FB Acct Disabled Day 3: Status Updates

Facebook still hasn't responded to my request to reinstate my account. Bastards. It's beginning to dawn on me that this may be permanent. Oh well, I'll cope.

January 12, 2010:

9:00am Yay, rain!

10:00am Coffee first, before heading to Ifshin to get violin checkup and supplies.

10:20am Quick stop at Moe's as I leave Peet's; reminder to check out Theory of Light and Matter by Porter and Paris Review Interviews IV and Kingsolver fiction

11:10am Having her bow rehaired, her violin sound post adjusted and strings replaced. Felt such joy when Jay Ifshin commented "beautiful violin!" and kept referring to a violin "of this caliber."

11:30pm Extra 40% off outlet prices @ Northface Outlet! Score!

12:45pm Lunch @ Chick-o-Pea. They have delicious falafel, pickled veggies and fries:

1:55pm Showed up at Girls Inc. to volunteer, but thanks to over-volunteering, they could only give me a tiny bit to do

3:00pm Checking out the Alameda "free" library since volunteering took less time than expected
3:30pm Read the first few chapters of Kingsolvers Poisonwood Bible at the library

4:00pm Heading back to Girls Inc. in Alameda to see if I can help teach some young girls how to use chopsticks

7:00pm Traffic is conspiring to make us late for dinner with Ching, Wilson and Ethan

7:30pm Hot pot with good friends and a patient, smiley baby!

10:30pm My new black Gap pants are here and they fit GREAT! Thanks for the free shipping Wendy!

11:25pm Yay, more rain!

One more reason to love living in California

Thanks to Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, in which Barbara Kingsolver intelligently advocates for locavorism, I have new reasons to be grateful for California. I've known for a long time that we were the birthplace of the locavore trend (thanks Alice Waters!), but Kingsolver's book provided the factual underpinnings for all the vague, abstract rumblings I always heard in articles, newsletters, and ads, to drive the point home. I finally learned where the buzz words "sustainable," "organic," "grass fed," "free range" and even "local," fit in the landscape of my life.

I also learned that a greater variety of produce grows in California for more months out of the year than anywhere else in the U.S. One of her themes throughout the book is that if you live anywhere East of the Rockies or North of the Sierra Nevada (i.e., her farm in Virginia), and you see produce "out of season" (i.e. fresh greens in December), it likely came from California. Every time I came across one of her “it likely came from California” moments, I rejoiced, because I live in California!

There are many other books on similar subject matter that surely will provide this same "aha!" for people that are interested (i.e., Michael Pollan fans - it was one of his articles that whetted my appetite for the subject), but Kingsolver's book just happened to be the first I got around to reading.

Finally, I’d also like to thank Kingsolver for writing a book that kept me riveted through the last page. Without giving away the ending, let’s just say that I underestimated the drama that could come of turkey breeding. If her novels similarly keep the reader engrossed throughout, I’m bumping them to the top of my reading list. So many other novels I have read recently lacked this important trait (see earlier blog re Nick Hornby novels).

The book is, however, so very rich and compacted with information, that I recommend giving yourself time to digest after every chapter.