Jenyfer Matthews

I wasn’t in the mood to make a big Thanksgiving dinner this year for a variety of reasons. Frankly, unless I’m going to spend the day with family or friends, it’s just another day to me. I do get some satisfaction from making healthy, tasty food for my family, but if I can prepare a meal using a minimum of pots, better still. Spending my day making and coordinating the timing on a multi-course dinner isn’t my idea of a good time – not to mention the clean-up.

My children attend a British school so they had school on Thursday. My husband was off though so he and I had a nice lunch together and watched a movie.

I told an Ethiopian friend this and she was appalled. No turkey? No pumpkin pie? My poor children! I just can’t skip the holiday! It’s not right! It is often the case that immigrants to the US hold the holidays more dear than the natives. But I wonder what she would make of this: the main course of the Pilgrims was very likely not turkey, but eel.

According to a New York Times article by James Prosek that another friend shared on Facebook, the Indians taught the Pilgrims how to plant corn and how to catch eel:

As the story goes, Squanto — a Patuxet Indian who had learned English — took pity on the Pilgrims of Plymouth Colony who had managed to survive that first brutal winter, and showed them how to plant corn, putting a dead fish in each hole where a seed was planted. But before that, before the ground had even fully thawed, he taught them a perhaps more valuable skill: how to catch a fatty, nutritious fish that would sustain them in the worst of winters. And this food item, likely on the table of that first Thanksgiving, would have carried special significance to those remaining colonists. Eels — a forgotten staple of our forefathers.

I could get into eating sushi for Thanksgiving.

Even if you don’t like the idea of eel, I think the bigger message is that you can be grateful for what you have, with what you have. You don’t have to follow a rigid menu plan, just because that’s what has been drummed into our heads since forever. Personally, I think turkey is overrated anyway.

At least in my world.

I hate holiday shopping.

Correction: I hate shopping at the holidays. There isn’t a Black Friday sale yet devised that could tempt me out of my house on the weekend after Thanksgiving.

I worked at Kmart when I was in college (and they were still solvent). During my time there, way back when the store was closed on major holidays, the store management came up with the brilliant plan to be open on Thanksgiving day. Even then I could see the writing on the wall. I used to volunteer to work on Thanksgiving day just so I could have the next day off. It only sounds like a sacrifice – I was paid time and a half plus holiday pay to work on a day when the store was empty and I was let off the hook for working the mad rush the next day.

Even then, I avoided holiday shopping as much as possible. I might have to spend most of my time working in a store, but they couldn’t make me shop. I did my best to pick up things throughout the year and stash them away, whipping them out on the proper occasions as needed. Keep in mind I was a poor college student – organization and planning were my greatest assets at the time.

Perhaps working retail all those years is what put me off shopping during the holidays, but I truly embraced online shopping in the earliest years of the internet. It was so easy! No traffic, no crowded parking lots, no lines. Just click, click, click, done. I like a sale as much as the next person, but my time and mental health are worth something too. And I don’t know about you, but my email inbox is increasing full of sale offers these days so who needs to go out and fight the crowds to get good deals?

Because I’m in Egypt, online shopping works best for shopping for family back in the US. I have to plan ahead for everyone else. Don’t hate me for what I’m about to admit: I did nearly all of my Christmas shopping for my children online before I went home this summer and picked it all up at my father’s house. That’s right – I’ve been nearly finished with my shopping since July. I’ll fill in the gaps with things I find here in Cairo, but I can deal with holiday shopping here. In Egypt, it’s simply November.

What are your plans for holiday shopping? Do you like to plan ahead or last-minute shop?

I haven’t felt like doing much besides lying around and reading lately, as you can imagine. As much as I adore the J.D. Robb books, my eyes get tired after a while. Feeling as low as I do, it would be the perfect time to sit on the couch and zone out with the TV while working on a quilt. Problem? I don’t actually have a quilt to work on at the moment.

I’ve had my next quilt in mind for some time, but have been too lazy to start it. I gave myself a kick yesterday and made a test block.

All in all, in spite of the curves, it wasn’t nearly as difficult as I expected it to be to construct. The most difficult and time consuming bit was cutting all the wedge pieces. And the inner and outer pieces – all of them require templates. It doesn’t exactly speed things up when you cut your cardboard template in half either.

The pattern in the magazine suggested using red and brown in the background pieces but I like the red and orangey/red combination better. What do you think?

I’ve always wanted to make a quilt in reds and purples. I once had a friend who talked me out of using reds and purples by telling me that it would be garish and tacky. I’m no longer in touch with that person and it may only be my opinion, but I love this color combination.

The plan is to make 25 of these blocks for a queen sized quilt and I’m hoping I can have it ready to quilt by January. I already have a reservation on the couch and I’m sure I’ll be ready for a little downtime after having had the kids home for the holidays.

I’m guest blogging today at Sia McKye’s Thoughts Over Coffee blog on the pros and cons of self-publishing. Stop bye and say hello!

In memory of my mother.
1945-2010

The children have the entire week off of school for the Eid holiday, the second big feast after the Ramadan season. A week plus two weekends is a significant chunk of time to have off – enough to go away somewhere, which is what most of the population of Cairo seems to have done.

I’ve been planning a trip to the beach with some family friends for a little over a month. Initially I wanted to go from Monday to Thursday both to minimize the amount of time the children would miss their tennis lessons but also to eat up as much of the week as possible. Who wants them bouncing off the walls at home all week? My friend, who was actually organizing our accommodation, arranged for us to go from Saturday to Monday. Initially I was a bit annoyed because it meant we’d return to Cairo and still have the whole week in front of us. As it turned out, it was a blessing in disguise.

Because we went a few days before the official holiday and many people actually had to work on Sunday (poor slobs!), we had the place to ourselves. Isn’t it lovely?

(click to enlarge)

We rented a two bedroom chalet in a community of holiday homes. Look at it now, serene and peaceful, and then imagine it crawling with people…

Just in case swimming in the Red Sea doesn’t appeal, there are also large pools scattered here and there – and some of the bigger homes had private pools too.

This was the beach midday on Saturday. We had the place to ourselves!

My daughter spent most of her time in the pool but we couldn’t keep our son out of the Red Sea. The beach was rocky, as was the sea floor. He spent a lot of time face down in the water looking at the pretty fish. His reports were so enthusiastic that I actually decided to give it a try in spite of lack of a snorkel.

It was surprising how buoyant the salty water makes you – floating on the top was nearly effortless. Holding my breath wasn’t nearly so easy, but hey – salt water is a great nasal rinse, right? At first all I saw were rocks, but then suddenly there were fish everywhere. I didn’t see so many colorful ones as my son – he told me there were more closer to the dock. I was reluctant to go there at that time because there were some fishermen there and I did not wish to be their catch of the day. My plan was to go back the following day and launch myself off the end of the dock. The bottom was so rocky that it was incredibly hard to just walk in from the shore.

My plans for swimming on our last day were thwarted by wind. Not only was the water a bit too rough for snorkeling, but the wind was cold! (To me!) It had been difficult enough to get out of the water the day before – I knew I’d have turned into a popsicle getting out into that strong wind.

It didn’t put my children off however – we found a sandier bit of beach and they rode the waves in their inner-tubes!

More people started arriving on our last day at the chalet. Soon, we saw lots more scenes like this.

The beach was huge and we still had lots of space to ourselves, but it’s amazing how quickly you become spoiled. I was very happy to be packing up to leave because even those few people were disturbing “my” peace and more and more cars kept arriving.

We left in the evening on Monday, just after dark. Next post: the dangers of night driving in Egypt.

I saw this car on the morning after Halloween, when I was walking around looking for egg damage. The car itself is nothing special – there are old cars like this all over Cairo. It was the sticker in the back window that drew my attention:

(click to enlarge image)

Really? I’m thinking that if the owner of this car truly has a “need 4 speed” the first thing they need is a car made in this decade!

Separation Anxiety is now available directly from Kindle!

And now back to your regularly scheduled programming…

People often ask how I like living in Egypt. My standard answer is “some days are better than others.” There are days when the sun is shining and the sky is clear and I’m exploring an ancient site or a souk or lolling on the beach – those are great days. Then there are days when the water has been out for hours or the electricity keeps going on and off. There are also days like yesterday, when I need to make a withdrawal from the ATM and what should be a simple errand becomes a major headache.

There are three ATMs in fairly close proximity to where I live. One of them is in front of the American school and getting money out of that ATM is like getting money out of a slot machine – most of the time it’s empty or out of service. There is also a machine in a small grocery store around the corner from me. I’ve learned to time my visits to mid-morning – that’s usually late enough that the bank has serviced and re-filled it. It doesn’t however always guard against the odd messages the machine returns to me. There are times when it tells me I’ve reached my daily limit, even when I haven’t used the card that day. I’ve deduced that is ATM code for “don’t have quite that much in me, try again tomorrow.”

Yesterday after yoga class, I stopped by one little grocery to pick up the particular bread we like and on the way home I stopped by the grocery with the ATM to get some money, only to discover that the entire ATM machine had been removed. That was a new kink. So far as I could discern, it will be replaced at some unspecified point in the near future, but that didn’t help much with my immediate need.

I ended up having to do what I didn’t want to do and go home to drop off my bags before hiking around the neighborhood looking for a functional ATM. I was disgruntled about the extra stop because I was already sweaty and tired and coming up on very hungry. I did not want to go back out, but I did need money – especially as most of the ATMs in the neighborhood will be emptied for the holiday next week and who knows when they will be refilled?

On my way back out, I ran into this beauty on the stairs. I assume it was somehow injured or stunned as it didn’t even flinch when I walked down right next to it, stared, went back upstairs for my camera and then came back and started taking pictures.

The third ATM I tried dispensed money – but only after it told me “nope, can’t do it, some of the notes are reversed” and I tried again for a lesser amount. The bird was gone when I returned so I hope that means that it collected its wits and strength and found the water source it looked best suited for.

Speaking of which, I’m taking my family to the beach for the weekend. Here’s hoping that I can relax my shoulders and come back with a few nice pictures to share next week.

Have a great weekend!

Monday is the day the new maid comes and was pretty much another wasted day. Even though she is doing all the heavy cleaning, I just can’t seem to settle down and get anything productive done while she is bustling around. Notice how I keep calling her the “new” maid, even though she’s been coming for three weeks now? I guess in my mind I’m not convinced I’m going to keep her.

Overall she does a good job and my windows have been looking really good. But I hate having to go behind her and put the knick-knacks back the way I like them or flip the sofa cushions so that the zipper is on the inside or check the latches on the windows so that they don’t fly open in a hard wind and slam into a flower pot (as happened last week) I know, I know – these are pretty small potatoes over all and not much to complain about. But I’ve notice the same staple on the floor behind the bathroom door now for two weeks. I’ve left it there just to see how long before she notices it. Another tiny reminder to me that I would be doing it all so much better.

This week I hid my dish sponge before she came. Yes, I’m sick – and very picky about how my sponges are used and for what purpose. I nearly outwitted myself as I couldn’t find it when I went to wash dishes later in the evening after dinner.

I had planned to start on a new quilting project this week. The first thing I needed to do was to wash all the fabrics I intended to use. I started that, but then began to second guess my color / pattern choices. Nearly a week later and I haven’t cut a piece. I’m still debating color choices, trying to put things together in my mind and see the answer before I cut anything. I want to use my precious balis and batiks but it’s so hard to take the plunge to cut into them.

I’ve been going to a chiropractor for a few weeks for a problem that I’ve had for years – stiff shoulders. Stiff enough that turning my neck is uncomfortable. So stiff that I’ve managed to pinch a nerve in my shoulder so that that when I lie on my back my shoulder hurts and eventually my arm will fall asleep. Taking a break from heavy cleaning is actually not a bad thing from that perspective.

I’ve had x-rays done to look for any structural issues and good news is that my upper back doesn’t look too too bad. A few degenerative disks, but given how bad my lower back is, that isn’t surprising. Nope, main problem is muscle tension. The chiropractor has twisted and cracked me very thoroughly in the last few weeks and it seems to be helping. He’s also given me a prescription: continue doing yoga and also watch my posture. Shoulders back and down.

It’s kind of ridiculous how often I have to remind myself to adjust my shoulders down. Whenever did I get in such a habit of hunching them up? It’s not only a problem when I sit over my computer or my sewing machine either. It’s all the time. My husband carries stress in his lower back, mine is all in my shoulders. Overall, my life is pretty good so it’s absolutely absurd how often I have to tell myself to relax.

Sometimes I find things to worry about and other times my daughter helpfully supplies them – like when I discovered she went behind my back and started a Facebook profile behind my back. I happened upon it by accident and when I went to check it out, her privacy controls were next to nonexistent. Is it any wonder my shoulders are stiff? Even my acid reflux flared up when I found that. She’s lucky she’s been away on a class trip for a few days to let me cool down and think things out before I confront her on her deception. She is only ten and has no idea of what she is inviting into her life by exploring the internet without a guide.

Raising children in today’s world is a stressful job and judging by my experiences with my own mother, motherhood means you never stop worrying about your children. My youngest is only eight so I anticipate much to stew about in the coming years. Yoga or not, my shoulders will likely be rigid until I die.