by jphilo | Mar 20, 2012 | Daily Life
For the first time ever, my indoor bouquet of American Cancer Society daffodils and the bed of outdoor daffodils are blooming at the same time.
Since today is the first day of spring, this may seem like no big deal to many of you who live south of Iowa. But in this state, the calendar’s first day of spring and the weather’s first day of spring are usually weeks apart. But not this year.
This year on the first day of spring, the bleeding heart looks like this:
The magnolia like this:
Not to mention the iris,
the tulips,
the columbine,
and the lilacs.
Spring is almost a month ahead of itself, and its early appearance is a worry. Spring is one of those things to be anticipated, best savored when it arrives on time or even a little late. An early spring leads to complications, like when house guests show up before you’ve made the bed with fresh linens, or babies are born prematurely, or young people become rich before they’ve learned to handle money.
Once the leaves and buds and stalks appear, they’re sitting ducks for the killing frost that’s bound to come. After the frost, flowers don’t bloom, fruit trees don’t fruit, and plants spend the entire summer trying to recover. An early spring is like dessert being served before the meal. It tastes so good at first, but it spoils the appetite while leaving the stomach unsatisfied.
But, an early spring is the one we’ve got, and nothing can be done about it. Therefore, I’m doing my best to enjoy it, trying to convince myself that it’s okay to eat dessert first if it’s the only food in the house. So far the ruse is working. But when the killing frost comes – and rest assured it will – and wipes away all this early sweetness, will these pictures of early spring be enough to fill the emptiness inside?
by jphilo | Mar 16, 2012 | Daily Life
This morning, I thought today’s post would be about the boiled peanuts we sampled at Hominy Grill in Charleston, South Carolina a few weeks back. The plan was to wax eloquent about this bizarre food, which our waiter said will soon be featured on the Bizarre Foods television show.
But that was before my day from support center hell began.
My descent into darkness began with a call to Mom’s long term care insurance company support center. It was the third such call in a week long effort to solve the mystery of the missing invoices. Invoices they say were never received. Invoices Mom’s in-home care service worker can prove were faxed, but she cheerfully resent yesterday. Hence my call today to see if they’d arrived.
They had.
Buoyed by success, I felt strong enough to tackle two more mysteries. The mystery of the missing Address Book contacts after installing OS X Lion on my Mac and moving to iCloud yesterday – for those of you already lost in the string of technical jargon, join the crowd. The only advantage I have over you is that I can spell the jargon – and the mystery of the missing invoice documenting the purchase of OS X Lion.
I shouldn’t have been so buoyed by success.
After three hours in the Apple Support Inferno, the first mystery was solved. My 800+ contacts are now safely restored to my computer’s Address Book. The invoice, on the other hand, the kind that usually hits the email inbox two seconds after clicking “purchase” has not yet arrived. The email that did arrive said, “They understand the importance of this issue,” and “They are looking into it,” and “It should arrive within 24 – 48 hours,” and if I’d like to chat further, call this number.”
I’m waiting the 24 – 48 hours.
Still, the day didn’t go up in smoke. My contact list is intact. Not only that, the list is floating around in the iCloud somewhere. Plus, I provided some dandy ammunition for MobileMe support person Joshua when he enters the “Can You Top This Level of Ignorance?” break room contest. Also during our online chat, I put together and baked an apple crisp. And because I’ve had enough Apple this afternoon, there’s no temptation to sample the crisp before taking it to friends later today.
I can’t stand the heat and am staying out of the kitchen.
by jphilo | Mar 9, 2012 | Daily Life
Since arriving home from our relaxing vacation on Tuesday night, I’ve been scurrying around like the white rabbit from Alice in Wonderland:
Paid the bills – late.
Took Mom to lunch – late.
Got the hubby’s birthday gift – late.
Cooked his birthday meal – late.
Arrived at my physical therapy appointment – late.
Went to bed – late.
You may have noticed that many of this week’s blog posts were late, too.
Like this one.
Partly ’cause I’m distracted by not being ready for tomorrow’s speaking engagement.
Partly ’cause all this lateness led to a big case of blogger’s block.
In fact, I couldn’t think of anything to write about until I read my friend Clare’s latest post about in-a-cup-muffin mixes. Clare blogs about food at NanaClaresKitchen.com and lately she’s been on a cake-in-a-cup and muffin-in-a-cup kick. The kick started with a recipe that’s been around for a while, chocolate cake in a cup. But Clare is a creative cook, and in the next few weeks, she came up with her own recipes for:
Cinnamon Muffin in a Mug
and
Caramel Apple Cake in a Cup
and
Blueberry Almond Muffin in a Mug
The last post is her in-a-mug pièce de résistance. In it she provides a recipe for basic muffin mix. The dry mix can be made ahead of time so it’s ready for whatever in-a-cup-or-mug treat strikes your fancy.
I plan to make the mix and start striking my fancy once this Alice in Wonderland late phase ends. But for now, it’s time to put the finishing touches on tomorrow’s speech or this white rabbit will be in hot water.
Hmmm.
A new idea for Clare.
White Rabbit in a Cup.
On second thought, maybe not.
by jphilo | Feb 27, 2012 | Daily Life
During January and February, my days were consumed with research for a new book proposal about post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in kids. Consequently, I learned just enough about several mental illnesses to endanger my own state of mind. All this new information sent me into a tizzy of worry and self-diagnosis, resulting in the following list:
- The great pleasure I find in the order and symmetry of the picture above is a sure sign of obsessive-compulsive disorder.
- My penchant for list making could be another sign of obsessive-compulsive disorder, or it could be a coping mechanism I employ to hide early onset Alzheimer’s.
- I probably have an eating disorder because one of the marks of an eating disorder is obsessively thinking about food. And I think of food at least three times a day, sometimes more.
- Kids can be traumatized in many ways, and one of them must have happened to me during childhood so I must have PTSD.
- Taking out all the garbage, cleaning the bathrooms, doing the laundry, and emptying the dishwasher before going on vacation points to a yet undiscovered, reverse housecleaning phobia which I hope they name “Philophobia” after me.
- The desire to name a mental illness after myself pretty much proves I have a narcissistic complex.
- All this worrying about having a mental illness points to an anxiety disorder, don’t you think?
Believe me, that list is only the tip of the mental illness iceberg. If everything I’ve self-diagnosed was on that list, you’d think I was crazy. But I’m not.
8. Time to add self-delusion to the list.
by jphilo | Feb 20, 2012 | Daily Life
I have a bad case of blog envy this morning. It started when my husband borrowed my camera to take guitar-making pictures to post on his website. Pictures like this
and this
and this
and this
to engage the world in the construction of the guitar he’s making. Pretty cool, huh?
So cool it gave me a raging case of blog entry because guitar makers like Hiram, my friend Clare who blogs at www.NanaClaresKitchen.com, and other crafty souls – even the Decorah eagles’ nest – can post engaging, fascinating pictures people flock to see.
Writers have no such advantage. I suppose I could post pictures of a manuscript rough draft like this
and then post an update when a new sentence is added, like this
or jazz things up by highlighting de-dangled participles, like this
to get people excited about what I’m writing. But the progress of a bunch of words on a page will never be as interesting as the building of a guitar, making cashew chicken, or waiting for baby eagles to hatch. This explains why we writers are so often such tortured souls. We slave away in front of our computers, wrestling words into stories while the rest of the world makes visible progress on guitars, meals, and other stuff that’s for the birds.
But no more blog envy for me. I won’t grow bitter. Instead, I’ll spend the morning purging my manuscript of exclamation points and commas and poor grammar. It’s not a glitzy job or an easy one, but somebody has to do it.
Such is the life of a writer.
Sigh.
by jphilo | Feb 14, 2012 | Daily Life
Five Things to Like About Valentine’s Day, 2012
- The slow increase in daylight since December 21 becomes obvious on Valentine’s Day.
- My afternoon will not be spent supervising a roomful of students on major sugar highs.
- Our monthly writers’ critique group meets tonight, which means the evening will be spent with some of my favorite people.
- I’m going out to lunch with my husband and mom, the two people who have known me the longest, seen me at my worst, and stick by me anyway.
- Coconut, caramel, maple nut, and peanut butter-filled chocolates.
Five Things to Dislike About Valentine’s Day, 2012
- The slowly increasing hours of daylight can not hide the fact that Valentine’s Day is still in winter.
- My afternoon will not include sweet notes from young children.
- An evening with my writers’ group sounds more fun than getting dolled up and going out to eat with Hiram – him elbowing through the crowds while I fall off my high heels.
- I’ll be eating salad at lunch while the people who have known me the longest, seen me at my worst, and stick by me anyway eat burgers and fries.
- Marshmallow and cherry-filled chocolates.
What do you like and dislike about Valentine’s Day? Add to the list by leaving a comment!
