I started today with the best of intentions, doing a bunch of Scarleteen grunt work and then answering some posts. But within a few hours, I got whacked upside the head with a migraine, then also realized I was just flat-out wiped.

Taking a glance at the calendar, the why of that became obvious. Not counting the span of time I had bronchitis — because being horribly ill really doesn’t count as time off — it’s been around 20 days since I have been able to take a whole day off. A whole day off, all by myself, without having to take care of anyone? Over a month. Criminy.

I suppose today doesn’t really count either, but at least I got 3/4s of a day to just tidy up the living room, lay on the couch, read a bit, watch a movie, steam my face and cuddle with the dog. I also got to sleep in until 8, I’m heading for a bath shortly, and Mark is going to swing by the market for me on his way home and pick me up the goods to make myself a well-deserved (if I do say so myself) hot fudge undae. I have to run some errands on Friday, but I think it’s pretty imperative that after work tomorrow, I get everything set for those errands so that I can do them in the midst of a nice walk and give myself that whole day to really mentally vacate. Maybe I’ll get lucky and catch some weather just warm and dry enough to fit in a bike ride, too.

I did know that it wasn’t going to be super-easy to add another job in, but I wasn’t prepared for how tired it’d all make me. Sometimes I manage to forget that I’m nothing close to 21 anymore, when it was easy as pie for me to work a zillion jobs, get home and take care of other business, grab a couple hours of sleep, and still be full of energy. I don’t need my 21-year-old ass back, but bloody hell, it’d sure be nice to have that stamina again.

Tomorrow I do some more observations in the morning, but I finished the last of my reading and competency tools earlier this week, so by afternoon, I get started with doing the actual counseling myself. It’d hard not to be nervous. One thing I’m lucky with when it comes to Scarleteen is that if I forget something, I can always go right back and add it in, and the chances of a user returning to read more are very high. Too, even when I’m talking someone through a crisis or a difficult time , they’re rarely RIGHT in the middle of that crisis, literally. Mind, it is a comfort to be able to actually see the person I’m counseling, get a read for their body language, and even hold their hand when that’s what they need. The other day, there was a woman who was in desperate need of a freaking hug. We gets users like that at Scarleteen, too, obviously, but all I can do is advise them to go find someone to hug, I can’t just say that it’s okay to blow snot in my hair and give them the hug myself.

But it’s just one of those things you want to be sure you do right as rain. I clearly remember the support staff I had for my abortion way back when, and while I was not in any way conflicted about my choice, and in fact felt very good about it, the way they did their jobs turned a good thing for me into something even better, and in many ways, very watershed. Obviously, I want to do the same for everyone I counsel, and obviously, I’m worried about the times that I can’t help as much as I’d like to, or just don’t do my best.

Mind, this is me we’re talking about, and I do hold myself to very high — often impossibly high, I know — standards. I know in my guts that I’ll do just fine when I’m completely on my own. I also know that I have the benefit of a really amazing staff around me who I can ask for any extra help I need: I remain just so impressed and awed by the other women there. I was also a bit worried at first that I would have a hard time not being distracted about other work while I was there, but that’s not been an issue at all. In fact, it’s been really quite nice to have a few days a week without even having any access to Scarleteen, even though it does mean that that on the other days I do that work, there’s a bigger backup to deal with. I tried to do a little work on the boards when I came home from the clinic Monday, but since the first thread I opened was some creep talking about how his 14-year-old daughter was filling out and how he had to get into her pants and the next was a rape survivor I have counseled on and off for some time who just cannot seem to move forward, and who tends to direct her anger about her rape unto me? Had to just lock the creep’s thread and then just back the hell away from the computer, verifying that as I suspected, two venues in a day for counseling work is one venue way too many.

And I just heard Mark’s car door slam, which means that we need not ask for whom the Tofutti tolls: it tolls for me!  If you can’t get a whole day off, you can certainly make up for lost time with chocolaty goodness, and I intend to do so immediately.
P.S. The Storm are staying here. YIPPEE! This makes me very, very happy. My apologies to the five lesbians who live in Oklahoma (for so very many reasons), but really, y’all, not only was that location just not going to work, this is one of the few big perks I’ve found of living here, and taking them away from me would have broken my wee little heart.

posted in Heather Corinna, apropos of nothing, yummy, workworkwork | permalink | comments (1) »

My great joy this week has been finding a new CSA which is easily the best one I have ever had. All organic, primarily local, inexpensive as hell — all this (I do a 2/3rds share, since Mr. Price is more carnivore than omnivore, and we take care of our own costs separately, anyway, and just share things as we like) and a pound of organic coffee for $35 a week — and they deliver, no less. My first order someone even screwed up, and one of the staffers was willing to bring my bin by on their way home. Most CSAs I’ve been part of have been great, but rarely organic, never delivered (and since I don’t have a car, that can be tough), never year round, and fruit has always been a rarity. The organic produce at our local market is decent, but it’s hella expensive. Heck, even regular produce generally costs me this much there. This is vegan HEAVEN.

So, I open my bin and it is brimming over with a bunch of rainbow carrots, a bok choi, a gorgeous bouquet of chard, a bag of green beans, three big beets, two delicata squashes, five yellow potatoes, a beautiful, big yellow onion, a head of cauliflower, four mandarins, two pears, two apples, and that gorgeous, odiferous coffee…which I am sipping right now, quite blissfully.

I had to cook the night it all came, of course, so I made stuffed peppers and a really swell greens and carrots combo. I haven’t done recipes here for a while — and for newcomers, understand I’m one of those irritating cooks who often does things off the cuffs, so measurements are rarely exact — so here you be:

The Peppers:
• two large green peppers, tops removed, inside scooped out
• four chopped mushrooms
• one small zucchini, chopped
• one half yellow onion, diced
• one half cup faux beefy crumbles (or seitan, or crumbled tempeh, up to you)
• one cup or so of a batch of spanish rice
• saffron, smoked paprika, cumin, red wine, aleppo pepper, white pepper, raw sugar

Preheat the oven to 400, then saute the onions with a half teaspoon of the aleppo pepper. When they’re transluscent, add the beefy crumbles (or other veg protein you’re using), brown a little, then add the zucchini and get it a little soft. Add about a half teaspoon each of the paprika and cumin, a sprinkle of white pepper, a few threads of saffron, red wine to taste, then the rice.

Oil a baking dish, then fill peppers tightly with the mixture, and flop any extra in the pan. Dust the tops of the peppers with the raw sugar and another sprinkle of paprika: bake covered until peppers are soft, usually around 45 minutes to an hour. We served them with this really nummy raspberry-chipotle sauce we keep around (we have a whole shelf of nothing but hot sauces in the cabinet).

I didn’t have any tomatoes lying around, but if I had, I’d have stewed a few and then made the extra rice mixture extra saucy to put around the peppers in the baking dish.

The Roots & Greens
• one big bunch chard (of any kind, but the rainbow chard is always so pretty)
• four or five carrots, sliced
• one mandarin orange, peeled and sectioned
• orange juice and port wine or, a bit of the ratafia I have still managed to hoard from Minnesota (if you’re me)

In a medium pot, boil a couple inches of half water, half OJ. Drop in the carrots and let boil until steamed, then add the chopped greens on top and the mandarins, and steam lightly. Drain and toss with the port or ratafia.

Even Mark cleaned his plate.

Today I’m off in a bit for my weekly coffee klatch with David, a few errands, then back here to clean up a bit and get some baking done before the evening. It was a busy, busy week of lots and lots of work (even by my standards), so I think I may actually take a weekend like normal people this time around, or at least, give it something of a go.

posted in Heather Corinna, home, Auntie Heather's Helpful Hints, yummy | permalink | comments (2) »