The Bi-Weekly Visit

Every other Saturday I volunteer at Children's Memorial Hospital here in Chicago. I've been doing this for about a year and it's one of the best things I could have done. I specifically work in the Brown Family Life Center, which is a huge playroom filled with everything and anything the kids could ask for including other kids who are eager to play with their peers. The kids are funny, innocent, and amazingly brave in spite of their ailments. They also say the most hilarious things. Snippets of today's conversations:

Me: How old are you Kaitlyn?
Kaitlyn: Two.
Alex (Kaitlyn's bro): No she's three.
Kaitlyn: My birthday's in TWO minutes!
Me: Really?
Kaitlyn: nods authoritatively

Hasam (age 4): We're going to play Fighting Animals. Is your animal a girl or boy?
Me: Mine is a girl.
Hasam: Ok, take this for your Mother's Day! (Proceeds to beat the crap out of my
poor tiny dinosaur and then throws it really hard into a the toy bin)
Ha! She's dead.
Me: Ummm ok...

Me: We're going to the Family Life Center
Kaitlyn: Ok (She then turns around and goes straight for a wall)
Alex: Kaitlyn thinks every wall is the Family Life Center

Kaitlyn: I have to go potty.
Me (after I show her the bathroom): You going to be ok in there?
I'm gonna close the door.
Kaitlyn (with her pants down): No don't. Leave it open please.
Me: Are you sure?
Kaitlyn: Uh-huh (she kinda sounded scared)
Me: Alright (Inside I'm a little anxious - I can't leave the door open with her on the toilet and everyone able to look in! What if her parents come in? So I slowly try to close the door, but not all the way and just stand in the crack.
Marissa (my supervisor): I never liked the door closed either when I was little.

These kids wore me out today!

Sesame Seeds and Tamarind Juice

That dreaded time of the month. This month's food cravings center around sesame seed food products and tamarind juice extra sour. Store bought brands are too sweet for me so I went out of my way to go to a Mediterranean grocery store to pick up some tamarind paste so I could make it to my liking. I couldn't find it myself so I asked a store employee, a teenager with broken english and a mustache grown with the purpose of looking like a bad-ass grown man. He told me to make the juice, I needed "this much" rose water and gave me a thumbs up.

Ummm...huh?

The whole jar of paste and the thumbs up was good to make enough juice that fit a container so and so big which he indicated by motioning some sort of boxlike shape with his hands.

Ok...

My dad and I were too confused by the conversation so we just went with the flow and bought the items. So I bring the container home. It's instructions read "One teaspoon for 6 persons for specific tastes of soups, stews, gravies, sambar, rasam, etc. in any cold, warm or hot preparation." So it seems any way you use it, one teaspoon for 6 persons is the appropriate ratio, hehe. Wonder what sambar and rasam are...Anyways I made a couple of attempts at making the juice and they came out pretty damn good if I say so myself. An hour later...my stomach is making noises...Uh oh...I googled tamarind juice and apparently it's a mild laxative. I think you can figure out the rest.

Friday The 13th

Today at work I was a BLOODY mess.

Well not literally, but visually. Quite a site - damn, wish I had a camera on me.

For those that don't know, I work as a food technologist with a large food company. I specifically work with dressings and sauces, coming up with new products for restaurants that, 9 out of 10, you most likely have eaten at. Now when you work with food you use a lot of supa-dupa concentrated colors and concoctions that make a product look "natural" in color. You'd be surprised to know that a lot of the dressings you buy off store shelves would probably be white or gray w/o some Yellow #5 lovin'. Check your label - you'll see what I'm talking about.

Today though the culprit was oleoresin paprika, basically the oil extract of paprika which is a VERY concentrated orange/red color. In my typical Amelia Bedelia like fashion I spilled a small 4oz jar. But good Lord! It looked like a massacre of a small animal happened right there on our lab floor with me as the villain since my hands were stained with evidence and the rest of me was COVERED in it. So you can imagine trying to clean up this red oily mess...let's just say I have permanently left my mark with the company with a nice orange stain on our half of our NEW floor.

My boss was oh so thrilled.

Wouldn't You Know It

Turns out I was wrong.

It wasn't 30 degrees lower today.

It was 40.

Hello again October.

It's A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

There is something about sunny skies and warm weather that brings out the happy in me. Could it be any better? I love feeling the warmth on my skin. I wore sandals the other day and my poor pale feet were finally exposed to the sun. Knowing Chicago weather it will probably be 30 degrees lower tomorrow but I enjoyed it while it lasted.

Spring Storm

Finally got some long awaited storms tonite. I love rain. I love waking up to it, sleeping to the sound of it, lifting my face upward to meet it. I especially love the smell of the earth and air after a good soaking. Since it's springtime here in Chicago, the air is sweet with the new flowers blooming and freshly cut lawns. I took an extra moment to stand outside and watch the sky turn pink as the sun was setting.

Time, time, time. It felt nice to actually have the time to do that. Last week was fun, everyday was an adventure going to Milwaukee for a Cubs game, the Weezer concert the next day, Rocky's graduation Friday, volunteering at the hospital and meeting up with an old friend Saturday, and finally Mother's Day Sunday. But good Lord I was beat! I still am beat! It's time to slow it down...

So now I am listening to "summertime" on the media player. A nice slow saucy version that makes me recall hot humid nights spent overlooking some dark moving body of water under a full moon. Whether or not this really happened I can't say for sure but that's what I'm feeling. The rain has slowed and now the only evidence of its presence is the searing sounds of tires passing by and a drip from the gutter.

At The End of the Day

You're another day older lalala...Must get Les Miserables out of my head! Anyways... another long day today! Everyone at work had that Monday look on their face. Like please don't talk to me - I am sleepy. Including me. The weekend was great. Erasure concert Friday, Chocolate Fest in Long Grove, shopping and Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Saturday, and more Chocolate Fest Sunday (although it was pretty damn cold!). All in all, a weekend to make me forget another crappy week at work.

Today. Ugh. Test batch early in the friggin' morning with the Quizno's chef there to watch too. The place was a mess, so embarrassing. We're hoping the visitors were as sleepy as we were and didn't pay too close attention. I HAVE SO MUCH WORK TO DO!!! I am convinced I will never get everything done. So discouraging. And I have my yearly review coming up...eek! But oh well, this weeks activities will help make things better. I will be extremely sleep deprived, but I l will be happy. That's what matters anyways right?

I just realized...Mexico next month! Woot-woot!

Weekend Recap