A Pizza Worth Sharing

A pizza worth sharing is indeed a good one. It is so good you want others to know about it. The picture shows the top of the pizza, I burned it a little bit. That is just cheese on the top, what is lurking below is the true prize.

My friend Paula runs a blog over here. It is chalked full of amazing recipes. Everything from desert’s to yummy pizza’s! Her facebook page is a great place to connect with Paula’s blog and why not like her page and show some support!

Back to the pizza. So, I have never worked with dough, and thankfully Paula was able to get it ready for me to roll it. I had some trouble rolling it because I was a total noob! But, after about a good 10-20 minutes I got it to resemble somewhat of a pie crust and shoved it in the pie plate (Paula let me borrow hers, it is boss). Then, I slapped and slathered on the guts of the pizza. Amazing garlic and chicken and tomato sauce, OH MY!  I then slapped on a layer of cheese. I had the oven pre heating at 475 and when that was done pre heating, tossed the pizza to be baked for 30 minutes. I was kinda scared I screwed up this masterful pie because of my noobness, and a half hour later I would find out…I didn’t. Thats also to say, that the pizza recipe is so good that a noob like me could probably semi screw up the construction of said pizza, and it still comes out phenomenal tasting! I took the pie out of the oven and let it cool off, had a slice and almost slapped my refrigerator it was so good.  It was 2am when I cooked it, so I put it in the fridge for the next day. When I woke up, I had it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I ate it in three days time, and shared some with a buddy. My buddy after a while of eating it goes “Where did you get this pizza?”. “Paulas recipe.” “WOW”. Not too shabby

So, yes a pizza worth sharing is good indeed. So I shared it with a friend and now you! So go over to Paula’s blog or her facebook page and get acquainted with some amazing recipes so you too, can have a pizza worth sharing.

Lent is over. Time to donate my raisings(applicable word?) How much did it total?

Lent is over. I did almost all forty days without a drip of non-watery goods. The last few days I consumed two beers at $6 dollars a pop. Thats $24 total for beer consumption. Another $5 for would have been coffee’s and the total that will be donated?

$88.75! I’ll add an extra quarter for a total of $89!!

I feel really fortunate to be able to give this money to BloodWaterMission. I really feel good knowing that 89 people will potentially have clean drinking water for a year. They didn’t have it before, and now they will.

What did I learn from all of this? I am capable of being disciplined and through my discipline you can make change. I learned that caffeine is a temporary boost that is more harmful than good if you become addicted. I also learned that I am capable of way more restraint than I think I am. I think we are capable of more than we think we can do. Sacrifice is good. It is healthy.

Funny Story, Day 26-28, ain’t it great? (lame rhyme time)

Ok, so the post title had another rhyme saying it was lame to rhyme. There has to be a vortex in the universe that just opened up, and swallowed a kitty somewhere. The last couple of days have been pretty low key. So I will tally up the water savings so far and then tell you a funny thing I saw the other day.

Just a couple coffee’s the last few days: $3.00 added to the all-growing-and-big-tally: Drumroll….

tik tik tik tac tac toe toe toe toe: $59.75!! That has got to be cool somewhere.

Now, for the story of a thing I saw a few days back that still stuck with me, cuz(I used the ‘z’ to emphasize my trying to be hip) it was funny. One more thing, it seems using a bracket statement to explain something will break up the train of thought?

I was driving to a destination the other day, and pulled up next to this tricked out Saturn. When I say tricked out, I mean it was decked out with stickers and lowered to let the glistening 16” silver rims  rest slightly in the fender well. Now, I can understand all the stickers, they each add 2.56 horsepower. The 16” rims in the fender well were a bit perplexing, but not as much as the fact this all was on a SATURN. That is like tricking out a tricycle with a lawnmower motor, because, well you can. I could imagine that being the next fad, tricking out trikes. You will never fall, no matter how fast you go. You can paint it pink, and really, no one will blink at that. You can put a gold baseball card in your back spoke to accompany the lawnmower motor. Adding a nice ‘clak clak’ to the already purring ‘wooooaahahhhhheeerrrrrsssdss’ lawnmower engine. I have absolutely sidetracked into another realm of what I think is odd. The real funny part about the tricked out Saturn, was the stickers on the back. I tried to take a picture on my iPhone, but for some reason it froze as soon as I had the Saturn in my sights. Drats. It is still seared in my mind.

On the back, on the left side was macho stickers, like the Smurfette flexing her muscles. A really mean and ominous In N’ Out sticker sitting next to the flexing female smurf. Then below that were your typical K&N air filter and Cherry Bomb exhaust. Now, Cherry Bomb is supposed to make your car loud, and somewhat obnoxious. The  Saturn was purring like a kitty in your lap sleeping from a ten minute pet-a-thon. I don’t think the Saturn was equipped with any exhaust but the stock one it came with off the lot. Thats one side of the back window. By now, I am trying to understand the person driving’s stance on life.  Are they just really in love with their childhood, In N’ Out burgers and equipment they want to own? Did I mention the Smurfette was flexing, muscles?

Now to the middle of the back window.  An “I am not gay, I just like color” sticker to start us off. Then a sticker of apparently the drivers clothing company “StraightHood4U Clothing”. What if I wanted a crooked, maybe slightly off kilter hood? Is the hood that is Straight4Me a Saturn hood by chance? I could only hope so. Now, about the gay sticker, I mean the announcing that the driver is not gay, but just likes color sticker, you know, that one. Why does color have an association with sexual preference, and when did that start? Are straight people wearing grey schemes of clothing, while ‘gay people’ are running around with, *gasp* a color scheme of yellows and oranges! Maybe in the ‘Saturn’ world this is a reality. I think most everybody can appreciate a little color. Or else we would all have that sticker. I can imagine the driver one night in the fetal position, with a full moon shining it’s grey light in the room they are heaped on the floor in. Wishing they only liked grey’s and whites and blacks. “Why me?!?” Looking the driver starts to curse the moon “WHYYYY?!?!” The obvious resolution to that scenario is get a custom sticker telling the world, “Hey, I am not gay, I just like color…”. Oh, well good. Glad we cleared that up. Now, I am really at this point, grasping at straws as to what the HELL is going on with this sticker mayhem. I can only assume that every sticker was placed strategically.

The right side baffled me.

A very tame McFondels sticker started us off. Basically, the driver is affectionally saying they will fondel you, if you get into the ‘hood’ ride? Or just saying, “Hey, they call me McFondels, want a big mac?”. Nice. How about the next one below is an Angel girl in all pink. You know the stickers of the stripper angel and demon girls representing right and wrong, or wrong and wronger-er.  Well, apparently the demon stripper was a little too much for the driver, so they opted on just the angel stripper, below the ‘McFondels’ sticker. Makes sense. Did I mention the ‘McFondels’ sticker had the ‘McDonalds’ archway to make sure you knew this sticker was clever and supposed to be funny. FYI. I blacked out after I saw that duo. When I came too the light was turning green and we all had to move. The Saturn which was in front of me randomly darted into the next lane, in the middle of an intersection to start ‘hollering’ at another person in another car. Since now, the Saturn-Avenger is next to me, the driver looks at me, as I am mesmerized at the transaction happening. Gold teeth. Goggles for glasses. A gold chain that could end poverty in Africa if it was real. A Bugs Bunny shirt. The Saturn was hopping down the street like a bunny rabbit too, because amongst the stickers, the lowered suspension and 16” rims of glory. Who needs a suspension. What you need is a ‘McFondels’ sticker. That’s what you need in your life.

Day 21 thru 25. Another Beer equals more money!

I had another beer tonight. I love that I spent $5.50 and turned it into $11.00. Add another $4 for the other days and the tally for the last five days is $15.

Total: Drumroll $56.75!!!!! That is like a small village of people with clean drinking water.

Not drinking coffee I have decided is where it’s at. Let me change that. Drinking more than one cup every three days is not good. I declare, that above that threshold is bad. I am now a doctor in coffee. That is my prescription. I feel more energetic than I ever have. Wonder why? I would think drinking the liquid magma would coarse through my veins and give me superpowers. Coffee does do that, then takes my veins out of my body for the ‘crash’. I don’t have anymore crashes. I am just even keel most of the day. I am tired at night. I fall asleep and sleep almost the whole night through. The thing is, I need to start learning how to drink coffe for the taste and not for the jolt. Maybe just black? None of the creamer sounds great if the coffee is smooth and not bitter. Hmmm, premium coffee, yes please!

It seems this whole journey of the fast this year has been a war on coffee. War is too strong of a word. More like mild opposition. Slight eyebrow raising towards this semi foe semi friend: coffee. I just realize how much it was damaging my body. It is different for everyone, but damn, I love running on my own energy. I guess I never knew I had so much (never end a sentence with a smily face)

water factoid: At home the average American uses between 100 and 175 gallons of water a day. That is less than 25 years ago, but it does not include the amount of water used to feed and clothe us.

Day 14-20. Half way there, and one beer in.

Spring is here. Frisbees are flying, and my bedroom window stays open. Allergies are raging. Time is flying by quickly. I thought it was just a couple days I missed on the updating of the water fasting. It’s been six. Snap! That is a good sign I guess. Between learning coding(which gets websites up and going) and what I want to do with designing, to getting a part time job to learning to be focused, and school, the time is flying. It does feel good to be in a rhythm.  It has been a while since I was in a strong rhythm in life. Sometimes there are days where I don’t follow the rhythm too closely, but you learn to push through. This stage of life is all about learning. The doing is in the learning. The learning is in the doing. It’s a nice seesaw.

So, the water fast. Last night I went to ‘The Trappist’ and had a beer. Damn it was good. It wasn’t just a beer, it was a name I couldn’t pronounce and in a environment that was dark and majestic. I thought to myself, if I am going to drink this beer, I am going to make it worthwhile for this water fast. So, I decided to double what I paid for the beer and donate that to the water fast. The beer was $8 smackers. Double that to $16 big ones. With a total of $5 from the other five days, for mere coffee’s. That is a total of $21 dollars to add to the tally.

Total Tally: $41.75 Woo hoo!!

 

Water fact: Almost two in every three people who need safe drinking water survive on less than $2 a day and one in three on less than $1 a day.

A friend in the hospital.

I have known my dear friend Hamed since I was a Junior in High School and he was a Sophomore. He has always been an amazing friend showing love and always keeping in touch. He lives with his mom and dad and brother, wife and daughter, and his sister. Not because they have to, but because they want to. Every time I have come into their household they greet me with open arms and treat me like a prince. They ask me “How is your family?” “How is your Mom?” They actually ask me, how is my family. This is the only people I know who do that. I have never started a conversation with someone with that being the opening sentence. “How is your family?” They value family like no other. They taught me that there is still goodness in family, that it can be tightly knit. That a family can live with each other even when the kids marry, because it is just better that way.

My friend Hamed had fatty deposit over his temple that caused him to stop driving and had occasional dizziness. He has battled it for years and finally got surgery done on it this week. I went to visit him today. It drained me. I was taxed when I walked in. I have such issues with hospitals. They represent death, sickness, recovery, surgery, scary things showing our mortality as we walk this earth. When I walked in to his room, his family was there. Just standing and sitting around as Hamed recovered. I didn’t even recognize my friend at first. I saw this man, in a gown, with a frankenstein bandage around his head, and half his face was droopy like he had a stroke. He had a white hair beard starting, he couldn’t stand. He was recovering. He was surgery. He was real.

“Hello my friend, please sit next to me…”

The family moved aside, let me sit in a chair that had been placed in front of him, to face him, by the window.

“Hamed… you made it, you did it… I am glad to see you.”

“Thank you for coming, it means a lot. How are you? How is your family?”

Damn, can you not be thinking of my family right now? He is real. It is part of his bottom line interaction. He just, cares.

“Look at me man, I am bruised and cut…”

He looked down sort of sad. I didn’t realize, this was very hard for him. It was taxing on his body, and he felt out of control, at the mercy of the hospital and us. He went through 13 hours total of surgery. The original surgery was on Monday, it lasted 8 hours. When the surgery was done, Hamed’s left side of his face was completely droopy. the doctors were afraid they cut a nerve. They convinced Hamed to go back under for round two. After much reluctance, fear, and just “cmon-I-am-worn-out!” he let them do it. Two things happened for the 5.5 hour round two. Hamed wears a hearing aid, the doctors put an implant in his ear, since they were in that area, eliminating the hearing aid. The second thing was, they found they stretched the nerve, but not cut it. It would heal in time, and so would Hamed’s face solidify.  I think that is awesome.

Me and his dad were talking, and Hamed interrupted us…

“Did you pray for me man?”

“Yes.”

I did.

His dad mentioned that ultimately, God was to be thanked for Hamed’s surgeries and He worked through the hands of the surgeons. Damn right! It was nice to be talking about God and healing, recovery and redemption in this place of fear for me, the hospital. A Muslim and a Christian, throwing their labels of religion away, just talking and praising God’s ways and healing. I look forward to spending eternity with them. I wonder if every time I see them, they will still ask about my family? I hope so.

Day 13. Moving and shaking.

Today was jam packed with projects and schoolwork. I loved every minute of it. It felt good to be productive, self motivated and not falling out of my chair from my legs atrophying. I got up a couple times and thought my hamstrings were made of worn out rubber bands. I promptly stretched them out to get blood flowing back to my legs, and attempt some exercise to get blood back to my brain. The point is the whole day I actually felt motivated and semi focused as someone who has ADD. I know I… squirrel….colors…oooh ooh look at….oh, wait where was I? So, in the midst of this day, I only really wanted one small cup of coffee. “No Sir! You cannot have that.”  Yes, thank you for emphasizing I am not able to drink that. “That will cost you $1.00 for wanting said beverage!” Yes, I am aware of that. “Fool!” Ok, that inner monologue that was being transcribed didn’t go too well. All that to say I am adding another dollar to the tally. Grand total:

Being inspired lately by Makato Fujimura. His artwork and views on art are astounding and beautiful. I am feeling more and more regenerated with the idea of doing art that can give life. That can inspire. That is true to Jesus. So far, the biggest process in this journey right now? Spending time to hear a voice that will provide guidance. I may not hear it right now, but  I am feeling it.

Water fact: Millions of women and children spend several hours a day collecting water from distant, often polluted sources.

 

Day 9,10,11,12.

Well, it’s been four days since my last post and I have not faltered once. I have stayed true to only drinking water. Tonight was tough though. The beer flowed freely from a pub/restaurant I went to with a community of people. Peeps(not the marshmallow kind) were drinking with great expressions on their faces of happiness. “I’ll take another water please…” While waiting for the water I felt myself almost tasting the wonderful bitterness of a Drakes. Feeling the head(whoa) fizzle at the tip of my lips as the beer flowed down my gullett. Ok, that was a bit dramatic. I just wanted a beer tonight. But, it felt good that I didn’t have one and instead four African people will have clean water for a year. $4.00. Last three days I have been sick, and only wanted a cup of coffee. So, $3.00. So a total of $7.00 to add to the overall tally.

Grand Total: $19.75. Sweet.

I have been consuming myself with learning HTML/CSS. I feel like a nerd. I geek out to wanting to make brackets for words instead of quotation marks. Next, because of a project is php. Maybe one day I will learn how to code a beer.

Day 7 and 8. How great!

If I misspell wrods than just chalk it up to me typing like a zombie. I am, literally speaking, feel like my skin is green, rotting of my bones and I want brains. Okay, that was gross. Sorry. Lets just say that my body is not reacting well to the coffee withdrawals. But, I am steadfast in keeping this going! Yesterday I wanted a cup of coffee like nobodies business(now it IS your business). So $1.00 yesterday. Today I got offered tea by my friend today. It was the expensive kind. So .50 cents plus he offered me a soda, after I told him what this fast was about. He is sorta slow. .75 cents. So a grand total of $2.25 so far.

To me it seems like I am saving dollars a day, and am thinking the total won’t be like last year. I am at home more so I don’t have to thwart of Peet’s baristas throwing themselves at me to gulp down a mocha. (mocha, drool). But, I also am putting into perspective that for the last two days 2 African people will have clean water for a full year, and .25 of an African as well. Maybe one of their pets, or a giraffe. So, I feel a little happier knowing that!!

Tally: $12.75. Thats 12 African people, and a dog.

Water fact: Every 20 seconds, a child dies from a water-related disease.

Day 3,4,5 and 6, pick up sticks, and drips.

This weekend I went on a silent spiritual retreat. I loved to be able to shut up! I thought I would be crawling out of my skin, but I wasn’t. I took a lot of naps and actually felt centered for once in my life. All by just trying to sit with God. Just chill with my maker. It really taught me to not fret about any purpose or grand ideal I need to strive for. Maybe, I am to just do a little thing. Maybe, I am just to be still. Maybe, I am just to be me, a made me. Still pondering, still analyzing.

I thwarted coffee and it’s underlings beer, orange juice and lemonade all weekend. Today, I felt really run down. I think my body is in coffee detox. Which is great. I just feel a little dumb, or dumber than usual (ok ok, not a good dig on myself, but it was opening I had to take!). I am feeling more focused when I take on a task now. I am glad about that, maybe my ADD was raging like Randy Macho-Man Savage when coffee was hitting my veins. So, another positive for quitting the coffee. Now, to the tally. Friday, I gave up the chance to drink a nice iced tea: $1.50. Saturday I wanted a steamy cup of joe in the morning: $1.00, a nice one in the afternoon: $1.00 and in the nighttime as well: $1.00. Sunday, I actually didn’t want anything, but I am sure if I wasn’t fasting I would have gulped a cup down: $1.00. That brings us to today, I was so worn out I wanted to at least partake in two cups: $2.00. So the grand total of these two days were: $7.50 plus our already $3.00 and we have a grand total tally of:

$10.50 YeeHaw!

Well, I am off to bed to try to get the day started at 6:30 am, as I am a little behind in projects and school. Before I leave, here is an interesting water fact:

“The water and sanitation crisis claims more lives through disease than any war claims through guns.” -water.org