Meniere’s Disease

ATTENTION DAILY DISH RECIPE SITE READERS

~ thedailydish ~ 20 Comments

I have been fielding emails from many of you since Memorial Day regarding the status of The Daily Dish. I know it’s been confusing, my having kept the same page up from May 26th until this very morning. The lack of daily updates has been a source of anxiety for some of you, and for this, I apologize. I do recognize (and am indeed honored) that many people have come to depend on my website, and I do not mean to disappoint. But for the time being, I am on hiatus.

This post as well as this one provide much more detail as to why I am (at least for the time being) suspending work on The Daily Dish. Without being crass, I simply am being underpaid. I have spent HOURS AND HOURS each week for months working on recipes for the site, shopping for ingredients, cooking, cleaning, photographing, programming, and more. Running, writing and creating The Daily Dish is like working a full time 40 hr a week job for free. In addition to the time involved, it has also been a financial drain, with all of the food, gas and other expenses coming purely out of pocket.

I have thought long & hard about how to support this venture, whether it be through advertising on the site, publishing and selling a physical cookbook, asking for donations. I have up until now foregone ads for the sheer fact that I loathe them. I do not want to clutter my site w/ a bunch of google click-throughs intended to deceive & lure readers away from real content. I despise flashing banner ads – which frankly no one should have to deal with, but especially not those suffering from Meniere’s.

I am still quite wedded to the idea of publishing my own cookbook, but have been unable to make further strides b/c of the burden of updating the website. I simply can’t do both. It took me over 2 years of writing and research before I could even get the site up & running. Maintaining it has been a chore and a half. Now that I am on break, I have more time at my disposal for working on an actual book. Many people have responded favorably to the idea, and I very much welcome your comments regarding one. Would readers be interested in buying my book were I able to get it published? It may be easier for people to work from a book in the kitchen. It is for me. And so, I am exploring it as a viable option.

Just this morning, my dear friend Tracey emailed me another possible solution to my dilemma. A man engaged in a different-but-similar niche website has successfully campaigned the past two years for donations, along the lines of a PBS pledge drive. He has set periodic financial goals to cover his time & expenses, then asked readers to contribute whatever they can. This seems like a plausible solution, but again, I am not sure how readers would react. Would people be willing to pay for a service they have already come to expect and enjoy for free?

Please, if you value the website and the work that I have done, give me your feedback. It is essential for the continuation of The Daily Dish.

Happy Feet.

~ thedailydish ~ 27 Comments

Today I am going to address a topic near and dear to my ankles. My feet. Perhaps the most under-appreciated set of appendages on my body. These guys are simply terrific. And deserving of more than a little praise now and again. I don’t know about you, but nothing feels better than having my feet rubbed. Just thinking about it is making me drool. My poor husband would rub them this instant I am sure, but he is hard at work right now, trying to finish up his last paper of his very last semester of graduate school, and that is just a little more important. So for now I will simply massage them with my words.

My feet are not small and dainty like those you see in magazines. No. They are large and skinny and canoe-esque. They are a size 10. That is the biggest “normal” women’s size. I say “normal” in parens b/c I know I will be getting 300 hits on this post and it will surely inspire blood-thirsty debate among foot people, the same way my blonde posts have taken on a life of their own. But I digress. My feet are big. And I for one am glad. My sister is 6 ft. tall and wears a size 8. You can imagine the teetering taking place there. Here, no problem. I am 2 inches shorter and my jumbo feet keep me planted firmly to the ground. Of course, I also got cursed w/ Meniere’s Disease. But I guess the Big Guy knew what he was doing. Giving me the big feet. NOT A SMALL THING when you suffer from Meniere’s Disease. I like being steady. I Love my big feet.

My toes are all long too. They are so long my sister calls them “finger toes.” I do not use my feet as hands, but it is comforting to know I have back-ups. Perhaps (just for fun) I could learn to play the piano w/ them. My second toe is also longer than my first. I have heard this is called Morton’s Toe. I did not know that the Greeks felt this was the coolest, most attractive and ideal thing ever on a foot. Mostly I thought it was a little weird. My mom’s feet look almost exactly identical, except they are 26 years older. It is really cool knowing what my feet will look like in 26 years. She takes really nice care of her feet. Routine pedicures. Tons of nice shoes. BUT – now brace yourselves – she crams them into HIGH HEELS every day for WORK. YOUCH! Those poor feet. I remember when I worked in an office and had to wear pumps every day. SUCKFEST. The foot equivalent of wearing those painted-on pants Olivia Newton John wears in the last scene of Grease, when she & John Travolta are shaking in that carnival ride. ALL SHOW. Except pointier, and more blister inducing.

Since my feet are always there for me, I like to be there for them. And since I am home full-time, I no longer wear high heels w/ regularity. Me & the feet like comfy shoes. In the summer I favor Birkenstocks. YES I know people call them Jesus sandals. But if they were good enough for JESUS, you can damn well bet they’re good enough for me. I also love Converse all stars. They are simply the best sneakers ever made. I guess you could say I really go for flat shoes. The flatter the better. At 5 ft 10 — more heel and I am towering above the population like an Amazon woman. Which is actually kind of fun. But not for long, since those high heels make my big feet ACHE. In winter I wear my Ugg boots. I have 3 pairs and they all look like crap. They are so beaten up. But there simply is no greater boot. Why no one thought of bringing these to my attention 20 yrs ago, I will never know. My feet get crazy cold in winter. No matter what I do, they feel like two ice slabs at the bottom of a lake. BUT NOT IN MY UGGS! AHHH, toasty.

I never ever EVERRRRR paint my fingernails. Well, okay – on occasion, but hardly ever. But I always like keeping my toenails bright and shiny w/ polish. Two days ago I gave them a nice paint job. Two coats of 10-day chip resistant splendor in #49 Steady Ready pink. Why anyone would call a rose-colored hue Steady Ready I do not know, but I like it. It gives me an added layer of protection and cuteness when my toes are wearing it. I like to be Steady, and now I am Ready. Thank you Sally Hanson, wherever you are.

So let’s give these unsung heroes their due. We all praise the heck out of marathon runners, nurses, teachers, lunch ladies, dog walkers, postal carriers, and everyone else who is on their feet all day. OH WAIT – We DON’T?? WELL THEN. Let’s give it up for them too. ALL those people on their feet everyday, working hard to make each of our lives better. And ALL THOSE HARDWORKING FEET! Where would we be w/out them?

Life, liberty & the pursuit of happiness

~ thedailydish ~ 8 Comments

It’s amazing how a day away from things can give perspective. Severed from my electrical umbilical cord, I AM A WHOLE NEW PERSON. Well not really, but it did allow me to put a day’s distance between me & THE DISH.

Part of the reason I had to stay off the computer was so I wouldn’t cave. B/c part of me just doesn’t want to stop doing The Daily Dish. Day in and day out. Forever and ever. Amen. This *part* of me is stubborn. It doesn’t care about ME. It is devoted to others. Their well-being. Their welfare. Their nutritional goals. SCREW YOU, it says. I call it Utilitarian Me, after John Stuart Mill. This part of me is always super determined. Disciplined. Moral. And now. ANGRY.

It is hard giving something up. Doubly so, when a part of you reeeeaaaaalllly doesn’t want to. Even if it’s bad for you or drives you crazy or makes you smell. Which isn’t my case, really, but you catch my drift. The Daily Dish is a good thing – a great thing, even. But it isn’t good for me right now. I am already juggling too much between the website, the kitchen, and my life. And now that summer’s fast approaching, I have been spending an exorbitant amount of time stressing over how I will get everything done with BOTH daughters at home. I shouldn’t be worried about any of that. I should be thinking of all the fun we’ll be having over the next few months. The beautiful weather. The hot days full of adventures and memories and time together. Instead I am thinking about the stupid website.

My daughters are, and have always been, my first priority. I gave up my career to stay home full time and I’ve never regretted it. I should feel no obligation to maintain a website I created out of the goodness of my own heart. And yet, I do. OF COURSE YOU KNOW I DO. But WHY? When I do it for no pay and it is becoming too taxing for words, that’s a bad thing. Lately I’ve felt like a fox in a trap, wondering whether I’ll have to chew off my own leg to save myself. My urge to maintain the status quo is almost too strong for my own good.

For now, it’s necessary to take a break. The website will remain as it’s been. I am not taking it down. I have avoided even changing it from the Memorial Day page, for fear I’ll CAVE. For the past year and a half, some part of my brain, sometimes all of it, has been consumed with this website. It’s like a baby. I literally gave birth to it, and it has been my passion. Developing recipes, deciding what to make, how to make it. What to work on, what to drop. I was already crazy about food and photography, but you put them together and I AM INSANE. When I was sick, I kept going. Doing anything dizzy is not a lot of fun. But still I did it, because I felt others were counting on me. When I went on vacation, I worried about my readers. Would they be okay? Would they be cheating? I thought more about them than I did myself.

I cannot tell you how liberating it is, after all these months, to taste FREEDOM. I spent 8 hours today cleaning my house. And even though I despise cleaning, today it felt good. No website. No recipe. As I scrubbed toilets, I thought about how SPARKLING THEY WERE. As I vacuumed, I thought how wondrous a machine a vacuum is, and how glad I am to have one. As my back ached while I bent over mopping the last floor of the house, I thanked GOD that I was finished. I wasn’t preoccupied with getting THE DISH done so I could take pictures while the light was good. Or having to orchestrate cooking of THE DISH so that it would conveniently coincide w/ mealtime. I didn’t have to think about any of that. Now my house is clean. And NOT ONLY THAT. BUT my priorities are straight, and summer is almost here.

So please don’t be sad. I want you all to know that this isn’t the end – it’s really, truly, the beginning. I have the next 3 months w/ my girls. I am SO EXCITED!! We will have so much fun together, and I will be blogging here about it all, sharing everything w/ you, my friends. In the fall, my daughters will BOTH be going off to school. And then – the fun BEGINS. The start of a real adventure for me. I’ve spent the past 8 years at home, being here for my family. Loving them, taking care of them, making everyone else a priority. For good bad & or UGLY, I’ve done it all. But come September, it’s Christy Time. IT’S ALL ME. And then anything is possible. Stay tuned. B/c come what may, I promise, it’ll be fun.