feasting on treats

Nick is gone again on another (and last) work excursion for the next three days. I'm being brave and pretending that I'm not going to miss him as much as I will by going on an outing with Grace to Salem and shopping for clothes and makeup and making the same delicious lemon sugar cookies recipe for the third time in less than a week. (Shh. Don't judge.) Only cookies can ease the hole Nick's absence has left in my life. Cookies and new clothes. I'm actually beginning to doubt that these trips are actually for work. The first one was to Dallas, and I swallowed that one OK because who pretends that they have to go to Texas (no offense), and then Belize which was a little more suspicious but this time Nick will be in Disney World. I wouldn't be surprised to find out that Nick has been saving for this for months and just used work as an excuse to go without me. Unsurprised--but my wrath would know no bounds.

But back to feasting on treats. These pictures capture the day we found a deal for thirty dollars worth of pastries at a local gluten free bakery for half the price. We hesitated for a moment (not really, I just wrote that to build anticipation) then we rushed over to claim the triple chocolate cake before someone else stole it out from beneath our quivering nostrils. At the bakery we chose one of these and two of those and Nick deliberated for far too long even though I knew what he would want and I told him right away. He ended up agreeing with me, albeit abashedly. When we got home we laid out our feast on the table and I insisted on a few pictures before we vultured forth. The triple chocolate cake was good but I would have been happier with a third brownie. They were so good. Treats like those call for condensation ripe glasses of milk. And I missed it. A little. But that didn't dampen the pleasure of a chocolatey brownie.

The Power of Speech

We are reading Tess of the D'urbervilles in my English Novel class and tody were talking about when Tess tells Angel what happened between her and Alec. If you haven't read the book and don't want anything divulged then skip this post, but if you know anything about Hardy's book you now that Tess is a woman who is taken advantage of by a higher class man, Alec. Our previous discussion have centered around whether or not it was actually rape what happened between Tess and Alec and my  thoughts stem from the thought that it was a rape, although not the knife-point violence that the word might conjure up into some minds. Tess tells her husband Angel about what happens and he rejects her. Did she explain herself poorly? If she had told him earlier would he have forgiven her? What?! These questions are absurd to me living here and now because Tess was the victim. She trusted Angel enough to tell him her most painful secret and he didn't live up to what he should have been as her closest friend and confidant. I think that this novel gives great credence to the idea that only God is our judge. Tess was never promiscuous, but Angel doesn't understand or know that. Should she have just let her past go? If someone has repented of a sin, truly and completely then that old person is dead and gone. But Tess had no sin and her only mistake was her ignorance which mistake her family and her society also bear the burden for. Tess, and all other victims of crimes against them, should not have to let those things go until she is ready and how can she be ready since she hs always borne the blame of the crime and even sees that in herself. Angel could have freed her and unburdened her but all he thought about was himself and the shame of it all.

I've heard that a joy shared is twice the joy and a sorrow shared is half the sorrow.

Why do we want to tell someone when something good or bad happens?

P.S. Side note: Chicago was fantastic. It was fun playing tourist with Nick and just being with my family. It has been a long time.