Had a rotten day on Wednesday until I talked to my friend Chenise. Just hearing a few stories of the insane, toxic days at Alzheimer's hell was enough to remind me that any day at the library isn't so bad. It could be worse. I could still be trapped in pure torture land, surrounded by morons, and raging with a fiery hate when I was supposed to be helping people with a fatal disease. Ugh.
Thursday had me waking up at 3 am and not being able to go back to bed for an hour because my right hand was completely numb. Nice. Then it was crazy busy at the library and I hit a traffic jam on the way home at 9pm. Extra nice.
Today, however, was lovely. A whole day to be productive. I won't get another full day off until next Saturday, but that's okay. I accomplished a ton today, and have a couple nights off to finish what I missed. (Like ironing. I hate it!)
Things otherwise are good. Jeremy is wonderful and helpful and sweet. And he helped me find an extra $ 300 on my tax return. Squeak hasn't puked or loosened his bowels on the futon for over a week. My sister is getting a c-section on Tuesday. Im flying home to WI on my birthday and staying until the 7th to see her and my new niece. The car is still alive, thank goodness. One of my best friends is going to be on the Oprah show. (Go Marta!) And another best friend is coming down here to visit in March. My last day at noodle is February 28th. I guess life's pretty okay.
One last story before I crash into bed. For Jeremy's bday, his mom sent him a vegan cookbook. One night we tried to make a coconut chocolate cake. Expensive and time consuming!! My god!! The recipe called for no refined sugar--only maple syrup. So Jeremy buys this $8 bottle and we use most of it for the cake. By the time we get to the frosting, we realize that we need another 1 1/2 cups of syrup. Ooops. Instead we substitute honey, and together with agar flakes and arrowroot powder, we spend the next hour boiling up frosting that has the consistancy of chocolate snot. Then we spread it on a cookie sheet and refrigerated it, then an hour later, Jeremy blended it in the food processor. Miraculously, it did turn into frosting--if you can get past the strong honey taste. It tasted fine with the cake, and isn't bad squished in between graham crackers either. But all in all, I wouldn't make either again. Too labor intensive.
Most vegans I know are hippies--how can they afford big buckets of pure maple syrup and such fussy ingrediants as xanthum gum (gluten substitute) or yeast flakes (sort of becomes cheese like)??? I mean, its funny. Every time I buy some treat from the co-op, Im always disappointed. It looks good, but it tastes too healthy and unsatisfying. I dont know why I think my dishes will taste any different when they use the same ingredients as the co-op. I keep hoping for that one super healthy dish that tastes all decadent and sweet but is really made from tofu and twigs or something.