Oh Winter, how I missed thee.

Not kidding guys. I actually have missed winter. REAL winter, not this dreary grey, bipolar, thing the South calls winter. The ice storm, while slightly inconvenient to cook in the fireplace, was pretty and made me happy. I loved walking around crunching on the ice and seeing light refracting from a thousand crystalline trees.
We ate Naan bread and cheese, apples with nuts and beer. No worries about going anywhere because at the mere mention of snow our town completely shuts down for days at a time. Unless you are unlucky enough to work at the Wal-Mart you got the day off.
A day to drink hot coco and play board games, in our case, by candle light. Sleep by the fire all curled up in fluffy blankets. It's what I imagine it's like to be a cat, and I loved it!

Now all the snow has melted. We have power which will be nice, till I get the bill. *laughs* I'm already missing winter. At least it came to visit for a little bit; even if it did cause more than a little havoc as it passed by.

Till next time my lovelies,

The light heart lives long.

Old Year's Resolutions

Ever have on of those resolutions you recycle from year to year?
Well, blogging might be mine. *laughs* Or maybe just writing in general. I made a deadline for myself and shared it with my friends via the book o' face and the first Tuesday I meant to have a piece written the power goes out in a 30 mile radius; with us just inside that radius. Fun!
I got to bake flat bread in the fireplace and we ate apples nuts and cheese all day, so it was fine. However, that seems to be the story of my life. Decide to do something new, have life slap that crap right out of the air.

I think starting a health blog would be nice. You know for people who aren't head over heels for this product or that meal shake. Where people who can't stand the abominations that are vegan cheese slices but still would like to try the vegan thing can find a recipe or five. Maybe it could even be a place where chocolate pudding isn't vilified, only put in it's proper place (delicious snack of occasion).

Aaaaand of course I can't think of a name for the site, or much of anything. I'm wondering if I should just dive in head first and flail like it did with blogging in the first place (okay so I still flail) or if I should take more time on this one. You know... the difficult bits of not having to worry so much about food and clean water.

Also, I might be going back to school for a nerd degree!!! Mechanical Engineering has piqued my interest; and the Jex is insisting that we both go back to school to get something other than an associates. So I might as well get to build a race car in the process. Right?

Remember,
~The light heart lives long.

ReAdjusted

We're back from Thailand!
I would've updated more often but our laptop got dropkicked by one of the students of the school we were RA-ing for. But we saved the pictures! Yay!

Readjusting to the U.S. is probably my least favorite of things. In countries where I can't understand a lot of the underlying meanings of certain phrases, or even the language itself, there's a certain sense of freedom. I'm happy to understand what I can, and hey that phrase is one a know! I'm so glad all the articles about popculture here have that phrase in the title! (think: "what happened next will shock you")
Here though I get a lot of the rhetoric, the use of party names to polarize thought, the sensationalist phrases meant to garner attention but actually breed something like animosity. Then there's all the stuff that happens in the government that I want to do something about but can do about as little as signing a petition and trying to vote with my money when I'm in the grocery store. I understand enough to get frustrated, but not enough to actually understand. It's frustrating.

Then there's the food. It doesn't matter what I eat, I feel awful afterward. It's kind of disconcerting that I can eat ethnic food like fried tarantula and water snake that's been sitting in a vendor's basket for only God knows how long in the hot balmy air and be absolutely fine but I can't eat sautéd veggies in my own kitchen without feeling like I ate a live porcupine half an hour later. *cries* Food is my favorite thing!

I gained 10 pounds while in Thailand, weird. So I've started this thing called PiYo that my friend shared with me. It's some crazy mash up of Pilates and Yoga. Jex calls it my yogalatte; makes me wonder if I could make a drink and name it yogalatte, some crazy spiced healthy latte. Hmmmm.
It kicks my butt.
But it's one thing in a series of things that is leading me to have a fitness blog/ facebook group thing. I don't think I'll be very good at it. Look at this post. It's been like, what, 6 months since my last update and I've been in the U.S. for nearly 2 months now.
Who knows, maybe with that, and finding a gig at a gym as a Zumba instructor I might be able to pull it off? maybe?

Anywho, Happy 2015. May you savor every blessing and be strengthened by every hardship in this year to come.

~The Light Heart Lives Long

I'm in Thailand!

I'm having problems with WordPress.
You see that title up there. Yeah. I'm wondering if that's why I can't get any of my pictures on the internet through the site.
Thought I would try here and let you guys know what's up.
Jex and I are in Thailand for a schooling/humanitarian mission trip. We'll be here for the rest of the year. Plenty of time to try and not completely slaughter a tonal language. (^_^)
We spent 21 hours flying over here on the 1st and 2nd. Yesterday was our first full day and today we're starting to feel a little more like human beings again.
Here we are minutes before getting on a double decker plane.

I'm not kidding guys. We had a staircase and a store in the back, which I didn't get good pictures of. But here's the plane. See, two rows of windows!

Some of my first impressions of Thailand are pretty standard I think:
Holy Crap there are a LOT of scooters!
I can read nothing.
These food portions are tiny.
Not spicy is still spicier than most the things I eat on a regular basis.

It kind of reminds me of Italy in a weird way. There are really nice suburbs right next to farms and little lean to shacks. Everything is cobbled together with really nice right up against really shabby.

We went to Walking Street in Chiang Mai last night. I didn't take a lot of pictures, we were both kind of jet lagged and out of it. But I did manage to get some neat footage of our "taxi" ride. I didn't get any of the more exciting parts, like slipping in between a pair of trucks and going through a red light around a turning vehicle and into on coming traffic. But I think you guys might like to see the neat little vehicle that took us home.

Today I'll get some better pictures hopefully.
Till next time my lovlies,
~The light heart lives long.

Stress Management

Hello, my name is Ashes, and I'm about to lose my #&%^!
That's kind of how I want to introduce myself sometimes. But I don't. I smile and make happy small talk and do my best to make every one happy. I think most people have some kind of mechanism we can call a "Stress Management Button". We hit it when we don't want to look like idiots, burden the poor cashier with our woes, or generally simply don't want people knowing we're drowning in a sea of WTFamIsupposedTodo?!

Sometimes we lose that filter. I seem to have misplaced my filter at some point on Monday and I would be pleased if I found it again. Yesterday and today for some reason I cannot find my Stress Management Button. Not that I'm going around screaming at the top of my lungs "Dear God Why?!" but I simply can't say anything to anyone for fear of blurting something like "I'm having a terrible day, thanks for asking." Probably in a snarky tone, as I crinkle my nose.

Because of this recent destruction of my calm I've been thinking a lot about how human beings manage stress. The Google has a lot of articles about 'taking time out for you' and 'making lists to help manage your time' and 'how to get back in control'. Nothing that will help my brain stop playing things on loop, or imagining horrible scenarios, or keep me from telling Jex that his Vulcan-ness is going to give me more work than anything else ever of all time.
I can't 'take time out for me' there's too much crap I need to do, I will not enjoy the shower/nap/game/downtime at all; actually it will probably key me up even more than I am already.
I've done the list, the list is what is stressing me out. It keeps growing, nothing is ever actually finished. And why on earth did someone write 'fix Jex's drivers' in that tiny space between 'check visa status' and 'find shot records'?! Is that what it says? All I see is a scribble? OMG this is probably a super important scribble I have to figure out what it says!

That's just it. I can't get back into control. Because if I would really be honest with myself I was never actually in control to begin with. I cannot control what Jex does or does not say in the most mathematical and unfeeling way. I cannot control that what he says may or may not make someone cry. I can't make the car in front of me stop slamming on it's breaks every time the phone in said car get's picked up by said car's driver. There is no law of the universe that will allow me to get everything I need done in the time I've allotted to do it in if any of those things requires more of me than I previously thought it would. We can't control our world, we can't control our peanut butter, our government, or the guy next door; It's simply not a possibility.
And that is why we're stressed.

We think we should be able to 'get back in control' of our lives, our job, our money, our refrigerator, closet, body, pets, children, cable package, phone bills; the list goes on and on. I don't know when we got this idea that we can actually control things, but there are magazine articles galore about the topic.
We can influence, of course. We can make changes for the better, make informed and wise decisions, we can guide our path, we can put forth effort. At the end of the day however, we cannot actually control anything.

It's hard to admit, personally.
Though now that I've written this out and taken a step back I feel better. I can't control what's going on; honestly who would want all that responsibility? The only thing I can control is myself, and even that control is a bit shoddy sometimes. That's fine. I'll learn from it, get better, move on to the next challenge life tosses in my face.

Stress Management looks different for everyone. Contrary to popular belief the Google Machine and the people on the internet do not have all the answers. I don't have all the answers; actually I probably have none of the answers.
I kept my mouth shut all day, got home and cried, then sat down to work through the problems via text. Read through the horrid stream of consciousness blather and streamlined my thoughts, let them less of a chaotic shape; this is my deep breath. Now I'm imagining myself as someone kickass like Red Sonja, She-Ra, or Wonder Woman (yeah her outfit is silly, but she's still awesome). Later, with those images in my head, I'll probably go on a walk. It's dumb, but it works. I think I can manage not to freak out when the internet gets slow, or crashes when I HAVE to email TIME SENSITIVE documents to someone, now. (^_^)

What does your deep breath look like? If it involves a hot cup of delicious you are required to share.

Till next time my lovlies,
~The light heart lives long.

Visas and Veganry

Hello my lovlies!

Jex and I are wading through the wonderful world of "Visas for a foreign country". It's awful! (^_^) no really it's not very fun. Mostly because the agency we're working for has to go through another agency because of all the hullabaloo with the Thai government right now and it's making everything take that much longer. Time is something we're kind of running short on. Doesn't help that they send us the Visa package on a long American Holiday weekend so I can do NOTHING to start the process till Monday.

That being said I'll just skip to the reason I hopped on the blogger (other than trying to find my zen because of the above). I want to share with you the Awesomesauce I cooked up a couple Vegan Vendzdays ago. Why not wait till Wednesday? Because I have no idea if I'll be running around like a chicken with my head cut off or calling 400 different people and agencies and dancing around the house to horrid hold music for hours this coming Wednesday, that's why.

Ashes' Protein Stuffed Mushrooms

1/4 of a med onion chopped
1/4 cup or a little less shelled pecans
Six good sized Stuffing Mushrooms or One Sm Portobello mushroom
Fresh ground Sage, Rosemary, and Salt to taste.
Coconut oil for cooking the onions.
about 1/4-1/2 cup of water for steaming the mushrooms.

Chop the onions coarsely and throw them in a sm pan over med heat. Stir every now and again, cooking till they're almost golden brown. While the onions are cooking shell the pecans or if you bought shelled pecans throw them in a food processor with the spices and pull the stems from the mushrooms (I saved the stems for omurice the next day, but you can throw them in the pan with the onions if you like. Just add a little extra oil).
When the onions are the desired level of gold throw them in with the nuts and spices. Blend away!
Fill each mushroom with the mixture. It should be fairly moldable, not super crumbly. If it's too crumbly to work with add a touch more coconut oil.
Using the same pan you cooked the onion in place each mushroom stuffed side down, turn the heat up to med and brown the tops, about 2-4 minutes. Flip the mushrooms over and turn the heat up to med high. Add the water (I use less water for smaller or portobello mushrooms and more water for white mushrooms, also less water if you cover your pan, more if you can't or choose not to cover your pan).
Let the mushrooms hang out for 5-10 minutes, serve warm with your favorite sides.

I pared our mushrooms with some garlicy green beans and pan fried carrots.
I'm also thinking about trying to make a miso version of these mushrooms.

Till next time,
The light heart lives long~

Lost in Space!!!

Maybe, I don't know.
I keep losing track of time, and objects, and memories, and oh my god did I feed the dog today?! It kind of feels like my brain has melted, or I'm going through puberty again. *shrugs*

Anyways. I think I announced on this particular space that Jex and I are going to Thailand soon.
We just got back from Storm Con last Monday and I think I've been fighting the germs of 500 people since then while trying to still be a responsible adult. I think so far I've gotten a C+ for my attempt.

So, Storm Con 2014.
Jex decided that it would be a GREAT idea for us to sell Foam Swords or 'Boffer Weapons' at the con this year because we were having LARPers this year and a group of Knights of the Fiat Lux (look 'em up, they're kind of ligit). It didn't turn out so well in that the con was on a UTA weekend thus I was alone running the damn table, and the vendors were cordoned off in a room away from all the gamers so we had very little traffic. But I did get to play in a Call of Cthulu game that was streamed over youtube (didn't see that till the next day, I really just wanted to play with Lance and Amber in a fun Cthulu RPG setting) where I totally choked, and Jex and I won a game called Belfort (so many tiny pieces!!!!). Oh and I LARPed for the first time ever! It was fun. The group wasn't psycho crazy or anything, they were actually all really really nice and helpful to the noob, it was kind of like RPing at a table but we all stood more and were in costume.
Can't find them online though, I'll have to ask the GM about it next time I see him.

Anywho, I met some super rad people I want to tell you about. I guess being a vendor is kinda like being a Gypsy, the moment you're in the ring of tables you're all accepted and stuff (one of us, one of us). I loved all the other vendors that hung out and watched me table for me so I could go to the little girls room. No really you guys are awesome.

Begin the shameless plugging!

The first guy who made an impression on me was this super cute kid (hell he might be older than me, but he seemed like a college student) who was running a booth by himself as well. He just had the best attitude. His name is DJ and this is his booth.

That's him painting away. He and his family will be at Dragon Con this year. So be sure to keep an eye out for them. They're stuff is really cool. They even have an Etsy store if you just HAVE to HAVE a captain america or galifreyan clock.

This was my sad little table. To be honest I had no idea what the crap I was doing. I think if Jex want's to keep doing this as a side job we need to make some weapons racks.

This is the super rad comic book guy, Jerry, corner. He let me watch world cup on his smart phone. Best dude ever!

He has a facebook page if you want to find something particular: Facebook.com/ParkCircleComics

These are the Impudent Mortal guys. I didn't get to talk with them much, they were on the other side of the room and I didn't wan't to shout over the Event Horizon guys. I did walk over to see their stuff though. They have some super rad buildings for RP and Warhammer stuff. 

You can take a look at www.impudenmortal.com .  No really their stuff was amazing. 

 This is Mia and Will. I thought their stuff was all one booth but I was wrong.

 Will makes these patches and cuppy things.

Buy his stuff on Etsy!

 Mia makes all this stuff. And this stuff is amazing. If I wasn't going to be near a Mitsuwa here in a couple of weeks I would totally be rocking that Tardis dress right this second.

 Mia will be at Dragon Con aswell this year if you want some incredibly awesome Nerd Accessories. Or you can visit her portfolio at: artwanted.com/miacorn Or her Ebay store.

These are the beautiful brains guys. They're business cards are also savage worlds playable adventure cards!

 You can visit them Here.




Last, but certainly not least are the Henna/Glitter chicks. They're only local to the Charleston Area, but they're work is really good. I forgot to take a picture of the Henna Desi did for me, but she free handed it and I was impressed, and I'm not easily impressed.

If you're in the Charleston area and interested in her services you can find her on the Book of Face.