#84 – Life is defined by maintenance.

All you do in life is try to maintain it.  You eat for energy to do it again.  you sleep to do it again.  You work to pay for it again.  You do more or something new to make you happy…again.  Life becomes a huge cycle of maintenance.  Therefore:

#85 – The secret to life is to avoid or mitigate maintenance.

Set your bills to be paid automatically.  Eat well.  Learn to control your dreams so you’re not just sleeping.  Spend less so you need to work less.  Find out what makes you happy and keep on doing it.  Stop your mind from worrying about what you need to maintain in your house, but start accepting what doesn’t need to be maintained.

Kallie and I found a nice groupon getaway to the Lowes Annapolis Hotel.  We stayed a Saturday and Sunday night.  During the first night, there was an event held in the main atrium of the hotel.  I could imagine the noise from that event carried into the 6 floors of rooms that surrounded the atrium.  Our room was off a separate hallway though, so it was pretty quiet.  The room was great and Kallie seemed to enjoy that she got a nice robe with the room.

Breakfast was included with our deal, and it was fabulous both days.  Our waiter, Eric, had a thick accent, but he was extremely pleasant and fun.  Our vouchers were good for $40, but when our bill only came to ~$32, we were willing to just walk with that.  He suggested that he put on 2 bottles of Fiji water ($4 a piece) and have us just take it.  We appreciated the thoughtfulness and took his suggestion.  They also had a wonderful juice bar menu which included orange, pineapple, cranberry, strawberry, banana, and a bunch of other juices that you could ask them to mix together.  It was a great treat.

As for location, it may seem a little off the path from the main street and bay of Annapolis, but it was a nice flat ~1 mile walk.  The weather was great, and the walk was perfect to capture all the old buildings and history of Annapolis.  I pulled down an app which guided us around the major tourist sites of the town and provided some great historic background.

We weren’t in crab season, so we skipped that and just ate the Middleton Tavern.  The dining area is a little cramped, but the food and beer selection were pretty good.  They do have their own amber ale, which I do not recommend.  It was more of a light pilsner.  We also grabbed dessert at Reynolds tavern, which is a very historic and interesting building.  It was around 8pm or so on Sunday, so the place seemed a little empty, but as we left we noticed that there were people in each of the rooms of the building, as if they purposely gave each party their own private rooms since they could afford the space.  We really appreciated the feeling of having the place to ourselves.

There are only 3 requirements for a successful event or party:

1. Something to eat
2. Something to do
3. A place to go to the bathroom

As soon as one of those is not present, the event will end.

I’ve had a few people asking my about my diet while Kallie is away.  It’s not great, but I’m getting by.  The nice thing is, I asked Kallie not to go grocery shopping before she left.  First, just so she didn’t have 1 more thing to do before she left, but also because I’m not that pathetic that I would need her to do that for me.  A nice bonus to not having new stuff in the fridge is the sense of accomplishment I get from finishing things.  You might not know this about me, but I have a strong affinity for finishing things so they don’t go to waste.  Kallie surely has a different perspective from me, but I see us throw out a lot of food because we’re too blessed and move on to the next meal without using up left overs or have items in the fridge that didn’t get used up, but only have limited applications.  My personal goal in the fridge is always to use up what’s there and consolidate.  So I’ve done that so far.  Chicken salad from a salad left over the the weekend, a burger with the rest of the head of lettuce from before the weekend, enchiladas, nearly empty packages of cheese, italian dressing, buns, bagels, etc, etc.  I’m making sure I get some fruits and veggies in there.  I’m actually enjoying the sense of manageability of the contents in the refrigerator and freezer rather than seeing them as an abyss where we’ll hopeless never go hungry.

so back to my day:

4:45am  – wake up to make breakfast for the labor halls.

7:00am – back in bed for a 1.5 hour name before going into work.

5:00pm – back home, start finishing up the final touches on the lair in the basement.  Kallie’s not going to like it because it’s very much my space, but it’s better to ask for forgiveness than permission.  With all this stuff moving around, it’s becoming apparent how close we are to outgrowing this house already, and we don’t even have the daughter yet.  A lot of what we store should go in a garage, attic, or basement.  There’s a George Carlin bit about buying stuff until you fill your house that rings all too true. here’s a link to the bit [explicit language]

6:00pm – I get a call from a friend from out of town that’s in for the holidays and he invites me over to a mutual friend’s house to hang out.  I decline because I do have to work tomorrow, I have some motivation to get things done, andd the weather is kind of crappy.  It felt somewhat redeeming after last night’s rejections though.  I’ll go back to the mon valley tomorrow to hang out with him.

9:00 pm – Kallie facetimes me on her phone.  I make her cry by expressing my feeling interrupted when she calls me unexpectedly.  I tried not to come across like I don’t want to talk to her, of course I do, I just want to focus on getting stuff done here, and when we end up with dead silence on the phone, or in this case, just staring at each other, it’s frustrating.  Maybe I’m a bad cold hearted husband, but I want to get stuff done around the house for US.  Having to drop everything from those distractions when she calls only reminds me that she’s not here and I’m alone.  It’s kind of an all or nothing thing.  I’m just not skilled enough to multitask doing things here and taking care of my wife there.

10:00pm – deflated and defeated.  bed time for baxter.  so much for running.

How important are expiration dates to you?  They’re intended to protect consumers from health risks, but also maintain quality of the product.  I almost think that not following dates becomes more wasteful of your time since you’re constantly evaluating the quality or the “edible level” rather than just drawing the line and moving on.  Efficiency of the use of your time or even protecting your own health comes in to play.  Is the risk of being and feeling sick worth the ~$1.60 of salad dressing left in the bottle?  I bet if you got sick, you’d be willing to pay more money to feel instantly better.  There a science in the decision making process we could get into, but I’ll just ask the question.

If your problems are found to be geographic, leave.

I’ll probably take some judgment here.  I’ve always struggled with hungry people in 3rd world countries.  Why are we taking the food and supplies directly to them?  If school buildings, water wells, or something else enables the people to start caring for themselves, then great, but I view anything else as unsustainable.  WHY ARE PEOPLE CHOOSING TO STAY THERE?  I’m willing to bet it’s because 1) they don’t know any better and 2)We’re enabling them to stay there.

There’s a lot more content to unpack there, but I’ll change direction and hit closer to home.  If Detroit doesn’t have any jobs for you — wait for it — MOVE TO SOMEWHERE THAT DOES.  The expression “time to get out of Dodge” isn’t a quote from a fairytale.  If you’re in trouble where you are, go somewhere else.

I’m all for protecting culture, or reducing stress on a family, but where’s the line?  At some point, you’re just hurting yourself.

Splitting the check evenly should only be attempted for socially close indivuals in numbers 4 or less.   It’s just a mess otherwise.  Someone is going to short change the group.  Someone is going to order more food than everyone else.  You’re going to come up short and 1 person is going to end up paying more than everyone else.  Just don’t do it.  Tell the host you need separate checks before you order.

Today, we’re going to talk about tri-tip.  It’s a popular cut of steak in the Central California area.  It was originally prepared with “Santa Maria Seasoning” (of Santa Maria, Ca), but it’s basically just a great streak to use on grills.  The popular use now is in a tri-tip sandwich covered in barbecue sauce.

Kallie has been talking about it a lot since I’ve met her, but I got to try an authentic sandwich at Firestone Grill in San Luis Obispo, Ca.  It truly was a unique sandwich and definitely worthy of praise.  Something about it was very familiar though, and I’m fairly certain i’ve had *something* similar to it here on the east coast.  I’ve head some other possible names for the cut, like “tip steak”, so maybe it’s just known by something else here, but I haven’t been able to find a restaurant in the area where you can get a tri-tip sandwich.  If you can, let me know!

I’m going to try to avoid offending anyone here.  Know that I’m expressing my thoughts, not my rules.  This is an idea that I’ve always struggled with, not something that I’m upset with others for doing.

I don’t really value food.  I define food as the most basic substance that we require to survive.  That’s all I am able to see it as, a maintenance requirement for our bodies.  I do see food as an industry, man-made, sensationalized, and hierarchical.  That scares me, and it always has.

I’m not talking about the content of documentaries like Food, inc or Super-size me.  I’m on a much more basic level.  The NEED for food.  Why do we NEED to enjoy food?  Should we really value taste?  If we could get the same nutritional value of a salad in a pill form, shouldn’t we do that instead?  From a time spent perspective?  From a consuming natural resources perspective?

I look to The Bible for answers, partly because that’s where the struggle was born.  I see where meat is sacrificed.  I see where feasts are held on significant days and times.  I see so many metaphors using food to express how important something is.  I see a lot of bread, wine, water, milk, honey, grains and cheese.  These are all basic foods.  Specifically in the book of Job, he makes the reference to not wanting to eat unsalted food.  He is tormented with life’s unending slavery.  I can only hope that I do not meet the same fate as Job for my questions here…

The point I keep coming back to though is that food is temporary.  There are numerous metaphors to stay away from temporary things.  We should build our homes on permanent ground, we should focus on the things unseen and everlasting, not tangible and mortal.  Are we investing large percentages of our days to temporary and earthly things?  We spend so much time preparing something that we’re just going to destroy right away.

This can be applied to a lot of things besides cooking.  Clothing is temporary and earthly, but we put such emphasis on putting on our Sunday best for church.  Movies are entertaining and can be the launching pad for fellowship, but I can’t think of any other activity where we do nothing for 90 minutes.  Discussing politics will just go on and on and on, and it won’t even change a thing.  Is this what we’re called to do with our time?

It basically comes down to where is the line between actively doing God’s work and resting?  Where is the line between investing time versus return?  Where is the line between rendering unto Caesar and following our calling?

Even if cooking long and intricate meals is the best thing we can do in our lives, isn’t there then something righteous about denying ourselves that pleasure?

Again,  these are my own thoughts and struggles.  If you enjoy cooking, do it!  Family dinner time, the gift of hospitality, and inviting others to break bread with you are some of the most tremendous things to do in our life!  I just know that I’m not going to be able to do those things every day and every meal, especially if I’m to value other areas of my life.  Enter struggle.

Pizza is the best food in the world.  It (in most cases) consists of all the major food groups, which makes it the the healthiest food as well.  It lasts for a long period of time, even without refrigeration, which makes it the best investment food.  It is diverse and eaten in many cultures, which should make it the official food of the nobel peace prize.  Plus, it’s super cheap.  Pizza is awesome.