Photogenic Food

Ahhh a new day... A fine thing to celebrate since yesterday was one of the more craptastic days I've had in a while. Despite starting off with accomplishment and positivity, yesterday still went downhill fast. I started the day at 5:30am with a 4 mile run. The street Greater Grace Manor is on has a perfect circuit around the block that is exactly 4 miles long. There's lots of shade, a few nice sized hills, and pretty houses to look at. I think I may even like it better than the run I do around Shakespeare and Company just because the roads are newer and more even. So I ran that in 39 minutes and even did a bit of a negative split (meaning I ran the second half faster than the first half) the first two miles took about 20 minutes and the second two only about 19... not much of a difference but hey its something.

So I showered and made some breakfast, went to work... and here the day went up in smoke. Today was Dropping In day for STI. A day that was far more complicated, planning wise, than I ever anticipated. I had to coordinate 14 faculty members, 28 participants, in 7 different rooms, in 4 different time slots... Just writing that is confusing so I'm sure you can imagine the state I was in trying to figure all this out. Especially since once I actually DID figure it all out- I made mistakes on the spread sheet I typed up in 5 minutes and didn't have time to check- and sent 6 participants to the completely wrong places. And by time I realized this I had to sprint all around campus (in flip flops after running four miles that morning mind you)trying to find them all and get them to the right room on time.

Stress was felt, tears were shed, an epic amount of coffee was drank... but in the end all was well. All the scenes dropped in and no one yelled at poor Miss Erin for her foul-ups. The day culminated in a 10:30pm faculty meeting complete with much deserved wine and baked goods. And the best part is... only 25 days of STI left.

But TODAY my sneaky readers is a NEW DAY! I took the morning off from spinning class since I was so exhausted from yesterdays exploits and I don't feel bad about it. A lady needs her beauty rest sometimes. But I still started the morning off right with an awesome breakfast.

After mamma's comment on the, less than appetizing, look of my oats in a jar I decided it might be nice to make breakfast look a little prettier if I'm gonna share it on here. And it was actually really fun.

This is oatmeal (which you can't really see under all the fruit but its there) with unsweetened chocolate almond milk which I am trying for the first time and really like- though the oatmeal takes a lot longer to cook with it- and strawberries, blueberries, and a banana with a dash of cinnamon. Isn't it pretty? And it tasted even better.

All mixed up- but still more appetizing looking than the oats in a jar- I'll give you that one mom. Perhaps some of you wonder why I bother sharing my food on here. Well I am/was making a foray into cooking, but also one of my favorite things to do now is read other peoples healthy living blogs. Like this one: www.ohsheglows.com (whose blog is awesome and inspiring and sometimes she even @replies me on twitter and I feel super cool). And they always have all these beautiful pictures of all the lovely healthy foods they make and I just thought it would be sort of fun to do the same. At least with breakfast since this month its the only thing I'm cooking for myself. And I think it also makes me think more about what I'm eating. As in I'm encouraged to make healthier eating choices because then I can share them. No one wants to see a picture of Kraft mac and cheese I don't think...

And this is just a picture of my bulletin board next to my desk at work where I keep all the lovely letters and things people have sent me since I've been here. Sometimes when I'm having a difficult day (like yesterday) I reread one of the letters to make me feel better- as a reminder that there is a world outside of Shakespeare and Company.

Feel free to add to the board at anytime:
Erin Eva Butcher
c/o Shakespeare and Company
70 Kemble St.
Lenox, MA 01240

Oh! And further highlights from Mondays day off include:

A trip to the organic food store with Michelle. Notice me ogling all the amazing nut butter choices.

Sadly the Lake was not visited because the skies decided to open up- so instead of sitting lakeside I was calling the land lord of Greater Grace to tell him about our flooding first floor apartment- joyful day off indeed. I really don't mind living there with our STI participants, but it is a bit frustrating to not be able to escape them on my day off. I think when I'm home on Mondays I'll just have to walk around with a post-it on my forehead that says "Miss Erin is not home right now- it is her day off- please leave a message and she will answer your question on Tuesday". Yes I think that may work.

Today should be a far less stressful day- this afternoon we are all going to see Comedy of Errors as a group and having a talk-back. And this evening is pretty straight forward and won't require too much planning from me. Thank. God. Then its off to dress Amorous Quarrel, meetings in the evening, and then doing it all over again tomorrow.

Silver lining to all this? Momma is coming to visit for my bday next month. Also, Lexi and Laura are coming to visit for a weekend at the end of August. And once STI is over its only a few weeks until Conservatory starts and I think I've found the perfect sonnet:

Full many a glorious morning have I seen
Flatter the mountain-tops with sovereign eye,
Kissing with golden face the meadows green,
Gilding pale streams with heavenly alchemy;
Anon permit the basest clouds to ride
With ugly rack on his celestial face,
And from the forlorn world his visage hide,
Stealing unseen to west with this disgrace:
Even so my sun one early morn did shine
With all triumphant splendor on my brow;
But out, alack! he was but one hour mine,
The region cloud hath mask'd him from me now.
Yet him for this my love no whit disdaineth;
Suns of the world may stain when heaven's sun staineth.

Thoughts? Hey at least its not as dark and morbid as the one I did for the month-long. I'm making progress. Slow but steady progress.

Recovery

When you pack several dozen young artistic type people in a relatively small space for several weeks at a time, inevitably, every once in a while the stars will aline and give you a night where- to put it mildly- the shit hits the fan. Every dramatic thing that has been simmering away in the summer heat will, all at once (with the help of copious amounts of alcohol), explode to the surface. One of these infamous night's took place on Friday. Friday was the opening night of Richard the Third. A night when somehow I couldn't turn around without seeing some dramatic story unfolding. Many a thing took place, many a tear was shed, and by the end of the night there were 3 drunken and weeping women in my dorm room (I include myself in this), each one more distraught than the last. Quite a sight to behold.

Now you dear readers (assuming I have any besides my mother- which I 'm really not sure I do)may be wondering what exactly went down last night. That I cannot share since it is possible that SOMEBODY I work with might actually read this (doubtful but not impossible) since I do put the links up on my Facebook. Suffice it to say that it was some theatre geek craziness across the board, but nothing to worry about. As far as I know, everyone survived...

And so Saturday was spent in recovery. My personal anger from the previous nights events was not completely abated, and upon waking up after heading to bed around 4am I celebrated surviving the night by hitting my end table, making my computer fall on the concrete floor. Ah the joy continues... so now my lovely laptop is some form of broken and has been sent off to Best Buy for repairs. But I'll probably loose all my info, pictures, and music. I suppose that's what I get for letting my anger bubble to the surface once every six months- apparently this is far too often as far as karma is concerned. So until I get it back there will probably be no more pictures on this thing.

Which is a shame because...what better way to recover from a frivoulsly tragic evening and a morning of breaking one of the most expensive things you own then with pancakes? I took some pictures of said delicious pancakes, but alas am unable to share them. But anyway they were whole-wheat oatmeal blueberry pancakes with crunchy almond butter and banana slices on top- and they were perfect. I made a few changes to the recipe- only used half the oil and used brown sugar instead of white sugar because I like it better. I mostly made them because blueberries were on sale this week and as a thankyou to Momma Bear Michelle for taking care of me in my state the previous evening. She enjoyed them immensely as well I am told. Not to mention that pancakes are the perfect hangover food. (I actually wasn't hung over, but I never need an excuse to eat pancakes)

And now that I am fully recovered I turn my attention to the ridiculous stressfulness that is sure to be STI. I am trying to be as prepared as possible- but this is difficult when one really has no idea what one is supposed to be doing. Most of the participants arrive tomorrow and on Tuesday the maddness truely begins.
On the plus side I am now moved into Greater Grace and have enough kitchen and fridge space to cook whatever I want- just not sure if I'm going to have any time. I guess we'll find out.

Adventures in the Communal Kitchen

As you may or may not be aware, here at Shakespeare and Company I live in a dorm type situation. And so for cooking and whatnot the Residents here at Larry Hall share one big kitchen. This kitchen is shared by a total of twenty-six people. So as you can imagine there are adventures galore. Space is obviously an issue- frequently- now cabinet space is readily available. The first pick is my lovely cupboard of goodness. Now fridge space- not quite so pleasant. We now have two fridges- one large cafeteria style fridge and one regular sized fridge. But for a while we only had the one... for 26 people. Not fun. This next picture is all the fridge space I have to work with. I put my stuff in a basket to get it out of there easier.

So, as you may have geussed, learning to cook healthy meals in this place- not the easiest task in the world. But I did manage to make one GIANT pot of very healthy veggie soup that will probably last me weeks- was really inexpensive and tastes pretty darn good. I wasn't really anticipating making quite this much- but I had not clue about proportion so... whatever it turned out great. And the WHOLE POT was less than 2000 calories.

Looks good right? I'm pretty proud of myself here. But alas- I was so nice and healthy all day- cooking lovely things from scratch and then proceeded to ruin it by going to Friendly's. A monumental mistake. I had a grilled cheese and french fries and ice cream. I woke up feeling like I had a hangover! My body was not pleased with me. I guess its good to know though that I'm getting used to all these fruits and veggies and whatnot. But despite my waking with a junk food hangover I still managed my 7am run of 4.5 miles. WOOT! And I did it in 46 minutes- not gonna win any races or anything, but I was pleased with myself staying at about 6 mph the whole time- even with the hills.

Tonight I made some oatmeal blueberry cookies. They were delicious- although not very cookie like- very crumbly. So I guess that's actually more junk food- but hey at least I know whats in them. And I used blueberries- I must get some points for antioxidants. I've been practically living off of berries now that they are in season and somewhat affordable.

But yes, the kitchen is an interesting place, a place where 26 people (most just out of college) have to live in harmony and keep the damn place clean. Quite a task if I do say so myself. I'm about to start freaking out if one more person leaves dirty dishes out overnight. There are 26 of us people. You clearly cannot leave your shit out to rot overnight. And I am trying desperately not to become the maid down there- but I always end up cleaning the place for at least about 1/2 and hour a day while I'm cleaning. But it hardly helps. 26 people 3 meals a day. I don't even want to think about how many dishes that is. And if even one person doesn't clean it sucks for everyone.

Listen to me- I'm like a crotchety old woman. Well- at least my mother will be proud- when home I am far less diligent about my dishes. Sorry mommy. It really fine though, we've been sharing the kitchen for about a month and there have been no MAJOR problems just yet. No fires, no fingers cut off- knock on wood.

I dunno, its weird, I get the feeling lately that I'm turning into a real person. I have things that I do that are just my things that I like doing for myself. I've been practicing my music a lot more lately. I think in college I forgot how much I actually enjoy singing- just singing for myself. I think college made me forget why I liked it in the first place and made me concentrate much more on trying to improve, or on comparing my little voice to all the gigantic and perfect ones I was constantly surrounded by at BW. Singing is just good for the soul though, and now I can really feel free to sing whatever I want instead of whatever someone else thinks is right for me.

Still I'm missing home a bit, my friends, my family. I've been away a long time. But now time seems to be flying around here. June is practically over! And its only a little over a week until my first 5k. Still haven't picked a goal time yet, need to do that. Maybe somewhere in the neighborhood of 27 minutes would work.

Ah and just a reminder to all that I still LOVE getting mail. You can find the address in one of the posts below. Think about it!