Jul. 3: Potato salad saves the day

I was kinda grouchy when I woke up this morning, for a few reasons:

• My back hurts and I didn’t sleep well. I know, you’re tired of hearing about my aching back. I’m tired of telling you about it.
• I had a headache. I woke up with this one on Wednesday and got rid of it late that night. It came back yesterday morning and was pretty intense until mid-morning today when it quietly disappeared. I wanted to shout “hooray!” but then it came back. Grr.
• Victor had to work today. I know it’s better having to work on a holiday like Fourth of July rather than, say, Christmas, but I like when he’s home when he’s supposed to be. Whine!
• Vic’s not only working today, he’s on call tomorrow. This means we can’t count on him being around the whole day, really. Again, it’s better now than on a bigger-deal holiday, but still. What if I have to do all the cooking? What if I have to keep the kids busy? What if I have to clean something? What if I have to (perish the thought) wash dishes? You can see wherein my desperation lies.
• I have a zit on my forehead.

Ever since we moved into this neighborhood, we’ve enjoyed a big Fourth of July celebration with our neighbors. Sometimes it has involved food—in fact, it’s almost always involved food—and we occasionally have good weather for it. Last year we even had a parade—talk about a perfect day. Fireworks purchased across the border are always a part of the celebration—my least favorite part, but I’m certainly not leaving my kids out there unsupervised, so I always stay and watch the show. This year the big shin-dig is a much smaller affair. In fact, no one’s said much of anything so I’m not sure there’ll be a neighborhood gathering at all. Bummer.

Fortunately, we have other options. Sonya and her family are in town, and although Jacob has gone off to Wisconsin or Minnesota or New Hampshire for camp, the rest of us will be celebrating the Fourth together. Kinda. I’m actually not sure if we’ll all be together at the same time, but we’ll try. At the very least, it’ll be me, Katie, Jack, Grandpa and Grandma. Ideally we’ll also have Victor, Chris, Sonya and Julianne.

All of this uncertainty about tomorrow’s plans contributed to my grouchy waking-up-ness this morning too. But then I ran across my aunt’s potato salad recipe. The idea of eating this fab salad—which I’ve heard about for years and somehow cannot remember ever actually tasting—made me super happy. And when my mother-in-law called to tell me about the other things she had in mind for our Fourth of July dinner tomorrow, she mentioned strawberry shortcake so I offered to make Sherilee’s shortcake recipe. That’s TWO new recipes I get to try for tomorrow, and since neither one is mine I don’t have to feel bad if they both totally bomb!

The other thing I’m pleased about is that whomever we end up with tomorrow, there will be a minimum of fireworks. If your mother-in-law spent years working in a hospital burn unit, you too would have heard all the stories that would make you want to avoid any kind of incendiary devices ever, ever again.

So tomorrow almost sucked, what with my now-normal aches and pains, possibly hanging out husbandless at home, and the absence of our traditional get-drunk-and-pig-out-and-blow-shit-up methods of celebrating with our neighbors. But food! Food fixes so many bad things! And family! I like my family, especially when I get to see them! Yay!

P.S. If you have any illness or injuries tomorrow that might require a CT scan, please do not go to the E.R. at Adventist. PLEASE. How ‘bout if I tell you their E.R. sucks? It totally doesn’t, but wouldn’t I be the person that would know that, seeing’s how I’ve been there so much lately? So listen to me now and believe me later: don’t go asking for a CT at their E.R. tomorrow. Sunday, sure. Monday, fine with me. But not tomorrow. Thanks.