Carfree Days of Summer

I’m contemplating getting rid of my car.

It’s an oversized storage bin, first of all. As I work towards decluttering my life, I can’t help but think about all of the unnecessary stuff I carry in my car. If I don’t have a car, I won’t stuff it with stuff.

Secondly, it drinks gasoline like a camel lapping water after a long Saharan caravan. I just don’t have enough money to feed its habit.

Thirdly, and most importantly, the Earth hates my car! Ok, ok . . . so maybe Mother Earth is far more loving than she is hateful. I have a mini SUV, though, and I think we’d all breathe a little better if any of us drove our cars a little less--especially mine. So the Earth will thank me for it.

Of course, other questions make me second-guess my contemplations. What will I do when I NEED a car? What about the rain? How will I ever be on time for anything if I have to walk/ride the bus?

So I’m giving my car a break for a few days just to practice this carfree way of life.

The Nashville Metro Transit Authority (MTA) has a pretty good bus. The driver I had this morning was friendly. It’s fairly simple to navigate the routes. It really stinks that they don’t offer transfers. A day pass is less than $5, though, so that’s nice. A bus stops right in front of my house, so that’s convenient if I have a day pass. If not, I’m close to lots of bus line stops, so I can walk less than half a mile to get to a more direct route so I don’t have to pay for a transfer only 4 blocks away.. The bus goes nearly everywhere I want to go. Of course, if I want to go anywhere outside of the downtown area, it seems I have to always go to Music City Central first and then switch to another line. Again, another major downside to the Nashville bus system, but the day pass will cover the cost of the extra, seemingly superfluous stop, and a lot of the outside of town lines offer an express. Still not entirely convinced that our bus system is superb enough to make being carfree absolutely convenient, but I enjoyed it today. And I love spending the entire day at the library without worrying about paying $20 for parking.

Cupcation: San Francisco

On my recent voyage to San Francisco (thank you, Southwest for free tickets!), I had a mission to experience the city in the best, most revealing way: cupcaking. A city just isn't a city worth visiting if it doesn't have a good cupcakery. It doesn't matter that the Bay area has found its way on the map with bridges, prisons and Castro queens; a true test of a city's charm is in the frosting.

So prior to my arrival, I did a bit of online research and found a few cupcakery must-sees. Our first stop was in the Cow Hollow area on Union at That Takes the Cake. Now, there are several cute shops in this darling area of San Francisco, but the chocolate and powder blue awning of That Takes the Cake beckons, "Pick me! Choose me! Love me!" I had my eye on it from a block away.

The shop is tiny and delicious—even before you taste the goods. Everything is endearing—the cute little tables outside the store, the cupcake tea sets that greet you at the door, and the lovely catch phrase beneath their logo that says "hand frosted memories." I could not wait to taste these memories.

There were only a couple of people waiting for cupcakes in front of us, which I thought might be a sign of cupcake disaster. I can hardly think of a time of day in NYC when shiny happy people aren't wrapped around the corner waiting to get into Magnolia or when it isn't so packed at Billy's Bakery that it's nearly impossible to see the cupcake offerings. But the short line was also refreshing. We were at the counter in no time, facing Cupcake Salesman's friendly smile and rows upon rows of delectable delights in the display case, each with their own special name.

Our choices of the day included the blonde bombshell (a vanilla on vanilla cake), prom queen (strawberry on strawberry), gentlemen prefer reds (cream cheese on traditional red velvet), key lime-o-licious (delicious-looking with cream cheese frosting), chocolate raspberry (raspberry buttercream on buttermilk chocolate cake), elvis is in the building (peanut butter buttercream on banana cake filled with caramel) and samoa (yes, like the Girl Scout cookie--cream cheese frosting on chocolate devils food cake with chocolate chips and caramel topped with toasted coconut and caramel). They also offered miniature cupcakes of their red velvet, vanilla and chocolate cakes (which made the little girl in front of us very happy) and half-dozen boxes of day-old cupcakes (they sell them fresh daily).

Decisions, decisions! Our miniature cupcake choice was simple. I'm a firm believer that a cupcake shop without red velvet isn't worth it's weight in butter, so we decided it would be our main comparison cake at each shop, so we each ordered a mini red velvet.


Beth is a strawberry kind of girl, so she went straight for the prom queen. Pink debated her options before choosing the chocolate raspberry.

And anyone who knows me well can guess that I headed straight for the Girl Scout gold. Cupcake Salesman, whose sister owns the shop, gave us the mini cakes on the house. Score extra for That Takes the Cake!

At this point, any sensible conversation ended, and moaning and smiling and a few deep gruntings began. These cakes are all moist and committed to their flavors. The proportion of cake to frosting is ideal (not at all like Gigi's here in Nashville, whose cupcakes must be scraped before consuming). The strawberry cake was probably the best as far as moistness. It's strawberry buttercream frosting was just sweet enough for me and not too sweet for Beth. Perfect choice for her! The chocolate raspberry was also a homerun. Their chocolate cake is superb--with chocolate chips inside to add to the richness. The raspberry frosting didn't take over the cake and added just the right amount of raspberry accent to the chocolate. I was extremely pleased with the samoa cake. It was so rich with the caramel and chocolate. I recommend slicing this one in half and sharing it. Every bite, divine. They were all well presented and cute, which is essential to cupcakes. If you weren't attracted to cuteness, you would eat a regular ol' cake slice, right?

And their red velvet was so smooth and rich. It was almost like eating fudge. The cake is a fabulously beautiful red—not so bright that the cake thinks it's a Jolly Rancher but just red enough for the cake to know that it's not chocolate. Score again!

So day one of our cupcation was a success! We could not have been more pleased with our choice. Now that this review is insanely longer than I planned, I'll have to write about our other cupcakeries later. Until then, happy cupcaking!

Memorial Day

It's Memorial Day, and I'm at Fido sipping on chocolat chaud with whipped cream and marshmallows, taking the holiday pretty easy (even though I'm technically still working). I listened to the radio this morning on my way to spin class, and I laughed aloud when the announcer suggested that we commercialize Memorial Day even more than Christmas and Easter. "You rarely hear the words 'Memorial Day' without the word 'sale,'" he said. Such a curious and false idea. I sure wish people stopped sending me Memorial Day baskets and started supporting the troops instead. I hate when we don't get the Memorial Day tree up in time for jolly old Sgt. Nicholas to come down the chimney. So funny that he said that . . .

I agree, however, that we hardly even reflect at all about soldiers of yore and today who deserve to be memorialized. Instead we celebrate a work-free day at the beginning of the summer and pray that the sky doesn't release a downpour, preventing our poolside grilling with family and friends. So today I pause to remember fallen soldiers and their bravery and commitment. And I pray for all of the families who wait for their soldiers to come home, hoping to never have to remember them on this day. I pray for the families who, despite their hopes, will face a very different, very difficult Memorial Day next year.

And I pray for peace.

Pray With Africa Book Update . . .

Well, I've finished writing the book! It seems that even after I finished the last word on the Pray With Africa book, there's still so much work to be done. This part has been new and very exciting, though. We decided to change the title, and I'm very excited about the new title. Cary and I both thought of it as a title separately, and so I felt like it was a real confirmation when he told me his title idea, and it was the same as mine. The new title of the book is Like Breath and Water: Praying with Africa. In Africa, I realized that prayer is a life force for the people I met in Africa. They value it and depend on it as much as they value and need every precious breath and every drop of clean water. I think the title captures the essence of what I learned about prayer in Africa.

David Uttley is working on designing the cover and the inside of the book--including the photographs. I look forward to seeing what he does with our photographs; he's so talented.

We sent the book to several people today, hoping to get their endorsements and opinions. I hope that they will give us valuable feedback and reviews. Is it too outrageous to think that maybe Bono would really dig this book? We'll see . . .

It's all very special, and I look forward to publication. I'll continue updating as more develops.

In the meantime, here's our latest Pray With Africa media. It will tell you a bit more about our vision.

Also, you can visit our web site (the temporary one, that is; the new one will be amazing but not until September) and help us recruit people for the fall road tour.

peace.

Health Journaling

I'm starting a health journal. I write about it because I probably need a bit of accountability with it. I'm great at journaling when it's non-required. Knowing that I have a health journal to feed regularly feels a bit like an assignment.

But it's a much-needed assignment. I have chosen to manage my asthma without the daily medicine prescribed when I was diagnosed last April. It has gone fairly well. For the most part, I've used the prescribed rescue inhaler only a few times in the year . . . until the past two weeks. Just like last year at this time, these last two weeks have been difficult. I've had a mild asthma attack every day for the last week and have relied on my inhaler more than I would like. I need this health journal to help me remember a few things:

Triggers. I've learned that certain foods trigger asthma attacks. I tried some Chick-fil-A fries the other day, and I was wheezing within 10 minutes. Not fair! Bread an butter do this, as well. So does mile 6 of my hula-hooping. I don't need anything except my tight chest and coughing to let me know what mile I'm on when I'm on the journey. So there are some definite triggers, and I want to record all of them.


Asthma plan. I need to carry an asthma plan on me at all times and let the people I am with the most know that it's on me and in this nifty little book. That way, in case I'm having a hard time communicating, they will know exactly what to do. I realize that choosing to do this medicine-free may have a few risks, so I need to carry the plan.

Water. Water is a life force. And I can definitely tell that it helps my asthma, and I just feel better in general when I drink it. So I could use the book to make sure I'm getting my daily allotment (because I certainly don't choose to drink water naturally).

Exercise. I need to make sure I'm getting my good workouts at least 5 days a week. I believe that it will help my immune system build stronger. And, let's face it, I'm getting older. No time like the present to really care for this body of mine!

And so let the journaling (and accountability) begin! I have this cute 60-70% recycled journal made by greenroom, so I hope it will motivate me. I'll take a photo of it and add it later.

peace.

Facebook Tells All

Kent and I started dating in October 2007. We ended things last Sunday. I've told a few good friends who will pray for us and offer support during this time. I had no desire to make a big announcement.

But Facebook makes it for me. "Ciona is no longer in a relationship," it says. Here's a wound; may I have some salt, please?

Kent and I went forever without listing a relationship status on Facebook; we didn't need Facebook to define our crazy/beautiful relationship. We did it about a month ago, though, partly as an inside joke. Oh, how the joke is now on us. Or on me, at least. Maybe Kent's ok with it announcing, "Kent is no longer in a relationship," but I need Facebook to let me announce things on my own terms. Why can't it be more like a status update instead?

If it were, I would have written one long run-on sentence: "Ciona is no longer in a relationship with an amazing man who was one of her best friends AND her boyfriend since October 2007, and it's been such a difficult decision for her to make because, while the good times were fantastic, the hard times made them wonder if they would be able to be together forever and have a family and be happy, but she wished so badly that they could make sense together and that she could have decided differently and that he could still be one of her best friends because some parts of life just make more sense with him than they do without him, and there are so many emotions involved that one short little sentence to define their relationship status just seems unfair to all that was, especially when it doesn't end in ellipses . . ."

Procrastination

Dear old SARK recommended this book in one of her books: Procrastination : Why You Do it, What to Do about it. As a chronic procrastinator, I thought I'd give it a read. As a freelance writer, I thought I should read it for free.

So instead of heading to Borders, I checked our online library catalog and saw that it was currently loaned to someone but was due the next day. I decided to put it on hold to make sure some other procrastinator got to it before I did (and because I knew if I put it off until the next day, it could be two weeks before I made it to the library).

I put it on hold a month ago, and it still hasn't been returned. Classic. Either the reader is prolonging actually reading the book or has read it and is procrastinating in returning it. If it's the return, well, I'm not so sure about this book anymore.