It is a beautiful Day

Today started off kind of gray and yucky. But now it is 4pm and it is sunny and lovely. Wow the sun can really turn things around.

I have been sitting at home today while the kids and David are out skiing. I have the house to myself. So I cleaned it, a little. Then I watched Hairspray for the first time. It was a cute movie.

Today I am going to talk about food, I just re-read some of my posts and I am depressed!

Food, I love it. Growing up I did not enjoy a lot of food. Which is not good when you grow up in places like Asia. As an 8 year old you tend to see their food as strange. There is no kibeh or tiropita, or things like that. They have Kwaee Teaow, and chicken rice (the chicken is poached), etc. Some of it looks so weird that as an 8 year old I thought I was going to die. Except one summer my father took us to Thailand for a vacation. We stayed at the Dusit Thani hotel, it was lovely. And I remember the meal we had, because it was the day that I learned to love food. I was around 12. The flavours were fantastic, the rice, the lime, the spice, everything had so much flavour. I thought wow has any tasted this before? My parents were so excited. Finally the second child is eating normal food. Now they only had to deal with my brother Theo, who was so picky. He came to his senses later in his life I want to say College.

I still hate cauliflower and eggplant. My parents do not understand this since we are Greek/Arabs and both those vegetables are important part of our cuisine. I blame my dad, he made me eat this dish called, Matlubeh, it consisted of lamb, rice and cauliflower all cooked together. The consistency was just yuck, but my dad insisted i sit at the table and eat it. Back then I would play tricks. Now my dad and I can laugh about it. But I still will not eat it.

Now I have two kids and find myself going crazy because they won't eat anything. What is wrong with these kids? Then I remember my issues with food as a kid. You know what, they will come around. They have to at least try something once. I do not cook multiple meals, sorry this is not a restaurant.

Now I love to cook, I find it therapeutic and just a joy. Today I really want baked sweet potatoes and onions tossed in spinach. It is delicious, but for the life of me I did not know what to pair it with. Then the phone rang and my good friend Kerry asked "I am making leg of lamb you want to come over for dinner?" Perfect timing. My craving and Kerry's lamb will be a perfect match.

I can't wait to eat dinner.

What does this all mean?

Is the world falling apart? Is this just our turn to feel hardship, etc? I think of my dad who met hardship at every turn but coming out stronger and smarter. He dealt with wars, losing countries, homes, etc. He made sure that his family never had to do without. We lived a good life, great cultural experiences, great food, drink, people etc. I wonder when he was going through his trials and tribulations if he thought that it was so bad that nothing could make it better.

I am an optimistic person, or at least I like to think of myself as such. It is hard to do that when I listen to the news, or when three friends of mine are laid off in the past week or so. These are my counterparts. It is scary.

It is hard to be optimistic when in California they are fighting for equal rights. And Ken Starr is the idiot trying to keep prop 8 alive and kicking.

It is hard to be optimistic when I actually have to think about health care issues that a lot of Americans are facing today. You always think that happens to others and it will never happen to you.

However I have to be optimistic, because I have two wonderful children who need me to be optimistic, strong, and a realist.

I have to be optimistic because we have a President that is intelligent, who understands how people are suffering. He is willing to take the heat. I want to see him more because he does provide me the optimism I need.

I do not want to listen or have to see people like Rush Limbaugh, Anne Coulter, or Bill O'reily. I do not watch or hear their shows but they tend to be on the news too much. Why are they the story? That is what they want, they want to be the story. I say we take them out of the story and ignore them. Maybe they will throw such a tantrum they will finally go away. Just like a two year old who drops to the floor and starts thrashing his legs, and him mom just ignores him. He finally stops and just goes off and plays or sleeps and the mom does not hear from him again all she hears is happiness.

At the end of the day we will all survive. It will be hard but I have faith that the universe will provide.