Pretty Bloggy

I occasionally lurk over at a fellow Gloucester blog: Good Morning Gloucester. Captain Joe takes lots of interesting and inspiring pictures. And lots of pictures of food, which is always a good thing.

A day or two ago, he uploaded some of Good Harbor Beach in early morning. Since it's snowy, rainy, and cold out today, I will treat you with one of his pictures of better days.


I live 1.2 miles from this spot. Have I mentioned lately how much I love my new home?

More from the Losers' Club Files

Losers Club Goes to Vegetarian Potluck.

Awhile back, I joined the Northshore Vegetarian Meetup group. I figured it would be a nice way to meet people who were into vegetarian food and maybe some casual socializing.

This weekend we were supposed to have a St. Patrick's Day potluck. I was concerned over what to make. Many people in this group, it seems, are raw foodists. Vegan, militant raw foodists. Me? Not so much. Life without pasta and mozzarella? For that matter, without bagels and butter? Puhleeze. But after reassurances from the group founder that cooked food was OK, I decided to make my infamous stuffed peppers.

Now, what was I thinking? I could have easily made anything, why did I decide to make an ingredient heavy, prep heavy dish? Oy vey. My stuffed peppers require at least three canned items, two boxed items, much vegetable cutting, assorted sauteeing, and copious mixing. And that's all pre-baking and "plating."

Saturday a.m. I journeyed the hour down to the nearest Whole Foods. If I was going to force these people to eat cooked food, the least I could do was make it organic. The price tag? $88. I spent all of Saturday night cooking like a madwoman. I made three trays of stuffed peppers. They looked and smelled gorgeous.




Alas, at noon, I drove the 35 minutes over potholed terrain to the house, only to find it dark and empty. The potluck had been cancelled -- the victim of flu and family emergencies. I hadn't checked my email; I hadn't been alerted.

Now I'm a hundred bucks poorer and I have three trays of stuffed peppers to dispose of. Here's hoping they freeze well.

Thou Shalt Not

Warning - gonna go deep for a moment. Avert your eyes if necessary.

So, yesterday, Pappa Razzi decreed that there were new sins. Among these are no-brainers such as "polluting the environment" but also questionable categories such as "genetic modification." But, as I was learning about our new list of No-Nos by the Vatican, I wondered about that phrase in general: No-No. By it's very essence, it negates.

Being a recovering Catholic, the young Me would never have questioned this. Don't do this, don't do that -- it was all commonplace. Lying = bad = don't do it.

But, in contrast, why not live life in an affirmative?

The older Me questions worldviews that cut life up into black and white and tell people what not to do. In other words, instead of telling us not to pollute, why not tell us to respect the Earth? It may be semantics, but semantics are sometimes powerful things.

I look at it this way. There's lots of people that say "I don't/won't eat: meat, sugar, cooked food, carbs, dairy..." And so if you (accidentally, natch) consume one of these things, you are breaking a rule. You are bad. (And, of course, if you live by Church tenets, then you have to go to Confession and be absolved of all your sins by an outside force, a Father).

BUT ... if you say, "I eat healthy," well, that can mean a lot of things. For me, that means not consuming meat and trying my best to rely on local and/or organic and/or less processed foods. But if I happen to really want to eat that box of Caramel Delights I bought from the Girl Scouts, well.... I just might. Because sometimes sugar and chocolate and coconut and caramel formed together in a chewycrunchy combination of sweetrichness feels healthy for me.

I'm trying to live my life less and less in a state of negative absolutes and more and more in a state of positive acceptance. That doesn't mean that I'm allowing myself to do everything. (For example, still choosing not to drink on schoolnights.) I'm just trying to realize that maybe life isn't about rules, so much as about attitude. Approach it with a sense of gratitude and acceptance and life itself becomes much more fulfilling.

I think. I hope. We'll see.

Profiting from Loss

I had a very productive therapy session today. Have I mentioned I love my therapist?

One of the things we talked about is mutuality - feeling like you are getting as equally as you are giving. I don't have a good track record with this.

In many of my past relationships (through my own fault, admittedly) I have been the "giver." Sometimes I have felt (emotionally or otherwise) repaid for this. More often, not.

The thing is, you don't mind giving when you're in love with the person. Or even in like.

But the minute it ends, you REALLY mind. Unfortunately, by then, it's too late to do anything constructive about it.

Enter my brilliant marketing plan: The Ex Bill.

Wouldn't it be great if all spurned lovers could easily create an itemized bill for all costs and "services rendered" and send them to their ex's? You know, line items for things like "Pain and Suffering for putting up with you after the Patriots lost" or "Gas money for shuttling your sorry ass around." Or even "Water used while sneaking a load of laundry into my washing machine."

All bills could be personalized and either sent or burnt, whichever your spiritual outlook on life recommends.

I think I would make a fortune. What do you think?

Quoi?

I got tickets to go see EDDIE!

Can you say Crazed Fan?



PS - This is why Eddie is so brilliant...