Day 29

12) Master 10 lunch recipes (0/10) Greek Garbanzo Bean Salad

I've collected 30 of the most appealing dishes from World's Healtiest Foods to be the ones I master. Last night I made my first: Greek Garbanzo Bean Salad. It didn't take me 15 minutes, of course that's the whole point of mastery. It turned out damn good though and not just to taste (which is this burst of freshness with every bite) but since it's almost entirely raw it makes you feel grest too. I brought some of it with me for lunch today.

33) Complete 35 books: 5 must be from Banned-books(0/5); 5 must be from Guardian's top 100 books (0/5); 5 you must already own (0/5); Total - (1/35) What Would You Do If You Had No Fear; Diane Conway 5/2/07

My first book compeleted is What Would You Do If You Had No Fear; Diane Conway. My sister gave this to me when I gave her How to Stop Worrying and Start Living; Dale Carnagie. You may be saying to yourself, "Hey, what's with all the self help books?". Or perhaps you're just grimacing. But like Maggie said when we found ourselves agreeing that Diane Conway is a little crazy, "You take what you need from things, and leave the rest." Might I also site one of my 50 quotes I've collected, "Nothing is too small to know, and nothing is too big to attempt." - William Van Horne. This book tells a story or two a chapter of someone overcoming or bypassing fear. At the end of the chapter it has LIFE CHALLENGES, all of which I left behind. What challenges us in life is very particular to the individual. The main pieces of advice I take with me from Conway is to always say "yes" and to not let fear of dissapointing others keep me from what I need to do.

53) Volunteer 50hrs (4/50) Food Bank 4/18/07, Homeless Children 5/2/07

On Wed night I spent a couple hours at a homeless housing facility South of Market. It caters to women who're pregnant, and I think there's a set time limit on how long you can stay. While you're there though you get 3 meals a day and access to psycologists and job counslers. I don't know what the housing quarters look like, I only saw the kitchen, teen center, and the two rooms for the younger children. The project I was participating in babysits the children for an hour and a half while their parent/s receive counsling. The ratio was 2 kids to 6 adults this time. The children were Victor, age 5, and Kevin, age 6. The time is spent as follows: we start out sitting in a circle and each person introduces themselves and tells about their rose (something good that happened) and thorn (a bad thing) of the day. Then each kid is supposed to spend 20 minutes reading before play time, if they fail to do the reading time they don't get a star that day; ten stars gets you a candy grab, twenty get you a toy grab, and so on until you end up with pizza and a movie. Neither of the boys were into reading that day so we all set about building a BRIO train track. Victor proved to be the more emotionally stable boy as Kevin kept getting upset, violently bunching up track we'd laid down and flinging it back into it's box. After playtime we all journeyed across the hall to the kitchen where this lovely lady I've forgotten the name of, showed the boys how to make milkshakes. It was very hands-on for them, they even did dishes. Again, Kevin lacked confidence, and it got me wondering what happened to him, besides the obvious circumstances, because Victor is coping surprisingly well. After milkshakes the kids played a few more minutes before both getting to grap a handful of candy from a big bin. If you're anything like me you'd be alarmed by all the sugar, though they did use fresh strawberries in the shakes. The next three weeks are booked with volunteers, but I scheduled myself to return there in subsequent weeks.

100) Purchase or borrow and complete The Hard Questions for an Authentic Life: 100 Essential Questions for Tapping into Your Inner Wisdom arrived in mail 4/26/07

Here's a book by a woman who's made a living out of my highschool hobby. I've read the introduction and I'm excited about starting to answer. She talks about how she kept giving herself false start dates for her life to begin, i.e; once I get my degree, once I get married, or once I pay off that loan. Basically she was living in the future, or even the past, i.e; when I was young, when I was with this person, or before I got that injury. She would find that once she accomplished a supposed life starting goal, nothing really changed, she still was not fulfilled. Her life lacked authenticity. And I'm all for authenticity. Answering questions can really solidify your views on life, and even help you tap into your subconscience.