It's the first of December, and you know what that means.
Yes, it means that you only have 24 shopping
days left until Christmas (I only have two people left to buy gifts for, suckahs!).
Yes, it means that it's
World AIDS Day (use a condom, people).
It also mean
s that it's time to look back on the year behind us--and what better way is there to do that than
The Best of 2009 Blog Challenge? (That was a rhetorical question, so don't answer it.)
Here's how it works: there's a writing prompt in question form for each day of December. For example, today's question is:
What was your best trip in 2009? And so forth for the next 30 days--the list of prompts is
here (there's also a list of participants on that page--I'm number 240, so seriously, all the cool bloggers are doing it). Easy, yes?
Well, maybe not. I am by no means promising that I'll blog every day or that I'll write about the prompt question if I do blog. I can
commit to a man, but I sure as hell
can't commit to blogging every day. Nor can I be counted on to
summarize my year properly. Regardless, mad props to
Gwen Bell for adding a little bit of organization to these here intertubes.
On to today's topic: my best trip in 2009. I've done a bit of travel this year. Most recently to Virginia
for work, to
Oakland for work, and to Los Angeles
a few times, definitely
not for work. And I'll be going home to Michigan two weeks from today (side note:
SQUEEEEEEEEEEE!).
But the best trip of all this year was by far when I drove 3,100 miles from Massachusetts to California with a car full of disgruntled cats. (In case you missed it:
part the first,
part the second, and
part the third.) And I don't mean "best" in an ironic or sarcastic sense at all. Leaving Massachusetts and knowing that I'll never have to live there
ever again made the unpleasant parts of the journey fade into the background. California was my light at the end of the
tunnel highway, and blasting across the Massachusetts/New York border
throwing a one-fingered salute was better for my mental health than a bottle of Zoloft.
The move (and the
Navy reenlistment that prompted it) was also an integral part of reclaiming our lives, which seemed to be stagnating in the morass that is Massachusetts and its accompanying
familial entanglements. (Hehe, I said
morass!) It was tough at times, like when Jason had to
leave me in Massachusetts (for we didn't know how long) when he reported to his temporary personnel unit in Illinois. He certainly
had it worse than I did. We ended up only being apart for two months, but that separation made joining him in California even sweeter, despite our less-than-ideal
temporary accomodations and sleeping on the floor for two weeks while
waiting for our moving truck to arrive.
I never thought I would drive cross-country, let alone with no other company than my cats. I feel grateful to have had my situation necessitate it. Making the trip was rewarding in that it taught me that I
can handle that kind of stress. When Jason first reenlisted, I told him I wanted us to be sent anywhere but California because I knew that I would have to drive the cats to wherever we ended up, and I didn't think I could do it on my own. Now I
know that I can!
This trip got me out of a negative place (literally and figuratively), boosted my self-confidence, and reunited me with my husband. It doesn't get much better than that!
On this day last year, we found out that Jason was going back into the Navy (and angels sang).
I've never been one to participate in those day-of-the-week blog things that other people do, but Ashley's post about visiting a creepy Czech church decorated with human bones got me totally convinced that this project, Classy in Philadelphia's Where in the World Wednesday, will be awesome and right up my alley.
For last night's belated Christmas dinner with Jason, I was inspired by the main course that was served at our wedding, a beautiful pastry and vegetable concoction shown at right, and this recipe for pastry-wrapped portobellos from vegan cookbook goddess Robin Robertson's new book, 1,000 Vegan Recipes.
My recipe concepts don't always turn out as intended. I didn't have portobellos, so I used a package of sliced mushrooms. I sautéed them with garlic, onion, artichoke hearts, and a shake of Victoria Taylor's Sicilian seasoning (also a Christmas gift). I was running behind in my timing from the very beginning because I forgot to defrost my puff pastry dough ahead of time, so the pastries were still in the oven when everything else was ready. As a result, the dough didn't cook all the way through. Jason was hungry, so I served him an underdone one and he liked it, but I was frustrated. I made six of them, so I let the rest of them sit in the hot oven while we ate, and by the time Jason was ready for seconds they looked a lot better--more fluffy and golden.
I'll be taking these tasty snacks with me since I'll be in airports from 4 AM Pacific to 8 PM Eastern time. I love my random imported commissary food!
Friday night we went to Jason's command Christmas party at the Visalia Convention Center, along with about 600 other people. I had never been to one of those things before, so wasn't sure what to expect. Luckily, I managed to dress appropriately (black pants and sparkly top with big hair and dramatic eye makeup). The food left something to be desired, but I managed to pick around the piles of beef and chicken on my plate and salvage some vegetables and potatoes.
Lately I have had this obsession with ginger. I'm becoming adept at working it into every meal (like this one) and I often find myself craving the taste of it. I don't know what's the matter with me.
On Sunday I decided to use some of my leftover Thanksgiving baking supplies to make some gingerbread cookies. I had creamed my wet ingredients and was combining the dry ingredients when I realized that I didn't have any ginger. How that key ingredient never made it onto my shopping list, I do not know. You'd think that I wouldn't have trouble remembering that gingerbread contains ginger, but apparently I do.
I was sitting at my desk yesterday morning when out of the corner of my eye I saw a kitten dart across our yard and under my car. I hauled ass outside, bent over next to the car, and cooed at the kitten to come to me. She toddled right over and let out the tiniest, most adorable squeak of a meow that I've heard since my dad and stepmom's cat Nigel was a little one.
We've eaten out a lot this year. We eat out a lot in general. But I'm going to say that the best dining out experience I had all year was the brunch at the Universal City Hilton. We ate there two times this spring whilst flitting about Los Angeles. I remember four things: the coffee, the free champagne, the pineapple, and the gorgeous atrium in which the spread is set up.
It also means that it's time to look back on the year behind us--and what better way is there to do that than The Best of 2009 Blog Challenge? (That was a rhetorical question, so don't answer it.)
