Be jealous I work with someone who makes this stuff and brings it in for ALL of us to eat. Be very, very jealous!!!
That is all. I just wanted to share with you all the deliciousness I am currently experiencing right at this very moment (typing this as I lift a decadent, gooey, peanut buttery cake laden forkful to my eagerly anticipating taste buds.) I swear I can’t get this into my mouth fast enough. It is that good.
Okay. Back to the cake!
~The Grey
I always find my anxiety ramping up a little right before school lets out for the summer. In years past, it was generally from trying to figure out affordable childcare for three small kiddos. Who was the best caregiver? Who was the best caregiver that was NOT going to charge me a gajillion dollars to keep my kids while I worked? What camps were there? Did I do day only? What about lunch? Snack?
SO. MANY. OPTIONS.
SO. MUCH. ANXIETY.
Now…the anxiety is there. But not for those reasons. All of mine are old enough to stay home without any supervision. My husband has a job where he has some days off during the week, so that is helpful. Now the only thing I have to worry about is making sure I have a good chore schedule set up for them so they can help keep the house clean during the day. The will mean my weekends aren’t spent cleaning up the disaster left by untidy teenagers. Now I have to figure out scheduling. Who wants to stay at whose house on what days and are they at their father’s house this week? Is my mother wanting her “Nana” time with the girls? How can I work in a few fun and affordable trips this summer? Do we want to try camping? A roadtrip?
A WHOLE new set of anxieties set in and my mind is swimming.
I think, this summer, other than making sure they have a chore list to complete, I am going to let them be bored. They can take walks. They can lay out in the backyard. They can read or have movie marathons or sleep in and stay up late (so long as they don’t wake me up!). They can color and write and figure out how to entertain themselves. I am not interested in staying anxious this summer. And I need them to learn to self soothe their boredom. Maybe we will take a trip/ Maybe we won’t. But I am not going to stress over it.
I hope everyone has a bit of repreive from the insanities of school being out. I hope everyone can find their happy medium with summer vacation planning!
Here is to a happy summer vacation!
~The Grey
Today was a day for queso. You know what I mean.
I slept like crap last night. I passed out, but slept fitfully. I got up, fought the urge to burn the world, and proceeded to make my coffee and nag my 12 year old out of bed for school. I drove to the office, got all set up, then realized I needed to be at the warehouse today. Joined by one of our interns, I worked and she worked and then it was time for lunch and my stomach was SCREAMING at me and I just thought:
Q U E S O!!!!!
I had to have it. I *needed* the queso. I wanted to be one with the queso and have it be one with me. SO, I took my intern with me and we went to a local mexican joint and had some delicious food with…you guessed it…QUESO!
The first bite of queso provided that immediate euphoric experience. The cheese was hot, salty, gooey (get your minds OUT of the gutter…this is melted CHEESE I’m describing) and paired perfectly with the corn totilla chip that was delightfully crisp, but sturdy enough not to break in the dip. I dipped my chips in the queso, then in the salsa, and the combo was divine! An explosion of flavored assaulted my sense of taste and smell. The cheese lent relief to the biting spice of the jalepeno. The spiceness of the salsa complimented the mildness of the queso and lent it a livlier flavor than had I just enjoyed the queso alone. Mexican for lunch was SUCH a good idea.
All was right with the world. My irritations ceased. My frustrations fell away. I was simply surrounded by the blissfulness that only eating exactly what I wanted could provide. My days was right again. I don’t even mind the sleepiness I have now from overindulging. Because, as most people will agree:
Queso is life. Go get you some.
~The Grey
I have an announcement and a little back story. First, the back story.
When I was 17 years old, I met someone that will ALWAYS be in my life. I spent the summer after my highschool graduation essentially living on her couch. I was so much a part of that particular group of people that I had status at the apartment. The couch was my spot (much like Sheldon) and if I wanted to sit or lay down, others had to move. I slept on that couch, cried on that couch, laughed and sang and acted goofy with my friends on that couch. And I spent the majority of my time with that chic. She and I became fast friends and even though life has taken us in different directions at times, we always come back to our friendship as though no time has passed. She is the inspiration for me starting this blog. She is the inspiration for the name of this blog. And now, she is going to be a PART of this blog! <— That was supposed to be the announcement!
I want to extend an extremely warm welcome to my friend, Coppertop. She will be posting, just like me. There will be posts by us individually (We will sign our names to differentiate who wrote what: Her being the Snarky Coppertop and me being The Grey) and then there will be posts that are collaborative and there will be posts that are simply little transcripts of our conversations. We decided last night that our conversations are too ridiculous not to share, so you shall gain some insight into our little corner of crazy. Hopefully you all will cackle like crazy, as we both do.
So hopefully, in the necxt week or two, posting will become more regular again and there will be more entertaining content to enjoy and share.
Smoochies~
The Grey
“I felt my lungs inflate with the onrush of scenery—air, mountains, trees, people. I thought, “This is what it is to be happy.”
― Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar
The weekend was pleasant enough, but Sunday was the best day by far. The day was filled with friends, simple entertainment, and nature.
Nature is my church. Nature is where my heart and spirit soar free, flying through the fresh air, dancing in and out through the foliage, splashing in the rushing waters of the rivers and lakes, dashing through the warm fingers of sunlight and the cool shadows of the leaves and trees. Nature is my zen, my happy place, my nirvana. It is in nature that I worship. We spent hours at the park, scrabbling around near the river, walking the paths near the mill, enjoying each other’s company. It was easy to forget the call of the world beyond. It was easy to drown out the unpleasantness from the previous week, letting go of all of the cares of the world and just simply BE.
I did things that frightened me. Not that they were dangerous or risky, unless you call falling in cool water on a hot day a risk. I’m not young anymore. My abilities to balance aren’t what they used to be. We walked an old rock wall near an old mill whose site was turned into a park. (That’s me in the front) I had to have great balance and the butterflies in my stomach were immensely busy fluttering, but I swallowed my fears and walked the wall. And then another. But that time, my husband held my hand, to reassure himself as well as me that I was safe, secure, and looked after.
This photo was taken by a friend. I’m in the front.
I took pictures of the old train trestle and tracks.
We enjoyed the interesting and colorful urban art that was on the cement stanchions and walls.
I saw my kids run and play and climb and be kids. We had a good time, a good day, and we plan on going back and doing more of the same with other added activities, like kayaking and maybe even a picnic.
Other than the use of my phone to take the pictures, I didn’t post to facebook. I didn’t tweet my photos. I recorded the memories, as I should, and put my phone back in my pocket to enjoy the moment. This time was too precious to miss.
My husband often says, when he is angry and impatient with a business, his time is precious. Truth be told, all of our time is precious. No one’s time is less costly than anothers. And the time we miss with our family and friends, the time we give to facebook and instagram and our phones and texting and tweeting…all of that time is time we will never get back. Technology has become a time-suck, a sneaky villain that wriggles in under the guise of helpfulness and takes bites out of our lives that we barely pay attention to, all the while complaining that there isn’t enough time in the day to do A, B, and C. Yet, the irony is if we paid half as much attention to what we really need to do as we do to our phones and facebook and technology, then we would probably get everything we need to do done.
I still love technology, don’t get me wrong. I love my phone, my tablet, my laptop. They all serve their purposes quite well. They keep me in contact with my friends, family, and coworkers. They help me to stay abreast of news. They entertain me when I am sick in bed, having insomnia, or stuck watching a tv show picked by my kids that makes me want to shove pencils in my eyes. But I am seeing more and more a need to take a step back from it so I can get back to what really matters in life. Because the less attention I pay to the time I spend with technology, the more I am giving up time with friends and loved ones. I have to feed what is important. I have to know when enough technology is enough.
Family is important.
Friends are important.
Worshiping nature is important.
Technology can wait.
“…and then, I have nature and art and poetry, and if that is not enough, what is enough?”
― Vincent van Gogh
Rainbows And Road Rage 