for the entirety of this summer, i have been trying to convince myself and my health that i am on vacation, and that life is normal again. for about a year – since june 2008 – i haven’t had a real break, one where i puttered around the house doing nothing but maintaining the rituals of daily life, and thinking about cooking. and by the rituals of daily life, i mean really mundane things: doing laundry, making my bed, putting away clothes, vaccuming the carpet, cleaning the kitchen counters. every now and then, given the privations of grad school and employment, i need at least a week of doing nothing – waking up whenever, doing whatever.

i expected to get a break this summer, but apparently it wasn’t meant to be. there were trips to lowell for work, a site visit for thesis, training sessions for my teaching job, teaching at the bac, then more work at lowell and an attempt to work on thesis…you get the point. and although these commitments don’t come close to those that i maintain during the school year, they were enough to deprive me of any chance to really get back up to speed and feel like i was motivated to do anything. and i do mean anything – it has taken two and a half months, but i am finally motivated to cook regularly again. i haven’t done very much thesis work in the past two days, even though our first review is in a few weeks, but i have woken up late and cooked a lot, and i feel vastly better right now than i have since that happy time of rejuvenation in june 2008. (more…)