Day 51 - Walmart Super-Centre Super-Star

Enjoyed a piece of super-iced Grand Opening Walmart cake at 8am whilst getting lost amongst the produce and myriad deals.  The camera I brought to take pictures had a zoom and a lens, the whole deal, but I guess I hadn't bothered to charge it.  This is why there aren't any pictures of the giant cake.  It was pretty low-key - no cheerleaders, no Beyonce, no Nickelback.

The Walmart expansion has the Walmart about a block closer to my house; it's a minute less time to walk there.  Wandering around there this morning had me wondering if I like this.  I don't know where the people in the store came from.  I have lived in Guildford for a while and I tend to recognize the same people in the area, often even know their first name and dvd rental history.  This morning I saw no one I know - Not even the pre-Super-centre Walmart employees.  It was a little spooky, like being in Ladner.

Day 49 - Deepawali Curry Feast

 I was planning to get my second blood test today, but I didn't plan my daily YML (Yoga, Meditation, Library) well enough.  It's like GTL, except instead of Gym and Tan, I do Yoga and Meditation.  However you begin, in the end you end up at the Library.  The truth is that I experience some anxiety when it comes to drawing blood from my body.  Tomorrow looks like a better day...

To Lakshmi, purveyor of shakti

Today marks Deepawali, the festival of lights.  I can't think of a better way to acknowledge this celebration of harvest, light, and benevolence than a super-abundant curry feast!

Om Shanti.

Day 48 - Vanity Saves

I have been pretty sick the last few days with some kind of sinus infection/flu.  I was planning on getting my blood test too.  I think it will be tomorrow that I do it; felt crappy enough that I'd rather err on the side of caution -  I am grateful to feel some vitality in these bones again!

In other news, the washing machine at my parent's place is broken.  It floods and then it doesn't go through a spin cycle, meaning the load is a sopping wet mess and can't be dried unless hand-wrung.  Fortunately for me, my washing machine works and my youngest sister likes clean clothes.  She sent her laundry over to my place where I agreed to be her Chinese laundromat.  Naturally, the price was steep for re-living such a painful chapter of my ancestral history.

Cauliflower, Bananas, Onion, Carrots

There was also one-third of a bag of slimy mini-carrots and some lettuce.  To prevent any further spoilage, I had to cook those into a lovely chop-suey.  I am particularly excited about the cauliflower.  This could feed a family for 3 days or one person for a week.  I am dreaming it into a curry or perhaps faux-mashed-potatoes.  Maybe both.  It's bigger than my head and the dreams it dreams.

Day 45 - My Dad Cleans the Fridge

Went to my parent's house on Thursday for some watercress soup.  Incidentally, my dad decided to clean his fridge and I ended up with some great items he would have otherwise discarded! 

Half a tofu brick, a few blueberries, shitake mushrooms, expired bread

I mentioned the puffball mushrooms and he gave me half a bag of shitake mushrooms (which he would not have ordinarily discarded).  In exchange, I gave him a jar of freshly brewed Kombucha!

Black Tea Kombucha

Day 42 - Kombucha Babies

Does anyone want to trade food for kombucha babies?  I have two for trade.  They are very healthy and love people.  Please contact me if you are interested :-)

Day 41 - Apple Festival in Whalley-Hood

UBC hosted its annual Apple Festival this past weekend, showcasing the splendor and variety of this lovely fruit.  I was sorry to have missed it, but what happened today made up for it.

On my way home from the Central City Library, I stopped by Save-On Foods because I was craving cake in the worst way.  I figured that if I could look at the cakes and smell them, it would be sufficient sensory input to simulate having eaten the cakes.  It's vaguely pornographic, I know.  Anyhow, as I exited the store, I found everything really expensive.  I feel like inflation could not have happened that quickly and I must be unaccustomed to purchasing food.  Experts claim it takes 21 days to make or break a habit and tomorrow will be twice that number of days (yay!).

I felt satiated.  It worked.  I decided to take the woodsy way home, down 100th street.  This is where I noticed a number of yard waste garbage bags and what, in the darkness, looked like a potato on top?  I began to dig through the yard clippings.  Apples.  Wild organic apples with some spots.  I grabbed as many as I could fit in my bag and the ones without slugs and sludgy bits.  Guess who was going to have some dessert before the night's end?

The apples and one pear

Gluten-Free Wild Apple Crumble

The cores

The cores as liquid gold (aka apple cider)

Day 40 - Christmas Wishlist Item

On Sunday I went to my parents' garden and dug up some leftover carrots and potatoes!  I also amassed a bundle of dandelion greens and really tough kale chewed up by slugs.  I figure that I can at least juice what remains of the leaves and the stalks.  I also discovered puffball mushrooms (lycoperdon pyriforme) growing in between the patio cracks!  The last time I thought I found one, it turned out to be an amanita - deadly.  This time I looked my specimen over very carefully before eating it raw this morning.  It's been hours later and I feel terrific - edible!  It didn't taste great, kind of musty, but had a great texture...like luxuriously dense bread.  I will go back to collect more to sauté in oil.

My last few posts have been very anti-consumerist and probably come across as a little elitist.  To balance things out, I am sharing one of my Christmas wish-list items, incidentally once a showcase item on a highly consumer-driven program (you see it within the first 10 seconds):

If I had this popcorn cart, I would mainly have it right beside my bed.  On sunny days, I would walk it through the park and delight all with fresh popcorn.  Eventually the citizens of Surrey would want me to run for mayor because of this.  My modesty would prevent me from doing so; nevertheless, Gord Downie would write a song about my cart, and the city would probably erect a statue or paint a commemorative mural.

Day 38 - Lovely Day for a Tea Party

Today I taught a yoga class where the theme was 'occupy your body'.  By being present and connected to source, we can know and express our personal truth, whether that be protesting or not.  It was well-received :-)

On the way home from this class, I walked past the VAG.  The weather was beautiful and so was the entertainment, despite Mao's claim that revolution is not a tea party.  Guess what?  The Christmas Starbucks cups are out!  It wasn't so much a tea party, I guess, as much as a university campus clubs day.  There was hackey sack, a drum circle, random people with clever and poignant signs trying to get others to care about their cause.  No one seemed particularly interested in being there.  Many people with signs almost looked kind of sheepish, like it was some kind of joke.  At the Skytrain platform, around 3 pm, people waited for the train, signs and flags neatly folded, ready to head home (maybe in time for hockey). 

I realise my last post was probably a little cynical and harsh.  I really wanted to go and prove to myself that these people believed in something and that this was their truth.  Sadly, I didn't see that.  I don't think the general public wants change.

"For everything you want in life, there is a price you must pay, in full and in advance. Decide what you really want and then determine the price you'll have to pay to achieve it...Whatever you want you'll have to pay a price measured in terms of: sacrifice, time, effort and personal discipline. Decide what it is and start paying that price today." 

-- Brian Tracy

There is a price to pay for the kind of change some people want and I don't think it will come from simply occupying the VAG lawn (unless Starbucks/Tim Hortons/McDs/Walmart has to shut down because they can't find anyone to run their stores, as they are all protesting).  I truly believe that the price is abstaining from corporate products - from gas, iPhones etc.  It is very simple and something that has been said countless times.  I know it isn't easy -- the past month has been tough, and it's only food (which I love).

Instead of 'Buy Nothing Day', it needs to be 'Buy Nothing Month'.  If everyone who 'occupied Vancouver' or any other city today could support one another in doing this, I think the 99% would have a stronger voice.  The problem is that we can't bear to sacrifice comfort and convenience.  The truth, it seems, is as bitter as finding out that horse chestnuts are inedible.

Day 37 - Abandon Wall Street

October 15th (tomorrow) the Occupy Wall Street movement comes to the Vancouver Art Gallery and environs.  I was thinking about checking it out:  I am a disenfranchised university graduate dissatisfied with the status quo.  In particular, the way we love things and use people.  This protest is kind of an umbrella-protest against just everything that is wrong with the world.  It's like throwing a tantrum because everyone and everything is unfair and you are really frustrated and don't know how to fix anything.  Like the hockey riots, it's a cry for help with the real issue being spiritual malaise.

At any rate, I have decided that 'Abandoning Wall Street' seems like a better idea.  Why not stop buying things?  'Wall Street' and most people pay attention when their money is at stake.  This is the issue, right?  People with money and 'power' making decisions from their wallets rather than their sense of conscience.  Stop buying shit and see what happens to the stock market. 

Stop going to the grocery store.  I think the Post-Apocalyptic lifestyle is a much better form of protest.  I noticed that the Occupy Vancouver Wishlist includes many shelter and electronic items, but no food items.  Maybe I missed the part about the hunger strike.

How much food will the protesters purchase as they occupy the city?  The profit from that food goes right into the pockets of the shareholders of SBUX(Starbucks), KFT(Kraft), MCD(McDonald's) and many others.  In conclusion, I think Occupy Whatever is a waste of time and effort if change is the true objective.

Day 36 - The Only Cure for the Blues...

...Is more chocolate!

A few years ago, Jessica Seinfeld (yeah, Jerry Seinfeld's wife) came out with this cookbook titled, Deceptively Delicious with recipes like spinach cupcakes and black-bean brownies.  The goal was to trick children into eating nutritiously without even knowing it!  Trés sneaky!  Having on hand a ton of cooked azuki beans, I decided to attempt something in that vein, azuki bean brownies...

Azuki Bean Brownie

They don't look very appetizing, but I assure you, they are tasty in that vegan-healthy kind of way.  Did I mention they also happen to be gluten-free?  I've been making a lot of waffles lately; I am trying to conserve how much flour I use, which means gluten-free is wonderful by my books.

Day 35 - Bored

Realized that I've been eating a lot because I am bored.  Ordinarily, I would just be anxious about getting fat and come up with some kind of torture and deprivation regime, but the anxiety now extends to supply-related issues.  It could have been the full moon, it might have been the congo -  I decided that bangs would be the perfect solution to everything.  If they didn't turn out, I could obsess over that and divert my attention to fixing them.  If they did turn out, my self-esteem might see a nice boost and maybe I'd eat less.  Either way, this seemed like a great idea.

When I woke up this morning, I saw that my hair is now a symptom of the general indecisiveness ruling my life.  I cut one side too short, as often happens when you self-cut.  But, I liked the longer side so much that I couldn't quite bring myself to match the lengths.

The shorter side

The longer side

The front

I think I should keep it like this as a reminder to be more decisive.  This will be my wrist tattoo that says 'courage' or 'silence' or whatever.  Besides, asymmetry is still considered high fashion, n'est-ce pas?

Day 34 - The B12 Solution

This Thanksgiving my sister who is going to be the world's best physiotherapist, told me that our bodies store B12!  This means that I can ingest a lot of B12 in one sitting and that B12 will be doled out to as my body requires it.  The body is so intelligent. 

The take-home message is that I don't need to 'ration' B12-rich foods; in fact, it would be best to consume them all now and rest assured that over the next few months that is all taken care of.  The trick is to figure out how much is enough.  While you can't have too much B12, over-consumption is rather wasteful in the current climate.  From Wikipedia, the recommended daily intake is 2 to 3 mcg.  Each packet of Emergen-C has 25 mcg.  So, I need about 180 mcg total (upper-bound estimate), which is about 8 packages of Emergen-C and I have more than that many.  Problem solved.

The anti-anemia triumvirate is folate, B12, and iron.  These are necessary for red blood cells, which do important things like carry oxygen through the body.  Dizziness, weakness, fatigue is due to a lack of oxygen.  I believe I have all three covered and look forward to my next blood test results. 

Day 33 - Chicken Paninis

This Thanksgiving Saturday while working at Kumon, I discovered a dumpster of Chicken Paninis (and garbage)!  I was hesitant at first, since I didn't know how long they had been in the dumpster, however with the weather the way it is, a dumpster is similar to an 'ice box'.  I wasn't going to eat them, being a vegetarian, but saw rather the market-opportunity to barter with the omnivores in my life.  My sister came out shortly, wondering why the garbage run was taking so long.  I showed her the find and seeing the expression on her face, left them there.  The new rule is: No dumpster-diving in my work shirt or near business hours.

This is a $6 sandwich!

Day 31 - Still Alive?

One month later and I am still alive.  Visited the dentist and she says my oral situation is indicative of someone with not enough B12.  I looked up B12 and the reason I have not been updating is likely due to this deficiency.  I seem to get tired rather quickly and prone to kind of negative moods.  My original B12 plan was kombucha (and it is flourishing!).  The only problem is that the B-vitamins kombucha produces are B 1, 2, 3.  I will instead be taking the Emergen-Cs that have B12.

I have been eating a lot of waffles lately.  I love lakes of syrup in my waffles and so now I don't have very much left.  I am thinking of getting some syrup from McDonald's tomorrow morning.

What I miss most (besides cake) is social eating -- the thrill of choice: choosing a restaurant; deliberating over menu items; customizing a Subway sandwich.  Yesterday I was feeling a little low (no Emergen-Cs on hand) and I ordered a soy tea misto from Starbucks, knowing that the soy would be fortified with B12.  How fortunate I was to encounter the last operational Starbucks before it was demolished.  Definitely miss the luxury of this.

I have been thinking about this project and some of the feedback I've received.  This idea seems completely normal to me, yet I often encounter a reaction of disbelief and horror.  I accepted this as a lack of ascetic resolve and sense of adventure on part of the critic.  My sister told me that my dad asked two questions when he learned of my project: Does she need money?  Is she lonely?  The first question makes sense, but the second is puzzling.  I guess what I am saying is that I am questioning my sanity and reason for doing this.  I then start to wonder if my mind is asking this because the project is getting a little difficult.  And, is this type of over-analysis the by-product of loneliness?  More practice required.

Not sure what I will make for Thanksgiving yet...but it will involve blackberries or azuki beans.  Quite possibly some variant of Kale and Azuki Bean Salad or Azuki Paste.

Day 26 - Free Taco Day

Oh, I almost forgot to post about the free tacos!  On the way home from my sister's Kumon centre, we spied a sign for free tacos.  At first, the other occupants in the car were skeptical because it was a sign made out of cardboard and they probably thought it was some kind of trap.  I get that.  You could trick a lot of people to Pickton farms that way.  BUT, there was another sign and I refused to let it go.  The last time I 'let it go' and now we don't have a canoe.  That's right, my sister refused to stop to pick up a perfectly good canoe from a dumpster.

Anyway, despite the home-made signs, it was free taco day at Taco Del Mar establishment in Clayton Heights (some kind of anniversary).  There was barely a line. I guess other people were put off by the less-than-legit-looking signs and that worked to our advantage.  Like most things, tacos taste so much better free :-)