a day in the life

It's a day for a simple post. So here's a rundown of my day.

I closed last night and stayed with Amukta & the Lamberts in JC since I also opened this morning. I actually like that arrangement since it means I don't need to write anything in the Communication Log. So much simpler. It was a pretty productive day at work- I got the drink machine & both hot pots up with samples; I finished the disco list, nearly finished backstock, and chatted with some customers. I did more than that, but I always seem to forget parts of the day.

After work, I ate some food, chatted with my peeps at the bar, and demonstrated swivels. We were chatting about butt-centric exercises, so after hearing about lunges, wall sits, and back leg lifts, I remembered that swivels are in fact the best butt workout in the known world. Belly dancing's not that bad either. I do both of those. What have I been thinking? I have my work cut out for me, but at least now I know what it is.

I just got into some comfy clothes because Rebecca and I are planning to work out together. It's a beautiful sunshiny & cold day out there, and I need some sunshine and cardio movement. All the yoga is awesome, but I really need to kick it up a notch. After  that, Jerry wants to hang out since he just won $200 and it's burning a hole in his pocket.

And for now, there's too much of Valisa's laughter at the bar to stay in my seat. There you have it: a day in the life.

Yes, I will miss my coworkers

I thoroughly enjoy working with all of them. Really- ALL of them. How often does that happen? It's a HUGE blessing! And I have a funny story. I was laughing for a long time afterwards. We all were.

If you know me at all, you know that I'm notoriously finicky with what I eat. And it changes. There's not a label that fits my diet, and there are constant tweaks and slips, and so no one has any clue what I eat. It's funny: a lot of them think I'm vegan.

This past Wednesday I went into the kitchen and found some beef tenderloin. I was pretty excited and asked Terry about it. He said, "You don't eat that." Well... I didn't used to eat it. But these things are always changing. So he guided me to a good piece, and I began to eat and relish it. And then he proceeded to flip out.

"What are you doing??! You don't eat that! Look at what she's eating! Look what's in her mouth!"

All of this was accompanied by genuinely aghast facial expressions and appropriate gestures. And he's telling Rachel and Doug, and anyone who wanders into the kitchen. It was HILARIOUS!!!

So I went into the kitchen when I got to work yesterday, and Terry was there, along with the regular crew. He brought it up again and told me that he was still in shock that I eat beef, that he witnessed me eat beef. I laughed and laughed! His shock makes sense- I did raw food demos at EarthFare for a month of Saturdays, making cashew cheese, raw carrot and red velvet cakes. I avoided all dairy and most animal products & cooked food in my everyday life. Terry tried the raw carrot cake and really didn't like it. He's very honest. I appreciate it.

I told him that it really made my day because it was SO funny to see his reaction. It must have made a real impression on him because he said he'd never forget my response to his question as far as why I started eating beef: "I tried it about a month ago, and it felt really good." MORE laughter. YES!

Not, "It tasted good," but "It felt good." At this point, everyone in the kitchen had given ourselves over to uproarious laughter! What can I say? I have a way with words.

Needless to say, the whole interchange made my week. My coworkers are fantastic.

DIY: the Woodbine edition

Today my dad and I did the first major bit of home renovation since House-Making Day in 2007. The funny thing is, I don't even live in my house right now!


The bathroom has had problems. Luckily no scary water problems, but it does have serious, time-consuming repairs that I didn't have the slightest idea about how to address. I've known the repairs needed to be done for a while now, but I responded like an ostrich. Even if it didn't go away, I could still just ignore it. Life's busy enough, right?


Well, it was time to face it. There's nothing like having someone rent your house to help you get on top of your to-do list (thanks, Keith). So after a bit of research on my part (my dad's old hat at this handyman stuff), my dad and I went to Knoxville today to jump in head first. I was super focused and intent on finishing it in one day. After a trip to Home Depot, we unloaded our supplies and tools and got down to work.

The first item of business is that walls were falling off! The paint & joint compound started peeling and cracking and, eventually, falling off the walls of the bathroom. It was sad, and a little scary, too. Luckily, it was only superficial: the plaster and drywall underneath are fine. I jumped in head first and scraped my little heart out. It's really satisfying to watch the cracked joint compound falling off the walls. I really do enjoy making a mess, even if there's no sledgehammer or food processor involved! My dad went to work on scraping more cracked compound on another section of wall, and we scraped & roughed up the wall underneath in no time. 

Then it was time to put joint compound back onto the wall. The moment of truth. My dad went back to Home Depot for some tools and came back with a different kind of joint compound. He'd also gotten a 30-second lesson on how to make the walls look like that texture above, which is apparently called 'knockdown.' Sound like an odd name? It actually makes perfect sense. You spread the joint compound on the wall smoothly, then pull up with your spreader to make little mountain peaks. Then you knock them down, and the end result is pretty cool. Well, Dad came back with his lesson, went at it, and it looked just like the rest of the wall! Yay! It was pretty awesome to watch my dad do all of the scraped spots in there and get tickled at every single one he did. He'd finish one section, let out a big laugh, and proclaim that he was doing knockdown. Finish the next section, more laughs, more smiles, more victory. Why did I avoid home repair?

The second item of business was the tub surround. You know, that plasticky piece of stuff that is on the walls above the tub. It's been loose for a long time, and the caulk has gotten moldy and fallen off in many places. So while Dad was having the time of his life doing some fabulous knockdown, I ripped that sucker off the wall. It made some great noises coming off the wall. Then Dad peeled off the old caulk, and we went to work gluing it back on. We thought it'd need a week to dry fully and cure, but the glue recommended just 24 hours. Stellar! Then I caulked it up really pretty, if I do say so myself, and we were done. Now all I need to do is go back and paint over the naked joint compound so it matches the rest of the wall.


So we won! Woohoo!

The weekly log, v. 2: Wednesday

Up & at'em at 5:15! Yes ma'am, I was. We started work at 6:00 a.m. I was eager to do some planting, but instead, Kathleen & I dug potatoes... for six hours. And it wasn't bad really. Our speed apparently impressed our farm manager, Katherine (this does not happen. ever.), so it worked out well. And then lunch at 12:15! When I had planned to bottle kombucha... and it didn't happen then, but I ate loads of vegetables and some salmon, and my body said, "Thank you."

At 2:15 we started again in the greenhouse, processing more onions. This time I had a buddy, Kathleen again. I think we processed 7 1/2 pallets of yellow onions. We were set to get off work at 5:00 in order to make it to Waterpenny Farms for a potluck, but our small crew decided to stay back since we had to get to bed early. But instead of ending work at 5, we kept on until 6:45 in order to get all the tomatoes picked before the rain. Apparently the tomatoes will crack or get otherwise funky if you leave them out while it's raining. They were tasty.

With work finished, I skedaddled to the wash house to take a shower. I was so excited! My first shower since Saturday, and I'm pretty happy about it. I got my kombucha bottled, all 8 bottles of it, and will start another batch brewing before bed. Unfortunately, I cracked my beautiful & incredibly useful 3-gallon pickle jar, so for now I only have a small 1-gallon operation. I'm brewing quick & potent batches, though, by putting all 2+ kombucha mothers into the one jar. I tasted the newest batch, and it definitely seems more alcoholic. The previous batch even carbonated a little! I really want to get a huge jar so I can do the large batches again, but for now I'm too stubborn to pay $26 for an empty 5-gallon glass jar at the local hardware store.