Bad days, good days, and a really good dinner

 

My Asian dinner

Yesterday was a tough day; today, better until an awful catastrophe hit our community; and last night I fixed one of my better dinners. What a mixed bag!

Sophie would not eat yesterday, and Jordan and Christian had to force her medication down her throat, though Christian finally discovered he could put the pill in chicken baby food, fill a syringe, and shoot it in her mouth. Not pleasant but effective. Soph was shaky on her feet, restless in the cottage, obviously not feeling well. I was tired and out of sorts from not having slept well. At three o’clock in the morning, I was convinced we were losing her and lay awake until almost time to get up.

This morning, the doogie internist called (how wonderful is that? To have a doctor call to ask how things are going, when you haven’t even called him!). When he heard the report, he took her off antibiotics and all medication except the steroids and insulin. Within a couple of hours I heard this strange noise, looked down at the foot of my desk, and she was eating kibble. She did that again mid-afternoon. Not much, but voluntarily eating. And much of the day she slept soundly, much better than the restless nights. The mother in me sees all this as healing. She’s drinking and peeing and went for a walk. It may be a long haul, but I think we’ll get my girl back. I’m so relieved I slept hard this afternoon and had a difficult time waking myself up. Sophie woke me by banging her water dish on the floor, her sign that it’s empty and I should refill it.

So we called it a good day, until four o’clock, when word came of a shooting at a nearby Whataburger. Two teenagers were shot, and one has subsequently died; the other is in critical condition. The shooting came way to close to home: the Whataburger is catty corner from Jacob’s high school, and he was in his car, at the stoplight, when it happened. One of our good friends was in the pick-up line, getting food for her kids. We don’t have the full story, may not get it for days, but I cannot stop thinking of the mother who sent her son off to school this morning and will never see him again. Jacob told us recently that he was at a post-game party where a girl got shot in the leg. As I said, it’s all coming too close to home, and I have no idea what we can do about it.

Texas, it seems to me, is a cruel state, indifferent to the individual human life, especially as long as it is someone else. For the mother of that boy, it wasn’t someone else. Gun advocates are strongly entrenched, and it will take a national law to change the lack of gun control in Texas. I applauded, still do, Clinton’s ban on assault weapons, but it would have done no good in today’s shooting, which I am sure was with smaller weapons, probably easily concealed in a backpack.

And while I’m decrying public policy in the state that I love and hate, I heard today that maternal death rates in childbirth are markedly higher in states with strict anti-abortion laws. There is a meme on Facebook proclaiming if bacteria on the moon is considered life, why isn’t a fetus—which is such spurious reasoning I can’t even think about it.

The whole angry movement—enthusiasm for guns, hate for abortion, hate for anyone who is different—seems a religious right perversion of Christianity, a religion that is supposed to preach love. I persist in the belief, maybe a fantasy, that such hidebound, rigid, hate-filled people are a minority, but then why are they in charge?

On a brighter note, yesterday morning I was so tired and down I told Jordan I couldn’t cook the meal we planned. Christian usually cooks the Asian meals around here, but I was going to tackle something called Three-Cup Chicken. I had ordered bok choy but the grocery substituted Napa cabbage, and I was left defending cabbage to two adults who dislike it intensely. By late afternoon, I had gotten myself together and fixed dinner—and we all thought it was a fine meal. The chicken was marinated and then simmered in a mix of soy, some dry sherry, and a bit of brown sugar, seasoned by ginger, lots of garlic (I cut it in half) and red pepper flakes. Served over rice. Good last night, good for lunch today.
I worried over the cabbage but decided on salad. Shredded it, tossed it with salt and let it sit 30 minutes, rinsed, spun dry, and dressed with lime juice, olive oil, and a bit of honey. Both cabbage haters ate it and pronounced it good. They didn’t exactly rave, but they liked it, and Jordan and I had leftovers for lunch.

Tonight I am ready to curl up in bed much earlier than usual. I have not gotten out of my pajamas from last night, haven’t made my bed beyond pulling it together. The family is fixing beef bowls tonight, but I have opted for cream cheese and smoked salmon in the cottage. It’s been that kind of a couple of days.