We cooked today — enough for a couple of dinners and lunches this week and enough for the freezer — lasagna and split pea soup. It was pretty good. Pretty, pretty good, as Larry David would say. For lunch I had a delicious toasted poppyseed bagel with butter, Toby’s Tofu Pate and relish. Relish from a jar. You know what would have been really good with it? Chow-Chow. Homemade.

CHOW-CHOW
You use onion, green tomatoes, cucumbers, red bell peppers and grind all that up. I put some vinegar in there and let it cook on the stove for awhile. Then you seal it up in jars. I gave some to my friend Sally – it had been three years and she said it was the best thing she’d ever had. She took some out to her daughter’s.
My kids used to like it with beans.

— my grandma

ps I watched that show “Bridezillas” with my kid yesterday and it was AWFUL. What a scary, scary show that is! Then we couldn’t turn it off, it was like they trapped us. So we ate the rest of the fudge and a big bowl of kettle corn and yeah, that made it worse. The End.

pss my daughter would like me to tell The Internets that I wasn’t going to have any Internet time today, but then I did. The End. Again.

“Love involves a peculiar, unfathomable combination of understanding and misunderstanding.”

— Diane Arbus, photographer (1923-1971)

yes it is.

I haven’t gotten tagged for a meme for a long, long time, but Wacky Mummy hit me! So thank you, Ms. Wacky Mummy from Canada :)

The rules are to 1) thank the person who gave you the award 2) tell seven thing about yourself and 3) pass the award on to other bloggers whom you love, and, I suppose, find to be versatile.

7 Things about me:

1) “I never knew love… no, I mean real love… I never knew that kind of love… til this moment with you…” (Quick, who sang that song? Give up? Here he is…)

2) I never intended this to be such a cheesy blog. It’s grilled cheese, covered with melted cheese, with some shredded cheese and Velveeta on top. I don’t know exactly what I was thinking, when I decided to confess all to The Internets, but here i am, baby. Cheese and all.

3) My favorite song is probably “Heaven’s Just a Sin Away.” My Dear Granny loved that one, too. Or “You Shook Me All Night Long” (AC/DC). Yeah, it’s a toss-up.

4) Facebook is killing my writing.

5) I’m lazy but I also work super hard. It’s always a conundrum.

6) It doesn’t matter what kind of rotten mood I’m in — get me cooking in the kitchen or gardening in the backyard, and pretty soon I’m humming and smiling.

7) I would be lost without Steve and the kids. I like to have company around all the time, but you know they’re my 3 favorites ;) (This is why I love working in a school — there’s always someone around to keep things interesting.) “I keep my friends around/so I have someone to talk to” — Beastie Boys

There, finally wrote it, wooooooooooooooot! Now I’m passing it along to Miss Zoot, Planet Nomad, Vixen, Funsize, Nan, Y from the Internet and………. Recovering Straight Girl. That’s 7, up!

Happy weekend, y’all. It took its sweet time getting here, didn’t it?

— wm

* my students. I don’t write about them that often, because they need their privacy. They’re kids, and they’re not “my” kids (even though I possessively, constantly call them “my” students). from the daily hello’s to the drop-ins, from the “i love you” notes in my desk to the way they’ve changed, grown, blown my mind in the two years I’ve known them… they are the best.

* I don’t think any of them read this blog (they rarely read my library blog, even though I keep shoving the url at them), but if they do happen to stop by… I’ll miss you guys, you are great kids. They tell me, You are the best librarian, and all I can say is, With students like you, it’s easy to be good at my job.

* okay, enough, i’m getting all bummed out now.

* i may or may not land a gig next year, who knows. “it is what it is” — anon.

* i’ve been loving all the nature out in our new neighborhood — the greenspaces, parks, frogs, green, green, green, snakes and tons of flowers, trees, flora and fauna. i feel bad i’ve been slamming on the west side for so long. it’s alright out here.

* i tried to make dinner tonight. I really did, i swear to you. you know i’m trying to be better about that, and not giving up and getting pizza 3 nights out of 7.

* But there was a meeting after school, and I spaced and forgot my phone and had to fetch it, so by the time we got home, it was later than usual, and blood sugar was low. It was a hit/miss thing, dinner. Hit: Fed the kids in courses — baby carrots, apples, crackers (what are they, horses?), yogurt and… they didn’t want what we were having, frozen roasted vegetable lasagna (store-bought), and Texas burgers. (Amy’s for both of those items.) Miss: everything else. Oh, wait — the big bowl full of sugared, sliced strawberries was a hit.

* the kids opted for cereal. not hot oatmeal (breakfast for dinner = yes, let’s do that). smart kids. the lasagna was awful, but the Texas burgers were good, once I doctored them up with relish and mango chutney. i would do breakfast for dinner more, but they don’t eat bacon. or fake bacon. sausage. or fake sausage. it’s waffles or pancakes or nuthin’ around here, and Steve usually fixes those on the weekends so…

* red wine was good, at least ;)

now steve’s making music and i’m getting ready for a shower and bed. end of the school year has got me by the throat, but that’s okay.

xo

wm

…and prolly i’ll say it again, but there are 2 reasons why i love country music:

1) the men are always sorry
2) and the women are always leaving

Oh, Ellen Aim & the Attackers, you were always so underrated.

OK, OK, now I know you’re going to want to hear “I Can Dream About You.”

Nighty-night!

xo

wm

found a reference to this in one of the diaries, too. yum. i miss being an English major.

— wm

Chewy Chocolate Cookies a la Granny

1 1/4 sticks Margarine or Butter
2 cups Sugar
2 Eggs
2 t. Vanilla
2 Cups Flour
3/4 cup Dry Cocoa
1 t Salt
1 cup Chopped nuts

Cream Margarine & Sugar & Vanilla, add eggs, beat
Put Flour, Cocoa, Nuts, soda & Salt in Mix.
Mix Well. Chill 30 minutes
Roll in Balls & in Powder Sugar.

Grease Cookie Sheet

Bake at 350 10 to 12 minutes

DON’T OVER BAKE.

You know who gave me this recipe? My Dear Late Granny’s mailwoman, that’s who. I can tell it’s my grandma’s recipe cuz it calls for Powder Sugar (not “powdered sugar”) and cuz she shouts “DON’T OVER BAKE” at me, even from beyond the grave. I love her so.

— wm

i just spent an hour on the floor of my closet re-reading old journals because some of you must go, okay? I just don’t know which ones.

These are the times when I find being a writer to be just… miserable. Writing = more navel-gazing and misery.

What did I find? A whole lot of nothing. I’m telling you. A lot of ranting about what a witch my boss was (she really was. whenever I stayed home sick she would call me mid-day to whimper in my ear, ask me where things were on her desk, and to tell me to come to work), a few sexy descriptions (which are now shredded — nothing I’d want to lift for fiction, just some random sexiness) (no, my kids don’t need to read that crap, after I’m gone) (note to self: stop writing about sex), and speaking of… pages and pages devoted to how it really was going to work out with Mr. Wrong this time, I mean it, Diary! etc. And two good quotes (neither of them from me, shocker I know):

“I pierce you with the ack-ack of love, flowerpot.” — Pepe Le Pew
(from the cartoon “Two Scent’s Worth — 1955)

and…

“I wept because I have lost my pain and am not yet accustomed to its absence. …” — Anais Nin

OK, the hour was worth it.

…but my buddy from high school is! Hi, Chris!

He and his wife do a nice job with the podcasting, go check it out.

— wm