I’m a Notebook Addict

The blog Notebook Stories sometimes features a “Notebook Addict”. Now I may not currently be at the level of most of the other Notebook Addicts, since most of my notebooks are at home, but I’ve noticed recently that my school-use notebooks have increased… by a lot more than I write.

These are the notebooks that have come to live with me since school started:

It doesn’t seem like a lot until you consider that I brought five with me to begin with:

The upper left-most journal is the one I’ve used consistently since the beginning of September and got as a “half-birthday present” in July. Next to it, a small Staples notebook for lists, and a blank Goethe-covered journal from Germany in January or February, and the cat notebook directly next to it is from a few years ago in Japantown. The cat journal at the end is probably from before that, from Target.

Speaking of cats:

Notice a theme? Current journal, next journal (that I bought in September), and notebooks from long ago? I think I’m going to be the Crazy Cat Lady.

One last picture, of the sketchbook I got in Germany with some watercolours:

Yeah, I just figured I had to use it if I bought it.

Hopefully I’ll do a lot more writing and ’sketching’ this weekend because I’m flying off to visit Becky in Austin. She visited San Francisco in July and now it’s time for me to return the favor! So everyone will get some pictures of her city next.

Guest Post: Growing Up

Hi! I’m Chris – you may have heard me mentioned by Becky at some point as her boyfriend. I was invited by Becky and Stephanie to make a guest post on Lunsh, so here goes…

I’m not sure exactly where you are in your life – maybe you’re in college, dreaming about the future (or not). Or, you could be married with kids, living the life that you always thought you wanted to live. Maybe you’re not really sure where you are, like me.

I grew up partly in California but mostly in a suburb of Houston in what might seem to be the most normal of nuclear families. I have a younger sister, and during our most youthful years, our Mom and Dad were together to guide us through everything. We learned about life and living, being kind, and how to live our lives carefully.

Now that I’m almost 24, I’ve finally reached a point in my life where I’ve realized that I can actually operate completely independently. All throughout college, I received both financial and emotional support for virtually everything that came my way. The moment I graduated and got a job, the normal structure of things changed pretty dramatically. I realized that the freedoms and responsibilities I had dreamed of for most of my life were finally mine.

The trouble is that this transition isn’t as spectacular or easy as I had imagined. Working 40 hours a week isn’t easy to deal with – I feel run down a lot more often than I used to. All that endless free time I had expected isn’t really there anymore, since daily chores tend to nibble away the time that passes too quickly.

As a result of this disillusionment, I’ve begun to believe that there are in fact two major transitions that have to occur before I achieve certainty about my life: first, I need to fully embrace the fact that school is long gone, and second, I need to become comfortable with the grind of work. I don’t think I’m there quite yet.

I figure that there’s no way I’m alone in these weird feelings – have you ever felt a little lost about where you are? Who you are? Maybe we all have felt a little lost at one time or another. Let’s hear about it!

Are Americans not clean?

I live with seven other people in a house this year, and four of them are from foreign countries, which makes it hilarious when I walk in on a conversation about how Americans are not this, or that, or how they need to do this. “Why are they so obsessed with fat?” “Why do they use roll-on deodorant instead of sprays?” The participants inevitably turn to me, and I have no answer for them. I never count calories, or worry about fat. When I pay attention to what I eat I try to make sure I don’t eat too much sugar in one day or not enough vegetables. Now I try not to eat gluten, either. But fat? Calories? Seriously? And deodorant? I stopped using that a while ago in favor of baking soda and corn starch. Works a thousand times better.

One thing that has recently become an even bigger issue is cleaning. At first the problem was that we’re sloppy: we’re college students and we’re used to having Facilities around to clean everything. The refrigerator was disorganized and no one knew whose food was whose, and no one claimed the rotting milk on the bottom. Once that was organized, though, and everyone learned how to do the various tasks around the house, it seemed there wasn’t as much of a problem. Until the mice showed up.

Now we’re all especially frustrated when someone doesn’t clean their room or the area of the house that they’re supposed to (we rotate ‘public’ rooms on a weekly basis). And some people are convinced that the mice are coming in because one person’s room is a mess. And I’m asked if people actually clean in the U.S.

This is a good question actually. I am convinced that Americans are obsessed with personal hygiene, probably to an unhealthy extent, but I don’t know if they actually clean their houses regularly. I do know that at home we try to keep the kitchen clean, and I know people who are obsessive about having clean surfaces. I’ve designated Saturday as my day to clean my room and the part of the house that I’ve been assigned. In my room I vacuum and wipe down my electronics with rubbing alcohol. I also use vinegar to dust my desk and clean my mirror. And of course I put errant pieces of paper and things in their places. I find that I feel much better after I’ve done all these things—as if the dust were weighing me down and now it’s all light and fresh again.

But I’m wary of “general purpose” cleaners, “disinfectants”, and the like. As are the people I’m speaking with. There are too many warnings for poison on “conventional” cleaning products, which is why I don’t use them. That, and they smell terribly.

I know though, that before I moved here, I didn’t clean my things as religiously as I do now, because I had never set a day for it. Setting a day for cleaning has helped immensely in getting me to clean weekly. I doubt many people have set a day to clean—we’re all far too busy with so many other activities. When one of my housemates remarked that in Germany you don’t clean or study or work on Sundays, I responded that German universities weren’t quite as demanding as this college. People have lots of work and lots of extracurricular stuff to do, too. We just can’t take a break.

But is that the case for everyone? Do Americans really not clean their houses? Or is it something we realize is important after college? What do you think?

I hope I’m back this time

Hey everybody. I can’t believe it’s Wednesday, I can’t believe it’s the 21st of October, I can’t believe I’m sitting here writing. It’s been a long couple of weeks.

To start, over a week ago Friday I wised up to the fact that my Fibers project was almost due, I spent every spare second Sunday-Thursday working on it with the instructor’s help, realized the instructor is controlling, aggressive, and fluctuated far too often between the happy-go-lucky artist who laughs at anything and the angry, aggressive personality who threatens and accuses me, and afterward realized I needed to get out of that situation and talked to my mom and my adviser (and an excellent adviser she is!), and got the form signed and filed to withdraw from the class.

Whew.

Now I have time to write! To knit! To write letters! To write postcards! To go out with friends! To focus on my other classes, like on my take-home midterm that I’ve been working on due Monday, or studying for my quiz on Friday, and doing my best on all projects and papers. I also have time to explore the Twin Cities, which has been a goal of mine all semester, but hasn’t been able to happen yet.

I’ve had so many ideas of things to write here, but not enough time. I’d like to address the topic of climate change, as Becky did for Blog Action Day. Or I’d like to write about books I’m reading. Or links I’m finding. So hopefully soon I’ll have some brain cells and time to write more about everything. All right? All right.

It’s good to be back.

Recipe: Vegan Caramel-Pumpkin Pie

Yesterday I had a dinner party! It was the first time I’d ever hosted anything like that and it was really scary. I wanted everything to be just perfect, especially because the guest list included my parents and Chris’ mum! I originally planned to make a pumpkin cake, but I decided instead to try my hand at a pumpkin pie, which I like moderately, but which Chris likes immensely (it was his birthday on Thursday so I took his feelings into consideration ).

I ended up actually making my own pumpkin pie recipe using several different recipes (which is 20x times better than the recipe on the back of the canned pumpkin), which I’m going to share with you all! Keep in mind this is a 100% vegan pie, but that certainly doesn’t mean it’s healthy. Preparation + cooking time is about two hours, but you need (and I repeat NEED) to let it set overnight. So make it the night before your party! I didn’t do this and so my pie was kind of goopy but it was still delicious. Without further ado, here is Becky’s Vegan Caramel-Pumpkin Pie!

Ingredients

Caramel:

1. 2/3 cup Sugar – use Beet Sugar to be extra vegan
2. 2 tablespoons water
3. 2 tablespoons margarine
4. 1/4 cup Silk French Vanilla Creamer

Pie filling:

1. 1 can 100% pure pumpkin
2. 1 package firm tofu
3. 1 1/4 cup brown sugar
4. 1/4 cup sugar – use Beet Sugar to be extra vegan
5. 3 teaspoons Pumpkin Spice (you can find it in the spice aisle)

Also, you will need 1 9″ Vegan Pie Crust. You can make your own, but you’d be surprised – your local grocery store probably has frozen pie crusts that happen to be vegan. Chris and I were convinced we’d have to buy a graham cracker crust, but as it turns out all the frozen pie crusts were vegan. Who’d've thought, huh?

Okay, here we go.

Preparation

Preheat the oven to 425F.

Now, make the caramel. Put the sugar and the water in a small saucepan over medium heat, and stir until the sugar dissolves. Increase the heat to medium-high, and boil. The sugar will turn brown after awhile but go slowly! and WATCH THE PAN and stir when it starts turning color at all. Do not walk away from it, or chances are you’ll burn the caramel. After it turns brown and there are no more lumps of sugar, take it off the heat.

Stir in one tablespoon of margarine until it is gone, and then stir in the other tablespoon of margarine. Add the soy creamer, and your caramel will harden. Do not be alarmed! Turn the heat back to medium and stir until the caramel dissolves (turn the heat up if necessary but watch it carefully so it doesn’t burn). Turn off the heat and set aside, but stir occasionally.

Second, make the filling. In a large mixing bowl, combine the package of tofu and can of pumpkin. Use a hand mixer to mix it thoroughly. Mix in the brown sugar, sugar, and pumpkin spice. It will be an alarming shade or orange but don’t worry about this either.

Slowly whisk in the caramel mixture you made earlier a bit at a time. By now you will want to eat it straight up but you must resist! Carefully pour the mixture into your pie crust and place in the oven.

Bake for 15 minutes, then turn the heat down to 350 and bake for 50 minutes. Then, carefully place it in the refrigerator to set until the next day. Voila! Delicious pumpkin pie.

Serving size: 1 piece. Calories: about a million per serving.

Blog Action Day!

Today is Blog Action Day and this will be the first year ever I’ll be participating. Interestingly enough, the theme for this year is a theme that I am not sure I entirely agree is so black and white, but I’m going to take a stab anyway and share my thoughts.

The theme for this year is Climate Change. I’m assuming they’re talking about global warming and I must confess I’m not 100% convinced that the increased temperatures are caused by CO2 or ozone or what have you. It’s possible we’re coming out of a baby ice age or there’s some other explanation for it. That said, however, there is no excuse for continuing our current behaviors, especially as Americans.

I like to think I’m quite the eco-freak. I drive a Smart when I do drive at all. I commute to work and back by bike. I use as little power as I possibly can – in fact, my electricity bill was almost 1/4th the average electricity bill of Austin last month. I do my best to eliminate trash whenever I can – Chris and I go through maybe a bag of trash a week and we recycle like crazy. Even if I don’t believe that the climate change is necessarily caused by us, I still believe that it is so important to reduce your ecological footprint, because the sheer amount of waste that is occurring is ridiculous, and it’s ridiculous because it’s preventable.

There is no reason NOT to do your best to reduce, reuse, and recycle. Buy used clothes. Buy used shoes. Or better yet – save money and don’t buy at all! Reduce is the most important, followed by reusing, and then recycle if you can’t do the first two.

This earth is only going to last so long unless we do something about it. Even if it’s a simple change it’s also a necessary change. Even if you feel like you’re not doing much, as long as we all do it together it’ll add up. So my advice to the world is to be aware that our resources aren’t going to last forever, and our earth isn’t going to hold up against the onslaught of trash and pollution we’re giving it. We all have the power to enact change if we want it badly enough. You don’t have to rally on the streets – just plant a tree.

Blog Action Day is tomorrow!

Tomorrow is Blog Action Day everyone. Stay tuned!

Sadly, not writing every day…

One of the things I’ve worked on today:

… Sie versteht auch am Ende, wie ihr Traum, ein Glanz zu sein, nicht realistisch ist. Sie kann die Wörter nicht dafür zusammenstellen, aber sie versteht in einer Weise, dass sie genutzt würde, wenn sie ein Glanz oder eine Prostituierte würde, und sie würde keine Autonomität haben.
Am Anfang der Erzählung lernt man Doris kennen. Sie ist eine junge Frau, die die Schauspieler in Filmen verehrt. Sie benutzt ihre Sexualität, um ihr Job zu behalten …

I really wish I had pictures of the stuff I’ve been working on for my art class though. But if I had, I probably wouldn’t take the time to upload them… Time is not on my side lately.

Back to drowning in school, nice to see you all…

ETA saw mouse in room. Not sure how I’m supposed to sleep tonight. MAKE IT GO AWAY.

Writing

For the past week I’ve been writing every day. It’s not for any reason than the fact that I love to write and I want to work on a story and I’ve been so busy with projects at work and moving and such that I haven’t been able to. It’s been a leisurely amble – a bit here and there – and it’s been working out really well.

When I started my writing group, the Scribble Society, months ago it was because I wanted a writer’s group for encouragement and critiques and whatever else. I spent hours putting everything up, finding the right plugins, creating a forum and a blog, figuring things out, and so on. Then everyone got busy, myself included, and I didn’t have time to write let alone update it, and so it died. But I feel like I need something like a writer’s group again, now that things are less hectic. Is it too late to resurrect the Society? Would anyone be interested in a serious writing group?

Even if it is too late I’ll keep on writing because writing is what I was born to do. Despite feelings of inadequacy and some issues I’ve had in my past with some pretty harsh criticisms, I’m ready to go again and this time for real. I may never get published and my stories may never get read, but the important part is being happy and doing what I love.

P.S. – new layout up soon!

A scary revelation

I’m not sure I mentioned recently but my current room doesn’t have a closet, just a metal closet stand-in standing in the corner of the room, for everyone to gaze upon my clothes. Hanging up all my shirts, I noticed something quite worrisome…

When I was in high school my clothes were ALL orange and yellow. WHY IS IT NOW ALL BLUE?

Anyone got any cash they can lend me? I need to beef up my wardrobe… (Especially with long-sleeved shirts and sweaters for the upcoming winter!)

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