Chain Stays, Poison Ivy and being a Montana girl.

I bought a new bike. It was quite an impulsive decision but I'm happy about it nonetheless. Its funny how emotionally connected I've become with it. He needs a name. I can't think of a good one.



In other news, I've been attacked by poison ivy and/or oak 3 times in the past 3 days. And only this morning I woke up to find that my legs are covered with a nasty, relentlessly itchy rash. Really, it was unavoidable. The poison ivy that is, not the rash. Obviously the rash is unavoidable after contact (side note: 30% of people are immune to the effects of poison ivy. I, however, am not apart of that 30%). It was not asif I wanted to frolic in fields of it, that's just how it had to be, being a Montana girl and all... Allow me to recount the past 3 day's worth of my poison ivy adventures:


Day 1: Hike up the Missions: Along with being one of the main corridors for Western Montana's Grizzly population, it alsohouses the highest population density of poison ivy (that's not a fact, just an exaggerated assumption). And while I was too busy checking my back to make sure I wasn't going to get mauled, I failed to notice the bushes and bushes of poisonous plants all around me. Only at the very end of the hike did I realize the situation. I turned around and pointed this out to my brother, who said "oh yeah, I know, but I'm immuuuune." And when I woke up the next morning in the clear, I thought I was "immuuuuune" too. Oh, how very wrong I was.

Day 2: After a lovely day of sailing, swimming, boating and water skiing, I joined my brother on his evening fly fishing adventure. After making far too many verysharp turns on a "road" which was really just a field of napweed and cheat grass, we arrived at the Flathead River. A beautifully, big, slow flowing river that's lined with fields of golden wheat and tall corn. But the r
>iver is about 100 feet down this gnarly cliff and as I look down, I see, scattered just below the ledge, bones. Yes, bones. And to the right I see a pile of what looks the remains of some sort of medium sized animal. A coyote maybe? Regardless of what is, I'm scared that a) I too, will end up like this poor creature and b) there are more of this creatures and they're going to eat me. And when I finally get down to the bottom of this cliff (I made it without any real injury) we find a huge pile of bear poop, and its still warm. But since it is made up mostly of berries, we figure its a black bear and not super dangerous. We continue along a small path that parallels the river, looking for a bank where we can set up our stuff. We find a bank and Brother trudges through a thick covering of, yes you guessedit, poison ivy. He says "you're just going to have to tough it out Kristine, this is what makes you a Montana girl." Thinking in my head "Yeah! I'm a Montana girl!" I skip across the ivy and jump in the river hoping that the water will wash it away before those chemicals have time to bond to my skin. The river was beautiful, and fly fishing was great. And when I woke up the next morning, my legs were fine! The water really did get rid of the ivy's poison! Oh, how very wrong I was....

Day 3: I took my sweet new bike up for a ride last night. It was incredible, as per usual. I did the wallman loop up the rattlesnake, which kicked my butt. I ate it hard on the descent (also as per usual) and landed in a thicket of...yes! Poison Ivy! WTF? I seems as though I am attracted to this stuff. And I woke up this morning, legs itching like crazy. So, I am that 70% of the population that does, in fact, react to poison ivy.

I can't stop itching.

Parts of the whole.

Have you ever written an email only to realize that it way too long to be appropriate? And the things that you are saying don't really flow and have no real significance? But there is no way you want to delete it because you just spent almost 2 hours writing it? Yes, well I did that today. Thankfully, I have a blog to dump my word vomit on and you can choose to read it or not. There is no pressure here.

Oh man, I remember that heat. One summer I did a exchange type thing in Spain in high school. It was that summer that huge heat wave swept across southern europe and people were dying, mostly old and homeless people, but still, it was so terribly hot. The butter on the table would melt into a pool by the end of dinner. Ew, I hated those dinners. I stayed with a "family" but it really wasn't a family, it was an elderly couple. The women, Carmen, had bright orange hair that stood up on end (the sad result of a bad perm and color) her head was reminiscent of a jack-o-lantern. She was a terrible cook. Actually, she didn't even cook, she would fry. Sadly, I though all Spanish food was like for a while. The man, whom I dubbed " Pimp Daddy" was just ridic. He would wear all white, from his hat to his shoes, and would dec himself out with gold jewelry. He was full to the brim with gold necklaces, rings bracelets, etc. And every night (after the fried dinner) we would have to watch old videos of him as a matador. So I would go to bed in my sauna of a room, nearly naked but still sweating like crazy, belly full of fried things and images of Pimp Daddy in his white and gold holding a red sheet yelling "ole!" Oh Boy, it was terrible. I was miserable for about 3 weeks until I decided to stop eating at carmen and pimp daddy's house and started eating tapas and drinking Sidra (you should try it). Life got much better. Although, it was still hot and sleeping was near impossible, but I got through it.


I'm am pretty ok. I'm hanging out, not working and riding my bike a lot, so I cant really complain. I just feel very hesitant about getting a job right now. The closer and closer I get to finding one, the less and less I feel like I should take one. Really, all I want to do is play right now. But I feel like I need to start working because I've played for the past year and should get my butt into gear.



What's it like being me? It's for the most part, pretty awesome. I have parents that are supportive with everything I choose to do. Seriously, everything. I think if i told them that I was going bum around for another year or so, they would be totally ok with that too. I've had this really big urge to road trip up Highway 1 with an airstream and bikes. But I need a partner, because doing that by myself wouldn't be nearly as fun as. But who has the time/money to do that with me? If you know of anybody, just send them my way. I wish that that I could just have a life free of pressures to get a job and make a family, get an education and contribute to society. I know this is selfish, but I want to be selfish right now. I don't want to worry about helping the poor fisherman in Florida struggling to make end's meet because the oil spill has turned that state into a wasteland. Don't get me wrong here. My heart hurts for that situation and I wan't to do everything I can to help. But I wish that I didn't want to and I wish that I could peacefully be selfish. Naive and unaware. I just want to have fun for the rest of my life. I've got to figure out a productive way of doing that.... I've been playing a lot of guitar with my brother lately. I just learned an O.A.R song, I feel home. Its pretty fun. I feel productive when I play music.


I want to go to Spain.

New things

Updates on my life:
1. Loving living alone. I never thought I would be able to handle coming home to an empty house, but its actually the best thing that has happened to me in while. Having a peaceful, clean and beautiful place to reflect after a shitty day at work is worth surrendering 3/4 of my pay check ... which brings me to point two.
2. Work sucks. Which sucks. I'm still trying to figure out if I am disliking THE job or disliking having a job. Currently, I am inclined to think it is THE job that I hold so much animosity against because a) my creative freedom is severely limited b) the intellectual stimulation is well below minimal and c) the radio station is always set to heavy metal which does not support a positive mental state. I also got beaten to the ground by falling bread pans.
3. I am going to the orthodontist tomorrow. Ugh. Big fat two thumbs down. My jaw problem is getting a lot worse and that's just icing on the cake! I have a sever jaw problem that requires 2 years of braces (along with complete disgrace, humility and shame) followed by reconstructive jaw surgery. I've been putting this off for the past 4 years now and apparently the problem as not disappeared (I was really wishing it would). In fact, the joint degeneration has been moving right along at a pace faster than expected. Yippee.
4. I'm happy its summer, but I find myself hoping that the sun isn't shining on Sundays - Thursdays. That way, I don't feel bad about being inside, listening to hate music and getting attacked by falling pans.

With all of that said, I'm in a happy place right now. Seriously, I am.

Eating

I am serious when I say that I think I have an eating problem.
I can't stop.
(Currently, I'm on my 3 dark chocolate kiss. Mmmm, its like velvet on my tongue.)

The eating comes in waves. Warm chocolate ganache waves, actually. And right now, I feel like I'm at the crest, about to tumble into the trough and thrown into a over fed stupor.
Oh, I guess I'll find my balance someday. Right now, I'm relishing in my body's ability to metabolize incredible amounts of fat and sugar.

Maybe when I'm ready to stop eating I'll hang this picture up by my dinner table...

(Hong Kong fish market)


In other news, I decided to go to LA to visit Jackie tomorrow. I can't wait to see the ocean and my beautiful friend.

Pretzel Love.

Some fun facts about pretzels...

1. Pretzels were originally made to resemble the arms of praying Christian monks. Apparently people used to pray with their arms crossed. Weird.

2. People in Philly eat 200 lbs of them a year. Ironic?

3. Lye is a pretty strong base (NaOH) that is used to turn the dough to the deliciously caramel color.

Hazardous and Christian.... How dangerously heavenly.

I made them and then ate them warm, which made my day a little less lonely. The emotional connection I had with these warm pieces of dough seemed to be far more developed that it should have been. Let me explain:
I love baking, I love being in the kitchen, and therefore I love my job. I bake all day, taste incredible food and make people happy. It's great. But it seems like at the very instant I leave Brandy's, I go from blissful happiness to grumpy grandma. I transform from a chatty smiling Kristine to one who is short tempered and petulant. I don't want to be around anybody and frankly, I doubt they want to be around me. All I feel like doing is going home to sit on my couch and drink tea...alone. I think it's just a way that I am dealing with all of this change. Change in life style, change in a home and change in my relationships. But these pretzels made me happy.

I made the them on my day off. It was 4pm and I hadn't seen anybody for almost 24 hours. And when my little creations came out of the oven, they were warm and soft and comfortable and I couldn't get annoyed with them because they were perfect and lifeless. Sometimes I need something perfect and lifeless (i.e. a book, music, food, ect.) and I semi fell in love with these.

Maybe you will too?

Obviously I do not have lye around my house, but I do have baking soda (also a base: NaHCO3) which worked like magic.

Easily lovable soft pretzels
1 1/2 cup warm water
1 pkg yeast
1 tbsp sugar

• Combine this in your standing mixer's bowl and allow to "bloom". The yeast will expand and will look like foam when its ready. In another bow mix:

4 1/2 cup flour (I used non bleached all purpose)
2 tbsp salt

• Add this to the bloomed yeast and mix with your dough hook. Make sure not to mix it for too long. Doing that will make tough pretzels and nobody likes tough pretzels. The dough should come together into a ball that gives a little when you push on it with your fingers.
• Oil a spot on your counter and let the dough rise there (with the mixer bowl on top of it) for about 1 hour. Note: Although you may want to knead the crap out of it, leave your anger out of this and find something else to pound your problems away on.
• Bring a big pot of water with about 1/2 cup of baking soda to a boil. Meanwhile divide the dough into 8 chunks and roll into a rope and shape it however you want. While rolling out all the 8 pieces, put the already shaped pieces on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and under a damp kitchen towel to keep them moist.
• Place 1 or 2 pretzels at a time into the boiling water for about 30 seconds, flip them over for a bit more then take them out. Brush them with an egg wash and sprinkle with kosher salt.
• Bake them at 450* for about 12 min (or until caramely brown) .
• Eat. And fall in love.
  

Kristine's Muffin Top

While this title may suggest that I have a bad case of back fat and a few pairs of extra tight jeans, I am seriously considering it as the new subtitle to this blog.

Because I am currently living my dream as a baker, I feel like I should honor this part of my life by blogging about it. And because being a baker means that I will probably eat many more pastries than I already do, a muffin top may very likely be inevitable.
Planned Spontaneity, the name, isn't going to change. Its a rather appropriate title for my life; you know, making last minute decisions and then changing my mind twice. That's what I do. That's probably what I will be doing for the rest of my life. I'm not ashamed of it and I'm not going to try to fix it, because life is so much for fun when there is enough room for spontaneity. The name will stay the same.

So yes, I will be blogging mostly about my adventures in the bakery: Learning about the hallucinogenic properties of rye starters and the hierarchy of restaurant staff, and fully appreciating comfortable shoes.
So far, my experience as an apprenticed baker is fantastic. The best part of it all is seeing somebody bit into one of my freshly baked goodies with a look of utter pleasure on their face. I love being in the kitchen where incredibly beautiful food is being prepared and where are people rushing all around me; chopping cabbage, cleaning chicken, whipping a chai white chocolate ganache. Yumm.

Well I'm off to to work where I will most likely make 5 dozen baguettes. Ohhh what a beautiful life I have right now.
Stay tuned to see how far my bachelor's in biology/chemistry will take me into the baking world.

The Sea Spirit

I smile o'er the wrinkled blue­
Lo! the sea is fair,
Smooth as the flow of a maiden's hair;
And the welkin's light shines through
Into mid-sea caverns of beryl hue,
And the little waves laugh and the mermaids sing,
And the sea is a beautiful, sinuous thing!

I scowl in sullen guise­
The sea grows dark and dun,
The swift clouds hide the sun
But not the bale-light in my eyes,
And the frightened wind as it flies
Ruffles the billows with stormy wing,
And the sea is a terrible, treacherous thing!

When moonlight glimmers dim
I pass in the path of the mist,
Like a pale spirit by spirits kissed.
At dawn I chant my own weird hymn,
And I dabble my hair in the sunset's rim,
And I call to the dwellers along the shore
With a voice of gramarye evermore.

And if one for love of me
Gives to my call an ear,
I will woo him and hold him dear,
And teach him the way of the sea,
And my glamor shall ever over him be;
Though he wander afar in the cities of men
He will come at last to my arms again.

-Lucy Maud Montgomery


This conjures up such intense emotion in my heart. I can't stop reading this beautiful piece of literature. I want to sing it loudly and write it on everything I see. I want to live in these bewitching and captivating words and feel this feeling it gives me forever. It tells me that change is common, normal and good. When my sunny soul is hidden in a fog of anger, my will shine through. Emotions ebb and flow just like the sea.

I especially love the last verse. It posses a question that is perpetually in my subconscious mind.
Do I have glamor to "ever over"?
I must.