Monday, February 28, 2011

Tornado Sirens and Souffles

As is so often the case on a Monday, this day and me had a case of…the Mondays.

I don’t think it could be avoided. I stayed up too late last night watching the Oscars. I was pleased with the winners since I really liked “The Kings Speech.” I wasn’t so happy with the Oscars overall because they were just…boring. They were shorter than they have been in a while, I think but it also felt like a lot of stuff was missing. Also, the two hosts were not…very good. I like both Anne Hathaway and James Franco as actors. As Oscar hosts, they’re just…well, they should stick to acting. Anyway, long story short is that I should have gone to bed earlier.

Then, this morning at 5:00 a.m. we had rather a massive thunderstorm which woke me up. I was just drifting back to sleep when suddenly the tornado alarms started blaring. Needless to say, this scared me since I’m not used to hearing tornado alarms. My parents live too far out in the country to hear the alarms in their town and when I lived in L.A. there were no sirens because theoretically, there aren’t tornadoes in Los Angeles.

So, when they started blaring, I sat bolt upright. Rory joined me, clearly quite alarmed. Sookie…well, that dachshund can apparently sleep through anything. She sleepily lifted up her head as if to say, “WHAT IS THAT NOISE. I AM SLEEPING!”, groaned and went back to sleep. Rory and I, however, stayed up. Since I was unsure if the tornado sirens meant there was an actual tornado or just that it was possible we could have a tornado, I turned on the TV. There was…nothing on there about a tornado. I waited to see if one of those alert thingies would scroll across the screen but it didn’t. Thus, I decided that I’d just be alert. If I heard the sound of a freight train which, apparently, is how a tornado sounds, I’d take the pups and go into our spare bathroom which is the only room in the house without an outside wall. Since I live in a town that was built on a water spring, there are no basements. Thus, an interior room is the best I’m going to be able to do.

Fortunately, the sirens stopped. I figured that was a good sign that we were out of danger. I went to bed with a rather scared little pup named Rory curled up tightly next to me. It’s nice to have doggie company during scary wake-up calls. It makes me feel a little less alone.

Naturally, I had trouble sleeping. I dreamed I called in sick. When my alarm went off, I thought about actually calling in sick since I was tired and had a slight headache. As is my usual habit, I talked myself out of it because I couldn’t justify doing so without actually being sick. I get the guilts, you see. The guilts tend to fade a little when I’m in a job I don’t like (like my last one) but I actually DO like my current job so I feel guilty if I call in sick when I’m really ok.

I think I should have called in sick. Everyone had a case of the Mondays. Our usually chipper branch administrator was crabby, everyone was quiet and there was nothing really happening. The phone barely rang, I didn’t get many emails and I just felt like I wasn’t getting anything done.

It didn’t help that it was rainy and dreary outside and the sun didn’t appear. It was definitely a stay-in type of day.

Still, as is the nice thing about Mondays, they only last 24 hours, the same as every other day. Thus, the 8+ hours I spend at work is over and the rest of Monday is reserved for more relaxing, unproductive things like watching “Gossip Girl” (please don’t judge me), making dinner (Thai Chicken soup) and snuggling with puppies. Some might argue that making dinner is productive but since cooking is a hobby for me, it’s really just relaxing so I consider that unproductive… in a sense. I get to eat it though which is the productive part.

I find cooking is a good way to ward off a case of the Mondays. Food is soothing and food is good. I don’t do anything too daring on a Monday in the kitchen but usually try to plan something comforting and fun to make. I enjoy chopping and mixing ingredients so Mondays tend to be soup days a lot.

I usually save my daring cooking projects for weekends. Hence, that’s when I made gnocchi, when I make pasta and when I attempt things like soufflés. I did that yesterday. Souffles are on my ‘bucket list’ of things to try in the kitchen in my lifetime. I’ve never made a soufflé so I made a cheese one yesterday. I have to say, I think it turned out well. I say “think” because, well, I don’t think I’ve actually ever had a soufflé so I had no basis for comparison. It did, however, rise a lot. It also had a nice slightly goey cheesy middle that blended well with the crust on the top. It also tasted rather nice but I’ve discovered when you put gruyere cheese in anything, it tends to taste nice.

But tonight I won’t be attempting a soufflé. Given that it’s a Monday, chances are it would not be a good day to attempt it. Mondays are the days when things like soufflés run amuck and don’t turn out right. Sorry, Monday but it’s just a fact….I’m afraid you’re the unpopular kid in school. It doesn’t help when you begin with an alarming wake-up call either.

Ah well, if Mondays weren’t Mondays, where would we be? The universe would be out of whack and things would be a little weird. There’s always got to be one day in the week that’s “that” day and, for me, it tends to be Mondays.

Here’s hoping Tuesday goes a little better. No tornado sirens, please!
Happy Tuesday!

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