What, you mean, like…runnin’?

Posted on February 5, 2010 by 8junebugs

In January 2002, I was going through Some Stuff, including, but not limited to, finally finishing up undergrad (avec honors capstone/thesis) and working at my internship and living on bupkiss and dating the wrong guy (prior to marrying the wrong guy).

I was relatively fit at the time. I was a vegetarian by default — Trader Joe’s made it easy to afford rice, frozen veggies, and tofu. Fancy cheese sure as hell wasn’t in my budget. I was at my highest level of activity in years — walking a mile each way to and from Metro three days a week, walking to campus for the day classes, walking the track at Sidwell while a roommate ran it in the mornings.

Then, one day, out of the ever-loving blue, I ran up the damn escalator at the Cleveland Park station . RAN. UP. IT. No one was more shocked than I — I do not run. Everyone knows this about me. I can dance all night (done it) or walk for days (see: Avon) and I love to rollerblade…

But I? Do. Not. Run.

That day, it felt like I’d been building up excess energy that I needed to burn, and that was the only way to get it out. I started running on the track instead of walking, and eventually built up to running a mile and a half, I think — I didn’t really have a goal in mind. I wasn’t training for anything, I wasn’t trying to lose weight. I just…needed to move that way for a while.

Once I moved in with the wrong guy, I didn’t run anymore. I’d gotten used to the track and loved it, but there was no convenient track and I couldn’t get into the treadmill or street running.

I wasn’t “a runner” — I didn’t identify as one and didn’t pretend to. It was just this thing that I did.

running-treadmill Now, it’s this thing that I’m doing. Again. I’ve read Doctor Mama for years and I’ve always liked her approach to running. I’d always thought, “If I ever start running again, this is totally how I’ll do it”:

Go slooooow. Really slow.
Measure by time. Start with 30 minutes.
Don’t worry about speed and distance.
Run every other day.

Today was my fourth run, so I’m seven days in. Turns out I can still run a mile…more, even. Slowly. Right out of the gate, I was able to run for 24 of the 30 minutes, split into three chunks. Cue sigh of relief — I thought it was going to be harder.

Apparently, this is how my body needs to move at the moment. Walking, elliptical-ing, yoga…all good, but yoga’s the only one that makes me want to get out of bed in the morning, and that’s only once a week (for now). This morning, I completely ignored the snooze button.

I feel better and sleep better on running days. On nights before no-running days, I wish I could run every day. Any soreness (which is now minimal) feels balanced, like I’ve worked every muscle just enough. Doctor Mama notes that running is different from walking because, for one split second in every stride, you are suspended in mid-air — like flying, almost. The workout feels complete because the rest of my body is holding me there, in mid-air. As it should.

I don’t remember it feeling this good last time, but that might be because last time I was running outdoors in January, and I didn’t have an ipod. This time, I’m running indoors on a treamill with a nice view of the Potomac. And I have Lady Gaga. I’m not saying I won’t run outdoors eventually, but I’m not saying I will, either.

Like last time, the only goal is to move the way I need to move.

(And to the person who automatically looked to see if I look skinnier when I said I’d started running? Also not the goal.)

Filed under: A life less ordinary | Tagged: Running | 1 Comment »

Nostalgia, Vermont edition

Posted on February 1, 2010 by 8junebugs

This Saturday, I left for yoga as the snow started. The snow that meteorologists were afraid to put numbers around, the snow that quickly blanketed my car so effectively that I felt TOTALLY GUILTY for not brushing off the whole car before pulling back out into my neighborhood’s main drag.

I was one of “those people” today. Sorry, neighbors. I hate “those people,” too, but I was not equipped for the extent of the snowfall, for which I point the finger at our wishywashy DC meteorologists. (Seriously, guys, you’ve done an awesome job this winter, UNTIL NOW. A-holes.)

After yoga, though, I had a coffee date with that friend that I mentioned from my days at MUHS, that friend I most often saw as a rival, undoubtedly because adolescents frequently seek out and then target the people who, in one way or another, have something in common with them. Under normal circumstances, she was friend material. Under adolescent rivalry standards, she was an adversary, a pre-internet frienemy.

And I knew that. I knew then that we could be Les BFFs. Thirteen-year-old me was totally aware that this was a person I liked quite a lot, but I regarded her suspiciously.

See, there was this boy…

To be fair, he was QUITE a boy. If I’m being honest, I’d say he was undoubtedly the model for “My Type” — the sardonic, sarcastic, skinny-ass male who understands every goddamn lecture but will only participate if the mood strikes him.

The lovely young man who won my heart early in my college years? The one who said “homunculus” in philosophy class and let me catch him reading Catcher (RIP, J.D.) in the stairwell? That he caught my fancy at all relates directly back to this boy in my junior high class — this brilliant, polyglot son of a college professor who wound up god-knows-where, but who, in my adolescent eyes, was torn between me and this smart, unusual, skinny brunette.

She’s still smart, unusual, and skinny. And because I don’t think she wants to be boyfriend-girlfriend with the boy I want to be boyfriend-girlfriend with (and because I’m not 13), our coffee date was way more fun than any of the classes we had together.

I feel like I knew her mom died before mine, like I’d heard it somewhere. That didn’t really matter, though. What mattered was listening to someone from my class, someone my own age who’s known me at my awkwardest (GAWD, the bangs and the bracelets…), talking about that kind of loss in words that were…so true to me that I nearly cried at the bald honesty. The thing is, you go through a lot of emotions when you lose a parent, and maybe there’s a special set for women who lose their mothers kind of early. And it’s hard to be honest about all those emotions with someone who hasn’t gone through it.

It’s hard to admit that you don’t feel devastated every single day, is what I’m saying. That relationships are complicated and that you can alternately feel devastated and relieved and empty and open, and it’s not. just. you.

What I might also have known, had I not been a twerp when we had our whole lives ahead of us, is that her experience of MUHS was much like mine. We’ve both now been gone a long time (and have each spent a lot of time in California, actually), and it seems like our perspectives, looking back, are more aligned than 13-year-old twerpy me would ever have expected…to say nothing of who we are, now, and how we think and see the world.

In short, I think she’s swell. I hope we get a chance to be the friends we never got to be when we were teenagers.

Filed under: A life less ordinary, Friends Like These, If it's not one thing, it's your mother, Old Enough to Know Better, Rearview Mirror | Leave a Comment »

“That’s not a website”

Posted on January 29, 2010 by 8junebugs

“What are your favorite websites?” he asked us.

“IMDB.” “Google.” “Facebook.” “The New York Times.”

“Facebook isn’t a website,” he argued. “Neither is Google — that’s a web utility.“

Which got me thinking.

In concrete terms, this is incorrect. By virtue of being virtual spaces fully accessible only through URLs, they are websites. A broader and more accurate term might be web properties — Facebook certainly encompasses more than what we associate with a plain old website, and Google has changed the way we perceive and value information. It’s valid to think of them as more than websites, but websites they are…at least until I can insert a Google chip directly into my brain and bypass all this pesky typing.

Thinking more figuratively, calling Facebook and Google out as “not websites” is even less right. Doing so ignores the actual value of the internet, which underlies and goes far beyond brand promotion, widgets, and clever experience design. What gets people online? What’s the value, the draw, that has made the internet damn near ubiquitous in modern life?

It’s different for each person, and the trends vary by generation, but check out some 2009 stats for social networking (via Mashable):

My generation still tends to see the internet as a utility (“I’m gonna go online and do _____”) and KidBrother’s generation has grown up online. They don’t “go on the internet” — they’re always online. (Opinions vary about whether I’m generation X or Y. I identify as a Gen X fluent in Millennial.) But what about our parents? What about our grandparents? After 15 years of rapid construction on the information superhighway, what’s finally getting the typewriter generations online?

Facebook. They’re setting up Facebook profiles and playing Mafia Wars and chatting with friends from first grade. If they can’t find someone on Facebook, they might try to find them some other way, now that they know they can. And how do you find something or someone on the interwebs? You hit the Goog.

The value of the internet is communication. It’s connections and communities — the same interpersonal interactions that add value to our physical lives add value to our online lives; thanks to Facebook and a healthy amount of Google-stalking, our online lives can now enhance our physical lives.

Tomorrow, weather permitting, I’m having coffee with a friend I haven’t talked to in 18 years (and I guess we’ll find out if I’ve gotten over her liking the same boy I liked in the eighth grade). Facebook did that — without it, she wouldn’t have known that I live here, she wouldn’t have told me she was moving here, and we may never have caught up at all.

Facebook and Google are today’s gateway drugs to online life. People who go online later in life, who “use the Google,” get comfortable using the internet and become part of the online marketplace…of ideas, and of products. If you want to market successfully to the internet users that marketers thought would never get online — and they’re the fastest growing group of adopters right now – show some respect for what got them there. “Understanding your customers” is Marketing 101 — if you don’t understand what brought them to you in the first place, how will you understand what they need and how to convince them that your business, your website, is just what they’ve been looking for? How will you structure a portal, for example, that meets their needs, not yours?

Take a holistic approach to web, websites, and web strategy, or take a hike.

(This semester’s going to be so much fun. )

Filed under: All the livelong day, Booklearnin', Internets | Tagged: social media, social networks, websites | 2 Comments »

Recipe: Breakfast Pies

Posted on January 22, 2010 by 8junebugs

Dudes. These are easy, tasty, and probably open to healthy modification, if you are so inclined. (I am, but “healthy biscuit dough” is a tall order.)

Breakfast Pies

INGREDIENTS:

3/4 pound breakfast sausage
1/8 cup minced onion
1/8 cup minced green bell pepper
1 (12 ounce) can refrigerated biscuit dough
3 eggs, beaten
3 tablespoons milk
1/2 cup shredded Colby-Monterey Jack
cheese

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
In a large, deep skillet over medium-high heat, combine sausage, onion and green pepper. Cook until sausage is evenly brown.
Drain, crumble, and set aside.
Separate the dough into 10 individual biscuits. Flatten each biscuit out, then line the bottom and sides of 10 muffin cups.
Evenly distribute sausage mixture between the cups.
Mix together the eggs and milk, and divide between the cups. Sprinkle tops with shredded cheese.
Bake in preheated oven for 18 to 20 minutes, or until filling is set.

Because I always start with a perfectly lovely recipe and then muck about with it, here’s what I did this time:

Used turkey breakfast sausage.
Used onion powder instead of chopped onion, because I used up all my onions in soups and red sauces.
Cooked it, set it aside, forgot to crumble it.
Added about a 1/2 T. of veggie oil to what little fat was left from the sausage, then sauteed chopped baby bellas and mixed bell peppers. Added the sausage back in to heat and mix.
Used fakey eggs in deference to my dietary intolerance and because pouring eggstuff out of a carton is so freaking easy for this recipe.

Enjoy!

(via a wicked smart colleague who adapted it from somewhere else. I think.)

Filed under: Tastes Like Chicken | Leave a Comment »

Eat real food

Posted on January 19, 2010 by 8junebugs

Have you read Omnivore’s Dilemma? Have you seen Food, Inc.? Did it make you want to puke your 80% corn-based guts out?

Well, hang onto your silverware, kids, because there’s further evidence that being a hippy might just save your life. Or at least your liver.

Years ago, Monsanto successfully went the way of vertical integration. They developed a weed killer (RoundUp) and seeds (corn and soy) that could withstand the chemical. A lot of people got all pissed off about genetically modified Frankenfoods. Grocery stores like Trader Joe’s took a stand and refused to carry GMOs, and the organic food movement started its stratospheric rise among populations that could afford the choice.

Generally speaking, though, Monsanto had the cash and the contacts to stay ahead of the game and RoundUp and the genetically modified seeds resistant to it stayed on the market. Monsanto insisted that they’d fully tested RoundUp and found it to be a perfectly safe chemical that dealt in the plant world and was therefore safe for animals (read: you). However, they refused to share their testing data. They’ve lost some lawsuits, and now their testing data and results are coming to light and being closely examined by researchers with nothing to gain (via Shakesville).

Worrisome fact #1:

They used a sample size of 10 rats per group. Just 10. I know I’m a nerd who’s been buried in research studies for seven months, but even the least nerdy, most uninterested person can recognize ABSURDLY small samples. They should be criminally small, considering the global impact of the decision made based on this “research.”

Disregarding absolute numbers, we use rats in testing mainly because we can use a lot of them. A sample size of 10 humans isn’t even kosher, but would have been easier to understand than 10 rats. This is just stupid-sloppy, testing-wise. They could have had a more robust study by simply taking a field trip to local pet stores.

(And don’t anyone get on me about animal testing. I’ve kept rats, and I would have sacrificed every last one of them for safer industrial food practices.)

Worrisome fact #2:

The study was further effed up because the control group wasn’t a proper control group. The researchers “introduced unnecessary sources of variability…which considerably unbalance[d] the experimental design.” You can’t effectively judge the effect of something compared to something else when the something else is false.

Worrisome fact #3 (The Worrisomest):

Using a more robust methodology, the results are drastically different and indicate the following:

“…[A]nalysis clearly reveals for the 3 GMOs new side effects linked with GM maize consumption, which were sex- and often dose-dependent.” The side effects also tended to chronic problems, not the acute poisoning for which Monsanto’s researchers tested.
“Effects were mostly associated with the kidney and liver. … Other effects were also noticed in the heart, adrenal glands, spleen and haematopoietic system.” And: “[O]ur data strongly suggests that these GM maize varieties induce a state of hepatorenal toxicity…”
“In addition, unintended direct or indirect metabolic consequences of the genetic modification cannot be excluded.”
“[Pesticide residue associated with their particular GM event] have never before been an integral part of the human or animal diet and therefore their health consequences for those who consume them, especially over long time periods are currently unknown.” We tend to make assumptions about how animal bodies will or will not process plant-related stuff, and we tend to be wrong…or our bodies adapt in ways we don’t expect.
“This physiological state is indicative of a pre-diabetic profile,” referring to female rats in one of the feeding trials that shows “increases in circulating glucose and triglyceride levels, with liver function parameters disrupted together with a slight increase in total body weight.” To wit: Maybe it’s not just the amount of high-fructose corn syrup we’re ingesting, but also the chemicals that come with it that are padding the rosters at the doctor’s office.

I know most of these are from the abstract, but that’s where researchers veer nearest common English. Check out the full study if you like — there’s a lot more there than what I’ve noted here. In plain English, though? The research was crap, Monsanto did everything they could to hide it, and Washington allowed Monsanto to profit wildly without real regulation of the chemicals Monsanto was introducing into the food chain.

So, what does this mean?

Filed under: A Votre Sante, A life less ordinary, The day they taught law at law school | 2 Comments »

Not in Haiti

Posted on January 18, 2010 by 8junebugs

There are two posts in the wings, but they can wait.

A week ago, I had my first yoga class in years at a center where I’ve taken classes before. It’s within walking distance, but it was still quite cold out, and I chose to drive so I could run some errands before class. I remember thinking during the relaxation period of that first class about a quote from Babylon 5 (which was certainly not the origin of the idea) – something about how we measure history by the wars and not by the peace. I thought about how we often have a similar attitude about our bodies. We pay attention when they hurt and ignore them when they feel fine. So I started being happy and grateful that I could be there, feeling the different parts of my body by choice rather than by necessity.

And a freaking sunbeam came through the window and hit me upside the head. I’m not even kidding.

This weekend, during the same part of class, I was just grateful to be here, to be solid. I’ve heard people in the Healthy At Every Size movement say that their weight gives them a tangible way of taking up space, of being physically in the world. Saturday morning, that’s what I felt — solid in this world with a floor under me, a roof over me, and a place to go home to…to say nothing of the luxury of spending 90 minutes just stretching and breathing. You know, for fun.

Right now, it’s hard not to view most of my life — and lifestyle — as luxurious.

Filed under: A life less ordinary, NIMBY no more | Leave a Comment »

The rolls

Posted on January 9, 2010 by 8junebugs

I got this one from McFunkInstyle, who is generous with recipes and will someday publish a cookbook devoted to meatloaf.

I can’t remember when I first made these, but they were a hit. The timing is critical, though, so do not, for heaven’s sake, start these and then go to the Easter Vigil Mass. Done right, these take 5 hours and you will have no more than 90 minutes at a time to yourself until they’re done.

Pennsylvania Dutch Tea Dinner Rolls

Ingredients:

5 1/4 c. AP flour (approx. and divided, if you want to do that in advance. I don’t bother.)
1 1/3 c. warm 1% milk
1 pkg. quick-rise yeast
1/2 cup white sugar
1/4 butter, melted and cooled to room temperature
1 t. salt
1 large egg, beaten
Cooking spray
3 T. 1% milk
Optional: whatever seeds you like with white bread. Poppy seeds, cardamom, whatevs. (I don’t use any.)

Steps:

Read the whole recipe through before you start. Seriously. Five hours, people.
Combine 2 c. flour, warm milk, and yeast in a large bowl. Cover mixture in plastic wrap and let stand in a warm place for 1.5 hours. Batter should become bubbly and almost triple in size.
Add 3 c. flour, sugar, butter, salt and egg to mixture. Stir with a wooden spoon for three minutes or until well combined. Turn dough onto a lightly floured surface. Knead until smooth and elastic (about 8 minutes), adding enough of remaining flour, 1 T. at a time, to prevent dough from sticking to hands (dough will feel slightly tacky).
ALTERNATIVE: Use stand mixer for steps 2 and 3, using dough hook for the mixing in step 3 (if not before).
Place dough in a large bowl coated with cooking spray, turning to coat the top. Cover with plastic and let rise in a warm place (85 degrees) free from drafts for 1.5 hours or until doubled in size. Lightly press two fingers into dough. If indentation remains, dough has risen enough.
Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface, lightly dust dough with flour and pat into a 10″ x 8″ rectangle (roughly).
Divide dough into 20 equal pieces by making a 4 x 5 grid.
Shape each piece into a ball. Place balls evenly into a 13″ x 9″ baking pan coated with cooking spray.
Lightly coat dough balls in pan with cooking spray. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place (85 degrees) free from drafts for 1 hour or until doubled in size.
Preheat oven to 375.
Brush 3 T of milk lightly over dough balls. If you’re going to sprinkle on some seeds, do it now.
Bake at 375 for 20-25 minutes or until browned.
Cool in pan for 5 minutes. Serve hot or cool on a wire rack.

Even when I still had a working bread machine, I made the dough for these by hand…without using my mixer, even. It’s worth it, I promise, and kneading dough is totally cathartic.

Back in the day, my uncle Steve was famous for the from-scratch rolls he brought to Christmas dinner (or, if you’ve got a Whipple sense of humor, “known for his buns”). I think these are better. Take that, Uncle Steve.

Filed under: Suzy Homemaking | Leave a Comment »

iPhooey

Posted on January 8, 2010 by 8junebugs

You know, I think iPhones are cool. I really do. They’re pretty, they’re sleek — like everything else Steve Jobs poops out, they’re beautifully designed.

If I were a designer, I would probably love and want to work for Apple. As I’m not, Google is my dream employer.

Anyway, AT&T drops calls and they’re all exclusive-y about the iPhone. I refused to switch from Verizon to AT&T because I actually get the level of service I want with Verizon. I have service in Metro stations, for example, and I have almost never needed to make a call and not been able to make the call. Sure, service was spotty around my mom’s place — seriously, it’s like they had mini-towers tied to moose antlers or something — but there were three good reasons why that didn’t matter:

I went there to disconnect and get some damn (disquieting) peace and quiet. If I really needed to reconnect, I drove into town.
I knew before replacing my LG Chocolate that I wouldn’t be up on that hill again.
NONE OF THE OTHER SERVICES WORK THERE, ANYWAY. (Well, Cingular/AT&T did. Sort of.)

I do appreciate the features of my friends’ iPhones. Shotgun’s sheep-counting app is awesome. My phone has apps, too, but I’m too lazy to browse through them and read the reviews. My best course of action is to whine to Graham about what I want my phone to do, and then he’ll nerd out on the best way to make that happen.

But nothing about the iPhone and AT&T has offended me as much as the latest Luke Wilson commercial touting how AT&T’s 3G network allows users to surf the internet while they’re on the phone.

Simultaneously.

OOOoooOOOoooOOO!

I like the people I call more than that. I respect them more than that. I do not need to check lifehacker while we’re chatting or google “pregnancy horror stories” (because, let’s face it, every close friend I have – with one exception – is pregnant and/or actively parenting at least one child). What could I possibly need the internet to tell me while a friend is telling me about a parent’s MRI or while Graham’s talking about the puppy’s foot surgery? Isn’t call waiting bad enough? “I’m sorry, would you hold on while I see what this other person wants to talk about?”

Just so you know? I don’t always acknowledge call waiting. I don’t leave my phone on the table in restaurants, either, unless there’s a family emergency in the works and I’m waiting for an update.

Surfing while talking on the phone isn’t a glorious, important, distinguishing feature — it’s just another excuse for poor phone etiquette and dangerous levels of distraction (how many of you talk on the phone while driving? I do.).

So shut it, Luke Wilson. I don’t want to surf the web while I talk. I don’t want other people to do it while they talk to me. What we have to say to each other is more important than that.

Filed under: Pop goes the culture | 2 Comments »

Applecake!

Posted on January 7, 2010 by 8junebugs

This a winner, kids. I got this recipe from a blogger I read and emailed with for years — I’d send you her way, but she stopped blogging a while ago. This is perfect for any fall or winter holiday, or for the office potluck. Or probably for impressing your future in-laws, if they’re foodies.

The rule: Don’t bring this to a potluck if I’m going to be there…or check with me first, at least.

The original recipe splits Applecake into two words, but I’ve found that people tend to say it as one and imply an exclamation point, so…

Mac’s Applecake(!)

Cake ingredients:

2 c. sugar (white)
1 c. unsalted butter at room temp.
2 eggs
1 c. milk
3 c. AP flour
2 t. baking soda
1 t. salt
1/2 t. baking powder
DO THIS FIRST: 8 medium Braeburn apples, peeled and cut into small chunks (not quite diced)

Topping:

4 t. melted butter (cooled)
4 t. flour
1 c. brown sugar
2 t. cinnamon

Steps (after peeling and chopping the apples):

Preheat oven to 350.

Cream butter and sugar.

Add eggs.

Mix in milk. Transfer to your largest bowl, if you’re not already using it.

In a separate bowl, sift together flour, leavening, and salt.

Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and mix well.

Stir in apples by hand. If it looks like more apples than batter, it’s right.

Scrape batter into into a greased 9 x 13 pan.

Combine topping ingredients, mix well with fork.

Spread topping over top of cake.

Bake for 1 hour and 10 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Topping should look sort of crusty.

Optional: Serve a la mode with vanilla or dulce de leche ice cream.

(I have also baked this in smaller, individual glass dishes and as cupcakes. The former worked better than the latter. I’m too impatient with cupcakes, which are too small to take so damn long.)

Filed under: Tastes Like Chicken | Leave a Comment »

Juxtapostings

Posted on January 6, 2010 by 8junebugs

Three signs posted in my lobby this evening:

***

A water main has broken from the street level due to the freezing temperatures and the city water company, American Water, had to shut the water off and we are making emergency repairs today. We do not have an ETA for when these repairs are expected to be completed and it is possible that these repairs could go into Thursday morning. We advise you to purchase water from a local grocer to cover your needs until then.

We thank you for your patience as the city resolves this matter.

***

ELEVATOR 2 [of 2] IS OUT OF SERVICE. IT WILL BE REPAIRED on 1/7.

[i.e., once you purchase a couple liters or gallons of water, you may want to consider carrying them up the stairs instead of waiting for the one working elevator...which is being used to carry the building manager down one level instead of carrying four to six residents up six, seven, or eight levels.]

***

EARN XTRA CASH!!!

Earn a double referral bonus for bringing new residents to the building. Get a $400 rent credit (in April 2010) if your referral signs a 9- to 14-month lease.

Enhhh…maybe not.

Filed under: No place like home | Leave a Comment »

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