Before getting to the ham soup part let me set the stage. It is a stressful time. I am exhausted, not keeping up with work very well, and in addition to my first job that I already wasn't keeping up with very well have taken on a part-time consultancy with the World Bank. I want to do it, but don't quite know how I will manage it. I guess it's a good thing I'm doing it as yesterday (the day after I accepted the consultancy) Joel was informed his job is being cut-- his last day will be next Thursday. He's already been looking for other jobs and has a second interview at a very promising looking job next Friday (the day after his last day of work and the day we leave on a 2 week trip to Saudi), so I'm sure it will all work out, but yet it still feels like major uncertainty.
Meanwhile I'm in the little six-week window in which I'm going to hear back from three PhD programs and have to make a decision, and a couple nights ago I had a major freak-out over it all. I'm sleeping terribly, long nights of incredibly active and stressful dreams (this has been the pattern for a while now, maybe the med I'm on for fibro?), and I half wonder why I even bother shutting my eyes-- my nights are almost more chockfull of activity than my days. We're leaving for Saudi in 9 days and there's such a list of things to do-- from work projects to doing my 6 week accumulation of laundry.
And I'm in a dear friend's wedding at the end of March, so this weekend I spend the whole weekend in New York City helping to pull off the bridal shower (I'm the designated chef) and the weekend after we get back from Saudi I spend the weekend in New York City at the wedding. This morning I spend a little chunk of time answering emails about wedding/shower details, then decided I was going to skip a shower (for the second morning in a row), be late for work, and sit down for a quiet half hour with God. I have not been good about making time for this in the recent past, but today is the first day of Lent and I am excited about renewing this discipline. Prop up the eyelids, and away I go.
Enter the great ham soup disaster. We have a shelf that hangs over the stove with all of my pots and pans on it. The thing is really heavy and occasionally I give it worried looks but it has never fallen off the wall before. But this morning, five minutes into my quiet time, one of the big drywall screws rips completely out of the wall, and my biggest pot plunges off the shelf and onto the pot of ham stock that was bubbling away, to make split pea soup tonight. The ham soup pot is knocked onto the ground. A gallon of broth, celery stalks, ham bones, and pieces of wall and pot (my enameled cast iron pot lost a big piece of its enamel coating) are flung 10 feet (I am not kidding), nearly all the way to the front door. It was like one of those movie scenes that are funny, but also really cringe-inducing. Where you think, "Gosh, I hope that never happens to me."
Yes, this was that morning. Just as I was beginning to wade into the disaster the buzzer rang-- the postman was delivering a package. So down I went in my pajamas.
Now the mess is at least somewhat mopped up, I am still in my pajamas, still having to prop up my eyelids I am so tired, but heading back to my quiet time...
Please pray for us.
postscript: When I went to rinse the pot lid off before putting it and the pot with the broth-less bones back in the fridge, the handle suddenly broke off and the very heavy lid fell onto my butter dish and one of my favorite melamine spoons which were both sitting in the sink. Breaking both. The screw that held the handle on had shot into the garbage disposal so I had to root around in there before I found it. I wonder what else I can break on my way out the door this morning? What a morning.
2 comments:
I'm trying... very hard... not to laugh! I know it's so not funny and just majorly frustrating, but hopefully eventually you'll be able to laugh about it!
I've been getting all worried about our luggage being lost somehow on this trip. And then thinking: get ahold of yourself, it's just stuff!
Not that I'm saying that to you, but I know how annoying it can be when everything seems to go wrong and I'm sort of a pessimist so I just hope everything goes well on our trip!
Ha ha! Don't worry, I can laugh about it too... although you should have seen me last night trying to wash those nasty ham stock-soaked rags at the laundromat. I had to wash them twice to even begin to get the ham smell out, and then even after two washes I was picking celery leaves, peppercorns (which got stuck in the holes in the side of the wash drum) and pieces of red enamel from the pot out of the washing machine. (I didn't want to inflict that grossness on anyone else!) J knocked down my front door wreath (these nice pinecones) yesterday, which broke into several pieces, and then last night just as we were falling asleep there was this loud creaking sound from the bed and I was like, "Oh NO! Watch the bed break on us!"... but it seemed to just be one of the folding chairs that we are storing under the bed, shifting. What a day.
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