Christmas 2009

Christmas is just around the corner... I don't know how it happened but it's here! I am actually really quite excited about this Christmas season. Just like I did last year, I want to do something for the people living in the downtown east side. It's most likely not going to be as big as last year but I still want to do something. I can't remember if I blogged about x-mas 2008 on the DTES. I'll have to take a look and see. If I haven't then I most likely will (but not tonight. I want to go to sleep).
So I've been wracking my brain as to what to do. Last year I worked with OnSite and brought Christmas there. This year I want to do something for the people on the streets. I see them every time I go to and from the gym (which is 2 to 3 times a week). There's just as big a crowd if it's sunny, cold, cloudy or raining. They're just out there. I guess that's because they don't have anywhere to go. I make eye contact with them and smile, just to acknowledge their presence. Most of them don't ask for food. One guy asked me for a hug. Of course, I gave him one. Today I saw my old neighbor, Bill. He now lives in the downtown east side. I smiled at him, he stared blankly at me. He probably doesn't recognize me because him and Linda moved out when I was 10. He was also drunk most of the time and Linda... well I haven't seen her. My guess is that she's passed away. I think I remember hearing about something like that a while ago. Anyways. Though I see Bill three or four times a year, we never talk to each other. I am always glad to see him. Alive. Maybe not well.
So what am I going to do for the people in the downtown east side? So far, the best idea I've come up with is making a couple hundred ginger bread people, decorate them (all of them will have a little pink heart) and hand them out on the corner of Main and Hastings. There's no doubt that I'll find a couple hundred homeless people. I've been guesstimating how many there are each time I go by. There's lots of them. I think there will be just as many come Christmas time... cuz really... where are they going to go? It's not as if they're going to visit family. Unfortunately. Anyways, this seems like the best option. Baked goods are part of the holidays and it'll be cheaper then buying socks/underwear/gloves/hats/scarves etc etc etc for them.
If anyone wants to help out, let me know :) My favorite memories of last years Christmas was wrapping up the presents for OnSite with Mom and Dad, delivering the presents with Uncle Steve on Christmas eve day (despite the snow storm) and seeing a pile, almost as tall as me, of presents in the storage room, knowing that they'll go out to people that will be so grateful to have them. Hopefully this year I can make new memories, either with the same people or with others.

A new kind of comfort food

After a shite day at work, I walked around in the rain and wind and mulled over what to have for dinner. The final verdict, brown rice, wilted red kale topped with pesto fried tofu (or tofu fried pesto...). After a soothing hour in the kitchen I enjoyed this beautiful meal. I've decided that I am going to start blogging about the vegetarian recipes that I try. There are three reasons for this. 1) I have been defaulting to pasta and other simple carbohydrates while veggies and random forms of protein (tofu, legumes etc) have gone out the window 2) I've been enjoying reading Brandon's blog about all of the new recipes that he's making... unfortunately most of them contain meat 3) A coworker of mine, Erin (and here), is newly veg and has been updating her fbook status with wonderful veg friendly recipes.
I think we can all learn something from each others cooking adventures. If not, well at least now these recipes are written out and not just in my head. I think we've all learnt I'm a big fan of dum dee dumming (This is what Dad calls making things up as he goes along) so some of the measures will be a splash, shake, handful or other vague kind of measurement. The joy of this is that you make the dish your own. Add more of what you love and less of what you don't. I believe this makes food that much more enjoyable (and fun to cook).

Wilted Red Kale & Pesto Fried Tofu

Rice: 1 cup brown rice, 1/2 cup wild rice, 1 1/2 cup veggie stock, 1 1/2 cup water. Make rice.
Tofu & Kale:
12 stems Red kale (or regular kale... but the colour was appealing) to prep kale, take a single stalk with the stem pointing to the ceiling, the leaves/leaf towards your counter, grasp stalk between thumb and forefinger and... well lets just say if it was a cat, you'd be petting it backwards. All the leaves should peel off the stem and the stem (which is usually too fibrous and woody) goes into your compost
1 pack firm tofu cut into cubes (not little cubes... medium sized cubes)
3 generous splashes of soy sauce
1 tbsp vegetable (or olive) oil
1 to 1 1/2 tsp chopped garlic
1 thumb size nub of ginger, finely grated (keep in mind, I have fat thumbs... so in this case, more is better)
1 handful of sesame seeds
2 tbsp pesto (or you can chop up basil... but I was lazy once and found this to make a much tastier recipe! Work smarter, not harder ;) )

Put cubes of tofu and soy sauce in a container and shake to evenly coat tofu with soy sauce. Set aside. Cook rice.
After rice is half cooked, heat oil in a wok (unless you want to individually flip the cubes... but I like using a wok so I can toss the tofu to flip it... sometimes it makes a mess, sometimes I can actually throw the tofu and catch it in the wok). Once oil is heated, add garlic. Saute garlic.
Add tofu to garlic and oil. If there is excess soy sauce, do not put it in the pan just yet. Instead, set it aside. You'll use it later. Start water (with a bit of salt, preferably Himalayan Salt) to boil for kale) and let it boil. Kale should not be in the pot just yet.
Cook tofu until almost browned on all sides. While it's cooking, grate ginger and stir together.
Just before tofu is almost done, add kale to your boiling pot of water (don't forget the steamer bit). Keep a close eye on the kale, you don't want it to get mushy. Just wilt it. It should still have texture.
To the tofu, add soy sauce. Stir. Toss in sesame seeds. Stir. Spoon in pesto. Stir and it finish cooking for a minute or so.
Hopefully everything has timed correctly and you should be ready to eat. Enjoy!

Up next... I am going to try to find my vegetarian chili recipe! With this rainy weather it's time to bust out the chili's and soups :) Yum!

Ding Dong the Mouse is Dead*

Actually it died a good week ago now. But it freaking stinks! I know it died because I heard it die... for 3 hours! I woke up to the sound of dragging and clanging. Mr. Mouse caught himself in a trap and climbed into a part of the ceiling that is non accessible (also near the heating vent... which means when we turn on the heat, I get blasted with eau de dead mouse) and tried to escape. Unfortunately he worked REALLY hard at trying to escape while hauling a mouse trap. He'd drag and clang, then it would be silent, then he'd drag and clang and it would be silent. While it was silent I'd envision this little mouse laying down, paws sprawled, panting and then eagerly trying again. Because I'm a light sleeper, his misadventure kept me up until finally the clanging and banging stopped. Rest in peace little Mouse. Sorry you had to go that way. I told Mom and Dad about the fate of a mouse and they didn't believe me. Later that evening after checking the traps Dad comes upstairs and announces "we've lost a trap'. TOLD YOU!!!!
Anyways, because Mr. Mouse decided to die in the vent somewhere in my room it's been pretty smelly. I don't know if it's because I've had the day off (I've spent the day sleeping in, sorting through photos, getting photos printed and reading... LOVE IT!) and I've spent the day in my room but it freaking smells today!!! I've been burning so much incense that my brother bollywood danced his way to the computer room a couple of days ago. Luckily they know better to bitch about the incense/candles etc because hey! If your room stank like this, you'd be doing the same thing!!
Tomorrow I'm going to turn the heater and dehumidifier full blast in the hopes of turning this dead mouse into a raisin. Apparently it takes weeks before the smell goes away... GREAT! Luckily I haven't heard any other little critters running around. I think we've (ok, Mom and Dad) plugged all of the holes so none other are coming in. This was the last one trapped in the house and he couldn't get out.
Anyways, it fucking stinks in my room! Mom and Dad are most likely going to be pissed that I posted that we even had mice in our house but... well if anyone comes over they'll smell something and I am not taking the blame for the smell... It's a dead mouse!

*Borrowed title from this David's blog post. A freaking hilarious post about dead mice... yes, I was trying to figure out how long the dead mouse smell is going to last. Ew!

Why?

An other damned anxiety attack. This time I didn't run to the kitchen but jumped out of bed and looked at my bed as if what ever was giving me anxiety would be laying there. Dasha and Stephane were awake so they kept me company for a bit but they've gone to bed now. Unfortunately the feeling hasn't gone to bed and I'm keeping myself awake because as soon as I fall asleep it comes back. Each time there's always some thing that I get anxiety over. This time it was because I couldn't salsa dance with all the world. Weird and unreasonable but for some reason it brings up anxiety. Just typing that out and I've started to sweat again and my breathing's become more shallow and rapid. It's SO strange!
Anyways I've blogged about it before and it looks like my last anxiety was in July so I guess that's good. Though I am sure I had some during board exams as well. I'll keep blogging about them to see if there's a pattern. So far, it doesn't look like it, but we'll see.

I'm not dead... I'm actually a year older

Well 20 some odd days older since my last post but I did just celebrate my 24th birthday :)
So yes. I am not dead. I've been consistently working away at two jobs (which keep me rather busy, most often working 7 days a week) and trying to balance out my life now that the dust is settling.
It's taken a while for the dust to settle though. I think I was affected by both failing my board exam and what ever we want to call what would have happened with Cesare (the Italian boy). I found myself constantly wanting to go away and even toyed with the idea of moving to Hawaii for a year. Luckily (or unluckily, depending on the perspective), I've got the finances of a newly graduated student so flying off to paradise to live for a while couldn't happen like that. So here I am. Still in Vancouver, trying to find this fine balance.
Work is picking up and I think I'm finally starting to have a somewhat predictable pay cheque... this kind of makes me want to drop my 2nd job (its purpose was to give me a steady pay cheque when job #1 wasn't busy). With only having one job, I'd be able to have more time to study for board exams take II. I also might have time to clean my room (right now there's a path that goes from my bedroom door to my bed and there are little clearings here and there for me to stand, tip toed, to reach my closet/couch/drawers if I need something that isn't on the floor) or to clean my study space (I think my lap could use a break from being radiated by my lap top).
Though out all this, I've been able to go to the gym consistently (I've lost 4' around my ribcage! Unfortunately, that was the only base measure I had and that's only because of bra size) and I've kept up with my salsa dancing lessons. I've found that the perfect gym time consists of half an hour to an hour of cardio, an hour of weights/squats etc, twenty minutes to half an hour of salsa dancing practice and finish with fifteen minutes of stretching. The girls and I have also gotten in a wonderful routine of meeting up on Friday nights for drinks, dinner, and/or dancing. Last week, we celebrated mine and Maja's birthday on Saturday and had an absolute blast! This Saturday we're all dressing up for Halloween and going dancing :)
Now even with all that, I've managed to go to dinner with a couple of guys... though I can't say I'd call these dates (or maybe they are). This is when I realized that I was a lot more affected by the Italian Boy then I would have hoped. I didn't find this out on my own. I was actually waiting for one of the guys when my girl friend Margaret called and when she asked me how I felt about this guy, I kind of hummed and hawed and said that I wasn't too sure. But then I stopped and thought about it and realized that I had no reason to feel iffy about said date and realized that I was kiboshing my 'dates' before they even got off the ground. Margaret reminded me that my last romantic situation (or what ever those last escapades should be called), I felt quite confident that everything was going to work out (so much so that I bought a ticket for Italy) but then he just vamoosed! So it's understandable that I have to learn to trust my feelings again. The dinner did go well. We closed down the restaurant and had great conversation. We even met up a couple days later and went dancing... but it petered out after that.
As for what happened to the Italian boy... After I canceled my tickets, I didn't e-mail him or anything. I figured that was that. End of story. But one day, I get a panicked phone call from Maja. She's on fbook chat and Cesare sent her a message saying hello and asking how she was. The plan, to talk to Cesare and see if he mentions anything about why he ran off. Eventually he mentions that he became scared and that's why he fell off the face of the earth. Not much else came from that conversation other then Maja telling him that it would probably be a good idea for him to contact me and at least apologize. He said he wants to but needs time (what ever that means). Still, I've received nothing. I sent him a last message a couple months back saying that it was unfortunate that our communication ended the way it did but I still look back on my trip to Hawaii and our time spent together with great fondness. I wished him well and left it at that. So essentially, nothing much has happened to the Italian boy but in case some people were wondering... that's the latest (and most likely the last). Yes, while celebrating my birthday the thought did cross my mind that I could have been in Milan. And yes, I guess it hurt. But here I am trying to find the careful balance between work, play and studying for this damn exam.

2nd grade math equation

Janelle goes outside to pick crab apples and realizes she's locked herself out of her house. Because she can't get back in and is bored, she decides to count the apples. Janelle has 192 apples. Janelle then gets bored and eats 4 apples. How many apples are left?

True story! :) My brother and I were recapping our day and he said my adventure sounded like a 2nd grade mathematical equation. But maybe you just had to be there :)

You know what I've discovered?

Well we all know I am a people person and that's one of the reasons why I chose to be a massage therapist... however, here's something I didn't think of. While it's true that being a massage therapist you work in close (very close) proximity to people, you really don't get to interact with them much. I mean you greet them, do a short case history, then they're on the table, then they're gone, change sheets, tidy room, repeat. Despite being a talkative person and a people person, I encourage my clients to relax and not talk while on the table. So this means that even though I am in the presence of people during most of my shift, I definitely don't interact with them much. The challenge of getting them to fall asleep has already gotten old. As has the guessing game of 'has their breath changed so that they're sleeping, or is that just relaxed breathing etc etc'.
Ah well. At least I enjoy the company of my coworkers... unfortunately we only see one an other when we're restocking our rooms or checking the schedule to see who our next client is.