Let Me Ask You Something

Let Me Ask You Something

I ask a lot of questions. Some people don't really like that. For instance, one person, let's call them X, asked me if I wanted to go for dinner. It went kind of like this.

X: Do you want to go for dinner when I get off work?

Me: What time do you get off?

X: I am not sure. I am supposed to get off at 6 but I may stay later.

Me: Where do you want to go?

X: I don't know. Wherever.

Me: Are we going to walk or drive?

X: Grrr...why are you asking so many questions? I just wanted to go for dinner.

Okay. Let's stop for a minute. I have a good reason for asking all of these questions. For example. I get off at 5 and I want to take a run after work. Will I have time to go before we eat? If we are going at 6, I may try to get off early; if we are going at 8, I will probably stay until 5 and run before dinner. If we are going to walk, I may do a shorter run. If we are going for a large dinner as opposed to a light dinner, I might do a longer run.

But, I realize it may get a little annoying when I don't just say YES sometimes. But I want to be sure about what I am agreeing to before I agree! Otherwise sometimes plans end up not working out the right way.

For example, the other day my friend asked me if I wanted to go for a hike the next morning. I did want to go for a hike, but I also wanted to go for a run, and my original plan was to go for a run in the morning. I had friends coming over for drinks and food at 4 and I wanted to start getting the food and the house ready around 1 pm. So I asked her what time she wanted to hike. She said 9:00 am.

Normally I would ask: Does this mean leaving the house at nine, arriving at the trail head at nine, or starting the hike at nine? Where are we going? How long will we be hiking? But I have been scolded, so I didn't ask anything. In fact, I ASS-umed that the hike would be a couple of hours, which would leave me with enough time to go running, shower and start getting ready for my guests. 

The next day I got up around 7 but decided to wait for my run until after the hike, since if we were supposed to start hiking at 9 we would have to leave the house around 8:30. 8:30 rolled around and we weren't leaving. Was I allowed to ask questions now? I wasn't sure. I finally asked when we were leaving and was told that the person we were meeting was going to let us know when they were leaving the house and then we were going to leave the house. I don't really do well with these kind of time definitions.

We ended up leaving at 9:45, then waiting at the trail head and then to top it all off, the place we went for our "hike" was a paved, flat path with a ton of slow mo families with bikes and dogs. The pace was leisurely at best.

Then we went to brunch and the person we were with had a dog so we had to sit outside so we couldn't just take the first available table and I carpooled so I couldn't just leave and the whole time I am picturing my run getting shorter and shorter and then just withering away.

I got back home at 3. Did I mention that I had people coming over at 4?

I guess the moral of this story is...annoying or not, I am going to ask a million questions before saying yes to anything.

So, let me ask you something: do you care about the little details or are you more of a go with the flow kind of person?
When Life Hands You Lemons

When Life Hands You Lemons

Lately, my lemon tree has been full. I have plenty of lemons. Life has given me lots of lemons.

I mean this both literally and figuratively.

Figuratively, and I have talked about this before, the job situation is getting a little out of hand. Usually, my job is temporary, and I am used to that. Like I said, I am similar to a freelancer. I work several months of of the year, and during that time, I have to save up for the dry months. However, generally there is a good mix of "wet" and "dry" months, and so I can not only make ends meet pretty easily, but I also keep from going completely crazy with boredom or a lack of productivity.

Right now, I am in a drought. I am California;  I need rain or my crops are going to die.

Luckily, this means I have free time to do what I have always wanted to do. I can learn French; I can knit a sweater; I can go see the Grand Canyon. However, this also means I need to keep saving up, because who knows when that rainy day will come. So I am improvising. The local library has a Spanish conversation class once a month in the evenings. I signed up. I have a long list of books on my To Read list. I am getting to know my neighborhood and the surrounding running trails. I am cooking. I love to cook and often don't make time for it. I am spending time with friends and family. It's good, in a way.

I ALSO actually have a lemon tree. And it has a boatload of lemons. I could make lemonade, but instead, I make hummus!! Have you ever made your own hummus? It's so easy!


Ingredients:
1 cup cooked garbanzo beans
1/4 - 1/2 cup bean water
1 tbsp olive oil
1 - 4 lemons, juiced
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tbsp tahini
salt to taste

In food processor, mix all ingredients and blend until smooth. You want the hummus to be a little bit on the thinner side, as it will thicken a little in the fridge once everything melds together. Start off with the oil and lemon juice, then add 1/4 cup water and see how it looks/tastes before adding the other 1/4 cup of water. When I say bean water, I mean the juice in the can, or if you cook your beans from dry, whatever water is in the cook pot.

Note, if you don't have tahini, it will still taste good, but I do like it better with the tahini. You should be able to find it at Trader Joes, or Whole Foods, although I bought mine at Safeway.

So, I am off to use my lemons of life! Any suggestions, literally or figuratively?

Have you ever made your own hummus? Have you ever been in a life drought and not known when the rains would come?
Life in A Day

Life in A Day

The other day on the plane I watched Life in A Day, a documentary about one day around the world. The videos were taken by us, by amateurs, and were put together as a whole story. It was interesting to see how every day normal life is different in the different places around the world. They also asked the people doing the videos to answer a few questions:

What is in your purse/pocket/bag? What do you love? What do you fear? 



Some people had no pockets. Others had empty pockets.  One man, who was a diabetic, had syringes.

In my pocket I have an ID, $20 and an AMEX, because today I am not carrying a purse. When I have my purse, it is full of tissues, wipes, vitamins and coupons. It has gift cards and credit cards and frequent flyer cards. It carries my phone and my money, my (big!) camera and my ipod. I lug around a notebook and pens, gum and granola bars. I think my purse weighs 31 pounds. 

There were a lot of people who said that the thing they loved most was God. One woman said she loved it when things were dirty and you cleaned up and you got that feeling of accomplishment. She loved that feeling. 

I love that feeling too. And if it stays clean, I love THAT feeling even more. I love watching the sun rise. I love the ocean. I love a clear blue sky filled with a flock of birds. I love my friends and my family and the comfortable feeling I have with them. I love boats and starfish and giraffes. I love travel and bright colors and crisp days. I love the crunch of leaves under my feet. I love climbing to the top of tall things and running as far as I can. I love a challenge. I love a good book and a warm fire and a cat on my lap. 

One man, whose wife was sick with cancer, said that he was “fearless, because what he feared was that his wife would get cancer, and now she had, so he had nothing to fear anymore” (that kind of made me want to cry for some reason).

I am afraid of the people I love dying. I am afraid of failure. I am afraid of the creepy squishy things in the deep open sea. 

What’s in your pocket/purse? What do you love? What do you fear? 

**My friend Sarah posted about this as well. See her take on it HERE.**