7. Go to a palm reader

If you have five dollars, you can buy:

two rides on the subway.

a coffee at Starbucks. but don’t make it too fancy.

two pints of blueberries at the grocery store.

some highly processed meal at McDonalds.

a kajillion cheap plastic earrings from Claire’s.

five 99 cent songs on itunes.

a palm reading at 20th and 7th.

I did my research. I wanted a quality palm reader because if anyone is going to look at some squiggly lines and tell me all about myself, they need to be certified in something. But all those fancy shmancy palm readers cost like, $100 per session. And if there’s a chance they’re going to tell me something bad, then I have a crummy future AND I’m out $100.

No way, man.

Icky weather be damned, Emma and I took the long trek down 7th Avenue to a charming storefront where the “special” of the day was palm readings for $5. Might not be the “special” tomorrow, so good thing we got it while it was hot.

23. Cook or bake one thing from each cookbook- Vegan Yum Yum

Sometimes I don’t floss my teeth.

Sometimes I leave the house and there are still dishes in the sink.

Sometimes I don’t clean my fish tank on the day I’m supposed to.

Sometimes I eat cookies for breakfast. And dinner. It’s no big deal.

Let me justify it. Breakfast was at 11. So that’s basically lunch. And dinner was at 9:30. So that’s basically an after-dinner snack. So I just had cookies for lunch and for a snack. That sounds less like I’m 5 years old.

But any way you look at it, I ate a lot of sugar yesterday. And I loved every second of it. But that’s not the point. The point is what the sugar was doing to my delicate delicate insides, and therefore what shows up on my not-so-delicate outsides.

Today I needed some non-sugar vitamins.

Enter: The Soup. Capital letters means business.

The Soup is an excellent way to get veggies without even realizing you’re eating veggies. I don’t have a problem eating veggies, but The Soup makes it that much easier. And if you use veggies that just get torn into little bits, you don’t even have to worry about that chopping and dicing nonsense. Because who has two thumbs and doesn’t want to do that? This girl.

“But Katie,” you might say. “The Soup? In 95 degree weather? You must be crazy, girlfriend.”

When the veggies at your superhip farmer’s market look like this

it’s ok to make The Soup.

Cook this. Eat this. And then have a cookie. Because a negative (The Soup) plus a positive (the cookie) brings you to zero.

Right? So right.

23. Cook or bake one thing from each cookbook- The Food Matters Cookbook

courtesy of amazon.com

I have to admit something.

I really like Mark Bitman.

I mean, hello? The man wrote a cookbook called How to Cook Everything. And then went and wrote another one called How to Cook Everything Vegetarian for all of those people who couldn’t find enough to eat while learning how to cook everything. Anyone who tries to write a cookbook teaching you how to cook everything is pretty awesome.

Ok, maybe he can’t teach you everything in a cookbook. I guess that’s what Google is for. But his recipes are simple, straightforward, and allow for plenty of modifications and additions. Not to mention, his writing is ridiculously unpretentious and fun to read in bed before you fall asleep.

What, you don’t read cookbooks in bed? Oh… me neither…obvi.

I’m sorry, Mark Bitman. I did not do your recipe justice.

I meant to, I really did. I had every intention of making your awesome recipe and enjoying for many days to come. But I thought I had black beans, and I didn’t. So no awesome black bean protein.

And I thought the mango I bought was ripe, but it wasn’t. So no awesome addition of mango.

And I didn’t really know how hot my canned chipotle peppers were and I skimped on them. So no super awesome smokey hot chipotle flavor.

And suddenly “Chipotle Quinoa with Corn and Black Beans” became “Sort-of Chipotle Flavor Quinoa with Corn and Chickpeas.” It’s not terrible, don’t get me wrong, Mr. Bitman. But it’s kind of…uninspiring. And very brown.

Because what color is quinoa? Brown.

And what color are chickpeas? Brown.

And what color is corn? Yellow, but it kinda blends in with all the brown.

Sorry, Marky-boy. I tried. I’ll probably cook another recipe from the book, just because I’m a perfectionist like that,

Oh, and the pictures are ick too because I was late running out the door and couldn’t find a cute clean bowl so I had to shoot the brown meal in a Tupperware on a brown chair. No cute food blog picture for you today. Looking at other beautiful food blogs kind of makes me want to cry when I post pictures like this.

But try this recipe and make it like Mark Bitman suggests. Just don’t double the recipe because it makes A LOT and then you’ll have to figure out how many servings of quinoa you can actually eat in a day without turning into the grain itself.

At least it’s good for you.

1. Create a life soundtrack

This item wasn’t designed as a big, life-changing event on my list, but rather something to do to keep me entertained at 3:45 on Friday afternoon when everyone else was still working (not meaning to rub it in…). Basically, you turn on itunes, set it on shuffle, and write down the “answer” songs in the order they’re played. I straight up stole this idea from this website, but my friend Emma took on this challenge, too. It was funny to see that, even though it was random, some songs eerily made sense. I’ve linked to youtube versions of the songs if you’re interested, too.

Opening Credits: Friday I’m in Love– The Cure
Waking Up: Black & Gold– Sam Sparro
First Day at School: Rockets– Cat Power
Falling in Love: In Your Eyes– Peter Gabriel (Sappy, but hilarious that it came up then)
Breaking up: Anthony– Nickel Creek (Funny. If you don’t know this song, check out the lyrics here)
Pro: Soir de fete– Yann Tiersen (From Amelie. Maybe we’re all doing a folk dance?)
Life’s Ok: Do You– Jewel
Mental Breakdown: Older Chests– Damien Rice
Driving: Things Behind the Sun– Nick Drake
Flashback: Multi-Family Garage Sale– Land of the Loops (It really is a very flashback-y song)
Getting Back Together: Dice– Finley Quaye & William Orbit (It works…)
Wedding: Sweet Black Angel– The Rolling Stones (Ha!)
Final Battle: Casualty– Missy Higgins
Death Scene: My Lover’s Gone– Dido (Bizarre…)
Funeral Song: The Inner Light– The Beatles
Credits: P.S.– Jenny Owen Youngs (Funny for the credits. Check lyrics here)

I have a pretty mellow life soundtrack. Does that mean I have a pretty mellow life? Itunes (randomized) seems to think so…

53 days until 26

14. Attend the Pride Parade

This was really the only item on my list that had a timing element (other than the fact that they all need to be finished by August 23…), as the Pride Parade was taking place a day after I posted the “26 Before 26” list.

I’ve lived in New York for the past three years but I’ve never attended any Pride events. I realized that, if I were going to pick a year to go to the parade, this would be the one to go to, considering the law that passed on Friday. I’m not sure what the parade was like in the past (I’m sure they have all been great), but the joy and excitement today was really infectious. I think my favorite part was seeing couples with signs that read “Together for ___ years; finally engaged!” It was a pretty awesome afternoon.

58 days until 26

What is “26 Before 26”?

The idea of “26 Before 26” actually started a year ago… but back then it was called “25 Before 25.” Basically, last July I created a list of 25 things I wanted to do before I turned 25 in late August. The list included places I wanted to visit, books I wanted to read, events I wanted to attend, and general life skills that I thought I should have before my birthday.

Most of these things were never accomplished.

There are a variety of reasons for that, I think. One being I started the list with only a month to go, leaving me not much time to do what I wanted to do. Another being that, while I knew what was on my list, no one else did. There was less “accountability,” which meant that whatever I didn’t do, I could just shrug my shoulders and move on.

I want “26 Before 26” to be different. Some of the things on the list are silly. Some will take only a few hours to do, others will take many days. But in an attempt to fill my summer, as well as discover neat things about myself and New York, I will embark on this almost-2-month journey. As I complete something on the list, I’ll post about it. Feel free to follow along!

59 days until 26