Drinking my way through my meals, and sleeping in late: A health update

Lately I haven’t been real interested in solid dry foods.  There are times it’s almost impossible for me to swallow it down.  It just gets chewed into a bolus that never goes down.  So I’ve been drinking a lot of juice, shakes and smoothies, and eating a lot of fruit, soups, stews, and stuff with lots of sauce.  Meat is no prob for some reason.   I really miss chips.

Veggie/fruit juice blends have been a real help.

It's ironic because I've been taking a lot of steps to improve my health.  Daily yoga, meditation guided by my Headspace app (Day 5!), multivitamins and krill oil capsules.  I've adopted the Pomodoro technique to keep from getting lost in fanfic bliss.  I take five minutes every hour to get up, move around, do a crazy dance to get my heart rate up.  I spent more time socializing with my parents in the evening.  I'm cooking more and writing again.

After struggling with my sleep cycle since I was ten, I've made a big change and gone mostly nocturnal.  It's a huge relief and has done so much for my mood, productivity, and motivation.  I used to either sleep too much or too little, struggling to sleep sometime before midnight, then two in the morning.  I was sleeping too little and then sleeping too much to make up for the debt.  Last semester I made the mistake of taking a 9 am class - my school is 35 minutes away, so I was getting up at 7 am. I ended up getting almost daily anxiety attacks, less than five hours of sleep a night, and dropped half of my classes.  By some strange miracle I got a B+ in Latin.  What the hell.

Semi-nocturnalism has been treating me well.  I sleep from 3 am to 11 am or from 4 am to noon.  Except on weekends, I don't let myself get more than eight hours of sleep so the schedule stays more or less fixed.  This semester I'm being very, very conservative and taking only two classes - one MWF at 1-2pm, and a fabulous film critique course on Wednesdays from 6:30-9:15 pm.  I couldn't have made this change in my sleep without a late class schedule - thank God I don't have a roommate and I have a kitchen to cook in!  I wake up, go to class, come home, meditate, do a little studying, yoga, fun stuff.  I may make dinner.  Mom comes home, I hang out with her.  We meditate together with Headspace.  More work may be done.  She goes to bed, I go upstairs.  

This is when I get the real work done.  Nightime does something to my brain - I feel more real, more connected to the world and my own creativity.  It's quiet.  No one comes in to distract me.  My cat sits on my lap.  I can listen to what I want, watch what I want, read what I want without anyone noticing emotional reactions to a story.  Latin is tolerable and sustained learning actually achievable!  I watch films for my critique class.  (Our teacher is a professional critic for the Plain Dealer.  How cool is that?)

I'm real.

My parents are okay with it.  Dad's a little resistant but he's seen how much better I am now that I'm following what my body's needed all along.

I know that it won't be easy, that my schedule is far from the norm and if I stick with this I probably can't get a 9-6 job.  But publishing and writing is me.  And sleep-deprived and miserable is no way to go through life.

Darlings, if you are morning people, we may never meet.  We live in the same area but I live in a different sleep time-zone than you.

Recipe - Baked Apple with Creamy Calvados

Baked Apple with Creamy Calvados

adapted from http://www.molliekatzen.com/recipes/recipe.php?recipe=roasted_apples )

This dessert is not nearly as decadent as it appears.  No sugar, greek vanilla yogurt instead of ice cream.

 (Makes 2 servings, about 260 calories each)

Ingredients:

2 gala apples

Cinnamon

1oz Calvados brandy

1/8 tsp Modena balsamic vinegar

16 almonds

2 tb Chobani vanilla nonfat Greek yogurt

Nonstick cooking spray

Preheat oven to 425^ degrees F.  You should arrange the top rack near but not tight against the top of the oven.

1. Spray a ceramic baking dish with nonstick spray.
2. Core and cut up apples into thick chunks.  Don’t peel.  Place apple chunks peel down, in a single layer.  It’s fine to crowd.
3. Sprinkle a dusting of cinnamon over the chunks and put the dish in the oven.
4. Bake the apples for 30-35 min, until the apples are soft, and a fork pierces the flesh with ease.
5. Toast the almonds while the apples are baking.  Heat a small skillet with raised edges over medium heat and then add the almonds.  Keep an eye on them and shake the skillet lightly every twenty seconds or so to move them around.  Don’t take your eyes away.  When they start to get a slightly darker brown, and you can smell them, take off heat and spill onto a smooth dry towel. 
6. Fold the towel around the almonds (so you can crush them without losing any pieces), lay over a cutting board and use a mallet or a bowl bottom to crush the almonds into pieces.
7. When the apples are done, take out of the oven and use a spoon to transfer equally between two deep soup/cereal bowls.
8. Pour one ounce of the Calvados and a tiny bit of balsamic vinegar into the baking dish, scrape around with a spatula to deglaze the dish.  Pour off into a small cup and let stand.  It will thicken slightly.  (I like to use the same measuring cup I used to measure the Calvados).
9. Toss each bowl of apples with a tablespoon of the vanilla greek yogurt until the pieces are evenly coated.
10. Sprinkle with the almond bits.
11. Pour half of the deglazed Calvados sauce onto each bowl, sprinkle a little more cinnamon on top, and enjoy!

Food - Beef Barley Soup

Beef Barley Soup with Kale Ribbons

This is a satisfying, super-hearty, meaty stew.  Full of vegetables, beans, and ribbons of kale, and tender chunks of beef.  Pearl barley adds to the heartiness instead of rice, while miso paste adds saltiness and a nice hit of umami that only makes the meaty taste more savory.  Make a big pot, and freeze it in individual servings for a nice treat on rainy day or when you’re feeling under the weather.

You can stick to the same amounts of vegetables, but you can alter the amount of beans, carrot, celery, and diced tomato to your own preference.  The kale will thicken up the broth at the end, and lend a lovely pop of green color to the soup.

Ingredients

Six to eight short ribs with bones (you can use boneless, but the stew will not be as flavorful, and the meat will not be nearly as tender!)

15 cups of beef stock

4 + 4 cups water

1 ½ cup mixed dry beans (I like using a 15-bean soup medley, you can find these in most grocery stores in bags)

1lb pearl barley

10 cups chiffonade-sliced kale

Two tomatoes diced

1 large onion chopped (1lb)

3 cloves chopped garlic

As many chopped carrots as you want

3-4 ribs chopped celery

1 tbl Salt

1 tsp black Pepper

Healthy shake of white pepper

4 tbl Miso Paste

2 tbl tomato paste

1. The night before, soak beans in water.
2. Chop veg, onion, tomatos, etc.
3. Get a really, really big soup pot.  The largest pot you have.
4. Drain the beans, put them, the carrots, onion, barley, tomato, celery and garlic in the pot.
5. Pat salt and pepper onto the dry short ribs, then place them in the pot.
6. Add the salt and pepper in.
7. Pour in 15 cups of beef broth/stock.  Add the tomato and miso paste.  Stir.  Add 4 cups of water, stir.  Turn the stove on to high, and then turn down when the pot begins to boil.
8. Let simmer for three hours, stirring every half hour or so.  Adjust seasoning as you go.  Top off with water if it gets too chunky.
9. Fifteen minutes before serving, fish out the short ribs and cut the meat off the bone into chunks (if it hasn’t fallen off the bone already).  Add the meat back into the pot.  Stir in kale and boil for three to six minutes.  The liquid will thicken and go creamy right away.
10. Take off heat and serve.  Soup is best when served with cornbread and parmesan cheese sprinkled on top, but toasted slices of a hearty bread will be good too.  Yum!

Mispronunciations can be quite funny.

I misspoke.

So I’ve been working on a fairy tale novel (the Land of Four Seasons), and it includes a Prince with a magically sharp axe.

Since it is so sharp, naturally he isn’t allowed to use it until he’s old enough.  I was talking to a friend about this, but instead of ‘magic axe’, I ended up saying,

“Naturally, it isn’t until he’s old enough that they let him touch his magic ass.”

Daily Writing Style Complaint #7

Misspelling definitely as defiantly. 

‘That girl is defiantly pathetic.’

‘The situation was defiantly going nowhere.’

Lakewood Literary Club - My First Meeting

Just a quick shout out to everyone.  Yesterday I attended my first meeting at the Lakewood Literary Club.  Everyone there is so passionate about writing.  And so nice!  It’s a bit of a drive, (42 minutes!) but well worth it.  Nearly a three hour meeting!  Mostly uninformed, I packed some food for sustenance, but there was a whole spread waiting for me.  Wine too.  No one carded me (I don’t look my 25 years).

I came in expecting I would enjoy myself.  I left glowing, and determined to go to every meeting I can.  Human contact with people who share my interests, truly a wonderful thing.

Another plus – now I have deadlines for The Land of Four Seasons.  While the first draft is some 21,000 words, it needs expanding.  I’m aiming for 50,000 words at least.  This is my summer project.  Ambitious, I know.  As usual I’ve neglected my writing in lieu of reading as much as I can without permanently bonding to my chair.  Now that I plan to regularly read excerpts from LoFS, I need to get going!  

Daily Writing Style Complaint #6

Misspelling definitely as defiantly. 

‘That girl is defiantly pathetic.’

‘The situation was defiantly going nowhere.’

Daily Writing Complaint #5 - Writers Write

So this is not actually one of mine, but its so spot on I thought I'd share it.
This is from Writers Write.

"Very" or "Really"

Mark Twain said it best: "Substitute 'damn every time you're inclined to write 'very;' your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be'. The words "very" or "really" are just another way of increasing the value of a word without adding anything descriptive. You're also using two words when one would suffice, and unless you're getting paid by the word, it's best to avoid. Instead of saying "very loud" like in the first sentence of this article, use "deafening," "thunderous," or "piercing."

2. Suddenly

"Sudden" or "Suddenly" is another practically useless word. Anton Chekhov once said "Don't tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass." The word "suddenly" tells the reader the moon is shining. It's telling the reader what to feel instead of forcing them to feel it. Let the sentence or the action itself jar the reader into feeling the suddenness of the action. "Suddenly" ironically slows down the action and delays the actual suddenness of the sentence. There's no actual replacement for the word, either. Just don't use it. Let the silence speak for itself to convey your message.

3. "Amazing" or "Awesome"

Both of these words are meant to convey very specific feelings. "Amazing" means "causing great wonder or surprise" while "awesome" means "extremely impressive or daunting; inspiring great admiration, apprehension, or fear." There are two great reasons to not use these words. First, it falls into "telling and not showing," that is: telling the reader how they should feel or how the character feels instead of actually describing it in a way in order to convey that emotion.

The second reason to avoid these words is simple: they are over used. Everything, these days, is either awesome or amazing. Seriously, ask yourself the last time you've used either of those words to describe something innocuous like a hamburger or a delightful chocolate dessert. To quote Louis CK, "As humans, we waste the [expletive] out of our words. It's sad. We use words like 'awesome' and 'wonderful' like they're candy. It was awesome? Really? It inspired you to awe? It was wonderful? Are you serious? It was full of word. You use the word 'amazing' to describe a [expletive] sandwich at Wendy's. What's going to happen on your wedding day, or when your first child is born? How will you describe it? You already wasted 'amazing' on a [expletive] sandwich."

If you intend to use these words, it's worth asking if what you're describing really is 'amazing' or 'awesome' in its true sense. If it is, find a way of letting the audience feel that. If you aren't using the true sense of the words, there are alternatives like "neat," "delicious," "outstanding," or <insert other words that will fit better without entering into the realm of cliche hyperbole>.

4. That

"That" is a handy word and isn't always useless, however it's also commonly a crutch without a purpose. Whenever you're about to use the word, ask yourself if there is a better way to avoid it. Consider this sentence: "I saw the grail that shined brightly." The sentence is weak, right? Change the sentence entirely by avoiding the pitfall of the word "that" by rewriting it to "I saw the brightly shining grail." The sentence sounds much cleaner now, right? Also consider "I think that all puppies are adorable." Just remove the word from the sentence to make it cleaner once more: "I think all puppies are adorable." Any time you're about to use the word, ask yourself it there's a cleaner way of phrasing your sentence, or if the sentence makes sense without it. If it does, just ditch the word entirely.

5. Started

"He started running." "She started dancing." "The dog started jumping." All of these sentences are passive and slow. "Started" serves to slow down the sentence and little more. Instead, remove the word from your vocabulary. "He ran." "She danced." "The dog jumped." Any action performed is one started. If you want to signal that the action is a continuing one, add descriptors after. "He ran tirelessly past the starting line." "She danced all night long." "The dog jumped repeatedly." Each sentence provides a better scope of time than using the word "started".

Started isn't a word to avoid without exception, however, but it's pretty close. The car didn't "start", it "roared to life," for example. One time you can use the word "start", though, is when there's something that has a definite starting time. "I started writing in the 8th grade." These opportunities occur rarely, and it's much better to try to avoid the word as best you can. There are much stronger ways to communicate your point.

Daily Writing Style Complaint #4

Repetition of words that weaken your prose.  Try to cut out any unnecessary ‘really’ or ‘very’s.  Bold, direct statements grab the reader’s attention better.

I really found this impressive, because…

OR

I found this impressive because...

This element impressed me, because…

It was a very trying time for me

OR

It was a trying time for me.

Daily Writing Style Complaint #3

Using the word ‘orbs’ to describe eyes, particularly ‘azure orbs’.  People do not have spheres of lapis lazuli in their eye sockets.