Routine Pondering

OK, maybe someone can explain to me why I have such a rebellion to routine. I have my things I have to do in the morning… floss and brush teeth, make coffee, feed chickens, drink coffee, eat breakfast, do dishes, watch Ellen…some simultaneously…but then it falls apart. I was hoping to start doing regular blogging, then maybe reading – 30 minutes educational, 30 minutes for fun (a guideline my 9 year old nephew had last summer and one I think we should all have) then a little house cleaning. But things get in the way, I guess. I’m not as free as I think. Email and Internet really throw things off, then there’s the occasional assignment I’ve given myself, or proposal that I have to work on and if I have to leave the house it’s all over! I guess I’m not so disorganized, now that I write this. No one can have their day scheduled so completely that there is no wiggle room. Maybe I’m (gasp!) normal in my not wanting to have such a rigorous schedule. Some of my best thinking and ideas come from times I’m in between tasks…I guess daydreaming would be the word for it. I have my to-do list from Monday that still isn’t finished, but there are only 2 more things to be done, both of which require tape, and going to the store to buy tape was not one of them so I have to add it to my list in order to complete my list…and so that’s what happens.

OK so we all go through this, right? I guess I’m at a point in my life where I can sit and think about it, and ponder it, and learn from it. And that’s just the way it is, so now I can think about something else!

Prairie Days

I would love to live back in the day before grocery stores. Where you had a goat and made your own cheese and bread (from the wheat you grew) and saved all your own veggies that you grew and had chickens and pigs and just provided all your own food. I’d miss running water, but I’d love to have a composting toilet. I’d miss TV, but my husband cracks me up so much, and we’d be so busy with life tasks anyway. And there are books! Wood burning stove, great! There are a lot of things that would be lacking, but so much of our life that we leave outside would still be the same…the birds, the wind and the sky. The stars and the sun. The bugs and the plants and the mice and rats. Some things we’d rather pretend aren’t still there, but they are! And they have their place, whether we like it or not. You can spray, poison and kill but they’re out there and they’ll keep coming back.

I think most of the items of convenience I could find a reasonable substitute for, trash bags, Tupperware, to-go mugs, even cars (I’d have a great horse!) but you know what I’d miss? Sharpies! Yes, the marker! They are so handy for so many things! You know you can write on something and then get it wet, take it anywhere, leave it in the basement for years, and you’ll still be able to read it and see what’s in that jar, or bag, or container. Yes, if we were shot back to the prairie days, I’d want to take a sharpie! Oh, and probably toilet paper…that’s a pretty good invention, too!

Long week

OK, again, I fall down on the job of blogging. But I’ve been busy! I had a meeting on Monday that secured a gig with the Oakland Planning and Development Corp. then helped transplant seedlings at the farm. Then Tuesday I started a booking contest with my Silpada team, so felt guilty doing anything but making calls and trying to get parties. Wednesday was my big second interview at Audubon…I think it went very well but I’m still trying to brace myself for disappointment...not possible, if I don’t get it I’ll still be devastated. Yesterday I spent the entire day at the farm, transplanting and cleaning out the greenhouse to put the seedlings in. Its so nice to be growing stuff. I picked carrots and lettuce from the hoop house and turnips right out of the field…they are so good! And tons of them! Took me hours to clean and get them ready to roast, and the Kim chi I started on Sunday was neglected until last night, too! So finally got that finished and on it’s way to tasty fermented goodness! But I do have a lot to say so I’m back on the blogg. And I’ll make several posts today to make up for a lazy week (blogging wise, that is!)

OH, my prospective new boss, Jim (Hi Jim! Hire me!! :) reads my blog…not sure if he’s a fan or just read it once, and I’m not sure when, so have no idea if he read the entry where I assumed my unemployed life is over, but whatever he read, he got me. In my second interview, when asked how I would separate my work life and personal life, particularly on social media, I said there is no separation. At this point in my life I’m hoping to be doing something I love, and something I can share with everyone. You, my friends, know what I mean. When I’m involved in something you know about it. Everyone with in a 10 foot radius of me knows about it. That’s just the way I am and I like it. I’m an open book with nothing to hide…which is why I have a blog…and also why I won’t run for office! I hope there is an organization out there that can appreciate that about me and we can be happily ever after!

Grad studies Essay part II

The Big Move

When I was 10 years old we moved to Fountain Valley, California. We drove across country in our Jeep Wagoneer, all 3 kids in the “back back” for over a week! We played and slept and watched as the landscape changed from grey, damp hills, to mountains, to vast green and brown plains and endless sky. The moving truck broke down every day, which gave us time to see a lot of the countryside. We picked cotton that was growing along the side of the road. I didn’t believe my mom’s explanation that it was really cotton…it was too dirty and full of sticks and seeds.

When we got to our new home, it was such a dramatic change! I spent my teenage years climbing over the concrete walls that surrounded every house in southern CA to get to the fruit trees. There was so much fruit that people would use only as decoration! We ate fresh pomegranates, oranges, lemons, limes, avocados and bananas. I’d never seen a pomegranate and it was so exotic to me! We didn’t have a vegetable garden in California, but the flowers, foliage and fruit were very significant to me.

A Different Way of Life

In college I studied art and spent a semester in Bratislava, Slovakia (Czechoslovakia at the time). It was a simple place and it really opened my eyes to how out of touch Americans have become with each other, with their wastefulness and with their food. Food shopping was hard to get used to because every product was sold in a separate store! Meat at the butchers, vegetables (when you could find them) at the open markets, bread at the bakery, cheese and milk at the dairy shop and eggs at what I can only describe as the Chicken store, with freshly harvested chickens hanging all around and lots of eggs. The open market was full of home-preserved items like dried meats, sauerkraut in large wooden barrels, even wine and beer!

“With Bowl and Spoon”

I was invited to a party my first week in Bratislava. The invitation said “…with bowl and spoon”. It was an art show so I wondered what they would do with all those bowls and spoons…and since I wasn’t able to read the invite myself I wasn’t sure that it wasn’t a joke on the American girl: ”Oh look, she did it, she brought a bowl to the party!!” Once I got there, I realized that it was simply practical. They were serving goulash and bread, and since there were no disposable plates or silverware, and there were no catering companies, everyone brought their own. In most of Eastern Europe, there was no “to-go” food or drink either, so any time we wanted a coffee we would have to go to a shop and sit. At first it made me crazy, but I grew to appreciate the slower pace.

Cooking

When I got married I started cooking for two every day. No cereal-for-dinner-because-I’m-too-tired-to-cook meals. I discovered that I like cooking! I started reading about different kinds of diets, learning about “perfect proteins” and nutrition. I was intrigued by wild edibles and took a class at the Frick Environmental Center. I bought a book and started identifying edible and non-edible weeds around my neighborhood.

Intro to Nutrition

Around this time I opened a juice shop in downtown Pittsburgh. I did a lot of research on the benefits of juicing as well as vitamins, minerals, general nutrition and health. Raw whole food seemed like such a luxury! There was no grocery store in downtown Pittsburgh at the time and when I closed my shop I realized that the residents, many of them senior citizens, would have no place to buy vegetables, so I worked with the Market Square Association and created a Farmers Market…the first time vegetables had been sold in Market square in almost 50 years!

A Yard of Our Own

In 1999 we bought a house and I took an office job. The house had a little backyard that was overgrown. We spent the first summer removing plants and weeds from the yard and I spent the winter going through seed catalogs, picking out plants and planning for the spring. We put in lots of perennial herbs and flowers, which I loved, but also because we wanted a low maintenance garden. A vegetable garden was out of the question in our small space. I did manage to integrate peas and some salad greens, but the slugs didn’t leave much for us. I explored my interest in herbal remedies, attended garden swaps and took every opportunity I could to get my hands in the dirt.

A Real Farm

My employer participated in a “Day of Caring” and I had the opportunity to volunteer at a food bank farm. Our task was to dig potatoes. It was magical! My coworkers thought I was crazy being so excited about potatoes, but the thrill is still there to this day every time I harvest potatoes! I enjoyed my day at the food farm so much that I started visiting with my husband. The farmer was an Irish man named Patrick. We would spend cold Sunday afternoons walking the fields, pulling carrots in the snow, carrying wood, playing with the dogs and goats, and riding horses. He was the first real farmer I ever knew, and by that I mean I learned a lot about the realities of the land from our visits. The dogs ate moles and voles right in front of us and when the rooster was violent one too many times he ended up as dinner. In the spring Patrick forced a hen to brood by keeping her and a pile of eggs in a 5-gallon bucket with a brick on top! He let her out a couple times a day for food and water and then back on the eggs. A few weeks later we watched a baby chick hatch!

A Garden of My Own

Since we didn’t have room in our yard for a vegetable garden I started a garden in my neighbor’s yard just a few doors down. He was in his 80’s and had to hire someone to cut the grass every couple of weeks, so as long as I maintained the area he was happy. That summer I created a garden with a group of neighborhood kids whose ages ranged from 4 – 11 years old. They helped me with some tasks but mostly asked questions. I grew everything from seed either directly or under grow lights. I learned about companion planting and had tomatoes with marigolds and basil, sugar snap peas with nasturtium and spinach, pumpkins and beans in between corn plants that made up a swirl across the entire yard. I transplanted some of my perennial herbs and flowers to pretty up the yard and used the “Lasagna Gardening” method to make my life easier! It was interesting to see how the parents reacted to the fresh veggies. I’m not sure all the produce I sent home got eaten.

Almost the end of an Era

I’ve been thinking about the fact that my 18-month vacation may soon be over. I do want a job…being an independent direct sales person of jewelry doesn’t seem to move me enough; I’m quite happy with what unemployment gives me and I am not motivated by gobs of money. In the time I’ve been unemployed there have been a few jobs I really wanted, so few I can count them on two fingers. This one is the third.

Since I’ve learned to live on such little money, at one point I had a thought – make a pile of money with the sales skills I have and then take a few years off. So I looked into medical sales, pharmaceutical sales and other sales type jobs that I thought would make me some money…not cause big bucks motivated me, remember, but because I had a bigger picture in mind. I considered going back into politics again, and really building myself a political fundraising business, since I’ve seen what qualifies as a kick-ass fundraising team and I could be there in a year and have all the big guns asking me to join them…but I’d have to want it, and politics is more than a full-time job, and I like my life.

So, after a bit of panic and putting feelers out there and not getting a lot of positive responses I took a step back and decided to just keep looking and not very actively at that. I committed to Bioneers (like pioneers, but with the environment…I’m working on their local branding) and to Mildred’s Daughters Urban Farm for the May Market, and a friend referred me to Oakland Planning and Development to do a community greening initiative.

Then the job at Audubon was listed. They have a Native Plant Center that was started when the highway to the north was built. 279 ran right through some undeveloped wilderness where they found quite a few rare and some undiscovered plants. People from the Audubon Society of Western PA got a group of volunteers together and went out and dug up the specimens, and started propagating them. Now, almost 10 years later, they received funding for a staff person for the center. And that will be me!

The position will be mostly out and about, visiting prospective clients and organizations that we want to partner with and spreading the good word of using native plants! Some of the job will be in the greenhouse growing plants, working with volunteers and making sure there are enough supplies. Totally a job I would love!

However, I am trying to wrap my head around the fact that the things I do around the house at a leisurely pace will, when I am employed full time, be done on the weekends or before or after work, or they’ll not be done. I’ll have to plan meals better, and ahead of time-we haven’t eaten out more than once a month in a long time! Brett will be assigned to dishes again, and he’ll be left with the house to himself all week. My farm hours will be in the evenings and my jam making will be limited. I’ll have to get out of bed in the morning and actually have a routine. Weekends will be special again, and Monday will be the beginning of my week.

On the upside, I’ll have money! I can save up my money and get a new car; I can buy some much-needed clothing and shoes. I’ll have medical benefits so I can go to the doctor and dentist for regular check ups. I’ll have a routine and get more done…that’s usually the way it goes. I can participate in fundraising dinners and make donations to organizations I like. I can get a membership to the museums and conservatory, and support local artists. I can save up money and take trips to places like Mexico, the Grand Canyon, Hawaii, Peru, Australia, etc.

The one thing a job and money can’t give you is time…so I’ll have to come up with a balance. But I’m definitely looking forward to a change of pace...I think…

Love and death

Today I ran into a woman, a neighbor of mine, who I’ve known for 10 years. She is on the public safety committee so we worked together a couple times and we give each other moral support. Her husband died suddenly on Feb 10^th. I’ve been meaning to call her or stop by or send a card or something but just didn’t know what to say. Well, today I saw her in the plaza where Brett works and I got out of my car and ran after her to tell her how sorry I was. She is still a wreck! I didn’t know what to say. But she agreed that there wasn’t anything to say. She’s just so sad and everything makes her cry…even the sales people at the mall. She’s sad that she doesn’t have him to grow old with, that she has to take care of the dog he only knew for 2 months, and his birds (he had lots of bird feeders) and his sunflowers when they come up, and everything reminds her of him. She’s not ok and she won’t be. And as cruel as it seems, that’s how it should be… I never met Spiro but I heard about him and his typical crazy Greek ways. Sounded like quite a character! But what matters is that Jan is lost with out him, and there is nothing anyone can do. We all should hope to love and be loved like that in our lifetimes.

Getting in the habit...

OK, clearly I need to develop a habit of writing on my blog…or is it writing in my blog? Either way, the act of sitting down to write is not a habit for me yet, so I need to work on that. I will try the 21 day challenge. I’ve put it on my calendar…wait – OK, now I’ve put it on my calendar for the next 21 days. I’ll make it a habit eventually!