Tenderness, Education, Adventure

This weekend I'm house/dog sitting for the Best Girl, and giving myself a little mini-retreat. Friday late afternoon I picked up a faboo take-n-bake pizza, grabbed my duffle bag, and went to the house to settle in and eat dinner. The Best Girl has a bowl near the front door filled with "Angel Cards". These little cards each have one word. The Best Girl has a daily ritual of picking 3 cards for inspiration for the day. When I lived with her for a few months, I got into the habit too, and so on Friday evening, I stood over the bowl with eyes closed and thought "What will this weekend hold for me?" I got Tenderness, Education, Adventure. Wahoo! Jackpot!

Friday evening I had a massage planned. I had a massage a month ago when I was in the fullness of the giant snots, so it was delightful to be able to breathe fully and not break out into coughing fits in the middle of this massage. The massages I get are 1.5-2 hours long, and are just amazing. For me, it is another way to let go, to let someone else take care of me, to watch my breath and my mind, and to be present in my body. And then I had an Embarrassing Experience. The Embarrassing Experience was being woken up and told that I had fallen asleep, and it was time to go. Oops! I was awake and relaxed for most of the massage...I was completely awake for the first half and I thought completely awake for the 2nd part after I flipped over. I guess not. I remember quite a lot of the second half, and I didn't think I was getting sleepy or falling asleep. But I did. Perhaps this was the Tenderness--I allowed myself to get vulnerable and open in the presence of someone I don't know that well.

Saturday morning, I woke up feeling so good, so refreshed. On the plan for Saturday was going to a class that I was so excited about. The class description "The season of surplus food will soon be upon us. Plan now! We’ll look at how to acquire, preserve, store and use an abundance of fruits, vegetables, culinary herbs and medicinals. In addition to freezing and canning, we’ll explore nine simple, timeless, low-energy methods to preserve the harvest. We’ll experiment in the kitchen, making pickled veggies and other delights." So I walked into this class thinking that freezing and canning would be discussed along with 9 other methods including learning how to make different pickles. That wasn't what this class was about. There was quite a bit of discussion about why freezing and canning are Evil, why plastics are all Evil, why microwaves are Evil, and why the new fancy metal water bottles that are all the rage in Boulder are...Evil. The class focused a lot of time on those topics. There was quite a bit of time talking about "Why Have a Pantry", "Where to put a pantry", how to turn your car into a food dehydrator, and root cellars. There was brief mention of preserving in oil, preserving in vinegar, and pickling with salt. We got a demo on how to make bread in a bread maker, how to use a pressure cooker, how to make kefir, how to make chevre (goat cheese), how to roast garlic. So I did learn some new things. Pressure Cookers are things that have fascinated and terrified me, so getting to watch a pressure cooker in action and get a full detailed explanation of what to expect and what it was doing while it was cooking was really useful. I also got a bunch of resource handouts on canning and freezing, one packet of enzymes for making chevre, a sample packet of xylitol, a lovely list of book ideas, and resources for more local producers of food. The class wasn't what I was expecting, but seeing the goat cheese being made got me again inspired for a summer of cheese, and I am likely to try to use my car as a food dehydrator at some point this summer...well, golly, it is all hot and dry in there, and it just sits in the sun all day while I'm at work.

So I've gotten Tenderness and Education so far. Later today I'm going to dim sum in Denver for a friend's birthday celebration. Perhaps this will be some adventure!