Escape from the Jiggly Blob

My big post-Thanksgiving beef is about the quality of the food. All of the usual suspects were there: mashed potatoes, turkey, gravy, stuffing, etc. Our contributions were veggies: red cabbage (w/ apples, bacon, a little brown sugar and vinegar), and green beans w/ anchovy butter (the butter from a Jamie Oliver recipe usually for asparagus, out of season and hard to find). Our hosts were not veggie fans, so the field was wide open on this one, and I thought I'd raise the bar a little. The cabbage turned out great. I didn't maintain total control over the green beans, which were to be lightly steamed to maintain their bright color and crispness. I paid dearly for this--both the ideal color and texture were lost in favor of their being "hot". People did compliment the veggies, but kept asking questions about the butter, which was served on the side in ramekins--"what's in it again?". Just a bit too foreign....

This might be a crazy expectation, but it is too much to ask that the menu for our national feast days not include Jello? D and I had a sustained conversation about trying to push things a little bit with the quality of our feast menus. Life's too short for bad food, and if I'm going to pack in the calories during these meals, I want the food to be really excellent, you know? We're now talking about possibly hosting a Christmas meal, to show everyone how it's done. We'll likely be accused of being snobs for a portion of our family, but at least we'll eat well.

Reality Check

Completely blown away (ha ha), by this article in the New York Times: totally outrageous hair stylist prices! We pay a little over $800 for a month's worth of Montessori-based daycare for our son....

A short week, gratefully, chipping away at work, but not overly energized to overachieve (I first wrote "overarchive"--the library context coming out). Mulling over the qualities necessary for my new unit supervisor, and cranking on the position description. Dream candidate, where are you?

Now back to duo-parenting, armed with a new understanding (and appreciation) of what single parents (my own mother included) go through to corral the energy of little ones.

A well-rounded weekend: experienced a cathartic "dark night of the soul" on Saturday, to be comforted and redirected by a totally on target sermon on Sunday. Funny how the Big Man work that way--he knows just what I'm going through and for that I am grateful indeed.

An AAARRGGGH Week

It's already end of Thursday and it's nothing but an AAARRGGHH week. Of course this would have to be the solo-parenting week (hubby in NYC), that I get my ladies' time, have to do an unexpected mediation w/ staff in my office, have another unmentionable ailment, and encounter massive amounts of toddler resistance in any of the really critical transitions (getting into the car/carseat to leave for school/leave for home). OK, so I underestimated all of the things that my husband does to contribute, but did all of the other stuff have to crash in too?

Also trying to be a SuperMom and not relying on the network nearly as much as I should have. Will do differently next time....

Progress on the Piles

We're facing a curious combination of Thursday holiday/Friday non-holiday, which means lots of folks will be taking Friday off. I'll be here, making progress on the piles (both on the desk and on the plentiful library shelving in my office). Today is a preview of that high-productivity day (did I just jinx it?), with moving some stale to-do tasks along. That always feels good.

Nothing much else to report. Trying to steer clear of the current events stream.

What's a World-Dweller to Do?

Friday, still in post-election recovery, and curiously feeling detached from the results. It's odd this mixture of extraordinary emotional investment in the process--being a total news junkie throughout the campaign, flipping across all the networks on Tuesday, surfing between the LA Times graphic and CNN's stats on Ohio--with a detached hovering, observing the playing out of power struggles between men (since they're mostly men). It's the combination of the letdown of not having your man win (and who did win), with knowing that it's part of a bigger chain of events not controlled by any human being, and that the eventual outcome will be so unlike what's transpiring down here that it's "all gonna be okay." It's sounds kind of goofy writing it down, and that's because it is--it's the greatest goofiest thing ever and it makes me start to get goofy just thinking about it.

Still, it's interesting negotiating this newbie believer trail with all of the other beliefs, assumptions, opinions about the world and how we are supposed to act in it. Most recent sermons have included something saying that as Christians we have an obligation to vote--part of the obeying your government/render unto Rome that which is Rome's clause. Of course, the Big Guy's rules trump all of that, and there is a lot of trumping going on.

More daily life stuff: library work has been incredibly hectic, with our major domestic vendor recovering from a systems migration, one of our critical staff's about to start a job in another unit, gifts workflows to manage, committees to serve on and report to.... Very draining. Tonight's solution? Pizza and beer with friends--a couple of the things that make being in the world not so bad at all.

Squeaked by Another One

The latest lesson: going against the tide of cultural phenomena is incredibly hard, learned this weekend by guiding our toddler son through yet another "holiday" that has taken on extraordinarily commercial features, in addition to having origins that look to be incompatible with some spiritual life choices we have made. In short, we skipped the usual Halloween festivities in favor of a "Treat Street" festival at a local church, which meant our house was dark (didn't get egged), and probably provoked at least the curiosity of some of our neighbors (I may be overreaching on this last one--they may not care at all). We gave our son the option of wearing his duck towel as a costume, but he would have no part of it. The festival was very crowded, attesting to the embracing of this alternative by significant numbers in our town--a positive reinforcement on our journey.

On the political front, I offer Bush Relatives for Kerry, gleaned from the Christians for Kerry/Edwards site mentioned earlier. We are still very much involved in the world, and in the context we are in we have voting as one of our opportunities as citizens.

Librarian note: more staff movement--my key supervisor taking a position in another unit, which undoubtedly means more work for me until a replacement comes along (unless I delegate almost all of it, which, given the position, I can't see doing). The departure of a key subordinate is an opportunity to do monitoring of a sort that you just can't do by relying on "reporting up" or by other means. Send in the clones....