Oct 21, 2004 10:50:01 AM
I've been married for eleven years now. Sometimes it blows my mind to think that I've outlasted both of my mom's marriages -- and that I've outlasted many of my friends' marriages to boot. This is especially humorous because I never found the idea of "getting married" attractive like some girls do. I never planned my fantasy wedding and spent exactly zero time writing "Mrs. Jimmy Jones" in my notebook in school.
Now it's weird to hear other folks talk about (or plan) their elaborate ceremonies and honeymoons. At work today I had someone tell me about their trip to the Princess Louise Lodge in Banff. It was such a far cry from what we did! We stayed on couches up the Pacific coast (various friends from college, relocated to Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Seattle) and then back-country camped in Glacier National Park (oddly close to Banff but just not the same). We called it our "honeymooch."
But instead of feeling deprived by not going to some exotic locale, we just thought it was fun and were glad to get out of the desert for a while. And hey, Glacier National Park, it was pretty cool! Our poverty forced us to see areas of the park that people who could stay in hotels or travel in an RV would have missed. Of course, it did put us bear country, but we made it out alive anyway.
It's still odd for me to think that my husband's dad didn't want us to get married because we were too poor (well, maybe he just didn't like me, but I'm being generous here). I didn't see what the point was of waiting. Were we waiting to have a car first, or to be able to buy a big ring or afford that fancy honeymoon? I knew who I wanted to spend the rest of my life with and I didn't need to wait for him to make a lot of money.
Truth be told, the year we got married I was in grad school and Worthy Opponent was finishing up undergrad so of course we were stunningly poor. But what's really odd is that now it looks like those were the good old days! Sure, they were the good old days when we didn't have a car and didn't have health insurance and lived in an apartment in Arizona that didn't have air conditioning. Aaaah, yes, I remember it well ... sipping iced tea under the orange trees, riding our bikes to the movies and the grocery store, feeling like a part of a community ... it was really nice. There were certainly lots of things about that time in my life to miss now! But one thing I'm glad I didn't miss out on was having the person who shared that time in my life with me, either then or now, because we were "too poor for each other."
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Posted by webcowgirl @ Oct 21, 2004 10:50:01 AM [Link]
Oct 18, 2004 9:35:08 PM
This is a great way to use up post-Thanksgiving squash. The recipe was given to me by my friend Irene.
Curry Squash Bisque
1 T canola oil
1 large diced onion
1 C sliced celery
Mix above, saute five minutes.
2 L tomatoes (diced)
3-4 cloves garlic (or more)
2 t fresh minced ginger
Add to other stuff and saute three more minutes.
2 t curry powder
2 t ground cumin
1 t dried thyme
1 t sald
1/2 t black pepper
Add, stir one minute
4 C peeled, diced squash
5 C water
Add, simmer covered for 25 minutes.
2-3 C chopped spinach or kale
1/4 C chopped parsley
Add, cook ten minutes longer
Cool slightly then blend. Yum!
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Posted by webcowgirl @ Oct 18, 2004 9:35:08 PM [Link]
Oct 3, 2004 10:47:13 AM
The last Easter that I went to a church I started wondering (after staring at a stained-glass cross for an hour) what Christian iconography would be like if Jesus had been buried up to his neck in next to an anthill instead of being crucified. I mean, there's lots of ways to die, right? You've got your hanging, drawing and quartering, etc. - his death by crucifixion was nothing special at the time. Why not death by ants? Then we'd be looking at giant ants on the stained glass and people wearing ant necklaces. Maybe people would feel uncomfortable stepping on ants and they would be treated as practically holy themselves. Would there be folks who would cover themselves in honey and roll around next to ant hills on good Friday? How would the stigmata thing be handled?
This led, eventually, to discussing how holidays would be celebrated differently if Jesus had been hatched instead of being born. Of course, this would mean all of us were hatched, which created certain moments of hilarity in itself, but ... I'll get back to this eventually, it did go on for a while.
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Posted by webcowgirl @ Oct 3, 2004 10:47:13 AM [Link]