Thursday, June 26, 2008

Round 2.



Because I really love my new present.

Today's break-y: Ezekiel's Cinnamon Raison toast with peanut butter and banana + fresh and sweet blueberries and yogurt w/ flaxseed, and a cup of tea which I brew every morning with loose leaves.  Totally worth it. 

Ok, no more.  I mean, I'll continue to use these lovely plates and mugs and bowls, but don't expect any more pictures, unless I some how whip up diamond-encrusted pancakes.  Conflict-free-diamond pancakes. 

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

When looks matter.

I'm a firm believer in putting effort in food presentation, because you really do eat with your eyes.  I don't always practice what I believe, though, because I don't have the motivation to do so, and I don't keep a steady food blog.

HOWEVER!

Today, I'd like to post a picture of my breakfast in honor of my college roommate Carmen. 

She gave me the best birthday present and sent me a package from one of my favorite stores in NYC: Fishs Eddy. The moment I opened the box and saw the bowl, I knew I HAD to have something in a bowl for breakfast.

So!  Without further ado, here's my bowl of beautiful banana blueberry oatmeal in my brand-spankin' new NYC Fishs Eddy bowl:


Isn't she a beauty? Thanks, Carmen!  I miss you! 

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Healthy in a different way.

I feel so healthy right now, in a holistic way.

The last couple of months, I've been healthy solely on an external basis.  While I was chompin' on leaves and swimming laps to keep my heart rate up, I let my stress level sky rocket to a breaking point.  Without getting into too much details, I hit a limit, in more ways than one.  It's really a slippery slope, and I only write this as a brief cautionary tale.  It's really hard to see where you're at, mentally, when you're in the midst of things.

I didn't even want to celebrate my birthday, but luckily, I had people in my life who did for me.  After feeling celebrated, I've realized how much I've missed out in the last months by not taking a break.  Now, I actually feel my age and feel good and feel like I'm slowly becoming entirely healthy. 

SO.  On to more photo-centric less-serious things.  Here's how my birthday went:

I usually celebrate my birthday in 3 portions.  Once with a grand-ol' dinner with my family, once with people from all over that I enjoy very much, and once with my very close friends.  This year, it started out with my social sister, adding my birthday on to her graduation party as a reason to celebrate. 


My brother was done here from up north too, and we hung out and entertained each other at my sister's graduation. 



On top of having a grandiose sushi dinner with my family, I also had sushi dinner with my other family, as I'd like to call them.  Sushi is literally the only reason I cannot be a vegetarian.  I know I know, eating fish has become even more of an ethical dilemma lately, but it's not like I can afford to eat sushi everyday...  Leave me alone.. 



This wonderful group of people bought me a fruit tart, and that's how I concluded this wonderful weekend.   I am sincerely so lucky to have such caring people in my life. 



My coworkers also decorated my cubicle with the cutest little cut-outs, which is still hanging around my desk.  I love it!  

You see, this is the best way to become healthy.  And I can eat cake too!

Life is slowly getting back on track, and I am so glad.  



Monday, June 16, 2008

:)

This weekend made me really happy and made me feel like I'm actually 25.  Not 65.  

More on it later!  I'm going to go celebrate my birthday today with some quality people. 

Sunday, June 01, 2008

Yeah, this post isn't going to be funny.

I'm sorry for the Debbie Downer posts lately, but I promise you, this isn't going to be whiny.  

Have you ever witnessed such a raw form of grief, that you find it... vivid? 

One of my favorite coworkers suffered a great loss last weekend and I attended the funeral yesterday morning.  I've only been to two other funerals besides this one, one of my grandfather's, and another of my friend's grandmother.  Although both of those funerals were from untimely deaths, this particular one that I attended yesterday felt even more so because my coworker had lost a parent.  I'm 25, and she's around the same age.  Although there were circumstances surrounding her loss, it was still too soon for her to lose someone like that. 

Anyway, I watched her grieve and, and it was so palpable and raw that I found it almost beautiful, and possibly the most natural thing I had seen recently.  People tend to avoid identifying other's grief because it is a personal thing, and I don't want to do anything to intrude that.  But I always found the purest response to those extreme situations to be the most revealing moments of human nature.  I find it vivid, in the sense that it is the clearest evidence that we are alive.  

When I was living in Spain, a good friend of mine had suddenly ended a long-term relationship with her boyfriend, who she had envisioned marrying.  It was a one-sided break-up (his) and I sat with her through the night while she cried and cried.  Her tears were uncontrollable, and aside from wanting to console her, I felt privileged to witness this form of sadness.  Such deep sadness, such rare emotion, when your whole body responds to what you feel.  I mean, I really couldn't help but find my friend so beautiful while she went through this pain, because what I was watching was nothing but the truth.   

I don't want to constantly watch people be sad.  God, what kind of sadist would that make me?  However, I do want to acknowledge the rarity and beauty of it when I see something like that.  It really reminds me what it is to be human. 

Now, here's where I confirm myself as a food addict.  At the end of the service, I was trying to think about what I could do for my coworker, and the first thing I thought was... I'll bake!  So disgustingly Martha Stewart of me, and I don't even like Martha Stewart. I was thinking about baking V-con's soy yogurt pound cake, because my coworker liked it the last time she tried some.  I'm thinking about adding some green tea matcha powder to promote peace.  What do you think about that?  I'll update you guys if I end up making it.