Last November I began asking around to my family and friends for ideas to finalize my list of 52 changes for my project this year. My friend Jodie suggested that I keep a joke book, filled with inspirations, quotes or jokes from the people I know. It sounded like a fun idea and I figured that with all the change I would be taking on why not look to those around me that have a positive influence on my life and ask them for their advice, who inspires them, how they got where they are, and how they plan on getting where they are going. Along side of the good quotes and advice I thought the joke aspect of the idea added a nice balance to keep things light.
Right around my birthday this year I received a package in the mail from Thailand with a handmade "joke book" and its first entry from Jodie. So prepare yourselves, chances are that if you are reading this blog that I will be looking to you for an entry in the near future. As much as I would like to mail it around and have everyone write in it I think to keep things cost effective I will ask people to send me little blips in the mail or possibly even in the comments of the blog. (I think handwritten ones would give the book a little more character) I'll then glue these into the book. What I'm looking for is your entry, name and age. I'm excited to see what everyone has to share and to keep this along with my blog as a memory of this wild, wild year.
Right around my birthday this year I received a package in the mail from Thailand with a handmade "joke book" and its first entry from Jodie. So prepare yourselves, chances are that if you are reading this blog that I will be looking to you for an entry in the near future. As much as I would like to mail it around and have everyone write in it I think to keep things cost effective I will ask people to send me little blips in the mail or possibly even in the comments of the blog. (I think handwritten ones would give the book a little more character) I'll then glue these into the book. What I'm looking for is your entry, name and age. I'm excited to see what everyone has to share and to keep this along with my blog as a memory of this wild, wild year.
End of Week Update
The joke/quote book thus far has served as one of the more spontaneous and fun goals to date. Just from reading what the five people that have written in it thus far it has me very excited to see what everyone else has to share.
The past two weeks without a job has been a roller coaster. After working for 70 hours a week for 4 years it has been a much earned and needed break. I have thought many times to the Mary Oliver quote, "You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves." We discussed this quote in depth in a Literature and Ecology class that I took years ago and to this day when I think of this quote it makes me reconsider just how exactly I am treating myself. Thinking separately about mind, body and soul and what things might just be to harsh for each one and then considering them collectively and how the world and people we surround ourselves with have such a heavy influence on this "soft animal". I found myself panicking in the first week without a job and in the second week I have found comfort knowing that I am in a mental and physical recovery period and that this is arguably the most important two weeks I have had this whole year.
Once relaxed I found myself on a rafting trip with my father and two friends. One of the best trips we have ever been on. Nature ran its full course in that 6 hours on the Gauley. We saw wildlife (not referring to the raft guides), got soaked in sunshine and later torrential downpours so heavy that we could no longer see the river in front of us. We jumped out of the boat in class three rapids only to minutes later float silently revering the knobby mountains of West Virginia and how they swallow up all hints of civilization within. This trip only forecasting a growing bond with the outdoors that I will be making over the next few months, I ended the week revived and energized.
End of Week 36 Totals
Soda - 0 ounces
Water - 130.24 Gallons
Liquor - 0 shots
Tea - 462 cups
Trips to unhappy places - Jimmy Johns (1)
$ to support neighbors = $656.05
Fried food consumption - 2 dorito chips
Breakfasts eaten - 203
Pushups - 1300 Crunches - 1180
Days Flossed - 187 (missed two days)
Coffee - 0 cups
Sunrises attended - 33
Beers drunk - 0
Gallons of Trash Collected - 674
Items planted -12 jalapenos, 12 bell peppers, 8 yellow pear tomatoes, 30 canna bulbs, 1 chinese pistache, 30 sensitive plants, 24 carolina reaper peppers, 12 ghost peppers, 31 scorpion peppers, 5 brussel sprouts, 12 tyria hybrid cucumbers, 14 congo watermelons, 6 hybrid prizewinner pumpkins, 45 devils tongue peppers, 14 black sea man tomatoes, 33 peruvian white lightning habaneros, 16 mammoth russian sunflowers, 30 big smile sunflowers, 100 zinnia's, 100 basil plants, 100 green onion plants, 12 chinese lanterns, 30 garden beans, a bed of mint, 50 Celosia flowers, 7 Red Maple Seeds, 30 brussel sprouts, transplant 34 pepper plants, transplant 13 sensitive plants and 3 watermelon plants, transplant 15 pepper plants and 6 sensitive plants, transplant 21 pepper plants, 12 sorrel seeds, 50 cilantro seeds, 50 sorrel seeds,
50 spinach seeds, 50 kale seeds,
Letters written - 22
Meat eaten - none
Donations made - Bike the US for MS, Personal Mission Trip, Schistosomiasis Control Initiative, Against Malaria Foundation, Deworm the World Initiative, Project Healthy Children, charity: water, Schistosomiasis Control Initiative, YMCA Thrift Store, Volunteered at Plenty!, Against Malaria Foundation, Food supplies to Plenty! food pantry, Deworm the World Initiative, Edisto Island Preservation Alliance, Edisto Island Land Trust, Adopt-a-Nest Sea Turtle Program, Wikipedia, Project Healthy Children, Giving What We Can Trust,
Movies watched - 0
Glasses of wine - 0
New dishes cooked - Vegetable Korma, Ukranian Vinaigrette, Lamb's Quarters Quiche, Thai Spicy Eggplant with Sweet Basil and a side of Bean Sprout Salad with Peanut Chili Dressing, Pan Bagnat with grilled peppers and basil vinaigrette and a side of Classic Gougères, Vegetarian Feijoada and Brazilian Bananas, Baked Eggplant Parmesan (mixture of this and this recipe), Somalian Fataa'ir Farmaajo and Barooddo Qudaar, Portobello Burgers and homemade pesto, Stir fried tofu with yellow curry powder,
Okra Gumbo with Chickpeas and Kidney Beans, African Peanut Soup and Fufu, Vegetable Lasagna, Quinoa
Bugers with Homade Rolls, German Chocolate Cake, Chana Masala,
Miles ran - 655.20
Facebook and Twitter time = 0 minutes
Books Read - The Education of Little Tree by Forrest Carter, The Other by David Guterson, The Last American Man by Elizabeth Gilbert, A Thousand-Mile Walk to the Gulf by John Muir, currently reading The Wilderness World of John Muir edited by Edwin Way Teale and loving it!
Nights camped - 3
Ice fails - 1
Items dispersed - 56
Hours volunteered - 27.75
Piping Hours - 9
The joke/quote book thus far has served as one of the more spontaneous and fun goals to date. Just from reading what the five people that have written in it thus far it has me very excited to see what everyone else has to share.
The past two weeks without a job has been a roller coaster. After working for 70 hours a week for 4 years it has been a much earned and needed break. I have thought many times to the Mary Oliver quote, "You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves." We discussed this quote in depth in a Literature and Ecology class that I took years ago and to this day when I think of this quote it makes me reconsider just how exactly I am treating myself. Thinking separately about mind, body and soul and what things might just be to harsh for each one and then considering them collectively and how the world and people we surround ourselves with have such a heavy influence on this "soft animal". I found myself panicking in the first week without a job and in the second week I have found comfort knowing that I am in a mental and physical recovery period and that this is arguably the most important two weeks I have had this whole year.
Once relaxed I found myself on a rafting trip with my father and two friends. One of the best trips we have ever been on. Nature ran its full course in that 6 hours on the Gauley. We saw wildlife (not referring to the raft guides), got soaked in sunshine and later torrential downpours so heavy that we could no longer see the river in front of us. We jumped out of the boat in class three rapids only to minutes later float silently revering the knobby mountains of West Virginia and how they swallow up all hints of civilization within. This trip only forecasting a growing bond with the outdoors that I will be making over the next few months, I ended the week revived and energized.
End of Week 36 Totals
Soda - 0 ounces
Water - 130.24 Gallons
Liquor - 0 shots
Tea - 462 cups
Trips to unhappy places - Jimmy Johns (1)
$ to support neighbors = $656.05
Fried food consumption - 2 dorito chips
Breakfasts eaten - 203
Pushups - 1300 Crunches - 1180
Days Flossed - 187 (missed two days)
Coffee - 0 cups
Sunrises attended - 33
Beers drunk - 0
Gallons of Trash Collected - 674
Items planted -12 jalapenos, 12 bell peppers, 8 yellow pear tomatoes, 30 canna bulbs, 1 chinese pistache, 30 sensitive plants, 24 carolina reaper peppers, 12 ghost peppers, 31 scorpion peppers, 5 brussel sprouts, 12 tyria hybrid cucumbers, 14 congo watermelons, 6 hybrid prizewinner pumpkins, 45 devils tongue peppers, 14 black sea man tomatoes, 33 peruvian white lightning habaneros, 16 mammoth russian sunflowers, 30 big smile sunflowers, 100 zinnia's, 100 basil plants, 100 green onion plants, 12 chinese lanterns, 30 garden beans, a bed of mint, 50 Celosia flowers, 7 Red Maple Seeds, 30 brussel sprouts, transplant 34 pepper plants, transplant 13 sensitive plants and 3 watermelon plants, transplant 15 pepper plants and 6 sensitive plants, transplant 21 pepper plants, 12 sorrel seeds, 50 cilantro seeds, 50 sorrel seeds,
50 spinach seeds, 50 kale seeds,
Letters written - 22
Meat eaten - none
Donations made - Bike the US for MS, Personal Mission Trip, Schistosomiasis Control Initiative, Against Malaria Foundation, Deworm the World Initiative, Project Healthy Children, charity: water, Schistosomiasis Control Initiative, YMCA Thrift Store, Volunteered at Plenty!, Against Malaria Foundation, Food supplies to Plenty! food pantry, Deworm the World Initiative, Edisto Island Preservation Alliance, Edisto Island Land Trust, Adopt-a-Nest Sea Turtle Program, Wikipedia, Project Healthy Children, Giving What We Can Trust,
Movies watched - 0
Glasses of wine - 0
New dishes cooked - Vegetable Korma, Ukranian Vinaigrette, Lamb's Quarters Quiche, Thai Spicy Eggplant with Sweet Basil and a side of Bean Sprout Salad with Peanut Chili Dressing, Pan Bagnat with grilled peppers and basil vinaigrette and a side of Classic Gougères, Vegetarian Feijoada and Brazilian Bananas, Baked Eggplant Parmesan (mixture of this and this recipe), Somalian Fataa'ir Farmaajo and Barooddo Qudaar, Portobello Burgers and homemade pesto, Stir fried tofu with yellow curry powder,
Okra Gumbo with Chickpeas and Kidney Beans, African Peanut Soup and Fufu, Vegetable Lasagna, Quinoa
Bugers with Homade Rolls, German Chocolate Cake, Chana Masala,
Miles ran - 655.20
Facebook and Twitter time = 0 minutes
Books Read - The Education of Little Tree by Forrest Carter, The Other by David Guterson, The Last American Man by Elizabeth Gilbert, A Thousand-Mile Walk to the Gulf by John Muir, currently reading The Wilderness World of John Muir edited by Edwin Way Teale and loving it!
Nights camped - 3
Ice fails - 1
Items dispersed - 56
Hours volunteered - 27.75
Piping Hours - 9