Chocolate On My Mind

Hey Miss Faye,

Glad you gave the chirpers a listen. Hope you listened to the slowed-down version 'cause it's amazing how much their slowed-down version sounds like humans making beautiful music. Makes me wonder how much better we might all sound if we slowed down just a smidgeon, you know what I mean? Hope all that cricket music didn't make you have to bring out the calamine lotion last night.

So you don't like to feed one breathing thing to another, eh? Sure do wish more people felt the way you do - especially when it comes to breathing human beings. Non-breathing humans, too, for that matter, tho' I've found that as a rule, folks are much kinder to dead folks. It's also interesting the transformation that takes place when somebody dies. But we'll save that for another day's posting.

I'm with you on the boiled okra. Blechdkdt. It may taste fine, but the texture is what keeps me from partaking. And I don't really see how anybody could tell how it tastes cause it's so slippery it likely slides right on down without waking up the taste buds.

I am what's known as a picky eater, and now I'm old enough my mama can't make me eat anything regardless of the condition of those poor hungry children in China. And I don't have to hide things under the sofa either, thank goodness, cause now I am the one that has to sweep out from under the sofa.

As for dunking things in chocolate, yum yum. I'll coat most anything with chocolate and call it good. Reminds me of the Christmas I bought a jar of chocolate and a coupla paint brushes for my father-in-law and his new bride. (She was That Kind of Woman, dontchaknow.) (And he sure didn't seem to mind. Not one bit.) Well, I ordered it out of a catalog, and as usual, I did my shopping early and stuck the presents in the closet as they came in. Then, when it came time to wrap presents, I couldn't find that chocolate anywhere.

I did eventually find it, though.

When my 15-year old teenage nephew boy opened his present (ordered from the same catalog), out rolled that chocolate followed shortly by the his 'n hers paintbrushes.

Nephew boy was mightily disappointed to find that it wasn't his, I tell you what.

Think I'll go see if I can find that Little Debbie chocolate thing I hid for just such a day as this.

Miss Etta, you doin' okay?

Till next time, Miz Vul

Boiled Okra and Fried Crickets

Well, Jimminy Cricket Miz Vul! I had to go out and listen to those crickets you told us about in your journal entry. I could not believe that the beautiful sounds could be those noisy little pests. It just goes to show you that there is good in everything.

Except I do have to wonder, like you, just how much time those people had who put all that together.

I listened to that and now I know I will be dreaming of crickets tonight. I saw there was a full one hour version of those crickets making music. I started itching while listening to the short version. My Mama always told me I had much too much of an imagination. Once I knew it was crickets I might be able to appreciate how beautiful they sounded but I could not help but think of those jumping little creatures trapped in a jar waiting to become fish bait!

Now Miss Etta may already know that I don't like to fish and I don't like taking God's creatures and feeding them to another. I'm never quite sure how much Miss Etta has learned about me as we share our thoughts in these journals!

While I might not like the idea of feeding crickets to fish, if I were hungry enough I suppose I'd be soon figuring out how to put them on a fish hook.

Do you know that in some places they put chocolate on crickets and eat them? At least I have been told that before. I have seen boxes of chocolate covered ants but haven't had the displeasure of seeing crunchy cricket delight yet.

In case you were wondering, it is not on my list of things I have to see before I die.

Have you ever thought about who in the world figured out that some foods were OK to eat? Who decided to boil okra? Who was brave enough to eat it first? I dearly love my fried okra but I have yet to acquire a taste for boiled okra. I like it well enough in a soup as long as there are plenty of other vegetables in there with it. Mix it up with some tomatoes and put it on top of rice and I am in my own little food heaven! Yet I will not eat it plain boiled.

Miss Etta I almost forgot! I surely did laugh so hard when I read your cousins saying about first babies! There are a lot of half-baked babies running around in this world today.

I'll be talking with you soon,
Miss Faye