It's o-dark-thirty in the morning [I love that expression] and I have already taken my son to school. Why? He is taking the bus to Alabama on an all-day field trip to the US Space and Rocket Center. I know he will have fun. The teacher had the good sense to rent Greyhound buses and not make them ride on school buses.
When I was a freshman in high school, in Knxoville, the entire newspaper staff went to Memphis for a convention, and we were on school buses there and back, for 8 hours. The air conditioner on the bus barely worked, and although it was spring, it was hot. I spent most of the trip trying to get comfortable and snooze, and failing.
[Above, me in high school on the newspaper staff, when I was a sophomore or junior]
I asked Mike if he didn't want to take a book to read on the bus and he looked at me like "are you nuts?" and said patiently, as though talking to an idiot, "Mom, I'm taking my iPod."
The funniest thing was seeing him pack snacks. He crammed a lot of pretzels [his latest obsession] into a plastic container, then grabbed several Little Debbie Boston Creme rolls in for later. Thank goodness they let him carry snacks and water on the bus.
He gets very cranky when he's hungry.
I had kind of a long, weird day yesterday. Had a weird text conversation with my daughter, then I had to do some running around in the car, for work, which is unusual. Traffic downtown was awful. I came home feeling restless, so I grabbed some dirt, some plants I bought the other day, and started gardening. It was soothing to my soul.
Mike had an after school activity, then he came and found out in the back yard and we chatted a bit. I was planting my first tomato plant and as I spaded into the soil, I turned up two fat, wriggling worms. "Yay! Looka there boy! Worms!" I chortled. Delighted. Michael looked at me like I was nuts. "Oh-kay, Mom...." he said. "The worms mean the soil is rich. It means composting WORKS!" I explained. "We've talked about this before."
I remember being 15 and thinking my parents were nuts to spend so much time in the yard. I didn't understand it at all. I hope one day that Michael will find gardening soothing, and he will want his yard to look nice. I hope he will want to grow at least some of his own food. I don't have the talent or the acreage to grow as much as my friend Cindy, nor do I like weeding, but gardening is a way of connecting to life that I think is essential to mental health.
It's also about letting go of control. You can control what you stick in your yard, sure, but ultimately weather, care, and God all determine what really happens with plant life. There's a lot of God in the garden. I don't know how an atheist could garden successfully.
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I know you're thinking, what has Dee been cooking lately?!
I made fried chicken last night, which I don't do often, but it was tasty. I dip chicken pieces in ranch dressing, then roll them in panko bread crumbs and fry in olive oil. It's not traditional, but so be it. I also made rice.
Michael made homemade guacamole, with all the precision of a persnickety chef in an upscale restaurant. I chopped onions and tomatoes for him. "The onions are too large," he frowned, after taking his first bite.
"Next time, chop them yourself," I said sweetly.
I used the leftover rice this morning and made Michael's favorite breakfast, fried rice with an egg. I wanted him to have a good breakfast before getting on that bus. If you have a picky breakfast eater, I highly recommend fried rice in the morning.
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Every once in a while I see something on Facebook that is really interesting, and my friend Laura posted this:
"Someone who hates you normally hates you for one of three reasons. They either see you as a threat, they hate themselves, or they want to be you."
Discuss amongst yourselves..
