An amazing supper, computer woes, and naps

 

Christian's amazing chop suey.
I love how colorful it is with beans, carrots, and baby corns.

Christian outdid himself tonight with chicken chop suey. We were supposed to have it for dinner last night, and I was supposed to fix it since it was my idea, but life intervened. For reasons too complicated to explain, Jordan’s purse ended up at a car rental agency at DFW Airport. So after happy hour with guests, Jordan and Christian were off to the airport. I was secretly relieved. The last couple of times I’ve volunteered to cook Asian, it’s ended up I did the prep work and Christian did the cooking. And we agreed on that tonight. He has the wok, and I’m not sure even my largest skillet would be big enough to do it on my hot plate. But I get ahead of my story: they did not get home until almost nine, by which time I had eaten my oh-so-good open-faced sardine sandwich. The purse, however, was retrieved with credit cars and license intact. A blessing.

So this afternoon I assembled all the ingredients for the chop suey. Side note: Christian pointed out that my childhood chop suey is really today’s stir fry. At any rate I cut the chicken thighs into strips snapped green beans into bite size, assembled a can of baby corn, onion, baby carrots, bok choy—and sent it all inside. I had given Christian the recipe last night, but I neglected to notice that it made two servings. There were to be six tonight. He had to adjust, plus he was late getting home. Dinner was delayed, but it was worth waiting for. And since he plated his dinner and mine and brought them out to the cottage while Jordan and her work colleagues ate inside, I had no dishes to do. Two forks. That’s it. A win-win situation.

I did not win today, however, with computer technology. Oh, I did some. I’ve been prowling through the entries on Helen Corbitt in the Portal to Texas History, an unbelievably rich research source. I swear with every nonfiction title I write I learn more about using my computer—if I could live to 120, I might really be a master. But this time, I have learned to drill down on entries and zoom to read the fine print in old newspapers. It can be tedious work but then I come across a nugget—something really reveling, and I am rewarded. My friend Carol, an archivist, has given me directions for narrowing my search so I don’t have to scroll through all 134 pages the listing pulls up.

So today I wrote, maybe close to a thousand words, patching in some new information in the existing text and writing new text about Corbitt’s travels across Texas to promote her first cookbook, all material I’d found in the portal. I felt it was a real step forward.

But then I turned, as I do once a day, to Facebook, to scroll through notifications and read new postings. Big problem: every time I tried to “Like” a post, Facebook popped up with a message that I had been blocked perhaps because I went too fast. What that meant, I had no idea. But the next line said that if I felt the message did not violate community standards, I should click here and report it. How, I wondered, could someone’s belated birthday wish or a post about a recipe violate community standards. So I reported it, and to my surprise, about half an hour later, it was fixed, and I could like posts again. But I missed a lot, like some birthday wishes, and I’m not sure I’ll ever get a chance to go back and acknowledge them. Frustrating as it was, I have to credit Facebook with prompt action. And, yes, before I reported it, I did reboot the computer which often cures a world of ills. Not this one.

Yesterday I took my usual daytime nap—I think most of the world knows not to contact me between 2:00 and 4:00—and woke up quickly. Since naps are a great time for letting my mind wander and plotting what I’m going to write next, I thought I’d just lie there and think about a blog on the value of napping. I woke again at 4:30 with guests due at 5:00 and appetizers still to make. I dressed in a flurry, made those pickle appetizers, and was still at it when Subie and Phil arrived. And now I can’t remember all that I thought about napping, so it will have to wait for another day. But there are some interesting statistics out there—napping is good for you, and I feel justified. Those of you who claim you can’t sleep in the daytime might want to reconsider.

Stay cool and safe. I hear slightly lower temperatures might be coming for just a couple of days. Not a big break but better than nothing.