A Love-Hate Relationship

Time for the question-of-the-day: what is your least favorite chore?

Easy: I don't like dealing with food, surprising considering that I like to eat. I never liked touching raw meat and I wasn't so thrilled with handling leftover meat (ewh, cold slimy turkey in a zipper bag, anyone? Just another vegetarian perk. Or is that perq?). I don't like food getting wet and so have an aversion to doing dirty dishes unless the plates are scraped clean. Stopper in the sink have bits of food in it? I could retch. Cleaning out the fridge, dealing with leftovers and produce gone bad, even taking out the garbage are all very, very challenging for me. My sense of smell is incredibly sensitive (a leftover from pregnancy; it was always good but now it is amazing) and it is connected right to my gag reflex. Visuals don't help either. So poor Mama is stuck with most food duties, from cleaning the fridge to taking out the garbage. At least I can cook, now that there is not really much meet involved (and when there is, it's those practically antiseptic pre-packaged chicken breasts), though Mama will tell you that I am very quick to throw out food that I suspect might be thinking about going bad (hey, I've had food poisoning one too many times). I'd clean bathrooms, vaccuum, dust, fold clothes, anytime compared to the majority of kitchen duties.

Question of the Day

My pal Miss T, over at Love Big, Bake Often, has discovered a question-of-the-day journalling website. I can't get the .pdfs open but do want to answer the question posed today: what would you change about the world? I agreed with all of Miss T's answers and would boil them down to one word: respect. I would inject respect into our personal and public behaviors--respect for ourselves, respect for others, respect for the planet. I would demand respect from corporations and governments--respect for other peoples as well as individuals, respect for the planet, respect for differences, respect for the past and for the future, as well as the present. With more respect there would be more dialogue and less violence (on interpersonal and international levels); consensus building instead of partisanship; improvement in the environment; equal rights for women, ethnic and religious minorities, and GLBTs; equitable pay; health coverage; as well as just a general increase in civility which improves day-to-day well being. I can see it leading to so many wonderful things. But it is so hard to overcome fear and distrust and create respect, especially where there is such a history of distrust and disrespect. I think, however, that the election of Barack Obama is proof that we are taking steps in the right direction. Next Tuesday can't come soon enough for me.