A thought from a morning call

Back story

This morning I received an email requesting more information about a news article I wrote recently. I had started on a reply to it when the reader called me.

"Oh sorry, I started replying to your email but got distracted in the middle of it," I said. "Story of my life."

I think this is a good way to sum up a big part of my life. It's fun learning to deal with distractions, isn't it? (Note I didn't write this right after that call, although I thought about it. An improvement.)

A weekend with Sara and Jen

In which Sara learns to drive stick and is pulled over by the police in a single evening

As noted in the title of this post, I spent a very enjoyable Friday evening and Saturday morning with my awesome buds Jennifer and Sara. Highlights of the weekend:

• Cleaning Jen's apartment.
  Jennifer had to run to Provo to do some chores for her cleaning check Saturday morning. I offered my help, but Jen told me it was her job anyway and Sara insisted that since I'd already worked eight hours that day, she would help Jennifer. So I ate ice cream and supervised. Until Sara accidentally spilled an entire cup of grease (collected over the past month) onto the kitchen floor, creating a slippery, super bad-smelling but manageable mess. I sent Sara, who was gagging at the smell, out of the room while I cleaned up as much as I could. It was nice to be useful, even if the job was unpleasant. Sara came back in and finished the job. If you ask me, she had the harder task- trying to erase the smell and wiping up the remaining grease splatters. After she finished cleaning the bathroom, Jen did what she could to help with the smell, too. We left a note to her roommates explaining the lingering smell in the kitchen before going back to Sara's house for dinner.
• Dinner and dessert, made by Sara
  Yum!
• In which Sara learns to drive stick...
  As if homemade apple and cheese strudel wasn't dessert enough after our dinner of beans and sauerkraut, Sara directed us to a nearby supermarket for some Italian gelato (delicious!), after which I drove Jen's car to a church parking lot and Sara received her first lesson in stick shift, courtesy of none other than Jennifer. They were only about two minutes into the lesson when a cop car pulled into the parking lot behind us and came to investigate the "suspicious car with California license plates." He was nice when we told him about the stick shift lesson and even joked with Jennifer about the superiorities of Cali compared to Utah, and the three of us took great pleasure in telling the story to Sara's parents when we got back for the night. (Sara learned fast; after about an hour of practicing in the parking lot, she felt prepared enough to drive back to her home.)
• Watching "McLintock" before bed
• Playing Super Smash Brothers Saturday morning, and the pancakes Sara's sister Mary so graciously made for us.

That about covers it. I'm lucky to have such fun friends. :)

The joy of pickles and apple juice

Apple juice is sweet. Pickles are sour. Surprisingly, the flavors actually go really well together, as I am just now discovering. It is a match akin to dabbing French fries in ice cream, putting J-Dawgs' special sauce and jalapenos on a hot dog, dipping salty pretzels in chocolate, eating apples with slices of cheese... I could probably think of some more but don't want to spare the time.

Mmm.

Journal of dreams

So recently (this morning, actually) Jennifer was telling me I should start keeping a dream journal to chronicle some of my more interesting dreams. (Brief interlude: everyone loves to tell one another about their dreams whether they're interesting or not, but I have hopes about some of mine being truly interesting since Jen and some of my other friends have repeatedly told me they are.) As I start compiling this latest project, I guess I'll have to recruit some people to tell me if what does and doesn't really belong in a book.

Good news about this new project: I've already been recording dreams I deem interesting. Some of them date back to 2007 or earlier. (Disclaimer: I very much doubt these were your typical teenage girl dreams. Thank goodness; my reputation would be ruined forever. haha)

Bad news about this project: it's extremely distracting while I'm at work.... like now....

At last, a cooking success

It just occurred to me that I should probably highlight the actual successes I achieve in my cooking, in addition to chronicling my failures (like the Mother's Day Strawberry Shortpancake or the caramelized rice krispie treats). I've mentioned treats I've made since (homemade taquitos, for one, cookies with Jennifer for two) but (until now) have never said, straight out: I am not a total failure at cooking! I only require practice and patience (and simple recipes, the assistance of someone who actually knows what they're doing and occasionally a boy or a dog to serve as a garbage disposal).

I made biscuits and gravy for dinner yesterday. I'm eating the leftovers now for lunch. And although the recipes for the biscuits and gravy were both super easy, I feel like a pro. Jennifer even dropped by on her way home from California (well, really on her way back to Provo after being home in California), ate with us, and pronounced the meal good!