Friday Randomness ~ 5 Things
- We’re going to the Great American Food & Music Festival tomorrow. The idea behind the food part is to bring authentic samples of iconic American dishes to one festival. This is the first year for the festival, and they readily admit that there are quite a few classic American cuisines sorely lacking. This is mainly due to the fact that they want small restaurants to participate, and few of them are equipped to fly all of the way to CA and then serve up 5,000 servings of their dish. So there will be no pizza, no Chicago hot dogs, no southern cooking. But there will be hot dogs from Pinks in L.A., Pastrami Sandwiches from Katz’s Delicatessen in New York, Smoked Brisket and Sausages from Southside Market & Barbeque in Elgin, Texas, Cheesesteaks from Philadelphia, and a ton more. I suspect that if there’s a big chili dog with my name on it tomorrow, I should probably wait to see Food, Inc.. The music part of the festival is Little Feat, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, and Marshall Crenshaw. Should be fun.
- Today is Maya’s last day of school. They’re there for 3 hours, and all they’re doing is signing yearbooks. When she gets out at noon, I’m going to take her to lunch, I think. She’s been wanting to try Cheesecake Factory for awhile now, so I guess we’ll give that a shot. LaLuna said something yesterday that surprised me, though it shouldn’t have. This fall, Maya will be an 8th grader. BGOC. (Big Girl On Campus) I mean, I knew this, but still, it caught me off guard. Middle school is so quick…
- Genevieve is becoming incontinent. We tried giving her apple cider vinegar in her water for a little while, and at first it seemed to help, but then she started peeing again. The vet said that this is a common problem amongst female spayed dogs. Poor baby. So now she’s started a new drug, and at least for the first day it made her feel kind of spacey. We’ll see if that wears off as she adjusts. I hope so.
- I went and gave blood on Wednesday. Yay me! I don’t go nearly as often as I should. You’re eligible to donate every 55 days, and it’s been well over a year for me. Gotta work on that.
- This whole unemployment thing has me spending a bit of time thinking about careers, happiness, vocations, and the like. Some people are drawn to a specific career, and if they’re lucky enough to be able to get a job in that field, they’re very fulfilled and satisfied. Others are drawn to a specific career, but cannot get a full time job in that field. Very frustrating. Others amongst us don’t really have that pull…we float from job to job, finding ourselves looking at the want ads and saying, “Yeah, I could do that”, and applying. This makes for an aimless sort of career, one without a lot of direction, and usually one that is less than satisfying. But I happen to think that for those of us who are not pulled in one direction or another by a particular vocation, we need to find our happiness elsewhere. In our families, in our communities, in our hobbies, that sort of thing. So, I’ve decided to take some horseback riding lessons. It’s always been a dream of mine to learn how to ride properly, rather than just climbing up on a horse and hoping for the best. It’s expensive, though, so I’m not sure I’ll keep it up. But this is a first step in figuring out if my love for horses is real, or if they are animals I would prefer to admire from afar. I’ll let you know how it goes.
That’s it for me. Happy Friday, and have a lovely weekend.
UPDATE: OK, had to add a 6th thing. Check out this story: 14-year-old German boy hit in the hand by pea-sized meteorite. Is that crazy, or what?
10 Comments
Nance
I’ve always wanted to try horseback riding, but I never, ever have! Not even once. Let us know how it goes.
Autumn's Mom
I’m so excited for you! Horseback riding! We’ll definitely need some pics. Maya in 8th grade. I happen to think 8th grade is one of the best years of school. I’m about to pick up my former 8th graders from their brunch at school. On to high school!!
Gina
Oh you’ve got to have a Pink’s dog!
Good luck on the horseback riding, I’m a teensy bit scared of horses for some reason, but I still think they are beautiful.
Starshine
I absolutely love what you said in #5. I can’t wait to hear about horse back riding lessons. I wonder if your life-long love of horses will be the place that you find your calling! Maybe you’ll love riding so much you’ll decide to teach it! (Just dreaming….)
Maybe you’ll teach riding lessons and when that is over you’ll gather your young pupils together for story time and you’ll read a horse book aloud to them. It will sort of be like your pony farm/library dream job. Just sayin’!
Have a great weekend!
Donna
Say Hi to Guy for me! 8th grade was a pretty cool year for Spence…and now he’s just finished 9th!!!
And OMG…I’m soooooooo picturing someone with coconuts making a clippity cloppity noise as you “ride” around the horse thingy. hee hee hee…yes, I have Monty Python on the brain! have fun!
I was also thinking of taking some non-career, but dream job related classes…must be something in the air. 🙂
J
Yeah Donna, it’s called “Unemployment”! HA!
dadwhowrites
I haven’t ridden since I was 16 – would love to try again. Maybe this summer…
One of our elderly cats is also starting to get incontinent, poor thing, though for quite different reasons. That one’s going to be tough for dudelet but it’s a rite of passage we all come to all, too soon.
Jimmy
I haven’t had a horse since I was in highschool back in the 70’s. They were affordable back then. Nowdays they are quite expensive to board,and feed. Not to mention vet bills and hoof trimming.
Poor Genevieve. Wishing her well soon! Boston hugs and Bullie kisses from Em & Ab!
C
Awwww, J! Awesome post! I wish I lived closer to you guys. I would have loved to take LO to the Great American Food and Music Festival! Soooo cool!
Poor Genevieve. Give her hugs from Chance. XO
Maya is so grown up now! Wow! Can’t get over her being a BGOC!!!
OMG…Guy Fieri!?!?! I LOVE Guy Fieri! Not that he’s an amazing cook or anything or that he finds the greasiest dives ever, but because he just cracks me up for some reason. K, I’m officially jealous you guys are going to that event! Have a blast and can’t wait to hear all about it!!
OmbudsBen
Item 1 reminds me of Michael Pollan’s book “The Omnivore’s Dilemma, which I generally enjoyed. Except he kept making odd assertions, one of which was that we Americans have no native cuisine. Say what? Does the man not have turkey on Thanksgiving? A hot dog at a ballgame? This festival sounds like a wonderful refutation–other than that, it is a good book.
Other than that–my sympathy, too, to Genevieve.
Good luck to Maya, too, and I hope you don’t eat so much at the festival it makes horseriding difficult!