New News (Almost!) And Other Things on the Horizon...

Holy moley there are a lot of things going on these days, all while not much is going on.  (For a perfect example, right now I've settled into the lifestyle of my 63 and almost 77 year old parents - waking up early, running errands, going to the gym, making dinner, in bed by 9:30.  It's not a bad life, but it's also good when I can break out and have some social time with people who don't qualify for senior citizen discounts…)

That said, there a life change that is coming (details have to be ironed out before I tell them all, but it's going to be pretty cool, I promise), and because I have some time before that opportunity starts, I've made a few goals to be completed in the interim.

I've got about 100 days to be here, in Lacey, spending time with my parents, and being able to focus on some things that sometimes fall by the wayside when I'm living elsewhere.  These goals are pretty damn optimistic, but that's at least partly why I'm putting them out there on the interwebs.  Group accountability, or peer pressure to not fuck up, as it's also called.

So today is September 10, and 100 days from now is December 18.  By then, I would like to say that I have achieved all these goals, and I do truly believe that if I do, I'll be in a great (and way better) place, mentally, emotionally, and physically to begin the next adventure.  Ready?  Here we go…

By December 18, 2015, I will:

1. Finish the School Nutrition class I am currently enrolled in
2. Begin and finish the Childhood Wellness class that is the second in that certificate program
3. Plan, write, and layout my coffee table book - get everything done except getting it published
4. Post all the pictures that I took from my trip over the summer on facebook
5. Send out the letters and cards that are on my "send these things to people" list
6. Spend 50 hours improving my Irish and old-timey fiddling
7. Spend 50 hours practicing the guitar
8. Complete a 100 day burpee challenge
9. Complete the 100 Happy Days challenge on Instagram
10. Do one thing every day that I have never done before
11. Complete my LinkedIn profile (and make it absolutely kick ass)
12. Write and publish 35 blog posts
13. Write 7 food-based articles/papers
14. Read 5 books of at least 200 pages
15. Sell 100 pieces of Silver Hilltops Designs jewelry
16. Write and send 5 letters to inspirational women in the world
17. Go to the gym 35 times
18. Complete 30 swimming workouts
19. Run 150 miles
20. Master 5 Julia Child recipes

Now these are certainly not going to be easy - definitely some of them, I'm already wondering if I can get them all the way completed in that space of time.  But 100 days isn't nothing - and I'd like to think that if I can stay motivated, I can do all of these things.  (I mean, look at this - already today, I've done 1 burpee, I've gone to the gym, I've written a blog post, I've instagrammed my happy moment, and I've learned something new.)

WHEW!

Let's see how this next 99 days goes….keep me accountable, internet!

-Bethy

settle?

Sometimes I get really exhausted.

I was thinking about North Carolina last night, as I was falling asleep, and it occurred to me that the 10 months I spent there - living, working, doing online classes, hanging out with friends - in some respects it doesn't feel very real.  I remember leaving New Jersey after my JV year, and thinking that I couldn't possibly be moving again, and that although I didn't know what the hell I wanted to do with my life, or where I wanted to be, I was getting so. damn. tired.  Just so tired of moving, of uprooting myself, and that the excitement of packing everything up and going on yet another adventure was waning.

And since that move away from Newark in 2010, I've done it 3 more times.  Newark to Bethel, Bethel to Boone, Boone to Lacey, Lacey to Boston.

I'm tired.

I still love the adventure, but as I begin 2013 (with a little better idea of what I want to do with my life, but with the same amount of hopelessness in regards to where I can find a job like that), it also occurs to  me that making friends, feeling at home in each new place is getting harder.  And for me, who exists the best with expansive support systems, feeling that isolation, even in the midst of a super busy life, is hard.

I have this incredibly full life in Boston - school (classes at BU and online classes) and work are enough to take up more than 30 hours a day, but it's hard not to romanticize the days when I felt more included in a social group and less like someone who has friends at work and friends at school and friends who I can call occasionally to get a drink (if I ever have the time) but no one who can fit in all these places.  I miss having people around me who know enough about all the different facets of my life to understand stories I tell about my horrendous day at work, or that time I got blackout at the bar and fell down on the sidewalk, or how I'm having a hard time handling the workload in Anthro. (true story - this class hasn't even started yet, but we got the syllabus, I'm terrified.)

And this work is probably of my own making.  And I hope that as 2013 surges ahead, I'm able to help myself do this - I can't hide under the mask of "this is my first semester and I'm just trying to get the lay of the land" anymore.  I'll need to own up to the feelings of "I miss my sister" and "I miss my boyfriend" and "I miss my high school/college/Ireland/Bethel/JVC friends" because they have existed in their contexts, and perhaps I just need to buck up and create a context for Boston.  I know that there are people out there in this big city that love me, and I know that, in this respect, I need to push past the exhaustion - maybe just this one more time.  (hahaHA ok, let's be real - one more time??  Even I'm not delusional enough to believe that...)

Forever on the run,
Bethy

Same Love

In our last class on Monday, my policy and systems professor, who is absolutely amazing (and one of the most academically recognized and respected people I know) spoke to the class about the importance of the food systems analysis we'd been trying to understand all semester.

She spoke about human rights and human right to food and water.  She's been working on high profile cases for years, and is well known in human rights advocate circles.

And then she spoke passionately about the civil rights movement, and how she had watched it, from the beginning, and seen it transform the world.

And all I could think of was this:

I hope that some day, and some day soon, the pockets of people that believe that others cannot love whoever they want will not exist.  Until that happens, I will fight for love - anyone and everyone's love.

Love, Bethy

From winter to summer...

It's been forever.  Well...if not forever, then at least two seasons.  In these two seasons, I have...

1.  Been accepted to graduate school, and chosen to attend Boston University for a Master of Liberal Arts in Gastronomy with a concentration in Food Policy!

2.  Mastered making a cappuccino.

3.  Quit my job at Earth Fare, and said goodbye to Boone, NC.

4.  Moved back in with my parents in Lacey, WA.

5.  Undertaken my parents' 1 acre absolute mess of a backyard as my "summer job".

6.  Made homemade ricotta (it's easier than you think it is, and tastes like heaven!)

...I'm sure there's more, but that's for another post.  (Along with my results of 24 of 24 that I posted last year as I was turning 24.  I'll be 25 in about a week and a half - probably I'll come up with another list of things to do, haha.)

Love, Bethy

Mothers, food allergies, and beautiful music

I had food allergies as a child. Many, many allergies (though, as it turns out, not as many as my sister). Two children with different food allergies made it hard for my mother, so, with few exceptions, what one child couldn't eat, the other child didn't either. I know that Lisa couldn't eat wheat when we were young, and to this day, I don't know if I was allergic as well, or just brought along for the ride, but as kids, my sister and I ate more strange grains than I can count. Quinoa (keen-wah) was one of those grains, and though I'm not really sure if my mother ever made a cake out of quinoa flour, my family grew up joking about our quinoa birthday cakes. I do know that we had some cakes made out of wacky ingredients, thanks to cassette tape audio recordings of all the birthday dinners at my home.

One of the things that I was allergic to was milk. Regular (cow's) milk. I remember trying to eat cereal plain - gross. I even once poured orange juice over it - bad idea, but my mother made me eat it anyway because we didn't waste food (and let's be honest, she did warn me about how icky it would be before I did it...). Well, since I could not have milk, and soy milk wasn't everywhere in stores like it is now, we got goat milk from a local farm for me to drink. I don't remember too much about the goat milk in particular, except that I did drink it, so it couldn't have tasted that bad, but all I wanted was some of Lisa's "cow's milk". Of course it was called cow's milk, because my milk was just "milk". Being jealous of Lisa's "cow's milk" was one of the most clear memories of my childhood.

I don't have any food allergies anymore - my mother, bless her, got involved in Applied Kinesiology, and we did lots of muscle testing, and we cured the allergies. Now, some people say Applied Kinesiology is bunk, and some say it's a wonder cure. I don't really care what other people say - it worked for me, and I can drink milk now, so there you go.

I'll leave you with a picture of my mother and me in London in 2007. After my term in Dublin, we traveled all around England and Scotland. Here we are in Trafalger Square, on what I remember was a really really hot day.

And for the beautiful music, I'm currently listening to the Glacial Erratics, four women who have an incredible gift of music. Here's what they have to say about the "Wide Blue World", on their Tides of Change CD.

Go tell my mama

Tell my papa too

Go tell the neighbor boy, and the friends I knew in school

I'm leaving Dixon

Cross that south coast county line

I'm off to see the wide blue world

The wide blue world, the wide blue world

Such a big open space for a restless little girl

I don't know if, or when, I'll be coming back again

From the wide blue world, the wide blue world.

Now I got my guitar, I got my trusty mandolin

I got a shawl around my shoulders and a picture of my kin

I've got my change of clothes, and my sturdy walking shoes

A little money in my pocket for the wide blue world...

Love, Bethy