Someone in my subdivision might be a bit of a jerk, but I have no idea who it is which makes me wonder if perhaps I’M a bit of a jerk (I am. Aren’t we all?), and the past week has found me doing a difficult dance. (Please know that I’m purposefully forcing you to surf on oceans of obscurantism because: 1. I won’t drag you into this, and 2. Everyone has ideas and opinions and so do we and We’re All (Mostly) Fine in (Mostly) Every Conceivable Way and I spent all of last week reading and hearing opinions and ideas, and for now I just want to hear the water dripping from my weird little fountain in the kitchen.)
To balance out the neighborhood crumminess:
1. I visited a new friend (the mother of one of Meredith’s friends) for lunch and I learned that we lean the same way politically and socially and literarily. (Socially and literarily? Not a big deal. I think people are mostly nice and funny and want to read good books. Politically? Let’s just say this. The things that resonate with me don’t resonate with many folks in this neck of the woods. Finding someone with similar opinions is like reaching into your pocket and pulling out a fresh from the oven oatmeal cookie. Without raisins.)
2. Jeff was out of town for a few days which never doesn’t suck, but a restaurant gave me a muffin while he was gone. AND, that muffin came on the heels of eating some amazing quiche and figuring out a knitting pattern for a friend so she can finish a blanket her mother was knitting for a charity.
3. I learned how to make a bracelet out of parachute cord and then I drank a delicious brown sugar vanilla soy latte.
I’m within 150 pages of finishing The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay and I don’t want it to end. Ever. ‘ ‘ ‘text/javascript’>
Omigosh. Kavalier and Klay. I LOVED that book. It made me want to read everything by Michael Chabon ever (except Wonder Boys, don’t know why but that one has never caught my fancy).
Loved. See – now I am remembering a bunch of favorite scenes from that book. Good stuff. Enjoy it while it lasts.
Please come visit me! Our Merediths (and Harper too) can bond over fluffy dogs and we can talk politics AND lattes AND books … and you can teach me how to knit! :) We have an amazing little coffee shop here, with great falafel across the street, and I am positive that we are politically, socially, literarily kindred!
I bet that there are more people than you think ’round these parts that might side with you in those areas, we just aren’t as loud as people in other areas :) Where ever did you find that fabulous latte?
Great book!
(Also, the bubble gum flavored gourmet jelly bean I happened to pop into my mouth just before typing this that I thought from the diagram was going to be cotton candy flavored? Surprisingly tasty!)
No raisins. YUM!
Here’s to balancing out the crummies. :-)
I will eat your raisins! I like them plain, or in a cookie, or a cinnamon roll, or cinnamon bread, or a muffin or carrot cake.
But NOT in spanakopita. Last week I bought some at a local place and while eating the leftovers for lunch the 2nd day found a RAISIN. ONE accidental raisin maybe I could forgive as a random kitchen accident.
But, NO. More raisins existed in the spanakopita. I lived in GREECE for a year. Such a thing has never happened to me before. I feel shocked and betrayed by the spinach filo pie and things might never be the same again.
Seeing as we live in the same county now, I completely understand about finding people with your same political views out here. Another local friend and I have decided we may be the only social Democrats in our city. We didn’t have even one Democrat candidate for mayor. It’s a very Catholic and very conservative city!
Continue writing this blog forever! You are appreciated.
Raisins. Pfffft.
Raisins are the worst. Why do they even put those things in cookies?!?
I can’t believe that I didn’t know that you dislike raisins. I apologize for giving you baked goods with raisins in them.
My homework is to find a hobby. I am going to check out this book. I seriously don’t think that I can knit. I REALLY wish I could.
Your neighbor is just going to have to get over themselves.
Mitzi – I don’t know you – I may be nothing like you. You say you are searching for a hobby, but that you don’t think you can knit. My story may be of interest to you: I thought I could not knit – and then I discovered I could, and I love it. Therefore, I invite you to consider knitting as a hobby. My past was littered with craft-y enthusiasms that never played out. I realized somewhere along the way that I have a very short attention span. Also, my motor skills are not all that. Knitting looked to me like it was complicated, and would just end up in another bin of “things I never finished”. BUT – knitting is the ideal hobby for folks with short attention spans – you can pick it up and put it down after just one row (heck – just one stitch!). Despite how the finished product looks, knitting is simple -you can make something beautiful or useful that is absolutely simple, or mind-blowingly complex, all with the two basic stitches (which really is the same stitch- forwards and backwards). If you don’t want to knit on needles, you can knit on a loom (sometimes known as Knifty Knitter), which requires even LESS manual dexterity. Like the stitches, there are projects that you can finish in one sitting (a dish cloth, or a hat knit with fat yarn) and projects that you could work on for a lifetime (I call them “assisted living knitting” because I figure I’ll be in assisted living before it’s finished). PLUS – there are all kinds of studies about how healthy knitting is, soothing, centering, etc. If you are a fidgety person (and I am) it can give you something to do with your hands. You can knit in social settings or in solitude. You can knit a project that you shove in your purse and carry around with you, or one that requires an entire dining table covered in charts and yarn. You can knit clothes that fit actual people, or you can decide that the pressure of that is too much and knit only things that do need not fit anyone at all. In short, as you can see, I would suggest that knitting could be a hobby for just about anyone, given the right knitting project. SO – perhaps – if you are looking for a hobby, you might, in fact, be able to knit.
Of course, it may not be – but if any of the things that were barriers to me knitting, are barriers that you see for you, perhaps it is interesting to know that I overcame those barriers and now I knit. Good luck in your search.
I’m all for Brown sugar anything & any oatmeal cookie (particularly McKinney’s recipe from Jeff City with coconut).
Jerks are more often deserving of pity than scorn. Come to my neighborhood. Nothin but love here.
Boo to Springfield. Disheartening. I live in very red TX and being bluish I bite my tongue and vow to never talk politics and religion. I think we might agree on many things such as books, sweet animal babies and no raisins in ANYTHING.
Well, now what am I going to do? I am very much like you politically, socially and literarily, even though I’m considerably older. And I love to knit (although I’m not as good at it as you are). But, good grief, Girl — raisins?
Let me just say last summer I made my own raisins from wild grapes a neighbor gave me that she found on one of her walks with the dogs. I was sorry when we had used all of them and I have to again resort to the kind that come in a box, even though those are very good.
So, finding out that one of my favorite people I have never actually met disdains raisins is pretty distressing. I think I’ve got ‘the vapors’ now and have to find a fainting couch. Don’t worry. I’ll get over it. Eventually.
Raisins that look like chocolate chips in cookies are the reason I have trust issues. Down with dehydrated grapes! Yay for like-minded friends, good books and free muffins.