FarmVille Intervention please!

I knew it would only be a matter of time before I got allured into this wildly popular online game. At first I thought, how odd, a game about farming, it seemed peculiar to me. Wouldn’t one want the real thing, getting your hands in the soil, seeding, weeding, watering, and enjoying the fruits of one’s labor? I had seen the funny messages on Facebook. So and so fed your chickens, so and so fertilized your crops. I disregarded them as another foolish attempt to beguile me.

I can’t quite remember what it was or when I unexpectedly clicked on the Farmville icon. Perhaps it was during one of those dreary cold dark winter nights not to long in the past. Maybe I yearned for some comfort in a virtual garden, since I had tried spreading some homemade compost on my own beds only to be faced with a giant frozen mound that when I tried to penetrate with my shovel sent reverberations through my body.

I looked at the screen and saw 6 brown plots and a character waiting for me to make into my image, it’s amazing how much likeness there is between us. The first thing I did was hit the mute button, the accompanying tune that played over and over was driving me crazy. So I sat out to plow and plant my virtual garden. No sooner had I finished and Eimer sent me a message requesting to be my neighbor, I obliged of course, and awards starting coming in. Coins for this, ribbons for that, people sending gifts such as farm animals, trees, a chicken coop which by the way is much better designed than the real one we have. The possibilities are endless. No need to worry about watering, weather, what zone you’re in. It’s a virtual garden Utopia! Where else can you grow banana trees, cranberries, and cotton all in the same place. Or command your animals to “stay” so that you would not have to worry about them wondering off and finding themselves in the middle of the road playing Russian roulette with passing cars.

Little by little my farm grows, I discovered how to get more plowed land, giving me increased revenue as I planted and harvested various fruits and vegetables. I purchase trees, move them around with no backbreaking digging, just a click of the mouse.

Then it happened, I had planted strawberries and when I checked on them following day I stared at bunches of virtual brown dead plants. I was shocked! How did this happen? They weren’t supposed to die, I paid good money for these. It turns out that every seed variety comes with a harvesting time, wait to long and they die. From that moment , I found myself checking my farm every few hours, even dreaming about it. When I am out running errands I time my trips to make sure I am back in time to harvest. At work I nonchalantly open two internet windows one I pretend to work on, the other containing FarmVille, is minimized so I won’t be detected as I check on it periodically . I visit other farms to rack up more points so I can get to the next level, and unlock more objects to purchase. Even while writing this I checked three times to see if anything needs to be done, a cow milked, collect a pig’s truffles or goose feathers. It’s utterly insane. I am sure it’s a temporary condition. Once the weather warms, I will be back among the living, plowing and seeding real soil, raising 2 geese and perhaps some more chickens, enjoying longer days, sitting on the porch of my real farm house. But until then you will find me on FarmVille evident by the stream of FarmVille posts on my Facebook!

A new chapter?

Perhaps many factors are at play at this time. The vitamin D, I apparently was deficient in seems to now be returning to normal levels thanks to the weekly 50,000 units I am taking. This has given me a definite boost of energy.Combined with the epiphany I had tonight that my job sucks, they are idiots and I am wasting my time and talent. At what point does having a job, insurance, paid vacation etc not become enough for me. That time seems to have arrived. I should be content yet I am not. I feel as if I am settling for less when I can be capable of doing so much more. I'm not one of those drones programmed to follow a mindless set of actions day in day out. Listening to absolute jibberish and serving hideous food. YUK! someone rescue me please :)

The previous paragraph was written about 2 weeks ago,since that time I have been trying to figure out what I can do to change my situation. Contentment seems to be a hard thing for me. I am always looking for something, nothing wrong with that. I have come to the realization that if anything is going to change it is going to be me doing the changing. I realized this on New Years Eve, when I found out that the somewhat planned gathering of great minds to discuss a possible plan for the future fell apart. ( no offense to the parties in question, it arrived at the perfect moment).
Even though I continue to look for a better job, I am beginning to wonder does it even exist. That reminded me as to why we moved here, on a piece of property with so much potential. Food is my passion, yet at this time it is not furfilling my needs at the job I'm at, and so I've set out to find out what other passsion possess. It dawned on me yesterday while gazing at my hellebores seedlings, by golly that's it! Plants.....I get such a joy each morning as I look at the progress of their growth, searching for new seedlings emmerging from the soil. In addition I started thinking about all those snowdrops I planted and am looking forward to their awakening this Spring.
I've decided to cultivate this passion, see if I can multiply and specialize in just these 2 plants, in the hopes of perhaps creating a new career. So there it is, and for all those wondering what that comment I posted on FB meant.......this should explain it. I am reinvigored with energy and hope for the future!

Thanksgiving 09

Thanksgiving is by far my favorite holiday. To me there is no better way to start the Holiday season than to gather with friends and cook copious amounts of great food. After moving to Reno it seemed our Thanksgiving spirit diminished year after year to the point that we didn’t even bother anymore.  We were left with distant memories of how we use to celebrate with our friends in Miami.
However this year the spirit returned to us, perhaps because we had returned somewhat to our roots. Bon Appétit magazine had arrived and I leafed through it with great anticipation. This year I went with the Farm to Table menu, it could not be more perfect considering our surroundings. Knowing we would have friends staying and joining us for dinner brought all those wonderful memories of past Thanksgiving dinners back to me. Surely all was not lost, and we would once again create great moments! I was confident we got our groove back. The setting could not be more perfect, a large kitchen table in an old farmhouse, fires blazing!

Tom, Karen and the kids were here for the week, great helpers! While Tom took the kids out for the day, Karen and I settled in the kitchen Wednesday, to prep. Space is limited, and only one oven made planning imperative. I had picked up our bird from Bolton Farms, which was quite the scene, the store was completely reconfigured to allow for all us lemmings to enter, be handed our bird and exit after paying, into the parking lot which had a Mormon family selling baked goods. Sugary cinnamon cakes could not be ignored, especially when having a nine year old  in tow!

I put Karen in charge of chopping and dicing, while i attended to making stock for gravy, making stuffing and blanching veggies. Our intention was to make as much of the dinner as possible, so we would have a relaxing day of it, and only have to cook the bird and make gravy. We would make use of the open fire to heat up our sides. Gina and Mike were bringing pumpkin gnocchi and a chocolate pumpkin pie. Hannah would help me make a four layer pumpkin cake with orange icing.








That night exhausted from all the work, we all piled into the car to get pizza at the local joint in Frenchtown. Followed by a quick stop at the Frenchtown Inn to get dessert!

Thursday morning Karen and Tom went for their usual morning walk. I suggested they follow the trail behind our house which would take them into the woods up a nice hill and loop back down. Hannah and I finished the cake with her making the icing and decorating the cake. That girl will make a great baker some day! 20 minutes later Karen and Tom returned with Karen visibly shaking and upset. Apparently lots of gunshots were going off (I forgot hunting season had started) and she was convinced she would be mistaken for a deer and be gunned down. After calming Karen down with the help of a mimosa it was time to cover the turkey with a butter and white wine soaked cheesecloth (a Martha Stewart trick) and start the roasting process.

David was frantically running around the house getting it in order and putting his final detailed touches on it to make the place look "magazine cover" perfect. All of a sudden he stopped in his tracks, much like a Keane Reeves moment in the movie Matrix, he seemed suspended in mid air...... "This peninsula of shoes must be removed and stored elsewhere!" He yelled! I could not help but laugh hysterically (inside of course).

The day progressed nicely, basting the turkey every 30 minutes, Gina, Mike and kids arriving with their goodies. Of course thanksgiving can’t be complete without its normal hiccups. No sooner had I turned on 2 burners and the heat detection alarm went off on the hood. Beeping rapidly in a high pitch range piercing through my brain as I tried to finish making dinner, not the ideal relaxing comforting feeling I had in mind. The only way to remedy this was by getting a fan and directing it at the hood to disperse the hot air. So there i was holding the fan in one hand at an angle while stirring with the other hand, and trying desperately to live in the moment and not letting that awful beeping sound get to me. Luckily it only lasted for about 10 minutes and normalcy returned to the kitchen'.

Dinner was served, we all gathered at the table and devoured what took 2 days to prepare in less than an hour. At least I had made enough to make creative left over dishes for days. by the time dessert came around we were all pretty well relaxed with the help of red wine, so it didn’t take us long to trash Gina's dessert, that unfortunately was a little burned, and we referred to as the astray tart. She's such a good sport; we all got great mileage out of it for days! Hannah's cake was scrumptious!

A nice walk after dinner with glasses of wine in hand, dogs and kids in tow, was a perfect ending to a perfect day! Yes I think it is safe to say that we definetly got our groove back, and look forward to many more Thanksgiving dinners!