And Then We Came to the End.

I don't want to say I failed at MoFo this year.

I blogged plenty about delicious vegan food. I made it to 16 posts, or 4/5ths of the 20 post recommendation (please correct me if I have the math wrong. Me + numbers = disaster). I talked about MoFo and veganism to those in my daily life, especially at the new job. My coworkers are FASCINATED by what exactly I can eat, their only example being a girl who is on a raw vegan cleanse to lose a bunch of weight for a trip (and is pretty miserable).

On Halloween, I brought my coworkers cupcakes. Just the basic chocolate cupcakes and fluffy buttercream from VCTOTW, dyed green (I didn't have red to make orange!) and decorated with cute Halloween-y sprinkles. I brought in 12 and took home 2.

The response was overwhelmingly positive. The ladies kept telling me the cupcakes were delicious, and how in the world were they vegan?! I just smiled and said "oil and love."

I also dressed up this year as Luna Lovegood. My awesome friend Crystal channeled Bellatrix LeStrange.

 

Due to timing, I didn't get a tie. I also just realized my part is on the wrong side. And honestly, this is basically my costume from last year (zombie librarian) but without the zombie makeup.

I think next year I'll be something great, something that doesn't involve pulling clothes out of my closet and repurposing them for a costume.

Ok, on to some serious stuff.

Lately, I've been struggling a lot with my eating habits. It's not something that just appeared in my life, but rather a storm brewing just below the surface finally coming up to wreck the land.

One of the biggest issues is how much I'm eating. I don't want to say I'm binging, because I'm not sure that's what it is, but I've been eating really, really fast, continuing onto a second portion and eating that really fast. Late night trips for toast have also been exacerbating this problem. I've had alot of stomachaches as of late and I'm done. I've been trying to make less food to prevent it and slowing my intake down. I used to take FOREVER to eat a sandwich, now I just inhale my way through it. Not healthy. And those cupcakes I made? I took 12 to work, but had two at my house, before work, without even a thought as to "why am I eating these? Am I hungry?"

Another issue is how much bread I've been eating. I love bread. It's just so easy to have toast in the morning, a sandwich at lunch and a snack (or two) of toasted bread with PB. That's 5 pieces, easy, and I've definitely gone over that in a day. I've been attempting to limit my intake to two pieces a day and I believe it's helping. Please know this is not at attempt at low carb/low gluten intake or anything of the sort. I just don't think overdosing on bread helps anyone.

I think both of these issues of mine are being magnified by stress. I'm in school full time and working half time and I was just "promoted" to bookkeeper at my job. Darlings, I am excellent at AP, but since the old bookkeeper left in August this place is pure chaos. And I have no experience in half of what is being expected of me, so I'm struggling with growing pains.

Wish me luck! Tomorrow I plan on posting about a super special lunch I'm having today.

On Writing

This may not be a huge surprise to you, my dear 20 readers, but I had a really rough winter quarter. I took Critical Approach to Literature, which is an incredibly writing intensive course. It's also required for my major.

I used to think I was such hot stuff when it came to writing. I took a college placement test in high school to qualify for Running Start (a program that allows high school students to take college classes) and tested way above the requirements for reading and writing. Every paper I've ever written was most likely written the day before the deadline, and I always earned high marks. I've had two professors submit my papers for awards (which I didn't win, btw).  Last quarter, my Victorian lit professor had me submit a paper to be published on a website.

When I started full time schooling again, after a hiatus of 8 years in which I worked full time, I struggled a little bit. It wasn't until this quarter, though, that I realized that I feel as if working for so long has dumbed me down. Sure, I used to be able to name the 7 million tax rates in Vancouver, WA. I could tell you how to work Quickbooks and Excel. I could run reports like nobody's business. But it was (and still is, at least one day a week) a job, and really no learning was to be had.

One of my last Crit App to Lit class sessions was a peer review of a draft introduction to our final papers. I already had an idea that my group members were far and above me in language and writing skills, but then one of them told me my writing was lucid. Don't know what that means? Per the online dictionary:

Lucid: easily understood; completely intelligible or comprehensible

Now, it may be because I'm sensitive, but I instantly took that as "simple". I know it has a much bigger meaning than that, but I can't get around "simple". I don't sprinkle my essays with big words because, frankly, I don't use them. But hearing "lucid" as a description floored me. I feel as if I'm making the biggest mistake majoring in English.

And that's not the only example of my writing ability. Lately, I've been mixing up "then" and "than". The other day, I wrote "your" when I meant to say "you're", and I wanted to bang my head into the desk. I found an "it's" in my final paper, where it should have been "its". I can't remember if it's commas that go before quotation marks, or semi-colons. In citations, I keep putting book titles in quotation marks even though I KNOW they need to be italicized.

How the hell am I supposed to make it in editorial work if I'm making those mistakes? How am I supposed to cut it in grad school when my writing is "lucid"?

I'm attempting to work on my writing skills outside of homework. I'm meaning to write here more now that I have more time, and by write I mean write about something other than food and silly blog challenges. Because I have to fix this, and I have to fix it fast.

I'm Here! I'm Alive!

Hello gentle readers. I have not abandoned you, although I did abandon the end of MoFo. I think I got into the "fuck it" mentality and took a break.

Also, I got this all this learning stuff going on.

The majority of that stack is for my final paper on Wilde's "The Picture of Dorian Gray" in case you couldn't tell. I LOVE LOVE LOVE Oscar Wilde now, and I wish that I had known about him (at least, more than a name) when we were in Pere Lachaise. I am starstruck. I am so thankful to have landed a professor that did her dissertation on him and just exudes so much excitement to her students. I have one last final paper other than this one and then fall quarter is done!

Something new also happened this week: Weight Watchers unveiled their new PointsPlus plan. I like to think that I accept change readily and with open arms and this is no exception. There are some members that are up in arms about the "free" fruit values, about the higher daily point values and the higher values on their processed foods. I think WW took a huge step in the right direction. The plan encourages members to reach for fruit or vegetables or other healthy unprocessed foods and how is that a bad thing, exactly? Look, here I am enjoying a snack with homework:

And you know what? It was delicious. I love the idea that I can reach for a banana or frozen blueberries (my favorite frozen fruit! It's like candy!) when I'm low or empty of points. When I take stuff like this to work or school, I'm not spending money or points on some Luna or Lara bar (which are delicious, don't get me wrong!) and I'm not starving, either. I think that the members that are upset about the change aren't realizing that yeah, you can eat 5 bananas, but you WILL hurt later. I know it wasn't fruit that put me in the position of having to re-join WW, and I'm sure the majority of members will have to agree with me.

Now I think I will go make some Mexican hot chocolate snickerdoodles (and eat only a couple!) and work on these blasted papers.

Cookbook Challenge Week 4 - Yellow Rose Recipes

This week's challenge was a fun one. I love Joanna's book and my husband's favorite gravy is her bechamel sauce. I also found the sloppy Joannas rock my little vegan world. On to the recipes!

#1 - Roasted Garlic Mashed PotatoesYum, yum and yum! That's all I have to say. As you will find out in the final recipe, our house is a potato-phile house. Mashed potatoes, oven fries, roasted potatoes...all of the above please! I made these with the caramelized onion variation and it boosted the awesomeness.

#2 - Cajun Spiced Tofu
Now, I absolutely admit to not having onion and garlic powder on hand. I just would rather have the fresh stuff, ya know? The tofu was spicy but bland to me....and I'm pretty sure it's because of the lack of those two spices. I'll just have to acquire some and try it again!

#3 - Twice Baked Stuffed Potatoes
That picture does not do these babies justice. I had to admit to the PPK that this was the first time I'd made baked potatoes. My mom used to make them for us but that's the last time I remember ever having homemade baked potatoes. Well, never again! These were so good I overstuffed myself. Ok, so that's not a hard thing to do, but trust me on the tasty.

This week we're exploring Eat, Drink and Be Vegan by Dreena Burton. I don't have the book but enough recipes are online for me to participate in the challenge. I had checked the book out once before from the library and made some very sad crepes with celestial cream:
I'm pretty sure I was too lazy to mix the cream in the blender and the crepes didn't cook long enough so instead of folding they kinda broke around the bends. Oh well, I'm a pro now, right? RIGHT?

This week is also a fantastic one for me - I finally start school for good! Save for this first quarter in which I pay out of pocket due to my chronic procrastination illness, I'll be a full time student for the first time since high school. I can't word just how excited I am about this. I think my getting laid off was truly a good kick in the rear. I have wanted to get into publishing/editing and I now have the opportunity to do it. Wish me luck dear readers!