[Heart] Note...to my Mother

I stopped by my parents’ over the weekend to visit, and walked away a recently ingested Krakowska szynka sandwich in my belly; a bag containing 4 slices of rye bread, more sandwich meat from the Polish deli, two red and two yellow onions, scallions and butter lettuce from her garden; and, last but certainly not least, a dozen pierogi.

Somehow, some way, my mother knew that I’d be in a sh*tty mood today. As if on cue, my mother’s sixth sense knew that despite my best efforts to be positive and approach everything these days with a Bring It! attitude, there would be nothing like a plate of pierogi today.

For everything in my goody bag and my belly, for not giving up being a mom who believes food is love and likes to take care of her kids, even though the youngest of them is almost 45 (me), I love my mom. Even more than I [heart] her pierogi.

Anticipation

I'm in a particularly good mood this weekend. I have a lot of energy and I'm feeling motivated to do things with that energy. Case in point, I just ironed 3 pairs of cropped pants (or are they Capris? which is which?) that I plan to wear this week. (And I hate ironing. Before the ironing episode? I organized my shoe closet.)

By 10:30 this morning I had done my laundry and had been to the gym--and that was after a leisurely 2 cups of coffee.

Even though I have spent a fair amount of time indoors this weekend, I'm not hibernating in avoidance. My windows are open, the sun is shining in, and I am not dreading tomorrow or the day after. I'm actually looking forward to tomorrow and the day after, and next weekend, and the weekend after that. I'm doing things and making lists as if in preparation for something great, something indistinct and unidentified thing just over the horizon.

I'm getting ready.

That thing on the horizon? It must be vacation.

Ten Signs...

(in no particular order) that the school year should be over.

1. You realize, as you're walking out the door, that your sweater is on inside out. (me)

2. During your 1st period class a kid tells you your bottom layer shirt is on inside-out because you actually didn't notice at home (Amy). (And you can't actually change it until you have a free moment--four hours later! That detail would be perfect in a ten things that really suck about teaching post...)

3.  "A" students become "B" students.

4. And don't care.

5. At least once a day a student asks, "can we have class outside today?" [Sure, let me see if I can channel Samantha on Bewitched: wiggle my nose and have my white board appear in the soccer field.]

6. You're so sick of taking time to make a healthy lunch at home to take to school, which you have to scarf in 20 minutes the next day, that items on the school lunch menu like "chicken fryz" become appealing.

7.  Hair clips become a daily accessory necessity.

8. You are aware of, and counting, how many days are left. (25)

9. You wonder how many of those you could get away with calling in sick. (Yet undetermined.)

10. You remember fondly that there was a June with a heatwave and early releases were called...Too hot for school...tee hee

Matter over Mind

I tried. I wanted so much to make it through to the end of Celebrity Apprentice (don’t judge me) to see who got eliminated. But in that commercial break, the last one before the final 2 minute segment, I fell asleep. Eleven o'clock is way past my bedtime on a school night, but it was do-able, I thought, after a weekend's rest. And I actually made it through until 5 minutes before 11, but then, despite my best efforts, I conked out. Just like that [cue the finger snap]. I'm just gonna rest my eyes during the commercial was the actually the beginning of 6 and half hours of restorative sleep.

Falling asleep half way through SNL the night before I could actually understand; I haven't seen 1 a.m. in a while, certainly not regularly for the sake of watching TV. I mean that's the next day on the calendar. But I tried. And at least I saw some of the much anticipated SNL hosted by Betty White. The monologue, the NPR skit, McGruber? All hysterical. But not funny enough to beat my Circadian rhythm.

So two nights in a row, I was defeated. Mind over matter no longer matters, I guess. Even where there's a will, there's an almost-45-year-old body trying to see it through. And some nights it just needs to sleep, and the need for sleep wins over the desire to keep up with pop culture. Oh well.

Add that to the growing list of things going on that make me more and more aware that I am in the middle of life, trying my best not to have a crisis.

A Perfect Storm

It's official. I have spring fever. I've made the transition from wanting to hibernate all weekend--content to leave the house only to go to the gym and grocery store, then hunker down with cookbooks and magazines and not leave again until the next morning to go the gym, and do it all over again--to wanting to be outside, in the company of others, enjoying the sunshine, suffering through the pollen. I go from being comfortably reclusive to being Suzie Social. A deck, a porch, a patio, all work for me. Outdoor cafe? Twist my arm. I start counting the days until school is out (27), and the number of weekends until my pool opens (3).

But this morning, unlike every other day this week when the sun was up at 5:15, it was still dark at 7:30 when I opened my eyes. Because it was stormy.

And in my world, thunder, wind, rain, dark skies, soft sheets and a comfy bed on a Saturday morning make a perfect storm, which gives me permission to linger there a while longer.

Prom Season

I'm not a big fan of prom season. This time of year students don't focus well in class because they'd rather be talking about their dresses and how much the dresses cost. I hate to see my female students turn orange and for the life of me can't understand why they don't see how unnatural and unattractive it looks. Fake-and-bake tans abound. Acrylic nails appear on the fingertips of girls who normally snack on them during tests. Boys aren’t nearly as preoccupied with the prom as the girls, but in general it upsets me that such a premium value is placed on a day that really will mean very little to them decades from now. Moms and Dads are happy to pay more for a dress than a season of pay-to-play or the tax increase they refused to take which equates to a fraction of pay-to-play usually, minuscule in comparison to the hundreds they drop on prom. This is how I feel as an educator.


But last night, my nephew went to his prom, and I was there at his house at four o'clock—along with my parents and his cousins—to see him in his tuxedo and take pictures and meet his date. He looked handsome of course, and his date was very pretty (and her dress was elegant and tasteful). As an aunt, I was proud of him and excited for him. I could tell he was excited, that he and his date and his friends would have a great time and talk about it for some time—not for decades, necessarily, but long enough for it to be an important night in his life. So instead of rolling my eyes back in my head I shielded them with my sunglasses so that he couldn’t tell I was a little emotional about how grown up he’s become and about seeing him off on his prom night.

Waste Not, Want Not

When I came back from Haymarket last weekend with asparagus, mushrooms, grape tomatoes, and broccoli, I needed to prove to myself that I didn’t overbuy, that I didn’t get lost in the magic and randomly buy vegetables because the price was right. I would use all the produce. Despite the fact that it didn’t cost very much, only $5.00 in fact, I wouldn’t waste it. So I set out, in a (childless, non-emaciated) Robin Miller kind of way to plan meals that would use it all. And I did. Only I did even better than that. I used other leftovers too.

On Monday I boiled enough pasta to have leftover meatballs and sauce from last week (and share some with Amy), and to have later in the week with some of the veggies. While the pasta cooked, I roasted a bunch of asparagus. I tossed the extra spaghetti in a little olive oil and put it in the fridge for another day. After snacking on a few of the delicious asparagus spears, I packed that away too.

On Tuesday, I made halibut. Before I cooked the fish, I sautéed mushrooms—enough for dinner and for that pasta sitting in my fridge. While the fish cooked, I warmed the asparagus in the same pan. I halved some grape tomatoes and tossed them in the pan too.A few minutes later I enjoyed my fish and asparagus topped with mushrooms and a few cherry tomatoes.

After dinner, I cut up the leftover asparagus and added the pieces, along with the mushrooms and leftover tomatoes, to the pasta. I decided to add some protein to the dish, and quickly thawed and sautéed some shrimp. There, I thought, lunch and dinner for later in the week.

The pasta was my lunch on Thursday and my dinner last night.

Thursday night I made a quick and easy dinner after a long and taxing day.  I took a little help from Trader Joe's and added some steamed and seasoned broccoli to their mandarin chicken.

Today I used the remaining broccoli in a family favorite dish that I will bring to Meredith’s birthday party at her request.

So there.