Do You Bake?

So yesterday I was in the supermarket in the baking aisle, looking at food coloring. Another lady, about my age, in the same aisle was looking at boxed cake mixes. Somehow I must have looked like I knew what I was doing, because she came over to me with a pretty standard cake mix in her hand and said, timidly, "Excuse me, do you bake?"

I answered, "Yeeeesssss ..." (reservedly, because I am far from an expert baker -- heck, I don't even make pie crust! and I wondered, during this split second between my answer and her next question, if she was going to ask me something really, really hard). She asked, "Can I use this mix to make cupcakes?"

Whew! I knew that one. I told her that yes, she could, but the baking time would be less than for a layer cake, and that she should check the instructions on the box because many times they tell you how long to bake it according to pan size or whatever and the time for cupcakes may very well be on the box. She look relieved, thanked me, and walked away.

Wow. I guess a lot of people really don't bake nowadays. At ALL. I envision the poor lady picking her child up from school and learning she has to take two dozen cupcakes to school the next day and being at a total loss, not knowing quite what to do ...

Mini-stones

So I was thinking today about different things that have happened in my life in the last year and how many months it has been since each one ... these are kind of like milestones but on such a small scale that the term "mini-stones" came to me.

One year ago my Dear Hubby and I were up here in the Chicago area scouting out a place to live, a job, etc. I moved permanently back to the U.S.A. on November 2nd, so the 9-month anniversary of that is coming up very soon. Nine months already? Time sure flies.

I sprained my left ankle very badly on February 23rd of this year, so the 5-month mark for that has just passed. The last time I got a similarly bad sprain (on the same ankle, 12 or 13 years ago), it was at least 6 months before I got back to normal, so I wasn't expecting a particularly swift recovery this time, either. I am happy to report that although I'm still not fully recuperated, I am defininitely out of the woods with my ankle. Yay!

I've been at my current job (cashier at The Home Depot) for nearly 4 months now. I no longer feel stressed out because of not knowing what I'm doing. (Whether that is because I now know what I am doing or because I just learned not to stress about it remains to be seen. :-P)

DH and I got a car nearly a month ago. We'd lived so long without one (decades, in my case) that getting our own little private means of transportion was life-changing. Tomorrow will mark the mini-stone of our return home after the first road trip in this car -- which went wonderfully, thanks be to God.

And so on.

I have much to be thankful for.

From the 'Burbs

Dateline: Melrose Park, Illinois

It has been over 3 months now since I moved to this western suburb of Chicago. The move itself and the adjustment has been very satisfactory -- much less difficult, in many instances, than I had anticipated. I'm still "in transition," though. A lot of normally mundane, everyday life things are still new and exotic. I still get stung by culture shock occasionally. But I must be making progress, since I feel I can blog about it now. :-P

Just off the top of my head...

Some things I like about living here:

1.) There's a small but fabulous public library, and I have a card! I can check out books and even movies free of charge. If my library doesn't have an item, I can usually get it through interlibrary loan. All this abundance still blows my mind.

2.) Although we don't have a car, there are several supermarkets within walking distance of us, and most of them have authentic Mexican food ingredients as well as lots of cool items for kosher, Polish, Indian, Italian, and other cuisines.

3.) Postal service is relatively inexpensive, reliable, and quick. Yeah, I know a lot of people complain about the U.S.P.S., but until you have lived in the developing world, you don't know good we have it here.

4.) This is the Midwest. We are not sophisticated like Out East nor cutting-edge trendy like on the West Coast. There's no ocean here, or mountains, or deserts, no canyons or glaciers or sleeping volcanoes ... just prairie (and a big lake, of course.) I love living in what truly is (despite its being a cliche) the country's heartland.


A couple of things I don't particularly like about living here:

1.) Folks always have the heating turned way up, and I feel like I am going to suffocate. Our apartment is so overheated that we regularly need to open the window -- when it's snowing outside! Even the public buses and subway have the heat way too high. I'm all for avoiding frostbite, but this is just too much. I wonder why the stores even bother to sell sweaters in the wintertime; inside, it's too hot for them, and when you go outside, you are all bundled up in a big coat anyway.

2.) That nasal Chicago accent. I suppose I will get used to it in time, however. I may even acquire one myself! lol


I'm sure more lists will follow.