Budgeting

can you pay my telephone bills / can you pay my automo'bills / then maybe we can chill / In an effort to cut down costs on EVERYTHING so I can save up for the Elle Street lofts in downtown, I've been keeping a careful eye on my bank account. But writing everything down is such a bitch.

Hay un problema?

Weekly rantings? So a reader recently informed me that they don't enjoy reading my weekly rants. The outrage of this issue! Well buddy, my weekly rant is here to stay. Why? 1. It's my blog. 2. I like to rant. 3. Don't tell me what to blog about unless you're paying me to do so. 4. If you don't like it, don't read it. 5. It's my stress reliever. 6. It's easier to write. 7. Weekly rants makes me smile. Lucky 7. 7 reasons why. Enjoy.

Never wasted...

...but will never be. As I was washing, stripping, and chopping up vegetables this past weekend, I couldn't help but notice the amount of vegetable scraps that I was tossing out. The peels and the roots were all tossed into the ever growing trash bin. Sure, it's just one trash bin in this kitchen, but this house has other trash bins in other rooms. So if there's four bedrooms, two bathrooms, and one kitchen, then that would be seven trash bins for one household. Now every "trash day" we would wheel out our weekly trash for the dump pickup and so does 800 other homes in the area. Then there are 800 other houses to the left of this area, then another 800 in the other areas, and a billion more in the surrounding area. All with different trash pick up days. THAT'S A LOT OF TRASH. For over a year, I've been a more mindful consumer by purchasing items that didn't have much packaging or any at all. I tried the stay-local-grocery-shopping thing for awhile, but that got expensive. I tried the farmer's market thing but it was too time consuming. Then I tried living without food for 10 minutes. I almost died. Now I have this bright idea about reducing my trash when it comes to kitchen scraps. These (egg shells, apple core, vegetable roots, potato and banana peels, etc.) can easily be thrown into a home compost box that I've been meaning to put together in my parent's backyard (if my father would give me some room) that way I'd have lovely soil to plant more vegetables to end my quest for more local food. How much more local can you get if you're eating food from your own backyard? But it's hard to maintain a compost box when you're in between homes. I can't believe I just said that. O_O You heard it here first. Urgh, I just want one place to call my own, not "my parent's house" or "my boyfriend's house." But a place where I can freely have my own compost box and no underwear on the floor or annoying siblings. A place that's quiet and mine. For now, since I have two homes that just begs for me to be there, maybe I'll just build a mobile compost box instead. Problem solved. XD

Conversations

...from the previous nights. Monday night, I spent over an hour listening and talking to Philliam's mom. It was more listening than talking. I enjoy listening to people talk. The words that come out of their mouths are stories that I put into moving pictures in my head. I'm very imaginative. She told me the good and the bad of raising her kids. How much time she would waste in a day just shuttling kids to school then home then to sport practices then back to home and how exhausting it was for her. She talked of her current job and how funny her co-workers are. We talked about plastic surgery. She talked about her plans and goals. We talked about traveling. Then we talked about me, the unemployed, post-grad. It was a nice conversation. I went home that night thinking about the same conversations I used to have with parents and grandparents from my previous relationship and my heart just ached for them. I miss them terribly. I miss the stories they would tell me of their past. It was rich history worth listening to. Sometimes I wish I could call and ask to take them out for lunch or dinner. But there are lines that shouldn't be crossed. It pains me to think of my lost communications with them. There will always be I wishes... in this world but never any action.

Tiresome Weekend

Another one of those busy weekends. I made three tiramisu cakes. One for a friend's birthday, my mother's birthday, and Philliam's house (Phil's cake was made from leftover batter). Not only that, Philliam and I cooked lunch and dinner all weekend. We didn't eat out at all! Which is great, but tiresome and troublesome at the same time. I need to start putting together my personal recipe book to keep track of what I've been cooking/baking. Everyone knows I don't do the conventional cooking either. I just throw things in, do a taste check, and a dash of this and that to suit my taste buds. Anyway, I told Philliam I wasn't going to cook this entire week until Friday. Maybe the only thing I'll make is the green rice everyone loves so much. And maybe some banana cupcakes.

Baby,why aren't you listening?

Words of advice from the Wonder Girls. Another week has come and gone. What has changed? Nothing. No new leads but roadblocks. I'm desperate for a way to change the system, to introduce a miracle, a solution perhaps. Not a band aid. It is starting to become more and more impossible everytime I check the updates. Nothing. How will the system change when no one would listen to the voices of the unspeakable? Why are those who advocate for the invisible turning against one another? Have they forgotten the real issue? The reason for why they fight? Has everyone forgotten how it feels to be forgotten? The lost ones. Don't let those who can't fall between the cracks again. Life cannot be reversed. Remember the past mistakes and work together towards a brighter, sustainable solution. Stop the bickering and let me speak.