Slipping

There's this phenomenon happening in my life right now that I have begun to summarize as 'slipping'. It starts with not yet scheduling your 6-month teeth-cleaning almost a year from your last one, and morphs until you cannot frikkin believe you have been putting-off living your best life and merely wading through the days.

You might say that one pillar of my belief system is The Four Agreements. One of the agreements is to always do your best, rain or shine - just knowing that your best is multidimensional and fluctuates from time to time.

I have not been doing my best lately. I used to be more on top of things. Wasn't I? Why am I not doing yoga? Unbelievable! Why didn't I make myself lunches for work last night? Did I just stare at a wall for 30 minutes? Where did the time go! What have I been doing?

Not my best. Not my worst....

I've decided I need to reframe what doing my best means in various contexts. I will be breaking down big tasks, like performing the duties of my paying job, into things I can get behind doing - such as creative thinking, scientific thinking, effective communication, and education.

Onward to defining what I aim to do, and doing my best in each moment. One tiny moment at a time...

Recipe art

As my "kitchen" comes along, I daydream of having prominent recipe reminders. Why not remind myself that I like fritters and that I can jazz up carrots? Why not be reminded of what I can do with that jar of anchovies and the transformative power of roasting?

To this end, I'm collecting screenshots from my Instagram feed. Just imagine something like this blown up, printed (how? hmmm...), and framed:

If done right the recipes can be rotated when you're inspired by new things. Don't worry - it's most certainly fair use!

Featured chef-style Instagrammers:

Phyllis Grant, queen of anchovies and kindred CA curser

Amanda Waddell, cookbook editor, breakfast champion, Indian food integrator

Ashley Rodriguez, creator of these particular salted chocolate chunk cookies I kept reading about, and then made, and now, full trust

Deb Perelman, she who prances around NYC and cooks her famous food

Sarah Britton, my shining north star in Copenhagen

When in doubt, do the dishes

There's this saying I use when overwhelmed with the amount a cleaning it takes to live as an adult American human:

I want this cross-stitched onto a throw pillow somehow. My quick search for custom cross-stitch pillow cases turned up rather fruitless. Who's got an embroidery machine and wants to make some good Etsy money?

Does this mantra speak to you? Perhaps you're more of a "when in doubt, do the laundry" kinda person, or "when in doubt, make coffee". Or perhaps you'd rather have pictures of roadkill on your pillows before reminders of chores.

I get that.

Ode to Southwest

Photo taken on Mother's day. Not-so-subtle, see!

Recently I had the luxury of flying Southwest on both Mother's day and Memorial day. Weeks before Mother's day I was on another Southwest flight and saw this not-so-subtle advertisement for free drinks on these upcoming holidays. I was psyched!

I was also nervous. When the flight attendants did their spiel, they didn't change it for the holidays. They pretended drinks were still all $5. They reminded us that they don't take cash. I began to sweat.

Each time my flight attendant gets to me and asks for my drink order, I order a Bloody Mary with gin (also known as a Red Snapper, a Ruddy Mary, or as one bitchy male bartender once told me and I can't confirm, a British Mary). She/he silently nods, takes down my order, and carries on. No asking for my coupon or my credit card. Just... acceptance. And delivery.

I felt like shouting from the wingtips, DON'T BE FOOLED, EVERYONE - THE DRINKS ARE FREE!!!!

You can't fool me, Southwest.

As I flew on Delta recently and the flight attendants were snooty and disengaged, and as I wait for this flight on Frontier which charges extra for coffee, carry-on luggage, and cc's of oxygen, I miss you my sweet, sweet Southwest.