It has rained here more or less constantly the last few weeks. We have some hours of clear skies, but not many. And since rain = flooded streets, the result of the late July monsoon season is that we mostly stick close to home on the weekends. I can’t say I mind.
It’s actually sunny right now. We have skipped church – I have skipped church most of the summer and the extra time on the weekends is quite a lovely treat. I’ll be ready to return in the fall when the children start school and we are back in the routine, but until then I will enjoy the guilty pleasure of extra rest (much-needed). Anyhow, it is not raining at this very moment and yet here we are, holed up in the house, boys playing video games very nicely together. We allowed them to wade out into our Water World yesterday for an afternoon trip to GameStop to spend their allowance, and they have a new game that right now they are teaching Craiggy how to play. It’s quite cute, and makes a nice change from the norm of him weeping in frustration and them hollering because he’s terrible but insists on taking his turn.
I made smitten kitchen’s zucchini muffins for breakfast today, and a loaf is still baking to be frozen for later. (I didn’t have quite enough zucchini so I added one grated carrot, and it worked well! Added a little depth to the sweetness.) I am contemplating making a from-scratch pie crust, to use when making yellow squash quiche. (I may be lazy and just go buy Pillsbury though.) These are the things I have energy for on weekend mornings when we skip church. 😉
It’s hard to believe that we are on the downslope to Back To School, followed shortly by my forty first birthday, and then out come the fall decorations and holy cow, before you know it, it’s Christmas time. Sheesh. 2019 has been quite the year. I have been to NYC maybe 7 times this year? An average of once a month sounds about right. I have 35,000 airline miles with my main airline, and I don’t even fly that one all the time, so phew! It’s been quite a bit of travel. I find the travel both invigorating and draining. Because of the nature of my work setup (no local clients or cases, for the most part), I am required to travel to my out-of-state clients in order to do anything “fun” with work, like take a deposition or attend a court hearing. And part of why I wanted to be a lawyer was so that I could get out of the office with regularity – I get an itchy, unsettled, claustrophobic feeling if I do too many weeks in a row of 40-50 hours in the same four walls. Most of my travel is to NYC, one of the best cities in the world. It has so much to offer – interesting food, interesting people, infrastructure that makes it easy for a visitor to get around. And flights are frequent enough that any delayed or canceled flight is not going to hang me up too long – I can always find another. I drink far less while traveling, since every glass of wine is $18 – and I exercise for an hour to an hour and a half almost every day, since I have no children or friends to otherwise occupy my time.
That said – I do get anxiety about travel – mostly about being on time for the airport, remembering everything that needs packed, finding ways to feed myself. These are all things I am perfectly capable of doing, and am quite practiced at accomplishing as a fully grown adult who frequently travels, but nevertheless the constant logistics drain the grid. This is especially so when I am also marshaling resources for a deposition in an off-site office, making sure I have a car service to carry me and my boxes of exhibits to wherever we’re going, etc. etc. And I don’t really have any extra energy to siphon off for these things, so I find myself totally shattered whenever I return. But still the children need seen to and loved on after I’ve been away – the spouse needs his rest – the house generally needs some TLC (not much, the Prof is a perfectly capable solo dad, but one parent can only manage so much alone). Litigation is never-ceasing, parenting is never-ceasing, and I often feel overwhelmed by how my attention is being demanded from so many different directions at once all the time.
And unfortunately, I (like all humans on this planet Earth) cannot prevent surprise energy drains that suck even more of my precious, precious time. On my last NYC trip, I decided to treat myself to a glass of wine at the bar of the hotel – not a room service glass but one out in public. I happily scrolled through my phone, sipped my wine, and chowed down on the sugared and salted nuts that the bartender put in front of me. Within minutes of course (you know what’s coming, right?) – a drunk man ponied up to the bar, leaned in my space and aggressively shook my hand, began flirting aggressively, ignored my unsubtle brush offs, and eventually had to be removed by security while hollering at me “DID YOU REPORT ME?? WAS IT YOOOU?” Not that this should be required to avoid harassment but let it be known I was in decidedly unsexy clothing, I was nose-deep in my phone and clearly wanting to be left alone, and also I am 40 and a mom of 3 and these days I really look like a 40 year old mom of 3. And still I am invisible in places I’d like to be visible, and yet somehow “bait” for annoying dudes in public. Thank God he was too drunk (and short/unfit) for me to be afraid of him, just annoyed. This is another reason travel is draining – I always have to look out for these types of interactions, and then make all the decisions about what to do about them, how to de-escalate or get someone else involved, how to stay safe. Argh, I didn’t start this post with a rant in mind, but here I am ranting nonetheless.
I have decided to let you finish my rant for me, in your own heads, so that I can leave that frustrating and annoying interaction behind and once more retreat into the Zen of my own bedroom. Which, by the way, has lately been blessed by a new bookcase and new bedside tables that are more ample than the ones we had before (which have been moved to our living room, flanking a couch. I love them – they just didn’t work as bedside tables very well).
After he put together the tables, the Prof muttered something halfway grumpy about our room becoming more feminine every year so I am going to use this public bullhorn to let it be known that he chose the bookshelf, the chest of drawers, and the desk that is not visible in the frame (French provincial, very delicate green), and I only chose the curtains and the bedside tables, and so this is decidedly OUR aesthetic and not MY aesthetic and furthermore he likes it. 😉 That heart above the chest of drawers was my ten year anniversary gift to him – he has always been weirdly (charmingly) obsessed with maps and the heart shape is knit together with pieces of maps from “our” places (his birthplace, my birthplace, the three birthplaces of our children, honeymoon location, etc.).
While I’m uploading random pics, I think my small but hardy readership will enjoy some New Orleans flavor to today’s blog post offering. I went slogging through a rainstorm with a friend to pick up her wigs at Fifi’s, where she’d brought them to have a quick refresh. And look at these amazing things!! I told her I now have wig-shame and need to really upgrade my two, very boring wigs. (Not picture – the pineapple shaped wig she bought while we were there. This girl is single-handedly keeping Fifi’s afloat).
Last little slice of life – we caught the Rolling Stones concert at the Superdome, finally. Mick had heart surgery right before the jazz fest date, so they rescheduled for the Sunday that Tropical Storm Barry came to town, so they rescheduled AGAIN for the following day. As Mick stated at the beginning of the show – “we’re the only band in the world to have had their INDOOR show RAINED OUT.” It was lots of fun – great show, ancient as those guys are (approaching 80!)
And now, before I leave you, I’ll record a few of our latest meals. I still cook when I’m not traveling, and we’ve had some real hits lately:
This Cuban chicken rice bowl was extremely easy and extremely delicious.
These spicy pork noodles were also EXTREMELY, extremely easy and yum. I bought some rice noodles from the Hong Kong market, so we had this with those, plus some sauteed squash chunks on the side.
This buffalo chicken salad isn’t difficult, but since you have to marinate the chicken for some time, it requires some advance planning. I served it without dressing and it went over great. I also grilled some fresh pineapple slices to go with, and those were a hit.
The one pot creamy Cajun chicken pasta was also a popular dinner. I did not have any cream cheese on hand so I added milk, but I think cream cheese would do a better job of neutralizing some of the spice. Next time, I’ll make a special trip to get that ingredient!
Everyone have a lovely week, and be thinking of us swimming through floodwaters to work down here in NOLA!