Vertigo sucks, but there are tulips and frittata.

[mrissa]

In some ways this is a really good week. I got an unspecified really big project out the door and got confirmation that it got where it was going and the person who got it was still interested in getting it, so that is a thing. I finished a new short story and got that sent out and worked on some others that are exciting and fun and shiny and like that. markgritter gets home tomorrow and should be done with the every-other-week-out schedule, he thinks; alecaustin also arrives tomorrow, and gets to stay somewhat longer than his previous usual, which ideally will mean more short story work. There have been cool new timprov photos, and there have been meals with people I like and there are plans for more. I have a peach scone for breakfast in the morning, and the vases in the library and kitchen are full of tulips. (Purple in the library, white in the kitchen.)

And I am doing that thing where I am shoring myself up with reminders of lovely solitary afternoons reading and satisfying work and time with people I love, because I have had two bad falls in the last week, and I am both heartsore and rest-of-me sore. I am so tired of this. So very tired. We are doing what we can, we are doing what we must, but I am just plain exhausted with it, and I hate that what we must includes changing the bandages on my knees repeatedly and having to take computer time in short bits because my neck and arms are seizing up. I hate not being able to lean on elbows and knees because of bruises and scrapes and finding that my back is constantly needing rearranging because of having been banged around a couple of thorough times not to mention the two not-bad times. I put this on Facebook yesterday because Facebook is short and I could deal with short. But then there was a lot of, "Feel better soon!" Which...good idea. Yes. I appreciate this. But livejournal, you people have a bit more context, so while I know you wish that I will feel better soon, I also know that you understand that the feeling better, it is...a process that is complicated at this point.

And not a lot of fun.

But tulips. Peach scones. People coming home, or to my house to visit and eat frittata, or whatever. Yes. There are these things, and new stories with coppery keys and pneumatic tubes and things. And frittata, seriously, this is the best easy thing ever right now. You put the things in the skillet! And you cook some of them! And then you put more things in and you put it in the hot oven and go away! And you come back and there is this proteiny vegetable-full dish for you! Granted it will not feed your vegans. But frittata. We live in a world with frittata. Yay.

The unfortunate part is that Cheryl Wheeler has me singing "frittata" to the Mexican Hat Dance. But when I'm trying not to think of the stupid vertigo, sometimes we take what we can get.

Comments

[aedifica]

I am glad you have tulips & peach scones & all of these other good things. And I will use the "happy birthday" icon even though I know it's a bit over two months to your birthday, just because.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I am making a cake soon. It is Rob's birthday. There will be celebration. If I can wish people, "Happy my birthday!", surely I can have a happy Rob's birthday too.

[ckd]

In order to give you a different ear worm I will just say "Hakuna Frittata". You're welcome. :-)

Have a lovely Alec-time, and may the feeling better be as uncomplicated as it can be.

[moiread]

I am sorry about the falls. I know how that bit goes. (I managed to fracture one of my toes the other day because of falling badly in the shower, 'cuz of the frequent dizziness. We can do wobbly high-five?) But I am really glad about the tulips and the scones and the frittata and the stories and the menfolk and all of that, and I am sending you all my good wishes and much love from over here.

[reveritas.livejournal.com]

Tulips! Free-tata! (that's how I say it ... like "Free Cuba!") Visitors! And you are a fun Mris even when not so stable on the feet.

[athenais.livejournal.com]

That's a whole lot of physical distress to deal with on top of the exhaustion, damn. I'm still thinking about the deserted space station that your brain dreams of, that's so...sf writer of you.

I have never made a frittata, but I am going to make a smörgåstårta veryvery soon. It's easy, it's just assembly work, no cooking required. Cucumbers and shrimp and hard-boiled eggs (oh, that's cooking, sort of) and trout paté and radishes and maybe little tomatos and also anything else I think of. Mmm! Sandwich cake!

[thoughtdancer.livejournal.com]

Ugh how frustrating.

But you have stuff getting out the door, which is awesome, and it's spring, which is awesome.

And frittata. I would try something with smoked salmon, asparagus, capers, and onions. Hmmmm....

[papersky.livejournal.com]

How do you make your frittata? Because it sounds really different from mine.

The whole vertigo thing is So Unfair and So Sucky and I can see it's also got to the point where it's unfair and sucky and also boring for you. A well meaning person once said to me that you can learn so much from pain, and I said yes, but after the first four or five years I had learned all those things and could ace the test and was sick of the repetition and would like to move up a grade. He said that that was learning something, but then some people are just like that. People are very bad at responding to actual chronic issues, because beyond "get well soon" what is there? "I wish for a miracle, of science or otherwise!" "Well that sure sucks!" When I got kicked by a horse that was actually interesting and different and I found watching the bruise change colours fascinating, but if I got kicked by a horse every week that would soon enough get tedious. So I would like to say something comforting and not just that I wish the world worked better sometimes, but what is there? Gah. This is one of the reasons I don't generally post about this kind of thing. (The other one is the thing that Auden sums up as "Who while healthy can become a foot?")

So glad you have tulips and frittata and people and work. That all sounds great.

[redbird]

Vertigo sucks, definitely, and yes, anything that can be described by "chronic" has its own suckiness. Frittatas are good (though I wish my computer believed there was a correct way to spell that word); yours sound much like what cattitude makes, which is different from the also-good thing adrian_turtle sometimes feeds me.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Frittata: you take chopped up veggies of varying kinds, possibly including potatoes, and also you take what spices you like, and you cook them in the oven-safe skillet if they need cooking, throwing them in with timing dependent on how long they need cooking. (Potatoes long before spinach, for example.)

And then you pour eggs over them and cheese mixed into the eggs if you wanted cheese. And then you bake it. And then you slice it and eat it and it is good.

And yes, the "you can learn so much from pain" people are mostly people who have had a hangnail or so, or maybe a sprained ankle that healed on schedule. They are often people who are learning from someone else's pain, often someone else they don't even like very much.

But being mugged by a story I have to dribbled out in chunks while my arms and neck agree is better than being mugged by no story at all.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Oh, I forgot: people who are not me can put meat or fish in their frittata, and good on 'em. I might even put gravlax in mine at some point. But right now one of the main points of frittata is getting protein into me in an easy way when I am not so good at eating meat due to the nausea, so putting in bits of bacon or ham or whatever would completely defeat the point. It is not, however, generally outside the concept of what I mean by frittata, just outside the concept of what I do as frittata.

[papersky.livejournal.com]

My frittata is made from leftover rice. Also eggs and cheese. It's based on a concept of a frittata I had in Italy. I make it in a skillet and just brown the top under the grill/broiler. The rice completely transmutes into this delicious thing, it's quite amazing. And I eat it with vegetables, usually peas or spinach, but it doesn't have vegetables in it.

So, completely different thing then! Yours sounds lovely, I must try it.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Rice! Goodness, that sounds like what timprov calls hash, eggs and rice and cheese and spices and no vegetables in (usually bits of Hungarian sausage, though, csabai). But he doesn't brown his under the broiler. Maybe he'll feel like trying it if he sees this comment. It's one of the things he occasionally makes if he wants something very comfort foodish while I'm sleeping, so while I have nothing against it I don't often get it to eat.

[tiger-spot.livejournal.com]

Hurrah, tulips and scones and people you like!

Ow, falling is no good. :(

Our frittata-like things (there are two: I do "scrambled eggs with stuff," which is nicely flexible in constitution, and Andres does tortilla de papas, which is authentically Spanish and usually involves a lot of cursing as he tries to get it to flip over properly) are all stove-top, but they are also very very handy when one needs an easy dinner. Poor unfed vegans, they're missing out.

[thoughtdancer.livejournal.com]

Huh? Hash doesn't have rice...it has potatoes.

But hash with rice sounds wonderful.

hmmmm

[dichroic.livejournal.com]

I did see about the falls on FB, but couldn't think of anything useful to say or a good way to contain a wince in a comment. I am sorry this vertigo thing is still being so unruly, but glad about the tulips and scones and most of all the people.

[aedifica]

Do you cook the rice in the skillet and then add eggs and cheese, or how does yours come together? It sounds tasty and I'd like to try making it.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Yes, actually my recent attachment to frittata came about when I looked at the recipes for that, looked at the recipe for tortilla de papas, and went, "So...I would have to try to flip it properly for the latter? Right then. Frittata it is."

[sheff-dogs.livejournal.com]

Chronic conditions are boring {hug} People who think you 'learn from pain' should be magically given the pain those of us who have learnt what ltttle there is to learn from pain and do not need anymore thank you very much.


Frittata is one of things that pretty much every culture has a variation on. If you think about it there isn't much difference between a pasrty-free flan or quiche and a frittata. There is the Koo Koo (such a soothing name) or Eggeh in the Middle East. And the good old English egg and bacon pie is just another variation. I love the stuff.

[papersky.livejournal.com]

No, the rice is cooked the day before for dinner and some is left over. The cooked rice is in the fridge in a tupperware, and I take it out and put butter to heat in the skillet. I break two eggs into the rice and beat them in, and I add a handful of grated cheese and beat that in, and I add pepper and herbs. (Doesn't need salt because cheese has salt already.) Then the butter is melted and bubbling and I put the mess from the tupperware into the skillet and flatten it down a bit with the fork I was using to mix it, then I put it back on the heat and wash some dishes. When I've washed the dishes the frittata is cooked on the bottom and on the sides, and I can tell by poking it around the sides with a pallet knife. I let it cook a little more while the kettle boils and I put the grill on to heat up and some water in another pan. When the kettle boils I make tea and then I put the skillet under the grill and I put peas into the other pan. I put the tea on the table and I get my book, and then I drain the peas and put the peas and the frittata onto a plate and I eat it, while drinking the tea and reading my book.

I have made it for other people and even for other meals, and sometimes with spinach instead of peas but it's usually for breakfast and that's pretty much exactly how I make it. It takes about ten or fifteen minutes and I also have clean dishes.

It's sort of more like an omelette than anything else, but it's quite different from an omelette. I had one quite similar to this in Italy in 1982...

[sksperry.livejournal.com]

I'm impressed that you can accomplish so much considering the circumstances. Go Valkyrie!

[sksperry.livejournal.com]

Actually, I'm impressed at the things you accomplish, regardless of the circumstances.

[kalmn.livejournal.com]

The best thing about being unsteady while walking is hitting people like that with your cane. [nods]

[pameladean]

It is very nice being one of your vegans just the same.

Chronic stuff is grindingly bad. I was going to say it is better than acute stuff, but really that depends. Things that go on and on and on when you want them to stop just wear you down. But at least they cannot stop your having peach scones and tulips and visitors.

P.

[timprov.livejournal.com]

I don't call it hash; you call it hash. (And I typoed it as "hasj," which I suppose I'd be more likely to call it given the presence of paprika salami.) I just call it "egg-rice stuff."

[rosefox]

Heh, someone recently told me "Feel better soon!" on Twitter, and I explained the concept of "lifelong chronic condition" in the sort of tone that I think of as polite but firm and apparently comes across as half a step down from fire-breathing. At least I can be pretty sure he'll never do it again.

That said, I do hope things improve for you, and I'm glad you have good things to at least slightly counterbalance the boring unfun stuff.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Wobbly high-five in a way that does not knock either of us over!

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Sometimes other people really want a lot of credit for their good intentions coming across as good intentions, and I find I have to couch my response in several several several layers of, "Your good intentions: they are acknowledged," before I get to, "My reality: I advise you of it." This is occasionally more than a little frustrating.

[dancing-crow.livejournal.com]

You have my deepest sympathy on falling.

As distraction I offer the image of my daughter's favorite chemistry teacher singing the potato song, juggling potatos, and then causing explosions as a grand finale. Since chemistry is not my sport I cannot say with certainty what she did for explosions. But, it brought down the house. In a good way. No ceiling tiles, that is, just applause.

[rosefox]

I tend not to bother unless they're already a close friend or relative, which is probably the difference between New Yorker and Scandasotan in a nutshell.

[aedifica]

Thank you! And I do like your way of timing things.

[cissa.livejournal.com]

Strata- savory bread pudding- is also for the WIN; very similar to frittata that way, but with bread.

I am wishing you the best!