Doctor My Eyes, Was I Unwise to Leave Them Open For So Long

About three weeks ago I woke up with my little finger in my ear and in extreme pain.  Apparently during sleep my ear began itching and in my groggy state I forgot the rules about keeping everything smaller than your elbow out of your ear.  I had done something bad. It hurt like hell and I couldn't hear.  Well, that's trying to heal now and so on this day, I was heading out to pick up my friend Hope to see the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens.  I really enjoy this yearly visit when the cherry blossoms are in bloom and the lilacs are out in every shade. Seeing the Japanese zen garden.

And right before I was to leave I put in eye drops because I woke up all fuzzy from allergies and bleary eyed. But there was a slight problem.  They weren't eye drops at all but ear drops! I put ear drops in my damn eyes which is basically peroxide.  Holy crap they burned like all hell so I run to the bathroom and instinctively just begin dousing them with water without stopping, screaming all the while to P who's so good in these situations by the way.  He's just out of the shower but runs to the computer to check what to do and comes and reassures me it's gonna be okay. People apparently do this.  I keep rinsing and rinsing.  Since I'd just done it, it would be okay. I have a quick panic attack thinking what if I'd done that on the subway where there is no water!  Oh God! Holy shit! More adrenaline and assorted anxiety.  Finally I don't believe I'll go blind anymore and decide I can still head out to meet my friend.  I wore super dark glasses and by the expressions I got in the restroom by a couple of ladies, apparently also looked drunk off my ass.

I'm blaming all of this madness on Mercury Retrograde although I don't know enough about it to really speak but that never stopped me before.  I tried reading countless articles but couldn't seem to grasp the meaning and lo and behold being all fuzzy is one of the damn problems during this time.  I am deeply affected by the full moon so Mercury passing between the Sun and the Earth with all it's iron being able to cause havoc on behavior makes sense to me.  Plus an advertised possibility to change my future while within an ability to access my genius sounds very inviting.  Do I choose to believe it, or do I recognize it, like a deep intuitive understanding?  Either way, I'm down with this orbital backslide.

Part of the adventure was supposed to involve lunch at the park's cafe but this is one downside of skinny friends, they're never hungry.  Well I was near death by the time I arrived back home.  They don't let you sit down in that damn garden!  No benches and they asked us to get up when we tried to stop and have a drink and some nuts on the grass.  By that time I was tearing at the package with my teeth trying desperately to get at those delicious meaty nuts!

From this awesome sunny day my eyes felt like they were bleeding by the time I made to my door.  I quickly made a nice meal of leftovers by adding a little cheddar to my masa mixture, throwing it in the oven and calling it a casserole.  A side citrus salad of mixed greens gave it nice balance.

It Even Makes You Happy When You're Feeling Blue

When I was little I loved to make up games and then roll them out during my playtime with my sis R.  She was always up for all of my nutty suggestions.  I really miss hanging out with her.  Sometimes now when I come home and only have about 20-30 minutes to make dinner before I get stupid grouchy, I pretend in my head that I am on Chopped and must use the ingredients in my mystery basket, which is my fridge.  On this day I had ground turkey, avocado, parmesan cheese and strawberries.

I kept seeing pictures of that 7 layer dip with the beans, tomatoes and corn and that always looks so festive. But I needed a meal tonight, not a snack.  From the pantry I used corn meal for a nice spicy mush bed while  utilizing the parmesan with yogurt for added creaminess.   I can't say enough about fruit with salsas and pico.  It's been done and done again, but only because it is so good and refreshing.

I layered the corn, the meat, avocado, dressed greens, sweet onions and sliced strawberries, like that dip but it ate more like a meal.  If this salad were on Chopped (Amature addition of course), for the entree, I may have slid into the dessert round.  I didn't transform the ingredients but they all really played so well together in my mouth.  And I think R would like this salad if I made it for her.

Why Do Birds Suddenly Appear

My dad really enjoys his food.  I loved watching his rituals years ago when preparing himself a plate of something I knew he loved, like sardines.  Necessary items would include a pack of Saltine crackers, chopped onion, lot of mustard and black pepper and if I'm not mistaken he put fresh jalapeno but that was really on everything he ate.  As a kid the idea of sardines for lunch is not appealing in the least but my dad was not about to spend any time worrying about what some kid found appetizing so, sardines it was!  

But in recent years I've rediscovered the beauty of sardines in the here and now.  They are super cheap, super filling, very portable, 21 grams of protein!  And with mustard or tomato and diced sweet onions, you know this is a great solution for a quickie.

Speaking of a quickie, I had to run to the market the other day.  I had my camera hoping to capture something happening or some blooming tree and I ran into a beautiful little bird on the sidewalk, just sitting there.  Not a baby, but a small bird.  Smack in the middle of the sidewalk, looking stunned.  My automatic first reaction was to take a picture and then I stopped myself.  This bird needed help!  Birds don't stand in the middle of the sidewalk in the city lady, wake up!  I bent down and it was breathing heavy but didn't move away, just sort of flapped his wings.  I looked around to see if there was someone smarter than me, more capable of dealing with a 'situation' as I am not that girl that knows what to do normally. No one, except the guy that all the building owners hire to maintain their hallways.  I don't trust him.  He won't know.  I thought a minute.  My phone!  It'll tell me what to do.  Googled, found a bird and at least 20 instant lists of instructions came up.  Praise be!  So I gently nudged him a bit to see if his wings were working and nothing appeared broken.  I softly picked up the little feller in a tissue and put him safely in a garden nearby to let him regain his bearings.

This is where I'm not as awesome as I could have been but hey I'm putting it out there.  My diagnosis was he was just temporarily stunned and would fly off after a few moments alone.  He was next to a building that had huge windows. My handy detective work.  I could have went back and put him in a box and nursed him to health at my house as the articles also suggested.  But I didn't go back.  I left him there because I was busy and did what I basically deemed acceptable at the time.  But I couldn't help feeling like a heel later that night imagining him now hidden in this foreign landscape, injured, with no one but large rodents lurking.  Just what I always knew, inside I'm a selfish bastuhd, just like my dad!