I have to sit on my hands, cut my wings, zip it, walk away, do a lot of counting to 10. And I know better. I know that oft times there is nothing that I can do which will change the sitch. For the better anyway. I'm accustomed to putting gas on the firepit but diffusing things has not been my bomb squad. But I'm trying to leave that behind with the childish, impish youth and naivete of ---43.
Sometimes you have to work with what is right in front of you. Our creative DIY resource, event planner and It Girl for the Hacienda writes about how her practical (and for the record dashingly handsome) boyfriend says The Simplest Answer is Often the Best One...and as a homesteader, entrepreneur and city chica turned farm gal? I gotta work with what is. Not with what was supposed to be. Not even really what I wanted and almost never what I imagined. (I can credit 'better than my imagination' ONCE exactly, in a word, France)
So when the river keeper in my town and knower of all things water told me to DO NOTHING about the spring that had popped up in my yard...I was happy. Namely because I've been trying for 2 weeks to get someone to tell me what I should do. **And for the record if you have a job title with the words WATER MANAGEMENT in it, you should know what to do with ground water**, so yes. Natural phenom. What is a private resident to do? Dig a $5000 hole? yea, no. Don't worry about it, he said. It's not near your house. So yay!
I was free. It's not my big fat responsibility to change/help/pay for everything. Who knew?
Years as a self trained chef and restaurateur gave me improv skills to mimic the second city comedy troupe. Cake not cooked in the middle? It's a souffle. Tomatoes too soft for salsa? It's gazpacho. Wine turned rancid? Make sangria.
These are life skills we can all benefit from. Cuz the only way to get through some of these more silly times? Make lemonade. Kegs full.
So here's todays Hacienda Improv. The pork belly I was curing for bacon has had too much time in it's salt crust and the air. So may I introduce to you, my first prosciutto/pancetta. It's all in how you look at it.
Sometimes you have to cover one eye, dim the lights and change the soundtrack--but hey, what is life if not a little bit of theater? La dolce vita may not be "realistic" but I for one am sick of that word. Aren't you? Here's to fantasy.
