What to Wear on Halloween

           In Burlington, Halloween is the biggest holiday of the year.  The celebration usually starts the Saturday before October 31^st and continues until the night of September 1^st, which is always filled with tired, stained costumes from its previous nights of being worn.  With this in mind it’s easy to see why we college students need to begin pondering our Halloween costume options around the beginning of August.  After many thoughtful costume discussions with my roommate, Allyson, I have come up with a set of guidelines for sporting the proper attire on All Hallows Eve. 

            1.  Don’t order a fully made costume from online.  It shows that you have no creativity or style, and you will be forced to wear a cheap, 100% polyester outfit that is highly flammable and highly shiny. 

            2.  Don’t spend a lot of money or brag about how much you spent on your costume.  Halloween is all about being resourceful and frugal.  If you want to blow your paycheck, go celebrate Christmas instead.  Usually, clever and inventive costumes made out of items you have in your kitchen drawer are as popular as expensive props bought at a costume store. 

            3.  The best costumes are unexpected and catchy.  Everyone has seen pirates and cowboys and hippies and it’s time to move on from these clichés.  An easy way to come up with new ideas is to think of very specific things, like a flying squirrel, mayonnaise jar, or a red blood cell.  It’s not hard as you think to make these costumes either.  For mayonnaise, all you need is a clear laminating sheet to make a label to wrap around your stomach and a mayonnaise jar cover to wear as a hat.

            4.  Use caution with indecent exposure.  Many girls think that the fun part about Halloween is that they get to wear their lingerie out in public.  While this may seem fun at first, it’s actually trampy and annoying.  I’m not saying that you shouldn’t wear something that you feel good in.  I’m saying that sexy for the sake of being slutty automatically becomes immature.  A costume that is geeky and fun and happens to be sexy is cool. 

            5.  Incorporate something that you already have as your “base” item for a costume.  While it’s fun going to second hand stores to find Halloween apparel, it can be frustrating when you have a specific idea in mind and you can’t find all the parts that fit into it.  That’s why it’s a good idea to build a costume off of some weird hat or funny prop that you already have at home.

            6.  Consider the weather.  October nights are cold in Vermont and it’s no fun walking around Burlington with miniskirts and cut off shorts in 40 degree weather, so keep the forecast in mind while you plan. 

            7.  If you’re thinking of doing a group costume, make sure you are working with motivated, reliable people, or keep the idea very simple.  Groups are hard to coordinate and take a lot of planning, especially if each person needs a unique and specific outfit.  It’s usually best to have a back up idea, in case your crew leaves you hanging.    

            Thursday is October first, so it’s time to start getting ready if you haven’t planned your outfit yet.  Of course, it may end up that you won’t get a burst of creative inspiration for your costume until the night of the 30^th, but even so it’s time to start collecting possibilities and keeping an ongoing Post-it note of your ideas.  Happy October to all and best of luck with your costume endeavors!         

My Guide to a Busy Lifestyle: Time Machines and Outer Space

            Now that I have embedded myself in a Jenga-dangerous schedule of academic and extra curricular activities this fall, I wake up panicking.  Whenever things are busy, I come to my senses every morning with high blood pressure and my teeth clenched, worrying that I’m forgetting the books that I need for class, or that I’ll double book myself for meeting, or that I’ll disappoint someone who will be writing me letters of recommendation someday. Today I found a remedy for that.  It came to me during a discussion in Scientific Revolutions, and I scribbled, “wake up on Pluto” in my daily planner so that I wouldn’t forget about it later.  It’s a sort of quasi-meditation activity to make me feel better when I am feeling like the Pentagon will implode if I don’t post my online response to the reading questions 3 days before it’s due.   

            Before you start the process, make sure you have someplace moderately relaxing and where you won’t feel self-conscious for closing your eyes.  (Just put your earbuds in and pretend you are sleeping).  It’s a good mental exercise to do when you wake up or anytime throughout the day that you find yourself panicking. 

            First picture yourself on Pluto.  Stereotypes work.  I’m thinking about cratery purple terrain and frigidness.  As soon as you get the feeling of being on Pluto take one giant jump through space and land on Neptune.  Then, before your other foot even has time to touch the ground, push off onto Uranus.  When you land on Uranus, say the Uranus/Your Anus joke once to yourself, and then skip to Saturn and Jupiter.  Dive face first through the asteroid belt and do some sort of cartwheelish gymnastics move over Mars and onto Earth.  Just so you know, you landed on Earth in year infinity BC and time is now moving at 5,000 years per second.  Before your eyes plants spring up, and then animals, and then dinosaurs.  Eventually, you see a caveman inventing a wheel, which rolls into Greeks statues, the renaissance, the Revolutionary War, and BAM it’s you being born.  Now your entire life zips before your eyes in exactly one second.  Any more time than a second is boring and difficult, so get yourself to the present pronto.  Congratulations, you have just traveled through an immense amount of space and time. 

            Now picture the current set of problems that you have to fix.  They should feel small in comparison.  If not, keep worrying, because there is probably about to be a nuclear explosion or something extremely monumental about to happen.  If your problems do seem more manageable, get to work.  And if you can, give all those planets and history a tiny, tiny nudge.        

            

The Road Never Before Traveled

          Anyone who’s taken high school English knows “The Road Less Traveled.”  Important choices, Robert Frost, one clear and breezy path, one rooty and dark path, etc.  In class, I remember discussing how the easy path makes boring, unchallenged people and the trickier path makes inspired, happier people.  Then the bell would ring for my next class and I would continue to be manhandled into a traditional, rule-following, white collar-destined person bound to a diploma, college, marriage, kids, career, retirement, death. 

            In truth, I am satisfied with the notion of experiencing all of these stages, but I have decided that I need to do it on my own terms.  That begins with rethinking everything.  There has never been a lifestyle designed to precisely fit my personality, so it would be unfair to my existence to recycle anyone else’s.  It is my challenge to create a personal biosphere, and I already have some ideas about where to start.  1.  I need a habitat that allows me to be synched with nature.  Sunlight should ribbon through my window when I wake up in the morning (unless its cloudy), and I should be able to experience the awesomeness of a forest or a river to chastise me whenever I am feeling too smug about the beauty of my existence.  2.  I need the company of someone who I love.  We should to be able to support each other without constricting our personal independence.  We should never have to be ashamed of how much we love each other, and we should never have to lie when our feelings change.  3.  I need to have enough quietness to be able to reflect.  Being I writer, I cannot produce anything worth reading without making a discovery about myself.  I should have a place and time when I am not bothered by others.  4.  I need to be busy with activities that always lead me towards a more meaningful and happy lifestyle.  Otherwise, I will fill my life up with unimportant “obligations” that waste the significance of my existence.  I should set myself up to make charity, gentleness, and understanding habit, not circumstance. 

            Now that I have arranged my priorities (which are changing by the second), I am already aiming myself towards a life that I desire, not just one that I can accept.  I hope that my life will prove that traditions (even pleasant ones) give people a limited view of their options.  I do plan to take a road less traveled, and I expect there to be some rocky ledges and prickly grass in it, but I’m not going to choose a dark path for the sake of having some gloominess in my life.  Instead, I want a path that will let me trip and fall in a gross, leafy mud puddle, and know it was totally worth the trouble.  That, I am sure, is what will make all the difference.  

Dessert for your Health

It seems like everyone has been ganging up on dessert lately.  They’re bad for your body.  They’re high in fat.  They don’t have any nutritional content.  And that’s true if what you’re eating for dessert it chocolate cake and fudge brownie ice cream.  Everyone knows that.  What I’ve discovered is that dessert can be more that cake, ice cream, and cookies.  Of course, I do enjoy some fudge brownie ice cream on occasion, but I’ve also found that most of the time I can settle for a lot less calories and much more nutrition to satisfy my sweet cravings.  The most important part of my dessert conversion was simply a habit change.  Instead of reaching for the Chunky Monkey as soon as dinner was over, I had to take a bit more time to think about what I really wanted.  Not what I thought I wanted. 

            The first and most important thing to do when picking a dessert is to think about how hungry you are.  Do you really want the double scoop ice cream?  Or will a single scoop satisfy your need?  Next, think about all of your options, not just the obvious ones.  Clearly you could have a cookie.  But what about dried fruit?  Popsicles? (Edy’s  coconut pops are my favorite.)  How about Stonyfield chocolate yogurt for a taste of organic dairy?  Maybe canned pineapple would suit you. Or, if you can’t live with out ice cream, try topping it off with some delicious (and filling) banana slices, walnuts, strawberries, frozen blueberries, or even a handful of granola.  Oftentimes I am satisfied with a small bowl of honey nut cheerios or frosted flakes when I’m craving a new flavor in my mouth after eating dinner.  This might sound absurd, but sometimes, an orange or an apple might be sweet enough.  If you’re craving something in the middle of the day, try some chocolate Graham Crackers instead of a chocolate bar.  Once you find some favorites, they will be easy replacements to some of your blacklisted items with some more nutritious alternatives.    

            Now that I’m in the habit of thinking twice, I find that I don’t really ever feel like having a gigantic piece of cake or a double scoop of ice cream.  Suddenly, just enough feels like enough.       

                 

A Wardrobe Diet: How to Make Your Favorite Jeans Fit into Your Closet!

                      The August heat was so dense in my upstairs bedroom last night that it made me uncomfortable to even look at the cotton sweaters that I was pulling from the depths of my walk-in closet.  Despite the temperature, I was able to reduce the amount of clothes and in my closet, dresser, and shelves by 23.4%.  I went from an ostentatious 254.5 articles of clothing (and shoes) to a slightly trimmer 195 pieces in a little more than an hour’s worth of spontaneous energy.

            I got the idea to sort through my clothes on my way home from Ogunquit, Maine yesterday.  I had just bought myself a pair of brown, leather, 60% off boots at the Bass Outlet.  If I could have designed a pair of boots to be made for me, they would look just like these babies.  The problem was, I felt guilty about even having them.  Although they were perfect, I knew it was ridiculous to spend half a week’s worth of pay on a pair of boots when I already have so many clothes and shoes at home.  Plus, my goal had been to bring less stuff back to college this year, so why was I buying more? That’s when I got the idea to do a total closet cleansing ritual.  Even without boot guilt, I usually drop off a shopping bag’s worth of clothes at Goodwill every 3 months or so, but this was going to be a wardrobe liposuction to tell my great-grandkids about. 

            I started a chart on the back of a used piece of computer paper to keep track of how much I was ditching.  At first, my categories were broad, like “shirts” and “shoes,” but I realized that I needed to narrow my listings because I was losing count.  I had to separate my “shirts” category into “tee shirts,” ”sports shirts,” ”tank tops,” and “dress shirts,” which doesn’t even include my separate “sweatshirts” and “sweaters” groups.  I also decided to keep track of how much I was donating and throwing away so that I would know exactly how much progress I had made.  Here are the numbers:

 

	Shirts	Skirts	Dresses	Jeans	Pants	Shorts	Sport shirts
Original	23	7	15	4	3	3	25
Toss	4	0	0	0	1	0	2
Donate	2	2	2	0	1	0	2
Keep	17	5	13	4	1	3	21

 

	Sport shorts/pants	Pairs of socks	Bras	Underwear	Bathing suits	Tank tops	Sweatshirts
Original	11	36.5	13	22	6	18	13
Toss	0	9.5	1	4	1.5	0	0
Donate	1	4	4	0	1.5	3	3
Keep	10	23	8	18	4	15	11

 

 

	Sweaters	Dress shirts	Sneakers	Flip flops	Boots	Shoes	PJ pants/ shorts	Belts
Original	10	8	7	6	4	8	4	8
Toss	0	3	0	2	0	0	0	0
Donate	3	0	0	1	0	1	0	3
Keep	7	5	7	3	4	5	4	5

 

 

            I found these numbers shocking.  For a girl who considers herself a minimalist, 13 dresses seem a bit extreme.  And even though I only ever wear the same 2 belts over and over again, I still could only part with 3 of my 8.  What I found most surprising was that even after getting rid of 19 shirts I could still wear a different top from my closet for 54 days straight (not including dresses)!  That’s almost 2 month’s worth of shirts. 

            I’ve definitely still got some work to do to slim down my closet, but I did make a lot of progress last night.  I was able to get rid of 57.5 shoes and clothes combined, 31.5 of which was donated to Goodwill.  I also discovered 2 systems that I plan to enforce in my closet.  The first is to make trade offs.  When I come home from the Gap with 3 new shirts, I need to get rid of 3 old shirts.  The second idea addresses the clothes that I always keep but never seem to wear.  I had a blue sweater with sleeves that may have been inspired by the elves in Lord of the Rings in my closet for years.  I never wore it, but I always thought that an occasion might come up when I would want it.  There’s other stuff that I don’t wear, but keep.  Shirts with memories.  Pants that are nice, but I never seem to notice in my drawer.  Instead of keeping them all eternally, I put aside 10 questionable pieces at the beginning of the summer.  They stayed in the back of my closet and I didn’t look at them for 4 months.  Last night, I took them all out and realized that I didn’t miss a single one.  For some reason it was much easier to let go when I knew that I had already lived without them and, for the most part, forgotten about them completely.  I recommend these two systems to anybody who, like me, has a morbidly obese wardrobe.  It sounds silly, but I felt lighter this morning when I got out of bed.  It was like I had been carrying those 57.5 clothes and shoes on my back until today, when I noticed the load was gone.

            Even if you don’t have 13 dresses like me, I recommend taking a guillotine to your wardrobe.  Get out a pencil and paper and blare the radio.  It only took a few extra minutes for me to write down my progress, and it made me more motivated to let stuff go.  Knowing that I had 36.5 pairs of socks exactly shamed me into getting rid of some questionable ones.  Another piece of advice I have is to not skim anything in the sorting process.  Even stuff you wear regularly.  Does it have a tear?  Armpit stains?  Bleach stains?  Ditch.  Chances are you put it on out of habit, but if you saw it at a store in its current condition you wouldn’t consider wearing it.  Not only are you getting rid of stuff you don’t need, you are also refining your style.  By trashing the crap you are making sure you will only go out dressed in your best!                             

                           

How I Made Lasagna in Less than 4 Months

             Before this summer, I knew how to cook pasta of many varieties, fried eggs, and pancakes.  I had never experienced the tender crunch of holding a frozen chicken breast or the pleasure of preparing a meal that had the delicious, steaming aroma of all 5 food groups. 

            What made me nervous about pulling out the chopping knives was that I knew from observation that cooking is an art, not a science.  Baking I could handle.  I had been carefully sifting, making wells, and mixing until soft peaks form since the 5^th grade.  During my first few weeks of cooking lessons I would ask my mom how much olive oil to add, and not turning from her cutting board she would say, “two glugs.”  Aside from teaching me her famous recipes for lasagna, stuffed shells, and shepherd’s pie, my mom showed me how to transform my tight-ass baking techniques into “glugs,” “shakes,” and “sprinklings.” 

            Another bonus was that I was also able to bond with my mom while standing over the simmering pans on our 1917 Hotpoint stove.  This eased some of the college-student-home-for-the-summer stress that I was nervous would arise during my first extended stay back home.  Instead, we planned meals, went grocery shopping, and experimented with new recipes together.  At a quick glace, we could have been mistaken for a Pillsbury Doughboy commercial, both happily grasping our wooden spoons, laughing at spilled batter, and voluntarily poking at that strange, pudgy, and completely white little man dancing around our kitchen table. 

            As a dessert to a successful summer, my mom and I went to see Julie and Julia together on its opening night.  Being a new blogger and chef-in-training, I was enthralled by a blogging and cooking-themed film.  Meryl Streep gave, as always, a show-stealing performance that made me leave the theater hungry, and brewing some great ideas. 

            If you’ve been thinking of giving the old meat cleaver a go, first take your mom out for a date to see Julie and Julia and get inspired to make your first lasagna.  You’ll learn the basics faster than you think and you’ll have a skill that is perfect for staying healthy, saving money, and impressing a date. 

 

 

Recipe for Rachel’s Mom’s Lasagna

 

Lasagna Pasta

2 eggs

1 cup grated cheese

1 package ground beef or ground turkey

1 container Ricotta cheese

Half an onion

Tomato sauce

 

1.  First cook the pasta and begin browning the ground beef on the stove.  Chop up the onion and add it to the meat.  

2.  While the pasta and ground meat are cooking, mix together the 2 eggs, ricotta cheese, and grated cheese.

3.  After straining the cooked pasta, you can begin assembling the lasagna in a large glass pan (approx. 8x13x2).  Begin with a layer of tomato sauce, then meat, then pasta, then cheese mixture and repeat for about 3 layers or until you have used up most of your ingredients (there tends to be leftover pasta).  Pour a bit more tomato sauce on top and bake in the oven at 350 degrees for about a half hour or until you see it start to bubble.   

so like, what is Three Squares?

This week I have been sunbathing, eating baked goods, going for scenic runs and taking an excessive amounts of naps in Wilton, ME with 20ishof my Salois relatives for company.  The weather has been beautiful and the water warm, so, of course, the only thing that I’ve been lacking is my beloved cable Internet connection.  Today, I made a jaunty 20 minute hike to the Wilton Public Library to fulfill my craving with a bit of Wi-Fi.  The library is dainty-sized with elaborate woodwork embellishing its walls, making it a petit fours of architecture and the perfect place to get back to the blog that I have been missing.  Really missing.  I don’t want to seem clingy because I know it’s only been 5 posts, but I think I’m starting to fall in love with Three Squares.  I started it as a project to keep my writing sharp over the summer and also start a portfolio of pieces that would make me irresistible to future employers.  Already it’s become more.  Three Squares has been the fuse to an explosion of ideas.  It seems like an obvious concept, but I’ve realized that what I really, really want to write is words that make people understand their responsibilities to the world and to themselves.  I’m not a self-help writer.  I don’t want a photograph of myself on the cover of a book and blocky red letters that say, “A BETTER YOU!”.  My purpose now is to become a writer who can articulate meditated ideas in entertaining and approachable ways.  I have a goal is to change the world with a mosaic of lifestyle tweaks.  I hope you will keep reading as I pick my way through words until I find exactly what I want to say.