Category Archives: Random thoughts

Random thoughts

Making cookies #reverb10

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Author: Gretchen Rubin
The Happiness Project
@gretchenrubin

Prompt: Make. What was the last thing you made? What materials did you use? Is there something you want to make, but you need to clear some time for it?

I am not really a craft person.  I’ve dabbled in calligraphy and origami, needlepoint and latchhooking.  I took a pottery class this year and did many art projects as a child.  I’ve considered taking drawing or painting classes.

The thing is, I don’t have the passion for arts and crafts.  I get bored and move on.  I don’t have the attention to detail in my work to make it really special.  I think learning the violin took too much out of me and I just can’t feel that much passion for another artistic pursuit. 

I am, however, a baker, particularly cookies.  I love baking (not so much cooking but baking). What is the last thing I made?  Jam-filled butter cookies!  I think cookies are my favorite thing to bake.  I love the process..mixing the dough…tasting the dough…making the test cookie (my grandmother taught me to ALWAYS make a test cookie– I don’t always make a test cookie but when I don’t I often regret it)…scooping the dough onto the cookie trays…setting the timing and waiting…tasting the cookies…putting them out on the wire racks…waiting for them to cool…putting them away in tins.  Oh, how I love making cookies!  The problem isn’t the time for cookie making, but that I eat too much of the dough plus too many of the cookies.  Otherwise I would make cookies much more often, but I would be quite overweight. 

Here’s the most recent recipe I made.  These are delicious, and no one can eat just one Winking smile These are NOT a health food.

Jam Filled Butter Cookies (from allrecipes.com, modified)

Ingredients:

1 ½ cup butter, softened

1 cup white sugar

4 egg yolks

3 ½ cups all-purpose flour

1 cup fruit preserves, any flavor (I have tried strawberry and raspberry, both were great!)

1 teaspoon almond extract

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F

In a medium bowl, cream together the butter, white sugar, and egg yolks. Mix in flour a little bit at a time until a soft dough forms. Roll dough into 1 inch balls. If dough is too soft, refrigerate for 15 to 20 minutes. Place balls 2 inches apart onto ungreased cookie sheets. Use your finger or an instrument of similar size to make a well in the center of each cookie. Fill the hole with ½ teaspoon of preserves (I usually use a ziploc bag and cut off the corner to make this easier).

Bake for 8 to 10 minutes, until golden brown on the bottom. Remove from cookies sheets to cool on wire racks.

Random thoughts

Letting go of anger #reverb10

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Prompt: Let Go. What (or whom) did you let go of this year? Why?

 

Anger.  I spent so much of 2009 being angry.  There was a lot to be angry about (or at least so I thought…but it WAS a rough year).  But it wasn’t making me very happy.  So I needed to let it go.  I found my release at the gym—working out and getting into great shape was SO much easier than being angry.  Yes, I still feel angry at times…but it’s much easier to deal with now. 

–I also got to let go (literally) of some extra weight I’d been carrying around for too long.  —

I wasn’t very much fun for awhile.  I was bitter that things in my life hadn’t turned out the way I wanted them to and I took this out on my friends and my boyfriend.  After I decided to let go of the anger, I was able to work towards what I wanted in my life, rather than dwelling on what had gone wrong.  I’m still doing that.

I am so much happier now!  I’m headed in a good direction for my life, and I can nip anger in the bud when it starts to boomerang. 

Random thoughts

Sense of wonder in my life #reverb10

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Prompt: Wonder. How did you cultivate a sense of wonder in your life this year?

Sense of wonder…that seems so…spiritual and new-agey!  Not really my thing.  I prefer much more down to earth stuff Smile

–But I agreed to do this project, write according to the prompt each day.  (Though I am afraid over the holidays I may not be able to as I will be traveling and may not have internet.  But that doesn’t mean I shouldn’t try up until then, and then make that up when I get back.)–

When I think of a sense of wonder, I think of many things…in fact, I believe I live my life with a great sense of wonder…I get excited by so many things:  bridges, weather, nature, cats, children…let me just list some specific examples that come to mind:

Bridges:

I love all the bridges around where I live (St. Louis).  We have several large rivers and bridges and rivers go hand in hand.  Whenever I drive over a bridge I get a sense of excitement, particularly crossing the Mississippi River!  In my half marathon in October we ran over a bridge over the Missouri River.  I found the view to be breathtaking!  I have contemplated running a race in Quincy, Illinois this coming May purely because the race course goes on two bridges over the Mississippi River.  I think that would be so wonderful.

–(That feels right:  wonderful:  sense of wonder.  That’s really more my style, seems more down to earth and Hannah-like versus some sort of “deep”, new-age thought process.)–

Various moments from my most recent cruise:

Looking off the balcony of my stateroom on the Carnival Legend—looking at the ocean, and nothing but the ocean until it disappears over the horizon.  Surrounded by nothing but water.

The beautiful color of the water in the Caribbean.  So blue, so beautiful. 

Mayan ruins of Xunantunich.  The only Mayan ruins I’ve seen so far in my life.  Unbelievable.

Weather:

We get some wonderful thunderstorms here, particularly in the spring.  One night the storm was particularly bad, accompanied by thunder and lightning and heavy rains and wind.  The sirens were going off…we were trying to leave to go to a friend’s house for pie…so awesome!  (We waited it out.  I don’t have a death wish.)

Cats:

I am often fascinated by my cat,  and by other cats, especially when all the cats seem to act very similarly.  Just like people, right?  Remarkable!  Plus cats are simply adorable.  Why are they adorable?  So that we will take care of them and feed them, right?  Wow!

Children:

In my line of work I see many children each week.  They are so full of curiosity and so eager to learn!  Don’t get me wrong, they are not always eager to learn the violin, but they are always eager to learn SOMETHING.  I am not a parent, but I would say that children are one of the biggest sources of a sense of wonder we adults can find.  If for no other reason than they remind us that WE used to be a children and have that same unquenchable curiosity.

 

The point is that I cultivated a sense of wonder throughout all aspects of my life in 2010.  I look forward to continuing in 2011…what new places will I visit?  What new phenomena will I observe?  What bridges will I run or drive over?  (Will I continue to eschew more spiritual and new-age ideas? Winking smile )

Random thoughts

HBBC update

There was a change in the way points are done for the HBBC.

HBBC Rules (revised)
1 Point per mile (run/walk/snowshoe)
1 Point per 3 miles biked
1 Point per 20 minutes of weight lifting, Pilates, yoga, stretching or abs
1 Point per 15 minutes of low impact cardio (i.e. aerobics, easy biking)
1 Point per 10 minutes of high impact cardio (spin, kickbox, etc)
1 Per day where you reach a minimum of 7 servings of fruits and veggies

In honor of that change, I need to give myself a few extra points:   I’m now going to consider a workout with Mike 4 points instead of 3 (seriously they are tough and should probably count as 6!).

Points added for:

11/30 : 1 point (Mike)

11/28 : 2 points (spin class)

11/24 : 1 point (Mike)

11/20:  2 points (kickboxing video)

So today’s points:  over 7 f/v servings: 1 point, 1 mile run: 1 point, 60 minute workout with Mike: 4 points, total: 6 points PLUS revised points from before: 6 points, for a total of 12 points.  Sweet!

Edited to add: HBBC:  Total from 11/7-12/3: 44.5 points

Random thoughts

December 3 #reverb10

Prompt: Moment. Pick one moment during which you felt most alive this year. Describe it in vivid detail (texture, smells, voices, noises, colors).

I had many wonderful moments this year!  But when did I feel most alive?  How can I just choose one?  Several moments stick out in my head, finishing exhilarating musical performances, happy moments from my summer cruise, moments from various races I have run…

—I also recall the great feeling of being alive in failure, after not advancing in an audition.  (I prefer not to relive that moment here.) —

There were many wonderful moments from the cruise—filled with warmth, humidity, the smell of salt air, blue skies, green jungles, coconut, chocolate, and relaxation.  But I think I’ll pick the ending of my first race—after all, that race has changed the rest of my year and my plans for the next year significantly.

It was a half-marathon, my first race ever.  I had been pushed into it by my trainer, Joe (he was running it as well).  I had only been running for about three months (that’s total, in my life, minus a few months in ninth grade gym class.)  I was TERRIFIED going into the race, and was horribly unprepared to run.  But I knew I could walk, and I knew I could finish, albeit slowly.

After several hours, I was almost done!  The sun was shining, but not too bright.  The sky was clear and blue.  It had been freezing earlier in the morning but it was simply the perfect temperature now.  I was comfortably warm, but not sweaty, not so hot that I became too thirsty.  Lifting each foot felt like lifting cement lumps from the hard rock underneath.  My arms were completely exhausted from hours of swinging, but my legs were… surprisingly still okay.

I looked at my watch and realized I could finish in under three hours, which was better than I had anticipated, if I kept up the pace and ran at least 1/2 mile of the last mile. There were a lot of more spectators around, cheering and holding signs that said things like “Keep your pace.”  I pushed forward, running.  Another 1/2 mile done.  Suddenly the route turned sharply left, and a steep DOWNHILL!  I ran faster (I RAN FASTER!) and felt as if I was about to cry from happiness.  People were cheering, cheering me on (and the runners around me), ringing cowbells.  The road felt hard and rocky under my tired feet.  I pushed myself to run as fast as I could…and I finally crossed the finish line. I had completed my first half-marathon!  As I stopped running I was disoriented, hot, thirsty, hungry, sweaty, and exhausted.  People were passing out medals and water– I took them both–and walked slowly for a bit until I could find a good place to sit down.  And sit down I did, right in the grass, which was surprisingly dry, and much softer than I thought it would be.    I had never been so tired…and I felt a gigantic sense of accomplishment.  I felt like an Olympic athlete!

Random thoughts

Rest Day

I tend to go overboard on activities and become really obsessed.  I get very excited about the activity, almost manic (but not quite!), and then after a few hours/days/weeks/months, burn out and never speak of it again.  You can even see some of that excitement in my blog, if you are a long time reader.

I don’t want to burn out on fitness and working out.  It’s a lot of fun.  I’m also having a great time training for the Rock n’ Rock Half Marathon in Phoenix.  It means I need to run 4 days a week on average plus I have two weekly training sessions with Mike.  Hypothetically, this would be plenty of activity—but I also signed up for a weekly spinning class, starting next Tuesday (just one hour a week!  for five weeks, and it was really inexpensive!)—and I still have a few days left on my Bikram pass, plus another week of unlimited that I must use by December 22 or I lose it.  (Can you tell I am terrified to gain weight after working so hard to lose it?  but working out more just makes me hungrier!)

I woke up this morning and my body ached.  I was exhausted (and I had even gone to bed early).  I realized…I have to slow down.  I need to take time to relax.  I can’t spend all my free time doing physical activities!  And Bikram…well they WANT you to be obsessed.  They want you to come in every day, even twice a day!  Each class is a minimum 2 1/2 hour time commitment (counting commute, sign-in, and a few minutes after to feel normal again.  not counting the shower.)  I just don’t have that time more than once a week (less if I am taking the spinning class, though there’s a chance it’ll be canceled.) They make you feel like doing it once a week or less just wouldn’t be even remotely enough…they make you feel like a disappointment if you don’t commit your life to it.  But I don’t have to fall for it!  I know there are people who just go sporadically!  I know they are in the class with me, forging ahead.  So I will go NO more often than I want to.  That means that I will not go again on this pass, and I will likely just go one time on the next pass, but that’s okay.  I don’t need to let them scare me away with their palpable disappointment Winking smile

So tonight I am simply relaxing.  And tomorrow morning I am going to sleep in a bit before I meet with Mike for a workout.  Then I will run on Saturday and Sunday.  And that can be enough.

HBBC:  1 point for 8 f/v: 1 point total