It is my daily ritual upon returning from work and errands to put the kettle on, cast off my uniform in favor of something snuggly, and peruse the mail while curled up in my favorite chair with a cup of tea. But today called for something extra. I didn't get home from errands until two and a half hours after I'd left work and I was cold, wet, tired and oh so bone sore. We had a light snow last night but by midnight it switched back to freezing rain, making for a horrible morning drive. Cars were slipping and sliding this way and that, and my poor old grey beast (a 1989 Ford Mustang) is quite possibly the coldest natured vehicle to have ever rolled off the assembly line. So I shivered while it sputtered all the way to work, my teeth chattering and its fan belt squealing like a small primate gone mad.
A cold rain continued through most of the morning and I smiled to myself as I imagined that we kitchen staff were Keebler elves, safe and warm inside our giant oak, baking away and humming a happy work song. Silly. And one would think the inclement weather would keep shoppers and hungry folk at home, but no. In they came, the cold, wet, starved masses. Each one fussier and needier than the one before, very like minding toddlers. So by four o'clock I was happy to throw my flour covered apron in the laundry bin, and I dashed through my errands to collapse in a shivering, wet heap inside my door afterward.
So this called for something beyond the usual ritual. I put on the kettle and ran a hot bath while assembling a tray of my favorite Ceylon tea, and an orange-cranberry scone with clotted cream-diet be damned. I was a woman near her death of cold and exhaustion, this was no time to be counting carbohydrates! With these treats and a new book club catalogue, I locked myself in the bath and refused to budge for just under an hour. Oh what decadence.. tea cup perched on the edge of the bath, a catalogue filled with endless possibilities, and me up to my neck in lavender scented bubbles. Afterwards I wrapped in a towel warmed over the hot air register and put on my favorite pale blue and white flannel pj's-also warmed over the register.
The whole rain-chilled day was worth enduring just for that forty five minutes of self indulgence. That's not to say I want another day just like it tomorrow, but if it should happen I'll just have to do this all over again.
11:34 p.m. - 2008-01-17
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