Monday, January 10, 2011

Glass and Tears and Deviled Eggs

For the very first time I came home from work in tears.  It was rather curious to me that today would be the day to bring the waterworks having not been wrought with screaming parents nor having received over one hundred phone messages (welcome to last week).  I guess it makes moderate sense to me, as there have been a few unexpected tumults as of late on this road called my life.  However, it wasn't the aforementioned stressors that did me in.  Oh no. Blame the biscuits.  Whilst driving home from work, Jack Johnson softly strumming his guitar in the background, I decided to bake cheddar bay biscuits (think Red Lobster) to go with dinner (a dinner that, at that point, consisted solely of a bottle of two buck Chuck).  And then it hit me: I can't bake anymore.

Oops.  Time to rewind.    

Our oven is broken.  A friend of my roommate was over at the house the other day and decided to clean the oven.  Well, really she decided to make the oven clean itself.  I've never actually used the whole "self clean" feature probably because the idea of little metallic hands coming to life out of the inner recesses of my favorite kitchen appliance to scrub away casserole remains frightens me.  This girl is fearless, however, and not only did she opt to brave the wretched little oven fingers, she also wanted a front row seat.  Open the door she did and when a drop of tepid water pinged against the 900 degree pane of glass, it revolted.  Our oven has no glass.  I have no outlet.

It doesn't sit well with me to be angry with someone over a mistake I could easily see myself making.  In fact, if it had been me, I probably would have tripped over a rogue apron string, spilling a whole cup of ice water on the precarious oven door.  What a fun sound (and trip to the E.R.) that would have made.  At any rate, the oven is out of commission and so is my ability to handle life (and my brain), apparently.  All eight roommates are fearfully sleeping with locked doors.  (I'm going to pause right here while you wrap your mind around nine girls in one house.  Everyone needs it - no need to be ashamed.  Yes, we all happen to be single at this brief moment in time.  No, you may not bring all your homeboys over.)

I sat in my empty driveway long enough to replay track 7 four times, long enough for my neighbor to drown his hydrangea bush while gawking at me, and long enough to come up with a new game plan: deviled eggs.  Yep.  Deviled eggs.  No baking required.  Tasty as they may be, I had greater plans for these eggs.  Watch this.  Yup.  That's exactly right.  Well, not really.  I have talked about devil egging someone's car for months and months now.  Years, probably, in fact.  It has never actually happened, half because I am above the age of fifteen, as are all of my friends, and half because I know deep down that hurting someone for three minutes will only deepen the hurt I feel, no matter how much they may supposedly deserve it.  It won't bring me any real satisfaction, nor will it bring me any actual catharsis.  Even fantasizing about hurting people who have have hurt me has only brought me pain.  I suppose the fact that I am still grasping this means that not all of my mind crumbled with the oven door.  So, for now I just watch Gilmore Girls and let them do all the maladaptive behaviors I long to have the strength to do, all the while knowing that not doing them is strength in itself.  Or is that just something a timid person tells oneself to feel less pathetic?

On another note, anyone know how to fix a broken oven door?                      

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