My guy cooks!

It occurs to me that it's been some time since I've given the blog and information on Mr. B. Our relationship's not perfect, but we have a lot of fun together and are a pretty good couple. He is smart, funny, has great taste in music (and is a good musician), is athletic and is a wonderful cook. (He is not photogenic and watches a lot of football, but you can't have it all, right?)

This is the gorgeous surf and turf dinner created for my dining pleasure by Mr. B: steak, lobster tails, rosemary potatos, green beans and chardonnay. He also makes amazing chicken cutlets, home fries, lemon-garlic salad dressing/marinade, chicken thighs, etc. In short he's a culinary genius. He's also really good at taking prefab-food and spicing it or preparing it differently to make it taste great.That's a pretty good metiphor for his role in my life right now. He makes the ordinary stuff in life more palatable. :) Okay, I don't think I'm an emoticon person, but it was worth a shot.

More poetry

I just realized that most of my family has never seen one of my poems, and what is the first one I give them? A rather bittersweet one. So, to balance it out, here are a few that are a bit more approachable.

[Note: I had to remove these poems because I found out lit mags won't publish work that's been published on a blog. Oops.]

Poem Response

Last year, I first read an amazing poem by Philip Booth. A man was teaching his daughter to swim, but he was also teaching her how to approach love without fear. I instantly fell in love with the poem. Then, this week I was inspired to write a responding poem. His is so hopeful and comforting. Mine seems sad and disillusioned, but it's not about giving up. It's about one of those moments when life gives you pause. Here's the original and my response:

First Lesson by Philip Booth

Lie back daughter, let your head
be tipped back in the cup of my hand.
Gently, and I will hold you. Spread
your arms wide, lie out on the stream
and look high at the gulls. A dead-
man's float is face down. You will dive
and swim soon enough where this tidewater
ebbs to the sea. Daughter, believe
me, when you tire on the long thrash
to your island, lie up, and survive.
As you float now, where I held you
and let go, remember when fear
cramps your heart what I told you:
lie gently and wide to the light-year
stars, lie back, and the sea will hold you.

[Note: I had to remove my poem because I found out lit mags won't publish work that's been published on a blog. Oops.]

Sugar high.

Madrid and I went candy shopping today. We spent a good fifteen minutes in the candy isle of a local pharmacy, seriously contemplating which candies to choose. Eventually, I chose Hershey's Dark Chocolate Kisses, Hershey's Hugs and a Big Kat (I wanted a regular KitKat, but they were sold out). Madrid went with Reese's Peanutbutter Cups and a pack of funsized FastBreaks, I think. Oh, but that's not the point.

The point is, in the midst of our serious quest for calories, I realized something--

"Know what's great about being a grownup? You can buy candy whenever you want. Remember when you were a kid and you wanted candy but you couldn't have any?"

"Oh, I know! That was aweful," Madrid replied.

"I was such a sugarholic! When there was no candy around, I would do disgusting things."

"Like what?"

"I would find tubs of Cool Whip my mom had frozen and eat it by the spoonfulls. I would gnaw on blocks of almond bark. I ate straight brown sugar." I didn't even tell her about the "marshmallow salads" Aunt Helen let me make. If I remember correctly, they were just mini-marshmallows, chocolate chips and maybe a couple of raisins. I'm lucky I still have most of my teeth.

"I've got one," Madrid replied. She's a Southern girl, and Southerners are known for their love of sweet tea. She put a new spin on it: "I used to suck on tea bags dipped in sugar. Oh, and I made Life cereal and margarine sandwiches. I would spread some margarine on the edge of my bowl, dip two squares of cereal in the margarine and stick them together to make a tiny sandwich. It's disgusting to me now, but at the time it made perfect sense."

"When I was desperate for s'mores, I'd improvise by putting semisweet chocolate chips and mini-marshmallows between two vanilla wafers and pop it in the microwave."

"Actually, that sounds kind of good."

"It kind of is, and if you don't have chocolate chips and vanilla wafers, you can lick the filling from an Oreo and put the marshmallows between the chocolate cookies."

"Wow, you were inventive...and starving, apparently."

"I went through this phase where I would make toast with strawberry jam every night at midnight. My parent would come into the kitchen: (grumbling in parent voice) 'What are you doing? Go to bed!'"

"And you were like, 'Mom and Dad, I'm STARVING! I am a GROWING girl, and I need the calories!"

"Heh. Those were the days."

Yes, back then we had the metabolism to eat all the candy we want. Now that we no longer have the super-high metabolism, we finally have the autonomy and cash to buy all the candy we want.

Hello, dear family!

After months of blogging, I only recently let any of you know this blog exists; before that, only a couple of my friends knew. Mom says Unkie is already complaining that he wants new entries and is tired of reading old ones. Well, just so you all know, I usually only get to make updates every 7 to ten days because my job and grad school keep me so busy. But now that I actually have an audience, I guess I'll have to try harder. Oh, remember, new posts appear at the top of the page. If you want to read the entries from old months in the archives, click a month and start at the bottom of the page. Then work your way up.

Also, I've changed the settings on my blog to make it easier for you guys to leave comments. Just click the "# comments" on the lower-righthand-side of the post. Type any responses or questions (you can even suggest future post topics or post family news) in the text box. Type your name in the Name box (just ignore the Your Web Page box). Copy the letters in the gray box to the Word Verification slot and click "Publish Your Comment." It sounds way more complicated than it is, I promise.

As for news, I don't have much. The kids were really good Friday, but my boss was aweful. That night I went to a great Spanish restaurant, La Paella, with my friend Laura. I've really missed authentic tapas since I left Spain, and this place makes them really well.

Oh, and I bought a hula hoop! Hee. I haven't been getting enough cardiovascular exercise, and I wanted something small and cheap that I could use in a limited space without disturbing my neigbors. Now I hula hoop while watching TV, and done properly it really gets the heart and lungs going. Besides that, it's fun! I love you guys and hope to hear from you soon.

Hey, Jenny and Sam (if you're reading this), how's your blog coming along?

Happy New Year!

Must be time to update the blog! I went back and added photos to the Iowa entries. Now for the new info! Thursday I went to Unkie and Helen's house for a sleepover. We had a big pizza dinner with my parents; Unkie; Helen; my cousin Karen (who is like my sister); her husband, Lynn (a great pseudo-brother-in-law); and their kids, Connor and Hannah (who I adore). Connor liked his miniature rocket set, and Hannah liked her window painting kit. (It's less messy than it sounds.) Connor and I played chess. He beat me, of course, but I got him down to two chess pieces and we were kind of in a stalemate. We were getting bored, so my king committed suicide.

When I think about staying over and Unkie and Helen's house, I automatically think of pretty quilts over electric blankets. I was not let down. Hannah and I bunked together. I woke up with something in my back. What is that? I wondered, An elbow? A knee? No. It was her head! She had twisted around until she was curled up with her head nestled in my spine. Heh. The next morning, Connor made us ham, egg and cheese sandwiches. It was great to hang out with my cousins and Unkie and Helen.

After that, Mom and I went to see the new house. It's a pre-fab house, and they're buying the model that people tour, so it's got all the bells an whistles. It's a little too airy and modern for me (I like cozy, old-fashioned houses) but it's very nice. My favorite thing was the kitchen. I just wish there were walls!

That afternoon, I had supper with Grandpa Russel and Grandma Norie. Then I dropped Mom and Dad of in Woodward and rushed over to Des Moines for drinks with the ladies at Star Bar. I had a chocolate strawberry concoction and a slice of white raspberry cheesecake while opening presents. Jennifer got me a book I've been covetting for a while. Jessica knitted me a cunning hat and scarf set and gave me two DVDs (in a gorgeous box that I adore). Kelly got me a pretty pink sweater which my boyfriend says looks great on me.

Speaking of the boyfriend, he picked me up from the airport. For lunch we went to Jackson Hole dinner for enormous burgers. Then we hung out at my place while I unpacked. We watched some TV, then had Chinese food while flipping back and forth between a movie (Anger Management...meh.) and a football game (also, meh. At least the food was really good.) Then we joined up with Laura, Madrid and Madrid's boyfriend, Chris, for an amazing house party. (This was my second New Year's Eve at that party.) Laura's boyfriend, Ryan, got off work and showed up before midnight. We had a great time.

On Tuesday, I had to go back to work, which was kind of painful. The kids have been acting all crazy, and they make me want to quit my job. Some of the kids are great, but right now the obnoxious ones are drowning them out (especially class 705), and I'm just not scary enough to keep them in line. To be fair, only the deans and one math teacher, Mr. P, are scary enough, so I can't blame myself too much. Oh, well. I never thought it would be easy.