Food: A Series of Reflections Pt.1

I have always considered myself to be an educated foodie; one of those diminishing few who knows where their food comes from. Alternatively it seems as though I know a lot less than I thought. Perhaps the truly disturbing fact is that I am not the only one.

I grew up on a farm. This in of itself is a rare thing. My family always had some or all of the following at any given time: sheep, cows, chickens, goats, a garden, fruit trees,nut trees, and rabbits. The common denominator that links all of these elements is that fact that they provide food for humans. Meat was rarely purchased at the store in my house. Eggs came from chickens that lived happy lives out doors and pesticides where never used on our garden. Regardless, I always have taken these food sources for granted until I went to college.

Living in an apartment severely limits the amount of resident animals and the ability for one to grow their own garden. So I was bound to relying on the good ole' grocery store for my food supply. Not such a bad thing. I am pretty adapt at cooking and eating well. So life was good.

Until I had a rather interesting wake up call a few days ago. I picked up Michael Pollan's The Ominivore's Dilemma, interested in finding out what this rather controversial book had to say. The more I read the more I realized how corrupt something as simple as providing food has become. To add insult to injury I watched Food Inc., a film that nearly echos Mr. Pollan's words without meaning to, and read few chapters of the classic The Jungle by Upton Sinclair which attacked the meat packing industry. The more I uncover the more I see the painful flaws in our food system but am unsure how to change them. Most would just say the answer would be to change our diets and how we spend our money. That's a start. But is it the fix? I doubt it.

In the next few posts I doubt I will come up with any original ideas or means of solving this problem. In fact I will probably do no more than echo the sentiments of Mr. Pollan and numerous others who rally for this fix. But I do hope to educate those who are unaware of the food industries shortcomings and ad a simpler means of viewing the problem as I see it. 

Until next time,

Happy Thrusday.
-C

Yoga

I have always been a fan of attempting yoga.

I try really hard, I do. But it seems that the idea of it can be more enticing that then end results. This spring I went through a bad breakup and a very stressful term. I bought a beginner dvd and worked every morning on a 15 minute routine. It was wonderful. I gained so much peace and energy from it. I am sure those months might have been more difficult without it.

But then, I lost my motivation. Unsure how to bring it back I have read Yoga Journal and continued to eat healthy. I do a sun salute every now and again but it is not the same. I seem to lack the dedication. This makes me sad. I want to be like those peaceful yogis are, twisted into lovely poses, radiating love and calm.

Winter time is tough for me. I tend to become sad because of the lack of sunshine. I dislike medicating myself in order to combat this problem and so I feel the need to seek alternate methods. This new year I want to take up yoga again. Maybe I will be less hard on myself. Only practice three times a week instead of everyday. Patience is something that I often lack. I think taking up yoga again will help me attain more of this.

A not so starving artist.

I wish I could keep and up to date and riveting blog like so many other bloggers in the wonderful land of the world wide web. But alas, I do not.

I am a proud patron of the "Happy Money Saver" Yes, that is the name. I kid you not. It used to be blog but now it is more a website. But if you ever want to see some extreme money saving, coupon wielding ladies than this is the place to go.

Now as a general rule it is not often that you see a student with with a hand full of coupons, a sale flier and a shopping list. This is usually a common sight for a woman with two kids stuffed into those plastic trucks on the ends of shopping carts. She is out for the best deals because her family relies on it. Plus she manages to squeeze the time out of her day to scour the weekly ads for the best deals. But this fall I have become much more thrifty in my grocery shopping thanks to the inspiration of this website. 

I live in a little town. We have four grocery stores. One is a discount outlet and the other three are major retailers. My system is as thus: get the ads for the major stores and look for the best deals. Make a list of things that I need. Compare prices with the discount grocery and see which is better. It is usually a safe bet to go there every trip. In the end, I probably scrape off about $5-$10 per trip.

Now honestly, this is not that much not compared to these crazy Money Saver women who go to the store and manage to pay $1.50 for $40 worth of stuff. ( I am not joking).  However, I am lucky enough to have been born with a very thrifty mentality and so I can do the math. This kind of savings over the course of the year adds up to be between $210 and $420. Not bad for a student. To extend this even more I cook at home and rarely eat out. When I eat out it is for lunch which is the cheaper alternative. To top that all off I often can get organic food at my discount grocery for the same price as the regular stuff at say Safeway. Unbelievable right? Yet very few students ever shop at this place.

Okay, yeah, I know I am weird. Most people that are under 25 do not think like me. But really, it is not that hard to do this kind of thing. I wish more people would do the same. We would be healthier, have more money in our bank account and feel that sense of homemaker accomplishment that comes from getting dinner on the table for under $10. That sentiment died in the 1950's. Too bad.

C+

I am disappointed. Majorly. Most of the time when grades drop I get pleasant surprises but not this time. This time I recieved a C in my Buddhism class. I was so upset I burst into tears. Now before you start judging and saying to yourself, "This girl is clueless, there a 99 million things for her to be upset about and getting a C in a class should not be one of them". Yes, I realize this. But I worked my butt off in this class. This term I did not party, procrastinate on my homework or anything that would lead to poor grades in a typical way. My spare time was spent working on intellectual pursuits and stimulating films, (from which I can pick out Buddhist themes by the way).

But honestly the thing that upset me most was that I calculated my grade beforehand, I had a B, an 83%. So I e-mailed my prof a very polite letter asking if there had been a mistake. I got an automated e-mail response, he is out of his office until next Monday. So much I can do about that.

A C has more implications than just being a C. I was mentally prepared to get an A, two B's and two S's or passing grades this term. S's do not count on your GPA and so my overall GPA would be a low 3.0. Not to worry. And of course this whole thing completely derails me. Yes, just like a train. Chugging along, feeling that life is good and then WHAM! derailed. Cars topple off, the engine rolls over, I am not sure if you have ever seen a derailment before but it is not pretty. Everything is just tangled and twisted medal. It takes weeks to clean up.

So to carry the metaphor further my derailment has upset cars full of my self-esteem, plans, hopes and general feelings about life.

Now here is where the pity party starts. (P.s.Your invited!)

Many of my close friends and relatives have left the country. My best friend is currently in Spain and travels around Europe on a regular basis. My cousin works in the Peace Corp in Zambia. Her and her sister are very excited to travel to Paris for Christmas. I am happy for these people. But its like working all summer at some horrible job when you know that other people are somewhere tropical doing everything they want to do.

I view life as a chess board; one strategic move at a time with a eye on what is to come, anticipating moves. I say to myself, "What should I do to get from where I am to where I want to go?" and I then lay the best foundation I can. But it often makes it so I a) work to hard b) don't always enjoy what is in front of me or c) am not as spontaneous as I should be. Right now I am working on not one but two Bachelors degrees to be completed spring of 2012. This has not been particularly easy. I busted my ass in high school for this. I laid the foundation for it years ago. That is just how I am.

I don't know where I was going with this post. Just rambling I suppose. Maybe the essence of this story is no matter how much you plan you cannot always anticipate everything. You have to roll with the punches. I think I will just take that advice and move on.

-C

Snow...

So much snow the last couple of weeks. It is crazy! Christmas is almost year and my finals are almost done! This makes me happy!