The day that got away

Yesterday I forgot to write what I made for my mega-important family dinner, the one my sister Margie came in for on the Megabus.

I made pot roast!

There is this great recipe I got out of  Betty Crocker's American Heritage Recipes. It is a great old 1970s cookbook which, 1970s cookbooks are usually not the greatest but this one is. It has all kinds of nice straightforward recipes without annoyingly calling for millions of fresh herbs you are not going to have on hand in Buffalo in the middle of winter. 

It was Yankee Pot Roast and it had rutabaga and carrots and what else? Onions and celery. Margie made this wonderful brown and white rice to go with it. My hyper-talented nieces Rosie and Milllie made a berry pie.

I have to admit, I threw my pot roast together in something of a panic. For some reason I was awake the night before, just could not sleep. Maybe I was excited about my dinner. Also I think my grand jury business is getting to me. It has just turned my schedule upside down and on Friday I was at the office until about 7 p.m. trying to finish this story I had due. There was no time for Zumba. Plus I was thinking about Leonard Pennario and making revisions to my book in my head. That never helps!

Eventually I slept fitfully between maybe 7 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. I had a cup of coffee and then went to the gym to wake up. It was this wild snowy morning and it took me 20 minutes just to brush off the car but it was worth it. Zumba wakes you up! This was Mary G's Zumba class and she is a wild teacher. She gets you laughing and you forget your problems including that you did not sleep the night before.

Because I had this dinner to cook -- and I was making, ahem, Slow Food -- I was going to be a good girl and go home after Zumba. But my friend Nicole was there and somehow we talked each other into staying for Zumba Toning. That is like Zumba only you jump around with these shaker weights. It was only a half-hour class so I thought, welllllll ... OK.

So here I am in Zumba Toning and it is now 1 p.m., with dinner at 5 and I have not even done the shopping. Good going, Mary! That is me I am talking about now, not Mary G.

The party's over, I told myself. Dutifully I headed for the locker room and got out of my Zumba clothes and into my normal clothes. But then my Zumba friend Gail accosted me. "Where are you going?" she demanded. She reminded me that we had planned on going to this special free Hula Hoop class and it started at 1 p.m., which was now.

"Oh, but I can't, I have to go home," I said. "I have this dinner to cook --"

"Come on!" she said. "It's just 45 minutes."

"But I've already changed!" 

"Well, change back!"

You can see where this story is headed. To Hula Hoop class!

Which was a blast. But that is a whole other story. For now I will fast forward until when I finally, finally got out to the car. Two things. One, I felt completely awake and fine, as if I had slept eight hours. It is miraculous what exercise can do. And two ... gulp, it was after 2 o'clock. By the time I got home it was 3.

It is a good thing you did not see me compressing shopping, cooking and de-cluttering into this short amount of time. It was not pretty! Those are the wages of spending three hours dancing in the gym. Not smart!

But fun all the same.

I had no regrets!