Isabel's Daughter

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This was our June book club book, one of my selections meaning I am the leader of the discussion. I've already forgotten the other two titles I offered along with this one, but this one received the most votes.

Before I reprint the synopsis from the author's website I want to reproduce the first sentence from the first chapter since that's what attracted me to the book in the first place.

"The first time I saw my mother was the night she died. The second time was at a party in Santa Fe."

Yikes! Does that do to you what it does to me? Ok, here's the synopsis:

After a childhood spent in an institution and a series of foster homes, Avery James has trained herself not to yearn for the mother who gave her up. But her safe, predictable life changes one night at a party in the home of a wealthy Santa Fe art dealer, when she stumbles upon the portrait of a woman who is the mirror image of herself.

Avery has found her mother, Isabel Colinas, an artist who died eight years earlier in a tragic accident. Slowly but inevitably, she is compelled to discover all she can about the woman.

Searching for Isabel—in her work, in the stories of friends, rivals and lovers, and what’s left of Querencia, the old miner’s cabin that was her haven—Avery is drawn into complex relationships with the people who knew her mother, and into an unexpected love.

As she weaves together the threads of her mother’s artistic heritage, her grandmother’s skills as a curandera or healer, and her own talent for cooking, Avery learns that, while discovering Isabel provides a certain resolution in her life, it’s discovering herself that brings lasting happiness.

This is a fair summary of what happens but the joy of the book is in the details. There's a lot of cooking in this story and we (the book club) decided to meet for our discussion at a Mexican restaurant to get in the spirit! (We went to Pacos Tacos in South Park and my meal was really scrumptious.) The author included a lot about the art Isabel did and I could totally visualize it. She also focused on the earth and her characters' relationship with and dependance on it. At low point in her life Avery ends up staying with an old woman named Carrie who was the local curandera and learns what herbs can be used for healing. As an adult she befriends another woman who owns a shop who sells similar natural healing items, which leads me to the next point.

The relationships Avery forms with the women in her life are what gives her the necessary ingredients that were so sorely missing in her early life. Through each of these women she develops a part of herself and at the end, when she begins to understand who her mother was, she finally becomes complete. My book club gave it a two thumbs up and so do I.

Little Kids On Potties

I'm not sure why but one of my favorite category of pictures is little kids on their training potties. They're just so darn cute! One of my all time favorite pics of the girls is of them sitting next to each other on their training potties, Shirin feeding a white baby doll a bottle and Tita feeding a brown baby doll a bottle. One day I'll find that and post it.

Last time we were in Athens Kai was in the midst of potty training so of course I had to snap a few pics. It all started with a pile of pillows and great leaps from the bed...

Notice the little white kitty in his left hand and the golden curls.

All weekend Kai sang, "I Ain't Gonna Paint No More!" (actually we mostly heard him singing "no more no more no more no more")

Cutie patootie.

Better Late Than Never

We planted a green pepper plant not long after we planted the tomatoes, mint and basil. It grew and grew to the height of my shoulder but no fruit appeared. We decided to enjoy it as a big beautiful plant. About a week ago we noticed some flowers and look at it now:

 This pepper and the next are about 1 1/2 inches long...

... so they have a ways to go.

Catching the peppers in all stages of development. My camera didn't know where to focus.

Five little babies. Needless to say we're excited by the prospect of organic fresh green peppers. Hope they taste as good as our tomatoes have!

Get Rid Of The Tuft Or I'll Cut It Off

This is going to be a very un-PC post but I just have to say that I HATE the little beards that hang down off a man's chin. Goatees are fine, and full beards are fine, but those 25 hairs at the tip of the chin that men grow to lengths beyond the rest of the facial hair just do me in. We have a patient whose husband has a spike of chin hair that must have 18 strands that grow straight down about six inches. It's all I can do not to put the blood pressure cuff on his wife's arm and then when he least expects it whip around with a pair of surgical scissors and CUT IT OFF! Ahhh... that would feel so good.

Here's a guy with a Mary Tyler Moore flip in his. I saw him at WalMart and secretly snapped his pic. I'd like to snap that little tuft right off his chin. As you can see I'm not totally out of control -- I've protected Mr. Billy Goat's identity, but he knows who he is and better watch out.

Healthy Food Experiments

As I mentioned in a recent post Saeed and I have been fine tuning out diets in order to, as Thich Nhat Hanh says, "Eat only that which nourishes the body." It's not that we want to live as long as the redwoods; it's that we want to be fit and enjoy whatever years we have left. We are doing this in a way that meets both the scientific criteria and our taste bud criteria. For the former we are using primarily the information found in the most up to date research articles as put forth by Dr. Neal Barnard at PCRM, by Dr. David Servan-Schreiber (may he rest in peace) in his book Anti-Cancer, and by my current favorite Dr. Michael Greger at NutritionFacts.org. We are interested not only in nutrient dense foods but also those that seem to be most helpful in delaying/repelling the chronic diseases that seem to be afflicting most Americans our age. As for the taste bud criteria? We just grab our forks and dive in.

Saeed in particular has been cooking up a storm. I never know what I may find simmering on the stove when I come home at the end of the day! He is a genius at putting foods together in strange and wonderful ways. When I said that to our friend Darren he said, "You mean an idiot savant?" Ha ha Darren, but you ain't gettin' the good eats I am so call him what you like. Each time Saeed cooks a new dish we discuss whether it's good enough to record. It's always a "yes".

I came home to this one day: a tofu curry and a kale/cabbage/chickpea dish. Both were super yummy.

And although he's been doing nearly all of the cooking and I am the primary researcher in Drs. Greger/Barnard/Servan-Schreiber information, every once in a while I put something together myself. Here is my version of the Middle Eastern dish Tabouleh. I used pearled barley instead of the usual bulgar wheat because its glycemic index is much lower - 25 vs 45 - so this dish has been named Tabarley!

Dr. Greger has a video that describes the current American trend. We are living longer than before but we are sicker than before, so we are living long, sick lives. No thanks, not if I can help it.

Finding Asali A Home

As everyone knows she just showed up on our deck, skinny and hungry. We took her in to protect her from the elements, took her to the vet to be tested, vaccinated, and spayed, and then we put her in Shirin's old bedroom to recover. After two weeks of not being able to find her a home we took her to Shirin's to foster and use her status as a vet with connections to hopefully find her a home.

Home from the vet.

Out of the bathroom and into the more spacious bedroom.

In her new bedroom (the boys' bedroom) at Shirin and Gabriel's house.

Lucky Asali in the hands of a pro.

I cried a lot that weekend knowing that I was going to say goodbye to a kitty that I'd fallen in love with. I absolutely CANNOT be a kitty foster mother. Although I knew there was no way we could keep her I couldn't bear the thought of leaving her. I'm certifiably insane.

So here are a couple of cute videos of her while still living at our house. I hope Shirin can find her a home soon. She's not particularly nice to Earl and Satin so she needs to find her forever home.

Goodbye Psych Department

It's hard to believe that Saeed has actually left his teaching job; I thought he'd never want to leave his university office but the endless possibilities of what he could do instead won him over. Adjusting to being more of a full time clinical psychologist will probably take time, but in the meanwhile he had to move out of his beloved #126!

The hallway leading to the psych department.

Each faculty member has their bio up on the board.

His bio.

The hallway in front of his office. He was giving away all those books.

Deciding what gets pitched and what goes home. Behind him is a poster of Picasso's Guernica, the epitome of human suffering, an interesting choice for a psychologist, no?

A more encouraging poster.

An inspiring poster.

It's nice to know the family is right up there with Ali and Einstein.

And a few little knick knacks given to him by two cute little girls sat on his shelves.

I'm sure he has mixed feelings but the way I see it, a page has turned and a new era has started. Now if we could just pry those office keys out of his hand!  :-)

Life Versus Blogging

It's not that I don't have lots to blog about, which is odd since my life is so stable, fixed. But I struggle to find the free time to do that which interests me as well as that which will keep me healthy. I must accept the reality that my job takes up 10 hours of my day and that I probably spend another hour taking care of our cats as well as the strays at work (which my coworkers and I have started calling our office cats.) Add to that my need for sleep (not that I ever get enough) and that leaves pitiful few hours for the things I really want to do. I believe they call that finding a good balance. It's elusive and challenging for me. That fact that I can't manage to achieve a satisfying balance while working full time is a frustration for me. Time to retire? Not hardly. I enjoy my job, I need the salary, and I need the insurance. But having days off of work sure makes me think about it.

So what's on my plate these days?

• I am focusing heavily on lifestyle activities to improve my quality of health in order to prevent those chronic diseases that begin to plague people my age. I do a lot of research to keep up on the current recommendations for all things nutrition-related. Saeed and I both have tightened the screws on our eating habits in order to get as close as possible to what is currently advised to achieve optimum health. 

• I am focusing on my LiveWELL criteria - an incentive program offered by my employer to make healthy lifestyle choices. This results in a reduction in my medical insurance premium; I saved $600 last year. This requires record keeping, logging in to the site to document, and calling my health coach. Ironically, if I didn't have to do all that I could spend more time exercising. 

• I am exercising nearly daily. I am happy to say that although I failed in my outdoor running program due to the three H's - hills, heat and humidity - I am having success on my indoor treadmill in front of which sits an air conditioning unit Saeed installed last year (thank you.) I am slowly increasing the number of minutes I can jog at one time. Perhaps one day I'll be able to do a 5K without having to stop to walk.

• This weekend I am also trying to pin down some yoga and meditation routines. I won't have much time to do them but when the need arises I don't want to have to spend my time figuring out what to do. The secret is to have an arsenal of plans to implement when the mood strikes.

• We have also nearly completed the rest of the painting in the living room. Last summer we did the big job, but the baseboard trim and the wall behind the entertainment center was left undone. We have painted these areas and will need to pull the painter's tape and touch up any bloops, but basically it is finally done. 

• It is also time to obtain the CEUs necessary to keep my certification. I ordered and received four books with material to read and quizzes to take that will take much time to complete. I always feel jittery in my stomach until I have completed the steps necessary to keep myself current. I have to do this every five years and in the past I just took the re-certification exam but it's like taking the SAT and I thought I would try to do it differently this time. We'll see in the end which method is less painful.

• And of course I spend a fair amount of time keeping my kitties happy and healthy too. Obi is happily living on the Banu/Lupe side of the house now. He challenges me daily when I try to give him his pill. Will he chew up the chicken-flavored chew tab? No. OK, how about the tablet hidden in a treat? No, spit that out. OK, how about in some easy cheese? Nope, licked up all the cheese and the treat but the pill is still on the table. OK, time for the transdermal ear gel which he doesn't enjoy near as much as Frosty enjoys having his ears rubbed when I apply his. I go through the same routine with Tippy but she has the added quirk of being put off by any noise or movement. When it's time to pill her I have to tell Saeed, "OK, no sudden movements or loud noises." I get the pill strategically positioned on my finger in some easy cheese and up walks Chappu and smells Tippy's back. No way man and off she goes. Sigh... There I sit with the glob on my finger and Tippy spooked and walking away. But I love them all. All the time spent obtaining the supplies to feed, medicate, and provide bathroom facilities for these creatures is worth it. Even the 40 lb. bags of cat litter I lug into the house in the 98 degree heat. 

I want to blog, I really do. But as I sit here typing I keep thinking about the fact that I should have already left the house to go feed the office kitties and go to EarthFare to buy what I need to make tabouleh. Did I mention the ever present laundry? The fact that our cleaning lady is out to recover from surgery? That I only have 21 more daylight hours before I have to go back to work Monday morning? So I hope to find a way to resume blogging. I enjoy doing it and it's the only way my sister can see what I'm up to, but if "Life As I See It" goes dark again please know that I've probably chosen to take a run on my treadmill or carry in a 40 lb. bag of cat litter instead.  

Asali Purring

I don't have time to blog about Asali right now but Tita wanted to see a video of her. All I have is this one from right after her spay and she curled up in her bed to purr. I'll have to do better this weekend.

You may have to increase the volume to hear her.

Sorry

Just so you know I'm alive. Went to Atlanta last weekend, kids came in this weekend, and a stray cat wandered into my life again. Will blog more later.