Simple and sweet

"Marriage is a contract. Love...love is a completely other thing. You don't have to be married to experience love."

- Broken English (movie)

Lessons from a 4 yr old

This summer I'm working part time as a counselor at a farm's summer program. The campers are between 3-11 years old. I'm working with the 4 year olds. Having spent time recently with a 5 year old (my sweet as pie and so adorable you could eat him nephew Riley), I thought I had this down pat. Here are some things I forgot from when he was 4 -

1. they walk slow, I mean, SLOW

2. they can't all wipe their own asses

3. they get distracted after about 1 minute of you trying to talk "seriously" to them, about anything

4. small things are HUGE to them ie feelings, bugs, trees, experiences

5. they do not lie, they are "making up stories"


These are just a few things I've been taught in the past three days.

I'd also like to share this one incident that completely struck me because I could SO relate to this particular 4 year old reaction -

A little girl was waiting for her mother to pick her up at the end of the day (which is 12:30 pm, f**k yah!). She was spinning around in happy circles on the grass. When she happened to stop, and saw her father coming towards her, she burst out crying. Literally, no 'Hi Daddy' or pause for questions, just instant tears. Her father quickly tried to explain he thought this might happen as he and the mother in question had not had time to figure out who could pick up the little girl and hence could not tell the little girl who would be there.

Yes, I could relate to the little girl's reaction. No, I do not instantly burst into tears when my expectations are not met, but damn do I WANT to! Wouldn't it be nice to just sob and weep uncontrollably if and when we are disappointed or completely thrown off? For instance, I remember this time my beau and I went to see a movie. Of course I can't remember the title, but at the time, I'd gotten so excited to see this movie. And it was a prequel or a sequel or something long waited for, by both of us. We got there and found out all three cinemas showing it were SOLD OUT! I was SO disappointed...and I could not just let it go. I moped all night long. Whined so much I annoyed even my beau. If I'd burst into tears, maybe I could have moved on faster....who knows.

The Affair

This is probably way too personal a question for people to share honest answers with me, a perfect stranger, throwing such a question into the internet world. However, I have to ask. This musical comitradegy Romance and Cigarettes has me wondering...

More and more in books, on film, and on t.v. I see over and over and over again - married men. cheating. Married men. Having affairs. Why? Is this a truth? An infallible truth? All men cheat? Is that really so? Am I naive to think, to hope, to believe otherwise?



So I am wondering a few things -

1) has your husband ever cheated on you? are you still together?

2) have you cheated? are you still together?

3) have you ever been the other woman? and if yes, have you then been cheated on and did you react differently?

Now, I am not dismissing the fact that women, too, have their affairs. Because they do. However, if I could somehow run a statistical search to find out how many movies and/or books feature womens' affairs, I'm sure that number would be drastically lower than the mens' affairs numbers.

Bye Bye Hair

About a year ago when I first considered cutting my hair, I decided I would donate it to LocksofLove. I studied short hair cuts, found a a few cute ones, was all ready...and never followed through. I just couldn't cut my long long hair. Some weird attachment formed and I couldn't see myself without my long hair, I couldn't identify my feminitity without my long hair.

Since when I could have hair, I had long hair. From grades kindergarten to sophomore year of high school, I had long hair. From
sophomore year of high school (1996) until...2003, I had varying lengths of short hair from pixie/boy cut to shoulder length, Jennifer Anniston's bob from Friends hair. From 2003 until a few days ago, I'd let my hair grow out again, and it was below boob length - a pretty good length for achieving that sexy pin up look of covering them with hair and nothing else.

Finally I followed through with that long ago promise of donating my hair to LocksofLove. The day I did it, I had no plans of cutting 9.5 inches of my hair off, only a trim! But I walked in, asked how much was needed, and since it would still leave me with almost shoulder length hair, I thought, meh, why not?! I am still a woman. I still feel feminine. However, I do look different. I didn't realize how easy it was to achieve a simple, elegant look with long hair. Right now I look more sporty and bookish. At the beach the other day, my beau told me I looked like a surfer girl.

Here's what it looks like just down with no styling -


Anyone have any mid-length hair tips, tricks or styles I can try?

It will grow back...

Where did May go?

Life is still interesting, I go on adventures, I'm reading a ton of good books. However, it's not noteworthy, earth shattering stuff. Life has been a series of dull moments mixed with sweet, hopefully memorable moments. I say hopefully because the memory seems to let go of the little, tender things before more horrific or extraneous memories. Unless the memory is of song lyrics from 1994, my memory don't evah let go of those.

Sigh.

I'll try to pull myself here more often, to write, to just say something. But I feel the whole pull of finding a gimmick for myself (ie. Go Green, CSA shares, blah blah blah) has been DONE! Is DONE! Why re-do it? Just as my mind struggles to find something to write about for a book some day, I can't even think of anything to write here, for an audience (maybe, if y'all haven't left for good)

Today is a new day.

Tonight there is a meeting and discussion in my town on what are, functions, and how to create Common Security Clubs. My town is pretty liberal, eco-minded, and full of yim yams, hippies, artists, and tree huggers, so this idea or something like it may already be happening. I'm always interested in the crowd these meetings draw too, and I scan the faces for some like my own, for peers, just to know there are others out there. It be great to know more people my age in my neighborhood, to actually meet and talk with them, maybe break bread. I feel like these meetings are a good place to start.

Pork Products - Meal #2 - Pork Chopssss and Apple Sauce

Alton Brown has become the guru of cooking in our kitchen. If you have not heard of AB, you should look him up or get his cook book - I'm Just Here for the Food.

Tonight we used his breaded pork chop recipe with one minor revision - instead of crushed salt and vinegar chips, we used Italian bread crumbs. If we'd read the recipe first, we would SO have used the crushed chips as that sounds simply fabulous. My beau cooked the chops to perfection - tender, white, and juicy. For sides we had steamed broccoli and wild long grain rice with mushrooms. The photo below shows the exact thickness of the pork chops we ate, but ours were not quite as oddly shaped as this one.



ps. we've been eating the smoked bacon periodically for breakfast and damn if it isn't the best bacon EVER! One difference we've noticed from store bought bacon is there is less grease left in the pan. This is a good sign for our health, yay!, but bad for my beau because he has been using bacon grease as lighter fluid for his smokey joe and other charcoal grill. I believe this bacon grease chimney lighter candle is also an AB idea - the man is simply BRILLIANT!

Perfect Summer Time Meal

Sweet Italian Sausage on the Grill with Fried Onions





Minus the bun...and minus the ketchup, this is what was for dinner last night. Nothing to making the meal either.

Slice open any sausage of your choice, place face down on a hot grill, and cook 'til done. Onions and peppers can be sliced, wrapped in tin foil and also thrown on the grill to cook (takes much less time to cook than the sausage). Or they can be pan fried. Once lightly browned, veggies are done! Finish cooking sausage and add onions, mustard, and horse radish to top (or as dippers on the side). We added some cooked spinach and macaroni and cheese for sides.

Perfect summer meal...