Giving thanks for… treating myself

For pretty much as long as I can remember, I have had issues with my neck – about once a month, the muscles, usually on the right side, get all knotted up and give me a headache for two or three days. I’ve seen chiropractors and an acupuncturist, which seem to help a little but the pain always comes back and once it starts, the ONLY thing that I’ve found that can make it go away is to get a professional massage. Unfortunately, since I don’t know what triggers it, it’s usually not possible to schedule a massage that lines up with when I’m having one of my episodes. So I’ve finally decided to simply schedule regular massages and hope that those will keep the muscles from reaching the pain point. I’m not convinced it will work but in the meantime, the massages are great!

I used to think massages were too extravagant and I would only got one as a very special treat because they always seem so expensive. But thanks to Groupons and LivingSocial deals, I’ve been able to try out different places at reasonable prices and have found a couple that have pretty good deals if you are a regular customer. The cost seems especially worth it when I compare it to what I was paying for regular chiropractic and acupuncture appointments. In comparison, massages cost about the same but I leave feeling ten times more relaxed. Sometimes I think you just have to decide that you are worth the money. What do you to treat yourself?

Giving thanks for… good advice

I tend to over-think things. When I have a big decision to make, I will gather tons of information, look at every angle, think through all the ‘what ifs’. I may ask other people for their opinions but honestly, it isn’t that often that someone raises a point I haven’t already thought about. But when someone does give me advice that I had not thought about before, it generally sticks with me.

When I think about great advice I’ve been given, there are two examples that come to mind, in part because I repeat them a lot. As a professor, I talk to students all the time who need guidance about various things and I often find myself relaying what I was told by two of my college mentors when I was applying to graduate school. In one case, I was trying to decide what type of program to apply to, with the choices being a Ph.D. in Economics or in Higher Education Administration. At the time, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to be a professor or an administrator, though I was leaning toward the latter. The woman who was the Dean of Students of my college told me that I should do Economics because it would give me more options. She told me that many college administrators come out of the faculty ranks, which is what she did, so being a professor first would not rule out being an administrator, plus it would give me a better perspective for working with faculty if I did decide to go into administration. On the other hand, doing the Admin program would basically rule out teaching as a professor so if I decided I didn’t want to go the administration route, I could be out of luck.

Although this may seem like a pretty specific piece of advice, the larger issue is about keeping your options open, especially if you aren’t entirely sure what your final goal really is. When my students come and ask me what they should do after graduation, and they really have no idea what they want to do, I encourage them to choose the path that will help them gather information without closing any doors.

The second piece of advice that has stuck with me came from one of my economics professors who told me that I should go to graduate school in Wisconsin (rather than staying in California, where I grew up). His reasoning was that if I thought I wanted to work in academia, I may not have a ton of choice in where I ended up (note: academic jobs can be very specific so in any given year, there might be very few openings in a particular field across the country), and I needed to find out how I felt about living elsewhere. That was something that never would have occurred to me but it turned out to be fantastic advice. If I had stayed in California and then taken a job in, say, anywhere in the south, I would have been looking for another job within the first year.

Again, this seems specific but it goes beyond just thinking about where you want to live. My professor’s advice forced me to think about what is really important, what I really need in order to be happy. Up to that point, I was just hoping I would have a job when I got out of grad school but his comments made me think about what I wanted my life to look like. Was I willing to take ANY academic job, even if it meant living somewhere with 98% humidity in the summer, no where near water, and being surrounded by people who think completely differently than I do about social issues? After five years in Wisconsin, I knew the answer was no but I’m not sure I would have even thought about those things if I didn’t have my professor’s words still in my head.

What’s the best advice you’ve gotten?

Giving thanks for… learning new skills

I mentioned last week that I have been cooking a lot more. The main reason I’ve never been that into cooking is the prep work – all that chopping, mincing, dicing. It’s tedious, takes (me) forever, I’m never sure if I’m doing it ‘right’, and I’m often worried I’m going to cut myself. You can buy some stuff pre-prepped, like already-diced onions or shredded carrots, but a) it’s more expensive and b) that means I have to actually plan exactly what I’m making so whatever I buy doesn’t go bad before I use it. I’ve always thought that it would be cool to learn how to chop the way they do on Top Chef so I was psyched to find out that a local Sur la Table store offers an ‘Essential Knife Skills’ class.

I took the class on Monday night and suddenly I’m thinking about prep work in a totally new light. It’s kind of amazing how learning just a few minor things, like how to hold a knife correctly and the right motion for chopping, can change the whole experience from tedious and stressful to interesting and fun. A big part of it is simply changing my perspective to thinking about knife work as a skill so every vegetable I chop is now an opportunity to practice, instead of being something I just need to get done so I can get the food cooked. Maybe it’s the academic in me but having the challenge of developing a new skill makes the process much more enjoyable.

What new skills have you learned lately?

Giving thanks for... veterans and our military

This is a day late but I really am thankful for all those who serve in our military, in part because I could never do it myself.  I know that a lot of people have mixed feelings about the military, and there are a lot of things about the institution that I have big problems with (the latest stats about sexual abuse being just one example). But I also know that institution is made up of thousands of individual men and women who are willing to put their lives at risk so that we can all can sleep more soundly at night. They spend months away from their loved ones, sometimes in physical environments that would have me bitching and moaning within minutes.

Although politicians love to talk about our great servicemen and women, and pose in front of flags with people in uniform, this country often does a pretty poor job of taking care of people once they leave the service, especially if they leave wounded, either physically or mentally. While there are some wonderful organizations whose mission is to help veterans (the Wounded Warrior Project and the Bob Woodruff Foundation have gotten a lot of press lately), I sometimes think the fact that there are so many private organizations playing that role is an indication of how badly the government screws it up. We would all love to live in a world where having a strong military was unnecessary. But since we live in the real world, the least we can do is show our gratitude to all those who serve by making sure that they are taken care of once they come home.

Music Mondays: Cups

Well, yesterday was a NaBloPoMo fail but after the Chargers lost, I was too mad to write anything. Oh well... I figured an easy way back to daily posting would be to continue my Music Monday series. I used to post songs from my Who I Am playlist (which I still listen to regularly) but today, I want to share a video that never fails to make me smile. I really like the original song itself (lyrics below) but if you are a fan of a cappella singing, this version is simply awesome.

"Cups (You're Gonna Miss Me)"

I've got my ticket for the long way 'round
Two bottle whiskey for the way
And I sure would like some sweet company
Oh, I'm leaving tomorrow. What do you say?

When I'm gone (when I'm gone)
When I'm gone (when I'm gone)
You're gonna miss me when I'm gone

You're gonna miss me by my hair
You're gonna miss me everywhere,
You're gonna miss me when I'm gone

I've got my ticket for the long way 'round
The one with the prettiest view

It's got mountains, it's got rivers
It's got woods that give you shivers
But it sure would be prettier with you

When I'm gone (when I'm gone)
When I'm gone (when I'm gone)
You're gonna miss me when I'm gone

You're gonna miss me by my walk
You'll miss me by my talk
You're gonna miss me when I'm gone

I've got my ticket for the long way 'round
These feet weren't built to stay too long
And I'll go there on my own
But you'll miss me when you're home
It's for you, dear, that I sing this song

When I'm gone (when I'm gone)
When I'm gone (when I'm gone)
You're gonna miss me when I'm gone

You're gonna miss me by my hair
You're gonna miss me everywhere
You're gonna miss me when I'm gone

When I'm gone
When I'm gone
You're gonna miss me when I'm gone

You're gonna miss me by my walk
You'll miss me by my talk
You're gonna miss me when I'm gone

Giving thanks for... healthy eating

Almost a year ago, I borrowed Joel Fuhrman's book, Eat to Live, from my mom and I'm not really exaggerating when I say it has changed my life. We all know that we should eat lots of vegetables but Fuhrman presents a ton of evidence about why eating a plant-based diet is so important for your health and, conversely, why eating processed food is so bad. Fuhrman calls his diet 'nutritarian' - it isn't totally vegan but does call for eating dramatically fewer animal foods than most Americans eat. It's also lower fat but more importantly, he stresses plant-based natural fats (like nuts and avocado) instead of animal fat or processed fats. Since reading his book, I've discovered many other advocates of a plant-based diet, though there are slight differences between them (e.g., John McDougall's program emphasizes natural starches like potatoes while Fuhrman discourages them).

I've never been much of a cook but I started cooking more in order to create meals that are more nutritarian. It's actually  surprisingly easy to make really yummy food without adding oil or using processed products but it does take more time than I used to spend. One huge upside is that you can generally eat as much as you want, since vegetables have so many fewer calories. After eating this way for a few months, I had dropped about 15 pounds and has stayed there. But even better, my cholesterol dropped significantly - a year and a half ago, my doctor suggested I consider medication (high cholesterol runs in my family) but the last time I had my blood checked, all my levels were squarely in the normal range, lower than they've been in probably twenty years.

I'm not quite as strict about what I eat as I was when I started all this but my diet is still leaps and bounds healthier than it used to be. And I'm getting better at cooking - I used to feel like I had to follow recipes to the letter but I'm learning when and how to deviate a bit - and I now read through cookbooks and food blogs all the time.

How healthy is your diet?

TGIF!

So, this posting every day thing has been... interesting. On one hand, I'm pretty sure most of these posts are not interesting to anyone other than my family (hi Mom!), and I'm probably spending more time writing them than I should. On the other hand, I think writing for the blog has actually helped me be a little more productive with my work. The reason is that I almost always hit a point during the day when I get tired of whatever I'm working on and I have to switch gears. A lot of times, 'switching gears' means watching TV or doing dishes or otherwise getting away from my computer, but when I sit back down to get back to work, I often have a hard time re-focusing. This week, I've worked on blog posts instead and when I'm done, I've found that it's somehow easier to go back to working on whatever I was doing. I think my eyes are less happy (I try to look away from the screen periodically but I often forget) but I guess the act of physically staying in front of the computer helps my mind stay more focused.

Still, I'm not sure if I can really keep this up. I'm going to play around with some different types of posts, definitely some shorter posts, or at least less time-consuming to write. I think the whole point of NaBloPoMo is to stretch a bit outside your comfort zone so we'll see...

In the meantime, happy Friday everyone!