Wednesday, September 23, 2009

talents

I am really good at stretching. Not like, flexible or anything. Just that been-sitting-still-for-a-while-need-to-stretch kinda feeling. Last night I was stretching before heading up to bed and, I'm not even kidding, it was probably THE best stretch I've ever had. Seriously. I told Joel about it, on the heels of him relaying how he totally tore it up on the racquetball court. Imagine:

Joel: I was awesome. I totally smoked them.
Me: And I love you for that. I am also awesome. I just had the best stretch ever.
Joel: That's...nice.

It's like a sneeze - you don't really know you need to until it's done and you feel so...cleansed. I decided last night that this is one of my hidden talents. Like eating. Some people may say that eating is not a talent, and to them I say YOU DON'T LOVE FOOD. I spend an almost alarming amount of time thinking about food, mostly originating with what I want to make. There was a time where my mom thought I (along with my sisters) had an eating disorder. I don't think it's a disorder to only want to put delicious things into your mouth.

I can guarantee that in a meeting or at church or even just driving around, if my mind wanders from the task at hand, I can confidently say that 90% of the time I'm thinking about food. Take, for instance, the two small pumpkins sitting in my family room. For now they are serving as a little decoration. For now they sit, as I contemplate their fate. See, we grew them. Two small pumpkins. That was all we reaped from our pumpkin/cantelope/watermelon section. Apparently those who said melons are hard to grow were right. A girl can try, though. If it were last year, this would be easy - I'd half them, scoop out the seeds and gunk, roast them, scoop out of the flesh, mash with water, and then freeze in ice cube trays for Gemma. This method made it possible for her to be over a year before she actually ingested *gasp* jarred food. Now I'm not judging those who use jarred foods - Ainsleigh and Donovan ate a good amount of it. But this time I wanted to take matters into my own hands.

But Gemma isn't still eating mashed foods, so it seems a bit of a waste. So I've been pondering lately on my options - of course there's always pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. But then I could also do a cheesecake. With maybe a gingersnap crust? I made some of the finest ginger cookies yesterday. 1182 people on allrecipes.com can't be wrong. And they weren't. And with sad clouds overhead and frigid temperatures, it seemed the right thing to do. And they're glorious. Even Joel, for whom just about any cookies beyond chocolate chip are a waste of time, pronounced them awesome (just like his playing - it was the word of the night). Or I could do a pumpkin soup, right? Or wait, what about a pumpkin stuffed ravioli? Ok, that might be a little too much work for me. But I could do pumpkin gnocchi. Anyway, so this is the little topic in the back of my mind at the moment. With my two pumpkins.

I think it's like how some people really appreciate art. Or cars. Or football. They read all they can about it, go places to see it, talk about it, dream about it. And so for me, it's food.

And now stretching.

Because when you begin to arch your back and your elbows bend so your fists are near your head and you feel your muscles tense to pull your back even tighter, almost too tight, and then you release and total relaxation floods you, it's important to realize that THAT, was really good. And it's pretty much the only thing I can think of that is by and for only me. So treat yourself to a cleansing stretch. Maybe it's your talent, too.

3 comments:

Melin said...

I am really good at thinking highly of myself.

laura said...

Pumpkin cheesecake, definitely.

Sarah Burgoyne said...

Can I tell you how much I looove your blog. I'm currently on the phone with my mom and I had to share this post with her. I think I'm going to go stretch now :)