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Tiny Pieces

Submitted entry: I’m pretty tired this morning. Not that I didn’t sleep well - I slept from about 10:00 to 7:30 or so. Better than I often did when I worked but we had a busy day yesterday. We left the yurt at about 11:30 for Eastwind and after a quick lunch we started to cook dinner. This was my first ever experience of cooking for more than maybe 10 people - we were shooting for making enough food for 70. Most of the time was spent doing prep work - I think I chopped something like 35 onions. As the time got later the pressure rose. Dinner had to be done by 6:00, much later and people get crabby.

But it all worked out wonderfully. By about 6:05 we had channa masala (chickpea curry), Baigan Bharta (mashed eggplant curry), vegetable biryani (baked, spiced rice with vegetables, raisins and cashews), dry potato curry, fresh pita bread and apple crisp. It was such a blast being a part of getting it all together and fun to work in a commercial-style kitchen for the first time.

But it was interesting. As things got more stressful I started having a really good time. It was if being in the working world for so long and in high-pressure jobs for so long had given me a taste for stress or something. Cool also to know that as a result of about 4-5 of us working on dinner the remaining 50 or so people could work on what they needed to do.

Sage spent most of the time with Paul however at about 5:00 she got pretty tired and her shoulders hurt. So that was when I took him on too. We were at a point where there was not much prep going on and lots of stirring pots, as well as testing and adjusting seasonings. So he had a good time tasting the food and “helping”. There’s a particular hold in the sling that’s really good for that - he sits on my hip behind my arms. This kept him a safe distance from the stove but close enough to watch the action.

We spent a little time after dinner hanging out but were both pretty tired so we drove on home and went to bed shortly thereafter. I’m still pretty tired, though.

Today, aside from being tired, I’m feeling that post-fun letdown that I often feel after being at Eastwind. It’s frustrating to see that while things are not utopia there, they’ve figured out many of the things that we can’t get together here. Things like how to do work while having kids and having time to ones’ self. Here I often feel like it’s all I can do to take care of Paul while Sage is working, make food, keep the house reasonably clean and write an email or two - maybe a journal or two a week. Living like that it would be easier to do other interesting work besides cooking or by cooking enable several others to do some of the things that I’d like to have happening here -things like lots of fresh garden veggies, some sort of reliable financial self-sufficiency (cottage industry), etc.

But, it isn’t going to happen today no matter what we do so I have to be patient, waiting either for another community to form locally, things to change with Eastwind’s cat population that would allow us to move there with 6 instead of 4, or for five years to pass so that we can find our way to something more fulfilling. Things will change one way or another. Paul will be able to actually help around here in a few years, for example.

Don’t mind me. I’m just tired and have had my “why are things the way they are?” buttons pushed again.

In other happenings, Sage and I have been given a game of Risk to play. With all the tiny pieces it is definitely not a game to play while Paul’s awake. We’ve had about 2 thirty minute attempts at a game so far before he woke up and we had to quit. I think we need to figure out a way to play without pieces or dice to roll and we’ll be all set.

Okay, I’m going to see if I can get over to the house and upload this. I also mean to look a the computer to figure out why it locks up with a blank screen when left for a long time. I think it has to do with the power-saving configuration so I’m going to mess with it some and possibly turn it off.

Paul’s Sign Language

Barely-Can-Move SAAB