Miss Rachel

We’ll miss you.

I’ve been in funk lately, and the only thing I can connect it to is that Woody is dying.  The past week her decline has been especially noticeable.  She has trouble standing and walking.  She’s not eating.

I have a weird sort of disconnect between my feelings and my mood.  For instance, you’d think “Her cat is sick and dying; of course she’s going to feel sad.”  The thing is, I don’t actually feel sadness directly, just a general discontent.  When my dad was sick with Alzheimer’s, slowly slipping away, it was almost agonizing to face so I kept going just feeling generally kind of “bummed” about it.  There was only one time, in therapy, where I let the sadness in and I began crying, great racking sobs, but only for about a minute before I pulled back.  My therapist said she could understand why I pulled back because those feelings are hard to feel.

Although feeling a general discontent is not good, I can function when I feel this way.  Of course, I like to deal with things head on, and I do think it’s healthier to actually experience your feelings, but on the other hand, I do have to function. I have stuff to do, places to go. I need to keep going.  Even though my cat is dying.

So glad last week is over. I am mostly against wishing away time, but since last week is now in the past, it’s already away, right? It was just a tiring week. I HAD to stay up and watch the Ladies figure skating event so that entailed staying up late both Tuesday and Thursday nights to watch it live. I don’t have a DVR and besides, who doesn’t want to watch an exciting once-every-four-years event like that live?! So I was already a bit sleep-deprived, and I was also fretting over the paper I had to write for class this week (yes, there was a paper this week AND the week before), and was having trouble getting it out. I also had to make cookies for my boss’s birthday Wednesday night. My birthday was on Wednesday and hers is on Thursday and we have a rule that the person who had the last birthday handles treats for the next birthday. It’s usually not as close as mine and hers, but oh well. So on my birthday night, I was making cookies for someone else’s birthday. I could have just bought something, but I wanted to share the delights of vegan cookies with my coworkers (more about that later). By Friday, it was D-day for my paper so I ended up pounding serious coffee and taking a half day at work, and finally finishing it. Then that night Sweetie came home… ahhh….. cue hearts and flowers and angels. It was so good to see him again, and it’s great having him back.

I’m not the only one glad he’s back. So is Woody.

This guy, probably not so much. He likes to have me all to himself.

I was so tired I toyed with the idea of just going out and buying a cake for my boss’s birthday, but I decided I wanted to share (and show off) how good vegan cookies could be so I made them for my boss’s birthday treat. She took one bite and said, “Rachel these are reallygood.” Everyone else on my team tried them, and said things like, “They’re as good as regular cookies.” Some people asked for the recipe and for information on what egg substitute was so I emailed the info to them. I use Ener-G brand egg substitute. Here’s the recipe for Rachel’s Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies:
1/2 cup of Earth Balance
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 egg’s worth of egg substitute
1 T vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 t baking powder
1/2 t baking soda
3/4 cup chocolate chips

Bake in 375 degree oven for ~10 minutes (you may need more or less time depending on the size of the cookies).

Note: the cookies in this picture are actually cookies I baked another time. The ones I made on Wednesday, I didn’t add walnuts, and I made a bit smaller so there would be more individual cookies to go around. Of course, I also HAD to do a taste test to make sure (ahem) that they would be acceptable so I had a few warm out of the oven on Wednesday night.

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Blog news! I’m switching to WordPress. Blogger has decided to stop allowing people to FTP their stuff, and while they have a good reason for doing so, there really is no reason for me to stay with them so I’ve decided to switch to WordPress. Evidently, I will be able to migrate my old posts from Blogger to WordPress, and maybe I’ll even figure out how to make my archives page work. I’m excited about this change, and I’m also excited to continue blogging with my new focus: vegan food and lots of photographs. Some of my most favorite blogs feature these two things, and I figure if that’s what I like reading about then that’s what I want to post about too.

Hopefully, the migration will go smoothly. I’m not sure how my page is going to look, but it’s not as if my domain name is changing so my readers, few though they may be, will still be able to find me here. I’m going to try to make the switch today. See you on the other side!

EDIT: I did it.  I am now on WordPress.