all hallow's eve!

this one time, for like three years in a row, i was a witch for halloween.

and it was awesome.

happy halloween!

it's a birthday week!

this is going to be one of those random, smorgasbord assortment type of blog posts, mmkay?

topher and i spent the weekend in phnom penh! it was ever so much needed. i ate too much and i still want to eat too much again.  something about birthdays and the arrival of the holiday season that makes me miss being home.

to help me eat too much, topher got me the greatest gift of all- a box of delicious chocolates, full of the best belgian chocolates here in cambodia! milk chocolate and cinnamon, and pistachio, and baileys (yum!) and mint. and more!  thanks chris!

as a slight update to my last post, i am still sidelined running-wise.  due to medical reasons, our med officer advised me to not run for the next 7-10 days, which put a major damper on my plans to hit my 5k stride by tomorrow, my birthday.  i think by the end of the week i should be good to go though, and i'm praying that two weeks of full on rest will only help me gain a faster stride?!

lesson learned: don't ever stop running on purpose, because you never know when you'll have to stop by design.

there's been a lot of future discussion round these parts lately, and i've got some posts ruminating about it all, which i think maybe i'll be able to think clearly enough to coherently finish writing when i'm 27.

somehow, at 26 years and 364 days, i feel like i did some more time to digest it all.

penultimately, i am sending the best of vibes out to my dear friend ann marie who will become a married woman this weekend, as long as silly storm sandy doesn't keep her from getting there. i heart you amstel, and i'm so happy for you!

and i'm sending out good thoughts for anyone in the path of this horrible storm.  hope it passes quickly without major harm to others!

noses

french, non-addictive nose spray for my annoying head cold.

i meant for there to be a get fit update this week, and for what it's worth, before last friday, i was trucking along quite well!

and then a series of three things happened:

i got a bit lazy and took three days off. then i ran one day with plans to run four days straight to get back on track.

on day two of that four-day plan, my bus was heading back to site after a meeting in phnom penh, and we had a crash.  everyone was incredibly lucky and nobody had any major injuries, including myself.  i was sitting in the very front, and besides a bruised knee from slamming into the partition in front of me and a small scrape on my arm, i had zero issues.  it was a bit terrifying but definitely the best of a terrible scenario, with everyone safe. 

needless to say, i didn't feel up to running that afternoon, and my knee was in some pain, so i took the next two days off too.

fuzzy pic of the action- people crawling out of the smashed front window as the door was compromised in the accident.

and then third, i got sick. a flu turned head cold sidelined me and has for a few days.

irony is, that friday i was heading back to site, our medical team offered me my annual flu shot which i turned down for the time being.  and then promptly got a flu-ish thing three days later. le sigh.

this weekend will be birthday celebration part one, and chris has promised to buy me a box of chocolates from this delicious chocolate shop near the peace corps office.  i'm quite excited!

cheers all. how's your week?

Pchum Ben, Part II

Praying with the monks at the wat.

As I shared earlier this week, Pchum Ben is a Buddhist celebration.  It is typically a 15 day celebration, with the last three days being the most important, and the national public holiday.

Pchum Ben is also known as Ancestor's Day. Part of the festivities center around the belief of reincarnation, and that people who do not behave rightly in their life will suffer by becoming a ghost that is unable to be reincarnated in the afterlife. 

Preparing food, and me, watching for visual cues for the amount of money I should offer.

These hungry ghosts are often punished according to the level of their sins.  Small sins can lead to becoming an unattractive ghost, or having a mouth so small that eating is difficult.  Larger sins can mean having no mouth at all.

It is during Pchum Ben that these ancestors, or ghosts, can return to Earth.  As noted, the ghosts are hungry, and are believed to return to various pagodas, or wats (temples of Buddhist worship), seeking out their living ancestors.  Those living should offer food and other tokens to the ghosts visiting the pagodas.  This can happen in mainly two ways: by throwing the food directly into spaces designated around a pagoda, or by feeding the monks.

Preparing food offerings at the wat.

Last year, Chris and I participated in the first ritual of throwing the food to the ghosts.  This happens very early in the morning, before sunrise.  Families prepare balls of sticky rice, fruit, and water to share with the hungry ghosts.  Carrying candles and incense, our community prayed to their ancestors with the monks for about twenty minutes, and then we walked around the pagoda three times, throwing our sticky rice balls and other offerings in several different spaces around the temple.  This happens before sunrise because many believe that ghosts are fearful of sunlight and must be fed before the sun rises.

Entertaining the children while their mother prepares food offerings.

Preparing the food offerings at the wat.

This year, we participated in the second ritual: feeding the monks.  Around seven AM, we drove with our family to "their" pagoda (they had spent the day before visiting 2-3 pagodas in a nearby province that is our brother-in-law's homeland and home pagodas to feed his ancestors' ghosts.)  Our host mother and sister worked with several other female family members to organize plates of food like noodles, small cakes, and high quality chicken and beef to offer to the monks.

Offering rice at the wat.

Large pile of rice offerings for the monks.

In the center of the pagoda, several rice bowls were placed for each family to offer a few cups of rice to the monks.  This tradition is usually held because the monks are seen as the gateway to speaking to their ancestors, and many believe that by feeding the monks, they are thereby feeding their ancestors or transferring good merit to their ancestors' ghosts and therefore helping these ghosts pay for their prior sins.

Bringing the food offerings to the monks.

These rituals are so important because ghosts can become angry if they are not fed by their ancestors, and could potentially curse their living family members.  

Other aspects of visiting the pagoda during Pchum Ben including offering small donations to purchase incense, and sending up three prayers using three sticks of incense- often asking for safety, healthy, happiness and offering rice and small amounts of money (2.5-12.5 cents) to younger monks.

Praying with the monks.

Personally, I also believe these Buddhist holidays- which nearly always involve visiting the pagodas and offering food- are a model for the Khmer cultural custom of helping others and sharing with those who are less fortunate.  Often, families in need are given leftover food from the feeding of the monks.  Offering food is one the easiest ways to balance out the difference between "nek mian" and "nek k'mian"- literally, those with and those without.  It is not only a part of Buddhist belief that doing so will bring merit to your current life, but it is also such an ingrained part of the culture that the thought of not offering a small part of whatever you have is unthinkable.

In many ways, this is the exact same thinking behind soup kitchens and homeless shelters in America that offer large dinners for those in need during the major holidays of Thanksgiving and Christmas.  What are your thoughts?

**big thanks to our Safety and Security Officer here in Cambodia, from whom I procured much of the wording of this information. He offered one of the clearest descriptions of the holiday and the why's and how's to us Volunteers and I am incredibly grateful.  If you want to know more, check out here or here.**

27 years [of wisdom] {question mark}

In two weeks, I'll celebrate 27 years of life.  Here's what I've learned thus far.

1

Eat.

And let people take goofy photos of you doing so.

Never be ashamed to have powdered sugar on your hands.

3

Get gussied up once in a while.

6

Be dramatic when you want to.

7

Join teams.

And always crimp when possible.

9

Dance.

And believe your mom when she tells you to suck your stomach in.

10

Love your siblings.

You'll be grateful for them when you hit your 20s and realize you have the same crazy, wonderful set of parents and nobody understands that more than they.

11

Coordinate your colors.

13

You're never too old to go to Disneyland.

And embrace your sweatshirts and jean style.

(But don't give in to knee high white socks. It's just never going to work, ok?)

14

Be spirited.

Especially when it's Spirit Week.

15

Learn the history of your country.

Celebrate your country.

Learn from the mistakes of history and your country.

18

Always go home for the holidays, if you can.

19

Be different.

Do at least one rebellious, piss-your-mom-off-so-bad thing (insert rebellious act, i.e. piercing your nose freshman year of college) without giving it much forethought.

20

Always try something at least once before you refuse it.

Even sushi.

Especially sushi.

21

Always do the things you're most afraid to do.

Like audition for the Vagina Monologues your senior year of college.

22

Go to sports games live. It's always better that way.

23

Seriously, eat.

Never, ever turn down birthday cake.

It's just mean.

24

There is no "perfect time" to meet your heart's other half.

Whenever you do end up meeting them becomes the "perfect time."

Even if that "time" is when you're drunk and 18, or hungover and 40.

Also:

You'll never get married at the age you thought you would.

25

Be ridiculous.

Laugh at yourself.

Because you can.

26

Never grow up.

Pchum Ben, Part I

Pchum Ben is a Buddhist (and therefore, national) holiday in Cambodia.  While it technically lasts much longer than the three days that it is mainly celebrated, the last three days are the ones where schools and businesses are closed and families gather.

One of my favorite parts about Pchum Ben is the making of the traditional cakes.  Families around the country prepare nom onsam.  Fillings vary, but my favorites are packed with yellow beans and pork. Lucky for me, because that's exactly what our host family prepared for the celebration.  

Our host sister, mother and our mother's older sister began the preparations for cakes the days before, stripping banana leaves and cutting them into squares, soaking the rice in coconut water, and buying all the needed ingredients.

When our host mom told us she was planning to make between 40 and 50 of these cakes, we told them that we had learned how to prepare them last year during Pchum Ben.  So she told us we could help when they began to make them at eight AM on Saturday.

Of course we couldn't help though- but we were told we should watch.  So watch we did.

Which is mainly code for sit on the rice mat and joke around with the adults while the kids crawl all over us.

After a few hours, the cakes were beginning to pile up and our host mother explained the process to Chris.

Cakes is a funny word for an American like me to call these yummy treats.  They are delectables made up of rice made sticky through coconut water, stuffed with beans and pork, then wrapped in banana leaves, tied with string from the leaves, and then boiled for a few hours until it all melts into a delicious sticky cake.

But, mainly, here's how they're made:

When that's all done, you get these:

Those strings form perfect indentations for cutting the cakes into individual servings.  After boiled and cut, they are so yummy, even if they look a bit strange and green to the novice!

Our host family delivered two for us piping hot late Saturday night, and I quickly cut into one and ate half! 

Our host mom promised us a few for our plane ride back next year.  I got quite excited until I realized that I'm still not quite ready to think about heading back yet.

How can we be ready to leave this beautiful country and it's beautiful people?

Especially this love:

 

I'll be back tomorrow with more information about Pchum Ben and our trip to the Buddhist temple (wat)!

How was your weekend?

Things I Should Have Let Go Of Ten Years Ago

Or rather:

Things I Love 

That Most 17-year-olds Love 

For Which I Should Feel Ashamed,

But I Don't.

Zac Efron

Glee

Making Birthday Cards with Crayola Markers for Friends

Celebrating My Birthday with Reckless Abandon and Complete Narcissistic Focus

Insisting on a Birthday Week (see above) 

Looking at Pictures of People on Facebook

Putting Stickers on My Planner

Using a Planner

Having a Favorite Type of Pen and Bypassing Seven Other Pens in My Purse Until I Fish Said Pen Out of My Bag

Eating Sour Candy and Making That Scrunched Up Face When I Eat It

Pondering What I Want to Be When I Grow Up, and Never Feeling Satisfied With What I Am Now.

and you?

To Two Great Men

Today, I celebrate the birthdays of two great men in my life.

Today is two days after my dad's 57th birthday, and two days before my Uncle Mark's 50th birthday.

...............................

 Growing up, my dad was the life of the party.  The jokester.  My ice cream eating, Dumbo-watching buddy.

For his 39th birthday, my momma threw my dad a 70s themed birthday party. Bell bottoms, baby!

I always loved when people compared me to him- that I had his long, lean legs, or his insatiable sweet tooth.

So cheers, to you, poppsy-diddles, and if I could have been there, I would have given you a giant one of these:

At my wedding, 2010. Photo courtesy B. Scott Photography.

I've always been incredibly close to my Uncle Mark.  He is my godfather, but he's always provided more than guidance; he and I just "get" each other.  When I was younger, I would bugger the crap out of him, but he always had a hug for me whenever I needed it.  As I've gotten older, we've gained the ability to talk about anything, anywhere.  He's been my sanity on more than one occasion of family gatherings, and has given me great advice, even when I didn't want to hear it.

Both of us, circa 1995.

I wish I could be there to ring in the illustrious 50, dear Mark!  I can't wait for our major celebration of 3-birthdays-in-1 next year!  

Here's a virtual hug I wish I could give you in person.

My wedding in 2010. Photo from B. Scott Photography

I just love October and birthdays and birthdays in October!

understanding my intake and output

When I jumped on the "get fit" bandwagon, I decided I would be really, really serious about it.

Like, super serious.

So I spent an hour perusing all the possible BMR and BMI and Daily Value calculators that exist.  I did that thing where you enter all the possible variations of yourself to see how it changes. You know?! Like, ok, here's me NOW.  Ok, here's me THREE YEARS AGO. Ok, here's me where I want to be in a year. Ok, here's me if I got REALLY chubby.

Am I the only one who does that?!

My first favorite site was Runner's World's BMR calculator.  After entering my {real} info, this is what I got for my Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR: calories I expend if I do NOTHING except sit and let my organs and body function normally. No eating, no moving, nothing.)

 

I like the breakdown of what daily caloric needs are, and how they change based on the type of lifestyle I lead.  It made me realize why it was possible for me to eat like crap when I was 18 but still be thin - when I was playing soccer and running cross country nearly every single day but Sunday, I was pushing my body HARD. Not to mention how much faster my resting metabolic rate was at 18! Le sigh. Those were the golden days.

When committing to getting fit this time around, I also was interested in learning about the amount of vital nutrients my body needed, and being more aware of giving those to my body. I used the USDA's calculator (designed for medical professionals but who's looking?) to see what kind of levels of carbs, fats, and proteins I should be getting each day.  (I was also able to find the levels of vitamins and macronutrients too!)

 

 

By far, my favorite online tool was one that Topher sent over with the email subject line "because I know you love this stuff."  It is WebMD's BMI calculator plus (!), which also finds your waist ratio, your BMR, your targeted heart rate, and helps you develop a strategic plan for accomplishing your goals, whatever they may be. Plus, it has colorful graphs, which, in my seriousness, I love!

But, all of this was just the precursor to the best thing that's happened this week in terms of serious eating well business.

I took my twitter friends up on their suggestion and joined MyFitnessPal.

Friends, it's fantastic.  Even better than the online tool I used for WeightWatchers a while back.  Even better than DailyBurn that I used a while back.  Even better than LoseIt, which I checked out.

It's the best.

MyFitnessPal takes all of the information that I spent hours culling and organizes it for me.  At any time, I can use their BMI or BMR calculator.  I can check to see if I'm getting the right amount of calories for my fitness goals, AND the right amount of carbs, fat and protein.  And the site's recommendations for these nutrients is exactly in line with what the USDA recommended: 250g of fat, 68 grams of protein, and 60 grams of fat.

It's truly wonderful.  

Almost as wonderful as the three pounds I've dropped as of this week, after FOUR WEEKS OF NO CHANGE but buttloads of exercise that didn't seem to make a difference.  When I finally saw those three pounds gone - all at once it seemed too! - I gained the much needed energy boost to barrel headfirst into this week's workout schedule.  And it's feeling good!

Thank you to friends who suggested a variety of fitness tracking tools!

Do you keep track of your carb/protein/fat intake?