Read the Instructions
I had a hard time quieting my mind this morning. I tried relentlessly to meditate after doing my morning yoga. The fact that I am saying “I tried relentlessly” tells you what state I am in. I feel like my 7 month old puggle. My mind is so jam packed it feels like there is no room for the universe to get in. I found myself sitting there on the floor in lotus position wondering if Fairway would have the last ingredient I needed to make the highly anticipated cupcakes I have been talking about making for weeks, I was thinking about the pile of laundry that was so high in my closet it resembled the leaning tower of Pisa, I was thinking about what to cook for dinner, I was thinking about when I will get around to actually taking my Social Work licensing exam, I was thinking about when I am going to get engaged, and if I’ll be able to get pregnant easily, I was thinking about the apartment we are going to look at tomorrow in Brooklyn which inevitably led me to thinking about moving and all that comes with it…
But wait, I’m supposed to be meditating, quieting my mind, connecting with the present moment and abandoning my ego and the thoughts that come with it. Epic Fail. So I decided to shift my perspective and stand on my head. God, hello? Are you there? It’s me Kate, I’m upside down and I thought maybe I could hear you better if I stood on my head…
Nada.
Sigh.
This is just where I am today. So I decided to just accept it and go on with my day. What that meant was making these blessed cupcakes. Anyone from the NYC area or anyone who is a vegan or allergic to wheat may have heard about the famous Babycakes bakery. Well, the woman who started that bakery came out with a cook book with all of the recipes to her fabulously delicious and relatively healthy desserts. I promised my other half I would make him cupcakes for his birthday.
His birthday was January 5th.
In fairness though, the ingredients in these things are ridiculously difficult to find. I don’t know how I would do it if I didn’t live in a city with umpteen organic and whole food markets. Even with all of that I still had to go to 5 different stores to get everything I needed. And by the way- if you ever find yourself in this predicament you can buy xanthan gum from amazon.com. That’s right- xanthan gum. If he doesn’t know I love him after this project he never will. But I digress. I finally got all of the ingredients and set to work in making the frosting. This meant finally taking the beautiful and slightly intimidating food processor out of the place I had shoved it since Christmas when I got it. I opened it, all ready to start PROCESSING SOME FOOD. But this thing had more parts than a car. And low and behold, it comes with a 50 minute DVD! What happened to good ol’ instruction manuals? Are they a thing of the past? Come on, I can’t already be at the age where I’m saying “Back in my day…”. But, alas, it comes with both. OH GOODY. I really fought hard against watching the DVD. Screw you food processor! I have a Bachelor’s degree AND a Master’s degree, you can’t defeat me! After seeing the blades and posts and slicers and bobbles (yeah, I just made that one up) I gave in.
Food processor: 1 Katie: 0
I watched the dang dvd. And ya know what happened? I enjoyed it. It was miraculous! They were slicing potatoes in the time it takes me to take the potatoes out of the bag. They were shredding carrots in seconds. This thing is BRILLIANT! THEY SHOULD MAKE DVD INSTRUCTION MANUALS FOR EVERYTHING! Baking, moving, getting married, meditating, getting pregnant (maybe not for this last one)…there it goes again, the unstoppable train of ridiculous thoughts.
Again, you can tell I’m a little over-excitable today. So I took some deep breaths, went into the kitchen, and made some kick butt vegan vanilla frosting. I’m not a vegan for those of you who are wondering, but my health and choice of diet will have to wait until another post.
I see a nap in my future. And some yoga during which I will try again to quiet the loud screaming ego in my head today.
