Ramblings of an 8th grade misfit

So, I have spent a majority of this week going though my junk at my parents' house. They finally decided it was time to clear out the clutter and in order to do that, I had to go through boxes with some personal treasures and other boxes with junk and resident roaches.

One of the few treasures I found was an old journal from my 8th grade English class. The above picture is the first entry, dated September 18, 1987. In reading some of my entries, I've come to the conclusion that A. I really hated middle school (who didn't?) and B. I didn't really push myself to write much. It was free writing, so I guess it didn't have to be profound. The writing bug didn't really bite until high school when I took a journalism class.

I'll post more as I get the time. It only looks like a small dent was made. Some items are truly antiques worth holding on to and others are just crap. I know everyone has to go through this at some point. It's like going on a treasure hunt in the dark without a map.

Why My Eleven Year Old is Smarter than Me (At Least for Today)

When it comes to creative pursuits, I don't seem to shy away from taking risks. Sometimes it pays off and sometimes it fails spectacularly. My most recent fail was something that should have been simple, but I still managed to screw it up for two reasons. One being that I underestimated the degree of difficulty and two being that I wasn't fully prepared.

As indicated in earlier posts, my son has a chronic condition that has pretty much limited him to a gluten free diet. Fortunately, the beloved Rice Krispy Treats he already loved were completely legal. I decided to jazz them up with Nutella. After thirty minutes on the Internet, I found a yummy looking and easy enough sounding recipe. I had most of the required ingredients, save for some semi-sweet chocolate chips. Some people would have made it easier on themselves and just used Nutella, but not me. I drove to the store for said chocolate chips. I've only made RKT a million times before, so I thought it would be no big deal.

Once I had everything I needed, I began my disastrous journey. The heat was up too high, so I burned a good portion of the Nutella. Nothing else on this Earth looks like burnt Nutella. I can usually come up with some colorful descriptions for almost anything and for this I had nothing. So, I basically ruined half of an oversized jar of Nutella while making what would be mixed with the cereal. I hadn't even thought about the chocolate topping with the Nutella and chocolate chips that I went to the trouble of buying. I'm on my third glass of wine, so driving back to the store is not an option. To make a long story short, I made do with what remained of the Nutella and the chocolate chips. The result was edible, but much too dry. My son liked it well enough, but he said that next time I could just make the plain treats and he would just spread the Nutella on himself. Brilliant.

So what lesson can I take away from this debacle?  As any Boy Scout knows, be prepared. Also, I need to shy away from my self-destructive tendency to make things harder than they need to be. If my life has a theme, that would be it.