I'm keeping my fingers crossed that my upstairs neighbor has checked out. I heard him this afternoon -- but it could have been housekeeping. Since then, there's been not a clomp or a clunk. I'm not going to be awake that much longer, so if he comes back late maybe I won't hear him.
I forgot to share my biggest news: I bought a laptop. I can't afford it, but I can't afford to be without a computer either, so there you go. This one is making signs that it's on its last legs. It will be delivered on Thursday (I'll get home on Thursday -- I probably won't touch it until Friday).
It's an HP Folio 13 (or something like that -- that means nothing to me). The most exciting part is: it weighs just three pounds. THAT I am excited about. Doesn't come with PowerPoint, so if I need it for work I'll have to see if Open Office will do the job (I expect it will).
The screen is smaller, but I had a 13-inch before and liked it just fine. I will GLADLY take a smaller screen to have it be that light. Anyway -- I'm excited, blessed.
And with that -- here is chapter four:
Alex was almost halfway up to the house before Caroline realized what was happening. “Hey—wait a sec! Alex!” She hurried to catch up with him. She didn’t know what it was about this boy. His aspersions on Bonita Key, his assumption that she would have lunch with him—all of that should have bothered her but coming from him it didn’t rankle her a bit. He seemed completely open and honest, as if the idea of playing games or being petty wouldn’t occur to him. It struck Caroline that she was making a lot of guesses about someone she’d only known for a couple of minutes and yet she was certain she was right about him.
Alex turned to wait for her. As she drew near she noticed that his eyes weren’t the dark brown she had thought they were. They were hazel, brown with a green tinge and flecks of gold.
“I’m not hungry—I ate breakfast not all that long ago,” Caroline said. “I can wait if you’re going to eat, though.”
“No, that’s cool—I’m not hungry either. What do you want to do first?”
“Well…why don’t we walk down the beach toward my house. I’ll introduce you to my family, I guess.”
They had no sooner reached the sand of the beach when Caroline looked up to see a familiar figure coming toward them. It was Mr. Katz, jogging along just above the reach of the waves, his face red, beads of sweat on the top of his head, his bald spot wreathed by curly brown hair. Caroline was struck, as usual, by the size of his feet. He had the biggest feet she’d ever seen. “He crushes more coquinas per step than any five people I know,” she thought.
He drew up alongside Caroline and Alex and stopped, huffing and puffing, bent over. “Hey…Caro...line…Who’s…your friend?”
“This is Alex Yealin, Mr. Katz. His parents bought the old Benson place.”
“Nice to meet you, sir.” Alex extended his hand. Caroline was struck again by his mature manner. None of the kids she knew would have responded the way Alex did. He seemed a lot older than she was, although she knew from her research that they were the same age.
“Well, Alex…it’s nice to meet you, too.” Mr. Katz straightened up and shook Alex’s hand. “I live just across the way.” He waved his hand over his shoulder. “Caroline’s a good tour guide—she’ll have you knowing your way around like a native in no time. I jog along here every day, so we’ll probably run into each other again—no pun intended!”
“Yes, sir. Thank you. I look forward to it, sir.”
Mr. Katz looked at Caroline and raised one eyebrow. Alex’s politeness and formal manner were something that he wasn’t used to either. After exchanging a few more pleasantries he was off again, his huge feet pounding the sand, crushing the coquinas in his path.
Alex turned to Caroline with a funny look on his face. “That man has the biggest—” he began before catching himself.
“I know, right? The biggest feet in the world. He’s a math teacher at the middle school. My math teacher, as a matter of fact. He’s pretty cool.” They were walking along the beach again, down far enough so that the warm water splashed around their ankles.
“We cut through here to get to my house,” Caroline headed away from the Gulf. She could see her brother out in front of their house, vacuuming The Tomato. “That’s Kael, my brother. He goes to the high school. Mom’s a vet—her office is at our house. Dad works for a bank on the mainland. And I have a little brother, too. Donny. Cute, but annoying.”
Alex didn’t say a word, just scrambled up the dunes behind Caroline. “Do you have any brothers or sisters, Alex?” Caroline already knew the answer from her research but thought it would be polite to ask. Now that she knew Alex she was feeling a little uncomfortable about having scoped out information about his family over the internet.
“No. There’s just me. Mom’s from this part of the country and wanted a place down here for vacations, summer, that kind of thing. I’m here now with Mrs. Birch. She’s our housekeeper…used to be my nanny but I’m too old for a nanny now. Mom and Dad will come down on long weekends and that kind of thing. I wasn’t exactly excited about the idea, but I promised Mom I’d give it a chance.”
Caroline looked at him with renewed wonder. She’d been complaining about spending the summer here in familiar surroundings with her family and at least the occasional chance to spend time with her friends, and Alex was calmly telling her that he’d be here for most of the summer almost by himself! She felt a bit guilty for all of her griping over the past couple of days.
They stopped at the front fender of The Tomato. “Kael, this is Alex. His folks just bought the Benson place,” Caroline hollered over the noise of the vacuum. Kael nodded, waved the vacuum hose at them and yelled back.
“Hey, Alex!”
Caroline turned to go into the house. Her mother was in the kitchen, chopping onions and garlic. Caroline introduced Alex to her mother. As usual, he responded in an almost formal way.
“Very nice to meet you, Dr. Brennan. Caroline’s offered to show me around the island—I’ve only been here for a couple of days. I know my parents will be eager to meet you and Mr. Brennan when they come down next weekend.”
“I’d love to meet them, too, Alex. Please let Caroline know when they’re coming and we’ll have you all over for a barbecue. Mr. Brennan considers himself to be a gourmet cook because he can grill steaks without burning them completely.” Dr. Brennan smiled at the two of them. “Care, could you do me a favor? If you’re going to show Alex around could you go into town and pick up a loaf of bread for me at the bakery? We’re having spaghetti for supper and I’d like to make garlic bread to go with it. Alex, you’re more than welcome to join us!”
“Thank you, Dr. Brennan. I’ll have to let my housekeeper know. May I use your phone?”
Caroline pointed to the phone and Alex took it into the next room to make his call. Caroline’s mother looked at her questioningly. “He seems very nice…” she began.
“Yes, he seems very nice,” Caroline agreed. “He also seems very…I don’t know. Grown up, almost. I wonder if he knows how to have fun.”
“Well, sweetie, it’s been my experience that kids are kids no matter where they’re from or how they’ve been raised.” Dr. Brennan paused from her chopping and pushed a strand of blonde hair away from her forehead with the back of her wrist. “I’m sure that if you give him a chance you’ll see that he’s just like Rachel and Hannah.”
“Yeah, maybe,” Caroline said doubtfully. She took some money from the loose change jar on top of the refrigerator. “Can I buy us a cookie while we’re at Mrs. Griffith’s?”
“Of course you may. Tell her I said hello, okay?”
A few minutes later Alex and Caroline were headed down the street toward the small downtown area of Bonita Key. There were only a dozen or so stores, a couple of restaurants, and a gas station on the island. One of the shops was the Sweet Thing Bakery, run by Mrs. Griffith and her daughter, Ruthie. The bakery was one of Caroline’s favorite places in all the world.
As she pushed open the door to the small shop she was hit by a blast of cool air. An instant later the aromas enveloped her—fresh bread, warm cookies, muffins bursting with berries and nuts, pastries and cakes, pies and brownies. Mrs. Griffith was famous for her baked goods and did a steady trade with mainland folk who were more than willing to make the short drive to the island for some of her wonderful creations.
Ruthie was behind the counter. She looked up with a smile as Caroline came in. “Hey there, Caroline! How’s it going today?”
Caroline introduced Alex to Ruthie. “Ruthie is an incredible musician, Alex. You should hear her play the violin. She’s amazing.”
“Caroline is my biggest fan, Alex.” Ruthie smiled fondly at her young friend. She had been Caroline’s babysitter a few years back and Caroline was still in awe of Ruthie’s beauty and skills. She seemed to Caroline to be everything that Caroline aspired to be—talented, gorgeous, gracious.
“What can I get for you guys?” Ruthie’s question brought Caroline back to the present. “Mom’s just taken a fresh batch of chocolate chip cookies out of the oven. The ones with the big chunks of chocolate, Caroline—your favorite.”
A few minutes later, warm cookies in their hands and a crusty loaf of bread in a crinkly paper wrapper under Alex’s arm, they headed back toward Manatee Court.
“Ruthie’s father died when she was a baby,” Caroline offered. “She ought to go to a music conservatory or something like that, Mom says, but she’s going to stay here on the island because she knows her mom needs her help in running the bakery.”
Alex looked at Caroline. “Do you know everything about everybody around here?”
Caroline flushed with embarrassment. “I just thought you’d want to know, that’s all. It’s not a big secret. When you live in a place like this, pretty much everybody knows everybody else’s business,” she added defensively.
“Let’s stop by my house on the way back. Mrs. Birch’ll give us some milk and we can finish these cookies in the gazebo.” Alex seemed oblivious to Caroline’s embarrassment. He looked at her expectantly.
“Okay,” Caroline mumbled. It was going to take her a while to figure this kid out.
Twenty minutes later they were lounging in the gazebo in back of Alex’s house. It had not yet been renovated and it suffered from peeling paint and rotting boards. Once upon a time the gazebo had been spectacular, decorated with intricately carved posts and gingerbread trim and benches and affording a magnificent view of the Gulf. The view was about all that was left of those former glory days.
“I wonder if Dad’ll have this redone or if he’ll just scrap it and build a new one,” Alex mused, looking up at the roof of the structure. Patches of sunlight shown through where shingles had long been missing.
Caroline leaned back. “I don’t know. It’s awfully—”
A loud crack interrupted her as the railing she was leaning against gave way. She flailed her arms, trying to keep from falling. Alex lunged toward her, grabbing her hand just in time to yank her back toward the center of the gazebo. He pulled her so hard that they both landed in a heap and another crack sounded as a board beneath them began to give.
“Man, this thing is a death trap!” Caroline rolled toward the bench at the side of the gazebo. She laid there for a second, looking over at Alex who had also moved away from the latest offending board. They stared at each other for a second and then broke out in laughter.
“I saved your life,” Alex insisted. “You would’ve fallen off this thing, landed on your head, and broken your neck.”
“You almost killed me,” Caroline retorted. “Inviting me up here! I hope your folks have insurance if they’re going to keep this thing around!”
Alex leaned over and pulled at the rotting floorboard. “I’m going to get rid of this so that no one else steps on it. I think it’s safer to have a hole in the floor than to have a board that looks solid but is actually rotten. And I’ll be sure to tell Dad that this needs to be repaired soon. Hey—something’s down there!”
Caroline was about to warn him that there could be lots of things beneath a gazebo. Snakes, spiders, a raccoon or an opossum—reaching blindly into a dark hole wasn’t the smartest thing you could do. Before she could open her mouth, though, Alex had already retrieved an object from the darkness beneath the floorboards.
He held out a cloth-covered bundle. He slowly unwrapped it to reveal a glass jar, about the size of a small mayonnaise jar. Inside the jar was an old, yellowed envelope. “Cassie” was written on the front in firm, masculine handwriting. Alex looked at Caroline and wordlessly unscrewed the lid of the jar. He took out the envelope and peeked inside it. He turned it upside down and a small oval object fell onto the wooden floor. He took a folded letter out of the envelope, started to open it, and stopped.
More later...
Saturday, March 31, 2012
Come Back! I'm Not Armed!!!
All right -- I'm even tireder than when I wrote that last entry, but I am in a somewhat better mood. I will try to fill in some of the gaps.
First, eating at Chipotle's was not my brightest move. I was quite swollen today, so I did something wrong somewhere (tomatoes? I hope not!!!). Anyway, even though I suffered through six days of that elimination diet, I'm scrapping it and I'm going to start it again when I get home and have better control of what I can eat and when and where. I'm going to cancel my doctor's appointment and give this a legitimate try and then reevaluate.
After class today (and this is a fabulous class -- I really like them SO much) I went to the West End mall. Nice mall -- Nordstrom's, Macy's, and JCPenney are the anchors. Maybe Dick's, too -- I mean, it's there so maybe they count it as an anchor.
Anyway, I like to shop at Macy's, so I thought I would see if I could find an Easter dress. I have not bought an Easter dress in more than a decade, so I was kind of excited to see what there was to see. Well...the pretty dresses right now are all sleeveless. Don't get me wrong -- I LOVE a nice sleeveless dress -- but not on me. I HATE my arms. My biggest regret at Alex's wedding was not keeping my wrap on for all of the pictures. I tried on a couple of dresses and found short jackets to wear over them, but I didn't really like them.
There is also a dearth of "pretty" out there. Muddy colors, lots of dark teals, purples, black, black, black -- where are the SPRING colors??? The EASTER, happy hues??? Anyway, I looked all through Macy's, found nada, went to Nordstrom's, found a dress that I almost bought (I liked it, did not love it -- and I really wanted to LOVE this dress), went to Penney's, found zilch. All that walking had my knees SCREAMING. Plus, it was mid-afternoon and the only thing in my stomach since the night before was a blue Monster (heaven -- the hotel where my students stay stocked my refrigerator with them -- THEY appreciate me!!!). So I was in pain, starving, unhappy with the clothes I was finding...
I went to Macaroni Grill and ordered a make-your-own pasta (whole wheat fettuccine with arrabiata sauce and roasted tomatoes, fresh spinach, and roasted mushrooms) and brought it back to the hotel where I was greeted by my messy room.
All of these things added together conspired to make me cranky and I gave in. I should not have given in, but I did and I apologize.
After I wrote my last post I closed my eyes to nap. Then I decided that was fatal. Instead, I got back into my car and drove to the Galleria where they have a Dillard's. Once again Dillard's did not fail me. I found a dress. It's a sundress (sleeveless) and it's white and black and sort of an acid green. Maybe that's the wrong color. Somewhere between spring green and acid green. It's very pretty. It has a fitted waist and a big, long black ribbon for a belt that you tie into a bow. It comes with a bright green little short sweater -- almost a shrug -- that you wear over it so your arms don't show. I really do like it, I think it looks spring-y, and I'm happy. I also bought a big green flower (a perfect match) to wear in my hair. I'm going to go online and find a very low-heeled dressy sandal (not a flat, but a very low heel) to wear with it (I could NOT shop anymore and if I buy a strappy enough sandal I can buy them without trying them on first).
Then I went by the grocery store and bought another half gallon of orange juice. I'd forgotten to get a drink with my lunch, so I was SO THIRSTY. I also bought some Easter candy for my students. :)
So that's it. Tomorrow my grand plan is to write. And sleep in. I'll post another chapter before I check out tonight.
More later...
First, eating at Chipotle's was not my brightest move. I was quite swollen today, so I did something wrong somewhere (tomatoes? I hope not!!!). Anyway, even though I suffered through six days of that elimination diet, I'm scrapping it and I'm going to start it again when I get home and have better control of what I can eat and when and where. I'm going to cancel my doctor's appointment and give this a legitimate try and then reevaluate.
After class today (and this is a fabulous class -- I really like them SO much) I went to the West End mall. Nice mall -- Nordstrom's, Macy's, and JCPenney are the anchors. Maybe Dick's, too -- I mean, it's there so maybe they count it as an anchor.
Anyway, I like to shop at Macy's, so I thought I would see if I could find an Easter dress. I have not bought an Easter dress in more than a decade, so I was kind of excited to see what there was to see. Well...the pretty dresses right now are all sleeveless. Don't get me wrong -- I LOVE a nice sleeveless dress -- but not on me. I HATE my arms. My biggest regret at Alex's wedding was not keeping my wrap on for all of the pictures. I tried on a couple of dresses and found short jackets to wear over them, but I didn't really like them.
There is also a dearth of "pretty" out there. Muddy colors, lots of dark teals, purples, black, black, black -- where are the SPRING colors??? The EASTER, happy hues??? Anyway, I looked all through Macy's, found nada, went to Nordstrom's, found a dress that I almost bought (I liked it, did not love it -- and I really wanted to LOVE this dress), went to Penney's, found zilch. All that walking had my knees SCREAMING. Plus, it was mid-afternoon and the only thing in my stomach since the night before was a blue Monster (heaven -- the hotel where my students stay stocked my refrigerator with them -- THEY appreciate me!!!). So I was in pain, starving, unhappy with the clothes I was finding...
I went to Macaroni Grill and ordered a make-your-own pasta (whole wheat fettuccine with arrabiata sauce and roasted tomatoes, fresh spinach, and roasted mushrooms) and brought it back to the hotel where I was greeted by my messy room.
All of these things added together conspired to make me cranky and I gave in. I should not have given in, but I did and I apologize.
After I wrote my last post I closed my eyes to nap. Then I decided that was fatal. Instead, I got back into my car and drove to the Galleria where they have a Dillard's. Once again Dillard's did not fail me. I found a dress. It's a sundress (sleeveless) and it's white and black and sort of an acid green. Maybe that's the wrong color. Somewhere between spring green and acid green. It's very pretty. It has a fitted waist and a big, long black ribbon for a belt that you tie into a bow. It comes with a bright green little short sweater -- almost a shrug -- that you wear over it so your arms don't show. I really do like it, I think it looks spring-y, and I'm happy. I also bought a big green flower (a perfect match) to wear in my hair. I'm going to go online and find a very low-heeled dressy sandal (not a flat, but a very low heel) to wear with it (I could NOT shop anymore and if I buy a strappy enough sandal I can buy them without trying them on first).
Then I went by the grocery store and bought another half gallon of orange juice. I'd forgotten to get a drink with my lunch, so I was SO THIRSTY. I also bought some Easter candy for my students. :)
So that's it. Tomorrow my grand plan is to write. And sleep in. I'll post another chapter before I check out tonight.
More later...
Grouch Alert!!!
I got a call from my friend David last night and we talked until probably around 12:30. That was okay because I've been getting TONS of sleep and I didn't have to get up this morning until 8:00 (to be at work at 9:00). After I hung up from talking with David, I read a couple of chapters of Emma and then turned out the lights around 1:00. I did not, however, go to sleep.
Whoever is above me came home around 1:00 and DID NOT STOP STOMPING AROUND UNTIL AFTER 2:00. Then -- his alarm went off at 6:45 and he RESUMED STOMPING. So -- I slept from a little after 2:00 until 6:45 instead of from 1:00 to 8:00. Sigh. He walks more in one day in that hotel room than I walk in two weeks in mine. WHAT is there to do in a hotel room? WHAT???
Sigh.
The next time I come here I am not staying if they have to put me on the first floor. Period. Two weeks of interrupted sleep while you're on a business trip is NO FUN. I just keep hoping the guy'll check out. So far, no dice.
(If you were a hotel, wouldn't you put women on the upper floors? For safety reasons, if nothing else? This hotel is set up kind of like apartments -- with outside doors. My room is on the first floor in the BACK of a building, so bad guys could jump out and get me and no one would see. I mean, I don't really worry, but you'd think a hotel might monitor things like that. Also -- last night was my 23rd night in this place during the first three months of the year. Don't you think they should, I dunno, treat me a little bit special? They definitely do NOT. Like today -- I left the hotel around 8:15 and got back about 2:30 and my room was not made up. And now it won't be, because I'm too tired to have someone come in here and mess around. I don't know what I sound like when I'm on the second floor, but I tiptoe. Literally. I do not want to disturb anybody. Plus -- I hardly ever walk in my room. Bed, bathroom, bed. That's about it.)
Grumble, grumble.
I'm going to take a nap (which will mean I'm up late tonight, but I don't care -- I'm exhausted -- and cranky).
More later...
Whoever is above me came home around 1:00 and DID NOT STOP STOMPING AROUND UNTIL AFTER 2:00. Then -- his alarm went off at 6:45 and he RESUMED STOMPING. So -- I slept from a little after 2:00 until 6:45 instead of from 1:00 to 8:00. Sigh. He walks more in one day in that hotel room than I walk in two weeks in mine. WHAT is there to do in a hotel room? WHAT???
Sigh.
The next time I come here I am not staying if they have to put me on the first floor. Period. Two weeks of interrupted sleep while you're on a business trip is NO FUN. I just keep hoping the guy'll check out. So far, no dice.
(If you were a hotel, wouldn't you put women on the upper floors? For safety reasons, if nothing else? This hotel is set up kind of like apartments -- with outside doors. My room is on the first floor in the BACK of a building, so bad guys could jump out and get me and no one would see. I mean, I don't really worry, but you'd think a hotel might monitor things like that. Also -- last night was my 23rd night in this place during the first three months of the year. Don't you think they should, I dunno, treat me a little bit special? They definitely do NOT. Like today -- I left the hotel around 8:15 and got back about 2:30 and my room was not made up. And now it won't be, because I'm too tired to have someone come in here and mess around. I don't know what I sound like when I'm on the second floor, but I tiptoe. Literally. I do not want to disturb anybody. Plus -- I hardly ever walk in my room. Bed, bathroom, bed. That's about it.)
Grumble, grumble.
I'm going to take a nap (which will mean I'm up late tonight, but I don't care -- I'm exhausted -- and cranky).
More later...
Friday, March 30, 2012
Friday Night Whoo-Hoo!!!
Irene (thank you) has some edits for me on chapter two, but it's past 10:00 and I am running out of steam and have not had time to even look at them yet. It felt like a REALLY LONG DAY today for some reason.
After class I drove back to the hotel and as I was getting out of my car Ed was driving by. I told him that I was throwing caution to the winds and going to Chipotle for dinner and he decided to go, too. So -- dinner was mostly spent laughing and trying to figure out what we'd do if one of us won the Mega Million jackpot. We decided that the conversation provided each of us with more than a buck's worth of entertainment, so we went out and bought tickets (I bought one, Ed bought ten -- one each for the next ten jackpots is I think how it works). Anyway, if I win tonight I'm giving Ed $10 million and if he wins he's giving me $10 million. However, I'm not staying up late to see if I won. :)
As I said, I went to Chipotle. I just could not stand it anymore. For breakfast this morning I had oj. For lunch I had two tangerines. I needed FOOD. I had a veggie burrito bowl -- no corn, no wheat. This is, technically, a lot of new foods, but the most dangerous food in the lot was tomato. We'll see. I'm feeling fine from all of my orange juice, so I don't think that food is a trigger.
To be honest, I'm rethinking what my trigger might be. I was cheating on my diet -- not every day, but often enough that if dairy (which is the NUMBER ONE TRIGGER FOR RA) is a problem for me, I would have been paying the price. Maybe all the foods I eat now are fine. Which would be wonderful, because I WANT to eat this way and if dairy is a trigger that will just be additional incentive to stay away from it. Honestly, when I start reading about all the potentially bad things that cow's milk does, it's a wonder anybody can eat it without ill effects.
As of this very moment in time, I'm feeling much improvement from before I started the elimination period. Tomorrow will be key -- I think I will eat a burrito bowl for lunch again, and maybe supper, just to repeat all those foods. If I have no problems, I might go for wheat -- maybe I'll go to Macaroni Grill and have pasta. Anyway, so far, so good.
I'm going to go ahead and post chapter three, even though I haven't made changes to chapter two (they are mostly regarding how Caroline navigates Google, so even though I want to get all that correct they changes don't really affect the story). I appreciate it a bunch, though, Irene!!!
Here is chapter three:
The next morning Caroline sat at the Delgado kitchen table calmly eating her breakfast while surrounded by chaos, laughter, and groans. Mrs. Delgado had changed her mind about leaving for Miami the next day and the family was packing so that they might depart as soon as possible instead. Caroline helped herself to a tostada—buttered and toasted Cuban bread—and a nectarine, and chuckled as Hannah and Rachel ran from room to room, frantically assembling the things they absolutely had to have in order to spend two months away from home.
As the piles of clothes, shoes and accessories, books and notebooks, laptops, iPods, and other assorted necessities grew around her, Caroline pushed herself away from the table. “I’m going to miss you,” she announced loudly to anyone who could hear her.
“Oh, Care—I’m going to miss you, too.” Hannah stopped to give her a quick, tight hug and then resumed shoving athletic shoes and sandals into a pink duffle bag.
“Bye, Caroline!” hollered Rachel from her bedroom. “Email me and I’ll answer you tonight after we get settled. Oh—tell Kael to have a good summer for me, okay?”
Grabbing another piece of tostada from the plate on the kitchen table, Caroline left the house, letting the screen door slam behind her. Mrs. Delgado was in the driveway giving Mr. Delgado unneeded and unheeded instructions as he wrestled with lifting a suitcase onto the luggage rack on the roof of the car.
“Have a good summer, Caroline,” Mrs. Delgado gave her a hug and planted a kiss on the top of her head. “Please come for a visit—you know we’d love to see you.”
“Thanks, Mrs. Delgado. I’ll email Rachel and Hannah and we’ll work something out. And thanks for last night, too. Have a safe drive!”
She started for home but stopped, reversed course, and walked down Manatee Court in the direction of the Benson…Yealin…place. As she approached the driveway she saw that renovations were much further along than she had realized. Painters were finishing the trim and the shutters gleamed a new deep blue, vibrant against clean, creamy stucco walls. Most of the palms were trimmed and gardeners were hard at work clearing out brush and weeds. Closer to the house itself new plantings were going in, pots of yellow and pink hibiscus lined the walkway, and huge hanging baskets of scarlet bougainvillea brightened the long arbor on the side of the house. It was all going to be gorgeous, Caroline realized.
“Ouch!” It felt like something had stung her on the back of her arm. “Ow!” She looked back, down, turned around. She couldn’t see anything—no insects, no clue as to what had assaulted her. She heard a muffled laugh and glanced up in time to see someone disappear into a thick hedge. It was a person about her size; she couldn’t see whether it was a boy or a girl. “Must be a boy,” she figured. “An obnoxious, annoying, bratty, rotten boy.”
She walked over to the hedge. By the time she found the opening through which her assailant had slipped, he had disappeared completely. Her curiosity about the Yealin family, however, was at an all-time high.
She glanced at her watch and sighed. She had chores to do at home, and some investigative work to do on her computer. Maybe a thorough search would provide clues to the identity of the delinquent who had pelted her.
As she walked up the driveway to her house, she saw her mother waving to her from what had once been the garage. Dr. Brennan was a veterinarian and her office was in the converted building. She had a small animal practice—dogs and cats, mostly—and was a veterinarian-on-call for a local wildlife rescue group which meant you never knew what kinds of animals you might find in the clinic on any given day.
“Hey, Mom.” Caroline poked her head inside the office door. Dr. Brennan was taping the hind leg of a rueful-looking cocker spaniel.
“Honey, I cleaned the kennels for you this morning. Consider it a ‘congratulations for graduating from sixth grade’ present. I do need for you to feed the critters, though.”
“Thanks, Mom. I’ll do it right now.” Feeding the patients was Caroline’s favorite chore. Cleaning the kennels was the worst. She’d definitely made out all right this morning. She glanced at the instruction list that her mother left every evening. Only three animals needed to be fed: two kittens and a rabbit that had been brought in by a wildlife protection volunteer. The cottontail had been found at the side of a road, apparently stunned by a car. Her mother had examined him and—miraculously—found no serious injuries. “A couple of days in the clinic will do him a world of good and then we can let him go.”
The kittens were adorable. A neighbor had found them underneath a pier and brought them to Caroline’s mother. A friend of Dr. Brennan had agreed to adopt them but she was on vacation for a couple of weeks and the kittens were going to live at the clinic in the meantime. One was black with white feet and the other was a gray-striped tabby. They had wide green eyes and mischief in their hearts. Caroline dangled a catnip mouse in front of them for a few minutes, laughing at their clumsy antics. Even though they weren’t hers she had named them Milo and Spud.
Then she remembered her earlier assault at the Yealin place. Someone had pelted her with something that morning and she meant to find out who it was.
“I’ll be in the house, Mom,” she called
“Thanks, Care. Do me a favor and see if Donny needs lunch, okay? And let Barkley out if he needs it. I’ll be finished here in an hour or so.”
Donny was, as usual, propped in front of the television. An empty bowl with the remains of cereal and milk was on the coffee table in front of him. His chubby brown legs were thrown over the back of the couch and his head was dangling off the seat, upside down.
“You hungry, Squirt?” Caroline asked.
“Uh uh,” he answered, not looking away from Nickelodeon.
Barkley, the family’s spoiled black Labrador retriever, was sleeping on his back in the laundry room, on a big, blue doggie pillow. He opened one eye when Caroline poked her head into the room, his thick tail wagging slowly. Otherwise, he didn’t move. She decided he didn’t need a thing at the moment.
She went into her room and closed the door. She shooed Mrs. Anderson, her calico cat, out of her desk chair, jiggled the mouse, and waited for her hibernating computer to awaken. She navigated to Google and typed
“judith yealin new york”.
Forty-five minutes later, Caroline knew quite a bit about the Yealin family. Mrs. Yealin was actually Dr. Yealin, a pediatrician at New York-Presbyterian Hospital. She had been born in Sarasota, a bit north of Bonita Key. James and Judith had one son, Alexander, who was almost exactly the same age as Caroline. She wasn’t sure if the family was moving permanently to Bonita Key or if the house was just to be a vacation home—she hadn’t found any information about that aspect of their lives. She was sure, however, that she hated Alexander.
She was even able to find a picture of the family, taken at a fundraising Christmas party several years earlier and posted on a charity’s web site. Dr. Yealin was beautiful—plump and elegant in a deep red gown. Mr. Yealin was tall and handsome, smiling as he looked down at her. Alexander looked like an obnoxious, snotty brat.
She wrote an email to Rachel and Hannah, sharing with them the information that she’d uncovered. She decided to walk back down to the Yealin place. This time she would be ready for the enemy.
She crossed the street and went down to the beach, deciding to approach the house from a different angle. The back side of the property had not been renovated as thoroughly as the front. The pier was still almost falling down into the Gulf and each wave seemed destined to be the one that finally caused its collapse. The tide was low and Caroline glanced down to see if there were any shells worth pocketing. Tiny coquina shells—they were most certainly not rare but she loved them just the same—created a colorful mosaic beneath her feet. Pink, purple, yellow—her father had offered her five dollars for a green one and she hadn’t been able to collect the bounty yet.
She turned left and began to approach the edge of the lawn. She crept slowly, glancing around to be sure that no one was observing her. The gazebo was right in front of her and she dashed over to it, ducking behind it for cover.
The voice almost made her jump out of her skin.
“I remember you from before.” It was a calm, matter-of-fact voice. A boy’s voice, not an unpleasant one, bearing no trace of an accent and only the slightest hint of interest.
She looked around but couldn’t figure out where he was, where the voice was coming from. He laughed, an easy, friendly laugh, and she glanced up. The gazebo was placed next to the tallest tree on the property, a gumbo limbo with papery peeling red bark. Stretched out on the long gentle slope of a branch of the tree was the boy. He looked older than the image in the photograph that Caroline had seen online, but she could tell that he was the same person. Alexander Yealin.
Despite her determined intentions, Caroline didn’t immediately dislike everything about him. Unfortunately, he was very nice looking. He was smiling at her in a friendly way, his dark eyes sparkling down at her from his open, almost innocent face. He had dark straight hair, cut short, and was wearing green swim trunks and a yellow t-shirt.
“You attacked me,” she tried to sound angry but her words came out in a more conversational tone than she had intended. She tried to glare up at him but the sun shining behind him made her squint and ruined the effect.
“Yeah, sorry about that. I was trying to get your attention and I guess I kind of…” his voice trailed away.
“Do you like living here?” he asked, apparently considering the previous line of questioning closed. “It seems pretty boring to me.”
Coming from anyone else, Caroline would have been offended. It was boring on Bonita Key, especially in the summertime, but she didn’t want some stranger making that accusation. When Alexander said it, however, it sounded like a purely innocent observation, carrying no malice.
“It’s kinda boring,” she grudgingly admitted. “How long have you been here?”
“Only a couple of days.” He swung his leg over the tree branch and hung there for a second, balancing his body and then grabbing the limb with his arms before letting go and dropping to the ground in front of her. He was a sturdy boy, a couple of inches taller than Caroline. He wasn’t tan like most of the kids she knew but he didn’t have the pale, sickly look that she imagined all New Yorkers wore either.
“Alex Yealin,” he said. He offered her his hand to shake, as though they were adults.
“I’m Caroline. Brennan.” She shook his hand shyly, not knowing exactly how to behave in front of this sophisticated creature.
“Want to explore?” he asked. “I can show you around this place and maybe you’ll show me the island?”
She didn’t know how to say anything but “yes” to his question. He seemed to be the kind of boy with whom you wanted to agree. He gave the impression of being so nice and so at ease that he made Caroline want to be nice as well. His manner put her at ease, too, and she realized with a start that she had been trespassing on his property with the intent of spying on him. Indeed, she had already spied on him using her computer. She suddenly felt a little guilty about that. Then she remembered that he’d assaulted her earlier and she felt better.
“Do you want to have lunch first?” he asked her. He turned without waiting for her answer and headed toward the house, assuming she would follow.
More later...
After class I drove back to the hotel and as I was getting out of my car Ed was driving by. I told him that I was throwing caution to the winds and going to Chipotle for dinner and he decided to go, too. So -- dinner was mostly spent laughing and trying to figure out what we'd do if one of us won the Mega Million jackpot. We decided that the conversation provided each of us with more than a buck's worth of entertainment, so we went out and bought tickets (I bought one, Ed bought ten -- one each for the next ten jackpots is I think how it works). Anyway, if I win tonight I'm giving Ed $10 million and if he wins he's giving me $10 million. However, I'm not staying up late to see if I won. :)
As I said, I went to Chipotle. I just could not stand it anymore. For breakfast this morning I had oj. For lunch I had two tangerines. I needed FOOD. I had a veggie burrito bowl -- no corn, no wheat. This is, technically, a lot of new foods, but the most dangerous food in the lot was tomato. We'll see. I'm feeling fine from all of my orange juice, so I don't think that food is a trigger.
To be honest, I'm rethinking what my trigger might be. I was cheating on my diet -- not every day, but often enough that if dairy (which is the NUMBER ONE TRIGGER FOR RA) is a problem for me, I would have been paying the price. Maybe all the foods I eat now are fine. Which would be wonderful, because I WANT to eat this way and if dairy is a trigger that will just be additional incentive to stay away from it. Honestly, when I start reading about all the potentially bad things that cow's milk does, it's a wonder anybody can eat it without ill effects.
As of this very moment in time, I'm feeling much improvement from before I started the elimination period. Tomorrow will be key -- I think I will eat a burrito bowl for lunch again, and maybe supper, just to repeat all those foods. If I have no problems, I might go for wheat -- maybe I'll go to Macaroni Grill and have pasta. Anyway, so far, so good.
I'm going to go ahead and post chapter three, even though I haven't made changes to chapter two (they are mostly regarding how Caroline navigates Google, so even though I want to get all that correct they changes don't really affect the story). I appreciate it a bunch, though, Irene!!!
Here is chapter three:
The next morning Caroline sat at the Delgado kitchen table calmly eating her breakfast while surrounded by chaos, laughter, and groans. Mrs. Delgado had changed her mind about leaving for Miami the next day and the family was packing so that they might depart as soon as possible instead. Caroline helped herself to a tostada—buttered and toasted Cuban bread—and a nectarine, and chuckled as Hannah and Rachel ran from room to room, frantically assembling the things they absolutely had to have in order to spend two months away from home.
As the piles of clothes, shoes and accessories, books and notebooks, laptops, iPods, and other assorted necessities grew around her, Caroline pushed herself away from the table. “I’m going to miss you,” she announced loudly to anyone who could hear her.
“Oh, Care—I’m going to miss you, too.” Hannah stopped to give her a quick, tight hug and then resumed shoving athletic shoes and sandals into a pink duffle bag.
“Bye, Caroline!” hollered Rachel from her bedroom. “Email me and I’ll answer you tonight after we get settled. Oh—tell Kael to have a good summer for me, okay?”
Grabbing another piece of tostada from the plate on the kitchen table, Caroline left the house, letting the screen door slam behind her. Mrs. Delgado was in the driveway giving Mr. Delgado unneeded and unheeded instructions as he wrestled with lifting a suitcase onto the luggage rack on the roof of the car.
“Have a good summer, Caroline,” Mrs. Delgado gave her a hug and planted a kiss on the top of her head. “Please come for a visit—you know we’d love to see you.”
“Thanks, Mrs. Delgado. I’ll email Rachel and Hannah and we’ll work something out. And thanks for last night, too. Have a safe drive!”
She started for home but stopped, reversed course, and walked down Manatee Court in the direction of the Benson…Yealin…place. As she approached the driveway she saw that renovations were much further along than she had realized. Painters were finishing the trim and the shutters gleamed a new deep blue, vibrant against clean, creamy stucco walls. Most of the palms were trimmed and gardeners were hard at work clearing out brush and weeds. Closer to the house itself new plantings were going in, pots of yellow and pink hibiscus lined the walkway, and huge hanging baskets of scarlet bougainvillea brightened the long arbor on the side of the house. It was all going to be gorgeous, Caroline realized.
“Ouch!” It felt like something had stung her on the back of her arm. “Ow!” She looked back, down, turned around. She couldn’t see anything—no insects, no clue as to what had assaulted her. She heard a muffled laugh and glanced up in time to see someone disappear into a thick hedge. It was a person about her size; she couldn’t see whether it was a boy or a girl. “Must be a boy,” she figured. “An obnoxious, annoying, bratty, rotten boy.”
She walked over to the hedge. By the time she found the opening through which her assailant had slipped, he had disappeared completely. Her curiosity about the Yealin family, however, was at an all-time high.
She glanced at her watch and sighed. She had chores to do at home, and some investigative work to do on her computer. Maybe a thorough search would provide clues to the identity of the delinquent who had pelted her.
As she walked up the driveway to her house, she saw her mother waving to her from what had once been the garage. Dr. Brennan was a veterinarian and her office was in the converted building. She had a small animal practice—dogs and cats, mostly—and was a veterinarian-on-call for a local wildlife rescue group which meant you never knew what kinds of animals you might find in the clinic on any given day.
“Hey, Mom.” Caroline poked her head inside the office door. Dr. Brennan was taping the hind leg of a rueful-looking cocker spaniel.
“Honey, I cleaned the kennels for you this morning. Consider it a ‘congratulations for graduating from sixth grade’ present. I do need for you to feed the critters, though.”
“Thanks, Mom. I’ll do it right now.” Feeding the patients was Caroline’s favorite chore. Cleaning the kennels was the worst. She’d definitely made out all right this morning. She glanced at the instruction list that her mother left every evening. Only three animals needed to be fed: two kittens and a rabbit that had been brought in by a wildlife protection volunteer. The cottontail had been found at the side of a road, apparently stunned by a car. Her mother had examined him and—miraculously—found no serious injuries. “A couple of days in the clinic will do him a world of good and then we can let him go.”
The kittens were adorable. A neighbor had found them underneath a pier and brought them to Caroline’s mother. A friend of Dr. Brennan had agreed to adopt them but she was on vacation for a couple of weeks and the kittens were going to live at the clinic in the meantime. One was black with white feet and the other was a gray-striped tabby. They had wide green eyes and mischief in their hearts. Caroline dangled a catnip mouse in front of them for a few minutes, laughing at their clumsy antics. Even though they weren’t hers she had named them Milo and Spud.
Then she remembered her earlier assault at the Yealin place. Someone had pelted her with something that morning and she meant to find out who it was.
“I’ll be in the house, Mom,” she called
“Thanks, Care. Do me a favor and see if Donny needs lunch, okay? And let Barkley out if he needs it. I’ll be finished here in an hour or so.”
Donny was, as usual, propped in front of the television. An empty bowl with the remains of cereal and milk was on the coffee table in front of him. His chubby brown legs were thrown over the back of the couch and his head was dangling off the seat, upside down.
“You hungry, Squirt?” Caroline asked.
“Uh uh,” he answered, not looking away from Nickelodeon.
Barkley, the family’s spoiled black Labrador retriever, was sleeping on his back in the laundry room, on a big, blue doggie pillow. He opened one eye when Caroline poked her head into the room, his thick tail wagging slowly. Otherwise, he didn’t move. She decided he didn’t need a thing at the moment.
She went into her room and closed the door. She shooed Mrs. Anderson, her calico cat, out of her desk chair, jiggled the mouse, and waited for her hibernating computer to awaken. She navigated to Google and typed
“judith yealin new york”.
Forty-five minutes later, Caroline knew quite a bit about the Yealin family. Mrs. Yealin was actually Dr. Yealin, a pediatrician at New York-Presbyterian Hospital. She had been born in Sarasota, a bit north of Bonita Key. James and Judith had one son, Alexander, who was almost exactly the same age as Caroline. She wasn’t sure if the family was moving permanently to Bonita Key or if the house was just to be a vacation home—she hadn’t found any information about that aspect of their lives. She was sure, however, that she hated Alexander.
She was even able to find a picture of the family, taken at a fundraising Christmas party several years earlier and posted on a charity’s web site. Dr. Yealin was beautiful—plump and elegant in a deep red gown. Mr. Yealin was tall and handsome, smiling as he looked down at her. Alexander looked like an obnoxious, snotty brat.
She wrote an email to Rachel and Hannah, sharing with them the information that she’d uncovered. She decided to walk back down to the Yealin place. This time she would be ready for the enemy.
She crossed the street and went down to the beach, deciding to approach the house from a different angle. The back side of the property had not been renovated as thoroughly as the front. The pier was still almost falling down into the Gulf and each wave seemed destined to be the one that finally caused its collapse. The tide was low and Caroline glanced down to see if there were any shells worth pocketing. Tiny coquina shells—they were most certainly not rare but she loved them just the same—created a colorful mosaic beneath her feet. Pink, purple, yellow—her father had offered her five dollars for a green one and she hadn’t been able to collect the bounty yet.
She turned left and began to approach the edge of the lawn. She crept slowly, glancing around to be sure that no one was observing her. The gazebo was right in front of her and she dashed over to it, ducking behind it for cover.
The voice almost made her jump out of her skin.
“I remember you from before.” It was a calm, matter-of-fact voice. A boy’s voice, not an unpleasant one, bearing no trace of an accent and only the slightest hint of interest.
She looked around but couldn’t figure out where he was, where the voice was coming from. He laughed, an easy, friendly laugh, and she glanced up. The gazebo was placed next to the tallest tree on the property, a gumbo limbo with papery peeling red bark. Stretched out on the long gentle slope of a branch of the tree was the boy. He looked older than the image in the photograph that Caroline had seen online, but she could tell that he was the same person. Alexander Yealin.
Despite her determined intentions, Caroline didn’t immediately dislike everything about him. Unfortunately, he was very nice looking. He was smiling at her in a friendly way, his dark eyes sparkling down at her from his open, almost innocent face. He had dark straight hair, cut short, and was wearing green swim trunks and a yellow t-shirt.
“You attacked me,” she tried to sound angry but her words came out in a more conversational tone than she had intended. She tried to glare up at him but the sun shining behind him made her squint and ruined the effect.
“Yeah, sorry about that. I was trying to get your attention and I guess I kind of…” his voice trailed away.
“Do you like living here?” he asked, apparently considering the previous line of questioning closed. “It seems pretty boring to me.”
Coming from anyone else, Caroline would have been offended. It was boring on Bonita Key, especially in the summertime, but she didn’t want some stranger making that accusation. When Alexander said it, however, it sounded like a purely innocent observation, carrying no malice.
“It’s kinda boring,” she grudgingly admitted. “How long have you been here?”
“Only a couple of days.” He swung his leg over the tree branch and hung there for a second, balancing his body and then grabbing the limb with his arms before letting go and dropping to the ground in front of her. He was a sturdy boy, a couple of inches taller than Caroline. He wasn’t tan like most of the kids she knew but he didn’t have the pale, sickly look that she imagined all New Yorkers wore either.
“Alex Yealin,” he said. He offered her his hand to shake, as though they were adults.
“I’m Caroline. Brennan.” She shook his hand shyly, not knowing exactly how to behave in front of this sophisticated creature.
“Want to explore?” he asked. “I can show you around this place and maybe you’ll show me the island?”
She didn’t know how to say anything but “yes” to his question. He seemed to be the kind of boy with whom you wanted to agree. He gave the impression of being so nice and so at ease that he made Caroline want to be nice as well. His manner put her at ease, too, and she realized with a start that she had been trespassing on his property with the intent of spying on him. Indeed, she had already spied on him using her computer. She suddenly felt a little guilty about that. Then she remembered that he’d assaulted her earlier and she felt better.
“Do you want to have lunch first?” he asked her. He turned without waiting for her answer and headed toward the house, assuming she would follow.
More later...
Thursday, March 29, 2012
I Cracked!!!
I couldn't take it anymore! I just drank an entire quart of orange juice and it was heaven!!! Today was day six of subsisting on rice and prunes (until the oj the only thing I'd eaten today was a small bowl of brown rice). I was eating NOTHING because after you eat prunes and rice for six days you'd rather be hungry than eat more of them! And for some reason, I was drinking very little as well. So I'm a bit dehydrated, which is another reason I dove in (that's my story and I'm stickin' to it!). I was going to add citrus tomorrow, so I went to the store, got four tangerines and a half gallon of juice (fresh squeezed! all Florida oranges!!) and could not wait.
I have had a reduction in symptoms, definitely. Tonight I walked down a flight of stairs like a normal person -- I haven't been able to do that in months (I just shuffle down, moving one foot down, then the other foot to the same step). So -- yes. I think my RA is affected/triggered by foods. Now I just have to figure out what foods! Citrus is kind of dangerous to begin with, because it's a likely trigger, but I wanted it SO MUCH. I am trusting in my Florida roots to keep me safe.
The other likely foods on my list are: wheat (as you know), corn, oats, tomatoes (eek!), potatoes (eek again!!), and nuts. And possibly chocolate. There are a lot of other foods on the list, but I don't eat them (dairy products are the number one suspect, for instance). SO -- we shall see.
I read an interesting article in Time magazine about the most religious states in America. Nothing very surprising; the top five are Mississippi, Utah, Alabama, Louisiana, and Arkansas. The least religious states are Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, Massachusetts, and Alaska. Obviously the religious states are conservative politically and the least religious states are not (except for Alaska -- but its pioneering existence may have a lot to do with that). As our country drifts away from God it gets more liberal -- that has been easy to see for a long time. So many of our policies go directly against God's word.
Sigh.
Not going to write about politics, really, but I just get sad sometimes when I think of where we ought to be and where we are. And how God judges nations that turn away from Him. He always has and He always will. We are asking for it.
Just finished reading Forks Over Knives edited by Gene Stone. The dvd is better, but the recipes look excellent (I've tried a couple). I think you have a pretty good shot when you collect recipes from a number of sources -- they all want to give you their best suggestions. I'm going to dive into this book when I get home.
I was wondering what to read next when I decided to give into temptation and read Emma, by Jane Austen. Emma was the first Austen book I ever read -- I was relatively young -- and I didn't get it, I am ashamed to say. Now I pick it up and am just enthralled and delighted from the very first page. I just love this book so much!
My class was teasing me on Monday for ridiculous rewards if they all passed their clinical exam today. I was ignoring them and one of them said, "Cake! If we all pass the test we should have cake!" I told them that if they passed I would buy them cake. So I had to go to the store tonight and buy a cream cheese cake and a chocolate cake (most of them wanted chocolate but some of them can't eat it; these are small-ish cakes and will serve eight). So I have these cakes sitting in my car and somehow I have to resist them. ;)
I told Ed tonight that I wanted to go out, get a HUGE bowl of pasta and LOTS of garlic bread, then just buy a can of chocolate frosting and eat it with a spoon!!! In comparison, a quart (okay, now it's a quart-and-a-half) of oj doesn't seem so bad!
I'm off to read.
More later...
I have had a reduction in symptoms, definitely. Tonight I walked down a flight of stairs like a normal person -- I haven't been able to do that in months (I just shuffle down, moving one foot down, then the other foot to the same step). So -- yes. I think my RA is affected/triggered by foods. Now I just have to figure out what foods! Citrus is kind of dangerous to begin with, because it's a likely trigger, but I wanted it SO MUCH. I am trusting in my Florida roots to keep me safe.
The other likely foods on my list are: wheat (as you know), corn, oats, tomatoes (eek!), potatoes (eek again!!), and nuts. And possibly chocolate. There are a lot of other foods on the list, but I don't eat them (dairy products are the number one suspect, for instance). SO -- we shall see.
I read an interesting article in Time magazine about the most religious states in America. Nothing very surprising; the top five are Mississippi, Utah, Alabama, Louisiana, and Arkansas. The least religious states are Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, Massachusetts, and Alaska. Obviously the religious states are conservative politically and the least religious states are not (except for Alaska -- but its pioneering existence may have a lot to do with that). As our country drifts away from God it gets more liberal -- that has been easy to see for a long time. So many of our policies go directly against God's word.
Sigh.
Not going to write about politics, really, but I just get sad sometimes when I think of where we ought to be and where we are. And how God judges nations that turn away from Him. He always has and He always will. We are asking for it.
Just finished reading Forks Over Knives edited by Gene Stone. The dvd is better, but the recipes look excellent (I've tried a couple). I think you have a pretty good shot when you collect recipes from a number of sources -- they all want to give you their best suggestions. I'm going to dive into this book when I get home.
I was wondering what to read next when I decided to give into temptation and read Emma, by Jane Austen. Emma was the first Austen book I ever read -- I was relatively young -- and I didn't get it, I am ashamed to say. Now I pick it up and am just enthralled and delighted from the very first page. I just love this book so much!
My class was teasing me on Monday for ridiculous rewards if they all passed their clinical exam today. I was ignoring them and one of them said, "Cake! If we all pass the test we should have cake!" I told them that if they passed I would buy them cake. So I had to go to the store tonight and buy a cream cheese cake and a chocolate cake (most of them wanted chocolate but some of them can't eat it; these are small-ish cakes and will serve eight). So I have these cakes sitting in my car and somehow I have to resist them. ;)
I told Ed tonight that I wanted to go out, get a HUGE bowl of pasta and LOTS of garlic bread, then just buy a can of chocolate frosting and eat it with a spoon!!! In comparison, a quart (okay, now it's a quart-and-a-half) of oj doesn't seem so bad!
I'm off to read.
More later...
Chapter Two
Thanks for the feedback on chapter one. I have completely finished (I think/hope) with eleven chapters and have started chapter twelve (there are fifteen in all and I have them laid out but not written). I hope I'll have it finished when you guys are done with eleven! Anyway, here is chapter two...
“Caroline, what is the volume of a rectangular prism with the dimensions 8 centimeters by 2 centimeters by 1 centimeter?”
They were having a math bee in Mr. Katz’s class. Math was Caroline’s favorite subject, partly because Mr. Katz was Caroline’s favorite teacher. Today, though, she was distracted.
“Caroline, do you need to have me repeat the question?” Mr. Katz leaned over and thonked the top of her head with the eraser end of his pencil.
“I’m sorry, Mr. Katz. Yes, would you repeat the question, please?”
This time she listened, gave the correct answer (“sixteen cubic centimeters”), and sank back into her daydream. She was picturing what the Benson place would look like once it was fixed up, trying to imagine who might have bought it. She was too much of an optimist to dwell for long on the idea that it would be a boring elderly couple. There was a chance—maybe a small chance, but still a chance—that someone interesting might move in.
A movie star, maybe. And she’d hire Caroline to babysit for her two adorable children and they’d become close personal friends and she would jet Caroline off to exotic places like Hollywood or Paris because she couldn’t manage without her. Or a famous author who would listen to and be inspired by Caroline’s imaginative stories and would put them into her next novel which would, of course, be dedicated to her. Maybe an artist who would take Caroline under her wing and discover that she had great, untapped abilities that would change the face of the art world forever. Or—
“Caroline, where are you today?”
“What?” She looked up into Mr. Katz’s sparkling eyes. He laughed at her in a last-day-of-school kind of way.
“What is the next prime number after 19?”
“Oh, I’m sorry, Mr. Katz. Um…23?”
“That’s right! Kids, it looks like we have a five-way tie. If you’d all like to come back tomorrow we can see who the winner will be—”
Mr. Katz was drowned out by a chorus of groans and shouts of “NO-O-O-O!” He laughed, wished them all a wonderful summer, and looked back at Caroline as she gathered her notebook and papers.
“What’s got you so spacey today, Caroline?”
“Did you know that someone bought the old Benson place, Mr. Katz?”
“Yeah, I did hear something about that yesterday. A lawyer or a doctor or something like that. From New York City. Rumor has it that there’s a kid in the picture.”
“A kid? What age? Boy or girl?” Caroline was a little disappointed that it wasn’t someone famous and exciting, but a girl her age might be an acceptable consolation prize.
“Don’t know, kiddo. I was hoping you had some news for me about it.”
Caroline sighed. “I’ll let you know if I hear anything. See you later, Mr. Katz!”
Outside the classroom Caroline was enveloped in the bittersweet euphoria that always permeates the last day of school. Students and teachers, excited about the upcoming vacation but a little sad that some relationships would be ending as eighth graders graduated to the high school. Rachel and Hannah rushed around making sure they had up-to-date email addresses and phone numbers, promising to stay in touch with everybody over the summer. So despite her best efforts to the contrary, Caroline felt her bad mood slip away and she found herself getting swept up in the final-day excitement along with everyone else.
By the time she got home from school she was almost fit to be around decent folk, as her grandmother would say. She was about to walk down to the old Benson place when the phone rang. It was Hannah.
“Caroline, we’re not leaving ‘til day after tomorrow and Mami says you can spend the night tonight. Will your mother let you? Mami’s making ropa vieja.” Hannah knew that Caroline couldn’t resist her mother’s Cuban cooking.
“Oh, cool! I’ll ask her but I’m sure she’ll say it’s fine. I’m not going to see you guys all summer, after all. I’ll be over in an hour, okay?”
And exactly sixty minutes later Caroline stood in front of the Delgado’s bright green kitchen door. She’d barely finished knocking when the door flew open and she was almost knocked over by Rafael, Rachel and Hannah’s little brother. “Hey, Felo, watch where you’re going!”
“Sorry Caroline, Donny’s waiting…” and Rafael, or Felo as everyone called him, disappeared around the corner of the house on his way to spend the night with Caroline’s younger brother.
She heard laughter coming from the Delgado kitchen and suddenly she was aware of the most delicious aromas emanating from inside the house. She followed her nose and ducked inside, her mouth watering in anticipation.
Hannah was sitting at the kitchen table, tearing lettuce leaves into a large red salad bowl. Mrs. Delgado was standing at the stove, laughing at one of Hannah’s stories. She was a pretty, vivacious woman with flawless skin, dark hair, and sparkling eyes. Caroline couldn’t remember ever seeing her without a smile on her face.
The Delgado kitchen was one of Caroline’s favorite places in all the world. The pale yellow walls were set off beautifully by dark green countertops and a green granite backsplash. Large brightly colored tiles with designs of vegetables and fruits were hung on the walls just below the ceiling and there was a large, framed chalkboard over the table that was always filled with quotes and jokes and more practical things like grocery lists and messages to and from family members. Today, scrawled across the top of the board in dark blue chalk were the words, “A mi me llama el golpe del oceano…Pablo Neruda.” Underneath the words were drawn green and blue and white-capped waves, a yellow chalk sun shone from the corner of the board, and seagulls soared down its sides. The kitchen was a place that felt like happiness to Caroline—and it didn’t hurt any that Mrs. Delgado loved to cook and was very, very good at it.
“Oh, Mrs. Delgado—ropa vieja! Thank you, thank you, thank you!” It was Caroline’s favorite Cuban dish. She loved everything about it, beginning with its name: “old clothes,” so called because the beef is cooked in a tomato-y sauce until it is so tender that it falls apart in shreds, like rags.
Mrs. Delgado smiled. “Ropa vieja, arroz, ensalada, y torticas de moron.” Laughing at Caroline’s blank expression she explained, “Ropa vieja, rice, salad, and sugar cookies. I’m making two batches of the cookies to leave here for Mr. Delgado. I think he misses those over the summer more than he misses us!”
“You have a new quote on your blackboard,” Caroline noted. “A mi me llama…,” she said the words slowly. “I call me?”
“Pretty close—but it’s llama not llamo. It means ‘The beat of the ocean calls me to myself.’ I want you to sign up for Spanish next year!” Mrs. Delgado was always recruiting.
The evening was filled with good food and laughter, games of dominos and Apples to Apples, and it wasn’t until the girls were getting ready for bed that Caroline remembered the mysterious new neighbors. “Mrs. Delgado, did you know that someone bought the old Benson place?”
“Yes, I heard that. I’ve seen workmen down there, too. Do you know anything about the new owners?”
Caroline sighed. “Not much. A lawyer or a doctor or something. Maybe a kid. But that’s all I know. Do you think I could find something out online?”
Mrs. Delgado thought for a moment. “I wonder if real estate transactions are posted somewhere. Hmm. Well, I suppose we’ll all know soon enough. Girls, you need to think about bedtime. Buenas noches, chicas.”
Caroline had other ideas. As Rachel closed the door to the twins’ bedroom, Caroline asked, “Can I use your computer for a sec?” She sat down at the keyboard and began typing without waiting for an answer.
Hannah sat down in the chair next to her. Her shiny black hair was tied up in a ponytail, secured by a lavender ribbon and two crystal clips. As Caroline typed she glanced over at Hannah and was struck once again by how pretty she was. She had smooth, tan skin and big green eyes, with delicate features and even white teeth. Rachel and Hannah were not identical twins; Rachel’s hair was dark brown and wavy. She was shorter than Hannah, too, but had the same pretty smile and upturned nose.
“What are you doing, Care?”
“Your mom gave me an idea.” Caroline Googled
real estate transactions bonita key
and hit “Enter.” Lots of entries came up, mostly web sites for different real estate agents trying to sell houses and condominiums on the island. Nothing looked promising.
“Hmm. What else could I look under? Maybe the county?” She typed
real estate transactions harper county.
The first entry was from the local newspaper. The Google blurb read
Harper County real estate transactions, week of April 14.
Caroline moved the cursor over the entry and hit “Enter.”
A long list of dates appeared, stretching back to January of that year. The dates were a week apart; each link must cover an entire week’s transactions, she figured. She picked the latest date and clicked on it.
A short list appeared. For each entry there appeared information about the sale including the address of the property, the date of the transaction, the seller, the buyer, and the price. She started looking at each listing. There was nothing about the Benson place in any of the May notices. Nothing in April.
“Girls—lights out!” Mrs. Delgado called through the closed door.
“Okay, Mom—we’re almost ready. Five minutes, okay?” Rachel called.
Caroline clicked on the last week of March. Nothing. The next-to-the-last week.
“This looks interesting!”
Three heads converged in front of the computer screen. On March 22, Gerard Benson sold 9435 Manatee Court to James and Judith Yealin of New York City, NY.
“James and Judith Yealin. They sound nice,” Hannah suggested.
“How do they sound nice? You’re so goofy sometimes, Hannah,” Rachel sniffed.
“Chill, you two. Let me see what I can find out about them,” Caroline was already back to the Google screen.
james yealin new york
Dozens of responses were returned. Caroline scrolled down until she saw one for an article that appeared to have been reprinted from a New York newspaper. She clicked on the link and the following headline appeared on her screen.
Law Firm of Jarvis, Ballentine, and Yealin to Handle Merger
The opening paragraph contained a quote from a senior partner, James Yealin, about an international merger of extraordinary size and complexity. Caroline started to read the article but her eyes glazed over by the third sentence.
“Well, he’s a lawyer, all right. And not an interesting one, either. I thought maybe he’d defend mob bosses or environmental polluters or something exciting,” Caroline sighed.
“You thought he’d defend mob bosses and polluters?” Hannah was shocked.
“Oh, come on, Hannah—it’s so boring around here. It’d be kind of exciting if they held parties and invited actual criminals to come to them!” Caroline was getting a little carried away. “There’d have to be armed security guards posted at the front gate and on the roof of the house, just in case the enemies of his clients tried to take them out. And we’d constantly be awakened in the middle of the night to sounds of gunfire when the parties got out of hand!”
“Oh, I hope not,” Hannah hugged herself and shivered a little.
“Hannah,” Rachel patiently explained. “He’s not that kind of lawyer, remember?”
“Oh, right,” Hannah smiled a little sheepishly. “Well, I’m glad he’s not that kind of lawyer. And I still think they sound nice,” she added a little defensively.
A sharp knock on the door interrupted their discussion. “It’s been more than five minutes, girls! Lights out! Ahora mismo.”
Caroline logged off quickly. “Oh poop—I wanted to look up Mrs. Yealin. It’s always possible that she’s interesting. Guess I’ll have to wait until tomorrow. Maybe she’s a CIA agent or a Broadway star or an ambassador or something!”
More later...
“Caroline, what is the volume of a rectangular prism with the dimensions 8 centimeters by 2 centimeters by 1 centimeter?”
They were having a math bee in Mr. Katz’s class. Math was Caroline’s favorite subject, partly because Mr. Katz was Caroline’s favorite teacher. Today, though, she was distracted.
“Caroline, do you need to have me repeat the question?” Mr. Katz leaned over and thonked the top of her head with the eraser end of his pencil.
“I’m sorry, Mr. Katz. Yes, would you repeat the question, please?”
This time she listened, gave the correct answer (“sixteen cubic centimeters”), and sank back into her daydream. She was picturing what the Benson place would look like once it was fixed up, trying to imagine who might have bought it. She was too much of an optimist to dwell for long on the idea that it would be a boring elderly couple. There was a chance—maybe a small chance, but still a chance—that someone interesting might move in.
A movie star, maybe. And she’d hire Caroline to babysit for her two adorable children and they’d become close personal friends and she would jet Caroline off to exotic places like Hollywood or Paris because she couldn’t manage without her. Or a famous author who would listen to and be inspired by Caroline’s imaginative stories and would put them into her next novel which would, of course, be dedicated to her. Maybe an artist who would take Caroline under her wing and discover that she had great, untapped abilities that would change the face of the art world forever. Or—
“Caroline, where are you today?”
“What?” She looked up into Mr. Katz’s sparkling eyes. He laughed at her in a last-day-of-school kind of way.
“What is the next prime number after 19?”
“Oh, I’m sorry, Mr. Katz. Um…23?”
“That’s right! Kids, it looks like we have a five-way tie. If you’d all like to come back tomorrow we can see who the winner will be—”
Mr. Katz was drowned out by a chorus of groans and shouts of “NO-O-O-O!” He laughed, wished them all a wonderful summer, and looked back at Caroline as she gathered her notebook and papers.
“What’s got you so spacey today, Caroline?”
“Did you know that someone bought the old Benson place, Mr. Katz?”
“Yeah, I did hear something about that yesterday. A lawyer or a doctor or something like that. From New York City. Rumor has it that there’s a kid in the picture.”
“A kid? What age? Boy or girl?” Caroline was a little disappointed that it wasn’t someone famous and exciting, but a girl her age might be an acceptable consolation prize.
“Don’t know, kiddo. I was hoping you had some news for me about it.”
Caroline sighed. “I’ll let you know if I hear anything. See you later, Mr. Katz!”
Outside the classroom Caroline was enveloped in the bittersweet euphoria that always permeates the last day of school. Students and teachers, excited about the upcoming vacation but a little sad that some relationships would be ending as eighth graders graduated to the high school. Rachel and Hannah rushed around making sure they had up-to-date email addresses and phone numbers, promising to stay in touch with everybody over the summer. So despite her best efforts to the contrary, Caroline felt her bad mood slip away and she found herself getting swept up in the final-day excitement along with everyone else.
By the time she got home from school she was almost fit to be around decent folk, as her grandmother would say. She was about to walk down to the old Benson place when the phone rang. It was Hannah.
“Caroline, we’re not leaving ‘til day after tomorrow and Mami says you can spend the night tonight. Will your mother let you? Mami’s making ropa vieja.” Hannah knew that Caroline couldn’t resist her mother’s Cuban cooking.
“Oh, cool! I’ll ask her but I’m sure she’ll say it’s fine. I’m not going to see you guys all summer, after all. I’ll be over in an hour, okay?”
And exactly sixty minutes later Caroline stood in front of the Delgado’s bright green kitchen door. She’d barely finished knocking when the door flew open and she was almost knocked over by Rafael, Rachel and Hannah’s little brother. “Hey, Felo, watch where you’re going!”
“Sorry Caroline, Donny’s waiting…” and Rafael, or Felo as everyone called him, disappeared around the corner of the house on his way to spend the night with Caroline’s younger brother.
She heard laughter coming from the Delgado kitchen and suddenly she was aware of the most delicious aromas emanating from inside the house. She followed her nose and ducked inside, her mouth watering in anticipation.
Hannah was sitting at the kitchen table, tearing lettuce leaves into a large red salad bowl. Mrs. Delgado was standing at the stove, laughing at one of Hannah’s stories. She was a pretty, vivacious woman with flawless skin, dark hair, and sparkling eyes. Caroline couldn’t remember ever seeing her without a smile on her face.
The Delgado kitchen was one of Caroline’s favorite places in all the world. The pale yellow walls were set off beautifully by dark green countertops and a green granite backsplash. Large brightly colored tiles with designs of vegetables and fruits were hung on the walls just below the ceiling and there was a large, framed chalkboard over the table that was always filled with quotes and jokes and more practical things like grocery lists and messages to and from family members. Today, scrawled across the top of the board in dark blue chalk were the words, “A mi me llama el golpe del oceano…Pablo Neruda.” Underneath the words were drawn green and blue and white-capped waves, a yellow chalk sun shone from the corner of the board, and seagulls soared down its sides. The kitchen was a place that felt like happiness to Caroline—and it didn’t hurt any that Mrs. Delgado loved to cook and was very, very good at it.
“Oh, Mrs. Delgado—ropa vieja! Thank you, thank you, thank you!” It was Caroline’s favorite Cuban dish. She loved everything about it, beginning with its name: “old clothes,” so called because the beef is cooked in a tomato-y sauce until it is so tender that it falls apart in shreds, like rags.
Mrs. Delgado smiled. “Ropa vieja, arroz, ensalada, y torticas de moron.” Laughing at Caroline’s blank expression she explained, “Ropa vieja, rice, salad, and sugar cookies. I’m making two batches of the cookies to leave here for Mr. Delgado. I think he misses those over the summer more than he misses us!”
“You have a new quote on your blackboard,” Caroline noted. “A mi me llama…,” she said the words slowly. “I call me?”
“Pretty close—but it’s llama not llamo. It means ‘The beat of the ocean calls me to myself.’ I want you to sign up for Spanish next year!” Mrs. Delgado was always recruiting.
The evening was filled with good food and laughter, games of dominos and Apples to Apples, and it wasn’t until the girls were getting ready for bed that Caroline remembered the mysterious new neighbors. “Mrs. Delgado, did you know that someone bought the old Benson place?”
“Yes, I heard that. I’ve seen workmen down there, too. Do you know anything about the new owners?”
Caroline sighed. “Not much. A lawyer or a doctor or something. Maybe a kid. But that’s all I know. Do you think I could find something out online?”
Mrs. Delgado thought for a moment. “I wonder if real estate transactions are posted somewhere. Hmm. Well, I suppose we’ll all know soon enough. Girls, you need to think about bedtime. Buenas noches, chicas.”
Caroline had other ideas. As Rachel closed the door to the twins’ bedroom, Caroline asked, “Can I use your computer for a sec?” She sat down at the keyboard and began typing without waiting for an answer.
Hannah sat down in the chair next to her. Her shiny black hair was tied up in a ponytail, secured by a lavender ribbon and two crystal clips. As Caroline typed she glanced over at Hannah and was struck once again by how pretty she was. She had smooth, tan skin and big green eyes, with delicate features and even white teeth. Rachel and Hannah were not identical twins; Rachel’s hair was dark brown and wavy. She was shorter than Hannah, too, but had the same pretty smile and upturned nose.
“What are you doing, Care?”
“Your mom gave me an idea.” Caroline Googled
real estate transactions bonita key
and hit “Enter.” Lots of entries came up, mostly web sites for different real estate agents trying to sell houses and condominiums on the island. Nothing looked promising.
“Hmm. What else could I look under? Maybe the county?” She typed
real estate transactions harper county.
The first entry was from the local newspaper. The Google blurb read
Harper County real estate transactions, week of April 14.
Caroline moved the cursor over the entry and hit “Enter.”
A long list of dates appeared, stretching back to January of that year. The dates were a week apart; each link must cover an entire week’s transactions, she figured. She picked the latest date and clicked on it.
A short list appeared. For each entry there appeared information about the sale including the address of the property, the date of the transaction, the seller, the buyer, and the price. She started looking at each listing. There was nothing about the Benson place in any of the May notices. Nothing in April.
“Girls—lights out!” Mrs. Delgado called through the closed door.
“Okay, Mom—we’re almost ready. Five minutes, okay?” Rachel called.
Caroline clicked on the last week of March. Nothing. The next-to-the-last week.
“This looks interesting!”
Three heads converged in front of the computer screen. On March 22, Gerard Benson sold 9435 Manatee Court to James and Judith Yealin of New York City, NY.
“James and Judith Yealin. They sound nice,” Hannah suggested.
“How do they sound nice? You’re so goofy sometimes, Hannah,” Rachel sniffed.
“Chill, you two. Let me see what I can find out about them,” Caroline was already back to the Google screen.
james yealin new york
Dozens of responses were returned. Caroline scrolled down until she saw one for an article that appeared to have been reprinted from a New York newspaper. She clicked on the link and the following headline appeared on her screen.
Law Firm of Jarvis, Ballentine, and Yealin to Handle Merger
The opening paragraph contained a quote from a senior partner, James Yealin, about an international merger of extraordinary size and complexity. Caroline started to read the article but her eyes glazed over by the third sentence.
“Well, he’s a lawyer, all right. And not an interesting one, either. I thought maybe he’d defend mob bosses or environmental polluters or something exciting,” Caroline sighed.
“You thought he’d defend mob bosses and polluters?” Hannah was shocked.
“Oh, come on, Hannah—it’s so boring around here. It’d be kind of exciting if they held parties and invited actual criminals to come to them!” Caroline was getting a little carried away. “There’d have to be armed security guards posted at the front gate and on the roof of the house, just in case the enemies of his clients tried to take them out. And we’d constantly be awakened in the middle of the night to sounds of gunfire when the parties got out of hand!”
“Oh, I hope not,” Hannah hugged herself and shivered a little.
“Hannah,” Rachel patiently explained. “He’s not that kind of lawyer, remember?”
“Oh, right,” Hannah smiled a little sheepishly. “Well, I’m glad he’s not that kind of lawyer. And I still think they sound nice,” she added a little defensively.
A sharp knock on the door interrupted their discussion. “It’s been more than five minutes, girls! Lights out! Ahora mismo.”
Caroline logged off quickly. “Oh poop—I wanted to look up Mrs. Yealin. It’s always possible that she’s interesting. Guess I’ll have to wait until tomorrow. Maybe she’s a CIA agent or a Broadway star or an ambassador or something!”
More later...
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
Not REALLY a Setback
I've decided that today isn't really a setback. I WANT to have reactions so I can find out what's causing them. Of course, what if my RA isn't affected by food at all and today is just a coincidence -- caused by something else, but just happened to come the day after I ate new foods? Still, I think there is something to the food aspect, because yesterday I was better than I've been in a long time. Anyway -- I'm sticking to rice and prunes for the time being.
I have a favor to ask. Most of you have read this already, so it's a BIG favor. I've been working hard on Caroline Online and would appreciate it if I had other sets of eyes looking at it. If I post a chapter at a time, would you all read it over and see if there are any problems, inconsistencies, suggestions to make it better?
The biggest thing is that I changed some names (and in the case of Caroline's younger sibling, I changed his gender). Caroline's older brother was Ben and I changed his name to Kael. Word has this "Replace" function, so I replaced all the Bens with Kaels. The only problem with that is that the word "bench" becomes "Kaelch" and "beneath" is now "Kaeleath." I think I've caught all of them, of course, but having someone else look at it will be helpful. I also made her little sister a little brother, and that involves changing she's to he's and her/his "princess costume" to a "Woody costume."
I changed a couple more names, too, so if you notice any inconsistencies, I would appreciate you pointing them out. Anything at all. If you read something and it doesn't make sense, I'd appreciate knowing. I am NOT very sensitive about this -- mostly because I actually think it's kind of good, but I know it could be better. So let me have it!!!
With that said, here is chapter one:
“C’mon Caroline—cheer up! It’s the last day of school,” Rachel pleaded with her friend. But the last day of school was precisely the reason for Caroline’s grumpy mood. The girls were standing at the school bus stop, Caroline Brennan slouching against a tall palm tree and glaring at the world around her.
She knew she looked totally pathetic. Her normally wavy blonde hair was inexplicably straight this morning, as if the effort to bend even the slightest bit was too much for it. There were circles under her brown eyes and she knew her expression was one of despair. She was wearing an ill-fitting pair of jeans shorts and a muddy-colored t-shirt that didn’t do much for her on a good day. She reasoned that she could afford this look for about fifteen more minutes. She’d have to perk things up a bit before arriving at school or she’d run the risk of scaring everybody and having no one at all call her over the summer. Considering her gloomy mood, however, it was the perfect look for the bus stop.
“Rach, you have no idea how boring it is around here during the summer. You get to go away—you spend your summers surrounded by eight million of your closest relatives. I spend mine cleaning out kennels at the animal clinic, babysitting Donny, and watching Cartoon Network. By the end of June I’m practically looking forward to Mr. Katz’s math tests. Desolation. That’s my life during the summer. Desolation.”
Rachel and Hannah Delgado, twin sisters and Caroline’s best friends, lived two doors down from the Brennan house. During the school year the three girls were inseparable, but as soon as summer vacation began Rachel, Hannah, their little brother Rafael, and Mrs. Delgado, the Spanish teacher at the high school, headed to Miami to spend the summer with their Cuban relatives. It sounded like Paradise to Caroline, who had visions of guava pastries, salsa music, and pink and turquoise houses.
“We’ll email you every day, Caroline.” Tenderhearted Hannah couldn’t bear to see her friend unhappy. “Twice a day, I promise. Maybe you can come and visit. You could drive down with Papi one weekend when he comes, and maybe you could stay for a week or two!”
“Maybe,” Caroline sighed. Her mother had, in fact, suggested that very thing the night before as Caroline complained to her about the desert that was her social life over the summer. Right this minute, though, she didn’t want the possibility of good news taking the edge off her despair.
Caroline lived on Bonita Key, a small island off the southwest coast of Florida. She was finishing her first year at the Bonita Point Middle School. The school was on the mainland and the girls rode the bus to their classes every day. For nine months of the year Caroline often stayed in town after school for club meetings or to hang out with friends at their homes or at the local community center or the mall. And Rachel and Hannah lived so close by that she never lacked for companionship. When summer came, however, she felt stranded. Her friends would come over occasionally to go to the beautiful island beaches and she was sometimes invited to go to the movies or spend the night with different girls, but most of the time she was alone on her island prison.
Of course, Caroline knew that she was blessed. Bonita Key was a beautiful place—a small island with the Gulf of Mexico on one side and Bonita Bay on the other. White sand, palm trees, beautiful shells, wildlife—people paid lots of money to spend their vacations there every year. But it is possible to be lonely in a beautiful place and Caroline often felt abandoned by her friends when the school bus stopped running. So right now she was indulging in anticipated misery—“borrowing trouble,” her grandmother would have said. Rachel’s gasp interrupted her dark thoughts.
“There’s Kael!” Rachel waved excitedly, a blush coloring her pretty face. She tossed her long dark hair as she turned to wave. Her blue eyes sparkled as a beat-up red Honda Civic rumbled by. Kael coolly tapped on the horn and touched the bill of his baseball cap as he passed. He was Caroline’s older brother, on his way to Bonita Point High School. His car, dubbed “The Tomato” by their father, rounded the corner and disappeared with a clatter and a puff of exhaust.
“Caroline, do you think I could email Kael this summer? Would he mind? Do you think he’d email me back?” Rachel’s crush on Kael had existed for as long as Caroline could remember. She’d figured that Rachel would outgrow it but it seemed to be getting worse and it got on her nerves. Kael pretended to be oblivious but Caroline suspected that he actually enjoyed being the object of Rachel’s devotion. The whole thing kind of freaked her out.
“Yeah, sure, whatever.” Caroline just couldn’t see it. Kael was an okay older brother, if you had to have such a thing. But a boyfriend? She gave an involuntary shudder at the very idea and tried to keep from rolling her eyes. “You have his email address, right? MarineMan-something.” Kael had a part-time job at the local salt water aquarium and was planning to study marine biology in college.
Rachel fumbled with her notebook, scrambling to find a pen. She finally gave up. “Oh, it doesn’t matter. I’ll remember it and if I don’t you’ll just email it to me, right? MarineMan…0131? That’s his birthday, isn’t it? On Gmail? Oh—here’s the bus!”
Hannah leaned over to pick up Caroline’s backpack. “Really, Care—I’ll email you all the time. It’ll be like we never left.”
Caroline forced herself to smile. As much as she was savoring her bad mood she didn’t want Hannah worrying about her all summer. “Oh, I’ll be fine. I’ll email you, too—regular reports from Camp Desolate. All the news that’s fit to email—like anything ever happens around here. You don’t mind emails filled with weather reports and what I had for dinner, right? ‘Sun. Hot. Afternoon rain. Meatloaf.’”
As the girls took seats behind the driver, old Mr. Maits glanced back at them. “You girls hear about the new folks? Rumor is that the Benson place has been bought by some New Yorkers who want to spend their vacations here.”
“Who are they, Mr. Maits?” asked Hannah.
“Well, now, you know everything I do, Hannah Banana.” Mr. Maits had called her that since the girls were in kindergarten. “I was hoping y’all would have some news for me.”
Caroline tried to act interested. “Just what this place needs,” she thought. “Another batch of old folks spending their holidays down south.” Aloud she said, “We’ll ask around at school today, Mr. Maits. I’ll bet somebody knows something good.”
It would be nice to see the old Benson place all fixed up, she admitted. Both of the Bensons had died before Caroline was even born and the house had been empty since their deaths. Their only heir, a distant cousin, seemed to have no interest in the house, either to live in it or to sell it. So for years it remained empty, the formerly beautiful, manicured lawns and gardens turning wild and overgrown, the paint peeling from the once-stately walls. One by one the windows had been broken out and boarded over. The palm trees were laden with old, dead fronds. The place was a mess, with an air of sadness and mystery surrounding it.
The stories that Caroline’s mother told of parties and dances held on the Benson grounds were almost impossible to believe. Bright colored lanterns and tiki torches blazing, live music, fresh oysters and crab boils—according to her mother’s accounts the Benson parties were the highlights of the social season each year on the key.
The house was on Caroline’s street, Manatee Court. Its backyard stretched out to a private beach, marred now by a rotting pier and a ramshackle gazebo. You could barely see the house from either the street or the beach because it was set so far back and because of the tangle of vines and overgrown brush around it. It might be okay, Caroline allowed, to watch while the house emerged from the jungle, even if its inhabitants were of no interest to her.
Sure enough, as the bus lumbered down the street Caroline caught a glimpse of some panel trucks and vans parked along the driveway of the Benson place. She could see a man in a cherry picker trimming old fronds from the palm trees that lined the drive and she thought she could see some workmen on the roof as well. The windows seemed to have been replaced, too.
“How long has this stuff been going on?” she wondered. Right under her nose and she was clueless about it! Well, as soon as she got home from school today she’d wander down and see whatever there was to see. For now, though, she had less than ten minutes to do something about her hair, the circles under her eyes, and her general attitude toward the world.
“Hannah, can I borrow some makeup?” Caroline’s mother didn’t approve of her wearing makeup, but now and then she figured it was an absolute emergency. Today certainly qualified. Hannah and Rachel were allowed to wear lip gloss and mascara and blush and Caroline used Hannah’s stash as her distress supply. Yet another reason why she hated spending her summers alone—she had to spend ten weeks looking like a child instead of the practically-a-teenager that she actually was.
Seven minutes later, her hair in a ponytail and her outlook fortified with lip gloss, blush, and a determined attitude (Mr. Maits had seemed intent on hitting every pothole in the road this morning so Caroline had wisely decided to forego the mascara), she clambered down the steps of the bus, squared her shoulders, took a deep breath, and marched into Bonita Point Middle School for the final day of sixth grade.
More later...
I have a favor to ask. Most of you have read this already, so it's a BIG favor. I've been working hard on Caroline Online and would appreciate it if I had other sets of eyes looking at it. If I post a chapter at a time, would you all read it over and see if there are any problems, inconsistencies, suggestions to make it better?
The biggest thing is that I changed some names (and in the case of Caroline's younger sibling, I changed his gender). Caroline's older brother was Ben and I changed his name to Kael. Word has this "Replace" function, so I replaced all the Bens with Kaels. The only problem with that is that the word "bench" becomes "Kaelch" and "beneath" is now "Kaeleath." I think I've caught all of them, of course, but having someone else look at it will be helpful. I also made her little sister a little brother, and that involves changing she's to he's and her/his "princess costume" to a "Woody costume."
I changed a couple more names, too, so if you notice any inconsistencies, I would appreciate you pointing them out. Anything at all. If you read something and it doesn't make sense, I'd appreciate knowing. I am NOT very sensitive about this -- mostly because I actually think it's kind of good, but I know it could be better. So let me have it!!!
With that said, here is chapter one:
“C’mon Caroline—cheer up! It’s the last day of school,” Rachel pleaded with her friend. But the last day of school was precisely the reason for Caroline’s grumpy mood. The girls were standing at the school bus stop, Caroline Brennan slouching against a tall palm tree and glaring at the world around her.
She knew she looked totally pathetic. Her normally wavy blonde hair was inexplicably straight this morning, as if the effort to bend even the slightest bit was too much for it. There were circles under her brown eyes and she knew her expression was one of despair. She was wearing an ill-fitting pair of jeans shorts and a muddy-colored t-shirt that didn’t do much for her on a good day. She reasoned that she could afford this look for about fifteen more minutes. She’d have to perk things up a bit before arriving at school or she’d run the risk of scaring everybody and having no one at all call her over the summer. Considering her gloomy mood, however, it was the perfect look for the bus stop.
“Rach, you have no idea how boring it is around here during the summer. You get to go away—you spend your summers surrounded by eight million of your closest relatives. I spend mine cleaning out kennels at the animal clinic, babysitting Donny, and watching Cartoon Network. By the end of June I’m practically looking forward to Mr. Katz’s math tests. Desolation. That’s my life during the summer. Desolation.”
Rachel and Hannah Delgado, twin sisters and Caroline’s best friends, lived two doors down from the Brennan house. During the school year the three girls were inseparable, but as soon as summer vacation began Rachel, Hannah, their little brother Rafael, and Mrs. Delgado, the Spanish teacher at the high school, headed to Miami to spend the summer with their Cuban relatives. It sounded like Paradise to Caroline, who had visions of guava pastries, salsa music, and pink and turquoise houses.
“We’ll email you every day, Caroline.” Tenderhearted Hannah couldn’t bear to see her friend unhappy. “Twice a day, I promise. Maybe you can come and visit. You could drive down with Papi one weekend when he comes, and maybe you could stay for a week or two!”
“Maybe,” Caroline sighed. Her mother had, in fact, suggested that very thing the night before as Caroline complained to her about the desert that was her social life over the summer. Right this minute, though, she didn’t want the possibility of good news taking the edge off her despair.
Caroline lived on Bonita Key, a small island off the southwest coast of Florida. She was finishing her first year at the Bonita Point Middle School. The school was on the mainland and the girls rode the bus to their classes every day. For nine months of the year Caroline often stayed in town after school for club meetings or to hang out with friends at their homes or at the local community center or the mall. And Rachel and Hannah lived so close by that she never lacked for companionship. When summer came, however, she felt stranded. Her friends would come over occasionally to go to the beautiful island beaches and she was sometimes invited to go to the movies or spend the night with different girls, but most of the time she was alone on her island prison.
Of course, Caroline knew that she was blessed. Bonita Key was a beautiful place—a small island with the Gulf of Mexico on one side and Bonita Bay on the other. White sand, palm trees, beautiful shells, wildlife—people paid lots of money to spend their vacations there every year. But it is possible to be lonely in a beautiful place and Caroline often felt abandoned by her friends when the school bus stopped running. So right now she was indulging in anticipated misery—“borrowing trouble,” her grandmother would have said. Rachel’s gasp interrupted her dark thoughts.
“There’s Kael!” Rachel waved excitedly, a blush coloring her pretty face. She tossed her long dark hair as she turned to wave. Her blue eyes sparkled as a beat-up red Honda Civic rumbled by. Kael coolly tapped on the horn and touched the bill of his baseball cap as he passed. He was Caroline’s older brother, on his way to Bonita Point High School. His car, dubbed “The Tomato” by their father, rounded the corner and disappeared with a clatter and a puff of exhaust.
“Caroline, do you think I could email Kael this summer? Would he mind? Do you think he’d email me back?” Rachel’s crush on Kael had existed for as long as Caroline could remember. She’d figured that Rachel would outgrow it but it seemed to be getting worse and it got on her nerves. Kael pretended to be oblivious but Caroline suspected that he actually enjoyed being the object of Rachel’s devotion. The whole thing kind of freaked her out.
“Yeah, sure, whatever.” Caroline just couldn’t see it. Kael was an okay older brother, if you had to have such a thing. But a boyfriend? She gave an involuntary shudder at the very idea and tried to keep from rolling her eyes. “You have his email address, right? MarineMan-something.” Kael had a part-time job at the local salt water aquarium and was planning to study marine biology in college.
Rachel fumbled with her notebook, scrambling to find a pen. She finally gave up. “Oh, it doesn’t matter. I’ll remember it and if I don’t you’ll just email it to me, right? MarineMan…0131? That’s his birthday, isn’t it? On Gmail? Oh—here’s the bus!”
Hannah leaned over to pick up Caroline’s backpack. “Really, Care—I’ll email you all the time. It’ll be like we never left.”
Caroline forced herself to smile. As much as she was savoring her bad mood she didn’t want Hannah worrying about her all summer. “Oh, I’ll be fine. I’ll email you, too—regular reports from Camp Desolate. All the news that’s fit to email—like anything ever happens around here. You don’t mind emails filled with weather reports and what I had for dinner, right? ‘Sun. Hot. Afternoon rain. Meatloaf.’”
As the girls took seats behind the driver, old Mr. Maits glanced back at them. “You girls hear about the new folks? Rumor is that the Benson place has been bought by some New Yorkers who want to spend their vacations here.”
“Who are they, Mr. Maits?” asked Hannah.
“Well, now, you know everything I do, Hannah Banana.” Mr. Maits had called her that since the girls were in kindergarten. “I was hoping y’all would have some news for me.”
Caroline tried to act interested. “Just what this place needs,” she thought. “Another batch of old folks spending their holidays down south.” Aloud she said, “We’ll ask around at school today, Mr. Maits. I’ll bet somebody knows something good.”
It would be nice to see the old Benson place all fixed up, she admitted. Both of the Bensons had died before Caroline was even born and the house had been empty since their deaths. Their only heir, a distant cousin, seemed to have no interest in the house, either to live in it or to sell it. So for years it remained empty, the formerly beautiful, manicured lawns and gardens turning wild and overgrown, the paint peeling from the once-stately walls. One by one the windows had been broken out and boarded over. The palm trees were laden with old, dead fronds. The place was a mess, with an air of sadness and mystery surrounding it.
The stories that Caroline’s mother told of parties and dances held on the Benson grounds were almost impossible to believe. Bright colored lanterns and tiki torches blazing, live music, fresh oysters and crab boils—according to her mother’s accounts the Benson parties were the highlights of the social season each year on the key.
The house was on Caroline’s street, Manatee Court. Its backyard stretched out to a private beach, marred now by a rotting pier and a ramshackle gazebo. You could barely see the house from either the street or the beach because it was set so far back and because of the tangle of vines and overgrown brush around it. It might be okay, Caroline allowed, to watch while the house emerged from the jungle, even if its inhabitants were of no interest to her.
Sure enough, as the bus lumbered down the street Caroline caught a glimpse of some panel trucks and vans parked along the driveway of the Benson place. She could see a man in a cherry picker trimming old fronds from the palm trees that lined the drive and she thought she could see some workmen on the roof as well. The windows seemed to have been replaced, too.
“How long has this stuff been going on?” she wondered. Right under her nose and she was clueless about it! Well, as soon as she got home from school today she’d wander down and see whatever there was to see. For now, though, she had less than ten minutes to do something about her hair, the circles under her eyes, and her general attitude toward the world.
“Hannah, can I borrow some makeup?” Caroline’s mother didn’t approve of her wearing makeup, but now and then she figured it was an absolute emergency. Today certainly qualified. Hannah and Rachel were allowed to wear lip gloss and mascara and blush and Caroline used Hannah’s stash as her distress supply. Yet another reason why she hated spending her summers alone—she had to spend ten weeks looking like a child instead of the practically-a-teenager that she actually was.
Seven minutes later, her hair in a ponytail and her outlook fortified with lip gloss, blush, and a determined attitude (Mr. Maits had seemed intent on hitting every pothole in the road this morning so Caroline had wisely decided to forego the mascara), she clambered down the steps of the bus, squared her shoulders, took a deep breath, and marched into Bonita Point Middle School for the final day of sixth grade.
More later...
Setback
Well...today is a definite step backwards.
I ate two different foods yesterday -- both were on the list of approved foods, but apparently one of them (or both) gave me fits. My knees are much worse and there are nagging twinges in my jaw and elbow. Yesterday, besides brown rice, I ate dried apricots and a sweet potato. Today I'm going back to rice and prunes. I hope I recover quickly so I don't have to start this ordeal all over again!
More later...
I ate two different foods yesterday -- both were on the list of approved foods, but apparently one of them (or both) gave me fits. My knees are much worse and there are nagging twinges in my jaw and elbow. Yesterday, besides brown rice, I ate dried apricots and a sweet potato. Today I'm going back to rice and prunes. I hope I recover quickly so I don't have to start this ordeal all over again!
More later...
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
End of Day Four
Definite improvement. I can get up from a chair without pulling or pushing myself up -- it hurts, but I can do it. A week ago, it hurt and I had to push or pull myself up. Again -- it still hurts, but my knees may be permanently damaged and might never be completely normal -- but if I can walk without pain, I'll take it.
I'm not sure I can make it seven full days, though. I might crack before the end of the week. However -- if I continue to have improvement, I think that proves the point. We'll see.
More later...
I'm not sure I can make it seven full days, though. I might crack before the end of the week. However -- if I continue to have improvement, I think that proves the point. We'll see.
More later...
...and Ospreys!
Here is a link to the Dunedin Osprey Cam. Irene sent it to me last year or the year before, I forget. The eggs started hatching today!
On the hummingbird link, you can see that they built their nest in a rose bush. By comparing the size of the thorns to the nest you can see how teeny tiny it is.
Sue -- hang in there!!! :)
More later...
On the hummingbird link, you can see that they built their nest in a rose bush. By comparing the size of the thorns to the nest you can see how teeny tiny it is.
Sue -- hang in there!!! :)
More later...
Hummers
This is a neat site that my mom shared with me: http://phoebeallens.com/
It's a live shot of a hummingbird nest; eggs are supposed to hatch on Friday (not sure how they know, but there you go!).
More later...
It's a live shot of a hummingbird nest; eggs are supposed to hatch on Friday (not sure how they know, but there you go!).
More later...
Yes, I Am Wearing Clean Underwear!
There is a Kohl's really near my hotel and I snagged some underwear last night. I'll need to go back and buy more, but I really was not sure what size I wear, so I didn't want to load up on the wrong size. I selected well, however, and have enough to get me through the weekend when I'll pick up a few more pairs. :)
I believe I am feeling better regarding my arthritis symptoms. My jaw is basically at 100% -- which it has not been since forever. If I wasn't TRYING to find discomfort in my elbow I probably wouldn't notice a thing. I'd say it's at about 95%. There is some improvement in my knees, but not enough. It's only been three full days, though, so I guess I am encouraged.
I'm eating almost nothing. Yesterday I had a bowl of rice for breakfast, nothing for lunch, and some apricots for dinner. I'm not hungry and I don't want to eat what I can eat. I haven't eaten anything yet today, but I brought a sweet potato, some rice, and some apricots for lunch. I'm definitely going to be losing weight on this diet -- every cloud has a silver lining.
I've decided that wheat is the most likely culprit for my RA (if it is, in fact, diet induced). Maybe I'm just preparing myself mentally, I don't know. I can handle anything except tomatoes, so I'm praying it won't be that.
I'm feeling really good otherwise. I fell asleep at about 9:30 last night and when my alarm went off at 6:45 I wasn't ready to wake up. I did toss and turn a lot -- I had weird pains in my hips and couldn't get comfortable -- but they feel better today and I think I got enough sleep anyway. Onward and upward!!!
More later...
I believe I am feeling better regarding my arthritis symptoms. My jaw is basically at 100% -- which it has not been since forever. If I wasn't TRYING to find discomfort in my elbow I probably wouldn't notice a thing. I'd say it's at about 95%. There is some improvement in my knees, but not enough. It's only been three full days, though, so I guess I am encouraged.
I'm eating almost nothing. Yesterday I had a bowl of rice for breakfast, nothing for lunch, and some apricots for dinner. I'm not hungry and I don't want to eat what I can eat. I haven't eaten anything yet today, but I brought a sweet potato, some rice, and some apricots for lunch. I'm definitely going to be losing weight on this diet -- every cloud has a silver lining.
I've decided that wheat is the most likely culprit for my RA (if it is, in fact, diet induced). Maybe I'm just preparing myself mentally, I don't know. I can handle anything except tomatoes, so I'm praying it won't be that.
I'm feeling really good otherwise. I fell asleep at about 9:30 last night and when my alarm went off at 6:45 I wasn't ready to wake up. I did toss and turn a lot -- I had weird pains in my hips and couldn't get comfortable -- but they feel better today and I think I got enough sleep anyway. Onward and upward!!!
More later...
Sunday, March 25, 2012
Inauspicious Beginning...
I'm in St. Louis. It was a really long, hard drive today. This is day two without caffeine (I haven't had a day without caffeine in decades) and I kept falling asleep while I was driving. I had no idea how effective blue Monster energy drinks are -- the answer is REALLY effective. I had to pull over three times and close my eyes, which was awkward (it's not like I really slept much) and made the trip last eleven hours instead of nine. Sigh.
I need about 7 1/2 hours of sleep a night and I haven't had that for a few nights (Kael spent the night Friday and last night was my normal before-a-class-get-ready stuff). I've been really good lately about getting plenty of sleep while I'm teaching, so when I drive home I should be better sleep-wise than I was today.
ANYWAY -- I'm here.
The hotel put me on the first floor and -- as usual -- there is an elephant above me. I hate that. It's only 8:46, so it doesn't matter now, but if he's clomping around at 10:30 when I'm trying to fall asleep I'm not going to be happy. What do people DO in hotel rooms, anyway? What is there that makes someone walk around? I don't get it. (CLUNK -- sounds like a body just fell up there.) Sigh again.
Maybe I am a bit cranky because I've had nothing but prunes and brown rice for two days. I'll tell you one thing: NOTHING wrong with my digestive system, ifyouknowwhatImean. I THINK my joints are better, but I'm not really sure. They are definitely NOT worse. If my RA is caused/exacerbated by foods, I should be able to tell pretty soon, though. I'm kind of excited about that.
I'm also nervous to find out what foods have been bothering me. This elimination diet is not just a week long. At the end of a week I can add ONE food back in. For two days I eat the new food in "large quantities" (whatever that means) three times a day to see if my symptoms reappear (assuming they've disappeared). The three most likely culprits for RA are wheat, corn, and citrus fruits. If I eat a food and have a reaction, I have to wait a minimum of four days before adding new foods. So -- I want to add a bunch of not-likely-to-be-allergen foods first, just so I can have more variety. Like smoothies -- I would kill for a smoothie. So I will add the fruit I commonly use in my smoothies and see if they're all okay. Then...tomatoes. I will weep bitter tears if tomatoes are an allergen. The last thing I'm going to try is wheat because, to be honest, I think it's the culprit. What else do I eat -- have I eaten -- so often throughout my life to cause such a pervasive problem? And -- it's the number one most likely allergen and I'm pretty typical when it comes to this stuff.
I just unpacked. The only underwear I have is what I'm wearing now. I HATE it when I do that (this is the second time). Guess I know what I'm doing after class tomorrow. Grrr.
Okay -- time to wind things down.
More later...
I need about 7 1/2 hours of sleep a night and I haven't had that for a few nights (Kael spent the night Friday and last night was my normal before-a-class-get-ready stuff). I've been really good lately about getting plenty of sleep while I'm teaching, so when I drive home I should be better sleep-wise than I was today.
ANYWAY -- I'm here.
The hotel put me on the first floor and -- as usual -- there is an elephant above me. I hate that. It's only 8:46, so it doesn't matter now, but if he's clomping around at 10:30 when I'm trying to fall asleep I'm not going to be happy. What do people DO in hotel rooms, anyway? What is there that makes someone walk around? I don't get it. (CLUNK -- sounds like a body just fell up there.) Sigh again.
Maybe I am a bit cranky because I've had nothing but prunes and brown rice for two days. I'll tell you one thing: NOTHING wrong with my digestive system, ifyouknowwhatImean. I THINK my joints are better, but I'm not really sure. They are definitely NOT worse. If my RA is caused/exacerbated by foods, I should be able to tell pretty soon, though. I'm kind of excited about that.
I'm also nervous to find out what foods have been bothering me. This elimination diet is not just a week long. At the end of a week I can add ONE food back in. For two days I eat the new food in "large quantities" (whatever that means) three times a day to see if my symptoms reappear (assuming they've disappeared). The three most likely culprits for RA are wheat, corn, and citrus fruits. If I eat a food and have a reaction, I have to wait a minimum of four days before adding new foods. So -- I want to add a bunch of not-likely-to-be-allergen foods first, just so I can have more variety. Like smoothies -- I would kill for a smoothie. So I will add the fruit I commonly use in my smoothies and see if they're all okay. Then...tomatoes. I will weep bitter tears if tomatoes are an allergen. The last thing I'm going to try is wheat because, to be honest, I think it's the culprit. What else do I eat -- have I eaten -- so often throughout my life to cause such a pervasive problem? And -- it's the number one most likely allergen and I'm pretty typical when it comes to this stuff.
I just unpacked. The only underwear I have is what I'm wearing now. I HATE it when I do that (this is the second time). Guess I know what I'm doing after class tomorrow. Grrr.
Okay -- time to wind things down.
More later...
Saturday, March 24, 2012
Brown rice and cooked (stewed) prunes. I actually like both of those things, so I'm not really complaining, but I think after a few days I'm going to be a little...crazy. I think I will get sweet potatoes, stew some dried cranberries, and serve them over rice with some squash on the side. I can eat that for seven days in a row. Right?
:)
Actually, if I start feeling better I will GLADLY eat this for seven days.
More later...
:)
Actually, if I start feeling better I will GLADLY eat this for seven days.
More later...
Friday, March 23, 2012
One Last Try...
Wow. What a difference a few hours makes.
I started reading Forks Over Knives, mostly as a way of procrastinating. Right in the introduction is this sentence: "Obesity, hypertension, diabetes, heart disease, strokes, cancer, RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS, multiple sclerosis, lupus, gallstones, diverticulitis, osteoporosis, allergies, and asthma are but a few of the diseases of Western nutrition."
So there it was, in big bold print (okay, it wasn't in bold print really): RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS. I decided to have one last look around to see what I could find out about diet and my thorn in the flesh.
I wandered over to Dr. McDougall's site and found this article: "Diet: The Only Real Hope for Arthritis." This was a part of the intro:
"Marvin Burk (Louise's husband--Louise works in the McDougall Health Center office) couldn't hardly get out of the chair. Then he would walk straddle-legged halfway across the room until he could loosen up enough to get his joints moving. His hands were so stiff he could not use his tools and he often dropped things. He figured a man of 65 shouldn't be so crippled and decided he'd do whatever it takes to get well. He changed his diet 8 years ago with immediate and dramatic results. Now he pops out of the chair, walks without a bit of stiffness or pain and he handles his tools with no trouble. Many of us can relate to Marvin's troubles."
I sure CAN relate to Marvin's troubles! And I'm at least blessed enough that I don't have arthritis in my fingers (although I have it in my jaw and my left elbow, making it hard -- impossible -- to take bites of anything big and difficult to wash the left side of the back of my neck because my left elbow won't bend enough). But the chair and the waddle sound just like me. So I kept reading.
He lists lots of studies that treat RA patients with diet. The general protocol goes something like this (it varies a little). They take the patients and have them fast for 7-10 days (most often this is a fruit- and vegetable-juice fast, although one study had them on a water fast). During the fast, just about everybody gets better. Then they put them on different diets and different things happen. If they go back to their original diet, they get sick again and within one week all their symptoms return.
I'd hoped that going vegan would help my RA. I was doing this mainly for my heart, but still, I hoped. According to this article, though, lots of foods can exacerbate RA, and those foods can be different for everybody. Animal products (animal protein) seems to be almost universally bad (I knew this years before I went plant-based). Fats are very bad, too, because they suppress the immune system and tend to clog everything up (that is NOT a scientific description of what they do, by the way).
So McDougall suggests first going on a no-added-fats, no-animal-products diet. Well -- I think I've done that, although I'm not positive about it. Sometimes I've had fats, sometimes I've had animal products, and I'm not 100% sure that there was ever no overlap. Or at least not one long enough to see if it helped. But still -- I think I've done that and it hasn't helped.
He suggests what is called an "elimination diet." It's very boring. You can only eat the following foods, all cooked: brown rice, sweet potatoes, winter squash, taro, tapioca rice flour, puffed rice, beets, beet greens, chard, summer squash, artichokes, celery, string beans, asparagus, spinach, lettuce, peaches, cranberries, apricots, papaya, plums, prunes, cherries. The only condiment allowed is salt. Only water to drink. These foods are allowed because they are the least likely to cause allergic reactions. The reason everything has to be cooked is because cooking alters the proteins in foods and it makes them even LESS likely to cause allergies.
You stay on the diet for about a week. If nothing improves in that time you can pretty much be assured that whatever symptoms you were testing are not caused by your body's immune system having a reaction to a particular food. If your symptoms HAVE improved, however, your next job is to find out what you're allergic to. You add foods back, one at a time, and see if you have a reaction. It's likely that there's more than one allergen. The most common allergens (besides animal products and fats) are wheat, corn, citrus fruits, tomatoes, and strawberries. All of which I love; I think tomatoes would be the hardest to live without!
I am, however, willing to try anything. If I knew, for instance, that tomatoes were a trigger, I might be willing to suffer for it once every six months or so, but I would certainly cut back most of the time. Wheat would be rough, but there are so many gluten-free products now that you can still have just about anything you want (pasta, crackers, cereals) in non-gluten forms. I love corn, citrus fruits, and strawberries, of course, but if giving them up meant no arthritis symptoms I'd say good-bye in a heartbeat!
Anyway -- I am willing to try anything to avoid the surgery and I can eat a boring diet for a week (he just says "about a week" -- if I feel all better after five days, I'm not going to press the point!).
More later...
I started reading Forks Over Knives, mostly as a way of procrastinating. Right in the introduction is this sentence: "Obesity, hypertension, diabetes, heart disease, strokes, cancer, RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS, multiple sclerosis, lupus, gallstones, diverticulitis, osteoporosis, allergies, and asthma are but a few of the diseases of Western nutrition."
So there it was, in big bold print (okay, it wasn't in bold print really): RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS. I decided to have one last look around to see what I could find out about diet and my thorn in the flesh.
I wandered over to Dr. McDougall's site and found this article: "Diet: The Only Real Hope for Arthritis." This was a part of the intro:
"Marvin Burk (Louise's husband--Louise works in the McDougall Health Center office) couldn't hardly get out of the chair. Then he would walk straddle-legged halfway across the room until he could loosen up enough to get his joints moving. His hands were so stiff he could not use his tools and he often dropped things. He figured a man of 65 shouldn't be so crippled and decided he'd do whatever it takes to get well. He changed his diet 8 years ago with immediate and dramatic results. Now he pops out of the chair, walks without a bit of stiffness or pain and he handles his tools with no trouble. Many of us can relate to Marvin's troubles."
I sure CAN relate to Marvin's troubles! And I'm at least blessed enough that I don't have arthritis in my fingers (although I have it in my jaw and my left elbow, making it hard -- impossible -- to take bites of anything big and difficult to wash the left side of the back of my neck because my left elbow won't bend enough). But the chair and the waddle sound just like me. So I kept reading.
He lists lots of studies that treat RA patients with diet. The general protocol goes something like this (it varies a little). They take the patients and have them fast for 7-10 days (most often this is a fruit- and vegetable-juice fast, although one study had them on a water fast). During the fast, just about everybody gets better. Then they put them on different diets and different things happen. If they go back to their original diet, they get sick again and within one week all their symptoms return.
I'd hoped that going vegan would help my RA. I was doing this mainly for my heart, but still, I hoped. According to this article, though, lots of foods can exacerbate RA, and those foods can be different for everybody. Animal products (animal protein) seems to be almost universally bad (I knew this years before I went plant-based). Fats are very bad, too, because they suppress the immune system and tend to clog everything up (that is NOT a scientific description of what they do, by the way).
So McDougall suggests first going on a no-added-fats, no-animal-products diet. Well -- I think I've done that, although I'm not positive about it. Sometimes I've had fats, sometimes I've had animal products, and I'm not 100% sure that there was ever no overlap. Or at least not one long enough to see if it helped. But still -- I think I've done that and it hasn't helped.
He suggests what is called an "elimination diet." It's very boring. You can only eat the following foods, all cooked: brown rice, sweet potatoes, winter squash, taro, tapioca rice flour, puffed rice, beets, beet greens, chard, summer squash, artichokes, celery, string beans, asparagus, spinach, lettuce, peaches, cranberries, apricots, papaya, plums, prunes, cherries. The only condiment allowed is salt. Only water to drink. These foods are allowed because they are the least likely to cause allergic reactions. The reason everything has to be cooked is because cooking alters the proteins in foods and it makes them even LESS likely to cause allergies.
You stay on the diet for about a week. If nothing improves in that time you can pretty much be assured that whatever symptoms you were testing are not caused by your body's immune system having a reaction to a particular food. If your symptoms HAVE improved, however, your next job is to find out what you're allergic to. You add foods back, one at a time, and see if you have a reaction. It's likely that there's more than one allergen. The most common allergens (besides animal products and fats) are wheat, corn, citrus fruits, tomatoes, and strawberries. All of which I love; I think tomatoes would be the hardest to live without!
I am, however, willing to try anything. If I knew, for instance, that tomatoes were a trigger, I might be willing to suffer for it once every six months or so, but I would certainly cut back most of the time. Wheat would be rough, but there are so many gluten-free products now that you can still have just about anything you want (pasta, crackers, cereals) in non-gluten forms. I love corn, citrus fruits, and strawberries, of course, but if giving them up meant no arthritis symptoms I'd say good-bye in a heartbeat!
Anyway -- I am willing to try anything to avoid the surgery and I can eat a boring diet for a week (he just says "about a week" -- if I feel all better after five days, I'm not going to press the point!).
More later...
Poor Me
Just paid my taxes, so I am feeling very, very poor. At least it's done for another year (I did the taxes a while ago, but we owed a lot, so I've been waiting to pay; finally I just wanted to have it off my mind, so I finished it all). I was reading an interesting thing in my daily Bible reading this week. It is from Exodus 30; God is directing Moses regarding taking a census of the people. Beginning in verse 13:
"Each one who is numbered in the census shall give this: half a shekel according to the shekel of the sanctuary (the shekel is twenty gerahs), half a shekel as an offering to the Lord. Everyone who is numbered in the census, from twenty years old and upward, shall give the Lord's offering. The rich shall not give more, and the poor shall not give less, than the half shekel, when you give the Lord's offering to make atonement for your lives."
Essentially, this is paying taxes and giving to the Lord. And it was explicitly stated that everyone had to give, rich and poor alike. It's so dangerous when people begin to have no responsibility for their own government and when nearly half the population pays no income tax...I know I said I would not write about politics, but this is not so much a partisan issue to me as it is one of common sense. We should never be surprised when someone who has never had to pay his own way in life begins to think he is owed a part of someone else's toil. Every dollar that is given to someone who does not work for it is a dollar that is taken from someone who has.
Enough.
I finished reading Mansfield Park this morning. I did not dislike it much at all. Fanny Price grew on me a little bit and the story is pretty interesting, all in all. I had misremembered a few details, so in some respects it was like reading it for the first time. I am blown away again by Jane Austen. So witty, so able to get into the mind of the person about whom she is writing. When I read about Fanny Price, I had to assume Jane Austen WAS Fanny. But I have that same feeling when I read Pride & Prejudice -- surely Jane Austen WAS Elizabeth Bennet. The problem arises, of course, when I realize that there could not possibly be two characters less alike than those two. In morals and scruples they are the same, but there ends the resemblance. Fanny is shy and retiring, Lizzie is outspoken and independent. Jane Austen cannot be both Fanny and Lizzie -- she must simply have been a genius.
It has been raining HARD here for the evening and morning. Even though I would like to get my sun (this will be the third day I've gone without), I suppose we need the rain. The yard is out of control -- if things keep growing like this we will be covered in plants by the end of the summer and will have to hack our way out of the house.
Poor Alisha had an emergency dentist appointment yesterday, so I got to spend time with "my best friend Kael." He was his usual sweet self: he'd play with his toys and then come over to me to say, "I need a cuddle Nana." He'd hug me and demand one in return and then go back to his trains. There is no better word to describe him than "sweet." He is all registered for school next year: he'll be a kindergartner. He's going to be attending East Memorial Christian Academy, run by the large Baptist church not far from his house. He is so big for his age that everyone thinks he is already in school -- maybe even in second grade. His size will be a blessing and a curse for him. Right now people will expect him to act older than he is because he looks so much older than he is. It is what it is, of course, and that will pass. In general, size is an advantage, so he'll have that going for him. He appears to be pretty coordinated, so if he chooses to participate in sports he might acquit himself well.
He is spending the night tonight. I'm leaving for St. Louis on Sunday, so this will be our last visit for a fortnight (can you tell I've just been reading Austen???). I bought him a kind of a super-soaker toy when I was at Costco yesterday (they came in a pack of two so I can either leave one here and send him home with one, or I can keep both of them here and he can have water fights with Poppy ;).
I made tempeh bacon the other night for supper. I took lots of pictures, too, but am in no inclination to write about them or post them. I'll do it later. I have a suspicion that my friends who had been interested in a plant-based diet are less interested these days (I received an email from a few of them telling me that plants are also living things -- I never quite understand what that's supposed to mean, but some people find it either hilarious or compelling or both, apparently). It is a hard row to hoe, I admit. My next book is going to be Forks Over Knives: The Plant-Based Way to Health by Gene Stone. I have watched the movie several times, of course. Anyway -- I need a little re-charge, and this is a way to get there.
More later...
"Each one who is numbered in the census shall give this: half a shekel according to the shekel of the sanctuary (the shekel is twenty gerahs), half a shekel as an offering to the Lord. Everyone who is numbered in the census, from twenty years old and upward, shall give the Lord's offering. The rich shall not give more, and the poor shall not give less, than the half shekel, when you give the Lord's offering to make atonement for your lives."
Essentially, this is paying taxes and giving to the Lord. And it was explicitly stated that everyone had to give, rich and poor alike. It's so dangerous when people begin to have no responsibility for their own government and when nearly half the population pays no income tax...I know I said I would not write about politics, but this is not so much a partisan issue to me as it is one of common sense. We should never be surprised when someone who has never had to pay his own way in life begins to think he is owed a part of someone else's toil. Every dollar that is given to someone who does not work for it is a dollar that is taken from someone who has.
Enough.
I finished reading Mansfield Park this morning. I did not dislike it much at all. Fanny Price grew on me a little bit and the story is pretty interesting, all in all. I had misremembered a few details, so in some respects it was like reading it for the first time. I am blown away again by Jane Austen. So witty, so able to get into the mind of the person about whom she is writing. When I read about Fanny Price, I had to assume Jane Austen WAS Fanny. But I have that same feeling when I read Pride & Prejudice -- surely Jane Austen WAS Elizabeth Bennet. The problem arises, of course, when I realize that there could not possibly be two characters less alike than those two. In morals and scruples they are the same, but there ends the resemblance. Fanny is shy and retiring, Lizzie is outspoken and independent. Jane Austen cannot be both Fanny and Lizzie -- she must simply have been a genius.
It has been raining HARD here for the evening and morning. Even though I would like to get my sun (this will be the third day I've gone without), I suppose we need the rain. The yard is out of control -- if things keep growing like this we will be covered in plants by the end of the summer and will have to hack our way out of the house.
Poor Alisha had an emergency dentist appointment yesterday, so I got to spend time with "my best friend Kael." He was his usual sweet self: he'd play with his toys and then come over to me to say, "I need a cuddle Nana." He'd hug me and demand one in return and then go back to his trains. There is no better word to describe him than "sweet." He is all registered for school next year: he'll be a kindergartner. He's going to be attending East Memorial Christian Academy, run by the large Baptist church not far from his house. He is so big for his age that everyone thinks he is already in school -- maybe even in second grade. His size will be a blessing and a curse for him. Right now people will expect him to act older than he is because he looks so much older than he is. It is what it is, of course, and that will pass. In general, size is an advantage, so he'll have that going for him. He appears to be pretty coordinated, so if he chooses to participate in sports he might acquit himself well.
He is spending the night tonight. I'm leaving for St. Louis on Sunday, so this will be our last visit for a fortnight (can you tell I've just been reading Austen???). I bought him a kind of a super-soaker toy when I was at Costco yesterday (they came in a pack of two so I can either leave one here and send him home with one, or I can keep both of them here and he can have water fights with Poppy ;).
I made tempeh bacon the other night for supper. I took lots of pictures, too, but am in no inclination to write about them or post them. I'll do it later. I have a suspicion that my friends who had been interested in a plant-based diet are less interested these days (I received an email from a few of them telling me that plants are also living things -- I never quite understand what that's supposed to mean, but some people find it either hilarious or compelling or both, apparently). It is a hard row to hoe, I admit. My next book is going to be Forks Over Knives: The Plant-Based Way to Health by Gene Stone. I have watched the movie several times, of course. Anyway -- I need a little re-charge, and this is a way to get there.
More later...
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Thanks!
Been slacking off on my gratitudes. I just got this a little while ago and I'm thankful for it!
95. I never erase texts from Bruce, Alex, or Alisha. Just because. This text came this afternoon; Alex's words are in white and mine are in green (ignore the top green line -- it was the end of an exchange that we had yesterday).
96. We got a $100 donation to our Relay for Life team web site!!! So that's $110 we've raised so far (goal is $500). Sadly, this donation is from a man whose wife is battling all kinds of cancer and has been for years (just had surgery for a brain tumor two weeks ago). Cancer is evidence that we live in a fallen world, for sure. But I'm glad that we've started on our way to raise money for this thing!
97. Here's something silly, but when it happened I said, "Thank you, Lord!" For a few days there has been a HUGE wasp in our house. There was an episode of Designing Women that will forever live in my heart because Suzanne insisted, "The MAN should have to kill the bugs!" That's kind of my motto, too. Oh, I'll kill a roach if I have to, but otherwise I insist that Bruce do the exterminating. I don't know if he never saw the wasp (the first time I saw it he was snoring in the recliner -- Bruce, not the wasp -- and was not all that motivated to do anything when I pointed it out), but every day that sucker has been in here. The only time I saw it resting it was way high up on the wall (we have ten-foot ceilings), and I couldn't reach it. But it's cruised low a couple of times and I almost walked into it once. Well, today, it flew by kind of toward the front door. I opened the door, but I couldn't find the wasp. Stood there for a few minutes wondering what to do, and the wasp came and alighted on the front of the door! So I closed the door and -- wasp outside! Yay!
98. My knees have been better ever since Sunday. Now, I'm not going to cancel the doctor's appointment -- I know this thing seems to cycle from bad to worse -- but I am really grateful for better days!
99. I listened to a sermon this morning that has really given me a lot to think about. John Piper, the pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, is one of my favorite (well -- probably my very favorite) contemporary Christian authors. I follow his blog at http://www.desiringgod.org/ and very often listen to his Sunday sermons (as I did today). He has been working his way through John 13, carefully moving through the Passover supper on his way to the crucifixion and -- praise God! -- the resurrection. This particular sermon focused on two verses, 34 and 35: "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another."
Piper's thesis (and he has intriguing reasons for proposing it) is that I John is an explanation of these verses. I have to say that this passage has given me pause for a whole bunch of reasons over the years, but I have never looked at it the way Piper had me look at it today. He talked about loving not as an imitation of Christ, but as a connection to Christ (vine, branches, for example -- they are connected). I cannot do justice to the sermon in two paragraphs, so I'm going to quit while I'm behind. The sermon is here, however, and his sermon notes are below the video. I recommend watching it if you can (it's 45 minutes long, but goes very fast), but if not, you can read the sermon in a fraction of that time. We are so blessed to be able to live in a time when we have access to the work of so many godly men!
More later...
95. I never erase texts from Bruce, Alex, or Alisha. Just because. This text came this afternoon; Alex's words are in white and mine are in green (ignore the top green line -- it was the end of an exchange that we had yesterday).
96. We got a $100 donation to our Relay for Life team web site!!! So that's $110 we've raised so far (goal is $500). Sadly, this donation is from a man whose wife is battling all kinds of cancer and has been for years (just had surgery for a brain tumor two weeks ago). Cancer is evidence that we live in a fallen world, for sure. But I'm glad that we've started on our way to raise money for this thing!
97. Here's something silly, but when it happened I said, "Thank you, Lord!" For a few days there has been a HUGE wasp in our house. There was an episode of Designing Women that will forever live in my heart because Suzanne insisted, "The MAN should have to kill the bugs!" That's kind of my motto, too. Oh, I'll kill a roach if I have to, but otherwise I insist that Bruce do the exterminating. I don't know if he never saw the wasp (the first time I saw it he was snoring in the recliner -- Bruce, not the wasp -- and was not all that motivated to do anything when I pointed it out), but every day that sucker has been in here. The only time I saw it resting it was way high up on the wall (we have ten-foot ceilings), and I couldn't reach it. But it's cruised low a couple of times and I almost walked into it once. Well, today, it flew by kind of toward the front door. I opened the door, but I couldn't find the wasp. Stood there for a few minutes wondering what to do, and the wasp came and alighted on the front of the door! So I closed the door and -- wasp outside! Yay!
98. My knees have been better ever since Sunday. Now, I'm not going to cancel the doctor's appointment -- I know this thing seems to cycle from bad to worse -- but I am really grateful for better days!
99. I listened to a sermon this morning that has really given me a lot to think about. John Piper, the pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, is one of my favorite (well -- probably my very favorite) contemporary Christian authors. I follow his blog at http://www.desiringgod.org/ and very often listen to his Sunday sermons (as I did today). He has been working his way through John 13, carefully moving through the Passover supper on his way to the crucifixion and -- praise God! -- the resurrection. This particular sermon focused on two verses, 34 and 35: "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another."
Piper's thesis (and he has intriguing reasons for proposing it) is that I John is an explanation of these verses. I have to say that this passage has given me pause for a whole bunch of reasons over the years, but I have never looked at it the way Piper had me look at it today. He talked about loving not as an imitation of Christ, but as a connection to Christ (vine, branches, for example -- they are connected). I cannot do justice to the sermon in two paragraphs, so I'm going to quit while I'm behind. The sermon is here, however, and his sermon notes are below the video. I recommend watching it if you can (it's 45 minutes long, but goes very fast), but if not, you can read the sermon in a fraction of that time. We are so blessed to be able to live in a time when we have access to the work of so many godly men!
More later...
Monday, March 19, 2012
Soul Food
First -- thank you, Jana, for the encouragement. I called the doctor today and have an appointment for the Monday after I get home from St. Louis. This is just with my internist, so he'll have to refer me. First step, though. I'll let you know what he says.
Incidentally, my knees were considerably better today. Not enough so that I'm second guessing having surgery -- if you told me to walk around the block I would cry -- but a lot better than yesterday. Must've just been one of those days.
We were actually hotter here today than it was down in Florida. This is NOT unusual during the summer when we seem to enjoy going above 100, but we are close to setting record highs for us this time of year. It felt great when I was doing my twenty-minute Vitamin-D lounge.
I had a Relay for Life team captain meeting tonight. I know they do these all over the country, but if you would like to donate to the American Cancer Society and you don't have a Relay event near you, please feel free to donate to my team. I am the captain of our church team, Millbrook Presbyterian, and our event is being held on April 27. Our team goal is $500 and we always struggle to get there. (I am the world's WORST fundraiser.)
Southern cooking tonight -- ribs and collards. I should start by saying that I've never had greens I didn't love, so I may not be the best judge of whether a recipe for greens is good or not. I got the collard recipe from the VegWeb web site and figured I'd give it a shot because so many people raved about it. My changes were pretty minimal. I used three cups of vegetable broth and two cups of water (instead of five cups of water and three vegetable bouillon cubes), and Publix doesn't sell collards in bunches -- they sell them pre-washed, in bags. Near as I can figure, a bunch weighs between a pound and a pound-and-a-half (that includes waste, of course): I bought a two-pound bag of collards and I think that worked just fine.
The best part of cooking with greens is how much they shrink. When I added the greens to my stockpot it filled it completely up to the top! It got little fast, though. I cooked 'em for the full 2 1/2 hours -- us southern girls don't like al dente greens. I saw a recipe for collards that had them cooking for twenty minutes -- my guess is that you just chew them for the additional two-hours-and-ten-minutes.
My Yankee husband loved them. He liked them just as they were; I ALWAYS put hot sauce on my greens and while these were fine without that, I ALWAYS put hot sauce on my greens. So -- mine were liberally doused with Tabasco and I loved 'em. I eat a lot of kale and spinach, but I figured I should branch out and eat other greens, too. So. Collards. It's what's good for you.
A long time ago I found a recipe for a wheat berry salad that I thought looked great, but I couldn't find wheat berries anywhere (they are just the whole kernel of wheat). I bought some at Whole Foods but don't remember the recipe, so I've had this bag of wheat berries in my pantry for forever. SO -- I Googled it and found this recipe on the Food Network web site. My changes: no oil, of course. And I cooked the wheat berries for about ten minutes longer than she suggests. I used slightly more lemon juice than she called for and I added just under a tablespoon of agave nectar to my lemon juice before I tossed it on the salad. Also, I didn't have enough dried cherries, so I filled in the gap with dried cranberries.
I love it (I'm eating my second bowl as I type). Bruce -- not so much. He was compelled to pollute them with balsamic vinaigrette dressing. He said, "It was kind of like eating raw grains and it was bland." He is, of course, insane. I like them not swimming in dressing and the sweetness of the cherries/cranberries is perfection. Wheat berries are not supposed to be soft like rice -- they're supposed to be slightly chewy, which these were; they were not "raw." Yum. ;)
Finally, the ribs. I've made these before and I think they're wonderful. They actually taste pretty much like boneless ribs to me. I did not cook them on the grill, of course, so what I've done is to cook the ribs as directed for twenty minutes. Then I took them out of the pan and placed them on a baking stone. I brushed one side of them with barbecue sauce, flipped the ribs over, and brushed the other side with sauce. Then I put them back into the oven for twelve minutes. Don't worry about them falling apart -- wheat gluten is TOUGH. Otherwise, I followed her recipe.
My tummy's happy.
More later...
Incidentally, my knees were considerably better today. Not enough so that I'm second guessing having surgery -- if you told me to walk around the block I would cry -- but a lot better than yesterday. Must've just been one of those days.
We were actually hotter here today than it was down in Florida. This is NOT unusual during the summer when we seem to enjoy going above 100, but we are close to setting record highs for us this time of year. It felt great when I was doing my twenty-minute Vitamin-D lounge.
I had a Relay for Life team captain meeting tonight. I know they do these all over the country, but if you would like to donate to the American Cancer Society and you don't have a Relay event near you, please feel free to donate to my team. I am the captain of our church team, Millbrook Presbyterian, and our event is being held on April 27. Our team goal is $500 and we always struggle to get there. (I am the world's WORST fundraiser.)
Southern cooking tonight -- ribs and collards. I should start by saying that I've never had greens I didn't love, so I may not be the best judge of whether a recipe for greens is good or not. I got the collard recipe from the VegWeb web site and figured I'd give it a shot because so many people raved about it. My changes were pretty minimal. I used three cups of vegetable broth and two cups of water (instead of five cups of water and three vegetable bouillon cubes), and Publix doesn't sell collards in bunches -- they sell them pre-washed, in bags. Near as I can figure, a bunch weighs between a pound and a pound-and-a-half (that includes waste, of course): I bought a two-pound bag of collards and I think that worked just fine.
The best part of cooking with greens is how much they shrink. When I added the greens to my stockpot it filled it completely up to the top! It got little fast, though. I cooked 'em for the full 2 1/2 hours -- us southern girls don't like al dente greens. I saw a recipe for collards that had them cooking for twenty minutes -- my guess is that you just chew them for the additional two-hours-and-ten-minutes.
My Yankee husband loved them. He liked them just as they were; I ALWAYS put hot sauce on my greens and while these were fine without that, I ALWAYS put hot sauce on my greens. So -- mine were liberally doused with Tabasco and I loved 'em. I eat a lot of kale and spinach, but I figured I should branch out and eat other greens, too. So. Collards. It's what's good for you.
A long time ago I found a recipe for a wheat berry salad that I thought looked great, but I couldn't find wheat berries anywhere (they are just the whole kernel of wheat). I bought some at Whole Foods but don't remember the recipe, so I've had this bag of wheat berries in my pantry for forever. SO -- I Googled it and found this recipe on the Food Network web site. My changes: no oil, of course. And I cooked the wheat berries for about ten minutes longer than she suggests. I used slightly more lemon juice than she called for and I added just under a tablespoon of agave nectar to my lemon juice before I tossed it on the salad. Also, I didn't have enough dried cherries, so I filled in the gap with dried cranberries.
I love it (I'm eating my second bowl as I type). Bruce -- not so much. He was compelled to pollute them with balsamic vinaigrette dressing. He said, "It was kind of like eating raw grains and it was bland." He is, of course, insane. I like them not swimming in dressing and the sweetness of the cherries/cranberries is perfection. Wheat berries are not supposed to be soft like rice -- they're supposed to be slightly chewy, which these were; they were not "raw." Yum. ;)
Finally, the ribs. I've made these before and I think they're wonderful. They actually taste pretty much like boneless ribs to me. I did not cook them on the grill, of course, so what I've done is to cook the ribs as directed for twenty minutes. Then I took them out of the pan and placed them on a baking stone. I brushed one side of them with barbecue sauce, flipped the ribs over, and brushed the other side with sauce. Then I put them back into the oven for twelve minutes. Don't worry about them falling apart -- wheat gluten is TOUGH. Otherwise, I followed her recipe.
My tummy's happy.
More later...
Sunday, March 18, 2012
Who Knew?
EXCELLENT use for apples that have passed their prime a bit: smoothies. I used one yesterday and one today and it is fabulous. I don't peel or even core them -- I just cut them into quarters (my Vitamix pulverizes everything, so the seeds, core, etc., just disappear), toss them into the blender with a few dates, a bunch of kale, and some water. I blend it all up and then when it's smooth I add a few handfuls of frozen fruit (my favorite combination is pineapple, papaya, mango, strawberry -- I get it at Costco). SUPER delicious -- the apple really adds something!
More later...
More later...
Better
Okay, I think I bottomed out this morning and it's all uphill from here. I actually did not have a bad day after I put an end to my little pity party of the a.m. I spent my customary twenty minutes in my chaise -- and it was HOT!!! Apparently we came within one degree of setting a record high today -- just in the low 80s, but it felt wonderful.
I've been thinking about how I want to rearrange some things in the yard. I'm going to move the Adirondack chairs from the front to the backyard -- we will get much more use out of them back there. So that means I need to come up with something to decorate the front door area. It's a northern exposure with the western light completely blocked (because the garage swings out), so I can't plant anything in a pot that needs much light. I have some ideas, but nothing fixed. It's not a very nice area -- it's really just an extension of the driveway that spreads all the way to the front door. I've been scouring Pinterest and other likely web sites for ideas.
I ordered a bird feeder and it should be here on Tuesday. Maybe tomorrow I will go to Home Depot and get birdseed and the black plastic so we can put it right up when it comes in.
Today one of the knockout roses had blooms on it. These roses are wonderful -- they will bloom and bloom all summer long. Each flower is not all that spectacular -- they are single roses -- but when you have a bush covered with them (or five bushes in my case) they look pretty spectacular.
I think this is a picture of one of the spirea bushes; I don't remember for sure, so I really ought to go get the landscape plan to see. It looks more like Fall, doesn't it? These are just starting to leaf out, mostly in this red, which is kind of cheerful. There are these other scraggly bushes that are the slowest to come back to life -- there are tips of green, so I know they've survived, but they are not anything to look at yet (I can't remember what they are either).
And, finally -- my river birch. Last week this sucker had NO leaves on it and look at it now! I just love this tree. I think it is my very favorite thing that we had added to the landscape. I just love birches and we had white birches in Michigan, so I'm happy we can have this here.
Bruce is at a Michael W. Smith concert in Montgomery. It is to benefit Compassion International. We sponsor a little girl through them and he volunteered to help at the concert. No telling what he's doing and he may not even be able to see any of it. I have a feeling he'll enjoy himself, though. He warned me that he could be out until -- gasp! -- 9:00 tonight, which is at LEAST half an hour past his bedtime. Pretty daring for a Sunday night!
More later...
I've been thinking about how I want to rearrange some things in the yard. I'm going to move the Adirondack chairs from the front to the backyard -- we will get much more use out of them back there. So that means I need to come up with something to decorate the front door area. It's a northern exposure with the western light completely blocked (because the garage swings out), so I can't plant anything in a pot that needs much light. I have some ideas, but nothing fixed. It's not a very nice area -- it's really just an extension of the driveway that spreads all the way to the front door. I've been scouring Pinterest and other likely web sites for ideas.
I ordered a bird feeder and it should be here on Tuesday. Maybe tomorrow I will go to Home Depot and get birdseed and the black plastic so we can put it right up when it comes in.
Today one of the knockout roses had blooms on it. These roses are wonderful -- they will bloom and bloom all summer long. Each flower is not all that spectacular -- they are single roses -- but when you have a bush covered with them (or five bushes in my case) they look pretty spectacular.
I think this is a picture of one of the spirea bushes; I don't remember for sure, so I really ought to go get the landscape plan to see. It looks more like Fall, doesn't it? These are just starting to leaf out, mostly in this red, which is kind of cheerful. There are these other scraggly bushes that are the slowest to come back to life -- there are tips of green, so I know they've survived, but they are not anything to look at yet (I can't remember what they are either).
And, finally -- my river birch. Last week this sucker had NO leaves on it and look at it now! I just love this tree. I think it is my very favorite thing that we had added to the landscape. I just love birches and we had white birches in Michigan, so I'm happy we can have this here.
Bruce is at a Michael W. Smith concert in Montgomery. It is to benefit Compassion International. We sponsor a little girl through them and he volunteered to help at the concert. No telling what he's doing and he may not even be able to see any of it. I have a feeling he'll enjoy himself, though. He warned me that he could be out until -- gasp! -- 9:00 tonight, which is at LEAST half an hour past his bedtime. Pretty daring for a Sunday night!
More later...
Anti-Pollyanna
I Googled "knee replacement scar" and basically burst into tears. This whole morning has been really bad. I'm in ridiculous pain these days and when I walk it's like I'm a hundred. THAT is not particularly attractive, so I don't know why I care about a scar. But I do.
I didn't go to church today. I'm driving to St. Louis next Sunday and have no idea how I'm going to get to work every morning. I'm better as the day goes on, of course, so maybe I'll have to start getting up at 5:00 so that by the time 9:00 rolls around I'm moving like a 70-year-old instead of a 100-year-old.
I'm calling the doctor tomorrow. This has begun to impact everything I do. I read about the surgery pretty extensively. It made me lightheaded and nauseated, to be honest. I'm such a wimp. The results are supposed to be so good, though. I'm back to thinking I should have one knee done at a time; I go back and forth. And, of course, the doctor will have something to say about that as well.
I hate it when I get like this. I hate whiners, but all I feel like doing is whining. I hate negativity, but I don't feel at all positive right now.
And so on.
More later...
I didn't go to church today. I'm driving to St. Louis next Sunday and have no idea how I'm going to get to work every morning. I'm better as the day goes on, of course, so maybe I'll have to start getting up at 5:00 so that by the time 9:00 rolls around I'm moving like a 70-year-old instead of a 100-year-old.
I'm calling the doctor tomorrow. This has begun to impact everything I do. I read about the surgery pretty extensively. It made me lightheaded and nauseated, to be honest. I'm such a wimp. The results are supposed to be so good, though. I'm back to thinking I should have one knee done at a time; I go back and forth. And, of course, the doctor will have something to say about that as well.
I hate it when I get like this. I hate whiners, but all I feel like doing is whining. I hate negativity, but I don't feel at all positive right now.
And so on.
More later...
Saturday, March 17, 2012
Paradise
For the past couple of evenings, Bruce and I have sat out in the backyard after dinner. It's been so wonderful, so peaceful, so beautiful. I took this picture right before I came inside tonight; the sun was setting so the light/exposure is not what it ought to be (plus, I took it with my iPhone).
The bird bath just came yesterday (I ordered it from Amazon -- free two-day shipping with my Prime membership!). So far, no birds have checked it out. The glass is thinner than I would have preferred, so I don't really think it's going to last all that long, but while I have it I'll enjoy it. We need to get a bird feeder, too. We're thinking of putting it in the corner of the yard, just to the left of the tree trunk in the above picture (but in the back). The biggest issue, of course, is that all the seeds that fall on the ground tend to sprout. If it falls in your yard, you can just mow over it and keep it under control. In the planter, though, it could be an issue. I am thinking we should rake away all the pine straw, place a black plastic ground cover there, and cover it with the needles. That will at least take care of most of the weeds.
The weather has been perfect. Not too hot, not too cold, and we've had sun and not rain lately!!! All of the landscaping looks to have survived the winter; almost everything is leafing out. The oak tree in this picture is always the last thing to turn green each year. Its branches are loaded with little leaf buds, though. It's grown so much since Alex and Bruce planted it.
94. I'm so grateful for the landscaping that Southern Homes & Gardens did for us. It looks even prettier now than it did last summer and I know that as things continue to fill out everything will look even better. I think the roses at the end of our yard have doubled in size since last summer. They're going to be spectacular. As we sat on our little patio and surveyed our tiny yard I could just imagine us sitting there in twenty years. We were married a long time before we had Alex (eleven years) and it already feels normal to be just us two again (as long as Alex comes back to visit regularly!!!).
If you are looking for a book to read (you should ask me for recommendations), there's a neat web site called Good Reads. You rate books that you've already read and they make recommendations based on what you like and don't like. It was fun to rate books and it made me feel REALLY well read because I had so many from every category. On the other hand, I don't need any recommendations from a web site. Maybe. I mean, I have read some good books based on asking friends for their ideas -- most of which I would never have read on my own -- so maybe I should keep this site in the back of my mind. Hmmm.
Well, I have made a couple more recipes to tell you about. I have to tell you that I'm going through a patch where I want to eat bad things. I have mostly resisted, but not completely. I'm not sure what my problem is; I think after I finish reading Mansfield Park I should read a vegan book to get me focused again. (By the way, I'm a quarter of the way through the book and I like it better than I did the first time around mostly because I had such low expectations and because I am thoroughly enjoying Jane Austen's wit, but I am hating Fanny Price even more than I did the first time because then I could at least HOPE she would grow a spine; this time I know that she won't.)
Anyway, I made a Happy Herbivore recipe for Black Bean Brownies. I won't post a picture because I'm lazy and you can see one if you follow the link.
First the good: these suckers have less than one gram of fat per brownie (from the beans). That is NOTHING. They are actually good for you; the only negative is the sugar and that's just a trifle. Each large brownie is only 112 calories, so you can pig out and eat half a pan for supper and not feel (too) guilty.
The bad: no one will ever award these the blue ribbon in the "Best Brownie" contest. This should not be a surprise, but I was still a little sad. Having said that, I've already eaten two and will undoubtedly finish the whole pan (Bruce -- odd man -- doesn't really like brownies).
I also made a baked macaroni and "cheese" recipe from her cookbook. I have to stop thinking I'll ever find a real cheese substitute. In fact, I didn't even tell Bruce this was "macaroni and cheese" -- I think I just said "pasta" or something like that.
It was not bad, honest. It was also not macaroni and cheese. I threw in some peas, as you can see, to make it a little healthier. Bruce liked it very much the way it was, although he did sprinkle "bacon" bits on his. I liked it okay, but I liked it even more when I stirred in some marinara sauce (from a jar).
More later...
The bird bath just came yesterday (I ordered it from Amazon -- free two-day shipping with my Prime membership!). So far, no birds have checked it out. The glass is thinner than I would have preferred, so I don't really think it's going to last all that long, but while I have it I'll enjoy it. We need to get a bird feeder, too. We're thinking of putting it in the corner of the yard, just to the left of the tree trunk in the above picture (but in the back). The biggest issue, of course, is that all the seeds that fall on the ground tend to sprout. If it falls in your yard, you can just mow over it and keep it under control. In the planter, though, it could be an issue. I am thinking we should rake away all the pine straw, place a black plastic ground cover there, and cover it with the needles. That will at least take care of most of the weeds.
The weather has been perfect. Not too hot, not too cold, and we've had sun and not rain lately!!! All of the landscaping looks to have survived the winter; almost everything is leafing out. The oak tree in this picture is always the last thing to turn green each year. Its branches are loaded with little leaf buds, though. It's grown so much since Alex and Bruce planted it.
94. I'm so grateful for the landscaping that Southern Homes & Gardens did for us. It looks even prettier now than it did last summer and I know that as things continue to fill out everything will look even better. I think the roses at the end of our yard have doubled in size since last summer. They're going to be spectacular. As we sat on our little patio and surveyed our tiny yard I could just imagine us sitting there in twenty years. We were married a long time before we had Alex (eleven years) and it already feels normal to be just us two again (as long as Alex comes back to visit regularly!!!).
If you are looking for a book to read (you should ask me for recommendations), there's a neat web site called Good Reads. You rate books that you've already read and they make recommendations based on what you like and don't like. It was fun to rate books and it made me feel REALLY well read because I had so many from every category. On the other hand, I don't need any recommendations from a web site. Maybe. I mean, I have read some good books based on asking friends for their ideas -- most of which I would never have read on my own -- so maybe I should keep this site in the back of my mind. Hmmm.
Well, I have made a couple more recipes to tell you about. I have to tell you that I'm going through a patch where I want to eat bad things. I have mostly resisted, but not completely. I'm not sure what my problem is; I think after I finish reading Mansfield Park I should read a vegan book to get me focused again. (By the way, I'm a quarter of the way through the book and I like it better than I did the first time around mostly because I had such low expectations and because I am thoroughly enjoying Jane Austen's wit, but I am hating Fanny Price even more than I did the first time because then I could at least HOPE she would grow a spine; this time I know that she won't.)
Anyway, I made a Happy Herbivore recipe for Black Bean Brownies. I won't post a picture because I'm lazy and you can see one if you follow the link.
First the good: these suckers have less than one gram of fat per brownie (from the beans). That is NOTHING. They are actually good for you; the only negative is the sugar and that's just a trifle. Each large brownie is only 112 calories, so you can pig out and eat half a pan for supper and not feel (too) guilty.
The bad: no one will ever award these the blue ribbon in the "Best Brownie" contest. This should not be a surprise, but I was still a little sad. Having said that, I've already eaten two and will undoubtedly finish the whole pan (Bruce -- odd man -- doesn't really like brownies).
I also made a baked macaroni and "cheese" recipe from her cookbook. I have to stop thinking I'll ever find a real cheese substitute. In fact, I didn't even tell Bruce this was "macaroni and cheese" -- I think I just said "pasta" or something like that.
It was not bad, honest. It was also not macaroni and cheese. I threw in some peas, as you can see, to make it a little healthier. Bruce liked it very much the way it was, although he did sprinkle "bacon" bits on his. I liked it okay, but I liked it even more when I stirred in some marinara sauce (from a jar).
More later...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)