The Ranch has a class called "taking the ranch home with you"; a seminar filled with tips on being healthy at home. This of course I did not attend, but as much as I hate to admit it, I am taking some knowledge home: First- canned garbanzo beans are good for hummus, you don't need to use dried and soaked. Also buy the trader joes pre peeled garlic for roasting. Spread on toast! You don't need to peel it yourself! The mind reels..
Anyway I learned that at the cooking class, which was great, and not just because they snuck in a little beer.
What I really learned while
under deprivation however , is I am a "radical moderate" (trade mark!) . I am radical in my moderation; and this is why I didn't last 24 hours without m&ms. It is also why I only ate 10 of them in three days (I bequeathed the rest to heather).
I am moderate about sleep and exercise and booze and chocolate. But I am also incredibly steady- never too far off the middle. And do not- I repeat, do not ask me to veer from that path. The locals are still laughing at the gringa in spandex and a pith helmet wandering the dusty streets on day one for sustenance. (Fiona described me as having mosquito netting over my face but this is of course a total exaggeration.)
The only thing I am not middle of the road on is love. And I do love those crazy girls.
Whenever we get together, it seems
one of us is in a mild crisis- financial or romantic or child related. And we put the afflicted on the couch for group therapy; until one of us starts cracking jokes about the bleakness of it all, or a shared memory, or someone (me) spills coffee on herself without cleaning it off, and pretty soon we are helpless with laughter.
In Buddhist Pema Chödrön's wonderful book she says :
"Never have expectations of other people. Just be kind to them."
And that's what these women have always done- expect nothing from me but a little of my time, and a partially hydrogenated, artificially flavored snack in my pocket.
Done.
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