Spring Cleaning

Sunday I started on a clean state. I have set a personal goal to stop being so mentally mean and self defeating. It's not that I've been super depressed lately. I haven't. But I have noticed that I am consistently less positive in my thoughts and I am finding it to be a downer. A noticeable downer is enough inspiration for me to realize this habit needs to go! I may have a more common tendency than others, but I think others have this problem in one way or another -- I easily fall back into a slump of thinking negatively about me. And for me, that means negative thoughts in regards to my body especially.

I started this "cleaning the slate" ritual by spending some time writing a list of all the things I know about my body. Not necessarily things I like, but truths I've learned. I feel hokey saying I love my body. But saying stuff I know about it seems much less hokey to me. And I think I've learned quite a bit over the years on this front. I just have to REMEMBER what I know and use it! :) For anyone else who may have a hard time with this, or just to share these truth nuggets, I share my list with you all:

1) the more I love my body, the more I am in tune with my body and its needs. The more I berate it, the more out of tune I am.

2) proper exercise makes me feel alive & refreshed and helps give me perspective.

3) proper eating makes me feel confident, smart, capable and healthy.

4) I am not valued by a number.

5) Each today I treat my body well makes it more likely I will treat it well again tomorrow.

6) My perception is not always reality. Okay, my perception is not even USUALLY reality.

7) Making to-do lists helps me do better things for my body & mind during my off-time, when I may otherwise be unproductive and mindlessly waste time and eat junk food.

8) eating regularly is always the way to go.

9) over-exercising is not a weight-loss solution. Moderate, regular exercise is.

10) I don't have to eat to please anyone.

11) If I feel depressed or negative about my body or other things, the best things to do are: clean, exercise, give service to someone else, or just get out and do something.

The Culinary World is on to Something

Yesterday I tried out a new recipe that involved making gourmet-style hobo meals. It involved putting chicken in parchment paper, along with diced tomatos, marinated artichoke hearts, capers, feta cheese, olives and .... I can't remember what else. I was really excited about this recipe because once you throw all this stuff together (which requires no prep work, unless you consider opening bottles and cans prepwork)it only takes 20 minutes to bake! So cool, right?

Well, turns out this particular version of the dish is a bit too gourmet for Ben (I thought it was peculiar, when I had read him the ingredients last week while I was planning meals, that he still sounded interested). Along with being full of fancy ingredients, however, I found out as I was surfing the web for more Ben-friendly versions of this recipe that it also has a fancy name. I just cooked in papillote (pronounced pap-ee-YOT). What a fancy name for baking with parchment paper!

The culinary world is brilliant. Just give something a fancy name and voila! You have gourmet. I'm going to have to use this to my advantage and find out what the fancy name is for everything else I do. Then I can be gourmet all the time.

Rollin', rollin', rollin'

Well, things are moving along here in Ohio. I am delighted to say, " I have a new job!" It's working with the graduate program for the Cancer and Cell Biology Dept. at the University of Cincinnati. I'll be the program coordinator. For the record, I have been jobless for 6 months and am SO GLAD to finally be back in action.

All the same, I'm bracing myself for the busy schedule. I've been on vacation for like 6 months! And now I'm supposed to just wake up early all the time and work all day? That's, like, really demanding. When am I going to cook or work out or go grocery shopping? Or listen to the White House news briefings?

I'm sure I'll survive my mixed emotions. I'm really excited. I've been training every morning this week and will be in for more of it all next week.

Any other updates?.... hmmm. Ben and I are coming to visit in Utah over the Easter holiday weekend! We're stoked to see family and friends.

I have wanted to post on topics of interest and discussion, rather than give updates. I've had many thoughts lately. But I just don't seem to have the right steam for it. I suspect that steam will be there when I'm working full-time and have no more free time. Isn't that how it always works? I'll try to write something worthwhile or amusing before then.

The Semantics of Language

I had an interesting conversation the other day that I thought I would relate. I was over at a friend's house, discussing the idiosyncrasies we see in every day life and commenting on a few of them that are perhaps a little dearer to our hearts more than anothers.

The topic of spoken language came up and how often people choose, perhaps the wrong word in some of perhaps the most important if not also the most personal of situations. Now, I being a lawyer tend to find language and the selection of words in speech and writing to be of fairly high importance. Yet, I am sure that there are phrases and expressions that I use, purely out of habit, that entail at best a misplaced word which conveys a similar meaning as that intended, and at worst is simply a complete and utter abomination of the human language.

And so the question begs to be asked, how important is the choice of words? Are the words more that we choose more important than what we are attempting to express? Are our relationships limited and plagued by our knowledge and command of our given language?

The conversation wandered through a variety of topics in which language and the selection of words are perhaps more important than others. In a legal context, obviously the command of the English language and its proper usage is extremely important, with potentially severe and detrimental monetary consequences. In a relationship context, how many statements are followed by the phrase "That isn't what I meant." In a religious context (for those of you that are religious), how often do we hear a common phrase, or not so common phrase, in a prayer, in a talk, in conversation, that, based on our understanding, and although "we know what they mean," was the presumably wrong choice of words.

I think it is truly amazing the impact that words can have. The wrong word in a particular situation can be absolutely devastating to a relationship or an individual's self-esteem, yet we often assume that really, words don't matter as long as they understood what we meant, or we think they understood.

With this thought, I hope to resume my "weekly word" posts...but we all know that I am horrible at doing anything regularly, forget about blog posting!

I Predict

The Drug War along the border of Mexico and the U.S. has been heating up lately, with unprecedented drug busts, arrests of cartel leaders, as well as corrupt police officers, and millions upon millions of drugs being confiscated. Deaths on both sides of the border are increasing as well. And I am left to wonder.... and has anybody else wondered? --- What if the U.S. succeeds in this war? What if we stop drugs from coming in?

I'm just taking a guess. But I have a sneaking suspicion that our border problems with illegal aliens running across the border is going to reverse itself. You will have unprecedented numbers of Americans running across the border instead, trying to live illegally in Mexico so they can have their precious illegal drugs and enjoy them too. And they can live right next to their dealer.

Of course, that's assuming that it would be at all illegal for Americans to try and live in Mexico. But it's probably not. In which case, probably only the wealthy could live there, as there still aren't a lot of jobs there. So, maybe Hollywood and Park City will move there. And then burgeoning businesses and nonprofits will start to grow when they run out of dough and decide to start making money or their children get bored. And then the Mexican economy will go up and be doing much better.

And that is how Mexico will take over the world.