Friday, January 29, 2010

Good Shabbos!

Oh my gosh I'm so sorry! I can't believe how long it's taken me to finally get a chance to finish this post! Despite what the time stamp may say I'm actually only just now at 4:05 getting a chance to sit down and blog.

Uh oh, guess who went to Student Health this morning?? Yeah, I woke up feeling pretty icky so I just decided that I may as well go before it gets really bad. I got set up with some new allergy meds and got a referral to a local allergist. Hopefully I can get retested and start allergy shots soon! The nurse who saw me warned me that the meds may make me a little wired. I didn't really believe it and I figured anything is better than the Benadryl knock out but man, I'm all cracked out! I was such a busy bee at work and I'm still sort of buzzin!
Because I was on the go this morning I decided to make a breakfast smoothie. Sorry to my roomies who were sleeping while I used the blender! :/
In the blend:
  • 1 cup frozen berries
  • 1/3 cup coconut milk Kefir
  • 3/4-1 cup soy milk
  • 1 Tbsp almond butter
  • 1 tsp. light agave syrup
This was the first bottle of Kefir I ever tried and I can only describe it as something in between yogurt and milk. By itself it isn't the most delicious but it's awesome when mixed with fruit and stuff. Kefir is actually a grain that is mixed with fermented milk and constantly stirred. The product is a yogurt-like liquid chalked full of probiotics. An awesome addition to a dairy free diet since us vegans don't consume probiotic dairy yogurt.
I've never done this before but I thought I would give PB&J Pita a try. I toasted half a pita bread on low and smothered the inside with peanut butter and apple butter. It was sooo tasty! Definitely a new staple of mine and by the way, toasting it made it that much better.
Lunch today is a spinach salad with the last of the roasted brussel sprouts, bean sprouts, cherry tomatoes, yellow onion, and some of that super tasty Annie's Naturals Lite Italian Dressing. Sliced mangos and a Peanut Butter Pretzel Mojo bar to round things out.
The breakfast smoothie in all it's glory, so yummy! The almond butter is the secret ingredient.
The Dynamic Breakfast Duo.
After my doctor's visit I still had a good 30 minutes before class so I decided to treat myself to some Fair Trade Hazelnut brew with a splash of soy.
I think this is the way to go from now on with coffee. Not only is it cheaper to just get brewed coffee, I can control exactly how much soy goes in my drink and I know it's soy! Sometimes I get super paranoid that the baristas used regular milk. Of course every now and then I'll have to switch back to my classic cappuccino with soy cause I love me some foam. But this really hit the spot this morning.
Another beautiful day at UCSB.
There's me putting on my happy face and being a good sport even though I feel lousy.
But I'm still a gangsta!

I can't believe what a good flow I've been having since I made the trip to Student Health. And to think, I was considering not coming to classes today when I woke up super drowsy and feeling like a sicky. The main reason I knew I had to come was because I had studio and work today.
Studio is a class that is connected to voice lessons and is an opportunity for all the students of one teacher to meet and sing for each other. It's a time where we get some performance setting practice with an accompanist, give and receive constructive criticism, and hear each other's progress. I really enjoy studio because performance setting practice would be hard to come by without it. I'm so glad I decided to stick it though today because I had an awesome studio. I got to run through the songs I'm performing tomorrow and my teacher was getting really nit picky. I feel really solid with the songs and today we got even more into the mood behind the words and the relationship to the music. It was just awesome and I'm really confident for tomorrow. The performance is at 11:30AM and I'm ready to get up there and do my thang!

So last night I mentioned that I had an important announcement and I do! I haven't talked much about it yet but I've recently been getting more into my Jewish heritage. This winter break I had the amazing opportunity to be a part of a two and a half week trip to Israel through a group called Jewish Awareness Movement, JAM. I was so lucky to be able to go with my brother Eric whose very presence made the trip that much more of an awesome experience. We learned so much about Judaism and Israel and came back with a definite sense of pride in our heritage. (My profile picture is of the two of us it Tzfat!) One important lesson I learned about embracing this new part of life is that you must take it in baby steps. Doing too much all at once can have a backfire effect. One of the things I've decided to try and take on is Shabbat. Shabbat is a traditional meal (or meals) that commemorate the day of rest during creation and begin at sundown on Friday night and end at sundown on Saturday night. During that time the concept of rest is taken to the extent that no electricity is turned on or off, no writing is done, no cooking, no driving, no television, etc... I'm far from an expert on all this but like I said: baby steps. I just want to give everyone a heads up that I will not be posting on Friday nights or Saturday during the day. I have to break Shabbos this weekend unfortunately because I have a performance but at least tonight I can do whatever I can to stay in the spirit of Shabbos.
The ideas behind Shabbos are really beautiful and I look forward to dinner at the Shushan's all week! I also think this will be a good way for me to take a break from blogging so that I don't come to resent having to blog. I really enjoy keeping this little online journal and it's something that I get to do!

Anyways, the plan now is to make some more progress on the ominous motet paper so that I can enjoy my weekend. There Shusan's are hosting a BBQ this sunday for their son's first haircut (which may sound like a silly reason to celebrate but in orthodox Judaism, little boys are not supposed to cut their hair until age three). I really want to go chill with them without stressing about the paper.

I wish you all a relaxing (or productive depending on your goals) weekend and you will be hearing from me again soon!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Heyyyy, we eat the same peanut butter! *high-fives* Can't believe you don't like kefir on its own though... you must not be drinking the right kind. =P

Claire said...

Sweet! It's the Costco shopping I'm telling you, I get all the good stuff!

So wait, what's the deal with Kefir? I need all the help I can get with that stuff. Maybe it's because it was the coconut milk kind??