Category Archives: Food

NaNoWriMo. Dieting. And Running.

Posted on 1 November 2010 | Leave a comment

Today is the first day of NaNoWriMo or National Novel Writing Month. I have several seventh-graders who are attempting to write 50,000 words during the month of November. I told them if they succeeded we could have a pizza party, and if their parents are willing we might even be able to go to Chuckie Cheese for a celebration. Writing that much in one month, even if is crap, is an accomplishment. Oh, and the other end of that deal is that I have to try it, too. That’s around 1,666 and 2/3 words each day this month. I’ll give it a whirl, knowing that it will be a really bad novel since I’ve never attempted fiction before in my life. I think I am going to try to write a six-page short story each day, so that they all fit together into one big story. We’ll see. Supposedly the whole point is just to get people to write, then encourage them to revise and edit in December. Mine may have to be revised and edited over the summer if it’s even worth keeping.

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Today is the first day of the big ol’ diet.

Breakfast: banana, 8 oz. juice, 8 oz. soy milk, two flax-seed capsules, one cinnamon capsule

Lunch: peanut butter sandwich, vegan vegetable soup, apple

Snack: yogurt, two twizzlers

Dinner: I have somewhere between 100 and 400 calories left, so dinner will be slim pickings!

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I went to my follow-up appointment for my ankle today, and the doctor essentially said I can run as far and as fast as I can. I don’t have to wear my heel cups when I run, and I just have to do my exercises for about another six weeks. This is excellent news for the half-marathon training and for the full-marathon training! 🙂

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Posted in Fat, Food, Goals, Running, Writing

Sleeping and Waking. Injuring and Running. All in a days work.

Posted on 16 October 2010 | 4 comments

I would teach from nine to four, sleep an hour, and write from six until midnight, night after night.—Marguerite Young

I wish I was this motivated.

I should be. There is no reason I am not.

But, I am not.

So, instead, I teach from 8AM to 3PM—or 4 or 5 if I have a meeting—everyday, coming home to walk dogs, eat dinner, grade, then couch. Instead of writing, I fondle the remote control, waiting for some titillating piece of cinematic prowess to stimulate my mind into wanting to write or read or do anything productive. What I do instead of doing anything remotely academic or intellectual is I fall asleep watching Jeopardy before 8PM. Then I get up at  an ungodly hour in the morning to grade or to read or to plan my day. It’s sad, really.

I thought this weekend would be different. I thought I had a no-fail plan for catching up on all those things I should have done during the weekends when I was otherwise engaged, be my engagement in conferences or traveling or whatnot (side note: I cannot believe whatnot is in the computer dictionary, and that there is no little red line telling me it’s spelled wrong or not really a word.). I thought this would be the work weekend to end all work weekends, but my neighbors and their dog had another plan.

As I slept peacefully on the couch downstairs where I had fallen asleep watching Bones, I heard a loud commotion outside. I discovered that much like every other weekend since they moved in, my neighbors were having a drunken conversation on their front porch. This conversation was taking place in that I’m-trying-to-be-quiet-but-since-I’m-drunk-I’m-really-being-louder-than-usual radio newscaster’s voice. All monotone and spacey.

They were talking about the beers they were drinking; at least they’re drunken beer snobs, so I get to hear all about different, good beeers, instead of then pontificating about the ins-and-outs of beer pong or Asshole. At any rate, the dog must have had to go pee, because they let her out. Normally, she stays in their yard, does her business, and then goes back inside. But, I am sure, since she’s a smart dog, that she recognized the fortuitous twist of fate, the fact that they were so drunk they didn’t realize they hadn’t put her back in the house, and decided to come over into our yard for a bit. Which wouldn’t have been a bad idea if she would have simply stayed quiet and in the front yard.

However, she decided that it might be nice to go to the back and start snooping around, sniffing by the garage door, and nosing around in our back yard. This one, seemingly miniscule, action resulted in my being up from around 115AM when they awakened me with their revelry until about 5AM when they finally got their dog back in the house, and I finally calmed mine down for the third time. Yes, there were three cycles of Jane (their dog) barking and carrying on, which incited Sydney, who got Celie all riled up, who then got Lily all howly, and then I would come thumping down the stairs to quiet them down. On round number two, I took our dogs outside to pee so they could see that it was just Jane who was in their space. They didn’t really care. They didn’t want anyone in their space at 2AM.

Finally, after this second round, after I startled one of the neighbors while he was peeing in a bush, and after he decided to get Jane into the house, I stayed downstairs, sleeping on the couch until the third round of barking which must have been inadvertently stimulated by a squirrel or something in the backyard. Once those dogs get wacky, there’s almost no calming them down! I fell asleep watching Criminal Minds around 5AM. I should have used the time to write or read, but as per usual, I couched and remoted. I woke up about an hour-and-a-half later and went back upstairs to bed. I got up at 815ishAM. Needless to say, I am worthless today, so I am going to try to read the rest of the books I need to read. It’s about all I’m good for.

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I finally went to the doctor for my ankle, and I have to wear heel cups, do stretches, and massage it with ice frozen in Dixie cups. I am going to start running again on Tuesday, but I have decided to move my runs to the afternoon, just when I get home from school and after I walk the dogs. I am going to start at the very beginning, so I don’t re-injure my ankle. My hope in running in the evening is that I will be able to run out the stress of the day and run in some energy to read and write for the evening. I figure if I can get to the point where I can get home, walk the dogs, and run by 530PM, I will have an hour for a nap/leisure time before Bec gets home. (I may have to reverse the order of the nap and the run.) Then, I will be more energized. Also, I am going to try to avoid the TV and the Internet between 630PM and 930PM or 10PM. Maybe this will help me get more focused as well.

One thing I will also have to work on is the way I eat. I have been eating like crap lately: lots of cookies, candy, animal products, and soda. I am not sure why I do this to myself, because I feel much healthier when I don’t eat these things. I love grape soda, so I am not sure I want to cut it completely, and a couple of Oreos won’t hurt either. I just need to stop eating ten or twelve Oreos and a couple of sodas each day. On top of regular food! It’s silly, really. And, I will need to stop the caffeine intake, too. No more Americanos that aren’t decaf.

Not only will I need to change what I eat, but when I eat. Seemingly, it would work better to eat more for an early breakfast when I first get up , hopefully by 430 each morning. Then by eating more for lunch, too, I will be able to run five hours later and skip dinner, having popcorn and an apple for a light snack before bed.

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So here I go again setting goals I may not keep. The goal date for the following is July 22, 2011, my birthday:

  1. Finish a marathon.
  2. Stop shaving my head. Let it grow for Locks-of-Love.
  3. Spend at least half an hour reading the Bible, praying, and contemplating God each day.
  4. Have 75% of my students grow one academic year’s growth.
  5. Finish two chapters of my dissertation.
  6. Run 1000 miles.
  7. Stay vegan.
  8. Learn to say only what is necessary. Listen more than talk.
  9. Read one new book and one magazine from cover to cover each week. Follow the news.
  10. Finish painting the outside of the house.

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Posted in Birthday Crisis, Coffee, Dissertation, Fat, Food, Goals, Reading, Relationships, Religion, Running, School, Teaching, Vegetarian or Vegan, Writing

Just A List of Ten Thoughts

Posted on 11 August 2010 | 6 comments

Today I am sitting in Starbucks having just completed some work on my dissertation, and I have a few (about ten) random thoughts:

  1. Writing a dissertation is nothing like training for a marathon. When you train for a marathon, if you have a bad training run, no one knows but you and the handful of people you share that with. When you are writing a dissertation, you can’t hide your lack of work or your foolishly naïve thoughts. Your dissertation director, at least, will always know.
  2. Writing a dissertation is exactly like training for a marathon. Both endeavors are a hell of a lot of work that culminates in one final product, and neither product is really understood by anyone who hasn’t done one. The marathon fills your physical need for challenge and excitement. The dissertation fills your mental need for the same. Neither one is comfortable, and neither one is a known commodity the first time around. Hopefully, there will not be a second time around for the dissertation.
  3. Getting things right with God is a hard job, like training for a marathon or writing a dissertation. No matter how many times I try to regroup and refocus my life with Christ, I find that I can never get it right. It’s a long, constant road to growth. And, for some reason, I keep being prodded to reconsider my career choices. It’s a strange feeling that I can’t quite interpret. I don’t know what God wants me to do anymore, possibly because I have been so focused on what I think I want to do. Should I simply have stayed at Grace? I don’t like to second guess my choices, but I have been spending a great deal of time lately doing just that.
  4. Waiting to put together your classroom because people are painting it right before school starts is a test of patience. Yeah. I think this is self-explanatory. Even though Lisa put the work order in last spring, the painters will be there through the weekend. I am a little panicked, but I know this whole Burris thing will be an exercise in my obedience to God and in my ability to give grace.
  5. Re-learning not to say bad things is a challenge. I recognize that I spend a great deal of my time talking about people and things. I don’t like it when people talk about me. I never used to talk about people. Jaymes wrote in my yearbook before we began dating, “You never say anything bad. How do you do it?” I think I did it because I was so in love with Jesus that I didn’t see any value in getting ahead in this world. How to get back there is the big question. At any rate, I need to stop running my mouth. I am working on it.
  6. Just because you have a few bad runs and you feel like you are gaining weight instead of losing it, that’s no reason to give up running. It probably does indicate that you should start swimming, too, just so that all your eggs aren’t in one basket.
  7. I like music. All kinds, except what Kellie plays, and especially old school Jennifer Knapp.
  8. I don’t think studying in coffee shops could ever be overrated. In fact, when I get the opportunity next summer, I plan to spend great deals of time in coffee shops reading, writing, and dissertating. I might be the person who talks with everyone and annoys the other patrons.
  9. I love being vegan and trying to eat healthy food that I make in my own kitchen. I could really live the rest of my life without ever going out. I’m a good cook. And humble. 🙂 Also, I can’t wait to eat a peanut butter and jelly on whole wheat each day for lunch at school. Eating PBJ makes me feel like a kid again. Young and carefree. I haven’t dealt well with growing up and becoming responsible.
  10. The hot weather makes me happy, but what makes me happier is a good thunderstorm. Thanks, God, for this morning’s amazing show.

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Posted in Coffee, Dissertation, Fat, Food, Grace, PBJ, Reading, Religion, Running, School, Swimming, Teaching, Vegetarian or Vegan, Writing

Roadtrip: Food and Sights

Posted on 4 August 2010 | 4 comments

It’s been such a whirlwind since I got back to Muncie last Sunday, I almost forgot to write about the trip. Of course, the best part of the trip was the food, so I will start with the amazing restaurants we went to in both Nebraska and Minnesota. I’ll talk a bit about running in Woods Park, and a bit more about the things I learned on the trip (e.g. that the big ball of twine is simply that).

When we arrived in Lincoln, Sarah had made homemade vegan tamales and mole for us. It wasn’t lost on me how much of a sacrifice it was for her to make such an amazing meal, and tamales are my single favorite Mexican food. They are never vegan in restaurants; in fact, Sarah’s grandma said that tamales aren’t real when they are vegetarian. They may not have been considered “real” by Mexican standards, but to me they were simply perfect. I loved every bite of every one I ate, mostly because they were made with love.

The next day we went to a place called Maggie’s and had the most delicious vegan wraps, which were washed down with various sodas we’d purchased at Rocket Fizz. My lunch was a coconut curry tofu wrap and a Faygo Rock-n-rye, and both were delicious. We also got muffins for a snack, and they were good too. Once we finished our wraps, we went across the street to a coffee shop called The Mill and I had their Creole Lait, which was a blend of espresso, chickory, and soy milk. Yummy goodness. Sarah and I piece-mealed dinner while Kellie and Daniel went to Daniel’s class.

On Tuesday, I made breakfast with Kellie’s help. We had a filling combination of vegan sweet potato waffles with toasted pecan “butter” and vegan breakfast sausage. I am not sure what was for lunch that day, or if we just lounged around and ate at our own leisure, but for dinner we went to Yia Yia’s Pizza. Sarah and I split a vegan pizza: spinach and zucchini on my half, spinach and olives on her half, and vegan cheese on the whole thing. Kellie and Daniel had the American (bbq sauce, chicken, corn, jalapeños, and vegan cheese on half). The amazing thing about the soy (vegan) cheese was the fact that it actually melted. It was stringy and stretchy like real cheese. Now I am on a quest for delicious fake cheese.

On Monday and Tuesday, I woke up at 6:00 AM to run in Woods Park. The trail went past several different pieces of artwork, a business that looked like a strange doctor’s office, some basketball courts, some tennis courts, and last but not least, an uh-maz-ing public pool. It was a 50 meter pool with 8 lanes, a separate diving well, and a smaller warm up pool. Seriously, it was a perfect way for me to start my day. I got to watch the club teams practice and the lifeguards get the pool ready for the business day. It almost inspired em to start swimming two days a week in the fall. I think I can do that on Monday and Wednesday, but we’ll have to see once school starts.

Wednesday morning brought the twelve-hour car ride to the ball of twine, via the Malcolm X birth site memorial in Omaha. Here is Sarah’s love letter to the ball of twine (it’s the bottom one):

And here is the strangely worded Malcolm X sign:This car ride also resulted in Kellie’s GPS being named Marvelle, but I won’t tell you the story. Some things must remain on the road trip.

When we arrived in Minnesota, Ann and Jack were already asleep, so we snuck (sneaked?) into the house like little mice. The next we called Ico to meet with her and we were off! For lunch we went to one of my favorite types of restaurants, Tibetan. We had two types of curry and some fucking-hot noodles. They were deliciously hurty on the tongue. After the Tibetan food, we went to a coffee shop that has become Ico’s favorite. It was passable. My drink was fine, but not exceptional, and Kellie’s was strange and unusual and not in a good way like Lydia on Beetlejuice. Ico loved hers, so maybe we were just flakey. Or maybe I was just expecting something other than what I got. At any rate, when we finished the coffee, we embarked on the ridiculousness that is the Mall of America. We ended the night at the Bulldog with Ann and Jack. I love the Bulldog, except the prices. They have Hacker-Pschorr Dark. I can never find that particular H-P beer here in Indiana, so it’s a nice little treat in the Twin Cities.

On Friday, we had a cookout with Andy, Claire, Tim, and Whit at Ann and Jack’s house. Everyone came, and Ico’s sister Sen made Raspberry Tiramisu cupcakes that were to die for good. But, the most amazing food moment of the vacation was at Evergreen on Eat Street (Nicollet) in Minneapolis. I was a little nervous going there because I typically do not like mock-meat. I generally believe that when you are vegan, your goal should not be to figure out ho to make meatless meat, but this restaurant changed my life. It should be called Life-Change Cantonese instead of Evergreen Cantonese. We had two mock-meat dishes and a veggie dish. All three were fantastic: the mock-meat actually tasted and felt like the real thing, but not in too creepy of a way. Kellie had a chicken dish that she thoroughly enjoyed. The spices and herbs were just right, and the service was great. They had bubble tea, and vegan hot and sour soup. Seriously, does it get any better than mock-beef with lemongrass and peppers? We also went to Smitten Kitten. Interesting.

On Saturday, we drove back to Lincoln and had dinner at the Blue Orchid Thai restaurant. It was pretty tasty, but they need some serious attention to be paid to their wait staff. I have had better service at Abercrombie & Fitch or Hollister and I can’t even wear their clothes. On Sunday, we drove back to Indiana and stopped at a little Mexican restaurant somewhere in Illinois. It was good, but it only served to make me miss Sarah and her tamales. Finally, we ended the trip with pizza from T-Dubs here in Muncie. Kellie loves their pizza, but it has a bit too much garlic for my liking. For some reason, garlic tears me up. Their breadsticks are pretty fine, though. I’d eat them again, and I love supporting a local business with my pizza habits.

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Posted in Beer, Coffee, Food, Just for Fun, Running, Swimming, Vegetarian or Vegan

School. Dissertating. Running. Church. Vegan Food Failure #1.

Posted on 12 July 2010 | 2 comments

I went to school today to help rearrange the middle school office, which is a wreck, and I am not sure we improved it a great deal. We have those weird curved (around the corner) style desks where there are two desks attached to each other with a corner piece. Six of them do not fit well in one office. In fact, five of them would probably not fit comfortably. We will mostly be on top of each other, which is fine with me since I only have bodily personal space issues and don’t mind one bit sharing communal living space. I don’t mind if people are climbing all over my desk, as long as they don’t touch me in the process.

Going to school today really excited me for the fall. I want to start planning. I fantasize about what my room will look like, about the lessons I will teach, and about the ways I will interact with the students. If I didn’t have so much left to do this summer, I’d want school to start tomorrow. I walked around and just took in my classroom, looking in every cabinet and touching every filthy, kid-handled surface. I dreamed of burning sage and anointing the doorway, but I don’t want the campus police to be called because of the smell of the sage. (True story: One of my friends had the campus police called on him because he was doing an American Indian prayer/smudging in his office, and one of our colleagues thought he was smoking marijuana. They really came to our hallway and investigated his office until they were satisfied the smell came from sage. In their defense, they smell similar, and you can get high on salvia (sage) just as well as marijuana.) I may have to settle for just the anointing. No one will know what that smell is anyway, and the oil certainly doesn’t smell like pot-smoke like the sage does. I plan to spend much more time in my classroom than I spend in my office anyway. And when I am in the office, I will be working on my dissertation. I would love to get this thing finished as soon as possible. I am hoping to finish by May of 2012, which has been pushed back by a whole year because I will be teaching full time in the fall.

I just started reading a couple of theoretical/theological books to work on framing the chapter about biblical authority. Sometimes it seems like the more I read, the more questions I have instead of feeling like I am actually learning anything and moving toward having answers. Will I ever feel like I actually have some authority over my project? Will I ever be able to say to myself that I have read enough, digested it, and formulated my own opinions/theories about these texts? It feels like a long time coming, and like it may never happen.

Another thing that seems like it may never happen is this marathon. Although my six-mile run went really well on Saturday, my ankle still hurts unless I wear my minimalist footwear. When I wear my running shoes, and I have three different pairs I’ve been rotating, my ankle hurts ridiculously the next day. If I wear my Vibrams, I am fine, but the most I have run in them is three miles. Next Saturday, I am supposed to run 7 miles. Three of those miles will be done in the morning in Pendleton at a 5K that Bec and I are doing together. She’ll walk. I’ll run. We’ll finish together. 🙂 I think I will wear my running shoes for the 5K and my Vibrams for the other 4 miles and see how that works out. At any rate, I need to figure this whole thing out before I am up to running 10-15 miles at a stretch.

My Saturday run was one of the most beautiful I have been on in a long time. I started at about 630 with a nice slow walk down to Elm Street to sort of warm up my legs and work out the sleeping kinks, then I ran along the river from our house to the mile marker by Marsh on Tillotson and White River Boulevard and home. I finished by taking off my shoes and walking barefoot down to Elm Street and back. When I started out, the air was cool and there was a slight breeze. The dun had just poked out from above the horizon and the earth was just waking up. Slowly. As I ran, the sun moved up over the trees and the breeze slowed, giving me a humid, yet tolerable, workout. On mornings like that one, it’s not difficult to worship as I run, remembering the Creator and my place in the creation.

I think my view of my place in this world is complicated by the fact that I restrict myself to thinking worship somehow involves a human church, so on Sunday we went to church at Commonway because we had both been thinking this past week about missing church. Typically, we go to the Sunday evening Commonway service, but during the summer there aren’t as many college students so they meet in the morning with the regular service. The morning service has a whole different feel than the evening one. I enjoyed it, but when school starts back up, I plan to switch back to Sunday nights for a couple reasons.

For one thing, had it not been for my friend Molly and one of my students, we would have made it into the church, through the service, and back out without ever talking to another living person besides the surly greeter who didn’t understand why we wanted to share a bulletin. The speaker even made his way down the other end of our aisle, hugging people as he went, then almost tripped over my foot as he was exiting our aisle, but he didn’t even say good morning. Excellent interpersonal skills.

Secondly, I simply can’t stand selling things in church. I have this strong aversion to churches maintaining bookstores and pay cafés in their facilities. I have more of an aversion when the said money-making institutions are open for sales on Sunday morning as you are walking into the church. I have more of an aversion when there are inserts in the bulletin that advertise the sales going on in said marketplaces, and I just pretty much wait for the roof to cave in when the speaker announces the Bible sales from the dais after he makes a point about the importance of reading the Bible.

As churches today go, Commonway is a good one. They work hard to maintain social outreach. In fact, they have people in Kazakhstan doing some social outreach, they are collecting school supplies for students in Muncie, and they are collecting new kids shoes for those kids whose famlies can’t  afford them. I can get behind all of those things. The message had a good balance of material for new Christians and challenges for those people have been Christians for longer. And, I love the pastor. Matt pretty much rocks.

Vegan Food Failure #1: Taco pizza. Never try to make a vegan taco pizza without taco seasoning. It doesn’t work. At all. You will end up with beans, corn, tomatoes, and salsa on crust instead of taco pizza. Ew, but I hate to waste food, so I ate it, trying my best not to think of it as taco pizza so it would taste better. Okay, I imagined it was simply pizza, so it wouldn’t taste repulsive. I kept trying to get Bec to eat some of it, but she refused. Smart woman.

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Posted in Dissertation, Food, Grace, Religion, Running, School, Teaching, Vegetarian or Vegan