You know that old saying Live and Learn? Well, I live and NEVER learn. Seems like when I am distracted by things my house goes to hell. Been writing quite a bit lately and getting ready to head out for Ellora's Cave's Romanticon and my mind is well...occupied. There is no room in my head for anything else, I reckon. At dinner time, the other evening, I put on water to boil pasta then headed back into my office to get a bit more wordage on the work in progress. I toodled along, typing away and suddenly I SMELLED something. I jumped up, dashed through the place and realized the house was filled with smoke. I'd completely forgotten the pot of water boiling on the stove. What a damn mess! I yanked the pot off the stove and started opening doors and windows to let the smoke out then went into the master bedroom. Mr. Regina was sprawled on the bed watching the news and I managed to say...hey, don't panic but I almost set the damn house on fire. He looks at me over the top of his 'readers' and goes...Damn, honey.He was actually so calm about it, I began to realize that, to him, this was no cause for alarm. Just standard stuff.
Now I'd like to blame this on the fact that I write but truthfully, when we have lots of crap going on, it's super easy to screw up things. Most of my disasters are kitchen related but this could simply be due to the fact that I don't have a 'day job'. I've exploded eggs, burned stew (three or four pots last winter), forgotten to put meat out to thaw. What's really weird about that is that I'm normally not a 'kitchen klutz'. I am descended from a long line of superb southern cooks who would be rolling in their graves if they only knew of my recent screwups!
I'm chalking it up to distraction!
In other news: Three Wicked Writers plus Two are CHATTING TODAY!!! Yes, we are! Please stop by Two Lips Reviews Chat Loop, hang out for awhile and meet Anne Rainey, Madison Scott, Tess MacKall, Natalie Dae and Moi at 1 pm est.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TalkingTwoLips/
20 comments:
LMFAO... Maybe just maybe it's you know an inherited writer trait. I used to burn water and forget to do things all the time...way before I became a writer. AJ was on facebook talking about the same thing yesterday *grins* seems he forgot to do something in the kitchen too :) I forget to turn things off, heat up the house in the summer after taking food out the oven lol. Forget about the load of towels washed days ago cringe at the smell- yes when that happens I throw them out and go to walmart. Hubby to be knows too or suspects and I say honey they looked thread bare I wanted you to have fluffy towels again. I get the raised eyebrow and a head shake :)
hahahhaa. I do that Laudry thing too. I'll walk in the laundry room and THAT SMELL...Holy shit! I'll usually dump in more soap and re-wash. We'd go broke if I bought all new towels and sheets. LOL.
I am SOOOO forgetful when I'm writing. I swear the other day was AWFUL. I mean TEARS were STREAMING! My eyes burned all the next day, too.
It's also funny when I walk to the fridge and stand there forever thinking...now WHY am I HERE???
Ooops. Totally forgot to mention AJ's fb post about this. I saw it. I'd fb'd about it too when this happened at my house. I think that's what made me start thinking...hey, it's not just ME. LOL
I do the same thing when I have a lot going on. Too much in my head to remember everything. LOL
I swear we're living parallel lives...I get soooooooo distracted, particularly when cooking.
When my kids were younger, they honestly thought that the sound of the smoke detector going off meant that supper was ready and that we were having grilled cheese. Now, if I manage to make it without burning it, they tell me it can't possibly be ready because the "dinner bell" didn't sound. Little twerps.
My latest, greatest kitchen trick is turning on the oven without peeking inside first. Hubby has taken to putting pizza boxes in the oven to keep them safe from the cats - thinking he'll have another piece of pizza later and then totally forgetting it's in there. Fast forward to the next time I cook supper: rolling black smoke, smoldering pizza boxes and me cursing loudly in the kitchen.
It happened again, last night...
I can't count the number of times I've started dinner and walked away distracted by writing. I try NOT to leave the kitchen when cooking. :)
LOL @ Regina exploding eggs and LOL @ everyone else's mishaps. I'm only laughing insanely because...YES! IT ISN'T JUST ME!
Been there, done that, got the new fire extinguisher to prove it! You're right, it's so easy to get distracted, to get immersed in what you're doing. I've had to learn to set the timer when I put anything on the stove or for sure I'd burn down the house.
I tend to get into my 'zone', as my husband calls it. I zone out and then look out because I'm apt to do all sorts of screwy things. And that's not because I'm a writer, wish I could blame it on that though. LOL I've always been a daydreamer, always spent more time in my head than out. My kids, thankfully, know this about me and they've learned to watch out for me. When I cook, they monitor to see if the pot is ready to boil over and they'll let me know. When I bake I always use the timer because God knows I'm going to forget I ever turned the oven on. Thank God for microwaves and toaster ovens. LOL Hell, I shudder to think what it'll be like around here without my girls to keep track of me! Ack!
LMAO.
Ohhhh Bron. Honey, I FEEL YOU. Burned grilled cheese is my specialty. Three or four times now I've burned stew meat to the bottom of my big pot. Burned it so badly it stunk up the kitchen and took hours of scrubbing. Thought I'd get really clever, right?, and use my crock pot recently. The last two times I've set the dial on KEEP WARM instead of HIGH. Jeez.
Oh I know it, Madison.
siiiigh. Nat, I think we must have that in common the LOT of us. The last time my eggs exploded, I swear I jumped a mile out of my chair, yelled SHIT really loud and started running.
A TIMER!!!! Yeah, Des, I have one of those. Hmmm. Maybe I should use the damn thing but yeah, I forget that too. Now that you mention fire extinguisher, Mr. Reg got me one. Said everyone should have one and it was just a precaution. Of course he had this really snarky grin on his face when he said it. Damn the man.
When the girls eventually leave home, I suspect you'll need a bodyguard, Anne. LOL
That's the good news for me about having a small place... and having to write in a corner of my living room. I'm a coin toss from my kitchen so yeah...but if I'm doing other things I bought one of those timers from Walmart that bleep loudly when things time down. You might want to invest that $9 when you put something on or want to remind yourself to do something in there ( like actually start cooking dinner...LOL...I have one because I loose track of time). Many a night we've had fast food burgers because that roast didn't go in on time because I was in the middle of a chapter. LOL!!! Live and you can learn! LOL. ( plus...I bought another fire alarm to pop on the wall in there as a backup plan so there are like 6 of them in 1,200 square feet!!!)
Can't wait to see you at Romanticon!
I've burned everything. This week I burned two subs for C that I was toasting for him in the toaster oven. And that wouldn't be so bad except the second one was the one I had made to replace the first one I'd burned.
I got a strange look from him on that one too. But I was redeemed. I ordered pizza.
Let's see-- I've burned chicken nuggets! The kids will NEVER let me forget that one:) The big joke around our house is how long I let my teapot boil. I'm always putting it on and forgetting about it. The sad thing is that I write at the dining room table which is very close to the stove. LOL Ooops!
soooo good to see I'm not alone in this stuff! LOL
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