Abbie's Real Life Blog

Hmm.  I haven’t posted in quite awhile!  I wonder what was up with me?  I have just been a little lazy here lately, I guess, or really really busy!  Just living a life crammed with new and exciting things all the time!

It is Passover now, and Easter is this weekend.  Easter is not a huge holiday for my family.  We do a family dinner, but we spend a lot more time celebrating St. Patrick’s Day, which is a better holiday, in my opinion.  I am supposed to make carrot raisin salad for this Easter, and I look at recipes, and they all want sour cream.  But I do not remember that carrot raisin salad has any kind of dairy component, from my memory of the look or taste of it.  It tastes like carrots mixed with pineapple and raisins!  But I do not question the recipes.  I will make it with sour cream, because it is supposed to be that way.  And I will try to avoid buying any more Easter candy.  Those Cadbury eggs are addictive.

I volunteered at the food bank for the last time on Monday.  It was an interesting experience, and I think that I might go back in the fall when the days get shorter again, and I’m looking for something to do indoors.  But right now I’m looking for something outdoors, and I was feeling like my weeks were slipping by with something going on every night of the week.  So I’m glad to reclaim some time.  I’m not giving up on volunteerism, of course!  I’m scheduled to work for both the Cleanup Columbia event and Earth Day.  That will be fun.  And I’m looking for some other projects that will get me out of the house and into the outdoors as the days get longer and warmer.

And, of course, my grass has turned green and is growing longer, and soon I will need to be spending 3+ hours/week mowing and trimming and doing things that make my yard look good.  I have been waiting for a good weekend to start some of the work, but the last three weekends did not work out so well.  We had rain and snow and then I went on a road trip on the prettiest weekend yet.  This weekend might have been a good starting point, but it is supposed to rain on Saturday and then we have family stuff on Sunday.  And this is why I get so frustrated with gardening!  When I am ready to do it, the weather isn’t cooperative.

My road trip over the weekend was really nice!  I drove up to Des Moines, Iowa, on Saturday to visit my cousin & his wife, and then came back on Sunday.  It was a short trip, but lots of fun.  We went to the Planned Parenthood Book Fair (and, of course, I did not escape without some adventure essay compilations) and to dinner at Fong’s Pizza in downtown Des Moines, which served exciting pizza combinations in a tiki bar setting.  I love tiki and I love pizza!  How could this go wrong?  I did have a beachy drink, though it was not served in a traditional tiki cup.  My tiki cups at home go wasted on a shelf!  I should learn to make fruity drinks and use my collection more often.

I drove up there by way of Kansas City, which Google Maps tells me is the fastest route.  My cousin disagrees, and he would probably know.  It did take five hours to get there that way, and only about six hours to get home.  The return trip involved a lot of back roads, backtracking, and more stops for photos, so he’s probably right and I should have just driven up through the back roads.  They’re more fun anyway.  But I think I drove through four of my former towns of residence, not including Columbia.  So that was cool.

Tonight is trivia night.  I love playing trivia.  I love the group that plays with me.  I love that it gives me something to look forward at the early part of the week, and then after it’s over, I’m all, “Oh, wow, it’s Thursday!” And I’m even loving the stupid grilled cheese sandwich that I eat there every week.  It is thoroughly mediocre, and sometimes just plain bad (when they don’t even grill it enough that the cheese melts), but I find myself looking forward to it.

And that’s where I’m at!  It’s a beautiful sunny warm day outside, and I am stuck inside for now, but I am wearing a skirt anyway.  The town is mostly empty because it is spring break.  The students that are here are wearing shorts & t-shirts & flip-flops because they are certain that this is appropriate wear for any temperatures higher than forty-five degrees.  Why can’t they just enjoy wearing jeans and t-shirt without a coat for awhile?  I do not understand the need to rush into summer.  Spring is a lovely season on its own!