In Which I Attempt to Cheer Myself Up

I hate to say it, since today is Saturday and the very thought of it ought to make me happy, but I’m feeling down today.  I don’t know if I have a good reason for it.  My experiments at work aren’t giving me much in the way of interesting data, though it would be incorrect to say that things aren’t working—they are working; they just aren’t working the way I want them to work.  You’d think that after almost five years of full-time research, I’d be okay with the way that science works, but it’s getting under my skin these days.  When am I going to have a solid project?  I’d like to know, so that I know how long the wait will be.

I’m afraid to say that I’m also missing Matt a lot right now.  We usually see each other every three months, but we’re going on three and a half months right now.  Our next visit is soon—next month, in fact—but I’m feeling less than thrilled about the wait.

Perhaps that’s just it—I feel like I’m waiting for something to happen, whether it’s with my work or my personal life.  I don’t like waiting.  It’s not that I expect instant gratification, but my patience is being exhausted.  It’s always a bad combination for me when I’m feeling twitchy about work and something else.  But I’ve found that in these situations, patience is usually exactly what I need—patience and some instant gratification to take the pressure off of the big things!  So, let me tell you about some of the small but good things that have been happening as of late.  Take, for example, my lunch today.

Oh boy, was this good!  Gussied-up black beans and corn on top of fabulous red leaf lettuce, cilantro leaves, and green onions, with the green stuff tossed in a killer dressing with too many ingredients (balsamic vinegar, rice vinegar, honey, mustard, and tangerine-infused Pasolivo olive oil).  I sprinkled feta on top and ate it with a fork.  Wow, it was fantastic.  This one’s a keeper, though I don’t really have a formal recipe for it.  I think I just gave you the recipe.

In other good news, Life, Love, and Food has its first sponsor!  Check out the sidebar and you’ll see a little ad for Dutch ovens over at cookware.com, one of CSN’s many on-line stores.  After a lot of thought, I decided to seek out some financial support for this blog.  One of the things I’ve purchased with the money is a pro account over at Flickr.  With an upgraded account, all my photos are now visible and I don’t have any monthly limits on the number of photos I can upload.  I’m very happy about this because I’ve sort of fallen in love with my amateur photography, and it’s nice having a place where I can share my photos.  Speaking of which, please take a moment to look at this photo.  Do you have any idea who these men are?  If so, please let me know because I have no idea.  My curiosity may kill me if I don’t get an answer soon.

I’m continuing to nest quite nicely.  Last weekend, in an effort to relieve some of my stir-crazy feelings, I went to Pier One, where I found the cutest little bowls to use for storing sea salt on the counter and at the table.  I also found a gorgeous, deliciously scented candle that’s been keeping me company at night while I lay on the couch and read.

 

Speaking of reading, I have a lot to say on this subject.  I make no secret of the fact that I am a total bookworm and absolutely LOVE to read.  It’s part of the reason that I fell so hard for blogs—it’s like subscribing to as many magazines as you want, for free!  No wonder I find them so addictive.  Two new-to-me blogs that I’ve been enjoying lately are Simply Bike and Effing the Ineffable.  Simply Bike is a bike-focused blog with detours into travel, fashion, food, and other good things.  S’s photos of the autumn leaves make me nostalgic for fall in the Midwest.  Effing the Ineffable is a personal blog covering many topics, some of which include training for a marathon(!), life in academia, and domesticity.  Kate O., the author of Effing the Ineffable, is hilarious—I’m not kidding when I tell you that I have laughed out loud more than once at her posts.  Her stories are inspiring too, like this post she wrote about running 15 miles.  She says,

“Every time you go out and run new miles or otherwise do something you have never ever done before, you prove to yourself that you can. You go beyond what the limit used to be and carve out new territory, drawing a new line further out (and, quite literally, farther out) than ever before. You take two more miles of road in your town and write your name on them. There is more that belongs to you, and even more still that is now within sight. You understand in new ways what ‘painful’ feels like, what ‘exhausted’ feels like, and what ‘powerful’ feels like.”

Now that is a tribute to the power of running.  I just love her.

Speaking of running, I’m off to the grocery store now to pick up the rest of the ingredients I need to make a vegetarian version of this chili.  Have a wonderful weekend, my lovely readers, and I’ll see you back here tomorrow.