Wednesday, January 03, 2007

I am one "one of them"

In case anyone out there has been living in a cave or under a rock, let me fill you in: over the past two weeks, Denver has recieved over 30 inches of snow in two seperate storms. One was the weekend before Christmas, and one was the weekend after. On one hand, it rocked. This is my first year working a real job (as opposed to being a full time student or a set-my-own-hours hairstylist), and every time Denver's had a blizzard in my lifetime, it's happened over either my Winter or Spring break, thus, I don't get any extra days off. This time, (including the holidays off) I got to have two six-day weekends in a row. On the other hand, it sucked. You'd think if suburbia gets slammed with 3 feet of snow, there's going to be even more in the mountains, right? That's what we thought, too, when we went up to snowboard right after the first blizzard. Breckenridge only got 3 inches, and the wind had whipped most of it off the slopes anyway.

Christmas was wonderful- the first white Christmas we've had in years. I received some great stuff from my family, my favorite of which being a cheese grater. Yes, a CHEESE GRATER. Lame, you say? No, practical. Stephen and I registered for wedding gifts a while ago (immediately after we got engaged, to be more specific), and we tried not to register for anything under 20 dollars. Our guests aren't getting away with being cheap and buying us stirring spoons and salad tongs. One of the very few "under 20" items we did register for is a cheese grater that stands on two legs over a plate, with two sides: one with BIG grates, and one with little grates (grates? is that right?). I HAD to put it on the list because Stephen's cheese grater is the biggest pain in the ass. The grates (this is what I'm going to call them from now on) are microscopic and you have to work a lot to get a little tiny pile of cheese that vaguely resembles confetti. Judging by the amount I have to say on the subject, perhaps you can imagine my reaction when I opened my (our) Christmas present from my Grandma and discovered that she had taken it upon herself to look up our registry and buy us a nifty new grater. I think my excitement could hardly be parallelled if I had received a new car.

It's exciting to get our first wedding present, and it's fun getting something useful that I had really wanted. I promised myself, when I was in my hardcore feminist phase, that I would never allow myself to be "one of those" women- the kind that gets excited about kitchen accessories. I now find that I AM "one of those women", and furthermore, that I know and respect a number of "those women". So what if I like to cook and bake? So what if I offer to do most of the cleaning? So what if I want to stay home and raise kids someday? Lately Stephen's been really stressed and really busy studying for an exam he has to pass by a certain date. I feel good knowing that I'm freeing him up and relieving some of his stress by cooking dinner and doing the dishes. I'd rather be the kind of woman that likes to give and serve and bless the people I love than the kind of woman that decries every homemaker as a traitor to the sex.

4 comments:

Melissa said...

I totally get what you mean! I hated cooking and didn't know much about cooking before marriage and now, some of my friends call me, "Martha Stewart!" Which I think that if my friends back home knew that, they'd laugh and laugh hard.

I have a cheese grater that has 3 sides and rarely use it, but when my mom gave me her microplane, I went bananas. I have used it so much and use it every chance it get.

Grate on!

Melissa said...

BTW... It's good to know that y'all are okay, I found myself praying for y'all when I heard about the blizzards.

RachelRenae said...

I'm a good cook, but hopefully I'll get better at baking. Most of my attempts at breads and cakes have turned out rather shamefully. Also, thanks for the prayers! I grew up in Colorado, so I'm pretty good driving in the snow, but I had a scare the other day and couldn't stop- I ended up swerving my car into a snowbank to avoid hitting a little sedan that had slid out. That was the first time anything like that had happened to me! Thankfully, I'm ok and my car got out fine.

Thom Gabrukiewicz said...

Nothing wrong with a little grated cheese, all the while the wind howls and the snow builds into sleek fortresses of white.