Dinner Roles

Relationship dynamics are kind of funny.  I mean, pretty much anything can be funny if you have a sick sense of humor, and I do.

But I was thinking about how people tend to take on roles - first in their family, then they carry them out into the world and use them in other relationships.

I am, for example, someone who tries to please everyone and smooth over conflict.  Until I'm done, at which point, I either lose my shit or, you know, end up in the ER* with vertigo.  Just saying.

This ends up with me taking on a lot of emotional output - I think I am an empath.  I know a lot of people say, "Oh, yes, the problems of others affect me more than most people.  I don't think I'm saying that - it's just that I tend to absorb the energy that people around me are putting out.  Enthusiasm is contagious, but so, to an extent, is rage.

Soak Up Those Emotions, Baby!

Anyway, as it turns out, everyone has feelings, and some are pleasant and others aren't.  That's all I have to say at the moment about that.

Gwendolyn and Arthur's second brood is still incubating, best as I can tell.  I've managed to catch them switching shifts a few times, and it never ceases to amaze me.  Their internal clocks are finely tuned.

Piper has yet to notice our feathered friends - her mind is laser focused on lizards.  We have a rock wall about two feet high that runs as a border around a few parts of the yard.  Therein lie the lizards.  She is interested in squirrels, but chases them with less gusto than she did in years past.  Don't we all, kids? Don't we all?

Tonight is meatless Monday.  We've decided we eat too much meat, and so - we're trying to cut back.  Dinner this evening is no less decadent than a meatless meal - and certainly not any cheaper.  

I'm making this:

There were hundreds of videos to choose from  - I picked this one because it looked straightforward.  I have picked prettier tomatoes, but you get the idea.  

It's not too creamy, it's got some substance and brine to it, and the mister can pepperflake it to his preferred heat.  I have given up on him trying things before adding spice, but at least I tried.  I truly did.

By the way, I'm adding olives and artichoke hearts to flesh it out a little, if you'll excuse the meaty expression.

I'll keep you posted on that, but I'm hopeful.

One more day til the next episode of Cruel Summer - which coincides with a hockey game, so I'll have to delay my gratification a little - and that's OK.  I'm surviving my own summer- well, spring - for one more month, but seriously, we've had the air on for a while now.  And my sprummer, for lack of a better portmanteau is not cruel.  Or cruellers.  I do enjoy a good crueller.

*Speaking of which,  I ended up in the ER last weekend with a cut on my leg that I managed to give myself by taking a broken glass in a trash bag out to the bin in the alley.  Thirteen stitches - three subcutaneous. ten on top.  This has nothing to do with trying to please anyone other than myself.  I was in a cleaning frenzy, and I wasn't paying attention.  But I did manage to lessen the chaos in the house, save for one quick hop to the ER.