Kvetchin' Kitchen: March 2014

Friday, March 14, 2014

Office Building Ladies' Room

Warning: this post is lewd, crude, and probably not socially acceptable. But I've learned something interesting and I need to share it. It's about potty time. And dealing with Crohns has given me a LOT to learn about. You've been warned...

Pooping in public restrooms is a very real challenge and struggle. It is never more present than in the ladies' room. For some reason, women don't want to poo with anyone in the same room. Oh, we'll chat right through a pee, but someone lets out a warning fart and the room clears for privacy.

But my office seems to have a... Code? We've all been part of the pooping stand-off, but there is something different I've noticed here.

We have a two-stall restroom at my office. When someone walks in and notices that one stall is occupado, the newcomer will either (1) turn around and leave, or (2) wash her hands and then leave. The leaving is a less subtle "Hey, looks like you need some privacy." The hand washing appears to mean "I, too, need to poo. Hurry up."

I don't know how this started. But every lady seems to understand it. Seriously, so bizarre.

Also, given that there are 7 women working upstairs, two stalls is not enough real estate.

Saturday, March 8, 2014

Code Word: OKMHHOU

Last month, after more than a year of dreaming and planning, we finally had a live, in person One Kitchen Many Hearts meet up.

And it was more than I could have imagined.

PIE!

The seven of us had met in parts in the past - I obviously knew Megan in college, I met Mads last fall when I was visiting my grandparents, and I met Allison on our Alton Brown Tour De Force last October. That left the other half of the group - Kat, Kirsten, and Jeanne - to be new people. I have to admit - there was a lot that could go wrong here. Jeanne welcomed a bunch of people into her home (bless her husband). You would hope that any "crazy" would have come out over the years as we chatted, except that psychopaths are pretty smart. Did she really know what she was welcoming into her home?? We have gone more than a year, as a group, with ZERO inter-group drama. I mean seriously - when was the last time a group of seven women could be friends for so long without any drama? And my real fear? What if, when we finally got together, we discovered that the internet was a great cover and we actually didn't like each other?

We met a special guest while antiquing... She was kind enough to help us out with a selfie.

That turned out to be a stupid fear.

In fact, the weekend went so fantastically, that we came home to realize that we'd forgotten to take more pictures. Instead of a weekend when seven bloggers got together, this transformed us quite simply to seven friends. It added some realism to our friendship, or at least ended any doubt there was about what kept us together.

The only van with enough personality to haul us around

To be honest, the weekend was such a blur of friends and laughs, that I don't have much else to say about it (I mean, what would you say about your girl's weekend?). So here are a few more pictures.

One of the bomb-diggity breakfasts

We went antiquing, and happened across a scrap metal shop. Well, they had a series of flying pigs and I fell IN LOVE. Jeanne went all the way back after we left, just to make sure Al Porcino could make it home. Confession: I'm ordering a second one. Herd of flying pigs? YUP.