This is my 272 post over the past year which roughly equates to about nine months. In this literary gestation, I have enjoyed reading your thoughts, linking to your fabulous blogs and becoming disciplined in the writing process. While that last one sounds like “work”, it really isn’t. It has helped me clarify what I love in my life, which topics connected with people and what generated the most comments(which often surprised me).
Has my hair turned completely white? Is my face frozen into a likeness of the mask from Scream? No? Are you sure? Okay, that’s good news because I let my son drive this weekend for an entire 45 minutes….in a large, empty parking lot….at 30 mph. I understand it’s not doing laps at the Atlanta motor speedway, but it was his first time (that I know of) behind the wheel of a car. I had been dreading this moment for years, but after a great week at school for him, I kept my promise and there we were.
I am a Florida native and lived in the state for the first 28 years (on and off) of my life. I didn’t really realize that the Florida state of mind is a little skewed until I moved away. I don’t know if it is the heat (AND the humidity), the odd mix of retirees and parolees, or the many cultures blended and shaken with Gulf and Atlantic waters, just for good measure. If you have ever read any of Carl Hiassen’s books (Basket Case, Sick Puppy, Nature Girl, to name a few), you get a picture of the odd circus of characters that inherit my birthplace. That’s not to say there aren’t plenty of good, hardworking, normal folks, but Florida seems to attract more than it’s share of delusional cuckoos.
I really enjoy cooking and baking and no, they are not the same thing. I love food-how it looks, how it smells and definitely how it tastes. I am not one of those poor souls who only views eating as sustenance. No, it is a purely pleasurable sensory experience and cooking is how I care for people around me. I try and stay away from weird foods like pates or terrines, anything that resembles the consistency of jello really, and make an effort to use fresh ingredients when I can. There is a conundrum in my house however, in that whatever I cook goes woefully unappreciated by my kids.
I stopped into Babies R Us to pick up a shower gift for a teacher I work with. She is adorable and VERY pregnant with her baby, a girl due in about five weeks. It had been a few years since I had been in this store as my youngest nephew is already three (and my own baby is eleven). My first stop was to print off her registry to find something she might like. It was fourteen pages long. Really. Did I mention this was her first baby? I am sure she was thinking, like we all did, that you actually need everything for all possible situations even before the baby is born. New mothers make boy scouts look like unprepared slackers. Our rally cry is “How will I ever live without that???”
My parents just celebrated their forty-fifth wedding anniversary. I am so grateful to see a healthy and happy marriage because I realize just how rare they really are. It is still a hope in my heart that I will find that one day too. I hear from other single friends how hard it is to find a “good guy” in Atlanta, but I’d like to think there are still a few out there. This belief was underscored when I came across an article in the AJC about Jim and Trisha Duguay (Couples Wedding Vows Put to the Test).
The first week of school went by in a blink and we made it through relatively unscathed (see We have a winner folks). By Fridays, I am toast and I look forward to not doing too much of anything as I become one with the couch, but not this particular Friday. After school, I rushed home to let the dog out, get one kid to a doctor’s appointment and make sure my other kiddo was packed and ready for a weekend church retreat with hundreds of middle schoolers (pray for those chaperones !!) and then fulfill my football mom commitment to work concessions for the Friday night varsity game.
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