Crowds and Turkey Crazies

Today my mom asked me to pick up a few things at Trader Joe's for our Family Thanksgiving Sunday Supper (after the big Turkey Day with aunts, uncles, and cousins, we do another one with just the 4 of us. Plus, Sunday Suppers are kind of a tradition in our family). I agreed obligingly, even though grocery shopping is one of my least favorite activities.

When I got to the grocery store around 3pm it was teeming with a bajillion harried and hurried-looking shoppers (apparently mine's not the only family who continues the big dinners the weekend following a major holiday). Shopping carts were whipping around corners and flying through aisles, the people steering them avoiding eye contact with fellow shoppers but scruitinizing food labels with almost comic intensity.

I get so claustrophobic in huge crowd situations, it seriously borders on agoraphobia. When that happens it can take me an hour to do 20 minutes-worth of shopping because I get all overwhelmed and distracted. Not to mention I have to wait my turn to bulldoze down a crowded aisle, so I spend several minutes wandering through the store just trying to stay out of the way.

Do you see why I hate grocery shopping so much????  It doesn't help that Trader Joe's is small compared to, say, Safeway or Fry's, so the hectic atmosphere is intensified by the more compact space.

What's funny about all this is, I have no problem with small spaces in general, and I have a rather flimsy "personal space bubble" most of the time...but busy crowds make me crazy.

After finally asking for help to track down something called mirepoix, I swiped my debit card and fled out the automatic sliding doors to the fresh air. As I was crossing the parking lot back to my car, my mom texted me asking for chicken broth (I had texted her earlier to inform her that, according to the store clerk who helped me find the mirepoix, turkey broth is officially out of stock for the season. Um, hello, the season ain't over for another month!).

"I just left the store!" I texted back, panicking slightly because I did not want to go back in there.
I foisted the responsibility onto my dad to get the broth, which was really for the best since at that point I wasn't sure if the turkey was even in the oven yet, and I figured I better get back to help my mom get the dinner started.

In the end, the amazingly delicious dinner (incuding my famous mashed potatoes) was well worth the supermarket mania. I'm gonna sleep good tonight, and going back to work in the morning is going to be an adjustment after my food-filled four-day weekend.

This picture pretty much sums up the chaos I experienced today:

Photo courtesy of a Google search for "crazy busy supermarket." I didn't take this photo. 

Happy weekend-after-Thanksgiving, y'all!

Cowgirl Dreaming

I have loved horses since I was a little girl. My favorite toy was a horse figurine that all my other toys spent hours riding through the hills and valleys of my bedroom. I would always end that game fantasizing about my own future as a rancher's wife, when I would get to spend my days riding horses and lazing in beautiful green meadows while my beloved horse grazed on wildflowers nearby. Interestingly, the chores and hard labor of being a horsewoman never made it into my fantasy. As I got older, though, a crew of handsome cowboys started showing up, leaning on perfectly clean rakes and admiring me as my horse and I appeared through the haze of twilight with wildflowers braided into our mane and hair.

Wild imagination? You know it.
Did I wish with all my being it would come true? You know it.

When I was 13 I asked my parents for a horse. I even tried bargaining with them about the future of all birthdays and Christmases: "if you buy me a horse, you never ever have to buy me another present ever in my life. Ever."

I continued getting lovely gifts for all major holidays, but never that beloved horse.

Considering how much I love horses, it's pretty sad that I've only gone riding 3 times in my life:

The first time was at girl scout camp when I was 7, which I "remember" only because there are pictures.

The second time was in Wickenburg during some lawyer convention my parents attended when I was 11, and I remember that trail ride primarily because the guide let us canter through a wide open field, which was the BEST THING EVER to me at the time.

The third time was yesterday, a whole 16 years since my last joy ride. My mom gave me two trail ride coupons for my birthday, and it only took us nearly 2 months to redeem them. But we wanted to wait till the weather was perfect, which in the desert can take a while.

The MTM Ranch is way out in Cave Creek, so the drive took us about an hour. By the time we got there I was pretty nervous; the pessimist in me kept picturing the nasty spill I was terrified of taking. But the giddy cowgirl wannabe inside me won out, and after signing my life away (my mom and I signed waivers stating our choice not to wear riding caps. We're wild women!), I hoisted myself onto the back of an ancient-looking dapple gray named Badger. After Badger sated his thirst and had himself a little playtime in the water trough (most hilarious thing ever), we set off into the desert with our friendly and talkative trail guide, Joe.  


When Joe wasn't regaling us with stories from his own childhood, he provided us with bits of western trivia:
               John Wayne hated horses.
               The Roy Rogers restaurant chain is named for a cowboy tv actor.
               Gene Autry wrote "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer."

The trail ride was 2 hours long, but I could have stayed out there with Badger all day. I find horseback riding so peaceful...even the bumpy clip-clopping of my horse's steady gait couldn't detract from the joy of riding under an azure sky full of fluffy white clouds, while a cool breeze blew across the landscape.


Mom, Chloe, Joe



Me, Badger, Joe

The whole drive home, my mom sang "The rain is Tess, the fire's Joe, and they call the wind Mariah," which is a song from an old cowboy musical movie. I've decided that Mariah is my official cowgirl name, which would make my mom Tess.

The most amazing thing? I'm not that sore today! I guess there is something to the whole "keeping your heels down" and "moving with the horse" and all the other horse riding etiquette they teach you. That, and lots of Advil and muscle relaxers to stave off the worst of the muscle pain!

My mom and I are both already talking about our next trail ride.

Happy trails to you!!

Cozy kitties

I love it when I catch my kitties being lovey together. It doesn't happen very often...and in fact seems to occur most often during the colder weather months. What looks like affection could very well be a survival instinct...body heat preservation!

But they sure look sweet, whatever the reason for this snuggle-fest. I wish they'd included me in it!

Read me like a book...

Today at my workplace's monthly staff meeting, all the newbies had to stand up and introduce themselves, then be subjected to a round of questioning by the other employees. Since I have only been working there for a couple weeks, I was one of the newbies. I had been warned that some people liked to ask awkward or embarrassing questions, so when it was my turn in the spotlight I was a little apprehensive. Turns out I needn't have worried, since all my questions were fun.

"Were you named after Meryl Streep or Merrill Lynch?"
(Neither)

"What is your favorite movie?"
(This changes seasonally; right now I'm partial to The Family Stone)

"If you were a novel and I were to walk into Barnes and Noble and find you on a shelf, which section would you be in?"

I loved  that last question. Loved. It. I loved it for two reasons:
1) I'm an avid reader and consider bookstores my second home
2) It's an out-of-the-box self-examination question, not of the typical "getting to know you" variety

I took a few moments to mull it over, then answered: "In the fictional literature section, because I'm a bit of a storyteller myself."

My answer was met with an enormous "oooooooooooooohhhhhhhh!!" from the rest of the staff, which made me laugh. Apparently my answer sounded very profound, when I was just revealing a quirky truth about myself!