blue artichoke

What do you consider a healthy lifestyle? Good diet, exercise and plenty of sleep? If that's healthy, I'm 0-3.

Diet: Those shakes that some of you are poo-pooing are the best thing I've got going right now. They're fast, easy, tasty and packed with a good balance of nutrients, unless you overdo the spinach and pumpkin, in which case you'll turn orange. Besides the shakes, I've been eating chocolate and blueberries for breakfast and chicken sausages for dinner (and sometimes if I stay too late at Blue Bacon's place, they'll feed me steak). Tonight I was out for dinner, so I picked up a bbq chicken calzone from Whole Foods. I suppose the foods I'm eating aren't terrible, but my diet relies way too much on chocolate.

Exercise: Before I moved I had an easy-to-follow daily exercise routine, rarely taking more than 30 minutes. I was fit and strong, getting lean and feeling good. After I moved, I slacked off a bit, but got back on track, even altering my work schedule to accommodate a morning workout. That all fell by the wayside as I got busy at work and moved into my new apartment. There's a fancy gym in the building, but I've been too tired to check it out. My lean waist is softly padded again.

Sleep: I'm spoiled. I'm used to 9-10 hours of sleep per night. I know, most people need 7-8 hours, but until I become most people, averaging 7 hours per night makes me a tired little butterfly. Right after I finish writing this, I'm going to fix the A/C unit I ripped out of the window in the middle of the night last night because the rain dripping on it kept me from sleeping, then I'm going to take a shower and go to bed. By 10 pm, fingers crossed.

Man, would you listen to me go on? I think someone needs a wahhhhambulance (or 10 hours of uninterrupted sleep and a healthy breakfast!)

Posted by Blue Artichoke at 07:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I meant to tell you this a while ago, when it happened, because it is good advice to keep in mind:

It's OK to slap someone on the chest or neck, but it ain't right to slap someone across the face. If you do, you're askin' to be broken up with. That's all I'm sayin'.

(Paraphrased, with expletives deleted).

Posted by Blue Artichoke at 12:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Some people live to eat and some eat to live. I've always considered myself to be the former, but wished I were the latter. I love to cook, to shop for food, to think about food and to eat food, but sometimes I think about how much easier it would be if I didn't care what I ate as long as I got the proper amount of calories and nutrients.

It seems that since I moved to DC there has been a dramatic shift toward the eat-to-live lifestyle. Having a job with irregular hours coupled with an inconvenient city makes it impossible to plan out and shop for a week's worth of meals, much less to find time to cook every night. For these reasons, and also because I'm not in my own kitchen (yet!), I have stopped cooking. But not eating.

I eat efficiently. I eat a well-balanced meal, blended together and eaten with a spoon. Fats: coconut milk, avocado. Carbs: canned pumpkin, frozen cauliflower, frozen broccoli, frozen spinach. Protein: protein powder. Add one or more of the following flavors: frozen blueberries, frozen strawberries, frozen raspberries, half of a frozen banana, cocoa powder, almond butter. Blend. Nutritious, delicious smoothie.

Sounds weird, right? I was put off by it too when I first heard of these concoctions from Blue Bacon, but in the short time I've been in DC, I've gone from disgust to daydreaming about what kind of shake I'll make next. I just ate a chocolate-blueberry-pumpkin-avocado-coconut milk-cauliflower-spinach shake. Yummy! It might be the best yet.

Posted by Blue Artichoke at 07:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

I've been in my skants for two days now, slowly getting used to my new work uniform. I tried them out at home first, then took them for a spin in the car on the beltway in rushour traffic. They held up well, so I sallied about the satellite studio in Virginia. I didn't dance, just skanted about. I thought I should try them out at a Kmart, so off we went. I got a charley horse in the dressing room. I'm not sure that it was skant-related, but charley horses now top my list of things I don't like. There was a carnival in the Annandale Kmart parking lot, but it was beginning to mist so I went back home. Day one was a success.

Today I climbed back into my skants after showering, wore them around the house/office all day, then ventured out to the downtown studio, by way of metro. The performed well, as expected. At the downtown studio, I tied a hipscarf around my waist and danced in my skants. I removed the hipscarf when I left the studio, took the metro back to my car and ventured out to Trader Joe's, where I bought a take-and-bake baguette, Brie, dark chocolate-covered pretzels, frozen broccoli and a chocolate-hazelnut Ritter bar. I took an adventure-drive on the way home, getting lost just so I could see if I could find my way (I did). Once home, I baked the baguette and cooked a turkey kielbasa, which I put on the baguette with the Brie. I cut up a mango as well. That's my day so far. Another skant-success!

What's a skant? Well, remember skorts? There were popular in the 80s, and looked something like this (though this one is much more stylish than the ones I wore back then):

Skants are like that, but longer:

That's my new work uniform. What do you wear to work?

Posted by Blue Artichoke at 07:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

3 people. Five stops. One phrase:
"You ain't as fresh as me."

That's all they said. For five stops.

Posted by Blue Artichoke at 04:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

I'm about a month deep into my new job, and learning more every day. One new responsibility this week has been corresponding with students via email. It isn't difficult, though achieving the correct friendly-professional tone is something I'm still figuring out. I'm always stumped when it comes to the closing salutation. My go-to is "Thanks," but that isn't necessarily appropriate when replying to someone's question. Cheers seems too British, regards is too pompous, sincerely has too many letters, yours is too endearing and love is entirely inappropriate. I've used take care a few times, but it seems a bit paternal, like I'm asking them to be careful.

I googled "closing salutations" and have narrowed it down to two: To a more predictable future! or Make today a masterpiece!. On second thought, those might be too optimistic. Also suggested, and rejected, were To your continued success!, which presumes past success, and Have a productive day!, which is too pushy and capitalistic. I'm all for capitalism, but if I were to go along those lines, I'd prefer to sign off with Efficiency.

So, I turn to you, dear reader, to offer suggestions for how I should close emails. The goal is friendly, professional and generic enough to be appropriate in most emails. How do you sign off on your emails?

Bring it,
Blue Artichoke

Posted by Blue Artichoke at 06:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)