weather was nice enough for me to stand outside talking for an hour. Spring is coming!

Someone should write a song about lesson planning

Tomorrow needs to be a practice day. Drills. They're boring, I know. But we haven't gotten far enough in this section for me to come up with a good game. I have a worksheet, but I'm not sure how it will work out. Just couldn't find the motivation to be interesting. Alas.

Casting a shadow

To fill up an extra ten minutes in class on Tuesday I talked about the eclipse. I got super-excited running around trying to model the effect of what happens, looking up pictures online. It filled up the time and at least one student asked, "So when is this happening?" It made me feel like maybe I'd somehow done something (even if not directly related to my class) to spark an interest.

The eclipse tonight wasn't all that exciting. At least not to the degree that I was running around the classroom.

Eclipses, at least lunar eclipses, are one of those ideas that are fun to learn about. They always sound so cool. But really it's just the way things line up. Though watching your shadow grow longer can be pretty fun too (just on warmer days).

I want things to work out as well in real-life as they do in theory. Like planning ahead. Teaching with models. Keeping up with e-mails. Cooking leftovers on weekends so I don't eat out of a box during the week. Getting more sleep.

And with that will follow directions and go to bed.


P.S. Wow, for the place where I'm trying to be positive, I feel like this has had a negative twist recently. There are good things going on. Four of my classes really got what was going on today. (Granted, in two of them I was only working with one student.) Some of the students who I struggled with the most in the fall have really been on the ball recently. I'm amazed at how much attitudes have improved. I'm hopeful that some days the material actually sinks in. Wish I was better at giving the applications that were fun, but that's something to work on for next year.

hugs to all

I talked with my aide about what our students are going through. (FYI, Things are still awkward with her. I'm not sure how much I trust her given our history.) During the conversation I made the comment that growing up is hard. Leaving what you know is scary.

Days vary between good and bad, about normal really. But the obsessive thinking about things has made me a bit college sick. (Not that I haven't been all year.) I know it's supposed to take a while to adjust to life after college. I know this is normal. Knowing it doesn't make it any easier.

I shouldn't overanalyze friendships...

The ski trip this weekend was great. I can tell that my ability is on an exponential curve. (Well actually, the graph is probably more logarithmic....but people don't use that terminology colloquially and I'm at the beginning where you improve by leaps and bounds.) I'm sure being on the slopes three days in one week helped.

The highlight was spending time with some of the other people in my organization. I don't hang out with them much. This weekend, I was reminded that the reason for that is because I don't like hanging out in large groups. I really like the people and they like me. (I was told as much several times.) The reminder that there are people here who I want to know better is reassuring.

In another sector of life, I found out from my sister that my college is canceling its orientation trip program. The basic reason given is that not all of the incoming students who wanted to go on the trip were able to (this year 40 students were waitlisted). That the students who go on the trips have friends before the mandatory for all orientation and the students who don't go on trips feel left out.

If you knew me in college, you can imagine that my reaction is visceral. If you didn't know me then, suffice to say that I went on the service trip for four years. Two of my best friends were in my room (of four) my freshman year. I feel like at least half of my friendships were influenced by the trip, whether or not people went on it. (For example, I think of one friend on the trip who then hung out on my freshman floor. And her roommate who came with her. And the way that then her roommate ended up living with people from my freshman floor. I don't know if that group of friends would exist if not for the trip. See what I mean about how I shouldn't overanalyze friendships?)

My mom observed that one of the things I'm dealing with this year is how community is formed. I don't think my organization does a good job of formally building community. There are second-years who I still don't really know. So the idea of my college getting rid of something that works (and that really worked for me) is infuriating.

I think for me there's also a sense of this is a frustration that I can direct, can do something about. There's so much in systems here that I can't influence, I want to exploit the system that I can.

I've written my "strongly worded letter" to be sent to appropriate Deans and campus life coordinators. (It does need to be revised before I send it. For some reason I suspect I should cut lines like, "Canceling the trips is STUPID. DUMB. And a little bit crazy."

If you went to college with me and have the time, I'd love for you to work the system too. Whether you went on a trip or not (maybe especially if you didn't), consider writing a letter of your own. If you need information (newspaper articles or senate minutes), feel free to e-mail me. Even though we won't be going on these trips again, it's one of the traditions that I think should be passed on to future students at out school.

That is all. For now. Maybe.

winding down, don't feel obligated to read

I skipped out on a Valentine's party tonight in favor of some down time alone before going skiing with people this weekend. Then I realized that there was a home game, so I decided to go watch.

Glad I did. It was the girls' last home game of the season. At the end of the first quarter, I commented that while we were behind, we had more than half of the other team's score (based on the other games I'd been too, this was notable). Halftime, a visitor pointed out that we might have a shot at winning, only 10 points behind. For a while we were ahead by 10 points, but with three minutes left in the game the other team scored six points in something like 11 seconds. (I'm not sure how it happened.) Tied. One team would lead. Another would. We won by a free throw with 0.1 seconds left.

I'm up later than I'd planned, so I won't hit the road as early as I'd planned. But the get-away will be all the more fun because I'm leaving town on a high note.

Traditions distrupted

Sorry I didn't send you a Valentine card.

I'm never good at making them well in advance, but I have making them the night before. Only in previous years I've been able to deliver the cards the next day. Just doesn't work in the middle of nowhere. And, even though I had the past days off, I didn't exactly lesson plan. So last night instead of making Valentines I worked on lesson plans. Bah growing up.

And Happy Valentine's Day by the way.

Home, sweet home

Oh FEMA, why must you poison your trailers? As far as trailers go, this one is pretty nice. Except for the frozen pipes and that the CDC says people in other, similar trailers should get out.

At least I don't have any symptoms. (Though I'm linking for my own reference when the weather gets warmer.)

Grades

I've been a slacker in entering grades into our online system. Or to entering some of them in my gradebook. Catching up on it now.

Luckily the grades I haven't checked are mindless participation sheets instead of tests or other work that needs to be graded for accuracy. Still, a recent PhD comic made me smile in sympathy.


Only, I think my timeline is condensed. Change the hours to 10 minutes, undergrads to high schoolers, and I think you've got it.

But no matter, there is one thing you should know

I went to a close-out sale at Borders this weekend. Picked up the latest Sweet Honey in the Rock cd. It was perfect for my drive back. Especially the track "Indaba: We Believe In You." I can't find the lyrics online, and I'm too lazy to type them up. You can stream it from the website or just take a guess based on the title.

A large part of this weekend was just needing to hear the messages of affirmation. From the, "We're rooting for you," and "We're proud of you," to the, "This letter is junk, let's burn it!" Hearing this cd on the drive back continued in that theme.

There are definitely people here who help build me up, but there's something about hearing the messages from people who have known me longer. Being able to get actual hugs. Being able to take the time to talk about things and to not talk about things.

I'm doing better having faced today. We'll see what tomorrow has in store.