G and H are for *Good Heavens!*

Sometimes life goes by a little too fast for me to blog:

   Deepest apologies for missing Saturday's entry, I was baby-sitting until after midnight and unable to get online. So, I am combining Saturday's *G* entry with tonight's *H* entry.


   Good Heavens, but life is awfully......mind-boggling....awesomely so.....

    Today, I had jury duty. The last time that this happened was 8 years ago, in 2004. During the copious amounts of downtime in between selection processes, I couldn't help but think about how different my life is now and all the changes that have taken place in these eight intervening years.

   In September of 2004, I was 21. I was single (fairly newly so), had graduated that May,and I was living in Rochester, NY, (but still legally residing in Syracuse, hence the Onondaga County Jury Summons).I was working primarily for a Rochester-based children's theatre, but was also working at Panera Bread Company to fill in the income gaps. I shared a house with a friend in the South Wedge Neighborhood of Rochester, a few blocks up from Highland Park. I drove a bitchy, temperamental Dodge Neon and was nursing a crush on a gentleman who, though we were certainly good friends, I had convinced myself didn't have the time of day for me romantically. This, however, was not the case, as I would find out in a few months.....My goal at the time was to build up my savings and my resume and move to New York City as soon as possible.

   Fast forward 8 years:
 

   I stayed in Rochester for five more years after that. During those years, I taught English as a Second Language, was a Nanny, went to Graduate School, got a Master's in Children's Theatre, worked for several excellent theatres, made many wonderful friends, lost a few of them, (though found some of them again) had several health scares, was in a very serious, committed relationship for five years, and grew in a multitude of ways that really can't be described in a blog post. After finishing my Master's , I moved home in August of 2009, ostensibly to rebuild my finances and regroup for life's next challenge.

   I have yet to make it to New York City, I mean, I've been there many times to visit, but I don't live there, yet, for a variety of reasons ranging from Grad School to lack of funds to the Recession to the ebb and flow of romantic relationships to my basically constant tendency to put everything I want on hold so that the needs and wants of others can be met first. It's still on the list. We'll see how the next year or two go....

   I still live in Syracuse, I am engaged to an indescribably wonderful man whom I adore and that I hope one day to deserve. We have a cozy apartment in a Syracuse suburb. I am an Actor and Teaching Artist for The Syracuse Shakespeare Festival and have also recently been voted onto their Production Board. I still need a *day job* to fill in the cracks, but this day job pays well, offers me very good health insurance and flex time, and is full of wonderful people, and I'm very grateful for it.

   I am getting married in about five and half months. I will turn 30 this year. Virtually everyone I know in my age bracket is getting married, having children, buying a house, and moving from menial side-jobs into careers. I am at-once the same person I always was and completely different. My world is changing, bigger and bigger changes that come at an ever increasing speed. It's not that I mind, exactly, I like Change, the world only spins forward and all that.....

  But......just....wow....I.....it all just kind of hit me today........

  Not sure how to end this post. Sometimes you're just too stunned by life to be coherent, and that's about all I've got for tonight.

'Night, All :)
Lynn

F is for Feast

Feast: THAT is what I did tonight :)

   One of my dearest surrogate families generously invited me to their Passover Seder. After the ceremonial portion of the meal, we FEASTED on Stuffed Cabbage, Matzoh Ball Soup, Roast Turkey, Mashed Potatoes, Gravy, Applesauce, Strawberries and CHOCOLATE TRIFLE!!!! OM NOM NOM!!!

Sorry so short, but I'm so full and so happy, that's about all I've got, I'm gonna flop into bed now, Goodnight :)

Happy Pesach/Blessed Good Friday :)
Lynnie

E is for *Effort*

Gonna sneak this short post in right under the wire!


  Today ended my loosely timed around Lent wheat-fast. Though not exactly for religious reasons (more like a self-discipline exercise), I timed the fast around Lent to help me focus. Here's how it fell out:

  -For the first three weeks of Lent, I did a full cold-turkey wheat-free fast, and, while it was occasionally a logistical pain in the ass, I did not suffer emotionally from it. I was fine without wheat. I missed it, but did not suffer in it's absence.

  -Around the three week mark, I started getting more headaches, mood swings and energy crashes. Around that time I also joined Weight Watchers, and juggling points and avoiding wheat and dealing with the above mentioned side-effects got to be too much, so I modified the fast to accommodate one serving of wheat per day, and did pretty well with that.

  So, not the exact results I was hoping for, but I did my very best and I'm pleased with the effort I made.

  And now, off to bed!

  xoxo
  Lynnie

D is for *Dolmas*

                          These little babies are, hands down, one of my very favorite foods :)


   Cool, creamy, tangy, dense but oddly refreshing, herbaceous, just little bit odd and exotic, and SO ADDICTIVE!!!!

  I am forever indebted to my friend Joey who introduced me to these during undergrad. I devour Dolmas with absolute abandon, and crave them at basically any moment of any day ;)

   Here's a recipe for Dolmas from Budget Bytes

   And another from Ellie Says Opa ( the recipe is at the bottom, scroll all the way down)

   And here's one more from The Kitchn


   If you live in the Rochester area, head out to Brockport, NY to Mythos Cafe for some of the best Dolmas (and Gyro!) I've ever had!!!

   In the CNY area? Hit up King Davids, Byblos or The Black Olive for more Dolma Deliciousness :)

*NOM!!!*
Happy Wednesday!
Lynnie




 

C is for *Chiropractor*

Hello There ;)

   Day 3 of the A-Z Blogging Challenge! This has actually been really fun so far, ;) I know the title for today's post topic sounds a little boring, but I promise it is not.

   Yesterday was my first ever visit to a Chiropractor. I've been meaning to go for, literally, years, but such obstacles as no health insurance or health insurance that would not cover chiropractic care, lack of time and not knowing a reputable Chiropractor got in the way. Now, finally, I actually have really good health insurance, and I have been led to a wonderful Chiropractor who is a friend of a friend. While I didn't actually receive any adjustments yesterday (my first one is tomorrow), I had a full workup with medical history and x-rays and got to have good, lengthy conversations about chiropractic care with both the Nurse and the Doctor.

 Okay, now that the setup is over, I can get to the blog-worthy part. Everyone knows the spine/spinal cord  is important, of course; it's what sends the messages from the brain to the rest of your body. However, I didn't realize how much the health of your back/spine could affect health in the other areas of your body that, on the surface, have nothing to do with your spine.


 Let me see if I can explain this without butchering it too badly (if there are any chiropractors reading this, I apologize for any inconsistencies). If some event or repeated events (car accident, bad fall, repeated bad posture, etc) throws something out of alignment in your spine, this obviously causes pain (although, interestingly, I learned yesterday that only about 10% of the nerves in your body are devoted to pain response, so by the time something *hurts* the damage causing the pain has been going for quite awhile). However, pain is only one part of it. This misalignment or *subluxation*, (there's a fancy science word for ya) in your spine effects how the messages get sent from your spinal cord to the rest of your body, so all kinds of nervous system signals to the rest of your body could be getting missed or screwed up.

   Take me, for example. I sought out chiropractic care because of migraines, neck shoulder tension headaches, neck/shoulder/upper back pain, and sinus issues. However, I also have (controlled) acid reflux. Most of these issues developed during my undergrad years, and have peaked and valleyed ever since. It came up in my medical history that I've been in several car accidents (none of which were my fault), and taken several bad falls (no broken bones, though) What can I say? I'm clumsy. But, when asked to ponder the onset of each of the symptoms/health issues I listed above in relation to when these accidents or falls occurred, it was like a light-bulb went on in my head. When I was a senior in high-school I fell down the stairs and slipped and fell in the bathtub (on two separate occasions, not on the same day), and within a year or so of that I developed migraines. Within two years of being in a nine-car pileup accident, I developed sinus issues and acid reflux. Last winter I fell and hit my head and I've had neck tension headaches ever since. I don't know why I never linked these things together before. Probably because none of these occurrences presented any immediate, obvious injuries, so I sort of just wrote them off. Obviously not realizing that just because it *didn't hurt* at the time, that didn't mean that something wasn't thrown out of whack and could cause other problems down the line.

  When I took Yoga, I had a teacher that constantly stressed the importance of keeping your back healthy. If your back is healthy and happy, YOU are healthy and happy, and while I certainly listened and understood what she meant, after yesterday I think I've taken it to heart in a new way. The idea that the headaches, sinus pain and tension could be alleviated through better back/spine care is absolutely  music to my ears. I don't remember a day when my head didn't hurt at least a little, and getting on a regimen that someday might leave me virtually pain free is a challenge I am happy to accept :)

  So, I guess it was Science Day today here, I hope this post wasn't a drag to read. I'll let you know how my first adjustment goes tomorrow :)

Happy Tuesday ;)
Lynnie

B is for *Book Club*

Hey Ho ;)


  I can't tell you how happy I am that *B* Day of the A-Z Blogging Challenge fell on a Book Club Day, because I've been aching to babble about Book Club on this blog (alliteration ftw!!!).

  Started about a year and a half ago by my wonderful friend Merlyn (go check out her blogs, she is a Bard of incomparable skill!!!), I've had the privilege of belonging to this Book Club for about 14 months now :) Unlike most Book Clubs, where the the focus is on novels, ours is a StoryBook Club :) We focus on Fairy and Folk Tales from all over World!!! Sometimes there is a specific story to read, and other times there is an overarching theme within which we are free to do our own research. Once a month we meet to discuss the theme/story of that month, and we FEAST upon all kinds of food that is themed to our topic of that particular month :)

                   Here is the Spread from our *Legend of Sleepy Hollow" Meeting last October

We call ourselves *Storycologists* :) Two of my favorite things about this book club are the creative outlet it provides and the fact that it brings together some of the most creative, kind and hilarious people I know, people who's company I don't get to enjoy nearly often enough because we are so far flung. Having Book Club as a bonding agent has been glorious and I'm so grateful to be a part of it!  Here are all the topics that we have covered so far :)


-Hansel and Gretel
-Little Red Riding Hood & The Snow Queen
-Baba Yaga (my first meeting!) (Russian Folktale)
-Finn McCool (Celtic Folktale)
-Beatrix Potter
-Fairies
-Dragons
-Vampires
-Werewolves
-Frankenstein
-The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
-Zombies
-The Golum (East European Jewish Folklore)
-Trolls
-Damsels in Distress
-Banshees (Celtic Folklore)

-and this month's theme? The Velveteen Rabbit ;) (One of my very favorites since childhood:)

Can't Wait!!!

I hope something makes you smile today ;)
Lynn

A is for *Acquaintance*

Hi Friends!

Welcome to my first post for The A-Z Blogging Challenge!!! I'm really hoping that joining this challenge will lead me to some great new blogs and hopefully lead some new people to my little blog. So, on the idea that there may be some new people poking around, here are a few Random Facts about me that will help us get Acquainted :)

So, without further ado (yay! another *A* word!)

Lynn in Ten Random Facts:

- The first musical I ever saw was Peter Pan when I was about four years old.

- In the years I spent as a Nanny/ Daycare Teacher, I stopped four children from choking.

- My favorite category of Dessert is Ice Cream, and within that category, my two favorite desserts are Gelato and Chocolate Ice Cream Sodas.

- I spoke in full sentences at 13 months and I could read before I turned three years old.

- I am deathly afraid of roller-coasters and other amusement park rides of that type, the ones that use sharp turns, sudden drops, etc.

- There are eight books that never leave my nightstand (as in, they never make it back onto the shelf because I read them so much): *The Complete Works of William Shakespeare*, *The Complete Grimm's Fairy Tales*, *The Six Wives of Henry VIII* by Alison Weir, *The Historian* by Elizabeth Kostova, *The Essential Shakespeare Handbook* by Leslie Dunton Downer and Alan Riding, *To Kill a Mockingbird* by Harper Lee, *Green Chic* by Christie Matheson and *French Women Don't Get Fat* by Mireille Guiliano.

- I read cookbooks like novels, there is always a stack of them at my bedside (and several bookshelves worth, too!).

- I love to wear corsets and I feel much more comfortable and beautiful in period costumes/garb than I have ever felt in modern day dress.

- I could live on crusty bread, artisanal cheese and fresh fruit ;)

- Some of my favorite sounds are Moving Water (waves, streams, waterfalls, rain, etc), Wind through Leaves, Crackling Fire, Gentle Whispers and the Sound of Bells (Wind Chimes, Church Bells, etc).

So, that's me, the Appetizer course :) Stick around for the next 26 days and you'll learn more, and in alphabetical order ;)

Love,
Lynn