Stickers! The secret to my success.

My time of sloth is nearing its end. A new semester has begun and a new month begins tomorrow. It is a perfect time to start a new challenge and I have (finally) decided what to do.

First, for the month of February, I will only eat food that I have cooked myself from scratch. I will neither purchase nor eat baked goods, vegan cheese, canned beans, and so forth. If I want cupcakes I must bake them myself. There are two exceptions. First is Tofu. Second, I may eat out twice in the month.

I was inspired to do this challenge by this video in which Michael Pollan claims that I can eat anything I want, so long as I cook it myself. The premise is that fattening foods are also labor intensive. It is much faster to cook healthy food than to bake pies and make french fries. So much time goes into making the high calorie dishes, goes the rationale, they will become dishes for special occasions only. I can see this. Think of how long it takes to make a good lasagna from scratch. And apple pie - when you have to make both the crust and the filling from scratch? So that is the first challenge.

Second, in the month of February I will complete a Plank & Jump Rope challenge and 10 Sun Salutation challenge. I'll post the details about those in the next blog.

I am just like the next person when it comes to picking a goal and sticking to it. I suck at it. Witness the month of January. I do believe I will be more successful this time because I have strategy on my side. A recent episode of The Colbert Report featured the author Charles Duhigg who has written the book "The Power of Habit".

Duhigg's main point is that forming a habit (or understanding one) isn't just about repeating an action over and over. It is essential to understand the underlaying reward that entices one to repeat the action. What is it about the habit that really gives you pleasure? 

His epiphany came when he realized the real reason he took a break every afternoon to go to his company's cafeteria for a cookie: He really enjoyed seeing his friends. It didn't matter what he ate, hanging out was the real reward. He stopped getting the cookies - and lost some weight. I can dig it.

I asked myself, in the instances when I have successfully reached a long-term goal, what reward kept me going?

With the juice feast, it was the pleasure of posting pretty pictures of gorgeous veggies. I enjoyed the challenge of arranging them and creating the lighting and deciding on what angle would best show off my masterpiece. I could post pictures of my meals - but that would get tedious after a while since I do tend to repeat meals a lot. 

With the 30 Day Bikram Yoga Challenge, the reward was much simpler: Stickers! 

That is really all it took. Every day for 30 days I endured temperatures above 105F at 50% humidity for 90 minutes of pretzel twisting torture all for the sake of coming down the stairs and plopping myself in front of the receptionist so that she could give me my sticker. It was like first grade all over again. And it WORKED! I am so proud of my little calendar and I can't wait to start a new one. 

Imagine something that simple, inexpensive yet emotionally pleasing being the magic behind your successes. Would it work for you?


Gotta run - I have some grocery shopping to do.

Doing Nothing

It is I 

I have a confession to make. I've been avoiding my blog, circling it as though it were a dangerous wild animal, looking at it sideways, pacing before it. I had a fabulous experience that I could have been blogging about. I finished a 30 day Bikram Yoga Challenge. That's pretty amazing! I started on December second and finished just in time for New Year's Eve on the thirty-first. It felt so good to end the year with another major accomplishment under my belt. Why, then, wasn't I blogging about it?

I'm thinking as I write and I'm realizing that perhaps I was actually rebelling against the driven over-achiever's culturally embedded imperative to always be producing. Without planning it, without acknowledging it, even, I took a break.

In the middle of the Bikram Challenge I started thinking about the next challenge. I needed to have something in place so that I didn't fall into idleness and wreck my goals for lack of planning. I had ideas. A jump rope challenge, a plank challenge, trying out a new style of yoga. It turns out that when I finished the Bikram Challenge, I was finished. I felt no motivation to jump into the next thing.

It has been nearly a month since I have done much of anything. Only now do I realize just how much I needed the down-time. I feel so much more creative and effective. I'm brimming with ideas for my classes (the new semester starts next week) and I have a couple of articles in the works. Yes, I know. Of course. Duh. Everybody knows this. Knowing is only a tenth of the battle.

This break was not my choice, really. I was scheduled to teach a class over the winter session at the institution I serve. The class was cancelled and I found out (due to my own distracted state) too late to line up another gig. I spent a few days panicking and then decided that I was not going to wind up wandering the streets. I had resources; I would use them. And then, uneasily, fretfully, I allowed myself to rest.

Although I have pretty much stayed on course food wise (no dairy or gluten but more carbs and fewer vegetables than I really should do), I've only worked out once since I finished the Bikram Challenge. I planned to make a bunch of videos and even set up my studio. I recorded myself singing one song, took a couple of pictures (see above and below) and that was it. I spent the rest of the time on marathon Hulu sessions and Facebook. I enjoyed being snowed in during the Great Polar Vortex of 0'14. Occasionally I left the house. Last week I started busking again. I'm going to need the money to cover what my savings don't cover until I get my first paycheck sometime in mid February.

Really resting is still new to me, believe it or not. United States culture has a prejudice against resting anyway (the local word for it is "lazy") but at least the tradition of a taking a vacation (inhumanely short though it might be) does exist. Thing is, my family, being from overseas, never caught on to that tradition.  My parents were both students and then both working. We never took an actual family vacation and I never learned how to truly give myself a break. Generally speaking, I work pretty much non-stop.

That ends this year - with one caveat. Next time I will be better prepared so that I can take a month off without worrying about my bills. I will be deliberate about it. I plan to have no plans. Doing nothing is highly underrated. Try it if you can.

The Road to Raw

**Be sure to scroll down to see the pictures**

As I write this I am nine days in to my forty-day juice feast and I feel unbelievably happy! Based on my extensive research into raw feasting (i.e. watching hours of Youtube videos) this is normal but it takes seven-to-ten days to get there. That's why I will tell you now that three-day fasts or cleanses just wouldn't work for me. Things were just reaching the bottom on day three. But I'm getting ahead of myself.  Let me start from the beginning.

I am a recovering cheese addict. Everybody has his or her thing, mine is cheese. I do not say this lightly. I imagine that there are recovering alcoholics who might take issue with my declaration. Believe me, I get their skepticism and I can only ask for an open mind. I am so addicted that I dream about it from time to time. I can eat an eight ounce block of sharp cheddar cheese in one sitting. I like it best cut up into cubes and dipped it in honey. I stalk the cheese aisle at Whole Foods like a crack addict. Oh, fromage!

Once I dreamt that I had to eat my way out of a room of Cheetos(tm). It was the best dream ever. I still remember what the dream looked like. On the morning before I started my fast, I awoke at four am with the taste of pizza on my tongue and my first thought was, "cheese".

Even in California where my mother and father were whipping out these extraordinary vegan feasts I snuck over to the local Bakers a few times for a quesadilla and small french fries (another addiction - though not as acute). I made sure to drive with the windows down to hide the odors from my mother.

When I returned to New York I hit my bottom. Craving cheese, I first considered getting a whole pizza from Little Caesars(tm).  Then I thought, if I'm going to do this, let me at least do it the healthiest way possible. I went to the grocery store and bought two whole wheat hoagie buns (sub sandwiches or grinders to you Californians), a packet of alfalfa sprouts, a tomato, onion, and a half pound of cheese. That's right. A half pound. Because the store won't sell deli cheese in smaller than quarter pound increments and I wanted both cheddar and munster cheese.

I went home with my haul and made the first sandwich, first slathering on a thick layer of mayonnaise on both sides of the bread then filling it with the sprouts, tomatoes, onion and the cheese. Oh the cheese. I sat down on the couch and filled my mouth with that first delicious bite. I paused for a moment to let the flavors fully seep into my mouth before chewing slowly and swallowing deeply. The first sandwich was gone too quickly and I went to the kitchen. The second sandwich was supposed to be for dinner. No matter, I still felt hungry. So I made that second sandwich and it was good.

I did the same thing the next day.  And the next. And the next.  My rational was, alfalfa is expensive. I had to finish the carton.

I am allergic to cheese. Did I fail to mention that? It isn't an allergy, really, and I don't think that I am actually lactose intolerant. The lactose pills do nothing for me. Also, I don't just get gas and bloating when I eat cheese. There is more. It seems that I do not metabolize lactic acid at all. So it comes out as acid. Yeah. Uh huh. That's what happens. And yet I eat it anyway.

This time was different. I happened to be trying out probiotics for a different reason. It seems that the probiotics neutralized the impact of the cheese on my gut or blocked it or something because by the fourth day, I started to experience an entirely different and quite bizarre reaction to the cheese. I started to weep. Specifically, my right eye had fluid pouring out from it at regular intervals. It's like when you are out side in the wind and that causes your eyes to tear up. The sinus pain started and I figured, ah hah. I am totally clogged up in the head.

After three days of this I got worried and went to the optometrist to ask whether I was going to lose my eye. At first he suspected that I had dry eye but then I told him about the cheese. "Ah, yes," he said, shaking his head. Your body is trying to get rid of the toxins." I actually felt a little relieved. I wasn't going blind. "Why do you eat the cheese?" the pert young clerk asked from behind the counter. I just looked at her from over the top of my glasses (I couldn't wear my contacts). "Because," I said. What, really, is an addict supposed to say? I eat the cheese because.

Eventually I banned myself from the cheese counter but I knew that this would be only temporary unless I took drastic action. Every year, sometimes several times a year, I went through binges like this. And when I wasn't binging it was the cheese puffs and the sour cream-and-onion potato chips from the corner deli. I had to do something revolutionary, something I hadn't tried before, something that would completely re-start my digestive system and my brain.

Being at my parents' place was like being at a spa - or in rehab. Being away from familiar people and surroundings is really helpful to an addict's recovery process. The moment I returned to my own neighborhood, my old cravings came back with a vengeance and I tumbled headlong (and with a smile) into the cheesy abyss. I had to stop this cycle.

I couldn't do cheat days or portion control, I couldn't allow myself the possibility of ever touching a morsel of the foods that made me ill. They triggered my cravings and I had to stop seeing them as food in the first place. From now on, food would consist of the following things: Vegetables, fruit, nuts and seeds, legumes, and wild rice. To re-program my body I had to strip everything down to the barest of basics, let all memory of the other substances leave me. They would be like meat has been for all of my life: Non-existent to my palate. For forty days I would consume nothing but raw, unprocessed, whole vegetables and fruit with some nuts and seeds thrown in. Nothing cooked, everything pureed.

I couldn't leave my neighborhood. But I could change how I navigated it. I started to prepare for my juice feast by re-defining what places in my neighborhood were visible to me, rendering the others invisible. Here's what I mean. I already had certain places designated as invisible. McDonald's is invisible to me as is Burger King and Applebee's. These are places into which I simply do not enter.

I prefer to think affirmatively, though, so rather than decide where I could not go, I developed a very special list of places that I would go. These were designated clean spaces, not quite sacred spaces, but safe spaces. There is the Uptown Juice Bar on 125th Street and Serendipity on Frederick Douglass Boulevard and Island Salad around the corner, the farmer's market and the produce section of any grocery store. I made note of juice bars around the city - and bathrooms. Yes, bathrooms. You juice, you pee. It kinda comes with the territory.

I also cleaned up my diet for the week before my juice feast started. I stopped eating wheat and cheese. In fact, I had a ceremonial last pizza, a deep dish from Little Caesars. I ate it over a two day period. I keep the receipt from that one in my bag to commemorate my last pizza. I did eat cooked food - including brown rice and oatmeal. I portioned out my groceries so that I would run out of my non-vegetable groceries on the day before my juice feast began. I worked out five days a week for the two weeks before the feast began and increased my water intake.

Then came the day before my Juice Feast began. Thursday, October 17, 2013. I planned that day out with precision: When and where to buy my juicer, when and where to eat my last cooked meal.  I chose Uptown Juice Bar for my last cooked meal. It was truly delicious.

Breakfast Day One

On Friday morning, October 18, 2013, I walked into my kitchen and began my feast. I deliberately chose to make a high calorie smoothie - bananas and frozen mango. That's my first meal in the picture. I knew that three bananas and two cups of mango would get me through to my next meal without a problem.

Lunch Day One

Meal two was not so bad. I wouldn't put apples and beets together anymore. In fact, I now understand that I am not the biggest fan of beet juice as a general matter. Beets are really strong and I find them best used in contemplated moderation.

Dinner Day One

Dinner was the best. This is actually dinner from day two. I'm not sure what has happened to the photo from day one. Tomatoes and carrots and celery, cabbage and kale with fresh basil and lemon. I didn't even miss the cheese. Mostly.

On the second day I went to the farmer's market to stock up. I had to plan my trip strategically since the great water purge had begun. I was in the bathroom every fifteen minutes or so. I managed to scurry out to the market, very efficiently make my purchases, then race back to my apartment building and the refuge of the bathroom.

I remember feeling hungry that day - and dizzy and weak. I could hear my cells cursing at me, pacing up and down, arms flailing, outraged. This was normal, I knew that. I didn't like it but I knew it. Dinner's rich, sweet tomato sauce helped to ease my suffering.


By day three, I could hear my cells sobbing and begging for mercy. For breakfast I had bananas and blueberries. The sugar rush (uncomfortable until it eased back) helped sooth my body's wailing
somewhat. By lunch, however, the pretense was over. The gloves were of. I was pissed. I finished that noon-time juice and went t
o my room to lay down. After about an hour, my stomach pangs became so acute that I could again hear my belly pleading, now bewildered and unhinged. Then it came to me: I was hungry. And I could eat! I had all that produce there in the kitchen. Nothing said I could only have three juices a day.

The whole point of the raw vegan lifestyle is abundance, FullyRawKristina, said again and again. I could have as much as I wanted, dammit! And so I literally stomped into the kitchen, flung open the refrigerator, hauled out the veggies and threw them into the juicer. After a whirl in the Vita-Mix to add pulp, I poured the juice, dutifully photographed it, then pounded it back like a sailor winning the drinking game of drinking games. It normally took me about two hours to finish a thirty-ounce juice. I swallowed that one in five minutes. I literally felt it hit the back of my throat than drop straight down into my stomach. Thud. I was breathless at the end of it. After another five minutes, I began to feel better. Not good, but better.

I had other side effects. I developed a post nasal drip (also expected) and my skin became very dry. I didn't expect that but then I remembered seeing something about dry skin on a juice feast. And the East Coast suddenly experienced a cold snap. I always had really dry skin in the winter. I slathered on more lotion. I huddled on my bed and watched video after video of various people preparing raw meals. Oddly, watching other people prepare food and eat it (especially watching them eat it) helped me to feel better.

Breakfast

On Monday, day four, I woke up feeling a little woozy but much better than the day before. The worst, it seemed, had passed. I had decided to continue exercising five days a week during my fast. I planned to modify my workout by slowing down and choosing an easier route. I did not, however, remember to reduce my time. In fact, I ended up going fifteen minutes over my normal workout time. I felt invincible! For about four hours.

I teach an evening class on Mondays so I decided to do my laundry during the day when things are quiet. I got a late start and found myself desperately rushing to get the job done. I was tossing dirty clothes into the washer when I became aware that I couldn't move very well. I felt as though I were immersed in a jug of molasses or walking through tar. I tried to grip a bottle of detergent to open it and found that I could not quite grasp it and then I could not open my hand. As I walked, my legs would bend and then I had to focus on straightening them again. Every movement was in slow motion. I wasn't sore - I just couldn't move.

Breakfast

This was bad. Really, really bad. I had to teach that night and I had no idea how long this would go on or whether it would get worse. Eventually I called my mother (she's a nurse practitioner) and confessed to her what I was doing. I told her about my symptoms. Was it a lack of potassium? I doubted it because I had eaten four bananas that morning. She told me to take a hot shower and at the end, turn the water all the way cold. That would shock my muscles and keep me from getting too much stiffer. "I don't have time for a shower," I wailed to her. "Well then, you're just going to have to tough it out."My mom is all warrior like that.

Tough it out is what I did. I told my students about my juice feast (as I slogged through my lunch smoothie). I warned them that I just might clench up and fall over. After they stopped rolling around with laughter they promised to call 911 and take care of me.

There is a great big table and a podium in each classroom. I used both of them to stay upright for most of class. I made sure to have my hand on something solid at all times. Somehow I made it through class and waded my way back home. And found my way to my bed. And wanted to cry because I was going to have to do it all again in the morning.

Tuesday morning, day five, came with a pleasant surprise: I wasn't sore, and I could move! I got up and did my workout (the truly modified version, this time) and felt great! Mostly. I didn't feel as sick, the post-nasal drip had stopped, and my cells had stopped hollering at me and I was getting the hang of the juices.

Dinner to Go

I continued to spend a lot of time on Youtube watching videos about health and nutrition and raw food. It was my way of brainwashing myself, so to speak, so that I came out with a different mentality about what constitutes food. I would walk past pizza shops chanting to myself, "That is not food. That is not food. That is not food." If someone passed me on the street carrying a pizza or eating french fries, I chanted the mantra, "That is not food. That is not food. That is not food."  Before I sat down to drink my juice I chanted, "This is food. This is food. This is food." It works for cults. Why not for healthy reasons?


It took another two days for me to feel completely well and satisfied when I drank the juices. My problem now was getting enough! I chose the raw food method because I love to eat which is perfect because one must eat a lot of raw food to get enough calories. I discovered that I simply was not getting enough. Juicing can be frightfully expensive and time consuming what with the regular shopping and the prep time involved. I developed techniques to significantly reduce the time (I'll be sharing those in later blogs) and I aimed to solve the problem of volume by adding pulp back into my juices. So, really, these we
re smoothies.

It is important to get the juice-to-pulp ratio just right and to slowly increase the amount of pulp in the juice and train the body to handle that much fiber. I remember the moment I discovered I'd gone to far. That was a rather uncomfortable afternoon.

Finally got the breakfast recipe right:
Loads of Collard Greens, only two apples,
1/2 large cucumber, 1/2 lemon, fresh ginger,
5 stalks of celery and a date.

I started writing this blog post on day nine.  It is now day fifteen. By day ten I felt that I had achieved my goal. My plan was for forty days. It turns out that I didn't need forty days. Even though I could still sort of remember what mac-and-cheese tasted like and had a pang of longing when I saw a woman eating french fries on the subway, I felt that I wouldn't be so tempted to go back to eating like that at this point. I truly had developed a self-discipline that I could rely on and, raw solid food really wasn't all that different from juicing taste wise.

I decided to push on for another four days to make it an even fourteen. Then I'd try raw food for another fourteen days before considering whether to bring in cooked food again. That would be just in time for Thanksgiving.

Finally got the juice to pulp ratio right!

I haven't talked about my weight because that really isn't the focus for me. Lifestyle is my focus. Still, I am keeping track and I am taking pictures for before and after. I do find those validating and inspiring. I think I might do a reveal at the six-week mark.

I can eat solid raw food now but I'm slugging back a green smoothie for breakfast. I plan to make that my regular breakfast even when I can eat cooked food. I can't wait for lunch! My adventure in the raw continues.

Going Raw

I haven't posted for a while mainly because life became chaotic yet nothing was happening for a while. Now I see that the chaos was really more like a bunch of puzzle pieces coming together for the next part of this lovely adventure. The camper is safely parked on a farm in Upstate New York, the title arrived on October 2nd (yaaay!) and Farmer Ben helped me to find a mechanic and a carpenter to help me with the transmission overhaul and the interior renovation. Whew! Then things came to a screeching halt. No money.

Having no money is not really a tragedy for me. There was a time, a couple of years ago, when I would have been sweating through the nights, awakening with heart palpitations and angst. Now, I just see it as another problem that will take some time and imagination to solve. My basic needs are being met (rent, food, transportation). The renovation will have to wait as I save up the money to finish it. Meanwhile, I am turning my attention to other parts of my happiness lifestyle re-design.

My lifestyle re-design has three parts: How I care for and nourish my embodied soul, how I give and receive value in the world, and how I shelter myself. My camper belongs in the third category and so I am parking that one for a while to focus on the other two.

Sometime around four months ago, I suddenly found myself becoming obsessed with the idea of raw veganism. I cannot remember when exactly I first saw a Youtube video about the 80/10/10 diet. I'm actually pretty sure that it was last year, actually. The channel is RawRadientHealth.

One channel lead to other channels. I watched a few videos and figured the whole think was some kind of scam. There was just too much similarity between channels, some people were eating nothing but bananas, and the production values were just too good (See FullyRawKristina and MeganElizabeth). It seemed like one big coordinated effort to sell Doug Graham's 80/10/10 book. Then I saw this video from RawRadientHealth explaining why Natasha St. Michael, the host, found it necessary to start eating animal products.  With that, I let the raw thing go.



In June of this year I began looking more earnestly at how I care for and nourish my body. The videos I'd seen before began to pop up again as I searched for information on the internet.  Soon I was watching every video I could - especially from the FullyRawKristina channel. Gradually my skepticism began to fade. While I had reservations about very long term raw diets I decided to do a hard reboot of my entire way of thinking about food. I decided to go on a raw juice feast.  For forty days.

I am currently on day eight. I decided to wait for at least seven days before blogging about it (although I have been posting pictures on Facebook - but for friends only). I really didn't want to have another project of mine start up only to die an ignoble public death. I'm all for experimenting (obviously) and I embrace the wisdom in quickly letting things go when I find that they do not serve me. Still, I do feel a responsibility to follow through on what I start - especially when I publicly commit to it. I wanted some certainty that this would be a journey to celebrate.

I started on Friday morning, October 18, 2013. I don't teach on Fridays and I knew it would be important for me to have as long as possible to adjust to raw juices before even trying to return to civil society. My next class was on Monday night. I figured that nearly four days would get me past the worst of it. We all have plans.

I'll write about what happened in my next blog. For now, I'm going to overcome the second reason I haven't posted anything in a while.

I've dodged posting for the last month because I want to transition to doing more videos but I keep coming up with reasons why things aren't just perfect for that! I've decided to finally stop it and just do it! So here is a little video about my trip to the farmer's market for local organic produce.

Happy Lifestyle Purge: The Prequal

(Be sure to scroll down to my video at the end)

I spent the first three weeks of August visiting with my family in California. That visit was the first in a long time when I can remember actually, truly, genuinely relaxing. During the first week I woke up every morning and took a leisurely stroll down the stairs to find my parents in the kitchen preparing a scrumptious, nutritious, meat free, gluten free and dairy free breakfast.

Dad makes his famous nutty blueberry muffins

After breakfast, we took a nap.  Then we woke up and mom prepared a sumptuous lunch bursting with flavor, color, and nutrition.

Tofu in fresh tomato sauce with sauteed green beans, steamed black rice with lentils and a sweet squash mash

Creamed pumpkin and asparagus with black rice and lentils and soy mutton

My sister had her husband gave their two daughters puppies for their birthdays.  I had the profound pleasure of babysitting them. They usually came over after lunch. I did consider dognapping them.

Caramel and Bambi

I also got to visit with friends whom I had not seen in about twenty years. Amazingly, we seemed to pick up right where we had left off.

Early on Monday morning of the second week my dad woke me up to join him for a hike. This is a tradition between us; we always go hiking together when we are in California. We went hiking several times that week and I lost another five pounds. Here is a video I made of us hiking a couple of years ago. Altitude is an issue (I live at sea level and our California hometown is 1,160 feet above sea level). Also, I'm in much better shape now.

With nothing to do but sleep, eat nutritious food, drink plenty of water, exercise, visit with friends and pet puppies, I truly rested for the first time in ages.  

Now I had the mental space to spend lots of time thinking about how I wanted to organize the next steps of my Intentional Happiness Lifestyle design process. Paring down to 400 things is my most immediate and truly daunting goal. For months I have been mulling over how to begin.

I have a large storage room full of stuff to get rid of. That task hangs like a millstone around my neck. Happily, I found help and inspiration. I have become obsessed with Alejandra Costello's home organizing videos. Here is my favorite. It has revolutionized the way I organize my clothes. I shouldn't admit this but I watch this video whenever I feel stressed out or overwhelmed. Alejandra has this cheerful and calming manner about her that helps me relax.

I had been watching Alejandra's videos for a couple of months and all the tips I had picked up from her over that time suddenly came together; I knew what I needed to do! While I couldn't complete the storage job right away, I could take care of my room.

Oh, my room. My deep and shameful secret. Nothing felt more depressing than coming home each day to that disaster. I literally had to clear a path from my bed to the closet and on my bed I kept a space clear for me to sleep on. Otherwise I was totally surrounded by a mess. I would watch the television show Hoarders just to scare myself, imagining a pathetic future in which I would make the news after the firefighters had to dig me out.

It isn't a hoarding problem as much as it is a messy problem. My breakthrough came when I realized that the main issue was my desk and a storage bench I had placed in front of it. I had intended to use the bench as a seat that doubled as storage. Unfortunately, it was too low so actually sitting at the desk was truly uncomfortable. Additionally, the desk had no drawers and since I couldn't reach it very well (because the bench was in the way), I tended to just throw stuff on top if it. And so it piled up.

It is a pile up no more. Watch this video to see the improvement. I'm not quit finished. In a video about organizing closets Alejandra mentions how she switched from hanging her jeans to putting them in drawers and demonstrates how much more room that gave her (tons). So I still have to get drawers and those under the bed containers for the vacuum bags I store my off-season clothes in.  Still, there is much progress and I am very happy. Enjoy!

Opts Out/Opts In (The Movie): Chapter One

Update Update Update! Here is what has happened with the camper so far.  This update is in the form of a little movie.  I'm thinking to do more of these little movies. It means fewer entries each month but I'm thinking that these are more fun than just text.  It's an experiment!  Enjoy.

Full Speed Ahead!

Things are happening so fast now that I actually don't have time to blog about one thing before the next thing happens. It's funny. All that work in the beginning - the slow, slogging pace of it - and now, all of a sudden, all at once the dreams behind that work are coming true.

I have my New York State Driver license, the camper is insured, I have my Social Security card in my own name (a full two weeks early), and, yesterday, I got the camper registered.  I have plates!!!  It is a temporary registration; I have ten days to get the camper inspected.

Experience has taught me not to wait for anything and so I spent some time this afternoon dialing one number after the other, looking for an auto shop authorized to inspect vehicles for the DMV that also dealt with campers. I finally found someone on Long Island.

Now, to the average Californian, a two hour drive is nothing. The New Yorkers I've talked to all recoil in horror when I say that I'm taking my camper that far for service. I'm just exceedingly grateful to have found a place.

The plan is for me to get the camper from New Jersey in the morning and drive it to Long Island for this inspection. HA! Ok, now that I've gotten that off my chest, I am claiming power and success and calm for this trip. I will drive my 24' pookums over some bridge into New York and then find the Long Island Expressway without getting stuck under some low laying bridge, scalping my baby in the process. I will find the autobody shop and the inspection will go well.  No one will be harmed in the making of this production for Bach Rescue Pastilles are with me. This is a special occasion. Pray for everybody.