The Joy of Cooking

I've never been a mayonnaise fan. When I was in elementary school the trauma is still raw when I remember opening my lunch box, carefully unwrapping the bologna sandwich and discovering there was mayo on it. It didn't happen often, but when it did, I was devastated. I guess when you have five children to make lunches for everyday school day, sometimes the order wasn't quite right. There are things now I will eat with mayo, but it has to be mixed in. For  instance, tuna (but not on the bread), egg salad, macaroni salad (only my Mom's recipe), potato salad, and a little dip of mayo on each of my artichoke petals. But now, the game has changed a bit. Little did I know how easy it is to make homemade mayo and how absolutely delicious it is. The recipe in the Joy of Cooking will have you saying, "bye bye to Best Foods." My Mom's macaroni salad just hit a new level. I just hope I don't eat it all before our get together tonight here at the house. Yum.

I haven't done much pottery since I finished my Mom's cremation urn. Unconsciously, I may have processed the finished product as an end and then didn't notice any creativity creeping back in. Her urn is beautiful and I know she would have approved. I believe she was with me in spirit while my hands imagined it into reality. In the past couple of weeks, I have been doing a little more and today I stacked a couple of totems in the yard and took pics.  They add a
little color and cheer. I can't use the word "whimsical" as it reminds me so much of the many times Jay and Eric and I watched some home decor or garden show on TV and continuously laughed our heads off as it seemed every other word used by the hosts was "whimsical." It was a constant in our vocabularies after that making fun of all sorts of news articles, people and work situations. We always had fun that way. Due to the overuse of some other words like, "shameful" and "stupid," I still can laugh out loud without a care as to who can hear me! Jay and Eric's voices are constant companions to me.

 I love walking at Riverview Park - so does Meggie, note the flapping tongue. Each season finds the trees, sky and general appearance of the landscape displaying the most beautiful of it's attributes as if in a competition. I'm not sure I could say I favor one season over the other. Each is so uniquely lovely.

Yesterday, I was able to snag a wooden pallet I had been eyeing for sometime now. With it loaded into the Suburban, I felt a bit triumphant considering it involves a project I haven't discussed with my hubby as of yet. I keep hinting that I want chickens but his eye rolling has been a barrier to the forward movement of the project - until yesterday! I was able to get a box pallet which is basically a pallet crate. It's measures 4x4 and if I turn it over, will serve as the base for the hen house. My old greenhouse will serve as the skeleton for the hen yard. The only obstacle for me is getting all the materials together in one place so I can put it together. That's where the hubby comes in, so I have to keep working on selling the idea.

I tried so hard to settle myself down before my head hit the pillow last night. Once I actually got into bed, I really believed I would be able to nod off right away, but alas, that didn't happen. Last time I caught a glimpse of the clock, I had been "settling" for an hour. Better than usual, but still not optimal. I was a bit more refreshed this morning, leaving the comfort of a quiet room and soft bed at about 7am. I sat and watched the birds while I sipped my tea and then took Meggie out to Riverview Park for a nice walk. With camera in tow, I was able to click away and enjoy a beautiful Spring day in Carson City. Meggie was so happy. I have lots to do today to get ready for Eric's birthday gathering on Sunday. It's a great time to reconnect with the friends Eric loved so well and who loved him in return. It's amazing how their lives have developed and how they have grown into those lives they have been building for themselves. I just wish Eric had of been able to continue on the journey with them.

It's almost beyond my ability to comprehend the fact that I have not posted anything to this blog for the past two years. Has it really been that long? But then when I think about it, what have I actually been doing? I should know the answer, but I still don't recognize the changes in my life as truly being permanent. I can compare this time in my life to the process of molting like a bird - but most of the old feathers are clinging on, hiding the new ones trying to grow through. Even when the new feathers do grow, pushing out the old, the bird still resembles what it was before it lost it's feathers. Nothing in my life feels familiar and the restlessness I carried around with me for so long is gone. In the past, reinventing myself was a way for me to cope with my restlessness, but it seems I have totally forgotten how to do that. Of course, restlessness is easier to manage than sadness and grief which still cling to so much of what defines me. It has seeped into every pore in my body and my body reminds me of it constantly. I feel old.

Just one victory a day would be helpful. No matter how small or large, being able to have some satisfaction might be what my body needs to help me feel alive again. The physical pain stops me in my tracks and discovering a way to diminish it's affects would be most welcome at this point. The sleep deprivation I've experienced is contributing to the physical deterioration. I'm sleepy in the evenings but as soon as my head hits the pillow, my mind won't stop. I toss and turn trying to get comfortable and end up a frustrated, tired mess. My best sleep is in the morning when I used to be up and around, ready for the day. It's a sleep shift I don't want to succumb to. It might just be time to take back my schedule and force myself to get up as early as I used to, take the dog for a walk, and try to start my day on a fresh note.

So, day one tomorrow....

It's been so very difficult for me to even think about writing. I keep thinking I should be figuring out how to bring him back, trying to figure out exactly what to do that will prevent this from becoming a reality. I still keep feeling there is something out there I can do to turn back the hands of time and that I must find it.   The idea that this is reality has not crept into my vocabulary yet. I've not yet let go of the idea I will wake up from this nightmare. Each day that goes by blurs into yesterday - tomorrow is the same as today and today is just as painful as yesterday. I can hardly believe it's been almost a year of Eric's absence because I'm still expecting him to walk in the back door.

Each day that goes by isn't immune to the longing for the same day last year. "When Eric was still alive," I've kept saying to myself as each day presents itself and I remember what we were doing last year at this time - when Eric was still alive. I dread the day when I can no longer say to myself, "last year at this time."And the day is looming as my anxiety grows.

The Loss Continues - Unrelentless

We lost so much, but nothing compared to what Eric lost. I can't even begin to try to imagine what he lost - I can't go there for fear I may not resurface from it. Unfortunately, we're the ones left behind to realize the loss and try to live through it. Knowing how much he loved life and how much we enjoyed reveling in the way he demonstrated that love, sometimes feels unbearable. I feel I'm being robbed. Everyday when I wake up and realize my life has changed so profoundly, inexorably, and miserably, and all I have is to anticipate the measly paycheck from a job that's slowly robbing me of the memories, feelings and grief I so much want to work through. The distraction of avoidance and having to deal with the ridiculousness of the day to day activities of the workplace - a place where there is no humanity, empathy or understanding.  Where are their redeeming qualities. I even hate the very people that Eric loved, the friends that wore him like their emblem and then let him fend for himself when he needed them most, the people Eric would have defended even if he didn't know them. He was always defending the behaviors of others, never had a bad word toward anyone. Never gossiped. Now the distrust I wish he had of had even an inkling of, pervades me. And the numbness - continually creeping in and out so that my lowest lows mimic the bare nerve laid out, waiting for the irritant to remind it of the pain that tells it it's still alive and suffering.

Oh Eric, why?

When it began

When I started this blog I had every intention to chronicle the life I intended to create in the next few years as a gate that I could walk through to the next passage of my life. I thought I had more or less figured out what I wanted to do, what I wanted to concentrate on and what would give me satisfaction now that my children were grown and walking the paths they were creating for themselves. I felt I had the opportunity to redefine my happiness and take it to a new level for not only myself, but my husband as well. How fulfilling to begin to realize the life we would be living in our later years. With all that has happened and the time that has slipped by, I feel I have been living someone else's life - a life that was not supposed to be mine. Although it has been nine months since Eric's death, I feel it was just yesterday. The grief is still raw and I'm drowning in a sea full of his absence. I try so hard to normalize my life and the relations I have with others, but the facade is beginning to wear on me and sometimes my anger at how normal everyone else's life seems, makes my sensitivities to the things people say quite overwhelming. My role has changed and I want so much to get to the place where I can take all of the love I have for Eric and do something constructive and meaningful with it instead of just trying to get through each day. The depth of Eric's humanity, joy and lust for life is what I so desire to try and verbalize because at times those qualities have eluded me.  To write down those precious memories in black and white would, I believe, help me deal with his death and give something to those who knew him and loved him. Those he didn't touch will have no idea. Those who did bask the light of his life will know exactly what I'm talking about. What little this would be to give back to one who gave me so very, very much love, laughter and meaning.

More now than every I feel the need to concentrate on what will put me back on that path of redefinition, get me over this hill so the tears of grief will be fewer and fewer. The sorrow replaced by the memories of joy over the 24 years that he graced our lives, giving us so many memories, those memories I wish to share of my little family that have given me a reason to live for the past 31 years. It will be my way of keeping Eric alive and chipping away at the immenseness of his absence. I'm sure this is the medicine, therapy, and a type of spirituality I will need to give me back some meaning in my life.

Day One Hundred Seventy Eight

I must say it's been a rather challenging 9 days - so sick and without the distractions of my normal routine, the mind resting on memories and longing for days of the past. There were so many times when my mind would just flood with thoughts longing to be written down. There have also been a few days of numbness, not able to verbalize or recognize any feelings whatsoever. I can't wait for the day when I can remember what I live for.

Day One Hundred Seventy-Seven

The food was eaten. The relatives went home. The cards were written, the words were said. The flowers died and now the ashes are on the mantle. The well meaning friends don't come by, the good friends don't call. We are now alone in our grief. The solitude is incredible. The sorrow unbearable. Are we really expected to go on as if the passing of time will dilute the absence of our youngest son and brother? I've heard the words way too often, "If there's anything I can do please give me a call." I hardly have the energy and desire to get out of bed in the morning, let alone intrude on another's peaceful existence. For a person who's been used to fierce independence, am I really supposed to now pick up the phone and ask for someone to just acknowledge our loss? Who's the strong now?. I don't understand people and I don't understand why my son had to die - this just wasn't supposed to happen and nothing in my life has prepared me for it. I am bitter. I am confused. I don't know what is real and what is an illusion. I don't know what happens after we die, despite the fact that I want to believe our essence lives on. Does my belief in something change the reality? All I know is there is a hole in my life that will never be filled.

Day One Hundred Seventy-Six

I find myself watching TV or a video and wondering when it was made - what year? I can imagine the camera panning out, way out, out until I see exactly what Eric was doing when that TV program or video was made. I take comfort in the fact that while I'm watching, I know that Eric was out there, alive, doing something, anything, but not gone. Eric's goneness - I'm having a hard time with that - an incredibly hard time.

Day One Hundred Seventy Five

The season's beginning to wind down and the vegetables have certainly earned their rest. Never have I harvested as many bountiful offerings as I have this season. I do believe the wet winter was very kind to my fresh vegetable appetite. It's what I love about the summer - not so much the hot temperatures, although it didn't get about 100 degrees here all summer which helped my crop abundance tremendously. No matter how much water you put on the plants, temperatures above 100 degrees are deadly for the tender little veggies setting on the plants. The only downside of having a garden is the necessity to stay home and water it. Long summer weekends away are nice during the summer, but the plants suffer for it.

I started all my plants from seed this year, buying only heirloom varieties. The large squash are Ettiennes and I can't wait to cut into one of them. I'm just waiting for the right recipe inspiration. Maybe a squash and carrot soup as I have many heirloom carrots as well. They were especially prolific as they were the small round variety which doesn't take much soil depth. The little round ones are also very beautiful left whole and added to soup or stew.
As you can see, there are a couple of grape clusters. Bob and I picked 28 lbs on October 1st and began our little wine experiment. I had stopped by the local home brew-it shop and purchased a few items needed to make wine. Right now the mash is fermenting and we're hoping for a couple of bottles.

I have always loved the fall season - all the bounty of the garden which yields an ever bigger bounty as each summer passes, the turning of the leaves which have sheltered us from the sun during those hot days of summer, and the crispness in the air when the cold begins to creep in, pushing the warm thick air out into the sky where it will linger until another summer rolls around once again. I like to imagine it just playing high in the atmosphere waiting for it's time to return to the Earth once again. The birds are beginning their fly through and are now frequenting the yard in waves. The dog is curled up a little tighter among her blankets in the dog house. The waining of the light is making it difficult to get out of bed in the morning. The fall season is here once again and I am without all the familiarity of past autumns.

I am not as sad as I have been these past several months, and I believe a veil of numbness has descended and covered me. I'm not sure if it's a subconscious survival reaction as the autumn can be a very sad time of the year, bringing on a sense of melancholia. Long shadows from the lowering angle of the sun, give everything a presence that makes it hard to know soon they will be gone. It seems it's almost as if the sun wants us to remember how much joy, pleasure and protection those plants, in all their costumed splendor, gave us during the heat of the summer before they loose their leaves and hanker down for the cold of the winter. Maybe that's what happens to all of us - we loose our blood, our flesh and our bones to the season of death, but we sleep through the winter of our existence until we too can return to give joy, pleasure and protection to those we love and have loved. It is too cruel to believe we are just gone.

Day One Hundred and Seventy-Four

Sometimes I think I know what it must feel like to be a junkie as I walk down the hall and into the back bedroom where all of the remains of Eric's earthly life reside behind the green doors of the closet. I stand before them, anticipating the high I'm going to get when I reach in and pull his pillow and quilt close to my face and breath in deep, imagining him standing before me. All the times I walked into his room and recoiled from the smell, politely, yet sternly informed him he needed to pick up his dirty clothes and put them in the laundry, only to see him a few minutes later doing exactly that. Eric was fastidious in his person, always showering and making sure he was clean and he always had a good soapy smell. His room and bed was another matter. The room, no matter which one he was residing in as he lived in every bedroom of the house at one time or another, would be a chaotic mess of dirty clothes, pieces of paper, old used dishes, pens, pencils, bike parts, metal and sand and dirt, but when reminded, he would take a few hours and clean it up, surprisingly well for someone who could neglect it as he did. But Eric always smelled good, kept his hair clean, yet sometimes very wild, and often had a soft almost redish beard. I always loved it when he shaved his face clean - he had such a baby face and I loved the soft lines along his mouth when he smiled.

Now I savor what little I have of the things he used and wore - those things that still have his scent clinging to them, not the soapy smell, but the smell of dirt and bicycle grease that reminds me so much of Eric. I'll never wash his quilt. I will keep his pillow wrapped in it to preserve what lingers there and, ultimately, brings me back to when he was here.