Leaving on a Jet Plane

It is 3:30 in the morning. My plan was to sleep until 4:30 but I'm flying to meet my sisters in Mobile, Alabama later this morning and I can't sleep anymore. The fact that I slept at all is amazing. I always get excited and a little nervous when I am going on a trip. I tend to procrastinate getting ready probably so I don't have to think too hard about what to put in the suit case or for this trip my back pack.



In the recent movie Up in the Air, the George Clooney character does motivational speaking around a back pack. It is a side job. His main job is to go around firing people. Anyway his lectures explain to people how to make their lives better by simplifying. Or at least by getting rid of stuff and ultimately people. Because he has done this for himself the character's goal in life is to reach a certain amount of frequent flyer miles. He has nothing else. Of coarse by the time he reaches his goal it no longer holds much meaning for him either. Great movie, I highly recommend it.



With each move I've made in the last eight years I've downsized. I've gotten rid of a lot of my possessions. But I still have a lot of stuff and sometimes I think about moving into a 1 room apartment. What would I keep and what would I get rid of. A friend once told me that her aunt who lived in a nursing home died and when they went to pick up her personal things they all fit into a shoe box. At the time I thought how awful. A life reduced to a shoe box. But it wasn't a life, it was just things.



Having people in our lives is whole different story. Susan recently wrote about true friends. It has been more difficult for me to make and more importantly to keep friends. I'm not sure why that is. I think I've been a little like the George Clooney character, good at superficial, not so good at meaningful relationships. It has been my loss. But I have my sisters and my brothers and my children. I have a friend I write to and now I have a roommate who is my friend and an unexpected friend in an orange coat who makes me happy. I have friends at work on my new unit and my old unit that I want to work hard at staying in contact with. My life is full. My backpack is running over.



This is a cooking blog. Please excuse my digression. I made chicken tetrazzini last night that was great. It wasn't from The Book. It is an old recipe from a book I use to have that I have committed to memory. (The recipe not the book). A simply white sauce, mushrooms, chicken, spaghetti (I used the left over farfalle pasta), cooking sherry and Parmesan for the top. Bake until bubbly. I think I may have some for breakfast.