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Friday Fun! (The Only Shoes I Talk About: Gym Shoes)
Hello my lovely readers!
I feel like I’m being terribly dull after the excitement of my Seattle and gashed knee Friday Fun posts but things have been honestly rather calm around here.
*looks around*
*knocks on wood*
Well, besides the Social Sciences Librarian Boot Camp and the release of my book that is. 😉
The most exciting things that happened in the last week were:
- My recently planted container garden seeds sprouted.
- I wore out my gym shoes and bought new ones.
Ok, so, to me the fact that seeds that are organic, heirloom, and over two years old sprouted was pretty damn miraculous, particularly given that right after I planted and liberally watered them we had no sun for around four days. (Things got…moldy). But I am literally speaking to you about plants growing, so.
It also was a big deal to me that my gym shoes wore out. We’re talking holes appeared and a heel is half off. To me this is a sign that my fitness thing went from an attempt to a part of my life. I literally worked out so much that I wore my gym shoes out. Wow. To celebrate, I let myself buy nice ones. When I put my feet in them, they said ahhhh.
Oh, before I go, btdubs, I finally realized I totally neglected to put my novella I published almost a year ago, Ecstatic Evil, on Smashwords for all of you lovely folks without kindles, so it is up there now.
Waiting For Daybreak will be there as well after the first 90 days of exclusivity to Amazon are up, aka on September 4th.
Happy weekends!
Friday Fun! (Gardening, Kindle App, Swiffer)
Hello my lovely readers! Thanks to my friend Nina, my tomato plant now actually has a cage instead of being held up by a contraption made up of random bits of my blinds, yarn, and my refrigerator. It is surviving…barely. It’s this tall gangly thing. On the other hand, my peppers keep getting bushier but not blossoming. Get on that, peppers! The basil is behaving quite well. I highly recommend it to anyone who forgets to water plants until they get wrinkly and then desperately drowns them with so much water that the dirt floats. That might just be me. In any case, the basil is thriving in spite of my abuse.
Oh in bookish news, I got the Kindle app for my iTouch, partly because it’s free, but also because I was wondering if I’d actually successfully finish an eBook if it wasn’t a classic. So far all the ones I’ve tried have been classics because that’s what’s free. Anyway, I heard that you can get some romance novels for free from Amazon via the Kindle app, and lo and behold you can! So expect a review of reading on the Kindle app, and possibly the book, if I actually finish it. I have yet to successfully finish an eBook, and I only plan on reading this when I’m standing up on the bus with one free hand or in line for something. So we shall see what we see.
Also, pet owners, for the love of sanity get a Swiffer
Happy weekends all!
Friday Fun! (A/C, Rent, Gardening)
Hello my lovely readers! Last weekend saw a heatwave here in Boston that finally convinced me to buy an a/c unit. My brother informed me that the new models use far less electricity than I previously had thought, and my dad offered to contribute some money toward one as an early birthday present, so one was acquired! Of course, the day it arrived was so chilly that I had all my windows shut, lol. We plan on installing it this weekend in preparation for the imminent return of the heat. Long as we can find an electric drill to borrow somewhere.
My lease is up the end of August, so I wound up discussing renewing it with my landlord. He told me he’s probably going to have to raise my rent due to taxes. A friend reminded me that it’s a renter’s market, so that’s a bit odd. However, I also just remembered that he gave me a deal when I first rented it, knocking $50 off the original monthly amount he wanted, so I guess that evens it out? Either way, I really don’t want to move. I haven’t been in one place for more than a year since I was 15 years old (15 through 18 consisting of switching back and forth between parents’ houses), and it would just be nice to have 2010 be The Year Amanda Doesn’t Move Anywhere. Also, with the job hunt and graduation in January, I’m expecting that my entire financial situation will be very different in a few months, so I’d rather wait to move until that happens. Anyway, cross your fingers for me that it doesn’t go up too much and that I’ll overcome my patriarchy-induced tendencies to not advocate for myself in monetary situations!
In container gardening news, one of my tomato plants is getting tall, and I’m wondering when I should stake it. I’m a bit clueless about tomato plants. The other one is kind of failing to thrive. It looks healthy, but it’s still only 3 to 4 inches tall. I added some dirt and watered it, but I don’t know what else to do. Thoughts on that? The good news is, my pepper plants are doing awesome! I may have discovered my gardening niche. I also just planted some onions (yes, in containers). I’m super excited about that, because they’re my favorite veggie! Unfortunately, two very sun-lacking days followed my planting of them, so I’m not sure if that’ll affect the germination. Next up, I need to figure out some way (*cough* some free way *cough*) to raise my long container for spinach so it’s closer to the light. I’m thinking using empty boxes since that’s about all I have laying around.
I have yet to decide exactly what I’ll be doing tonight and Saturday (but I guarantee some reading and some videogaming). Sunday I’ll be doing some invasive species removal on the Charles River. Stoked for that! What will you be doing with your weekends?
Friday Fun! (Biking, Gardening, Wii)
Hello my lovely readers! I hope your week treated you all well. It’s finally feeling like summer around here. You would think the summery weather would mean timely buses, but no. The T has made me late just as much as it did in the winter. I take this as a sign that I need to speed up project Amanda bikes to work. Last weekend, I attempted the route with my gal pals Nina and E. It turned out I was only able to make it 8 of the 12 miles. I’m going to have to work up to it. In spirit of that, I’ve been planning on biking to my bus connection to start building up the muscles. 🙂 I had yet to do it this week, partly because of rain and partly because I realized I need to figure out something to wear under my skirts while on the bike. However! I am determined to bike at least 3 days next week. Keep your fingers crossed for me!
I transplanted my seedlings, which are now plants, into their permanent containers last weekend. The containers are a bunch of different vibrant colors, and they really brighten up the kitchen! Now I just need to start my strawberry plants, transplant my flower into a hanging basket, and start either onion or spinach (I have yet to decide which). It’s all lots of fun, and I can’t wait to see the produce I (hopefully) get in the end!
I played Kirby for the first time this week, and I now get the appeal of that odd little pink blob. It’s a lot of fun! I also downloaded one of the super marios (he’s in a castle and goes into paintings….) onto my Wii. It’s one I didn’t really ever play as a kid, so it’s all-new to me. It’s a lot like a predecessor of Mario Galaxy, so it’s a bunch of fun. Of course, I can’t wait to try the new Galaxy when it comes out next week!
I hope you all have lovely weekends. I know I’ll be seeing at least a few of you tomorrow at malibtweetup4! Yay!
Gardening Is Not Elitist
I’m sure you’ve heard the people claiming it’s elitist to backyard or container garden. The “reasoning,” apparently, is that because other people in the world have to farm to subsist, doing so when you don’t have to is rude to them. Or something like that. Excuse me, but the assumption that farming is something you only do until you can afford not to is what’s elitist. It’s looking down on farmers. It’s looking down on people who are actually willing to get their hands dirty to sustain themselves. It’s looking down on everyone who works along the line to make the packaged, processed foods these so-called humanitarians eat.
There is, of course, a place for production farming. It’s a great way to produce a lot of food in a short amount of time at a relatively low price to feed a bunch of people. It’s obviously far more logical to have a large farm of rice paddies than for me to attempt to make my own rice paddy in Boston. I’m laughing just thinking about it.
But what about your backyard that is currently just grass? What about your balcony that’s decorated only with chairs and a few garden gnomes? What about the 3 feet of space in my kitchen that’s too small to fit an appliance or table in, so is currently just wasted space? If I grow vegetables and/or fruit there, I’m:
- Using space that would otherwise be wasted for a valuable purpose
- Lessening my environmental impact, which is a benefit for everyone
- Becoming more self-reliant, which is always a good thing
- Maintaining important knowledge to help pass down to future generations
These people seem to think that big business manufacturing is The Answer to all societal problems, but it isn’t. It isn’t too hard to imagine a future where no one knows the basics. Where no one is in touch with the earth or with their food or with their clothing or with the animals. We’re practically living in it now. Just look at the obesity epidemic, the violence, the general feeling of ennui permeating modern life. We’ve become so caught up in the power of manufacturing that we’ve forgotten even good things are bad if they aren’t in moderation. It’s great that I can get rice and tofu in the store–those aren’t exactly things that I can grow in my backyard. But it’s also great that I can grow a tomato in my kitchen. Nothing teaches you where food comes from quite so well as planting the seed, nurturing the plant, and harvesting the fruit yourself. It’s empowering. It’s understanding on a close, personal level what we as people are capable of with our opposable thumbs and big brains. Gardening isn’t elitist. It’s bringing a sense of humanity back to a people whose culture continually tries to rob them of it.
This work by Amanda Nevius is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
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