Comfort

It's another cold, rainy day in paradise.  The Book is nearing completion.  I should be happy that the weather does not tempt me outdoors.  Why not glue myself to the Aeron chair in front of my computer when most other options involve slogging through the rain?  Still, when the writing doesn't go well and I feel like I'm pushing my way through molasses with nothing to show for it but treacly, gooey prose, I need comfort.   Actually, I need comfort even when the writing is going nicely.  And comfort usually means food.

I was especially stressed this morning.  The good news is that I wrapped up the all-important chapter on re-imagining childhood.  This is really the heart of the book,  and it required a lot of careful thought and precise language so I was feeling pretty good.   The next chapter should be relatively straight-forward.  I'll be using the model of outcome-based planning and evaluation described in Dynamic Youth Services through Outcome-Based Planning and Evaluation by Eliza Dresang, Melissa Gross, and Leslie Edmonds Holt to suggest a more intentional way of delivering library services to kids.  I reached for my copy on the shelf where it should have been:  no book.  I looked to the left of me.  No book.  I looked to the right of me.  No book.  I even looked up into the tree.  No book.  Not even any monkeys.  I looked EVERYWHERE.  

I checked the LAPL online catalog:  not there!  Why didn't they buy this book?????  I checked the UCLA online catalog:  checked out.  Finally in desperation, I logged onto Amazon.com and ordered a copy to arrive overnight on Saturday with some insanely high delivery charge.   Then as I was walking from my office to the kitchen to make lunch, I spotted my copy of the book wedged between American Children's Literature and the Construction of Childhood and Preventing Reading Difficulties in Young Children.  I had looked there in my panicky search but hadn't seen it. 

Oh, well.  After tomorrow I will own two copies of this useful book.  But for now I needed comfort.  There are some foods that ooze comfort.  Chocolate is one, of course.  But when I need a comfort lunch, I revert back to childhood pleasures.  These are meals that would cause a foodie or someone on a low-carb diet (that would be me) to run screaming from the table:  potato patties made with mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese or grilled cheese sandwiches made with Velveeta, Campbell's cream of tomato soup served with so many saltine crackers that it should more accurately be called saltine crackers soaked in cream of tomato soup.  All of those meals have comforted me in the past.  Today I made one of my mother's favorites:  a scrambled egg sandwich with ketchup on white bread.  She sometimes added onions or green peppers and called it a Denver Sandwich.  

I prepared it.  I ate it.  It was delicious, and now I am fortified for another afternoon of writing.