feeding_the_poor_with_dandelion_leaves epitome of incomprehensibility Dandelion leaves, hand-selected from parents' yard, with a little random tasting to make sure they weren't inordinately bitter. Romaine lettuce from refrigerator. Dull, but respectable. Garden tomatoes, chopped up. Cherry tomatoes courtesy of fridge, halved. Cucumbers, one garden, one not. Chopped. Generous portion of pine nuts from freezer. And when I got there: adding the raspberry red wine vinegar, caraway seeds, and oregano. Realizing I forgot fresh basil. But maybe basil wouldn't go with that dressing? (This salad accompanied salmon sandwiches, soup with chickpeas and various veggies, and a slice of cake for dessert.) I am happy to volunteer if I am non-busy and it involves vegetables. Or literacy. But mostly vegetables. 131001 ... e_o_i Inordinately bitter, eh? When I see the word inordinately, I think of computers, via the French "ordinateur." Anyway. After a Sunday of planning what I'd do this week, I had a miserable Monday of uselessness, so I was looking forward to a Tuesday morning of helping with the lunch. I brought Kraft Singles cheese slices. This is not an advertisement. Those things are horrid. (Horrid, I say! Positively horrid!) And they didn't want them now, but put them in the fridge for later. But also, other people having worse problems made me feel like I'm not so bad off. (I can't tell if that tendency is good or... or horrid.) One volunteer is doing better now, but she'd had a miscarriage several months ago and had to take a leave off work (she's an emergency room nurse, I imagine that takes energy). And she was feeling physically better long before she had to work again, which left her sad and restless, and I think it helped her to come to the lunch and volunteer and talk to people. And still she has to take tests to determine whether it's a good idea to try and have another baby. Which also shows it's possible to sympathize with someone without "relating" to them; if I have a child, I don't want to give birth to one - I'd much rather have one I'm not genetically related to, because I wouldn't be worrying how much s/he was or wasn't like me (of course there are the soap-opera scenarios of the adopted child needing a bone marrow transplant or something, but since I'm only talking about hypothetical kids I don't think I need to go into hypothetical soap opera plots just yet). Anyway, the point is I can sympathize without relating. Why do I feel I need to make a point of that? Well, for example, too many book reviewers talk about books having "relatable" characters and that annoys me. WHY DO YOU HAVE TO RELATE TO CHARACTERS TO LIKE THEM? ...I just realize "relate" can be a pun. Related. Relative. Relativity. But yes. Speaking of relatives, there's also a woman in her forties who comes sometimes (G is about thirty... oh dear, I can't call everybody by the letters of their first names, can I? Too much overlap). Her teenage daughter was recovering from a concussion she got in soccer, and now she's got a bad ear infection - but at least that's what's making her dizzy and it isn't the drugs or the head injury itself. But it could be the drugs too. (In August I'd offered to tutor her daughter part-time, but it turns out the girl got a subsidized school tutor; I don't mind because it's better for them that way, but K was kind of funny about it at first. I've met the kid; she reminds me of my cousin L or at least the fictionalized Lin. Many people that age are sarcastic, but these two do sarcasm well, and that's a talent.) Of course I also go there so I can get a free lunch. Talking to fellow human beings is interesting, but food is important. 131210 ... e_o_i I said I didn't have time to go last week because I had applications to do, and tutoring classes to prepare for. That's true, but I was really avoiding one of the attendees for fear he'd ask me yet again me whether I'd gotten another job yet. He means well, but the last time he did so I felt like smiling and saying, "If you utter those words again, I will drive this fork into your eye." I'm going there tomorrow. I'm not going to say that. There are some things worth doing to make one's life more exciting, and some things that are not. 140120 ... e_o_i That guy doesn't go anymore, not because I threatened him with kitchen utensils, but because the work pension he was waiting for, that was tied up in some bureaucratic mess-up, finally came to him and he felt he shouldn't "take advantage" or something. So he's quite nice actually, maybe unnecessarily so. Can you be unnecessarily nice? I don't know. Yesterday I didn't go because I was working - since it's spring break for most of the kids I tutor, I had a morning class. I like making food, though. Not all the time, because I'm lazy, and a lot of time I make lazy food, but I like it. 140305 ... e_o_i The last one for 2014 is today and my mom's urging me to hurry. She can go now too, since it's Wednesdays this year instead of Tuesdays, and she doesn't work. Proximity does not equal irritation, like correlation does not equal causation, but... 141217 ... e_o_i I'm probably the one that's more annoying, and evidently I can't write in a hurry: I meant that she doesn't work on Wednesdays. But it was a good turnout - and during the cleanup I had enough time to line up eight different kinds of soda bottles (soft drinks because holidays) and compare their ingredients. I thought of the idea because I'd brought my notebook with graph paper. Raksha, one of the regulars who was helping today, thought I was writing a story. Mountain Dew is basically the worst. It has the most sugar and caffeine. Naturally, it was my favourite when I was a kid: a bright green luxury with a pretty name. According to my parameters, Canada Dry ginger ale is the least bad. Fanta orange soda is better than Orange Crush (less sugar, though a bit more sodium, and it's made with real juice.) 141218 what's it to you? who go blather from