Friday, March 26, 2010

A New Low of Mortification

Hi all,

Yep. Definitely time for one of those posts again. You know, the one where I don't just drone on about my day to day living, but actually share how I managed to humiliate myself? Granted, it seems to happen a little less in a country where I speak the native language, but somehow I still manage. Anyhow, yesterday recap, just to postpone the inevitable.

I was pretty much out for most of the morning running errands again, and I got to go to the library to pick up a book. Connie has been taking music therapy, which has seemed to help her with getting some things out more smoothly. However, she then decides to repeat herself about 20 times. And then if you ask her not to repeat herself (or that you already heard her, and need to talk to someone else...) she gets super defensive, and it's a vicious circle that's incredibly annoying. Anyhow, she currently wants me to "NEVER EVER AGAIN MAKE ANYTHING WITH CHICK PEAS!!!" although she'd eaten plenty of things with them. My last soup apparently wasn't a hit. We all thought it was delicious. She also is trying to get housemom to "ban" the word "chick peas". And thinks this is a reasonable request. Did I mention she has poor capability for perspective-taking?

Anyhow, last night for dinner I made an amazing "Red Lentil with Bulgur Wheat and Mint Soup", which has Turkish roots. Definitely one of the best soups so far. After dinner it was cocoa night, and I was pretty tired. So, I had some coffee. My logic behind this was impeccable, of course. I knew I would poop out of karaoke if I didn't perk up, and I was counting on alcohol to countermand the effects. We left around 9:30, and got there shortly before 10. After a moderate dose of liquid courage (not to mention some urging and then seeing the other "singers") we went up as a group a few times. I know, I know. ME?? Yes. Plus, I totally rocked "Piano Man"...or something like that. It was a lot of fun, and nice and small group. I only had 2 drinks, but it was nice to relax and have some fun. My plan also worked, I got home and conked out at about 12:30, and sprang out of bed very awake at 6:30. Just in time to help with the "German Pancakes". Well, I liked them.

This morning was very busy. I did some vacuuming, cleaned a bathroom and then scrubbed all the disgusting mold out of my window frames. This is a lost cause, as it will quickly regrow because the wood is stripped of any protective layers. This also made my allergies very unhappy. Lunch was spaghetti (yay for Friday spaghetti!), and it was, interesting. I put onions and garlic into the food processors and, on a whim, threw in a few golden beets. I figured it'd be really bad or no one would notice. We only had about 1/3 pound of beef thawed, so although the beets didn't cook down to be completely soft, it had the same texture as a meat sauce. Needless to say, it was delicious and no one noticed. I wish I could say that about the rest of the meal.

Ready for this?

It's kind of gross.

In fact, if you're having second thoughts, you should probably not read on.

Ok. You were warned. So, the other night I was cutting bread and caught the knife on an almost-healed hang nail and bled onto a piece of bread. Gross, right? So, mindful of this, I decided to put a bandaid on it -just in case - when I made a last-minute coleslaw upon discovering that we (and both neighbor houses, and the co-op) were out of lettuce. In a frenzy, I managed to get the cabbage and carrots processed and the sauce made and it all thrown together in time to eat. Everyone really liked the sauce and coleslaw.

Suddenly, housemom made a face and pulled out a "piece of very chewy cabbage".

Except, of course, it wasn't.

Upon hearing what it was, I looked down in horror to find that, indeed, my bandaid was missing. Never mind the fact that it was clean and I wore it for less than 5 minutes probably, what a horrific experience! Plus, the acknowledgment that she'd contemplated just eating the "chewy cabbage piece". I was obviously mortified, and Connie immediately started yelling in an accusative manner:
"STEPHANIE! YOU SHOULDN'T PUT BANDAIDS IN THE SALAD. THAT'S GROSS!"
"You shouldn't do that! Why did you do that! That's gross. Don't do that...etc"

Over, and over, and over, and over.

Meanwhile, I was so embarrassed and when housemom and the new co-worker started laughing I just had to join in.
The new co-worker's response:

"Oh! That happened to me once with meatballs!"

And then he proceeded to eat the rest of the coleslaw on his plate. Bless him.

Housemom actually got quite upset with Connie, because, although we explained numerous times that it was an accident, she just wouldn't shut up.

So, naturally, the whole village will know about it tomorrow. I can't decided how much worse it is than the salted clafouti. Guess I'll find out?

To ice the cake, I gave up my rest hour to driving Connie to get a hair cut. After housemom made her apologize for being rude. Although she didn't mean it.

However, I had a great afternoon in the co-op, just keeping busy with routine things. My "workmaster" (ie, the co-worker who runs the co-op, officially) apparently didn't know a thing about my leaving until Bean mentioned it in passing this morning. It did occur to me, at one moment, that maybe it was his idea that I should do something else. I was kind of hurt at the thought that he just wouldn't tell me, but that definitely wasn't the case. It's very unusual, because neither he nor the woman who is the "workmaster" for food processing knew about the change yet. Obviously good communication. I don't want to make waves with the work group, as I do want to get into the stain glass workshop, but I was glad to hear that some of my concerns were valid. Whatever the outcome, it's nice that my co-workers enjoy having me around.

Hope all is well,
Steph

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