The reason I battled the ice storm isn't so grand. I ran like a whipped dog to my BFF's house in Winston-Salem...I went to her house on a whim because the boy and I had gotten to that crucial point of child-rearing whereupon the sleep deprivation and frustration has boiled over into that state...that god awful state...of screaming at each other for saying "good morning." For real, it was bad -- I adore my husband & I know he tolerates me, but I was taking everything as an attack, and he was so frustrated with me that it was just...intolerable.
So I decided "fuck travel restrictions! I'm going to a place where I can wake up, hand one or both kids off and go back to sleep!!" And at the same time, Brad could sleep in a house sans-caterwauling babies. Win-win.
Well. I left on Wednesday.
I'm not one of those people that can troll Facebook while driving, especially not with my kids in the car, so when I got the text from 2 friends (almost simultaneously) that Carolyn had died, I almost wrecked my car. I actually took the next exit and got as many details as I could via text and then frantically called Brad, hoping to everything that I hold holy that I could reach him before he read about the death of a girl that was one of his bestest friends for a solid chunk of his youth on fucking Facebook. I managed to get him before he read about it, and he acted predictably.
"What?" Turned into "Are you sure?" Turned into a very calm, very quiet "I really can't process this right now. I need a minute..." and thus the call ended. Then I had to tell Amyme. That prompted an explosion of "What the fuck do you MEAN, Carolyn died?" from her desk at work, unfortunately.
Then I had the last 45 minutes to drive to Winston-Salem to freak out on my own.
Carolyn and I were never "friends." But I WAS friends with her little sister, and I was friends with a ton of people that we had in common. We ran in similar circles. We ran into each other frequently, and let me tell you...I was queen asshole supreme. I'm shocked to my toes constantly that I had any friends at the time, much less that anybody from that period of my life will STILL talk to me...and this girl Carolyn was ALWAYS nice to me, even when I totally didn't deserve it. I hated so many people that were my "friends" in that town, and yet, I always kind of admired her. She was a bad-ass without being a cunt. She was genuinely sweet without being fake or flaky. And she was gone. Just...just gone, and there was nobody to blame. People my age just aren't SUPPOSED to die from natural causes. It's just not fair. And as Kevin put it at the bar later, "Man...Carolyn was such a good girl. She's gone too soon, but the assholes just seem to live forever."
So there was no question that I was going to leave WS early and drive down to Florence for the funeral.
AAAAAAAANNND the ice storm started on Friday morning as I was groggily waking up.
So that's the super long version of why I had to battle an ice storm and why I got to shake my fist at the heavens and shout "KHHHAAAAAANNNN!" And why I ended up in Florence at a funeral.
While in town, a bunch of us geriatric punk rockers met up and it was just WEIRD to me to hear so many seemingly strange political views espoused by my friends that had at one point all been so staunchly anti-establishment. From the 2nd amendment "I NEEEEEEEEEED AN AK47 BECAUSE IT'S MY RIIIIGHT TO HAVE ONE" argument to "OWS people are just homeless idiots that hate capitalism," I was just kind of stunned...
But enough about that.
I cooked Pastel de Choclo...a kind of Chilean shepherd's pie...for dinner last night. It was tasty as hell. (Photo attached)
And Amyme taught my kid to blow kisses (and catch blown kisses) while we were up there, and Liam is actually starting to stay awake during the day and sleep more at night. I've still got horrid PPD but I think I'm starting to punch through it (for example I didn't yell at Brad at all today and I only cried once, and that was because I miss my dad & think it's fucking stupid that he had to die and my kids will never know him. Asshole.)
I managed to clean most of the house, did a load of laundry, and I haven't wanted to punt Liam across the yard at all today. I would, however, scalp a nun for a glass of wine right now, so I'm patiently waiting for Brad to get off work and (hopefully) bring me a bottle of something red and tasty.
G'night all...
Boil chicken & shred it. Boil an egg & chop it. Set both aside until later.
Saute (in oil & butter) some onions and some garlic until nice and fragrant. Add about a tsp of cumin & 1/2 tsp of cinnamon, stir until well mixed. Add 2 cups of chicken broth and 2 tbsp of tomato paste, bring to boil & boil until it thickens. Add shredded chicken, salt, pepper & cilantro, mix well & remove from heat. Toss in a casserole dish
Grind up about 2 cups of corn until it's not quite smooth, toss in a skillet with butter. Add about a cup of milk & a tbsp or 2 of either corn meal or flour (depending on the texture that you want). Add about a tbsp of basil. Remove from heat once it thickens to a kind of oatmeal-ish consistency.
On top of the chicken mix, you can put either (depending on what kind of flavor you want): your chopped egg & lima beans & corn, or your chopped eggs, capers & dried fruit. (I did the vegetables in mine, but I've done dried apricots in the past) On top of the egg layer, pour the corn mush & bake at 350 until bubbly & heated through.
I garnished mine with more basil.
It is a really unique tasting dish...and really really good.
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