Done! #63

♡ 63. Go to Oaxaca. 

We went to Oaxaca!

Hecho en Oaxaca Street Art exhibit at the Museo de Arte Contemporaneo de Oaxaca (MACO)

Papel picado. Our view from where we sat to have our daily ice cream from La Michoacana.

The work of Swoon in the Hecho en Oaxaca exhibit.

Bowl of atole and lunch at a little street stand. The ladies cooked the food on a wood burning stove while a telenovela played on their little television. 

This is Roberts the Sock Monkey at poolside. He was the privileged stuffed animal that got to accompany us on the trip.

Guelaguetzal procession before an afternoon rain.

Giant puppet!

The house across the street from where we stayed. This dog was quiet all day, but come nightfall it was non-stop barking.

Chocolate stand at the Benito Juarez mercado. Of course, this is where we got some of our chocolate. (Gloria is my mom's and sister's name).

Breakfast at the inn: fresh fruit and orange juice, coffee, Mexican pastries, yogurt and eggs any way you want them.

Monte Alban

E at Monte Alban

Guelaguetzal procession. Guelaguetzal is a celebration of the indigenous cultures of Oaxaca that takes place in July. Every afternoon we would come across a procession of dancers and musicians in their traditional costumes.

Attack of the giant Cantinflas!

Oaxacan food sampler. The little dish in the center contains dried chapulines (grasshoppers).

Cartas!

Collection of Frida Kahlo letters at the Museo de Filatelia de Oaxaca. There's one with her lipstick print!

More Guelaguetzal procession!

Just as they finished erecting, this strong winds and rain rolled in. This is a frame for fireworks, by the way. Bummer.

Last meal in Oaxaca. Mole negro. So good we ordered more after we at this!

Hecho en Oaxaca MACO exhibit sign.

Done and More Done

A friend reminded me yesterday that it's been a while since I updated this thing. Damn you, laziness! Here are a few updates since March?

♡ 1. Make a red velvet cake. 

My sister liked to celebrate the 4th of July by baking a cake decorated like the American flag. In her honor, I made a last minute decision to make red velvet cupcakes yesterday.

If you have never made a red velvet cake you would be shocked and dismayed to find out exactly how much red food coloring goes into it. I cut the amount by a two thirds not out of health consciousness but because there was one lone bottle of red food coloring left at my neighborhood supermarket. 

Did you know that red velvet cake is actually a chocolate cake? It is! I won't even tell you what else is in there.

Instead of a three layer cake I made 34 cupcakes. If you live in Chicago and like red velvet, hit me up for a cupcake.

The frosting, of which I made about ten pounds worth, is cream cheese, whipping cream, mascarpone, and vanilla. Blueberries for the blue.

♡ 2. Take a dance class at the Old Town School. (Latin Dance 1 in progress)
This was kind of a bust. I took a few and then lost interest. It's the whole lack of discipline thing. That's sad, right?

♡ 5. Get glasses adjusted or replaced. 
Holy crap! Adjusted they are. So tight I think they're squeezing my head into a Bart Simpson shape.

♡ 24. Complete at least one zine. 

It's I Dreamed I Was Assertive #14! Get your copy over at my Etsy shop.

♡ 44. Go to the movies with Karen.  (3/2 "Beautiful Creatures") We are always on the lookout for more YA flicks, so not the last of the year!

♡ 50. Wear something leopard print. 

Leopard pattern Vans, of course.

♡ 53. Discover one new musician / band. (Best Coast; Waxahatchee; Mati Zundel; Las Cafeteras; A Tribe Called Red; Lemuria)

♡ 57. Go dancing at Mary’s Attic. 

Oh yes we did! Even though we were fooled into thinking it was Brit Pop when it was something not even close. Thanks to A and D for indulging me! 

♡ 64. Submit writing for publication / enter a writing contest. 

♡ 73. Go to Hot Doug’s.  5/15/2013 I had the celebrity offering. I've already forgotten who it was named after. Eh. It was not all that. I should've gotten the plain old Elvis as I'd planned.

♡ 75. Make maki rolls with E. 

They ain't pretty, but they're maki! Salmon and avocado.

♡ 76. Play kickball. 

Sunday morning family kickball at the schoolyard!

♡ 87. Take another stab at growing a pumpkin. 

Admittedly, my gardening "technique" consists of planting a seed and then checking in on it a few months later so if no pumpkins grow I have mainly myself to blame, right?

#15 Done!

♡ 15. Tattoos with Jenna!

A couple of summers ago when we went on our librarian zine tour we talked about getting matching tattoos. While I love the image of the zine mobile, it just didn't feel like something I could commit to tattooing on myself (nor the pink Z that was also discussed). We went back to our regular lives, but the topic would continue to come up. Finally, since Jenna was going to be in town this week we decided to just do it already. If not get the same thing, then at least get tattoos together. But what to get?

A few years ago I discovered that the well-known children's book writer and illustrator Lois Lenski had created a set of alphabet blocks. The Jackson Library at the University of North Carolina - Greensboro has a set in their collection of Lois Lenski Papers (as does Syracuse University). I contacted them and asked for a scan of the E block which they kindly (and for a small fee) provided. I had this CD with the images, which also include little train drawings by Lenski on the non-alphabet sides of the blocks, for a while with the thought that I might like to get one of the sides tattooed. I'd read a number of Lenski's books to E, my kiddo, including the The Little Train and The Little Fire Engine when he was in his vehicle obsession phase. I thought this would be a nice homage to not only the kiddo as a kid, but also to my love of children's books.

The Lenski E block.

It was also about all I could commit to at this point. Simple and meaningful. So yesterday we did it. Jenna got her zine mobile tattoo that is very cute with its pink wings and flying zines. I'd asked E the day before what his favorite color is with the thought of getting the block in that color. He responded blue, so blue it was. I chose a more turquoise shade of blue than the block. And there it is.

For little E, my sweet curly-haired wheel-loving boy.

#8 Done!

♡ 8. Go to the opera. 

It's like the Lyric knew I wanted to go to the opera. When I got on the Website to see what was being performed this season, lo and behold, I found this. Yeah, that's right! The first mariachi opera! So I got a couple of tickets for B and myself. I was pretty excited to see this.

We got the Civic Opera House and each had a way overpriced drink. They had a special drink being offered for the performance but it was a little early in the day for a blue Patron Margarita, dude. It was nice to be at a place like the AWWPUUURAHHH and not feel odd. All the Mexis were in the house! There was even a lady in a sarape. Hardcore!

It was a lovely show with a story about a Mexican man who spends half the year in the U.S. working to make money for his wife and child who remain in Mexico. Through tragic circumstances his wife dies and he never sees his son again. He moves to the U.S. where he starts a new life, but as an old man on his death bed he longs to see his son. While the son at one point doesn't want anything to do with the father he feels abandoned him, they are eventually reunited just before the man dies. It's pretty heartbreaking. The most spectacular thing about it is, of course, the Mariachi Vargas who play onstage throughout the entire show. Love that mariachi music! 

We were in our seats in time for the 3:30 start and were out of there by about 5:00. That's what I'm talkin' about! Someday I'd love to see a traditional opera performed, but this was pretty special. I bet the Civic Opera never saw so many brown faces at once.

#67: Done!

♡ 67. Do a cleanse

I did the cleanse for a total of 12 days and decided it was time to wrap it up. I could have gone the full three weeks, but I feel like I did what I set out to do which wasn't so much the actual cleanse than the proving to myself that I could cut all these things out of my diet, especially coffee and sugar, and get past the physical discomfort of the cleanse without quitting. This past week was actually...good. I was done with any physical effects of the cleanse, wasn't living in a fog, and was enjoying my meals. I think I just got bored with it when the challenge of it was gone. Is that lame? 

People have asked me if I feel like I have a lot of energy or renewed energy. Honestly, I haven't noticed any differences in how I feel with the exception of the withdrawal stuff last week. I feel good. Scratch that, I woke up with a pain in my neck today. Also, my skin is a lot worse than it normally is. But otherwise, I feel like myself. 

This past week I found that I had to veer off the magazine menu and just start doing my own thing with the given allowances for the week. Here are a few things I had:

Monday almost broke me. Things were stressful at work, and I had more meals I didn't enjoy including quinoa for breakfast and this quinoa (with kale, cabbage and carrots) salad for lunch. I decided to just approach the cleanse on a day by day basis. Having salmon for dinner that night saved me and kept me going.

On Tuesday I had black bean and brown rice patties for dinner. I was skeptical as I pulsed this mess in the blender and expected the worst. But this turned into this:

And they were actually really good! I would definitely make these again.

I made a lot of salmon on Monday, and I ate it for lunch or dinner the rest of the week. Yes, that is five days of salmon, people! This is my salmon, roasted veggies (butternut squash and brussel sprouts) and brown rice dinner from Wednesday.

Banana oat pancakes for breakfast on Wednesday and Thursday. These were made with oat flour, banana, coconut oil, unsweetened coconut flakes, a little flaxseed meal, and cinnamon. Tasty!

I ate them with apple sauce.

My daily snack (in addition to an orange and an apple) included Madjool dates, dried apricots and unsalted cashews. Yes, everything I ate this week had the looks of a turd pretty much.

On Friday I gave the breakfast quinoa another shot. This time I simply cooked it and added banana slices. I enjoyed it a lot more than I had on Monday. 

My first non-cleanse meal was wild mushroom risotto from Uncommon Ground (and then a frozen custard concoction). I thought my stomach might explode from shock. Nothing happened. This morning I had a couple of chocolate chip pancakes and a fried egg with orange juice. And green tea. I haven't had coffee yet!

I think by the second week my taste buds had adjusted to the absence of everything I hadn't eaten in more than a week. It was great to be able to enjoy meals and not feel like I was thinking too much about what to eat. I made bigger batches of things in advance and didn't have to put too much thought into what I was packing for lunch or what I would have for dinner. Another perk is that I didn't spend any money on coffee or lunch or eating out for dinner for two weeks. I feel a little bummed that it's over, and part of me thinks I should have just gone the full three weeks since I'd gotten to a point where I wasn't really thinking about the fact that I was missing all this stuff in my diet anymore. The magazine cleanse just kind of ends at three weeks. There's no additional information about post-cleanse so it's kind of hard to know what the next step is. I think I've discovered a few things I enjoy and will continue to eat, and I feel like I can go without even in stressful times when I resort to coffee and sugar more so than usual. 

I feel privileged to have the opportunity to do something like this--to pick and choose what I eat, to be able to easily eat this way without it being impossible to find all the ridiculous ingredients in my recipes like flaxseed meal and oat flour. I've been think about how much food is part of identity for some people. For me, it's been weird to acknowledge that not only have a I not missed drinking coffee, but that I could easily not drink it anymore if I chose not to. It's the one thing that has been a constant in my daily life (with the exception of during my pregnancy) probably since about the age of four. I don't drink it because it makes me more awake or energetic because it doesn't. I drink it because it provides a sense of comfort for me. I am not giving up coffee because I like it, but it's funny to think that I could suddenly be me, tea drinker, instead of who I've always been. 

The cleanse is probably one of the least fun things on this list (next to buying underwear), but I might try this again sometime in the future.

#67: In Progress

♡ 67. Do a cleanse

I don't even know why the heck I'm doing a cleanse. I've thought about it for a while, especially trying to go without sugar for a given period of time. It's just the kind of challenge I give myself because anything that completely changes my way of living feels totally impossible, and something about that appeals to me. Though I lack discipline so I'm not sure why. Every year they publish a "detox" plan in Whole Living magazine. I thought of doing it last year and backed out. I might have started and just never followed through past a morning without coffee. So a new year and a new attempt.

Week one has consisted of cutting out pretty much everything good in life. No dairy, meat, alcohol, coffee, gluten, sugar or processed foods. Fortunately, the magazine provides a meal plan, otherwise I'd be at a total loss. One of the biggest challenges has been getting into the habit of planning ahead. I'm good about this in certain areas of my life, but cooking is not one of them. Just ask B how many times I've failed to read an entire recipe in advance and paid for it! It's enough preparing these meals planned for me in advance without having to actually plan out a week of meals myself (especially one that doesn't include sugar, dairy or grains). Other challenging aspects have been trying not to think about food (not that I do so obsessively, but I do look forward to my next meal), and the physical effects. For most of this first week I've been in a daze. Wednesday was the worst of the physical discomfort. I had that flu-like feeling all day of being achy, sore and run down.

I'm actually excited about the meals for this coming week since I'll be able to eat fish and non-gluten grains. The meals this week have been okay. If I were a non-meat eater, they'd probably be delicious, but after three days of lentils and broccoli I was pretty much over them. It doesn't help that all the snack recipes have been a total bust. My salvation is fruit, dates and homemade kale chips.

Day 1 Breakfast: Mango Tahini smoothie. I lost everyone at tahini.

Day 1 Lunch: French green lentil salad. I brought this into Gino's while my gentlemen friends ate their deep dish pizza.

Day 1 dinner / day 2 lunch / day 3 dinner: Creamy broccoli soup. I had to force this leftover broccoli soup down my throat, and you wouldn't believe how angry it made me. Sad, unhealthy, privileged doughy American! I'm sure if I wasn't in physical discomfort I wouldn't have felt like throwing it across the room. 

Day 2 dinner: Cauliflower "rice" stir fry. The "rice" was chopped up cauliflower that I overcooked to this gray mush mess. Yum!

Day 3 breakfast: blueberry-mint smoothy and the start of flu-like symptoms. What the fuck?

Day 3 lunch: It's like the worst meal of the day was paired with the day in which I felt the worst physically. This was the day I was in the depths of despair. Okay, I'm being dramatic, but if I wasn't feeling significantly better the next day I planned to call it quits.

Day 4 dinner: roasted portobellos with kale. This ain't no red velvet whoopie pie.

Day 5 dinner: red lentil and sweet potato stew. Our friends invited us over for pizza. This was my dinner. What a sad sack. On the bright side, despite the curry in this dish, today was the first day I felt like I could actually do this thing!

Day 6 dessert (there's no dessert in the plan, but this is the sweetness I treated myself to after dinner): a cara cara orange and a few dates. I've convinced myself that Medjool dates taste kinda like chocolate. 

Day 7 lunch: leftover portobellos with kale and avocado. I actually enjoyed this. I wouldn't choose it over a hamburger, but it's probably the first meal I had other than breakfast smoothies where I didn't feel like I was forcing myself to eat it.

One week down, two to go! Onward!