Sunday, October 24, 2010

Sleepless in Texas

Sunday Snack

Here’s my afternoon snack from earlier today: two slices of toast, one topped with mustard, melted cheddar, and caramelized onions.  The other was topped with coconut butter on one half and peanut butter with raisins on the other.  I drank iced Sleepytime Vanilla tea to wash everything down.

What, you may ask, was I doing drinking Sleepytime Vanilla at 4 PM?  I may act like an old lady, but I’m not that bad yet.  I can offer you two reasons.  One is that Sleepytime Vanilla is delicious and shouldn’t be limited to before-bed sipping.  The other is that on Friday night, I lay in bed for two hours, thinking and fretting and worrying about work.  I’ve been trying to hedge my bets with sleep since then, and Sleepytime tea is one of my tricks.

Oh, WORK!  I have been working a lot lately.  Like I said yesterday, it’s been a long stretch of consecutive days in the lab, and I am so ready for a break.  I’m taking a bit of a break next weekend, and Matt is coming to visit the weekend after that, so I’m anticipating some good times ahead.  In the meantime, I have mountains of data to analyze.  Mountains!  I made a pretty good dent in that mountain today, but there is more to do, and I’m hoping to get it done in the next week or so.  I’m also hoping not to stay in bed worrying about all of this because that’s just silly.

Even with my hectic work schedule, I’ve tried to keep up with my commitment to this blog and to all of you, kind readers.  I like having a consistency to my writing schedule; it’s the sort of thing that Natalie Goldberg recommends in her excellent Writing Down the Bones.  When you write frequently, writing becomes easier and less scary, which is especially important when you sit down to work on something scary, like a PhD thesis.  One might think that a food blog is a fluffy hobby compared to the work I do in the lab, but I know that my PhD was easier to finish because of all the practice I’ve gotten from writing here, for all of you.

I don’t have a case of writer’s block these days, but I’m feeling crunched for time to do the kind of writing that this blog deserves.  After a lot of thought, I’ve decided to take a short break from writing Life, Love, and Food.  Don’t worry; I’m only going to be gone for two weeks.  I have so many recipes and ideas to share with you, but I have to get caught up with my work.  I also think it will be nice to have some time to work on my ideas, to play in the kitchen and read some new cookbooks and let my thoughts simmer until they are fully cooked.

New Reading

Speaking of new cookbooks, I picked up these Williams-Sonoma volumes at the library today.  I even had a chance to read a bit of the Pacific Northwest book, and ooh—I can’t wait to cook out of this one!  Things look promising, and that is always a good feeling.

I’ll be back here on November 7 or thereabouts.  Before I go, have I told you about this Sam Pacetti song, “The Christians and the Outlaws?”  It’s one of my favorites (though I hope I have not offended my more religious readers…).  In it, he sings,

Like the Christians and the outlaws

And like that summer wind

Like the singer to the chorus

I will come back again.”

That’s sort of how I feel right now.  See you soon, friends.

6 comments:

Unknown said...

will miss you rose-anne! good luck analyzing all that data :) i must admit so many times i wander to blogs instead of analysis... i should blog google reader at work! lovely snack, and vanilla sleepy time is delicious!

Rosiecat24 said...

I'm the same way, Shannon. When I start to get bored with data, I start checking blogs to see what's new...when I really have to get work done, I have to do it in the absence of an internet connection!

"Blog google reader?" I'm not sure what you mean. But I have definitely taken to reading blogs on Google reader during my lunch break. It's like catching up with friends over lunch!

Jess said...

Whew. It sounds like you have a lot going on. I'm glad to hear that you're doing what you need to do to take care of yourself. Good luck with all of your work. See you in a couple of weeks!

Rosiecat24 said...

Hey, Jess! Yes, it's been very busy, but I hear there might be a guest post on this blog before I return...and I'm pretty sure I have enough time to make your Tomato Lentil (Lentil!) Soup this weekend. I've got a craving!

Hillary said...

Can't wait to see what you choose to make from the Pacific Northwest book. As a life-long Western-Washingtonian, I'll let you know if it looks authentic. :)

Rosiecat24 said...

That would be excellent, Hillary! The book is really nice, and I've already bookmarked 3 or 4 recipes to try soon. It's time to go shopping for ingredients, I think!