Cowboys and Indians

I live in a state that is known for its number of Native Americans. It's on the license plates and state flag. It's part of the culture and history and every day life. But not just that, there are good ole boys that dress in cowboy boots and their big hats to go out on the town too. It really is different than being at home. Funny thing is, I'm starting not to notice it as much as I did when I first got down here, which means I'm getting used to seeing it. Thankfully, I still notice the accents people have. I'm going to keep my "accent free" speech if you don't mind, maybe that makes me exotic here in Oklahoma, maybe not.

In other news, I feel like the winter has never been so long. It's much more mild here and I have no reason to complain about the weather. Overall, however, I really am ready for green and sunshine. The flowers are in full bloom outside of church; the minute you walk out after mass you can smell the fragrance from ten different types of flowers. It's magnificent. The trees are starting to bud and bloom. Even the grass is not entirely brown. The weeds are starting to pop up as green which leads me to believe the grass will be soon to follow. I'm not quite clear about when the wind is going to stop whipping [I've been told it will not] but I'm hoping that it does stop. Nothing good comes of it for my hair!

I'm glad to see my favorite nephew is visiting Nathan, I'm sure it is doing them both good and the facebook pictures are adorable.

Mom is flying in on Wednesday to visit, which makes me very happy. Of course, I have a few things due this week [the semester is surprisingly, approaching quicker than expected]. I have new classes to sign up for, more student loans to apply for, and the rest of the road trip to plan. Hopefully there is lodging somewhere in Yosemite for a relatively inexpensive price. We'll get to that when it isn't so hectic this week. We've got a test Tuesday, a project due Thursday, and a presentation due Thursday. What's more, there's thing on top of that for next week that I'll have to work on [and go figure it's all the week Mom is here visiting].

I'll keep you informed how things go after Mom head back home [when things aren't so hectic...then again, you might see something while she is here and we're enjoying each others' company.

SYLYB

P.S. the State Capital was actually interesting. Our class even got announced during the Senate debate. Got to have lunch at Big Truck Taco while we had a break after class and before our arrival at the capital building. So good and so...um, fragrant [my hands smelled the entire day of pork and Mexican seasoning].

Spring Cleaning

My Pepper Jack South of the Border Egg Breakfast and Tropical Mango Smoothie with Roasted Vegetables for dinner, and you can sure bet I ate that WHOLE plate and drank that WHOLE drink!

Enjoy the last bit of National Nutrition Month, but be health conscious all year :)

Tomorrow I get to go to the State Capital to learn about Nutrition in Public Policy. Can I get a woop woop?

....Yeah, I wouldn't woop woop either.

National Spring Cleaning Week is coming up - March 30th through April 5th. http://springcleaningweek.com/

I'm not advertising for you to give a hardcore cleaning to your beloved home [although, hey, if you're up for the challenge go for it]. I'll be doing some housekeeping of my own, mostly with papers I've accumulated and the cans I've been neglecting to take to the recycling center. That's probably why my pantry smells a bit less than fresh. I digress. What I'm really getting at is the mental clutter and this four letter word that starts with an 's' and ends with a 't'. Everything accumulates. I recently saw the movie Up In The Air with George Clooney. He fires people for a living but he also does motivational speaking [while his messages are, ehem, wrong, they do offer a fresh look at things]. He talks about the weight of stuff and how if our house caught on fire we could do without everything that's burning down inside of it. Interesting how he mentions the photos are worthless but his character had no human contact of any real kind. So, that doesn't say much.

Things are that, just things. They weigh us down and hold us back. When I came out to Oklahoma I had a truck full of stuff, now to live properly I really do need dishes and towels and toothpaste, but all the extra things - the things that you can't seem to part with but have no desire to keep around are cluttering up our minds. I left a room full of things at home that are just like that. When I go home December 19th I'll be doing a deep cleaning.

Broken jewelry, birthday cards upon birthday cards that didn't stand out, unloved books on shelves, or my absolute favorite "I can't remember what this is but I'm sure I'll need it after I throw it away so I'll tuck it where I can't find it until someone asks Why did Dad keep this?" Dad, you are notorious for keeping things we don't remember what they're for. Now, books and tins are probably the one things I will not get rid of unless I detest them, mostly because when I'm old I'll probably become a librarian [I love the smell of the library, the solitude, the atmosphere, the organizational system, and on and on] and because tins are beautiful. Period.

Not only that, but as Lent is nearly complete we've been walking around with the weight of our sins on our shoulders. Having gone to confession yesterday I've begun my mental spring cleaning. I've started fresh. I'm cleaning out the emotional and mental gunk. Besides the trees are starting to bud, the weather is turning warmer, and people are emerging from their pent up homes. There really is no better time to clean out the cobwebs from our hearts and homes then when everything is starting over. Start moving around, exercising in the sunshine and sweeping out the corners. Open the windows and let the Vitamin D start working.

I read a book at the library, and I'm hoping it's Apartment Therapy Something Something [or I'll be sorry I forgot because that book's worth a second look]. It discussed making your home something you love to come home to, something you want to look at and feel serene, something that when you look at the shelves you don't wonder where all that crap came from. It goes with wanting only what you have and needing less. That makes me think about living for the future generations, saving the environment, and being a better person.

Speaking of being a better person, St. Lea [my confirmation saint] had her feast day Monday March 22nd. She came from a home of wealth but after her husband passed away she gave it all up and became a religious, living a simple life with few possessions and praising God. Most [not all] times I make a purchase I think about whether I'm living simply or not. I'm still working on it, it is a constant battle.

If and when you do your spring cleaning this year, I encourage you, as I am doing myself, to reevaluate what is important to you. Clean out the physical clutter, mental clutter, and emotional clutter. And I encourage you to really dust because if you're going to dust really well, make it on a day you'll probably be sneezing anyway.

P.S. I'm homesick. And as any less than stellar day can go, wondering where my life is taking me, praying fervently for clarity and patience, and knowing full well that my life is never taking me back to age 8 when spelling tests were all that mattered and splinters were the worst things in the world, well, besides getting sick the day before you leave for Disney World. I want to be 5 again because I trusted wholeheartedly that Mom and Dad would take care of everything and I wouldn't have to worry. Not about bills or loans, boys or sitting up straight, looking professional or the future...

MYLYB.

Shut In

Close all the blinds, double lock the door. Put on your favorite sweats and grab a blanket with the television. Snuggle under the covers in bed for far longer than necessary with a book and take a bath to have a cocoon of heat surround you to drown out the wind against the windows.

Yes, this was my weekend. I did venture out twice, good company [be it at church with Jesus or with friends a few miles away] is worth braving the elements. It's not that it is too terrible outside, rather it is simply that I've gotten comfortable with warmer weather and deserve a weekend to be a slug.

I still hate the wind.

Friday was my last day of my management rotations and I am happy to announce that I passed with flying colors and am 1/3 of the way done with this year long journey of higher higher education. Nothing struck my fancy in the world of Nutrition and Food Service [preparing partially finished meals for the masses is not my cup of tea, nor is dealing with petty drama which inevitably happens when you have a group of people together].

Food, instead, for me is about passion. Food for me is about forgetting how and why your brain works and more about why it tastes so good and why chopping up food and hearing it sizzle in a pan is so therapeutic. Don't get me wrong, sometimes the last thing I want to do is prepare and then clean. Sometimes I'm too lazy to do anything beyond pull out the cereal box [forget about milk, that's too difficult]. Overall though, cooking is an expression of art and is a way to show others you love and care for them. "Here look what I made you, I'm showing you how much I love you, I worked to do this." What do people do when a loved one dies? Make a casserole and drop it off at their house. What do you do when you first go on a date and meet someone? Eat over conversation [even awkward conversation is better with food; you can distract yourself with food]. What do you celebrate birthdays with? Food and cake...well, pie at my house. No store bought nothing in my place of residence, weak! [Chuckle]. Should I go on about how food brings people together and shows you love them? Okay, good.

Still, I'm wondering where in life I'll go and what, if nothing beyond a learning experience of life, living, and myself, this time in Oklahoma will do for my career. I wonder if this is the path for me. Is nutrition really what you want to spend your time teaching people about? Especially people reluctant to see that proper food and exercise is PREVENTION of health issues and that is really way less expensive than surgeries and medication.

We'll see where I'm going, but in the mean time I'm continuing to pray for patience and the fog to be lifted as the time is right for my next move. I guess I'll just enjoy the experience of middle America a while longer :)

Wild Irish Rose

Dear Family & Friends,

Tomorrow is Saint Patrick's Day, a holiday I am proud to take part in [and take very seriously]! Please be safe on this wonderful day and enjoy the company of those around you [Irish and non-Irish alike].

Nathan, here's a Harp in your name, Happy Birthday!!!

Check the video for some updating on daily events...if you like,



Love,

Your Wild Irish Rose

Touch

Look that up in your Funk & Wagnalls

Merriam-Webster defines sensual as "relating to or consisting in the gratification of the senses or the indulgence of appetite. Fleshy"

The more I have paid attention to my own behaviors the more I realize I am ruled by my senses. I am a sensual person. I mean that in the most innocent way possible. Honestly. I love each sense for very different reasons, sight, sound, smell, taste. You're constantly being surrounded by moments to sit around and enjoy the simple and beautiful pleasures of your senses. People get so caught up in doing, doing, doing that they forget to just stop and simply "be."

Since I have been here in Oklahoma my senses have been on a field day. Different things to hear and see and smell. Unfortunately, there is one sense I feel I took for granted while I was home, the one sense that hasn't been getting so much attention, and one sense I love so terribly much.

Pop quiz, which sense did I NOT mention in the first paragraph? ... Hint, it's the title of this blog.

When I was younger and I'd go shopping with mom and get bored quickly. I remember walking around behind her touching all the different materials, comparing how some were soft and some where textured. Funny how some things don't change. I do the exact same things, maybe more-so now. Anyway, I remember hiding between the racks and sitting there, the sounds of the mall were muffled by the layers of clothes and the lights were blocked out. I could sit and touch every shirt sleeve in sight without having to keep moving. I could savor every single texture. Of course, I lost sight of Mom many times because of those adventures, thank heavens she had a bell on her key chain that I could follow after to find her again.

My blanket is proof of my love of all things soft, that blue blanket [my bu bankie] was like butter between my fingers. I love soft things in general I guess, especially on me, soft lips, smooth legs, buffed feet, silky hands. I am perpetually covered in lotion. Oh, yes, I have quite the skin regiment.

I love a hot shower. It is one of my most favorite things. I love the feel of hot water on my back, of the light pressure from every drop. I love the sensation of pulling back the curtain to feel the steam escape around me and cool air to fill my lungs. I LOVE a good shower. You can clear your head, say some solid prayers, and literally [as well as figuratively] wash away the day's grime. It's a fresh start.

So you get the picture right? I love the sense of touch. Maybe my nerve endings are on higher alert than the normal person, who knows! Being here has made me appreciate that sense more though. Kisses and hugs [especially from Mom, she gives the best hugs, she's the perfect height], a soft puppy on my lap, a solid high five, a comforting stroke or pat from a friend, the feeling of water rushing around me in the pool. So easy to overlook and so hard not to miss. And I do miss those simple joyous pleasures.

When I come home, all I'm going to say is this: I expect hugs, and lots of them. MYLYB

Roller Skating

I will be the first to admit that I'm athletically challenged, not the most graceful, and ridiculously quirky. That being said, enjoy me making a fool of myself in this video.

Sunny Days

Surely I can get used to this. It's, what, March 6th and here I am with my windows open. That's right, the past few days it's been above 60 outside and I'm taking full advantage of any circulating air I can. Stale air is so, last week. Yeah, we can pretend I didn't write that.

Things are coming to a close with my management rotation and I've gotten along and gotten comfortable with the people there, I'm glad people are more apt to liking me than not, or at least acting like it. But it's time to move on; I have two weeks left of my management experience, and as you've seen I've already been working on my community hours [you've read my WIC newsletter below, right?] I'm happy to be moving on to something different and gaining different experiences in all sorts of different places - renal facilities, WIC clinics, Diabetes camps, and on and on and on... The really great thing is just knowing that one third of my rotations are done. It's not that I don't really enjoy being here, it IS however a lot of work day after day. All those months I had no work and nothing to do were to make up for the constant busyness that I'm going through this year.

I recently ordered and received essential oils in the mail. I added them to the cleaning supplies I made that work phenomenally. I just feel better about cleaning the apartment with healthier and cheaper cleaners than mystery foams in a can. Thank heavens for vinegar and baking soda! Hooray. I think it's a little happy accomplishment to come home after work and know I'm going to find my bed in my room. I just like the apartment being clean, "everything in its place" sort of logic.

My bruises from the damage done during the roller skating outing changing to every color of the rainbow imaginable. Oh, how the body heals. Speaking of that, I got my Biology of Human Aging test grade [which deals with how your body works when you're old, slightly depressing, mostly interesting] back this week. Not too shabby, I'll take a B, and next time I'll study a bit more. My Education Research class had a grouped test on Thursday, group test, hoping we did swimmingly.

In other news, I'd like to announce that I'm proof taking multivitamins and Calcium with Citrate supplements works. My nails used to break and chip earlier in the management rotation because I would constantly be washing them. Now they grow faster and stronger and aren't chipping at all [knock on wood]. If you ever needed a good enough reason to start taking supplements here's my urging you to do so. Round out things in your diet with a supplement, we all need help [but don't go overboard, too much of a good thing ISN'T a good thing. It can, after all, be deadly].

Enjoy the rest of your Saturday, I'm going to hit up a brewery later on tonight after church, one of our 'Things To Do' we can check off on the list. I'll put up my roller skating video this weekend so check back....if you want

Homeward Bound

3.2.07 Bluffton's Bus Accident Anniversary. This year, the youngest student that died would have graduated. After graduation, people will just see the Circle of Remembrance and think of it as something that happened a while back, back before they were there, ancient history, but it's only been three years. Three years and a million light years later...

Those are my stacks of bills sitting there on the table begging payments with money I don't have. That's my apartment key and nobody else's, I made the mess in the kitchen. That's my car sitting there in the lot and I have to scrape ice off in the morning, no garage to park. Here I sit with books and bills, with days that fly and moments that fleet.
You learn quickly the importance of savoring moments, of living life for now because it is all too precious. You learn and yet it keeps on going. Sometimes I wonder why it is we work so hard to accomplish so little in what matters most to us. You can go to work, come home, and have nothing to say at all. Life is the time you make of what's not spent making money [that necessary evil]. If I could just make it easy and live to help myself and others, if only.

If I didn't have to work, I'd probably sit in a very clean apartment baking for family and friends. I'd probably make my crafts, I'd write letters to send in the mail. Who says you have to save all that for retirement when the cataracts set in and your joints don't function so well. I want to do it now. I want to savor it all. I want an open door and possibility. And that's why I'm planning my road trip. Thank goodness I have friends that want to take the journey with me.

I watched the tail end [no pun intended] of Homeward Bound today. That moment at the end where the oldest son thinks the dog didn't make it because he's old got to me. I miss my family dearly. And I know, as does everyone, that feeling you get when something ends: a life, a relationship, a job you loved. It's when change sets in to move you on to some other adventure. It's scary, but its real life. I suppose its the little things at the end of the day that make me miss my family, ache for their company. Just seeing that family together celebrating their reunion brought tears to my eyes. I wasn't much of a crier, what HAPPENED?

Miss you. Love you. Bye

Water & Hydration

During the month of March I'm getting community hours by writing newsletters for a employees at a WIC [Women, Infants, and Children] Clinic here in OKC. Here's the one I sent in today:

“Nutrition From the Ground Up”
March has finally arrived and with it so has National Nutrition Month! The campaign, sponsored by the American Dietetic Association, is used to help better display “informed food choices and developing sound eating and physical activity habits”. This year's theme is Nutrition From the Ground Up, and what better way to start from the ground up than at a cellular level with water intake.

Your Hydration Station
On average water accounts for 60% - 70% of your total body weight and water is essential for the stability of many bodily functions. It plays a role as a structural component in cellular form and transports nutrients throughout the body. Water also helps in the processes of digestion, absorption, and excretion.
Unlike some nutrients, your body cannot store water for later use. You must continuously supply your body to maintain your best level of health and efficiency. On average men should consume 125 ounces of water a day and women, 91 ounces. These numbers account for total water intake, including the food that you eat. About 25% of your water intake is through food alone.
Drink to Your Health!
Even if you do not think you are thirsty chances are your body could stand a few ounces sent down. As your age your 'thirst mechanism' gets weaker even though your need remains the same. So drink to a better complexion, feel fuller and in turn eat less, and feel more productive at work [your brain is made up of mostly water after all].
Tips on Getting It All In

• Set a timer each hour as a reminder to drink a glass.
• Add flavoring like lemon or lime slices for as a refreshing twist.
• Eat fruits and vegetables high in water, like lettuce, cucumbers, watermelon and oranges.
• Milk, coffee, tea, fruit juices, and broths count too [just watch your sugar and sodium intake]
• Carry a reusable bottle with you wherever you go so it's always on hand.