Oh, the glory of blue skies and warmth! This morning, emboldened by gorgeous weather, I forced Scott to go for breakfast at this really popular place a few blocks away. We arrived at 10 am and got the last table. By 10:10 am there was a line around the block. The food is terrific and it's not pricey. We downtowners know the deal. There was fresh squeezed grapefruit juice, smoked bacon, terrific multigrain toast with tons of butter, sausage, perfectly cooked fried eggs and potatoes (the crunchy ones, not the soggy ones). Not a piece of lettuce to be seen! Alas, the coffee was swill. Had to hit up the Coffee Pocket on the way home. At which point I was ready to roll.
I bought 2, very generous, extra orders of house-made pork sausage (the patty-kind) to turn into Bolognese. Also, there's some nut milk to be blended. I'm working on package-refinement and labels for the skin care. It's a productive, if scattered day. And given that I have no idea what awaits me at the office tomorrow (I refuse to wreck things by looking at my email), I'd better enjoy it.
While sitting at the restaurant this morning, it occurred to me that I was wearing my own deodorant (man, this stuff works AWESOMELY!), body oil, face serum and a new, handmade Liberty-print T shirt. It made me feel so truly capable.
In case you worry that I'm short on imagination, I have this (not so) secret alter-ego I call "Off The Grid Krissie", OTG Krissie for short. She's the woman who makes potions while drinking herbal tea. Her kid's placenta is still in the freezer, 15 years later. She reuses the tacky residue at the base of heat-sealed lotion tubes by cutting the tops off. She replants the hyacinth bulbs in a special spot in the garden after the potted flowers have withered (no, none of them has taken - the squirrels eat them). She's this close to keeping bees, you know, to save the world. She wants to buy a sheep farm.
Look, I realize she's a marginal element of my personality continuum. After all, I hyperventilate and scream piercingly at the sight of a spider and I've been known to lose it during a 20-minute power-out. (What? Where were you in August 2003?)
But I'm a creature of many facets and I won't apologize :-)
Today's questions: What's your favourite alter-ego, of late? I'm curious to know - is (s)he high or low? How do you express your different sides?
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Summer power-out of 2003! I was freshly back from India, indulging in some herbal, wandering the streets of Guelph with friends, and looking at the stars. Hello, university-student me! :)
ReplyDeleteHa! Why am I not surprised you've been to India? And I wonder if your herbal experience made you calmer or more freaked out??
DeleteI want bees too! And chickens. . . have investigated both possibilities, but the annual weeks (previously) turning into months (I hope, retirement, you know?) away from home mean they will have to remain in the parallel universe occupied by my alter ego. Another alter ego of mine -- and I was just thinking of this before I read your post -- is exemplified by a friend who got her Doc. a month before I did. 10 years younger, no kids, and she's built a stellar academic career, research, creative writing, graduate teaching, etc., while I've enjoyed a modest time at an undergrad teaching uni, (mostly) happy to direct energies in multi directions. Sometimes I wish I'd aimed for the tighter focus, but really? So much fun to be had in this big world, no?!
ReplyDeleteBees are all that! Weirdly, I've never been afraid of them. They fall into a very rare category, for me, also occupied by ladybugs and lightning bugs. Don't ask me why.
DeleteI SO hear you about careers and paths. Every one of my friends has accelerated many years beyond me (not that I'm doing badly, but I am not a workaholic by nature). I know, deeply, that the minute I retire - the minute I walk away from that environment (which I may have been in for 30 years at that point), I will be largely forgotten. Because the world of work is work, and the realm of life is so much greater and richer. Don't regret, Frances. I think you've lived so well, so roundly. And you have much joy ahead of you.
ROFLMBO. OTG Krissie sounds sooo much like my alter-ego, who does most of the same things. (Minus the potions, plus gardening/chickens/bartering for fresh milk).
ReplyDeleteThere's also Victorian Amelia, who wears corsets, petticoats, camisoles, and always always has her hair up... oh yes, I have a few. ;)
Oooh, what's this thing with chickens? I hear they're mean :-) And they don't produce yarn! But bartering for milk sounds great. I have no Victorian alter-ego, currently, but that sounds fun!
DeleteCan't stand them, but I like fresh eggs, and plenty of them, so my OTG would consider it only rational and frugal to keep a small flock. They'd eat the bugs from the garden, of course...
DeleteAnd that's why you need to add sheep to the mix too! Sheep are the whole deal...meat, milk, wool. I may even have got the kids on side with this one. ;-)
DeleteHa! It's the way to go.
DeleteI am like OTG Krissy (in my mind) all the time....friends think I hug too many trees, but my alter ego Vivica lives in a large metropolitan city and is definitely a fashion before function kind of gal. Alas, I am a function before fashion person!
ReplyDeleteI think this summer I will try to make potions too....esp. the de-od. Just bought some and it is getting EXPENSIVE!
I love that she has a name! And you can truly make your potions very cost-effectively. It's not scary.
DeleteKrissie would totally have to have chickens. She'd call them chooks:). My alter-ego designs software and has a floor-to-ceiling whiteboard covered in inspiration imagery.
ReplyDeleteChooks! That's the cutest! And I like your alter ego. Very chic.
DeleteI had not thought about it that way, but I do have a rural alter ego. We'd have a few sheepies (even though I haven't owned a pet other than fish), a garden that would magically tend itself and produce enough that I could support us with fresh produce all summer and still can tomatoes and make pickles. I'm sure all of that would miraculously ripen on a Thursday, pick themselves on a Friday and somehow end up in jars on Saturday. Laundry would also be drying on the line.
ReplyDeleteRural alter ego is just the term! Fresh produce is the best - especially if it secretly manages itself. :-)
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