Schrodinger's Kittie

I have to say that it’s always interesting when the universe at large tosses such a plethora of roadblocks in your way as if to ask, “Are you truly certain you wish to do what you are setting out to do?”

One such example of this type of event is our trip to Alabama this last weekend to be married.  If any of you have ever seen the movie Forces of Nature you will be snickering and wondering if I am possibly trying to play on the movie.  I assure you…all I am about to write is exactly what happened from the evening of September the 1st to the evening of September the 2nd.  Bear in mind, we had to be in Montgomery County, Alabama before the courts closed on the 3rd so we could have our license in hand for the service on Sunday the 5th.

Wednesday, 1st September 2010, 7PM PST:

The car is packed and we begin the drive to Los Angeles where we will stay the night so not to be rushed in the morning; and, to avoid having to deal with rush hour traffic into LA. On the way, my phone rings. This truly is as unusual as that sentence makes it sound. I answer and it is my bank’s fraud department worried about some transactions that had taken place. They are breaking up pretty badly and I lose the connection. I figure I will deal with it once we reach the hotel.

Wednesday,  1st September 2010, 9PM PST:

We reach the hotel and get checked in.  All seems to be in order.  I pull out the laptop and log in to my bank…to discover that the temporary hold that had been placed on my card was due to $339.43 in various charges to sites such as Match.com and CCBILLEU.com (which I later found out tends to service the credit card needs of adult entertainment websites).  After much difficulty, I managed to get the fraud department on the line (that number is now permanently saved into my phone, it was so hard to get) – I had them laughing and they were extremely helpful.  The young man commiserated with me about the fact that I was heading to a state that did not have any BoA locations (not kidding) and said that if I had time to hit a local bank before we depart LA in the morning, I would be able to get a temporary card.  So, all my money was refunded and my card canceled.  But, no biggie – I will get a temporary one come morning.  Tuck ourselves into bed in a surprisingly nice room and sleep fairly well.

Thursday, 2nd September 2010, 7AM PST:

All packed up with the room paid for and breakfast on the way, all looks great.  Though – could someone please explain to me the portions provided by American restaurants?  Seriously.  I got what I thought would be a light breakfast…yogurt, granola, fresh fruit and an English muffin.  The bowl of granola was HUGE.  I expected it to be small like the bowl for the yogurt…mistake on my part for not asking first.  And, they brought milk with the granola which I had no interest in consuming. The fruit was three times what I expected (though very tasty).  I hate leaving food behind; but, there was no way I was going to eat all that food.  It astounds me that you aren’t offered a portions option or something – they won’t even let you order from the child’s menu if you are over a certain age, even if that is all you care to eat.

Thursday, 2nd September 2010, 9AM PST:

The bank has opened, we have found it without trouble (thank you GPS) and I am one of the first customers of the day – only to find out that since my account was opened in Texas, not California, they cannot provide me a temporary card.  This does not make me feel overly thrilled, I assure you.  So, I withdraw some money – part in cash and part in a cashier’s check.  I just really did not feel comfortable walking around with that much cash on my person.  As I’m leaving the bank, it dawns on me that I have an account with another bank, and I have the debit card for that bank in my wallet.  We look for the closest branch (thank you GPS) and find that it is literally in the same parking lot.  So, in I go and deposit the cashier’s check and all is right with our world.  Working debit card, and a half hour early to the parking garage.  Catastrophe avoided and we are ahead of schedule – always a good thing when girding up to enter the maelstrom that is LAX.

Thursday, 2nd September 2010, Noon PST:

The flight is just now boarding.  We were supposed to be departing at this point in time.  I’m a touch concerned since our connecting flight is so close to ours; but, I’ve never missed a flight in my life and figure we will make up some time in the air…until they discover a used needle in the plane’s lavatory and take 20 minutes to do what should have taken merely two.  We arrive at Houston’s George Bush airport three minutes before our departing flight …well, departs.  Yeah.  We arrive in terminal C…our departing flight is in terminal B.  Panic sets in until the pilot informs us that the flights know we were delayed and we just need to get to our connecting flights as quickly as possible.  We arrive at our gate – to find no plane to board.  It had left on time.  Wonderful!

The “customer service” individual tells us that the best they can do is put us on standby for the last flight of the night which departs at 8:05 PM CST.  We ask about any other flights and are told that all flights through Monday are booked solid.  Our only option is standby.  So…off we go to sit standby for the next departing flight.  We had a grand time while waiting.  Lots of laughter and teasing.  A young girl on her way home for the weekend from college to visit her family and an older gentleman whose wife was not quite understanding what was happening when he tried to call and let her know had both been on the same delayed flight as us.  This meant there were four of us sitting standby for the upcoming flight.  Mike and I determined that if there were only two seats available, we’d give up ours and just drive to Birmingham…where my bag was already headed without us….my bag that had my wedding dress, pearls, shoes, etc in it.

Thursday, 2nd September 2010, 8:05PM CST:

The standby calls were made and only two seats were available.  Time to catch the bus over to the rental car terminal and see what was available for a one way trip from Houston to Birmingham.  We finally find one that won’t cost us an arm and a leg – only to have them tell me my card was declined.  I could not believe it.  I had deposited my money and thus knew the money had to be in the account, right?  We go over to the ATM machine only to find a lonely 58¢ in said bank account.  Because it had been a cashier’s check and not cash, they had not instantly credited it to my account.

We attempt to use Mike’s card, but it is just a touch short of what we needed to get the car.  I am about ready to throw my hands in the air and give up when I recall that Mike has a PayPal debit card.  I ask him if he has it with him.  He does.  I ask the rental car guy (Kenneth) if the rental terminal has wifi…it does not.  So, we head back to the airport to use the wifi service.  After painful moments attempting to connect, I manage to transfer money from my original bank account via PayPal to Mike’s PayPal account – where he instantly has it available on his debit card.

Thursday, 2nd September 2010, 10:35PM CST:

We have successfully acquired a vehicle for a one way trip to the Birmingham airport – where my father and son will make a second trip (since the first one was a bust) and pick us and my bag up and take us down to Montgomery to pick up the license…we are on our way. The drive was actually quite uneventful and lovely. Particularly one stretch of about 87 miles through a national forest. We were blessed to be able to help a man who was in difficulty and making his day a little brighter, because of driving to Alabama. And, we arrived into Birmingham International Airport around 11:30AM CST on the 3rd. This gave us enough time to get the bag, get lunch, and drive the two hours south to Montgomery to get the license (which was essentially waiting for us thanks to “who you know”) and were down to the house in plenty of time to have a couple hours to decompress before heading back into Montgomery to have a family dinner celebrating Mama and Matt’s birthdays.

Definitely a case of “are you sure you want to do this?” It would have been so easy to quit along the way. I’m certainly glad we did not. I love my honey and the wedding and the visit was worth every moment of stress and anxiety to get from California to Alabama.

Too precious for words

Well, I decided to put the kibosh on the layette set I was making. Instead, I’m working up a sweater of my own design. It will be a little large so it should fit the tyke come fall/winter time, with room under for a comfy t-shirt or whatever for extra layers. Making it like a little Guernsey. It will be a natural cotton – I’m contemplating using light blue for the cabled areas and then the cuff and neck in the natural like the base of the body. We’ll see. Now to make sure I get the proportions correct on this little sweater so it doesn’t come out all wonky.

We moved last weekend into an RV park in the middle of the Cleveland National Forest. I love it. No, I’m not living in an RV. I’m living in a ‘model’ home. It’s got two rooms, a living room, bathroom, kitchen, patio and fire ring. The view is just excellent, and the park pays for all utilities except propane and TV. It’s a bit more space than what we had before – at nearly a $400/mo savings after everything is considered. Seemed like the smart move. We have satellite television and internet – yes, we are that remote. No phone service. We drive about five miles down the road and call from the lookout…absolutely amazing signal there. **laughs**

Porch view

Friday night, we started up a fire in the fire ring and within five minutes of the smoke hitting the air, one of our neighbors showed up, beer in hand. We visited for several hours, cooked some turkey dogs on the fire and just really enjoyed the evening. The following night, several of the neighbors got together and visited for several hours by a large fire. It was very enjoyable. A little more company than my introverted soul enjoys at one time – but, even so, it was great to discover that we have so many wonderful neighbours. The Grove’s community is just special. Each and everyone we’ve met, so far, has been a pure joy. It has been a very long time since I lived in a place where people not only were curious about their neighbors, but made the effort to get to know them all – and to make it a true community. That is a priceless thing.

Saturday, we went on a major shopping spree to fill the larder. I got three full roasting chickens and popped them in the oven to cook while I put the rest of the groceries away. Then just relaxed on the couch while I came up with the plan and design for Gibson’s sweater. After the chickens finished (3 chickens cooked at 375 for ~2 hours), I pulled them out of the oven and separated the breasts, legs, thighs off of two of the birds and froze them. The third one, I pulled all the meat off, shredded it and put it in a Tupperware container in the fridge – now I’m ready for my recipes that call for chicken in the upcoming week.

The drive

I took the juices from the roasted chickens and dumped it into a stock pot. I added an equal amount of water and then as I was separating and shredding the chickens, I put all the fat, bones, necks, hearts, skins, etc into the stock pot. I added two bay leaves, some oregano and basil, onion (we had a witherd up bi that really needed to get used ASAP), the leaves off the celery and the itty bitty celery hearts, two carrots and a couple mushrooms and left it to boil for two hours. I strained it out and froze the resulting stock – three containers in the freezer prepared for chicken ‘n’ dumplin’s or whatever else I may wish to make that requires chicken stock.

I have planned out a tentative menu for the next few weeks. Nothing for any particular day; but, we went shopping with specific recipes in mind. That being the case, it was really so much more cost effective to purchase several whole chickens and just prepare them at home and make my own stock rather than buying it all in separate bits. We figured it out and we saved approximately $25 doing it this way. A whole chicken cost us $4.11. The breasts (four in the package) were freaking $12. The thighs were $7 for a rather goodly portion. M prefers the dark and I prefer the white, so I tend to cook with a mix of both – it just made buying the whole chicken a lot more cost efficient. And, really, it wasn’t that difficult to do. Sure, it was a touch time consuming to debone and skin them…but, I didn’t have anything pressing to do other than work on Gibson’s sweater. And, an hour to debone and skin three chickens is really not that big a bother – esp when it saves me $25 off my grocery bill!!

The house

Last night, I made a homemade pizza – prepackaged pizza crust (I was feeling lazy), marinara sauce, chicken (from the chickens I roasted on Saturday), chopped asparagus, mushrooms, diced broccoli, diced zucchini, feta and mozzarella. Considering the grumbling from M about some of the ingredients, I was happily surprised when he devoured it. Yay for another successful meal. So, in my moment of happiness, I decided to bake up some brownies. I availed myself of our neighbour Kurt and borrowed some vanilla (yes, people actually do still borrow ingredients from each other – amazing!). I gave him one of the brownies this morning as he headed off to work. **chuckles** These were brownies from scratch, not prepackaged. I had everything except vanilla. I used cacao nibs and cacao powder, sugar, butter (yes, the real deal), flour, vanilla and baking powder. I was informed that the only thing missing was pecans. Since I can’t stand nuts in my food, I disagreed…however, next time I’ll put pecans on his side…and, I think I will try adding cherries to my side. Sounds pretty tasty to me.

My boyfriend tells a story about his father and how he was a tailor and would make these outfits that had so many pieces they’d boggle the mind.  He says he’d sit there and watch his father sew these things together and just wonder how in the world the man kept it all straight.  When he asked his father, the man responded, “All I have to think about is the part that’s under the needle.”

When I was talking to my son on the way back from LA, on Saturday, a similar conversation came up.  I asked him what he’d like for dinner and you could just see his mind go blank.  He said he’d always had problems about that question.  Apparently, at one point when he was visiting his father, he’d been asked to write up a menu — and, he just flat out couldn’t do it.

I told him, “Well, kiddo, that’s because you are thinking of the entire meal at one go.  Don’t worry about the whole meal.  First things first…When you think of eating tonight, what makes your mouth water?  If you think of chicken?  Fish?  Roast beef?  Something else?”  He responded with what sounded good.

I then came back and asked what kind of things he generally thinks of going with that particular item — and, the next thing you know, we had a full menu for dinner.  I told him, “When you get the first step done, then you take the second step.  But, if you look at it all at once and try to come up with the perfect meal in one go, it is this chaotic and overwhelming thing.  Just one item at a time gets the job done.”

As I was saying this, I couldn’t help but laugh at how very similar the life lesson was between what my boyfriend’s father had imparted to him and the one I’d just given my son.  I wonder if it will stick?  Regardless, it hit me — particularly given some of the personal issues I’ve been having to face and overcome recently.

Needless to say, when my sister posted on her Facebook status, “Thinking….if you could give one piece of advice to this year’s graduating class….what would you say?”  Well, I had to respond with this bit of wisdom that has been playing such a central theme in my life, right now.

My response was not like most others.  Theirs have been mostly two veins.  Vein one, “Get your secondary education.” Vein two, “Make Christ the center of your life.”  Both very respectable answers.

But…

Here’s the thing — think back (for some of you it’s a bit of a stretch, I know).  When you stepped out into the world on your own for the first time…wasn’t it a bit overwhelming?  Wondering how your parents ever managed to do it all?  Peers pushing you to not be responsible; but, needing to make sure the bills get paid, the schoolwork gets done, the car gets filled, the cat gets fed, etc…All the things you were able to ignore as a kid is no longer someone else’s problem.  It’s yours.

And, yes, having faith to hold on to is a great and wonderful thing…but, reality is that Christ isn’t going to sit down at your dinner table and make sure the bills get paid on time, that your homework gets done or that your laundry was sorted right so you don’t have grey-ish pink t-shirts to wear until you can afford to buy new ones.

It can be horribly overwhelming — even for those who have been on their own for decades.  How much more so for someone just entering the real world?  Especially a world in such fiscal, emotional and political upheaval?

The key to making it through times like that — times that it just seems like no matter what there is always so much more that needs to be done…times where it looks completely and totally insurmountable — the absolute key is to realize that the only part that matters is what is right here, right now.  The one item right in front of you. The next one will be dealt with when you get to it.  And, the next one and the next one…But, it all winds up being the one that is right in front of you.

This moment in time.  This one moment.  It’s all you can immediately influence. Handle it well.  Influence it to the best of your ability. Let the next moment be what it is when it comes — and, let go of the previous moment when it’s done.  This one moment deserves the very best you can give it.

If you do that, you find that the crazy quilt of your life comes together — one stitch at a time.  One piece at a time.  One block at a time.