Vitamin or Aspirin

Monday is counselling day and I usually get exhausted by the end of the session. I was reading the The Heath Brothers Column in Fast company, the other day and some of the analogies they used for successful books and products applies to counselling as well.

Counselling, esp Psycho-dynamic therapy is like a Vitamin. Vitamins are not necessarily needed and they might not necessarily cure the problems, but they might help the body in a way that the problems either might not happen or might be easier to deal with.

The meds for anxiety are more like aspirin. Aspirin can cure the immediate pain, but cannot solve the source of the problem. Also it might not work for pain all the time..

Gotta do what you can do.. And Eat better and exercise!!. Wheres my protein shake!

blurb of the day

Vegan to carnivore beside him: " Dude, your burger is a crime scene"...

conversations

Conversation with Hubbs

Me: You are so wise babes

Hubbs: Yes I was born that way...

This was after our discussion of how I have the preachy gene. It runs in the family. We can start preaching about each and every topic. You have a problem, we have a solution. A discussion you say, we have our own perspective , which will be vocally told.

On the other hand, we hardly ever practice what we preach, and usually get defensive if preached to.

I know this of myself, so I consciously try not to be as strongly preachy unless I practice it myself. But some things are just difficult to shake off. esp things like having solutions and suggestions to everything even if the other person does not need it. And if someone else does the same thing to me, I get a bit irritated.

Hubbs sez: You should not get irritated about it, unless you stop doing the same to someone else.

I know, working on it .. My wise hubbsy....

flip flop

Eyes are yucky today and hence the balance is amazingly off on the left..

I am walking like that toy, which transfers its weight to each leg, but one leg is shorter, so it compensates.. flip flop flip flop.. of course i hate the feeling of being so off balance that I might just fall on one side. Usually I stop before that happens. Just sit and stabilize and start again. time to rethink about trying a gandhari...

Morning mess

Green Mung Daal all over the kitchen counters and floor.. bad daal packets.!

Chewie is not interested in the clean up.. good for him. I dont know what the raw daals will do to his tummy!

Clean up and cooking time. Lunch ..Cauliflower and Potatoes with crispy Cilantro tempering and Nigella seeds(Dhania Waale Aloo gobi). Fennel(Saunf) and Nigella seeds(Kalonji) are my current faves to temper most veggies. Tried Brown Rice Dosas yesterday.. turned out decent! Plain white rice is not much fun anymore, too much sudden sugar high.. not fun for me!

I know I sound like a finicky eater.. You would be too if you had deal with jitters coz of the food and nausea pretty much everyday..

Hey, I am sure some of you remember how much cantaloupe(kharbuja) i consumed in the hospital.. probably 2 a day, everyday... eat what works!

why is it

That out of the 12 perfume samples, the one you eventually think you really like and then get the bigger bottle, .. you end up not liking it anymore..

That just when you start packing up the heavy coat and sweaters, theres a snow storm!

That the minute you look away, the tea boils over..:)

Note to self: Hubbs needs a lesson in lentils, types, shapes, names, split, skinless etc etc

singers in the building!

One of our several neighbors recently got some singing game. And every other weekend there is some really bad and loud singing happening.. Its not that audible in the house but sometimes I think they leave their windows or balcony open.. save me from the loud tuneless singing...good lord..

Miss sis's kinect is finally up and running. Now we just have to wait and see how much she uses it ;)

Its sunny and super cold and chewie is sleeping away in the sun with all his feet in the air.

I am super hungry now coz hubbs is late from office and my lunch timing got pushed.. foooooodddd.

Lunch time... Have a great weekend y'all!

Snowy Thursday

A bit jittery and depressed today..

Every random friend I look up , I only see their normal, happy and pretty lives. Kids, jobs, vacations..

I should probably stop looking people up:) And not everyone shares the downs if any. Thats what we do best.. Share the joys and hide the suffering.

I should get back to planning my bread and writing to people about pet adoptions and such..! Gotta keep myself occupied even if its not all fun!. One of those days when I have to snap myself out of feeling yuck.. very few of these type of days.. but there are some...

Chewie, come here and give me a hug! I still have this fluffy sleepy hugger and a cute hubbs who will be here to shower me with more hugs soon.. And I am still doing much more than so many people who have the capability to, but choose not to, do some good!

The connection

"Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind." ~ Dr. Seuss

That is what I try to do everyday..

It is me who is dealing with things most cannot understand, and really just asking for a few changes here and there to make me a bit comfortable is not a big deal! I have to be a bit selfish about it, because I dont really get anything by being adjusting and pushing myself to the brink. I just start dreading the situation more, instead of building up a positive experience that I can handle it.

I now have this connection with hubbs, which sometimes can be misinterpreted as him listening to each and every thing that I say.

It is just that we are more attuned to each other, or rather he is to me, because I need him to read me more than he does. If I am uncomfortable about some thing, all I need is a quick one word and he gets exactly what needs to be done.

Some months back I would have these days when I just couldnt talk more than a few words at length. I would be too anxious and would want to just breathe and calm myself down. Talking disrupts my breathing process, if I am deliberately trying to breathe. And just understanding this point ...

My indication to hubbs would be either a volume or a time out word or hand gesture(T) and thats it. but the same conversation with anyone from home would be like

Me: Cant talk right now, give me a few minutes. Timeout

"what do you cant talk. what do u mean time out"

Me: give me a minute

"ok , lets breathe together. But why cant you talk? stop showing me the time out T"

Me: 1 2 3 breathing

"everyone breathes while talking. Why cant u"

Me: T for timeout. I will be fine in another minute.

"Ok, lets eat then"

Me: cant do

"why cant you eat now?"

Me: T

"stop being so anxious"

Me: rolls eyes and begs hubbs to get things to calm down :)

Then later, after a half an hour of explanation, no questions for a few days, and then the questions again. I know it is difficult to accept something which appears so bizarre. The point, it is bizarre for me too. But I cannot question it, I just have to accept it and deal with it... and so does hubbs... and when I cannot communicate/talk... he, is my connection to the world, my passage, my language, of communication..

Brrr.. and WA vs CA

It is cold today.. no snow yet.. and even if it does snow, it wont stick around for more than a few minutes.

I finished up writing to most people on WA CL, pointing them to the breeds, types and other preference pets they wanted. So I moved to CA, mostly LA and orange county right now.

Here are my observations about differences in both the states

- Both WA and CA have a fairly large pet population and an equally high rate of pets being dumped.

- Shelters in LA have upto 500 animals, more puppy mills and just about a big chihuahuas explosion. WA has a variety of breeds in shelters

- Wa is much more tech savvy i.e more people on craigslist and other sites and also more open to adoptions from shelters

- Down south, for some reason people are quite averse to adopting from shelters, even with the high population of pets, more choice and super low adoption fees ($30 for a dog!!). You will never find any shelter or rescue in WA with that low an adoption fee, probably because they are Not as over populated.

- The LA and OC county shelter scene is just down right depressing with huge numbers of crammed up dogs , cats and other critters.

Wish I could do more to reach all those people who do want to adopt in and around CA.

Snow in Seattle

It is snowing on and off since the afternoon.. hmm can I wish for some accumulation and a snow day ;)

My blood sugar level goes low every 2 hours because I was eating such less quantities per meal.. all because of the stupid stress. The quantities are slowly getting decent now, but I can still feel the need to eat every few hours, not because I am hungry, but because I know my sugar is going down. I have got to add more protein to my diet! And I still have to figure out how to be calm enough to "eat" when I have visitors. That definitely throws off my eating schedule!

Time to gobble up some freshly cooked Achari Aloo and Yellow Daal Fry!

Snow again?

Thats what the local weather news says.. who knows..

lets wait and watch.

Hubbs thinks that my 7 grey hair are because I am taking my blogs and spamming work too seriously.. hmm...time to chill today i guess ;) And research on some high protein breakfast options.. I cant drink the protein shakes in the morning.. and I am not a fan of tofu in any form.

Found another white hair

thats 7 now.. Hmm looks like I am stressed about some other more defined things:).. or maybe these 7 were always there and I am noticing them now.

When I started my Masters in champaign, a third of my hair turned white after the first semester and some of the hair were half white and half black. I could figure out when the semester has become stressful by the length of the white ones:) I started coloring soon after that, so I dont know if all were ever black again. I did love the highlights and the burgundy browns on me then.

Then post surgery, I had an inch of hair and I dint know when i would be able to color it. But lo and behold, all the hair that grew out was nice jet black. hmm, I guess the education and the job stress is the type that will give you premature grey hair!

My current anxiety since the past 4 years hasnt really changed the hair.. so its definitely the crazy college and job stress!

Time to make some chili green beans and blueberry compote and think up some high protein pancake recipes.

Sunday and my all purpose distractor

Sunny Sunday too! And my eyes are still bothered by the light.. Its all because of the heightened state of stress... All my sensory inputs are edgy and easily bothered.. loud noises, harsh lights, strong smells.. I dont like any of these.

Got a bit depressed at the excessive news about mushers and businesses starving dogs to death.. so i called upon my all purpose distractor .. hubbs... the other some purpose distractor was sleeping away cozily in his tiny den. Hubbs always finds a positive outlook to each situation! and that is just so cool!!

Back to writing blogs and listening to Jennifer Crusie .. to keep my crazy hyper creative head occupied!

Sunny Saturday

it is so bright that its hurting my eyes.. yes, thats what happens to seattleites when its gets nice and sunny after a few grey days.

The anniv gift code word "chocolate bread" for sis reached. We actually sent them an xbox+kinect.. i dont think it has sunk in yet. She asked me if we were sure we sent it for them :D

time to get the cleaning started and then later write up on Bringing Fido home series-the first few days on the other blog!

I dont know why I dread the house cleaner so much. Probably coz of the amount of noise involved in the cleaning and it goes on for about 2 hours. I should probably get them to come on random days for just half an hour.. but i dont think it will work very well that way.. uhhh. Just anoher more hour..

Sleeping chew

Started with a sunny day today with some kiddies in the p-patch again.. its grey now but hopefully will clear up by tomorrow!

Chew is sleeping away on the futon in the den, near hubbs desk. He is becoming hubbs dog coz he goes for long runs to the park with him. I m thinking I should adopt a really lazy lap dog for myself.. but I have to keep the spot open for fostering later.

2 dogs is a lot to handle in my small home and 2 hands :)

Weekend plans.. house cleaning.. :) , chewie bath and brush , and drives!

currently listening to Jennifer crusie - Bet me.

Getting a message across

is so difficult if you cannot spend time networking and increasing your reach to similar thinking audience..

produce decent content. but no one might be reading it.

reach out to and read other content, but it takes a while to find the content you really like.

be constantly out there and use all possible means... and you might or might not make much of a difference.

Whatever it may be.. food blogging, beauty gurus, youtube sensations, activists.. everything sure is a big effort.

But The point here is to not get intimidated by the immenseness of the effort.. the point is to start and make an effort.. small one.. tiny one.. any one

Its all about the starfish effect. A person walking along a beach after a big storm. As he walks he stops and picks up starfish that had been washed ashore and tosses them back into the ocean. Another person comes along and says, “Why are you even bothering to do that? There are so many that you’ll never make a difference.” The first person bends down, picks up another one, tosses it to safety and says simply, “It made a difference to that one.” This story is from http://iloverescueanimals.org/2009/05/the-starfish-effect/

Have a great sunny and cheery day u all!

You know its spring when

there are happily shrieking and yipping tiny kids in the p-patch(community garden) downstairs..

As the weather gets warmer and sunnier.. every wednesday or thursday, a bunch of kids come in a line and then start running around and shrieking in the garden and the lawn! :) they r a bunch of cuties on a sunny day!

I was going through a cousins wedding album who recently got married. All weddings so end up in the Bidayee(sending of the bride) and everyone cries even if they are going next door :) . Thats an indian wedding for ya. I remember my own wedding and I dint cry till I was already in the car and the car started moving away. I think then it hit me, oh god I am married!.. and then i dint stop for 2 days. I have no clue why :) Just the whole event, occasion and people's emotions around you I guess..

Rain and storm

Rain and storm since yesterday here.. Chewie dint want to go out because he was getting blown away .. poor baby..

gotta write up some more recipes.. and do more spamming.. some people do appreciate my suggestions so that is really nice..!

and read up some more food blogs and so on

Adopt a Pet in India!

There is a petfinder to find adoptable dogs in India too.

http://www.indiapetfinder.com/Default.aspx

Not too many cities on it, but its a start.

Here their facebook page http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=122247114493666

I'll try make a list of rescues in major cities.!