I feel like I need to apologize in advance because I’m going to talk about being tired. Honestly, I just googled “sleeping sickness” to make sure I don’t have it.
As it turns out it’s generally only contracted in Africa after being bitten by a tsetse fly. And tsetse flies don’t live in South America. I know this is true because the google told me so.
But maybe I’ve become a narcoleptic at some point in the last week because all I think about is when I can sleep again. And I’ve really gotten a decent amount of sleep, but I think I’m working off a major Ecuadorian sleep deficit.
I’m also enjoying the luxury of flushing toilet paper down the toilet and brushing my teeth using water right out of the tap. It really is the little things.
Anyway, there isn’t much going on here right now. I got home late Saturday night and spent the next twenty-four hours with Caroline sitting as close to me as she could possibly get. Not that I was complaining. I was overjoyed to see my people.
And at some point I realized I had to tackle a giant pile of laundry, including the jungle attire I brought home in a garbage bag inside my suitcase because it smelled so bad that I was afraid it might contaminate all my other clothes. Thankfully P had done his own laundry before I got home, but Caroline’s clothes hamper was overflowing.
Of course after I started sorting her dirty clothes into whites and colors I realized it was largely due to the fact that she just threw everything into her hamper whether she’d actually worn it or not, including several shirts still on the hanger, a down puffy vest and three stuffed animals. And so we’ve since had many discussions about what actually constitutes a dirty clothing and navigated the skill of hanging clothes ON HANGERS instead of just shoving them into a hamper for your narcoleptic mother to deal with.
But I’m happy to report that all our clothing was clean for at least six minutes. It was a tremendous accomplishment although short lived.
I also made a marathon trip to HEB to buy milk, eggs, every other item of food you can possibly imagine, chocolate and wine. The wine and chocolate were to help me recover from all the laundry.
And now I’ll spend the rest of this week going to a Thanksgiving lunch at Caroline’s school because I never miss an opportunity to eat instant mashed potatoes. Then there’s a fun run fundraiser at her school on Friday and I volunteered to count laps as the kids run. And then I will officially give thanks that next week is Thanksgiving and I’m done with fundraisers and packing lunches and braiding hair at seven o’ clock in the morning for an entire week.
Of course there is the small detail of Thanksgiving lunch. I’m hosting the entire thing at my house which I’ve never done before. And I’m trying to plan the menu. All P cares about is dressing and chocolate ice box pudding for dessert. All I care about it is dressing and broccoli rice casserole. But I feel like there should be more. Obviously a turkey. Even though I personally believe the turkey is just a vehicle to get the dressing in your mouth. I guarantee the Native Americans ate turkey because it’s all they managed to shoot that morning and I don’t know why we insist on perpetuating the tradition of serving tasteless, dry bird. Why couldn’t they have killed a nice cow so we could all gather around and eat steak instead?
What do y’all have for Thanksgiving? Are there any dishes I need to try? Last year I made roasted Brussels sprouts with pomegranate molasses and I felt that the molasses was a mistake. Which was sad considering I went to eight different stores to find it. I’d love to hear what’s on your MUST HAVE Thanksgiving list.
Unless it involves green bean casserole with french-fried onions on the top. There was a year in my childhood when I got into a can of those french-fried onions and didn’t know that a little goes a long way. It was unfortunate.
I still bear the french-fried scars.
Now excuse me while I go to bed. After all, it’s 9:45 and Mamaw needs her rest.