we can’t stop here

It’s one of those things you just don’t miss until it’s gone.  I love spending most evenings in the kitchen; only now I spend most evening in a hurry and my time in the kitchen is usually spent with a toddler attached to my butt. I always prefer eating in to dining out not because of expense (though that’s certainly a factor) but because creating something great and then being able to savour it is a beautiful thing.  Food is art.

I miss spending time eating with someone else, and discussing the meal itself.  Not dinner conversation; conversation about dinner.

Maybe when life comes together a little better; maybe when we have a table with enough chairs to sit at and maybe when Caira can actually sit still my little ritual can return.

For now I want to just implement a little of my old self into this new life.  My co-worker has been asking me for cooking advice and recipes; it just reminded me of how much I love cooking.  The challenge of cuisine  is just as important as taking the perfect photo or writing a magnificent essay.  Food is special; it’s a sensory experience unlike any other.  You can enjoy the presentation, feel the texture, inhale it’s aroma and savour it’s flavor.

Tonight I made Hong Kong style BBQ with a wonderful pork loin, egg rolls and shiu mai.  The pork is amazing; tender, moist and incredibly flavorful.  The eggs rolls are just perfectly crunchy with the veggies still a bit crisp.  The shiu mai were a magnificent disaster; as I forgot they were in the steamer.  They still taste amazing as long as you don’t mind eating little slimeballs.

All in all - victory.

I’ve had quite a few jobs, doing quite a few very different things. This was still one of the strangest first day at work situations I have ever landed in. It was honestly a lot of fun, though, and I think I’m going to love it there.

Work takes place out of a small veterinary clinic which is packed to overflowing with kennels, equipment and people. The hallways are lined with boxes of cats. I come in to work at 8am, and am swept up in the throng of people waiting to get inside the clinic and drop their animals off.

I get a couple of minutes to meet everyone, I honestly don’t recall most of them. I remember Mary, as she was assigned to train me and happened to be from the same little island Mark’s from.

My first assignment for the day, post-op recovery. This involves putting drops in the eyes, removing catheters, removing trach tubes, shaking drowsy kitties and monitoring them. One of the more interesting duties I picked up that day was holding pans under cats while the tech milked their bladders … ack, peeee. It was amazing to watch them all in action, it seems like chaos because it’s so busy, but once you’re in there awhile you can see how smoothly everything is going.

I ended up grooming a dog, which meant getting it shaved down in literally, five minutes before it’s anaesthetic wore off and it woke up pissed off.

One of the most impressive things that day: they would put several males under, line them up on the table and the vet would go down the line and have them all neutered within, literally, minutes. I can’t believe ow fast they all were. I also cannot believe the doctors sitting around eating doritos and sandwiches in between surgeries, and blaring AC/DC while they operated. It was interesting, to say the least. Oh, and there was the vet that would throw the testicles basketball-style, across the room into the trashcan. he has am impressive hook, he never missed.

During the few hours of my day, the guy that runs the foundation showed up and took me out to the women’s detention facility out in Jean, where I got to show some inmates how to groom their dogs.

And all of this bearing in mind I was hired as a transporter. Hah :] I expect I’ll be running all over town soon enough, picking up animals and running errands. This was fun for me, though, I’d like to keep doing it.

Flying testicles, blood, urine, maximum security prison … all in one day.

It pays crap, it’s part time and will probably be crazy … but I’m going to love it.   I get to work with an animal rescue and do things that really make a difference.  I also get to meet a lot of veterinarians and hopefully make some contacts that will help me get work in animal care here.  Best of all, my days with Petco are now numbered.  Woo! :]

being sick sucks.  being sick with a head and chest cold when it’s hot outside sucks even worse.  it just keeps dragging on and on.  i miss having a sense of smell.  i have not smelled anything, good or bad, in over a week.  considering how stinky caira can be, it’s a mixed blessing.  she seems to be over her cold and right back to her usual insane self.  i had her stuck to my head, like an evil little face hugger, she had my hair in her hands and herself wrapped around my head and was kicking me in the face and growling.  she didn’t want me to put pants on her :[

i have an informal job interview tomorrow.   lets hope it goes well, nothing can be as bad as the constant clusterfuck that is petco.

two weeks!

I booked Mark’s ticket today, and I’ve had the weirdest butterflies ever since.

I remember in vivid detail last June, I looked up from Marilyn and I fiddling with my sweater and saw you standing right in front of us.  I had the queerest butterflies then, too, I can’t recall ever having them before.  I can’t, honestly, remember what I said at any point … I’m sure I was babbling about something.  My brain was busy being giddy and thinking you had the most beautiful eyes I’ve ever seen.

You make me stupid, and giddy, and silly and very much unlike my usual self.  Which is wonderful.

I miss laying in bed at night and listening to you ramble about things, I miss just hanging around in the living room watching crappy tv, and I miss the way you’re jsut the right height for me to hide my face in the crook of your neck.

I can’t believe you’re going to be back so soon. I can’t believe I have to wait three more weeks.

I have the feeling I’m going to have a very scatterbrained, accident prone month ahead of me.  At least I will, if the butterflies have anything to say about it.

At the moment, it suits me… the wind is screaming around the house and throwing things, which I’d like to be doing. We’ve been having high winds all week up to 50mph and random rain showers. Though they’re always pretty random here. The trees are a wreck, and just when they’d filled out their greenery for the spring. The yard is also wrecked, it literally looks like a tornado hit it. It sounds like some of the furniture just got slammed into the house again. It’s also cold, really cold (and I already packed my winter clothes away of course), which might seem redundant to say, but it’s often pretty warm even while it’s stormy here. So much for spring. I’m betting we go straight into full blown summer and skip over the usually temperate months :\

One of the pigeons dad feeds got run over. The poor things can’t fly in this weather, and people use our street as a shortcut now … I’m worried one day one of our cats, or worse one of the kids, is going to get hit.

Oh, and our fucking crazy neighbors got arrested, finally. They’d been screaming and fighting for days, the police finally went over there after our third call about it and apparently found something illegal in the house. They’ve been gone for 2 days so far and it’s been wonderfully quiet. Except for the constantly barking dog.

Making Marilyn’s prom dress just reminded me of how gratifying it is to make something beautiful.  I have missed having the time and inclination to make new clothes.  I’m hoping I’ll have more spare time soon, today I had an hour and a half and managed to make an adorable blue gingham dress for Rebecca, and make Caira a hot pink gingham summer dress/shirt.  It has the cutest ruffle on the bottom, it’s just not finished since I need to add the halter strap to it … otherwise caira just pulls it right off and runs off naked again.  I’ll get better photos soon to update this, first I have to get Caira non-sleepy and non-grumpy so I can dress her and get a good picture :]  The pink is striking with her pale skin and blue eyes.  Um … right now, Gizmo is wearing it.  She seems very comfy. I may have to make a smaller cat version for her to wear.

Caira’s reaction to grass.

The fair was fun, mostly because Caira seemed to love it.  She ate a ridiculous amount of food, most of it fried, got a pony ride, watched the pig races and got to play in grass for the first time ever.  I can’t tell if she enjoyed it, she seemed very confused.  Compared to the Del Mar fair, this is extremely disappointing, but it was sort of nice that it was very small … especially since Caira had to be carried the majority of the time.  This was the first time I’ve ever seen her react with fear towards anything - the crowd terrified her at first, and she clambered up my arm and hid for the first 15 minutes we were there until she decided it was safe.  We got to pet lots of animals, I was given a tongue bath by a very friendly steer, Caira got to touch a bunny.   We even tried a deep fried Snickers.  They’re fricking awful, don’t do it. Altogether it was a very nice day with lots of sun, blue skies and actual green, living things.

I have missed driving a car I actually like.  I was stuck in traffic for an hour, but stuck with the top down and a working stereo and my favorite CDs. :]

It’s also very nice not to have to worry about the car not having tags, and worry about getting smog repairs done.  The car runs amazingly well, and is just as quick as it’s always been.

Welcome back, car. /love