Tuesday, May 11, 2010

"No day is so bad it can't be fixed with a nap." ~ Carrie Snow

My mother-in-law takes a twenty minute nap every single day and has since I've known her, over forty years now.

I would have loved to develop that habit, but I think my boss would have frowned on the snoring coming from my office at 2:00pm every afternoon and I would have hated re-doing my makeup every day after wiping the drool from my cheek.

Of course there is nothing stopping me now from taking a nap except my own stubbornness. But, I'm afraid that if I take a nap and really sleep...first of all, twenty minutes wouldn't be nearly enough and second, I'm afraid that I might rest quite well and then not be able to sleep at night and I've have insomnia, yada, yada, yada. It's a vicious circle.

Three o'clock is my witching hour. The wind leaves my sails and my forehead crashes to the table. My remedy? Something with caffeine - just one cup - and I'm ready to go again, even if it is for only three or four more hours.

Yesterday, I could have ingested caffeine all day long and it wouldn't have helped. I was really, really tired. We had a very busy weekend: the ZZ Top concert Friday night, shopping and prep for our Mothers Day Crawfish Boil on Saturday and then the event on Sunday.

Shall we address the ZZ Top concert first? Ugh. The opening band, Jonathan Tyler and Northern Lights, were simply awful. I read somewhere that they were inspired by Led Zepplin and Jimmy Hendrix. If only they had enough talent to pull it off. They were mostly just loud.

Thirty minutes after JT &NL finished their mercifully short set, the big guns stepped on stage. People on their feet, clapping, whistling and screaming for three old guys who play the same music over and over again, but just change the words. It didn't seem to bother anyone else but me that they looked like Thing from the Addams Family, but with legs.

I sat in my seat nearly the entire time, but Tom stood up and clapped along to the music. The couple in front of us danced, sang and high-fived each other through every single song for the very long hour we stayed. After about an hour, Tom sat down, leaned over and said, "Let's go."

"Don't leave because of me," I said. "I don't mind sitting here until it's over. Honestly."

"No. It's all starting to sound the same to me."

So we left. An Eric Clapton, Eagles or k.d. lang concert it was not.

Then Saturday we were in Go-Mode. Tom went to the grocery store - Kroger. Two words: Night. Mare.

For appetizers, Tom was making his shrimp and cheese spread and I was going to put together an antipasto, which of course requires Italian meats and cheeses. That is what prompted the first telephone call from Tom. Kroger no longer carries Mortadella, only had one kind of salami and some chopped and formed molded-type ham.

I had planned to make a quiche this week and I need maple-smoked bacon, which prompted the second telephone call from Tom. No maple smoked bacon either.

Of course you can't make an antipasto without really nice tomatoes, specifically the small Campari tomatoes, which resulted in the third call. No Campari tomatoes. Of course.

For dessert, Tom was going to make a whipped mascarpone cream flavored with raspberry liqueur served in a puff pastry shell and topped with macerated fresh raspberries and blackberries. But no blackberries!!!!!

Tom came home, unloaded the groceries he was able to find at Kroger and took off for Walmart hoping to find the elusive ingredients. He scored on maple-smoked bacon and Campari tomatoes, but we had to do without Mortadella and had to settle for frozen blackberries.

I'm a spoiled brat when it comes to food and it's preparation. I know it. I accept it as a huge character flaw. I've written about it many times. I throw inappropriate fits about the lack of ingredients. I've been pissed off for months because I have not been able to duplicate the coleslaw salad that my cousin Rickey made because I cannot find a simple package of pomegranate seeds! I grumble at the store when the basil rack is empty and I'm between my Aerogarden and outdoor herb garden crops. How can they possibly be out of basil??!! But they are...often.

Obstacles notwithstanding, Sunday turned out fine. The temperatures had dropped, so it was a little cool to eat outside, but the food turned out fine and everyone had a good time. Tom's parents were here and our neighbors, Rod and Amanda and their three daughters, joined us for the day as well. The girls had a great time getting acquainted with the live crawfish Tom had purging in a tub of water, splashing around in the spa and running around the yard with Joe.

Joe, on the other hand, was completely exhausted by the experience. Yesterday, he refused to get up on his own from his 14-hour nap and I had to force him to go outside to even relieve himself. But, too tired to even lift his leg, he'd just squat down on his back legs, pee, then head back for the house where he would flop down on the floor and promptly fall back into a deep sleep and have dreams of chasing and barking at who knows what.

I see signs of Joe's recovery this morning. He stayed awake for fifteen minutes.

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