Young At Heart

I had a quiet day by myself on Sunday, so I decided to do some baking.  Turned out a very nice batch of molasses cookies and then decided that I wanted scones.  I turned to our cookbook collection for help.  I’m not kidding here, we have everything from church cookbooks to my binder with The Family Favorites to the professional America’s Test Kitchen three-ring binder cookbook.  

For this, I turned to the tried and true Queen of the Kitchen, Betty Crocker.  The recipe was simple enough with your basic dry ingredients, whipping cream, and currants.  Problem?  I didn’t have whipping cream on hand and I don’t know anyone who ever has currants handy.  I tried anyway by leaving the currants out completely and substituting some of Cubby’s whole milk for the whipping cream.  After all, milk is milk, right?  Wrong.  

Yeah.  Epic fail.  Basically I got really big pie-piece-shaped cookies with cinnamon sugar sprinkled on top...guess that’d be a snicker doodle.  They tasted okay but not what I really wanted.  Now I will just have to try it again.  

I will take time out here to send out an apology to Jimmy Yiannias for scoffing at his flat cookie incident back in the day.  Color me humble.  

Monday was a better day because I took Captain’s mom to the Plainview Community Theater play, “Beauty and the Beast.”  I am always amazed at the talent in those plays.  The singing, the dancing, the props.  Truly stellar.  

Could I get up on stage in front of God and country and belt out show tunes?  Not on your life.  Well, I could, but nobody would thank me for it.  

Now, a mascot, that would be a sweet job, I think.  I mean, really, what did the dude who was the mascot for the Vikings want to get paid...millions?!  Hell, I’d do it for free!

In fact, I have.  When I was on the Olmsted County American Dairy Association board, I spent one summer as the mascot, Daisy Dairy Cow.  The two big events were the Rochester Fest Parade and the Honkers Dairy Night.  

I am here to testify that walking the Rochester Fest Parade on a hot June night cloaked in a heavy cow costume is no picnic, but it was fun anyway.  

Honkers Dairy Night...that was a blast.  They actually had Mascot Olympics that night with little events between some of the innings.  I was up against Slider, the Subway mascot, and Goldie Gopher just to name a few.  I completely biffed the “spin around the bat ten times and then run” thing, but I nailed the Macarena dance contest...flopping udder and all.  

The thing I liked about being the mascot was I could be silly beyond comprehension and no one knew it was me.  Nowadays, I’m just silly when I want to be and don’t really care who knows or sees.  If something makes me happy, I do it.  

We went to Stillwater recently with my family, hoping to take my mom on a hot air balloon ride.  Unfortunately, that didn’t happen due to wind speeds, but it was a beautiful fall day to explore Stillwater.  At one point, my niece and I were overcome with exuberance and started skipping down the street.  We passed several groups of people in the process.  Did I look like a dork?  Probably.  Did I care?  Not a bit.  I made my niece giggle, and that was enough for me.  

I am old enough now to realize that there is a time and place for acting like an adult, but there is also a time and place for acting like a kid.  It keeps me young at heart.  And someday when Cubby is older, I hope she will skip down the sidewalk with Gramma.  

My mom had a shirt that said “Growing old is mandatory.  Growing up is optional.”  Sometimes, we all need to opt to be a goofy kid!