This is a post that touches on dogs, but is more about really great summer salads, annoying sicknesses and mostly about getting on and off emotional roller coasters. Like I do.
I told Sloane that we were going to go over to visit our friend’s Diane and Tyler’s house and that they had not just one, but TWO dogs, and you should have seen her eyes get wide. We haven’t had Rusty around in a while because Ken has been traveling all month for work and Ken’s mom heroically offered to take him for the month so that it would be a little easier on me, God bless her soul. It’s not that Rusty is terribly difficult, but having one less thing to worry about when you have one less pair of hands around is an unexpected relief. I think we are ready to have him back though, most especially Sloane, who has been asking about him and including him in all of our made-up songs wherein we insert family member names. She also remembers the other dog members of our family – Monty, my sister’s dog, and Maggie, Ken’s sister’s dog – both of which are small and fluffy and older in their years. So when Sloane met Maddie, that lovely dog pictured up there, she was all ‘hi doggie!’ with frequent waves and then eventually, ‘touch? touch?’ We’re ready to have you back, Rusty!
So at Diane and Tyler’s house, I had the most amazing salad. I mean, it was love at first bite. It was all crunchy green beans, snap peas, mozzarella balls, ripe heirloom tomatoes, olives, and thick croutons, mixed with a light vinaigrette. Once I recreate it I’m planning to eat it all summer long. I would have eaten it all night long if it wasn’t for the grilled scallops, shrimp, kalbi and oysters that came out after that. We were deep up to our eyeballs in good food and it didn’t hurt none that Tyler happens to be a chef. Diane is savvy in the kitchen as well and she whipped up these paleo sweet potato chips that all of us – Ken, myself and Sloane – were big fans of. Sloane could not get enough and knowing how much good stuff was in there, I pretty much let her go to town on them. Diane also made a paleo version of a melktert, a South African dessert, in honor of one of the dinner attendees who is originally from South Africa, and it was delicious and fun to say. Try it: melk tert.
Speaking of other countries and good food (a segway that actually makes sense!), my favorite show right now is ‘Parts Unknown’ with Anthony Bourdain. You guys. I know it’s every other persons’ dream to be able to travel and eat and write for a living, but that doesn’t make it less mine. Anthony Bourdain has several shows but I like this one especially; he visits areas of the world that are not as well traveled and does an overview, albeit a cursory one for the sake of a 40 minute show, of the culture and the current events, meets the people and eats their food. I also went down a rabbit trail of googling 'Anthony Bourdain's wife' because I got real curious about what kind of person it was at home that would be totally okay with being married to someone who travelled so dang much, and it turns out his wife (who is his second wife) is into MMA fighting. The things you learn!
No real segway to the next bit of news I was going to share, which is simply that I have this mysterious lingering sickness that has taken all different shapes and sizes over the past week and a half. It started with a sore throat, and then extreme congestion, and then a fever which slipped right into two and a half days of diarrhea. I should have taken a couple of days off last week to let the body rest but work was busy and I didn't. I maybe should have taken Saturday morning off from doing this really intense workout, but I had been looking forward to it for weeks, so I did it and was pretty darn proud of myself for making it through. I spent most of Memorial Day in or a few feet away from a bathroom and we made the most of a day spent indoors.
I'm on the mend. My stomach is still a little gurgly and I can't seem to get rid of this pesky dry cough that erupts once in a while, but I have hopes that I have turned the corner. We all had such a good weekend, regardless of me flying at half mast, but maybe due to the toll of it, the weekend came to an unfortunate peak. I was in one of those moody and exasperated moods, augmented by my body feeling out of sorts and I got into the most ridiculous of arguments with Ken about something tiny...you know the drill. As soon as I deflated, I realized 1) how dumb we sounded, 2) how especially dumb I sounded, 3) how surprisingly patient he had been and 4) how the root of it had to do with my own issues of anxiety about the future.
Such is marriage that one person's anxiety's about the future can manifest in unfortunate ways, but such also is marriage that your partner can help carry the load and remind you to buck up. My arc so far in this marriage has been of me learning the hard but exciting lessons of who I am and I am startled and humbled to come face to face with someone who says they are with me no matter what. I'm also startled to find how much my someone is learning lessons about who he is and growing, too. The other hard lesson is that my arc isn't necessarily going to go the way I want it expect it to go. What does it matter, though, as long as I'm in good hands and in good company?
Ken asked me the other day, "What are you looking forward to the most this summer?" I loved that he asked me this question. There is so much to look forward to this summer and this year. Weddings, summer salads, babies, friends, family, birthdays, and anniversaries. I'm in good hands, I'm in good company.
