DawnPapuga.com — Reality 101

Admit it…

If you haven’t actually done it, you’ve thought about it. 

While in grad school I mastered the art of taking a power nap just about anywhere.  Library?  Check.  My Office?  Check.  On The Quad in the grass?  Check.  Standing in line at the store? Check. The one place I have managed to master the art of the quick nap is in my car.  It’s not hard, but there are certain things you need to have in order for your power nap to be effective!

What you’ll need:

1. A car.  This should be self explanatory.
2. A parking place where the security or police won’t come knocking on your window.
3. A small but comfortable pillow.  You can, of course, use something else–a towel, blanket, sweatshirt–but little pillows are the best.
4. A blanket.  In the summer you won’t need this, obviously, but in the winter it can be a good idea.
5. An eye pillow!  Of everything on this list, an eye pillow, or sleep mask is the most important!  You don’t get any kind of restful sleep when you’ve got the sun bleeding through your eyelids.  Sleep masks are good, but if you can get an eye pillow with lavender inside, it’s also very calming.

It takes some getting used to, but I’m a big fan of the afternoon nap.  Maybe it’s the lifestyle that I have become accustomed to with needing to catch sleep whenever I can, but if I’m tired I can’t concentrate.  I’m much more productive when I’ve had a power nap.  I did it today and it made a big difference in the way I tackled the afternoon.  So if you’re crabby or lagging throughout the day try a quick power nap in your car… Just make sure you have your phone or an alarm of some kind!

Earlier today Cindy had mentioned that she was in the process of making a Strawberry Rhubarb Cobbler, and I was instantly jealous of the people that would get to partake in such a yummy treat.  I love strawberry rhubarb pies and jellies, but they’re hard to come by here unless someone makes them.  I bought myself a strawberry rhubarb pie when I went to the farm for the Thanksgiving holiday last year and I didn’t even get to eat it!  I still have the jelly I bough, though, so now I just have to find a reason to eat it.

Rhubarb and I have a rocky past, you see.  When I was in grade school my brothers and I used to play in the back yard, in our back grass alley, and in the back yards of the neighbors.  They were mostly fine with us tramping through their yards–until we tried to “help” one neighbor in particular by ripping up and stomping to pieces what we though were “elephant leaves.”  Someone had said, at some time, that “elephant leaves” were weeds, so we thought we were doing a good thing.  We were ridding the world of vile weeds in the name of righteousness!!

It turns out that my brothers and I managed to destroy half of my neighbor’s rhubarb garden with the deftness of all children excited by “gardening.”  At the time, that neighbor was a little old lady (sadly, I cannot remember her name, but I remember her face… and her kitchen).  Rather than screaming and chasing us with pots and pans, she came out on her back porch and stopped short at the stairs.  She didn’t say a word to us, and as soon as I saw the redness in her face and the dampness in her eyes, all the smiling and pride I had drained away.  I was gonna get it for sure…

The next day, she spoke to my mom and asked her to send me over to help her with her garden.  My mom explained to me that we had ruined her rhubarb garden, and did not, as we had believed, rid her yard of evil weeds.  So I went over and when she opened the door to the kitchen I could smell her baking.  She sent me back into the yard to gather up all the rhubarb remnants in a collander.  I did and she showed me how to wash and prepare it.  I spent all day helping her bake strawberry rhubarb pies and making jelly.  After we finished, she sat me down and gave me a piece of one of the pies we made together and I wanted to cry after tasting it.  I felt so bad for destroying her garden!  And it was delicious!!  She sent me home with some jelly and a pie for my family, and to this day I have never tasted a strawberry rhubarb concoction quite as delicious as the ones she made.  I also helped her plant more rhubarb and other vegetables and flowers. 

I don’t know what happened to her, or why I stopped going over and visiting her, but I do wish I would have kept in touch with her.  I just remember that one day she was gone and a new family lived there.  When they ripped up her garden I remember being upset, and I remember trying to plant my own in some kind of tribute, but it never quite worked out. 

Maybe I’ll see if Cindy can share her secret strawberry rhubarb cobbler recipe and try and recreate the magic of my childhood…

Oh yeah…. Don’t forget to add your movie to my last post!  I’ll post my own choice soon, too!

cartoon desert island  Originally uploaded by kristineinindonesia

I want to learn more about you.

Some people would do this by asking direct, obvious questions. Not me. That’s a little too easy for my liking. So here’s a question I want you all to answer so I can glean more information about who I’m interacting with:

Let us suppose that you know that you are going to be stranded on a desert island for what you think will be the rest of your natural life. For some reason, you know this ahead of time and you have the opportunity to take with you one single movie to watch on said island. Which movie would you take?

Caveats:

No trilogies! One individual movie only! It can be a movie from a trilogy, but you can’t take all three.

If you get stuck trying to figure out how there would be a working DVD player, TV, and electricity, please note this along with your movie.

If you can’t get past the whole “If I know ahead of time, why would I still go?” issue… please note that as well.

Ready, GO!