Whenever there is something REALLY serious or upsetting going on in my life, my modus operandi is to focus on the irrelevant, the meaningless and instead make that a cause for distress. I think it's so I don't have to face or cope with the magnitude of events.
So this morning there are three things I am really UPSET about.
1) My lack of eyebrows following "The Great Massacre of 2010." In anticipation of our holiday, I went to get my brows groomed. There is a definite difference between "Groomed" and "Let's wax the little suckers right off. Better yet, let's let the tweezers slip mid-procedure and leave you with a definite gap mid brow in the process."
And unfortunately that's where I'm at. Even Husband gulped a little looking at my (almost) browless state. But he took a deep breath and told me that I look great. Liar. Sweet but not true.
2) I'm in the middle of an emailing war with someone who is meant to be helping my son. I won't go into the specifics but I am almost at the point of eviscerating her via email. At some point I have to be the better person and pick up the phone to clear the air and move past it. I think that's part of the problem with email communication in some ways, we can't read tone from it. Verbal conversations don't tend to escalate as quickly. However, the numerous mistakes in their email lead me to believe they are typing in a hurry so they are clearly pretty upset. Or they can't spell. Sorry, that was mean. But I feel better having said it.
3) I got sent home a cake box for the school fete this week. Now I am more of a cook than a baker. As in, I think cooking is about savoury and baking is about sweets. I am not sure if this theory is correct. However the instructions are to "fill this box with some sort of home baked goody - slice, muffins, brownies, biscuits" etc etc. In my totally strung out, eyebrowless, email war state I CANNOT THINK WHAT TO BAKE. My failsafe cookbook by Jane Kennedy doesn't have much in the way of sweets for obvious reasons. The letter also says I can email the organiser for advice on what to bake but I was waaaaaayyy to much pride to do that. I'm asking you instead. So please help me.
If you have a fail proof, delicious recipe you can suggest to me I would be so grateful. I know I could look up baking sites but like most people, I like to try things that I know are tried and tested by people I "know". I am literally begging for help on this one. Being a Type A competitive person I want to get this right.
These are the minutiae of my day. The truth is I am weighed down with sadness at the imminent farewell I will be making to a good friend and neighbour soon. Whilst I get to whinge about these small things, this person is suffering and will die very soon. And this weekend we will be saying good-bye to them, probably for the last time. I will miss their calm and cheerful presence enormously. This person was the first one to welcome us home when we bought our (then) newborn son home almost three years ago. This is a person who has undoubtedly heard me at my worst, and all too rarely at my best. I am determined that they will only see that when I hug them farewell this weekend.
