5 posts tagged “thoughts”

I got my new wall calendar in the mail today and my evening has been mostly full of me filling it out.
Sounds boring, but I mention it because I have discovered something about myself, want to share it, and I'm curious about the rest of you guys.

I don't fill out my calendar with a pen and then hang it up on the wall. I use a variety of cute stickers, gel pens, and hi-lighters. The calendar itself is a Rilakkuma (Relax Bear) wall calendar covered in Japanese-styled cute. January is pink, and the picture above the dates features Relax Bear sleeping, with his little bear pal dressed in a cow suit (no clue why), with a baby chick sleeping next to him. The date area is now covered with ninja stickers, lines of different-colored hi-lighter ink, and a lone sparkly blue dolphin sticker. Each Saturday has a black slash through it. Blue gel pen is prominent.

Why all the "ZOMG KAWAII!!" and sparkly-ness? It's because I need it.

I figured this out last year, and for my whole life I've always tried different things to keep me on schedule. Plain stickers with text on them? Nope. Writing with colored pens? No. Electronic computer calendars and phone alarms? Never worked. Calendars that we got free in the mail? I didn't look at them. Daily desk calendars? I wouldn't tear those off for months at a time. Day planners? I lose them.

But last year I decided to give day planners another try. I had always used the ones I got free in the mail from like funeral homes and car dealerships. You know, the ones with those plain textured vinyl covers with the name of whatever business embossed in gold lettering on them? Blargh. So I bought myself a cute black Japanese planner with a loop for a pen - Monokuro Boo, for anyone familiar with San-X stuff. I also bought a cute matching pen and picked up a Relax Bear wall calender, along with some random cute stickers "just for fun". (I love shopping at Kawaii Gifts)
We got home and I realized that I had a lot of stickers. I would normally snag them if I was walking through a craft shop and saw something that caught my eye. I mean, they're cute, they're like $2, so why not? I'll use them somewhere, right?  Wrong.  Most I did was put them on cards when I remembered I had them, and use them to decorate the edge of my computer monitor and my CPU tower.

I decided to use them to indicate birthdays on this cute calendar, and IT WORKED. 0_0 I didn't lose my day planner because not only had I paid money for it, but it was just so damn cute. Even the interior pages were covered in cute little piggies. The wall calendar was not only cute, but large and brightly-colored, so I had to notice it. I might ignore things in black ink, but stuff written with gel pens and hi-lighter accents? I always caught it.
Granted, I did lose the planner here and there, but I always found it again, and I used it. I found tiny mini-stickers with different symbols and little bears on it, just right for the main monthly pages, so I bought them and used them in the day planner, and I used it more because of it.

This year I'm tying the same thing, but different. I'm not really writing on the wall calendar - I'm sticking to color and sticker codes. I find that I glance at that, then I want to look at the planner for the fine details. I don't like writing details on the wall calendar; too hard to write neatly vertically, and my handwriting is atrocious to begin with.
My new planner is a Circa notebook with custom-printed pages, inside a pretty Celtic embossed-leather cover that Brian wasn't using. All it needs is a pen holder, but I'm not too worried about that - There's always a pen within arm's reach of it. I've got the little calendar event stickers tucked in the inside cover, right where I can find them. It's not cute, but it fits perfectly to the left of my keyboard. I like to touch the embossing, so I pick it up and use it.
I'm extending The Cute to the rest of my desk, and it's working. I've got a tiny kitty notepad instead of plain post-its, and I haven't lost it yet. I've got a plastic kitty folder to hold my monthly business receipts in, and that's working well so far to keep things neat on my desk.

So, that's what works for me. I'm wondering what you guys do. Are you still loking for a method? Have you gone through more than a few computer programs? Everyone learns differently and has their own scheduling needs. What works for you, or do you just not bother?

Tell me, I'm curious!
Crazed

My Resources:
Super-Cute Office Supplies - I'm sure there are other sites, but their physical shop is in here in Pittsburgh, so I love it.
Circa Notebooks - Expensive, but oh so nice.
Printable Calendar Pages, etc - FREE AND AWESOME. I love these guys.

First off, here's a picture of my new earrings - I love them!
I have also learned that labradorite is REALLY hard to photograph.  Yo uhonestly have no idea how long it took me to get that picture, and that's the best once I could get.  I sadly could not capture the excellent fire that exists in both of them.
Oh, well.  They're still pretty!
Anyways, on to my thoughts.  I just read the the founder of Etsy was on Martha Stewart.  Huzzah!  In my brain that means more buyers who love unique, handmade stuff, which is good for everyone.
Etsy's brave founder, Rob Kalin, mentioned that 200 years ago everything was handmade.  This is true.  What crawled into my brain was the realization that if you were rich or poor, what you owned was handmade, and that the richer you were, the less you made yourself.  I think that to an extent, this still holds true.  I have met some wealthy people, and had the things that were handmade pointed out to me.  IE Handcarved mohogany end tables, original paintings, handwoven rugs imported from across the sea, etc.  So in my brain Handmade = more valuable = more expensive = more money.  Except now instead of Rich = You Don't Have to Make Your Stuff, Rich = Lots of Handmade Stuff.  At least in the cases I have seen.
For the rest of us, it's not so.  Things are made in factories and bought at WhateverMart.  IKEA is huge, and it's gotten to the point where I can go into people's houses that I've just met and see an eerie reflection of my own living room.
Thank the Gods for Antiques and Handmade!  They set off my place nicely, and I think everyone should have them.  Honestly, our prime piece of wall art in our living room was found at the side of the road.  It's a beautiful 3D work of a woman's face emerging from what looks to be at first glance a bunch of leaves.  Sort of a NeoGreenwoman.  I think it's plaster.  The 3D face piece is mounted on an old cabinet door.  When we found it there was a small price tag hanging from the hardware - "$625"

Obviously the doing of an artist (I wonder whose face was molded for the portrait?) that was thrown to the curb, amongst other works, after a heated argument with a lover and/or a roommate.  There were also supplies and a hamper of laundry tossed there, amongst other things.  The supplies had gotten ruined in the rain, sadly, and the clothes were rather unisex in their cut and construction, and mostly vintage.  I did rifle through them because I wanted to find out whose works these were, possibly a business card or something in the pockets.  The garbage truck would be by in no less than four hours.  We had limited space in the car, so we saved the art, and kept the Greenwoman for ourselves.  We were doing flea markets on the weekends at that time, testing out maile prices and whatnot, so we sold the artwork there.  A really excited couple bought the artwork, and were just as baffled as we were when I recounted the tragic story of The Art on the Curb.  The pieces are all unsigned, and we all scoured the surface for some trace of who might have made them, but who knows?
Anonymous Art, like all the Wal-Mart T-Shirts and IKEA posters with cool designs and no names.
Some day I would LOVE to be able to walk through my home and tell a bit of the story behind who made what.  I hope that even my clothes will someday tell a story, even if all they hint is, "I Like Webcomics!"

That's it...  I'm off to sign the HandMade Pledge.  I just found the website three days ago because I live in a cave.

Later!
Crazed

Some days I wander about in constant amazement.
And it's nothing terribly profound, either.  It's just simple concepts that, when I really think about them, are practially downright absurd.
A contant thing, as I pet the bunnies, is the mere concept of pets.  I mean, I know how historically they came about and it does make perfect sense, but we as a society have pretty much moved beyond the practical reasons to have animals running about our homes.  I don't know about you, but at least most people I know with cats (myself included) don't keep them around because they need them to control an active rat population.  And my rabbits are NOT for me to eat.
But seriously, just think about it for a second, especially if you do have a pet.
What you have is an animal that would otherwise be running about wild (or perhaps working to earn its keep), maybe in a group of similar individuals, hunting and scrounging for its food.  But they don't have to do that.  They are in your house, eating your food and shedding on your furniture and maybe even damaging your rugs and giving you allergies, yet you keep them around simply because you enjoy their company, and they enjoy yours.  They do not seem to want to leave, do they?  Sure, they might get curious and try to run out the door to explore or make friends with the dog across the street, but you know that chances are, they'd come back and be wanting you to feed them and love them and spend more time and money on them.  They'd be silly with happiness that you were right where they left you, and just as glad to see you as you would be to see them.
Isn't that amazing and wonderful? ^_^
I mean, I have rabbits.  As a pet they are...  Different.
For one, they are prey animals.  Most pets - cats and dogs and even lizards and ferrets - are not generally prey animals.  Rabbits are Mother Nature's "Take-Out Special" when it comes to the wild.  They are possibly the most successful prey species to ever walk the Earth.
Rabbits didn't get this way without getting smart.  They know that chances are, if it's bigger than them, it's going to try to eat them.  ESPECIALLY the large, bipedal, hairless ape things.  This information is hardwired into their brains.  Bipedal = Dangerous.  That's why wild rabbits will generally run away from you the instant they see you walking (assuming they didn't disappear already), because even if they can't smell you they can see your silhouette and know that you're one of those things.
And yet here I am, with a large rabbit stretched at my feet, and another one not two feet away, very carefully tearing the top layer of cardboard off of a box.  They are relaxed and happy, and don't flick an ear if I sneeze or make any sudden moves.  I can even drop on the floor and they'll let me scratch their ears and kiss their noses!
I have RABBITS in my HOUSE.  RABBITS!  Those quick, long-eared things what get into your garden and dig up all your turnips and carrots! 0_o They - are - in - my - home.  Not that I would want them to leave, but they won't anyway, not even if given the chance.
Not only are there two wild animals running loose in my house, I even have a known predator in here - A very large one, actually - and they totally ignore him.  Hell, they pick on him for fun.
Think about this for a moment.  Isn't it amazing?
Seriously, sometimes I'll look at them and a little voice in my head will say, "You have rabbits in your house.  Think about it!  It's INSANE."
And people wonder why at certain times I suddenly get a glazed look over my face.
Well, this is one of those reasons.  The sheer concept of some things just overwhelms me, and the fact that we even have pets is one of them.
I mean, if you really think about it, isn't it a delightful idea?

Lost in Wonder,
Crazed

Seriously, I do.  So much so I feel a need to tell people why I think using a lunchbox is awesome.  There are many reasons - although I'm sort of focusing on bento - why they're great things to have and to use regularly, no matter what kind it is you use or what you like to eat.  Yes, I am actually going to talk about this, and I might even wax poetic in places.  You have been warned.

Reason 1: They're healthier.
This part is a no-brainer.  You can put in your favorite fruits and vegetables, get rid of leftovers from the night before, etc, etc.  Calorie-wise, compared to Arby's cheese fries (I love those) a turkey and cheese on wheat with light mayo and maybe some vegetables is nothing.  I'm actually curious to see how many normal everyday sandwiches it would take to equal your average fast-food meal.  I'm willing to bet it would be an impressive stack.
Granted, just because you pack your own lunch doesn't mean you're going to pack it with things that are good for you, but chances are you'll be forced to think about it more, and chances are you've got a little voice in your head that says, "You know, you can always pack a little container of dip to go with your broccoli."  Seriously, you can get mini sauce containers and mayo cups for bento boxes over the Net for like three bucks.  And who knows?  Because you're thinking about it, you might just pick up the light version of the dip you were going to use anyways.  Fast food doesn't give us time to think, so we just grab whatever looks or smells the most mouth-watering at the moment, and I don't know about you, but for me it's usually something other than the salad.
And added benefit I have noticed is that now we always have fresh fruit and vegetables around the house, some of them pre-cut, which is perfect for *gasp* healthy snacking!  Packing your lunch can promote eating healthy outside the bento box.  Who knew?!
Reason 2: Control is yours.
Uhm - Control?  Yes - Control.  Too often our food choices are determined by other people, and what do other people know about what we like to eat?  We choose our lunch based on what's in the vending machine, what's being served in the office/school cafeteria, or what fast food places are nearby.  Personally, I like having things my way too much to just let destiny decide my lunch for the day.
I'm not a picky eater, but I do have a really annoying food sensitivity to most meats.  If it flies or swims, I can eat it.  If it's covered in fur and walks about on four or so legs, I can't.  I get horribly sick.  I'm not going to go into full-on anaphylactic shock, but I'm going to be using the bathroom for a few hours if I eat fried rice not fried in veggie oil.  As you can imagine that was a killer in high school, and all too often I was faced with a lunch of really greasy government pizza or the incredibly wilted salads.  Personally, I know today a lot of people have food sensitivities and/or allergies that limit their diet, so a nice lunchbox can solve all this.  You pack what you know you can eat, and what you like, so you always win.
If you've got kids this can help you, too.  I mentioned the government pizza, and the horrible salads.  Other people I know now talk about their high schools getting McDonald's or other fast food places that would come into their school on certain days of the week - sometimes they were always there - and sell their stuff to the kids in lieu of a planned school lunch menu.  I don't know about you, but McDonald's every day for lunch can't be good for your waistline.  Granted, they do serve salads and whatnot, but can you honestly trust Jimmy to look at the food and go, "No double-bacon cheeseburger for me today.  I'm going to have the salad."  Honestly, at my most health-conscious in high school, when faced with the "brown salad", the ever-present pizza alternative, or the main meal that I normally couldn't eat anyway, I took the pizza.  Even if the salad looked good that day, most of the time I preferred something warm (SW New York State is cold), so I went with the pizza.  I hardly remember any fresh fruit beyond applesauce.
So moms, if you are concerned about what your kid is eating in school, you can always get them a lunch box.  Make it cool and get a bento; if they're anime fans they will love you forever and be the envy of their friends.  In that case, let them pick their bento.  Hell, they might want to pack it themselves.  If not, get one of the sleek "executive" models that look all metallic and cool, or one of the elegant ones with delicate patterns.  Pack it as such.  Their friends may poke them about their moms packing lunch for them, but when they look in the box and see, oh - rice next to curry chicken on the bottom level, and a top level with vegetables, fruit, and your famous home-made cookies (or whatever their favorite sweet snack is), all expertly cut and artfully arranged, they'll shut up.  Top it off with a matching set of chopsticks or a specially designed fork and spoon set wrapped in a clean cloth napkin (most bentos come with a bag for carrying) and your kid will have nothing to fear.  It'll be wierd, but it's the cool kind of wierd.  Trust me on this.
Reason 3: They're more environmentally friendly.
Like the "healthy" bit, this should be another no-brainer, especially with a bento box kind of lunchbox, which are designed to be washed each time you use them because you pack the food right inside the box.  Many are dishwasher safe.  For the planet-conscious amongst us, bento are a wonderful thing.  You can put your veggies and rice and meat (or tofu!) right in there without any pre-wrapping.  Many bento boxes have dividers built into them so things stay separate.  If your bento doesn't have dividers, get the re-useable, re-washable, microwave/freezer/dishwasher/OVEN-safe flexible silicone baking cups that are out now and you can use those to keep runny things away from dry things, or fruit and veggie juices from mixing.  They even come in fun colors, and a multitude of sizes.  The "Texas Muffin" ones are big enough you can make a decent pot pie in them!  Do you like sauces?  That's cool, because as I said before, you can get little reuseable sauce, spice, and dip containers by searching for bento things.  Love soups?  Guess what?  They have microwaveable bento bowls!  Japan for the win, and remember: Google is your best internet friend, especially when it comes to shopping.
So be planet-healthy and get a bento, a thermos, and some cloth napkins while you're at it.  You get extra style points (and laughs) when you're eating your favorite lunch with a real fork and a cloth napkin spread in your lap, with your favorite fresh-brewed tea cooling in your thermos or mug, and the office jerk who picked on your bento earlier is stabbing at his cafeteria mystery meat with a tiny plastic spork, drinking his milk from a tiny mangled carton that he had trouble opening.  Ahh, schadenfreude.
Reason 4: If you pay attention, they can alter your mood.
I'm serious.  Bento are not only designed to be healthy, but typically they include some sort of visual appeal.  Maybe there's an over-arching color scheme.  Perhaps certain shapes are repeated throughout to give it a sort of visual rhythm.  Fresh fruits and veggies are not only really healthy, but they usually have bright colors with good visual impact.  Colors can wake you up or help you relax, and they can be fun.  Shapes can do that, too.
Round shapes give a feeling of "wholeness" and offer relaxation.  They are pleasing and natural, and can soothe.  Sushi is round, and many fruits and veggies are round on some axis or another.  Square shapes are stable and strong.  They are resolute and firm, and can inspire those kinds of feelings.  Triangles are dynamic, but stable.  They're a fun shape to play with!  Arrange a bento box on a diagonal, putting round things in one half, square shapes in another.  It'll be dynamic (maybe even jarring) and draw your eye, but the stable shapes should calm things down.  If you're the type that needs a wake-up come lunch, use diagonals whenever possible.  Triangle-shaped crackers, veggies, even a sandwich quartered on a diagonal makes a visual "pop".  If you like to use lunch to relax, use round shapes and arrange on a curve.  You can even make a sandwich by substituting a tortilla for bread, and cutting it up like a sushi roll!  If you've got to work through lunch, or find yourself getting disorganized during lunch, use square and rectangular shapes to "ground" yourself.
I'm sure you know about cool colors and warm colors.  Blues, greens and purples are cool, and reds, yellows and oranges are warm.  Cool colors can relax, but too much can make you sad.  Warm colors can wake you up, but too much and you might get irritable.  In the summer, you can stick to cool-colored grapes, beans, leafy greens and berries, with a slice or two of orange or some pineapple to perk things up.  Winter can be depressing, so cheeses (classic comfort food), oranges, hard-boiled eggs and apples can wake you up and make you feel warm inside, but add in some kiwi for a splash of summertime tartness and much-missed green.
I like to put sliced carrots in a blue baking cup for Brian because not only is orange and blue his favorite color combo, that combo is very dymanic and helps people perk up.  It draws the eye, and I wouldn't be surprised if it makes Brian eat the carrots.  You like purple?  Get a purple box and go crazy with green foods some day - You'll feel different come lunch time, trust me.  There's a reason The Joker, The Hulk and Barney the Purple Dinosaur are purple and green.  They're seen as "crazy" colors, colors that wake people up and inspire movement.  Using colors that are opposites on the color wheel - red/green, blue/orange, purple/yellow - create a "balanced" dynamic.  They offer good contrast, but they're not too close to provide a sense of competition, as it were.  Colors that are separated by another color on the color wheel - purple/green/orange and blue/red/yellow - are the "crazy" colors that give more speed, and can hype you up.  That's why McDonald's is red and yellow - it's fast, it's hectic, and it makes you want to move.  That's why people generally don't sit inside a McDonald's very long, so they move more people and sell more food.  Even if they added blue, a cool color, it would still be slightly unbalanced, enough to make you want to move.  Clever, eh?
Reason 5: They're fun.
I know, I just got over talking about color theory, but bento can be fun and cute.  In fact, that's part of the whole "bento" thing.  They're supposed to be kind of like a hug in a box.  Made for others, they see the care taken with colors and shapes and whatnot, and they feel happy because you took time out of your busy day to do that just for them.  Made for you, and you can feel happy knowing that you took some extra time for yourself (when is that ever not worth it?) to make you smile when you take off the lid.
If you're a gadget nut, you'll love bento, especially if you're a gadget nut who loves cute.  You can get all sorts of miniature cookie-cutters in fun shapes that are perfect for carrots or kiwis.  I like stars the best.  If you like Japanese cuisine you can get onigiri moulds for less than $5 off Ye Olde Intarwebs, even ones in cute little bear, heart and star shapes.  Weiner-cutters (hee hee - weiner-cutter) for cutting boiled cocktail weenies into cute shapes like flowers or octopi exist, and if you've got pinking shears or scrapbook punches in interesting shapes, you'll love playing with sheets of dried seaweed.  Hell, they even sell things to shape hard-boiled eggs into cubes, piggies, whatever - they're called "egg-shapers".  Peek in the cake section in your local craft store.  I'm sure you can find the mini-cutters, often in cute sets.  I got a set of leaf shapes and a set of stars for a bit under $3 each.  Oh, and those sauce containers I keep talking about?  Half of the time they're shaped like little pigs!  How cute is that?
So, if you or a loved one have a stressful presentation or test coming up, why not go the extra mile and make a super-cute or fun lunch for them?  Favorite sports team?  I'm sure you can find a way to work team colors in there.  Food coloring goes in everything.  Buy a little craft knife set and see what you can do.  And they don't have to be works of art.  Usually just taking the three extra minutes to get out my star cutters and cut little stars out of the things I've already sliced up is enough to make Brian smile, and I have fun doing it.  I give the leftovers to the bunnies if I don't eat them myself, and it's cute to see a bunny eating a slice of carrot with a star cut out of the middle.
Reason 6: They're fast.
"Wait, what?" I'm sure some of you are saying, "Easy for you to say, you don't work and just have to pack lunch for your husband while he gets ready.  I'd have to make it myself and I may or may not have children.  That's not faster!"
Just hear me out.  It'll all make sense.
I used to wonder what Brian would eat for lunch, hoping that the lines weren't too long at Subway, or that maybe the school cafe would have something decently portioned that wasn't priced like a Fabrege Egg.  Add in the super-small lunch "hour" (do those even exist anymore?) that most people get and you can see where I'm going.  He gets 45 minutes for lunch, but often his students will come around and poke at him with questions, or maybe he has to mail off an Etsy order for me.  Perhaps there's a phone call he needs to make, or something he needs to discuss with a higher-up.  These things typically happen during lunch.  Factor in running to the nearest place selling food and waiting in line with all the other students and teachers with the same bright idea, and he might get 10 minutes to wolf down his food if he was really lucky that day.  I would like to add that he doesn't teach on a typical campus.  The college he teaches at is just another high-rise in downtown Pittsburgh.  Assuming he could buy "real food", half the time he would only get to finish half, leave the rest on his desk, and mid-way through the next class he'd have the students take a break (four-hour classes - they all get breaks) and he would disappear as soon as he could (assuming there were no questions from students) to finish his lunch.  Sometimes he'd be so pressed for time and/or the lines would be so insanely long at the nearest fast food place that he'd just give up and get something - anything - from the vending machines.  Friends of mine who work in more normal-type office job settings report similar experiences.
For me to make Brian's favorite bento in the morning it only takes ten minutes at most, even when I chop all the vegetables and fruit right then.  I know many of us might not have that sort of time in the morning, so why not put it together in whole or in part the night before?  While serving up dinner you can always put some aside into your bento, or make a bit extra.  All the health experts are always getting on the news and saying how portion sizes are out of control, so having a bit less at dinner won't hurt, and chances are you won't notice anyway.  I know I don't.  Many restaurants today are happy to bag up half of your meal when they bring out your plate, or you can exercise your restraint muscle and have them bring out a container with the meal, and portion it out yourself.  When you bring fresh produce into the house, cut it up and put it in small, clear containers so all you have to do is toss them in the box.  Seriously, this will take a maximun of fifteen minutes, and you'll have a better-organized fridge.  Got a teenager?  You now have a new chore for them.
If you hate eating leftovers, you can get creative and morph your food into something new.  Put cut-up leftover steak on little bamboo skewers with veggies and a bit of pineapple and you've turned a T-bone into a kabob.  Often adding different sauce, some vegetables, rice or noodles can transform it unless you're REALLY crazy with your spices when you cook.  Mexican sauces and Indian curry can cover most anything, I have found, and you can stuff damn near anything in a tortilla or some pita bread.  I also never said that packing your lunch doesn't require thought, and creative thought is good for your brain.
Reason 7: They save money.
Another obvious thing, even if you fully adhere to "time is money!" and get paid $40 an hour.  Heck, you like math?  It takes five minutes or less to "prepare" the average fast food meal combo (drink, side, sandwichy thing) and the average cost is around $7 or $8.  Now, I'm going for easy math and say it takes five minutes for them to make your food, and you paid them five dollars.  That's a dollar a minute.  I don't know about you, but do you get paid that much?  I never have, and same goes for my college-professor husband.  If I do real math, when most meals take three minutes from the time you place your order to the time you walk away with your tray or bag, paying the $7 because you didn't super-size it, that's roughly $2.30 a MINUTE.  You have paid the restaurant $2.30 a MINUTE to make your food.
Damn.
I would say it's worth it in the evenings to take ten minutes to pack your own lunch.  Heck, pack it with expensive grade-A, all organic, whole wheat, prime healthy goodness that was harvested by pixies, and you're still saving money in my book because you won't be downing handfuls of TUMS, perscription acid reflux meds, or buying all new pants because you gained weight or developed a medical problem related to unhealthy eating habits.  Besides, you're buying fresh produce by the POUND.  The prices are per pound, not per serving, and no one says you have to buy five red bell peppers.  Buy one, and you can divy it out for four days.  Get a small head of lettuce.  Sign says "Buy One Get One Free", get just the one at half-off if you're unsure whether or not you'll use everything.  It's really quite simple.
For those people who are saying, "But fresh fruits and veggies are expensive!" you can always buy frozen.  Heck, they save extra for the time/money folks because they're pre-cut, too.  Pull some out the night before and put them in a little container on the counter with a bit of paper towel under them to catch the melty stuff, then transfer them to the bento box in the morning, with a little container of your favorite topping.  I prefer to buy fresh not only because I like it more, but because we have bunnies and are always buying fresh greens, so we're in that section a lot, anyway.  We didn't start buying veggies for ourselves until after I started packing lunch, and we both feel better for it.

I know that's a lot, but it is amazing how something like a little box has forced me to start thinking big.  I hope I've got everyone else thinking, too.

Yes, yes I do.

I have two degrees - One in Animation, one in Game Design, but I can't get a job because I'm too inexperienced.
I'm "Unemployable" because I have two degrees, which means no job at The Marts or McFoodStuffs.
I'm something like $60,000 in debt from my student loans.
I'm trying to start my own business, but so far I'm quite a few dollars in the red.
My epileptic cat has sunburned ears and scratched them up badly this week, so he needs to go to the vet to get them looked at, which is expensive.
My tonic water has gone flat, so no vodka tonics for me.

But I am lucky.

I get to hang around the house and do whatever the Hell I want.  I make a lot of chainmaile, which is productive, but I do a lot of things that to the casual observer would seen like a waste of time.
Some days I spend two or three hours just singing along to various mp3s on my computer.  I tend to wander around the house a lot, just talking to myself with a drink in my hand.  This can sometimes take hours.  I draw here and there, or work on the story I'm writing.  I'll read Fark or webcomics, or satisfy my voyeuristic tendancies by reading other people's blogs.  I have a bellydance DVD that I will work out to sometimes.  Sometimes I'll lay on the floor just so the rabbits can crawl all over me and tickle my face with their whiskers.  I play a lot of video games, too.
These things aren't a waste of time because I'm making myself and/or others feel good.  If I just focus on making things to make money, I'll either burn out or go to bed feeling like a machine shutting down for the night.
Hedonism isn't about being selfish - I think it's about liking yourself enough to take time for You every day of the week.
Or all day, every day.  Either way, it's not bad.
Although having a husband who supports this mindset and has a steady job really helps.
I need to do some chainmaile, though.  I had trouble sleeping last night because my brain was so flooded with ideas I almost got up just to make all of them.

Later!
Your Reasonable Hedonist,
Crazed