#20 - Try 12 New Workspaces

The pandemic sure put a stop to this one quick. I am looking forward to the day when I can work and explore the city every week.

1 - Chicago Athletic Association Library
1/17/20

I have been to the Chicago Athletic Association many times, and each time I walk through the Drawing Room into the Game Room, I think, I would love to study/work in here. Welp, I finally did it. What a glorious space for some remote work. Here are my favorite things about it.

• It's all dark and Hogwartsy.
• The servers are attentive when you're looking for them and leave you alone with you're not.
• They have great tea options.
• The tea comes in an individual pot.
• The servers will offer to get more hot water for your pot without charging you for more tea.
• There are options to sit by a window that overlooks Millenium Park, at a long table that reminds me of the UM Law Library, by a lit fireplace, or, my favorite, at a big table all to yourself.
• To go to the restroom, you get to walk through the game room and past the pool space where there are usually interesting pop ups. The last time I was there, it was decorated to look like a summer patio for Parson's Chicken and Fish, complete with astroturf, picnic tables, and red-and-white-striped umbrellas.
• It's just a beautiful space.

This will definitely be in my rotation, and if it weren't so far away, I'd be there on the regular!

2 - Starbucks at 180 N. LaSalle
3/3/20

So after a lovely lunch with my buddy Zann, I headed over to the DMV to get an updated car title. That may sound like a miserable thing to do after a nice lunch, but really, the vehicle services side of the DMV in the Thompson Center is usually a pretty efficient process. I've never had to wait more than 15 minutes or so. I make my turn down the vehicle services hallway, grinning at not having to wait in the driver services line that is somehow spilling into the atrium, which I have never seen before. So I pop into a short line, already filled out forms in hand, and am then told that the computers are down. There are still people waiting, so I assume things are just getting reset. Nope. The entire state system is down. It had been for an hour and there was no estimate of when they'd be back online. But I really didn't want to go all the way back downtown another day. So I waited. And waited. And waited. Then the computers were back online. They tested a couple quick purchases, and then I would be next. And then they were down again.

Bay Park Coffee

I realized I couldn't afford to lose any more work hours, and then I realized, WAIT, I CAN WORK FROM ANYWHERE NOW. So I popped across the street to a Starbucks and worked for about an hour. Then, I went back to the DMV and was told the system was still down. So I gave up.

So this is not a story about an interesting workplace. It was fine. But wow, what freedom to be able to just say, oh, well, this is inconvenient, so I'll go do some work somewhere nearby for a bit.

Loving this life--inconveniences and all!

3 - Bay Park Coffee, 4130 Napier St., San Diego
3/10/20

Love this little spot! Love the vibe, love the tea selection, love the snacks, love the reusable cloth coasters and metal straws. Love that the people at the table next to me climbed under the bench to plug my lap top in for me. Whenever it is that I can spend more time in San Diego, I will definitely hang out there a bit!

My Luce view

My Luce snacks

4 - Luce Bar & Kitchen, 1959 Moreno Blvd., San Diego
3/10/20

I needed a little more to eat and to prep for happy hour, so after Bay Park Coffee, I headed over to Luce, which has great happy hour food and drink specials. It had been a little rainy, and it was only 3:00pm, so I found a spot on the patio by the fire to stay warm, have some snacks, and wait for my buddy to join me for some wine. It was a great spot to get some work done for a few hours!

#3 - Read 3 More Books From the Top 100 of the 20th Century List

I only managed to fit one in this year, but it was a good one. I'm halfway through another, so I guess that'll just count next year.

1 - Darkness at Noon by Arthur Koestler
7/16/20

It took me a bit to get into Darkness at Noon, but I ended up really liking it. It was a nice, clean, compelling narrative specific to a location and time. A quick read but unlike anything I've read before.

Complete the 2020 Book Riot Challenge

I only got 3 books into the 2020 Book Riot Read Harder Challenge this year. Hoping to get through it next year.

1. Read a YA nonfiction book: How Dare the Sun Rise by Sandra Uwiringiyimana 

4. Read a graphic memoir: Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi

7. Read a historical fiction novel not set in WWII: The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead

#4 - Read 35 Books

I read most days this year, but I didn't often have the energy to read a lot at a time. I still managed to read 23 books, including some great ones.

**1 - The Song of Achilles by Madeleine Miller
1/1/20, audiobook

2 - Holidays With Sugar and Booze
1/11/20, audiobook

*3 - Radical Candor by Kim Scott
1/21/20, read for the NIRSA School common read, selected by cofaculty, Larry Mellinger, Walter Kolis, Bridget, Heather, Wendy Winsor

**4 - No One Cares About Crazy People by Ron Powers
2/1/20, bought for me by Jerry Krone

5 - When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi
2/6/20, audiobook

6 - Letters to a Young Artist by Rainer Maria Rilke
2/17/20

**7 - Look at the Birdie by Kurt Vonnegut
2/19/20 (for the umpteenth time)

8 - The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai
3/22/20, audiobook, recommended by Elizabeth Pearson

**9 - The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
3/23/20

10 - The Wings of the Dove by Henry James
4/13/20

*11 - The Stand by Stephen King
5/21/20, audiobook

12 - The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver
6/12/20

**13 - World War Z by Max Brooks
6/16/20, loaned to me by Chris Zann

14 - White Fragility by Robin DeAngelo
6/20/20 with Delaney Cherveney

*15 - Best American Short Stories 2019, edited by Heidi Pitlor and Anthony Doerr
7/2/20

**16 - Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett
7/2/20 for the second time

*17 - Darkness at Noon by Arthur Koestler

7/16/20

*18 - How Dare the Sun Rise by Sandra Uwiringiyimana

8/9/20

**19 - How to Be Everything by Emilie Wapnick

9/26/20

**20 - Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi

10/6/20

21 - Then She Was Gone by Lisa Jewell

10/13/20, borrowed from Kathy Krone

22 - How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi

11/11/20, book for the DePaul President's book club

**23 - The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett

11/24/20, book for the DePaul Women's Network fall book club

#13 - Eat Vegetarian for 8 Days

I described why I added this item to my list in my post on my vegan eating day so here, I just have pics and ratings of the recipes I made this week! Recipes are linked for those who want to try them!

Day 1

Vegan Day

Day 2

Cheese Souffle
Difficulty: 6/10
Taste: 9/10

Salad with Simple Vinaigrette
Difficulty: 2/10
Taste: 7/10

Peperonata
Difficulty: 2/10 
Taste: 7/10

Pita
Difficulty: 2/10
Taste: 8/10

Day 3

Roasted Beet Salad
Difficulty: 2/10
Taste: 9/10

Tomato Sauce 
(served over cheese tortilini)
Difficulty: 2/10
Taste: 7/10

Deviled Eggs
Difficulty: 3/10
Taste: 8/10

Day 4

Leftovers

and

Crispy Potatoes I forgot to take a picture of.

Day 5

Pizza Night 

(ordered out)

Day 6

Black Bean Burgers
Difficulty: 3/10
Taste: 9/10

Warm Kale Salad
Difficulty: 2/10
Taste: 7/10

Day 7

Focaccia
Difficulty: 3/10
Taste: 9/10

Buffalo Cauliflower
Difficulty: 3/10
Taste: 8/10

Ribollita
Difficulty: 3/10
Taste: 6/10

Day 8

Vegan Mapo Tofu
Difficulty: 4/10
Taste: 8/10

Scallion Pancakes
Difficulty: 3/10
Taste: 8/10

Sichuan Dry-Fried Green Beans
Difficulty: 2/10
Taste: 8/10

Lots of recipes I'll keep in my arsenal, and I'm excited to try more! Such a successful week!

#14 - Eat Vegan for One Day

Over the last few years, I've been thinking more about what I put in my body and how my choices affect our planet. I've decided I need to be closer to my food, particularly in working to understand where it comes from, and to actively work to eat more plant based. 

I've also always had some kind of blood sugar or hunger issues. I've never been able to get anything diagnosed, but ever since I was a kid, if I hit a certain point of hunger, I lose it. I am beyond irritable and can't seem to make any decisions. It happens suddenly and sends me into a panic. It can also be unpleasant to be around me. I've learned which foods seem to trigger this, which seem to fix it quickly, and which seem to sustain me the longest. In these informal, casual experiments, I've learned I need a diet with a lot of protein and some carbs. I've also learned diary seems to counteract my panics quickly and to sustain me for long periods of time. So... I have been reluctant to let go of meat and dairy, knowing these have been important to the diet that keeps me from having extreme highs and lows and not having found many alternatives.

I really want to have more of a plant-based diet though, so I decided things might go better if I planned them out---and that I could tough it out for at least one day if it didn't go well.

I really struggled with what to eat for breakfast. If I have any sugar of any type early in the day, I need a decent amount of protein and carbs to balance myself out. I suppose I could have just had some peanut butter toast or oatmeal with some peanut butter and other proteins. But instead I just skipped breakfast.

For dinner, I went all out, as I knew my dad was dreading even one day of vegan eating. (Which is funny because he's not a big meat eater. He's a fish & chicken guy and doesn't eat many heavy foods.)

Our main dish was a lemony lentil soup, which I'd made before and knew would be satisfying and filling. It was.

For sides, I made some roasted mushrooms, which I'd made before and they had a good chew and flavor to them.

For my new sides, fried cauliflower with buffalo sauce & focacchia... well, those didn't work out because I didn't start the focacchia well enough in advance and had forgotten to buy buffalo sauce. 

Luckily, my mom had bought some asparagus and my dad had bought some decent bread with all plant-based ingredients. So, I swapped things around, and they all work out.

The meal was indeed satisfying and filling. It gave me some motivation to seek out more plant-based foods that I can use as a main dish, phasing out meat & dairy.

Success!

Then I tried a vegan snack that I love when they're store bought: sesame sticks! They... were not great.

#11 - Try All Ruhlman's 20 Techniques

 This is my 4th year trying to knock off practicing these 20 techniques. 

1. THINK: 2017 
2. SALT: 2017 & 2018
3. WATER: 2017  & 2018

4. ONION: 2019

I thought I'd missed this one somehow, so I tried out Ruhlman's recipe for French onion soup. I'm so glad my forgetfulness yielded such delightful results.

It looks like this recipe took tons of work, as it took 3-4 hours to complete, but really, it was just slicing onions, letting them cook down (stirring every hour or so), adding water and some things to enhance the broth, then toasting the bread and melting the cheese in the broiler. Honestly, so easy, so flavorful, and so cheap! Can't wait to make this again when I'm feeling like I've been spending too much money but deserve a special meal.

My mom approved too.

5. ACID: 2017
6. EGG: 2017 
7. BUTTER: 2017
8. DOUGH: 2017 

9: BATTER: 2019

10. SUGAR: For anyone who knows me well, it won't be a surprise that I saved this one for last. I am just not into sweets. No, I'm not super healthy. I just prefer my calories in cheese and wine forms. And I just don't have a sweet tooth.

Yet, Ruhlman makes this technique so so simple. 

I made an outrageously simple caramel sauce that almost makes me want to experiment more with sugar techniques (mostly more caramel, butterscotch, toffee). The sauce was so tasty I kept thinking of more savory things to get on the next grocery run to complement it: apples... dense bread... and sure, maybe some vanilla ice cream for a hot caramel sundae. 

If you have a sweet tooth and we're making dinner together, I will totally make this for you.

11. SAUCE: 2017  & 2018
12. VINAIGRETTE: 2017 
13. SOUP: 2017 
14. SAUTE: 2018
15. ROAST: 2017

16. BRAISE: This one took awhile because, well, braising takes time. 

I decided on the red wine-braised short ribs because I like short ribs, and well, they're easier to get than lamb shanks, duck legs, pork belly, or fennel roots. 

There were 19 ingredients, and this recipe took 5 or so hours total. Four of those hours were the ribs just braising in the oven, but the other hour was work, before and after the braising.

Honestly though: worth it. 

This may be the best thing I've ever made. (Yes, better than the kimchi-brined fried chicken sandwich that made me dance around my empty apartment singing about how awesome I am.)

I topped the short ribs with gremolata and served them over egg noodles (as recommended).

There were so many layers of flavor, and the ribs themselves melted off the bone.

Someday, I'll really want to impress people at a dinner party and will pull this one out again.

17. POACH: 2018
18. GRILL: 2018
19. FRY: 2019
20. CHILL: 2018

5. ACID: 2017