stomachache

Not too much to write about today, except for the fact that I love Fall. Last night I dreamed I was in a pumpkin patch picking pie pumpkins. I woke up craving pumpkin pie, but instead I opened the fridge and proceeded to consume way too much leftover pear-apple crisp. I am now in bed with a stomachache. It really hurts, especially when all I really wanted in the first place was a piece of gastrointestinally-friendly pumpkin pie.

But my love for Fall remains intact. So far this season that love has manifested itself primarily in my stomach. For example, I have eaten over 40 apples since the weather changed. I have baked one pie and one crisp, and every Saturday at the Farmer's Market I eye the Concord Grapes and contemplate making a grape pie.

Have you ever made a grape pie? During another employment-free period of my life, I found myself filling an entire week with grape pies. The thing about a grape pie is you have to peel and seed every single grape that goes into the pie. Let me repeat: you peel and seed EVERY grape that goes into the pie. It is a project reserved almost exclusively for the unemployed. But the end result is so yummy. In my recipe book, The Pie and Pastry Bible, the author writes that she knew one of her ex-husband's students had a crush on him when the student baked him a grape pie.

My days to bake a grape pie might be limited, though, since I am now more earnestly looking for a job. (And by earnestly, I mean I applied to a grand total of TWO jobs this morning.) I had the chance to do a little nannying for a great family earlier this week, and the experience reminded me how good it feels to work doing something you feel good at.

I never felt good at being a teacher, although with more experience perhaps I might eventually feel like I could reach the point of competence. But since that point would take several years and I only have a couple months to work with, I figure might as well get better at something more realistic. Here's hoping someone in Hyde Park wants a pregnant, part-time nanny to come over and bake their kids some pie.