Learning to Adult one day at a time.
In honor of Earth Day 2010, I am going to pick up 15 pieces of garbage while I walk to work.
nge for open mic to hear Age's boyfriend Chris play (who is supposedly amazing, but I have yet to witness his awesomeness) but he has caught the plague that is going around our house and didn't end up playing. That was kind of a bummer, but we decided we would go back next week better prepared to hear him play to make up for not hearing him this week. We're thinking foam fingers and bedazzled posters that scream We Love CHRIS in ridiculous amounts of glitter. Lesson of the day: You can never have too much glitter. Regardless of missing out on Chris's super stardom, a few pitchers of Sweet O later and we all had a great time. Jess and Sarah joined us at Baba's and I learned that Sarah, who will be moving into Age's room in May, is actually from Brampton. How crazy is that? I only found this out because I mentioned Tiny Tom donuts and she was the only one who knew what they were, which led to a discussion about how fabulous the CNE is, which in turn led to us drooling over the thought of foot-long corn dogs lovingly deep fried by the carnies in the Midway.
Omnivore's Dilemma" and am about a third of the way through "The Vegetarian Myth." I have been on a huge non-fiction kick and been reading nothing but books about food for about a year now. I think I keep reading these books with the hope that somewhere in their pages I will come across a statement or an idea that will provide me with an "AHA!" moment and then suddenly the clouds will clear and I will know exactly what to eat. The problem is, I don't think any one knows what to eat. Try as I might to alter my dietary consumption to suit my morals and be environmentally friendly and more nutritious, I am learning quickly that it's essentially impossible. Every food has some kind of moral implication that could be argued, every food involves death of some kind and every body is different. There are no answers, and instead of an AHA! moment, all I am finding is more contradictions to previous beliefs and more confusion. I love food. I became a quasi vegetarian in September and restricted my animal protein intake to grass fed beef and actual free range chicken (versus the chicken labeled as free range in the grocery stores which basically means they have about a square foot of dirt they can walk on between hundreds of chickens) and fish. I was determined to only eat meat if I could figure out where it came from and how it was raised. 
This had nothing to do with animal welfare; it was an entirely selfish choice based solely on the fact that I did not want to be consuming the hormones and steroids that they feed the animals to help them grow twice as big in half the time it would naturally take. Cows weren't meant to eat grains, cows eat grass. But, being a student, this was not economically feasible, so I opted to not consume meat (except fish that were not farmed) and with the exception of a week at Christmas when I was home, have not really consumed any since September. But the more I read, the more I realize that there is no escape from industrial agriculture and industrial farming. Unless I want to move to a farm out in the country and grow and raise everything that goes into my mouth, it's simply impossible. Part of me wants to just screw it all and just rely once again on the supermarket shelves to fill my belly but I don't think I'm quite ready to give up yet. In the meantime I suppose I'll keep reading and keep formulating my own philosophies drawing upon bits and pieces of everything I've learned and hopefully, eventually sculpt my personal AHA! moment.
r flight response. The first order was a large pizza and a large garlic fingers. The trickiest of them all because it involves the most dough twirling and spinning and stretching. I took my time and actually started getting the hang of it and made a somewhat normal looking pizza crust. The crust was a little uneven-thicker in some spots than others but overall I was pretty excited about my first attempt. Topping the pizza was no biggie, I had done that lots before. I finished the first large pizza. It took me about twice as long as normal because the crust part was tricky, but I took a second to admire my handy work as I lifted the pizza pan into the oven. Apparently I was admiring it a little too much because I didn't manage to lift it all the way into the oven; instead of placing it onto the conveyor belt, I caught the lip of it rather forcefully and all the toppings except the pepperoni, which were glued in place by the pizza sauce, exploded everywhere. I stood with the pizza pan in my hand staring at all the toppings all over the floor.
As we age, our resting metabolic rate slows down, and consequently we need fewer calories. This is the reason that many people gradually gain weight as they age despite not changing any dietary habits or decreasing the amount of physical activity they do. Muscle burns more calories at rest then fat does, so the decrease in fat free mass that accompanies aging also contributes to aging weight gain. We spend so much of our time consumed by what we are consuming and trying to look like the movie stars and be fit and lean. But eventually, when we become senior citizens, having a little bit of extra weight on us is actually beneficial. Obviously staying healthy; eating well and getting regular exercise and avoiding smoking and excessive alcohol intake is important in order to reduce your risk of developing chronic diseases which can shorten your life span, but at what age is ok to screw it all and eat what you want and stop forcing yourself to go to the gym and go for those early morning or rainy day runs? I plan to live to be at the very least 100 years old, and I don't want to die at 100 after having spent the last few years of my life sickly and frail. That's another 80 years from now. 80 years to this day I hope to be having a celebratory birthday drink with Sam. Unlikely I know, but my fingers are crossed.
To live to be 100 means that I can't throw in the towel on the trying to be healthy and exercising everyday too early. I have no idea how long it would take my body to deteriorate once I stop, but I assume that the older I get, the faster it'll happen. I don't mean throw in the towel completely, I mean not caring as much about eating healthy and actually eating what I like all the time, even if that means cupcakes and Mississippi Mud or apple pie at every meal. Sounds quite fabulous actually, to be old enough not to care if I gain 20 lbs because I'll be able to justify it by telling myself it's actually good more me to gain weight.
to eat healthy and exercise daily now, but more importantly to be active within the community and to continue to do so into my 100s. Who knows, maybe I'll still be serving breakfast to middle school kids on my 90th birthday. Being involved in the community, having friends and being happy are, in my opinion, the keys to surviving old age. No matter how healthy you are, you can't live for 100 years + by yourself. What good would living that long be if you had no one to share it with? I think being active in the community just gives you stuff to do on a daily basis; a reason to leave the house and socialize and get out there and walk and get your blood moving, not to mention use your noggin and keep your brain nice and fresh.
many memories you'll have stored up in there after 100 years on earth. It makes me wonder what I will actually remember then that I remember now. I assume that at some point your brain will start selectively replacing the least important memories with the newer more important ones. The memories and knowledge I perceive as important now could be completely irrelevant in 100 years and may disappear from my knowledge bank forever. I'm sure that technology will replace some mundane, daily task we are accustomed to doing ourselves and there will come a day when I realize that I don't even know how to complete that task anymore. I'm trying to think of an example...folding laundry perhaps? I don't think I would mind no longer knowing how to fold laundry. Wow, this living to be 100 thing just keeps looking better!
