A Little Taste of Home

I find myself a bit perplexed. Confused about many things, but on top of them sits my longing to be with family and the sigh of a nostalgic itch truly scratched.

Thanks to our US Postal System (or UPS), there are gifts under the tree-- for me, from my parents-- which is a very nice but by no means necessary facet of Christmas. As a gourmand shackled to longings for creature comforts... I find other sensory inputs equally if not more satisfying. A small glass of egg nog. The faint smell of pine in the living room. My mom's yuletide appetizer: sausage balls.

I grew up with a certain treat around the holidays, engimatically delicious munchables from a seemingly endless horn of plenty (while not going so far as to spoil one's dinner). My mom's sausage balls were uniquely savory, intriguing and entirely of her. Last year, aware that I'd be stuck in NY for Christmas, I asked her for the recipe. Mind-boggling in its simplicity, I duplicated it exactly.

Cooling on a cookie sheet in the kitchen are dozens of my mom's ought-to-be-patented recipe sausage balls. They're exactly as I remember them; every bit as good. I have a piece of home away from home.

I'm glad it's the only sensory input that can truly be duplicated, away from my family. I'd much rather see any presents beneath the tree accompanied by the people who gave them. I can't deny I miss them terribly.

The economy & my finances being what they are; I'm stuck in New York. But the house has a tree. Complete with presents, no less. And my mom's famed sausage balls in the kitchen. All I'm short is a few family members and a John Denver Muppet Christmas to make it complete.

Merry Christmas, folks. May you be close to the ones you love.




Mom's Amazing Sausage Balls

3 cups Bisquik
2 cups shredded Cheddar
1 lb. Breakfast Spicy Sausage (sliced out of its skin)

Mix in a large bowl until you have a consistent lump of doughy orange mix.
Roll into balls smaller than golf and/or ping pong. Arrange on cookie sheet w/ tin foil.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
15 minutes or so in the oven. (Longer is sometimes better.)

Let cool, enjoy. Toothpicks are a nice touch and spicy mustard makes 'em absolutely killer.
(Though I like them just as much au natural.)

Ho, Ho, No

Just in time for the holidays, we have startling footage of our beloved Santa Claus behaving in a manner most unsuitable for children.

Kris Kringle was seen shouting into a tape recorder, spewing venom (and bits of tongue on rye) into a cassette recorder before storming off, singing "I Like To Be In America".

As if this were not enough, the self same Pere Noel was later spotted leaving a Washington, DC Burger King in a Ford POS. He was reported to be driving angrily, swerving left and right, and littering on the highway-- a Class C misdemeanor.

This erratic behavior falls well out of the usual activities Old Saint Nick. Brick up your chimneys, kiddies. Santa Claus is coming to town.

Good News, Bad News

Well. What a madcap few weeks it's been. I'm employed again (in the short term), and have a prospect or three (in the long term). Neither of are great consolation in the very now present. I knew-- KNEW-- that life in New York would be hard. I just didn't want to think about how hard it's gotten of late.

I am clinging to hopes and plans and prayers that the hard work I've put in and am putting in will pay off.

God. It's just difficult. Making ends meet? Getting anything for myself done creatively? Finding someone special. I could use a break. (Couldn't we all.) I could really use a lucky break.

Luck, as they say, is opportunity meeting preparation. I'm prepped. I'm prepped up to my gills. What I could use is some opportunity.

Any day now...

Bad News Follows The Good

This new job opportunity isn't as easy to get into as I first hoped. It's requiring a few hoops to jump through (not the least of which is a copy of my birth certificate) because I'm going to need New York ID to get started. I don't have it on hand, which means waiting. Waiting and not getting paid.

I need to ask them some questions about what I can do in the meantime; because otherwise I am completely out of ideas. I could really, really use some good news. Not prospects, not a light at the end of a tunnel, something *now*. I know patience has never been my virtue but this is getting obscene.

I've been praying for help; in addition to chasing down this job opportunity; which *can* be lucrative once it starts... it's just the waiting that's going to get me. Nobody made this bed but me; I know that. Doesn't make things the slightest bit easier.

More to follow.