Poetry is an Old Friend

So in light of the unsettled nature of my mind of late, I have been enjoying reading a good deal of poetry. It's mostly free on Kindle, you can download whole collections, English, American, historical or modern. This is one I have a particular fondness for and will find myself reciting, apropos of nothing.

Antigonish by Hughes Mearns

Yesterday, upon the stair,
I met a man who wasn’t there
He wasn’t there again today
I wish, I wish he’d go away...

When I came home last night at three
The man was waiting there for me
But when I looked around the hall
I couldn’t see him there at all!
Go away, go away, don’t you come back any more!
Go away, go away, and please don’t slam the door... (slam!)

Last night I saw upon the stair
A little man who wasn’t there
He wasn’t there again today
Oh, how I wish he’d go away

Isn't it fun? I like all sorts of poets and poetry, Emily Dickinson and Shakespeare and e.e. cummings are all part of my bookshelves. I used to pull my mother's books of poetry off the shelves when I was in elementary school. I remember reading Longfellow's "Evangeline" and dreaming about "the forest primeval, with the murmuring pines and the hemlocks,"  Tennyson's "Lady of Shallot" (10 bonus points if you can name the Agatha Christie novel that took it's name from that poem) and even poor e.e. cummings who tragically misplaced all his punctuation. So poetry and I go way back. And really, what is so comforting when we are troubled in our spirits, as an old friend? It may even be better than chocolate. 

Praise, indeed.

Bitter, with Baggage, Seeks Same (or How I Spent My Summer)

I forgot how much moving sucks. The first time I moved, it was three states and 5 hours away and involved selling a house and just about everything I owned. I was ok with it. Also, was ready to go from that place to my new adventure. One year later, only moved across town.
Fast Forward, five years later...
I'm leaving an apartment I've grown to like and the city I've called home for six years. I'm not even going far away, maybe 30 minutes West of here, but in terms of living conditions...30 minute drive, 10 year time warp. My job has shifted me to a new location and since I haven't found another that I like better, I'm going along with their evil plan. I can't afford my rent and the extra gas it would cost to go back and forth every day, so I'm resigned to leaving my fair city.
As I type this, I'm sitting in a favored bakery/cafe in the artsy section of the city and I can't really believe that I won't be fifteen minutes away anymore. My living room is full to critical mass with boxes and bins. The walls are bare and my things are piled here and there.
I'm not coping very well.
I'm binge-eating, although what I call "binge" is definitely less than it was a year ago. I considered taking up drinking, but I've never been a drinker. I find myself grouching at people who are only trying to help me and I'm unable to speak to my beloved husband without becoming Bride of Chucky. I know everyone is being so good to me, being helpful and nice and everything and me, I feel like I'm strung up on wires.
It's not fun.
I'm sorry for the pity-post, my friends, I promise to do better soon. Right now, I'm just gob-smacked by the fact that I am unexpectedly very sad to be leaving the place that has become my home. I didn't see this coming. But then, do we ever, really?

Right now, it's a rainy Sunday and the late-night crowds are coming in. I'm going to leave you for now to try to work on some projects.

Here's to silver light in dark of night.

I Don't Do Lunch

I'm not sure why this may be, but I am not a fan of lunch. I don't care for sandwiches and salads, yogurt doesn't do much for me either. If I'm to have lunch, I want a meal. A hot meal with all the necessary components. I want to sit down and eat it. Not eat in my car or while doing something else. When I eat, I want to take the time to enjoy my food. If I just scarf something, two things will happen: I will eat too much of it and, I will not be satisfied with it. It will be maybe an hour before I'm foraging for something else.
When I'm working, most of the time I skip lunch, since that is our busy time. I may eat a small snack in the late morning, but most of the time, I won't eat until 3PM or so. And that will be a proper meal, almost like dinner. Later on in the evening, I may have a small snack of something, but I try not to eat too much, too late.
I'm considering trying the protein shake for lunch thing. For one thing, I can just sip it and have an apple and then I won't have to worry about becoming ravenous later on.

In the meantime, I guess I'll just eat this yogurt.

Photographic Memory

Sometimes I take pictures. I have a little Nikon automatic, which is not fancy, but gets the job done. I have a lot of hobbies that I pick up and put down as the Muse moves me, so from time to time, I may share some projects that I work on.
These pictures are from the Western Carolina mountains in November a few years back when I visited with my family.

Anti-Climax

All that fuss and bother and running about had me working up a head of steam about leaving my current account. I cleaned and organized and cleaned again but in the end...pffft! Over, with all of the fanfare of a leftover party balloon.
I don't know exactly what's next. I know what the plan is; but sometimes what's planned and what happens aren't exactly similar. So, for now, I'm going to enjoy the quiet time. Try to relax a little, do some things I enjoy. After all, we never know what may be round the next bend.

Try not to step on the party balloons.

Pardon My Dust....

We all need a little change now and then, even in the blogosphere. I was in the midst of contemplating the start of a new blog, brainstorming names in that way that we do; when I realized that as hard as I was racking my brains, nothing I could come up with was better than what I already had!
Feeding the Muse has been mostly a blog about my life as a Chef, although it sometimes veered into this or that, and that has been swell. But as I see another bend in the road on the horizon I feel that I would like to take the Muse in some new directions. So you may see some reformatting, some different looks and different content coming soon.

don't panic.

Summertime...and the Livin' is Easy

I'm not sure about fish jumping; but in the South Memorial Day weekend is the unofficial beginning of summer. Kids are almost done with school, grills are firing up and pools are open for business. Now we all know what a hardcore Coca-Cola fan I am; to a fault. in fact. I drink entirely too much of the stuff for it to be good for me. So I set about the task of creating a summer beverage that would keep me happy without filling me with calories and/or chemicals.

Sweet Tea Spritzer
I'm sure that someone else has made this before me; so I won't say I "invented" it. But I like to think that I've adapted it to my tastes and made it my own.

I brewed Luzianne tea at super strength (one family-size teabag and about 10-12 oz of water) and also brewed some Celestial Seasonings Peppermint tea at 2x strength. I let them steep for about 5 minutes and poured them into a carafe with 3 packets of Splenda. It didn't make very much, but that's ok.
Pour about 3 oz of Sweet Mint Tea concentrate into a tall iced tea glass and then add ice. Then fill the rest of the glass with club soda or flavored seltzer water. It's fizzy and refreshing.

Adult modification: Add 1-2 oz of Limoncello to your glass before you top it off with seltzer. Makes a helluva Arnold Palmer for the over-21 folks.

Now, go relax on the porch.