CSA

My father used to joke that I would have made a wonderful hippi. Frankly, he had a pretty good point. I'm a peace lover, art is my life, nature and being gentle on the environment ranks high on my priority list, and I wear loose, flowing dresses on a very regular basis. So other than the drugs and free sex thing, I'd say he wasn't too far off.

My most recent expression of my inner-hippi has been through food. This summer, I signed me and BJ up for a CSA (community supported agriculture). The way it works is I paid into a family-run, organic farm near Murray, and they deliver me a large basket of organically-grown produce every Thursday. It is awesome!!! Not only are you eating healthy, environmentally friendly foods, but you are also supporting local agriculture! To give you an idea of how happy this makes me, just know that I don't usually use exclamation marks. It's rare and significant for them to show up.

The funnest part of the CSA is that I'm getting tons of vegetables that I've never cooked before, so I am being challenged to learn new recipes and cooking methods. BJ is walking into the unknown almost every meal. Here is a conversation between us from earlier this week:

Me: We are going to have swiss chard in our basket this week.
BJ: I don't even know what swiss chard is.
Me: It is something I'll be cooking in bacon for you.

And I did cook it in bacon. It was wonderful!

Taking time to roll in the flowers

When Gus came in this morning from his morning 'business' (aka poop), he had white flower petals sprinkled throughout his hair. He looked lovely. I have no idea how he managed the even, aesthetically pleasing layout, but like I said, it was lovely. And in the spirit of beautiful spring mornings, I am going to focus on how precious Gus was with flowers in his hair and ignore the fact that I will be vacuuming those petals off my floor later today.

Absolutely Beautiful

I'm a jewelry person. I always have been. Orchestrating an outfit with interesting a beautiful jewelry is one of my favorite moments of a day. I'm no fashionista, but I do love putting a look together.

Yesterday, I was getting ready for church, and I realized that every piece of jewelry I had on had some special significance to me. My bracelet was a turquoise bracelet made from Texas turquoise, and it was a gift from my sister and brother in-law. The earrings I was wearing were pearl and silver earrings my Dad bought me because we just so happened to be standing in Zales and he wanted to get me something. It wasn't Christmas or my birthday or some other holiday, it was just a regular day that he felt like making special. My necklace was a long, bulky silver piece that belonged to my Grandma Pierce. She liked gaudy jewelry, and, thankfully, I inhereted that passion. And, of course, I was also wearing my engagement and wedding rings. The story behind my engagement ring is ridiculously sappy, almost embarrasingly sappy, so I'll save that for another post.

I've always been told that we shouldn't take too much stock in material things, and I agree with that. But I love beauty, and I love feeling somehow connected to the people I love and miss because they live far away or have passed away many years ago. So in this context, I think my obsession is legitimized. But that is just some random musings from a very girly girl.

For all the secretaries out there

The worst part about any secretarial work is when you get griped out for matters over which you have absolutely no control. For example, when I worked at a garage door company in Abilene, I was chewed out over the phone because a worker driving our company vehicle had cut off someone on an entrance ramp to the highway. Guess how much control I had over that situation.

Today, I was chewed out because Murray State University takes too long to write checks. MSU is a college, and like any college it is a huge, complex bureaucracy. So, yes, it takes a long time to get a check written. Incidentally, it takes a long time no matter what the secretary in the Adventures in Math and Science Program says or does. In fact, the people who write those checks don't even know the poor little secretary in the Adventures of Math and Science Program, and they wouldn't care if they did. It would still take a long time to get the check written.

So people, be nice to the secretary. He or she has no power to do anything about anything. We can't make people drive better or bureaucracies run faster.

*deep breath* I've been needing to say that for about two years. I feel better.

A Revolutionary Post

I am going to take a short moment to be an English snob. This is necessary because it is wrong, I mean down-right wrong, for businesses to cheapen really good words for their advertising purposes. So here it goes.

Saturday, I was working on my final essay for the class I am currently taking, so lunch was a microwavable Lean Cuisine Panini. I was reading the instruction for microwaving, and it said to place the sandwich on their Revolutionary Grilling Tray (the words were actually bolded. I am not exagerating.) Now really - "revolutionary"? Is it revolutionary like that time the Americans decided to overthrow British rule? Or is it revolutionary like back when the French paupers decided to kill everyone who made $250,000 a year or more? Or maybe it is just revolutionary like the time we decided to stop using people and start using machines to make everything - like, for example, cardboard grilling trays? People, please. Grilling trays cannot, let me repeat in bold, cannot be revolutionary. That is a big, important word, and it should be used for big, important things. But thats all I have to say. I feel better now.