Day 124- Day 3

A year with Jane Day 3

So this is Celery ramen. 

1/2 a celery stock
2 chopped green onion
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1/2 cup oil
1/2 cole slaw mix {red cabbage, lettuce, carrot}
1 cup water
1 package of mushroom ramen

I wasn't sure how the cole slaw mix would work but it gave it just enough bulk that it made it a nice change from plan packaged ramen.  I did the celery and green onion in the oil before adding the garlic.  It caramelized just enough that it had a slight molasses taste.  

I took the two movie versions of Mansfield Park over to mom's this week. I took a version of Emma and Pride and Prejudice there too. 
My mother is infamous for hating everything, specially period movies and British ones.  So, taking a different Jane Austen film over to her place all week was an interesting project.

She loved P/P and the one version of MP.  The week before I had brought over the Jane Austen Book Club and she seemed to pay attention to it.  What I did not tell her is that I've brought that one in the past to her place and she's watched it.  My mom is the type who will watch half a movie declare she hates it, and then awhile later see it on tv and claim it to be her most favourite movie ever.   I think it depends on her mood.

Anyways, she liked the idea of JABC because of the storyline of the character Sylvia. Which is the mix of Mansfield Park and Persuasion.
She loved the Frances O'Conner version of MP.  Which, I have to admit is my favourite movie version too. 

I had taken the Keira Knightley version of P/P.  She loved the fact it was more a comedy.

What did I learn this week from this little experiment?  

Never say never.   Just because something or someone at first glance seems to be one thing, does not mean you're getting the full and honest story.   Just like Elizabeth Bennett learns in P/P about her views on Wickham and Mr. Darcy. 

Day 123-Day 2

A year with Jane Day 2

Um... I'm not finding anything.   I was looking for a quote, something I could apply to housekeeping, but I might have picked the wrong Austen.   I was looking in Persuasion. Which, is the book we're doing for the summer in book club.

I'm sure there is plenty, I'm just not finding anything that is jumping out at me.

So, Persuasion. Nice place to start. I've always seen myself in the character of Anne Elliot. Way too much of myself in her. 

It was the Summer Solstice today.  First day of Cancer zodiac too.  Sort of a food viewing day, if you will. Spent the morning watching a foodie-horror film called Bitter Feast. Which I blogged about on my cooking blog.  And the evening watching Top Chef Canada, which I blogged about on my main blog. 

Anyways, only a starting point with the Year of Jane, so I am sure to get into a bit more of a flow as things progress.

Day 122-Day 1

A year with Jane {Day 1}

I was thinking about my novel.  Thinking about the fact I haven't written anything in months. When I opened the file, it was last dated Aug 20th 2010.  Wow! Here I was counting back thinking I'd stopped working on it in November of 2010, but it was even longer then that.  Nearly a full year.
Two years of my life has been poured into writing that novel. { Two and a half if you count the last few months just time wise. }

Then I started to think back to some of my other projects over the last roughly 3 years.  My countless blogs, my short stories that I've been writing on the blogs, the all vampire reading challenge {that I started as a meme and even I did not finish it because I had less then five people interested} my food challenges {inspired by Top Chef challenges that I have talked about doing but haven't}  my scrapbook, etc.

Great at starting things, horrible at finishing.   I keep telling myself, I'll finish it when such and such is done, or when so and so finally gets back to me on it.  And of course it never does/they never do.
Sometimes, I just loose interest.  Other times,  like my novel, I loose inspiration.  With my novel, I know my ending sucks and I really need an editor only I can not afford one. So stuck in limbo until I get a breakthrough.

Which brings me around to this post.  I keep finding myself over on Julie Powell's blog.  The chick who started the Julie/Julia Project.   Bit of a revolution if you ask me.  I've also been finding myself over on A Year with Julia.  A second lady was inspired to do the same thing, spend a year learning how to master the art of French cooking. 
This all got me thinking about a ton of stuff and one of those was the last time I completed a project.  Few years ago on the internet there was a book blogger who put out a challenge for an all Jane Austen challenge that lasted 6 months.  This is what had inspired my all vampire challenge that failed. 
I had been part of her All Jane Austen Challenge, and completed it on deadline and had a bundle of fun with it.  I talked about it on a few of my old blogs and my book review blog.

So here I am.
I'm going to spend the year delving into Jane Austen... again. There has been a lot of *new* Austen stuff in just a few short years since I first did that challenge.  I haven't figured out the details just yet, but that's what life is about right, learning as you go.

This will also bring me into posting more often on here, as I have gotten bad the last couple of weeks. 

So I guess the next question would be .... What Would Jane Do?

Day 121

Midweek.   Wed. that means it's the wishcasting day on Jamie Ridler Studios.   Her question this week is "what delights do you wish for?"
I think that's one of the toughest ones yet that she's asked. I think a new environment.  Something that inspires me, people who inspire me.  I still have traveling and moving on my mind and maybe this will bring it out a bit faster.
Delights= new places, new people.

And someone awhile back asked me why I don't say "wish"  I say "intend"   It's truly what the old saying "careful what you wish for you just might get it"  really means.   It's not what you are asking for, it's how you ask.  Which I learned the hard way.

I am grateful for Jamie Ridler having started this weekly circle, and the  delights I intend for myself are new places and new people.   And I intend that all your intentions manifest quickly and solidly.  So be it and so it is.

Day 120

This is my $5 purse. 

Yes, $5 Canadian.  Very cool.   I have a thing for clutch bags, also have a thing for grey/silver and have been looking for the last couple of years actually for a grey-silvery coloured purse.

Yes, you're eyes are not playing tricks on you, that is an Insane Clown Posse scarf behind it, I just wanted something to show the contrast of the purse and I thought it would be interesting. 

So how did I score a $5 purse you are thinking?  No it was not on clearance,  it was just a graduation sale at the mall, as this is graduation time around here.  I think the States still call it prom? 

But I am so dubbing this my Carrie Bag, because it's shaped close to the one that was featured on SATC off and on over the course of the show.   Not the exact style, but as close as I've been able to find in this crappy city.

Yesterday, was a day of shopping torture for me.  I had to break down and finally go bra shopping.  I would honestly rather go to the dentist then bra shopping.

La Senza luckily had a "sale" on yesterday so off I went.  Spent way too much on two bras.  But I walked in there, and the sales lady comes up to me with a measuring tape pinned to her shoulder, and asked when the last time I had a fitting was?  
Um... er... damn.  So of course my trip to the lingerie store became a mission.  Oh happy humiliation.

Then I got home to find that my wrestling show is no longer being offered on iTunes Canada.  I felt like a slap to my face had happened.

Here's the lesson in loosing my favourite show. 

Yesterday morning, I read an article that Elizabeth Gilbert wrote in the Oprah magazine stating that when she was writing Committed she started to loose her passion, her lust for writing.  She then decided to step back from the whole thing and just dabble in what she was calling her curiosity for a few months. It ended up giving her a new view on her life's passion. 
I have been at this crossroads myself for the last while {I'd say nearly 9 months}  Right after I read the article, I was trying to figure out what my curiosity is? 
As of yesterday morning, my thought was "I could go back to doing wrestling reviews but last time it made me overly stressed to the point of becoming sick, so I know that's not my passion"
By having the wrestling show literally taken away from me on iTunes Canada (as I do not have cable) my option to do the reviews the way I used to has been removed. I was also paying every three months for a "season pass" to download the show.  Now, I'll be saving myself some of that money {which after the bra shopping yesterday will be a needed thing. Thank god for the ramen noodles cause it's all I'll be able to afford for the next month}

The universe has literally just said to me that going back to doing the reviews the way I was the last few years would be a bad idea. It would be moving backwards and not forwards.
So here I am, having given up my biggest element in my life (the wrestling reviews)  given up my "day job" (the book reviews) and left wondering if the thing I've always said was my life is still my passion/life ? (writing)

Day 119

It's a Wednesday and once again over on Jamie Ridler Studios,  it's wishcasting day.  Her question this week is "what do you want to begin?"

When I read that this morning, I thought it would be better to ask what I wish to finish, as I have a horrible case of starting things and not completing them.  It seems to be a bad Aries trait.
But I would like to start a new life.   There are just some moments when I really wish I could just become someone else.
Few weeks ago, I was having a really crappy bad day, things were just not happy; and I asked my buddy M. if I could runaway?   He asked why, and when I said I would like to be someone else,  his answer {which came in a text by the way}  was  "why can't you be someone else here?"  

He just didn't get it.  He just doesn't get me. 

Now, I know the main rule of the AYILOORN is to be drama free.   So I'm just going to wrap this post up with saying,  I wish intend that I could am starting a new lifestyle {be careful how you word things, the Gods/Goddesses/Universe will take you at your wording. Never say you are sick of your life or hate your life, say you hate your circumstances/situation}

Day 118

19 weeks into the blog.

It's one of those days where I keep going around and around on the internet without any direction. Just kept hitting my blogs today, thinking I should post something but not really having anything to say.

I realized that I'm stalling on some  all of my cooking stuff.  I have been saying how I want to do a few of the Top Chef challenges, how I want to do a similar challenge to what Julie Powell did back a decade ago with the Julie/Julia project.
And I have not because I know I need to give up being a vegetarian to do anything properly in the way of cooking challenges.
I would love to work with Foie Gras.  Yes, I know so not politically correct but damn it, it's something I would love to work with just once.  But, I should re-learn how to make turkey and chicken again before doing something like that. 
I've been a vegetarian now for 10 years.  At this point, I can not even be near meat when it's cooking, it makes me sick to my stomach the smell of it.  Which is why I know if I do decide to make that decision to go back to eating meat in order to delve deeper into cooking, it's not something I will be doing on a whim.
I keep telling myself that as soon as one of the following happens that I will make that turn in my diet:

A) When I finally get to move
B) The next boyfriend that I get involved with if he's not a vegetarian himself that I will stop being one in order to cook for/with him
C) If I ever end up knocked-up
D) When I finally get to go on a trip somewhere I'll give up being a vegetarian so that I can make it a culinary trip

There is just something about the idea of making that step while still living in this apartment, still living alone, still .... having this life I'm living right now,  that feels wrong.  I can not make it seem to make any sense other then that. 
I did not become a vegetarian till after I moved into this apartment.  It's just part of the psyche of this place for me. 

Day 117

So to keep the drama lite on here, just going to put a shout out to one of my favourite wrestlers, Chris Sabin, hope your knee heals soon and without complications.

Next item, if you've been reading the SATC style blog, you know I've had a few issues with my mother. I know, I'll just leave it at that.

The carb lovers diet.  I actually ended up gaining 5 pounds in the first 3 days of that one.  What the freal?  I thought the point was that you were suppose to loose a rapid amount in one week because your body was doing something new...different... whatever?
This is why I do not believe in diets.  Honestly. Man, I'm thinking that it's not as good an idea as originally thought. 
Could be where I am a vegetarian too.  Finding protein is difficult at the best of times.  I'll have to continue playing around with this one, try to work it into my normal eating habits for a few weeks to see if anything actually kick starts.

Since I have pretty much ended my book reviews,  I've picked up As Always, Julia  the letters between Julia Child and Avis DeVoto.  {I mentioned back on Day 102 that I had bought it} and have actually-finally- started to read it.
I'm hooked. Seriously, I love the idea of this book.

Oh, and while on the topic of food stuff, I got a new Stir-Fry pan. 
So now I can make my ramen noodles in a really good quality pan. I feel special.

Day 116

And what a day it's been.

Yesterday, I was sitting around and got to see Rachael Ray show.  The one with the Carb Lovers Diet book.

As someone who confesses that I do not believe in diets, I was wondering how this would work.

I did some checking, and it seems that it's not as much a diet as it is a re-programming. 

I called the book store here, and found out there was one lonely copy in stock.  So I dug up the $30 Canadian and got it this afternoon.
I spent a few hours reading the first few chapters of it, out loud to my mom.   Why?  Because, I was not the only one who was sitting there watching the show yesterday.  My mom and sister were too.

We're all major bread/pasta/potato people.
This book is going to get a hefty workout I'll tell you that much. 
It will be interesting seeing how well I can get this to fit my vegetarian lifestyle; and it will be a challenge to get mom to eat anything in the fruit/vegetable category.   But I've already spotted a few items that I can add to my food intake that I normally do not eat (like orange juice. Love oranges but never drink juice)  and walnuts. (high in Omega 3s it would seem. Did you know that?  I did not know that)

I think the hardest part for me is going to be the food diary.  I journal about everything else in life, in both blog form and handwritten journal; but I've tried keeping a food diary before and after two days gave up.
My weight loss goal is  2 dress sizes.   I had bought a few little black dresses few years ago right before my car accident, and I never had a chance to wear them.  Since my car accident I've gained 30 pounds that I can not seem to loose because I can no longer work out.  (I used to work out 4 times a week)

So the goal, to loose enough to fit into my little black dresses that I've had hanging around for 4 and a half years.

Day 115

It's Wednesday which means, over on Jamie Ridler Studios,   it's wishcasting day.  Her question today is "what is your money wish?"

I have not joined in the last few weeks, as to be honest, my head has been everywhere but on blogging.  And you can't be giving if you're in mud.
But I'm in it this week once again, and my answer is  My money wish is to have enough to go on a trip.