I was an asshole today.
I didn't mean to be an asshole, it was a situation in which I did not care to explain myself and my actions just looked all assholey.
I've been in my head going around with the whole not having babies thing for a month or so now and I'm trying to work it out. Some days are good and some days are shit.
One of the girls I work with has a 4 year old daughter. Over the weekend she brought her daughter with her when she came to the office for a bit. Not a problem. She gave her little girl a few markers and some blank copy paper from the recycle box. Not a problem. The little girl drew her pictures and had a ball. Not a problem. Mommy gave her little girl some tape and the little girl taped her art to a central wall. Minor annoyance, not really a problem.
When the mother came in this morning she laughed out loud and said oh look, her art is still on the wall. She peeled the drawing off the wall and walked over and stuck it up in my desk area. I looked up at her and shook my head. She said ohhh isn't it great?! And I shook my head again and said uh uh.
Well, I may as well have killed a basket of kittens or something because she looked absolutely stricken. She quickly moved the drawing over to her work area an isle over.
If I've got to look at scribble art in blazing colors it's going to be from my kids - and I won't be having any of those.
I almost feel sorry.
Monday, September 14, 2009
Sunday, September 06, 2009
The Official End of Summer
With all the time that has passed since my last real update you'd think lots and lots of stuff would have taken place in my world. Truth is I've mostly just been working.
One of the real highlights was Johnny Cash coming to visit in March over her spring break. We didn't get to do nearly as many things as I had hoped we would - a project of mine lingered and ruined most of our plans. When she left the scent of her Chanel No. 5 lingered for days.
My super friend Nan came to visit in June and we had a wonderful time. We did loads of shopping and went to dinner at every single place I could think of. One of our adventures was a trip to Hyde Park, New York. I love the upper Hudson Valley. We went to Eleanor Roosevelt's summer cabin and had the loveliest docent guide. She told stories of Eleanor's kindness and generosity. (For those who may not know, Eleanor was the First Lady of our country, her husband was President Franklin D. Roosevelt - a good man.)
On our tour of Hyde Park we passed the Culinary Institute of America (we totally should have stopped and eaten there) and toured a home of one of the Vanderbilts. The grounds were so beautiful and lush, the interior was too fussy for my taste, but I enjoyed the peak into the past.
In mid July Sweet Pea came to see me for about a week and oh the fun we had. We drove all over Connecticut and went shopping and antiquing and to the movies and picture taking. We had so much fun. One morning I surprised her and took her to the train station. We rode into the city for the day and went to the Met and Top of the Rock (top of Rockefeller Center) and then explored all of Grand Central Station. We just had the greatest time together. I absolutely loved having her here.
When she left I flew home with her and spent time with my family. I miss them - being a part of their everyday lives, keeping up with what's going on, always having them within reach. It was comforting to not be alone all the time.
I've always wanted to be one of those people who made friends easily and always had someone to hang out with or talk to. I'm not. Never have been. It would make being here so much easier.
I hope y'all had really adventurous summers with lots of escapades, good ice cream, and more sunshine than you could stand.
One of the real highlights was Johnny Cash coming to visit in March over her spring break. We didn't get to do nearly as many things as I had hoped we would - a project of mine lingered and ruined most of our plans. When she left the scent of her Chanel No. 5 lingered for days.
My super friend Nan came to visit in June and we had a wonderful time. We did loads of shopping and went to dinner at every single place I could think of. One of our adventures was a trip to Hyde Park, New York. I love the upper Hudson Valley. We went to Eleanor Roosevelt's summer cabin and had the loveliest docent guide. She told stories of Eleanor's kindness and generosity. (For those who may not know, Eleanor was the First Lady of our country, her husband was President Franklin D. Roosevelt - a good man.)
On our tour of Hyde Park we passed the Culinary Institute of America (we totally should have stopped and eaten there) and toured a home of one of the Vanderbilts. The grounds were so beautiful and lush, the interior was too fussy for my taste, but I enjoyed the peak into the past.
In mid July Sweet Pea came to see me for about a week and oh the fun we had. We drove all over Connecticut and went shopping and antiquing and to the movies and picture taking. We had so much fun. One morning I surprised her and took her to the train station. We rode into the city for the day and went to the Met and Top of the Rock (top of Rockefeller Center) and then explored all of Grand Central Station. We just had the greatest time together. I absolutely loved having her here.
When she left I flew home with her and spent time with my family. I miss them - being a part of their everyday lives, keeping up with what's going on, always having them within reach. It was comforting to not be alone all the time.
I've always wanted to be one of those people who made friends easily and always had someone to hang out with or talk to. I'm not. Never have been. It would make being here so much easier.
I hope y'all had really adventurous summers with lots of escapades, good ice cream, and more sunshine than you could stand.
Sunday, August 09, 2009
Fried
As everyone here knows - because I can't shut up about it - I am from Texas. I'm lucky, blessed, fortunate, kissed by the gods... however you want to say it. And the thing about Texas is that it lies at sort of a cross roads geographically speaking. East Texas gets all the rich, sentimental, gracious culture of the old south. South (and bits of West) Texas is steeped in hundreds of years of Mexican culture. Northern Texas is on the edge of the Midwest - but just far enough away to not get stuck with the accent. Central to West Texas gives us the danger, romance, and sex appeal of the wild west.
All of these different influences combine into a mindset and culture that is all our own. One of my favorite products of all this convergence is the food. We all know the saying, "Never trust a skinny chef", well, I'm not a thin girl so you can believe me when I tell you that the food in Texas can hold its own with any other cuisine. I miss it. I miss it the way a caught fish misses water.
I went home for not quite two weeks in July and got to spend lots of time with the family. We shopped, watched movies, played games, talked, and talked, and talked, and ate. We ate a lot. There was bar-b-que so succulent, savory, and smokey that the moment I inhaled my mouth watered and my tummy growled and I swear I was on the verge of a swoon.
And the Tex-Mex? Get. Out. Enchiladas with savory chili gravy, tamales with fresh masa, tacos just soggy enough from the picadillo so the bottom didn't crack, guacamole so verdant and fresh it smelled like summer. And the fajitas... my belly aches with fullness from just thinking about it.
Well, this weekend I was in need of a taste of home so I broke out the big heavy dutch oven, filled it with two inches of Crisco and fried me up some delicious, tender catfish. It was amazing! Now, you can fry anything in the South and it will be oh so delicious, but different things need different batters or coatings. If you were to fry up a twinkie or candy bar you'd need a thinned pancake type batter. If you were doing chicken fried steak it's a few simple steps of dusting with flour, dredging in egg wash, and then another dip in flour. Well, for fried catfish you dust the fish in a mix of flour and corn meal.
I pulled my catfish out of the fridge, rinsed it, and then patted it dry. You can choose any ole size you like - the full fillet, strips, nuggets, whatever makes you happy, but I cut it into nuggets. While it was spread out of my cutting board I gave both sides a good layer of salt, lemon pepper, old bay, onion powder, and garlic powder. Next I mixed together a cup of all purpose flour, 1/2 cup of corn meal, and a heaping tablespoon of old bay. I mixed that all up and and then tossed in the fish nuggets for a good dip. By this time the grease was plenty hot - I tested it by dropping a tiny bit of the flour into it. It bubbled right up, so I knew it was ready. The fish swam around in the hot grease for 4 to 6 minutes and was light golden brown when I dipped it out with my spider.
Kids, it was so good and tender and crispy, the cornmeal gave it just the right bit of crunch to the tooth, and it was succulent. It's really the easiest thing in the world, and you can try it with any kind of fish you like - and shrimp too!
Give it a shot. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go pillage the fridge and find another tender bite of my delicious fish.
All of these different influences combine into a mindset and culture that is all our own. One of my favorite products of all this convergence is the food. We all know the saying, "Never trust a skinny chef", well, I'm not a thin girl so you can believe me when I tell you that the food in Texas can hold its own with any other cuisine. I miss it. I miss it the way a caught fish misses water.
I went home for not quite two weeks in July and got to spend lots of time with the family. We shopped, watched movies, played games, talked, and talked, and talked, and ate. We ate a lot. There was bar-b-que so succulent, savory, and smokey that the moment I inhaled my mouth watered and my tummy growled and I swear I was on the verge of a swoon.
And the Tex-Mex? Get. Out. Enchiladas with savory chili gravy, tamales with fresh masa, tacos just soggy enough from the picadillo so the bottom didn't crack, guacamole so verdant and fresh it smelled like summer. And the fajitas... my belly aches with fullness from just thinking about it.
Well, this weekend I was in need of a taste of home so I broke out the big heavy dutch oven, filled it with two inches of Crisco and fried me up some delicious, tender catfish. It was amazing! Now, you can fry anything in the South and it will be oh so delicious, but different things need different batters or coatings. If you were to fry up a twinkie or candy bar you'd need a thinned pancake type batter. If you were doing chicken fried steak it's a few simple steps of dusting with flour, dredging in egg wash, and then another dip in flour. Well, for fried catfish you dust the fish in a mix of flour and corn meal.
I pulled my catfish out of the fridge, rinsed it, and then patted it dry. You can choose any ole size you like - the full fillet, strips, nuggets, whatever makes you happy, but I cut it into nuggets. While it was spread out of my cutting board I gave both sides a good layer of salt, lemon pepper, old bay, onion powder, and garlic powder. Next I mixed together a cup of all purpose flour, 1/2 cup of corn meal, and a heaping tablespoon of old bay. I mixed that all up and and then tossed in the fish nuggets for a good dip. By this time the grease was plenty hot - I tested it by dropping a tiny bit of the flour into it. It bubbled right up, so I knew it was ready. The fish swam around in the hot grease for 4 to 6 minutes and was light golden brown when I dipped it out with my spider.
Kids, it was so good and tender and crispy, the cornmeal gave it just the right bit of crunch to the tooth, and it was succulent. It's really the easiest thing in the world, and you can try it with any kind of fish you like - and shrimp too!
Give it a shot. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go pillage the fridge and find another tender bite of my delicious fish.
Monday, August 03, 2009
And Now the Book is a Movie
So about two years ago I read this super amazing book and fell madly in love with it. It was full of emotion and passion and it made me happy and sad and all that mooshy sort of stuff. The book was The Time Traveler's Wife. This is a link to see the trailer on YouTube.
The sucky part is that I can't STAND Rachel McAdams. She's like spilled sugar on the kitchen floor when I'm walking around barefoot. Annoying. I'm hope, hope, hoping she knocks this one out of the park, because I'm gonna be mightily pissed off if she fucks up this fantastic story.
The sucky part is that I can't STAND Rachel McAdams. She's like spilled sugar on the kitchen floor when I'm walking around barefoot. Annoying. I'm hope, hope, hoping she knocks this one out of the park, because I'm gonna be mightily pissed off if she fucks up this fantastic story.
Saturday, August 01, 2009
Well, well, well...
So the motto here at The Daily Minute is "content to amuse", which, to my great delight, can go two ways. Because really, life is boring if everything is only one way. You, dear reader, can interpret it to mean either:
The words and thoughts entered here can be amusing - since they are never truly informative.
OR
That I, your so not at all diligent writer, am satisfied with just amusing you.
I like both. Feel free to use whichever pleases you most.
I have been absent from the pages of this blithe tome for months and months now. Why? Well, I don't really have a very good excuse. I've been working far too much - but so have you. I've only traveled twice - and most of you have likely done far more than that. I've been unmitigatingly depressed as all hell. I think winter here triggered something in me that had long been asleep. It has swum over me like a thick honey syrup and I have been unable to shake it from my soul. It is sort of like the dogshit you just can't seem to scrape off your shoe. It just doesn't all go away.
What I seem to have forgotten though is that this silly little blog has always been my catharsis. I vent my spleen, bitch, piss, moan, bellyache, whine, kvetch, cry, and bleed here. I hope to put a funny spin on my bitching so I don't sound like a complete and total whiny asshole bitch, but I know it doesn't always work. I got into the mental space of trying to be upbeat and find a spiffy spin to put on things to keep them from sounding the way I really felt, or to just talk about the fun/funny stuff. And really, how stupid is that since this is where I come to actually let the vitriol flow? I am too obtuse for words. Or, as some pedestrian sitcom zeitgeist once quipped - I am just too stupid to live. (Yes, I do know that I am a somewhat bright girl. This is why I sometimes find it shocking when I have done something really boneheaded.)
I don't know a lot these days. I'm working too much at a job that I love but am sick of. I miss my family the way I would miss air if my supply were suddenly gone. I've been seeing a fella since May, but I got a voicemail the other day saying he missed me but that we needed to talk. No idea what that means, but I am - surprisingly - not all strung out about it, just curious. How's that for modern detachment or healthy distance or what the fuck ever it's being called now?
I could say that I'm back with a vengeance, but seriously, I'll be doing good to come on once a week and spit out whatever shit is in my head.
I check in on y'all in my on unpredictable pattern and continue to laugh, smile, cry, and mourn with you. Maybe I'll be by soon.
xo
The words and thoughts entered here can be amusing - since they are never truly informative.
OR
That I, your so not at all diligent writer, am satisfied with just amusing you.
I like both. Feel free to use whichever pleases you most.
I have been absent from the pages of this blithe tome for months and months now. Why? Well, I don't really have a very good excuse. I've been working far too much - but so have you. I've only traveled twice - and most of you have likely done far more than that. I've been unmitigatingly depressed as all hell. I think winter here triggered something in me that had long been asleep. It has swum over me like a thick honey syrup and I have been unable to shake it from my soul. It is sort of like the dogshit you just can't seem to scrape off your shoe. It just doesn't all go away.
What I seem to have forgotten though is that this silly little blog has always been my catharsis. I vent my spleen, bitch, piss, moan, bellyache, whine, kvetch, cry, and bleed here. I hope to put a funny spin on my bitching so I don't sound like a complete and total whiny asshole bitch, but I know it doesn't always work. I got into the mental space of trying to be upbeat and find a spiffy spin to put on things to keep them from sounding the way I really felt, or to just talk about the fun/funny stuff. And really, how stupid is that since this is where I come to actually let the vitriol flow? I am too obtuse for words. Or, as some pedestrian sitcom zeitgeist once quipped - I am just too stupid to live. (Yes, I do know that I am a somewhat bright girl. This is why I sometimes find it shocking when I have done something really boneheaded.)
I don't know a lot these days. I'm working too much at a job that I love but am sick of. I miss my family the way I would miss air if my supply were suddenly gone. I've been seeing a fella since May, but I got a voicemail the other day saying he missed me but that we needed to talk. No idea what that means, but I am - surprisingly - not all strung out about it, just curious. How's that for modern detachment or healthy distance or what the fuck ever it's being called now?
I could say that I'm back with a vengeance, but seriously, I'll be doing good to come on once a week and spit out whatever shit is in my head.
I check in on y'all in my on unpredictable pattern and continue to laugh, smile, cry, and mourn with you. Maybe I'll be by soon.
xo
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
