GITP Monday Guest Blogger Ingrid, aka Bing, Bingle, Ingy, or Bingie

the fabulous ingrid

editor's note:  so, yeah, ingrid is my daughter, but also a (s) hero of mine.  she's such an inspiring person, and i can safely say that at least once a day somebody tells me that ingrid is also their hero.  she has dealt with many difficulties and obstacles in her life, always with so much grace, style, and wisdom.   i can brag about her since all of this is despite, not because of, the fact that she has me for a mother.  she's way hardcore, and she got that entirely from her father.  so i should only get credit for having good taste in choosing a partner.  

ingy and mama

1.  Are you in a tight place?  If so, what are you trying to do about it? 

     As a college student, I feel that it is my duty to be on a tight budget and a tight schedule. I don't really have a lot of say in the matter, but I try to think of it as a necessary part of the college experience so I don't get too bummed out about it. To illustrate, it is five thirty in the morning and I am working on a lab report that I wanted to send in at midnight. I am not great at chemistry, but I still can't get used to budgeting five-ish times as much time to get my work done for my General Chemistry class than it takes other students. I'm sitting in a nest of papers, books, my computer, and rose petals (long story) on the floor of my hall. When I finish this lab report, I have to write a take-home exam to turn in in class tomorrow (er, today) which means that I probably won't be sleeping at all tonight. I also try to embrace the "poor college student" archetype-- I'm wearing a thrift store skirt and a free box sweater and my midnight snack (perhaps "breakfast" would be more appropriate) was straight peanut butter from a jar I've been refilling at the dining hall's jumbo peanut butter canister. I even made a label for my beloved jar that reads "Hunger Trumps Dignity".

ingy's hallway study nest

In terms of what I'm trying to do about my tight budget and tight schedule, my favorite method is to try to keep a good sense of humor about the whole thing, mostly because I know that I'm just a kid and that not having enough time or money doesn't really matter because nobody else is depending on me to feed or take care of them. There's not a lot I can do about my tight budget, so I try to make peace with that, especially because I am currently receiving the best education money can buy and making a fuss about scooping dining hall peanut butter into a jar I've been refilling since August seems in poor taste considering the Fancypants University for Refined Ladies I'm attending. 

I could certainly do something to make my schedule less tight: I could quit one of my jobs, give up my pre-medical dreams, drop one of my dance classes, step down from the leadership of one of the clubs I'm in, give up one of my TV shows, or learn how to say no, but as Captain von Trapp tells us, "Activity suggests a life filled with meaning." I love being busy with places to be, and I am very open to the possibility that I'm addicted to meetings, but whatever the case may be, I'm at a point in my life where I can pull an all-nighter with relatively few consequences and nobody gets neglected if I'm out of my room all day, and it feels really good to be a part of a variety of engaging and exciting groups. This is all a very long way of saying that the only thing I'm doing about my tight schedule right now is trying to have a sense of humor about it. Also, let's be honest: I probably spend as many hours daily on Facebook and NetFlix and talking about nothing with my hallmates as I do asleep, so it's not as if there's absolutely no way I could get more sleep if I really wanted to. 

ingrid at her school for young ladies

2.  What do you want to get done this year?

      Thinking about one year in a holistic way is hard for me, since my calendar years tend to take the form of a weird triptych-- the last semester of one year, summer break, and the first semester of the next year. The one thing that I will be working on all year long is earning money to pay tuition, which is a little bit boring. This year I hope to completely finish my two semesters of General Chemistry so that I can move on to Organic Chemistry, Physics, and Calculus (which I will probably stumble through with as many tears and all-nighters as I need for Gen Chem), make more things (I am majorly inspired by Rozsika Parker's The Subversive Stitch), risk arrest as part of a Non-Violent Direct Action with the Earth Quaker Action Team, and develop my aesthetic values. 

3.  What inspires you? 

     I try to keep a running roster of (s)heroes, including professors, parents, classmates, carved owls that decorate the exterior of my dormitory, and people I haven't ever met, and today I am particularly inspired by agatha olek for her audacity, her reappropriation of traditional femininity in a guerilla setting, her dedication to her craft, and her playfulness. 

4.  What is your favorite legwear? 

      Wearing clothes is always a tiny bit uncomfortable for me, so as much as I love tights, going bare-legged is always my first choice. I don't especially enjoy shaving my legs, but I do like having bare skin through which I can feel the sun and the wind, and I love feeling skirts and dresses swirl around my legs. Also, I don't think this counts as legwear, but I absolutely love wearing boots.

pita & hummus, highs & lows

i only have a few cookbooks--this one's a must

highs:

i spent all week teaching high schoolers to cook and eat.  it's a hell of a job, but some one has to do it.  it's actually one of my favorite things to do, and was a high in my tough and busy week.

one thing i've really perfected in my kitchen is pita and hummus.  i created a recipe for hummus that works every time, and i use deborah madison's pita bread recipe.  yesterday, two teams of students created both recipes and they both turned out perfectly.  i sat and watched while they did it.

if they can do it, you can too. 

here are my recipes:

lara's hummus:

blend in food processor:

2 T tahini

4 T. olive oil

2-3 cloves garlic

1 t. salt

juice of one lemon

1 t. red pepper flakes (you can add more if you like spicy, or less if you don't)

after that stuff is ground up, add:

2 cans of garbanzos.  i drain one and leave 1/2 the liquid in the other.

Ingredients

    * 1 1/2 cups warm water
    * 2 1/4 teaspoons (1 envelope) active dry yeast
    * 1 teaspoon honey or barley malt syrup
    * 1 3/4 teaspoons salt
    * 2 tablespoons olive oil
    * 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour, preferably coarsely ground with flakes of bran, OR 1 cup whole-wheat flour mixed with 1/2 cup bran [I chose the latter]
    * 2 cups bread flour

Procedures

   1. Put the warm water in a bowl, stir in the yeast and honey, and set aside until foamy, about 10 minutes. Meanwhile, oil a bowl for the dough.
   2. Stir in the salt and olive oil, then beat in the whole-wheat flour and bran until smooth. Add the rest of the flour in small increments until the dough is too heavy to stir. Turn it onto a counter and knead until it is smooth and supple, adding more flour as required; this should only take a few minutes. Put the dough in the oiled bowl, turn to coat, then cover and set aside until doubled in bulk, 50 minutes to an hour.
   3. Punch the dough down and divide into 10 pieces for 8-inch breads. Roll each piece into a ball and then cover them with a damp towel. Put a baking stone or 2 sheet pans in the oven and preheat to 475°F. Allow the dough to relax while the oven heats—about 15 minutes—and then roll each ball into a circle a little less than 1/4 inch thick. Do not stack the rolled-out dough.
   4. Drop the rounds of dough directly onto the stone or heated pans and bake for 3 minutes. At this point, they should be completely puffed; remove them from the oven and cover with a towel to help them deflate.
 

and here are two more highs:

1.  reading at the provo peace international women's day reading last night.  there were some seriously good student poets, and susan howe, who teaches poetry at byu, read a beautiful poem about her mother.  susan mentioned what a great energy was in the room, and she was so right.  it's one of those times when the students are rallying to make change in their school, community and the world, and it feels great.  so thank you, students, for lending those of us who are a bit more

ummm. . . .


fatigued. . .

your youthful energy.

2.  i just discovered this provo blog (pro(vo)cation) .  it's marvelous.  

lows:

they aren't very interesting, but i hate people who are chipper all the time and positive about everything, so i'll let my eeyore flag fly a little.  here it is.  and obviously i'm not going to tell you everything, or even much at all, but i just felt like total, total crap all week, in every way, and it was really tough to get through the day, or even the minute, all week, and for various reasons.

the black dog was chasing me.

then he caught me,

wrestled me down

and stood on top of me for a few days.

but i did get through the week, and had some good times, some good moments.

and maybe that's partially what this project  of daily blogging is teaching me:  to look at the positive trends and good things and let them get me through the hard moments, or minutes, or even days, weeks and years.

to not let the bad cancel out the good.

legwear: if i had a uniform, it would be black tights and black shoes, like today

inspiration: the youth of today--cooking, writing, and kicking ass

looking forward:  dinner at pizzeria 712 with some fun and interesting friends