I have recently moved into a new place. Moved, but certainly not settled. Many of my belongings are either still boxed up or scattered about the floor of what should be a dining room, waiting to be rediscovered. I've always been curious about the concept of Feng Shui, but have never had time to delve into the details. I decided that this new move would be a great opportunity to apply its techniques. I thought this would be a rather easy task. I thought that I would find a list of rules that one should follow in their home, and I'd check off the list noting that, yes, I'd done everything right, and move on with a greater sense of harmony and balance. Not so much. It seemed that before I did anything, I needed to find out my predominant Feng Shui element based on my year of birth. Mine was wood, which surprised me with its accuracy because, frankly, I hug trees. I am drawn to natural woods in design, the forest is my absolute favorite natural setting, and if there's anywhere in the world I could go right now it would probably be the to California to the see Redwoods. Knowing "your" element helps you to pick design colors that are best suited for you, as seen in the chart below, and once again this was pretty spot on. The next step was to determine my "hua number", because this tells me the optimal direction for the head of my bed or my front door. So not only did I have to research how to determine one's "hua number", but I also had to find my apartment on google maps so that i could figure out which way was North. Who needs a compass when you've got google maps? Lucky for me, I won't have to reposition my queen-size bed or my front door anytime soon. They passed the test.
I did come across one helpful rule in my research on Feng Shui, however, it's not a rule that I am eager to apply. I learned that if I want to have "good Feng Shui", I will need to de-clutter my space. And that's no simple process. So, that one may just have to wait for another day...
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Now, don't get me wrong. I can cook. I can cook Kraft mac and cheese. I can cook bagel bites in the microwave. Heck, I can boil just about any kind of pasta. When it comes to a true, homemade concoction with fresh ingredients and multiple step instructions, however, I could use a little practice. So today, I cooked a real, live dinner. Kind of like the average adult does on a daily basis, only for me it was a big deal. It may not have been five-star quality, but I'm pretty sure one day's practice won't turn me into Gordon Ramsay. Baby steps.
So, on the menu today: Baked salmon with Dijon and bread crumb topping, homemade macaroni salad, and a banana cream pie for dessert. Luckily I had a little assistance with all this- I'll tell you that, as a team, we had a less than stellar performance so I can only imagine how things would have gone if I was flying solo. Here's how the evening unfolded. We set off the fire alarm. We upset the dog and possibly the neighbors. We dropped quite a bit of salmon in transit. And, in the end, we gave up on the banana cream pie out of sheer exhaustion. BUT, we did have a pretty rockin' dinner in the end, despite it all. The salmon was all "melt in your mouth" and the macaroni salad had a really good flavor. So, from the perspective of the observer it may have been a failure, but it was a success in the eyes of the consumers! We even turned the sad, abandoned pie crust into a cinnamon sugar treat that was similar to one my mom used to make. And yes, the banana cream pie has been added to the list of summer "must-do's" and I promise it will be completed before the summer is over! In my childhood and teenage years, art was a part of my everyday life. I drew literally every day, filling sketchbook after sketchbook with scenes and characters, and dreaming of the day that I would become an animator for Disney. This was, of course, before I received the heartbreaking news that Disney animators no longer drew by hand but rather on the computer. Clearly I was born a few years too late. But, I digress.
However, since landing in the real world, I draw less and less. Mostly, I draw on white boards in kindergarten classrooms and on relatives' birthday cards. I never seem to draw for me. I never seem to draw just for the sake of drawing. So I did that today. On this gorgeous, gorgeous day, I went to a riverside park. I set myself up on a blanket under a shady tree, I sipped a top-notch frozen vanilla latte, and I lounged with a sketchbook. I lounged so well that a nice lady with a corgi expressed her amazement at how comfortable I looked. I lounged so well that it inspired her to lounge with said corgi in the shade of a neighboring tree. And I drew. I have a feeling that this will be the first of many afternoons in which I set out into the world and draw. For no reason whatsoever. As the picture above clearly illustrates, my apartment is where plants go to die. Before becoming a kindergarten teacher, I went to school for Environmental Science. So, in theory, I should be good at this stuff. But even then, I remember a project where I had to conduct an experiment on two dozen spinach plants, but I had no spinach plants. After one whole semester of trudging to the science building to water those babies, nothing grew. And I was forced to write my final report on two dozen pots of dirt.
In more recent years, I've gotten pretty good at blaming my horticultural failures on wherever I'm living at the time, saying the apartment has "bad water" or not enough sunlight to keep anything alive. However, four apartments later, I'm running out excuses and it's becoming quite apparent that I'm the common denominator in this equation. So today, its time to face the facts and tackle gardening. I recently inherited a small tomato plant from my dad's epic backyard garden. In his closet-sized plot, he grows enough vegetables to feed a small country, so its safe to say that this plant has good genes. But, of course, as one would expect from a plant that is under my care, some of its leaves are already beginning to yellow. I received a second plant as a thank you gift from one of my students, which I'm about 90% sure are impatiens. These, too, have already started to wilt after just one week. It's kind of a theme. So I made what I hope will be heroic rescue by giving the plants a little space to breathe. A little elbow room. Its very scientific. The process goes a little like this: Go to the dollar store, pick up a pot or two that are bigger than the ones you presently own, go home, and put the plants in those. And then be amazed at how nice your patio can look for $1.00. Here's to hoping that this technique works. So when it comes down to it, teachers have about 50 days of uninterrupted summer. Discounting all the time that it takes to take a classroom utterly apart only to piece it back together again, there are about 50 solid days left for a teacher to enjoy. As a teacher myself, I am often faced with the question “What are you gonna do to keep busy?” And it’s a fair point. I could go into the woeful tale of how teachers have it so hard, etc., etc. but I’m gonna save my breath for the sole reason that I’m wearing sweatpants right now and you’re probably not.
Anyway, this summer I am tackling that dreaded question head-on. In order to ensure that I have a productive summer in which I do more than just Facebook, I decided to make a list of must-do’s and blog about my attempts. Not because I need the internet community to acknowledge my accomplishments and bolster my self-worth, but more because if I don’t make this thing public, it ain’t gettin’ done. Let me get this straight here and now, because most of you don’t know me. I’m not what one would call a “do-er”. My idea of a great Friday night is a good book and a cup of tea. If I’m feeling the need for a little social interaction then maybe I’ll get crazy and “like” someone’s comment on Facebook. I think this is important for you to know. I’m not the girl who has baked a pie, taught herself to knit, and written a dissertation on the perils of global warming all before her morning coffee. My energy level is just not that high. My days are low-key. I can go 48 hours without getting out of my pajamas and not bat an eye. So, please. Keep that in mind as we proceed. So, number one on the list? You guessed it. Start a blog. Done and done! Not something I've done before and not something I'm terribly comfortable with, but that's kind of the point of this whole thing. I'm hoping this project will thrust me from my comfort zone (aka my couch) and force to me to live a little this summer. So. Cheers to that. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Archives
August 2014
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