Quick Recap, Cooking 101 in 1001: Chinese Chicken Salad

Chinese Chicken Salad Recipe (BlogChef)

I made this for lunch on Friday. Here are the liner notes:

• I loved it, I will absolutely be making this again.
• I had a blast making the rice noodle puffs – I had no idea that it would be as easy as it was.  I highly recommend this to anyone looking for something to do on a Friday night. (I take it back: do it on a lazy Tuesday, go out and play on Friday).
• I forced myself to learn how to cook chicken. (I don’t know if I mentioned this, but I am a baker and vegetarian cook by nature, I’m terrified of under-cooking meat and getting ptomaine or over-cooking it to leather, so I’ve largely hidden from it.)
• The dressing is an exact copy of the Oriental Sesame dressing made by the facist (read, “ridiculously over-priced”) cafe in my office building.  This was not intentional, but I am thrilled I have a copy of this dressing – if I asked for an extra helping of dressing at the cafe, they acted as though I had curb-stomped their kittens.

Goal-Setting my Way to a 5K

In this article, Mike Kramer points out the ultimate truth in any success story: the #1 indicator of success is to set goals. JD Roth of Get Rich Slowly relates goal-setting in fitness to goal-setting in finance, which I find just as applicable. In my end-of-the-year meme, I talked about finding the beauty in between the lines of the goals, and it’s an idea, I still believe in: I set the goals to become a better person when I accomplish them. But when it comes to motivation to complete the goals, ultimately, I’m not motivated by the means of a process so much as the end.

I say this because even though I’ve become such a better person about getting fit (I joined SparkPeople, and I cannot stop recommending it to people), I need a reason to get fit to stay motivated. To quote W.H. Murray, “Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back.” I found out that Hale Farm is having their “Opening Weekend” 5K run through the farms of Bath, OH. I said, “Shit, why not?” and signed both The Boy and I up for it. And now, I can’t shut up about it: about training, the excitement, how proud I am of myself for taking this huge step in fitness….

I’m training using the C25K program, and my goal is to make it through the Hale Farm’s run jogging the entire time. If I can peg a time for completion, that’s good too – it will be great for comparison for the future. I have had a hard time being a “runner” in the past, but I really want to be, and I have the physique, the energy, and the drive to do it this time.

By setting the goal of running a 5K in June, not only am I committed to actually doing the training for running, I am committed to the strength training that accompanies training for a 5K.When I had re-started horseback riding again at 20, I rode for the summer at a high-caliber training stable which had an actual gym on the ground, so the equestrians that were training for multi-state competition could engage in cardio and strength-training programs to complement training on horseback. The concept had a major impact on me since that day, which is why I’m so committed to not be singularly-focused on just running as part of training.

Once I complete the C25K program, I’m assuming that I will graduate to a more intense program for more accomplished runners (my logic is that actually running in a 5K at the end of C25K means that I am not allowed to call myself a n00b anymore). My plan is to find another 5K to run in, and using the time I clocked for the Hale Farm 5K, train and clock in at a shorter time.

Who knows: maybe I’ll want to do a half-marathon next spring?

Put Pen to Paper, Spell out ‘Eliza’…

Despite trying to attend college for visual arts, I have always felt that my best media has been the written word (despite what this blog might indicate otherwise).  I’ve always found it a lot easier to mold a series of words into a message of deeper meaning than making paint, clay, steel, or ink bend to my will.

As the product of a function which factors in the massive amount of “heady” podcasts and audiobooks that I am reading, I feel the deep pull to reconnect with my art.  I’m constantly speaking to myself in my head, describing in literary detail my impressions of the world around me, telling myself stories.

A lack of maturity was my first impediment to my writing, not forcing myself to sit and write regularly, and taking a scholarly approach to it.  But switching so drastically from art to business stoked the fire of my perfectionism, and I grew paralyzed with fear that the first words I put to paper would not be perfect. How could I reconcile my art side with my business side?

Again, with this “Age of Saturn” stuff, where the path is being made clear.  I have come to appreciate and love the art of language and literature, but I certainly didn’t have the maturity or the drive to make anything of it.

The best way to get good at a craft is practice – over and over.  In a reflection of filling out 2009’s end-of-the-year survey, I came to realize that I was heartened that I had kept some track of my year, but disappointed that I didn’t keep quite the track that I wanted to.  So, my exercise through the year is to not only recount the year, but to keep practicing the craft.  Perhaps some entries will become the base of bigger essays.  Perhaps not.  At any rate, it’s important to me to keep the plasticity of my artists brain in good shape.

I’m curious to compare 2010’s end-of-the-year survey with 2009’s and see what happens from a literary standpoint.

Title Inspiration: Song for Myla Goldberg, the Decemberists

Saying Goodbye is Hard to Do

Like a bad boyfriend, I cannot completely “break up” with cigarettes.  Sure, I said that it was a great run, and once upon a time, we were really happy together.  But we just didn’t have the spark we used to – so we called it quits.  But I have to call up the ex and revisit the relationship.

I can’t just tell my company that I quit smoking; I have to go through a program to show how serious I am about quitting (which, frankly, I think the whole “anti-smoking system” is bullshit, but that’s another entry for another time).  This is a sort of “smokers anonymous” program over the phone that walks participants.  As a non-smoker of 12 weeks, though, none of this class applies to me.

But, the insurance company has me by the grapes, and if I want the surcharge removed, I have to successfully complete the program.  Seeing as all of this material is remedial, I’ve decided it’s much more entertaining to “people watch”.  I’m very preoccupied trying to figure out where the other participants are from, what they do for a living, if one of the others in the groups works for the same company, but in another part of the US.

Tonight and next Tuesday are the last two nights of the program.  I doubt that I will ever again think about the program or the participants, but I am rooting for the one guy who has been outwardly “meh” about the program – I hope he succeeds this time.

Visualize a Psychoanalysis

We are getting visual voicemail at work, and I think this is the greatest thing since sliced bread.  I hate picking up the phone, and generally will let my VMs languish in my inbox forever.  I just don’t like not being able to mitigate my response to what’s coming, I don’t like being caught unaware.

I also find it a lot faster to have everything in print, I don’t have to waste time dialing into my voice mail, or spend time in an unproductive phone call when I could be doing other things.

Those who pooh-poohed the idea of getting visual voicemail stated it was a generation-gap issue: that previous generations didn’t have the advent of this technology and learned to deal with the “surprises” that come from an unexpected phone call.  I was effectively rendering myself incapable of dealing with person-to-person relationships and undermining my ability to conflict-resolve.

I think that part of the argument disregards the fact that there have been people in society for millennia that do not care to interact a lot with others (classical “introversion”), and that there is nothing wrong with being an introvert.  I am an introvert: I am really good at “turning on” in social situations, but I am very content just to be alone with myself.

But the argument still struck me: has my preference for a “buffer zone” created a personal fault of not being able to learn how to deal with unexpected situations?  I know that I am not as quick-thinking as I would like to be, and I’ve definitely manufactured a technology-structure that facilitates my ability to avoid that discomfort.

Bigger still, I know that I want to be better and more smooth at fielding questions and issues that I was not prepared for.  Do I eschew this new technology, and instead embrace regular VM and pick up every call on the first two rings?  Is immersion-therapy what’s going to fix me?

I think I’m going to do some research on the subject and see what the best balance would be between visual voicemail and actual person-to-person contact.