Cheating my way through dinner

April 18, 2012

I had a fantastic plan for last night’s dinner.  It was delicious and healthy and used up all of the starting-to-get-old veggies in the fridge.  But I was exhausted last night, so I made an omelet instead.  I hate omelets.

My top priority, in meals and most other things, is my health.  I’m also concerned about money, especially these days, since I don’t know when I’ll be able to go back to work, and there’s still no word on whether or not my long term disability claim will be approved by the insurance company.  Put those together, and it means I’m not eating out.  I live near a lot of restaurants, but take-out is a big no-no for both my health and my wallet.  So instead, I cook.

Cooking sounds like a great idea, right?  It’s healthy and cheap (or can be, depending on how you shop.)  The problem is, it takes energy, and since I live alone, I have to do all the cooking.  That’s why last night’s dinner ended up being an omelet.  That’s why I planned the healthy dinner again for tonight, but again it didn’t happen.

Those veggies in the fridge need to be eaten, but cutting them up just wasn’t going to happen today.  I still made the rice, but I skipped the fresh veggies and instead nuked some frozen ones.  Forget garlic and onion; that’s too much chopping and garlic powder works just fine.  Ok, it’s not as good, but it works!  I use dry beans now instead of canned (to avoid BPA and whatnot) and I cook them in large amounts and freeze them in individually portioned bags.  This works great, but when I thawed them, they didn’t have a ton of great flavor.  Enter garlic powder.  And throw them in a pan for a minute with some olive oil.  Add the veggies.  Splash in the gluten-free soy sauce.  And some rice.  Now let’s see: starch, protein, lots of veggies.  Good enough for me!

Luckily my standards aren’t too high.  I don’t need a 5 course meal.  I don’t need anything fancy.  I don’t even need anything that tastes amazing, just something that doesn’t taste bad.  And with minimal effort and very little energy expenditure, I made dinner!

Those veggies will just have to wait until tomorrow.  Tonight, I feasted on the easy version.  A toast to all of the dinner cheats out there!

If you have a great “easy” version of a meal that you want to share, please add it in the comments!  We can all help each other out with new ideas.

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Getting away at last

April 10, 2012

Peace.  I’m mostly looking forward to the peace.

I love living in the city.  I love being close to friends and activities.  I love being able to get places on public transportation.  I love the opportunities.  

But then there are the downsides.  There’s the ridiculously high cost of living.  There’s the noise and the crowds.  There’s the horrible traffic and lousy drivers.  There’s the lack of nature (in my neighborhood even more than in many others) and the constant bustle.

And that’s what makes this weekend especially great.  I get to keep living in the city, but spend 4 wonderful days away from it.  For a long weekend, I’ll get to take long walks, enjoy fresh air, gaze upon beautiful scenery, and revel in a lack of internet access (only because the place I’m going to doesn’t pay for internet, not because I’m going anyplace *that* remote.)  For several days I can enjoy nature and quiet and peace!

One of the downsides of my current health problems has been that I haven’t been traveling.  If my health had been better, I would have left town at least a few times in the last six months.  I would have visited a friend in western Massachusetts.  It’s a short drive, but I just don’t have the energy to do the trip and then keep up with her and her kids.  I would have gone to New York to visit family.  But that’s way too far for me right now.  I would have probably gone abroad, just because I hadn’t done it in a long time and I was saving up the vacation days at work so that I could go.  Instead, I haven’t left the area in the last six months and it’s really getting to me.  I used to leave town at least 8 or 10 times a year.  Some of the trips were large (Europe!) and some were small (a drive to visit the grandparents) but they always provided a change.  I could really use some change right now.

So at this moment I am counting down until I can get out of town.  It will be a bit tiring, but someone else is driving, and the place I’m going to will be very relaxing.  Plus, I’ll have the company of my favorite guy.  And in the end, I’m absolutely certain that it will be worth it.  I can hardly wait!

How do you handle travel or a lack thereof?  I’d love to know!

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Considering a move

March 28, 2012

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Boston’s weather sucks.

At least, it sucks for me.  In the winter my seasonal affective disorder (SAD) acts up.  In the summer, my autoimmune issues go wild.  Spring and fall are great, but they’re too short for my body.  And last summer pushed me to the edge.  I even looked for an apartment with central air conditioning.  I still wouldn’t have been able to go out much, but at least I would have felt better when I was indoors.  Unfortunately, anything close to the city was out of my price range.  I’ve known for years that one day I’d need to move out of Boston, to someplace that was healthier for me, but I’ve resisted.  My family and friends are here.  This is my home.

But recently some things have shifted.  I’ve been thinking more and more lately about moving.  There’s a lot in my life that I’m not thrilled with now, and I’d love a fresh start.  It’s not that anything is wrong really, it’s just that things are a bit stagnant.  I need to make changes, and I don’t think I can make them here.  And when I think about it, I’d love to try going someplace where the people are friendlier and the costs are cheaper.  And mostly I want to be someplace where I feel better.

So these thoughts have been going through my mind for a while, and then two big things happened last week.  First, we had two days of 80 degree weather.  That is not normal for March.  The temp was bad enough, but the dew point rose too – it was 56 and that’s close to my breaking point.  At 58 degrees I start having real problems.  So I felt really horrible.  And it’s only March.  Of course, this is New England, so yesterday it was 45 degrees and this morning there were flurries.  But this summer will be hot and humid, no doubt about it.

The other thing that happened last week is that a friend told me they were moving out of state.  My first reaction was to be sad they were leaving, but my second reaction was jealousy.  I was incredibly jealous that they were moving away.  Hmm, that’s not the usual reaction.  Maybe that’s telling me something.  Or trying to, anyway.

Last night I had dinner with them, and we talked a lot about it.  They’re moving back to the area he’s from.  They visit a lot and they have friends there, so they know the area and what they’re getting into, which is more than I’d have.  And they’re a couple, so they’ll have each other when they move, which is also more than I’d have.  But we talked about the desire to make changes, to start over, to reboot.  We talked about how exciting it will be to go someplace new (he’s lived here almost 30 years now, so it’ll be sort of new for him, and she’s never lived there.)  They showed me some rental listings they’re finding and the different neighborhoods they’re considering.  She’s on social security disability, so her money will go a lot farther there.  He works but doesn’t have a job in the new place yet.  Still, even if he takes a pay cut, they’ll be doing well.  So in less than two months, they’re going off on their new adventure and I’m incredibly jealous.

My landlord sent me my lease renewal today and I’m actually hesitant to sign it.  I’ll have to sign, because even if I move it won’t be before the renewal date, but I’m wondering if I’ll really be here another year.  I’d hate to leave my family and my friends, but I can’t stay here just for them.  And some of them have been moving away lately.  I need to go live my life whereever.  And it’s not like it’s necessarily permanent – I can always come back!  And of course I’ll be visiting as much as I can.

So now I’m trying to figure out where on earth I can live.  I have a lot of criteria (nice people, great healthcare, possible employment, etc.) but I have one that I have to filter everything else through: the weather.  Somehow I have to find a place with cooler summers for the autoimmune stuff and that also has a lot of sun, even in the winter, for the SAD.  Now that’s a challenge!  I was thinking about Portland, OR, but it’s too grey in the winter.  And there’s southern California, but I’ve already tried it and I wasn’t a fan.  DC/Baltimore is too hot and humid in the summer.  San Francisco is expensive and hilly (my poor knees couldn’t manage the hills.)  So I’m feeling at a bit of a loss.  I’m thinking about Denver or Boulder maybe.  Perhaps some other towns in CA.  But I really don’t know yet.  Those are places I haven’t visited yet, and I can’t consider anyplace seriously until I visit.  But suggestions are welcome!  (It has to be in the U.S. – I don’t have any way to get a work visa anyplace else.)

It’s exciting to thinking about starting something new.  And it’s exciting to imagine living in a place where I can go outside year-round without feeling completely lousy.  That would be amazing!  Who knows, maybe a year from now I’ll be writing from someplace completely different.  And until then, I’ll be dreaming and planning and exploring.  And that’s exciting in itself.

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Posted by chronicrants

Springing past winter into summer

March 21, 2012

I don’t care what your views are on climate change, you have to admit that this has been a very odd winter in Boston.  In my entire life, I’ve never seen a winter like this, and people twice my age are saying the same thing.  We only had two snowfalls worth shoveling, and even those were measured in inches, not feet.  They even melted within a few days.

Wondering what a normal Boston winter is like?  I took this picture in January 2005.  Yeah, exactly.  And this winter?  This winter we hardly had any snow at all.  We saw clear pavement and grass almost the entire winter.  Other parts of Mass. got real snow, but not us.

Most people loved this.  To be honest, I enjoyed it too.  We still had some cold weather, but I don’t mind bundling up in my extra warm coat.  The great part was not having to worry about shoveling out my car or slipping on the ice – because there wasn’t any!  Woo hoo!  I loved not having to worry about my footing (at least, not any more than usual.)

And now I’m starting to pay the price.  When I was a kid in the 1980s, spring started in March.  I used to think I had imagined that, but then I came across an old home video dated March 1986 or so, and sure enough, we kids were outside playing in pants and t-shirts – and no coats.  But then in the ’90s we started getting snow through March and into April, and that became the new norm.  We hearty Bostonians grumpily adjusted to spring starting in April, or even in May.

Today, March 21, it was 80 degrees.  I knew there was a problem within a minute of getting out of bed.  It took me a minute to figure it out.  It was early, so the temp wasn’t too high yet.  And then I realized: the dew point.  I went online and, sure enough, the dew point was 58!  That’s  too high!  At 58 I’m generally already having flares of pain, fatigue, and GI issues.  At 60 I turn on the a/c and avoid leaving the house.  But the a/c isn’t in the window yet, it’s still in the basement, because it’s fucking March!  It’s still winter!

Needless to say, this wasn’t my best day.  It wasn’t the worst, though.  I quickly closed all of my windows this morning and pulled down the shades, and the apartment actually stayed fairly cool.  Too bad that won’t work through the summer.  And I used a/c in the car.  And I drank a lot of water.  Hello Spring.

Mother Nature threw us all for a loop and there’s nothing we can do about it.  I’m glad that in a couple more days the temps will drop 20 degrees.  Everyone else has been going on and on about how fabulous the weather was today, and they couldn’t understand why I didn’t agree.  I guess you’d have to be in a body like mine to understand that.  Personally, I’m looking forward to fall already, to those beautifully crisp autumn days.  Until then, I’m grateful for air conditioners and fans!

 

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If you can relate to this, please pass it along and share the camaraderie!  Thanks!

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