Further Adventures on the Farm

Another farm day and another day to celebrate the joy, bounty, and beauty of the natural world. Spoken like a true tree hugger.

It was an animal day. Maybe the multi-legged creatures came out to comfort me, knowing that I had yet another run in with a cockroach. This time it was crawling on the wall behind me in a local restaurant. At least it wasn't making for the proverbial gold.

But for whatever reason, all the animals came out to play. On my way to pick my U-Picks (herbs this week. Fresh lemon balm and chamomile for tea - WAHOO!) I saw a beaver. Just hangin' out on the farm. And then I went for a walk and found the farm's animal rescue program, where they rehabilitate wild animals who are found sick or injured. I saw a red fox, a cottontail rabbit, a groundhog, and a skunk. It was pretty much one of the coolest afternoons ever.

And, when I got home, I had lots of cooking to do. I understand now how "primitive" peoples concentrated only on meeting their needs - shelter, food, pleasure. If you spend the whole day farming, then you have to spend the whole nite cooking and preparing those foods. I have so much chard it's coming out my ears.

What surprises me, though, is how worried people get about cooking and diets and such. I mean, I know I get anal about eating my kale every day, but there are so many people out there so stressed about what vitamins to take, how many servings of what kinds of grains to eat, etc. Here's my very scientific theory about eating healthy. Go to a farm and get lots of fresh vegetables. Cut them up. Eat them raw or stick them in a pan with oil. Add desired sauce. Serve over brown rice or whole wheat pasta or in a wrap or in a soup or whatever. Eat. Yum. Occasionally eat some tofu or peanut butter (preferably right out of the jar - mmmmm!) or some other protein type food. Wash everything down with lots of water. As my family says, "Easy Peasy Chucky Cheesey."

Course, that said, my whole night has been spent "slaving" over a hot stove. And I still have lots and lots and lots and lots of rainbow chard to use. Pretty, but boy! is that stuff prolific.

Losers Club Vindication - Sort Of

My best friend and I are presidents of our local chapters of Losers Club.

Losers Club was formed by those of us who have a tendency to embark on an initiative that, by all accounts seems reasonable or even intelligent. But something - somehow, some way, will go terribly wrong with that initiative and much ridiculous laughter ensues.

My most recent accomplishment as President of the New England Chapter of the Losers Club:

Before the July 4 holiday, I had a date to meet Mr. Zips and a friend of mine for dinner and margarita's in Harvard Square. I was excited since I hadn't seen this friend for a long time and she and I both love our margaritas. So in order to make the most of the night, I decided to not drive into work.

This made a lot of sense. I work only two "T" stops away from Harvard. Parking in Harvard is outrageously expensive. And, since I would likely have more than one margarita, this kept a drunken Kalesy off the road. Saved time, money, lives, and, of course, a teeny little piece of the environment. (We all know I suffer massive amounts of tree hugger guilt for driving into work every day).

So I packed all my things the night before, got up early, hopped on my bike and off I go! Except, oh yea, my tires were flat.

When I left the house, the tires were somewhat squishy. But by the time I got about 3 miles from the office, I was riding on the rims. Of course, with 3 miles still to go and it already being 7:30, I pretty much had to keep riding on the rims.

So, I saved $25 in parking. Cost me $250 for new rims, tires, and a tune up of my bike.

Losers Club Bikes to Work.

But, this a.m., I vindicated it all. Because I got back on the bike, so to speak.

It is a beautiful day, warm but not hot, and clear skies. It was really enjoyable to whizz through the early morning air, working my legs, working up a sweat, before I got to the office and settled in for a day of stress and anxiety. And I didn't add any fossil fuels to the air. Ha! all you Losers Club members.

Except, I forgot to pack underwear.

Woops.

Propergander

Yesterday was a bad day. For a hint about exactly how bad it was, I'll tell you this - I cried in public. Not little baby tears, welling up in the corners of my eyes. Big, full-body sobs accompanied by a full-fledged lip scrunch.

But, I knew it would all be OK. Because yesterday was a farm day.

I know it's an old story, but there truly is a peace I get when I'm out hanging around with nature, especially fresh vegetables, picked by hand. When I'm chopping, dicing, stiring, and mixing said vegetables.

With that said, read this interesting Op-Ed on your local "organic grocer." And this even more interesting insight into Corporate America.

The Customer is Always Right?

I spend a lot of time bitching about my job. But to be fair and balanced, it's really not all that bad. I have a pretty high level of autonomy, people in the company seem to like and respect me, I genuinely get on with most of my office mates (especially when they all brush their teeth!) and Napolean works remotely so (even though he wished it weren't so) he can't really control my comings and goings.

There is a down side, though.

We're a pretty lean organization, so we work with a lot of vendors. The theory is that vendors are easy to negotiate into lower costs and they're easier to fire. Tell that to a graphic design firm who is entrenched in your corporate design program.

To elaborate: We've contracted with one graphic design firm to develop the overall look and feel of our collateral (which is marketing-speak for brochures). Then, we've contracted with another design firm to actually layout those brochures since they charge about $100 an hour LESS than firm #1.

Firm #1 takes three and half days to make five minor edits to a brochure. They get all pissy and give me attitude when I ask for updates on where my stuff is.

Firm #2 doesn't make changes I indicate (I'm sorry, for a second there I thought that I was the subject matter expert), saves the same data sheet under a bunch of different names, makes huge quality control errors and won't call me back at all.

I'm supposed to deliver 11 data sheets and one 8-page brochure by the end of the week. Firing these firms now is not an option. Pissing them off isn't really an option either, since they'll only stall on my projects and get me fired.

So, I sit here, at my keyboard, impotent and muttering scathing epithets under my breath.

I can't wait until this portion of the program is completed. Pink slip city, baby!

Musings on America

Well, it's been a wonderful few days with Mr. Zips. After all my emotional BS last night, we wound up going to see Ocean's 13 and had a great time. How could you not - Eddie is in it!

After, we came back home, had a late dinner and turned on the fireworks. It looked like it was a great show and I'm partially sad that we didn't suck it up and get out there. But only partially.

After the fireworks, the TV was left on while we were ... otherwise engaged. I caught part of one of those annoying local TV news "OpEd" pieces and was literally so turned off I had to switch the TV off before, well, before I gagged.

Jon Keller, on WBZ Channel 4 waxes philosophic on four things Americans should be thankful for on the Fourth. And I quote:

3. The Good Life. A third thing to be thankful for: the incredibly good life that most Americans enjoy, by material measures, at least. From eye-popping supermarkets to high-tech superstores, we're a land of plenty, and that's nothing to sneeze at.

So, here, I wonder, who, exactly, does he mean by "most Americans." The middle class, who is increasingly getting further and further away from the "American dream" as the government favors the increasingly rich and the earnings gap widens? Maybe he means the people who can't find work as we increasingly lose jobs to overseas outsourcing and corporations remain immune to regulation or penalization for employing illegal labor. Or does he mean the majority of people who are anti-Iraq war right now, even as we lose another local serviceman?

And then, despite the initial gut reaction that, yea, material things are good, I wonder if he really knows what he's saying. Are we really celebrating the fact that: Though accounting for only 5 percent of the world's population, Americans consume 26 percent of the world's energy. Are we celebrating how we have packed supermarkets but farmers that are folding and losing the farm by the dozens? Or how about the fact that we have all these high tech toys like iPhones and Smackberries, but we're losing our bees?

I just think that, instead of trotting out all these feel-good, sentimental, heartstringpulling platitudes every July 4, we should take a good, hard, look at the country we live in. It was founded on a fabulous, revolutionary set of ideals. But those founding principles were developed by people who weren't afraid to look at what was wrong with what was going on and, more importantly, what they could do to change it.