crucible of ennui

How many mothers do you have? I think I’m up to 7 at this point in my life. My two foster moms, one adopted mom, 3 friend moms and finally, one reunited birth mom. I am so lucky and blessed to have lived this fabulous life.

Thank you unknown russian family for not adopting me – I don’t know who you are or why you gave me back to the city of Los Angeles, but I’m thankful you did as I hate borscht.

Thank you Aunt Shirley – BEST FOSTER MOTHER IN THE WORLD!! Thank you for always staying in touch and treating me like a daughter even after I was adopted. Girl – you’re like 90 and still rockin around the Valley.

Mom – I miss you. Please watch over me and help me not to mess things up too much.

Beth – Thank you for opening up your home and life. You taught me how to cook, how to shop and oodles of other inappropriate topics anyone is free to ask me about offline.

Christina – my voice of conservative reason. You may be a peer, but I give weight to your opinions. You have no idea how many times I call you to run things through that amazingly succienct mind and heart of yours.

Flavia – I think of all my surrogate moms, you may be my most favorite. Gorgeous, sassy and fabulously witty… Yeah. I want to be Flavia.

And finally Laurie – when mom passed away, I took the chance to contact my birth mom. And Laurie is everything I wanted to find. Everyday we work and build and learn about each other. The most amazing gift of all – her friendship. Thank you Laurie for setting me on this fantastic journey!

I’m a mom now. I LOVE my babygirl. I count my blessings in her and my life every morning and night.

Love your Mom. You mean the world to her.
Wade in the Water
Laurie, my mom, piano
Kira, cousin, guitar

Miss you Mom
Diane Napolitano
1944-1998

One part fresh squeezed orange juice
One part pineapple juice
One part peach juice
Shake with ice and strain into chilled glass.
If you’re over 21, I recommend an additional part of rum. I like rum.

edit: I forgot that the drinking age was 21… not 13.

text message from BFF: Happy Easter!! Don’t eat any bunnies.

Thanks Beth… thanks for that friendly, but tragic reminder.

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Originally uploaded by Glenn Calvin

“My daddy pulled it out of my face!”

How funny is this? Now that I’m not working, I’m busier than ever.

This week is the last I have before Cat gets out for Christmas vacation.

The plan? Cookies. Lots and lots of cookies.

It’s the end of Sunday dinner. Glenn is trying to convince Catherine to eat the gravy skin for $20. Should I put a stop to such shenanigans?

Or should I put down another $20?

Two words. Roller Disco.

Tonight I visited Skateland for the first time in 26 years. It hadn’t changed a bit… I remembered the all girl skate, the backward skate, the lights-off skate, the hook-your-pinkie-finger-into-the-back-loop-of-your-junior-high-school-boyfriend’s-jeans skate and, of course, the hokey pokey.

Magic happened as Joan Jett started to sing about her love for rock and roll… 9 disco balls were hit with lights and the fog machines started to fog… 1982. Kinda like Xanadu, but without Gene Kelly.

I guess the walk away on this post – I still heart Xanadu and Roller Disco.

Saturday night Cat and I were eating dinner.

Cat: Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could eat our dinner and have someone rub our feet at the same time?

Me: Like table midgets?

Cat: Exactly. All the best restaurants would have them, then we could eat our enchiladas and have foot rubs!!

Love her.

Ya know… now that I’m actually trying to be a little conscious of what I’m making and feeding us, I realized that a lot of my cooking hasn’t really been high on health consciousness… like chicken pot pie and BACON!!! and my fondness for butter.

So this week I made stuffed peppers!! Not like those icky green pepper ones… yummy sweet red ones!! But I made it as healthy as I could. I figured if it totally sucked, we could go get enchiladas at Mission Burrito.

This makes 4 servings – each one 293 calories. So if you’re super hungry, no harm no foul in having 2 for dinner.

You need:
2 nice red bell peppers – get the ones that have four sections instead of three. You know what I mean… look at the bottom of the pepper. Do you see three or four bumps? Four? Good. Get two.
1 lb ground turkey.
1 bag of steamed brown rice.
1 small can Hunt’s tomato sauce with garlic/oregano (whatevs).
Some shredded Mozzarella cheese.

Slice the peppers from top to bottom. You want little boats that are stable when you put them on their side. Clean them and put the 4 halves to the side.
Brown the turkey. Steam the rice and mix the turkey/rice and tomato sauce together. Add anything like spices or whatever you want at this point. Spoon into the pepper halves. Sprinkle cheese on top and bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes. Done. Easy. Tasty. Filling. And Healthy.

Yay!

The cat is totally fucking with me/us this morning. He’s sitting in the hallway, staring into an alcove. I know there’s NOTHING THERE and yet I still will stop and look in to check each 3rd or 4th time I pass by him… sitting there, intent.

He’s such a loving guy. He’s imprinted on all of us in unique ways. Catherine rescued him from the pound, carried him around as a fluff-ball. He put up with so much. And Cat can dish out a lot. Glenn is his buddy. Total buddy.

On the other hand, we have an odd relationship. Somehow I think he thinks I’m his mother. He’s taken to sleeping on my pillow right above my head. Or draped on my hip/back/face. The minute I flop down somewhere, he’s there within seconds to flop down on top of me. But the funniest thing he does is climb onto my shoulder and start to groom/lick my hair. I have to stop him because, frankly… that’s totally disgusting. And the noise it makes is worse than fingernails on chalkboard. Sometimes he gets carried away and starts to bite my scalp. Freaky. I’m like a cat-lady pirate.