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Dear Diary – We heard something crash, but despite our investigation, we found no source.

Until the next day.

It wasn’t the shard of broken glass on the bottom shelf that I noticed first, but the thick puddle of brown under the crisper drawers and up the back of the fridge. Then the green glass shard. I thought something had punctured the bottle of apple cider so my eyes scanned upwards for the sourse.

It wasn’t apple cider. It was coke.

Only one of three bottles froze, and how it got wedged at the back like that, where it exploded and showered every surface, I will never know.

Dear Diary – Lemon Pixie Cookies took me more than the estimated 10 minutes to put together, even if I hadn’t stopped to rearrange the freezer, dig through the junk drawer to find my zester, and combine 2 half bags of icing sugar (after sifting 1 cup that apparently I didn’t need), all while verbally comforting a whiny piggy who heard sounds in the kitchen and had high hopes.

I crushed those hopes just like I crushed my lemon. I now have lots of fresh lemon juice (but no recipe) because I only needed 2 teaspoons for this one. The recipe was supposed to make 10 small cookies…I got 9. But they were tart and lemony as promised. And a little bit nutty, just like their baker.

I also tried pink marshmallow squares which I’ve been thinking about for months. I wasn’t sure if I really had had them as a kid or if I just dreamed them.

I got the recipe from Mom at Christmas, and it wasn’t a cheaty recipe that used Jell-O. Nope…homemade marshmallow with sugar and gelatine powder, just like the ”60’s.

Groovy!

I thought they’d be a perfect addition to a tea-themed Ladies Craft ‘n Chat. I also salvaged the blueberry scones I baked at the wrong temperature, and I made cream cheese and cucumber sandwiches.

We had real goodies, real loose leaf tea, and real tea cups…and some real classy ladies. I was just disappointed that there weren’t more. During Covid shutdown, I had so many ladies emailing me, lamenting that we couldn’t get together. Many of them begged to be told when things started again. I can’t help but wonder where are they now?

Be a girl with a mind, a woman with attitude, and a lady with class.

Unknown

Dear Diary – I bought a used green screen so I can take bikini photos and add a beach background. Just kidding! I’m hoping to improve photos for my etsy shop. Now if I could just improve my figure so I could model those shots…

Dear Diary – Family day was spent…without family. But I did talk to my Mom, and Eldest Son called to let us know his family is expanding.

Nope! Not by marriage. By adoption.

I’m really excited for him.

And a little jealous too. I’ve been begging for a cat for over 20 years. To comfort myself, I cuddled Angus. He snuggled in sweetly…and peed on me. First I had to catch his. He has figured out that, after I’ve removed all the hiding places, he can simply stand in the middle of his cage and I can’t reach him. He openly and smugly mocks me too: “Ha Ha. Mom can’t reach me with her little T-Rex arms”.

Eldest Son is planning a tropical vacation soon and I have no idea what he’s going to do with his cat. We could take him for the week, but I’m concerned he’d view Angus less as a potato, and more as a pork bun.

How are you holding up? Because I’m a potato!

GlaDos, Portal 2

Dear Diary – I’ve harped on it many times before: Kindness matters.

I’m frustrated on Hubby’s behalf because he’s struggling with a co-worker who is disrespectful and critical of his teammates. He’s an arrogant know-it-all. We all know the type.

It’s hard not to get hot under the collar when someone is disrespectful in the workplace, and it’s getting worse. Managers are experiencing a new form of disrespect: being snubbed by candidates who accepted job offer and bail, or just never appear. In one study, more than 43% of Gen Z employees (>22) admit they’ve done just that. The term “ghosting” first appeared in the online dating world, but it’s bleeding into other facets of life.

While I think it shows a lack of respect among younger workers, some argue the behaviour is “predictable” because this generation has less financial restrictions, like a mortgage, and family responsibilities.

I wonder if it’s also helicopter parents giving too much support and freedom. And kidults who are willing to soak their parents to feed their insatiable pleasures. Just watch a few episodes of Snowflake Mountain on Netflix, and hang your head in sorrow. (Sorry, my babies, Mommy won’t be leasing you a 2025 Mercedes or covering your credit cards’ debts).

Youngest Son is not keen to get a Summer job and he’s been ghosting us too. I admit, while I’m trying to respect his reasoning, I’m kinda ticked off. And I worry that my example, (i.e., being home rather than working), sets a bad example. Even though my reasons for being home are largely due to physical challenges. And while I worked outside the home when he was younger, he never experienced long days stuck in childcare. He’s never spent 3 hours on a train every day, to earn a paycheck for groceries and rent. He doesn’t yet know the struggle to balance college, and work, and family life. I can tell him about living and studying in a hospital while Eldest Son recovered from surgery…during exams, or how exhausting it was to work all week and spent every Saturday in lectures, but it doesn’t have much impact. I couldn’t have done any of it without the grace of God and a lot of help from my family.

On the flipside, I respect those who are working hard to put themselves through school or who are working 2 and 3 jobs to support their families. They aren’t blessed to have my family. I know Eldest Son works hard, and I often wish we could make it rain money for him. I know he’d love to buy a house, own his own patch of land. It’s hard to make compost and grow veggies in an apartment, and forget pursuing a hobby in woodworking! My castle certainly isn’t what I imagined growing up, but with house prices rising 40% (2016-2021) and the new homes being purchased by investors, not owners, the possibility of home ownership for him gets smaller.

No matter how respectful or hard-working he is.

Life is certainly full of challenges, unique to every generation, but never has it been an excuse to be disrespectful. And with all respect, I’m speaking to every generation.

I was on the brink of screaming yesterday in the grocery store because I felt so overwhelmed. I was trying to pack my groceries quickly. My friend was trying to pack her groceries in the queue beside me. The cashier was ringing through the next couple, piling their groceries in my friend’s queue. The much older lady was standing beside me, blocking me so I couldn’t go pay. She huffed when I asked her to excuse me. While I was paying, the older lady went around by my friend to secure her groceries. But instead of bagging from the side, where she had lots of space, she started physically elbowing my friend out of the way so she could have the whole backside of the queue. My friend wasn’t done bagging her groceries yet, and was now elbowing me. My outspoken friend politely asked “could you wait a moment so I can finish here?”. The husband roared “No! We are tired of waiting for you. We won’t wait for you!”.

We are tired. We are stressed, and hurting, and so focused on ourselves. We feel like if we give an inch, someone will take a mile. Certainly there are those that would take a mile, and then some. But a little patience, a little kindness…that matters more.

Drained, I sat in Tim Horton’s with my deeply satisfying cup of tea, knowing tomorrow would be better. Tomorrow, I didn’t have to leave my house.

I used to be a people person.
But people ruined that for me.

Unknown