31 May 2007

Loving What I Do...







is one step closer to doing what I love.

I gave two weeks notice at my job from hell, and have been training at my new job. I love this job already. I could see making a career out of being a Sleep Tech. And given the hours, I would be able to pursue my vocation much easier than if I continued to work as an office whore.

So why am I making the distinction between my career and my vocation? Well, as much as I want to be a midwife, I don't see making a living from it, and that's a good thing. If I expect to make a financial living from catching babies at home, I know I'll be disappointed. I want to do it because I love doing it. I think I have found something I could make into a career, while pursuing my vocation.

I can't remember the last time I had a job where I absolutely loved what I was doing. This is a new thing for me. I enjoy the balance between caring for clients, and working with crazy high-tech medical equipment. This job makes me have to think. I like having to think. I have to consider what health issues and medications will affect what I see on the computer screen, and how the patient will sleep or adjust to using a CPAP device. I like making people feel at ease. I like the hours. I like wearing scrubs and a lab coat. The work is fascinating. It feels good. Wicked good.

I'll gladly take loving what I do for now.

15 May 2007

The Last Spanish Virgin


Tomorrow we're going to Isla de Culebra, Puerto Rico for my sister in law's wedding. I just looked at some photos of the beaches and it suddenly dawned on me that I'm going to a warm place! I'm going to the Caribbean!

I could really use a vacation. This is going to be a great one. I haven't left the Continental US since I was 15 and went to Japan.

I'm leaving with a nasty cold, unfortunately. I'm leaving a warm and sunny Massachusetts. I'm leaving a budding garden that I initially hated tending, but now I love it. I'm leaving after playtesting PSI Run and discovering that my character is a beach bumming surfer mermaid-like person. I was calling myself an aquatic hominid. How apropos!

And best of all, I'm leaving Greenfield just as the year forest tent caterpillar infestation begins. It's not as bad as it was last year, but it's still bad. I had two hitching caterpillars on my car this afternoon, and I shamelessly squished them. I almost never kill bugs, but I didn't want them on my trees. The pictures in the link do not reveal the horror factor of the yearly infestation in downtown Greenfield. They're everywhere. In the trees, swinging from their little tent threads, crawling on buildings, crawling and getting squished on the ground. They get on your car, your clothes, in your hair. They're just disgusting. I get the creepy crawlies just thinking about it.

I'm also leaving with my ginger beer almost ready to bottle, and a full tank of kombucha in the continuous brewer. It's a little strange that not only did I make arrangements for the Bakers to feed and water our cats and frogs, but also my culinary microbes.

When I come back, I start training to be a sleep tech. I will be giving notice at my job on Tuesday. Yay!

Have a lovely week!

08 May 2007

Endless Rivers of Kombucha


Or, "Welcome to My Mad Tea Party".

Kombucha is several species of fungus living in symbiotic harmony with several species of bacteria. Together they live in symbiotic harmony with (on? in?) people. I think kombucha is addictive to people so that we'll take them into our homes, grow them, give them to people, and those people will grow them and give them to more people, and so on.

I've heard from several kombucha drinkers that they first time they tried it, they thought it tasted strange, or they outright hated it. I didn't like it at first, but something about it made me want to like it and I tried it again. Then I couldn't stop drinking it. Then I shared it with Chris. He didn't like it. Then he tried it again. Now he can't stop drinking it. Then I gave it to Bea and Ingrid and the same thing happened. I went from making one 3 liter batch once a week to four. We often have kombucha drinking frenzies when I pour the finished product into the pitchers and bottles. And I want to call everyone I know to share the magically fantastic and wonderfully refreshing fermented tea. This one has a little ginger in it! This one has rosewater! I brewed this one with lavender flowers!

My 2 1/2 gallon continuous fermenting jug from The Happy Herbalist came today. I started it up tonight with one of the 3 liter batches. It fermented quicker than I had expected and was a little too vinegary. I bottled another couple of liters and added a little rosewater. It's tasty. Tomorrow the other two batches should be ready. I'm going to add goji berries to one of them and ginger to the other, and call up my fellow kombuchaholics to sample the latest brew. (We'll be home this evening, kombuchaholics!)

I have another 2 1/2 gallon continuous fermenter that I haven't started up yet. I was saving it for when I got another yeasty beasty from Vincent, the ever delicious ginger beer bug. [Note: To clarify, I'm not saying Vincent is a "delicious ginger beer bug". He just grows them.] But I thought it would be fun to have two different flavors of kombucha, too. I'm not addicted to ginger beer yet. Maybe that's a little excessive. It's just so delicious and fun to make. It would be nice to have a black tea and a green tea or a caffeinated and a decaf. Two different flavors of never ending supplies of kombucha. And ginger beer. There are other cultured foods I have yet to try: Caspian Yogurt, Tibicos. Just thinking of all the microbes I could propagate makes me happy.

And of course, I have four new babies. I have two huge jars of babies. I can't bring myself to throw them away, and I don't really have to. I can sell them, mail them, give them away, feed them to the cats... I just found an awesome use for the superfermented undrinkable stuff: make it into a gentle skin toner. So I never have to throw any of it away. Maybe there's more truth to the notion that kombucha is really a prolifically spawning demon. Demon, fungus, what difference does it make? I'm under the spell. I have been assimilated. I'm a host and carrier.

And I'm becoming a High Priestess and Evangelist of the Great Kombucha Plan. I'm giving a "How to Make Kombucha" workshop at 6:30, Monday, June 4 at Acadia Herbals in the Maplewood Shops, Northampton, MA. It costs $20, and I'll give a step by step demonstration of how you brew it, have samples to drink and kombucha skin toner to try, I'll have lots of written information, and everyone gets to take home a kombucha baby. Email me if you would like more information.

We're all mad here. I'm mad, you're mad...

Some Kombucha Websites:
Kombucha.org. A perfect example how kombucha ensures its reproduction. They say it up front: "Someday, everyone will have cultures."

The Kombucha Journal. Chock full of helpful advice. Home of the kombucha exchange.

The Happy Herbalist. Carries everything you need to propagate kombucha, kefir, and other probiotics.


The Original Kombucha Mailing List
. I'm a subscriber, but it's too active for me to read much of anything.

01 May 2007

The Camel's Back Is Already Broken


I wish I could say, "This is the last straw." The last straw happened months ago. This is an Appendix Straw, a Straw Addendum, if you will.

My body is fighting something. I have a migraine with a sour stomach. I feel like crap. I went to Whole Foods Market before I had to pick Ingrid up, and got stuck being sick in the bathroom. It's not fun being sick in a public bathroom. I need to take it easy, which is what I intended to do today. I didn't think it was going to be very busy at work, so I called in so I could nurse my migraine and angry stomach without taking drugs.
The phone rang at 9 am. I didn't answer it. The phone was downstairs, I was upstairs. At 10 am I went downstairs to make myself some breakfast and tea. I checked the message. It was my boss. "Is there anyway you can come in? We're really swamped here..." She said. I waited 20 minutes and called her back. I told her I'd be in after I showered and got dressed. I took my sweet time.

When I got to work, the hot flaming work my boss lead me to believe had engulfed the office amounted to a small candle flame. She basically called me to come to work so that I could open the mail, print out three letters on letterhead, address the envelopes, add the same header on six documents and email the documents. My boss left at 1:15 to go to exercize class.

I don't think I can comment on this any more. It's ridiculousness is apparent. I should not have called her back. It goes without saying that I really hate my job.