Self Care

"There is no such thing as too much ice cream."

Acts of self-preservation amid the chaos.

These past few weeks have been rough at work, and the feeling of hitting the end of each day without even starting that day’s To Do list because of all of the unanticipated fires is just draining. Having others take their stress out in my direction because they are experiencing similar is no fun either.

And so amid all of that, this past weekend’s self care in the form of a day excursion with one of my most enduring, dearest friends - an outing long-planned before Congress started throwing monkey wrenches at the tax code - was potentially in jeopardy.  She flew into Long Island, and with juggling, lots of juggling, keeping that commitment and taking an afternoon off to wander through a designer show house and furniture stores out East (even if there were intermittent interruptions from work calls and emails), getting a pedicure while waiting for a dinner reservation, having some fantastic food prepared at Blu Mar in Southampton with fun company, was just enough of the prescription to keep insanity at bay.

It was only an afternoon, after all.  Then a bit of a morning with the parentals, before heading back to the city to try to keep a lid on things, was the next part of the balancing act.  Though choosing to have a meal out with Sissy upon returning, and finally, finally, getting to try neighborhood spots Gray Hawk Grill and Anita Gelato, both of which opened during the pandemic - it all felt almost like normal times again.

Balancing all of that with tackling deferred gardening tasks and side gig work, and all the decadent eating out with some relatively healthy cooking in - refining the chickpea pancake into an improved chickpea crepe, utilizing the still abundant (even in early Autumn!) fresh harvested squash blossoms and kitchen scrap scallions - felt like an accomplishment to make up for all the things not yet done at work.  Discovering I have gotten back to my 2001 weight (give or take a couple of pounds) - without any real effort, other than, you know, surviving a global pandemic - was a morale bonus, too.

Balance of time.  Balance of food.  Balance of efforts and energy.  Different perspective.  Much needed recentering - like a chiropractic adjustment (so I've heard; no experience firsthand).  Truly overdue self care.  But then it becomes a craving - why can't I have it more often, or all the time?