Shazaam...It's Dinnertime!!!

It seems that every evening the world stops. and Kathleen and I contemplate what's for dinner. We could cook or we could order delivery...and then if we do cook, who cooks and do we have the food or do we need to make a run to the grocery store. And then if we phone for delivery, who pays, and will it be cash or credit. Or we could just go out to eat. But then who wants to go out when it's freezing outside and threatening some kind of rain/ice/snow?

These are just a few of the logistical issues we seem to face when it comes to dinnertime. And then there's the pressing issue of what to eat and will it be healthy and on our diets and not include any restricted foods.

Kathleen and I usually keep it simple and order pizza. But I'm getting to know the pizza delivery guy too well (soon I'll ask his first name and where he's going to college).

So I have resolved to cook more and do new recipes. At least it won't be quite so predictable and boring. And of course all of this involves new pots and pans. I begged for a flat-bottom wok. It had to be a Calphalon. And it came yesterday. Its beautiful, and I'm afraid to use it. But I will. I'm going to do stir-fry. I've got the tofu, oil and vegetables. Now it's just shazaam...it's dinnertime!!!

"Hey, do you like bananas?"

I use a web-based grocery delivery service. For years now I've been using them. Sure there have been screw-ups now and then, but most of the time it's been my fault. Not so with today's delivery. I ordered six bananas and got 36 bananas. What will I ever do with 30 extra bananas?
 
The first thing I did was call customer service and demand redress. Of course, when they determined they hadn't over charged me, and it wasn't a matter of money (just disposal of the bananas), they generously told me I could keep them or donate them as I choose. Their driver couldn't pick them up (he had just left the packages 5 minutes earlier) according to the customer service representative. So what am I going to do with 30 extra bananas?
 
"Bake, bake, & bake". But that means my whole weekend will be devoted to breads and muffins. And just think how much weight I'm going to gain "testing" all that baking?  I could try to give them to my neighbors, but handing out bananas is awkward at best. So what are we going to do?
 
We'll eat them, or Kathleen will take them to work. They always get eaten there. But I'll be pushing bananas for a week.
 
"Hey, can I interest you in a banana?" is my sales pitch this week. What a crazy refrain.

I've Got No Mind

You know how Facebook asks you "What's on your mind?" Well quite frankly, I have no mind lately. It's winter for godsakes. Who thinks in the wintertime? Now reading a book or a web-site on the internet doesn't count. No, I mean creative/analytical/scientific thinking.
 
I bet a good time for thinking is from May through August. Even our minds ripen during those months. Now, in January, my mind is nothing more than a cold seed of unlocked potential.  Can't even plant the seeds because they would fall on frozen ground.  So we wait for Spring. In the meanwhile I cook and watch sporting events. And post Facebook notes that will most likely go unread.
 
But I persist in practicing being funny for a class that I might some day take with really funny people. What's really funny about me is that I left sunny LA to come to DC. It was love and ambition that brought me to DC. I thought that the weather would be romantic. I was wrong, so wrong.
 
So now I'm living in a 4-season climate and talking about it all the time. Today, it's cloudy and cold. Later it will be hot and humid. Thank gawd for climate-controlled indoors. Because otherwise I'd never get any thinking done.

Even Small Victories Are Sweet

Yesterday afternoon there was a knock at the front door. It was five minutes before I was to leave to pick up Kathleen at the Metro. I often don't answer the door when I'm home alone because I just don't know what I'll have to deal with.

Well, this time I answered the door, and on the other side stood a middle-age working class man who looked like he was in charge.

"Hi Ma'am. As you can see from my van (which had a large sign painted Capitol Meats with flesh-color cuts of meats painted over the entire van), we're selling meat. Would you be interested?"

"Sorry. I'm a vegetarian"

His face falls. "There seems to be a lot of that going around."

"Yeah." And with a smile I closed the door. While I'm not a strict vegetarian (I eat a little chicken, turkey, and fish), I did enjoy bursting the bubble of this merchant of red meat. Even small victories are sweet.

The Way It Goes With Me

I'm up at 5:30 am this morning, and I'm playing Mozart (a favorite). I'm also wondering why it's taken me so long to bring out his opera again. I love opera in the wintertime. Opera is so warming and full-bodied that it takes off the morning chill and almost puts leaves on the bare trees. And then Mozart's music is just so delightful and playful that it's always a treat.

My agenda is full of cooking today. I hope I'm up to getting it all done. I'll be happy with what I can do. That's the way it goes with me right now. In the meanwhile Mozart plays, and I'm going to have that second cup of coffee while I see another beautiful dawn. An almost perfect morning...

Home Clean Home

Ahhh...the cleaning people have arrived. I won't tell you how long it's been since our house was properly cleaned. Just too long ago. Now I do feel like a "respectable woman of the household" since finally we'll have a clean house.

It's just been awful, a case of CHOAS (Can't Have Anybody Over Syndrome). And our social life has taken a big hit too. (Middle-age lesbians socialize in each other's homes. All those potlucks and game nights don't happen at the bars.)

Well, I hope a clean house will inspire us to do some home improvements. And maybe, just maybe we'll entertain again. The last party I gave (well attempted to give...) busted big time. I swore off entertaining for years. I think I've healed from those wounds. Maybe we can try again...

In and Out of Sync

We all have trouble getting out of a parking space now and then. Somehow it's an act of getting into the flow of traffic. And well, sometimes our timing is off, and then we just can't get out or into traffic.
 
This is also true of life. Sometimes we're stuck like a parked car in a crowded parking lot. And we consider ourselves lucky if our car isn't parked too close to the neighboring cars because all we want to do is get into our car and drive away. Somewhere....just anywhere will do. A welling up of the feeling, "Just get me out of here," often overtakes us. But patience often gets us out of this stuckness. It's more than just waiting, it's being open to the moment, the moment of opportunity to act decisively.
 
So the next time you're stuck in a parking lot, be patient and be open to your moment to move in sync with the traffic. And in between your curses at the other drivers, remember that you're part of the flow of life too.

Butch-Femme Thing (Or things every lesbian needs to know)

You know, gender identity is a tricky thing. I've been around 30 years as a lesbian, on both coasts and in large towns and small. I've seen changes. When I was coming out everyone was a gender-bender and androgynous. I wore men's clothes and thought I was really pushing it. Well times have changed, and some of us have even grown out our lesbian hair cuts.  However, out of that period we did develop a lesbian look, which identified us to each other and sometimes to the informed straight society.

Well, now I'm older and not so concerned with what's hot and what's not. But I have noticed that there seems to be a resurgence of butch-femme. From my experience, who is butch and who is femme goes much beyond appearances because appearances are often deceptive. Personality, not dress, tells you about a person and their style. So get beyond that haircut or combat boots...there's more to having a relationhip than make-up and dress codes. Dare I say that there are two people involved.