Two for the price of one.

Today will be items for both day 13 and 14. Yesterday I went to Indianapolis for Pride Day. I walked the parade route with the Indy Adult Show Choir, my sister's choir. I hung out with her and her choir members for part of the time and then I worked at a booth selling drinks for awhile. I did SO MUCH walking. I was exhausted at the end of the day!

 This is the twelve foot tall lady who was right ahead of us as we lined up for the parade. Somehow between parking my car and getting to our parade spot I lost the socks I was planning to wear while walking the parade route. My friend Dylan was hitting Pride Fest right before getting on an airplane to go do genius math things in New Jersey. He offered to bring a pair of socks (he was packed for a trip, see) to me. As we texted back and forth for him and Ken (other friend) to find me, I finally texted "I'm standing next to a twelve foot tall gold woman," and I think that is the thing that really helped them find me. So I wore Dylan's black socks with my hiking sandals and I was "hot." (In the now colloquial term meaning attractive and desirable). What really mattered however, was that even though my feet were so tired I did NOT get any blisters.

This is my pretty little sister, Heather. I'm very proud of the choir she has built and pleased that the choir walks the parade in support of equality (and to recruit!).

 This is my batch of items for the 13th. Food Not Bombs T-shirts and donation baskets. My time with FNB has passed and my friend ELLE sometimes does it now. She is going to make sure the shirts and the donation baskets (still with a couple of dollars!) end up in the new crew's possession. I already gave them the equipment I had last year, but found these in my garage later.

Today's batch, plus a couple of private items not shown. Instruction and warranty papers for a couple of items no longer needed, a weird basket, two wreaths, snap-on visors for bike helmets, one glove, a light, a dress, a gift box. I'm still trying to decide on the wreaths if they are trash or donate. I guess I can donate and if nobody wants them they can toss them. 

Elle and I had some Goodwill shopping to do today so we did take a couple of boxes and donate them as we went. Goodwill is probably my least favorite place to donate items, but it is the one that is open on Sundays. I will be traveling and busy for the next few weeks so it will probably bw quite awhile before I get a chance to get to Opportunity House again. 

I am super tired, to the point of "jelly legs" tonight. Angie, Elle, and I went to "Booty Camp" that a couple of friends gave (so we can get great booties like they have). We did a lot of HARD activities, sprints uphill, squats, planks, lunges, I can't even think of everything. I couldn't do everything that the younger and more fit people could do, but I tried to keep moving and adapted as I needed. Jacob was super encouraging and it made me try even harder. When it was all done we all took a cool down walking lap around the park, which is almost a mile. 

I have some laundry in and I am going to do just a little more housekeeping and take a shower and then try to get to bed early tonight!

I'm baa-aack....

My computer room is free! Free, I say!

It's super late now, but I just had to dip my toe in the water before I go to bed.

Last week I was stung by a wasp three times... This week on Saturday night a mysterious welt, looking much like a wasp sting showed up on my inner left forearm. It looks and feels like the wasp stings, except I didn't feel the initial sting, weird. It's still swollen...so I am going to take Benedryl and hit the sack. ..

Oh! We did Food Not Bombs Sunday. It felt great to be back in the park. 

Twenty Dollars

Last week when we did dinner in the park I heard a couple of the "Parkies" talking. One of them said, "If I just knew I would wake up every day with twenty dollars in my pocket that would be the good life."  I think about how much I have and how much I waste and feel humbled. I will admit that there are times I don't have $20 in my pocket, or even in my bank account, but I wake up in a house every single day. I get in my car and drive every single day. I have (too much) food to eat every single day. All that is worth millions.

Leaving, on a ...

well, the guy said it would most likely be an Aveo or a Cruz... I am taking a journey tomorrow to go see a comedian Louis C.K. in St. Louis (and you know I LOVE that!). He has a TV show and the first 2 seasons are on Netflix and I have watched many of the episodes repeatedly. He's true and amazing and raunchy and honest - my kind of guy. It's ended up being some kind of epic birthday trip. I am frankly abashed at the expense I have paid for this trip, but it grew one little thing at a time... It's probably my annual retreat for 2013, a couple of months early!

Somehow, I think FNB is going to be pulled off this weekend and I am happy for that. Last week seriously at the last minute, Ross posted that he had acquired a load of food and he and I cooked and got it to the park about 6:30.  We need to get a routine established and enough regular people so some of us can go on trips, or study, or work, or be sick, or sleep and there is still dinner at the park for those who need it. We still need equipment to make it work when it's cold, too. I think I am going to ask a local attorney for some money for equipment, because the parkies respect him and say he talks to them. We'll see.

Y-a-w-n...

I love being in "To Kill A Mockingbird." The adult cast, especially Mayella and Tom Robinson are absolutely amazing. During the courtroom scene the testimonies are riveting.

It's hard on me physically. Long hours sitting after long hours sitting at the office. AND during the day I play the role of interested, funny, kind salesperson. At night I play the role of gossipy southern lady trial audience. Both are draining! Last night I wore my costume shoes and my feet felt like raw meat afterward. I went to the store today and bought foot cushions and moleskin to try tomorrow night. Last night after that long rehearsal I didn't sleep. I was up or restless most of the night. I went home after work and my stop at Dollar General and went to bed. I slept over two hours, until 7:46. Charlie had said he would come over and help me get the garage ready and bring in the Food Not Bombs equipment from my car. When I called him after I awakened I think he could tell I was still really tired so we are putting it on hold again.

Tomorrow night is a four and a half hour rehearsal, finally in the theatre. Both of my children have performed at the Buskirk Chumley on multiple occasions and I never have. I think this is a fine little spot of how my life is turning around as an "empty nester."

Gnoll, the pit bull

We cooked over at Ross's house tonight and these are a couple of his roommates! I had a headache so I reclined on a couch a bit and Gnoll kept me company. Charlie was cooking with us and he threatened to take a photo and record it for history, but I felt too yucky to consent tonight. I still have this deep inner fear that Gnoll will turn around and clamp down on my face, but he's pretty calm, really. If I have to spend time with a pit bull, it would be Gnoll.

Deep breath.

I'm feeling a little better now, listening to classic rock and baking.

It rained last night and my ceiling leaked some more. I need to make a decision and make the financial arrangements and get the roof done.

Work was really hard. Christie quit and moved to Alabama and her replacement hasn't started yet, and even when she does this job takes FOREVER to really learn.

Food Not Bombs is so disorganized it's driving me crazy. We couldn't get our act together for cooking tonight and I spent time figuring out that it could not be done. I suggested a do-over for tomorrow and that is in the works.

Going back and forth trying to camp with Scarlett this week and not getting any sleep really wore me out.

I built nap time into between Farmer's Market and FNB cooking so I hope I can get rested and feel better.

Gotta go wash dishes and start packaging.

Daily Challenge

Today's Daily Challenge is a writing challenge. It feels difficult to me, I wonder how it feels to people who don't enjoy writing or don't write well. The challenge is to spend five minutes writing about something that is a stressor. I'm going to go for the very short term - right now cleaning my kitchen is a complete stressor to me. I have let it go so often lately. I've committed to have a table at the Smithville Farmers' Market this Saturday. In order to bake cleanly I need to completely clean my kitchen and do the floors. I am overwhelmed. I think that my feelings are also based on the bigger picture. If I make a commitment to sell at the market each week, it will have to push Food Not Bombs to the side both time-wise and energy-wise. I feel very committed to that work, yet I need to get the income and get exposure for Hope's Homemades. I guess one thing I can do to blend the two is take any leftovers to the park. I'm working to find a cooking facility for the weeks we cannot use Banneker Center and if that would come to fruition that would be a big contribution.

Deciding where to spend my energy and my time is difficult. I wish I didn't need money. I'm also pretty committed to my capitalistic lifestyle! I love my house and my "stuff" way too much to risk losing it. Sigh.

Zonked!

Between spending time with the children Friday, cooking for family reunion, driving to Lafayette, around Lafayette and back, washing some dishes, baking two cakes this morning and then group cooking for Food Not Bombs, then going to the park, I AM ZONKED. I just lay down for a little bit and it helped, but everything hurts. I plan to take some ibuprofen and hope it helps. I've planned to make cupcakes for the County Fair. I've never done the fair before, but when I learned there is a special category this year for cupcakes, and I've been making so many recipes and stuff I decided to try it.  I hope I haven't put myself out of the running by doing too much. I already took tomorrow off for the fair, but if I end up needing a recovery day it is there. I hope I can do both. I want to make my vegan strawberry cupcakes for the fair. They were SO yummy!

I could have skipped the park part today. Nicole and Charlie had been my fellow cookers and I told them I hit the wall of tired and they both would have understood if I left, but I couldn't. I enjoy serving the food and seeing the people enjoy it too much. I forgot to count today, but we had 77 burritos, there were 4 left when we were done. Most of us also ate and some people took a couple for later, but still a lot of people. There were a couple more families with toddlers there this week. Although I am saddest that they don't have food security, I'm happy to feed them.  I spent the time at the park talking to one woman named Amy who told me some of here history and why she is living at the park and shelters... She actually owns a trailer that is on a rented lot, but she had a fight with her boyfriend earlier this week and she left and let him have the trailer. She says it's mostly his stuff inside and he his worried about his possessions and he doesn't have the savvy to survive the street like she does. I wanted to tell her to go kick his ass out, but I know that's not my role. Sigh, because I really know what's best. For everybody. :)

So tired So satisfied...

... even though I burned the chocolate pudding and it will take weeks of baking soda scrubs to get the char off the bottoms of not one, but TWO pans!

Food Not Bombs had a lot of eggplant donated this week, also potatoes, peppers, onions, zucchini, yellow squash, tomatoes, seitan, and tofu. We couldn't all manage to get together to cook until today. I got up early and burned the pudding, then I made a fruit salad with peaches, apples, grapes, and I squeezed all the citrus on it; 1 grapefruit, two limes, and four lemons, then I got fresh mint from the garden and did a rough chop and mixed it in. After everybody came we chopped and chopped (Oh, I guess I did the eggplant before they came) we mixed everything together in our NEW pans and added some olive oil, salt, pepper, and dried Italian seasoning. In one pan we added chopped seitan and in one pan we did crumbled tofu. We threw those all in the oven. Michael and Shaun made a tomato salad with all the grape tomatoes and rosemary and thyme from the garden.  We had also been given a bunch of single serving yogurts of different flavors, so Stephanie mixed those all together in a bowl. So we had two chafing pans of hot veggie food, one 8 qt. size more than half full of fruit and about a quart of yogurt, and a mixing bowl of tomato salad. We had OVER FIFTY people in the park eat, plus us. Most of our friends in the park are men, but there were also at least seven single women and one mother with a toddler.

The pudding had been made with donated soy milk I felt kind of bad about wasting it, but I learned some more about cooking it in a large quantity and if we get some again I will be able to do better. I want to be a good steward of the resources we are given. We had  a $100 donation and I bought two food quality plastic containers with lids and 3 large mixing/serving bowls and a 5 gal water cooler at an auction a couple of weeks ago. I ordered two complete chafing pan sets and we made and served the hot food today out of one of the actual pans and one of the steam pans from one of the sets, and used both lids.  I think we will actually need a couple more of these if we continue to get large crowds. We hope to be able to continue even after it is cold, and that is when we will use the full set up with flames to keep them warm.

It just occurred to me that we will have to make sure to keep the fuel watched, some of those guys will drink ANYTHING with alcohol, especially on Sunday when even if they have money, they can't get booze. I remember I was in town on Super Bowl Sunday and one of the guys was drinking mouth wash. Yuck.

Part of the time we were serving a PIT BULL parked itself under the table on my foot. I was nervous as hell, but I just kept on serving... I was pretty careful to not move my foot! That is one of the things about going to the park that bothers and scares me, the dogs, and they tend to let them run loose. Even if there is a leash on a dog, it gets dropped and the dog runs around trailing the leash. There are at least three dogs who they and their people are usually in the park when I go.

I am so tired. I need to go to bed, but I don't want to go too early or I will wake up in the night. I still have some pans to wash. I brought them home (ugh). We talked about will we store them here or ??? Plus a lot of the young ones are going up to Chicago next weekend for a Big Queer Dance Party and even thugh I am going to Lafayette on Saturday, I will be back on Sunday.

Okay, the end. By the time I mess around a little bit more, wash another pan, fill my medicine doses for the week and shower it will be late enough to go to bed!