Trying hard

Well, I'm still unemployed (unless you count the 10 hours a week that I pay $20/hour to work), and still desperate for paid employment. Hell, I'd probably babysit for my old price of $2 per kid per hour if someone asked. Except that I probably shouldn't be left alone with children...
But I digress. In my unemployment, I have decided to attempt to better myself in some way, and given that I am now a size 16 (almost), and with zero income can't really afford new clothes, let alone new suits, losing weight seems like a great idea. Plus, I'm already verging on scary hippie-dom with my refusal to use plastic bags and use of public transport (which, like Jenny says, is miraculous), love for all things organic and free of scariness like trans fats, hydrogenated whatnot, and high-fructose corn syrup, and so on.
My mom gave me this book, Ultrametabolism, by Dr. Mark Hyman, and it seems so soundly based in science and not fad-like and all that I couldn't put it down. I even tried to give up caffeine for a week, but when I had to drive 200 miles to Crested Butte I decided that I would be a danger to myself and others without at least 16 ounces of coffee. So. I lasted 7 days without caffeine, which I think is still pretty remarkable.
Anyway, the diet is based essentially on the principles of whole foods and the Mediterranean diet with healthy fats and so on. For over a week, I have avoided gluten and dairy (done so that one can determine if one has any allergies to these commonly irritating foods). I eat only whole grains (not even whole-grain wheat, though), which is how I discovered amaranth. I use soy milk rather than the cow kind, and have discovered that it is SO delicious. Unfortunately, I am now hooked on $4 iced soy lattes, but what with my income that should be no problem... I still eat out plenty, and have found that vinegar alone is just about the most delicious salad dressing I have ever had. I'm not kidding, and it doesn't even matter what kind of vinegar it is. I'd pretty much kill for cheese, but if I can last two weeks of the recommended three without, I'll still feel like a success. I have lost about 2 lbs in the first week, and feel good about being so good to my body.
Another think I love about Dr. Hyman's plan is that he urges consumption of only organic fruits and vegetables, and grass-fed range meats. Did you know that a feed lot steer has 500 times the saturated fat of a grass-fed range steer? That is not a typo. Healthier AND good for the environment! Cows are still bad, but they are less bad when sustainable grazing practices are implemented. Also, organic grains are really cheap at Whole Foods, and so what could be better? The diet fits with my understanding of what my body wants and urges people to be more eco-friendly (it's also much healthier for you to eat organic etc.), and so far I think it's pretty awesome. So cross your fingers for me that I can fit into my suits...I'll never get a job if I show up in elastic-waisted capris and a baggy shirt!

Obama strikes out again

What I didn’t like about Obama was his constant promising that we would have CHANGE!!!! Well, of course we need change in this country. Change I can believe in, even. But I want real change, not empty statements of policy that sounds great but that may not be achievable. In her campaign, Hillary could back up all of her numbers and financial proposals, which I loved. Now, Obama’s promise for health care savings may not be all the “change” he has promised. The NYT says that of the money Obama has said we’ll save ($2,500 for a family of four, per year), most of that savings will be by the employer, not the employee. It breaks down to roughly ¼ of that amount to be saved by the family itself, with the remainder of savings going to the business. Yet Obama routinely promises that a family will save $2,500 a year in premiums. This seems misleading, if you ask me. Furthermore, analysts are now saying that it’s not clear that such savings can even be achieved in the time he has promised, with some saying it’s like waiting for pigs to fly. I am, once again, disappointed in this “change I can believe in.”

A is for Amaranth

Amaranth, a “golden seed” that was apparently very popular in times past (way past), is double delicious! I understand that it’s making a comeback as people start avoiding trans-fats and hydrogenated-this and partially hydrogenated-that. In my quest to do just that, and eat more “whole” foods, I came across a recipe for Apple-Walnut Amaranth. I bought some in bulk from Whole Foods, and after mixing one cup of the golden seeds with three cups of plain soy milk, one diced, cored apple and a dash of cinnamon, and boiling and then simmering (covered) for half an hour, I can’t keep my hands off the pot! It’s delicious, kind of like cream of wheat in texture, but better and way more delicious. I would HIGHLY recommend amaranth to anyone looking for something to add to their kitchen repertoire. Amaranth is amazing!

Indulging my desires to eat and complain in one fell swoop!

Don't yell at me for last time. Try this.

More whining

I know you’re sick of hearing me whine about not having a job, but that’s all I got going right now.

Currently: I am paying $20/hour to work (yes, that’s the reverse of how it’s supposed to be). I go to the law school, the one to which I pay ever-increasing tuition plus $20/hour for my job at EPA, in order to search for jobs. However, lately the internet rarely works at the law school that is causing my debt to balloon, so I can’t even use the career development website or use other online resources in my job search. Might I point out that everything is on the internet these days, which is why I take the time to come to the school for my job search—so that I can use the magical World Wide Web. Which is so much less magical when it only contains the page “Problem loading page.” I can’t even check my damned email, and I would be screaming at the top of my lungs were I not in the library with someone working at the table behind me.

Note: I’m writing this in a Word document, because I can’t get online. No email, no blogging, and no productivity. I might cry, because it’s costing me a fortune to do nothing. No income = big financial problems (for very obvious reasons).

Impending Weekend

I've been bad about posting because all I do is stress about not having a job (and trying to find one, which I spend many hours doing). As it turns out, there is nothing interesting in the NYT for me to add either, which doesn't help matters.
BUT, it's Friday, and I'm having a cocktail party tomorrow! I know you're dying to know, so I'll reprint my menu here:

• Portable caprese salad
• Rumaki
• Warm goat cheese on toasted baguette with bread crumbs and olive oil
• Bruschetta, with my homemade tapenade
• Little pizza bianca
• Cosmopolitans

See, now I bet you wish you could come. It's going to be Loki's coming out party...
I got a kitten two weeks ago, so that makes things vveeerrryy interesting around the house. His name is Loki, and he is a charmer/total terror (or, perhaps, "contriver of all fraud?").

'Tis not the best photo of the li'l guy, but the rest are being held hostage on my camera (until I get around to uploading them, I'm VERY lazy about this). Lucy's not nuts about him, although she has started doing this thing where she pins him down while he cries and licks him, and I think it's some kind of mothering-type activity (I hope). Otherwise, they wrestle, or fight, if you're not as optimistic as I am about their relationship.
That's about all the news I have. I have to get home and tend to my raging kitten and his less-than-thrilled-about-the-baby fellow cat. Aren't you so jealous of my life? Unemployed with cats?

Some fun math

An idea of my monthly expenses:
Rent: $1100 (for both me and Rex)
Car Insurance: $80
Energy Bill: $75
Gas: ...
Food: ...

My monthly income (combined, with Rex's): $0

Someone please tell me: how does this work?

Yes, I have student loans. No, they do not cover the cost of living. Plus it's summer, where they are particularly paltry (read: gone by July 1).

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: I need a job! The thing is, employers expect law students to work for free, which presents a problem that would have been nice to know about before going to law school: you have to be wealthy to attend, otherwise you will be poorer than before you began. I thought I would go to law school to make more money than my pitiful post-college job paid, but it turns out that I am making less. A lot less. So much for that bright idea.

Separation of Church and State, anyone?

I am strongly opposed to any shift away from the separation of church and state as it was intended. Which is to say, I think that the separation should remain (nay, be more so) clearly demarcated with no blurring of the lines. Giving federal funds to faith based groups is, to me, an evangelical right-wing conservative action, one that I think other liberals like myself abhorred when Bush proposed more of it. Luckily, he proposed such action but it never really took root--it was one of those things designed to appease his evangelical constituents but lacking any cognizable result. Unfortunately, Obama announced that he supports this program and intends to expand what Bush started. While Mr. Obama assures the American people that there will be checks on the system to ensure that the line between church and state doesn't become too blurred, I think that this is a truly awful stance. I thought that Obama was nominated to be the Democratic nominee. So why is he proposing that our federal government utilize religious groups to perform the work that would otherwise be performed by state run agencies? It is not just the addition of religious programs, it is giving the money that could otherwise go to existing state programs, to religious ones. If we didn't have state run programs, and it would be too onerous to create them, I might understand. But shifting activity from government to churches when we clearly have the programs in which this activity could be improved? That I have a problem with. A BIG problem.