Party of One

I am having a party of one tonight (thanks to Wild Oats Market) and it looks like this:

Why is that you ask? Because after two weeks of dogsitting in North Adams I get to go home tomorrow. Hooray! What did I do in two weeks you ask? Some highlights:

• I went to a North Adams Steeplecats game. 

 They played the Darien, CT team and were losing pretty bad in the first 6 innings. There were some really sloppy errors. One catcher even hit the batter in the face when he was trying to throw the ball to the pitcher. I had a great time though. They served Lickety Split ice cream. My husband is allergic to nuts, so I ate as many as I wanted while I was out here. I had butter pecan at the game.

The mascot, Slider, kissed me on the hand at one point.

 When they were losing I called my sister and talked about a Clue themed party she had. The more I talked to her the better they did, and they ended up coming back to win 4-2. So thanks to my sister for helping them win!

• I thought a lot about solitude. I read this page that had some good quotes on the subject.  I think even if you are married, in a relationship or have a lot of friends that it is important to spend time by yourself sometimes and try to remember what that felt like. "What would I like for dinner?" "What would I like to do tonight?" I think that is important once in a while. 
• I liked the garden. I feel bad about having made fun of my coworker's affection for cooking with mixes when I was here in the winter time, and I admit that it is a lot easier for New Englanders to eat locally in the summer.

• I went out to lunch two separate times with some lovely lady coworkers. It reminds me of an interesting article I read that said every 10 miles you commute to work equals one less social connection that you have. Just being out here made me more likely to consider socializing with coworkers. 
• I went to the Goodwill in Adams, MA and bought this beauty.

Yes, that actually says to raid your wastebasket for crafting supplies! Ah, my fav - crochet a hat using beer cans!

 

• I went on a long search for something to make for the August 19 From Scratch Club Food Swap and ended up reading this girl's long biography on a blog called Undressed Skeleton. It is quite the story. Basically, mean girls replaced her contact solution with perfume because she was supposedly fat (I thought she looked cute in the 'before' pictures), and she became totally obsessed with being skinny. Ironically, I found her blog through a phyllo dough pop tart post she wrote that was featured on Tastespotting. I encourage you to go read her really honest biography - for some reason it sort of stuck with me. (For the food swap I decided on zucchini quinoa burgers.)

So there it is. Of course I miss my husband, but I also really miss my house. The kitchen here is really under equipped so I basically cleaned out my freezer for all my meals. I miss cooking, and I feel that it can really make you feel centered in your home. For more on this subject you can read this cool post on Apartment Therapy. I had a coworker once who I was explaining a watermelon feta salad recipe to, and she said "That sounds like it would take 20 minutes, who has the time?!" Well, I just think that if you are spending that 20 minutes watching the Kardashians or "What Not To Wear" then you do have the time, and in fact cooking is a more relaxing activity than some other activities like sitting in front of the TV. I'm not saying all I did out here was watch shows about weddings and airheads in southern California (but really who can resist doing some ridiculous things when they are alone?), I'm just saying I'm really happy to be going home. As usual, Albany I miss you.