Take note

When a girlfriend recently pulled a red Moleskine journal out of her handbag, I was practically salivating — so classic, chic and crisp. (Is it wrong to be so turned on by a notebook?)

“I gotta get me one of those,” I thought to myself.

I still need to get one, but what I have been using is Moleskine’s Wellness Journal from their new Passions collection ($21 each). There are six editions in all (besides Wellness, there’s Recipes, Wine, Books, Films and Music) with stickers, icons, ribbon place markers and the like, to keep you super organized.

Tabbed sections in Wellness includes Personal Goals, Exercise Log, Diet, General Health (track your herbs and supplements here, along with your body therapy appointments), Games/Sport and Inspirations. Games/Sport, (where you log in the date, event, participants and score) is less useful for me — but I figure I can use it as a running log when the Exercise section gets filled up.

And I love that if you need extra pages, you can print off free page templates to paste in or tuck into the notebook pocket. (also a way for you to test out the page formats before investing in a Passions notebook yourself).

1 Comment March 12, 2010

Swell read

It’s rare that I will read a book and it so moves me that I will push my friends to borrow it from me. Sure, I read plenty of books and if asked for recommendations, there are a handful that with some thought I’d suggest, but to be pushing the book into a girlfriend’s hand and say “You have to read this,” that’s not an everyday occurrence.

And ironically, the premise of Still Alice didn’t interest me initially. I knew it was about a woman suffering from Alzheimer’s and I didn’t think I’d relate to it or that it’d be a topic I’d be particularly interested in reading for enjoyment (besides researching and reading about lots of health topics as it is every day, it just seemed depressing). But the glowing praise on its back cover (“A work of pure genius” and “A masterpiece…”) was enough to convince me crack it open.

Still Alice is Lisa Genova’s debut novel and it’s simply stunning. Saying that it is vivid and eloquent hardly does it justice. The book takes you inside the experience of Alice (a Harvard professor) as she becomes increasingly forgetful and disoriented, and her viewpoint as her life evolves with her Alzheimer’s diagnosis and treatment.

And yes, it’s frightening, and you’ll be contemplating whether early-onset Alzheimer’s is something you will suffer from one day — but even if you have hypochondriac tendencies, I still think you should read this book. You’d be doing yourself a disservice by missing out on its beauty.

P.S. Genova so gorgeously depicts Boston that I’m hoping to return there someday soon for a visit. My first and only time there was back in university when I was more interested in picking up a Harvard sweatshirt and checking out Starbucks (which was not yet on every street corner in Canada).

4 Comments February 24, 2010

What do you eat when you eat alone?

I read a ton of foodie non-fiction, and recently finished What We Eat When We Eat Alone by Deborah Madison and Patrick McFarlin.

The idea for the book came together when McFarlin (who is Madison’s husband), would, as a conversation starter, ask people what they ate when dining solo. He drew a few pictures  based on some of the answers, and in these doodles Madison saw the potential for an entire book on the topic. McFarlin’s darling drawings, btw, are perhaps my favourite parts of the book.

As for the replies included in the book? Some of the responses are expected (men seem to prefer cooking that involves slamming something into a skillet or smashing an ingredient up, and women who cook regularly for other people are not going to take out their arsenal of kitchen tools when preparing food for themselves) but there are also surprises (who would’ve thought that a tub of cottage cheese eaten with puffed rice biscuit, cucumber and tomato with salt and pepper would be the reply coming from a man?).

Which got me thinking about what I eat when G. is out of town (which is often — think George Clooney’s super elite air miles status in Up in the Air and you’re not that far off). Turns out my normally relatively healthy eating goes down the drain. Typical meals when I’m home alone:

• microwave popcorn (not well balanced, but at least I’m getting some whole grains!)
• Kraft Dinner (yup, for reals — see photo evidence)
• instant vermicelli noodles (total cost: 60 cents — needless to say, the grocery bill drops big time when I’m home alone. If I’m feeling particularly flush, I fry a few cubes of tofu and toss those into the soup, too)
• BLT sandwiches (I get fresh bread from the bakery if I feel like being fancy schmancy) or I skip the bread and make a variation of a Cobb salad

This Sunday, after way too many days of eating like this, my body was so craving something freshly cooked that I was motivated enough to roast a whole chicken with veggies on the side on Sunday. (OK, full disclosure — I would’ve bought a prepared roasted chicken but the grocery store didn’t have any ready). Let me tell you, roasting my own was so worth it; it was divine (the chicken was juicy, with a gorgeous crispy golden skin, and the veggies hit the spot, too). I followed a very basic recipe, Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme Chicken (which I unfortunately can’t seem to find online) from the book Bon Appetit Every Night Cooking (I skipped making the gravy, though, too much fuss!).

I read a review in which Madison is quoted as saying that it’s dismaying how people don’t appreciate their own company and value it. I disagree (if I’m understanding the context of this quote correctly) — I do value my own company, and that’s why I’d prefer to use that time alone taking a break from all of the cooking that I normally do on a regular basis and using that time to indulge in episode after episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. (Joss Whedon — brilliant! But his genius could cover an entire blog on its own so I digress.)

Well, I’ve shared my dirty little solo eating habits: I eat like a poor university student. Now it’s only fair that you share, too. What do you eat when you eat alone?

3 Comments February 3, 2010