I love being done with school. It is a very nice feeling to not have school work looming over me anymore. No more papers or projects to write, no more presentations to give. Of course there will be the few projects that will be required of me in my field of work, but not too much. It is nice to be able to learn things on my own time now. My husband and I were talking last night about some things we would like to try to learn in the future. I made a list of the top ten things that I want to teach myself or to be taught or simply to get better at. They are not in any order of importance or desire.
1. Calligraphy. There is something about having really beautiful handwriting that I find to be very appealing. My handwriting has always been kind of blah. It's not even consistent. Someday's it looks like the handwriting of a little girl, and on other days it looks like the handwriting of a young man. On the worst days it appears to be a doctors handwriting. I find calligraphy so beautiful though and would love to figure out my style of it and eventually have beautiful handwriting.
2. Floral arranging. I love flowers (I think everyone loves flowers.) I would love fields of flowers so that I could always have fresh cut flowers in the house. I find pretty bouquets of fresh greenery and flowers so enchanting. I want my house I always be filled with strong smelling, beautiful bouquets and arrangements. Ideally, I would just love to be a florist. But that's just a silly dream.
3. Dancing. I took a dance class in my junior year of college when I had a mid-college crisis. It was one of my favorite classes and made me wish that I had started when I was little and not a clumsy 20 year old. It was ballet, jazz, tap, and modern. My college experience was made complete with that class. I also find dance to be one of those things that everyone should know how to do in order to be accomplished. I'm not talking about booty dancing and grinding/twerking on each other, and I'm not talking about the odd, new-age contemporary dances that you see on 'so you think you can dance' (one of my favorites by the way), but the kind of dance that gentlemen asked ladies to do a long time ago at balls and gathering. Dancing with someone is intimate. I would love to be able to waltz or foxtrot. To be able to swing dance would be nice, too, because that is just fun.
4. Decorating baked goods. This is always something I have struggled with. I can bake some yummy desserts, but they almost always are horribly unappealing and hard on the eyes. It's kind of upsetting. I want to be able to make cupcakes with flowers on them, write words on birthday cakes without looking like I had a seizure while doing so, and make a cobbler that does not look like vomit. Is that too much to ask?
5. Sewing. Something can be said about people who are proficient in a little bit of everything. Those that know how to make and fix things with their hands are highly respected by me. Sewing is another class that I took during that mid college crisis, however I did not enjoy it as much, because I was surrounded by girls that thought addition was a difficult task. The actual sewing aspect was nice once I was able to tune out the idiocracy that took place in that classroom. I have a deep desire to be able to make my own clothes - but not the kind of clothes that you know are homemade. I would like to start smaller than a dress, but bigger than a pillow - been there, done that.
6. Cooking foreign cuisine. I adore any kind of foreign dishes. I love spicy food with a passionate love, too. Thai and Indian are two types of food that I love very much to eat & would love very much to know how to make.
7. Mixing drinks. One summer I ran away to Pennsylvania after a very bad heartbreak. I tried to get a job in my Grama's hometown as a bartender. Both my parents worked there when they were growing up, as well as my uncles and aunt, and I thought it would have been a pretty great thing to work at a place that seems to be so dear to my whole family. Sadly, they never hired me - no past experience and not enough time in advance to make a spot for me. Anyways, since my whole family loves to party, I think knowing how to mix a delicious drink or two would be a nice thing to know how to do.
8. Lattes and pulling espresso shots. My husband is a coffee guru. He knows everything there is to know and loves the topic dearly. I want to love everything that he loves, so we can share in the love together. I understand that couples are not able to love everything that the other loves, but coffee rows intrigue me. I think it would be very beneficial to have a knowledge on how to pull a good espresso shot and how to mix a delicious latte. I have all the tools I need for this desire - husband and commercial espresso machine. I think I am set there.
9. Juicing. I loveeee juicing. I think it is so great. The sad thing is is I don't do it. I have a juicer - a really nice one. I just get too intimidated by the whole process because I don't have a recipe and I don't know what is the stuff you need to put in juice to make it really healthy, and what needs to be added to hide the taste of the healthy stuff. I have yet to be very successful and love a juice that I have made. It's very disheartening after making a juice and it tastes completely like a cucumber. No one likes to drink cucumber juice.
10. Yoga. Out of all the different kinds of exercising and fitness plans I have experienced, yoga is by far my favorite. I love stretching after a good workout, but I love that yoga is a workout that incorporates stretching. I have never been a fast runner, or even a good runner. I have never been very strong. I have never had the best muscular endurance, coordination, or been very good at any sport. I sound like the loser that always gets picked last (because I am), but fear not! The one thing that I do excel at is flexibility. I probably only excel at it because everyone else hates it, but I'll take it. During my last semester of college, I took a strength and conditioning class. During one of the classes we talked about PNF stretching (proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation - yep.) My professor needed a volunteer to give examples of it, and I volunteered after about 60 seconds of avoiding eye contact with him and knowing that everyone hates stretching. It was the single most awkward point in all of my life. He had me lay on a table in front of 24 fellow students, and he stretched my hamstrings all awkwardly. With PNF stretching I am able to stretch very far, so while he was pressing my leg down the entire class was amazed at how far I could stretch. It was awkward and you probably had to be there, but it was pretty funny, too. Anyways, back to yoga - I took one class at the hot yoga studio downtown. I was dizzy during it and really sick after it. It was so difficult, but that makes me want to do it so much more. When it comes to flexibility and I see other people better than me it makes me mad and makes me want to prove myself - so I want to go back, complete the class without getting dizzy, and get stronger and have more endurance. Yoga is hard. Hopefully I can keep the motivation.
So, if you are a master of any of the above topics, or even just okay at any of them, I would appreciate your advice on how to go about starting and any of your past experiences and advice that you can offer. :)
Well since I can do a bunch of this stuff, you definitely can! I can help teach you anytime. First though, you need to get on juicing!! It is so easy and so good for your body. You feel so much better it's ridiculous. Here's what's scary, after a few times of drinking cucumber juice, you'll start craving cucumber juice. Rush drunks green juice that tastes like straight celery and he's like... ahhh, so good. And I'm like who the heck are you guy!? lol. But seriously I had 1 Cucumber, 2 Carrots, 1 Apple, 2 large collard greens, handful of spinach, 1 ginger knuckle, and a handful of blackberries yesterday and it was so good! It probably wouldn't have been good to me months ago, but after a while of drinking fresh juices you can start to taste each individual flavor, and they are all fresh and yummy! I have nothing but time on my hands, so I know way too much about juicing. So any questions you have I can answer. Here's some quick tips:
ReplyDeleteJuice soft stuff/ and greens first (anything that goes on the low setting) when you're done with those juice the hard things and things that have a lot of juice (apples, cucumbers, etc) on the high setting.
Like the "Juicing Vegetables" page on Facebook, they have recipes all the time. Usually everyday.
Pineapple is good to cover up tastes of greens. Only use fresh pineapple.
Don't use too much fruit, you'll make your fructose levels go whack! Always use more veggies.
When using greens, alternate them... 1 week kale...1 week spinach... 1 week collard greens... 1 week dandelion greens... 1 week arugula - gives you a rotation of correct vitamins and doesn't let oxalic acid build up.
Green stuff is the best stuff for you. Spinach and kale have so much protein! Jon juiced broccoli one day, I almost died. But it tasted fine.
You still need healthy fats...avocados! Wait til it's soft then blend it into your juice in a blender. You can do this with bananas too. Those don't juice very well, since they are already mush.
Wash everything! Really well before juicing, otherwise you're taking in toxins you are trying to get rid of.
And just do it!!! I have 2 recipe books that I got ideas from, but I usually just wing it. I've only made 1 juice I couldn't drink (I forgot to take the pith off my lemon and I used too much lemon, it was sour as balls) Once you start you won't want to stop. It's addictive and delicious and you'll start to notice your body changing and you'll begin to crave more fruits and veggies!
I can teach you how to make a rose with my Wilton stuff too if you want :) But you'll want fruits and veggies after you start juicing. haha!
All good things to know, sissy. I always use like mostly fruit, which is too much fruit in my opinion.
Deleteyou should come visit and teach me how decorate things and help me juice things. :)