Inn of the Wandering Dragon

Once or twice a year on average I go through a dietary detox. Most of my friends think I am nuts and a few other friends go through it also. The premise behind this is that we eat a lot of weird and artificial stuff. Food colourings, additives, preservatives and just general unhealthy eating all combine to take its toll on the body. Not all of it is easily digested and expelled by the body either so some of it just sticks around for the longest time. At the end of a long work day it is so easy to just heat up something fast in the wave or just snack on whatever is readily at hand. I do not always want to spend an hour cooking, especially if I have not come home until after 7 or 8. Meanwhile I get more sluggish (mentally and physically), my sinuses are in overdrive and various other irritations plague me.
So the idea behind the detox is not the same as a fast, I am not denying my body food, I am simply changing what I eat. No foods that contain flour, dairy, or excess sugars are allowed. I also avoid most processed foods with the exception of soy milk and a small amount of V8. This regime lasts for 12 days. Many people initially think that there is nothing left to eat once you take out all of the "can't have"s but I disagree. Here is what I can eat:
All the vegetables and whole grains I want
Domestic fruit (apples, pears, berries, plums etc)
All the fish I want
A variety of legumes, nuts and seeds, eggs (ixnay the nuts for me but yes I have lots of sources for protien)
Beef, poultry, pork, lamb - basically I can have whatever meat I want in moderation.
Herbs and spices are all fair game!
There are some herbal suppliments that go along with this to help flush out the lingering bad stuff and thouroughly digest the rest.
And yes as you may have gathered this requires a lot more effort in the kitchen to pull of tasty and filling meals. No quick toss of a frozen pizza in the oven with this! I try to cook in large batches that will see through a couple days so that I can take lunch to work and not have to cook every single night. The nice thing about doing this in the spring or fall is that it is a great time for hearty soups and delicious stir fries. This is also a great excuse for dusting off the cookbooks and trying something new. I'm thinking of trying a couple curry dishes in the next couple of days.
Even my boyfriend, Larry is willing to give it a go this time. The last time he tried it I was VERY happy when he decided to stay at his place for the week because he was complaining so much I was ready to kill him. (he loves his carbs and meat) We shall see how things go this time around. I think he knows I'll toss him out if he gets too miserable. ;)

Today Larry picked me up from work and we headed off to 17th ave, not the trendy SW version but the SE end of it. It's name is International Avenue due to the fact htat the neighborhood is home to a wide array of ethnic groups as demonstrated by the various shops and small restaurants devoted to different world cultures. It is also home to an amazing number of pawn shops and nail salons. It's almost as if each block is required to have these two items to qualify to be there.
Larry was on the prowl for a cheap cd player to keep him from going insane in the warehouse. I was just browsing, along for the ride. He finally found one he liked after much wandering but we decided to go have some supper first and digest the idea. Supper in this case was supplied by a small donair type shop, the staff were friendly and the food reasonably good, although I doubt we will go rushing back to it any time soon.
We returned to the pawnshop with the cd player and my eyes happened to fall on a small shelf with some art supplies - decent quality stuff at that, and much of it was unopened. After a few minutes going through the items I settled on a box of Rembrandt Soft Pastels. The pastels themselves have never been used despite the box being open, and like any good art geek I had to go through them when we got home to see which colours in the assortment I had. The company makes 203 different pastels and this is an assorted box of 30. My treasure find for the week! Beautifull colours and not too brittle, I am going to dig out some nice paper tomorrow and have a go with them.

It's hard to accept that your day there

rolls on, is still to happen

while mine is done

as it's hard to accept that the dead

go on, loving, growing even

distinctly away from us,

their voices thinner than telephone wire.

What kind of letter can bridge this?

How can the feet we once

dropped all disgust to kiss step calmly

over new continents or turn firmly

for destinations unseen by us?

Dust is the mouth's taste

in absence, dust the ground

that swallows all footprints

with indifference.

Transatlantic, by Tracy Ryan

Odly enough, it was in a brief interlude at work today while watching myrtle scratching at the rock that brought this poem to mind. I first read the poem in the belly of a sailing ship roughly 6 years ago. We were at anchor in the Banda islands in Indonesia and I had freely pillaged the ship's library while enjoying a quiet time before the heat of the day set in. Back then this poem was for me a solid kick to the ribs and all the homesickness, lonliness and heartache came pouring out in a rush of tears that lasted the better part of the morning. Those few crewmembers still around at the time were suprised to say the least. As was I. It remains one of my favorite poems to this day, like favorite works of art and memory I carry several poems around with me. Now and then one of those poems comes to the forefront although I may not know why, but I will dig through my books to find it again and re-read it for the umpteenth time. Such is the power of those things and ideas that truly resonate with us.

An update on the customer that wants all the niceties of a 3000 sq ft house crammed into 520 sq ft...
My boss had seriously considered just dropping the whole order. There are some customers that you just know are going to be so high maitenance that it is not worth the effort, especially when we know we are not making any real profit on this. But I came into work today to find the sales agreement signed and ready to go. The customer has been warned that no further changes are allowed, that is simply the practical side of things. The factory needs to purchase the materials to build the unit and last minute changes just bogs everything right up. So we shall see how it goes. All I can hope is that in a few months time the install goes smoothly and the customer is willing to realize there are differences between a house and a cabin.