Art Food Soul

Today’s one of my sister’s birthdays, and if you’re the oldest in your family, as I am, you know which one that is. Yep, the one born after you. Still, I enjoyed a couple of lovely gap years with my parents all to myself until “Cissy Marie” arrived on the scene.  My mother supposedly caught 2 1/2 year-old me occasionally “bonding” with my younger sibling, telling her “I love you Cissy-Marie” while I gave her little smacks across the face. From photos of us as toddlers together, it’s apparent she grew on me eventually. By the time sisters three and four arrived on the scene, I’d pretty much resigned myself to sharing the spotlight, and usually enjoyed having them around. I realize now that my sisters were the best gifts my parents could ever have given me.

31 days hath January and we’re already on Day 5! We never did get our anticipated snowfall the other day, but rather a light, non-existent dusting overnight, the only evidence of it to be found in the stingy drifts in corners of porches and along the eaves of a kitchen roof. I don’t want to give up on the promises of what I consider a good January just yet, but why for the love of an-as-yet-unmet Supreme Being, does the snow always end up hijacked or stuck in an almost 24-hour major traffic jam somewhere in the godforsaken South, where they never get snow? Meanwhile, I pine for it here. And they say April is the cruelest month.

While I am not one for branding, especially when it comes to ourselves, I do find certain brands of useful items do become favorites. Same as I feel about rituals and recipes. Take cookie baking and holiday card making. We keep our Christmas pretty simple, but even so, it’s easy to start feeling flustered and overwhelmed as the day quickly approaches. Self-doubts of “am I doing enough,” or “bummer, I missed this year’s event, now I have to wait until next year…” But at least I have cookies and cards — I can always count on myself getting to them. Still, even those pursuits can become overwhelming when they turn into minor disasters as they did for me the other day. Disasters I actually ended up laughing at as I quickly put a fresh spin on the situations, otherwise known as my own version of “rebranding.” Take the cookies. A standard recipe I’ve made for decades, many know these simple cookies as Russian tea cakes, Mexican wedding cakes, Polvorones, they go by many names, and now they have a couple of new ones. I’d frozen the dough earlier in the month, thawed it, and popped the first little buttery, sugary balls of dough in the oven. Delighted with my feeling of ease as I had plenty of time still before the big day. So, I was quite flabbergasted when I pulled the first tray of these melt-in-your-mouth morsels out of the oven, my eyes bulging at the sight of them collapsed and puddling together in a way they are not SUPPOSED to do. However, the calm, cool, collected, EXPERIENCED home cook has learned — she always has two options after the taste test — toss, or — REBRAND.  My tea cakes became “lacy wafers,” and as I dumped the rest of the dough in a square pan, that batch became shortbread. I have done this countless times for dinner with my dad and Marty, and neither one has ever caught on. As far as the Christmas cards went, I rushed to get them to the mailman, using a sponge to seal all the envelopes. Unfortunately, the liquid ink I addressed them with smeared in the process, but no matter. I’ll just tell people it was snowing hard when I went to mail them. My final task of the day was to make calendula salve, and all went well. No salvage to do, thank goodness. Cuz, man? Rebranding, you know? I can only take so much of it.

Interested in a bit more risqué in your dress-up play? I’m starting to sort through more boxes of inventory from our shop days — products I think some of you may have fun playing with, perhaps tapping into your naughty wench persona. This is the first lot I’m working through and rather than doing a posted giveaway as I’ve done in the past, I’d rather put together goodie bag assortments of 6-10 pieces for anyone who is interested. We did learn from the last round that postage has increased considerably so if you’re okay paying for some of the postage, then please let me know your interest, along with your address and size. I will then package your goods, and give you an estimate on postage.
Items in this lot feature a lot of Leg Avenue type clubwear/streetwear — lacy, racy thigh highs, garter stockings, and pantyhose (in fishnets, patterns, stripes, and various colors), some black garter boy shorts, pink lace thong/garter belt combo, black lace thong/garter belt combo, assorted leggings from Capri with side buttons to wet look full length lacing up the back of the leg — and let’s not forget a couple of masquerade masks, and several pairs of opera and wrist gloves — in lace, satin, etc (black, white and a light blue pair). Sizing is mostly O/S (one-size) and/or S/M and M/L.
Looking forward to getting this done so I can move on to another lot because I think it’s kinda fun.

Yesterday we got our COVID19 booster shots, and once again I was reminded of how priorities and values have shifted with the pandemic — in this instance, the excitement about getting a shot! The pharmacy was doing a brisk business, and while there were plenty of customers shopping for other reasons, it was heartening to see so many people getting vaccines. You could tell it had already been a very long day for the Nurse Practitioner, with little down time between appointments and walk-ins. As soon as we heard the CDC had expanded the eligibility to include those with mental health diagnoses, including mood disorders and depression, we were on it. So, all set for another 6 months or so. I am wondering if this will be our lives from now on though, as new pandemics and superbugs develop and persist around our planet. It’s a small world, after all.