TWTW - first in April 2022

Friday was a wow day at work, and that's an oh shit wow not a great! wow. I was sick of the wind all week, so no beach. Instead I took to the kitchen throwing shit in a pot and mixing like a mad scientist, which we ate all weekend - ground chicken, half a bag of coleslaw, half a bag of broccoli slaw, baby corn, water chestnuts, soy sauce, sesame sauce, garlic, green onions, eggs scrambled in same pot, topped with some cooked ramen and mixed. After that I worked more until 7:40, then put my zit creams on and lay on the couch to read half of a book, where I fell asleep with all the lights on and left them like that until 6 am. 

Saturday After an early dog walk, I lay back down to finish the book. Up to shower, eat breakfast, and putz around. MFD and Billy cat arrived around 12:30. We took Bruce & Ben to the beach for a long walk and crept on other people's flowers. A relaxing night with leftovers and I read another book.

Sunday was the most balanced day I've had in a while, where I felt things that needed to get done got done, there was relaxing and rest, and there was enjoyment and they were all in equal parts, which is hard to get right. I think I could get it right more often if the work week wasn't five days. Who's with me? 

We did a little relaxing in the morning and afternoon. 

Relaxing was broken up by some solid hours working in the house to ready it for spring personal guests, which means pulling all under bed storage out and inventorying, sorting, organizing, purging, moving, cleaning, restocking, list making, and all that jazz. Lots of work to do before paying guests start to come but a really good start. 

I zipped through a book and painted my nails (China Glaze Planted & Enchanted and OPI Princesses Rule!, the China Glaze color is beautiful), had a salad for lunch, MFD got a massage, we relaxed and watched old episodes of The Office, then we took all the dogs up to Corson's Inlet for a very brisk walk. Damn winds. I started another book at night as MFD was watching historical documentaries on YouTube. No thank you.

Happy Monday!

Tips for Anyone Switching to a Vegan Diet

There are lots of different reasons why you might want to switch to a vegan diet. Some people do it for health reasons, other for environmental or animal welfare reasons. Whether you’re trying it short-term or looking to make a more permanent kind of switch, it’s important to consider how this might work for you and how you can stick to the switch you’re looking to make. So read on and find out more about doing that.

Take the Time to Learn from Others Who’ve Been Vegans for Longer

First of all, you should talk to anyone you know who has already been a vegan for a long time. They’ll be able to teach you a lot about the process of making this transition and the challenges you’re likely to face along the way. Make the most of those people as they’ll save you a lot of mistakes.

Find Recipes for Inspiration

Finding inspiration from recipe books is one of the easiest ways to get acquainted with your new lifestyle and new ways of eating. Don’t try to force yourself to come up with new ways of cooking and new recipes on your own; there are so many recipes already out there that you can enjoy and that have been prepared by professional vegan chefs.

Find Out Which Vegan Replacements You Like and Which You Don’t

There are lots of vegan replacements and alternatives that you can try out if there are certain foods that you think you’re going to miss. There are obviously all kinds of meat replacement options that you might want to try. But one thing that lots of vegans miss is cheese. There are plenty of good alternatives out there these days, so try them out. You can even get cheesy vegan pizza.

Image Source - CC0 License

Eat Plenty of Whole Foods

It makes sense to focus first and foremost on eating whole foods because that’s what matters most when it comes to staying healthy. Don’t fall into the trap of buying lots of processed foods that are branded as vegan. It’s much easier and cleaner to eat whole foods that you can cook from scratch in your own time.

Take it a Day at a Time

Finally, it makes sense to take things a step at a time and a day at a time when you’re looking to make big lifestyle changes. You don’t want to overwhelm yourself or make your life more difficult than it needs to be. Focus on improving your cooking and if you do have a few slip-ups from time to time, just accept that as part of the wider process and not something that you need to worry about too much.

Be sure to make the most of the ideas above if you want to make a switch to a vegan diet and ensure you make the change a sustainable one. Making these changes only makes sense if you’re willing to stick to the changes you implement and make a real success of things.

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This post was written with the Life According to Steph audience in mind

Thursday Thoughts - don't leave false illusion behind

Picture it. Spring, 1980.

Add book, mug, and lipstick and my material life is reduced to a where you throw your shit when you walk in the door vignette

Treasures and death: a collage. Good week for treasures. Lots of dead things out there, Bruce and Ben tried to eat every single one in addition to the tiny alive crabs. 

Before. Shoulder season crowds loading. Spring is a hard time to intentionally book a trip to the shore far out - it could be so nice and it could be miserable and freezing. Every trip is weather dependent but few people like to freeze at the shore in spring when they know it's warmer inland.

Accomplishments. This week I took a bunch of returns to the post office, worked on taxes, picked up library books, ate a lot of vegetables, went through my bathing suits, purged clothes I have down here, booked two of the hotels for our New England road trip, and did my shore calendar and seasonal list. It's the little things. 

Misadventures in DIY. Who paints the bathroom floor THEN decides to have a team come in to paint walls, a plumber to replace the toilet, an electrician to fix a light fixture, and a husband to install a towel rack and toilet paper holder, requiring another coat before a top coat goes on? This dumbass. But I finally did the top coat last night, which will cure for seven days. 

You gotta get the big mama jar. The price of food has reached pearl clutching levels.

Scenic. March came in like a lamb and seems to be going out like a lion. It is confused by life in the now, like most of us. Off to secure my outdoor furniture and shit.

My constant starer.

Hope you all had a great Women's History Month and remember that every month is Black History Month and Women's History Month,  every month is the time to dismantle systems of oppression rooted in racism and patriarchy, and every month is the month to point your pitchfork in the right direction and clean up your own people's messes before you borrow messes from other people. Art by Kelly Reemsten

In the age of social media, this is a lost art. Reading and learning is so good and important and we bypass it a lot to make some sort of statement, like it's required of us. It's not. Even if we have at other times. I hope you follow Rabbi Danya. She provokes great thought in me. 

I'd like to thank the Academy in advance for cleaning up all of its messes. 

We could of course go into things we should all be talking about. Like the wife of a sitting Supreme Court Justice being in on the January 6 coup attempt as well as a conservative lobbyist and that same justice being the only one to rule against release of information instead of recusing himself for a conflict of interest. Like the former president continually being a lying liar who lies. Like misinformation and hot takes being presented as fact and disseminated to the masses by Fox News. Like the war in Ukraine and the threat Russia with an unhinged mediocre man at the helm poses to everyone. Like how we are treating Ukrainian refugees versus how we have received Middle Eastern refugees. Like high prices being passed off as "supply chain issues" and "inflation" instead of what it is in many cases - corporate greed, C-suite bonuses, stock buybacks all under record profit quarters while citizens suffer in the stores and at the pump. The widening wealth gap. The price of medications. Student loan debt crushing people. Gun violence. Violence born out of desperation, depression, lack of opportunity. Mental health. Substance abuse disorder. Black people sitting in jail on weed charges while white people are legal and licensed to distribute now. The farcical war on drugs period. Book banning bullshit and the silencing of teachers. Cutting off the ability to teach CRITICAL THINKING. The absolute disregard for nurses and their vitally important role in this world. Making sure gay and trans kids don't feel like they are legislated out of existence. And so much more. 

I hope we all have the day we deserve! Well, I hope that every day, and that we live knowing that is going to be the case. 

What appears beyond the hyphen in Thursday Thoughts titles is what I'm listening to when I'm starting this - this week is Eye in the Sky by The Alan Parsons Project

TWTW - already the last in March

Friday Working on a deadline but stole lunch to paint my nails (OPI Angles Flight to Starry Nights and Sally Midnight Drive, which is already looking shitty Monday morning). Leftovers and couch lounging at night. 

Saturday I slept waaaay in and didn't come downstairs until 10. We finished out the first season of Yellowjackets. I worked on a New England trip road trip itinerary and taxes. I was at the end of making a batch of power breakfast muffins and realized I was missing an ingredient so drug my unshowered, no bra, muscle relaxer taking self to the store to get freaking baking powder. I made an uncolorful but good dinner of marinated baked chicken from the freezer, rice, and sauteed cabbage. More taxes, relaxing, watched Four Good Days at night, Ben was reluctant to go to bed, and stayed up to finish Notes on an Execution.

Sunday The book I started the day reading is not the book I ended the day reading. I made a batch of spinach muffins to freeze, then roasted balsamic mushrooms and green beans and sauteed some smoked turkey sausage in duck sauce and hot mustard - I took half to the shore and left half in Philly with MFD. I was back at the shore by 3:30. Bruce and Ben were ecstatic to do some running. There were a few good shells but overall windy and very cold. The clouds were cool with rays coming through, which I love. Lots of arm icing at night, Oscars watching, and reading. 

Last dose of winter here over these next few days. I hope.

Thursday Thoughts - Heartaches come and go, and all that's left are the words

Working in town yesterday. I miss being able to quickly walk to my chiropractor, to get my eyebrows done, grab lunch, a little longer walk to my acupuncturist, and see art and movement and all sorts of people along the way. If only I could work there without losing two hours a day or more to commute. It's not feasible daily with the way we have adapted our work life and times over the past two years. I was the only person in my office yesterday.

Speaking of lunch, the crispy chicken salad at Sweetgreen is amazing

Going to the chiro and acupuncturist is part of my regular wellness plan, but this time I went specifically for arm numbness. My radial nerve is compressed. Hopefully with the intense acu I had yesterday and stretching it will go back to normal and I won't need to escalate

Seeing signs of spring

Reading this as of last night. I didn't feel like reading at all most of the week and this sucked me in immediately which is always good when I'm in a not reading mood

Despite what the essential 80s music form of power ballads led us all to believe, most heartbreak is not romantic but rather attributable to the ways of the world  and the casual disregard people have for each other on small and large scales. 

Why in the shit fuck is anyone voting for a party who posts shit like this on Twitter? Do you guys know Critical Race Theory is not like...the mere existence of Black people? The insane personal and systemic racism on display in this farcical Supreme Court justice hearing yet you do not want any sort of high level (like, grad level, like above most of our heads without teaching level...not babies learning critical race theory or kids in schools) thought put into that like...critical race theory. I see exactly where you're coming from. 

The Judge is imminently qualified. The hearing is ridiculous and insane and feeds right into the mediocrity of the white men in government and puts the worst of our racism and misogyny on display. There is nothing more to say. 

North Korea? Not today. 

Meeting a coworker for lunch today. Getting back out there more regularly and it feels good. Lots of time with fam and friends coming up in the next few months too.

I always vote for patent leather, even in my athleisure shoes aka the only shoes I wear now.

Aldi pizza - recommend, for the price point and ease

Middle fingers in the air to gas stations that put one amount on the sign and charge a different amount if you are paying credit without large CASH PRICE sign. Who in the shit fuck has enough cash on them to pay for a full tank of gas right now? Probably a lot of you but not me. I'm lucky if I have $10 in cash, ever. 

What appears beyond the hyphen in Thursday Thoughts titles is what I'm listening to when I'm starting this - this week is Don't Know What You Got Til It's Gone by Cinderella