Chocolate Cake Day

You gotta hand it to the USA. We may have weird politics and lots of things we aren't good at, but we are great at having lots of ridiculous. (Do other countries do this? Or is this just a weird American thing?) And while they may be ridiculous, a lot of them are really delicious, like National Chocolate Cake day, which what do you know, is today. So, naturally, I made a chocolate cake. It was a pound cake, and a new recipe (using coconut sugar, so fewer sugars!) but I think it turned out well. It is SUPER dark. And I didn't have milk chocolate so I used semi-sweet, which probably didn't help, but it's all good. If you really wanted to rich it up, some Nutella would do the job nicely. 

The good news is that because it's a pound cake, and baked in a loaf, there's not as much as if I did another cake and that is great news. Because, National Chocolate day may also come once a year, but the leftovers are forever. 

Where have you been?

So far, 2019 has been exhausting. Not completely unproductive (until I start to think about it, and then it maybe has been horribly unproductive!), just exhausting. I'm not sure if I never got over the holidays, the sickies, or if it's just an epidemic, since everyone seems to be worn out. Anyway, my energy has been sapped. 

I did have a great visit to my brother's, where I played with my nephews and got to bond with my month old niece.* Oh the adventures we had! We went on a quest to find the magic carpets and wash them in a magic potion so that the villains couldn't ride them**, meeting a wizard on the way, then boarded a ship and traveled to the Portal Hoard, and popped through some portals. We built a fort, we played lots of games, and generally just had a good time. It was a nice reprieve and might tide me over for a few weeks until I go into kid withdrawals again. 

I also got to do some sleuthing at work the last couple of days, trying to track photo studios and photographers to figure out who has the rights. It's so satisfying when I manage to follow the clues to more information! I'd make a horrible detective in real life, but an archival detective--right up my alley.

So, no, January hasn't been all bad. I just wish I had more energy to enjoy it. Here's hoping this isn't a sign of tiredness to come.

*Completely unrelated, I am listening to a podcast while I write and they just played a recording of the vice president speaking Spanish. It was a valiant effort but please, sir, don't say 'con' like that! 

**aka, gathered towels and threw them in the wash.

Adulting

Well, 2019 has started off in a pretty downer way. First, I am back home in a very empty apartment after having spent nearly 2 weeks with a house full of kids. It's very depressing. I'm not getting nearly enough hugs.

Second, I've been sick. (A final parting gift from my nephew. He's two and not really well-versed in gift giving. Also, he's adorable, so it was totally worth the risk of getting sick to play with him). I ended up taking two days off work and only went on Friday because I felt horribly guilty for missing two days right after my vacation and felt less bad. And, probably because I was bored.

The ridiculous thing is that despite being a full-fledged adult, I honestly had no idea if I was sick enough for a sick day. I kept feeling like I needed to call someone to find out how sick is too sick for work? I think what really clinched it was the idea that my co-workers probably didn't want me around because I sounded so awful. And I didn't feel great. I was blowing my nose every ten seconds and my ears felt like they needed to pop I was so congested. And my throat and ears did hurt off and on, but mostly only in the mornings and evenings. So, probably good that I stayed home but you would think that after half a lifetime, I would know a little better if I'm too sick to go anywhere.*

Anyway, maybe that means I'm not a full-fledged adult, which may have all sorts of implications. But, I think I'm finally on the mend. So, even though I would love to just stay in bed for a few more days, I guess it's time to be an adult and face the real world. Sigh.

I really miss Christmas.

*Of course, I had to go somewhere. I'd been out of town for 2 weeks and had no food. And then I had to come home and make food. It really stinks to be sick when you are single and live alone.