Happy Mother'a Day, all! I love this day. I love seeing all the sons and husbands on their way somewhere with a beautiful bouquet of flowers. There's something about seeing a man with flowers that gets me to grinning. I don't mean when they're for me. I just mean in general. It's one of my secret pleasures in life to observe people when they don't know they're being watched. And believe me, I've tried to come up with less creepy ways to say that and there just aren't any, okay? Anyway, I've always loved people watching. But it's more than just sitting on a park bench watching the passers by. It's the split second, the moment that turns my eye into a camera. It's one image, or a series of images. The man standing on the train platform holding a bouquet of peonies, dressed up because it's a special day. Mother's day is perfect for just such an image. I could write for days about the joys of people watching but that will be for another post.
Anyhow, I made the trek home this morning with a giant duffel bag full of laundry and a mind full of financial stress. But I suppose I'll start from the beginning. May has been an interesting month thus far. It's only been a week and already it's proven to be quite tricky. As I mentioned before, I'm broke. Hence my lack of new recipes considering I can't buy the necessary ingredients. Or I can, but one week at a time. For instance, I found a recipe for rice crackers that I really want to try. In general I hate the taste of rice crackers but for a gluten free eater, they're a decent snack. So on Friday after work I went to the store and left with brown rice flour and deoderant. Because when you're on as tight a budget as I am right now, you buy 1/5 of a cracker recipe and scented powder for your pits. You have to be very choosy. While food would be nice, not smelling like onions is nicer. At this rate I will have the crackers made by mid-August. I also really want to make gnocchi for my first Italian recipe, but it also requires brown rice flour. Gluten free flour/baking mixes come in small quantities for a large price so for now I'll have to choose between gnocchi and rice crackers. I hate that Alexa and I have already lost some momentum, but this isn't a permanent issue, I promise. She's smack in the middle of midterms and I'm smack in the middle of poor financial management. But we're not quitting! This is just a speed bump. Moving on to more mishappage, I'm sick. I have a sore throat, I'm back and forth with fevers, and I have a cough that makes me feel like I'm choking on my own lungs. You know what this means? I'm calling in to work again tomorrow. There's $80 that I could really use. On top of that, I ran out of all my necessities within a few days of each other. Facewash, moisturizer, toothpaste, and laundry detergent. So here I am. At my parent's house after a BART trip that I really couldn't afford with a laundry bag full of laundry that would have otherwise stayed dirty. I'm basically paying $10 to do a load of laundry. FML. And on top of all of this loveliness, I got asked out today by a guy far too many years my senior. Again. What the EFF is the deal? Do I mind getting asked out? Not particularly. But do I mind when the only males asking me out are in their late 20's or early 30's? Um, yes. I mind. Actually, this was probably the youngest one I've encountered. Generally speaking, these guys are in their 40's and clearly out of their minds. I don't think I've ever told this gem of a story, so here goes: about a month ago I stopped by Trader Joes on my way home from an eight hour day at work. I'm perusing the apples when out of the corner of my eye I see this 40 something year old man who, despite his receding hairline has hair to his shoulders. He's staring at me. I look at him and raise my eyebrows, hoping that the embarrassment of being caught will force him to look away. False. Apparently what I gave him was my "come hither" face. Not looking away, he manages to navigate his way around the apple bin and sidle up to me with what has got to be the creepiest smile ever. I'm expecting him to greet me, drop a cheesy line, introduce himself at least. But no. He opens up with "I heard a really inspiring song today". *Crickets*. My first thought is "oh shit, he's trying to convert me in the middle of the produce section". My second thought is "what the fuck?!" What does one even say to that? I'm pretty sure I said "oh yeah?" So he tells me he heard it just before getting to TJ's, it was really good. Then he proceeds to whip out his iPhone, ask if I want to hear it, and before I can say "what the hell is wrong with you?" he has Youtube opened and the video playing. So now I'm standing in the middle of the fruit section with a 40 year old no higher than my chin watching Joe Cocker sing "I Get By With A Little Help From My Friends" live from Germany on a frickin iPhone. All the while I'm still trying to pick out apples. "Yes," I agree, "that's a good one". As I start pushing my cart away, anywhere away I don't care where just get me the FRICK out of here, he says "can I send you the link?". I'm sorry, what? Are you frickin kidding me with this? I mean does this work for him? Was I a guinnea pig or has he tried this on other women and been met with great success? And do I look that stupid? Sure, perfect stranger, here's my email address. I can't wait to see how creepy you can be in writing since your live performance is spellbinding. "No thanks," I say, "I can just look it up on Youtube". He then proceeds to act like it's a super hard video to find and he's not sure what it's called and he wouldn't even know where to find it and no, he'd better send me the link. He then proceeds to start asking me about my life. The fact that I'm clearly a college student doesn't seem to deter him. I don't even remember how this debacle ended. But I do know that a week later, at the same time, I was at TJ's doing my weekly shopping and guess who else was there! Yep. He had a beanie on this time but I would recognize those skinny little legs and that red windbreaker anywhere. I then spent the next 30 minutes playing hide and seek, peeking around corners, and looking over my shoulder. Moral of the story: if you're older than 23, I'm not interested! Please do not stare at me, approach me, or tell me that I have piercing eyes (yes, that happened too).
Anywaaaaay, other than all of that, May has been kind to me. And despite the fact that I'm living paycheck to paycheck, I can't stay down for too long. The sun is shining, school is over in a week (not that that should change anything, considering I no longer attend my classes), and summer is just around the corner. Next up is Alexa's most recent recipe! Happy Mother's Day, folks!
-LG
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