Thursday, March 29, 2012
Dukan Diet day 35
Its been 5 weeks and I can finally move up a notch on my belt. Some of my jackets are starting to feel a bit loose. I have jackets I have barely worn. My task in the next 5 weeks is clear. Wear all the underused, about to be TOO BIG, jackets. Yippee.
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
Dukan Diet Day Day 27
After a glorious moment at 148.6, I have been hovering around the 149.6-150 mark for the past few days. Since my diet hasn't changed, it has to be water, sleep and activity. Have been spending days crouched over a desk in a semi-fetal position. This no doubt is the root cause of the fact that I weigh a mere 0.4 lbs less today that I did 7 days ago, despite a week of deprivation. At that rate of weight loss, I could stay on the Cruise phase for years.
Also forgot to keep up with my oat bran with perhaps predictable results.
The real test starts tomorrow. We are off to a conference for four days. We might need to eat veggies with our protein for those days or we just won't be able to find anything to eat.
Today, stairs, stairs, stairs--and of course many hours crouched in a near-fetal position.
What keeps me going is that I now can wear some clothes that I put aside a year ago intending to get rid of them. I just fished a couple of things out on the weekend.
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
Dukan Diet Day Day 20
Yes! 149.6 lbs
This comes after a deeply depressing day yesterday in which I was up to 151.2 and seemed to be gaining weight at about the same rate as I had been losing it. Answer,--less coffee, less salt, more water and voila! Also probably skipping yoga in favour of John Carter of Mars helped a lot.
I woke up this a.m. thinking that yesterday had been about the worst day of my life, then thought about all the days on which actual bad things had happened and had to amend my sentiment to yesterday's being one of the worse out of the days on which nothing bad actually happens--most of which are no doubt sufficiently mundane that I don't actually remember them anhow.
I'm overworked and overstressed and the diets means almost everything has to be cooked with means more time and dishes which in turn mean more time. This would all be easy if I had a cook.
Monday, March 12, 2012
Dukan Diet Day 18
Didn't quite the pass the test of dinner with the non-dieters. Had teensy weensy bit of dressing on my salad--could not have been more than a tsp-- and about half an ounce of chocolate hazelnut cake. And this morning my weight is up 0.8 pounds. Coincidence? Yes. The slight gain is far more likely due to my sedentary weekend writing a Spanish paper. Back to exercise today. My immediate goal--still cracking the 150 mark
Saturday, March 10, 2012
Dukan Diet Day 16
For the moment at least, I've made my peace with the diet. This morning the scales were trying to dip below the 150 mark. I remember when they first hit 150. I was in Mexico in 2002 and my dad and I had walked downtown to go to Sanborns. They had a machine that for a few pesos would measure height, weight and BMI. I put in my pesos and when the slip came out, my dad looked at it and said 150 lbs. I didn't believe him; I grabbed the slip, checked the numbers and said, "well they got my height wrong too". Well, the height was wrong, but this morning is the closest I have come to 149 since that day. The next milestone will be 145, because I can recall thinking my life was over the first time I got there.
Just ate a can of tuna with Thai Chili paste, that I used to like to eat with crackers. I cannot now fathom why I ever found it anything other than revolting.
Tomorrow will be our first real test; out to dinner with non-dieters.
Wednesday, March 7, 2012
Dukan Diet Day 13
Today is frustration day. I want to eat something, anything that is neither a protein nor a vegetable. The damned diet is relentless. Monotonous day follows monotonous day. The hardest part is that we have to make everything which requires far more planning than I am used to. I dread tomorrow because Thursdays are a long day at work and I have no idea what I can take for lunch and a snack. I am out of ideas; all the interesting ones require fromage frais or time, neither of which I have.
The saving graces of the diet are two: oat bran gallettes and greek yoghurt with a bit of vanilla. Oh, and I adore hard boiled eggs. But they won't get me through tomorrow.
Until today, I thought this was pretty easy. And I just weighed myself and seem to weigh almost as much as when I started. I swear I gained two pounds today while eating almost nothing. Curses on Dr. Dukan and his damned diet!
Sunday, February 26, 2012
Dukan diet day 3
I think I have lost a pound, the nausea has passed and the boredom is setting in.
Last night we lacked the energy to cook anything fancy from the Dukan book so we fried chopped tofu, garlic, shallots and eggs whites and put steamed shrimp on top and then squeezed some lime juice on. It felt surprisingly like a substantial meal, though we need to work on the tofu flavour and maybe add whole eggs.
Today thus far has seen two failed attempts at creativity.
I had the brilliant idea of making tea with cardamom and a cinnamon stick, leaving it overnight and adding it to a tofu/yoghurt smoothie. Result: overly thin smoothie with no improved taste over adding the spices directly. Tonight I will try soaking the spices in some warm milk.
Pre-Dukan diet--smoked mussels, cream cheese and crackers, not a bad appetizer in a pinch. My idea for a Dukan diet version--smoked mussels with the oil washed off and a dab of fat free cream cheese. Truly awful!
Tonight, steak served with steamed shrimp with lime and pepper as a celebration meal in honour of our first wedding anniversary. I have cooked steak three times in my life previously, ruined it every time. The worst was when I was looking after a woman with Huntington's Chorea whose son had bought her a steak for a treat. It was so tough by the time I finished with it, that when she tried to eat it, her false teeth shot out of her mouth and skittered across the kitchen floor. I had to wash them off and put them back in. The other two failures were less spectacular, though equally inedible.
Friday, February 24, 2012
The Dukan Diet Day 1
I have now done an entire half a day on the Dukan diet and I am tired, cranky and hungry--and two pounds heavier. I am already longing for vegetables, normally the least favourite part of my food repertoire.
So far today I have eaten a yoghurt/tofu/ soy milk smoothie with cinnamon and cardamom, a poached egg, two skim milk capuccini, two chicken breasts, more yoghurt and even more yoghurt. Is this a lot of food? A little food? I have lost all perspective. I read that a problem with the diet is that people sometimes don't eat enough. Supper will be salmon and something else to be determined.
I'm off to make and eat an oat bran gallete which will be the high point of the day.
Monday, June 22, 2009
horoscopes know best
Here we have it, advice from the stars.
Gemini
May 21 - June 21
Gemini
May 21 - June 21
Monday, June 22
You could be tempted to buy some rather nice or expensive things for yourself right now. But if you've given any thought to changing your spending habits lately, now would be the perfect time to start. And you might want to take the opportunity to sort through your whole financial picture today.
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
retail therapy
I have suffered a complete relapse into retail therapy having bought in the last few days a hat, a webcam and an MP3 player. I might be able to persuade myself that the webcam and MP3 were essential, but there is no denying that the hat was pure retail therapy. I am also contemplating a DVD player, though if I wait until July I can take mine up to Enderby and for 20 bucks I can have someone tell me if it is fixable. So now that i have written that down, I have given myself a reason to wait.
Thursday, June 11, 2009
old habits die hard...
...or maybe new habits are hard to acquire.
Having stated that I definitely don't need new shoes, it started to become obvious to me that I needed a black pair in the same style as the white ones I wear a lot, so I bought some. I think I might have been wrong about that as I am suffering shopper's regret. I also bought a pair of reading glasses but those I am happier about. And I ordered a bunch of books today, but one should own books I think. I also bought a toy for a child, but I think sucking up to my nieces and nephews is pretty essential so I can have someone to look out for me when I am decrepit with age, so its more like an insurance policy.
On the plus side, I have survived an airport and a trip to Zeller's without buying anything and more importantly, with the exception of one bag that would be perfect for my little computer, not even tempted. Progress yes, now if only I had not worn the shoes.
Having stated that I definitely don't need new shoes, it started to become obvious to me that I needed a black pair in the same style as the white ones I wear a lot, so I bought some. I think I might have been wrong about that as I am suffering shopper's regret. I also bought a pair of reading glasses but those I am happier about. And I ordered a bunch of books today, but one should own books I think. I also bought a toy for a child, but I think sucking up to my nieces and nephews is pretty essential so I can have someone to look out for me when I am decrepit with age, so its more like an insurance policy.
On the plus side, I have survived an airport and a trip to Zeller's without buying anything and more importantly, with the exception of one bag that would be perfect for my little computer, not even tempted. Progress yes, now if only I had not worn the shoes.
Thursday, June 4, 2009
rules vs mindfulness
I said in my last post that as I lack willpower, I had best have rules. I have been rethinking that after talking to Mags who pointed out to me that as a sociological experiment, rather than trying to go another year, it is more interesting to see the kind of effect (if any) that the year has had on my shopping habits. This let me to think about rules versus mindfulness.
Rules make things easy. You know what the rules are and then you don't need to think, you just follow them as best you can. Last year I didn't really have to ask myself whether a purchase was worthwhile. The times that I broke the rules (except for Kim's b-day present mere days into the year) presented themselves to me as unavoidable rather than as deliberate choices.
Giving up the rules, in contrast, requires a certain kind of attention to the specific context. It requires asking of myself whether something is worth buying-- about the costs and benefits. Yesterday I tried on a hoodie--in the most spectacular shade of pink--which I did not buy. It was made in Canada, so no exploited labour to factor into the costs. It was cotton which unless organic, and this wasn't, has an environmental cost. But the main thing is that its benefit was pretty much nil.
Not that I actually thought about precisely these things. What I did think was that despite its being about the most lovely shade of pink I have ever seen, the last thing I need is another hoodie, especially one designed (as most of them are) for a much younger body. I once would have bought it, for the colour, and even for the imagined possibilities of a slimmer me, and it would have languished in the closet or been worn around the house on weekends. And it would have languished in good company.
The other aspect of mindfulness is developing good habits--a kind of aristotelian excellence applied to shopping--to become the person who doesn't even try on the hoodie and wish she could buy it. To become the person who is not even tempted.
There is a second reason for preferring mindfulness to rules. It would be pretty hard to escape the fact that we live in a world structures by trade relations and pretty naive to think that I could avoid complicity just by buying only second hand stuff (beyond what I put in my mouth). Outside of living in a barter economy, which I don't, every penny I spend, whether at a garage sale, VV or the grocery store is feeding back into the general economy. Anyone who doesn't opt out is complicit. The appropriate response to this is surely not rules, but rather being mindful about where one's money goes. Shopping at my local organic store instead of safeway, buying from 10,000 villages, making sure my coffee is fair trade, supporting the things I think make the world a better place, like the New York Times and Bitch magazine.
And there is a third reason, perhaps. Maybe its ok to think about what makes my life go better. For instance, I really want an mp3 player. It would seriously enhance my life. Or books. While I will continue to buy them second hand and make use of the library, sometimes, there are books that fairly beg to be bought by me.
So no more rules, just better habits.
Rules make things easy. You know what the rules are and then you don't need to think, you just follow them as best you can. Last year I didn't really have to ask myself whether a purchase was worthwhile. The times that I broke the rules (except for Kim's b-day present mere days into the year) presented themselves to me as unavoidable rather than as deliberate choices.
Giving up the rules, in contrast, requires a certain kind of attention to the specific context. It requires asking of myself whether something is worth buying-- about the costs and benefits. Yesterday I tried on a hoodie--in the most spectacular shade of pink--which I did not buy. It was made in Canada, so no exploited labour to factor into the costs. It was cotton which unless organic, and this wasn't, has an environmental cost. But the main thing is that its benefit was pretty much nil.
Not that I actually thought about precisely these things. What I did think was that despite its being about the most lovely shade of pink I have ever seen, the last thing I need is another hoodie, especially one designed (as most of them are) for a much younger body. I once would have bought it, for the colour, and even for the imagined possibilities of a slimmer me, and it would have languished in the closet or been worn around the house on weekends. And it would have languished in good company.
The other aspect of mindfulness is developing good habits--a kind of aristotelian excellence applied to shopping--to become the person who doesn't even try on the hoodie and wish she could buy it. To become the person who is not even tempted.
There is a second reason for preferring mindfulness to rules. It would be pretty hard to escape the fact that we live in a world structures by trade relations and pretty naive to think that I could avoid complicity just by buying only second hand stuff (beyond what I put in my mouth). Outside of living in a barter economy, which I don't, every penny I spend, whether at a garage sale, VV or the grocery store is feeding back into the general economy. Anyone who doesn't opt out is complicit. The appropriate response to this is surely not rules, but rather being mindful about where one's money goes. Shopping at my local organic store instead of safeway, buying from 10,000 villages, making sure my coffee is fair trade, supporting the things I think make the world a better place, like the New York Times and Bitch magazine.
And there is a third reason, perhaps. Maybe its ok to think about what makes my life go better. For instance, I really want an mp3 player. It would seriously enhance my life. Or books. While I will continue to buy them second hand and make use of the library, sometimes, there are books that fairly beg to be bought by me.
So no more rules, just better habits.
Thursday, May 28, 2009
hiking boots
I had intended to write about not buying anything, just to prove to We Willy that I can. But alas....
I did a shoe inventory and decided that while on most fronts I can probably go years, my hiking boots are toast. Today I spent a very frustrating two hours at MEC trying on boots before finally buying a pair that I hope will work and which cost a ridiculously large amount to money. Apparently all hiking boots come in a B and my feet are EEE so there is a mismatch.
On the plus side, I did not buy a stretchable hiking skirt at MEC, nor did I buy a shirt. Also this week, I did not buy a pair of dress shoes. Or rather I did buy a used pair at VV that will be good enough.
It is time to go back to not shopping. It seems that I lack will power and so must rely on rules.
I did a shoe inventory and decided that while on most fronts I can probably go years, my hiking boots are toast. Today I spent a very frustrating two hours at MEC trying on boots before finally buying a pair that I hope will work and which cost a ridiculously large amount to money. Apparently all hiking boots come in a B and my feet are EEE so there is a mismatch.
On the plus side, I did not buy a stretchable hiking skirt at MEC, nor did I buy a shirt. Also this week, I did not buy a pair of dress shoes. Or rather I did buy a used pair at VV that will be good enough.
It is time to go back to not shopping. It seems that I lack will power and so must rely on rules.
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
bra shopping
I went bra shopping at Sears. I went there to buy socks (definitely needed) but they lured me in with a sale on bras. It reminded me of how awful shopping is. I had to wait 45 minutes for a change room since everyone ahead of me tried on dozens. I got lucky on the second hit, though now 4 days later I am not sure that I like it. Of course despite the awfulness of shopping, I still managed to buy a skirt--definitely not needed. I came away without the socks which seem much less necessary when I think about having to brave Sears again to get them.
I also bought a book with the gift card that I got last year for my birthday but couldn't use.
I calculate that in the three weeks since my year ended I have bought 6 things. At this rate I can expect to buy a hundred things by the end of the year. Must do better.
I also bought a book with the gift card that I got last year for my birthday but couldn't use.
I calculate that in the three weeks since my year ended I have bought 6 things. At this rate I can expect to buy a hundred things by the end of the year. Must do better.
Saturday, May 9, 2009
More shopping, but in a restrained kind of way
Chris and I went to get him a desperately needed pair of shoes and some socks that are not white sports socks, the latter less desperately needed, but still....
I resuscitated my Bay card because it was worth 10% off today and promptly went off to check out women's shoes. But I couldn't do it. I kept thinking about the shoes already in my closet about why I don't really need any of this. This makes me very happy. Still, I have yet to fall hard for a pair and when I do.....
I resuscitated my Bay card because it was worth 10% off today and promptly went off to check out women's shoes. But I couldn't do it. I kept thinking about the shoes already in my closet about why I don't really need any of this. This makes me very happy. Still, I have yet to fall hard for a pair and when I do.....
Thursday, May 7, 2009
A quick retrospective
I have just been looking over my year and two things come to mind. First, in both my first post and my most recent, I mention resisting buying a purse. Is it a coincidence that both were orange? And perhaps it is worth noting that I already own three orange bags, at least one of which is kind of trendy (though not "What Not to Wear" trendy).
The second is that I talk about shoes a lot. I must have 3 dozen pair (low by many people's standards) and still often can't find an appropriate pair to wear. Today for instance, what can I wear in the rain with my cheap but trendy, and more relevantly reddish, second hand coat? The red sneakers one might think; but with the sock shortage, I am reduced to wearing blue socks and I just don't know about that combo.
Writing all this down, it strikes even me as ridiculous.
Other things noticed, I never did use the yoghurt containers nor the ironing board. In fact I recently got rid of some of the shirts bought last year at VV because they need ironing (and are kind of ugly). I think I need to bring the second hand shopping under control as well, though this year has been pretty good for that also.
The second is that I talk about shoes a lot. I must have 3 dozen pair (low by many people's standards) and still often can't find an appropriate pair to wear. Today for instance, what can I wear in the rain with my cheap but trendy, and more relevantly reddish, second hand coat? The red sneakers one might think; but with the sock shortage, I am reduced to wearing blue socks and I just don't know about that combo.
Writing all this down, it strikes even me as ridiculous.
Other things noticed, I never did use the yoghurt containers nor the ironing board. In fact I recently got rid of some of the shirts bought last year at VV because they need ironing (and are kind of ugly). I think I need to bring the second hand shopping under control as well, though this year has been pretty good for that also.
In which I shop
I broke the barrier and went shopping. I was at a conference in Moscow Idaho, and went to the mall with Del (I was staying with her for the weekend) and her sister Amy. I bought two pairs of jeans, a pair of reading glasses (in my defense I have lost two pairs and chipped one this year) and bought a conference t-shirt and hat for Chris and a conference t-shirt for Del as a thank you present.
I also acquired from Del a suit and a pair of cords. This should mean I won't need to buy work clothes next year. And I found a coat at the Sally Ann. Exactly my size and kind of trendy--cheap version of what they would tell me to get on "What Not to Wear".
More importantly. I walked away from all kinds of stuff most notably a stunningly beautiful and amazingly trendy bag that would go fabulously with the suit that Del gave me. It had the capacity to turn me from dowdy to trendy. But who needs trendy, right?
More impressively, I walked away from some lovely wooden flamingos. See attached photo.
I also bought a pair of underwear, which I desperately need, at least pending some mending. Actually, I desperately needed them to wear that weekend, but made the mistake of buying some tie-dye ones (at the same fair where the flamingos were) and apparently they need to be washed first.
I kind of regret buying them because it seems pretty clear in retrospect that it was all about the tie-dye and not really very much about needing new underwear.
I do desperately need socks. But the bonus is that I won't need dusting cloths for quite some time.
Here is a picture of Chris holding some of my new dusting rags.
Ok, I regret the tie-dyed underwear but otherwise I'm pretty sure I bought things that I could reasonbly describe as needed.
I have also since coming home bought a DVD as a birthday present for my niece. So I think that maybe this week I have bought as many things as I bought in the past year.
It is clear that I need a principle to regulate my shopping, so I will be looking for one that limits the permissible. (I can't believe how protestant I sound here.)
I also acquired from Del a suit and a pair of cords. This should mean I won't need to buy work clothes next year. And I found a coat at the Sally Ann. Exactly my size and kind of trendy--cheap version of what they would tell me to get on "What Not to Wear".
More importantly. I walked away from all kinds of stuff most notably a stunningly beautiful and amazingly trendy bag that would go fabulously with the suit that Del gave me. It had the capacity to turn me from dowdy to trendy. But who needs trendy, right?
More impressively, I walked away from some lovely wooden flamingos. See attached photo.
I also bought a pair of underwear, which I desperately need, at least pending some mending. Actually, I desperately needed them to wear that weekend, but made the mistake of buying some tie-dye ones (at the same fair where the flamingos were) and apparently they need to be washed first.
I kind of regret buying them because it seems pretty clear in retrospect that it was all about the tie-dye and not really very much about needing new underwear.I do desperately need socks. But the bonus is that I won't need dusting cloths for quite some time.
Here is a picture of Chris holding some of my new dusting rags.Ok, I regret the tie-dyed underwear but otherwise I'm pretty sure I bought things that I could reasonbly describe as needed.
I have also since coming home bought a DVD as a birthday present for my niece. So I think that maybe this week I have bought as many things as I bought in the past year.
It is clear that I need a principle to regulate my shopping, so I will be looking for one that limits the permissible. (I can't believe how protestant I sound here.)
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
That was a year?
I could shop today. My year is up.
In spare moments over the past few days I have been wondering what next? I don't want to return to shopping as usual. That would seem a waste. Reading Judith Levine makes me realize how easy my project was so my protestant hair shirt side tells me--do more, make it more stringent, don't buy anything but food. But that was her project and probably lacks point for me, other than the intrinsic attraction of seeing oneself as wearing a hair shirt.
If the point of not shopping is to become more attentive to what one does and does not needs, then I think I have already done that. (Hence the name change to immaterial girl). I have discovered that I need to buy books. Buying Spanish books was my one big failure. And I need books for work. And once in awhile, I just need a book before the library has it. Until most books start to be available electronically, I'm going to buy books. But I don't need to buy the newspaper. It's ok to read one's news late. I would like to start buying a couple of magazines that I support ideologically. But I can live without the rest.
I need to buy either socks or a darning needle and some wool. I need a decent pair of jeans, though "need" perhaps may be a strong word there. It is very easy to buy shirts, jackets, coats at the Sally Ann or VV Boutique, but not jeans--or really any pants. Work pants I expect I could get a a consignment store, though I would like to get one decent pair before Fall 2010 when I have to teach again. But jeans--the staple of my wardrobe--don't tend to survive the wearing process.
I want to be able to buy presents for children. I missed that. Christmas was ok shopping second hand, but sometimes I want to just buy a kid something that they actually want. I figure since I have no kids to look after me when I am old, I had best suck up to the nieces and nephews, so I am bucking for favourite aunt status.
I would like to be able to buy some music--maybe even an ipod. That seems like a big step.
I need a pair of dress shoes. One well chosen pair would last me the rest of my life.
Chris needs things--desperately.
So, I am going to do a bit of shopping. Three pairs of socks, maybe a pair of jeans. Lots of books for work. A birthday present for Kim. A darning needle and some thread. And I am not going to hold Chris hostage to my choices. But I do want, overall, to keep going. A year is not enough.
In spare moments over the past few days I have been wondering what next? I don't want to return to shopping as usual. That would seem a waste. Reading Judith Levine makes me realize how easy my project was so my protestant hair shirt side tells me--do more, make it more stringent, don't buy anything but food. But that was her project and probably lacks point for me, other than the intrinsic attraction of seeing oneself as wearing a hair shirt.
If the point of not shopping is to become more attentive to what one does and does not needs, then I think I have already done that. (Hence the name change to immaterial girl). I have discovered that I need to buy books. Buying Spanish books was my one big failure. And I need books for work. And once in awhile, I just need a book before the library has it. Until most books start to be available electronically, I'm going to buy books. But I don't need to buy the newspaper. It's ok to read one's news late. I would like to start buying a couple of magazines that I support ideologically. But I can live without the rest.
I need to buy either socks or a darning needle and some wool. I need a decent pair of jeans, though "need" perhaps may be a strong word there. It is very easy to buy shirts, jackets, coats at the Sally Ann or VV Boutique, but not jeans--or really any pants. Work pants I expect I could get a a consignment store, though I would like to get one decent pair before Fall 2010 when I have to teach again. But jeans--the staple of my wardrobe--don't tend to survive the wearing process.
I want to be able to buy presents for children. I missed that. Christmas was ok shopping second hand, but sometimes I want to just buy a kid something that they actually want. I figure since I have no kids to look after me when I am old, I had best suck up to the nieces and nephews, so I am bucking for favourite aunt status.
I would like to be able to buy some music--maybe even an ipod. That seems like a big step.
I need a pair of dress shoes. One well chosen pair would last me the rest of my life.
Chris needs things--desperately.
So, I am going to do a bit of shopping. Three pairs of socks, maybe a pair of jeans. Lots of books for work. A birthday present for Kim. A darning needle and some thread. And I am not going to hold Chris hostage to my choices. But I do want, overall, to keep going. A year is not enough.
Sunday, April 5, 2009
April
Less than four weeks to go.
I had to buy five Spanish books this semester for my class and a tie for Chris to wear to a funeral. I was able to get a Spanish exercise book second hand and erase all the answers, though I will soon needs a new eraser. Also my hard drive died and they sent me another. I didn't buy it because it is under warranty, but still it counts as a new thing in the world.
We have become adept at tapping into what others don't want. Bill gave us a spare bodum, my mom sent tea towels she didn't need, John had a phone he wasn't using and I found some more sheets in the back of the cupboard. In January I went to a reception downtown at Nexen Oil as part of a hiring thing and was telling some people there about my project. I mentioned that I was learning how to do things the old fashioned way again and as an example mentioned that because I don't have a steel and can't buy new knives (a bad habit I had got into) I have relearned how to sharpen a knife on the bottom of a mug. One of the women from Nexen, Rhonda, said that she has a spare steel and would I like it. I accepted and she asked what else I needed. Not wanting to be a mooch, I thought I would mention something ridiculous so I said that the vet had suggested I get a bigger litter box. Oh, she said, I have several that I don't use and my husband has been bugging me to do something with them. What size would you like? So the next week, at our next reception, Rhonda brought a steel and a large cat box for me. Igor was thrilled, especially because Rhonda tossed in a few cat toys that she no longer needed.
The downside of the year is that all my socks are wearing out, though I do have a line on some darning wool. I have lost the button off two pairs of jeans so I now move one button back and forth between three pairs. All my underwear have holes, though I could mend them since they are all on the seam. I did have a find in the shape (literally) of the jacket that has been hanging in my office for many months, which turns out to be a fitted women's jacket, not the eighties style men's jacket that I recall leaving there. I wish I had muffin tins but some will turn up when garage season starts again. I am almost out of pencil leads but I think I have accumulated enough scrap paper from the recycling bin at work to last a life time. We have kicked the paper towl habit--though it was a bonus when a roll turned up when we cleaned out the trunk of the old car to give it away.
It has all been going so smoothly that I had even been thinking that I may never shop again. And then I went to the mall.
Chris was going for a haircut and I decided to go to the library and hang out until he was done. The quickest way to the library is through the mall. By the time I had window shopped my way to the end of the mall (and it's a small mall) it was time to go back and get Chris and I had lust for shopping in my hear. I was positively drooling over the new spring greens in Reitman's. I felt oddly consoled that they didn't have my size in the cardigan.
I have taken up watching "What not to wear" and alternate between being charmed and appalled. They turn everyone into clones, but those clones wear what would be ideal for me for work. My friends at work were getting so tired by mid-Feburary of my one jacket that they threathened to take me shopping when my year was up. I did do a bit of thrift shopping in Vancouver in Feburary and found a jacket and a sweater to expand the wardrobe a little.
I read Judith Levine's year of not buying anything. She and her husband were hardcore--buying only necessities-- so no eating out, no bought entertainments and no second hand buying. I can't see going that far. One thing I enjoyed this year was spending more money on plays and things because I wasn't spending in on other things. It seems to me to be a mistake to give up consuming things like entertainment and food. We need trade to survive, but we should trade things that don't create piles of cheap, useless, ultimately unwanted stuff.
I am undecided what to do next. I think I will definitely go back to buying books. I have missed them a lot. But perhaps I won't go back to buying newspapers and magazines. I have become accustomed to having my news a day late and sometimes not at all and libraries have magazines. I do have my eyes on a pair of shoes that would be perfect to take to Nicaragua if we go next year, but then again maybe not.
I had to buy five Spanish books this semester for my class and a tie for Chris to wear to a funeral. I was able to get a Spanish exercise book second hand and erase all the answers, though I will soon needs a new eraser. Also my hard drive died and they sent me another. I didn't buy it because it is under warranty, but still it counts as a new thing in the world.
We have become adept at tapping into what others don't want. Bill gave us a spare bodum, my mom sent tea towels she didn't need, John had a phone he wasn't using and I found some more sheets in the back of the cupboard. In January I went to a reception downtown at Nexen Oil as part of a hiring thing and was telling some people there about my project. I mentioned that I was learning how to do things the old fashioned way again and as an example mentioned that because I don't have a steel and can't buy new knives (a bad habit I had got into) I have relearned how to sharpen a knife on the bottom of a mug. One of the women from Nexen, Rhonda, said that she has a spare steel and would I like it. I accepted and she asked what else I needed. Not wanting to be a mooch, I thought I would mention something ridiculous so I said that the vet had suggested I get a bigger litter box. Oh, she said, I have several that I don't use and my husband has been bugging me to do something with them. What size would you like? So the next week, at our next reception, Rhonda brought a steel and a large cat box for me. Igor was thrilled, especially because Rhonda tossed in a few cat toys that she no longer needed.
The downside of the year is that all my socks are wearing out, though I do have a line on some darning wool. I have lost the button off two pairs of jeans so I now move one button back and forth between three pairs. All my underwear have holes, though I could mend them since they are all on the seam. I did have a find in the shape (literally) of the jacket that has been hanging in my office for many months, which turns out to be a fitted women's jacket, not the eighties style men's jacket that I recall leaving there. I wish I had muffin tins but some will turn up when garage season starts again. I am almost out of pencil leads but I think I have accumulated enough scrap paper from the recycling bin at work to last a life time. We have kicked the paper towl habit--though it was a bonus when a roll turned up when we cleaned out the trunk of the old car to give it away.
It has all been going so smoothly that I had even been thinking that I may never shop again. And then I went to the mall.
Chris was going for a haircut and I decided to go to the library and hang out until he was done. The quickest way to the library is through the mall. By the time I had window shopped my way to the end of the mall (and it's a small mall) it was time to go back and get Chris and I had lust for shopping in my hear. I was positively drooling over the new spring greens in Reitman's. I felt oddly consoled that they didn't have my size in the cardigan.
I have taken up watching "What not to wear" and alternate between being charmed and appalled. They turn everyone into clones, but those clones wear what would be ideal for me for work. My friends at work were getting so tired by mid-Feburary of my one jacket that they threathened to take me shopping when my year was up. I did do a bit of thrift shopping in Vancouver in Feburary and found a jacket and a sweater to expand the wardrobe a little.
I read Judith Levine's year of not buying anything. She and her husband were hardcore--buying only necessities-- so no eating out, no bought entertainments and no second hand buying. I can't see going that far. One thing I enjoyed this year was spending more money on plays and things because I wasn't spending in on other things. It seems to me to be a mistake to give up consuming things like entertainment and food. We need trade to survive, but we should trade things that don't create piles of cheap, useless, ultimately unwanted stuff.
I am undecided what to do next. I think I will definitely go back to buying books. I have missed them a lot. But perhaps I won't go back to buying newspapers and magazines. I have become accustomed to having my news a day late and sometimes not at all and libraries have magazines. I do have my eyes on a pair of shoes that would be perfect to take to Nicaragua if we go next year, but then again maybe not.
Sunday, December 21, 2008
a tragedy, and a little ingenuity
First the tragedy. The bodum broke. This is a real deprivation. We will look for another at Value Village but that may take time. We do have a little electric coffee pot that leaks and that we don't like, and which makes the coffee taste odd. I don't think I can handle months of that. I also recollected today that I bought a glass percolator in the thrift store in Nelson last summer for camping and it must be somewhere though possibly still in the now frozen shut trunk of the Crown Vic. The real irony here is that for years I had stuck in a cupboard a large coffee pot with an espresso attachment that I rarely used and a couple of months ago I gave it away.
The ingenuity involves the recycling box. Ours was stolen a few months ago and I have been using an old cardboard box. They usually throw it in the gar
bage but as long as I get out by 9 to fish it back out, that system has been working pretty well. Then winter arrived and cardboard boxes disintegrate when they get wet (actually moot until it warms up a bit). So I made a waterproof box by taping plastic bags to the outside. I now have a handsome box that can sit in the snowbank with impunity. [picture of recycling box. Note the historic Canadian touch with the Bay bag] The bonus is that the recycling guys didn't throw the box in the garbage this week.
The other good news recently is that I found a jaycloth buried at the bottom of the kitchen cupobard. Good news because we were down to one dishcloth and one raggedy jaycloth. [picture of raggedy jay cloth.]The other good news is that I found an old flannel shirt to use for a floor cloth because let me tell you, cotton sheets make lousy cloths.
The ingenuity involves the recycling box. Ours was stolen a few months ago and I have been using an old cardboard box. They usually throw it in the gar
bage but as long as I get out by 9 to fish it back out, that system has been working pretty well. Then winter arrived and cardboard boxes disintegrate when they get wet (actually moot until it warms up a bit). So I made a waterproof box by taping plastic bags to the outside. I now have a handsome box that can sit in the snowbank with impunity. [picture of recycling box. Note the historic Canadian touch with the Bay bag] The bonus is that the recycling guys didn't throw the box in the garbage this week.
The other good news recently is that I found a jaycloth buried at the bottom of the kitchen cupobard. Good news because we were down to one dishcloth and one raggedy jaycloth. [picture of raggedy jay cloth.]The other good news is that I found an old flannel shirt to use for a floor cloth because let me tell you, cotton sheets make lousy cloths.
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