Monday, January 29, 2007

Random Stuff

In my Quest to Stay Busy, I'm taking a class at the local technical college called Professional Baking. It's every Saturday for four weeks, four hours a day. This past Saturday was yeast breads and the one before that was quick breads--biscuits, muffins, scones, etc. I have never been able to make a decent biscuit--they always turn out like hockey pucks. I'm pleased to announce that it only took me 2 tries to make the Most Awesome Biscuits Ever. Tall and flakey and everything. I'm excited to beat out my frustrations on some yeast dough this week. This coming class will feature cookies and pies--I am very excited about this. If I don't smoke all those old ladies at the pie contest this summer after all of these classes, well, then I'm just going to have to hang up my apron. The point of this paragraph is--I think that I'm going to go to culinary school for real. Not just adult continuing ed. classes. This may involve me giving up teaching music. You heard it here first.
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Who wants to hear more about my period? Nobody?......okay skip to the next paragraph then. I've been on my period for over 30 days now. This is very depressing to me and is also putting a bit of strain on the relationship with my husband if you know what I mean. Right now I think that I'm on my period for real, because it changed from just spotting at about 28 days after it started, so I'm hoping that it's actually going to stop this time. And this point of this paragraph is....even though my doctor told me that it was stress that was causing this menstrual bullshit, something that a very good friend told me actually put my mind at ease. She was in the Army and until very recently, did counterintelligence in Iraq. She told me that many women would have their periods the entire time that they were in Iraq or not have one at all. This implies that the impending first birthday of my dead child and the realization that my due date with Chip is quickly approaching might just be as stressful as facing roadside bombs and mortar attacks. I believe it.
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My little sister is doing a portrait of Nate and I'm so excited. She is an extremely talented artist and I could brag about her all day. She's also wicked smart--she's a pre-med student with plans on becoming an OB/GYN, mostly because of what happened with me and Nate. I haven't been able to put up any pictures in my house, other than one of his feet, and I think that I might be able to actually look at a drawn portrait of my son and not feel sadness. I never thought, though, that I'd ever give anyone a picture of my child to draw with the instructions, "Can you just make him look 'not dead'?" ~sigh~ I know that it will be beautiful, though.
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I think that the cold in my house killed most of my plants. However, my orchid was safe at my MIL's the whole time. I think that I'd just be like, "Oh well. Go buy new plants." But these were plants that were given to us after Tom's dad and Nate died. Peace lillies and stuff. I always feel extra guilty when funeral plants die. I'm never going to give anyone a plant for a funeral again. They're kind of a sad reminder and then you feel an extra obligation to keep them alive. You know?

4 comments:

laura said...

congrats on your educational plans! if you need an expert tester to help you with your homework, you just let me know.

Ann Howell said...

Have fun at the baking class! If you learn the secret to light, flaky pie dough please pass it along :) Mine is always thick and crumbly, so most times I cheat and buy frozen stuff.

Sorry about the plants. I hope you're able to find some new low maintenance ones that you won't feel emotionally obliged to keep alive.

kate said...

Come make me some biscuits!

All of our funeral plants died too, including Nicolas' orchid. I had to buy him another one, boy did i feel like a bad mother...the orchid was my fault, though i blame dh for the death of the others.

delphi said...

We had two of our photos of C. retouched by a professional who speciallizes in stillbirth photos and it is an amazing thing to have. I now show his photo as often as I can - he looks "not dead." I hope your sister's rendering turns out as well.

P.S. Cooking as a full-time career sounds exciting to me!

P.P.S. Only one funeral plant still living. It wilts constantly b/c I forget to water it. I know it is time to water when it is hanging down over the TV. It really is only a matter of time before it's dead.