Incoherent Scribblings

One of the items on my 101 Things in 1001 Days list is to “eat a vegetarian diet for a week.” This is an item that I have been pondering off and on quite a bit over the past few weeks because once again, I have fallen into one of my I-hate-cooking-and-food-in-general moods.

This anti-cooking sentiment reached its peak last weekend when I thought I was in the mood for one of my favorite dishes. I bought all the ingredients and made it, but once it was ready and I sat down to eat I wanted to throw it out after two bites. It wasn’t that it wasn’t good. It was. It just didn’t appeal to me. So I put the left-overs in the fridge and the next day I tried to eat it again (usually it is even better the second day), but even then I didn’t find it appetizing. I gave up and threw it out.

As a result, last week I began to think that perhaps a temporary change in eating habits might lift me out of my mood. Therefore I began to wonder if I was ready to implement the challenge of eating a vegetarian diet for a week.

So I started doing a little research on vegetarianism. I found this somewhat difficult because a lot of information out there is little more than militant propaganda (PETA anyone?), but eventually I found some advice for people who are considering vegetarianism. One of the things most often suggested is to try vegetarianism for thirty days and eat meatless meals that appeal to you. You don’t have to eat asparagus and tofu right off the bat. It is OK to eat spaghetti with meatless sauce and baked potatoes. You also don’t have to wake up one morning and completely give up meat. You can gradually wean yourself off of it. This type of advice was what I was looking for and was all I needed to decide that I am ready to begin my vegetarian experiment.

When I wrote this challenge for my 101 Things list I wrote it fairly simple because I thought if I left it as merely “a vegetarian diet for a week” I might accomplish it. However, I had hoped to not just eat a vegetarian diet for a week, but actually sit down and do a vegetarian meal plan as well. I wanted to find vegetarian recipes that sounded good and give them a try.

However, I have not yet seriously looked for any such recipes and given my current mood concerning food, I am not sure that a week is enough to get me out of this funk. Therefore, as most places suggest, I have decided to try vegetarianism for thirty days as opposed to one week.

Nevertheless I have also decided that I will not completely forbid myself from eating meat. In other words, I will allow myself to eat meat only if I go out to eat. This does not mean that I will circumvent my experiment by eating out every night or require myself to eat meat if I go out, rather I will not deny myself a steak if I am at a restaurant and I want it.

As a general rule though, for the next month I resolve to no longer buy or cook meat and will actively search for and try one vegetarian recipe a week. In a month I will evaluate the state of affairs and at that point determine if I am really the carnivore I always thought I was.

Seeing as I only have one more Christmas to achieve #12 “stitch a Christmas ornament for each member my immediate family” of my stitching goals on my 1001 Days List, I decided that I better make a plan to stitch and finish this set of ornaments.

First of all, I define my “immediate” family as such:

Mom
Dad
Sissy
Niece
Nephew
Step-mom
Step-sis
Step-dad
Aunt (Mom’s Sis)
Uncle (Dad’s Bro)
BFF (Best Friend Forever… you know who you are!)

With his “Baby’s First Christmas Ornament,” I have already stitched one for my nephew, so I guess I don’t need to stitch him another… unless I really want to.

As far as the rest of the family goes, I will aim to have the ornaments for my mom, dad, sister and niece done for next Christmas. I will then complete the second half of the set before the end of my challenge and those ornaments can be gifts for Christmas 2009.

Therefore starting next month, I will add the goal “Stitch and finish Christmas Ornament for So&So” to my stitching goals every other month until I finish all 10 ornaments and can count the “thing” as complete.

I have been thinking about my 101 Things in 1001 Days list quite a lot over the past week. I suppose I have been doing so because I felt like with the list it was not really necessary to make New Year’s Resolutions.

Or it could have been that I just happened to notice that the ticker at the top of the page indicates that I am within days of being half way through my allotted time. On Monday it will be 500 days since I started my task and as of October 8 (the last time I updated the list), I have only completed 18 tasks. I have completed a few more since then, but I am nowhere near the 50 mark where it seems I should be as I near the half-way point.

Upon looking through the list I have found that there are some tasks-in-progress that really can’t be counted until the last day of my challenge so when I see that they aren’t crossed off yet I don’t worry. However, there are things that for one reason or another I am no longer interested in pursuing so I have been thinking about replacements for those tasks. In fact, I have a few that I will be updating shortly.

One of the things I would really like to add but haven’t figured out exactly how to word it yet is something along the lines of blogging every day for a year. I know that there are different “365 Blog Groups” out there, but I am not sure if I want to join something like that. After all my blog is written for me, so I shouldn’t have to prove that I have posted something everyday to anyone but myself.

Perhaps if it is something I want to do I need to make some rules and/or exceptions… Sort of like what I had/have for the Project Challenge. I would love to post every day, but the fact is that sometimes life gets in the way and I don’t want to feel like I have failed my task if I miss a day here and there.

The cats and I successfully arrived in Arkansas last night about 9:30pm. The trip turned out to be 13½ hours and was made bearable by listening to Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.

One of my “101 Things” is to listen to the Harry Potter books on “tape,” so I took the opportunity to check them out of the library over break. I had never listened to an audio book during my travels and I must say that I really enjoyed the experience.

This weekend was also stitch-a-thon weekend. My goal was to finish Outi’s birthday exchange and/or work on “Fairy Flora.” I finished the birthday exchange before the weekend, so I worked on Flo. Since I knew I would be traveling part of the weekend, I didn’t have any specific goals but I managed to work on her for about 4 hours and get some more flowers done. I hope to be able to start working on her wings soon.

If you have ever taken the time to read my 100 Useless Things About Me or browse through my 101 Things in 1001 Days list, you will know that it has always been a goal of mine to continue my education. For many years I have wavered between getting a second Master’s Degree in English or going full-steam ahead and tackling a Ph.D. in Information Science. I have different reasons for wanting each of these, but will not go into them here tonight.

West Texas Town University does not have a library/information science program, but they do offer a Master’s in English so as the fall semester drew to a close, I began browsing the offerings for the upcoming spring semester. As luck would have it, I came upon a class that sounded interesting and so I began pondering the idea of taking the course.

Though my eventual goal is to acquire another degree, it has been a long time since I have taken classes and I have never taken classes while working full-time. Therefore, I thought perhaps I would use the spring semester as sort of a trial run: I would take one class as a non-degree seeking student, see what sort of time and effort was needed to succeed in both the class and my job, and when I was finished determine whether or not I was interested in pursuing the matter further.

I contacted the right person and was told to fill out a form and submit copies of my degrees. Once that was completed I would be admitted as a non-degree seeking student and be able to register for the class.

I filled out the form, had my diplomas copied, and waited patiently to get the letter that would officially say that I could register. A couple of weeks later I got a letter in the mail. It said my form had been received but before I could register, copies of my transcripts were needed.

Confused, I contacted the registrar’s office and told them what the letter had said. Had I misunderstood and only thought they said copies of my diplomas when they needed my transcripts instead? I was told candidates for the program needed their transcripts, not their diplomas. I reminded them I was going to take the class as a non-degree seeking student. They told me the form I had filled out indicated that I wanted to enter the program, not merely take classes as a non-degree seeking student.

I went back and looked at the copy I had made of the form and, sure enough, I had checked the box for candidacy into the program, not that for a non-degree seeking student. I was informed I could still be a non-degree seeking student, but would have to resubmit the form.

At this point I thought a bit about the mistake that I had made and decided that perhaps fate was telling me something: Maybe I should just go ahead and start working on my dream sooner rather than later. The more I thought about it, the more convinced I became that it was a sign.

I verified that the copies of my transcripts that were already on file (I had to have them sent to the school when I accepted my job) could be submitted and gave permission for them, along with my application, to be sent to the department for review.

While it may not be guaranteed that the department will accept me into the program, the chances are high, so once my file is returned to the registrar I will not only be able to register for the class that started it all, but I will finally begin my journey towards that second master’s degree that I have always craved.