I plan to do a lot of cooking today, so I don’t have to worry about what’s for dinner this week. Before I started cooking, though, I decided to reorganize the kitchen pantry. My pantry can only be described as a dumping ground for anything that doesn’t go in the refrigerator. I wish I had taken a “before” picture. There were bags and boxes strewn everywhere without rhyme or reason, and I honestly didn’t know what was there anymore.

I also know I’m buying items I already have at the grocery store – like taco shells. So many taco shells. I’m all set for at least a month of Taco Tuesdays.

When I took everything out, I found many expired products from the pandemic lockdown, like an enormous box of pancake mix from late 2021 and some oven-ready lasagne noodles from 2022. And then, there was a pile of random boxes that I purchased in duplicates and, in some cases, triplicates. Like, what am I doing with three different containers of granola, four boxes of Swiss Miss instant hot chocolate packets, five bags of croutons, and six cans of tomato soup?! Not to mention all of the kosher for Passover items I swore I’d make good use of and never did.

I intended to spend about half an hour going through everything and putting it back neatly. Two hours, three trash bags, and one full bin of recycling later, I now have a beautifully organized pantry.

Now, it’s time to start cooking for the week.

How are you spending your Sunday? Let me know in the comments.

XO,

Elisa

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Jenna is leaving for her first business trip tomorrow. She is headed to St. Louis for a three-day training. I bet this is the first time she will have a hotel room all to herself. No brother to share a bathroom with, and she doesn’t have to hear me snore in the bed next to her. Her job will cover food and travel; she will have to remember to save her receipts and submit an expense report.

Wow! Baby’s first business trip! So bizarre, and yet actually happening. She is already well-traveled, having spent part of her summer in Israel and on her own in Greece. When he returned from that trip, she told us she had become just like her Dad, a Type-A traveler who has her paperwork at her fingertips and makes sure not to pack an entire tube of toothpaste in her carry-on bag.

My first business trip was to Portland, Oregon. I worked in a publishing company as an editorial assistant and was tasked with organizing a retreat for 30 teachers to learn about a pilot program called “new math.” I planned the logistics for the trip and answered everyone’s questions beforehand. I was thrilled when my boss asked me if I also wanted to attend. At that point, I had never been west of anywhere. My family stuck to east coast vacations.

Portland was awesome. We were in the Mount Hood area, which was breathtaking. Unfortunately, I spent most of my time ensuring the food and the buses arrived on time, so I didn’t get to explore beyond my hotel. I realized on that trip if I wanted to be a tourist in the places where I was traveling, I’d have to go a day or two early or stay after the conference ended.

My next business trip was to San Diego. I arrived two days early and hopped on a double-decker tourist bus to see the sights myself. I remember feeling so grown up, and for the first ten years of my career, I traveled around the country to Chicago, San Francisco, Dallas, Toronto, Orlando, Las Vegas, and many more cities in between. When I came home, I gave my parents cool refrigerator magnets as a souvenir from my adventures. When I go home to visit them, they serve as colorful reminders of where I’ve been.

So where did you go for your first business trip? Let me know in the comments. 

XO,

Elisa

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Today is my sister Karen’s birthday. My earliest childhood memory is watching Dad build her crib while I was eating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I’m sure I didn’t know who the crib was for or that my life was about to change forever. But that memory and driving home from the hospital in the pouring rain are still with me.

Karen didn’t impress me much when my parents first brought her home. I was 3 1/2 years old and, up until then, had the whole place all to myself. When the new kid on the block showed up, she got a lot of attention. Apparently, we had to share things. What was that about? I found it, and her, annoying.

One day, my mom had Karen on the floor and marveled at her wriggling around, ready to explore the world around her. Mom exclaimed: “Look at Karen! She is really going places!”

And I replied: “Is she going to go back to the hospital?!”

Out of the mouths of babes, right?

Several decades later, I’m so glad that my parents didn’t take her back. There are very few people in my life who know me better than Karen. We are like one of those couples who can finish each other’s sentences. Except we aren’t a couple, and the sentences are text messages because we live in different states now. But, every day, I will text her something – like a joke or a phrase or a memory – and she will text back, “GET OUT OF MY HEAD” because she was about to text me the same thing. I’m just faster on the iPhone than she is. 🙂

We celebrate accomplishments and cry on each other’s shoulders. She may not solve my problems, and I may not be able to help her as much as I’d like to, but we are damn sure that we don’t face them alone. Right now, the theme song from Friends is going through my head, and I’m realizing that the words apply to sisters too.

So no one told you life was going to be this way.
Your job’s a joke, you’re broke, your love life’s DOA.
It’s like you’re always stuck in second gear,
When it hasn’t been your day, your week, your month, or even your year.

But, I’ll be there for you, when the rain starts to pour.
I’ll be there for you, like I’ve been there before.
I’ll be there for you, cause you’re there for me too.

Love you, Karen. Happy Birthday! Thanks, Mom and Dad, for giving me a sister and not taking her back to the hospital.

XO,

Elisa

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