Self-care Ideas

Alright, y'all, it's kinda rough yet, but fun. Sung to The Kill (Bury Me) by 30 Seconds to Mars:

The Cook (Bake With Me)

What if I wanted to bake?
Shove a whole cake in your face?
What would you do?
What if I started with flour
Couldn’t take a mix anymore
What would you do, do, do?

Come break some eggs
Bake with me, bake with me
Bring my apron, would you?

Or what if I wanted to cook
Make recipes out of a book
What would you do?
You say you wanted scones
And glazed honeybuns
I’m not cooking for you (for you)

Come, break some eggs
Bake with me, bake with me
Bring my apron, would you?
Look at that page,
Was that two cups, was it three?
All I wanted was juice...

I tried to go all raw food
But I needed the heat
I know now, cooking’s what I really want to eat
I finally found my stove
With all its eyes and dials
I know now, COOKING’S WHAT I REALLY WANT!

Ah, ah
Oh, oh
Ah, ah

Come, break some eggs
Bake with me, bake with me
Bring my apron, would you?
Look at that page,
Was that two cups, was it three?
All I wanted was JUICE!!!

Cheryl Dendy Feb 2013

In Or Out!

I found this in one of my documents folders. I must have written it during a period when I didn't have 'net at home and forgotten about it! Found it cute, so I'm sharing it now.

In or Out

Remember when we were kids, and our mothers yelled at us, “in or out! You‘re letting all the heat out” ? There was always something requiring multiple trips in and out the door, much to our mother’s chagrin. Inside, outside, door opening and slamming. You just HAD to let the door slam…you were in too big of a hurry to close it gently. Mama unable to concentrate on her conversation - phone or in person. Or her "stories", or her book.

Kids today are the same. I think it’s a universal thing. Somewhere in Botswana a mother yells “Kotu! IN or out. I can’t stand the slamming of that tent flap even ONE MORE TIME! And you‘re letting all the heat in!”

My boys are in to get this, out to do that. They love to - Oh, and THIS is my favorite, you know - CHASE each other in the front door, through the house and out the back. Whoever is last inside locks the other out and wins, cackling with demonic glee. Incidentally, they love to play this particular game in my mini-van, also. I oughta take stock in the WD-40 company. Where is all that energy, all that joie de vivre, when I want them to pick up after themselves?

My only consolation is that someday their children will be the same way, and their children, and their children. Future generations will yell at THEIR kids, “In or out, Zoltron. All that decompression has my ears popping! And you’re letting all the heat out of the airlock.”

Cheryl Lee

05/13/2009

My jade elephant totem

Haiku

Upselling
Do not shout at her
For asking about the cheese
It's part of the job.


Ice Storm
Blue lights twinkle more
On branches encased in ice
Urban wonderland

Valentine's Day
Men, please show respect
Even if you can't fathom
Her high holy day.

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas...Sooooooner Eeeeevery Yeeeeeeaaaarrrr

As a child and a teenager, the winter hollydays were my favorite time of year. Family gatherings at Thanksgiving wound into counting the days til the fat man was expected to deliver a bountiful harvest of Barbie dolls and cowgirl boots (and later stereos and Jordaches) under the tree. Living in the Deep South, I longed for JUST ONE white Christmas.

Being an adult and parent makes those joys move aside in favor of things like worrying over how Santa is going to afford that Wii system, and making holiday travel plans that now have to work around Mother Nature and her liberal sprinkling of white powder all over I-80. White Christmas, my eye.

But nothing, and I mean not even working in an ER (I'm guessing) will cure you of the sheer childlike joy in the holidays faster than working retail. There's the decorations for sale, which in our store were out before Halloween this year! The Christmas tunes on the overhead, which you'd expect to start getting peppered into the regular songs a day or so before Thanksgiving, maybe, this year made their debut November 14. They were joined by tunes on one of our local radio stations going all-holiday (just for the weekend so far, thank goodness), and bell-ringers at every mall entrance appearing like they sprang forth from the very pavement. The very cold pavement.

Mother Nature has obliged this holiday look, sound, and feel by making it very cold and dusting that aforementioned white powder all over the place. Which we mall employees get to enjoy all the more, since we often have to park at outlying store parking lots and trek overland to work. It's hard to look attractive and professional when you have major hat-head from bundling up like Nanook of the North just to schlep from the mini-van.

It's not all bad. The good thing about WMEE playing only holiday tunes after Thanksgiving means they have to be a little more creative in their digging for variety. I think there's an FCC law about how many times a day you can play "Do They Know It's Christmas Time?" (And if there isn't, there oughta be!) I derive endless amusement from this one lady who rings TWO bells at once during her shift at the red bucket, and singsongs over and over "God BLESS you, have a HAP-py HOL-i-DAY!" And with my firm belief that I was a cat in a former life, being attracted to red, shiny things makes the decorations not so bad.

It's just a case of too much of a good thing, yanno? I know folks who work in retail who WILL NOT have a tree in their own home, because they get enough of that at work. I will have a tree, but it will go up when it is supposed to - Black Friday - and not a moment before. Cause goodness knows I won't be caught anywhere NEAR the mall on THAT day!!

Copyright 2008 Cheryl Lee