Leftovers

July 4th ended up being a very busy day. I had an early volunteer shift that had morphed into doing animal care for the whole place (instead of just the birds) — for me that adds more than an hour to my shift (I’m not terribly efficient with the other animals because I don’t work with them all that often). I had to finish a school assignment that — technically — was not due until today, but I’ve had a bunch of other, unrelated stuff on my plate and just didn’t have time to mess around with it. I have a standing date on Fridays to talk to my mom, and we had a lovely conversation.

And then Lu and I got to spend some time in the evening with friends. It was a comfortable day outside (thankfully), so getting her in the car and spending time in their backyard was lovely. This is her after spending a few hours playing with her special friends Jennifer and Kevin (special friends because she loves them unequivocally, and loves to play with them — she’s more wary around new-to-her people and men):

We got home kind of early to make sure we were tucked in before the fireworks got going. We’re lucky that (so far, knock wood) Lu hasn’t shown any reaction to boom booms, other than to make a note and go back to sleep, but I wanted to make sure that she was at home and could spend time in her crate if something had changed between last year and this year… thankfully, her experience of the fourth this year was similar to her first two years, in that she could not have cared less about what was going on outside. (I’m not sure how we have lucked out on this front, but I’m grateful we have… at least so far.)

Lu’s special friend Kevin is great on the grill, and I got sent home with a care package that included some bell pepper slices and grilled corn on the cob. Last night for dinner, I “repurposed” both and made a coconut curry with tofu and vegetables, which I topped with chili oil.

It. Was. DELICIOUS. And there are leftovers!

The world feels heavy right now; it was a nice reprieve from (waves arms) everything to spend some quality time in community with friends. The leftovers were a nice (and tasty) reminder of our time together.