Kitchen Disasters, Huckleberry Finn, and the Learning Curve

Vacation to…Earth?  You would never imagine some of the conversations I have with the kids at preschool. They range from cute to a little weird to totally bizarre. The days are always entertaining. Example 1 goes as follows:

Emily: You weren’t here last week!

Preschooler: Yeah, that’s cause I was on a va-caaaaaa-tion.

E: Oh cool! Where did you go?

P: We went on vacation…to the Earth!

E: Oh really? That’s great! Now, how did you get to the Earth?

P: Well, we drove. It was a long long ways away. And there was a big hole there and a kid fell in it.

E: Oh my. Well, I hope he got out and was all right!

P: Oh yeah, he was.

E: Good, good. Well, I’m glad you’re back!

After much analysis, I decided that she probably went camping. But any suggestions to decode this conversation are welcomed.

On Becoming a Redneck: Besides work and summer school, my weeks have been filled with berry picking, canoeing, jumping into the river, and learning to shoot. With country music and iced tea in hand, I’ve been sweatin’ it out in the relentless summer. Yes sir, I’d say I’m turning into a regular redneck!

Baking Disasters: I had my very first baking disaster a few weeks ago, and I cannot emphasize how much of a disaster it was. For the first time in my life, pinterest led me astray. It was a sad, sad day.

I love pinning food (who doesn’t with all of those mouthwatering pictures?), and I saw a cookie recipe that was super healthy, and I naively thought, “Wow! Healthy cookies and they look so good, they must taste amazing!” Pin. Check. This summer, when I actually had time and a kitchen to bake in, I asked my mom to invest in a bag of chickpeas. You see, the disaster recipe had no flour, no oil, and no white sugar. In my mind there was just no question: they were going to taste delicious. (Hindsight is 20/20, how in the world did I think these things would taste good?! Come on Emily, get it together)

I was wrong. Terribly, terribly wrong. They smelled like wet salty peanut dough with chocolate chips, but the chocolate and chickpea mixture just didn’t cut it. And there was no sugar. The lesson I learned that day: desserts need to have sugar. Otherwise, they just aren’t desserts. And it’s okay that they have sugar, because they’re desserts! It’s one big happy dessert cycle. Fear not, said disaster recipe has been deleted from my pinterest. My parents and I had a good laugh after I was crestfallen about the situation, and I threw the mistakes (I can’t even call them cookies) away the next morning.

Tahoe: It’s amazing what one night in a different place can to do you. Our mini-vacation to Tahoe was heavenly. Just one night visiting friends at the cabin they rent every July, but it was a full and satisfying 24 hours. Appetizers on the deck, s’mores and dinner tucked into their little cottage, girl talk and mother-daughter time with a $5 million dollar view on the edge of Lake Tahoe. Cue walks to 7-eleven for slurpies, inhaling the smell of fresh pines mixed with sunscreen and the lake, and I was a happy camper.

New: I love trying new things. I love the learning curve. The feeling of confusion before getting the hang of something, the “well, let’s go for it” mentality. I tried jet skiing for the first time on my mini-vacation to Tahoe and WOAH, that little contraption is the coolest thing ever! So much fun. Seriously, if I ever win the lottery I’m going to buy a jet ski. You can quote me on that one. Seriously. I’m a rebel without a cause on that thing. We zoomed across that lake like Baywatch babes, and it was fabulous.

Huckleberry Finn with a shot of Indiana Jones: I found myself canoeing one Friday afternoon, and the day looked like something out of a page of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Canoeing in the river, berry picking while trying not to tip the canoe, jumping off rope swings into the freezing water. I felt like I could relate to the fictional lost boy, minus the fact that I’m not a runaway drifting down the river. Infuse an Indiana Jones style ride and a bit of Pocahontas’ just around the riverbend for finishing touches and BAM, that was my day.

Unofficial History lessons with my Dad go as follows: for 5 minutes, I ask him all of my stupid Emily-how-can-you-not-know-that-answer history questions. He answers them all, most of the time with a chuckle, probably wondering how he raised a daughter that forgets history as much as she forgets to close drawers. Lord have mercy, I’ve never learned so much about the world in such a short amount of time.

The good old optometrist. It’s amazing what a stronger prescription can do for a girl. I’m an expert at this optometry thing: I blinking when I’m told, I open and close my eyes on command, and I answer the broken record “one, or two?” questions like a champ. I may know the drill of the office, but with a new prescription I feel like a new woman. The world is a little crisper, colors are a little richer, and this planet feels like a better place. It’s amazing what .5 more can do for your little eyes.

Reconnecting: no matter how far we drift during the semester, we come back and its still there. It’s a different friendship, because we are both different people in ways little or big, but this growth makes friendship all the richer. We bring new experiences to the table, new questions and stories and things to talk about, we reminisce about the old and find new ways to terrorize the town. This is sounding all cheesy and nostalgic, but looking back on the summer and all of the great people that I got to catch up with, that’s how I’m feeling. Sometimes, being away makes us forget how connected we are to this place we call home. No matter how excited we were to get outta town to start college, and no matter how much we love our respective universities, there’s something extra sweet about coming back to the Purple Place and Town Center and friends that knew you through your awkward middle school stage (and still love you despite it). I’m on my happy parade again, and I feel lucky to still be so connected with so many friends. People weave themselves into my life and I weave myself into theirs. No matter how much time or distance comes in between, we’re two years out of high school and we’re still here for each other. And I think that’s pretty awesome.

Is it possible to be in two places at once? Lately, I think so. Thanks to Europe semester homework, my mind is already in another continent. I've been spending my days reading textbooks about nationalism and contemplating stricter European immigration laws. Art and city reports and Murder in Amsterdam convince my mind that it's already in Italy and Berlin and Amsterdam. I come up for air from research or reading and remind myself that I'm still here, in good old El Dorado Hills. It's leaving me in this odd parallel universe, though. A universe where I'm both here and there at the same time. It's weird, but like most things, I've just been going with it and it's been working itself out rather nicely.

Tonight’s a thankful night. I’m thankful for Crystal Light Lemonade and air conditioning. I’m thankful for friends and trying new things and being out of my comfort zone. I’m thankful for all this summer has been, and for all this coming semester will be. Less than 2 weeks and I’ll be on foreign soil! So crazy. I’m feeling wonderfully overwhelmed.

So here’s to hot summers in the valley, to remembering the little blessings, and to being wonderfully overwhelmed.