#308
Dog days and doggier days
I’m finally doing work work at my new job, which feels very good and yet still a bit strange after six months of not doing anything of the sort. It is a weird combination of doing stuff I know how to do, but in a completely different way than at all the other places I’ve done it before. Fortunately, I am pretty over feeling stupid about this sort of thing. In most cases, anyway. I reserve the right to beat myself up about whatever I want! #selfcare
My dogs experienced a throwback to their younger years last weekend, in which their various gross problems dictated my sleep schedule. This has now happened four nights in a row: Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday (very awesome). Each time, the nonsense began right as we were going to bed, and each time I got about three hours of on-and-off sleep. Not to be dramatic, but this is very triggering, reminding me as it does of the entire first year of the littler dog’s life, before we got her mental health issues figured out. I looked back at my old journal from that time and found this sentence: “She is 14 weeks old now and I still haven't slept for more than three hours at a stretch and I cry about it a lot.” Eventually, this sleep-deprived version of me just became business as usual and it was very, very un-good. Thank you trazodone!
Sometimes, though, when the dogs would keep me up, I would…not exactly enjoy it, but I wouldn’t mind some parts of it. Sometimes I like being awake when it seems like the whole world is asleep. I like the way our house looks when it’s dimly lit. I like the hours of quiet when I could read whatever nonsense I wanted, or watch a dumb television show with the sound turned all the way down and the captions on. I even liked having a warm, comforting little dog snoozing next to me, even if they did occasionally barf or whatever. And I liked putting the coffee on at 5 am and having it piping hot, alone in the pre-dawn.
HOWEVER!!!!
I am pretty out of practice w/r/t this night-dweller existence, and I really, really, very badly wanted to sleep in my bed this weekend. I made the best of it on the living room couch, which is actually pretty comfortable to sleep on, but, you know, for a NAP or something. My back and everything else are six years older than they were in 2020, and while yes, I have been lifting weights and “working on my core,” my back has been fucked since I was in my late 20s. A few nights on the couch are all it takes to remind it of how badly it can behave.
Also, it goes without saying that if every canine resident of this house wanted to take to their fainting couch and be up all night being dramatic, they could have done this during the six months I was out of work, and it would have been MUCH. LESS. OF AN ASS ACHE.
(Everyone is fine, by the way, and no, I don’t know what their problem was. Dogs can get 24-hour bugs just like we can, I guess? Again, very awesome.)
Aside from the dog business, the weekend was good. The weather continued being enjoyable (it is no longer thus; we have Death Heat™ this week), and I took some long walks. My husband washed the cars and we made some good food and finished watching season two of The Agency.
I also watched a few episodes on a YouTube channel called Homeworthy, which features very extensive tours of people’s homes around the world. Most of these people are at least a little bit fancy and some are extremely fancy, and not all the episodes are really to my liking (how many times can you listen to a rich person say “Oh I got this fabric from my friend who owns Fortuny” and not feel a little…annoyed) but some of them are very good, and I like all of the episodes featuring the French tableware designer Marie Daâge. I find her very charming and I like her apartment in Paris and her country home in the Loire, which, what’s not to like? I have walked past the Marie Daâge showroom on Rue de Tournon in Paris a few times now, and I like to think of her in there, fussing with table settings that I will never buy because they cost a mortgage payment.
Normally I’d share this in Two Things but I may skip it this week, so: one of the things on my List Of Stuff To Buy When I Got A Job was a new bra (you can skip this section if you’re not into talk of underthings, but it’s really not about the bra PER SE). My favorite one comes from this brand, and I very boringly order the same one over and over again. I don’t even remember how I found the one I like, and I’ve never paid much attention to the brand overall other than fervently hoping they don’t discontinue my favorite.
So! Imagine my surprise when, upon driving through the town of Epernay, France, during a day trip to Champagne, we whizzed right past the Chantelle factory. I managed to keep my mouth shut in the moment, mostly because our tour guide Simone did not need to know where I buy bras, but I later found out you can pay 10 euros to tour the factory. HAD I BUT KNOWN! It seems very French to have a town known for both Champagne and lingerie.
One food that I make to great renown (in my own home, to my husband only) is homemade Chex Mix. I made some by request this weekend and am gnawing on it as I type. One of my pandemic foods was cheddar Chex Mix from the grocery store, and while I don’t think I could stand looking at it, let alone eating it anymore, the homemade version is very good and also a good way to use up the dregs of various containers of pretzels, nuts, and crackers.
The recipe I use is always based on The Kitchn’s, except I use a lower volume of crunchy things with the same volume of seasoning. This weekend’s version was made with Rice Chex, Honey Nut Chex, random Cheez-It crackers, cashews, and the remnants of some Snyder’s honey mustard and jalepeno pretzel pieces. I realize that might sound insane, but all you have to do is keep your sweets and savories roughly in the same family, and you’ll be good. Also, I never use Wheat Chex in my Chex mix, and I would never use bagel chips (sorry to the bagel chips, but Wheat Chex you can go straight to hell). Other things I like using include honey-roasted peanuts, Goldfish crackers, and sesame sticks.
That is pretty much my recommended recipe of the week, because I’m not going to be doing much cooking due to the Death Heat™. There is a broccoli salad I’d like to make, having received a large head of broccoli in our most recent CSA share, and I may dabble with Melissa Clark’s cold peanut noodles, though I find peanut noodle recipes never really live up to the hype. If you have one, by all means share it.
Funny you mention Chex Mix as I was reminiscing with some friends over the weekend about the cereals our parents let us eat growing up and my mom had limits on how sugary they could be - anything fruit flavored was a hard No, anything with marshmallows also a hard no, and anything that was intentionally sweet (Frosted Flakes, Honey Smacks, Honey Comb, Honey Nut Cheerios, etc) was also verboten. But Chex was ALWAYS AN OPTION and I know that I preferred Corn, would eat Rice, and wanted nothing to do with Wheat Chex. And I think we had some Chex Mix occasionally when my parents would have what I call "lower middle class fancy adult parties" and I remember that was the only time I could tolerate the Wheat Chex. But your variation sounds much better. I am not a sweet person, and could go years without a proper dessert but anything salty/savory/cheesy/crunchy and I am all over it.